The age of exploration is a crucial turning point in world history, but what if things had gone a little differently? Some of the possibilities that can occur in Europa Universalis IV are discussed by Project Lead Thomas Johansson of Paradox Development Studio, providing players with a preview of the troubles faced by an expanding nation. The promise of new riches and resources may lure your empire overseas, but what happens when your colonists start getting ideas about your relationship? What will you do when religious dissidents start fleeing their homeland and populating your new holdings… and who are these upstarts claiming to be “founding fathers?” Can you crush their notions of independence, or will the colonies rise up and outshine your empire?Continue here to read the full story.
F1 2013 will feature all the cars, circuits and star drivers from the 2013 season, allowing gamers to race as Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes and Sergio Perez in the McLaren-Mercedes for the first time, and includes all of the new drivers, updated rules, tyre changes and remodelled handling to authentically reflect the challenge and exhilaration of racing 2013’s stunning roster of FORMULA ONE™ cars. A range of game enhancements, split-screen and online multiplayer, plus new and returning game modes delivers the most complete FORMULA ONE experience in videogame history.Continue here to read the full story.
F1 2013 gives FORMULA 1™ fans the chance to compete against legendary drivers in cars from different eras of FORMULA ONE with a range of classic content from the 1980s. F1 Classics, introduced by legendary broadcaster Murray Walker, allows players to race iconic 1980s cars from Williams, Lotus and Ferrari against drivers including Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi and Gerhard Berger, with more to be announced, on classic circuits Brands Hatch and Jerez. Classic content is also available in a range of other game modes, including split-screen and online multiplayer modes.
The premium F1 2013: CLASSIC EDITION delivers even more classic content with two additional content packs featuring content from the 1990s and additional circuits to be enjoyed in F1 Classics and other game modes. The 1990s pack includes classic cars from both Williams and Ferrari and drivers such as David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Eddie Irvine and Alain Prost and others.
The two packs included in F1 2013: CLASSIC EDITION will also be available as optional DLC for players of F1 2013 shortly after release.
Not even the dream team of Mario & Luigi can dislodge ‘The Last of Us’ (-43%) from the top spot as it holds on to No1 for a 5th consecutive week.
If it makes it to six consecutive weeks at No1, then it will equal the unbroken runs of ‘Black Ops II’ and ‘FIFA 12’. Nintendo have a dream team of a different kind with their 3DS titles ‘Animal Crossing: New Leaf’ (-26%) and newcomer ‘Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros.’ together at No2 and No3 respectively. ‘FIFA 13’ (-31%) makes way, down one place to No4, while ‘Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition’ (-54%) slips from No2 to No5. ‘Far Cry 3’ (+18%) swaps places with ‘Assassin’s Creed III’ (-25%) as Ubisoft’s top title this week, up from No10 to No6, while Assassin’s Creed III drops from No5 to No8.
‘Black Ops II’ (-16%) looks comfortable at No7 for a second week (3rd add-on pack Vengeance debuted on 360 from July 2nd), while ‘Tomb Raider’ (-24%) clings on at No9. Budget-priced ‘Aliens: Colonial Marines’ (+36%) jumps back into the Top 10, up from No22 to No10. Second add-on ‘Civilization V: Brave New World’ debuts at No39 and No2 in the PC Full Price Chart.
There are two main reasons that Valve is creating Pipeline. The first is that we are frequently asked questions by teenagers about the videogame industry. "What is it like to work on videogames? What should I study? What colleges are best for preparing me? How do I get a job in videogames?" Pipeline will be a place where those questions can be discussed. The second is that Valve is running an experiment. Traditionally Valve has been a very good place for very experienced videogame developers, and not so good at teaching people straight out of school (the reasons for this and the tradeoffs are covered in the Valve employee handbook). Pipeline is an experiment to see if we can take a group of high school students with minimal work experience and train them in the skills and methods necessary to be successful at a company like Valve.
The Oz campaign has to end. There are two realities driving the decision.
First, we’re facing a challenge with the Alice film rights. Since working to remove it from the Oz campaign we've been unable to launch it as a separate campaign here on Kickstarter – the submission has been rejected multiple times and our appeals have failed (multiple campaigns are not allowed). To launch a campaign for the Alice films rights means we must first shut down the Oz campaign.
Second, we wouldn't consider shutting down the Oz campaign if it were trending towards success. As it is, we've reached 15% of our goal with 20 days left in the campaign. Projections suggest we’ll hit 30% of our goal by campaign end. I've been telling myself to remain optimistic and see this thing through – but when the reality of our funding trend is combined with the pressure of the Alice film rights situation...
For Oz, we can always launch another campaign in the future. On the other hand, the Alice film rights are only within reach during a rapidly closing window of opportunity. We’ll sacrifice Oz today in order to have a real chance with Alice.
For the record, we did also consider (and put work towards) an Alice campaign on IndieGoGo, but decided against this for two main reasons. The first is that we’re concerned about the amount of awareness we can generate on IndieGoGo, since we've never run a campaign there. Here on Kickstarter we have followers (you’re reading this). The other issue is we don’t want to be accused of ‘creating confusion’ or deal with any other negative interpretation that might come out of running two campaigns at the same time.
The Game Designer - Kickstarter and Feature Creep.
I have supported Kickstarter projects in the past, and I have never had an expectation that the scope of a project would increase if the funding exceeded expectations (unless this is explicitly specified with stretch goals). For me personally, I wouldn't have gotten mad if Double Fine had simply delivered what they promised and "pocketed" the extra money. If they are getting paid accordingly to do what they love, without having to work for a big evil publisher, they will almost certainly make more games. So any "extra" money is just going into those future products.
My logic on this is that the crowd-funding paradigm looks to me an awful like the "pre-ordering" paradigm. You pay ahead of time for a product, in exchange for some positive benefit. In software, this benefit might be a lower price or a bonus game level, or even just the assurance that you will get the game on launch day instead of having to waiting in line. This is the customer/publisher relationship. If a traditional game publisher has more pre-orders than planned, they don't expand their scope accordingly. In fact, the very idea is silly. If EA projects that Madden pre-sales will be 250K and they hit 300K, the development team doesn't run back to the studio and try to squeeze in an extra feature before launch.
Hot Links: | Thanks Ant and Acleacius. |
Play: | Icarus Needs. |
Stories: | The Night James Gandolfini Disappeared. |
Images: |
They said wear something patriotic to work. Challenge accepted. Sinkholes: When the Earth Opens Up. |
Media: |
Attack on Gaben.
Thanks
reddit. I Broke Arma 3. When US Slams Russia, Press Conference BACKFIRES Big Time. |
Follow-up: | Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Swedish Professor. Thanks Slashdot. |