This week we see the latest movie in which Paul Walker and Vin Deisel and some other people blatantly disregard traffic laws. We also discuss whether Dwayne Johnson is a better actor than Harrison Ford. At the 48-minute mark, this week’s 3×3 considers our favorite moments of compassion in movies.
Next week: After Earth
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This is the video that was found at the center of Curiosity, the experimental game from Peter Molyneux. The winner agreed to share the video so everyone could see what was there after all the cublets were destroyed. It’s a pocket-sized Peter Molyneux! Perfect for putting into your Pokedex.
Whew! I guess we can all move on with our lives now.
Reus reminds me a lot of SimCity Societies in that it’s about fitting together distinct imaginative pieces into a functioning whole. In the case of SimCity Societies, the pieces are buildings, of course. Each building has unique properties, feeding into and feeding off the city in different ways. But in Reus, the pieces are plants, animals, and minerals. And not the usual wheat, deer, and iron. Reus is full of weirdly specific things like dandelions, stoats, and topaz, each with very different characteristics, each interacting with other bits in sometimes intuitive, sometimes strange, sometimes surprising, and almost always delightful ways. You could have guessed that foxes like having chickens around. But did you know that gold is less valuable as there are more gold mines on the planet? Did you know that aloe vera’s medicinal power gives you extra technology for nearby animals? Or that some banks really groove on chili peppers? Or that the prized prey variant of the market pays considerably more for dangerous predators?
After the jump, the ecology of Reus is nothing if not unique Continue reading →
There must be some demand for ports of these arcade cabinet games from the 80s, right? Otherwise, Capcom wouldn’t be selling them in bundles of three on Xbox Live and the Playstation Store, carefully arranging the familiar with the “what the heck is that one?”. And now you can buy all fifteen games for $30. That’s got to be a good deal for someone, somewhere.
I’ve tried a few of these ports, and I appreciate the retro atmosphere around the edges of the screen. But in 2013, I just don’t understand the appeal of the actual games. Knowing what I know now, having played great modern games, I break out in a cold sweat imagining what sheer hell it would be to have only these to play. Can you imagine whiling away the hours with Ghosts n’ Goblins or 1943 or Contra, with those tinny electronic squakings reverberating in your head, jerking a stubby joystick left and right and left, slapping one or two buttons, seeing the game over screen after losing three lives with a nary a checkpoint to be seen. I’m in hell. I can’t take it anymore! Make it stop!
Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will soon have official community moderation via the Overwatch program. Overwatch Investigators will be presented with a randomly selected eight-round segment of in-game action showing an accused player after enough complaints have been lodged by other CS:GO players or if there is a sudden spike in complaints. The Overwatch Investigators will then vote on an outcome and the tally determines the action taken.
If the system determines that the investigators’ collective judgment converges on an overwhelming verdict, then the case will be closed and all decisions rendered on the case will determine the final verdict. If the verdicts are overwhelmingly “Insufficient Evidence” or are inconclusive, the case will be thrown out.
Players with few or no negative reports can wind up submitted to the review process by appearing in a previously judged gameplay segment. These cases are randomly inserted into the case load to help evaluate the investigators. In these test cases, the voting outcome will not result in any actions.
Investigators are subject to grading based on their voting habits. Accurate votes, determined by siding with the majority, result in a higher score for the investigator. Higher scoring investigators will have more weight in the voting process. Overwatch Investigators will be drawn from the community of players based on their experience and other factors.
Every once in a while a game concept comes along that makes you pause and say, “Well, that’s different!” Shelter is one of those games. The player takes on the role of a mother badger protecting her litter from all manner of dangers while foraging for food and trying to survive. I’d say that’s a concept that seems pretty far removed from the endless parade of games with military men shooting at each other.
As the mother of a litter of cubs you are forced out from familiar and safe surroundings to find new shelter in a beautiful, but dangerous world. The harsh reality of nature plays a pivotal role in the game whilst at the same time Shelter aims to pay a homage to the great outdoors and all its imposing beauty.
Might and Delight, makers of Pid and Bionic Commando: Rearmed, say that Shelter “focuses heavily on creating attachment” to the spunky band of badgers. It is currently on Steam Greenlight gathering votes for approval.
Codemasters has revealed the GRID 2 Mono Edition that comes with a real BAC Mono supercar with an exclusive GRID 2 livery. The purchaser of the Mono Edition will get a tour of the BAC factory, so the car can be customized to their size and specifications. A helmet and racing suit (including gloves) are thoughtfully included. All for only $188,700.
The BAC Mono is a British manufactured, road-legal, ultra-high performance supercar which stars in the game. Created from high-strength carbon fibre, the BAC Mono is an unrivalled example of light-weight performance engineering and its 2.3 litre, 280 bhp four cylinder power plant will propel its driver from 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds. It looks incredible, the acceleration is ridiculous and we absolutely love it.
You’ll also get a copy of the game as well as a PS3 to play it on.
The Wall Street Journal revealed that Atari will sell off its game properties individually in an auction in July after it failed to find a bidder for their entire catalog. The publisher is seeking a minimum of $22.2 million in total bids in order to pay its debts.
Game properties that will go up for auction include the Rollercoaster Tycoon, Test Drive, and Total Annihilation franchises. The Rollercoaster Tycoon lot is going for a minimum of $3.5 million. If you can’t afford that, perhaps the Total Annihilation series is a better fit for your budget at a bargain $250K?
Atari originally filed for bankruptcy protection in January.
Sam Lake, Remedy Entertainment’s creative director, wants Alan Wake fans to know that they would love to make a full sequel to the 2010 horror game, but that the game’s original sales just didn’t support the development of a full-fledged installment. Although the game did eventually sell over 3 million copies, the revenue didn’t come in fast enough. Sam Lake also takes a bit of time to pitch the Alan Wake Humble Bundle which lets people pay what they want for both Alan Wake and American Nightmares games along with a load of goodies like a soundtrack and an art book.
You’ll be able to look forward to Remedy’s new game, Quantum Break, that was revealed during the Microsoft Xbox One reveal event. The new game features a live action show merged with a videogame.
This week, Toddler Taxonomist developer Clay Heaton joins us to talk about how such long Latin words found their way into his kid’s game and the unlikely name for his Rogue-like currently in development. We also talk about first-person tower defense game Santcum 2, god game Reus, and space exploration sandbox Kerbal Space Program. Plus a recap of Microsoft’s new console and dog announcement.
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You know the early stages of a new game, when you’re trundling along, hoping that it won’t do something wrong and reveal that it is, in fact, a bad game? You’re basically muttering to yourself, over and over, pleasedon’tstartsucking, pleasedon’tstartsucking, pleasedon’tstartsucking, pleasedon’tstartsucking. That’s where I am now with Van Helsing, an action RPG from a small studio with middling to big ideas, but since they’re still a small studio, the game only has one class instead of five. The class is a Van Helsing with his feisty ghost wench as a sidekick. Her idle animation is basically struggling to keep herself in her, uh, whatever you call the top part of one of those old timey dresses.
Fortunately, it hasn’t started sucking yet. I’ve already been through about three or four things that could have sucked. And I felt like I was in good hands early on.
After the jump, getting the first impression right Continue reading →
Fans of 2011’s Mortal Kombat will finally be able to play the fatal fighter on their Windows PCs in July! The Komplete Edition will come with all the previously released console DLC including Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and Freddy Krueger. All the “klassic” skins and fatalities will be added as well.
Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition for PC features dynamic gameplay including Tag Team, Challenge Tower and a full feature length story mode. Players choose from an extensive lineup of the game’s iconic warriors and challenge their friends in traditional 1 vs. 1 matches, or gamers can spectate battles and interact directly with Kombatants online during the King of the Hill mode. The game supports the Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition Fight Stick and delivers full controller capability. Players will also be able to access achievements and leaderboard stats.
The game was originally made by NetherRealm Studios, but the PC port is being developed by High Voltage Software who created The Conduit and Conduit 2.
Although I’m a sucker for the “just add zombies” approach to game design, I’m not sold on its viability for boardgaming. I know there are some co-op zombie games. But I’m over co-op boardgaming that doesn’t have some sort of traitor gimmick. There are probably even games that stick some poor sod with the role of zombiemaster. But I was convinced zombies aren’t a good subject for boardgaming.
And then I played Dawn of the Zeds and realized I was dead wrong. Victory Point Games has done a dead-on job of expressing zombie mythology, and they’ve furthermore done it in a solitaire game, so I don’t even have to press my friends into service.
After the jump, when there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the tabletop Continue reading →
I show 13 hours on Steam’s “time played” entry for Metro Last Light. To some folks, this is short. To me, it’s exactly how long developer 4A needed to tell Artyom’s story. But to 4A, it’s not the whole story. Today, they announced four sets of DLC will be released over the summer, all available as part of a $15 season’s pass.
The Faction Pack and the Chronicles Pack will include new, original single player gameplay that expands on the Metro: Last Light universe and story. The Tower Pack will present a unique solo challenge to Metro veterans… The Developer Pack will give creative players some interesting tools with which to explore the world of Metro.
Artyom’s story may have been concluded in Metro: Last Light, but there are other characters with stories to tell, some familiar locations that fans of the Metro series wanted to revisit, and some new challenges that 4A wanted to explore.
Here’s hoping for a storyline featuring the Venice fisherman with the boat, the crazy hat, the cigarette, and the box of dynamite. I liked that guy. Plus, I owe him a blood debt.
Microsoft’s new Xbox One console will not differentiate between indie, arcade, or big-budget games. According to an Eurogamer interview with Phil Harrison, there will be no special channels for indie games on the new console.
Eurogamer: So no Xbox Live Arcade, no Xbox Live Indie Games – just games?
Phil Harrison: Just games, right. Search, recommendation, what your friends are playing, game DVR – these all go to helping you discover the games you want to play, so I think we solve fantastically some of the challenges that independent developers face, particularly around discovery and connecting their game to an audience, by some of the platform features we have in the machine itself.
Eurogamer: It does sound more elegant, but I think one of the functions of Xbox Live Arcade and the Indie Games channel was to give undue prominence to those things within the 360 ecosystem; for a game like Geometry Wars to be front and centre when actually, most of your install base would be more interested in Call of Duty day to day – isn’t that something you’re losing?
Phil Harrison: No, no, not at all. We don’t give that up – we don’t give up the ability to put a spotlight on the products that we think are going to be exciting to our user base, but in addition to that, what your friends are playing, what other people think is hot in your area, your country, your continent, will propagate up the most interesting and exciting games.
Additionally, ShackNews reports that self-published Arcade games will not be happening on the new console. In contrast, Sony’s PS4 will have a self-publishing program that will allow smaller developers to get their games on the system without going through a known publisher. The Nintendo Wii U already has a program running through their eShop.
The Xbox Live Indie Games and Arcade programs have been the targets of some well-deserved complaints amongst developers lately because of bureaucratic hoops, patch expenses, and discoverability issues in the Xbox menu. The issues have been egregious enough to make some studios swear off the service entirely opting for more friendly venues like Steam. The Xbox One appears to make the situation worse for smaller budget games.
