Double Fine's Tim Schafer said that he would love to remaster more LucasArts adventure games he worked on, though Grim Fandango Remastered will have to sell well in order for that to happen.
The news comes from the Grim Fandango: Bringing the Dead Back to Life PAX 2014 panel, where Schafer and other developers who worked on the original game talked about how they're handling various aspects of the remastered edition.
"We would love to make more of them," Schafer said in response to a fan in the audience who asked if they considered remaking or re-releasing other LucasArts adventure games. "If everyone buys 10 copies it will make it more likely that we'll make another," Schafer joked.
As to why they decided to tackle Grim Fandango first, Schafer said it was a combination of the team's passion for the game, the fact that it became hard to get only a few years after it was originally released, and the negotiations between Sony, Double Fine, and Disney, which acquired LucasArts last year.
Schafer and the panel also discussed the current state of Grim Fandango Remastered. The plan is to dig up the original assets, polish them, and use as much of them is possible in the remastered version. One exception is the game's music, which will be performed and recorded with the Melbourne orchestra just for the new version of the game. The Melbourne orchestra also worked with Double Fine on Broken Age.
At the moment, the team is still digging through the archives to see what they have, but has already begun improving textures, cutscenes, and other assets, as well as implementing new mouse and DualShock controls. A short video about the production of the game that played before the panel started also briefly showed it running on the tablet, though the game hasn't been officially announced for iOS or Android devices.
Double Fine announced that Grim Fandango will be released for PC, Mac, and Linux in addition to PS4 and Vita. A release date for the remastered version of the game has not yet been announced, but Double Fine says it will be a simultaneous launch across all platforms.
Which LucasArts game would you like to see remastered? Let us know in the comments below.
Developer Ninja Theory is assisting with the development of the combat in Disney Infinity 2.0. Announced at the Giant Bomb PAX panel, and later confirmed on Twitter, Disney Infinity executive producer John Vignocchi said that the developer is the latest team to join the platform.
Talking about Ninja Theory on Twitter, Vignocchi said, "They have been working with us since February and are like family to our team at Avalanche and Disney." And at the panel he said that Ninja Theory has primarily focused on battle systems for villains like Loki, Green Goblin, and Ronan.
Ninja Theory has worked on other franchises before (like their work with Nintendo on the reboot of DmC: Devil May Cry), but they're perhaps better known as the creators of Heavenly Sword and Enslaved. At Gamescom earlier this year, Ninja Theory also revealed that they're working on a new original game titled Hellblade.
Disney Infinity likely has some more news coming in the near future as well, having recently teased the addition of Star Wars characters to the game.
Filed under:
Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes - 2.0 Edition
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Sabtu, 30 Agustus 2014 | 15.07
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the long-awaited crossover between the two franchises, has finally arrived in North America, almost two years after it was originally released in Japan. The first reviews went live this week, and we've gathered up a selection for you to peruse below.
The game is a collaboration between the respective developers of the two series, Level-5 (Professor Layton) and Capcom (Ace Attorney). It consists of separate sections that each play similarly to games in the two series; unfortunately, the consensus seems to be that it doesn't totally capitalize on the crossover potential. Even so, the reception has been generally positive, and it's good to see the game released here after such a long wait.
You can check out a sampling of reviews below. For more, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Developer: Capcom/Level-5
Platforms: 3DS
Release Date: August 29
Price: $29.99
GameSpot -- 8/10
"Layton vs. Phoenix Wright is a long game--at least as long as a Professor Layton game and a Phoenix Wright game combined--and relatively little of it is genuine crossover. But that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. What is here is big, it's often silly, and it's sometimes unwieldy, but it's rarely anything less than engaging thanks to some great execution on tried-and-tested ideas. It's Phoenix, however, in his element in this magical world, that well and truly steals the show." [Full review]
USGamer -- 4/5
"Personally, I enjoyed the light romp through Layton and Wright's magical adventure. It's good to have a bit of change from the deadly serious or overly involved games I usually play; outside of the lengthy Witch Trials, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright is the kind of game you can pop into for 5-10 minutes to make yourself feel smarter." [Full review]
IGN -- 7.8/10
"This unique crossover is a powerful draw for fans of either series, but it doesn't make the most of its potential. It sacrifices some of both series' challenge, and the alternate-universe story feels like a missed opportunity where there could have been more meaningful interaction between the worlds of Wright and Layton. The witty dialogue writing, however, is as charming and enjoyable as ever." [Full review]
GamesBeat -- 85/100
"Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an extremely satisfying pairing--if not actually a blend--of the puzzle solving and courtroom twists from the two series. The game's high production values add charm and character to the experience. The compelling storyline and animation make up for dialogue that might linger a little too long and puzzles that might speed by a little too quickly. If you like both nonviolent handheld heroes, 'Take That' copy of Layton vs. Wright, without hesitation." [Full review]
Joystiq -- 3.5/5
"A bad ending doesn't have to ruin a game, though, even (or perhaps especially) if the story wasn't all that strong to begin with. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright drags on too long, but even towards the end it's enjoyable at its basest of levels. It's an entirely safe crossover that doesn't merge two gameplay styles as deeply as it could, and it's a shame to miss on that potential. However, the ultimate result is two series' with enjoyable characters and a penchant for madness coming together, and a crossover that doesn't take risks with tried-and-tested play. It also has Layton and Wright performing synchronized pointing, and it's almost worth the objections just for that." [Full review]
Shacknews -- 8/10
"Reservations aside, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney comes out with a game that in many ways improves upon both formulas. It may be too bogged down in its own story and look slightly dated, but the pure puzzle mechanics still work both in and out of the courtroom, and are bolstered by the crossing of ideas. It's more than the sum of its parts, and as a result is a nice treat." [Full review]
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
For all of GameSpot's news coverage, check out our hub. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
DA:I Multiplayer - Nice that it's there for folks. Me, I couldn't care less but each to their own.
Sony & VR - funny, Sony essentially discounted the technology (at least publically) when Oculus began to gain traction. Now... Oh, well, probably a case of the Sony marketing department changing their meds at some point.
Abuse & Harassment - Nicely stated position. This is NOT ok, ever. Folks can have their own viewpoints, but using these tactics to try to silence somebody else, especially using death threats, is unacceptable. And I would like to point out to these nimrods that they really aren't anonymous.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Selasa, 26 Agustus 2014 | 15.07
Virtual reality technology like the PlayStation 4 headset Project Morpheus is such a radical step forward beyond the way traditional games work that it's "almost unfair," according to PlayStation worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida.
"We have something here that we've never experienced before," Yoshida said when asked by The Verge what he thinks the future of VR looks like. "Working on game development, we always try to create a new kind of experience, and having VR technology is almost unfair."
"There are many areas we can improve on to bring it to an even higher level" -- Yoshida said about the current iteration of the Morpheus headset
Developers can rapidly prototype new ideas--and we have seen many compelling examples of unique VR experiences so far--thanks in part to game engines like Unity, Yoshida said.
Also in the interview, Yoshida stressed that Sony does not have only a fleeting interesting in the VR space. "For Sony Computer Entertainment, VR and Morpheus is one of the areas we are very excited about, like cloud gaming with PS Now, or other networked services," he said. "We're really focused on bringing that experience to consumers."
Project Morpheus, and competing headset Oculus Rift, remain in-development products with no word yet on when the final, consumer models will be available. Yoshida said Sony is happy with the current iteration of the headset it has working now, but still has more revisions to make before it's ready for release. "There are many areas we can improve on to bring it to an even higher level," he said.
In addition, before Project Morpheus can come to market, Sony needs to have a full pipeline of software lined up. And this could be particularly challenging, Yoshida said, because making a game for VR and making a game for traditional consoles is quite different.
"Every developer who has started working on VR learns that they have to relearn what they have learned over the years making games," he said. "A lot of tech and new assets can be used again, but the approach has to be pretty different. If the games or apps are designed poorly, it makes people sick, which is a really, really bad thing to have as an introduction."
Further, Yoshida said he envisions VR as more of a medium than peripheral. VR can have as dramatic an effect on the video game industry as 3D graphics cards did when they arrived two decades ago, he said. "The 3D graphics card had a huge impact, but developers are still learning how to use it in games like Grand Theft Auto or The Last Of Us, twenty years after the launch of PS1," he said.
Lastly, Yoshida stressed that Project Morpheus needs to be "affordable" when it's released or it won't ever catch on with a wide audience. Sony has not announced a price point for Project Morpheus, but we do know you won't have to spend $1,000 to buy one.
The Verge's interview with Yoshida was part of a much wider feature on VR in general. Be sure to check out The Verge's full story for more.
Are you excited by the possibilities for VR in games? Let us know in the comments below!
All month long, EA has been running down the rankings for players and teams in the upcoming Madden NFL 15. While it's a lot of interesting information, it's a bit spread out, so we outlined some of the highlights for you below:
You can check out our quick rundown of the top players and teams below. But for more stats either check out our ranking highlights video above, or head over to the official EA Sports website (which has a comprehensive collection of the top ranked players in every position).
Madden NFL 15 is set to come out tomorrow (August 26), and the cover athlete this year is Richard Sherman. But Madden has drawn more attention this year because of its incredibly quirky trailer (which doesn't include any gameplay), and for the controversy around the not providing a demo for the game unless you're an EA Access subscriber.
Video game distributor GameFly has sold its digital download business to AtGames Holding Ltd. The announcement was posted on the GameFly website.
According to the post, the digital business will continue to be operated by GameFly until "later this year" or "until the transition is complete." GameFly also stated that various account details for some users will be undergoing a transfer to AtGames, which does not include payment information. The statement also confirmed that AtGames will maintain GameFly's existing privacy policy in relation to user information.
According to a statement posted by AtGames, the company will continue "holding true to the fantastic service GameFly Digital has provided," so it looks like the service will continue at this point.
GameFly is a North American video game retailer that also provides rental services on consoles and games. GameFly first announced plans to launch a new digital presence in 2011, going on to roll out the digital client later that year. Leading the feature set of the GameFly digital client was the "unlimited PC play" option. A subscriber-exclusive, this feature allowed paying members to download and play as many PC and Mac games as they wish.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Senin, 25 Agustus 2014 | 15.06
Developer ZeniMax Online Studios has announced a new Loyalty Program for its massively multiplayer role-playing game The Elder Scrolls Online.
Starting in September, players who have paid the game's subscription fee for three months, excluding the free game time included with a purchase of ESO, will receive a High Hrothgar Wraith vanity pet that they can parade around Tamriel. ZeniMax said that it will soon reveal the next reward, given to players who've been subscribed for six months. If you haven't been subscribed for the required period of time, you'll still be able to get the rewards once you've met the requirements. ZeniMax added that the loyalty program will continue to expand over time.
In its latest Road Ahead update, ZeniMax also shared some details about additions coming in Update 4. It will feature the final region of Craglorn that will complete the story of the the first Adventure Zone, and the Serpent Trial, the final Trial in the constellation storyline. Like the original Trials, it's designed for a group of 12 players. Finally, the last major content addition in Update 4 is the Fragonstar Arena, a PvE event where a group of four players will face progressively more difficult waves of enemies to earn prizes.
According to a recent report from SuperData Research, World of Warcraft earned more revenue than any other subscription-based MMO in the world during 2013. ESO, not surprisingly, hasn't been around long enough to crack the top 10. Traditionally, subscription-based MMOs lose a portion of their user base after the initial month when people decide not to renew their subscriptions. ESO, though, has held on to 772,374 of its subscribers as of June, according to SuperData.
The Elder Scrolls Online was released on PC in April and earned a 6.0 in GameSpot's review. It was supposed hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June, but has since been delayed.
What incentive will convince you to pay a monthly subscription fee? Let us know in the comments below.
A flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley has been grounded because of a bomb threat, and it appears that the same group behind the current PlayStation Network outage is responsible.
Earlier today, Smedley tweeted (via Polygon) that he was flying American Airlines Flight 362 from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California. The Twitter account belonging to the group who took responsibility for the denial-of-service attack on the PlayStation Network and other gaming services then tweeted at American Airlines, saying they've been receiving reports that there are "explosives on-board the flight."
Smedley later confirmed that his flight was being diverted to Phoenix, Arizona. "Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons," he said. "Something about the security and our cargo. Sitting on Tarmack." According to American Airlines' flight tracker, flight 362, now set to depart from Phoenix to San Diego, is delayed.
Earlier today, Sony confirmed that it was in fact the victim of a DDoS attack. "Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic," Sony said in a statement. "Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed."
Microsoft researchers have released a report that presents DeLorean, a cloud gaming solution that hides latency by trying to predict what you'll do next.
According to the report (via TechCrunch) DeLorean's "speculative execution system," as Microsoft calls it, is able to mask up to 250ms of network latency by rendering frames of future possible outcomes and sending them ahead of time. Essentially, based on your historical tendencies and recent behavior, DeLorean tries to predict your actions, render them, and send them to your device in advance to improve your perception that the game is more responsive. For actions that are harder to predict, DeLorean queues up multiple possible outcomes and displays only the correct one.
This, the researchers say, produces an experience that is more responsive than current solutions, where even 100ms can feel laggy.
Microsoft tested DeLorean with two games: Doom 3 and Fable 3. "Through user studies and performance benchmarks, we find that players overwhelmingly prefer DeLorean to traditional thin-client gaming," they said, adding that "DeLorean successfully mimics playing across a low-latency network."
However, while Microsoft says that they're able to reduce the added bandwidth of having to transmit possible outcome frames with better video compression, DeLorean still requires almost five times as much bandwidth than standard cloud gaming systems. So it's not ready for public consumption, but it is an interesting, possible solution to the latency problem.
Sony's cloud gaming solution, PlayStation Now (which is based on Gaikai's technology), is currently in beta.
Madden NFL 15, EA Sports' latest entry into its American Football series, launches this week for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
The game will include the Madden Ultimate Team mode, which allows players to pick their team, collect their favorite current and past NFL players, and upgrade their squad to create their fantasy team. Players can purchase packs containing new players, coaches, playbooks, stadiums, and more with coins that are earned by competing with others online or by completing single player challenges. The game will also feature a new approach to defensive play.
Earlier this month, EA launched a bizarre advertisement for the game starring Kevin Hart and Dave Franco. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman will feature on the cover of the game, although we aren't quite sure what he's doing on it. For more details on the games out this week, check out the full list below.
Will you be picking up any new games this week? Let us know in the comments.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Minggu, 24 Agustus 2014 | 15.07
Super Time Force Ultra (STFU), the PC version of the time-bending, side-scrolling shooter is coming to Steam next week, and it's bringing a few special guests with it. Developer Capybara announced on its official website that the PC version of the game will include new playable characters from Valve's Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.
Team Fortress 2's Pyro class will lend his flare gun and flamethrower to the team, while Zoe from the first Left 4 Dead will take down enemies with her two pistols and propane tanks. Less recognizable but also from Team Fortress 2 is Saxton Hale, the Australian President and CEO of Mann Co., who starred in comics based on the game. His abilities are focused on his strong, bare knuckles melee attacks.
Super Time Force Ultra comes with all three Valve characters, 50 new Helladeck challenge levels, and the new Ultra Force power mode when you buy the game for $15. It launches on Steam on Monday, August 25.
Super Time Force originally launched for Xbox 360 and Xbox One in May. GameSpot gave the game an 8/10 score, praising its time manipulation mechanic, level design, and varied characters. Check out our full review for more.
Ghost, Destiny's robot character voiced by Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, has taken the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and funds for the ALS Association.
As you can see above, the short video shows Ghost and a Guardian hanging out before a wizard from the moon dumps a bucket of ice water on them. Bungie and Ghost were challenged by the Greedy Corpus, characters from Digital Extremes' free-to-play game Warframe. You can check out that video of the first game character taking the Ice Bucket Challenge below. Bungie in turn challenged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's villain played by Kevin Spacey Jonathan Irons, the Last of Us' Joel, and Star Wars creator George Lucas.
Bungie is also donating to the cause by sharing 20 percent of the proceeds from the Bungie store from now until Destiny launches on September 9.
Looking for more videos of game industry people getting ice water dumped on their heads? We've got you covered.
Industry people who have completed the Ice Bucket Challenge (click through to watch videos):
Industry people nominated, but have not yet completed the Ice Bucket Challenge:
You can donate money to the ALS Association at the group's website.
If you own the Disney Infinity Starter Pack for the Wii, you can now download the game for the Wii U exclusively through the console's eShop, free of charge.
"Disney Infinity launched one year ago, and in that time the number of Wii U players has significantly expanded," Vice President and General Manager of developer Avalanche Software John Blackburn said in a press release. "Given our commitment to compatibility for our players, we wanted existing Wii owners to be able to experience the Wii U version of the first game for free. With the upcoming launch of the 2.0 Edition of Disney Infinity we want all Nintendo players to experience the game's Wii U functionality."
Disney Infinity 2.0 will release on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Wii U, and iOS on September 24. So almost everything you can play games on but the Wii. Offering Disney Infinity fans the game for free on Wii U seems like a good incentive to get them to buy Nintendo's latest console, and then hopefully Disney Infinity 2.0 and its future Play Sets.
It's also a good way for Disney Infinity to keep up with its main competitor in the toys-to-life category, Skylanders. In late July, publisher Activision announced a similar deal which gave owners of Skylanders Trap Team for Wii a free upgrade to the Wii U version.
For more on Disney Infinity, check out GameSpot's full review.
We know it has to happen at some point, but Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono, who was producer on Street Fighter IV, confirmed that current-gen consoles are going to get a Street Fighter game...eventually.
Responding to fan on Twitter that asked, "Are we going to get a Street Fighter game on the Xbox One and PS4?" Ono wrote: "Hahaha, some time or other..." But fans hoping for a Wii U version are out of luck, Ono also wrote, "I apologize that we don't have plans for Wii U... ."
That doesn't mean that Ono is necessarily working on the project directly, however. Ono is currently working as a producer on Deep Down, though he recently stepped down from directing the Capcom Vancouver studio and he remarked that a theoretical Street Fighter V will not be pay-to win.
The last iteration of the franchise was Ultra Street Fighter IV, which took a staggered release with physical and digital versions releasing at separate times earlier this year.
A video has surfaced online showing the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain multiplayer footage that was presented at Gamescom to media. Uploaded on YouTube by channel Everyeye.it, the video shows footage from single-player missions followed by a look at multiplayer gameplay, which starts at the 17-minute mark.
The multiplayer segment shows Snake entering another player's base, and culimates with him being confronted by a character who looks identical to Snake. GameSpot was present at Gamescom to check out Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and you can get a detailed breakdown of the footage shown in our preview.
Starting tomorrow, the Xbox One is getting an update that will introduce Reddit and MTV apps to the system as well as offer increased functionality for the currently existing Twitch app.
The Reddit app is called ReddX, and a post on the Xbox Wire stated, "ReddX on Xbox One can be Snapped to the side of your TV while you're gaming or using another app to help you monitor and join in threads on the site while you're doing anything else."
You'll be able to access every subreddit in addition to a "customized main page." And like browsing Reddit.com, you can "read text and view images, videos and GIFs on your TV and can even zoom in or out of text and images for a closer look."
With a button press you can upvote or downvote posts, add comments, or save any photos you find to your profile.
Microsoft announced that an MTV app is coming to Xbox One tomorrow as well that includes, "sneak peeks, bonus clips, recent full episodes from select MTV series with a TV subscription and more."
And finally, new features coming to the Twitch app, which include:
Auto zoom
Audio capture from headsets
The ability to see Twitch channels that people on your Friends list are watching, then join in watching those same broadcasts
Kinect will (optionally) follow and zoom to your face while broadcasting
When the Kinect isn't attached, audio can be captured from a headset
What do you think about the new additions? Let us know in the comments below.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Sabtu, 16 Agustus 2014 | 15.07
Gamespot's Site MashupWhy EA Founder and Creator of Madden Is Now Making Educational Games For KidsDogfighting in Star Citizen - Gamescom15 of the Best Games From Gamescom 2014Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition - Act V Co-OpAll The Biggest Sony PlayStation News From Gamescom 2014GS News Top 5 - Silent Hills Will Ruin Pants, Tomb Raider exclusivity confusion!No Man's Sky Players Would Need 5 Billion Years to Explore Every Planet for 1 SecondQuick Look: My Ex-Boyfriend the Space TyrantXbox One's Next Update Now Live for Preview Members--With Some Unannounced FeaturesAll The Biggest Microsoft Xbox News From Gamescom 2014Star Citizen - Constellation TrailerMadden NFL 15: Madden SeasonFIFA 15's Cover Has Messi, and Now PES 2015 Has Mario GotzeXbox One and Xbox 360 Digital Games Coming to Physical RetailersReality Check - Yet More PC GFX Explained! Motion Blur, HDR, Physx, and More
rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 rss_modified:rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 http://www.gamespot.com/mashup/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:29:47 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-ea-founder-and-creator-of-madden-is-now-making/1100-6421715/ Trip Hawkins has been involved with video games in just about every way a person can be. He championed the publishing model by founding juggernaut company Electronic Arts; he created a multibillion-dollar empire in EA Sports; he worked in hardware with 3DO; and he stepped into the mobile space in a big way with Digital Chocolate. Hawkins, now 61, is trying something new.
His latest venture is If You Can Company, a San Mateo, Calif.-based startup (funded in part by the venture capital firm of Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen) that aims to use video games to teach children social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The company's first game is called "If…", which gets its name from the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name, which Kipling wrote in 1909 as advice to his son.
Trip Hawkins
The game's overall ambition is to equip children with skills to help them handle bullying and manage challenging emotional and academic situations. The free game, which is aimed at children 6-12 and is set in a fantasy world with dogs and cats, unfolds across chapters, the first of which was released in February and has already seen more than 400,000 downloads on iOS. Chapter two arrived in July, and additional chapters are planned for release throughout 2014.
Children can play the chapters at their leisure, and they only have to spend about an hour per week to complete an entire lesson plan in a month. According to If You Can, the game covers the equivalent of a year's curriculum at leading SEL teaching schools, and only for the cost of $5/month, which is a major savings compared to traditional schooling.
"If you were getting SEL curriculum through a private school, you're [spending] $35,000 a year, and private tutors cost typically $50-$75/hour," Hawkins told me. "The typical child playing our game is going to probably spend three or four hours, maybe five hours, a month and it's going to cost them a $5/month subscription. So it's a pretty good deal."
A new dashboard app for parents, available on iOS devices or on the Web for PC or Mac, serves as a companion to their child's gameplay. Parents can log in and see lesson themes, updates on their children's accomplishments, and get ideas for how to translate the in-game lesson plans to real-world situations.
Why, at this stage in his career, is Hawkins turning to education games? "It's something really critical that fell through the cracks," he says about SEL teaching, which involves the fostering and nurturing of things like citizenship, character, and values. Hawkins says that in the past, children grew up alongside their parents, and as such, they were given constant attention and nurturing. But with the arrival of the urban, industrialized, and technologically advanced world, parents left their homes to work all day, leaving their children in public schools where they often don't know anyone. Hawkins says schools didn't do much in the way of SEL because teachers felt parents should handle this part of their children's development. As a result, SEL teaching "fell into a crack," he says.
"The game industry is mostly always been young men that want to make games that they want to play; and I certainly operated that way for the first 20 years I was in the industry," he says. "And now in the last 20 years, I've become a parent, and have learned about these needs and issues and I want to do something about it."
That's where If You Can Company and If come in. Hawkins wondered what could be done to scale up SEL teaching so that children everywhere could benefit from it without having to pay the thousands in tuition and tutor's fees mandated by educational institutions like the Nueva School that his children attended.
"Now in the last 20 years, I've become a parent, and have learned about these needs and issues and I want to do something about it" -- Trip Hawkins
"One thing led to another, and I finally realized that I was in a position to try to do something about it by basically putting this kind of knowledge in a game," Hawkins says. "In a way, I think this is a harbinger of a future industry where gameplay as the foundation of a media experience [and then] games as a platform from which to send serious curriculum with legitimate methods of assessment of learning."
"By just watching what my kids were learning through this innovative school area, it just dawned on me that, 'Wow, this is a really critical skillset,'" he added. "Nobody ever taught me these skills, and I've suffered because of it."
The reason Hawkins is turning to mobile platforms for If is because he says the way you communicate with children is by meeting them where they are. "If their attention and motivation is on a mobile device on a game anyway, why not use that as a 21st century platform for learning?," he says.
To create the actual lesson plans featured in If, Hawkins and his team worked with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; and the Institute for SEL, a group of former teachers from the Nueva School.
"The design of the curriculum is modeled after what a really good and expensive private school, like the ones my kids went to, what they would learn about social and emotional learning in a year of school," Hawkins says. "And we teach basically the same kind of lesson plans, the same kind of academic measurements, and we deliver a year's worth of that learning over the course of a calendar year. And particularly as we get it out on more devices, more screen sizes, we feel like it's something like there will be millions of devices and plenty of people will have an opportunity to learn from it and benefit."
What separates If from a game like SimCity is that though there is educational value to Will Wright's iconic simulation game, it was not created for the specific purpose of teaching. "He never planned any specific curriculum; he never did any assessment of learning, so that's why there's an opportunity for us in the game industry to build a new category," Hawkins says.
Part of the reason Hawkins is so enthusiastic about video games as a teaching tool is because, unlike passive media like TV or film, video games actively engage the user. "It wasn't just an accident that television became known as the boob tube," he says with a laugh. "I think we've known for a long time that passive media puts us to sleep." Early in his life, Hawkins played lots of tabletop role-playing games. He found that he felt more energized and stimulated after playing tabletop games like Dungeon & Dragons that required him to think and strategize than when he was absorbed in TV. That's because humans learn best by doing, he says.
"You think about the last year you were a full-time student at school, compare that to the first year you were out of school--when did you learn more? There's just no comparison," Hawkins said. "You learn much faster in real-world situations. And then the power of the computer has the ability to simulate almost anything you want and crank out simulated real life situations at a much faster pace and to do things that go way, way beyond the scope of what a human being could do in a real life."
"You think about the last year you were a full time student at school, compare that to the first year you were out of school--when did you learn more? There's just no comparison. You learn much faster in real-world situations" -- Trip Hawkins
"The best way for us to learn about ourselves is by having the fantasy of pretending to be other people," he adds. "And that's what we do all the time in games through role-playing and simulation and fantasy. And it's really true; you can have so many more synthetic experiences through computer simulation than you could possibly have in real life. And it allows you to be able to then reflect and organize your thinking about what does that all mean and how do you apply that to yourself and your real life."
Currently, If is only available through the App Store, but I wondered if one day his company could align with a major educational institution or organization to offer the game as part of an official curriculum. "I don't rule that out, but you need to know yourself and what you're capable of doing," Hawkins says, admitting that he has no experience with foundations or running a non-profit company. "That doesn't mean that we don't have a social purpose or a social conscience," he added. "It's definitely our longer-term goal that as many people as possible benefit from this kind of human knowledge. And there's nothing that prevents us in the future from giving the product away to certain needy customers."
Since If is released on a chapter-based model, I was also curious if there was an opportunity for new content to focus on current events or trends. I brought up bullying, a topic that unfortunately hits the headlines often. Hawkins said If's lesson plan teaches children about empathy and sensitivity, and some levels even have story elements around the topic of bullying. But as for releasing new content based on current events, Hawkins said this isn't really possible because If's content is created ahead of time.
"What's maybe not as easy for us to do is, on short notice, suddenly say, 'Hey, let's completely change what our game is today.' It's a production pipeline, but it's really like producing a bunch of interactive movies," he says. "And the content gets produced, and gets put on the shelf, and then gets pulled down off the shelf when the customer gets to it and is ready to consume it. So we may not have the facility to reinvent the movie every day; it's more prescriptive. We can't just radically change what the product does every day on short notice."
I also wondered if parents might be skeptical about trusting a startup company and an unproven educational model with something as important as their child's life and emotional development. Hawkins said he understands this concern, but pointed out the the lessons in If were designed by experts.
"We're all going to be better off if a decent share of the time we spend on [tablets and smartphones] actually has some benefit besides just keeping us busy" -- Trip Hawkins
"We understood from the beginning that there would be these questions if a bunch of guys from the game industry came in and say 'Hey, we know how to take care of a child, we know how to teach a child.' And we didn't do that," Hawkins said. "We brought in the experts. We're working with an all-star team of these teaching masters and research experts. And they've been integrated into the team in the same way that athletes and coaches were integrated into EA Sports. I think EA Sports was successful because people were able to recognize that I was committed to the products being authentic; I was a lunatic about it; In fact, Madden football at EA became known as Trip's Folly just because I wouldn't allow the game to not be the real thing even if it was going to take years to get it right. So it's a similar situation here."
On top of that, because If is free-to-play, a parent or teacher can try the game before subscribing. Hawkins is confident, too, that once you try the game, you'll understand the value. Reviews for the game so far bear this out. "Pretty much everybody that does that gives a two thumbs up," he says.
Finally, Hawkins said he sees a bright future for education-themed games like If. In addition to his new game, the market includes LeVar Burton's recent Reading Rainbow project, SimCityEDU, MinecraftEDU, and interactive math game DragonBox, among others. This category is only going to grow larger thanks to the rise in devices like tablets, he says.
"There are a handful of examples I think of flagships for what ought to become a whole new industry category that is following these [education] principles," Hawkins said. "And I think it's going to allow the parents and the teachers to curate the quality and wholesomeness and value of what's on this burgeoning tablet market that's going to reach a billion or two devices over the next period of years. I think, by contrast, in the absence of these kinds of wholesome choices, there's a lot of kids getting addicted to games that are really just for entertainment and are kind of a waste of time. And we're all getting addicted to mobile devices. We're all going to be better off if a decent share of the time we spend on the devices actually has some benefit besides just keeping us busy."
You can download If today from iTunes. More information about the game is available at its official website.
]]> 1100-6421715Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:15:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/dogfighting-in-star-citizen-gamescom/2300-6420861/ 2300-6420861Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/15-of-the-best-games-from-gamescom-2014/1100-6421759/ The world's biggest games convention has just flown by, with dozens upon dozens of games being shown off in the crowded halls of Gamescom 2014 in Germany. The GameSpot crew was on hand all this week to bring you news, previews, and videos direct from the event, but in case you missed some of our coverage, below is a list of some of our top features from the last week.
PS4 Exclusive Bloodborne Features Health Regeneration, Encourages Offensive Combat
"For all of Dark Souls developer From Software's talk about Bloodborne being opened up to a "wider audience" than its spiritual predecessors, and the gameplay concessions to less experienced players that would entail, it sure as hell doesn't look like this game is going to be easy." Read more here.
There's More to Quantum Break Than You Might Think
"Quantum Break is a game about a man seeking to rescue the very fabric of time. But if you caught the gameplay demo that Remedy debuted on stage at Microsoft's Gamescom 2014 press conference, you might be under the impression that time must be rescued with a whole lot of gunfire and slow-motion punches to the face." Read more here.
Dead Island 2
Why Mortal Kombat X Has Renewed My Enthusiasm for the Series
"For the first time in a while, I'm ready to give Mortal Kombat another shot. After experiencing Mortal Kombat X first hand at Gamescom, my suspicions based on the initial gameplay videos are confirmed; Mortal Kombat X is the most fluid entry in the series to date." Read more here.
Until Dawn's Hollywood-Infused PS4 Reboot is Absolutely Terrifying
"Originally unveiled as Move game on PlayStation 3, Until Dawn has now ditched the Move controller and the PS3 for Sony's shiny new Dualshock 4 and PS4. But the biggest change to the game comes from its new stylistic direction." Read more here.
Forza Horizon 2 Lets You Hang Out in a Van Down by the River
"Microsoft and Playground Games are showing a new demo of Forza Horizon 2 here at Gamescom 2014, and it's one that's absolutely packed with new features. It includes a look at the new day-night cycle, a feature that lets you hang out in a parking lot trading liveries with other players, and the return of custom tuning settings that never made the transition from Motorsport to the first Horizon." Read more here.
Battlefield Hardline
PixelJunk Developer Reveals Details of Genre-Bending PS4 Exclusive The Tomorrow Children
"Confused by the reveal of Q-Games' The Tomorrow Children during Sony's Gamescom press conference? You're not the only one." Read more here.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - Horse Poop, Wolves, and Twin Snakes. Oh My!
"At the start of today's demo, Snake rode on horseback into an enemy base situated in Afghanistan. As in the E3 demo, Snake's horse, for lack of a better word, defecated in the road after riding a few meters into enemy territory, but it actually served a practical purpose this time around." Read more here.
How the Assassinations in Assassin's Creed Unity Encourage Patience and Creativity
"Its assassinations, nicknamed "black box missions" by the development team at Ubisoft Montreal, look like a return to the more sandbox-driven approach of old..but with some modern twists." Read more here.
FIFA 15
Making Friends With Yaks and Snow Leopards in Far Cry 4
"This high up, in the ruins of an old monastery, the scenery is dominated by snow, rocky cliffs, and howling winds. But though my mission seems like a challenging one, I've got one secret weapon at my disposal: yaks." Read more here.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Raises More Questions Than It Answers, and I'm Just Fine With That
"Exploring this world from a first-person perspective, I was immediately reminded of games like Gone Home or the upcoming Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. There's an unsettling stillness to it all." Read more here.
Four Reasons I'm Suddenly Interested in Assassin's Creed Rogue
"But you know what? Maybe I was too quick to write off Rogue. I'm still not entirely sold on it, but after getting some hands-on time with the Gamescom 2014 demo, I'm ready to give Assassin's Creed Rogue another look. Here are a few reasons why." Read more here.
Borderlands The Pre-Sequel
]]> 1100-6421759Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/diablo-iii-ultimate-evil-edition-act-v-co-op/2300-6420868/ 2300-6420868Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:39:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-biggest-sony-playstation-news-from-gamesco/1100-6421758/
Gamescom gets bigger and bigger every year, and although it might not quite rival E3, the show has more than its fair share of bombshell announcements. Here's a rundown of the biggest Sony news from the show so far.
If you've got the time, you can also catch up on the entire Sony press conference right here, or get a rundown on our thoughts in the video above.
PlayStation 4 Games News:
Sony's presser was almost E3 like in the number of new games they showed off. Well, new games related to PS4, anyway. You'll notice a distinct lack of Vita and PS3 news at this year's show. Also no Last Guardian...but we still have the Tokyo Game Show, so don't lose hope yet.
Everything Else Sony:
We have even more coverage of the games and stories around Gamescom throughout the weekend, but you can check it all out on our hub page here.
]]> 1100-6421758Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:44:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-top-5-silent-hills-will-ruin-pants-tomb-ra/2300-6420855/ 2300-6420855Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/no-mans-sky-players-would-need-5-billion-years-to-/1100-6421757/
We know the universe of No Man's Sky is truly massive, thanks to its procedurally generated worlds. Even if developer Hello Games could share the exact number of worlds players can visit, it would be incomprehensibly big. What it can provide is a rough estimate of how long it would take to visit every planet in the game: five billion years.
That figure was shared with IGN by Hello's Sean Murray. It's an extraordinarily long time, but what makes it more impressive is the fact that it's merely how long it would take to visit each planet for a single second. What we've seen of the game so far suggests you'll need far longer than one minute, let alone one second, to fully explore any given world, so suffice it to say, you're never going to run out of new places to visit.
This is made possible because Hello opted to use 64-bit numbers to generate its worlds, rather than 32-bit numbers. When 32-bit numbers were being used at one point, it still would have meant taking several thousand years to visit each planet for one second. By moving to 64-bit numbers--which can store the astronomical sum of 2^64 total values, substantially more than the 2^32 total of 32-bit numbers--Hello was able to ensure it's even more difficult to fathom just how many planets No Man's Sky contains.
You can expect to hear more about the game before long, as Murray teased that Hello "will have something big to show soon."
The open-world game was first revealed last December and is expected out in 2015 for PlayStation 4. (A PC version is also in the works.) For more, check out our Next Big Game coverage from July, which dives into just how massive the game is and the tools Hello is using to make this all possible.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421757Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/quick-look-my-ex-boyfriend-the-space-tyrant/2300-6420865/ 2300-6420865Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:30:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-ones-next-update-now-live-for-preview-members/1100-6421756/
The Xbox One's next system update is now live for those enrolled in Microsoft's preview program, providing access to many of the features announced earlier this week at Gamescom. As an extra surprise, some previously unannounced--if somewhat minor--features are also included in today's update.
This update adds major new features like the Media Player app and a new friends area. It also includes a redesigned Party app that makes it easier to see what everyone in the party is doing, and gives control to one person who can remove party members and dictate whether people need an invite to join.
There are other, smaller features added in this update that Microsoft didn't mention earlier this week when it previewed some of the features being added in the next few months. These include a way to save your Avatar gamerpic to your OneDrive account, a tool for tracking your Xbox One's bandwidth usage, and new options to "help you manage your controllers and accessories." One addition I'm particularly thankful for is a way to delete multiple Game DVR clips at once, which should be a real help when trying to clear out all of those automatically recorded Peggle 2 highlights I've been amassing.
If you're enrolled in the preview program that provides early access to Xbox One system updates, you'll be able to download this update now. Microsoft has yet to say when many of these features will be made available to all Xbox One owners, but we do know an update is coming for everyone this month that will include an enhanced activity feed and 3D Blu-ray movie support, among other things.
The previously unannounced features in today's update are listed below; check out our story on the original announcement for details on the others.
Redesigned parties -- Makes it easier to see who is playing what, to see whether others are in the same game as you, and to do common tasks like joining, inviting, or muting someone. Also adds the party-leader designation, allowing that person to remove others from the party and decide if an invite is needed to join.
"Xbox On" expansion -- The ability to turn the system on with the "Xbox On" voice command expands to new countries, including Australia, Canada (in French), Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Brazil.
Multiple Game DVR deletes -- Delete multiple clips at a time in the Upload app.
Save Avatar gamerpics -- Love the way your Avatar looks in your gamerpic? Save it to your OneDrive so that you can make it your Twitter icon, print it out and frame it, or whatever else you feel like doing.
Settings update -- The location of the Instant Sign-In option is being moved, and new, unspecified options for "manag[ing] your controllers and accessories" are being added.
Bandwidth usage -- See how much bandwidth your console has been using from the Network Settings area.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421756Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:28:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-biggest-microsoft-xbox-news-from-gamescom-/1100-6421755/
Gamescom gets bigger and bigger every year, and although it might not quite rival E3, the show has more than its fair share of big news. Here's a rundown of the biggest Xbox announcements from the show.
If you've got the time, you can also catch up on the entire Microsoft press conference right here, or get a rundown on our thoughts in the video above.
Hardware News:
Changes are coming to the Xbox One. Most of these are the result of the upcoming August Xbox One update, but here's what we learned about during the show:
New Hardware Bundles:
Xbox Games News:
The biggest talking point from Microsoft centered on Rise of the Tomb Raider. With gratuitous use of the word "exclusive," Microsoft heavily implied that Tomb Raider sequel would only be on Xbox. Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer later clarified that the deal with Square Enix "has a duration," implying that it will come to other, unspecified platforms at a later, unspecified date.
We have even more coverage of the games and stories around Gamescom throughout the weekend, but you can check it all out on our hub page here.
]]> 1100-6421755Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:23:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/star-citizen-constellation-trailer/2300-6420863/ 2300-6420863Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:59:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/madden-nfl-15-madden-season/2300-6420862/ 2300-6420862Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fifa-15s-cover-has-messi-and-now-pes-2015-has-mari/1100-6421753/
Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 will feature German midfielder Mario Götze on its cover when it's released on November 11, Konami has announced.
That it's Mario Götze--who scored the winning (and only) goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final--and not Italy's Mario Balotelli is disappointing to me because it prevents me from saying that Super Mario (Balotelli's nickname) is on the cover of PES. It does, however, mean that the covers for this year's FIFA and PES games each have a star from the two teams that played one another in the aforementioned World Cup Final; FIFA 15's cover features Argentina's Lionel Messi (and, in North America, US player Clint Dempsey).
PES' release in November means the game is coming out much later than FIFA 15, which launches next month. Perhaps to make up for that, Konami plans to release a demo of PES 2015 on September 17, a week prior to FIFA's release on September 23. The PES demo will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3; the full game is also coming to PC. A FIFA 15 demo will be available in September, too, meaning you'll have the opportunity to see for yourself which game you prefer.
EA Sports has boasted a great deal about the enhanced levels of realism it's brought to FIFA 15. Konami, too, has spoken about striving to be the best video game simulation of the sport, saying last month that PES 2015 represents a "true return to core PES values of total control, super responsive controls, and renowned gameplay, where the user has unrestricted control over how they play." The game runs on the FOX Engine, the same technology powering Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and will also offer microtransactions, which Konami insists they are purely optional.
Based on what we've seen so far, are you more interested in FIFA 15 or PES 2015? Let us know in the comments.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421753Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:50:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-and-xbox-360-digital-games-coming-to-phys/1100-6421754/ Microsoft is introducing a new way to buy digital Xbox 360 and Xbox One games. The company announced today that beginning this month in the US and UK, you'll be able to buy download codes for select games and expansions at participating brick-and-mortar retailers.
The company is launching the program by offering download codes for Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and State of Decay, as well as "select" map and expansion packs for Halo and Forza games. The company will add more codes in the coming months from other publishers and also plans to extend the program to more countries.
Microsoft says this new program is all about giving gamers more options for how they can purchase digital content. Of course, you can still buy digital games and DLC through Xbox.com and on your console.
Buying digital content at a physical retailer might sound backwards, but it's already big business for retailer GameStop. In fact, more than half of GameStop's digital revenue comes from brick-and-mortar stores. One of the advantages to shopping for digital content in a physical store, according to GameStop, is that if you have a question, you can ask a store associate. If you're shopping online, you don't get that kind of customer service.
Another potentially compelling reason to buy digital games at retail is because you won't necessarily need cash or credit to do so. For retailers that accept trade-ins (like GameStop), you would be able to buy the digital games using your trade credit.
Microsoft's new digital purchasing option runs alongside the gift cards that it already sells at retailers that you can use to buy items from the Xbox Marketplace . Sony (PlayStation Network) and Valve (Steam Wallet) also sell marketplace gift cards at physical retailers like GameStop.
Do you buy digital content at physical retailers? Let us know in the comments below!
]]> 1100-6421754Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:35:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/reality-check-yet-more-pc-gfx-explained-motion-blu/2300-6420858/ 2300-6420858Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:00:00 -0700
Gamespot's Site MashupWhy EA Founder and Creator of Madden Is Now Making Educational Games For KidsDogfighting in Star Citizen - Gamescom15 of the Best Games From Gamescom 2014Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition - Act V Co-OpAll The Biggest Sony PlayStation News From Gamescom 2014GS News Top 5 - Silent Hills Will Ruin Pants, Tomb Raider exclusivity confusion!No Man's Sky Players Would Need 5 Billion Years to Explore Every Planet for 1 SecondQuick Look: My Ex-Boyfriend the Space TyrantXbox One's Next Update Now Live for Preview Members--With Some Unannounced FeaturesAll The Biggest Microsoft Xbox News From Gamescom 2014Star Citizen - Constellation TrailerMadden NFL 15: Madden SeasonFIFA 15's Cover Has Messi, and Now PES 2015 Has Mario GotzeXbox One and Xbox 360 Digital Games Coming to Physical RetailersReality Check - Yet More PC GFX Explained! Motion Blur, HDR, Physx, and More
rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 rss_modified:rss:9d9437cc2bdadfdb0c2a6594385b5cf5548bd329 http://www.gamespot.com/mashup/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:29:47 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-ea-founder-and-creator-of-madden-is-now-making/1100-6421715/ Trip Hawkins has been involved with video games in just about every way a person can be. He championed the publishing model by founding juggernaut company Electronic Arts; he created a multibillion-dollar empire in EA Sports; he worked in hardware with 3DO; and he stepped into the mobile space in a big way with Digital Chocolate. Hawkins, now 61, is trying something new.
His latest venture is If You Can Company, a San Mateo, Calif.-based startup (funded in part by the venture capital firm of Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen) that aims to use video games to teach children social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The company's first game is called "If…", which gets its name from the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name, which Kipling wrote in 1909 as advice to his son.
Trip Hawkins
The game's overall ambition is to equip children with skills to help them handle bullying and manage challenging emotional and academic situations. The free game, which is aimed at children 6-12 and is set in a fantasy world with dogs and cats, unfolds across chapters, the first of which was released in February and has already seen more than 400,000 downloads on iOS. Chapter two arrived in July, and additional chapters are planned for release throughout 2014.
Children can play the chapters at their leisure, and they only have to spend about an hour per week to complete an entire lesson plan in a month. According to If You Can, the game covers the equivalent of a year's curriculum at leading SEL teaching schools, and only for the cost of $5/month, which is a major savings compared to traditional schooling.
"If you were getting SEL curriculum through a private school, you're [spending] $35,000 a year, and private tutors cost typically $50-$75/hour," Hawkins told me. "The typical child playing our game is going to probably spend three or four hours, maybe five hours, a month and it's going to cost them a $5/month subscription. So it's a pretty good deal."
A new dashboard app for parents, available on iOS devices or on the Web for PC or Mac, serves as a companion to their child's gameplay. Parents can log in and see lesson themes, updates on their children's accomplishments, and get ideas for how to translate the in-game lesson plans to real-world situations.
Why, at this stage in his career, is Hawkins turning to education games? "It's something really critical that fell through the cracks," he says about SEL teaching, which involves the fostering and nurturing of things like citizenship, character, and values. Hawkins says that in the past, children grew up alongside their parents, and as such, they were given constant attention and nurturing. But with the arrival of the urban, industrialized, and technologically advanced world, parents left their homes to work all day, leaving their children in public schools where they often don't know anyone. Hawkins says schools didn't do much in the way of SEL because teachers felt parents should handle this part of their children's development. As a result, SEL teaching "fell into a crack," he says.
"The game industry is mostly always been young men that want to make games that they want to play; and I certainly operated that way for the first 20 years I was in the industry," he says. "And now in the last 20 years, I've become a parent, and have learned about these needs and issues and I want to do something about it."
That's where If You Can Company and If come in. Hawkins wondered what could be done to scale up SEL teaching so that children everywhere could benefit from it without having to pay the thousands in tuition and tutor's fees mandated by educational institutions like the Nueva School that his children attended.
"Now in the last 20 years, I've become a parent, and have learned about these needs and issues and I want to do something about it" -- Trip Hawkins
"One thing led to another, and I finally realized that I was in a position to try to do something about it by basically putting this kind of knowledge in a game," Hawkins says. "In a way, I think this is a harbinger of a future industry where gameplay as the foundation of a media experience [and then] games as a platform from which to send serious curriculum with legitimate methods of assessment of learning."
"By just watching what my kids were learning through this innovative school area, it just dawned on me that, 'Wow, this is a really critical skillset,'" he added. "Nobody ever taught me these skills, and I've suffered because of it."
The reason Hawkins is turning to mobile platforms for If is because he says the way you communicate with children is by meeting them where they are. "If their attention and motivation is on a mobile device on a game anyway, why not use that as a 21st century platform for learning?," he says.
To create the actual lesson plans featured in If, Hawkins and his team worked with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; and the Institute for SEL, a group of former teachers from the Nueva School.
"The design of the curriculum is modeled after what a really good and expensive private school, like the ones my kids went to, what they would learn about social and emotional learning in a year of school," Hawkins says. "And we teach basically the same kind of lesson plans, the same kind of academic measurements, and we deliver a year's worth of that learning over the course of a calendar year. And particularly as we get it out on more devices, more screen sizes, we feel like it's something like there will be millions of devices and plenty of people will have an opportunity to learn from it and benefit."
What separates If from a game like SimCity is that though there is educational value to Will Wright's iconic simulation game, it was not created for the specific purpose of teaching. "He never planned any specific curriculum; he never did any assessment of learning, so that's why there's an opportunity for us in the game industry to build a new category," Hawkins says.
Part of the reason Hawkins is so enthusiastic about video games as a teaching tool is because, unlike passive media like TV or film, video games actively engage the user. "It wasn't just an accident that television became known as the boob tube," he says with a laugh. "I think we've known for a long time that passive media puts us to sleep." Early in his life, Hawkins played lots of tabletop role-playing games. He found that he felt more energized and stimulated after playing tabletop games like Dungeon & Dragons that required him to think and strategize than when he was absorbed in TV. That's because humans learn best by doing, he says.
"You think about the last year you were a full-time student at school, compare that to the first year you were out of school--when did you learn more? There's just no comparison," Hawkins said. "You learn much faster in real-world situations. And then the power of the computer has the ability to simulate almost anything you want and crank out simulated real life situations at a much faster pace and to do things that go way, way beyond the scope of what a human being could do in a real life."
"You think about the last year you were a full time student at school, compare that to the first year you were out of school--when did you learn more? There's just no comparison. You learn much faster in real-world situations" -- Trip Hawkins
"The best way for us to learn about ourselves is by having the fantasy of pretending to be other people," he adds. "And that's what we do all the time in games through role-playing and simulation and fantasy. And it's really true; you can have so many more synthetic experiences through computer simulation than you could possibly have in real life. And it allows you to be able to then reflect and organize your thinking about what does that all mean and how do you apply that to yourself and your real life."
Currently, If is only available through the App Store, but I wondered if one day his company could align with a major educational institution or organization to offer the game as part of an official curriculum. "I don't rule that out, but you need to know yourself and what you're capable of doing," Hawkins says, admitting that he has no experience with foundations or running a non-profit company. "That doesn't mean that we don't have a social purpose or a social conscience," he added. "It's definitely our longer-term goal that as many people as possible benefit from this kind of human knowledge. And there's nothing that prevents us in the future from giving the product away to certain needy customers."
Since If is released on a chapter-based model, I was also curious if there was an opportunity for new content to focus on current events or trends. I brought up bullying, a topic that unfortunately hits the headlines often. Hawkins said If's lesson plan teaches children about empathy and sensitivity, and some levels even have story elements around the topic of bullying. But as for releasing new content based on current events, Hawkins said this isn't really possible because If's content is created ahead of time.
"What's maybe not as easy for us to do is, on short notice, suddenly say, 'Hey, let's completely change what our game is today.' It's a production pipeline, but it's really like producing a bunch of interactive movies," he says. "And the content gets produced, and gets put on the shelf, and then gets pulled down off the shelf when the customer gets to it and is ready to consume it. So we may not have the facility to reinvent the movie every day; it's more prescriptive. We can't just radically change what the product does every day on short notice."
I also wondered if parents might be skeptical about trusting a startup company and an unproven educational model with something as important as their child's life and emotional development. Hawkins said he understands this concern, but pointed out the the lessons in If were designed by experts.
"We're all going to be better off if a decent share of the time we spend on [tablets and smartphones] actually has some benefit besides just keeping us busy" -- Trip Hawkins
"We understood from the beginning that there would be these questions if a bunch of guys from the game industry came in and say 'Hey, we know how to take care of a child, we know how to teach a child.' And we didn't do that," Hawkins said. "We brought in the experts. We're working with an all-star team of these teaching masters and research experts. And they've been integrated into the team in the same way that athletes and coaches were integrated into EA Sports. I think EA Sports was successful because people were able to recognize that I was committed to the products being authentic; I was a lunatic about it; In fact, Madden football at EA became known as Trip's Folly just because I wouldn't allow the game to not be the real thing even if it was going to take years to get it right. So it's a similar situation here."
On top of that, because If is free-to-play, a parent or teacher can try the game before subscribing. Hawkins is confident, too, that once you try the game, you'll understand the value. Reviews for the game so far bear this out. "Pretty much everybody that does that gives a two thumbs up," he says.
Finally, Hawkins said he sees a bright future for education-themed games like If. In addition to his new game, the market includes LeVar Burton's recent Reading Rainbow project, SimCityEDU, MinecraftEDU, and interactive math game DragonBox, among others. This category is only going to grow larger thanks to the rise in devices like tablets, he says.
"There are a handful of examples I think of flagships for what ought to become a whole new industry category that is following these [education] principles," Hawkins said. "And I think it's going to allow the parents and the teachers to curate the quality and wholesomeness and value of what's on this burgeoning tablet market that's going to reach a billion or two devices over the next period of years. I think, by contrast, in the absence of these kinds of wholesome choices, there's a lot of kids getting addicted to games that are really just for entertainment and are kind of a waste of time. And we're all getting addicted to mobile devices. We're all going to be better off if a decent share of the time we spend on the devices actually has some benefit besides just keeping us busy."
You can download If today from iTunes. More information about the game is available at its official website.
]]> 1100-6421715Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:15:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/dogfighting-in-star-citizen-gamescom/2300-6420861/ 2300-6420861Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/15-of-the-best-games-from-gamescom-2014/1100-6421759/ The world's biggest games convention has just flown by, with dozens upon dozens of games being shown off in the crowded halls of Gamescom 2014 in Germany. The GameSpot crew was on hand all this week to bring you news, previews, and videos direct from the event, but in case you missed some of our coverage, below is a list of some of our top features from the last week.
PS4 Exclusive Bloodborne Features Health Regeneration, Encourages Offensive Combat
"For all of Dark Souls developer From Software's talk about Bloodborne being opened up to a "wider audience" than its spiritual predecessors, and the gameplay concessions to less experienced players that would entail, it sure as hell doesn't look like this game is going to be easy." Read more here.
There's More to Quantum Break Than You Might Think
"Quantum Break is a game about a man seeking to rescue the very fabric of time. But if you caught the gameplay demo that Remedy debuted on stage at Microsoft's Gamescom 2014 press conference, you might be under the impression that time must be rescued with a whole lot of gunfire and slow-motion punches to the face." Read more here.
Dead Island 2
Why Mortal Kombat X Has Renewed My Enthusiasm for the Series
"For the first time in a while, I'm ready to give Mortal Kombat another shot. After experiencing Mortal Kombat X first hand at Gamescom, my suspicions based on the initial gameplay videos are confirmed; Mortal Kombat X is the most fluid entry in the series to date." Read more here.
Until Dawn's Hollywood-Infused PS4 Reboot is Absolutely Terrifying
"Originally unveiled as Move game on PlayStation 3, Until Dawn has now ditched the Move controller and the PS3 for Sony's shiny new Dualshock 4 and PS4. But the biggest change to the game comes from its new stylistic direction." Read more here.
Forza Horizon 2 Lets You Hang Out in a Van Down by the River
"Microsoft and Playground Games are showing a new demo of Forza Horizon 2 here at Gamescom 2014, and it's one that's absolutely packed with new features. It includes a look at the new day-night cycle, a feature that lets you hang out in a parking lot trading liveries with other players, and the return of custom tuning settings that never made the transition from Motorsport to the first Horizon." Read more here.
Battlefield Hardline
PixelJunk Developer Reveals Details of Genre-Bending PS4 Exclusive The Tomorrow Children
"Confused by the reveal of Q-Games' The Tomorrow Children during Sony's Gamescom press conference? You're not the only one." Read more here.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - Horse Poop, Wolves, and Twin Snakes. Oh My!
"At the start of today's demo, Snake rode on horseback into an enemy base situated in Afghanistan. As in the E3 demo, Snake's horse, for lack of a better word, defecated in the road after riding a few meters into enemy territory, but it actually served a practical purpose this time around." Read more here.
How the Assassinations in Assassin's Creed Unity Encourage Patience and Creativity
"Its assassinations, nicknamed "black box missions" by the development team at Ubisoft Montreal, look like a return to the more sandbox-driven approach of old..but with some modern twists." Read more here.
FIFA 15
Making Friends With Yaks and Snow Leopards in Far Cry 4
"This high up, in the ruins of an old monastery, the scenery is dominated by snow, rocky cliffs, and howling winds. But though my mission seems like a challenging one, I've got one secret weapon at my disposal: yaks." Read more here.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Raises More Questions Than It Answers, and I'm Just Fine With That
"Exploring this world from a first-person perspective, I was immediately reminded of games like Gone Home or the upcoming Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. There's an unsettling stillness to it all." Read more here.
Four Reasons I'm Suddenly Interested in Assassin's Creed Rogue
"But you know what? Maybe I was too quick to write off Rogue. I'm still not entirely sold on it, but after getting some hands-on time with the Gamescom 2014 demo, I'm ready to give Assassin's Creed Rogue another look. Here are a few reasons why." Read more here.
Borderlands The Pre-Sequel
]]> 1100-6421759Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/diablo-iii-ultimate-evil-edition-act-v-co-op/2300-6420868/ 2300-6420868Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:39:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-biggest-sony-playstation-news-from-gamesco/1100-6421758/
Gamescom gets bigger and bigger every year, and although it might not quite rival E3, the show has more than its fair share of bombshell announcements. Here's a rundown of the biggest Sony news from the show so far.
If you've got the time, you can also catch up on the entire Sony press conference right here, or get a rundown on our thoughts in the video above.
PlayStation 4 Games News:
Sony's presser was almost E3 like in the number of new games they showed off. Well, new games related to PS4, anyway. You'll notice a distinct lack of Vita and PS3 news at this year's show. Also no Last Guardian...but we still have the Tokyo Game Show, so don't lose hope yet.
Everything Else Sony:
We have even more coverage of the games and stories around Gamescom throughout the weekend, but you can check it all out on our hub page here.
]]> 1100-6421758Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:44:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-top-5-silent-hills-will-ruin-pants-tomb-ra/2300-6420855/ 2300-6420855Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:00:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/no-mans-sky-players-would-need-5-billion-years-to-/1100-6421757/
We know the universe of No Man's Sky is truly massive, thanks to its procedurally generated worlds. Even if developer Hello Games could share the exact number of worlds players can visit, it would be incomprehensibly big. What it can provide is a rough estimate of how long it would take to visit every planet in the game: five billion years.
That figure was shared with IGN by Hello's Sean Murray. It's an extraordinarily long time, but what makes it more impressive is the fact that it's merely how long it would take to visit each planet for a single second. What we've seen of the game so far suggests you'll need far longer than one minute, let alone one second, to fully explore any given world, so suffice it to say, you're never going to run out of new places to visit.
This is made possible because Hello opted to use 64-bit numbers to generate its worlds, rather than 32-bit numbers. When 32-bit numbers were being used at one point, it still would have meant taking several thousand years to visit each planet for one second. By moving to 64-bit numbers--which can store the astronomical sum of 2^64 total values, substantially more than the 2^32 total of 32-bit numbers--Hello was able to ensure it's even more difficult to fathom just how many planets No Man's Sky contains.
You can expect to hear more about the game before long, as Murray teased that Hello "will have something big to show soon."
The open-world game was first revealed last December and is expected out in 2015 for PlayStation 4. (A PC version is also in the works.) For more, check out our Next Big Game coverage from July, which dives into just how massive the game is and the tools Hello is using to make this all possible.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421757Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/quick-look-my-ex-boyfriend-the-space-tyrant/2300-6420865/ 2300-6420865Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:30:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-ones-next-update-now-live-for-preview-members/1100-6421756/
The Xbox One's next system update is now live for those enrolled in Microsoft's preview program, providing access to many of the features announced earlier this week at Gamescom. As an extra surprise, some previously unannounced--if somewhat minor--features are also included in today's update.
This update adds major new features like the Media Player app and a new friends area. It also includes a redesigned Party app that makes it easier to see what everyone in the party is doing, and gives control to one person who can remove party members and dictate whether people need an invite to join.
There are other, smaller features added in this update that Microsoft didn't mention earlier this week when it previewed some of the features being added in the next few months. These include a way to save your Avatar gamerpic to your OneDrive account, a tool for tracking your Xbox One's bandwidth usage, and new options to "help you manage your controllers and accessories." One addition I'm particularly thankful for is a way to delete multiple Game DVR clips at once, which should be a real help when trying to clear out all of those automatically recorded Peggle 2 highlights I've been amassing.
If you're enrolled in the preview program that provides early access to Xbox One system updates, you'll be able to download this update now. Microsoft has yet to say when many of these features will be made available to all Xbox One owners, but we do know an update is coming for everyone this month that will include an enhanced activity feed and 3D Blu-ray movie support, among other things.
The previously unannounced features in today's update are listed below; check out our story on the original announcement for details on the others.
Redesigned parties -- Makes it easier to see who is playing what, to see whether others are in the same game as you, and to do common tasks like joining, inviting, or muting someone. Also adds the party-leader designation, allowing that person to remove others from the party and decide if an invite is needed to join.
"Xbox On" expansion -- The ability to turn the system on with the "Xbox On" voice command expands to new countries, including Australia, Canada (in French), Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Brazil.
Multiple Game DVR deletes -- Delete multiple clips at a time in the Upload app.
Save Avatar gamerpics -- Love the way your Avatar looks in your gamerpic? Save it to your OneDrive so that you can make it your Twitter icon, print it out and frame it, or whatever else you feel like doing.
Settings update -- The location of the Instant Sign-In option is being moved, and new, unspecified options for "manag[ing] your controllers and accessories" are being added.
Bandwidth usage -- See how much bandwidth your console has been using from the Network Settings area.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421756Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:28:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-biggest-microsoft-xbox-news-from-gamescom-/1100-6421755/
Gamescom gets bigger and bigger every year, and although it might not quite rival E3, the show has more than its fair share of big news. Here's a rundown of the biggest Xbox announcements from the show.
If you've got the time, you can also catch up on the entire Microsoft press conference right here, or get a rundown on our thoughts in the video above.
Hardware News:
Changes are coming to the Xbox One. Most of these are the result of the upcoming August Xbox One update, but here's what we learned about during the show:
New Hardware Bundles:
Xbox Games News:
The biggest talking point from Microsoft centered on Rise of the Tomb Raider. With gratuitous use of the word "exclusive," Microsoft heavily implied that Tomb Raider sequel would only be on Xbox. Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer later clarified that the deal with Square Enix "has a duration," implying that it will come to other, unspecified platforms at a later, unspecified date.
We have even more coverage of the games and stories around Gamescom throughout the weekend, but you can check it all out on our hub page here.
]]> 1100-6421755Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:23:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/star-citizen-constellation-trailer/2300-6420863/ 2300-6420863Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:59:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/madden-nfl-15-madden-season/2300-6420862/ 2300-6420862Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:53:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fifa-15s-cover-has-messi-and-now-pes-2015-has-mari/1100-6421753/
Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 will feature German midfielder Mario Götze on its cover when it's released on November 11, Konami has announced.
That it's Mario Götze--who scored the winning (and only) goal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final--and not Italy's Mario Balotelli is disappointing to me because it prevents me from saying that Super Mario (Balotelli's nickname) is on the cover of PES. It does, however, mean that the covers for this year's FIFA and PES games each have a star from the two teams that played one another in the aforementioned World Cup Final; FIFA 15's cover features Argentina's Lionel Messi (and, in North America, US player Clint Dempsey).
PES' release in November means the game is coming out much later than FIFA 15, which launches next month. Perhaps to make up for that, Konami plans to release a demo of PES 2015 on September 17, a week prior to FIFA's release on September 23. The PES demo will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3; the full game is also coming to PC. A FIFA 15 demo will be available in September, too, meaning you'll have the opportunity to see for yourself which game you prefer.
EA Sports has boasted a great deal about the enhanced levels of realism it's brought to FIFA 15. Konami, too, has spoken about striving to be the best video game simulation of the sport, saying last month that PES 2015 represents a "true return to core PES values of total control, super responsive controls, and renowned gameplay, where the user has unrestricted control over how they play." The game runs on the FOX Engine, the same technology powering Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and will also offer microtransactions, which Konami insists they are purely optional.
Based on what we've seen so far, are you more interested in FIFA 15 or PES 2015? Let us know in the comments.
Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
]]> 1100-6421753Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:50:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-one-and-xbox-360-digital-games-coming-to-phys/1100-6421754/ Microsoft is introducing a new way to buy digital Xbox 360 and Xbox One games. The company announced today that beginning this month in the US and UK, you'll be able to buy download codes for select games and expansions at participating brick-and-mortar retailers.
The company is launching the program by offering download codes for Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and State of Decay, as well as "select" map and expansion packs for Halo and Forza games. The company will add more codes in the coming months from other publishers and also plans to extend the program to more countries.
Microsoft says this new program is all about giving gamers more options for how they can purchase digital content. Of course, you can still buy digital games and DLC through Xbox.com and on your console.
Buying digital content at a physical retailer might sound backwards, but it's already big business for retailer GameStop. In fact, more than half of GameStop's digital revenue comes from brick-and-mortar stores. One of the advantages to shopping for digital content in a physical store, according to GameStop, is that if you have a question, you can ask a store associate. If you're shopping online, you don't get that kind of customer service.
Another potentially compelling reason to buy digital games at retail is because you won't necessarily need cash or credit to do so. For retailers that accept trade-ins (like GameStop), you would be able to buy the digital games using your trade credit.
Microsoft's new digital purchasing option runs alongside the gift cards that it already sells at retailers that you can use to buy items from the Xbox Marketplace . Sony (PlayStation Network) and Valve (Steam Wallet) also sell marketplace gift cards at physical retailers like GameStop.
Do you buy digital content at physical retailers? Let us know in the comments below!
]]> 1100-6421754Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:35:00 -0700 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/reality-check-yet-more-pc-gfx-explained-motion-blu/2300-6420858/ 2300-6420858Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:00:00 -0700
