Ubisoft announces that
Valiant Hearts: the Great War is now available via
digital distribution, offering an adventure game set during World War I for
Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Here's a
brand new launch trailer,
and here's an outline of the game:
Valiant Hearts: The Great War™ is the
story of crossed destinies and a broken love in a world torn apart. It gives
players the chance to live a touching yet comical adventure which focuses on the
journey of four people as they brave the battles and difficulties of the Great
War following their faithful canine companion. All of the main characters are
inextricably drawn together, and friendship, love, sacrifice and tragedy befall
each as they help each other to retain their humanity against the horrors of
war.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War™ is being developed by a small team at Ubisoft
Montpellier, known for their work on critically-acclaimed titles like Beyond
Good & Evil®, Rayman Origins® and Rayman® Legends. The team is using the UbiArt
Framework to easily and efficiently animate the game’s comic-book style, which
consists of a wide-ranging color palette – from the dank trenches to green
forests and snowy fields – that provides stunning scenic variety and visual
contrast. Ubisoft’s UbiArt Framework is a powerful engine that lets programmers
and artists to bring their art to life by allowing original concept art to be
inserted unedited into the game world.
For more information on Valiant Hearts: The Great War, please visit:
http://valiantheartsgame.com
Continue here to read the full story.
The
RIFT Community website now offers a new producer's letter where
RIFT
Executive Producer Bill "Daglar" Fisher outlines plans for the upcoming version
3.0 update that will add the Nightmare Tide expansion to Trion's MMORPG, as well
what's happening between now and then, including the upcoming version 2.8
"Madness Wakes" update, and the ongoing Summerfest. Here's a bit:
This
year we will release RIFT: Nightmare Tide, our next major expansion. Nightmare
Tide will take us beyond Telara, into the Plane of Water – a realm of
nightmares, dreams, madness and danger where you’ll encounter new foes, new
allies, and confront plots that threaten the entirety of existence. What horrors
and monstrosities have filled the abyssal depths left by Akylios? Prepare
yourself to take the fight to the planes and face these threats head on!
In Nightmare Tide, you’ll dive into adventures in brand new open-world zones and
story quest lines. You’ll team up with other Ascended and test your mettle in
new planar dungeons, raids, raid rifts and slivers. You’ll take part in massive
dynamic battles in the Plane of Water, seek out new artifacts and collections,
and craft new weapons and armor. Access to all of this content will remain
absolutely free – part of our promise to you since converting to our highly
successful Free-to-Play system.
Tripwire Interactive now offers
a new trailer from
Killing Floor 2 with "Horzine Biotech confidential specimen footage," which
show some of the enemies that will populate their upcoming first-person shooter
sequel. Here's the deal: "Tripwire Interactive revealed today that it has
obtained never before seen confidential footage from a series of specimen
training videos utilized by Horzine Biotech’s Security Force to identify
different types of zeds. The first video in the series identifies five specimens
as: Clot, Slasher, Crawler, Cyst and Fleshpound. They were filmed escaping
through underground pathways and causing destruction in the city streets of
Paris— confirming the “Horzine Outbreak” is far from over and has entered a much
more deadly phase."
Continue here to read the full story.
A new
Trophy trailer
from
Sacred 3 is another cinematic from the action/RPG sequel that's due this
August. Word is: "While working together on their fight against the evil that
has come over Ancaria, the four heroes also have their very own agenda -- trump
their companions and become the ultimate hero of Ancaria."
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam Announces another 75 titles have been approved by Valve's Greenlight
system. These titles will be released as they are ready, and in the meantime,
you can peruse a full list of the new approvals
here.
A new
Kickstarter is off to a good start towards its $50,000 goal to develop
Areal, a first-person shooter from West Games, a group of former GSC Game
World developers who are calling this project the "definitive spiritual
successor to the cult hit S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series" (thanks Josh via
Polygon). Here's word on Areal:
Areal is a new video game that's
being developed by the people behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It features a massive and
intricately detailed open world environment that is extremely varied and
colorful, even though it's set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Areal depicts a
future where civilization has fallen apart due to an unearthly material called
Metamorphite, which eventually spreads, corrupts and infects the whole world.
The source of Metamorphite comes from a meteor that impacted the earth long ago,
and it is the site of constant conflict and bloodshed.
Areal's story is not linear – players can choose how their characters act and
speak – everything from how you talk to who you kill changes the storyline of
Areal. There is no morality system in Areal, so you are free to make choices
that you think are best in any given situation, without being blinded and
limited by a standard good/evil system. Ultimately, Areal is the culmination of
everything that we want to see from a post apocalyptic game, and it's something
that we can realize with full creative freedom because of the unique platform
that is Kickstarter. All we need is your support!
If the story above about
Areal sounds familiar, it's probably because
it's reminiscent of
Survarium, a different
project in the works at from Vostok Games, a developer also composed of ex-
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
developers.
Survarium makes similar spiritual successor claims to Areal,
and according to
MCV, a thread on the
Survarium
forums included threats of legal action, but this has been deleted.
VG247 has a statement from Vostok Games PR and Marketing Manager Oleg
Yavorsky refuting some of West Games' pedigree and rights to some of the
materials they're using to promote their campaign:
So that you
understand, over the years of development of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and then Metro
series, there have been literally hundreds of people involved in working on
various bits and pieces, starting from beta-testers up to modellers responsible
for certain weapon models.
Many people came to the studio to work for a few months just for the sake of
adding “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development” to their portfolio. Frequently they claimed
afterwards to be the ‘core’ developers behind the game (you wouldn’t know
anyway, right?).
Yet, my biggest concern is that West Games are using the footage and assets of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and representing them as their own, which is not only illegal,
but simply just not right. I guess it’s all made for the sake of getting extra
publicity (which unfortunately works), but guys on Kickstarter should probably
pay attention."
There's a story on
Eurogamer on "How
No Man's Sky stole the show at E3," talking about
the strong reaction to the showing of the sci-fi game. The game is a PS4 console
exclusive, and they offer a sidebar exploring the possibilities of a PC
edition:
Having one of the most striking games of the moment on its stage
was certainly a boon for Sony, though it's still not clear exactly what the
exclusivity it has on No Man's Sky means. “The wording is we're doing a console
debut on PS4,” says Murray. “The thing that that leaves open is a PC version.”
Does that mean a PC version could arrive day and date with the PS4 No Man's Sky
- or possibly even before? “If I'm honest, we're taking on quite a lot at the
moment,” says Murray. “We're definitely coming to PS4. I would like to come to
PC. Whether that arrives the same day - we're a small team!”
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