Archived News:
Blizzard announces
they are adding an unranked draft mode to Heroes of the Storm, which is
probably the feature most frequently requested for their MOBA. The new draft is
coming with some changes to how their MMR system works, and they hope these
changes will improve matchmaking. Word is this will launch along with the ranked
revamp expected this month. In other Heroes news, they also offer
balance update notes
for a patch that will come tomorrow to buff Chromie. Here's the overview of the
unranked draft news: Coming with our ranked revamp will be an Unranked
Draft mode. With its own unique queue similar to Quick Match or Ranked modes,
Unranked Draft will feature a pick and ban system similar to Hero League, no
party restrictions, and its own unique MMR (Matchmaking Rating). Our hope is
that Unranked Draft will be the preferred queue for players looking to draft
with a few friends or play in a more structured environment than Quick Match but
without the pressures of ranked play.
With this new game mode and the Ranked Play Revamp, we will also be implementing
a couple of behind-the-scenes changes that should address some concerns
regarding fair matches and immobility on the ladder.
2K Games reveals a collector's
edition for Mafia III, a special version of the upcoming open-world crime
sequel, a special treat for collectors who collect collector's editions (the
game will also offer a treat for
collectors of vintage pr0n). The
Mafia website has details on this version's contents, including two vinyl
LPs. Word is: "The Mafia III Collector's Edition is packed with physical and
digital items, providing a window into the sights and sounds of a turbulent 1968
New Bordeaux, Louisiana, the vast, diverse and seedy criminal underworld of
Mafia III." They offer
this
image showing off the whole shebang, and speaking of showing off, they also
announce plans to demo the game at E3, and say IGN will post gameplay footage on
Sunday, June 12th. Finally, they also reveal the game has returned to digital
distribution, is it is back
on Steam, and is currently on sale for 80% off.
PaperSeven announces Blackwood Crossing, a story-driven adventure game
coming later this year to Windows and consoles that will be the debut release
from this indie British developer formed by industry veterans, mostly from
Disney Black Rock Studio, the Pure and Split/Second developer that
closed in 2011. Here's a
teaser trailer, and
here's word: Brighton-based independent studio PaperSeven today announced
a new story-driven adventure game, Blackwood Crossing, coming to PlayStation 4,
Xbox One and PC in 2016. The team at PaperSeven developing the game is made up
of former Disney Black Rock Studio developers, as well as Oliver Reid-Smith,
writer of The Room.
Blackwood Crossing is a story-driven first-person adventure game exploring the
relationship between Scarlett and Finn, orphaned siblings growing apart as
Scarlett is coming of age and leaving childhood behind. When they cross paths
with a mysterious figure, a seemingly ordinary train ride evolves into a magical
story of life, love and loss.
“This is our first original game since forming PaperSeven and we are immensely
proud to be announcing it” said Alice Guy, co-founder of PaperSeven. “There’s
been some fantastic narrative adventure games coming out in recent times - we’re
hoping to take a place at this table whilst offering something different to
what’s come before. Blackwood Crossing is evidence of our desire to explore
experiences with depth and meaning, and create characters that challenge the
often clichéd gaming landscape.”
With Hearts of Iron IV set to invade on June 6th, the anniversary of
D-Day, Paradox Interactive offers
third and
final video developer diary 3 from the World War II strategy sequel. Along
with the video they also provide some more details about the game to inspire
everyone to want to check it out: With Hearts of Iron IV only days away,
Paradox Development Studio offers you the levers of power as the world descends
into the firestorm of World War II. The latest and final video developer diary
before release outlines the types of decisions you will be asked to make as the
president, prime minister or dictator of any nation you choose.
The focus here is on the big picture – the long term decisions you make as a
national leader to set yourself up for ultimate victory.
On the political side of Hearts of Iron IV, you will responsible for the final
shape your nation takes.
- National Focuses: Each major power has a
custom tree of decisions where you can set out your immediate and future
goals
- Ideological Drift: Appoint cabinet
ministers who represent fresher ideologies to bring closer to one side of
the ideological struggle.
- Coups and International Support: Commit
political power to supporting the rise of a friendly party in a potential
rival or sponsor a rebellion against your enemies
- Research and construction: You can’t do
everything at once, so organize your government and infrastructure to
achieve your long term goals.
- Send "Volunteers" to Help Friends: If a
civil war breaks out, it might be helpful to push your side to victory by
delegating your own troops to fight at their side.
Hearts of Iron IV will be available on June 6, 2016.
Continue here to read the full story.
Rocket League continues to kill it, with Psyonix telling
Forbes that the motorized sports game has sold more than five million units
and five million DLC packs across all platforms, and has earned more than $110
million. "Our numbers are actually going up, not down," Psyonix vice president
Jeremy Dunham explains. "Which is not very common for a game that's ten months
old." Indeed, it was just December
when it was reported the game was approaching the $50 million milestone.
Valve now offers a June update on their Steam Controller, discussing how
developers are better supporting it in new releases, and discussing recent
improvements to how the controllers work. They say they've sold more than a
half-million of them, and they are making good use of all the data these are
producing. They conclude with an idea of where they are going next: Coming
soon: Even more configuration power
You will soon be able to use Activators to assign actions to press-and-hold,
double click, toggle and more. For example, in DOOM you can cycle through all
weapons by pressing a button or double tap it to bring up your BFG.
We'll continue to add features and functionality going forward, so be sure to
keep giving us feedback on what would make the Steam Controller even better.
- Syberia Bundle on
Steam. Save 80%.
GOG.com unveils GOG.com Connect, which
offers customers DRM-free versions of eligible games they previously purchased
on Steam at no additional cost. They say other games may become available like
this in the future, and they kick things off with a list of 22 games that can be
imported if you already own them. This will be permanent, though you have only
five days to connect your account and claim your copies. Word is they will offer
additional titles in the future: "You'll be able to permanently import all the
games listed below to your GOG.com library – assuming you own them. The eligible
games are limited-time offers made possible by participating developers and
publishers, so stay tuned for more games to come." There is
a FAQ noting that you won't get an
extra key for games you already own on both services, and that they reserve the
right to remove games from your library if they no longer appear in your Steam
library, though there's no way to take back downloaded copies of their DRM-free
games. Connecting accounts at this time brings up a warning that completing the
process may take "up to several days" due to "exceedingly high demand."
Blizzard tweets about plans to launch competitive play in Overwatch,
saying "We'll be introducing our Competitive Play (hopefully) later in July," a
change from their previously announced
intention to get this going by the end of this month. A
later tweet specifies: "We're aiming for mid-to-late July." In related news,
Overwatch principle designer Geoff Goodman touches on balance changes for
the multiplayer shooter in a couple of replies to
a
thread on the Overwatch forums on the topic. Blizzard has not discussed
balance changes before, and this is not comprehensive, but he does specifically
mention the possibility of nerfing McCree and buffing D.Va.
This post about D.Va says that she probably need improvements, but based on
the nature of the character he says that this is unlikely to be in the form of
increased damage, and in
this post he discusses corralling everyone's favorite cowboy: I've
been watching McCree carefully since we've released. McCree's flashbang plays an
important role in being a strong option against very fast/agile teams
(tracers/genjis/etc). It is also a nice tool to prevent close range devastating
abilities and ultimates such as Reaper's Death Blossom.
That said, its probably a bit too good at dealing damage to higher health
targets such as Tanks and barriers. I don't have any concrete changes yet, but
I'm going to be testing some things internally to see how he plays.
Gamasutra reports that Felipe Falanghe has stepped down as lead developer
for Kerbal Space Program, though the
forum post where they say this was announced is unavailable (the forums seem
to be offline at this moment). They say he talks about how much the game has
grown past his original vision, and that development will now continue on
without him. They offer one direct quote from the post: "There was a fine line
we needed to stay on, lest we let the project slip and become something other
than what we intended," Falanghe wrote. "That is no longer the case, and that's
a very good thing. It means that conceptually, the game is complete."
- Cleave
by Wolves of Ragnarok Studios — Kickstarter. "Cleave will be the first
game developed by Wolves of Ragnarok Studios and seeks to meld two
established genres into a single game. Select where you wish to attack on a
tactical map of Silver Vale then engage in tower defence battles to
determine who will control that segment of land." Also on
Steam Greenlight.
We're off for a new adventure today, as I'm taking Gunnar for a grooming. I've
always washed and cut him myself, and while I am earnest, I'm not trained or
anything, so he has never had the pro treatment. Our new vet has grooming
services, and I've let them give him a couple of baths, but today is going to be
his first real haircut. Poodle cuts can be a little much, so hopefully they'll
follow my wishes and not make him too froofy. Either way, at least he'll be
better equipped to deal with the sudden onset of hot weather in these parts.
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