Archived News:

Monday, May 06, 2013

Against the Qlock DLC for Q.U.B.E.

Steam News announces the release of Against the Qlock, a new DLC pack for Q.U.B.E., adding new challenges to the first-person puzzle game. Here's word: "This all-new time trial package pits the player against the clock in a bid to get the highest score and beat their friends. Combining precision, logic and quick reactions the player must speed through each of the ten levels using a variety of pick-ups to their advantage."

Alice Cosplay Contest

Though Spicy Horse Games' stated ambitions to hold a Kickstarter for a new Alice game are still uncertain to be fulfilled, the developer feels negotiations with EA for the IP are going well enough to give the project the title Alice: Otherlands, and to hold a cosplay contest to find someone to portray Alice for the game's Kickstarter pitch video. Details on how to enter can be found on their Facebook page, where they note this involves being Shanghaied, so the winner must be prepared to travel.

Call of Juarez Gunslinger Trailer

Here's a new trailer for Call of Juarez Gunslinger telling "The Story of Silas Greave," a stylized look at the main character from Techland's upcoming western shooter sequel. The clip includes lots of gameplay, as well as some cinematics, including a slow-motion shot showing a bullet travelling towards its target with its cartridge case still attached. We also have some new screenshots from the game. Continue here to read the full story.

On Sale

Into the Black

Link of the Day: Minecraft Game of Thrones Opening. Or at least it uses the opening music. Thanks Ant.

Krieg Comes to Borderlands 2 Next Week

Gearbox tweets that May 14th is the release date for Krieg the Psycho, the promised new playable character for Borderlands 2, Gearbox's first-person shooter sequel. This previously released trailer offers a look at this new psycho bandit vault hunter. Thanks nin. Continue here to read the full story.

German GTA5 PC Listings

Amazon.de and GamesOnly each currently show German-language listings for a PC edition of Grand Theft Auto V, even though a version of the action sequel has not yet been announced for the platform. The previous installments in the series (except for the mobile variants) have all come to PCs, but until it's official, GTA5 for Windows is still just a rumor. Interestingly, the GamesOnly stresses they are selling what our translation calls the "guaranteed uncensored" and "100% Pre uncut version." Thanks Computer and Video Games via Gematsu.

EA's Exclusive Star Wars Game Rights

EA announces "a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines." The announcement has comments from EA Labels President Frank Gibeau, as does a new blog update on the topic on EA News, neither of which disclose the financial terms of the agreement. Here's what the announcement says about the deal: "Here's what this covers: "Under the agreement, EA will develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, while Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories." Here's Frank Gibeau's outline of their general plans:
The EA Studios that will develop these games are some of the most innovative and popular creative teams in the world, and include DICE and Visceral, in addition to the BioWare team, which is already developing for the Star Wars franchise. These imaginative teams will make games that may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories. Powering it all will be the Frostbite 3 development engine – guaranteeing incredible graphic fidelity, environments and characters.

Shadow of the Eternals Fundraiser

Precursor Games announces the launch of the promised crowdfunding campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, an episodic action/adventure game using the CryENGINE from the creators of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. The Shadow of the Eternals website is home to the fundraising, which looks to raise $1.5 million so they can release the first episode for PC and WiiU in Q3 of next year, and they have a couple of videos to get the campaign rolling. Here's more:
Hamilton, Ontario – May 6th 2013 – Precursor Games today unveils its debut project Shadow of the Eternals. Developed by the creators of the critically acclaimed Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Shadow of the Eternals is an episodic action/adventure game that is likely to gain the attention of gamers everywhere.

Featuring an ensemble cast, Shadow of the Eternals will span over 2500 years of human history. Players will question their own perception of reality as they progress through this mind-altering psychological horror. The Pilot Episode is slated for release Q3 2014 on the Nintendo Wii U and PC.

The emerging studio is taking crowdfunding to the next level by giving the community the ability to contribute content to the game. Precursor Games has also revealed a campaign video and rewards tier system to go with their 1.5 million dollar goal, including pre-orders and exclusive merchandise.

“Precursor Games intends to leave no stone unturned in order to create an unparalleled experience for gamers”, said Paul Caporicci, CEO of Precursor Games. “We have a talented team, incredible technology with CryENGINE and a new business model where we directly integrate the fan base into the development process, allowing for new possibilities and game direction. We are very excited to see where this new direction leads.”

More on The Sims 4

EA offers more details on The Sims 4, the just-announced new installment in the wee people simulation. They note that The Sims 4 Website is online with newsletter signups for the game, as well as details. Those details, unfortunately, are in Simlish, so we have to rely on what they sent along for more on this, which stress this being a "single-player offline experience," doubtless to distance this project from the furor over the online-only nature of SimCity:
Sul Sul! Maxis and Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims™ 4 is currently in development at The Sims Studio for release on PC and Mac in 2014. The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience. The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans.

The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world’s most popular simulation games that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

As a thank you for the support of the more than 30 million fans that share and discuss stories about The Sims across global social networks, a special VIP briefing was held this morning where several of the world’s top fans were amongst the first to hear the news about The Sims 4. This select group was the first in the world to hear from the creative team for The Sims 4, and they will receive special access to the development team as the game progresses.

Bethesda's New Tease

The Bethesda Softworks Twitter feed is all atwitter with teases of a new project that they say "is not related to anything @BGS_Devs is working on." They have posted this image and this image on Twitter and this one on GameSpot to tease what they are talking about, saying this drama will continue to unfold on GameSpot. Thanks GameInformer."

The Sims 4 Announced

Maxis announces The Sims 4, saying a new installment in the lifestyle simulation is on the way for Windows and OS X next year. Details are scant at the moment, but they promise more later today. Here's word:
Today we are revealing to our top fans the fact that The Sims™ 4 is coming to PC and Mac in 2014.

The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world’s most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

More information will be revealed later today here on The Beat, so stay tuned.

Share your excitement for the game on Twitter with the hashtag #TheSims4.

The Lord of the Rings Online Update Next Week

WB Games and Turbine send word that May 13th is when to expect update 11 to go live in The Lord of the Rings Online, their Tolkien-inspired MMORPG. This article discusses how home foreclosures will work in the new game, though there's no word on whether they are introducing any other features to fulfill your banking fantasies. Here's more on what the update will bring: "The epic story continues as you are called to the remote region of Wildermore! This Eastern Rohan area has been hard hit by an unnatural and deadly winter. A Stone Giant named Núrzum, under the control of Saruman, is rumored as the source of this icy tragedy. Throughout Wildermore, villages have suffered ravage and townsfolk have become refugees. Follow in the chilly footsteps of evil as you attempt to restore this once thriving region."

Pacific Rim Game Rating Sighted

The Australian Classification Board lists an "M" rating for a multiplatform game called Pacific Rim, suggesting game tie-in is planned for director Guillermo del Toro's upcoming action movie. The movie's title suggests anything from a surfing flick to a porno, but the film centers around giant mechs fighting off an alien invasion, which will presumably be the theme of the game. The only clues in the description suggest violence and online play will be included: "Fantasy violence; Gaming experience may change online." Thanks VG247.

Silent Enemy PC Plans

The Minority website offers a teaser (from almost a week ago) for Silent Enemy, the next game from the developers of Papo & Yo. For the moment they offer this teaser trailer, and this description: "We’ve decided to put a short video together to give you a peek at what we are currently working on. Our next game, Silent Enemy, aims to help us understand the phenomenon of bullying while enjoying a gripping adventure set in a place never featured in video games: Quebec’s Great North. Silent Enemy will also mark a second first for us, as it will be our first (but not the last) video game experience featuring an Aboriginal character!" The trailer touches on the game's bullying theme, which is further explored in an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, where they speak with Minority's Vander Caballero, who also confirms for them that this project is coming to Windows PCs, in spite of previous indications that it would be exclusive to mobiles and OUYA.

Chasm Kickstarted; Demo Available

The Kickstarter for Chasm shows this project from Discord Games has surpassed its $150K funding goal with several days remaining in the campaign. The game carries this concise description: "Chasm is a 2D Fantasy ARPG Platformer featuring procedurally generated Metroid-like dungeons and authentic pixel art." There is a version 1.05 playable demo so the game can be sampled on Windows, OS X, or Linux, and here's a trailer with a look at gameplay. Thanks Kotaku.

Op Ed

Gamasutra: Ramin Shokrizade's Blog - "Free" is Getting Very Expensive.
So what is this $642 value I am getting? It seems clear that what I am getting here is a tremendous amount of game advantage. I can get cards that would otherwise not be available to players who did not spend this much, and presumably I can win battles that I would otherwise not deserve to. Likewise, other players will be able to spend money to win battles against me that they otherwise should not have been able to win. For me this severely reduces the value of this content. I might even go as far as to say this content now has a negative value for me since I would feel so corrupt in using it. The knowledge that others will be using such content against me, even if I am “playing for free” means that I am just there to be fed to the players that outspend me. So here I am going to rate this a “poor value”.

Morning Previews

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews

Out of the Blue

When the Knicks started losing playoff games to the Celtics after going up 3-0 in their series, I was able to take some comfort from history: No NBA team has ever overcome such a deficit to win a seven game playoff, and sure enough, the Celts were not able to complete their run, which certainly showed a lot of championship heart. Now I have to start rooting against history after they lost game one in their series against the Pacers, as the Knicks have never won a playoff series after losing the home opener. And the last time they lost game one at home was also against the Pacers back in 1995. At least the Pacers don't still have Reggie Miller, though I'm pretty sure the Knick killer would still be able to put up 20 points per game against the Knickerbockers at age 47, so thankfully he's decided to take it easy these days.

Easy Links: Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play: Path Barrel.
Links: Here is Today.
Science: Telescope detects the most energetic gamma-ray burst yet.
Study: Engineered airborne hybrid flu contagious between mammals.
Images: APOD: A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana. Thanks brother19.
Media: Aussie Star Wars - Episode IV- A New Bloke. NSFW. Thanks nin via Kotaku.
Best News Bloopers April 2013. NSFW.
Japanese Sticky Floor prank. Thanks reddit.
About That Ad Blocker
We see you're using an ad blocker. While we strive to make our ads behave, we understand your desire for peace and privacy. So please consider becoming a supporter to take advantage of the no ads version of Blue's News. This will help sustain our efforts to bring you the best in gaming and tech news without requiring you to see ads or suffer a guilty conscience. You'll even get a nifty forum badge that will be the envy of the neighborhood!
Support the Site!