Archived News:
A
post on Facebook by American McGee announces the closure of Spicy Horse
Studios, with the former id Software designer noting that "it feels like a good
time for a radical shift" since the studio was only currently employing six
people, down from a peak of 85+. He posted the official press release on the
topic, along with personal reflections on the news: 10 years, 10 games,
tons of wonderful memories. The Shanghai studio of Spicy Horse Games is closing
its doors. The company itself will remain intact, and we'll continue to operate
existing games online. At our peak, during development of Alice: Madness
Returns, the studio contained 85+ people. These days we're down to just 6, and
it feels like a good time for a radical shift.
I'm going to turn my focus to indie development and will continue to publish
small titles under the Spicy Horse brand. Much of this work will be done in a
challenging new environment - aboard my sailboat, bobbing around the S.E. Asia
region. This is also where I'll bring to life Pirate Jam - the game jam on a
flotilla of sailboats. I plan to document this new adventure online and in
video. If you want to support these new creations, check out my Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=340386
The past 12 years in China have been incredible. I owe so much to the people who
helped build Spicy Horse into a happy place to explore and create. To the
hundreds of developers who called Spicy Horse home over the years, Thank You.
And to the fans and supporters who enjoyed our efforts, Thank You.
Now, to the next adventure! I hope you'll all join me along the way :)
This video is of
the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Narrative Panel at this year's San Diego
Comic-Con 2016. Here's word on what's on tap: "Call of Duty storms San Diego
Comic Con 2016 with new intel! Greg Miller hosts a discussion on the immersive
narrative of Infinite Warfare with developers from Infinity Ward and the
talented cast, including never-before seen footage from the campaign, an
interview with actor Kit Harington as he digs into his role as Admiral Salen
Kotch, the first look at the Terminal Bonus Map, and much more." Continue here to read the full story.
Here's Valve's report in the 10 bestselling titles on Steam for last week:
- Grand Theft Auto V
- RimWorld
- EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair
- No Man's Sky
- Dead by Daylight
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Arma 3 Apex
- Starbound
- Total War: WARHAMMER - Call of the Beastmen
- Total War: WARHAMMER
- Cougar 450K Keyboard on
Technic3D. German.
- In Win 303 Gehäuse im Test on
Technic3D. German.
- SanDisk iXpand Memory Case and Battery for iPhone on
TweakTown.
Well I made it back in one piece, though this update is late as I predicted. I
went off yesterday to revisit a farm in remote upstate New York where I used to
go as a child in a reunion of all the once-younger folk that were brought there
years ago by our parents, who were all close. This was the first time many of us
had seen each other in quite a long time, and a terrific time was had by all. As
I suspected, a proper data connection was not possible at this locale, so
updating was not possible, but who knows? Things progress quickly in this world
of mobile coverage, so maybe I'll be able to get online when we do this again as
planned next year.
SEGA announces two new Sonic games, each of which will be racing onto PCs as
well as consoles, according to
Eurogamer. The first is an all new game called Sonic Project 2017, and they
have a look at it in this trailer. Word
is, "The new game is dubbed Project Sonic and is due next autumn. It's in
development for NX, PC, PS4 and Xbox One. A cinematic trailer announced it and
heavily suggested there will be co-op. Sonic is joined by another Sonic while he
runs towards a giant Robotnik, presumably, and the video's tagline reads: 'When
things look their darkest, even heroes need a helping hand.' The other is a
remake game called Sonic Mania said to be coming in Spring 2017. They also have
a trailer for that and
some scant details, "The retro remake, meanwhile, is called Sonic Mania, and it
re-imagines bits from Sonic 1, 2 and 3, and Sonic CD. There are new zones and
acts plus a new drop-dash ability." Continue here to read the full story.
A couple of
weeks ago Ubisoft announced that anyone who completes the Trials of the
Blood Dragon demo will get a free copy of the full version of the game. Now
that post has been amended to include an end date for the promotion. Word is,
"Update: This special demo will run through July 31" (thanks
VG247). Here's a refresher on the game: "Spanning more than 30 missions,
Trials of the Blood Dragon follows Slayter and Roxanne – the dirtbike-riding,
cybernetically enhanced children of Rex Power Colt – on a global mission to
battle alien-backed communists by using bikes, guns, tanks, jetpacks, grappling
hooks, and more."
A video preview of
South Park: The Fractured But Whole features Trey Parker and Matt Stone
along with the developers of the upcoming superhero RPG discussing their
philosophy in following up on The Stick of Truth as well as lessons learned from
their first game. They cover a lot of bases, talking about their basic
philosophy, and many of the specific challenges in bringing the world of the
cartoon series into a game. The video is loaded with interview snippets as well
as footage of gameplay. The clip also mentions preorder bonuses, and they offer
a little more on those, saying, "Also available will be two collectibles, the RC
Coon Bundle exclusively from Amazon and the Fart Pillow exclusively from
GameStop." Continue here to read the full story.
ILMxLAB offers this
trailer they call a "story experience teaser" for Darth Vader VR,
their upcoming Sith simulation. The tease will probably only be interesting to
the most zealous, as it just shows the beloved villain extending his lightsaber
in slow motion, and the picture that sentence just conjured in your mind
probably covers it. Of more possible interest is the further implication that
this will be less of an interactive game and more of a virtual reality movie, so
this may not involve as many lightsaber duels as we had hoped. Word is: "The
infamous villain Darth Vader will take a central role in ushering us back into
the Star Wars universe in this original VR story experience written by David
Goyer (Man of Steel, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises)." Thanks
Ant. Continue here to read the full story.
It's 100 million degrees out and I am intentionally heading off today to a place
with no air conditioning. Planning for the win. Speaking of planning, there's a
good likelihood that tomorrow's update will end up coming later in the day than
usual. If it ends up not coming at all, you'll know I have experienced
spontaneous human combustion.
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