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Archived News:
The Odd Gentlemen now offer a release date of July 15th for Wayward Manor,
the upcoming adventure game designed by acclaimed wordsmith Neil Gaiman.
This is a considerable delay, since
as of last summer the game
was expected last fall, which is addressed along the way. Here's
word: We’ve been working day and night to make sure Wayward Manor is the
best game it can be. This ultimately meant making the tough decision to delay
the game. After adding more puzzles, an extra level of polish, and maybe even
some paranormal surprises; we’re finally ready to announce a release date for
Wayward Manor. You’ll get to scare the Budds on July 15, 2014.
Thanks again for all your patience and support. In a few short weeks we’ll
finally be able to share Wayward Manor with you. Get ready to haunt, spook, and
explore the puzzles of the Manor.
Wayward Manor will be released on Steam for the PC and Mac. You can also buy it
from the Humble Store, where 10% of the proceeds go to charity.
A
Steam Community Announcement has word that OS X and Linux beta versions of
Mount & Blade: Warband
are now available, coinciding with the game being two-thirds off in the current
Steam Summer Sale (thanks Ant via
Mod DB). Here's word: "Today we are very pleased to announce that
Mount&Blade Warband is extending its supported platforms to OSX and Linux!
Currently, this should just be seen as a beta test as there are known (and
probably unknown) bugs to be resolved but those of you with OSX or Linux
machines can play the game right now on Steam."
The
World of Warcraft website has details on the just-launched beta test for the
Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft, Blizzard's
MMORPG. Those interested in participating should be sure to opt in through your
Battle.net
Beta Profile. Here's the deal on testing: This phase of the beta test
focuses on the Tanaan Jungle starting experience and allows players to continue
on into Shadowmoon Valley (Alliance) and Frostfire Ridge (Horde). High-level
content will become available for testing in future updates. Level-90 character
templates are available if you’d like to try a new character, or you can copy
over your own high-level characters.
As there’s no NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for the Warlords of Draenor beta
test, those invited to play are free to take screenshots and movies or stream
game content. Please keep in mind that the expansion is still in
development—we’ll be making changes to the game as the beta evolves, and what
you’ll see during the beta test is not necessarily representative of the final
game.
UbiBlog has word that
alpha testing is underway for
Tom Clancy's EndWar Online, fully four
months after they actually announced they would start testing the upcoming
free-to-play MOBA. Word is: "During the Alpha phase, a limited number of
dedicated Generals will be invited to test EndWar Online’s most comprehensive
build to date." They celebrate the news with two new videos,
EndWar Online SITREP #10
with a community Q&A and an "exciting announcement" (that we just spoiled) and a
narrated alpha gameplay
walkthrough. Here's on how to get in on the alpha:
- An official email invitation from us. In order to
maximize your chance to be selected, make sure that you have completed as
many tasks as possible from the Beta Boost program and that you are an
active contributor on the official EndWar Online Facebook page as well as
the EndWar Online forums. Former Tech Assault players will be given queuing
priority.
- The
Alpha Lucky Draw. As openings in the Alpha
become available, we will give players who did not receive invitations a
chance to be randomly chosen as an Alpha tester! All you have to do to take
part in the draw is register or sign up with your Uplay account, click “Play
Alpha Now,” and try your luck at the Lucky Draw. You can participate once
per day, so keep trying and you may be granted immediate access to the game!
Continue here to read the full story.
The Battlefield Blog
has an update on some of what DICE has learned through the Battlefield 4
Community Test Environment they've been using to experiment on the latest
installment in the shooter series. This includes more on improving the game's
"netcode" (their quotation marks) as well as an initiative to examine core
gameplay principles. Here's part: Improving Netcode
Making improvements to the “Netcode” in Battlefield 4 has been a top priority
for us. Some of the items we’ve been specifically looking at is how to decrease
the feeling of getting killed when behind cover and getting killed without
initially seeing a damage indicator. The improvements we did were released in
June, and we’re looking at testing out additional fixes during the coming
months.
Core Gameplay
The core gameplay initiative has started, and in the first phase, we’re looking
at making improvements and fixes related to the new Dragon’s Teeth expansion
pack. One of the main items that we wanted to test was the all-new Ballistics
Shield, and based on the feedback that we received we made the following changes
that’ll make it for the release of Dragon’s Teeth:
• Shield bash damage has been tweaked, it is no longer possible to one-hit kill
enemies. The Ballistics shield now better matches with the initial design intent
• Single tank AP-rounds now kill those carrying the Ballistics Shield, something
that previously wasn’t possible.
The GOG.com Summer Sale ends tomorrow, and
they've put up all 30 of their DRM-free flash bundle deals online for one last
chance. Likewise tomorrow is the final day of the
Steam Summer Sale, which also now
offers an unusual number of deals, so you may want
to take one last look too, presuming it hasn't already beaten your wallet into
submission.
Here is Valve's list of the sales-fueled bestselling games on Steam for last
week:
- Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition
- PAYDAY 2
- Sid Meier's Civilization V: The Complete Edition
- Planetary Annihilation Galactic War Update
- Wolfenstein: The New Order
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Metro Complete Edition
- Arma III
- Space Engineers
A first
developer's blog is online for H1Z1, Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming
zombie game (thanks
Ten Ton
Hammer). In this debut diary, technical director Tom Schenck fills us in on
where development currently stands. Here's a bit: As for the game, we are
currently in a pre-alpha stage of development, and have an Early Access feature
list that we are working against to hit launch status. That means every day new
items, features and abilities get created and checked into the game world. On
our most recent livestream, we showed off combat and crafting, and in
particular, player crafting of a new weapon, the bow (and arrows). The team has
put in some cool bits we can all be proud of, and the full systems are almost
all in place. Bows and arrows can be crafted from found materials and can be
used to take down zombies with nice headshots, as well as hunt deer by shooting
them in the eye for example.
In addition to that, we continue to work on melee interactions with some fine
tuning. Doing a little punch combo shove-back before a nice right hook makes for
a good fight sequence, but it’s a little creepy when the zombie you just punched
looks at you as you as they fall over … awkward.
High priority on our Early Access feature list is polishing group behavior and
tuning Emergent AI systems to the entire ecosystem. Our AI team is going nuts
regulating interactions for all of the NPC characters in the game including
zombies, deer, wolves, and more. We’ve also had a few “Ultimate Warrior” battles
between the different AI’s to see who comes out on top. (The wolves are winning
right now.)
In addition, performance is crucial for a massive open world game and we’ve been
trying to test the limits by enabling hordes of zombies to run around in huge
packs. In collaboration with our Emergent AI systems, this can make for some
pretty precarious life-or-death situations. Needless to say, it’s provided some
entertainment and some … well, MANY deaths.
- Seagate Desktop HDD ST6000DX000 6TB HDD on
TweakTown.
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