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Archived News:
The
Roberts Space Industries website has a new Letter from the Chairman
celebrating the news that Star Citizen has surpassed the $21 million mark
in crowd-sourced funding. Now that the Salvage Mechanic has been unlocked, they
reveal a $23 million goal for the space combat game as the Salvage Mechanic
career path. Here's a bit: I’m proud to announce that the Star Citizen
community has brought us to $21 million in crowd funding just shy of our first
anniversary! Your support is now allowing the project to expand on ideas in ways
we didn’t originally think possible. Every additional pledge makes Star Citizen
a better experience. At the $21 million, you unlock the full salvage mechanic,
which allows us to produce the assets needed to make salvaging an in-depth game
mechanic akin to exploration or piracy!
- Salvage Mechanic: Salvage isn’t an aside: it’s a
career, with its own mechanic, story tie-ins and universe-shaping endgames.
Search the galaxy for a host of valuable and interesting secrets using both
the flight and FPS components. Discover the secrets of the ancient
Hadesians, locate valuable components and cargo… or go down in history the
first to make contact an entirely new alien race!
In addition, we are unlocking a new $23 million goal: the addition of a Xi’an
Scout as a playable asset in the game. We’ve recently begun putting together
concept art of Xi’an worlds, which got us thinking about the game’s Xi’an ships:
how can we make them play differently than the standard human ships? We have a
few ideas and with this stretch goal we can put them into the game! In addition
to alien designs and interfaces, the Xi’an craft will feature a totally
different maneuvering system.
Ubisoft announces details on a Season Pass for DLC for Assassin's Creed IV:
Black Flag, the upcoming continuation of their stealth/assassination sequel.
The DLC will comprise an all-new single-player campaign as shown off in
this trailer. Here's
word: Born a slave, Adewale found freedom as a pirate aboard the Jackdaw
where he became Edward Kenway’s second-in-command. Now, 15 years later, Adewale
has become a trained Assassin who finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue
without weapons or crew. He starts to meet locals in an effort to assemble a
crew and steal a ship. The more he helps, however, the more he is drawn into the
Maroon slave community. Forced to face his past, Adewale sets out to free the
slaves and bring death to their captors.
The Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Season Pass gives you all-in-one access to a
new single-player story featuring Adewale, an ex-slave turned Assassin, the
exclusive Kraken Ship Pack, plus multiplayer characters and much more! Get all
of this for only $19.99, a 20% savings off the individual pack prices.
Key Features
- All New Single-Player Story – Born a slave,
Adewale found freedom as a pirate aboard the Jackdaw where he became Edward
Kenway’s second-in-command. Now, 15 years later, Adewale has become a
trained Assassin who finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue without
weapons or crew. He starts to meet locals in an effort to assemble a crew
and steal a ship. The more he helps, however, the more he is drawn into the
Maroon slave community. Forced to face his past, Adewale sets out to free
the slaves and bring death to their captors. Over 3 hours of new
single-player gameplay!
- Exclusive Kraken Ship Pack – Only available
to Season Pass owners, this pack includes a sail, wheel, and figurehead
inspired by the legendary sea monsters known for swallowing ships, men and
whales.
- A Deeper Single-Player Experience – More of
what you love – Single-player missions, weapons, skins, and collectibles for
Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag.
- More Multiplayer Mayhem – Unlock new
characters for an even more expansive multiplayer experience.
- Save 20% over the individual downloadable pack
prices.
BioWare announces Galactic Starfighter, a new expansion coming to Star
Wars: The Old Republic to add PvP space combat to the Star Wars MMORPG. This
will go live for subscribers on December 3rd and will be released as a
free-to-play expansion on February 4th. The
Star Wars:
The Old Republic website has more details and
a teaser trailer.
Here's the announcement: AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 8, 2013 – Join the battle
and customize the ultimate starship to become a legendary Starfighter pilot in
the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ universe! Today, BioWare™, a division of
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), and LucasArts announced that Star Wars: The
Old Republic is adding Player-vs-Player (PvP) combat in the Free-to-Play Digital
Expansion, Galactic Starfighter. With a variety of unique starships, a wide set
of customization and upgrade options, multiple battle zones and gameplay modes,
Galactic Starfighter brings the thrill of epic 12v12 space battles to Star Wars:
The Old Republic for the first time.
Active Star Wars: The Old Republic subscribers will be offered Early Access
starting December 3 and Preferred Status Players* on January 14. Galactic
Starfighter will be offered as a Free-to-Play Digital Expansion available to the
public beginning on February 4. Each group will also receive special in-game
items as part of this Early Access opportunity. As a special benefit, active
subscribers as of November 1 will receive an exclusive Galactic Starfighter
early Gunship unlock and custom Gunship paint jobs**.
“Our goal with Star Wars: The Old Republic has always been to immerse players
into their own Star Wars adventure and huge space battles are a vital part of
fulfilling that fantasy,” said Jeff Hickman, General Manager of BioWare Austin.
“Galactic Starfighter will be a deep experience that will continue to grow over
time. We can’t wait for both our current and new players to get their hands on
it soon.”
A new Guns and Tunes pack is now available
on Steam for
Teleglitch: Die More Edition, the survival/horror rogulelike-like that
happens to be on sale most
everywhere for 75% off. The pack includes the extras that were provided to
those who preordered the game, here's the outline: "A new DLC pack has also been
released for Teleglitch: Die More Edition, entitled 'Guns and Tunes,' which
grants players access to eight different starter weapons and utilities for a
more varied (but inevitably fatal) game experience. A soundtrack of original
music by the Teleglitch developers is also included, providing gamers with extra
terror in five haunting tracks that evoke the tension and persistent danger of
the game." Developer T3P also announces the game now supports Steam Big Picture
thanks to a new patch that also adds 15 new achievements while fixing some bugs
and improving Steam Cloud support.
An Airscape: Fall of Gravity website
is online with information about this indie platformer that carries this
delightful description: "AIRSCAPE: THE FALL OF GRAVITY is an upcoming action
platformer about an octopus lost in a strange and dangerous world. Created by a
team of students from around the world, Airscape combines innovative gravity
mechanics, devious obstacles, and questionable physics." The game is coming next
year to Windows, OS X, and Linux, but in the meantime they offer
this announcement trailer
showing off some imaginative game design. Continue here to read the full story.
Arcen Games announces Bionic Dues is now available for Windows, OS X, and
Linux through their
online store and Steam,
with each offering a 25% discount for the first week of release of this mech-themed
"roguelite." Here's what this entails: Robot rebellions should be quelled
by the best of the best. When the best of the best are killed... it's up to you.
Subdue the uprising in time, or your corporate overlords nuke the city.
Bionic Dues is a tactical, turn-based roguelite with mech customization. Guide
multiple classes of Exos through a variety of missions filled with enemy robots
that are as buggy as they are angry. This is at least as bad as it sounds.
Explore for loot, destroy key robotic facilities, and brace yourself for the
final attack by your enemies... just as soon as they can pull it
together.
Steam News announces the
release of Gas Guzzlers
Extreme, which is on sale for 20% off the regular price for the next
week: Gas Guzzlers Extreme is a fast, furious, armed-to-the-teeth,
trigger-happy shooter, shifted into top gear! Take a white knuckle ride in this
crazily addictive combat racing game that features a ton of vehicles, weapons,
upgrades, on-track bonuses and environments. Gas Guzzlers Extreme is an exciting
new twist on the car combat experience with the addition of furious team/clan
combat battles.
Players start out with low performance vehicles and soon work their way up to
high-performance models, by earning money in a series of hi-octane races and
arena battles. New game modes, tracks and vehicles are unlocked as players
progress through the game. Along with developing their driving and fighting
skills, players can spend their hard-fought cash, customizing their vehicle to
match their clan members or pimping their ride for the road to glory!
The
Bethesda Blog announces the Dishonored: Game of the Year Edition is
now available in North America. In addition to Arkane's stealth/assassination
game the GotY edition includes all four of the game's DLC packs, The Knife of
Dunwall, The Brigmore Witches, Dunwall City Trials, and
Void Walker’s Arsenal.
- Assassin’s Creed III on
Steam. Save 60%.
- Battlefield 4 Preorders on
Green Man Gaming. US$8.00 cash or $10.00 credit rebate. Thanks
Dealzon
- Call of Duty: Ghosts Preorders on
GameFly Digital.. Save US$12.00 with coupon on
Dealzon.
- Quickfire Indie Bundle on Bundle Stars. ~US$3.50 for Dark Sector, Septerra Core, GTR Evolution,
Cannon Fodder 3, Space Pirates and Zombies, 1953: KGB Unleashed, Guardians
of Graxia, and $10.00 in Warframe currency.
- Weeklong Deals on
Steam. Save 33-80%.
Trendy Entertainment announces they are no longer including any MOBA-style
gameplay in Dungeon Defenders II,
saying based on fan reaction to the idea, they will concentrate on the
action/tower defense elements that were intrinsic to the success of the first
game. The game is still planned for launch in the spring as a
free-to-play title for Windows, OS X, and Linux, but with a new, old focus. "We’ve been listening very
closely to our community, getting feedback from fans of the first game on what
they want to see in a sequel, and we realized we needed a shift in our
development focus," said Philip Asher, Marketing Director at Trendy
Entertainment. "We had strayed from making the kind of game fans wanted and the
kind of game we wanted to develop. So, we’ve nixed the MOBA-style of gameplay
and other ‘extra’ features we were talking about and instead are making the
sequel we all want to play. We’re improving everything we loved about Dungeon
Defenders, one step at a time. First we’re going through the core gameplay
experience; injecting more meaningful decisions and moments into the minute to
minute gameplay that you’ll want to share with your friends. Then, in late
October we’re going to kick off our first major community initiative to get fans
involved in the development of the game, and start working with them to make the
roleplaying and item systems as satisfying as possible." There's a new
blog update about this with
a new teaser trailer.
Continue here to read the full story.
Pinkerton Road announces plans for a 20th Anniversary Edition of Gabriel
Knight: Sins of the Fathers, which is coming to Windows, OS X, and mobiles
next year. This does not seem to be the fourth installment in designer Jane
Jensen's point-and-click adventure series that is a long-term goal of Pinkerton
Road's recent Kickstarter, but
rather is a remake of the first Gabriel Knight adventure, modernized for the
modern day. There's more on the
official website, here are
some screenshots, and here's the announcement: LANCASTER, Pa. -
October 8, 2013 - In 1993, a rash of ritual voodoo murders took place in the
swamps and back alleys of New Orleans. With local police baffled, only one man
was equipped to solve the case: Gabriel Knight, owner of a French Quarter
bookstore, struggling novelist, and an unwitting descendent in a long line of
shadow-hunting Schattenjägers. Armed with little more than a sacred dagger and
talisman, his N'awlins drawl, and his own irresistible brand of charm, Gabriel
Knight quickly became a gaming sensation when Sierra On-Line released his first
adventure, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers®, in December 1993.
Twenty years later, the charismatic Schattenjäger is making a welcome comeback
thanks to the work of Gabriel Knight® creator Jane Jensen's indie development
studio, Pinkerton Road LLC, which licensed the Gabriel Knight IP from Activision
Publishing, Inc.. The Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th anniversary
edition is planned for a mid-2014 release as a digital download for PC, Mac®,
iPad®, and Android™. The game is being reconstructed from scratch with all new
retina display quality visuals and voice recording, in a development process
overseen by Jensen.
"I'm thrilled to be back at work on Gabriel Knight and to bring this classic
game to a new generation of players," says Jensen. "It's a designer's dream to
be able to enhance the game and bring in more New Orleans flavor than technical
limitations allowed us to in 1993. It's going to look and feel like a brand new
title. But never fear, 100% of the original Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
is here. I hope both existing fans and new players will love it."
The revamped Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers will feature the same mature
storyline and puzzle solving as the 1993 version, with research assistant Grace
Nakimura, the inept Detective Mosely, and the local color of New Orleans
supporting Gabriel's paranormal investigation. Stunning high-res (2048x1536) 3D
graphics will replace the original 640x480 resolution pixel art, presenting the
authentic New Orleans environments with more detail than ever before. The remake
will also have a remastered soundtrack by Robert Holmes, the game's original
composer, and will include special edition content.
Pinkerton Road has been working on the Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th
anniversary edition under the working title "Mystery Game X" for about a year.
The studio also has a brand new adventure game, Moebius, slated for release in
2013.
Focus Home Interactive officially announces Wargame Red Dragon, a
continuation of Eugen Systems' Wargame series of real-time strategy games that
was recently shown off to some press at Gamescom. The
Wargame: AirLand Battle website
offers
a recent developer's blog for Red Dragon and today
the first
screenshots from the project were released. They don't yet offer a release
date, but tease more info to come, saying the game "has many more surprises in
store which will soon be revealed in the first game videos." Here's word on the
game: Wargame Red Dragon retains the same core game mechanics that made
the series so successful, but the action leaves Europe for the first time and
moves to a conflict in Asia between 1975 and 1991.
5 new nations, among which China and North Korea, join the armed forces in
Wargame, with over 450 new units. The introduction of naval and amphibian units
is a particular highlight, with the maritime and river areas providing fresh
strategic opportunities! The full cohort of each army is represented with a
phenomenal total of more than 1,300 units and combat vehicles, all reproduced in
meticulous detail from real-world models. A new solo campaign plunges players
headlong into a hellish war around Korea, while Wargame’s extensive and
road-tested multiplayer mode will engage them in some intense and spectacular
battles with up to 20 other players simultaneously!
TECMO KOEI America announces a Windows PC edition of
YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z will be
released on Steam next year simultaneously with the release of the Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 editions of the Unreal-engine third-person action game. "YAIBA:
NINJA GAIDEN Z is an impressive project led by the expertise of Team NINJA’s
Yosuke Hayashi and comcept’s Keiji Inafune, with the goal of creating a
thrilling new experience for fans," says TECMO KOEI America's Amos Ip. "We are
extremely pleased to offer YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z on PC through Steam, giving us
the ability to reach as many gamers as possible with their action-packed
creation." Here are
some
screenshots, and here's the lowdown on the game: In YAIBA: NINJA
GAIDEN Z, players battle fierce zombies as YAIBA, a cyborg ninja who will do
anything to get revenge and stay alive. Cleaved in two, he is brought back to
life with cyber-technology. Brandishing his ninja sword and the mecha weapons in
his cyborg arm, he slaughters zombies with brutal, over-the-top abandon.
Step into a stylized living comic book where stunning graphics depict a world
gone mad. Hordes of undead can only be stopped by YAIBA’s willingness to use any
means necessary to get the job done. Will he kill by turning his cyborg arm into
a razor chainsaw for slicing up undead—or just rip off an opponent’s arms to use
as zombie nunchucks? Both possibilities fill YAIBA’s heart with twisted
laughter—and the desire to kill more and more zombies!
YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z comes from the two teams behind the most famous ninja and
zombie videogame creations as Team NINJA and legendary producer Keiji Inafune
team up to create a new experience. The world of the ninja meets undead
warriors, cybernetic weapons, comic books, in an entirely new IP that draws from
the NINJA GAIDEN franchise with a host of bold, new features including an
original storyline and style of gameplay.
Always intense, never boring, YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z is violent, creative, and
daringly different. Sharpen your sword, fire up your cyborg arm, and prepare to
GET SOME!
Gearbox Software announces the availability of the Borderlands 2 Game of
the Year Edition, offering their role-playing first-person shooter along
with all its first Season Pass content as well as the two additional player
classes, and more. Here's the deal: The Borderlands 2 Game of the Year
Edition gives players the ability to take each of the six playable Vault Hunters
to new levels, enjoy hundreds of hours of shoot-and-loot mayhem, and play each
of the four highly popular add-on campaigns, all in one action-packed bundle.
The Game of the Year Edition includes:
- Borderlands 2 main game;
- Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty;
- Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage;
- Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt;
- Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep;
- Creature Slaughter Dome;
- Premiere Club Content:
- Gaige, the Mechromancer Character Class;
- Gearbox Gun Pack;
- Golden Key;
- Vault Hunter's Relic;
- Krieg, the Psycho Character Class;
- Collector’s Edition Heads and Skins;
- Contraband Sky Rocket Grenade;
- Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 1.
Applications Systems
London announces the release of the retail OS X edition of Tropico 4:
Gold Edition, a boxed version of this outside-the-box world builder for
those who think different [sic]. The
previous announcement of the
Windows Gold Edition specifies that it includes the Charlie Chaplin-free
Modern Times expansion. Here's more: "Whether you choose to rule as
benevolent chairman, clever technocrat or corrupt despot, it's up to you to
transform Tropico from amusing banana republic into a 21st century world power
worthy of your grand vision in this witty combination of city builder and
political simulator."
Irrational Games offers a
new trailer showing
off the first five minutes from BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1,
showing off how the underwater world of the original BioShock is recreated with
the BioShock Infinite engine for the add-on. The clip begins with a smoking
Elizabeth doing some smoking before allowing us to see the original vision of
Rapture before things went awry. Continue here to read the full story.
ComputerAndVideoGames hears from DICE's Lars Gustavsson about Battlefield 4,
as the creative director of the military shooter series tells them they are
working on improving the single-player campaign in BF4 over the exceedingly
brief, QTE-filled solo portion of Battlefield 3. "We got a lot of feedback
from the Battlefield 3 singleplayer, and based on what we intended to deliver
the team did a great job, but given that it's a Battlefield product there were a
lot of expectations that it would be more open.
"What we promised ourselves [with Battlefield 4] was to unify the product more,
so we infused a lot of the things from multiplayer - from being able to use your
squad - into multiplayer, so now you can use them in single player to engage
enemies. First and foremost we're opening up the encounters more to give you the
freedom to decide how to tackle them, whereas in Battlefield 3 it was more 'pick
up that one and kill that one', which I can agree is not the most exciting way.
Players want to feel smart doing what they're doing."
The Creeper World 3
website now offers Creeper World III: Arc Eternal, the third installment in
this real-time strategy series for Windows and OS X. The game is available via
digital distribution, and they offer a playable demo and
this trailer to help
you decide if you want to commit to a purchase. Here's a bit on the game: Flowing liquid-like enemies, digital creeping enemies, and custom scripted
opponents are a few of the challenges that face players in this genre-altering
expansion to the Creeper World series. Creeper World 3 once again shocks
strategy gaming by refining and significantly expanding the core game play of
the prior highly successful Creeper World titles.
Players engage a compelling story across countless missions fighting back a
fluid enemy that literally flows over the dynamic terrain. Players employ
terraforming tools, advanced weapons, orbital drops, and other devices as they
engage on variable size and shape maps.
Also featuring a full map editor with support for advanced scripting, players
are armed with the tools to create an infinite variety of user generated
content. Maps can be shared on-line and include game play that spans casual to
serious.
Continue here to read the full story.
A New York sports columnist (I think it may have been Steve Serby) used to write
a weekly column during football season called "Mr. Loser Laments," that was
filled with tales of woe of all the football bets he lost over the weekend due
to improbable circumstances. I used to think this was just picking weird upsets
after the fact to create a fiction of having bet on the loser, but after the
late lead changes turning so many of my winners to losers lately, I'm starting
to see the plausibility of it all. Watching the Jets beat the Falcons in Atlanta
with the two-minute drill is just the latest, but it really brought home that
this is really one of those seasons where I can do no right. Just call me Mr.
Loser.
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