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Archived News:
A new
Letter from the Chairman on the Roberts Space Industries celebrates the
latest milestone for Star Citizen, as the upcoming space combat game has
passed $41 million in crowd-sourced funding (thanks 88fingers). This triggers
the
previously
announced stretch goal of procedural generation technology. Here's
word: We’ve hit another record-setting crowd funding level: $41 million!
I’m incredibly happy to hit this goal as it green-lights a very important
research project aimed at improving Star Citizen’s long term future. With this
funding, we’ll be looking into procedural generation to help build the universe
out in a greater detail and scope in ways we didn’t think possible when we
started developing the game! We will have some exciting announcements to make
down the line involving some of the talent we’ve been talking to about helping
us with procedural system and planet building.
- Procedural Generation R&D Team – This
stretch goal will allocate funding for Cloud Imperium to develop procedural
generation technology for future iterations of Star Citizen. Advanced
procedural generation will be necessary for creating entire planets worth of
exploration and development content. A special strike team of procedural
generation-oriented developers will be assembled to make this technology a
reality.
An update to
the Battlefield Blog indicates
the issues holding back the
release of the PC edition of the Naval Strike DLC for Battlefield 4
have been cleared up, as this is now going out to premium subscribers:
"Battlefield 4 Naval Strike is starting to roll out for Premium members on PC
today. We look forward to seeing you on the Battlefield!" Premium owners are
promised two weeks early access, so steerage customers can expect the release
for ordinary copies of the game accordingly.
Answering a question on Twitter, Jonathan Morin tweets that there will be no
demo version of Watch Dogs, Ubisoft's upcoming open-world hacking game.
He says:
"They are no demo planned before release,"
adding
an explanation: "Doing Demos take time, the focus is on the game. You will see
more footage before release." Thanks
GameSpot.
The
Age of Wonders III website announces the third Age of Wonders dawns
today with the continuation of Triumph Studios' turn-based 4X strategy series.
The game is available on
GOG.com and
Steam, and here's word: Many
questions have come to us asking for to the exact dawn of the Third Age of
Wonders. The Seers here in Delft, the Netherworld, project this jubilant new Age
will dawn when the clock strikes 6 in the evening in Continental European Lands
(CET), and the clock strikes 9 on the shores of the Great Pacific Seas (PST).
May there be much rejoicing!
The promised Early Access
to Shadowrun Online is now available
on Steam, offering the
chance to play the alpha version of Cliffhanger's upcoming MMOG and get the game
at a bargain price. Here's what they say about the current state of the game:
"This early prequel offers players an introduction to the combat of Shadowrun
Online through PvP and four missions. New content and features will be added
regularly with opportunities for players to directly influence development."
Nival announces Prime World is now out of beta, and their new
free-to-play MOBA game is live on the Prime
World website with new French and German language support. To celebrate the
news, players will enjoy double resource rates for the first week or so. Here's
word on the game: From the creators of Blitzkrieg, Heroes of Might & Magic
V and Etherlords, Prime World adds the best features of deep MMORPGs to a fast
paced MOBA. It merges persistent hero development and character customization
with Player-vs-Player and Player-vs-Environment gameplay. In addition, the game
features story-driven battles and castle building all within a competitive
online setting. Players can hire, equip, and train their choice of dozens of
heroes between battles using collectible and upgradable talents and build a
thriving economy in their city. Players can even start their own clan and fight
other clans in battles for victory, glory, and priceless Prime!
Activision offers a new
trailer showing off the upcoming Devastation expansion for Call of Duty:
Ghosts, the military shooter sequel. The clip shows off the new weapon and maps
in the pack, as well as Mayday, the second episode in the Extinction campaign,
confirming recent
indications that the Predator makes an appearance, in spite of
a seeming lack of mud camouflage. Here's word on the pack: Devastation
brings four small to medium-sized Multiplayer maps: Ruins, Behemoth, Collision,
and Unearthed -- which is a re-imagined version of Dome, the fan-favorite map
from Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3.
Devastation also includes the "Ripper," a brand new tactical 2-in-1 weapon with
the unique ability to switch from SMG to AR and back on the fly, in the middle
of combat.
The Extinction saga picks up with Episode 2: Mayday. Following the events of
Nightfall, players board an abandoned research vessel, in search of answers.
Players will face two new alien foes - Seeders, and the 100ft tall "Kraken."
This exciting new chapter comes packed with new weapon mods and paths to
explore.
Devastation arrives first, exclusively on Xbox Live on April 3rd, with other
platforms to follow.
Continue here to read the full story.
Patrick Redding's LinkedIn
profile now lists his title as Creative Director at Warner Bros. Games and
his work location as Montreal, revealing he has parted ways with Ubisoft, where
he had been serving as Creative Director of the Splinter Cell franchise.
What he will work on at the Batman: Arkham Origins studio is not clear. Thanks
Superannuation and
GamesIndustry International.
The Origin
website announces EA's online store is dropping physical discs and going
online only (thanks
VideoGamer.com). Word is: Starting April 4th Origin will be going all
digital. This means the entire Origin game store will be entirely digital
downloads for PC and Mac.
What does this mean for you? If you're among 99% of our users, absolutely
nothing. Your shopping experience hasn't changed one single bit.
But if you're that 1% who still desires a physical collection, we want to let
you know that Origin won't be able to fulfill that need beginning April 4th.
We’ll still be here when you transition your gaming habits to the wonders of
digital downloads.
Digital is fast and convenient. Origin’s focus is to give gamers the best
experience, and going all-digital will make that possible.
The Shards Online website shows
off plans for a sandbox MMORPG from Citadel Studios, which includes former
Ultima Online developers (thanks Ant via
Slashdot/ Polygon).
There's a recent interview on the topic
on Stratics, discussing the twist that this will be a player-run game, as
they describe on their website: Shards is a sandbox RPG in development for
PC by Citadel Studios. In the multiplayer online game players can fully
customize their experience. Collaboration will determine how the world evolves.
Explore an ever-expanding universe with deep lore and dynamic environments.
Employ Shards' unprecedented modding capabilities. Connect servers, create and
run your own MMO, set your own rules, and play how you want to play.
Shards will change the face of multiplayer role-playing games and give players
more power than ever before.
New sales charts for the week ending March 29th in the U.K. are now available
via GfK Chart Track. The
full-price PC chart has a new number one, as the Diablo III: Reaper of
Souls expansion takes top honors. Titanfall falls to number two,
kicking Football Manager 2014 to the number three spot. On the
all platforms/all prices top 40 Infamous: Second Son enjoys a second
week in the sun, with the new Diablo expansion showing up in the number six
spot. Here's their summary:
‘Infamous: Second Son’ (-67%) holds on to top spot for a second week
ahead of ‘Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes’ (-64%) which is a non-mover at No2.
The sales gap between them shrinks from 15,000 units to 3,000 with ‘Titanfall’
(-42%) also stuck at No3, only 100 units behind Metal Gear this week. Released
on Tuesday 25th March, ‘Diablo III: Reaper of Souls’ is the only new entry to
make it into the Top 10, debuting at No6. Retailer promotions help ‘FIFA 14’
(+38%) back into the Top 5, up from No6 to No4, its highest position for 4
weeks.
Sales of ‘The Lego Movie Videogame’ climb 3%, enough to push it up from No8 to
No5. ‘FIFA 14’ isn’t the only Top 10 title to benefit from retailer promotions
this week as sales of ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ rise by a similar margin, up 36%,
propelling it back into the Top 10, up from No12 to No8. ‘Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD
Remaster’ (-76%) almost slips out of the Top 10 in its second week of release,
falling from No4 to No10. Nintendo’s collaboration with Capcom for ‘Professor
Layton vs Phoenix Wright’ enters at No15, while PQube’s ‘MXGP: The Official
Motocross Videogame’ lines up at No19.
Game Theory: Are
Gamers Killing Video Games? Thanks Ant via
Dorkly.
So people didn't like Virtual Boy and aren't buying the Wii U. Well, in
PART 2 of our "What Gamers Want" series, we look at sales data to uncover a
shocking secret in the games industry: Gamers DON'T want innovation! Despite
all our calls for increased creativity, we just don't buy creative games.
And our inconsistency is singlehandedly killing Nintendo.
This Half-Life 3 Fan-Made
Cinematic Trailer is pretty impressive (thanks
DSOGaming). It's also pretty surprising how youthful Alyx Vance seems,
considering she's in her mid-thirties by now, and has lived her whole life as
part of an underground resistance. Yeah, that's right, Half-Life 2 turns
10 years old later this year. In fact, it's now two years since Valve
indirectly
addressed the stalled franchise. It's almost like by not telling us anything,
they're trying to tell us something. Well I'm not listening... where do I
preorder?
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