Here are the first screenshots out of Survarium's newly opened alpha

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series (and its excessive period use) has remained regretfully dead, despite whatever internet voodoo tricks its fans have tried in attempting to revive the series. Meanwhile, the developers' new project, Survarium, has become something more and more myth-like over the months, with its initial news fading into obscurity. But no more! Survarium's finally burst out of the fog with details on its alpha phase, which has just begun, and there are a couple of sweet screenshots to match.

The alpha's features have been listed on the Survarium forumby Ruslan Didenko, project lead. Two factions are playable, as are 11 different weapons. At the moment, only PvP combat mode's been implemented, and even that is still "primitive"; Vostok's priority is making sure that the key gameplay components such as movement and shooting work properly.

Coming to future versions will be close combat mechanisms, faction tasks, perks, and—what I'm personally looking forward to most—co-op and freeplay game modes.

The first wave of invites has already been sent out, but Didenko says more are on the way. "Our goal at the early Alpha test stage is to achieve no less than 200 players on servers throughout the day and night," he says. "We will continue sending out the invites until we've reached the desired number of players. As the testing progresses we will increase the number of concurrent players on server and invite new participants."

You can find the details for alpha sign-ups onfrom earlier this year. In the meantime, check out the two alpha screenshots released on the Facebook page. Survarium's already looking even prettier than its predecessors, and best of all, it looks like they're keeping that gritty, abandoned aesthetic excellently intact.

Dotard’s Escape’ Review – Prison Has Never Been So Fun

‘Dotard’s Escape’ Review – Prison Has Never Been So Fun
You wake up on the cold, damp stone floor, tinged blue by the moonlight shining in through the barred windows, nothing but a dirty sack covering your body.

You wake up on the cold, damp stone floor, tinged blue by the moonlight shining in through the barred windows, nothing but a dirty sack covering your body.  No two ways around it, you’re in a dungeon.

“What?  Why?  How did I get here?”

I don’t know, and it’s really not important right now.  You have to find a way to get out.  It’s time to escape.

“Well wait a second, what’s with the urgency?”

Oh, I’m sorry.  Cold, lifeless dungeons are your scene?  I didn’t realize.  I’ll just be on my way then.

“Okay okay, I see your point.  Just one more question.  Who am I?”

Remember that scene from “Aladdin” where he gets thrown in prison and meets the creepy old guy?  You’re that guy, or at least you could do a passable impression. Dotard is your name, and this is your game: Dotard’s Escape .

Dotard’s Escape is a maze game in which you, the above-mentioned Dotard , must escape from a dungeon before a timer runs out.  Gameplay wise, it’s very simple.  You start out in a dead-end hallway.  From here you must explore the twisted, winding corridors of your prison, collecting map pieces and avoiding traps as you go.  Every map piece you collect fills out your expandable mini map in the corner of your screen, while every trap you fail to get past will take away a chunk of your remaining time.  Once you construct a detailed enough map it’s a simple matter of finding the exit and hauling out.

This might sounds like it would get incredibly boring after playing a few rounds, and it’s not hard to see why.  After all, you can only run through the same dungeon a handful of times before you find the quickest way out and put the game aside forever.  Luckily, you’ll never have to play the same stage twice, as the dungeons are randomly generated each time you load up.  Complementing this is the game’s in-depth customizable settings.  You can alter everything from the size of the map to the difficulty of the traps.  Ultimately, this allows you to play anything from a maze you’d find on the back of a serial box to a gauntlet of truly labyrinthine proportions.  This goes a long way toward staving off repetition and should keep you coming back for quite some time.

Artistically, Dotard’s Escape is presented in such a way that it comes off as endearingly funny, but not overly cute.  The style isn’t unlike something you might expect of aPeter Molyneux game.  If that’s your cup of tea, you’ll find yourself letting out a few hearty chuckles whenever you watch Dotard burned to a crisp or impaled on a spike (gruesome, I know, but it’s true), and that’s not just lip service.  On a personal note, I was having far from the best of days when I was given the game to review.  As soon as I fell victim to my first trap (a bottomless pit, if I recall correctly), though, I was grinning and things seemed just a little bit better. Dotard’s Escape is one of those games.

Unfortunately, in making Dotard’s Escape , Lux et Umbra decided to make use of the dreaded virtual joystick.  Never in my days have I seen a game that makes good use of the virtual joystick control scheme, and this is no exception.  It’s a nice touch to be able to move in 360 degrees, but ultimately it’s unnecessary.  Every trap spans the width of every hallway, so there’s nothing to go around, and the fidgety joystick just leads to the Dotard getting stuck on walls more often than is convenient.  The alternative to this is the virtual directional pad, a step up from the joystick, but not much better.  It’s clear that the game was designed with 360 degree movement in mind, and the D-pad just makes everything feel clumsy.  Still, though the controls are inconvenient, they are far from game-breaking, especially given the quality of the rest of the title.

Overall, Dotard’s Escape is well above par for its genre.  It’s an epically addictive, humorous title.  It only falls short in its control scheme, but if you can forgive that, you’ll find that it’s well worth its $0.99 price tag.

You can pick Dotard’s Escape up from the App Storeand learn more about Lux et Umbra on their official Facebook page.

[review pros=”Addictive gameplay, lots of customization, legitimately funny, perfect artistic style” cons=”Poor controls” score=”90″]

Best of FingerGaming: From Back to the Future to The Blocks Cometh

Paladins lead designer talks balance, iterating in beta for the hybrid FPS

In a recent trip to Hi-Rez Studios to cover their MOBA Smite , I had a chance to talk to caster-turned-designer Rory “Drybear” Newbrough about a very different game: Paladins .

. Hi-Rez’s new game is a hybrid FPS and card game: there’s a MOBA-esque cast of characters with unique abilities, but each can be outfitted in battle with cards that augment their stats and play styles. The card system is unusual for a shooter but fits the F2P model well and has the potential to be as addictive as it is in games like Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering. The 5v5 online multiplayer will also be plenty familiar to MOBA players, who may latch onto the game more readily than shooter fans.

Paladins launched its closed beta on November 16, and it wasn’t love at first play for me. I had some issues with the gun feedback, wide open maps and repetitive gameplay structure, which made for an interesting conversation with Drybear, Paladins’ lead designer. He had smart answers for how Hi-Rez plans to iterate on Paladins, with frequent patches and big experiments aimed at finding the fun.

Wes Fenlon, PC Gamer: What are some of the major questions that the fans and players are asking that you can answer for me? It’ll make my job easier!

Rory Newbrough

Newbrough was a popular streamer and caster for Smite before working his way into design at Hi-Rez. He's new lead designer on Paladins.

Rory "Drybear" Newbrough: One of the big ones is whether or not Constructed is coming, being able to build your own deck. The answer is yes. We’re moving along with that as fast as we can. It’s in the game now, it’s just greyed out. We’re figuring out how that works. In the casual setting you pull randomly from all your cards, without building your own deck. We’re also concepting a system that allows you to play ranked games without some RNG, so potentially even pre-picking what cards you draw, and that allows you to shift it in the game, a little less RNG so you know exactly what’s going on versus. the wacky fun of casual where every game’s different, you get different draws.

So Constructed is coming. New champions. We’re obviously working on that. We have three in the pipe right now, but one that’s coming very soon, hopefully within the next few weeks [Ed. note: that champion, Evie, released with the latest patch!]. And obviously more cards with every patch. Changes to the siege engine. There were some complaints about how the siege engine works and how that interaction goes, with that push, attack-defend situation, how that feels between teams. And obviously major bug fixes.

We still have to restructure the rarity of some cards, some in common need to be moved up in rarity, so it feels a little better there. We actually have been iterating on the game a lot since the Gamescom Twitchcon builds. One of the systems we had there, there were 9 levels instead of 5, so when you hit level 5 you picked your fifth card, and then at level 6 you’d wrap back around and replace your first card with a better version of it. You can keep replacing those cards up to the fourth card. Eventually you could have all 5 legendaries. We’re going to experiment with putting that system back in now that we have a ramp up [Ed note: Hi-Rez implemented this change in the latest patch along with Evie].

PCG: From my time with Paladins, my coworker Tom and I were surprised the deck system wasn’t in, because that seemed like half the game. What’s the goal with the beta as you launched it? To get server stability right, or basic gunplay right? What are the steps that the beta’s going to take as you’re progressing?

We really wanted to test the free experience, and we really wanted to test the base gameplay experience. We wanted to make sure the shooting felt right, the interactions felt right, that picking the characters and how you built your teams felt right, and then the cards as well. Part of the reason we wanted to have you pick randomly from all of your cards is it’s a lot easier that way to get feedback on the cards. The cards that are lesser picked when you have a choice, generally don’t get any feedback or play. But if it’s forced random, you may have to pick those cards, and you might explore cards you may not normally like. And when you’re randomly drawn that card and forced to play it, you may think “okay, this is kinda cool, I like this card. I’m going to play it more.” So it gets over that initial barrier of entry where you don’t like a card by the way it looks.

That gives us a lot of data around which cards are important, what cards people like, what cards are making the biggest impact, and we can collect a lot of statistics around what cards are being equipped, who’s picking them, and that helps us a lot.

When you have a recommended build, you tend to stick with it forever.

We wanted to see what it felt like when you couldn’t build your own deck. Because one of the core philosophies around Paladins—we learned this with all of our games but specifically Smite—you’d have the recommended build and the popular items build, and what we saw, we have a lot of statistics around this, when you have a recommended build, you tend to stick with it forever. Once you have your favorite TV show, favorite streaming online, favorite Youtuber, ‘this is mine, I’m not going to break from this. It’s in my comfort zone.’ One of the things that spurred the idea for Paladins was we wanted to break that system out.

There isn’t really a recommended [build], you’re shown random cards and have to draw randomly. That will constantly shift your experience. By removing Constructed initially, we get to see how that affects the way people play, and if they explore different options during the match. Once we move to Constructed, we’ll see if people build the same deck and play the same cards every time.

PCG: For a game where you have so much variety in terms of the way these cards can interact within a character and change their abilities, how do you balance that with the need for players to be able to understand what’s going on? If you’re going up against a character who has double the normal HP and can do more damage based on that, that’s not immediately apparent based on their character model, the way you know in a MOBA ‘this character can do these four things.’ How do you solve for that problem of players being able to understand what they’re up against?

Drybear: Clarity was actually a huge sticking point for me, working with the team. In fact, most of our artists I’ve worked with, I’ve been hammering into their heads that clarity is so important here, just because you can have such a wide slew of things that can happen in a match. You’ll see bits of this throughout the entire game. Our maps are a little more exaggerated, fantastical, painted with basic solid colors. The characters pop really well. We wanted to do that so you can see the characters, the projectiles, everything’s very clear to you.

We team color everything. For you, all the effects you do are colored and pretty, but everything your teammates do will be blue, and everything your enemies do will be red. Even if it’s the same character doing something you’re doing. That simplifies what you need to see and recognize. We also do a lot of standardization across effects. When someone has increased damage, it’s the same effect for everyone. Increased damage effect, increased attack speed effect, slowed down effect. Standardizing these allows you to recognize them easier. And we’re working in the UI to get more feedback in there. When you look in the health bar we do a standardization where every tick is 100 health.

Since you only have five cards, as far as modifications go, we built the system to have a base-level effect, and then intersplice effects into it to let you know what’s going on. For example, when you have the totem down for Grohk and it has the healing effect in it, when that becomes a totem that allows movement speed to be added to teammates that walk through it, you see these up arrows sticking out of the totem. That way you know this totem will move people faster. Standardizing those effects and applying them in the right places, and additive effects where it makes sense.

PCG: The game is made on the same engine as Smite, right?

Drybear: That’s right.

PCG: Probably my biggest criticism of playing it for, granted just a couple hours, was it didn't have the impact feel that a lot of my favorite shooters have. It didn’t feel as crunchy. It kind of felt like Smite, I guess, which doesn’t work quite as well shooting machine guns. How can you work with that engine to make the game feel more like a shooter?

Drybear: A lot of it is feedback systems. Some of the smaller ones make more of a colossal difference than you’d expect. Stuff like ragdolls, right? If you shot someone and they exploded and flew off the screen, that’d feel very meaty and very heavy. That’s something we’re looking to add as soon as possible. Versus if you just hit them and they fall down.

Sound’s a big part of it too. If a sound’s mono versus stereo. If something has a more guttural, deep bass to it. That helps increase your feedback and experience with it. Some of those things aren’t finished yet.

A lot of it, too, is the way the characters react. Stuff we added to Smite that made it feel a lot better, if you hit someone they react to it. When you have that kind of tactile feedback, that really helps. Really, just sound, the visuals, how the characters react, make a big difference. Working within our modified UE3 will be a challenge to make it feel as directly guttural as some other titles, but I think there's a lot we can do around feedback to make it feel just as good.

PCG: I think the other big challenge you guys face, other than making your game as good as you can, is what’s going on outside. Overwatch is the biggest, obvious name. There’s also Battleborn, Dirty Bomb for example.

Drybear: Dirty Bomb, Gigantic.

PCG: What do you see when you look out at your competitors and look at your game and weigh your chances? Is it scary?

Drybear: I think it always is...You can think a game will do poorly and it does really well. You can think a game will do really well and it just bombs. You don’t really know how the market's going to react to it. As far as the state right now, I think there are a lot of great titles out there, but we have something that’s more unique that allows us to integrate systems that people really love. Progression’s a big one. There’s no progression in Overwatch, not really any progression in Battleborn. Battlecry doesn’t have progression. Gigantic has a little but not too much.

PCG: God, I forgot Battlecry exists.

Drybear: Most people do. [laughs] That’s a thing still. That’s the big part, right? We’ve combined a lot of systems that we hope mesh in a very creative way. People love collecting things. You get the cards and build your own collection. People love modifying their characters and being free to create your own experience.

When you play a character in Overwatch or Battleborn, while they’ve crafted very excellent characters I think—I’ve played Overwatch, I think it’s a really well-delivered game—you really only have that one experience when you pick one of the characters. When you get ahold of a character in Paladins, and have a lot of cards, you can kinda build any way you want.

With Grohk you can build all totem cards and triple the size of my totem and add lightning to it and modify it in a way that I feel like is more fitting to my play style. You build your own experience that way. It allows you a lot of freedom, almost like a sandbox or RPG. And then when you start throwing in the randomness, it becomes less repetitive, right? While we still have concerns around the gameplay and game mode itself, the characters are very versatile, and change every single match. So maybe one match you get the totem cards, and then the next match your first card you draw is a chain lightning card, you go oh okay, maybe I’ll build chain lightning this game. You build something completely different. Whereas when you’re planning the same character from game to game, it doesn’t feel like it. So I think that’s what we’re really hoping for as far as longevity for the game.

On the next page: How Hi-Rez came up with the card mechanic, and how they plan to evolve the main (and, eventually, secondary) game modes.

MechWarrior Online's newest patch brings a world of Misery

Not the sobbing-at-a-funeral kind of misery, mind you.

Not the sobbing-at-a-funeral kind of misery, mind you. We're talking about Misery, an 85-ton Stalker battlemech that will hopefully leave your foes fully acquainted with the emotion in your wake. The mech comes with MWO's newest patch, which, among various other goodies and fixes, also comes with a new skin with skulls all over it, keeping with the theme nicely.

As revealed in the video below, Misery's a slow-and-steady sort of bruiser, with a top speed of 48.6 kilometers per hour. She also comes outfitted with four medium lasers, one large laser, a Gauss rifle, and an SRM-6, just in case merely flattening you isn't enough to do the job. The update also makes four new trial mechs available, as well as the option to customize the color of all hero mechs.

As for that skull pattern? It's called the Buccaneer Premium, and the inspiration for its apparent art direction is too good not to share: "Some crazy, bearded, malnourished man with missing teeth going to work with a paint roller in the 'Mech hanger while indulging in questionable substances." Well, as long as they're not letting him pilot the mech...

The patch is already live on the free-to-play shooter's servers, so if you haven't given MWO a go in some time, now might be the time to see if Misery is your thing. The patch also addresses issues players were having with disconnections and client crashes—full details can be found over at the MechWarrior Online forums.

Castaway Paradise: Living On A Vacation Island

Simulate an island getaway with Castaway Paradise , “a life simulator similar to games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon “.

“. Developed by Stolen Couch Games, Castaway Paradise offers the player a variety of ways in which to enjoy a tropical island life: dressing up, catching bugs, growing crops, and taking on quests.

Similar to Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon , the player navigates Castaway Paradise to their preference. Using decorating gloves, the player can customize their island, placing and rotating items to renovate and change the appearance. Activities like fishing and catching bugs come with competition against friends to obtain a complete collection. Taking on neighbors’ quests will give rewards that the player can use in the game. Holidays like Christmas and Halloween are also a feature in Castaway Paradise , allowing the player to decorate accordingly for the special occasions.

Castaway Paradise is the third game released by Stolen Couch Games, an indie studio based in the Netherlands. The game follows their previously successful titles on mobile, Kids vs Goblins and Ichi, both released back in 2012. Castaway Paradise is now available on Google Play.

Devs mod Soda Drinker Pro to help stroke survivors recover

Dungeon Defenders 2 preview

I didn't like Dungeon Defenders 2's competitive MOBA mode very much, something I feel a little guilty about.

I didn't like Dungeon Defenders 2's competitive MOBA mode very much, something I feel a little guilty about. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not been playing DotA since the time steam was simply another word for hot water or if my team had a quarter of a clue between them. The guy beside me? He went zero and nineteen . By the end of it, I wanted to bake his mouse into a pot pie and feed it to him.

That said, Trendy Entertainment's interpretation of the increasingly popular genre is interesting. The most obvious change made is the complete removal of the usual armament of items. Gone are the Divine Rapiers, the Manta Styles, the insufferable Dagon. Instead of Power Treads (or Steam Boots, or what have you), Dungeon Defenders 2 uses time-limited consumables and only time-limited consumables: health potions, mana potions, things that give you a temporary increase in speed, things that absorb damage after your health has been lowered by a certain percentage and so on.

It's a peculiar decision that I'm completely on the fence about. On one hand, I can see where Trendy is going with this—it's not only trying to simplify things, it's attempting to circumvent unstoppable snowballing. On the other hand, this maneuver neither stops bad teams from being bad nor does it allow the individual to potentially salvage a disastrous situation. We've all seen an angry Spectre turn the tide of a Dota 2 game on her own. This, sadly, isn't something that I'd expect to happen in Dungeon Defenders 2.

The other major change is the switch from the familiar top-down perspective to a slightly over-the-head but mostly behind-the-shoulder third person view, like Smite. How does a third-person MOBA dressed up in Dungeon Defenders' syrupy-sweet visuals actually play? Okay. The selection of available heroes is somewhat impressive given the fact the game has only just recently entered closed beta. There are many faces that will be familiar to veterans of the franchise and others such as the Spider Princess that may be a not-so-subtle nod to the MOBA mode's spiritual progenitor.

For my hands-on, I went with the Gun Witch, a short-skirted sylph with a rather big gun. She had the ability to fire a bullet that would ricochet between opponents, a projectile that would silence (and damage) the first thing it hit, a leap that had her barreling headlong into a targeted area and a "snipe" that let her, after a brief wind-up period, unleash massive damage in a direction. In an the environment filled with players playing the game for the first time (PAX), the long-ranged glass cannon seemed the best bet.

Everyone picked their heroes and the game began in earnest. I bought a few potions, waffled at the base for a minute, before briefly joining the rest of the team as they charged down the middle lane, past our tower, across the river and then into a self-propelled genocide at the enemy's tower. Needless to say, I stopped before they got to the second half of that excursion.

Three minutes. Four dead teammates.

While I'd like to blame my team (who could probably feed all of China) as much as possible, it's understandable that they might've found themselves bedazzled by Dungeon Defenders 2's colorful visuals. Though marginally shorter than the heroes themselves, the "creeps" in Dungeon Defenders 2 weren't immediately noticeable. It took me a good ten minutes to realize that the hunch-backed creature wielding a ball and chain was a teammate as opposed to a slightly more powerful NPC.

I also have my suspicions about this possibly being the fault of the third-person perspective. Though an arguably excellent way to showcase the artwork, it offered a narrower frame of vision. Even in Dota 2 or League of Legends, it can an absolute nightmare keeping track of precisely what is going on in the battlefield. Things get even more complex when heroes can slyly duck behind a siege engine, one located at the very periphery of the fog of war. Is it a crippling difference? No. I can see getting used to this new viewpoint. Was it a necessary and effective change? Probably not.

And, really, that's the most relevant question: were the changes made both necessary and effective? Did Trendy have to swap from the traditional control scheme to the slightly more awkward WASD mode of control? Does designing a MOBA that exclusively uses consumables promote accessibility, or is it simply an attempt by Trendy to distinguish itself from an ever-growing set of competitors?

In Trendy's defense, its competitive mode is a decent marriage between what makes Dungeon Defenders work and the trappings of the genre. However, there's a lot to be said for wantonly stripping out and stripping down features. Games like Awesomenauts and Smite both had the right ideas about things but I'm still not so sure if there's anything to defend about Trendy's encroachment into the muddy waters of the MOBA.

Trendy Entertainment is planning a staggered release of Dungeon Defenders 2. The cooperative mode of the game goes into beta late this year or early 2014, and the competitive mode is currently in closed beta. Read more on the Dungeon Defenders 2 FAQ.

Indie Intermission – ‘Beneath The Tunnels Deep’ A Fun Reference Filled Point And Click

Today I look at Beneath The Tunnels Deep , a game created for Fuck This Jam a few months back by the highly creative Team Infinite Cats .

Beneath The Tunnels Deep is a point and click misadventure game which brings in a great deal of pop culture references from the start.

Like any good adventure game you are placed in a situation from which you must escape and in doing so leads you on a journey of exploration and horror. Beneath The Tunnels Deep is full of humour and great little jabs at the genre throughout whether it be from picking up a coat or figuring out some puzzle with a coat hanger it works very well.

Along with the compelling gameplay the overall aesthetic choice is minimalistic but great. It really brings out the game and only adds to the many zany situations you come across.

Average play time – 8 minutes

If you have ever played a point and click adventure game Beneath the Tunnels Deep is a great choice due to its satirisation of the genre. That said, it does still stand up very well on its own and the game can be enjoyed for its own merits also.

Beneath The Tunnels Deep can be played here.

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!

Game jam enthusiast Sauhiro Orihaus has been lauded for his visual style in the past. His Ludum Dare

game Lumiere won the graphics award, while Hunting Anubis , a dogfighting game prototyped during 7DFPS, once again showed this dev knows how to make with the pretty. With this is mind, it's perhaps not surprising that the developer has decided to put visuals first with his latest project.

The Myst -inspired visuals of For Each Our Roads of Winter

For Each Our Roads of Winter is a Myst -inspired adventure game that is being built with the visuals at its center.

The New Zealand-based designer is working alongside Johannes Poell, another graphic designer based in Austria, to bring this combination of heavy procedural modelling and texturing techniques to the Unreal Engine 4. This photorealistic visual style combines elements of modern photography and antiquity works to stunning effect.

Orihaus is very cagey when I ask him how exactly he's achieving these effects, and whether or not other smaller studios can look into achieving a similar effect. "Having worked in a number of different styles, I think I can say that there isn't really any 'easy' style, at least if you want to pull them off without risking seeming derivative or simply uninteresting," he says.

But it's obvious that For Each Our Roads of Winter is being built with visuals at its core -- indeed, the developer isn't entirely fixed on how the game will play yet, although Myst will clearly be a big inspiration.

"What 'gameplay' will make it into the final game will likely be heavily centered around observing and understanding visual, architectural, and audial cues," he notes. "So it's pretty easy to see what comes first here!"

"In Myst and Riven at least, the core lynchpin of what makes them work, in my opinion, is how their narrative works with their world," he adds. "With 'linking books', Myst found a really tight central plot device that allowed them to explore its characters in a really original way, that also worked perfectly with what the player is actually doing in those games: exploring worlds."

The books in Myst , he argues, were essentially works of art that guided the players to discover the world, and helped to reflect the psyche of their writers.

"So from that," Orihaus reasons, "I'd say that a really important element in this genre is finding a good framework for letting the player explore in their own mind as much as in the game itself, the core questions of why these worlds you're exploring are the way they are."

For Each Our Roads of Winter will be released in five episodes, with the first due to be released in mid 2015.

MechWarrior Online video interview

MechWarrior Online will stomp out of beta by the end of this summer , and the game's Vancouverian creators at Piranha Games are illuminating further what the free-to-play multiplayer game will look like when it hits its version 1.0 milestone.

, and the game's Vancouverian creators at Piranha Games are illuminating further what the free-to-play multiplayer game will look like when it hits its version 1.0 milestone. I spoke with Piranha President Russ Bullock and Creative Director Bryan Ekman last week in San Francisco to get more details about MWO's ambitious territory-control metagame, Community Warfare, ask about the status of this thing, and check up on other upcoming features.

Mass Effect Andromeda plot slips out in a survey

An EA marketing survey may have let slip plot details for Mass Effect Andromeda .

. 'May' because this comes from screengrabs posted by NeoGAF user anexanhume. For one thing, they'd be easy (if boring) to fake, and for another it could all change based on feedback from survey-takers. Now that you're suitably sceptical, here's the transcript:

"Mass Effect: Andromeda takes players to the Andromeda galaxy, far beyond the Milky Way, where players will lead the fight for a new home in hostile territory—where WE are the aliens—opposed by a deadly indigenous race bent on stopping us.

"Experience the freedom to traverse and explore a planet-dense but seamless open-world galaxy, rich with discovery. Play as the leader of a squad of military-trained explorers in an intense third-person shooter, with deep progression and customization systems.

"This is the story of humanity’s next chapter, and player choices throughout the game will ultimately determine our survival in the Andromeda Galaxy."

Nothing says 'moral dilemma' like playing colonial leader, although I wonder whether Bioware has the nerve to put us firmly in the wrong—I anticipate some needs-must motivation that sends us begging to other galaxies.

"Seamless open-world galaxy" could be marketing speak, but if Bioware can do away with the level transitions between ship and surface, that would be an achievement indeed.

The stakes rise in further screens: "There is a major battle brewing, and it awaits you. It is unfolding across a galaxy of planets, with creatures and species entirely unknown. Draw your weapon, because the fight is bigger than you thought. It’s not just for your own life, it’s for all of humanity—the ultimate battle for a place we can all call home."

I'm getting a strong Battlestar Galactica vibe which I'm all for, and if Bioware can dream up species stranger than the Hanar, that's me sold.

A purely scientific study in unclothed gaming guys

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GDC 2013: Creative Assembly announces the all-multiplayer Total War Arena

In this slide from the presentation, several features are listed that indicate a focus on "streamlined action-oriented design," 10 vs.

During a talk given GDC today Creative Assembly revealed a new direction for its Total War series: Total War Arena, a multiplayer and free-to-play MOBA with RTS elements.

from the presentation, several features are listed that indicate a focus on "streamlined action-oriented design," 10 vs. 10 team battles, co-op play, and three different unit types. The developer's websiteelaborates a little further, describing Arena as a chance "to pitch history's greatest commanders and their armies against each other in massive, team-based battles."

Creative Assembly is also asking for players to sign up for Arena's closed beta on the game's website, though the URL leads nowhere as of this writing.

Mass Effect: Andromeda pushed back to early 2017

Yet another piece of evidence has appeared indicating that BioWare's space epic RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda won't be out until sometime in early 2017.

won't be out until sometime in early 2017. This one comes from Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conferenceyesterday that it's slated for the fourth quarter of EA's fiscal year.

“We've got our Battlefield first-person shooter game coming in the third quarter, and our third-party title that Respawn, our partner, built, called Titanfall, it's the second title that they brought into that brand. Both of those are first-person shooters and will be targeted around both the fast, action-driven shooter market, as well as the strategy-driven market in the quarter,” he said. “We have all our sports games. We have our Mirror's Edge runner game, it's first quarter. and then we have Mass Effect, which is a sci-fi action game, in our fourth quarter. So big year ahead and we're pretty excited."

EA's fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31, so while the fourth quarter of the calendar year would mean a release sometime between October 1 and December 31 of 2016, which is when it was expected to be out, in this case it indicates January 1 to March 31 of 2017. It's possible that it could be moved up, but come on, when is the last time that happened?

(It was about a year and a half ago, actually.)

So it's a delay, but it's not necessarily an indication of anything problematic. It's quite possible that EA simply doesn't want to put all its eggs into the very crowded holiday-season basket, especially since, to mix metaphors, it's already got two big dogs— Battlefield 5and Titanfall 2—in that fight. I've emailed EA to confirm the new launch window, but it's probably safe to assume that if EA's CFO says 2017, then 2017 is what it is.

Thanks, NeoGAF.

Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid Vita show up in retail listings

If these retail listings are any indication, we may be hearing more about two classic series coming to the PlayStation Vita this week. Internet sleuths have turned up two listings today which indicate retailers are preparing for the announcement of both Resident Evil Vita and Metal Gear Solid Vita. The Resident Evil listing can be found on Play.com and was spotted by website Rely on Horror . The Metal

Tiny Troopers’ — A Big Deal

‘Tiny Troopers’ — A Big Deal
Strategy fans have always dreamed of mobile RTS games that are actually playable or of decent quality.

Strategy fans have always dreamed of mobile RTS games that are actually playable or of decent quality. Most of the time, we are disappointed by unintuitive controls or a lack of creativity that commonly plagues mobile strategy gaming. With the game Tiny Troopers however, we may have just gotten what we were looking for.

Released on June 7 thfor the iOS by independent Finnish developer Kukouri Mobile Entertainment, the game quickly received high praise from publications such as Slide To Play and The AppShack. They said of the game: “ Tiny Troopers has a lot to offer and is a really great game,” and “It’s definitely a game you should pick up.” The game is a quirky squad based real time strategy game set in a generally familiar modern warfare setting. You command up to 4 soldiers who run missions in a lengthy campaign setting, and of course blast things to bits. The game is reminiscent of Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War , but on a much smaller scale.

The controls will seem relaxingly similar to strategy fans: just click to move and click to shoot. Unlike mobile RTS titles like Red Alert for the iOS and others, Tiny Troopers seems to have finally gotten the formula down for intuitive mobile controls. This simplicity also extends to the interface. Tiny Troopers ‘s interface contains only buttons for abilities, a menu icon, and a score counter.

The game does not take full advantage of iOS graphical capabilities, but it is cartoonish in a good way. Pretty graphics are not a necessity if your game is going to be lighthearted in tone. Tiny Troopers is modern mobile combat without all of the cliches and dark tones that plague many current action titles. It doesn’t look necessarily terrible either; certainly the models, action, and explosions look exciting.

My impression of Tiny Troopers is that it is indeed a big deal. It is modern warfare real time strategy and tactics made fun and intuitive. Also, it is one of those rare mobile strategy titles done well with both intuitive controls and varied play experiences. Tiny Troopers is certainly a great strategy experience.

Commander Shepard signs off in BioWare's N7 Day video

BioWare said earlier this week that N7 Day, its annual celebration of all things Mass Effect, would bring no "major" announcements about the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda .

. So far, it's holding true to that statement. But that doesn't mean it's got nothing .

The N7 Day 2015 video is a look back at humanity's first tentative steps into space, and an exhortation to carry on into the darkness. It's pure hype—but holy cow, that Commander Shepard sign-off really got me good. You'll have to excuse me, I think I've got something in my eye.

BioWare also posted a brief "Happy N7 Day" message on its blog, again more of a reminiscence than insight into the future of the series. "As we look back on the trilogy, we think of the many amazing things your enthusiasm has created," it says. "Your passion has formed friendships spanning the globe, brought people together, and inspired a new generation of gamers. It’s the reason you can walk down an unfamiliar street in a strange city, share a knowing nod with someone in an N7 hoodie, and feel at home."

Mass Effect: Andromeda is slated to come out during the holiday season of 2016. Here's what we're hoping to seein it—How about you?

Update: Not too long I put up this post, Mass Effect Producer Michael Gamble said something interesting on Twitter.

Hope you enjoyed our #N7Day video. Maybe you should look closer, too. November 7, 2015

Did you see anything?

RadarPlays - Metal Gear

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is out this week, but instead of playing the newest entry in the celebrated Metal Gear franchise, we’re focusing on where it all began. We plugged in the MSX version of the original Metal Gear to have some fun while also appreciating just how far the series has come. Watch the blast from the past below… Want to hang out with GamesRadar's editors while taking a look at retro games, new releases, and totally random experiences? RadarPlays is for you. Mondays we'll be checking out blasts from the past, Wednesdays (and sometimes Tuesdays and Thursdays, depending on the week) is reserved for new releases, and Friday is packed with the strangest titles you’ve never (hopefully) heard of.

American McGee: Akaneiro is "100 percent finished," developer "not out of money"

The Kickstarter page for free-to-play ARPG Akaneiro: Demon Hunters stated that American McGee's studio, Spicy Horse, ran "out of time and money" for final polishing .

. McGee evidently took umbrage with the media focus on that line, clarifying to Kotakutoday that Akaneiro is "100 percent finished" and Spicy Horse has money to spare.

"The game is 100 percent finished," he said. "The company is not out of money. The project was completed on time, on budget, and will be shipped this month. It has been in closed beta with 25k people having run through it since late last year."

Spicy Horse removed the "out of time/money" sentence from its Kickstarter page after McGee contacted Kotaku. The designer explained the Akaneiro team simply meant "they came to the natural end of their development cycle on that project" and didn't intend any message of financial troubles.

"As we're not publisher funded, and because we can't afford to continue development indefinitely, we're asking the audience," McGee said. "We're giving them a chance to decide whether or not these additional features sound worthwhile."

It's true Akaneiro's Kickstarter campaignfocuses on additional features to the core game, but some of the promised bonuses for meeting the $200,000 goal—like co-op multiplayer and a crafting system—seem quite baseline for free-to-play games of this caliber. Still, McGee stated Akaneiro's January release will proceed forward regardless of the campaign's performance, as the "final" version was set by Spicy Horse's "existing internal schedule and budget."

Mass Effect Andromeda trailer may have revealed protagonist name

As spotted by Eurogamer , Reddit users have a theory about the protagonist of the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda .

. A "resident news specialist" called Benelioto has cropped an image from the short video that EA released on N7 Day (November 7) this year that shows a dog tag on the dashboard of a spaceship.

The tag appears to read Ryder, and the Reddit user points out that this may be a reference to Sally Ride, the first American woman in space (a feat she achieved in 1983 at the age of 32, apparently still the youngest age at which an American astronaut has travelled to space). It would create a series tradition, as Commander Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, the first American to travel in space.

Watch the trailer again above to check the moment out for yourself. It begins at around 00:43. Even if the protagonist doesn't end up with the name Ryder, it doesn't hurt to start thinking of first names that sound good - what would you call your next commander?

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Metal Gear Solid hits the PlayStation Vita in style with the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. With it, remastered versions of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (minus the online multiplayer, of course) come to Sony’s handheld. It’s a largely well-adapted port, though some caveats apply to the experience

Ghost Recon Online gets Assassin's Creed III items for cross-promotional cosplay

The first of three Assassin's Creed III Tyranny of King Washington DLC episodes releases next Tuesday, prompting Ubisoft to initiate tactical cross-promotion operation "Put Hoods in Ghost Recon Online." From today until March 1st, 11 Assassin's Creed-themed items are available for unlock or purchase in the free-to-play tactical shooter's open beta .

There are five new Recon class items—the trademark assassinatin' hood and four pieces of body armor—and six Abstergo Industries weapons: the F2000 SP AC, Fiveseven AC, MG36 KV AC, P90 C AC, Sentinel SR-1 AC, and Pentagun SP AC.

I'm going to imagine the hardened recon specialist below was called to action in the middle of putting on his PAX cosplay outfit.

What we want from Mass Effect: Andromeda

about the author
Sam Maggs is the author of The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks, available now from Quirk Books.

Sam Maggs is the author of The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks, available now from Quirk Books. Named “Awesome Geek Feminist of the Year” by Women Write About Comics, Sam appears on TV and movie screens across Canada, writes a webcomic called Lady Junk, and has written for The Mary Sue, The Guardian, Marie Claire, the National Post, among others. You can geek out with her about Garrus or the Iron Bull on Twitter @SamMaggs.

Whenever I look up at the sky at night to stargaze, I’m confronted by an immediate and crushing melancholia. Not because I begin contemplating the insignificance of my tiny existence in the vast universe, but rather because I’m faced with the reality that I will never, ever be part of a rag-tag crew on a beat-down but reliable spaceship, exploring the unknown vastness of space, and maybe occasionally banging an alien.

At least I can mitigate this soul-crushing certainty with Firefly and Star Trek: Voyager, and in about eighteen long, painful months, with the next Mass Effect game. In the meantime, all I can do is dream about all the things I want when we venture into Andromeda. Here's what I'm hoping for:

A functioning ride

I don’t think this is too much to ask. The Andromeda trailer showed us that the Mako is back and maybe even better than ever. And I certainly hope that’s the case because, as much as I’ll miss driving vertically up mountains and cursing until I’m blue in the face trying to aim at a Geth Colossus, having a sweet set of wheels that doesn’t make me belligerent would be awesome. There’s some hope: apparently the new Mako has done away with its garbage cannon, is much easier to use, and might even make use of some of the mechanicsfrom EA’s driving games. And I wouldn’t say no to the ability to customize; I, for one, can’t wait to roll around the galaxy in my hot pink space tankwith gold rims.

More exploration, but not at the expense of the story

The first Mass Effect had its share of issues—many exacerbated by age—but most fans’ favorite thing about the franchise’s initial outing was its sense of discovery. With the addition of the Mako; the ability to actually jump; cool weather effects; shorter or non-existent load times thanks to the Frostbite engine; and a map potentially four timesthe size of that in the third game, I have a lot of hope that Andromeda will give us that true space exploration feel. But there’s a line between big and too big, one I think Dragon Age: Inquisition might have crossed. When you’re going ten plus hours between cut scenes, it’s a little difficult to maintain interest in the main plot—and that story is what makes BioWare games so strong. The addition of war table missions and space combat could help add to the space adventure feel without needlessly expanding world maps.

Intricate customization and RPG elements

concept art

Another aspect of Mass Effect 1 (and of Inquisition) that RPG fans in particular enjoyed was the high level of modification available for armor, weapons, and powers, to cater the experience to your preferred play style. As we approached the end of the trilogy, those RPG elements had been drastically scaled back—something I hope is rectified in Andromeda. We know that fan-fave Biotic Chargeis back, and we might even get a Biotic Shield, but it will be interesting to see how Tech or Biotic powers combine with weaponry and their new “incredible” level systemto make for a truly fresh experience. An upgrade in aesthetic customization would be nice, too; maybe some non-plot-dependent upgrades for your ship, or some fun, not terrible hairstyles. So far, the concept artlooks rad—except for the unnecessarily twerking woman—but please, please no boob armor on the playable lady! It would kill her.

Music to our ears

The first three Mass Effect games have haunting scores by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, David Kates, and more; soundtracks that stick with you long after the ending credits roll to the strains of a Faunts song. I can’t be the only one who got emotional just hearing that one note of “Vigil” at the end of the Andromeda trailer, can I? I’m hoping for another great score to accompany the new game; even one that deviates from the feel of the original trilogy and leans more towards the cowboy-style Johnny Cash songwe heard in the trailer. And layered over the badass soundtrack, we obviously need an exciting cast of voice actors. Maybe even some crossovers from our Dragon Age faves?

More glorious space warriors

You know, diverse characters with whom we can fall in love over and over again. And I don’t just mean romantic love—though that’s great, too—but characters that you can truly care about. In terms of specifics, there’s so much to choose from in the Mass Effect canon it’s almost hard to know what to ask for. At least one bi- or pansexual teammate is a must (I’ll never get over not being able to romance Miranda as FemShep), and an Asari who specifically isn’t a love interest or a sexual being in some way might be nice. Fans are clamoring for a romanceable Krogan; a Hanar, Elcor, Batarian, or Raloi teammate; a male Quarian (who could be maskless this far in the future, so their facial design could be… improved); teammates of alien species specific to the Andromeda galaxy; a human teammate raised by aliens; the list goes on. Personally, I’d like to see another female Turian (Nyreen was amazing in Omega, and it was a shame she was relegated to the DLC), and more female aliens in general who aren’t just dude aliens with human boobs stapled on. The trailer seems to suggestwe might be getting a female Krogan teammate; just to break my own heart further I’m going to imagine her name is Urdnot Mordin.

A chill co-operative multiplayer

The Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode is still fun, and the Inquisition multiplayer built on that model with a great co-operative multiplayer with frequent weekend-long group and individual quests. Andromeda needs the same kind of friendly but challenging multiplayer mode—especially one that doesn’t blackmail you into playing it by linking it too deeply into the single-player storyline, like Mass Effect 3’s war readiness rating.

Callbacks, when appropriate

Still alive?

It’s a tough thing; as a devoted Mass Effect player, I’m a sucker for fanservice, and had to try really, really hard to not make this article just say “Garrus” in different fonts twelve hundred times. But I’m also aware that original, good storytelling should always come before shoehorning in references to previous games just for the sake of making references. BioWare has been good at this in the past—like the small shout-out to Origins in Inquisition’s recent Descent DLC, or Shepard’s Miniature Giant Space Hamster—and the team has said that Andromeda will include “ a bunch of nods to fans.”

But will these be game-impacting nods or just subtle winks, like the similarities between the beginning of the Andromeda trailer and the cinematic trailer for Mass Effect 3? And how will players’ decisions at the end of the third game affect Andromeda, as it’s set“long after the events of the original trilogy”? Having something like the Dragon Age Keep to allow players to input their previous choices would be perfect if the game does mean to build on players’ past experiences. And sorry to tell you, fellow Garrus fans, but a senior developer has said that“story wise, it wouldn’t make much sense” to see returning characters in Andromeda. He refrained from mentioning, however, that Asari live for a thousand years and Liara was only 106 in the first Mass Effect, so I hold out hope for our blue babe still living it up in her Matriarch years back in the Milky Way.

The world finally letting go of Mass Effect 3's ending

I know a lot of Mass Effect fans were viscerally upset by the third game’s original ending. And that’s totally cool; they’re allowed to not like a thing. But I feel like whenever I express excitement for Andromeda, there’s always someone right around the proverbial internet corner ready to remind me that they think Mass Effect 3 totally blew. With the addition of the Extended Cut and the Citadel DLC, I personally don’t have a problem with it, but hate it or not, it’s been three years. It’s time to move on.

And I think we can all take heart in the fact that the Andromeda team has already been working on the new game for two years, and has almost another two years to go. They’re clearly not rushing development this time—and I’d imagine they’d like to avoid a rehash of the same backlash. Will Andromeda be great? I don’t know, but I know that it’s much more fun to give it a chance than to be rigidly cynical.

The main draw of the PSP, the big promise that was meant to separate it from Nintendo's portables and

pull users away from the underpowered Nintendo DS, was that Sony's handheld could deliver console-like experiences on the go. PSP's console-quality experiences, though, weren't enough to propel the system to the same heights as its competitors in the West -- so why hasn't Sony adjusted its strategy for its new portable, in light of PSP's past difficulties and PS Vita's current struggles?

Sony avoids PSP's mistake by encouraging fewer home console ports

Sony's marketing VP for handhelds and consoles John Koller admits that PS Vita's message of "console-like games on portables" is essentially the same as PSP's, but argues that there was a significant problem with how developers approached that idea before.

"The issue that happened with PSP is we got overrun with ports," he explains to Gamasutra. "It became very difficult for us to define what made PSP unique. The content development became a bit unstructured or decentralized, in that we got a lot of content that was on PlayStation 2 and got thrown over to the handheld."

Koller believes Sony learned its lesson with that problem on PSP and is actively taking steps to avoid repeating that mistake on PS Vita. He says portable content "isn't something consumers play because they've left the living room. It's something that [needs to be] unique, and defines the Vita experience."

A lot of PS Vita's early catalog has so far been made up of console ports -- which may have contributed to the troubles Sony has faced with building momentum for the system so far -- but now the company is strongly recommending against and guiding publishers away from ports.

Koller points to a couple upcoming PS Vita exclusives that are unique interpretations of popular console franchises, and says that Sony tells publishers to "Follow what Ubisoft is doing with Assassin's Creed . Follow what Activision is doing with Call of Duty ."

With that approach in mind, Koller says, "The messaging is similar [between PSP and PS Vita], but I think the output is going to be quite different."

Despite Hitman: GO success, the next mobile Hitman is free-to-play

BioWare says no "major" Mass Effect: Andromeda news on N7 Day

N7 Day, for those not deeply embedded in the Mass Effect fandom, takes place every year on November 7, a date chosen because it corresponds nicely with Commander Shepard's N7 designation .

. It's basically a day to celebrate all things Mass Effect, and of course BioWare uses it effectively as a marketing tool to keep the series at the forefront of the collective gamer consciousness. Last year, it held a " developer roundtable" on Twitch to talk about the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda and also dropped more than a half-dozen pieces of very cool concept art. For N7 day in 2015, however, the pickings are going to be a little slimmer.

This year, BioWare will host a livestream featuring Mass Effect 3: Citadelgameplay to raise money for Extra Life, during which viewers will be able to vote on what choices are made. It's also put up some custom N7 banners and profile pictures for Facebook and Twitter, and there will be sales in the BioWare store and various sorts of giveaways. But it doesn't sound like there will be a data dump comparable to that of last year.

"This Saturday, November 7th, we’re celebrating the Mass Effect Trilogy with a marathon Extra Life livestream, giveaways, and awesome deals on Mass Effect merch," BioWare wrote. "And while we won’t have any major announcements for Mass Effect: Andromeda this N7 Day, keep an eye out on Saturday for some surprises that we’re sure you’ll enjoy."

BioWare has been playing its Mass Effect: Andromeda cards very close to the vest so far, but it did say in June that will be out in 2016. That's not all that terribly far away—here's what we want from itwhen it arrives.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for PS Vita release date set for summer

Konami announced it will be porting its 2011 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection to the PlayStation Vita sometime this summer. The studio said the collection will include PS Vita-fied versions of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. As to the absence of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – which was included in the North American version of the collection – Konami confirmed

Teleglitch: Die More Edition’ Review – Yep, Still Dying

‘Teleglitch: Die More Edition’ Review – Yep, Still Dying
There needs to me more games where we die a lot.

There needs to me more games where we die a lot. Originally, when I first unwrapped my copy of Dark Souls and played it for an hour, I was ready to give up. I thought a game that punishes you this harshly would never be fun. But, every time I stopped playing, I yearned to go back to it. No matter how much I distracted myself, I always thought I’d be able to make it to the next checkpoint. In Test3 Projects’ latest game, Teleglitch: Die More Edition , I get those same feelings again. And I haven’t even gotten to level three.

Teleglitch is mostly a traditional roguelike game, with randomly generated levels, permadeath, and plenty of loot to discover. The one difference is the lack of turn-based combat, which is absolutely welcome in the current indie scene. Your movements and combat are all in real time, which gives the player a lot of room for panic moments. Since the game features permadeath, you’ll have to play through the whole thing in one sitting. Luckily, every so often, you unlock the ability to start a new game from a later level.

The game takes place in a military complex and/or research facility, depending on where you choose to go. There aren’t any cutscenes nor dialogue (save for an opening journal entry from the main character), instead you find everything out through various terminals discovered in-game that reveal the history of the facility you worked in. Once you die, you’re able to explore everything you’ve discovered throughout your playthroughs, and read about the histories of different experiments and events in the facility.

The game has a wide codex of monsters as well, which will scare you. Not from their appearances, more from the simple fact that they’re attacking you. Even small enemies will end up scaring you. If you’re like I was, and can’t stand games that force you to die while learning, you might not be a fan of Teleglitch. You will die a lot, and you will get pissed, but you will learn.

In contrast to the last game I reviewed ( Vintage Hero ), Teleglitch is a game that use retro graphics well. It makes the game more simplistic instead of more dated. Roguelike games have always had traditional graphics and gameplay, whereas most other genres have not. I’d love to see a modern roguelike game, but I can’t blame Teleglitch for playing it safe. Plus, the graphics don’t detract from anything. You don’t really notice the graphics of the game once you’re immersed in it. They complement the gameplay, instead of holding it back.

If you’re a fan of creepy, atmospheric roguelikes with a TON of replay value, then Teleglitch: Die More Edition is for you. You can grab the game on Steam, and you can follow Paradox Interactive on Twitter herefor updates on the game and news about their other upcoming releases.

[review pros=”Atmospheric and immersive, interesting story, all-around consistent roguelike” cons=”Extremely difficult, not too long” score=83]

Mass Effect: Andromeda coming in 2016

EA didn't waste any time: it kicked off its E3 2015 press conference with the first trailer for Mass Effect Andromeda, which is coming 'Holiday 2016.'
character art
"While we aren’t ready to go into too many details just yet, as you saw in the trailer and can tell by the name, this game is very much a new adventure, taking place far away from and long after the events of the original trilogy.

BioWare has a brief blog postwith a few details and a piece of art:

"While we aren’t ready to go into too many details just yet, as you saw in the trailer and can tell by the name, this game is very much a new adventure, taking place far away from and long after the events of the original trilogy. You will play a human, male or female, though that’s actually not the character you saw in the trailer (more on that later). You’ll be exploring an all-new galaxy, Andromeda, and piloting the new and improved Mako you saw. And through it all, you will have a new team of adventurers to work with, learn from, fight alongside of, and fall in love with. "

Andromeda will use the Frostbite engine, and the trailer represents BioWare's "visual target." These are not the final graphics, and as we keep learning, target footage shown at E3 isn't always (or perhaps often) representative of the final product. So, it's a fun trailer, but don't assume the game will look identical.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Vita screens reveal high-definition mullets

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Nuclear Throne quietly slips out of Early Access

We quite liked Nuclear Throne , the post-apocalyptic top-down shooter from the guys who gave us Luftrausers and Super Crate Box , when we reviewed the Early Access version back in January.

the Early Access version back in January. Over the weekend, and with approximately zero fanfare, it left Early Access and is now in full and official release.

"As we promised, the game will launch at a pricepoint of $11,99 without any discount or sales, continuing our stance of not discounting the game during Early Access," Vlambeer's Rami Ismail wrote. "We also want to emphasize that this release doesn't mean that no more updates will happen. It's a formality we had to get out of the way, and we're aware of the issues and problems on PC. We're working to fix those."

Coinciding with Nuclear Throne's official release, Vlambeer also put out " update 96," which makes a number of fixes, a couple of balance changes, and adds trading cards, emotes, and other such bits of Steamy goodness. Ismail said the newest build of the game should fix most "major bugs" but added that it was "uploaded from the PSX showfloor" in order to get it out as soon as possible, and thus wasn't tested as extensively as it normally would have been. With that in mind, he asked that any "oddities" be reported on the Steam forums.

Long-lost Tomb Raider short unearthed

A short, live-action film promoting Tomb Raider 3, thought lost, has recently been rediscovered.

3, thought lost, has recently been rediscovered. It was only shown once, at Tomb Raider 3's launch party in London's Natural History Museum. Having uncovered the original Digibeta tape (tape!), producer Janey de Nordwall passed it to Square Enix which has uploaded it for all to see.

It's quite, quite bizarre—all the '90s cheese without the exploding heads of Strafe. In that regard, I suppose it captures the early Lara Croft craze quite well. Full marks for effort, certainly, because there's eight minutes of the thing. I'll take this over a 20-second teaser trailer any day.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Vita release date announced

Konamiannounced today that we'll be able to expect to see Solid Snake's debut on the PlayStation Vita on June 12, 2012. As you may know, the Vita version will be a bit different than the console version. The major difference is that it will not include Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It will, however, include both Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The Vita version will also include a few Vita-specific additions such as touchscreen control. Players will be able to use the touchscreen and rear touch panel to do things like zoom-in on scenes, peek around corners, cycle through weapons, and rapidly cut with the knife. Topics Konami Action Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Metal Gear Solid HD Collection We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Refined version of awesome original Wii controls! Still scary Cons Nothing new over GameCube version Wii controls actually suck Won't convert the unconverted Nintendo are loving re-releasing games at the moment. So it doesn%26rsquo;t exactly come as a surprise to see a re-released re-release of Resident Evil. The original PSone game was remade for GameCube

Rise of the Tomb Raider DLC concludes March 29

Even if Rise of the Tomb Raider came to PC a few months late, at least the extras are in sync with console—despite those extras being served lukewarm .

. Rise of the Tomb Raider's season pass has one last chance to fix itself in our memories, with the final instalment, Cold Darkness Awakened, releasing March 29.

As is Tomb Raider tradition, the weirdest stuff goes down in Russia, so Cold Darkness Awakened takes you off to a decommission Cold War research facility in Siberia. Some form of 'affliction' (say, a virus?) spreads, turning soldiers into "bloodthirsty killers who thrive on carnage". So zombies, with earlier reports suggesting it will be a wave-based challenge.

If you don't already own the season pass, Cold Darkness Awakened will cost $10.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - How to Beat the Joker

At the very beginning of the fight, use the Line Launcher to kick into him. Now, the fight really starts, as Joker pulls out a pistol. Stay on the opposite side of the barrels, making sure to roll-dodge as Joker's reticle closes in on you. After three shots, Joker needs to reload; run up and punch him when he's distracted. For the third phase, Joker will pull out an electrified baton and start charging

Vlambeer prototypes include Wild West story experiment, a new take on tower defence and "Space Murder"

Vlambeer are known for making fast, satisfying action games.

Vlambeer are known for making fast, satisfying action games. In Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishingand the upcoming Nuclear Throne, you will know Vlambeer by the uncompromising crunch of every bullet fired and fish hooked. They're a prolific team, as well, and Kotaku UKhave taken a look at their numerous incomplete and occasionally playable prototypes, which see them playing with gentler concepts in Western Hour, and some more familiar ones in "Space Murder" and a game they simply call "GTA II in space".

Also included: Space Beaver, a puzzle-platform game in which gravity acts in your favour, keeping your feet on the floor as you jump up to ceilings and walk over edges. Ffflood is an attempt to make a tower defence game that unfolds at ridiculous speed. "Untitled Space Marines Sims-alike" is an attempt to simulate what a space marine gets up to in their downtime, showering, doing push-ups, eating, doing more push-ups, etc.

There's also a prototype from their Adventure Time game jam, a stealth game called "Nambo", in which you can never be quite sure if your stealthy leaps and rolls are visible to guards or not, and Western Hour—an interesting narrative experiment that has you wandering a tiny town in the Wild West searching for the man you're supposed to kill. You'll find more, along with links to the downloadable prototypes over on Kotaku.

Tomb Raider writers used a "hashtag board" to balance #Dad levels

The writers of Rise of the Tomb Raider took a page from Twitter's playbook during the design process: By breaking every character arc, theme, and plot thread into keywords, they created a "hashtag board" to track and balance Tomb Raider's story.

took a page from Twitter's playbook during the design process: By breaking every character arc, theme, and plot thread into keywords, they created a "hashtag board" to track and balance Tomb Raider's story. During a panel at GDC 2016 today, six members of the team discussed the challenges of making a more emotional journey for Lara, detailing that hashtag process.

"It allows us to track everything that's happening in the story," said John Stafford, lead narrative designer. "It's a tool for us to start looking at tension, emotional pacing, and jams of ideas. We might see that a scene has ten hashtags and realize that it's going to be a monster of a scene that's going to have a lot of stuff [happening]."

With every element of the story broken down into easily digestible pieces, the team was able to look at Rise of the Tomb Raider as a whole composition, noticing gaps and imbalances in plot threads and areas where certain themes could be retooled to become stronger.

Stafford explained how they began to notice that the hashtag board was lacking use of #Dad during the first few hours of the game. Given how crucial Lara's father is to her identity, Stafford says this created an imbalance in the narrative that the team needed to address. "The arc of [Lara] mirroring her father is very important to her motivation," Stafford said. "We were worried people were just going to lose that thread."

Needs more #Dad.

Putting more #Dad back into the story led the team to invent a whole new system. Instead of letting Lara join the 21st century with a mobile phone, they opted to give her a Dictaphone loaded with monologues from her #Dad to bring some fatherly influence back into the story—albeit in an indirect way.

The hashtag board was also a tool used to help weave myths into Lara's journey. Drawing from Slavic folklore, Rise of the Tomb Raider borrows ideas of immortality from the legend of Kitezh, the Slavic version of Atlantis, as well as Koschei the Deathless, a nasty old man who implants his soul into a needle inside of a duck inside of a rabbit inside of a chest buried underneath a tree—which makes perfect sense, really. These themes were then set against an overpowering sense of mortality, meant to be driven home by all the gruesome harm that can befall Lara.

Central to Rise of the Tomb Raider's design plan was use of "the world as a character," telling the story as much through the people as the environment itself. Having a list of hashtags for each scene and encounter made tracking narrative goals easier, according to the team, allowing them to approach problems more aggressively. One early scene required 47 revisions in order to address each of the keywords that were needed to set the tone of the story, explained writer Rhianna Pratchett.

When I caught up with Stafford after the panel, he was enthusiastic about how powerful hashtagging the story is as a tool. The idea is already implemented into the upcoming projects that Crystal Dynamics is working on and being adapted to suit other purposes outside of working with such layered narratives. "We're going to be using it for a lot of things going forward," Stafford said.

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Nuclear Throne owners get a free second copy for 2015

To celebrate both a full year of development and the end of 2014, Vlambeer is giving early adopters of Nuclear Throne a second, free copy to share with a friend/acquaintance/enemy.

As revealed by Rami Ismail in Vlambeer's most recent livestream - which you can see below - the studio made the decision because the current playerbase is 'too good'.

No, that's legit reasoning - Rami and the team needs feedback from those who aren't expert in order to make Nuclear Throne the best it can be as development continues into 2015.

Rather than slicing the price of the game, which Ismail describes as 'wrong', the decision was made to give out the freebies on January 1.

This also means anyone who buys the game in the next week or so will also get a freebie on the first day of 2015. Huzzah!

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Create your own press kit with Vlambeer's free service for indie devs

Perhaps slightly unfairly, but also somewhat ironically, public relations work tends to get a terrible press.

Perhaps slightly unfairly, but also somewhat ironically, public relations work tends to get a terrible press. However, being able to promote your game effectively isn't just a necessary evil, it's a key part of indie development these days. It's no good just making your meisterwek, you've got to get people excited about playing it long before it actually comes out. Unfortunately, being a programming savant doesn't necessarily make you a great PR person. Luckily, you can now get a leg up from presskit()(pronounced Do Presskit ), a free press kit generating service developed by Rami Ismail, of indie studio Vlambeer.

Vlambeer recently released the well-made Luftrausers, which was an almost instant successin part because gamers were looking forward to it and knew it was coming. Smaller studios and first-time developers won't have that built-in fanbase, but that's no reason they can't release beautiful, well-made press kits to capture people's attention. “For the press, finding out about a game but not having access to information & media for the game means that they can't write about it,” the descriptionat presskit() says. “Of course, developers want to spend their valuable time making games instead of press pages.”

Take this as a public service announcement. If you're developing a game and don't know how to get the word out, do two things. First, set aside an hour to go to presskit() and create your own asset and info pack. Then, and here's the really important bit, send it to PC Gamer.

Phil Spencer clarifies Microsoft's PC gaming ambitions

With each operating system release, Microsoft becomes suddenly conscious of people using their personal computers to play games, if you can imagine such a thing.

With each operating system release, Microsoft becomes suddenly conscious of people using their personal computers to play games, if you can imagine such a thing. What follows are vague assertions of being committed to PC gaming or, worse, Games For Windows, which was only defeated with the copious application of holy water. The cycle continues with Windows 10, with early announcementspledging "a collection of award-winning Xbox game franchises" and dedication to doing more "in the first party". DirectX 12 is the most tangible advancement, but the developers we spoke toon the subject weren't overwhelmed.

But with a steady stream of Xbox One 'exclusives'being confirmed for Windows 10, are we seeing evidence of commitment to PC? Our Phil Savage went to meet Microsoft's Phil Spencer, who clarified what the Xbox crossovers mean in the long term.

"I look at the work we’re doing on [Windows 10] as an enabler for us becoming relevant in PC gaming," Spencer said. "I wouldn’t say our strategy is to unify [with Xbox], because when I hear ‘unify’ I worry a bit that people will interpret it as, my own teams included, ‘Hey, we just want to say a game is a game and all games should run everywhere.’ There are games like Ashes of the Singularity, a fast-paced RTS game—probably not the best controller game. I’m committed to bringing our biggest franchises to Windows and Xbox. I always hesitate to say ‘all’, because I think that inhibits creatively what could happen."

Pressed on why the announcement of Quantum Break on PCwas so sudden, upsetting many Xbox owners who had had their eyes on the exclusive, Spencer explained why we're only just arriving at the point where big-name games are appearing as Universal Windows Apps.

"On development timelines I don’t look at that as an incredibly long road. We started from our development platform and making sure that our development platform, both with DirectX 12 and Xbox Live, was equally capable of being used on console and on PC, because that makes developers’ lives easier.

"When we originally started Quantum Break, we didn’t know that Windows 10 was gonna be there, we didn’t know how our strategy would involve. We obviously knew in working with Remedy that having a PC version of a Remedy game makes total sense. As our strategy came together, we saw the opportunity to be able to ship these at the same time, and supporting things like shared save games and other things that have been part of the strategy."

You can find the raw detail on Microsoft's PC gaming plans in Phil's interview, here.

Three days ago, Steam users were surprised to discover a curious entry in among Valve's annual Halloween

sale: Typing of the Dead: Overkill , a remake of Sega's cult classic combination zombie shooter and typing tutorial. Developed by small UK studio Modern Dream , this followup to the 1999 arcade and Dreamcast original shuffled onto Steam under Sega's publishing label with zero fanfare or advertising.

How Typing of the Dead: Overkill survived its studio's apocalypse

shuffled onto Steam under Sega's publishing label with zero fanfare or advertising. It didn't need any. Instead, news of the release spread organically and like wildfire across social media and message boards. In an era where games are often announced years in advance and there is seemingly no shortage of nostalgia for old titles, no one seemed to have any idea where this had come from.

"It's a credit to the original and how much of a following it still has, that in this day and age when a game can fall from view so quickly, this is exploding," says Ollie Clarke, founder of Modern Dream and project lead on Typing of the Dead: Overkill . "And no one who has been buying this game knows just how hard it was to get it released."

It's a story that befits Typing of the Dead 's dark horse nature. A project conceived in June of this year, Clarke and his small team of originally eight developers had just four months to make, test and ship the game. Even under normal circumstances, this would be a staggering task -- add in the death of a studio, a nullified contract, no hardware and no money, and things start to seem very apocalyptic indeed.
Not with a bang, but with a whimperLife (or un-life) for Typing of the Dead: Overkill began at Blitz Games Studios, a company founded in 1990 by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver. 175 employees strong, the Leamington Spa, UK-based studio was best known for developing licensed games for several major franchises.

Additionally, among its staff were several who had developed the engine for House of the Dead: Overkill , the 2009 prequel game released onto Wii and other platforms. For this reason, Sega and Blitz struck up talks about the possibility of taking the engine and House of the Dead: Overkill 's assets to work into a new Typing of the Dead -- a modification just as the original had been.

"Unfortunately," says Clarke, "Blitz did get to the point where it was going into liquidation."

Word came down on the morning of September 12th. Clarke, a manager at the studio, was one of the first to hear the news.

"I just felt stunned," he recalls. "I went downstairs and I could see the team heatedly discussing how the frontend would work. They were working so hard. And I knew what was going to hit them and it was an awful moment. I really believed in them, that they could -- they just needed some time to make the game."

Clarke went back upstairs and cornered a colleague in charge of business affairs, prodding him as to whether it was possible for his team to keep developing the game in the face of Blitz's closure.



"He looked at me and distinctly said, 'not a chance.' Normally that would have been the end of it, but we carried on talking," says Clarke. "The smart thing to do would have been to take the [last paycheck], cry in a bar for a few days, find another job, and let Typing of the Dead rest in peace, never to see the light of day again... We didn't have the contract, we didn't have the place to work, we didn't have PCs to develop on. [But] over about 20 minutes we came up with a plan as to how we were going to do it."

Clarke and his colleague examined the terms of Sega's soon-to-be-nullified contract with Blitz, determining that in light of Blitz's liquidation all rights would revert to Sega. Thus, in theory, the developers could take the half-finished build and approach the publisher for a new license. Armed with this knowledge, Clarke went back downstairs and broke the news to his team: Blitz Games was folding, they would all soon be jobless and likely without income -- but there was a chance that, at the very least, they could finish the game.

"To everyone's credit, they jumped on it," says Clarke. "We knew it was going to be a bloody nightmare, of course. We knew there were going to be a lot of hoops we'd have to jump through. A lot of things needed to line up. I think that if we had thought about it clearly, we never would've tried to do it."
"No matter what, I'm about getting the games out."The very next day ("a Friday the 13th; lucky to some") Clarke met with several senior executives from Sega to explain the situation and outline his new proposal.

"I really can't stress enough how kind, supportive and generous those guys were," says Clarke. "They're game makers themselves. They come from the same background as us. I think they'd been through this themselves once."

Sega agreed to Clarke's proposal, and three days later, Clarke crowded the entire development team of Typing of the Dead: Overkill into his apartment. They had six weeks to finish the game.

"It was like those start-ups you see in films. Computer cables running everywhere, working on laptops," Clarke says keenly. "I remember one guy in particular, a quiet but very experienced member of the team... He turned to me and said, 'No matter what, I'm about getting the games out.'"

Clarke and his team couldn't ship Typing of the Dead: Overkill working on laptops from a crowded apartment, however, so Sega stepped in. The publisher offered up office space at its Leamington studio, Hardlight. Within a week and a half, the team had settled in, ready for the final sprint.

"Over the coming days and weeks we were very lucky. Everything that had to happen, happened the right way. It was really down to this kind of can-do energy that everyone associated with it had, from Sega Hardlight, to the team. Even the ex-directors of Blitz were very supportive and wanted to see us finish this game."



For the purposes of the license with Sega and seeing that the group got paid, Clarke organized the team under Modern Dream, the side project through which Clarke had released several small, independent titles in the past year.

"We killed all the bugs, we set up the boss fights, we implemented all the effects and explosions, tested compatibility, tested and re-tested every one of the levels, made sure it had the right difficulty curve... and we got the game out, miracle of miracles," says Clarke. "And this has all literally happened within the last six weeks."
"From disaster to not only survival, but doing well. "It was Sega's marketing team that decided to launch Typing of the Dead: Overkill , without warning, onto Steam just in time for its Halloween sale. A risky move with potential to backfire -- but then, how would anyone advertise a game like Typing of the Dead , even in today's market?

"It's not something I would've done, but they were absolutely right," Clarke acknowledges.

Clarke says he hasn't seen the numbers yet -- and really, not a week into release, it'd be too early to call -- but Sega informs him that the game is performing much better than expected, and Clarke says he's been thrilled to see word of mouth spreading over Twitter and message boards.

As for the team, Clarke reports that each of them has already found new work with other companies.

"Except for me!" he clarifies. "I've got the taste for [leading a studio] now I guess, so I've decided to take Modern Dream forward with a smaller team and see if I can carry on making games. It's a mad thing to attempt, by anyone's standards. If you want to make a good living, don't make games."

But, Clarke continues, "I love games, and I want to carry on doing it. And I've come to appreciate that there are a lot of good, talented people in this industry that want to see games made. It's possible -- it's hard! -- but it's possible to get it done. And if we can pull it off then we should carry on trying to make it happen."

Typing of the Dead: Overkill , meanwhile, will continue to see support from the studio in the form of an upcoming multiplayer update ("we're doing that right now, over the weekend") and some other additions still to be announced. In the meantime, the team is riding high on enthusiasm.

"The most satisfying thing there is now is just all of the positive feedback that we've been getting," says Clarke. "We're all really happy right now. We've gone from disaster to not only survival, but doing well ."


The core team behind Typing of the Dead: Overkill . Left to right: Russell Callaghan, Tim Page, Jonathan "Jogo" Evans, Fred Williams, Ollie Clarke, Dan Chapman, Andy Keeble, Jim Hargreaves, Jonah Buckley and Tom Weston.