Notch might end up in the next Total War game

As reported on Eurogamer , Creative Assembly are doing their best to get Notch motion captured for their next Total War game.

, Creative Assembly are doing their best to get Notch motion captured for their next Total War game. Where/when/how/why is this happening? That's still something of a mystery. Motion capture is a hot topic on PC Gamer today. Even horsesare at it.

Earlier today Creative Assemblysent Notch a tweet, saying "Hey Notch. How would you like to be in the next Total War game?"

Notch replied: "It's going to feature fat guys sitting around a lot and grunting when they finally do stand up?" before confirming his interest: "'cause if it does, I'm DOWN! YEAH!! Assuming schedule works out and all that. When? Where? How?"

Since those tweets, Community man at Creative Assembly, Craig Laylock has shed some lightinto the invite: "I love that he enjoys making games for the fun of making good games. That's what it's all about."

Notch is the hatted creator of Minecraft. We'll have more on the Total War/Notch collaboration as and when it breaks.

Battlefield 4 to get new, more multiplayer-friendly UI

Battlefield 4, Hardline, and the upcoming Battlefield 1 are to get new user interfaces, a post on the Battleblog reveals.

reveals. This new UI has been designed to "improve the experience of playing with friends", and will allow you to "easily swap" between all three games, providing you own them.

Along with a recommendation engine that will suggest maps and modes you might like to play, you'll be able to create a squad before entering the game. The new UI is now rolling out in beta form for select Battlefield 4 owners, with more testing opportunities "in the coming months". It sounds like the new UI will be in Battlefield 1 at launch on October 21, and then will come to Hardline soon after, so I'd expect the new UI to be consistent across all current Battlefields by the end of the year.

IGM Interviews – Jasmine Greene (SaltyPepper Games)

When it comes to “runners”, most think of the endless runner genre and the multitude of games that clutter the App Store and Play Store.

When it comes to “runners”, most think of the endless runner genre and the multitude of games that clutter the App Store and Play Store. With that in mind, it can be easy to overlook or outright dismiss a game just by catching a few seconds og gameplay footage and assuming, “Oh, it’s just another one of those.” However, in the case of Once Upon a Runner , the upcoming fairytale-themed runner developed by SaltyPepper Games, mistaking it for any ordinary runner would do the project, and team, a disservice. I got the chance to speak to Lead Designer Jasmine Greene about the game, their soon-ending Kickstarter campaign– which is in dire need of support – and her new role that’s seeing her work with a team, as opposed to developing solo, for the first time.

Indie Game Magazine: Your Kickstarter bio says you dabbled in game design on a 1990’s Mac. What sort of software were you working with back then?

Jasmine Greene : Oh man, it was just the basic editor on Mac where I was able to animate a ball across the screen. I don’t even remember what it was called, but you could click the ball and move it around the screen and avoid obstacles. You could also add Venetian blind effects!

IGM: This is your first group project, right? How has the experience differed from developing solo?

Jasmine : When working in a group you can get feedback. So if something sucks, the group will speak up. Which is great because you don’t really get that working solo, you get so involved in what you’re doing that you forget what other people might think about it.

As the lead designer it’s also been interesting, as I’ve had to direct other people below me. Sometimes it’s harder since you have to deal with so many other people and keep them moving forward.

IGM: is it difficult to explain your vision to other team members? or has everyone been on the same page for the most part?

Jasmine : For the most part people have more or less been on the same page. I create pretty detailed Game Design Documents, and for the artists I try to pull up as many reference images as possible to make it easier for them. Of course, things might still get lost in translation, but generally speaking we’re all pretty good about asking questions and clarifying things that might not be too clear.

IGM: that’s good. Okay so getting into the game itself: What separates Once Upon a Runner from the other sidescrolling runners out there on a mechanics level?

Jasmine : Well there are a couple things: Traditionally in runners you just well…run and avoid obstacles. Here, since Ella is a fire mage, we give her the ability to shoot fireballs. This leads into the other difference, which is the boss fights. In later fights you’ll need the fireballs in order to defeat the bosses.

IGM: How do the boss battles play out, if they differ from the traditional gameplay?

Jasmine : They all play a little differently. So the earlier levels you will have to survive and avoid some kind of obstacle. In later ones, you will not only have to avoid obstacles but also figure out how to bring down the bosses’ HP. There’s a bit of a ‘puzzle’ element to it.

IGM: Are there other power ups or abilities that Ella acquires during runs?

Jasmine : Yes, she can receive a crystal magnet and a shield. She can also pick up additional hearts.

IGM: She has additional costumes too, right? Will Ella’s different outfits offer additional gameplay advantages, or are they aesthetic?

Jasmine : Yes, she has 9 different outfits and they’re purely aesthetic.

IGM: And there are 6 different fairy tale worlds to play through? Are they inspired by a particular version of these classic stories? Disney or Grimm?

Jasmine : Yes there are 6 different worlds. I would say that they’re more our personal take on the fairy tales, so there’s a little Disney in there and there’s a little from the original. We wanted to give a fresh perspective on these stories though, which is something that Ella gives us. So if anything, it’s Ella’s take on the stories.

A little spoiler, there’s also a little nod to Popeye as well.

IGM: Oh, yeah? That’s interesting. Since most of the story takes place via hand drawn comic panels, was there ever any talk about creating a tie-in comic?

Jasmine : We were actually in talks about maybe even an animated short, but nothing solidified as of yet. We definitely think there’s a lot of story that we could explore even within this small narrative though.

IGM: Looking at the kickstarter and backer rewards, one of your higher tier rewards for backers is an interview with a department head about the studio’s next game. What made
you decide to include that as a reward?

Jasmine : We wanted a way for the community to really get in on the ground floor with the developers and actually feel like they’re contributing to our game. What better way than a direct line of access to the department heads?

The reward allows you to ask us questions, try out the prototype before anyone else and give us feedback. Essentially, you’ll help shape our future game.

IGM: Community feedback is usually one of the most important aspects of crowdfunding. But in your case, most of the game was conceptualized before the campaign. Has community feedback altered the game at all, since it was already so far into development?

Jasmine : Definitely! We’ve been taking into consideration a lot of what people have told us, or that we’ve noticed while people have tried out our game; making things more easy to distinguish, adding counters, etc.

We’ve been looking at the game for so long that sometimes it’s hard to see what might be confusing for other people!

IGM: Yeah, that makes sense. In terms of future content, How would Hard Mode and Sudden Death Mode differ from the standard mode?

Jasmine : Hard mode will have several differences from standard: 1) The game will be faster. 2) Bosses will be harder. 3) Obstacles will be randomized. In Standard mode, obstacles are set in place so you can learn the board. Not so with hard mode.

In Sudden Death, you will only have one heart to get through all the levels, and if you die, then you will have to start from Level 1 again.

IGM: Are there any other future updates in the works?

Jasmine : Sure. We have several ideas that we’d like to add, maybe a memory mini-game for extra in-game crystals and some quests, there might even be an additional level.

IGM: Okay, that’s all the questions I’ve got for you. Is there anything else you’d like to add for folks interested in the project on the fence about backing?

Jasmine : Sure. The rewards listed aren’t really the only things that you get when you back us, you’ll actually be responsible for kickstarting an indie development company, and ultimately help us create more games. We’re also always open to any questions or comments you might have.

What Shogun II can learn from the original Shogun: Total War

At 9.40 this morning, one of my geisha entered the quarters of rebel general Homma Katsunaga.

At 9.40 this morning, one of my geisha entered the quarters of rebel general Homma Katsunaga. By 9.43 Katsunaga was hanging from a rafter by a lute string, and I was one mouse-click away from ruling all sixty provinces of Sengoku-eraJapan. A fun festive season of Samurai slaughter was drawing to a close, leaving me one satisfied, surprised and slightly fearful gamer.

Fearful? After a couple of happy weeks with the TBS/RTS hybrid that catapulted Creative Assembly into the big time, the idea of a sequel seems both splendid and scary. There's no question that Total War: Shogun 2will be prettier than its progenitor, and offer far more extensive multiplay options. What remains to be seen is whether ten years of Total War feature-creep will end-up enhancing Shogun's single-player side or suffocating it.

It's easy to forget just how sylph-like Shogun was in comparison to the games that it sired. There's no naval dimension, no research, no retinues, no missions, no artillery, and no history-twisting super-units (though Korean grenadiers arrived promptly via the add-on). What's remarkable is that you're unlikely to find yourself yearning for any of these omissions while playing. Their absence may actually make for a more focussed, fluid and enjoyable campaign experience.

Shogun's strategic AI certainly has characteristics I'm hoping to see in the sequel. Though reluctant to strike the first blow and slow to band together against mutual threats, computer-controlled factions are pleasingly plausible once riled. Often a rival daimyo will vacate a province rather than attempt to hold it with an understrength army. When they do finally come, invasion forces tend to be large and multifarious. There's none of that fending off mosquito-sized raiding parties for turn after tiresome turn.

My positive memories of Shogun's battlefield AI were, I now realise, a tad rose-tinted, but even in this area, I think the old soldier has something worth passing on to its handsome replacement. As in later instalments there are times when opposing armies seem utterly clueless. You'll witness foes dithering under missile fire, squandering their leaders, and spectacularly failing to exploit topography. What they are however are unpredictable in their ineptitude. At times they come like lambs to the slaughter and at others stubbornly refuse to leave the heights or woodland they've chosen (?) to occupy. Morale feels more fragile, complacency more dangerous on a Shogun killing field.

The rather clumsy reinforcement mechanism keeps you on your toes too. Several times during the last fortnight I've been waiting for a hard-won victory screen to display, when suddenly another batch of enemies has appeared from nowhere and the desperate struggle has begun anew. By the time the real final curtain falls battlefields are often amazingly corpsey. There's an epic feel to some of the engagements that you just don't find in the more recent TWs.

Of course the less said about the awful castle assaults the better. If you choose to storm a citadel rather than starve the defenders out over the course of several turns (one turn = one season) then usually you'll find yourself facing a garrison whose idea of defence is to stand patiently in an open gateway awaiting death-by-arrow-shower. Battles for fortifications may have been weak in Empire but they were infinitely superior to the pointless pantomimes in Shogun.

Retreat code is another shortcoming that nostalgia may have scrubbed from your memory. In their eagerness to leave the field routing troops will happily elbow their way through packs of katana-wielding opponents. It's beyond silly.

Aspects of Shogun's AI might not have stood the test of time, but its theme shines as brightly now as it ever did. Picking up the game ten years on, the world of samurai and shinobi, ashigaru and arquesbusiers, daimyo and dojos still feels fantastically fresh and alluring. Hardly surprising when, with the odd exception, so few games have explored it since. While in later TWs there's sometimes the feeling that the setting is chafing with the mechanics, in Shogun the marriage is almost Zen-like in its perfection. From the self-contained sea-hemmed map, to the obliging history with its warring clans and dash of gunpowder and Christianity, everything seems tailor-made to suit a game that blends turn-based empire building with real-time battles. It's hard to imagine CA ever finding a more natural fit for their approach.

Another advantage of the feudal Japanese setting is most of us know sod-all about it. I pray Creative Assembly never get round to that WW2 or WW1 game they've hinted at. If they do they're going to be crucified for every underarmoured Panzer and overstrength Balkan state. In the perverse world of historical strategy the more your fans know about your chosen theme the more grief you get over historical gaffs and design compromises.

Part-and-parcel of the pleasure of a recent Total War title is dropping the camera into the midst of a skirmish to savour every stunning uniform and savage sabre slash. Such close-quarters ogling is impossible in the crude spritey world of Shogun, but the game does a fine job of communicating theme and flavour through other devices. I'd forgotten just how ace the agent vids were for example. Watching ninjas skewer and slice there way through sleeping encampments and paper-walled palaces, is a delight. The menu screen with its silhouetted soldiery, flapping battle standards, and distant strongholds is similarly splendid. And then there's Jeff van Dyck's wonderful music. After a few days' play it's impossible to look at a Shogun screenshot without hearing thunderous drums, trilling flutes and clashing cymbals sounding in the distance. He might not have had a full Taiko ensemble at his disposal back in 1999, but it hardly seemed to matter.

So, Shogun: a tough act to follow, but not so flawless the idea of a remake is appalling. If the lads and lasses from Sussex can just hone that AI and resist the sort of showy embellishments that confuse combat and bog-down decision-making, they are surely onto a winner. Let's hope they've been reading their Basho:

Do not forget the plum,

blooming

in the thicket.

Our Battlefield 5 wishlist

A new Battlefield game is coming .

. We don't know what it will look like yet (Update: it's probably going to Wold War I), but our clan leader John Strike can't wait to find out. He's played the Battlefield series almost every day for years, and his love of military shooters stretches back to the glory years of Operation Flashpoint. We asked him for a wishlist for Battlefield 5. Here are his big requests, what are yours?

A smooth launch

For its community to thrive, Battlefield 5 needs to release in good shape.

For a week or so after release, Battlefield 4 wouldn’t let me join servers and Origin consistently failed to launch. When I found my way into a game I experienced hefty, unpredictable frame drops while venturing into certain map areas. Even Battlelog was broken. I remember seeing my own username five times in my friends list.

Patches in the follwing months gradually improved matters, and by 2015 it was thriving. Still, that launch left a bad taste; a lot of people felt they’d just paid top price to be beta testers. For those players to give the series another chance, Battlefield 5 simply needs to work on release.

Back to basics

Each element of Battlefield 3’s DLC added not just new vehicles, but new game modes, equipment and generally more ways to kill and be killed. AC130 gunships, mobile missile vehicles, EOD repair bots and motorbikes were just a few of those new features.

When Battlefield 4 launched it kept all of those new elements, then re-introduced Commander Mode from BF2. Soon BF4 gained even more features and items via its own DLC campaign. Cruise missiles, exploding airoplane drones, one-man flying pods, remote controlled RAWR bots and constant automated lock-ons all became part of an overwhelmingly complicated experience.

Battlefield 5 needs to harness the simplicity we all loved from earlier games such as Bad Company 2, and apply it in the context of a contemporary shooter. BFBC2 struck the perfect balance. It was great to play, beautiful to look at and at brought the series up to speed with an early-ish iteration of the Frostbite engine.

It's a tricky challenge: how do you strip back unnecessary elements without players feeling as though they've lost something? It's worth the effort, though. The resulting purity could make BF5 special.

A cap on 'infectious' weapons

Battlefield 4 introduced DMR weapons for every class, essentially doubling the amount of long-range snipers in the game. Since then it's been left to the community to limit those weapons on a server by server basis.

Sniping, particularly in hardcore mode where one-shot-kills are common, creates a huge problem that I’d love DICE to tackle in Battlefield 5.

Battlefield has always been about large-scale objective-based team play, to which sniper or mortar units are only an accessory. Snipers do little more than slow the game down and encourage players on your team to counter-snipe. In that sense it’s an infectious class, and one that works against the team spirit that makes Battlefield special. Since BF2, DICE have tried giving snipers C4 explosives, mortaring capabilities and equipment for painting targets, but none of that has successfully integrated snipers into the medic/assault/support teamwork interactions that make Battlefield special.

Battlefield 5 should perhaps keep the DMRs at loadout, and have a selection of limited sniper rifles available on each map for pickup. Back in the Operation Flashpoint days there might be one sniper rifle per team that had to be shared. That would be unthinkable these days, but was bold and brilliant at the time.

Mobile mortar units—introduced in BF3—are similarly infectious. They’re anti-sniping tools that encourage enemy teams to counter-mortar or play sniper. Before you know it, nobody is moving, and those who do are either being mortared or sniped by the enemy team.

Snipers will undoubtedly play a part in Battlefield 5, but I’m hopeful that at last they will feel like more of a crucial part of the team than an easy option for lone-wolves.

Crafted maps

Every map in Battlefield 3 and 4 is playable in every game mode. Arguably, the more ways we can play Battlefield’s maps the better, but a piece of terrain can't always deliver a great experience accross a wide range of modes.

Rush mode, for example, is directional and lends itself perfectly to maps like Metro, Locker, Seine Crossing and others because they’re long and constrictively narrow. Conquest works surprisingly well in these concentrated environments,  but the game slips when it attempts to build Rush and Capture the Flag objectives into wider maps.

Frequently it feels as though Rush objectives have been placed after the map is finalised, rather than the map being moulded with the mode in mind. This means players often stumble off over imaginary ‘no go’ boundaries and get caught in ridiculously exposed open areas.

Map size is important too. Battlefield 3 attempted close quarter combat with one of its DLC packs, which did little more than expose its netcode to be unfit for purpose. Although Metro is  one of my favorite maps in both BF3 and BF4, I want Battlefield 5 to steer clear of ultra-tiny arenas. At its heart, Battlefield has always been about big sprawling rural or city maps, with integrated infantry/vehicle combat.

Also, no more night maps please DICE. Every Battlefield game has been visually stunning and I’m sure Battlefield 5 will follow suit, but night maps are a wicked way to blemish a beautiful game. BF4’s Graveyard Shift is simply the original game’s Zavod map with a bag on its head. Fingers crossed no more of that from Battlefield 5.

A more concise arsenal

Cumulatively, there are now far too many weapons in Battlefield 4. With customisation options such as stubby grips, heavy barrels and flash reducers it becomes incredibly hard for new players to know what’s good, and what works.

Battlefield 5 needs weapons that are more distinctive, and fewer of them.

Grenades illustrate the problem perfectly. In other games there might be one type of explosive grenade that you could pull a pin on, cook, and throw further depending on how long you held the button down. With BF4 you can’t cook grenades, you instead choose between a grenade that blows up on impact, a grenade that bounces off walls, or a tiny grenade that goes further. Those abilities should be rolled into fewer options. I’d love the next Battlefield to be more about employing techniques than choosing from a long list of guns and attachments.

Better Netcode

Too often in Battlefield 4 smoke plumes, falling debris and even bullets appear out of sync. I play on local servers with a high speed connection and low ping, but getting killed whilst behind cover happens often. Go prone to reload and you’ll get shot through the floor. Strafe behind cover and you’ll get shot through a wall.

The game’s hit marker registration is another thing that DICE need to get right. Planting a long distance tank shell on a moving helicopter is one of the most satisfying moments in any Battlefield game, but player videos show how often it doesn’t register damage. Sometimes the opposite is true, and your tank gunner will yell at you "aim higher, you’re missing" even though you know you’re hitting the target. DICE need to make sure that everyone feels as though they're fighting each other, rather than the game itself.

Naturally we can expect a lot to be going on in Battlefield 5, but the crucial thing for me is that it works. New features and flashy graphics are the big sell to the average impulse buyer, but aren’t important to a game that thrives on longevity.

No late nerfing and buffing

Not to be confused with patches and updates which actually fix issues, DICE have a habit of fiddling around with the numbers behind the game, often important numbers long after release. The Active Protection Countermeasure on vehicles for example, was reduced to half the duration over two years after launch.

Tweaking the more overpowered units will be an important part of the early development of Battlefield 5 and something only possible when it’s released, but displacing some of the fundamental units late-on can be frustrating for long-time players.

Tough justice for cheaters

DICE already offer decent anti-cheat support—Battlelog still has a quick and easy function for reporting cheaters manually—but this must continue for the next Battlefield to last. I play BF4 every evening and good servers usually auto-ban people trying to connect with cheats once or twice every hour.

People will always try to cheat, but the servers do feel pretty well protected. If cheaters do manage to play, their own stupidity makes them easy to spot: high kills, low deaths and low rank are telltale signs. If DICE, server providers, and community admins all work together cheats don’t have a chance.

Keep the physics crazy

Wherever it takes us next, Battlefield has to retain its brilliant selection of vehicles keep its over-the-top physics.

To keep players interested in a game it needs a community, and there’s nothing a community like more than being able to take videos and share stories. Most of the extraordinary stunt videos you’ll see online wouldn’t have been possible without such great vehicle mechanics, and of course the hours of practice that people pour in.

IGM June Issue Now on Sale – Cold Nights, Warm Blood

Been waiting for the latest issue of The Indie Game Magazine?

Been waiting for the latest issue of The Indie Game Magazine? Well good news, everyone! The wait is over. Issue 38, our June 2014 installment, is now available on our websitevia Joomag. In case you missed the previous issues since our relaunch, you can find the Apriland Mayissues on the site as well.

Our Cover Story this month features the IGM-exclusive announcement of Metrocide , a cyberpunk-themed, top-down, stealth action title from brotherly duo at Flat Earth Games. Equally exciting is a second IGM-exclusive is featured on the back cover as a tease for next month, but you’ll have to pick up the June issue and read it all the way through to see that for yourself. As a little appetizer, take a look at this snippit taken from our cover story, written by yours truly. From all of us here at IGM, we hope you enjoy, and if so, encourage you to buy a copy for yourself!

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It’s always amazing to see how games come into existence. Ideas can spark from the most unexpected sources, often fueled by the likes of Game Jam events and their associated theme prompts. In the case of Flat Earth Games, the entire studio itself came together rather unexpectedly, and quite by accident. Nevertheless, they are on the verge of releasing their second title, a top-down, cyberpunk-themed, GTA-esque stealth-action experience known as Metrocide. Charging full-steam ahead, the brotherly duo of Leigh and Rohan Harris are working towards creating a game that could not be more different from their first title, the kid-friendly city-builder of TownCraft.

“Rohan and I started Flat Earth in early 2012 after Rohan accidentally pitched TownCraft to a local developer,” Leigh explained, recalling how the studio came to be. “He was using a friend of his who ran a dev studio here as a sounding board, and the guy took it as an actual pitch and suggested we work together to make the game happen. So Rohan called me up and we took a meeting with them the next day.”

Total War: Shogun 2 gets free map editor

Great news for Total War fans.

Great news for Total War fans. Out of the blue, The Creative Assembly have released the first official modding tool for a Total War game. The map editor is now available to download for free from the Tools section of your Steam library. It'll let you create multiplayer maps that can then be shared and played in custom battles against other players or the AI in Shogun 2 and this year's splendid standalone expansion, Fall of the Samurai.

The Total War series has always had a great modding community. It's nice to see them get some official support from the developers. The editor lets you mould terrain into a battlefield and then place objects to form towns, forests and castles. The Creative Assembly have released a bunch of new screenshots showing off some of the landscapes you can make using the tools. Take a look.

Our Battlefield 5 wishlist

A new Battlefield game is coming .

. We don't know what it will look like yet (Update: it's probably going to Wold War I), but our clan leader John Strike can't wait to find out. He's played the Battlefield series almost every day for years, and his love of military shooters stretches back to the glory years of Operation Flashpoint. We asked him for a wishlist for Battlefield 5. Here are his big requests, what are yours?

A smooth launch

For its community to thrive, Battlefield 5 needs to release in good shape.

For a week or so after release, Battlefield 4 wouldn’t let me join servers and Origin consistently failed to launch. When I found my way into a game I experienced hefty, unpredictable frame drops while venturing into certain map areas. Even Battlelog was broken. I remember seeing my own username five times in my friends list.

Patches in the follwing months gradually improved matters, and by 2015 it was thriving. Still, that launch left a bad taste; a lot of people felt they’d just paid top price to be beta testers. For those players to give the series another chance, Battlefield 5 simply needs to work on release.

Back to basics

Each element of Battlefield 3’s DLC added not just new vehicles, but new game modes, equipment and generally more ways to kill and be killed. AC130 gunships, mobile missile vehicles, EOD repair bots and motorbikes were just a few of those new features.

When Battlefield 4 launched it kept all of those new elements, then re-introduced Commander Mode from BF2. Soon BF4 gained even more features and items via its own DLC campaign. Cruise missiles, exploding airoplane drones, one-man flying pods, remote controlled RAWR bots and constant automated lock-ons all became part of an overwhelmingly complicated experience.

Battlefield 5 needs to harness the simplicity we all loved from earlier games such as Bad Company 2, and apply it in the context of a contemporary shooter. BFBC2 struck the perfect balance. It was great to play, beautiful to look at and at brought the series up to speed with an early-ish iteration of the Frostbite engine.

It's a tricky challenge: how do you strip back unnecessary elements without players feeling as though they've lost something? It's worth the effort, though. The resulting purity could make BF5 special.

A cap on 'infectious' weapons

Battlefield 4 introduced DMR weapons for every class, essentially doubling the amount of long-range snipers in the game. Since then it's been left to the community to limit those weapons on a server by server basis.

Sniping, particularly in hardcore mode where one-shot-kills are common, creates a huge problem that I’d love DICE to tackle in Battlefield 5.

Battlefield has always been about large-scale objective-based team play, to which sniper or mortar units are only an accessory. Snipers do little more than slow the game down and encourage players on your team to counter-snipe. In that sense it’s an infectious class, and one that works against the team spirit that makes Battlefield special. Since BF2, DICE have tried giving snipers C4 explosives, mortaring capabilities and equipment for painting targets, but none of that has successfully integrated snipers into the medic/assault/support teamwork interactions that make Battlefield special.

Battlefield 5 should perhaps keep the DMRs at loadout, and have a selection of limited sniper rifles available on each map for pickup. Back in the Operation Flashpoint days there might be one sniper rifle per team that had to be shared. That would be unthinkable these days, but was bold and brilliant at the time.

Mobile mortar units—introduced in BF3—are similarly infectious. They’re anti-sniping tools that encourage enemy teams to counter-mortar or play sniper. Before you know it, nobody is moving, and those who do are either being mortared or sniped by the enemy team.

Snipers will undoubtedly play a part in Battlefield 5, but I’m hopeful that at last they will feel like more of a crucial part of the team than an easy option for lone-wolves.

Crafted maps

Every map in Battlefield 3 and 4 is playable in every game mode. Arguably, the more ways we can play Battlefield’s maps the better, but a piece of terrain can't always deliver a great experience accross a wide range of modes.

Rush mode, for example, is directional and lends itself perfectly to maps like Metro, Locker, Seine Crossing and others because they’re long and constrictively narrow. Conquest works surprisingly well in these concentrated environments,  but the game slips when it attempts to build Rush and Capture the Flag objectives into wider maps.

Frequently it feels as though Rush objectives have been placed after the map is finalised, rather than the map being moulded with the mode in mind. This means players often stumble off over imaginary ‘no go’ boundaries and get caught in ridiculously exposed open areas.

Map size is important too. Battlefield 3 attempted close quarter combat with one of its DLC packs, which did little more than expose its netcode to be unfit for purpose. Although Metro is  one of my favorite maps in both BF3 and BF4, I want Battlefield 5 to steer clear of ultra-tiny arenas. At its heart, Battlefield has always been about big sprawling rural or city maps, with integrated infantry/vehicle combat.

Also, no more night maps please DICE. Every Battlefield game has been visually stunning and I’m sure Battlefield 5 will follow suit, but night maps are a wicked way to blemish a beautiful game. BF4’s Graveyard Shift is simply the original game’s Zavod map with a bag on its head. Fingers crossed no more of that from Battlefield 5.

A more concise arsenal

Cumulatively, there are now far too many weapons in Battlefield 4. With customisation options such as stubby grips, heavy barrels and flash reducers it becomes incredibly hard for new players to know what’s good, and what works.

Battlefield 5 needs weapons that are more distinctive, and fewer of them.

Grenades illustrate the problem perfectly. In other games there might be one type of explosive grenade that you could pull a pin on, cook, and throw further depending on how long you held the button down. With BF4 you can’t cook grenades, you instead choose between a grenade that blows up on impact, a grenade that bounces off walls, or a tiny grenade that goes further. Those abilities should be rolled into fewer options. I’d love the next Battlefield to be more about employing techniques than choosing from a long list of guns and attachments.

Better Netcode

Too often in Battlefield 4 smoke plumes, falling debris and even bullets appear out of sync. I play on local servers with a high speed connection and low ping, but getting killed whilst behind cover happens often. Go prone to reload and you’ll get shot through the floor. Strafe behind cover and you’ll get shot through a wall.

The game’s hit marker registration is another thing that DICE need to get right. Planting a long distance tank shell on a moving helicopter is one of the most satisfying moments in any Battlefield game, but player videos show how often it doesn’t register damage. Sometimes the opposite is true, and your tank gunner will yell at you "aim higher, you’re missing" even though you know you’re hitting the target. DICE need to make sure that everyone feels as though they're fighting each other, rather than the game itself.

Naturally we can expect a lot to be going on in Battlefield 5, but the crucial thing for me is that it works. New features and flashy graphics are the big sell to the average impulse buyer, but aren’t important to a game that thrives on longevity.

No late nerfing and buffing

Not to be confused with patches and updates which actually fix issues, DICE have a habit of fiddling around with the numbers behind the game, often important numbers long after release. The Active Protection Countermeasure on vehicles for example, was reduced to half the duration over two years after launch.

Tweaking the more overpowered units will be an important part of the early development of Battlefield 5 and something only possible when it’s released, but displacing some of the fundamental units late-on can be frustrating for long-time players.

Tough justice for cheaters

DICE already offer decent anti-cheat support—Battlelog still has a quick and easy function for reporting cheaters manually—but this must continue for the next Battlefield to last. I play BF4 every evening and good servers usually auto-ban people trying to connect with cheats once or twice every hour.

People will always try to cheat, but the servers do feel pretty well protected. If cheaters do manage to play, their own stupidity makes them easy to spot: high kills, low deaths and low rank are telltale signs. If DICE, server providers, and community admins all work together cheats don’t have a chance.

Keep the physics crazy

Wherever it takes us next, Battlefield has to retain its brilliant selection of vehicles keep its over-the-top physics.

To keep players interested in a game it needs a community, and there’s nothing a community like more than being able to take videos and share stories. Most of the extraordinary stunt videos you’ll see online wouldn’t have been possible without such great vehicle mechanics, and of course the hours of practice that people pour in.

Average Giants Episode 24 Pt 1 – Tinertia

IGM Presents… The Average Giants!

IGM Presents… The Average Giants! A weekly webseries where we play indie games while chatting with their developers. Come watch (and “follow”) the show live on our hitbox channelevery Monday night at 9:00pm EDT.

Or you can just sit back and watch all our live streams right here on our new IGM Livepage.

Original Air Date: August 26, 2014

Empire: Total War "still selling now as much as it was a year ago"

After a controversial launch, Empire has gone on to become one of the sleeper hits of the Total War series.

After a controversial launch, Empire has gone on to become one of the sleeper hits of the Total War series. A few weeks before the standalone Total War: Shogun 2 expansion, Fall of the Samurai was released, we asked Creative Assembly studio director, Mike Simpson about Empire's strange journey. "It's weird isn't it?" he said. "It does keep going – that's one thing about Empire, it's still selling now as much as it was a year ago and that just doesn't stop."

Empire was to be The Creative Assembly's most sprawling, ambitious Total War yet, but its release in 2009 was overshadowed by AI bugs. Passive enemies and weak AI frustrated Total War players. Simpson admits that The Creative Assembly "did take on a little bit more than we were actually capable of delivering by the date."

"We had to have it earlier, so it was buggy on release, and it took us quite a few patches to get that sorted out. But when it was done it gets closer to the product that we originally intended, and it had long, long, long legs."

Empire's vast campaign takes place across three major theatres of war, America, Europe and India. Those are just the land battles, additional coastline zones host naval battles for international trade routes, vital for securing the huge resources needed to fuel a hungry global empire. Simpson described how The Creative Assembly approach each edition of Total War, in stages of "revolution" and "evolution." New titles like Empire are designed to refresh the series and update the engine, acting as a platform for future expansions like The Warpath campaign and, follow-up games like Napoleon.

"Empire was one of those revolutionary steps, but at that point the revolutions were starting to take too long to do, so it started to take more than three years to go around and that cycle was too long," said Simpson. "So at that point we realised you can't actually throw the whole codebase away and start again, we have to do it in chunks. So we're going into more of a continuous revolution process, which seems to be working pretty well."

Empire is available on Steamnow for £10 / $19.99, and there's a demo available if you fancy trying it out. It's improved immensely in with the patches CA have added over the years, and there are plenty of mods out there keeping it fresh.

More recently, Total War: Shogun 2 could be considered the next "revolution" of the cycle. We've since had Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai, which means we're probably due another big step into a new theatre soon. Where would you like Total War to go next?

Parsing the meta of Battlefield 4

NOW PLAYING
Battlefield 4’s launch was a fascinating mess.

In Now PlayingPC Gamer writers talk about the game currently dominating their spare time. Today, Phil grapples with Battlefield 4's gun collection.

Battlefield 4’s launch was a fascinating mess. It’s not just that it was unplayable, it was downright surreal. The day it released, the PC Gamer team loaded onto a server and experienced a round of Obliteration unbound from the laws of space and time. There were invisible players, teleporting opponents, and the server-wide recreation of a scratched DVD. When your shooter resembles a high concept Doctor Who episode, things have gone badly wrong.

I didn’t play much after that—first deciding to wait until it worked, and then simply losing interest. But I do ostensibly like the series, and, more importantly, I bought all of the DLC in a sale. I figured I owed it to myself, and my wallet, to give it another shot.

The first thing I noticed was that I wasn’t having fun. The people who are still playing BF4 are very good it. I am not. I’m using the starter assault rifle, while being repeatedly killed by guns with more impressive sounding names. There’s a lot of XP grinding ahead of me.

I’m helped by the discovery of ‘noob friendly’ servers. Initially I’m suspicious. A beginner server is exactly the sort of place a Battlefield pro would go—hunting down the downtrodden and the lame for sport, just like all posh people secretly want to do. Thankfully, Battlefield 4’s server options let admins utilise a series of restrictions. Players with a kill/death ratio of 1.05 or above are barred entry. For new players, this is a land of opportunity. A place for the tired, the poor, the mediocre masses.

Suddenly, I am able to kill people. I feel this is a significant step forward. But am I having fun yet? No, I don’t think I am. The part of my brain that recognises achievement is gratified when all the XP bars go up, but that’s not the same as enjoying myself. My problem is with the unlock screen. It’s overwhelming. My biggest obstacle to meaningful success is not knowing which guns are good. Maybe this is a deficiency in my own ability to operate as a human being, but I don’t know the difference between an AUG A3 and a CZ-805. One has 20% less aim-down-sights base spread, but I’m not sure what that means or why I should care.

Worse, unlocking a gun isn’t enough—I then have to earn its attachments. How can I know if the AN-94 is the gun for me, unless I’ve tested it with a PSO-1 sight and stubby grip? I don’t have the knowledge to even conceive of an effective build, let alone work towards unlocking it. I’m left floundering with sub-par setups, and forced to score opportunistic kills against equally confused players.

A criticism often made of Team Fortress 2 is that the new weapons have left it impossible to follow. For instance, a Scout can now throw a bottle of milk at you. It’s strange and upsetting to be coated in milk, but all it takes is a moment to learn that, while drenched, a percentage of damage taken is returned to the attacker as health. It’s a clear and distinct status effect, conveyed in a clear and direct way. It’s milk. It’s recognisably different from a shotgun.

None of Battlefield’s weapons feel distinct. Deciphering them feels like having a mechanic dryly explain to me the ways in which each model of Ford Focus is slightly different. It feels less about war, and more about statistics. If a shooter is best learned via a spreadsheet, it’s not for me.

Arise, Sebastian, and Solve ‘The Last Dogma’

If you like dark comedy, and you like adventure games that keep you wondering what’s coming next, and especially if you like both of these things together, you’re going to love this announcement.

The Last Dogma , from Ukrainian developer Sasha Darko, has launched in Beta Access. The compelling story takes place in an alternate universe, one in which the United States is on an active campaign for global domination. The player takes on the role of Sebastian Arise, a special agent with Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, whose task is to track down and wipe out local arms dealers. But when a routine mission goes awry, Sebastian stumbles onto a village populated by a cannibalistic Christian cult who call themselves “Holy Intentions.” Of course, their intentions are anything but holy, and Sebastian finds himself hurled backward in time to the year 1366 A.D., where he must change the past to save the future.

The Last Dogma has a lot going for it, including advanced 3D graphics which enhance the story. It’s also as pleasing to the ears as it is to the eyes, with a diverse soundtrack and high-quality voice acting. The dark, unusual story has no heroes – not even you. The game system is like those of old-school adventures, with simple commands such as “Look,” “Investigate,” and “Talk.” The different levels have unique atmospheres and are filled with interactive episodes, physic-based puzzles, and tons of hidden secrets. There’s even an entire hidden ‘secret world,’ an abstract campaign away from the main game where you can interact with the game’s narrator.

Check out The Last Dogma on Steam, and try the Beta Access version for yourself via the Sasha Darko storefor $11.99 USD. Or download the free demoto try it before investing financially. The Last Dogma is planned for release in October 2014 and will require Dual Core CPU @ 2GHz / 1GB RAM / DirectX 9.0c / nVidia GeForce 6800, 7600, 7800, 8xxx or better / ATI 1950 or better desktop. Watch for game announcements on Sasha Darko’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel.

Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai screenshots show moustaches, swordsmen and sunsets

The standalone expansion to Total War: Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, is out, and it's a very handsome game, as these launch screenshots demonstrate.

The standalone expansion to Total War: Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, is out, and it's a very handsome game, as these launch screenshots demonstrate. Of course, most of the time you'll be floating high above the battlefield, surveying the landscape and dishing out orders to vast armies, but if you take a moment every now and then to zoom down to ground level, you'll get to see every cut and thrust. Thanks to the influx of guns, Fall of the Samurai's battles are much smokier, noisier places.

If you're wandering whether or not to pick up the expansion today, check out our Fall of the Samurai review. If you've already taken the plunge, have a look at our guide to taking Japan. If you want to see men with huge moustaches being rushed by a unit of samurai swordsmen, check out these screenshots.

Is this Battlefield 4 Easter egg the most complex ever?

An Easter egg, in videogame terms, is a fun little something stashed away inside a game that can only be found through persistence, luck, or most often, a combination of both.

An Easter egg, in videogame terms, is a fun little something stashed away inside a game that can only be found through persistence, luck, or most often, a combination of both. Remember John Romero's head, or Gordon Freeman in the Australian outback? Both Easter eggs. Some are harder to find than others, but I'm not aware of any that are even remotely as complex as this Battlefield 4secret documented by YouTuber Jackfrags.

I'll leave the specifics to the video, but just think about this: One of the first steps in the process of unraveling the mystery is decoding a Morse code message— in Belarusian . That leads to a hidden message from Julian Manolov of DICE LA, also known as JJJU, the brain behind some of BF4's other elaborate Easter eggs. And that's actually the easy bit: From there you'll embark on button hunts, a tedious logic puzzle, more Morse code, a move to entirely different map, a spot of audio engineering, Battlefield Friends, some code-breaking, and even more freaking Morse code, all on the way to a payoff that is, I have to admit, awfully cool. Possibly even worth the effort, if you're enough of a Battlefield fan to put yourself through this particular wringer.

And put yourself through it you must, if you want to reap the rewards. Unlike Easter eggs you can simply run to and grab once someone tells you where they are, this Battlefield 4 treat is hidden under multiple layers of randomization that culminate in a unique, single-use code. The video is a huge help—some of those buttons are viciously well-hidden—but there's simply no getting around the work that needs to be done. So... are you going to do it?

May 2015 | Issue 49 Sneak Peek – Waterworld Redux

Year Two keeps on chugging with our latest installment of The Indie Game Magazine !

! Mankind has often dreamed of building cities on the ocean floor. But what would it be like to be forced to survive under the water? This month we feature Subnautica , an under water experience like none other. Don’t miss our exclusive coverageas we dive into the depths of what makes this alien water world so appealing.

Then, join us as we revive and rejuvenate the MMO scene. We’ve got the inside scoop on Revival , a project that mixes current and forgotten MMO mechanics into something original. Fans who have been looking for MMOs to try something new, while paying respects to the classic staples now taken for granted as amenities, will want to take a look.

I’d like to welcome any and all who are considering subscribing to the Magazine. If you’re on the fence about the quality of IGM, and whether 12 awesome issues are worth your hard-earned $29.99, don’t miss out on the IGM Humble Bundle, running from April 30 – May 6, as it’s your chance to pick up two issues of IGM for absolutely free. If that’s still not enough to whet your appetite (sheesh, a guy has to make a living, people!), please enjoy our May issue’s sneak peek, plus a snippet of our Cover Story:

[joomag width=680 height=390 title=the-indie-game-magazine-may-2015-issue-49 magazineId=0313843001429980400 backgroundImage=%2F%2Fwww.joomag.com%2Fstatic%2Fflash%2Fgui%2Fthemes%2Fdefault%2Fbg.jpg ]

In Subnautica, the crafting station that players initially have access to in their damaged escape pod is known as the Fabricator. It is here where players build their very first survival tools. At the start of the game, the player can’t travel very far, due to a certain lack of readily-available oxygen underwater. Further hampering their progress are the dangerous types of sea life lurking not too far outside the perimeter of the pod. Lastly, another crucial hindrance is the relatively slow speed at which the protagonist can swim. To solve this issue, the game encourages some early crafting materials like fins/flippers and oxygen tanks. Flippers increase the speed players can swim at, while oxygen tanks obviously increase the amount of time players can spend outside the escape pod. For each oxygen tank crafted and used, the player earns an additional thirty seconds of scuba time. Tanks can be stacked, so as not to take up additional inventory space, so using a bunch at once won’t waste any time off the clock.

There are a variety of materials already available in the Early Access build, each of them found in different areas. Obviously, the more valuable materials are more difficult to obtain, placed in areas that are either hard to reach, or otherwise present dangerous obstacles between the player and their prize. The most typical early crafting supplies needed – in order to make things like flippers, oxygen tanks, and knives – include metal and sand. Both raw materials can be found almost anywhere along the ocean floor, and this is what the player will be primarily searching for at the start of the game. Slowly, as the player becomes more equipped to venture further outside the initial confines of their escape pod area, inventory management will become an issue. Fortunately, storage cubes can also be crafted using metal, which can then house collected materials not yet needed for crafting, or to simply lighten the inventory when planning for longer trips.

As always, below you’ll find a look at our May cover, plus a breakdown of our featured content:

Also Featured this Month : Warhammer 40k: Regicide . Check out our interview with Hammerfall Publishing, detailing what it’s like to work on one of the most popular fantasy series in the world. We’ve got the inside scoop on what players can expect from Regicide ‘s story-driven campaign, penned by a celebrated Warhammer author, plus some insight into what makes the series so enduring across games, books, and more.

Reviewed this Month : Dyscourse , KYN, Nightbanes, Ori and the Blind Forest , Toren, White Night

Previewed this Month : Armed with Wings: Rearmed, Greedy Guns, Legends of Eisenwald, Mayan Death Robots

Extended Previews this Month : Brock Crocodile, GameGuru

Indie Ads this month :

Scott in Space Boldly Goes Where No Guinea Pig Has Gone Before

Scott in Space is the debut title of developer Ragiva Games.

is the debut title of developer Ragiva Games. It follows the adventures of Scott, a guinea pig crusader who is out to save those threatened throughout his world by the evil Rhino Empire. Evil Andy, the leader of the horned havoc-wreakers, has kidnapped Scott’s comrades and is planning to kill them in a bid to take over the galaxy. Can Scott collect what he needs in order to save his friends, and ultimately the universe? It’s the player’s job to find out.

Items and enemies randomly spawn in this free-roaming, skill-based platformer. Scott in Space features rampaging rhinos and squirrels that attack with flying sidekicks; dodging both of these enemies (and in some cases, finding creative ways to defeat them) is as much of an intended puzzle as finding the best way to navigate the terrain. There are over fifty levels spanning 7 planets, and players can select from three difficulty modes:Easy, Hardcore, and Evil. Pithy, self-deprecating humor and an orchestral soundtrack round out the experience. Scott in Space is currently on Steam Greenlight, with a demo available on the game’s websitefor those interested in trying out the game for themselves.

Scott in Space is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux machines on both IndieGameStandand itch.ioat a temporarily discounted price of $14.90 USD (the normal price is $16.99 USD). Those who want to know more can find additional details through Twitterand Facebook.

Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai screenshots show moustaches, swordsmen and sunsets

The standalone expansion to Total War: Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, is out, and it's a very handsome game, as these launch screenshots demonstrate.

The standalone expansion to Total War: Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, is out, and it's a very handsome game, as these launch screenshots demonstrate. Of course, most of the time you'll be floating high above the battlefield, surveying the landscape and dishing out orders to vast armies, but if you take a moment every now and then to zoom down to ground level, you'll get to see every cut and thrust. Thanks to the influx of guns, Fall of the Samurai's battles are much smokier, noisier places.

If you're wandering whether or not to pick up the expansion today, check out our Fall of the Samurai review. If you've already taken the plunge, have a look at our guide to taking Japan. If you want to see men with huge moustaches being rushed by a unit of samurai swordsmen, check out these screenshots.

Experiencing career highs and lows in NBA 2K16

NOW PLAYING
In games, and hopefully someday in life, creating outrageous freaks is my thing.

In Now PlayingPC Gamer writers talk about the game currently dominating their spare time. Today, Ben launches a basketball career in 2K16.

In games, and hopefully someday in life, creating outrageous freaks is my thing. For NBA 2K16 I once again take it too far by ballooning brows and squashing noses until my avatar looks like a Cro Magnon man in Nikes. The result might not be as immediately appalling as my WWE 2K16 monstrositywho had Canadian flag nipple pasties and arrows pointing crotchward, but this is basketball we’re talking about here. It is a respected sport, and if you need convincing of that, please see the screenshot above.

Garbage Man, as I’ve called him, is to be my ugly surrogate (surruglygate? No) in NBA 2K16’s new MyCareer mode, a cutscene-stuffed campaign hijacked by American film director Spike Lee who insists on calling it his ‘joint’. It begins with you shooting hoops on a Harlem street court and sharing U-rated banter with your sister as close-ups reveal a gurning player who will not only break ankles, but hearts too.

Well, the hearts of college recruiters anyway. After some high school games for the Midtown Bulldogs—which my bearded 7ft 4 teenager predictably dominates as his bros cheer from the bleachers (at least, that’s what I assume “Get dem hunneds out for your boy” means), we cut to my house as a procession of suited men try to woo me. They come with stats and promises, but sadly no chocolates. I go with Georgetown as the scout they send has the kindest face, and my basketball career begins.

It turns out there’s more to this game than squeaking around a shiny floor. I have to juggle relationships, sign endorsements, and most stressfully, go shopping for expensive watches. Have you ever had to buy an expensive watch? It’s like choosing your favourite pasta shape. I instead spend my first wage on a $750 baseball cap.

Between games Garbage Man has screaming feuds with jealous friends and loud meetings with slimey agents. After the team owner muses to me that “Our lives are like a pearl necklace of great moments, strung together with the finest silk thread of memories,” I lose faith in Jones’ overwritten joint and abandon my career to indulge my creative compulsion with the game’s various customisations.

I slap a big frowny face on the front, but I feel this glumness clashes with my player’s happy-go-lucky brand.

First I delve into the jersey maker and slap a big frowny face on the front, but I feel this glumness clashes with my player’s happy-go-lucky brand. I try the court creator next, and whip up a belter: a picture of a basketballing Benjamin Franklin on centre circle, the word ‘FEAR’ written under the basket in block capitals, and speakers set to blare out an evil laugh every time someone shoots wide in a hilarious effect that definitely won’t get annoying.

To cement my court’s status as the NBA’s most unnerving venue, there’s something of The Shining about its honeycomb wood flooring dyed blood red at one end. Red rum!

I started my NBA 2K16 journey with the noble intention of creating the ultimate freak, and I end with an arguably greater purpose: manically customising everything. Now I’m off to ramp up hot dog prices, bye!

Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai lead designer on the rise of guns and "the last hurrah of archery"

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Which are better, guns, or bows and arrows?

Which are better, guns, or bows and arrows? Guns, of course, you might think, but then you have to consider the long reload times, their tendency to explode, their unreliability in wet conditions. These are some of the issues that Total War lead designer James Russell and the team at The Creative Assembly think about every day as they balance the clash of old and new weaponry in Fall of the Samurai.

"Bows can be better than guns in the hands of a skilled user" says Russell. "If you fire arrows more frequently than you a fire a gun it can be more lethal. It's not direct fire, you can fire above, and behind a rank of guns in front of you."

But then there's the cost of teaching men to wield a bow effectively. It can take years of training and strong arms to fire a bow effectively. A unit of marksmen can be taught to use guns in weeks. A big advantage. The improving technology and craftmanship also made guns a tempting option.

"This is the era where the guns start to become more effective than bows," Russell says. "The effective ranges start to become greater. This is the last hurrah of archery, guns are really taking over."

In Fall of the Samurai you can choose to embrace the new gunpowder weaponry being brought into Japan from the West, or you can fight for the Shogunate and try to save the Samurai, and find out once and for all whether bows can beat an army of gatling guns and rifles. The standalone expansion is out on March 23.

Free Battlefield 4 DLC Legacy Operations out December 15

The centrepiece of Legacy Operations is a remake of the Battlefield 2 map, Dragon Valley—a vast, vehicle-focused map with eight capture points and an emphasis on destruction.

Depending on where you arein the world, Battlefield 4's new expansion, Legacy Operations, may have already launched, but it will be available to all for free come December 15.

The centrepiece of Legacy Operations is a remake of the Battlefield 2 map, Dragon Valley—a vast, vehicle-focused map with eight capture points and an emphasis on destruction. Interestingly, the many bridges that cross the map can be repaired by Engineers wielding blowtorches. Given that they're vulnerable from both air and the water, that's probably a sensible addition.

Joining Dragon Valley is a remake of Battlefield 3's most popular team deathmatch map (and my personal favourite), Noshahr Canals, along with a considerable list of fixesand adjustments. It's pleasing to know that EA is continuing to maintain BF4desipte Hardline's release in March, and this hot on the heels of the news that Battlefield 5is in development too.

Super-Powered Free Game Giveaway as ‘Man in the Cape’ Updates

We have some good news, and some better news about Anthony Nichols ‘ twin-stick superhero vs robots shooter Man in the Cape .

The good news is that the developer recently released a massive balancing update for the game.  The biggest change to the game seems to be the difficulty. Nichols claims the game was flawed, because “It created a feeling of stress, rather than challenge”. Man in the Cape now has a room by room save system, meaning the player no longer has to reach a save point after several rooms of death and/or destruction. The loot and overall difficulty has been revamped to reflect the save system changes.

Other changes include AI improvements and some aesthetic changes. For a descriptions of changes, you can read the game’s development blog here. If you want the change by change list, you can view the changelog here.

You can view the trailer for the update below.

Okay, so the better news. The better news is we have five codes for Man in the Cape to give away to our readers, thanks kindly to the awesome Anthony Nichols . To enter the giveaway, you just need to post in this thread of the forums.If you are new to the IGM Community, why not introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself section of the forums?

You can follow the developer on Twitter, or buy the game at its website.

Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai screenshots show gatling gun carnage

The Samurai are doomed.

The Samurai are doomed. That's according to the latest batch of Total War: Shogun 2 screenshots, which show off lots of new imperial weaponry. Cannons, gatling guns and muskets will make defending the Shogunate a very tough task. Fall of the Samurai's new weaponry has to be dramatic, mind, "mild decline of the Samurai" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. We'll get to fight with the expansion's new land and naval units on March 23.

You'll find plenty more in our big preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK. Meanwhile, see samurai being blown apart and roasted in the new grabs below, which also feature some of Fall of the Samurai's new Agents.

Battlefield 5 is currently in development, says DICE rep

In thoroughly unsurprising news, there is going to be a new Battlefield game.

In thoroughly unsurprising news, there is going to be a new Battlefield game. According to a Tweet by DICE development director Dan Vaderlind, now that Star Wars: Battlefront has shipped he's been transferred over to " the next Battlefield".

A new Battlefield game usually releases every two years: Battlefield 3 came in 2011, Battlefield 4 in 2013, and Battlefield: Hardline earlier this year. Despite claiming they had no intentions to annualiseBattlefield, EA has Battlefield 5 on its release schedulefor 2016.

Whatever the case, if you weren't too fond of Hardline's militarised cop theme, Battlefield 5 will be a return to the series' more traditional military setting, according to commentsmade by EA's CFO last year. It's in keeping with the publisher's mandate to ship a new FPS every year, which means we'll probably see a new Titanfall in 2017.

Support for Battlefield 4 continues, with a new map based on a Battlefield 2 classic released last month.

Go the **** to Sleep — Second Volume of Gaming Lullabies

People who don’t regularly play games – and more than a few who do – tend to look at me funny when I mention that I adore video game music.

People who don’t regularly play games – and more than a few who do – tend to look at me funny when I mention that I adore video game music. I listen to FTL’ s soundtrack all the time, as well as those of Animal Crossing and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP , and I generally use them to provide excellent background for sleeping.

Well, luckily I’m not the only one who felt that video game music could be truly soothing, as the second volume of Prescription for Sleep: Game Music Lullabies from Scarlet Moon records, is out now. The latest volume features music from games as far back as Chrono Trigger, and as recent as Shovel Knight , and all of them are arranged to be as relaxing as possible. Gentle piano and smooth saxophone meld to send the listener into dreamland. All of the pieces are performed by GENTLE LOVE, as well as Norihiko Hibino (whom readers might know for his contributions to both the Bayonetta and Metal Gear Solid series), and the pianist AYAKI. The final track of this album is an original composition of Hibino’s, and is an attempt to further his own goals of creating healing music.

GENTLE LOVE (stylized in not-so-gentle all caps.

Those interested in having their favorite games lull them to sleep can pick up the second volume of Prescription for Sleep: Game Music Lullabies from its loudr page. Paying $19.99 USD gets buyers the first volume in addition to the second, while paying $20.00 USD or more will also net a relaxing single. More info can be found on publisher Scarlet Moon Productions’ website.

Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai release date set

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March 23 is the release date for Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai, the enticing standalone expansion to Shogun 2.

Fall of the Samurai introduces six new factions to do battle for an expanded campaign map portraying ancient Japan on the verge of an age of transition. Western weaponry is being imported in greater numbers, and factions within Japan are seeking to use them to overthrow the ancient Shogunate using the muskets and massive cannons provided by imperial forces.

The expansion will add new tech trees, ground units, naval units and agents as well. You can find out more in our great big preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which you can order now online, or get digitally through Zinioor Apple Newsstand.

Battlefield 4 gets updated Battlefield 2 map Dragon Valley for free

11 months ago on Battlelog , EA asked Battlefield 4 players: "If a reimagining of a Battlefield classic map was to happen, which map would that be?" Now, just over two years since the Battlefield 4 launched, a new piece of free DLC provides the answer.

As part of the upcoming Legacy Operations DLC, which will be available for free later this year at the same time as the Holiday Update, players will get a map called Dragon Valley 2015, based on—you guessed it—Dragon Valley from Battlefield 2.

The main technical changes include a better draw distance, increased terrain verticality, and the addition of a dynamic cloud layer that enables aerial fights above the clouds. Because the map is being brought to Battlefield 4 players can use it for Rush, a mode that wasn't available in the original.

Previous-gen console owners won't get the map because the developers wanted "to focus on the more powerful platforms". But hey, that doesn't matter to us.

IGM Let’s Try- ‘Reus’

In Reus , players control powerful giants that help you shape the planet to your will.

, players control powerful giants that help you shape the planet to your will. You can create mountains and oceans, forests and more. Enrich your planet with plants, minerals and animal life. There is only one thing on the planet that you do not control: mankind, with all their virtues and and all their vices. You can shape their world, but not their will. Provide for them and they may thrive. Give them too much, and their greed may gain the upper hand.

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Created by Wouter Swusten

Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai pre-orders come with bonus factions

[VAMS id="5GCu5k1o8V9wD"]
Fall of the Samurai is a great big standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2 that will pit the samurai classes against imperial forces that threaten the power of the Shogunate.

Fall of the Samurai is a great big standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2 that will pit the samurai classes against imperial forces that threaten the power of the Shogunate. The influx of colonial forces and new technology leads to an internal struggle between pro-imperial forces and traditionalists. The result? WAR! Katanas will meet muskets on the battlefields of Japan.

There will be six new factions to play with, 39 new land units, 10 new naval units, an expanded campaign map, three new agents, port sieges and new technology, including railways. It's available to pre-order now on Steamand the SEGA storefor £24.99 / $29.99

Pre-ordering on Steam will grant you the Tsu faction, described as astute strategists and master ninjas. The SEGA store pre-order comes with the Obama faction, who have nothing to do with the incumbent US administration. They're described as an authoritarian people "who are unsurpassed in controlling people and trade."

The official Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai pre-order pagealso lists a limited edition as "coming soon." That'll contain the Saga faction, who can quickly adopt the fresh technology brought into Japan by Imperial forces. Fall of the Samurai is due out in March.

A tour of Battlefield 4's new Operation Outbreak map

A good Battlefield map follows a satisfyingly alliterative criteria: sightlines, shelter, and suitable flankways.

Operation Outbreak, the outcome of DICE’s Community Map Projectmade freely available in last week’s, is a good Battlefield map. It isn’t perfect—some spawn zones are dangerously bereft of cover and a couple clipping snags with the geography can cause sticking issues—but its swaths of jungle and rocky terrain affords spacious ground for 64-player Conquest slugfests or the steady burn of Rush’s unceasing chaos. Much like the Zavod 311 launch map (and its alternative nighttime version), infantry combat with light vehicular support is Outbreak’s focus.

The phantom of the jungle

Outbreak’s primary highlight is its visual theme: a dense jungle of overgrown trees and foliage occasionally broken by small groups of structures—including an impressively grand ancient temple—that serve as capture points. Beyond the Frostbite engine eagerly flexing its power with strong volumetric lighting breaking through boughs and intense shadows on the terrain, the bush is a tactical boon for infantry. It provides ample means of quickly withdrawing from or maneuvering around a push or an entrenched position. The map’s small hills and bouldery crags are ideal for closing the distance to a target or objective while staying out of sight. It’s a nice departure from the high exposure factor of foot travel on Golmud Railway or Rogue Transmission.

Where Outbreak’s jungle turns problematic is when it starts disappearing. Through explosions, churning tank treads, or simply enough bullets, trees and vegetation fall over or splinter apart. Objective points and their surrounding environs take plenty of collateral damage throughout a match, and that leaves chunks of land where little remains of cover. Vehicles—transport choppers and zippy APCs, in particular—can easily prey on traversing infantry if their occupants simply clear off trees and other growth covering the most frequently used pathways between objectives.

A temple, a tank, a tunnel

Capture point B sits in the remains of a gorgeous-looking temple courtyard complete with roaring waterfalls cascading in the background. Although it’s fun tracking scrambling soldiers and trading fire atop the rubble of the courtyard, it leaves everyone wide open for long-range vehicle bombardment, and tank gunners coming from the westward US spawn can easily draw a bead to the temple from the dirt road snaking away to the main US base. A set of tunnels running beneath the courtyard tends to see clumped groups of infantry huddling for cover, so a few well-thrown frag or smoke grenades can quickly cause some disarray. The flag includes the beefy M82A3 sniper rifle as a nearby pickup to incentivize a brave sprint up top to nab the powerful long-range weapon.

Ghost town party

By far the most active area of Outbreak is C point, a ghost town of rickety shacks acting as the centerpoint of the map’s layout. Infantry stalemates are common as both teams often post up behind buildings lining the street dividing the town. Establishing a foothold takes work—the ease at which enemies can squeeze through a defensive line via the jungle makes sudden ambushes a frequent threat. Revive-happy medics and aggressive spawn beacon placement makes C point a very fluid objective, and it’s really cool dropping into the town from a transport chopper or thundering down the avenue in a tank to help teammates move up.

Once C is captured, the victorious team tends to barrel onto B or D points (the temple or a waterfront logging camp, respectively) en masse, as they’re both equidistant from C and is a natural stem from the town’s centrality. A good strategy is to break from the flock and fade into the thick canopy encircling C to set up a stealthy defense against sneaky recaptures after the main force moves on. Having that tactical flexibility exemplifies how truly challenging locking out the opposition from a point can get.

Some of the best moments from playing on Outbreak arise from witnessing the total destructibility of the town’s buildings over time. Having the power to level as many structures as possible was a popular request during the Community Map Project, and it shows best in the houses’ explosive transformation into shards of wood and metal littering the ground. High wall cover and corner alcoves turn into low, uneven protection emphasizing crouch- and prone-fire. Other capture points are just as fun to blow up: the logging camp brings slight verticality with its stilt-supported buildings while the eastward E point—a smoking palm oil plantation—has two massive tankers that carve away nearby warehouse doors with screen-shaking booms.

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Paragon – A MOBA for the people

Paragon – A MOBA for the people How Epic Games is bringing the MOBA back to the players The MOBA may just be the most popular videogame genre on the planet right now, and yet it has found itself in an oddly precarious position. Despite its enduring success over the years, the games that fall under the MOBA umbrella have a habit of being inherently divisive; communities have been divided and friendships

Dreadnought is a game of huge spaceships in small-scale combat

Dreadnought is a complex game, so while I had fun when I played it at PAX South last weekend, I could tell that I wouldn't understand the strategy after just one match.

last weekend, I could tell that I wouldn't understand the strategy after just one match. At least the controls are simple—Dreadnought strikes a nice balance between intricate ship and match customization and a relatively easy to understand control scheme, with just a few abilities and passive systems to manage. I came away from the demo interested in trying more, if just to see how deep that rabbit hole of swapping ship parts goes. You can watch my full interview with developer Tony Medrano above.

For a second opinion, you can also watch Tyler's hands-on with Dreadnoughtfrom PAX East last year.

Battlefield 4 Community Operations and Fall Update roll out tomorrow

Community Operations is free DLC for Battlefield 4 releasing tomorrow, which includes the Operation Outbreak map created with input from the Battlefield community.

created with input from the Battlefield community. My expectations for this one are perhaps a little low—too many cooks and all that—but the cinematic trailer released last week is actually pretty spectacular.

This would be a good time for a gentle reminder that "cinematic" is code for "the game isn't actually like this when you play it," but that doesn't mean that stuff like this isn't fun to watch. And since Operation Outbreak is free, what's to lose? Worst-case scenario, it turns out to be a half-baked effort and you go back to getting your online dude-shooting giggles somewhere else.

EA said on the Battlelogthat both Community Operations and the Battlefield 4 Fall Update will launch on the same day—October 27, remember, which at this moment is tomorrow—but will be separate downloads. What the Fall Update will include still hasn't been announced, but DICE LA Producer David Sirland said on Twitterearlier this month that the patch notes will eat up around 28 pages. In other words, it's a biggie.

Everything we know about Mass Effect Andromeda

Everything we know about Mass Effect Andromeda Mass Effect Andromeda is coming; if that statement alone doesn’t whip you up into frenzy of excitement and mild-delusion, then we can’t imagine anything will. The emotional scars left by 2012’s Mass Effect 3 have (just about) healed, the dust has settled on the original trilogy, and BioWare is now hard at work designing an entire new galaxy for us to conquer

Mass Effect 3 ending outrage raises $30k for Child's Play charity

Mass Effect 3 is making a lot of people feel quite angry.

Mass Effect 3 is making a lot of people feel quite angry. In addition to the day one DLC controversy, there's been an outpouring of bitterness from players upset about Mass Effect 3's ending. A group has even gone as far as to petition Bioware to change the final act to meet their specifications. We won't drop any spoilers in this post, but there will be some through the links below, so take care if you're still playing through ME3.

As Edge report, the campaign has garnered plenty of support. The Take Back Mass Effect 3 campaign has 25,000 likes on Facebook, 3,000 Twitterfollowers and 40,000 backers in a Bioware forumpoll.

All this noise hasn't gone unnoticed by Bioware. Mass Effect 3 director and executive producer Casey Hudson spoke to Digital Trendsabout what the team were aiming for with the finale. "I didn't want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people–debating what the endings mean and what's going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in," he says.

"That to me is part of what's exciting about this story. There has always been a little bit of mystery there and a little bit of interpretation, and it's a story that people can talk about after the fact."

The good news is that Child's Play has unexpectedly gained a lot of support form the movement. The Retake Mass Effect Child's Playpage has so far raised $32,502.60 for the charity. The campaign organisers say that they started the drive to "bring positive attention to our petition for an alternate ending to the fantastic Mass Effect series."

"We would like to dispel the perception that we are angry or entitled. We simply wish to express our hope that there could be a different direction for a series we have all grown to love," they add.

The likelihood of Bioware making another ending for Mass Effect 3 is ... very small. However, it's possible that the campaign will have an affect on upcoming DLC misisons, as Casey Hudson mentions: "We have some really great multiplayer content and some really great single-player content coming over the air, and their feedback will become part of how we design that."

Personally I was never happy with the ending of Citizen Kane. It was severely lacking in bears. The story of one man's corruption at the hands of his own ambition would have been much improved with a bit of unarmed man-on-bear combat. As such I'm petitioning Warner Brothers for a full re-cut of the final third. Is it what Wells would have wanted? Pfff, who cares. What do you reckon, should Bioware change the ending?

The Battlefield games ranked

Which Battlefield is the best field for battle?

Which Battlefield is the best field for battle? As always, I take the act of ranking things very seriously. We must know which games are better than which other games, because if we don't rigorously classify and sort everything in our world, we invite chaos. To that end, I created a survey to determine which game in the Battlefield series is the best, and which is the worst.

I left out some games. You won't find any Battlefields that didn't release on PC here, which includes Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Battlefield: Bad Company, and Battlefield 1943. I also left out free-to-play iterations to simplify things, so no Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Online, or Battlefield Play4Free—just the 'main series,' if you want to call it that. A little over 18% of respondents were upset that I excluded these games, but they're probably over it by now.

Which Battlefield game is the best?

the results

The best Battlefield game, according to 231 of over 800 respondents is Battlefield: Bad Company 2 . As I've explained in previous surveys, when you poll people you create a fact . Congratulations! We have produced an shining, unassailable fact that cannot be disputed ever. Please get Wikipedia on the line.

Seriously though, you guys like Bad Company 2 a lot. Only 22 people said it was the worst Battlefield. It's the simplicity and map design that does it for Connorwarman. "In more recent Battlefield titles there has been 30 different unlocks for every weapon, class, vehicle, etc. It takes a while to unlock the best gear. BC2 didn't have any of that nonsense," wrote Connor the Warman. He went on to say that BF3 and BF4's maps "just... suck IMO."

The map design and destructability came up a lot, and for a few people it was their first Battlefield game. My first Battlefield game was the Battlefield 1942 demo, and I think that's the best one. Oh well.

"Bad Company 2 was the single best in the Battlefield series for several reasons," wrote respondent Smakfact0r. "BC2 was originally known for its revolutionary 'levolution' implemented into the the game where building destruction became commonplace in the game. In addition to the 'levolution' introduced into the game you also had great hit detection, well balanced maps for rush, a server browser not reliant on a web browser, and no Origin launcher used to load the game. The game just worked and I played over a thousand hours of Bad Company 2 as a result."

Here's a fun fact, by creating the word 'levolution,' Electronic Arts is guilty of sixteen crimes. When will the government stop them?

Which Battlefield game is the worst?

the results

The worst Battlefield game, according to respondents, is Battlefield: Hardline . When I ranked the Call of Duty games, Ghosts and Advanced Warfare sat at the bottom, suggesting that newer games don't fare well. Maybe they're just fresher in our minds, viewed through regular, clear glasses with no fond memories of our introduction to the series. Or maybe new things are just bad.

Well, you guys don't like Hardline, for sure. 55.7% said it was the worst Battlefield. I thought some of the modes were pretty fun—Hotwire, mainly—but the modern day cops and robbers deal just didn't do it for my loyal survey-takers. I thought it was weird, too.

It'll be OK, buddy.

Quite a few people said that Hardline was actually fine, but still the worst of the series. "So much potential wasted," wrote Peterowsky. "By all means, it's a good shooter with awesome gameplay. However, it feels too military to consider the theme viable. I love it, I love interrogations, tasers, money grabbing... but whenever I jump off of a building and use a parachute, or hit a heli with a stinger, I think 'Doesn't feel like law enforcement'"

Others were less charitable, with many saying something along the lines of "it's just not Battlefield" or accusing it of being DLC for BF4.

"WOOP, WOOP! IT'S THE SOUND OF TH- of me hitting Alt+F4 and booting up 2142," wrote Dan Edwards. That's not how that song goes, Dan, and you know it.

What about the other Battlefield games?

Here's how my simplistic algorithm sorted the games:

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Battlefield 2 Battlefield 3 Battlefield 1942 Battlefield Vietnam Battlefield 2142 Battlefield 4 Battlefield: Hardline

Battlefield 2, as expected, was very popular. There was appreciation for its mod support, maps and classes. "The purest form of the series' design that actually works as the devs intended," wrote protato about BF2, citing teamwork rewards and "the lack of microgamed unlocks."

"The mix of squad-based combat, diverse classes and command/grunt roles was super solid," wrote Chris Orris, "and they tuned the maps to be juuust the right size to make battles action-packed but still realistic. (That is, movements felt like real troop movements instead of waves of ridiculous respawns.)"

Battlefield 2142, I thought, got surprisingly little love. I wasn't a big fan of it, but I could've sworn that every time I mentioned Battlefield someone shouted "2142" at me. The original, Battlefield 1942, saw a little more affection. It's still my favorite. I mean... Battleships. Destroyers. Come on. Submarines. Standing on airplane wings. World War II. It's the best.

Other results

Even though Battlefield 1942 didn't win big in the poll, 27.6% of respondents still want to go back to World War II. Present day and near future settings, however, are the most popular, with 48% saying that's their favorite time to do battle. Predictably, being a modern day police officer was the least popular. Vietnam managed 13.3% of the vote, and the distant future earned 9.5% of the love.

The most popular vehicles to drive are tanks, attack helicopters, basic transport vehicles (like Jeeps), and APCs. Personally, I prefer the transport helicopters. Think of me like an Uber you get to shoot guns out of.

The favorite class is Assault, followed by Engineer and Medic (the pre-Battlefield 3 class which was rolled into Assault). The Scout/Recon/Sniper classes are the third most popular, followed by Support/Anti-Tank classes, and the Battlefield 2 Special Forces class.

What do you want from the next Battlefield game?

campaign or no campaign?

Is it important to you that Battlefield games have campaigns? I thought this question would be a landslide of "no"s, but not so: 38.3% said they want campaigns. I also asked respondents to further explain what they want from the next Battlefield game, assuming the technical stuff like netcode is all aced. Several said "good netcode" anyway.

The setting was the most common concern, though. Some said it shouldn't be futuristic, some said it should, and others said it should be a WWII game. At least one person said Vietnam. So, we can't decide.

"1942 redone in the Frostbite engine, complete with battleships, subs and aircraft carriers," wrote Nom4d3. "No heat seekers, no auto lock-on, just skill, fun and the banter when you're ramming-speed the battleship into the aircraft carrier taking out the spawns and winning the match."

Battlefield 1943 was coming to PC at one point.

Other responses were about teamwork and unlocks. "Proper squad cohesion, Squad Leader mechanics (ordering, map markers, etc). Commander, and in-game commander assets that need to be protected," wrote Spush. "A more simple and straight to the point game, with less useless gadgets and gimmicks to the gameplay," said HylianGaming. "The feeling that everyone has a job in the match. People flying jets/planes, the commander ordering the troops, the foot soldiers carrying out the tasks, and the tanks crew for the support," wrote Boxcar Steve.

Modding, of course, was also on your minds. "If you truly want to bring the community into the mix, bring back modding," wrote Kyle (aka Bucky). "Extend the life of your game and stick with continued development of your game instead of moving onto your next project. The community wants to play a great game for years instead of losing the majority of your fan base to the next game in series (i.e Battlefield 4 to Battlefield Hardline)."

By the way, do you want to try to capture and hold a point?

I've played enough Battlefield to know that only 6.2% of people told the truth here.