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Archived News:
Croteam
announces writers for Serious Sam 4, a sign of progress on the
first-person shooter sequel they first mentioned
a couple of years ago (thanks
Seriously!).
Here's word: We are proud to announce that Jonas and Verena Kyratzes will
be writing screenplay for Serious Sam 4! As you know, we already worked with
Jonas on our critically acclaimed title The Talos Principle, and now we decided
to extend the scope of our relationship to our beloved Serious Sam franchise.
But Jonas brought in his secret weapon in form of Verena Kyratzes, and they both
started shaping the story into something really awesome (not to say
“blockbuster-y”).
“I was a fan of Serious Sam before I got to work with Croteam, so I must admit I
was sort of hoping I might be involved with the next one if The Talos Principle
went well. But more than that, we immediately clicked with the team, were
treated like family, and really wanted to keep working with them. Going to
Croatia and working in the office just confirmed that.” – Jonas Kyratzes
“I didn’t really expect to be doing this. At first I was just suggesting some
ideas, some bits of dialogue, but eventually I ended up writing an entire draft
of the script and working full-time with the team in Croatia. It was a very
pleasant surprise, because ever since Talos, we’ve been good friends with the
people at Croteam.” – Verena Kyratzes
“Storyline is being shaped out at the moment, and we can only say – it will be
worth the wait!” – Damjan Mravunac, CMO
Deep Silver and Comcept announce February 9, 2016 is the official release date
for Mighty No. 9 in North America, and it will come to the rest of the
world three days after that. This follows up on
the news a few months ago that the Mega
Man-inspired game was delayed until next year. Here's a refresher on the game:
Created by Keiji Inafune and an all-star team of veteran devs, Mighty No.
9 is a challenging side-scrolling action game that transforms the feel of 8 and
16-bit classics, as players remember them, into a fresh modern-day classic.
In the year 20XX, breakthroughs in robotic technology have ushered in a new era
of peace & prosperity. Violence is confined to the Battle Coliseum, where robot
combatants face off in spectacular duels. Dr. White created 9 robot siblings
known as the "Mighty Numbers", who were the most popular and powerful team of
robots in the Battle Coliseum and always in the top ranks. But, during one
competition there was a cyber-attack, infecting them with a computer virus
causing them to become crazed and rampant. You play as Beck, the 9th in a line
of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by the mysterious computer
virus that caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk.
Run, jump, blast and transform your way through 9 initial stages (plus 3 later
stages) which you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and
abilities stolen from your enemies, in order to take down your fellow Mighty
Number robots and to confront the final evil that threatens the planet!
Polygon has a statement from Cloud Imperium Games following up on
the report that they were laying off
Star Citizen developers and facing financial trouble. They say that they are
simply reorganizing things, and while some positions are being eliminated, they
will end up adding developers to the crowd-funded space game before long. "Cloud
Imperium Games continues to grow its development team across CIG's multiple
studios," the company's statement reads. "Each of our four offices is being
streamlined to focus on specific parts of Star Citizen which will allow for a
more efficient and accelerated completion of the game." Here's more: As
we announced in June with the appointment of Erin Roberts as Global Production
Head we have been reviewing how to optimize our development process," the
statement continues. "As a result we are moving some jobs and eliminating some
redundant positions between some of our offices, as well as increasing them in
others. The net result over the next few months will actually be an increase in
our global internal employee base.
Creative Assembly announces that Total War: ARENA is now in closed beta testing,
and signups are being accepted from those interested in participating. The
Total War: ARENA Dev Blog has the patch notes for the accompanying new "Fury
of the Animus" update, and
this
trailer offers a look. Here's a bit on the latest changes to the
free-to-play multiplayer strategy game: "The new map, Rubicon, is the first
river crossing map in Total War: ARENA, offering quick access to enemy camps at
the threat of being caught out in the open. Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon
River marked a pivotal point in ancient history, and this new map with its open
terrain and treacherous crossing marks new tactical opportunities for all
factions - Roman, Greek and Barbarian alike." Continue here to read the full story.
Early Access to Gunnheim is now available
on Steam, offering the
chance to experience a top down shooter that uses this equation: "vikings + guns
= mayhem." Here's more: In Gunnheim, you’re bringing the term berserker
to a whole new level, saving the day by dishing out carnage of hellish
proportions. Armed to the teeth with all manner of modern weaponry, fight your
way through hordes of hellspawn with your brothers and sisters at your side,
survive epic boss fights against the biggest and baddest of the devil’s
children, and watch with maniacal glee as your enemies are turned to bloody
piles of pulp, fangs and horns. Put your goggles on, it’s about to get really,
really messy.
This trailer helps
introduce Lost in Harmony, a music game expected next year for Windows
and mobiles involving a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Wyclef
Jean. Suiting the artistic theme, the description sounds a little abstract:
"Lost in Harmony™ is a revolution in musical gaming, it is telling a moving
story only by music. The player will embody Kaito, a young boy who travels the
world on his tiny skateboard holding a girl called Aya. This heart breaking
story is brought by a highly emotional soundtrack, mixed of different genres
from all cultures. The innovative combination of rhythmic and choreographic
gameplay makes you feel the music in a totally new way."
Battle.net now offers patch notes for a new version of Heroes of the Storm
that's coming soon to the Play Test Realm for Blizzard's MOBA. This will offer the chance to play as Lt. Morales, the new StarCraft medic and check out various
other changes to the game. The notes describes Lt. Morales' kit, new graphics
settings, art changes, shop additions, and a number of design and gameplay
changes intended to balance various heroes and maps. There is also a new "try"
mode to allow more effective hero sampling and a bunch of bug fixes. There's no
word at this time on when this will go live in the PTR or the game. Update:
Blizzard now says the patch will launch on the PTR on Monday. Continue here to read the full story.
The open beta of Romero's Aftermath is now available
on Steam, offering the
latest in a seemingly endless stream of early access free-to-play zombie games.
The hook here is this was developed in collaboration with George C. Romero, son
of horror director George A. Romero, though his
film resume is not as
lengthy as his dad's. Speaking of resumes, this is the new game from the folks
who developed The War Z, which was later renamed Infestation: Survival Stories.
Here's word on the new game: Set in an expansive open world filled with
lush forests, deserts and fully explorable towns, Romero’s Aftermath has players
battle zombies, compete against other survivalists, and use their survival
skills such as trapping and cooking animals to stay alive. In Romero’s
Aftermath, gameplay is strictly “Free to Win,” which means what happens to a
player depends solely on their skills. Romero’s Aftermath costs nothing to
download and play, and the only purchasable items are cosmetic skins,
customizations and boosts that allow players to acquire certain in-game items
more quickly (if they don’t have the time to put into exploring). However, every
item can be acquired during play by exploring, looting, trading or defeating
other survivalists.
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First Wonder by Rogue Rocket Games — Kickstarter. "Soar across the skies
as the Cargonauts and storm across the islands as the giant, Monstro in this
sci-fi 3rd person action-adventure!" Rogue Rocket co-founders Nick Bruty and
Richard Sun "previously worked on MDK, Giants: Citizen Kabuto,
Earthworm Jim, and Star Wars: Republic Commando."
Larian Studios announces that former Obsidian designer Chris Avellone is now
a "contributor" to Divinity: Original Sin II. They note
on Kickstarter he is now part of the writing team for the RPG sequel, offering
this video to
celebrate the news, and saying: "He’s a legend among RPG fans, with some of the
most impressive credentials in the world of games writing… and now he’s agreed
to help us bring the characters of D:OS2 to life!" Continue here to read the full story.
A new
developer diary on the Paradox Interactive Forums has details on a new
expansion coming to Europa Universalis IV, the grand strategy sequel. This has not been officially announced, and they have not yet given this
a title, but the diary offers images and lots of details. They kick off things by describing the opportunity to play Khan to hordes of Steppe
Nomads and say they are ready to share more soon, planning another diary
next week to discuss the Estates feature. There are also details on changes
coming in an upcoming version 1.14 patch, but neither the patch nor the
expansion carry release dates at this time. Thanks
Malaysian Gamer via Theshigen.
Nobody can deny living through medieval must have been grand, so Kalypso
Media announces the release of Grand Ages: Medieval, a historical
strategy game celebrating this grandeur. There is a boxed version of the Windows
edition for sale in Europe, and the digitally distributed version
on Steam includes the
SteamOS edition as well. Here's the
launch trailer, and
here's word: About Grand Ages: Medieval
It is the year 1050 AD. At the beginning of the High Middle Ages development in
Europe has seen an unprecedented level of progress as a rapidly growing
population spreads across the length and breadth of the continent. New frontiers
are being explored, settlements founded and vast trading routes established. As
the head of one of these small settlements, it falls upon you to lead your
people towards greatness. Explore a vast world, gather resources, encounter
other societies and use your trading expertise to expand and make your fortune.
Found new cities, progress your nation with inventive technology and protect
your trade routes against barbarian attacks until you are powerful enough to
begin your conquest over Europe and forge a bold new empire.
Grand Ages: Medieval is a real-time, Grand Strategy game from Gaming Minds, a
Kalypso Media studio. Lead your people and advance through the decades by
utilising construction, research, expansion and conquest in an area extending
from Scandinavia and North Africa; to Portugal, the Caucasus and the Middle
East. Rise from the humble role of a simple mayor governing a small settlement
to rule over all of Europe. Experience an exciting campaign with elaborately
designed cut-scenes, play by your own rules in free play or test your skills in
multiplayer against up to 8 players!
Continue here to read the full story.
A TwitLonger post from Derek
Smart (who cannot be confined to 140 characters) says he has heard reports
of departures from Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games which may in part be caused by his
publication of an internal email from the company. The developer turned crusader
says a couple of employees quit and a couple were fired as the result of the
leak, and while the details of his post are not officially confirmed,
a tweet from
James Pugh does confirm this Community Manager's departure from the company under "odd" circumstances
(Derek's report says he was fired for suspicion of having leaked the mail).
According to Derek's sources, the bad news is just beginning for the CIG, as he
says a round of downsizing is in the works to reduce the company's burn rate,
and that this is the reason for the recent launch of
sales of Endeavor ships for $350-$450.
Here's a
teaser trailer for Last Crown: Blackenrock, the first in a trio of
planned sequels for The Lost Crown, the ghost-hunting adventure game. "Darkling
Room have been working on the trio of sequels simultaneously," explains Iceberg
Interactive CEO Erik Schreuder. "The first instalment Blackenrock is promising
to be one of the biggest adventure games ever created, having made huge strides
over the course of 2015, we look forward to gamers encountering the ghostly
hauntings over the coming months."
I heard a rumor that the Pope is visiting New York. That must be in error,
because if he was, surely someone would have made a big deal about it, don't you
think?
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