E3: OnLive Announcements

If you were lucky enough to be at a) E3 and b) OnLive’s Booth in Los Angeles, you would have seen them showcasing a broad range of new video games as well as breakthrough new features in Game Services on the next-generation LG Smart TV with Google TV (G2 Series) from LG Electronics.
Capitalising on the power of LG’s L9 dual-core processor, the service will make hundreds of top-tier video games from more than 60 publishers playable on-demand, without a console or PC.
When the service becomes available, LG G2 TV owners will also enjoy free instant access to exclusive OnLive social features such as worldwide massive spectating, the brand-new OnLive MultiView spectating capability, Brag Clip™ video recording and Facebook sharing. There will also be select 3D games, using the popular LG CINEMA 3D glasses, in the planned software update.

It’s a TV and games machine – ooo eerrr!

With just a few taps of the Universal OnLive Wireless Controller or any compatible game controller, LG G2 TV owners will be able to jump in and play OnLive’s growing library of hundreds of top-tier, console-class video games on-demand. Instant demos are available for nearly every game so players can experience up to 30 minutes of each game free before deciding what to buy, and then continue playing where the demo left off.
Can’t say fairer that than now can we, well played OnLive, well played!

Oh and they also mentioned that the following games are on the way:

· Aliens: Colonial Marines
· The Cave
· Darksiders II
· Hell Yeah!
· Hitman: Absolution
· Inversion
· London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
· Metro: Last Light
· Ravaged
· Saints Row: The Third: Enter the Dominatrix
· Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings
· South Park: The Stick of Truth

FIFA 13 Gameplay Trailer Revealed

EA Sports has capped a great week at E3 with the official gameplay trailer to its next FIFA football game, FIFA 13. Full details on the game are yet to be revealed but here’s what we do know as posted on the EA website:

OnLive Brings Gamers 200+ Games for £2!

That’s right people of the gaming world OnLive’s PlayPack Subscription Service Surpasses 200 Games!

Impressive, we know! So what does any self-respecting company do when they reach a mile stone like this?? Deliver an offer that looks exactly like this:

200-Hour Celebration Features Contests, Prizes and Revolutionary Introductory Offer of
200+ Games for £2.00 Your First Month

OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of on-demand cloud gaming, announced today that its groundbreaking PlayPack subscription service now offers unlimited, on-demand play of more than 200 incredible console-class games on nearly any device, including dozens of AAA titles with 80+ Metacritic ratings. To celebrate, OnLive is hosting PlayPack 200: 200 hours of nonstop festivities for OnLive fans and newcomers alike, including 200-minute multiplayer events, the PlayPack 200 Sweepstakes and an introductory PlayPack offer featuring one month’s access to all 200+ games for just 200 pence. The limited-time promotion delivers unbelievable value, making hundreds of top-tier titles accessible on PCs, Mac® computers, TVs with the OnLive® Game System, and even Android® tablets for less than the price of a sandwich. After the first month, subscribers can continue to play all these games on demand for just £6.99/month, with new titles added weekly.

The OnLive PlayPack is already an incredible value in gaming, featuring everything from blockbuster single and multiplayer games such as Homefront™, F.E.A.R. 3, BioShock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 1 and 2, Borderlands™ and the just added Red Faction: Armageddon, to SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive retro hits, to popular indie titles such as World of Goo and Space Pirates and Zombies. Unlike 90-minute on-demand movies that you might watch once and forget about, PlayPack games offer hours of incredible single-player modes, and many have social-rich multiplayer modes that can last for months on end. And, because the games are hosted in the cloud, subscribers can enjoy unique social features like group voice chat, spectate other players across the world, share achievements and Brag Clip™ videos of their gameplay on Facebook, and even invite friends to jump directly into games they’re playing with instant-launch from their Facebook wall. That’s a lot of entertainment packed into one subscription—with no discs, downloads or specialized hardware needed to enjoy it. PlayPack subscribers simply sign in and play from anywhere[2], picking up their games whenever they want, from exactly where they left off, and they can check out new additions weekly without paying anything more. The growing list of PlayPack games is available at http://www.onlive.co.uk/playpack.

The PlayPack 200 Celebration runs from today through Saturday, 28 April (7:59am BST). Here are some of the highlights:

· PlayPack 200 Sweepstakes: Receive an entry for every PlayPack game you play for a minimum of 200 seconds each.[3] Prizes include tablets and controllers!

· Multiplayer Madness Developer Events: Take on game developers and other OnLive members in 200-minute events featuring games such as Homefront and Air Conflicts.

· Brag Clip Event: Post Brag Clip™ videos of your best and worst gaming moments.

· Live interactive streaming broadcasts with the OnLive staff

To find out more about the PlayPack 200 Celebration or to join in, visit www.onlive.co.uk/playpack. To keep up with the daily Community events, follow OnLive on Facebook or Twitter..

Sony PlayStation 3 Blinking red light of death

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to say goodbye to a cherished loved on, whether it’s a pet or a favourite pair of trainers.

And this week I learnt the true meaning of loss when my PlayStation 3 died.

It suffered what is known as “The red blinking light of death” and in short what happens is your fan overheats causing the console to shut down and flash red.

After trying what I refer to as ‘the man test’ (switching it off from the mains and back on again) I found this didn’t work.

After doing some research and asking friends via social media, it seems there are various companies set up to fix such problems but on reflection, you’ll be paying a fair chunk of money and there is a chance it could happen again.

So with that in mind it was off to the nearest GAME store to pick up a fresh one.

It is a sad day at Cut The Cap HQ as we say goodbye to a close friend who was there for the good times, the bad times, the awesome times and generally all the time.

We even put together a small video to show how the blinking red light of death looks:

Enjoy and I pray this never happens to anyone:

OnLive and the Independent Games Festival Partner Up = Free Games for ALL!

OnLive, the pioneer of on-demand cloud gaming and Gold Sponsor of the 14th Annual Independent Games Festival, is bringing the excitement of the Festival to the masses with a two-week Indie Showcase, hosted in partnership with the IGF. From March 5 to March 11, players everywhere in the US and UK can play an outstanding lineup of 16 current IGF nominees and honorable mentions free through the OnLive® Game Service – frigging AWESOME. Players can then “Like” their favorites on OnLive’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/onlive and they will announce which independent game received the most Likes and which was the most played on March 12, the Monday following the 2012 Independent Games Festival.

As of Monday (sorry for the delay guys!) OnLive will also be placing previously honored IGF games on sale for 75% off, with free instant demos available for all. As is typical with OnLive games, participants can play on demand on nearly any device—PCs, Mac®s, TVs with the OnLive Game System as well as tablets and smartphones – lunchtimes haven’t been the same since we’ve had our wireless controller hooked up to our Mac.

Starting today, 16 of this year’s IGF game nominees and honorable mentions are available for instant play over the OnLive Game Service at http://www.facebook.com/onlive including: Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games), Be Good (DigiPen Institute of Technology), Botanicula (Amanita Design), Dear Esther (The Chinese Room), Dustforce (Hitbox Team), English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle), Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games), FTL (Justin Ma and Matthew Davis), Lume (State of Play Games), Nitronic Rush (DigiPen Institute of Technology), Once Upon a Spacetime (RMIT), POP (Rob Lach), SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries), To the Moon (Freebird Games), Toren (Swordtales), and WAY (CoCo & Co.). By simply clicking the links next to each game, visitors can test-drive each game free for 30 minutes on nearly any device they own—low- or high-end PCs or Macs, TVs or mobile devices. No discs and no downloads are necessary; only a free OnLive account and an internet connection. Once gamers have identified their favorite titles, they can Like them on http://www.facebook.com/onlive, sharing their preferences instantly with friends.

To find out more about the OnLive Indie Showcase or to participate, visit www.facebook.com/onlive. To find out more about the Independent Games Festival, visit www.igf.com.

Enjoy!

Assassin’s Creed III Announcement Trailer

Ubisoft have just accounced the Assassin’s Creed III Trailer. It’s going to be a bit of a wait though, the game is currently due for an October 30th release.

For now watch. Enjoy. Simples.

On Test: OnLive Wireless Controller with Tablet and Desktop Gaming

Its fair to say that gaming is as popular as its ever been and with games like Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Call Of Duty continually setting new standards 2012 is looking like another vintage year.

But it’s not just like of Sony and Microsoft enjoying this renascence period oh no there’s a new kid in town and you should be paying attention to… Leading the charge and challenging the big boys is OnLive – the first company to offer a true cloud gaming service. (If this is all new to you then click here to get our lowdown on OnLive).

So what’s new in the world of OnLive? Wireless Gamepads and bluetooth adapters that’s what! Now it means you really can play your game anywhere you want, front room, bedroom, office (and you don’t have to be tapping the screen of your tablet all day long if you have the new Wireless Controller). Simply download the app onto your tablet, laptop or desktop, log in and away you go!

OnLive’s tablet app launched with 25 games, each adapted for use with a touchscreen. The list includes stuff you wouldn’t expect, like LEGO Batman, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, L.A. Noire, and of course, Batman: Arkham City (3 mention already, can you tell this is my favourite game at the moment?!)

I’m not going to lie though thumbs on glass or keyboard and mouse don’t do it for me so thankfully there’s the OnLive Wireless Controller, which looks like a hybrid Xbox 360-PlayStation 3 controller and syncs with the tablet’s OnLive app wirelessly or with the supplied bluetooth adapter and is awesome!

If you want to give it a try, all you need is [the controller], the free OnLive app and an OnLive account… And what do we think? Well if it means we can carry on playing Batman: Arkham City at lunchtime (which it does) then its a double thumbs up!

Video Games BAFTA Nominations are in

While the Oscars dominate the headlines, let’s not forget one of the biggest nights for gamers is coming up. The video games BAFTAs are coming next month and here are the nominations in full.

We are 99% sure call of duty will clean up again but fingers crossed for Uncharted 3 and Batman: Arkham City which we at cut the cap loved over the past year.

Good luck to everyone. Here are the nominees:

Action
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Batman: Arkham City
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Portal 2
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Artistic Achievement
Batman: Arkham City
L.A. Noire
LitteBigPlanet 2
Rayman: Origins
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Audio Achievement
Batman: Arkham City
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Dead Space 2
The Nightjar
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Best Game
Batman: Arkham City
FIFA 2012
L.A. Noire
Portal 2
The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Debut Game
Bastion
Eufloria
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
L.A. Noire
Monstermind
RIFT

Design
Batman: Arkham City
L.A. Noire
LittleBigPlanet 2
Portal 2
Super Mario 3D Land
The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim

Family
Dance Central 2
Kinect Sports 2
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
LittleBigPlanet 2
Mario Kart 7

Game Innovation
Bastion
Child of Eden
From Dust
L.A. Noire
LittleBigPlanet 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Mobile & Handheld
Dead Space iOS
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint
Peggle
Quarrel
Super Mario 3D Land
The Nightjar

Online – Browser
Gardens of Time
I Am Playr
Monstermind
Resistance 3
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure
The Sims Social

Online – Multiplayer
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Dark Souls
Gears of War 3
LittleBigPlanet 2

Original Music
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
L.A. Noire
The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Performer
Aaron Stanton (Cole Phelps) – L.A. Noire
Mark Hamill (The Joker) – Batman: Arkham City
Nolan North (Nathan Drake) – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Stephen Fry (Narrator) – LittleBigPlanet 2
Stephen Merchant (Wheatley) – Portal 2
Togo Igawa (Dipolomat, Advisor and Military General) – Total War: SHOGUN 2

Sports/Fitness
Dance Central 2
DiRT 3
Fl 2011
FIFA 2012
Kinect Sports 2
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012

Story
Batman: Arkham City
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
L.A. Noire
Portal 2
The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Strategy
Dark Souls
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Football Manager 2012
From Dust
Ghost Recon Shadow Wars
Total War: SHOGUN 2

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital
Dreamweaver
Joust!
Tick Tock Toys

GAME Award of 2011 (voted for by the public)
Batman: Arkham City
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
FIFA 2012
L.A Noire
Minecraft
Portal 2
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Soul Calibur V advert banned in the UK

The new advert for Soul Calibur V hit Japanese print this week and I think it’s a safe bet that most frustrated teenage boys will be saving their minimum wages to get their sweaty hands on this bad boy.

It has all the makings of a great game. There’s a snake, some kind of fur jacket, oh and a set of ladies breasts!

Oh, and they even included a very catchy slogan “go big or go home”

What more do you need to help you decide? It’s better than zumba fitness!

Gents get your fill now, as apparently the ad is deemed to saucy for UK

Soul Calibur V is out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the 3rd February

OnLive Desktop Brings No-compromise Windows Apps to iPad – US first, UK later…

Yep you read right. Full Windows® apps, including Microsoft® Office, delivered instantly from the Cloud.

So what’s the scoop in a nutshell?

OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of instant-action cloud computing, announced that it is bringing the first no-compromise Windows desktop to iPad® through its free OnLive™ Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes® App Store.

And the detail?

OnLive Desktop provides instant access to full-featured, media-rich Windows 7 applications, including Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® software, remotely hosted on powerful PC servers in the cloud. Based upon OnLive’s instant-action cloud gaming technology, OnLive Desktop delivers a seamless Windows desktop experience, with instant-response multi-touch gestures, together with a full on-screen Windows keyboard and handwriting recognition, enabling complete and convenient viewing and editing of even the most complex documents. Rich media, such as video, animation, slide transitions and even PC games, never before practical via remote desktop delivery, run fluidly and dynamically with instant-action interactivity. OnLive Desktop makes remote feel local.

“OnLive Desktop is the first app to deliver a no-compromise, media-rich Windows desktop experience to iPad, opening up powerful new possibilities for consumers and businesses,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC. Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games—never before usable on a remote desktop—play seamlessly.”

The FREE* OnLive Desktop app comes with 2 GB of secure cloud storage and as-available access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop pre-populated with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus several utilities and touch games. Using instant-response touch gestures such as pinch and zoom, flick to scroll, drag, drop and Aero snap, users can quickly and easily navigate files, open, edit and save the ones they need, and store them securely in the cloud for access from any device through a simple Web interface. PC apps have full desktop functionality: Word documents can be created and edited with full redline and commenting capability, using a full Windows touch-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition or Bluetooth keyboard. PowerPoint presentations can be created with rich graphics, videos and animated slide transitions, and even presented directly from the iPad, either onscreen or via an external monitor. Data can be updated and analyzed instantly in Excel, translated into graphs and transferred into presentation documents. With OnLive Desktop, work is now possible anywhere you have an iPad and Internet connectivity, with the immediacy, functionality and responsiveness of a local PC.

The Free OnLive Desktop app for iPad is just the tip of the iceberg. Android®, smartphones, PC, Mac® and monitor/TV support (via the OnLive MicroConsole™ thin client with Bluetooth keyboard/mouse) are coming soon, with your same OnLive Desktop available by login from any device. Your OnLive Desktop can be accessed anywhere, on any device, at any resolution.

- OnLive Desktop Pro is coming soon, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority access, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing, additional PC apps, and other OnLive-unique features for just $9.99/month.

- OnLive Enterprise will be available for businesses and organizations of all sizes, seeking centralized, secure computing resources, as well as Independent Software Vendors seeking to deliver custom applications. With OnLive Enterprise, IT departments have full control of user entitlements/access privileges to both retail and ISV applications, while enabling users to access the same applications through any device. For example, a hospital can entitle different levels of records access to doctors, receptionists and patients, with full privacy, whether data is viewed on a smartphone, computer, on an easily-sterilized tablet in an examining room, or even on a hospital room TV. No user data is left behind on any device, so records remain secure if a device is lost or stolen. (IT professionals and ISVs, please contact OnLive at enterprise@onlive.com for OnLive Enterprise details and pricing.)

- OnLive Desktop Pro and Enterprise support exclusive OnLive collaborative services. Building on the same proven technology as the massive spectating Arena of the OnLive Game Service, OnLive securely enables as many as thousands of simultaneous users to view one or many OnLive Desktops from any device, with live spectating and group chat, and multi-user control. Whether using OnLive collaborative services as a shared document reader or virtual whiteboard in a small workgroups, for chatting over home videos among far-flung family members, or for lecturing with Q&A to an audience of thousands of students around the world, OnLive provides instant, media-rich collaboration.

The OnLive Desktop iPad app will be available Thursday to U.S. customers for free in the iTunes App Store, and will be released soon in the UK. Customers are encouraged to sign up early for their free OnLive account, available today at desktop.onlive.com. For more information, visit desktop.onlive.com.

*Terms and conditions apply. See desktop.onlive.com for details.

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