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Archived News:
Techland announces plans for mod tools for Dying Light, a complete
reversal from a point earlier this week when mods for the
game were being hindered, which turned
out to be a
mistunderstanding. Now they are soliciting suggestions from the community on
mod support, and they have set up a new
Modding Tools Forum.
Here's word: The release of Dying Light has already been met an amazing
positive response from gamers around the globe. In their excitement, many PC
players have already been creating mods that alter and revamp the game. At
Techland, we want to see more! As a sandbox game, Dying Light is a perfect
material for modding. This is why we are currently working on free and extensive
modding tools for the game. And we want players to tell what they would like to
see.
We’re inviting all Dying Light players to visit our official discussion board
and share their mod ideas - no matter how crazy - with us
here
Modders were a massive part of our gaming community since Call of Juarez 2 and
Dead Island - and we wish to continue that with Dying Light. This invitation is
only the first stage of our cooperation with the gaming community. After the
modding tools are released, we plan to actively support the coolest mods created
by players.
We want to give creative freedom to the players to help keep Dying Light fresh
and interesting even many years after their release. We want to thank players
for the support they have shown us and are looking forward to their ideas where
Dying Light can go from here.
Gamasutra reports on layoffs at EA Montreal, which they have confirmed with
EA after being tipped by a "source close to those affected." That source tells
them "this may herald the closure of the EA Mobile branch based in Montreal,"
though this aspect of the story remains unconfirmed. The official statement from
EA says a "small number of employees were impacted, and we are working closely
with each of them to ensure the best transition possible" and "these changes do
not impact our current development plans."
Battle.net
announces that Season 2 of Diablo III will begin on February 13th in
the Americas, offering details on how those interested can check out the all-new
Season 2 Conquests. Here's word: Season 2 begins February 13* and we're as
excited as you are to jump in and start tackling new challenges with fresh
characters!
Some of you may be planning to compete for particular Conquests. To prepare for
the start of the new season, all new Season 2 Conquests (and their associated
leaderboards) are now available for viewing in-game and
on our website. While you
cannot yet claim a place on these leaderboards, it's a great opportunity to
check out the new challenges and start planning your strategy for when the
season goes live next week.
To view the new Conquests in-game:
- Open up the Leaderboard screen (default
Shift + L from the main menu)
- Click on the Conquests button on the left
To view the new Conquests on our website:
- Visit our
Rankings page
- All new Conquests will be listed on the left
hand-side of the screen
If you'd like to view your progress for Conquests from Season 1:
- Open your Profile (default Shift + P from
the main menu)
- Navigate to Season
- Click on Season 1
- Click on Records
*For the Americas region. Please
click here to
see when Season 2 begins for your region.
Steam News announces
that SUNLESS SEA is now out of early access
on Steam, and the indie
adventure game is on sale for 10% off for the next week.
They note the game is already receiving positive reviews, backing up the
intriguing description they offer: Take the helm of your steamship and
set sail for the unknown! Sunless Sea is a game of discovery, loneliness and
frequent death, set in the award-winning Victorian Gothic universe of Fallen
London.
If the giant crabs, sentient icebergs and swarms of bats don’t get you, madness
and cannibalism certainly will. But that old black ocean beckons, and there’s
loot for the brave souls who dare to sail her.
Betray your crew, sell your soul to a Devil, marry your sweetheart. Survive long
enough and you’ll achieve your life’s ambition.
You will die, but your legacy will live on…
Steam News announces a
Steam Inventory Service is now in beta, giving developers using Steamworks the
ability to add items for players to purchase or unlock. Here's word on what's
new: With today's Steamworks SDK update, we've released The Steam
Inventory Service beta, a new feature available to developers with games or
software on Steam. The Steam Inventory Service is a set of new Steamworks APIs
and tools that allow a game to enable persistent items that have been purchase
or unlocked by individual users without having to run special servers to keep
track of these user's inventory.
With this service, a game can easily drop items to customers based on playtime
or can grant items based on specific situations or actions within the game.
These items can be marked as tradable through Steam or sellable via the Steam
Marketplace. Developers can also configure recipes for crafting different
combinations of items that result in more rare, unique, or valuable
items.
A new
trailer from Mortal Kombat X is now available, offering a IV minute
promotion for the upcoming brawling sequel. Here's word on the clip: "Today,
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios released the
latest video for Mortal Kombat X, which gives fans an overview of the numerous
features that they can experience in the upcoming game. Additionally, viewers
will get a behind-the-scenes look at Faction Wars as NetherRealm Studios team
members discuss details of how this feature will connect Mortal Kombat X players
around the world." Continue here to read the full story.
Haemimont Games announces further details on Victor Vran, the action/RPG
the Tropico developer first revealed
in private showings at Gamescom last August. They reveal plans to release it this summer for
Windows and other platforms "to be announced," saying the full release will be
preceded by early access through Steam. This will be the late sort of
early access, as it will "be nearly complete," and they are just allowing
"plenty of time to respond to community feedback and ideas." A
batch of
screenshots offers a look at the game, and we also have
a new teaser trailer.
Here's the plan: Victor Vran will slay its way onto PC and other platforms
to be announced this summer in cooperation between Bulgarian veteran independent
studio Haemimont Games, best known for the Tropico series, and publisher
EuroVideo Medien. The team’s goal is to bring a fresh perspective to the genre
by adding a broad range of equipment and special moves that drastically change
combat, along with a simple, but game-changing, jumping mechanic that separates
itself from many titles in the action-RPG genre.
“It all started with a simple idea: let’s put the ‘action’ back in the
action-RPG genre,” says
Gabriel Dobrev,
CEO and founder of Haemimont Games. Victor Vran is the first action-RPG from the
experienced team, and was introduced to a select audience behind closed doors at
Gamescom 2014 in Cologne, Germany.
Victor Vran lets the player decide how he or she wants to play the game. Players
can forge their own personal version of Victor thanks to a vast array of
powerful weapons, game-changing outfits, wicked demon powers and fate cards. Use
special moves, combine skills and weapons to wipe out hordes of hideous beasts
and clever boss monsters.
Slaying demons doesn’t have to be a lonely affair – team up with friends online
and explore the story of the dark world together in a full co-op experience.
Prior to final release, Victor Vran will be available via Steam Early Access.
Haemimont Games invites players to take part in development and join forces with
the team in the weeks before release. The game will be nearly complete when it
enters Early Access with plenty of time to respond to community feedback and
ideas.
Continue here to read the full story.
Cliffski's Blog announces that Gratuitous Space Battles 2 has entered beta testing, saying those who
preorder the spaceship construction and combat sequel from
its official website will
get immediate access to the test. A
new beta trailer
shows off gameplay, and here's word on how this is a beta, not an alpha: So yup, GSB2 is now taking pre-orders direct from my site, and this gives you
access to the beta. You can grab it right now from here:
http://www.gratuitousspacebattles2.com/
Note that this is a proper beta, not some super-early-access proof of concept
thing where most of it doesn’t work. In other words, most stuff works! it’s
playable. Hopefully its fun! It’s PC-only and English only for now, but that
will change come-release. There will of course be bugs, and myriad balance
issues. And I will be adding some extra voiceover and a few other bits and
pieces. But hopefully this is something you can play and enjoy right now. You
get a download link, an online serial (for challenges, if you want to use them),
and a steam code for its eventual steam release (the code obviously isn’t
working yet).
PLEASE tell people you know about it, this is really appreciated. If you are a
member of the press, please check your inbox, and if you don’t hear from us
today please email me at cliff At positech etc… and I will put you in touch with
*my people*. Yeah that’s right, cliffski got people now :D.
And of course, we have forums that you can go chat on and offer feedback and
suggestions, criticism, maybe even some praise for things you like? and ask
questions about stuff. You can log in to my forums with google or twitter or facebook, or manually sign up for an account. We also have a facebook page.
Holy cow I’m nervous. I actually feel sick.
Continue here to read the full story.
Word on how eye tracking support will work in Assassin's Creed Rogue can be
found in
Tobii's announcement of the game's support of the
Tobii EyeX Dev Kit and SteelSeries
Sentry, which "showcases the next evolution of human interfaces in gaming." They
describe how this creates an "infinite screen effect" as the scene on the
monitor will scroll with the players eyes. On the "chicken and the egg" problem
that so many alternate controllers face (enough customers need to buy the $200
device to inspire developer support, while more game support may be required to
inspire purchases of the controller),
Ars Technica notes the
Tobii Arcade page
lists other games with current or future support for the technology. Here's
a trailer showing this
in action, and more on the process: With traditional keyboard and mouse
inputs intact, players using the Sentry with Assassin’s Creed® Rogue will
experience true gaming immersion when their gaze and that of Shay Patrick Cormac,
the game’s protagonist, are one and the same. For example, as the player looks
to the left of screen, Shay Patrick Cormac will look to the left of his
environment and the scene camera will pan to accommodate the exploration of this
new visual territory creating an “Infinite Screen” experience. No longer will PC
players be restricted to the size of their screen to orient Shay Patrick
Cormac’s field of view and further explore the environment; the game auto-pans
intuitively and in harmony with the player. Players can revert to their
traditional mouse control by simply grabbing it. Assassin’s Creed® Rogue will
also pause and resume automatically if the player looks away from the screen and
back again, preventing disruptions in gameplay.
“Assassin’s Creed® Rogue with eye tracking aligns the gamer’s and a character’s
senses so naturally, creating a truly immersive gaming experience. We’ve added
an intuitive and natural modality without inhibiting the player’s ability,
taking anything away or having to make a trade-off that lessens Assassin’s
Creed® Rogue’s enjoyment for the gamer,” said Werner.
Continue here to read the full story.
There's no word on the D.I.C.E. Awards on the
actual website for the Academy Of
Interactive Arts & Sciences, but
GameInformer has the list of the winners from last nights award show. Here's
the full rundown: Action Game of the Year: Destiny
Adventure Game of the Year: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 15
Racing Game of the Year: Mario Kart 8
Fighting Game of the Year: Super Smash Bros.
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Family Game of the Year: LittleBigPlanet 3
Handheld Game of the Year: Super Smash Bros.
Mobile Game of the Year: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
DICE Sprite Award: Transistor
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay: Destiny
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement In Original Music Composition: Destiny
Outstanding Achievement In Sound Design: Destiny
Outstanding Achievement In Story: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement In Character: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Technical Achievement: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement In Animation: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement In Art Direction: Monument Valley
Outstanding Achievement In Gameplay Design: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement In Game Direction: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Game of the Year: Dragon Age: Inquisition
This trailer shows off
a bit of Izle, the sandbox role-playing game in the works at Area Effect.
This is new footage from the alpha version, and those interested in
participating in the alpha test can sign up
on this page. They also offer
more details on how the game will work, saying: "Players will embark on a
journey to rebuild the last world of light striving to complete quests and
unlock terraforming powers that allow them to create procedurally generated
islands. Adventure awaits as players must gather “Shards of Light” and choose
between defending their world or crafting powerful artifacts to improve their
character. Izle is more than choices: it’s the infinite freedom to create a
player’s own unique world and the great responsibility of protecting it!" Continue here to read the full story.
Dreamscape is now available
on Steam, offering a
role-playing game with a throwback top-down PoV and an anime flair. Here's word
on the game, which is 15% off for the first week of release: "Dreamscape is a
fantastic and addictive RPG with bits of strategy making the gameplay even
richer. In command of a colorful and very varied party, unravel the mystery of
the realm of dreams and solve riddles to reach your goal. Dreamscape can be
played in 4 different modes and features different rewards for completing them.
You can even get access to bonus characters if you complete a mode without using
the healing goddess!"
I've got things timed perfectly, as with the temperatures in the single digits
and the wind chill below zero around here, I have the makings of
a batch of
chili all set to go. I have six-plus pounds of choice beef, a pound of ground
lamb, and a handful of fresh habanero (protip: not habañero) peppers all on
hand, and I'll get everything going today. There'll be a hot time in the old
town tonight!
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