Tom and I really liked Bethesda and id Software’s 2016 re-imagining of Doom. One of the few wrinkles was it’s bog-standard forgettable multiplayer. It was a weird retro mish-mash of arena shooting with flavorless modern concessions like random unlocks and map pack DLC. Most gamers rejected Doom’s multiplayer quickly moving on to something else once the exquisite single player campaign was done. With Update 6.66 (get it?) the developers hope they can turn the general opinion around on Doom’s multiplayer.
First, the season pass and DLC map packs have been made free for everyone that owns the game. Second, the developer is revamping the progression system. Instead of waiting for random cosmetic unlocks in the old system, players need to achieve clearly defined milestones to unlock specific items. Everyone is being reset to level 0, but vets will have the option of retaining all previously unlocked items. New multiplayer Runes replace the old Hack Modules and are persistent player abilities that are equipped in your loadout. Finally, the HUD and kill cameras have been adjusted to give players more information.
Bethesda is rolling out a temporary price cut to $14.99 during this weekend’s free tryout period.
A section of Highway 1 in Big Sur, California was closed due to a landslide that occurred on May 20th. If you’re not cruising down the historic Pacific Coast Highway this summer, you may not think this would have an impact on your activities, but if you play American Truck Simulator, think again. SCS Software has implemented an update of the game that includes this 13-acre addition to California’s coastline and closure of the in-game route.
Its reopening in our American Truck Simulator will depend entirely on real world events.
It appears SCS Software may have its first test of their software-as-service approach. As of a few hours ago, the California Department of Transportation has issued an alert that the previously closed route is now partially open. If only American Truck Simulator modeled mud-slogging and dirt traversal!
I’m not convinced Domina is an actual game. The AI basically plays it for me. I’m sitting in the shade watching. I click the occasional decision, and it might not even be a decision of much consequence. But that’s fine. I shouldn’t have to mess with meaningful decisions. I’m just some rich ancient Roman gladiator manager living a life of luxury and maybe corruption. Corruption seems to take effort, but I guess it can also happen when I get a multiple choice question. Do I a) accept the bribe or b) reject the bribe? I don’t really need 50 ducats or whatever they are, so I just clicked one of the options to get the screen out of the way. “Who can be bothered?” is the theme of the game. I’m guessing “domina” is Latin for “Who can be bothered?” Continue reading →
American McGee’s Alice and Alice: Madness Returns struck a chord with gamers. Years before Tim Burton was given Disney’s backing to create twisted 3D movie versions of Lewis Carroll’s fantasy books, American McGee was arming Alice with a butcher’s knife and setting her loose in Hot Topic levels filled with crooked doorways. Years later, people are still pestering American McGee about a third go-around in goth Wonderland. In a firm blog post American McGee answers the question once and for all. It’s not up to him, so stop directing questions his way. It’s all up to the license holder, in this case, Electronic Arts.
“I HAVE NO CONTROL over the Alice rights, EA’s decision-making process, or anything at all related to Alice, Alice merchandise, Alice adaptations, etc, etc.”
McGee thinks there may be another Alice game someday, but interested fans should tweet the publisher instead of wasting his time. The good news is that every other fable in existence is up for grabs and American McGee’s latest game in development is Out of the Woods which combines a book and a card game with “dark” fairy tales.
Hey, The Wire, I’m cool with some ambiguity about the characters I like. So McNulty’s an asshole, D’Angelo’s morally crippled, Bubs is a junkie, Prez is incompetent in the field, Daniels is supposedly “dirty”, and Omar is a cold-blooded murderer. All that’s cool. I can work with that. But once I’ve decided I don’t like characters, stop making me like them. Continue reading →
You know that part in a heist movie where the heisters are poring over a map figuring out how to get into the bank vault? “What if we cut the power to the basement?” one of them suggests. “No, that won’t work,” another says, “because it will trigger the alarm system.” “Okay, then we’re going to have to shut down the alarm system from outside.” “But that will initiate a lockdown and we’ll be trapped.” “Hey,” says another, “what about this sewer line that runs under the bank?” They’ve found the way in! Time to see if they can pull it off.
The site may not have much on it, but here’s the first complete image of the Ataribox. First teased in early June, the Ataribox will come in two editions, the retro-inspired faux wood-faced one above, and one with a more modern silver and red front. The only specifications mentioned by Atari are “an array of new ports” including HDMI, four USB ports, and an SD card slot. While they haven’t released any game information, the company noted that savvy gamers may have figured out what’s up.
As you can guess, those ports suggest modern internal specs. It also means that while we will be delivering classic gaming content, we will also be delivering current gaming content.
Atari states that they have months of “milestones, challenges and decision points” prior to launch. So why announce anything when they don’t have much nailed down for public release? One could guess that they aspire to end up as an eBay hot-seller like some other retro consoles.
Once again, a superhero movie fails to please all of us, but it at least pleases some of us. At the 1:30, we switch the discussion of Spider-Man Homecoming with a discussion of switcheroos in movies.
Next week: Valarian and the City of a Thousand Planets
If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to watch Rooney Mara eat pie for ten minutes, you’re in luck! Arty director David Lowery has returned from his stint making a movie in which things happen (the Pete’s Dragon remake) to bring us this eulogy to anything happening. A Ghost Story is literally a story about a ghost, which opens up a lot of possibilities. None of them are explored. Instead, everything and nothing happen, leaning mostly in the “nothing” direction. The minutes pass like years, the hour like a millennia, and yet there are still a few scenes to go. Then you don’t get to read a fortune cookie. Roll credits.
A Ghost Story is pretentious, ponderous, and curiously boxed into a very square aspect ratio with curved edges. I think it’s supposed to invoke the time someone made you watch slides of their vacation. The movie also invokes getting stuck in the kitchen at a party while some boorish hipster with overalls and pierced ears spools out his penny-ante nihilism. It invokes it by making it actually happen. The guys just goes on and on and for some reason the scene doesn’t cut. It’s enough to make you long for the pie-eating scene.
A Ghost Story is in limited release. Not limited enough.
If you’re interested in big-budget score-based shootering, Epic re-released Bulletstorm this year. Remember Bulletstorm, which was like The Club, but with marketing? The re-release even has a new set of challenges to flex the gameplay a little. Knock yourself out. But if you’d rather emphasize “score-based” over “big budget” and “marketing”, Desync is your better bet. Continue reading →
I don’t normally play, much less review, early access games. There are far too many finished games I have yet to try. So why would I faff about with someone’s beta? Just let me know when you’re finished. I’ll wait. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.
Oh, look, what’s this? A review of an early access game called Sumer? What gives?Continue reading →
That’s the latest music video from Nine Inch Nails. The song is “Less Than” from the upcoming album ADD VIOLENCE. But hey! That game in the video looks familiar. It’s Polybius from Jeff Minter’s Llamasoft. Thanks to Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor’s love of Llamasoft, there’s at least one non-PlayStation 4 build out in the wild. To have the game work for the video, Minter had to create an exclusive PC build of Polybius and give that to Reznor.
“Of course I was super chuffed to hear he’d liked our work, as I’ve enjoyed his a lot over the years too!”
Jeff Minter hopes to have a PC version of Polybius available for purchase in November when his exclusivity deal with PlayStation ends.
Hitman’s final scheduled time-limited assassination, The Entertainer, will go live this Friday. Elusive Target 26 begins on July 14th and lasts for ten days. Everyone will get one chance to eliminate “Mr. Giggles” and steal a client list in the Marrakesh level, then Season One of Hitman’s live support ends. If it’s your first successful elusive target in Marrakesh, you’ll unlock the summer suit with gloves, a snappy cosmetic outfit for Agent 47. If you’ve attained a few of the previous elusive targets, you may unlock other outfits based on your progression.
What comes next for Hitman is anyone’s guess. Originally, IO Interactive had planned to create a Season Two of content for Hitman with new levels and targets as paid DLC, but that was back when the franchise and the studio were owned by Square Enix. Now that IO Interactive is an independent company, things are a bit dicey. Although they haven’t officially confirmed a Season Two for Hitman, the studio’s July update notes mentioned new content for August, indicating that they would be continuing to work on the game. Whether that means wholly new DLC content and not just live targets in the same maps remains to be seen.
Of all the videogames tapping into the appeal of cards (Pathfinder: Adventures, Hearthstone, Hand of Fate, Monster Slayers), Age of Rivals is among the best (Pathfinder: Adventures, Hearthstone, Hand of Fate, Monster Slayers). Continue reading →
Shakedown: Hawaii, the next top-down open world action parody from Vblank Entertainment, is not Retro City Rampage 2. The developers want to make that distinction quite clear. You may still be crashing cars, killing folks, and generally acting like the nightmare Grand Theft Auto player Jack Thompson was trying to warn everyone about, but Shakedown: Hawaii puts a different spin on things by skewering millennial culture and the kinds of business decisions that made Juicero possible. One can only wonder just how topical the game will get based on this bit regarding the player character’s background.
Our anti-hero’s decision to spend more time on reality TV as a “CEO” personality, than as the actual CEO of his company didn’t help matters.
While there’s no release date yet for Shakedown: Hawaii, the game will be launching on Nintendo Switch, 3DS, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and Steam when it does go live.
