Civilization Online enters closed beta in Korea
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Civilization Online has been deathly quiet for almost a year, until now. A new promotional video shows off the new MMO which is being developed for the Asian market: currently in closed beta in Korea. The game is being built by XLGAMES - the same studio behind Lineage - and is led by the well known Eastern developer Jake Song.
How Neocore found their place with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2
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It’s a big shift, going from making lavish, Total War-derived tactical games like King Arthur and Lionheart: King’s Crusade to making Gothic, fast-paced action RPGs like the Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing series. But it’s a transition that Hungarian developer Neocore games have made look surprisingly easy, as their stylish art direction seem finally to have caught up with their game design. Not only if Van Helsing every bit the rich visual experience that Neocore have been known for, but it’s also a surprisingly worthy peer of Diablo and Torchlight.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 seems to break with Neocore past life as a wargame developer, but to hear narrative designer Viktor Juhasz tell it, it was a natural evolution.
You're gonna need a bigger boat: Mojang's next mob will leave Minecraft's waters hostile
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Come on in, the water’s lovely. For now. At present, Minecraft’s oceans are occupied only by the squid - which look alarmingly toothy, but are significantly less threatening than the possibility of forgetting about your bubble bar and drowning.
That’s to change. The new ranged mob Jeb is working on will kill squid. And it’ll kill players too.
“On hard difficulty a full diamond armor is recommended,” he warns.
Throw shapes: Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell's live action Volume trailer is a good 'un
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Live-action trailers are more often than not the preserve of developers in a position to call up Gustavo Fring after Breaking Bad and make him a competitive offer. But indie Mike Bithell broke the trend in marketing Thomas Was Alone, and has done the same for his non-lethal stealth game, Volume.
Entitled ‘We’ve got your back’, this trailer is a promotional video for a fictional AI corp in Bithell’s near-future Robin Hood story. Unsurprisingly, there’s something amiss.
Gaijin Games become Choice Provisions to avoid offence, announce two new games
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My first thought was that Gaijin must be changing their name because they share it with the War Thunder lot in Russia - a fact that can make tagging hell. But the problem is actually the word itself - a Japanese term for ‘foreigner’ which rings alarm bells in some quarters.
So they’ve become Choice Provisions. but proved they’ve still got a way with a name by announcing two new games: Laserlife and Tharsis.
UK game development "back on track", TIGA report suggests
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UK games industry body TIGA have conducted a census of Biblical proportions. Rather than send each game developer in Britain to their town of birth to be registered, however, they simply talked to studio bosses across the country and emerged with an intriguing result: employment levels appear to be at their highest point since 2008.
That’s thanks in part to a “surge” of start-ups. Indies.
Winter is coming later: Telltale is saving Game of Thrones details for after E3
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While E3, which kicks off today, will drown us all in announcements, reveals, trailers and new footage, there’s always going to be a few games that sidestep the glitz and over-excitement. Last month, IO revealed they won’t be showing off the new Hitman, and now Telltale’s Job Staffer has announced on Twitter that the adventure game studio are still keeping a lid on Game of Thrones.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare gets all sci-fi at E3, but the DLC will still be old fashioned timed exclusives
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Microsoft opened its E3 conference with a bang, some booms, a few jetpacks and Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Advanced Warfare continues the series’ tradition of impressive, large scale set pieces involving guns and lots of shouting men. Sledgehammer’s trailer has worked its way to the top of the pile though, because it’s got jetpacks and terrifying swarms of machines.
I always thought that those things were missing when I stormed the beaches of Normandy in Call of Duty 2.
Assassin's Creed Unity will be a four-way co-operative Parisian royal stab 'em up
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Ubisoft just hopped on stage at Microsoft's E3 conference to reveal some fresh things about their upcoming, next-generation Assassin's Creed game. Assassin's Creed Unity will be four-way co-op, set in Paris during the French Revolution and won't shy away from plopping a few heads on spikes.
H1Z1 trailer asks what your evil ways will be
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When the apocalypse hits, what manner of evil will you commit to survive? That’s the question at the heart of this splattery-good trailer for Sony’s open-world zombie MMO H1Z1. Alongside such questions comes footage of skidding automobiles, grand fortresses, and many, many dead people.
Project Spark, now with more old squirrels
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Microsoft’s showed off a bit of Project Spark today, though the trailer mostly focused on two animated characters jumping around game worlds rather than the game’s people have been creating.
The sci-fi themed content got the spotlight directed its way for a few seconds and then something strange happened. A rare sighting of Conker the Squirrel, who proceeded to carve up the Project Spark logo.
Somehow, some way, Conker’s going to be in the game.
Playdead follow up Limbo with Inside
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Playdead erupted onto the indie scene with immeasurable style with Limbo, a hauntingly bleak, depressingly violent trek through monochrome environments. Never before has a game killed off a small child in so many terrifying ways.
Children in peril seems to be at the heart of Playdead’s new game: Inside. Opting once again for a stylish, minimalist look, Inside appears to looking to recreate the sense of dread so prevalent in Limbo.
Analyze This: Rise of the Tomb Raider pits Lara against bears and shrinks
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It might not have sold quite as much or quite as quickly as Square Enix wanted it to, but Tomb Raider was a lesson in how to do a reboot. And it ended with a Lara not in the least bit finished with her dangerous gallivanting across the globe.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the follow-up to last year’s reboot, with the trailer suggesting that it’s the story of Lara becoming who she was “meant to be”.
The Division still has car doors that close when you run into them
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Important news from Microsoft's E3 press conference: The Division still has car doors that close when you run into them. Last time we heard from Ubisoft's open-world survival-shooter, we saw a police car have its door shut by a man who was shimmying alongside the vehicle.
Today, in an exciting turn of events, we bear witness to a taxi cab the door of which is shut by a woman crouch-running into it. The Division: Car Doors That Shut is scheduled for a 2015 release.
Evolve teaser brings bad news: beta and DLC out on Xbox One first
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Oh, Microsoft. You really are like the people who feel the need to post “first” in comments sections. Evolve, Turtle Rock’s human versus monster co-operative shooter, was teased at the Microsoft conference in a new trailer.
The hunters faced off against a new monster; a Cthulhu-style tentacles monstrosity. It looks like a hoot to play and to kill. Unfortunately it also comes with the announcement that Evolve’s beta will be an Xbox exclusive, while the DLC will be on Xbox One first.
Dragon Age: Inquisition wants you to feel, but not for the dragons
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I know that the latest Dragon Age Inquisition trailer shown off by Microsoft at E3 is meant to be a bit sad and tragic because the piano music and slow motion walking and running informed me of this.
But Dragon Age is really about killing dragons. Well, it is this time. Origins, Awakening and the now unpopular sequel had a surprising lack of dragon slaying given the franchise’s name. No more, though. BioWare’s chucking in loads of dragons. Take a look at some of our scaley chums below.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the long wished for sequel to Guardian of Light
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Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was an odd spinoff from the Tomb Raider series. A coop game played from a fixed camera, you and a friend would guide Lara and the 2,000-year-old Mayan warrior Totec through a dungeon of animated statues, traps, and monsters. It was a blast and, till now, there was every indication it was a one off.
Crystal Dynamics are working on a sequel to the spinoff, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.
DICE went on a fieldtrip to Hoth to make Star Wars Battlefront as faithful as possible
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DICE are dedicated to Battlefront. They know that the series is beloved, and the people making it are as big Star Wars fans as you and I. That’s why they’ve not only been studying LucasFilm’s vast collection of movie props, but actually going on field trips to the planets themselves.
Well, not quite. But they have visited the filming locations of places like Hoth and Endor to ensure the feel of these maps will be as accurate as possible.
Mass Effect trailer shows Bioware are taking us “somewhere new”
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During their presentation at this year’s E3, EA showed off the first images from Bioware Edmonton's next Mass Effect game. This isn’t Mass Effect 4, this is a new IP in the same universe.
EA weren’t exactly forthcoming when it comes to details of the new game but we did learn that they’re “taking you to a whole new region of space. Somewhere so vast you can just continue onto the horizon.”
BioWare shows off Dragon Age: Inquisition's dragon slaying and motley crew
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The last Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer was all about the soft piano music, but BioWare decided to up its game with a live cello recital to accompany new footage shown at EA’s E3 conference.
BioWare’s Aaryn Flynn says Inquisition marks the next generation of BioWare games. It seems a bit like posturing, especially when he follows this up by explaining that you can control all of your party members. Like previous Dragon Age games. And basically every RPG BioWare has made.
I stopped sneering when he showed off an in-game battle between the Inquisitors and a dragon.
Criterion have gone off-road for their new all-terrain, multi-vehicle extreme sports game
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Criterion Games, beloved for Burnout and their work on Need for Speed, are leaving the well-worn roads of the street and race track behind. Their new game is all about freedom. And possibly madness.
Instead of souped up Porsches and Ford Mustangs, we’re jumping on the back of ATV. Or taking on the waves on a jetski. Or jumping out a plane in a wingsuit. Yup, Criterion are going all-out extreme sports.
The Sims 4 will launch on September 2nd
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A woman from EA just killed a man. The Sims 4 will launch on September 2nd.
Mirror’s Edge 2 trailer: “Faith is a projectile, when she does hit she hits hard and moves on.”
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Faith was tattooed right on the eyeball. She did it to make a point and the next Mirror’s Edge is EA exploring the point she’s making. And here’s me thinking you could do all that with a set of contact lenses.
At this year’s E3 DICE showed off some footage of the next Mirror’s Edge.
Battlefield Hardline brings the noise to city streets, along with tasers and ziplines
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If you were skeptical that Battlefield’s move to the urban streets would prevent it being the bombastic battle ground it has been previously, have no fear. There may not have been a tank in sight, but Battlefield Hardline is just as bombastic as it always has been. Just replace some of the explosions with wailing sirens and you’re almost in the right frame of mind.
Shown off at the E3 EA press conference was a 32 player Heist game, Cops v Criminals duking it out in the streets. The criminals task was to steal an item from an armoured truck and get it to a helicopter extraction. The cops had to bring the noise and justice hammer down on them. Cue destructive car chases and baseball bats to the skull.
Good cop: Battlefield Hardline beta sign up page live
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Battlefield Hardline, Visceral and EA’s cops and robbers-inspired Battlefield title only just had its “official reveal”, but you can already sign up for its multiplayer beta.
If the site doesn’t implode first.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – E3 2014 Microsoft Stage Demo
CD Projekt RED has presented a new gameplay demo during Microsoft’s E3 2014 conference. This demo is the first ‘proper’ gameplay footage we’ve got since the game’s reveal, showing Geralt wandering and fighting a Griffin. Enjoy! Continue reading
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