Unreal Engine 4-powered horror game Daylight out on April 8

Last month, Epic Game's EU territory manager Mike Gamble sai d that the first major titles built in the company's Unreal Engine 4 will release on PC as soon Christmas 2014, with more coming in the first quarter of 2015.

d that the first major titles built in the company's Unreal Engine 4 will release on PC as soon Christmas 2014, with more coming in the first quarter of 2015. But today, Zombie Studios announced that its first-person procedurally generated horror game Daylight, also built with UE4, will be out April 8.

Daylight will hit PC and PS4 on April 8 for $15, according to IGN. The PC version will also have the added benefit of Oculus Rift support, as if Daylight doesn't look scary enough as it is. In the game, you'll play as Sarah Gwynn, who must make her way through a series of haunted environments armed with nothing but a smartphone, which serves as a flashlight, map, and other tools. Daylight will be different every time you play, changing up the level layout, the locations of items that populate the world, and where some events happen.

A new, interesting tidbit that Zombie revealed about the game today is that it will be integrated with Twitch chat to allow viewers to mess with the player. The example Zombie gave IGN is that typing "meow" will trigger a cat noise in the game.

Zombie Studios, a small developer located in Seattle, Washington, is best known for its free-to-play first person shooter, Blacklight: Retribution.

The Assembly trailer promises a VR thriller with "impossible choices"

The Assembly is an “immersive, interactive VR story” currently in development at nDreams, which promises to tell an intriguing tale.

The Assembly is an “immersive, interactive VR story” currently in development at nDreams, which promises to tell an intriguing tale. A mysterious organization—the titular Assembly—has been conducting experiments that go well beyond what's considered morally okay by polite society. But as those secrets are about to be exposed, two people, each with unique motivations, are given the chance to influence the future. And, as nDreams websitestates, “For better or worse, the impossible choices they face will transform not just their own lives, but that of whole nations.” Dun dun der!

The behind the scenes video released today highlights the depth and detail of the game world nDreams is trying to create. A realistic visual style is vital, but Art Manager Martin Field says “completeness” and consistency is even more important to making it a believable experience. That includes not just what players see, but also what they hear.

“Audio in VR games needs a complete reset,” Audio Director Matt Simmonds explains. “You could just use the same methods that you use in a traditional flat-screen game, but the biggest difference is detail. In an immersive environment, like having a VR helmet on, everything is so much more intimate. You're so much closer to the action. You can just walk right up to something, peer straight into it, and get a lot more visual feedback. So we've got to match that with the audio in order to make things feel more real.”

The Assembly is being developed for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. No release date has been set, but nDreams says it's “coming soon.”

Evolve is getting two new maps in April

While the kerfuffle around Evolve's pre-order DLC still dominates discussions about the game's post-launch support, it's easy to forget that all forthcoming maps will be free.

still dominates discussions about the game's post-launch support, it's easy to forget that all forthcoming maps will be free. Turtle Rock is already making good on its promise with two new mapsscheduled to roll out in April. These come in the form of Broken Hill Foundry and Broken Hill Mine.

Each map will support Hunt, Nest, Rescue, Skirmish and Evacuation game modes, with each boasting their own Evacuation campaign effects (basically, narrative twists based on the outcome of matches). The studio will showcase the maps this coming Friday (or Saturday in Australia) on its official Twitch channel, but in the meantime all we have is lowly text.

"Broken Hill Mine is a deep labyrinth of caves running below the surface of Shear. The cave system divides into three visually distinct areas: One area is a rock quarry, a venom hound nest is set in another, and the last zone has a massive conveyor belt running through it. These surround a central drill chamber. Hidden, destructible entryways allow the Monster to shortcut through the map – or to fake out the Hunters and lead them down the wrong path. The mine’s tight confines reduce running and encourages a lot of stealth and close-quarters firefights. One cool thing to look for: Look up and you’ll see the crane for the Broken Hill Foundry (the second new map) above."

"Broken Hill Foundry gets you out of the wilds of Shear and into an industrial complex. It’s an overlapping mix of open areas, corridors and low ceilings create new tactical options for both Monster and Hunter players. In the warehouse alone, there are three levels to stalk prey. Another area takes you through the streets – and to the rooftops – of Slagtown where a Monster can be lurking around every corner. Crates of bohrium, found throughout the facility, can be eaten as food for the Monster. Though the crates are easy meals, they don’t have a pop top. Breaking them open makes considerable noise and give away the Monster’s location."

The maps will release on April 30. It follows recent news on a forthcoming Spectator Mode, as well as a new patch adding a FOV slider, among other things.

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Not quite so original the second time around, Zeno Clash 2 hits hard with ideas, swings and misses on execution.

Much like its predecessor, Zeno Clash 2is a game about proving that melee combat can be more than just something to fall back on when you're out of ammo. You don't just punch and kick, but dodge an incoming blow and ram a fist into your enemy's unsuspecting head. You charge with an elbow slam. You grab a foe to pummel and throw into the clutches of pain. All in a world whose idea of concept art must have been a Post-It note saying 'Buy more drugs'.

"Zeno Clash 2 picks up where the first left off – in a state of confusion."

Zeno Clash 2 picks up where the first left off – in a state of confusion. The main character is Ghat, 'son' of a child-stealing bird monster called Father-Mother, on a quest to help free the aforementioned from a golem trying to bring... uh... a seemingly reasonable sense of law and order to the world? It makes about as much sense as anything else in this poorly told tale, which looks great, but usually sounds like the chirping of crazy people. The plot does allow for more fighting, however, and lots of it.

The combat is immensely satisfying, putting a solid thump behind your solid thumps, even if the combos are fiddly enough when used against a training dummy, never mind enemies actively fighting back. It's a brutal combat style that worked great in the first game, and unsurprisingly does so here too. It's arguably the best first-person melee ever, bringing a little Punch-Out! into a gloriously crazy fantasy world.

The catch is that while the overall world design – and fighting a couple of guys at once – can be put together, circled and labelled 'Things Zeno Clash 2 Does Really Well', you're left with far too much that it doesn't do well, or at best does adequately. When battles scale up to taking on crowds, for instance, which Zeno Clash 2 loves to do, you simply don't have the situational awareness to enjoy the same sense of flow. While it's possible to mitigate this with another player in co-op, the AI companions are practically useless. The result is that instead of focusing on the technical joy of fighting – which you do get against individual foes – you're too often stuck flailing in a scrum.

"Zeno Clash 2 is a classic example of bigger not being better."

Areas that are technically improved are still often lacking something. Guns are now scattered around, but mostly useless. A couple of new toys, such as an explosive charge fired by pointing at the sun, are more interesting, but tend to be fiddly to use mid-battle. The most notable change is that the levels are now open, although only to a point, with little to actually do in them except wander to the next fight and be frustrated by some clumsy, bolted-on RPG mechanics. Linking skill boosts to totems on the map rather than direct progression, for instance. Or quests to find allies who then refuse to join Team Facepunch purely because you've not spent points on Leadership.

Zeno Clash 2 is a classic example of bigger not being better. Most of its new ideas aren't bad, and many are good directions, in theory. They're unsatisfying, though, and the attempts to build the dumb brawler at the game's core into something bigger just highlights how tight its limitations remain. First time around, raw novelty was enough to make the experience feel special – but this sequel needed to expand on that. In losing focus, it's lost much of the charm.

Expect to pay: £15/$20 Release: Out now Developer: ACE Team Publisher: Atlus Multiplayer: 2 player co-op Link: www.zenoclash2.com

The Verdict

Zeno Clash 2

Not quite so original the second time around, Zeno Clash 2 hits hard with ideas, swings and misses on execution.

We recommend By Zergnet

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Vermintide is a brilliant twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, and deserves much of the same praise heaped on Valve.

need to know

What is it? Co-op melee FPS set in Warhammer Fantasy
Reviewed on: Windows 8, Core i5, 8GB RAM, GTX 970
Expect to pay : $30 / £23
Release date: Out now
Publisher: Fatshark
Developer: Fatshark
Link: Official site

Vermintide—or, to use its Fully Licensed Intellectual Property name, Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide—is a co-op shooter that borrows heavily from Valve’s Left 4 Dead series. It borrows so heavily it feels larcenous, really, but damned if it isn't a great homage. And if you’re tired of zombies, well, here we have rats.

In the world of Vermintide, the end times are extremely nigh. A tide of angry ratlings, the Skaven, have risen up to swallow the realms of men. In the city of Ubersreik, a plucky band of mismatched heroes fights the vermin menace. From their base of operations, the team ventures out into the city’s filthy streets to save the world from a ratty apocalypse.

Vermintide is in many ways Left 4 Dead with a Warhammer skin. Characters yell out the locations of ammunition dumps and bandages, cry out when a rush of Skaven is on the way, and beg for help when they’re injured. Some missions involve gathering barrels of fuel and depositing them in a getaway vehicle. You know that swoopy camera move that pans over every Left 4 Dead stage, then zooms into the back of your character’s head? Vermintide does that, too. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Dwarven Ranger Bardin Goreksson hates stairs, trains, and lawyers.

And while I do wish that it took more risks in departing from the proven Left 4 Dead formula, the work done here to create an exciting co-op adventure is top-notch. Vermintide is one of the best co-op games since Left 4 Dead 2, and its focus on melee combat, gear upgrades, and a fantastical setting give it its own wonderful, beady-eyed character.

Hammered

While Left 4 Dead certainly provided the bones, the meat makes Vermintide its own experience. Five distinct characters battle Skaven, each with their own strengths, equipment, and playstyles. Between missions, players choose gear sets that change how characters play. Weapon classes have different characteristics, but individual weapons have special abilities or damage boosts. Getting a sword and shield combo can give a new player the ability to play the role of party tank. Getting a new, more powerful warhammer can be cause for celebration, an excuse to load up the first level and try it out right away.

I have some concerns about how deep this economy goes and its limitations. For example, I have no idea how many individual items might be in the game, or if more might be introduced on a regular schedule. All weapons in the game are locked to individual characters, so it can be frustrating to earn a really rare piece of gear for a character I don’t play. For now, though, the weapons are varied enough to keep me coming back, but a lack of updates might harm Vermintide’s prospects for longevity.

In addition to having different gear, the five heroes play in very different ways. The Elf Waywatcher is an expert at saving allies from special Skaven with a long-range headshot. The Dwarf shoves Skaven with his shield: an essential crowd control tactic. The mage, a fire-slinging sorcerer named Sienna, gradually overheats from her pyrotechnic magic and has a chance of detonating, taking out a crowd of rats in the process. Each is different, and they feel great to play. I love being forced to adapt my strategy based on who I’m playing as, and no one feels underpowered or boring.

As a team, the characters are forced to work together in a tight group by the danger of being alone. It’s easy to get surrounded or overwhelmed by a pack of Skaven, and only a friend can revive you. The drive to stay together is so powerful, it can prompt some action-movie heroics: Once, a pack of angry Skaven surrounded me, separating me from my friends. My Empire Soldier can deal out some damage, but if I get caught and hung up by a Pack Master without help, I’ll be rat food. I sent one half of the Skaven circle sprawling with an almighty shove. Running toward the falling ratkin, I turned around and swept my hammer across six more, flinging two of them face-first into a stone wall. My hastily drawn shotgun blew another group of Skaven into a furry mist, and I ran back to the safety of the group.

Spit and polish

Developer Fatshark’s previous games, War of the Roses and War of the Vikings, lived and died on the strength of their melee combat systems, and Vermintide’s combat shines with the polish of expertise. Every character has a ranged weapon of some kind, but limited ammo stocks force ballistics to the background.

The melee system isn’t as deep as Fatshark’s earlier games. Controlling angle or direction doesn’t change a swipe into a stab—Vermintide’s heroes more simply attack, charge up a special attack, block, and shove. Amazingly, this system’s simplicity helps sell the power and solidity of the combat. Great sound design does a lot of the heavy lifting here: the sound of warhammers popping skulls and swords slicing fur builds the brutality.

Vermintide is also a beautiful game—or, at least, a beautiful rendition of a town hip-deep in rat shit. While levels set in the sewers or the marketplace felt samey and dull, like taking a third lap around an uninspired renaissance fair, others are extraordinary visual achievements. In the first level, my entire team stopped to stare across the rooftops of Ubersreik bathed in the light of a full moon. Later, the magic in a mage’s tower twisted the architecture inside until doorways inexplicably led to upside-down ceilings, and ratkin poured up horizontal stairways set into the walls. This sense of place, the flavor of fantasy and magic, does a lot to separate Vermintide from Left 4 Dead’s suburbia-and-malls setting.

I did see a few graphics bugs here and there, but it overall ran very smoothly. On my GTX 970, I saw great framerates in the 60s and 70s at the highest quality settings. During heavy assaults by huge packs, framerates dipped into the mid-40s without any screen tearing or other artifacts.

Absolutely every bad guy in the game is a joy to conquer, run from, and kill.

The only thing that truly disappoints me about Vermintide is the Skaven themselves. As a group, they’re a fine replacement for Left 4 Dead’s wobbling zombie hoards. As individuals, though, the special ratkin are a paper-thin gloss over L4D’s special infected, and this galls me. Clan Moulder’s genetic monstrosities, the Rat Ogres, have lost their prosthetic sword-arms and multiple heads and been watered down until they’re just furry, large-toothed versions of the zombie Tank. The Pack Master, whose sole job in Warhammer lore is to keep Rat Ogres from killing their own allies, instead skulks around alone looking for heroes to drag away: the ratkin version of the zombie Smoker.

This is the area of the game where constant homage to Left 4 Dead becomes distracting instead of charming. Other special Skaven, like Clan Skryre’s famous Ratling Gun or marching patrols of black-furred Stormvermin, break from pre-established patterns and show off Warhammer lore in interesting ways. I wish that, in this aspect, Fatshark had gotten more distance from their inspirational material.

On some creative level, it offends me that Fatshark copied even minor, inconsequential design choices from Left 4 Dead. However, my quibbles with the application of Warhammer lore and Fatshark’s adherence to Valve’s formula are separate from my love of fighting these vicious critters: absolutely every bad guy in the game is a joy to conquer, run from, and kill. Playing with friends frequently devolves into swearing and laughter. Heroic comebacks against unbelievable odds, and acts of great sacrifice, are commonplace. There’s a quiet glow of satisfaction when tight teamwork wins the day. These are the hallmarks of a great game built for amazing co-op experiences.

Vermintide is smart, chaotic, and beautiful. It’s a game that has gotten me hooked on Warhammer Fantasy fiction in a way I wasn’t before. It’s difficult, bloody, and it’s my favorite co-op game to come along in years.

Image 1 of 5

Verticality and open space give you a good angle for a blackpowder headshot.

Image 2 of 5

I’m down. I’m bleeding out. And then—a savior.

Image 3 of 5

The Ratling gun is slow and inaccurate, but it lays out pain in straight lines.

Image 4 of 5

If you had particle and lighting effects this pretty, you would show off too.

Image 5 of 5

This place is burning down like it’s the end of the world.

The Verdict

Warhammer: End Times Vermintide

Vermintide is a brilliant twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, and deserves much of the same praise heaped on Valve.

We recommend By Zergnet

Free-to-Play ‘NinjaPVP’ In Development

NinjaPVP , a debut project from the company Ninjutsu Games , is well under way and far along in development.

NinjaPVP is defined as a free-to-play, persistent multiplayer online game. The gameplay focuses on fast-paced third-person combat in which the player is tasked with fighting fellow ninjas in a “New-world Japan”-inspired land, using Chakras (spiritual energy, similar to magic), shurikens, and general melee attacks.

The game will feature battle arenas but also lobbies within which players can do various things, such as shop and chat. The shops within NinjaPVP will allow for the purchasing of items with either in-game money or real-world cash, however, NinjaPVP won’t be a pay-to-win game. The battle arenas themselves will be accessible from the lobbies, allowing groups and friends to join them together.

There is no specific release for the game as of now. When the release time comes though, those that play the game will have the option of either playing it within a browser or will be able to download the client separately.

You can keep up to date with information via the official twitter feedof NinjaPVP , you can also visit Ninjutsu Games ‘ site.

Daylight trailer shows only darkness in its procedural tunnels of horror

Daylight /ˈdeɪlaɪt/, noun .

The light from the sun. A dreary, atonal dirge by musical grey trousers Coldplay.

Despite that, this trailer for procedurally generated horror game Daylightcontains no hint of either. Instead, the prevailing darkness is joined by a creepy voice, a bible, and a scary lady for a steep rollercoaster of terror.

"You awake, trapped in an abandoned hospital," explains the description. "Your only source of light is your phone. You hit a dead-end and must turn around, but behind you lurks an eerie presence and strange noises." Wait, is this a horror game or the aftermath of a particularly heavy Friday night?

Naturally it's the procedurally generated levels that can hopefully provide a new twist on a standard horror trope. The game promises that the maze of corridors and tunnels will be different every time you play.

Daylight is due out at an as yet unspecified date over the next few months.

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Vermintide is a brilliant twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, and deserves much of the same praise heaped on Valve.

need to know

What is it? Co-op melee FPS set in Warhammer Fantasy
Reviewed on: Windows 8, Core i5, 8GB RAM, GTX 970
Expect to pay : $30 / £23
Release date: Out now
Publisher: Fatshark
Developer: Fatshark
Link: Official site

Vermintide—or, to use its Fully Licensed Intellectual Property name, Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide—is a co-op shooter that borrows heavily from Valve’s Left 4 Dead series. It borrows so heavily it feels larcenous, really, but damned if it isn't a great homage. And if you’re tired of zombies, well, here we have rats.

In the world of Vermintide, the end times are extremely nigh. A tide of angry ratlings, the Skaven, have risen up to swallow the realms of men. In the city of Ubersreik, a plucky band of mismatched heroes fights the vermin menace. From their base of operations, the team ventures out into the city’s filthy streets to save the world from a ratty apocalypse.

Vermintide is in many ways Left 4 Dead with a Warhammer skin. Characters yell out the locations of ammunition dumps and bandages, cry out when a rush of Skaven is on the way, and beg for help when they’re injured. Some missions involve gathering barrels of fuel and depositing them in a getaway vehicle. You know that swoopy camera move that pans over every Left 4 Dead stage, then zooms into the back of your character’s head? Vermintide does that, too. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Dwarven Ranger Bardin Goreksson hates stairs, trains, and lawyers.

And while I do wish that it took more risks in departing from the proven Left 4 Dead formula, the work done here to create an exciting co-op adventure is top-notch. Vermintide is one of the best co-op games since Left 4 Dead 2, and its focus on melee combat, gear upgrades, and a fantastical setting give it its own wonderful, beady-eyed character.

Hammered

While Left 4 Dead certainly provided the bones, the meat makes Vermintide its own experience. Five distinct characters battle Skaven, each with their own strengths, equipment, and playstyles. Between missions, players choose gear sets that change how characters play. Weapon classes have different characteristics, but individual weapons have special abilities or damage boosts. Getting a sword and shield combo can give a new player the ability to play the role of party tank. Getting a new, more powerful warhammer can be cause for celebration, an excuse to load up the first level and try it out right away.

I have some concerns about how deep this economy goes and its limitations. For example, I have no idea how many individual items might be in the game, or if more might be introduced on a regular schedule. All weapons in the game are locked to individual characters, so it can be frustrating to earn a really rare piece of gear for a character I don’t play. For now, though, the weapons are varied enough to keep me coming back, but a lack of updates might harm Vermintide’s prospects for longevity.

In addition to having different gear, the five heroes play in very different ways. The Elf Waywatcher is an expert at saving allies from special Skaven with a long-range headshot. The Dwarf shoves Skaven with his shield: an essential crowd control tactic. The mage, a fire-slinging sorcerer named Sienna, gradually overheats from her pyrotechnic magic and has a chance of detonating, taking out a crowd of rats in the process. Each is different, and they feel great to play. I love being forced to adapt my strategy based on who I’m playing as, and no one feels underpowered or boring.

As a team, the characters are forced to work together in a tight group by the danger of being alone. It’s easy to get surrounded or overwhelmed by a pack of Skaven, and only a friend can revive you. The drive to stay together is so powerful, it can prompt some action-movie heroics: Once, a pack of angry Skaven surrounded me, separating me from my friends. My Empire Soldier can deal out some damage, but if I get caught and hung up by a Pack Master without help, I’ll be rat food. I sent one half of the Skaven circle sprawling with an almighty shove. Running toward the falling ratkin, I turned around and swept my hammer across six more, flinging two of them face-first into a stone wall. My hastily drawn shotgun blew another group of Skaven into a furry mist, and I ran back to the safety of the group.

Spit and polish

Developer Fatshark’s previous games, War of the Roses and War of the Vikings, lived and died on the strength of their melee combat systems, and Vermintide’s combat shines with the polish of expertise. Every character has a ranged weapon of some kind, but limited ammo stocks force ballistics to the background.

The melee system isn’t as deep as Fatshark’s earlier games. Controlling angle or direction doesn’t change a swipe into a stab—Vermintide’s heroes more simply attack, charge up a special attack, block, and shove. Amazingly, this system’s simplicity helps sell the power and solidity of the combat. Great sound design does a lot of the heavy lifting here: the sound of warhammers popping skulls and swords slicing fur builds the brutality.

Vermintide is also a beautiful game—or, at least, a beautiful rendition of a town hip-deep in rat shit. While levels set in the sewers or the marketplace felt samey and dull, like taking a third lap around an uninspired renaissance fair, others are extraordinary visual achievements. In the first level, my entire team stopped to stare across the rooftops of Ubersreik bathed in the light of a full moon. Later, the magic in a mage’s tower twisted the architecture inside until doorways inexplicably led to upside-down ceilings, and ratkin poured up horizontal stairways set into the walls. This sense of place, the flavor of fantasy and magic, does a lot to separate Vermintide from Left 4 Dead’s suburbia-and-malls setting.

I did see a few graphics bugs here and there, but it overall ran very smoothly. On my GTX 970, I saw great framerates in the 60s and 70s at the highest quality settings. During heavy assaults by huge packs, framerates dipped into the mid-40s without any screen tearing or other artifacts.

Absolutely every bad guy in the game is a joy to conquer, run from, and kill.

The only thing that truly disappoints me about Vermintide is the Skaven themselves. As a group, they’re a fine replacement for Left 4 Dead’s wobbling zombie hoards. As individuals, though, the special ratkin are a paper-thin gloss over L4D’s special infected, and this galls me. Clan Moulder’s genetic monstrosities, the Rat Ogres, have lost their prosthetic sword-arms and multiple heads and been watered down until they’re just furry, large-toothed versions of the zombie Tank. The Pack Master, whose sole job in Warhammer lore is to keep Rat Ogres from killing their own allies, instead skulks around alone looking for heroes to drag away: the ratkin version of the zombie Smoker.

This is the area of the game where constant homage to Left 4 Dead becomes distracting instead of charming. Other special Skaven, like Clan Skryre’s famous Ratling Gun or marching patrols of black-furred Stormvermin, break from pre-established patterns and show off Warhammer lore in interesting ways. I wish that, in this aspect, Fatshark had gotten more distance from their inspirational material.

On some creative level, it offends me that Fatshark copied even minor, inconsequential design choices from Left 4 Dead. However, my quibbles with the application of Warhammer lore and Fatshark’s adherence to Valve’s formula are separate from my love of fighting these vicious critters: absolutely every bad guy in the game is a joy to conquer, run from, and kill. Playing with friends frequently devolves into swearing and laughter. Heroic comebacks against unbelievable odds, and acts of great sacrifice, are commonplace. There’s a quiet glow of satisfaction when tight teamwork wins the day. These are the hallmarks of a great game built for amazing co-op experiences.

Vermintide is smart, chaotic, and beautiful. It’s a game that has gotten me hooked on Warhammer Fantasy fiction in a way I wasn’t before. It’s difficult, bloody, and it’s my favorite co-op game to come along in years.

Image 1 of 5

Verticality and open space give you a good angle for a blackpowder headshot.

Image 2 of 5

I’m down. I’m bleeding out. And then—a savior.

Image 3 of 5

The Ratling gun is slow and inaccurate, but it lays out pain in straight lines.

Image 4 of 5

If you had particle and lighting effects this pretty, you would show off too.

Image 5 of 5

This place is burning down like it’s the end of the world.

The Verdict

Warhammer: End Times Vermintide

Vermintide is a brilliant twist on the Left 4 Dead formula, and deserves much of the same praise heaped on Valve.

We recommend By Zergnet

Dungeon Lore’ Looting iOS This Week

‘Dungeon Lore’ Looting iOS This Week
3D Attack Games are set to release the turn based dungeon crawler Dungeon Lore this week.

The rather impressive looking game combines a whole host of features into one complete package. You’ll be exploring plenty of different locations within a number of quests, looting objects at will within dungeons whilst fighting off a selection of dangerous monsters using either melee, ranged or magic based attacks.

This is a class free game, you don’t have to choose from different characters with unique abilities since your hero can use every attack type at your leisure. So whether you prefer to use magic attacks or get a couple of axes in each hand, you can make that choice yourself. If you do go down the magic route, you can upgrade your character using rings and the like, with the chance of having 4 elementals following you around to give you an extra attack boost.

Unlike most games of its ilk, you can also move the camera freely in any direction, which can come in handy to find hidden objects or avoiding certain traps that may be hiding in corners. It might also help to avoid those surprise attacks from creatures who are waiting impatiently for you to make one wrong move.

Dungeon Lore is out this week for iPad on the App Store for $1.99. We’ll have more on the game in the coming days, including our own thoughts in a review just after we finish this next dungeon. Or maybe the next one.

Zeno Clash 2 gameplay walkthrough makes you question your own sanity

Please tell me I'm not the only one who saw the stumpy man-chicken thing with a painter's palette attached to his bottom lip.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who saw the stumpy man-chicken thing with a painter's palette attached to his bottom lip. You saw it too? Thank the gods, I thought one of the other editors had slipped laboratory chemicals into my coffee. If you can make it through this Zeno Clash 2 gameplay demo with your mind intact, you'll get a look at some of the combat improvements, and the new, open world areas in the unabashedly bizarre sequel.

The first-person combat engine was central to making the first Zeno Clash the quirky, unique experience it was. Some of the additions we get a look at are the ability to "juggle" airborne enemies, fighting game style, and a handy backward kick for fending off enemies that attack from the rear. It also looks like we'll have the ability to call in allies this time around, and one such companion is shown taking part in dialogue sequences triggered by the player.

You can read more about Zeno Clash 2 on the official site, in preparation to get your prehistoric acid trip Road House on when the game releases next Tuesday.

Vermintide video brutalises hundreds of rat men

Here's something for Warhammer fans to sink their teeth into: eight minutes of Vermintide, developer Fatshark's "visceral first person co-op experience" set in the end times of the Warhammer universe.

"visceral first person co-op experience" set in the end times of the Warhammer universe. It's Left 4 Dead with the Skaven instead of zombies, and it looks delightful. In fact, it was our favourite game at PAXthis

The footage above really does resemble Valve's co-op zombie shooter. I'm not complaining though; the overview shows off all the best elements I remember from Left 4 Dead, with a melee twist. It's a game about co-op survival, overcoming hoards of enemies with the occasional special i̶n̶f̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ rat-men that requires working together as a team to overcome. It's even got an AI Director.

The overview goes into some detail about the melee system, which bodes well. I'm not ashamed to say the line "physical hit detection enables the game to precisely determine the direction and velocity of each strike" gets me a bit excited. Left 4 Dead in a well established, much loved fantasy world with melee combat that can compete with the likes of Chivalry?Yes please.

Vermintide comes out October 23.

Reaction Between ‘SpaceChem’ And Android Finally Occurs

If you are an indie gaming enthusiast, there is little or no excuse for letting SpaceChem slip through your fingers.

slip through your fingers. Originally released earlier last year Zachtronics’ SpaceChem had its own feature in one of the Indie Humble Bundles and gained praise from many gamers, casual and indie geeks alike. The iPad port surfaced on the App Store late last year, and it has been a very long time, but by some glorious miracle, SpaceChem is here for your Android tablets.

Heavily inspired by both visual programming and chemistry, SpaceChem brings you the reactions and bonds between atoms in a world of chemical substances. You will pick up atoms and particles, work them out and create what you need. It’s mind-bending, brain-twisting, but nevertheless absolutely charming and rewarding. There is no single answer to any of the games’ puzzles, leaving you free to play the way you wish with your own clever solutions. To satisfy your scientific desire, an endless sandbox mode is also available to help you mold your own creative experience.

It should be noted that the Android version of the game requires a tablet with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 800. Buying and installing the game on smartphones is possible, though it won’t give you the same satisfying experience, even on the more high end Android phones. It is once more worth noting that the game is not at all cheap, costing a hefty of seven bucks. But if you’ve got an Android tablet and are looking to spend quality time working out your brain, SpaceChem is definitely worth a try.

SpaceChem is currently available on the iOS App Storefor iPad and Android Google Play. A PC/Mac version is also available on Steamfor the PC gamers who accidentally wandered onto the mobile side of the site.

For more information on this and other Zachtronics projects, check out their official website.

Procedural horror game Daylight will see the light of day early next year

We've shown off screenshots and a trailer of the armpit-dampening Daylight before, but now's the first time we can attach a release window to forthcoming thrills.

of the armpit-dampening Daylight before, but now's the first time we can attach a release window to forthcoming thrills. Having gained the attention of publisher Atlus, Daylight's now secured its release for the first quarter of 2014.

The procedurally generated horror game—because being able to map your ominous surroundings would simply be too comforting —is currently in development by Zombie, who are pleased with the Atlus partnership since they'll get to "scare even more people." The downloadable title will be hitting Steam as well as that mythological "PS4" thing.

I'll confess I'm a bit of a psychological horror nut—made even nuttier by the fact that it's been at least a couple of years since a game from the genre has left me whimpering, mutt-like. What I've really been wanting is an experience like Silent Hill 2, its PC release issues notwithstanding, and Daylight looks like the closest thing to have come to that. Having entered a new age of technology, though, I fully expect the protagonist to be able to livetweet her own terror.

Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide was the best game at PAX

The highlight of PAX Prime this year was, as it often is, seeing what independent developers have been up to since PAX East .

. We loved Tharsis, Brigador, and interesting projects like YIIK, but our favorite game of PAX was quietly nestled into the Alienware booth: a playable build of Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, the four-player cooperative melee game set in the fiction of Warhammer fantasy.

Swedish developer Fatshark opened it up for us after the show floor closed, letting us jump around in levels that weren’t accessible to the public. What’s surprising about Vermintide, and absolutely central to its appeal, is how fresh it feels despite its deep similarities to Left 4 Dead. You wade through swarms of Skaven, Warhammer’s ratling bad guys, as you move from the beginning of a map to the end, struggling along the way to survive ambushes from Elite Skaven that toss poison grenades, shoot you with miniguns, or pin you to the ground until an ally saves you. At the end of a level, I lugged explosive barrels from one point to another as more and more Skaven spilled into the level, killing four or five of them at a time with wide-arcing swings from my actual warhammer to keep my AI and human teammates safe.

It’s an indisputably familiar formula for any Left 4 Dead player, but that familiarity only added to my comfort level with the combat and controls, and the Skaven themselves have much more personality than the mumbling zombies of L4D. The Skaven will chirp at you. They’ll turn tail and flee in the event that you outnumber them. And most significantly, they’re proper melee fighters. The lowest-level slave rats are simple to dispatch with a single, hard swing from an enchanted flame sword or a shot from your crossbow, but handling the armored Stormvermin soldiers, for example, takes careful blocking, distance, and timing—all of which are tough to manage when a swarm of a dozen-plus Skaven are encircling your team. Depending on what type of melee weapon you have, you’ll have to apply a heavy attack (activated by holding down Mouse 1) to even injure them.

Nuances like that make you realize how barebones Left 4 Dead 2’s melee combat was. And in combination with Vermintide’s loot and inventory systems, it seems like there’ll be a greater incentive to grind levels at higher difficulties. Finishing a map on a harder setting will result in more loot dice, which could produce rarer gear for one of Vermintide’s five heroes, but there’s even a twist on Left 4 Dead’s “ Gnome Run” that connects with the loot system. Fatshark showed me a well-hidden nook of an early level, a cellar obscured by shrubs that held a Grimoire, a scary-looking book with moving eyes embedded in the cover. Equipping it reduced the health of the whole team by a chunk, but if we made it to the end of the level with this handicap we would’ve been rewarded with the possibility of more loot. Multiple Grimoires can be used in a single level, too, to up the ante even further.

The melee system is the star, and Vermintide’s iteration on the core, sound ideas of Left 4 Dead made it the best thing we saw at PAX Prime this year. In budget, scale, and personnel, this is Fatshark’s biggest project ever, and from what I’ve played they’re managing gracefully.

Evolve 1.1 patch adds FOV slider, balance changes and bug fixes

The 1.1 patch for the monster-hunting FPS Evolve has been released into the wild.

has been released into the wild. Turtle Rock and 2K say the update fixes a "slew" of bugs, which by my count, based on the patch notes, adds up to four.

Squished bugs aside, the patch also make a number of significant changes that were detailed in the accompanying blurb.A more detailed breakdown of the progression and mastery changes wasn't provided, but in the big picture sense, this is what you get:

Added FOV slider to the options menu Improved 21:9 monitor support Improved support for shared memory GPUs Various Progression / Mastery balance changes Improved Direct X stability Fixed a windows timer issue may have caused FPS problems on some systems Fix for a shadow rendering bug Fixed “five Hunter” bug Fix for disappearing/persisting mouse cursor

The real problem facing Evolve may not be lingering technical issues, however, but a simple lack of interest. Steam Chartsindicates that in the month since its launch the number of concurrent Evolve players has slid from a peak of 27,403 to just over 3000 today. That's less than half the number of people playing Turtle Rock's previous game, Left 4 Dead 2, which came out more than five years ago, and a far, far cry from the top-played games on Steam. The number obviously doesn't take into account the console side of the equation, but it's still not a good sign by any stretch of the imagination.

God Mode releases April 19th, shoot waves of absurd hellbeasts with friends

God Mode is out on Steam on April 19th for $10/£7.

on April 19th for $10/£7. It's a diabolical four-player co-op shooter which spits magnetized hellbeasts at you—the kind you describe by cursing what they do, like "those ******* flaming axe throwing bastards"—until you either kill them all to advance or die trying. The tried-and-true horde survival mode has been outfitted with handicaps, mutators, customizable characters, and gun upgrades—I played it briefly a couple weeks ago, and it impressed me.

The premise: you're in hell, so shoot everything until you're not in hell anymore. I wielded an area-of-effect plasma pistol and a shotgun as a mutant with a melted face. I could have chosen from other shooter tropes: a zombie, a soldier, an SMG, a railgun, and so on.

Each stage is a "Test of Faith" which is modified by a random mutator. If you're lucky, the mutator helps you—in one level I was protected by a holy beacon which drained enemy health when they approached. If you're not lucky, the mutators give your enemies the advantage, and now and then they're just silly, shrinking enemies or sticking hats over their rotting skulls.

God Mode is hard, at least, alone it was. It's played rhythmically: run so enemies bunch up behind you, turn around and vaporize a blob of them, bolt to a distant, ranged attacker to neutralize it, circle around to gather another line of melee runners, turn around and shotty them again. If that's somehow not hard enough, you can handicap yourself to earn extra XP. Given that giant statues of Atlas were coming to life and heaving massive metal globes at me, I felt no need to handicap myself anymore than a loner in hell already is.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to earn god-like power—the God Mode of God Mode—but I think friends will be necessary. A four-pack on Steam will be $30/£21. I didn't play for more than 15 minutes, but I deeply hope for more The Haunted: Hells Reachand Killing Floor-style experiences.

The Hulk takes a selfie in new trailer for Lego Marvel's Avengers

Lego Marvel's Avengers is out later this year, and if you're wondering how it's different from Lego Marvel Super Heroes , know that it's based on the two Avengers movies rather than the wider Marvel universe as a whole.

, know that it's based on the two Avengers movies rather than the wider Marvel universe as a whole. That makes it much less interesting to me as a result, but maybe the sight of The Incredible Hulk taking a selfie with a defeated baddie will help make up for it. That sounds like the sort of thing that would cause someone to let out a little chuckle as they smashed their way through TT Games' latest Lego adventure, and it's in the new trailer, above.

The awkwardly titled Lego Marvel's Avengers was originally due to arrive this Autumn, but the YouTube description for the new trailer is now saying it'll come out in Winter instead. Still, at least that gives you time to finish Lego Jurassic World, and to maybe give Lego Dimensions or Lego Worlds a try—my, there are rather a lot of Lego games coming out this year, aren't there?

9 most annoying kids in games [ClassicRadar]

We recommend By Zergnet

Zeno Clash 2 screenshots show more of the weird world of Zenozoik

Well this is confusing.

Well this is confusing. Zeno Clash was a game about bashing in faces, but the screenshot above stars a man missing a person's most punchable features. If a man has no head, chest or groin, can he really be punched? This must be Zeno Clash 2's idea of a zen koan.

Philosophical doubts aside, this batch of fresh screenshots show more surrealist environments and characters from the follow up to ACE Team's excellent melee-FPS. There's also a shot of what looks like a new chain weapon. That's like punching, but with metal!

They were released by the developers as part of a New Year's messageto their forum members. ACE's Carlos Bordeu also revealed a potential release window, saying "Spring 2013... that's how close I can pin it down."

These three new pics join the previous three(as well as the announcement video) that were revealed back in July.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide sniffs out E3 trailer

Vermintide is a first-person melee co-op game featuring Warhammer's lovable ratmen the Skaven, and if that sounds like your sort of thing then congratulations, you are allowed in my club.

is a first-person melee co-op game featuring Warhammer's lovable ratmen the Skaven, and if that sounds like your sort of thing then congratulations, you are allowed in my club. The ratocide game is being developed by War of the Roses' Fatshark Games, and it's pretty much Left 4 Dead but in the Warhammer universe. Again, yes. Ranged weapons will make an appearance, but the focus is on killing rats with a bunch of medieval melee weapons, as the city of Ubersreik crumbles around you.

Evan Lahti previewed the game back in February, but because E3 it's been given a brief new trailer. It's up there, obviously, and it's making Autumn (Vermintide's release date) look like an awfully long time away.

The Sims 4 gameplay video — the PC Gamer team moves in together, pees a lot

We're still working on our Sims 4 review, but here's a quick look at the first half-hour of play, from creating a family to micromanaging their toilet schedules.

review, but here's a quick look at the first half-hour of play, from creating a family to micromanaging their toilet schedules. Watch as Tyler and Tom M. roughly design PC Gamer's US team, choose a home, customize it for their needs—mostly by adding PCs, naturally—and generate laughter, tears, conversations with the corner of a room, and delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.

Dragon Age: Inquisition hands-on: fine fantasy

You might have seen images of maps online, on Reddit or elsewhere , where cartographically-skilled gamers have compared the sizes of The Largest Worlds in Gaming.

Tamrielis sized up against Liberty City, Chernarus against Far Cry 3. Just Cause 2's island is overlaid atop The Lord of the Rings Online (a ridiculous 30,000 square miles, allegedly).

World size has always struck me as a meaningless measuring stick. For RPGs, doubly so. When I talk to someone about Skyrim, I don't gush about the virtual land area I've experienced. I tell them that they can be a cat person and steal the silverware of whomever they please, or replace the mammoths with giant, exploding chickens.

Distance isn't intrinsically fun; if a game's massive space isn't populated purposefully, its promised 'epic journey' can be pretty dull. I say all this to explain why I was unmoved by the marketing line BioWare began using around E3 for Dragon Age: Inquisition. This was the “biggest game in the studio's history,” we heard in every interview. In a presentation for the game, one slide replicated exactly the style of map I mentioned, overlaying Inquisition's zones atop the Skyrim map to demonstrate that BioWare's world was biggest.

Surely there was much more to Inquisition than scale, I hoped. BioWare, after all, has some convincing to do after Dragon Age 2, the sequel that mainstreamed some of Origins' old-school intricacies for the sake of a more controller-friendly template.

To see for myself, I spent a full day playing Inquisition, and hours in conversation with BioWare at its studio in Edmonton. I left Canada more than reassured about the game's direction, with any worries that Inquisition was simply a 'Skyrimification' of an RPG I liked a lot fully assuaged.

Showing, not telling

If anything, it's the absurd variety of Inquisition's biomes, not the dimensions of its open world, that makes the setting compelling. Yes, BioWare has built an awfully large house for you to raise a loving RPG family in, but more importantly it's furnished the hell out of it. Let's take inventory: Inquisition gives you a handsome, customizable castle-base, within which you craft weapons, chat up companions, and manage your organization. DA2's dusty engine has been swapped for Frostbite, the same tech that drives the Battlefield series. Your player-character can be male, female, one of four confirmed races, and speak with an American or British accent. There are nine potential companions, but despite the effort they took to design, voice, and write, you can skip meeting or recruiting most of them entirely, and they can be dismissed at any time. Inquisition's combat system finally gives equal favor to its real-time and pausable approaches to fighting. There's the cooperative multiplayer mode, independent from the single-player story. And there are dragons: dragons that take ten or more solid minutes to kill, dragons with individually-damageable legs.

It's a kitchen-sink approach to RPG design in some ways, but the relationships between these features are encouraging, especially in how they support your role as an Inquisitor within the metagame. It isn't scale for scale's sake, from what I've played. When I ask BioWare what's interesting about its biggest RPG ever beyond being a useful marketing line, executive producer Mark Darrah brings up something he calls “intrinsic storytelling.”

The Red Templars (a faction of rebel, overzealous Templars) are to blame for the magic winter, and I see their signature pocking the cliffs as I climb: red lyrium. This potent, dangerous anti-magic substance is the source of the corruption that's tainted these Templars, and huge crystalline shards of it are piercing the Highlands. I cleave and shield-bash through a fourth pack of the misguided knights in an ice tunnel; the whole screen is a glow of blue light filtered through pristine ice and unnatural, saturated red emanating from the lyrium. These colors tell the story as well as any dialogue.

Further up, I fight a Red Templar Behemoth, less a soldier and more a 15-foot-tall, faceless lump of bipedal lyrium. For the first time I have to toggle-on Dragon Age's tactical camera, renovated for Inquisition, to kite the monster and deliberately spend my party's abilities. It's here that I realize how comfortable Inquisition feels when played as a real-time action-RPG; even more than it did in DA2. Broadly, the combat isn't as demanding as a conventional action game—there's auto-attack—but it also never drifts into, say, over-generous hit detection or the disconnected 'combat dancing' of some MMOs.

“We're going for a hybrid of Origins and Dragon Age 2 stuff,” Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw says of the combat. “We want the responsiveness of DA2, that's a biggie, but the influences of Origins are undeniable. We did want to find that balance.” Although I played Inquisition on PC, unfortunately I wasn't able to do so on a mouse and keyboard. Still, it was strangely reassuring how well the tactical approach to combat handled on a controller, of all things. Plotting commands was simple, clean, and helped by an interface that mostly mirrors what we had in Origins. Unlike that game, though, Inquisition uses highlights and color to make that visual information more interesting and readable. The camera behaved well throughout. Automated AI settings are preserved, too, like how much mana a mage should keep in reserve, or at what HP threshold a character should down a potion.

After I clear the Red Templars from the first part of the Highlands, a floating context cue invites me to build an Inquisition camp. The screen fades out and in, revealing new tents and rudimentary defenses. A few Inquisition scouts mingle. I can replenish my potions, and the camp is a fast travel point. I earn power, a resource I can spend to complete operations, the main course of Inquisition's metagame. And a blocked gate is cleared, granting access to another part of the Highlands.

That feeling of not knowing what's around the next corner is new in Dragon Age, and it beats the hell out of backtracking through the mostly-homogenous cityscape of Kirkwall in Dragon Age 2, which was rightly criticized for reusing some level assets. By the end of the demo, I've seen a spectrum of biomes. I wade through the Ferelden Bogs, an inky undead swamp that could've been borrowed from Resident Evil or Diablo. I close Fade Rifts on the Exalted Plains, which resemble Norway on steroids, the wooden bones of abandoned forts punctuating its rolling grassland. I first tiptoe, then blast, my way through the Still Ruins, a crumbling temple where demons are frozen in stasis alongside Venatori cultists... until I retrieve a staff at the end of the level and have to fight my way back through these reanimated mobs.

Zeno Clash 2 comes out swinging on April 30

Has it always been you lifelong dream to punch a giant crab in its stupid, oblivious face?

Has it always been you lifelong dream to punch a giant crab in its stupid, oblivious face? In real-life that's not going to happen. We're just not experimenting enough in the field of rapid crustacean growth. Also you'd look a bit mean. People would stare. Luckily in Zeno Clash 2those dreams look set to be fulfilled - and soon - as it's being released through Steam on April 30th.

There are other things to punch, too. The story picks up soon after the first, with Ghat and Rimat attempting to save Father-Mother from the imprisonment of Golem. Judging from this previously released trailer, doing so will involve pitting your fists against birdmen, monkey-men, and a selection of regular men with irregular beards and hats.

Pre-orders from Steamgrant a free copy of the original Zeno Clash. There's also a two-pack available, to take advantage of the new co-op, and a Special Edition, with a digital art book and soundtrack, both certain to be thoroughly weird.

Dying Light is getting dune buggies, apparently

It looks like Dying Light is getting some meaningful gameplay updates in the coming months.

It looks like Dying Light is getting some meaningful gameplay updates in the coming months. According to the above video, which currently plays when you boot up Dying Light on a PS4 (courtesy of Ethan Shapiro, via VG247) dune buggies, bows and a new parkour time trial mode are forthcoming.

It's fair to say that the current map doesn't really accommodate high speed vehicles, being a fairly dense and vertical environment. The short snippets above suggest new areas will be unlocked, including a stadium (probably the Harran Stadium referenced a few weeks ago) and wide brown fields for dune buggy shenanigans.

Whether these will be part of Techland's promised free updates, or paid, isn't specified in the video. Whatever the case, it certainly looks more exciting in action than it does on paper.

Rock of Ages multiplayer is free to play this weekend

Everyone's going to be running around as zombies and vampires this weekend.

Everyone's going to be running around as zombies and vampires this weekend. Why not spend Halloween as an enormous rock? Nobody will complain about your costume because who can argue with a big round rock? PLUS you get to crush your enemies beneath your big rolling body, as long as they're standing slightly downhill. Rock of Ages can fulfil these dreams, and can be played against humans for free until Sunday. Visit the Rock of Ages Steam page to download it and have a read of our Rock of Ages reviewwhile you wait.

Ghost Recon Wildlands video talks authenticity

One of our most anticipated games , Ghost Recon Wildlands is an open world co-op shooter about dismantling drug rings in Bolivia.

, Ghost Recon Wildlands is an open world co-op shooter about dismantling drug rings in Bolivia. The latest video from Ubi discusses the prep the team put in before working on the game. They say they spoke to the CIA in South America, consulted experts, did training exercises with special forces, chatted to drug enforcement officers and more. Tom Clancy's Thom Clancy even makes an appearance.

Authenticity tends to vanish when four friends jump in and start driving dirtbikes into cacti. I'm interested in the open-ended approach you can take to the world map. We'll have to wait and see how dynamic that really is when the game launches next year. Check out the first video and screenshotsfor some in-game action.

Red Bull Racers Debuts Today: Get Your Wings!

Red Bull, the makers of everybody’s favorite wing-granting energy drink, launched their newest mobile game today.

Red Bull Racers , a fast-paced racing game for iOS and Android, is a joint production from Red Bull Media House and Bongfish.

Are you familiar with the Carrera racetrack system in games? You’re going to love this, because Red Bull has partnered with them to bring their racetrack system to phone and tablet gaming for the first time ever. The game features three separate race series; do you prefer Formula, Offroad, or Street racing? You’ll zip through 21 one-of-a-kind tracks in more than a hundred events playable across four distinct single-player modes – Elimination, Rivals, Cup, and Endurance.

More of a social gamer? Try one of the 27 friend races! The power of the internet lets you race the ‘ghost cars’ of your friends in an attempt to beat their best times. Be the first to cross the finish line after navigating a series of tricky loops, death-defying jumps, banked turns, and other obstacles.

Red Bull Racers will include nine vehicles at the start, with more available in future updates. Unlock the 51 achievements for bragging rights on the leaderboards, and participate in events both globally and local to your area. You’ll rock out while you race, too, with a score composed by the indie rock band AWOLNATION and G-punk band New Beat Fund.

The main game is free to download and play; in-app purchases will let you enhance your game experience as you choose. Get it today on the Apple App Storeor on Google Play, or visit the Red Bull Racers micrositeto see more details.

Zeno Clash 2 announced! First-person brawler sequel features co-op, out next year

[VAMS id="tjw10FiHE4712"]
Publisher Atlus has sent ACE Team's Zeno Clash 2 crashing through a window and into the wild in a sneaky pre-E3 announcement.

The stand-out new feature is full drop-in drop-out co-op for the campaign, which sees Ghat and his sister Rimat freeing Father-Mother from prison. Just like the original, it's looking uncannily, brilliantly bonkers. Giant stone hands! Weird bipedal bird lizard things!

The first-person melee combat mechanics pioneered by the first game have been refined, and there'll be new RPG features to allow you to customise how Ghat and Rimat go about punching freaky pig-men in the face. We've got the announcement screens below, including one that appears to show Ghat fighting a giant smiling blue man with a pirate beard. Wait no, that's exactly what it shows.

Zeno Clash 2 is due out in early 2013. Are you excited to return to Zenozoik, readers?

Watch Dogs 2 appears to be in development

If I told you that Watch Dogs 2 is in development, you would likely respond, "Yes, and?" The original was pretty good , and Ubisoft was clearly committed to it as a major franchise from the outset.

, and Ubisoft was clearly committed to it as a major franchise from the outset. Even so, it hasn't actually announced that a sequel is in the works. And, to be clear, it still hasn't.

Nonetheless, it looks very much like it's happening, based on this Videogamer.comreport, which noticed the LinkedIn profile of one Julien Risse, a senior gameplay designer at Ubisoft, whose credits include Watch Dogs, the Bad BloodDLC, and—this is the important bit—Watch Dogs 2. Risse has since updated his profile to remove the Watch Dogs 2 reference, but the screen capture tells the tale.

Ubisoft has made oblique references to Watch Dogs 2 in the past. In June 2014, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot suggested that the sequel might not feature Watch Dogs lead Aiden Pearce, and in September, Ubisoft Montreal Vice President Lionel Raynaud told CVG (via Polygon, since CVG no longer exists) that "fixing and refining what worked well [in Watch Dogs] is probably the way to go for Watch Dogs 2."

We've reached out to Ubisoft for comment, and will update if and when we receive a reply.

Newest Batch of Steam Greenlight Games Announced

Presented in alphabetical order –
“As with past batches,” the announcement from Valve reads, “these titles will be released independently in the months ahead, as they complete development and integrate with any of the Steamworks features they are interested in utilizing.

Earlier today, Valve released a listof eighteen games and two software titles, chosen by Steam users, for distribution on Steam.

“As with past batches,” the announcement from Valve reads, “these titles will be released independently in the months ahead, as they complete development and integrate with any of the Steamworks features they are interested in utilizing. Some will undoubtedly launch with Steam Early Access, while others are ready to launch in full soon.”

Visit Steam Greenlightand help your favorite game get selected for the next batch.

Check back with IGM in the coming weeks, as we take a closer look at many of these titles.

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful.

Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful. Just dont expect longevity or depth.

Nothing is sacred to Rock of Ages. Priceless Greek urn? Smash it. Beloved historical figure? Squish them. Tragic Greek myth? Illustrate it by having tiny demons poke a man in the bottom. Anything that stops you from rolling your rock to the end of the course is there to be flattened.

Sessions of Rock of Ages have two phases. In the first you construct towers and catapults on your track to keep the enemy's rock away from the gate protecting your squishy leader character. In the second you roll your boulder along the enemy's heavily defended course and batter down the door to the opposing general. You use your defences to try to destroy or slow the enemy rock while taking the shortest possible path to your own target.

The rolling is the most fun by far. You're in direct control of the rock, which feels incredibly weighty and substantial as it skips, jumps and crashes through obstacles. Carefully guiding the boulder around, over or through defences, is where the real challenge lies – and crushing catapults, cows and elephants beneath your mighty boulder is just smashing. Occasionally you're interrupted by a pointless boss fight, which is nowhere near as much fun as the rest of the game. Still, it's hard to complain when you're defeating an animated version of Michelangelo's David by repeatedly hitting him in the stones.

Where the artistry of Rock of Ages crumbles is in that first, strategic-defence building phase. In theory it's the more thoughtful, tactical side of the game, with a whole variety of towers, animals and siege weaponry for you to deploy. The problem is that there's a very narrow window of opportunity in which to place your defences before your boulder is unleashed, so there isn't time to do much but scatter these things at a few key chokepoints. Multiplayer opponents are smarter and require more thought, but more often than not games end in a straight race between two rolling stones.

What keeps you coming back is the brilliant silliness of it all. Rock of Ages takes you on a tour through art history, having boulder-based battles with a variety of historical figures, from King Leonidas to Leonardo da Vinci. Each is represented by a cutout model based on famous paintings, dancing around and gibbering unintelligibly. The mix of highbrow art and lowbrow humour is clearly inspired by Terry Gilliam's classic Monty Python animations, and even if you know nothing about art it's hilarious to see that one picture of Vlad the Impaler that everyone uses starring in an impromptu Castlevania skit.

Rock of Ages provides a few hours of great fun, and the unique flavour and hilarious cutscenes are worth the budget pricetag. Don't expect it to hold up to repeated playthroughs, but this is a game about smashing up artwork with a big rock, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The Verdict

Rock of Ages

Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful. Just dont expect longevity or depth.

We recommend By Zergnet

Ghost Recon Wildlands is a new, open-world Tom Clancy game

Ubisoft announced the newest in its Tom Clancy games at today's E3 press conference.

Ghost Recon Wildlandsis an open-world, third-person military shooter featuring vehicular combat, 4-player cooperative play and "a massive and responsive open world".

"Bolivia has become the largest cocaine producer in the world. The vicious Santa Blanca drug cartel has turned the country into a narco-state, leading to fear, injustice, and violence. The Ghosts, a legendary US Elite Special Operations team, is sent behind enemy lines to wreak havoc and break alliances between the cartel and the corrupted government."

And here are the official screenshots. No release window was announced, but don't expect this to release any time soon.

Newest Batch of Steam Greenlight Games Announced

Presented in alphabetical order –
“As with past batches,” the announcement from Valve reads, “these titles will be released independently in the months ahead, as they complete development and integrate with any of the Steamworks features they are interested in utilizing.

Earlier today, Valve released a listof eighteen games and two software titles, chosen by Steam users, for distribution on Steam.

“As with past batches,” the announcement from Valve reads, “these titles will be released independently in the months ahead, as they complete development and integrate with any of the Steamworks features they are interested in utilizing. Some will undoubtedly launch with Steam Early Access, while others are ready to launch in full soon.”

Visit Steam Greenlightand help your favorite game get selected for the next batch.

Check back with IGM in the coming weeks, as we take a closer look at many of these titles.

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful.

Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful. Just dont expect longevity or depth.

Nothing is sacred to Rock of Ages. Priceless Greek urn? Smash it. Beloved historical figure? Squish them. Tragic Greek myth? Illustrate it by having tiny demons poke a man in the bottom. Anything that stops you from rolling your rock to the end of the course is there to be flattened.

Sessions of Rock of Ages have two phases. In the first you construct towers and catapults on your track to keep the enemy's rock away from the gate protecting your squishy leader character. In the second you roll your boulder along the enemy's heavily defended course and batter down the door to the opposing general. You use your defences to try to destroy or slow the enemy rock while taking the shortest possible path to your own target.

The rolling is the most fun by far. You're in direct control of the rock, which feels incredibly weighty and substantial as it skips, jumps and crashes through obstacles. Carefully guiding the boulder around, over or through defences, is where the real challenge lies – and crushing catapults, cows and elephants beneath your mighty boulder is just smashing. Occasionally you're interrupted by a pointless boss fight, which is nowhere near as much fun as the rest of the game. Still, it's hard to complain when you're defeating an animated version of Michelangelo's David by repeatedly hitting him in the stones.

Where the artistry of Rock of Ages crumbles is in that first, strategic-defence building phase. In theory it's the more thoughtful, tactical side of the game, with a whole variety of towers, animals and siege weaponry for you to deploy. The problem is that there's a very narrow window of opportunity in which to place your defences before your boulder is unleashed, so there isn't time to do much but scatter these things at a few key chokepoints. Multiplayer opponents are smarter and require more thought, but more often than not games end in a straight race between two rolling stones.

What keeps you coming back is the brilliant silliness of it all. Rock of Ages takes you on a tour through art history, having boulder-based battles with a variety of historical figures, from King Leonidas to Leonardo da Vinci. Each is represented by a cutout model based on famous paintings, dancing around and gibbering unintelligibly. The mix of highbrow art and lowbrow humour is clearly inspired by Terry Gilliam's classic Monty Python animations, and even if you know nothing about art it's hilarious to see that one picture of Vlad the Impaler that everyone uses starring in an impromptu Castlevania skit.

Rock of Ages provides a few hours of great fun, and the unique flavour and hilarious cutscenes are worth the budget pricetag. Don't expect it to hold up to repeated playthroughs, but this is a game about smashing up artwork with a big rock, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The Verdict

Rock of Ages

Knockabout in every sense, Rock of Ages is quirky, fun and characterful. Just dont expect longevity or depth.

We recommend By Zergnet

The Division end-game guide

You’ve cleansed the Cleaners, gotten rid of the Rikers, and collected a steamer trunk’s worth of beanies on your journey to level 30 in The Division.

You’ve cleansed the Cleaners, gotten rid of the Rikers, and collected a steamer trunk’s worth of beanies on your journey to level 30 in The Division. Up next: getting numbers to go up higher. Through daily missions, crafting, and plenty of Dark Zone visits, the end-game for your Agent revolves around strapping on better and harder-hitting gear. You’ll optimize and balance your health, damage, and ability potency stats. You’ll furnish your character with the best high-end arsenal which can tip DPS numbers well into the hundreds of thousands. Most importantly, it’s the best way to prepare for max-level DLCsuch as the raid-like incursions and new zones.

Here’s an overlook at what The Division’s end-game entails and the most critical path you’ll need to take to get geared up.

Guide updated May 4th.

Base of Operations

The crucial first step in facing the gear mill is a fully upgraded and staffed Base of Operations. You’ll acquire the necessary resources for the Medical, Security, and Tech wings of your hub by completing main story missions and the myriad Encounter missions dotted throughout Manhattan. Focus on the main missions first—they’re both an excellent source of valuable credits and award the biggest chunk of resources on completion. The Encounters, though repetitive in content, are faster to finish in balance to their tedium and help prop up your funds and equipment while leveling.

When level 30 heaves into sight, your headquarters should be at 100 percent completion. That includes the crafting bench, recalibration station, and two vendors (one Security, one Tech) who’ll begin stocking yellow-colored (or high-end, the topmost gear quality tier) weapons, armor, and blueprints after you cap. You’ll need all of these for your end-game pursuits.

Purple power

Once the homestead is taken care of, it’s time to acquire a set of superior gear, the purple-colored tier just behind high-end. They’re easier to get than the latter, drop fairly frequently in the final few zones, and offer an opportunity to brush up on min-maxing stats without spending precious Phoenix Credits on recalibration.

Replaying missions on hard difficulty is best, as mini-bosses and the main climactic boss battle guarantee a plurality of purples. Enemies will scale to level 30 and bulk up to strong and elite status, so pack plenty of specialty ammo and damage mitigation abilities to help chew through armor and health bars.

It’s your choice on which mission deserves the farm—the payoff will depend on how well you fight either solo or in a group. The final mission of the game, “General Assembly,” is considered by the community as the best ratio of purples given against time invested (around 15-20 minutes at a good clip). The crowning battle against Colonel Bliss’ transport chopper guarantees at least four pieces of superior equipment, and the tight corridors and cover-lush interiors of the UN building leading up to the fight eases the challenge of dealing with toughened foes. Two mini-boss encounters before Bliss drop at least two purples apiece, as well.

Daily Challenges and Phoenix Credits

Revisiting conquered content also gives out bonus item rewards assigned to three selected missions on a daily rotation. The requirements aren’t anything new—complete the indicated mission (seen as a blinking icon on the map with “daily bonus available” in its description) and get an extra wad of credits and an additional superior-tier item.

Two of the missions need to be set to hard mode to count; they’re definitely solo-able with cautious play and decently powerful gear, but matchmaking into a group is always a quick and easy alternative. The third mission must be completed in challenging mode, a new difficulty unlocked at level 30. A group is absolutely a must—you’ll need to communicate and coordinate firepower against insanely powerful foes who can easily send you to the floor in a single hit if your health pool isn’t deep enough.

The best upside for all your pain are Phoenix Credits, the end-game currency used to purchase high-end blueprints and tinker with their associated stats. Both hard mode missions give 15 credits each; challenging mode rewards 30. Outside of the Dark Zone, this is the fastest way to gather a fair sum of PC to put towards a swanky gear set. If you’re confident in your gear and group, you can repeat challenging missions as many times as you like for more PC. Just don’t forget about those hard mode dailies!

High-end blueprints

Pay a visit to the Tech wing vendor, and he’ll tantalize you with a ream of high-end blueprints covering weapons, armor, and attachments. This is where you’ll want to spend your hard-earned PC, and it’s recommended to go for the blueprints first above new outerwear or armaments. A good starting point is the Vector 45 ACP blueprint which, when crafted, spits out a hard-hitting SMG that’ll go a long way to improving proficiency in challenge mode.

Speaking of crafting, you’ll hit the bench as often as you hit the Manhattan streets once you’ve collected a sizable library of blueprints. Not only are crafted weapons typically far better than what’s found in vendor selections, each craft is a roll of the dice to determine the two to three passive talents appended to each gun or armor piece. These talents tip major power into your output—the Brutal talent, for example, increases headshot damage by a percentage. Pick which talents suit your character best from the complete list, and you can craft loot personalized for your playstyle. All of this obviously hinges on carrying enough weapon parts, electronics, and other crafting material to put into your rolls; if you’ve been keeping an eye on your funds, you should already have a nice starting pile.

Dark Zone chests

As Chris wrote, the Dark Zone is filled with chests and enemies carrying a greater quantity of high-quality loot. Bolstered by farmed purples and a yellow or two, you can hit the DZ with enough firepower and brawn to tackle the named NPCs that wander each Zone territory—roaming boss battles, in other words. They’re a great wellspring of superior and occasional high-end drops, and wiping them from existence racks up your DZ level as an added plus.

Avoid the temptation to go rogue—the penalty for having a bounty stick on you isn’t worth the lost loot and DZ level—and stick to gathering keys (dropped from NPC enemies), opening chests, and extracting whatever you pick up. If you can get to DZ rank 50, you’ll unlock a whole new set of high-end blueprints at DZ safehouse vendors. With enough familiarization of the DZ’s risk-reward see-saw, you can complete a route cycle and head back to base with a stash-load of items to crunch into the crafting bench for better gear.

Incursion: Falcon Lost

Once you’ve gathered a respectable arsenal and honed your skills in the Dark Zone, it’s time to tackle Falcon Lost, the first of The Division’s Incursions: a raid-like encounter tuned for 4-player groups. A water treatment plant taken over by the Last Man Battalion sets the stage for a clash with a two-pronged objective: eliminate an LMB APC while fending off 15 waves of increasingly tough LMB soldiers within the industrial jungle of the plant’s main floor.

Falcon Lost’s high difficulty makes it the pinnacle of challenge for The Division’s current content. You’ll need to be level 30, wear a combined gear score of 140, and have completed the General Assembly story mission to satisfy eligibility to give it a go. Don’t expect a relaxed pace nor the exploitable disorganization of Cleaners or gangbangers found in earlier missions; the Strong- and Elite-tier LMB shotgunners and grenadiers will pressure your position and boast plenty of health and armor to soak up precious ammo reserves. Later waves get more punishing with drones that’ll zap and stun accompanying gadget-wielding rogue Division agents who can easily chunk down your health with a few snipes.

As expected, teamwork is king for success. Falcon Lost exacts a heavier demand for coordination best seen in its light mechanics for dropping bomb carriers and working further into the plant to temporarily disable turrets guarding the APC during windows of vulnerability. Your group’s composition in terms of gear, ability, and talent choice factors into victory or failure, so hopping on the mic or keyboard to assign roles and establish a plan is a vital step. You’ll want a decent spread of damage and heal abilities across your group; a popular setup involves two teammates stacking Electronics equipment for powerful heals and buffs while the remaining two focuses on glass-cannon Firepower for wave management and mop-up. A full set of High-end gear is ideal; you can squeak into a win with a few Superior-tier pieces at a heavy toll on survivability and damage output. If you’re struggling, consider hitting the Dark Zone or crafting bench for better gear.

After the APC falls, you’ll be rewarded with 33,000 credits, 15 Phoenix credits, a cosmetic item, a High-end item, and a piece from a random gear set. The payout and experience of a more intricately designed encounter is worth wading through daunting Incursion combat, and the community has put together blueprint listsand some helpful guides detailing specific strategiesfor conquering Falcon Lost, so you should be fully prepared before stepping into the arena.

Gear, set, match

The Garfield orange of High-end gear has dominated the inventory screen of many agents in the two months since launch, but the minty green of Falcon Lost’s new gear sets is the latest fashion craze sweeping Manhattan. The update brought four major sets for collection, and these follow traditional RPG characteristics of bestowing extra bonuses after gathering a certain amount of pieces. Each set themes its bonus around a specific playstyle. The Tactician’s Authority outfit specializes in ability-boosting Electronics and adds a stacking stat bonus as you or your group deal damage. The Sentry’s Call set—the current favorite for damage-oriented characters—emphasizes sniping and accuracy with its headshot multipliers. The Striker’s Battlegear steadily increases bullet damage as you land hits. The Path of the Nomad set is all about HP and survivability: taking a fatal shot will instead restore you to full health every 10 minutes.

The most straightforward method for getting your gloves on the new duds is an Incursion run or two. You’re guaranteed a single set piece drop per run; with a good group, enough time, and the favor of the loot gods, you can feasibly gather an entire set in a day or two of successful raiding. Alternatively, set blueprints are purchasable from everyone’s favorite Special Gear Vendor in the Base of Operations. You’ll need to cough up a steep price of around 330 to 390 Phoenix credits per blueprint, and each craft consumes a hefty pile of High-end materials. If you choose that route, steel yourself for a sluggish affair of tossing piles of equipment and guns into the grinder until you have enough fabric and electronics for crafting. A handy resource is the Daily Reset Infoin The Division’s Reddit page, a player-run knowledge depository of all the daily weapons and items on offer at each vendor you can buy for scrap.

Mission: assignment

If daily missions haven’t satisfied your agent’s well-worn grindstone, then the new slate of daily and weekly assignments are a logical upgrade. Set on a 24-hour and 7-day rotation, each assignment tasks a specific activity for a modest reward of Phoenix credits, Dark Zone experience, or crafting materials. They’re easily soloable, and the straightforward objectives—kill a few members of a certain faction or nab 25 headshots, as examples—are quick injections of currency and crafting items into your pocket. You can often complete multiple assignments in a single mission or a few sweeps of a Dark Zone block or two. Some assignments entail crafting or deconstructing a set of items, so be sure to keep a reserve of materials on hand for a speedy completion.