If you thought Prometheus would have been better with a small budget, Last Days on Mars is the movie for you. Mars here is played by Jordan, which doesn’t look much different from Arizona. The landscapes look as if there might be a 7-11 if you just panned the camera a few degrees to the right. As a story, this goes exactly where you think it’s going to go (check out Europa Report for a space adventure with a real sense of mystery). At times, Last Days on Mars teases at a space horror romp on par with a Dead Space videogame, but it doesn’t have the stomach or R-rating for anything too visceral. So there’s a lot of running away from stuff, a lot of yelling about “what are we going to do?”, a lot of crawling through the inexplicable tunnels under this pre-fab Mars base, and a lot of supposedly smart astronauts doing stupid things to draw out the plot.
What’s most horrific is that it features a few actors who are good enough to know better. Sure, I get that Liev Schreiber, star of the Omen remake, would agree to phone in a laconic leading man performance. But how do you explain Elias Koteas, Olivia Williams, and Johnny Harris (see the brilliant London to Brighton and the middling Welcome to the Punch if you need any convincing about Harris)? Oh my. The production design is moderately nifty, if not awfully spacious. And I sure do like their Mars trucks. But it’s no Moon. And it’s ultimately a pretty pointless exercise in poorly done horror. Does Mars really need zombies?
Last Days on Mars is available now for video on demand. Watch it on Amazon.com to support Qt3.
Stardock has announced a new DLC pack for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. The Stellar Phenomena pack adds 11 random events to the game to change up the battlefield.
Stars launch volatile gases that shut down orbital operations, mobile storms wreak havoc across the solar system, and conquered factions sense your weakness and seek to reclaim their worlds.
Volatile gases! Mobile storms! Let’s see those dirty space pirates find me now!
Forza 5 launches on the Xbox One with over 200 cars in its roster as well as 16 tracks. Turn 10 announced that for $49.99, gamers can pick up a Season Pass that will give them six monthly DLC packs of 10 additional cars each. Even with those extra cars, the list of cars and tracks in Forza 5 is about half as long as its predecessor. Notably, Nurburgring is one of the missing venues. Forza 4 shipped with 26 tracks and over 500 cars. Eurogamer asked Dan Greenawalt of Turn 10 why the next-gen game ships with less content than the previous installment.
“We’re looking at laser scanning of everything moving forward – that’s what it comes down to. We want that to be the standard for next-generation. Our goal’s not to carry old content over – and even with all the cars, we did the same process. There were some inaccuracies, and some cars were old-spec that we’d updated from Forza 2 to 3 to 4. But they didn’t have the poly count where we wanted it – and they weren’t as easy to up-res, so we just recaptured them. Some of them, the spec was good and we could add polygons where we needed them. So it came down to this rating system – and any track or car that wasn’t an A grade got either chucked or recaptured.”
Greenawalt mentioned that additional DLC tracks may also be coming. Forza 5 launches on November 22nd.
The latest update for Secret World, dubbed Issue #8, is out tomorrow. But even if you don’t buy the $10 add-on to this ridiculously generous free-to-play MMO, you’re still getting a lot from Issue #8. First up are augments, which is a layer of customization added to the skill system. The core of Secret World is a set of skills based on your choice of two weapons. Do you want a sword and pistols? Or are you more of a shotgun and blood magic guy? Every weapon has a huge set of skills, and you can mix and match freely from whichever two weapons you equip. Last year, starting with a rocket launcher, an auxiliary weapon slot was added so you could complement your fighting style with stuff like flamethrowers or chainsaws. I’m currently leveling up my whip. Now here comes the augment system as a whole other set of skills based on crafting, upgrading, and applying tweaks to your active skills. They’re like gems in Diablo or Path of Exile. If you thought the skill system in Secret World was detailed, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This is all endgame content, so it’s not going to be dropped in your lap when you start playing. But even for us active players, the augment system is simultaneously daunting and thrilling.
So how do you get these augments? By playing scenarios. And what are scenarios? They’re randomized missions run in the Venetian Council’s virtual mission simulator. Each scenario consists of three waves of random enemies attacking clusters of survivors, with a boss and a special event between each wave. During a demo today, our group’s events were traitors (some of the survivors opened fire on the other survivors) and a supply drop of special weapons crates (one of which contained a rude surprise in the form of an unfriendly golem). Our first boss was an experimental zombie hulk. The second was a very angry undead bear (pictured).
As you fight, the monsters drop augments and the bosses will drop particularly choice augments (at this point, the scenarios are the only place you can get augments). There are three maps, each playable in a variety of difficulty levels and set for solo players, pairs, or full groups of five. One map is freely available to all players; the other two are reserved for folks who purchase Issue #8. The basic gameplay model — defending survivors from three waves of attackers — is consistent on all the maps, but Funcom has plans to add new modes and new random events. There are tentative plans for later maps based on getting across an area with a minimum threat level (I hesitate to call it stealth, but the model is the sabotage missions already in the game) and escape scenarios similar to the snowmobile sequence in the Issue #7. I haven’t played that yet. I’m too busy leveling up my whip to gad about on a snowmobile. But I’m never too busy for randomized horde modes. The scheduled time — fingers crossed — for Issue #8 to go live is tomorrow morning.
Microsoft is giving away unlock codes for Killer Instinct to select individuals. The code emails are going out to Xbox Live members based on a combination of factors such as overall Gamerscore, community involvement, and Xbox Live tenure.
“We wouldn’t be here without you, and we know you’ll do amazing things on Xbox One. Thank you from Xbox Live.”
The codes unlock all the characters for Killer Instinct on the Xbox One, which would normally cost $19.99 for the bundle. The game will be free-to-play with Jago unlocked for everyone at the start.
The skies are dark and menacing. It’s the type of storm you can feel well before it reaches you. With the salty, sea air stinging my body and whipping my cloak about me, I turn the wheel and head into the storm.
After the jump, the sea was angry that day my friends Continue reading →
Call of Duty: Ghosts is out now on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. (Read Tom’s review here.) Exclusive DLC periods aside, they’re essentially identical. Control the soldier-killing dog through stealth sections, have a shoot-out in space, level up your multiplayer character. On the next-gen consoles, it’s another matter. Ghosts is rendered and output from Sony’s PlayStation 4 at 1080p, but only rendered at 720p and upscaled to 1080p on Microsoft’s Xbox One. There’s been a lot of speculation about what this means for future games in the next generation, but most of it has been answered with pure hokum dictated by the console manufacturers, as in this IGN interview with Mark Rubin of Infinity Ward.
“There’s no maliciousness, there’s no specific reason why one’s 720p, one’s 1080p. That’s just the way the optimisation came out to. To keep a smooth frame rate we needed to be 720p on Xbox One. That being said, it is being upscaled to 1080p, so it is outputting 1080p on your TV, and for the most part the game does look really good. Some people actually think the textures look a little bit nicer maybe on Xbox than they do on PS4.”
We’re getting closer to the truth in this Metro interview, but Mark Rubin puts his game face on and remains steadfast. He does let slip that he can’t tell journalists which console is more powerful because of non-disclosure agreements, but he can say that he disagrees with the idea that they’re equal:
GC: So when John Carmack and Shinji Mikami say the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are almost identical, is that something you could agree with?
MR: Hmm… I would say that’s a bit inaccurate but I wouldn’t be able to tell you any detail of why that’s inaccurate.
GC: For diplomatic reasons?
MR: Yes.
Battlefield 4 has a similar issue. It’s rendered at 900p and upscaled to 1080p on the PS4, but rendered at 720p and output at 1080p on the Xbox One.
Experimental developer Tale of Tales has released their latest game.
In Luxuria Superbia, the player is asked to give pleasure to the game, as much as the game promises pleasure to the player. This starts sensually and physically with cheeky innuendo and playful feedback. As you progress it expands gradually into the ethereal and the euphoric. Luxuria Superbia is a celebration of joy and beauty in life.
More here. Must be 18 or older. Not legal in some states.
Call of Duty isn’t really a game anymore. It is an annual event about a box of games. We should unpack it the way we unpack a new console system, or a care package, or a gift basket. Here is the controller, here are some oatmeal cookies someone made, here is a gift certificate to Burke Williams, here are some little bottles of wine. Wait, I don’t like oatmeal cookies. Oh, these aren’t bottles of wine, they’re wine coolers. Is there a Burke Williams near my house? It can be very confusing. At least I can use this $10 iTunes gift cards.
After the jump, the four faces of this latest Call of Duty.Continue reading →
Polyphony Digital has released new information about Gran Tursimo 6. The full car list is now available as well as the track list. Sharp-eyed fans will note the presence of the “LRV-001 ’71” from the Apollo moon landing on the car list and in the video above. Once you’ve raced on the most challenging tracks in the fastest cars in the Gran Turismo series, why not take some time to plod along in a lunar rover? It’s not clear from the video whether Gran Turismo 6 will allow players to race on the moon, or if the rover will be limited to terrestrial use, but it should make for some hilarious moments either way.
Gran Turismo 6 will be available in North America on December 6th.
The push-your-luck card game Dead Man’s Draw is a smart design smartly themed, even if some of the ruthlessness of the iOS marketplace is drizzled into the design. However, it’s potentially available without any of the iOS trappings via this Kickstarter campaign for a physical deck of actual analog cards. That you can hold in your hands. And shuffle. And scooch around the table. And put in cards sleeves if that’s your thing. Weirdo. I bet you have plastic covers on your furniture. Seriously, don’t be so uptight.
Developer Stardock was kind enough to send along a deck of the physical Dead Man’s Draw cards. As much as I enjoy the iOS version’s leveling up, the time-wasting casualness, and the AI that actually understands the rules, I’ve decided I prefer Dead Man’s Draw as a physical tabletop game played against a friend. In fact, I like how playing with the physical cards doesn’t track your score at every point, unless you’re some sort of card-counting point-calculating savant. On the iOS, you always see the exact score shift at any given moment. While there’s something to be said for this moment-to-moment efficiency — Dead Man’s Draw on the iPad can feel awfully mathy — I prefer it as a seat-of-your-pants game. The score fluctuates so much over the course of a match that you really don’t need to fuss with the counting until it’s all over. Playing on the tabletop is more about the tense uncertainty of the back-and-forth than the careful moment-to-moment optimization.
Of course, I lose a lot, so what do I know? The good news is that a round of Dead Man’s Draw is never going to take longer than ten minutes. At which point you’re shuffling together all those lovely cards again, coolly riffing the unsleeved edges. Just as I prefer the feel of Ascension cards under my fingertips instead of the iPad’s glass, I’ve come to prefer the physical cards in Dead Man’s Draw.
Also, all the unlockables are already unlocked in the tabletop version. The set comes with cards for each character, listing one or more unique skills for players to choose among before the match starts. Some of these seem awfully overpowered. Chez Chick has instituted a house rule that no one is allowed to play Madam Margot’s ability to collect an opponent’s busted cards because are you crazy? How is that fair? The jury’s still out on Black Bonnie and Scurvy Pete.
The physical version of Dead Man’s Draw is currently in the waning days of what looks like a failed Kickstarter campaign. But you can help by ponying up $25 for your own deck with an estimated delivery of March 2014. Otherwise, come on over to my house and we’ll play a round. Just don’t try to pick Madam Margot. Seriously, how is that fair?
Paradox Interactive announced their first expansion for Europa Universalis IV. The Conquest of Paradise will give players a new world to explore – literally. The expansion will generate a “completely randomized” version of America for players to explore and conquer with every new game. Would-be rulers can also play as a Native American or Colonial nation and try to break free of the yoke of the mother country. In the first dev diary, Paradox explained some of the new gameplay.
“With this expansion, your colonies in the Americas will take on a new form; the larger ones will actually become free nations that serve as your colonies. They will have a limited independence and you can get money and trade power from them, but they will also live their own life, colonizing, fighting Native Americans and maybe even rebelling and striving for liberty from their motherland. You can squeeze them hard if you want, but then you might get into trouble down the line (or you can just change sides and play as a colony).”
Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise will launch on December 11th.
The Wii Mini, previously only available in Canada and Europe, is launching in the US this month. The bargain console will hit store shelves on November 17th for $99.99. The system will come bundled with Mario Kart Wii, a red Wii Remote Plus, and red nunchuk controller. Nintendo’s comparison page shows what you’ll get with the Wii Mini. It’s important to note that the console does not have online connectivity and will not play Gamecube games like the Wii.
Nintendo needs to make a tiny bargain-priced DS that is the size of the Gameboy Micro.
State of Decay is one of the best open-world games and one of the best zombie games you can play. If you have an Xbox 360. That all changes on Tuesday, when developer Undead Labs intends to officially release the PC version. If you like open-world games, you won’t want to miss this one. If you like zombie games, you cannot miss this one. It gets certain things about zombie mythology that no one game gets (read my review here and listen to my podcast with designer Richard Foge here). Consider your wallet warned. It’ll be available on Steam for $20.
At high levels of skill, chess takes over an hour to play, requires memorization of solved openings and end-games, and ends in a draw about 60% of the time. How do you fix that? That’s the question Zachary Burns of Ludeme Games and veteran game designer David Sirlin asked. They took on the challenge of changing the rules for chess to reduce draws and the need for memorization while keeping the essential chess-ness. Chess 2: The Sequel is what they came up with. Eurogamer reports that the rules they’ve written can be played with a traditional chess board and pieces, but the game is unabashedly modern. There is another victory condition added to the game that lets a player win if they cross the midline of the field with their king. There are six army rosters with special abilities. Finally, they added duels with a double-blind bidding mechanic. If it sounds unbalanced to you, that’s part of the point.
“I just really like asymmetric games,” Sirlin admits. “After being involved with them for so long, it’s hard for me to play a symmetric game. There’s a richness you get to having several sides or characters to choose from. All the different match-ups, and the specialists that become really good at a certain match-up. The different game dynamics you get from those match-ups are interesting too, giving you different feels when you go up against a different side. A generally good property of asymmetric games is that you only have to learn one side or character in order to participate in all the interesting dynamics of different match-ups. In other words, learning how to adjust your game against different armies is much less work than learning how to be good at your own army. So that’s a good bang for your buck in variety that you get from an asymmetric game. It seemed natural to give chess the asymmetry that we see in other popular games such as Street Fighter, Starcraft, or Magic: the Gathering.”
Although the videogame version of Chess 2 doesn’t launch until later this year, you can play with the rules now using your chess set and the free pdf rules.
