PC gamers looking forward to playing Bungie’s highly-anticipated hybrid MMO shooter, Destiny, may have a very long wait. Destiny launches on September 9th for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3 but a PC version is not currently in the works. Bungie’s Pate Parsons explained to Eurogamer that releasing a PC version of the game is more complicated than just making a quick port.
“It is not nearly as simple as you think,” he said. “It is one central world no matter what the platform, and so that requires lots of intensive thought.
“Frankly, it’s not a thought we can spend time thinking about right now. Just building up the game and putting it across generations of platforms, and working on platforms we’ve never worked on before with the PlayStation 3, these are very big challenges. I’m thankful we have the engineering team we do.”
Later in the interview, Parsons admits that Bungie loves the PC platform and looks forward to “future conversations” regarding it.
Fans of HK47, Dash Rendar, Bastila Shan, and Mara Jade are in mourning. Lucasfilm has declared that all past Star Wars tie-in properties are non-canon and that a new unified entertainment strategy will be used going forward. In an official Star Wars blog post, Lucasfilm clarified the new direction in merchandising which comes as a result of Disney purchasing the company in late 2012. The only existing Star Wars material that will be officially considered part of the new Star Wars continuity will be the original trilogy movies, the three prequel movies, and the CG-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars show. None of the Star Wars video game content developed in the past decades will count. The post did give feeble hope to fans of some of the old content by clarifying that minor elements may be brought forward.
In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.
All that hard work mastering Teras Kasi is for naught, and it doesn’t matter how well you piloted The Outrider. None of it means anything to Star Wars! It was a Jedi mind trick.
Company of Heroes 2 received the Elbe Day Update which added a sneak peek at units from the upcoming Company of Heroes: 2 The Western Front Armies. The Elbe Day Update comes with a large list of balance changes and bug fixes, but the stars of the patch are the two new commanders that allow players to use reinforcements from the stand-alone expansion coming this June.
The Soviet Lend Lease Commander calls in an iconic Sherman tank to the battlefield. The Sherman was the primary battle tank used by the Western Allies and one of several vehicles the Soviet army had access to through the Lend Lease program with the United States.
The German Mobile Defense Doctrine Commander calls in the mobile Puma, an armored car equipped with a 50mm canon. The Puma is an 8 wheel vehicle who’s speed and versatility made it an ideal for scouting and reconnaissance missions.
Get the full list of changes here.
One of the things Christopher Park of Arcen Games is known for among his fans is his development transparency. Park is willing to share aspects of his business that most indie studios won’t divulge. He’s talked about the success of AI War, and the tragic way Tidalis has been ignored by most gamers. He’s also big on interacting with his audience on the Arcen Games forum. Most indie developers communicate directly with their fans, but it’s rare to see the kind of deep discussions and immediate results that Park has had with his customers.
Park’s discussion yesterday with fans regarding a way to auto-resolve tactical combat in The Last Federation is a great example. In response to the inquiry, Park first wrote that skipping the tactical combat sections of the strategy game is a premature reaction to some people’s dislike of the feature. He’d rather they give him time to enhance the experience and address concerns. As the thread continued, Park realized that he’s a fan of the grand strategy portion of the Total War games, and speeds through the tactical bits himself. Later in the day, Arcen announced that they would add an auto-resolve feature to The Last Federation. Park admitted that as a designer he held incorrect biases on two points:
1. If there’s a problem with the combat, we should focus on improving that rather than just “papering over it” with an auto-resolve.
2. Combat is an integral part of the game, and we don’t want to split the playerbase or get people with a halfhearted experience because they just don’t give combat a chance and find out that they like it.
In regards to point 1, this doesn’t really “paper over” anything, despite my recent thinking. Will we continue to make combat better and better? Yes, absolutely – with the help of those players who already like or love it. Adding auto-resolve doesn’t obviate us from focusing on combat any more than it caused Total War to just abandon combat in their games. And Total War is far from the only series of strategy games with an auto-resolve option, it’s just my favorite one and so the one I’m most comfortable using as an example (if anyone who works on those games reads this, please rest assured I love your work).
In regards to point 2, for the ones who just don’t care for the sort of tactical combat on offer here, they can give feedback if they feel like it, or just happily play the solar map stuff. Just like I do with the grand strategy component in Total War. For me as a designer, that’s not a “cop out,” as I’d been kind of thinking of it, it’s just a way of giving more people what they want, more of the time. Some people would argue that by avoiding the RTS combat in Total War, I’m getting a “watered down” version of that series. And from a literal sense… sure. The scope of those games is reduced for me as a player. But so what? I have a blast with the parts that I do play, and it’s easily worth the price of admission for me just for the grand strategy part.
Combat auto-resolve is coming to The Last Federation thanks to Christopher Park and Quarter to Three forum member Giaddon, who started the thread on the Arcen Games discussion board!
Park has said that he plans on pushing out a new content update every week for his just-released strategy game, The Last Federation. He’s said he’ll continue to do so for “a few months, if not longer.” The Last Federation is available on Steam.
Grim Dawn has added crafting. The early access action RPG from Crate has gotten a significant update with Build 18. The patch adds a new “veteran” difficulty mode, dual-wielding of pistols, and a host of bug fixes. Additionally, he developers included over 150 recipes to the game to give would-be monster slayers something to do between sword swings. Knit a sweater! Weave a picnic basket! Mix some potpourri!
On a less cheery note, Grim Dawn is one of the games that will be negatively impacted by GameSpy’s recent multiplayer server shutdown news.
We’ve made significant progress with multiplayer after having to rewrite a lot of the existing code that was originally written for GameSpy (which is shutting down). The last tricky component is designing a system to resolve differences in player’s quest progress and quest choices. Allowing people who have made divergent quest choices to play together is particularly difficult but we think we’ve arrived at a reasonable solution and have begun implementing it. We’re currently estimating that multiplayer may be ready in late July but we’ll have a better idea once we finish the quest syncing and do some testing to see how well it is functioning.
Grim Dawn’s final launch date is yet to be determined, but Crate’s projected roadmap includes content releases until late 2014.
Developer Coffee Stain Studios teased a feature they’re adding to the free 1.1 update for Goat Simulator. Goat parkour! Additional components of the update will include new playable goats, local split-screen multiplayer, and a new map that’s roughly the same size of the original map.
Goat Simulator’s 1.1 update is scheduled to be released in mid-May.
That’s it. Call of Duty for 2014. This image is what Sledgehammer Games teased during last month’s Games Developers Conference. IGN has the video. Go ahead and speculate!
Victory Point Games’ blog details a few of the changes they’re making for the upcoming “gold banner” re-release of one my favorite games, Nemo’s War, which is a solitaire narrative shuffling of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
…the ship counters are larger (with more story detail and the occasional special ability); the Nautilus upgrades are more numerous (there are ten included), but only four are available at the start of each game. Nemo’s four motives (War!, Anti-Imperialism, Science, and Explore) have had their scoring functions streamlined considerably; the Uprisings, Rest, Refit, and Repair Actions all function smoothly now in the same manner as other “tests” in the game; there are many new cards with more adventures from the pages of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; there is no more weekly calendar to measure time — the deck is built during set up with three “Acts” and a “Finale” and you draw a card each game turn to measure time…
Nemo’s War is currently in playtesting. It’s also pending a visual upgrade from artist Ian O’Toole, whose work (pictured) looks like this.
To get a sense for how Nemo’s War played even before it got gold bannered, me and Bruce Geryk burbled fondly in this head-to-head competition that I’m convinced he won because he wasn’t playing right.
Big Band, the first male fighter in Skullgirls Encore is now available as DLC. Big Band is the second of five characters funded through developer Lab Zero’s crowd-sourcing efforts in 2013. Per Lab Zero’s commitment to fans during the funding drive, Big Band is free for a limited time to current owners of Skullgirls Encore.
Once a cop known as Ben Birdland, he fell flat when he got on the wrong side of New Meridian’s corrupt police force. Birdland was broken and bent out of shape by his former colleagues, but was tuned up by Dr. Avian and ASG Lab 8. Now he is armed with a full ensemble of pneumatic weaponry, making him the full fortissimo instrument of justice: “Big Band.”
Big Band is available on Steam for the PC version of Skullgirls. He will be available on the PlayStation Network pending a compatibility update.
Wizards of the Coast announced that Magic the Gathering 2015 Edition will include cards designed by personalities from the world of video games. The guest contribution idea was suggested by George Fan, a designer on Plants vs. Zombies, who is also a fan of the card game. These cards will include a “designed by” credit printed in the text.
– George Fan: designer of Plants vs Zombies
– Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins: Gabe and Tycho, creators of Penny Arcade
– Markus Persson: “Notch,” creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang
– Richard Garriot: “Lord British,” creator of the Ultima series
– David Sirlin: designer on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Yomi
– Rob Pardo: chief creative officer at Blizzard, lead designer of World of Warcraft
– Isaiah Cartwright: lead game designer for Guild Wars 2
– Justin Gary: designer of Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and Solforge
– Stone Librande: lead designer at Riot Games, designer of Diablo 3, creative director of SimCity
– Brian Fargo: founder and CEO of inXile Entertainment, director of Wasteland, executive producer of Fallout
– Mike Neumann: Gearbox Software, creative director on Borderlands
– James Ernest: owner and lead designer for Cheapass Games, designer of Kill Doctor Lucky
– Edmund McMillen: indie designer of Super Meat Boy, featured in Indie Game: The Movie
– Brad Muir: game designer at Double Fine Productions leading Massive Chalice, project lead on Iron Brigade
Magic the Gathering 2015 Edition will launch on July 18th of this year. It is unknown if these special cards will appear in the Magic the Gathering 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers video game.
One of the most engaging aspects of the zombie apocalypse in books and movies is the breakdown of society and the destruction of civilization. Unfortunately, we rarely get to see that slide into havoc in zombie-themed video games. The digital version of the undead end of the world usually starts in media res so players can get to “the good stuff” of crafting weapons and shooting zeds right away. You wake up from a coma, or you just spawn in on a desolate shore… Even Undead Labs’ State of Decay skipped the beginning of the story. Players started in a campground and experience the zombie invasion after it’s already gotten hot. The upcoming Lifeline DLC offers a different beginning to the story we saw in the regular game. Polygon got to play a preview build of Lifeline at PAX East and they’ve brought back some exciting details.
Lifeline casts the player as a member of Greyhound One, a small platoon that’s attempting to maintain order in the overrun city of Danforth. Unlike in State of Decay, you start out with plenty of rations and support from the larger military. But all of it dwindles over time in the face of the zombie outbreak: Your supplies gradually deteriorate, and resupplies from your group’s commanders become more rare. That forces you and your comrades to head out of your base into town, in an attempt to rescue civilians and gather resources to fortify your defenses.
The shift from a secure, plentifully stocked military base, to a desperate group of scavengers flips the script of most zombie apocalypse video games. The normal progression is to build up to the point that zombies are an annoyance instead of a credible threat. If Undead Labs can pull Lifeline off correctly, it will be a nice change of pace from video games that skip the start of the zombie story.
Spring is here. In the eternal war for your gaming budget, this is a tense time. Hardware manufacturers deployed their latest and greatest machines during the Winter offensive, but campaigns have settled into static sales and preparations for the E3 counterattack. Systems square off with their specs. 1080p! Streaming! Second screen use! Propaganda efforts have paused to gather intelligence. Officers gather in their respective headquarters to plan new strategies. How do the weary armies fare this Spring?
After the break, let’s see if you spent your console money wisely. Continue reading →
Meridian: New World, the old-school real-time strategy title from Elder Games, is now available on Steam early access. Previews of the game in July of last year made a splash mostly because Elder Games is largely a studio of one. As hard as it is to believe, Ede Tarsoly wrote the story, programmed the game, and supplied most of the art for this old-school celebration of tiny space marines fighting over a resource-rich alien planet. It’s a throwback to the gather, build, and attack RTS formula, updated with modern graphics. There’s even dialog options when you talk to the crew and wander the command ship!
Multiplayer may be coming, but the work-in-progress is strictly single player at this time. An alpha version of the scenario and map editor has been released to buyers of the “Contributor” version of the game, and user-made maps have already been uploaded to the Steam Workshop.
Following the mysterious removal of the Xbox One edition of Amazing Spider-Man 2 from marketing materials and retailer web pages, Activision has acknowledged that the game no longer has a scheduled launch on Microsoft’s next-gen console.
We are working with Microsoft in an effort to release The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game on Xbox One. Currently, the game will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and the PC on April 29, 2014 as previously announced.
No official reason was given for the Xbox One version of the game being on hold, but the “working with Microsoft” statement could mean there are technical difficulties with the development. In a statement to MCV, an Activision representative said a possible Xbox One release is yet to be determined.
Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima games, has announced a contest to port one of his earliest creations for use within his upcoming Shroud of the Avatar. Garriott’s D&D #1 was originally written for use on his high school teletype machine in 1977. The game, written in BASIC, was copied onto spools of paper that had to be fed into the system. That code would result in a primitive ascii printout for the player to visualize the exploration of simple dungeons.
Richard wrote 28 of these “D&D” games in high school. He numbered them D&D #1 through D&D 28. When he finally had that Apple II, he rewrote D&D #28 to become D&D 28…also known as AKALABETH the precursor of all things Ultima!
No one has seen this game run since the retirement of the teletype in 1979, which is when Richard made the final printout of the game.
The best version of “D&D1 Resurrection” that runs in Unity and the best in-browser version will win pledge rewards for Shroud of the Avatar worth $550, while the runners up will receive pledge rewards worth $165 each.
