Frozen Endzone, Mode 7’s futuristic football game, has launched on Steam Early Access. The game has the turn-based simplicity and tense strategy of Frozen Synapse, but replaces guns and soldiers with a ball and robots. Steal the puck! Slam dunk the goalpost! For the beta, the developers have added features you’d expect in any good sports title like color commentary to add a dash of humor. Developer Paul Taylor explained the system on Gamasutra.
It’s entirely text-based so this gives us a massive amount of flexibility. Not only can commentators use the customised names of your players, but the AI can actually analyse your play and give them data about the viability of your decisions. They can have opinions that are actually somewhat based in reality.
Now, in the Early Access version, we have what is truly a first draft of this system. It works tolerably, it’s really exciting when you see relevant commentary for the first time and I was able to slip in a few jokes here and there but it’s so far away from what I want it to be eventually. I want to create something that is absolutely packed with original writing; something that people will quote to each other; something that really lives on its own.
Mode 7 plans to add a complete singleplayer campaign as well as the ability to edit robot teams’ appearance and stats by the time the game launches.
Arma III’s third and final singleplayer campaign DLC will be released on March 20th. Bohemia Interactive announced that the Win chapter focuses on NATO infantryman Ken Berry’s actions in the Mediterranean as the conflict with hostile forces escalates to “the brink of all-out war”. The free DLC will come with two new fixed-wing assets. NATO will get the A-164 Wipeout, a futuristic version of the venerable A-10, while the CSAT air force will get the snazzy To-199 Neophron pictured above. A separate showcase mission will be included in the update to highlight the new aircraft.
Arma III is available on Steam for PCs.
Betrayer, Blackpowder Games indie action horror game, is launching on March 24th. The black, white and red title puts players in the boots of an explorer in 17th century Virginia trying to find out what drained all the color and life out of the land. Demonic conquistadors, a mysterious woman in a red dress, and ghostly entities may help or hinder players as they try to survive. According to creative director Craig Hubbard, Betrayer’s distinctive presentation is meant to add tension to gameplay and unsettle players.
Betrayer will launch for $19.99 on Steam, but it can be purchased as an Early Access title for $14.99 until the 24th.
Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic fungus fighting PlayStation 3 game, The Last of Us, is being turned into a live-action movie. Deadline reports that Screen Gems will distribute the film under Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures productions. Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog, will write the script. Troy Baker, the game’s voice actor behind the lead character Joel, told IGN that he trusts Naughty Dog to supply a faitful script. Baker could not confirm or deny his involvement in the film.
While the thought of a movie based on Joel and Ellie’s trek through overgrown America is sure to set fans’ tongues wagging, the news comes at a bittersweet time for Naughty Dog. Amy Hennig, the longtime scribe at the studio and creative force behind the Uncharted series, abruptly left on March 4th. Rumors swirled concerning her departure with some accounts saying she was “forced out” by internal politics, but Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra dispute these reports saying only that the rumors were hurtful and false.
Jon Shafer has changed the way diplomacy works in his indie strategy game At the Gates. As outlined in his design a year ago, diplomacy was going to be very similar to the way other 4X games handle the feature. A player would bump into an AI leader, get a general rundown of that leader’s personality traits, he or she would make a request like send gold or food, and things would progress from there. It’s a solid if unexciting formula. Shafer revealed in his latest update that he’s thrown out that whole system and has rewritten diplomacy to emphasize the personalities of the people involved. Leaders will deliver appropriate demands or requests based on their leanings and situation. The before and after images of the diplomacy screen are instructive.
Personality. Everything comes down to personality. I kept reminding myself throughout this process, and continue to do so. To bring this out I would have the AI leaders ask you questions relevant to their unique situation and philosophical leanings.
There should be no mystery as to whether or not Genseric and Attila like each other. They should often make comments about one another and trade barbs through the diplomatic channels.
To keep things interesting for each new game, AI leaders will no longer share personality traits. Instead, Shafer wants to draw from a pool of traits appropriate for each leader, and no doubling up will be allowed between them. No more cookie-cutter diplomats!
Along with the focus on individual quirks, Shafer has introduced a global “respect” metric to quantify the player’s diplomatic weight. Gain enough respect, and the player unlocks better diplomatic options with all leaders. Lose respect, and the AI leaders will be less inclined to do your bidding. I guess I’ll be naming all of my rulers Rodney Dangerfield.
At the Gates is currently in development and is projected to launch in 2015, but an early access package is available now.
Kerbal Space Program will be getting a special update that features an assignment that mimics a real-life NASA mission to explore asteroids in our solar system. The Asteroid Redirect Mission, created in partnership with NASA, is broken into three stages based on this real project that began in 2013. Players will need to identify asteroid candidates, build a suitable manned (or Kerbaled) spacecraft to intercept and redirect the asteroid, and send the crew out to conduct experiments on the surface of the asteroid. I’m sure that getting the crew back safely is probably another step they just neglected to mention. The update adds new parts to help players accomplish the mission including super-large fuel tanks and a robotic grappling device to latch onto asteroids or other objects. Bob Jacobs, deputy associate administrator for Communications at NASA, explained the partnership with the game’s developer Squad.
“The collaboration with Kerbal Space Program can help drive interest by future explorers in next-generation technology development and deep space exploration. Having an element of the experience based in the reality of NASA’s exploration initiatives empower players to manage their own space program while getting valuable insight into the reality of studying asteroids as a next step in getting to Mars.”
Kerbal Space Program is available on Steam Early Access or the official site.
Killzone Shadow Fall is getting its first multiplayer expansion. The Insurgent Pack adds the new Insurgent character class, new abilities for current classes, a harder difficulty mode for singleplayer vets, and new weapons including the fan-favorite M82 Assault Rifle from previous Killzone games.
Following through on their earlier promise to keep multiplayer maps free for all owners of the game, Guerrilla Games is releasing two new multiplayer maps to everyone today. Cruiser and Hangar are both available in the PlayStation Store now at no charge.
The Insurgent Pack will be available for $9.99 in April.
Goat Simulator is officially coming to Steam as an actual product. Back when the demo hit the internet, Coffee Stain Studios thought it was just a goofball internal project to have fun with after shipping their tower defense first-person shooter mashup Sanctum 2. Surprise! Apparently there are a lot more fans of ragdoll goat physics and farmhouse destruction than was originally thought. Or maybe people just wanted the chance to be a goat.
Goat Simulator is a small, broken and stupid game. It was made in a couple of weeks so don’t expect a game in the size and scope of GTA with goats. In fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat.
Goat Simulator launches April 1st (no, it’s not an April Fools’ joke) on Steam. You can pre-order the game from the official site for $9.99.
Blizzard is offering Diablo III players a temporary 50% boost to experience. According to the Battle.net post, the bonus is meant to help players level their demon-slayers in preparation for the Reaper of Souls expansion. The new Paragon Leveling System introduced in the recent 2.0 patch lets every hero on an account share their bonus ability points gained through end-game play. Take advantage of the extra XP and buff those characters before the level cap gets raised to 70!
The 50% bonus to XP in Diablo III will last until March 24th. Reaper of Souls will launch on March 25th.
Castle Crashers came out in 2008 for the Xbox 360. It then took two years to launch on the PlayStation 3, and another two years to come out on PCs. That was four long years for PC gamers to hold out before the sublime joy of co-op sidescrolling beat-em-up action against a giant pig could be experienced. It was a painful wait. Luckily, it appears The Behemoth won’t be making PC gamers wait forever for BattleBlock Theater. The developers announced that their 2013 Xbox 360 platformer is coming to PC exclusively via Steam soon. The beta will be starting on March 24th. The PC version of the game will come with new features like weapon switching, new enemies in story mode, Steam Workshop integration for sharing user-made levels, and a way to exercise your inner trader.
“Steam Inventory integration for trading! This allows users to trade and sell weapons, prisoners, gems and yarn via Steam.”
Valve makes a jillion dollars a year on DOTA 2 skins and Team Fortress 2 hats, so why not skim some money from BattleBlock trading as well?
Interceptor Entertainment, makers of the Rise of Triad 2013 remake, now owns 3D Realms through their investment firm called SDN Invest. Interceptor CEO Frederik Schreiber announced the purchase of 3D Realms and Apogee Software Ltd on March 2nd. (It should be noted that Interceptor does not own Apogee Software LLC which owns the rights to the original Rise of the Triad.) Mike Nielson, who already served as Chairman of the Board at Interceptor will be the new CEO of 3D Realms. The new roles for 3D Realms officers Scott Miller and George Broussard have not been disclosed at this time, but Nielson says the majority of actual game production will be done through Interceptor, while 3D Realms will maintain a publishing role.
Besides the personnel and Duke Nukem legacy, Interceptor has also purchased some legal issues. Gearbox Software filed suit in February against 3D Realms because of Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, a top-down shooter that was just shy of being officially announced via this teaser website featuring the above image of Kick-Ass Bubblegum. The site offered to translate an “alien message” if the page got 10,000 likes on Facebook, but internet codebreakers managed to crack the substition cypher early revealing that Interceptor was going to develop the game with 3D Realms’ license. Gearbox contends that 3D Realms had no such right to do so based on Gearbox’s ownership of the intellectual property. At this time, Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction is on hold pending the resolution of the complaint.
In their quest to make the Ultra Street Fighter IV the Alpha and Omega of fighting games, Capcom has announced the Edition Select feature that allows players to choose rulesets for their characters. Capcom’s Peter Rosas explained how the ability to mix and match playstyles would benefit the tournaments.
“With Edition Select, players can now pick between the Vanilla SFIV, Super SFIV, Super SFIV AE, Super SFIV AE ver. 2012 and Ultra SFIV versions of their favorite character and create matches could only take place in our dreams. Just thinking about Daigo using SFIV Ryu vs. Justin Wong using SSFIV Rufus is getting me pretty hype.”
Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available as an upgrade to Super Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, or as a standalone title this June for consoles and in August for PCs.
Time was I would have thought adding Moon Knight — who? — to the roster of Marvel Heroes was scraping the bottom of the barrel. But I know Moon Knight. I know him well. He’s one hell of a pinball table in Pinball FX. I don’t know anything beyond what I learned on the pinball table — something about an ancient Egyptian demon sidekick named Con Shoe and, uh, I forget if there’s any other stuff — but it’s enough to convince me that adding him to Marvel Heroes isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel; it’s skimming silvery moon-colored cream from the top.
Okay, that was gross. The point is that I’m all “yeah, Moon Knight!” even thought I don’t know him from the Silver Surfer.
The relationship between coin-tossing sidekick Elizabeth and gun-happy protagonist Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite is one that has spurred players to wax poetic. She’s either one of the greatest supporting characters to grace a shooter, or another example of women being objectified in an industry that hasn’t matured beyond being a boy’s club. Much has also been written of the sultry, obviously more mature version of Elizabeth in Burial at Sea. Her role as the noire femme fatale of the DLC is sometimes an uncomfortable one thanks to the player’s knowledge of who she is in the base game. Heaven forbid Elizabeth be sexy! She’s a singing dancing Disney princess!
Maybe you’re not familiar with the hundreds of thousands of words already written by enthusiastic fans depicting Elizabeth and Booker (yuck!) in various not-safe-for-work couplings? They vary from the hopelessly romantic to the outright pornographic. (Note: Do not Google Image search for these pictures lest you lose your grip on sanity!) Now, infamous Flash porn game creator “Zone-sama” has brought Rule 34 to gamers itching to see Elizabeth in a more sexually active and interactive mode. Paste Magazine‘s Maddy Myers played the porn-parody and despite the icky premise, says it’s “surprisingly well-executed” for what it is. It’s not all badly lip-synced Poser models and anime sexuality. Elizabeth takes charge for much of the experience and voices are provided by repurposing the original sound files from the real game.
Additionally, the creator of the adults-only game offers a real-life lesson by way of example to gamers interested in working in the industry.
Zone’s porn parodies of the Skullgirls franchise were so good that they led to an actual job on the Skullgirls development team.
That’s some portfolio!
If crime is your business then business is good. According to Starbreeze, developers of Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, they’ve turned a 15-year $14 million financial loss record into an almost $16 million net positive thanks to their latest games. Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint credited the turnaround to the company’s reorganization and focus on its own franchises in the latest earnings report. He went on to say that Starbreeze’s current success is based on a “pulse” schedule of sales and DLC releases on Steam. Klint also noted that Starbreeze has secured another $6 million from publisher 505 Games to commit to two more years of content support for Payday 2.
In related news, Starbreeze released the Death Wish update for Payday 2 on PC yesterday. It adds two more enemy types, (including the Elite Bulldozer pictured above) a new Death Wish difficulty level, more collectible masks, free in-game brass knuckles, and 35 more achievements. The update is free for all owners of Payday 2 on Steam.
