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Archived News:
S2 Games announces Strife, a new MOBA in development for release this
winter, bragging that this makes them the only studio with two MOBAs currently
in development, as they continue to support
Heroes of Newerth while
creating the new game. The Strife website
is online, offering a
teaser trailer, and here's word on what will make this game
different: Unlike other MOBAs, Strife is built entirely around the idea of
a collective, contributing community. Predicated on creating a more connected
multiplayer experience that incentivizes cooperation, Strife streamlines
communication between players with innovative, in-client social systems and
rewards players for team collaboration, not simply placing highest on a
leaderboard. It also employs design elements that instruct and inform, providing
immediate feedback for genre newcomers and veterans alike.
Strife aims to make strides in MOBA storytelling, delivering an engrossing world
with a layered backstory to further connect players with the heroes they choose.
It all begins when the invasion of the Dharkwave, harbingers of darkness
foretold by prophecy, is imminent, promising catastrophe upon the world. Its
only hope is an Army of Light, forged in the crucible of battle to hold the line
against their impending arrival. Players must overcome “The Trials of Strife,”
as well as one another, to prove themselves as champions worthy to face the
Dharkwave.
Continue here to read the full story.
Activision and Treyarch announce Apocalypse, the final DLC in the Season
Pass for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, their military shooter sequel. As
before, this will debut on Xbox 360 on August 27th for an exclusive period
(likely 30 days) before coming to Windows and PlayStation 3. This will feature
four new multiplayer maps, a new zombie experience, and music from Avenged
Sevenfold because... well, because. Here's word: Call of Duty: Black Ops
II Apocalypse delivers four diverse multiplayer maps:
- Pod: A failed utopian community from the
70's has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an
abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist
compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as
well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
- Frost: Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder
in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal
separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level
traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
- Takeoff: Fans of "Stadium" from the
original Call of Duty®: Black Ops First Strike DLC will find themselves at
home on "Takeoff." Marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote
launch site is all about close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with
open spaces for intense encounters.
- Dig: An adaptation of the fan-favorite
"Courtyard" from Call of Duty®: World at War, where two archeological dig
sites in Afghanistan become the perfect playground for combatants eager for
hectic, unceasing confrontations. Treyarch, has retained the spirit of
"Courtyard" with two major chokepoints, a wide open layout and raised
platforms, but has provided fans with a fresh take on the multitude of
paths.
In addition to the four maps, Apocalypse also reveals Origins, the most
horrifying and imaginative Zombies experience to date. Players will be deployed
to Dieselpunk-stylized World War I-era France where they will encounter the
return of the four original heroes from the very first Zombies map, Tank,
Nikolai, Takeo, and Rictofen, as well as hordes of zombies that have overrun
trenches and fields, as well as the ruins of a mysterious and ancient
location.
Valve has closed a small satellite office in San Francisco and parted ways with
Jeff Gates and Tod Semple, the pair of former PopCap employees that were working
there, reports
IGN. "Jeff and I are working on indie games again," Semple told IGN. "We
were working for Valve in a remote office in San Mateo. It turned out that there
weren't many benefits for either side in that arrangement. Valve was super cool
about it and is letting us continue to work on our game and is also giving us
the office. So Jeff and I are starting up a new company called Temple Gates
Games." They also have a statement on this from Valve: "We were big fans of
their prior work. We worked with them during their startup phase, but they’re
independent now and still working on their game. We wish them the best of luck."
Thanks
Joystiq.
Gamasutra has news that former Rift producer Scott Hartsman has returned to
Trion Worlds where he will take over as CEO of the developer. Word is: "Outgoing
CEO and Trion Worlds co-founder Lars Buttler remains attached to the studio as a
member of the board, a Trion representative was able to confirm for Gamasutra.
However, his new role has not yet been defined." This was
followed almost immediately with word that Trion is closing its San Diego
offices. Here's word: "We can confirm that the San Diego studio will be closing.
The day to day operations of Defiance will be moved to our Redwood City studio
where it can be managed alongside Rift and our other in development titles
including ArcheAge and End of Nations. As part of this transition, we are
working hard to ensure that a number of great people will be making the move
from San Diego to the Bay Area and continue their work at Trion."
Matt Hooper's LinkedIn profile
lists a new job for the game development vet, saying he is the new Director of
Development at Oculus VR after last serving as Creative Director at id Software
until February of this year. This follows
the news that id Software's John
Carmack is joining the virtual reality company. Thanks
Game Front.
- Unboxing
Xbox One. Actual prototype unit removed from actual prototype box.
Includes actual prototype headset.
EGOSOFT announces
that X Rebirth will be released in Europe on November 15th of this year
and the space combat reboot will follow in North America on November 19th. They
offer a trailer with
some gameplay to celebrate the news along with two video developer diaries, one
on Controls and the
other on Scale and Detail.
The Steam page for the game
is now live with system requirements (minimum Intel i-series 2GHz or
equivalent/NVIDIA GT[X]400 or AMD 4870HD/4 GB RAM, recommended i5 quad or i7 2.5
GHz or equivalent/NVIDIA GT[X]500 or AMD 5870HD/8 GB RAM) and here's
word: X Rebirth breaks the veil of silence and brings not only
confirmation of its promised release date but also some answers to fans'
questions and a new series of in-game videos.
Release date
The action-loaded space simulation from Egosoft and Deep Silver will be released
in Europe on the 15th of November 2013. "After seven years in development,
people are naturally wondering why X Rebirth took so much time," says Egosoft's
Studio Head Bernd Lehahn. "The reason for this is the sheer scope of our
project. We not only want our universe to be huge, we want it to be huge and
teeming with life. To me, the success of the Star Citizen funding shows that
many people are waiting for our kind of game. A single factory compound in X
Rebirth may consist of hundreds of buildings, some of which are so large that
ships measuring kilometers in length can dock inside them. The player can even
disembark in order to explore the station and meet its inhabitants."
There's also some good news for our fans in North America: Egosoft and Tri
Synergy will be releasing X Rebirth on the 19th of November 2013 for the US
market.
We'd like to invite all our fans to visit the gamescom during the 22nd to 25th
of August in Cologne. You will have the chance to play the new Egosoft title for
the first time in public at the Deep Silver booth in hall 9.1 B11/C10. Be among
the very first to set foot in the new universe of X Rebirth and gain a quick
impression of its looks and gameplay.
Continue here to read the full story.
A playable demo for Europa Universalis IV is now available
on Steam, alongside
preorders of Paradox Development Studio's strategy sequel that's due for release
next week. The full game will offer multiple language support and cross-platform
play between Windows, OS X, and Linux, but the demo is just for Windows and is
only in English.
This page offers a detailed description of what to expect from the demo, and
here's a short summary: In the demo version of Europa Universalis IV,
players can take up the flag of one of four available nations, sampling the
trade system as Venice, going to war as the Ottoman Empire, founding new
colonies as Portugal, or engaging in shrewd diplomacy as Austria. Demo games
will last for 28 in-game years and include an extensive tutorial and hint
system. The demo will not include multiplayer capabilities, and please note that
the abilities to save & load have been disabled.
Bohemia Interactive announces a September 12th release date for Arma 3,
the next installment in their realistic military shooter series. They offer a
Launch Countdown to save
wear-and-tear on your calendar, and this also notes plans for a livestream
celebrating the game on Saturday. Here's word on the release, the livestream,
and how you can still get the game at a discount price by making your purchasing
while it's still in beta: Bohemia Interactive today announced the release
date for its upcoming tactical military shooter, Arma 3. Available in digital
and physical retail stores worldwide, Arma 3 will launch on Thursday September
12, 2013.
Benefiting from the splendid support of Alpha and Beta participants, Arma 3
ships with the large open terrains of ‘Altis’ (270 km²) and ‘Stratis’ (20 km²),
12 singleplayer showcases, 3 faction showcases, 9 multiplayer scenarios, 10
firing drill challenges, more than 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, 5 factions, the
scenario editor and modding support. The Arma 3 singleplayer campaign will be
released across
3 free DLC episodes after launch.
To launch the countdown, the Arma 3 devteam is hosting an official
Twitch.tv livestream on
Saturday August 10 at 17.00 UTC. Live from Bohemia Interactive HQ in Prague,
everyone is invited for a sneak peek at Arma 3’s release package. The livestream
is expected to last about one hour, and those who do not want to miss out can
already enlist for
the event via Arma 3’s Facebook page.
Last but not least, Bohemia Interactive has opened the Countdown To Launch web
page. Here players can find a complete overview of the content available in Arma
3 – alongside descriptions and screenshots.
To participate in the final stages of pre-release development, people can
purchase the regular Arma 3 Beta (34.99 EUR/29.99 GBP/44.99 USD) or the Arma 3
Digital Deluxe Edition (44.99 EUR/39.99 GBP/59.99 USD) from Steam or
Store.bistudio.com. Both editions include the full retail game and prices will
increase upon launch.
MCV has word that Payday 2 is already in the black, even though the
heist sequel is not due for release until next week. They have a translated
report saying the game is already profitable thanks to preorder support. Also,
VG247 has a How Not to
Rob a Bank- Part 3 trailer with their hands-on experiences from the game,
following
part one and part two. Continue here to read the full story.
Massively has details on Civilization Online, a planned MMO based on
the strategy series they
wrote of late last year as a project coming to Asian markets, a few of years
after rumors that a similar game
was cancelled by 2K Games. Word is this will not be a strategy game like the
solo installments in the series, but will rather be a sandbox MMORPG that will
allow players to participate in the construction of the world in a hands-on way.
There's also a write-up on the game on
MMORPG.com (thanks
VG247) saying the game is still only slated for release in Korea, but they
are seeking a western publisher, which is a bit of a head-scratcher since they
also have a Civilization
Online Debut Trailer that dawns with the 2K Games logo. Continue here to read the full story.
Kickstarter update for ROAM speaks of "legal things" impacting the future of
this zombie game, though they indicate this while this is preventing them from
providing status reports about the project, it is not impeding development, and
there does not seem to be a concern that this will prevent them from releasing
the game when it's complete (thanks nin). This is confusing due to how vague it
is, and this may not change, as they explain that how much they will be able disclose about
this depends on how it turns out. Here's word: Unfortunately, the
situation of "legal things" is such that it cannot be revealed at the moment.
Depending on the outcome of the aforementioned, we shall or shall not be able to
disclose what has transpired. Whether full disclosure occurs or does not occur,
the progress of game development has not been hindered, and will not be
hindered. The lack of game development dialogue in updates indicates that it is
hindered, as any logical individual would and should surmise. However, it is the
"legal things" that are preventing us from providing game development dialogue.
Please be rest assured that development is still occurring, albeit unable to be
displayed to backers for now.
Kalypso Media and Stardock Entertainment announce plans to bring a boxed edition
of Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes to European retailers, saying
this will hit shelves on August 16th. The
Legendary Heroes website
has all the details on the game, and here's a summary: "After a devastating
cataclysm has precipitated the world of elemental into an era dominated by
death, chaos and destruction, new civilizations have risen from the ashes. In
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes you will forge a new empire in a world
sundered by powerful magic. Mighty champions and grand armies will fight under
your flag to face terrible creatures, complete quests, rediscover lost secrets
and expand your kingdom in your bid to rule the world of Elemental."
This
Kickstarter seeks $15K to fund World War II: TCG a web-based and
mobile digital card game based in WW2, the big one. They are about a third of
the way to their goal already, and here's an explanation of where they stand
with this: World War II: TCG is the first multiplatform Digital Card Game
based on World War II, available for iOS, Android and browser. With over 200
unique cards and unique strategic features, the game will provide a new approach
to Online Digital Card Games. The game core is completed and we expect to launch
it by the last quarter of the year, however, due to our funds depleting we had
to move some great game features to the backlog, hoping to implement them once
the game has been released. If you decide to help us by pledging the game we
will make sure to hire the extra programmers we need to have all those great
features implemented by launch.
A new
Kickstarter for Pro Pinball: Timeshock! - The ULTRA Edition is a
second effort from Barnstorm Games to fund a state-of-the-art remake of the
pinball simulation Timeshock! from back in the 1990s. Their first campaign
stalled, but it looks like they've flippered the script here, and well over
halfway to their £40,000 goal with over a month remaining. Here's their plan: My
ultimate aim is to completely rebuild all four classic games from scratch (The
Web, Timeshock!, Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey) to create amazing new ULTRA
Editions, whilst developing a whole new series of brand new games using both
original and licensed themes, hopefully designed in conjunction with well known
ex-Williams designers. Eventually, I would like to see all the games going out
on just about every platform out there; PC, Mac, iOS, Android, OUYA, Linux,
XBLA, PS3, PS Vita, 3DS and Wii U.
I am soliciting opinions on a couple of questions today. Overnight a couple of
posts were reported for being personal attacks, only the attacks were on the
developer mentioned in the article, rather than on another reader. The goal of
our loose forum rules is to allow as much freedom of expression as possible, so
we usually allow more leeway in crabbing about public figures than each other,
since the later tends to promote flame wars, while the former doesn't. On the
other hand, venom is not required to make most points, so I'm leaning towards
removing posts that cross the line of civility, and want to see how you all feel
about the tradeoffs this represents between personal expression and good
manners. Also, I included a couple of screenshot thumbnails on the front page
yesterday and asked if this was okay (normally you'd have to click a link to
view the them here), and there were a couple of negative comments, but not much
outcry, which has me leaning towards including them more often, so now is the
time to say so if you hate that idea. Thanks in advance for whatever feedback
you're willing to provide.
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