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Archived News:
The Creative Assembly announces plans for both free and paid DLC to follow the
imminent release of Total War: ROME II, their upcoming strategy sequel.
"ROME II will be the biggest game we’ve ever released, in terms of scope,
gameplay features and sheer weight of content," explains James Russell, Lead
Designer. "But even then we’re just scratching the surface of the Roman period,
an era so rich in diversity that it’s easy to foresee releasing relevant content
for years after ROME II has shipped." Here's the outline: Alongside
paid-for DLC, Creative Assembly also plans to support players with regular free
content and feature updates. “As with SHOGUN 2, we will continually improve the
game’s compatibility, optimization and integral features such as AI and gameplay
balancing post-release, and plan to add to that with new control schemes and
additional free formats on other operating systems,” continued Russell. “We are
also very proud of how SHOGUN 2 is our most moddable Total War to date with over
500 user-made mods on Steam Workshop alone. We hope to support ROME II in a
similar fashion.”
“In addition to free content, gamers can expect to see Culture Packs that add
more playable factions and unique units, Feature Packs that add gameplay or
wide-ranging aesthetic changes, and Campaign Packs that add entirely new
story-based campaign expansions.”
While the Greek States Culture Pack DLC and free Pontus playable faction update
will arrive day one; by October players will be able to add the Seleucid Empire
to their playable faction roster for free, and the Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack
featuring the Royal Scythians, Roxolani and Massagetae as paid-for DLC.
Total War: ROME II will be released on September 3rd and includes the Greek
States Culture Pack for free when pre-ordering from participating
retailers.
Haemimont Games is working on an action/RPG called Victor Vran, reports
Joystiq, who learned of this at a Gamescom meeting with the Tropico
developer. They offer some first-hand impressions, saying the game is
reminiscent of Diablo, noting that this includes jumping, something that brings
out the Woody Harrelson in Blizzard's series. They offer a few more first
impressions: "Victor Vran will support both single and multiplayer, where
players will always take on the roll of Victor Vran, with their companions
reskinned. Vran's arsenal includes scythes, normal guns, lightning guns and much
more." Thanks
Shacknews.
Gamasutra notes their job board now includes a listing for a Design Director
position at id Software. Tim Willits has served for several years as the
company's Creative Director, but to our knowledge, Design Director is a role
that nobody has filled before. Here's how the job is described: Managing
a team of designers through every phase of development – from concept and
prototyping, through full production Working with producer to determine tasks
and schedules while meeting milestones Collaborate with other team leads to
design and build game systems and logic Head design meetings and group game
review sessions Continually review the game and provide feedback to designers
and artists Collaborate on game design documentation, writing proposals, and
final docs for all aspects of the game’s design
The Dead Island Epidemic
website is now accepting signups from those interested in beta testing
Techland's upcoming zombie MOBA.
This application is
where to register your interest, and applicants must be at least 13 years of age
and willing to abide by a non-disclosure agreement. Thanks
Shacknews.
The
Blizzard Entertainment Jobs Directory no longer lists positions for their
next-generation MMOG, aka Titan, reports
GameSpot. In late May, Blizzard
confirmed that the game was being rethought and delayed, and that the
development team had been significantly scaled back. GameSpot has not yet
received an official response to their inquires about this.
There's a brief
World of Warcraft Q&A on Polygon where lead designer Tom Chilton
spoke with them at Gamescom about how embracing more casual players was a key
element in the phenomenal success of World of Warcraft. They discuss if this
will ever extend to making the game free-to-play, and he says they are not
closed to the idea, though he expresses quite a bit of uncertainty about the
prospect: "For Blizzard it makes sense [to go free-to-play] at some
point. But a lot of the risk is in making that transition. You her stories about
developers going free-to-play and getting double the number of players, but you
don't always know it works out that way and how long it stays that way. We
really don't know what the rate is before people drop off and lose
interest."
- Fallout Collection on
Steam. Save 75%.
- Thinking Gamer's Delight on
GOG.com. Save 50%.
Link of the Day:
The 50+ Greatest Tweets about Ben Affleck's casting as Batman. Thanks
Neutronbeam. LOL: "I've just seen Christian Bale going to Affleck's apartment
with some Huey Lewis records and an axe."
The
Microsoft website announces that Steve Ballmer will retire from his post as
Microsoft CEO within the next 12 months, and will take the Long Walk into the Cursed Earth
to bring law to the lawless (thanks Verno). Here's word: REDMOND, Wash. —
Aug. 23, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chief Executive Officer
Steve Ballmer has decided to retire as CEO within the next 12 months, upon the
completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will
continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its
transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the
activities they value most.
ArenaNet announces
the
promised free trial for Guild Wars 2 kicks off today, coinciding with
the release of a new Heroic Edition of the game: BRIGHTON, UK – 23 AUGUST, 2013: NCSOFT® and ArenaNet™, developer of the smash
hit Guild Wars 2, commemorates a record-breaking first year with a free trial of
their critically acclaimed game on 23-25 August, 2013. The Seattle-area studio
has also released the Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition, which includes the base game
with the Heroic Pack, which is loaded with useful digital items for new players.
The free trial, which is open to all players in Europe and North America, starts
09:01 CEST (08:01 BST) on 23 August, 2013 and ends at 07:59 BST on 26 August,
2013. Players can register for their free trial accounts at
https://register.guildwars2.com/trial.
The Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition includes the award-winning MMORPG, which IGN.com
called “one of the best MMOs ever made,” as well as the Heroic Pack, which
includes a number of digital items ideal for new players:
- One Legacy Armour – Players can adventure in style
with this classic armour
- 18-slot Mithril Box – This huge storage box will
increase loot carrying capacity
- 10 Experience Boosters – With these boosters,
players can level up faster
The Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition is available for £34.99 / €39.99.
German site
ESOHUB.de has word from Bethesda's Matt Firor that The Elder Scrolls
Online will feature an in-game store, in spite of
the recent
announcement the game will feature subscriptions. In a mantra learned from
F2P developers, he explains how this is a chance to buy things irrelevant to the
actual game. The site is German, but the interview is offered as a video, so
Matt explains this in English: "There won't be anything like 'bonus points,' but
we'll have a shop to buy kind of fun stuff, and services too, like name changes
and things like that. But it's not part of the core game. Like, anything in the
core game is included in the subscription price." Thanks
AusGamers via
Reddit.
Dennaton Games will be adding an higher difficulty mode for Hotline Miami 2:
Wrong Number, Dennis Wedin explains
to Polygon. This will be unlockable by achieving a C+ rating on a level in
hard mode. This is still in the works, but he promises them it will be very
hard. "In normal mode, it's pretty much the same [as Hotline Miami]," Wedin told
them. "We will add a hard mode to the game, like in the way Super Meat Boy
works. We added this because some people said that the first game was too easy.
So we wanted to give them something more. Also, all the players trying to beat
the world record or top the leaderboards — we wanted to give them more stuff to
be good at."
A new trailer offers a
"pre-alpha teaser" for Broken Sword -- the Serpent's Curse, using alpha
footage of Revolution Software's upcoming Broken Sword sequel. The clip shows
off the game's art style, some puzzles, and more. Thanks
Eurogamer. Continue here to read the full story.
GamersGate now offers early access sales of Champions of Demah, where
players can get the real-time strategy/action game hybrid for 57% during alpha
testing, getting the chance to play the game first, and to also influence the
direction of its development, and following that theme, they are also running a
Steam
Greenlight campaign. The game is expected for full release later this year,
and here's the deal: Gävle, Sweden - NRD Studios Ab has today released an
early access version of Champions of Demah. The game is available through
GamersGate and is priced at $12.99/?9.99/£8.99.
The early access version of Champions of Demah allows players to get hold of the
game before its general release at a discounted price. Additionally everyone who
purchases will have a part to play in the development of the final build by
helping to beta test and shape the overall direction.
Champions of Demah is a hybrid real-time strategy (RTS) and third-person action
multiplayer game. Players can play the game in either mode. In the RTS mode,
players can command troops, construct buildings and manage resources. In the
third-person mode, players take direct control of their customisable character
to fight against enemies on the battlefield.
Featuring hundreds of abilities and skills, multiple game modes, interactive
maps, 32 player multiplayer, nine playable classes, and deep customization
options Champions of Demah promises to be an exciting release in late
2013.
Gugila announces the launch of Altitude0:
Lower and Faster, their aerial racing game that is free-to-play, but has
some features only open to supporters. The "Lower and Faster" part refers to how
the game rewards players for flying as low as possible. Here's a
gameplay trailer, and
here's word: This game is about speed, skills and competition. It's really
up to you and not about a predefined in-game character, whether you improve your
flying skills and become a flying ace. You will feel like an air race pilot,
thinking about how to shave off fractions of a second at each corner and curve,
and how to fly at best angles. Dance in the air!
Altitude0: Lower & Faster has a single player mode where you compete against
replays of others and also an online multiplayer mode. A special "Freeway"
multiplayer mode makes it possible to join the race at any time and a big
number of players (30 and more) can participate in the same race. If there
aren't enough real players present in the race, replays of random pilots will be
spawned to spice it up. Freeway race will always be alive and kicking no matter
how many players are around at the same time.
Continue here to read the full story.
Indie game developer Greenheart Games announces Game Dev Tycoon is coming
to Steam for Windows and OS X on August 29th. The game originally launched on
the Windows 8 marketplace, and them jumping off that gravy train may be a
meta-lesson for would-be game developers. The
Steam Store is now
accepting pre-purchases of the game, offering a 20% discount through the first
week of availability. The game can also be purchased directly from
Greenheart
Games, where they also offer playable demos for Windows, OS X, and Linux.
Here's a new trailer
and here's word: The game, which was initially launched on the Windows 8
Store in December 2012, was successfully re-released on
Greenheart
Games’ website in early 2013, and received praise from both critics and fans
alike. The developers were most recently discussed worldwide when they purposely
uploaded a cracked build of their game that had players' studios failing due to
piracy (causing hilarious and sad results). Game Dev Tycoon, which was updated
for this release to respond to player feedback, will soon be available on Steam
with a launch price of $7.99 (USD), 20% off the normal Steam price of $9.99.
In Game Dev Tycoon, players get to start their own game development company and
play through the history of game development. Players will start their humble
business in a garage in the 1980s. As they research new technologies, create
best selling games, hire and train staff they will grow their business and their
impact on the industry. Players get the ability to make their own virtual games,
choose the genre and what platform to release on. As they grow they will get
opportunities to move into bigger offices and unlock secret labs, become the
leader of the market and gain worldwide fans.
Continue here to read the full story.
Cinemassacre Productions announces that those who preorder Angry Video
Game Nerd Adventures have a chance of being included as a character in the
upcoming platformer, though of course, the real draw here is to live the high
life as the Angry Video Game Nerd Himself. The details on
their Facebook page actually
indicate no purchase is necessary to be eligible. The game can be pre-purchased
on Steam for a 10%
discount. Thanks Ant.
A new trailer from
F1 2013 shows work-in-progress gameplay footage from the upcoming Formula
One racing game showing a hotlap on Spa Francorchamps along with expert
commentary on how this track should be attacked. This celebrates this weekend's
Belgian Grand Prix by showing off the course on which it's run. We also have a
batch of new
Gamescom screenshots from the game. Continue here to read the full story.
- ASUS Maximus VI Formula on
Vortez.
- ASUS Maximus VI Hero LGA 1150 Motherboard on
HARDOCP.
- Attitude One A1 Vintorez Gaming Mouse on
eTeknix.
- CM Storm Havoc Mouse on
Hardware Secrets.
- Cooler Master i700 on
Pure Overclock.
- Diamond DS3900 Dual Video USB 3.0 Docking Station on
Benchmark Reviews.
- G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz DDR3 RAM on
Modders-Inc.
- ICYDOCK FlexCage MB974SP SATA Backplane Module on
TweakTown.
- Lexar Professional 64GB XQD Memory Card on
TweakTown.
- MSI Z87 - G45 GAMING Motherboard on
Mad Shrimps.
- Seagate 600 SSD 240GB Solid State Drive on
CDRLabs.com.
- Seagate 600 Pro 400GB SSD on
Hardware Canucks.
- Seagate Wireless Plus External on
Bjorn3D.com.
- System76 Gazelle Pro - Intel Haswell Laptop With Ubuntu Linux on
Phoronix.
- Thermaltake Meka G-Unit Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on
Legit Reviews.
- Thermaltake WATER3.0 Extreme Liquid CPU Cooler on
Techgage.
Ben Affleck Is Batman (thanks nin). Really? I'm not feeling
this. I like Ben and all, but he was a pretty crappy Daredevil, and I love
Marvel and all, but DD is the B-list Batman. I think we've seen that these
superhero movies tend to do better with unknowns, too. All-in-all, a weird
choice.
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