Games Workshop announces
Dark Future: Blood Red States, an upcoming video
game based on their post-apocalyptic series, saying this is a reboot of the
series. The
DarkFuture website is
online, and already offers
a teaser trailer, though specifics like target platforms and release dates
are not being revealed just now. Here's word on the game:
Auroch’s Dark
Future: Blood Red States is supported by the Wellcome Trust, and will be a
turn-based strategy game, played out in simultaneous real-time action. The
gameplay is a furious mix of hammering chain-guns, tactical high-speed
manoeuvres and the ripping of metal as vehicles smash into one another. All the
action is conducted against a dark background of the decline of humanity; too
wild to be true and too close for comfort.
Dark Future was originally released as a board game in 1988, and later expanded
into a series of books. The world it inhabits is a very different reality;
cyberpunk more weird than wired.
It's an alternative, bleak, hollowed out America, in 2023. The major cities are
either corporate controlled high-tech gated communities (Patrolled Zones, or PZs)
for those who can pay, or lawless shanty towns for those who can't (NoGos).
Between these is 'The Big Empty', the polluted, wasted Red States of America
where vicious gangs hunt and fight. The atrophied state has all but given up
trying to impose law and order here and instead relies on a new breed of bounty
hunter come highway warrior to keep the roads open, the Sanctioned Operative.
Into this fractured new world the player must make their fortune. The player
runs a Sanctioned Ops agency; taking on missions for bounty outside the PZs. As
well as the tactical action on the road, the player must also manage both the
vehicles and drivers – from upgrades to the front-mounted HMGs to booking a
driver into the clinic for a new set of bionic eyes.
Continue here to read the full story.
Battle.net announces global play is now available in
Heroes of the Storm.
This may sound like all players are now in one pool regardless of region, but it
actually represents the ability to switch to a different region. This actually
remains quite separate, as purchases and experience do not transfer between
regions, but they note that this does give players the ability to play the game
while the servers for their home territories are down for maintenance. They also
note that players who play in a region where a new patch is available will
receive the update, and will then be unable to play in their home territory
until it is patched to the new version.
Had Dr. Internet out this week for a second crack at a problem that was causing
occasional mini-outages. This glitch was quite intermittent, and having already
experienced a failure to fix this, I wasn't so optimistic he would be able to
figure out what was wrong. It turns out my pessimism was unwarranted, as he was
able to identify and solve a couple of tangible problems, and my mysterious
disconnections have ceased (yay!). It was interesting talking to him about all
the things that can possibly go wrong with a cable Internet setup, which leads
me to believe this won't be the last I'll be seeing of him, even if things are
working great right now.
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