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Archived News:
Ubisoft announces that
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online is now available via Steam Early access
in Canada, and word is the MMO third-person shooter will come to other
territories in the spring, though it's not clear if this will be more early
access or a full launch. Here's word: Today Ubisoft announced that Tom
Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online® is coming to Steam™. Since its launch, the tactical
3rd person shooter has evolved significantly with the help of its four million
registered users. Players contributed their time and feedback to improve and
refine the unique gameplay and team experience provided by the game, which
allowed Ubisoft Singapore to continue developing Ghost Recon Online to make it
the polished game that players now experience. Steam Early Access kicks off
today in Canada and the game will be available worldwide this spring.
“Bringing Ghost Recon Online to Steam has been our goal since the game’s
inception,” says Corey Facteau, Producer at Ubisoft. “We took the time necessary
to reach a quality level that can go head to head with the best online games
available today before releasing on Steam. As the top shooter for gamers who
enjoy team gameplay, we have also seen our audience expand to include MOBA fans,
who comprise fifty percent of our user base. To ensure a seamless transition to
the new platform, we will use Early Access to fine tune the Ghost Recon Online
experience before releasing it to the rest of the world.”
Play Now, Play Free at
www.GhostReconOnline.com.
Steam News announces
that Steam is now
accepting preorders of Broken Age, revealing Double Fine's
point-and-click adventure will be released to the public on January 28th for
$24.99, with preorders at a 10% discount. This follows
earlier news that the game
will not be offered as an Early Access release, so this will be the full version
of Part 1, with Part 2 to follow as a free release "later this year." Here's
word: The first graphic adventure by Tim Schafer in sixteen years, Broken
Age began two years ago in a historic, record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. Now
it's here in all it's beautiful, 2D, hand-painted glory, with an original
orchestral soundtrack and an all-star vocal cast.
Broken Age is a timeless coming-of-age story of barfing trees and talking
spoons. Vella Tartine and Shay Volta are two teenagers in strangely similar
situations, but radically different worlds. The player can freely switch between
their stories, helping them take control of their own lives, and dealing with
the unexpected adventures that follow.
They said adventure games were dead, but then Broken Age punched its hand out of
the grave and grabbed you by the wrist and you screamed just like in the end of
Carrie except what you screamed was "I love adventure games so much!" And sorry
I spoiled the end of Carrie.
Telltale Games announces a release date for Smoke & Mirrors, episode
2 of The Wolf Among Us, saying this is coming the first week in February
(thanks
VG247). Here's word: Ep 2 should be available the first week of
February. We are working hard with all of our partners (Xbox, PlayStation,
Steam, Apple) to coordinate everything, but we’re confident enough to announce
that here. The episode is looking really good (as is the rest of the season!).
We are very concerned about the long delay for this episode, but this is one of
those occasions where several things conspired against us (not to mention the
additional delays due to the holidays). I won't dive into the details, but it’s
been an unusual and specific set of circumstances and we do not anticipate it
happening again as we go forward with the rest of the season.
Developer Stoic and publisher Versus Evil announce that The Banner Saga
is now available for Windows and OS X on
GamersGate,
GameFly,
GameStop, and
Steam. Here's word on
the game, which is also available as a digital Deluxe Edition which includes the
soundtrack: The Banner Saga is a single player driven Viking saga, where
a player’s choice in travel, conversation and combat determines the outcome of
their own personal story as well as the survival of an entire civilization. The
game also features stunning 2D animation and art, a unique tactical combat
system, and a cast of unforgettable characters that drive this epic journey
forward. Players will also enjoy a beautiful and haunting original score by
Grammy nominated, and two-time BAFTA winner, composer Austin Wintory conducting
The Dallas Winds orchestra, as well as a powerhouse trio of acclaimed YouTube
sensations: Peter Hollens, Malukah and Taylor Davis.
The
Starbound website has details on the next patch for the space game,
offering a detailed change list on what this adds, including a permadeath
gameplay mode (thanks
PCGamesN). The update also reveals this will include the last planned
character wipe, though it's possible another world wipe will come. Here's
word: Of course, there’s also the highly anticipated/possibly feared
final character wipe– this patch contains a fix for save files so after
this, you won’t need to worry about our patches destroying your characters or
ships. This patch will wipe everything– characters, ships and worlds. It will
definitely be the last time we’ll need to wipe characters or ships, and will
hopefully be the last time we’ll need to wipe worlds. This explanation from
Kyren should help clarify things a little:
“The problem is that the organization of planets may change so if they go muck
with a planet, how do we put it in the celestial map? Or if they build on a
biome we remove, or something. So no promises, but we’ll try. But promises on
the player / ship.”
The
Age of Conan Forums announce that free character transfers are now underway
in Age of Conan, Funcom's
barbaric MMORPG (thanks
Ten Ton Hammer). This is good for the next month and applies to characters
created prior to their server merges:
- Only characters created prior to the server merge
on September 10th, 2013 are eligible for the Free Transfer service.
- The Free Transfer service does not apply to Blood
& Glory servers.
- The Free Transfer service will be available until
February 13th, 2014.
The Conquest of Paradise expansion is now available for Europa
Universalis IV, bringing the strategy game to the new world. The
Paradox Interactive website lists where this can be purchased, and here's
word on what this adds: The expansion allows you to send your ships off to
the west and discover a new world, unlike any you’ve seen before – for the first
time in a Paradox Development Studio game, you are given the option to discover
a completely randomized American continent.
Conquest of Paradise also offers the possibility to play as a Native American
nation and master the federation mechanics and national ideas that are unique
for the nations.
The age of exploration is brought to life in this epic game of trade, diplomacy,
warfare and exploration by Paradox Development Studio, the Masters of Strategy.
Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to rule and to build into an
empire that lasts through the ages.
HOARD, Strike Suit Zero and Toki Tori 2+ added to Humble Indie Bundle X.
- The Brutal Bundle on
Bundle
Stars. Save 97%.
- Darksiders II on
Steam. Save 75%.
- Hotline Miami on
Steam. Save 75%.
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast on
Steam. Save 63%.
Broken Age will not be hitting Steam Early access
as planned,
reports
Joystiq, one of many outlets choosing to share details of a
backers-only Kickstarter update, since no public update on the news has
appeared since this was posted yesterday (thanks nin). Word is Double Fine's
point-and-click adventure game will still be two-parts, but the first part will
be a full release, with part two part to come later for free as part of a season
pass: "You may recall that at one point Broken Age was planned for release
under the Steam Early Access program. This is no longer the case. For various
logistical reasons, and because we believe Act 1 is a polished and satisfying
piece of content in its own right, Broken Age will be a standard Steam release
that includes a 'Season Pass' granting access to Act 2 once it is complete.
Anyone who has Act 1 – either by being a backer, or by buying the game
separately – will receive Act 2 as a free update when it's ready."
2K Games officially announces Evolve, the
recently revealed multiplayer
shooter from Left 4 Dead creators Turtle Rock Studios, saying this is
coming to Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 this autumn. They are already
accepting preorders on the Evolve
website, and those who commit in advance will receive the Monster expansion
pack, "which includes the Savage Goliath skin at launch and a new monster
character as soon as it becomes available after Evolve is released." Here's
word: 2K and Turtle Rock Studios, creators of the cooperative shooter
classic Left 4 Dead, today officially announced Evolve™, an all-new multiplayer
shooter experience. Evolve will be available this autumn for Xbox One, the
all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®4 computer
entertainment system, and Windows PC.
Evolve expertly blends cooperative and competitive multiplayer experiences as a
team of four hunters face off against a single, player-controlled monster. Set
on an alien planet in the distant future, gamers hunt their prey in
adrenaline-pumping 4V1 matches. Players experience Evolve as a first-person
shooter when playing cooperatively as the four hunters, while they control the
monster in the third-person perspective, providing a gameplay experience unique
to Evolve.
“Our philosophy is to build incredibly fun game experiences that we can’t find
anywhere else,” said Chris Ashton, co-founder and design director at Turtle Rock
Studios. “Evolve’s co-op vs. lone wolf formula has created some of the most
intense multiplayer matches we’ve ever experienced.”
Continue here to read the full story.
Bohemia Interactive's
Dean Hall
tweets another sales milestone for DayZ following
word last week that the
standalone zombie survival/horror game had sold 875K copies in three weeks of early access. Word
is the game passed the one million unit milestone within a month: "Well, 1
million copies in 4 weeks. So much for the death of PC Gaming." Thanks
Blend Games. Hall also made an interesting comment
recently on
Twitter: "The best part about DayZ's success, for me, is that I can now make
all the games I've always wanted but that everyone said was too niche."
The
Lord of the Rings Online forums announce that Turbine has renewed the
license to run a Lord of the Rings MMORPG, with a subsequent post revealing
their new agreement runs through 2017. Thanks
Eurogamer.
A
Steam Community post by Valve reveals that beta virtual reality support is
present in the latest beta Steam client (thanks
Road to VR via
Gamasutra). If you happen to have an Oculus Rift dev kit, here's how to
access SteamVR: As of the most recent Steam Client Beta steam now
supports an experimental VR mode. If you own an Oculus Rift dev kit you can try
it out by starting Steam with "-vr" on the command line. Then press the Big
Picture button to enter Big Picture + VR mode.
The first time you run you may need to do the following:
1) Run Steam in the desktop client without the -vr option
2) Find "SteamVR" under "Tools" in your library. (If you don't have it
installed, install it.)
3) Bring up properties on SteamVR and opt-in to the "Beta Update" beta. Let the
update download.
4) Quit the Steam Client again and start it with -vr
A new
teaser trailer from Dungeonforge shows off Collective Dream Studios'
upcoming Windows, Linux, and OS X action/RPG in which a player will act as game
master, building dungeons that will not only be enjoyed by their friends, but
can be added to the overall game world for all players to enjoy. They hope
what's shown will inspire further support for their
Steam
Greenlight campaign, which has been doing very well. Continue here to read the full story.
Catlateral Damage is a first-person cat simulator where the player takes
on the role of a typical housecat engaging in one of a kitty's favorite
pastimes, destroying your stuff. Word on the
Catlateral Damage website is the
object "is to knock as many of your owner's possessions onto the ground as
possible," though with it still in development, there's still time to add
furniture clawing mode and the ever-popular vomit special attack. There are
alpha standalone builds for Windows, OS X, and Linux, as well as a
version that can be played in a
browser. Here's a
recent trailer. Thanks nin via
Cataku. Continue here to read the full story.
I have a Blu-ray drive in my PC, but need a codec to play Blu-ray discs. It
seems odd to me that searching for this results in a page full of sketchy
results, and little or nothing that's legitimate. I guess I'll just be the
sucker that pays for this, even if I have to search far-and-wide to do so, as I
am not eager to potentially hose my machine as part of this project.
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