GTA Drama Casts Bill Paxton as Anti-Game Lawyer Jack Thompson -- Report

Bill Paxton, an Emmy-nominated actor who's had prominent roles in films such as Apollo 13, Aliens, and Titanic, is in talk to join the cast of the upcoming BBC drama about GTA developer Rockstar Games.

The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which writes that Paxton is "in negotiations" to take on the antagonistic role of Jack Thompson. A Miami attorney, Thompson made headlines in the mid-2000s as an outspoken opponent of violence in video games; he also attempted to prevent the release of Rockstar-developed titles such as Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Thompson was disbarred in 2008 for his behavior during those court proceedings.

Earlier this month, the Hollywood Reporter revealed details that Daniel Radcliffe, known for his starring role in the Harry Potter films, is in talks to take on the role of Rockstar CEO Sam Houser.

Rockstar is not actively involved in the production, and former writers for earlier GTA games have expressed some trepidations that the project may be overblown compared to the true experience of development.

But in other film-making GTA news, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V released today, which includes a host of in-game video editing tools. That makes it possible for you to create your own personal documentary of GTA from within GTA.

Meta.

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We Are Doomed Review

The best twin stick shooters turn tension and survival into an accessible kind of thrill. There's something inherently satisfying about flying around and avoiding being hit as you shoot at the increasingly numerous ships. Threading the needle with your ship as you narrowly cut through a tight blob of enemies is exhilarating, and the sheer act of moving the other joystick in order to fire your weapon makes the barrier to entry almost nonexistent. Because of the simple concept and ease of playability, twin stick shooters occupy a flexible design space, one that can hold any number of new ideas and concepts effortlessly. Unfortunately, while We Are Doomed gets what's so appealing about the genre and applies it to make a satisfying shooter in its own right, it fails to justify its existence, thanks to a lack of new ideas and predictable enemy placement.

We Are Doomed makes an excellent first impression, thanks to its striking audiovisual presentation. The enemies and animations all combine to form the same kind of strikingly jagged, abstract aesthetic that was featured in Everyday Shooter, while the music and backgrounds grant a trippy touch of synesthesia similar to what you'd find in a Jeff Minter game. And though We Are Doomed only ever features one aesthetic tone, it fuses with the game's mechanics and progression in small, smart ways. The swirling pink and purple of the main stage juxtaposes with the level's boundaries, which are marked by a starry, spacy backdrop. When you clear a wave, the pinkness wipes away for a moment as space engulfs it before it returns to deliver a new round of foes to clear. Your laser weapon looks big and powerful, almost as if it's ripping at the edges.

The Superbeam: Bigger, badder, and purpler.

Movement is as smooth and effortless as a twin stick shooter should be, and enemies are clearly visible. It's easy to learn their particular patterns quickly (though many just bimble around aimlessly). But most importantly, shooting things feels good. The giant beam not only looks impressive, but it feels powerful when you're slicing through enemies. You don't immediately destroy them when they touch your beam, as they can withstand maybe half a second of direct exposure, but you can feel that resistance as you wait for the moment when they break, and that makes the moment of destruction all the more satisfying. The superbeam is the satisfying pinnacle of the action, letting you fire an even longer, more powerful version of your beam for a short time. The superbeam feels amazing, since the resistance you felt from the vanilla beam disappears when you cut through entire blobs of foes as if they were butter.

We Are Doomed's bells and whistles are silenced, however, when you look past its presentation. The game can be played in an endless mode or in a finite waves mode that features thirty scripted waves of enemies to survive. It features only one weapon: A beam that constantly protrudes from your ship, but only reaches so far, like a lance. Gathering flashing cubes increases your score modifier, and also grants you access to the superbeam. And that's it. You get no alternate weapons beyond the beam, no smart bombs that let you relieve the pressure when you're about to get overwhelmed, and no other fancy options in your bag of tricks. Though there is some charm in the challenge of playing with a limited toolset, here it makes for a flat experience. All you're doing is carving through swarms of enemies in one specific way each and every time.

We Are Doomed offers very few modes, putting a heavy emphasis on scoring.

The big problem with We Are Doomed is how much it limits itself to its detriment. Not only do you get only one weapon, but the game also does nothing interesting with the environment or enemies. You end up shooting things like tiny squids, triangular missiles, and giant disco ball-like circles, but all they do is try to bump into you or shoot you. We Are Doomed features some non-enemy threats, but they also fall under the banner of ramming or shooting. There's so much potential for a wide variety of different encounters. Even genre stalwart Geometry Wars employed devices such as the black holes that messed with the gravity of the playing field. But We Are Doomed is unfortunately content merely to crowd you until you die.

That's the frustrating thing about We Are Doomed: Despite all these issues, you can have fun with it. Because Vertex Pop took so much care in making everything feel right, nothing gets in the way of your enjoyment. You'll still remember the near-deaths you deftly flew your way out of. You'll still panic as the blobs of enemies cluster in and choke every available escape route until there's nothing but death left. And you'll remember the elation when you clear all thirty waves. The problem is that you can get those exact experiences and more elsewhere, whereas We Are Doomed doesn't really care to stake its own claim in the crowded shooter space. You're not going to see the surprising environmental twists of the Geometry Wars games or the charming DIY spirit of Everyday Shooter. In reality, you're just playing Twin Stick Shooter: The Game.

You can't do anything about the scrolling machines that shoot beams of death except dodge them.

Even a solid game needs some spice, and We Are Doomed never gives you much. You will certainly notice how good it feels to play the game, and the presentation is top notch, but it never really gives you a reason to care. Sure, you're thrown a bunch of stages including about seven different enemy types, but when the bump and shoot behaviors wear thin, you aren't left with anything more to look forward to. Soon, the only thing that's doomed is your waning interest.

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Star Citizen Developer Wants to Reinvent the FPS

Star Citizen, that ludicrously successful crowd-funded project, isn't just a space flight simulator. The developer, Roberts Space Industries is also creating a first-person shooter to accompany the space combat segments. In a new developer blog post, the team outlined some of its key changes to the FPS formula to improve "realism."

Standard FPS games, the post says only have two combat stances. One holds the player avatar's gun near the shoulder at all times while the other simulates careful aiming down the sights of the gun. Roberts says this isn't realistic and instead proposes a three stance system to improve balance.

The HUD in lowered stance.

With the new system, players will have to manage a gun in a lowered position, in a ready position, and in an "aim down sights" position. The addition of a third stance allows for a clearer distinction between players that have a gun ready to fire at a moment's notice (as they are in the typical first-person shooter), and those that have their gun at ease to making moving around an area easier. This more accurately simulates real combat stances and will force players to be much slower and more careful when engaging in combat. That sounds complicated, but Roberts says that most of this system will be handled automatically.

"Sprinting or using contextual navigation initiates the Lowered stance," the post says. "Moving slowly and deliberately keeps your weapon in the Ready stance. When in the Lowered stance (entered by sprinting or using contextual navigation), pressing the Fire button will bring you back into the Ready stance. When in the Ready stance, pressing the Aim button brings you into the Aim Down Sight stance. Releasing the held button returns the weapon to the Ready stance."

The HUD while looking through the sights.

Roberts is also adding a new system for breathing and stamina to help reinforce a system of stat trade-offs between different kinds of weapons and armor. Heavier gear will drain players of stamina more, causing them to breath more heavily which, in turn, makes their aim more erratic. Players, much like real soldiers, will have to be careful so that they don't end up tiring their avatars. For the best aim, they'll also need to fire at the tops and bottoms of breaths to ensure that the chest isn't moving when they're shooting.

Roberts says that this will provide more balance and a refocused approach to shooting in games. "This is intended to slow the pace of combat, so that it feels more tactical and reinforces our intention that survival takes consideration, rather than random firing."

These features will be included along with the introduction of the FPS module code-named "Star Marine." There is no concrete date for Star Marine.

In any case, Star Citizen has raised more than $77 million, making it by far the most successful crowdfunding project of any kind to-date.

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Common GTA 5 PC Errors, and How to Fix Them

Grand Theft Auto V has, at long last, finally been released on PC, but some unfortunate gamers are encountering issues that are preventing them from being able to play. At least a few of those problems have workarounds, which we've outlined below.

How to Avoid Losing Your GTA Online Cars

If you've transferred your GTA Online progress from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions, you may lose your saved cars if you haven't played since December 2013. Unfortunately, to prevent this from happening, Rockstar says you'll need to log in to your character on console before initiating a transfer on PC.

As explained by Rockstar:

• Enter GTA Online on your PS3 or Xbox 360. If you have not played in a long time, you will be prompted to accept a Title Update.
• Pause the game
• Scroll to the "Online" tab
• Select the "Leave GTA Online" option
• The game will not save on the latest Title Update, and your vehicles will now transfer properly to PC.

Once you leave GTA Online, an orange save icon will appear in the bottom right corner. Once that disappears, your progress will be saved, and you're free to initiate the transfer to PC. There's no indication that Rockstar will be able to offer a fix that doesn't involve first saving your progress on console.

If you already transferred your character and have lost vehicles, Rockstar suggests you submit a support request.

Windows Account Names

Your Windows account name could be to blame if the game hangs while downloading an update or is giving you errors like, "The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)." This is because Windows account names that contain characters other than a number (0-9) or letter (uppercase or lowercase A-Z) will prevent GTA V from being able to install and run properly. This has resulted in the bizarre situation of Rockstar's support site hosting a list entitled, "Supported Characters At Launch for Windows Usernames for GTAV PC."

Rockstar is already working on a fix for this issue. In the meantime, you can deal with it by creating a new user account with administrator privileges and a name that consists only of the aforementioned characters. Unfortunately, simply renaming your account won't suffice if you already have an unsupported character in your name.

There's not yet any word on when the fix will be released, but Rockstar's support page will be updated with details when they are available, as well as with instructions on how to transfer your progress from a temporary Windows account to your permanent one.

Unable to Detect Windows Media Player

If you don't have Windows Media Player installed on your computer, you're likely running into an error during GTA V's installation that reads, "Unable to detect Windows Media Player on your system. Please install Windows Media Player, then retry the installation."

You can install it by following these instructions, courtesy of Rockstar:

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Click "Programs"
3. Click "Turn Windows Features On or Off"
4. In the resulting popup, make sure "Windows Media Player" is checked under the "Media Features" folder
5. Click "OK" and wait for Windows Media Player to install

Rockstar Social Club

Another problem brought to light by Rockstar's support site involves Rockstar Social Club. There are multiple error codes produced by the same issue, including the following:

• "Social Club failed to initialize."
• "Social Club failed to load due to an incomplete installation. Please exit the game and re-install the latest version of the Social Club."
• "A newer version of Social Club is required. The updater may have failed. Please exit the game and install the latest version of the Social Club."

If you're receiving any of these, your best bet is to manually reinstall Social Club from right here. It's recommended that you ensure GTA V is not running when you do so--check to make sure that GTA5.exe, PlayGTAV.exe, and GTAVLauncher.exe aren't running in the task manager--and that you have administrator privileges.

Should that not fix the problem, Rockstar outlines some additional steps you can follow:

• Verify the Steam Cache (Steam version only):
  • Load Steam.
  • From the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu.
  • Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button.
  • Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes.
• Run GTAV as an Administrator
  • Go to the install directory for GTAV PC
  • Right click "PlayGTAV.exe"
  • Click "Run as Administrator"
• Verify that you have the latest version of DirectX and Visual C++. The latest versions can be downloaded from here.
• If you are stuck loading, auto-signin may have failed. Press the Home key and see if you can log in manually.
• Temporarily disable antivirus/security, then uninstall if disabling does not work as a test. Be sure to reinstall and re-enable your antivirus after the test.
• Make sure that Social Club is installed to the correct directory (by default, this is: Program Files\Rockstar Games\Social Club)

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GS News Update: The Witcher 3's Two Major Expansions Cost $25

Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine will come bundled together in the Witcher 3 Expansion Pass.

by Edmond Tran on April 12, 2015

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GS News Updates are here to keep you up to date with the very latest and greatest in gaming news.

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GS News Update: Microsoft Responds to Xbox One Energy Consumption Concerns

Microsoft addressed Xbox One energy consumption concerns in the wake of a recent Natural Resources Defense Council report that blasted the Xbox One's Instant-On mode,

by Edmond Tran on April 12, 2015

About GS News Updates

GS News Updates are here to keep you up to date with the very latest and greatest in gaming news.

Schedule: Daily

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Crew: Josh Shaw

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EA's PGA Tour Game Doesn't Have The Masters, But The Golf Club (Kinda) Does

The Masters, one of the most high-profile events in all of golf, will not appear in this year's Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. That was tough news to hear for fans of the sport who wanted to virtually walk the hallowed grounds of Augusta National and compete for a Green Jacket.

But golf video game fans can enjoy a Masters-style experience through The Golf Club, an unlicensed golf game developed by HB Studios.

Polygon has the story.

Using the game's course creator tool, dedicated gamer Craig LeVasseur created his own version of Augusta National, calling it "Magnolia National." The course, available for all to play for free, is a pretty faithful recreation of Augusta National.

While there's no Jim Nantz on the call or the iconic Masters theme music, Magnolia National does feature Augusta's famous holes and surroundings, including Amen Corner. Check out the video above and some images in the gallery below for a closer look.

You can find Magnolia National in The Golf Club today by selecting "All Courses" and then searching for "Magnolia." The course is available on all platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

And if you're an Xbox fan on the fence about picking up The Golf Club, the game is now available for just $11.55 through the Xbox Spring Sale, but that deal ends tomorrow, so you'll need to act quickly.

The real world Masters tournament began on Thursday and the championship round is tomorrow, April 12.

Via: Polygon

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Gabe Newell Is a Boss in This New Indie Game

[UPDATE] According to a tweet from developer Powerhoof, Valve is on board with Crawl using a Gabe Newell character as a boss.

The original story is below.

Indie game Crawl is adding a secret new boss character: Valve managing director Gabe Newell.

Developer Powerhoof recently revealed the new addition to the game, which has been in early access on Steam since last year, with an animated GIF showing off Newell (below). Because this was seen by much of the world on April Fools' day, this was presumed by many to be a joke. In fact, it isn't, as designer Barney Cumming has clarified that the blog post announcement was actually posted on April 2 in Melbourne, Australia.

Cumming described the addition of Newell to the game as having "been at the top of my list since the very start." If all goes according to plan, he'd be added in Crawl's next update.

However, Powerhoof evidently didn't ask either Newell or Valve for permission to use the former's likeness; it was only after it began attracting the attention of the media that Cumming emailed Newell for the thumbs up.

In the email, which Cumming shared on Powerhoof's blog, he presents the case for adding Newell. This includes the fact that he would be Crawl's most powerful character, an exchange of pictures so that Cumming's likeness can be used in Valve's games, and an offer to get the developers of Crossy Road to add Newell's favorite animal to the game. Cumming also argues, "The transformation implies your more recent bearded look is actually your Super Saiyan form."

Oh, and he says "please."

"I always got the impression Gabe would be cool with stuff like this, but when a big company is involved who knows what kind of crazy reasons they'll have, so at least I can say I tried!" Cumming said of the email.

Newell has yet to respond, at least publicly, nor has Valve responded to GameSpot's request for comment.

Crawl is a multiplayer dungeon crawler where one player assumes the role of the hero while others control traps and monsters. At this point, its multiplayer is limited to local play only, though online support is described as "a possibility."

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GS News Top 5 - Bloodborne Easy Mode Exploits; Halo Online Gameplay!

Halo Online modders fight Microsoft to let the rest of the world play, while Google try to get you to pay to watch YouTube ads-free.

by Edmond Tran on April 10, 2015

About GameSpot News

Join Jess McDonell every weekday for a punchy wrap-up of the biggest news to come out of video games!

Schedule: weekly

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Xenoblade Chronicles X Will Have "Different Play Feel" Compared to First Xenoblade

Xenoblade Chronicles eD launches today on Nintendo 3DS XL (the first game that requires Nintendo's new handheld to run), and we were able to send a few questions over to the game's developers in Japan. Check out the Q&A below that covers Xenoblade's original launch on Wii, what it took to bring the game to a portable device, and a few details about the upcoming Wii U-exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Answers were provided by Testuya Takahashi (the head of developer Monolith Soft), representatives from Monster Games (the company that worked on the 3DS port), and representatives from Nintendo SPD (an internal Nintendo developer that is lending support to Monolith).

GameSpot: The original Xenoblade Chronicles took a long time to come out in the West. Did Monolith originally intend to release the game worldwide, or was this going to be a Japan-only game?

Takahashi: This is just my personal point of view, but I think it's pretty difficult to think about markets or potential acceptance levels in a nation outside your own, with different people, different cultures and different histories -- someplace you've never even lived in. Even if you try to consider it, it's a matter of fact that you won't be able to understand all of the factors completely, and if you provide a game based on that kind of armchair thinking, you'll always wind up off the mark.

However, we are also all human beings, all living creatures, and we must all have some common points of contact or things we can all empathize with. Thus, from the time we worked on the Japanese version, we planned out the game's specs with the idea that it would be sold overseas, picking up those common points one at a time so we could reply to the demand.

What is it that you think made Xenoblade Chronicles such a critical and commercial success here in the US?

Takahashi: I think it all comes down to "empathy." As I wrote above, it may not be impossible for Japanese people to understand what people in the West feel and like, but it does take a fair amount of time. Empathy, however, is something we can all recognize. Those of us in Japan can be moved by, and can empathize with, things like Hollywood films, dramas and novels written by Western authors. I personally love the TV dramas I watched as a kid, like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and Starsky & Hutch; I looked forward to seeing them broadcast every week.

Even if we remastered it for Wii U, my concern was that people like that would still avoid playing it.

The things that we're moved by, the points that we can empathize with, are the same. So we decided it'd be fine if we just made something we could honestly be moved by and find fun; there was no need to fiddle around too much thinking about what we would need to achieve success outside Japan. That was a philosophy we took pains not to stray from as we proceeded with development.

What drove the decision to bring Xenoblade Chronicles to 3DS instead of a remaster on Wii U (like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD)?

Nintendo SPD: Xenoblade Chronicles features a ton of depth and volume, something that earned it a lot of high praise from the people who played the Wii release. I think a lot of people began to take an interest in this game after hearing all of that praise, too. However, it's not unheard of for this game to take around 100 hours just to complete it normally, so even if people take an interest, I think some of them would give up the idea of playing it, thinking to themselves: "No way do I have the free time to sit in front of a TV and play this game for 100 hours."

Even if we remastered it for Wii U, my concern was that people like that would still avoid playing it. Remaking it for a portable system, however, will let them play it whenever they like, at home or outside, and we thought that would lead to more people trying it out. We considered making it for the original Nintendo 3DS at first, but if we wanted to achieve nearly the same quality as you saw on the original Wii version, the New Nintendo 3DS XL became all but required.

Would it have been possible to run this on the regular 3DS? If no, what did the New 3DS open up?

Monster Games: We initially tried to get the game to run on the regular Nintendo 3DS system. After months of work, we realized that the game was too big and would perform too slowly. At this point we learned about New Nintendo 3DS XL hardware and were excited to learn about the faster CPU and extra RAM. This immediately made the project seem possible, so we continued working on the conversion.

The team had to rebuild all the graphical assets while making sure it still looked as good as the original game.

Even with the system's extra capabilities, it was still a challenging project and we spent many months working on optimizations. Given how hard it was to convert the game for New Nintendo 3DS XL hardware, we can easily imagine that the port to the regular Nintendo 3DS hardware would have ended up far from the quality game play that the original Wii version had even if we had given it our all.

Were there any particular technological or UI hurdles to bringing the game to 3DS?

Monster Games: The biggest technical hurdle when porting between Wii and New Nintendo 3DS XL is that the two systems have very different capabilities. All these differences kept the project from being a simple port. Every part of the game had to be reworked to account for the capabilities of New Nintendo 3DS XL hardware. For example, New Nintendo 3DS XL has a different GPU architecture, so none of the art assets could be directly used. The team had to rebuild all the graphical assets while making sure it still looked as good as the original game. Each world was carefully optimized by the art staff and we needed to invent new techniques to render the large scenes where the player can see far into the distance. It wasn't until late in the project that we finally were able to make sure the frame rate was good everywhere.

Regarding the UI design, our big challenge was to maintain the look and feel of the original game, while taking advantage of the dual screens. There are hundreds of screens in the game and the design had to work for many languages. The design team spent over a month mocking up various UI designs until we got one that seemed to work well. Once we converted the screens to run on New Nintendo 3DS XL, we brushed up the artwork to fit the small screens and fine-tuned the placement of the elements. Given the number of screens and languages, this process took a long time and we were working on improving and fine-tuning details all the way to the end of the project.

Without revealing any spoilers, what can fans of Xenoblade Chronicles look forward to when the franchise comes to Wii U? Will it feel familiar for returning fans, or will it be a departure from what was put together in Chronicles?

Takahashi: I think Xenoblade Chronicles X will have a different play feel from the first Xenoblade Chronicles game. Xenoblade Chronicles is a pretty linear game, but Xenoblade Chronicles X is non-linear, and I think a lot of the gameplay will depend on that.

Xenoblade Chronicles' core thrust is centered around its story, but Xenoblade Chronicles X is shaping up to be a game with more focus placed on action elements that take advantage of the open world instead of the story aspects. However, both games will retain a common feel based on the core elements that serve as the foundation for the series. It may feel different to play, but it'll provide a new way of having fun within the same Xenoblade series.

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