10 reasons why having a real bionic arm would be the best thing ever
It extends. It retracts. It spins. It grips. It pulls. Bionic Arm is without doubt a very cool appendage. The bionically enhanced commando uses it to deflect bullets, swing like a baboon, toss exploding barrels about and, er, unscrew things. But if by some miracle of modern science or Frankensteinian butchery Bionic Arm could be grafted on to our own body, how would we utilize the magical telescopic
GTA 5 mod shows what happens when whales fall out of the sky
Video games can help us experience things that never happen in real life, and barring some worst case scenario climate catastrophe, humankind will never know what it's like to see whales fall out of the sky.
Video games can help us experience things that never happen in real life, and barring some worst case scenario climate catastrophe, humankind will never know what it's like to see whales fall out of the sky. Until now.
Using GTA 5trainer Script Hook, YouTuber Merfishhas created a helpful video demonstrating what can happen if whales start falling out of the sky. Things explode, inevitably, but interestingly enough sometimes they just bounce back from whence they came , which is weird and probably not realistic at all.
Script Hook is a useful little tool if you want to try your hand at tweaking GTA 5. We've collected some cool Script Hook videosfor your viewing pleasure.
Cheers to Game Informer.
10 reasons why having a real bionic arm would be the best thing ever
It extends. It retracts. It spins. It grips. It pulls. Bionic Arm is without doubt a very cool appendage. The bionically enhanced commando uses it to deflect bullets, swing like a baboon, toss exploding barrels about and, er, unscrew things. But if by some miracle of modern science or Frankensteinian butchery Bionic Arm could be grafted on to our own body, how would we utilize the magical telescopic
Nintendo: 'We're not trying to provide social commentary' with Tomodachi Life
Nintendo issued a statement to the Associated Press yesterday asserting that it was "absolutely not trying to provide social commentary" with the upcoming launch of 3DS life sim Tomodachi Life and that it currently has no plans to update the game to allow same-sex relationships, despite a fan campaign requesting the feature.
That #Miiqualityfan campaign was started by Tye Marini last month, shortly after Nintendo announcedplans to bring the Japanese game Tomodachi Life to the U.S. in June.
"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of ' Tomodachi Life ,'" Nintendo of America told the AP. "The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that ' Tomodachi Life ' was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and that we were absolutely not trying to provide social commentary."
Marini released a video(above) explaining his reasons for starting the campaign.
The original Japanese version of Tomodachi Life launched with a bug that would randomly assign imported Mii characters to existing relationships, which led to some players having same-sex couples appear in their game.
"Because this bug caused the inability for the player to save the game data and continue the game, we released a patch," a Nintendo representative told Gamasutra via email.
It was also common for Japanese players to dress up their Tomodachi Life characters in clothes from the opposite gender, giving the appearance of same-sex relationships in screenshots published to Japanese websites.
Retweet if you support @Miiqualityfor #TomodachiLife! Watch the #Miiqualityvideo here: https://t.co/KAx4hAr0tp pic.twitter.com/QOgjrx5occ
— Miiquality (@Miiquality) May 5, 2014When reached for comment, Nintendo of America provided Gamasutra with the same statement it has provided to other media outlets. To wit:
"Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of Tomodachi Life . The relationship options in the game represent a whimsical and playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We are a games company first and foremost and our main objective is to create games and consoles for players to enjoy."
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Our Verdict
One of the most exciting racing game environments for years, unfortunately bound to a slew of dull races and superfluous story.
Need To Know
Price: $60/£50
Release: Out now
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ivory Tower
Website: Official site
Multiplayer: Massively
Copy protection: Steam/Uplay
By Phil Iwaniuk
Success and failure seem equally absurd for The Crew. It’s the most detailed and expansive playground a driving game has taken place in for years, and you’re free to roam its every highway, dirt track and city block with your friends—sounds like a sure thing, right? Well, it’s also an always-online, plot-driven driving game in which you play a street racer posing as an undercover cop pretending to be a street racer. Who, at times, drives through the wilderness to find comms towers which unlock activities on your map, because Ubisoft’s nothing if not consistent. Suddenly that sure thing now has a large truck in front of it.
It begins with a narrative-heavy prologue in which the plot points of every Fast and Furious and Need For Speed are duly ticked off the great driving game checklist—illegal racing gang, menacing electronic music, FBI involvement, scores to settle—and you’re introduced to the salient gameplay systems. It’s clear this game expects you to stick around for the long haul: the last of its five disciplines (street, dirt, performance, raid and circuit) unlocks at level 40.
However it also—mercifully—allows you a lot of freedom once you clear that prologue. Freedom to ignore the story mission pinging in your mini-map and drive from Detroit to New York on a whim, just to see how long it takes. Freedom to invite your friends into an eponymous Crew and just drive , taking in the sights of Florida beach as you natter over your headsets. The world map is by far and away the game’s strongest asset, packing enough environmental variation into its scaled-down USA for you to feel the culture shock when you arrive at the gaudy Las Vegas strip after minutes of cruising through serene mountainside scenery. Nobody does a Belgian motorway quite like Euro Truck Sim 2 of course, but for those yearning for a bit more drama in their long-haul virtual drives The Crew is absolute wish fulfillment
Perhaps if it had focused on doing that one thing really well, this would have been a better game. But by trying to also provide a facsimile of Need For Speed, Burnout and Far Cry 4 (lest we forget the comms towers) it spreads itself too thinly and exposes the lolly sticks and elastic bands powering the whole operation. It’s most pertinent during the many uninspired story missions. Sometimes you’re asked to drive from A to B as quickly as possible just because , while someone dutifully recites narrative exposition to you. Other mission types rely on mechanics that are simply too unrefined to glean enjoyment from—step forward sketchy police evasions and downright perplexing ‘takedowns,’ in which you attempt to ram a wildly rubberbanding enemy.
performance and settings
Reviewed on: Intel Core i7 2600K, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 4GB
Graphics options: Frame cap (30 or 60), geometry, textures, environment mapping, depth of field, motion blur, grass, ambient occlusion (all low-ultra)
Anti-aliasing: 4X MSAA, 4X TXAA, 8X MSAA
Remappable controls: Yes
Gamepad support: Yes
Using the ultra graphics preset and 8X MSAA, The Crew ran well below 20 fps at my monitor's native resolution of 2560 x 1600, but is just about able to hold 30 fps at 1080p. The high graphics preset is virtually indistinguishable though, and much more able to maintain a stable 30 frame lock. The absence of loading times across the enormous map is impressive, but overall fidelity isn't—so it's odd that 60 fps gaming is off the cards for many. It's also odd that it's locked to a max of 60 fps in the first place.
There are glimmers of inspiration among the busywork. One race pits you in a dirt car against a street racer on a route in which off-road paths intersect the road. Follow your opponent on the asphalt and you’re hugely outpaced, but seek out the muddy alternate routes and you’ll just squeeze the victory. It’s unrealistic to expect every race to be so high-concept, not least because there are legions of them. But The Crew isn’t Planescape: Torment, nor was anyone expecting it to be. It didn’t need reams of story missions.
No, it needs a better handling model. One that lets you really enjoy the world on offer. It’s by no means disastrous, but all the more annoying for always feeling one menu tweak away from ‘right’. Any such deadzone/sensitivity alchemy is a fool’s errand though. The shifting of weight will always feel slightly too sluggish; suspension always just a shade too spongy. And for a game that actively encourages corner-cutting, its kerbs are worryingly severe—mount the sidewalk as you wrestle for control in a corner exit and the game responds as if you’re in a monster truck running over another, smaller, monster truck. Perhaps the streets of Chicago really are rubberised and four feet higher than the road, and I’m displaying my ignorance.
Brave these not insignificant failings, and you’ll still find enduring enjoyment from The Crew, built on its online play (connection losses and crashes have just about cleared up at the time of writing after a turbulent launch week). It’s a uniquely social racer in which you can invite a few friends and drive aimlessly or take on a story mission together in four-player co-op. There’s the faction war to involve yourself in, reppin’ for a map region and contributing to its overall standing. There’s the simple, mindlessly compulsive PvP in which the most powerful car always wins and nobody cares because each race showers everyone in XP and money.
It’s always easier to look favourably on a game that tries to do too much than on a focus-tested bore. The Crew’s failings fall firmly into the former category, and though they are glaring and at times very frustrating, the potential to carve your own experience out of its rough-and-ready content saves it from mediocrity.
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Imagine 1v1 Destruction Derby. Imagine how little fun that would be.
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PvP: use your massively overpowered car to mirthlessly seal victory.
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I have a folder full of screens like this from launch week.
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Yellow rims. Phil Iwaniuk 1, good taste 0.
The Verdict
The Crew
One of the most exciting racing game environments for years, unfortunately bound to a slew of dull races and superfluous story.
We recommend By Zergnet
The best GTA 5 editor videos so far
Well, it's been a few days: how are PC gamers are doing with Rockstar's GTA 5 editor ?
? Quite well, from the looks of things. They've produced some drama, a few laughs, some really beautiful shots, and since it's GTA there's a good amount of wtf as well. Here's the best of what we've seen so far. Obviously, violence and profanity warnings all around.
This mini documentary by Berdu is fantastic, showing off both the ritzy and seedy sides of Vinewood. Fantastic use of focus and some wonderfully framed shots.
Duggy Duggy presents Don't Ignore the Mime! It's a short film on the perils of not giving street performers the respect they deserve.
A great slice-of-life cinematic video, showing all sorts of people, sights, and activities from Los Santos, in this well-crafted film from Nadeox1. Looks like a great place to visit, doesn't it?
This short piece by vcr is billed as "Just a test", and it is. Still, you can really see the beauty of the game on PC and the raw potential of the editor in less than half a minute. Beautiful.
This short cinematic piece by BJ Produções features some neat helicopter and crane-like shots. Welcome to Los Santos.
Is your garage in GTA 5 Online stocked with beautiful cars yet? RisingJake's is. Take a tour with his film Slick Picks. And no, I don't get the ending either.
A similar garage tour from purplenumberF in a film called Online. Similar, except for the garage's owner, and a somewhat more climactic ending.
Sins of the Past is a short drama about a man with no options left, directed by Danz Newz. With some fantastically framed shots, it really shows what the editor is capable of in the right hands.
The Thief, by Houratroic, showcases the tension leading up to a convenience store robbery. Great use of angles, editing, and music, though I daresay the drama is undercut a wee bit when the titular thief closes his car door and the window abruptly explodes.
Note to soldiers: if a muscular woman plummets from the sky into your army base, she might be up to something. Whoops, too late. Barbara Schwartzburger has arrived, and it looks like she's having fun in this short action movie from melonium.
This recreation of the opening titles from the film Drive by Sir_PhilMcKraken is pretty great. It even includes all the credits. You can compare it to the actual intro, which is here.
From Artimus_Maximus comes a short film chronicling the least effective alien invasion in history. To be fair, the cops arriving to deal with the invasion don't come off so great either.
No music, no jokes, no lengthy intro, just a brutally violent and well-edited scene of Trevor taking on the fuzz in this short action piece from CMDR TAVENNER.
That's a pretty productive week! Keep it up, filmmakers.
Help us solve GTA 5's huge hidden conspiracy
This feature was originally published on CVG, but the mystery remains unsolved.
This feature was originally published on CVG, but the mystery remains unsolved. We present all the evidence here so that we can pick up the thread in the PC edition and crack this once and for all.
Forget Big Foot, Leatherface and ghost cars. Grand Theft Auto 5 might be home to the biggest video game conspiracy of all time, with a tantalising reward for its solution. This needs some explanation.
The following article contains mild Easter egg spoilers . Please contact us for credit if we have used any of your map images—with special thanks to GTA Forums.
Throughout the game's life, GTA fans have been flexing their detective skills on sub-Reddits and forum threads, debating pictures of in-game graffiti, curious murals and 'phantom' UFO sightings. Bottom line: the Internet hive mind thinks that 100% completing GTA 5—a task that takes 50 to 60 hours—is when the race for its ultimate prize begins.
The reward is unconfirmed, but (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD) there are obvious clues. GTA 5's grandest conspiracy centres on a cave painting-style mural at the top of Mt Chiliad's cable car station. It's barely hidden, which suggests Rockstar wants people to find it and get involved.
The Mount Chiliad mural
The mural features a glowing eye and a series of connected boxes marked with an X. At the bottom of the flowchart structure are three boxes showing (what looks like) a UFO, an egg and a man with a jetpack. The consensus is that these are the prizes for solving the puzzle: a UFO you can pilot, a jet pack (like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' greatest gadget) and, er, an egg. This is the weird bit, with some suggesting you'll unlock a dinosaur (unlikely, but you can see a T-Rex shadow on one face of Mt Chiliad)—or, more likely, some kind of alien egg.
The glowing eye and lightning emerging from the sides suggest a link to the Illuminati (arguably the real world's greatest conspiracy theory), variously linked to major religions, global political control, finance and—of course—aliens. Franklin's house contains an Illuminati-style poster, and there are similar symbols all over Los Santos; the significance of which is still being debated.
Initially, it was felt that the mural represented a cross section of Mt Chilliad, with each box representing a hidden location. However, compelling evidence suggests the mural should be overlaid on the game map, with the shining eye on top of the north coast—the exact placement is still being debated. See below.
Next up: a case for Mulder and Scully.
Razer CEO hopes Project Christine will make upgrades easy for casual gamers
Written by Jonathan Deesing
Tuesday at the International CES, Razer unveiled Project Christine —its newest product aimed at creating a fully modular high-end gaming PC.
—its newest product aimed at creating a fully modular high-end gaming PC. At first glance, it hardly looks like a PC at all, but each of its strange modular spokes is a computer component.A thermal cooling tower forms a backbone, which has a number of modules that snap in and out. The modules—roughly the size of a paperback book—represent various components of a computer such as its GPU or CPU.
“Christine is something we're really passionate about,” Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan tells PC Gamer. “It has a huge amount of potential right now.” That potential, Tan explains, rests in modular computing. “With a fully modular design, we can reinvent the entire way PCs are being viewed.”
Project Christine is modular in not only its hardware, but also its software. It will ship without any bloatware, according to Razer, and a new OS can be added easily at any point. Yes, this includes SteamOS. “Hopefully a lot of people are going to want to install SteamOS on this,” Tan tells me.
Though he is excited about what Valve is doing with its Steam Machines, Tan wants to avoid creating a single-use product, an appliance. “Real estate is fine,” he explained. Project Christine is not a small device, but that doesn't mean it's not sexy. The thermal cooling tower at its center uses mineral oils instead of water or fans. Each module's two ports are double-sealed which makes for only slight dampness when switching them out. “When we built it we wanted it to be fully modular and totally quiet,” Tan said of Razer's goals, “This allows us to overclock it like crazy.”
Razer believes its modular setup will allow even casual PC users to easily upgrade to higher-end components. Tan envisions a tiered sales structure, in which players choose which level of computer they need and pay a subscription fee. For example, when a tier one gamer receives the latest and greatest CPU module, he could simply ship back his old one, which Razer would refurbish and send to a tier two gamer. This type of system upgrading is not too far removed from gamers who replace computer components on a regular basis, with the exception that the components would have to come from Razer.
The company calls this process open, but the reliance on Razer for component choices seems like a more limiting move. Sure, it will be easy to slot in a new GPU, but only if it's a GPU that Razer approves. That lack of choice will ruffle feathers for system builders or those used to choosing their own upgrade paths.
It's still a prototype, so Razer has no price or date for release, but Tan's insistence on reaching casual gamers suggests a potentially lower-than-average price for a gaming rig. Exactly how that will happen remains unclear. For now, Project Christine is an interesting proof of concept for how easy computer upgrades could be.
Razer reveals Project Christine, a modular gaming PC, at CES 2014
We're in the midst of CES 2014's gadget and computer hardware information avalanche and it's starting to get a little difficult to separate the exciting announcements from the announcements we'll forget about before the show's over.
We're in the midst of CES 2014's gadget and computer hardware information avalanche and it's starting to get a little difficult to separate the exciting announcements from the announcements we'll forget about before the show's over. For example, how do you feel about Razer's announcement of Project Christine, a modular gaming PC? I mean, look at it. That doesn't look like any PC I've ever seen. Where's the dust-clogged exhaust fans, the fire-hazardous tangle of cables, and the unsightly, space-inefficient case?
Apparently, Razer has been working on this for two years. The idea is to eliminate one of the most prohibitive aspects of PC gaming—installing new components. Okay, we agree that plugging in a new graphics card or more RAM is not that difficult, but the sight of an exposed motherboard does fill some with debilitating fear. It's why a lot of people buy consoles. They are simple, plug and play consumer devices that just work. Mostly.
Project Christine will allow you to plug in any optical drive, extra storage, GPU, or CPU, each of which is encased in a proprietary, water-cooled module. All parts will plug into the PCI-express, SLI enabled “backbone.” Need a better graphics card? simply buy a new module and exchange or add it to your existing one. That does sound convenient, and ideally it's a foolproof system which makes upgrades quick and easy.
The machine is supposedly very quiet, without cables, and its touch LCD screen displays control and maintenance information. Razer didn't say how much more expensive these modules are when compared with their regular counterparts, or if it will allow other manufactures to sell them.
Actually, it seems as if Razer is still undecided about a lot of the details here. As CEO Min-Liang Tan told The Verge, the goal of the announcement was to "throw it out to gamers and see if people like it."
So, do you like it?
Suda51 On Games That Aren’t Just Games
Suda51 On Games That Aren’t Just Games Last month saw the release of an interesting project from Bandai Namco – titled Rinko Tsukigime’s Longest Day: Short Peace, the game was released with a series of four films that directly tie in to the game’s narrative. It’s a cross-media project the game’s industry rarely sees, but is it something that’s going to catch on? Suda 51 sat down to discuss gaming’s
de_dust2 duel: Watch a competitive CS:GO match fought entirely with knives
CS:GO 's competitive mode is where serious, hardcore Counter-Strike players congregate to test their aim and strategic smarts in a best-of-30, five-on-five format.
's competitive mode is where serious, hardcore Counter-Strike players congregate to test their aim and strategic smarts in a best-of-30, five-on-five format. There's a lot on the line: your pride, your matchmaking rank, your kill-death ratio. One does not simply agree to put down their guns and agree to 45 minutes of playful knife-fighting: it's hard enough to wrangle the tactics of your own team, let alone negotiate a no-guns treaty with five other online strangers who want to kill you.
Unless you're cyborgcommando0, who was a lucky participant in a CS:GO competitive knife match. For almost the entire bout (it was inevitably broken near the end as the losing team tried to regain the lead), 10 players slashed their way through de_dust2, commemorated above in cyborgcommando0's entertaining highlight reel.
Valve to announce Steam Machine partners during CES 2014
Valve may have decided to go it alone when it comes to manufacturing Steam controllers , but the company's getting a little help in pushing out the box itself.
, but the company's getting a little help in pushing out the box itself. Valve's Greg Coomer told IGNthat we'll know which companies will construct Valve's fleet of Steam Machinessometime during CES 2014, which runs from Jan. 7-10, 2014.
“There really is a pretty huge variety of machines," Coomer told IGN. “It's not a huge number of boxes. In January we're going to start to be specific about which partners there are, how many boxes there are, what kinds of specs those machines will include. Probably ballpark figures on what kind of range of prices we'll be seeing for those boxes.”
Valve's Anna Sweet promised that the companies Valve teamed up with are each making machines with varying specs and price tags to fit the company's individual customers.
"We have 65 million Steam users,” Sweet said. “They're a broad range of gamers. They all have different priorities when it comes to buying a Steam Machine. All our partners we're working with are optimizing differently for size, for price, for performance, for all those things you would expect. We think that's great, because there's a ton of different customers out there who want an experience like this, but have different priorities when they're thinking about what they want to buy.”
While the company's ditching the tried and true “one spec, one console” method console manufacturers have traditionally used, it'll be interesting to see if Valve's move boosts PC sales at all. January's still a couple month's away though, which is more than enough time to, I don't know, build your ownSteam Machine.
NowGamer 2.0 now live
NowGamer 2.0 now live Click HERE to check it out right now!! The all-new NowGamer is live right now, bringing brand new features to the multi-format gaming supersite. The NowGamer team has been working night and day to bring gamers a new and improved website with updated looks, better navigation and interaction, and loads more content. Visitors will find HD images and video spread throughout the site
Far Cry 4 footage from Gamescom explores the beauty and brutality of Kyrat
Ubisoft showed some new footage of Far Cry 4 at Gamescom 2014, highlighting the world of Kyrat that players will explore.
at Gamescom 2014, highlighting the world of Kyrat that players will explore. The new trailer looks at three distinctly different areas from the game, from jungle wildlands to snowy mountaintops and a spiritual retreat.
There isn't a lot of gameplay on display in the new video, but we know from past experience that Far Cry 4 will task you with shooting and blowing up lots of things. What's impressive here is the detail in the environments new to the game—one specific moment in the trailer highlights how you'll use your wingsuit to fly between cliffs on the mountaintop. There's also a cute animal moment near the end of the Kyrat segment, something every first-person shooter needs.
Far Cry 4 is out on November 18.
Xi3 disputes Valve claims of "no involvement" in Project Piston
When a Valve representative claimed yesterday that the company "currently has no involvement" in Xi3's Project Piston, the news came as a surprise to anyone who followed the device's unveiling at January's Consumer Electronics Show.
that the company "currently has no involvement" in Xi3's Project Piston, the news came as a surprise to anyone who followed the device's unveiling at January's Consumer Electronics Show. It even surprised Xi3, to the extent that the company's CEO has prepared a statement reaffirming Valve's involvement.
In a statement provided to Kotaku, Xi3 founder and CEO Jason A. Sullivan detailed the extent to which Valve is involved. "We reaffirm the fact that we received an investment from Valve Corporation (as we previously disclosed during the 2013 International CES trade show), and we did so with Valve's written permission," the statement read.
"Second, we were asked to build a product specifically for Valve, and both companies showcased this product - the Piston Console - in their respective booths at CES 2013."
Sullivan went on to describe the differences between Xi3's Piston and Valve's forthcoming, Linux-based Steam Box, pointing out that Piston will ship with Windows and that Steam will not be a mandatory platform for the device. He also revealed that Valve and Xi3 agreed at a meeting at CES not to disclose any further information regarding the relationship.
Sullivan closed his statement with the following words: "So Gabe, it's up to you. The ball is in your court." Game on?
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer revealed: exo suits, Quidditch, and a massive mid-level tsunami
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer mode was revealed at Gamescom today, with developer Sledgehammer showing how the focus on future technology will change traditional CoD multiplayer with increased verticality, dynamic map elements, and intricate soldier customization.
The exo suit from the single-player campaign carries over to MP, letting players double-jump, dash in mid-air, and execute slam attacks on unsuspecting foes. The suit can also be customized with specific abilities, such as hovering, stealth cloaking, and SWAT-like shields. One notably powerful ability can knock up to two projectiles away, returning grenades to their sender. There's also an overcharge perk to make exo abilities last longer.
Black Ops 2's Pick 10 customization system returns in an expanded form, with what Sledgehammer's calling "Pick 13." You can customize your soldier's loadout, abilties, and scorestreaks (the new name for killstreaks), then test them out in a new virtual firing range. Cooperative scorestreaks have also been added—if someone on your team gets a cool ship, for instance, you can join in with them as a second gunner. New vanity customizations add a lot of visual options as well, and the new lobby puts your character front and center.
Four new maps were shown at the event. Biolab focuses on close combat, and includes chemical containers you can destroy when enemies are near. Riot takes place in a Bagdad prison, with chaotic, narrow inner corridors and more tactical outdoor spaces. Ascend takes place in a space elevator terminal and focuses on CTF: its three lanes are defended by player-activated turrets, but you can boost jump out of lanes and cut across.
The most impressive map is Defender, which takes place beside San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. At some point during the patch, a tsunami will hit the map, which means you'll need to use the new exo boost jump and boost hover abilities to get to higher ground. If not, you end up in the water, and the gameplay trailer shows soldiers swimming through the wave.
There are 12 total modes, including CTF, Team Domination, Search and Destroy, and Hardpoint, as well as new modes such as Momentum and Uplink. Momentum is a new take on War mode, factoring in the exo suit's new mobility. Uplink looks like a little like Quidditch from the Harry Potter series: Players will carry a satellite ball, passing between teammembers, and points are scored by throwing the ball through goals or jumping through with it. We didn't see any broomsticks, but there's still hope.
Sledgehammer says it's focusing on e-sports, too, with ranked playlists and a broadcaster mode. Most important for PC players is the announcement of LAN lobbies—though it's not clear if local, offline play is truly supported.
The presentation ended with the announcement of early access availability for pre-orders, something Activision is calling "Day Zero." Current and future pre-orders will net you 24 hours of early access to the game, including Double XP, two new bonus weapons, and the additional perks through the Advanced Arsenal package.
We're cautiously positive. The exo suit's mobility naturally reminds us of Titanfall, and that's just fine. We're excited about the tsunami in Defender, though Battlefield's 'levelution' events did lose their novelty after the 15th time the same skyscraper fell over. Uplink could be a nice option for professional e-sports players (or Harry Potter fans), and we're happy to see that LAN support wasn't ignored in the reveal.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out on November 4. The focus on vertical movement and dynamic maps will certainly distinguish it from previous CoDs, but we expect that core CoD multiplayer formula to remain in tact. Haters will likely continue to hate, and fans have something to look forward to.
Unreal Tournament's CTF mode tweaked for better e-sports presentation
Changes to Unreal Tournament's CTF mode have so far proved "quite controversial," according to Senior Gameplay Programmer Joe Wilcox, who says in the latest Unreal Tournament Project Update video that the implementation of halftime, overtime and sudden death are just "the very beginning" of an effort intended to make the game "more friendly to a viewing audience."
Community feedback will go a long way toward determining what, and to what extent, various aspects of the new Unreal Tournament are changed, but the developers are clearly making the game the game with e-sports in mind.
"There are a lot of things we want to try," Wilcox says. "We really want to do some things presentation-wise that I think are going to be really kind of unique, that nobody's seen before and that are really missing in the e-sports arena right now in terms of giving the spectator a chance to gain more information without having that frantic pace that you always see in e-sports."
Other topics of conversation including the translocator, the dodge button and the overall game speed, which is still being tweaked to ensure the game remains accessible to everyone. "The general consensus in the forums has been that the old UT99 players feel like we're too slow, and so we recently sped it up just a little bit," Senior Designer Jim Brown says. "But we don't want to get to the point where it becomes so frantic that the average player kind of gets lost in the shuffle or can't keep up."
To find out more about what's in store in the new Unreal Tournament, have a look at our epic Epic interviewfrom May.
Razer's Project Fiona is now the Razer Edge gaming tablet
Razer were busy teasing this device as Project Fiona a year ago .
. It re-emerged from the obscurity of Razer's R&D shroud this week at CES this week with a new name and some new moves. The ungainly handlebar controllers that we saw a year ago are detachable, the base unit can slot into a keyboard to turn it into a more conventional desktop unit, or you can carry it around and use it as you would any touchscreen tablet.
It's also quite powerful. An Intel Core i7 chip, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a solid state HDD and an NVIDIA GT 640M LE GPU should push decent framerates to the 10.1" 1366x768 screen. The downside? You'll need $1,299.99 to buy one. Razer are giving potential customers a chance to register interest on the Razer Edge sitenow alongside a video showing off the Edge in its various guises. Watch that and grab the full specs below.
Here are the tech details for the Pro version of the Edge.
Processor: Intel Core i7 Dual core w/ Hyper Threading Base 1.9GHz / Turbo 3.0GHz
Memory: 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB 1600MHz)
Video: Intel HD4000 (DX11), NVIDIA GT 640M LE (2GB DDR3, Optimus Technology)
Display: 10.1” (IPS, 1366x768) 10-point capacitive touch
Operating System: Windows 8
Storage: 128/256GB SSD (SATA-III)#
Network: Intel WLAN (802.11b/g/n + BT4)
Others: Stereo speakers
Codec supports 7.1 (via HDMI)
HD Webcam (front-facing, 2MP)
Array microphones
Dolby Home Theater v4
USB 3.0 x1 (green, SuperSpeed)
Audio jack (3.5mm, 4-pole, stereo out / mic in)
Well, I definitely like it better than Lenovo's giant table tablet PC. Would you buy one?
Pure Pool review
Pure Pool review No matter how well made a pool game might be, it’s difficult to ever classify one as anything more than entirely functional. The game’s core concept of knocking balls against one another and into pockets is so simple that there’s barely any space whatsoever for the designers of a game such as this to show their creativity and/or ability. If a pool game works, it works. And that’s about
Razer's Project Fiona is now the Razer Edge gaming tablet
Razer were busy teasing this device as Project Fiona a year ago .
. It re-emerged from the obscurity of Razer's R&D shroud this week at CES this week with a new name and some new moves. The ungainly handlebar controllers that we saw a year ago are detachable, the base unit can slot into a keyboard to turn it into a more conventional desktop unit, or you can carry it around and use it as you would any touchscreen tablet.
It's also quite powerful. An Intel Core i7 chip, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a solid state HDD and an NVIDIA GT 640M LE GPU should push decent framerates to the 10.1" 1366x768 screen. The downside? You'll need $1,299.99 to buy one. Razer are giving potential customers a chance to register interest on the Razer Edge sitenow alongside a video showing off the Edge in its various guises. Watch that and grab the full specs below.
Here are the tech details for the Pro version of the Edge.
Processor: Intel Core i7 Dual core w/ Hyper Threading Base 1.9GHz / Turbo 3.0GHz
Memory: 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB 1600MHz)
Video: Intel HD4000 (DX11), NVIDIA GT 640M LE (2GB DDR3, Optimus Technology)
Display: 10.1” (IPS, 1366x768) 10-point capacitive touch
Operating System: Windows 8
Storage: 128/256GB SSD (SATA-III)#
Network: Intel WLAN (802.11b/g/n + BT4)
Others: Stereo speakers
Codec supports 7.1 (via HDMI)
HD Webcam (front-facing, 2MP)
Array microphones
Dolby Home Theater v4
USB 3.0 x1 (green, SuperSpeed)
Audio jack (3.5mm, 4-pole, stereo out / mic in)
Well, I definitely like it better than Lenovo's giant table tablet PC. Would you buy one?
Lovely Planet gets global leaderboards, publisher defends low price
In my review of Lovely Planet , I criticized it for not including global leaderboards outside of one nameless world record per level.
, I criticized it for not including global leaderboards outside of one nameless world record per level. It just makes sense that a game built for speedrunning would show off the best speedrunners—and with today's update, it now does. And now that I can etch my name on a bragging wall, I have to replay every level 100 times to make sure my name is in the top 15.
The full leaderboard is only accessible after beating a level, but I hope developer Quicktequila adds a way to check the rankings from the menu. I'd just like to pop in now and then to make sure no one has beaten my best times, because I'm deranged and Hearthstone isn't going well this season, and this is all I have. Don't try to take it away from me.
Publisher tinyBuild also released the Lovely Planet soundtrack as $3/£2 DLC, and for an interesting reason. "Many people have said we priced the game too cheap," writes tinyBuild's Alex Nichiporchik, "so by buying the OST people can show their support."
Lovely Planet is $6/£3.50, and that is pretty cheap for one of my favorite games of the year. I'd still have recommended it at $10 or more, but it's the "right price," according to Nichiporchik.
"Many will argue that we're starting a race to the bottom, much like the AppStore has driven prices down, but I believe the market will adjust itself," he writes. "We're all already used to buying games super-cheap during sales. Developers know that sales bring in most revenue. And many people hold off buying games until sales. So by pricing the game lower from the get-go, we open up to that audience that'd otherwise wait for a sale. You also create more value for the end-user, and that's becoming more and more important—value per dollar."
Funnily, Lovely Planet is on sale: at the time of writing, its launch sale still has 23 hours to go. Even the just-released soundtrack—the thing you can buy to show support—is 15% off. I am not complaining.
Payday 2's unofficial modding tool yields its first full heist
Out of Frame, the “first full custom heist” for Payday 2 , sets players against a man named David Tremblay, who has a stockpile of gold, weapons, and other valuables stashed away in his upscale condo.
, sets players against a man named David Tremblay, who has a stockpile of gold, weapons, and other valuables stashed away in his upscale condo. He also has a team of tough, combat-hardened Gensec security personnel patrolling the place. In other words, keeping things quiet on this job might be a good idea.
The heist descriptionmakes it clear that silence (or at least a good clean-up) is golden. “Pay attention to your surroundings. Anything can go wrong in a heartbeat," it says. "Use objects to hide yourself from the guards. Learn and outstmart them. But if you have to, get rid of them and find somewhere safe to leave the body. We only have one chance, so make it count!”
A quality stealth mission is always good fun, but even more significant is how it was made. The BeardLib Editor, an unofficial modding tool that was originally launched in January, now has a dramatically expanded feature set and modules that simplify the creation of quality Payday 2 mods.
“When we were developing the new version of BeardLib one of the main goals was to implement a new ‘Module’ system. The goal of which would be to unify basic code for mods and thus lowering the barrier for users to create quality BLT mods. Similar to how BLT revolutionized Lua modding for Payday, allowing for a widespread increase in good Lua mods which were incredibly scarce before,” the expanded BeardLib descriptionexplains. “With this modders will no longer have to implement basic features like Settings, Option menus or even rudimentary things like Localization or Class loading. The latter may only require a few lines, but their implementation as modules means that only an xml definition is required to achieve a fully functioning mod.”
It's still a work in progress and so “issues are expected,” but the response on the Out of Frame download page (it's free, by the way) seems very positive. The BeardLib editor is free as well, both of them from lastbullet.net.
Verdun review (Early Access)
Need to Know
Version reviewed:
Reviewed on: Core i7 3.47Ghz, 12GB RAM, Radeon HD5970
Recommended: Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 8600 / Radeon equivalent
Price: $19/£14
Publisher: M2H, BlackMill Games
Developer: M2H, BlackMill Games
Multiplayer: 32 players
I feel like someone's expendable RTS unit as I dart through a muddy maze of trenches.
Alpha and Early Access reviewsoffer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored review with a final, scored review in the future. Read our full review policyfor details.
Link: Steam store page
I feel like someone's expendable RTS unit as I dart through a muddy maze of trenches. My only goal right now is pathfinding: trudge from cover to cover on my way to the French line as they pelt the no man's land between us. Trying to pick off entrenched riflemen might help a little, but I have to get into the trench to take it. I get into the trench, and get shot in the face.
We take the trench, though (I like to think I helped a little by distracting someone with my face), and now it's our turn to defend as the French counter-attack. As heads start to pop over the horizon, we massacre them. Verdun is a squad-based World War I shooter that's a lot like Red Orchestra 2, but unlike it in some key—and for me, very disappointing—ways. The main one: no ballistics modeling. Landing a shot at any range means putting my iron sight directly over what I want to shoot, and after hours of Rising Storm, it feels like I'm cheating. My 20+ kill count by the end of a match does a good job expressing the brutality of WWI, but I quickly lose interest in shooters which lack interesting gun handling or bullet physics.
That fundamental issue aside, Verdun has good things going for it. The main mode, Frontlines, is a well-designed adaptation of trench warfare into objective-based team multiplayer. One side attacks a trench while the other defends. Succeed by filling the rathole with more soldiers than the enemy, and roles reverse. Successfully defend the counter attack, and your team gets to push forward again. It requires teamwork (so it's unfortunate there's no integrated VOIP yet), and I especially enjoy playing as NCO, using my binoculars to call in mortar strikes and clearing out trenches with my pistol so my team can spawn on me.
Verdun is still sloppy, though. When an attack is thwarted, for instance, I'm instantly instructed to withdraw without nearly enough time to return to my trench before being executed for deserting. That's frustrating. The environments look good, but the character animations—especially the high-speed gun reloads—lack any of the same authenticity. Characters slide and float as they run, and geometry that could use contextual actions—such as the sides of trenches which often need to be scaled—are handled by repeatedly jumping.
Lag is also an issue (to be fair, the same goes for RO2). Aside from stuttering, the outcome of standoffs is sometimes confusing. That “I swear I shot first” feeling might be imagined at times (just blame the netcode!), but it's hard to trust my shots when I encounter so many other glitches, such as spawning before the spawn counter is up.
Verdun is fun for a few hours, though for me to continue playing it, bullets will have to act like bullets instead of lasers. Otherwise, Verdun needs rigorous polishing before I'll recommend it, but it could have a lot of value. I'll rarely say no to a new, large-scale, team-focused shooter, especially in a setting so rarely touched by games.
Verdict
Verdun is fun as it stands, but glitchy, and hard to recommend against the much better, and very similar, Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm. My biggest gripe is that it values the accuracy of its historical maps, but it doesn't currently value the authenticity of its weapons or the laws of physics.
Outlook
Verdun has been in Early Access since September 2013, and plans to go to full release this summer. The most recent update overhauled the character models and animations, but I don't expect any major changes before release. I do expect Verdun will continue to be updated after release, though it's hard to say what and when. Many entries on the roadmap are vague: the network optimization, for instance, “can always be better” and “more tactical” weapon handling is promised.
Ron Perlman stars in Payday 2's Biker Packs DLC, out this week
Fallout doombringer, Son of Anarchy, and horny demon Ron Perlman is starring in Payday 2's latest DLC: The Biker Packs.
Fallout doombringer, Son of Anarchy, and horny demon Ron Perlman is starring in Payday 2's latest DLC: The Biker Packs. It's actually two DLCs—The Biker Heist and The Biker Character Pack—and I'll detail both of them after you've seen a tired-looking Perlman in action.
That's an expensive way to trail some DLC—and did you notice Perlman's mask, with the red horns on it? A little nod to Hellboy there.
The Biker Heist pack comprises a two-day heist, the CR805B submachine gun, a throwable axe, four masks, patterns and materials, and six achievements.
While the Character Pack features Perlman's Rust as a playable character, the Biker perk deck, the Breaker 12G shotgun, the Chain Whip melee weapon, and a couple of masks.
Both are out June 16, which is this Thursday. (Ta, VG247.)
Screenshot Weekly – Frozen Ninjas Settling in for a Magical Pint
Welcome back to Screenshot Weekly !
! Every Tuesday, IGM brings you exclusive looks at upcoming games in various stages of development. The featured image introducing each game will always be original, and made especially for IGM, so you’ll see them for the first time right here (make sure to click the pics to see them in their full screen glory)! Without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s screenshots:
Box Ninja
I could offer my own take on the synopsis for Box Ninja , but the premise is fairly straightforward, so I’ll just pass along what Lead Programmer J4ck2on told me: “ Box N inja is a 2D puzzle game in which the player controls the left arm of a bow wielding and quite frankly trigger happy ninja . The player must shoot blocks out of the way in order to shoot a button and progress to the next level.” Developer Games Placeois looking to craft to a puzzle game that offers an interesting challenge through alternative gameplay mechanics. One such mechanic is that the blocks of wood in the game are both movable and destructible, and can be collapsed into one another, opening the door for some unique puzzle opportunities. If you’d like to hear more about Box Ninja , you can follow the developer on Twitter. The game is currently scheduled to release by the end of September.
Spells Arena: Ice Frozen Ocean
While we normally only cover unreleased games, Spells Arena is about to get a major graphical overhaul; and considering showcasing new visual content is sort of the focus of Screenshot Weekly , I figured it would be a reasonable exception to the rule. According to the developers at 2Think, “ Spells Arena: Ice Frozen Ocean takes you to a primordial universe where the normal physics laws don’t apply, where creatures fight each other using spells drawn by magical gems,” and where winners light up something known as the Stars of the Portals. A progression system of sorts, when all the Stars are lit, the Portal opens and unlocks new Spells for the player to use in combat. Spells are drawn using gestures, and range from red-colored offensive spells, to blue-colored defensive abilities. More info can be found on the developer’s website, as well as the team’s Facebookand Twitterprofiles.
Tavern Tycoon
Have you ever wondered what happens to your favorite adventurers and RPG characters when they retire? Peter Park did, so he decided to make a game about it. (Assumedly in his free time between working as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, and fighting crime as the amazing Spider-Man.) In his version, the retired adventurer decides to open up a tavern. Tavern Tycoon: Dragon’s Hangover is a “ Theme Hospital -inspired game” that takes simulation to a fantasy setting. The Dragon’s Hangover subtitle comes from part of the game’s plot, and Park mentioned that, “there is a local dragon that loves drinking and is turning people and the dragon slayers into strange creatures with magic.” Tavern Tycoon will also include minigames to break up the action, one of which can be found here. The game is looking to head into Steam Early Accesssoon, and additional info can be found on the Terapoly devlog.
That’s it for this week’s Screenshot Weekly . Be sure to come back next week to see more exclusive looks of the latest indie games in development! Let us know in the comments section what upcoming indie games you’d like to see featured in a future installment. As for any indie developers who would like to see their screenshots featured in an upcoming segment, feel free to send an email to IGM at editors@indiegamemag.com with the Subject Line: “Screenshot Weekly”. Or, if you’d like to be part of our Magazine’s Screenshot Monthly segment, include that in the email as well!
Payday 2 adds Jimmy: your new, free psychopath
Payday 2 has a new character to play as, totally free: Jimmy, played by one Sharlto Copley*.
Payday 2 has a new character to play as, totally free: Jimmy, played by one Sharlto Copley*. It’s all a tie-in with Hardcore Henry, the first-person action film that stars Copley and a bunch of other folks.
Overkill has put together a neat little mini-sitefor Jimmy, where you can find out all about the innocent little guy — he's not that innocent — and listen to some of Copley’s lines you’re sure to hear a lot of in the game proper.
You can also get more details on his Maniac perk — a team shield awarded for inflicting constant damage — and Jimmy’s weapons, a pair of SMGs and close-up knives.
To celebrate the release of the Hardcore Henry tie-in stuff, there’s also been this trailer... well, I say ‘trailer’, I mean mini-movie. And to be honest, I’ll watch anything with Copley in it, the man’s brilliant.
Jimmy will be followed by some Hardcore Henry-themed heists on March 31, also for free.
*He's the guy from District 9, The A-Team, Elysium, Chappie, all that good stuff.
Metrocide interview: "there's so much fun to be had in a dystopia"
Metrocide is a forthcoming top-down stealth shooter developed by Sydney studio Flat Earth Games.
is a forthcoming top-down stealth shooter developed by Sydney studio Flat Earth Games. The team, made up of brothers Leigh and Rohan Harris, is best known for the whimsical survival game TownCraft. Metrocide is entirely different: lush greens have been replaced with cyberpunk chromes, while instead of chopping down trees you'll be murdering in cold blood.
Metrocide plays like the original GTA games as roguelike: you're a contract killer tasked with completing increasingly difficult randomly generated missions, and if you die: that's it. Stealth plays a significant role, because not only will you want to take out contracts unseen, but you'll also need to evade law enforcement. Given the dystopian cyberpunk theme, this is no easy feat.
We sat down for a quick chat with Flat Earth Games' Harris brothers to talk about the game. It's due for release in August.
Is it cathartic developing a game like Metrocide after the comparatively wholesome TownCraft? Was there the urge to create something entirely different?
Rohan Harris: Absolutely, yes. We love TownCraft, but as much as people kept asking us to add the ability to shoot down the canaries which fly overhead, we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Metrocide came out of the Cyberpunk Jamfrom earlier this year - it wasn't actually decided that it'd be a Flat Earth title (as opposed to a sanity project on the side) until we'd already been working on it as a spare time project for a good couple of months.
Leigh Harris: It's actually ended up being the polar opposite of TownCraft in more ways than one. TownCraft had manually designed quests in procedurally generated levels. Metrocide has manually designed levels and procedurally generated 'quests' (although it's probably better to call them 'jobs' or something given that they're assassination missions).
Metrocide came out of the Cyberpunk Game Jam. What were the circumstances around that?
RH: Whenever I get any spare time at all, I spend it coding. My idea of a holiday or a decent-sized break isn't to stop coding but to code something new that doesn't feel like work. Game jams are perfect for that, and the Cyberpunk Jam in particular was right up my alley! So our initial team was just the jammers: myself, Matt Purchase (from Epiphany Games) and two freelancers Krister Collin and Danii Johnstone. By the end of that one week jam we had a top-down interface and the ability to walk around and shoot at folks and have them react appropriately, and the beginnings of a 2D cyberpunk setting.
Following the Game Jam, what additions or tweaks have you made to the game?
LH: It's a very different beast to when it first began. When Rohan first raised the idea of making it an actual Flat Earth release, I was a little resistant because I didn't like the idea of a new game which wasn't one of our planned next titles suddenly entering our release schedule.
So we made an agreement: the game would be our next title, but it had to be of a scope where we could have it out mid-year and move straight on to our other projects as planned. I agreed that it was fun, and certainly there isn't a huge number of action-cyberpunk top-down shooters out there, but wanted to keep it fast-paced and kind of arcade-fun rather than letting the production (as they always do) blow out and take forever to complete.
RH: So in terms of actual changes, there were two major ones: firstly that we decided to make it something like what an endless runner would be if it were a top-down stealth-action shooter - so that it'd keep getting harder and harder until you died. Secondly, that we'd make the buildings 3D, a huge jump and one which easily added 6 weeks to the production (no small amount when you're talking about a 6 month total production time for a game), but which we all agree did so much to bring the world to life.
Apart from the broader cyberpunk aesthetic, what inspired the move into a dystopian, futuristic setting? What is appealing or interesting about that setting right now?
RH: Right now? Well current politics certainly isn't filling anyone with any hope now is it? Looming disaster seems to be a running theme in newspapers at the best of times, but right this second its kind of in overdrive.
LH: I'd say it's universal and has been way too neglected recently. Cyberpunk is freaking awesome (I'm still gagging for Prey 2), and while there are a few currently in the works or just out, the last five years has until recently given us Deus Ex and... well... Deus Ex.
RH: Plus there's just so much fun to be had in a dystopia - the fascist dictatorship which runs Metro City has been one of the funnest parts of making the game. We'll just gather round a microphone coming up with advertisements to be blared out over the loudspeakers, sayings from the hilariously bleak cop drones which fly overhead. Writing stuff like 'Remember: There is no "I" in "Obey"', or "Warning: You are a pinata" over a few beers is just downright pleasant. And yeah, cathartic.
The preview build I played is one level, set in a city. Will the other levels take us anywhere else?
LH: The city is the setting, but each level will take you to a different zone, each larger and more varied than the last. So it starts in the jam-packed Downtown zone, then takes you to the industrial Docks zone (where you can run around dumping bodies in the water and fun stuff like that), and finally into the upper class area with big highways, residential zones (which were totally inspired by future Hilldale from Back to the Future) and police scanning checkpoints to mix things up a bit.
Metrocide will release late in August. Keep an eye on the Flat Earth Games Facebook page
Payday 2 comes to SteamOS, goes free to play until end of March
Payday 2 is now available for SteamOS, which will come as good news for those of you packing a Steam Machine, or who intend to pick one up in the relatively near future.
is now available for SteamOS, which will come as good news for those of you packing a Steam Machine, or who intend to pick one up in the relatively near future. To celebrate the happy day, Overkill has put the game on sale for 75 percent off its regular price, dropping it to $5/£4; even better, it's free to play for everyone until March 31.
It's difficult to tell from the state of the comments posted in response to the announcement on Steam, but the general tone suggests that Payday players have not entirely forgiven Overkill for adding microtransactionsto the game last autumn. That happened despite a promise that it wouldn't, although Game Director David Goldfarb defended the move in a follow-up AMAwhen he pointed out that the commitment was made very early in the game's development. Even so, the reaction was intensely vitriolic and remarkably sustained, as demonstrated by the less-than-unanimously-happy response to the release of the Goat Simulator game modein January.
Nonetheless, free is free, and of course the SteamOS version of Payday 2 will be free for anyone who already owns the original release. Other Payday 2 content, including the Wolf Pack DLC, Goat Simulator Heist, Point Break Heists, and the GOTY Edition, is also on sale for 75 percent off during the free-to-play period, as is the original Payday: The Heist.
James Bond 007: Blood Stone
James Bond 007: Blood Stone The collapse of MGM has thrown the movie incarnation of Bond into turmoil, which puts Blood Stone in a unique position – for the time being, it’s the only original, official Bond adventure on the horizon. How does that benefit the game? Being a standalone title is a completely different kettle of fish. Overall, the situation is negative, but it does have a positive side
Interview: Cliff Bleszinski on Project BlueStreak, PC gaming, FPS design, moddability
Earlier this month Cliff Bleszinski revealed his next project: a free-to-play, PC-focused arena shooter called Project BlueStreak created by Boss Key Productions, his new studio.
created by Boss Key Productions, his new studio. Following a Reddit AMAthat answered some surface-level questions about the game, I spoke with Bleszinski about what sort of shooter he's hoping to create.
PC Gamer: What's interesting to you about PC gaming right now?
Cliff Bleszinski: What's not? If you want the highest-end experience, you go to a high-end PC. If you want to go where the majority of the Twitch streams and the YouTubers are, it's mostly on PC. And not to flak the consoles, but for me, making a classic arena shooter that wants to have the maximum global reach possible and explore the free-to-play space, the PC absolutely makes the most sense, first and foremost.
Randy, over at Gearbox, he's doing that interesting looking pseudo-MOBA game Battleborn, and I looked at the platforms planned and it's PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and a lot of developers intelligently do that to mitigate risk. And I get and respect that. But there's a little bit lost when you're not laser-focused on developing a project specifically for one platform initially to kind of maximize what that product is best at. And for PC, it's that classic keyboard-and-mouse aiming ability and the ability for players to maneuver in a nimble fashion on all axes.
PCG: How much of a priority is it to you that BlueStreak be a spectator-friendly experience?
Bleszinski: It all goes back to skill. When I watch the Dota championships—and I'm not a big MOBA guy, I play them enough to respect them—they're deep and they're complex. When I look at your average Call of Duty match it's “twitch to ironsights, pop-pop, randomly come around a corner…” that's fun as a core loop, but for me it doesn't have that first-person shooter dance , that Halo still nails, to be fair, where one person acquires another, starts opening up shots, and the other person has a shot at turning the table if they either find some health or a pickup or get lucky.
As long as a game is skill-based, and it yields those kinds of interesting “plays,” hopefully it'll wind up being watchable. But it comes down making a great, airtight game, and once those variables, those verbs are all in place and cool enough for the skilled players, that's when people want to watch it because it becomes aspirational.
PCG: In terms of achieving that “tightness” you're talking about, do you feel like a lot of it comes down to map design?
Bleszinski: There's a myriad of issues when it comes to map design in the single-player space and the multiplayer space in the shooter arena right now. And, you know, we were partially responsible for it in the Gears days… I always pull up that famous GIF where it's like “straight line, 90-degree turn, hallway, cutscene, hallway, cutscene,” as opposed to, you know, System Shock's map where it's like “Here you go, have fun, you might actually have to map this up.” Or Doom, E1M1.
And what I think has happened in the single-player space is that it's gotten very linear, not allowing the player to just kind of explore on their own volition and get lost, which is part of the fun of a game. As well as in the multiplayer space, the multiplayer maps have become way too porous. And/or large. So we're at a point where if the map is too large, you walk out for 30 seconds trying to find some action and you get sniped from somebody you never saw. That is not fun. It's only completely fun for one person. And is that skill-based? No, it's not. That person just found the right grassy knoll to sit on and just pick people off. It's fun for him, it's not fun for anyone else who doesn't have a chance of getting back at him, right?
In the other multiplayer space, with the maps being too porous, it's literally… you come around a corner and you check one door, and there's two other doors where somebody comes through that you didn't check and they pop you because they saw you first. And that's very fun from a moment-to-moment kind of… “rat with a feeder pellet” type of gameplay, but it doesn't lend itself to the dance that I alluded to before, or very dramatic comebacks in an e-sports kind of space. So getting to a kind of medium-sized, arena-based shooter with the right balance of tight corners and open spaces is important to me. I think open spaces in a shooter like this… they're where that dance happens and they're also risky spaces to be in. But again, with map attractors like good weapons or power-ups, you have the tradeoff of risk to reward from that location's spaciousness as well as the desirability of the pickup.
PCG: When you talk about that dance, what do you expect your approach to player movement to be?
Bleszinski: When you look at movement in the majority of your average military shooters, you know, it's a contemporary world—and even, I think the people working on [Call of Duty] Advanced Warfare have realized how limiting that can be when you're just a regular soldier without any sort of boosters or speed-ups, jetpacks, things like that. And so what you have is run, prone, dash, maybe a dive, and just a jump. And that's fine for what that is, but there's so much more that can be done in sci-fi that can be done in regards to giving the player whatever movement we think is cool, we can come up with a creative fiction to explain how it's physically happening.
I don't want to spoil what I'm thinking of with this, but I think what I want to do on PC is get back to that sense of verticality that we weren't afraid of with a lot of the older shooters. Because on consoles we're always afraid of the twin sticks and looking up is too confusing if someone's above you—all that kind of stuff that Halo rightfully taught us—but leading with PC first, literally and figuratively with game mechanics.
PCG: What do you consider to be the best FPSs right now, and what do you like about them?
Bleszinski: What I liked about Titanfall was the variety of gameplay that, just when shooting by itself started to get a bit old, your Titan would be ready and they knew how to switch it up a bit. I think introducing a little bit of minion gameplay without Titanfall turning full MOBA was a good step for them. But outside of that, the new Wolfenstein was in my opinion, and I daresay this, one of the best first-person shooter campaigns since Half-Life 2. And I think I'm about halfway through right now, I'm stuck on this bridge section but I refuse to lower the difficulty because I hate having to do that in a game.
But when I saw that game at E3 a couple years ago and then PAX East, I was completely underwhelmed, I was writing it off. I didn't want to be a dick and say something about it on social, but my expectations were really low—I thought it seemed kind of cheesy and just weird. And then when I got hands-on, it was extraordinarily well written, graphically gorgeous, and the maps were extremely well built. And the combat was just fantastic, it was a labor of love.
Point Break DLC comes to Payday 2 tomorrow
Last year, Overkill released John Wick DLC for Payday 2 that brought the Keanu Reeves action-thriller into the game with a new playable character, weapons, and three—three!—pairs of sunglasses.
that brought the Keanu Reeves action-thriller into the game with a new playable character, weapons, and three—three!—pairs of sunglasses. Now the studio's got something very similar in the works for Point Break. Unlike its predecessor, however, this DLC is not based on the Keanu Reeves action-thriller, but rather the upcoming, entirely unnecessary (and probably dreadful) remakethat will feature Luke Bracey in the Reeves role of Johnny Utah.
"Point Break has always been a huge inspiration for the Payday games, so to be able to integrate the film's characters and storylines into Payday 2 is a dream come true," Bo Andersson-Klint, CEO of Overkill parent Starbreeze Studios, said in a statement. "We previously worked closely with Lionsgate on the successful addition of their character John Wick as a member of the Payday gang, so using that same business model, Lionsgate introduced us to Alcon and Warner Bros. to create two Point Break heists that we believe are some of the best to date."
Two separate pieces of Point Break DLC are on the way. The Bodhi Character Pack, which will bring the super-surfer leader of the Ex-Presidents gang to the game (played in the original by Patrick Swayze and in the do-overby some guy named Édgar RamÃrez in the do-over) along with a couple of new weapons, perks, and masks, will be free. The Point Break Heists DLC, containing a pair of brand new heists, ten new achievements, a new pistol, four melee weapons, six new songs, and a new contact, will sell for $7.
The Point Break DLC for Payday 2 is set to go live on December 3. Find out more at Overkillsoftware.com.
Studio 2511 Making ‘Urban Zombie’ A True Mobile Zombie Experience
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Justin Leger, founder of Studio 2511 , where we talked about the developer’s first project, Urban Zombie .
. If you haven’t heard of Urban Zombie , it’s a location-based augmented reality iPhone game that lets players fight in a Zombie apocalypse in their own neighborhood.
While the inner workings of the game and everything going on behind the scenes is more than I can comprehend, it’s as simple as launching the app on your phone, checking in to any location, and begin your hunting. Unlike other zombie games out there, Studio 2511 is attempting to make Urban Zombie a true mobile experience. If you want to get in on the action early you can do so by checking out their Kickstarterpage and backing their project.
Not convinced yet? The following is a two part interview conducted with founder Justin Leger where we go more in depth into the history and technical aspects of Urban Zombie .
What technology is used in this game?
We are using a mix of several technologies to make this game. The game play is built with Unity and uses several components from the iPhone’s hardware during game play: the camera for the augmented reality video feed; the gyroscope for player control and rotation of the augmented reality world; and the accelerometer for weapon reloading and punching the Zombies away.
For the application user interface, player stats, location data, and player challenges we are using native iOS development. This part of the application is a better user experience when it is familiar and similar to other applications.
The backend API, the BRAINS behind the curtain, is a custom solution based on a framework that I have been writing and enhancing for years.
What inspired you to create a game?
The idea of this project came about mid-2011 when my brother-in-law and I were in-between contracts and projects. We wanted to do something new and play with something different.
At the time, he was working on a personal mobile gaming project, and I was playing a lot with some computer vision facial detection technology on my phone. We had the idea: “Wouldn’t it be great if we could tell how someone was using our app just by the way they were interacting with their environment?”
Marker-based augmented reality was taking off, but in order for that to be effective, you needed to carry an image marker with you. That’s when we decided to use the gyroscope to transform a virtual game world on top of video feed to create a more immersive game.
The next challenging question we asked was: “A game about what?” Shooting of course, but shooting what? ZOMBIES!!!
What inspired you to create this game in particular?
Who doesn’t like zombies?! I have always loved zombies. Film and television have done an amazing job at bringing us into that world for short periods of time. I wanted to create something that would bring that world to players, everywhere they are, and anytime they want.
What sets your game apart from other games? How is it unique?
What I think sets us apart and is unique is that we are an augmented reality game where the real world matters. You are playing in real locations and the zombies you are unique to each establishment.
We are not creating a game where zombies are just obstacles to shoot down. They are real entities that exist in the Urban Zombie world. Each location gets a set of zombies and when they get put down, they will die for a time. The longer they live in each game, the more hits or bites they land on players, the stronger they get. They earn experience similar to how players do.
Players of Urban Zombie have the ability to earn brains, a sort of gameplay currency, where they can get Zombies of their own. Players can place zombies at any location around them and begin to amass a zombie army. You can even challenge other players to fight your zombies. The greatness is as your zombies fight other players those zombies are earning brains for you.
In other words, you’re still playing the game even when you’re not logged on.
What do you like best about your project, what do you dislike?
I love playing with new technologies – figuring out ways to incorporate them together and give them new meaning in new ways. Computer vision is an amazing invention and it’s now at a place where we have the power in our pockets to use these incredible technologies in a way that we have only dreamt about.
My biggest challenge with this project has been the self funding and having to wear multiple hats. I love coding and problem solving. When you take on a project on like this, you need to be more than just a developer that figures out how use cool technologies and make a cool game. You have to be aware of your limitations and how to deal with them.
Describe your journey through creating Urban Zombie
We started off with concepting the core mechanics of the game and the backend API engine. From there we prototyped parts of the game and user interface to see what worked. Then picked our direction and started the hard work.
We are small team doing some cool stuff and have asked many favors along the way. That has been a journey in itself, finding the right people for the task when you have a limited budget.
Your game is on Kickstarter, what are you going to do with the money that you obtain?
This funding is essential to getting Urban Zombie finished and into users’ hands. When our Kickstarter is successful, we will be able to complete development and finish the gameplay experience, ramp up the art and audio, and make sure the servers are ready to support the growing number of players and zombies.
What are your future goals for the project, and any other games you may have?
While at this moment we are focused on getting Urban Zombie completed and shipped, we are also planning an Android version as soon as possible. In future releases of Urban Zombie we are also planning on incorporating additional augmented reality technologies to create a better and more immersive user experience.
We can’t reveal much about our future game concepts at this point but it’s safe to say that like Urban Zombie , they’ll make you say “Wow!”
If you are successful in your campaign, what is the future you envision for Urban Zombie?
The Zombie Apocalypse!!!
We’d love to see the Urban Zombie community take off and have players challenging each other, sharing tips, and making their suggestions for new features. And, of course we’d like to see Urban Zombie be on the Staff Picks sections of Apple’s App Store, featured by major game and app review sites, and most of all we hope fans continue to spread the word!
Do you have any advice for other indie developers, based on what you have learned while creating Urban Zombie?
Follow your crazy ideas. And have a LOT of passion about your project. But also…plan it out, brainstorm a lot, call in favors, and don’t listen to anyone telling you you can’t do it.
What would you say to people that are interested in supporting Urban Zombie? How would you win them over?
Well, it’s a kick ass game that a lot of people are going to want to get their hands on. We know that from the play testing we’ve done so far, but Kickstarter funding is critical to achieving our vision for it.
Also, we spent hours trying to come up with the coolest rewards that could fund the game so hopefully we’re on target, but we’re open to ideas from the Kickstarter community! We’ve already received some suggestions from backers and hope to hear more. Feel free to write us at brains@urbanzombie.com or comment on our project page:
Beyond that, we’re huge fans of Kickstarter and what it can do for brand new teams and all new IP like in the case of Urban Zombie . We really hope the community embraces the game and this team. We’ve spent months of sweat on this idea, and we’re so close!
Some of the most innovative and interesting software that’s around today started with a couple of people that had some good ideas. They often didn’t have a lot of money, but they kept pursuing their dreams and through the generosity of friends and financial backers, they eventually brought their ideas to the world. I feel Urban Zombie has the potential to make a lot of gamers very happy! Become a Kickstarter Urban Zombie backer and help us change mobile gaming forever!
Team Bios
Justin L̩ger РApplication Architect, iOS Developer, Entrepreneur
Prior to Urban Zombie Justin has acted as a Senior Application Architect for companies like American Airlines Blockbuster, RCA and several magazines under the Hachette Filipacchi masthead.
He started doing mobile about 5 years ago and have been trying to make it his focus ever since. His first iPhone game was Webosaurs for the iPhone.
Additionally, Justin is the founder of Dalmob.org, a group for mobile development enthusiasts operating in the DFW/North Texas area.
Justin Pierce – Developer, Interactive Artist, Entrepreneur
Justin is a lifelong gamer and has personally been working on game projects since high school. He studied New Media Art and Japanese at the University of North Texas, experimenting with interactive artwork and had a Digital Windchime piece at the Dallas Museum of Art. Justin has experience with level design and 3D art, and now specializes in developing and designing games and interactive 3D apps using Unity.
He’s developed SpaceJunk, an online first person shooter for PC/Mac/Web, and FishMoto and Cake Day for iPhone himself and has worked on several freelance projects with a niche in Augmented Reality.
Chieh-Yu “Joy” Tao – iOS Developer, Entrepreneur
Joy is originally from Taiwan and studied Electrical and Computer Engineering in New York at New York University where she received her Masters. Her focus is as both an engineer and developer.
Her first iPhone application -GRID Reader- was launched in 2011. GRID Reader allows you to fully customize and control your favorite content, from RSS subscriptions,
Joy now lives in Dallas and she enjoys reading comics and snowboarding in her spare time.
For more information on Urban Zombie be sure to visit their Kickstarter.
Payday 2 studio apologises over added microtransactions
Payday 2 developer Overkill has apologised for "all the distress we've caused the past few weeks", referring of course to the community's frothing reaction to the addition of microtransactions to its latest game.
to its latest game. It's been an unpleasant few weeks, with all manner of abuse being hurled at Overkill, and with volunteer Steam forum moderators going on strike.
The studio addressed the matter in a Reddit AMA a few weeks ago, explaining its decision to add microtransactions to the game after stating years ago that it wouldn't, but the anger hasn't gone away. Probably because those microtransactions are still in there, and haven't been changed in any big way.
Now, Overkill has issued a frank apologyon Steam.
"The past few weeks have been some of the most challenging in the history of this community," the statement reads. "Players have been angry with us, media have written about us en masse and our volunteer moderators went on strike. For all the distress we've caused the past few weeks, I'd just like to take the time and say that we’re sorry. We've done a lot of things right in the past, but these past few weeks we screwed up.
"We need to get better at many things, and we will do our best to improve as soon as possible."
Their efforts to improve include this 2-hour discussion with three volunteer mods that went on strike:
I don't expect you to watch that, so here's a handy summation of what was discussed during the conversation:
"Today we had a meeting with Ashley and Jones, two of our volunteer moderators. Ashley and Jones has been collecting questions from the community that we discussed during the meeting. Two of the topics were stat boosts and the latest COP reward. We're currently looking into what we can do to make up for the final COP-reward. Ashley and Jones gave several suggestions from the community that we are currently discussing internally.Our main goal is to try to find a way to reduce or remove the random elements of the final reward, whatever that reward will be. Regarding stat boosts, Ashley and Jones suggested that we introduce something similar to StatTrak as part of future safes, a feature used in CS:GO in their cases. This is something we've been thinking about as well, and something that we will discuss going forward. I must stress however that we cannot currently make any promises but these are things we will be discussing as we move forward."
In addition that that meeting, Overkill has arranged to meet with many of Payday 2's top modders, and assigned 8 Overkill developers to actively engage with the community in the Steam forums, starting from next week. Many members of that community have been predictably vile in the comments underneath the statement, including several calls of "Fuck you Overkill", and at least one that asks the developers to kill themselves.
Who’s afraid of the big, bad Woolfe?
Every once in a while, something comes along that instantly gets your attention with stylish good looks, an intriguing premise and a good amount of promise.
Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries is one of these games. Developed by 7-man Belgian outfit GRIN (unrelated to the dearly departed Swedish multiplatform studio, before you ask), Woolfe takes the well-known fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood, layers it thick with a dark, steampunk-inspired gothic aesthetic and crams it into a 2.5d side-scrolling game.
Described by the developer as a “dark, sidescroller odyssey”, details about the game are a bit scarce right now other than that it’s currently in the alpha stage of development, with a public beta due to come in March 2014 and is being developed in Unreal Dev Kit. We’ve reached out to the developer for more information.
In the meantime, catch a look at the game in action by watching the trailer below:
Payday 2 studio speaks up about microtransactions controversy
Earlier this month studio Overkill introduced microtransactions to Payday 2 , despite stating back in 2013 that it didn't intend to do so .
. The update allowed users to purchase 'drills' with real money in order to unlock crates in-game. After a huge outcry from the community Overkill reneged, to an extent: while the drills can still be purchased, players can now acquire them without spending money through Card Loot Drop rewards.
In a Reddit AMA overnight, representatives addressed the matter head on, in addition to several other questions and concerns arising from its Crimefest event and the corresponding Black Market update. Asked why the microtransactions were added, producer Almir Listo had the following to say.
"Two and a half years ago, during development of Payday 2 and in the build-up for its release, myself and then Game Director David Goldfarb said that there would be no microtransactions in Payday 2," he wrote.
"At the time, there were games that were released with in-game microtransaction systems at launch; players were asked to pay for the full game, and then continue to spend money directly after the initial purchase. At the time, Payday 2 featured a relatively advanced weapon modifications system where players for in-game money could buy, sell and modify weapons, masks and modifications. When we discussed this with people, we'd receive a ton of questions regarding whether or not it was microtransactions or not in our game too. To make sure there was no confusion, we said what we did to make things absolutely clear. If you asked me then, there would be no way we would've added a system like we just did."
Things have obviously changed though, and while the studio were quick to implement a non-paid option following community feedback, Listo went out of his way to explain why they appeared in the first place.
Since we released PAYDAY 2 back in 2013, the OVERKILL crew working on the project has more than tripled in size. From 25 developers to today with 75 developers. This allows us to create better content more often across several platforms. Like we've said in the past, we do free updates when we can, and paid DLC when we have to. As our ambition for PAYDAY 2 post-launch has grown, we’ve hired more people to help us make it happen. New stuff include everything to the drive feature to the comeback of the First World Bank and Slaughterhouse from PAYDAY: The Heist.
Two years ago people would have us instantly start work on PAYDAY 3, right after we released PAYDAY 2, like developers usually do. Instead, we decided to continue work on PAYDAY 2, because we wanted to make it an incredible co-op experience. 88 updates later, we have to ensure the future survival of the game. We do sales when we can where we reduce the price point up to 75% in order to pay people's wages and create a buffer for a rainy day. Six months ago, we also made a bold move to permanently reduce the price point of 16 PAYDAY 2 products by 33-43% in the hopes of drawing additional sales. Needless to say, we didn't see the result we anticipated, and have had to think of other ways to make sure we can continue creating content in the pace we want in order to keep PAYDAY 2 fresh and exciting.
It's worth reading Listo's full explanation here(the quote provided above is only a fraction), as well as all the other discussion surrounding the Crimefest event.
Paranautical Activity’ Devs Seek Kickstarter Funding For Final Development Stretch
‘Paranautical Activity’ Devs Seek Kickstarter Funding For Final Development Stretch
Developers Mike Maulbeck and Travis Pfenning have had quite the adventure with their procedurally generated roguelike shooter, Paranautical Activity .
. Earlier in the year, the pair dropped out of Steam Greenlight when publisher Adult Swim showed interest in helping get Paranautical Activity onto Steam. However, due to the fact that Paranautical Activity was originally on Greenlight, Valve refused to allow Adult Swim to publish the game on their platform, stating they, “didn’t want to send the message that indies can seek out publishers to bypass Steam Greenlight”.
Needless to say, that was a blow to the paranauticals of both developers, seeing as how they had essentially scrapped the momentum they had built up through Greenlight due to Adult Swim saying they would handle the rest. Luckily, what would destroy the chances (and spirits) of many indie developers, only turned out to be a glancing blow for Maulbeck and Pfenning. Paranautical Activity found a huge underground following who helped boost the game to an even bigger audience, largely through YouTube. As word of this infuriatingly tough, yet magically addicting, game spread, players were able to pick up a copyof the game through the Desura game distribution platform. The instant availability of the game to the masses undoubtedly helped Maulbeck and Pfenning financially, for some time.
However, that “some time” is coming to an end. With a Greenlight presencereestablished, and development continuing on, Maulbeck and Pfenning are coming to the bottom of their piggy banks, as far as how much time they can spend, continuing to work on Paranautical Activity . So, as many developers have done before them, the pair are turning to Kickstarter for support.
“We’ve come to Kickstarter because we don’t want to call this game done yet,” Maulbeck says on the Kickstarter campaign page. “We want to keep working on it for as long as we can to make it the best game it can be. Unfortunately, the longer we work on it, the more money it has to make to be financially viable. We’re getting dangerously close to a point where Paranautical Activity will be more expensive than we can afford, and we’ll have to wrap it up and move on.”
Maulbeck then goes on to point out that thanks to the money they earned through Desura, they only need a few thousand dollars to finish Paranautical Activity , and get the game to a place where they feel comfortable calling it finished. By meeting their funding goal, Maulbeck estimates that will allow the two of them to continue developing the game for about the next five to six months. In those months, the funding will allow them to add in many new weapons, items, enemies, and bosses. Obviously, the more money over the goal they collect, they more additional content they will be able to afford to add in: competitive multiplayer, co-op mode, and Oculus Rift support, just to name a few.
“All the big challenges are behind us. At this point it isn’t a question of if Paranautical Activity will be made, it’s a question of how awesome it will be when it’s done.”
Visit Paranautical Activity on Kickstarter, then visit the official website, and follow both Mike Maulbeckand Travis Pfenningon Twitter.