Archived News:
Steam News announces the
launch of a free weekend for
Worms Revolution
along with a sale on the squirmy strategy sequel: Play
Worms Revolution for
FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup Worms
Revolution at 50% off the regular price!
Worms™ Revolution is the latest game in the classic turn-based strategy series
to come to the PC, featuring exciting new features and beautiful 3D graphics
whilst retaining the classic 2D gameplay that fans love. Choose to play the
extensive single player mode which features both campaign and puzzle missions or
dive straight into multiplayer warfare via online or local play. For the first
time ever see the inclusion of dynamic water, physics objects and worm classes!
Customize your experience by choosing what classes you play with, what they look
like and even how they speak!
The
Minority website announces the Windows edition of Papo & Yo is now
available, listing the various places the game can be purchased for 10% off as
part of its launch sale. Here's word: Papo & Yo is an award-winning indie
game that originally launched exclusively on PSN in August 2012. The game
received recognition for its surreal adventure gameplay and emotional backstory,
inspired by creator Vander Caballero's childhood in South America growing up
with an alcoholic and abusive father. With developer Minority’s goal of bringing
games that evoke emotional experiences to as many gamers as possible, Papo & Yo
is available today on PC (via Amazon, Steam, and more)!
The new Steam version features many technical improvements over the console
version, as well as Steam Big Picture Mode. There will be a 10% off launch sale
beginning today until April 28, making the game $13.50 for the first fans
(origin $14.99).
There's
a very lengthy article on Eurogamer on the status of Project CARS,
the upcoming crowdfunded racing game in the
world at NFS Shift developer Slightly Mad Studios. The game's €3.5m budget is
mostly from fans who have backed the title, and the article goes into extreme
detail in exploring to what degree this was presented to backers as an
investment where they should expect returns, and how this may or may not all be
kosher under U.K. law. They also note that examples of potential returns were
based on far fewer backers participating than the project ultimately attracted.
Part of the issue with U.K. laws concerns "unregulated investments," and though
Slightly Mad has used the term investment at times, the article states they have
a different way of characterizing this: "Slightly Mad argues that WMD isn't an
investment scheme. It says those who backed Project CARS are freelance
contractors and they will be paid from the profits." This situation is still
under review by the authorities, as they explain: "The FSA is still
investigating the pCARS scheme, under its new name of the Financial Conduct
Authority, which came into effect on 1 April. If the regulator gives WMD the all
clear, other developers could follow its example, and Slightly Mad's revolution
could be even bigger than anyone thought." And the outcome may have serious
repercussions for some of their investors/freelance contractors, as the story
includes examples of people who sank relatively large sums of money into this
project. Thanks tom.
A new
Kickstarter is hoping to raise $200K for Among the Sleep, a
first-person horror/adventure from Krillbite Studio, formed by interactive
digital art students who decided to band together to continue development of a
concept they came up with at school. Word is: "The game is heavily based on
atmosphere and exploration, and using the two year old child’s perspective. For
example you’ll be able to see your own body at all times, and you will have to
interact with the environment to find places to hide from dangers." Also: "There
might be threats hiding in every shadow, but there’s no traditional combat.
Instead, players will actively have to find places to hide, and avoid
confrontation to survive. For example in cupboards and under furniture." They
include a
prototype gameplay teaser video from almost a year ago and a
new
environment teaser trailer for a more current look, saying all their videos
are shot entirely in game. Among the Sleep has endorsements from all sorts of
industry pundits, and the top of the page has plaudits from Cliff Bleszinski and
Jim Sterling, though of course we never can tell when they are just trolling us.
Thanks nin.
Deep Silver sends along the PC specifications for Metro: Last Light, 4A
Games' upcoming first-person shooter sequel. These include an optimum
configuration along with the typical and recommended specs. Official
Metro: Last Light PC specifications:
Minimum
Windows: XP (32-Bit), Vista, 7 or 8
CPU: 2.2 GHz Dual Core e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 2GB
Direct X: 9.0c
Graphics Card: DirectX 9, Shader Model 3 compliant e.g. NVIDIA GTS 250
(or AMD equivalent e.g. HD Radeon 4000 series) or higher
Continue here to read the full story.
The Bethesda Blog
points to another Vine video to tease an upcoming announcement. The clip seems
to show the shadow of a dirigible overhead, lending further credence to the
popular theory that his is Wolfenstein related. We should know tomorrow,
as a caption says: "mystery revealed tomorrow @ IGN," making a twitter post seem
like a full-length novel.
Making the
Game 4 trailer offers the fourth in a series of clips on the creation of
Star Trek: The Video Game, the upcoming co-op action game based on the
rebooted Star Trek movies. The topic today is how the developers worked with the
creative team behind the films on the game, showing actors Chris Pine, Zachary
Quinto, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Anton Yelchin giving
voice to their in-game characters. Star Trek: The Video Game is due for release
on April 23rd. Continue here to read the full story.
This video offers a
developer walkthrough of Final Fantasy XIV, as Square Enix gears up for
the upcoming A Realm Reborn release that they hope will remedy the initial
disastrous launch of the MMORPG. The video runs a full two hours. For the
record, that makes it one minute longer than Citizen Kane. Just saying. Continue here to read the full story.
Capcom has issued a dire financial forecast, warning investors that profits for
the year will be about half of previous projections, reports
MCV. They blame "drastic changes in the industry’s market environment," the
"concentration of AAA titles in the hands of few foreign competitors," and their
"delayed response to the shift to digital media in the Home Video Games
business" as contributing factors. They also place blame on outsourced
development, which always seems like a good idea at the time, as they cite a
"decline in quality of titles outsourced to overseas developers," which is
inspiring a shift to internal sources in the future. They also imply that some
current game projects will be cancelled, saying "work in progress in game
software" is being "strictly re-evaluated for business restructuring."
Australian-based studio Team Bondi is now closed, reports
Player Attack, saying this rumor comes to them by way of an "unnamed source"
who says the plug was pulled on the L.A. Noire developer because backing
could not be secured for Whore Of The Orient,
their proposed
next project. This is unconfirmed, so it may turn out to be incorrect, just
like the "confirmation" the developer was
closing a couple of years ago.
Danish developer Full Control offers more on
word from last week that they will be
creating a new installment in the Jagged Alliance series, announcing
their game will be a "reset" called Jagged Alliance: Flashback, and
saying it will bring the series back to its turn-based action roots. They plan
on launching a Kickstarter next week at which time further details will be
revealed, and in the meantime, a
Jagged Alliance: Flashback
website is live, along with social presences on
Facebook and
Twitter. There's also
an interview on GBase.ch talking with Full Control CEO Thomas Hentschel
Lund, who explains that this will be a prequel and goes into a little detail on
its Cold War setting and how they will attempt to live up to the legacy of the
original JA.
Red 5 Studios announces that open beta testing of Firefall will begin on
July 9th, considerately allowing those interested to clear their schedules
months in advance. "We’re incredibly excited to be nearing what we consider to
be the most important stage of Firefall’s development – Open Beta," said James
Macauley, Vice President of Development, Red 5 Studios. "For us, Open Beta isn’t
a traditional ‘marketing beta’, but rather an opportunity to include many more
players in our community-driven development process. We’re looking forward to
welcoming these new players into the community and continuing to build an
amazing game together." You can sign up on the newly launched
Firefall website and more details
on the beta can be found in
this FAQ.
Pixel Maverick
Games announces the release of an updated playable demo for Candlelight,
their upcoming adventure/platformer. The version 2.0 demo is available
on this page, where word is:
"I hope you enjoy the new demo for Candlelight. Many things have changed since
the first prototype demo was release in late February. This new demo reflects
what the game is really all about. Enjoy and let me know what you think!" We
have a bit more from Pixel Maverick on the demo: "Tons of new features are
present in the demo such as candle fireballs, temples, idols, a new challenge
area, highscores, new interface and more. There is also an intro that explains
the story behind Candlelight." They also say they plan on launching a
Kickstarter for this project, but do not specify when this will begin.
Steam News announces
that Starseed Pilgrim is
now available, offering an unusual instruction-free puzzle game (thanks
cocoreno). Here's word: "Starseed Pilgrim is a game about tending a symphonic
garden, exploring space, and embracing fate. You are a gardener, tending to
empty noise and empty space to fill them both with colour. You are a refugee,
building your own world away from the spreading darkness."
Isotope 244 announces the release of
Machines at War 3,
a sequel to Land Air Sea Warfare for Windows and OS X. Here's the deal: "Using
retro strategy and heart-pounding action, Machines at War 3 lets you battle and
outsmart enemy forces as a military commander. You’re joined by a fiery officer
named Samantha Vice, who helps you maneuver through 21 intriguing campaign
missions. Your objective: Uncover why your country’s secret research team — the
Omicron Initiative — has disappeared." Playable demos are available for each
platform.
Iceberg Interactive announces April 26th is the release date for StarDrive,
Zero Sum Games' upcoming 4X space strategy game. The game went on sale
last month on
Steam in a preorder
program that grants access to the game's beta, and word is the preorder 17%
bonus will continue until launch week, when it will drop to 10%. Here's a
refresher: "StarDrive is a space-themed 4X strategy game with deep ship design,
colonization, diplomacy, research, and beautiful 3D graphics designed by new
developer Zero Sum Games, which ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011."
I'm a little sore, as I am in the midst of an ongoing project of pulling giant
tendrils of vine from the foliage in our back yard (I've been trying to come up
with a name for it, I think I've settled on Cthulhu). We've been fighting what
we've been calling a porcelain vine (not sure if that's accurate) since we've
been here, but never with enough vigor to get to the bottom of things,
ultimately leaving us with more vine than we started with as we swam against the
tide. Recently I've been doing my best to get to the root of the problem, which
is a nightmare, as it has major root structures in several different spots which
require a lot of digging. I can't even guess how long the vines I've pulled
would measure if they were laid end-to-end, but it would surely be startling.
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