Respawn to introduce in-game 'black market' currency to Titanfall in Game Update 5
Respawn are currently turning the Titanfall community on to the idea of ‘black market’ currency, which is a funny thing to call an developer-designed point system. Talk to Blizzard: they’ll tell you all about real black markets.
In any case, players will soon be able to earn in-game cash by completing challenges or selling on unloved burn cards. But don’t call it a microtransaction system: there’ll be no means of acquiring ‘black market’ money with real-life debit cards.
Obsidian hope Pillars of Eternity sales will fund its sequel without Kickstarter
Kickstarter funded Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera from InXile, and Pillars of Eternity and its expansion pack from Obsidian - essentially plotting out the second Infinity Engine Age in advance.
For Obsidian, the hope is that initial kick will be enough to see them through Eternity’s sequel, too.
“That’s the dream of any independent developer,” said project director Josh Sawyer. “That they get the cash reserves that they don't need to ask anybody for money.”
The Last Express: Jordan Mechner remembers a different sort of war game on the centenary of its departure
A hundred years ago today, a fictional American doctor named Robert Cath boarded the Orient Express to Constantinople. Over the course of his journey, tensions between various European parties on the continent and on the train would boil over into violence.
As the centenary of the First World War nears, Jordan Mechner remembers a rare game in which the goal was to avoid conflict. An adventure game that took him and a team of 100 over four years to make. The Last Express.
A British MP asked for in-game theft to be treated like real-world theft
Mike Weatherly is MP for Hove and Portslade, and a World of Warcraft player. He recently proposed that online criminals in the UK receive the same sentencing as IRL criminals who steal items of the same value.
The proposal was turned down. But can you imagine the ramifications for Eve players?
Aerna creators claim it's the largest and most detailed Minecraft server
A lot of rather large worlds have been created in Minecraft. There are builders creating Middle-Earth, software that’s rendered World of Warcraft’s Azeroth in blocky detail and even the entirety of Denmark. We rather like big Minecraft projects here, which is why those three are all in our list of the 15 best Minecraft servers.
Aerna is another humongous server, and its creators claim that it’s the largest and most detailed Minecraft server out there. It’s a work in progress, but is already massive, 102,400 blocks across and 84GB in size.
Cliff Harris on Gratuitous Space Battles 2: it's a "whole new world"
Gratuitous Space Battles 2, sequel to 2009’s excellent game of building ships and watching them blow each other up in simulated space battles, has been in development over at Positech Games since last year. The original was a great deal of fun, mixing modular ship design with tower defence-like mechanics. Cliff Harris has been posting regular updates on his blog and in the GSB forums, but today marks the official announcement of the game.
It’s on its way, probably this year. It will be playable at Eurogamer 2014, but that’s not until September. I’m impatient, so I got in touch with Cliff to get the skinny on his latest game.
What to expect from The Elder Scrolls Online's daedra-controlled Imperial City
The Elder Scrolls Online is still a young whippersnapper - and you can see what our Nick thought about it in his Elder Scrolls Online review - but ZeniMax Online are already thinking about the future. At QuakeCon, the team held a panel teasing the audience with what’s to come for the fantasy MMO.
One of the big things is the centre of the titanic PvP war that’s consumed the Imperial province of Cyrodiil. At the heart of the region sits the Imperial City - that place you probably spent a lot of time in while playing Oblivion - and the for the time being, it’s impenetrable. But that will change.
Free zombies: Inject some unlife into your weekend with Dead Island: Epidemic on Steam
If you’re anticipating a dead weekend, you might as well embrace it. From now and until July 28th, Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide and all the bits and pieces of zombie-slaying DLC are 75 percent off on Steam.
Dead Island: Epidemic, Stunlock Studios’ MOBA spin-off - which is in Early Access right now - is also free for the entirety of the sale. Our Matt’s played around with it, so you should check out his Dead Island: Epidemic Early Access review.
Gear Up hits beta: put guns on goo or make invisible spider tanks
I have been building robots and tanks! Oh, yes. Tanks with shark guns. Mechanical spiders with alien brains. Invisible cardboard boxes balanced precariously on balls of goo. I am not, as you might assume, attempting to take over the world like a cartoon supervillain, though. I’ve been playing a spot of Gear Up.
It’s a very silly vehicle-based multiplayer shooter that lets you make very silly vehicles that shoot. It’s also on Steam Early Access and, conveniently, totally free.
Completely real: Get a first look at an Unreal Tournament map concept
The Unreal Tournament Development Team have put together a concept map for the upcoming Unreal engine 4 shooter. It’s the first map they’ve shown, but it’s very much a proof of concept rather than a proper level.
Art director Chris Perna does a fly through of the map, noting that he went for a sci-fi industrial look, but this isn’t representative of the entire game. “We could go grimier with this, but when we talk about visual clarity and things like that, I think this kind of thing hits that mark.”
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