Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the newest installment in Ubisoft’s popular open-world franchise, and as you might have already heard, Black Flag marries the franchise’s award-winning gameplay with pirating and pillaging, splitting the game evenly between naval warfare and stabby Assassin action on land. The previous-generation console versions were released last month to critical acclaim, and today the PC version launches in North America, with worldwide releases occurring throughout the week in other regions.
In addition to utilizing an upgraded next-gen Anvil engine, which also powers Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the PC version supports resolutions up to 3840x2160, features higher-resolution textures and assets, and includes several PC-exclusive features developed by NVIDIA in concert with Ubisoft. In this article, we’ll examine these features, explain how they work, show comparisons that highlight their benefits, and offer optimal playable setting recommendations for the most popular GeForce GTX GPUs.
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Children of the Seven Stars is due out in Spring, 2014.
Teardown analysis from research firm IHS reveals combined cost of components used to make next-generation system.
Every PlayStation 4 unit costs Sony $381 to build, just $18 under the system's $399 price point, a new teardown analysis from research firm IHS has revealed. The report will be revealed later today, but AllThingsD was able to get a look at the data ahead of time.
Chips make up more than half of the PS4's manufacturing cost, the IHS teardown report found. This includes an unusually large AMD processor for $100 and $88 for 16 individual memory chips.“This chip is just gigantic,” IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler said, noting its size is 350 square millimeters. “It’s almost three times as big as the next biggest chip we’ve seen.” He explained that bigger isn't always better, as chips with larger surfaces areas have a higher likelihood of manufacturing defects.
The PS4 also includes a Seagate hard drive ($37), wireless chips from Marvell and Skyworks, and an optical drive that costs Sony about $28, the IHS report found. The PS4's DualShock 4 controller costs around $18 to build, the report concluded. It includes Bluetooth chips from Qualcomm, an audio chip from Wolfson Microelectronics, and a motion sensor chip from Bosch. The PS4 ships with one controller, while additional units can be purchased for $60.
Rassweiler said because the PS4 manufacturing cost ($381) and sale price ($399) are so close, it is very unlikely that Sony is making a genuine profit on the console, instead leaning on games and accessories to boost its bottom line.“It looks like once again, when it comes to profits, it’s all about the game titles,” Rassweiler said.
The PS4 was released in North America last Friday, November 15. The system sold 1 million units in 24 hours and will be released in Europe on November 29.
Gran Turismo 6 will sell in-game credits in 500,000, 1 million, 2.5 million, and 7 million denominations.
GT-R NISMO GT3 15th Anniversary Edition
R8 LMS Ultra 15th Anniversary Edition
Corvette Stingray (C7) 15th Anniversary Edition
Model S Signature Performance 15th Anniversary Edition
Viper GTS 15th Anniversary Edition
NBA Live 14 sinks lower than I ever thought this once-proud series could go. Making the totally fair comparison to NBA 2K14 would be like LeBron James playing a pickup game against an arthritic giraffe. But even taken in isolation, the resurrected NBA Live is a mess of a hoops sim both in your hands and in your eyes that wouldn’t even make the D-League All-Star team. In fact, there’s only one thing about NBA Live that’s better than its competitor: the net. Yes, that one thing is the net, and it is the best net I’ve ever seen in a basketball game. There, I said something nice.
Of course, the core on-court action has to be at least somewhat appealing for for that beautiful net to matter, and, well…
For an experience built around the basketball itself and the physics that power it, the players handling said rock feel sluggish - as if these ballers only do what you want well after you tell them to. The right-thumbstick dribble mechanics feel good and are reminiscent of the old-school Live’s Freestyle Stick, but they’re often abused, with behind-the-back spins frequently leading to dunks or layups. Speaking of which, dunks from anyone and everyone are far too common -- the mid-range jump shot is mostly absent from Live 14’s repertoire, probably because jumpers have a freakish tendency to get blocked no matter who’s doing the shooting.
And if you’re looking for instructions on how to run the technically named plays you can call, you’ll just have to figure it out on your own. No HUD indicators or other graphics show you what the hell a “51 Spread Pop” is.It’s a shame, because underneath the garbage heap of problems are a couple of promising features. Big Moments mode includes compelling challenges that recreate rare real-life achievements or big shots. We’ve seen this in other sports games, but Live’s clever hook is that fresh ones are supposed to be added as they happen in the actual NBA season. For instance, I was able to play Jeff Green’s buzzer-beating game-winning three against the Heat just days after it went down in Miami.
NBA Live’s flaccid return is made all the more disappointing because we waited three years for it. After all that time, NBA Live 14 in no way advances the basketball sim genre and, worse, leaves little to be optimistic about for next year. Here’s hoping EA figures something out, otherwise this series’ comeback is going to be short-lived.
