The new console, doubling the storage of the current model, will follow a 1TB version of Microsoft's Xbox One arriving this month.
Sony is matching Microsoft by launching a 1TB flavor of its game console.Sony
Sony has confirmed that it will offer a 1-terabyte edition of its PlayStation 4.
The new 1TB PS4 Ultimate Player Edition will launch in select European and PAL territories starting July 15, Sony said in a blog post published Monday. PAL is the video standard used across most of the world, with the exception of North and South America, which use a standard known as NTSC. Sony didn't reveal when the 1TB PlayStation 4 would debut in the US or other non-PAL regions.
Offering double the storage capacity of the current PS4, the terabyte edition will closely follow the June launch of a 1TB edition of Microsoft's Xbox One. Both consoles come as both digital and disc-based games are getting larger, which means hard-core gamers who have a huge collection of titles can more easily run out of space.
The PS4 has been clobbering the Xbox One in sales. However, at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's biggest conference, Microsoft announced several new features designed to attract more users, including a lineup of new games, the Xbox Elite Wireless controller and the ability to finally play Xbox 360 titles on the Xbox One.
Sony, meanwhile, is also launching a new model of the 500GB PS4 starting the end of this month. Initially rolling out in Japan and then other Asian countries as well as North America and Europe, this PS4 will weigh 10 percent less than the current edition and consume 8 percent less power. The new 500GB edition will sell in the US for $399.
Available in either jet black or glacier white, the new version will have a matte finish, which Sony says will give it a "more casual look." The company is also promising a new lineup of titles from its own game publishing studio as well as popular third-party developers. New titles due to hit the market include Capcom's Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi and Konami's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Sony will kick in such games as God Of War III Remastered, Until Dawn and The Tomorrow Children.
Sooall Next DNA eBike turns calories into battery life
China's Sooall gives exercise an eco edge, letting you charge some batteries while you pedal away your excess fat.
Charge your batteries while burning fat with Sooall's exercise bike.Aloysius Low/CNET
SHANGHAI -- At the inaugural CES Asia, Chinese firm Sooall serves up an interesting spin on the exercise bike with the Next DNA eBike. Its name is a mouthful and inexplicably includes a DNA reference, but if you're thinking 'eBike' means electric, you're both right and wrong. This bike doesn't use electricity to generate speed, it uses speed to generate electricity.
Located at the rear of the trainer are three battery packs, which are charged when you start working out. Once charged, you can use these USB-friendly power packs to juice up your other mobile devices. There's no word on the exact capacity of the battery packs, and how long you'd have to pedal to deliver a full charge. I'll update should we get a clear answer.
That's not all the bike has up its sleeve. A Sooall spokesperson said the bike will also have a virtual coach that will help you train, and can alter the intensity required of the pedals based on a real route. If you're "climbing" a mountain, expect the pedal resistance to be pretty draining on your legs.
Remembering that everything in the world is meant to be smart and connected these days, the Next DNA eBike will also support multiplayer. If you have friends who also own the eBike you can cycle routes at the same time. This could deliver great motivation benefits, making you feel more accountable to completing a training session when you have friends putting in the effort at the same time.
The unit on display was a prototype so we couldn't take it for a test ride, and the battery packs weren't exactly real either. With that said, a Sooall spokesperson said the company has plans to launch this bike in the next two months in China, at 10,000 Renminbi (around $1,612, £1,040 and AU$2,058). So if you're getting this, you better be putting in the effort to get your money's worth.
One of the three battery packs you'll be charging.
Review Beast Quest – Infinity Blade Bergaya Open World!
Sangat jarang kita memainkan gameopen world di dunia gaming mobile. Kalau pun ada, kualitasnya pun tidak seberapa bagus. Namun beberapa minggu lalu Tech in Asia menemukan sebuah gameopen world yang sayang sekali jika tidak kamu mainkan. Beast Quest buatan Miniclip lah yang saya maksud.
Yang cukup mencengangkan adalah fakta bahwa game ini dibuat oleh Miniclip, developer yang dahulu menghiasi masa kanak-kanak saya melalui beberapa game berbasis web atau Flash. Di pikiran saya, kesan kasual dan kekanakan sangat erat dengan Miniclip. Saya sempat skeptis membayangkan Beast Quest menjadi game yang terlalu kekanakan sehingga kurang dapat saya nikmati. Betulkah demikian? Simak reviewBeast Quest berikut ini.
Cerita Dari Novel Bestseller Inggris
Cerita yang digambarkan di Beast Quest terkesan seperti dongeng anak-anak dari Barat. Setelah saya selidiki lebih lanjut, kesan saya tadi ada benarnya. Beast Quest adalah gameadaptasi dari serial novel anak-anak berjudul sama yang bahkan mampu meraih predikatbestseller.
Alkisah terdapat seorang penyihir jahat yang mengutuk Beasts of Avantia menjadi makhluk menyeramkan dan sangat mengganggu perdamaian di wilayah Avantia. Kamu dipercaya menjadi seorang hero yang bisa menghilangkan kutukan Beasts of Avantia sekaligus mengalahkan penyihir jahat tadi. Plot cerita ‘The Chosen One’ yang sudah sangat klise, namun sampai sekarang masih digandrungi tersebut sangat mirip dengan Fire Fu yang beberapa hari lalu sempat di bahas Arya.
Jalan cerita yang disajikan memang kurang renyah terutama bagi kamu yang sudah tergolong dewasa. Namun, kelemahan tersebut dapat tertolong dengan gameplay yang menarik. Kamu akan disuguhkan dengan gameplayopen world yang berarti kamu bebas melakukan eksplorasi di setiap sudut peta. Selama eksplorasi, kamu akan menemukan berbagai jenis tanaman yang dapat memulihkan HP, peti harta karun yang bisa memberi kamu gold (mata uang di game) dalam jumlah besar, atau musuh yang bebas berkeliaran di seluruh area peta.
Pertarungan Ala Infinity Blade Yang Kasual
Yang membuat Beast Quest semakin menarik adalah sistem pertarungannya yang mirip dengan Infinity Blade. Bedanya adalah beberapa mekanisme pertarungan dibuat lebih kasual sehingga tidak terlalu rumit untuk dimainkan. Sebagai contoh, kamu cukup melakukan tap pada tombol virtual di bagian kanan layar untuk melakukan serangan.
Perlu ditekankan lagi bahwa Beast Quest tidak mengenal sistem serangan swipe atau parryuntuk menangkis, pertarungan terasa jauh lebih simpel dibandingkan Infinity Blade. Selain itu, kamu juga tidak akan mengenal serangan elemen di Beast Quest, jadi kamu tidak perlu terlampau pusing memikirkan strategi dalam melakukan serangan terhadap musuh. Gaya permainan ala Infinity Blade yang dikemas kasual ini sangat mengingatkan saya kepadaStormblades yang juga pernah diulas Tech In Asia pada bulan April 2015 lalu.
Selain kontrolnya yang bergaya kasual, tingkat kesulitan ketika menghadapi lawan juga tidak kalah kasual. Serangan lawan sangat mudah sekali kamu baca. Sebelum menyerang, lawan akan melakukan ancang-ancang yang sangat kentara sehingga melakukan gerakan menghindar atau pun menangkis bukanlah pekerjaan sulit. Masalah serius mulai muncul ketika kamu melawan bos.
Bos sangat cepat dalam melakukan ancang-ancang sehingga kamu memerlukan refleks yang cepat pula untuk menghalau serangannya. Tidak hanya itu, serangan yang dimiliki bos pun juga sangat kuat, sehingga sangat fatal akibatnya sekali kamu lalai. Kedua kombinasi mematikan dari bos tadi sangat berdampak pada tingkat kesulitan Beast Quest. Saya sendiri sampai-sampai terpaksa harus mengorbankan diamond (mata uang IAP) untuk membeli potion tambahan pada saat menghadapi bos kelima, karena hampir mustahil mengalahkan bos tersebut tanpa mengorbankan diamond.
Eksplorasi Open World yang Menyenangkan
Melakukan eksplorasi di Beast Quest merupakan hal yang menyenangkan. Beberapa questakan menyuruh kamu mengumpulkan benda dalam jumlah tertentu tanpa petunjuk sama sekali di peta, hal tersebut tentu saja memaksa kamu untuk melakukan eksplorasi ke setiap sudut peta secara lebih teliti.
Saya sangat menyukai pengalaman bermain seperti tadi, karena beberapa tahun terakhir RPG mobile yang saya mainkan terlalu murah hati memberikan petunjuk, sehingga saya kurang berpikir ketika melakukan eksplorasi atau menyelesaikan quest. Untungnya lagi, lingkungan di Beast Quest digarap dengan sangat apik. Kamu akan menemukan berbagai jalan yang naik turun, pepohonan yang tertata rapi, serta lingkungan kemah musuh yang bisa membuat kamu sedikit sedikit tegang ketika memasukinya.
IAP Berupa Cheat?
Kamu bisa mendapatkan Beast Quest secara gratis baik di iOS maupun Android. Sayangnya, IAP yang ada sedikit memaksa kamu untuk membelinya. Terdapat IAP yang mampu menambah drop rategold hingga lima puluh persen seharga Rp23.000. Drop rategoldsangat vital di Beast Quest sebab untuk menaikkan status karakter, kamu perlu membayar sejumlah gold.
Status karakter sendiri hanya dibagi tiga jenis yaitu HP, serangan, dan pertahanan. Jumlah tersebut sangat pas mengingat unsur kasual yang kuat di Beast Quest. Selama saya memainkan Beast Quest tanpa IAP penambah drop rategold, saya sangat kelimpungan mencari gold dan terpaksa menjadi hamba grinding untuk memenuhi kebutuhan gold saya.
Hal yang kurang saya sukai lagi dari IAP yang ada adalah terdapat opsi memunculkan seluruh lokasi quest dan lokasi peti harta. IAP tersebut bagaikan cheat yang dapat membuatgame ini menjadi sangat mudah. Saya pribadi tidak akan pernah membeli IAP sejenis itu digame mana pun.
Bicara soal kualitas grafis, tidak banyak yang bisa saya komentari. Grafis yang disuguhkanBeast Quest tergolong standar. Tidak terlalu bagus namun juga tidak merusak mata. Saya rasa cukup adalah kata paling pas untuk mendeskripsikan kualitas grafis yang dimiliki Beast Quest.
Kesimpulan
Sejauh saya memainkan Beast Quest, saya dapat merasakan unsur menyenangkan dan tidak terlalu kekanak-kanakan seperti yang saya duga pada awalnya. Tingkat kesulitan yang kasual membuat saya bisa menghabiskan waktu luang dengan santai. Apalagi ditambahgameplayopen world yang sangat jarang kita temui di mobile, menjadikan saya tidak mudah bosan dengan Beast Quest.
Bagi kamu yang sudah sangat merindukan gameopen world di mobile, jangan ragu-ragu lagi untuk mengunduh Beast Quest melalui tautan di bawah. Melalui gameBeast Quest ini saya juga ingin mengucapkan selamat kepada Miniclip karena mampu menghadirkan game yang sangat berkualitas setelah lama redup dari dunia mobilegaming sejak kesukesan Gravity Guy.
Virtual reality may rule video games. Here's who will rule VR
Soon you'll don a high-tech headset as easily as you reach for your controller. Watch for blockbuster launches in the year ahead that pave the way to the brave new virtual world. Facebook and Valve lead the charge.
There's a battle brewing for whose device you'll strap to your face.Juan Garzón / CNET
Some of the greatest rivalries have come out of the video game industry: Midway's Space Invaders against Atari's Asteroids. Nintendo's Mario versus Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. Microsoft's Halo against Sony's God of War.
Now the next great battle for leadership of the video game industry is starting. And it's between companies most people have never heard of over a technology few have even tried: virtual reality.
In the past year, nearly every major tech company has announced or hinted at plans to take real steps into the emerging market for VR, which immerses goggle-wearing users in three-dimensional worlds -- and often feature gee-whiz graphics tied to the hottest games. Facebook surprised the industry with its$2 billion buyout of VR headset maker Oculus in March 2014. Google unveiled its "Cardboard" VR headset for smartphones. Apple filed and was awarded a patent for VR technology.
But the competition is likely to be fiercest between two camps: Facebook's Oculus and video game developer Valve, which has teamed up with smartphone maker HTC. The companies are poised to be among the most influential in the market, and they've both set their sights on the same potential customers: gamers who plan to use VR on a computer.
The stakes are high. Whichever company establishes itself as the go-to VR device maker could take control of a potential $7 billion market, attracting not only those customers but also software developers needed to create the compelling apps that draw in even more users.
Or they could establish separate fiefdoms, each with its own loyal following of customers and software developers.
Hello VR
Virtual reality was once the stuff of science fiction. Movies like Walt Disney's "Tron," New Line Cinema's "The Lawnmower Man" and Warner Bros. "The Matrix" introduced audiences to simulated, computerized worlds, completely unlike the one we live in.
Characters who visited these worlds, either by being transported into them or by seeing and interacting with them using head-mounted goggles and a set of controllers, soon learned they could manipulate and change the environment, just like a computer program.
The message: VR offers limitless potential for you to visit, explore or be part of the action.
Google introduced its "Cardboard" VR device for smartphones last year. No need to guess what it's made of.CNET
But turning fiction into reality is no simple trick. Jaron Lanier, a visionary game developer, helped to popularize the term "virtual reality" in the 1980s and began selling headsets and specially designed gloves through a company he founded called VPL Research. VPL went bankrupt.
Game maker Nintendo attempted to field its own VR headset in the 1990s called "Virtual Boy," which was designed to be kept on a table with a stand. Players who looked through the headset were shown games with simple visuals and played in a black-and red-colored 3D world that surrounded them. Virtual Boy wasn't compelling enough to entice customers though, and the project was discontinued within a year.
Other attempts, such as specialized arcade games like Pac-Man VR, were deemed too clunky and expensive for mainstream audiences.
Oculus VR changed all that. In 2012, a teenage tinkerer named Palmer Luckey unveiled a device called the Oculus Rift, a next-generation headset built with modern parts, including a smartphone's screen. Put on a pair of Oculus goggles, and the world inside is far different from what Nintendo offered. You can visit realistic Tuscan villages, pilot a spaceship in an epic dogfight and (attempt to) dodge bullets fired by men in a hallway. Oculus showed how VR can make users see the world from the eyes of a tiny animal scampering through a rainforest or from the perspective of a monster stomping through a city.
Oh, and it's cheap. Oculus sells prototypes of its Rift goggles for $349 apiece.
Luckey's tech worked so well that the industry started viewing VR as an opportunity rather than a novelty. It also captured the attention of Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Running virtually unopposed
Oculus didn't have much serious competition until Valve and HTC paired together.Nick Statt/CNET
At the beginning of last year, the VR market was easy to map out. Oculus was the undisputed leader, with important allies even before Facebook stepped in. It received a $75 million investment from leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, led by Internet browser pioneer Marc Andreessen (who sits on Facebook's board).
In March 2014, Oculus announced a new prototype of the Rift. A week later, it stunned the market by agreeing to be bought by Facebook. Oculus executives called the sale a "partnership," but some of the company's biggest fans worried the social network would change the startup. Oculus would operate as its own division, Facebook executives said. More important, Facebook's commitment and cash reserves would let Oculus hire talent and allow them to ship a final device to customers made with custom-designed, higher-quality parts instead of mass-produced components like smartphone screens used in its prototypes.
By September, Oculus announced a deal with tech behemoth Samsung to offer a version of its VR wear for mobile devices. The device, called "Gear VR," will be released later this year. Samsung sold a prototype "Innovator Edition" of the Gear VR through the US carriers and on its own website for $199 in December. Samsung hasn't said how many were sold, noting only that it was "very pleased" with the reception.
Oculus was unquestionably on a roll. Sony, with a specialized VR device for the PlayStation called "Project Morpheus," seemed to be the only other serious contender in the market. Facebook and Sony had carved up the market: Oculus focused on having its VR gear work with PCs and mobile devices, while Sony looked to specialized video games that worked with its popular PlayStation game console.
What they didn't know was that a dark horse was poised to enter the race.
A 'philosophical alignment'
By 2014, HTC had already been quietly investigating VR technology for more than a year. Known for its well-designed (but undersold) smartphones, the company was convinced the VR market was going to be huge. Then CEO Peter Chou -- now head of HTC's Future Development Lab -- pushed the nearly 20-year-old Taiwanese company to get in front of the trend.
Chou tasked HTC designer Claude Zellweger and his "Advanced Concepts" research team to look into the technology. But HTC also hoped it could find a partner.
The company found that ally in Valve. A video game developer founded in 1996 by two former Microsoft executives, Valve had VR technology that impressed both Chou and HTC's current CEO, Cher Wang.
Unlike devices made by Sony and Oculus, which use a camera to sense a player's position within a limited space, Valve created technology that let players easily move around an entire room. In the real world, walls were covered with symbols that were then interpreted by a headset. Put that headset on and suddenly a living room can become a dungeon, where players walk from wall to wall and peer at details in the video game world as they walk freely in the real one.
Still, Valve's VR tech wasn't ready for home users.
But Facebook's purchase made Valve wary of working with Oculus -- particularly as Oculus appeared to begin controlling (and limiting) some software offered on the Rift. Worse, one of Valve's highest-profile VR experts, Michael Abrash, haddefected to Oculus. Others left too, excited by the opportunity to work on technology that was headed to store shelves.Many developers had already seen the prototype, including executives from Oculus. Oculus and Valve had actually worked together in 2013 to help reduce nausea while wearing the Rift headset, a common problem with VR. Zuckerberg even demoed technology from Valve as he began talking to Oculus about a possible acquisition.
HTC offered Valve a new alliance. "There was philosophical alignment," Zellweger said. HTC and Valve employees were soon working together on their joint VR project.
While Valve initially projected a commercial launch in 2016, HTC's leadership pushed the release to late 2015.
Late last year, Valve and HTC quietly invited 20 games developers to run through the same demo Chou and Wang experienced. The big news for many was HTC's commitment to a commercial product. And for many, that backing made all the difference.
"The developers say over and over again, they love Valve," said Dan O'Brien, HTC's executive director of connected products. "But they weren't going to commit to the platform unless there was someone there to help bring the solution to the market."
After the presentation, O'Brien went to dinner with some developers and asked for their impressions. One developer told O'Brien: "We're terrified and thrilled."
HTC and Valve began distributing a prototype to more developers in December so the companies would have something to show at trade shows in Barcelona and San Francisco in the first half of 2015. Their Vive headset will launch this year for consumers for an as-yet-undisclosed price.
CNET reviews editor Scott Stein tried out a demo version of Vive in March and summed up his experience in a single word: "Amazing."
The battle between Facebook and Valve was heating up.
Making virtual waves
This isn't the first fight between tech companies hoping to become the dominant player in a new market. Microsoft, under co-founder Bill Gates, deftly outmaneuvered Apple's Steve Jobs to establish Windows as the primary computer software for homes and businesses in the 1980s. Microsoft held a near monopoly of the industry for almost two decades, and its software still powers more than 90 percent of the world's computers.
The rivalry between Valve and Facebook could blaze the path for the next wave of gaming and entertainment. That's because VR isn't just about video games. Both are courting the entertainment industries to offer movies or television shows on their respective devices. HTC, for example, is working to push VR technology to content providers including HBO and Lions Gate Entertainment. Oculus has formed a team called "Story Studio" to create VR movies.
While the two companies have similar seeming strategies, developers say Valve and Oculus are behaving differently -- in telling ways. Valve has struck many agreements to sell VR games through its Steam store. Oculus so far has publicized only one big exclusive deal, a game called Lucky's Tale, led by one of the people behind the hit mobile game Words with Friends. More deals may be announced this summer.
Developers, meanwhile, are struggling to decide whose device to build games for because Valve and Oculus use different technologies.
Valve has impressed developers with new wand-like controllers designed to be held in a player's hands to manipulate the game world. Reaching out with the controller and pressing a button in the real world may translate into picking up an object, such as a book, inside a game.
Oculus doesn't have any of that. It relies on a standard video game controller, with joysticks and buttons, designed by Microsoft for the Xbox video game console. The controller is held with two hands, not one like a typical motion controller, and is used more as a way to send commands to a game than to interact with it. While it hasn't publicly shown any motion controllers, it is developing them. A person familiar with Oculus' plans say they may be unveiled this summer.
Oculus has said making motion controllers is a hard thing to do. "I'm glad I'm not in charge of doing them," John Carmack, head of technology at Oculus, said about motion controls at a March conference.
In March, Valve also introduced a new technology some developers say could be, pun intended, game changing. It's codenamed Lighthouse and consists of twin lasers set on opposite sides of a room. Lighthouse lasers help HTC's headset sense an entire room, interpreting the light to pinpoint a player's location and movements. HTC and Valve are also hoping Lighthouse will be capable of tracking moving objects, such as another person or a pet. That could help signal to people wearing the goggles of an impending collision.
Valve isn't just planning to use Lighthouse to set its VR technology apart from the competition. The company's also using it to court developers. Valve has promised to make the underlying technology available for free to any company that wants to incorporate it into their designs. Valve says it wants to ensure the best VR technology is available to the industry. Developers say the move gives Valve credibility.
It also means developers are having to choose between designing games to work with either Valve's motion controllers or Oculus' button-and-joystick controls. "We've got all these different platforms and we're trying to keep our game working on all them the best we can," said Alex Schwartz, head of Owlchemy Labs, in Austin, Texas. Even if Oculus unveils its own motion controllers, developers will need to devote time and resources to making their apps work with them.
A look at HTC and Valve's virtual reality headset, the Vive. This is just a prototype; HTC will usher in a polished final version later this year.Sarah Tew / CNET
The final design for the Vive is "more or less" finished, Zellweger said. HTC will have designed the headset, Lighthouse lasers and wireless motion controllers. The company hopes the products will garner similar praise as its high-end line of smartphones. "Our goal is to have the equivalent of the HTC One design for our VR headset."
Some developers have opted to focus on creating programs for HTC's hardware because it's slated to launch this holiday season. Oculus, in contrast, won't release its flagship Rift headset for computers until next year. Oculus has told developers their programs should work with as many devices as possible, even if Oculus' headset won't be the first to arrive on store shelves.
"At this point, we know it's a hard sell to get people making VR, so we're not going to try and say 'Don't look at anything else,'" Carmack said at that conference in March. After all, Valve is well liked within the industry, he added. "We have our work cut out for us to make sure you can love us more."
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 packs new movement mechanics and futuristic tech powers
The campaign is cooperative and the multiplayer mode has specialists with unique abilities. Read up on the steps Treyarch is taking to keep Call of Duty vital.
The future of Call of Duty is a much discussed topic. What will they do next year? How will next year's studio build on last year's effort? How will they keep the series fresh? When will players finally tire of the Call of Duty formula? These questions are asked in message boards and on discussion shows, but also inside the walls of developer Treyarch. Now in their tenth year of developing Call of Duty games, the folks at Treyarch have had a hand on the wheel of this series for some time now, and have confronted these questions again and again. This year, with Call of Duty: Black Ops III, they have an eye not just on the future of Call of Duty, but on the future of humanity itself.
In Black Ops II, Treyarch took the Cold War setting of Black Ops and paired it with a drone-dominated future, linking the two with overarching themes of enthusiasm and trepidation about the use of cutting-edge technology in military and espionage operations. This core conflict returns in Black Ops III, extrapolated years beyond Black Ops II into a future where human augmentation has replaced drone technology as the freaky tech du jour. Humanoid battle robots are now commonplace, but the real power--and threat--lies with human soldiers who boast robotic replacement parts and neural networking implants. Strong as the dickens and smart as the data they can instantly access, these soldiers have mental and physical capabilities that provide the driving force for Black Ops III's campaign.
In the pre-taped gameplay demo I saw during a recent visit to the Treyarch studios, the player character arrived in a train station in Cairo that served as a makeshift outpost for the allies he or she was there to contact. Black Ops III is the first CoD game that allows the player to choose the gender of the campaign protagonist, and while there is separate voice acting for both male and female characters, the script is roughly the same. According to Jason Blundell, the campaign director for Black Ops III, they took inspiration from the character of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series; a strong character can be a strong character without the world around them bending to accommodate their gender.
The train station entry scene used one of my favorite gaming tropes, the on-rails transit sequence that establishes the scene before the player can really even move. After exiting the train, the player proceeded to seek out an informant to help them get to the bottom of a massive intelligence leak that originated at a CIA facility. The echoes of Edward Snowden resounded around the room as the developers spoke about the thing that made this kind of leak even more compromising for a futuristic soldier: the direct neural interface.
The DNI is basically a computer and sensor network implanted in the soldier that allows them access to data and communications, lets them hack into computer tech, and even helps them regulate their own biological functions. Having your password leaked means a lot more when your ability to walk is on the line. In the Black Ops III campaign, the abilities associated with the DNI (and any robo-parts you might have) are called cyber cores and cyber rigs. You'll be able to choose which of these abilities to acquire, similar to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's exo suit modifications. It didn't seem like the upgrade tree would be a broad as in, say, Deus Ex: Human Revolution; I got the impression that you'd be able to use most of the abilities in the course of the campaign, rather than choosing specific paths. There are some limitations to your loadout, however, and these make it valuable to coordinate your cyber choices with your teammates. Your human teammates.
Yes, Black Ops III has four-player online campaign co-op throughout the entire campaign (and two-player splitscreen local co-op). During the campaign demo, we saw two skirmishes, the second of which was designed to show off the larger environments that the studio designed in order to accommodate their co-op structure. In this scene, the players sallied forth from a formidable mobile wall dropped into place by a friendly helicopter. A broad concrete area stretched out ahead of them, barely recognizable as a street thanks to enemy fortifications and ruined vehicles. The goal was to use a handheld launcher to shoot explosive charges into the columns below the street and then detonate them to collapse the whole area. Of course, the charges were also effective against softer targets.
Ready to blow.
But targeting the supports and holding off the enemy attack took a bit more than just a big gun. Using the DNI to scan the area revealed the target areas and tagged any enemies spotted by the player or the player's squad. This location data is shared passively to your allies because all your DNIs are connected. Linking the player's eyes into a (potentially corruptible) network opens wide the possibility for messing with the player's perception, and Treyarch is proud of their history of messing with players' minds. There were strong hints that what you see might not always be what is actually going on, and while there won't be branching story decisions like those in Black Ops II, they did describe the storytelling as "layered," teasing that there might be more to discover on subsequent playthroughs.
This playthrough showed off a few more abilities, including hacking a flying drone and turning its machine guns against those who deployed it. A cloaking device automatically activates when using this ability is triggered, so you can use it mid-battle without scurrying into a corner first. And then there were the terror bees, technically known as fireflies, which are a cloud of flying nano-robots that swarm enemies and, when upgraded, can set them on fire. Drone hacking and flaming terror bees join a list of about 40 upgradeable abilities that players will be able to use in the campaign.
The other campaign skirmish took place during an assault on the train station and started with a nasty new drone that looks like a metal yoga ball. In a gory scripted moment, an enemy ball rolled up to an ally of mine and deployed sharp metal blades that skewered the poor guy right in front of my face. Yes, it was gross, and yes, these balls are available as scorestreak rewards in multiplayer.
While shooting these drones and the bipedal warrior bots that marched into the shattered atrium, the player showed off some tricks of the new traversal system. I was curious to see what Treyarch would do the high-energy exo suit mobility system from Advanced Warfare, and I was glad to see they had their own take on those invigorating movement mechanics. But while Advanced Warfare was largely focused on quick, darting motions for speedy incursion and evasion, Black Ops III is more interested in fluidity, and in letting you have your gun out as much as possible.
Instead of a double jump, or a jump-and-midair-dash, Black Ops III has a thrust jump. It can boost you to a higher ledge or extend your jump distance, and it operates on an analog energy meter instead of firing at a specific burst intensity. So leap straight up and tap the jump button to hover in the air with small puffs of energy. Use the same feathering technique to extend your jump with mid-air hops, or burn the whole meter to glide in a long, floating arc. The booster is omnidirectional as well, preserving the diversity of movement offered in AW, but it doesn't function when your feet are on the ground. For ground-based mobility, there's the power slide, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Activated by holding the crouch button for a moment (say goodbye to dolphin diving), this move triggers a slide in the direction you are facing. But once you're sliding, you are free to aim wherever you like, making this not only a powerful evasive maneuver, but also a potent offensive tactic. Landing your jump directly into a slide, or sliding past a door while aiming in are just a few of the effective applications we found while playing multiplayer.
Over the course of a few hours, I got to play a dozen or so rounds of Black Ops III multiplayer. Getting the hang of the traversal system didn't take very long, as recent experience with Advanced Warfare, theHalo 5: Guardians beta, and Titanfall had prepared me for more movement trickery in my first-person shooters. The latter reference applies particularly to the wall run, which is fueled by the same energy bar as the thrust jump and power slide. Like in Titanfall, you need to approach at an angle to get your wall run going, and leaping between walls resets your energy meter. Black Ops III throws in a new twist, allowing you to change directions mid-run just by turning around and tapping the jump button. Also, there are water areas on certain maps, and you can swim, with your gun pointed ahead at all times.
This is one of the core goals of Black Ops III multiplayer, allowing you to keep your gun up and be ready to fire as much as possible. A new mantling system streamlines movement by allowing you to clamber over obstacles you encounter while moving in any direction (yes, including backwards) with the tap of a button, and keeping your gun up all the while. The more your gun is up, Treyarch's thinking goes, the more likely you'll be prepared for combat when it comes and the less likely you'll feel like there was nothing you could've done to avoid being killing. And if you can have your gun up in more situations, that expands the combat possibilities in a non-trivial way.
He's not your chap.
The biggest change to multiplayer comes with the introduction of specialists. In addition to choosing a loadout you've designed in Treyarch's signature pick-ten system, you must now choose from one of nine specialist characters. These are individual soldiers with names and callsigns and back stories that are linked to the fiction of the Black Ops III universe. More crucially, each has a unique weapon and a unique ability that can be deployed during combat. You pick your specialist, you choose the weapon OR the ability (not both), and then you're ready for combat.
Maybe you'll pick Seraph, a woman from the Chinese cartels who can whip out a one-shot kill pistol called the Annihilator or boost the rate at which she earns progress towards scorestreaks for a short time. Or perhaps you'll go with Outrider, an archer from the Brazilian favelas who gibs her enemies with explosive arrows or activates a radar pulse that highlights any nearby enemies with red silhouettes. If you're playing a Capture the Flag match, an American soldier named Ruin might be your choice for his ability to trigger temporary movement acceleration, or you might just enjoy ground pounding anyone in the area to death with his leaping gravity spike attack.
And then there's Reaper, the robot who looks like a cross between a terminator and a geth. Its arm can transform into a deadly minigun, but it's its ability to warp to where it was six seconds prior that is the most disruptive of all the specialists we saw (only four out the nine). Understanding and predicting your opponents' positions is absolutely crucial in multiplayer combat, and with Glitch, Reaper can be in front of you one second and then behind or above you the next. Run into a crowded room, drop C4, and then Glitch away. Leap into pool, then Glitch back out and shoot the enemy that followed you in. The potential for psyching out opponents and gaining a positional advantage is huge.
That's Ruin. He ruins things.
Use of specialist weapons and abilities is limited, though, as they are controlled by an energy meter. This meter is always filling up and does not reset upon death, like scorestreaks, so specialist powers are something all players will be able to use, regardless of skill. More skilled players, however, will be able to use them more frequently, as XP-earning actions will help the meter fill faster. Speaking of XP, in addition to the traditional global XP and weapon XP, each specialist character earns XP and has a progression pathway that will unlock stuff, but what exactly that stuff is wasn't divulged at this time.
But there was a lot of information shared in this first look at Black Ops III, and we're expecting more to come at E3, where the game will be playable on the show floor. Treyarch has confirmed there will be a zombies mode, complete with a weird-as-heck story line and a full XP progression system, but they played coy about further details. They also talked about gunsmith, their new weapon customization system which boasts multiple cosmetic variants for common attachments, as well as three fully paintable surfaces on each gun. How will they keep their weapons from being plastered in butts and swear words? Only time will tell. And while PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 versions of the game are confirmed, what is in store for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players? Perhaps another studio is working on a scaled-down version of the game, or maybe this is the year CoD leaves behind the last generation.
The novelty of the specialists and the smoothness of the traversal system were the highlights for me during my play time. I'm eager to see what other specialists bring to the table, and how they mix with the abilities and weapons we've already seen. Though at first the specialist system seemed an odd addition, after a few matches they felt like just another element of a deadly battlefield. Scorestreak rewards have basically functioned as special powers for years, and having something that powerful that you can reliably use is an appreciated bonus for someone who doesn't often chain together long streaks. Adding new things while preserving the core experience is the perennial challenge for the Call of Duty franchise, one that Treyarch is taking head on in the lead up to the November 6th release of Black Ops III.
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