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Archived News:
The Total War
Facebook page announces Total War: ROME II Emperor Edition, a new
edition of the RTS sequel that combines previously released free
content, a new campaign, and some revisions to offer "the definitive edition" of
ROME II. They also reassure owners of the game that they will receive an
automatic update to the Emperor Edition upon its release absolutely free of
charge. "With the Imperator Augustus Campaign Pack, we wanted to recreate the
vast civil war which erupted after Julius Caesar’s murder," says Jack Lusted,
who led development of the new campaign. "You can tackle the campaign as various
Roman and non-Roman factions, including Armenia for the first time. Our aim was
to represent the titanic power struggle that led to Octavian becoming the first
Emperor of Rome. It’s a pretty epic campaign, and it’s great that we can offer
this to existing ROME II players for free as a thanks for their support." Here's
a bit more: The new ‘Imperator Augustus’ Campaign Pack adds hundreds of
hours of sandbox gameplay across a new campaign map reflecting the geopolitical
boundaries of the Second Triumvirate War. Players will determine the outcome of
a vast civil war, which saw Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus vying to become
the very first Emperor of Rome.
Alongside all feature updates from launch (including Twitch.tv integration,
touch controls, new factions, new units and now the Mac version), Emperor
Edition also features an improved politics system, overhauled building chains,
rebalanced battles, and improved visuals in both campaign and battle.
S2 Games announces open beta testing is now underway for
Strife, their "second-generation" MOBA.
Cursing voices is a MOBA staple, and word is Strife will support this with
integrated Curse Voice communications
to keep player's IP addresses private, hopefully saving visits from local SWAT teams. A
new trailer celebrates
the news, which follows: From PAX Prime, S2 Games today announced that
their new MOBA, Strife, has entered a global Open Beta. The Strife development
team is on hand in S2 Games booth, #3746, to celebrate this milestone with the
gaming community and demo the game.
Strife is a free to play MOBA that features deep, collaborative gameplay and
includes purchasable cosmetic upgrades. S2 focused their knowledge and industry
experience on an engaging, enjoyable, team PvP game. One key design goal was to
evolve the genre to create a more accessible MOBA with a high skill ceiling.
Strife offers a rich experience that rewards everyone on the team for their role
in victory. New features launching with Open Beta include single player content
that allows players to interact with Strife's lore, a companion app that allows
players to check stats, craft items, and earn free resources from anywhere, and
a partnership with Curse Voice to allow players to easily connect with friends.
"Our vision for Strife can be best explained by examining the globally beloved
sport of Soccer," said Marc DeForest, CEO and Co-Founder of S2 Games. "The way
I'd play soccer with my kids is completely different from the way I'd play
competitively in college or the way World Cup teams battle professionally. We
designed Strife to be a game as accessible as soccer, to be enjoyed by players
of all skill levels."
Continue here to read the full story.
The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics announce that DCS: Bf 109 K-4
Kurfürst is now available for pre-purchase from
the
DCS e-shop. This carries a 20% discount, a
20% discount
on a future game, and access to beta testing later this year. A
new
teaser video celebrating the news shows some work-in-progress footage, and
here's word: Like previous DCS World titles, DCS: Bf 109 K-4 Kurfürst
features a painstakingly reproduced model of the aircraft, including the
external model, fully interactive cockpit, mechanical systems, and a
Professional Flight Model (PFM). Along the lines of our DCS: P-51D Mustang and
DCS: Fw 190 D-9 Dora titles, DCS: Bf 109K-4 Kurfürst places you behind the
controls of a powerful, propeller-driven, piston engine combat aircraft.
Designed long before “fly-by-wire” technology was available to assist the pilot
in flight control or smart bombs and beyond visual range missiles were developed
to engage targets with precision from afar, the Kurfürst is a personal and
exhilarating challenge to master. Powerful and deadly, the last production model
of the only single-engined German fighter to see service throughout World War
II, the Kurfürst provides an exhilarating combat experience to its drivers, and
a worthy challenge to all fans of DCS: P-51D Mustang.
Continue here to read the full story.
A new "meet Ratbag"
trailer introduces Ratbag, an NPC from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the upcoming Tolkienesque adventure. Word is
this isn't just any Uruk: "While Uruks are dynamically generated through the
Nemesis System and unique to each player, Ratbag is a special Uruk who plays a
critical role in the story as Talion goes on his journey to destroy Sauron’s
army." Continue here to read the full story.
Link of the Day:
Vapshot Alcohol Vaporizer - The Colbert Report. "Because lungs don't vomit."
Thanks nin.
A new standalone Saints Row IV expansion called Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
turns out to be the PAX Prime announcement
teased for today, as Volition reveals they
are teaming with High Voltage Software to add more sand to the sandbox game.
Word is: "In Gat Out of Hell players take on the role of Johnny Gat as he is
sent into hell via a nefarious spirit board incident and left to combat demons,
the horrors of the underworld (including prominent historical figures) and, of
course, the Devil himself." This is coming to PCs and consoles (this and last
generation) on January 27th in North America and January 30th in other
territories, and according to
Polygon this will feature two-player Johnny Gat and Kinzie co-op support. Here's the
announce trailer (NSFW), and
here's word: After the space faring antics of Saints Row IV, many fans
asked what we could do next... the answer? Shoot The Devil in the face. Play as
either Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington as you tear apart Hell in a quest to save
the leader of the Saints’ soul. Historical icons, old friends, older enemies, a
talking gun, a full length musical number, and a whole lot of other shenanigans
all await you in the open world standalone expansion playground that is Saints
Row: Gat Out Of Hell.
Gat out of Hell is the standalone expansion to the award-winning and
multi-million selling Saints Row IV from Deep Silver and will launch on January
27, 2015 in the Americas and January 30, 2015 in international territories for
last gen and new gen console platforms as well as PC.
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces a
weekend sale
on the Call of Duty franchise, where everything in the military shooter series
is half-off, both individually, and as part of some large bundles to cut down on
your clicking. They also note that multiplayer play in Call of Duty: Ghosts
is free on Steam between
now and 4:00 pm EDT on Sunday, allowing a chance to sample the series.
Valve has a court date in Australia to respond to accusations from the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a watchdog group, that Steam's
refund policy, or lack thereof, violates Australian consumer protection laws
(thanks Darth Guybrush). Word is a "directions" hearing will take place on
October 7th. Here's word from
News.com.au:: ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: “The Australian Consumer
Law applies to any business providing goods or services within Australia. Valve
may be an American-based company with no physical presence in Australia, but it
is carrying on business in Australia by selling to Australian consumers, who are
protected by Australian Consumer Law.
“It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that they
do not give refunds under any circumstances, including for gifts and during
sales. Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers can insist on a refund or
replacement at their option if a product has a major fault.
“The consumer guarantees provided under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be
excluded, restricted or modified.”
Valve chief executive Doug Lombardi told news.com.au in an email: “We are making
every effort to cooperate with the Australian officials on this matter, while
continuing to provide Steam services to our customers across the world,
including Australian gamers.
He did not respond to more detailed questions put forward by news.com.au.
A
Steam community announcement from Overkill Software has details on how to
participate in beta testing some gameplay changes they are bringing to PAYDAY
2, their heist game sequel. They will be testing changes to improve
stability as well as changes to how experience and cash are doled out after
robberies. They offer the obvious warnings of the risks associated with beta
software, including a caution to back up saved games. Thanks
Shacknews.com.
A new early access
trailer from Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars shows off Digital Eel's
upcoming space strategy sequel, showing the latest progress on the game. Here's
word: "The development of the game is trucking along at a steady pace, and a lot
has changed in the last few months. All the user interfaces are much nicer, and
content-wise we have already surpassed Weird Worlds in many ways. For example,
we now have more types of starships than WW and are busy adding more – in the
next content update you’ll see a new alien race that had no presence in the
previous game aside from one random event, but will now have a full-featured
fleet and signature technologies." Continue here to read the full story.
Gamasutra - 'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over.
‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how
human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct
online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’
straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences. Because of video
games.
Lately, I often find myself wondering what I’m even doing here. And I know
I’m not alone.
All of us should be better than this. You should be deeply questioning your
life choices if
this and
this and
this are the
prominent
public face your business presents to the
rest of the world.
"When you decline to create or to curate a culture in your spaces, you’re
responsible for what spawns in the vacuum."
This is what the rest of the world knows about your industry -- this, and
headlines about billion-dollar war simulators or those junkies with the
touchscreen candies. That’s it. You should absolutely be better than this.
You don’t want to ‘be divisive?’ Who’s being divided, except for people who
are okay with an infantilized cultural desert of shitty behavior and people
who aren’t? What is there to ‘debate’?
New Statesman - Tropes vs Anita Sarkeesian- on passing off anti-feminist
nonsense as critique. Thanks Derek.
Today, we're going to be looking at some of the common ways in which
Anita Sarkeesian is portrayed in the gamer community, and how to assess and
critique the mistakes that are made in responding to her work. There are
lies passed off as truths and meaningless non-sequiturs presented as
devastating proofs by the kinds of people who like to bang on and on and on
about the "marketplace of ideas" as if that justifies being a total ass.
They don't send death threats, but they build and sustain the environment
that means a woman like her is treated the way that she is.
Shacknews.com Opinion- Publishers too reluctant to embrace new consoles.
Wait... what?
- Antec Kuhler H2O 1250 Cooler on
OverClocked inside.
- be quiet! Power Zone 1000W Modular Power Supply on
eTeknix.
- Corsair Voyager Air 2 1TB Wireless Hard Drive on
eTeknix.
- MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB Twin Frozr Gaming OC in CrossFire OCed on
TweakTown.
- MSI X99S GAMING 7 (Intel LGA 2011v3) on
techPowerUp.
- MSI Z97 XPOWER AC on
Overclockers Club.
- OWC ThunderBay IV RAID 5 Edition External Storage Drive on
TweakTown.
- Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate on
Pure Overclock.
- Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB OC in CrossFire Video Card on
TweakTown.
- Silverstone Raven RV05-BW Chassis on
eTeknix.
- Western Digital My Cloud EX2 on
TechwareLabs.
I planned on today being the last "summer hours" Friday here, as this is the
Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., the unofficial end of summer, and way of
celebrating laborers without all the communist overtones of May Day. However,
today also kicks off PAX Prime, because... well I don't know. Since the
festivities on the west coast won't get underway until midday here on the east
coast, it doesn't seem practical to skip out right when something interesting
might happen so if I actually wrap up early, it will be the late sort of early.
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