Announcing The Destiny: Rise of Iron Magazine Cover Art Contest
We’ve been blown away in recent years by the support and enthusiasm of the Destiny community as we continue our ongoing coverage of the Destiny franchise.
We’ve been blown away in recent years by the support and enthusiasm of the Destiny community as we continue our ongoing coverage of the Destiny franchise. As we roll out our look at Bungie’s next installment, we wanted to find ways to involve the community in exciting ways.
Our new art contest is a small way to thank you for following along with our coverage.
We’re giving artists a chance to see their creations featured as a Game Informer magazine cover. Three winning entries, selected by Bungie developers, will be featured exclusively in an online feature here on gameinformer.com. Winning cover art will be prepared with the Game Informer logo treatment, just like we do for each of our magazine covers.
In addition to acclaim from your fellow guardians, the three winners will receive a framed, poster-sized version of their Game Informer cover, complete with signatures from the Bungie development team behind Rise of Iron. In cooperation with Activision and Bungie, winners also receive a collection of awesome Bungie merchandise, along with a digital copy of Destiny: Rise of Iron on your preferred system.
While we will feature contest winners on GI.com upon the contest’s completion, we encourage you to share your entries with the Destiny community throughout the month, in whatever way you desire. And while only one prize package will go out to each winning entry, there’s no rule that your art project needs to be the work of a single individual; feel free to to work together. Have fun, and send us the best Rise of Iron-themed art you can dream up.
Winning cover artists will be revealed on September 2nd.
Submission Guidelines
1. Your art piece should relate to Destiny as a franchise, or focus specifically on features, characters, or ideas presented or inspired by Rise of Iron. Judging will be based on relevance to Destiny: Rise of Iron as well as overall artistic merit.
2. Send your single image attachment via email to ReaderArt@gameinformer.com. All submissions must be received by August 29 at 12:01am Central Time. Entries received after that date and time will not be considered.
3. Your email subject line must read as follows, or it will not be considered: Destiny Cover Art Contest
4. Email body text should include the name of the artist or artists who participated in the creation of your entry as you would like to see those names printed online if you win. Your email body text should also include your shipping address and preferred gaming platform for playing Destiny.
5. Your attached image should not exceed 10 MB in size, and should be formatted in the jpg file format. The dimensions for your art piece should be 3810px x 5000px.
6. Only one attached image will be considered per email.
7. Contest is open to legal residents of the United States and/or Canada.
8. If any aspect of your artwork is discovered to be copied from another artist’s work, your entry will be disqualified.
For all our Destiny: Rise of Iron coverage throughout this month, click on the banner below.
Video: Why game designers should study dance, music & comedy
"Dancers are brilliant at telling a story and making an emotional connection through action," said writer Susan O'Connor at GDC 2014 last year.
"Dancers are brilliant at telling a story and making an emotional connection through action," said writer Susan O'Connor at GDC 2014 last year. "Dancing is just a game with rules."
O'Connor is a veteran writer who's worked on games like Bioshock, Tomb Raider and (the now-cancelled) Star Wars 1313 . She was one of many speakers at the GDC's Microtalks panel, but her quick five-minute talk (titled simply "Game Development is Hard") called on game developers to seek fresh inspiration in dance, music and comedy.
Her argument? Dance, music and comedy all feature artists using timing and motion to create connections with people and elicit emotional reactions. Study how they use sound and movement, argues O'Connor, and you might learn something about how to make more engaging games.
It was an intriguing talk, and now you can watch O'Connor's brief segment of the full panel over on the GDC Vault's official YouTube channel .
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultand its new YouTube channeloffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech
CryEngine VR tech demo, Back to Dinosaur Island , now free on Steam
Newsbrief: Crysis developer Crytek has made its Back to Dinosaur Island virtual reality tech demo available for free on Steam.
The short demo was made to highlight CryEngine's VR capabilities, and showcases a lush prehistoric world seen through the eyes of a baby dinosaur.
Those of you with an Oculus Rift DK2 can can try the demo for yourselves by downloading it right here.
Care more about being respected than being liked'
'Care more about being respected than being liked'
In her Saturday presentation at IndieCade in L.A., Wizardry developer Brenda Romero encouraged game designers to worry less about maximizing efficiency and more about achieving greatness.
In a talk riffing off the popular documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi , Romero likened the high-end craftsmanship of Michelin-star restaurants with finely authored game experiences, in particular her own development of her board game, Train (pictured).
"I obsessed over every detail. Every decision mattered," said Romero. "I tried to make a game as good as my skills allowed... If I didn't know the answer [to a design problem], I waited until I did."
Train depicts the systematic removal of Holocaust victims to Auschwitz by the Nazi rail system, represented by a set of tracks and box cars players are asked to populate with small yellow figures. Romero spent a good deal of time prototyping the game, which debuted at the Games For Change conference in 2009.
"[Good game design] costs what it costs and it takes the time that it takes," Romero said emphatically. "It's not a coincidence that it's also the one game for which I'm most respected."
"Mediocre rarely rises"While Romero acknowledged that being able to take the time and resources necessary to complete a personal project speaks to "a tremendous statement of privilege," she also suggested an uncompromising devotion to excellence was a reward in and of itself.
"Mediocre rarely rises," said Romero. "I don't know anyone who says 'I want to be an average piece of shit.'"
In continuing her restaurant analogy, Romero stressed the importance of building a strong, committed team, and in particular building up talent through systemized apprenticeships and mentorships.
"We don't have [game developers] say 'oh, I studied under so-and-so.' Why not? It is our responsibility to teach."
A large part of this, Romero said, was in understanding game development as a craft worth honing. Just as Michelin star chef Jiro Ono is depicted in the movie as having obsessed over the fine details of his profession to the point of elevating his food to an art form, Romero said games also lent a space for "the pure pleasure of crafting and delight in the details."
"Care more about being respected than liked," said Romero. "If you ship a bad game, no one is going to say 'Yeah, it had problems but she's such a nice person!'"
Procedural dodge-'em-up Race The Sun is out now
Some people praise the sun, while others seem determined to race it, as potentially disastrous as that sounds.
Some people praise the sun, while others seem determined to race it, as potentially disastrous as that sounds. Flippfly's procedural dodge-'em-up Race The Sunis now out, after soaring (well, scraping) past its Kickstarter target earlier in the year. The game will set you back ten procedurally generated dollars (the procedure here being 'taking them out of your wallet'), and to celebrate the devs have released a launch trailer. On the actual launch day! Astounding. Stick around for a beautifully minimalist video.
Of course, there's still the little matter of Race The Sun's Steam Greenlight page, so if you like what you see, you might want to take your clicking finger (or alternatively, someone else's) over yonder. The game's early prototype is still available to play online here.
Warhammer 40,000: Chess - Regicide announced, because nothing is more Warhammer than chess
The grimdark future of Warhammer 40K is a great setting for all kinds of games.
Shooters? Check. Real-time strategy? Sure. 2,000-year-old board game? Uh, maybe. That's what Warhammer 40,000: Chess – Regicide has planned: a thematic mash-up of the classic strategic game and huge, burly space marines. The Emperor will be pleased.
From the sounds of it, Regicide will feel a whole lot like Battle Chess. “The game honors the sheer brutality of the Warhammer 40,000 universe,” Cathrin Machin, project lead at developer Hammerfall, wrote in a press release. “It features a multitude of merciless kill and death animations that were created in a state-of-the-art motion capture studio, utilizing military trained fight and stunt choreographers. The game combines these exciting features along with environments, weapons, and upgradeable characters which have been meticulously crafted by some of the industry's leading artists.”
The game will also include a campaign mode that promises a “totally new concept of chess” and an original storyline following the Blood Angelslegion of the Space Marines. How involved these extra modes are remains to be seen, but it's a safe bet that the main chunk of the game will be a Warhammer-themed remake of chess. I love Warhammer as much as—maybe more than—the next guy, but do I love chess enough to buy in? Hmm.
The way we play with war has changed, but it's interesting that the oldest game on Earth and the most far-flung imagining of our future are both steeped in conflict. In the recesses of human imagination, there is only war. Check out the devlogat the Warhammer 40K site for updates on development.
3D NES emulator is witchcraft in your browser
Witness what might have been had Nintendo had a few more bytes and hertz to play with in the '80s.
had a few more bytes and hertz to play with in the '80s. Leveraging sickening talent and the dark arts, Trần Vũ Trúc has created an emulatorthat extrapolates 3D levels from the 2D sprites of NES games. And it runs in your browser, provided that browser is Firefox.
There's a lot of speculationas to exactly how 3DNES does this. It's not as simple as extruding the layers of sprites backwards—some lines become loops in 3D, for example, and Dr. Mario's square pills look a bit like the heads of Lego men. It's no trick, though: you can plug in your own ROMs by providing a link to the emulator. Simpler games without detailed characters or fiddly text work best, as you'd expect.
While 3DNes only works in Firefox for the time being, the author promises an executable is on the way.
Space Hulk's latest free update includes new campaign to show fan appreciation
In a nod to its fans, indie strategy game Space Hulk has released a new—and free—three-mission campaign as part of its latest patch which went live today.
today. The appropriately titled Messenger of Purgatory campaign surfaces as part of update 1.2, which also addresses the game's optimization, visuals, and a variety of other improvements, according to its official changelog.
"We have had both a rough start as well as great support from all of you," the developers report in the changelog. "So we decided to give you this one for free as a big THANK YOU!!"
Set—as always—in the Warhammer 40kuniverse, the new Space Hulk missions send you on the hunt for the remains of Captain Atarius. Thomas Hentschel Lund, CEO of the game's developer Full Control, highlighted player feedback in his comments about the patch in the official press releasetoday: “This game update addresses many of the fan requests and suggestions that continue to hone and refine the experience of Space Hulk."
For some more background on Full Control's PC translation of the classic board game, check out our previewof the turn-based strategy game.
Hat tip, Joystiq.
PC gaming could use more Nintendo-style charm
Right now, Steam's featured games show me a brooding warrior, a corpse, another corpse, readied space marines, another brooding warrior, a lone survivor, a Nazi, a brooding soldier with a sniper rifle, a snarling dinosaur, a ghost, a brooding hacker, and a lost astronaut.
Right now, Steam's featured games show me a brooding warrior, a corpse, another corpse, readied space marines, another brooding warrior, a lone survivor, a Nazi, a brooding soldier with a sniper rifle, a snarling dinosaur, a ghost, a brooding hacker, and a lost astronaut. It doesn't sound like a diverse set, but it is: some are indie, some are from big studios, some tell linear stories, some generate stories with the systems-based gameplay I love most. The PC has the most variety of any platform, but it's missing one thing: smiles. Can someone please smile?
The murky depths of human morality and the struggle for survival are great subjects for games, but what of color and whimsy? Not Goat Simulator whimsy—that's a ten-minute physics joke—or Super Meat Boy's grotesque humor. I'm talking sincere whimsy: Costume Quest, Rayman Legends, the LEGO series.
Those cheerful games exist on PC, yes, but mostly as smaller experiences and not nearly to the degree they exist elsewhere in gaming. I want more games made by developers who say earnestly, "How do you play with a pile of yarn or some cloth? We thought about those things pretty hard."
That's a quote from Nintendo's E3 conference this morning. Yeah, I want Nintendo games on PC, and yeah, it will never happen. I'll never buy a Wii U, either—I love Zelda, but I'm not going to pay $300 to play it and then spend years stubbing my toe on a box full of Miis. Still, as excited as I was by the games shown at Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony's conferencesyesterday, seeing the new Zelda left me with the dopiest grin of all. A little more Nintendo inspiration on PC would be very welcome.
It's a tough problem. Nintendo can dedicate great resources to making a game about yarn because it's building a first-party console package: the Wii U experience. Its business is about creating value within the Nintendo ecosystem, and it results in big, uniquely Nintendo visions with high quality standards. But thrown into Steam's mix, would Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze really be a viable PC game?
Maybe not right now, but PC gaming is growing. More and more, the PC is absorbing games that might have once been called Console Experiences. Local multiplayer games especially are becoming more common—TowerFall Ascension, Nidhogg, The Cave—and in-home streaming has made us capable of playing those games on our TVs without lugging a gaming rig into the living room. Not that those games need anything beyond a low-end system, and that's another reason it's becoming easier to play wherever we want, given some old hardware and a DIY mentality.
As PC gaming continues to grow, I want to add an acquisition to the list: big, colorful, unabashedly cheerful worlds that favor gathering around a screen to chatting on headsets. I'm not suggesting we should have less of anything else—I want all the Witchers the industry can throw at me—but that there's a gap to fill. Nintendo could fill it, but since it won't separate its games from its consoles any time in the foreseeable future (let's say, a thousand years), there's an opportunity here for someone else.
I think the opportunity will be seized soon, and I can't wait to see what a modern Nintendo-like developer will accomplish with the PC's freedom. Until then, we do have Arma Kart.
PC gaming could use more Nintendo-style charm
Right now, Steam's featured games show me a brooding warrior, a corpse, another corpse, readied space marines, another brooding warrior, a lone survivor, a Nazi, a brooding soldier with a sniper rifle, a snarling dinosaur, a ghost, a brooding hacker, and a lost astronaut.
Right now, Steam's featured games show me a brooding warrior, a corpse, another corpse, readied space marines, another brooding warrior, a lone survivor, a Nazi, a brooding soldier with a sniper rifle, a snarling dinosaur, a ghost, a brooding hacker, and a lost astronaut. It doesn't sound like a diverse set, but it is: some are indie, some are from big studios, some tell linear stories, some generate stories with the systems-based gameplay I love most. The PC has the most variety of any platform, but it's missing one thing: smiles. Can someone please smile?
The murky depths of human morality and the struggle for survival are great subjects for games, but what of color and whimsy? Not Goat Simulator whimsy—that's a ten-minute physics joke—or Super Meat Boy's grotesque humor. I'm talking sincere whimsy: Costume Quest, Rayman Legends, the LEGO series.
Those cheerful games exist on PC, yes, but mostly as smaller experiences and not nearly to the degree they exist elsewhere in gaming. I want more games made by developers who say earnestly, "How do you play with a pile of yarn or some cloth? We thought about those things pretty hard."
That's a quote from Nintendo's E3 conference this morning. Yeah, I want Nintendo games on PC, and yeah, it will never happen. I'll never buy a Wii U, either—I love Zelda, but I'm not going to pay $300 to play it and then spend years stubbing my toe on a box full of Miis. Still, as excited as I was by the games shown at Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony's conferencesyesterday, seeing the new Zelda left me with the dopiest grin of all. A little more Nintendo inspiration on PC would be very welcome.
It's a tough problem. Nintendo can dedicate great resources to making a game about yarn because it's building a first-party console package: the Wii U experience. Its business is about creating value within the Nintendo ecosystem, and it results in big, uniquely Nintendo visions with high quality standards. But thrown into Steam's mix, would Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze really be a viable PC game?
Maybe not right now, but PC gaming is growing. More and more, the PC is absorbing games that might have once been called Console Experiences. Local multiplayer games especially are becoming more common—TowerFall Ascension, Nidhogg, The Cave—and in-home streaming has made us capable of playing those games on our TVs without lugging a gaming rig into the living room. Not that those games need anything beyond a low-end system, and that's another reason it's becoming easier to play wherever we want, given some old hardware and a DIY mentality.
As PC gaming continues to grow, I want to add an acquisition to the list: big, colorful, unabashedly cheerful worlds that favor gathering around a screen to chatting on headsets. I'm not suggesting we should have less of anything else—I want all the Witchers the industry can throw at me—but that there's a gap to fill. Nintendo could fill it, but since it won't separate its games from its consoles any time in the foreseeable future (let's say, a thousand years), there's an opportunity here for someone else.
I think the opportunity will be seized soon, and I can't wait to see what a modern Nintendo-like developer will accomplish with the PC's freedom. Until then, we do have Arma Kart.
Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online - a Grim Dark Future
Remember that bit in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook where that Space Marine went into a Space Marine village and was cornered by a commoner with a yellow exclamation mark above his head?
Remember that bit in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook where that Space Marine went into a Space Marine village and was cornered by a commoner with a yellow exclamation mark above his head? The one who told him to go out to his garden and kill ten snotlings that were terrorising his space-crops? No you don't, and neither does Mike Maza, creative director on Warhammer 40K MMO Dark Millennium Online.“We just couldn't wrap our heads around a Space Marine killing ten wolves for their pelts. It's just not 40K. We don't want to give those kinds of quests to the players, we think it takes you out of the fiction. The objectives of our quests are far more epic than that.”
Warhammer 40K's grim future of inter-species war is perhaps the only universe you could get away with a 'kill except the number would be well into the thousands. But traditional online RPG models – all stilted combat and ritualistic toolbar presses – are anathema to a universe based on the sole unifying principle of smashing the faces off everything that ever existed. Dave Adams, founding father of developers Vigil, adds his perspective: “at first we said 'let's make a standard MMO. Guy goes in, dude's standing there, patrol walks by. I tap, select him, and hit one.' It was lousy.” It didn't fit with the game played on tabletops across the world, it didn't fit the team's imagined experience, and most importantly, it didn't fit with 40K's endless, rapid-fire carnage.
Dave explains his vision of the universe, developed from 25 years of familiarity with Games Workshop products: “We're designing a cinematic, action-oriented MMO, balanced in terms of player-on-player and player-versus-environment battles. There's a lot of ranged combat, but also a healthy dose of melee. You're not gonna have a bunch of static spawns, you're not gonna have a bunch of random patrols.” Vigil are playing in a universe defined by a quarter of a decade of development, tightened but enhanced by reams of backstory. Were they to produce a retextured WoW, they'd be chainsworded to death by armies of angry fans – and rightly so.
Fortunately, Vigil are aware of this. Dave has got serious complaints about the whole MMO genre. Whole genre, look away now: “You just pretty much hammer on the number keys. They're the same mechanic over and over again.” Vigil previously worked on console-oriented action beat-'em-up Darksiders. It was heavy on the reactive combat, full of man-stabbing and bloody moments calculated to make people shout “yeah!” and want to play air guitar. Dave argues the team learned more from that experience than they have from their MMO peers. “There's a lot more finesse in what you do in a console game. The moment-tomoment, the weight of the animations, the response, the effects. It's really all about the pace.”
Strong words from a team without a finished MMO of their own. But it's not like they're novices paddling in the genre pool: Dave himself left online specialists NCsoft in 2005 to found Vigil. I asked him whether he thought any other online worlds got combat right: “It's just not been a priority for them. A lot more attention is put into console games: if you sit down and you play an MMO, and you actually compared it to a triple-A console game, a lot of the stuff would never fly.”
I asked him why he thought that was. “A lot of developers see that as an opportunity to cut that corner because there's so much to do on an MMO. They think people care about X, Y and Z. They don't really care about the feeling of the combat.” But Vigil have to make the same world, the same economy, the same community as other online world- builders – how will their MMO break this apparent corner-cutting culture? “That disparity isn't going to be tolerated for too long: eventually someone's going to do it and everyone else is going to have to follow suit. We want to be those people, and that pushed us toward a more action- oriented formula.”
Dave began to describe what he meant by this, but not before sticking a final power-armoured boot into MMO contemporaries. “If you see an MMO 20 feet away you know it's an MMO. There's a million icons on the screen, the interface is the same. They're so predictable. Our goal is when some guy's walking past DMO they won't instantly know it's an MMO. That depends on a minimal interface: it's not a full FPS but it looks more 'actiony'.”
Actiony is not a word. Define 'actiony', Dave! Mike Maza stepped in to help: “We've done away with the action bar icon from the screen – we've kept it down to essential elements for ranged combat.” That's not to suggest that it's all shooting – half of Warhammer 40K is focused on getting within spitting distance of your enemy and then jabbing the pointiest thing your race knows about into their eye. But Mike says that's simpler to handle than gunplay. “Melee combat is relatively easy, we have tons of examples of how it's been done in the past.” It's similarly easy to see how it'll be approached in DMO – a middle ground between the kinetic feedback of singleplayer fighting and the arcane dance of MMO combat. How the team will deal with frantic battlefield crossfire is less obvious. Internal discussions are still ongoing about shooting specifics, and subject to rapid change.
John Mueller is DMO's art director, and gave me an insight on the portions of the gun-game they have locked down, describing the design that's gone into 40K's signature sidearm: the Space Marine bolter. “We spend a lot of time just making those feel awesome. It's really one of the universe's primary weapons, it's important for us that it handles and sounds the way we and Games Workshop think it should.”
Space Marines are sorted then, but the still-unannounced races and classes not blessed with such a well-defined firearm won't be getting cast-offs. John's art team have spent time poring through the tomes of 40K history for gun-spiration, and crikey, is this a universe that likes its guns. “There's a lot of documentation about the weapons in 40K, but there's also things like a belt-fed stubber that might not have been drawn before. With these, we'll extrapolate it visually from other things in the canon.” New guns will be canonical cannons, then.
Your mouse-handling skills will play more of a role than they would in a standard MMO, but the team agree that it's not going to be a twitch-centric shooter. Dave clarifies: “It's still an RPG. There's still stats. Your ability as a character is related to your level and the kind of loot you have.” Loot! See, other MMOs: DMO might flip its middle finger at you when you turn around, but it's still one of the guys.
In terms of design, how this pickuppable junk will change your character is defined by GW's dictation. John explains how the relationship between the companies affects aesthetics: “You have these character archetypes that Games Workshop have set. But at the high levels we want see how far we can go with the awesomeness of the gear.” Calibrate your awesomeositors to register unprecedented awesomeosity.
The intrinsic need for loot and gear means no jettisoning of the usual systems of shopping and crafting – though how they're going to be portrayed hasn't been explained yet. I asked John Mueller what Space Marine towns would look like, and his response was simple: “Space Marines don't have towns. It's not like our cities are specifically a 'Space Marine town', it's more just like a settlement in the Imperium, instead of a branded area.” Artistically, how do they ensure that a generic settlement stays interesting and true to the fiction? “Everything is really old! That's what Games Workshop always say, whenever they put something in 40K, just make it look really old.”
As 40K's overlords, GW are protective of their invention: it wouldn't do for a tech priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus, servants of the Emperor and born from the ancient forge world of Mars to be wearing a funny hat. Space Marines wear power armour; necessity states you could end up looking like your friend if you play the same class. John explains how to get around this problem and still foster a sense of identity. “Character customisation is about progression, where you go and what you do in the world changes how you look. Space Marine armour is so heavily adorned, you can imagine how the progression might go: a marine who's been on campaigns will make all kinds of adjustments to his armour reflecting his experience.” I'm mentally accessorising my marine already: a nice Tyranid tooth necklace would bring out the red in my power armour.
You're not going to be working from scratch, either. The Imperium is the only confirmed race so far, but every starting option has players coming into the game as a hero – there's no Space Marine toilet cleaning duty to earn your stripes. A good thing when you're up against genetically superior backsides. Mike quickly outlined a typical opening to a newly minted character: “There's scenarios that introduce you to your character class. We'll throw you into your very first instance, to get a feel for a very player directed experience. Then you'll go to your trainers and merchants, then drop down onto the over-world from orbit.” The team kept schtum on how travelling between worlds would work in-game, but planet-hopping is necessary to advance – the Sargos sector in which the game is set is a big chunk of space.
It's not just your character you'll be customising: mechanised war machines are central to DMO, as they are to the 40K fiction. The game's first trailer teases viewers, ending on footage of a five-storey walker romping across a blasted landscape. That two- legged monster was a Titan, one of 40K's largest and most killy war- bastards – and Dave confirms that a player was controlling it. “You'll use vehicles in PvE, you'll use them in the general over-world, and you'll use them in PvP.” These vehicles can be run with a crew, separate players taking on the roles of gunner, driver, and man who stands on top and yells “DRIVE FASTER!”
Or, you can go it alone. “In a tank, you control the primary turret, but you don't have the full command of all the weapons on the tank. If someone jumps in the primary turret then you might just be driving.” 40K's grab-bag of lethal vehicular toys makes this prospect a tasty one: the game's first trailers clearly point at a number of the universe's iconic battle-tanks, such as the Predator. Handling is pitched somewhere between simplistic and simulation, but Vigil are keen to keep the physical connection: glide toward another player on a turbo-charged bike and you'll thunk into them: “you can't drive through another tank like it isn't there. That just looks weird.” Mike singled out the PvP battlegrounds as a particular hotbed of vehicle use, but wouldn't be drawn into explaining quite how they'll work when used against your fellow human.
Developing a game in Warhammer 40,000K's universe brings specific challenges. Traditional MMOs are built around downtime, longer periods of peace, shopping and chatting between raids. You stop to chat in 40K's fiction and you get sliced apart by shurikens, turned into a gibbering inside-out mass of muscle by Chaos gods, or biffed in the gob by a powerfist. As the sourcebooks regularly remind us, there is “ONLY WAR!” in the 41st millennium. Dave has a philosophical way of handling this issue: “I imagine the 40K universe as a giant machine who's output is war – but it's still a machine. There's still cogs and pistons, there's still all the internal machinations and workings of a machine that makes the war.” Neat concept, but let's frame it in the hour-to-hour of playing the game. “There's a lot going on off the battlefield. Sure, war in the battlegrounds and PvP conflicts are a big part of the game. But another big part of the game is just exploring what's going on off the battlefield, following the fluff and stories.”
War in DMO is stratified, taken further than just the pew-pew in direct conflict – it's about the thrill of the chase, the long-game in questlines. Even just for the Imperium, one of many not-yet confirmed races, there's different types of war: “the war on the battlefield, the psychological war the Imperium engages in to maintain this giant organisation and prevent rebellion, the war against Chaos.” Life in Dark Millennium Online is intended to be constant struggle, full of constant threat that – Vigil hopes – will provide enough of an incentive to live in a constant universe where war reigns.
Super Mario 64 emulator mod adds co-op support for double plumber power
Emulators already garnish the PC with scores of cross-platform classics for retro romps down the green pipe of nostalgia.
Emulators already garnish the PC with scores of cross-platform classics for retro romps down the green pipe of nostalgia. Console luminaries like Super Mario 64 exist in fully playable form through emulation software, but now there's a surprising creative twist. Modding—yes, modding—ROMs for additional perks, such as emulator wizard Skelux's implementation of online co-op in Nintendo's magnum opus, is officially now a 'thing.' I predict many a shattered friendship fighting over various mushroom products.
Skelux offers the mod and a handy installation guide in a free downloadfor duo princess-plucking adventurers.
New Warhammer 40K title in the works at Slitherine
Games Workshop have popped on their sorting hat and picked out another studio to craft something from one of their WAR-heavy licenses.
Games Workshop have popped on their sorting hat and picked out another studio to craft something from one of their WAR-heavy licenses. This time it's Slitherine, publishers of tricky tactical strategy Unity of Command, who have been tasked with making a new game for the 40,000 universe. That's the sci-fi one with "Orks", not the fantasy one with "Orcs".
What will the game be? We don't really know yet - much of the details of the deal are being kept under wraps. All we know for sure is it'll be a turn-based strategy, and that it's being developed for multiple, as yet unnamed, platforms. Given Slitherine's back-catalogue, this could mean the most faithful adaptation of tabletop Warhammer to date.
With Slitherine taking hold of the 40K license, what does that mean for the series' previous custodians, Relic. Actually, not that much: in a statement to GamesIndustry, Games Workshop say they're moving to a less exclusive licensing philosophy. "The days of monolithic Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 licenses on all platforms are behind us. In the future, games based on our properties will be platform and subject specic, which is great news as it means there are far more opportunities than before."
More War for everyone then. In addition to whatever Slitherine are working on, we also know Creative Assembly are creatively assemblingsomething in the trad-fantasy Warhammer setting.
Thanks, Gamespot.
Lulzsec suspect arrested in joint Scotland Yard and FBI investigation
The suspected ringleader of Lulzsec has been arrested in a joint operation between Scotland Yard and the FBI.
The suspected ringleader of Lulzsec has been arrested in a joint operation between Scotland Yard and the FBI. The 19 year old Brit is accused of masterminding the recent spate of cyber-attacks on CIA.govand a number of games company sites, including Nintendo, Minecraft and Eve Online.
The teenager was apprehended at his home in Wickford, Essex, in a joint operation that could see the suspect extradited to America to face charges, reports Sky News.
Update: Lulzsec have tweeted in response to the arrest, saying "seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?" The suspect has been named by the press as Ryan Cleary, and is thought to be an ex-member of notorious hacking organisation, Anonymous.
Lulzsec have claimed responsibilityfor a number of recent denial of service attacks on a number of gaming sites, including Minecraft, Eve Online, League of Legends, and The Escapist. Lulzsec took requests for targets on Twitter. Shortly after the Central Intelligence Agency site went down, they tweeted "Tango down - CIA.gov - for the lulz".
The hacker group are one of the key players in a recent storm of cyber-crimethat has damaged companies as big as Sony and Nintendo. Anonymous and Gnosis have also been implicated in attacks on Sony Online Entertainmentand Eidosrespectively.
A Scotland Yard statement says that searching the teenage suspect's home led to "the examination of a significant amount of material."
"The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group," the spokesperson confirmed. The suspect is currently being held in London while evidence is examined.
Update:
CVGare reporting that the suspect has been named by British national press as Ryan Cleary, who earlier this year turned on Anonymous, stealing passwords and attacking the AnonOps messageboard servers. Lulzsec have also responded to Cleary's arrest on Twitter, saying "Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?"
The Telegraphreport that Cleary is being held under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act, and suggest that the arrest was triggered by suspicions that Lulzsec were behind the theft of the 2011 British Census data. Lulzsec have denied this, saying "not sure we claimed to hack the UK census or where that rumour started, but we assume it's because people are stupider than you and I."
"Oh well, just because we want to waste government and local authority investigation time: we hacked every website in the world. Enjoy!"
Total War: Warhammer delayed into May, system requirements released
Weekender-goers , feel smug at your early hands-on!
, feel smug at your early hands-on! Everyone else, adopt a glum look at the news that Total War: Warhammerhas been delayed from April 28 to May 24. Creative director Mike Simpson issued as statement as to the reason behind the delay, and frustrating though it is, I can't think up a better one.
"This could be the best Total War game we’ve ever made. We don’t want to rush it."
Fair enough.
Meanwhile, the system requirements have been nailed down, giving you an extra month if you need to plug your computer full of new bits. Pleasingly, Creative Assembly has continued the trendamong PC developers of offering extra sets of detailed specs so you can check whether your rig is able to go above and beyond. Note that this is the first Total War game to require a 64 bit OS.
PC Minimum Specifications:
[ Expected around 15-25 FPS on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “Low”]
Operating System: Windows 7 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 3.0Ghz
RAM : 3GB*
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Radeon HD 5770 1024MB | NVIDIA GTS 450 1024MB | Intel HD4000 @720P
*PC integrated graphics chipsets require 4GB ram, e.g. Intel HD series
PC Recommended Specifications:
[Expected around 45-55 FPS on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “High”]
Operating System: Windows 7/8.1/10 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4570 3.20GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Radeon R9 270X 2048MB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2048MB @1080P
PC 60fps+ Specifications:
[Expected 60 FPS+ on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “Ultra”]
Operating System: Windows 7/8.1/10 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K 4.0 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Fury X or Nvidia GTX 980 @1080P
Fatshark goes "inside" Warhammer: End Times—Vermintide with new video
" Vermintide is not a game about killing the most Skaven," Victor Magnuson of Fatshark Games declares at the end of the debut "Inside the Vermintide" promotional trailer, in which Skaven are bloodily, mercilessly slaughtered in numbers far too great too count.
To be fair, he's likely referring to the way experience is handed out based on a team's success, rather than individual heroics. "Everybody in the game gets rewarded equally, independent of how you perform," he explains in the video. "It's not, like, singling out a player because he got the most headshots or anything like that."
The narration is a little too canned to be very interesting, but the gameplay actually looks potentially very good. It reminds me quite a bit of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, which I like to bring up at every opportunity as one of the finest first-person melee games I've ever played. If Vermintide can live up to that game (or, dare to dream, surpass it), it should be a real blast. For more, Evan had a lookback in February.
A release date hasn't been announced, but it's expected to be out in the fall. Beta signups for Warhammer: End Times—Vermintide are being taken now at Vermintide.com.
Minecraft, Eve Online, and League of Legends websites hacked. LulzSec claim responsibility
Minecraft, Eve Online, League of Legends, and The Escapist are the most recent high-profile games industry targets to get hit by hackers.
Minecraft, Eve Online, League of Legends, and The Escapist are the most recent high-profile games industry targets to get hit by hackers. All three of the sites went down at some point yesterday. At the time of writing, all are back online.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The hacking group started taking requests for targets via Twitter, but the exact criteria for the choices are unclear.
Aside from the game devs and website, LulSec also claim to have targeted IT security company Finfishersaying "apparently they sell monitoring software to the government or some shit like that." The group claim to have received over 3500 calls and over 1500 voicemails pointing out potential victims. They proclaimed yesterday TitanicTakeoverTuesday.
The developers and website join Codemasters, Epic, Bethesda, Nintendo, Square Enix and Sony on the list of industry figureheads to get hacked this year.
LulzSec's most recent tweetimplies that the group are taking a break from the criminal activity, saying: "The Lulz Boat must sail off and organise itself."
Are you having a lul with LulzSec, or are they just making you sad? PC gamers got to play less games than usual last night - that's not cool.
Today's other news: Black Ops 2 zombies, Project Eternity coming to GOG, and more
We don't want to bury you in posts.
We don't want to bury you in posts. For one thing, it would hurt - they have really sharp edges. But also, if we posted every PC gaming announcement made in a day, the most interesting stories would be crowded out. So here's our solution: a daily list of the news we didn't post. (If you've been reading the site for a while, it should look familiar.) Grab a strip of today's HTML ticker tape below:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies mode was made official in today's teaser trailer. We already knew it was happening, but now we know there's a bus, too. Obsidian's Project Eternity will be available DRM-free from GOG, so you can keep it forever and ever. Gaslamp has posted archived Clockwork Empires screensfrom early development of its engine. Same new grind: both Jet Set Radioand Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HDare now on Steam. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's fourth map collection will release on PC on October 10. Darksiders 2 The Argul's Tomb DLC has been announced, and it's coming next Wednesday. Relic is auctioning collecter's items to support the Canadian Cancer Society. Blackspace has our attention on Kickstarter: an asteroid mining action-RTS with destructible space rocks and physics-based violence. "Geological strategy" just has a nice sound to it. There's a subreddit for Borderlands 2 loot. That's pretty great. And finally, it turns out Black Mesa was made in Black Mesa. Christopher Nolan and Xzibit approve.That's it for today! Let us know if you like the format, and feel free to share any other PC gaming news.
Shattered Horizon and Lead and Gold are free to play this weekend
As part of Steam's Frontiers Free Weekend the Zero-G space shooter Shattered Horizon and Wild West shooter Lead and Gold are going to be free to play.
As part of Steam's Frontiers Free Weekend the Zero-G space shooter Shattered Horizon and Wild West shooter Lead and Gold are going to be free to play. Read on for details, and a few reasons why you might want to give these underplayed gems a shot.
Not only will both games be free for the weekend, but they'll also be available to buy for half price. If you like both of them, they'll also be available as a bundle which will give you both games for $12.49. The free weekend starts at 11pm today (GMT) on Steam, and will last through to 9pm on Sunday.
Futuremark's Shattered Horizon is team deathmatch set entirely in space. Your flimsy space suit and jet propulsion pack are the only things between you and the vacuum, and combat takes place around huge exploded asteroids and space stations. It can take a while to get used to the fact that you're fighting in a 360 degree environment where there's no such thing as up or down, thankfully, the latest of the game's free updates adds servers with AI bots, letting new players get some practice in before taking on human opponents.
Zero-G combat encourages some neat strategies, including the ability to activate your suit's magnetic boots to attach yourself to almost any surface, letting you hide behind stray rocks and giving you a more stable base for sniping. You can also 'go dark', minimising your suit's functions to make you less visible to enemy scanners. If you like the idea of chucking ice grenades in zero-G while using a space station's solar panels as cover, then give Shattered Horizon a go. It's worth noting, though, that Shattered Horizon requires a DirectX 10 video card to run. Here's a video of the game in action.
Lead and Gold is a light hearted third person multiplayer shooter set in the dusty townships of the Wild West. You can fight as one of four classes: the Blaster, with his double barrelled shotgun and dynamite sticks; the Deputy, a mid range specialist with a repeater Carbine and an ability to tag enemies to make them easy for team mates to find; the awesome Gunslinger with his heavy duty revolver and quickfire fanning technique; and the Trapper, who has a huge long range rifle and can lay bear traps to ensnare the enemy. Game modes vary from Demolition, in which you have to stack powder kegs by an enemy structure in order to take it out, to more standard point capture modes like Conquest. There's a definite TF2 vibe running through the character designs and it's a great chance to do some fighting on the Wild West. Trailer below.
Epic and Bethesda sites compromised as hacker attacks continue
Epic and Bethesda are the latest victims of wave of cyber-crime that has so far seen data stolen from a number of games company sites, including Sony Online Entertainment, Nintendo, Eidos and Codemasters.
A post on the Bethblogyesterday revealed that the game publisher's site and forums had suffered "an unlawful intrusion" that resulted in the theft of an undisclosed number of forum and website passwords and email addresses.
On Friday, Epic sites also experienced downtime in the aftermath of a similar attack that compromised a number of forum accounts. Thankfully, both companies report that no credit card information was stolen. Other companies have been less fortunate.
Epic founder Tim Sweeney released a statement in the wake of Friday's attack confirming that the "Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked.
"The hackers may have obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users," he said, adding that "we have reset all passwords. The Unreal Developer Network (UDN) hasn't been compromised. Thankfully, none of our web sites ask for, or store, credit card information or other financial data.
In a similar statement on Bethblog, Bethesda staff revealed that "while no personal financial information or credit card data was obtained, the hackers may have gained access to some user names, email addresses, and/or passwords.
"As a precaution, we recommend that all our fans immediately change passwords on all our sites — including our community forums, statistics site for Brink, and here on the blog.
"If your username/email address/password is similar to what you use on other sites, we recommend changing the password at those sites as well. As we don't know what further plans the hackers may have, we suggest that you keep an eye out for suspicious emails and account activity."
Epic and Bethesda are the most recently targeted sites. Sony Online Entertainment endured a very serious attackearlier this year in which hackers illegally obtained millions of SOE account details, and the credit card information of more than 12 thousand "non-US" customers. Sony Online Entertainment MMOS came back onlinelast month after a long period of inactivity thanks to the attacks.
In May the Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Eidos Montreal sites were hacked. Square later confirmedthat 250 resumes and thousands of email addresses had been stolen in the attack. Just last week, Codemasters revealed that they, too, had been compromised, losing thousands more customer details in the course of the intrusion.
MCVreport that Nintendo have also suffered security breaches. It's not clear whether the attacks are part of a single organised campaign, or the responsibility of a number of competing hacking communities. Hacker organisation Lulz Security took responsibility for the Ninetndo hack, while the Eidos hack was attributed to Gnosis. Sony blamed Sony Online Entertainment and Playstation Network failings on Anonymous.
Whether they're the work of a single group or a collection of different attackers, attacks are set to continue amid fears that services like Steam, and other digital distribution channels like GamersGate and Direct2Drive may be targeted, with much more serious consequences for customers.
Lead and Gold free weekend
Starting later today, Lead and Gold are having a big old free weekend, according to their official forums.
Starting later today, Lead and Gold are having a big old free weekend, according to their official forums. They're calling for all server owners to up their server counts, batten down the hatches, and prepare for a gold rush. Evan gave it 83% when he reviewed it, and it's one of those solid multiplayer games that seem to suffer from a small community and few servers - although not fatally, in this case. Still, that's probably why they're doing a free weekendin the first place. You can pre-load the game by poking around the steam store page. I'll certainly be faffing around with barrels of gunpowder at the weekend. The game is currently on saleon Steam. Wait a minute... this isn't some sort of marketing ploy , is it? Because I hate those.
Why the PC won E3
PC Gamers don't get to watch a glitzy press conference at E3.
PC Gamers don't get to watch a glitzy press conference at E3. We don't get a PR firm to pump millions into glossy stage shows, or detailed press releases. We don't even get a mascot. But we do get incredible games, and a steady stream of hardware innovations that let the PC leapfrog the opposition. Here's why the PC was the real victor at E3.
We had the best games
The best games at E3 in my opinion? Start with The Old Republic, then move to Crysis 2. Finish up with Civilization 5. Yeah - they're all PC staples. But they show a level of polish and grace that has been sorely missing from PC gaming for years. The Old Republic, my pick for game of the show, is insane - it's a monstrously well produced MMO that combines Dragon Age style storytelling with the open world questing of World of Warcraft. And every MMO staple system in-between. The Civilization 5 presentation was a perfectly produced snapshot of an experienced development house tuning their best work.
But it's not just about PC exclusives. There are, at best, just a couple of console exclusives that aren't available on PC. But everything else - absolutely everything else - incredible games like Deus Ex, XCOM, and Call of Duty, will arrive on our platform, with better, smoother graphics, smarter online support, for lower cost, and playable at your convenience on as many machines as you own through digital download platforms. PC gaming's victory seems like a no brainer.
We had the best looking games
There's no question about how far Crytek have come in their art design for Crysis 2. The precision and detail in their recreation of New York under attack is startling. Their demo was set in and around a pixel perfect version of Grand Central Station that was smashed to pieces by stompy robots, falling skyscrapers, and a player's rocket launcher. We've seen the game running on multiple platforms now - and, yeah, it looks great on Xbox and PS3. But it looks stunning on PC.
Then there's Rage- the base game for Id Software's latest tech. It looked superb at a Jon Carmack mandated 60 frames per second. But all I could think about while watching the 360 demo was 'god, how good is this going to look on PC?'
We had the best innovations
The nice thing about PC gaming? There's always somewhere out there looking to innovate and surpass what's already available. At E3, that level of innovation was everywhere. If you wanted motion controls, Razer showed the press a prototype of a motion controller more accurate, and more responsive than the Wii remote and Playstation Move. If you wanted to 3D gaming, you could play all your current catalogue in 3D using Nvidia's already in place tech.
But it was online where the innovation was most apparent. OnLiveused the show to launch their games-on-demand cloud streaming service - in which you can play high-end games on low-end hardware. While the consumer rental costs currently seem fierce - you can't argue with the convenience and power of their technology. What's more: Onlive is already up and running right now in California. World domination awaits.
We're the platform that's most likely to grow the market for games
Microsoft's misplaced obsessionwith growing the market for the Xbox has taken a wrong turn. Throwing millions of dollars of capital into an $150 webcam, in the hope that all the mothers and daughters that bought a Wii will buy into the XBox dream just isn't going to work. The cost just don't make sense.
In that respect, the PC has already won. Practically everyone already owns a laptop, and those laptops are the primary infection route for viral, free, gaming. Free PC games were everywhere at E3 - from casual, fun-fare from guys like Playfish, and Zynga, to multi-million dollar hardcore titles like Lord of the Rings Onlineand Company of Heroes Online. While Microsoft attacks the casual space with expensive hardware - smart PC developers are making their fortune with free games that can be played on the same hardware you browse the web with.
This is the reality of today's gaming market: Sony and Microsoft chase Nintendo's tail with increasingly arcane hardware. While PC developers, quietly clean up online. E3 was the same exactly the same story. But no-one ever declares the PC the winner of E3. Until now.
The 2016 game release schedule
Another year, another set of new games to eagerly anticipate. Below you'll find a list of all the big names and dates we currently know about. There'll be some stuff missing and some things that will move around, because that's just the nature of releases. I've also left off as yet unconfirmed yearly things like FIFA, COD and so on. Just until we have something more concrete. We'll update as the year
The price is Smite: win Alienware kit and free in-game stuff in Vulcan's Craftsman Challenge
If you want to be in with a chance of winning the keyboard and mouse, all you need to do is send us pics of your custom rig (and tell us your spec) to pcgamer@futurenet.com and mark your mail 'Vulcan Craftsman Challenge'.
If you want to be in with a chance of winning the keyboard and mouse, all you need to do is send us pics of your custom rig (and tell us your spec) to pcgamer@futurenet.com and mark your mail 'Vulcan Craftsman Challenge'. The PC Gamer team will pick and announce the winner on Tuesday 5 Feb, and choose four runners-up to receive Ultimate God Pack codes for Smite (which give you access to all 28 Gods in the game). Those chosen will have the pictures of their set-ups featured on this site, so the whole world can admire your creativity / madness.
So get snapping. If you want to know more about Vulcan, here's a video Hi-Rez Studios made about him. He'll be patched into the game later this week, and if you haven't tried Smite… well, it's free-to-play so you can get involved right now.
HTC Vive is the best and worst of VR
HTC Vive is the best and worst of VR Valve and HTC have combined to create the highest standard of VR to date, but it brings into relief what makes this new tech both exciting and problematic We’ve had plenty of time with Oculus Rift and tested PlayStation VR extensively, but neither of them come close to the virtual reality experience of HTC Vive. The difference is that it’s a combination of the best
Jet Set Radio HD is coming to PC
Did you spend the year 2000 skating around cities, spraying tags and dodging angular cops in Jet Set Radio?
Did you spend the year 2000 skating around cities, spraying tags and dodging angular cops in Jet Set Radio? Firstly, you're forgiven for gaming on a Dreamcast and not a wondrous gaming PC, secondly, good news! Eurogamermention that a HD version will be coming to our monitors, resplendent in updated HD loveliness.
Those stylish, cel-shaded lines should stand up quite nicely after a bit of high-definition polishing. If you're so excited you can feel your fingers reaching for a spray can dodge the inevitable ASBO and plough your creative, anti-social urges into the new competition on the Jet Set Radio site. You can design new in-game graffiti for prizes.
Alienware X51 is a console sized gaming PC
Gaming PC maker Alienware has launched a new desktop with a difference today.
has launched a new desktop with a difference today. Unlike the hulking behemoths of the past, the new Alienware X51is a small form factor machine, which arrives in a case roughly the size of an Xbox.
The X51 certainly looks the part. Its all corners and curves with a slot loading DVD drive and Alienware's trademark customisably LED lighting. Prices start at £699 (no US price has been confirmed yet) though, so what's inside, and is it powerful enough to take on its bigger brethren?
Small is clearly the new backlit alien head for the company, which brought out an 11inch laptop last year as an alternative to its usual unportable portables. With a rather slicker and (relatively) unassuming design, the X51 looks like it wants a home near a TV or a neat desk space.
There's three different specs currently available - £699, £849 and £949 – with a choice of Core i3, i5 or i7 processor accordingly. Each has a terabyte hard drive, no SSD and 4GB or 8GB or RAM. You get an Alienware keyboard as part of the bundle, but no monitor or mouse.
So long as it runs quietly – which we'll have to wait to test it to see – it's a promising little box for a cramped desktop or to sit beside the TV.
The problem as far as I can see is that the X51 comes with either NVIDIA's GeForce GT 545 graphics in the cheaper model, or GTX 555 in the top end specs. The GPU is mounted in parallel with the motherboard. All components can be upgraded too. The GTX 555 is an OEM only card featuring 288 CUDA cores and a clockspeed of 776MHz. It's not a terrible card, and should be fine for single monitor gaming at medium settings, but it is the weakest part of the set up. The 545 has just 144 cores and is clocked at 870MHz, so is less powerful still.
To be fair to Alienware, it's a lot better than the Radeon HD 6630M found in a similarly priced Mac Mini,
As luck would have it, I'm in the middle of putting together a similar type of system for a feature next issue. There is a price premium attached to smaller motherboards and specialist power supplies still, but I reckon you could build a slightly more powerful similar system (including operating system) for about £150 less. I'll be pitting the two against each other as soon as I get hold of the X51.
Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain is out right now
Hearthstone's Blackrock Mountain expansion is now live, with the first wing available to card-battle the hell out of.
Sorry, I couldn't think of a better way to say that.
Offering a new campaign - split into five wings - and adding 31 new cards, the Blackrock expansion also adds a new game board, nine new class challenges and a 'Heroic' mode.
The latter there is an unlockable, more difficult mode for Hearthstone veterans, which is nice.
Each of the five wings can be unlocked individually for either 700 in-game coins or £4.99 ($6.99/5.99 EUR), with a new wing available each week. Or you can buy the whole package up-front for £17.49 ($24.99/21.99 EUR).
Or , if you buy one, two or three wings individually you're able to buy the remaining wings, together, for a slightly reduced price. Which is nice.
We reviewed the new cards right here, so go have a shufty - it's interesting and useful!
Final Fantasy 15's all-male cast might be exactly what gaming needs
Square Enix really wants you to know that there's a good reason Final Fantasy 15 has an all-male main cast. No really, it's cool - it makes the characters " more approachable for players " by showing "what boys do when girls aren't around", and pardon me while I gently tap my head against this wall for a second. It's a clumsily-worded justification that suggests female characters somehow aren't approachable
Golden Joysticks 2011: vote now for your chance to win an Alienware laptop
Hey! You like games, right?
Hey! You like games, right? Do you find yourself sometimes having opinions about them? How would you like to be in with a chance to win a top spec M14x Alienware laptop for telling everyone what you think? Step right this way, let your voice be heard and place your vote in this year's Golden Joysticks.
The contest is open to US and UK citizens, and couldn't be easier to enter. All you need to do is vote in all 14 categories on the Golden Joysticks siteand you'll be in with a chance of winning a bunch of prizes, including all of the Golden Joystick nominated games, and a top of the range gaming laptop from Alienware.
GamesMaster ultimate gaming prize:
1 x M14x Alienware Laptop Gaming Consoles 1 x PlayStation Vita (as near to UK launch as possible) 1 x 3DS Golden Joystick Award nominated games Gaming peripherals4 runners up will receive:
1 x M14x Alienware Laptop Golden Joystick Award nominated gamesFeeling overexcited? Check out these soothing terms and conditionsto quickly douse that passion with bland legal jargon. It's worth voting, though. There are some top PC games in this year's lineup that deserve our support, including Total War: Shogun 2, The Witcher 2, Civilization V, Minecraft and more. Get voting and good luck! Need more motivation? Here's a picture of the laptop you could win:
We didn’t know exactly how good Grim Patron was going to be”
“We didn’t know exactly how good Grim Patron was going to be”
Hearthstone's second single-player adventure, Blackrock Mountain , has been out in its entirety for nearly two weeks now.
, has been out in its entirety for nearly two weeks now. We spoke to Team 5's Senior Producer Yong Woo and Senior Game Designer Mike Donais about the launch, the unstoppable rise of Grim Patron, recent lag issues, Arena rewards, the state of Shaman, the Druid combo and, of course, Dr. Balanced.
PC Gamer: So you recently announced on Twitter that Hearthstone had 30 million players. How many of those are active in a typical month?
Yong Woo — Senior Producer
Yong Woo: We don’t really talk about those type of specific numbers unfortunately, but we’re really excited about a lot of new players that were coming in from the release on mobile and a lot of returning players as well, so it’s been really exciting.
So is that number just registered accounts then? What does that number mean?
YW: Those are 30 million players that have played Hearthstone.
There’s obviously been a huge influx of new people with the phone versions rolling out. What's been the feedback in terms of people using the user interface? I think you’ve done a great job of cramming it onto phone screens, but I did notice a Hunter who Quick Shot-ed his own face last night who I think was probably on phone. I mean he had it coming obviously...
Mike Donais — Senior Game Designer
Mike Donais: That was a karma thing. We have that built into the game.
YW: The feedback has been really great. I think a lot of people just pick it up and are like “wow, at first I didn't even notice a difference because everything just felt right,” but then you look at it side-by-side with the PC version and it’s dramatically different in some regards. I’m very proud of our UI team in making it natural and easy to use on phone, but at the same time maintaining that same look and feel and that physical charm.
Since the phone version came out there have been days where there seemed to be severe lag, even on desktop. Is that something related to the phone version, and are you confident it’s fixed now?
YW: We’re continuing to invest in our infrastructure. We did have some hiccups, but our team has been working really hard. At this point, all the known issues that we’re aware of are off the plate. Obviously, if any new issues pop up we’re going to continue to take care of them as well.
[Since our interview Blizzard has given two free packsto EU players to compensate for the spotty connection. Nonetheless, there has been more EU downtime this week - Ed]
So the big theme of Blackrock Mountain was the Dragons. How do you think those cards have bedded in versus the Mechs of Goblins vs Gnomes? Because I feel like they haven’t quite taken off in the same way.
MD: Goblins vs Gnomes was a big set, so there was a lot more different Mechs to work with. Actually the most popular deck at first was the Paladin control deck, but within the first month people did experiment with Mechs in a lot of different classes, like Druids and Warriors. All kinds. Now we've finally got all the Dragon cards, people are starting to experiment with different Dragon decks. We've seen Dragon Warrior, Dragon Paladin, Dragon Priest... even Dragon Warlock. People are learning about which one works and which doesn't. Some people need to see a Dragon deck show up in a tournament before they’re comfortable running it, because they’re not confident deck builders themselves. but I've seen a lot of experimentation and every day there’s a new version or new tweaks. Within a month or so people will have a bit more of an understanding of what’s out there and how good it is.
I tried to get Dragon Druid to work last night but I think it might be bad.
MD: Yeah, Druids don’t have any specific Dragons, but they have the mana to play expensive cards so I think with Innervate and Wild Growth they could turn out to be a good Dragon deck.
I talked myself into thinking Blackwing Corrupter might be the card Druid needs because it gives you removal and a body, but…
MD: Yeah, Corrupter sounds fantastic in Druid.
As long as people are excited about trying new things, and they’re not quite sure what the best version of something is, it’s really good for us because that’s one of the most fun parts of Hearthstone.
It’s a work in progress. Now that we’re a bit further away from Goblins vs Gnomes, have you got any plans to change the way Arena rewards work so that players can choose to get Classic packs or Goblins vs Gnomes?
YW: You know, we've been getting a lot of feedback on that. Feedback is really important to us, so we've been discussing that a lot. We don’t have anything to announce, but we do intend to look into that.
Another piece of feedback that’s been quite prevalent in the community recently is the discussion of the way ladder works. I’ve seen a few threads on the Hearthstone subreddit and Noxious and Kripp both did videos about how they felt ladder was intrinsically unrewarding. Do you have any plans to rework ladder so that there are more tiers of rewards between rank 20 and Legend, or perhaps extending the season?
MD: We definitely talked about both of those options—the idea of changing how the reward structure works, or extending the seasons—and they’re both reasonable options. We’re trying to find out which we think is best, and maybe there’s something else that hasn't been mentioned yet. One of the things we care a lot about is intrinsic rewards versus extrinsic rewards. So, like, are you playing a game for fun and you don’t feel like “oh I have to play, and now that I played and hit so-and-so number and got X reward, I’m done playing.” A lot of people just play Hearthstone because they enjoy playing Hearthstone, not because they need any reward. That mindset is the kind of mindset we’d like to maintain, whatever changes we do make.
Do you think one option might be to have players shed fewer ranks [at reset]? Because you plunge right back down, and then there’s that mad rush at the start of the season where everyone’s playing Zoo and Face Hunter to climb as quickly as they can.
MD: It’s very possible that the amount of stars that you keep versus how many you lose is not quite right yet. It’s something we’ve also discussed. At the same time, though, we do see a surge of activity both at the end of seasons and the beginning, so that points to the reset having some value for players because they feel more inclined to play at the end or at the start. So we have to keep an eye on that. That’s a vote in favor of keeping the short seasons.
Post-Blackrock Mountain I’m definitely seeing a lot of different classes and decks represented, but before the release there were a couple months in which Face Hunter and Mech Mage were really dominant. The biggest complaint from players was that unless you teched against those decks, you didn't really stand a chance. Do you think it’s just a case that there will always be aggro decks and people will always moan about them, or do you get concerned about how fast and aggressive the meta can be?
MD: Yeah, we definitely keep an eye on that. One of the things is the cheaper decks are often aggressive, so you’ll see a higher percentage of them even if they’re not more powerful. Also, obviously, they get quick games in, so that’s another reason you see a lot of people leaning towards them. But, like you said, the meta is fairly healthy. You see a lot of different classes, and even in those classes sometimes you’ll see two or three different decks, so that’s been really cool for us. We want to keep maintaining the variety of classes and the variety of decks within each class. The other thing that’s important is just giving people room to experiment. As long as people are excited about trying new things, and they’re not quite sure what the best version of something is, it’s really good for us because that’s one of the most fun parts of Hearthstone. Just trying out new deck ideas and seeing how they do and feeling like you own that version of the deck.
[There’s an interesting article here on Liquid Hearthwhich argues aggro decks are actually important to the health of the game - Ed]
On the next page: Casual not being casual, and whether Grim Patron or Dr. Boom needs a nerf.
Hexi – iOS Platformer With A Few Tools in its Belt
Sometimes, when a game drops into our inbox here at IGM Mobile, I immediately want to play it.
Tribase Studio‘s new iOS title Hexi was one of those games. I’m a sucker for a good platformer and Hexi looked as if it could be just that, but also be a little different at the same time. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in and get jumping.
Hexi takes elements of classic platforming style and merges it with the familiar catapult mechanism of a well-known game featuring furious avian beasts to produce a smart and engaging experience. You play as the titular Hexi, a hexagonal metal nut whose poor friends (a range of nuts, bolts and other toolbox paraphernalia) have been captured and turned into evil tools. You have to save Hexi’s friends across a variety of stages by jumping between platforms and dropping on the heads of enemies while avoiding being touched or falling to your doom. It’s a classic formula, but in Hexi , while you can roll around using the left and right buttons, the jump mechanic is a little different from your average platformer. Taking it’s queue from Angry Birds , jumping requires you to place your finger on Hexi and drag in the direction away from which you want to propel the little metal hero through the sky. The further away you pull, the further Hexi will jump.
Furthering the Angry Birds motif – although to be fair a lot of games do this now – there are three stars to achieve on each level which means you’ll probably be playing through each one a few times to perfect your score. In order to get those three stars, you need to collect washers which litter the levels like rings in a Sonic The Hedgehog game or middle-aged women’s underpants at a Tom Jones gig. Simply collect all of those shiny washers to get three stars. This is trickier than it sounds though as some of those washers are hidden away in hard to reach areas. It will take some perseverance to find everything, especially since a lot of those jumps will see you fall off the bottom of the screen if you’re not careful, losing one of the five lives you have per level.
It’s not the unique mechanic that endeared me to Hexi though, it’s the adorable art style and great music. Hexi himself is cute as a button and the enemies are suitably grumpy looking. The environment takes a leaf out of the Little Big Planet book and uses cardboard cut-out style backgrounds, clouds and rocket smoke to make things feel lovingly hand-made. The music is also reminiscent of LBP , being a little bit twee yet fun. It’s no bad thing to take after Little Big Planet in my opinion; it was a truly fantastic game and a lot can be learned from it.
Learning from LBP seems to be something Tribase Studios are keen on as Hexi offers up a range of alternate costumes that you can unlock along the way or pay for via in-app purchases. These costumes add an extra element of fun to proceedings – you can dress Hexi up as a surfer, give him a Hawaiian shirt or even make him look like Wolverine – but they don’t change how the game is played. It might be interesting to see what could be done if those costumes could change things though; imagine a costume that allows for a higher jump or magnetic ability to draw washers nearer. It certainly could add to the replay value and variety factors by giving you skills later in the game which you could then use in earlier levels.
In addition to being able to purchase fancy dress for Hexi, you can also purchase more levels. The first 10 levels come bundled with the free download of the app itself as a little amuse bouche to give you an appetite for rolling and jumping, but the remainder must be purchased by unlocking the full version of the game. At a mere $0.99 though, it’s a bargain.
Hexi goes above and beyond the expectations of a regular platformer by giving you an unexpected bonus – a level creator. You can create your own levels and download more if you’ve unlocked the full version. It’s a fairly basic tool but still a nice thing to have. I’m sure there will be plenty of people out there capable of creating some really intricate and devilish contraptions out of it. Cleverly, it prevents people from being too fiendish as you must be able to play through and complete your level before it can be saved.
The only real flaw I found with Hexi was the enemies that appear in the levels. Those dastardly tools trying to prevent Hexi from saving his friends. I found that some of the enemies were so tall that Hexi really struggled to jump high enough to land on their heads, requiring a very precise jump to get there. This was especially true if trying to jump on an enemy who was on a platform above the one that Hexi was on. You could try and jump onto the platform first, but that requires extremely good reflexes as most enemies take up about a third or more of the platform, giving you very little space to prepare your jump before they turn around and get you. There also seemed to be a small area around the enemies that could clip Hexi and make him lose a life, direct contact wasn’t always needed. An added element of difficulty and occasional irritation.
Overall I had a lot of fun playing Hexi . It’s not a world beater by any means, but for the very small price that it has to get the full version, it provides great value for money and you could do a lot worse for $0.99.
Starcraft 2 World Championship Series 2013 dates announced
We're fast approaching the launch of Blizzard's unified Starcraft 2 eSports league , the 2013 World Championship Series.
, the 2013 World Championship Series. The WCS Korea is already underway, and within the next few weeks, both WCS Europe and WCS America will be providing free streamed Heart of the Swarmmatches for viewers worldwide. Today they've announced the kick-off dates for each part of the upcoming season, and revealed the adjusted selection process being used to pick the inaugural competitors.
With no previous league to select WCS Europe and America contestants from, this first season will work slightly differently to future events. 24 players will be invited to each region based on their performance in previous tournaments, with 8 further players being picked based on their placement in a special qualifying round. The full 32 will then move on to the full season.
Blizzard explainhow that the subsequent league will work: "The rest of Season 1 will then play out via the same structure planned for future seasons. The top 8 players in each region will compete in their region's finals, which will be a weekend offline event. Once all three regional finals have concluded, the top performers from each region will battle in an epic global Season Finals at a live event hosted by one of the regions.
"To seed that event, the top 6 players from the host region will be joined by the top 5 players from each of the two other regions to engage in a fierce tournament in order to crown the best StarCraft II player in the world for that season."
The full dates for the first season's events are below:
April 4: Korea - League play begins April 14: Europe - Special qualifiers begin April 20: America - Special qualifiers begin April 23: Europe - League play begins (round of 32) April 28: America - League play begins (round of 32) May 14: Korea - Regional league finals begin (round of 8) May 25: Europe - Regional league finals begin (round of 8) May 31: America - Regional league finals begin (round of 8)For more details, read Rich's interviewwith Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime on the thinking behind the new WCS structure.
Jump to Section:Best Price
Comments
Our Verdict
It's 10/$15 too expensive, but Ardennes Assault is still a fine addition to any RTS fan's library.
NEED TO KNOW
What is it: War with less hoo-rah and more clicking.
Influenced by: 1939-1945
Reviewed on: Core i7 2.2GHz, 24GB RAM, Geforce GT 750M
Alternatively: Supreme Commander 2, 87%
DRM: Steam
Price: £30/$40
Release: November 18
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: Sega
Link: Official site
Multiplayer: Ardennes Assault is a singleplayer campaign.
By Ian Dransfield.
It's strange that most war games seem to have forgotten that one very famous saying: 'you've won the battle, but you haven't won the war'. A couple of hours into Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault's campaign it becomes clear Relic hasn't forgotten about it. This is very much built from significant individual battles, and a game where you're in for a long, hard slog. Even when you are winning a lot along the way.
This is Relic's second expansion pack for Company of Heroes 2, and both of them—Ardennes Assault and The Western Front Armies—are standalone, so you don't need the original, explosive Eastern Front-'em-up to play. Where the last add-on was multiplayer-focused, Ardennes Assault is very much a single-player campaign, but one that's learned a lot of lessons from the online world.
There's persistence in your companiesùDog (support), Able (airborne) and Baker (mechanical)—meaning they accrue veterancy and, equally, casualties. As you make your way around the meta-map of your conflict zones in the Belgian region, you soon realise this is as much a part of the game as the more traditional 'click on the baddies to make them die' bit.
You're in for a long, hard slog, even if you're winning a lot along the way.
As you're free to move your companies how you want while navigating the next 18 missions, you can employ some high-level strategy as you go. Ignore it at your peril, because that's where these won: battle, lost: war scenarios come into play, as I will briefly explain now.
A skirmish popped up that required me to defeat a small German outpost in a picturesque village by capturing command points and intercepting regular supply drops in order to outlast the enemy. I made a beeline straight for this mission on the meta-map and, a matter of 20 minutes later, had successfully routed the defending Nazis.
Those who had lost the battle retreated across the map through territory I had ignored—and could have blocked off with other companies—before meeting up with, and reinforcing, another German position. When I moved on to the next mission, which was already more difficult, the Germans were in a much stronger position than they had been before.
I had won the battle, but it had a hugely negative effect on my overall war.
Frankly, that's fantastic and I'm delighted to see Relic—one of the few big-name developers still making real-time strategy games on a grand scale—upping the strategy quota rather than watering it down for the mass market. The fact you're playing this wider game of cat-and-mouse on the meta-map before you've even jumped into the main game, while not a new idea, gives valuable context to battles, and creates a sense of ebb and flow across a vast conflict.
This filters down to your companies. Each has its own skill tree to upgrade as you choose—make the paratroopers cheaper to call in, or have your aerial bombardment arrive a bit faster, for example. Focusing on just one company's power is viable, but striking a balance is obviously the far more sensible option. War isn't sensible, though.
As well as manually selected upgrades, units can gain ability through veterancy. In short, you want to keep your troops alive as long as possible—the more combat they see, the better they are. But all the same, you can operate a distinctly Stalinist approach to war and send unfathomable numbers of young men into the grinder. If you're a bastard, at least.
On the battlefield it's pretty much Company of Heroes as you know and love it—intense, harrowing real-time strategy with an emphasis on small squads and tactics over tank rushes and superweapons. You're expected to make good use of your surroundings and make tactical decisions on the fly, or you will end up with your backside being handed to you repeatedly. And it will be repeatedly, because Ardennes Assault's emphasis on persistence means a loss isn't game over, it's a 'try again with weakened forces'.
These on-the-fly tactics are made all the more necessary by AA's emergent elements—randomly selected objectives and sub-objectives; an opponent of varying power and ability; a change in approach necessitated by both the company you choose to enter a conflict with and its veterancy level. It all adds up, and you have to keep on top of all of it to be successful.
It can be difficult to keep your concentration when all hell is breaking loose, and I found myself pausing the game a fair bit just to get some bearing on what in the name of zombie jeebus was going on. But once the smoke, literally, clears and you come out the other side victorious, there's little more satisfying.
Just so long as you've remembered to cut off the German's escape route beforehand.
The Verdict
Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
It's 10/$15 too expensive, but Ardennes Assault is still a fine addition to any RTS fan's library.
We recommend By Zergnet
IGN Pro League "technology and assets" purchased by Blizzard
IPL, IGN's in-house eSports league, has been in limbo since restructuring earlier this year, when IGN expressed that it would no longer be operating the organization .
. Rumors of potential buyers abounded, but today, Blizzard Entertainment announced that it has locked in a deal for "technology and assets" from IPL to support "online content initiatives." A number of former IPL employees will be joining Blizzard's eSports team, while some others will be forming a new team "creating high-quality web and mobile content in support of Blizzard games."
This may seem to run counter to assertions last month that Blizzard was not interested in IPL, but the word at the time was that they had "no plans to take over operation of the IPL business or operate third-party eSports leagues." It seems likely that the new recruits may be helping out with Blizzard's first-party StarCraft II World Championship Series, which has recently been restructuredto act as a more unified framework for all StarCraft competitive play.
We're reaching out to Blizzard for comment on what specifically was acquired and how it will be used, and we'll update you here when we know more.
...
Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Mastering the delicate art of gravity control The feature-film-caliber visuals and score Saving the day as a plucky heroine Cons Unplayable if you get motion sickness Missing a challenges gold medal by 10 points Playing any open-world game afterward that doesnt let you control gravity Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Our brains seem obsessed with the laws of