Rockstar releases Grand Theft Auto III 10th anniversary promotional video
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar has released a promotional video with footage of the decade-old classic. The video doesn't promote anything, really, or tease a new announcement. It doesn't end with a surprise revelation of an HD remake of GTA III or anything like that. Instead, it does one thing: reminds us why we loved the game so much back in 2001. That said
Video: Crafting the sound of Grand Theft Auto V
Rockstar Northas Alastair MacGregor gave an excellent talk at GDC earlier this year that offered some fascinating insight into the audio design of Grand Theft Auto V , one of the most high-profile and heavily-produced games of 2013.
MacGregor ran down the audio production technologies and processes used by Rockstar North's audio team to replicate a realistic city environment, explaining how the techniques used to acoustically model Grand Theft Auto V 's Liberty City evolved from the studio's earlier work on Red Dead Redemption and other Rockstar titles.
It's an excellent opportunity to learn how a studio like Rockstar approaches open-world game audio design, so we've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "The Sound of Grand Theft Auto V " above. You can also watch it hereon the GDC Vault.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultoffers 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
Everyone has their own vision of what sci-fi should sound like. To some, it's Star Wars lightsaber sounds
and juicy thumps of phaser blasts. To others, it's the steady electrical hums and tweets of Star Trek. To yet others, it's a theremin, a musical saw, and some well-placed Moog synth tones. With so much strong history in movies, games, and musical experiments, how does one go about creating a new sci-fi universe's aural landscape, especially when it's a shooter?
BRZAP! 5 tips for creating unique sci-fi sounds in video games
With so much strong history in movies, games, and musical experiments, how does one go about creating a new sci-fi universe's aural landscape, especially when it's a shooter? We asked Tracy Bush, 5th Cell's audio director, who recently crafted the sonic style of the company's third person action shooter, Hybrid .
1. Start with the guns."Everybody has their own kind of approach," says Bush. "I started off with the guns; we wanted to get that solid, first of all. When you’re making a shooter, guns are your meat and potatoes. It took a little bit of iteration to get a lot of the guns where I wanted them, to have them have enough hit and power and, for those smaller guns that don’t do as much damage, to not sound like little pop cap guns."
But you don't have to go sci-fi with it right away. "They all have their basis in real life guns because we’re still dealing with shotguns, and being not in the distant future we still haven’t evolved that much in terms of powders and cartridges and stuff like that." he says. But with the more unusual weapons, you have to look a bit further afield, which is where things get interesting. "There are a few weapons that are decidedly futuristic," says Bush. "The Swarm is one of them; it’s an area-of-effect that creates a little dome or sphere of annoying death, and that doesn’t sound like anything [in real life]. It's got a charge-up, so I play with a lot of electricity sounds and power kind of sounds. I did a lot of work with distortion tube effects on amplifiers because that gives you this crackle and weird kind of burbly energy that you can use."
2. Go analog.That leads us to the second point - in a world where we're so used to digital sounds chiming around us all the time, oldschool analog electronics actually sound a bit otherworldly, and can link you to reality while also inspiring the fantastical.
"For the sci-fi weapons, I just mic-ed them as you would a guitar amplifier," he says. "I did a lot of things where I took a couple of effects, recorded a version of it, then put it on my iPhone, then put that through a pedal board effects chain for guitars, and then put that through a tube amp and re-recorded it; it’s very convoluted, but it sounds crazy at the end."
Bush says he doesn't like to rely simply on the standard sound design software programs for asset creation. "I try to think outside of those tools because you get a lot of character out of that," he adds. "One of the robots that I’m actually very proud of is the Preyon, the high-end assassin droid. That's the way I did that one, with a guitar amplifier and the tube filters and stuff like that. [In the original recording] I’m actually inhaling and screeching at the same time. I just did it as long as I could, recorded it, and then stretched it out; it's a freaky, freaky sound, and I’m very proud of it."
3. Integrate with the soundtrack early."I had a lot of input into [the soundtrack], at least as far as how we wanted the musical direction to go," he says. "We went through a lot of iteration trying to get the right tone for the instrumentation and what-have-you. Once we finally got all that, we were able to start writing all of the tracks—the main menu tracks, the in-game tracks, and all the wrap-around effects. Then, as the maps came online, we did map ambiences as well, and those were a lot more straightforward. You’re looking at a space, and you’re like, what should this sound like? We assign sounds based on things within the map, do those individually and set those to frames, and the world’s alive."
4. Give it the smell test.What makes a sci-fi sound believable? What seems implausible? How do you link these sounds to our existing world, without straying too far from what people expect? "A lot of it is based on sound choices and how you make those sounds," says Bush. "I use a lot of old-school synthesizer type sounds like analog generators and things like that to make things sound sci-fi-like but not so strange that they're out of place."
"That’s one of the tricky things about doing sound design: making sure it sounds right and that your brain doesn’t stop what it’s doing and say, 'Well, that's… that's not correct,'" he adds. "It's a kind of line that you have to thread there. But I like living in a sci-fi world and playing with sound within it, making dark matter lightning and things like that. There's a map that has big capital ships that fly in, destroy buildings, and fly away. It's fun playing with that and not using the same things that everyone else has done—making a big ship come in and land and use a laser that doesn’t sound like the same laser you’ve heard thousands of times before."
5. Don't use libraries!That brings us to the final point, where our article began. There's such a cultural history of these kinds of sounds: lightsaber sounds, laser sounds, and phaser sounds that already exist. How do you avoid re-treading old ground? "You have to be very aware of it," asserts Bush. "I made a game several years ago, and I had a team working with me at the time. We had to do 40 or 50 weapons; it was a lot of weapons. On just one of them, one of my junior sound designers pulled a weapon from a sample library. I listened to all of them, and it sounded fine; I’m like, 'That sounds… Yeah, I’m okay with that.'"
“When we shipped the game, I got calls from all of my other sound designers friends and audio directors, and they were like, 'Why would you use just that same gun? Here’s the other places where that gun has appeared.' That was definitely one of those moments where I realized you've got to pay attention to everything that you did, because you don’t want to use the same sounds that someone else did. Even that Wilhelm Scream that everybody seems to use; they’ve been putting that in games lately, and I won't do it."
Now he's getting a bit worked up, when I mention the "man falling and screaming" sound that was in every game trailer in the early 2000s. "There's a fireball as well," he adds. "There's a lot of those that we know that we never use. There's a redtail hawk that they always use for an establishing shot for a desert. You see a desert and hear (screech sound); it's that same bird."
Don't fall into that trap, he warns. "It's not hard to generate new content; as long as you've got your own microphone and ability to record something, you can come up with something new. It’s not impossible. And it's good, too! Our guns definitely have personality—I’m not saying that they have more personality, but they're definitely their own thing."
Video: Exploring the Japanese indie game dev scene
Developer and BitSummit director James Mielke gave an excellent English language talk at GDC 2014 about where the Japanese indie scene came from, where it is now and where it's headed next.
While his talk revolved around the lessons learned running BitSummit, Mielke also took pains to contrast the Western indie scene's burgeoning success and status with the relative anonymity of Japanese indie developers.
He also dug into why people still equate the word "indie" with "amateur" in Japan, and showcased indie developers in the region who are responsible for changing the status quo of Japanese game development -- despite the fact that Japan's mainstream media outlets rarely acknowledge their existence.
Now you can acknowledge their existence too, thanks to the tireless work of the GDC Vault recording team. The free video (embedded above) of Mielke's talk ' Exploring the Human Element of BitSummit ' is now available to watch hereon the GDC Vault.
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultoffers 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
Two Worlds 3 in development, Two Worlds 2 comes to Linux/SteamOS
Two Worlds 3 is in development, Topware Interactive has announced, and its 2010 RPG Two Worlds 2 will be getting an engine update – as well as some new DLC.
Topware made the announcements over on Facebook, where it said Two Worlds 3 would be in development over ‘the next 36 months’ – so it’ll likely be a while before the game’s actually released.
No further details have been released on the game, but Topware didn’t stop there: Two Worlds 2 will be getting a series of updates in the coming year, starting out with an updated engine.
Said engine will add more detail to the game, a high-definition GUI and compatibility with both Linux and SteamOS. The update also adds achievements, co-op multiplayer and other, unspecified changes and tweaks. Huzzah!
Additionally, Two Worlds 2 will get eight multiplayer maps and two single-player pieces of DLC – Call of the Tenebrae and Shattered Embrace.
Call of the Tenebrae will be coming around June, and “focuses on the Hero’s return to Antaloor, where he witnesses the shocking murder of DarPha!”
You’ll spend your time in the DLC trying to foil a ‘genocidal plot’ from a tribe of rat-like creatures, who you will probably want to pummel in the face a lot.
Shattered Embrace has no details just yet, but hopefully has more rat-faced people to pummel.
The original Two Worlds might have been hot garbage, but the second game was a bit of a diamond in the rough. Here’s hoping Topware carries on down that route of making... stuff... better.
Video: How to be a producer the hard way
This GDC Europe 2015 talk from Microsoft's Nick Lainng explains why the best producers are standard bearers for a team, the internal and external face of a product, and how to set standards for leadership in game production.
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
Two Worlds 2 Collector's Edition Giveaway x2 (US Only)
The winners have been picked.
The winners have been picked. Congratulations to Bsik and VA1N. Thanks to all who entered.
You know, we aren't so different, you and I. When I have got a killstreak going, the last thing I want to do is get up to throw away my junk food trash--and I know you're the same way. So, over time, our desks get cluttered with computer parts, Mountain Dew cans, and Slim Jim wrappers. But when we clean them off, we discover treasures that would make the great pirates of yesteryear drool (and probably scratch their sweet pirate beards in confusion since they don't understand technology). Today is no exception. After removing stacks of papers we found two very rare Royal Editions of Two Worlds 2. And like true PC gaming saints, we're giving them away to you.
Back in our April 2011 issue, we gave fantasy RPG Two World's 2 an 82% because it vastly improved on the original by implementing a beautiful open world with great gameplay and characters. The game is also unique in that its collectors edition was one of the most expensive packages to be released for PC in a long time. Retailing at $150, it includes:
Hand-painted "Cassara" figurine 55 playing cards Art book Textile-mousepad Bonus content DVD with soundtrack Double-sided Antaloor map poster 4 exclusive in-game itemsTo enter, in the comments section below, tell us what your signature killing-move would be in this world. Would it be a gravity-defying roundhouse kick where your shoe flies off, hits the enemy, and flies back onto your foot? Or perhaps you'd sing Justin Beiber lyrics at your enemies until their heads explode (approximately four seconds)? Anything and everything is available (keep it clean though). The two most clever and original entries will be picked on Tuesday, May 24.
Valve's Chet Faliszek on VR development: 'We don't know anything'
"Hello, I'm Chet Faliszek from Valve.
"Hello, I'm Chet Faliszek from Valve. Welcome to my talk on VR in 2015. We don't know anything."
- Real talk.
Back in April the Finnish startup conference Slush launched its inaugural Slush Play, a two-day event aimed at bringing together game makers and other industry professionals to talk about the state of virtual reality game development.
Among the speakers was Valve's Chet Faliszek, a lead writer at the company who has been heavily involved in its virtual reality development efforts.
He took the stage to deliver a compact 20-minute talk about Valve's outlook on VR development in 2015, which seems to boil down to "None of us know what the hell we are doing, so let's all try everything and share with each other," in order to minimize the potential for virtual reality games to be so overwhelmingly nausea-inducing that people turn away from them en masse.
To facilitate that goal, Faliszek shared a few anecdotes from Valve's own VR development efforts and the lessons learned in his talk, which you can watch now for freeover on the Slush Play YouTube channel.
Two Worlds II heads for the high seas
After flashing an official proof of death certificate and getting accepted into a bar for the undead, I might wonder what exactly went wrong with my life.
After flashing an official proof of death certificate and getting accepted into a bar for the undead, I might wonder what exactly went wrong with my life. And yet, such a side quest about the happening nightlife of guys and ghouls marks what seemed so right during my developer-guided demo session for Two Worlds II 's latest expansion, Pirates of the Flying Fortress . Nothing says “lively, fantasy franchise,” after all, quite like the image of decaying zombies downing pints after a hard day's massacre.
It's clear that the developer Reality Pump took this expansion as a chance to run wild with monster parties and a morbid sense of humor. Another quest featured the main character fully channeling his inner Psychonaut by entering the mind of a disturbed cartographer. Fractured portions of his memories construct disjointed, looming sepia-toned pieces of environment. The variety of locales and thematic styles alone ostensibly exceeds that of the base game and gives you a sense of awe at the open world's density and fullness beyond its mere size.
PotFF takes the base game's best features and adds a hearty pirate tale while improving on graphics and gameplay. Series veterans will feel comfortable, as features like the “classless” advancement system and the highly customizable items and magic make a welcome return. You'll even be able to take an already established Two Worlds II character into the expansion if you choose.
Shipwrecked on the expansion's new archipelago setting, you'll join a band of salty sea dogs on their search for a mysterious treasure. Though the developer demo only showed bits and pieces of the adventure, the whole experience promises 12-15 hours of play—quite sizable for a downloadable expansion—over a twist-filled, nonlinear narrative.
Reality Pump has improved upon certain mechanics and elements while specifically addressing criticisms of the original title. Secondary aspects like the Oculus, a small, flying creature that serves as a sort of scouting camera, now have essential roles, such as the Oculus's newfound attack capability, which was used in the demo to blind a deadly Basilisk. Bosses in general are no longer just giant walking health bars. In the demo, a stone giant boss required players to flip specific environmental switches to expose his weakness.
If the focus of the main game was creating lush, gorgeous environments, PotFF enhances character model detail to match. TopWare also assured me that the expansion remedies the base game's inconsistent voice acting. The demo ran superbly on TopWare's gaming PC, and since it runs on the same engine, the expansion's visual enhancements won't require a boost in system requirements.
The release of the downloadable Pirates of the Flying Fortress is right around the corner. So be sure to set off on your cutthroat pirate voyage. Now you'll have to excuse me--the girls might be a bit pale, but a certain zombie burlesque caught my eye back at that bar.
Hand-drawn Half-Life videos win the entire internets… and our hearts
There are certain pleasures in life that just make existence worth it. Waking up thinking it’s Monday, only to discover it’s actually Saturday. Deep-fried Twixes. And of course, seeing Gordon Freeman brought to life in a charmingly lo-rent hand-drawn animation. Below, you’ll see Gordon’s first two adventures recreated with pen, paper and a whole lot of zombie boogieing. Enjoy. Most agreeable, yes? Frankly, the Thriller zombie moment is the most life-affirming thing to happen to us in months. Now, everyone shut up and dance… Jan 17, 2010 Source: Kotaku Topics Valve WTF Action Shooter Half-Life 2 The Orange Box Halflife We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
Avengers games assembled
Avengers games assembled Captain America As the world’s first comic book superhero, Captain America was also one of the first to get his own videogames, but these early adaptations were far from decent. Both Captain America In The Doom Tube Of Dr Megalomann and Spider-Man And Captain America: Dr Doom’s Revenge were sub-par home computer games that recreated the Cap in lovely sprite form but did little
And in other PC gaming news...
Murlocs in Space!
Or perhaps not. Bungie announcing that their next game will be an MMO doesn't come as a surprise, but it'll be interesting to see if they will become as iconic in the MMO space as they have been within the FPS circles.
The other huge story of the day, of course, has been Tim's look at the latest Unreal tech; which looks fabulous. Take a look at those screenshots and be pleased that you're a PC gamer, because this stuff is going to be on PC a whole load sooner than console. You can see some grainy footage of it in action with shaky-cam-vision here.
But of course, GDC isn't the only thing happening this week. The wheels keep turning, and the news keeps flowing. You need your daily fix of short, sharp news, and we're going to give it to you. Get it all after the jump.
Homefront has gone gold! The awesome looking film Battle: LAis getting a tie-in game. Thirty minutes worth of Guild Wars 2footage from GDC makes it online. The guys at Digital Extremes talk The Darkness II. Two World II is delayed. Again. That's twice now. You can now pre-order pre-owned gamesfrom Game. Yes, you read that right. Pre-order pre-owned. Old Man Murray returns to Wikipedia! Huzzah!In local news, the night shift has just begun, and me and Owen are ready to take shipment of GDC stories from Tim in San Francisco. It's the last day of the conference, so we're all excited for any last-minute bombshells those sneaky developers might be waiting to throw. And if they do, be assured we'll have them online for your reading pleasure speedier than a rodent in a sombrero. It's been an awesome week at GDC, but it has to end somewhere.
What have been your favourite stories from GDC this year? How has our coverage been so far? Let us know in the comments.
Half-Live live-action short is brilliant, genuinely creepy, handles dialogue surprisingly well
The online explosion of fan films distribution in recent years has been both a blessing and a curse. There are some Hollywood-shaming works of wonder around, but we've also been blighted with absolute horrors too. Thankfully, Half-Life film Enter the Freeman could not be any further into the former category. Point your eyes at it. It's a damn good job, particularly for a two night, $3000 shoot. The
Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney review
Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney review This marriage of two of the DS eras most enduring stars has been a long time coming, having first appeared in Japan back in 2012. The reason for the delay becomes as clear as the prof’s signature top hat after the game’s elongated prologue, though. This is a videogame with a hell of a lot of text. reams and reams of text. Thankfully, the always
Two Worlds 2 to get tower defense spin-off: Castle Defense
Behind all the bombastic Dragon Age 2s and thuggish Witcher 2s, there's that reliable, low-key and likable fantasy sequel; you might know him as Two Worlds 2 .
. Now you can adventure on Antaloor in a whole new way: through the beloved, tried-and-true mini-game known as tower defense. Take a peek at what was once a demo, which proved to be so popular it was turned into a full-fledged game— Two Worlds 2: Castle Defense.
TopWare Interactive decided to release the game based solely on the overwhelmingly positive response to a demo level they released last year. The dev doesn't seem to be simply cashing-in on an established brand—TW2:CD will bridge the story gaps between the first and second installments in the series. TopWare says that the back story will offer more insight into "the conflict between Gandohar and the Orcs of Antaloor. Only now, [you'll] slip into the mighty boots of Gandohar himself and the fan favorite henchman, Sordahon." Sounds pretty cool for those in the know, as it's not often any thought gets put into a tower defense game's storyline.
TopWare Interactive has once again adhered to the fans of the franchise with this debut title, releasing it purely because of the amazing response to the free demo level of Castle Defense that was made available at the end of last year. Get ready to fend off waves of enemies on May 17th when TW2: Castle Defense is released, and don't forget to stock up on anti-orc arrows.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon sold over a million copies, Ubisoft CEO promises more "mini-AAA"
Absurd neon FPS spin-off Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has sold over a million copies, revealed Ubisoft CEO (and Aisha Tyler sidekick) Yves Guillemot in an interview with Game Informer .
. Guillemot was explaining the publisher's success with what his interviewer called "mini-AAA" - smaller-budget download only titles, including Blood Dragon and the recent Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. As a result of the sales, Guillemot confirmed that more games of a similar scope were planned.
"What's changing is that there's also more digital sales," Guillemot said, "so it means you can come out with games that are smaller in size, but bigger in innovation, because you don't target a huge group. You can target specific audiences who want to play that one day.
"You will see more and more of those in the future."
Neither game could really boast capital-I innovation, but both played with tone and theme in ways that made them an interesting departure from high-budget, "boxed" titles. (Admittedly the terminology is all over the place here, because, on PC at least, who buys boxed copies any more?)
Of course, scope aside, the consistently silly trailersprobably didn't do Blood Dragon any harm.
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Our Verdict
An ambitious and beautiful RPG that falls just short of greatness, thwarted by a stunted finale and imbalances.
Of all the open-world roleplaying games of the past decade, Two Worlds was likely the worst. Its titular globes represented an unpolished, badly translated Gothic-clone orbiting an interminable, lifeless Oblivion-clone. Yet this sequel almost completely redeems the series. Its combat is innovative, character choices are meaningful, it's gorgeous to explore and it's largely bug-free. Until it peters to a linear, inglorious finale, Two Worlds 2 offers remarkably satisfying open-world adventuring. In two words: much better.
Act like an orc
The original game was little more than an open-world sandbox with a skeletal plot to serve as a navigational aid. NPCs had little to say, and even that dialog was barely coherent. TW2 fleshes out its world with a more substantive storyline and characters who, while still not loquacious, are personable and articulate. The plot remains simple—your haplessly bound and uncomfortably attractive sister needs rescue—but the improved story and colorful NPCs, including some unlikely orc allies, make exploring this world purposeful and rewarding.
The new engine is often stunning, and definitely a graphical leap above recent open-world RPGs. TW2 offers some great hand-crafted environments, including dense forests, imposing swamps and scenic grasslands. They're inhabited by far more critter types than in similar games, including an abundance of natural wildlife and supernatural beasties. The AI isn't sophisticated—enemies largely just charge you—but NPCs have schedules and humanoid foes display some organization, breathing life into environments. (To mitigate the hassle of waiting for NPCs to arrive at their jobs, nighttime is accelerated to pass in moments.)
The open-ended skill system eschews classes and gives you an abundance of tactical options to consider. I decided that I was going to be a death-dealing spelunker to solve a chain of labyrinth quests, so I equipped an axe and a torch (a necessity in TW2's pitch-black dungeons). After acquiring the Fire Strike skill, a portion of the physical damage I inflicted became fire damage, thanks to the equipped torch. Once I gained Shield Pull, I could disarm enemies with my axe. After realizing that undead were more vulnerable to blunt trauma, I nabbed a skill book to unlock a mace-specific feat that stuns opponents. Many undead bones can attest to the usefulness of non-combat skills—whenever I overloaded, I dismantled extra loot into components which I used to substantially improve my equipped gear.
Magic is similarly customizable, and allows you freedom to alter spell effects at any time by substituting collectible modifiers. Only the stealth system feels underdeveloped, although instantly assassinating surprised opponents is hugely satisfying.
TW2 still has plenty of room to grow, though. You can't fight on horseback, for instance. Many skills are unbalanced—some are of dubious utility while others, such as Alchemy, feel half-baked. The single-player story gets increasingly linear for little payoff; we still get a sizable map out of the deal, but later areas aren't as fleshed-out since the plot isn't compelling enough to justify limiting open-world exploration. Multiplayer is improved, but is disappointingly mission-based instead of allowing co-op wandering.
Yet it is such a huge improvement over its dismal predecessor that it's oh-so-close to being an outstanding RPG. Its design just needs some rationalization and focus to achieve something great.
The Verdict
Two Worlds 2
An ambitious and beautiful RPG that falls just short of greatness, thwarted by a stunted finale and imbalances.
We recommend By Zergnet
Magicka: Wizard Wars is closing in July
A little over a year after leaving Early Access on Steam, the free-to-play multiplayer MOBA Magicka: Wizard Wars is coming to a close.
is coming to a close. Publisher Paradox Interactive said it kept the lights on for as long as it could, but the game has been losing money for the past nine months and the time has come to pull the plug.
“When the decision came to halt development on the game we left the servers open so that our small but passionate player base could still continue to enjoy the game as it was, we hope that this has been a fun time for you all (the odd server gremlin aside)!” Paradox said in the Magicka: Wizard Wars forum. “Unfortunately though we have reached the point where we can’t economically justify to continue running the costly server infrastructure.”
Magicka: Wizard Wars will continue to run until July 21, but all items and bundles with a real-money cost have been either removed or converted to Crowns, the in-game currency; players with real-money boosters that expire after the shutdown date should contact Paradox support, so it "can look into refunds where appropriate.” Between now and the shutdown, Paradox may also drop “old content we have collecting dust in our archives” into the game, although what and how much will depend on the amount of work required to make it happen.
It's an unfortunate conclusion, because Magicka: Wizard Wars showed real promise. But that potential never translated into big numbers: Steam Chartsindicates that its average player count hasn't popped up over 200 since October of last year, and it's only broken four figures once, in June 2014.
“Finally a big thanks from all of us who’ve worked on the project, to you, the fans,” Paradox wrote. “The passion and feedback from you throughout the whole development of the game has been nothing short of awesome!”
GTA 4's #WatchDogsIV mod is absurd
Chris Livingston has already extolled the virtues of Grand Theft Auto 4's amazing #WatchDogsIV mod.
Chris Livingston has already extolled the virtues of Grand Theft Auto 4's amazing #WatchDogsIV mod. For the uninitiated, it brings Watch Dogs style environment hacking into GTA's Liberty City. For a full round-up of what it enables, head on over to Chris's Mod of the Week post. For a small look into the type of chaos it supports, stay right here.
Being a child, the first thing I did on loading the game was to start a traffic jam:
So far, so Watch Dogs. But the Traffic Lights prompt reappears quickly after. I wonder...
Yup. Multiple prompts means multiple pile-ups, meaning I can stack this thing right up. Time to do that. Everybody, welcome to the jam .
What makes this so funny—other than the obvious—is that the cars in the crash accelerate every time I hit the prompt, pushing them deeper and deeper into the ultra-jam. Also, as you can see from the picture above, a man has spontaneously combusted.
That's probably not a good sign.
Nope, definitely not a good sign. We have reached peak jam. It is jam-a-geddon.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this tanked the game's framerate. My rig battled on regardless to bring you this dramatic re-enactment.
You can download #WatchDogsIV from here, and you probably should.
Rocket League's new "Hoops Mode" and NBA DLC is coming next week
Rocket League , the game that blends colossal soccer with physics-defying automobiles, will soon give players the option to hit the court and shoot some hoops instead.
, the game that blends colossal soccer with physics-defying automobiles, will soon give players the option to hit the court and shoot some hoops instead. Developer Psyonix announced todaythat the b-ball-inspired Hoops Mode will be added to the game, for free, on April 26.
Spiritually similar to the hockey-themed Snow Dayupdate that came out last year, Hoops Mode will be accompanied by a new “Dunk House” arena, which like the new game mode will be given to all players at no cost. Those of you determined to throw money at it will be able to pick up an officially-licensed NBA Flag Pack, which will cost $2 and contain the logos of all 30 NBA teams. All players will be given one NBA logo flag for free when they update the game.
The announcement is light on details, but the trailer gives a pretty good idea of what's in store: Goliath basketball, in cars, with little regard for the laws of gravity. Shots obviously won't need to be as precise as they are in real hoops, but the elevated, horizontal net will be a big change from the usual “aim-and-fire” across a flat plane. Psyonix said more information about the update will be released throughout the week.
Mod of the Week: Iron Man IV, for Grand Theft Auto IV
CAUTION: we've been warned that the site hosting the download of this mod is an attack page that exploits security flaws in Internet Explorer to bombard you with Trojans.
CAUTION: we've been warned that the site hosting the download of this mod is an attack page that exploits security flaws in Internet Explorer to bombard you with Trojans. We understand that there is no issue while accessing the page using Firefox or Chrome, but nonetheless we can't recommend installing the mod. Apologies!
The creator of the Iron Man modfor Grand Theft Auto IVreturns with a sequel: the Iron Man IV mod. It adds several different incarnations of Iron Man's suits and complements your hand and chest repulsors with new weapons like micro-missiles, shoulder darts, and a minigun. Once again, you can streak through the skies over Liberty City as Iron man, battling cops and choppers, causing millions of dollars in property damage, and terrifying citizens. And who wouldn't want to do that?
Well, Iron Man , for one. He's a hero . He'd want to protect Liberty City, not destroy it. And that's how I decided to play the mod: as a crime-fighter.
I begin my new job as protector of Liberty City in typical superhero fashion: by perching atop a tall building and gazing down with steely determination. I will defend this city from crime! I vow with determined steeliness. Of course, I can't actually see any crime from up here, so I fly down to street level, hoping to pull off a trademark Iron Man landing: one knee down, head bowed, palm flat on the street of the city I love, nearby citizens awed at the sight of their new champion.
That doesn't quite work out. At least the women I land next to don't notice my faceplant, and continue their conversation about urinary tract infections. I fly back up and try again, this time sticking the landing but still not drawing so much as a curious look. That's fine! I need to prove myself to them by fighting crime. After all, who is going to be impressed by a miraculously flying metal superhero unless he's established himself as a crime fighter?
I fly around a bit, looking for crime. It's tricky. If I fly too high, I can't really see if there's any crime going on, and if I fly too low, I dong my head into lampposts and knock them into the street, causing traffic accidents and panic. I can walk, but then I just feel like some random Iron Man cosplayer who got lost on the way to the convention center. I eventually manage to find a way to hover slowly through the city at a height of about six feet. Beware, crime!
Crime is definitely be-waring, because I'm still not seeing any of it. Eventually, I spot two men standing on the street, having a discussion. Are they plotting something? Something like a CRIME? I swoop in and land awesomely, but sort of on top of them, sending them sprawling. One rolls around on the ground in pain, the other sails face-first into a building, smearing it with his blood, then gets up and flees in terror. I feel confident they won't plan a crime together again anytime soon if that's what they were maybe doing!
After a full day of slowly hovering around the city, drifting into people with my feet, and occasionally interrupting suspicious conversations, I head back to a safehouse to rest. Though I'm hit by a car at one point, I was sort of jaywalking, so I don't take any further action against the driver. This time. You're just lucky I was committing a crime when you committed your crime.
The next day, I leave the downtown area and head to the projects, hoping to find a whole bunch of crime. It's the projects, after all. I've seen The Wire . Shortly after I land, I witness a taxi cut a corner and knock over a pedestrian. The pedestrian seems unhurt: he gets up and chases the cab angrily, but the cab doesn't stop. Hit and run! That's a CRIME! Now, to FIGHT IT!
I blast the taxi with my repulsor ray, figuring the cab will stop, allowing me to then punch the driver in the face. Only then will justice be served. The cab bursts into flames and two people jump out, screaming, and run off together. Whoops! Didn't even consider there might be a passenger in the taxi, and now I'm not sure which is which and who to justice-punch. I decide instead to just completely destroy the cab with another blast. That will be a lesson to whoever the driver is. A lesson... ABOUT CRIME.
Just as I'm blasting the cab, an SUV drives in front of me, taking most of the blast. It too catches fire. Then the cab explodes. Then the SUV explodes. There may have been some other cars nearby. They explode. The police show up, presumably to thank me, but I fly off. I'm not in this for gratitude, fellas! I'm just here to protect the city. As the boys in blue fire their guns excitedly into the air (to show their support, I'm sure) I fly off to find more crime.
I'm on the waterfront, eying everyone suspiciously while they completely ignore the shiny metallic man slowly hovering around with flames shooting out of his boots. I notice a man in a suit has dropped a shopping bag, possibly because someone bumped into him, possibly a shiny metallic man who can't control his hovering very well.
He apologizes to me, which is nice, but then he walks off, leaving the bag on the ground. That's littering. That's a crime . Now, how to fight it? Missiles? I'm thinking missiles. I blast the man, as well as someone standing near him (an accomplice!) and they careen off into the air. They won't be littering again, unless you count their charred bodies falling in crispy chunks all over the city (I don't count that). As the police arrive-- too late to help, AGAIN!-- I fly off, once again modestly refusing their thanks, even as some of their thanks ricochets off my legs and back.
I head to the docks. Gotta be some crime at the docks, right? I've seen The Wire . There, I spot some workers, but they're not working. This might be one of those things the mafia does, where they give jobs to mob goons, but the goons don't have to do any work and yet still draw a paycheck. I've seen The Sopranos . I target two of the "workers" and fire darts into their heads. As they die, they drop giant stacks of manicured, banded bills. Yup. Mafia goons. Normal citizens wouldn't be carrying giant stacks of cash like that. Looks like I made the right call by shooting them in the brain with murder-darts. I dart a couple other people who also happen to be standing around, just to be safe. Safe from CRIME. Also, shooting darts into people is hilarious. Their hats fly off and they die!
The next day, I fly over to the airport to give some airline passengers a thrill as I fly by the windows of their plane, superhero style, only I crash into the plane and the cops show up with helicopters and start shooting at me. Looks like I've gone from hero to anti-hero. I get it. The cops need someone to blame, someone to take the fall. I've seen The Dark Knight . Fine. I will shoulder that burden. Because I can take it.
A few minutes later, someone honks at me as I cross a street. That's probably a crime, right? At the very least, it's rude. After I blow up the car, the police arrive again. Rather than fly off, I decide to go ahead and take them on. This is what happens with heroes. Sometimes, they fight each other. It happens in the comics all the time and the heroes have a spectacular battle with each other. It gives them a chance to flex their muscles, and no one really gets hurt. This is a little different because I kill, like, fourteen cops. Choppers arrive and I start shooting them out of the air while flying, which is awesome. Then some hovering robot drones added by the mod come flying over, and they blast me out of the sky. Then I'm dead.
I won't lie, this mod is a bit buggy. Sometimes my ears and hair show through the sides of the helmet, and sometimes the powers stop working, but re-equipping the armor seems to fix that. The mod is also a lot of fun, even if you decide to just blow things up instead of being a responsible hero like me.
Installation : I won't lie, the installation is not a breeze. You have to download and install OpenIVand then download the modand do a lot of file-backups and pull things from folders and drop them in other folders and edit files and it sort of takes a while. It's well worth it, though, and the Read Me included with the mod download is detailed and easy to follow.
Dev Links: Candy Stripes
“In a talk at the DICE Summit on Wednesday, Supergiant Games co-founder and studio director Amir Rao ( Bastion ) talked about the year-plus his team spent taking Bastion to different platforms.
In today’s Developer Links: web design, video game websites, and serial cross-platform development.
Bastion ‘s Argument For Doing Away With Cross-Platform Development(Gamasutra)
to different platforms. Along the way, he urged the audience to get away from the concept of simultaneous ‘ports’ and ‘lead SKU’ and towards a thoughtful, non-parallel multi-platform development process.”
Apple Pie Chart(Mommy’s Best Devlog)
“ Serious Sam Double D XXL is super close! Go go go! Time to let people know! What’s so cool about it? Let’s tell everyone! That’s what most of my time is devoted to currently and it’s getting very exciting! We’ll be heading to PAX East to promote the game and we’re even throwing a pretty big Mid-West game dev launch partyhere in Louisville on March 1st!”
What’s In The BattleBlock Theater Beta?(The Behemoth Development Blog)
“The BattleBlock Theater Closed Betawill be here sooner than we think. We’re still locking down all the details, including the beta testing dates, but we do have an exciting update to share! In addition to story levels and the level editor, we’ll be giving Beta Testers access to all the arena modes!”
A Week As Webdesigner(Computer Games)
“Probably not many of you know that before going indie, I was a (rather poor to be fair) webdesigner. Many people probably think that being a webdesigner is a creative job but the reality is that after you do the 100th website, you start to have enough… Anyway, this week I was waiting for some people to send me assets (writing, art, music, etc) so I was idle. If wasn’t Winter I would have use this unexpected “free time” to do some trips around here to relax, but since it is, I thought to finally begin the redesign of my website, something I’ve been procrastinating for too long!”
Going Forward With Drox(Soldak Entertainment)
“First off, we have Drox Operative on Steam’s Greenlight. If you haven’t already, go vote for Drox Operative on Greenlightso we can get the game on Steam. Please tell all of your friends, family, and anyone else that will listen to do so also.”
The Video Game Kickstarter Report – Week of February 8(Zeboyd Games)
“Big week for new kickstarters! Let’s get started!”
Good Morning Gato # 109 – Warm Kitty(Ska Studios)
“PAX East is 42 days away! Ska Studios will once again be exhibiting, keeping with our trend of showing at every single PAX East there has ever been. When will this dang Charlie Murder game ever be done?! You’re asking, our friends are asking, and even our moms are asking. We still can’t tell you but we can sure show you what we’ve done so far. Come see us and play and listen to us expertly dodge the “when will it be done” question! We may just have a different answer for you by the end of March (disclaimer: we also may have the same answer for you by the end of March).”
Big List of Top Video Game Websites(PixelProspector)
“I have just updated the Big List of Top Video Game Websites. All ~130 sites offer now some basic info (Country, Platforms, Coverage, About). Furthermore I have also created a spreadsheet that you can download here.”
GTA 4 ICEnhancer mod enhanced, new trailer released
Recently we highlighted the remarkable mod for GTA IV, a visual overhaul that had us all reaching for the "install GTA IV" buttons on our Steam accounts.
mod for GTA IV, a visual overhaul that had us all reaching for the "install GTA IV" buttons on our Steam accounts. Redditor dfkjsdposts with news that the mod has now hit version 1.25. The mod creators have put out a lovely new trailer to celebrate, with lots of driving and some occasional slow-mo hyperviolence. You can grab the latest version of ICEnhancer now from GTA4-mods.com.
WB Games cutting staff across Seattle studios
It's been almost a week since Canadian developer Silicon Knights reported significant layoffs at its Ontario-based studio, and now it appears WB Games will soon be following suit in Seattle. Over the weekend, the publisher confirmed it is cutting staff across its three owned studios, which include Surreal Software (The Suffering), Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R, Gotham City Imposters), and Snowblind
Indie Intermission Sunday Round Up: R.E.S.P.E.C.T
This week I look through some more great Ludum Dare games trying to bring some of my favorite games into the lime light getting them the love they deserve.
games trying to bring some of my favorite games into the lime light getting them the love they deserve. This weeks selection is pretty awesome with some geometric struggles and some colourful capers.
As always clicking the title will take you to my original article whilst clicking the image will take you to the game, enjoy.
Minimalism is a great little puzzle shooter in which you must morph your shape into that of the locks across the level to try to make it to the end. Of course it is not just about getting the correct shapes you must battle your way through this maze of unrelenting shapes to reach your goal.
My Mini Castle is a rather cute little game that has you commanding this solitary penguin to throw his potatoes at incoming slimes. It’s a very simple idea but executed fantastically with these great graphics and fun mechanics.
For one reason or another I don’t get to feature many strategy games on here so I leapt at the option to feature Production Ville . In Production Ville you must setup a village that actually turns a profit. This is made all the more difficult by everything having an initial price along with an upkeep fee that can make you think twice before expanding to open a new mine.
Mono is a somewhat unique physics based puzzler that has you taking control of this rogue circle as you try to navigate the unforgiving levels in front of you. Although Mono only has six levels each adds some new mechanics creating an ever-changing experience that is just a great deal of fun.
That about does it for this weeks round-up. I hope you have enjoyed playing some – if not all – of the games I have selected for you this week. Have a fantastic Sunday and see you tomorrow for an all new Indie Intermission .
If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!
Sanctum 2 shows up on Steam
Sanctum 2 is here!
Sanctum 2 is here! This fully rebuilt sequel to the impressive smooshing-together of the tower defense and FPS genres has been on our radarsfor awhile, and today is its debut on Steam. Haven't you just been dying to find out why those adorable alien-dogs are so intent on munching on your Cores?
"We built Sanctum 2 from the ground up, creating stunning visuals while keeping everything that players loved from the original," says Anton Westberg, Coffee Stain Studios' CEO. "We then added more characters, more enemies, more bosses, more levels, more weapons and more towers to make Sanctum 2 bigger, better and badder than we ever imagined."
I'd almost believe him if those little alien mutts weren't so darn cuddly-looking.
Sanctum 2 costs $15/£12, with a four-pack for the price of three at $45/£36. (My best memories of the original revolve around playing with pals.) There's also a DLC Season Pass—no word on what those DLCs will actually contain yet, but there's a discount if you pre-purchase the whole lot of 'em now, with the last having an estimated release date of February 2014.
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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Geometry Wars on PC Very pretty Killing time shooting lights Cons Vista only? WTF? Need joypad to actually play Getting sucked into black holes So it turns out Windows Vista was one big Trojan horse to get Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved on the PC. Vista crept onto the newest PCs, waited until darkest midnight then Pow!, delivered a Xbox 360 Live game straight
A Story About My Uncle coming to Steam in 2014
In 2012 a team of student developers was nominated for Game of the Year in the Swedish Game Awards.
In 2012 a team of student developers was nominated for Game of the Year in the Swedish Game Awards. Their game--really a short demo--was A Story About My Uncle, a machinegun-less first-person platformer about a boy in search of his lost uncle. Today, the team announced that it founded Gone North Games, a new studio that will bring a full version of A Story About My Uncle to Steam in 2014 with the help of Coffee Stain Studios, developer of Sanctum.
“Coffee Stain Studios is primarily a developer, not a publisher,” Coffee Stain's Game Designer and PR Manager Armin Ibrisagic said in a press release. “Other indie devs have approached us before, but we've been hard to convince. However, once we got a chance to play a demo of A Story About My Uncle, we were hooked. We just HAD to help these guys finish the development and publish the game on Steam.”
A Story About My Uncle's core mechanic has you swinging through levels with its grappling hook. Imagine a first person Bionic Commando, or the upcoming Energy Hook. Back in 2012 you could skip the imagining and just play through the same demo that was nominated for the Swedish Game Awards, but Gone North has decided to stop advertising and supporting it with the announcement of the full version.
“This is because we no longer feel that the demo is an accurate representation of the game,” Gone North said on its official site. “A lot has changed since then and we have added and updated tons of things in the game: prolonged and enhanced the story and narration, optimized and added levels to the game, reworked assets and characters among other things.”
There's always room for another first-person game where the focus is not making things dead, so it'll be great to try A Story About My Uncle when it comes out. You can get a feel for the core concept by watching the demo's trailer below.
FEAR materialises on PS3
Friday 18 August 2006 Super atmospheric and none-too-shabby first-person shooter FEAR is on its way to PS3 and is due to land on the console sometime in November. You can see the first PS3 FEAR shots by clicking the images tab above. Already responsible for shredding the nerves of PC gamers, FEAR combines subtle scare tactics and intense set-piece skirmishes that should sufficiently thrill early adopters
Sanctum 2 gameplay trailer shows off improved engine and animation, wiggling bums
In celebration of a trailer well done, the four heroes of Sanctum 2 spend the last 20 seconds or so wiggling their posteriors as a robot army crawls menacingly out of the sea.
spend the last 20 seconds or so wiggling their posteriors as a robot army crawls menacingly out of the sea. And who can blame them? This is a brief but exciting blast of gameplay footage from the tower def-FPS sequel, and a welcome surprise after that tantalising teaser trailerthe other week. In it, we see far the game has come since its 2011 predecessor. We also see a big armoured crab-robot, who will likely be a right git to take down.
As IndieGamespoint out, Sanctum 2 will feature an in-game graphic novel, an expanded survival mode, and more aggressive enemies that will attack the player/s on their unrelenting march to batter your power-core. It's due sometime this year, the exact date presumably depending on how many turrets you've placed in its way.
Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson starts new indie studio Mohawk Games
Mohawk Games , a new independent studio, has been formed under the leadership of Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson.
lead designer Soren Johnson. Based in Baltimore, the studio is already hard at work on a new real-time strategygame code named "Mars." Mars will be an economic strategy game in which players found colonies and compete to buy out the other players.
After working on Civ IV, Johnson left to work at EAand then social games powerhouse Zynga. When the Zynga Baltimore office closed, however, his project was shut down and he left the company. Since then, he's worked to get Mohawk Games started with an eye toward giving the real-time strategy genre a jump start.
“I love RTSs,” Johnson tells PC Gamer. “I'm just bored with what's out there. I want to see the genre stretch and expand. I feel like it's a genre that should be as varied as board games.”
For Mars, Johnson hopes to take the gameplay ratio common to civilization builders like Age of Empiresand flip it: less war, more hostile economic conflict. The game, which is currently slated to run on Oxide Games' new Nitrous engine, is inspired by competitive economic games such as M.U.L.E. Players will be charged with founding and maintaining Martian colonies, and must strategically manage resources. While the game will include a single-player mode, Mohawk's real goal is to tailor the game for 2-8 players over a "hyper-competitive" 45 minute play period. "This is a game where the mechanics are economics," says Johnson. "The end game is to buy out all of the competition."
It might be a niche idea, but the age of digital distribution has made that less of a liability, according to Mohawk studio president Brad Wardell, who says that not having to compete for shelf-space and retail attention has made games like Mars a way forward for indie studios. “The cost of making a game was sufficiently high that you couldn't make that. You had to make a safer bet,” Wardell says. “There's a real opportunity for a Renaissance in real-time strategy games.”
Johnson will also use his new-found indie flexibility to interact directly with fans, because there's not much advantage to holding back information from your most dedicated players. “The people who are most interested in your game are going to play it early, give you feedback early,” Johnson says. “You want to use as many opportunities as you can to talk about it, to get [the game] in front of people.” This sentiment is pretty similar to what Payday 2 director David Goldfarbtold us last week: the die-hard fans are allies, and being more engaged is better for everyone.
Mohawk Games is funded by the Stardock Strategic Investment fund, which also recently helped start Oxide Games. But Mohawk isn't a Stardock studio, and will remain fully independent. “We are living in the age of the independent game studio,” Johnson wrote in a press release. “[N]ever before have the development tools been so powerful, the distribution channels so accessible, and open development so valuable.”
Civilization V: Brave New World's launch trailer shows up early, and we're OK with that
Sid Meier's Civilization V 's newest expansion, Brave New World , doesn't hit PC until July 9.
, doesn't hit PC until July 9. But the drive of the human spirit to create great things is so indomitable, so profound, that the producers of the launch trailer refused to wait and instead released it today. For freedom! For progress!
Or maybe they put it out 11 days early because it's got Keith Davidnarrating, and that alone should pour some gas on the publicity fire.
We've had a lot of funwith Civ V and its various expansions, and we've been looking forwardto diving into this one. It adds nine new civilizationsincluding Morroco, Brazil, Venice, and Indonesia. The new civilizations and their leaders can strive toward eight new Wonders, including Broadway, the Globe Theatre, and the International Space Station.
Players can also look forward to conquering the world monetarily through new trade routes or bringing nations to order through the World Congress.
Brave New World hits on July 9 in the US and July 12 everywhere else. You can snag it for $30/£20.
How The Last of Us finally fixed the longstanding problems of Uncharted
You wouldn’t normally praise a remastered set like Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection for what it removes. In the case of Naughty Dog’s eternally imperiled thief, however, the deletion of time - those years between each boisterous game - has created a new kind of narrative. The back-to-back presentation tells a fascinating story on the side, of a studio discovering and mastering its craft right
Tyrion Lannister’s dead body is an easter egg in The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 is one of the biggest games of the year, both in terms of impact and the sheer size of the thing.
The Witcher 3 is one of the biggest games of the year, both in terms of impact and the sheer size of the thing. Even after completing the story and sucking the marrow from every last sidequest, there will still be unexplored corners of the map with secret goodies to be found. One such nugget takes the form of Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones’ sad little corpse.
Tyrion in a sky cell in Game of Thrones
Click the arrows to expand.
Tyrion appears to have met his grisly fate in a ‘sky cell’ similar to those found in The Eyrie where he was imprisoned midway through season one of the TV show. Tyrion (statute of limitations spoilers warning) doesn’t actually die in the cell, and doesn’t get his iconic facial scar until later, but there’s no doubt it’s meant to be him.
Here’s Rachel Weber (who, full disclosure, is the love interest of PC Gamer’s own Editor-in-Chief, Tim Clark) to explain how she made the discovery whilst exploring the island region of Skellige:
“Desperate to milk the last drops of adventure out of The Witcher 3, I decided to explore some of the areas of the map the main adventure hadn't taken me to,” says Rachel. “Out in the oceans off Skellige, I found a fort inhabited by pirates. Lots of pirates. Once I'd finished them off I went hunting for loot, but what I found was a set of prison keys. A locked door led to a cell that looked out onto the snowy ocean, and the corpse of a small person with a distinctive facial scar. RIP Tyrion.”
You can take a look at the map if you want to go see Tyrion and the sky cells for yourself, his location is at the player marker near the top left corner.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve found off the beaten track in The Witcher 3, readers? Let us know below.
A Last of Us sequel is a great idea, but it needs to leave Joel and Ellie behind
So Nolan ‘I don’t care about keeping secrets because I’ve already recorded Uncharted 4 and they can’t fire me now’ North has seemingly blown the existence of The Last of Us 2 . Okay, when I say “existence”, I mean “existence as probably just a series of sketches, plot-points and animation tests right now”, but regardless of its status, the sequel to The Last of Us seems to be a thing. Not that that
Telltale brings DRM-free Game of Thrones to GOG
Telltale Games has become the latest publisher to sign on with GOG, announcing that its Game of Thrones series is now available on the service, for a reduced price right now, and that more will follow.
Telltale's Game of Thrones will be DRM-free on GOG, as you'd expect, and will also support the new GOG Galaxyclient, which offers simplified installation and automatic updates, achievements and other features.
"Thanks to GOG Galaxy, we're able to bring in major new titles, and the award-winning Telltale series are a prime example of that," GOG Managing Director Guillaume Rambourg said in a statement.
The latest episode in Telltale's Game of Thrones series, Sons of Winter, came out this week, and is by all reports (which is to say, our review) the best of the bunch so far. Game of Thrones is available nowfor $18, a 40 percent discount off the regular $30 price, which of course includes the two episodes that have yet to be released. GOG said other popular Telltale games— The Wolf Among Us, Tales From the Borderlands, and The Walking Dead—will be added soon.
The Last of Us movie is still coming, but Druckmann says it's "kind of entered development hell"
So the good news is that The Last of Us movie is still very much on the way. The bad news is that we're not going to see it any time soon. Speaking to IGN , Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has confirmed that Ellie and Joel's apocalyptic adventure is still in the works for the silver screen but it's currently stalled. "I know I said in an interview a while back we had a table read, got
Game of Thrones episode 4 out next week, trailer now
Remember when we told you that the fourth episode of Telltale's Game of Thrones is "coming soon?" You should, it was only four days ago .
. Anyway, now we now that "soon" means May 26, and there's a trailer.
It doesn't look like the Forrester's situation is getting a whole lot better in Sons of Winter. Gared must leave Castle Black to venture beyond the Wall, Mira is caught up in political intrigue and scheming at King's Landing, Asher is sneaking around inside the slave city of Meereen, and Ryon is still a prisoner. Just another day at the Westerosi office, in other words.
Game of Thrones: Sons of Winter, the fourth of six episodes, comes out on May 26, which I may have already mentioned. In the meantime, catch up with what's already happened, and what we thought of it, in our reviews of the previous three chapters: Iron From Ice, The Lost Lords, and The Sword in the Darkness.
PC Game DRM often ' a symptom of managing by spreadsheet,': GOG.com
PC Game DRM often ' a symptom of managing by spreadsheet,': GOG.com “I would say is DRM is a symptom of managing by spread sheet ,” says Trevor Longini Head of Marketing and PR at GOG.com speaking to games™ about the various approaches that publishers and developers take to protect their IP, “when you’re an accountant and you’re trying to say, ‘How do we do loss minimisation for our game, how do we
Is this the worst frame-rate in any game ever?
Sometimes, we're shocked by how bad old games often are. But it takes a special kind of bad to be this bad. This is Virtual Hydlide, the 1995 3D sequel to an ancient NES and MSX game that nobody remembers. It was bad at the time. Now, it's absolutely shocking . Just look at the poor old Sega Saturn attempting to render a forest of flat trees, flat ground AND a castle. Ready for 5fps action? It's a
Game of Thrones: Episode Four — Sons of Winter review
Episodic reviews
You can’t buy Telltale’s adventures one episode at a time on PC; you’re buying all six in the season for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually.
for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually. We’ll review and score the whole package when all the episodes have been released, while individual episode reviews like this one will be recaps and unscored critique.
You'll find Game of Thrones spoilers in here, so turn back if you want to experience the game fresh.
Around an hour into Sons of Winter, Elaena Glenmore goads the broken and weary Rodrik Forrester into action with a pressing question: "What have you got to lose?"
I admit I laughed at the time. Elaena's words aren't meant as such, but they come off as sarcastic. Like the episodes before it, Sons of Winter reminds us that there's always something to lose, even when it seems as though the situation couldn't possibly grow more dire. Telltale's Game of Thrones series seems particularly vicious in this regard, and it clings to the idea so tenaciously that I've come to view every smile or muted expression of hope as an omen of awful things to come. At times, indeed, the series seems even more heavy-handed than George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series or the HBO Game of Thrones series, but to its credit, Telltale uses this tension to craft the finest episode in the series to date.
It's a brisk, action-oriented episode, for one, and it's largely free of the long, expository talks that bogged down our previous peeks into the affairs of House Forrester. Telltale knows we know who these characters are now, and it's increasingly willing to set aside the fan service and let the Forresters be something more than woodland versions of the Starks.
Some of the big movers and shakers from the HBO series again make appearances here, but their use sometimes feels a tad out of character. Daenerys Targaryen in particular comes off as a little nuttier than she does on HBO, as she continues to throw around words like "liar" even when confronted with almost irrefutable proof that our heroes had seen one of her dragons flapping about. She even mocks a character for flinching from one of the scaly beasts.
"Are you frightened," she asks. "I thought you'd seen a dragon before." Maybe she's fine with them snuggling her neck, but something tells me that encountering one myself isn't going to make me want to play fetch with it and feed it Milk-Bones from my hands.
Somewhat oddly, Sons of Winter sees Telltale faring better when it puts the main cast behind it. The conquest of Meereen especially gets more attention than it does on television, and Telltale uses the sequence to reveal more backstory about Asher Forrester's warrior buddy Beskha. One of the chapter's toughest choices pops up in the process, and it's followed by an excellent action sequence that feels as much dependent on light strategy as the ability to mash out QTE prompts on a gamepad or keyboard.
Sons of Winter also allows Mira Forrester to shine in King's Landing. Mira's chapters have frankly bored me for the most part until now, but the knowledge gleaned from all that chitchat allows the chapter to take on an air of urgency as she tries to sniff out information at a party. I've said before that Mira's little more than Sansa Stark, and that was true early on, but Sons of Winter sees Mira learning how to play "the game" in a way Sansa never did.
From there it's up to the Wall, where Gared Tuttle again finds himself struggling to live into his vows to the Night's Watch. Up until now, his story's almost comically parroted that of mop-haired bastard Jon Snow, but there's a significant moment here when said bastard turns his back on the Forrester squire. In response, Tuttle attempts the unthinkable. The resulting sequence is a mildly poignant reflection on the inevitability of fate and the meaning of friendship.
If there's a problem with these approaches, it's that Telltale seems to be distancing itself from criticisms that it's following associated tales in the show too closely by taking similar events and pushing them into different directions. Back on the home front, for instance, there's a scene that recalls the circumstances of the Red Wedding, but I never felt the tension I felt I was meant to since I was all but certain it wouldn't lead to the same conclusion. I also worry that the project's getting away from Telltale in much the same way as the books seem to have grown too complex for Martin. There's a lot that needs to be resolved here—a lot more, it seems, than can be resolved in two episodes. For all her confidence, Mira still seems politically weak, and Telltale seems intent on knocking the Forresters down two pegs when they move up one.
We'll worry about that later. On its own, this is a highly enjoyable episode. Scenes flow smoothly from one to another, and the only bug I saw involved a wine glass that mysteriously hovered in front of the action. (I imagine this is what Tyrion Lannister's dreams look like.) Perhaps best of all, it manages to capture the essence of Martin's world without miring itself in the same controversies surrounding the show itself over the last two weeks, but even there, it hints again that there's always something to lose.
Naughty Dog thought The Last Of Us "was going to tank"
The Last Of Us ? That defining game of the PS3 and then equally exceptional apocalyptic PS4 experience? Yeah, Naughty Dog didn't think it was going to work. In a chat with Will Wheaton on the PlayStation YouTube channel, creative directors Neil Druckmann, Bruce Straley and co-lead game designer Anthony Newman admitted that the team just wasn't confident about Joel and Ellie's adventures. "We thought
Uncharted 4 has learned a lot from The Last of Us, and looks much better for it
I didn’t love Uncharted 3. I had a good time with it, but that was it. It’s a well-produced, slickly designed game, with a great sense of spectacle, but ultimately, it all just felt a little hollow. It just didn’t thrill me, not the way Uncharted 2 did. The reason? It felt like a classic example of ‘Third Game In The Trilogy But Part Two Was Perfect What The Hell Do We Do Now?’ Syndrome. Not the smoothest
DmC uses visual tricks to look better than 30 FPS, Capcom says
DmC: Devil May Cry will run at 30 frames per second instead of 60, the gold standard of previous games in the franchise. But Capcom told Eurogamer it hopes to work some of the magic it learned with Dragon's Dogma to make the fast-paced title feel just as smooth despite less frames per second when it launches on January 15. "[At] 30 frames per second there's a technique where you take advantage of the
Game of Thrones: Episode Three — The Sword in the Darkness review
episodic reviews
You can’t buy Telltale’s adventures one episode at a time on PC; you’re buying all six in the season for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually.
for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually. We’ll review and score the whole package when all the episodes have been released, while individual episode reviews like this one will be recaps and unscored critique.
"Words are wind, Asher," says Malcolm Branfield to his nephew as he swelters in the Meereenese heat. "It's choices that define who you are."
And at last, three episodes in, that seems like it's finally the case with Telltale's Game of Thrones. In The Sword in the Darkness, there's no more need for hours of exposition and heavy-handed verbal nods to the fandom; here, the pieces are all on the table and put into motion. Telltale's Game of Thrones was a wonder before, but it relied too heavily on the characterizations and visual trappings of the HBO series, thus leaving the narrative to hobble along like Rodrik Forrester. Here, it finds its feet. Significant debts to the HBO show remain, but The Sword in the Darkness is the series' first real proof that it has the courage to strike out on its own.
Purists, indeed, may argue that it ventures too far from Martin's original, but it works as a game. Case in point: there's barely enough time to praise the Seven before three of the series' most original characters start swiping their swords at a dragon and dodging fireballs in close quarters. Most of the dragon action in the HBO series and the books takes place offscreen—tales of sheep getting chomped on there, burned farmchildren in bundles there—and the focus seems more on the logistics of containing such beasts rather than dodging flames and Anne McCaffrey-style dragonriding. Here, however, we get what could be a cutscene from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
That's only the beginning. Hints abound in The Sword in the Darkness that Telltale's about to garnish Game of Thrones' gritty base with a more deliciously generous helping of fantasy seasoning than we've seen in the series so far, such as when another key character gets told that he has to hunt down a mystical MacGuffin hidden somewhere among the grumpkins and snarks north of the Wall. Parallels could be drawn between Bran and company's snoozy quest for the three-eyed crow, but there's a treasure hunting aspect about the whole affair coupled with the pangs of divided loyalty that gives this new quest a flavor of its own. If handled correctly (the journey doesn't start until the next episode), it should be enough to boost one of the game's most humdrum storylines into its finest.
But the episode's focus on loyalty manages to overshadow all this hubbub about dragons and things that go bump in the snow. Way up in the north, poor Gared Tuttle finds reason to question his Night's Watch vows mere moments after he speaks them (through a nifty button prompt sequence that could almost pass for a sing-along in happier animated settings). Way down in King's Landing, Mira finds herself torn among multiple loyalties—those of her friends and two of the bigger names in Martin's canon. Even Lord Rodrik Forrester must choose his loyalties, particularly after the arrival of fourthborn occupier Gryff, whose behavioral similarities to Back to the Future's Biff are as annoying as the the wart on his lower eyelid is distracting.
All this creates necessary tension, but the relevant choices come a little too quickly after we're introduced to the circumstances. By the end it's easy to predict when a Big Decision is coming up, to the point where it ventures dangerously close to humor. It's sort of like, to take a hypothetical example, seeing Sansa Stark swearing a vow to Tyrion that she'll never eat lemon cakes again, and then watching as—not two minutes later—Cersei offers her a greater degree of freedom as long as she chats over a plate of nice, fresh platter of lemon cakes. Such scenarios come with the one-two force of a Jack Dempsey beatdown. When the episode's end comes without one of the Big Important Choices we've come to expect from the series, it's hard not to think it's because the writers already outdid themselves over the previous two hours of gameplay.
The good news is that all this rarely gets in the way of enjoying The Sword in the Darkness. It's easily the series' most balanced episode to date, with action sequences requiring carefully timed swipes of keyboard keys or gamepad buttons coming almost as soon as I grew weary of chitchat from the dour-faced cast. People die and friendships arise from seeming enemies, but through it all there's a glimmer of hope amid the chaos. This being George R.R. Martin's world, there's always a chance that some rough-booted brigand will stomp on that hope and force it to suck mud between its teeth. Martin may not have written The Sword in the Darkness, but it's the first episode that's felt like a new creation of his. I like it, and I don't think it's a stretch to say that I'm now looking forward to the next installment of Telltale's series than I am to the HBO show. As a book reader, I have a pretty good idea of where HBO's latest season is headed, but this, at last, feels like something entirely new.
The Last Of Us Left Behind is now a stand alone game. No excuses: play it
The Last Of Us ' lovely DLC Left Behind is now available as a stand alone game according to an announcement on the Sony blog . So, now there's no excuse not to play it if you traded in your copy of TLOU early and missed it on PS3. It's going stand alone on PS3 and Ps4 though so everyone can have a go if they haven't already. It's a short little story following Ellie both before and after teaming up
DICE dev says Star Wars Battlefront trailer is 'how it looks right now' on PS4
You may be a bit skeptical about Star Wars Battlefront looking half as good as its impressive debut trailer when it releases in November. Everything about it is just so pretty , from the lush green leaves to the polished contours of Darth Vader's helmet (check out the Star Wars Battlefront trailer and all the info ). But according to assistant producer Jesper Nielsen, that's how it looks right now
Game of Thrones: Episode Two — The Lost Lords review
episodic reviews
You can’t buy Telltale’s adventures one episode at a time on PC; you’re buying all six in the season for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually.
for $30/£23—so it doesn’t make much sense for us to score each one individually. We’ll review and score the whole package when all the episodes have been released, while individual episode reviews like this one will be unscored criticism.
You'll find Game of Thrones spoilers in here, so turn back if you want to experience the game fresh.
Asher Forrester, long exiled to Essos from his native Westeros, reminds me more than a little of Chris Pratt as Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy. If he suddenly pulled out a Walkman around Slaver's Bay and started jammin' to The Jackson 5, I barely would have noticed. The painting in the Forrester great hall in Telltale's previous episode led me to believe that he'd be some grim, hulking Viking warlord lugging a six-foot battleaxe, but here's a guy I wouldn't mind barhopping with on Friday nights.
His character sets the tone for the episode as a whole. "The Lost Lords" is an episode of surprises with generally positive twists, and Asher's happy-go-lucky approach to his mercenary life in Yunkai (and his decidedly smaller axe) comes as merely the first. Even more surprisingly likeable is his female companion-in-arms, Beskha, whose scarred face and determined demeanor suggest a woman who could conquer Westeros herself while Xena the Warrior Princess was still busy getting ready.
Mere minutes in, she and Asher battle together, their swords disemboweling and delimbing guards as I mash button prompts and flick left and right as the screen commands. (Yes, I prefer a controller for this type of thing.) It's the first truly engaging fight scene of the series so far, fought by the first "couple" I've cared about. There's a quiet chemistry between Beskha and the wayward Forrester son; so much that, in true Martin style, it's hard to shake the feeling that these two are going to come to a bad end.
Or will they? "Iron from Ice" surprised me with death; "The Lost Lords" stunned me with life. Perhaps to a fault. A key character once thought dead turns out to be quite all right, after all, and he didn't even need a helping hand from R'hllor (although he definitely looks like he did). It's handled quite well and it's a plausible enough scenario, but it results in an episode that feels less like Game of Thrones and more like Family Guy resurrecting Brian for latter day broadcasts. The "Lazarus" in question is a welcome addition to the narrative, although the timing involved all but exposes him as a scarred deus ex machina.
From there it's off to The Wall where Gared Tuttle—Jon Snow lite—finally meets his mumbly archetype. Much like Jon Snow's first trip to The Wall, the setting change feels like the introduction of an entirely new character, and thus the segment sags a bit as Gared has to show off his skills and impress the in-crowd. Still, it points to better if familiar things ahead. Just like Snow, Gared learns how to handle himself among the rogues and ruffians he's now forced to call brothers, and just like Jon Snow, he takes a ride to the top of the wall to get a good view and a new perspective on life. The way things are going, we'd only need another version of Longclaw for the two to achieve synthesis.
Speaking of which, I said in my last review that young Mira Forrester struck me as a near-clone of Sansa Stark, but here she shows a degree of initiative that Ned Stark's little princess never had. This time around, she's less caught up in chitchat in King's Landing (although there's still plenty of that) and more concerned with demonstrating for the likes of Arya Stark that even handmaidens can wield needles with surprising dexterity.
Pity then, that the ultimate significance of the choices involved remain as iffy as it was in the previous episode (and, indeed, as it is in all Telltale games). Big decisions have an air of inevitability about them, and it's disheartening to see how little my choice of Sentinel in the first episode really mattered. I cheated a bit on a major decision by Alt-F4ing not long after making each different choice, and each time the awful turn of events unfolded no matter how I conducted myself. Is this a commentary on destiny or just the constraints of the design? Or, hell, just poor writing? I can't say.
But what I can say is that The Lost Lords sees Telltale putting aside the crutches of Martin's beloved characters and finding the strength to walk on its own. It stumbles a bit compared to "Iron From Ice," yes, and on the technical side, I experienced an issue in which the game froze up at the end on three playthroughs when I was supposed to see other players' choices. (This may spring from my early access code, but it wasn't a problem before.)
Yet there's some spirit here that may allow the series to break into the sprint it needs. Asher and Beskha bring a tale that may emerge as the series' strongest point, and the new figure in the Ironrath Forrester storyline works so well that he practically reboots the story. That, too, leads to problems, as some of the story feels rehashed as a result, and at one point I found myself in a situation roughly parallel to one I'd already seen back in December. But if there's any proof that Telltale has captured some of the same magic Martin and HBO have caught, it's that I wouldn't hesitate to experience it all over again.
The Free Bundle Offers Five Indie Games For…Free!
Running through February, the Free Bundle is offering five indie titles for the price of none.
is offering five indie titles for the price of none. The bundle organizers are the Cabrera brothers, the developers of Cypher , the cyber-punk text adventure I reviewed last year, and they encourage everyone who participates with the Free Bundle to visit the game developer’s websites to donate for the development team’s efforts.
“We want to give real indie developers a chance to show their work,” the brothers explain on the Free Bundle’s website. “It seems the definition of indie game developer has… changed over the last few years. Today, we see guys with big offices, several published games (some even by Sony or Nintendo) and ten, twenty employees call themselves indies and we slowly shake our heads. See, we [feel] that while these guys are small devs, they are not exactly “indies” anymore.”
The Free Bundle features Nitronic Rush from Team Nitronic, Ascension from Magnesium Ninja Studios, Celestial Mechanica from Roger Hicks and Paul Veer, Iamscared from Ivan Zanotti, and Abobo Big’s Adventure from Team Bobo.
All of the games are available for Windows, but only Celestial Mechanica and Abobo Big’s Adventure will work for Mac users.
If you know (or have) a free independently developed title you would like to submit for the next Free Bundle , email the Cabrera brothers at tip@cabrerabrothers.com. The only requirements is that the game cannot be a browser-based game, and it has to be free.
Spread the word and participate in the Free Bundle , today. Visit the official websitefor access to the games available for download.