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Disciples III Coming to North America |
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Mar 08, 2010 - 8:45 AM - by Michael 'DoctorFinger' Chauvet
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Click to see the rest of the images
As I'm sure many of you know, I'm not really a fan of real time strategy games. I've played Starcraft and Sins of a Solar Empire, but generally with strategy titles my tastes tend to run to the more methodical turn based games. Civilization, Heroes of Might & Magic and one of the real gems of the genre: Disciples. It's been quite a while since we first heard about Disciples III: Renaissance. In fact it's been 5 years since the game was announced as in development at Russian studio Akella, and at least 2 years since the last bit of real news trickled out about the game. There was even a real fear that the game wouldn't get a release outside of Eastern Europe. But today Akella made official a publishing deal with Kalypso Media to being the game to North America and Asia. Alongside the announcement they've released some neat new screens too.
Disciples III: Renaissance is set for a summer release on the PC.
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8 Replies | 107 Views
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Portal 2 Gameplay Details From GameInformer |
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Mar 07, 2010 - 5:27 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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Since posting scans is questionable here, I'm just going to add the summary instead.
Quote:
The first Portal game was a low risk project due to the fact that 8 newly hired students from Digipen were working on it. Assets were used from HL2, playtime was short (but sweet). Portal 2 is going to be a full game with a big budget and a team of 28 people. The risk factor is pretty high for the project.
Sequel takes place hundreds of years after the first game. That eliminates any chances of Episode-3 story tie-ins (aside from nods and nudges)... unless they're planning time travel for Ep. 3, that is.
Aperture labs is in decay, and has been untouched (nor maintained) for decades, at the very least. This is reflected in the art direction and level design.
The visuals look vastly improved. We're talking real time soft shadowing and point lights here.
The orbs in the cake room at the end of the first game were 'personality cores'. They'll be the spice of variety for the game's dark humour.
You can now send 'physical foces' through portals... such as the suction force from vents, extendable 'projected bridges' (you might've seen those in the first game and lasers.
Other new elements are the use of various paint-like substances that feature different properties. For example, Orange paint will propel you to extremely high speeds, while blue turns any surface that it is on into a trampoline.
3 writers are on board for Portal 2. Eric Woplaw (who was the scribe for the first game) Chet Falszek and a newcomer Jay Pinkerton from the National Lampoon.
Memes from the first game will not be used.
Co-op robots like to hold hands, have 'genders' and no voices of their own. GLaDOS will attempt to disestablish their relationship throughout the tests.
Music will play a bigger part in the game, rather than just recording a new song at the end.
Since Aperture was severely damaged at the end of the first Portal, a lot of testing chambers will be under construction (even after all this time due to the fact that GLaDOS had no aide).
The game will be significantly longer than the first.
Singleplayer puzzles' challenges will be in line with the first game's difficulty. The co-op mode, however is going to be Valve's test bed for pulling-hair-out thresholds.
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Game Informer's Portal 2 hub (currently under construction).
Source
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22 Replies | 342 Views
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[Episode 28] The Coldest Place On Mars |
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Mar 06, 2010 - 9:26 PM - by Clayton 'Voodoo' Cannon
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Circumstances dictated an extra week off before bringing you Episode 28, but don’t worry, we’re back in full swing and the fruits of our labor are here for your savoring.
You may recall that in the last episode I talked a bit about Cyber-Wing, the Herzog Zwei-inspired indie PC title released late last year by Martian Arctic Games. Well, Martian Arctic founder Devin Passage was good enough to agree to join us for this episode of the show, and he weighs in on all manner of things ranging from the state of indie development / publishing, to piracy and DRM, to basket-weaving. I’m totally lying about that last one. It was a real pleasure to have Devin with us, and I hope he’ll come back again when it’s time to pitch his next project.
A great many links were promised in the course of the recording, and I present them in no particular order:
Sins of a Solar Empire Mods:
Sins of the 13th Tribe
Sacrifice of Angels
Requiem
Distant Stars
Gilfor’s Tales
Flotilla and Gravity Bone
Crosus
Due to Devin’s inclusion in the show, we didn’t do an indie or mod segment this time around (consider the whole show your indie segment, really), but we did give Total Annihilation a fond remembrance in our retro section, and that spawned another small list of links for your pleasure:
Spring, the originally TA-based open-source RTS engine
The TA 3.1 Patch
TA Universe and Unit Universe
You can also look forward to some brief unhappy commentary about both Ubisoft’s apparent burning desire to drive away its PC gaming base, and Bobby Kotick’s belief that the best way to retain the creative talent that drives the industry is to sack them. We recorded before the lawsuit news broke, so there’s no talk of that, but I suspect we may revisit it in the future. Let me be clear as I tried to be in the show: we’ve been hard on Infinity Ward about Modern Warfare 2 because we think they deserved it, but that doesn’t equate to us wishing them ill. Finally, listener mail, in which we are accused of being fabulously wealthy. If only. 
Anyhow, enjoy, and we’ll probably see you all again around St Patty’s Day.
Immortal Machines welcomes you to… The Coldest Place on Mars.
Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are Robert [Trebor], Bryan [Smoof], and Devin Passage from Martian Arctic Games
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]
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12 Replies | 163 Views
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The Whispered World |
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Mar 05, 2010 - 5:24 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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The Whispered World is a classic, hand-drawn point & click adventure game for the PC (and a Nintendo DS version also planned) from German developer Daedalic. The game has been garnering exceptionally positive press, along with award nominations from European critics.
The game stars a clown named Sadwick who embarks on a journey from a strange blue creature, accompanied by his pet Spot. The hand-drawn visuals are moody and exceptionally well done (dare I say, better than Machinarium).
After years of development, there's finally word of the game getting a North American release via publisher Viva Entertainment this April. You can view screenshots, artwork and news updates at the game's official website.
The Whispered World is set for release on April 26 for PC.
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2 Replies | 81 Views
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Crysis 2 Will Have Lower System Requirements, Better Graphics - Crytek Working on 5 Games |
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Mar 05, 2010 - 3:27 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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At the India Game Developer Summit 2010, Crysis 2 producer Carl Jones revealed that the sequel will have lower system requirements compared to the first Crysis. The confusing part is the claim that despite lower requirements, the game will look better than Crysis on the same systems.
Maybe they should release the optimizations they've made as a patch for the first two games? Or maybe the game is less intensive due to the fact that you no longer have a jungle full of breakable trees this time around?
Also teased was the fact that a total of 5 games were being worked on at Crytek. One of these could potentially be a new Timesplitters title (which hasn't received any sequel at all this generation), given the fact that Crytek acquired the developer that is now known as Crytek UK.
Source: DNAIndia via InCrysis.
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15 Replies | 324 Views
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Free and Worth Every Penny - Issue 35 |
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Mar 05, 2010 - 11:19 AM - by Eric 'Ravenlock' Leslie
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Sometimes, you have to let a game grow on you. It's easy to be turned off by a steep difficulty curve, or an obtuse UI, or a lack of direction. Sometimes these warning signs are well-heeded; there's certainly no lack of bad games in the world. But sometimes, pushing through them can yield something special.
I say this, as I'm sure you've already discerned, because this week's Free and Worth Every Penny installment might not be for everybody. I almost walked away from it myself. But if you're up for something different, I can promise that the investment level isn't too high and if you let yourself get into it, you can lose an hour or two here pretty easily.
Sound good? Great. Get ready to join.... the
Super Space Rogues was Ted Lauterbach's entry into the Rogue Compo at Gamejolt back in January - also the winner of that competition - and was whipped together in Game Maker in a rather shockingly short 2 weeks. (I know, it's another roguelike. This one is in space! And much more action-packed.) Drawing painfully obvious plot inspiration from Star Wars and gameplay that feels like a mix of Space Miner on the iPhone and Transcendence, Super Space Rogues gives you a straightforward goal - get $50,000 - and a couple discrete ways to go about it. Collect minerals to sell, and bounties for hunting pirates. Sounds simple, but as usual, the Devil's in the details.
"Jabbot"? ...Really? ...Okay.
When you start up Super Space Rogues, it's entirely likely you'll have no idea what's going on, so allow me to walk you through the likely course of events. The game will tell you to "Click Items for Information", and you'll spend a few minutes trying to figure out what it means, because there are no "items" to click and nothing gives you any information. (I guess I just saved you that hassle. You're welcome.) You'll also notice that you can right-click to switch to Combat Mode, though, and then you can shoot your guns. You'll shoot your guns at stuff, and that stuff will explode.
Eventually you'll see that in Navigation Mode, you can direct yourself towards unexplored planets and, if you're in range of one, interact with a trader to sell collected minerals and buy upgrades. Navigation Mode, however, won't allow you to monitor incoming threats, so you'll switch between it and Combat Mode frequently as you fly around. You'll blow up some asteroids and collect the minerals therein, maybe sell them to a trader and buy an upgrade or two. Then a group of pirates will find you and quickly destroy you, and you'll get a Game Over screen. This part may happen repeatedly.
The opening of the game. Also, effectively, the instruction book.
The inexplicable sudden deaths very nearly drove me away from Super Space Rogues - you get no information about whether the pirate attacks are totally random, or whether certain areas might be more dangerous than others, or anything helpful at all, really. It was frustrating, and felt poorly designed. If you feel like saying "screw it" at that point, I understand, but I would encourage you not to.
Because soon, the tide will turn. The controls will start to click better, and you'll start making quick trade runs to nearby planets. You'll stumble across a trader selling homing missiles, and you'll have the money to buy them. You'll start winning fights against the pirates. You'll start feeling like a pretty serious badass, and enjoying the random battles instead of dreading them.
The action gets enjoyably hectic.
Then, finally, with perseverance and a little luck, you'll collect your $50,000. And Jabbot will come to collect it from you in turn. Will you give it to him? I didn't want to. I was given the chance to challenge him instead, and I took it.
I lost. But as soon as I'm done writing this, I intend to try again.
Super Space Rogues...- is a simple and straightforward action roguelike in space.
- has enough random battles to fight and upgrades to buy to keep you engaged.
- absolutely will not hold your hand.
- provides a surprising level of satisfaction, in part because of that lack of handholding.
- could not have been easy to make in 2 weeks.
This one is Windows only and comes in just under 15MB. Pick it up here.
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3 Replies | 128 Views
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A simulation game about ships gets invaded by pirates |
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Mar 03, 2010 - 8:40 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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Reports are coming in from everywhere that Ubisoft's cruel-mistress-with-a-baton DRM scheme has just been cracked within a day of its first showing by the cracking sceners.
Silent Hunter V, which was only released yesterday for PCs, featured one of the most aggressive anti-piracy measures seen in any game. Players were required to be online at all times in order to play, and connection drops of more than just a few seconds resulted in being booted from the game along with your progress lost.
The cracked game is making its rounds on file-sharing websites and torrents now, and according to the people who released it, all that is required to play is to install the game and copy the crack, thus rendering it a far superior and convenient experience than those who actually paid for the game.
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28 Replies | 437 Views
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Portal Updates: And now we have a new ending |
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Mar 03, 2010 - 6:42 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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Continuing the Oh-my-god-how-long-will-they-fuck-with-us trends, Valve have just released yet another update to the puzzle game with only the following note:
"added valuable asset retrieval."
And what is this asset being retrieved?
Note: The first time the 'party submission position' was mentioned, Glados was apparently sending someone down to collect the subject. Guess the player and the psychotic AI weren't the only ones in Aperture labs.
Rock Paper Shotgun.
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81 Replies | 1,033 Views
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Just Cause 2 : PC Exclusive Eye Candy |
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Mar 03, 2010 - 2:13 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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If you've read the interview, you'll know that Avalanche's approach to the PC version of their upcoming game Just Cause 2 is to provide the best possible performance/eye candy ratio for PC players who are sour over the crappy ports we've seen in the past. Nvidia and Avalanche have just released a new trailer showing off some of the graphical improvements made to the PC version, which is listed in big fat jibberish below:- Enhanced DirectX10 and 10.1 render path
- Support for 32Bit and 64Bit Windows 7 and Vista
- Optimized for Dual and Quad Core Processors
- Certified for Nvidia 3D Vision (Not available on console)
- Support for Window and Full Screen modes
- Enhanced for SLi
- Enhanced for Crossfire
- Enhanced for multi-screen setup (Not available on console)
- Enhanced GPU Water effect for Nvidia Systems (Not available on console)
- Enhanced Bokeh filter for Nvidia Systems (Not available on console)
- Increased detail setting (Not available on console)
- Soft Shadows (Not available on console)
- Soft Particles (Not available on console)
- Point Specular (Not available on console)
- SSAO (Not available on console)
- Benchmark Mode (Not available on console)
- DLC support via Steamworks
- Achievements via Steamworks
- Auto patching via Steamworks
View the HD trailer here at VE3D.
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47 Replies | 508 Views
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Total Annihilation On Impulse |
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Mar 03, 2010 - 2:07 PM - by Nick 'Telefrog' Diamon
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Stardock just announced that Cavedog's classic RTS, Total Annihilation, is now exclusively available through Impulse!
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Stardock is handling the support for Total Annihilation directly and includes a new launcher that helps automatically configure the game for modern systems, streamlines getting multiplayer games going and includes easy access to tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.
As part of Stardock's support for the game, it will be releasing subsequent updates (with Atari's permission) to further streamline multiplayer, incorporate Impulse Reactor and work with fan sites to incorporate new content into the "official" release. It will also be further enhancing the release to prepare it for eventual availability on other digital distributors.
The package includes Total Annihilation + Core Contingency as a single integrated package.
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24 Replies | 282 Views
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R.U.S.E. Open Beta Starting Soon |
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Mar 03, 2010 - 2:06 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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Ubisoft's R.U.S.E. has been a long time coming. After numerous delays, the developers have finally announced that a PC open beta will be commencing soon:
Quote:
We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that a R.U.S.E. PC Public Beta will be available on Steam on March 9th ! It will be available to all gamers with no need of a Steam key to activate it.
Following the VIP Beta in December, we made numerous major improvements based on players’ feedback and we cannot wait for you to get your hands on the game again! Until there, you can watch what major improvements were made following community requests in this video made for the occasion.
And please stay tuned as more details will follow regarding the content available, the recommended PC configuration, and other nice surprises..!
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No word yet on whether this game will contain the best DRM in the world. *cough*
VE3D
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1 Reply | 66 Views
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Just Cause 2 PC Interview. DX10 Justified? |
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Mar 02, 2010 - 12:08 PM - by Harris 'H.Bogard' Sid
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VE3D has an interview up with Mike Oldman of Square-Enix who reveals a lot of info about the PC version of the game, including the system requirements, the perks of DX10 only rendering and the PC exclusive improvements in the game.
Select excerpts:
Quote:
First up, is Just Cause 2 on PC a port, or was it developed simultaneously alongside the console versions? What separates Just Cause 2 on PC from all the other poorly-made conversions? (I'm looking at you, Force Unleashed...)
The PC version is absolutely not a port. This was a conscious decision early on and has meant that the PC version has been developed in parallel with the consoles as a project in its own right. We wanted to support and reward PC gamers who have stuck with the platform and upgraded their software and hardware to the latest specification.
Has the Avalanche Engine reached the limit of its potential, or are you held back by the consoles at this time? Did you have to trade ambition for practicality when designing Just Cause 2, or were you able to easily separate and disable on consoles the additional niceties you've already mentioned?
You always have to trade ambition for practicality when creating a game as large and as complex as Just Cause 2. One of the first decisions we had to make was whether to support DirectX9 or build the game from the ground up for DirectX10. This was a tough decision, but to make it clear, there is a reason why we chose not to support DX9, and that was to achieve a higher constant performance across a greater number of systems at higher resolutions.
Just Cause 2 features an almost infinite draw distance - and unlike a lot of other games allows you to be on the ground one moment and then 1000 meters up in the air in the next - the engine has to be capable of drawing vast amounts of detail, as well as running an extremely complex physics model for the world.
We do appreciate that there are a lot of DX9 systems out there, but what you have to ask yourself is how many of them could run the game well? What we wanted to avoid is people investing in the game and then getting 5-10fps, or having to turn off so many features that the game looked poor. Just Cause 2 is one of the most beautiful looking games out there and it’s high octane action orientated gameplay requires a frame rate to match.
We have added several additional features for the PC version, such as the option to run the environment at a much higher level of detail and provide the ability for soft shadows and particles. We exploit the latest hardware with faster performance on multi-core processors, and optimizations for features like multi-GPU’s.
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The game will also fully support AMD/ATI's Eyefinity and Nvidia's 3D vision out of the box, as well as achievements and DLC on Steam.
The best part? Steam is going to be the only DRM that the game uses. You can read the full interview at VE3D here.
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0 Replies | 118 Views
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