Rise of the Tomb Raider PS4 Release Date Confirmed, Has PlayStation VR Support

New version of game will be available on Xbox One and PC too.

                          

Square Enix has announced Rise of the Tomb Raider will launch on PlayStation 4 on October 11 in a new 20 Year Celebration edition. This version of the game will feature "a completely new story chapter entitled Blood Ties."

In addition to this, it will have new co-op Endurance gameplay, PlayStation VR support for the new Blood Ties chapter, all previously released DLC, extra outfits, weapons, and Expedition Cards. A limited edition art book will also be included.

All this content will be available for free to Xbox One and PC to players that own the season pass. This, however, won't include VR support. The season pass will be updated to include this content going forward.

A season pass does not exist for PS4 as all the extra content is included in the new version of the game.

"[Crystal Dynamics] is celebrating with all Tomb Raider fans, thanking them for being on Lara's 20 year journey with us," said Scot Amos, co-head of the studio. "The team has packed in surprises, new story, and the top-requested special features into this 20 Year Celebration edition.

"Blood Ties, a new premium DLC, beckons players to explore Croft Manor in a new story mode; then defend it against a zombie invasion in Lara's Nightmare. When Lara's uncle contests ownership of the Manor, Lara must explore the estate to find proof that she is the rightful heir, or lose her birthright and father's secrets for good.

"Players can then test their zombie-killing skills in the replayable Lara's Nightmare mode: a haunted Croft Manor where players have new challenges and must rid the Manor of an evil presence."

According to a press release, the PlayStation VR support lets players "unlock the mysteries of Croft Manor in first-person, while the new co-op Endurance mode lets fans team-up in the wilderness.

"Two players must team up to survive the harsh elements by day, as well as lethal threats from enemies by night. Fire takes fuel, food restores health, and every resource must be hunted, collected, or crafted. Battle to the top of the leaderboards, as others try to beat your longest survival run."

To celebrate the history of Tomb Raider, a re-envisoned version of the cold-weather outfit and the Hailstorm pistol Lara used in Tomb Raider 3 will be available in the mode. A classic Lara card pack will let players play as various iterations of the character from over the years, including the original Lara model that started it all in 1996.

Finally, the game will have a new Extreme Survivor difficulty: "This new difficulty level takes the toughness of Survivor and ratchets it up several notches starting with all checkpoints being stripped out of the game. The only way to save the game is forage enough resources to light campfires."

Take a look at the infographic below to see everything included in the Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration release.

                          

Pokémon GO will soon let businesses sponsor locations

In the augmented reality world of Pokémon GO, businesses large and small will soon have the ability to sponsor locations. This is something developer Niantic did with their previous AR game, Ingress.

In Pokémon GO, sponsors would be charged every time someone playing the game visits the locale they’ve sponsored. That, basically, counts as an augmented reality ad impression, and it’s how Niantic hopes to create an additional revenue stream.

Niantic Chief Executive John Hanke spoke with Financial Times about the upcoming addition.

“There is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations…”

The first component, of course, is the current PokéCoins system of microtransactions. The app has seen success with that, too.

Are you still playing Pokémon GO? It achieved the milestone of becoming the biggest mobile game in U.S. history  just days ago.

SOURCE FT (PAY WALL)

Seagate unveils 10TB BarraCuda Pro desktop drive

Seagate on Tuesday unveiled a portfolio of 10TB drives built for NAS, surveillance systems and, of course, a new BarraCuda Pro drive for home PC users. The company said its goal was to deliver a beefy hard drive at an affordable price point, and it promises this drive delivers.

The BarraCuda Pro 10TB desktop drive spins at 7200rpm, slower than some might prefer but not bad given the huge capacity, and offers built-in power-saving features. Before today, Seagate’s 3.5-inch BarraCuda HDD selection included 50GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB and 8TB options, so customers who needed more space had to look to Seagate’s enterprise-focused 10TB drives, which were introduced in April. Now that helium technology is trickling into the more consumer-friendly drive.

The new BarraCuda Pro, which joins new IronWolf and SkyHawk entries for small businesses and surveillance systems, respectively, will launch from retailers such as NewEgg with a $535 MSRP, according to AnandTech.

SOURCE SEAGATE