Dota 2 makes Perfect World money in China, large-scale launch coming "soon"
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The fiscal year ends in a couple of weeks - which right now means it’s about Christmastime for money. Chinese MMO specialists Perfect World announced a $110.7 million drop in profits since last year, and so were rightfully reticent to break out the mulled wine - but still had something to celebrate with their shareholders.
Namely early revenue from Dota 2, which Perfect World are in the tentative stages of introducing to mainland China.
In The Elder Scrolls Online, crafted gear will be "slightly better" than its found equivalent
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Zenimax have gone to great lengths to ensure that The Elder Scrolls Online, like its namesakes, is exploration-driven - and for the most part they’ve succeeded. Skill points are acquired from magic crystals secreted around its maps, and you won’t find many if you stick to the cities.
Sometimes, though, it’ll make sense to chain yourself to the leg of a crafting table. Because the level 10 axe you put together yourself is going to be ever-so-slightly better for cleaving with than the level 10 axe your friend will ride back into town wielding at the end of the day.
Double Fine take a second bob at the apple with Costume Quest 2
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Double Fine splitting their company into four teams post-Brutal Legend hasn’t just meant four times as many games - it’s meant four times as many announcements.
In a games news world where the time between discovery and release can be long enough to encompass excitement, backlash and entrenched opinion, that’s been nice: a series of bite-sized chunks of anticipation followed by (more often than not) fulfillment.
Here’s another: the studio’s very first sequel. Costume Quest 2 will see the return of protagonist twins Reynold and Wren - though not lead designer Tasha Harris, who has since returned to a career at Pixar.
Weekend in Paris: Riot bring Europe "a little love" with League of Legends All-Star 2014
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Riot have announced deets for a major happening in the annual League of Legends calendar: the All-Star tournament. The Le Zenith Arena in Paris will inaugurate a new two-pronged format across four days, beginning May 8.
Why it's time to reinstall Diablo III
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Diablo III is insanely fun right now.
And this horde of orange loot is why. Just look at it. A couple of weeks ago, this bountiful hoard of legendaries from Diablo III would’ve taken the majority of a month to acquire. What was even worse is that only one or two of the items would of been deemed “OK” at best, with the rest finding their way onto the auction house. Now however, they're all really good.
The difference is I acquired all of that in one sitting of the campaign last night. Patch 2.0 - and most notably Loot 2.0 - is responsible, and it’s amazing.
It’s why you should reinstall Diablo III and get playing again.
And to think Reaper of Souls isn’t even out yet.
Pyramid scheme: The Old Republic's PvP Huttball to get a vertical makeover on April 8
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One of those things that must have made KOTOR seem such a prime candidate for MMOification - besides its cooldown-based combat system and setting in bloody Star Wars - was its proclivity for minigames.
In 2003, a player might have interrupted their journey of extraordinary self-discovery to play a few rounds of pazaak and watch the pod-racing, before decamping to the Ebon Hawke for a spot of turret target practice.
These are precisely the sort of embedded distractions MMO players like to get involved in. In SWTOR, that’s manifested as something called Huttball: “the most brutal game in the galaxy”, funded by its slimiest residents. To date it’s had a single PvP warzone to its name - but BioWare Austin have built a new one in portrait, on the atmospherically poisonous adopted homeworld of the Hutt: Quesh.
Time to mech a move: Titanfall is out today (and you'll want to let it download overnight)
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Microsoft would quite like Titanfall to be the thing the Xbox One has over the PS4, and so they and EA have done everything in their power to make sure you don’t forget about it. But just in case you had: Titanfall’s out today on the PC too, and better there.
If you’re planning on playing it pretty sharpish, a warning: you might want to get started downloading and installing the thing.
Arma III single player campaign will conclude on March 20 with large-scale "tactical freedom"
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Gosh, that’s a relief. Bohemia have been naming their sequential single-player campaigns in such a fashion that when you line the spines up on your digital shelf they’ll constitute a three-word guide to Arma-ing. It’s a relief, then, to discover that what follows ‘Survive’ and ‘Adapt’ isn’t ‘Lie in the grass and wait for the tanks to roll over you’, but ‘Win’.
Win will be the concluding part of Arma III’s ‘The East Wind’ campaign. Out in just over a week, it’ll finish the story of infantryman Ben Kerry and pull together all of the game’s elements for large-scale tactical combat.
Oculus hire Valve VR man Atman Binstock, name him Chief Architect
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You know all those shellshocked second-hand accounts that’ve been emerging from Steam Dev Days in recent weeks? Of imaginary fifty-foot drops and walls covered in serial killer QR codes?
All of that was the doing of Atman Binstock: sounds like a BioShock villain, actually one of the lead engineers and driving forces behind Valve’s internal VR projects. None of his work there will see the commercial light of day, sadly - but he’s just now moved to Oculus, where his knowledge and drive can power the Rift.
League of Legends' Team Builder is live in North America; lead developer responds to feedback
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League of Legends’ Team Builder is in live beta for North American players right now, until tomorrow at 9AM PDT. It allows players to queue for particular positions and roles, selecting specific champions rather than rushing in or bargaining when they hit the champion select screen.
Players have jumped in to fiddle around with it, and Riot has already started to address some of the feedback.
Monsters run free: The Witcher 3 delayed until February 2015
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Tragedy has struck. The monsters are winning. Dragons are burning down the countryside, ghouls are having loud parties in graveyards and demonic beasties are hassling folk in the street. What we need is a Witcher, but we won’t be getting one until February, 2015.
Can we even survive for that long?
Van Helsing Jr. has another Incredible Adventure on April 17th
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Whether it was my love of wide-brimmed hats or my dream of having a ghost chum that engendered me towards The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, I can’t say for sure, but it really sunk its monstrous claws into me.
Neocore’s action RPG had more than hats and ghosts, of course. Deep character progression; compelling, varied combat encounters with interesting monsters; the curious juxtaposition of cheeky comedy and grim horror - there’s a lot to recommend it. So its upcoming sequel, due out on April 17th, is worth keeping an eye out for.
Titanfall had a rocky start, but the worst seems to be over
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Titanfall, which released in North America last night, has had a slightly rocky start. PC players started having trouble immediately, with the majority of problems relating to logging into EA’s servers. A patch was issued quickly, seemingly fixing the connection problems.
The scars from EA’s previous high profile cock-ups, namely SimCity and Battlefield 4, still stung, and some users were quick to declare Titanfall’s launch another massive failure.
Cancel your engagements: Hearthstone just launched
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Hearthstone, Blizzard’s terrifyingly addictive online game of card battles, just launched. It’s been a bit of a fixture around the digital PCGN office since closed beta, worming its way into our lives and making it rather hard to work. It’s not our fault, I say; we’re just weak.
If you weren’t fiddling around with it during the beta phase, you can hop on in now pretty easily. Wander over to playhearthstone.com and download it from there, or grab it from the Battle.net client.
This weekend's Elder Scrolls Online beta event unveils the Imperial race
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The Elder Scrolls Online is gearing up for another beta weekend, kicking off on Friday, March 14th at 5PM GMT, running until Monday, March 17th at 3:59AM GMT.
This weekend is going to be a bit different from the last couple, however, as ZeniMax is unlocking the Imperial Edition and Explorer Pack for all beta testers. This means you’ll be able to play as those boring old Imperials or any race in any alliance, so your Redguard can start in Skyrim, for instance.
Alone With You is an ominous sci-fi dating sim from the creator of Home
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Benjamin Rivers’ horror thriller Home and I did not see eye to eye. Experimental and certainly unique, it tasked players with solving a mystery where they ultimately decided the resolution. Unfortunately, this led to all resolutions being vague and unfulfilling, as well as inconsistent with the tense build up. It bled ambition from every pore, however.
Rivers is following up his peculiar horror adventure with a lonely sci-fi outing. Alone With You puts players in the space boots of a stranded astronaut, stuck all by himself on an uninhabited planet following a failed terraforming expedition. Well, he’s not quite by himself. He’s accompanied by an AI partner, somewhat evocative of A Space Odyssey’s HAL.
Crytek confirms Linux support for the new Cryengine
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Crytek has confirmed that the new CryEngine will have full native support, spilling the beans in a teaser of what they’ll be showing off at GDC next week in San Francisco.
Alongside CryEngine working on Linux, the developer and publisher will be showing off the new Warface modes, Tower Raid and Capture.
Watch Dogs’ Creative Director: PC Version Better Than E3 2012 Build In Many Regards, NG Close To PC
Watch Dogs’ Creative Director Jonathan Morin has been discussing lately the differences between the PC and the next-gen version of Watch Dogs on Twitter. According to Jonathan, the PC version will feature higher resolution effects (lighting effects, rain simulation, depth of field, particles system) than its next-gen console counterpart. Continue reading
Ex-Elder Scrolls & Ultima Online Developers Form Citadel Studios, Announce Shards
Citadel Studios, a new independent video game development company focusing on multiplayer role-playing games for PC, announced today Shards. According to the press release, for the past six months Citadel has been heads down working on their first project, codenamed “Shards,” and has released a teaser trailer that can be viewed below. Continue reading
ArcheBlade Releases On Steam This April
CodeBrush Games has announced that its multi-player fighting game ArcheBlade will officially launch this April on Steam. Although CodeBrush Games did not reveal a specific date, the company promised to make another announcement when the date is finally set. Continue reading
Unreal Engine-powered Sci-Fi Horror Adventure ‘Caffeine’ Gets A New Teaser Trailer
Incandescent Imaging has released a new teaser trailer for its upcoming sci-fi horror adventure title, Caffeine. Caffeine is powered by the Unreal Engine and this new teaser trailer features a snippet of in-game footage. Incandescent Imaging promised to release a demo for Caffeine soon, so stay tuned for more. Until then, enjoy the teaser trailer! Continue reading
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