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Archived News:
TechCrunch has details on a new update for Oculus Rift to allow the
use of one or more additional sensor units to pave the way for room-scale VR, something already available on the HTC Vive (thanks
Gamasutra). Here's how this works: The Rift’s best days are still
ahead of it as Facebook’s virtual reality company prepares to drastically
improve user experience by introducing its room-scale tracked motion Touch
controllers in Q4 of this year.
An update to Oculus Home is apparently prepping for Touch’s arrival by enabling
users to connect multiple Oculus camera sensors to enhance movement tracking and
give developers access to highly precise room-scale setups.
Though the update allows for up to four sensors to be connected, most developers
are likely looking to optimize room-scale titles for just a pair sensors which
makes sense as the Touch controllers are expected to ship with just one
additional infrared sensor included.
Vault-Tec Workshop DLC is now available for Fallout 4
on Steam, providing the
chance to get in touch with your inner survivalist by allowing you to create
your own designer vaults to sit out the apocalypse in proper style. This is
available separately (Fallout 4 is required) or as part of a Season Pass. Here's
how this works: Build a brighter future underground with the all-new
Vault-Tec Workshop. Create a massive Vault and attract new Dwellers using
pre-war industrial kits complete with retro-nostalgic furniture, lighting, and
art. And like every good Overseer, run Vault-Tec approved experiments on your
Dwellers to learn what makes an ideal citizen. Vault-Tec has given you the
tools, the rest is up to you!
Riptide GP: Renegade is now available for Windows
on Steam,
offering a water-racing game using futuristic hydrojets. Here's
a trailer showing the
game in action, and here's more on what this is all about: Riptide GP:
Renegade is the first game of the Riptide GP series to be developed from the
ground up for modern consoles and desktop PCs. You’ll definitely notice it in
the details!
Our CEO and Creative Director Matt Small says: "With Riptide GP: Renegade, we've
cranked up the action to make it more of a classic arcade racer. It still has
the speed and dynamic water that players love. But the races are bigger and more
explosive, with transforming vehicles, interactive obstacles, and secret
shortcuts."
Game modes include the challenging single player Career mode, 8 player online
races, asynchronous ghost racing challenges, and split screen local multiplayer.
We can't wait for you to play it!
Continue here to read the full story.
Frontier Developments announces Planet Coaster will launch in Q4 of this
year, offering the official release of their theme park simulation. They say
they will make this available for pre-purchase on Steam on August 25th, and
say around then all their early access customers will be transitioned to Steam.
Word is, "Steam and Steam Workshop will form the backbone of Planet Coaster’s
in-game community and sharing features starting with the launch of Planet
Coaster Alpha 3 on 23 August. Following the launch of Planet Coaster Alpha 3 on
23 August, playing Planet Coaster will require Steam. Alpha players will find a
Steam key available on their FrontierStore.net profile starting 23 August."
Just hours after
Jeff Kaplan posted to the Overwatch forums with the Overwatch game director
agreeing McCree
might have been overbuffed and
Geoff Goodman responded to questions about the effectiveness of the new Ana
character, a new patch is now online re-nerfing McCree and buffing Ana. The rate
of fire on Ana's Biotic Rifle has been increased by 20%, and its magazine size
is increased from 8 to 10. The McCree changes dial back his range increase a bit
saying it was a little to strong in the right hands, but there are also buffs in
his changes as well, because reasons.
A new trailer from
Space Rift shows off gameplay from the upcoming virtual reality space game,
celebrating plans for its release on August 2nd for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Here's the description, "SPACE RIFT is a breathtaking action space adventure
with a captivating story specifically designed for Virtual Reality! Experience
the excitement of flying through the expanses of our galaxy up close in your own
cockpit and join the fight for the freedom of humanity on Mars!" Continue here to read the full story.
Here's another assassin
trailer from LawBreakers, the upcoming first-person shooter from Boss Key.
This time around we get to play as Natalie Portman and learn all about the art
of assassination. Here's word: "The devs at Boss Key show the best play style and talk about how you
can master our Assassin role. She's high damage, stealthy and mobile. Perfect
for stealing the objective. Sign up for Alpha NOW to dominate with the Assassin:
www.LawBreakers.com." Continue here to read the full story.
UbiBlog now offers
Remote Access - "Meet Marcus & DedSec" (Episode 1), a new video promoting
Watch Dogs 2, the upcoming open-world hacking game sequel. The clip features
some of the game's actors as well as the scriptwriter to give their thoughts on
the project. Word is, "The Watch Dogs 2 team has released the first episode of
Remote Access – a series of videos that will be highlighting different aspects
of the Watch Dogs 2 experience. This first episode goes into a little more depth
on Marcus, DedSec, and their motivations according to Watch Dogs 2 scriptwriter
Lucien Soulban, Ruffin Prentiss (Marcus), Shawn Baichoo (Wrench), Tasya Teles (Sitara),
and Jonathan Dubsky (Josh)." Continue here to read the full story.
Link of the Day:
Top 10 Rubik's Cube Speedcubers. Wow! Thanks RedEye9.
Activision announces that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is now available
on Steam, offering a
Windows edition of the superhero action/adventure sequel. They mark the occasion
with the rerelease of the original Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
on Steam and they offer
a bundle of both games
with a discount. Here's an
Ultimate
Alliance 2 trailer, and here's word: Featuring a cast of over 22 playable characters, the first Marvel: Ultimate
Alliance lets players create their own teams of heroes from the Marvel Universe,
or recreate their favorite existing ones, like the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic
Four and more. Experience a story starring more than 140 legendary characters,
including Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, Loki, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Ultron and many others. Customize and upgrade these mighty squads of champions
to unleash upon the single-player campaign, or in cooperative and competitive
online and local multiplayer for up to four players.
Set within the climactic events of Marvel Comics’ Civil War story arc,
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 throws players into the struggle for or against the
infamous Superhuman Registration Act. The missions, challenges, and threats
players face are affected by which side of the conflict they choose. Like its
predecessor, the game lets players assemble and level up their own Marvel
Universe dream teams from over 24 playable characters, each with specialized
abilities that can be combined for amazing results. Play alone in single-player,
or battle together in online and local co-op with up to four friends.
Continue here to read the full story.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is continuing his crusade to warn gamers about what he
feels are the potential dangers and pitfalls of Microsoft's Windows 10 strategy,
saying he believes the company will continue to patch the operating system to
impede the usefulness of third-party services such as Steam. His latest
thoughts on the topic are revealed in an interview in Edge Magazine, and
PC Gamer has relevant quotes and excerpts. "The risk here is that, if
Microsoft convinces everybody to use UWP, then they phase out Win32 apps,"
Sweeney explains. "If they can succeed in doing that then it’s a small leap to
forcing all apps and games to be distributed through the Windows Store. Once we
reach that point, the PC has become a closed platform. It won’t be that one day
they flip a switch that will break your Steam library – what they’re trying to
do is a series of sneaky manoeuvres. They make it more and more inconvenient to
use the old apps, and, simultaneously, they try to become the only source for
the new ones." He goes on to postulate that this will be a gradual but
intentional process on Microsoft's part, presuming the plan doesn't go all Zune
on them: "Slowly, over the next five years, they will force-patch Windows
10 to make Steam progressively worse and more broken. They’ll never completely
break it, but will continue to break it until, in five years, people are so fed
up that Steam is buggy that the Windows Store seems like an ideal alternative.
That’s exactly what they did to their previous competitors in other areas. Now
they’re doing it to Steam. It’s only just starting to become visible. Microsoft
might not be competent enough to succeed with their plan, but they’re certainly
trying."
Firefly Studios reveals their Gamescom plans, saying they will attend the show
and demonstrate two products, a mobile edition of Stronghold Kingdoms as
well as Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition, an upgraded version of the
siege warfare strategy game. They offer
a trailer showing off
the Andoid and iOS editions of the strategy game, and provide some details on
how the Steam Edition of the game enhances the original: Stronghold
Legends: Steam Edition (PC) – To be announced/released at Gamescom
- Free for all existing owners of the game
- Enhanced visuals
- Bonus campaigns and maps
- New Steam-exclusive features
- Multiplayer restored/rebuilt
Telltale Games plans to add social multiplayer elements to their games in the
future, revealing this at Comic-Con where
Inverse got the details on how this will work (thanks
Eurogamer.net). Here's word on how they will turn their episodic adventures
into collaborative affairs: “It really opens up this door for Telltale
games to be more of a social experience and a live one, [making it] an
opportunity to get together with your friends and play stories together, instead
of just debating about things the next day after you’ve both played separately,”
Stauffer noted, mentioning that players will also be able to see which players
in a session chose what after the episode is over.
“Even if players chose certain options, and they didn’t win because they were in
the minority, you can see sort of how these players were leaning and what their
behavior was,” he explained.
In any case, the approach is a natural evolution of what Telltale has always
strived for.
“All of our games are built in the language of cinema,” Stauffer said. “So, it’s
meant to be consumed on a screen, it’s meant to be consumed and observed and
interacted with in a language thats just the same as how people consume
television and movies. I think all roads have been leading to this
point.”
Rockstar Games announces the addition of a new content today to Grand
Theft Auto Online as part of the Cunning Stunts add-on. There are also plans
to give out bonus bucks and more to players this week, and there will also be
premium races this weekend with game cash prizes. Here's the deal: Today,
five new Stunt Races join the roster of GTA Online: Cunning Stunts, taking you
and your appetite for high-flying, daring, stunting action everywhere from the
peaks of Mount Chiliad to the shores of Vespucci. And next week, the official
launch of the Stunt Race Creator tool will harness the talents of the amazing
Creator community to usher in a whole new era of player-made mayhem. Check out a
brief overview of this week's new Stunt Races below, and read on for details on
three new vehicles, this week's bonuses and more.
On a weird impulse I recently picked up a Rubik's Cube, deciding it might be fun
to finally learn how to do one, especially since it seems to emphasize some sort
of thinking my brain doesn't really do. It was pretty easy to learn the first
half of what's apparently the simplest solution, but to master the end of it
would require memorizing a few slightly complex formulas, so that will be a
challenge. I'm not sure I'll actually be willing to memorize enough of what you
need to to work this, but I do feel it would almost be worth it for the
possibility that I would come across one someday and casually solve it to that
amazement of the admiring crowd. I guess it is proof of geekdom that this is
what I think would be impressive, as opposed to, say, dunking a basketball.
Bethesda.net now offers a
this new trailer
celebrating the return of Quake in Quake Champions, the upcoming new installment
in id Software's Shooter series. The clip features concept art, cinematics, and
thoughts on the game from id's Tim Willits. Here's word: After a rousing
reveal at E3 2016, Quake Champions has ignited interest amongst Quake
aficionados and newcomers alike. But what exactly is Quake Champions? We chat
with id Software’s Studio Director Tim Willits to get the lowdown straight from
the source. Willits tells us how Quake Champions not only captures the spirit of
the original games but also brings the storied shooter into the modern era with
the addition of Champions. Along with new insights into each of the four
revealed Champions – Ranger, Visor, Nyx and Scalebearer – Willits also shares
his personal favorite of the bunch.
Continue here to read the full story.
Rebellion announces the release of The Red Odyssey, a new expansion for
Battlezone 98 Redux, the first-person action/strategy remake. This is
available
on GOG.com and on Steam,
with each site offering a launch discount. You can get a look at what this adds
in this trailer, and
here's word: Lovingly remastered by Big Boat Interactive in California,
The Red Odyssey expands Battlezone’s alternative space-race lore with two new
factions - The NSDF Black Dogs and the Chinese Red Army – as they fight a deadly
campaign of vehicular warfare and cloaked ambushes to control powerful portal
technology linking our solar system to the mysterious exoplanet of Elysium ...
The Red Odyssey expansion offers dozens of hours of new content including:
- Two new singleplayer campaigns across two planets
and 23 missions
- Over 30 new vehicles and buildings to take into
battle
- 5 new multiplayer maps, FREE for all players, not
just owners of The Red Odyssey
- Completely remastered visuals, remodelled
vehicles, enhanced lighting, detailed terrain and much more ...
Continue here to read the full story.
Battlegoat Studios announces
Trump Rising, a new
DLC pack to be released tomorrow for Supreme Ruler Ultimate, their
Windows and OS X RTS game on
Steam. As you may have inferred, this plays a trump card ripped from today's
headlines with the addition of The Donald to the game. Here's word: Within
the United States, civil unrest fueled by racial tensions reaches even higher
than in the 1960's. To China and Russia, the new US President seems so
unpredictable and reckless that it seems logical to make a pre-emptive strike
rather than wait for him to have a 'bad hair day' and launch a strike against
them. In Western Europe, leaders are shaken by their new reality and realize
they may have to make concessions to Russia now that America can no longer be
relied upon. The European Union itself is in disarray as the UK prepares to
leave and forge its own relationships. In Mexico, and even in Canada, militaries
are brought to an unprecedented level of readiness over concern of Trump's
ambitions.
How will this play out? Will you assume Trump's role as the new US leader and
guide America to renewed Greatness? Or will you instead lead another nation and
take advantage of a potentially dysfunctional America to further your own
ambition?
This DLC adds the following to Supreme Ruler Ultimate:
- New Sandbox starting on US Inauguration Day,
January 20, 2017
- Updated "Modern World" relationships, leaders, and
regional economies
- Take control as President Donald Trump, or try to
minimize the damage as another World Leader
- Build the Trump Wall - although you may have to
pay for it yourself
- Encourage regional growth with the Trump Tower
economic development zones
Developer AlternativaPlatform announces plans to launch open beta testing later
this summer for Tanki X, their upcoming casual MMO tank combat game that will be
released free-to-play for Windows, OS X , and Linux. They offer
this gameplay trailer
to show off the game's Unity engine graphics, and urge everyone interested in
what they see to sign up here. Here's word
on the game: TANKI X is all about fast-paced futuristic tank combat
against real players. This is not some detail-heavy simulation with bricks for
manuals and hundreds of statistics to memorize. Tanki X is easy to jump into,
easy to play, and offers fast and furious gameplay with fully customizable
futuristic tanks across a collection of exciting and dynamic arenas. By winning
battles, players gain experience points and unlock more powerful equipment,
making them deadlier in the arena. But in Tanki X, it isn’t just about who’s got
the bigger gun... players need tactical prowess, skill, and nerves of steel to
be victorious!
Players can build their tanks from a variety of parts, mounting Gatling guns,
flamethrowers, and other high-tech turrets upon a variety of hulls, such as the
light and nimble “Wasp” to the impenetrable “Titan”, then pit their battle
machines against tankers from all over the world. Matches can be played in teams
or solo, including PvP modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture
the Flag.
Continue here to read the full story.
LawBreakers website now offers a new
video called Play The
Assassin from LawBreakers, the first-person shooter in the works at Boss Key
Studios. This is a short introduction to the character, which they describe like
so, "You can run but you can't hide. Kitsune on the Breakers side and Hellion on
the Law side is our Assassin Role. Swift, stealthy, and deadly." They urge those
interested in this first-person shooter to sign up for future alpha testing.
Continue here to read the full story.
-
POLYGOD -- Steam Greenlight. "PolyGod is a rogue-like, randomly
generated FPS where you are an assassin known only as 'Faceless the
Blessed'. You must battle the minions of malignant Gods and their Holy
Champions in an epic event known as the Trial of the Gods." Here's
a trailer.
- WarpBall – PixelFunder.
New game campaign on new crowdfunding platform (more on that in
the PixelFunder FAQ). "Inspired
by the retro classic Speedball 2, Monday Night Combat and the cult hit
Cellfactor Psychokinetic Wars, WarpBall is an online and local multiplayer
that brings the fun and accessibility back into sports games."
Digital Foundry's Gears of War 4 Tech Interview is online, discussing the
next installment in the shooter series. There is
an earlier article on Eurogamer focusing on some of the details about plans
for a PC edition, suggesting it won't be an afterthought this time around
(thanks
VG247). Here are some of the excerpted comments from Mike Rayner, technical
director for The Coalition "Our focus on PC is to deliver a highly
optimised, customisable experience first and foremost," Rayner tells us.
"Support for v-sync tearing has recently come to UWP and we will be able to
offer proper unlocked frame-rate support that gamers expect on day one. With
Unreal Engine 4 and our own custom modifications, we can take much better
advantage of multiple CPU cores, alleviating the game from being CPU-bound and
allowing more room for the GPU to shine with enhanced visual quality or higher
framerates. Single-player will not be locked to 30fps on PC."
Our analysis of the Gears of War E3 stage demo shows a rock-solid 30fps
presentation at full 1080p resolution. The demo was confirmed by The Coalition
as running on Xbox One hardware, and it looks as though the developers are
repurposing console features in intriguing ways for the PC version.
Rayner also listed "a few items of note" the team are adding to the PC version.
In his own words:
- Dynamic resolution support (any resolution will be
supported with a sensible dynamic field of view - including ultra-wide).
- Increased texture resolution (up to 4K resolution
for select texture groups).
- A benchmark mode.
- Full keyboard/mouse input remapping (including
cover/run and roll split).
- Far more comprehensive video settings.
"Today we sit at 28 different settings and we're thinking of ways to add more
for people to really have full control," Rayner tells us. "Along with more
settings, we're putting extra time into making it clear what impact a setting
will have on GPU/CPU/VRAM so there is a clear correlation between a setting
change and its performance impact."
Coincidental with the second anniversary of the game's launch
on Steam, Heroes &
Generals celebrates another milestone, as developer Reto-Moto announces the
World War II MMOFPS now boasts more than eight million registered players. "We
built Heroes & Generals from the ground up to be a unique World War II game, and
to surpass 8 million players is an achievement that makes everyone at Reto-Moto
proud," says Martin Pollas, CEO at Reto-Moto. "To see players having fun in the
game every day is a continuous inspiration to the small but very dedicated team
of game developers at Reto-Moto striving to make the game even better." A
new post from today outlines the latest plans for the free-to-play game,
showing off an upcoming new heavy variant on the medium Sherman tank.
Football Manager 2016 has a toehold at number one on the
GFK Chart-Track U.K. PC top 30 chart after kicking The Sims 4 out of the top
spot. On the
all platforms top 40 for the week ending July 23rd LEGO Star Wars: The Force
Awakens retains the top spot and FIFA 16 jumps to number two.
This write-up has all
the details: Warner’s ‘Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (-39%) holds on
to No1 for a fourth week in a row.
It now just needs one more to equal the record of 5 consecutive weeks for a Lego
title (‘Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes’ with 5 weeks back in 2012). There are no
new releases within the Top 40 and overall sales drop -29% over last week,
partly due to summer holidays and partly due to the spike from the special
retail shopping event during last week. As such we see EA’s ‘FIFA 16’ up 5
places to No2 (-13%), followed at No3 by Activision Blizzard’s ‘Overwatch’ which
climbs 1 place (-30%). Last week’s big new entry, Capcom’s 3DS ‘Monster Hunter
Generations’ (-66%) drops 6 places to No9. The Pokemon Go mobile phenomenon
continues to affect Pokemon 3DS software sales and 3 Pokemon 3DS games re-enter
the Top 40: ‘Pokemon Omega Ruby’ (No17), ‘Pokemon Alpha Sapphire’ (No24) and
‘Pokemon Y’ (No29). This week is the first full sales week since the mobile game
was launched in UK, which means that August will show a remarkable spike in
Pokemon sales and 3DS software and hardware, plus Nintendo’s share of the
market.
I finished my antibiotics on Friday, and am pretty confident that the last of my
Lyme symptoms are gone. This was pretty good timing, because being a skinny dude
I normally handle the hot weather pretty well, but the disease had severely
curtailed my superpower in this regard, so my ability to withstand the heat
returned just in time for the current heat wave. I did make an error in not
doing enough to protect myself from the sun, which is one of the things one
should do when on antibiotics, and while I managed to avoid a sunburn, the
farmer's tan on my arms is pretty ridiculous.
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