Like a wiki, but made of wood: Minecraft gets official Fyre UK-penned construction handbook
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Two new Minecraft handbooks are set to join Egmont’s bookcase and emit particle effect glyphs with the rest. The Official Combat Handbook and Official Construction Handbook will become available on Amazon and in bookshops early next month - and the latter was put together with help from famed Minecraft build timelapsers Fyre UK.
That mobile-first Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 will be a "completely different game" on PC
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No classic genre seems to have suffered so much in the free-to-play remake stakes as ‘90s management. Perhaps because Zynga’s most famous work superficially resembles that of Molyneux and Sawyer, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and now Rollercoaster Tycoon have all been rejigged lately for phones with Facebook integration and approachable art styles.
A new, numbered Rollercoaster Tycoon game was announced for mobile last week, and didn’t fill our happiness meters with hope. But Atari say its PC version will cater to our taste for “different sorts of things”.
What Turtle Rock didn't like about Left 4 Dead (and improved in Evolve)
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Unabashed criticism of Left 4 Dead? Sacrilege. But if there’s anybody qualified to bash the definitive co-op shooter it’s Turtle Rock - the team who first conceived the game and were absorbed by Valve for the duration of its development, before popping out the other side as an independent studio.
“You can only tackle so much every time that you make a game, especially if you’re trying to do new things,” said Turtle Rock design director Chris Ashton. “So there were a bunch of things when we came out of Left 4 Dead at the end of the day we weren’t happy with, that we wanted to make sure we really addressed from the get-go with Evolve.”
Killer app: visit Tesco in the Oculus Rift
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Something that’s become apparent as we’ve overcome nausea and acclimatised to the strange world of VR is what it’s best at: not fast-moving multiplayer shooters, but experiences. Places, not pew-pew.
What place is stranger and more worthy of exploration than the abstract, airlock atmosphere of the common supermarket?
Port Inspection - Deus Ex: The Fall
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Deus Ex: The Fall expands the universe presented in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s a story set just before its predecessor, aping its mechanics, themes and art direction. You can play as a subtle sneak or an aggressive soldier, a dick or a good guy; characters love to hear themselves talk, digressing into philosophical diatribes at the drop of a hat; and the whole bloody thing is lathered in a gaudy golden sheen that makes you want to go to the opticians.
But it was originally developed for mobile devices, and on that platform it stood out with its decent production values and similarities to its AAA sibling. It’s out on PC now, though, released a week early. The move has done it no favours. What is forgivable, or actually expected, in a mobile game is not so easily swept under the rug on PC. The Fall reveals itself to be an ugly, awkward mimicry of Human Revolution.
Here is the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls release schedule, region by region
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Blizzard are almost ready to unleash the thematically unusual latest chapter in the Diablo III saga, Reaper of Soles: about the the hooved demon, Maltheus, driven to bring the world to heel by jealousy over the human capacity to wear shoes (don’t ever mention heels while he’s about, mind).
It’s a story we’ll all know first-hand by tomorrow. But precisely when? Here’s the expansion’s ever-so-slightly complicated release schedule, which begins rolling out across the world later today.
EA’s plan for Star Wars: CEO wants Arkham-style "deep, immersive storylines", not film tie-ins
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Andrew Wilson likes Arkham Asylum! And we thought he was only into sports games and the Democracy 3 clone that is high-level management.
The EA CEO would like to replicate Warner Bros. and Rocksteady’s success with the Arkham series, if possible: greenlighting games which stand apart from the films but thread themselves nicely into the extended universe.
The Elder Scrolls Online release schedule unfurled ahead of April 4 launch
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Following a spate of recent launch cock-ups from some of the biggest publishers in the business, the pre-order has come to seem less like a gesture of good faith and giddy anticipation, more like a favour to a corporation that probably doesn’t even send you birthday cards.
And so the publishers have had to sweeten the deal. In The Elder Scrolls Online’s case, that’ll mean a strange, staggered release come the start of April. Not one, but two separate pre-purchase early access schemes will run prior to full launch. See the details of them, and work out when you might be able to play, below.
Fez's aren't cheap: free Doctor Who adventure games now on Steam, for a price
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The stetson, fez and bowtie-wearing time-traveller, the Doctor, stars in his own series of adventure games. If you don’t live in the UK, you might not be aware of this. Over here in blighty, they’ve been available for free over on the BBC website, but now the rest of the world can experience the joy of phoned-in voice acting and atrocious adventure game stealth sections for themselves.
The whole series, which is five episodes long, is now on Steam for £14.99/$19.99.
Double Fine's Hack 'n' Slash lets players break and reprogram the game
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The “hack” in Double Fine’s dungeon-crawling title, Hack ‘n’ Slash doesn’t refer to a violent act - hacking away at the bodies of foes until they die. Alice the elf has a USB sword, you see, and while it can be used as a mundane weapon, it’s much more useful as a code-altering device.
Enemies, obstacles and puzzles can all be messed around with using the variables that Double Fine put in the code. If they have a USB slot, Alice can plug in and change their properties.
Double Fine was at GDC to show off an early version of the game, and what at first seems intimidating reveals itself to be rather simple, demanding creativity and experimentation instead of an understanding of coding.
Cram free music into your ears when you hit level 30 in Ghost Recon Phantoms
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Ubisoft’s free-to-play Ghost Recon Phantoms might have bad music, a partnership with Deezer suggests. The publisher just announced a deal with subscription-based music platform Deezer.com for the launch of Phantoms. It seems like an utterly random partnership, making me wonder if the in-game music is so offensively bad that players will need to listen to other tunes.
Players who reach level 30 with one character will receive a three month subscription to Deezer Premium for free from April 10th to June 30th.
Galactic Civilizations 3 alpha begins on March 27th; watch a galaxy being conquered to celebrate
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Galactic Civilizations III might be a long way from release, but a playable alpha is launching very, very soon. March 27th soon. Before you blow your mass drivers, you should know that it’s only available to those who have pre-ordered the Founder’s Edition.
At this stage, players can spread their influence across the galaxy through conquest, building big armadas and carving up their foes with lasers, and there’s plenty of exploration to be done as well. Diplomacy, ship building and colony management, however, are still being developed and aren’t in this build.
Take a gander below at the first footage of the game, showing off the Altarians as they chew through the galaxy.
Free to Play had 5.5 million viewers on its debut weekend
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It seems like rather a lot of you watched Free to Play, Valve’s documentary following a trio of Dota 2 pros as they prepare for and compete in the first International. 5.5 million of you, in fact. That’s 5.5 million viewers in the opening weekend, which is one of the largest debuts for a documentary film. Impressive stuff.
Razer is struggling to find manufacturers for its modular PC concept, Project Christine
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One of the most intriguing things to come out of CES 2014, back in January, was Razer’s Project Christine. A modular PC concept with mineral oil cooling where you could easily slot in or remove the GPU, SSD or any other piece of hardware sounded like a dream for those who - like me - prefer not to faff around with the insides of their rig all the time, but still want to upgrade.
One of my concerns was the cost of buying the all the modules every time you wanted to upgrade, but Razer was also contemplating a subscription service, where you’d pay by the month and always have a state of the art setup. Unfortunately, the prototype may be destined to remain merely a concept, as PC manufacturers are, according to Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, too risk averse.
Escape Goat 2 breaks out of its dungeon and onto PC today
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Goats always seem a little lost. Sometimes you’ll find them on mountainsides or standing precariously on cliffs, and they just look out of place. Like they cracked open a few cans of special brew and just ended up there unexpectedly.
There’s a good chance that cheap lager was the impetus for the goat from Escape Goat 2 getting lost in a dungeon. Poor wee drunk guy. If you feel any sort of sympathy, you might want to pick the game up, which you can do right now. Because it’s out. Obviously.
Betrayer – First-Person Action Adventure from the Creators of F.E.A.R. – Releases Today
Blackpowder Games announced today the release of its first-person action adventure game, Betrayer, the self-funded debut title from the creative team known for the acclaimed No One Lives Forever series and the original F.E.A.R. Continue reading
Bear Simulator Has Been Funded In Just Three Days
Well, it seems that a lot of people want to experience the world through the eyes of a bear. As with Goat Simulator, Bear Simulator impressed everyone with its weird concept. A game similar to Skyrim in which you take the role of a bear? F’ing A man. Continue reading
Unreal Engine 4 – Latest Tech Demos Showcased + Oculus Rift
Unreal Engine fans, get ready for a treat. YouTube’s member ‘club4ghz’ has shared videos from all the latest Unreal Engine 4 tech demos that were released alongside the engine itself. Therefore, below you can enjoy Unreal Engine 4′s Reflections Subway Demo, Mobile Temple Showcase Tech Demo, Particles Showcase Tech Demo and FPS Game Sample. Enjoy! Continue reading
Assassin’s Creed: Unity Ballroom Environment Recreated In Unreal Engine 4
After unveiling what Assassin’s Creed: Unity may look, Christian Hecht decided to put Unreal Engine 4 to the test and recreated the ballroom we saw in the game’s sneak peek video. The end result is pretty amazing, so make sure to give this video a go. Enjoy! Continue reading
Caffeine – Pre-Release Demo Available, First Unreal Engine 4 Footage Revealed
Incandescent Imaging has just released an early pre-release demo of Caffeine running in Unreal Engine 3. This demo provides a short taste of what the full game will offer. In addition, the team has released the first footage of the game running on Unreal Engine 4. Continue reading
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