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Archived News:
ZeniMax has followed on their complaints
that Oculus is using technology that's rightfully theirs with a lawsuit against
the VR company and its founder, Palmer Luckey, for "illegally misappropriating
ZeniMax trade secrets." There's a statement from Oculus on the
Washington Post saying: "The lawsuit filed by ZeniMax has no merit
whatsoever. As we have previously said, ZeniMax did not contribute to any Oculus
technology." The Post also has seen ZeniMax's complaint and summarizes it like
this: According to a copy of the court filing shared with The Washington
Post, the relationship started when Carmack contacted Luckey in 2012 after being
impressed by material about the Rift that he'd read online. Luckey, in turn,
sent a Rift prototype to ZeniMax's offices.
From there, the complaint says, Carmack -- still a ZeniMax employee -- worked
with others at the game company to help develop the Rift ahead of a showing at
the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's largest trade show.
Following that show, the Rift project gained wide exposure and eventually raised
$2 million on Kickstarter -- growing momentum that eventually led to its
Facebook acquisition.
The complaint says that Luckey and ZeniMax then signed a non-disclosure
agreement in 2012 that gave the game publisher "exclusive ownership of the
confidential and proprietary information" covered under the agreement -- namely
what Carmack and other employees contributed to the Rift. But as the project
gained more public attention, ZeniMax alleges, Luckey began violating that
agreement and was not properly crediting ZeniMax for its contributions.
ZeniMax had asked for financial compensation and equity stake in Oculus in
exchange for the contributions it claims to have made to the Rift, according to
the complaint. But efforts to settle the matter out of court failed and, ZeniMax
claims, forced its hand.
The folks at Qtracker are offering a
replacement master server for games losing multiplayer functionality thanks to
the imminent GameSpy shutdown.
Those interested in taking advantage of this can head over to
this page to see what's
involved in getting games listed. Word is: With the impending Gamespy
shutdown, Qtracker has setup a replacement Gamespy master server in the hopes
that older games that use Gamespy will be able to continue to played after the
shutdown. This is a work in progress and more games are being added every day.
Some of the games currently supported are: Battlefield 1942, Battlefield
Vietnam, the Medal of Honor series, Rune, Vietcong, and Vietcong 2.
For more information on how to get your game client and game server to work
after Gamespy shuts down,
please visit.
The first patch for Minimum is now available
on Steam, updating Human
Head's action game with Steam Friends List support, new weapons,
new armor, and the first pass at a map that will evolve with community input.
Here's word on what they describe as the first of many such content updates:
One of the biggest and best additions is the sneak preview of our newest
Titan Mode map, Disaster Zone. This map is SUPER early and represents a rough
blockout of the combat spaces and game flow we want to encourage. It has a lot
of verticality, good sniping positions and bigger fighting areas that make
moving in squads more effective than flying solo.
We're giving you this map so early because we want your feedback! Tell us what
you like, what you hate, what you think could be better and what you can already
see the future of. Help us shape this map from the early stages into something
that our entire community can be proud of.
A new patch for Verdun is now available
on Steam, updating the
Early Access edition of the World War I shooter with a new GUI, French and
German voices, a new map, and more. Developers M2H and Blackmill Games use the
occasion to announce the game will leave beta testing and be fully released this
summer in time for the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war.
This trailer shows off
the update, which they describe like so: A major update has been made to
the game Verdun, after receiving valuable player feedback. The game has a fancy
new graphical user interface which will vastly improve the player’s experience,
especially the ability to play together in a squad has been made more prominent.
Another improvement is the addition of distinctive German and French voices,
which greatly strengthens the World War 1 atmosphere of the game.
Most exciting for players will be the introduction of a whole new map, inspired
by the battle of Ypres; Flanders! Probably the muddiest battlefield you’ve ever
fought in and a real challenge due to its scale. Also, some enhancements are
made on the Vosges map and the balancing of the weapons. And lastly but not
least, Verdun integrated the Steam Trade Card feature for a full Steam
experience. Players can earn virtual cards in Verdun which can be turned into
game badges and tradable Steam community items.
Today' flurry of content updates continues with a new patch for the
Teleglitch: Die More Edition
on Steam adding a new Arena Mode to T3P's survival/horror roguelike-like
action game. The patch comes as the game goes on sale for 66% off, a discount
that will last for the next week. Here are
the full patch notes, and here's the gist:
- Arena mode:
Fight loads of monsters without worrying too much about running out of
bullets and dying. Great for practice.
- New, more usable menu.
- Added more stuff when starting from later levels
- Made railgun even stronger.
- Made war walkers a bit weaker.
- Made level 3,4 a bit easier.
A new "Evening the Odds"
trailer from Batman: Arkham Knight shows off gameplay from the upcoming
continuation of the Arkham series. Here's word: Today Warner Bros.
Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment debuted the first gameplay video
from Batman: Arkham Knight. The Official Batman: Arkham Knight Gameplay Trailer
– “Evening the Odds” showcases Scarecrow’s return to Gotham City as he schemes
to unite the Rogues Gallery and destroy Batman once and for all. As the citizens
flee and criminal gangs take control, the Dark Knight evens the odds by taking
to the streets in the legendary Batmobile to ignite the fight that will decide
the future of the city that he is sworn to protect.
Continue here to read the full story.
Always Sometimes Monsters is now available, and the new adventure game is on
sale for 10% off for the next week. The game can be found on
the official website. Here's
a launch trailer
showing the game's throwback style, and here's the pitch on the game: Independent
developer Vagabond Dog and the emoting publishers at Devolver Digital announced
today that the always sometimes semi-biographical and touching story-driven RPG,
Always Sometimes Monsters, is available today on PC via Steam, GOG, and Humble.
Demanding the answer to the question, ‘How far would you go to get what you
really want?’, Always Sometimes Monsters takes players on a narrative-driven
journey where they face tough life choices and the harsh reality of modern life.
Inspired by the real-life events of Vagabond Dog cofounder Justin Amirkhani
while he hitchhiked his way across the U.S., Always Sometimes Monsters invites
players to assume the role of a down-and-out character on the verge of collapse
after learning the love of their life is set to marry someone else. And as in
the real world, right isn’t always good, and wrong isn’t always bad; choice
plays a huge role in the game.
Players will select characters of different gender, race and sexual orientation
players and set off on a text-based story where they will quickly discover a
world that reacts uniquely to who they are. Each play through is filled with a
staggering number of diverging paths, creating a narrative tailored to the
individual playing, their choices, and their personal ethical compass. Along the
way, players are free to make their own choices as to who they want to become,
where every single decision – whether as seemingly inconsequential like moving
boxes for some quick temp work, or stepping in and assisting a band of union
protesters in a riot – every action contributes to the overall course of
narrative.
“Always Sometimes Monsters is an expression of our common struggle to exact
choice in a reality where circumstance does not always provide us with the
opportunity to do so. It is an experience heavily influenced by our personal
journeys in life and the multitude of people whose roads have crossed ours,”
said Justin Amirkhani from developer Vagabond Dog. “Our hope is that in playing
the game you come to question what defines the decisions you make, not just in
games but in life as well."
Continue here to read the full story.
Valve announces the launch of
Steam In-Home Streaming, which will allow gamers to play Steam games on any
computer on their home networks, permitting lower-end machines to take advantage
of the power of the host PC. Here's word: In-Home Streaming, a new feature
of Steam, is now released to all users. Players who have multiple computers at
home can immediately take advantage of the new feature. When you login to Steam
on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you
to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the
remote PC.
Steam In-Home Streaming allows you to play your PC games on a lower-end
computer, such as a laptop or home theater PC, or a computer running another
operating system, such as Mac OS X, SteamOS, or Linux.
When you play a game using In-Home Streaming, video and audio are sent through
your home network from your high-end gaming PC to another device in your home.
From here, your keyboard, mouse, and controller input is sent back to the remote
computer.
For more information, please visit
http://steampowered.com/streaming.
Kalypso Media announces that pre-release sales of Tropico 5 have set
company records, saying the island dictator sequel has topped Amazon pre-sales
charts in many territories for some time now and revealing it has racked up four
times as many preorders than 2011's Tropico 4 did. "We have put great passion
and almost all available resources into the development and marketing of Tropico
5 and the pre-sales success once again demonstrates the talent and ability of
our great teams in Germany, the UK and the USA," says Simon Hellwig, Global
Managing Director of Kalypso Media. "We are constantly working to expand our
franchises internationally and these figures for Tropico 5 are testament to
this." The PC edition of Tropico 5 is due globally on Friday via digital
distribution, a retail edition is due in the U.S. on June 3rd (a week later than
previously planned), OS X and Xbox 360 versions are due in the summer, the PS4
edition will follow in the fall, and a SteamOS version is also planned.
A PROJECT V1 website has a countdown
ticking off the seconds until May 30th, though what happens then remains to be
seen. The page says "he is coming..." with no further explanation, and the
source code includes a bunch of platforms as keywords: "PS4, PS3, Xbox360,
XboxONE, PSvita, 3DS, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, consoles, games,
videogames, Wii, WiiU," but a cursory whois lookup does not reveal who
registered this site. This is probably not related to the Unreal-engine Project
V1 from back in the day, as we haven't heard from that one
since the 20th century. Thanks
All Games Beta.
It's been an interesting spring as we adjust to life with one dog, as the
Gunnar-man is far friendlier to other dogs than was my dear departed Hudson the
wonder dog, making for more socializing. It used to be that I was the one who
had to lead his dogs across the street to avoid other pooches' walks, but now I'm
the guy who asks if the other dogs are friendly so he can meet them. He's picked
up a few friends in the neighborhood, as well as a few frenemies, and is doing
just great on his own. The one thing I'm still working on is getting his
greeting behavior better under control. It turns out he was watching Huddy like
a hawk all those years, and now does all sorts of things just like she did,
including making these weird aggressive lunges towards other dogs during their
initial sniffing phase. She did it to test other dogs to see if they could be
set off in some way, and I think poor Gunnar just thinks it's some sort of
standard doggie handshake, in spite of how much it upsets some dogs. His
friendly demeanor keeps it from causing fights, but I'd prefer he didn't do it
at all, though it does seem to play into a dominant streak we never new he
possessed... the dogs he has gotten to back down in submission include a Great
Dane that looks like he takes Gunnar-sized poops.
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