Spaghetti Western brawler Secret Ponchos coming to PC

Secret Ponchos is a spaghetti western fighting game set in some amazing alternate universe where Once Upon a Time in Mexico was a graphic novel by Frank Miller.

is a spaghetti western fighting game set in some amazing alternate universe where Once Upon a Time in Mexico was a graphic novel by Frank Miller. It's fast-paced and looks like a lot of fun, but up until recently it was presumed to be exclusive to the PS4. Not so, according to developer Switchblade Monkeysyesterday: Secret Ponchos is headed to Steam.

It's hard to classify Secret Ponchos—beyond the fact that its name is unreasonably cool. The game is played from an overhead camera, but players will mix it up with a variety of moves and counter-attacks that make it play more like a fighting game… with guns. “Players battle against each other for notoriety and reputation,” the game's website reads. “These duels are recorded into your character's legacy. Players can compete in one-vs-one duels, engage in western style gang fights, or enter the fray with the Free-For-All mode.“

In an interview and play-along with IGN, president of Switchblade Monkeys Yousef Mapara said that the team was encouraged to bring the game to Steam by fans at PAX. “We were nervous about showing it at PAX, because at that time nobody had seen it… It was a good feeling to watch people play the game. We had no idea that people would like it.”

There's no release date for the PC version yet; the PS4 release is scheduled for the first quarter of 2014, which is right about now. If you're heading to PAX East this weekend, Secret Ponchos will be playable at the Indie Megabooth.

Civilization V Gold Edition released, features all available DLC

If you've been holding off on buying Civilization V in the hopes of snagging all of the released content in one package, your day has finally arrived.

Civilization V: Gold Editionincludes the Gods & Kings expansion, along with all of the map, civilization, and scenario packs for $50. That's $10 cheaper than buying just the base game and the expansion separately on Steam. Of course, this won't be the complete collection for long if the rumors about the upcoming One World expansion are true. But it's still enough content to keep you busy for a while. (180 hours, in my case.)

Compared to vanilla Civ V, you'll be getting Korea, Spain, the Incas, Denmark, Babylon, Polynesia, the Celts, the Netherlands, the Mayans, Carthage, Byzantium, the Huns, Austria, Ethiopia, and Sweden. Not to mention some pretty cool scenarios, including my personal favorite, Fall of Rome. If you'd like to see Gods & Kings in action, check out my Civilization V Chronicles, our reviewof the expansion, and the Steam demo.

Chibi Robo

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Arma 3 mod 2017 shows a world of creepers and sadists in new video

In a new video for 2017 , an upcoming survival-horror mod for Arma 3 , the creature prototypes hint at multiplayer enemies with a dark and—and maybe inhuman—past.

, the creature prototypes hint at multiplayer enemies with a dark and—and maybe inhuman—past. A good horror story usually has a moment where the hunted get's a glimpse of what's hunting him. It's often a split second of terror where the main character finally realizes just how out-matched he really is. And with its creeper and sadist characters, 2017 is putting its idea of horror on clear display.

The two creatures support the mod's move away from a scenarioof infected humans initially proposed as a setting for the mod last year. Taking place some years after the collapse of human civilization, 2017 will put players in a survival role inspired by post-apocalyptic fiction such as The Road. With this inspiration in mind, beasties like the sadist, with his bulging belly and burlap-sack mask point to the corruption of a person who at one time, maybe, was just like everyone else.

The creepers on the other hand, with their burned-looking flesh and spindly bodies, set an entirely different mood. If the sadist has kept his more-or-less human appearance in the wake of the apocalypse, the creepers are something else entirely. The video above has packs of the prototype creatures lurking around the broken-down Arma 3 landscape with animation that only makes them seem more faceless and evil.

The video also gives some insight into the mod's progress, with the announcement that a closed alpha build is being tested this month. For more on 2017, be sure to check out its official website and forum here.

Jon Shafer criticizes every decision he made on Civ 5, explains how At the Gates will differ

Jon Shafer, designer of Civilization V , has successfully funded his upcoming At the Gates on Kickstarter with 22 days to spare.

with 22 days to spare. Today, in an update on the Kickstarter page, he took a long and merciless look into the mirror of self-criticism, admitting what he perceives as mistakes in the design of Civ 5 that he hopes to make up for in this new project. Everything from AI programming to unit stacking is dissected.

One particular element of Civ 5 he singled out was the AI design, and the way that many of the computer-controlled leaders would behave somewhat randomly. He pins this on a very complex diplomacy system with lots of moving parts, that often didn't present any kind of outward logic to the player. "The only thing which matters in a game is the experience inside the player's head ," he wrote. "It doesn't matter what your intentions are or what's going on under the hood if the end result just isn't fun.

"With [At the Gates] I'm staying completely focused on the end goal: results. This means a much simpler AI system , which in turn will result in a much stronger opponent. When you as the developer know exactly what an AI player is doing and why, it becomes much easier to recognize bad behavior and fix it."

He was also very critical of his decision to institute the One Unit Per Tile rule, explaining that it caused issues with everything from AI to production times.

"In Civ 5, every unit needed its own tile, and that meant the map filled up pretty quickly. To address this, I slowed the rate of production, which in turn led to more waiting around for buckets to fill up. For pacing reasons, in the early game I might have wanted players to be training new units every 4 turns. But this was impossible, because the map would have then become covered in Warriors by the end of the classical era. And once the map fills up too much, even warfare stops being fun.

"...The key is the map. Is there enough of room to stash units freely and slide them around each other? If so, then yes, you can do it. For this to be possible, I'd think you would have to increase the maximum map size [of Civ 5] by at least four times. You'd probably also want to alter the map generation logic to make bottlenecks larger and less common."

If you're in the mood for a long read, you can check out the full essay, which goes through just about every design element in Civ 5 and puts it under the microscope, offering solutions to his perceived problems that will be used in At the Gates. In case you missed it, you should also peruse our interview with Jonabout the game.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Original concept Devastatingly cute characters Challenging puzzle elements Cons Baffling story Slow pacing When do we get to drive the hotrod?! Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 The toxically cute Chibi-robo reminds you that the GameCube is more about quality gameplay than gory violence. Sure, it provides more fodder for Xbox fanboys to point and shout

Battlefield 4 getting a seven-day double XP event for all players

Like a headshot you never saw coming, a game crash in Battlefield 4 just isn't fun at all.

just isn't fun at all. But a sudden death in always gives you chance to do better the next time, while crashes just leave you feeling empty and XP-less. In response to some of the well-known stability issuesaffecting BF4 at the moment, DICE is handing out a week's worth of double XP starting November 28, according to a press release.

"I am extremely proud of the people at DICE and everyone across EA that contributed to the development of Battlefield 4," said DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson in a press release. "However, I am less proud to see that the game has experienced some turbulence during the launch period. While some platforms have had only minor problems, others have had more than their fair share of issues. Resolving the launch issues is our No. 1 priority. In fact, we are so serious that we have the entire team working to stabilize the game and we will not move on to other projects until we are sure that Battlefield 4 meets—and exceeds—your expectations. It is the right thing to do."

Well all hands on deck then, I guess. In addition to the seven days of double XP, Troedsson is promising a previously unavailable pistol scope for your M1911 if you log into BF4 multiplayer on the last day of the event, Dec. 5. If you've been playing regularly you've already seen a steady stream of patchesand updates since the game launched on October 29. After putting over 170 hours into Battlefield 3—not much, I know—I have to admit the recent crashes have kept me from putting the kind of time into its sequel that I normally would. Let's hope the full-on assault on stability issuesTroedsson is describing pays dividends beyond a few quick levels and rights the ship for good.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings hands-on - religion, espionage, and steampunk

The Civilization V Gods & Kings expansion adds religion to the early game, espionage to the mid and late game, and a steampunk campaign somewhere around the time Queen Victoria was having tea with Alan Turing on an airship.

The Civilization V Gods & Kings expansion adds religion to the early game, espionage to the mid and late game, and a steampunk campaign somewhere around the time Queen Victoria was having tea with Alan Turing on an airship. I played with all three of its primary features -- here's what you need to know.

How Religion works

1. It starts with Faith , a resource like Gold and Culture, which can be cultivated with buildings and Social Policies. When you've earned enough, you can found a Pantheon and choose your first Belief. When a Belief is claimed, it's off the table for other civs. Do you want faster border growth? +1 Faith from desert tiles? +1 Culture from pastures? There's a huge list of choices.

2. When a Great Prophet is born , you can establish your proper religion. I chose Zoroastrianism, but the religion names are just flavor, and don't affect which Beliefs can be chosen.

3. By consuming a Great Prophet and founding a religion , you're awarded two new Beliefs on top of your original Pantheon Belief. The first is a Founder Belief, which gives you a bonus for every follower, and the second is a Follower Belief, which benefits the cities of followers, even if they're not yours.

4. The final step is to spread your religion. Missionaries purchased with Faith can be sent to cities to spread the good word. Not every civilization will appreciate your spiritual conquest, but some will welcome it. Cities containing religious followers will also exert pressure on neighboring cities, allowing passive transfer of beliefs.

What I think so far

To those (myself included) who complained that Civilization V lacks the strategic depth of Civ IV, and lamented the loss of religion and espionage in favor of Social Policies and city-states, the religion system in Gods & Kings says, “Oh, you want more detail do you? HERE'S ALL OF IT!”

I spent a long time scrolling up and down through the list of Beliefs before settling on my first -- there are a lot of options to weigh. But they're not arbitrary: each Belief is tailored to one of Civ's win strategies, and I like that many are related to geography. Earning bonuses for worshiping tree and sea gods on my civ's forested island helped construct a more interesting narrative.

The new resource and specialty units also add a lot of decision making to the early game. Religion can be used relatively passively, but if you want to wage holy wars, you'll have to make it one of your priorities and reduce progress in another area. Since I wasn't in a resource-heavy area, I focused on Beliefs which increase happiness to keep my citizens from becoming frowny-faces over the lack of luxuries. I spread it to a couple cities in a neighboring civ, but after that, I let it do its thing mostly unchecked. I worried that too much focus on faith and followers might not pay off, so by the time I reached the Renaissance I'd largely abandoned my spiritual ambitions.

I didn't feel compelled to treat Religion as more than passive bonuses and story flavor, but I can see its potential to become a major component of pre-industrial strategy.

How Espionage works

1. When you reach the Renaissance , the strategic importance of religion takes a backseat to spies. From the espionage menu, you can manage your first covert operative. He isn't a unit on the map -- all espionage actions occur in the menu. Your first step is to send him to a foreign city to set up reconnaissance, which takes several turns.

2. Once embedded in a city , your spy can steal technology and information, and you can peek at your opponent's city management screen. If you want to be really devious, you can stage coups in city-states.

3. The Intrigue system allows you to peek at what the AI is planning -- who they're plotting against and what they're building.

4. Spies stationed in your own cities perform counter-intelligence and can kill enemy spies.

What I think so far

I've only played through one scenario with espionage, but I think I may be in love. Espionage in Gods & Kings adds strategic depth without being a managerial burden, and unlike the religion system, which primarily introduces new strategic choices, it helps you make those choices intelligently.

When I discovered that the leader of a neighboring civilization was plotting against me, I used two Great Generals to build forts along my border and stationed a line of defensive units. I also built an army deep within my borders and secretly constructed a railroad that allowed me to rapidly flank one of his vulnerable cities. By the time he declared war, I was in a position to make it hurt. The intel my spy recovered changed the outcome of battles and made me feel like a more powerful and competent leader, which is the feeling I play Civ for.

Empires of the Smoky Skies scenario

The core game additions are Gods & Kings' main course, but its alternate history scenario, Empires of the Smoky Skies, is a surprisingly elaborate dessert. Like with molded chocolate shapes and everything. It features new leaders, units, strategic resources, research options, and victory conditions, each slathered thick with rivets, goggles, and coal.

That's an impressive amount of stuff for one custom scenario, and it takes adjusting to. Before I became familiar with the five new bespectacled leaders and their industrious civilizations, I kept mixing them up and accidentally talking to the wrong guy. Hi, would you like to go to war with Ignace Curnow of Orlin? What's that? You ARE Ignace Curnow of Orlin? Well, this is most embarrassing.

The scenario opens at the onset of the Steam Era, where the tech tree diverges from the vanilla game's. Eruptives, Landships, Sky Fortress, Galvanomagnetism, and Subterranean Exploration are among the scientific discoveries researched on the way to The Future Era. The special units are very standard steampunk stuff -- giant armored landships and blimp-like air fortresses -- but the fiction is well-crafted and intentionally whimsical. I love that "Aetherium" makes things fly, and that I can consult the "League of Empires" and imagine men with mustaches and cigars convening in the elaborate parlor of a floating city.

To win, a civilization must lead in three out of five areas for at least five turns. Wealth, progress, and social policies all demand attention, because excelling in only one won't secure a victory. Of course, you could just conquer the entire map, but that's not very nice, is it? A better choice is to focus on spying. Religion is disabled in the scenario, but espionage is immediately integral to success -- especially for stealing technology and discovering which Wonders are under construction. As espionage is currently my favorite part of Gods & Kings, its importance in Smoky Skies makes the scenario even more fun for me. I plan to play it at least a few times.

Gods & Kings releases in North America on June 19, 2012 and internationally on June 22, 2012, at which point we'll have a proper verdict. In the meantime, you can read up on some of the expansion's other tweaks in our GDC interview with Lead Designer Ed Beach.

Chibi-Robo

Bold primary colours, an adorable, tiny hero and the mother of all tidying-up jobs to do. We've been here before, but Skip's thin tin man doesn't get quite so carried away by his task as Katamari's Prince. Chibi Robo goes about his chores as he finds them, painstakingly, one at a time, and with everybody's happiness - not their mass - on his mind. At its most menial, the route to a harmonious household

Hawken releases Predator mech into the wild, adds co-op mode in new beta patch

Hawken's latest beta patch is live, dropping a new mech and a new co-op game mode onto the mech shooter's dystopian landscape.

is live, dropping a new mech and a new co-op game mode onto the mech shooter's dystopian landscape. Code-named Predator, the new mech has some decidedly asymmetrical tactics and weapons at its disposal, according to information on the "Invasion" update released by developer Adhesive Games.

A medium-class mech, the Predator has a stalker function that renders your machine invisible while also giving you a limited-range ability to see through walls and structures. It has its limitations, however, as any use of jump jets or heat-generating weapons will knock you out of camouflage for a few seconds. If you take damage or deactivate the stalker ability manually, a longer, 20-second cooldown period is in effect.

A variety of new weapons and items can be bolted to the Predator chassis to take advantage of all that sneaking around. Options include a proximity mine launcher, a scary-looking rail gun and a disruptor device that short-circuits the vision of nearby enemies.

As well as the usual array of balance tweaks and bug fixes, the beta patch also introduces a co-op mode called Bot Destruction. Pilots can band together to take down 25 waves of bot mechs controlled by an out-of-control AI bent on the destruction of a human colony. You can earn XP and Hawken Credits in the new mode, giving players another way to unlock mechs in new leveling system the free-to-play game first introduced in last month's "Ascension"

Check out the trailer for the Invasion patch below for a closer look at Hawken's new features.

At the Gates over 200% funded, Jon Shafer discusses the road ahead

As of the writing of this article, there is just over a day and a half left in the Kickstarter for At the Gates , the upcoming, Dark Ages 4X game from Civ V designer Jon Shafer.

, the upcoming, Dark Ages 4X game from Civ V designer Jon Shafer. The team at Shafer's new studio, Conifer Games, has already demolished the original, $40,000 goal. Notable stretch goals already met include full mod support and two new factions. We caught up with Jon in a follow-up to our announcement interviewto get his thoughts on how the campaign went, and what we can expect from At the Gates after it's funded.

PC Gamer: The Kickstarter is almost over, and you guys have already doubled your original goal. What has the experience been like, overall? How has the level of success compared to your original expectations?

Jon Shafer: I was pretty confident going in that we'd hit our $40k goal and expected that we'd finish a small bit above that. But you really never know. Hitting our target in under four days was a big surprise, and we had to nail down our stretch goal plans sooner than we'd planned. Based on the number we're trending towards I would definitely say it's surpassed our expectations by a fair bit.

Was there anything in particular that surprised you?

"Another surprise was the number of other companies that reached out after seeing the Kickstarter campaign."Yes, there were a few surprises along the way.

The first was the sheer volume of questions and supportive messages we received. For a couple weeks I was getting over a hundred messages per day, and there were definitely times when I was tempted to waver on my commitment to answer everyone individually. But the activity calmed down eventually and I made it through to the other side.

It was great to see people I'd never met or spoken with take up the At the Gates banner and wave it as their own. When people say that Kickstarter is more than just a way to fund a project but also a marketing campaign in and of itself they're not kidding. This wasn't even something I'd thought about before, but based on my experience the effect is very real.

On a related note, another surprise was the number of other companies that reached out after seeing the Kickstarter campaign - many of them through Kickstarter. Investment, distribution, localization, conversion to other platforms, IT, music... you name it, I've been asked about it. I'll probably be sorting through these opportunities for several weeks after we've wrapped up. So far nobody's offered a huge pile of free money, but I'm still holding out hope!

Are you still planning on keeping the team very small, or will some of this new funding allow you to expand a little?

The higher budget will definitely allow us to hire on more contract work. Prior to the campaign I was unsure of how much animation we'd be able to incorporate in the world, but we're now looking at utilizing it for pretty much all the art. It's also likely we'll bring on some help to help with modding tools like the map editor.

"I want to explore new ideas and experiment with innovative features. They might not all work out, but with a small company they don't have to."

What is/are the best thing(s) about making a game through Kickstarter without the oversight of a commercial publisher?

The biggest perk is that you can focus entirely on making the best game possible. Every publisher wants to deliver great games, but large businesses have to be focused on the bottom line. If they're not, people lose their jobs.

The advantage of being an indie is that you can set priorities for yourself. I certainly need to make enough money to keep doing this, but beyond that my goals are all creative. I want to explore new ideas and experiment with innovative features. They might not all work out, but with a small company they don't have to.

Have you discussed post-launch content among the team members at all? Might we see some of the stretch goals (if they don't end up getting funded) as paid DLC or expansions down the line?

It's possible. I'm not a big fan of the traditional DLC model, but the prospect of making the Roman factions playable really intrigues me, as that would require making big changes to the core design. My general philosophy is that as long as there are interesting ideas to explore I'm there.

I wouldn't hold your breath for any map packs or sequels from Conifer though. If you do right by your community and offer an adequate level of modding then they can take care of that themselves.

What do you feel like you'd do differently, having just about wrapped up your first Kickstarter experience?

"If you do right by your community and offer an adequate level of modding, then they can take care of that themselves."I tried to prepare as much as possible before we launched and the campaign as a whole went fairly smoothly and has obviously done incredibly well. If I could go back and do it again there are a couple changes I'd make though.

Big, meaty articles are a great way to show potential and existing backers that you're serious about what you're doing, and that they have reason to trust in your promises. But each one requires a major time investment, and trying to squeeze those articles in with everything else can be exhausting. “Current me” would be a lot happier with “past me” had I been able to knock those out before hand.

The leadup for getting the Kickstarter out the door was also pretty rushed. In a recent update I shared the story behind the creation of Conifer, and those final couple weeks were pretty intense. Fortunately, next time I won't also be launching a company at the same time, which should simplify the process quite a bit.

I'd also tweak the reward tiers. I received many comments along the lines of “I'd like to give you more than the base amount, but I'm not willing to go all the way up to a hundred bucks - what can you do for me?” We made an early decision to avoid physical rewards, but there are still other opportunities like digital strategy guides, soundtracks, etc. We added some of these after the launch, but a more organized approach would have helped both us and our backers.

Thanks to Jon for talking to us, and keeping us posted about the project all along the way with some very detailed dev blogs. Those interested in backing At the Gatesstill can—$25 gets a DRM-free copy of the game.

Why I Love: Cheesing games

If you pay close attention in Bloodborne, you learn that a werewolf's ultimate weakness isn't quicksilver or wolfsbane - it's doors. Specifically, it's doorframes that are too big for their hulking bodies to fit through. You can stand on the other side and comfortably hack them to death without any concern for your life, like you're fighting a bag of potatoes with a target painted on the front. It

Natural Selection 2 World Championship Tournament sees crowdfunding success

Indie shooter Natural Selection 2 will get a world championship.

will get a world championship. The FPS/RTS hybrid's community-led projecthas raised the full $30,000 it said it needs to bring 24 players to Cologne, Germany and stage an eSports event to determine a winning team. An ambitious goal, to be sure, but the money is now there to make it happen, according to the fan effort's official crowdfunding site.

As we saw in our review, there's a beautiful tension on display in NS2's asymmetrical showdown between space marines and aliens. The battle for resources—alongside the team tactics necessary to protect your commander and come out on top—has all the makings of a great competitive atmosphere. With developer Unknown Worlds picking up the tabfor the studio and Twitch TV promotion, all the proposed world championship event needed was enough cash to get the final four teams, and a few game casters to call the action, to Cologne.

Some blue-chip sponsors like Nvidia and Intel got the project part of the way, but it looks like NS2 fans did the rest. The tournament will accept all entrants, with initial round-robin stages taking place before the end of the year, according to its official description. The finals in Germany are set to kick off in March as a live broadcast event. Any extra funds or additional contributions will go toward the tournament's prize pool, according to the organizers.

Civ V: Gods and Kings expansion announced. Now with extra religion and spies

2K have just announced that a new expansion is incoming for Civ V.

2K have just announced that a new expansion is incoming for Civ V. We got to chat with the game's producer, Dennis Shirk about the expansion a few days ago: "We wanted to take the experience to a deeper level," he said. "We're giving you new challenges to face."

There'll be a new focus on religious mechanics, along with nine new civilisations and a heap of fresh units. You'll also get to sample one of nine new leaders, including Prince of Orange and Boudicca.

Gods and Kings will also bring spies to the world of Civ. They'll break in to your opponents cities and have a rummage around for exclusive info. Get a super sneaky one involved and they might even steal you some advanced technology and help to rig elections in your favour. Dirty buggers. We'll also get to interact with two new city-state types: Mercantile and Religious. As Dennis mentioned: "Earning a diplomatic victory is now more about being a good Global Partner to all the states, and less about amassing a lot of gold and spending it on them."

The expansion is due in Spring this year. We're not sure of the price, yet. Click through for an image of the updated interface.

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Doom revealed at QuakeCon 2014, and here's what we saw

In the ten years since Doom 3 was released, Doom 4 has been fabled, rumored, delayed, and scrapped and started over at least once.

has been fabled, rumored, delayed, and scrapped and started over at least once. Id finally pulled back the curtain on Thursday during an exclusive reveal at QuakeCon 2014. In front of a packed auditorium at the 19th annual LAN party/PC game convention, id played a pair of live gameplay demos (running on PC) showing very different parts of the game. As a thanks to fans here in Dallas, the reveal wasn't streamed online and was for attendees only.

The game, for one thing, will not be called Doom 4, but simply Doom, and it will take place on Mars. According to Executive Producer Marty Stratton, the game will be going back to what made the original great: fast action, run-and-gun, inventive and creative combat. He also dropped the news that Doom will be running on id Tech 6, a much-needed update to the years-old technology that has run previous games from id (and struggled with texture pop-in and other technical problems).

There was a lot of combat on display, and all of it was vicious and full of strafing. The game shows off the verticality we've seen in a lot of titles, like Crysis 3, with double-jumps and jetpacks allowing the player to cross gaps and find high ground. Large crates and gaps can be climbed to reach new areas or just to escape from attacking enemies.

The mechanic that everyone's going to be talking about for the rest of QuakeCon, though, is the hand-to-hand finishing moves. After significantly damaging an enemy, they'll flash and highlight. By stepping close, the player is able to start a variety of combat moves that would be more at home in Mortal Kombat than most shooters. We saw lower jaws pulled off, skulls stomped on, and hearts torn out with the level of detail usually reserved for those slow-mo bullet cams in the Sniper Elite series. Unfortunately, in the ten minutes of gameplay I saw a few repetitions. Given the fullness of time, will we get tired of repetitive killing moves? Maybe, but the first few times will probably be a lot of fun.

Also making a triumphant return are massive weapons. We never saw the fabled BFG, but id is taking a lesson from Wolfenstein: The New Order'sjumbo-sized arsenal. All of the guns are huge and clanking. The plasma rifle, in particular, took a few seconds to boot up and engage its various fans and heatsinks. It was a bit showy, but the weapon had a visible knock-back that made it valuable when rooms got crowded with enemies.

Speaking of the enemies, there were a ton of them on display. Small demons made themselves annoying while the larger beasts and Hell Knights stomped in to finish the job. All in all it was a fast, chaotic experience that played out with the same stomping, crashing gore that I remember from the glory days of Doom 2.

Id showed off two gameplay demos, and it made me think that the game is much further along than we'd previously guessed. This is just speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see the game released in the same late-spring window that Wolfenstein just enjoyed.

Tonight's reveal was tantalizing, but we don't know everything about the game yet. Like all fans we do have a wishlist—a few of which we saw tonight. For the others, though, here's everything we want out of Doom 4.

The Muton bulks up for XCOM 2

The intergalactic musclehead known as the Muton will be back for XCOM 2 , but he's not quite the same as he was in XCOM: Enemy Unknown .

. The hulking slab of goonishness has been upgraded with a dose of human genes, adding "the cunning intellect of the human mind" to his devastatingly powerful physique. This, obviously, is not good for us.

XCOM 2 Mutonsappear to maintain most, if not all, of the same abilities they had in the preceding game. They can take advantage of the Suppression ability, significantly lowering the aim of their target while allowing a free reaction shot if the target moves, and can toss grenades, which are bad news for tight groups of soldiers.

But their up-close nastiness is enhanced by bayonet-equipped weapons and the Counterattack ability that gives them a chance to ignore all damage caused by a melee attack, and launch an immediate melee attack of their own in response.

The new Mutons look a bit different as well: Meatier, believe it or not, with a whole lot more neck and less dependence on the bulky exo-suit they wore in Enemy Unknown. They actually look rather Krogan-like now, which I would take as another sign that you should govern yourselves accordingly if you run into one of these guys in a dark alley.

XCOM 2 will be out in November.

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Section 8: Prejudice preview

There's a lot to like about a game that warns you to take cover to replenish your shields, then sends jetpacking enemies over the top of the jeep you're hiding behind.

There's a lot to like about a game that warns you to take cover to replenish your shields, then sends jetpacking enemies over the top of the jeep you're hiding behind. Sure I threatened the developer's family and whined about how unfair it was, but this is the sort of moment I want from an FPS.

Section 8's fights always had a fascinating fluidity. The maps are big and open, the enemies capable of approaching from any angle, the loadouts entirely customisable – and the game drops dynamically generated missions into the bigger multiplayer games at will. This standalone expansion has a five-hour campaign, bolstered by 32-map multiplayer and a new four-player co-op game. All three modes take the same open-battlefield format, with bots filling in the holes when needed. There's plenty of room for fun tactics and emergent silliness.

You're a powersuited solider, boosted by a jetpack and a mech-o-sprint. By itself that's enough to produce joyous moments of running, leaping and blasting: such as when I found a turret one of the bots had placed. Every player has the ability to call in support, from turrets to supplies and vehicles. Positioned on the edge of a large rock, the turret was firing missiles into one of our bases, while a repair beam snaked back to an enemy using the rock as cover. I fired missiles at the turret so the guy would focus on it, sprinted around the rock, jetpacked to the top and forced him to flee by peppering him with rifle fire. Then swapped to a rocket launcher to take down the turret. Divide and conquer, motherfucker.

All around, gnarly little fights were taking place. An enemy mech was struggling to keep a bunch of my team's bots from his VIP. The mission itself was dynamically generated, dropped into the bigger battle for control points.

Control points have to be 'hacked' then protected from enemy reacquisition, so it's here that the larger tactical situations form. It's impossible to protect them from every angle, especially when the game is tempting you to leave them unguarded and hunt for cash-boosting wreckage. But two or three people holding off invaders, deploying turrets, repairing and healing, jetpacking away when things get hairy, delivers exciting, intense firefights.

Moment to moment is where Prejudice shines. If there's a flaw, it's trying to figure out the larger plan. With continual distractions and a busy HUD there's usually too much going on. The control points on the map I played were structurally similar, which doesn't help.

And it uses fucking Games for fucking Windows Live. Fuck's sake. Regardless, Prejudice has fun filling its niche: another tech-heavy Battlefield-style game. It's looking like a fun shooter, and one with plenty of potential to entertain.

Civilization III now has Steamworks multiplayer support

Here's good news if you're still playing Civilization III: following the closure of GameSpy last year, the game now has Steamworks multiplayer support.

following the closure of GameSpy last year, the game now has Steamworks multiplayer support. Publisher 2K Games promised the transition in April last year, but now it's finally happened.

Thecan be downloaded now on Steam, with multiplayer functioning exactly as it used to, except you won't have the option to connect with a 'Direct IP' anymore. Meanwhile, save game data will not be affected, but if you happen to own a disc copy of Civilization III (read: not a Steam version) then you'll need to contact 2K support for info on how to make the jump.

It's good timing: creator Sid Meier was the star of last week's PC Gamer show, where he discussed the history of 'Sid Meier' games, in particular the Civilization series.

Tony Hawk Brand Returns To Its Roots With Next Entry

Section 8: Prejudice arriving in May

TimeGate have tweeted to confirm that their jetpack powered multiplayer shooter, Section 8: Prejudice, will be coming out on PC on May 4.

to confirm that their jetpack powered multiplayer shooter, Section 8: Prejudice, will be coming out on PC on May 4. The game will only be released digitally, and will be sold through Games for Windows Marketplace for $14.99.

Section 8 is best known for its spawning system that drops you onto the battlefield from orbit, but the are a few other reasons to be interested in the sequel. Randomly generated missions add changing optional objectives to each fight, and every player is a mech suited super soldier with the ability to dash at super speed, and leap across the battlefield with jetpacks. For more information, here's out Section 8: Prejudice preview.

Piracy on Civ's high seas

Recently, I stopped playing games long enough to read a book.

Recently, I stopped playing games long enough to read a book. I know! I'd been putting off Michael Crichton's posthumously published novel Pirate Latitudes. This swashbuckling pirate adventure, which I'd describe as an R-rated Pirates of the Caribbean (with less magic and more sex and blood) meets The A Team, set off an odd gaming craving. Not the swordplay of Prince of Persia or Assassin's Creed 2, not the naval warfare of Empire: Total War. No. This was a burning desire to play Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, the game of city building and trade economics where you claim a new world in the name of a European colonial power, then suddenly but inevitably betray your motherland and fight a war of independence.

How did an action-oriented story about a privateer captain walking the fine line between legally sanctioned raids and despised pirate inspire me to play a turn-based economic simulation? Easy: for one, Pirate Latitudes is set in the same era as Colonization, which spans from the late 15th century to the 18th. Just reading Crichton mention the fur and silver trade of the time had me yearning for the bounty-laden caravels and merchantmen cargo ships of rival colonies in Colonization.

Buying a Privateer is an investment in being a dick. Hiring a pirate to attacks ships sailing under the flags of my allies, I can suck the life out of my rivals. By intercepting their shipments coming from Europe, I can score valuable commodities that my colonies can't produce themselves yet, like tools, horses, muskets or trade goods - great for keeping the natives sweet so I can focus on sabotaging the competition. Intercepting shipments headed from the rival colonies to Europe nets me treasures like furs, cotton and tobacco, which I then sell back to myself in Europe for an infusion of free money.

My head filling with piratical schemes, as soon as I finished reading Pirate Latitudes, I sat down and fired up Colonization to scratch my itch. Unable to blink until I finished my first game, I found that I'd managed to stay up until 3am. Oops. I should've known better than to play Civ after 6pm.

For my next game I'll be installing some mods. A quick search of the Civilization Finatics forum turned up a few interesting ones, including Age of Discovery II(no relation to Dawn of Discovery). Of particular interest to me are the balancing tweaks that make this version play more like the 1994 original, and the addition of a full-fledged Pirate faction.

If you missed the amazing Civ IV Complete for $10 sale on Steam a little while back, you've still got a few hours to snag it for cheaps in today's Steam sale.

Here's a first look at Battlefield Hardline's new Criminal Activity DLC

It might look tranquil now but these serene images are from one of Battlefield Hardline 's four new maps in the upcoming Criminal Activity DLC. Set in an abandoned logging mill that's been taken over and used for drugs production, Backwoods is the biggest new map in the expansion and has a very different feel from what we've been used to. "We designed this map to give players a natural, organic playground

Section 8: Prejudice coming early 2011 at budget price

Section 8: Prejudice will be released early next year as a digital download, and will be priced at just $14.99. It's the sequel to the overlooked multiplayer shooter, Section 8, and will come with the original's trademark ability to crash into the battlefield from a dropship every time you respawn.

The bulk of the sequel will centre around the class based, 32 player, jetpack powered multiplayer combat, but there's also a five hour, story based single player campaign and a co-op mode called the Swarm in which you and a team of friends must hold a base against waves of enemies, buying turrets and vehicles with money earned through kills.

The game is set for release in early 2011, and will be available as a digital download through Steam and Games for Windows Marketplace for $14.99. Check out the first trailer and screensfor a look at how the game will play. For more information head over to the Section 8: Prejudicesite.

Civilization 5: Brave New World trailer pursues diplomatic relations

CAUTION: After all the whizz-bang pyrotechnics, gushing blood, heavy rock, and urgent shouting from a week long bombardment of E3 trailers, this sedate Civ 5: Brave New World featurette could be a dramatic shock to the system.

CAUTION: After all the whizz-bang pyrotechnics, gushing blood, heavy rock, and urgent shouting from a week long bombardment of E3 trailers, this sedate Civ 5: Brave New World featurette could be a dramatic shock to the system. Don't just play it, ease into it. Maybe make a cup of tea. If you're not British, why not give it a go anyway? They're really rather good.

Ready? Okay, now you can learn about the expansion's diplomacy overhaul, and the newly arriving World Congress.

This is the last of Firaxis' video round up for the expansion. If you missed any, they were: culture, ideologies, and trade.

Brave New World releases July 12th Internationally, and July 9th in the US.

Battlefield Hardline's first patch reworks team deathmatch spawns

The first major patch for Battlefield Hardline Patch 1.02 includes a broad selection of tweaks, fixes, and additions to Visceral's cops-and-robbers shooter, ranging from revised Battlepacks to reduced RPG splash damage and less-deadly couches. Speaking of Battlepacks, Patch 1.02 should make them noticeably more rewarding: Bronze Battlepacks have a better chance of giving out collectibles rather than

Section 8: Prejudice announces multiplayer beta

It seems like only yesterday (it was yesterday) that Tom F was lamenting that more people didn't play Section 8.

It seems like only yesterday (it was yesterday) that Tom F was lamenting that more people didn't play Section 8. Released late last year, it was a multiplayer shooter where death didn't mean death. It meant another chance to freefall into combat from a hovering dropship.

Hopefully Section 8: Prejudice, the sequel, will scratch the same itch but find a larger audience. There's a video of the robo-suited shooter in action below, along with details on how to apply to the rapidly approaching multiplayer beta.

The main focus of Section 8's action was a tug-of-war style 'Conquest' mode that had two teams capturing control points to earn victory. Completing feats like killing a certain number of players in melee would kick off dynamic missions, which had players suddenly scrambling to capture intelligence, or escorting AI commandos on attack runs at the enemy base. Also, it had awesome rocket packs that let you blast into the air and snipe enemies from above.

If any of that sounds good to you then head over hereto apply for the multiplayer beta. Create a free Timegate account and then fill in the short form and you could be falling on your enemies from a great height in no time. For an idea of what that's going to look like, check out the trailer below.

Civilization 5: Brave New World trailer previews policy paths, introduces ideology

Firaxis are breaking every rule in the trailer-making guidebook with this Policies & Ideologies featurette for Civilization 5's Brave New World expansion.

Brave New World expansion. For starter's it's called Policies & Ideologies. That's not what you call a trailer. You call a trailer "HYPER-BALLS ACTION SHINDIG," or something equally preposterous. At the very least, you add in a bombastic dubstep drop over blood-spattered bold text.

Confession time: I prefer this. Ideological choices that have an effect on diplomacy and abilities? Expanded and revised social policies? Oh, talk politics to me, Mr. Civ 5 Narrator.

Brave New World is due out July 9th in the US, and July 12th "internationally". For more on the expansion, see our hands-on preview here, or read Advisor T.J's guideto the new units and leaders.

Battlefield Hardline warrants and case files collectibles guide

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Stab aliens in Section 8: Prejudice

If you missed Section 8 last year, it was one of the more satisfying team-based shooters around.

If you missed Section 8 last year, it was one of the more satisfying team-based shooters around. You dropped in from orbit, choosing your spawn location by steering yourself away from anti-air guns, then jetpacked around the battlefield completing dynamic objectives that cropped up. Now it's getting a sequel, with aliens, and Prejudice. They're focusing more on the story campaign, and on very transparently mocking Halo in their trailer. See for yourself.

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Civilization 5: Brave New World video details trade routes, camels

Firaxis have posted the next in their series of brief Civilization 5: Brave New World videos.

Firaxis have posted the next in their series of brief Civilization 5: Brave New World videos. Sorry, what I meant to say was, "Firaxishavepostedthenextintheirseriesof..." Because, blimey, they're really speeding through these explanations of the expansion's new features. This time around, we're treated to a quickfire burst of info on trade routes.

The developers have also provided some cryptic answers to a community Q&A, teasing some of the unannounced facets of the expansion. Of particular interest is their response to a question about one of the two factions that have yet to be revealed: "It's a Civ with such a unique play style that no civ ever before has ever been designed this way. It's not just outside the box, it's in an entirely separate hypercube."

For a slower and more methodical look at what the expansion has planned, check out our hands on preview, and new units guide.

Brave New World is due out July 9th in the US, July 12th in the UK.

Battlefield Hardline gets a smooth launch... so people try to break it

Last night, EA reported server issues with Battlefield Hardline 's multiplayer. While this is nothing new with a Battlefield launch, it turns out that EA may not be at fault this time round, with malicious DDoS attacks cited as the reason for the problems. There's a certain level of irony here. Complaints were widespread when Battlefield 4 failed to meet expectations at launch and, despite several

How modders are cracking Halo Online to bring Halo 3 to PC

Halo 3 is coming to PC.

Halo 3 is coming to PC. Eight years after Master Chief’s last great multiplayer playground hit the Xbox 360, it’s coming alive, for free, on the PC—but not at the hands of Microsoft. Or Bungie. In one of the strangest things to happen on PC this year, Halo 3’s protracted PC birth is coming from a group of modders transforming the free-to-play, Russia-only beta Halo Onlineinto their favorite Halo game.

For years, Halo was a crucial console-exclusive system-seller for Microsoft. When it finally came to the PC again earlier this springbut was region-locked, fans moved fast. They created Eldorito, a mod that cracked the Russia-only restriction within a week of Halo Online’s reveal. Named as a portmanteau of El Dorado, the name of the Halo Online executable, and Dorito, Microsoft’s favorite corporate sponsor, Eldorito has been programmed over the past few months by a group of between ten and twenty modders. Because Halo Online is built over the top of a more-or-less complete version of Halo 3’s engine, the Eldorito modders have been working to pull what they really want from the shell of Halo Online: Halo 3 on PC. I spent a week chatting with one of the modders to learn more about a project that, for better or worse, is the only version of Halo we’re likely to get on PC any time soon.

The Dorito

The Eldorito version of Halo Online doesn’t have a website. If it did, Microsoft would likely detonate it with a lawyer-bomb—as it proved this spring when it issued a DMCA takedown noticeon in-game video recorded with the mod. Instead, Eldorito has a subreddit, which directs you to a shared Google Doc, which links you to an executable posted on the New Zealand-based file sharing site, Mega.

Once you download the file (named, naturally, Halo.zip), and run the Eldorito updater, the game is severed from the servers that run Halo Online as a standing, free-to-play service for Russian players.

I tracked down modder Sam Fish through his work as one of the developers of Dewrito, a mod that connects the cracked Halo Online program to multiplayer servers. I asked him to walk me through what exactly the mod does to get Halo Online running. “The Halo Online build that we are building off of had a timer that would shut down the game after 15 seconds if not connected to their servers,” he said. “We just had it load into an offline mode with the Halo Online UI, and from there we were able to load up Halo 3's UI, which was leftover in the code, which allowed us to access things like Forge, LAN multiplayer, and custom games.”

Image via redditor rexadde

For people like Fish, the allure of a Halo game on PC was huge. These long-time fans were introduced to Halo or Halo 2 on consoles, then moved over to PC and brought their love of Master Chief with them. Hearing that a new Halo worked on PC was enough to light the fire. If Halo works on Russian PCs, it will work on every PC—and there’s no DRM in the world that can stop that from happening.

“Hearing that Halo Online was more or less a modified version of Halo 3's multiplayer had me extremely excited,” Fish said. “Of course, my excitement was quickly killed when I saw some of the ‘features’ that Halo Online was bringing to the Russian market.” When Fish uses scare quotes around “features,” he’s talking about the free-to-play mechanics and microtransactions—but not just that. “[I’m also referring] to the complete lack of a game that Halo Online is on its own. Not only does it have only three maps not from other games, it has no single player component, no Forge, and from what I have seen, no custom game support.”

That disappointment made him get involved with the project. “Just the idea that we could possibly get Halo 3 on PC was exciting enough for me to join the project, and others saw it as a great starting off point to create a new Halo Custom Edition.”

Luckily for the modders, Halo Online turned out to be more than a slimmed-down version of Halo 3. It is Halo 3 with a few quick memory blocks to discontinue features—probably only a temporary measure for the beta test. By editing Halo Online’s files, the Eldorito team is slowly bringing parts of Halo 3 back online. “I am not someone who does reverse engineering, but it is really tedious,” Fish told me. “The developers are doing an awesome job re-enabling tons of features taken out in Halo Online, like Halo 3 equipment and dual wielding, which are both currently being tested.”

Splitscreen in Halo Online. Eat your heart out, Halo 5. (Image via redditor M0niak1.)
Growing pains

It sounds relatively simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s going smoothly so far. Twenty people working to crack a game the size of Halo 3 is bound to cause some problems. Whether it’s a somewhat involved multi-step installation process, the release of Windows 10, or the infinite variation in PC users’ hardware and software specs, a bi-weekly bug report thread on the subreddit is consistently full of hopeful players asking for help.

“Every time I try to connect to a server I get into an endless loading loop,” writes one user. “The game doesn't want to start,” writes another. After a week of correspondence with Fish, I’ve also been unable to get into the game and check it out. For all the drama and whining, though, there are also videos showing players getting onlineand exploring various maps. Multiplayer matches look frantic, twitchy, and, well, a lot like Halo 3. For every person who can’t seem to get online, there are others already there, making insane headshots and blowing things up with Covenant tanks.

The haphazard nature of the mod installation process is untenable, but the Eldorito modding team know it. Fish and the other modders knew that getting multiplayer working would be a big challenge, and now they recognize that making the game more user-friendly is the next step to growing a community around the cracked game. “Our current challenges involve finding ways to make Eldorito more accessible to people,” Fish said, “by adding things like plugins and working on custom menus to wrap everything we have made … Eldorito has come a long way [as far as] usability, and I think that [the] updater has helped a lot to make it easier to install.”

Eventually, the goal is for Eldorito to become a stable, moddable version of Halo 3 on PC. “I feel strange saying I want an almost ten-year-old game on my PC with nothing new, but there is something about Halo 3's simplicity that I enjoy,” said Fish. “I think that having Eldorito at least getting to Vanilla Halo 3 status would be an insane starting point for modding and going crazy with the game. We have already seen an insane amount of support with the community with people making Forge maps and mods and posting them on our subreddit almost daily. I think that if our community stays this awesome, Eldorito will have an amazing year.”

Correction: This article originally identified Sam Fish as the lead developer of Dewrito. This was a mistake. He is the one of the several developers of Dewrito, and the lead developer of the Dewrito Launcher.

Civilization 5: Brave New World expansion to add Indonesia and Morocco

There are already an absurd number of possible empires in Civilization 5 .

. The vanilla game came with a not-inconsiderable eighteen, DLC gave the option for another seven, and the Gods & Kings expansion raised the total by a further nine. Then there are mods, letting you play an astonishing range of leaders, from Stalinto Adventure Time's Princess Bubblegum.

As well as expanding the cultural victory path and bolstering democracy, the Brave New Worldexpansion also increases the number of countries that can vie for dominance across your hexagonal world. Two more civs have just been announced: Indonesia, led by Gaja Mada, and Morocco, fronted by the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur.

Brave New World will add nine new civilisations when it's released in July. Here are the seven that have been revealed so far:

Casimir of Poland Pedro II of Brazil Ashurbanipal of Assyria Maria of Portugal Shaka of the Zulu Gaja Mada of Indonesia Ahmad al-Mansur of Morocco

With two leaders yet to be announced, who would you like to see added?

Thanks, Joystiq.

Watch us blow up tankers on Battlefield Hardline's Riptide map

Don't let Battlefield Hardline 's police procedural posturing fool you: the multiplayer mode is still a madcap celebration of high-speed chaos. That goes double for Hotwire mode, Hardline's unique take on Conquest, which trades static control points for fly rides. We got to record a whole round's worth of headshots and carjackings on the tropical Riptide map. Oh, did I mention that you only get points

Final Fantasy XIV guild holds pride parade to celebrate update 2.4's same-sex marriage

Back at E3, Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida announced that the upcoming 2.4 update would allow any two players to marry in-game, regardless of race, nation or gender.

gender. To celebrate, one in-game guild organised a "Pixel Parade", taking to the virtual streets for a rainbow-themed party. Finally, a good reason for the MMO genre's obsession with dyes.

Organised by the LGBT guild Rough Trade Gaming, the parade was also held to honour the memory of 'Erotes', a member of their community who was killed during the recent Calgary stabbings in Canada. "Even when tragedy affects our community, there's still a reason to keep on marching," writes video uploader 'Levi G' in the description.

When marriage was originally announced as an upcoming feature, around the re-launch of FFXIV, Square-Enix hadn't planned on including same-sex marriage. "This is an extremely controversial topic that has been under discussion in the MMO world for the past few years. First we would like to start out with opposite-sex marriage, and then consider the feedback from our players in order to make a careful decision," they said at the time.

By E3, the decision had been made. "We discussed it and we realized within Eorzea, why should there be restrictions on who pledges their love or friendship to each other?" Yoshida said. "And so we decided to go this way."

FFXIV's 2.4 update will also add the Rogue class, and Ninja job type.

Thanks, IGN.

Civilization V: Brave New World--new details on Civ's new systems

Civilization V's second and final major expansion, Brave New World , is promising to bring more depth and diversity to the endgame on July 9.

, is promising to bring more depth and diversity to the endgame on July 9. Lead Designer Ed Beach recently spoke with Revision 3, going into detail on some of the systems we've seen glimpses of in the past. We grabbed some of the more interesting new details, and set our worker units to build a Handy List improvement in the space below.

Portugal

Portugal, one of the new civs being introduced, is master of exploration and trade. Their unique unit, the Nao, has a one-time trade ability that allows them to sell luxury goods in foreign territory for a gold payout. The amount of gold is based on the trade location's distance from your own borders. The Portuguese unique improvement is the Feitoria. It can be built in the territory of any city-state (even a hostile one, if you have the forces to protect your workers while they build it). Once constructed, it will give you access to a copy of every luxury resource that city-state controls.

Trade

The new Cargo Ship units are used to establish trade routes between coastal cities. Creating domestic trade routes will produce production or food. International trade routes with other civs will produce gold, as well as science for whichever trading partner is less advanced. Religious pressure also spreads along trade routes. The amount of gold generated from an international trade route is based on the difference in luxury resources at both ends. Two cities that both have gold and spice would not create a lot of profit, trade-wise. But a city with gold and spice trading with a city that has silk and pearls would be very lucrative. Domestic trade routes will be a good way of getting food or production to distant colonies that can't produce a lot on their own, initially.

Archaeology

The archaeology sites we've heard about previously can be turned into a permanent landmark with an ongoing benefit, or broken down for a one-time boost. Archaeology digs can be constructed anywhere your units have access to, but dig sites in foreign territory will upset the civ that owns the land. A new policy tree, Exploration, can unlock a secondary set of hidden archaeological sites for the first civ to reach the end.

World Congress

The first civ to meet every other civ on the map will found and host the World Congress. Your number of delegates at the World Congress will change as the eras progress. The host civ always gets a bonus to the base number, but eventually, every City-State you have as an ally will give you additional delegates. The purpose of the World Congress is to change the rules of the game. Only two civs will be able to propose resolutions for everyone to vote on: the host civ, and one other determined by criteria that was not revealed. Some example resolutions include trade embargoes, banning specific luxury goods (such as whales), imposing a tax on all standing armies, and a shared World's Fair. The World's Fair is a shared wonder that all civs can contribute production to. Once completed, rewards will be granted based on each civ's level of contribution. Any civ that can propose a resolution can also motion to repeal a previous one. There is a special sub-set of resolutions that cannot be proposed by any civ. Rather, they will automatically be put up for a vote when certain technological milestones are reached. These include changing the host of the World Congress (regularly recurring), building an International Space Station shared wonder, and enacting bans on nuclear proliferation. One such resolution is naming a World Leader, which is the trigger for Diplomatic Victory. This vote comes up at the World Congress on regular intervals once someone constructs the United Nations (at which point the World Congress is renamed as the UN).

Other

The Freedom, Autocracy, and Order ideologies (formerly just represented by Policy trees) are now mandatory. Once you research Industrialization, you will be forced to pick one of the three. Each one lends itself to three of the four victory conditions (military, diplomatic, cultural, and science) and locks you out of the fourth. It also has a stronger effect on who your friends and rivals will be from the Industrial Era forward.

Be sure to check out our hands-on previewfor more on Brave New World, as well as our interview from the announcement.

Battlefield Hardline launch trailer's explosive, new-gen resolutions less so

I know what you're thinking: will EA and Visceral release the launch trailer for Battlefield Hardline seven days before the actual launch, or eight? Well, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Then you've gotta scroll down and see that it was eight. Huh... seemed a bit more exciting in Dirty Harry . The trailer mixes scenes from Hardline's rough-and-tumble-cops-versus-criminal

Final Fantasy XIV guild holds pride parade to celebrate update 2.4's same-sex marriage

Back at E3, Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida announced that the upcoming 2.4 update would allow any two players to marry in-game, regardless of race, nation or gender.

gender. To celebrate, one in-game guild organised a "Pixel Parade", taking to the virtual streets for a rainbow-themed party. Finally, a good reason for the MMO genre's obsession with dyes.

Organised by the LGBT guild Rough Trade Gaming, the parade was also held to honour the memory of 'Erotes', a member of their community who was killed during the recent Calgary stabbings in Canada. "Even when tragedy affects our community, there's still a reason to keep on marching," writes video uploader 'Levi G' in the description.

When marriage was originally announced as an upcoming feature, around the re-launch of FFXIV, Square-Enix hadn't planned on including same-sex marriage. "This is an extremely controversial topic that has been under discussion in the MMO world for the past few years. First we would like to start out with opposite-sex marriage, and then consider the feedback from our players in order to make a careful decision," they said at the time.

By E3, the decision had been made. "We discussed it and we realized within Eorzea, why should there be restrictions on who pledges their love or friendship to each other?" Yoshida said. "And so we decided to go this way."

FFXIV's 2.4 update will also add the Rogue class, and Ninja job type.

Thanks, IGN.

PC Gamer US Podcast #352 - Going Roguelike

On this week's podcast, Tyler and T.J. are joined by special guests Greg Henninger and Ryan Taljonick from GamesRadar to discuss Steam Trading Cards , Metro: Last Light , Watch Dogs and Big Brother, Civilization V: Brave New World , addictions to making RPG characters, and our shared love of roguelikes.

Win the victory over yourself and download PC Gamer Podcast 352 - Going Roguelike

Have a question, comment, complaint, or observation? Send an MP3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com or call us toll-free at 877-404-1337 x724.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

@greghenninger(Greg Henninger)

@RyanTaljonick(Ryan Taljonick)

@tyler_wilde(Tyler Wilde)

@AsaTJ(T.J. Hafer)

@belsaas(Erik Belsaas, podcast producer)

Battlefield Hardline multiplayer to feature maps with 'micro destruction'

With Visceral Games’ cops and robbers spin on the Battlefield formula less than two weeks away, the former Dead Space developer has released some more candid details on how the familiar destruction of the series will play into the smaller maps of Hardline. “With reduced explosives and less heavy armoured vehicles many of our maps feature dense micro destruction,” says senior multiplayer designer Evan

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn bags over two million registered accounts

Square Enix have announced that their once disastrous , now pretty good Final Fantasy XIV has accrued over 2 million registered accounts, and all without using the Steal command to pilfer them from other games.

Final Fantasy XIV has accrued over 2 million registered accounts, and all without using the Steal command to pilfer them from other games. A little bit of Final Fantasy humour for you there. It's hardly World of Warcraft numbers, but it is a notable achievement from a game that launched in a state fit to be thrown to the dogs, before being shut down and extensively remade at the developer/publisher's own cost. Square Enix are currently celebrating with some vials of Elixir, a big haunch of chocobo meat, and other Final Fantasy references.

This comes a few months after the news that FFXIV had attained 1.5 million registered accounts, the steady influx of new players suggesting that this atypically subscription-based MMO may have some kind of bright, or at least consistent, future ahead. And even if it doesn't, Square Enix can always dramatically obliteratethe world and start over, as is their wont.

Civilization V: Brave New World hands on - how camels and art solve the late game slump

Preview by Philippa Warr
A fire has been raging through Paris for the past four decades.

A fire has been raging through Paris for the past four decades. Also, Jesus has just been born.

"The caravan unit is essentially a 'business camel' who brokers trade agreements."

That's the news from the other end of the bank of desks as I settle in to preview Civilization V: Brave New World - an expansion aimed primarily at spicing up the late stages of the game. My own Parisians, however, remain unroasted and un-Jesused because I've spent the last few turns ignoring Napoleon and trying to work out whether it would be prudent to build a windmill.

The windmill situation is clearly too complicated so I build a caravan unit instead. This is mostly because the caravan unit is essentially a "business camel" who goes off to other cities and brokers trade agreements on my behalf. In my head he has a pinstripe suit and a briefcase full of important documents.

The caravan appears as an option as soon as you research animal husbandry and creates trade routes. Looking to other civilisations, the most profitable trade routes are built between cities with few resources in common - business camels appreciate a diverse portfolio. But trade routes can also be established between two of your own cities. If one has a workshop, the trade route can export production giving a boost to cities founded late game which would otherwise be outpaced at every opportunity.

"Brave New World tries to deal with the late game peaceful play problem."

As time passes and you get deeper into the expansion you'll realise that the roving business camel was foreshadowing. Brave New World is actively trying to deal with the late game peaceful play problem - namely that you end up hemmed in on all sides with no will to explore, hitting "Next Turn" and eating biscuits.

"It's been a symptom of all Civ games - the late game just isn't as compelling as the beginning," admits Dennis Shirk, senior producer. Firaxis' solution? To prod you into activity via a mixture of international trade (business camels plus cargo ships), cultural scuffles, and the introduction of a World Congress for equal quantities of diplomacy and dickbaggery sans frontiers.

Culture now comes in two flavours: defensive and offensive. Defensive culture is the stuff of previous Civ iterations and is created by building wonders or landmarks. In Brave New World it serves to counter aggressive culture: tourism.

"Invest in tourism and artwork becomes a weapon. You're Charles Saatchi with a diplomatic passport."

Invest in tourism and artwork becomes a weapon. Your civilisation can now gobble up a great artist and spit out one of their famous real-world creations to be installed in a cultural institutions. Pair your burgeoning art scene with increased interaction with other civilisations and tourism flourishes: you're Charles Saatchi with a diplomatic passport.

The World Congress also appears in the latter part of the game; a cyclical system where two players - the host civilisation and the one with most delegates - make proposals. Nations preferring the diplomatic route to victory (or just partial to a spot of political wrangling) can spend turn after turn lobbying for support, indulging in espionage or trading votes to get their preferred policies approved.

These can be positive mandates for the good of humanity or a chance to indulge spite and retribution. "It's not always going to be a clean and shiny, optimistic future," observes Shirk. Indeed, the expansion's title, "Brave New World", explicitly references Huxley's dystopian novel and the ideological and cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.

"Don't expect Firaxis to stop tinkering with Civ V just yet."

But, whether you choose to play as a cynic or an optimist, Brave New World is hellbent on keeping you actively participating to the final turn. So although the expansion tentatively marks Civ V as complete don't expect the tinkering to stop just yet.

"We've already got updates on our schedule," says Shirk. "You can't know how the ideal arc for a game is going to fall until a million people are playing it - we want to have the best version of the game out there."

Battlefield Hardline Premium details leak early

In a biting commentary on the socioeconomic inequality of the social justice system, it seems that Battlefield Hardline Premium will offer owners two weeks early access to the game's planned DLC packs, among various other goodies. Though I might be reading into that inequality angle a bit too much. Either way, the new details emerged via Attack of the Fanboy , which posted an image of what appears

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn flaunts its new world

A Realm Reborn has certainly come a long, long way in looking better than the piece of chocobo dung that was the original Final Fantasy XIV .

. The above video fails to show the quest system, UI or any PVP battles whatsoever, but the new environments actually look like places we'd like to explore. However, looking fun is a far cry from actually being fun.

As such, it's impossible to determine whether this game deserves your hard-earned cash without creating a custom hotkey bar and playing the game itself. With surrounding MMO's going free to playleft and right, A Realm Reborn needs to provide a very convincing argument as to why players should open up their wallets.

Those who had the misfortune of buying Final Fantasy XIV back in 2010 only need to ask to become beta testersfor A Realm Reborn, though Square Enix is accepting applications from everyone as well. Here's hoping the game doesn't still feel like a beta when it comes out Aug. 27.

Civilization V: Brave New World announced - expands culture and diplomacy

Firaxis have announced the second expansion pack for their life-destroying 4X strategy Civilization V.

Firaxis have announced the second expansion pack for their life-destroying 4X strategy Civilization V. Brave New World not only increases the number of leaders, scenarios and wonders for budding empire builders to play with, but looks set to drastically overhaul two key areas of the game: Culture and Diplomacy. This is particularly great news for anyone who's spent hours attempting to cajole Civ V's fickle rulers.

A World Congress will let you create and vote on resolutions - imposing trade sanctions on rogue nations, capping resource usage, electing a host for the "World Games", and setting rules for the use of nuclear weapons. Of course, ideology will only be a small part of a nation's decision: vote trading and intrigue are both required for a successful resolution. Firaxis say this will also provide a new path to the Diplomatic Victory.

Speaking of victory conditions, there's a new one: Culture Victory. It sounds like a more active prospect than the Cultural Victory path. Here you must spread your culture far and wide, using Great Writers, Artists and Musicians to create masterpieces that will prove your dominance in the arts. You'll also have access to archaeologists to investigate ancient battle grounds and ruined cities for rare artifacts.

The other big change is the introduction of international trade routes, letting you spread your cities' produce by land and sea. Not only can you send goods to other civilisations, but also to other cities within your own empire - sending aid to cities that are lacking the raw resources. And trade routes expand into other areas of the game, with science, religion and culture also taking a trip on your caravans.

In addition to all that, Brave New World will bring nine new leaders, eight world wonders, new Industrial Age ideologies, and scenarios covering the American Civil War and the colonial push into Africa.

In the hope of gleaning some state secrets, Evan sat down for a peace accord with Firaxis' Lead Designer Ed Beach and Senior Producer Dennis Shirk.

PCG: What's a new Civilization that contributes a new playing style? Can you describe this playing style?

Firaxis: Poland's trait is called Solidarity, and they receive a free Social Policy when they advance into each new era. Poland gave us the opportunity design a Civ with extremely strong mounted units in the Medieval-Renaissance era. When you see the bonus for the Winged Hussar, it should give players a lot of flexibility in terms of changing the way a battle unfolds tactically. Since their Civ trait is extremely flexible, I think Poland is an effective Civ for a wide variety of victories.

How are International Trade Routes formed?

Firaxis: Trade Routes are established between two cities of different civilizations using trade route units like the Caravan or Cargo Ship. Although both parties gain gold from the route, the civilization that the trade route originates from gets a larger sum of gold than the destination civilization. Additionally, other systems hitch a ride on trade routes, like religious pressure, science (science can be gained from more advanced civilization this way), Tourism bonuses, and more.

Trade routes can also be created between two cities of the same civilization. Once the origin city has a Granary, it can send food to the destination city, and once it has a Workshop it can send production. This can be powerful if you have a new city that needs to be “pumped up”, or a city that's constructing a Wonder that could use a production bump.

Will masterpieces created by Great People be named? e.g., Will you be able to create the Mona Lisa?

Firaxis: Yes they will! We'll be talking more about those soon.

Does the World Congress vote by majority? When are measures voted upon?

Firaxis: A resolution doesn't always have to receive majority support. Sometimes a resolution can pass with a single delegate supporting it, as long as there are no delegates voting “no”. The way the process works is the Congress is founded, typically in the Renaissance, by the first player that has discovered all other civilizations. The founding civilization becomes the Congress's host and receives special benefits, like the ability to propose resolutions.

After the first resolutions are proposed, there's a countdown until the Congress convenes, which will give you time to get allies on your side before the Congress votes on the proposed resolutions. The process then begins again, with the proposal of resolutions. There are quite a few resolutions that can be voted on. You can vote to outlaw the trade of certain luxury resources, sanction rogue nations economically, start a worldwide project like the World's Fair, and much more. You can use it to slow down a Civ who is running away to victory, or really put a major rival at a disadvantage.

Civilization V is due out this Summer for a suggested price of $29.99

Battlefield Hardline's campaign will take the form of an episodic cop show

For all of their audacious set-pieces and tremendous explosions, the last couple of Battlefield games were unambitious in the telling of their campaigns. They featured solemn soldiers in a desperate struggle to be victorious against the same threats we've been fighting since the birth of the modern military shooter. Battlefield Hardline is about a war between cops and criminals – not nations – and

Final Fantasy 14 digital sales halted due to server queues

Final Fantasy XIV has become a victim of its own success.

Final Fantasy XIV has become a victim of its own success. Before the recent relaunch, I'd rank that high among the list of sentences I never thought I'd type. But now, a day after the release of the A Realm Reborn overhaul, Square Enix have stopped digital sales of the game in order to lighten the overload currently being experienced throughout its servers.

"Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, we are currently experiencing extremely long wait times for users to be able to log in and play," announces the Square Enix Facebook page. "As a temporary measure, we will halt sales of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's digital download products so we can accommodate all of those wishing to play."

Square Enix say they are in the process of expanding server capacity, and should be ready to start waving new players inside "in the coming days".

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes," the statement ends.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Civilization V: Brave New World due early July; Firaxis teases "big" new project

Brace yourself for an influx of exciting Firaxis news from PAX East.

Brace yourself for an influx of exciting Firaxis news from PAX East. Are you braced? Good good. In addition to revealing the release date for the recently announcedCivilization V expansion Brave New World - it's July 9th in the US, and July 12th elsewhere - the team also teased a distinctly XCOM-like new project (thanks, Kotaku), which Firaxis are describing as a "big" release. The only clues lie in a leaked teaser trailer - oh and the very XCOM-like font displayed at the end.

The brief trailer consists of a shadowy military type saying the following stuff. "Hello, Commander. The war continues at great cost. We now believe another force is at work against us. If not dealt with swiftly, it could destroy us. What we are able to tell you…" - and that's where he's cut off by a giant 'SIGNAL LOST' message, which appears to be written in the XCOM font. So - XCOM2? A new expansion pack? Well, whatever it is, Firaxis are "not going to be able to talk about it for a while". The big teases.

In further XCOM news, it also emerged at the Expo that Civ V's Brave New World will feature XCOM squads as late-game units, delivered via (what else?) Skyranger. XCOM is also set to get a Mac release on April 25th.

And that's it - I've exhausted today's quota of the word 'XCOM'. Still, this is all very exciting - we'll bring you more news as soon as we have it.

Cheers, Joystiq.

We tase a dozen men in Battlefield Hardlines Beta and laugh heartily

Charge someone with a baseball bat in Battlefield Hardline and, after taking them down and slapping on the cuffs, you’ll have the chance to interrogate them, yelling “Spill it!” to reveal enemies on the mini-map. It’s a telling example of how Dead Space developers Visceral are tackling the former military shooter. As I learned in the recent Beta, and as you will when the open Beta runs between February

World of Warcraft players hit level 100 hours after Warlords of Draenor launches

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor didn't have the smoothest launch ever, thanks in part to digital riff-raff who launched a distributed denial of service , (DDoS, to its friends), attack against the game, driving up latency and making it difficult for players to connect.

, (DDoS, to its friends), attack against the game, driving up latency and making it difficult for players to connect. But in spite of the problems, it's taken mere hours for players to start hitting the new level cap.

The Warlords of Draenor expansion launched yesterday, November 13, and by later the same day, Eurogamerreported that 24 people on the European server Bloodscalp were listed as being at level 100, the new level cap established by the expansion. Prior to the release of Draenor, the maximum World of Warcraft character level was 90.

Some users were reportedly taking advantage of exploits to hit the cap in just an hour, while others had practiced leveling routes during the beta and were able to power to the top despite the launch troubles, which Blizzard confirmed were caused by a combination of the overwhelming number of players and the intentional efforts of troublemakers.

Blizzard has since sounded the all-clear, although there may still be a few bumps in the road. "Realms are once again available, however we do expect that during the initial rush to log in there will be a period of delays and potential errors," an update posted at 11:50 am PSTstates. "We expect these to resolve within 30 minutes or so as players successfully log in, and strain on the authentication and login servers subsides."

As for the most important question—Is it any good?—our man on the ground is taking a little more time with it than the aforementioned 24, but you can read what we've got so far in our World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor review in progress.

Mod of the Week: Australia, for Civilization V

If you're anything like me, everything you know about Australia comes from Mad Max , the first half of Crocodile Dundee , the second half of Crocodile Dundee II , and that Monty Python sketch about the Bruces.

, and that Monty Python sketch about the Bruces. Let's change that right now with a history lesson! No, not recited out of some stuffy history textbook full of facts, but with a mod that brings Australiainto Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World!

Welcome to Sydney, Australia, founded in 4000 B.C. by eight people and a mule on the advice of their dulcet-toned economic advisor. Australia's wise leader: one immortal Henry Parkes. Wikipedia tells me he went on to have seventeen children, so yeah, I'd say he's got what it takes to get a new country fully populated.

Also, his Wikipedia pagedescribes him thusly:

"Parkes was tall, with rugged facial features, a leonine mane of hair and a commanding personality. He was a persuasive orator, too, who eschewed flights of rhetoric and spoke as a plain man to plain men, with great effect, in spite of occasional difficulties in controlling his aspirates."

If you're wondering, like me, what aspirates are, also from Wikipedia:

"In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents."

Everyone clear on that? Back to Australian history: once Sydney was founded, Parkes sent some men in skirts to build farms using stone clubs, and sent some soldiers, armed with spears and shields, running north to explore, where they quickly discovered Australia's closet neighbor: Zanzibar! Parkes also met another close neighbor, the Romanian city of Bucharest.

This is all entirely factual, by the way. If you're doing a report on Australia, feel free to use this mod column as a source.

After meeting the King of Sweden and the Empress of China -- all who shared the same landmass as Australia -- Parkes sent soldiers to fight nearby barbarians and quickly founded the cities of Brisbane (in 1760 B.C.) and Melbourne (975 B.C.). It wasn't long before Australian ships were skimming the seas and opening trade routes with nearby Buenos Aires and Vancouver, and the greatest Australian scholars soon discovered calendars, currency, and eventually, mathematics (which probably would have helped a bit with the calendars and currency).

It's not long before Australia begins attracting the notice of talented babies! A Prime Minister is born, apparently clothed and in his late forties, and the new P.M., one Kevin Rudd, immediately gets busy creating his Great Work: an apology to the Aboriginal Australians. Which brings up a question: hey, where the heck are the Aborigines in this mod, anyway?

The answer: they're coming! According to the mod's page on Civilization Fanatics, there are a number of upcoming additions to the mod, including Canada's First Nations and Australia's Aboriginals.

Meanwhile, Australia is thriving! Everyone wants to trade their gold for Australia's incense, the city of Canberra is founded on a tiny island because Henry Parkes accidentally pointed-and-clicked the wrong thing, and The Parthenon is built in Brisbane, a hundred years after the death of Christ, just like it actually all happened in real history. And so, Australia enters its Medieval Era.

All is not well, however. Zanzibar suddenly decides it doesn't want to be friendly with Australia anymore, and Henry Parkes is left to wonder why. Why would our closest neighbor develop a negative view of us? Are they not doing brisk business along our trade routes? Have we not sworn to protect them come what may? Could it have something to do with the massive armies of catapults, chariots, archers, and warships I've been not so subtly surrounding Zanzibar's borders with?

Zanzibar falls in pretty short order and is absorbed into Australia (in the year 560 A.D., for those of you studying), but the rest of the world, even close friends like China and Carthage seem outraged that I would dare invade another country. Oh, come on, China. Like you've never done anything wrong?

It's not long before the countries who denounced Australia come crawling back. With our massive fleets of cargo ships and our coffers stuffed with gold and our amazingly popular religion (Hindu) and our endless string of infant Prime Ministers, we're a good country to be tight with. It's because we take care of our friends! Except when we forget to and let them starve to death.

Granted, letting a whole city starve isn't great for morale, but luckily I've got some great news to share. We've just found Krakatoa! That makes everyone happy. And why wouldn't it? It's just a giant rumbling fire-mountain. What could go wrong?

So, what can the Australia mod do for you? Well, give you tons of Prime Ministers, as you saw, who work as Great Writers to usher in Golden Ages. Australia's Digger Infantry excels in desert combat, as well as in foreign lands. Found three coastal cities and you'll gain access to new buildings to provide you with additional food and tourism bonuses. And throughout the centuries I played, not once was Yahoo Serious born. Can't beat that!

Installation : I subscribed to it on Steam Workshop, and while it downloaded the file it didn't automatically install it. I had to manually extract the file with 7-Zip, but you might not have to. If you do, the folder to put it in is: My Documents > My Games > Sid Meier's Civilization 5 > MODS. This mod requires the Brave New World expansion.