Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Solid production values Easy to pick up and play Manaphy... some day Cons Relatively short and easy Little gameplay depth Simplistic storyline Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Another month, another Pokemon spin-off. Yes, the Pokemon money-making machine is full effect on the DS now, building speed in anticipation for next year's Pokemon Diamond and
Wasteland 2 devs issue C&D letter to Alien Wasteland studio
Alien Wasteland was a low-budget FPS which invited players to “battle (their) way through hordes of aliens from canyon deserts to tropical islands”.
Alien Wasteland was a low-budget FPS which invited players to “battle (their) way through hordes of aliens from canyon deserts to tropical islands”. Developed by one man studio Dan Games, it sells for around $4.99 and has done so since it released in June last year. Alas, as of yesterday Alien Wasteland is no more: it’s now known as the slightly less elegant Action Alien.
The reason? inXile, the studio responsible for Wasteland 2, sent Dan Games an email claiming the name Alien Wasteland was an infringement to their “Wasteland” trademark. When Dan Games failed to change the name after a direct approach from inXile, the small studio received a cease and desist letter.
“Because both games have almost nothing in common and no case of confusion was ever reported for almost two years since my game was first announced, I have been calmly explaining through long emails why we should have no worries about this,” developer Devdan wrote in. “But I finally ended up receiving a cease and desist letter from their lawyer asking to either stop using "wasteland" or to prepare facing legal actions against me.”
A spokesperson for inXile later confirmed the news in the studio’s forums, and defended the company’s rights to protect its trademark. “We reached out to the developer of The Alien Wasteland (now Action Alien) directly looking to find an amicable resolution without involving lawyers,” the spokesperson wrote. “The C&D only happened because the developer was unwilling to recognize the issue, only offering to change the game's name if we paid him for it. Asking to be paid for infringing on someone’s rights is certainly a new one for us, so of course we refused.”
Trademark infringement is the source of many a controversy in the games industry: most notably, Bethesda’s objection to Mojang’s use of the name Scrollsfor its CCG. In that case, Mojang ended up keeping the name. While it’s thoroughly unlikely that anyone would confuse Wasteland 2 with Alien Wasteland, the Kafka-esque complexity of trademark law is not something a small, one-man studio is wise to get involved with.
“Since I don't have the time nor the strength to deal with legal actions from this developer and its lawyers, or even taking the risk of having my game to be took down from Steam, I decided to change the title to solve this issue, even though this has been a great loss in time and efforts for a very questionable complain,” Devdan wrote.
State of Decay's upcoming Lifeline DLC adds new map, keeps hordes of undead
Open-world zombie survival sim State of Decay is getting more DLC.
is getting more DLC. But like friendly neighbors in a post-apocalyptic world, details are hard to come by at the moment. What we do know from developer Undead Labs is that the new content carries the name "Lifeline" and will debut a new map.
State of Decay's first DLC release, "Breakdown,"included a new mode as well as additional playable characters when it saw the light of day back in November. It's about all the context we have when trying to guess what Lifeline might have in store for players, but Undead Labs community director Sanya Weathers did tease the appearance of a design document relating to the DLC that should surface before the end of the month.
"We're not yet ready to discuss features or make promises," writesWeathers. "All we can tell you is that it will offer you a new way to play your favorite survival game, that we intend to launch on PC and the Xbox 360 at the same time, and that yes, it will broaden your horizons by a few kilometers."
State of Decay also supports player-made content, such as the George Romero Mod. But obviously, the more official zombie-killing content we get, the better.
Thanks, IGN.
Kickstart This: ‘The Secret Cove’ Hunts Treasure in Cornwall
Cheeky Sprite Studios, based in the United Kingdom, invites players to explore the beauty of Cornwall in their forthcoming game The Secret Cove .
. If ancient legends, buried treasure, and point-and-click adventures are your cup of tea, get ready to enjoy a whole kettle.
You take on the role of an unemployed deckhand, looking for work. One night in a local pub, as you’re cozied up with a pint, you overhear a pair of old sea dogs talking about the Cornish legend of ‘the secret cove.’ One of the fishermen claims to possess the journal of a notorious smuggler, now deceased, which can lead an intrepid soul to the secret cove and the treasure hidden there. From this conversation, you find yourself on the non-linear adventure of a lifetime as you explore real-life scenes in Cornwall. Solving puzzles, assembling tools, uncovering artifacts, and navigating lost smuggling tunnels, every step you take will – hopefully – bring you that much closer to untold riches and fame.
The journal is not complete, so part of your journey will involve discovering the lost pages. Your travels will take you through interactive scenes, beautifully rendered in 3D, which will have you traveling on land, underground, and even underwater, accompanied all the way by a dramatic, atmospheric soundtrack composed by Rich Douglas. You’ll visit famous landmarks throughout Cornwall, including St. Ives Wharf, St. Michael’s Mount, the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and even Tintagel Castle – rumored to be the birthplace of King Arthur. You’ll need all your wits and sense of adventure to bring this story to its conclusion.
To help bring The Secret Cove to PC gamers everywhere, Cheeky Sprite Studios just launched a Kickstarter campaign. They hope to raise £50,000 in order to finance their vision of what the game can be. The target platform is Windows 8 – PC, mobile, and tablet – but they also plan to release for Windows 7, Android, and also iOS devices. They hope to bring the game to Steam Greenlight, and with any luck, they’ll be able to launch it not only for the initial platforms, but also for Mac and Ouya, with language translations in Spanish, French, and German. Be sure to check out the Kickstarter, and meanwhile keep tabs on Cheeky Sprite Studios on their Facebookand Twitteraccounts.
E3 06: Pokemon Ranger hands-on
Anyone who's played a traditional Pokemon RPG in the past - and literally millions of gamers have, so we're guessing that's a reasonable point of reference - knows how annoying it is to fail in an attempt to capture a pokemon. You beat the critter down to near-unconsciousness and toss your little pokeball out there in total confidence - only to have the damn thing wiggle once, wiggle twice, and then
Two paths through the wasteland: Brian Fargo on Wasteland 2 and Fallout 4
26 years is a long time to wait for a video game sequel, especially when those intervening years have spawned a similar, but more critically and commercially successful, series of games.
26 years is a long time to wait for a video game sequel, especially when those intervening years have spawned a similar, but more critically and commercially successful, series of games. But here we are, at the latest juncture on a twisted path: Wasteland begat Fallout; Interplay gave way to Bethesda; and last year, the circle of post-apocalyptic life was closed with Wasteland 2, developed by inXile Entertainment, the studio founded by ex-Interplay boss Brian Fargo, who created the original Wasteland all those years ago. War never changes, as the saying goes, but the irradiated hellscapes left in their wake? That, as we’ve seen, is a different story.
Brian Fargo, founder of interplay and inxile
Fargo’s Wasteland 2 is more akin to the first two Fallout games than to its namesake, but Fallout under the auspices of Bethesda isn't what it once was either. The first two Fallouts were isometric RPGs with turn-based combat. Fallout 3, New Vegas, and soon Fallout 4 are powerfully immersive first-person experiences that are as much open-world shooters as anything else.
"[Fallout 4]'s more action-oriented, so that makes it different than what I would have done, but that being said, it looks great," Fargo said during a recent chat. "They've captured a lot of the essence of what made the Fallout universe, and they really pour a lot of effort into little things, whether it's the crafting, or the personality or how many names the robot can speak. I tip my hat to the craftsmanship they've brought to the franchise."
The differences in perspective and scale notwithstanding—and let's be fair, a multi-million-dollar Kickstarterdoesn't even begin to approach the budget a big-time studio like Bethesda can bring to bear—the most meaningful difference between the modern-era Fallout and Wasteland lies in the storytelling. It's probably best typified by the decision to make Fallout 4's dog companion unkillable as a sop to delicate feelings. InXile, on the other hand, included a dog the 2004 edition of The Bard's Tale, "and we just made you love that dog," Fargo said. And then they killed it stone dead. Something similar happened to a vital NPC, as I was shocked to discover, at a critical juncture in Wasteland 2.
"With Wasteland, we kind of bent over backwards to ensure that everybody can be killed in that game. And you know what, it's a pain in the ass to design for that, because from beginning to end, there's all those NPCs and all those characters, and every single one of them can be killed," he continued. "And they're not fodder, they're people that have conversations and plot and reasons to be there. So when you account for being able to shoot and kill everything, it makes your design multiply."
It also potentially exposes game makers to backlash from over-excited parents and tut-tutting Fox News commentators if they take things too far. Fargo said game makers "ride this line" between immersion and caution, and reminded me that this isn't the first time Bethesda has opted for the latter: In the first two Fallouts, players who killed children were tagged with the "Childkiller" reputation, penalizing their NPC reactions and exposing them to bounty hunters. In Fallout 3 and beyond, Bethesda opted to simply make kids invulnerable.
"There was always this discussion [for Interplay's Fallouts] of, well, you want to make everyone killable because otherwise the world doesn't feel real, because you're fully immersed. When you're playing these games, it's like, for a moment there, you're in this alternate reality, and it's real for you. You are there. So when something suddenly doesn't work that works everywhere else, it breaks you out of it for a moment," he said. "But then you have to contrast that with, you don't want to be the sound bite that says, 'Here's a game that allows the killing of kids.' Because that's not what it's about. So there's always that friction between those two things."
"I think that when you remove the laws and accountability of mankind, they tend to do some really horrible things."
Nonetheless, Fargo is willing to go to some pretty ugly places with his games. The brutality of Wasteland 2 surprised me at times, like the encounter, which we mentioned in our review, with the Canyon of Titan traveler who dies horrifically at the hands of her "protector." Fallout seems to have gone in the other direction, as seen in the recent "Wanderer" live-action trailer that makes life in the wasteland look like a pretty good time. I asked Fargo if he felt Bethesda's take on the setting had become more parodic than he'd envisioned.
"Ours were quite grim in some ways, but we always had levity also. We always had that dark sense of humor, and I love a dark sense of humor, more than just about anything, so I don't know if I'd use the word 'parody'," he said. "These things take on a different tone depending on who's in charge of them. I think with any creative endeavor, you can take a franchise and put in a [different] director, and it's going to have a different beat to it."
And if Fargo’s “beat” seems at times to be unforgivingly grim, it’s likely because he holds a rather pessimistic view of humanity's basic nature that informs his post-apocalyptic designs. "I think that when you remove the laws and accountability of mankind, they tend to do some really horrible things," he continued. "Some of the post-apocalyptic books that I've read have really focused on mankind's nature in these circumstances. The Road, or Swan Song, or even in Mad Max, it's pretty dark stuff. So we try to capture that kind of dark side of man in what we do."
The return of Wasteland was met with excitement and accolades as well, enough to take it from niche PC RPG to a "Director's Cut" release for consoles. Fargo acknowledged that some of that durability is the result of Fallout keeping the genre in the public eye, but he attributes much of it to the depth and complexity inXile layers into its work, citing as an example a payoff scene for the shotgun-toting boozehound Scotchmo that most players won't ever see. Most of them won't even finish the game, he said. And he's not wrong: only 7.5 percent of Steam players have earned the "Back Where It All Began" achievement, an unavoidable late-game marker—but this stuff is in there, bringing a "subtlety" to the game world, as he put it, that makes the experience more rewarding for everyone.
"There's no person in my office that knows everything that's in it. The way I put these things together, we set sensibilities and ways to attack stuff, and then it gets a life of its own, and the project becomes its own thing…At the end of the day, literally you have a game that no person in this office knows everything that's in it,” he said.
Almost as if to make his point, Kotakuran a story shortly after I spoke to Fargo about a shiny red button in Wasteland 2's sewers. Pushing it causes the screen to shake, and, apparently, nothing else. It was a mystery that had held up for more than a year, until Project Lead Chris Keenan revealed that the button actually opens up another area on the above-ground map, with a clever surprise inside.
Wasteland 2 has helped put Fargo and inXile at the forefront of a cRPG renaissance. Even so, he didn't hesitate when I asked if he'd be interested in making a new Fallout someday. But time has passed and attitudes have changed, he added, and so while the opportunity to add a new chapter to the story would be “a treat,” the reality is that an inXile-built Fallout wouldn’t be the sort of direct, note-for-note follow-up that Van Burenadherents dream of. And really, that's what Wasteland 2 is all about anyway: Making the kind of post-apocalyptic RPG he really wants, for the people who want that kind of experience.
With inXile's latest project, The Bard's Tale IV, the situation is reversed somewhat. The fundamentals of dungeon crawlers haven't changed meaningfully since the original Bard's Tale helped make it one of the dominant genres of the late 80s and early 90s, but inXile aims to shake things up with the new game. That leads naturally to the question of whether that's something that dungeon crawler fans really want. Developer Almost Human has had considerable success with its Legend of Grimrockgames, which very purposely hew closely to the genre's old-time conventions.
"Sometimes people don't know what they want until they see it, and I think when we show it to them, they're going to want it. Everybody wants better graphics, and everybody wants a deeper combat system," he said. "And if I'm going to do combat, I don't think anyone's going to not want it to feel like it pays off better, or not have really great special effects or spell effects or particle effects. I don't think anybody's going to not want that stuff. Even though they're not specifically asking for it, I think when you add it all up, they're going to like the package for sure."
The point is that, in spite of its lineage, The Bard's Tale IV isn't just a nostalgia project. The series predates Wasteland and hasn't had the benefit of a Fallout-like spinoff to keep it at the forefront of gamer consciousness. Because of that, Bard's Tale IV may well diverge further from its predecessor, perhaps even evolving into something with echoes of Bethesda's Fallout resurrection. That would be quite a reversal of roles—and a lot of fun to watch.
It'll be awhile yet before we see much of substance from the new Bard's Tale, though Fargo likened it to Interplay’s 1995 dungeon crawler Stonekeep. “You compare Stonekeep to Bard's Tale, and graphically it was—well, now it doesn't look so great—but it was like a big leap forward from the original ones. So we're just continuing on from that tradition.” InXile’s focus has been primarily on the Wasteland 2 Director's Cut, and it's also elbows-deep in Torment: Tides of Numenera. And there are "other production plans that we'll be announcing soon that I think people will find very interesting," he said. The California-based studio just recently announced its first expansion, a satellite office in New Orleans expected to grow to 50 people.
"They'd shoot me if I start talking about other things," Fargo said. "But I will soon. It's never dull around here, I'll tell you that."
Oh my god, this Phantom Pain cosplay has actual damn wolves in it
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Award-Winning Lumino City Lights Up on Mobile
State of Play Games, authors of multiple award-winning Lumino City , are giving people another opportunity to experience their game.
, are giving people another opportunity to experience their game. Those who missed out on the Windows or Mac versions can soon look to playing it on mobile devices.
The star of Lumino City , Lumi, welcomes home her Grandad. However, shortly after his return, he is dramatically kidnapped. Pulled into an adventure full of intrigue, Lumi learns about her Grandad as she gets closer to rescuing him. On the way, Lumi solves puzzles embedded with real objects. She manipulates mechanisms, computers, and windmills.
Puzzle elements aren’t the only realistic objects in the game; the entire city that stages the game is handmade by State of Play Games. Paper, cardboard, glue, small lights and motors create the scenery, forming little gardens that appear to be floating in the sky, city gates and streets, and a tiny house on a cliff. As for the character models, they were filmed.
Lumino City received numerous awards, which especially praised its visual style. Its accolades include the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2015 Artistic Achievement and Best British Game, Indie Prize Showcase 2015 Best Art Award, Develop Games Awards Visual Arts 2015 winner, and more.
There’s no specific release date, but Lumino City will light up on iPads and iPhones “soon.” In the meantime, find out more by visiting the game’s websiteand keep vigil thanks to State of Play Games’ Twitter.
Lumino City is also available on Steamand Gog.com.
Pokemon Ranger: The Road to Diamond and Pearl
Friday 19 May 2006 Anyone who's played a traditional Pokemon RPG in the past - and literally millions of gamers have - knows how annoying it is to fail in an attempt to capture a pokemon. You beat the critter down to near-unconsciousness and toss your little pokeball out there in total confidence - only to have the damn thing wiggle once, wiggle twice, and then, POOF! The ball evaporates and the pokemon
Wasteland 2 Director's Cut is coming in October
The Wasteland 2 Director's Cut, originally announced as the Game of the Year Edition , will make a number of improvements to inXile's hit post-apocalyptic RPG.
, will make a number of improvements to inXile's hit post-apocalyptic RPG. Quirks, perks, precision strikes, expanded voice acting, and balance changes are all on the menu, and it will also be given an extensive visual upgrade thanks to a move to the Unity 5 engine. And it will all happen, the studio announced today, on October 13.
"We're now in the home stretch of development," inXile wrote in a new. "Our final tasks in the several weeks before final release include polishing up the game as much as we can, including tweaks, optimizations, fixes and balance adjustments. We hope you will enjoy the changes and updates as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you."
October 13 is a bit later than the "late summer" launch we expected, but the Director's Cut sounds like it's going to be a pretty major upgrade. It will also be free for anyone who already owns the original Wasteland 2, which I think makes the wait a little more bearable. Have a look at some of the improved eye candy in the updated screens below.
State of Decay's sandboxy expansion arriving November 29th
Open world zombie survival game State of Decay took its sweet time coming to PC, but you can't say the same about its first chunk of additional content: the long-teased Breakdown DLC.
took its sweet time coming to PC, but you can't say the same about its first chunk of additional content: the long-teased Breakdown DLC. Breakdown will hit a certain last-gen console and past-current-and-future-gen PCs on November 29th, which is when zombies traditionally celebrate the festive period. (They have zombie reindeer and a zombie Santa and everything - it's really quite lovely, actually.) What is in, on, or under Breakdown's bonnet, you ask? Why, a new, pretty-much-endless sandbox mode, along with "new achievements, survivors and weapons". All that and a bag of chips (warning: game might not contain chips) can be yours for $6.99.
The new sandbox mode functions much like the main one - only without a story, obviously - and with the ability to discover a broken-down RV that will transport you to a reshuffled version of the map if you can get it running. It's essentially Dark Souls' New Game Plus; once you've plundered the map's resources and saved everyone you want to save, you can take your chums on a trip to a new, eerily similar valley with remixed content and harder level of difficulty. You can do this an endless number of times, apparently, though developers Undead Labs have only managed to survive about eight.
Here's a trailer showing the new survivors and the like:
Indie Intermission – ‘PaperCoaster’ Sometimes The Theory Is Different To The Reality
Today’s pick of the web is a rather interesting roller-coaster designer that goes by the name of PaperCoaster .
PaperCoaster was created by Elisée the whole idea is to create a roller-coaster which both scores you a good score whilst functioning.
PaperCoaster is a game of two halves as you must first draw the roller-coaster on the paper and then run it in real-time to ensure it works correctly. The drawing stage does take sometime to get use to, but after you get the hang of it the idea is rather straight forward.
The next stage where you must test the coaster is a little bit more difficult as you quickly begin to see flaws in your design as you try time and time again to get your coaster to the finish intact.
The concept is genius and brings about many very straightforward ideas which when put together make for a very fun game.
Average play time – 15 minutes
PaperCoaster is of such a high standard that it’s hard to believe this was designed in just a weekend. It’s a game with a great deal of potential and with some added development I could see this taking prime position on mobile devices, as the controls are very simple I feel it would be suited well to touch devices.
Of course the mobile version would need more levels and the ability for users to create and share their maps with others. Be sure to download PaperCoaster nowand see what you think.
If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut trailer shows upgrades and improvements
It's a little late to be an "E3 2015" trailer, but we'll let InXile off, as this is the first footage of their upcoming Wasteland 2: Director's Cut.
Announced last month, the Director's Cut will update the game to Unity 5, thus bringing better environment textures, character models and lighting. Outside of the engine, the new version will also feature thousands of lines of new dialogue, extra character customisation and reworked combat.
It all sounds like a pretty big overhaul, and, even better, it will be free for all owners of Wasteland 2. The Director's Cut is due out in late Summer.
Nintendo reaffirms Wii U's 2012 release; Street Fighter X Tekken producer teases hardware changes
Reuters is reporting that Nintendo has confirmed Wii U's release in "key markets" by the end of the year. Said markets would include the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan, all of which would get the system by the time the ball drops in 2012. More interesting is Street Fighter X Tekken producer Yoshinori Ono's recent comments on the Wii U, a console he says has changed since it was shown off
Shuffle 5’ – Android App Review
‘Shuffle 5’ – Android App Review
The game is a very straightforward 5 letter word jumble game with a purple color scheme and nice rounded tiles for the letters.
Small Danish developers, Jaxel Studios , has recently released their newest app, Shuffle 5 for Android.
The game is a very straightforward 5 letter word jumble game with a purple color scheme and nice rounded tiles for the letters. In general, you click on the letters in the order you want them arranged and a buzzer noise will play when you’re incorrect before resetting the blank row for another attempt. If you’re having trouble solving the puzzle, there are five skips per round played. Your high scores show how many consecutive words you managed to solve and the score is based off of how long it took (and likely the number of attempts as well) to figure out each word. There are two gaming modes to choose from: Survival Mode, and Count Down Mode.
In Survival Mode, you have twenty seconds to figure out what each word is. It’s the easier difficulty game setting because twenty seconds is actually a pretty long time to try to figure out what the word is. When time starts to run low, a “yoo hoo” will chime with an arrow pointing at the skip button on the screen to remind you that you can keep going. In Count Down Mode, you have three minutes to solve as many words as you can. It’s better to play on the go since the time spent is predetermined, but it doesn’t give you a lot of time to get a high word count either.
There are a lot of words in each language’s dictionary, and seven dictionaries, for a large variety in gameplay. I haven’t gotten any word twice yet. However, variations of non-5 letter words are common. There are a lot of plurals and different tenses used in order to reach 5 letters, so when you’re trying to figure out what the word is, keep that in mind.
There are two issues I had with this game. The first is that the screen is partially cut off when I play. The newest update for Shuffle 5 on Google Play says that that’s being worked on, so I’m going to assume that either it hasn’t been fixed with the version I was given, or Jaxel Studios is still working on straightening it out. Either way, it’s not too much of a problem. I can still play the game fine; it just makes it more difficult to return to the main menu and view your high score. If you’re curious, I played using a Samsung Galaxy S3 and the sample playing was done with a tablet.
The other issue I had was that there isn’t a difficulty meter for the game. There isn’t any sort of progression in difficulty, or a level to choose to play with. Because of this, I’ve often started playing a round and had to skip the first few words immediately, but after struggling, then I can answer several in a row with ease. I would appreciate some sort of progressing difficulty when playing, or an ability to choose a level of difficultly to play. It’s entertaining to unscramble the words, but there isn’t a strong flow between words.
For what this game is, I think that it’s very well done. The sound effects are appropriate, and the “yoo hoo” in survival mode is cute. It’s better suited for more advanced word jumble fans, but still enjoyable for all levels.
It also stands out from other word jumble apps because it has a neat development story that you can use to talk about the game with other people. You can read it here.
Shuffle 5 is currently available through Google Playand is pending approval from the App Store. Don’t forget to follow Jaxel Studios on Facebookand Twitter.
[review pros=”Not complicated, appropriate sound effects, clean graphics” cons=”The buzzer can get annoying after awhile, the difficulty is random, screen resolution doesn’t adjust properly” score=83]
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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Worthwhile puzzle action Music's not too bad Lots of multiplayer options Cons It's kinda easy Still no Poke-RPG on the DS Pokemon license might deter a few Is there anything the Poke-critters can't do? As much as you want to write them off, the sickeningly-adorable little monsters manage to sneak into a decent game from time to time. In this case, it's a falling
Wasteland 2 is getting a visual upgrade
Wasteland 2 isn't the prettiest game in the world, although it is one of the brownest, it taking place in the irradiated desert an' all.
Wasteland 2 isn't the prettiest game in the world, although it is one of the brownest, it taking place in the irradiated desert an' all. Of course, fancy images aren't the reason you play a game like this—but it can't hurt, as long as it doesn't put a strain on your PC. inXile have just announcedthat a visual upgrade is coming to Wasteland 2, thanks to them moving the game engine over from Unity 4.5 to Unity 5. Unity 5, you might be aware, features something called "physically based shading", which...look I'm no shading expert, alright? Here's a big explanationfrom Unity. 'Nicer graphics', basically.
That isn't the only thing coming to Wasteland 2—modders should soon be getting some new tools too.
"In pursuit of this goal," project lead Chris Keenan writes in that Kickstarter update, "one task we’re working on right now is migrating the Wasteland 2 codebase from the Unity 4.5 engine to Unity 5, which will enable some new possibilities for us. A major benefit of moving to Unity 5 is that 5 will include many of the tools from Unity 4.x Pro. We relied on many of these tools during our development (like creating and building navigation meshes), and they will be available to modders without having to pay thousands of dollars for a Pro Unity license. There is no doubt that this migration will allow us to release better tools for modding to our community in the future."
"As well as visual improvements, we have quite a few quirky tricks up our sleeves. The character system is getting perked up and will include some new elements to modify gameplay. Of course, more details will be released in the future so stay tuned!"
Ta, Blue's News.
State of Decay shambles on to Steam Early Access later today
The thing about the zombie apocalypse?
The thing about the zombie apocalypse? There just isn't time to make sure everything you do is made with meticulous perfection. Go all tortured artist over that barricade, and you might as well be erecting a sign saying "free brains, one careful owner". With that in mind, Undead Labs will today launch a rough-and-ready PC version of their open-world zombie survival game State of Decay. The Steam Early Access launch will then be smoothed out through community feedback. See, teamwork. That's another thing that can help stop you from being the first course in a brain buffet.
"This process is not for everyone," warns Undead Labs community director Sanya Weathers in. "Casual players, the easily frustrated, and the short of time should NOT get the Early Access version." For one thing, the beta will launch without keyboard support, meaning players will need an Xbox 360 pad. "You all deserve the best, so if you're not into giving feedback, just wait a few months and play the final version after we make it great."
According to Weathers, the game will cost "twenty bucks", the same as the Xbox 360 version, and - as always - purchase of the Early Access build will secure a free copy of the full game. It should be available as soon as the Steam beast rises.
For more on State of Decay, check back this afternoon to read our interview with Undead Labs' Jeff Strain.
SWARM’ Coming Soon To A Tablet Near You
‘SWARM’ Coming Soon To A Tablet Near You
It wouldn’t come as a particular surprise to learn you’ve never heard of E4 Software before.
before. Having only formed earlier this year, up until now E4 Software only has two games under it’s belt; ABCs Learn & Singand Solitaire Double-Deck HD. Well now E4 Software has announced they’re about to release their third title, and it looks like it’s definitely one to keep your eyes on.
SWARM is an action/platformer coming soon for Android and iOS tablets. You play as spherical anti-hero HotRod as he fights off a swarm of evil robot cops who have arrived through an intergalactic portal and begun attack civilians and regular cops without discrimination. Unwilling to allow his city get destroyed, HotRod sets forth to save his city and to discover the source of the robot threat.
It’s your job to utilize HotRod’s superior handling skills to lure enemies into deadly traps, solve speed and physics-based puzzles and save the city from the impending threat of robo-invasion.
SWARM will be compatible with the iPad Mini, iPad and iPad2, as well as Kindle Fire HD, Samsung Galaxy Tab, NOOK HD tablet, and many more. Swarm is due to be released this month for $1.99 USD on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store and Barnes & Noble.
You can find the E4 Software website hereand follow them on Twitter here.
Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition announced, will be a free upgrade
It's a good thing games aren't maintained in keeping with their theme.
It's a good thing games aren't maintained in keeping with their theme. If so, Wasteland 2 fans would be beating each other with sticks and lead pipes in order to get their hands on the scant few upgrades InXile had supplied for them. Instead, the post-apocalyptic RPG developer will be making their Game of the Year update free for all.
Wasteland 2: Game of the Year is billed as a massive overhaul to the Kickstarted sequel. It will update the game's engine to Unity 5, bringing better environment textures, character modes and lighting. In addition, the update will boast "thousands" of lines of new dialogue.
The game's systems are being expanded, too. Here's the relevant passage from the press release:
" Players will have even more fun customizing their squad of Desert Rangers with new Perks & Quirks, which allow them to customize their squad throughout the game with unique bonuses and trade-offs. The new Precision Strike system lets players target individual body parts on enemies to inflict debilitating effects and gain the edge in combat. With overhauled game balance, item drops, and reworked combat encounters throughout the game, players will need every advantage they can get to master the dangers of the Arizona wastes."
Cory liked Wasteland 2 well enough when he reviewed itlast year. A free injection of upgrades and extras sounds like a nice bonus to that package.
Wasteland 2: GOTY Edition will be out this summer.
Wii U weaker than PS3 and Xbox 360, will be the ultimate MMO console [Rumor]
Nintendo's Wii U received a pair of mixed reviews this week, with one developer claiming the system won't be able to hold its own next to current gen competition, and another praising Nintendo's tablet controller as the next best thing for console MMOs. The first insight comes from an unnamed source at GamesIndustry.biz , who said Nintendo's next lacks the muscle to compete with the current crop of
SWARM’ Coming Soon To A Tablet Near You
‘SWARM’ Coming Soon To A Tablet Near You
It wouldn’t come as a particular surprise to learn you’ve never heard of E4 Software before.
before. Having only formed earlier this year, up until now E4 Software only has two games under it’s belt; ABCs Learn & Singand Solitaire Double-Deck HD. Well now E4 Software has announced they’re about to release their third title, and it looks like it’s definitely one to keep your eyes on.
SWARM is an action/platformer coming soon for Android and iOS tablets. You play as spherical anti-hero HotRod as he fights off a swarm of evil robot cops who have arrived through an intergalactic portal and begun attack civilians and regular cops without discrimination. Unwilling to allow his city get destroyed, HotRod sets forth to save his city and to discover the source of the robot threat.
It’s your job to utilize HotRod’s superior handling skills to lure enemies into deadly traps, solve speed and physics-based puzzles and save the city from the impending threat of robo-invasion.
SWARM will be compatible with the iPad Mini, iPad and iPad2, as well as Kindle Fire HD, Samsung Galaxy Tab, NOOK HD tablet, and many more. Swarm is due to be released this month for $1.99 USD on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store and Barnes & Noble.
You can find the E4 Software website hereand follow them on Twitter here.
Pokemon Trozei
Every time there's a new Nintendo system, there's the inevitable gush of also-ran Pokémon side products. While we wait for the next proper Pokémon game, we get things like Hey You, Pikachu! and Pokémon Dash to plug the gaps. But for every couple of dumbo-games that hit the cultural scrapheap, there's usually one decent Poké-puzzler that warrants serious attention. Pokémon Trozei is that game. It's
Wasteland 2 trailer details character creation, battle options, robots
It always feels weird sharing videos for games that are technically already sorta out, but for those of us who prefer to play games when they're stamped as 'finished', they can be an informative way to keep up with development.
It always feels weird sharing videos for games that are technically already sorta out, but for those of us who prefer to play games when they're stamped as 'finished', they can be an informative way to keep up with development. Case in point: this video for Wasteland 2, which details character creation and shows a couple of differing approaches to combat.
As it turns out, it's hugely enjoyable hearing General Vargas talk about stats and character creation in much the same way that John Bunnell talks over the World's Wildest Police Videos, and I can only hope he returns to narrate similar trailers in the near future. General Vargas, that is, although Bunnell would be an excellent choice too. As you can see, the blunt force approach doesn't go so well in Vargas' team's first attempt, but a smarter second take sees them reprogramming a robot to fight on their behalf.
Wasteland 2 is out properly on the 19th of September, and here's what Cory thoughtof it after a recent hands-on.
Cheers, VG247.
Rumor: Wii U will be twice as powerful as Xbox 360
An anonymous developer working with the Wii U has told Develop that Nintendo's next-gen console will ship with twice the processing and graphical prowess of Microsoft's current Xbox 360 hardware. This follows other sources claiming the next Xbox will clock in at six times more powerful than Microsoft's current model, thereby sporting 2/3 more power than the Wii U if our strange, rumor-based math is
22 Cans ‘Curiosity’ Delayed, New Title & Trailer
A new trailer hit the internet yesterday pegging 22 Cans ’ indie experimental puzzle game, Curiosity , until September 2012.
Curiosity was scheduled to release August 22 nd for iOS, but its newest teaser trailer has disappointed fans with the bad news. What caused this delay? NASA.
Peter Molyneux, head of 22 Cans , tweeted earlier this morning that they can’t use the Curiosity name because of a little government projecttaking place on Mars currently. Not to be feared, there isn’t any trademark battle going on, Molyneux just wants to make sure that the Curiosity project pops up in Google and doesn’t get people confused with rovers.
Humm there is a problem with the name Curiosity” Molyneux tweeted. “We can’t use it because of NASA. I wonder what one word would sum up Curiosity: The Cube.” Apparently Molyneux is now taking suggestions from gamers out there and plans to tweet the best straight from the 22 Cans Twitter account. Some current ideas floating in the Twitter verse are “cuberosity”, “cubiosity”, and “intrigue”. With suggestions like, that we may see Curiosity delayed till winter!
For fans that were waiting to pick up Curiosity , catch the trailer below that tells you absolutely nothing and will most likely make you madder than you already are. I’ll personally be waiting on the sequel, in which Molyneux will completely denounce for the threequel! If you’re curious for more Curiosity news be sure to follow 22 Cans on Facebookand Twitter.
Pokemon Monday 32 – Wonder Card woes
Episode32 highlights Batlle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS - New details on the first spin-off game of this generation. Will it ever be released outside of Japan? Initial details on the 2011 Pokemon Video Game Championships - Henry already has a defeatist attitude about the next tournament. Somebody give him a pep talk! Toys R Us B&W pre-order bonus and Ash's Pikachu event - Decorative Zekrom and Reshiram
Wasteland 2 gets gargantuan new patch; fixes quests and smites bugs
inXile has just sent the latest Wasteland 2 patch live, and it's a doozy.
patch live, and it's a doozy. According to the studio it's one of the game's biggest yet, with many critical bugs and quest-breaking issues ironed out. Make a cup of tea, because the notes rival a short novel in their length, but here are a couple of the bigger changes.
Fixed a bug in identifying the Broken Man during the Hollywood/Griffith questline that could in some cases render the peace outcome unattainable. Updated Prison HQ. A large rolling gate now blocks the Prison HQ to prevent quest sequence breaks. The gate is opened by Danforth at the appropriate time during the story, or when the player fixes the broken robot to destroy the turrets and gate. Huge bug fix pass - nearly our biggest patch ever!? Large English text updates. Localization fixes and updates across all languages.The full patch notes are over here. Former PC Gamer RPG wiz Cory Banks rated Wasteland 2 highlywhen it released last year, but noted that the bugs were to the game's detriment. Hopefully this latest patch sorts most, if not all, of them out.
State of Decay developer discusses PC version
Undead Labs hosted a livestream on Twitch.tv earlier today, laying out what we should expect to see in State of Decay's upcoming PC release (but compiled the important bits into ) and things are looking pretty typical.
The zombie-infested open world will come with all the trimmings we have come to expect from the most basic of PC ports, which includes enhanced graphics, higher resolutions, and improved framerates (depending on how decent your current rig is). There's nothing particularly astonishing about those features, but it's nice to know we're not looking at something resembling the Dark Souls PC port.
Undead Labs also announced that State of Decay won't come with any mod tools, but said it's is perfectly fine with diligent individuals releasing mods for the game. The developer mentioned it wasn't adding any new features or content to the PC release, so we'll have to rely on modders for the additional content.
State of Decay isn't coming out until later this year, but Undead Labs confirmed it would release through Steam's early access program. However, the early access version will be controller-only, so those who break out in hives at the mere sight of an analog stick will have to wait it out a little while.
We've contacted Undead Labs asking for additional details on State of Decay's PC port and will update the story appropriately.
Crytek opens new US studio, made up of Vigil's 'core-team'
Crytek opens new US studio, made up of Vigil's 'core-team' German video-game developer Crytek is to open its first US studio in Austin, Texas with a ‘core-team’ made up from the Austin development community. The firm issued a statement, commenting that the new studio makes Crytek “ideally placed to embrace exciting new game, engine and business development opportunities in North America and beyond
Game music of the dead: Pokemon Red and Blue
Game: Pokemon Red and Blue/Green Song: Lavender Town theme Composer: Junichi Masuda Above: The original Lavender Town theme from the first release of Red and Green in Japan The Pokemon series is full of creepy allusions if you look hard enough, but by far the creepiest place in all the Pokemon kingdom is Lavender Town and its depressing Pokemon Tower in the Kanto region of Pokemon Red and Blue. Meant
Wasteland 2 release date is finally revealed
Wasteland 2 is coming!
is coming! You already knew that, yes. But do you know exactly when it is coming? No, you do not! For that, you must read onward.
September 19! InXile boss Brian Fargo made it official on Twitter a few minutes ago, writing, "Official Wasteland 2 release date... September 19th! The 20+ year wait is soon over." The game was originally expected to be out this month—that's August—but the studio said on August 4that it was "pretty likely" to be pushed into September, which is exactly what happened.
Official Wasteland 2 release date... September 19th! The 20+ year wait is soon over. August 19, 2014
So there you go, the big secret revealed and the game just a few weeks away. If you're not sure why you should be excited by this news, have a look at our hands-on previewfrom earlier this month, in which Cory Banks picks a fight with some houseplants and gets schooled by a gang of rabbits for his trouble. It's every bit as good as it sounds.
State of Decay coming to Steam Early Access in "a couple weeks or so"
Undead Labs, the company that pumped out State of Decay on the 360 earlier this summer, has confirmed the PC version is hitting Steam's Early Access Program in “a couple weeks or so.”
The company couldn't give an exact release date on when we'll see State of Decay pop up, but two weeks (or so) isn't too long , so I suppose we'll just have to keep our eyes open.
, so I suppose we'll just have to keep our eyes open. Undead Labs says the full game, which comes with full mouse and keyboard controls, will come out before year's end.
In case you missed our previous articleon the subject, State of Decay's PC version also comes with higher resolutions, better visuals, and higher framerates. You know, the usual stuff. It won't come attached with mod tools, but Undead Labs said it wouldn't get in the way of those determined to mod the game on their own.
Undead Labs concluded itsby hinting at discussions regarding future games, though hopefully said games will come to the PC from the get go rather than a few months after the console versions hit.
Exclusive: TimeSplitters 4 Interview
Exclusive: TimeSplitters 4 Interview What happened to TimeSplitters 4? Martin Wakeley: I think it’s been covered at length elsewhere but in simple terms we couldn’t find anyone who was willing to fund the continuation of the project. Steve Ellis: We pitched TimeSplitters 4 to a lot of publishers and from each of them we got the same two responses. Firstly they would ask what happened with Haze. We
Pokemon Monday - The problem with Poliwrath
Episode7 highlights What's the deal with Poliwrath? - Seriously, a tadpole Pokemon that remains a tadpole even after its third-stage evolution? Really?! Didit really not occur to anyone on thePokemon design team that tadpoles turn into frogs until Gold and Silver? EV training - Well, I try to talk about EV training, but apparently I'm the only one on staff who does it. Seriously guys, EV training super
Wasteland 2 hands-on: following the hobo code
“I know what a high-profile Kickstarter project this is,” Brian Fargo tells me as his Razer Blade laptop loads another scene.
tells me as his Razer Blade laptop loads another scene. He's about to show me Wasteland 2, the Kickstarted turn-based RPG that's been his baby for a long, long time, and he feels the need to address the elephant in the room while we watch the loading bar fill. “There's the pressure from 60,000 people saying, 'Don't screw this up,' and then I've got all of my fellow developers who are saying, 'Brian, don't screw this up.'” He chuckles, but the pressure is real.
And it should be. Backers gave Fargo's inXile Entertainment almost $3 million to make the game, a sequel to the classic RPG that inspired Interplay—Fargo's company—to make Fallout. It's an RPG that feels like it stepped out of a time machine, that harkens back to the same era of open-ended structure and “hardcore” aesthetic as Larian's Divinity: Original Sin or Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity. Even more than those two fantasy RPGs, Wasteland 2 has to live up to its reputation of a seriously twisted post-apocalyptic world where anything can happen.
Scotchmo the hero
After the loading bar fills, Fargo shows me an optional quest where a bartender asks our party to save his shipment of Snake Squeezins, the most common alcohol in the wastes. The bartender only offers the quest if we complain about the quality of a drink in his establishment. As Fargo explains the conditions, we load into the encounter with the shipment itself, on a delivery truck that's ambushed by a rogue group of hobos. It looks as though the party will have to mow down some homeless to get the beer back.
Fargo clicks through some dialogue and then waits. After a few beats, but right before the party attacks, one of the party members rushes forward to try to save the day. His name is Scotchmo, a hobo NPC, and he implores his bum brethren to remember the “Hobo Code: we beg, we borrow, we do not steal!” The flock of hobos are properly shamed and begin to disperse.
This is just one way to resolve the encounter, according to Fargo. “You could have come to the scene and started shooting right away,” he says. “Or if Scotchmo wasn't in your party, you could have defused the situation with one of your conversation skills, you could have bought a barrel for the hobos, or you could have started shooting the driver, which causes him to jump in the truck and drives over the hobos.” Fargo's point is that all of these consequences stem from an optional encounter in a bar, and he says the variety in the content is unprecedented.
Freedom of choice
Later, when I play the game on my own, I find myself facing branching decisions from the get-go. Wasteland's character creator feels like it was ripped from Fallout: ability scores such as “luck” and “coordination,” affect your chances to hit with a ranged weapon or talk your way out of a bad deal, while skills such as “toaster repair” or “animal whisperer” bend your character build toward some warped sense of usefulness. Wasteland doesn't have perks like Fallout, but you're given enough choices at the beginning to make a specialized character, and spending too deep in the strange skills will hinder your normal abilities.
After the Rangers send my merry band of wasteland misfits off to repair a radio tower, we immediately head off into the unknown. Roaming the wastes means moving an icon across the world map, with movement limited by the amount of water carried by my group. Not far from the Ranger Citadel, I receive two different distress calls: one for a settlement under siege by raiders, and another for a botanical area where the plants have come alive and are eating people. I can choose to head toward one or the other, but probably not save both.
I rush to fight the plants, but never make it: a warren of giant rabbits ends my party's life after I underestimate their battle prowess, spending action points during the fight on poorly-aimed range attacks. The rabbits feast on our sun-bleached corpses, which is an embarrassing way to die.
I could have also gone rogue and left both settlements to their fates. Fargo says this is a perfectly valid option. “If you start killing innocents, Vargas and the Rangers will turn on you,” he tells me. “You'll get warnings, but after a while, he'll say, 'You're not Rangers, you're enemies.'” The choice means you won't make it to L.A., the big second chunk of the game beyond the radiation wall, but you'll get closure for your story. “Now they're going to send hit squads after you, and you'll either die or overthrow the rangers, and you get a full rolling credits screen and epilogue of everything that happened in the world based upon you being an A-hole.”
Building a world where you can do anything means Fargo's team has to account for the unaccountable, just like Larian had to when making Divinity: Original Sin. You can kill anyone in Wasteland 2, which means inXile has to have an effect for your every cause. The kicker is that your consequences may not be apparent for hours of play time. “My cause events and my effected events are often very far apart—hours apart,” Fargo tells me. “You can't just kick in a door and have a combat and figure out which result you like better and do it a different way. It's sometimes going to be hours later before you know what's happening.“
That sounds cool in theory, but I worry that the abundance of options will quickly become overwhelming, especially without a sense of how decisions will play out. Divinity worked around this issue by being flexible with auto and quick saves, but Wasteland's save options aren't as dynamic, and I'm not dying to replay four hours to undo a bad conversation choice.
That said, the game itself feels good, even though it's incomplete. The Unity engine handles combat and movement well, and the dialogue system combines traditional dialogue trees with keyword triggers, which lets you type in specific conversation points that might not be apparent based on your dialogue options. That system rewards experimentation: if you played the first Wasteland, you should ask General Vargas at the beginning about his old nickname, “Snake.” It's small moments like this—and the countless story beats you may not even see, according to Fargo—that the team is working on now, and why the game has been delayed slightly until September.
Earning trust
Fargo says that Wasteland 2's more than 60 hours of gameplay is a consequence of his desire to “overdeliver” on content in the game. He tells me that inXile has put double the money from the Kickstarter into development, from catalog sales, early access profits, and his own money. I ask him if he worries about keeping the backers—the people who bought the game before it existed—happy.
“It's a relationship,” he replies. “And if you manage it well, it's like this monster, and when he's your monster, he's great. There are business decisions I could make that would make good business sense, but would piss [the Kickstarter backers] off. and you don't do those things. You have to be willing to leave money on the table in the interest of good will.”
“You make a social contract with these people, and they don't like to think of it as a business.” As an example, he mentions that inXile partnered with publisher Deep Silver to handle physical distribution for the game, which saved the development team $400,000. But some backers thought he had sold out, when in reality the company put that money back into making more expansive content for the wastes. “You have to really explain yourself,” he says. “You have to have really transparent reasons.”
State of Decay confirmed for Steam release, date still unclear
There are many places you'd expect to see an announcement of the PC version of a game.
There are many places you'd expect to see an announcement of the PC version of a game. Xbox Wire - the official news pipe for Microsoft's various, randomly numbered console boxes - isn't one of them. Despite that, Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs, used an interview with the siteto confirm the PC version of their open world zombie survival game State of Decay. The man at Microsoft whose job is to systematically exorcise all mention of the PC is going to be in a lot of trouble.
When asked what's next for the game, Strain replied, "We're currently working on a PC version for release on Steam. Fortunately it's been in development alongside the Xbox 360 version since Day 1, so we just need to integrate with the Steam platform and add native support for keyboard and mouse control." That would seem to suggest that a release isn't too far off, and that the game will be coming to Steam. That Microsoft exorcism guy is really going to be in trouble.
Even so, we previously heardfrom the game's community manager that a PC release "isn't going to be soon by any meaningful use of the word 'soon'." That was just over a week ago; which would suggest the release is slightly further off than I assumed a paragraph ago.
Thanks, PCGamesN.
Homefront 2 Announced, Crytek UK Developing
Homefront 2 Announced, Crytek UK Developing THQ announced today the yet-to be named sequel to first-person shooter Homefront, developed by Nottingham-based developer Crytek UK and scheduled for release some time in 2014. The US-based Kaos Studios – a subsidiary of THQ, which closed its doors earlier in June – developed the original, released in March this year. Set in 2027, the original was set in
Pokemon Monday 27 - News from Unova
Episode27 highlights Snivy, Oshawott, Tepig and Unova - We weigh in on what we think about the name localizations so far. Henry's Thanksgiving Pokemon report - He watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and lived to report on it, and also managed to squeeze in a viewing of the Arceus movie. Pokemon x Metal Gear - Our favorite Pokemon fan image of the week. Pokemon spotlight discussed - Fighting
Wasteland 2 release is "pretty likely" to slip into September
Here's a news story you'll be familiar with: an RPG is being delayed.
Here's a news story you'll be familiar with: an RPG is being delayed. This time, though, it's not a big-budget slip from The Witcher 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition, but rather the Kickstarter funded Wasteland 2. The reason is a little different, too. The game is likely to be pushed back a few weeksso that InXile can fulfil the physical side of their long-awaited sequel's release.
"It's pretty likely that we will slip into the first or second week in September due to fulfillment of the physical goods and discs," writes Chris Keenan in. "We will give an exact date as soon as we know it."
Physical copies of Wasteland 2 range in scope from the cloth map of the standard edition, to the added miniature and faction badge of the collector's edition. It does seem a little strange for physical goods to delay a game in 2014—a year when the PC market appears to be overwhelmingly digital—but then, what's a few weeks when set against the almost two and a half years fans have been waiting since the game's Kickstarter launch?
For beta owners, Wasteland 2 has also been on the receiving end of a massive patch. The full list is here, and will cause actual pain to your scrollin' finger, but highlights include a new mini-map and UI overhaul, and a shitload of balance improvements.
Wii U improves on current gen, says Gearbox, but system isn't next generation
Since the big E3 reveal of Wii U, the biggest unknown was the technical prowess of the new hardware, and Nintendo was short on answers. We’ve seen limited tech demoes , but Nintendo is keeping the raw stats about the system and how Wii U stacks up to its competitors close to the chest. Fortunately, third party developers are beginning to get their hands on development resources and are ready to share
Joe Danger 2: The Movie review
Joe Danger 2: The Movie review Joe Danger 2: The Movie is old-school in both its gameplay and the way it communicates its world and rules to players. If you remember the days when games merely started, handed you a gun/skateboard/sword and told you to get on with it, you’ll be right at home. If you’re more accustomed to being babied through the openings of games, however, there’s a very real chance
Pokemon jack-o'-lanterns are delightfully festive works of art
With Halloween just over a week away, why nottake a minute tobask in the glow ofthe most awesome Pokemon-themed jack-o'-lantern collections the internet has ever known. Deviantartist joh-wee works fierymagic with her pumpkin (and watermelon!) carving skills, as evidenced by her eight page jack-o'lantern gallery. We were initially drawn to her amazing Pokemon-themed designs, but she has a ton of other
Warcraft film needs to attract more than the game's player base - studio CEO
The Warcraft film has such a turbulent history that there's probably ample material for a film about the Warcraft film .
. Thankfully though, plans have fallen into place and the adaptation is slated for a 2016 release. During a recent interview with I Am Rogue, Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull briefly discussed the project, which is directed by Source Code and Moon director Duncan Jones.
Of most interest is Tull's take on what a film adaptation of a video game needs to do in order to be successful. He says that the film needs to attract more than just World of Warcraft players, which is evidence enough that the studio has very big plans for the project.
“It took forever to develop this because we just couldn't get it right,” The CEO admitted. “It took a long time. I think the mistake sometimes that gets made is you might say, how many people played the video game? Well that's big, so lets make that. If everybody who's ever played the game went to see it, it's still not enough.”
Tull admits that finding the balance between pleasing fans and attracting punters unfamiliar with Warcraft is a tricky endeavour, pointing to the game's extensive lore as evidence that the film will be capable of telling a compelling story.
“On top of that making a video game movie is a different medium, it's very difficult,” he continued. “What intrigued us about Warcraft was that there are 100 novels. We have come up with a mythology and a lore that's so deep that it got us excited. Because just saying we're going to make what the game you play into a movie, I'm not interested in that at all.
“We finally got to a story that felt like it had big, universal themes that people will be able to get their heads around. But I also think jabbing your finger into a fence and saying, everything you loved about the game is gone, well I don't get that either. What you do want to do is say, here's something that you really love and here's that version of it. So that's what we tried to do.”
Duncan Jones was confirmed as director in January last year, which didn't please former director Sam Raimi at all. He told Vulture in May last year that it was all Blizzard's fault that the film had been stuck in development hell, as he hadn't known that the studio had ultimate veto powerover the script.
The film is expected to hit cinemas in 2016 and stars Ben Foster, Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell and Rob Kazinsky. The adaptation will follow the origin story of the human versus orc conflict, and will star characters Lothar and Durotan in leading roles, Jones said at Blizzcon last year.
So how powerful is the Wii U exactly? Let's look at all the evidence
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The real science behind No Man’s Sky
The real science behind No Man’s Sky We talked with exoplanet expert Prof. Didier Queloz about the reality behind Hello Games’ vision The search for undiscovered planets and what life might be on them is the primary interest of No Man’s Sky, but it’s also the life’s work of many scientists around the world. The hunt for exoplanets – or extrasolar planets, which means any planet that orbits a star that
Pokemon Monday - CoroCoro scan frenzy
Episode 4 highlights New Pokemon discussed - We throw out our planned schedule to mull over the seven new Pokemon revealed in the latest CoroCoro scans . Giaru is a favorite of Michael and Carolyn,while Henry strongly prefers Hihidaruma. E3 speculation - What does E3 have in store for Pokemon fans? New Black and White details? Will there be any Pokemon game debuting with the 3DS? Know your fake Pokemon - This is just terrible. Let's move on... Question of the week: What do you think about the new Pokemon revealed in the latest CoroCoro scans? Which is your favorite? See you next week!
Ryse: Son of Rome PC gameplay video — max settings at 2560x1440 on LPC
Come one, come all to see an Xbox One launch game running at 1440p!
Come one, come all to see an Xbox One launch game running at 1440p! We recently got a preview build of Ryse: Son of Rome's PC port, so Tyler went through the introductory level with the graphics settings maxed (minus supersampling, but come on). It's pretty, isn't it?
And it even controls well with a mouse and keyboard. Granted, it's still Ryse: Son of Rome, which didn't fare especially well with Xbox One critics—but we'll have our own review next month. Ryse releases for PC on October 10th.
Want more from the LPC video archive? Recently we've hit Metro 2033 Redux, Deus Ex, NeoTokyo, Watch Dogs, Wolfenstein: The New Order, the Titanfall beta, Max Payne 3, Metro: Last Light, and Arma 3. There's much more to come. Have a game in mind you'd like to see the LPC take on at ultra settings? Tell the LPC directly on Twitter.
State of Decay: the state of the delay on this open world zombie survival game
Zombie-infested open world survival sim State of Decay is out now for the Xbox -1, but we haven't heard a groan about the PC version for quite a while.
is out now for the Xbox -1, but we haven't heard a groan about the PC version for quite a while. Unfortunately, now that we have, it's not all good news - while the game will be coming to lap/desktops at some point, "it isn't going to be soon by any meaningful use of the word 'soon'." The zombie apocalypse just got a little more depressing.
Speaking to RPS, I think, community director Sanya Weathers stated that "we are still working on the PC version, and I don't have a really good estimate for completion. Too much depends on third parties. It isn't going to be soon by any meaningful use of the word 'soon'."
I played a bit of State of Decay last night, and was pleasantly surprised. It's like a less silly and more ambitious Dead Rising, with a focus on group rather than individual survival, and plenty of opportunities for emergent storytelling. To put it another way, we're missing out - but hey, at least we still have DayZ.
Have triple-A games lost their ‘wow factor’?
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Ori And The Blind Forest review
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The Climb turned my fear of heights into fear of floating hands
There’s a reason the fear of heights exists.
There’s a reason the fear of heights exists. Falling a great distance, as it turns out, can break your bones, smoosh up your organs, and make your insides your outsides. As such, I’ve made no great effort to conquer my fear, opting to treat its function as assurance that things are running smoothly up top. But since VR’s arrival, it seems every other VR game is meant to poke and prod at that fear (or adrenal lust, you monsters) and Crytek’s latest Oculus Rift exclusive is no exception. I have to go up, and yes, I also have to look down. Cool.
The Climb is a decidedly restrained game compared to the likes of Crysis or Ryse. It’s exactly what the name describes: you use two disembodied hands to climb slightly surreal cliffsides based on real world locales. Look around to point your face hands at a nearby hold in the wall and they’ll snap to the correct location if they’re close enough. Pull the left and right triggers on the gamepad—each assigned to a hand—to grab. If you’re gripping a wall with only one hand, the stamina in that hand will deplete over time until you fall. Grip with both hands and stamina recharges. Pull the trigger on a lone-gripping hand halfway and you’ll hit a sweet spot where stamina stops draining (and your pointers learn the definition of pain, baby). Hold on with one hand so you can slow stamina drain by pressing a bumper to chalk up the other, which also dissipates over time. It’s a simple resource management system that punishes reckless climbing and forces unexperienced players to stop and smell the rockwall roses from time to time.
Cliffhanger
During my first ascent in a lush tropical setting, I reach what looks like a dead end. I can only see a sheer wall above and some dense vegetation far below. Looking down is a strange sensation. A small surge of vertigo subsides after I realize that my legs are, in fact, standing on solid ground. I recover and lean around the edge of the wall, tip-toed, and reach with my head to find a grip on the other side. Using my head to look with my hands isn’t strange—they essentially function as a creepy rock wall cursor—but using my head to reach is awkward. I duck and dive and lean every which way (a coworker describes me as ‘swimming through the air’) in order to find my way up, but since reach tracks using the highest part of my body, I nearly fall over often. I like that my body is literally strained to make long, difficult holds, but all of this would be so much easier (and less dangerous) with hand-tracking control, like with the Oculus Touch controllers releasing later this year, which The Climb will support.
Navigation of a given wall is best when open to player interpretation. When The Climb keeps the routes varied, indirect, and within reasonable enough reach of a person’s neck, the simple act planning out a potential route and executing that route while keeping your stamina in check can be a good time. In the Swiss Alps ‘hard’ stage, an entire cliffside opens up to me. I have to shimmy my way horizontally across the cliffside until I can find a checkpoint or a way up around the corner. Crags pockmark the rock face and I hold my grip for a good minute, plotting out what path through the handholds is in line with my capabilities. It’s great. My hands are sweating, I’m taking risks, and methodically making my way up. For a moment, I wonder if I should find a climbing gym to see how far I can chase this feeling.
Sweaty palms
But then The Climb’s more troublesome handholds are introduced. One breaks away after a very short time, one is covered in poisonous vines that drain your stamina, and another needs to be swept off by tapping the corresponding trigger several times before gripping. A segment of the Swiss wall is a dangerous cocktail of these new handholds. The disconnect between my head and disembodied hands grows every time I attempt to dash through a gauntlet of crumbling holds and struggle through a series of poison ledges that drain one hand’s stamina while I hurriedly scrape the debris off another.
My hands won’t snap to the positions I’m aiming for and my stamina bars blur, impossible to decipher as I look around frantically for the next hold, only to fall again and again. I’m no longer swimming through the air. I’m a fish out of water, flopping around and calling it walking.
Climbing arm-over-arm on the side of a mountain in a utilitarian rendition of the Swiss Alps hasn’t dulled my fear of heights. Instead, it made me more aware of the $600 goggles on my head and the chair brushing against my butt and co-worker Tom Marks’ arguably evil presence plotting to shake me when I fall. The Climb is at odds with the Oculus Rift technology. Its design aims too high for what the Rift is capable of right now, highlighting detailed vistas blurred into nothing by the limited resolution and difficult climbing segments totally undermined by imprecise head-to-hand controls. The Climb strives to make a simple concept a thrilling VR experience, but it can’t do that—or erase my fear of heights—until the Rift technology meets Crytek at the top.
Explore the mythological origins of Pokemon in this video
In case you missed it while catching your 600th monster in Pokemon X and Y , the staff at GamesRadar continues to explore the endlessly intriguing Pokemon in our weekly video series. As part of our search for the unknown in the Poke-world, this episode sees us explore our recent feature on the surprising, mythological origins of some biggest pocket monsters around. You can learn about it yourself in
Enigmatic medieval sidescroller Kingdom releases this month
There's quite a bit of buzz around the enigmatic Kingdom , and one of those buzzing sounds came from James Davenport, who seemed pleased to get his hands on the game at the end of September.
to get his hands on the game at the end of September. Back the, he said the game would likely release "this fall", and what do you know, he was right. Kingdom is indeedout this fall/Autumn, on the most fally, Autumny date of all: October 21.
Kingdom is a game about managing a kingdom. Which is to say, it's a game about recruiting loads of followers, and paying them with giant, gleaming coins to make or do stuff for you. It's also, when the night comes, a game about fighting monsters, who always insist on ruining a lovely muddy medieval land.
Kingdom started life as a small browser game back in 2013, and now it's something bigger and more inscrutable that you'll be able to buy with your own virtual coins, either on Steamor on the Humble Store.
New documentary delves into the game industry's LGBTQ presence
You can now pay what you want for Gaming In Color , a feature-length documentary film that seeks to elucidate and explore what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community within the game industry.
The film -- produced by Ryan Paul and directed by Philip Jones -- features interviews with game developers, activists, journalists and educators from across the industry, including Naomi Clark, George Skleres and Colleen Macklin.
It was funded via Kickstarter campaignlast year with additional support from MidBoss, the folks behind GaymerX and Read Only Memories .
The final product runs just over an hour and focuses on exploring why games matter, how they can affect popular culture, what hate speech and bigotry can do to virtual communities, and how that can affect people when they play games.
"This documentary, through the voices and experiences of our hardworking and talented cast, shows what a strong and passionate movement that diversity and acceptance in video games has become," stated Jones in a press release announcing the film's release. "It really is an inspiring call to action."
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As we get more and more in the groove with Pokemon X and Y , the staff at GamesRadar keeps finding new mysteries with the endlessly intriguing Pokemon. As part of our continuing weekly video series we search for the unknown in the Poke-world and try to uncover decades (over even millenniums) old secrets. For instance, this episode of Pokemon Weekly tries to find the root of all language in the Pokemon
The International 2015: the best of the final day
Need to Know
Find out everything you need to know about the tournament by checking out our extensive reference guide .
. Find all of our International coverage, including write-ups of previous days, on the tag page. You can find VOD links for today's games on the official International site, which is also where you'll find each team's bracket standing.
It’s over! After six days of competition, the International has its champions. Here’s what happened on that amazing final day. Highlights in the sidebar once again, but seriously: watch the entire grand final.
Lower bracket final: Evil Geniuses vs. LGD
A surprise Enigma pick led to an electric first game of the final day. LGD countered with Earthshaker and Silencer; EG clearly had some kind of plan for it. It may well have been that this plan amounted to 'Aui_2000 is very good at Enigma'. A dead-on first blood attempt on SumaiL was abruptly turned against LGD by Aui’s sudden arrival, and from there EG slowly started to roll out map control and a farm advantage. LGD are a phenomenal team, however, with one of the world’s best strategists in xiao8. A few successful smoke ganks and a disastrous fight for EG evened the game out and established the danger posed by Silencer’s Global Silence.
EG struck back with their own pickoffs and LGD.MMY! was forced to deploy Global Silence defensively—the opening that the Americans needed. Facing Maybe’s thundering Storm Spirit, EG’s PPD and Universe were able to prolong fights with amazing Shallow Grave-Snowball mutual saves. Game down came to crushing teamfight after crushing teamfight, with buybacks and huge plays on both sides. EG.Aui_2000 held a Black Hole through an entire siege in order to counter Storm Spirit; LGD attempted a heroic push down mid but gradually, dazzlingly, EG outplayed them.
EG marched into game 2 with momentum and one of the best drafts I’ve seen this tournament: Leshrac—LGD are so afraid of Aui’s techies that they let it through—with Clockwerk, Winter Wyvern, Clinkz and Aui’s Visage. LGD’s draft was standard for this meta: Gyrocopter, Earthshaker, Rubick, Shadow Fiend, Tusk. They recognised the threat posed by EG.SumaiL on Leshrac and killed him twice within the first four minutes. Then, EG.Fear’s Clinkz got aggressive very early, threatening LGD’s cores across the map. They simply weren’t ready for the veteran carry to leave his lane so early. This was a game of highlights: Universe’s amazing escape at 12 minutes, MMY!’s stolen Winter’s Curse at 26 minutes that completely remove EG’s gold and experience advantage.
Play of the DAy
Also known as: slam of the century; dunk of the decade; the six million dollar Ice Vortex; earthshake your moneymaker; the most resolute invitation to the space jam in International history. PPD and Universe contest Roshanin game 4 of the Grand Final with the play that echoed around the world.
It ran late. It got tense. LGD moved into Roshan and EG flanked to contest them. The ensuing fight was fierce and mutually destructive, with EG forced to back off and their captain, PPD, stranded on the wrong side of the river as Winter Wyvern. Juking through the trees, he got away and dragged LGD.MMY!’s Rubick out of position as he rushed to secure the kill. EG closed the trap; Universe landed the hook of his life on Maybe’s fleeing Shadow Fiend; the game opened up to EG. With a final incredible fight on the top lane, EG took the game, the set, and became the first ever American team to reach the International grand finals.
The Grand Final: CDEC Gaming vs. Evil Geniuses
After EGs loss to CDEC the day before, EG.PPD called CDEC.Q a ‘genius’. This means something coming from EG’s famously unfiltered captain, and spoke to the respect that EG had for their opponents. EG’s fans were hoping: I hope PPD has a plan.
EG had identified that their loss had been due to their inability to deal with Bounty Hunter, and so they banned it over the now-traditional Leshrac. This was a gamble, based on a hunch that CDEC didn’t actually want to run Leshrac but didn’t want to play against it either. Of the toppest of the top-tier, EG took Gyrocopter and Storm Spirit for themselves and gave Leshrac, Winter Wyvern, Phantom Lancer and Queen of Pain to CDEC. CDEC focused on punishing SumaiL in mid, killing him three times to open the game. But losing mid is a situation that EG invite and are surprisingly good at fighting back from. On the safelane, Fear’s Gyrocopter got all the farm he needed. On the offlane, Universe’s Clockwork reached a fast level 6.
With a 3-0 turnaround at 6 minutes, EG started to push back against CDEC’s early aggression. They anticipated multiple attempts to pick off individual heroes with smoke ganks, scoring three further 3-0 teamfights between the 10 and 20 minute mark. SumaiL came back despite his bad start to build the fastest Orchid Malevolence at TI5. Universe played absolutely extraordinarily, as did Fear and Aui_2000 on Skywrath Mage. PPD was the only member of EG to feel the heat in the lategame, but he was playing Crystal Maiden—that sort of thing happens to Crystal Maiden.
SumaiL’s Storm Spirit is rightly feared and the end of game 1 demonstrated why. My last note reads simply ‘SUMAIL IS EVERYWHERE’: think that episode of Futurama where Fry has too much coffee, but with a 16-year old thunder god.
Q, however, is a genius. EG rolled into game 2 with the same plan (why wouldn’t they?) but, with SumaiL focused in the banning phase, a Windranger in the midlane. CDEC countered with a mid Broodmother on CDEC.Xz, a rare draft that EG were taken totally off-guard by. This time, they ran Leshrac as a carry rather than as a support and found far more success with it. This time, the pressure was applied to EG across the map rather than just in mid, forcing them onto the defensive and giving the Broodmother the type of space she thrives in. They underestimated CDEC.garder’s Tusk, too, with Snowball and Ice Shards causing a lot of problems for EG in teamfights. Moving CDEC.agressif away from the safelane didn’t slow him down, with a flawless offlane Queen of Pain performance—10 kills, zero deaths, 12 assists by the end of the game. EG found themselves outdrafted, outlaned, and outplayed.
Top Performance
SumaiL’s Storm Spiritin game 1 of the grand final fought back from 0-3 start to deliver one of the most impressive demonstrations of the hero’s power I’ve ever seen. Completely off the chain by the end of the match.
Game 3 might have been the best Dota game played this year. EG anticipated CDEC a little better in the draft, picking up SumaiL’s hero earlier (Ember Spirit) along with Clockwerk, Gyrocopter and another Skywrath Mage. CDEC once again took Leshrac and once again swapped it into a different position, this time mid. They surprised everybody with a final pick of Slark, once of agressif’s best heroes.
A dramatic first blood counterplay by SumaiL led to a fantastic display of Dota by both teams. EG got aggressive but were rebuffed, with a run of fights going heavily in CDEC’s favour despite one or two pickoffs on the Leshrac. CDEC.Q’s Visage tore EG.Fear apart early, and the Chinese team pulled ahead on gold. Then, at 20 minutes, SumaiL things: dodging Visage’s Familiars with his ult, single-handedly turning a bad situation for EG into a 3-1 victory and a 2k gold swing. The game settled into a long, cagey standoff, as both teams prodded the other to make a mistake and neither did. CDEC.agressif lived up to his name again with daring dives and a willingness to 1-on-1 Fear’s Gyrocopter—and the ability to come out ahead.
The game exploded around the 50 minute mark, first with a fierce fight around Roshan and then with another on the Radiant offlane. EG forced a run of buybacks, but then lost several of their own trying to force their way into CDEC’s base. A few minutes later they tried again, but caught CDEC also trying to push across the map. The resultant fight took place backwards, with EG chasing CDEC into EG’s own territory—but it was a magnificent fight for EG, particularly for SumaiL but also for Universe’s Clockwerk. And with it, EG found themselves one game from the title.
Best Dota Nonsense
The International 2015 closed out with a deadmau5 concert, which was actually a lot of fun if you were in the arena at the time but probably completely baffling if you were watching it online. It was very esports.
In game 4, CDEC finally conceded the Leshrac ban, opening up one of EG’s most feared supports: Naga Siren. They paired this with Gyrocopter, Storm Spirit, Universe’s offlane Earthshaker, and a rare PPD Ancient Apparition. CDEC got their own run of favourites: Clockwerk, Lina, Winter Wyvern, Phantom Lancer, and Dragon Knight.
All three lanes went well for EG from the start of the game. CDEC’s supports couldn’t find Universe’s camp-blocking wards, giving him the good start that an offlane ‘Shaker badly needs. They hadn’t drafted to kill SumaiL in mid. On the safelane, Fear had room to farm. Then, at just before the 9 minute mark, both teams chose to smoke gank the other at the exact same time—but EG had a highground positioning advantage and the resulting fight ended with a double kill for SumaiL. EG went hunting for kills from this point, willing to commit ults to single pickoffs if it meant staying ahead. Meanwhile, however, CDEC.agressif’s farm went uncontested: and his Phantom Lancer is one of the reasons CDEC reached the grand final.
CDEC started to find kills on SumaiL, but it didn’t seem to dampen his confidence. PPD landed Ancient Apparition’s global ult, Ice Blast, on garder’s Lina in the jungle. It looked like an inconvenience—a throwaway play. Then, from nowhere, SumaiL: and another kill for EG. Another EG smoke led to a triple kill for Universe despite heavy casualties, and another fight afterwards went EG’s way: but CDEC were still farming, and were still ahead. At 28 minutes, they scored a beautifully-coordinated kill on SumaiL, chaining their disables carefully to stop him from escaping.
Feeling unthreatened, CDEC went for Roshan—and EG countered with the play of the series, the tournament, and possibly the year: a Ice Vortex/Ice Blast/Echo Slam combo that devastated CDEC in seconds. It was bone-and-morale crushing. Meanwhile, a split-pushing Aui_2000 cleared out CDEC’s outer towers. The next major fight, at 36 minutes, took place in the Radiant jungle. EG took casualties early but SumaiL fought back hard, turning it 3-1 in EG’s favour with agressif dead without buyback. ShiKi’s Dragon Knight was forced to flee into the trees with his town portal scroll on cooldown. EG saw their opportunity and stormed into CDEC’s base, taking another fight at the foot of the Dire base, retreating, and then striking back hard in midlane. There was no repelling them at this point.
Evil Geniuses defeated CDEC Gaming 3-1, becoming the first North American team to win the International. Fear, who was featured in Free To Play—the documentary about the first International—finally got his title. PPD, Aui_2000 and Universe shook their second-place curse. And SumaiL, a 16-year old from Pakistan, achieved the highest accolade in professional Dota—and a share of $6.6m—within the first year of his career. This is as close to a fairytale finish as the International has ever seen.
But it’s important not to forget CDEC, a young team who had to fight their way into the International by first the qualifiers and then the wildcard, the longest possible road. They didn’t drop a game on the main stage until they faced EG in the final. They are resolutely a force to be reckoned with, the new giants of the Chinese scene, and I’m confident that they’ll be back. As much as second place has to sting, what they’ve achieved is extraordinary.
Afterwards, deadmau5.