Battles in Ni No Kuni are mostly real time. I say mostly because there’s a moment at the beginning of each battle when the game pauses to let you choose your first target. After that, it’s a bit of controlled chaos as familiars attack monsters, monsters attack familiars, and Esther undoubtedly goes down. Oh, Esther. Maybe next time use one of those healing tears on yourself.
After the jump, glims make all the difference. Continue reading →
Independent games Elementary, My Dear Holmes and Gridiron Thunder have come under fire for having questionable Kickstarter results. Both games are early successes of Ouya’s Free the Games project which promises to match crowd-sourced funding as long as the developers agree to give the Ouya console a six-month period of exclusivity. Polygon reports that because of odd Kickstarter results, the games’ campaigns are being called into question.
In the case of Elementary, My Dear Holmes, some backers noticed that a large number of pledges were coming from first-time Kickstarter accounts with suspiciously similar celebrity names and celebrity user images. (Many of these accounts’ profile pictures and names have been subsequently changed.) Developer Victory Square Games acknowledged that it looked odd and subsequently posted the response they received from Kickstarter when they asked about the suspicious accounts.
“If you’d like to know more about backers who have found your project, you can always take a look at their profile to get a better feel for them. It’s very possible that these first-time backers have found your project through your outreach, or just by browsing Kickstarter – I wouldn’t be surprised if Sherlock Holmes fans had a way of sleuthing these things out! And of course, if needed, you’re also welcome to message any backers who you’d like to know better, if you really have hesitations about their pledge.”
In Gridiron Thunder‘s case, while the Kickstarter accounts don’t seem obviously suspicious, the amounts donated do. As Kicktraq shows, the project only has 141 backers with an average of $556 pledged per backer with nine days to go before closing the campaign which is extraordinary. The daily results also have some suspicious spikes in donations. MogoTXT CEO Andy Won says the accusation that they may have gamed the system to have a successful Kickstarter is false.
“We have done nothing wrong,” said Won. “And we are about to roll out an awesome title for the Ouya. We are just a hardworking game development firm.”
Ouya has refused to comment in either case.
Microsoft’s Xbox One console will only support full voice commands in five launch countries. A large part of the Xbox One’s value proposition is that you’ll be able to use the new and improved Kinect to tell your console what to do. Don’t fumble with the controller like a caveman! Speak to your console and tell it what to do! “Xbox on!” Unfortunately, according to new information posted on the Get the Facts page for Xbox One, not all gamers can expect to do that at launch.
Xbox voice commands will not be available in all markets on the product release date. Voice commands will be available at launch in US, UK, CA, FR, and DE.
Albert Penello, Microsoft’s Director of Product Planning, tried to clarify the notice with a post on NeoGAF. Apparently, the notice only applies to full voice functionality. Out of the 13 launch territories, some voice commands will work in 10 of them, while only the five listed will be able to use all planned Kinect functionality.
“Turns out the answer to this question is…complicated. It’s been an education for me as I’ve been looking into it.”
“There is no way that I could do justice to it in a post, so the marketing team is working on a chart that gives clarity on what locales, languages, and voice features are available in each country. Trying to write it down would be confusing. Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation.”
The 13 launch territories are Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
Natural Selection 2 just got updated with the free Reinforced Expansion and developer Unknown Worlds would like the community to help recoup the cost of producing it. The free DLC adds female Marines, new weapons, Linux support, a much-needed single player tutorial, a Commander tutorial, practice bots, and a lot more. In all, Unknown Worlds says the cost of making that content was about $500K. To keep the update free, they’ve turned to the community for support.
“We are also immensely proud that Reinforced is free. Six months of game development is not cheap, and we have often discussed how we might continue to pay for keeping the studio focused on Natural Selection 2 full time. Various options were discussed – Including making Reinforced a separate Steam DLC, or introducing in-game micro-tran$actions. But these monetisation methods do not fit with our culture. Knowing we must pay the bills to keep the lights on, we decided to introduce the Reinforcement Program.”
The voluntary Reinforcement Program allows players to donate money to Unknown Worlds. Like a Kickstarter, there are tiers of membership that offer various goodies, up to a “Game Director” level that includes flying out to San Francisco to hang out with the developers.
Natural Selection 2 is 75% off this weekend on Steam and is also free to try for the duration of the sale.
Dragon’s Crown sure is beautiful. That’s not really saying much when you talk about a videogame these days, where graphics quality is so often praised regardless of artwork. As long as the tank, dragon, or space marine is anti-aliased, some yahoo is going to call it out for “jaw-dropping” graphics. But Dragon’s Crown is artwork at its best and most distinctive. It is beautiful in a unique hyperstylized hyperdetailed hyperexaggerated way all too rare among the usual hypersexualized videogames. Sure, it’s unashamed of its breast physics and its outrageous ass swaying and the way some of its women sprawl as if they were posing for a Hustler photoshoot (you’ve never seen a wounded nun/cleric laid low quite like the one you’ll see in Dragon’s Crown and after the jump). That’s not all there is to this action RPG for the PS3 and the Vita, but it’s definitely a part of its identity. You should probably go complain about it at the same place where people who’ve never read Heavy Metal complain about Catwoman being called a bitch.
But more importantly, this is one of those game where you won’t mistake the screenshots for any other game. Visually, Dragon’s Crown has one hell of a distinctive identity. Which is exactly what it doesn’t have in terms of the gameplay.
After the jump, you’ve been here before. Many times. Continue reading →
America’s Army: Proving Grounds, the controversial free game and recruiting advertisement, from the United States Army launches today on Steam. It’s got all your multiplyer hoo-rah military shooting and running, but sponsored by an actual armed force. Executive Producer Randy King told Polygon that the game features a return to the basics of the project. Mainly, the game needs to be fun to play while depicting sound tactics and realistic equipment.
“One of the things that influences the teamwork is how lethal you are,” Roberts said. “Positioning is the ultimate dominant strategy. In order to do that, you need to be talking to each other because there’s not a big accuracy cone like in Call of Duty where you can circle strafe and somebody goes down. You can put a reticle on someone to take them down, but positioning matters more.”
As with previous America’s Army games, Proving Grounds is 100% free, with no microtransactions or in-app purchases. You’ll just have to put up with a few recruiting pitches to actually give up a few years of your life for military service – possibly in hostile territory. How’s that cosmetic DLC looking now?
Just like last time, Gearbox Software has released a short film that sets up a DLC to Borderlands 2. I’m not sure why they release these so long after the DLC comes out, but better late than never, I guess. This video shows how Tiny Tina started the Bunkers & Badasses scenario in her Assault on Dragon Keep DLC. It’s a story of triumph during adversity. And punching. Lots of punching.
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick explain why Saints Row IV is the greatest game of all time. Which you might not understand if you haven’t played it. We’ll try not to spoil it too much.
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There’s nothing quite like getting blindsided by a new release. The Wonderful 101 is the latest from Platinum Games, the folks who made Bayonetta, Vanquish, and that weird recent Metal Gear game where the albino cyborg slices up watermelons and whatnot. Wonderful 101, which comes out in North America on September 15, is exclusive to the Wii U for some very particular control reasons, including using the touchscreen for gesture controls, playing interior areas on the gamepad while you watch what’s happening outdoors on the big screen, and five-player coop where everyone else has to waggle a Wiimote. You do have a Wii U, right?
After the jump, the best reason since Lego City Undercover for a Wii U Continue reading →
Nintendo announced the 2DS today. It’s sort of like the hand-held 3DS except it doesn’t do the 3D part. It also doesn’t have the familiar DS hinge in the middle. The 2DS comes in what Nintendo calls a “slate” form factor. The 2DS will be compatible with all DS and 3DS games, sans the 3D of course. The system will come with a 4GB SD card for storage. Curiously, the 2DS does have the front-facing cameras like the 3DS so it can take stereoscopic pictures for eventual transfer and viewing on a 3D system. Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aime, said that the device is not aimed at the hardcore gamer.
“We definitely believe there are consumers looking for value in handheld devices. We have always thought about the entry-level consumer.”
The Nintendo 2DS will launch on October 12th in North America for $129.99.
Valve announced that they have approved 100 games for sale on Steam through their Greenlight program. This brings the total number of independent games greenlit on Steam to 260.
This latest milestone is both a celebration of the progress we’ve made behind the scenes and a stress test of our systems. Future batches are not likely to be as large, but if everything goes smoothly we should be able to continue increasing the throughput of games from Greenlight to the Steam store.
The full list of games can be found here. It includes Quarter to Three forum favorites Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, Dominions 3, and Warmachine: Tactics.
Electronic Arts’ Peter Moore wants to clarify some statements that were reported from Gamescom. Moore had said that EA won’t “deliver offline experiences anymore” and that we can expect free-to-play versions of “every major franchise.” While Moore says this is essentially true, he does clarify in a blog post that EA will continue to make games that do not require a connection.
What that does NOT mean is that every game we ship will require an online connection. Many, if not most, of our games include single-player, offline modes that you can play entirely without an Internet connection, if you so choose. We know that’s something many of our players want, and we will continue to deliver it.
Moore wrote that leaderboards, sharing stats, and achievements are examples of online features.
In other EA news, SimCity recently received Update 7 which allows manually raising and lowering of roads and comes with some traffic behavior tuning. There’s still no offline mode, so maybe it’s not something that “players want” from EA.
If you purchase Xbox One exclusive Day One edition games at launch, you’ll get more stuff. Microsoft’s Major Nelson has posted some information regarding the special Day One bonus content offered with Forza 5, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Dead Rising 3.
To commemorate the launch of Xbox One, Day One Editions are special game SKUS that include exclusive content and are available only through retail pre-order while supplies last, or via download on Xbox Live the first two weeks after launch.
Forza 5 Day One will come with three exclusive cars – the 2010 Audi TT RS Coupe, 2013 Ford Focus ST, and the 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. (My sources tell me that’s some kind of spaceship.) Ryse: Son of Rome Day One will come with a special map for use with its co-op Gladiator Mode. Players will also get an exclusive Legionnaire’s Trust sword. Finally, Dead Rising 3 Day One will come with outfits from previous Dead Rising games to make your character dress like heroes Chuck Greene or Frank West.
Waiting too long means you’ll have to play the regular versions of these games with less cars, outfits, and swords. You don’t want your buddy to have more stuff than you, right? What if he has more digital bits? Crossing the finish line first won’t be as sweet without Lamborghini model #43 in your garage!
Contrary to what Tom Chick thinks, you really don’t need all those words to review a game. And you don’t need a five-star rating system either. You don’t even have to play the darn things. Allow me to demonstrate with the games of this past summer.
After the jump, someone get Metacritic on the horn Continue reading →
It’s pretty clear that Capcom and developer Spark have no idea why those of us who liked Lost Planet 2 liked Lost Planet 2. So they have instead decided to tell a linear story (side quests excepted) about blue collar busywork along the corridors of Hoth. The busywork — I presume this will become shooting at some point — apparently stretches over fifty years, because the game opens with an eighty year old man pinned in rubble reminiscing about stuff that happened fifty years ago, at which point you’re playing Lost Planet 3. While I’ve been chipping ice off things, unsticking frozen valves, and enduring the three loading screens it takes to get to the guy who gives me the quest to kill 20 spiders, I’ve been pondering why Lost Planet 3 has the hero it has (pictured). What went into the thinking for a character design like that? How does a game made by a developer here in the Valley and published by a company in Japan settle on that dude? Then it hit me:
He’s a combination of Toshiro Mifune and Nicolas Cage! He’s the uncanny marriage of Hollywood and Japan. Kurosawa would be proud. Or creeped out.
