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Archived News:
The Heroes of the Storm PTR is now running, testing upcoming changes for
Blizzard's MOBA including the new Lt. Morales support character. The
patch notes for this were published the other day, outlining lots of balance
changes along with new features. According to the notes, the new version will be
in testing until October 5th.
Microsoft announces Project Spark is going completely free, saying
all DLC for the game is now unlocked for everyone, and they will immediately
"pivot" from creating more DLC to encouraging more user-created content. Here's
word on the change, and how some can get refunds for previous purchases:
On October 5, Project Spark will be rolling out its biggest update and
platform change. This update overhauls many Project Spark systems and areas. The
biggest change is a shift from a free-to-play model to a free and open creation
platform. What does that mean? This will automatically unlock previously paid
downloadable content for new and existing Project Spark users. Microsoft will
pivot from producing DLC and active feature development to encouraging more user
generated content and opening the Project Spark experience.
Project Spark’s goal has always been to empower creativity. We’ve been an
incubation engine for ideas from epic to artistic and we plan to continue doing
so. Project Spark inspires and empowers over 200,000 creators who have shared
tens of millions of custom objects, behaviors and experiences. Every day we see
anywhere between 300 and 400 new games being uploaded on our platform. Our
support of these creators and our communications with them will continue in an
open, free and collaborative environment.
In light of these changes to a fully free model, all players who have purchased
Project Spark digital content on or after July 28, 2015, purchased a retail disc
and activated it by product key redemption on or after July 28, 2015 or have a
remainder balance of purchased in-game tokens will be entitled to Microsoft
Store credit equivalent to their money spent. Microsoft Store credits will be
awarded automatically to all users within 30-60 days after October 5. If you
have additional concerns, we have a full FAQ on our refund process.
Additionally, today’s released content packs are our last planned DLC. With a
total of 46 released packs and 2,000+ assets, we feel like we’ve gotten to a
good place with our content offers for creators. This also means that we will no
longer create episodic adventures, including future Conker’s Big Reunion
episodic content. We’ll leave it up to you to continue his story in whatever
ways you want, and we can’t wait to see what you create!
AMD now offers a new version 15.9 beta Catalyst driver for Windows. This
addresses a number of issues and also provides performance and quality
optimizations for the Star Wars: Battlefront Beta and the latest DirectX 12
optimizations for the Fable Legends: Benchmark. Thanks
DSOGaming.
The
UbiBlog offers an Assassin's Creed Syndicate Crafting and
Customization FAQ with all you need to know about the topics in the upcoming
crafty, stealthy sequel. Here's the intro: Crafting and customization are
back in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, but how does it all work this time around?
What can you craft? What sorts of upgrades will you be able to invest in? How do
the skill trees break down? We’ve compiled a quick FAQ to help you get started
on your journey in London. This is the first part in our FAQ series to address a
wide range of topics, so if you have any questions, please leave them in the
comments below and we will do our best to address them in a future FAQ.
Steam News announces the
release of Franchise
Hockey Manager 2, the latest installment in this sports simulation
series. Check out the news: Franchise
Hockey Manager 2 is Now Available on Steam and is 25% off!*
Franchise Hockey Manager 2, from the makers of the award-winning Out of the Park
Baseball, is a sports management game that puts you in charge of your favourite
hockey team. If you've ever looked at the decisions your team has made and
thought "I could do better," this is the game for you!
*Offer ends October 5 at 10AM Pacific Time
WarBirds 2016 is now available as promised
on Steam, offering the
latest installment in this venerable online World War II combat flight
simulation. Here's the recent
release trailer, and
here's word: Celebrating its 20th anniversary, WarBirds 2016 is loaded
with a wide range of improvements and brand new content -- including new
geographical terrains, airplanes, online modes, and flight models by veteran
fighter pilots and engineers. All WarBirds 2015 owners will automatically be
upgraded to WarBirds 2016.
WarBirds is the longest running online combat flight simulation in the world.
Hundreds of thousands of WarBirds veterans have flown, won, died, and celebrated
the Greatest Generation’s fighter and bomber pilots of World War II. WarBirds
takes dedicated learning and lots of practice to survive and win.
Continue here to read the full story.
This video (NSFW) from
Frictional Games kicks off a series inspired by SOMA, their recently released
survival/horror game. This "transmission #1" is a live-action
prequel film, and they say
more will follow daily, though we don't know for how many days. This debut
installment is quite impressive. Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces a
free week is underway for
Sanctum 2, as they
also offer an 85%-off sale on the
Sanctum 2 Complete Pack.
The original
Sanctum is also playable for free all week, and is also on sale. Here's
word: Play Sanctum 2
for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup
Sanctum 2 Complete Pack
at 85% off the regular price!*
If you already have Steam installed, click here
to install or play Sanctum 2. If you don't have Steam, you can download it
here.
The original Sanctum is also running a Free Week, with discounts on the game and
DLC. Pick up the Sanctum Collection for 85% off all week!
*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time
Pete Hines
tweets a reassurance that Bethesda Softworks does not have any deals to hold
back Fallout 4 DLC on any platforms. He says: "@XxThe5sGuyxX we aren't doing a
DLC exclusive with anyone." Thanks
VG247.
A
Facebook post from SCS Games announces that an open beta is now underway for
a new version 1.21 patch for Euro Truck Simulator 2, which paves the way for new
Cabin Accessories DLC to help you decorate your environment (thanks
PC Gamer).
This trailer offers a
look at all the chatch this provides, and this
prior
blog post has details: We are about to launch open beta of another
Euro Truck Simulator 2 game update - version 1.21. This is mostly maintenance
release, with hundreds upon hundreds of touch ups of the map, improvements in
road and terrain collision detection, AI code optimizations and improvements,
some tweaks to physics, UI, sounds, and more.
This update also paves the way for a new DLC - Cabin Accessories. It's a
collection of practical as well as totally impractical things with which you can
decorate the interior of your truck cabin. Showing you the video below is better
than trying to describe it in words; all the accessories are physics-enabled...
Continue here to read the full story.
GfK Chart-Track is out with their sales charts for the U.K. for the week
ending September 26th. The Sims 4 remains number one on the
top 30 PC chart. There's a new top entry on the
all platforms chart where FIFA 16 kicks Destiny: The Taken King out of the
number one spot, and Skylanders: Superchargers debuts at number four. Here's
their summary of the
big picture: Thursday is the new Friday for EA and so ‘FIFA 16’ launched
on 24th Sep, shooting straight to No1.
In terms of unit sell-through this is down around 7% over last year’s ‘FIFA 15’
week 1, though revenue is only down 4% thanks to the concentration of sales
towards Gen 8 versions and Deluxe/Ultimate Team SKU’s. It’s a measure of how
fast things change when you consider that last year Xbox 360/PS3 versions of
‘FIFA 15’ accounted for 45% of week 1 units – compared to just 19% this year.
Last week’s Top 1-2-3 of new releases all make way, with the previous No1
‘Destiny: The Taken King’ from Activision Blizzard (-70%) dropping to No2,
Microsoft’s ‘Forza Motorsport 6’ (-46%) dropping one place to No3 and Konami’s
‘Pro Evolution Soccer 2016’ (-55%) down 3 places to No6.
This week sees the launch of the 2nd toys-to-life refresh (after Disney Infinity
3 back in wk35) and it is Activision Blizzard’s ‘Skylanders Superchargers’
racing in at No4 which is 3 positions higher than last year’s ‘Trap Team’ week
1. ‘Skylanders Superchargers’ is the 5th in the Skylanders series and the
starter packs launch with a range of characters/vehicles. In total this
generates just over £1m this week through the Chart-Track panel of retailers.
The final new release within the Top 40 is Focus/Koch’s Warhammer+American
Football ‘Blood Bowl II’ for PS4/Xbox One debuting at No15.
- AOC G2460PQU/BR on
OCinside.
- ASUS STRIX Radeon R9 Fury DC3 CrossFire at 4K on
HARDOCP.
- Cooler Master G750M Semi-Modular Power Supply on
eTeknix.
- CoolerMaster V750W Fully Modulated 80+ Gold PSU on
Bjorn3D.
- Corsair STRAFE Mechanical Keyboard on
pcGameware.
- Intel Core i7-6700K -Skylake- LGA 1151 Processor on
Futurelooks.
- Jabra Sport Coach Bluetooth Fitness Earphones on
Technogog.
- Ozone Blast 4HX on
OCaholic.
- Philips BDM4065UC 40" 4K Monitor on
eTeknix.
- Synology DS715 DiskStation 2-Bay Business NAS on
TechGage.
- Tt eSPORTS Shock 3D 7.1 Gaming Headset on
NikKTech.
- Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 on
AnandTech.
- ZTE Grand X 2 Android Smartphone on
MEGATechNews.
I woke up to a computer problem today. My PC had not put itself to sleep, and a
fan was running at full speed. It's hard to see the connection, but I also had
repeated crashes trying to launch FrontPage 2003, my antiquated HTML editor. I
reinstalled the editor, but continue to have problems, though I eventually found
a way to work around them. Certainly an aggravating start to the week, but at
least I have it under control for the time being.
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