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Archived News:
Valve announces plans to unveil their virtual reality headsets at the Game
Developers Conference next week as part of a big hardware rollout which will
also include Steam Machines "with the final Steam Controller" and "new living
room devices." Here's word: Valve will show a family of new Steam devices
at next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, CA. Products
being demonstrated at GDC include Steam Machines with the final Steam
Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR
hardware system.
Developers and publishers interested in experiencing the new SteamVR hardware
may request to schedule a GDC demo at
http://www.steampowered.com/universe.
GDC 2015 will mark the 13th anniversary of Valve's first public announcement of
Steam, which has since become the leading platform for PC, Mac, and Linux games
and software.
With the Homeworld Remastered Collection due Wednesday, Gearbox is in
warp-drive, offering a new
Homeworld Remastered: Behind-the-Scenes. This explains some things even
veterans of the RTS series need to know, as they have made some changes to how
some resources and mechanics operate in the remastered versions of the RTS
games. Purists will be relived to learn the original game mechanics remain
intact in the classic versions of the games included in the collection, but for
the remastered versions, there are changes. Here's word, which also explains
multiplayer will still be considered in beta when the game arrives:
Homeworld 1 was originally released in 1999, and Homeworld 2 followed a
few years later in 2003 along with a new engine that added new features and
functionality. For Remastered, we wanted to expand on that as it was the most
technically advanced engine between the two games. But for Homeworld 1, that
meant we needed to bring it into the HW2 engine. That meant a big challenge:
creating a unified engine for Homeworld 1 and 2. Unifying the codebase enabled
us to remaster both games at the same time, which provides a consistent gameplay
experience between the two games, including a new user interface. The new user
interface will allow for modern RTS advances, aligning it more with the original
intent that wasn’t possible using the tools at the time. As a result, key
commands old school Homeworld players may have been familiar with won’t work in
Homeworld Remastered. As with all of the changes in Homeworld Remastered, this
was done with the guidance of the original creators. Original mechanics have
been preserved in the Classic versions included in Remastered Collection.
If you’re new to Homeworld, the experience will be easy to pick up and
understand by playing through the tutorial. But if you’re a returning veteran,
you may notice a few changes to certain mechanics stemming from what was
essentially rebuilding the Homeworld 1 campaign in an enhanced Homeworld 2
engine. Fuel, for example, is no longer a resource you’ll need to manage in
Homeworld 1. While fuel is still a factor in a particular mission involving the
Kadesh, gameplay is now similar to Homeworld 2 in that you won’t be monitoring
fuel throughout the campaign. Research has also slightly changed. In Homeworld
classic, the more research vessels you had, the faster you could research. Now,
in line with Homeworld 2, Homeworld Remastered instead focuses on cost, or RUs
(research units). The more vessels you have, the faster you can get RUs.
Homeworld 2 has also inherited some of the original Homeworld’s features. For
instance, formations from Homeworld 1 – such as Sphere, Wall, etc. – were
originally automated in Homeworld 2, but now operate more like in Homeworld 1.
In Homeworld 1, certain formations can offer certain bonuses – this is also the
case in Homeworld 2.
In addition, the net code for Homeworld had to be re-written, as online services
were originally powered by services that are no longer operational. This
provided us with the opportunity to combine the maps, modes and ships of
Homeworld 1 with those of Homeworld 2, along with some new modes and
functionality from some of the modders we've been working with. As a result, in
multiplayer, players will be able to choose between modes that encompass
Homeworld 1, Homeworld 2, and Homeworld Remastered game types. One of the
reasons we're calling multiplayer a "BETA" is because we want to work with the
community to balance the game, so they understand this is something that we'll
continue to update and iterate over time.
A new 32 minute video
(NSFW) shows off gameplay footage said to be from Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun,
a cancelled installment in the Legacy of Kain series (thanks
VG247). This
NeoGAF thread
explains video and what else is known about this, described as the result of
"years of research and connecting to sources," and an update notes
a
post purportedly from one of the game's developers. Here's a bit that
provides a nice overview: The video contains some of the opening story
sequences, exploration, combat and an array of gameplay mechanics from Legacy of
Kain: Dead Sun. The game was cancelled by Square Enix in 2012 after three years
of development at Climax Studios, with Crystal Dynamics acting in an advisory
role. The game was not projected to meet Square Enix sales projections, and was
scrapped, to the enormous disappointment of staff who had dedicated a lot of
work to the project. One source recalled that staff came in at weekends to
continue working on the game, while higher ups already knew it was cancelled.
The game had included a multiplayer component, an online asymmetrical deathmatch
mode completely disconnected to the story and era of the single-player campaign.
This was the only part of the project to survive the cancellation, and has now
been heavily expanded upon and released as Nosgoth.
Continue here to read the full story.
Gearbox Software now offers a
another trailer from
the Homeworld Remastered Collection, showing off the story for Homeworld 2,
similar to the Homeworld
(1) story trailer they released a
couple of weeks ago. Word is: "Watch the video above to learn more about the
critically acclaimed story of Homeworld 2 in this trailer from the Homeworld
Remastered Collection that highlights the game's updated audio, visuals, and
effects!" The collection is due for release on Wednesday. Continue here to read the full story.
Scribd
has details on a class action lawsuit filed last week against NVIDIA and
GIGABYTE over performance claims for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPU, further
fallout from how performance suffers on these units when accessing more than 3.5
GB of their 4 GB of RAM (thanks
PCWorld via
Blend Games). Here's a bit: The Defendants engaged in a scheme to
mislead consumers nationwide about the characteristics, qualities and benefits
of the GTX 970 by stating that the GTX 970 provides a true 4GB of VRAM, 64 ROPs,
and 2048 KB of L2 cache capacity, when in fact it does not. Defendants’
marketing of the GTX 970 was intended to and did create the perception among
purchasers that the product was, in fact, able to conform with the
specifications as advertised. This deception has already resulted in a petition
of over 8,100 purchasers who have requested that the FTC take action against
Nvidia and asking for full refunds.
There is an illegal version of Darkest Dungeon for sale on the Windows
App Store, reports
PCGamesN, noting that developer Red Hook Studios has been having trouble
getting the unauthorized version of the roguelike, dungeon-crawler pulled, in
the meantime, they
tweet the
following warning: "On a related note, if you didn't buy Darkest Dungeon on
Steam or Humble Store right now, you got scammed." It seems surprising that this
would happen on Microsoft's store, but the same account is also offering
unauthorized sales of other games such as LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
Total War: ATTILA debuts at number one on the
GfK Chart-Track PC top 30 listing of bestselling PC games in the U.K.,
kicking Football Manager 2015 into the second spot. There's a new number one on
the
all platforms chart, where The Order: 1886 leads the way, while Evolve drops
to number three. Here's
word: Another new release comes straight in at No1 for a second
successive week – last week saw a No1 launch for 2K/Take 2’s ‘Evolve’ and this
week it is Sony’s turn to debut at No1 with PS4 exclusive ‘The Order: 1886’.
It was developed by Ready at Dawn Studios, known for PSP Daxter and PSP God of
War titles. Sony’s last No1 was back in August 2014 with Naughty Dog’s ‘The Last
of Us: Remastered’, also for PS4.
Activision climb 1 place to No2 with ‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ (+3%) and
the aforementioned ‘Evolve’ drops from No1 to No3 (-66%). Ubisoft’s ‘Far Cry 4’
gets pushed even higher (promotional activity and now half-term) climbing a
further 3 places to No4 (+28%). Meanwhile Rockstar/Take 2’s ‘GTA V’ (+0%)
remains stable in sales and chart position at No5. Half-term boosts all versions
of Minecraft, with ‘Minecraft: Xbox Edition’ climbing one place to No7 (+31%)
and ‘Minecraft: Playstation Edition’ climbing 2 places to No9 (+27%). Nintendo’s
big new 3DS entry last week, ‘Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D’ drops from No2 to No8
(-70%) and Capcom’s 3DS ‘Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’ shows a similar pattern,
down from No4 to No12 (-68%).
This week we also welcome 2 more new entries with Sega and Creative Assembly’s
‘Total War: Attila’ for PC strategists at No21 and Koei Tecmo’s ‘Dead or Alive 5
Last Round’ for PS4/XO owners at No27.
GamingOnLinux - Linux Gaming Will Be Fine Even Without Steam Machines
Succeeding. Thanks
Linux Today via Ant.
The main problem right now is the watered-down term "Steam Machine"
thanks to the hardware manufacturers that jumped-ship early, and they
released what would have been a SteamOS machine as a customized Windows
machine. We can't blame them due to how long Valve has taken, and it
certainly hasn't helped our cause. This doesn't mean Steam Machines will
fail as soon as they arrive though, but if they do fail, we will still be
fine.
In retrospect I realize I had a couple of other movies I could have included in
my Oscar picks, as the LEGO Movie and Captain America: The Winter
Soldier both got nominations as well, so I was more prepared for this year
than usual. Neither of them won anything, so I guess it doesn't matter.
Obviously I'm not that wrapped up in the whole thing, but I am very happy for JK
Simmons, Patricia Arquette, and Julianne Moore on their awards, as I'm a fan of
all three.
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