Archived News:

Thursday, Sep 05, 2013

Gone Gold - Rise of Venice

Kalypso Media announces that Rise of Venice is gold, and the now-complete strategy game is set to make its debut on September 27th. Here's a new batch of screenshots to celebrate the news, and here's a feature list to see if this floats your gondola:

  • Experience a compelling story full of intrigue and treason in Venice at the time of the Renaissance
  • Trade a variety of goods in the most important cities of the time such as Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople and Athens.
  • With your own family tree you can interact with your family members, send them on missions and watch how the power of your family grows over time.
  • Meet other important families who are pulling the strings in Venice’s government and influence political decisions yourself.
  • Build your own production facilities and trading fleets
  • Take fate into your own hands and test your skills in furious sea battles
  • Multiplayer mode for up to 4 players via LAN and Internet

Gary Grigsby's War in the West Announced

Matrix Games announces Gary Grigsby's War in the West, saying the wargame follow up to Gary Grigsby's War in the East is already in the beta testing phase, though it does not yet have a set release date. Here's word on what this covers: "Players will discover a huge game covering the whole Allies’ Campaign in the West front, from the invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1943, through France, Belgium and Holland in 1944 and through the crossing of the Rhine and the end of the war in Germany." There are more details on the game's product page and beta signups are being accepted through this page. Here's word on how the new game will improve upon its predecessor:
Gary Grigsby’s War in the West contains huge improvements to the War in the East engine in the areas of logistics, land and air combat and amphibious and airborne invasions, allowing the players to choose among multiples strategies in both air and land battles. It also features a bigger map (36k hexes versus 25k for WitE), new terrain types, detailed Strategic Bombing and improvements to non-ground support missions, more realism in Logistics and Weather conditions, new Amphibious and Airborne Landing Rules, new Victory conditions… and much more!

DCS WWII: Europe 1944 Kickstarter

A new Kickstarter from flight simulation designers Oleg Maddox, Ilya Shevchenko, and Igor Tishin seeks funding for DCS WWII: Europe 1944, "an exciting new flight simulation series." Here's the explanation of why they need $100,000 for this:
Legendary flight simulation designers Oleg Maddox, Ilya Shevchenko, and Igor Tishin, are excited to bring you a new WWII flight simulation for the PC. Built by industry veterans with the same approach that made the famous flight sims of the past great, and in partnership with the experts at the Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics, the simulation aims to satisfy seasoned aces as well as attract new pilots to the genre.

With unparalleled attention to detail, our developers have decades of experience with aerial combat simulations. We are famous for our ability to make our games fun while maintaining unwavering dedication to historical realism. We can do it because relatively simple WWII-era aircraft do not require extensive training, and nimble controls and simple weapons naturally lead to fast-paced close-quarters battles.

We want to open a new page in WWII combat simulations. We also strive to recapture everything that made famous flight simulations of the past great, starting with a thick spiral-bound manual and comprehensive training, and ending with great free-for-all multiplayer. But we cannot do it without your help!

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag Trailer

The latest trailer from Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag offers about ten more minutes of gameplay footage from the next installment in Ubisoft's stealth series, once again narrated by game director Ashraf Ismail. As noted in the description: "Experience the new open-world activities in the largest Assassin's Creed world ever. Includes gameplay footage of new features and locations such as underwater treasure diving, smugglers caves, harpooning for sharks, and enhanced naval combat." Continue here to read the full story.

Worlds of Magic Trailer

This trailer shows off alpha gameplay from Worlds of Magic, the upcoming game looking to live up to the classic 4x strategy games of yore. Wastelands Interactive asks that those who like what they see in this head over to their Steam Greenlight page and cast a vote in the game's favor. Continue here to read the full story.

Evening Previews

  • Grand Theft Auto V on IGN.

Irrational Layoffs

Irrational Games has laid off eight employees, reports Kotaku, saying the developer tells them this will not impact the upcoming BioShock Infinite DLC "in any way." Here is the statement they received explaining this:
In an effort to streamline our processes I am sad to confirm that we let go a total of 8 employees today. Any studio’s greatest asset is the group of people that make up the whole, and as such it was extremely hard to make this decision and there is never a good time for this to happen. As co-workers and friends, we wish them the very best.

Steam Trade Offers Launch

Steam News offers details on a new Steam Trading feature called Trade Offers, which will allow players to package inventory items to offer trades to Steam friends, allowing for asynchronous trading even when one party is offline. They have a FAQ with all the details, and here's the outline:
Today we’re shipping a new feature we’re calling Trade Offers that allows you to send a prepackaged trade to a friend. It’s similar to regular trading, except you propose the items for both sides. You select the items you’re willing to give up from your inventory and what you’d like to receive from your friend, and send it off. Your friend will receive a notification in the green drop down and can then choose to accept, decline, or make a counter offer. Unlike regular Steam Trading, you don't need to both be online at the same time. Plus, trade offers can be sent and received using a web browser.

You can create an offer from a few places: from the Trade Offers page in your Inventory, from a friend’s Inventory, and from any of your badge pages you can send a friend a trade offer based on the trading cards you still need collect.

Timelines: Assault On America Trailer

Strategy First now offers this trailer with a third look at gameplay from Timelines: Assault On America, the imminent RTS game based on an alternate history where the U.S. was invaded during World War II. The clip features the Battle for Washington D.C. The clip shows close-quarters tank combat in the urban setting, showing some recognizable landmarks, including the Capitol Building and a mostly destroyed Washington Monument. Continue here to read the full story.

Morning Previews

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews

Out of the Blue

Dinner last night was great, thanks for the early leave. Actually to be honest, dinner was terrible, as the diner chosen for the occasion was committing crimes against food, but the company was awesome, so we had a great time. And Shana Tova (nice, right?) to all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It's now 5774, but I'm sure I'll be writing 5773 on my checks for a couple of weeks yet (so happy I figured out how to double up on that joke every year). I'm very excited the NFL season kicks off tonight, and the early season is always fun due to the "everyone is a contender" illusion. Here's the promised reminder that we have a Blue's News competition underway on BeatTheInsiders, so set up a free account there and play along with us should you so desire.

Kickoff Links: Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play: Aliens Like Milk.
Drawscape.
Stories: Novato man sues Blue Man Group, claiming injury by ball at show.
Science: Experimental compound reverses down syndrome-like learning deficits in mice.
Images: My answer to the GTA/violence debate.
Media: Mirror's Edge Parkour POV. Thanks GameInformer via Reddit.
Follow-up: Ars does Soylent, the finale: Soylent dreams for people.
The Funnies: The Garbage Thief Cartoon - Savage Chickens.
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