Total War: Rome 2 post-release free and paid content plans announced
Total War: Rome 2 players will be the recipients of post-release content in both free and paid formats, The Creative Assembly has announced.
Alongside paid-for DLC, regular free content and feature updates will be included: the first of these, the Greek States Culture Pack and Pontus faction will release at launch alongside the game.
“As with Shogun 2, we will continually improve the game’s compatibility, optimization and integral features such as AI and gameplay balancing post-release, and plan to add to that with new control schemes and additional free formats on other operating systems,” said lead designer James Russell.
“We are also very proud of how Shogun 2 is our most moddable Total War to date with over 500 user-made mods on Steam Workshop alone. We hope to support ROME 2 in a similar fashion. Rome 2 will be the biggest game we’ve ever released, in terms of scope, gameplay features and sheer weight of content, but even then we’re just scratching the surface of the Roman period – an era so rich in diversity that it’s easy to foresee releasing relevant content for years after ROME 2has shipped.”
In addition to free content, players can expect to see Culture Packs that add more playable factions and unique units, Feature Packs that add gameplay or wide-ranging aesthetic changes, and Campaign Packs that add entirely new story-based campaign expansions.
By October, players will be able to add the Seleucid Empire Factions to the playable roster for free and the Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack featuring the Royal Scythians, Roxolani and Massagetae as DLC.
Total War: ROME 2 will be released on the September 3 and the Greek States Culture Pack is free when pre-ordering from participating retailers.
http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/23/total-war-rome-2-post-release-free-and-paid-content-plans-announced/
Shamble On: DayZ DelayZ-ed Again
Standing alone is hard. Believe me, I know. As a newborn infant, it took me years before I was able to master the art without any parental assistance. Even now – as a young adult who lives inside of a house and can cook without burning it all down (some of the time) – I still occasionally go sailing end-over-end as though tripped by some malevolent practical joke ghost. That in mind, I can totally understand why DayZ’s standalone version keeps slipping. Sometimes it’s unavoidable. And so, due to online infrastructure issues, Dean “Rocket” Hall’s expanded multiplayer survival sandbox is once again without a release date.
Once upon a time, the standalone was supposed to have already flipped the switch on open alpha by now, but no such luck. So then, what’s the holdup this time? According to Hall, just one thing. One very, very crucial thing. See, online games don’t really work without the online part. Hall explained to Joystiq:
“The awkward thing is the only thing we’re waiting on is the core network architecture. That’s the kind of thing only a few people can work on. It’s very specialized. It’s like, you can’t throw more pilots at a plane. You put a thousand pilots in a plane it’s not going to fly any faster.”
And once that’s ready at some indeterminate date? “Bam, it’s go time,” said Hall.
In the meantime, he noted that the extra lengthy wait might not be such a bad thing. He wants a small, dedicated community of hardcore survivalists – not a mindless mass of transient ne’er-do-wells. The plan is to attract a solid base first, then expand out into the zombo-fad-obsessed hordes.
And hey, speed is all well and good, but if the result is a sticky, half-chewed mess, then why even bother?
“The worst thing we could do would be to release too early. Flat out, that’s the stupidest thing we could do. [The alpha launch] is going to be riddled with bugs, but the one thing I don’t want it to be riddled with is terrible multiplayer, it’s a multiplayer game.”
So there you go. The wait continues.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/23/shamble-on-dayz-delayz-ed-again/#more-165954
And a Maia alpha showcase
And my Steam Greenlight collection has been updated, vote for all this shit http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=171041981
@TheVoxelman on twitter
