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Archived News:
DSOGaming has information suggesting a contributing factor to
performance issues with
the PC edition of Batman: Arkham Knight may be that engaging its advanced visual
features causes the game to run under DirectX 10 instead of DirectX 11. On a
related note, the
GMG & Playfire Community Blog has word from
Green Man Gaming that they will
offer refunds for Batman: Arkham Knight if "you still cannot play your
game" after the release of the patch meant to address
the PC issues that have some
customers asking for their money back. Their statement doesn't make it entirely
clear what the defining point would be for qualifying for a refund, as it reads:
"Warner Bros. are currently working on a patch which we are hoping will be
released soon. We want you to enjoy your game, but if after the fix has been
released, you still cannot play your game, we will process refund requests for
the game."
Milestone announces the release of MotoGP™15, the latest installment
in the quite obviously trademarked motorcycle racing series, saying this is
available in stores as well as
on Steam. Don't put away
your wallet just yet, as the 4 Strokes Champions and Events pack is also
now available as DLC for those who did not qualify for a free copy by
preordering. The DLC is also available
on Steam, and here's
word
from a Steam announcement: Starting from today MotoGP™15 and the
amazing DLC MotoGP™15
4-Stroke Champions and Events is available for purchase. It includes the
Champions of 4-Stroke Bikes that have made the history of the MotoGP™, plus 18
Special Events for a full charged adrenaline experience. The aim? Relive the
best moment of Rossi, Capirossi, Biaggi, Stoner, Xaus, Hopkins, Gibernau and
much, much more.
The new features of MotoGP™15 are: Private Team, GP Credits, Customization and
the brand new game mode Beat the Time and Real Events 2014.
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America offers
a new trailer
introducing Zeus, a new character for Rise of Incarnates that will join the
multiplayer fighting game when it officially launches out of Early Access on
July 1st. This update has more
details on the launch, saying it will also include a new map based on Washington
D.C., a location appropriate to Zeus' secret identity of President of the United
States. Here's more on the character: "Zeus is a strong melee character with
powerful fighting mechanic, making him a solid partner for combat. His unique
moves create a barrier against ranged attacks, and his laser beams generates a
field of electricity that stuns opponents. Zeus also wields several swords that
can deliver serious damage to his opponents." They also have plans to reward
veteran players and newcomers with launch events outlined in
this post. Continue here to read the full story.
This trailer shows
off the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled gun that Obsidian is bringing to Armored
Warfare, their multiplayer tank game. The clip includes real-life video along
with gameplay footage to show why you might want the Paladin on your side.
Here's word: "The Paladin is part of the M109 self-propelled gun series
originally used by the American military during the Vietnam War and has proven
so useful that its modernized form remains in service to this day. In Armored
Warfare the Paladin has faster movement and higher rates of fire than most
artillery vehicles, but its fire power is less than that of other artillery
vehicles in its same tier. Vulnerable to counter-artillery fire if it stays in
one place too long, using the Paladin’s extra mobility to change position is
often the key to success." Continue here to read the full story.
We received a report that the Thrustmaster T500RS racing wheel is now
discontinued, as reader Redglyph passes a reply from Thrustmaster support saying
so. We have reached out to Thrustmaster for comment, but have not yet received a
response. This is a relatively expensive, top end peripheral, but those
interested can still find some available through the
Thrustmaster website.
On a related note, the
Thrustmaster Facebook page shows the way to download new drivers for to
support the T300RS and T500RS under Windows 10.
The Astronauts - What Really Happened to Tale of Tales' Sunset.
"I am torn on how to end this post. I am puzzled by Tale of Tales’
reaction to Sunset’s failure. If you want your art to challenge the status
quo, it’s a bit odd to expect the status quo to care. Leaving the art form
just because the status quo was not moved by your first commercial attempt
is even odder.
Sunset’s struggle it’s not the gamers’ fault. We can’t be talking about the
failure of Sunset as if gamers refuse games as art that challenges them.
Papers, Please, or This War of Mine, or Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – all
enjoyed spectacular commercial success and had something meaningful to say
while demanding a lot from the players and often making them uncomfortable
and struggling."
The People Can Fly website announces the
return of this Polish developer of Painkiller and Bulletstorm,
among other games. Epic games bought a majority stake in the company
in 2007 and the remainder
about three years ago
following the departure of some key employees, including founder Adrian
Chmielarz (who went on to form The
Astronauts). This
post explains that they have returned to their roots after regaining their
independence from Epic: Epic Games and People Can Fly today have announced
the Warsaw-based team’s return to its original name, memorable logo and roots as
an independent game studio.
Ownership of the company, which had been rebranded as Epic Games Poland in 2013,
has returned to the local leadership to reflect the team’s desire to create
their own games, a move Epic supports.
Studio director Sebastian Wojciechowski continues to lead People Can Fly. The
studio is actively contributing to Unreal Engine 4 and Epic’s upcoming game,
Fortnite, and is also using the engine for an entirely new unannounced game.
Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said, “We’ve been honored to work with
this brilliant group of programmers, artists and designers throughout their
history: first as a partner using the Unreal Engine, then as a studio within
Epic, and now once again as an independent company.”
“We, as a People Can Fly team, are extremely excited about new possibilities
ahead of us,” said Wojciechowski. “We’re going to work on a new game, while
continuing to partner with Epic and use UE4. We’re grateful to Tim and the whole
Epic team for our long and successful collaboration.”
People Can Fly made its mark on the game industry with the hit Painkiller series
more than a decade ago. The team began working with Epic in the early Gears of
War days, and went on to ship Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment. People Can
Fly has also contributed to Epic’s more recent games, including Infinity Blade
III, Fortnite, Unreal Tournament and other unannounced projects.
Croatian developer Dreamatrix Game Studios announces the release of the Early
Access version of Wave of Darkness
on Steam, with this
preliminary version of the crowdfunded action/RPG carrying a 30% discount for
the time being. Here's a
gameplay trailer, though it is not particularly recent, and here's a
description of the game: Wave of Darkness offers more than 70 hours of
gameplay in a world of considerable size with deep, engaging gameplay and
hundreds of features. Players can follow the strict path of the plot, complete
main quests until the end or, unlike so many titles, in Wave of Darkness they
are truly completely free to wander around, to explore every corner of the
Danian’s land, meet various NPCs, complete side quests and puzzles, fight
dangerous adversaries etc.
Continue here to read the full story.
Publisher Iceberg Interactive and developer Little Green Men Games announce
Starpoint Gemini Warlords, calling this a spin-off of Starpoint Gemini 2,
rather than a sequel. They say this will incorporate suggestions from Starpoint
Gemini 2 Early Access, and say this title should enter early access by the end
of this year (to collect ideas for Starpoint Gemini Warlords 2?). There's
preliminary word on the Starpoint Gemini
website, and here's word on how this will be different from the first two
games: About Starpoint Gemini Warlords
The spin-off to Starpoint Gemini 2 introduces coveted strategic elements into
the tactical space simulation that is the Starpoint Gemini franchise. Conquer
territory, conduct research, scavenge for resources and defeat your enemies. In
Warlords, think BIGGER! Bigger universe, bigger ships, bigger stations. Expect
many tweaked features; the community has decided on what they want and now they
are getting it!
New Features:
- Headquarters. Construct and upgrade your own
personal space station; a massive structure that enables you to conduct
research, build ships, assemble autonomous fleets and much more.
- Conquer Territory. Gradually expand your reign
over unclaimed territory, by battling minor factions, or conquer the entire
Gemini sector, by facing off against familiar strong Gemini foes, familiar
from the previous Starpoint Gemini titles. Reinforce conquered regions to
defend themselves.
- Conduct Research on simple weapon enhancements,
obtain the expertise to construct a titan class behemoth, or boost the
effectiveness of your non-combat fleets. Equipment, ship systems,
enhancements and ships can still be bought, but he best ‘stuff’ can only be
researched, constructed and improved in your HQ.
- Construction and research demand the allocation of
resources. Gather them by conducting missions for other factions, trade or
purchase resources, or conquer regions providing a steady flow of resources,
and bonuses.
- A far larger game world will allow more
distinction between ship sizes, pockets of empty space to travel through and
your own giant space HQ where ships can be ‘parked’.
- Skill classes, attributed skills and perk
progression will be revamped and rebalanced, as will levelling-up, the
reputation system and diplomacy.
- Storyline vs Free-roam: The campaign storyline
will be blended in with the more generic conquer quests. Free-roam mode
strips all main storyline missions, but leaves side quests and generic
freelance missions intact.
- A full branching dialogue scheme, the industry
standard in modern RPGs.
- Technical additions include: x64 system only,
projection mapping, deferred shading, physically based rendering and
realistic physics.
Red Dwarf Games now offers a playable demo of Tales of Cosmos for Windows and
OS X on Steam, saying the
demo is a beta sample of the upcoming science fiction, point-and-click
adventure. The demo is only English, but they say the finished product will
support multiple languages. Here's a previously released
official trailer, and
here's word on the game: "Tales of Cosmos puts players in the roles of Perseus
the dog and Professor Gagayev the monkey, astronauts exploring space. The game
takes place in a massive planetary system with many planets and moons that
players can explore freely with their self-built spacecraft as well as on foot,
while solving adventure game puzzles." Continue here to read the full story.
GOG.com now offers presales of
Trine 3: The
Artifacts of Power, Frozenbyte's platformer sequel. The game was released
on Steam Early Access
back in April, and while GOG.com does not
call their offering Early Access or anything similar, but their offering does
include immediate access to the game prior to its official release. They are
also offering a pair of discounts, a 15% preorder bonus, as well as a 10%
loyalty discount for those who own both previous games on their service. They
celebrate the news with some " leaked
footage from the Frozenbyte office." Here's more: Trine 3: The
Artifacts of Power comes bundled with GOG Galaxy support, including
achievements. Players will be able to play in multiplayer mode both locally and
online, and around half of the full game (Three Chapters and three Lost Pages)
will be playable during the pre-order period in a yet-to-be-polished
state.
Continue here to read the full story.
2K Games announces that Michael Jordan will adorn the cover of the Special
Edition of NBA 2K16, a deluxe version of the next installment in their
professional basketball simulation (the current generation who knows His Airness
as the Haynes spokesperson may be surprised to know he also played some hoops
back in the day). They only mention the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as targets
for this $79.99 version of the game, so this may not be coming to the PC at all.
They note that those who preorder the SE will receive some extra perks, and will
get the game on September 25th, four days before everyone else. "I’m excited
about this year’s NBA 2K’s Special Edition," said Michael Jordan. "NBA 2K16
allows gamers young and old to not only experience and re-create some of my
greatest moments on the basketball court but also customize their players with
Jordan shoes and apparel."
EA tweets
the release of a new trailer for Star Wars Battlefront 3, showing off
multiplayer gameplay from the Windows edition of the upcoming Star Wars action
game. They butter up PC gamers with this caption: "The PC version of #StarWarsBattlefront
has it where it counts, kid. Check out Tatooine, captured on PC." Thanks
VG247. Continue here to read the full story.
A
Steam Community Group Announcement from Rocksteady Games addresses performance
in Batman: Arkham Knight, or more accurately the poor performance of the
PC edition of the just-released superhero sequel that has drawn fire from
unhappy customers (more than two-thirds of
the game's Steam reviews are negative). They remind those who purchased the
game through Steam how to get a refund as they say they are looking into how to
improve things on their end, and warn against trusting the recommendations of
NVIDIA's GeForce Experience or AMD's Gaming Evolved Optimization tools. In the
meantime offer another update to the game's system requirements to retroactively
acknowledge the issues and some setting recommendations to smooth things out.
The settings all note the 30 fps cap, and they warn against the
workaround that involves ini editing. Here's word: The Recommended Spec
is intended to deliver an experience on par with the current generation of
gaming platforms.
For an optimal experience, users with recommended spec hardware should not set
their resolution higher than 1080p.
By default, the game may set Shadow Quality and Level of Detail to High on
Recommended Spec hardware. Users should revert these to Normal.
With these settings on Rec Spec AMD GPUs, users can expect some minor texture
pops, occasional loading symbols during fast-paced scenarios, and some hitches &
stuttering when gliding or driving the Batmobile. To help alleviate this, AMD
users using Rec Spec GPU’s should turn Texture Resolution, Shadow Quality, and
Level of Detail to Low. We continue to work closely with AMD to resolve these
issues as soon as possible; make sure you have the most current drivers and
check back here for updates on when the next driver version is available.
Additional Recommendations
We do not recommend that users change anything in the game’s .ini files as this
will potentially negatively impact performance, including frame rate, and
stability.
At this time we do not recommend using NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience or AMD’s
Gaming Evolved Optimization tools.
We’re currently working on improving streaming performance from mechanical hard
drives (HDD). Addressing this is one of our top short-term priorities.
For users that have an SSD available, we’ve noted increased streaming
performance when the game is installed to that type of drive.
The Patch 2.3.0 PTR Preview
for Diablo III we posted last night outlines some significant changes
coming to Blizzard's action/RPG sequel. They outline plans for a new zone, a new
artifact, crafting updates, adventure mode updates, a new Season Journey
feature, new difficulty levels, new Legendary and Set items, and combat changes.
The most drastic change is probably the new artifact, Kanai's Cube, which is
apparently the Horadric Cube's daddy. Here's word on this upcoming change that
will appear soon on the test realm: For those who eagerly gather crafting
materials on their journey to level 70, we’ve got good news you’ll especially
enjoy. Starting in Patch 2.3.0, the same crafting mats you use at max level will
be available as you level up! We’ve also crunched down the number of crafting
recipes, making the process easier and more fluid than ever as your results now
dynamically adjust to your character’s level. Whether you’re bashing skulls on
the highest difficulty or have just started your career and killed your first
Champion or Elite pack, your crafting mats will never go to waste.
Centauri Sector is now available
on Steam for Windows,
offering a tactical combat game set in space, where nobody can hear you fart.
Here's the launch trailer,
and here's an outline of what the game involves: Centauri Sector is a
tactical, space combat game that combines several gameplay elements effectively
to create an addicting game. You assume the role of a fleet commander, starting
out with a basic corvette class ship, tasked with defending the Tabula Rasa
system from constant space pirate attacks. The main campaign plays in turns, as
players move their ship or fleet once per turn before engaging in the tactical
battles.
After each successful mission, players gain prestige (money/credits) and
experience, to level up and unlock skills like speed boosts, shield upgrades and
more. The level ups also allow fleet slots to add ships to a squad. Not only can
different ship types be added, but each ship has different weapon and module
slots depending on the class. Players can also purchase and add modules that
increase shield capacity, buffer a weapon’s overheating rate, and speed up
engines.
Continue here to read the full story.
2K games announces the release of Lennox, a new hunter for Evolve,
Turtle Rock's four-versus-one shooter This is available individually, or as part
of their new Hunting Season 2, and is free for those who purchased the Evolve PC
Monster Race Edition. They also take the opportunity to announce a price cut for
all the game's DLC. Here's word: Lennox is the first Hunter
in Evolve to feature a melee attack. Her ‘Thunderchild’ mechanized suit is
equipped with a Plasma Lance that deals massive amounts of damage in close
combat, while her Autocannon and Thunder Strike attack allow Lennox to fight
when outside of melee range.
Evolve Hunting Season 2 is currently available for purchase for
$24.99 (MSRP) for Xbox One, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, and
Windows PC. Those who purchase the new Monster and Hunters as part of
Hunting Season 2 will also receive an additional exclusive skin with the
launch of each of the five new included playable characters.
“The new Monster and Hunters coming to Evolve in Hunting Season 2
are some of the most unique characters our team has created,” said Chris Ashton,
co-founder and design director at Turtle Rock Studios. “Each of these characters
introduces combat mechanics that are brand new to the Evolve
gameplay experience.”
Beginning today, the price of all downloadable content characters in Evolve has
been reduced:
- All Monster characters are now $9.99 (MSRP) each
and all Hunter characters are now $4.99 (MSRP) each;
- The previously released Hunting Season 1
can now be purchased for $14.99 (MSRP). Evolve Hunting Season 1,
which features four Hunters (Torvald, Crow, Slim and Sunny) and three
Monster character skins (Magma Goliath, Magma Kraken and Magma Wraith), now
includes four new exclusive ‘Arctic’ skins, one for each of the included
Hunters;
- Everyone who previously purchased Hunting
Season 1, Evolve Digital Deluxe Edition or
Evolve PC Monster Race Edition, will also receive these four new
‘Arctic’ skins;
- All purchasers of the Evolve PC Monster Race
Edition will receive all content featured in Hunting Season 2.
Apparently I am fortunate to have power this morning, as the severe
thunderstorms yesterday that are becoming commonplace in this area knocked out
electricity in some local areas, as high wind and lightning strikes are not
completely compatible with overhead power lines. I don't know how many people
were impacted by this, or how long repairs will take, but it does serve as a
warning that one of these days I may end up with problems updating if one of
these blackouts strikes the BlueTower.
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