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Archived News:
Brian Fargo
tweets the announcement of The Bard's Tale IV, a new installment in
the classic RPG series,
later noting
that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the first Bard's Tale. He also
directs us
to
more details on IGN, where they say InXile Entertainment plans a Kickstarter
to support development. Here's word on what will me familiar and what will be
new this time around: From a story perspective, players will be returning
to Skara Brae, where it all began. But on the gameplay side of things, Fargo is
planning a deviation.
"Traditional turn-based combat," as Fargo calls it, bases turns on varying
factors, creating battles in which different characters attacked at different
times, often alternating between opposing sides. But in The Bard's Tale IV,
teams attack all at once. This increases the pace of the combat, and allows for
a different set of tactics than the traditional system might allow.
"There will be plenty of combat diversity and depth," Fargo said. "You look at
something like Hearthstone, for example. It's sort of that going back-and-forth
process, and you see the complexity and detail and strategy and nuance that can
happen. It's really an amazing system. I love those modern influences. I took a
lot away from that, and see things we need to do with our combat
system."
A Guild Wars 2: Heart of
Thorns page is now online, offering details on a first expansion coming
to ArenaNet's MMORPG sequel (thanks fion).
This trailer offers a
look, and
here's the announcement, which offers little detail, so here's the outline
from the website: Heart of Thorns
Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ is the first expansion for Guild Wars 2. Founded
on the idea that the journey is the goal, the Heart of Thorns expansion
continues the Guild Wars 2 tradition of challenging the conventions of MMOs to
fulfill the promise of what online worlds should be.
Journey deeper into the Heart of Thorns.
The Mastery System
We're reimagining progression with our new Mastery system. Explore new training
opportunities for your character beyond level 80 and master abilities like hang
gliding in the jungle, tearing the bark off of heavily armored Mordrem, or
building new collections that earn precursors to a legendary weapon.
The Heart of Maguuma
New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the
growing hordes of Mordremoth's minions, discover allies from ancient
civilizations, and battle new enemies.
- Tackle challenging group content.
- Explore new open world jungle maps.
- Experience new events and storylines.
- Test your mettle in new boss battles.
Specializations
Evolve your gameplay. With profession specializations, you'll unlock access to a
weapon previously unavailable to your profession as well as new traits, skills,
and unique mechanics - all of which will transform your profession into
something new.
New Profession:
Revenant
Channel legendary powers to slaughter foes and unleash chaos on the battlefield
with our brand new profession: the revenant. Enter the field of battle heavily
armored and equipped with the otherworldly powers of the Mists.
Guild Halls
Your guild has roamed the world together. Now, it's time to claim a piece of it.
Work with fellow guild members to claim and grow your own guild hall in the
heart of Maguuma.
PvP: New Stronghold Game Mode
Gather supply to hire soldiers. Battle for control of heroes. Man the trebuchet
to defend your stronghold, and storm the enemy gates to defeat the guild lord!
Use our new guild team feature to team up and battle to the top of the
leaderboards. Stronghold offers an entirely new way to play competitive PvP in
Guild Wars 2!
WvW: New Borderland
Experience epic battlefield combat like never before in World vs. World's latest
core addition, the new Borderlands map. Navigate treacherous heights with traps
that blow your foes to the depths below and ferocious defenders to help keep the
enemy at bay. Map objectives will be more important than ever before, as they'll
unlock new strategies, tactics, and play mechanics that you'll want to use to
your world's advantage!
Continue here to read the full story.
A
Kickstarter update for Shadowrun: Hong Kong has word from Harebrained
Schemes on the status of the tactical RPG sequel they near the $700,000
crowdfunding mark, revealing bonuses they plan for backers at various levels,
including a copy of the soundtrack for everyone who has pledged more than
$35.00. $700K represents their final posted stretch goal, but with another 24
days in the campaign, Harebrained Schemes explains that should the game's
funding pass one million dollars, they will create and additional
mini-campaign: We have our plans set for the story we want to tell in
Shadowrun: Hong Kong, but if we’re lucky enough to reach the enormous sum of
$1,000,000, we’re gonna create an additional 4-5 hour Shadows of Hong Kong
Mini-Campaign that takes place after the SR:HK story ends. Not only that, the
Shadows of Hong Kong Mini-Campaign will allow you to IMPORT your high-karma Hong
Kong character for a challenge only a prime runner could accept.
The Shadows of Hong Kong Mini-Campaign will come out sometime before the end of
2015 and will be free to Backers at the $15 pledge level and up. And you’ll
receive as many copies of the Mini-Campaign as you are eligible for at your
reward level. For example, if you get 3 copies of Shadowrun: Hong Kong at the
$150 level, you’ll also get 3 copies of the Mini-Campaign.
The Stretch Goals
page on the Roberts Space Industries website shows that Star Citizen
has now passed $70 million in crowdfunding. This is probably in part
attributable to a
Limited Ship Sale they are currently running. There's no update yet to
commemorate the new milestone, but there is word on a new
Arena Commander patch updating the module to version 1.1. Word is: "AC 1.0.1
is primarily a bug fix and game balance patch, addressing issues ranging from
ship balancing to missile damage to UI legibility. The complete patch notes are
available here. In addition to the bug fixes, several systems and other
features have been added." Thanks
IncGamers.
The standalone version of Bohemia Interactive's DayZ has sold over three
million copies since its early access release about a year ago, reports
GamesIndustry.biz. "We would like to say thank you to every single one of
the three million players, that have joined us on the journey of making DayZ.
You all have helped make DayZ the best open world, zombie survival game," said
project lead David Durcak. "This is an amazing achievement, and we are really
looking forward to start sharing with you all of our game design improvements,
anti-hack solutions and other optimizations we have been working on for a
majority of the last year." According to the post, the game now has over 80
developers.
- AZZA Z Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis on
TweakTown.
- CM Storm NovaTouch TKL on
ocaholic.
- Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO CPU Cooler on
eTeknix.
- Lian Li PC-T80 Modular Test Bench Chassis on
eTeknix.
- Noctua NH-D9L on
APH Networks.
- Noctua NH-U9S CPU Cooler on
Hardware Slave.
- Plextor M6M 256GB mSATA SSD on
TweakTown.
- Razer BlackWidow Chroma Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on
Nikk Tech.
- Supermicro 7048GR-TR (Intel C612) Workstation Tower System on
TweakTown.
We got hit with a nor'easter overnight, which left six or so inches of heavy
snow to deal with today. I managed to shovel our way out, and am now basking in
the glow of a job well done. Mmmmm, hot chocolate.
R.I.P.:
Tangerine Dream Founder Edgar Froese Dead at 70.
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