Rock, Paper, Shotgun has word that alpha testing for Sir, You Are Being
Hunted will open to preorder customers on August 19th, offering the chance to
check out this survival game from Big Robot, the developer operated the founder
of the website. Here's word on the alpha, the current state of development, and
why it should still be fun to replay the game going forward:
On August
19th the game will appear on Humble Store and Steam. Anyone who backed the
Kickstarter or pre-ordered will instantly get the game at that point. Anyone who
buys the game on Steam or Humble store will get immediate access from that date.
They will also get all future updates of the game, of which there will be quite
a few.
Right now the game is in an ‘alpha’ state, which means that it’s fully playable
and stable, but missing a few intended features. You can play through the game,
and right now you face the base level hunter AI, their dogs, their sentry
balloons, and also The Squire, which is a large middle-class robot who guards
villages. This set of NPCs provides a decent challenge on its own, and you can
play through the game to completion against them and have a decent experience,
even though we plan to add much more . You can use traps, distractions, and even
guns and bombs, to get past them and get the pieces of the device you need to
get off the island.
The idea for Sir is that it is entirely replayable. You will generate another
archipelago and have an entirely different experience. The landscape will be
different, the distribution of items will be different, enemies will be in
different places and patrolling different routes. As development continues we’ll
be exposing more and more tools to you guys so that you can tweak and alter your
experience. Plenty of options ship with the game on the 19th, but there are more
to come.
The
FINAL FANTASY XI website has word that to celebrate the XIth birthday of
the MMORPG that's the 11th installment in the RPG series, they are giving away
all III Abyssea battle area expansions, "along with a few key items to help
with your adventures there." Word is: "As part of the campaign, the three
add-ons ('Vision of Abyssea®, 'Scars of Abyssea®' and 'Heroes of Abyssea®') are
available for free to users that have not tried out this exciting high-level
content. Users wishing to dive into the Abyssea add-ons will need to have
registered and installed the 'Rise of the Zilart®' and 'Wings of the Goddess®'
expansion packs, as well as reached level 30 in at least one job."
The
Steam Greenlight website has word that 15 more game titles have been
approved for sale on
Steam by this community vetting process (thanks nin via
Rock, Paper, Shotgun). Here are the games that will come to
Steam upon
completion of development:
A
new trailer for
SimCity shows off the capabilities of a new raise/lower tool for the urban
planning sequel that will be part of the game's Update 7 that's expected later
this month (thanks
Incgamers). For more
on what's to be included in this patch, there's
this
blog post which outlines further improvements to how the game's AI handles
traffic for services like police and garbage pickups as well as the Sims in
their daily commutes.
Continue here to read the full story.
Preorders are now underway for the
Virtuix Omni Gaming Treadmill, the
recently revealed accessory that looks
to add virtual running to your virtual reality experience. The units are USD
$499.00 for one or $1,019 for two (the price discrepancy apparently due to the
inclusion of an extra pair of shoes) for those willing to spring for this before
seeing reviews, and their current estimated ship date is March 2014. Thanks
Polygon.
A
Kickstarter update for
Wasteland 2 has word from inXile entertainment
that, separate from their fundraising for a sequel, they are planning on
re-releasing the original
Wasteland on Steam and GOG.com, while also
providing a free copy for their backers (thanks nin). Word is this will be
updated to work on current computers before the release:
As you may know,
we had a deal in place with EA to give all our Wasteland 2 backers (including
late backers) a
copy of Wasteland 1, which was to be integrated and launched from the game’s
menu like the original Bard’s Tale trilogy into the new Bard’s Tale. We very
happy about that, as we’ve always wanted to enable people to get back to the
original, and it serves as a good refresher for the sequel.
We recently went to talk with EA to try and get it out in a different, separate
format, and they accommodated our idea. We’ve now inked a new deal where we’ll
be able to release Wasteland 1 separately. After getting the game in our hands
and ensuring it runs on modern machines, we plan to distribute it FOR FREE to
all our backers before Wasteland 2’s release, as well as sell it on
GOG.com and Steam for anyone else interested in
trying out this classic RPG.
A request rolled in for assistance in finding a young lady from the
EverQuest
2 gaming community who has gone missing, so we'll do our best to help.
Katherine "Kate" Masson disappeared on August 7th during a business trip, and
was last seen in Albany, New York.
Here is a description with a photo and details on her last known
whereabouts. Anyone with any information is asked to
email here to help.
Twitter 
