What’s up Battlefield 4? Why are you so crash-prone? Why does every few online matches end with a hard crash or a failure? It’s been over a month since EA’s shooter launched and it’s still struggling with basic issues like stability. DICE released a patch for the PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 ahead of the China Rising map pack but even they admitted that it was only partly successful in addressing critical fixes.
It could be worse, I suppose. On the PlayStation 4, DICE hasn’t even been able to push out a partial fix yet. The PS4 patch, which was originally supposed to be published yesterday, has been pushed back to a later date due to technical issues.
Why do you make it so hard for me to love you Battlefield 4?
A handful of Zen Pinball 2 tables will be available for the Playstation 4 on December 17. There are even a couple of classics alongside the usual Star Wars and Marvel stuff (should we just start calling these “Disney” tables?). Who can complain about any selection of Zen Pinball tables that includes Paranormal and Earth Defense? Not me.
However, here’s the big news for those of you who already have collections on the Playstation 3.
If you own any of these on PS3, we invite you to download them on PS4 at no charge. This is our way of saying thank you to all of the players who have supported Zen Studios on PlayStation platforms over the years.
It’s a new platform, so you won’t be able to carry over your high scores. I can’t help but feel this is almost — almost! — a good thing. Nothing kills a table for me like having a really high high score that I know I’ll never be able to beat.
Zen Studios will announce details of their collaboration with Microsoft on the Xbox One sometime early next year.
The mutiplayer mod for Just Cause 2 is coming to Steam. The developers of the unofficial multiplayer mod for Avalanche Studios’ open world explosion simulator, Just Cause 2, announced that their project will be getting a shot of legitimacy by becoming a Steam supported title.
“On release, you’ll be able to download the client and server from Steam, just like a normal game. This means complete Steam integration, including joining on your friends and more. Imagine the chaos of normal Just Cause 2, then extending it out to dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of players.”
The Steam page is already up, but the application won’t go live until December 16th. The mod made news last year when tests featuring hundreds of players online in the same game of Just Cause 2 were successfully conducted.
Microsoft cautions consumers against turning on the development mode on their Xbox One retail units. In a statement to Engadget, Microsoft advised against following guides that show how to enable the dev-only mode because the special sequence of button presses and menu prompts will not actually turn the console into a fully usable kit.
Changing the settings in this menu is only intended for developers for Xbox One, and this alone does not turn the console into a development kit. We strongly advise consumers against changing these settings as it could result in their Xbox One becoming unusable. Customers who have put their consoles into this developer setting can revert by restoring factory defaults under Settings / System, select Restore Factory Defaults.
The instructions to enable the hidden mode of operation were originally published by GameTuts and were quickly propagated throughout the web. Microsoft had announced the ability to turn any retail Xbox One into a development unit via a special software download in July.
Sega and Creative Assembly have announced the Caesar in Gaul campaign pack for Total War: Rome II. The standalone campaign will feature Caesar’s war against Gaul with a shorter, more focused strategic experience in comparison to the main game. Players will be able to take control of Gallic Arverni, the Germanic Suebi, the Belgic Nervii, or Rome and fight in the 18 provinces of Gaul. With the more compact strategic map comes a tighter timeline.
As Caesar in Gaul deals with a considerably shorter time-span (58-51BC) than the grand sweep of the ROME II campaign, each turn represents two weeks rather than a year. This means seasons make a return. The gameplay effects of these aren’t always predictable however, and may vary from province to province. A late autumn may bring a good harvest for example, but a long, dry summer may damage your food production.
It remains to be seen if the standalone Caesar in Gaul campaign will fix many of the issues Tom had in his review of Total War: Rome II.
Double Fine Productions has regained control of the Costume Quest and Stacking franchises. In their announcement, Double Fine will retain control of the game licenses while Nordic Games will be the retail release partner for both of the games as well as Psychonauts through the first half of 2014. Nordic Games’ CEO, Lars Wingefors, said they are happy with the agreement.
“We can’t wait to partner with Double Fine for this upcoming retail launch of three of its most excellent games. However, I feel compelled to point out that we were happy to transfer distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking back to Double Fine in an entirely non-secretive and heist-free manner.”
Nordic Games had acquired the rights to Costume Quest and Stacking through the THQ bankruptcy auction in April.
Alexander J. Velicky is a Skyrim modding legend. He’s the industrious young man that spent over 2000 hours to create the Falskaar mod which contained a new land, assets, voice acting, and a new soundtrack. Velicky wanted to get a job at Bethesda and was hoping Falskaar would make a good resume. Well, he’s gotten a job in the industry – at Bungie. He’ll be an Associate Designer at the Destiny developer. Velicky posted his announcement on the official Skyrim boards and thanked the community for their support. He also offered some advice to budding designers.
Of course, all of this leaves me with one corny ‘life lesson’ that I’d like to extend to all of you. Never be afraid to try. I set my sights on a professional design job pretty early, I lowered my head, charged forward, and rarely looked back. Of course, I ensured what I was doing had a reasonable chance for success from time to time. But the most surprising of all, is who I’ve ended up with. I applied to many companies, and Bungie was in my, “Huge company that will completely ignore me.” category. Well, they didn’t and look what it got me. Bungie is an awesome company with an amazing team, and I’m very lucky that they’ve decided to give me a chance! Never be afraid to try. I spent the time it took to apply and the rewards are proving to be greater than I could have possible imagined.
Velicky hopes to continue modding games in his spare time. The latest build of his Falskaar mod can be found at the Skyrim Nexus.
Valve has announced Steam Reviews. Steam Reviews are different from the current system of your friends recommending a game because everyone can see them. Users can rate reviews up to increase their prominence on a product’s store page. While these reviews do not contribute to an aggregate score now, Valve does plan to implement some kind of overall scoring process.
Q. Do these written reviews create an overall score or rating for a product?
A. Not yet, but we are looking to add that during the beta. Many products on Steam change significantly over time as the game or software is updated and new content is added. In order to form a score that accurately reflects the current state of a product, we first need to gather and evaluate the data from reviews.
Developers will have the opportunity to flag reviews as offensive, in which case they will show up in a “collapsed” form until a Steam moderator can look into the complaint. Wait until developer payouts from publishers depend on their Steam reviews!
The FIFA Manager line is ending. FIFA Manager 14 will be the last game of the football (soccer to us Yanks) management sim series from Electronic Arts. Gerald Kohler, the creator and designer of the games, posted an open letter to fans regarding the decision to end the franchise. Kohler explained that the market for the management sim genre is dominated by one title, presumably the Football Manager series, and there just wasn’t enough budget to compete.
The football manager genre at this level of sophistication is highly specialised and primarily played in two countries (England and Germany), in which – on top of everything – one game has practically dominated the market in recent years. The niche market and general trend toward online and mobile games were also contributing factors. Moreover, FM had reached a crossroads at which a new engine and/or corresponding online technology would be the only way to give the series a boost. When all these factors were evaluated, it led us to the decision to blow the final whistle.
The FIFA Manager games began in 2002.
NBA Live 14’s executive producer has posted an open apology to fans of NBA Live. The game has been negatively received for not being much of a next-gen release, despite advertisements to the contrary leading up to the launch. Besides criticism of the game’s learning curve, players have noted that the graphics are not the equal of preview images.
You’ve also let us know that you’re disappointed by the graphics and animations, and I can tell you that we are committed to making drastic and immediate improvements. In order to get gameplay up and running this year we had to prioritize. We felt authentic gameplay, control and the connected experience would provide the best foundation for the future. As a result, game visuals and animation polish suffered. Improvements on these fronts are also in development now for NBA LIVE 14. You will notice in the coming weeks and months that the game’s visuals and animation will improve significantly.
At least NBA Live 14 isn’t as bad as NBA Live 13.
End of an era indeed. John Carmack, high-profile programmer, aeronautics engineer, technology guru, and VR goggle champion has officially resigned from id Software. You may remember Carmack as the guy that first put an anonymous space marine on Mars and Hell, launched a million LAN parties, and said things that only a few other people on the planet could understand. Studio director Tim Willits assured fans that id will carry on without Carmack’s presence.
John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.
In August, John Carmack took a position as CTO of Oculus, but id’s publisher and owner Bethesda had said that he would continue to work at id in some capacity.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is coming and TaleWorlds has started a blog to remind all the budding horsemen that it’s on the way. The first entry is all about their talented artists.
You’ll find preened moustaches, pretentious glasses, a range of characters and personalities.
I don’t know how hairy or pretentious they are, but they’ve obviously got some talent if that work-in-progress image is any indication. It looks better than the previous entry in the series, which wasn’t an ugly game by any means. Mustache power!
Unlike Sony’s PlayStation 4 launch event gala, which was held in New York City, Microsoft’s Xbox One launch celebration has been global. Unfortunately for internet bragging rights, that means the “first official retail owner” title is a bit murky. Of course, we all know that Johnny Chiu was crowned the first official buyer of the PlayStation 4, but who owns that right for the Xbox One? Is it Dan Livingstone of New Zealand? Microsoft’s Phil Harrison seems to think so. But what about Andre Weingarten? He’s one of the folks that purchased an Xbox One at Target a week early. Target admitted that it was a mistake, but about 150 units were sold to lucky buyers then, with a few ending up on eBay. They’re technically the first Xbox Ones “sold” at retail.
Microsoft held a New York City launch event as well. Wait a minute! That guy visiting the line looks mighty familiar.
TimeGate’s intellectual property is the subject of a bidding war between Atari, SouthPeak Interactive, and Digital Tribe Games. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the three companies have offered bids for the rights to the Section 8 franchise as well as Minimum, the game TimeGate was working on when they went bankrupt.
According to court papers, CNH teamed with game developer Digital Tribe Games to offer $50,000 in cash plus a 25% royalty on the two games, topping a winning bid by France’s Atari SA. SouthPeak Interactive Corp., which won a multimillion-dollar arbitration award against TimeGate in their dispute over “Section 8,” also says its offer – $40,000 and a 50% royalty – is better than Atari’s, which tried to unload some of its U.S. assets in bankruptcy court earlier this year.
I really liked Section 8: Prejudice’s bots, and the way the game used dynamic goals in multiplayer to change up the gameplay. Alas, the game didn’t sell very well, so multiplayer died quickly. Perhaps a new owner will revitalize the franchise, or at least remove GFWL from the PC version of the game?
Valve has updated Team Fortress 2 to add cosmetic weapon effects. The Two Cities update kicks off with Manhattan which features a new map, changes to statistics reporting, more achievements, and Killstreak Kit drops that can add nifty cosmetic glows to your mayhem.
The loot you’ll get from completing a Tour of Duty will work a bit differently for the Two Cities Tour. Completing a Two Cities Tour automatically grants you a Killstreak Kit, which you can apply to any weapon to transform it into a Killstreak weapon. Completing the Tour also grants you a fabricator and spare parts that you can use to craft progressively rarer Killstreak Kits, which will add cool visual effects to your weapon and eventually even your character.
No doubt Killstreak Kits will be found in a Steam Marketplace near you!
