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Archived News:
Games publisher EA's fourth quarter profit, revenue trump estimates has
financial reports from Electronic Arts, saying the company's stock rose on
better-than-expected results, saying these are "helped by strong digital sales
and the release of 'Battlefield Hardline'." Word is: "Total revenue rose 5.5
percent to $1.19 billion for the fourth quarter ended March 31 from $1.12
billion a year earlier. The company's digital business, which includes software
distributed through direct downloads, accounted for about 52 percent of total
revenue. EA also forecast full-year revenue of $4.25 billion. On an adjusted
basis, the company forecast full-year revenue of $4.40 billion and a profit of
$2.75 per share." Some information about upcoming releases came in their
post-earnings conference call, including plans for a
New Need for Speed this fall and a new Plants vs. Zombies in early 2016,
word that
Mirror's Edge 2 will be out in early 2016 (specifically, between January 1
and March 31, 2016), and news that
Titanfall 2 Won't Launch Until At Least 2016 (specifically, between April 1,
2016 and March 31, 2017).
A
Steam Community Group announcement has word that the promised patch for
Mortal Kombat X was pulled because it was messing with saved games (thanks
GameSpot). Word simply is: "We are temporarily removing the patch until we
can pinpoint the cause of save data loss. We are actively working on this and
will keep everyone posted as we work towards a fix. We sincerely apologize for
this disruption."
GOG.com announces
the launch of beta testing for GOG Galaxy,
their DRM-free online gaming platform. Here's word: With the
GOG Galaxy Beta, you can install your
games in one click and keep them up to date automatically, the beta currently
supports this feature in all but a couple of titles available here. You can also
perform backups easily by downloading a standalone installer through GOG Galaxy.
The beta features a friends list, game time tracking, achievements, and chat.
You can now talk to each other, connect with your group of friends, and see what
everyone is playing. You can also try out our online multiplayer & matchmaking
solution that, in select titles, includes cross-play: platform-independent
multiplayer between gamers on GOG.com and Steam. If you download a patch that
breaks something or if you just change your mind, the app will soon feature a
unique rollback option to restore a previous version of your game.
Best of all, GOG Galaxy is optional. If you don't want to use any
additional software, your experience with us won't change at all. If you only
want to take advantage of select conveniences, you can toggle them on and off.
It's all totally up to you.
The
GeForce website announces that Batman: Arkham Knight is now available
with the purchase of GTX 980 and 970 graphics cards along with The Witcher 3:
The Wild Hunt, which is still also bundled with a wider range of graphics
cards. There are details on this on the
“Two Times The Adventure”
GeForce GTX Bundle page. They also go into detail on the special
NVIDIA GameWorks
effects featured in each game.
Dragon Age website
announces the release of the Dragonslayer multiplayer expansion as promised for
Dragon Age: Inquisition, the RPG sequel. This is free for all owners of the game
on Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360, and comes
along with The Black Emporium, which allows further customization options.
Here's a new trailer
along with word on the new content:
- Dragonslayer Multiplayer Expansion adds
thrilling dragon battles into the multiplayer dungeon crawling experience
alongside expansive new unique maps and three new playable characters: an
Avvar Skywatcher, a Virtuoso whose music is deadly, and Isabela, the Raider
Queen of the Eastern Seas.
- The Black Emporium provides more ways to
customize your Inquisition by adding four high-level stores which sell epic
weapons, powerful accessories, new crafting materials and schematics and
other hard-to-find items. Players can also change their facial appearance
with the Mirror of Transformation which will be made accessible through the
war table.
Continue here to read the full story.
Hammerfall Publishing announces the release of the Early Access version of
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide
on Steam, offering a 10%
discount on the turn-based strategy game for the next week. They also announce
further details about what additional content they will bring to the game as it
marches toward full release. Here's
a new
cinematic trailer and here's word: UPCOMING EARLY ACCESS CONTENT:
Due for release every few weeks after the launch of Early Access, these upcoming
content drops will inject plenty of exciting new additions into Warhammer
40,000: Regicide's gameplay.
These include the full single-player campaign, new Chapters, Clans and a host of
incentives, rewards and unlockables for participating in the Regicide online
forums and community!
- The Angels of Blood
Free to Early Access purchasers, the Regicide - Angels of Blood
campaign will be revealed in multiple acts throughout the Early Access. The
campaign opens with Guardsman Karthus and his fellow troopers garrisoned the
Phaedrus Orbital Station above Hethgar Prime.
- New Chapters and Clans
Regicide has 11 planned Chapters and Clans to fill out the Space
Marine and Ork ranks by the end of the Early Access phase.
Phase 1 features the Space Marine Blood Angels and Ork Goffs, plus White
Scars and Bad Moons as exclusive community rewards for those who have supported
us!
Continue here to read the full story.
Paradox Interactive now offers a Sneak Peek edition of Magicka 2 for those who
have preordered the action/adventure sequel. The Sneak Peek allows access along
with three friends between now and May 10th, while the game will be released for
real on May 26th. They offer a
"completely unscripted
co-op trailer" to illustrate the news, and the following outline of what the
Sneak Peek includes:
-
The Prologue, in which Wizards discover what has
happened in Midgĺrd since the last adventure, learn to spell again in a
helpful tutorial and figure out who not to incinerate
-
The First Mission of the Adventure Campaign, in which
Wizards use a combination of elemental spells to prevent and/or cause mayhem
-
“The Festival,” a Challenge level in which Wizards are
challenged to attain a high score while opposed by score-hating monsters
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces
that Black Mesa
is now available on Steam Early Access, 10 years after the announcement of this
Half-Life remake as a mod. There was a version of this released a couple
of years ago, and they are not pretending that there's anything about this that
will accelerate the pace of development, saying: "We currently have the first
~85% of our single player campaign completed. For the last 15% we want to not
only recreate it, but improve upon it to make it an enjoyable and memorable
experience. We feel it will take us considerable time to get the last 15% up to
our standards, and putting a time estimate on it would be a total guess." Here's
more on why they are doing this: Why Early Access?
“Making a game with the scope and scale of Black Mesa is a massive undertaking.
Back in 2012 we made the decision to release what we had completed up to that
point, and were blown away by the community’s response, feedback, and
improvements to our work. We want to keep that relationship alive and well by
using Early Access as a tool for allowing our community to participate in the
final phase of Black Mesa’s development.
In addition, our ambitions go beyond the original Xen chapters found in
Half-Life. We have a standard of quality that we have to achieve. Early Access
allows us to commit resources to bring you the remaining chapters with the
quality that you expect.”
A
new blog post has details on the latest update to Medieval Engineers, the
new engineering game in Early
Access from Keen Software House. This works in creative mode and in survival
mode, though they stress that this is the same multiplayer support found in
Space Engineers, rather than the newer multiplayer layer
they recently discussed. Nevertheless they say: "We are also expecting that
the player base is going to increase significantly – this is what our experience
tells us when multiplayer was added in Space Engineers." Here's
a new trailer
highlighting the news. Continue here to read the full story.
A
new patch preview for Heroes of the Storm has some insights from the
developers at Blizzard about the balance changes in next patch for the beta
MOBA. Topics include changes to healing wards, new powers for ETC and Diablo,
Anub’arak buffs, and nerfs for both Abathur and The Lost Vikings. They also
discuss changes requested by the community they will not be enacting, saying
they are declining to buff Chen or nerf Illidan at this point. They don't offer
an exact ETA, saying we will see these changes "in the near future." They
also announce festivities planned for June 1st to celebrate the game's
official launch on the 2nd, as they are holding a live event in
Old Billingsgate in London as
well as Internet livestreams.
WBIE announce the release of the
promised Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition,
which bundles the Tolkien action game with all its DLC. Here's what this
includes in addiiton to the game itself:
- Story Packs: The Lord of The Hunt and The
Bright Lord
- Skins: The Dark Ranger, Captain of the
Watch, Lord of the Hunt, The Bright Lord, Power of Shadow and Lithariel
Skins
- Runes: Hidden Blade, Deadly Archer, Flame
of Anor, Rising Storm, Orc Slayer, Defiant to the End, Elven Grace,
Ascendant, One with Nature
- Missions: Guardians of the Flaming Eye, The
Berserks and The Skull Crushers Warband Missions
- Challenge Modes: Test of Power, Test of
Speed, Test of Wisdom, Endless Challenge, Test of the Wild, Test of the
Ring, Test of Defiance Challenge Modes
- Additional Features: Photo Mode
A
new Kickstarter looks to raise at least $250,000 to develop Starfighter
Inc., a multiplayer space combat gamer from Impeller Studios, a new
developer boasting veterans of the X-Wing series and the MechWarrior franchise
as well as the producer from Homefront. Here's a bit on their vision: Starfighter
Inc. pits teams of mercenary pilots against each other in online battles
featuring single-seat interceptors, multi-seat gunships, and massive capital
ships. Players customize almost every aspect of their ship, from flight
characteristics to weapon configurations to visual aesthetics. As multiplayer
matches are won and lost, individual and team decisions affect the overall game
universe, blending emergent gameplay with hard-science futurism to create a
community-driven storytelling experience.
“For us, fun is just the starting point,” said Creative Director Jack Mamais.
“We want to bring hard science, unprecedented immersion, and realism that blends
with great gameplay to create a truly never-before-seen experience.”
Staffed by developers from the Desert Combat, Halo, and Battlefield series, the
studio has been in stealth mode on the title since 2013. A virtual studio with
15 team members spread across 7 time zones, Impeller is focused on bringing
landmark competitive multiplayer to virtual reality platforms.
Link of the Day:
Indiana Jones Sequel Confirmed. Thanks nin.
A tweet from
Spark
Unlimited indicates the Lost Planet 3 developer has shut down,
saying: "Elvis has left the building. Good night and drive safe." There were no
previous indications they were in trouble, as their previous tweet is one from
January saying they are hiring. Thanks
PSU.
Steam News announces the
release of Wolfenstein:
The Old Blood, as MachineGames' alternate-history shooter prequel comes
today, on the 23rd anniversary of the release of the original Wolfenstein 3D.
Here's the news: Wolfenstein®: The Old Blood is a standalone prequel to
the critically acclaimed first-person action-adventure shooter, Wolfenstein®:
The New Order. The adventure, which spans eight chapters and two interconnected
stories, features the hallmarks of MachineGames – thrilling action, immersive
story and intense first-person combat. As war hero B.J. Blazkowicz, arm yourself
with new weapons such as the bolt-action rifle and grenade-launching
Kampfpistole as you attempt to thwart the advancing Nazi war machine, and take
advantage of duel-wielding pipes that can be used for wall climbing – or for
vicious take-downs of never-before-seen Nazi adversaries.
During a Mortal Kombat X
Twitch stream developer NetherRealm copped to performance issues in the new
installment in the brawler series, saying they are working on "huge
improvements" for the PC edition. Word is a new patch is coming today, and they
say this "literally brings the PC version to parity with the console versions."
Thanks
Shoryuken via
Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
A recent post on
the EverQuest website offers an official endorsement from Daybreak Games for
Project 1999, an emulator that supports "classic" EverQuest gameplay
echoing the early days of the MMORPG. Since emulation in such games has
typically been a touchy legal topic, this is good news for supporters of the
project. Here's word: It’s been an exciting year for Project 1999 and we
have some exciting news we’ve been really anxious to share with all of you. As
some of you may be aware, in the past there has been both confusion and concern
over the status of Project 1999. We have recently entered into a written
agreement with Daybreak Game Company LLC that formally recognizes Project 1999
as a fan based, not-for-profit, classic EverQuest emulation project. The
agreement establishes the guidelines that we as a project must follow, but it
will allow to us continue to update the game without risk of legal
repercussions. As a show of good faith to support the efforts of Daybreak Games,
we have decided to reschedule our expansion release as to not conflict with the
upcoming new progression server being released in the coming weeks. We would
like to personally thank all the folks at Daybreak and acknowledge how awesome
it is for a company to work with and embrace the creations of their fans. This
is really something that’s unique in the gaming industry.
Steam now offers
Rustbucket Rumble, a team-based arena combat game played from a side-scrolling
perspective unusual for the genre. Here's the most recent
gameplay trailer, and
here's word: In Rustbucket Rumble, players must choose from one of six
robots with varying abilities and weaponry, and join the RED Team or the BLUE
Team in a three-on-three, arena combat game like no other. Combining classic
run-and-gun gameplay with more modern, class-based, multiplayer shooter
gameplay, robots chase, fight, and stun their opponents, ultimately capturing
them in order to carry them back to base. After months of beta play with very
positive feedback from those who participated, Rustbucket Rumble is now
available for gamers everywhere to get a piece of the action.
Continue here to read the full story.
- Aloran
by Silkjade Studios — Kickstarter. "Aloran is a turn-based, isometric
fantasy RPG inspired by the classic games of the 90s that so many know and
love: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Eye of the Beholder, and Might and
Magic."
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Enjoy yourself, and please be careful, as we don't need any
alcohol or lime-related injuries.
R.I.P.:
Grace Lee Whitney, Janice Rand of -Star Trek- dies at 85. Thanks Kenn.
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