This is the trailer for the Director’s Cut of Wasteland 2. Developers inXile had previously announced this expanded, improved, and better balanced version of their successfully crowd-funded RPG earlier, but that was when it was going to be called The Game of the Year Edition. Director’s Cut is a much better sounding name. It suggests that this is the version that people should play because it’s what the creator intended. Game of the Year Edition just sounds like a budget repackage of the game with DLC, which doubly hurts because it’s coming to consoles for the first time. The Director’s Cut brings Unity 5, over 8,000 additional recorded dialog lines, and controller support.
Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut will launch in the late Summer for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Owners of the current PC version will get it as a free upgrade.
When is it too early to announce a sequel for a game? People buy Madden, FIFA, and Call of Duty games knowing full well that unless something goes drastically wrong, there will be a sequel the following year. The players of these franchises know that the publisher is working on the next game even while they pre-order the currently announced title. They’re fine with that. Slightly Mad Studios put their fans to the test by announcing Project CARS 2. Project CARS launched in May, and here we are a little over a month later officially talking about the sequel. The sequel will be crowd-funded just like the first game, and Slightly Mad Studios have invited their supporters to give feedback throughout development.
The developers have promised that work will continue on Project CARS, to include patching, free feature updates, and DLC.
After kicking off the inaugural E3 PC Gaming Show, Tripwire Interactive is showing off more of their zombie shoot-a-thon Killing Floor 2. If you watched the E3 show, you may have caught the sneaky exchange between host Sean Plott and Tripwire’s John Gibson regarding some tech they were using to make their game more visceral. That technology comes from NVIDIA, which of course, couldn’t really be talked about during the venue which was sponsored by graphics card rival AMD. That’s PhysX Flex, by the way. If all goes to plan, Killing Floor 2 will be the first game to ship with NVIDIA’s new tech that combines simulations of various materials.
As the Bloat waddles towards players he’ll vomit Flex-powered bile as a ranged attack, and when gibbed his lungs, intestines and skull will spew forth, in addition to buckets of blood and smaller giblets. Blood and bile intermix, body parts and fluids are scattered by explosions and the Siren’s scream, and everything interacts realistically with geometry and objects. And should another Bloat be popped, the force of his internals exploding outward will further manipulate the disgusting Flex-powered mess that’s already been created.
Charming. NVIDIA pointed out that Flex could be used for more mundane simulations like bursting water balloons, but why not skip straight to zombie guts? It’s the enemy in 70% of games now anyway. Killing Floor 2 is currently available in early access on Steam.
Got enough Evolve? Despite the brouhaha over Evolve’s DLC plans, Turtle Rock and 2K have announced a second content pass for the game. Hunting Season 2 will add four more hunters, another monster, and a cosmetic skin for each to Evolve. The first character revealed is Lennox, a mech-suited hunter with a melee attack.
No price has been revealed for Hunting Season 2, but it will be available to order on June 23rd for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Shortly after Microsoft’s E3 press briefing on Monday, more details of Halo 5: Guardians’ pricing was released. There’s a $60 standard price for the game, a limited edition bundle for $100 that includes some digital goodies, and a $250 package that includes a statue you can proudly display in your closet. But what’s this? Buried in the descriptions for the the two most expensive versions is something about “Premium Requisition packs to enhance Spartan combat.” That sounded ominous to some Halo fans, so Microsoft was asked to explain.
343 Industries’ Josh Holmes was quick to post some details of the new Requisition (REQ) System. Playing Halo 5: Guardians’ Arena or Warzone multiplayer modes will result in the award of points that can be redeemed for Requisition Packs. In the player-versus-player Arena mode, these packs will give players cosmetic items like armors, weapon skins, and animations. In the team-based Warzone mode, packs may be used to acquire weapons and vehicles for use during the match. Players will be able to purchase packs for real money “as a matter of convenience” and part of that revenue will be used to fund the Halo 5 esports tournament prizes.
The REQ System is designed to generously reward players with a steady stream of content to keep gameplay fresh. We’ll be continuing to release new REQ content, post launch, so there are always new toys to play with. All REQ content in the game can earned through the regular course of play in multiplayer.
Halo 5: Guardians will launch on October 27th for the Xbox One.
Consider the first-ever PC gaming E3 press conference a beta product. Hosted by Sean “Day9” Plott, sponsored by PC Gamer and AMD, it featured every cliche you’ve heard about PC gamers. The early access release included awkward public speaking, technical glitches, a clumsy late-night show interview format, and droning hardware talk. The venue appeared to be a spruced-up cafeteria or perhaps a mid-sized business lobby. Developers may be working on a patch to fix these issues.
Tripwire Interactive talked about Killing Floor 2, and announced Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Chris Roberts sent in a video to gloat about Star Citizen crowd-funding more money than many small countries’ gross domestic product. AMD reminded everyone what PC gaming is about by showing off expensive graphics cards and challenging the audience to stay awake during a tech discussion. Twice. The developers of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided then showed AMD what boring really meant by talking about their game engine. Creative Assembly and SCS Software couldn’t be assed to show up, so they sent in videos. Xbox head Phil Spencer appeared to reassure everyone that Microsoft was really super-serious about PC gaming. This time.
In probably the most engaging segment, Dean Hall, creator of DayZ, tried to talk about the new game he’s working on, but Sean Plott insisted on asking him questions about his departure from DayZ. Awkward!
CCP gave the VR fans a glimpse of Eve Valkyrie. Pixel Titans had a live demo of their retro shooter Strafe, which ended up looking more interesting than the Doom reboot by id Software and Bethesda. David Braben of Frontier Development, announced Planet Coaster, a decidedly theme park tycoon style departure from spaceships. ArenaNet premiered player-owned guild halls in the Heart of Thorns expansion for Guild Wars 2. Bohemia Interactive unveiled their Pacific Island terrain expansion for Arma 3 called Tanoa. Indie studio tiger & squid previewed Beyond Eyes. Splash Damage thanked everyone for making the Dirty Bomb launch a success. The Fullbright Company called their upcoming Tacoma a “walking simulator” despite it taking place in a zero-gravity space station. Frictional Games continued the alone-in-an-isolated-station theme but in a horror setting with Soma. Cliff Bleszinski talked about his free-to-play shooter BlueStreak. Enter the Gungeon by Dodge Roll got some live play on stage and made Binding of Isaac feel bad.
900-pound gorilla Blizzard sauntered in and promoted their Diablo-themed update for Heroes of the Storm, The Eternal Conflict which will launch on June 30th. They also discussed the possibility of StarCraft 2’s storyline finally ending with Legacy of the Void. Finally, Hello Games confirmed that No Man’s Sky will be coming to PC at the same time as the PlayStation 4 version launches.
Twitch chat remained a singular treat throughout the show.
I guarantee you won’t see anything out of E3 as adorable as Nintendo’s presentation for Yoshi’s Wooly World, in which the developer Emi Watanabe sits in front of a table of goddamn adorable plushy yarn Yoshis, cheerfully explaining the inspiration for the game, intercut with gameplay footage. Unless someone is developing Puppies Snuggling Kittens 2015, that’s it for the cute factor at E3. Yoshi’s Wooly World will be out on October 16th.
A new Starfox, co-developed with Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 2 director, relies on a gimmick in which the TV shows you the cinematic view and the gamepad shows you the cockpit view. Along with Splatoon, Nintendo is counting on us to aim with our gamepads. The universal gesture for this control scheme is to clutch both hands in front of you and pivot your torso around at awkward angles as if you were a malfunctioning robot. But to be fair, those of us who’ve played Splatoon can attest that it kinda sorta works.
Skylanders and amiibos have formed an unholy toy alliance by offering Skylanders for the WiiU version of the upcoming Skylanders that will work as Skylanders and as amiibos. This holiday season might be remembered as toymaggedon among the parents of Wii-aged children.
The rest of the presentation was a lot of trailers without comment, and sometimes even without coherence. I still have no idea what that Atlus game was. It looked very Japanese. It might have been called Mirage, or Mirage Master, or even just FE. I’m not sure. All I know is that it’s a tale of youth and heroes guided by destiny. That’s a direct quote, by the way. Never mind that it applies to, like, every single JRPG ever. Also shown were trailers for a co-op Zelda game about standing on top of your friends for the 3DS, a Hyrule Warriors for the 3DS, a Metroid co-op game for the 3DS, a Fire Emblem game for the 3DS, something from Level 5 called Yo-Kai Watch about gesture gimmicks on the 3DS, and a Mario and Luigi Paper Jam thing for the 3DS. Hey, Sony, why can’t you support your Vita the way Nintendo supports their 3DS?
Finally, Xenoblade Chronicles X will be out on December 4th. Boom.
What do you get when you put Aisha Tyler, Jason Derulo, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Angela Bassett in a show? You get the Ubisoft 2015 E3 presentation. Once again, the house of Assassin’s Creed went with star power to wow their audience. The South Park creators announced a new RPG using their license, South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Subtle. Jason Derulo danced for Just Dance 2016 which will feature a streaming service to add new tracks. Angela Bassett sternly introduced Rainbow Six Siege’s new “Terrohunt” (yes, it’s an awful name) mode which pits co-op teams against AI opponents.
The games without any celebrity introductions included Anno 2205, Trackmania Turbo, and a DLC for Trials Fusion called Awesome Level Max. The Crew is getting a cross-country expansion that includes a “complete graphical overhaul.” For Honor pits four knights or samurai against another team of four warriors. Think Chivalry: Medieval Warfare but without the Deadliest Warrior license. Tom Clancy’s The Division got a release date in March of 2016. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands has military teams against drug cartels in an open-world setting. There was also an Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate movie, but it was a overshadowed by some guy in the audience that chose to cosplay as the main character in the game.
Microsoft’s E3 2015 show started with their trusty headliner Halo 5 Guardians, then dropped a bomb on the audience. Microsoft is enabling backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One. According to Microsoft, over 100 titles from the last-gen library will be playable on the Xbox One by the holidays with more to come. Retail discs and digital download titles will work with this feature. No work is required from game developers. They only need to approve the compatibility and Microsoft does the wrapper work on their end. Microsoft couldn’t resist sniping at Sony’s PlayStation streaming service by pointing out that their backwards compatibility service was free for gamers to use.
A spiffy new Xbox One Elite Controller is coming this Fall. It has paddles, a rocker directional pad, and removable widgets. They must help with the shooting somehow.
On the software side, Microsoft kept to exclusives for the most part, with a few mutiplatform titles. Forza 6, now with inclement weather and night racing was previewed with Ford’s help. Rise of the Tomb Raider was QTE heaven. There were videos of Ion from Dean Hall, (of DayZ fame) Dark Souls 3, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Fable Legends, and Gigantic. Tacoma, the newest title from Gone Home makers The Fullbright Company got a quick spot in the indie segment along with Cuphead, a gorgeous side-scroller done in the style of a 1930’s cartoon. Rare has apparently been busy with a Rare Replay collection that bundles up 30 of their games in a discount package, as well as working on Sea of Thieves, a new title featuring multiplayer pirating. Gears of War returned to Microsoft’s show with the Gears of War Ultimate Edition that remasters the original Gears of War for the newer console, and Gears 4 which is apparently all about walking through pitch-black areas very slowly.
For being the first ever event, Bethesda’s pre-E3 briefing was smoothly executed. (You can watch a recording here, if you were busy with the Game of Thrones season finale.) Bethesda showed off some Doom, Dishonored 2, and Fallout 4 as their big announcements. Doom includes monster loot pinatas, the return of the super shotgun, and Snapmap, a map editing system that will come to “all platforms” that Doom releases on. As a console controller editor it appeared to be rather deep, with the ability to cobble together pre-made map sections, place enemies, map details, and scripting links. For Fallout 4, Bethesda revealed that a major feature would be the ability to dynamically build settlements in the wasteland with pre-fab chunks, move in inhabitants, and defend them against enemies with traps and turrets. That dynamic construction will extend to weapon and armor creation as well. In Dishonored 2 the player can take on the role of Emily Kaldwin, or step into Corvo Attano’s spring-heeled shoes once again. This time, the stealthy assassinations take place in Karnaca, a steampunk version of Morocco. Bethesda dropped a surprise in the form of Fallout Shelter, a free-to-play iOS Fallout game available immediately.
Less enthusiastically received by the audience was the news that Bethesda is launching their own game client. Bethesda.net will be the portal for their games beginning shortly. The Doom Snapmap creations, for example, will use Bethesda.net for community sharing. Whether or not Bethesda will break off on their own and leave Steam on the PC remains to be seen.
Let’s say you love Farming Simulator 15. You like driving tractors, harvesting crops, and improving your farm. It gives you wood. You like everything about it, but playing with the mouse and keyboard makes you feel disconnected. Hardcore driving fans get wheels and pedals to drive their video game Porsches. Virtual jockeys get throttle and stick setups to fly their jets. Even giant robot fans got Steel Battalion! Why are they the only ones that get to blow hundreds of dollars on their sims?
Saitek has you covered. The Farming Simulator wheel, pedals, and side panel bundle is the answer to your digital agricultural prayers. It features a “realistic front loader stick” to control the heavy machinery, 25 programmable buttons, and 900 degrees of rotation on the wheel for “maximum” realism. All for only $299.99. There are cheaper kits that leave one or more components out, but why skimp? Just go for it. Farm living is the life for me!
The Kickstarter for the board game The Doom That Came to Atlantic City is infamous for being one of the first high-profile failures of the nascent crowd-funding scene. In July of 2013, the project’s lead, Erik Chevalier announced that he was ceasing development on the game, refunding everyone’s money, and closing up shop. Only a few people received refunds. As it turned out, Chevalier spent most of the money on personal bills including rent and moving expenses. Cryptozoic Entertainment swooped in and rescued the project, eventually producing and selling the finished game, but Chevalier never answered for his misrepresentations.
The Federal Trade Commission, in its first-ever case involving crowd-funding, has announced a legal settlement with Erik Chevalier. Although the $111,793.71 judgment is suspended due to Chevalier’s “inability to pay” the settlement represents a precedent that crowd-funding businesses will have to consider carefully. Kickstarters once carried virtually no legal risk to the creators, but that’s now changed. The sheriff has come to town.
Shadow Warrior 2 will feature multiplayer. Devolver Digital and Flying Wild Hog have announced the sequel to 2013’s reboot and it will feature four-player online co-op. Shadow Warrior was good, if a little bit of a slog at times, so a little help from some friends would be a welcome addition. If one samurai sword slicing through enemies is good, then four is better obviously! Even more intriguing than co-op, the blurb from the developer mentions “procedurally-generated landscapes” as part of the game’s features. What this could mean for gameplay is anybody’s guess.
Now surviving as a reclusive mercenary on the edge of a corrupted world, the formidable warrior must again wield a devastating combination of guns, blades, magic and wit to strike down the demonic legions overwhelming the world.
Shadow Warrior 2 is coming to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in 2016.
Let’s have a minute of silence for Halo split-screen co-op. Yelling at your buddy for dawdling during the Flood invasion, high-fives over circle-strafing the Covenant, and pulling your friends controller out of the console on accident as you stumble by on the way to the bathroom. These are good times that are soon to be a memory. Couch co-op has been a staple of the Halo series, but that’s ending. Halo 5: Guardians will only offer online co-op. The bone 343 Industries and Microsoft is tossing to you is that you won’t need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play the online co-op, and they will be making all DLC multiplayer maps free. Small compensation for losing the ability to smack your partner’s head for firing a rocket into your feet during a skirmish.
Update: 343 Industries has corrected their earlier statement regarding online co-op. Players will actually need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to start or join co-op games.
When Tyler Kirkham isn’t working for DC Comics, he’s busy making his Elder Scrolls fandom into reality. He’s spent about $50,000 to turn his man-cave into a Skyrim-themed playroom. It features a secret bookcase door, arms and armor displays, replica Elder Scrolls books, an alchemy lab, waterfall shower, and a kitchenette fit for making sweet rolls. You can imagine the chaos one good dragon shout would cause in there.
