|
|
 |
Archived News:
The Steam patch mentioned earlier adds the FPS Counter
previously in beta as well as
Steam Broadcasting,
which is just what it sounds like, a Twitch-like service to broadcast and view
game sessions.
This FAQ answers questions about this, including the following: How
do I watch a friend's game?
From the Friend's List - From the drop down next to a friend's name, select
"Watch Game".
From a friend's profile - Below the "Currently In Game" text, select "Watch
Game".
Who can watch my games?
The first time a friend requests to watch your game you'll be presented with the
broadcast privacy settings. To make a change at any time, access the Steam
Client's Settings panel and select the Broadcast tab to view your privacy
settings.
Available settings:
- Broadcast is disabled
- Friends can request to watch my games (default)
- Friends can watch my games
- Anyone can watch my games (public broadcast, can
be found in the game hub)
Steam News announces
early access is underway for
Infinifactory, a
sandbox puzzle game that tasks the player with creating factories. This is 10%
off for the next week, and here's their outlook on early access: "Our first
priority is fixing launch bugs and control issues, but we'll be updating the
roadmap soon with directions for the game to take for you to vote on. In the
meantime, have fun with the game!" Here's word on the game: "Infinifactory is a
sandbox puzzle game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infiniminer.
Build factories that assemble products for your alien overlords, and try not to
die in the process."
- Bundle Fest X2 on Bundle
Stars. Two bundles a day all week.
- Enforcer: Police Crime Action on
Steam. Save 50%.
Link of the Day: SteamLeft. How long
would it take to play your Steam library? Mine would take a mere 1852 continuous
hours.
Gambitious Digital Entertainment announces Magnetic: Cage Closed, a
"gun-puzzler" in development at Guru Games for release this March for Windows,
Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. This will
be on display this weekend at PAX South
in the Devolver Digital booth, and a first look the "graphically spectacular"
game can be found in the
announcement trailer.
The clip shows some likely Valve inspirations, as the magnet gun seems similar
to the gravity gun, and many scenes show it being used to manipulate cubes of
some degree of companionship. The listing for this
on Steam offers system
specifications, showing a 64-bit OS is required.
Here's word: Magnetic drops players into the role of a prisoner serving time for past
crimes in a vast, ever-changing prison with chambers that shift in random
patterns. The players are given a special magnetic gun, and are urged on by a
sadistic warden controlling the complex. By manipulating and mastering magnetic
forces, they must find a way out – but no choice is without consequence in
Facility 7, where each chamber offers a unique challenge ranging from classic
puzzles to moral choices.
Continue here to read the full story.
This announcement
trailer takes the wraps off of Sid Meier's Starships, a new sci-fi
turn-based strategy game from Firaxis that carries the name of the famed designer, but unlike
the recent Beyond Earth, does not invoke the Civilization series. "When
designing Starships, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring the next chapter
in the story of Civilization: Beyond Earth," Meier said. "What happens after we
colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars? What
has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth?" There
aren't many details on this "new turn-based, adventure-driven interstellar
strategy game," but we shouldn't have to wait too long for more, as game is due
this spring for Windows, OS X, and iPad.
Here's part of the announcement: Sid Meier’s Starships challenges players
to build a planetary federation by exploring the galaxy, expanding its influence
and domain, researching futuristic technologies and engaging in deep, turn-based
tactical space combat with an armada of uniquely customizable starships. Each
new campaign will feature its own distinctive galactic strategy map of worlds
with dynamically generated tactical combat missions that will enhance the game’s
replay value. In addition, Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth fans who
purchase Sid Meier’s Starships will uncover cross-connectivity with the two
games such that will enhance and expand the depth of both game experiences.
Continue here to read the full story.
Charlotte, NC-based
DMi announces they're picked up the rights to make NASCAR video games,
saying the first games based on the deal will come this year. Here's word, which
only mentions those "next generation" consoles: HC2 Holdings, Inc.
("HC2") (NYSE MKT: HCHC) today announced that its subsidiary, DMi, Inc., has
acquired certain NASCAR-related assets from Eutechnyx and partnered with NASCAR
Team Properties to acquire certain exclusive licensing rights as part of a
multi-year agreement. DMi will publish a robust set of high quality NASCAR games
for video game consoles, personal computers, tablets and smart phones, beginning
in 2015.
DMi will be headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., a region that is home to NASCAR
corporate offices and most of the sport's race teams.
"We are thrilled to be working with NASCAR Team Properties in building a fast
growing world class interactive game publisher. We have the right team in place
to partner with NASCAR Team Properties to build and grow the NASCAR digital
games business," said Philip Falcone, HC2 Chairman, President and CEO. "We are
NASCAR fans, first and foremost, and look forward to growing NASCAR's digital
gaming business through quality and innovation."
DMi plans to expand the NASCAR game product offering for fans, and will publish
annual title releases including on "next generation" consoles like PlayStation 4
and Xbox One.
A post from
Blizzard acknowledges reports of "major lag" in Diablo III, asking
users for trace routes and other details to help suss out the problem. Here's
word: We've been asked to collect some information for our network
engineers on this issue.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We'd like to have your
trace
route info when you trace to 12.168.209.68. We'd also like to see the
results when you run our Looking
Glass utility to see the return path of the trace from Blizzard to you. Be
sure to select Diablo III in the utility. And lastly, please identify your
ISP and geographical location in your reply post with the above
info.
A recent
Sledgehammer blog update discusses a few aspects of Call of Duty:
Advanced Warfare, one of them being how matchmaking works in the military
shooter sequel, and another being "reverse boosting" where players repeatedly
commit suicide. Here's word on matchmaking: "The system we have today is, to all
intents and purposes, identical to what Activision has always had in place, with
the same matchmaking parameters, as previous Call of Duty titles. We continue to
monitor and optimize our systems, but the speed of connection is and always will
be our first priority." And here's a bit on banning reverse boosters: On a
separate topic, we’ve also heard questions about our banning policy,
particularly as we've seen players using “reverse boosting” with excessive
suicides in online matches driving a lot of frustration within the community.
Playing at home, I’ve been randomly matched with players doing this and it’s
incredibly frustrating to lose based largely on my team being down a
contributing teammate. We’ve also had a lot of players bring up their same
concern about playing in matches with these players. No one wants to lose an
objective based match by effectively being outnumbered while their teammate
shoots grenades into their own forehead 100 times in the corner. It’s not right,
and it hurts you and your team’s online experience. Call of Duty is both social
and competitive, and we respect and honor that. Part of the competition that is
core to our values is that players do not adversely degrade their team's ability
to compete fairly. It's not dissimilar from the bans that cheaters and boosters
receive, and we have increased our focus on reverse boost banning to combat the
growing issue. No one is trying to restrict the fun factor of playing Advanced
Warfare with this policy, nor are we actively banning against particular styles
of play, like trick shots. However, we have a low tolerance approach to people
who ruin the experience for others through cheating, boosting, reverse boosting
or being caught with toxic emblems in game. We don’t like seeing any of these
happen, and we're pushing to eliminate these behaviors from the game.
The new U.K. sales charts from GfK Chart-Track reveal the bestsellers in the
region for the week ending January 17th. Both the
PC chart and the
all platforms chart are pretty stable this week. Here's
the summary:
‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (-29%) comfortably holds on to its No1 crown
following its return to the top last week.
‘FIFA 15’ (-28%) climbs a place to No2 just edging ahead of ‘Call of Duty:
Advanced Warfare’ (-34%) which is down to No3. With no new releases to speak of
the Top 10 is made up of familiar faces with Ubisoft’s ‘Far Cry 4’ (-44%) a
non-mover at No4. ‘Minecraft: Xbox Edition’ (-11%) climbs to No5, while
‘Minecraft: Playstation Edition’ (-24%) stands firm at No7. The two titles
sandwich a second Ubisoft title ‘The Crew’ (7,940 / -47%), which slips a place
to No6. ‘Assassin’s Creed: Unity’ (-47%) and ‘Destiny’ (-35%) are are at No8 and
No9 while Warner’s ‘Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham’ (-27%) climbs three places to
No10.
Further down the chart the original ‘Disney Infinity’ (+250%) is propelled back
into the Top 40 at No33 thanks to some heavy retailer promotions.
- Raven's Cry on
RPGWatch. Thanks Acleacius.
Congrats to the Seahawks and the Patriots. I ended up being able to watch the games,
and while the second one was not much of a contest, the first one was amazing,
if sloppy. Looking forward to a good Super Bowl.
Also, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, an actual federal holiday, though
this may not impact the news that much, as most companies seem to make like the
Oscars and just ignore it.
|
Twitter 
