Ubisoft announced a couple of delays in their upcoming slate of high-profile games. First up, Watch Dogs, is being kicked back to Spring 2014. The open-world hacking adventure is being pushed to next year to “polish and fine tune each detail” in the game. Next, The Crew, Ubisoft’s highly anticipated multiplayer racing game will now launch sometime in Q4 of 2014. Hey, at least you can look forward to Assassin’s Creed 4 later this year! CEO Yves Guillemot explained both delays during an investor conference call.
“In a context of growing successes for mega-blockbusters, the additional time given to the development of our titles will allow them to fulfill their huge ambitions and thus offer players even more exceptional experiences.”
To pile a little more bad news on investors, Ubisoft revealed that both Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell failed to meet sales projections. Ubisoft lowered revenue expectations for the current year from $1.94 billion to $1.38 billion based on Watch Dogs and The Crew being moved to next year.
Roberts Space Industries presents the “most popular spaceship” in Star Citizen, The Aurora. It’s the beginner package ship, also available in a sporty “Legionnaire” model that adds cool racing stripes. A sweet paint job makes anything go faster. That’s a scientific fact. The Aurora is like the Ford Focus of space travel. You can use it like a dependable, if bare-bones compact, or you can bling it up so you can hang out with the cool guys in the 7-11 parking lot.
Crowd-funded Star Citizen is supposed to launch in 2014. The game recently celebrated raising over $20 million in pledges.
Valve’s hardcore multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now even more hardcore thanks to an integrated “GOTV” feature that allows you to check out continuous streams of professional matches. The Watch and Learn update has added a theater which lets players watch their most embarassing defeats and see how real players would’ve done better. Headshot!
“Watch your previous matches to relive your greatest moments, or to see your progress over time and learn from mistakes. Then, jump into an in-progress match and see how the highest ranked CS:GO players approach the game. Not sure which match to watch? Select GOTV Theater and watch a continuous stream of top live matches one after another.”
Most of my matches would be utterly boring to watch. Ninety percent of them would be staring at the weapon menu, stunned with indecision, or trying to read the incidental posters on the walls of the level.
Goodbye, ugly dude with the weird high and tight haircut. Farewell, woman with too high cheekbones and strange smile. You, and many other user-created criminals of Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode are gone forever. According to Rockstar’s update to the stimulus package blog post, characters that have been lost in the recent server hiccups will not be returning. Pour one out for our homies!
“For those asking about their lost characters or rank, those will not be able to be restored so we sincerely hope that this cash stimulus we’re giving out this month will help you get back on your feet or to make your new life in Los Santos & Blaine extra sweet.”
Players will just have to fumble through the awful “family tree” character creator again and fill those empty menu slots. We mourn you, anonymous online hustlers and petty ne’er-do-wells!
Rockstar is going to give everyone half a million dollars in Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode. If you’ve battled through connection issues, disappearing characters, and general server mayhem trying to play in the online version of Los Santos, you’ll get a cool $500,000 added to your stash in the coming weeks. Bling! To quote a famous philosopher, “I’m rich, bitch!”
In order to keep the current worldwide in-game economy balanced, we will be providing this GTA$ to players via two deposits of $250,000. We will announce specific dates as soon as possible, but are currently hoping to be able to make the first deposit by the end of next week (after we’ve confirmed that issues causing game progress loss have been fixed) with the second installment to happen by the end of the month. For players who experienced cloud server errors, connection issues, and lost game progress and characters in these first days of GTA Online, we hope this GTA$ helps to facilitate a fresh start or makes your continued life in Los Santos and Blaine County extra sweet.
Maybe I’ll give up the criminal hustle and bustle and retire to a life of leisure? Long lazy days of golf and darts are in my future. I’ll sit in the park near the LifeInvader building and grumble about these young whippersnappers and their pants all falling down. Damn kids!
Stardock Entertainment has launched a Kickstarter for a physical version of Dead Man’s Draw. The Kickstarter page explains that Stardock made a few prototype decks of Dead Man’s Draw in the studio to quickly test ideas before going live with the iOS version. People liked them enough that they decided to try making them for real.
Stardock Entertainment is a video game company, not a tabletop game manufacturer. We don’t have the history, the expertise, or the connections to get into that industry – nor do we really want to. At the same time, we have been having a blast playing the physical version of Dead Man’s Draw and want to share that opportunity with anyone who might be interested.
Tom’s review of Dead Man’s Draw on the iPad lauded the mechanics, but did point out the in-app purchases were annoying. There won’t be any virtual panhandling in this version of the game!
Path of Exile has been so gratifyingly playable for so long it’s easy to forget it’s not actually out yet. But then you read these notes for the official release, when Path of Exile drops the beta disclaimer and becomes a 1.0.
My favorite bullet point is a pair of new leagues. What other games might call modes are leagues in Path of Exile. You roll up a character specifically for that league, which has a self-contained balance and economy. The upcoming domination and nemesis leagues give the gameplay a new focus:
Domination: A variety of powerful Shrines now spawn throughout Wraeclast, surrounded by large groups of monsters that are influenced by their power. These monsters receive substantial bonuses or are protected by their shrine’s effects in some way. If you are able to tag the shrine, you receive these powers for a short time. It’s often very risky to run in and try to claim the shrine, but it is a gamble that can pay off. One of the new challenges is to tag each of the shrine types.
Nemesis: Nemesis is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). Rare monsters have one guaranteed mod from the Nemesis Pool, which makes the fight substantially harder. One of the challenges is to kill a rare with each of the Nemesis mods.
Among the other features are new enemies, new types of skill gems, guild support, new player vs player options (Path of Exile has player vs player?), and an unlockable Scion character class too complicated for anyone who hasn’t played through on normal difficulty.
Mark you calendars for 10am Pacific on Wednesday, October 23rd.
Remember the kerfuffle when it was announced that the Xbox One would not be able to use any headsets made for the Xbox 360, at least until an official hardware adapter comes out? Not to be outdone, Sony’s PlayStation 4 will have the same issue. Game Informer is reporting that Bluetooth headsets that work with the PlayStation 3 will not work with the PS4.
If you have a Sony-branded PULSE gaming headset (or the elite edition of that product), you will need to wait for a system update coming in the future. It seems that those will not work at all at launch.
Any other headset that relies on bluetooth for chat will not work at all. If you have something that relies on USB for chat (like the Astro mixamps and Astro A50 wireless system), you’ll eventually be able to use those. An update will be coming in the future.
All is not lost! You will be able to use the DualShock 4’s integrated 3.5mm jack to listen to in-game audio. The PS4 also comes with an over-the-ear headset in the box, you just won’t be able to use your fancy Bluetooth unit to yell at your opponents.
Heroes of Newerth is offering a new announcer DLC that adds Samuel L. Jackson’s voice to the game. S2 Games posted a few samples of the voicepack and Jackson’s smooth delivery certainly adds something to the free-to-play MOBA, that’s for sure.
“Get those m@$%#%^&$ing newbs out of my m@$%#%^&$ing lane!”
Arma III’s first campaign episode will launch on October 31st. Bohemia Interactive announced that “Survive” the first of three free campaign DLC installments, will drop players into the war-torn Republic of Stratis. Jay Crowe, creative director on Arma III, described the setup by harkening back to the franchise’s roots.
“Our first campaign episode, ‘Survive’, introduces players to Ben Kerry, a regular soldier who’s part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Mediterranean. Following a couple of years of uneasy cease-fire, this US-led deployment is now in the process of a staged drawdown. The vacuum left by withdrawing forces is being rapidly filled by the opposing CSAT faction, creating the conditions for, one might say, a flashpoint.”
Along with the campaign scenarios, the DLC will add more vehicles, objects, and animations for use in the game’s editor. In my review of Arma III, I praised the strength of the editor and the tense gameplay that can occur, but I was disappointed by the lack of content and technical issues. Hopefully, Bohemia can shore up the game’s weaknesses with this free campaign DLC.
Madison Avenue loves Kinect and Xbox One. At least, that’s what Microsoft hopes will happen. According to Time, Microsoft’s marketing head Yusef Mehdi, was speaking to a conference of advertising professionals and told them that the new console could be the “holy grail” of how marketers can “understand the consumer in that 360 degrees of their life.” Having already taken fire over Kinect’s privacy issues, Microsoft’s PR machine moved to quell concerns.
“We do not have plans to target ads or content to you based on any data Kinect collects. We have a long-standing commitment to your privacy and will not target ads to you based on any data Kinect collects unless you choose to allow us to do so.”
Choose to allow us? Meaning, yes. Microsoft will use data collected by Kinect to target advertising. Maybe you’ll have to opt in, but I doubt it. I rather think the opt out will be buried in a 5,000 word user agreement. I can’t wait to see the ads I get after sitting on my couch in my bathrobe.
These guys are the EXALT. Dapper looking gents they may be, but the’re not your frineds. They are a secret group of sleeper agents in XCOM: Enemy Within that will battle against players’ XCOM troops. In a preview published at Polygon, it was revealed that this new enemy faction will feature human traitors that side with the alien invasion. The EXALT will compete with players for xeno technology, hack into XCOM computers to steal funds, and stir up panic levels in territories. Players will need to battle the EXALT across the globe until they can hunt down and eradicate the main base of turncoats. I’d advise looking for a large concentration of guys that look like they stepped out of Boardwalk Empire holding xeno weapons.
Push back at the alien menace or go after the dirty traitors? I choose the path of Vichy France and capitulate. Being a Sectoid dataslave can’t be all bad.
Crytek has some female combatants in Warface. Check out that combat-ready armor. Looks practical. It’s not like anyone shoots at center mass, right? Joshua Howard, executive producer on Warface, told Wired that the eyebrow-raising female fighters were made “unrealistic” in response to feedback from players in specific geographic regions. The Russian version (depicted above) is sexualized differently from the version made for gamers in China.
“We leaned a little Russian in these characters but we’re doing another set of characters for our Chinese market, for example, and those are leaning in a different direction. It’s interesting to see they are also somewhat unrealistic as compared to the males but differently than the Russians. […] You look at the Chinese models and they’re also disproportionate but in a way that’s more… Chinese? I don’t even know what language to use for that but they’re different.”
Joshua Howard points out later in the same interview that weapon recoil is adjusted for regional preferences just like the females. Russians like more recoil, while Chinese players wanted less. I guess Russians just want more of everything except for women to survive in firefights.
Mad Catz, manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessory hardware, is launching its own Android gaming console. The M.O.J.O. micro-console enters the same crowded market as the Ouya, Nvidia Shield, Gamestick, and every other media device that ships with an Android operating system. Mad Catz aims to differentiate the M.O.J.O. by touting its open market (Amazon, Google Play, TegraZone, and other storefronts will be allowed) as well as the Tegra 4 1.8GHz mobile processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage.
The wireless Bluetooth C.T.R.L.r controller is designed to work as a normal gamepad for the M.O.J.O. and can be used in “mouse mode” for on-screen navigation. You can also pair it to your mobile device to turn your phone into a super-micro-console.
The M.O.J.O. is $249.99 and can be preordered now. The micro-console will launch on December 10th. Maybe by then, Mad Catz will explain what M.O.J.O. stands for.
The Xbox 360 version of State of Decay is getting an expansion by the end of October. Undead Labs’ studio head Jeff Strain posted the status of Breakdown, the hardcore perma-death DLC. Strain explained that the expansion will be in quality assurance testing at Microsoft for the next week. Assuming no critical errors need to be addressed, certification can be issued, and the DLC will be published by the end of the month.
Breakdown adds ramping difficulty to the basic game, making things more challenging for players as they move through the game. Zombies hit harder, special zombies are more frequent, and stamina takes more of a toll on basic combat. An update to State of Decay will balance supply issues for all players, whether they purchase the DLC or not.
When we update the game to support Breakdown, everyone will get our updated resource system, which is designed to make scavenging fairer and more consistent across every player’s experience. As an added bonus, when you play Breakdown, the new system allows us to slowly drain out some of the Resources and items as difficulty increases.
Undead Labs will be showing off Breakdown today at 11:00 AM PST on the official Microsoft Twitch channel.
