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Archived News:
A free weekend is now underway on Steam for Torchlight 2, Runic's
action/RPG sequel. According to
Steam news this will run
from now until Sunday at 4:00 pm EST. Those who enjoy the experience may find themselves
tempted by the current sale price on the game, as it is being offered for 75%
off.
An Outrise website is online to
keep us informed about Outrise, an upcoming indie action game which will
feature 15 on one asymmetrical multiplayer. Developers include vets of Hawken,
Assassin's Creed 2, and Call of Duty series developers, and while
this is currently self-funded, their may be a Kickstarter campaign in its
future. Word is: "Outrise is very early in development and we are taking this
opportunity to share our vision for the game with the community. Outrise is a
game about multiplayer boss fights and asymmetrical gameplay. Remember reaching
the giant boss at the end of a level? Now imagine that boss was controlled by
your friend or someone online. We think of it as a multiplayer Shadow Of The
Colossus meets Left 4 Dead and with old school sci fi look and feel." There are
more details on this
on Eurogamer after an exchange with Team Outrise creative lead James
Wearing, who explains how this will differ from other recently announced
asymmetrical MP games and fills in some further details on gameplay.
Producer Dave Cox says Mercury Steam's still-unannounced next game project is in
the works for PC and next-gen consoles that don't rhyme with p.u., reports
GameSpot after participating in a roundtable interview with the developer.
Details are scant, though they do say it will be "completely different" from the
Castlevania series. They do recall a comment Cox made in 2012 that may be a
hint, as he said "it's no secret that I'm a big fan of Contra and I'd like to do
something in that universe."
A tweet from
the DiRT feed warns that the picture included is a "spoiler," a play on the
physical Subaru spoiler it depicts, though also a suggestion that this is a hint
that something akin to DiRT 4 is in the works (though nothing
of the sort came of the last time this happened).
According to
CVG the hint was previously a bit stronger, as when someone said "Let's hope
you announce Dirt 4 in 2014," the Dirt Twitter feed replied "Fingers crossed"
with a 'winky' emoticon. However, this exchange seems to have been deleted.
Steam News announces the
release of the Windows edition of
METAL GEAR RISING:
REVENGEANCE, allowing players to take out bad guys without hiding under
a box in the action installement in the stealth series. Here's word: Developed by Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames, METAL GEAR
RISING: REVENGEANCE takes the renowned METAL GEAR franchise into exciting new
territory with an all-new action experience. The game seamlessly melds pure
action and epic story-telling that surrounds Raiden – a child soldier
transformed into a half-human, half-cyborg ninja who uses his High Frequency
katana blade to cut through any thing that stands in his vengeful path!
This new PC version includes all three DLC missions: Blade Wolf, Jetstream, and
VR Missions, in addition to all customized body upgrades for Raiden, including:
White Armor, Inferno Armor, Commando Armor, Raiden’s MGS4 body, and the
ever-popular Cyborg Ninja.
EA Maxis announces The Sims 3 Roaring Heights will be released on Origin
on February 6th and to U.K. retailers the following day, as the next of their
planned infinite series of expansions for The Sims 3, their lifestyle
simulation. Here's the deal: Today, EA and Maxis announced The Sims™ 3
Roaring Heights, a newly released world currently available for digital download
on The Sims 3 Store, will be coming to Origin.com and retailers in the UK on
PC/Mac on February 7. In this new world, players will be welcomed to a sparkling
city nestled by the sea where their Sims will experience a bustling lifestyle
reminiscent of the golden era.
The Sims 3 Roaring Heights is a vibrant city full of iconic Art Deco
skyscrapers. Here, players will find new locations to take their Sims, dozens of
clothing and décor objects to customize their game and will also get the
Fixer-Upper Car. The Fixer-Upper Car is a classic vehicle that Sims will be able
to work on to get into pristine shape. Once complete, Sims can take it out for a
spin on the town, relishing in the breathtaking architecture and beachside bliss
of Roaring Heights.
The Sims 3 Roaring Heights requires The Sims 3 base game to play, is rated PEGI
12 and will be available on Origin.com worldwide starting February 6, 2014 and
at retailers in the UKon February 7, 2014. For more information on this world,
visit
http://store.thesims3.com/roaringheights.
Deadly 30 is now available
on Steam, offering a
throwback side-scrolling shooter/tower defense hybrid from a two-person
development team. Here's
the release trailer and here's word on the game, which is 33% off for the
next week: "Can you survive the horror? … a retro-style survival horror game
developed by the two-man indie team of Gonzossm and Iggy Zuk. Survive 30 days
and nights in a zombie-infested world by recruiting companions, upgrading
weaponry and fortifying your position." Continue here to read the full story.
Deep Silver announces a February 18th release date for NASCAR '14, saying
this covers a previously unmentioned Windows PC edition as well as the
announced Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. A new
Tony Stewart trailer
shows the driver squeeze into his fire suit before showing his avatar taking a few
virtual laps in the game, and
here is a batch
of screenshots. Here's word, which includes details on
preordering: Deep Silver announced today that the racing game NASCAR '14,
developed by Eutechnyx, will launch in North America on February 18, 2014 on the
Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3
computer entertainment system and PC for the suggested retail price of $49.99.
Pre-order offers at Walmart, Gamestop, Best Buy, Target and Amazon may include
diecast cars, exclusive paint schemes and more.
Fueled by high-octane intensity and the opportunity to relive the best NASCAR
moments from both the 2013 season packed into the game plus regular downloadable
content updates as the upcoming season progresses, NASCAR '14 offers fans the
most complete NASCAR® experience yet.
Recently NASCAR revealed that more than 700,000 votes were cast worldwide in the
"Drive for the Cover" contest as fans voted Tony Stewart, the three-time NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series champion to appear onto the cover of NASCAR '14. The injury
that kept Stewart off the track didn't stop fans of the driver of the No. 14
Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing from beating another
fan favorite, four-time champion Jeff Gordon. Stewart plans to return to the
track for the Daytona 500 race in February, the same month NASCAR '14 hits store
shelves.
Continue here to read the full story.
Paradox Interactive announces the release of the Marvellous Monorails
expansion for Cities in Motion 2, which is accompanied by the
promised update to
add Linux support to the transport sim sequel. Here's word on how the new
expansion can help keep your city on track: In Marvellous Monorails,
Cities in Motion 2 players can add five all-new monorail vehicles to their
fleets, and spruce up their layouts with elevated rails to carry them.
Monorails, which work best on circular layouts, are ideal for inner-city
connections, and offer a more affordable alternative to metro lines, with a
choice of cars from big-and-slow to speedy-but-expensive.
GameInformer has impressions of the Oxide's upcoming Nitrous game engine
Stardock is showing off at CES as the technology behind their upcoming revival
of Star Control, the seminal space strategy game, calling what they saw
"stunning." The 64-bit cross-platform engine
was announced in
October by Oxide, a startup which includes developers formerly from Firaxis,
and they note that Firaxis vet Soren Johnson is making his own game with the
engine at his startup Mohawk Studios (a third Nitrous-engine game is in
development internally at Oxide). Here's word on how Stardock demoed the
engine: The demo we saw featured two massive battalions of starships as
they engaged each other in a massive space battle. The demo was entirely
real-time and from a distance it looked like the the fleets were schools of fish
quickly zipping in and out of cannon fire, but as we zoomed in on the action we
could see that each ship was detailed enough that even the muzzle flashes from
their cannons would illuminate their deck.
"The simulation is all an example of real gameplay," said Stardock's
mysteriously familiar brand manager Adam Biessener. "Each one of these ships is
its own entity with its own AI, its own firing solutions, and is tracking its
own hostiles. Each shot is individually modeled. Basically we wanted to build an
engine that opened new doors for strategy developers. There are a lot of great
engines out there, but a lot of them are built for FPSs. We wanted to build an
engine that could display thousands of units at once."
And Stardock has achieved just that. The demo we saw featured nearly ten
thousand units and hovered around 30 frames per second the whole time.
There's an article on
BBC News with a look at the virtual reality headset technology being shown
off at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. They look at Oculus Rift's
new "crystal cove" units and
go on to discuss Valve's interest in this area, saying Valve is releasing an SDK
to standardize VR development at their Steam Dev Days conference on January
14-15 (thanks
CVG). "Steam is in a unique position to be this intermediary between
hardware and software and users," Valve designer Brian Coomer explains. "Without
that its going to be hard for any device to get any serious traction." Here's
more on the SDK, which will cover other ways developers can control games
through Steam, including the Steam controller. He also says Valve is still
working on VR hardware, as well: "There's also technology in development at
Valve based around head-tracking and headset manufacture and design," he says.
"We are working with other companies right now but we have not made any specific
announcements."
The
Hitman Facebook page informs us that a brand-new contracts are available for
Hitman Absolution, as one new mission is to be had for IO Interactive's
stealth/assassination game on each platform. Here's word: Brand new
Featured Contracts for Hitman Absolution are now playable on PC, PS3 and Xbox
360!
Check out a donut shop massacre (360), a pyromaniac ice cream seller (PS3) and a
haunted house (PC), if you dare...
The Big Robot
website offers Permutation Racer, a free game for Windows and OS X from the
developer of Sir, You Are Being Hunted. This was developed as a procedural
generation prototype, and here is what it includes: "In Permutation Racer you
race against the clock to reach checkpoints, collecting stars (you can jump,
don’t forget) and avoiding barriers or red spikes. Because it’s all
mathematically generated, every track is different. This is just a prototype, so
it’s very simple, but we think you’ll enjoy it. You might even recognise some of
the procedural geometries from other images we’ve posted from our Lodestone
project." Thanks
PCGamesN. Continue here to read the full story.
Majesco Entertainment is bringing
Double Dragon Neon to Windows PCs via Steam during the first quarter
of this year, offering a new co-op mode not offered in the console editions of
the fighting game sequel. Here's a bit from a press release on
Joystiq: Billy and Jimmy Lee are back in Double Dragon: Neon, a reboot
of the classic side-scrolling beat-em-up that is coming to Windows PC via Steam.
To mark the occasion, developer Abstraction has gone back to the dojo and
returned with an all-new online co-op mode for the true Double Dragon experience
players have been waiting for. While taking down the Shadow Warriors and facing
off with Skullmageddeon, co-op players can 'high-five' to share health, 'psych'
up their comrades for special moves and revive their fallen partner. Keep an eye
on your surroundings to discover life-restoring sodas, peruse the shop for items
and find special mix tapes. The tapes can be stacked to pump up their effects,
while playing two tapes at once creates a fusion of powers for devastating
results!
The
PlanetSide 2 Forums announce that SOE's MMOFPS sequel will begin
receiving weekly updates beginning next Wednesday (thanks
VG247). Here's word: What does this mean for you?
Well for starters, it means we'll be more rapidly respond to bugs & balance
issues in the game without having to rely on hotfixes as much. We'll also be
able to release new content more frequently and consistently. Each individual
update will be smaller and more focused, with fewer moving parts that can break,
which we hope will greatly decrease the number of bugs being introduced when we
update. This doesn't mean that we're not still working on bigger features and
larger content pieces, we definitely are and they'll be slotted into the weekly
schedule as they're ready to be released. As part of this change we are also
going to be updating and playtesting on Test server a lot more often in the
future, as always, your playtesting assistance and feedback on the test server
will be greatly appreciated.
One final note, the first couple of these weekly updates are going to be a bit
smaller than what you can expect to see later on, as we're still shaking off the
holiday cobwebs and getting used to the new development processes.
We've got a really terrific slate of new features and content lined up for 2014
that we can't wait to get out to you guys, it's going to be an amazing year for
Planetside 2.
A new Red Thread Games
YouTube channel is live, offering three videos from Dreamfall Chapters,
the upcoming adventure sequel to Funcom's The Longest Journey. There is an
official teaser trailer
as well as two versions of an almost 30-minute gameplay walkthrough,
one with developer
commentary from design director Martin Bruusgaard and creative director
Ragnar Tørnquist, and the
other without. Word is the gameplay footage offers is "pre-alpha." Thanks
Polygon. Continue here to read the full story.
This trailer is a tech
demo for a first-person puzzle game with unusual gameplay based on visual
perspective. This is a "proof of concept" from Pillow Castle, a team of students
from Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. Word is that
everything seen is unedited gameplay, and it sounds like they plan on expanding
this into a full game, saying: "We'll be posting more videos as development
moves to full production." Thanks
VG247. Continue here to read the full story.
In retrospect, the evening update last night at around 5:00 pm makes more sense
than I thought at first. I think I am going to shoot for something closer to
that for a while and see how it goes. Of course I am so set in my ways that I
find such adjustments difficult to actually accomplish, but it seems something
worth trying.
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