Bethesda's Evil Within demo should eliminate the possibility of hardware scares

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There’s a perception that evil is all-or-nothing. Paladins turn like old milk. Angels fall like parents in ice skates, with no hope of ever getting back up.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. With Tango Gameworks’ new demo, you can dabble in the devil and see how it suits you. And more to the point, how those diabolical Evil Within system requirements suit your PC.

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Riot outline preseason plan to bring choice back to League of Legends' jungle

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Jungling has a problem. The role is dominated by a small gaggle of League of Legends champions who exemplify speed and ganking ability, and teams tend to bend their selections and strategies to fit. But in the upcoming 2015 preseason, through new monsters, buffs and items, Riot hope to change that.

“We realise jungle diversity improvements have been a focus a few times in the past (has it been every season?),” wrote the developers. “But this time around we’re taking bigger steps.”

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Football Manager's Sports Interactive have built the "biggest scouting network in football"

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For years, Football Manager has influenced the signings of Premier League teams - and earlier this year, Sports Interactive’s database of player data was officially incorporated into Prozone Recruiter - a piece of software clubs rely on for stats.

So how did the world’s most slavish football simulation come to steer the course of the game? According to studio head Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive’s 1,300 international scouts have built them the “biggest scouting network in football”.

“Our data is well known for being accurate,” he told PCGamesN. “Sure, we make a few mistakes but not as many as Alex Ferguson with his signing policy.”

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Eye of Azshara might just be the name of Blizzard's next WoW or Hearthstone expansion

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Blizzard have gone and registered a trademark in Benelux for a bit of “computer game software” called Eye of Azshara. 

We know we’re firmly in the WoW universe, since Azshara is the name of both an ancient elven queen and a zone Blizzard haven’t touched since Cataclysm. But are we in for the follow-up to Warlords of Draenor, or an expansion for Hearthstone?

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Zombies mode seems destined for DLC

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What are the core tenets of CoD? Let’s see: you used to be guaranteed exactly one NPC with an excellent moustache, and a level you’d never play with your mum in the room. Nowadays you get young men running ceaselessly around tightly-coiled maps, and zombies.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out today, and doesn’t have its dedicated Zombies mode yet. But US retailords GameStop seem to think it’ll arrive at a later date as DLC.

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Prey 2 might be cancelled, but Human Head Studios are still "proud" of their work

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The news that Bethesda had definitively canceled Prey 2 last week was disappointing indeed, especially so for the folks who worked on it. Developers Human Head Studios are those very folk, and while they’re certainly sad to see the game officially canned, they had nothing but praise for the work that they did.

“While we are disappointed that we won’t be able to deliver our vision of the game, we remain proud of our work on the franchise” said Human Head.

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The Elder Scrolls Online's gargantuan 1.5.2 patch tweaks dungeons and gives NPCs a facelift

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Tamriel is a bit quiet inside of The Elder Scrolls Online today, because the servers are down and no one is playing right now. Patch 1.5.2 has just landed, and it’s a big one. Weighing in at over 13GBs, it promises a slew of features such as new veteran dungeons, NPC facial animations, repeatable writs and crafting updates.

If you’re an active player, I would advise starting the download now while you get stuck into the mammoth patch notes below.

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Set sail to the land of Auroria in ArcheAge tomorrow; guild battles and new zones await

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You might not know, but ArcheAge has been missing it’s endgame continent of Auroria since launch, but that’s about to change. The “Conquest for Auroria” begins tomorrow with a hefty patch filled with goodies.

Guilds will be able to compete over zones via epic castle battles; the winner getting free rein over the housing in that zone. There’s also a new dungeon, Serpentis, that’s designed for ten players. Crafting also sees some additions, the biggest being the Farm Wagon which can seriously boost your trade-running efficiency by holding up to four trade packs.

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Evolution never stops: Evolve's "Big Alpha" extended until tomorrow

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While many of us enjoyed the four-on-one monster deathmatch that is Evolve over the weekend, there were some that missed out - namely those folk on the Playstation 4. But even though they managed to get access eventually, their plight has provided a gift to everyone else: the “Big Alpha” has been extended until tomorrow.

And don’t forget: if you own XCOM: Enemy Unknown, then you’ve got access the the Evolve alpha right now!

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Port Review - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

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Port Inspection is dead, long live Port Review! For the sake of clarity, we’ve decided to change the name of these port analyses, and since they are essentially reviews, we’re just going to call them that from now on. Don’t fret, everything else is the same.

November is going to be a busy month, and kicks off with the annual men with guns heavy hitter, Call of Duty. With the high VRAM requirements, 4GB being recommended, I was wondering if this was going to be another The Evil Within, with bloated numbers that bared little semblance to reality.    

But, as it turns out, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is actually a really solid port. 

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Blizzard tease cryptic Starcraft II sound clips; possible announcement at BlizzCon

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It’s getting ever closer to this year’s Blizzcon - Blizzard’s annual celebration of all their products, along with some long anticipated announcements. While there’s plenty going on with Warlords of Draenor, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, Starcraft II has been a bit quiet since the release of Heart of the Swarm last year.

That was until Blizzard started to post mysterious sound clips of near-inaudible sound effects. What are they and what could they mean, we don’t yet know; we’ve got the clips below so you can try and work it out.

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Serious Sam Humble Weekly Sale: Croteam's funding Serious Sam 4 by selling you more Sam than you can handle

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As crowdfunding becomes more… crowded, Kickstarter and its ilk have become almost passe. Pleading for money is not something well-bred gentlemen and lady developers should be doing. Before Kickstarter, how did anyone even make money? I recollect that they usually had to, if they were developers, make and sell some games. 

It seems like Croteam remember this too, and with Humble Bundle, the Serious Sam developer has created a strange hybrid crowdfunding, bundle model. For what, you ask? Serious Sam 4. And if you fancy seeing that become a reality, all you need to do is buy some games. Sort of like the olden days, but more bundle-y.

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Europa Universalis IV gets a bit hostile in Art of War

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If I wasn’t poor, cheap and the proud owner of a shrivelled up heart, I would probably put Europa Universalis IV in every Christmas stocking in the UK. It’s all sorts of brilliant. But in lieu of this, I will instead inform you that Paradox’s grand strategy flagship has been expanded with yet another meaty chunk of DLC: Art of War. 

Take a gander below for some hardcore map and flag action.

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Co-Op Point And Click: Cursors

By Graham Smith on November 3rd, 2014 at 2:00 pm.

I eventually stopped playing Cursors some fifteen screens in when, as shown in the image above, I found myself trapped in a small cubbyhole in the top left of the screen. It’s a co-operative browser game where you trace your mouse cursor around mazes, but where advancing through each screen doesn’t merely mean working together. It means some people getting left behind.

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Eitr, A Viking Themed Isometric Soulslike

By Ben Barrett on November 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 am.

Eitr combines Souls-style combat with the ultra-dark isometric dungeons of the original Diablo. Not sold? The world is Norse-inspired, with a nameless, shieldmaiden protagonist who’s birth was tampered with by Loki, causing all all light to be drained from the world in the process. Not sold? There’s a new trailer below, showing lots of in-game stuff, and I’ve had some hands-on time with a preview build and will tell you about it below.

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This One’s A: KeeperRL Greenlit, Development Extended

By Graham Smith on November 3rd, 2014 at 3:00 pm.

It used to be standard procedure to celebrate the milestones of development for games you were looking forward to: announcement, going gold, getting released. Now I find myself celebrating the indefinite delay of those milestones. KeeperRL is an “open-source dungeon simulator inspired by Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress” which has been in-development for some time and was due to be finished before the end of the year.

But after the game improved this past year and was Greenlit last month, its developer has announced instead that he’s going to continue working on it for at least another year – and probably much longer.

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Explore The Deadly Dreamlike Labyrinth Of Parasomnia

By Philippa Warr on November 3rd, 2014 at 4:00 pm.

Searching for something unsettling rather than terrifying for the Hallowe’en period, I happened upon Parasomnia by Acatalept. It’s perhaps best described as a futuristic chrome version of the Theseus and the Minotaur legend.

Except you’re not Theseus. Theseus hacked the game by bringing in a ball of string, killing the Minotaur and escaping. You’re (currently) one of the preceding generations of Athenian youth sent in as sustenance for the monstrous Asterion and doomed to die.

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Valve tap Team Fortress 2 Workshop community for Tomb Raider items

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The Team Fortress 2 universe is strong and flexible enough to absorb just about anything you can hold in your hands or balance on your head. In the last couple of years, it’s become the happy host of themed items for about four dozen Steam games.

Ordinarily, Valve work with developers and a venn diagram to come up with a suitable crossover point. But for Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Squeenix are opening up Tomb Raider history to the TF2 Workshop community.

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Blizzard shut down Hearthstone's most popular botting tool

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Blizzard’s cheating problem has come to a head lately. Hearthstone win trading has become so prevalent among its top players as to threaten the legitimacy of pro-level tournaments, and we saw several thousand botting accounts banned from the CCG last week.

The developers’ crackdown on automated progression continues with the throttling of the game’s most popular botting program - Hearthcrawler.

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BioWare grant 12x XP boosts to Old Republic subscribers who pre-order Shadow of Revan

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This might just be the best way to play Star Wars: The Old Republic - stuffed with stellar single-player stories but hampered by the trickling rate of XP in free-to-play.

BioWare are desperate to force-pull you back into their MMO ahead of its upcoming nostalgia-fuelled expansion, Shadow of Revan. To that end, they're offering a faintly ludicrous 12x storyline XP boost to players who pre-order the expansion and subscribe before December 1.

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Gearbox fire off Homeworld Remastered footage; "Old-school Relic guys are all over it"

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We’ll never know why Gearbox considered themselves a good fit for Relic’s beloved, bereft RTS. But perhaps all Homeworld needed was a studio coined and capable enough to jujj up the game’s engine and plonk the results on Steam. 

That’s precisely the plan for Homeworld Remastered. And just in case, Gearbox have hired on half of early Relic to ensure it turns out right. Here's what it looks like atm.

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Andy Serkis will voice Volume's villain opposite Charlie McDonnell

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It’s customary for Andy Serkis to change faces between roles, and he’s taken one with a roman nose and pointy beard for his latest, in Mike Bithell’s Volume. This time the mo-cap mogul will be Guy Gisborne, a villainous CEO who runs England as a company.

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The Black Glove gains VR support in final Kickstarter push

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The Black Glove is a game made by former Irrational developers, and there’s a lot of BioShock in it: the masked madness of the splicers, and the vaudeville vibe of Sander Cohen’s den or Infinite’s fairgrounds. 

But for some reason it’s really struggling on Kickstarter. Day For Night Games are pulling their fingers out for the campaign’s final few days, introducing a bunch of new physical rewards and support for the Oculus Rift.

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EVE Online's Phoebe update might make you change your travel plans

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EVE Online’s fifth mini-expansion - which doesn’t sound all that mini - launched today. Phoebe’s arrival marks the halfway point in the first year of CCP’s new expansion model, where it will release 10 expansions annually. 

Phoebe’s biggest changes affect travel and supply lines thanks to the introduction of jump fatigue. After making a jump, ships will need to wait for a timer before they can jump again, discouraging long-distance jump travel. It’s the first phase in CCP’s attempt to rejuvenate Nullsec.

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Grand Theft Auto V's first-person mode is real and looks great

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Rockstar has confirmed the rumoured first-person mode for Grand Theft Auto V today, which a cached Rockstar support page alluded to last month. If the thought of spending 50 or so hours staring at Trevor, Michael and Franklin’s bottoms – to be fair, they are lovely bottoms – is just too much for you, you’ll no longer have to worry. You’ll be able to play through the game while staring out of their eyes. 

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Gonegate: EA cancels Dawngate

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Dawngate, EA’s attempt to break into the realm of the MOBA, has been cancelled. Development of the game has stopped, and in 90 days the servers will be shut down for good. 

The game was still in beta, but was not making the “progress” EA has hoped for. Luckily, for players who threw money at it, any in-game purchases made during the beta will be refunded within 10 days.

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Red Faction: Guerrilla – Steamworks Open Beta Phase Launched, Abandons GFWL, Defaults To DX9

The Sims 4's pool-shaped gap has been filled

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When Maxis revealed that there would be a pool-shaped gap in The Sims 4, there was much sadness. Indeed, the tears from pool-lovers everywhere could have filled several hundred Olympic-sized swimming pools.

That dry period is now over, though and our poor Sims can now cool themselves off in their new pools.

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Blizzard see "positive signs" that they can "win back" subscribers with Warlords of Draenor

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Shareholders, bless them, can be a panicky bunch. They see the graceful decline on World of Warcraft’s graphs and - forgetting that it remains the biggest subscription MMO in the world - ask Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime if there’s any chance of a free-to-play reprieve.

“I don’t foresee any dramatic changes to our business model,” Morhaime told investors last night - and added that Blizzard are confident in the steps they've taken to ensure players want to “stick around” after Warlords of Draenor.

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Oculus VR have quadrupled in size this year

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Oculus expanded a couple of times after the Rift was first Kickstarted, and have multiplied again since we learned of plans for Facebook to buy Oculus VR back in March. The firm footing provided by Zuckerberg and co. has allowed the company to swell to over 200 engineers - and to stuff more brains into research.

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Oh my word: Grand Theft Auto V’s first-person mode delivers in first footage

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In a list of uncomfortable places to be, ‘inside the skull of Trevor Philips’ would probably place pretty highly. But first-person Grand Theft Auto was a terribly compelling idea when modders first started fiddling with it in Liberty City, and it’s even more so now Rockstar are officially supporting it for GTA V’s PC port.

Early footage of the mode sees Rockstar’s latest prove itself as an unlikely FPS, racing sim and flight simulator - and all in its own inimitable style.

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Activision are "optimistic" that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will outsell Ghosts

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Activision are living in a marketing spin-off to Minority Report right now. They’re asking the big questions: does purchase intent always end in purchasing action? Can a capable developer improve the lot of Call of Duty, or are the declining returns of every successive game in the series predetermined?

Every analyst in America seems to think Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will fare worse than Ghosts - but Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is hopeful that Sledgehammer’s debut will outsell its predecessor.

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Hearthstone has "far exceeded" Blizzard's expectations for it

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Perhaps it’s not quite right to characterise Hearthstone as the little card game that could. With the spectacular machinery of Blizzard behind it, an armpit-fart simulator could become one of the most popular games in the world.

But the handful of Blizzard staffers I’ve spoken to this year have all expressed surprise at how large a part of their lives the CCG has become. Last night, CEO Mike Morhaime told investors that Hearthstone had dramatically outstripped its creators hopes for it.

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Ken Levine lends a hand to former Irrational comrades Kickstarting The Black Glove

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I’d like to be able to tell you that Ken Levine has thrown his support behind his former staff by donning a single black handwarmer and performing Michael Jackson numbers to camera.

Instead he’s walked the less obvious path, and recorded a short, static message of solidarity for Day for Night Games’ surrealist vaudeville adventure, The Black Glove. Think of it as an IRL audio diary.

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Ubisoft’s new games aren't available on Steam in the UK. "UK customers wishing to purchase the game digitally can do so by visiting the Uplay store..."

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The Crew. Far Cry 4. Assassin’s Creed Unity. Ubisoft’s three-pronged Christmas assault will be happening everywhere but on Steam’s UK store. 

Steam versions of all three games are missing from the publisher’s UK listings for November and December, when they’ll be available to buy in shops.

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Watch this Dragon Age: Inquisition choice and consequence trailer, or go and eat some ice cream; it's your call

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Choice and consequence - BioWare does love to harp on about its love affair with RPG decision making, and with Dragon Age: Inquisition due out in a few weeks, it’s time to get a look at how you’ll be able to shape the world with the decisions you might be making in your pants, drunk at two o’clock in the morning.

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Playing With Myself: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

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The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth launched late last night, and today I’ve been faffing around in basements - but mostly dying - for your amusement. I can’t say that I’ve ever proved to competent in any of the games I’ve tackled for Playing With Myself, but in The Binding of Isaac I truly sink to new depths of awfulness. 

And I loved - almost - every second of it. 

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Here's everything you need to know about Assassin's Creed Unity crammed into one video

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If you haven’t quite got the jist of Assassin’s Creed Unity from the story, gameplay, co-op and cinematic trailers that we’ve been bombarded with over the last six months, well then you’ve not been paying attention, but not to worry! Ubisoft’s put together yet another, this one covering everything. 

It’s Assassin’s Creed Unity 101. 

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Make your dream ship in Galactic Civilizations III, and you might see it in the release version and win $1000

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I will never build a structurally sound building or vessel at any point in my life. The skill required to even put up a shelf eludes me. Galactic Civilizations II made a digital shipbuilder, though. A good one. My conquest of galaxies was punctuated by delves into the ship designer, populating my empire with anything from fleets of Star Trek’s Sovereign class ships to strange spinning orbs connected by organic walkways. 

Galactic Civilizations III might only be in beta, but the ship designer tool is well on its way to dethroning its predecessor. There’s nowhere near as much variety in terms of modules and stuff you can stick on your ship, but it’s already getting pretty sophisticated. And right now, it’s the only ship designer that you use to win $1,000 in Stardock’s ship designer contest. 

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Oh, Ubisoft, how greedy you are.

Looking for Group is a World of Warcraft documentary due to debut at BlizzCon 2014

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This weekend’s BlizzCon is bound to be chock-a with announcements. Here’s something we’d rather not see drowned in the missives from Draenor: a proper flying-mount’s-view over the last ten years of World of Warcraft, one of the best MMOs on PC. Fittingly enough, it’s named Looking for Group.

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Team Fortress 2 update curbs client crashes and reinstates gibs

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Halo’s designers might tell cock-and-bull stories about three-minute loops or weapon feel, but the fundamental building block of every first-person shooter ever made is gibs. An FPS without gibs is no FPS at all, and for a couple of worrying days there, Team Fortress 2 looked to be in danger of losing its title.

Thankfully, Valve’s dev team have restored the bloody bits to their rightful place at the centre of one of the best first-person shooters on PC - and fixed a bunch of other stuff to crop up in the wake of Scream Fortress.

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Riot on League of Legends preseason changes: we haven't forgotten about tank junglers

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Expect a new kind of League of Legends jungle from the upcoming 2015 preseason. While the best Season 4 junglers honed their speed and ganking, Season 5's new monsters, buffs and items will accommodate many more ways to play the role.

The removal of one particular item has worried tank junglers, however. Without Quill Coat, won’t their relatively slow clear ability see them left behind? Riot say otherwise.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare dev wants to see the series return to World War II

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Call of Duty - and Red Orchestra aside, the FPS world in general - has long since vacated the Pacific Front and fields of northern France in favour of modern and future warfare.

But given the chance, Sledgehammer’s Michael Condrey would love to go back to the sombre remembrance and single, sustained trumpet notes of the original CoD and its sequel.

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War Thunder now heard over on Linux

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War Thunder is one of the best World War 2 games on PC - a period flight and tank sim specialising in combat of the ground-to-air-and-back-again variety. It’s seen ginormous success on Windows, where you could find five million War Thunder players a year after its launch in open beta.

Now you can play it on a more rarified platform for PC gaming: Linux.

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Nordic Games extricate Red Faction: Guerrilla from Games for Windows Live

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Red Faction: Guerrilla is part of Volition’s family of dizzyingly destructive open worlds, and remembered as one of the best sandbox games on PC - not least because there hasn’t been a decent Red Faction game since.

In recognition of that status, new series owners Nordic Games have ripped the game from the decaying architecture of Games for Windows Live and reinstalled Guerrilla’s systems in Steamworks.

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Be a guinea pig and play the free Talos Principle demo

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It’s a bleak, damp evening up here in gloomy Scotland, so it’s fortuitous that Croteam and Devolver Digital has chucked a tech demo for The Talos Principle up on Steam. 

If you take it for a spin, you’ll be faced with four puzzles of increasing complexity set inside a simulation of ancient ruins, linked by fancy technology. Nothing that an AI searching for answers to philosophical quandaries shouldn’t be able to handle. 

You’ll be able to play the full game on December 11th. 

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No Witcher Left Behind: The Witcher 3 will receive 16 free DLCs, starting on February 25th

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It’s a novelty when I’m able to take a break from grumbling about season passes and day one DLC pre-order bonuses, and today the novelty is courtesy of CD Projekt Red. Marcin Iwiński, co-founder and joint CEO of the studio, posted an open letter, revealing that everyone who buys The Witcher 3 will receive 16 “specially prepared” bits of DLC, completely for free, and not as any sort of pre-order incentive. 

“Unfortunately this treatment is quite rare these days,” he wrote, preaching to the choir. “As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialize with a steep price tag attached. Haven’t we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?”

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Final StarCraft II sound clip teases BlizzCon announcement, possibly Legacy of the Void

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Like a siren, Blizzard is calling people to BlizzCon. Over the last week, Blizzard have been teasing cryptic StarCraft II sound clips. It started with a shrieking zerg and then the sound of weapons, then there was a strange mechanical sound, which reminded Nick of the terran warhound unit when he posted about it. 

Yesterday, another audio tease appeared, which sounded like an aircraft taking off and then firing lasers. The titles of all three of these teases created a partial sentence: “See you at…”. BlizzCon was assumed to be the final word, and it is indeed, as the final tease was posted today. Take a listen below. 

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Ubisoft reveals Far Cry 4 system requirements, and they aren't completely bonkers

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After Ubisoft announced the rather crazy system requirements for Assassin’s Creed Unity, I was expecting some equally ridiculous requirements for Far Cry 4, but colour me surprised, they are a lot tamer. Ubisoft raised the curtain on the list of things you’ll need crammed inside the shell of your PC today, and while the optimal requirements are a touch high, it should still be playable on a broad range of machines. 

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Out of the shadows and into the Necropolis: Hairbrained Schemes is working on a roguelike

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Great big piles of treasure are never in easy to reach places. You never hear about adventurers relaxing in a nice park, then stumbling onto a mountain of gold next to the duck pond. It’s always dank crypts, dragon’s caves, and gloomy dungeons. 

Shadowrun developer Hairbrained Schemes’ new project is a trap, tempting you with the promise of treasure and magical trinkets, then killing you. It’s called Necropolis, which should be a bit of a giveaway: this is not the sort of game where you’re going to find treasure on a lovely tropical beach. 

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Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon launches on November 26th, with hexy man-on-ork warfare

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Warhammer 40K has given birth to plenty of video game spin-offs, but most of them are leagues away from the tabletop game, taking the universe and wrapping it around shooters, RTSs and even chess. Armageddon is a little closer to its source: a turn-based wargame with massive armies fighting for control of a world. 

I had a chat with the devs back in May, where they said it was a “hex-based wargame that anyone can play”. That’s a bold claim, given that wargames are typically a bit obtuse and aloof, a criticism that comes from a place of love. You’ll be able to see if it manages to balance complexity and accessibility when it launches on November 26th.

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Minecraft and Mojang are now officially resting in Microsoft's belly

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It’s done. The i's have been dotted and the t's have been crossed, and Minecraft is now resting comfortably in the belly of Microsoft. Notch will never, ever run out of little hats. Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer confirmed the finalisation of the acquisition today on Twitter, welcoming Mojang to the Microsoft Studios family, which no doubt would look a lot like a scene from The Addams Family. 

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FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Gets 14-day Free Trial On Steam

Square Enix announced that from today, players can try out the critically acclaimed FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn online adventure for free via Steam. The 14-day free trial gives new players an opportunity to join over 2.5 million adventurers worldwide who have already begun their journey throughout the realm of Eorzea. Continue reading →

 

News

Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms Slightly Delayed, Releases Next Week

November 6, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

bitComposer announced today that the release of the action RPG Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms will be delayed by one week until November 20th, 2014. The action RPG will be released on Steam for PCs at a price of €29.99. Continue reading →

 

News

Physics-based Platformer “Momentum” Gets Kickstarter Campaign, Public Demo Available For Download

November 6, 2014 John Papadopoulos 6 Comments

Luis Levy has informed us about the Kickstarter campaign of Momentum; a 3D labyrinth high above the ground through physics-driven platforming. Continue reading →

 

News

Assassin’s Creed: Unity & Far Cry 4 Removed From Steam, Still Available On Origin

November 7, 2014 John Papadopoulos 11 Comments

Earlier today, some reports suggested that Ubisoft’s latest titles (Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Far Cry 4 and The Crew) were removed from Steam UK. Naturally, we thought this was a region thing, therefore we did not pay attention to them. However, the French company went ahead and removed those games from all regions. Yeap, while Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed: Unity were previously available on Steam, they are currently nowhere to be found. Continue reading →

 

Video-News

Far Cry 4 – NVIDIA GameWorks Trailer

November 7, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

NVIDIA’s Andrew Burnes has informed us about a new trailer for Far Cry 4 that shows off the GameWorks effects that will be implemented in it. According to the green team, Far Cry 4 will support HBAO+, Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows, TXAA, tessellated crepuscular God rays, as well as NVIDIA’s HairWorks that adds dynamic, realistic fur to many of the animals. Enjoy! Continue reading →

News

Grand Theft Auto V May Use Denuvo DRM, FIFA 15 & Lords of the Fallen Still Not Cracked

November 7, 2014 John Papadopoulos 5 Comments

An interesting rumor surfaced today (we’re marking this as a rumor since Rockstar has not confirmed anything yet), suggesting that GTA V may use the new Denuvo DRM on top of the Steam DRM. In case you’re wondering, Denuvo is the DRM that was used in both FIFA 15 and Lords of the Fallen; two PC games that have not been cracked as of yet. Continue reading →

Great, more DRM crap...

World of Tanks update 9.4 lets you attack another clans stronghold

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World of Tanks’ 9.4 update will let you raid and plunder an enemy clan’s stronghold. This means you can get resources outside of skirmish matches.

To counter their new vulnerability, strongholds are receiving a number of changes and upgrades.

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Humble Weekly Bundle fills your boots with racing games

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If racing’s your thing, Humble’s latest bundle will have you reaching for your driving gloves. It covers everything from street to rally to motorbikes to Joe Danger.

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Dragon Age Inquisition trailer reveal Vivienne’s parlour tricks are pretty impressive

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The decline of parlour tricks is one of the unspoken miseries of the 21st century, going hand in hand with the decline of parlours, and it’s one of the more subtle themes of Dragon Age Inquisition.

The latest trailer goes introduces one of your possible companions, Vivienne. An Orlesian mage, she’s an adviser to Empress Celene and, no doubt, someone good for a laugh when you need some light entertainment after dinner - rabbit from a hat sort of thing.

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Bioware boss polls fans on what they’d like to see in Mass Effect trilogy re-release

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“Bear in mind this is a "wish list" at this point,” Aaryn Flynn, general manager at Bioware Edmonton and Montreal said. This was after asking Neogaf readers to tell him what they’d like to see in a Mass Effect re-release.

He suggested higher resolution, all the DLC, and, more excitingly, a seamless experience where each game ran into the next.

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Interview: Dan Marshall on rewiring The Swindle's steampunk AI

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The Swindle is a two-dee platformer that's all about breaking into buildings and taking thing that aren't yours. It has the same spirit of repeatedly throwing yourself into procedurally generated adventures as Rogue Legacy, the same tension-ratcheting permadeath stakes as Spelunky, and the same smashing through plate glass windows as Gunpoint. It has all of these things plus wall-jumping and funny little robot guards.

Here's what I thought about it when I played it earlier in the year. Since then I've spoken to developer Dan Marshall about his reasons for reviving the Victorian-era burglary capers, how the procedural magic works and how to program a guard's steampunk-brained AI.

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World of Warcraft film ‘WoW MoM’ documents its use as a cancer therapy

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Blizzard’s film, World of Warcraft: Looking for Group, looks back over the ten years of their MMO’s history and it’s being screened for the first time this weekend. There’s another film, though, one that looks at a very specific role World of Warcraft has played for some of its players: cancer therapy.

WoW MoM documents how Terry Bolt uses World of Warcraft to cope with the many difficulties of her illness, both those physical and emotional.

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Ubisoft games pulled from Steam globally

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Last night Ubisoft pulled their upcoming releases from Steam globally. Assassin’s Creed Unity will be out on November 13 in Europe, Far Cry 4 on November 20, and The Crew on December 2. Just not on Steam.

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Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime condemns online harassment at Blizzcon

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At this year’s Blizzcon event, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime took to the stage to introduce a weekend of celebration of Blizzard’s games and universes. But before mentioning anything of orcs, zerg, or escaped hell demons, Morhaime took a moment to address something “serious”: the recent months of online abuse in the gaming community. 

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Blizzard announce Heroes of the Storm "closed beta" begins January 13th; new heroes, battlegrounds and ranked play

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Blizzard have just revealed a bunch of new content for their hero brawler, Heroes of the Storm. New heroes include Thrall, Jaina and the Lost Vikings. There's also two new battlegrounds: Skytemple and Tomb of the Spider Queen. Ranked play is also making its debut.

To round off the announcement, Blizzard confirmed that Heroes of the Storm is hitting "closed beta" on January 13th.

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Hearthstone's next expansion is Goblins vs Gnomes

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Blizzard have announced the next big expansion for Hearthstone at Blizzcon. Goblins vs Gnomes will face off the Horde and the Alliance in a battle of cards, with heavy emphasis on the inventors and creations at the heart of the races’ shortest members. 

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Starcraft 2's final chapter, Legacy of the Void, is a standalone expansion

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At this year’s BlizzCon, Blizzard revealed the final chapter for Starcraft 2: the protoss expansion, Legacy of the Void. It’ll be a standalone expansion - it won’t require the previous games to play - that will decide the fates of all three races. You’ll control the last remnants of the Protoss race as you gather an army to stop the Xel’Naga threat.

The new Starcraft 2 addition will feature a new co-op campaign

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Blizzard's new game is Overwatch: a shooter with super heroes; including gorillas

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Blizzard have just revealed a brand new game called Overwatch. It’s a multiplayer first person shooter coming to PC, set on a futuristic Earth. It'll feature six versus six action on objective based maps. There's dozens of unique player characters that all have their own weaponary and combat styles. Some use guns, bows and arrows, swords and even special magical powers.

It's touted to be super accessible, and coming "a lot sooner than we think"; the beta launches in 2015.

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Overwatch’s heroes look to mix up MOBA and FPS class sensibilities

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It’s finally here: Blizzard have announced Overwatch at Blizzcon, and it’s a brand new universe that we’ve never explored before, full of superhero-like characters painted in bold colours and firing very, very large guns. 

In a panel after the initial reveal, game director Jeffrey Kaplan and senior vice president of story Chris Metzen discussed some of the finer details of the game, allowing us to paint a more coherent picture of how a game of Overwatch will play out. But what is very clear is that the game places a great emphasis on characters. 

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Feeling overpowered in Overwatch

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I’m not going to lie: I may have camped and cheesed my way to the top of the leaderboards during the first press sessions with Blizzard’s new team shooter, Overwatch. As I used killer robot Bastion to park myself in a tunnel, morph into a turret, and lay waste to wave after wave of the other team, I started to think I’d already broken the game.

Then I realized that almost every character feels that way. It might be the closest thing I’ve seen to a superhero shooter, and when you’re on a roll, you’re the title character in your own movie. 

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Duncan Jones and Blizzard discuss Warcraft movie and hyper-realistic orcs at Blizzcon

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One year ago at Blizzcon 2013 a short panel discussed just how far Duncan Jones - director of Moon and Source Code - had progressed with his new pet project: the long-awaited Warcraft movie. There was nothing to show and little more to talk about, but what was clear was that the Warcraft movie was to be a tale equally split between the Alliance and Horde factions. 

With much more to talk about, Duncan Jones returned this year to Blizzcon, but there was really only one thing on everyone’s minds: the orcs in Warcraft are really, really good. 

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Diablo 3 patch 2.1.2 introduces a new zone, ancient items and Greater Rift changes

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Diablo 3 might not of seen some prime time in the opening ceremony, but that doesn’t mean Blizzard haven’t got anything to show for it. Patch 2.1.2 is already well into development, and brings with it a bunch of new features and additions.

A new zone is coming to rifts that’s a throwback to the The Ruins of Sesheron, the Barbarian homeland from Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. There’ll also be a nice rarity type: Ancient quality. These legendaries will be up to 30% better than their standard counterparts. With a new Greater Rift changes, a new Rift Guardian, new items and enemies; there’s plenty to look forward to for Diablo 3.

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