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Archived News:
This
Steam Community Announcement reveals a new batch of titles to be distributed
through Steam, adding another 37 games to the total that have been greenlit by
the community. Word is: "These titles were selected on the same criteria we have
been using in the past: Votes in Greenlight give us a hugely valuable point of
data in gauging community interest along with external factors such as press
reviews, crowd-funding successes, performance on other similar platforms, and
awards and contests to help form a more complete picture of community interest
in each title." Here's the
detailed list of newly approved games.
The
Battlefield Blog offers thanks to Battlefield 4 beta testers for the
feedback they've been providing DICE on what is and isn't working in the
prerelease edition of their military shooter sequel. The post puts forth a
lengthy list of changes they are making for the launch version based on user
reactions, promising to address gameplay issues and bugs as well as technical
problems like low framerates, high CPU usage, and more.
Focus Home Interactive announces preorders are now being accepted for
Contrast, their upcoming
puzzle platformer that involves shifting between 2D and 3D modes. Preorders are
being accepted on the
Contrast website and on
Steam, where they are offering a 25% discount on the Collector's Edition,
which includes an art book and the soundtrack (both of which are available right
away). A new trailer
celebrates the news, and here's word on the game: Delivering a captivating
ambiance of the brilliance of film noir mixed with the tease of burlesque and
infusing a sultry jazz soundtrack, CONTRAST enthrals with every plot twist. A
unique game mechanic allows players to shift in and out of the shadow dimension
playing light against dark as you make your way through a mysterious adventure.
Today’s trailer reveals one of the tracks from the original soundtrack of the
game, House on Fire performed by the talented jazz singer Laura Ellis. The
lyrics were written by Compulsion Games and the music was composed by the
talented audio team from WaveGeneration Audio, all originally scored for
CONTRAST.
Continue here to read the full story.
Jagex announces a new Battle Builder update is now live for Ace of
Spades on Steam,
adding the ability to build your own battlegrounds for the Voxel first-person
shooter. This is not your typical map editor, as it is designed to allow up to
24 players to rapidly collaborate to complete a design. This is available as a
free update to those who own the game, and is included in new copies anyone
purchases going forward. "The release of Ace of Spades: Battle Builder is huge
step forward in the evolution of this unique game," explains David Cobb, the
game's producer. "The Map Creator offers long-awaited functionality that
massively enhances player collaboration, while combat in the game has been
refined and further balanced. Jagex has listened to the game’s player community
and kept Ace of Spades: Battle Builder true to its roots to ensure it delivers
engaging and fun action." Here's more on how this works: Maps can be built
on one of nine templates based on themes including urban; mountain; lunar;
grassland; and temple, before being populated by similarly themed prefabs. Using
these structures, such as mountains, trees and ruined buildings, allow players
to quickly craft a wide variety of battle maps. Further customisation is on
offer through tools that provide players with the power to individually carve
out blocks and paint objects – or the entire map – in an array of colours. In
addition to the map editor, Battle Builder includes the previously released
downloadable content, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, featuring Multi-Hill and VIP
game modes.
Spacebase DF-9 is
now available for Steam Early Access,
announces Steam News,
saying Windows, OS X, and Linux gamers can purchase access to Double Fine's
upcoming sci-fi construction game and help influence its development going
forward. Here's the quick pitch on the game: In Spacebase DF-9, you'll
build a home among the stars for a motley population of humans and aliens as
they go about their daily lives. Mine asteroids, discover derelicts, and deal
with the tribulations of galactic resettlement in Earth's distant future. Meteor
impacts! Explosive decompression! Unbearable loneliness!
Steam News heralds the
release of the Sid
Meier's Civilization V: Scrambled Continents Map Pack DLC for
Sid Meier's Civilization V.
Word is this shakes up the turn-based strategy sequel by randomizing territorial
inner-workings, though the outlines of the continents will remain the same. Word
is: The Scrambled Continents map pack includes real geographic locations
with special scripts that produce randomized interiors each time a new game
begins. While the familiar outline of the continent’s geography stays constant,
the inner heart of the world changes each time you play for endless
replayability on countless plausible worlds. Maps include Africa, Eastern Asia,
North and South America, Western Europe, the Middle East, a thawed Antarctica,
new scripted maps for Small Continents and Oceania, plus one map including all
of Earth’s continents.
Also on Steam News is
word on the release of two new DLC packs for
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
There is a The Bureau: XCOM
Declassified - Code Breakers, which adds new content to the XCOM action
game, and the Light Plasma
Pistol, to enhance your pew-pew powers. Here is the description of Code
Breakers: A top secret government communications facility responsible for
intercepting and decoding the enemy’s transmissions has gone radio-silent. In a
desperate attempt to turn the tides of the secret war, Special Agent Carter and
his squad must investigate the incident, eliminate any threats, and make contact
with personnel in order to bring the facility back online and make sense of the
mysterious code.
Harebrained Schemes announces a new version 1.1 patch for Shadowrun
Returns is now available in beta, offering improvements for the game, as
well as Linux support for both the game and the editor. Here's word on how to
participate: Beta Process
Beta Process: We’re doing things a bit differently than the previous patches
we’ve released. We’ve pushed a version up to Steam in a special opt-in “public
beta” channel before releasing it to the general public. We will be monitoring
this build and the forums closely for any bugs or issues that people may
encounter, and if things go smoothly, we expect to promote it to the main
release after a week or two.
So if you’re interested in helping the community by reporting bugs, or just need
to play with the new toys right away, you’ll want to head over to the Steam
forums to learn how to join the Beta and help out. If you’d rather wait for the
main release, that’s fine, too!
Just a quick note here: we do not plan on providing DRM free versions of Beta
builds during this process. We will of course be putting up final builds in the
Backer site when the patch is ready for prime time, but while we work through
any last minute issues, Steam will be the only place to get the bleeding-edge
(possibly slightly buggy) version of Shadowrun Returns.
Linux
Patch 1.1 will see the Linux port of Shadowrun Returns sit alongside its Mac and
PC brethren as a first class citizen at last. We now have a couple of Linux
machines in house, and have been busy ironing out the major kinks internally as
fast as we could. We know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for this bad
boy, and after we give it a bit of time to cool off in the Beta period (again,
the Beta is only available through Steam), we’ll be pushing it live with the
rest of the 1.1 goodness. From that point forward, it will receive updates on
the same schedule as the Windows and OSX versions.
Gearbox Software announces the TK Baha's Bloody Harvest "Headhunters"
DLC for Borderlands 2 is coming to the role-playing shooter on October
22nd on all platforms. Here's word on the pack and the whole Headhunters thing:
These Headhunter add-ons offer additional adventures that set you off on
a series of missions in new areas that culminate with you taking down some
rather unique bosses and claiming their heads to wear as your prize. They can be
played in a single sitting either by yourself, or with friends (though we
recommend bringing friends), and are appropriately priced at just USD $2.99 /
GBP £2.39 / EUR 2,99 € each.
In TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest, you’ll be tasked by the eponymous zombified corpse
to discover the pieces of a key that will lead you into the heart of the Pumpkin
Kingpin’s pumpkin patch (try saying that 3 times), where you will confront the
Kingpin himself in an epic battle to claim his giant pumpkin head as your own.
Oh yeah, and there’s augmented candy all over the place. As you make your way
through TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest, candies will drop from enemies and provide all
sorts of temporary buffs, ranging from faster movement speed to increased damage
and more, so be sure to pay attention to them!
Eurogamer.net - Has EA Sports broken FIFA 14 by trying to fix it?
Reviewers -
myself
included - encountered the same issue EA Sports presumably did: it was
hard to identify this stuff without the help of millions of players. I
played FIFA 14 for around 25 hours before reviewing it, largely in isolation
or in offline multiplayer games, and although I noted that some of these
elements were more successful than they had been in FIFA 13, where driven
shots and pace brought the most success, I didn't realise they would skew
the online experience completely. As the game went into the Early Access
pre-release period, though, the stats and YouTube compilation videos piled
up. Suddenly everyone you played was sprinting down the wing, worming their
way into five yards of space 40 yards from goal or falling back and then
launching the ball over the top.
Thanks for the feedback the other day on the question about a front panel for my
PC. Two themes emerged in the responses, which I think are equally valid. One
was that since CF support is not really something that ever comes up, I can
probably safely ignore the possible issues with that. The other is that there
are few enough occasions to use the other media support in a card reader that it
can probably be skipped altogether. I'm still considering this, but I'll go with
one or the other: Either I'll get that NZXT unit that matches my case, or
perhaps forego a panel altogether.
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