Days of Wonder has updated Small World 2 with the 2.5 content patch. The update add tournament features such as an online lobby with real-time chat, single-session and multi-session online games, and a player clock. The clock feature works like a chess turn timer, except a player that runs out of time is replaced with an AI opponent. Additional improvements to Small World 2 include a detailed statistics screen at the end of each game.
Small World 2.5 is available on Steam for PCs, Google Play for Android systems, and the iTunes App Store for Apple products.
In an E3 interview, Dean “Rocket” Hall, told Reddit that the zombie survival jerk simulator DayZ will move to the Infusion engine. DayZ originally launched in early access using a branch version of the Real Virtuality engine from Take on Helicopters, which has been criticized as being too unwieldy and limited in features for the scope of the project. The advantages of the new engine will be Direct X 10 and 11 support as well as a revamped AI pathfinding routine for the zombies in the game. Hopefully, Infusion will allow Jukebox Guy more freedom from his pants.
The old DayZ engine will be replaced in a modular fashion as early access development continues. The Bohemia Interactive company brochure, published in May, explains that the Infusion engine is a blend of two in-house codebases.
Bohemia Interactive is currently in the process of unifying its Real Virtuality and Enforce engines and tools to one universal engine, which it plans to use for future games.
Real Virtuality is the PC-only engine that Bohemia uses in Arma III as well as the military training sims VBS1, VBS2, and VBS3. Enforce is the multi-platform engine used in Take on Mars, another early access game, and the poorly received Carrier Command: Gaea Mission.
One of the odder announcements during Sony’s pre-E3 press briefing was that the Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition for PlayStation consoles would have content from Last of Us embedded in it. While Ellie and Joel may not be a good fit for Blizzard’s hack and slash loot-a-thon, the Clickers, Stalkers, and Bloaters should look right at home in the catacombs of the undead. According to Sony, the fungi-infected monsters from Last of Us will inhabit a special Nephalem Rift that features content created in partnership with Naughty Dog.
The game honors don’t stop there! Ultimate Evil Edition players on PlayStation will also get the “Guise of the Colossi.” It’s a set of transmogrification plans that will allow their characters to take on the fearsome aspect of the titular bad (good?) guy from the PlayStation 2 hit Shadow of the Colossus.
No announcements have been made regarding any special content for the Xbox One or Xbox 360 versions of the Ultimate Evil Edition.
With Skylanders and Disney Infinity making a mint of collectible figure money, it’s a no-brainer that Nintendo is finally going to offer synergistic toys of their own. In their digital event livestream, Nintendo revealed that Amiibo near-field communications figurines will be offered for sale that interact with Super Smash Bros. and Mario Party 10 on Wii U. There are even plans to add Amiibo features to Mario Kart 8. When placed on the Wii U gamepad, a chip embedded in the figure’s base can transmit and store data to and from the game. Amiibo characters can level up, gain special abilities, and can be transported and used on a friend’s console. I can’t wait to experience the crush of shoppers trying to hoard limited edition Amiibo figures.
It’s tough going last on E3 kickoff day. By the time your presentation starts everyone else has already had their briefings, so your left with a lot of covered ground. Sony gave it their best and showed some exclusives like The Order: 1886, inFamous: First Light, and Little Big Planet 3, but the most striking showing of the Sony briefing was probably a gore-filled trailer for Bloodborne, From Software’s PlayStation 4 action RPG. Early speculation about this title erupted last month when rumors began spreading that Hidetaka Miyazaki, Dark Souls original creator, was working on something named “Project Beast” which has turned out to be this game. Fans of the merciless difficulty in Dark Souls hope that Miyazaki has brought some of that sadism to Bloodborne’s gaslight setting.
Sick of blood and guts and Victorian monster-hunting? Try Entwined. A game about a bird in love with a fish.
Electronic Arts’ E3 press briefing was full of bombast, but one game outdid them all with the promise of insane action. Dragon Age: Inquisition had severe people impaling each other with large swords. Criterion’s unnamed prototype racing game lets players wingsuit through towers and flip ATVs. Dawngate has lane defense and hero killing. Previews of a new Mass Effect game and Battlefront 3 had the promise of epic battles. The Sims 4 trailer had fisticuffs between a Jersey Shore reject and a grandmother. Battlefield Hardline features the most heavily armed cops ever commissioned blowing up buildings and killing robbers. But all of these were try-hards next to PGA Tour 15.
Not even the appearance of a virtually resurrected Bruce Lee in UFC could match the nuttiness of PGA Tour 15 which promises to give you “Golf Without Limits.” It’s powered by the Frostbite engine and has a naval warship from Battlefield 4 running aground and smashing into the golf course like Speed 2. Peter Moore told IGN that golf needed “rethinking” and “reimagining.” Drop Tiger Woods and add the dynamic event from Battlefield 4’s Paracel Storm map! Sounds like a plan. With explosions, maybe golf won’t be the screensaver for TV any longer.
Microsoft’s E3 press conference was today. If you watched for red meat from gaming’s biggest budget productions, they had you covered. There was another tease for Halo 5, and a reveal of the Halo: Master Chief Collection that bundles up all the previous numbered Halo games into one Xbox One package. Shooter fans got some Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare campaign gameplay. Rise of the Tomb Raider apparently features Lara discussing her feelings with a therapist. Assassin’s Creed Unity had some killing during the French Revolution. A painfully staged demo of Tom Clancy’s The Division showcased some profanity-free multiplayer. A couple of reps from CD Projekt Red brought some footage from The Witcher 3. Crackdown is coming for Xbox One. Fable Legends is going to give us asymmetrical multiplayer. Evolve will give gamers co-op monster hunting.
Wait. Was that Crackdown? Crackdown for the Xbox One? “Skills for kills” Crackdown? That Crackdown? I’ll be in my bunk.
An English version of Hatoful Boyfriend is coming to PCs and Macs via Mediatonic. Hatoful Boyfriend is one of those insane visual novel dating games that either confound or entrance. The game, which originally launched in Japan in 2011, is about dating pigeons. The subject matter was so goofy, so flat-out crazy, it almost immediately garnered a cult following. Fans translated the game into English, wrote their own fan-fiction, and created artwork to honor the sexy pigeons of Hatoful Boyfriend. Publisher Devolver Digital thinks the time has come for it to step out of the niche shadows and fly into the sunlight with an English remake.
“Our research shows that consumer fatigue for space marines and dragons is at an all-time high – gamers are ready for something new and fresh,” said Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. “Semi-realistic pigeon dating simulations are the next great frontier in video games.”
Hatoful Boyfriend will launch later this Summer.
Dead Rising 3 is coming to PC. Capcom has announced that the Steam version of the zombie-stomping open-world action game, formerly an Xbox One exclusive, will launch later this summer. Upgraded textures, Steam Cloud support, achievements and trading cards will be included in this version.
Earlier this week, the Steam database had been updated with a test entry named “Walking” that had the Dead Rising 3 title logo associated with it. Speculation that this indicated an imminent PC release of the game has proven to be true.
Valve has quietly updated the FAQ for Steam Early Access to better warn customers that the work-in-progress games may never actually “ship” to the buyer’s satisfaction. In the updated FAQ, Valve cautions that the purchase does not guarantee a finished game.
“You should be aware that some teams will be unable to ‘finish’ their game. So you should only buy an Early Access game if you are excited about playing it in its current state.”
Valve’s Doug Lombardi told VentureBeat that the updated FAQ was intended to set customer expectations.
Tokyo in Secret World was never just a city in Japan. In terms of the lore, it is ground zero for the supernatural horrors that make The Secret World what it is. Tokyo is the source of mobs, quests, character skills, filth, villains, ghosts, and everything else that makes The Secret World more than a game about people living quiet lives on a New England coast. That would have been interesting, but a terrible MMO. Then, somewhere into the game’s mid-life, Tokyo became the name of promised new content that wasn’t just more instanced adventures or a new branch on the skill tree or more costumes. Tokyo would be a whole new area for folks who had exhausted Egypt and Transylvania. Tokyo would be the fourth act. It would be the next giant step. Tokyo. Would it ever arrive? Why was it taking so long? When would Tokyo get here? Tokyo was an eldritch El Dorado.
Tokyo is finally here as part of Issue #9: The Black Signal, available now for $9. For a little more than twice that amount, you can get a collector’s edition with special in-game doo-dads and a Japanese schoolgirl uniform. Lest you think the schoolgirl uniform is just gratuitous cheesecake, there’s a tradition in Japanese horror of schoolgirls in their uniforms dispatching monsters. Which is gratuitous, to be sure, but you can’t blame Funcom for knowing their source material.
More information about Issue #9 is available here. I should probably temper my expectations for Tokyo, since it’s “only” a new issue. But given how distinct Funcom made the other three regions in Secret World, I can’t help but have high hopes.
Maybe there’s too much new content in Guild Wars 2 for you. Maybe you missed some of the time-limited seasonal or story-based stuff. Maybe you’re not playing for the same reason you’re not watching some long running series like Dexter or Game of Thrones; because after a certain point, catching up is a whole lot more work than simply watching something else. But what’s worse about Guild Wars 2 is that there’s no way to catch up on some of the stuff that has passed you by.
Going forward, ArenaNet intends to change that with a new feature called a story journal, which is like a DVR for the time-limited content.
To unlock an episode and have it added to your story Journal, you simply need to log in to the game during the two-week period that the release is live to be given permanent, free access to the storyline of that episode. Once you’ve unlocked it by simply logging in, you can replay that episode’s storyline on any character on your account as many times as you like from your story Journal forever.
Any storylines you miss entirely can be purchased. Guild Wars 2 is also changing its approach to storyline achievements:
Achievements within story steps from episodes will operate very differently as well. Once one character on your account has completed an episode in their story journal, every character on your account will have access to a set of challenging achievements. At any time once unlocked, you can return and attempt to replay that episode in order to complete the achievements. The achievements will be much more difficult to complete than those traditionally found in Season 1, and are intended to be challenging achievements for skilled players to overcome. Each achievement will award both achievement points and material rewards.
Story journals go live with the debut of season two in July. Read more here.
Is it Christmas? You might think so with all the free games being offered. Whether through generosity or calculated marketing, there’s a bunch of free games out there for folks that want something to play. I’m not talking about free-to-play microtransaction-cluttered stuff. This is decent gaming for free!
Sniper Elite V2 from Rebellion is free for the next 24 hours on Steam. This World War II testicle-destroying shooter from 2012 allows players to conduct long-range surgery on Nazis. Set up your camping spot and fire away! Rebellion is offering the game for keeps as long as customers download it for the duration of the offer. Sniper Elite 3 will launch on June 27th for the PC and July 1st for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
If you’re a PlayStation Plus member, Sony is offering Trine 2: The Complete Story and PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate for the PlayStation4, and NBA 2K14 for the PlayStation 3 to play at no additional charge. Platforming, shooting, and touchdowns for free! Download and play them for as long as you remain a PS+ member.
Microsoft also has some games for Xbox Live Gold members. Xbox 360 owners can add Dark Souls to their backlog now, and on the 16th they’ll be able to add Charlie Murder and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. (The latter is an especially good deal because it allows newcomers to the series to jump in on the recently released digital upgrade to Ultra Street Fighter IV.) Xbox One owners get their first offerings in the Games for Gold program with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Halo: Spartan Assault. Keep in mind that the offer details vary slightly with the consoles. The complimentary games on the Xbox 360 are added to accounts and can be downloaded and played even after membership lapses, while Xbox One gamers must maintain their subscriptions to access their games.
Overkill Software brings us back to live-action video game commercial theater with this short film for The Dentist. Giancarlo Esposito, known most recently for his roles in Once Upon a Time and Breaking Bad, plays the mysterious new character in the world of Payday 2 who will act as a contact for the players. According to publisher Starbreeze, The Big Bank Heist DLC will be available on June 17th for the PC version of Payday 2 and will not only add new crime capers, but the ability to pre-plan heists.
For our veteran players, the heist will feel extra special because it has everything that we love about the original game: a huge setting, an intense heist plan and plenty of replayability.
The dialogue and text at the end of the video would seem to imply that later DLC will involve breaking an old friend out of jail and knocking over a Vegas Casino. The Big Bank Heist DLC will be $6.99 on Steam.
Fans of Double Fine’s surprise hit Costume Quest have the sequel to look forward to this Halloween. In Costume Quest 2, players will once again take control of Reynold and Wren as they fight Grubbins, level up, and collect sweet candy. This time, they’ll be doing it in Louisiana and the kids will have even more costumes to wear. At least four new wearable costumes are planned for the game, one of which will add a challenge for intrepid trick-or-treaters. The Candy Corn costume does nothing. Having one of the team wear it will result in that person sitting out the fight, effectively limiting the party. “Hard-Corn” mode as it’s been dubbed, will result in a special achievement if you play this way for the whole game.
Costume Quest 2 is coming Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Windows PCs, and Macs this October.
