Watch Dogs and The Crew have been delayed into spring 2014
Watch Dogs has been delayed into spring 2014, Ubisoft announced today, along with a delay for The Crew, it’s open-world racer. Due to the delays, the firm has revised its financial expectations for fiscal year 2014.
Civilization 5′s Scrambled Continents map pack now available
The Scrambled Continents map pack for Civilization 5 has been released. It includes real geographic locations with special scripts that produce randomized interiors each time a new game begins. While geography stays constant, the inner part of the world changes each time you play, giving you many plausible worlds. Maps include: Africa, Eastern Asia, North and South America, Western Europe, the Middle East, a thawed Antarctica, new scripted maps for Small Continents and Oceania, plus one map including all of Earth’s continents. You can download it through Steam now for $4.99.
Extraction’s closed beta launches today
Extraction’s closed beta has launched, Splash Damage and Nexon America have announced. Originally known as “Dirty Bomb”, the closed beta for the online multiplayer shooter has limited openings, so only a select number of players will be able to participate. Notifications should be in your inbox if you have signed up, but more will be sent out in waves, so don’t despair. Testers will be helping out with stability and balancing.
Star Wars: Battlefront chance is “scary”, says DICE boss
Star Wars: Battlefront is a dream project for Battlefield developer DICE – but also something of a nightmare, because “you can only screw up”, apparently.
Deadly Premonitions Steam pre-orders open at 10% off
Deadly Premonition finally makes the jump to PC at the end of the month, more than three and a half years after the cult horror classic’s Xbox 360 exclusive debut. Steam has opened pre-orders, which will save you 10% on the $25 ticket price. This latest re-release includes all the extras from the recent PS3 Director’s Cut as well as new material not found in any other version.
World of Warcraft package now includes Cataclysm
The base World of Warcraft game package now includes second-most-recent expansion Cataclysm at no extra cost. Previously called the Battle Chest, the pack includes the original release plus early expansions The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King as well as the world-changing Cataclysm, and has a North American RRP of $20 – not bad when you consider the MMORPG is free-to-play to level 20, although you’ll probably want to shell out for latest add-on Mists of Pandaria, too. All features from the first three expansions are now free to all subscribers at no extra cost. You’ll be able to pick up the new pack in stores soon, or you can grab it directly from Blizzard’s store immediately.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Rayman: Legends failed to meet Ubisoft’s expectations
Ubisoft has admitted that couple of key current-gen titles have under-performed, contributing to revised financial forecasts issued earlier today.
Goodbye Deponia trailer heralds launch of trilogy’s conclusion
The final chapter in Daedalic’s award-winning adventure series Deponia drops this week; here’s a launch trailer to celebrate.
Solstice Arena is Zynga’s first Steam release
Today’s something of an historic occasion; Zynga has released its first game on Steam. Solstice Arena is a free-to-play MOBA also available for iDevice, developed by A Bit Lucky, which Zynga acquired last year. It was nominated for a Unity Award for Best Gameplay and Community Choice this year. A Zynga game! On Steam! Madness, chaos, cats lying down with dogs, et cetera.
Shadowrun Returns patch 1.1 coming soon, delivers Linux client and beta features
Harebrained Schemes hasn’t stopped working on Shadowrun Returns since its release a few months back; the latest update will add Linux compatability and a swathe of preview features.
Panzer General Online closed beta kicks off, register now
Panzer General Online has gone into closed beta; if you’re keen to check out the free-to-play version of the long-running PC series, register now. Co-developed by Ubisoft Blue Byte and Funatics Software, Panzer General Online boasts tactical battles and card collecting in your browser. It has both a single-player campaign and several multiplayer modes, and battles are set in historic clashes such as Monte Casino and the Battle of the Bulge.'
How to Survive gets first zombie-filled gameplay trailer
How to Survive puts players on a zombie-infested island, but as the title suggests it doesn’t just leave you to your own devices, providing useful advice on how to stay alive. This gameplay trailer presents “Kovac’s Rules”, which are a good start to your quest to secure food, water and shelter.
League of Legends introduces Team Builder queue, will enter beta servers soon
League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced a new Team Builder queue that lets players queue up certain champions and strategies, with a view to slotting people into teams that best compliment their set-up.
Plants Vs Zombies composer making PC adventure title Rakuen, first details inside
Rakuen is the brainchild of Laura Shigihara, composer of Plants Vs Zombies, To The Moon and World of Warcraft. It’s a PC adventure title that has seen Shighara handle almost every aspect of development.
The Witness will not force a linear path, gameplay could last up to 40 hours
The Witness, and open-world puzzler from Thekla Inc.’s Jonathan Blow, will not force you onto a linear path, according to the developer.
Football Manager 2014 beta now available through Steam Early Access to those who pre-ordered
Football Manager 2014 is now available through Early Access Beta through Steam to anyone who pre-ordered the title. The beta is fully playable and contains the main career mode and Football Manager Classic. Careers started in the Beta version can be continued once the finished game is installed. The Early Access Beta version of Football Manager 2014 will be playable until the Monday after release, November 4. The game releases on October 31.
Valve has greenlit another batch of 37 titles through Steam Greenlight
Valve has greenlit another batch of 37 titles through Steam Greenlight, which will be offered via worldwide distribution through Steam.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Arcane Mechanic DLC out now
Fight fire with fire in this new DLC pack for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, which puts the power of weird science at your fingertips thanks to an all new class.
Thief dev ditches XP system following fan feedback
Thief will no longer make use of an experience points system, Eidos Montreal has confirmed, after series fans made their opinion on the matter loud and clear.
The Mandate puts you in command of a ship, a crew, and an isometric view
One of the joys of FTL was that it was one of the few games that put your crew front and centre. When it came to battles, your attention was on maintaining the ship’s subsystems not flying about the vastness of space. The Mandate taps into a similar micromangement vein but under the umbrella of an RPG.
Why Ubisoft's investor call this morning was heartening
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You think internet commenters put Ubisoft through the wringer for delaying Watch Dogs? You should’ve heard the phone voices that pay their bills. Investors hounded the French publisher this morning to account for drops in their income prediction - and one did his level best to persuade CEO Yves Guillemot to cut funding to Ubi’s new ideas squads for the next year.
But to their credit, Ubi stood strong.
Double Fine let you build your own space station in Spacebase DF-9
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One of the game’s developed by Double Fine during last year’s Amnesia Fortnight was a god game where you’d build your own space station. Now Spacebase DF-9’s being released as a fully-fledged standalone game and you can buy yourself early access to get playing the thing now.
Galactic Civilizations III announced by way of a birthday present
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By way of celebrating its 20th birthday, Stardock has announced Galactic Civilizations III. According to the press release, the follow up to 2006’s sandbox galaxy game adds “new features including multiplayer, political intrigue, vastly improved visuals.” That’s right, the developers have made intrigue.
More importantly the game allows modding.
The secret dice rolls of XCOM: Enemy Within. How Firaxis fudge the numbers
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You've probably done this in XCOM: quicksaved before a risky 10% chance to hit shot, missed, guiltily quickloaded to before you took the shot and tried again. Except it doesn't work. XCOM cleverly saves the seed of its random number generator after every turn, meaning that you'll always get the same result even if you reload a previous save game. There are loopholes of course. You can reload and force the enemy AI to take the same crappy shot you would have taken, knowing that their dice roll will miss and your next one will probably succeed.
In XCOM: Enemy Within, Firaxis are extending an olive branch to these players. The developer has cottoned on to this manipulation of fate and chance and implemented a new menu option for players whose F9 buttons are worn down. It's called 'Save Scum', and it lets you play quicksave god.
GTA Creator Is Building Liberty City In Game Maker
By Graham Smith on October 16th, 2013 at 12:00 pm.
Michael Dailly created Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings in his time at DMA Design, and is now Head of Development at YoYo Games, the company responsible for entry-level game creation tool Game Maker. To help illustrate the power of Game Maker: Studio, the modern version of that tool, he’s doing something cool. As reported by USGamer, he’s re-building the world of Grand Theft Auto 1 in it, in 3D.
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The Complex God: Dominions 4
By Adam Smith on October 16th, 2013 at 11:00 am.
If turn-based strategy games tickle your fancy and you’ve never heard of the Dominions series, it might be best to turn away now. That is if you don’t want to spend the next couple of days poring over a hefty manual, the next couple creating a succession of pretender gods, and the following weeks and months attempting to ascend to a Position of Ultimate Power. I dabbled briefly with Dominions 3 but since the release of the fourth instalment a few days ago, I’ve lost most of my self to the game. I’ll write much more as soon as I’ve managed to win the game while playing as a totem pole, but for now, I shall compile a brief list of reasons as to why you may be interested, whether you’ve played Dominions 3 or not.
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