At last, a movie that elevates After Earth, that makes Pacific Rim look like a timeless classic, that marshals the full range of Harrison Ford’s emotive prowess, and that firmly establishes the reputation of X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood. At the 48-minute mark, this week’s 3×3 considers our favorite siblings in movies.
Next week: Thor: The Dark World
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Door Kickers, the top-down, real-time, 2D tactical strategy game from KillHouse Games, just got a boost of legitimacy. BlackFoot Studios has licensed Door Kickers for development into a training tool for real-world use. The Door Kickers: Simulations & Training version of the game will be marketed to police, security forces, and military units as a low-cost close-quarters battle training application focusing on teamwork and tactical movement procedures. John Sonedecker, founder of BlackFoot Studios, explained why they chose Door Kickers as the basis of their product.
“It’s a really clever and easy-to-learn engine, which will run on basically any machine. It gives us the opportunity to develop a product for quick deployment, and it affords our customers the added convenience of easily producing their own modifications and additional content. We’re really excited to deliver the educational simulation tools needed to train today’s warfighters and first responders, to safely execute some of the world’s toughest jobs.”
Door Kickers is available on Steam Early Access.
Microsoft’s Xbox One will have more robust media capabilities than Sony’s PlayStation 4 at launch. In response to the dire news from Sony yesterday, Microsoft told Polygon that the Xbox One console can play audio CDs, and that they are working on getting the console DLNA-certified to support media streaming. The console will not support ripping files from audio CDs or direct MP3 playback, but the system can act as a Play To receiver allowing playback via supported devices like Windows 7 or 8, or a Windows Phone.
Microsoft noted that a monthly subscription to Xbox Music could supply an unlimited stream of songs through the console, mirroring Sony’s suggestion to use their Music Unlimited service. For now, Microsoft’s console looks like it may have the upper hand on playing music via CDs and network streaming.
Game design seems easy when you just imagine it as a series of mechanics with names on them. Shenandoah Studio did so many things right (and almost nothing wrong) with their brilliant Battle of the Bulge iOS game that it might seem trivial to call the Allies the Soviets, draw up a new map, and send the panzers on their way to Moscow. In the world of wargame design, it’s not that easy. The switch from division level to corps/army level, from a two-week campaign to one that lasted two months, and from a battlefield that covered 150 kilometers to one that spanned over 600 kilometers in a single direction, all have the potential to wreak havoc with pacing, balance, and historical accuracy. So while gamers may see it as a quick and easy way to extend a game series, it is in no way a slam dunk.
After the jump, basketball metaphors on the Eastern Front. Continue reading →
Nintendo has suspended Swapnote. In a terse announcement on the news page, Nintendo informed users that the 3DS Swapnote feature was turned off yesterday at 7PM Pacific time, due to inappropriate use.
Nintendo has learned that some consumers, including minors, have been exchanging their friend codes on Internet bulletin boards and then using Swapnote (known as Nintendo Letter Box in other regions) to exchange offensive material. Nintendo has been investigating ways of preventing this and determined it is best to stop the SpotPass feature of Swapnote because it allows direct exchange of photos and was actively misused.
Nintendo added the ability to trade photos to Swapnote in April. Sadly, conducting a Google search for Swapnote results in a distressing number of inappropriate images of Nikki, the application’s animated guide.
This week we welcome Mel Kirk and Bobby Loertscher from Zen Studios to talk virtual pinball. What’s the difference between classical and fantastical tables? What makes a great table great? And, of course, what three Zen pinball tables do you take to a desert island? We wrap it up with a little Wolf Among Us, Torchlight II, and Battlefield 4.
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Hooray gamers! You win again! Ubisoft has decided to end their Uplay Passport program. According to the news posted on the official blog, Ubisoft will immediately discontinue their version of the online pass program and supply free pass codes for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Uplay Passport program gated mutiplayer features behind a paywall if the player had purchased or borrowed a used title.
Games today are blurring the line between offline and online, between what is “single player” and what is “multiplayer.” Based on that and on the feedback we received from you, we recognized that Passport is no longer the best approach for ensuring that all our customers have the best possible experience with all facets of our games.
It was revealed earlier in the week that the Edward’s Fleet feature of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was unavailable to gamers that played the game without the Uplay Passport code. There is no official word on how this decision will impact previous Ubisoft titles that required a Passport code.
Rejoice gamers! The FAA is finally relaxing their rules about passengers not being able to use portable electronic devices in-flight. The Portable Electronics FAQ from the FAA and the official release explains the new guidance. The only restrictions are that you must use devices in “airplane mode,” phones cannot be used for voice communications, and the flight crew can still tell passengers to turn off their electronic items for safety reasons.
At certain times – for example, a landing in reduced visibility – the Captain may tell passengers to turn off their devices to make absolutely sure they don’t interfere with onboard communications and navigation equipment.
It will likely take a few weeks to months for airlines to implement the new rules. Fire up the Gameboys, Vitas, tablets, and 3DS units! Time to crush that candy! Look at the happy gamers in this infographic!
Halloween is here! Silver Shamrock day! Do you know what that means aside from giving candy to kids and dressing as a sexy vampire nurse? It means developers add pumpkin-themed content to games because there’s nothing scarier than orange polygons.
Introversion Software has added a sweet goodie for players of Prison Architect. Build a yard large enough to hold a big group of prisoners at once and you may see them perform a “thrilling” dance. Developer Chris Delay told Eurogamer that they will probably patch it out after the holiday “before we get sued into oblivion.”
League of Legends has kicked off The Harrowing, which features a way to send a random hero skin to a buddy as a gift. Riot Games guarantees that the skin sent will not be a duplicate of something the friend already owns.
Borderlands 2 currently offers TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest DLC which tasks players with finding and killing a Pumpkin Kingpin. It’s short, but it’s filled with Halloween goodness. Kill the pumpkins. Kill them all.
Payday 2, the game that revolves around collecting Halloween masks, starts its Hell to Pay event in-game today. Join the Payday 2 Steam Group and fire up the game to collect the treats! You’ll get an Interceptor 45 handgun, a tactical light for your secondary weapon, and one of four special Halloween masks when you log in. Keep completing jobs and you could unlock the other three masks and six rare patterns as random loot until the event ends on November 4th.
(Click here for part two of the Halloween round-up.)
Tom: Some thing are better left buried. For instance, your recollection of Near Dark as a stylish contemporary Western-themed vampire adventure directed by action auteur Kathryn Bigelow. If that’s how you remember it, hold that thought and watch something else instead.
After the jump, at least they don’t sparkle. Continue reading →
Stardock’s excellent fantasy strategy game, Fallen Enchantress, gets a new undead faction in The Dead World, a $5 pack of downloadable content that adds the Empire of the Dead. You know the drill. These guys are your usual undead empire, with skeletons, spiders, and possessed knights in their armies and a badass spellcasting lich as the head of state. No, not Dick Cheney. But what sets them apart from the other factions in Fallen Enchantress is that they don’t eat. This means when you’re picking the best spots for your city, you don’t have to fuss with the balance between materials and food. Who cares about food when your digestive system is full of holes and maggots? This also means you don’t have to fuss with the usual bakeries, butchers, and breweries in your cites. Let those other empires waste valuable time and resources with agricultural infrastructure. All you need is the occasional graveyard to boost your city’s population limit.
But the drawback is that you only have two ways to grow your cities. The first is by finding death shards. That’s not going to be easy. And until that happens, you grow your cities by killing armies and razing enemy cities. It’s very much like the slaver faction in Fallen Enchantress, but with the added urgency of an entirely stagnant population. The dead may not eat, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hungry.
More on the Dead World DLC here.
Sony has posted the ultimate FAQ for the PlayStation 4 and there’s some disappointing news for media hounds. First, the next-gen console will not work as a client for media servers or have DLNA support for streaming movies from a PC. The system will not play audio CDs. The PS4 does not include a music visualizer feature, so no trippy light shows for your party. The PS4 won’t play MP3 files either. Wait. It won’t play MP3s or audio CDs? How does Sony expect people to play background music on their consoles? What kind of media box is this? Did Sony not get the memo about controlling the living room?
“The Music Unlimited streaming service will allow you to listen to music while you play PS4 games. A subscription to Music Unlimited is required.”
Ah. There’s the kick. Sony wants you to pay for a subscription to their media service.
It’s the day before Halloween and developers continue to add free updates to their games to celebrate the spooky holiday. It’s almost a tradition to add trick-or-treat DLC to games in October to revitalize the community. Want Jack O’ Lanterns? We got plenty!
Croteam has added pumpkin gore and Halloween explosions to the PC version of Serious Sam 3: BFE. I guess headless suicide bombers and giant frog-walking beasts weren’t weird enough.
Valve has kicked off their annual Team Fortress 2 Halloween event with Scream Fortress 2013. There’s new items, a new level called Helltower, and you can cast spells that have been added to everyone’s favorite hat collection game. The update will be live until November 11th.
Funcom’s The Secret World is already horror-themed, so you’d expect Halloween to be something special. Well, nothing is scarier than cats! The Cat God has returned! The Halloween update features ten creepy new Item Missions, festive costumes, and new treats to collect.
Finally, it’s not really spooky or creepy, but fans of Uncharted 3 get a treat from Naughty Dog with the game’s 2-year anniversary. The developer is giving away all multiplayer maps. All the DLC maps, including a new level named Dry Docks, are free to everyone with a copy of Uncharted 3! That’s better than candy!
(Click here for part one of the Halloween round-up.)
Chris: In a clear and steady hand, Harry Angel writes the name and adds a question mark. He underlines it twice. Shortly after, Angel meets the man who belongs to the name. A lawyer pronounces the man’s name clearly, twice even. There’s no mistaking the cadence of the first and last name, and we’ll hear it again before long. The man has a strange appearance. There’s a familiar symbol on his ring. He speaks bemusedly of contracts and collateral. “I have a feeling we’ve met before.” Within 10 minutes we’ve figured out who the man is and we have a good idea of who the detective might be, and what their relationship to one another is.
After the jump, Mephistopheles is such a mouthful in Manhattan. Continue reading →
With the recent release of the Internet Archive Historical Software section, the gaming world has access to some, er, classics that can be emulated straight into a browser. The library isn’t so big right now, but new titles are coming all the time. Looking through the archive, I see some games that could easily qualify for a spooky night of videogaming. In 1982.
After the jump, won’t you take me to spookytown? Continue reading →
