Gaming News: AU New Releases: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC

This week sees the release of a highly anticipated open-world game that will bring a well-received series to the current generation of consoles. Farming Simulator 15 hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on May 19 at Australian retailers.

The console version of Farming Simulator 15 is built on a new graphics and physics engine. The game will introduce woodcutting, with new vehicles and tools dedicated to the craft. Like previous games in the series, Farming Simulator 15 tasks players with managing and developing their own farm. This includes harvesting resources and taking care of animals such as cows, chicken, and sheep. Players will also need to sell your products and invest in additional vehicles and power tools

Gamespot Review:

Also out on May 19 is CD Projekt Red's role-playing game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game was very well-received in GameSpot's review, scoring a ten out of ten. Editor Kevin VanOrd praised the game's juxtaposition of violence with beauty in its open world, as well as its absorbing story and finer detailing.

Developer CD Projekt Red will release a day-one update for the game that improves the framerate and introduce a number of other technical tweaks. The patch will be automatically applied, and is available to all platforms. Thinking of picking up a PC copy? Check out the minimum system requirements first.

To see what everyone else is saying about the game, check out our review round up. If you want to know more about the game before diving in, we've listed everything you need to know about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in one place.

May 19, 2015

Farming Simulator 15 (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Gaming News: Watch Ex-Wipeout Dev's Futuristic Racer for PC

R8 Games, a new independent studio formed by developers who previously worked on Sony's futuristicracing series Wipeout, has released pre-alpha gameplay footage if its next game, Formula Fusion.

R8 Games first revealed Formula Fusion last year, saying that it's a "huge" project that it can't complete without help. In April, the developer took the game to Kickstarter, and hit its funding goal of £35,000 (about $52,000). At the time of writing, Formula Fusion raised £52,814 from 1,060 and still has five days to go before the campaign ends on May 23.

R8 Games describes Formula Fusion as a fast, frantic near-future anti-gravity racing game for PC. It will feature 21 tracks and five craft classes to progress through and master. The developer set a stretch goal at £100,000 that will allow it to bring the game to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as well, but at the moment it doesn't look like it reach that figure.

"Set in the dystopian year of 2075 in the redeveloped ruins of New York State, Formula Fusion’s stunning atmospheric environments complement the dirty-urban visual design of The Designers Republic that truly set the stage for the Formula Fusion W.A.R Leagues – a dog-eat-dog racing competition born on the back of F1 racing," R8 Games said.

You can find out much more about the game on the Formula Fusion Kickstarter page.

Gaming News: Watch This Amazing Destiny Dance Routine

Dancing has always been staple in massively multiplayer games, and Bungie's massively multiplayer "shared-world" first person shooter Destiny gives player the ability to dance as well, but it's now often that you see a choreographed routine like this.

The video, which you can watch below, shows the Husky Raid clan dancing to the tune of Gwen Stefani's song The Sweet Escape. The dancers didn't only coordinate their moves, they also use the game's weapons and abilities to put on a light show to go with the routine.

Destiny's second expansion, House of Wolves, is due May 19. It follows December's The Dark Below. Looking ahead, Bungie will release more content for Destiny this summer, before the game's most substantial expansion yet is released this fall.

Gaming News: Oculus Puts Mac and Linux Development on Hold

If you're a Mac or Linux user looking forward to the retail release of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, it looks like you're going to have to wait longer than PC users.

Chief Architect at Oculus Atman Binstock announced last week that the company is pausing development on Oculus Rift support for those operating systems.

"Our development for OS X and Linux has been paused in order to focus on delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows," Binstock said. "We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don’t have a timeline."

Last week, Oculus also revealed the recommended PC specifications for the headset:

• NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
• Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
• 8GB+ RAM
• Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output (required)
• 2x USB 3.0 ports (required)
• Windows 7 SP1 or newer (required)

Read Binstock's full blog post here for more details for the Rift consumer model, set to launch in the first quarter of 2016.

Joining Rift next year will be Sony's PlayStation 4 headset, Project Morpheus. Meanwhile, the ViveVR headset, from Valve and HTC, is due to launch later this year. Pricing for both headsets has not been announced.

Gaming News: Battlefield 4 Patch Adds New Weapons and Gun Master Mode

Almost two years after launch, DICE continues to update Battlefield 4 with new content and tweaks. Yesterday, the developer announced that the game's upcoming Spring patch will add new weapons and an old mode from Battlefield 3, Gun Master.

The patch will add five new weapons, and while DICE didn't share their exact names and look, it gave us a general idea for what to expect:

• New fan favorite Assault Rifle - Picked based on its unique burst gameplay and massive fan desirability
• New Carbine - A unique bullpup carbine with built-in vertical grip
• New PDW - A unique PDW with built-in silencer
• New Sidearm - Unique long range “sniper” sidearm using magnum rounds
• New LMG - Magazine fed LMG, which with the new weapons balance, plays in between a belt-fed LMG and an AR – your “run and gun” LMG

Gun Master, which gained its popularity in the Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC, is like Team Deathmatch, but you only get new weapons every time you get two consecutive kills, and the first player to get a kill with the final weapon wins.

The patch will also "significantly improve client stability on all platforms," fix a number of issues that cause crashes, and rebalance all weapons, which you can read about in greater detail here.

DICE said that it will release the full patch notes closer to release.

Looking ahead, DICE is already working on a summer patch, which will introduce a new "audio obstruction system." You can get an idea for how this new feature will work in the video below.

Gaming News: PSN is Back Online [UPDATE]

UPDATE 10:05 PM PDT -- Sony's online services should now be back online.

UPDATE 7:45 PM PDT -- The official AskPlayStation support twitter's last message reads: "We appreciate your patience as we continue working to resolve the PSN issues."

And as many people in the comments below have reported, attempting to login online prompts Sony to send an "update your password" email.

The original story appears below.

Are you having trouble logging into your Sony PlayStation Network account? You're not the only. The service is currently down across both the web and consoles.

According to the , the outtage is far-ranging and affects everything from account management on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 to access to severices such as Vue, Video, and Now.

The message on the site currently reads, "You may be experiencing issues related to launching games,applications, and/or social features such as trophies, messaging, or friends list. We appreciate your patience while we address this."

Gaming News: Oculus Rift vs. Morpheus vs. Vive VR

Virtual reality gaming has gained momentum in the last few years, with the Oculus Rift, Sony's Project Morpheus, and Valve's HTC Vive each pitching forward their own take on the virtual space. As VR hardware draws closer to a consumer launch, which are you most interested in picking up? To help out, we list and compare the specifications and game library of the Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus, and HTC Vive.

Oculus Rift

Release Date

Q1 2016

Specifications

• Resolution: 960x1080
• Screen: 5.7" OLED (DK2, may change)
• Refresh rate: 75 Hz, 72 Hz, 60 Hz
• Field of view: 100 degrees
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer
• Connection: HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0

Games

The Oculus Rift is traditionally supported by a PC, although Oculus VR vice president Nate Mitchell has not ruled out the possibility of bringing the hardware to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Oculus has confirmed that a rather "beefy" PC rig will be required to support the Rift, and will release a list of required PC technical specifications in the lead-up to E3.

Oculus VR was purchased by Facebook in March last year, which expressed plans to extend the hardware's use beyond gaming to "communications, media and entertainment, education, and other areas."

Here's a list that includes games that currently have full support for the Oculus Rift:

Adrift

Among the Sleep

Daylight

Dirt Rally

Elite: Dangerous

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Grid Autosport

Half-Life 2

Half-Life: Source

Hawken

Project Cars

Slender: The Arrival

Strike Suit Zero

Surgeon Simulator 2013

Team Fortress 2

Trackmania 2

War Thunder

Project Morpheus

Release Date

First half of 2016

Specifications

• Resolution: 1920x1080
• Screen: 5.7" OLED
• Refresh rate: 120Hz, 60Hz
• Field of view: Approximately 100 degrees
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope
• Connection: HDMI, USB 

Games

Sony's Project Morpheus will be supported by the PlayStation 4 and, allegedly, the PlayStation Vita. Games that have confirmed Morpheus support include Project Cars, Surgeon Simulator, and Among the Sleep.

At past events, Sony has showcased Project Morpheus running demos that included a special re-worked version of Thief, EVE Valkyrie, a game from Sony's London studio called The Deep, and a game titled The Castle. Early builds incorporated usage of PlayStation Move controllers.

Sony has confirmed that Project Morpheus will be able to support online multiplayer and local couch multiplayer. Some of Sony's first partners for Project Morpheus include Epic Games, Unity, Crytek, and Autodesk. God of War studio Sony Santa Monica has created a prototype that allowed the user to become Kratos. Sony has also partnered with NASA to create a demo that places the player on the surface of Mars.

At GDC this year Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida said many of Sony's studios were working on games for the Morpheus and said, "starting probably at E3, we will start to show the actual games."

Valve's HTC Vive

Release Date

Holiday 2015

Specifications

• Resolution: 1200x1080
• Screen size: TBC
• Refresh rate: 90Hz
• Field of view: TBC
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyrosensor, laser position sensor
• Connection: HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0

Games

Valve's Vive headset will be powered by SteamVR software, with games to be available "soon" through digital distribution platform Steam.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X developer Dovertail Games, The Room developer Fireproof Games, and Cloudhead games have already signed up to make content for the device. Google, Lionsgate, and HBO have also been confirmed as content partners. At GDC this year developer Owlchemy Labs debuted one of the first games designed specifically for Valve's SteamVR, titled Job Simulator.

The Vive makes use of Lighthouse, a motion tracking technology which uses lasers to read the position of a VR helmet and reproduce a person’s real-world movements with accuracy. The headset will support use ofValve's Steam Controller. Those waiting on a Half-Life game for the Vive may be waiting a while though, as Valve is reportedly not currently working on a new Half-Life game for VR.