Respawn Entertainment, the studio started by ex-Call of Duty bosses at EA after they split from Activision, will release a game exclusively for the next-gen Xbox according to sources speaking to Kotaku. The game, currently known by the working project title Titan, will be a futuristic shooter that features multiplayer battles with giant mechs and infantry.
While the details of the game came to us from one source – a source who is in a good position to know what the deal is with Respawn’s game – their assertion that the game is destined only for Microsoft console hardware was consistent with information another source gave us earlier this month. That other source had also told us that Respawn’s game would only be for the Xbox brand. It is possible that the game could be a timed exclusive, but neither source indicated that was the case.
Respawn Entertainment’s founders, Vince Zampella and Jason West, had reportedly wanted to make a shooter set in the future when they were in charge of Infinity Ward, but Activision demanded they make more Call of Duty games set in modern times.
IllumiRoom is as close as we’ll get to Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt in my lifetime. It’s one of those wacky proof-of-concept things from Microsoft Research that makes you instantly want it when you see it regardless of the practicality.
There’s an official document, but it’s filled with techncial stuff that makes my head spin. Spatial augmented reality? Radiometric compensation? I just want to shoot stuff and watch the explosions come out of my TV screen and onto my walls. How many souls do I need to sacrifice to make that happen?
Before today, I didn’t know that K-pop was a thing. I’d heard of J-pop. Japanese pop music. But there was Korean pop, pre-Psy? Who knew? Not only do I now know it’s a thing, but I’m dangerously close to actually considering the possibility of maybe looking into the option of perhaps buying Kara’s latest album, Step. Oh, look, it’s $12 on iTunes. Kara is a K-pop group that really took off in Japan, hence their inclusion in a Vita rhythm game called DJ Max Technika Tune, in which I am now level three (3!) at listening to them and watching them prance around glittery stages in cute little costumes. Well, trying to watch, but my finger keeps getting in the way as I poke at the gameplay bits.
There might be other musical artists in DJ Max Technika Tune, but I’m not sure.
Techland has announced Hellraid, a first-person hack & slash game with system generated online challenges. The game can be played in singleplayer, but it sounds like co-op with three other hellraiders may be more fulfilling. Techland has added a points-based rewards ladder to Dead Island style co-op gameplay, which could be exactly what the system needs to mix things up.
Fighting hordes of hellish monsters is far more exciting when you do it with friends. To make it even more satisfying we’ve added an element or coopetition between the players. Each action in the game, be it killing a monster or helping a dying companion, is rewarded with points. The best players will receive special rewards and climb up the leaderboards.
“Coopetition” is a term that I sincerely hope does not catch on. I’m still getting used to freemium and phablet.
Kotaku reports that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15 is “not happening” for any platform and that the decision to cancel the title is part of the strategy implemented after the disasterous earnings results that ended with CEO John Riccitiello’s departure. The game was supposed to have been outsourced to give the in-house development team two years to work on Tiger Woods 16 for next-gen systems, but will instead be skipped entirely to save money.
Relic has announced a new mode to Company of Heroes 2 called Theater of War which consists of additional co-op and singleplayer challenges that will put your real-time abilities to the test. The pack launching with the game is called Theater of War 1941 and will feature nine unique missions each for the German and Soviet sides with units and abilities based on the time period.
Greg Wilson, Producer of Company of Heroes 2, commented, “We get a lot of requests from fans to showcase specific conflicts from the war and it isn’t always possible to fit these into the campaign. Theatre of War gives us the opportunity to deliver these new gameplay experiences to our fans.”
Quinn Duffy, Game Director commented, “Theatre of War acts as a perfect bridge between the game’s single and multiplayer content providing a high level of re-playability and helping to introduce traditionally solo players to the online elements of the game.”
Future packs are planned that will present challenges from later in the conflict.
…Eliza. From developer Lab Zero’s “playstyle speculation” section:
The ultimate attack-from-disadvantage character. Because of her kinship with her [skeletal] parasite, Eliza can control her own blood. Each time she is hit she bleeds, [Mortal Kombat] style, and the blood stays on the stage. Certain specials and supers can then use it.
Uh, eww? Wait, I meant, “Cool!” I think. Whatever’s going on with Eliza, she’s definitely not normal. See Lab Zero’s full-length concept art after the jump to check out assets that would make Portal’s Chell jealous. I can only imagine how she gets around with those!
The next round of voting to determine the fourth and final character in the upcoming Skullgirls DLC should begin shortly. Good luck, Annie and Sagan!
Pirates suck. That’s something we can all agree on. Unless you’re a dirty pirate, of course. Then you’re probably too busy enjoying DRM-free games to notice what other people think of you. Greenheart Games wanted to send a wake-up call to pirates, so they uploaded a “cracked” version of their casual game development game, Game Dev Tycoon, to torrent sharing sites. This version of the game was a bit special. Hours into playing it, pirates found their virtual game development company losing money due to piracy until they went out of business.
Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally.
If players don’t buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt.
Predictably, players of the pirated version of the game took to various forums to complain about the in-game piracy ruining their games. Some even asked if there was a way to research DRM in the game to foil the virtual thieves. Irony unlocked!
Patrick Klug of Greenheart Games posted the results of their experiment one day after they started it. 93.6% of Game Dev Tycoon players were using the pirated version rather than paying $8 to play the game legitimately, or even using the free demo.
If you don’t care about all of this and just want to get a cracked and illegal version then we can’t do anything about that, but if years down the track you wonder why there are no games like these anymore and all you get to play is pay-to-play and social games designed to suck money out of your pockets then the reason will stare back at you in the mirror.
For extra Inception-like zaniness, Game Dev Tycoon is an homage (some say rip-off) of Kairosoft’s mobile game, Game Dev Story. Ride the kick back up the layers!
Nintendo of America is selling refurbished handhelds via their official online store. They come with the same one year warranty as new products and “are guaranteed to be fully functional, but may have minor cosmetic blemishes.” Prices range from $169.98 for a Midnight Purple Nintendo 3DS bundled with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D to $99.99 for a Metallic Rose Nintendo DSi XL.
You can find these used systems selling for cheaper on eBay and other online shops, but they don’t come with a one year warranty from Nintendo, which carries a certain amount of trustworthiness that Llamalover2524 may not have.
In Soul Sacrifice, the Vita action RPG out next week, one of the spells is called Red Fruit of Lust. It creates a life-size poster of a hot nekkid chick with strategically placed hair and a skull. Which seems odd since I was under the impression M-rated games didn’t have to shy away from nipples and pubic hair. Well, okay, maybe they’re not ready for pubic hair, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen nipples in M-rated games. At any rate, it’s all very softcore, but the idea is that monsters will go “Va-va-voom!” while their legs kick up in the air and their eyeballs pop forward out of their skulls. In practice, they just take a few swipes at the poster, but those are swipes they aren’t taking at you.
Not since a Metal Gear Solid game has porn had such gameplay value. Snake used to drop girly magazines to distract guards, but I don’t recall the player every getting to see the contents of the magazines, which might have included nipples and pubic hair. Soul Sacrifice has additional varieties of distractions. There are variations based on food, money, and even hot dudes. The latter is a spell called Blue Fruit of Lust, and it creates a life-size poster of a shirtless dude whose nipples are fully exposed. In many ways, Soul Sacrifice has something for everyone.
Want to play a game about driving a tractor, tending crops, and managing a farm? Apparently, a lot of people do.
Farming Simulator 2013 is consistently in the top 100 games played according to the Steam stats. In fact, it’s sitting just above the newly released Monaco as I write this and previous entries in the series did just as well. Despite being the butt of jokes and a number of too-hip Youtube Let’s Play videos, Giants Studio is doing something right with the Farming Simulator games.
The Penny Arcade Report interviewed Thomas Frey of Giants Studio to take a look at the popularity of this genre of games and examine why they’re so darned popular.
Frey pointed to the steady release of mods and new content from the community as one of the reasons the game keeps its audience so tightly locked in the act of creating farms. There is also the fact that there is no violence to turn off anyone in the audience. The theme is a farm. Some players like the simulation aspect of the game, children like playing with the giant machinery, and yes, farmers like playing the game to talk about farming strategy. A farm is attractive to any number of demographics, and the game’s appeal cuts across age lines as well.
“That makes our player base super large and is why we sold so many copies of the game.”
We have our own gaggle of Euro Truck Simulator 2 fans here on the Quarter to Three forums, which I’d put squarely in the same genre of blue-collar RPG. Maybe I need to tap my inner Old Macdonald and start baling some hay?
Polygon has the latest grist for the Xbox rumor mill today, but along with the normal (and tired) hullabaloo of whether or not the console requires an always-online connection, or allows used games at all, the story pops up a little information that we haven’t seen before. Up until now, no one has talked about the social infrastructure of the next-gen Xbox and what kinds of upgrades or changes we might see.
Video capture of gameplay with sharing and uploading to Youtube, similar to the Playstation 4 feature, is mentioned as well as an unlimited Friends list that functions more like Twitter with users following one another instead of needing two-way approval. The rumored upgrades to Achievements may have Gamerscore addicts going crazy.
With the next Xbox, developers and publishers will be able to add more achievements to a game after launch, without the need to add DLC. This is designed specifically to allow developers to tweak player behavior, perhaps urging players to check out specific areas of a game or get past a difficult spot. Next-gen achievements can also be tied to broader events, like a weekend challenge or a communal goal, like contributing a set number of kills to the bigger goal of 10,000 kills over one weekend. Companies can also create cross-title achievements, like awarding points for finishing the first chapter in two different and unrelated games published by the same company. Some of these bigger, cross-title, communal achievements will be a requirement for all titles.
Microsoft is playing around with cross-platform achievements as well. Ideally, these achievements could be earned by playing a game on the next-gen system and then using a companion app, a website or maybe even by playing a specific game, like a prequel to a next-gen title, on the Xbox 360.
Imagine the possibilities! “Used the Pizza Hut app to order a pizza while playing Halo 5 – 100G” or “Attained Prestige level in 3 consecutive Call of Duty games – 200G.”
It remains to be seen which, if any, of these rumors will prove true on May 21st during the Xbox press event.
Valve just released the Operation Payback patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Besides the usual batch of bug fixes and balance adjustments, Payback adds the ability for players to pay for access to official servers hosting seven of the most popular Workshop maps.
For a limited time, you can buy a pass half-priced for $2.99. That’ll get you unlimited access to a Classic Casual map group featuring seven of the highest-voted Workshop Maps. Invite your friends (even if they don’t have a pass) and enjoy uninterrupted low-ping play on official servers – all while rewarding CS:GO’s top-voted virtual mapmakers with real money. Buying a pass also gets you a one-of-a-kind challenge coin, upgradable by playing and viewable wherever your avatar is shown. “Operation Payback” will be live from now until July 31st.
Players can still download the maps for free through the Workshop and play on community servers using them. Future “Operations” are planned that feature different custom maps.
Team Fortress 2 has added dozens of user-made maps to its offical roster, but map makers have complained that the compensation rate is unfair compared to the thousands of dollars (sometimes hundreds of thousands) that cosmetic item creators have made. TF2 gives players the chance to purchase map stamps that give a portion of their price to the creator for that particular map, but people do not buy them in the same volume as hats because everyone gets the maps for free regardless.
Operation Payback seems to be another attempt by Valve to pay creators for their work while not splitting the player community across separate map packs.
2K has officially announced that the first-person shooter previously known as XCOM, is now a third-person squad-based tactical shooter called The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. The gameplay change was rumored since early 2012 when the game was unexpectedly delayed. The new version of the game features the same 1960’s setting, but now places more of an emphasis on real-time squad tactics. Unlike the Firaxis-developed X-COM, 2K Marin’s game will not have pauses in the action.
There is never a frozen time, you’re always making snap decisions. To use a sports analogy: It’s more about calling audibles then huddling. We are trying to emulate the fantasy of being the squad leader out in the battlefield versus the commander sitting at the desk who has all of the time in the world observing from afar.
The Bureau was previously developed by 2K Australia when it was just XCOM. Visit the official site here.
Skullgirls’ remarkably successful crowdfunding campaign means we’ll get Squigly, a girl with a snake in her hair, and Big Band, a saxophone in an overcoat who’s definitely not a girl. This means the game will have to be called Skullgirls and That One Guy. Note that even if you didn’t donate to the campaign, you still get the characters. The DLC is free on all platforms. You’d think that’s a terrible premise for a crowdfunding campaign, but the Skullgirls developers pulled in $829,000 for a $150,000 funding goal. They’re obviously doing something right.
Among the stretch goals were two additional characters, also free, who would be selected by the people who donated to the campaign. The voting for the first of the two additional characters has just entered its final phase and will come down to either Aeon, Annie (pictured), Eliza, and Minette, all of whom you can see here. I don’t want to influence anyone’s vote (yes I do), but Annie’s toothy rabbit, which gives her galactic themed powers, is named Sagan. That beats a bear named Tibbers any day of the week.
