|
|
 |
Archived News:
Signal Ops is now available on
GOG.com, offering Space
Bullet Dynamics' futuristic first-person stealth/action game. A new
release trailer offers
a look at the game, and here is the description of what this is all
about: As an officer in the shadowy halls of Facility 7C, you remotely
lead a squad of operatives on daring espionage missions. Plant evidence, steal
secrets, assassinate targets, and performing sabotage for the glory of the Dark
Father. Do you have enough faith to follow orders unquestioningly?
Take advantage of multiple simultaneous first person views to stealthily evade
enemies or get the drop on them. With the shoddy equipment and dubiously trained
agents provided to you, you’ll need all the advantages you can muster. Signal
Ops blends elements of a tactical shooter, stealth, and strategy to serve up a
concoction that will satisfy your refined gaming palate. With open levels,
old-school sensibility, and a monitor bank blasting a full spectrum of
possibilities onto your retina, Signal Ops is unlike anything you’ve played
before.
The
Kickstarter for Torment: Tides of Numenera has concluded, showing
inXile entertainment has attracted almost $4.2 million in crowdsourced funding
for the role-playing game. This is a record for the service, though Star Citizen
surpassed $6 million in funding when PayPal donations are included. Word is that
in addition to being wealthier, they are also humbled and excited: We are
both humbled and excited that you have given us this opportunity. The team we
have assembled is pretty unbelievable and I have full faith that together we
will create a true classic. I never stopped working to get Chris Avellone aboard
to make sure we had the band back together. But it only got better when we
brought on guys like Pat Rothfuss and Kevin Saunders to take the game to new
heights. The trick is always to surround ones self with brilliant people and to
create an environment in which creativity can flourish.
Digital Extremes announces they have enlisted over one million registered
players into Warframe less than a
fortnight into open beta testing of their free-to-play shooter. Here's
word: April 5, 2013 - London, Ontario - The sci-fi Free-to-Play game
Warframe® attracted over 1 million players spanning 100+ countries worldwide in
less than two weeks after its Open Beta started the week of March 18th.
Currently available on PC and Steam, an astounding number of gamers have
discovered the highly stylized 'space-ninja' action game developed by Digital
Extremes.
Warframe has been gaining momentum as the next gen Free-to-Play title to watch
since October when its Closed Beta began. Bringing a AAA quality gaming
experience to the Free-to-Play market has been one of the goals for the
development team from the outset. Between the impressive graphics, solid
fine-tuned gameplay and regular content and feature updates, Warframe has more
than exceeded fan and team expectations to date.
Attributing to its quick success, Digital Extremes has viewed the emerging
Free-to-Play segment as a true opportunity to reconnect directly with gamers.
Maintaining development transparency and regular interaction with its community
is part of the team's design philosophy that has truly paid off in establishing
a solid, loyal fan base that is growing in droves alongside the game. Warframe
is currently in Open Beta and available on PC and Steam. Visit
www.warframe.com to register for an
account and play the game for free.
Harmonix is notifying those with accounts on their websites of a security
compromise, saying they've disabled all passwords while they investigate the
extent of the breach, and suggesting a precautionary change for those who are
using their Harmonix password on other sites: We're sending you this
message because you have an account on RockBand.com, DanceCentral.com, and/or
Creators.RockBand.com. We are investigating an apparent attack on our servers
that we detected this week.
The security of your Harmonix user information is very important to us. We’ve
taken the sites down while we investigate this incident and determine how our
systems and the information we maintain may have been compromised. At this time,
we have not found that any of our users’ information has been published or
misused. None of our sites maintain any credit card information, social security
numbers, or financial account numbers for any of our users.
As a precaution, we have disabled your Harmonix password. We’ll send you a
notification when the sites are back up. When you log back in, we will require
all users to reset their passwords. If you have been using your old Harmonix
password on other sites, we recommend that you change those passwords
too.
Here's a flurry of news from Wesp5, who has released several of his unofficial
patches for unsupported games and is also launching his own
also sends word on a Kickstarter that's semi-Bloodlines-related (we thought he
was part of this project at first, but that is incorrect: apologies for any
confusion). Mod DB
and The
Patches Scrolls now offer the latest unofficial patch for Vampire: The
Masquerade - Bloodlines, updating the Source-engine action/RPG to version
8.6. Likewise, there's a new Precursors patch on
Mod DB
and The Patches
Scrolls to update Deep Shadows' shooter to version 1.7. Rounding out the
patch-fest, a new version 1.7 patch is available on
Mod DB and
The
Patches Scrolls for White Gold: War in Paradise. Though it doesn't
seem explicitly noted anywhere, Wesp tells us these are non-beta patches. As for
the Kickstarter, that can be
found here, looking to raise $75,000 for a Unity game engine multiplayer
action/RPG called Sanguine Nights – Darkest Blood. The game is somewhat
inspired by Bloodlines, as evidenced in
this video interview
and this description: Their many differences result in a perception of
racial and cultural clash of a Darwinian nature, regulated by Victorian ethics
and Machiavellian concerns for security and self-preservation. Each race
perceives others as “savage”, “dangerous” or “inferior” and gracefully plans its
dominance over the rest, while carefully manoeuvring around traps set by
Inquisitors, Slayers and other supernaturals carrying out their ancient feuds
with the Undead.
Where Sanguine Nights truly shines is in the empowerment of players over the
game's content. Stretch goals aside, the single-player experience will include
many quests throughout New Tenebra which will immerse players in the mythos and
cosmos of the setting. For multi-player, we will be building a set of content
creation tools which will allow players of the game to enrich their experience
and give their own, unique flavour to the world in which Sanguine Nights is set.
Apart from player-driven multiplayer, the game will also feature quests that can
be undertaken by one or more characters, sandbox play and, upon reaching Stretch
Goal VII, an immersing single-player mode.
Steam now offers a
20th Anniversary Edition of Another World (aka Out of this World) for
Windows and OS X. The original version of this action/platformer is one of the
games on display in the prestigious Museum of Modern Art, but as this
description shows, this is not your MOMA's game: Today, thanks to the
combined efforts of visionary conceptor of the original game Eric Chahi, and
developer DotEmu, this mythical game that has enthralled a whole generation of
gamers is being given new life on PC and Mac, with Another World - 20th
Anniversary Edition, through the Steam digital download platform!…
Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition offers new, high-definition graphics
that stay true to the original style of the game, and the sound effects have
also been totally remastered. You will be able to discover - or re-discover - an
incredible adventure in a whole new light!…
Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition also offers a few bonus surprises: 3
difficulty modes so players can play the game in its original difficulty, in an
easier mode, or for the most skilled gamers, in a mode even more difficult than
the original! Hardcore fans of Another World, rest assured, this edition will
allow you, if you wish so, to play the adventure with the original graphics!
Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition is also comes with the Development
Journal and the Video Making-off, that will let you discover how this edition
has been created.
The Tech Report - Modern shooters and the atrophy of fun.
Since the days of Doom and Quake, we've seen shooters take quantum leaps
in graphics, writing, voice acting, and just about everything else—except
for gameplay. Somehow, gameplay hasn't evolved. It hasn't gotten more fun or
more engaging or more interesting. Instead, it's atrophied into a bland rut,
to the point where big-budget shooters feel just like old light-gun arcade
games (Virtua Cop, House of the Dead, and so on). Players are still stuck on
rails, still made to gun down easy target after easy target, pausing only to
reload and to watch cut scenes. Today's visuals and stories might be
Oscar-worthy, but the interactivity still feels like tasteless filler.
Shooters could be so much more. Instead of trivializing combat, they could
make fights less frequent, longer, and more memorable. They could reward
players for acting rationally when outnumbered—hide, flee, or die. Shooters
could, when appropriate, encourage problem-solving and exploration over
brute force. Hell, why couldn't they have players decide how the story plays
out? But no, that's all too much to ask. Studios and publishers seem to have
forgotten that games are supposed to be games, not CG films with playable
action scenes.
Ride to Hell lives, is the surprising news on
MCV, where word is Eutechnyx's biker-themed game will be released for
Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on June 25th in North America and on June
28th worldwide under the title Ride to Hell: Retribution. The game
was announced by Deep Silver in 2008 for
release in Q2 of 2009, and a trickle of previews in January 2009 were the last
we saw of this, so it seemed this project had already ridden of to some sort of
hell of its own. Even more surprising is that after all that silence, this comes
with word of two additional Ride to Hell games, one being a mobile game called
Ride to Hell: Beatdown for which there are no details, and the other called
Ride to Hell: Route 666, a downloadable title also coming in June for Steam,
XBLA, and PSN from Black Forest Games. They say this will be more arcade-styled
than Retribution.
TopWare's Raven's Cry
website now offers a release date for Raven's Cry, as publisher lists
October 24, 2013 as when to expect Octane's upcoming piratey action/adventure to
arrive for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 (thanks
GBase.ch). Here' a refresher on the game, which apparently does not feature
anyone resembling Jack Sparrow or Captain Hook: Raven’s Cry is a dark
action-adventure that will challenge the image of pirates in popular culture.
Game events are seamlessly interwoven with historical ones to create an
authentic, thrilling narrative. The game begins when Christopher Raven embarks
on his vengeful quest to track down and kill the men who murdered his family.
Raven’s Cry thoroughly immerses players in a lavishly detailed world rich with
treachery and adventure. The sinister beauty of the 17th Century Caribbean is
revealed in the rolling emerald waves and their secrets, kept far beneath; in
the dark alleys and curved, cobbled roads, all teeming with murderous miscreants
and loudly drunken braves, the prophets of the bottle, the blade, and the
flintlock gun. The historically accurate architecture and in-game events will
flavor the three major cities found in Raven’s Cry with the atmosphere players
crave, as they traverse from the unsavory pirate holdfast of Port Royal to the
elegant avenues of luscious Havana, to a lost Aztec City deep in the jungles of
the Spanish Main.
SEGA announces global preorder incentives for Company of Heroes 2,
the upcoming World War II real-time strategy sequel from Relic Entertainment. In
a welcome change from the recent trend, they do not seem to be offering
different sets of bonuses depending on where the game is purchased: SEGA®
of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that customers who
pre-order Company of Heroes™ 2, the eagerly anticipated strategy game from Relic
Entertainment, Inc., from participating retailers will receive additional
in-game bonus content for free.
“We are pleased to be able to reward our most loyal fans for pre-ordering the
game with this pack. These items will give them bonus single and multiplayer
content to enjoy.” Eligible customers will get access to a ‘Theatre of War’
mini-campaign when it becomes available post launch, allowing them to experience
a new single player story from another part of the war. They will also receive
the Winter Ambush and Voronezh Front skin packs to customize the look of their
multiplayer vehicles.
As well as the single player content and multiplayer skins, eligible pre-order
customers will receive two new multiplayer commanders to customize each army.
The German army will receive the Joint Operations Doctrine, specializing in
precise artillery strikes and the Offensive Spearhead Doctrine for players who
want to use heavy armor and airstrikes to crush their opponent. The Soviets will
unlock the devastating Anti-Infantry Tactics Doctrine, enabling units like
flamethrower tanks and the Conscript Support Tactics Doctrine which allows for
rapid reinforcement in the heat of battle.
The Providence Journal has more on the legal wrangling surrounding
the bankruptcy of 38
Studios, as Rhode Island
sued
studio founder Curt Schilling and others over possible improprieties involved
in loaning the developer millions to move to the state (thanks
GameSpot). The report indicates Rhode Island is claiming 38 Studios knew
they needed more money than they were borrowing to complete the
project: The people running videogame company 38 Studios apparently knew
before moving here they didn't have enough money to finish their ambitious
initial project and relied instead on speculative financial projections to run
their studio, according to documents recently filed in R.I. Superior Court.
Monday's court filings:
Whether the company's true financial picture or doubts raised by some people
were communicated to then-Gov. Donald Carcieri or the R.I. Economic Development
Corp. board is the central battleground of a lawsuit filed against company
founder Curt Schilling and 13 other defendants.
Filings Monday by the state's lawyer show 38 Studios needed a full $75 million
from Rhode Island, and then some, to have a chance to succeed. The company
netted $50 million from an EDC bond sale. The lawyer, Max Wistow, alleges the
shortfall was actively masked.
Mojang's Jens Bergensten
tweets about
the sales success of the PC edition of
Minecraft, as the indie sensation continues to perform sensationally. He
says: "Minecraft (PC) has hit 10M! As promised, a subtle hint on the main 1.6
feature (thanks @ebbakier):
http://imgur.com/qAuCLex :D" The "subtle hint" is a
photo of a pleasant lady with a horse, so
obviously they plan to add pleasant ladies to the sandbox construction game.
Thanks
GameSpot.
The Cycling Manager website
has
the announcement of Pro Cycling Manager 2013, the next installment in
the PC bicycle racing series, as well as Tour de France 2013, a new console
edition. They offer some screenshots, and word the game is due
in July, so you'd better start doping your blood now. Here's word: We are
pleased today to unveil the 4 first screenshots of Pro Cycling Manager 2013 and
Tour de France 2013 - 100th Edition, showcasing the richness and variety of
scenic locations that will be seen in these 2 remarkable games. From Corsica to
the Champs-Elysées, exceptional races will be featured this year in these
cycling games developed by Cyanide Studio.
While Pro Cycling Manager 2013 will be sure to please all fans of simulation
with its many new features and improvements, Tour de France 2013 - 100th Edition
will offer players on PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles a fully renewed and overhauled
gameplay and an improved graphics engine, in response to players' expectations
and requests.
We will unveil much a lot more information on both games in the months to come.
In the meantime, we invite you, through these 4 images, to project yourself in
July, at the heart of this legendary summer race which will go down as a
milestone in the history of the Tour de France!
This video is a
developer's diary for Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness, the upcoming Africa
expansion for Paradox Interactive's 19th century strategy sequel. Here's word:
"In this first video developer diary, project lead Dan Lind introduces you to
the upcoming expansion’s newspaper system, as well as the new feature
International Crises." Continue here to read the full story.
Enough of these popped up around the same time to justify a roundup:
Well, my "quick" wrap up of my problems had me up past 4:00 am, so I'm glad I
didn't let that hold off last night's update, especially since that was just
when I finally solved my BSOD problem, but still hadn't imported a ton of mail
messages to get fully on track. I'm off to a slow start as a result, but at
least I have my techie problem worked out.
|
Twitter 
