Maxis seeking director for "online simulation"

This is from a job description on EA's job listing site: "Maxis is seeking an experienced Development Director to lead the development of an unannounced next-generation Online simulation game." Ladies and gentlemen, either EA have gone insane and they're doing The Sims Online again, or they're doing a browser based Sims thing that may or may not end up on Facebook.

This is from a job description on EA's job listing site: "Maxis is seeking an experienced Development Director to lead the development of an unannounced next-generation Online simulation game." Ladies and gentlemen, either EA have gone insane and they're doing The Sims Online again, or they're doing a browser based Sims thing that may or may not end up on Facebook. EA have already had some success with Lord of Ultimain the free-to-play browser game area, certainly. The job listing is here.

[ Superannuationvia Evil Avatar]

Kung Fu Panda, Guitar Hero Drive Record Activision Quarter

Dungeon of the Endless explains its genre mashup in new trailer

As a roguelike, Dungeon of the Endless gives players more than one way to die.

to die. But it's also a mix of squad-based exploration, tower defense, and RPG-style upgrades, so there's also more than one way to stay alive, too. The game's newest trailer shows how these different genres work together to make the game cohesive.

As we saw in a first-lookback in October, Amplitude Studios DotE has players dealing with the aftermath of a spaceship crashing into the remnants of an ancient civilization. How they deal with this event—and the random way it may play out—is up to them.

If you're interested in buying into the ongoing alpha early access, it's worth taking note of the current game state, according to Amplitude's Steam description: "In this Alpha version, many features are not available yet: the complete list of levels (you only get the first 3 levels out of 12) and their different environments including the final ending sequence, the complete list of monsters, the complete list of heroes including their abilities and objectives, Endless ruins and technologies and the use of science, a potential multiplayer co-op mode, online persistency and unlockables, as well as the final balancing of the game."

What that in mind, the Endless Spacedeveloper also has a handy and informative road map devoted to the game's progress here.

Dragon Age: The Last Court is now available to play

Remember Dragon Age: The Last Court , the free browser-based adventure/RPG thingy from the wonderful Failbetter Games?

, the free browser-based adventure/RPG thingy from the wonderful Failbetter Games? Your memory is terrible—I mean, I only wrote about it last week. Past Me said that it was going to be added to (exhaustive choice questionnaire tool) Dragon Age Keep in "just over a week", and here were are, just over a week later, and it has. It's lovely when things go to plan like that. The game isn't telegraphed especially well inside BioWare's browser app, but if you login to The Keepand click on the little menu icon in the top left, one of the options is to play The Last Court. With Inquisition not out until the 18th, it might be a good way to get your Dragon Age on while you wait.

Former Walking Dead, Mark of the Ninja designers form new indie studio

Campo Santo is a new indie development studio formed by former developers from games like The Walking Dead and Mark of the Ninja .

. The San Francisco-based studio will work on a as-yet untitled project for PC, Mac, and Linux, according to its official blog.

Sean Vanaman, who along with fellow Campo Santo team member Jake Rodkin helped write and design The Walking Dead, reports in the new developer's inaugural update that founding a game studio is "like a mix of buying a winning lottery ticket and taking a brash detour that results in a near miss with a pedestrian."

"As we talk to our friends and industry colleagues about 'doing something indie' with us, there's a shared pragmatism informed by years in the industry that melds with the lingering youthful enthusiasm that got us into games to begin with," Vanaman writes. "Some of us want to tell stories, some of us want to build systems, and some of us want to create beautiful looking worlds, but we all want to make something. The stultifying difficulty of making a good game is instantly tempered and then squashed."

Rounding out the team are Nels Anderson, who was the lead designer on Mark of the Ninja, and Olly Moss, an artist who has worked previously with Lucasfilm and Sony, according to the Campo Santo website. The developers will be partnering with Panic, Inc. to make and distribute their first project.

The enthusiasm in Vanaman's Campo Santo origin story is palpable. Details are scarce at the moment, but since one of the best calling cards in game design is your previous work, it's safe to say we'll be keeping an eye on what the team at Campo Santo will come up with, as more information surfaces.

Dungeon of the Endless explains its genre mashup in new trailer

As a roguelike, Dungeon of the Endless gives players more than one way to die.

to die. But it's also a mix of squad-based exploration, tower defense, and RPG-style upgrades, so there's also more than one way to stay alive, too. The game's newest trailer shows how these different genres work together to make the game cohesive.

As we saw in a first-lookback in October, Amplitude Studios DotE has players dealing with the aftermath of a spaceship crashing into the remnants of an ancient civilization. How they deal with this event—and the random way it may play out—is up to them.

If you're interested in buying into the ongoing alpha early access, it's worth taking note of the current game state, according to Amplitude's Steam description: "In this Alpha version, many features are not available yet: the complete list of levels (you only get the first 3 levels out of 12) and their different environments including the final ending sequence, the complete list of monsters, the complete list of heroes including their abilities and objectives, Endless ruins and technologies and the use of science, a potential multiplayer co-op mode, online persistency and unlockables, as well as the final balancing of the game."

What that in mind, the Endless Spacedeveloper also has a handy and informative road map devoted to the game's progress here.

Dragon Age: The Last Court is a free browser game from the Fallen London devs

So now we know why Dragon Age Keep is currently only in beta : the questionnaire/choice import app is set to expand in just over a week with a new tie-in browser game.

: the questionnaire/choice import app is set to expand in just over a week with a new tie-in browser game. There's reason to be very excited about this, as The Last Court has been made by none other than Fallen London/Sunless Sea developers Failbetter Games, who have proven themselves to be well goodat the old writing thing over the last few years.

The Last Court bridges the gap between Dragon Age 2 and DA: Inquisition, telling a new story in an unseen region of Orlais, although we can expect to see a few familiar faces along the way. Failbetter are obviously very excited about this long-teased collaboration, and I think they're the perfect team to be making this sort of universe-expanding stuff. Here's Failbetter explaining what The Last Courtis all about:

"In Dragon Age: The Last Court, you are the ruler of Serault: an eccentric fiefdom at the farthest ends of Orlais. As the Huntress or the Scholar you’ll guide your realm through the most crucial period in its history. Will its ancient Shame be forgiven? Or will Serault fall into obscurity?

"This is a game of lordship. You’ll manage the affairs of your court. You’ll choose a counsellor, a bodyguard, an accomplice and a lover. You’ll balance the concerns of your subjects. Will Serault be renowned for its dignity or its freedom? What is the greatest threat: outlaws, revolutionaries, or the the nameless ancient things that slither in its deep woods? There are stories to explore and secrets to unravel. What lies in the Sealed Chantry? Who is the Horned Knight? Who is behind Serault’s recent troubles? You’ll meet a host of new characters, like the Purveyor of Teas and the Acerbic Dowager. And maybe you’ll run into a few familiar faces from other Dragon Age titles…"

The Last Court will be added to Dragon Age Keep in just over a week, and a few videos have been released to show the sort of thing that we're in for.

Massive Chalice lead Brad Muir is moving over to Valve

That cheerful looking fellow pictured above is Brad Muir, former Double Fine project lead on Massive Chalice and Iron Brigade.

That cheerful looking fellow pictured above is Brad Muir, former Double Fine project lead on Massive Chalice and Iron Brigade. Though the photo was taken years ago Muir's smile could easily apply today, as he's just announced he'll be joining Valve later this year – though in what capacity, no one knows.

According to our interview with Muir, he's been with the company for over ten years. In addition to the titles listed above he's also worked on Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. That interview also mentions Muir's affection for Dota 2, so he's gone to the right place.

Inevitable question: will he be working on Half-Life 3? I don't know! Valve only appears willing to say what HL3 will not beat the moment.

Dungeon of the Endless first look: fight your way out of the dark, or die forever

I can only stare blankly when game director Max von Knorring tells me his title is “a mix of roguelike and tower defence, with a little pinch of Dungeon Keeper.” My brain attempts to mesh the exploration, progression and permadeath of a roguelike with the static resource management of tower defence and immediately short-circuits.

I can only stare blankly when game director Max von Knorring tells me his title is “a mix of roguelike and tower defence, with a little pinch of Dungeon Keeper.” My brain attempts to mesh the exploration, progression and permadeath of a roguelike with the static resource management of tower defence and immediately short-circuits. Knorring turns around his laptop to show me his work, and suddenly I understand.

A spaceship has crash-landed deep into the abandoned halls of an advanced but extinct civilisation on planet Auriga, which is also the setting for Amplitude's new 4X strategy game Endless Legend (more of that on the site shortly). You and up to three friends take command of the survivors, and must fight your way to the surface level by level, using your ship's ebbing power supply to power up rooms while repelling waves of subterranean creeps.

Opening a door is the riskiest thing you can do. In lit rooms you can plug defensive towers you've researched into floor sockets, upgrade your weapons and level up your characters. Straying away from your warm, welldefended safe zones will trigger random events. Monsters could spawn from the dark and rush your defences, you might trigger a trap, or discover a sentient being in need of help. Until you power up a room, there's a chance that monsters could spawn there whenever you open any new door, so opening, say, five doors in a row would be an extremely silly thing to do.

Knorring does just that. Spidery aliens scamper out of every door. Some mob his heroes, who defend themselves with laser pistols and electrified blades. Others rush for the ship's power supply and are chewed up by automated towers. The monster breeds you face will gradually change as you progress. The closer you get to the top of the dungeon, the more they'll resemble the fantasy creatures that dwell on the surface of Auriga.

If your characters die they're gone for that game, which makes the moment you climb from one level to the next extremely risky. Once you've discovered the exit, you have to detach the power source from your ship, powering down all of your rooms and turrets, and then make a dash for the stairway as waiting monsters pour into the dark. If you make it, you can plug the power supply into the room you come up in on the next level and keep pushing on. There will be many room-types, like alien barracks and strange prisons, and Knorring also suggests you'll be able to choose the ship you crash land in. Different vessels will give you different starting modules that can affect your team's competencies. Dungeon of the Endless is designed to be played... well, near endlessly.

If you're especially lucky, you might pick up a new party member or two on your travels. Your crashed ship is one of numerous escape vessels jettisoned from an exploding prison craft, and some of its prisoners have become lost in the labyrinth with you. There are 30 distinct survivors, each with their own unique histories and skill trees. Some are helpful falsely accused innocents, others are unrepentant crooks that might well stab you in the back before pinching your items. Given the horrors lurking within this sprawling maze, that might be a relatively kind fate.

Dragon Age Keep now in open beta, new trailer explains what it's all about

Dragon Age Keep—that's the web app that will allow you to recreate your past choices from previous Dragon Ages, and then import that world state into Inquisition—is now in open beta.

Dragon Age Keep—that's the web app that will allow you to recreate your past choices from previous Dragon Ages, and then import that world state into Inquisition—is now in open beta. You can sign in herewith your Origin account (presuming you have an Origin account), and then use the resulting data in Inquisition when it arrives next month. The Keep itself takes the form of a sort of interactive tapestry, and can be toyed around with on anything with an HTML5-capable browser.

You're probably still wondering how it all works. Essentially it's a flashy questionnaire, with illustrated recap bits voiced by Dragon Age 2's Varric, that allow you to leap in at key decision points to divert the story in a direction of your choosing. You can't import save data directly, but if you've linked a BioWare account to your Origin one, the app will be able to read a certain amount of your past deeds automatically—though you can tinker about with the history afterwards as you see fit.

BioWare have provided their own explanation with the following trailer. Inquisition, meanwhile, is out November 21st.

Massive Chalice interview: "You have to have thick skin"

Tactical strategy game Massive Chalice is Double Fine's second Kickstarted project, and one of many that fans have been able to watch very closely during development.

is Double Fine's second Kickstarted project, and one of many that fans have been able to watch very closely during development. Between Amnesia Fortnightprojects such as Spacebase DF-9and other Early Access games such as Hack 'n' Slash, Double Fine has invited fans to watch them pitch concepts, create art, and balance character stats in spreadsheets via developer diaries and Twitch streams.

It's all super interesting stuff if you want to see how games are made, but there have been problems. Recently, there was some controversyaround Spacebase's unexpected transition from Early Access to v1.0, and planned features lost in the process. When I sat down with Massive Chalice Project Lead Brad Muir, I asked him if this caused Double Fine to reconsider its approach.

PC Gamer: Did you discuss how to better manage expectations when developing a game in full view after the reaction to Spacebase's release?

Brad Muir: We talked about it a little bit but I think our communication has been good, really transparent...Massive Chalice is really mechanical and procedural, so we're content complete at this point. There are small features, enemy behavior, some abilities we want to tweak. Lots of number tweaks. Overall balance to the game is going to change dramatically, especially the second half of it. That's one thing about any sort of long term, strategic game: the further you deviate from the beginning, the less testing you're going to get on it. I'm excited to have all these people helping test the game.

What's it been like developing Massive Chalice with constant feedback from backers?

One of our tenants as a Kickstarter project is that we didn't have the whole thing designed, and we had a lot of people come to us with ideas that were better than ours. One of our classes is an alchemist that throws exploding flasks. This guy on the forums, zdesert, did this quick talent tree in MS Paint and drew all these icons that the alchemist character would have. Some of them were fine, some of them were bad, but one of them, it was a jar of bees. I wanted some kind of area denial ability, like poison gas, but this kid...I actually don't even know if he's a kid, maybe he's like 45, I have no idea, but he made this thing that's even more interesting because it can move around the map, it can create this hazard that can break up and shift for a few turns before it dissipates, and that's a lot more interesting than a cloud of poison gas.

Does he know it's in the game?

Absolutely he knows. He's so stoked. He will forever be able to say that he had an idea that went right into this game.

The origin of 'bees in a bottle.'

Creatively, what's the downside of working this way? If I had to write something on a Twitch stream I'd be too self-conscious.

It's impossible to know what this game would look like if we just closed the doors and developed it internally. For sure, you have to have thick skin because people are going to talk shit about it, and say some inflammatory, angry things, and you just have to do your best to ignore it I guess. Just the other day, there was a guy who came into our forums, TrashMan, and he was like, "What the fuck, these classes are stupid."

We have three core classes in the game and we tried to make something that's not just magic and wizards and fireballs flying around. That stuff is cool, but there are so many games that exhibit that kind of orcs and elves, Tolkien-esque high fantasy stuff.

When someone like the TrashMan appears—I love that he's called that, it's so perfect—there are other backers saying "check out Teamstreamnumber 3, where they went through all this stuff." It's been nice, but there's an ugly side to it—the internet gives everyone a voice. And the other thing is, I don't know anything about these people, that's one part I find very strange about this. I would like to know more about zdesert. He might be a girl, I don't know. It's weird. And this TrashMan guy, I'd like to think that he's just an angry kid, but he might be 40 and through two divorces.

Are you scared that this is taking some of the magic away, showing how the sausage is made?

I think one of the cool things about Kickstarter is you're choosing to be more involved, you're choosing to make this thing happen, though you don't have too. You don't have to gaze upon the making of the sausage.

I don't think that it will ruin it for people. I hope there are more people like zdesert that are just that much more invested because of it, because they saw it grow from nothing. We made Massive Chalice with their help. That's really cool.

Endless Legend and Dungeon of the Endless updates incoming

A few months ago Amplitude announced Endless Space 2 , but that doesn't mean the developers there (the "Amplidudes and Amplidudettes") aren't working on anything else.

, but that doesn't mean the developers there (the "Amplidudes and Amplidudettes") aren't working on anything else. In fact, both Endless Legendand Dungeon of the Endlessare due to receivelater this month.

First, on November 19 (this Thursday), Endless Legend will get a free update the team is calling "Forges of Creation", which—as the name suggests—is related to modding. While modding is already available, this update connects it to the Steam Workshop and makes further improvements: "for example by adding compatibility to a popular Map Editor (bring forth your favorite fantasy worlds to Endless Legend!) or the ability to reskin 3D units". The update also makes improvements to the AI, which will carry forward to Amplitude's other games in future.

That's all free, but they'll also release a paid-for content pack called The Lost Tales that includes 20 quests related to Minor Factions. There's also Echoes of Auriga, a pack of seven musical tracks composed by FlyByNo, along with some related items such as the "Harp of Noby Fly".

On November 24, Dungeon of the Endless will also get a free update called "Organic Matters", which contains content that was conceptualised by players in competitions. It includes the Organic Spaceship, three new monsters, a new Rosetta hero, new minor modules, a new ending sequence, and a gamepad interface.

Dungeon of the Endless will also get a mini content pack called The Rescue Team that adds three Rescue Team heroes with "very unique skills", two new monsters, and a new major module. If you want to find out more, Amplitude will talk about the updates on Twitchon this Thursday November 19.

Dragon Age Keep delayed as well, closed beta extended as a result

If you'd missed the news that BioWare had delayed Dragon Age: Inquisition—like I had, frownyface—you may be disappointed by the middle of this sentence.

Dragon Age: Inquisition—like I had, frownyface—you may be disappointed by the middle of this sentence. Further disappointment lies in the newsthat Dragon Age Keep—that's the "companion web experience" that will allow you to feed in your choices from the previous games—has been delayed as well. There's no specific new release date given, but in the FAQBioWare state that "The Keep will be live and open to everyone about a month before the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition. So likely some time in October".

The Keep will be a useful tool for a number of reasons. You may be playing Inquisition on a different system to the one you played the other two parts on; you may have lost your saved games; you may sneakily want to alter some of your decisions. It's unclear exactly how the Keep will work, but essentially it will let you input the details of your previous adventures, and it won't take the form of a big checklist, according to the FAQ. Interestingly, you'll be able to save up to five "world states", giving you the choice to begin Inquisition from a number of different starting points.

If you can't wait until October and you want to see what the Keep entails now, you can apply for the closed beta here, which is being extended to compensate for the launch delay.

The following video explains the Keep in more detail:

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Double Fine's second Kickstarter, Massive Chalice, weds XCOM with medieval bloodlines

Double Fine, the company that kickstarted Kickstarter games with last year's Broken Age , has returned to the fields of crowdfunding flying the banner of Massive Chalice .

. Helmed by Iron Brigade creator Brad Muir, this new offering is a tactical, turn-based strategy game with a kingdom management layer that tasks you with fostering heroic bloodlines over multiple generations.

Players will take on the role of an immortal monarch charged with protecting their realm from demonic invasion for hundreds of years. Heroes in your employ who don't die on the battlefield will eventually succumb to old age, leaving behind relics that can be used by their descendants. Part of the game will be knowing when to retire a hero, allowing them to start a family and breed the next generation of warriors. Death is permanent, like in XCOM, but the legacy of a truly great hero can be passed down and stay with you throughout a campaign.

You only need to pledge $20 for a copy of the game, which currently has an estimated release of September 2014. For $100, you can have your name and a custom sigil, motto, and castle name included as one of the heroic bloodlines in the game. Double Fine is asking for $750,000, and has raised about $50,000 of that in a half hour as of the writing of this article. You can read more on the Kickstarter page, and check out the pitch video above.

Endless Legend: Shadows expansion announced

Amplitude has announced Endless Legend's second DLC pack, called Shadows.

Amplitude has announced Endless Legend's second DLC pack, called Shadows. It adds a new faction—The Forgotten—who are billed as masters of espionage. As such, the expansion will let you steal, capture, sabotage, assassinate, and just generally be a right bastard to rival empires.

Here's a brief trailer introducing Shadow's faction:

Play the brand new faction, the Forgotten, experts in the new espionage skills. Play with invisible units using the new “Camouflage” and “Stealth” capacities. Infiltrate an empire to steal, capture, sabotage and assassinate! Pillage villages, extractors and watchtowers to slow your enemy’s progression. Equip your heroes with “Insignia” accessories to give them special espionage abilities. Defend yourself by using counterespionage skills and the new “Detection” capacity.

Endless Legend: Shadows is due out this Summer.

The Sims 4 Get Together delayed until December

Get Together, the second proper expansion for The Sims 4 after Get to Work , was announced back in August .

. Its main feature is the introduction of Clubsthat your Sims can join based on their interests and personalities, but it looks like now Get to Work is joining its own club: the rapidly growing club of delayed games.

The original release was supposed to come in November, but the latest newsfrom EA pushes that back to December 8 (in North America anyway; the rest of us will get it some time later that same week). I guess at least that makes it a better fit for your Christmas list, which is definitely a better way of getting these expensive expansions than paying for them yourself.

The update explains the delay in the same way these things are normally explained: they needed more time to "add more polish and depth". They also say they're adding some new features, and since they haven't mentioned them before that might even be true. One is a board game called Don't Wake the Llama that made me think of that Don't Wake Dadgame I used to see advertised on television every Christmas but looks from the screenshot to be a Jenga clone.

Not sure Llama-themed Jenga is worth a purchase? We'll get to find out more about the expansion at the beginning of next month.

Massive — Pokémon Go: An Experience In Need Of Evolution

Massively multiplayer online games are sprawling beasts that grow, improve, and change direction over time.

Massively multiplayer online games are sprawling beasts that grow, improve, and change direction over time. Because of their scope and longevity, approaching them from a traditional review standpoint isn’t often the best fit. Enter Massive, our approach to analyzing and evaluating massively multiplayer online games.

Pokémon Go is everywhere. From giant park gatherings to businesses springing for Pokémon-attracting lures to boost business, everyone from curious kids to white-collar lawyers taking lunch breaks are whipping out their phones for a chance to catch one. Building on the framework of its previous augmented-reality game Ingress, Niantic has created a genuine global phenomenon fueled by the beloved IP that has been around for ages.

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play exploration title for smartphones that syncs up and integrates into players’ real lives, motivating them to seek out landmarks, points of interest, and other neat spots in cities that may be off the beaten path, with the goal of catching the classic creatures that have made Pokémon a hit brand for more than two decades.

Playing the game is easy. Simply download the game on your phone, and you’re ready to start finding creatures in the real world. Your phone buzzes when a Pokémon is nearby, and then with a quick touch you lob Pokéballs at the creature until you capture it or it escapes. Players have the option to do these catches in augmented reality, i.e. the little creature will show up on your phone screen in the real world, either on your friend’s shoulder or maybe hanging out in a tree. Finding Pokémon in places both common and unusual makes for great social media fare, as nothing is quite as humorous as finding a Dratini in the bathtub or a Grimer in your toilet.

Players get a good overview of the area you’re in on the map on their phone to find points of interest, either Pokéstops to replenish your supplies or gyms to battle with your Pokémon roster. The area continually updates and changes as you move in various directions. Walking is critical to hatching Pokémon eggs that you find at Pokéstops, so even if you try to game the system by driving around town (DO NOT drive and play this game, it’s very dangerous!) there’s motivation to actually get out, walk, and interact with other players and places.

Other people are essential to the Pokémon Go experience. Whether you’re simply meeting another player during an epic catch, hanging out in a crowd during a lure party, or forging a friendly rivalry with several opposing teams outside of a local gym, interaction with the community is a driving force behind the shared experience. The sheer diversity in crowds is a testimony to the game’s accessibility, and is a major boon. Not everyone wants to engage with gym battles, but running around town or the local mall to find rare Pokémon touches some primal nerve, which is fun for everyone while scratching that collector/completionist itch. I’ve seen everything from families and children to actual gangs of teens on bikes and random 20- and 40-year-olds camping at the same lured location.

Pokémon Go is a massive hit for those looking for a social MMO experience that bleeds into reality. While players can skip the social aspects of the game (I’ve seen plenty of folks that just want to play their own game privately out on the sidewalk), it adds a neat element to the experience that you can’t find in your living room. Meeting and interacting with real people is essentially a game mechanic. Rivalries that form over local gyms can lead to interesting banter and friendly conflicts that last weeks. Alternatively, just using it as a gamification gimmick to go outside and move around to play games is an effective and fun way to incorporate physical activity into a day.

Power lies in the simplicity of the game. Right now, the focus is on finding Pokémon, throwing balls at them until you catch them, and maybe laying siege to a few gyms. This allows anyone, even people aren’t intimately familiar with Pokémon, to dive into the game immediately and begin catching them and interacting with others doing the same.

The combat system is barebones and uninteresting. Lackluster tap mechanics streamline combat to the point that some sort of autobattle system would be preferable, as there is no depth to it. That’s not an utter condemnation of the game, however, as the real fun is tied to the social component of bringing teams together to capture gyms or develop a rivalry with another team. Pokémon Go is, in some ways, what you make of it. However, factors like where you live and how social you want to be with other players contribute to the experience.

While a wonderfully immersive experience for players in metropolis, it’s also a massive miss for players stuck out in the country where there’s no Pokémon to find or Pokéstops to visit, or those lacking a data plan on their phones (you require an internet connection to play), but the overall choice to stick Pokémon on mobile-GPS ready cell phones is a big hit. While it will drain your battery down to nothing in just a few hours, it’s surprisingly light on data usage, so you should be able to incorporate gameplay into your life without incurring extra fees.

Server stability can often be an issue for big MMOs and Pokémon Go is no exception. Server issues have been a continual, serious problem. While it’s easy to attribute these problems to the overwhelming popularity and success of the game out the gates, it’s still disappointing — especially when you plan a day trip to meet with hundreds or thousands of players and then the servers stop working.

Irritating bugs also continue to plague Pokémon Go. Due to freezes and other bizarre quirks that require hard resets, I’ve had to force close the app more than any other game and software I’ve ever used. Being unable to group transfer Pokémon leads to marathon sessions of annoyance where each garbage Pidgey needs to be broken down individually, which could have been fixed easily with a group selector. However, it’s an incredible testimony to the pervasiveness of Pokémon Go that people are willing to put up with issues that would bury other games in a heartbeat.

Some of the issues are exacerbated by the paid item shop, which is optional. Many items available for purchase provide boons like lures to attract Pokémon for everyone outside of a Pokéstop, personal use incense that bring more Pokémon right to you, or experience-boosting eggs. Purchasing and using these at an unfortunate time can lead to horrible instances where time-based items are essentially wasted when the servers go down, or the game freezes up. You’re out of luck and out of your investment.

A few weeks after launch, Pokémon Go is like a Magikarp. It’s floundering around and making a splash, but has the potential to evolve into something epic (like a Gyarados, for the initiated). Niantic has a roadmap for continued support, with trading, battles, raids, new Pokémon, and more on the horizon.

Pokémon Go has the potential to redefine the concept of the modern MMORPG and has the opportunity to take us to amazing new places, but whether we go there or not will depend on Niantic’s post-launch support and major updates.

Endless Legends Guardians expansion arrives today

The expansion adds legendary deeds - objectives where the first person to reach them unlocks rewards - legendary buildings, unlocked when an empire reaches one of five eras, unique buildings, co-operative quests, a few other things and - of course - guardians.

Amplitude Studios has shown off a few of the new additions coming with Endless Legend's Guardians expansion, which will be available at some point today.

Guardians are super-units, unlockable from the third to fifth eras and with a variety of different powers based on the elements. They're gigantic and slow, unable to join armies or garrisons, but the kind of unit you spend all of your resources on creating because they can take out an entire enemy army on their own. If it's anything like Supreme Commander in that respect, I'm happy.

Amplitude streamed a demo of the expansion in which they answered a few questions about it - you can see it... well, here:

There's no word on price at the time of writing, but Endless Legend is great, so you should probably keep an eye on this one anyway.

Sims 4 year one: lots of sex, not much death

The Sims 4 came out a year ago (well, September 2 in the US, September 4 in the UK), and to celebrate EA has produced one of those infographics that are so popular these days.

that are so popular these days. It's got the figures you'd expect—number of Sims created (93 million), time spent in game (27,900 years)—but also, because this is The Sims, some that are a little more interesting.

For instance, of the 27.5 million Sim marriages this year, only 1.7 million have ended in divorce, i.e. 6%, a very low divorce rate compared to what those of us in the UK and US are used to. There's naturally been a lot of sex—Sims have WooHooed 235 million times—but relatively little death: only 5% (5 million) of those Sims created have died.

I also think it's interesting what traits players were most likely to pick for their Sims: romantic, cheerful, and active respectively. What does that say about the players?

What I'd be really interested to see, however, is how these stats measure up to the previous Sims games. After all, every time I write about The Sims 4 somebody comes along to tell me it's rubbish compared to its predecessors. Were the numbers much bigger for The Sims 3 and The Sims 2?

Then again, Chris did give The Sims 4 a 79 in his review, which is not a bad score. And 27,900 years' worth of time spent in one game in one year is nothing to sneer at.

The Virtues Of Going Into A Game Blind

Gone Home is a fascinating game, but I don’t want to tell you anything about it.

Gone Home is a fascinating game, but I don’t want to tell you anything about it. I just want you to play it, experience it, and discover what it is on your own.

This is the advice I was given from my coworkers I asked if Gone Home was worth my time. The game seemingly came out of nowhere, and before I knew it, everyone was gushing about it. The praise was ambiguous though, and any probing I did into their admiration of the tile was met with silence and smiles. I was told to stop asking questions for fear of having the entire game ruined for me. I was dumbfounded by this response.

Common sense dictates that we learn as much as we can about a game, movie, or book before committing time to it. I want to know what I’m getting into, but more and more I’m being told that part of what makes an experience fun is not knowing next to nothing about it.

For Gone Home specifically, this level of secrecy extended to a coworker saying they wouldn’t tell me what genre it fell into. That obviously piqued my interest. My mind was swimming with ideas of what it could be. I convinced myself it would be similar to BioShock in some capacity, given the talent behind it. Mock me if you will, but I thought Gone Home would deliver combat and a crazy narrative twist along the way. That’s how little I knew about it.

I booted Gone Home up that night, knowing only that it was a first-person experience that begins in a house. The game’s opening moments hinted at horror, and I bought into it hook, line, and sinker. I was certain the journey ahead would be unnerving and suspenseful. I played the entire game on the edge of my seat, waiting for jump scares, or some ghostly being to complicate my search for answers. The storm, pentagram, and the dread of having to go into the attic convinced me something horrible would happen. Nothing did. I loved every second of it.

A day later, I found myself questioning why I enjoyed it so much, and realized most of the fun was tied to the discovery aspect of not knowing what I was getting into. That’s not to discredit Fullbright’s excellently penned script in any way, but the biggest hook for me was the unknown quantity of the journey.

I immediately wanted another game like it, and the industry didn’t disappoint in delivering more experiences with similar hooks. If you love these types of games, there’s a deluge of them on the
market. Soma, Her Story, The Stanley Parable, Everybody’s Gone to the
Rapture, Undertale, and Life is Strange all fit the billing. Two of the most interesting games of the year so far, Firewatch and Oxenfree, were recommended to me with the caveat of going into them as blindly as possible.

For a game like Firewatch, which carries the dreadfully boring billing of a “mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness,” I’ve had to hold back from diving into forums to figure out what its big hook is. Given the setting, I want the twist to be supernatural or alien – it screams of something I would see on The X-Files . I know I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment, but that’s part of what makes games of this variety interesting.

In fact, when you distill them to their most basic parts, there isn’t much to them outside of the mystery itself. In Gone Home you walk around a house and look at stuff. Oxenfree is mostly about teenagers walking around, talking to each other. Firewatch is a man walking through the woods discussing life with a person on a handheld radio. These games are jokingly called “walking simulators,” but that's a pretty accurate descriptor. When I recommend them to friends, I simply call them mysteries.

The gameplay almost always takes a backseat to the narrative. The element of discovery is the driving force. Once that magic is gone, there often isn’t a pull to go back to them. I doubt I’ll venture into most of these worlds again. Gone Home was one of my favorite games of 2013, but I have no desire to play it again. If Firewatch’s big revelation was spoiled for me, I doubt I would continue playing it.

I recently voiced frustration in season passes not delivering enough information prior to purchase, and oddly find myself blindly throwing money at these types of games. Am I being hypocritical? A little, I suppose, but these games all come as recommendations from critics or friends. The guidance I am getting is under the merit that they think the game of note is good and worth my time. I know that much going in. It isn’t so much a blind box purchase.

Whether I enjoy the game or find it fascinating, well, that’s a different story altogether. My interests don’t always align with my friends', and I may find a twist they genuinely love to be completely idiotic. It's a time-consuming risk to dive into these games. So far, the trusted voices I rely on haven’t steered me wrong. Gone Home, Soma, Her Story, and Life is Strange were all amazing adventures, and thankfully I went into them with just a general idea of what they might offer.

My latest leap of faith is into Firewatch. Right now, with roughly half of the game complete, I’m nervous about where it’s going. I don’t like my character, the walking and talking isn't that interesting, and I’m mostly continuing on to see if something shocking happens.

I’m entertaining these types of games more than I thought I would. I love seeing developers find new ways to innovate and entertain with storytelling. Not every game needs strong gameplay hooks. I like that we can just walk away from a game saying “that was a great story.”

If you enjoy these types of games, do your friends a favor and recommend them with as little information as possible. Sure, they may hate it if they don’t like the subject matter you lauded, but it’s worth the risk. Some surprises are best left undiscovered, even if it means that surprise is an entire game.

Play Endless Legend for free this weekend

Cities: Skylines, Pillars of Etenity, GTA 5—all potential candidates for whiling away this weekend.

Cities: Skylines, Pillars of Etenity, GTA 5—all potential candidates for whiling away this weekend. There is another option: spend some time with one of 2014's best games. Amplitude Studios is the subject of the Steam's latest Free Weekend. That means you can trial the excellent strategy game Endless Legend.

The fantasy 4X is free to tryuntil this Sunday, as is the semi-related roguelike Dungeon of the Endless. In addition, Amplitude's back catalogue is all on sale until April 20—with the full bundleavailable at a 50% discount.

Endless Legend is a smart and inventive strategy, and a breath of fresh air in comparison to last year's disappointingly stale Civ: Beyond Earth. As part of our 2014 awards we honoured it with a Commendation for Design.

As for Dungeon of the Endless, it's a brutally tough tower-defence roguelike with a lot of interesting ideas. You can read our reviewfor more details.

The Sims boss Lucy Bradshaw leaves EA

Maxis boss Lucy Bradshaw is leaving the company, EA has announced.

Maxis boss Lucy Bradshaw is leaving the company, EA has announced. In recent years, Bradshaw has been the public face of The Sims and SimCity, and although Maxis will continue to work on The Sims 4 and "some other projects" without her, it will now be operating under the EA Mobile label. Sims 4 executive producer Rachel Franklin is taking Bradshaw's place at Maxis.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson had this to say (thanks, GI.biz):

"Through 23 years with our company, Lucy has brought an incredible passion for games and our player community. I want to thank Lucy for her dedication to EA, her contributions to Maxis, and the creative spirit she infused in every one of her teams and projects. We wish her the best as she takes on her next adventure."

"As we look to the future, we want to expand the scope of opportunity for Maxis to reach more players on PC and mobile, as well as explore cross-platform play. To enable this, we are bringing Maxis together with our mobile teams under [EA Mobile senior vice president] Samantha Ryan's leadership, aligning our strong PC foundation with our mobile expertise. The collaboration between these teams will help us unlock new ways for Maxis IP to connect with players wherever they want to play."

Polygonreceived this statement from Bradshaw, from an EA representative:

"I've had a wonderful journey at EA and Maxis, filled with amazingly creative people, unforgettable experiences and an inspiring community of players and creators. I have the highest regard for EA's leadership today, their vision and their focus on putting players first. I leave knowing that Maxis is in great hands with a leader and teams who are full of respect for our players, passion for our games, and new ideas to bring to the world of Maxis gamers. I look forward to seeing what's next from these incredible teams, I'll certainly be playing."

EA closed SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville back in March.

Upcoming Sly Cooper will feature PS3, Vita cross-platform saving

The week's highs and lows in PC gaming

THE HIGHS
Tom Marks: Grand Theft Auto V’s PC port won’t be a smash and grab
What Rockstar is doing with the PC and “next-gen” versions of Grand Theft Auto V is downright admirable.

What Rockstar is doing with the PC and “next-gen” versions of Grand Theft Auto V is downright admirable. Sure they are taking their sweet time doing it, but I much prefer a long wait to a slap-dash, press escape to instantly quit, port with more problems than new features. First they told us they are giving previous players a reason to come back, and now they confirm a first person mode and 4k resolution support. First person has been a rumored feature for a while, but the modeled vehicle interiors and suite of new animations are icing on the cake I wasn’t expecting. A year after its initial release, Rockstar is still working hard to keep the latest version of GTA V feeling cutting edge, and at this rate the PC will be home to the definitive version.

Samuel Roberts: When systems come together
I’m late as hell to the Alien: Isolation party, but this week I’ve been muddling through the game’s colossal 20+ hour storyline in little chunks. I haven’t found it especially scary, to be honest—tense, but not scary. In well-lit environments, I have adjusted to the sight and animation of the alien and no longer consider it an unseen threat. Last night, though, the systems of the game came together in a way that I found genuinely unsettling, as I manoeuvred through a strobe-lit environment and saw the alien drop out of nowhere, behind some fellow human survivors. I went straight for a locker and hid, hearing screams as the alien devoured them and then, a silence, until the locker tore open and the alien killed me, too. By itself, the alien’s aura becomes undone the more you play, but the systems are smart enough to keep finding ways to make that creature scary. Brilliant game.

Chris Thursten: Endless Legend (and other space wizards)
I liked the look of Endless Space more than I really found time to play it, but this week I decided to take a stab at Amplitude’s fantasy follow-up: Endless Legend. Having been rather disappointed by Civilization: Beyond Earth, I’m taken by just how many things Legend gets right. The combat system is an elegant improvement on Civ; empire development is involved and interesting; the UI is crisp and pleasant to use. The factions are varied, play very differently, and are beautifully presented.

It’s the art and music that have really sold the game to me, though. Endless Legend’s take on fantasy has a light sci-fi touch and the gentle pastel art reminds me of a Gene Wolfe book cover. This has been something of a trend recently—Destiny shows off many of the same influences. I’ve been running a pen and paper campaign in Monte Cook’s Numenera, lately, so there really couldn’t be a better time to be surrounded by lovely hand-painted space wizards.

Andy Chalk: EFF seeks to legalize online DRM circumvention in abandoned games
The EFF recently petitioned to legalize DRM circumvention in "abandoned" games, a move that, if successful, will make life a whole lot easier for retro gamers and preservationists. Older games reliant on matchmaking servers or online DRM checks are pretty much done in when remote servers go offline, and while cracks are always an option, they're often not a realistic choice. The process of legalizing this particular type of DRM circumvention is "burdensome and confusing," but if we're serious about preserving video games, both for posterity and playability, then this is a necessary step and hopefully one that will ultimately prove successful.

Phil Savage: Games for Windows Live is slightly more dead
I love seeing bad things happen to bad people. Or in this case, to bad programs. Games for Windows: Live is undoubtedly a bad program, and I smile every time it comes closer to annihilation. This week, Nordic Games patched it out of Red Faction: Guerilla. This is surprising—despite their previous promise that it would happen. It's surprising because Guerilla was made by Volition for THQ—the former now with Deep Silver, the latter sadly deceased. Nordic acquired the rights to much of THQ's catalogue, but they didn't have anything to do with the game's creation; just its current distribution. To then go back in to remove the unwanted GfWL-wrapper is a step worth celebrating. Especially because Guerilla is such a great game.

The Sims 4: Get Together's "Clubs" introduce peer pressure

In a on the Sims website, producer Antonio Romeo ("SimGuruRomeo") talks about a new feature in the expansion called Clubs that "allows Sims to totally break the rules of the game", which here means: enforces a peer pressure system that allows group mentality to override a Sim's individual personality.

EA has revealed more details about the upcoming Sims 4 expansion, "Get Together", that was announced at Gamescom.

The player creates clubs by choosing rules for its members to follow: a hangout location, what clothes they wear when they're together, who gets to join, and encouraged and discouraged behaviours. This list of ten behaviours (five encouraged, five discouraged) will override a Sim's natural instincts, though only when they are with other members of the club.

So you could have a lazy Sim that joins a fitness-based club and ends up working out whenever they're together, or a good Sim who ends up carrying out evil deeds because they've joined a club based around meanness. Naturally, you can also create "Fight Clubs" and use the rules to position them as rival gangs who will only ever pick fights with each other.

Get Together will also include a new "European-inspired" World called Windenburg, new group activities, and new skills for your Sims to build. It's due for release in November.

Ghost Recon Online (released in summer last year) was the first game in Ubisoft's Ghost Recon series

to be built for free-to-play from the ground up. This business model is a unique challenge for any core-oriented game, as more of the industry leans in that direction. We spoke to Ubisoft Singapore's Ghost Recon Online producer Adrian Blunt to learn five important tentpoles for the creation of a new free-to-play third-person shooter. A starting point for skillsets In the case of GRO , they began with basic rock-paper-scissors principles for their skills, layering and nesting them as time went on.

Ghost Recon Online 's 5 pillars for a new free-to-play shooter

"Essentially, we're building the game out of core principles," Blunt told us. "I think the first thing that we did was work on having a fluid cover system. Then there was a case of looking at purely systems' design -- so you've got three classes, they've each got two abilities, and so how are those abilities going to work in such a way that they counteract each other? You want to have a system that is always balanced, and so you effectively design the small pieces, make sure that they're balanced, and then layer on top of that," he said.

"So, once we've got that, then we've got the weapons system on top of that, which again, from the stats perspective, is balanced in such a way that you never have something that feels like it's overpowered against each other," he adds. At the end of the day, it becomes a huge, complex system of nested powers and dependencies.

"We have designers just completely focused on the weapons," he added. "Our lead weapon designer knows more weapons than I would ever care to imagine, but basically her life is in numbers, and making sure that those key elements of the weapons do not make something that's overpowered. The reality is that this is something that's taken time to tune. This game has been in development for three years."
Map creationMap design starts with the level designers creating something they think might be fun.

"They'll create a map that they think is fun and they'll build it in SketchUp," says Blunt. "They'll run through it, and then they'll put it into the game. We run daily play tests on our levels. So, the level designer will say, 'I've got this map that's ready to go.' And so we'll get a bunch of developers into it, they'll play through it, and we'll do a couple of things."

First, they look at heat maps, of course, seeing where people are spending time in the maps. But they also discuss the user stories people have had on each map. "We talk about experiences," he says. "We talk about the firefights we had, whether it was fun, whether it actually felt engaging. And then the level designers will take that feedback. I think that's really where the dark magic of level design comes from, taking that feedback and turning it through.

"At the early conception of a map, these maps will go through radical changes. Points will move, levels will change, and it can take a while before we start to hone in on what actually feels great. Because it's not just about 'is there good gameplay there?,' but is it actually Ghost Recon Online gameplay," he says.
Iterate, iterate, iterateNot long after launch, the team found that they needed to tweak a map, because it wasn't performing the way they expected. This is just part of running a live service, Blunt says.

"One of the big things that we did on that map -- it's a three-point map, and it's actually the final point, point 'C,' we found that it was too easy to attack," he specified. "We had felt that something was maybe wrong with it. But also looking at the heat maps, seeing how many times is this map captured... Are teams able to roll other teams if you get into a certain position? But also where do the firefights happen? Where is the actual gameplay happening? So we took all of that information, plus the feedback we were getting from the community, that they felt there was something about that that was unfair," he said.

They fed this information to their level designers, who then tweaked it a bit, moving that point a little further out. "They built a little more barricade, turned it more into a tunnel, and that just solved the problem," he said. "So, that's the sort of iteration that we'll go through. And we do that on a lot of our maps. Some of these maps are huge. They're massive. Especially the five-point capture maps. They're massive, massive maps. So, there's always going to be something to tweak. And so we will keep going through while at the same time building new maps."
Identify what data is "good" dataSometimes players will tell you something is unbalanced, but the numbers indicate otherwise. How do you know when to listen to your players, and when to listen to your data? "I think there's a couple of tactics that we can use to hone in on that," Blunt says. "One thing is if the data is telling us that there isn't an issue, but we have a majority of players saying there is, who's right? It may be that we're reading the data wrong, or it may be that that majority is actually just a really vocal minority. So, we will always take it seriously, when we get that sort of feedback," he adds.

"Whenever we get that, we will go and investigate," he says. "We will go through the data. As part of the feedback loop, we will then re-engage with the community and say, 'Actually, we've looked at this. We don't think that's the case.' And then we'll get into more of it through our community teams and really hone in on what that issue is. Because I think if a lot of people are experiencing something or feel something, then something has to change.

"The challenge is in finding what it is. If the data says that that particular thing is fine, is it something else? Is there something that is related to that that we can make a tweak to?" Blunt suggests that you look at your numbers for a wider perspective, if you want to find what's really at fault when players feel like something is unfair.
Integration of live and new content teamsEssentially, for the GRO team, everyone is a member of the "live team," says Blunt. "The reason for that is because everything we do has an impact on live," he adds. "We don't want to have that separation of people making stuff and not thinking about what's happening in live, because that feedback loop always needs to keep coming back to us."

But the company does differentiate via strike teams, working on specific things at certain times. "We will have a strike team building a feature set, and we'll also have a strike team that's really there to make sure that the live service, any issues that are coming up, are being addressed," he says. "And that's a dedicated team that can rotate through, but at any given time, there's a dedicated bunch of guys who will be looking at bugs, investigating them, maybe fixing them, and really being the front barrier for the dev team so that they can concentrate on building features.

"One of the great things that strike teams allows us to do is to have a lot of communication among the teams," he says. "We have a lot of standoffs where everybody talks about what they're doing, what the challenges are across the teams. The producers who are project managing all of these strike teams are also talking to each other so they're aware of what's going on. But the other thing that this approach allows is that we can have a steady rotation of people coming through. So, if the idea is that we may need strike teams for other features to remain slightly more static, the live team is actually on a quicker cycle so that basically anything that's coming through, they have awareness of stuff that's being built. But it's basically through communication. It's talking to people."

Editor's note: Ubisoft provided travel accommodations in order to facilitate this interview.

Endless Legend to get free add-on next week

Amplitude has announced Endless Legend's first major free add-on.

Visions of the Unseenis due out next week, and will give the excellent fantasy-4Xten new side-quests, special quest weapon effects, and other, as yet unannounced features.

Previously, the game received a "mini add-on", the Halloween themed Shades of Alteration. That release added a new hero, a side-quest and modding support.

Amplitude says that more details are incoming, and will be published to their blogahead of Visions of the Unseen's release.

In addition, sci-fi predecessor Endless Space is itself receiving an update. Chronicles of the Lostis the seventh such add-on, and is also due out next week.

Thanks, RPS.

The Sims 4: Get Together's "Clubs" introduce peer pressure

In a on the Sims website, producer Antonio Romeo ("SimGuruRomeo") talks about a new feature in the expansion called Clubs that "allows Sims to totally break the rules of the game", which here means: enforces a peer pressure system that allows group mentality to override a Sim's individual personality.

EA has revealed more details about the upcoming Sims 4 expansion, "Get Together", that was announced at Gamescom.

The player creates clubs by choosing rules for its members to follow: a hangout location, what clothes they wear when they're together, who gets to join, and encouraged and discouraged behaviours. This list of ten behaviours (five encouraged, five discouraged) will override a Sim's natural instincts, though only when they are with other members of the club.

So you could have a lazy Sim that joins a fitness-based club and ends up working out whenever they're together, or a good Sim who ends up carrying out evil deeds because they've joined a club based around meanness. Naturally, you can also create "Fight Clubs" and use the rules to position them as rival gangs who will only ever pick fights with each other.

Get Together will also include a new "European-inspired" World called Windenburg, new group activities, and new skills for your Sims to build. It's due for release in November.

X Rebirth gets another big patch, goes free for the weekend on Steam

Egosoft has released a new patch for X Rebirth , taking its open-world space exploration game to version 3.5. The studio is also making all X Universe games, including Rebirth, free for the weekend on Steam , and launching the public alpha test of the Linux version of Rebirth through Steamplay.

The 3.5 update adds new generic and upkeep missions intended to simplify station management, new Onil mining ships, a "container magnet" that attracts nearby collectibles to the player's ship, easier navigation through a text search field on maps, and new FXAA graphics options.

The patch also makes improvements to station manager and station-owned ship trade behavior, responses of player-owned stations to nearby player ships being attacked, and the balance and accuracy of combat calculations when the player isn't present. There's also better support for user interface modding, the Russian localization has been completely redone, and "much more," as the saying goes. A full breakdown of the changes is up on the Egosoft forums.

This is just the most recent in a long line of patches for X Rebirth. A major 2.0 patchdropped last May, and 3.0 hit in December.

The free weekend begins today and runs through the 15th, and includes everything from X: Beyond the Frontier to X Rebirth. It's a good opportunity to see how Rebirth is doing these days—it was notoriously buggy at launch—of, if you'd prefer a more assuredly-stabled spacefaring experience, its predecessor, X3: Reunion. And if Linux is your thing, you can dig into all the details in the Linux alpha support thread.

Endless Legend adds modding support, Halloween-themed side quest

Amplitude Studios' small stable of interconnected strategy games opened its doors to the public yesterday, with the addition of modding tools for their fantasy 4X Endless Legend.

Amplitude Studios' small stable of interconnected strategy games opened its doors to the public yesterday, with the addition of modding tools for their fantasy 4X Endless Legend. They came as part of the game's Halloween update, which also added a seasonal side quest and a few other small bits and bobs. If you're keen to see what can be done with the game, you'll find a bunch of tutorials here.

That new, Halloweeny side quest unlocks "a new Broken Lords' Hero and a new item" to the game, while bug fixes include tweaks to the AI and solutions for issues related to quest items. It's not a huge patch, other than that modding support, but the ability to add new quests, skills, items, assets and so on, and to change the behaviour of the game's factions and heroes, is always welcome in any strategy game.

Dan liked Endless Legend quite a bitwhen he reviewed it the other week. (Ta, RPS.)

The Sims 4: Get Together expansion announced

The Sims 4 has had a fair few "packs" of venues, objects, and activities, but only one expansion pack: Get to Work .

. At Gamescom, EA announced a second expansion pack called "Get Together", one that focuses on social activities like parties, shopping, and—of course—WooHoo.

There are hints of a new place for Sims to explore, which can't come soon enough given how tiny The Sims 4 feels compared to its predecessor, but the focus is on new activities. We see Sims swimming in a river, playing Foosball, trying on clothes for their friends... or using those changing rooms for a quickie.

Synchronised dance routines and DJing hopefully represent new skills, if not whole new career paths, but we'll have to wait and see.

Get Together is due for release in November of this year. I seriously hope they feel like they have to stick with this naming convention for the rest of The Sims 4's lifespan. Get Pets? For weather: Get Wet? Get in the Sea?

GDC 2013 adds Unfinished Swan , Schell, FTL , Riot talks for Summits

Endless Legend review (Early Access)

Early Access reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games.

Early Access reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored review with a final, scored review in the future.

Hexagons have never looked this good. Endless Legendpaints a watercolor fantasy across its 4X strategy grid, and the pieces that fill those hexagons—distinct warring factions, indigenous races, fire trees and magical orbs and mysterious ruins—build a rich and deeply complex game world. Complexity is typically expected from 4X strategy games, but playing them before they're complete is not. And Endless Legend is definitely not complete.

I started playing Endless Legend after a beta update added multiplayer support, two factions (six of the final eight are now playable) and other improvements. It felt like the right time to jump in, and I was pleased by the stability of the private multiplayer a couple hours into the campaign. It was easy for my friend, who hosted our multiplayer match, to load a save file and get us back into a campaign. We didn't hit any desync or lag issues in our game. Instead, we ran into a different snag: we barely knew what to do.

Both of us played Endless Space, Amplitude Studios' last 4X game. Endless Legend carries over identical UI elements and mechanics: resources like food, dust (money), science (tech tree research), and industry (construction). I recognized the resources, but at the start had little indication where I should found my starting city, how to expand, or what to do as I slowly collected resources. It's not that I wanted the game to hold my hand through everything—there was no way for me to acquire the information I needed. Legend doesn't have a single line of tutorial text in place yet, and without tutorials the tooltips are often frustratingly vague.

Endless Legend looks like a scaled-back Civilization 5, but it layers narrative atop its sandbox with RPG-esque sidequests and faction quests. Those quests did help guide me through the early turns, though again, vague tooltips sometimes made the quest conditions confusing. The sidequests are randomized, but I'm concerned that each faction's primary quest, which doesn't seem to vary game-to-game, will make repeated playthroughs with the same faction feel more same-y, less sandbox-y.

Amplitude also added equipment for its hero characters, who can lead armies into combat or govern cities to boost resource production. Buying and equipping gear can have a huge effect on a hero's efficacy in combat, but there are so many items (and so many underexplained symbols pertaining to combat) that I didn't know what to buy. I ended up ignoring the system until late in the game, when I was flush with resources.

The quest system and Endless Legend's beautiful world map make exploration fun, but the other Xs—expansion, exploitation, and extermination—left me bored for the first 10 hours of the game. I felt like I was doing everything wrong, early game, because it took so long to do anything . Every construction project took multiple turns. Troops plodded across the map. Resources came in at a trickle.

I eventually got the hang of expansion, remembering from Endless Space that I could allocate my population to specific tasks to speed up food production or research or construction. Expansion and troop movement got better, too, but mistakes early game can saddle you with damaging low approval ratings that slow production. My population was constantly angry at me for conquering new regions and growing my empire. And I didn't know there was a "right" way to expand cities: surrounding the central hub with districts, which levels them up and makes the population happy. I naturally snaked my cities outwards towards the most valuable resources, permanently damaging my approval ratings by having sprawling, low-level cities.

After a couple hundred turns, I was able to sweep two AI enemies off the map with three armies. I was allied with the final AI player, but my domination didn't trigger a military victory. Endless Legend's final two research trees aren't in place yet, so I couldn't win through science. I also couldn't find any sign of economic or political victories. I'm sure those will all be present in the final game. But in early access, my campaign ended with a shrug.

Verdict

I love Endless Legend's gorgeous art direction and RPG elements, but the complete lack of tutorials, sometimes-vague tooltips and shallow combat are all problems for a complex 4X game. I'd recommend waiting for the final release unless you love providing beta feedback on game balance.

Outlook

OK. When Amplitude releases the final version of Endless Legend, I expect tutorials and a completed endgame will solve most of the issues I experienced. If combat remains unchanged, it will be the weakest of the four Xs.

Details

Version reviewed: July 3, 2014 beta update

Reviewed on: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 X990, AMD R9 290X, 8GB RAM

Recommended: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.50Ghz, 4GB RAM, nVidia Geforce 460 1GB or ATI Radeon HD 6850 1GB

Price: $31.50/£24.30

Publisher: Iceberg Interactive

Developer: Amplitude Studios

Multiplayer: 4 player online

Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/289130

The Sims 4: Get to Work expansion turns your Sims into doctors and detectives

Today marks the 15th anniversary of The Sims , and that means it's time to get to work!

, and that means it's time to get to work! I mean literally, in the case of your digital peons, because: Electronic Arts has announced a new Sims 4expansion called Get to Work, in which you'll be able to take direct control of your sims while they're off earning a living, directing them to new career highs, or more likely appalling lows, in the workplace.

Because nothing says "game" quite like "work," Get to Work will give your Sims the opportunity to embark upon exciting careers as doctors, scientists, and detectives, or to go into business for themselves with bakeries, clothing stories, art galleries, bookstores, and more. The expansion will provide your Sims with new skills, enabling the creation of new, unique in-game items that you can use to decorate your home, or sell to your fellow Sims.

Somewhat oddly, or at least so it seems to me, Get to Work also includes creatures from beyond the moon. "Aliens have landed!" EA said. "Uncover which Sims are truly out of this world and discover the mysterious Alien dimension!" Does "undercover alien hunter" qualify as a job?

As mentioned, this is the 15 anniversary of the The Sims, which made its debut on February 4, 2000. To celebrate the big day, we took some time to talk to Senior Producer Lyndsay Pearsonabout such things as the enduring popularity of The Sims, EA's support for the mod community, and the most despicable things players have done to their Sims over the past decade-and-a-half. Fun stuff!

The Sims 4: Get to Work will be out in April.

X Rebirth 3.0 and free Teladi Outpost DLC are now on Steam

X Rebirth was a huge disappointment.

was a huge disappointment. The previous X games were fantastic, if somewhat obtuse, open-ended space sims, but Rebirth was a mess. The 2.0 updatethat came out earlier this year made a number of fixes and improvements, but developer Egosoft kept at it, and has now released both the 3.0 update and the Teladi Outpost DLC.

The announcement of the update includes links to videos explaining the major changes to the game, relating to crafting, trade, fleet captains, station builders, NPC education, hacking and sabotaging stations, and boarding ships. The full list of changes can be read here—it's pretty big—and for those who prefer to dig deeper into the details, an X Rebirth 3.0 manual is up on Steam.

Theadds two new Teladi systems to explore, one of which contains the Habitat-class "superstation" Overwatch, one of the largest space stations ever to appear in the X Universe. There are also new Teladi ships, items, and upgrades, as well as new dangers, including the Xenon and Pirate factions that can make traveling through some sectors a very risky prospect.

The DLC was initially going to be free for anyone who owned or purchased X Rebirth by November 1, but Egosoft has decided to make it free for everyone as "a thank-you gift for all X Rebirth owners." It does, however, require the 64-bit version of the game; Egosoft said in the patch notes that there will not be a 32-bit version of the 3.0 update, and that the Teladi Outpost DLC is not compatible with prior 32-bit releases.

Endless Legend to leave early access next week

Endless Legend is Amplitude's fantasy follow up to Endless Space—replacing the surreal beauty of a tactically significant vacuum with vibrant terrain-filled hexagons.

Endless Legend is Amplitude's fantasy follow up to Endless Space—replacing the surreal beauty of a tactically significant vacuum with vibrant terrain-filled hexagons. Amplitude are still writing this newest Legend, but they're almost finished. They've now announced that, as of September 18th, it will leave Steam Early Access for an official release.

The game is a fantasy turn-based strategy with an unusual selection of factions. There's the Roving Clans, for instance, who facilitate all trade throughout the game. Or the recently announced Drakken, who hold knowledge and history above war and wealth.

It also looks amazing. Endless Space proved that Amplitude could create some of the sexiest menus in the genre, and in Endless Legend, that same aesthetic is combined with a vibrant map reminiscent of the Game of Thrones opening credits.

Despite its positives, Wes had some concerns in his Early Access review. Hopefully Amplitude will have worked out the kinks in time for next week's release.

The Sims 4 content patch adds careers, cheats and Christmas

Sims 4's content patches sometimes seem like they're conceived by a random noun generator.

Sims 4's content patches sometimes seem like they're conceived by a random noun generator. Pools! Ghosts! Business! Christmas! Gnomes! It's business and Christmas for this latest update, which adds four new career paths, accrued time off, maternity and/or paternity leave, and a free, unlockable Holiday Celebration Pack.

The new career paths are spread across business and athletic career types. Sporty Sims can pick between Hall of Famer and Mr. or Ms. Solar System, while those with financial aspirations can become an Angel Investor or Business Tycoon.

Over on the festive side, EA has provided the following instructions for unlocking the Holiday Celebration Pack:

The Holiday Celebration Pack can be unlocked by logging into Origin and launching The Sims 4. Banners within the main menu of The Sims 4 and in The Gallery will show the option to redeem the “Holiday Celebration Pack”. Click on the respective banner to surface an in-game pop up that will place the Holiday Celebration Pack in your shopping cart. No payment information will be required to check out. You will then be directed to an order confirmation page. Click the “Close” button. After closing, you will receive a notification that your content is preparing for download. Click the “OK” button. Once the download is complete, a notification will inform you that the Holiday Celebration Pack has been successfully installed. You will need to restart The Sims 4 in order to see content from the Holiday Celebration Pack in your game.

Do all that you'll get a bunch of festive objects and some Christmas jumpers.

Finally, new cheats have been added. One, seemingly, lets you set any object as your Sim's head. Because that might be a thing you want to do for some reason.

You can see a full list of added features and accompanying fixes over at the The Sims 4's updates page.

X Rebirth developer apologises for bugs, promises incoming fixes

As the sixth game in the X series, X Rebirth continues the long and unfortunate tradition of being a bit broken at release.

As the sixth game in the X series, X Rebirth continues the long and unfortunate tradition of being a bit broken at release. So much so that Egosoft's director Bernd Lehahn took to their forums to apologise for the current technical problems being faced by the game's owners. In a post to the community, he addresses some of the current issues, while laying out a basic roadmap for the game's future updates.

"I would like to apologise to those of you who have had technical problems," Lehahn writes. "I have started a thread in the Steam forumswhere I have listed the most common errors and have now collected a lot of information about this. All of this will of course be made available here in our support forumas soon as our server is able to remain stable under the load."

In a separate post, Lehahn lays out certain tips and tweaks that should help players to avoid crashes and boost performance in the game they paid £40 for. He also lays out some of the more noticeable bugs they're working to fix, including one that lets ships fly through space stations.

The team are also working on expanding and improving features, with a major update hoping to release at the beginning of next year. Before that, smaller tweaks will be dropping, including clearer NPC marking, improved menus, and further keyboard binding options.

Thanks, Destructoid.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter redesigns Holmes and Watson

Creepy Watson is no more.

is no more. The steely-eyed, middle-aged sidekick from Frogware's increasingly good Sherlock Holmes games has been replaced with the veritable hunk you see above. Both Watson and Sherlock have been reimagined as younger, more dynamic sleuths for The Devil's Daughter—the latest in the interactive story/adventure series, out May 27.

I was rather attached to the Sherlock and Watson of the previous games, and their voice actors, but I can understand why Frogwares might want to update them to attract a bigger audience. As you can see from the first footage, below, the rest of the game seems largely unchanged from Crimes and Punishments. We'll still cross-examine suspects and gather clues via rudimentary minigames, and using seemingly exactly the same interface, too.

We'll even revisit some of the same locations, including that pub where Holmes entered into an intolerable arm-wrestling match in Crimes and Punishments. It's a shame that game didn't ask much of the mind, and I'm hoping for a few more exercises that will engage the old grey matter in The Devil's Daughter. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. (Ta, Destructoid.)

Bethesda unleashes Doom alpha gameplay video

Bethesda very recently tweeted that, per the terms of the non-disclosure agreement, people taking part in the upcoming Doom multiplayer alpha "cannot share content" taken from the game.

multiplayer alpha "cannot share content" taken from the game. But it's also thrown up a closed alpha gameplay trailer on YouTube, so even if you're not playing, you can get a good feel for what's going on.

The video opens with Doom Executive Producer Marty Stratton delivering the usual caveats: It's an alpha, it's early, it's not a "game demo," and it's not representative of the final product, etc and so on. Be that as it may, Doom looks very promising, and there's a little bit of everything on display: A variety of weapons, a spot of melee, some powerups, and even a moment of demonic transformation.

The first Doom multiplayer alpha test kicks off at 12:01 am ET on October 23 and runs through the weekend, ending at 11:59 pm ET on October 25. The alpha is closed and signups are limitedto those who are eligible to take part in the beta, which will happen at some point down the road. If that's you, and you haven't already put your name in the hat, you may do so at doom.com.