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Archived News:
Drunken Robot Pornography is now available, Dejobaan Games latest
imaginatively titled offering they categorize as "Bullet Hell + FPS + Giant
Robots + Jetpacks" is up on
Steam, where it is 20% off for the coming week (the discount also applies to
three-packs). There will be an online celebration of this tomorrow at the launch
party on Twitch starting at 10:00 am
EST. Here's word from the Dejobaan
Games website: THE STORY: You're
Reuben
Matsumoto, and you @#%*'ed up. You gave your robot bartender, Tim,
sentience, and now he's raised an army to destroy the city of Boston Sky. His
lieutenants are what he calls his
12
Centerfolds — your former robot bar workers. We tell the story over the
game's 52 levels and
Tim's
angry voicemails.
WEEKLY COMPETITIONS: The
Drunken Robot Battle
Royale offers up a fresh challenge every Friday at 3PM EST. Players compete
on a
leaderboard and
share strategies for besting the challenge in the Steam forums. The weekly
Drunken Robot Battle Royale Show on
Fridays at 4pm ET showcases the latest level and recaps the previous week.
YOUR OWN GIANT ROBOTS: The
Giant Robot Construction
Kit lets you build both bosses and their arenas, and Steam Workshop
integration lets you share. There are currently over 300 bits of user-generated
content, including Y-4-NG_DR-4-G-0-N, The Trilobyte, and N-0.R-3.
A playable demo for Line of Defense Tactics is now available, providing a
sample of 3000AD's new squad-based tactical combat game. Here's a refresher on
LoD: "Based upon the upcoming MMO Line of Defense as well as the comic, Line of
Defense Tactics uses the world, weapons, and vehicles to put players in the
shoes of a strike team of four elite GALCOM Marines in real-time tactical combat
battles." The demo is available
on Steam and there is
also a standalone version for download from several mirrors listed
on this page which also includes an explanation of the demo's contents and
purpose: The demo, like the mobile version, will have missions 1-3 free
and that should give anyone who thinks that a mobile version demo would not
suffice for a PC, a chance to make their own judgment and help us counter these
malicious and false reviews being put up by a select few and their mob in order
to get back at us for banning, thus preventing them from disrupting our
forums.
A new Enlistment Trailer
for Infested Planet looks to recruit more soldiers into
Rocket Bear Games' action/strategy
game which is currently available for Early Access
on Steam, celebrating the
news that the game will officially launch on March 6th. Would you like to know
more? "Infested Planet puts you in the shoes of a commander holding off the
alien swarm in a desperate, heroic last stand. Take charge of your squad and
outsmart the unrelenting, mutating enemy hordes. One moment your shotguns are
ripping through the aliens, and the next, the aliens grow bullet-proof armor.
You must adapt as well. Equip your team with stealth suits, mini-guns, grenade
launchers - your commands will decide the battle's outcome." Continue here to read the full story.
A
Steam Community Announcement notes that another 50 new titles have been
greenlit for release on Steam when they are ready.
This
list has the outline of the new approvals.
- Darkout on
Steam. Save 50%.
- Defender's Quest on
GOG.com. Save 85%.
- Drox Operative on
Steam. Save 50% for
its first week on Steam.
- Farming Simulator 2013 Titanium Edition on
Steam. Save 70%.
- Garry's Mod on
Steam. Save 75%.
- Space Engineers on
Steam. Save 33%.
Polygon - When your Steam account becomes a family heirloom.
A friend of mine has two boys, ages 7 and 10. They have their own Steam
accounts, with their own collections of games. "I'm going to stack them with
cheap games, and then hand them over, heirloom-style, when they eventually
get their own gaming PCs," he told me, and for a moment I thought he was
joking. The next day I made a Steam account for my own son and daughter.
Gamasutra - Irrational Games, journalism, and airing dirty laundry.
It's a scary bellwether for triple-A that not even a team like
Irrational, not even someone like Ken Levine, could aim for creative breadth
and narrative depth, be well-reviewed, sell millions and still be
sustainable. BioShock as a series was always about showing the inevitable
dark side of imagined paradises. This is another such story. That's really
all I know.
Deep Silver announces Sacred 3 is coming to Windows and consoles
this summer after previously
previously stating
the action/RPG sequel would be released last year. They offer
an announcement trailer
on the Sacred World website, and
here's word on the game: Deep Silver revealed the first glimpse into
Ancaria today with a new trailer for the upcoming third installment to the famed
franchise, Sacred 3, which slashes its way to PC and consoles this summer.
Sacred 3 takes players deep into the Ancarian fantasy realm, where they will
need to band together if they are to have any hope of vanquishing the deadly
tides of evil. Sacred 3 will be released this summer for the PlayStation®3
computer entertainment system and for the Xbox 360 games and entertainment
system from Microsoft as well as Windows PC, featuring incredibly immersive and
engaging co-op gameplay.
“The paramount development goal for Sacred 3 has been to create a seamless
online and offline co-op experience”, said Remy van Leeuwen, Brand Manager of
Deep Silver. “By creating a game built around the central concept of co-op
gameplay, we’re expanding the series to new audiences without compromising the
rich lore and fantasy of the Sacred universe.”
Sacred 3 features classic arcade Hack ‘n’ Slash action centered around drop in,
drop out cooperative multiplayer for both offline (2 players) and online (4
players) play. The game brings back fan-favorite characters such as the
Seraphim, Ancarian, Khukuhru and the Safiri, and introduces a new character,
Malakhim. Each character class features its own unique skills and weapons which
can be upgraded to match the player’s very own combat style. Master the art of
war and fight your way through enemy hordes and try to outshine your fellow
companions on your way to become the greatest hero of all. Victory Is Ours.
Glory is Mine.
Continue here to read the full story.
Battle.net reminds us
that the Diablo III auction houses have but one more month before being
shut down on March 18th, referring further questions about this to the
Diablo III Auction
House Update FAQ. As for how to prepare for the change, they say they'll "be
providing additional technical details regarding the shutdown including how this
will affect active auctions, items in the Completed Tab, your existing
Battle.net Balance, and more next week, so please stay tuned!" In the meantime,
many will be collecting dirt to kick on the grave of this feature, which even
Blizzard
eventually
admitted was a bad idea to start with.
The
Bethesda Blog announces a May 23rd European release date for Wolfenstein:
The New Order, noting
elsewhere that the new installment in the military shooter series will come
to North America on May 20th. Bethesda also announces that those who preorder
the alternate-history game will gain access to the beta testing of id Software's
upcoming DOOM game, saying a beta code will come in the Wolfenstein game
box, though the test will start at a later date. They are offering
preorders for all platforms,
though they don't promise the beta will cover all of them, saying: "Beta timing
and platform options are subject to Bethesda Softworks’ discretion." All the
details can be found in this FAQ,
where they also answer the question about whether the new DOOM game will have an
open beta, saying: "Timing and availability of future beta programs for DOOM is
to be determined. The only current way to ensure access is through pre-ordering
Wolfenstein: The New Order. We will be providing more information on additional
beta tests, if any, at a later time." They punctuate the news with a
new "BOOM BOOM" gameplay
trailer. Continue here to read the full story.
Eutechnyx laid off a dozen employees last week,
Eurogamer confirms with the developer of NASCAR games and Auto Club
Revolution, saying this is part of a restructuring of the racing game
specialist. They have an unconfirmed report attributed to a "well-placed source
at the studio" saying Auto Club Revolution has underperformed and that there is
uncertainty over the future of the NASCAR franchise and whether there will be
current generation versions of the just-released NASCAR '14. They also
have official comments on the situation. "We're now developing more new IP and
entering new and emerging markets. All of this requires a restructure of how we
focus our efforts internally, and sadly, last week, 12 people left us as part of
that restructure. We continue to employ 130 people and recruit for these new
areas that we are working in," says CEO Darren Jobling. "This week we're
launching three titles and over the next week or so we'll be announcing a major
initiative involving China." Here's more on how this positions them for the
future: "The changes that we are making to our business are adjustments
we think the majority of developers are going to have to make over the coming
years to reflect the changes in markets and playing patterns. As a result,
Eutechnyx is in a stronger position to focus on growth within the new and
emerging markets that we have identified."
The
Starbound website has details about issues that have popped up in the Early Access space
game following the "Enraged Koala" patch, which has caused data loss. They've
issued hotfixes to help mitigate this, and offer the following explanation:
WARNING: If you have not yet started playing, please make a backup of
your ship file, which is located in your steam folder/player/*.shipworld and
backups of your world files located in your steam folder/universe/*.world
CLARIFICATION: We’ve already pushed a partial fix for this issue that ought to
prevent more containers from being erased. Please let us know if this is not the
case.
A few hours ago, we pushed a second hotfix to Enraged Koala to fix an issue with
seats and beds not being interactive. It worked fine in our limited test cases,
but we quickly discovered after pushing from community feedback that it was
deleting containers from some preexisting worlds. Some of these were things like
the shiplocker and fuelhatch which cannot be legitimately obtained in the game,
rendering that ship unplayable.
The only fix for this issue right now is to remove your shipworld and allow the
game to regenerate them, or restore from backup if you have one. You will lose
the contents of your ship if you do not have a backup.
We are all deeply sorry for the lost data, and will work hard in the future to
prevent issues like this from occurring.
For those interested, here’s a
quick technical write up on why this happened..
Shining Rock Software now
offers Banished, offering
a note
saying they have no preference whether people buy the city building game from
gog.com, the
Humble Store,
Steam, or from
their website. Here's
a gameplay trailer, and
here's the description of the game: Welcome to the world of Banished! In
this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who
decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their
backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland.
The objective of the game is to keep the population alive and grow it into a
successful culture. Options for feeding the people include hunting and
gathering, agriculture, trade, and fishing. However, sustainable practices must
be considered to survive in the long term.
Continue here to read the full story.
Battle.net now offers a
Developer Playtest video
with Wyatt Cheng from a livestream session with some community members
checking out the upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo III, Blizzard's
action/RPG sequel. Here's word: "Last Friday, senior technical game designer
Wyatt Cheng joined Archon the Wizard, Jaetch, and Moldran for a one-hour
playtest in the Reaper of Souls™ beta. The goal behind this playtest was pretty
simple: jump into the beta with three different members of the Diablo III
community, play around with some of the expansion's new features, and enjoy a
bit of casual conversation with fellow heroes of Sanctuary. The topic of that
conversation exactly? Whatever Archon, Jaetch, or Moldran wanted." Continue here to read the full story.
A Game
Developers Conference "State of the Industry" survey shows how developers
answered when asked what platforms they are targeting for their next games.
Interestingly, Windows and OS X PCs were the number one choice at 52.04%, more
than Xbox One and PS4 combined, a number that grows to 72.12% if you count games
designed for a browser. Here's how some of the other platforms ranked according
to their respondents: Smartphones/tablets: 50.63%, web browser 20.08%,
PlayStation 4 19.66%, Xbox One 16.95%, N/A 11.16%, Android microconsole 10.93%.
EA News announces the release of a
new Ferrari (and Jaguar) pack for Need for Speed Rivals, also
revealing plans for a Lamborghini pack due "in the coming weeks." Here's
a trailer showing the
new DLC and here's word: Starting today there are new cars from Ferrari
and Jaguar. The Ferrari Pack features the anniversary editions of the F40 1987
and F50 1995 models – at the time when both were released, they were each the
fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car that Ferrari sold to the public.
The Jaguar Pack includes the XJ220 and the Jaguar C-X75 Prototype – the
hybrid-electric two-seater was named in honor of Jaguar’s 75th Anniversary.
But these aren’t the only new cars that will be hitting the streets of Redview
County in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to learn more about the upcoming
Lamborghini Pack, featuring the limited edition of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP
570-4 Super Trofeo, and the Need for Speed Movie Pack, which will feature cars
from the upcoming blockbuster movie, including the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento,
the GTA Spano, and the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR 722.
All of these cars will be available for digital purchase for the PlayStation 4,
Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 home entertainment consoles, and available
for download on Origin for PC. Packs are sold separately for both Racers and
Cops, or together in Complete Packs. More info
here and check out this video to see the new cars in action.
Continue here to read the full story.
Frans completed his rescue operation yesterday, and the databases are back online
here, restoring our lost functionality, for which he cannot be thanked enough.
The "share" links were broken for a bit after the restore, but they have been
fixed and work properly once again, and as far as we know, everything is
operating
as intended, so if you notice something amiss, please drop a note to let us
know. There were questions about why this caused so much downtime, and the main
culprit was that the notes from the last time the site was restored from backup
were lost along the way, so Frans had to piece together how to reinstall and
configure all the software we use, which complicated things greatly. The
procedure has been recorded again, so this should not be the same issue going
forward, though obviously we hope it won't come to that. There isn't as good an
explanation for why we weren't running on a more fail-safe setup, but the good
news is that this has been addressed, as the RAID 1 array we are now using
should be inherently more capable of surviving problems. So one
last time, thanks to Frans for being the man, and thanks to all of you for
hanging in there while everything got worked out.
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