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Archived News:
Steam News announces
the release of Dirty Bomb,
the free-to-play tactical shooter from Splash Damage, though clicking through
reveals they are omitting the essential detail that the game is still a closed
beta. Those interested should sign up on the
Dirty Bomb website, and
a Steam Transition FAQ answers questions about the process for both new
players and those already in the beta. This game
was announced with the title Dirty Bomb
before it was renamed Extraction
before it reverted back to the
Dirty Bomb title. They are calling this "the ultimate team-based free-to-play
shooter," and here's part of their justification: "London is a post-apocalyptic
wasteland with no law and no order, it's time to call in the mercenaries. Suit
up and go toe-to-toe with other soldiers of fortune as you battle it out for
riches and bragging rights." Here's more on the game: Drop into the
aftermath of a radiological attack in London as part of an elite team of
mercenaries. Dirty Bomb is the ultimate team-based free-to-play shooter.
LONDON FALLING
In the near future London stands abandoned, a dilapidated shell of its former
self. After a mysterious disaster, the International Crisis and Disaster Agency
stepped in to clean up the mess and decontaminate the city. They failed… badly.
Now the streets of London are the playground of Private Military Companies
(PMCs) who battle to control what remains of the city’s riches. After all,
what’s a little radiation sickness when there’s money to be made?
Say goodbye to London, say hello to the Merc Capital of the World.
A post on the
Robot Entertainment blog announces that Paul Hellquist has joined Robot
Entertainment after previously serving as the creative director on Borderlands
2, Gearbox Software's role-playing shooter sequel and before that as lead
designer on BioShock (thanks
Gamasutra). Robot CEO Patrick Hudson explains Paul's role on Orcs Must
Die! Unchained, saying the next beta of their tower defense sequel is coming
"soon." Here's word: On behalf of all of us at Robot Entertainment, I am
thrilled to welcome Paul Hellquist to our team as Lead Designer. Paul’s track
record as a game designer is impressive, to say the least. Paul joins Robot
after seven years at Gearbox Software where he was Creative Director on the
outstanding Borderlands 2. Prior to this, Paul spent nine years at Irrational
Games where he was Lead Designer on the stellar and influential BioShock.
I spent a considerable amount of time with Paul recently, and I was consistently
impressed with his breadth of thinking, passion for great design, and humility.
His remarkable portfolio of work is clearly well-earned. Paul is a great fit for
Robot, and I expect him to have a profound impact on the games we make, starting
with Orcs Must Die! Unchained.
The next beta phase for Orcs Must Die! Unchained is coming soon, and we can’t
wait to share the many updates with you. Until then, please give a hearty
welcome to Paul and follow him on
Twitter!
This video shows
off a demo of Loading Human being demonstrated at CES, a prototype of the
sci-fi adventure game being used to show off the operation of
Razer's just revealed
OSVR Hacker Dev Kit,
a VR headset supporting the Open-Source Virtual
Reality initiative. Here's word on the game and plans to support a wide
range of new technology: Virtual Reality developers since 2013, Untold
Games’ Loading Human is a virtual reality adventure game powered by
groundbreaking controls and set in a thrilling sci-fi world. Developed from the
ground up for VR and motion control devices like Oculus Rift and Sixense Stem
System, players will be able to interact with objects within the environment to
solve puzzles and uncover the secrets of Loading Human‘s story-driven gameplay.
Loading Human is currently in development for PC and Mac, and has had its
concept approved for PlayStation4’s “Project Morpheus” virtual reality system.
The game is designed to support the Oculus Rift VR headset, and motion-based
controllers like the Sixense STEM, Razer Hydra, YEI Technology PrioVR and
Virtuix Omni.
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces
pre-purchases are now underway for
Heroes of Might and Magic
III HD Edition, the promised
classic turn-based strategy game remade with modernized graphics. Word is: "The
most popular Heroes title of all time is back in HD! Fifteen years later,
rediscover the epic tale of Queen Catherine Ironfist, as she re-embarks on her
critically acclaimed quest to unite her ravaged homeland and re-conquer the
kingdom of Erathia."
Mad Catz announces The
L.Y.N.X. 9 Mobile Controller, a modular controller for both Windows and
Android devices with a folding mechanic for greater portability. This has some
additional features beyond the typical controller including ports for outboard
video support, a QWERTY keyboard module, and a microphone. It also boasts
premium components, and they are planning to capitalize on its unique qualities,
as this carries a premium $299.99 price tag. Here's word: The L.Y.N.X. 9
design uniquely enables the controller to be assembled in a variety of different
configurations to fit the gamers’ chosen device. Consisting of three primary
components (Left Wing, Right Wing and Controller ‘Brain’), the L.Y.N.X. 9 can
break apart and attach to the included tablet stand, transforming a tablet of up
to seven inches into a portable games console! Configure as a standard
controller and enjoy living room gaming on a compatible set-top box or PC or
attach the mobile clip and dock your smart phone for console quality gaming on
the go.
The L.Y.N.X. 9 is an ideal companion for Smart TVs and living room browsing. The
included QWERTY Keyboard Module attaches simply to the underside of the L.Y.N.X.
9 and provides effortless on screen typing. At the top of the controller, the
integrated Mouse Sensor Pad and media controls allow for all manner of
traditional control and the L.Y.N.X. 9 even includes an integrated microphone
allowing for voice search with compatible hardware and applications.
Link of the Day:
Internet Archive's
MS-DOS Free Software Library. 2,391 old school games playable for free.
Citing "sources,"
Kotaku reports that BioWare's upcoming Shadow Realms is undergoing
major pre-release changes, and "may have totally been rebooted." This is
actually a mix of rumors, as they say two "industry sources" tell them the
episodic action/RPG was cancelled outright, while word that it is actually being
reworked comes from a "third, reliable source familiar with goings-on." This
third source says the game was rebooted in October to add a full campaign, and
that a release is slated for Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in 2017. The
game's announcement specified an
Origin account was required to
sign up for the alpha, but a major portion of the article discusses the
possibility that the game is being reworked with greater integration of Origin,
as one of their sources tells them that BioWare is taking a lesson from the
failure of Dawngate and Command & Conquer, two games that could
have had higher budgets if they had further integrated EA's online service. They
add a confirmation from a "different person connected to EA" that Origin
integration will earn a game a larger budget from EA.
Ubisoft announces a January 13th release date for the Dead Kings DLC for
Assassin's Creed Unity for Windows and Xbox One, with the PS4 version of
the DLC to follow the next day. This will be free to all owners of the stealthy
action/adventure sequel after Ubisoft
cancelled the game's season pass program in response to issues surrounding
its launch. They celebrate the news with
a new cinematic trailer
showing off the pack, and offer the following explanation of what to
expect: After the events of Assassin’s Creed Unity, Arno leaves Paris for
Saint Denis, a mysterious city that holds the crypts of deceased French kings.
Sent on a mission to the extensive underground of the Basilica, Arno will face a
faction of new foes, the Raiders, populating its catacombs. Equipped with a
lantern and a new powerful weapon, the Guillotine gun, Arno will have to
navigate the dangerous passageways to uncover the darkest secrets of the city.
In addition to a fully-fledged main single-player campaign, Assassin’s Creed
Unity - Dead Kings also offers new open world activities and side missions,
including new Murder Mysteries, enigmas and cooperative missions. Both
single-player and cooperative modes enable players to unlock new weapons, gear
and outfits that carry over between Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed
Unity - Dead Kings.
Continue here to read the full story.
Game peripheral maker Razer announces the
OSVR Hacker Dev Kit,
a USD$199.99 headset with support for OSVR,
which stands for Open-Source Virtual Reality, a new entry in the burgeoning VR
space. Here's word on OSVR: "Built from the ground up to bring the best Virtual
Reality gaming experience to the gaming world, OSVR is the one platform where
all aspects of the industry – input devices, games, and output – are unified,
collaborating and innovating to take Virtual Reality gaming into the next
frontier." Here's more on Razer's participation and their new headsets:
Razer is part of the Open-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem, a new
standard in VR gaming to push the VR gaming experience forward and supporting
the venture with the
OSVR Hacker Dev Kit, a virtual reality device and open-source software
that enables programming for any variety of VR technology.
WHAT IS OSVR?
OSVR™ stands for Open Source Virtual Reality. It is an ecosystem designed from
the ground up to set an open standard for Virtual Reality input devices, games
and output with the sole goal of providing the best possible game experience in
the Virtual Reality space. Supported by Industry Leaders and focused on gaming,
the OSVR framework rallies gamers worldwide together to push the boundaries of
VR-Gaming.
The
SMITE
World Championship 2015 kicks off on Friday in Atlanta, GA, with the prize
pool for the MOBA's first world championship currently sitting at over $2.5
million. Hi-Rez Studios celebrates the occasion with the release of a
new cinematic trailer
titled "Battleground of the Gods." Word is: "The SWC is taking place at the Cobb
Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, USA, on January 9-11 and will see the
best pro-players from around the world fight it out for their share of a prize
pool of over $2.5 million. The event will also see the first time that the
upcoming Xbox One version of SMITE will be shown to the public. SMITE on Xbox
One will be the first MOBA on the console and will release later this
year." Continue here to read the full story.
NCSOFT and ArenaNet offer
a new teaser trailer
from Guild Wars 2 called "No Turning Back" to highlight the upcoming conclusion
to the Living World Season 2 in the MMORPG. Word is: "In this update, with
Glint’s egg still missing, Tyria’s heroes rally their allies and prepare the
pact fleet as they begin to launch an assault against Mordrem. As the teaser
trailer suggests, players will face a decisive moment in this thrilling finale
to Living World Season 2 as they reach the ‘Point of No Return’." Continue here to read the full story.
The
League of Legends website has word on Riot Games' plans on creating
more optimal Internet routing for their MOBA sensation to reduce "ping
disparity" for users in the U.S. and Canada (thanks
Gamasutra). Here's word on what they're doing, why they are doing it, and
how players interested in supporting their efforts can do so: Today, I
want to introduce Riot WizardOTL (formerly Riot WizardoftheLake), who has
been busy leading the charge on Phase 2 of the Roadmap: building a dedicated
network for League of Legends traffic.
Why are we doing this? Currently, ISPs focus primarily on moving large volumes
of data in seconds or minutes, which is good for buffered applications like
YouTube or Netflix but not so good for real-time games, which need to move very
small amounts of data in milliseconds. On top of that, your internet connection
might bounce all over the country instead of running directly to where it needs
to go, which can impact your network quality and ping whether the game server is
across the country or right down the street.
This is why we’re in the process of creating our own direct network for
League traffic and working with ISPs across the US and Canada to connect players
to this network.
There’s a lot of fine-tuning to do as we bring additional parts of the
network online, and we could use your help. Some connections can misfire and run
a longer route than necessary to get to this network, so If you have experienced
a sudden spike to your connection since November, please let us know by
filling out this short survey.
There’s a lot to cover, so we thought this would be best served as a Q&A. We’ll
hang around this thread for the next 4 hours to answer questions and get into
the nitty-gritty should anyone be curious.
Daedalic Entertainment announces a delay to FIRE, their comedic
prehistoric adventure game that was supposed to be
released today. The announcement does not explain the setback, it just offers
a new release date. Here's word: "The new year starts with a small change in the
Daedalic Entertainment release calendar: Fire our intuitive Stone Age game
featuring the clumsy Neanderthal Ungh will now be released on March 26th 2015.
iOS will follow on May 28th 2015." The game is available for pre-purchase
on Steam, where they keep
us off-balance by saying the game is due on April 9th, and that date may
actually be more accurate than the one in the announcement we received, as
the
announcement on the Daedalic website says it's due on April 9th as well.
The
Frontier forums have word of a server-side fix that will roll out today for
Elite: Dangerous intended to help the users still unable to log in to the
space combat game following some
recent technical issues
(thanks
Massively). Here's word: Rest assured that players that cannot login
are our top priority right now. We have a server side fix in-place to go live
tomorrow, it's just undergoing some final testing tonight and tomorrow morning
before making its way to the live servers. This should fix it for everyone
that's not already been fixed by customer services already. We just want to
ensure that the fix is correct and safe so we don't cause more issues for
players that are currently unaffected - but we're working on it as quickly and
safely as possible, promise!
The Assassin's Creed movie now has a release date, as
The Hollywood Reporter says the game tie-in directed by Justin Kurzel and
starring Michael Fassbender will debut on December 21, 2016. They note that this
is just one week after the planned release date for
the first Star Wars "spin-off" movie.
Creative Labs announces the
Sound Blaster X7 Limited Edition, more powerful white version of their
external audio processor which will sell for $100.00 more than the original
black X7, a premium item itself that carries a $399.99 price tag. They call the
X7 Limited Edition the "ultimate sound companion for pro-gamers and audio
enthusiasts," and here is their explanation for why it costs five hundred
dollars, which apparently involves the skill of the headphone amp: The
Sound Blaster X7 Limited Edition has never looked this classy, with a touch of
elegance. This pearl white edition certainly takes to the next level with the
ultimate audio upgrade for pro-gamers and audio enthusiasts. A room-pleaser with
unparalleled sound quality, the Sound Blaster X7 reflects the skill of its
exclusive 1 ohm headphone amp output impedance, with a nice kick of extra audio
amplification power.
A live action trailer
for Call of Duty Online features Chris Evans following the
appearance of the actor in a poster for the online military
shooter that's coming to China (thanks
VG247). We are always grateful for the chance to reuse a good joke, so we'll
once again ask if Captain China will appear in the ads if they decide to launch
this game in the west? Continue here to read the full story.
Around a week ago a few ball bearings showed up on the kitchen floor, which was
not the safety hazard it sounds like, as they were not large enough to cause a
fall when stepped on. It was a mystery however, as there was no sign of where
they originated. The mystery deepened a few days later when more of these popped
up in the same area, again with no suggestion of what was dropping them. The
casters on the island in the kitchen seem free-rolling, and nothing else I
investigated offered any clues either. I'll be able to live with the mystery if
no explanation ever arises, but I'm worried I'm going to turn on a seldom-used
appliance one day and the motor is going to explode.
R.I.P.:
Former Giants coach Allie Sherman dies at age 91.
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