Archived News:

Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013

Torment: Tides of Numenera Delay

The Kickstarter page for Torment: Tides of Numenera has word from inXile entertainment that their RPG will be delayed since the scope of the project increased so drastically due to all the funding they've received:
Many of you have asked if the unexpected support we have received will require us to push back the release date. While we do not yet know what our final development budget will be, we do know that we’ll need a few months past the December 2014 launch date we first proposed at $900,000. (We’ll provide more details about our schedule after we have time to complete our planning following the Kickstarter.) We thank you greatly for providing us enough resources to increase Torment’s scope and quality bar. It’s our plan to use funds to keep the team on the project longer, allowing us to design, iterate, and polish more, to make a game that truly lives up to the Torment name.

Diablo III Co-Op Improvement Plans

The Diablo III website outlines co-op improvements planned for the upcoming version 1.08 patch for Diablo III. The big new feature is the addition of an XP bonus for co-op play, along with a gold and magic find bonus that exceeds the current cap. They also talk about nerfing how enemies scale with more players, adding matchmaking tags and in-game alerts, increasing wizard archon duration for assists, the addition of private chats, and more. The patch is said to be going up on the PTR for the action/RPG sequel, but does not yet carry a release window.

Activision Has King's Quest Plans?

An article on Digital Trends talks with Replay Games president Paul Trowe about the possibility Replay will work with Roberta Williams on a throwback collaboration if they are successful with the upcoming Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Trowe says his efforts at securing the rights to do a King's Quest remake through Telltale failed, as this permission was clawed back by Activision when Telltale couldn't fit development into their schedule. “Activision’s probably not going to give us the King’s Quest rights [Telltale] had it, and we were going to license it from them to make the remakes," Trowe tells them. "Then I talked to the guys at Activision and they were like, ‘No, we’re pulling it because we’re going to do it ourselves'." They have not been able to confirm this with Activision.

Borderlands 2 DLC and Patch Released

Gearbox Software announces the release of the new patch for Borderlands 2 along with the Borderlands 2: Ultimate Vault Hunters Upgrade Pack DLC. Here's what you need to know at this:
Today's an exciting day for Borderlands 2 -- the Ultimate Upgrade Pack (which allows characters to gain 11 additional levels, pick up powerful new loot and more) and a new update (containing the new Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, extra storage capacity and a variety of bug fixes) are rolling out now on Xbox 360 and Steam and very soon on PlayStation 3 as part of the next PlayStation Store update.

Details on the level cap increase, new mode and update can be found below:

Details on the Level Cap Increase
Introducing Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
Borderlands 2 Update Notes

Don't forget there's more to come for Borderlands 2: Krieg the Psycho, a new playable character, arrives in May with the fourth campaign add-on (included in the Season Pass) hitting by the end of June!

And just in case you need some new gear to help level up, here are some celebratory SHiFT codes...

Continue here to read the full story.

Ships Ahoy - Defiance

Defiance the game is now live, offering an open-world MMO third-person shooter that ties in with a television series of the same name. It's not clear exactly how, but they content the game will influence the show: "Experience dynamic missions, massive co-op battles, and endless exploration across a gigantic game environment. Plus, brought to you by Syfy, the Defiance TV series is a revolutionary weekly drama that impacts the game, and gives you the chance to change the show."

Activision and Square Enix Job Losses

Activision today laid off about 40 staff from High Moon Studios, comprising most of the team behind the recently completed Deadpool game. Kotaku has an official statement: "Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process. With the completion of development on Deadpool, we are taking a reduction in staff at High Moon Studios to better align our development talent against our slate. Approximately, 40 full-time employees will be impacted globally. We are offering those employees who are impacted outplacement counseling services." In similar regrettable news, Joystiq has word from Square Enix on a "number of positions" cut at their Los Angeles office: "We can confirm that Square Enix's Los Angeles office has eliminated a number of positions as part of the corporate restructuring announced last week. This is an unfortunate situation and we are offering assistance and severance packages to any employees affected by this, we want to thank them for their hard work and sincerely wish them well in the future."

On Sale

  • BioShock and BioShock 2 Bundle on Gamefly.com. Save 80%.
  • BioShock, BioShock 2, and Spec Ops- The Line Bundle on Gamefly.com. Save 80%.
  • Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown Bundle on Gamefly.com. Save 60%.
  • Orcs Must Die! 2 on Steam. Save 75%.
  • Metro 2033 on Steam. Save 67%.
  • Painkiller Hell & Damnation on Steam. Save 75%.
  • Spec Ops: The Line and The Darkness II Bundle on Gamefly.com. Save 90%.

Evening Previews

Evening Metaverse

  • Firefox version 20 is now available. Thanks Ant.

Into the Black

Link of the Day: Little Video Game Books. Thanks HARDOCP.

Mark Jacobs' Camelot Unchained Kickstarter

Mark Jacobs and his cohorts at City State Entertainment announces a Kickstarter for Camelot Unchained, "a counter-revolutionary RvR-focused" MMORPG, saying the new game from the Dark Age of Camelot originator will be set in a post-apocalyptic "yet familiar" world. They say "The project's core concept encompasses three primary elements, Tri-Realm RvR, housing and a true player-owned economy built upon a rich crafting system," and they seek $2 million to realize their plan. "Camelot Unchained isn't a game with something for everyone," said Mark Jacobs. "Instead, we're aiming it at a niche audience of dedicated RvR-focused MMORPG players. We've tried very hard to incorporate our community's ideas and suggestions into our pledge rewards, even going as far as show the preliminary tiers in order to get feedback before the start of our Kickstarter."

Torchlight II Patch Adds Editor; Steamworks

The Runic Games forums now offer patch notes for a new patch that's now live for Torchlight II to update Runic's action/RPG sequel to version 1.22.x.40. The new version includes the release of GUTS (which apparently doesn't stand for anything), a new editor for creating content for the game. A post on the Torchlight II website has more details, explaining: "GUTS is our in-house development tool. It lets you modify almost everything about Torchlight II, from item and skill balance, to level layouts, animations, quests, and much more. GUTS mods can be shared with your friends, and multiplayer games using mods can be found in the modded games lobby. In addition, A new launcher lets you customize which mods are currently active." That page also includes Q&As with the team to address all your FAQing questions about this, and Steam News explains how the newly added Steam Workshop support will work.

The War Z Offline After Breach

OP Productions has issued a "security alert" for The War Z, saying the game is temporarily offline after the forum and game databases suffered a security breach. They unequivocally state that no payment information was exposed since this is handled on a third-party system, but warn that this means intruders have accessed login email addresses, encrypted forum passwords, encrypted game passwords, and player IP addresses. They add: "If you posted other information to the forum it is likely that such data was accessed as well. We do not collect the names or addresses of our gamers so that information was not impacted unless you posted it on the forum. We are investigating whether additional information may have been obtained." They warn players should use their website to change their passwords, and should also consider changing passwords on any servers where they used the same one (which is why that is inadvisable). Thanks VG247.

Victoria II: Heart of Darkness Preorders

Paradox Interactive announces they have begun accepting preorders for Victoria II: Heart of Darkness, the upcoming expansion for their strategy sequel that will take players to 19th century Africa to tap into their inner Joseph Conrads. Heart of Darkness is due on April 16th, and this page is where to locate your advance copy. Here's word on why you might want to buy this game before release: "As a bonus to those who pre-order Heart of Darkness, select retailers will be offering a Victoria I Complete—a gold edition of the original title that started it all—for free. Other retailers will offer 75% off Victoria titles, including Victoria II and Victoria II: A House Divided, with any pre-order of Heart of Darkness."

Source Engine Steampipe Conversions

Having already rolled out a new Steampipe distribution of Day of Defeat: Source, Valve lays out plans for the release of Steampipe versions of Half-life 2: Deathmatch tomorrow, Counter-Strike: Source on April 16th, and Team Fortress 2 on April 23rd. This will not require any special action from most users, it just changes the way the games are distributed and updated, with Valve explaining this will result in faster and smoother downloads, faster game boot times and map load times, easier distribution; installation; and management of mods, and smoother dedicated server distribution and updates. There are some considerations for mod authors and server operators, and these are all laid out in the Steam Support Knowledge Base.

U.K. Charts

The GfK Chart-Track list of 20 bestselling full-priced PC games in the U.K. for the week ending March 30th, a day later than usual (probably due to Easter rather than April Fools' Day, but who knows?). There's a new sheriff in town this week as BioShock Infinite knocks SimCity out of the number one spot. Irrational's new BioShock game is also on top of the all platforms chart.

Gatherings & Competitions

  • GDC Vault has videos of many of the presentations from the just-concluded 2013 Game Developers Conference. Thanks Ant.

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews

  • ADATA DashDrive HV610 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive on ThinkComputers.org.
  • Compact Liquid Cooling Systems Roundup. Part II: Front Runners on X-bit labs.
  • Cooler Master Seidon 240M CPU Cooler on pcGameware.
  • Cooler Master Storm Recon on APH Networks.
  • Corsair CX600M on ocaholic.
  • DeepCool Frostwin Heatsink on FrostyTech.com.
  • Enermax NAXN ADV 650-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply on TweakTown.
  • EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost SC edition on Guru3D.
  • Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White Case on Benchmark Reviews.
  • Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H Intel Z77 Motherboard on PCSTATS.com.
  • Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan Graphics Card on iXBT Labs.
  • InWin D-Frame Limited Edition Open-Air Chassis on TweakTown.
  • KingSpec E3000S Challenger SSD on The SSD Review.
  • Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse on Nikk Tech.
  • Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown.
  • Low-Profile PSUs from Seasonic and Enhance on X-bit labs.
  • NZXT Phantom 630 and HALE90 V2 1000W PSU on Future Looks.
  • Plextor PX-256M5Pro Xtreme 256GB Solid State Drive on CDRLabs.com.
  • PowerColor PCS+ AX7850 2GBD5-2DHPP Radeon HD 7850 2GB on Bjorn3D.com.
  • QNAP TS-569 Pro on techPowerUp.
  • Samsung SSD Magician and Data Migration on Vortez.
  • Satechi 10-Port USB 3.0 Hub UH3-10P on Legit Reviews.
  • SteelSeries Siberia V2 Cross-Platform Headset on Hardware Secrets.

Out of the Blue

Most elaborate April Fools' gag of yesterday goes to the New York Mets, who spent the afternoon trying to fool us that they are a contender. Nice try guys, but as the old saying goes, fool me 51 times, shame on you. Fool me 52 times... Okay, I exaggerate, but as I've noted before, this is their best trick, as with all of 22 winning seasons in the books, the Metsies have the best opening day record in baseball history at 34-18 (even more remarkably, they are 34-10 after losing their first eight openers), and they have won 20 of their last 22 home openers. The lesson here? I'm going to enjoy them being in first place while it lasts.

First Place Links: Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play: Piggy Wiggy Seasons.
Stories: April Fools Day: 10 stories that look like pranks but aren't. Thanks brother19.
CW Premiere Dates Including the New Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Media: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Trailer.
Epic Backwards Prank In Times Square.
Iron Man 3: Chinese trailer (Taiwanese parody).
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