EA know eSports isn't stopping - and want to get involved
Sports! The generalised, foam hand-waving, anything-with-a-ball sense of the term. That’s the world new EA CEO and triathlonite Andrew Wilson came up in, as chief custodian of FIFA, Madden and the NHL games. It’s a world he understands.
But now somebody’s gone and stuck a new vowel to the front of the word, and it’s become an entirely different beast. Companies who aren’t EA are filling LA stadiums with baying video game fans, and Wilson and friends would like a slice of that pie chart to show to their shareholders, please.
To that end, the CEO is eyeing up the publisher’s series’ as potential eSports candidates - and not just the ones about men in shorts.
"It's not easy being queen": StarCraft 2's Kerrigan trailered for Heroes of the Storm
Kerrigan is the perfect candidate for the game formerly known as Blizzard All-Stars. A major presence in all four StarCraft releases to date and subject of numerous tie-in novels, she’s as much coated in lore as she is spindly insect bits.
Consequently her every word is now fan service - a fact Blizzard seem to have begun to recognise. Hence the very silly introductory reference here to that other great Ker - Kermit the Frog.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot tackles player loneliness with pets in new update
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is a game with an ingenious high concept - Diablo vs Dungeon Keeper - that we really would have preferred to like. But in practice, it felt a little like returning home to find you’d been burgled. Every day.
What does work in Mighty Quest is the nitty gritty hacky slashy part - so it’s odd to see Ubisoft Montreal fiddling with that side of things, rather than work on rebalancing the business of castle building. Pets will accompany players on their grand home invasions, providing company and picking up gold and life force.
Hack 'n' Slash Early Access trailer implores you to "check it out", subsequently "delete evil"
I haven’t had time to catch up on the reels of film from Double Fine’s latest Amnesia Fortnight - but would be terribly surprised if it had produced an idea more compelling than Hack ‘n’ Slash, born during last year’s two-week internal jam.
Hack ‘n’ Slash is Zelda, but with a hacking system. Not a Deus Ex node network; not a BioShock pipes minigame; but an opportunity to make genuine alterations to the game’s code to circumvent your enemies.
Double Fine have put together a dimly-lit trailer in the spirit of the game’s ‘90s red-pill vibe. It is fun.
Blood Dragons and dud-free reboots: Uplay's Spring Sale is quite good
Occasionally Ubisoft will send out emails about games they didn’t make. That’s not because they’re jealous or forgetful, but because they’ve quietly started selling the works of other publishers on their Uplay store.
It might never be the centrepiece of your gaming life like Steam is, but Uplay is a perfectly sensible place to buy PC games - especially now, while its Spring Sale is going on.
Here’s what’s on offer: Blood Dragon for less than the price of Total Recall on VHS in ‘91, and Tomb Raider for far under the cost of a gap year gone awry.
Here Is Your First Look At Star Citizen’s Dogfighting Module – PAX East Presentation
Star Citizen fans, get ready for a treat. Chris Roberts revealed that he and the Star Citizen team will be streaming live from the Royale nightclub in Boston, MA to present the Dogfighting Module first to Star Citizen backers. The livestream will begin at 9:00PM EDT, which means that we have – more or less – around 12 hours until that happens. Continue reading
Bound By Flame Gets A Proper Combat Trailer
After releasing two teaser trailers, Focus Home Interactive released today a proper full length video for Bound By Flame’s combat system. The video comprises numerous gameplay sequences and a detailed commentary describes the combat system and game mechanics that work in synergy: from the various options available to the player in the skill trees (Warrior, Ranger and Pyromancer) to choosing your companions, the variety in the impressive bestiary, the crafting system that enables you to customize your equipment and the player’s human/demon duality, which will have a strong influence on your combat strategy. Enjoy! Continue reading
Unreal Engine 4-powered Sci-Fi Horror ‘Caffeine’ Gets A Fourth Trailer
Incandescent Imaging has released yet another trailer for its upcoming sci-fi horror title that will be powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, Caffeine. As Dylan Browne noted, this trailer has some new snippits of areas but mainly serves as a better trailer to use for Caffeine’s IndieGoGo campaign. Enjoy! Continue reading
Outcast Reboot HD – First Proper Screenshots Unveiled From Prototype Build
Fresh3D has revealed the first proper screenshots from the upcoming HD reboot of Outcast. As the team noted, these screenshots are from the prototype build that is already running at 1080p + 60fps. Obviously, these shots do not reflect the quality of the final product, though it gives us a glimpse at what Fresh3D targets. Now let’s hope that the next set of screenshots will have Anisotropic Filtering enabled (notice the blurry terrain that is caused by the texture filtering used). Enjoy! Continue reading
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