Top 10 Can't Believe They're Indies GT Countdown
Firefall set to launch this year thanks to $23 million in funding
Firefall developer Red 5 Studios’ parent company, The9 and two shareholders have entered into share purchase agreement to Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Co., Ltd. of approximately $23 million. This means more funding for the MMO which was originally planned for a 2011 release. “This additional round of funding will offer us the means to execute on our plan for successfully launching Firefall in 2014.” said James Macauley, acting CEO. “This is the year Firefall takes flight. The entire Red 5 tribe is focused on creating top quality content that will take Firefall to the next level and we are excited for this next stage of development.” Former CEO Mark Kern stepped down as CEO back in December. Thanks, BWW.
SOE All Access: $14.99 monthly nets access to EQ Landmark, other MMO PC titles
Sony Online Entertainment has announced that starting in April, it will offer its MMO PC players a single subscription model which provides access to certain titles for $14.99 per month.
SOE sunsetting Vanguard, Free Realms, Wizardry Online, Clone Wars Adventures
Sony Online Entertainment has announced it will sunset Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, Vanguard, and Wizardry Online.
Steam users can now cancel pre-ordered titles, refund will be deposited into Steam Wallet
Steam users can now manually cancel pre-ordered titles and have price of the game refunded into their Steam Wallets.
Jazzpunk video mixes live-action and gameplay with bizarre yet entertaining results
Jazzpunk, the IGF finalist from Necrophone Games, has a new video available mixing live-action with shots of gameplay at the end. It’s bizarre and you can watch it below. The game will be released by Adult Swim games on Steam February 7.
The Witness will support VR devices, says Blow
Jonathan Blow has confirmed The Witness will support virtual reality devices.
Evolve: why Turtle Rock feels four players is enough
Evolve, like Left 4 Dead before it, will feature a team of four players battling it out against enemies, and for good reason: Turtle Rock found through trial and error that when you add more players, they become harder to keep track of.
SOE’s unannounced MMO “dedicated” to Star Wars Galaxies players, says Smedley
Sony Online Entertainment boss John Smedley’s extensive Reddit AMAA yielded many answers and many teases, one of which pertained to the unannounced MMO the firm has had in the works for quite some time.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be “quite open to modding,” says Warhorse
Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios has said the game will be moddable. Speaking with RPS, project director Daniel Vávra said the team is also considering releasing a toolset. “We are quite open to modding,” he said. “Since it’s on CryEngine, it should be easy to mod, too. We [also] hope that we will be able to release our tools and assets for CryEngine SDK. No guarantees now, but it would be a shame not to do it.” The game was put on Kickstarter earlier this week, and in no time at all, met its funding goal. The open-world, medieval RPG sandbox will be released episodically on PC and next-gen systems. The game has been in the works since a month after Warhorse announced its formation in July 2011.
EverQuest Next Landmark Alpha PC requirements posted, will likely support Oculus Rift
While SOE is still being evasive over when the EverQuest Next Landmark Alpha test will start – is it this month? next month? Stardate [-28] 09855.00? – it has seen fit to release the system specs so you’ll know ahead of time if your rig can handle it or not. For VR aficionados, there are plans in place to support Oculus Rift as well.
Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble announces departure in order to start a new company
Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble has announced on Facebook he’s leaving the Second Life company after joining the firm in 2011. Humble said in the post he was “starting up a company to make Art, Entertainment and unusual things,” and that more would be revealed in a few weeks. Before joining Linden Lab, Humble was EVP of the EA Play label and worked on The Sims 2 and 3, and before that he worked at SOE on EverQuest. Thanks, GI.biz.
Omg HD Zombies! is coming to Steam for PC in mid-February
Omg HD Zombies! is coming to Steam for PC, courtesy of Ghostlight. Expect it to land on the store sometime in mid-February. Currently available on PlayStation 3, PSP and Vita, Laughing Jackal’s title comes with 100 levels, 100 upgrades and as the name suggests, HD graphics. The developer is behind the PC port of Agarest: Generations of War Zero which is also expected on Steam next month.
PlanetSide 1 will go free-to-play in April
PlanetSide 1 will go free-to-play in April, Sony Online Entertainment announced yesterday. According to a notice in the All Access FAQ, PlanetSide will not see further game development. SOE boss John Smedley confirmed the game would be going F2P back in may 2013. PlanetSide was released in 2003.
YouTube rejects Terry Cavanagh’s copyright appeal on VVVVVV
YouTube has rejected Terry Cavanagh’s copyright appeal over a video of VVVVVV he posted on the service.
Prison Architect developers respond to criticism and talk of future features
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Earlier in the week Paolo Pedercini, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and game developer, criticised Introversion for their game Prison Architect. He claims that the game, in its current state, is too simplistic a representation of the US prison system and the social structures that it resides in. While critical of the game, he does say that Prison Architect “could easily become a powerful tool to see incarceration through multiple lenses, possibly even prefiguring alternatives to the existing dysfunctional system.”
Introversion have responded to a number of Pedercini’s complaints revealing that their game is going to become a much darker simulation in the future.
Windforge has airships powered by sky whales
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Airplanes may have won in the contest for most practical air transport but, dammit, airships are just more majestic. What better way to build on their majesty than fuelling them with oil from nature’s most majestic creation, the whale? That’s a question Snowed In Studios asks in Windforge.
The game takes place in a world running off the fat fish’s black fuel and it’s running out. You’re tasked with finding an alternative source.
Half Life 2 Warhammer 40k mod Exterminatus now totes turrets
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The humble turret gets a short shrift. Many claim that it’s dogs that are man’s best friend but that’s patently ridiculous. Dogs don’t turn your enemies into a heap of bloody mulch if they trespass on your land. Sure, they might give the intruder a nip or two but the canine’s inability to operate a 50cal machine gun is obvious.
The poor oft overlooked turret’s been added to the Exterminatus mod, fleshing out the Warhammer 40k for Half-Life 2 by providing the emperor’s chosen with man’s true companion.
PC Gamers Launch Petition For PC Versions Of Bayonetta, Vanquish & Virtua Fighter 5
NeoGAF’s members have launched a petition in order to show SEGA that there is PC crowd for more ‘niche’ games. As suggested, this petition is targeting games that are a perceived lower risk and the initial suggestions are: Vanquish, Bayonetta and Virtua Fighter 5. Continue reading
This Is What Next-Gen Titles Should Look Like – Skyrim Modded Looks Fabulous
You know what? The latest screenshots of THIEF looked quite good but still, they were not that different from what we’ve been playing lately. The same can be said about Call of Duty: Ghosts; a next-gen title that looks worse than a number of current-gen games. And while we are still waiting for the next batch of next-gen titles, we can all take a look at what Skyrim modded looks today on our platform. So, today we bring you new images from ENBSeries users aal, Avroveks, OhKay, Oyama, saltr, unreal, wanako, WoodsOfYpres and ZeroKing. Enjoy! Continue reading
You've probably seen the news that came out of CES a few weeks ago: 4K ultra-high-definition monitors for under $1000! Dell announced the P2815Q, a 28-inch 3840x2160 panel for just $700, and you can already buy it. Lenovo and Asus both announced their own sub-$1000 4K panels at the show--the Lenovo ThinkVision 2840m and Asus PB287Q, both shipping in spring or summer for $800 and both offering that 28-inch 4K experience. But are any of them good enough to buy?
Nope. Not yet.
More like Twisted-No-Thankyou
All the sub-$1000 4K monitors announced so far--at least the ones we have any panel information on--use twisted-nematic (TN) displays rather than in-plane-switching (IPS) panels. A TN panel can have quicker refresh rates, but everything else about it is inferior to IPS: the viewing angles are bad, the colors are more washed out, and it inherently can't reproduce as wide an array of colors as an IPS panel, so it's not accurate enough to use for photo or video editing. (More on the difference in this previous column.)
TN panels are still popular with twitch gamers because they can have much quicker pixel refresh times than IPS monitors, which can be important in fast multiplayer shooters. And indeed, Dell advertises a 5ms refresh rate, which on the surface seems fast enough for gamers. But that leads us the next problem with Dell's 28-inch 4K monitor, and possibly the other two as well.
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