Guild Wars 2: Paid tournaments and custom arenas coming "in the near future"
Guild Wars 2 systems designer Jonathan Sharp has outlined the future of the game's Structured Player vs.
Guild Wars 2 systems designer Jonathan Sharp has outlined the future of the game's Structured Player vs. Player component, in a blog post on the official site. Using a torturous iceberg metaphor, he revealed that the first things fans can expect are paid tournaments and custom arenas, both of which require the use of gems (a currency you pay for with real money).
At the moment, we're making do with free tournaments, which reward the top 4 players with glory and rank points, currencies that come fairly low down in the Guild Wars pecking order. Paid tournaments, on the other hand, will offer greater rewards, including tournament tickets and even gems. To compete, you need to stump up gems and come as part of a group.
In order to practice for these events, you will be able to rent custom arenas, modify their parameters, and use them as private, password-protected training areas. If you wish, you can also fight private battles against rivals of your choosing. As with paid tournaments, there's no mention of either the cost or the roll-out date, but we can expect them "in the near future", which coincidentally is when most modern sci-fi is set.
From the changes, it's clear that ArenaNet are aiming to make Guild Wars 2's sPVP more akin to an eSport, even if it's one that lacks certain features commonly associated with them. Sharp hints that these much-requested features are on their way, even if they aren't ready to be shown off or talked about yet. "We know leaderboards are important. We know the ability to spectate matches is important. We know larger tournaments are important. We know streaming is important.
"Paid tournaments and custom arenas will be coming online in the near future – paid tournaments will come first, followed by custom arenas. And when we're done with those, we'll start working on other features to add. Guild Wars 2 competitive PvP is taking its first steps, teams are starting to organize, and some key features are about to start showing up. But are we done working on it? Hell no. The way we see it, Guild Wars 2 sPvP may be shipped, but it's far from finished."
Stardock announces Galactic Civilizations III on its 20th anniversary, releases trailer
Two decades have passed since Stardock released its first game, Galactic Civilizations , and on the eve of the company's 20th birthday, it's unwrapping Galactic Civilizations III , a sequel to the game that put the studio on the map.
, a sequel to the game that put the studio on the map. Seven years after Galactic Civilizations 2, the follow-up is promising massive scale, moddability, and a redesigned ship builder alongside its trademark political intrigue. Joining Watch Dogs, it'll also only run on 64-bit operating systems.
The most significant addition, though, is multiplayer. “It's something that the players had always asked for,” Stardock VP Derek Paxton, who joined the company in 2010 to take over Elemental, tells PC Gamer. “We'll have a single-player campaign, and playing the single-player games is the way that we expect most people will be playing Galactic Civilizations III. But we wanted to go ahead and take this opportunity to do the version of the game that we've always wanted, and the version we've always wanted is able to be played multiplayer.”
Limiting the game to 64-bit systems, Paxton promises, will have several benefits. “64-bit is huge for us, because even though games may support running on 64-bit computers, as long as that game supports 32-bit players as well, you have to design to your lowest constraint. This technology allows players to experience a level of graphical detail and on-screen activity unprecedented in large-scale strategy PC games. It dramatically increases the size and scope of the maps, and opens the door for modders to add a virtually unlimited amount of new content to the game.”
The original Galactic Civilizations was one of the first games in the genre we now know as “4X,” where the player's primary verbs are explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. Much like Civilization, which preceded Galactic Civilizations by two years, you could conquer through diplomacy, force, or climbing the tech tree. The original game featured six different civs, with the player always controlling the Terran race. A later expansion brought this up to eight, and Galactic Civilizations II bumped this up to ten, and then twelve with its own expansion, and allowed the player to create one custom civilization.
Galactic Civilizations IIwas critically acclaimed, selling 50,000 copies in the first two weeks. In fact, according to Paxton, Stardock continues to see revenue rolling in from the title. “We still see a considerable amount of our revenue coming from Galactic Civilizations II even though that came out in 2006.” While the gameplay was streamlined and improved from the original game, players applauded the game's impressive AI, and the highly detailed, 3D ship-building editor which allowed them to create custom ships of their own. Stardock has encouraged users to design mods for the game, and would award custom forum badges for ship designs they particularly liked.
“We still to this day look through the ship designs that some of the modders have submitted for Galactic Civilizations II,” Paxton added. “There are dinosaurs in there. There are F-15 fighters that look unbelievably cool. I think there was one I saw that was flying toasters in space. So that has been a big part of the franchise, and we've completely redone the ship designer for Galactic Civilizations III, and they can do so much more with it. We're really very excited to see what they come up with.”
Stardock won't say when Galactic Civilizations III will be released. However, you can buy your wayinto the eventual beta through the $40 Founder's Edition, or enter the alpha with the $100 Founder's Elite Edition, which also includes all future DLC, a credit in the game, and the right to name a star. “Galactic Civilizations is really the game that built Stardock Entertainment, and as a series it is very near and dear to our heart,” Paxton added. “We felt like we had new and exciting things that we could do in that space, so we're very thrilled to be back there.”
Additionally, as part of its 20th birthday celebration, Stardock games will be featured on sale next week via Steamand on Stardock's own online store. “I have a hard time believing Stardock is 20 years old,” said Stardock President and CEO Brad Wardell, who founded the company while still in college. “I'm working on projects I'm excited about every day, and being able to still say that after all these years is an incredible feeling. I'm honored to look around the company and be surrounded by some of the industry's top talent in software and game development. Ironically, I only founded Stardock until I could find a 'real job.' It appears I'll never get that real job, and that's just fine.”
Besides working on this title and celebrating anniversaries, Stardock also recently launched a mobile division with the release of their first iOS game, Dead Man's Draw, and there is much more to come, promises Paxton. “You're definitely going to see a lot of big announcements coming out throughout October and into November from Stardock. We've just begun to talk about all the kind of exciting things that we've been working on for the past couple years. It does not end with Galactic Civilizations III.”
ArenaNet previews Guild Wars 2 structured PVP additions
ArenaNet Systems Designer Jonathan Sharp posted a short blog entry earlier this week showcasing the incoming to Guild Wars 2's PVP scene, including a paid-tournament seeding system using points accrued from matches and additional UI menus for quick access.
Each member of a winning 8-man team receives a single Qualifying Point per victory. The points funnel into rankings for larger paid tournaments granting a king's bounty in gems and tickets to the triumphant team. Keeping tabs on your finely tuned head-chopping exploitsare a few new tournament browser, stat, and scoreboard menus. Sharp also hinted more chances to rack up Qualifying Points are in the works for the future.
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Half-Life 3 and more appear in SteamDB list
Everybodys Gone To The Rapture: A very English apocalypse.
The keen-eyed investigators at SteamDB have come up with a new list of games, posted on NeoGAF, that may (or may not) be on their way to Steam. Among them are a few titles you might recognize, some you may not, and one that allows me to finally say—I can't believe that this moment is finally here—Half-Life 3 confirmed! Except, of course, almost certainly not really. (But maybe.)
As SteamDB explained, the inclusion of Half-Life 3 on the list is legit, but not necessarily an indicator that the release of the World's Greatest Gaming Tease is imminent. "While this information comes straight from Valve, and many similar types of leak turned out to be real in the past, it is important to remember that third-party Steam developers can create and name their own apps/packages, a noteworthy mention of developers doing this are these packages, in which they are trying to XSSSteam," it wrote. "Many things could also be old entries and as such no longer be in development/coming to Steam. An example of a previous leak that ended up being nothing (yet) is Halo 3."
Even so, its presence is made more tantalizing by the fact that it comes just a couple of months after the discovery of a file named hl3.txtin the latest update to Dota 2. The file appeared to make Half-Life references, such as in the line " string m_HelpText = 'Combine Pulse Ceiling Turret'," but what it's actually for remains an unsolved mystery.
Even without Half-Life 3, the list contains one game I'd be very excited to get my hands on, that being Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, from Dear Estherstudio The Chinese Room. The game arrived to almost universal praise on PS4 on August, so a PC port once whatever exclusivity Sony signed up for has expired seems like a no-brainer.
There's also Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD, Final Fantasy VI, Dangonronpa 1 and 2, Earth Defense Force 4.1, Guilty Gear Xrd Sign, and a pile of others. None of them are confirmed, obviously, but I'm hopeful; even just the promise of these former console exclusives finally making their way to the PC is heartening.
Half-Life 3, though, let's just say I wouldn't recommend holding your breath.
Guild Wars 2 PvP designer talks e-sports, spectator mode and streaming
During the final beta weekends, players jumping into Guild Wars 2's structured PvP maps may have noticed the first signs of its broader e-sports aspirations, like the tournament tickets granted as rank-up rewards.
During the final beta weekends, players jumping into Guild Wars 2's structured PvP maps may have noticed the first signs of its broader e-sports aspirations, like the tournament tickets granted as rank-up rewards. The first Guild Wars had a booming competitive scene - it is, after all, an MMO named after its PvP mode - and according to systems designer Jonathan Sharp, the sequel is going to take things much further.
"We have this great big iceberg of what we want to do" he says. "Right now what you have is free tournaments that you get into, where you get your tickets to get you into the paid tournaments. [The paid tournaments] have better rewards - you can actually get gems through those, so it's more of a case of putting money on the line and somebody's going to get some really cool stuff."
There'll be daily pickup tournaments as well as monthly and year-long contests. Players will also be able to customize tournaments to run among their friends and rivals. Tournaments are hot-joinable through a shooter-style server browser. "If there's two of us we can be matched with three other people and then fight somebody else in a five on five. That's really cool, and we're trying to grow the community there."
A spectator mode is on its way, Sharp says, although ArenaNet aren't willing to show it off yet. The game has been built with spectators in mind, however. "We looked at sports when we were designing Guild Wars 2 from day one" Sharp says. "Usually there's only one focus point - usually the ball. Guild Wars 1 never really had that. You were just kind of hovering around a flag point where people were interrupting each other and if you didn't know the game you didn't know what was going on. We looked at the League of Legends, The StarCraft 2s, the TF2s, the Counter-Strikes. We looked at those and we said, 'what makes these so good?'. A lot of times, there's only one focus point."
Guild Wars 2's three launch PvP maps are all based around capturing and holding control points as a team. Build up a high enough score and your team wins. On the surface, it's not that far from the first game's Alliance Battles, or World of Warcraft's Arathi Highlands and Eye of the Storm battlegrounds. Each map has its own unique features, however, from Dota-style creeps to massive siege weapons. These are intended to add an additional dimension to the competitive game.
"We're trying to make things really easy to understand for new players" Sharp explains. "With the spectator mode, what we're trying to do is have these three capture points that they have to focus on, and then the secondary objectives. Because that's consistent across everything you don't have to relearn the rules all the time. You don't have to relearn basketball if you're playing pick-up ball, college ball, high school ball or professional: they use the same rules throughout, which is what we're trying to do with conquest. We're trying to model it after a sport so we can say that once you learn the base rules, there you go, you can just spectate and understand."
The other side of the equation is the design of skills themselves, Sharp says. "You can see the firestorm coming down, nobody has to tell you that. Somebody puts up a wall, you see the wall. You don't have to explain that he gets +7% when he hits that guy - you just see this big ass thing in the world, and say it's a firewall: you go through it, you're going to get burned."
Beta players have raised concerns about the amount of visual noise that can occur in big fights, and I put this criticism to Sharp. "That's the balance" he says. "You want to communicate enough that people understand, but if you over-communicate then people can't understand, visually there's too much. We have a lot of tools internally that threshold that stuff. So if there's three or four fireballs in your general vicinity you're only going to see the ones that impact you the most. It's the same thing we use in world vs. world, though we find in PvP that it's not as bad because usually it's just five on five."
ArenaNet see a future for Guild Wars 2 as an e-sport with a wider audience. "I can't go into too many details" Sharp says, "but if you walk through the office on a given day there's people watching streaming. We're watching and we have plans to do some of that stuff."
Grabbing the attention of external spectators means building up personalities within the community, according to Sharp. "A lot of that comes down to - for a lack of a better word - drama. Like Kobe Bryant, he's got a new point guard that just came on his team - Steve Nash - they don't like each other. How's that going to work out? I want to watch those games now."
"We want to have those tournaments in places where players can grow and become celebs. If you watch the streams for League of Legends, guys like Reginald - he's a well known solo mid player, he just got famous and people love to watch him. The sport grows through word of mouth, through the players - and if he gets traded to another team, there's drama there. You build up this stuff around the sport, which is really important not just in the game but on the outside of the game.
Within the game, however, ArenaNet are looking at ways for players to express themselves and build up that kind of personality. The later beta weekends included customisable 'stomp' finishing moves, the way that downed players are executed in PvP. These can be bought from the gem store or earned through ranking up.
"The artists just go crazy with it" Sharp says. "We'll allow you to have just the ranked stuff, but we also have a lot of funny stuff. We might have different things that only show up at different times of the season so you can do things that are very festive. We have a really big system that we can put anything into."
They won't all be silly, however. "We have plans for things that are going to be much more character-building" says Sharp. "Stuff that a necro might want to do that a warrior wouldn't really care about, and stuff where a warrior would be like 'oh, that's awesome, that really fits my character'."
Structured PvP could end up being one of Guild Wars 2's surprise hits: we're already excited about world vs. world and dynamic events, but we've not seen an MMO house a successful e-sport before. It's another item on the growing list of ambitious things that ArenaNet want to do to the MMO, and it'll be fascinating to watch how it pans out.
If you've got your sights set on competitive Guild Wars 2, be sure to check out our PvP guide.There's plenty more GW2 content coming over the next few days as Guild Wars 2 weekcontinues.
The best and worst GTA characters
GTA 5 has been out for over a year on PC, but we're still enjoying the gorgeous streets of Los Santos.
GTA 5 has been out for over a year on PC, but we're still enjoying the gorgeous streets of Los Santos. Sitting around anticipating Rockstar's next epic open world—where will GTA 6 be set? Will we ever see a Red Dead game on PC?—talk turned to the weird array of characters we've met on our journeys through Rockstar's worlds. Some were great, some were annoying, some were just evil—all by design. When you step into the world of Grand Theft Auto, you expect an anarchic cast of often monstrous ruffians. Here are some of our favourite, and least favourite characters from the series. Who are yours?
Warning! This article contains spoilers for GTA IV DLC and GTA V.
Samuel Roberts
Best: Johnny Klebitz (GTA IV, Ballad of Gay Tony, Lost and Damned, GTA V)
It was a toss-up between Johnny, Tony from GTA III, CJ from San Andreas and Trevor from GTA V (who, ironically, killed my favourite character during his brutal introduction in the game, though in my head I’ve decided that’s non-canon). Johnny is perhaps the most sympathetic protagonist of all the games, trying to keep biker gang The Lost together while stopping the slightly tragic Ashley from overdosing. He’s loyal, a nice guy, and a likeable hero who isn’t completely broken beyond repair—which is exactly why Rockstar got the despicable Trevor to off him. It helps that The Lost And Damned, GTA IV’s substantial first piece of DLC, was one of the greatest expansions ever made, and that his missions tended to be more fun that Niko Bellic’s.
Worst: Brucie Kibbutz (GTA IV, Ballad of Gay Tony, GTA Online)
had to think long and hard about this, because while GTA’s roster of characters is basically wall-to-wall wankers, that doesn’t necessarily make them bad characters—just not very likeable. There is a big difference, there. With that in mind, I’ll pick loudmouthed wannabe muscleman Brucie Kibbutz from GTA IV, who probably means well, but bellows about being ‘genetically superior’ and was by far the most annoying guy to hang out with in Liberty City. I’m a Roman Bellic apologist.
I’m a big fan of GTA IV—I wish it ran properly on any of the PCs I own—but I can’t deny that Brucie got right on my tits.
Wes Fenlon
Best: Brucie Kibbutz (GTA IV, Ballad of Gay Tony, GTA Online)
I think I’m probably in the minority here, but unlike Sam I loved GTA IV’s Brucie. In fact, he’s the only character in the entire game, aside from Niko, whose name I even remember. There’s rarely been much depth to Rockstar’s GTA characters—they’re amusing, over-the-top caricatures pulled from Goodfellas and other crime flicks or conduits for satirizing pop culture. Brucie was the best of the latter: an insane bro obsessed with his pecs and afraid of anything that jeopardizes his alpha manhood. Everyone’s in on the joke that Brucie is an idiot except for Brucie, and he cracked me up every time he was on screen. Bull shark testosterone was a hell of a drug.
Worst: Steve Haines
I’m sure there were great and terrible characters in GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas that I’ve long forgotten—only IV and V are really fresh in my mind. From those two, my least favorite character is FIB agent Steve Haines, mostly because he set up the tasteless torture scene GTA V forces you play as Trevor partway through the game. It’s an ugly, failed attempt at being edgy that Rockstar weakly tries to excuse after the fact with some Trevor dialogue about choice and blah blah blah. It was in poor taste and Rockstar wholly failed to justify the scene’s existence. Steve didn’t have much personality beyond stereotypical corrupt cop, so he was mostly just a mechanism to push the characters into missions. And that torture mission was just garbage. We’d have been better off without you, Steve.
Phil Savage
Best: Tommy Vercetti (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City)
We're saying best, not most likeable, right? In that case, Vice City's Tommy Vercetti is the obvious choice. He's the perfect GTA lead—a sociopath, but not hateful. Vercetti is violent and dangerous, but surrounded by people more violent and more dangerous. His ascent to the throne makes sense: it's part necessity, part desire. He's Scarface—obviously so—and that's fine. That's what a GTA needs. There's none of the awkward dissonance of Niko, or the arbitrary randomness of Trevor. Vercetti is pitched just right—at home with the life he leads, but with enough heart to keep the story interesting.
Worst: Ricky Gervais (Grand Theft Auto IV)
Ricky Gervais performs part of a stand up routine at the Split Sides club in Algonquin's Star Junction. Therefore, he's a legitimate character in the world of GTA IV. Is it too mean to include a real-life celebrity in a list like this, just because I don't find him funny? Wait, I've just realised… Robbie Williams is also a character in the GTA series. He performs Kids with Kylie Minogue on GTA V's Non-Stop-Pop FM. I'm changing my answer to Robbie Williams for the intolerable pop drivel that is Angels. (Is this still too mean?)
Andy Kelly
Best: Michael De Santa (Grand Theft Auto V)
I’m a sucker for washed up has-beens in any kind of fiction, and Michael’s the epitome of that. He’s a bloated shambles, spending his days drinking scotch by the pool and listening to Phil Collins. But then he has a mid-life crisis and starts trying to relive his glory days as a professional criminal, and I love going on that journey with him. The moments where he trades blows with his family are as entertaining as any of the missions, and the complete lack of respect they have for him results in some hilarious moments—like being drugged by his son and having a psychedelic freakout. Michael’s an asshole (everyone in GTA is), but he’s one of the most unique, unglamorous protagonists in the series so far.
Worst: Vladimir Glebov (Grand Theft Auto IV)
As much as I love IV, Niko encounters a lot of bland potato-headed gangsters, and Vlad is one of the worst. Roman’s in debt with this Russian mob boss, and you end up working for him to pay it off. He’s an obnoxious, humourless lump of angry meat, constantly calling Niko a peasant and generally being an unpleasant jerk. Of course, that’s the idea. He’s one of the first ‘villains’ you encounter when you first arrive in Liberty City, and I took great pleasure in murdering him under the Algonquin Bridge. There are so many vivid, colourful characters in the Grand Theft Auto series that guys like this are somehow even more unlikeable.
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Our Verdict
A frenetic, old fashioned monster blaster best played with friends.
A frenetic, old fashioned monster blaster best played with friends. Creepy-crawlyphobes, look elsewhere.
According to B-movies, our planet's demise will be caused by one of two things: giant insects, or giant robots. Earth Defence Force asks an important question: what would happen if giant insects somehow teamed up with giant robots?
The answer, apparently, is that the world authorities would drop a team of marines into the midst of an infested city, equip them with the most advanced weaponry available, and then hire a woman with a longwave radio to tell them to go from street to street and eradicate the hideous menace.
In EDF you save humanity across 15 fairly short levels. Each one drops you into a walled-off section of city a few blocks wide and throws hundreds of enemies your way.
Earth Defence Force has plenty in common with the B-movies that inspired it. The boxy city blocks and low-poly monsters provide a dated, low budget backdrop to the straightforward, repetitive action. You'll mostly be blowing up anthills – giant anthills, naturally – holding points against enemy waves and, in the game's most honest moments, simply wandering through the streets clearing out every giant ant, spider, wasp and robot you find in the place. Your foes attack by fielding a variety of units assembled in huge numbers, so that battles tend to hit an intense sweet spot in which you'll find yourself on the verge of being completely overwhelmed. It's exhausting, but fun.
You play Lightning Alpha, leader of Strike Force Lightning. They're a bit like Revels: they come in multiple flavours and some are a bit rubbish. There's awesome jetpack man with his experimental electric shotguns, decent but boring assault man with access to a wide range of weaponry, sluggish heavy weapons man and annoying support man with an automated deployable turret and a rich, chocolaty centre.
You can take on each level with a couple of friends, or let the reasonably competent AI take their place. As you kill enemies, you'll level up and unlock more weapons. Levels can be replayed to earn improved scores and unlock more guns, but only obsessive high-score hunters are likely to keep coming back. As gratuitous and satisfying as EDF's fights are, it doesn't take long for the magic to wear off.
In its finest moments, EDF assaults you from all angles. Buildings crumble to reveal a nest of giant leaping spiders, each the size of a couple of London buses. Acidspitting ants swarm over buildings to get near you. Ticks the size of dogs try to latch onto you and suck you dry, and all the while robotic warships buzz overhead, pausing every now and then to target you with a laser. There are occasional enormo-bosses too, somewhat inevitably. For all the chaos, EDF can't help but be predictable.
The ageing visuals can't quite deliver on the promise of that 'Insect Armageddon' tagline, either. It's impossible not to become desensitised to the spectacle after a few hours. After that, EDF gradually loses momentum. Its extensive armoury can't stop the rot, and the end result is decidedly shallow. The weapons of each class are effective against different bugs, but taking down the hordes always boils down to strafing, back-pedalling and holding down the fire button.
The budget price reflects EDF's shortfalls and makes it a little easier to recommend. On a higher difficulty, played in co-op with friends, eradicating the swarms is good, straightforward fun, for a few hours at least. But if you're in any way arachnophobic, avoid this like a plague of flesh-eating spiders.
The Verdict
Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon
A frenetic, old fashioned monster blaster best played with friends. Creepy-crawlyphobes, look elsewhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tom stopped being a productive human being when he realised that the beige box under his desk could play Alpha Centauri. After Deus Ex and Diablo 2 he realised he was cursed to play amazing PC games forever. He started writing about them for PC Gamer about six years ago, and is now UK web ed.
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Guild Wars 2 PvP guide: getting started on the road to victory
There's more to being successful in Guild Wars 2 PvP than mastery of your class: it's just as important to know how the maps work, how to earn points quickly, when to push and when to back off.
There's more to being successful in Guild Wars 2 PvP than mastery of your class: it's just as important to know how the maps work, how to earn points quickly, when to push and when to back off. I've played a lot of PvP over the course of beta and I recently spoke ArenaNet about the techniques that will help good teams to stand out. Below you'll find general tips as well as an overview of each of the three maps that will be available when Guild Wars 2 launches.
These are principles that apply to every PvPer, regardless of profession or build. They apply whether you're playing with an organised team on voice chat or jumping in with strangers.
For more on the game's competitive side, be sure to check out our interview with systems designer Jonathan Sharp.
PvP tips
Points mean prizes
Each of the three launch maps are played in Conquest mode, a race to a certain mount of points. Points are earned for capturing areas of the map, killing the enemy team, and completing other, map-specific objectives.
Whatever your plan, you should always be keeping an eye on the point tally. Winning fights and chasing down kills is important, but not if it allows the enemy team to rack up a territory advantage. Good teams will keep track of their options for earning points in a given situation and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Sometimes, that's coming together for a coordinated team fight. At other times, it means staying mobile and denying the enemy kills. I've covered each map's tweaks to the point system below.
Finish them!
Run out of health in GW2 and you enter a downed state where you can't move or dodge and you're limited to four class-specific abilities. When you're downed, you need to kill an enemy or be revived by a teammate before you bleed to death. In PvP you can execute enemies by running up to them when they're downed and pressing F to smack them with a giant flag. It's a straightforward mechanic, but it's also one of the most important things to learn when you're starting out in PvP.
Finishing moves have a warm-up period and so are relatively straightforward to interrupt: using a stun or knockback move is a great way to save a teammate from execution. Likewise, working together to make sure that a stomp isn't interrupted is how good teams rack up points. When you're playing with strangers, the temptation is for everyone to rush in and get the kill for themselves. Like in Dota, proper teamplay requires more discipline than that - and in public games, that's going to mean being willing to step back and keep an eye out for enemy interrupters.
It's also not necessarily a good idea to try and finish a foe straight away. If you're in a team fight, it sometimes makes more sense to concentrate on enemies that are still on their feet and mop up points when the smoke clears.
PvP Map guide
Forest of Niflhel
Each of Niflhel's three capture points are easily defensible, with multiple elevations that allow ranged characters to prevent sneaky territory grabs pretty easily. Bonus points are awarded for killing two boss NPCs - Svanir and Chieftain Utahein - that spawn in the top right and top left of the map respectively. These bosses are soloable, and respawn on a three minute timer.
The reappearance of Svanir and Utahein is announced with a sound effect and an on-screen notification, and this is often a cue for both teams to rush them down. Going for the bosses is a good way to earn points if the enemy is turtling, but in many ways it's like going for Roshan in Dota. If the enemy know you're doing it, you're vulnerable: so be vigilant, and pick your moment carefully.
Battle of Kyhlo
Fights in Kyhlo can get scrappy quickly: it's made up of narrow streets, and all three capture points feature chokepoints that can be tough for attackers to break through. The central clocktower is a little more accessible, particularly if you can get up to the windows, but it's so big that you're always in danger of being flanked. If your team can hold the clocktower, however, then ranged players are able to call enemy movements and support fights from a safe distance.
The key to cracking Kyhlo is making proper use of your trebuchet. Each team gets a massive catapult that can deliver huge amounts of damage anywhere on the map, and also knock down obstacles to open up new routes. Trebuchets can save teams caught in losing battles by knocking back attackers coming in for deathblows, and make angles of attack unattractive with sustained covering fire. If you're on the receiving end, remember that you can dodge an incoming trebuchet blast to avoid the damage.
Disabling the enemy's trebuchet is also a valid strategy. Each catapult is out of range of the other, but it's possible to wreck them if you get in close: though this does mean ignoring the battle for control of the map. If your trebuchet is destroyed, you need to pick up and deliver a repair kit to restore it. You can't use any weapon abilities when you're carrying the kit, so let your team know that you're making the attempt so that they can protect you or distract the enemy.
Playing public matches, I've been struck by how few teams take advantage of the trebuchets. When games descend into disorganised team fights, skilful bombardment can turn the tide in your favour.
Legacy of the Foefire
Foefire is a throwback to Guild Wars 1's PvP mode. It's a large map, with three capture points arranged in a line in the centre. Both teams also have a base, similar to keeps in world vs. world. They're defended by NPC guards and have large doors that need to be bashed down, and inside each one is a lord that can killed for a hefty points bonus.
Controlling the midfield is the secret to Legacy of the Foefire. While it's tempting to go after the enemy lord straight away, controlling at least two of the central points will earn you a slower but surer victory. Given the layout of the map, it's pretty difficult for a team to get to your gates without you noticing, particularly if you're communicating and maintaining a presence throughout the midfield. Staying mobile while coordinating with your team-mates is key.
If you're looking for people to PvP with, get in touch with our Guild Wars 2 community. They're based at pcggw.com, and will be playing on Gunnar's Hold on release day. Guild Wars 2 weekcontinues tomorrow, and be sure to check out yesterday's interview with Ree Soesbeeand exclusive Twilight Arbor dungeon footage.
Dishonored 2: creative killing in Karnaca
The great old houses of the stealth genre are enjoying a long indian summer.
This article was originally published in PC Gamer issue 293 . For more quality articles about all things PC gaming, you can subscribe now in the UK and the US .
The great old houses of the stealth genre are enjoying a long indian summer. Deus Ex has held on to its core values even as it adapts to the mainstream, and the latest Hitman episodes have absolved the series of, well, Absolution. Thief has struggled—after such a long absence, 2014’s patchy reboot was a let-down—but we haven’t needed Thief, really, since 2012. Dishonored’s claim to that particular throne was strong from the outset.
Soulful, clever and violent, Arkane’s new immersive sim revived the fantasy of the agent in the shadows. Yet Dishonored wasn’t special just because it resurrected an old legacy—it was special because it challenged it. Stealth games are always in some way about the fragility of power: in the dark you might as well be god, but exposed you’re just a person in formfitting leather. When Corvo Attano is granted his otherworldly powers near the start of the game, that changes.
In the dark he is a god, manipulating minds and bodies—sometimes literally—to bring about his revenge. In the light he’s a terror, slitting throats with impossible speed and freezing opponents in time before feeding them their own bullets. If the stealth game was traditionally about having godlike power that could be taken away by a stray beam of light, Dishonored was a little more open, more of a sandbox—about having godlike power in either case but being responsible for the world you bring about. It wasn’t just about continuing an old legacy—it was about creating a new one.
Set 15 years after the original game, Dishonored 2 is—in creative director Harvey Smith’s words—“the second half of the original story.” The assassination of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin at the beginning of Dishonored casts a long shadow. Jessamine’s daughter Emily is now 25 and Empress herself, and the game opens with you experiencing a day in her life in Dunwall, the setting for the first game. Then, perhaps predictably, something goes terribly wrong. Emily finds herself fighting back-to-back with her father, Corvo. (Arkane is being much more open about that particular detail this time around.) At this point you’re asked to choose: who do you want to control for the rest of the story?
Emily and Corvo both journey to a new city, Karnaca, and both encounter the same missions and enemies when they get there. Each brings a different perspective, however. Emily is a ruler without an empire, digging into both sides of her heritage—empress and supernatural assassin—as she explores a new kind of power. Corvo is getting old. “In Dishonored 2 he’s a man going home,” Smith says. “He’s getting older and deciding ‘how many more times can I protect my daughter?’”
Unlike the first game, which had a silent protagonist, both leads will speak in Dishonored 2. Emily is played by Erica Luttrell, Corvo by Stephen Russell. Yes, the same Stephen Russell who played Garrett in the original Thief games. I ask Smith if this choice was deliberate fan service, or—I don’t know—accidental fan service. He smiles. “It’s fantastic for us,” he says. “Early on in Dishonored 1, Raf Colantonio and I talked about giving Corvo a voice and ultimately decided to leave him a blank slate. But in our fantasy dream world, when we asked what he would sound like if he had a voice it was Stephen Russell—because we’re big fans of Thief and we just like his acting. But it never came together.”
Karnaca is rotting from within—there’s sickness, corruption, and a stark divide between rich and poor.
The team experimented with a voiced lead for the expansion Knife of Dunwall, and having decided to continue with this for the sequel Russell was the obvious choice. “For Dishonored 2 it was even more perfect,” Smith says. “We decided to have a voice, and Corvo is fifteen years older, and he’s a little world-weary... there was a magic synergy there.” (The last Russell-voiced Thief game was, if you’re wondering, twelve years ago.)
Luttrell and Russell are joined by a cast that includes Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk) as the Duke of Serkonos, Pedro Pascal as a gang leader, Sam Rockwell as a Dunwall city watchman, and Robin Lord Taylor (The Penguin in Gotham) as the new voice of the Outsider. Rosario Dawson plays Meagan Foster, captain of the Dreadful Wale—a hulking ironclad whaling vessel that the player uses as a base between expeditions to Karnaca.
Like Dunwall, Karnaca is rotting from within—there’s sickness, corruption, and a stark divide between rich and poor. The new city presents these themes in a new way, however. This is (or was) an opulent southern colony of the Empire. Tall pastel terraces line a bay at the fringe of deep jungle in the shadow of a mountain. It’s a little bit Havana, a little bit Barcelona, a little bit British Raj. There are rats (this is Dishonored, after all) but no plague. Instead, perennial infestations of bloodflies (think giant mosquitos) are getting worse. They lay their eggs in corpses. As crime and corruption create more bodies, the situation worsens.
This very much feels like a different place in the same world. Whale oil is a power source, but a less prevalent one than it was in Dunwall. In Karnaca, a cleft in the mountain channels wind down through the city. Here, walls of light and alarm systems are powered by turbines as often as explosive fuel. This impacts how you manipulate these devices and how they fit into the world.
Arkane is a relatively small studio and the different disciplines that go into creating a game world are closely linked to one another: history inspires concept art which inspires design which inspires the emerging history of the world which inspires concept art and so on. “Working with design on a daily basis, I can anticipate their needs,” says art director Sébastien Mitton. “It’s an organic process.”
He gives the example of the Dust District, an area of Karnaca in the shadow of great pipes that funnel dust from mountainside silver mines down the wind corridor and out to the bay. It started with the idea of a poor area choked by dust due to over-mining. Mitton’s team, accounting for the impact of wind on city streets, created a system of diamond-shaped city blocks flanked by massive wooden windbreakers: the kind of solution an intelligent architect might have devised to solve an environmental problem. These designs then inspired the way the area plays: the inside of each windbreaker offers a stealthy aerial route for subtle players, while the prevalence of rooftop power turbines offers a clue to the best way to subvert ground-level security devices. With flat rooftops comes increased guard presence at higher levels, however, making vertical exploration less secure than it was in the previous game. Periodically a distant horn heralds an incoming dust storm, at which point the entire district is shrouded in visionand- noise-obscuring ochre dust, perfect for an infiltration or a killing spree.
Many of these features are exclusive to the Dust District, which is only one of Dishonored 2’s dozen-or-so mission areas. The appeal of Arkane’s approach to worldbuilding isn’t just that they tailor the environment to offer specific opportunities to the player—all stealth games do that—but that they carefully consider why a city would be the way it is. These places are as impressive as they are because they emerge from a feeling and a sense of history as much as a game design need.
Arkane is using a new engine (Void Engine, based on id Tech 5) to enable better lighting and post-processing effects. Even so, Dishonored 2 is very much led by the same painterly sensibility as the first game. It’s a much better-looking game, but strict realism isn’t the goal—although some screenshots are surprisingly easy to mistake for concept art. Watching the Dust District mission play out in several ways, one thing that strikes me is the sense of heat. “Some senses work well in games,” Mitton says. “You have visual, sound, the vibration of your pad, but you miss the smell, the cold or the heat... It falls where?
Jade Raymond is making an "Assassin's Creed-style" game for EA
Electronic Arts, in the form of EA Studios Vice President Patrick Soderlund, said in October that it wanted to start making "gigantic action games" along the lines of Assassin's Creed , Batman , or Grand Theft Auto .
. It struck me as kind of an odd position to take—the definition of 'action' may be subject to interpretation but EA is hardly a stranger to "triple-A, big productions"—but it did dovetail nicely with the news from this summer that Assassin's Creed co-creator Jade Raymond is now flying the EA flag.
Soderlund didn't mention Raymond by name in that interview, but as reported by GameSpot, EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen confirmed at the UBS Global Technology Conference in San Francisco that she is working on just that sort of project.
"We've never really operated in the largest genre of gaming, and that's the action genre. That's the Assassin's Creed-style games; more open-world, more single-play versus multiplayer. It's not been an area that we've operated in," he said. "We recently hired Jade Raymond, who was behind the Assassin's Creed franchise for Ubisoft and she will be building an action genre for us through a studio we're building out in Montreal right now."
If open world action is what you want to get into, you could certainly do worse than hiring Jade Raymond to head up the effort. Raymond's new Motive studio is also working with Visceral on Amy Hennig's new Star Wars game, which still doesn't have a proper title.
Rift three faction PvP hits test servers today
A new three-way PvP faction war mode will land on Rift's test servers later on today.
A new three-way PvP faction war mode will land on Rift's test servers later on today. From 4pm PDT / 11pm players will have the chance to and jump into a new PvP warzone in a new version of Stillmoor to do battle for a cluster of control points (or Sourcestone Extractors, as they're called).
As a member of one of three new factions, Ascended must seize a certain number of these areas to win. "The match ends when a single team has claimed 40% of the control points or 5,000 players are killed" explain Trion on the Rift site, "once this happens a 10 minute timer will start, this is your chance to make a last grab for control."
Dominion, the Oathsworn and Nightfall are the three factions in question. Their differences are philosophical, which means any Ascended can be a member of any team as long as they're up for a fight. "Are you a Ram, guarding the flock under your iron grip? Do you protect your pride, your virtue gold as the Lion's mane, keeping the helpless from harm? Or do you soar like a Raven into the twilight – cleansing all corruption in your wake across the universe, whatever the cost?" RAVEN FTW.
The three-way PvP is the latest in a long series of updates that Trion have been providing over the last year. The Infernal Dawn 1.8 patch is coming up next. That'll add a new 20 man raid, instant adventures, improved 'looking for group' tools and fishing. Find out more in our look at the recent Infernal Dawn Rift developer roundtable.
History of the best immersive sims
The immersive sim is one of the most exclusive of PC gaming genres.
The immersive sim is one of the most exclusive of PC gaming genres. Only around two dozen such games have been developed in the entire history of PC gaming, but at least a quarter of these would be considered among the best games ever made.
This is not surprising. Immersive sims are complex and ambitious creations by their very nature. These games combine elements of FPS, RPG, platforming and stealth into one seamless whole. Each game varies the emphasis of these components, but there are some clearly identifiable qualities that mark them out. They are always first-person, they prioritise compelling environment design, and they encourage emergent play, providing the player with an array of tools to pursue open-ended goals.
This month, I’ve traced the history of this genre through ten of its best and brightest examples, games that epitomise, expand upon, and subvert its conventions. They include some of the PCs most celebrated games, alongside flawed yet fascinating experiments.
1992: Ultima Underworld
Conceived by Paul Neurath, who later co-founded Looking Glass Studios, Ultima Underworld was inspired by the first-person perspective of Dungeon Master on the Atari ST. Yet instead of designing another RPG, Neurath wanted to simulate the feel of exploring a treacherous underground labyrinth.
Even by today’s standards, Underworld is astonishingly ambitious, sporting an open 3D world where quests can be completed in any order. It features both melee and ranged real-time combat, including a magic system with dozens of spells, many of which must be discovered through experimenting with the arrangement of runes. You also have to eat and sleep in order to function, predating survival games by some 20 years.
Best feature: Your game map only fills out if you illuminate new areas with a light source, compounding the feeling you’re inside a dingy dungeon.
1999: System Shock 2
System Shock was Looking Glass’s first original title, building upon the ideas explored in Ultima Underworld while transposing them into a sci-fi, cyberpunk universe. It’s a fine game. But the sequel, co-developed between Looking Glass and Ken Levine’s Irrational Games, exists on another level entirely.
Two things elevate System Shock 2 above the original. The first is its atmosphere. The beleaguered spaceship Von Braun is perhaps the most terrifying virtual space ever, its neon-blue corridors are procedurally prowled by lurching former crew members who scream “I’m sorry” at you as they try to bludgeon your head in, while the eerie electronica soundtrack will slowly erode any player’s resolve.
The second thing is how it twists the fundamental concepts of immersive sims. System Shock 2 takes that essential idea of freedom to play and explore as you like, and flips it on its head. The game’s multiple upgrade paths, Military, Engineering and Psionics, are less roads to power, and more ropes for the player to hang themselves on. No matter which option you choose, the game always finds a way to undermine your decisions. Few games manage to provide so many options for the player while making them feel so vulnerable in the process.
The story compounds this feeling of helplessness, forcing you to work with an adversary far more powerful than you and utterly contemptuous toward your existence—the mighty SHODAN. Levine would explore these ideas again in BioShock, but the subtler approach makes System Shock 2 both Irrational’s and Looking Glass’s finest work.
Best enemy: SHODAN, who else? Brilliantly written by Levine and with a superb performance by Terri Brosius, the megalomaniacal AI remains one of gaming’s greatest adversaries.
2000: Thief II
The original Thief is a groundbreaking concept with moments of stunning vision, let down by its overemphasis on the undead and some loopy level designs. The sequel, however, is a stone-cold classic. Thief II tidied up the ideas of the original. It offers a more coherent storyline told through a series of beautifully constructed missions that may be the best sequential campaign ever committed to code.
Thief is laudable for being an immersive sim that narrows in on a specific idea, providing emergent play without being a chocolate-box of concepts. The stealth emphasis also encourages players to pay full attention to their surroundings, observing guard patrols, seeking out shadows and figuring out how to break into buildings.
Best level: Life of the Party is the mission that made everyone yearn (perhaps mistakenly) for an openworld Thief. It sees Garrett breaking into the tower of Angelwatch and is a masterpiece of 3D level design.
2000: Deus Ex
If System Shock 2 is a subversion of immersive sims, and Thief is a refinement of them, then Deus Ex is a culmination of the concept, the game that the genre slowly built towards over just shy of a decade. It’s as crazy and grandiose as the conspiracies that infest its gloomy near-future world. The difference is Deus Ex actually manages to pull off its cunning plan.
Deus Ex provided the broadest palette of player choices to date, blending a skill and augmentation system to create a truly astonishing array of opportunities. Want to be a nano-ninja who can turn invisible and see through walls? No problem at all. Want to be a cybernetic superman who’s able to lift a shipping crate and run like a gazelle? Go for it! Want to just be really fucking good at swimming? Well, OK then.
Yet where Deus Ex goes beyond the games that preceded it is in how it allows the player to not only interact with the world around them, but also influence it too. It was the first game of its kind to include dialogue choices that impacted directly on the story, leading to the deaths of major characters and altering the fortunes of particular factions. These decisions aren’t simple binary choices either, they’re fraught with grey areas and troubling external pressures, and their consequences can impact you hours deeper into the game. Indeed, Deus Ex offers three endings, all of which have huge and not necessarily happy ramifications for JC Denton and the world he’s trying to save.
Best moment: Escaping UNATCO after being captured is a superb sequence, turning a familiar and friendly environment into a hostile and dangerous one, and featuring some gripping encounters with friends and coworkers who all react differently to your betrayal.
2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Morrowind may be the darling of the Elder Scrolls series, but it was with Oblivion that Bethesda’s games moved away from the stats and dice rolls of RPGs into something better resembling an immersive sim. It ditched traditional character classes, allowing the player to customise their avatar through a mix of specific skills. Melee combat was made more realistic, while the introduction of Havok physics lent greater tactility to both archery and magic.
Oblivion fully embraced the ‘go anywhere, do anything’ notion of the Elder Scrolls series, attempting to cram in as much variety as possible. This resulted in problems; the world design was less coherent than in Morrowind and Skyrim, while the game’s radiant AI struggled to cope with what the devs demand of it. But it also delivered remarkable highs, containing some of the best quests in the entire series.
Best quest: Whodunit is a Dark Brotherhood quest that tasks you with assassinating five guests at a house party and is probably the best example of Oblivion’s sim-like qualities. You can simply wade through the guests with a sword, but it’s equally possible to manipulate guests into moving to isolated areas or killing each other.
2004: Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Bloodlines would be the best immersive sim ever made, if its developers had been given the time and resources to finish it. Nevertheless, it remains a great example of the genre, its remarkable diversity of play making up for its wonkier elements. You can play as a True Blood-esque Toreador vampire, using your powers of persuasion or seduction to your advantage, or a grotesque Nosferatu who’s prohibited from being seen by regular humans, and must use Los Angeles’ sewers and the ability to turn invisible to protect the vampires’ secret society.
It’s also arguably the most characterful game on this list, infusing its vampiric theme with gothic horror, explosive violence and jet-black comedy, which is bolstered by a superb script and one of the best dialogue systems in existence.
The combat may be awful and there are still bugs being ironed out by hobbyist patchers, but Bloodlines remains a fascinating flawed gem.
Best class: Malkavian vampires are mad from the moment they’re sired, and if you choose to play as one, their dialogue options are completely different from any other class, just one example of Bloodlines’s tremendous scope.
2006: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Dark Messiah isn’t the smartest game on this list, but it makes up for this by being an enormous amount of fun. Although it vaguely resembles an RPG, at its heart Dark Messiah is a swashbuckling simulator. Its levels are built like the sets of an Errol Flynn movie, littered with objects that can be actively used in combat. Enemies can be kicked off ledges, booted down staircases, and shoved into walls of conveniently placed spikes. Heavy objects are often suspended above arenas by fraying ropes, while rickety bridges can be destroyed as enemies cross them.
With its lithe animations and sense of momentum Dark Messiah is also one of the best swordfighting games. Few things in life are as satisfying as decapitating one of Dark Messiah’s gurning Orcs, except perhaps chucking a barrel at them and watching them cartwheel down a flight of stairs.
Best ability: Dark Messiah’s ice spell is a purveyor of endless slapstick fun. It can freeze enemies in place, but it can also be cast onto the ground. Enemies that then step on this newly frictionless surface will slip and collapse in a pile of limbs, or stumble off a ledge if you cast it in just the perfect spot.
2007: Bioshock
Few games take the idea of immersive sims as literally as BioShock, set as it is under millions of gallons of ocean. One of Irrational’s goals with BioShock was to make Rapture seem like a plausible place, a city where the cream of American ingenuity held back the tide and lived in utopian bliss. No surprise then it’s Rapture (alongside that moment) that BioShock is mainly remembered for. The underwater city is a marvellous virtual space, its vibrant architecture creaking and leaking as the weight of the sea bears down on it.
Yet Irrational’s most famous work remains in love with the ideas of emergent play that underpinned its spiritual predecessor. The game’s plasmids hark back to the Psi abilities of System Shock and are enhanced to interact directly with the environment, setting the turrets and cameras against the Splicers, or enraging a Big Daddy into doing all the hard work, before it turns its glowing red eyes on you.
BioShock may have popularised immersive sims by leaning closer to the FPS side, but if you’re willing to forego the efficiency of guns, it can still provide some splendid emergent moments. BioShock 2 was arguably better at providing players with a range of tools to experiment with in combat.
Best level: Fort Frolic is undoubtedly the high point of BioShock. Mad auteur Sander Cohen sprinkled much-needed humour into the game’s absurdist-horror tones, and it exhibits some of the best environment design in the game. Fort Frolic was developed largely by Jordan Thomas, who was responsible for Deadly Shadows’s Shalebridge Cradle.
2010: Stalker: Call of Pripyat
The Stalker series has always represented the ultimate end-goal of immersive sims, a cohesive and believable environment, AI that acts autonomously of the player, and complex interactions that result in an unscripted, unpredictable world.
None of the games achieved what Shadow of Chernobyl set out to do, but Call of Pripyat comes close. It condenses the fragmented environments of previous games into three large areas, where multiple factions of Stalkers, bandits, scientists and others patrol, hunt wildlife, scour for valuable Artifacts and battle over territory. When the wind blusters, the rain rolls in and you’re being hunted by an invisible mutant, few games are as engrossing.
Best feature: Pripyat is constantly under threat of Emissions, violent energy bursts that alter the situation within the zone, creating new Artifacts, killing NPCs and spawning Zombified Stalkers.
2012: Dishonored
Recent years have seen a revival of bona-fide immersive sims. In 2011 Deus Ex: Human Revolution proved it was possible to make a follow-up that rivalled Warren Spector’s masterpiece. Then in 2012 came Dishonored, a game openly inspired by the work of Ion Storm and Looking Glass. Arkane’s Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah had both shown glimmers of a similar talent, and it finally coalesced in their magical murder-sim.
Dishonored took the level design of Thief and the open-ended play of Deus Ex, and weaved them together superbly. The majority of its missions are built in a similar style to Thief II’s Life of the Party—a smattering of open city that surrounds the central area where the mission takes place. Particular highlights include the Golden Cat, an opulent brothel whose spiralling layout makes for a tricky assassination challenge, and Lady Boyle’s manor, where the ensuing Masquerade Ball allows the player to hide in plain sight.
Dishonored also boasts the most inventive toolsets of any game of its ilk, blending mechanical gadgetry with pagan-style magic. You can possess enemies and freeze time to manipulate your opponents and remain unseen, or deploy nasty springrazors and summon hordes of rats if you fancy adopting a more sociopathic approach. Dishonored even lets players complete the game without killing anyone, although many of your targets may wish they were dead given some of the fiendish alternatives.
Best ability: Although it’s the least spectacular ability in Corvo’s arsenal, Blink transforms everything about the game. This short-range teleport affects movement, platforming, combat and stealth, enabling you to dart across gaps between rooftops, flash into cover when noticed by a guard, or vanish away from a pistol-shot and stab your aggressor in the back.
Read on to page two for a collection of the best games that have been inspired by the immersive sim movement.
Ubi promises exclusive content from Assassin's Creed fan site thing
The Assassin's Creed Council, announced today by Ubisoft, is a new site the publisher describes as "the number destination for fans of the Assassin's Creed universe." Members will receive inside information about the stabtastic series, access to exclusive content, and opportunities to interact with members of the development team and the Assassin's Creed community.
The Council already contains quite a bit of content, including a link to purchase an official bust of Ezio Auditore, the lead character in Assassin's Creed 2, and an image of an Apple of Eden that will soon go on sale. There are also a a number of "News from the Studio" entries, including an illustrated look at the evolution of the Assassin gauntlet, some early concepts of Jacob Frye's costumes, and an interview with Creative Director Marc Aleix Côté, plus several user-submitted posts.
Dedicated fans can earn points, which will carry them further along the "Council path," plus various sorts of badges, and a leaderboard is in the works as well. All in all, it strikes me as quite a bit like Steam's community pages, but dedicated to a single series rather than everything. And it's free to join, which is for the best frankly. Check it out at council.assassinscreed.com—and since we're here, a reminder that the next addition to the Assassin's Creed lineage, Syndicate, is out on PC on November 19.
New details on Rift's patch 1.9, Conquest system
Rift's 1.9 patch, which releases on Wednesday, aims to change the face of player-vs-player combat in Trion's flagship MMO forever.
Rift's 1.9 patch, which releases on Wednesday, aims to change the face of player-vs-player combat in Trion's flagship MMO forever. Along with new Instant Adventure content and a Mentoring system that allows higher-level players to group with their lowbie friends, the patch adds a new Conquest PvP mode that offers a larger-scale alternative to instanced Warfronts. We have new screens and new details, including how rewards will work and a look at the new colossus, below.
As we mentioned in last month's preview, Conquest PvP divides players into three new factions to fight over territory in an open, alternate-reality version of the Stillmoor zone. Those who join the fray will be able to accrue both temporary and persistent rewards. The mode includes a sort of "momentum" mechanic where doing your part will grant you temporary buffs going into future battles. During a recent phone call, the developers told me that these buffs will start to wear off about a day after you earn them, and playing only a couple times a week should be enough to keep them steady.
In addition, Conquest introduces a new currency type that can be earned by completing objectives, winning a match for your side, and killing the new colossi PvE bosses that only spawn when one side has won the map, and are only available to be confronted by the winning faction. Rewards will presumably include better PvP gear and consumbales that can be carried out of the mode.
If you're one of those reclusive MMO gamers who don't like other people, Conquest has you covered, too. According to Rift's chief creative officer, Scott Hartsman, lone-wolf players will be able to contribute to their side without making a single kill, by gathering materials and crafting items and defenses for their side.
Also coming in 1.9 are the aforementioned new Instant Adventures and Mentoring system. The new Instant Adventures bring the fast-paced combat to the Freemarch, Silverwood, Gloamwood, and Stonefield zones. Hartsman told me that they're using the modular nature of Instant Adventure to test some more experimental mechanics such as granting temporary abilities without having to worry about the potential of them "breaking" the open areas of the game.
The Mentor system, which scales your character down to the level of the group you're joining, is meant to let players continue earning rewards for their higher-level characters as they help lower-level friends through content.
Lastly, 1.9 will finally bring a barbershop feature to Rift, allowing you to re-customize your character's appearance. So if you've been regretting those dreads you put on your Bahmi since launch, you're less than 48 hours from remedying your ill-advised hair disaster.
Jottobots: an indie platformer that will brighten up your Saturday
Saturday feels like a strange day to release a game, but when it's a game as wonderfully strange-looking as Jottobots , perhaps that's apt.
, perhaps that's apt. It's the latest from Kyle Pulverof Snapshot and Offspring Fling fame, and this time he's collaborated with artist Jo. Otto Seibold to create a score-chasing platformer with a strikingly lovely art style. Or rather, he did in back 2009 for the ARTxGAME collective- he's had the game "sitting around" gathering digital dust since then. But now, today, we'll finally be able to play it, with a single dollarbeing the price of admission.
Admittedly, it isn't available to buy at the time of writing, probably because it's still the middle of the night in the USA. Sitting here in my Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I often forget about trivial things like time zones. While we wait for those lazybones to get themselves out of bed, let's all have a look at the Jottobots trailer, which reminds me of a more actiony Cave Story.
New Assassin's Creed called Syndicate, according to leak
Polygon says the new Assassin's Creed, set to be revealed to the world next week, is actually called Syndicate, and not Victory, as it was called when Kotaku leaked early details of the game in December.
in December. The report is based on marketing material for Syndicate, and matches a report on Kotakufrom yesterday that made the same claim.
Other than the name change, it sounds like Syndicate will be much as expected. The Assassin's Creed US sitenow sports an image of a very nice set of brass knuckles emblazoned with the credo "Strength Through Loyalty," lying on a table carved with the messages "We forge the chains we wear in life" and "God save the Queen," as well as the word "Rooks" beside a crude image of a bird. The UK sitestill bears the image of a man's crossed wrists, with a cane in one hand and a wee tiny cannon strapped to the other.
The game will feature an assassin named Jacob Frye, according to the report, and will "transport millions of gamers to an astonishing recreation of London during the Industrial Revolution where they will find themselves immersed in a game world they'll have to see to believe." Anyone who places a preorder with Gamestop will receive a replica one-shilling necklace similar to the one worn by Frye in the game.
Ubisoft will officially unveil Assassin's Creed: Syndicate via livestream at 9 am PT/12 pm ET on May 12.
Guild Wars 2 World vs. World PvP: 20 minutes of footage, plus commentary!
While I was at ArenaNet I had the chance to play a decent amount of Guild Wars 2's World vs.
While I was at ArenaNet I had the chance to play a decent amount of Guild Wars 2's World vs. World PvP mode. In this video, Graham and I talk you through two fortress assaults. In one, my team is on the offensive. In the other, we're mounting a heroic attempt to break an enemy siege. We discuss how the mode differs from regular PvP, the minute-to-minute strategy of defending your territory, and the inner lives of Guild Wars 2's implacable transport goat things.
For more on World vs World PvP, check out our preview. Are you taking part in the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend, readers? If so, will you be giving World vs. World a try?
The Free Webgame Round-Up
It's Friday, which means it's time for your weekly dose of webgames, this time's batch consisting of an interdimensional platformer, a game about depression, a game about depressing the Spacebar and watching as the seasons change around you, a 2.5D take on classic Metal Gear Solid, and of course a very messy alien gore game.
It's Friday, which means it's time for your weekly dose of webgames, this time's batch consisting of an interdimensional platformer, a game about depression, a game about depressing the Spacebar and watching as the seasons change around you, a 2.5D take on classic Metal Gear Solid, and of course a very messy alien gore game. Combined, these amount to just one of your five-a-day, so you may also want to drink some OJ or something. Enjoy!
Prism Panic by Noel Berry, Connor Ullmann
Well this is clever. Flash wizards Noel Berry (Broken Robot Love) and Connor Ullmann (Seedling) have teamed up to make a 2D platformer with an extra dimension – and by that I don't mean it's in 3D. Prism Panic is essentially the best parts of Fringe, its levels boasting roving pockets of interdimensionality that (for example) replace a peaceful critter with a horrible monster, or make spikes appear out of thin air. Wonderful, challenging stuff, with a great soundtrack too.
Depression Quest by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey, Isaac Schankler
A wonderfully written game, and one of the most helpful and powerful pieces of Interactive Fiction I've played. Depression Quest puts you in the shoes of someone suffering from, well, depression; it's not an easy ride, but there is hope here. On a slightly unrelated note, the game's social interaction choices remind me of my favourite parts of the last two Shin Megami Tensei: Persona games, which sandwiched visual novel elements in-between all the demon-slaying.
If you've never entirely understood the illness, or you suspect you may be suffering from it, I'm certain Depression Quest will help. It's been released on a Pay What You Wantmodel, so while there is a free version, you may want to consider thanking the developers with a sum of your choosing, a portion of which will go to the charity iFred.
CJR by nitram_cero
In CJR, you are a guy with biceps bigger than all the other biceps, and with a gun that fires in all sorts of crazy directions – up, diagonally, sideways... the lot. When your bullets connect with the weird purple alien things, the weird purple alien things explode in a shower of goop, which then stays on any surface it splatters upon, Super Meat Boy-Style. (The game also features “mucho checkpoints”, which is just bueno.) Sometimes biceps, a big gun, and alien gore are all you need – and CJR definitely has you covered on that front.
(Via Free Indie Games)
400 Years by scriptwelder
400 years should be enough time to stop an unspecified calamity and save the world, but in this enchanting time-travelling sidescroller, those years go by in the blink of an eye. The game's masterstroke is your ability to pass time by holding the Spacebar, which causes seasons to change (Winter, for example, turning water into ice, allowing you walk over a frozen stream), and trees to grow. Beautiful stuff, in no small part due to the vaguely Thomas Was Alone-esque narration, and the lovely soundtrack.
(Via IndieGames)
Linear Gear by Sophie Houlden
Developer Sophie Houldenmade her arcade-puzzle game Swift ☆ Stitch available for free earlier in the week and, on Twitter shortly afterwards, shelved her Metal Gear Solid-inspired Linear Gear, which takes the super-spy and robs him of (half of) the third dimension. Both games are available to play online(Swift ☆ Stitch is also downloadable), but I wanted to draw particular attention to the sadly unfinished Linear Gear, which does a fantastic job of recreating the feel of the original and best MGS, while shifting it to 2.5D. The music's great, and the pixels are delicious – it's just a shame the full game will never be.
Are annual releases of AAA games bad for gaming?
Are annual releases of AAA games bad for gaming?
face off
Tom Marks wants the public to think of gaming as more than just Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty.
Chris Livingston doesn't love annual AAA games, but lots of people do. And who is he to say they're wrong? Just look at him.
Tom: YES, it oversaturates the gaming market with unfinished and unoriginal games, warping the perception of gaming as a whole. When you make games for a deadline, the games don’t get finished. Plain and simple. It’s the reason I don’t usually mind when a game is delayed, because the developer has recognized they need more time to finish it. But annual or biennial releases restrict a dev’s ability to rethink the amount of time they need. Now, a game being unfinished on launch doesn’t hurt gaming on its own, but these games are the ones being heavily marketed and inevitably seen and played by the average joe—not just gamers. Madden, Call of Duty, and Assassin’s Creed now represent all of gaming to the mass market, and I wish it was represented better.
Chris Livingston: NO. No one has to buy annual AAA games, but they do, by the millions, which seems to indicate they’re happy with them. Happy gamers are good for gaming, even if I personally think they’re a little crazy for being happy. Not every gamer out there plays dozens of games a year, and not everyone eats, breathes, and lives gaming in general: I have friends who only buy one or two games a year, usually from an annual series. They don’t love them all, but they enjoy them enough to keep coming back. If they’re happy, I’m happy. Why don’t you want my friends to be happy, Tom?
Tom: Because your friends never invite me to any of their parties, Chris. I’m not saying that AAA studios releasing big games for a wide audience is a bad thing—I love the idea of more people playing and having fun with games—but can’t they vary the experiences they are selling a bit? The same gameplay in a different setting year after year is a poor representation of what games can be, and what I know a AAA budget can achieve. The lack of creativity is nothing more than a money grab, because you can save costs by varying gameplay as little as possible. It’s the videogame equivalent of cartoon shows only animating two framesfor someone talking. It saves time, but noticeably so.
Chris: I agree, variety is great, and I do wish my friends played more types of games. But you’ve got to start somewhere, and as a jumping-off point, AAA games might not be a bad place to start. At the very least, playing a ho-hum shooter might leave someone wanting a bit more, at which point they’ll really start looking for other titles. After all, most people’s love of cinema doesn’t begin with watching quirky indie films or foreign dramas but probably from watching big, popular, not-so-great movies, like 2009’s Fast and Furious. But it might spark their interest and get them looking for something better, until they eventually find a truly remarkable, deeply-nuanced film, like 2011’s Fast Five.
Besides, if CoD didn’t come out every year, they might not play anything. I figure playing something might lead to someone eventually playing something else, and something better.
Tom: You don’t get Joe Regular into indie films by showing him The Fast and The Furious series, you get him into them by showing him Drive. Look! It’s got famous people, high production values, violence and action, but all of this is presented in a unique and interesting manner. That’s what annual releases could be doing for gaming; they could offer experiences that a mass market is comfortable with in an evocative way. If CoD wasn’t coming out every year, people would still be playing whatever Activision was making instead, because they have the marketing budget and the reach to get their games into as many hands as possible. They just aren’t willing to jeapordize that position by doing something “risky” to make something actually good. Like Furious 7…or, hold on...
Chris: I definitely wish there was a bit more risk-taking and less formula to these games, but even churned-out annual games can wind up being sort of okay. I haven’t played many Call of Duty games, and the ones I’ve played have been far too linear, follow-the-guy, do-what-the-guy says affairs, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy at least some parts of them. I stabbed a dude in the neck while running down the side of a building, and shot a terrorist in the face on a space station. That was cool. Stupid, but cool.
Besides, just because a developer waits years to release the next game in a series doesn’t necessarily mean it’s been completely rethought. Skyrim, honestly, isn’t all that different from Oblivion at its core, and yet it was still good. Is it maybe that your objections come from the fact that you just personally don’t enjoy these annual games? If a new Hearthstone came out every year, you wouldn’t be a little stoked? If the delay between Half-Life games was only two years instead of infinity years, you wouldn’t be down for that? Maybe enormous gulfs of time between games in a series isn’t so great for gaming, either.
Tom: I suppose you are right (and that feels icky to type.) My problem might not specifically be with annual releases, but more with what those annual releases have turned into. I would be fine with a new Half-Life game came out every year if each one of them held up to the same standard of quality, but my point is that’s impossible. Rigid, publisher mandated timeframes do not breed good games, they breed safe concepts that will be purchased. I guess there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that—unless we keep getting glitchy, broken games on release—but my frustration stems from the fact that the developers doing this are some of the only ones who can afford to make large, envelope pushing experiences. And, for the most part, they aren’t.
They aren’t releasing a new game because they have a great concept for one, even if they sometimes do. They are releasing it because it’s expected of them, by the public and their stockholders. Being stuck in that cycle isn’t good for anyone and it’s degrading how we think about games.
Chris: It is definitely a case of quantity over quality. It’s like British TV versus American TV, in a way. With British TV you only get a couple episodes and sometimes years between seasons, but it’s almost always better. Sometimes, though, it can be nice to have a ton (or tonne) of something even if it’s not quite as well-crafted, for those weekends where you just want some noise and images thrown at you without having to actually think.
Here’s at least one perk. AAA developers employ hundreds of people to make their games. Releasing games on an annual basis means they can afford to keep their employees on staff year-round. I think we all groan when we hear about layoffs hitting developers the moment their game is sold, simply because they can’t justify the overhead because their next project isn’t immediately underway. Or do you prefer when a dev lays off people as soon as their game is released? You hate my friends and you hate jobs.
Tom: I hate a lot of things, not least of which is that you make a pretty good point. Layoffs in the game industry happen far too often.
It might be petty, but I just worry about the long term effect this release cycle will have on the perception of gaming. I don’t want the mass market to stop caring about games because all they know is annual rehashes.
Chris: No, that’s a valid concern, and probably not one I’ve considered until now. It would be great if the world at large didn’t only see big annual AAA titles when they took a peek at gaming, but from the outside that’s pretty much all that can be seen, and that’s probably not good.
How about we bury our differences with a film? There’s a wonderful quirky French indie film you should see. It’s called La Fast et La Furious.
Tom: Sorry, I've gotta go see Fury Road tonight.
Chris: I think I'll wait for Fury Road 2. It should be out next year.
Mastering the Arena: Trial by Arcane
Earlier this week, Blizzard opened up World of Warcraft's Arena Tournament servers for public signups.
for public signups. Every time they open, players can pay $20 for access to a separate server loaded with max-level characters, the best gear/enchants/gems in the game, and unlimited gold to spend—all of which adds up to provide the perfect competitive PvP environment for arena fans. The last time the tournament server was live, Josh grabbed a few of his friends and gave it a shot. We'll be sharing their thoughts on what they learned and if they thought it was worth the money over the next few days.
Trial by Arcane
Josh Augustine
I'm not sure what I expected to find when I logged into the Arena Tournament realm for the first time, but I certainly didn't expect major cities devoid of all NPCs and barely any players running around. Instead I found 30 Goblins on raised platforms selling almost every enchantment, poison, trinket, armor piece, and gem that a PvP hound could want. And my toon was loaded with enough gold to purchase everything.
I chose to play as a Goblin Mage because, as a veteran of Arena with my Rogue and Warrior characters, I'd always envied the Mage's ability to continually control other player's movements. I felt like a demigod in my first match. No one on the other team looked at me as they chased down my teammates' Rogue and Warrior, so I was free to stand still and spit out spells like a magical machine gun of death. Then I noticed I hadn't used a single cooldown. Oops. I'd built my Arcane talent spec on a whim, and suddenly I realized that my action bars were full of spells I only vaguely understood.
I made a plan for myself. Every match, I'd focus on using a new spell. One match, I Polymorphed everyone I could see, and learned to anticipate the enemy's use of trinkets. I also discovered that I could use Polymorph to set up a perfect Ring of Frost freeze on the enemy healer.
On and on it went as I began to get better at each facet of a mage's role in our group. When we ran an all-damage-dealer lineup, my job developed into controlling the enemy damage and using crowd control on the healer so my teammates, Matthew and Marty, could secure a kill. When I ran with Jessica's Priest and Marty's Warrior, I focused on helping Marty burn down his target, and used crowd control spells to keep the enemy damage off Jessica.
It sounds so easy when I say it like that, but in reality I was panicking during every fight and constantly forgetting my objectives. Some matches, I forgot to Polymorph anyone at all, and I frequently failed to Ice Block before dying. When I died because I couldn't find the Evocation button on my action bar and instead accidentally tried to conjure food in the middle of a fight, I knew I needed help.
I prefer to get my advice from more personal sources instead of through websites. So I called up my old roommate, James. Back in The Burning Crusade, we played Arena every week together, me as a Rogue and he as a Frost Mage. I'd seen him make some epic moves to save the day over the years, so after I switched to a Frost spec, I knew he could help me sharpen my skills.
“Multitask, multitask, multitask,” was the first thing James said to me. “You're a magical assassin shepherd,” he continued, “At the beginning of each match, decide who your crowd control focus should be.” So I started picking a crowd control target at the start of every match and announcing it to Matthew, Marty, and Jessica so we could work together to contain them. Suddenly, we were essentially fighting 3v2 because we kept the enemy target out of commission most of the fight. I got to the point where all I was doing was Polymorphing the enemy team and using Counterspell to interrupt the enemy healer.
I'd gone a bit too far in the opposite direction—all crowd control and no damage—but luckily James was there to help straighten me out again. “Don't forget to keep a steady flow of brimstone, arcana, and ice barreling towards your enemies at all times, only pausing to interrupt the enemy's plans regarding your crowd control,” he told me between matches. “Oh, and always Ice Block sooner than later. If you Ice Block with only 1,000 health, you're coming out with only 1,000 health and you're going to die. Your body is burned and the ashes never make it to your family. Do you want your children to grow up fatherless?”
I like that James doesn't sugarcoat it. Furthermore, his advice is applicable to anyone who's stepping into the Arena: coordinate with your teammates to pick a target for crowd control abilities, but don't get tunnel vision.
I felt more confident than ever stepping into the Arena after that. All it took was a few conversations with a good friend who was able to watch what I was doing and provide personalized feedback. I still have a lot to improve on—I didn't quite break even with my total win-loss record—but at least next time I'll remember to Ice Block.
If you're interested in trying your luck on the Arena Tournament servers, you can sign up on the official siteor read the FAQfor more info.