Friendly fire: Valve launch Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's third community map initiative - Operation Phoenix
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The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community have spent the past few weeks - well, they’ve spent it shooting, haven’t they. But in between trigger squeezes, they’ve voted on the best maps from the last two Operations - limited-period initiatives in which players have been able to pay a small fee to play community-made maps on low-ping Valve servers.
They’ve pieced together eight favourites - now playable on official servers for the next few months of Operation Phoenix.
Open goal: Football Manager 2014 breaks UK high street PC charts records
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I have a distinct memory of watching Top of the Pops every Friday of 1999 and becoming slowly distraught that Cliff Richard’s stranglehold on the no. 1 spot with some interminable Christmas ballad had begun to creep too far into Spring - which is odd, because I can’t find any record of it now.
Here’s a certifiable fact, though: Football Manager 2014 has been at the top sales rung in the UK for 16 weeks on the trot - a new record for the most consecutive no. 1s in PC chart history.
Hammerfell: here's Elder Scrolls Online's crafting system explained by its makers
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I spent my Elder Scrolls Online beta time tip-toeing my way around the slopes of Daggerfall, avoiding combat where I could - and occasionally very loudly thwacking the iron ore out of the odd rock jutting up from the greenery.
Crafting has always been one of a compelling set of reasons to meander around Tamriel - one quest in Morrowind was notorious for sending players on an hours-long walk for a nice flower - but it’s become maybe more alluring (and certainly more complicated) in ESO.
Items can be tinkered with and taken apart for their traits, and some bonuses are exclusive to well-hidden areas on the map. Creative director Paul Sage, lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle and lead user experience designer Chris Strasz elaborate on all that in the video below.
Why Respawn cut complex mech controls from Titanfall; "The cutting room floor is three feet deep"
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For a multiplayer FPS that threatens to add so much new to the genre, Titanfall is an extremely lean game. No single player; no cooperative horde modes; no distractions.
Much of what Respawn developed along the way has been thrown from the rooftops of Angel City and trampled by bipedal machines - including a much more complicated mech control system that sounded more Brothers in Arms than binary.
Thief play and UI options designed to accommodate "very wide" set of expectations
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Where Thief 2: The Metal Age was cold, brilliant and unyielding as iron, nu-Thief is malleable like lead. It can be whoever you want it to be. It can be Dishonored, or Deadly Shadows - just head to its modification options and have a play with the dials.
Eidos Montreal have imbued Thief with their design values and aesthetic, but beyond that they’re happy for you to tweak the details.
“As we progressed we started getting feedback with community managers, collaborating all the information from support and playtesting, [and] it became apparent that expectations were very wide,” explains lead level designer Daniel Windfeld.
Still no beards: Warlords of Draenor's new female dwarf model revealed
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The female dwarf has forever been a challenge for fantasy creators leaning on Tolkien, because he didn’t really do them. Some, like Terry Pratchett, have made them comically indistinguishable from their male counterparts, beards and all. In the interests of unbounded character creation, Blizzard took the other route for World of Warcraft - resulting in the stocky, strong ladies we’ve had in the game since 2004.
Lately, though, they’ve begun to look outmoded - and not for their lack of beards. The WoW dev team have redesigned them for upcoming expansion Warlords of Draenor - and they now look like this.
Square Enix Collective's pilot phase ends on Monday; vote for your favourite pitch
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Square Enix Collective’s pilot phase - where you can vote for (or against) one of three game pitches - ends this coming Monday. So if you haven’t already voted, now’s your chance.
World War Machine, Moon Hunters and Game of Glens are the titles available for your consideration. New submissions will open in March, with any developer able to pitch a project. Pitches that pass the submission criteria will be posted on the Collective in batches every Monday from then on.
Dragon Age: Inquisition snaps show off Varric and Cassandra's new looks
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Dragon Age: Inquisition seems to be coming along rather nicely, but I’m someone who actually thoroughly enjoyed Dragon Age II despite its major missteps, so take that for what it’s worth.
Lead writer David Gaider has some pictures to show you. They aren’t of a holiday in Benidorm. He’s showing off the character models for Varric, sexiest of all dwarf men, and Cassandra, Varric's interrogator in Dragon Age II and one of the “Seekers of Truth”. Sounds like a tough gig.
Elite: Dangerous developer gets £3.75 million to work on two titles from an internal game jam
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Frontier Developments, the studio behind Elite: Dangerous, has netted itself a healthy chunk of change, £3.75 million, for the development of two new projects.
Both games - neither of which Frontier is ready to reveal - were the products of an internal game jam the company puts on every now and then called “Game of the week”.
I’ve got a jar of jam at the back of my kitchen cupboard and I’ve been waiting for it to turn into a game for years. It’s progressing nicely, as it’s already evolved into a hideous, mouldy concoction.
Garry's Mod sales reach $30 million, which Rust has already beaten
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Garry Newman was celebrating today, as Garry’s Mod - which was first released for Half-Life 2 in 2004 before launching as a standalone in 2006 - sales have now reached a whopping $30 million.
As impressive as this milestone is, Newman revealed that Facepunch has still made more money from Rust, even though it has only been available since December and is still in alpha.
Nosgoth is free-to-play not pay-to-win says community manager
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Square Enix community manager George Kelion attempted to assuage any fears that upcoming free-to-play multiplayer arena game, Nosgoth, would be pay-to-win in a recent blog post.
“So, Nosgoth is a free-to-play game - but it's not pay-to-win,” said Kelion. “We made the decision to go to free-to-play to break down barriers and let as many players into the game as possible.” He goes on to explain how currency will work in Nosgoth, as well as how purchased items will affect the game.
Tardisfall: Titanfall's regeneration system uncovered
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Are you ready for some more Titanfall leaks? We’ve had a few already, most courtesy of NeoGAF's RazorUK, and he’s at it again. This time he’s discovered information about Titanfall’s prestige system, where pilots can regenerate, making them sharper and more deadly.
But will you be able to become Peter Capaldi? One can only hope.
Keen Arrow: Towerfall Lands March 11
By Adam Smith on February 21st, 2014 at 5:00 pm.
The gleeful multiplayer exploits of Towerfall have long been the best (and perhaps) only reason to own the US Marine Corps sponsored Oorah! console. When we heard that a PC version was coming, with oodles of new features, I refused to be excited. I expected the newly colonised Towerfall: Ascension to show its face at shady conventions and to be passed around on sleek USB sticks at exclusive awards shows like Nidhogg before it. As the trailer below admirably demonstrates, Towerfall looks absolutely brilliant – a slapstick Spelunky deathmatch. The good news is that you won’t have to be in with the in crowd to play it. It’s out on March 11th. You will need friends though because multiplayer is local only, with no online support.
The Only Winning Move: Wargame: Red Dragon Trailer
By Graham Smith on February 21st, 2014 at 8:00 pm.
I showed the last Wargame: Red Dragon trailer to a friend who is knowledgeable about games. As it drew to a close they turned to me and asked, “What kind of game is this?” It’s a large-scale real-time strategy game with a dynamic campaign map, multiplayer, hundreds of modernish military units, and taut tactical combat, but I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not that you can’t immediately tell from the trailers that it’s not, for example, a first-person shooter. I do know it means it looks visually impressive. I do know it means you should watch the latest trailer, twice.
Once to appreciate how it looks, and a second time to double check how the voice-over pronounces the world “stealth”.
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Next Car Game Update Adds American Sedan car, Figure 8 track, Cinematic Camera + More
Bugbear Entertainment announced that the latest update for Next Car Game is available on Steam. According to the company, this new update includes the brand new Figure 8 derby race event and the classic American Sedan car, as well as major new features like varying weathers for events and a variety of upgrade parts for all cars. Continue reading
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