Riot are testing a new tutorial mode for League of Legends: "We think we can do a better job"
League of Legends is one of the 100 best free PC games - but that hardly matters to the significant minority who don’t have the time or crampons to climb its steep learning curve. Riot Games say a “non-trivial” proportion of new players actually lose the game’s de facto tutorial mode, Battle Training.
“We’ve observed some of those same players go on to become Gold-tier ranked players,” say the developers. “So this isn’t a problem with the players - it’s a problem with how we teach them.”
Hence, Intro Bots - a brand new tutorial mode designed to scale to your level of MOBA experience.
Horse amour: Ubisoft's digital publishing head says we've finally fallen in love with DLC
In the end, the resistance never came. Eight years after Oblivion introduced us to the concept of horse armour and we kicked up a right old fuss, one of the best PC games of 2013 - Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - offered to mark the spot of all its collectibles for 79p.
“There was no resistance,” said Ubisoft VP of digital publishing Chris Early. “Maybe there were 12 guys somewhere who said something, but whatever. As a whole, there wasn’t a problem.”
Early reckons we’re finally okay with buying convenience in our games - so long as “good design” informs what goes on sale.
Mighty No. 9 returns to crowdfunding; Comcept want English voice acting for starters
There are few trickier subjects for a developer to tackle than another shake at the crowdfunding pot. Double Fine split Broken Age in two to avoid a second Kickstarter campaign, and even then drew the ire of thousands.
The nuances of the debate don’t seem to bother Comcept, though - the Japanese team behind Mighty No. 9. They’ve ploughed ahead with a second Paypal campaign to fund bonus content for the Kickstarted side-scroller.
Xbox One Kinect for PC isn't for the likes of us: the $199 price tag makes that clear
Kinect will return to Windows, in its Xbox One form. But it won’t come bundled with Just Dance or Ryse. Rather, it’s designed for use with its new Software Development Kit, and will sell for a not-so-cool $199.
Command & Conquer fan server saves Generals and more from multiplayer blackout
Gamespy’s shutdown has cut the lights in PC gaming’s historical quarter, and it’s been left to third-party services like GameRanger to restore power. Here’s another: a community-run server for the more recent Command & Conquer games.
CivCraft looks to Sid Meier to give Minecraft "competitive purpose"
That name could go either way, couldn’t it? This is not a survivalist game in the Civ engine in which Gandhi punches trees for wood. Sorry. Instead, it’s a serverside mod for Minecraft which casts players as citizens of player-formed countries.
Oculus VR announces Oculus Connect, its very own developer conference
Oculus VR, despite not having released a commercial product, has grown into something rather huge. From Facebook’s acquisition of the developer to the company snatching up talented designers, managers and engineers from all over the industry, it won’t stop expanding. So it only makes sense that it would have its own conference.
Oculus Connect is that conference, and its kicking off in California on September 19th, concluding the next day. From July 10th, attendee applications will be made available on the Oculus Connect website.
There's never a dry moment in Dragon Age: Inquisition's audio booth
BioWare takes voice acting pretty seriously, as do the folk lending the games their vocal talents. But sometimes you just need to have a laugh and spit water in a miserable man’s face. That’s how Alix Wilton Regan - one of the Inquisitor’s voices in Dragon Age: Inquisition - makes her spit-takes sound so authentic, apparently.
Watch below, as a poor man becomes a victim of method acting.
Deep Silver parent company Koch Media responds to claims that it's for sale: "We are not for sale"
On Friday, Handelsblatt - a German business newspaper - published an article reporting that Koch Media was for sale, and the media company had enlisted the aid of investment bank UBS to look for a buyer.
Two people “familiar” with the deal informed the newspaper, but Koch Media denies that this is the case. The company - which owns Deep Silver - used the publisher’s Twitter to assure people that Koch Media is not for sale and is, in fact, looking to expand.
Strap on your moon boots for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's butt-stomping E3 walkthrough
Borderlands’ moon-based spin-off, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has butt-stomping, giant leaps and suffocation and you can now see the E3 walkthrough that’s filled with such shenanigans.
Joel Eschler from 2K Australia and James Lopez from Gearbox show off the demo, featuring pre-robot Wilhelm and lots of bullets. Take a gander below.
Artillery RTS Cannon Brawl enters beta with an explosion of new airships, buildings and challenges
Cannon Brawl, at a glance, looks like a colourful artillery game not unlike Worms. But it quickly reveals itself to be quite a different beast: the spawn of an RTS and artillery game, with real-time actions, construction and resource management from one parent, and firing arcs and destructible land masses from the other.
And it’s really quite lovely. Bold and bright, like something for the little ‘uns, but with the strategic depth and fast pace of a more traditional strategy game. It’s been on Steam Early Access for a wee while, and today it’s moved into beta.
Alien: Isolation's Oculus Rift demo: "it's just a prototype"
Alien: Isolation on the Oculus Rift is a horrifying but exciting prospect. And with it being shown off at E3 last month, it didn’t seem like there was any question of the game dipping into VR, even if it wouldn’t be until after launch.
Hopes have now been dashed, as Creative Assembly and Sega have clarified that a version of the game that supports the Oculus Rift is not in development.
The Steam Controller is heading to Gamescom, according to Valve's exhibitor profile
According to Valve’s Gamescom profile, we might be getting a look at the new, redesigned Steam Controller at the Cologne expo next month.
The profile lists what specific companies and exhibitors plan to show off, and in Valve’s it has “controllers” in the “components/accessories” section. The trade show runs from August 13th to 17th, but will only be open to everyone from the 14th.
Riot talk their next major League of Legends champion rework: Urgot, the Headsman's Pride
Undead executioner Urgot seems like he’s already feeling the effects of one rework too many. A rolling mass of patchworked grey skin and steel grafts, he looks every bit the zombie nazi commander on his third trip back from the other side.
But Riot have plans to tweak the Headsman’s Pride one more time, to address some “substantial game health issues” and make Urgot one of the more accessible League of Legends champions for beginners.
To quote LoL lore: “We can rebuild him. We have the techmaturgy.”
Dwarf Fortress' first update in two years has started the clock on your world
Like the unspeakable beast which lays dormant beneath your keep for aeons, the first Dwarf Fortress update in two years has burst forth, irrevocably changing everything.
In fact, change will be the way of things in Dwarf Fortress from now on: its gameworlds won’t stick fast once they’re generated, but instead continue to evolve in the background - sometimes quietly, sometimes not.
EA address fan upset over The Sims 4's missing pools and toddlers
Pools and toddlers don’t mix well, but they’ve been inextricably paired by one common factor: they’re both longstanding features that’ll be missing from The Sims 4.
The community has been in slow-burn uproar for the past week - over 16,000 have signed a petition calling for their inclusion. EA have addressed their concerns in a new blog post - but its rationale is unlikely to satisfy many.
Perfect World and a chicken meat company are acquiring Warframe devs Digital Extremes
Warframe is a free-to-play, co-op shooter about culling aliens in corrugated iron spaceships. It’s quietly become one of the most popular shooters on Steam - and it’s presumably for that reason, not the Star Trek Into Darkness game, that Perfect World are to become co-owners of developers Digital Extremes. Alongside somebody named Sumpo Food.
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