Go into a Gamestop and check out the PC gaming area. It’s probably one freestanding shelf section way in the back of the store facing towards the far wall. The area may have a laughable selection of points cards for various free-to-play games and download services, with a couple of older boxed games that are horribly overpriced, if it has any boxes at all. It’s been that way for a couple of years, and the only thing keeping the PC gaming section from dying out in retail is the audience that still picks up a copy of The Sims or World of Warcraft every now and again.
Thanks to Steam, you may see a revival of the dedicated PC gaming space at retail. Valve has announced that in partnership with Gamestop, Game UK, and EB Games, you’ll soon be able to find a Steam-branded PC gaming section at participating stores. The prepaid cards aren’t going away, but Steam Controllers, the Steam Link, and Steam Machines will soon be stacked on the shelves alongside the off-brand PS4 controllers and expensive fighting game joysticks.
“Steam has helped grow PC gaming into a leading platform for games,” said Bob Puzon, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, the exclusive retail partner in the U.S. for Steam Hardware. “With millions of gamers already enjoying the Steam desktop experience, we anticipate a strong demand for the upcoming Steam Hardware products and are looking forward to serving as the exclusive non-digital retail launch partner.”
If you missed the preorder period for Steam hardware, this may be a viable way to get your hands on one of these devices for the holidays.
Battlefield 4 is getting a free map that was made largely with community input. The Community Operations DLC coming later this year, includes Operation Outbreak a jungle map created with the help of longtime Battlefield players and community testers. First announced in February, the project started by asking players to vote on a general concept, (mountain, desert, or jungle) moved on to helping developer DICE plan, test, and finally execute the map that will be featured in the update.
Enter the dense jungle to battle for supremacy in a valley with a medical research facility, an ancient temple, and a lush waterfall. The valley is infantry-focused with limited access, making the use of agile vehicles (such as RHIB’s on the river, quad bikes for fast transportation, and light attack vehicles) critical for success.
Assuming you’re not busy shooting stormtroopers in DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront, you’ll be able to experience the Battlefield 4 Community Operations DLC this Autumn.
NBA 2K16 launched on the 29th and if you’re not big into basketball, you may not have noticed. If the Pelicans, Warriors, and Rockets don’t hold your interest, what chance would 2K Sports’ version of the NBA have at enticing you away from killing enemy soldiers or crafting mines? But maybe you should pay more attention to this. NBA 2K16 may have one of the most wack-a-doodle intro videos to a “serious” sports game that anyone’s ever published. What do glowing eyes, a post-apocalyptic crumbling city, and a demon throne have to do with the glitz and glam of the NBA? You’d have to ask Spike Lee for the answer. The infamously prickly film director wrote the story for the single player campaign. That’s right. It’s a Spike Lee joint. It even says so on the cover.
NBA 2K16 is available for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 was released yesterday and it’s a hot mess. Publisher Activision and developer Robomodo launched a game that is completely broken. Whatever version of the game Conan O’Brien played is not the same game that people are experiencing right now. Polygon’s Griffin McElroy and Nick Robinson spent 45 minutes just trying to get the game to run past the publisher logo on the Xbox One. Giant Bomb’s Drew Scanlon had better luck getting the game going, but perhaps it would’ve been best if he hadn’t. Physics errors, trick glitches, unnecessary multiplayer, crashes, and spotty controls combined with a full $60 retail price. It’s like a greatest hits of bad gaming.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, what happened to you man? You used to be beautiful.
You’ve been decorating the outside of your Euro Truck Simulator 2 vehicle for years, so why not make the interior a little more homey? SCS Software is releasing a Cabin Accessories DLC soon. The developers expect to launch the DLC after the upcoming 1.21 patch that will improve some physics and sound issues. That fuzzy dice is okay, but that purse on the passenger seat really ties it all together.
80 Days is now on PC. This charming adventure game made quite the splash on mobile platforms when it was released last year thanks to its storytelling. Inkle Studio’s art deco take on the trials of being Phileas Fogg’s manservant while helping him fly around the world was already filled with gentlemanly challenges, but just in time for the new platform, the developers are adding more. The additions include new destinations, new storylines, and more intrigue! According to Inkle Studios, the word count in 80 Days is now larger than the first five Harry Potter novels. Voyage verbosa!
Deputise for a corrupt Sheriff, play poker with a billionaire, go over Niagara Falls, rekindle a lost romance, discover Port Moresby (to the surprise of its inhabitants) and soar skywards with the curious Levitating Atheists of Valaam.
Frictional Games’ Soma was released on September 22nd, and if you’ve braved the horror game’s corridors already, you probably have a few questions about the plot. Frictional isn’t promising that all questions will be answered, but if you’re itching for some background, they’re releasing an episodic video series showing some of what happened before the game. There are some light spoilers in the video, so if you haven’t panicked your way through Soma, you may want to hold off watching the series until you do. Frictional says they will upload a new episode every day until October 5th. If you do want to watch the video, you should start with the two teasers from the live-action series which were released here and here in 2013 when the game was announced.
Soma is available on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
Elite: Dangerous revealed some heretofore unknown features of their upcoming Horizons expansion, and it looks like the game will be doing things Star Citizen has been promising for a while. According to Frontier Developments, Elite Dangerous: Horizons will add planetary landings, ship-launched fighters, cooperative crew modes, and a Commander Creator to render in-game human avatars. Updates to the main game will add new flyable ships, more enemies to fight, and a CQC mode that will concentrate on competitive team matches separate from the campaign. Elite Dangerous: Horizons will launch on PC later this year.
Way over on the other side of the open-galaxy space sim arena, Star Citizen tootles along with its $89 million in pledged funds, but Derek Smart continues to be a thorn in the project’s side. Not content to just threaten legal action, Smart had his lawyer draft and file a letter to the developers of Star Citizen accusing them of lying about the state of the game’s development. Roberts Space Industries was quick to respond with their own snark-filled letter letting Derek Smart know exactly where he could go. Smart continued his accusations and raised a new one – that RSI was beginning a round of layoffs to get their ballooning budget under control. While RSI has not officially responded to the latest from Derek Smart, it was confirmed that the ex-RSI people Smart named in his blog did leave the studio for undisclosed reasons.
What does this mean for Star Citizen? Hey, that Elite Dangerous: Horizons expansion looks pretty good.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a bit of a cultural phenomenon. An outsider could be forgiven for thinking that the “brony” fan community is being ironic, but the 2012 documentary showed that some of these folks are drop-dead serious about their enthusiasm for the equine cartoon. A group of mega-bronies tried to get a 2D brawling game made based on the My Little Pony property called Fighting is Magic, but it was quickly shut down by Hasbro, the legal owners of the IP. Mane6, the developers, remained undaunted and in the spirit of the show, turned lemons into hay. They got with Lauren Faust, the creator of the Friendship is Magic cartoon characters, and came up with Them’s Fightin’ Herds. It’s a fighting game with original pony-ish characters. This is how we got from a 1980’s carton reboot to a game about cutesy reindeer and cows facing off in combat.
What if you’re not a brony, and you’re not convinced that Them’s Fightin’ Herds will have the chops to pull this off? Lab Zero, the makers of Skullgirls, licensed their engine for use in Mane6’s game. On that point at least, you can rest easy knowing the foundation of the game has the horsepower (sorry) to pull the concept. Them’s Fightin’ Herds is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo and will launch for PC sometime in 2017.
DraftKings, the online lottery disguised as a fantasy sports site, will be offering ways to draft and trade your favorite pro gaming competitors in online leagues starting next month. This means DraftKings members will be able to use cyber-athletes in online sports gaming to win prize money based on those athletes’ performances playing games. Virtualizing the virtual, if you will. Instead of your office co-workers arguing over Marshawn Lynch or Peyton Manning, they could be bickering about the merits of SanSheng versus Fatal1ty.
One of the biggest annual events that Valve hosts is the yearly Halloween update for Team Fortress 2. Past events have included special spooky maps, modes, cosmetic accessories, and weapons that could only be accessed during the holiday period. This year, Valve is trying something different. They’re doing nothing. Instead, Valve will flip the switch on Halloween tagged items in the Steam Workshop and let everyone play with user-made items for the holiday while re-enabling past events.
The reality is, if we produce a holiday-specific event map this year, it means we’ll have to stop working on everything else. So: We’ve decided to turn Halloween mostly over to you. This year’s Halloween Update will be a showcase of all the best Halloween-themed community content (items, maps, taunts and unusuals) you guys can come up with.
Whether this should be considered a “treat” or a “trick” is left up to each player.
Twelve years is a long time to wait for an expansion. That’s how long it’s been since Age of Mythology’s The Titans expansion was released. While that expansion added the Atlantean culture to the game, real-time-strategy fans clamored for Asia to get their due. It just didn’t happen. Ensemble Studios moved on to Age of Empires III and when they closed in 2009, the hope for the Chinese pantheon to make an appearance in the game outside of fan modifications died. Jump forward to now, and it looks like that dream is reborn. Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon is being made by Forgotten Empires and SkyBox Labs, the same folks that brought us the recent remaster of Age of Mythology on Steam.
Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon will be shown on Twitch on October 2nd.
The next time you complain about a Call of Duty trailer being a bombastic celebration of excess and pointless big-budget Hollywood star power, just remember that it could be like the video above. In Treyarch’s timeline video, the developer preps gamers for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 by catching everyone up on the convoluted story with about ten minutes of text. That’s right. You think you’re ready for prestige mode? Sit there and watch ten minutes of text and still photos. Now you’re ready for some NUK3TOWN!
Keep your Call of Duty and your Metal Gear Solid. You think you’re some kind of badass for fighting off waves of robo-insurgents or silently taking down Russian soldiers? Piffle! Try keeping the silver polished while attending to the pressing needs of your master as a valet. In Activision’s Downton Abbey: Mysteries of the Manor, the player is tasked with managing the estate while searching for a thief. It’s free-to-play, so even the help can try the diversion, but be aware that only the betters will be able to afford the usual run of in-game currency.
“Return found items to their rightful owners and earn the nobility’s favors!”
The Earl of Grantham needs your help and in return you’ll earn his favor! My oh my! Why did the primogeniture system go away again?
Today’s DLC — free DLC! — for Victor Vran adds a new weapon. Adding a weapon to Victor Vran isn’t like adding a weapon to any other game. In any other game, a weapon is just like a weapon. You probably got a unique one when you pre-ordered from Gamestop, signed up for the online NameOfGame.net service, or just killed a bat. But a weapon in Victor Vran is like a whole new class. Well, half a whole new class. How Victor plays at any given time is based on his choice of two weapons from his arsenal, each with unique abilities and gameplay. Let me explain.
The new weapon is a book. Yep, a book. But he doesn’t hit anyone with it. He reads to them from it. Here’s what the Tome of Souls does when Victor Vran reads to you from it:
The Tome can unleash devastating forays of magical attacks, teleport the caster and hamper his enemies with crowd-control effects. This DLC…includes several legendary Tomes such as the Nekonomicon and Fifty Shades of Slay, as well as a new legendary destiny card for Tome-users.
I can’t tell if Nekonomicon is a [sic] situation or if it’s a joke about Neko Case and H.P. Lovecraft that went over my head. But I did get the E.L. James reference, so I’ve got that going for me.
