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Archived News:
Publisher Devolver Digital and developer Vlambeer announce the release of
LUFTRAUSERS, offering an aerial dogfighting game for Windows, OS X, Linux,
PS3, and Vita. There are details on where to get this on
the LUFTRAUSERS website, here's
a trailer, and here's a
description: The super stylish arcade shooter LUFTRAUSERS is calling all
recruits to jump into the cockpit and take on more than 100 challenging missions
in an epic battle for liberty and glory. Brave gamers all over the world can
choose from over 125 combinations of weapons, bodies and propulsion systems on
the quest to rise above the rest and become the best-damned rauser pilot of all
time.
"LUFTRAUSERS may seem like a simple arcade game at first look but there is over
$500 million in proprietary RausHard technology put into that game," said
Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. "Unfortunately, this means we need to sell 50
million copies of LUFTRAUSERS to break even so, you know, spread the word."
"Screen shake makes everything better," uttered JW Nijman, 50% of developer
Vlambeer.
Those brave enough to go head-to-head with the best rauser pilots can go to
luftrausers.com for more information and train on the original LUFTRAUSER web
game.
Continue here to read the full story.
Unity Technologies announces the Unity
Store is now accepting preorders from developers for Unity 5, the next
installment in their multiplatform game engine and development tools, saying
those who preorder Unity Pro 5 will also receive Unity Pro 4 in the meantime.
Here's a Unity 5
Feature Preview trailer, and here's word on their next upcoming 64-bit
engine: Unity 5 is a massive update to the Unity Engine, including features such as the
Enlighten real-time lighting system and physically-based shaders that provide
the power to render stunning high-quality characters, environments, lighting,
and effects. Workflow efficiency increased dramatically due to the new unified
shader architecture, in-editor real-time lightmap previews, and improved asset
bundling. Audio designers will find a completely overhauled audio system
including the new Audio Mixer for creating dynamic soundscapes and effects.
Unity Technologies is committed to creating opportunities for the massive Unity
community of developers to find success. Therefore Unity 5.0 will see the launch
of the integrated Unity Cloud ad-sharing network for painless cross-promotion of
mobile games, and an addition to Unity's unrivaled multiplatform support with
the introduction of WebGL deployment.
Continue here to read the full story.
Firefly Studios announces a milestone for
Stronghold Kingdoms, saying
the free-to-play MMORTS has been played by more than three million players since
its launch. They say this represents how successfully they've made the
transition to self-publishing: "With more than 3000 games available on Steam,
the enduring popularity of Stronghold Kingdoms is a remarkable achievement for
the independent developer. Supporting Firefly Studios’ transition to digital
self-publishing, the free-to-play model of Stronghold Kingdoms has allowed the
company to stay healthy and keep growing. With the help of Steam Kingdoms has
become one of the most actively played games on the platform, with more daily
concurrent users than other MMOs with the backing of heavyweight IPs such as
Marvel Heroes and Star Trek Online."
This trailer is
part one of a "making of" look at Child of Light, Ubisoft's upcoming
side-scrolling RPG/"playable poem." The clip is narrated by several of the
game's developers, including creative director Patrick Plourde and writer
Jeffrey Yohalem. Word is: "Inspired by watercolor artwork from the Golden Age of
Illustration, Child of Light takes players on an extraordinary journey through
the mystical world of Lemuria. Check out the trailer for a behind-the-scenes
look at the inspiration for the art of Child of Light." Continue here to read the full story.
The EA Forums
announce that Update 10 is now live in SimCity, adding the ability to
play Maxis' urban-planning reboot without being connected to the Internet. This
is today's second example of the voice of the gamers overcoming corporate
missteps, as the Diablo III auction houses
closed this morning. "We’ve
listened to our players and today we are delivering against their most direct
feedback with the release of the new Single-Player Mode," said Patrick Buechner,
GM of Maxis Emeryville. "Player feedback has helped us deliver 10 major gameplay
Updates that have improved the experience with better tuning, new features and
free content. This is the most definitive SimCity experience whether you choose
to play Online or Offline."
This forum
thread is collecting feedback on the new version, and any questions about
this should be addressed in the
SimCity
single-player mode FAQ and
a new forum
thread to address any additional concerns this may raise. Here are the patch
notes:
- New: SimCity Single-Player Mode.
- Enables Offline Play.
- Single-Player Mode includes multi-city play,
regional interdependence, and city specialization. Regions are saved
locally and there is no limit on number of save games.
- Autosave can be disabled in Single-Player Mode
in order for players to experiment and load their regions at a previous
save point.
- Save As a copy feature. Players can make
copies of their regions at multiple save points.
- See FAQ on Single-Player Mode for full
details. [link]
- Performance: Optimizations in the simulator
to improve performance of both Multiplayer and Single-Player Mode.
- Friends: Friends Search now uses the Origin
friend search.
Ding-dong the witch is dead. Which old witch? The Diablo III auction
house bi... well, it doesn't really need to rhyme. Anyway, the
Diablo III website announces
the promised
closure of the Diablo III auction houses, both the one that used in-game gold
and the one that fuelled by real cash and gamer's tears. Existing auctions will
end based on time remaining for some reason, even though no bids can be placed
anymore. Word is: The gold and real-money auction houses are now shut down
in the Americas. For more information, including how the shutdown will affect
active auctions, items in the Completed Tab, and your existing Battle.net
Balance, please visit our
Auction House Update
FAQ.
GOG.com
announces their online marketplace is widening its reach to offer Linux
games along with their roster of DRM-free Windows titles. This has been in the
works for a few months now, but Penguin-powered games will not go on sale until
this autumn, so for now they are not forthcoming about which games will be
featured. They do tease that there will be at least 100 to chose from when this
initiative kicks off, and say they will be giving their Linux offerings "the
full GOG.com treatment" along the way: We're initially going to be
launching our Linux support on GOG.com with the full GOG.com treatment for
Ubuntu and Mint. That means that right now, we're hammering away at testing
games on a variety of configurations, training up our teams on Linux-speak, and
generally getting geared up for a big kick-off in the fall with at least 100
Linux games ready for you to play. This is, of course, going to include games
that we sell which already have Linux clients, but we'll also be bringing Linux
gamers a variety of classics that are, for the first time, officially supported
and maintained by a storefront like ours.
Square Enix announces the Windows edition of Deus Ex: The Fall is now
available, offering a desktop version of this mobile installment in the Deus Ex
series a week before previously planned. The game is available
on Steam, and for a
limited time, purchases include a free copy of
Deus Ex – Game of the Year
Edition. Here's the deal: Square Enix is thrilled to announce the
award-winning* action-RPG, DEUS EX: THE FALL™ is now available on PC, and can be
purchased via Steam for £7.99/€9.99/$9.99. Originally released as the much
acclaimed mobile version, the PC version boasts 28 Steam achievements, Steam
Trading cards, adjusted AI, full keyboard and mouse functionality, and Microsoft
controller support plus other optimsations.
PC gamers can now delve into the action a week earlier than scheduled and now
take on the role of Ben Saxon. Available for a limited time only, gamers who
purchase DEUS EX: THE FALL™ today, will receive DEUS EX ™ GAME OF THE YEAR
EDITION worth £4.99/€6.99/$6.99 for free. First released in 2000, the year is
2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place, terrorists, collapsing
world economies, and a gap in wealth see’s players fight to prevent the rise of
age old conspiracy’s emerging from the shadows and to take control.
A new
AMD Catalyst 14.2 Beta Driver for Windows is now available (thanks
HARDOCP). As noted in today's tech bits, these include AMD Mantle support
for THIEF, among other things. Here are the highlights:
- Thief:
- AMD Mantle and AMD True Audio support
- Improves stuttering observed in CrossFire mode
- Call of Duty: Ghosts: QUAD CrossFire profile
update – improves level load times
- Audio issues observed when using CrossFire
configurations (and V-sync enabled) have been resolved
- BattleField 4: V-sync issues observed on CrossFire
configurations (with Mantle enabled) have been resolved
NVIDIA
announces they are releasing their GameWorks 2014 bundle available to
attendees of the Game Developers Conference (thanks
HARDOCP). Here's word: NVIDIA GameWorks is a collection of
technologies and tools that include visual and physical simulation software,
development kits, debuggers, algorithms, engines, and libraries that can already
be found in some of the industry’s top selling games.
The technologies behind NVIDIA GameWorks– such as PhysX and VisualFX – can be
seen in the stunning special effects in
Batman: Arkham Origins,
Call of Duty: Ghosts, and
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Now the first Unreal Engine 4-based game,
Daylight,
a survival-horror game from Zombie Studios, will contain a number of key NVIDIA
GameWorks features. They include environmental cloth; NVIDIA’s Turbulence
technology for dynamic fog, particle and smoke effects; NVIDIA PostWorks; as
well as ShadowWorks (HBAO+).
Our hair and fur modeling, simulation, and rendering technology is being used by
CD Projekt RED to shape the characters and creatures inhabiting their upcoming
open-world action role-playing game,
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Here's hoping you aren't too green this morning if you were wearing the green
last night. Also, pleased to see it looks like the winter weather may be finally going away around here. At least I
hope so... I'm sure my typing will improve if I could just stop wearing these
mittens.
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