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Archived News:
A
post on reddit notes that another ban wave seems to have come down in
Overwatch, Blizzard's first-person shooter. This points to an
album on Imgur recording the indignant
responses from banned cheaters. The posts talk about suing Blizzard, complain of
shady business practices, and call the actions "persecution." Those prone to
schadenfreude should be careful, since reading these posts could cause a fatal
overdose.
Red Barrels took
to
Facebook to announce a delay to Outlast 2, their survival/horror
sequel (thanks
VG247).
The game was due in Q3 of this year, but now they say not to expect it before
the first quarter of next year. Here's the news: We had to make a
difficult decision recently. After weighing our options we’ve decided to
postpone Outlast 2’s release until Q1 of 2017.
We want you to know that we listen to your feedback, we see your excitement and
we know you care about our work. Our mission as an indie studio is to deliver to
you the best, most terrifying, most fulfilling experiences possible. That’s why
we’re taking just a little bit more time to make sure our vision for Outlast 2
is in no way compromised and is the experience you deserve.
This is not the type of news we ever want to deliver, but we are so fully
committed to the world we’ve built and to our awesome community that we could
not, in good conscience, release a game who’s limits haven’t been tested to the
extreme.
Thank you for understanding. We promise Outlast 2 will scare the crap out of
you.
Temple Gates Games announces the release of Ascension VR, a VR adaptation of this deck-building card game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
This takes advantage of virtual reality headsets in some interesting ways. Word is,
"Ascension VR uses 3D fully animated avatars and showcases social elements
including spatialized voice chat, avatar lip sync and avatar animation triggered
by real time player movement." Here's more: Ascension is a fast-paced deck
building game that’s quick to learn and packed with endless hours of replay
value. Play online or single player in this VR adaptation of the award winning
favorite that will appeal to fans of board games, trading card games and
strategy games alike.
Features
- 52 Heroes, Constructs & Monsters
- Network Multiplayer across VR platforms
- Vive, Gear & Rift support
- Single player AI mode
- Social VR features: spatialized chat, lip and
animation sync
Ascension VR is a fully social virtual game. Our beta hosted players from
around the world, discussing strategy and goofing off while they played together
in one space. Now you can play with friends online no matter where they
live.
Ubisoft announces the Skull Rain update will come tomorrow to Tom Clancy's
Rainbow Six Siege, their first-person shooter. They offer
this
trailer showing off the patch, and
this page
has all the details. They also explain how the content of the pack will or won't
unlock, depending on whether you have the season pass: The Tom Clancy’s
Rainbow Six Siege Skull Rain update will be available on August 2 and include a
new Favela map, the most destructible environment to date, and introduces two
new BOPE operators: Caveira and Capitão. Caveira is a ruthless interrogator who
uses her stealth technique, the Silent Step, to sneak up on her targets
undetected. Capitão is armed with a tactical crossbow which can fire lethal
asphyxiating bolts and micro grenades that allow for quick and unexpected
attacks.
Starting August 2, the Favela map will be available for all players and Season
Pass holders will instantly receive the new BOPE operators. Non-Season Pass
owners can unlock the operators with Renown or R6 credits starting August 9.Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is currently available worldwide for Xbox One,
PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC.
Continue here to read the full story.
Bethesda.net now has an update on Quake Champions, id
Software's upcoming multiplayer shooter. They offer
this video where id's
Tim Willits discusses their support for eSports and competitive play. They
promise more on the subject at QuakeCon, which gets underway in Dallas on
Thursday. Here's word: id Software isn’t just known for helping create
the shooter genre with fan-favorite franchises like DOOM and Quake. They’ve also
shown themselves to be leaders in the eSports arena, having run competitive
gaming events for years at QuakeCon. With Quake Champions, id wants to up the
ante, delivering a game that’s not only built with eSports in mind but is also
supported with leagues, tournaments and championships. Find out more from id
Software’s Studio Director Tim Willits about how Quake Champions will deliver a
game that’s balanced and ready for eSports when it releases on PC.
Continue here to read the full story.
The
LawBreakers website now offers a
new Play The Titan trailer
from Lawbreakers, Boss Key's upcoming FPS. Following the pattern of the last
couple of character introductions, we can expect a Titan tips trailer tomorrow.
In the meantime, word is, "Whether you're faced against Bomchelle on the Law
side or Cronos on the Breakers side, you better watch your six. The Titan's are
beastly, electrifying, and dangerous as hell. You DON'T want to get in their
way!" Continue here to read the full story.
Farm simulation has gone from being a game to a genre, as Techland announces
Pure Farming 17: The Simulator.
This teaser trailer
accompanies the news, showing a few seconds of cinematic tractor footage (sfw).
Here's the news: Techland Publishing is proud to announce it’s bringing
to life its own farming simulation game with Pure Farming 17: The Simulator. The
title will be the company’s take on how this immensely successful genre can be
grown into something even bigger.
The Techland team along with independent developer Ice Flames are aiming to
shake up the genre through a multitude of unique features and modes that will
come together to create “The Complete Farming Experience.”
“We realize there are a lot of farming sims out there already, but the more we
looked the more we realized they all seemed to fall short on certain features or
ideas that are actually integral in real farming. And the fans have been saying
this for years, telling developers what they would love to see included. With
Pure Farming, we’re aiming to be the ones who deliver on what has been missing
all these years. ” says Lead Pure Farming producer Kornel Jaskula.
Continue here to read the full story.
Studio Wildcard announces full Steam Workshop support for ARK: Survival of
the Fittest, their competitive dinosaur survival spin-off. They point to the
Ark mod tutorial and the
Ark Unreal
engine modding forum as places to look for help with this. They also say
that as of now this is no longer a standalone game, as it is being reintegrated
with the original Ark. Here's a bit: Studio Wildcard announced today it
will now offer full Steam Workshop support for the competitive dinosaur survival
spin-off ARK: Survival of the Fittest (ARK: SotF) including mods, maps, and
total conversions across all PC/Mac/Linux/Steam OS platforms. Starting today
ARK: SotF will no longer be a standalone game, but be re-integrated into ARK:
Survival Evolved (ARK: SE) so the developer is able to provide unlimited modding
support which will then offer users the ability to freely take assets from ARK:
SE and move them into ARK: SotF without restriction.
“We think that Steam Workshop support for Survival of the Fittest is a
significant addition - it's pretty much the most-requested feature for the game
at the present time,” said Jeremy Stieglitz, lead designer, programmer, and
co-founder, Studio Wildcard. “We can now support unlimited modding with both
games and modders have instant access to work with new content as it drops into
either game.”
Reminder! Right now ARK: Survival Evolved is 50% off its retail price, making it
the best deal ever on this dinosaur experience. Go buy it on
Steam before the sale
ends at 10 pm PST, Thursday, August 4, to start taming, training, riding and
breeding dinosaurs!
-
Drop Alive -- Steam Greenlight. "Drop Alive is a platformer where you
control a little drop of water that can transform into ice and steam to
overcome its journey.
In this story, you are reborn for unknown reasons and the first thing you
see is your old life: The river. Desperate to go back home, you will
dangerously turn into steam and ice, and back to water, to get to your old
home." A Windows demo is available.
-
When It Hits the Fan by Tommy Cockrell Jr — Kickstarter. "A fast paced
action arcade top-down shooter that calls back to 32-bit arcade and console
games." Also on
Steam Greenlight. A playable demo is available.
Frontwire
Studios announces the cancellation Galaxy in Turmoil, their planned
action game based on leaks from Star Wars Battlefront III (thanks nin).
Lucasfilm informs them that this will not fly with Star Wars game license-holder
EA. This will not surprise fans who have seen such "Foxings" before, but it
seems to have caught the team off guard. Though they understand the Star Wars IP
is Lucasfilms', they state they believe their project was "fair use." But they
are not pursuing this, saying they are pivoting clear of infringement:
Most likely, you are asking yourself “what does this mean for Galaxy in
Turmoil?“ Our highly publicized project as you have come to know it will no
longer be a Star Wars game inspired by Battlefront. However, there is a new
hope(Sorry, I had to slip that in!). Upon speaking with Lucasfilm, they informed
us that they have no issue with a Battlefront inspired game that is not using
the Star Wars IP itself. Regardless of what some have said, all of our code,
sounds and many other non-Star Wars assets have been created in-house, which
means they are indeed owned by us.
Going forward, Frontwire Studios will be pivoting away from Star Wars and
embarking on a mission to create a new, original game in a never before seen
universe. Our game will still have massive 64-player battles, ground-to-space
combat, destructible capital ships, and a full single-player campaign. We will
also still be releasing Galaxy in Turmoil on Steam as planned and it will remain
a free game. No, we will not be adding any micro transactions or pay-to-win
content. When Frontwire Studios makes a promise, we keep it. With that being
said, we will still create the game you have all wanted and deserved, even if it
turns out to not be Star Wars-related.
Fireforge Games has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy,
reports Kotaku (thanks nin). Noting this is not to be confused with the
tabletop Fireforge Games, they say
this came just days after the release
of the developer's Ghostbusters tie-in, which was not well-received. They
also summarize the various other legal issues swirling around the company:
Filings show that Fireforge owes around $11.3 million to Tencent. In
addition, the now-bankrupt studio has been entangled in a lawsuit with a
Singapore-based private company called Min Productions, owned by Razer CEO
Min-Liang Tan.
Tan alleges that Fireforge failed to deliver on their contract while developing
Zeus, and instead used the money to work on Atlas with Tencent. Fireforge, on
the other hand, says they only started working on Atlas once Razer had stopped
paying them. The lawsuit is currently on hold as Fireforge sorts out their
bankruptcy proceedings.
On top of that, lawyer Richard Land—who was the “receiver” responsible for
selling the games and IP of 38 Studios following that company’s closure—sued
Fireforge in 2015. Land claims that Fireforge signed a deal to license 38
Studios’ proprietary social media platform Helios for $3.7 million, then reneged
and instead hired several ex-38 Studios employees to build their own version.
Trion Worlds announces a free mode is coming to
Atlas Reactor, their
simultaneous turn-based arena battle game. This is a bit of a full circle, as
this launched as a free-to-play game before
it switched to be a buy-to-play
dealie. The change will come a week from tomorrow, and here are some details:
When we announced the buy-to-play business model for Atlas Reactor, we
promised there would always be ways to check the game out for free. After a lot
of planning and work, we’re happy to announce a new, all-free mode for Atlas
Reactor that delivers on that promise. Here’s how it works.
First, you can play the game for free. Easy. Play as much as you want with the
Freelancers that you see in a weekly freerotation. Earn reward caches containing
a selection from hundreds of cosmetic banners, icons, emotes, titles, skins,
styles, taunts, and more.
Want the full experience? One simple $19.99 purchase unlocks all the
Freelancers, lets you play custom matches and participate in future tournaments,
and is the core way for fans to show their support of the game.
Free Mode goes live both through Trion and Steam next Tuesday, August
9th.
The Sims 4 returns to its comfort zone atop the
GFK Chart-Track top 30 chart of last week's PC game sales in the U.K. Last
weeks' number one, Football Manager 2016, drops to number two this week.
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens remains number one on the
all platforms chart. Here's
their write-up of the
news: ‘Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (+1%) makes it 5 consecutive
weeks at No1 equalling the record for chart topping Lego titles.
It now stands alongside ‘Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes’, which first achieved
the feat in 2012. A price promoted ‘Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’ (+94%) rises
four places up to No2 while ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (+37%) climbs a place to No3.
No new releases grace the charts this week but the start of the summer holiday
provides a welcome boost to the Top 40. ‘Ratchet & Clank’ (+143%) is one of the
major beneficiaries rocketing twenty-three places to No10. Following the recent
launch of mobile app Pokemon Go 3DS title ‘Pokemon Alpha Sapphire’ (+95%) is the
biggest climber in the franchise moving up an impressive fourteen places to
No11.
As the calendar hits August, we've entered what seems to be monsoon season in
these parts. This weekend it rained most of the time, which eased the heat but
not the humidity. We've got this going right now, as the temperature is 68° and
the humidity is 90%. Not that I'm complaining, but this makes the BlueTower feel
like a cave. In fact, at the moment I'm pretty sure we're close to the proper
conditions here to make cheese.
R.I.P.:
Game Journalism Pioneer Joyce Worley Passes Away.
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