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Archived News:
The
Battlefield Blog introduces plans for a Community Test Environment where
DICE will be able to experiment with improvements for Battlefield 4,
their military shooter sequel. They say one of the first things they will do is
use this to work on the game's "Netcode" (their quotes), and speak of how this
will enable them to "address player feedback at an early stage," though arguably
the "early stage" is already over, as the game was released over six months ago.
This is restricted to Battlefield 4 Premium members initially, as space is
limited, but they talk of plans to expand the program in the future.
Techland announces a delay to Dying
Light, saying the zombie game's release will now come in February of
next year. They thank publisher WBIE for their support, and say they will start
revealing more about the game beginning at E3. Here's word on the
delay: We know you’ve been waiting on a Dying Light release date for quite
some time now. After careful consideration, we have decided to release our
upcoming game in February 2015. Since this means Dying Light will launch a few
months later than originally planned, we feel obliged to explain the reasons
that influenced this important decision.
When we started the development of Dying Light, we were committed to innovation.
We wanted to give you a freedom of movement unprecedented in open-world games.
After many improvements and months of hard work, we have now come so close to
realizing our initial vision we feel we cannot stop before it is ready.
We believe the Natural Movement element of our game will change what you expect
from the genre, and we don’t want to sacrifice any of its potential by releasing
too early. This quality-focused thinking underlines all our development choices
and we hope you share our belief that the gameplay must always come first.
The new date ensures that we can fully realize our vision of an innovative
open-world game. We won’t need to make compromises or trade-offs on any of the
five platforms we’re working on. For you, it means an outstanding, original game
that makes the wait more than worthwhile.
The Xbox exclusivity period has ended for Call of Duty: Ghosts Devastation,
as Activision announces the Devastation DLC is now available for the military
shooter for Windows, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. Here's a reminder of what
this includes: "Devastation offers up to four small-to-medium sized multiplayer
maps, includes the all-new tactical 2-in-1 'Ripper'SMG/Assault Rifle, allows
players to become the Predator, and delivers the next chapter in Extinction's
four-part episodic narrative with 'Episode 2: Mayday'." Here's the rundown on
the four multiplayer maps:
- Ruins: A multi-level Mayan temple suited
for both long-range weapons and close-quarters combat. Skilled players that
find and complete the map's unique Field Order will have the ability to
become one of Hollywood's most formidable action film stars and the galaxy's
ultimate hunter, the deadly Predator.
- Collision: The mangled remains of a cargo
ship that's crashed into a New York City bridge, this map's tight corridors
are made-up of burned-out vehicles and demolished shipping containers,
creating a perfect space for run-and-gun players.
- Behemoth: Players battle atop a massive
excavation platform in South America, with lengthy sight lines ideal for
long-range weapons, while the confined interiors of the platform's control
rooms make for intense SMG and Shotgun encounters.
- Unearthed: A reimagined version of the
fan-favorite map "Dome" from Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3, "Unearthed"
is full of new secrets and Cryptid artifacts for players to discover in this
compact, versatile map, great for all play types.
Little Orbit announces Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, a
third installment in the action/adventure series based on the Cartoon Network
show. The game is in development at WayForward for release on Windows, Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, and Nintendo 3DS this November. You can keep up with this on the
Little Orbit Facebook page,
and in the meantime, here's a description: In Adventure Time: The Secret
of the Nameless Kingdom, players take on the personas of both Finn and Jake as
they navigate through the eponymous kingdom - a mysterious unexplored region in
the Land of Ooo. They will discover hidden secrets by exploring all corners of a
new kingdom created exclusively for the game and encounter never-seen-before
characters and creatures.
Indie developer SomaSim announces the release of 1849, their city
building game set during the California gold rush. The Windows and OS X editions
of the game are available from the
SomaSim website as well as
GamersGate,
GOG.com,
IndieGameStand Store,
and Steam, and there are
also mobile versions for
Android and iOS.
"Over the last few years casual city management games have gained popularity,
but they're nothing like the in-depth simulation games that defined the genre
back in the day. Those were games I could lose myself in for hours, building a
massive empire out of nothing. We've tried to bring back this gameplay and
experience in 1849," says developer Robert Zubek. "It's a game tuned for today's
technology and players -- the scenarios are designed so you can play for a few
minutes on the bus if that's all the time you have, or spend hours building a
huge bustling city. At its heart 1849 is a classic city management game with all
the bells and whistles that make this genre so much fun." Here's an overview: Set
during an unparalleled period of American history, 1849 features 20 levels set
in existing California cities brought to life with graphics inspired by period
photographs and surviving architecture. In each level, players must establish
and grow the local economy while balancing citizens' needs against the backdrop
of real Gold Rush scenarios and challenges. Should Sacramento be a mining town,
a farming community, or a hub for trade? Will the pioneers flocking into
Monterey become productive prospectors or devolve into unruly drunks at the
local saloon? That's your call!
The
SEGA Blog announces a June 24th release date for Company of Heroes 2: The
Western Front Armies, their upcoming standalone multiplayer CoH strategy game
which was already expected in June. They also announce a preorder bonus, saying:
"Customers who preorder The Western Front Armies will receive two unique vehicle
skins (one for each faction) with matching faceplates."
This trailer
celebrates the news. Continue here to read the full story.
A new "Character"
trailer for Watch Dogs is now available, introducing some of the cast that
will populate the virtual Chicago in the upcoming open-world action game. Word
is: "Check out the all-new trailer to get an inside look at the characters of
Watch Dogs. Meet Aiden’s friends, his enemies and some that blur the line. In a
city of more than 3 million people, you’d be surprised at how few you can trust." Continue here to read the full story.
A Classes trailer
from Warside gets all classy with the upcoming platformer shooter, showing off
the game's class systems and abilities, hoping to support their
Steam
Greenlight campaign. Continue here to read the full story.
- BioShock Infinite on
Steam. Save 67%.
- The Royale with Cheese Bundle on
Indie Royale. That is one tasty
burger!
- Staff Picks Sale on IndieGameStand.
- Super Meat Boy on
Steam. Save 80%.
"The Future of Unreal Tournament Begins Today" declares
the Unreal Engine website, where Epic's Steve Polge outlines plans for
public development of the next installment in the Unreal Tournament
series, which will be released as an entirely free game for Windows, OS X, and
Linux, not just a free-to-play dealie. Here's the explanation
of their business model for the multiplayer shooter: "We’ll eventually create a
marketplace where developers, modders, artists and gamers can give away, buy and
sell mods and content. Earnings from the marketplace will be split between the
mod/content developer, and Epic. That’s how we plan to pay for the game." Here's
the deal: Work on the future of
Unreal Tournament begins today, and we’re happy to announce that we’re going
to do this together, with you. We know that fans of the game are as passionate
about Unreal Tournament as we are. We know that you have great ideas and strong
opinions about where the game should go and what it should be. So let’s do
something radical and make this game together, in the open, and for all of us.
HERE’S THE PLAN:
- We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are
beginning work on the project starting today.
- From the very first line of code, the very first
art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open,
as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using
forums for discussion, and
Twitch
streams for regular updates.
- If you are a fan and you want to participate,
create a free account and join the forum discussion.
- All code and content will be available live to UE4
developers on GitHub.
- The game will be true to its roots as a
competitive FPS.
- Development will be focused on Windows, Mac and
Linux.
SO WHAT’S THE CATCH?
- It will take many months until the game is
playable by gamers. This is real development from scratch.
- When the game is playable, it will be free. Not
free to play, just free.
- We’ll eventually create a marketplace where
developers, modders, artists and gamers can give away, buy and sell mods and
content. Earnings from the marketplace will be split between the mod/content
developer, and Epic. That’s how we plan to pay for the game.
A lot of this is brand new for Epic, and we don’t yet have everything figured
out. Things will probably definitely go wrong from time to time, and when they
do, we’ll have to work through them together. There will be a lot of tough
decisions to make, and not every feature will make it into the game. But if
you’re a fan of Unreal Tournament, a UE4 developer, or a future modder – or if
you just want to learn how we make games – we hope you’ll join us. It’s going to
be fun.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
- Want more detail on the project? Read our
wiki.
- Want to participate & give feedback? Check out the
forums, and sign up for a free account
here to join Unreal
Engine 4 community.
- Just interested in getting updates? Subscribe to
our newsletter
here at the bottom
right of our page.
- In case you want to check out the classic Unreal
Tournament games, they will be on sale
here starting
tomorrow, for 50% off!
Follow us at /UnrealEngine on
Twitter, Facebook,
Twitch,
YouTube,
Instagram and
Google+.
The WildStar website
announces that the promised open beta testing WildStar is now
available. Here's
a new
trailer celebrating the news, and here's word: NCSOFT® and Carbine
Studios™ today announced that their upcoming action-adventure sci-fi MMO,
WildStar® has entered Open Beta and will be available to fans 24/7 for the next
10 days. With the influx of new players a brand new European datacentre has been
switched on to allow for a smoother game experience. NCSOFT and Carbine Studios
welcome all players to explore WildStar, whether they are already familiar with
the legendary planet Nexus or not, prior to the worldwide launch on Tuesday, 3rd
June.
The announcement of Open Beta is also accompanied with a new trailer from
Carbine Studios highlighting the background story of the game. The level cap has
also been raised to 30 and the first localised German and French versions are
available for testing. European players with existing characters will seamlessly
be able to continue their adventures on the European servers.
Those new to WildStar can visit
www.wildstar-online.com/en/openbeta for instructions and access, and players
that have already participated in any previous WildStar beta event can log on
with their current accounts.
To kick off the Open Beta, Carbine Studios is hosting a 30 minute Livestream on
its Twitch Channel today at 20:00 CEST (www.twitch.tv/wildstar) where the
developers will give a state of the game update and share their thoughts on
exactly why WildStar is going to kick ass and disrupt the MMO category. The team
will be back on Friday, 9th with a six-hour developer Livestream featuring a
slew of content starting at 20:00 CEST, including play-by-play of some exciting
raids and Warplots activity, a sneak peek into higher level Open Beta content
and turn the it into a massive social ‘Ask Me Anything’, opening up every social
platform to take questions – Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, Forums, Twitch,
Vine and maybe even MySpace to name a few.
The
Don't Starve Website has first word on plans for Don't Starve Together,
an expansion coming to Don't Starve this summer that will add multiplayer
support to the survival game. There's more on this in the
Klei Entertainment Forums, including an explanation of why they have altered
their previous hard-line stance against multiplayer support. They go on to
describe their goal of supporting at least four-player games, that this will be
free for owners of the original game, and that this should appear first for
Early Access on Steam. They also offer reassurances for fans that don't want
their solo experience altered: "Single player Don’t Starve will not be affected
by the addition of multiplayer except for content or features not specifically
related to multiplayer gameplay. Balance changes and content aimed at creating
an interesting multiplayer experience will not be added to the single player
game." Thanks stardog via
IGN.
Battle.net
forums have details from Blizzard on plans for balance changes coming to
Hearthstone, their virtual card-based strategy game (thanks
Shacknews). They explain they've been tracking the rise and fall in
popularity of various deck builds, but that the dominance of Hunter decks has
emerged as a consistent imbalance that they have decided to address. Explaining
they take such changes seriously, they announce that they've concluded that the
cost of unleashing the Hounds will go from two to three mana. Here's word: At
the very highest levels of play there are a lot of different decks performing
well, and the decks at the top change from week to week. Since we’ve seen many
cards and deck types in the current state of the game rise and fall as players
adapt, we did not want to change Unleash the Hounds immediately. However, Hunter
decks have become increasingly more dominant and are doing better than we are
comfortable across many levels of play.
We do like the idea of decks that have a really big turn and pull off a sweet
combo, but when playing against Hunter decks, you may feel punished too much for
playing minions. Playing minions is one of the key, fun pieces of the overall
Hearthstone puzzle, and feeling like your options are limited by the opponent
creates a play experience that may not be particularly enjoyable.
Gamasutra has details on Namco Bandai's latest financial reporting, noting
that the Japanese company's video game business is the bright spot amid tumbling
profits. Word is the company's profit was 25.1 billion yen ($246.6 million),
down 22.6 percent year-over-year," but that "game sales were actually slightly
up year-over-year, accounting for 84.9 billion yen ($833.9 million) compared to
84.4 billion yen ($829.1 million)." Dark Souls II sales are singled out
as a high point, as word is the action/RPG sequel has sold around 1.2 million
units worldwide.
There are highlights from Capcom's most recent financials
on Eurogamer.net, saying the year was good to the Japanese
developer/publisher: "Video games contributed to a positive year for Capcom.
Sales increased 8.6 per cent to 102 billion yen (£592m), and profit rose 15.9
per cent to 3.4 billion yen (£20m)." They note the high point is that Dead
Rising 3 has sold 1.2 million units, while on the flipside, Lost Planet 3
sold "below expectations."
I want to offer some well-wishing to my brother, as today is WalterEgo's
birthday. I'll actually get to see him over the weekend, but in the meantime,
this post can serve as a backup plan if I manage to forget to call him today.
Okay, so who brought the cake?
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