We recently had a chance to look at Insomniac Games' upcoming, futuristic third-person shooter Fuse. Originally titled Overstrike, Fuse has a huge focus on the co-op gameplay, outfitting each of the four class-based characters with alien powers, like impenetrable energy shields, stealth technology, and weapon enhancing abilities to take down tough enemies as a group. Up to four players can team up
Dungeons of Aledorn Kickstarts the Old-School RPG Experience
When thinking “old-school RPG” sometimes a good question is to ask “which old-school?” If titles like Might and Magic, King’s Bounty, and Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva ring true in your heart, the upcoming project from Team 21 will catch your attention.
Dungeons of Aledorn harkens back to classic titles with elements such as first-person role-playing gameplay and turn-based combat. With catering to hardcore players in mind, the developers intend to craft a mechanically challenging, complex game. The gameplay will round out with a mix of puzzle-solving, quest activities, tactical combat, and branching dialogue options. As much as the fantasy setting allows, the developers want to emphasize realism – when fighting, for instance, they want to include a wide range of combat options to match some possibilities that the players might think of. Instead of regular hit points, a more realistic injury distribution system will reflect characters getting hurt in visceral combat.
With six classes and seven unique races featuring special abilities, Dungeons of Aledorn takes a more tailored approach to advancing each character. Upon reaching certain points, each profession branches off into two different ones, requiring a specific quest to be completed. Other noteworthy features in-game are random encounters during travels and a camp management system where players can assign various task to party members.
Currently being developed in Unity 4, Team 21 wants to move to Unity 5 if the Kickstarter campaignis successful. Integrating Oculus Rift support is also a possibility. Pledging as little as $9 nets an “early bird” digital copy of the game. Check out the campaign pagefor more details on Dungeon of Aledorn ‘s story, development team, and tier rewards. There’s also a Steam Greenlight page.
And make sure you don’t miss our in-depth interviewwith Team 21 about Dungeons of Aledorn .
Prototype 2 preview
Viral infections are incredible things, according to Radical Entertainment's Dave Fracchia.
Viral infections are incredible things, according to Radical Entertainment's Dave Fracchia. “If you look at viruses when they get into the body, they disguise themselves so they can get into different cells. They explode, they eviscerate.”
This process, he says, is the inspiration for the pathological violence of Prototype 2's Blacklight virus – but the analogy only stretches so far. That is, unless the common cold ever figures out how to pull the guns off an attack helicopter.
Thanks to the Blacklight virus, I'm currently running up the side of a skyscraper, 'disguised' – if that's the right word – as a member of Blackwatch, the ruthless military force that oversees postdisaster New York. Rockets and tracer fire impact the building from three pursuing helicopters. At the press of a button my uniform folds back into my body, transforming into a highcollared black and red leather jacket. Disguise seems a bit superfluous at this point.
Pushing myself away from the building, I begin to glide, the virus now granting me the ability to fly short distances. I grab hold of the cockpit of the lead helicopter, then leap to its wing, tearing off a missile pod before entering freefall. As I tumble backwards I open fire, taking out the chopper with its own armament. It explodes in a shower of debris that plummets streetwards alongside me, crashing into the infected hordes in a shower of glass as my impact sends eviscerating spines of bone erupting from the ground in all directions.
The virus transforms my arm into a massive blade with which I carve myself a clearing. I grab a zombie and inject him with a volatile strain before chucking him a hundred feet in the air. As he reaches the helicopters he explodes in a web of elasticated tendrils that latch onto buildings, debris and even street-level infected, before contracting violently inwards, crushing both remaining copters in an implosion of rubble, rotors and flesh.
The Blacklight virus can, it seems, do pretty much whatever Radical want it to do. Fracchia claims that it's this “over-thetop- ness” that sets Prototype 2 apart from other Manhattan-bound superhero adventures. “I really don't think you can find any other game that is quite as overthe- top as this one is, that has quite the same level of choice as this one gives you.”
Prototype 2 is about taking on monsters and the military however you please, its open world offering you a range of options from predatory stealth to beating a tank to death with its own turret. All of this is true of the late-game section that I played, and all of it was true of the original Prototype. So what's changed?
First off, that collar-popped leather jacket isn't being worn by the original protagonist, Alex Mercer. In Prototype 2 you are James Heller, a US Marine who blames Mercer for the death of his family. In a stylish black-white-and-red opening sequence Heller takes on Mercer in futile one-on-one combat, before a scrap with an infected creature prompts Alex to inject Heller with his own strain of the virus.
The reason for moving Mercer into an arch-villain role, Fracchia says, was to avoid the problems endemic to sequels in general. “We thought we could take Alex's powers away, but that's so clichéd, and almost unfair to his memory. The idea of Alex creating the new prototype was really intriguing for us because it was ironic as well – giving powers to the guy who is looking to kill you.”
Heller will explore Mercer's motivations across a campaign that is attempting, for all its violent excess, to tell a more human story than its predecessor. “We want a character that we could get the player to feel emotionally engaged with,” Fracchia says. “Things many didn't feel with Alex.”
Heller is out for blood, but is conscious of the impact the virus is having on the suffering citizens of New York. His first mission handler is his old pastor, a priest attempting to protect quarantined civilians from Blackwatch's uncompromising form of martial law. Despite this new moral dimension, Radical haven't placed any restrictions on what Heller can do. If you want to indiscriminately throw civilians into the sea, you can do so without penalty.
“All we can do is try to influence players to play like Heller would play,” Fracchia explains. “If they want to screw around and do something different because they really enjoy it, we don't want to stop them.”
Screwing around remains Prototype's greatest pleasure. Stand-out new mechanics such as ripping weapons from vehicles and turning organic enemies into bombs fold naturally into a combat system that feels like a refinement, rather than an overhaul, of the original game. It's betterlooking, with more detailed lighting and particle effects, but fundamentally still Prototype with all of the tentacle-whipping, helicopter-punching absurdity that entails. Moving new narrative or not, that's by no means a bad thing.
Fuse preview - Developer interview
We recently had a chance to look at Insomniac Games' upcoming, futuristic third-person shooter Fuse. Originally titled Overstrike, Fuse has a huge focus on the co-op gameplay, outfitting each of the four class-based characters with alien powers, like impenetrable energy shields, stealth technology, and weapon enhancing abilities to take down tough enemies as a group. Up to four players can team up
Finnish Edtech Company Secures $2.1M USD Funding for Game-based Virtual School
Leading Finnish Edtech Company SkillPixels has successfully completed its funding round, raising $2.1M from private investors and through the Finnish Government’s Young Innovative Companies’ acceleration program.
has successfully completed its funding round, raising $2.1M from private investors and through the Finnish Government’s Young Innovative Companies’ acceleration program. Skillpixels was founded in 2011 with the objective of developing games that enhance the way children learn. Through their game-based virtual school service application, they hope to become the world’s leading educational service provider. The company’s first title, SmartKid ™, is an award-winning math learning adventure with three year’s worth of curriculum-based math exercises (pre-school, grades 1, 2 and 3) all within a single app.
Dr. Harri Ketamo, SkillPixels chief scientist and co-founder, believes that games have the potential to motivate children to overcome learning challenges independently:
“Our games are based on more than 10 years of educational research. For instance, we apply the ‘Learn by Teaching’ method: instead of the child being taught by a computer, he or she teaches a virtual game character. This motivates the child to invest time and effort to overcome challenges as opposed to being discouraged and de-motivated by more traditional methods.”
You can give SmartKid a try today by downloading it from the App Store, the Windows Phone Storeor the Chrome Storefor just $4.99. For more information on game-based learning, and the future of the virtual classroom, follow SkillPixels on Twitterand like them on Facebook.
Prototype 2 gets two-month delay on PC
The PC version of Prototype 2 has been pushed back eight weeks to July 24 according to a message posted on the Prototype 2 Facebook page .
. Is the PC version having development problems? Are extra bits being added to the PC version? We don't know, but Radical say "we'll share more details with you soon." Console versions are set arrive on April 24 in the US and April 27 in Europe.
The delay will push the release date past the series of weekly unlocks that will come with the newly announced Radnet edition of Prototype 2. The special edition won't cost more than the standard edition, but owners will get access to weekly challenges to earn extra in-game rewards like new mutations for Heller. We'll have to wait and see if these extra bits will make their way to the PC version two months later. Get a sense of how it's shaping up from our Prototype 2 preview.
PS3 product placement pole-axed by Halo reference. Faces likely palmed
The film in question is Battle: LA, an alien invasion flick due out next year. March next year, to be exact, which gives us a pretty probable guess at when Resistance 3 will be hitting. The reason for the shameless bit of cinematic pluggery is simple. Battle: LA is being released by Columbia Pictures, and Columbia Pictures is owned by Sony. The joys of being a cross-media giant with a promotional pie
Sand of God: ‘The Sandbox’ Releases On iOS Tomorrow
When the ever-complex hurly-burly of modern life is broken down to its core, only a few constants remain.
When the ever-complex hurly-burly of modern life is broken down to its core, only a few constants remain. One of them, it seems, is the beauty of creation – that inimitable satisfaction of seeing one’s brainchild sprout into life and continue to grow and evolve. It’s been a consistent cornerstone of human development since the first men and women walked the Earth and, as the vast majority of theists would attest, it was the the very phenomenon that birthed the Universe we inhabit.
And so it is with video games. Pixowl Games’ The Sandbox , set for release on iOS platforms, aims to latch onto the natural human taste for creative endeavour by giving players the tools to craft their own universe in the precise manner they see fit. Assuming the role of the so-called “Deity Apprentice,” perhaps otherwise translated as “God’s right-hand man,” the player is able to utilise a wide range of natural resources, such as lightning, water and sand (it is a sandbox game, after all) in order to sculpt indelibly rendered landscapes, works of art or, indeed, more or less anything they fancy.
But what promises to set The Sandbox apart from its linear, singularly-objective peers in what’s become commonly known as the God game genre is the player’s ability to mix the elements to drastically modify their practical functions. For example, water can be frozen in mid-air, creating snowfall, whilst water and soil can blend together to create a muddy residue. And as the game’s puzzle-based single-player campaign rolls on, new elements can be unlocked and experimented with, granting the player access to a whole new world of creative possibilities.
In theory, then, The Sandbox ‘s parameters are almost non-existent, although that might not quite be the case in practice unless you’re prepared to hand over some real cash. The core game appears set to release as a free-to-play entity, with the more complex elements, such as lightning and oil, either requiring in-game currency or real micro-transactions to be unlocked. According to the blurb on the game’s official website, these tools can be used to craft some immensely complicated in-game devices, including oil lamps, diodes, light bulbs and heaters, so it’s highly likely that your inclination to pay for such luxuries will balance on just how far you’re willing to let your creative juices flow.
For what it’s worth, The Sandbox is still in its Beta stage before its May 15th public release. If you’d like to take part, you can fill in a form here. For more information on the game itself, visit its official website.
Prototype 2 preview
Before today I have never been able to imagine what it would be like for a man to uppercut a helicopter.
Before today I have never been able to imagine what it would be like for a man to uppercut a helicopter. Prototype 2 has shown me the light. The correct technique, according to new protagonist James Heller, is to jump onto the copter's face, pull the nose down until the rotor blades are inches from the floor, wind up, and sock it on the chin. That will cause it to backflip twice and then explode in mid-air. Prototype 2 is going to be even more crazy and violent than the original.
Like Prototype, the sequel will let you climb, dash and glide around New York city. You'll consume operatives of the evil Blackwatch corporation to steal their memories and identities. Your mission is to track down Alex Mercer, the shapeshifting anithero of the first game using the powers that turned him into a mutant killing machine.
Heller can shapeshift, too, but he's a lot more flexible than his mortal enemy. Instead of being confined to a single mutation at a time, he can equip two and chain their effects into devastating combos. He can use enormous claws to mince through a squadron of Blackwatch soldiers, and then turn his arms into enormous hammers to finish with a horrible, crushing ground smash. Prototype 2 will be even bloodier than the original as well. Heller glides through his enemies. Limbs fly, bodies are cleaved in two and clouds of blood coat everything in the surrounding area. When he's done, those left barely alive will try to crawl away from the scene on their stomachs, leaving trails of gore behind them.
Heller is capable of mercy, though. In the first game, once you'd picked up a victim you had two choices, eviscerate him and consume his remains or throw him into the horizon. In Prototype 2 you can put people down without harming them. Whether he's manhandling men or war machines, Heller has more options.
He actually understands stealth, for a start. Playing Alex Mercer in Prototype, infiltrating an enemy base would let you start a big fight from a better position. Heller will be able to do more with his disguises. His 'awareness pulse' vision mode will highlight in white enemies that can be killed without raising an alarm. This lets him stalk a target through a compound. When the time is right, he can quickly absorb his victim and calmly leave without upper-cutting anything.
If the quiet approach goes wrong, Prototype 2's new hero has even more creative ways to break things. He can kick a helicopter in half. He can beat a tank to death with its own turret. He can tear the rocket launcher off the wing of a chopper and then use it to obliterate everything.
He also has more ways to counter his enemies. The infuriating rockets that would interrupt your flight in the first game can be returned to their owners using Heller's new shield mutation. By pressing the counter button at just the right moment, he can super punch rockets and reverse their flight path.
"Is there any way that this man can be killed?" I thought as I watched him throw a soldier into a chopper's blades. In the portion I saw, Heller was nigh on invincible, but there will be much more menacing foes to fight in New York's nastier zones. Radical say that there will be huge bosses, and the new infected creatures will be much tougher to kill than weak, squishy humans. It wouldn't surprise me if Blackwatch had some much bigger weaponry hidden in the green zone, but Radical are keeping that under wraps for now.
Seeing Heller lay waste to several blocks was reassuring. Prototype was a great power trip. The feeling of being able to cruise anywhere and crush anything was addictive, even though it meant playing an inhuman monster. Prototype 2 looks like it will give us more blood, more explosions, more power. If it can give us something to fight for, and let us play as a character that isn't an amoral monster, then it could easily surpass the original.
NSFW: The Dark Inside Me Brings a New Perspective to Horror
Guilty or not guilty?
Guilty or not guilty? Right from the very beginning, players are tossed into a world where they can’t be sure what has happened. All they know is they must find a way to escape.“blurs the lines between drama and horror” as players make decisions that will alter the future events in the game. Kill the person who blocks the way or find another route? All decisions have consequences (perhaps that person was going to be an ally later on), and players have to do what is best for them – or be stuck dealing with the aftermath.
While The Dark Inside Me plays like a point-and-click adventure game, there are action scenes, as well as mature themes including torture, fights, and sexual situations. The game takes place throughout many different environments with 3-D playable characters in detailed 2-D scenes. Travel through different buildings, and take vehicles to different locations to solve the puzzles.
Akcay Karaazmak, a horror movie director who worked on movies like, is the creator of The Dark Inside Me . He hopes to bring a unique viewpoint to this psychological horror. The goal of the game is to “reflect the real characteristic of a player” and “see how far players would push their limits through the stages of the game.”
Under the direction of Karaazmak, Blue Arc Studios is running a Kickstarter campaignto fund the development of The Dark Inside Me . There’s a playable alpha demoavailable, and the game has already been Greenliton Steam.
is slated for release at the end of 2016 for PC, Mac, and Linux systems. For those interested in learning more, follow Karaazmak on Twitter, and “like” the game’s page on Facebook.
Prototype 2 trailer goes hunting, punches a helicopter to death
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In our Prototype 2 preview yesterday, we mentioned that the sequel's new star, Heller, seemed nigh on invincible.
In our Prototype 2 preview yesterday, we mentioned that the sequel's new star, Heller, seemed nigh on invincible. In the new trailer we actually get to see bullets bouncing off him as he uses his "bulletproof" mutation. Darwinism is badass when it's sped up several hundred million times by an experimental virus. Prototype 2 is due out in April next year, and looks like it's going to be at least as mad as the first one. Find out more on the official Prototype site.
Bee Leader’ Goes Free On iOS
‘Bee Leader’ Goes Free On iOS
Flightless Limited , the creators of Bee Leader , have just announced that the game has gone free on iOS.
, have just announced that the game has gone free on iOS. For the readers that know me well, I hate any sort of bug. I enjoy games where I can prove by dominance over the little creatures and hate helping them out in anyway. Naturally you’d think I’d hate Bee Leader , but it’s just too damn cute to not love it.
Originally launched back in May, Bee Leader puts you in the role of a leader of a colony of bees where you must collect orbs as you avoid predators and other obstacles while you pollinate flowers. The levels are actually well thought out and unique which is a breath of fresh air.
Originally launched with 12 levels, Bee Leader has since been updated with 3 more levels, a new world, joypad support, social networking support, Game Center leaderboards and achievements, as well as some minor fixes. In the free version you’ll be able to test Bee Leader and purchase the worlds at your content.
We praised Bee leader back in the dayfor its smooth graphics on the Retina display that would bring up anyone in a bad mood, so picking up the free version is an easy choice.
To pick up Bee Leader fullor free, visit the App Store today. Be sure to follow Flightless Limited on Twitter to keep with their future projects.
Prototype 2 trailer features slow-mo limb severing
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You know Radical Entertainment understand the appeal of Prototype when they start throwing around words like 'ultimate power fantasy'.
You know Radical Entertainment understand the appeal of Prototype when they start throwing around words like 'ultimate power fantasy'. In this trailer the developers take you through the improvements they've made to the combat system for the sequel. Better blocking and acrobatic dodges will make fighting multiple tough enemies less cumbersome. There's also a new dismemberment system on show, which is not for the squeamish.
Expect to be sending enemy torsos spiralling off into the distance April 24 next year.
Indie Intermission – ‘Pretty Pretty Bang Bang’ Suicidal Score Attack Gameplay
Hello and welcome back to another Indie Intermission , today I cover a rather colourful little game that goes by the name of Pretty Pretty Bang Bang , created by Studiohunty .
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang is a rather interesting little game in which you obtain score by running into the enemies and blowing yourself up. Although it is not a new mechanic by any means it is one not often seen and seems to work very well here.
A truly interesting thing about Pretty Pretty Bang Bang is how the game is actually not randomised but instead changes dependant on how you play and where you choose to explode.
This mechanic helps create a game that is much more skill orientated and less reliant on blind luck, although a little bit of luck does not hurt.
The visuals are rather simplistic but it’s all functional and does add to the overall aesthetic of the game. When coupled with the music the game plays out rather well and has a rather nice feel to it.
Average playtime – 2 minutes
Pretty Pretty Bang Bang is a fun little game that offers some great score attack gameplay that is heavily reliant on your own skill. If you would like to play Pretty Pretty Bang Bang online be sure to head to the site now.
If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!
Prototype 2 trailer has gruesome tendril death
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Horrible gristly tendrils are the subject of the latest Prototype 2 trailer, which shows new player character, James Heller catching marines, cars and even helicopters in his fleshy web.
Horrible gristly tendrils are the subject of the latest Prototype 2 trailer, which shows new player character, James Heller catching marines, cars and even helicopters in his fleshy web. It looks like a really disgusting version of Just Cause 2's multi-rope, which let you tie up grunts and attach them to explosive barrels for a giggle. We'll get to test out Heller's tendril powers and kick all the helicopters to deathwhen the game comes out next year.
Final Fantasy XIII 'not a mistake' says XIII-2 developer
Final Fantasy XIII 'not a mistake' says XIII-2 developer “We generally don’t feel XIII was a mistake or that we made a mistake with it,” Motomu Toriyama, director and scenario designer on both Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel, XIII-2, has told gamesTM. “We don’t put it that way. Our goal with XIII was telling a good story with a lot of human drama and that was achieved. Because we wanted to introduce
Paradox Flash Bundle makes complex games briefly cheap
Do you like to tell people what to do?
Do you like to tell people what to do? More to the point, do you like to tell people what to do while sitting in your pants of a weekend? If so, then maybe the latest Humble Flash Bundlewill tickle your fancy. It's a big collection of Paradox games, all pay-what-you-want for the next day and a bit.
War of the Roses: Kingmaker Edition Darkest Hour Sword of the Stars 2: Enhanced EditionPay over the (currently) cheap average of $2.53, and you'll also get:
Cities in Motion 2Also, if you pay $16 or more, you'll get Crusader Kings 2 included as well—although if you just want that alone, it is available cheaper elsewhere.
The bundle will run until 6pm GMT, tomorrow, 3 December.
Holiday Playlist: Katrina Filippidis
Season’s Greetings, dear IGM readers, and welcome to our official guide on the best indie titles to keep you entertained over the Holiday break.
Season’s Greetings, dear IGM readers, and welcome to our official guide on the best indie titles to keep you entertained over the Holiday break. Much like our famous Screenshot Weekly segment, this will be a very special series of posts. Just like the rest of the IGM staff, I’ve selected some games I think are pretty awesome, and done extensive ‘academic research’ on them so I can share their greatness with you. These are my findings.
Similarly to games like Thief, Styx will have the opportunity to steal loot that is scattered around rooms or directly from guards, pick locks, complete dangerous yet exciting sidequests, and upgrade abilities via six unique skill treeswhich include: Stealth, agility, cloning, amber, equipments, and assassination. What makes Styx most exciting for me are the creative stealth kills. Once you unlock a few abilities using the experience points you gain from each mission, Styx can perform specialized attacks like aerial kills, hanging kills, and set a trap with his clone to get rid of any pesky guards that are in the way. Another feature that makes Styx stand out for me is the smooth control system and the ability to literally latch on to nearly anything in the environment from hooks on the walls, to ledges, to bookshelves, and more. The movement system isn’t overly automated, meaning you have an excellent sense of freedom, and simply running and jumping around the beautiful, nineties style environments is pure bliss.
This War of Mine was inspired by the real life events that occurred in the 1992-1996 Siege of Sarajevoduring the Bosnian War, which has been reported as the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.Perhaps the reason I am most looking forward to playing this game, however, is the music that accompanies the official game trailer, which comes from Polish musician, composer and vocalist Tadeusz Woźniak. The song used in the trailer is called “Zegarmistrz światła” and comes from the 1972 album Zegarmistrz światła. If you were ever curious about what the lyrics mean, like me, then you can check out the translation right here. There is just something that is so raw and powerful about it that I can’t express it in words. The other reason why I’m so eager to try this out is because of its realism. Many digital games are about escaping the consequences of everyday life and we turn to them for the fantasy and adventure they offer us, but This War of Mine is about anything but escaping reality-it’s about facing it.
And last but most certainly not least, I wish you all a very Indie Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Happy Holidays!
War of the Vikings shows off newest update with free Steam weekend
If you've had a rough week, or it's just been ages since you last slammed an axe into someone, I've got some good news for you.
War of the Vikings, the follow-up to this year's War of the Roses, is hosting a free-to-play weekend for all Steam users. The free weekend, starting today, shows off the Atgeirr update, which adds improved sound and game mechanics, the Conquest game mode and two new maps.
I can already tell that one of the new maps, Cliff, was designed specifically to send me plummeting to my death. This sea-side village features a lot of tall places to get kicked off of, Sparta-style, as the Vikings and Saxons fight for control. The update also brings the clever Battle Chatter feature, which will add character comments on the battle. “A nearby archer might cheer loudly due to a headshot and you hear yourself congratulate him, or you see a charging enemy and roar fiercely as you face him head on,” a press release from developer Fat Shark reads. “To improve immersion even further [we] are making it so enemies always speak their original language, that being Old Norse or Old English, whilst friends speak english so you can easily understand them.”
War of the Vikings is still in development, but you can pre-order the game through Steam Early Accessand play while the team completes its work. If you're not sold yet, you've got until December 8 to play for free and make up your mind.
PC Gamer US, September issue: BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite stole the show at E3, and now it steals our September issue cover with an in-depth look at the high-flying shooter sequel and interviews with Ken Levine and his team at Irrational. We also got hands-on with two real-time strategy heavyweights, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Age of Empires Online, took an exclusive look at Diablo III's followers, and reviewed indie tactical strategy hit Frozen Synapse and gorgeous racer DiRT 3. Oh, and we show you how you can strap a heavy machine gun to a cow in Arma 2.
From Our Backyard: ‘Lone Wolf’ A Campy Beat Em Up RPG With Werewolves
Lone Wolf is a one of a kind game.
is a one of a kind game. Combining beat-em-up’s with RPG mechanics isn’t too common, but it happens. And every gameplay genre has been mixed with the post-apocalypse setting by now. But where it gets particularly interesting is where the developer, Play ‘Em adds werewolves and a four-player cooperative mode.
The plot of Lone Wolf is that the protagonist must balance his humanity with the animal inside him in order to turn into a werewolf. Usually in post-apocalyptic stories, main characters are faced with giving in to chaos or staying civilized, so it is an interestingly literal take on the theme.
The game has a large world complete with a day/night cycle, trading system, and even a stealth system. Honestly, everything about this game reminds me of a cheesy 1980s action/science fiction film, and that has me quite excited.
The developers have been posting on the Indie Game Magazine forums every couple weeks since January 2012, each update with a video demonstrating their recent additions. You can view these videos on Play ‘Ems Youtube channel, or the thread itself.
Every article in the From Our Backyard series features games indie developers who post in our forums. If you’re an indie developer and would like to be featured in From Our Backyard, post in the Tell Us About Your Indie Game forum? Just sign up for developer status before you post and you’ll be set! If you aren’t an indie developer, the Indie Game Magazine Community still wants to hear from you! For instance, right now we are discussing how Sony can best implement a self-published indie games store.
War of the Vikings begins closed alpha testing this week
Closed alpha news is a bit of a double-edged axe - one that's often found buried in the skull of a person who really wants to participate in the limited access test.
Closed alpha news is a bit of a double-edged axe - one that's often found buried in the skull of a person who really wants to participate in the limited access test. For War of the Vikings, though, Paradox are guaranteeing access to the alpha for anyone who owns Fatshark's previous historical first-person slasher, War of the Roses: Kingmaker. That alpha is due to start in a couple of days time, on August 22nd.
"Anybody who either signed up five friends via the Alpha Signup page, or who owns a copy of War of the Roses: Kingmaker (F2P Demo doesn't count), is eligible to play during this test period," explains War of the Vikings producer Gordon van Dyke. "If you fit in this group, you will receive your Alpha key via email or directly to your steam library at 9:00 CEST August 22nd!"
The test is limited to 4,000 players at any one time, but if you can't log on immediately, you'll have until September 1st, when the alpha invasion draws to a close.
"During the test, we'll be trying out Pitched Arena mode on the Monastery and Gauntlet maps," van Dyke continues. "You'll have your choice of three character classes: The Warrior (an all-around medium class with a sword/shield and throwing axes), The Huscarl (a heavy melee fighter with a big giant axe), and The Hirdman (a light ranged class with a longbow and axe)."
For more on War of the Vikings, pop over to our announcement reveal.
Dirt 3 Monte Carlo DLC out today, adds eight Alpine stages
The Dirt 3 Monte Carlo track pack is set to arrive on Games for Windows Marketplace later today.
later today. The pack adds eight new rally stages featuring "the dramatic climbs, descents and hairpins of snowy mountain roads." The tracks will travel over the Alps and through the Col de Turini pass, a famous Monte Carlo rally stage known for its tight hairpins and the fact that, until recently, it was driven at night. Codemasters have released ten screenshots of the new stages on their Facebook pages. You'll find them below.
There's a VR version of Superhot in the works
Superhot is, well, hyper warm, as Phil Savage explains in his review .
. But like every first-person game around at the moment, some people want to play it in VR. I have some good news for those people: Superhot is getting a VR version.
There are no details yet, but the devs have revealed in athat they're "doing secretive work on a bunch of grand VR plans. We can't tell you too much but SUPERHOT in VR is going to be fun, oooh so much fun". Then they did a smiley face, to underline that.
If you thought Super Hot was Super Short, you'll also be pleased to hear that it will be getting content updates in the future—updates that won't cost you a penny.
Superhot's business director Tomasz Kaczmarczyk is coming to the PC Gamer Weekender in March, if you want to learn more about the history of this stylish game.
War of the Vikings hits Steam Early Access, yours to plunder right now
The Norsey follow-up to Fatshark's War of the Roses sails to Steam Early Access today, following a closed alpha test back in August .
. Should you decide to take the plunge, you'll be given access to two modes - Arena and Team Deathmatch - along with two "small" maps entitled Gauntlet and Docks.
There are bunch of concessions for owners of War of the Roses: Kingmaker (a free go on War of the Vikings for the next four days, plus 10% off the Early Access price for the next month), that latter boon applying to people who own Mount & Blade: Warband as well. The finished game is expected sometime next year.
For more details, be sure to loot and plunder our coverageof the announcement back in August.
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Our Verdict
Leaks fun like a cracked sump leaks Castrol.
Leaks fun like a cracked sump leaks Castrol. Thoughtful additions ensure its as irresistible as its predecessor.
I have the feet of a mad organist. My pedal set was pushed to one side half an hour ago, but under the desk my soles are still stamping the brake and feathering the throttle. They're restless. They want to be playing DiRT 3 again.
Don't fret, feet. Once I've explained to the good boys and girls just how brilliant this driving-fartoo- fast-on-unmetalled-roads game is then we'll be straight off to Finland, or Kenya, or that wild, snow-sprinkled highway in Norway that you love so much.
Codies have nailed it. They've produced a worthy sequel to the rollicking, Rio Carnival of a rally that was DiRT 2 (PCG 209, 88%). The new menu system – all spinny pyramids and brooding Battersea Power Station – doesn't have half the charm of the Winnebago-based one. But where it really matters, out on the dirt, the new one is more than a match for the old.
Once again, we get a bulging chocolate box full of different race disciplines and vehicle types. Pure rally events nestle in alongside boisterous rallycross circuit races; bouncy buggy derbies jostle in tense head-to-head stadium duels and knuckle-blanching Trailblazer speed runs. By the time you reach the end of the hefty four-season career mode and get stuck into the well-equipped multiplayer, you'll have calluses on your hands the size of wheel nuts.
Pippa Funnell fans may be disappointed by the pony-free nature of the new Gymkhana events, but I think freestyle car trickery is a perfect foil to all the A-to-B motoring. The same skill set comes into play in the recreational DC Compound. Unlocked piecemeal, this Battersea wasteland is littered with optional challenges and tempting opportunities for arsing about. Drift through giant pipes, donut around a digger bucket, twirl 180 degrees while jumping… It's joyful stuff but murder on your logoplastered bodywork.
Crystalline water is another of DiRT 3's admirable additions. Whether it's taunting your tyres or blowing in flurries across your windscreen, the cold white stuff transforms pace and mood. Add a squiggly mountain road and the headlight-speared darkness of a Scandinavian night and you've got the recipe for some of the most atmospheric automotive action imaginable. The EGO engine's Turner-esque talent for landscape and light remains impressive. Even owners of elderly rigs can expect moments of startling beauty
Talking of ageing technology, the 50-strong vehicle selection includes a range of '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s machines that are sure to please the generation of gamers taught road safety by huge squirrels and crappy superheroes. Tearing along the game's forest tracks in vintage Ford Escorts, Opel Mantas and Audi Quattros is as delightful as it is horribly dangerous. I just wish the rides were a tad more talkative.
If you're a SimBin veteran, you're likely to find the lack of audio feedback from tyres, transmissions and brakes mildly perturbing. The cars handle intuitively, though, especially when you've tweaked things such as brake bias and gear ratios to suit your driving style. However, a few more catastrophe cues would have been useful.
Some smarter co-drivers wouldn't have gone amiss, either. The current batch can be a little overeager when it comes to pace notes. When you're haring towards a hairpin at 100mph or more, it's not particularly helpful to hear, “Easy left – opens” from the passenger seat.
But enough nitpicking. You've got a dazzlingly varied, relentlessly entertaining rally celebration to buy. I've got a pair of increasingly exasperated feet to placate.
The Verdict
Dirt 3
Leaks fun like a cracked sump leaks Castrol. Thoughtful additions ensure its as irresistible as its predecessor.
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Insurgency WW2 conversion Day of Infamy officially launches
FPS fans have been clamouring to relive the horrors of World War 2 since about the second Modern Warfare , and that sentiment has been growing with each near-future shooter pumped out by EA and Activision.
, and that sentiment has been growing with each near-future shooter pumped out by EA and Activision. New World Interactive, developer of squad firefight sim Insurgency, has been paying attention: in collaboration with the modding community, it has officially releasedDay of Infamy, a WW2 total conversion.
I say 'officially' because it's been cooking for a while but can now be played without opting into the Insurgency beta build—the community isn't nearly done with it. Despite a five-star rating on the Steam Workshop, the Day of Infamy roadmaplists a raft of tweaks, retextures, vehicles and other assets to be added, all crowdsourced from Insurgency modders. Submissions remain open, too, so if you've got a bit of talent and a passion for the hardware and battlegrounds of the second world war, offer up your goods via GitHub.
This update implements the first community map, Landfall by Chief-C, in addition to prettifying a German grenade an no longer referring to combatants as 'Security' and 'Insurgents'.
It's a colossal project, mercifully available in one package on the Steam Workshop, and offers a huge amount of extra dev-approved value to Insurgency owners. Leif did our review—there aren't many games that reward teamwork better.
War of the Roses demo now listed as free to play
You might not have known it, but Fatshark's rendition of the 15th century English battle, War of the Roses , has been a free-to-play game for quite some time now.
, has been a free-to-play game for quite some time now. The base game became a free trialearlier this year, being free-to-play in all but name. Now, it has the name.
The game's publisher, Paradox Interactive, launched a premium version of the game called War of the Roses: Kingmaker, which added new weapons and modes in which to slaughter your countrymen. It's what the paid version of the game became, and those who had already bought the original game received Kingmaker for free. A version of the game with only the base classes and weapons then became a free trialfor people to check out before buying the paid version.
To be fair, “free game” sounds much more appealing than “free demo” does, though there's no difference between the two other than one being listed in the free-to-play aisle of the Steam store. The game's free-to-play version offers the four base profiles to use while you battle for crown and country in the conquest or team deathmatch modes, while the Kingmaker version adds more modes and player profiles.
War of the Roses had a few problems when we first reviewed it, but that was before the glut of free updates the game has received. Plus, we get a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever we slam our shields down upon an opponent's neck. In the game, of course.
The Sunday Video Pwn
Funny story: PC Gamer's boss is obsessed with zombies.
Funny story: PC Gamer's boss is obsessed with zombies. Completely, totally, enthralled by them. He demands, occasionally, that we stay up late and play Left 4 Dead with him, on the overclocked and overpowered rig we got for him as a 'present'. We going to leave this video on the front page of the site for a little while, just because he'll come bouncing into the office on Monday morning, demanding to know how he can play this. James - to answer your questions: it's an ArmA II mod. And yes, we do have a copy of ArmA II waiting for you. But no, we don't have a spare TrackIR hanging around. You'd look silly using one, anyway.
[via reddit]
There are plenty more videos, including the best trailers of the week, below.
There's not a huge amount of hype going on for it at the moment, but every time I remember that Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an actual game in development, my inner Tolkien nerd comes out. The latest developer diaryfocuses on one of the most important things in a hack'n'slash game - swords and other assorted weaponry. And not only do we have swords in-game. Oh no, the guys at Snowblind Studios have actual swords in their offices too, which they quite happily use to hack apart sandwiches and use a keyboard with.
If fantasy is your game but Middle-Earth not your ideal setting, your pointy-eared and sharpened steel needs could well be fulfilled by Hunted: The Demon Forge. In the latest trailerthe developers talk about the creation of the game's grimy environments, and explain that they used the Unreal engine to create what the tech does best (essentially Gears of War, just with orcs instead of Locust). More interesting is the Crucible, which is a level creator that allows players to create maps to be used in a Horde-like game mode.
We're fast approaching the summer, well known to be the time of the gaming drought. Thankfully 2011 is kicking this rule in the teeth, with games like The Witcher 2 looking to be deep enough to eat up the next three months, not to mention the complexity of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that wonderfully hits during August (the time I'd normally be re-playing an old classic). Less predominant in the summer schedule but no less noteworthy is America McGee's sequel to Alice. Madness Returns, as you can see from the above trailer, is set to be a beautiful-but-haunting adventure through the protagonist's warped mind. Blood soaked kitchen knives and demonic teapots are of course what everyone wants to experience during the sunnier months, along with little girls being burnt alive.
Getting away from all that death and beheading, less violent players may want to check out Dirt3, which is fast approaching. On reveal here is the game's Gymkhana mode. Forget bombing around a pre-set track six times; gymkhana lets you go free-form on an abandoned bit of land, full of ramps and spaces perfect for donuting in.
Not quite a video but a great bit of non-game gaming is this dub-step remixusing samples from Portal 2. I predict that all the cool kids will be raving to this in the big-name clubs before the month is out. Who could resist the demands of a turret, insisting you "Get mad"?
Also, one can't include a link to a videogame-based piece of music without plugging my favourite game musical tribute.
Finally, we spotted that Gamespot have a video dedicated to the Sith Inquisitor classfrom Star Wars: The Old Republic. Rich and Tom have played it with mixed feelings, but there's still much of BioWare's vast universe we've not seen. We can only hope that the Force is stronger in the so-far unseen areas.
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Our Verdict
There may be prettier and more heavily populated first person shooters, but few reward teamwork as well as Insurgency.
I don't really know who he was—an ambassador, perhaps, or a spy—but I know we let him down. The VIP mission was simple: escort him across town and deliver him to an extraction point. No chance. They were on us in seconds, firing from grubby apartment windows, and we all died on the asphalt. Game over.
Split-second reversals of fortune like these pepper every match in Insurgency. It thrives on the calm before the storm; the tense slinking through ruined Middle Eastern villages before silence erupts into quick firefights. Insurgency sneers at the garish explosions and comic-book heroics of Call of Duty and Battlefield; much as the popular Half-Life 2 mod that preceded it, it keeps its sights on cold reality.
Insurgency's devotion to realism means that players fall dead after two shots at most, and the absence of killcams means you'll likely die without seeing who hit you—and even if you survive a hit, health doesn't regenerate. The brutal approach works, so long as you pay close attention to the brief but comprehensive tutorial mission. This is the stuff of nightmares for FPS newcomers, especially as there's no single-player campaign, so it's good that the community is usually quick to answer even the most noobish questions.
Sound and fury
This uncommon helpfulness is due to the knowledge that well-equipped players make a better team. Only kills grant you supply, a resource that's used to upgrade and mod weapons before each match. It's a testament to the work New World Interactive has done here that the pressure created by this mechanic makes the entire experience more rewarding. I all but jumped out of my chair after scoring my first kill after minutes of playing target practice for the opposing team, and that high helped me feel less ashamed to breathe the same virtual air as my teammates.
At times I almost thought that air was real. Sound is the great triumph of Insurgency, and it reveals its power in the muffled cracks of gunfire or in the whispered squish of boots of gravel. It isn't fluff; I can't count how many times I scored a kill because I heard an enemy making too much racket in an adjoining room. The sound design works so well in part because the dreary environments scattered across the 12 maps complement it, even if they never achieve the same level of mastery. New World has done a decent job with the Source engine, but the graphics fare better in maps depicting cramped streets of Baghdad than in more open environments featuring hills and trees. Out there, it's only a step above the original Counter-Strike.
But the graphics serve their purpose well. Save for icons indicating objectives or the locations of nearby teammates, Insurgency's spartan UI leaves out clutter like mini-maps, crosshairs, ammo counts, and health bars. Not only does this drum up the focus on realism, but it spotlights the pleasing particle effects such as bullets flicking plaster off of walls. In its best moments, it reminds you that combat's not just about you; it's about formulating and enacting strategies with the players around you in the five competitive and two cooperative modes.
In this together
That cooperation is the reason for Insurgency's two-hit kills. New World's realism nudges even the most maverick players toward teamwork, and it's not uncommon to see whole squadrons in the 32-player maps making careful forays into hostile territory. Your teammates, in essence, become your hit points. I felt this most strongly in Insurgency's "Push" mode, which once sent us tiptoeing through Baghdad to capture three sequential objectives. My two teammates had died, using up their only life, so I shuffled to the next objective alone, shotgunning enemies in my way. And, miraculously, I captured it. The following sight of my teammates respawning as a reward yielded the most relief I'd had in gaming in recent months.
Tiny squads seem to have vanished in the days since Insurgency made the jump from early access to its official launch. Full 32-player maps are common now (along, alas, with strings of friendly fire kills), but should Insurgency ever slip back down to its days of dismal player populations, it still has two cooperative modes with scary smart AI tend to make up for it. They duck, they flank you, they kill you, and it's so much fun. And as with so much else about Insurgency, it's fun that's borne out of the rewards of working with other players and saving them so you can capture that all-important node or destroy a weapons cache. If it's cruel, it's only to be kind.
Vitals
Price: $20 / £12 Release date: Out now Publisher/Developer: New World Interactive Multiplayer: 32 Link: www.playinsurgency.com ESRB: RPThe Verdict
Insurgency
There may be prettier and more heavily populated first person shooters, but few reward teamwork as well as Insurgency.
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War of the Vikings announced, Fatshark's Norse follow-up to War of the Roses
Paradox have announced War of the Vikings, an angrier, beardier standalone spin-off to Fatshark's War of the Roses .
. Vikings will also be a multiplayer battler, and will cast players as warring Norse and Saxon fighters. Set in the 9th and 10th Century, you'll fight to conquer or defend England through a variety of game modes, many of which will likely involve chopping up an unkempt man through the face and limbs.
Fatshark promise that weapons and environments will be historically accurate. Good thing, too. There's nothing worse than splitting an enemy's head with an anachronistic axe. As well as the main 64-player battles, the game will feature a "Pitched Arena" mode, with 32 fighters and no respawning, and training ground to let players test out the new builds. Players will also be able to customise the role within a squad, using custom perks. And, most importantly, "a variety of beard options" have been confirmed.
Alpha sign-ups are being taken through the War of the Vikings website. If you invite your own mini-horde of five friends, you'll be guaranteed access come the beginning of the trials.
War of the Vikings is due out early next year. As yet, Brian Blessed has not been confirmed.
Opinion: Why did Dragon Age II leave some fans so cold?
“Hurtled into the chaos, you fight.
“Hurtled into the chaos, you fight. And the world will tremble before you.”
--Flemeth, Dragon Age II
A belatedly frigid winter and a partner who insisted I take care of myself after half a year spent in a window seat crisscrossing the country ensured that I revisited the Dragon Age trilogy in full. Like most well-made RPGs, it’s rather fun to curl up with for hours on end. Upon finishing Inquisition , I decided to go back to the beginning and play to cast the light of hindsight onto all those foreshadows. I’d not played the second entry in the series since 2012, however, and I was unprepared for how differently its prologue would strike me in the wake of current events. It struck me that you’re playing the story of a refugee family fleeing a grueling, unsurvivable war, who ends up on hostile shores.
This is not a trivial plot point; it drives the action and several introductory quests, defining the Hawke family’s first year in Kirkwall; the surviving Hawke sibling refers to the refugee status as a detriment more than once; overcoming it is the main quest for the first act; posters in Kirkwall screamingly promise to “reclaim the Free Marches for the marchers ,” to underscore how unwelcome Fereldan refugees are.
What it all adds up to may provide some insight into why the game bombed with so many Dragon Age fans.
***
Dragon Age II came on the heels of a hugely successful epic fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: Origins , which was easily one of the greatest of its generation, and a shining capstone of Bioware’s signature style of ‘on-rails’ roleplaying games. But it was a significant tonal shift, a tone instantly set by the Hawke family positioned as fleeing refugees, fighting for their lives against the darkspawn flooding from their burning hometown. With no money and no kit beyond what they could strip from corpses, they were simply fleeing for their lives without any grand plan or purpose beyond getting away.
In short, the Hawkes are NPCs in Dragon Age: Origins .
"Is empathy with someone fleeing desperately for their lives with their family really such a terrible thing to cultivate in a medium where standing in someone else’s shoes is the whole point?"
Origins tells a different story for your character. You begin as a chosen one, someone of strength, skill, and significance who--after a brief trial--is tapped by Grey Warden Duncan to aid in one of the greatest battles in Ferelden’s history. Even when that battle goes pear-shaped and you’re left holding the flaming bag with a jokey colleague and a stray dog, you have a grand mission: you have treaties that compel the nations of Thedas to aid against the coming darkspawn Blight. Even though you’ve been libeled in every corner of Ferelden, you are mighty and will not be denied.
By contrast, in Dragon Age II , at roughly the same point in the game’s narrative beat you’re just trying to gain entrance into the city you seek to call home only out of utmost desperation. In Origins the Grey Warden seeks to summon armies; in DA2 , Hawke would give her left arm for a warm bed.
That sets the tone for the remainder of the game, even after Hawke claws her way out of Lowtown and into the upper echelons of Kirkwall society. The game follows an arc familiar to any RPG player: your character begins humbly and over the course of the story becomes a legend.
But--and I firmly believe this is to DA2 ’s eternal credit-- Dragon Age 2 never loses that tone set by its prologue.
Hawke is, to a certain extent, always at the mercy of events. She has no archdemon to slay; she has a life to live, one constantly interrupted by the juggernauts of history and politics. Hawke is caught in the middle; the Grey Warden Hero of Ferelden from Origins is always shown as the master of events.
It’s a tremendous thematic shift, one that many players simply weren’t expecting. They didn’t want to play an NPC who got lucky, they wanted another legend.
Dragon Age II was not without significant technical and narrative faults, of course. Many of the questing areas felt repetitive, for instance, and the climax of the game sees a carefully constructed narrative crumble and kowtow to the demands of whiz-bang gameplay for unmemorable cheap thrills. One of the finest villains in the series was horribly undermined by the desire to give her a cool sword, one that just so happened to control her mind and thereby annihilate much of the character’s agency, which had been so carefully and beautifully written hitherto. But this doesn’t explain why so many players panned the game with such mercilessness.
Gamers are notoriously whiny about even small faults, but the utterly enflamed tower of hatred the game inspired in some quarters is something that could only come from a more primal revulsion, and I suggest that it emerges from Hawke being an NPC come to life.
"Telling a compelling story through the player character is not just about what you can add to their power, but what you can take away, creating tension in a scenario defined by limits on reach and ambition."
It’s disempowering to stand in the shoes of someone who can’t bend the world to their whim in a videogame. It disrupts the power fantasy if you find yourself cast adrift in a relentless storm instead of causing it.
It’s a less common path taken in RPGs and one that the fan base built up by Origins was unprepared for. But it is not without a certain measure of precedent. Another controversial second entry in an RPG series, Knights of the Old Republic II , does something similar with your character’s relationship to her mentor Kreia. One of the most common complaints I heard, regardless of one’s status as a “hardcore” or “casual” gamer, one’s political affiliation, or age, was that Kreia’s manipulations throughout the story mean your character’s choices don’t matter.
A similar charge is often leveled at Dragon Age II , though it’s complicated there. There are places in Dragon Age II where, narratively, choice should’ve mattered--like choosing the Mages or Templars at the end of the game; that was reduced to something that was functionally cosmetic. You get the same boss fights with basically the same ending. But the complaints go beyond that. Hawke, some seem to think, should’ve had the power to dispel all the plagues of Kirkwall, fix and heal everything that was broken, and conjure perfect endings for everyone.
I’m sure Hawke herself would have loved to have that power. She can’t save her sibling, she can’t save her mother, she can’t stop Anders’ act of terror nor the Mage-Templar War it initiated. Hawke’s story is one of winning the battle and losing the war.
But that, really, is the point. Bioware wanted to tell the story of a person who could credibly have those longings: someone with some strength and ample talent, but still just that erstwhile refugee, sword or staff in hand, who was just trying to defend her family.
Bioware wanted to tell the story of someone who was, at times, just as much buffeted by change as the catalyst of it. That Hawke never quite seizes the reins of history, save for fleeting, almost accidental moments, has a kind of realism to it and makes the struggle of her and her companions all the more compelling to me. But it might also repulse players who wonder why they’re in the middle of this refugee’s story when they could be off ending another Blight, or at the epicenter of some other global existential crisis.
Even if that refugee’s family was originally from Kirkwall, and their story is about regaining lost nobility--with the titles, wealth, and estate that come with it--Hawke is always marked by her origins; that she never loses sight of them is part of why she is heroic, after all. Long into the third act, the game doesn’t let you forget that Hawke is Fereldan and seen as a refugee “rat” upstart by some. An old antagonist from the first act returns near the endgame to organize a “rally against the tyranny of the guard and foreigners who infest Kirkwall,” namely Hawke and her friend Aveline, fellow Fereldan and now Guard-Captain. However high Hawke climbed, her influence was always curbed by a relative lack of real political power.
For me, this is a story that matters all the more in recent months, when actual refugees fleeing from a very real blight are cast as vermin marauders on the front pages of the world’s newspapers. We have our own posters demanding “Free Marches for the Free Marchers” and plenty in positions of power eager to say “fuck off, we’re full” in all the great languages of the world. Is empathy with someone fleeing desperately for their lives with their family really such a terrible thing to cultivate in a medium where standing in someone else’s shoes is the whole point?
***
Stories from the point of view of someone like Hawke, beginning as they do from the bowels of a ship packed with war refugees, are ideal for making a game out of tuche .
As I wrote in a nearly two year old article about Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri , tuche is:
“a very distant ancestor of the word “luck”, [and] a much broader concept than that in the cosmology of Greek antiquity: it essentially means all the grandiose, macro-level forces that bear down on human life but are woefully out of anyone’s control. It is luck, yes, also Fate, but also nature, society, the wrath of the gods, or the crushing weight of historical events in motion.”
This was the heart of tension in Greek tragedy: the main character confronted forces he (for it was usually a he) could not overcome, forced to make awful choices between competing, inescapable evils. Whether you were a commoner or a king, you could not escape tuche , nor could any of us, implied the old tragedies. It’s bleak on one level, but also inspiring. It prompts both a confrontation with the real world in all its breadth, prompting a mature reverence for those powerful forces, and it gives a measure of the heights of human spirit. For it is during those dark moments when one is about to be overcome by forces greater than one’s self that our mettle is truly tested, that our characters are clarified. What we do, even when we know we cannot save the world or even ourselves, is always quite telling, morally and spiritually.
It gives insight into what happens when someone is, in Flemeth’s immortal phrase, “hurtled into the chaos” to fight.
Perhaps Dragon Age II was the wrong game at the wrong time for some, and certainly its marketing did it no favors in terms of building up expectations for a completely different kind of game. But it is, at heart, a game about survival athwart the inevitability of tuche , and that is grand in a different way.
Empathy with powerlessness is not merely an act of charity, nor the hallmark of a “bad game,” even if it is unsettling. It’s a way to tell an interesting story using gameplay. The writer’s dictum that there is “freedom within limits” applies to narrative design too. Telling a compelling story through the player character is not just about what you can add to their power, but what you can take away, creating tension in a scenario defined by limits on reach and ambition.
It’s a reality check we all need now and again, and a reminder that even one relatively powerless person can still do some good in the world.
Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.
You'll be able to feed on anyone in Vampyr, the RPG about a vampire doctor
Vampyr was revealed back in January , and I still dig the concept: As a doctor-turned vampire in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, players must reconcile their commitment to the Hippocratic Oath with their desire to suck the blood out of everything with a pulse.
, and I still dig the concept: As a doctor-turned vampire in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, players must reconcile their commitment to the Hippocratic Oath with their desire to suck the blood out of everything with a pulse. That's a tough row to hoe by any measure.
What makes the setup especially interesting, according to the details announced today, is that you can feed on literally anyone in the game, including people who provide quests—and whose absence will be missed. "Carefully study the habits of your next victim, his or her relationships with other characters, and set up your strategy to feed, unnoticed: seduce them, change their daily habits, or make sure they end up alone in a dark street," developer Dontnod said. "Be careful who you choose to hunt, as they will be gone forever, and their death will impact in a meaningful way the world that surrounds you."
Not feeding, or going the route of the rat sucker, isn't an option: Human blood is also necessary to unlock new vampiric powers to use throughout the game. Taking damage and using supernatural powers in combat also drains your blood—a two-in-one measure of your health and "energy"—heightening the need to feed even further.
The "concept teaser" isn't particularly informative, and I do wonder if the inevitable pre-release comparisons to the brilliant Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlinesmight end up setting expectations unreasonably high. But Dontnod's previous games are cause for at least guarded optimism: Remember Medidn't live up to the studio's ambitions, but the first episode of the ongoing Life Is Strangewas apparently quite good.
Vampyr is currently slated to come out sometime in 2017. A website is up at vampyr-game.com, although it's not much more than a placeholder at the moment; it does, however, promise that the full website is "coming soon."
Free gift copies of War of the Roses: Kingmaker sent to players today, Paradox seeks new recruits
Paradox Interactive sent out gift copies of its special edition, War of the Roses: Kingmaker , asking players to recruit their friends to the bloody battlefields of feudal England.
, asking players to recruit their friends to the bloody battlefields of feudal England. In an email to players, the “Coin Master of House Paradox” beseeches all enlisted knights to “recruit the bravest of souls to help you fight the War of the Roses.”
“There's a brutal war being fought between the houses of Lancaster and York and liege lords on both sides are set to reward their vassals for the dedicated service they've demonstrated thus far. In an exclusive offer only being given to enlisted knights, a giftable copy of War of the Roses: Kingmaker shall be bestowed upon thee,” the email continues.
Before War of the Roses and rival game Chivalry: Medieval Warfare were released, the multiplayer medieval first-person-slasher genre basically didn't exist; now there are two behemoths in the field having an all-out war. Chivalry recently made headlines for hosting numerous free weekends and releasing free DLC to bring in new players. War of the Roses hit back with legendary British actor Brian Blessed 's involvement and the release of Kingmaker and, this morning, a free gift copy to every registered player.
This competition, of course, can only yield good things for gamers like discounts and new content. It seems likely that the feud will continue unabated for the life of both games. If only there were some sort of large metal weapon that could help settle this for good...
Assassin's Creed III will be Desmond's biggest role
Connor may be the face of Assassin's Creed III , but it could be series regular Desmond that winds up stealing the show. Speaking to the rookie assassin's role in Ubisoft's upcoming sequel, writer Matt Turner told CVG that fans will spend more time outside of the Animus than usual, hinting, "All I can say about Desmond's story is you're going to experience more Desmond than you've ever had before.
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord gameplay demonstration
At the PC Gamer Weekender yesterday ( thanks to all who came , by the way!) we got an extended look at Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, the sequel to what it may be safe to call the most beloved medieval sandbox strategy game on PC (and one of the best RPGs of all time , says us).
, says us). Watch the whole demonstration in the video above, in which TaleWorlds Entertainment walks PC Gamer's Chris Thursten through character creation, combat, and more.
War of the Roses update adds firearms and a new map
You know you're in trouble when the other guy brings a handgonne to a swordfight.
You know you're in trouble when the other guy brings a handgonne to a swordfight. Theto Fatshark's War of the Roses: Kingmakerlets you do just that, with the addition of guns, more armor options, and a new map called Ravenspurn.
Update 1.7.0, appropriately titled the Guns of Burgundy, went live yesterday and has made available the new handgonne weapon class. A short-range weapon, each of the four firearms in the category offers a different mix of damage output and encumbrance when equipped. Their advantages, according to information from the developer, seem clear: they offer some devastating new options when brawling and can damage enemy shields. Since success in the War of the Roses often comes down to outfitting your knight or footman with the most effective—and mobile—balance of armor and weapons, bringing guns to the fight should offer up some intriguing new battlefield scenarios and squad tactics.
The patch, which "due to a technical issue" needs a complete download of the more than 6 GB client, does not add any "major" balance tweaks to the game, according to the developers. This seems to signal that the development team wants to see how the handgonnes affect the medieval setting of War of the Roses before any balancing takes place. And with publisher Paradox Interactive actively seekingnew players for the third-person title, offering an alternative to blades and bows might be just what War of the Roses needs to bring more knights to the party.
War of the Roses: Kingmaker is currently available at 50 percent offas part of Steam's Paradox Interactive weekend sale and also offers a demo version to download.
Assassin's Creed 3 goes hunting for Redcoats
Don't go out into the woods alone, kids. You might get assassinated. Just sayin'. I know we're all supposed to hate the Redcoats and all (nobody tell GamesRadar UK,) but this is some pretty graphic stuff. Topics Action Assassin's Creed III We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
War of the Roses: Kingmaker trailer features Brian Blessed by the bucketload
"What makes up a king?" asks the Earl of Warwick in this War of the Roses: Kingmaker trailer, before quickly answering it with "IT'S ME, BRIAN BLESSED, I DO." The booming British actor plays the part of the Kingmaker himself in this imminent special edition of Paradox Interactive's historical multiplayer battler - imminent as in tomorrow, March 21st.
in this imminent special edition of Paradox Interactive's historical multiplayer battler - imminent as in tomorrow, March 21st. As previously revealed, his thunderous voice will shake the battlefield by announcing in-game events and warnings, and if this video is any indication, we're all going to have tinnitus by the end of the round 1.
As well as including content from previous updates, this special edition of War of the Roses features a new game mode: Assault. This has you attempting to either breach a stronghold, or defend it from oncoming invaders. The game was recently updated to support controllers and Steam's Big Picture mode, both of which have obviously made it into this new version.
If you already own War of the Roses, you'll get all that lovely new stuff for free. Otherwise, the Kingmaker edition will set you back $19.99, from "digital distributors everywhere". Additionally, Paradox are hosting a Twitch.tv livestream at 7pm GMT/12pm PDT tomorrow, where they'll be showing off the game's new content - that is, if you can hear them over Brian Blessed's DULCET TONES.
You might want to have a pair of earplugs handy for the following video.
[VAMS id="2jFLJ6o0mP8aI"]
Rumor: Assassin's Creed III setting and protagonist leaked
Remember when Ubisoft hinted that it would be revealing Assassin's Creed III details " soon ?" Turns out the internet isn't giving it a chance. A tipster from Best Buy sent Kotaku an image that shows off what appears to be the game's new protagonist, standing in front of a Revolutionary War-era American flag hinting that earlier reports of a late 1700s setting were, indeed, accurate. It also looks
War of the Roses unleashes its most lethal weapon: Brian Blessed
IT'S HERE!
IT'S HERE! After much anticipation, War of the Roses' Brian Blessed DLC packhas been released. The pack casts the cacophonous thesp into the role of narrator, announcing victories and defeats with his own unique aural assault. I've done you a disservice by not typing the entirety of this opening paragraph in all caps. TO THE VIDEO!
At £3.99, it's a little pricey for what is a essentially just a voice-over swap. Is it worth it to hear Blessed's boisterous bellow belting into your face? That's a discussion best left to you and your likely terrified ears.
Value aside, I approve of the idea. There can't be many games that wouldn't benefit from the inclusion of Blessed. Perhaps we could persuade him to re-do the narration for Dear Esther?
...
Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Pleasantly inventive power-ups Makes each song feel new again Works with all your Rock Band DLC Cons Saving up for temporary point boosters Constantly micromanaging each track Not much to do once youve played all your songs Rock Band Blitz is a bit like a wooden rollercoaster. When you first experience it, it’s thrilling--but with each repeated ride, it starts
Take a gander at BioWare's real, live Goose Cam
I am bad at puns, and so despite the urging of my PC Gamer comrades, I will not be making any in this most eggcellent story of BioWare's very own, very real, very live Goose Cam , starring a pair of Canada Geese who have constructed their nest upon the roof of BioWare Edmonton.
“Ganders, the female, sits on her nest atop the studio, patiently incubating her eggs while her hubby the Arishonk protects the nest from a distance,” BioWare wrote. “How many eggs did Ganders lay? When will they hatch? Do geese like Mass Effect? From 1-10, how cute is a baby goose? To satisfy our desperate need to answer these questions, we’ve set up the BioWare Goose Cam, which will monitor Ganders 24/7 as she tends to her nest. We hope you watch it too.”
The music is epic, but the action is another matter: I've been watching for awhile now, and the most exciting thing so far has been Ganders shifting position to face left instead of right. Arishonk, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen; perhaps he's down in the parking lot assaulting people who are trying to get out of the building.
The Goose Cam went live a few hours ago and, depending on when the happy couple settled in, could be running for quite awhile: Gestation periods for Canada Geese generally run 25-28 days. If you like what you see—and how could you not?—BioWare thinks it'd be great if you gave some though to donating to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton, “a non-profit organization that contributes to environmental stewardship by providing care for injured and orphaned wildlife in the Edmonton area.”
PC not Consoles, "the platform of freedom and innovation," says CD Projekt Red's Marcin Iwinski
PC not Consoles, "the platform of freedom and innovation," says CD Projekt Red's Marcin Iwinski Speaking to games ™ in an exclusive interview Polish developer CD Projekt Red’s CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwinski has revealed that while he believes that while North American game design will probably still dominate the next generation, the Indie scene will flourish in Europe and on PC. The CEO of the developer
E3 MVG 2011 Selection: Tomb Raider interview
We all knew the next Tomb Raider would be different, but until I saw this reimagining for myself at the E3 show, I truly wasn%26rsquo;t prepared for just how different. Crystal Dynamics hasn%26rsquo;t merely made Lara Croft younger, they%26rsquo;ve made her %26ndash; for the first time %26ndash; vulnerable. This is no self-assured, strong-willed superhero. This is no sexy British badass. This is a
Mobile devs can now acquire users via Facebook's mobile apps
Mobile game developers have a new tool for acquiring users: advertisements on Facebook's popular iOS and Android apps, which direct users to download and install their games.
These "Mobile App Install Ads"appear in users' News Feeds when they check Facebook on their smartphone, opening product pages on the App Store or Google Play when clicked. Facebook has a huge audience it can reach with these ads -- around 600 million of its more than 1 billion monthly active users check the site on mobile devices.
The social network began testing this program two months ago, but it's now starting to allow all developers to take advantage of it. TinyCo ( Tiny Monsters ) participated in a beta program for the ads, and saw significantly higher click-through rates, conversion rates, and player engagement than it experienced through other mobile advertising channels.
Game discovery and user acquisition have become major concerns among many mobile developers, as they have to compete with hundreds of thousands of applications and games to attract players who will spend money in their titles.
Facebook has made recent efforts to establish itself as a source for mobile app discovery, setting up an App Centersection on its site and mobile app where users can find and install games. It's been shifting its focus to smartphones in general as the company believesusers are spending more time and becoming more engaged on mobile versus desktop.
Blade Symphony trailer shows dueling, slash-dancing swordsmen
What's slash dancing, you ask?
What's slash dancing, you ask? It's my term for the act of spinning on one's back and head like a rug-burning dervish as you swing a sword up, down, upside-down, and everywhere else in Puny Human's Blade Symphony. Symphony's one-on-one affairs of honor are stylized, third-person measures of agility and timing reminiscent of the PS1's Bushido Blade and old-school lightsaber fencing in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.
The speed and momentum of battle looks challengingly high, as strings of attacks and dodges, dashes, and dives across three stances afford multiple degrees of dealing the pain by your blade. Puny Human says each character brings over 40 different attacks modified by the type of sword chosen for the fight, and if vanquishing your mortal enemy isn't enough to sate your bloodlust, you can grab a buddy for 2 vs. 2 or free-for-all setups. All of it gets tracked on global leaderboards for the "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE" crowd.
Blade Symphony enjoyed a successful Kickstarter campaignin 2011 to bring its jumpy combat onto Steam, and Puny Human is keeping the game in closed beta for now. Signing upon the team's official website provides updates on when the game will become available for all.
Torchlight 2 release date teased alongside new trailer
Runic Games has been working on Torchlight 2 for around two solid years, “which is not unreasonably long for this type of game,” says studio CEO Max Schaefer . Promising the studio is “going as fast as we can,” Schaefer says the game should be ready soon – but isn't ashamed to admit that its release is somewhat contingent on a certain other, eagerly-awaited point-'n'-click crawler. With the Diablo
BioWare's new IP was "revealed" at GDC, but nobody noticed
A funny thing happened at the recently concluded 2016 edition of GDC .
. BioWare, the studio that gave us Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Old Republic, and many others, revealed the new thing it's working on. And nobody noticed.
“Revealed” may be putting it a bit strongly, as no official announcements were made. But Alistair McNally, BioWare's senior director of creative development, said on Twitter that the secret was there for all to see.
And that’s #GDC2016 in the books. One the things I love most about the industry is that you have friends all over the planet. March 18, 2016
Also it was fun to walk around GDC2016 in a t-shirt with our new IP on it and no one batted an eyelid. March 18, 2016
The obvious irony is that those tweets were actually posted three days ago, and nobody noticed them either.
As you'd expect, the internet is now digging madly for a photo of McNally at GDC. As of this moment, it doesn't appear that anyone has struck gold, but if you'd like to take part in the hunt, or just stay on top of what's happening, the “Secret IP Twitter and Info Thread” on the BioWare forums(which actually kicked off in August of last year) is a good place to go.
Thanks, IGN.
War of the Roses treads Outside the Law with flaming arrows and free weekend
While we're still waiting on details about War of the Roses' much anticipated (by me) Brian Blessed DLC, Fatshark continue to update their medieval melee FPS in new and interesting ways.
While we're still waiting on details about War of the Roses' much anticipated (by me) Brian Blessed DLC, Fatshark continue to update their medieval melee FPS in new and interesting ways. The latest content drop, titled Outside the Law, puts a Robin Hood-style twist on the ongoing battle between Lancastrians and Yorkists - adding in flaming arrows and a lush new forest map.
Greenwood is the appropriately titled verdant landscape, taking the fight across hills and valleys, through fallen trees abandoned camps. Not that there's time to stop and stare at the saturated scenery - the Elm Self Bow and Yew Self Bow will cause fire to reign from the skies. Knights also get to try their hand at the new Woodsman's Axe, Headsman's Axe, Shillelagh Mace and Quarterstaff weapons.
To celebrate the update, War of the Roses will be free to try this weekend. While the game's demo currently lets players sample all the maps, along with base classes and weapons, the weekend trial will presumably be the full deal - allowing levelling and unlocks as well.
E3 2011: ARMA III preview – bigger and more realistic than before
In many ways, this E3 was a show about the little guys. For every massive game like Skyrim or Rage, there was an awesome smaller game that somehow managed to grab our attention away from the megaton titles. At a show in which shooters are going to be matched against none other than Bioshock Infinite, Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 (not to mention Halo), it is no small achievement for any game to
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic fan-made reboot looks promising
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , affectionately known to fans as KOTOR, was originally released in 2003.
, affectionately known to fans as KOTOR, was originally released in 2003. It was a fantastic sci-fi RPG, and enough of a hit to spawn a sequeland form the underpinnings of EA's hugely-hyped, monumentally-expensive MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. And more than a dozen years later, it's the basis of a community-made “reboot” called Apeiron.
The Apeiron websitedescribes it as “a remake and remastering of the original game with added content, new worlds, missions, HUD, inventory, items, and companions,” created by “a group of dedicated programmers, artists, voice actors, world builders, and writers that have all come together to breathe life back into a wonderful game.” It will be free at release, although as a mod, a proper copy of KOTOR will be required to play it.
As for whether or not the project will able to dodge the “cease-and-desist” hammer, the developers seem to be relying on precedent established by previous, similar projects, and a general hope that Disney/EA will just leave them alone. “Engine refresh of games has been around since the '80s and some have become very successful. Games like Black Mesadid it with Half Life and Renegade Xrebuilt Command and Conquer in the Unreal Engine 3,” the team wrote. “This is a full conversion refresh, that being said you will have to own a copy of the original game in order to play Apeiron since we are using the original audio and music. At its core Apeiron is the most intense KOTOR modification ever.”
The debut gameplay video, posted by YouTuber MrMattyPlays, looks really good. It's choppy in spots and obviously not complete, but the visual upgrade is striking. I don't agree with his assessment of KOTOR as “bland,” but as the screen below very clearly demonstrates, we've come a long way over the past 13 years. Also interesting is that Apeiron will support first-person play, which the original did not. Ideally, that will make for a more immersive experience, but I expect it will also require some rather dramatic changes to KOTOR's lightsaber combat, which was built for a third-person view.
Apeiron is a long way from seeing the light of day, but so far so good.
War of the Roses free trial now available
Paradox are offering a free pass to the 15th century, with a trial for the knight-bothering medieval multiplayer combat of War of the Roses.
Paradox are offering a free pass to the 15th century, with a trial for the knight-bothering medieval multiplayer combat of War of the Roses. And this isn't one of those "try the full game for one weekend only" deals. Instead, it's a permanent sampler, letting you lance Lancastrians or cause Yorkshiremen to yelp whenever you please.
To take part in the trial, you just need to head to the game's Steam pageand hit the "download demo" button. You get access to all online battles, against both paying players and other trial members. The downside is that you won't earn unlocks, meaning only the base classes and weapons are available. You will, however, be given any money you've earned if you later choose to buy the game.
Thanks, Strategy Informer.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 hands-on preview reveals team combos, learning robots and more
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic fan-made reboot looks promising
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , affectionately known to fans as KOTOR, was originally released in 2003.
, affectionately known to fans as KOTOR, was originally released in 2003. It was a fantastic sci-fi RPG, and enough of a hit to spawn a sequeland form the underpinnings of EA's hugely-hyped, monumentally-expensive MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. And more than a dozen years later, it's the basis of a community-made “reboot” called Apeiron.
The Apeiron websitedescribes it as “a remake and remastering of the original game with added content, new worlds, missions, HUD, inventory, items, and companions,” created by “a group of dedicated programmers, artists, voice actors, world builders, and writers that have all come together to breathe life back into a wonderful game.” It will be free at release, although as a mod, a proper copy of KOTOR will be required to play it.
As for whether or not the project will able to dodge the “cease-and-desist” hammer, the developers seem to be relying on precedent established by previous, similar projects, and a general hope that Disney/EA will just leave them alone. “Engine refresh of games has been around since the '80s and some have become very successful. Games like Black Mesadid it with Half Life and Renegade Xrebuilt Command and Conquer in the Unreal Engine 3,” the team wrote. “This is a full conversion refresh, that being said you will have to own a copy of the original game in order to play Apeiron since we are using the original audio and music. At its core Apeiron is the most intense KOTOR modification ever.”
The debut gameplay video, posted by YouTuber MrMattyPlays, looks really good. It's choppy in spots and obviously not complete, but the visual upgrade is striking. I don't agree with his assessment of KOTOR as “bland,” but as the screen below very clearly demonstrates, we've come a long way over the past 13 years. Also interesting is that Apeiron will support first-person play, which the original did not. Ideally, that will make for a more immersive experience, but I expect it will also require some rather dramatic changes to KOTOR's lightsaber combat, which was built for a third-person view.
Apeiron is a long way from seeing the light of day, but so far so good.
War of the Roses details Brian Blessed DLC, free content and Kingmaker gold edition
Not to be outdone by Chivalry's addition of expanded content , Paradox have provided some details on what's upcoming for their bloody medieval combat game War of the Roses.
, Paradox have provided some details on what's upcoming for their bloody medieval combat game War of the Roses. It includes more information on yesterday's announcement of Brian Blessed's involvement- a premium DLC pack will add him in as the game's narrator.
"Blessed's booming voice will inspire knights by announcing in-game events and warnings, giving new meaning to the iconic command to 'Kill the enemy!'" reads the press release. I'm not sure what other meaning there could be for the command "kill the enemy", but if anyone can find one, I'd bet Blessed can.
Also announced is War of the Roses: Kingmaker - a gold edition of the game that will bundle together all DLC and exclusive content. "Kingmaker will also introduce two new game modes—Assault and Assault Castle—where knights will face new attack and defense scenarios that aim to truly test their skill as a team."
Finally, all editions of the game will receive the "Outside the Law" update, adding in a new deep forest map, along with new armour.
A free trial for War of the Roses is due to take place from the 6th February.
SimCity reboot confirmed for 2013
The rumors were true. Tonight, EA officially announced a reboot of Sim City, due out on PC In 2013. Lucy Bradshaw, senior VP of Maxis, took the stage at a pre-GDC event to reveal the game, and to out the first details. Every time you place a building you plop it down, and a cloud of dust puffs up. Roads (which can now curve!) are caved into the ground. Sim City is a fully 3D game, taking full advantage
World of Warcraft lead designer talks patch 6.2 and flyable mounts
When Blizzard announced that flying mounts would never take to the skies in the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor expansion, people were upset.
expansion, people were upset. No matter how rational the studio's position on the matter, a large portion of the WoW community complained that it should at least be an option. People like to fly, after all. Who doesn't like to fly?
Such was the outcry, that news of Draenor's massive 6.2 patchhad started to fade into the background. As one of the game's biggest patches ever, 6.2 will introduce a whole new zone set in the Tanaan Jungle, a new 13 boss raid in the form of Hellfire Citadel, new difficulty settings and much more.
Then, earlier this week, lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas announced that the studio had reversed its position: flying mounts are in, but with a catch: a handful of achievements and milestones need to be reached before airborne mounts can be unlocked. After all, how else to ensure players properly explore your impeccably constructed world, when they can just fly over it?
I sat down with WoW lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas this morning to talk about the update and the mount controversy.
This is among the largest patches for WoW. Blizzard is usually generous with its content updates but why did you go all out this time?
6.2 is definitely huge. It has a lot of the standard hallmarks of a major WoW patch: a new Tanaan Jungle zone and the Hellfire Citadel raid with 13 bosses, but we’re also adding new features like the shipyards, which are an extension of garrisons, the Mythic dungeon difficulty and Timewalking, which allows players to visit previous expansions. There's also a bonus holiday structure and an adventure guide, which points people to the latest and greatest content appropriate to their character.
Ultimately, we know we need to deliver as much content as possible to fans that are just hungry for it. Draenor came out in a very strong fashion: players loved and devoured the level up quest content, got their garrison started and built that up, but they’re now at a place where they’re ready for something new, and we knew we had to deliver in a big way.
I’m interested in the Timewalking feature. WoW nostalgia was bound to happen as it’s a ten year old game, and there are whole subreddits dedicated to its history. How does it feel to be expanding on a world and universe that some players have been a part of for ten years?
It’s both amazing and humbling. It comes with a certain amount of responsibility and we knew that going into something like Timewalking, for some people this will be the first time they’re going to experience those old dungeons.
On the other hand, you risk tarnishing memories for those who were there the first time, and that’s one of the riskiest parts of the feature for people who have been with us for eight or nine years. You have people who struggled with friends or guild mates just to complete the dungeon once. The WoW class design and the game as a whole has changed a lot since then, so while these dungeons aren’t exactly a walk in the park they’re not going to capture that super-hardcore experience. For some that might be a disappointment, but at the same time there’s something nice about basking in that nostalgia and getting the chance to run through the Arcatraz or The Shattered Halls for the first time in years.
Mounts were originally ruled out for the Warlords of Draenor expansion, but you announced yesterday that they're being introduced. Was that a reluctant change of heart?
I wouldn’t describe it as reluctant. We definitely heard feedback from our community and continued a conversation. The decision had been a difficult one for us to begin with. We went back and forth on it internally and there were a lot of talking points within the team.
We thought at the time that we had the right answer, but what we heard from the community is that once the word ‘never’ was out there, it changed the conversation a little bit. There’s a certain terrible finality to the word ‘never’. Before, people might have accepted not being able to fly in Draenor, but when they started to realise that, "wow, I’ll never be able to use Invincible’s Reins or Mimiron’s Head" or some other prized possession that they’ve worked for, suddenly that sparked an emotional response.
So we reopened the conversation internally and I think we’re very happy with the final compromise. The solution was to preserve our original design goal of ensuring players are exploring the world and experiencing it from the ground, and getting to appreciate its scope and its size and engaging the gameplay aspects of exploration and mystery. Then, once they’ve done that, there’s no reason not to allow them to fly and navigate in all dimensions throughout the world, and also unlock that ability for their alts.
I was browsing the WoW Battle.net forums and lots of people were ecstatic that you guys changed tack on mounts, but lots of people were angry about it too. The decision making at Blizzard must be a tense process.
There’s definitely a great amount of responsibility and we approach decisions like that with humility, because we know that we have the experience of millions of players in our hands, and these decisions aren’t made lightly. A large group of people from different disciplines talk these things through to find the best long term option for the game going forward. Almost our entire team are avid players of WoW, so we get a lot of the viewpoints internally, too. Certainly very strong and passionate ones. We know that when we’re dealing with a player base this diverse, decisions are always going to be inhospitable to some people. It’s impossible to please everyone, but our goal is to do what’s right by the game as a whole and the majority of players going forward.
How long do you think it would take a dedicated WoW player to actually unlock the mount features?
It depends on how much of the content they’ve done already: a lot of the requirements to unlock mounts are things players will already have completed over the course of 6.0 and 6.1: exploring the continent, completing the quest line etc. The new Tanaan continent in particular, it has three reptuations.
The fastest you could meet the requirements... I think it would take about three weeks? That’s being very dedicated and doing your daily quests every single day, I would expect that by a month and half or so, many people who are trying to earn this will have it and that it shouldn’t be too rigorous a grind, it’s more about exploring and participating in the content.
How big is Tanaan Jungle in geographical terms?
It’s certainly a large zone, and as large as other zones in Draenor – there’s quite a lot of ground to cover and space for players to explore, different environments ranging from tribal villages to lush jungles to completely corrupted rivers.
You told me last year that you expect WoW to stick around another ten years: has the feedback and engagement with Draenor reinforced that position for you?
Absolutely. I think we have an incredibly passionate player base and we're going to keep making content and worlds for them to explore and challenges for them to overcome and fantastical things to do for as long as they’re looking to play it. I think that’s going to be for a very long time to come.