Darkwood interactive trailer asks whether you'll fight or flee

Darkwood is a top-down, roguelikey, randomised horror, and one that (based on trailers at least) appears to have an atmosphere you could cut with a rusty machete.

is a top-down, roguelikey, randomised horror, and one that (based on trailers at least) appears to have an atmosphere you could cut with a rusty machete. We mentioned that it was coming to Steam Early Access back in April, but it turns out that "coming soon" meant "coming in a few months". A new interactive trailer reveals that Darkwood's now pitching camp in the Early Access wilderness on July 24th, a date which couldn't be more next week if it tried.

Darkwood mixes open world survival with randomised environments with adventurey pointing-and-clicking with battles against the nasty inhabitants of the game's titular gloomy copse. It's right up my alley, basically, so let's hope the Early Access version isn't too buggy or incomplete to enjoy.

In addition to that Early Access date, devs Acid Wizard Studio released a new interactive trailer, or if you want to split hairs, one trailer that diverges into two follow-up trailers based on a decision at the end. The decision here being whether you fight or run from a baddie - I chose to leg it, naturally. Make your own choice below, then cheat using your browser's back button like you did with all those Fighting Fantasy books.

Tom Francis has been chronicling the development of his game Heat Signature in great detail on a .

The game has seen a major shift in focus over the course of development: it started out being about sneaking aorund in the vacuum of space, but gradually became more about sneaking around and engaging in combat inside of spaceships. Initially the focus was on the titular heat-based stealth, as players would manage the Heat Signature of their vessel through thruster use, slipping under enemy sensors to dock and board them.

How Heat Signature has shifted focus away from...heat signatures

Because the development process on Heat Signature is so transparent, there was an impetus to give the mechanic (and the game) a name at an early stage.

But as time went on, less and less emphasis has been put on this mechanic. Francis says that this is not necessarily because it’s weak, but because development has lead him in other directions. Now, managing your heat signature as you travel through space is just one element of many mechanics, and one that he’s actually having some difficulty communicating to the player.

"I’m always very conscious of this threshold that we’re quickly approaching where the amount of work I’m putting into making this system understandable to people is not proportional to how much fun it adds to the game. "

“I wrestle on a regular basis about whether it’s even needed any more,” he tells me. “Because people just don’t seem to understand it. It’s very intuitive to me, and to my artist Jon, but whenever new players play it, they think heat is the same thing as speed, or they just get very confused about what’s generating it."

"To me it’s very obvious that when you’re thrusting, that’s heating you up, and when you’re not you’re cooling down, and we do explicitly tell you that. Now we’ve added a heat bar, but I’m always very conscious of this threshold that we’re quickly approaching where the amount of work I’m putting into making this system understandable to people is not proportional to how much fun it adds to the game. Probably, if I could go back in time, I would scrap it entirely, but I’m a bit too invested at this point.”

Since the focus has shifted indoors, Francis tells me that he has toyed changing the name of the game to " Go Inside Spaceships ." (He concedes that that might be a bit too literal.)

“It used to be that every ship in the galaxy had a heat sensor, so all of them required ‘heat stealth’ to approach,” he continues. “Now only some of them have these sensors, because we found it’s a much better first experience for the player if they don’t immediately hit a heat sensor, because they’re something that take a long time to understand.’

"Everyone’s first experience was to go full pelt, full heat, slam into the hull of a ship, right past its heat sensor, get detected immediately and then blown up. Almost every single person did that, and none of them understood why they died, and it was just too much too soon. We’ve now limited them to just some ships so people have a chance to get used to the basics before they’ve introduced to that. It’s a weird thing because it was in there from the start, and Heat Signature was always going to be about going inside ships, and the ‘heat’ thing was just a vague theme and title.”

Appropriately, this problem is one that Francis ran into with his previous game, Gunpoint. That one was also named before he’d settled on a final core mechanic. He initially believed the game would focus on holding guards up rather than rewiring buildings.

I ask him if he worries that he’s going to run into a similar problem here, where the name doesn’t really match the game that he’s ended up making.

“I’m not too worried about the name becoming irrelevant ," he says. " The look of the game is all these brightly colored vapor clouds of random colors. The setting is a massive mass of those clouds, and the reason that you’re there, and the reason that everyone is there, is that those clouds mask your heat signatures from the outside galaxy."

But he says that he's still committed to keeping the heat stealth as a secondary element in the game. Removing it entirely--well, at this point, that might look a bit sneaky.

The Dirty Word: Sex And Videogames

The Dirty Word: Sex And Videogames Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. John and Laura Baxter silently prepare for a party, straightening ties and applying make-up. The camera cuts restlessly from this picture of suburban normality to the bout or frenzied, passionate lovemaking that preceded it; the sex used to provide depth to the intimacy that exists between the characters and add poignancy to the tragedy

Rust "reboot" is coming and everyone's going to get it

A Rust "reboot" is in the works, with a major overhaul coming in the form of a new development branch that will implement changes to just about every aspect of the game.

"reboot" is in the works, with a major overhaul coming in the form of a new development branch that will implement changes to just about every aspect of the game. Fortunately, creator Garry Newman has confirmed that purchasers of the original Early Access release of Rust won't be left out in the cold.

I spent a good chunk of time with Rust for an alpha reviewin January, and the short version is that I liked it quite a lot. But as good as it is for players, Newman told PCGamesNthat it's a mess on the development side. The problem is that the game is rooted in a prototype for an open-world Hitman-style game that has very little in common with what Rust has become.

"There's a lot of systems that are integral to Rust that are 3,000 lines long, that could be 100 lines long," Newman said. "So every time you go to change something you have to chase around finding how these five different systems that it doesn't really need work, then you change it and it breaks 4 different systems that you thought had nothing to do with it."

With so much of the game needing to be changed, Facepunch decided to just start over again. The new version will simplify and speed development, and also bring changes to the interface, crafting and visual fidelity, all while maintaining or even improving performance. But this is all happening in an experimental development branch, while the original—the one I played—remains the default. Just to be sure, we asked Newman if gamers who have the old version of Rust will be given the new one, and the unsurprising answer is "yes."

"They get the new version," he told us. "We're still developing the same game, we just switched tracks."

Rust is available now, in both the default and experimental branches, on Steam Early Access.

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Out this week: 06/07/12 – Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Rhythm Paradise, Spelunky

Out this week: 06/07/12 – Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Rhythm Paradise, Spelunky This week is mostly about rhythm action, with two great music based games hitting on the same day on Nintendo format. Beat The Beat: Rhythm Paradise is the latest rhythm game from Nintendo’s WarioWare team, while Theatrhythm Final Fantasy celebrates 20 years of Square Enix’s RPG series by putting its soundtrack at the forefront

The Forest review (Early Access)

Alpha reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games.

Alpha reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored alpha review with a final, scored review in the future.

I've been playing The Forest today, and whenever anyone's come over to my desk to watch I've been savaging an animal. Spearing fish with a stick, murderising turtles with a rock, and at one point I'd battered so many seagulls with an axe that the resulting pile of feathery bodiesslowed the game down to a crawl. As I type this, it's the second best-selling game on Steam. It would be the first, but a 75% sale on Injustice is getting in the way. Am I enjoying it? Yeah, but I think it's important I tell you from the off that it's incredibly janky and limited, even for an Early Access title. At this point in time it feels more like a proof of concept than a game, but what I've seen so far shows a lot of promise indeed.

It starts with a plane crash. Pinned to your economy class seat with a small boy clutching your arm, you see the jet split as it careens into the titular Forest—a rugged stretch of land that may or may not be an island, inhabited by crazed, bloodthirsty natives. The boy survives the impact, but as you lie on the floor semi-conscious, you see him being taken away from the wreck by one of the locals. Then you wake up and your journey begins. The crash site is randomised, so every time you start a new game you'll appear on a different part of the map. The crash sequence is nicely done, but it's unskippable, so get used to watching it over and over again as you repeatedly die while getting the hang of things.

The cannibals will rush towards the flaming fuselage, so it's best to grab as much as you can—tiny bottles of airline booze, energy bars, cans of soda, a fire axe—and find somewhere more remote to establish as your base of operations. Cases from the flight are littered all over the coast, so I find myself heading there first, cracking them open with the axe and looting the contents. Then, once I'm stocked up on food, drink, and other useful items–and I haven't already been turned into a human kebab by the natives—I head into the forest itself to set up my first camp, which is where the construction system comes into play.

Press B and a survival guide pops up, allowing you to place the 'frame' of a structure—from simple shelters to log cabins, and other things like traps and campfires. Then, once you've set the position of your creation, you have to go hunting for materials. You'll only need a few sticks, rocks, and leaves to create a firepit, but for shelters you need to get busy with that axe. Chop away at a tree and it'll eventually topple over, turning into logs that you can haul over your shoulder and take back to camp. It doesn't take long to get established, but a wooden lean-to and a basic fire won't keep you alive for long.

But it's those murderous tribes that will cause you the most grief. They're terrifyingly aggressive, and you probably won't survive an encounter with more than one or two of them. I managed to beat one to death with an axe, then I chopped his body up and used the various legs and arms—as well as those from another body I found on the beach—to create what the game calls an effigy. Set these macabre totems up around your camp and enemies will steer clear. It works the other way, though: if you see one of their effigies you're probably near one of their settlements, in which case it's best to take another route. The enemies are genuinely intimidating, and I love how sometimes they won't attack you straight away, instead circling around you, watching, studying, trying to figure you out.

If they get you, you won't always die. Sometimes you'll wake up in an underground cave network, with only the flickering glow of a lighter to guide you to safety. Most times I've ended up in here I've run into a group of loin-clothed natives and been unceremoniously killed, but once I managed to escape and the sunlight gave me a real feeling of relief. Of course, moments later I stumbled into a group of them patrolling a clearing and died. The Forest is, at least for now, a fairly gruelling experience. The developers told me when I interviewed them a few months ago that a 'peaceful' mode is planned, which strips away the enemies. I love the idea of this, and it could be the Survivormangame I've always dreamed of. But I wonder if the survival elements will be rich enough to still be entertaining without any danger.

That's about all there is to The Forest right now. I don't think I can recommend it yet—especially at £11 / $15—but it has the bones of a potentially great survival game. It's visually striking in places, but not so much in others, with glitchy animations, jaggy shadows, and dodgy collision detection. Eventually you'll tire of playing cat and mouse with the natives and yearn for something a bit more substantial to do, but I expect more elements will be added as the game is updated. For an alpha it's impressively packed with features, but until it's more polished, and there's more to do, you might want to hold back.

Verdict: Wait and see

A shaky start, but The Forest has a lot of potential, and is the only game I've ever played where a severed leg is both a weapon and a crafting material.

Alpha reviews offer our preliminary verdicts on in-development games. We may follow up this unscored alpha review with a final, scored review in the future.

Lara Croft: Most real hero of current-gen

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CD Projekt RED on the widening appeal of The Witcher 2

CD Projekt RED on the widening appeal of The Witcher 2 Ask us to name them most underrated of the past half-decade (perhaps even longer), and we won’t hesitate: it’s a dark fantasy epic where morality is never quite black and white. It casts you as a member of a feared and respected sect of monster-killers who are subjected to ethically questionable (and potentially lethal) mutations in order to reach

The Stomping Land steps delicately onto Steam Early Access, offers multiplayer dino-based survival

Rust toys with the idea of pre/post-historic man fighting for survival against the elements and against his fellow man, but what that really boiled down to was a bunch of naked men flapping their dongs around while battering your house down in an effort to nick your stuff.

Rust toys with the idea of pre/post-historic man fighting for survival against the elements and against his fellow man, but what that really boiled down to was a bunch of naked men flapping their dongs around while battering your house down in an effort to nick your stuff. The Stomping Ground, by the looks of things, is the real prehistoric deal, pitting man against his greatest-enemy-that-wasn't-actually-around-at-the-same-time-as-him, the dinosaur. SuperCrit's game feasted on all of your Kickstarter money at around this time last year, and now it's appeared on Steam Early Access, dinoskin-cap in hand. Let's see how it's coming along, eh?

In short: crafting, hunting, underwater swimming, dinosaur-riding, rope-based player kidnap, and other things that look really quite amazing when married to a soaring piece of music. As you might expect from the words "early and "access", The Stomping Land isn't quite done yet, although most of the promised features appear to be in place in some form, including a day/night cycle, tameable/rideable dinos, an offline mode and various other stuff. The developers state that the dinosaur AI is the only element still "very early" in development, so don't expect to be able to recreate Jurassic Park just yet.

You can grab The Stomping Land here, although developers SuperCrit do warn that "if you wish to jump into a more finalized gameplay experience, it is recommended to not purchase the game until release, as all features require balancing, bugfixing, and updates for smoother implementation." The price won't be increasing or decreasing in the meantime, so there's no harm in holding off if you'd rather wait.

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Spec Ops: The Line preview

Have there really been nine Spec Ops games?!

Spec Ops games?! Forgive me, but I haven't played any of them, so Spec Ops: The Line was barely on my radar. And while I doubt that many of you were hankering for another modern military shooter, and yes, the franchise is a rather bizarre pedigree for a big publisher like 2K to resurrect, the results pretty much set my brain on fire. That has nothing to do with low expectations, either—Spec Ops: The Line is easily the freshest, boldest approach to a military shooter since Call of Duty went annual. There were two giant takeaways from my lengthy demo worth highlighting, the heaviest of which I'll save for last.

Let's start with the more fun aspect, shall we?! I can't think of any other real-world location more perfectly suited for a game setting than Dubai. Have you seen pictures of this place? It's essentially Disneyland for billionaire oil magnates and vacationing tycoons. Just unapologetic opulence cranked all the way up to eleven. But thanks to the current state of the economy, it's already a ghost town, currently housing more construction workers completing the extravagant monoliths than actual tourists. There's a repulsive creepiness inherent in something so immaculate and ostentatious, and by gosh, it's high time it was used for something more than a set piece in Mission: Impossible 4.

Sky-high glass towers, indoor skiing, mutli-story aquariums, and the largest arcades known to man—with almost no one around. Already sounds like the perfect setting for a game to me. This is Spec Ops: The Line's battleground, albeit ravaged by sky-choking sandstorms. Plus, the fact that the environment throws off a vibe absurdly similar to that beloved atmosphere found in Andrew Ryan's failed utopia, and that it actually exists, should damn well make other developers just a little ashamed to continuously set their military games in the sad Arab nation of “GENERICSTAN.”

BioShock is a pretty apt comparison, come to think. The same way that 2K game turned seeping seawater into heart-poundingly creepy terror, Spec Ops: The Line is doing with sand. No, we didn't get to see any of those lauded, randomly generated sandstorms which can unexpectedly kick up heart rates (similar to those crescendo moments we witnessed in the “Return to Sender” portion of Modern Warfare 3's campaign), but rest assured this earthly element is absolutely everywhere, and bolsters the motif in interesting new ways you might not expect. To say nothing of your affected visibility, everywhere you look, otherwise immaculate building are encased in snowbanks of beige filth, and damn near everything outdoors in the bizarre metropolis has been blanketed by a fresh layer of barren desert.

Spec Ops' sand mechanic isn't just a tonal harbinger of disquiet and death—the ravages of the Dubai sandstorms factor heavily into the gameplay itself. Drifts of sand can cut off traditional on foot routes or open new areas, and even be manipulated in your favor. Firing at a window can empty a mound of dirt into a building to either help you escape the inside or provide a ramp to new height. In a much more lethal scenario, you can take out a barrier behind the bad guys and drown them in grainy death and save yourself a little ammo. So sand isn't simply a design choice, it's a unique gameplay feature. And more importantly to the story, it's the entire reason you're there in Dubai in the first place.

I also found Spec Ops: The Line to be the perfect (if not sobering) antidote to the rah-rah patriotism of your Battlefields and Call of Dutys. You'll find no plots involving world domination or MacGuffin intel devices here. Instead, you're called into Dubai on a smaller, much more personal mission of heartbreak and sacrifice based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. As many of you may know, this is also the basis of Apocalypse Now (which I was instantly reminded or during an early mission that takes place on a sand-drenched freeway, with cautionary corpses hanging from every light pole) and The Line spins in it into a similar tale of questionable duty, making it far more engrossing than any fictional arms race or impending nuclear cataclysm you've seen before.

You play as Captain Martin Walker, leader of a three-person squad dispatched to locate a rogue army colonel who disappeared six months prior on a well-manned mission to stabilize Dubai in the wake of sandstorms. So while the screenshots you may have seen might've led you to believe you're going to be mowing down wave after wave of indiscriminate insurgents, your primary adversary is a surprising one indeed: your fellow US servicemen.

Here's where Spec Ops boldly distinguished itself from its contemporaries. Whereas other military shooters embolden your murderous behavior by barking out orders to “Stay frosty!” and other such bromantic clichés, you basically get to watch your Delta Force trio mentally unravel over the acts they're committing. Spec Ops pulls zero punches here. Both sides of the battle cry out in fear and confusion; cutscenes linger unflinchingly on the atrocities you've committed, seemingly without choice.

I say “seemingly” because moral decisions unfolded so subtly, I had no idea they were even there until I spoke to a fellow previewer who played the game less linearly. Words can barely convey how gut-wrenching it was to oblige a surviving group of charred and dismembered soldiers begging to be put out of their misery after I'd just willfully obliterated their squad with a white phosphorus mortar. Had I been aware that there was another choice, I definitely would've taken it.

Honestly, I've never witnessed a game capture the pain and power of modern warfare quite like Spec Ops: The Line. We were informed that co-op was scrapped because that kind of light-hearted IRL camaraderie detracted from the weight of the narrative they were trying to achieve. Now let's see if any of those bold choices carry over into the multiplayer. Spec Ops: The Line is scheduled to release on Q2 2012 on Steam and beyond.

Wasteland 2 launches at end of August

Brave badlands explorers have scrounged around Wasteland 2 's, er, wastes since its Early Access beta rode in from the dust last December.

rode in from the dust last December. After a record-setting Kickstarter campaign, bug-bashing, and gradual expansions of playable areas, inXile feels the time is nighfor some post-apocalyptic ranging mixed with a little justice . Pin your sheriff's badge on the last weeks of August, because that's when Wasteland 2 launches in full.

As director Brian Fargo wrote: "It's exciting to be in this home stretch, and all your support and feedback throughout the process has made the game much better than it would have been otherwise. What we're releasing is a game of much greater scope than we ever dreamed of when starting our Kickstarter. More features, more areas, more reactivity, more words, all thanks to you for funding our game and for giving us the time needed to finish it. My goal has been to over-deliver on your expectations for Wasteland 2."

The game's beta also saw a significant update adding the major Arizona area—approximately "half the entire game" is now playable, Fargo said—reworking character creationand HUD screens, adding difficulty levels, and spiffier icons. That's most of the important stuff, but the rest of the mountainous patch notes are up on the official blog.

Next up for Fargo's team is keeping up the steady chug of Wasteland 2's development progress marked by the "feature-complete" state of both beta and full versions. That doesn't mean features can't meet the chopping block before August, though. "We're still testing functionality, gameplay balance impact, and even quality," Fargo explained. "If a feature is not good enough, we'll cut it, but if fan feedback and internal review indicates it's vital, we'll double down on it. But the main focus for the new few months lies with balancing, optimizing and of course mercilessly hunting down bugs."

InXile doesn't have an exact date for Wasteland 2's August release, but when it does, it'll be out for PC, Mac, and Linux.

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New DayZ renderer gets a test drive

A new renderer has been top of DayZ players' wishlists almost since it entered Early Access in 2013.

players' wishlists almost since it entered Early Access in 2013. DayZ tends to chug on most hardware in any built-up area—the rendering is tied to the simulation, so more to simulate means spikier motion, regardless of graphics settings. For the first time, Lead Producer Brian Hicks has shown off what some were beginning to believe was a myth. It has a way to go before it reaches the public experimental build, but the DirectX 11 Enfusion Engine renderer is a noticeable improvement.

Rain, everyone's favourite weather effect, is denser, bleaker and much more wet, falling in sheets instead of specks and, if you can believe it, no longer ignoring roofs. Watch until after the end of Hicks' preview and you'll see him picking off zombies that emerge from the deluge as grim, uncertain shapes. Recording brings the framerate down on both the DX9 renderer and the new Enfusion renderer of course, but we're told that the drop is considerably smaller with the new tech.

Once the renderer goes live, we'll finally be able to use those GPUs we've got sitting around.

Galactic Civilizations 3 updated with ship-building system

Galactic Civilizations 3 needs a few good engineers.

needs a few good engineers. Set to be the next entryin the venerable 4X strategy game series, GC3's ongoing alpha now has a ship-building system. The buy-in for the alpha is still an eye-watering£76 / $100 through Steam Early Access, but developer Stardock Entertainment looks to be sticking to its ethos, with players taking part in the creation of the game.

"The shipyard, like the rest of the game, is in an alpha state," reportsthe Stardock website. "It's undeniably powerful, but we need your feedback on what you'd like to see in the interface, if you'd like different templates, what types of parts you'd like to see us build, and anything else that comes to mind."

There are still a few mechanics yet to be added to the shipyard, such as "particle effects, subsurface materials, and custom parts," according to Stardock. Also, as is expected and common among early access games, old game saves won't be compatible with the ship-building tool. But based on a video walkthough of the new mechanic released this week by the developer, would-be engineers and ship breakersshould have a lot to keep them busy. The video, hosted by GC3 lead designer Paul Boyer, is available here.

Hat tip, Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Top 50 Challenge – Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch

As a fan of both JRPGs like the Final Fantasy series and Studio Ghibli’s work, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch seemed like a no brainer for me.

As a fan of both JRPGs like the Final Fantasy series and Studio Ghibli’s work, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch seemed like a no brainer for me. Yet when the game came out earlier this year it continued to slip off my must-play list. After setting aside my shiny new PlayStation 4, I finally popped Ni no Kuni into my PS3 and dove into Level-5’s gorgeous world. I’ve sunk about 15 hours into the game, and I’m enjoying the vivid colors, sprawling world, and slowly evolving combat system.

When Andrew Reiner mentioned he was championingNi no Kuni for our Fight for the Top 50 Games of 2013 challenge, I jumped at the opportunity to check it out. Opinions about the game vary wildly in the Game Informer office ( read our review here), and I was excited to become a part of that conversation and check out this much-talked about JRPG.

Warning: Slight spoilers inbound .

While the initial plan was to play a day’s worth of these games before weighing in, I knew I would have to clock in some overtime. If I know anything about JRPGs, it’s that mechanics, characters, and the main quest usually get settled after about eight or so hours into the game. I’m happy I stuck with it even longer than that, because Ni no Kuni bored me until about the eight hour mark. Despite the stunning visuals and charming characters, the combat and exploration in the early hours are simple to a fault. Things start to heat up when protagonist Oliver is joined by the second playable character, Esther.

Everything finally started to click into place once I was controlling Oliver, Esther, and their trios of monster familiars. Swapping between these characters, managing their Tactics (AI routines), and embarking on bounty hunts filled in the missing pieces. The familiar system also reminds me of a similar mechanic from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, which I was a big fan of. I like the concept of raising and evolving these creatures throughout the course of my adventure.

So far Ni no Kuni has managed to keep up that pace. I love the simplistic-yet-satisfying chore of siphoning positive emotions into heartbroken NPCs. I'm happy to welcome a third playable character into my party. I enjoy jogging across vast deserts hunting down special monsters or looking for treasure. I especially like being able to sail the seas in my very own ship. Landing on islands or previously unreachable shores rarely gets old in JRPGs. Eventually obtaining a pet dragon is an enticing carrot-on-a-stick. I even like the surprisingly difficult boss battles, complete with their devastating special attacks. These boss battles have included some very close calls, however, and I my enthusiasm and momentum could’ve taken a hit had I fallen.

I’m having a good time with Ni no Kuni, but I need to play more to make sure it can sustain this high note. I spent nearly 10 hours of the game bouncing between enjoyment and boredom, sticking with it purely out of determination that a better game awaited. I’m happy I did. That being said, a 15-hour time investment in a 60+ hour RPG feels like a drop in the bucket.

My Vote

I want to beat Ni no Kuni before weighing in completely on its potential spot on our Top 50 Games of 2013 list. And of course, it always comes down to the other game candidates it could be up against. If the next leg of my journey with Oliver and Mr. Drippy packs similar levels of fun as the last five hours, then Ni no Kuni will likely find another supporter in me.

DayZ forums hacked, user info and encrypted passwords stolen

The DayZ development team tweeted on January 23 that its forums had suffered “an outside security breach,” and recommended that users change their passwords, “just in case.” Today it put out a more detailed and dire message , indicating that the situation is rather worse than it first appeared.

“A security incident occurred on forums.dayzgame.com recently. According to our investigation all usernames, emails and passwords from forums.dayzgame.comwere accessed and downloaded by hackers,” it says. “While the passwords were not stored in plain text, but in a more secure form, it is highly recommended that if you have used the same password elsewhere you change it immediately on all applicable websites and services.”

Even encrypted, or 'hashed' passwords, can sometimes be used to compromise accounts with some work (here's an old example), so if you use the same password on any other sites, it's time to change it.

Bohemia says it has “major changes” planned to reduce the likelihood of this sort of thing happening again, including a switch from the current IPBoard login system to the separate and more secure Bohemia Accounts. It also warned that service interruptions over the next few weeks are likely to happen as the systems are migrated to the new setup.

For those who may not have yet checked email, here is an update on our recent security breach. Questions welcome. pic.twitter.com/4zEz03UL2s February 4, 2016

Infinite Space 3: Sea of Stars makes the jump to Steam Early Access

Indie developer Digital Eel has released the third of its roguelike space adventure Infinite Space series, Sea of Stars , to Steam Early Access .

. A single-player strategy game with turn-based movement but real-time combat, the move to Steam follows the developer's developer successfulKickstarter funding campaignfrom 2013.

"The current Early Access buildallows you to have short free-form adventures in the sandbox-like Infinite Space universe that is randomized each time you play, with a simple scoring system," reports the developer on its Steam page. "You can also set up combat scenarios with any of the existing ships and weapons in the Combat Simulator."

As we can see in the latest trailer above, IS3's approach to its science fiction universe isn't lacking in a certain kind of charm, as long as the risk of permadeath doesn't scare you off. The developer contrasts IS3 with previous Infinite Space games by pointing out the interactivity it's building into the roguelike:

"Locations like star bases will be real places with more to do than just trade items, and you may have to attack or defend one in combat," according to Digital Eel's website. "Individual NPCs as well as alien war fleets will go about their business that may or may not be aligned with your interests, and you will have to pick sides. Technology available to you as well as others will advance as time passes, including larger ships showing up."

Digital Eel is planning to have the game finished by the end of 2014 and will set the launch price at $10—the same as Early Access, according to Steam. There are even a few more videosdocumenting the game's progress, if you're interested.

Perfecting Persona: How Atlus USA Bloomed

Atlus USA has become a go-to
publisher for niche Japanese role-playing games, with Persona earning the
company its reputation.

Atlus USA has become a go-to
publisher for niche Japanese role-playing games, with Persona earning the
company its reputation. The mature RPG franchise deals with heavy issues,
centering on self-acceptance, and forces characters to confront their deepest
fears. The true-to-life writing has earned high acclaim; after all, don't we
all hide behind some sort of persona? It also caters to the hardcore RPG player
with its traditional, challenging battle system that focuses on exploiting
enemies' elemental weaknesses.

The franchise might seem like a no-brainer
for localization now, but in the late '90s, it was a risky venture for a small
company. While Atlus Japan handles development, it's up to Atlus USA to
translate it in English. With plenty of dialogue to translate, only six
full-time employees, and mature, potentially divisive material, the American
division took a risk. It paid off. This is the underdog's story of how Persona
propelled the small team from obscurity to
the front of the JRPG pack.

Editor's Note: This feature originally appeared in issue 245

Forming an Identity

By the time the first
Persona hit, Atlus USA had been around over five years, but the company lacked
a flagship franchise. "We really had everything to gain since we were really in
need of a series or game that would define us as a publisher," says former
marketing manager Gail Salamanca. "Square had Final Fantasy, Konami had
Suikoden, Capcom had the Breath of Fire series. Persona was Atlus' first very
real opportunity to grab a piece of the RPG pie in North America."

Crafting a North American Brand

When Atlus localized its first mainline Shin Megami Tensei game, Nocturne, in 2004, the company made the decision to add the name Shin Megami Tensei to every title, even spinoffs like Persona. "That was pretty much a marketing strategy decision that the company made," says lead editor Yu Namba. The games aren't so different; using similar universes plagued with demons, so Atlus decided to keep all the names under one umbrella to form a brand for English-speaking audiences.

The venture was risky; localization with such
a small team and large amount of text is not an ideal undertaking, especially
on an untested property. According to Salamanca, Atlus USA also struggled with
making a game so infused with Japanese culture relatable to an American
audience.

"The localization staff was really concerned
about the game being too Japanese and alienating Western consumers," Salamanca says. "So a majority of the
references to Japan and Japanese culture were either altered or changed."
Characters were also made over; the lead's hairstyle was altered and one
character, Masao, was dubbed Mark and had his race changed to African-American.

Additionally, the staff didn't anticipate the
uproar from the name Revelations: Persona. "It was one of those things that
just sounded cool at the time, and the staff never gave it any thought in terms
of the religious implications that it might have had," Salamanca says. "So, we
had people calling us, saying that we worshiped the devil because of the name
and the demon-esque character on the front of the box."

But Revelations: Persona
did exactly what Atlus wanted: the PlayStation release got people talking, and
eventually became a cult hit. The title had the exceptional persona fusion
system and multiple endings that the series is known for today. With most RPGs
adopting fantasy settings, it also stood out for its contemporary
backdrop featuring high school students. This lured people in and got them anticipating the
sequel.

Atlus split Persona 2
into two games - Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, each one side of the same
story - but only Eternal Punishment was localized. Rumors swirled that an
appearance from Hitler and Nazi-like enemies made Atlus back away from Innocent
Sin. According to Salamanca, other factors led the company to pass. "I remember
a few things that we were 'told,'" he says. "But, I think it pretty much boiled
down to resources and manpower since development was well underway on P2:EP. Having to go back
to P2:IS localization probably wasn't factored into the dev team's schedule, so
we pretty much had to let it go. Though it wasn't for the lack of b---ing
and moaning by the U.S. staff."

Revelations: Persona and Eternal Punishment
both did decent critically. Revelations scored in the 7 tier from publications
like GameSpot and Gamepro, and got an 8.75 from Game Informer. Eternal Punishment did even better, receiving scores in the 8 range
from GameSpot,
EGM, and Game Informer, putting the series on the map. But to find
a wider North American audience, Atlus still had some hurdles to overcome.

DayZ to get predatory animals, including wolves

I kind of thought DayZ already had predatory wolves, but I must be conflating it with all the other survival games that followed in its wake.

I kind of thought DayZ already had predatory wolves, but I must be conflating it with all the other survival games that followed in its wake. The newest devbloghas assured me that wolves, and other animals, are coming to get you in the gizzards, so it's not just zombies and humans you have to worry about any more.

One reason you might be pleased to see little Wolfie up there is his fleshy interior, which you'll be able to cook up and eat to sustain yourself. The devblog warns that non-perishable food is about to get a lot more scarce, what with the addition of growable food and soon animals.

The real news, obviously, is that bicycles are coming to DayZ. Work has just finished on this sweet dirt bike, but pedal-powered bikes are on the way too.

Darkwood trailer teases impending Early Access scares

Can a top-down game be terrifying?

Can a top-down game be terrifying? If you're an RTS player, you already know the answer. Breaching a fog-of-war with a small, exploratory force, only to run head-long into a 20-unit Mammoth Tank assault? Pant ruining, let me tell you.

Darkwood is hoping that the top-down view can also provide more atmospheric scares. The horror roguelike showed off its twisted, creeping dread through a couple of pre-alpha trailers released last year. Now, a new video is preparing players for an upcoming Early Access release.

The Darkwood Steam pageis already live, and sporting a "Coming Soon!" designation. As usual, the Early Access description explains the scope of this impending initial release. "The current version of the game is very playable," write developers Acid Wizard Studios, "with most of the core features implemented, but a lot of stuff still to come. The game is divided into chapters, and currently you can play through the first one. We're still in development though, so there WILL be bugs, missing features, and a general lack of balance and polish." The developers go on to say that people shouldn't enter the Early Access version if they hate spoilers, bugs, or just want a finalised experience.

Those that do want to jump straight in will find a free-roaming survival horror that blends elements from RPGs, roguelikes and adventure games. Darkwood follows a day/night cycle, with players scavenging and trading by day, and barricading against unknown terrors by night.

Monika Lee Cosplay Spotlight

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DayZ dev diary details new features and reflects on Early Access

Two years DayZ has been in public development.

has been in public development. Two years! At the risk of sounding like a haggard old man, it feels like just yesterday that PC Gamer was hunted down by the internetin Chernarus. In that time there have been some momentous changes, like the departure of Dean Hall, in addition to rather little progress on some longstanding problems. In a dev blogtoday, Bohemia took a brief look back at its trek through Early Access and detailed some of the major updates we can expect before version 1.0 arrives next year.

The choice morsels include modding support, aerial vehicles (the Little Bird helicopter ought to arrive soon in the new year), a new renderer, new animation system (this one has been a long time coming), updated UI and 'fluid movement' within the world. I'm excited! Heck, I was excited two years ago, but that petered out when it dawned how far off the finished product was—now, I'm excited again, because that list contains acknowledgements of DayZ's deepest, most enduring flaws and a pledge to get them fixed. Roll on, 2016!

Correction: A previous version of this article indicated that the Little Bird would arrive before Christmas, but it was actually pushed to sometime after, though "not too far off."

Catch the wyrm with Dragon's Prophet's PC Gamer Beta Weekend

We're giving you an exclusive chance to spend a weekend in the closed beta of Dragon's Prophet - Infernum Productions' free-to-play MMO in which everything's a dragon.

We're giving you an exclusive chance to spend a weekend in the closed beta of Dragon's Prophet - Infernum Productions' free-to-play MMO in which everything's a dragon. See a woolly mammoth? It's really a dragon. An angry looking fish? That's an underwater dragon. Another player? They're not a dragon, but there's a good chance they've got one with them.

Tame these scaley beasts, and you're getting an all-in-one mount, pet, scavenger and combat buddy. And you can use the dragons to define your role. Want to tank? There's a dragon for that, fighting alongside you as you execute combos through the direct action combat.

"Capture, train, ride and fight alongside over 300 dragons, and unlock their unique skills and abilities. With action based content, territory control, deep character development and an immersive game world, Dragon's Prophet aims to break away from the current generation of MMORPGs and offer a truly evolutionary experience."

To participate in the beta weekend, head over to the Dragon's Prophet registration page, sign up for a free account, and enter the PC Gamer beta weekend key.

Beta Key: PCGAMERG6ECBWEEKENDT7H

The beta weekend goes live Friday, 17th May from 3pm BST, and will run until Tuesday, 21st May at 11am BST.

Capcom announces Phoenix Wright 5 and HD Collection

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You may now officially monetize your private DayZ server

If you operate a private server for DayZ , Bohemia Interactive's open-world zombie-dodging survival game, you now have the official green-light to monetize it —that is, to charge real money for access and items, and to bar entry to those who don't want to fork over the dough.

—that is, to charge real money for access and items, and to bar entry to those who don't want to fork over the dough. But there are some limitations.

Only perks and rewards that don't impact gameplay can be offered; the sale of items including "in-game money, weapons, ammo, vehicles, discounts, vehicle spawns, housing and any other gameplay affecting features" are not allowed, and servers offering them will not be approved. The use of mods on monetized servers is okay, but only with permission from the mod maker; product placement, in-game advertising, and sponsorships are also allowed.

The accompanying Server Monetization FAQtakes pains to differentiate between accepting donations, which has been allowable all along, and charging for access, which has not. Simply put, if you're offering any kind of reward in exchange for money, then it's not a donation, it's a sale—and in that case, you'll have to register your server for approval.

Bohemia, which isn't taking a cut of the server income, described the rollout of server monetization as a "test run," and as such it will come to an end on May 31 of 2016. "At that point, we will evaluate its effects on the community," the studio wrote. The full list of currently approved servers is available here.

A closer look at the next six months of Star Wars: The Old Republic

Most demos at E3 focus solely on the future, but BioWare started their Powerpoint presentation for Star Wars: The Old Republic's 2012 plan by showcasing their accomplishments in the past six months, before delving into what's next.

Live Producer Blaine Christine kicked it off. He noted that the game had over one million accounts on launch day, making Star Wars: The Old Republic the fastest-growing subscription MMO of all time. Impressive. He also talked about the first two major game updates—1.1's Rise of the Rakghouls and 1.2's Legacy—both large updates with well-received content and features. I remember them--they're solid.

Next, Christine went over what the next game update, curtly named Allies, will include. Most importantly, it will add a new looking for group feature for Flashpoints (group dungeons), Operations (raids), and Heroic quests (open-world group content). The system will allow players to choose the role they want to play as (tank, damage, or healer) and queue up. While they wait to be selected, they can continue doing whatever they want wherever they want--if you accept the group offer when it pops, you'll be teleported to the location of the content. This is a great addition that will help alleviate the biggest problem players have when trying to complete PvE content. 17 planets make for a wide landscape to separate you from potential groupmates, and the new system will allow players to form groups from different corners of the galaxy in a straightforward, streamlined way.

BioWare's also introducing new Legacy perks (the account-wide bonuses you unlock by playing a lot of alts or investing credits) designed to allow players to level on whatever content they want. These perks boost the amount of experience gained from PvP Warzones, Flashpoints, space combat missions, class missions, or exploration. With the proper perks, Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson assured us that it'll be entirely possible skip side missionsand focus solely on story quests.

Christine also highlighted the addition of adaptive social gear that'll allow players to wear gear for its appearance, while still retaining the best stats for their class. How this system works is that if you wear Heavy armor, but enjoy the look of the Pilot Suit (which is Light armor), the new adaptive gear system will scale that Pilot Suit to your type of armor when you put it on.

This is a very welcome change for both roleplayers and collectors. There are lots of great-looking outfits in the game, but without the ability to use most of those outfits in combat, they were relegated to sitting in players' banks. This new system will diversify galactic fashion, allowing players to feel less like they see the same suit of armor on every Trooper.

In addition to the new adaptive social gear, they're introducing the ability to add augmentation slots to existing gear through the use of augmentation stations, giving players a way to customize their gear further, whether that's for nightmare mode Operations, or stacking on extra protection for PvP. Christine also mentioned 1.3 will include a new tutorial systems for players who haven't played MMOs before, or for those unfamiliar with the normal MMO control scheme.

Fight it out

To many players, however, the main attraction of the 1.3 update will be the new ranked Warzones, which give players the chance to pick their teams and head into PvP with a full group of eight and see how they rank among other players on their server. The feature was originally intended to go live with the 1.2 update, Legacy, but was delayed for 1.3 to give the developers extra time to polish the system. Now, it works in tandem with the new looking-for-group system and also the normal Warzone queue system.

That means that players will be able to queue for normal and ranked Warzones at the same time, and play in normal Warzones while waiting for the ranked Warzone queue to find your team an opponent. Then finish that normal warzone and pop directly into the ranked Warzone, all while waiting for an Operation queue to pop. It should allow players access to a lot more activities, although multi-queueing is guaranteed to force you into some tough decisions about whether or not you should leave the WarZone you're currently winning for the Operation that just opened up.

Near the end of the presentation, Christine pointed out that these all features were supposed to be released within the first six months of launch, before going on to show what they have planned for the next six months up until the game's anniversary at the end of 2012.

Places to go, Hutts to brutalize

The first big addition will be a new planet called Makeb. Makeb is a brand new addition to Star Wars lore, and is a lush planet where the Hutt Cartel is making a play for power in the galaxy as the Republic and Sith battle elsewhere. I asked what kind of planet Makeb is and if it's themed around a central environment like Tatooine is all about sand, but the developers didn't say in order to not reveal "story spoilers." Intriguing.

The one thing they would say is that no matter what the planet is, Hutts tend to make of mess out of them. Makeb will introduce more story content for players to explore as they progress towards a new level cap. The developers said they received feedback from most players that they enjoyed the leveling and story content more than endgame content, which is why they decided to focus on story content again with Makeb. They also said they're learned a lot about pacing and how distracting side missions can be.

They're staying tight-lipped about how many levels the cap will be increased by, but they assured us that everything players expect with a level cap increase, including new skills and abilities, will come at the same time.

They also mentioned a new Operation called Terror From Beyond that brings the Gree, protectors of the Hypergates that the Dreadmasters are trying to open, to light. A new Warzone, The Ancient Hypergates, will also play into that same story as it adds a new game mode.

They're also adding a new playable species, the Cathar, new daily quests and a heroic area on Belsavis, and a new and improved version of the fan-favorite assassin droid from the Knights of the Old Republic series, HK-51. All of this new content will come directly through game updates, which makes me wonder if they're planning to have expansions at all, and if they are--what insane amount of content they'll bundle to earn the title.

They wouldn't say exactly when all of this new content is coming, only that it's planned for some time in the next six months. Christine closed the presentation by announcing that they're opening the game up in July to allowing anyone to play the first 15 levels of the game for free. Star Wars: The Old Republic has had a shaky last few months, but the heavy amount of free content they have planned for the rest of the year looks like it'll easily be enough to keep the remaining players busy.

Kinect Star Wars preview - Rancors save the day

Kinect Star Wars didn’t leave the greatest impression on many media folks during its E3 2011 unveiling. Still, the development teams have persevered and looked to build up a good series of games, both mini and slightly-above-mini. We hopped in front of a Kinect sensor at Microsoft’s recent Spring Showcase, and we walked away much happier than expected. What Is It? Kinect Star Wars is a compilation

PC Gamer Show: Early Access pros and cons

Last week's PC Gamer Show featured an Early Access game, which prompted a larger discussion around the PC Gamer office: how do we feel about the rise of paid pre-release?

game, which prompted a larger discussion around the PC Gamer office: how do we feel about the rise of paid pre-release? Since Minecraftmade us more comfortable with the idea of selling incomplete games, we've seen dozens of PC games embrace paid alphas and betas as part of their development process—everything from MechWarrior Online to H1Z1 and Heroes of the Storm. But as studios benefit from early feedback and funding, are they giving back enough in return? Tom and Evan sat down to talk it over.

Share your thoughts on Early Access with us in the comments.

appears every Friday. Hit us with PC gaming questions in the comments, and we might answer them in next week's episode! Or tweet @pcgamer with a question using the hashtag #AskPCGamer.

The Old Republic announces upcoming level cap, new species, new planet, and free trial

BioWare just announced their plans for the next 6 months of The Old Republic at EA's big E3 press conference.

BioWare just announced their plans for the next 6 months of The Old Republic at EA's big E3 press conference. They will be increasing the new MMO's level cap, adding Cathar as a playable species, and a whole new planet, new to Star Wars canon, to explore. For gamers not playing TOR, the devs are adding a limited free trial that allows you to play the entire game up until level 15 free.

Cathar are a cat-like people that walk on two feet and have a history of being force sensitive in Star Wars lore. You can read more about them on the Cathar Wookieepedia entry.

The new planet being added to the game seems to be entirely new, however--all we really know so far is that it's called Makeb.

We got in touch with BioWare to learn more about Makeb and here is what they told us: "A fully-realized world for you and your friends to explore, Makeb will also introduce an all-new storyline. The Hutt Cartel, tired of being ignored by the great powers of the galaxy, has taken Makeb in an attempt to acquire an unmatched power which can bring both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire to their knees. It will be up to you and your allies to face off against the Hutt Cartel, breaking their hold on this once tranquil world and end their bid for galactic domination."

There's no word on how high the level cap will increase the maximum level of players, but the new levels will come with new abilities for every class. I've already heard a lot of complaints from current raiders and PvPers. Most are upset because a level cap in MMOs means that the existing endgame gear--earned through long nights of raiding and PvPing--will be rendered practically worthless. It might be a bit premature to assume this will be the case in TOR as well, since we have so few details--but that rinse-repeat cycle is indeed how gear progression has occurred with pretty much ever other MMO's level cap increase.

BioWare also announced that players will be able to collect an HK companion--an assassin droid series made famous by the rude, abrasive companionthat repeatedly referred to humans as "meatbags" in Knights of the Old Republic.

A new space combat mission (Space Station Assault) looks to imitate the feeling of the movies' iconic Death Star trench attacks. A new Operation, Terror From Beyond, brings those massive centipede monsters I mentioned earlier and all sorts of other creepy baddies. A new PvP WarZone, Ancient Hypergates is also planned.

The final slide of the trailer shown at the presentation also revealed that BioWare will be launching a free trial for The Old Republic that's similar to World of Warcraft's: letting you play for free up to level 15 with no time restriction.

Kinect Star Wars: the podracing is pretty ok!

Our last preview of Kinect Star Wars was less than kind . The simple act of moving a Jedi through a totally linear, droid-filled tube was so laborious and unresponsive that Chris dubbed it "the worst thing that's ever existed." I can happily say the newly announced podracing section of the game is nowhere near as troublesome, and dare I say it was actually fun? Above: I played as Anakin - no word if

Bohemia shows horde AI for DayZ zombies

Let's take a moment to appreciate that the "zombies" of this AI test are, in fact, an old guy with a beard.

Let's take a moment to appreciate that the "zombies" of this AI test are, in fact, an old guy with a beard. This, then, is either the future of DayZ, or a chilling vision of a care home riot.

In a status report to the DayZ blog, lead producer Brian Hicks goes over some of the new features the team are working on. Partly that means multipurpose barrels—placeable containers that can be used for storage, as a rain-catching device, or as cover against incoming fire.

But also, Hicks shows some of the work being done to zombies. "Again - this is very early implementation," writes Hicks, "however as work progresses into the next week the design team are working on sneaking and stealthy tactics when dealing with this new A.I. system. Moving into the next experimental branch window, we’ll be looking at pushing the early implementation work out to this branch and testing with varied numbers across all servers."

First prototype Steam Machines, Steam Controllers shipping December 13

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Limited edition Star Wars Xbox 360 console bundle unveiled at Comic-Con

As avid Star Wars fans, the only item we’re not crazy about in the bundle is the included copy of Star Wars Kinect. You can read more in our hands-on impressions of the flail-friendly motion-control game here. Jul 21, 2011 Topics Comic-Con Action Kinect Star Wars We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments

PAX East 2015 preview

We're on our way to PAX East!

We're on our way to PAX East! The second PAX of the year starts tomorrow in Boston, running through Sunday. Tyler and I sat down to talk about what we're expecting at the show this year. We'll be covering the show through the weekend here on our website—check in for video demos, interviews, news, and more. If you're in town for the event, we hope to see you at our partyon Friday night!

Download SteamOS now — Valve's free Linux-based operating system releases

Put on your boot partitions—the SteamOS beta has released to the public alongside the initiation of its beta program, which will put 300 prototype Steam Machines into the wild.

Put on your boot partitions—the SteamOS beta has released to the public alongside the initiation of its beta program, which will put 300 prototype Steam Machines into the wild. For the estimated 7,129,999,700 of us not selected for that program, a living room machine running the new, free, Linux-based OS is still doable, though installing it may require some tinkering—Valve suggests you wait until 2014unless you're an "intrepid Linux hacker." Challenge accepted .

At the time of writing, Valve has not officially announced that SteamOS 1.0 "Alchemist" is available for download. We expect a page to go live at store.steampowered.com/steamos/beta/later today. [Update: it's live.] Steam Universe group officer Jvert (presumably Valve engineer John Vert), however, has confirmedthat the correct download link is at.

Unfortunately, that download will most likely fail right now. To help spread the data, Steamdb has created an unofficial torrent, but use caution when downloading from any unofficial source. [Update: Valve has provided MD5and SHA512checksums to verifythat your download is genuine.] You can find system requirements and installation instructions in the official FAQ—note that AMD graphics cards are not currently supported.

SteamOSis meant to free Steam's game library from the desktop, extending Valve's domain to the living room with a superior couch-based PC experience and some of the features that have become standard on consoles, such as media streaming services. For Valve, it's also about declaring freedom from Microsoft—SteamOS will only run games with Linux support (of which we expect to see many more in the coming year). That bold statement is tempered by the ability to stream games from a Windows PC to SteamOS over a local area network, though how much it's tempered will depend on how well streaming works.

We'll be playing with SteamOS this weekend, and plan to have impressions and installation tips for you as soon as possible. If you're the patient type, Valve's Steam Controllerand third-party Steam Machineswill be available until next year, no "Linux hacking" required, presumably.

Sorry fans, Nintendo has 'no plans' to release Xenoblade, Last Story or Pandora's Tower in US

Over the last couple weeks, online group Operation Rainfall has been boldly pushing Nintendo to do something that shouldn’t be too hard: publish good games . Unfortunately the games in question are fairly niche JRPGs, a genre that’s never been a big seller for Wii. Nintendo of America promised a response to the vocal collective, but it wasn’t the one we wanted to hear. NoA said it currently has “no

DayZ patch 0.52 adds Christmas presents, chainsaws

It's taken a while, but chainsaws have finally been added to DayZ—and just in time for Christmas.

It's taken a while, but chainsaws have finally been added to DayZ—and just in time for Christmas. Patch 0.52 is a particularly Christmassy one, actually, introducing Xmas trees and pressies, teddy bears, woolly dresses and, er, medieval long swords and ghillie suits. Hey, it's still the zombie apocalypse after all. In the spirit of giving, Bohemia have also introduced more ways for players to off themselves in game—you can now despawn yourself with a suitable melee weapon.

There are some nice new features in this seasonal update, including a bunch of Christmas trees in DayZ's major cities. You'll find mysterious pressies under these, just like in real life, though there's a greater chance of being murdered by a bandit as you rush to open them here. You can also now plant seeds wherever you like, rather than just in greenhouses, so long as you have the appropriate tools.

As if that wasn't enough, several new locations have been added in the update, including a load of new villages and a few new mines. Bohemia, with these Ferrero Rochermeat cleavers and pumpkin seeds, you're really spoiling us. Here's the full list o' stuff, courtesy of the DayZ forums:

New Items:

Full Ghillie suite
Stone Knife
Torch
Guts
Chainsaw
Meat cleaver
Prison uniform
Silencer east
Silencer NATO
Handgun Silencer
V3S interior
Teddy bear
Long Sword
MP5 Compensator
Prison Jacket
Prison Pants
Prison Cap
Hunting Knife
Pumpkin seeds
Pepper seeds
Wool dress (color variants)
Bomber jacket (color variants)
V3S (color variants)

New Mechanics:

Suicide (variants)
Using scopes for scouting
Redone horticulture mechanics
Redone spawn points and amount of vehicles
Exiting and entering animations for vehicles
Christmas presents
Crafting of fishing rod, stone knife, bow, with nature only resources
You can cut out seeds out of vegetables
Torch crafting
Blade sharpening
Silencers working
Using of almost all items for melee

New locations:

Kamensk village
Stary Yar village
Location "Lysaya Gora"
"Grozovye Doly"
Krasnoe village
Christmass assets
Meadows and Farms under Svergino village
Ratnoe village
Zaptudnoe village
Zaprudnoe kolhoz
Meadows and Farms near Grishino
Polesovo village

Updated locations:

Stary Yar surrounding
Kamensk mining complex
Severograd mines
Powerlines is now connected with West part of map
Forest improvments
General bugfixing

Fixed:

Muzzle blast, Impact sounds fixed.
Small fish trap exploit fixed
Supressor visible on steyraug now
Damage transfer added to ghillie crafting
Security fixes
Telescopic Baton retracting
Improved heatpack and gut heat transfer, support for multiple heat sources
Drowning while cuffed under water surface
Heatpack and more items properly positioned in hand
Supressor visible on steyraug now
Animation polish
Loot distribution polish
and much much more.

Known Issues:

Item locked in hands slot
Items can't be picked up sometimes
Left earpice sound volume is lowered sometimes
Ghillie will probably react badly on chemlight, flare and other light sources
Some items will visually duplicate themselves if used from the ground
Server crashes
Client crash when disconnected from server

(Thanks, PCGamesN.)

Kirby: Planet Robobot review

Kirby: Planet Robobot review We could sit here and worry that Kirby in a mech suit is going to make what can be an easy series even easier. You could point out that this seems like, in both structure and execution, it has a lot in common with Kirby’s last 3DS outing Triple Deluxe. Sunstones are now Code Cubes, which you need to unlock the end of world boss and rather than keychains you collect stickers

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition bound for Xbox 360 in April

A release date has been confirmed for the substantially-enhanced console edition of CD Projekt's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. In a live stream on the game's Facebook page, the company announced that The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition will arrive on Xbox 360 April 17. Calling the title less a port than an “adaptation,” CD Projekt's Michal Nowakowski asserted that “many specialists” had proclaimed

DayZ fan film is a well-made tale of sombre survival

It says a lot about DayZ that Eternum Pictures' live action film can successfully evoke the game's spirit without featuring any zombies.

live action film can successfully evoke the game's spirit without featuring any zombies. For the most part, it's a story about two blokes looking sad in a field, and yet it's still recognisably DayZ-esque.

It's beautifully shot, in a sombre kind of way, and—in the short time since its release—has already caught the attentionof DayZ creator Dean Hall.

It isn't funny, though. For that, you'll have to go back to this far more accurate DayZ parody.

Valve joins Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of the free, open source operating system, announced on Wednesday that Valve has joined the organization.

According the language on the Foundation's official website, membership status allows Valve to participate in member-only events of the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, the right to vote and run for Linux Foundation board seats, access to the foundation's media network, and other, frankly boring benefits.

What's interesting is what this means for Valve's future plans. At last year's Casual Connect conference in Seattle, Valve's Gabe Newell said that the big problem holding back Linux is that it doesn't support enough games.

"People don't realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior," Newell said. "We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. It's a hedging strategy."

At the time, Newell also said that Microsoft's Windows 8 is such a huge catastrophe, he fears it will prompt some top-tier manufacturers to abandoned the PC market entirely. "If that's true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality."

Vavle's membership in the Linux Foundation and a potential seat on its board in the future is perfectly in-line with the above statements. It will, hopefully, increase confidence in Linux is a gaming-friendly operating system, and it might even allow Valve to encourage other developers and vendors to step up the biggest technical challenge Linux faces: better driver support.

The news also emphasizes Valve's increasing commitment to the free operating system. The living-room centric Steam Controllerthat made headlines in September will be used with the SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system for Valve's Steam Machines.

While other Linux Foundation members include the likes of Sony, Nvidia, and even World of Tanksdeveloper Wargaming.net, Valve is by far the biggest gaming-oriented company to join.

In 2011 Valve hired Mike Sartain to work in its "Linux team." As its amusing employee handbook points out, Valve's company structure isn't as hierarchical as that of some other developers, so it's hard to nail down a title and role for every employee. But we do know that Sartain's interests and Valve's interests in him relate to Linux. Before coming to Valve Sartain worked on the original Halo project at Microsoft and RAD Game Tools.

"Joining the Linux Foundation is one of many ways Valve is investing the advancement of Linux gaming," Sartain said of the announcement. "Through these efforts, we hope to contribute tools for developers building experiences on Linux, compel hardware manufacturers to prioritize support for Linux, and ultimately deliver an elegant and open platform for Linux users."

The Witcher 2 devs detail Xbox 360's Enhanced Edition

CD Projekt is taking great pains to make its Xbox 360 adaption of The Witcher 2 more than just an average port. See how the studio is going all out to make Geralt's console adventure his most extravagant yet in the latest developer diary: Due April 17, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition will ship with all the available PC updates and DLC content, as well as new add-ons like extended

Stealthy New Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Trailer Stalks Into View

Stealthy New Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Trailer Stalks Into View (video via Official AssassinsCreed channel) The trailer highlights what we assume will be three of Conway’s prime targets in the main narrative of the game. Moving through some exotic jungle undergrowth, free-running across a port town’s roofs and inconspicuously blending in with crowds, Conway showcases a wealth of skills in efforts

Rogue Legacy update will bring a new class, harder bosses and more traits

As if harder bosses were a thing that Rogue Legacy needed.

As if harder bosses were a thing that Rogue Legacy needed. That's the problem with roguelikes: they turn us all into masochists. Someone should chart the number of people who, having experienced the roguelike boom of the last couple of years, now spend their weekends in seedy industrial clubs getting spanked for pleasure. Alternatively, read on to learn of the less literal spanking the 2D dungeon-crawling roguelike will be administering in the next few days.

Of patch 1.2's five remixed bosses, Cellar Door Games say, "these battles will be true tests of skills, and should be available to people at all parts of the game. These are not casual battles, and only the best will succeed."

To mitigate that difficulty increase, some other features are also planned. A new "pretty uber" secret class will be added, and three new traits are planned to give your initial character selection more variety. The map pool is also getting a 10% increase, to ensure more diverse dungeon runs.

Balance tweaks and modifications to game logic are planned, with Cellar Door promising to "make everything a little smoother". Also: more achievements for achievements' sake.

Rogue Legacy didn't quite make it into my semi-arbitrary list of favourite games this year, although it maybe wasn't a fair fight in the year an upgraded Spelunky came to PC. Still, I'll be interested to see how the balance tweaks switch things up. Many of my issues stem from the controls, which aren't quite as responsive as I'd like in such a skill-based game, but some clever changes to the systems could potentially mitigate this small annoyance in an otherwise enjoyable game.

Nation of Poland formally presents Barack Obama with copy of The Witcher 2

As an international figure of some renown, US President Barack Obama is always getting gifts from heads of state on behalf of their countries. Some give items of national pride such as wine or jewels; Russia recently gave the President of the United States a CD holder. But this week, to celebrate Obama's visit to Poland, he was presented with one of the highest-profile Polish products of recent years

Dean Hall starts recruiting for new game studio RocketWerkz

Looking for programmers, artists, etc... for my new studio @RocketWerkz.

Looking for programmers, artists, etc... for my new studio @RocketWerkz. These roles initially based Dunedin, NZ. Email yolo@rocketwerkz.com December 9, 2014

With that tweet, it seems, Dean "Rocket" Hall is officially announcing the start of his post-DayZ career. Hall revealed his planned departure from Bohemia back in February, stating that he wanted to step down as the DayZ lead by the end of the year.

His new development studio is based in New Zealand, and has a website. It is blank.

DayZ, meanwhile, is still in full production—most recently releasing a road-map for future updatesand a.

Until Hall announces the team's first project, all I can say is: Yolo? Really?

Cellar Door could start working on Rogue Legacy sequel in the next two years

Cellar Door, the developer behind the excellent Rogue Legacy , has already started working on its next project.

, has already started working on its next project. The team's not ready to say anything concrete about it yet, but it's notoriously against working within the same genre twice. Does that mean we won't see a Rogue Legacy 2? A recent interview indicates that the game's creators might just make an exception.

The developer's next game, which it started working on in early March, likely won't play at all like Rogue Legacy, a platformer "rogue-lite" with imspiration from Demon's Souls and Castlevania. However, Cellar Door said that it does want to make an exception for Rogue Legacy, and that it will probably start working on the sequel in the next two years.

“We do want to make it, we just didn't want to jump on it straight away,” co-creator and lead programmer Kenny Lee told Edge. “We'll most likely hire another programmer when we do. It took us about a year and a half to make the first game, so we could get Rogue Legacy 2 in development in the next two years.”

For more on Rogue Legacy, check out our interview with Teddy Lee, Kenny's brother and co-creator at Cellar Door.

Xbox One finally gets Twitch livestreaming alongside Titanfall

DayZ celebrates one year in Early Access, updated dev roadmap detailed

DayZ launched on Early Access this time last year, and since then we've watched it evolve from scrappy Arma mod into a game which lets you eat human flesh .

. To celebrate the milestone, Bohemia Interactive has released a video detailing the game's development as well as an updated roadmap for 2015.

Regarding the latter, it looks like we'll be getting simple land vehicles in the first quarter of the new year, which is nice. You can look forward to catching diseases, too. In the second quarter both animals and vehicles will become more complicated, while a new user interface and physics system will be ushered in.

During the third quarter traps, barricades and aerial transport are among the highlights, while we can expect (take a deep breath) animal companions late in the year. For the full roadmap check out the blog post here.

Humble Bundle organisers launch The Humble Store, celebrate with a debut sale

Bundles are so 2012.

Bundles are so 2012. Okay, they're still pretty 2013 too, and the Humble Bundle organisers are planning to run both them and the Weekly Sale offers in future. Now, though, they've expanded their Humble enterprise to include a permanent store front, from which you can buy a selection of indie and indie-ish games. To celebrate the store's launch, they're running a sale that knocks 50-75% off the entirety of the (currently small) catalogue. More deals - and therefore more games - are scheduled to appear over the next few days.

It's an attractive page, and laudable for its clarity - instantly showing you exactly what formats are available for each game. Buying a game works a lot like buying a Humble Bundle, with each purchase providing a link to a page full of download options that can be claimed by your central Humble account. The one difference is that the prices are set, as is the distribution of your cash. 10% of the stores profits go to charity, although currently, the only causes being supported are Child's Play, the EFF, American Red Cross, World Land Trust, and Charity: Water.

Head over to The Humble Store now for a selection of pretty great gamesat pretty cheap prices. Even better, all prices are in dollars, which - at least for us in the UK - will likely mean a further saving after currency conversion. Personal recommendations from the current crop include The Swapper, Rogue Legacy, and the almighty Euro Truck Simulator 2. I should also praise Gunpoint, but as it was created by our former Section Editor, I am entirely too biased on this. These specific deals will run until 7pm GMT.

Games come either as Steam keys, DRM free downloads, or both, so be sure to check what you're getting if you have a particular beef with either distribution style.

Video games are a legitimate form of cultural expression... right?

Are video games culture?

Speaking at the Digital Dragons game conference in Krakow, Poland last week, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, co-CEO at Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls developer Quantic Dream addressed that perennial question.

While the discussion may seem overdone, it's one he has to have constantly, as he petitions the European Commission to register games, officially, as a form of cultural expression.

"I think there's a big confusion about what video games are," he says, "and usually when we talk about video games and do research on the internet, this is what usually comes up. Video games are violent, they're addictive, but most of the time they're not branded as being cultural, or being a form of cultural expression.

"I think that has to do with the infancy of this industry," he adds. "Games really started as toys. They were very much targeting children and teenagers. And I think there is still this perception in society that video games are still for children, that they're not necessarily for adults."

In the early days of games, they could only trigger simple emotions. They weren't sophisticated enough, he says, to provoke more than primitive responses, like fear, adrenaline, or the simple release of dopamine. "It's much harder to provoke anything more complex than that," he says.

But there's been an evolution in games in the last few years, says de Fondaumiere. "Not only did game developers themselves age, but we're also targeting different demographics now. People who grew up playing games, became adults, and wanted to play something else."

Games have started to inspire new forms of interaction, and new gameplay paradigms. Examples he gave include Final Fantasy VII , Ico , Heavy Rain , Okami , The Unfinished Swan , and Journey . These are "new types of experiences that offered a totally new approach to what games could be, and the types of audiences it could attract," he says.
"All games are a form of cultural expression"The current institutionalized art forms are architecture, sculpture, visual arts, music, literature, stage, cinema, media arts (tv, radio, photography), and comics. Do games fit as the 10th officially recognized art form? This is the question de Fondaumiere has had to address officially.

"To me, all games are a form of cultural expression," he says. "I see no reason why games should be treated differently than any type of literature or any type of movie. I think that more and more video games are becoming artful, and are becoming a form of art that should be recognized next to the others."

And his proof is the increased proliferation of authors in games. People who express themselves creatively, and individually, such as Goichi Suda, Fumito Ueda, Michel Ancel, and Jenova Chen. What is that if not art?

"But does it really matter," he asks? "Do we really care? Do we need to be formally recognized as art? I think it matters. I think this recognition also brings to a certain degree new business opportunities, and when I started in video games 20 years ago I didn't shout it in the street. 'Oh, what do you do?' 'Uhhhh it's new media, it's *cough cough* video games.'

"Today I can say I'm a game producer," asserts de Fondaumiere. "This sense of pride is important because we need to lure new people to this industry. I've been trying to work with Hollywood talent for years now, probably about 15 years. Up until recently, each time I was talking to agents or talents, they would say, 'We don't do games, sorry. You have to understand - violence, addiction - it's bad for our image.'"

Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, was interested in working with Quantic Dream on games, but someone years ago told him that from an image perspective it wasn't possible.
"We need to dare to be creative"While de Fondaumiere feels that getting games categorized as art will help inspire business through tax incentives and such, making more adult games comes with additional responsibility.

"I don't think of course that video games are the reason for violent behaviors, or are responsible for addictive behavior," he says," but we need to be careful of what we're doing. We need to be aware that our creations are being played by more and more people. Especially children. Of course we have our nice rating systems, but we know that our games are played by a younger audience than we intend. So we have to be a little more responsible with what we're doing.

"On the other hand, we shouldn't accept everything," he cautioned. "Because games have been viewed as toys, not cultural expression, there has been a lot of restriction in terms of what level of violence, sex, eroticism we can have in our games. We are much more restricted than film, for example."

Ultimately, it's up to game developers to change this perspective from the inside, he says. "We need to dare to be creative," concluded de Fondaumiere. "Seeing ourselves as a cultural form of expression, or even an art form, means we need as an industry to be more creative. We need to stop creating every year the same games over again. Create new IPs, which means publishers have to take a risk, but also players have to take a risk. The audience votes with their wallet in terms of what kinds of games they want to play."

DayZ update brings cannibalism to stable branch

I love patch notes .

. I especially love dry and flavourless patch notes. Games are neither dry nor flavourless, and that means these words contain secrets. For instance take a look at the new mechanics introduced in DayZ's latest stable patch:

Vehicles Vehicles refueling Prion Disease New crafting recipes Watering plants

Ooh, nice, vehicles are in. And we've got some new crafting recipes. And... what's this? Neurodegenerative diseases? What's that all about?

For explanation, we can turn to the update's added items:

V3S Ghillie Suite (Hood, Bushrag, Top) Ghillie Weapon Wrap Jerry can Military Tent Human Flesh Netting Steyr Aug MP133 with pistol grip Burlap strips

Yup, you read that right: burlap strips. Also: human flesh.

Essentially, you can now chomp down on a man steak. The functionality was originally introduced last month through an experimental update. Now it's in the game proper, along with the associated chance of catching Kuru if consumed raw.

Which means, while you may have to suffer the indignity of being eaten by your killer, at least there's a chance you'll give him a degenerative disease—thus claiming revenge from beyond the game. Stay safe out there, folks.

Patch 0.51.125720 is now live. You can see the full patch notes over at the DayZ forums.

Wargame: European Escalation free DLC adds co-op play and new maps, 40% off this weekend

I loved Wargame: European Escalation when it first came out, but I was disappointed by its abysmal skirmish options.

I loved Wargame: European Escalation when it first came out, but I was disappointed by its abysmal skirmish options. You could play one-on-one versus the AI, but you could not play co-op with friends against the AI. This badly hurt an otherwise superb RTS - wargame hybrid, because while Wargame is easy to pick up and play, it also has just about every piece of hardware NATO and the Warsaw Pact employed during the late stages of the Cold War. The means that unless you've been reading Jane's Defence Weekly since the 1970's, you probably need some hand-holding as you learn to play. Devoid of co-op skirmish, Wargame did not offer much of a helping hand.

To its credit, developer Eugen Systems got right to work adding a co-op skirmish mode, and released it for free today as part of the "New Battlefields" DLC. The free update adds seven new maps in addition to co-op skirmish. There are "Alamo" and "Siege" maps, as well as a couple "attack / defend" asymmetrical maps.

Even better, Wargame is now on sale for just $24this weekend. Cheaper than ever, with more game modes and the opportunity to play with friends against the AI? Wargame: European Escalation is making a serious run at being my favorite strategy game from this year. It's certainly my deal of the week.

One important note: to make the DLC work you have to go into you Steam directory and move or rename the "appcache" directory. Otherwise Wargame doesn't seem to realize you have the DLC. I expect that will be fixed soon, but if you want to play right away, you have to rename the folder.

Rogue Legacy's Mac and Linux ports "very close", upcoming patch will add new content

Rogue Legacy's Mac and Linux siblings may have overslept, but soon they'll be able to join the elder, Windows version of the genealogical roguelike.

Rogue Legacy's Mac and Linux siblings may have overslept, but soon they'll be able to join the elder, Windows version of the genealogical roguelike. According to Cellar Door, the outsourced ports are "very close" to being done. That won't be the end of development on the game, either, with a patch in the works that aims to bolster the game's considerable difficulty with new content.

"We're still working on another patch for Rogue Legacy," Cellar Door's Teddy Lee told Joystiq. "It hit a few snags, but we really want to get some extra content out for those people who are interested." Lee also reveals that the team have been discussing what their next project might be.

"We are considering delaying the ports so that they include the latest patch that we're working on," explains a new post on the Cellar Door blog. "We know it sounds like a raw deal for a lot of people who have supported us and waiting so patiently. This way though, we can ensure Mac and Linux users have the best possible experience with all the features and content available (or to be available) right from get-go."

Dead Or Alive 5 review

Dead Or Alive 5 review In a parallel universe somewhere, a fighting tournament is taking place. This alternate dimension setting is a lot like our own world in many ways, yet different in a good many others. It’s a place where human females have water balloons strapped to their chests in place of breasts. A place where global warming has risen to the point where even a few moments of physical exertion

How I Game: Teddy Lee — Co-founder, Cellar Door Games

Most people read textbooks.

Most people read textbooks. Teddy Lee, Game Designer at Cellar Door Games, uses them as monitor stands. As the lead designer on Rogue Legacy, he says he also has to deal with dust clumps, screeching monitors, and ugliness.

"Computer parts and dust clumps."

Name: Teddy Lee

Occupation: Game Designer at Cellar Door Games

Location: North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Twitter: @CellarDoorGames

Who are you?

My name is Teddy Lee and I'm the Co-founder/Game Designer at Cellar Door Games. I make games from home with my brother Kenny. Through the magics of the Internet, we work with artists and musicians from around the world to help us make indie games. For Rogue Legacy our amazing artist is Glauber Kotaki, and our also amazing musicians are Gordon McGladdery and Judson Cowan. Our family also really helped us out a lot, and I just wanted to give a shout-out to everyone since we're so small and I could fit everyone in here.

What's in your PC?

Computer parts and dust clumps. My brother builds my computers for me, I don't know how they work.

What's the most interesting part of your setup?

The coolest part about my setup is my second monitor. It is broken, and it makes a high pitched screeching noise whenever it's turned off or enters screensaver mode. It also has like a 10 percent chance of turning on.

What's on your desk?

$200 worth of University text books that I use as monitor props. Four Smart Gloves to help with my RSI. My three color, 0 percent win-rate magic card deck. A lot of paper. Most of it blank. A Go Home Dinosaur Plushy and a Behemoth Chicken Plush.

What are you playing right now?

Nothing yet. Been pretty busy. I play the odd game or two of LoL or Dota every few days. But now that things are winding down on Rogue Legacy, I'll probably pick up some new games. I've been looking forward to trying out The Swapper and UnEpic.

What's your favorite game and why?

I don't really have a favorite game. But if I had to choose one, I'd probably say Super Mario RPG. Probably one of the greatest games ever made. It's full of charm and it did so much to change up the RPG genre, and nobody has bothered to take any notes from it.

Oh wait, I forgot. Best game of all time is probably Braid.

Why do you game?

Because I am ugly.

How I Gameis a weekly spotlight of developers, pro gamers, and community members. Know someone who you'd like to see featured? Drop a comment below.