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Archived News:
Steam News announces
that LIMBO is free
to add to your account for the next two days. This isn't a free weekend,
however, as the once redeemed, the game is yours to keep. Here's word: "Add
LIMBO to your account and
play for FREE starting now until June 22nd at 10AM Pacific Time! Once you add
the game it will remain in your account after the free period, so don't miss out
on this opportunity to play this dark, eerie adventure."
Capcom Unity has word that Umbrella Corps is now available for Windows and
PlayStation 4, offering a shooter spinoff of the Resident Evil series. They
celebrate the news with a
launch trailer. The announcement covers DLC plans as well as the release.
Here's word: Today you can join the Umbrella Corps and face off against
enemy mercenaries online in dangerous battlefields teeming with undead
monstrosities. The 3 vs. 3 competitive third-person shooter set in the Resident
Evil universe is available for digital download on PlayStation 4 and PC for just
$29.99.
Umbrella Corps has a variety of maps drawing from different locales in the
Resident Evil universe. The Resident Evil 4-themed map recreates the
unforgettable Village, complete with dangerous Ganados armed with farm tools.
The Raccoon City map allows players to fight it out on and below the streets as
zombies wander everywhere.
Speaking of maps based on the RE series, today’s launch trailer includes a peek
at free DLC offerings that will be available to players in the coming months.
One map reopens the doors to the infamous Spencer Mansion, hosting intense
firefights in its ornate interior. Another free map transports RE fans back to
the infected and chaotic streets of Lanshiang, China, from Resident Evil 6.
Rounding out the free DLC offerings is 4 Survivors mode – a free-for-all mode
inspired by classic RE games where ammo, health, and decent lighting is in
limited supply. Players battle one another to survive the longest in these dimly
lit, more atmospheric versions of the maps in Umbrella Corps.
Continue here to read the full story.
EA's Battlelog has details on how to pick up Battlefield 4 Second Assault
for free for the coming week, offering a 100% discount on this DLC for owners of
Battlefield 4. In the same update they also offer details about a new community
challenge in the military shooter sequel that will reward participants with gold
backpacks (perfect camouflage for battles in Fort Knox) if the community can
manage 25,000,000 collective revives over the next week. Battlefield 4 Second
Assault includes four maps that hearken back to the old days of Battlefield 3.
Here's a trailer
promoting the giveaway. Thanks Don. Continue here to read the full story.
Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan
made a post
to the Battle.net forums with some "personal" thoughts on matchmaking,
though of course him being the game director for Overwatch makes his
opinions on the topic significant. He discusses the goals of matchmaking in
Overwatch, what the system takes into account, and how they try to calculate
matchmaking ratings. He goes into detail about MMRs, and clarifies that there is
no specific effort to force a 50% win rate. He also discusses how winning and
losing in different manners impacts players' perceptions of how well matchmaking
is working, some of which reflects upon human nature more than computer
algorithms. He concludes with an overview of the situation preceded by an
amusing anecdote about how they realized their "avoid" system was a problem: We
are constantly improving the matchmaker. We learn more each day. We have one of
our best engineers and best designers full time dedicated to the system. Many of
those “silent” patches that go out during the week are adjustments to the
system. For example, we recently realized that “Avoid this player” was wreaking
havoc on matchmaking. One of the best Widowmaker players in the world complained
to us about long queue times. We looked into it and found that hundreds of other
players had avoided him (he’s a nice guy – they avoided him because they did not
want to play against him, not because of misbehavior). The end result was that
it took him an extremely long time to find a match. The worst part was, by the
time he finally got a match, he had been waiting so long that the system had
“opened up” to lower skill players. Now one of the best Widowmaker players was
facing off against players at a lower skill level. As a result, we’ve disabled
the Avoid system (the UI will go away in an upcoming patch). The system was
designed with the best intent. But the results were pretty disastrous.
We will always be working on our matchmaking system. We’re listening to
feedback, we’re playing the game a ton ourselves and we’re looking at hard data
to inform our decisions. This post wasn’t my way of saying everything is fine. I
just wanted to share some of my thoughts as someone who has been evaluating the
system itself very closely as well as monitoring the feedback. I want to put it
out there that there is a lot of room for improvement but also suggest that
there are forces in play that cause some fair matches to sway lopsided due to
forces out of our control. The game is as much (if not more) art than it is
science. We’ll keep working to make it better!
Focus Home Interactive announces the release of new Space Marines DLC for
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, adding new content to the real-time strategy
adaptation of the tabletop game. Here's
the latest video from
the add-on, and they have posted details on the release
on Facebook. Those who purchased the game prior to the release will get this
for free, while it is a premium purchase for everyone else. Here's an outline of
what Space Marines brings: Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, the RTS videogame
adaptation of Games Workshop’s classic tabletop game by Tindalos Interactive
today unleashes a new faction: the Space Marines. The Space Marines are playable
in the multiplayer modes of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada.
The Space Marines are experts at close-ranged battles, sporting well-armoured
ships and specialize in aggressive boarding techniques. In addition, they have
access to two unique faction traits which makes them immune to insubordination
mechanics and gives them the ability to prioritize their attacks on different
subsystems when boarding.
There's a new Witch Hunters DLC pack
on Steam for
Mordheim: City of the Damned,
Rogue Factor's Windows turn-based strategy game based on the Games Workshop
property. The DLC is accompanied by a patch for the game, and
this post has all the details on that. Here's word on the DLC: Mordheim:
City of the Damned, the video game adaptation of Games Workshop's cult classic
tabletop game, today welcomes its new playable warband! After seducing players
worldwide with its brutal and unforgiving tactical combat, Mordheim gets a new
playable faction - The Witch Hunters - which joins four existing ones: the
Mercenaries, the Sisters of Sigmar, the Skaven and the Cult of the Possessed.
The Witch Hunters DLC is composed of lethal units such as the Witch Hunter
Captain, the fanatic Flagellant and the Executioner. This faction will of course
be playable in multiplayer, but will also offer a new and unique solo campaign
scenario dedicated entirely to the Witch Hunters!
Amidst the rivalries and violence that splits the Empire, sinister forces creep
back into the lands of men. Against these evils stand the Witch Hunters,
remorseless warriors in service to the Temple of Sigmar. The witch practicing
her fell magic, the mutant spreading its corruption of flesh, the necromancer
violating the sanctity of the grave, the daemon seeking to possess souls - these
are the foes of the Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunters will allow nothing to waver
them in their defense of mankind against these evils. They are the Templars of
Sigmar, and with sword and fire they will return their god's justice to
Mordheim.
At E3 2014 Criterion showed off an
upcoming extreme stunts game they called "the biggest game Criterion has ever
made." Now
GameSpot reports that this game seems to be postponed, which usually means
cancelled. They quote an EA rep as saying, "While they've moved on from the
previous project they've spoken about and aren't pursuing it, they are
continuing to build new ideas and experiment with new IP for EA, in addition to
continuing to collaborate with other EA studios." They say Criterion is
reportedly working on the Star Wars Battlefront game for PlayStation VR, and the
presumption is that this is their sole focus right now.
-
Dad Quest -- Steam Greenlight.
- "Follow generations of 'Dads' on a quest to the legendary Dad Island. As
each Dad dies, its Child will grow up, obtain a Child of their own and will
seek to finish what their Dad started; to complete this grand Dadventure."
There's a playable demo on the
official website.
A new
trailer from The Technomancer shows off gameplay from this upcoming science
fiction RPG set on Mars. The clip comes along with a new release date, as they
now say the game is due on June 28th, the one week delay revealed in the clip's
description, which still offers the old June 21st release date.
This post has some details to cover the news. Here's a bit: "The
Technomancer, the sci-fi RPG set on Mars, releases on June 28 and will be
available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. We previously showed a Gameplay
Trailer giving you an overview of the gameplay mechanics of the title, as well
as a Companions Trailer Companions Trailer showing all the interactions and
relationships you can build with your teammates. Today, we're unveiling a brand
new video that will teach you how to Survive on Mars." Continue here to read the full story.
A tweet from the
DOOM account announces the playable demo for DOOM is being extended.
This was originally only to be available through E3, but now for undisclosed
reasons they have decided to extend this for an undisclosed period of time.
Word is: "Due to popular demand, we're extending the #DOOM Demo! Download now
and #FightLikeHell http://doom.com/demo."
They later explain
their lack of reasoning on this: "This was initially for E3 week only. But we
figured, what the hell."
Paradox Interactive announces what they call the grand success of their recent
grand strategy releases. They explain: " Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox’s
recently released World War II-themed grand strategy game, has sold over 200,000
copies worldwide in less than two weeks after its release, making it the
publisher’s fastest-selling historical strategy game to date. Stellaris,
the developer’s first sci-fi grand strategy title, has now sold over 500,000
copies worldwide in just over a month since its release in early May. Finally,
Europa Universalis IV, Paradox’s iconic world-conquest grand strategy
game, has now sold over 1 million copies worldwide, not including sales of
expansions and other downloadable content (DLC) for the core game." They
celebrate the news with the release of free musical DLC for Europa Universalis
IV and plans for a livestream later today: To celebrate these milestones,
Paradox is offering a new musical add-on for Europa Universalis IV to all
players for free for a limited time. Starting today and lasting through July 4,
2016, the new DLC “Fredman’s
Epistles” can be downloaded from Steam at no charge, adding a collection of
traditional Swedish songs from the 18th century to the game’s soundtrack. The
songs, arranged from original works by famed Swedish poet and songwriter Carl
Michael Bellman, provide an authentic piece of Swedish culture to Europa
Universalis IV, perfect for taking on the world as a Scandinavian superpower.
Following the limited free release, Fredman’s Epistles will remain available for
1.99$ from digital retailers.
To further celebrate the one million Europa Universalis IV players the
developers will host a special stream on June 21st, 15.00-18.00 CEST, where they
will play the oldest available version of the game and talk about its’
development.
Watch it at
https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
I recently mentioned my project to season a new grate for one of my grills.
Along the way I got a little obsessive about this after reading about success
using flax seed oil on pans. One of the points of that method was more passes at
seasoning, so I am trying that. I've currently coated it in shortening and
cooked it five separate times (the flax oil sounds better suited to pans than
grates). I have achieved a lacquer-like finish already. I will give it at least
one more pass before I put it into service, and am hopeful that this extra
effort will allow me to stave off rust better than the grate I had to replace.
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