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Archived News:
Blizzard announces
that all new players who log in to Heroes of the Storm over the next week will
receive a free Stimpack to double the XP and gold they get during their
introduction to the game. They offer a couple of stipulations, indicating this
is a valid way for players to get a leg up on competing in a new region:
- Players will only receive this Stimpack if they
have never logged in to Heroes of the Storm, and they must log in at least
once during the hours mentioned above.
- Players can log in to another region and receive a
free Stimpack if they have never played in that region before.
With Windows 10 due tomorrow,
Mojang announces how to get a free beta copy of the Minecraft Windows 10
Edition if you are one of the millions who own the Java Windows/OS X version
of the game. Yes, they once again take the opportunity to call the new OS
"swanky." Here's word: Update: This is still rolling out, so
don’t panic if you can’t see the button on your account page yet! Check back
later!
Hello!
Windows 10 – Microsoft’s shiny new operating system – launches tomorrow. As
announced at MINECON 2015 a few weeks ago it features a brand-new Edition of
Minecraft. We’re calling it Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta.
If you’re one of the 20 million(ish) players who already own Minecraft for
PC/Mac, you get the new version for free. Completely free!
To download your copy, first log into your Mojang account (My password is
significantly more complex than those dots so don’t bother trying, criminal
person).
Next, click the “Redeem” button on your account page, sign into your Microsoft
account, and follow the instructions that follow. That’s it! You’ll be playing
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta in a jiffy.
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta will be available to download in the Windows
10 Store.
Have fun with Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, kind crafters! And enjoy
fiddling about with your swanky new operating system!
The Diablo III website
previews Kanai's Cube, one of the new features in the upcoming version 2.3.0
patch for the action/RPG sequel which they say is "set to change the foundation
of Diablo III as we know it." They also note that this item is a tribute
to Kevin Kanai Griffith, a Blizzard artist and Diablo fan who died of cancer
last year. The item has several functions, including the ability to reforge
legendary items and to provide a use for legendary items you can't trash because
they have intriguing powers but can't actually use, as they explain here:
One of the first, most frequent powers you’ll utilize is the ability to
extract a Legendary power from an item. This will add the power to your
collection list, a comprehensive history detailing the vast amount of powers
you’ve amassed. This also allows your hero to equip a Legendary power without
having the item equipped, clearing up your stash of all those items you’ve been
keeping “just in case.” You’ll be able to equip one power each from three
categories:
- Weapons
- Includes all main hand and off-hand items,
including Shields, Mojos, Quivers, and the like
- Armor
- Virtually everything else; Hands, Legs, Feet,
Chest, Belt, Wrists, Shoulders, and Head
- Jewelry
Characters may only equip powers from items that their class can normally
equip. Powers are also extracted at their most potent value, making it a tough
decision between equipping a well-rolled item or melting it down to utilize a
maximized power. Powers can be extracted from any level Legendary. Finally,
don’t worry if you get tired of a particular ability—you’ll be able to swap
freely between the powers you’ve collected at any time by visiting Kanai’s Cube.
Activision's Sierra division announces the North American release of King's
Quest: A Knight to Remember, the first chapter in their reimagining of the
beloved King's Quest series, saying the second of the five chapters in the
series is expected later this year. The Windows version is
on Steam as a complete
season or individually with a season pass option (protip: the latter is a penny
less expensive), and the console editions are on the PlayStation Store and Xbox
Games Store. "Today is a new beginning, both for those of us who grew up with
the King’s Quest games that Roberta Williams and Sierra Entertainment created,
as well as for those who are visiting Daventry for the very first time," said
Matt Korba of developer The Odd Gentlemen. "We hope we’ve made something that
feels special for everyone as we turn together to a new page in Graham’s
legend." Here's the launch
trailer and here's more: Developed by The Odd Gentlemen, an
independent studio with a talent for crafting fantastical tales, characters and
worlds, the new King’s Quest rekindles the classic charm and
curiosity that has captivated fans of this family-friendly series for over 30
years. As an aging King Graham looks back on a life of heroic adventure with his
precocious granddaughter, Gwendolyn, players will be able to experience
firsthand the unforgettable puzzles, places and personalities of his greatest
untold stories. The first passage in a five-chapter journey, King’s Quest:
A Knight to Remember unfolds on Graham’s early days as a bright-eyed teen in
Daventry, competing in a contest of wits and valor for a knighthood in King
Edward’s royal court.
Continue here to read the full story.
The Swindle is now available for Windows and OS X
on Steam, carrying a 15%
launch discount on the latest game from Dan Marshall's Size Five Games. The game
is also available on PS3, PS4, and PS Vita, with an Xbox One version coming on
July 31st, and a Wii U version to follow down the road. There's
an article about the game on Gamasutra based on a conversation with Marshall
discussing how limiting the game to 100 in-game "days" added a dimension of
excitement to gameplay. Here's a
launch trailer, and
here's a description of the game: The Swindle is a steampunk cybercrime
caper about breaking into buildings, hacking their systems, stealing all their
cash, and quickly running away again before the police show up.
All the buildings you’ll be robbing are randomly-generated, so you’ll never get
the same level twice.
Meanwhile, from the safety of your rickety airship up in Outer Space, you can
modify your thief with new skills, tools, and all manner of advanced
technological horrors, allowing you to take on bigger buildings with better
security, for gargantuan rewards!
Have you got what it takes to pull off The Swindle?
Continue here to read the full story.
Kyn is now available on GOG.com
and Steam, offering a
Viking-themed action/RPG from two-person developer Tangrin Entertainment. The
funnier announcement comes from GOG: Kyn an unforgiving Viking
action-RPG, is available now for Windows, DRM-free on GOG.com!
1. Be a viking. 2. Be buried alive. 3. ??? 4. Profit. That's the short version
of an ancient Viking ritual designed to grant might and magical powers to the
bravest Nordic warriors. Meet the Kyn, six rowdy vikings on a quest to fight off
every single monster-like thing that infests their icy world. The thing about
Kyn is that it's tough, real tough. It's a tactical RPG that's all about combat
like you know it from Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, no frills attached. Enemies
are quick and brutal, and though you have your magic - health is always in short
supply, one wrong turn and you're down for the count. Active-pause? Please.
While you can slow down the game briefly to catch your bearings, in this world,
even time is a limited resource.
- Dungeon Defenders II on
Steam. Save 40%.
- Galacide on
Steam. Save 15%.
- Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) on
Steam. Save 66%.
- Never Alone: Foxtales DLC on
Steam. Save 10%.
New.
- Watch_Dogs on
Steam. Save 60%.
- Zotrix on Steam. Save 25%. New.
Fallout 4 is "basically done," Bethesda's Pete Hines
tells GameSpot, saying the game is in the bug fixing and polishing phase to
prepare for its release on November 10th. They offer an excerpt from an
interview with Hines where he explained that the time to suggest new features
for the RPG sequel has passed. "Let's be honest, [right now] it doesn't matter
what anybody wants for a feature in Fallout 4," Hines told them. "The game is
basically done. It was by and large done before we announced it, in terms of the
features going in. You're not adding new features in May, June, July in the year
you're releasing; you're trying to get everything fixed." Also, thanks Batman
for pointing out the hardcover strategy guide
(URL pre-stuffed with our affiliate code) is now available for preorder,
offering exclusive bonuses.
Square Enix announces the PC edition of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will be
released on Steam on
August 18th, and they are offering a preorder bonus of a couple of wards in Dota
2, and "an exclusive FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD loading screen," so they are not
holding back on the meh in trying to get an advance commitment. They outline
what makes this different from the console editions: "FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD
for Steam® will bring a selection of updated features including an improved
in-game battle camera, full Steam achievements and trading cards, scalable
motion blur settings and a customizable dynamic screen shot mode. The PC release
will also offer full controller support, and for high end PCs - upgraded
graphics resolution options. Other additions include increased blood levels and
new character speed boosts." They also offer system specifications: Minimum
System Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7, 8, 8.1 64bit
Processor: CPU Core i3 2.5GHz
Memory: RAM 4GB
Disk Space: HDD/SSD 30GB
Video: GTX560Ti or AMD Radeon 7790 mp4 [H.264]
Sound: DirectX XAudio2API
DirectX®: 11 and over
Recommended System Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7, 8, 8.1 64bit
Processor: CPU Core i5 2.7GHz
Memory: RAM 6GB
Disk Space: HDD/SSD 30GB
Video: GTX750 mp4 [H.264]
Sound: DirectX XAudio2API
DirectX®: 11 and over
2K Games officially confirms plans for Mafia 3, following
hints early this year and the discovery of
last month's discovery of domain
registrations for the crime sequel (thanks
PC Gamer).
They tweet
about plans to unveil this at Gamescom next week with a new video: "See the
worldwide reveal of the #Mafia3 announcement trailer on 8/5/15 here:
http://YouTube.com/MafiaGame."
A new Steam page reveals
plans for OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood, a sequel to the skateboarding
action of OlliOlli, saying this is coming later this summer, and according to
VG247
a PR representative narrowed the release date for this to August 11th. They offer
this trailer along
with the following description of what to expect: Drop in to Olliwood and
prepare for finger-flippin’ mayhem in this follow up to cult skateboarding smash
OlliOlli. The iconic skater is going all green-screen with a stunning new look,
plucking you from the street and dropping you squarely in the middle of the big
screen’s most bodacious cinematic locations.
Revamped Paths and Combos: The sequel boasts all new ramps and epic hills
allowing for monster air and multi-route levels. Further, OlliOlli2’s combo
system has been expanded with the joy of manuals, reverts, revert manuals and
grind switching giving you more control and expression than ever before.
Expanded Bag of Tricks: The hallowed ‘Tricktionary’ also expands with new
specials including 540 Shove-its, Anti-Casper Flips and Darkslides.
New Worlds and Levels: Five new worlds, 50 new Amateur and Pro Levels and 250
new Challenges to tear through, along with the return of the much loved Daily
Grind, Spots Mode and RAD Mode.
Multiplayer Mode: OlliOlli2 introduces a gnarly new multiplayer mode – Combo
Rush, a split-screen four-player party mode with four unique game modes.
Legendary Soundtrack: Once again, the crate diggers at Roll7 have scoured the
airwaves for a shimmering extended soundtrack, including, Cid Rim, Lone, Faulty
DL, Submerse and Mike Slott.
Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces the
release of episode 4 of
Life Is Strange, the five-part adventure series. Word is: "Life Is
Strange Episode 4 is now available on Steam! Life Is Strange is a beautifully
written episodic game that sets out to revolutionize story based choice and
consequence games. Changing the past can sometimes lead to a devastating
future."
A couple of new sports game are now available on Steam, where they have a
demo for Rugby Challenge 3 FanHub which allows you to create custom players and teams for the sports
sim, but not actually play them. There's also a
Baseball Mogul 2015 Demo,
well over a year after the game's release, which does allow you to play the
baseball game, though only for one season. It was a busy day for demos on Steam
yesterday, as they also posted demos for
Coffin Dodgers,
Dark Storm, and
Stick 'Em Up 2: Paper
Adventures. Thanks Frans.
WBIE announces
plans to sunset some servers for The Lord of the Rings Online, their
Tolkien-inspired MMORPG. They offer a timeline for the closures, which begin on
August 3rd and will conclude at the beginning of the new year. They also provide
details on how transfers to the remaining servers will work, saying: "We appreciate your patience as we
have worked to make the new transfer process as well-rounded, simple, and
effortless as possible." Here's a bit: All characters on all worlds will
receive a gift box as a thank you from us as a remembrance of the worlds we will
be closing that hold so many fond memories for all of us. The Free Peoples' gift
box will contain a Title Picker Box “Of <World> with choice of any of the 29
worlds, hooded and hoodless variants of a cloak, and a housing banner
decoration. Monster Characters will receive the monster version of the Title Box
“Bane of <World>” with choice of any of the 29 worlds.
The new Transfer Service will become available with this patch. You will be able
to access it through the launcher at the World Selection screen after logging
into your account. There will be a button that says “Transfer” underneath the
“Play” button. Beginning August 3rd the service will be available for copying
characters to the Bullroarer Test World and for free moves between the ten
worlds (5 US and 5 EU) that will be remaining available after the end of this
year. This is just the beginning of the process.
We will be monitoring the transfers between those worlds for a couple weeks and
if all is going well, we will move on to the next step of the process which will
be to turn off Auction Houses on the first two of the sunsetting worlds and
allow characters, kinships and shared items on those worlds to move to the ten
remaining worlds.
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury X 4K Video Card on
HARDOCP.
- Antec P70 Performance Series Mid-Tower Chassis on
TweakTown.
- ASRock N3150 Braswell Motherboard Round-up on
eTeknix.
- be quiet! Shadow Rock LP on
Technic3D.
- BitFenix Prodigy M Colour Series Micro-ATX Chassis on
eTeknix.
- Enermax Thormax Giant E-ATX Full-Tower Chassis on
eTeknix.
- HP Omen Pro 15.6'' on
ocaholic.
- MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G on
PC Perspective.
- PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 4GB GDDR5 on
Bjorn3D.
- Raijintek Triton on
Overclocked Inside.
- Silicon Power Armor A65 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Disk on
eTeknix.
- Tesoro Kuven Pro Real 5.1 Gaming Headset on
TweakTown.
- Thermaltake Core V21 Mini-ITX-Mini-ATX PC Case on
Nikk Tech.
- Thermaltake Poseidon Z Plus Smart Keyboard on
Benchmark Reviews.
- Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Graphics Card on
ThinkComputers.org.
We're into another couple of days of especially hot weather in these parts,
which reminds me it's time to give the Gunnar-man another shearing. This is okay
timing, but not actually ideal, as it would be a lot smarter for me to do this
when it's a little cooler, because it's a pretty hot process to start with, and
that's not even counting how uncomfortably hot the clipper gets after operating
for a while. I need to plan this better next time.
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