Remotr

This year's Tokyo Game Show expo has been finished.

It’s mostly a console games expo (it’s Japan after all) but we do have some interesting news about multi-platform releases as well.

Death Stranding by Hideo Kojima is rumored to be released on PC after its initial debut as a PS4 exclusive - Kojima revealed new details about his upcoming game as well. We know that Death Stranding will be an action game, with open world.

Hideo-san likes talking big about his project - he stated that the game will feature "different kind of online play than anything we've seen before." We also get to know that the game will be out before 2019. Kojima also stated that he is not involved in any ways in the making of Metal Gear Survival - despite the rumors that he was the mastermind behind the idea of making MGS a zombie-survival game - oh, and we do have new materials about that game as well!

We also got more details on upcoming Berserk game (based on the friggin best manga ever!) If you're not familiar with the source material, Berserk is a dark fantasy series set in a world based on medieval Europe - and it’s brutal. The series has inspired many video games, most prominently Dark Souls.

The game will follow Koei Tecmo Warrior’s game formula (or “Musou” as it is known in Japan): you get to fight massive waves of enemies on small maps.

We’ll end this short recap with terrifying new trailer for Resident Evil 7.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard will be available January 24th, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

We covered Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare trailer before on our blog. We got the PROPER trailer of the story yesterday.  And it is.. no, I’m not gonna spoil it here. Watch it, just watch it now:

We see Kit ”Lord Snow” Harrington as Admiral Salen Kotch, chief bad guy of the Settlement Defense Front (I bet he doesn't know he's a bad guy.). And that punch to the face from Captain Bradley Fillion  played by Conor McGregor.

We have to admit that not only the cast but the trailer itself is pretty damn epic as well - good pacing, stunning visuals, exploding spaceships, futuristic guns.

And what about the fans? Well, this trailer is performing significantly better then the previous one:

Is this game going to be good? We'll be able to find out fairly soon: Infinite Warfare launches on November 4th. 

Oh, and don’t forget about dancing zombies.

Dancing zombies... Sigh...

Some of you may have noticed that our streamer got a major face lift a few days ago. Those of you that haven’t noticed - well, now you have!

So what’s new? Apart from the awesomely stylish new interface, which is a huge improvement over the old one, we’ve also made the manual addition of a game a whole lot easier. 

Pressing that button opens up the ‘Add Game’ dialogue where you can browse to the game’s .exe file location, enter a name for your game (if you don’t like the default one), and even enter attributes if you want to start the game (such as “ prince megahit” if you’re playing the DOS version of Prince of Persia for some reason). 

Removing a manually added game is as simple as hovering over the manually added game tile and hitting the ‘X’. 

Ah, the console wars! We love seeing how Microsoft trades blows with Sony - and it's especially enjoyable recently - when Bethesda announced that one of the consoles won’t get the long promised mods support.

So let's go a few months back - at the end of May 2016 Xbox One users got introduced to the tools for downloading and installing mods for Fallout 4

Why it’s it a big deal. you may ask?

Mods are a big part of PC gaming culture. Thanks to modders The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may look like this:

Pretty good for a game that’s almost 5 years old, right? But it’s not only about boosting up the visuals.

Mods gives a way for much more creative and crazy stuff. Cat launchers? Exploding babies? You name it:

Fallout 4 mod support was delayed on PS4 back in June. At the time, Bethesda revealed some of the problems associated with getting Fallout 4 mods working with Sony's console.

Fast-Forward to September - and here we have it - no mods for PS4.

Microsoft didn't wait very long before capitalizing on the news with some passive-aggressive commentary: 

Pretty ballsy move - taking how Xbox One mods caused stir within the community before. And to add some salt to injury - Xbox One Fallout mods are suffering from 2GB file size limit and are much stricter about using copyrighted content.

For now if you want to play modded games - play on PC. This may be one of the 100 reasons why PC gaming is superior.

Have you tried GTA V on your mobile using Remotr (just like we showcased in latest video)?

Why not to spice things up with some mods?

Windows Central runs a weekly review of 5 apps that caught their eye on the Windows 10 Store. Well, after breaking into the top 50 apps in the Entertainment section, apparently we’ve caught their eye!

http://www.windowscentral.com/5-windows-10-apps-you-should-try-september-10-2016

If you haven’t switched off every internet-connected device in your house for the past week, you’ve probably already heard about the latest Apple phone, the surprisingly named iPhone 7 (and its bigger brother, the iPhone 7 plus) revealed yesterday in their annual event.

As per the usual, the iPhone announcement was a larger than life keynote, with Apple making their usual sweeping statements about ‘the most advanced iPhone ever’, showing off a new double camera, the second generation of the Apple Watch (which finally has some serious water proofing, and in theory can be used up to a depth of 50 meters), and even two new operating systems (macOS Sierra, and iOS 10).

We won’t go into all the gory details, as these have been extensively covered in websites that actually do this for a living - from the already infamous wireless earphones, to the new ‘feel’ of the iPhone, and about the latest iOS that Apple are going to release any day now.

Ok, all jokes and bad puns aside - iPhone 7 is powerful.

And this means new mobile games.

We’re just here to reassure you that our local Apple expert has already started working on making sure that Remotr is compatible with iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, and any new twists the latest iOS will have to throw at us.

World of Warcraft – a massively multiplayer online role-playing game – got its sixth expansion - it was released last week. That’s right - one of the hottest releases of the September is an expansion to a 12 years old game. 

And here comes the question that rises like a phoenix (or undead, or demon - following the general rule in WoW that to make something insanely strong, you either make it drink demon blood, or kill it and raise it as undead.) every time Bilzzard feeds its hungry fans with new region, dungeon or panda bears.

Is the MMORPG genre dead?

OK let’s look at a bit of Google science (or is it magic, who knows?) 

As we can see, interest in MMORPGs is declining - while MOBAs are on the rise (darn, even Forbes wrote an article on MOBAs Killing MMORPGs back in 2012) 

You can also call MMOs a victims of its own success - after the release and huge success there were tons of companies trying to ride on WoW wave.

That leaded to market over-saturation. Too many games, too low quality. But was it really that bad for MMOs?

Right now there are 3 big players on MMORPG field - World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2 - these are the most popular MMOs in the world. And then there are those Korean MMOs -  the glorious grind-fests of farming, crafting, fishing, gardening - oh, and killing tons of monsters in the most over-the-top way possible. One of Korean games that was released quite recently to the West is called Black Desert Online - it is gorgeous.

BDO was praised for it’s character creator - using it you can recreate pretty much any face you can think of.

But we know everyone wants to do this instead of crating something beautiful:

What’s really great about newer MMORPG is that they play more like action game - so you can play MMORPG on phone or tablet just fine - just download Remotr and you can do this:

And now back to the initial question - is MMORPG a dead genre?

I don’t think so. Not yet. As far as there's money to be made, as far as there are players willing to play we’ll keep getting new games and expansions. These are online games we are speaking of - and anything that is online can not be killed off that easily. And what it’s like to visit a deserted lands of long forgotten game?

I’ll leave you with this - a creepy video of a streamer playing abandoned online game that no one is playing anymore.

The sequel for the successful Shadow Warrior in 2013 (itself a remake of the 1999 3D Realms game by the same name) is due out in October, and unlike other games we could mention, is headed for the PC.

If you’ve never followed a bunny off the cliff to find the burial place of Jackie Chan, seen the same pixelated girl having a bath 20 years later, or fought with demons with a chainsaw combined with a katana, then this should definitely go onto your wishlist.

Basically, Shadow Warrior 2 looks like it’s going to be Doom, but with shotguns and special abilities against demons, in a demonic landscape. So… Doom. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing (as Doom 2016 was awesome), and Shadow Warrior has been known for throwing in it’s own unique twists on the well known run and gun shooter genre (the main character is called ‘Wang’, and yes, the first game included dick jokes, because subtlety didn’t exist in 1999).  

So if you are looking for a game with tons of gore, plenty of weapons, power-ups that let you impale demons on spikes like an Asian Vlad the Impaler, Shadow Warrior 2 is the game for you.

If you haven’t seen Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s latest trailer, go ahead and watch it now.

If you HAVE seen it, you’ve probably already seen the comments. And the thumbs down.

Just to compare, here are the approval ratings for Battlefield 1’s gameplay trailer.

Now, I’m not going to say that one game is better than the other. But what I WILL say, is that before the game has even come out, it looks like Infinity Ward, who has traditionally developed the better games in the Call of Duty universe, has their work cut out for them just to make people believe in the franchise again. YouTube commenters, who aren’t known for their restraint and poise on the best of days, are leaving comments from ‘it looks just like Halo mashed together with TitanFall’ to ‘Looks so boring and generic.’ to ‘Remember the thing you hated the most from CoD Ghosts? Well, here it is! AND IN ROBOT FORM!’

I’m just hoping that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is another of those games that had a terrible trailer, but turned out to be awesome.

We have seen some overpowered, pricey, gaming laptops recently - but nothing quite as crazy as newest Acer 21-X. It has curved screen. Curved. Screen.

It was announced today at a press conference before IFA in Berlin - given a fitting name Predator 21 X 

Just look at this beast!

21-inch display (and, first time in history, a curved one to boot!)

It’s sporting two GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs. And five fans to cool them down (the grillwork on this thing is a work of art itself).

CPU is the 7th-generation Intel Core K-series (which isn’t even released yet!) .

Full-size Cherry MX mechanical keyboard with individually adjustable RGB backlighting for each key (this alone caused quite a stir in Remotr’s office - colorful keyboards!).

The numeric keypad can be flipped over to become a touchpad. 

This big boy have enough room for four DD4 slots that top out at 64GB of RAM, Tobii eye-tracking and 4.2 sound system. Price? It’s a secret for now. But who cares! Just looking at this thing should give any true gamer shivers down his spine.

There are quite a few game-streaming services out there.

Today we compare Steam In-Home Streaming with Remotr in terms of accessibility and controls.

That's right! It’s time for the streamers face-off.

ROUND 1 - Devices and network. Steam In-Home Streaming is designed for streaming from one computer to another - and that’s about it.  Currently you can stream games from Windows or Mac OS based PC to Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or SteamOS. As stated on Steam website:

We recommend using a wired network for the best streaming experience. People have had some success with powerline networks and wireless N and AC networks with good signal, though your experience may vary.

Recommending wired network may seems a little odd, but it shouldn't be shocking - it’s not called In-Home Streaming for nothing - it’s a service designed to access your PC in next room - not across the globe.

Remotr was designed with mobiles in mind - so it covers a lot of devices. You can stream from Windows PC to Android, iOS, Windows 10 (both desktop and mobile version). Linux and Mac OS versions of streamer are coming soon.

Remotr is optimized for streaming over Wi-Fi and mobile data transfer network. You can play your PC games remotely as long as both your PC and mobile are connected to network.

As for data consumption.

Remotr uses about half the data streaming from Netflix use. For Netflix it's:

0.7 GB per hour for SD

3 GB per hour for HD

7 GB per hour for UHD

For Remotr:

Low 450MB/hour

Balanced 2.6GB/hour

Best 4.4GB/hour 

These are the max values - for games with a lot of action like Witcher 3 or Doom - for games that are less visual-heavy the numbers are even lower.

ROUND 2 - Controls.

Being In-Home service Steam supports physical controllers only - keyboard, mouse and gamepad.

Remotr supports controllers for mobiles - you can play using gamepads, keyboard, mouse - but you are not limited to that. Your Android TV box comes with a nifty remote? You can play using that! Having to carry around additional controller might be bothersome when playing on mobiles - that’s why Remotr comes with powerful on-screen interface editor. 

If I was to name games that genuinely made me a better gamer Dark Souls (or Souls series in general) has to be one of them. And I’m not alone. It’s tough, unforgiving and brutal. You must have heard of how difficult the game is. If you are going to play any of Souls games you will fail, a lot.

But the sense of satisfaction after each boss is unparalleled. And the harder the challenge - the higher the rush, the bigger the reward.

As the wise man said:

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”

Theodore Roosevelt

I could spend hours telling stories about playing PVP “fight clubs” - and how awesome the community is. And now we are about to get  DLC - and, boy oh boy, it looks gorgeous! 

What can we expect? Lets dig in to the publisher provided info:

“Return to the world of Dark Souls III and uncover a terrible secret that lies within the frozen land of Ariandel,”

So the new land is called Ariandel - cool.

“Players are tasked to enter the land of Ariandel and defeat the evil within to uncover the mystery of what has caused the land to become defiled.”

Mystery, curses - pretty standard stuff :)

“In addition to adding a new environment to Dark Souls III, the Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel expansion will also include new weapons, armour sets, and magic for players to discover and experiment with, as well as new features for the game’s wildly popular competitive multiplayer mode.”

YES! YES! YES!

Thanks to Remotr and playing Darks Souls on phone I’ve spent hours on grinding souls in that one spot. I’m ready.

For all the new equipment. For all all the new monsters. For duels.

And all new ways to die.

When was your last time spent with our favorite sword-wielding mutant (sorry Wolverine - occasionally using a sword doesn't count.)?

The fans were waiting for it (some of them winning medals at Olympic Games) and now it’s official - with soon-to-be-released GOTY edition of The Witcher 3 we have an opportunity to re-visit all the beautiful lands (now with an AWESOME 360-degree screenshot support) and slay all the ugly monsters the game has to offer.

Game of the Year Edition includes the base game  (which won over 250 GOTY awards in 2015)

Both expansion packs — Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine — and every piece of downloadable content, as well as every update and improvement ever released.

We are excited to announce you today a new partnership between Remotr and DroidBOX.

It will bring the cutting-edge game streaming software provided by Remotr to Android and Windows set-top devices alike.

All new DroidBOX compatible devices will have Remotr app pre-installed - giving DroidBOX customers ability to stream and play their PC video games everywhere.  

If you already own a DroidBOX, you’ll get a firmware update (for OTA compatible models) transforming your DroidBOX into a gaming powerhouse, as with Remotr you can access your PC games remotely and play them on whatever display you have your DroidBOX connected to.

Remotr app is also available on the  DroidBOX Market and Microsoft’s Windows Store.

DroidBOX is a company based in UK - providing customers from all over the world with Android and Windows devices packed-up with vast array of video streaming apps and services since 2013.

Let me get this right away - I’m a huge fan of cyberpunk movement - be it classic Sci-Fi novels, tech-noir legacy of Blade Runner in movies, games, animations, comic or anything in between.

That's why Deus Ex franchise is very special for me - but this is not just some baseless opinion. Original game is arguably one of the most important and influential PC games of all times.

You’ll find it in about every “Top 100 PC games” list you can think of.

Taking that second installment of original series is considered one of the biggest disappointment in gaming history - Square Enix (which is the series publisher since 2011) is put under the spotlight with upcoming release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (which is a second game in line of prequels).

So better to play it safe, right?

WRONG!

They dropped some serious bombs in marketing department.

First was the usage of the term Mechanical Apartheid - which upset some fans and journalists.

Ok, so they did get criticized for using a phrase with some heavy historical burden behind it. What should be the next move? Should they step down a little?

As an answer we got this:

It’s a piece of concept art used to promote the game.

A “in-your-face” reference to Black Lives Matter, the highly controversial political movement protesting the systemic racism and abuse faced by African-Americans.

Ah, Metal Gear Solid. The game series where you can actually beat bosses by letting them die of old age, where female assassins wear next to nothing because apparently they breathe through their skin, and where the best stealth technology known to man is a cardboard box.  

Metal Gear Survive is the first game without Hideo Kojima behind the wheel

The series was created by Hideo Kojima who, regardless of what some people say about him, was the creative driving force behind Metal Gear Solid. We say ‘was’, because Konami, the publishers and development company behind Metal Gear Solid fired left in anger by couldn’t afford or something-something Hideo Kojima last year (the exact reasons are murkier than the whole Kayne West - Taylor Swift “feud”).

This means that the latest installment, called Metal Gear Survive, is the first game that has been developed without Kojima. It’s also the first Metal Gear game that’s developed as a co-op game. After being sucked through a wormhole, you wake up in a desert with twisted wreckage (and no, we didn’t miss any words in that last sentence), along with other people, whom you’ll have to work with as a team to survive.

Image source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/08/17/gamescom-2016-konami-announces-metal-gear-survive

Metal Gear Survive is a spin off

Metal Gear Survive is being treated as a spin off story from the main Metal Gear Solid franchise. If we had to guess, it is because Konami aren’t exactly sure what the fan reception is going to be for this game - not only is Kojima not behind this one, it’s also a complete change in direction from the original Metal Gear Solid games in both gameplay and (probably) fighting mechanics.

According to Konami, they’ve managed to combine both co-op mode and the stealth game, which is the mainstay of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. And really, when it comes to cooperating together, and carefully planning out tactics and strategy, before attacking the enemy at their most vulnerable, all together in one concerted move, what could possibly go wrong?

Will Metal Gear Survive... survive?

When they see what the fans think of it, and how much money they actually make out of it, we’ll either see Metal Gear Survive fade away and never mentioned again, or we’d better be prepared to to play Snake shooting fire arrows at alien and demons. 

But from inside a cardboard box.

Ahhh… Classic adventure games - how we have missed you!

First we got awesome remastered version of Day of the Tentacle and now we’re about to get yet another treat.

The formula of first person exploration/puzzle solving games is perfect for mobile devices (just look at brilliant The Room series) - and with Remotr you can enjoy the beauty of full–fledged PC adventure games on your Android or iOS phone.

Obduction is a first person game from Cyan studio that brought you Myst - one of the greatest adventure games of all time (It was best selling game for 5 years (1993-2002) and being one of the earliest CD-ROM games, it played a key role in driving consumers to embrace the new technology.) In this day and age a successful kickstarter campaign can bring back about every old-favorite genre you can think of. We saw some spectacular failures, sure, but as for Obduction the chances for success are pretty high.

It was dubbed “Myst in space” since its first trailers - and Cyan itself is calling it “spiritual successor to Myst and Riven” - so we can expect the worlds full of levers to pull, buttons to press and cranks to turn.