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Archived News:
Steam News announces we
can play Awesomenauts
for free all weekend, and those who enjoy the three-on-three platformer can pick
it up on sale for 75% off. Here's a reminder of what to expect from the game:
The year is 3587. Conflict spans the stars as huge robot armies are
locked in an enduring stalemate. In their bid for galactic supremacy, they call
upon the most powerful group of mercenaries in the universe: the Awesomenauts!
Awesomenauts is a MOBA fitted into the form of an accessible 3-on-3 action
platformer. Head out to the online battlefields together with your friends as an
online party or in local splitscreen, and never worry about having to wait for
an online match because of drop-in matchmaking!
Devise strategies as you upgrade and customize each character's skills to suit
your playing style. Expect new items, features, DLC and Awesomenauts to be added
regularly!
Kalypso Media announces Urban Empire, a new city planning IP coming to PCs in
Q3 of this year, and a Steam
page is already in place for the game. They say they will unveil more fully next week at GDC, and in
the meantime, offer a teaser trailer
and the following feature list:
- City Ruler, not City Builder: Urban Empire
offers a unique combination of classic city building and political
management gameplay. Take on the role of a mayor, be a political mastermind
and prove your skills by prevailing against opposing parties and guiding
your city through technological evolutions and ideological revolutions.
- Choose from 4 ruling families with 5
characters each, like the equal rights and social justice advocates the
Kilgannons, or the Sant’Elias, who focus on scientific progress and the
pursuit of knowledge.
- Create and manage city districts on a large
scale and fulfil your citizens’ needs – such as happiness, safety, and
public services.
- Introduce new ideas and technologies, like
the electric tram, antibiotics or video games and use your power to convince
the city council of your political agenda.
- Up to 800 dynamic events represent the
twists and turns of urban life: make and influence decisions on issues such
as women’s rights, the hippie movement, and child labour.
Continue here to read the full story.
There were indications at the end of last
year that CD Projekt RED was planning to release Cyberpunk 2077 by the
end of this year, but
a new
strategy roadmap from the developer says their cyberpunk RPG will come next
year at the soonest, listing it under "later years (2017-2021). That part of the
roadmap also says to expect another AAA RPG in that same period, while as for
2016, they promise a second expansion for The Witcher 3 along with "a new
type of video game format previously unexplored by the Studio." Here's
word: Plans
In order to preserve our competitive advantage, this public version of the
Group’s plans only lists selected components of our strategic agenda. For the
same reasons, the descriptions of certain projects are necessarily terse. Plans
have been divided into two periods: the current year (2016) and the following
five-year period (2017-2021). Within each period individual .items are not
arranged in chronological order.
CD PROJEKT RED Studio
2016
- Release of the second expansion pack for The
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine.
- Implementation of new promotional and marketing
activities supporting continued sales of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
- A new type of video game format previously
unexplored by the Studio.
(Later years (2017-2021)
- Release of Cyberpunk 2077.
- Release of another AAA RPG title.
- Expansion of our core franchises with additional
media content and product lines.
- Further active marketing and support for our
earlier releases.
- Near-twofold expansion of the CD PROJEKT RED team.
Creation of four individual teams, two of which will be tasked •
.with development of games representing new segments.
- Establishment of new local branches of CD PROJEKT
RED in key territories.
Psyop Games and IllFonic have launched early access to Moving Hazard,
on Steam, offering a
chance to play this multiplayer shooter where hordes of zombies are part of
everyone's arsenal. Here's a
recent trailer
showing how this works, and here's a more complete explanation: Set 50
years after civilization’s fall to a fast-moving zombie plague, Moving Hazard
boldly challenges gamers to play counter to everything they’ve learned from
previous zombie games – namely, to avoid killing the living dead and rather, to
spare the undead and deploy them as weapons against the enemy.
Featuring realistic weapons and a full arsenal of tactical equipment, including
assault weapons, classic fragmentation and smoke grenades, and claymores, Moving
Hazard is a full-fledged military shooter and features multiple maps, modes and
tactics.
Most importantly however, players must take advantage of the zombie control
technology that can attract, repel, sedate, and anger the voracious horde,
including:
- The Pheromone Attractor Molotov (The PAM):
when applied to any infected, they become frenzied and immediately hunt down
and attack enemies;
- The Chaos Grenade: stuns enemies while
frenzying nearby zombies, creating a doubly vicious attack;
- The Templar: broadcasts a signal that
repels zombies, forcing the horde to turn in their tracks to head away as
fast as possible.
Continue here to read the full story.
Tripwire Interactive announces a new patch is now available
on Steam to update the
early access version of Killing Floor 2, adding Steam Workshop support to
the co-op zombie shooter. This is the only change to the client, so they have
chosen not to increment the game's version number, as outlined in
this post, which explains how server operators can "subscribe" servers to
modded content, and here's the
Killing Floor 2
Workshop. Here's word on how things work, set to the tune of Elton John's
Circle of Life: "We now have our dream modding functionality for
Killing Floor 2, a functionality which very few games have. Game servers can now
subscribe to user generated content that community modders and mappers have made
and submitted to Steam Workshop, and the servers will auto update when the
modders update their content," said Tripwire President John Gibson. "Players
that connect to these servers will automatically download the latest versions of
those mods and maps from Steam Workshop when they connect to the game server
running the user generated content. It's a complete circle that makes it so much
easier for modders to get their content in the hands of players, and for players
to enjoy all the amazing user generated content for the game."
Stardock announces plans to launch Ashes of the Singularity on March 31st,
though early access to their new real-time strategy game remains available up to
then through Steam.
There's a
Steam Community Group Announcement covering the news that features a
new trailer for the
occasion, and offering the following details: Now it's time for the
game's release, and we are ready to bring you the things you've been waiting
for! We have listened to your feedback and have continued to refine and balance
the game all through its time in Early Access. With your help, we have improved
our multiplayer experience and have been enjoying our "Devs vs. Fans" Fridays.
We have added several maps since our first beta and by the time we release 1.0
you will have the ability to edit maps to your own preferences! Closer to
release, we will create a post with instructions and tips for how to do this.
Finally, we can't wait to tell you all more about the Ascendancy Wars campaign
that will become available in full at the time of release. Keep an eye out on
our forums for more information, and certainly load the game up when 1.0
releases on March 31st and give it a try for yourself!
Continue here to read the full story.
Upwards, Lonely Robot is now available for Windows
on Steam, offering a
quirky platformer that involves a tower, but no tower defense. This
recent teaser trailer
shows how this works, and here's an explanation: Kasedo Games and Random
Layers are excited to announce that the puzzle platformer Upwards, Lonely Robot
is out now on Windows PC worldwide via Steam. Easy to play but difficult to
master, Upwards, Lonely Robot is set to push your platforming skills to the
limit as you ascend a series of increasingly-challenging towers – dodging
robots, spikes and traps along the way in the search for your human creators.
The release of Upwards, Lonely Robot is accompanied by a launch trailer showing
off the 'one more go' gameplay in all it’s colorful, finger-twisting glory. Also
shown in this trailer for the first time are the double jump, high jump and
teleport abilities that will help you reach even loftier heights. Whether you’re
playing by yourself in the Story, Climber or Infinite modes, or challenging your
friends via local split-screen or online multiplayer, the pillar-jumping,
fruit-collecting action is certain to keep you climbing as fervently as the
eponymous android itself!
Continue here to read the full story.
Two Tribes
announces RIVE will be the final game from this indie developer,
saying this "metal wrecking, robot hacking shooter" will come in September of
this year. After that they will continue to support their games and partners,
but will cease development of new projects. A
couple of years ago the Dutch developer announced it was rebooting itself,
but now they say they "feel like dinosaurs in the games industry." A new
"Epic Conclusion" trailer
accompanies the post, and here's part of it where they explain their plans:
RIVE and beyond
An elaborate explanation on why we won’t be making any more games will follow
below, but first you should know that we are going to go out with a bang! It
might be a cliche, but we’ve saved the best for last: RIVE will be the best game
Two Tribes ever!
For the last two years, we have been working feverishly to finish RIVE, the
shooter/platformer hybrid that we always wanted to make. We have delayed it
several times to make it the best experience possible and now that we are
nearing the finish line, we can confidently say that RIVE will come out in
September 2016!
We also want to make clear that Two Tribes will remain operational. We will
continue to support our partners and all gamers out there, we just won’t be
making any new games after RIVE.
Continue here to read the full story.
Slitherine now offers the Golgotha DLC for
Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon,
an add-on that requires the original game to play. You can find all the details
on this page,
which is also where you can pick it up. Here's a bit of the description: Golgotha
is an expansion of Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon, set 50 years after the end of
the Second War for Armageddon, it is the last great battle of the cycle.
Join the Imperial forces under Yarrick’s command as they secure a footing on the
Ork infested world before striking forth at Thraka’s army.
Although Yarrick has brought elements of the Steel Legion in the form of the
117th Armageddon Mechanised Infantry, the player’s core force is focused on the
unwavering regiments of the 66th Mordian Infantry.
The Mordian Iron Guard are the bulk of the new units in this expansion, but the
player will also eventually gain command of Yarrick himself atop the pulpit of
his personal Baneblade tank, the Fortress of Arrogance.
Steam News announces the
release of HOLMER,
a new DLC pack for
Farming Simulator 15 that will help your harvesting with new equipment.
Word is: "The Holmer DLC contains 2 brand new vehicles and 7 pieces of farming
equipment from Holmer, Bergmann and Zunhammer: a sugar beet harvester, a system
vehicle with several modules and more."
Here's a new trailer
from Democracy 3: Africa, showing off the upcoming standalone expansion
to PosiTech's politics simulation series. You can find more on the game on
its official website,
and the video carries a concise description, saying: "The political strategy
game that simulates the politics and Economics of 10 African nations. Can you
solve the problems of your country, get re-elected, and avoid angering the
extremists in your country?" Continue here to read the full story.
Sumo Digital has taken over development of Dead Island 2,
reports MCV, following up on the news from
last summer that publisher Deep
Silver had removed Yager Productions from the zombie sequel, which lead to
the developer's insolvency.
Their explanation of the situation includes some relevant quotes: “Sumo
showed so much understanding of the brand, had creative ideas and an excellent,
vision that was aligned with our own,” Koch Media CEO Dr Klemens Kundratitz told
MCV.
“It just made perfect sense for us to move the project to them. We will reveal
more details at a later stage, but for now I’d like to say that we are obviously
super excited about the progress that we are making with them.”
Sumo Digital has previously handled triple-A IP including Disney Infinity,
LittleBigPlanet and Forza. The studio is also working on Microsoft’s new
Crackdown game.
“It’s an honour to be charged with the evolution of such an important franchise
in Deep Silver’s catalogue,” said Sumo COO Paul Porter. “We’re looking forward
to exceeding fan expectation with an ambitious design that we’re confident will
take bone-crunching, visceral, zombie action to a whole new level.”
The HITMAN
website has a global launch schedule for the rollout of episode one of the
new HITMAN series. This can be complicated for various consoles, but
plans for the PC edition of the game are sort of straightforward, as word is:
"All PC players will get access to the game at the same time globally, starting
on 09:01 PST, March 11." Most of the start times are centered around midnight,
so we're assuming they actually meant 09:01 pm PST March 10, as that would be
12:01 am EST, but you know what happens when you assume, so it may actually be
launching at noon tomorrow.
AMD now offers new Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3 drivers for AMD
graphics cards, which include support for the new HITMAN game, as well as
per-game display scaling (thanks Mashiki). Here's word: Radeon
Software Crimson Edition 16.3 Highlights
Updated Crossfire Profiles available for
Support for
Performance and Quality improvements for
- Rise of the Tomb Raider™(2)
- Up to 16% on AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury X Series vs AMD
Radeon™ Software Crimson Edition 16.2.
- Gears of War Ultimate Edition(3)
- Up to 60% on AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury X series vs AMD
Radeon™ Software Crimson Edition 16.2.1
- Up to 44% on AMD Radeon™ R9 380 series vs AMD
Radeon™ Software Crimson Edition 16.2.1
Vulkan™ Support(1): Vulkan™ is the successor to OpenGL and a
descendant of AMD's Mantle. Vulkan™ is a powerful "low-overhead" graphics API
that gives software developers deep control over the performance, efficiency,
and capabilities of Radeon™ GPUs and multi-core CPUs. More information on
Vulkan™ can be found at
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/.
Per-Game Display Scaling: A new feature introduced in Radeon™ Settings
that allows per game Display Scaling to be set within the Radeon™ Settings
Gaming tab under "Profile Options".
- Battleborn on
PC Gamer. "Incursion mode is a true MOBA first-person shooter."
- Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 240 AIO CPU Cooler on
HARDOCP.
- BIOSTAR Racing Z170GT7 (Intel Z170) Motherboard on
TweakTown.
- Cooler Master Xornet II Optical USB Gaming Mouse on
Benchmark Reviews.
- Corsair Carbide 400C Mid-Tower Enclosure on
PC Perspective.
- MSI Z170A Tomahawk Motherboard on
pcGameware.
- NVMe RAID0 - 2 x Samsung 950 Pro 256GB SSD on
ocaholic.
- Sony FDR-X1000V 4K Action Camera on
Tech ARP.
- WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra 8TB NAS on
TechSpot.
Happy Mario Day! (Mar10, get it?). Here's a salute to the persistent little
plumber. I'm pretty old school on this topic, as my favorite Mario game was is
first appearance in the original Donkey Kong. So here's some similarly vintage
trivia about the character: Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make a Popeye game but
couldn't get the license, so he cooked up Mario, Donkey Kong, and Princess Peach
as substitutes for Popeye, Bluto, and Olive. I'm guessing the IP value of those
Donkey Kong characters probably now dwarfs the value of the Popeye cast, huh?
Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make.
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