Sony’s latest announcement about the developer of the troubled Driveclub:
Regular reviews take place throughout SCE Worldwide Studios, ensuring that the resources that we have in such a competitive landscape can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects.
As part of this process we have reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to the European studios structure.
As a result, It has been decided that Evolution Studio will close.
The irony is that after Driveclub’s half-baked marketing and botched release, Evolution devoted their resources to a steady stream of remarkable improvements. As of today, there is no better pure racing game on the PS4.
Zombies are coming to Rise of the Tomb Raider. The Cold Darkness Awakened DLC features Lara Croft exploring a secret Siberian outpost full of infected soldiers. They’re more 28 Days Later than Night of the Living Dead, but we all know what it means when a disease turns people into “bloodthirsty killers who thrive on carnage.” They’re zombies. They may not be technically undead, but the death sequences when you screw up will probably be just as gruesome.
Cold Darkness Awakened will launch on March 29th. It is the third and final piece of DLC for the game’s season pass bundle. It will also be available separately for both Windows and Xbox One versions.
The Division’s upcoming patch will fix a few exploits. Farming lucrative encounters is a tried and true technique with any loot-heavy game, but the ability to kill named enemy characters (the equivalent of Diablo 3’s mini-bosses) was being abused to a ridiculous level in The Division. Run to mob. Kill mini-boss. Hoover up loot. Die. Rinse and repeat. Apparently, this is engaging to some people. The upcoming 1.0.2 patch does away with this loophole, putting the grind back to where Ubisoft wants it to be.
Named NPCs will no longer respawn after being killed in the Open World. This will prevent situations where players were able to kill a same named NPC over and over again.
If you want to watch Tom Chick and Jason McMaster play The Division the correct way, start here.
I know it’s hard to believe the people behind the Xbox One could be tone deaf to the state of the industry. But it seems Microsoft hired go-go dancers dressed as schoolgirls for their GDC party. The dancers writhed and wriggled around the periphery of a dance floor that had been set up for partygoers. Presumably people would come into the party, see the school-girl dancers, and think, “Yowsa, I gotta get me a copy of Halo 5!”
Frankly, what I find offensive is the idea of a dance floor devoted to the awkward gyrations of all those privileged white males.
Skyshine’s Bedlam (Bedlam’s Skyshine? Skylam Bedshine?) was one of the games of 2015 that you didn’t play, which is a shame because it was one of the best little tactical combat games of that year. Its simple board game mechanics wedded to a setup straight out of Mad Max, put it in the same space as Massive Chalice or Chaos Reborn. The main gameplay consisted of a tight limitation on action points and strict rules about unit abilities, making it less like an XCOM and more like a chess. Unfortunately, this was something that bounced off many players expecting a more traditional tactical combat game.
Skyshine Games has taken the feedback to heart and adjusted the gameplay to satisfy those complaints. The Redux! Update adjusts the action point limitation that vexed so many players to be more generous and forgiving. The revamp also allows players to take on the role of any of the factions, and even use a team composed of different faction origins. Along with a bevy of balance changes and a reworked campaign mode, it’s like an entirely different game.
Skyshine’s Bedlam is currently on sale on Steam to promote the changes.
In the flood of shooters coming out with MOBA-like rosters of playable heroes, Battleborn, developed by Gearbox and published by 2K Games, is likely one of the least talked about titles. Gearbox’s take on the genre is to stick with their strengths and integrate character-driven elements into the game by having a Story Operations mode that play more like traditional single player campaign levels alongside the competitive multiplayer.
Now that the game is nearing completion, Gearbox wants to make clear that their game will not be following the same pricing strategy as other games in the genre. It’s not free-to-play for one thing. It’s a standard retail release with free updates. Battleborn will launch with 25 playable heroes and Gearbox promises a further five will be added post-launch for free. Additionally, new maps, modes, and updates will be free for owners of the game. The only for-pay DLC being discussed is five new Story Operations that will be offered as part of the season pass. That’s a marked difference from Evolve, also published by 2K, that launched with a spreadsheet of expensive DLC.
Battleborn will launch on May 3rd for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Sony announced the price and launch month for the PlayStation VR system. Speaking at the 2016 Games Developer Conference in San Francisco, CEO Andrew House said Sony’s virtual reality system will cost $399 for the headset, cables, and documentation. You’ll need a PlayStation 4 and at least a controller to use it, but even if you’re starting from scratch, the retail price of the PlayStation VR is much less than the Oculus Rift which costs $599, or the HTC Vive which starts at $799. Both of those VR systems also require a beefy computer to use that would cost more than a PlayStation 4. Since the high prices of the VR systems shown to date have been an issue for many, Sony’s solution seems to tackle that objection head on.
The PlayStation VR system will hit the shelves in October of this year, and between its launch and the end of the year, Sony expects at least fifty games to be released. One of those titles will be a VR-exclusive version of Star Wars: Battlefront. The system will also allow gamers to enter a virtual theater and play their normal PlayStation 4 games as if they were projected on an imaginary screen. VR people! Get excited!
The clash of metal against metal. Buzzsaws versus pistons. Treads crushing wheels. Claws against pincers. The Automatron DLC for Fallout 4 will launch on March 22nd for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It adds robot companions that you can craft and modify from junk you find in the wasteland. That’s right. More crafting for Fallout 4. Don’t you wish you kept all those Giddyup Buttercup parts now?
Microsoft is allowing cross-network play, to include other console systems, on the Xbox One. Chris Charla, the director of Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program, announced the upcoming feature while outlining events at the Game Developer’s Conference. Psyonix’s Rocket League will be one of the first games to take advantage of the Xbox One’s cross-network functionality.
While Rocket League on PlayStation 4 has enjoyed cross-network play with PC users on Steam, the Xbox One version previously did not have this capability, a feature deficit that garnered some harsh criticism from fans. Rare games like IDARB do have cross-play with Xbox One and Windows 10 Store versions, but play with gamers outside of Microsoft’s ecosystem is a new, and welcome, development.
Act of Aggression, Eugen Systems’s disappointing throwback RTS, is getting a literal reboot. Although hotly anticipated for its old-school Command & Conquer: Generals sensibilities, Act of Aggression was not well received when it launched in late 2015. The confusing and complicated resource system, indistinguishable units, and bland factions proved to be too much to ask of its audience. The multiplayer community drifted away. Rather than blame marketing or entitled gamers, the developers have taken a hard look at what happened and come up with a solution to get back on track. Eugen has announced Act of Aggression: Reboot Edition, a standalone do-over that they promise fixes “most, if not all” of the things that turned the fans away.
Thanks to today’s ease of delivering patches and content to keep games alive, we had the opportunity to take Act of Aggression back to the drawing board. And that’s exactly what we have been doing. We’ve been busy identifying the reasons behind the less positive reviews: what we did wrong, what we failed to deliver, and what was expected from us. And, more importantly, what could be done about it.
A few of the changes in the new version of the game include simplifying the economy down to one resource, changing the construction queue to up-front payments, and improving the look and animations of units. Owners of Act of Aggression will get the Reboot Edition added to their Steam library for free when it goes live. Before then, players will be able to opt-in to a test version to help the developers nail things down.
Stardew Valley, the surprise indie farming hit from one man dev team Eric Barone, isn’t just about farming. There’s a host of secrets and tricks buried in the idyllic landscape and among the populace of nearby Pelican Town. Like Harvest Moon or Rune Factory, the inspirations for Stardew Valley, the game is stuffed with hidden bits and bobs to discover. There are whole systems of gameplay buried beneath the hoeing, planting, and harvesting. It’s actually fairly easy to miss out on some of the cooler Easter Eggs.
The contents of the first piece of paid DLC for XCOM 2 is focused on the dress-up side of the game. Anarchy’s Children, adds 100 cosmetic options to your soldiers including masks, hairstyles, makeup, tattoos, helmets, clothing, and more. From the images shown by Firaxis, the DLC content leans heavily into the Mad Max vibe, which is appropriate for grunts that may die explosively based on a bad die roll.
Anarchy’s Children launches on March 17th and is part of the Reinforcement Pack pass. It will also be available separately for $4.99.
More details of Gears of War 4 were revealed today by GameInformer. Developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft, Gears of War 4 features a brand new trio of characters that appear to have gone on a strict diet. No more hulking thrashball players for us! It’s all about the svelte look 25 years into the franchise’s timeline. Kait Diaz, the outsider rebel, rocks some fierce girl-power glam. Del Walker, the stalwart bestie kicks it up with street style. Even JD Fenix, the son of Gears beefcake hero Marcus Fenix, looks like he’s about 30 pounds lighter than dear old dad. The secret to their slim success? Hunger and desperation! Apparently, when you sweep the surface of the planet with devastating windstorms for a quarter century, food gets scarce. If you want to drop a few pounds, go on the run from burrowing monsters and compete for resources.
Microsoft is shutting down the beta of Fable Legends, as well as closing Lionhead Studios and Press Play Studios. In the terse post from Microsoft, the abrupt cancellation of Fable Legends and Project Knoxville was announced along with the studio closures.
These have been tough decisions and we have not made them lightly, nor are they a reflection on these development teams – we are incredibly fortunate to have the talent, creativity and commitment of the people at these studios.
Fable Legends, a free-to-play spinoff of the Fable franchise, has been in development since 2012 and was announced to the public in 2013 during Gamescom. The game entered beta earlier this year, but will be shut down on April 13th. Current beta players will be able to continue playing until that date, but no new players will be admitted. Gamers that purchased in-game items will be refunded their full amount. Lionhead Studios was founded in 1996 and was acquired by Microsoft in 2006.
Project Knoxville from Press Play was going to be a third-person multiplayer survival game inspired by arena-style hunts like The Hunger Games. Press Play was founded in 2006 and acquired by Microsoft in 2012.
Is Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform initiative as reviled by PC gamers as Games for Windows Live used to be? If Epic Games’ co-founder Tim Sweeney has his way, UWP will find its way into the same dustbin of gaming into which GFWL eventually rested. Sweeney, in a blistering editorial published by The Guardian, went into detail on his objections to the program and explained why he believes it’s bad for gaming as a whole. According to the veteran developer, Micosoft’s “aggressive” UWP policies prevent competition, infringe on rights, and is a move “against the entire PC industry.” By limiting access to features in UWP to software sold in the Windows Store, Sweeney accuses Microsoft of taking steps to monopolize app distribution and commerce.
In my view, if Microsoft does not commit to opening PC UWP up in the manner described here, then PC UWP can, should, must and will, die as a result of industry backlash. Gamers, developers, publishers simply cannot trust the PC UWP “platform” so long as Microsoft gives evasive, ambiguous and sneaky answers to questions about UWP’s future, as if it’s a PR issue. This isn’t a PR issue, it’s an existential issue for Microsoft, a first-class determinant of Microsoft’s future role in the world.
Saying that he hoped he would never be compelled to write the article, Tim Sweeney, admitted that Microsoft’s Phil Spencer had listened to Epic’s concerns, but went ahead with the UWP program. Sweeney called on Microsoft to change UWP to be a more open platform.
The editorial from Tim Sweeney comes just after Microsoft launched Gears of War: Ultimate Edition exclusively in the Windows Store for Windows 10 on March 1st. (Microsoft purchased the Gears of War franchise outright from Epic in 2014.) While it might be coincidence that the Windows 10 version of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is beset by a myriad of technical issues, it certainly must have stung Sweeney to see his old game treated so poorly.
Gamers should recall that Valve boss Gabe Newell warned that Microsoft’s early iteration of the Windows Store in Windows 8 was a “catastrophe” for PC gaming. Newell said the creation of the SteamOS was due in part as a response to what he saw as the coming threat from Microsoft’s attempts to lock down PC gaming.
