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Archived News:
The Shadwen website is now has a timer
counting down the seconds to, well, something. Shadwen is a stealthy
action/adventure announced in December by
Frozenbyte for release at some point this year. There's no indication what they
are counting down toward, but we should know soon enough, as it looks like it
will hit zero around 11:00 am EST tomorrow. Thanks Rhialto.
The Telltale Blog announces
the release of The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 1 - In Too Deep. Here's
the launch trailer
to kick off the new episodic zombie series, and here's part of the announcement
covering the game, and why you can still enjoy this if you didn't play its
predecessor: Having recently left her previous group, Michonne joins Pete
and his crew on their sailing ship The Companion, aiding in their search for
fellow survivors and supplies. Responding to a distress call, they stumble upon
a the scene of a horrifying massacre. The search for the culprit leads the group
to a floating colony called Monroe, which may be harboring the person
responsible for the carnage. Michonne must wrestle with dangerous factions as
well as her inner demons in her fight for survival.
It’s going to be an intense look into the fractured psyche of one of The Walking
Dead's most iconic characters. Be sure to check it out!
NOTE: We’ve been getting a lot of questions about this exciting new series, so
here are a few points to clarify. The Walking Dead: Michonne Miniseries is a
completely separate, stand-alone experience, and requires zero knowledge of The
Walking Dead games or comics (we totally recommend checking the comics though -
they're FANTASTIC). No previous save files are needed, and the story stands
apart from Clem and Lee’s.
Continue here to read the full story.
EA announces Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 is now available for
Windows and consoles, renewing the battle between the undead and their
vegetative enemies. The official website
for the shooter sequel offers details, and a
new version of the trailer
adds review quotes to the gameplay footage and Queen music. Here's the hot
word: PopCap Vancouver, creator of one of the world’s most beloved video
game franchises and a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), today
announced that Plants vs. Zombies™Garden Warfare 2 is now available in stores
and for digital download throughout North America on Xbox One®, PlayStation®4,
and Origin™ for PC. Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 immerses you into the
biggest, baddest, craziest battles where, for the first time in franchise
history, zombies have conquered Suburbia and plants are on the attack.
Experience new ways to play, including the all-new Backyard Battleground – a
massive, interactive environment that connects you to every map and mode in the
game. Over 100 playable characters with outrageous powers and abilities, 12
all-new maps bursting with personality and humor, and eight crazy game modes
make Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 the most insane over-the-top battle in
the universe.
“Back in January, we held our first-ever open beta so fans could get a sneak
peek at the Backyard Battleground and some of the new characters, maps and
experiences,” said Justin Wiebe, Creative Director, Plants vs. Zombies Garden
Warfare 2. “That was just a glimpse at all of our new ways to play and the
response was so positive that we can’t wait for fans to dive into even more
features and see the rest of the world we’ve created.”
Continue here to read the full story.
Kasedo announces Project Highrise, a skyscraper simulator from SomaSim Games
launching for Windows and OS X this summer. There are some images and details on
the new Project
Highrise website, and here's word on the game from the announcement:
Kasedo Games and SomaSim are proud to announce the exciting new business
simulator Project Highrise, where players will be challenged to build and manage
a modern-day skyscraper. In this deep, multi-faceted business sim, you will
create a vertical ecosystem from a wide variety of units, including offices and
other businesses, with more to be revealed. Your Highrise must become the go-to
destination in the city for corporate activities, shopping, restaurants, and
more.
Managing your sky-scraping empire will be no easy task – growth will require a
mastery of the various interlocking systems that are required for each type of
establishment to thrive. Office workers will want to grab a quick lunch or
coffee. Restaurants and their patrons will value location and convenience. Throw
in the challenges of implementing utilities, ensuring easy transport and
navigation around the building, and of course managing your finances, and it’s
clear that success in Project Highrise will be no easy task.
We are also pleased to announce that Project Highrise will be demoed by the
developers for the very first time at the Games Developers Conference 2016, in
San Francisco, CA. To make an appointment to see the game, please contact
Lindsay Schneider.
Features
- Variety of tenants – A wide variety of
business, leisure and utility units are available, with much more to be
revealed
- Manage your utilities – your building will
require a carefully balanced mix of utilities, such as electricity, gas,
water, TV and internet access, along with the necessary infrastructures to
support these systems
- Political and civic challenges – your tower
will fall under various restraints (height, population, work hours etc) that
you will only be able to overcome by earning political favour in the city
- Sandbox or story – start from scratch and
create to your heart’s content, or play your way through a set of optional
scenarios
Project Highrise will launch on PC and Mac in Summer 2016.
A new campaign on
Fig looks to raise $400,000 to create Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt
Punch, a brawler based on the cult-favorite Kevin Smith characters. Here's
a trailer introducing
the campaign, and here's word on the game: Jump in the shoes of Lunch Box
and Mr. Snoogans in a colorful Side-scrolling 2.5D over-the-top multiplayer
brawler! Play as the dynamic duo alone or with a friend in a tag team combo
fight fest. Destroy your enemies with fists, feet, and the magic of self-esteem
destroying shit talk while you embark on a mission to find your long lost pot
customers trapped in an Orwellian shopping center.
Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is a colorful side-scrolling tag-team
beat-em-up where players swap back and forth between our heroes on the fly or
perform special moves simultaneously with a friend. Our heroes embark on an epic
adventure from the humble corners where they ply their trade to the gates of
hell itself.
Continue here to read the full story.
Hitman GO: Definitive Edition is now available
on Steam for Windows and
Linux, offering a turn-based strategy game set in a stylized variation on the murder-for-hire Hitman
setting. The
announcement post features a new
4K video showing the
creation of a real diorama based on the game and mentions a 20% discount for the
next week. Here's a description of the game: Hitman GO is a simple to
play, but difficult to master turn-based strategy game set in a stunning
interpretation of the Hitman universe. You will strategically navigate fixed
spaces on a grid to avoid enemies and take out your target or infiltrate
well-guarded locations. This award-winning, beautifully rendered diorama-style
turn-based strategy game focuses on forward thinking to progress through
challenging levels and stylish freeze frame environments, to challenge even the
most accomplished Hitman fan.
With Hitman GO, you’ll experience:
- Challenging puzzles that put your assassination
skills to the test
- Beautiful scale model-style visuals
- Environments with secret passageways and off-limit
areas
- Agent 47’s tools of the trade: Distractions,
disguises, hiding spots, sniper rifles and even the iconic Silverballers
- Different enemy types with unique and deadly
behaviours
- Different ways of completing each level, silently
or forcefully
Continue here to read the full story.
The Ship: Remasted is now available in early access
on Steam, offering a
remake of this mystery game with a 15% launch discount. The game's release
was delayed by a week to
implement limited online multiplayer support, and they say the service is
currently suffering bandwidth constraints, but they are working with Unity to
resolve these issues, and add that they expect to begin testing dedicated server
support within the next few weeks. Their first
weekly Weather Report discusses the state of the game, their
development roadmap covers the future, and
this announcement covers the release. Here's word: This is an Early
Access game, which means not all content and features are currently live.
Please visit our Development Roadmap for information on what’s still to come.
Our Weekly Weather Report has a little bit more detail on the current situation
with online multiplayer, but here’s the short version:
- LAN Games – live and working well (16
players). Check out Yogcast’s recent playthrough of a LAN game to get an
idea of performance.
- Hosted Relay Games – we’ve rolled this
option out to testers and it’s working in a limited capacity (we’re working
with Unity to resolve these issues). Until then, these matches are limited
to 4 players and there will be a cap on concurrent users. This means that if
everyone decides to join a game at the same time, some of you may experience
connection problems. Please bear with us on this one!
- Standalone Servers – currently in internal
testing and we’d expect this to become available within a matter of weeks.
This will allow players to setup their own self-hosted servers without the
limitations of hosted relay matches, but would require rendering support
(your host machine would need a graphics card to run the host instance of
the game). This is intended as a mid-way solution to full dedicated servers.
- Dedicated Servers – a downloadable tool
that will run headless (no rendering support required). This is also
currently in internal testing and should be available shortly after
standalone servers.
Link of the Day:
Sleep Fighter. Thanks Ant.
New World Interactive and Focus Home Interactive announce Insurgency: Sandstorm,
an upcoming PC and console remake of Insurgency, a tactical first-person
shooter released a couple of years ago
after starting off as a
Half-Life 2 modification. Here's word on plans to rebuild the game from the
ground up using the Unreal Engine 4: Completely rebuilt from the ground
up in Unreal Engine 4, Insurgency: Sandstorm is coming to consoles and PC in a
new partnership between Focus Home Interactive and developer New World
Interactive. With Insurgency: Sandstorm, New World Interactive expands and
enhances its popular first-person-shooter franchise, having sold more than 2.3
million copies on PC.
“We are very excited about working with Focus on Insurgency: Sandstorm. We
believe there’s a great opportunity for Insurgency on next-gen consoles and that
aligning with a strong publisher will allow us to best leverage this.
Considering our background, it was not easy finding a publisher we felt
compatible with. We decided to work with Focus because they understand our game
and they believe in our vision. In addition, they bring a wealth of knowledge
when it comes to shipping console games and marketing to that audience.”
Jeremy Blum - Founder and Game Director of New World Interactive
“We are very proud to partner with American studio New World Interactive.
Insurgency is one of the most praised and played First Person Shooters on PC. We
are excited to support NWI in this new adventure, and we will do everything we
can to make Insurgency: Sandstorm a hit on consoles and PC in 2017.”
Cédric Lagarrigue – President of Focus Home Interactive
Deploy into a gritty, visceral combat experience that delivers first-person
gunplay as immersive as it gets. Gear up with an arsenal of diverse firearms
before heading into intense team-based action throughout the Middle East.
With a new story mode and Insurgency’s classic multiplayer and cooperative
gameplay, the FPS epic comes enhanced and expanded as a new chapter in
Insurgency: Sandstorm.
The
Star Wars Battlefront Forums have details on the new February update for
Start Wars Battlefront, which is now available for Windows, Xbox One, and
PlayStation 4. The new version incorporates the Jakku DLC content into the main
game, adds a new Twilight on Hoth mode, a new survival mission, and more. Here
are the complete patch notes: Additional Content/Functionality
- General: Jakku DLC Content is being patched into
the game, downloading it separately via platform storefronts is no longer
required and can be deleted from your hard drives
- New Map: Twilight on Hoth added to Walker Assault,
Supremacy, Turning Point, Blast, Fighter Squadron, Drop Zone, and Heroes vs.
Villains
- New Mission: Survival in the Ice Caves added to
Survival Missions
- Turning Point: Jundland Wastes, Forest of Endor,
Outpost Beta, and SoroSuub Centroplex maps added to the playlist
- Attract Mode: GNK Droid added - GONK!
- Settings: Turning off music in the Sound menu now
turns off music everywhere in the game
- Settings: Added a Film Grain setting slider in the
Video menu
- Credits: Updated Game Credits list
Weapon and Star Card Changes
Continue here to read the full story.
A message top the Darkspore Forums Index
reveals the game will be shutting down for good on March 1st in a note we missed
when it was posted in December (thanks
One Angry Gamer). It was previously thought this was being closed
in 2013 when it was
removed from Steam, but it came back online at the time (though it never
returned to Steam). Darkspore is an action/RPG spinoff from Maxis based
on the creature creator in Spore, and both games required persistent
servers, so with EA planning on closing the backend servers for Darkspore, it is
now going away, seemingly for good. Here's the announcement: 1st December
2015: Today, we are announcing that we will be closing the doors on Darkspore,
effective March 1st, 2016. It’s been a great run and we hope that you have
enjoyed your time with Darkspore. While it can be hard to say goodbye, keep in
mind there are tons of awesome games available for free on Origin. Enjoy
48-hours of fun with
Game Time titles such as The Sims 4 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare or
download the latest
Origin On the
House release and add it to your library.
Well-timed with yesterday's release of a new
Fallout 4 version 1.4.124 Beta with preliminary modification support,
an interview on GameInformer.com quotes Bethesda's Todd Howard saying mod
support should official come to the released version of the RPG sequel in April.
He also discusses testing of the new Survival Mode, and both topics are covered
in this excerpt: You said you are going to beta test Survival Mode.
How is that going to unfold?
That’s going to be something different than we usually do. Survival mode has a
lot of changes that can be pretty dramatic. Once we get it honed where it’s
working well enough, we’re going to put it on Steam beta for a while. ‘Here it
is. Start playing it. Give us feedback.’ It’s far easier to update and iterate
on [PC]. Once we settle on it, then we’ll release it for PlayStation 4 and Xbox
One. We want to get it up soon on Steam beta. It’s not going to be months and
months off. If it’s not really working, and we need to iterate on it, it may
stay in beta for a month, depending on what we are changing. But we want to make
it have the game feel different. The bits we’ve done, and me recently playing
it, it’s absolutely some of the most fun I’ve had playing Fallout. I mean that
honestly. It changes it in a good way for me, but it might not for everybody.
We’re doing things like you can’t save, it only saves your game when you sleep.
You can’t fast travel. There’re all of these diseases. We’re trying it all. It’s
a different experience. We’re not trying to make it a ton harder. It’s harder
because you’re doing more things. We want the combat to feel different, as
opposed to just being a bullet sponge.
When can we expect to see mods, especially on console side?
Our goal is between the first two DLCs. It’ll go up at that time on PC. In
April. All of that stuff will go up on PC. People are beta testing it. There’ll
be a lag on consoles. We want to get it up on PC and have it work. It’ll
probably be a good month before it hits Xbox One, and another month for
PlayStation 4.
Focus Home Interactive now offers
a new trailer from
The Technomancer called "Life and Death on Mars," showing off the ups and downs
of the setting of the upcoming first-person shooter. Here's the description:
Experience the distinctive, sci-fi world of Spiders’ epic RPG, The
Technomancer. The game takes place on a dystopian Mars, hundreds of years after
the first human colonies set foot on its red plains. Today’s trailer showcases a
few of The Technomancer's unique environments and dangers. Pursued by a corrupt
police force, you must journey across these deadly environments and beyond,
chasing a secret that could alter Mars and its inhabitants forever.
The Technomancer takes place after a cataclysmic event that decimated the
population and isolated the red planet from Earth. The pioneering optimism of
the early colonies has long since vanished. In its place lies no man's lands,
sprawling shanty towns, and broken cities governed by shadowy officials. The
fractured settlements offer protection from the lethal radiations of the Sun,
but they’re far from safe havens: desperate criminals and terrifying, mutated
creatures lie in wait for the unprepared.
Continue here to read the full story.
My neck has been hurting a bit lately, which leads me to the conclusion that I
need new eyeglasses. This seems like a leap of logic, but it stems from a lesson
I learned the last time I had such a pain a while back. At that time I figured
out that my chair was adjusted slightly too high, which caused me to hunch my
head forward for a better angle. When the pain returned, the first thing I did
was check to see if my chair needed readjustment. It didn't, but after a while
it dawned on me that I was once again hunching forward, but this was to be able
to see the screen better. In the short term I've moved my monitors forward on my
desk, but going forward, as I say, I think I need a new glasses prescription. I
think at this point I will look into getting a pair specifically for working on
the computer. I wonder if that yellow tint they use for those actually does
anything. Anyone have any experience with that?
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