Matrix Games announces
Scourge of War: Waterloo, a new strategy game
focused on Napoleon's final battle, which didn't turn out as planned. The SoW
series previously explored the American Civil War, and here's word on the change
in direction for NorbSoftDev studio:
For the first time, developer
NorbSoftDev studio (www.norbsoftdev.net)
is leaving their beloved American Civil War for a brand new setting and is
heading across the Atlantic Ocean with, Scourge of War: Waterloo! Excitement is
mounting for the highly-praised Scourge of War series – “One of the finest
computer war games ever published” (Real and Simulated Wars), “I recommend this
game in the possible highest terms” (Armchair General), “A real must-buy for
strategy and tactic fans” (7idgaming)
A new chapter in the Scourge of War series will be written on the battlefield of
Waterloo. Napoleon and his Grande Armée are facing their ultimate challenge in
this final encounter against the troops of the Seventh Coalition. Players will
be able to prove that the Emperor’s return in March 1815 was not in vain, or
join the armies led by the Duke of Wellington and von Blücher to eliminate the
French threat forever.
This trailer offers
the first look at gameplay from
Galactic Civilizations III, Stardock's
upcoming space strategy sequel. Here's a description: "This first video shows
how players move around and explore in hex-based gloriousness, and you can watch
a fleet dominate the skies in its conquest of other territories. You'll also get
a peek at the UI so far in Galactic Civilizations III, the latest title in one
of the most critically-acclaimed franchises ever. "
Continue here to read the full story.
Independent studio Blackpowder Games announces the release of
Betrayer
on Steam, a self-funded
action/adventure game designed by a team that includes veterans of Monolith's No
One Lives Forever series and the original F.E.A.R. The is still listed as early
access today, but
will official launch today, so there's a still a short opportunity to buy it
at its discounted introductory price. This is how the game is
described:
Now available on Steam, Betrayer is an eerie, suspenseful
action adventure in which players traverse a mysteriously abandoned New World
colony in 1604, trying to piece together what happened to its inhabitants and
survive the supernatural threats they encounter along the way.
“Betrayer is the kind of game we’ve been wanting to make ever since we shipped
FEAR,” says the game’s designer and writer, Craig Hubbard. “You can explore
large, open environments in search of clues and loot. You can tackle challenges
aggressively or stealthily. You can outfit yourself with the equipment that best
suits your play style. It’s a very player-driven experience.”
Blizzard will host a launch party in Los Angeles this evening to kick off
tomorrow's launch of the new
Reaper of Souls expansion for
Diablo III,
their action/RPG sequel. The add-on should go live around midnight eastern time,
and right around that time Game Director Josh Mosqueira and Senior Technical
Game Designer Wyatt Cheng will be on the
Diablo Twitch channel to celebrate the launch. Word is: "Josh and Wyatt will
be coming to you live from the altar of the Vibiana to share the highlights of
the evening's event and give a deeper look into Reaper of Souls and its
development."
This page
has launch details for Reaper of Souls, including when it will be live in
various territories.
Robert
Bowling tweets that November is when to expect the release of the Windows
edition of Human Element, the upcoming CryENGINE zombie action game from
Robotoki, the startup developer formed by the one-time Call of Duty community
manager. Word is: "PC confirmed for Nov 2015 release, PS4 and Xbox One yet to
have a release date. Mobile will follow PC release as secondary." Thanks
Strategy Informer.
Titanfall holds onto the top spot in
GFK Chart-Track's top 20 full-price PC entertainment chart on a chart with
only one new item compared with last week, as
BioShock Infinite re-enters
at number 14. On the
all platforms/all prices chart Infamous: Second Son debuts at number
one,
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes enters the chart at number two, and
FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 Remaster launches at number four, neatly surrounding
Titanfall, last week's top entry. Here's the write up:
Sony and Sucker
Punch Productions can celebrate a first PS4-only All Formats No1 thanks to
‘Infamous: Second Son’.
It debuts as the second biggest week 1 PS4 new release, behind ‘Killzone: Shadow
Fall’ which was of course the major launch title for PS4 back in week 48, 2013
(debuted at No4 on the All Formats). ‘Infamous: Second Son’ is third in the
series: original ‘Infamous’ debuted on PS3 back in week 22, 2009 (at No5 on the
All Formats Chart) followed by ‘Infamous 2’ also on PS3 back in week 23, 2011
(at No4). Konami can also celebrate thanks to ‘Metal Gear Solid V: Gound Zeroes’
which debuts at No2 on 4 formats – the game is a prologue to the forthcoming
‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’.
EA’s ‘Titanfall’ (-73%) drops from No1 to No3 and at No4 we have the third and
final new release of the week within the All Formats Top 40, Square Enix’s
‘Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster’ for PS3/Vita. Ubisoft’s ‘South Park: The Stick
of Truth’ drops 2 places to No5 (-48%) and EA remain at No6 with ‘FIFA 14’ (+9%)
- still its lowest overall chart position since launch 26 weeks ago. Bandai
Namco’s ‘Dark Souls II’ (-71%) drops 5 places to No7, Warner drop 4 places to
No8 with ‘The Lego Movie Videogame’ (-16%), EA’s ‘Plants Vs Zombies:Garden
Warfare’ drops 2 places to No9 (-31%) and Microsoft occupy 10th spot, down 1
place from last week with perenniel favourite ‘Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition’
(+2%) – this game has spent 35 of its 39 weeks within the All Formats Top
10.
XboxAchievements.com has a quote from Assassin's Creed Game Director Damien
Kieken explaining that offering microtransactions in
Assassin's Creed IV:
Black Flag is what allowed Ubisoft to offer multiplayer maps for the
stealth/action sequel for free, avoiding a rift that would prevent owners of the
game from being able to play online together. "Just quick notes here for example
in our case," explains Kieken. "We are offering all of our maps… so all of the
AC maps are free in AC4. The main reason is we don't want to split the
community. We don't want to have players saying, ‘I have the DLC, so I’m only
playing with the guys who have the DLC, my buddy doesn’t have the DLC, so he
can’t play with me.’ It doesn’t make any sense." Thanks
MP1st.
I need to work out a new headset for online gaming in case anyone has a good
recommendation. This is for voice chat, and I don't really care if I can mix
game sound, as I'm willing to let that play separately through the speakers. My
main concern is comfort around the ears for someone who wears glasses, as my
current headset is painful in this regard, so how the set is padded is probably
as big a consideration as anything.