Steam Curators now have to tell us if they were paid to recommend a game
Steam Curators are part of Valve’s plan to help players sift through the gazillion PC games on their service - individuals or groups who’ll recommend games to appear on your front page.
The idea has already yielded results - allow me to surreptitiously slide a link to the PCGamesN Curator page across the desk between us - but early critics worried that the curation system was open to exploitation by unscrupulous developers. That a Curator’s critical judgement might be informed by, say, a crisp £50 note faxed through to their study.
Valve have wised up to that possibility, and now require Curators to disclose conflicts of interest in their recommendations.
Buy a BlizzCon 2014 virtual ticket for loot in WoW, Diablo III, StarCraft II and Hearthstone
Between the StarCraft WCS, Hearthstone world finals and inevitable announcements of the opening ceremony, some would say that watching the BlizzCon stream is its own reward. But Blizzard wouldn’t be among that number: they’re determined to bribe you with trinkets and treats for every one of their five undying PC games.
Twitch push for "complete transparency" in sponsored videos
There’s so much transparency going around this morning that PC gaming is starting to resemble an oversized amoeba, with its breakfast floating around its belly for all to see.
Not only do Valve now require Steam Curators to disclose payments for recommendations, but Twitch have begun a new drive for clarity in sponsored streams.
Why the Divinity: Original Sin devs might return to Kickstarter after all: "the halo effect"
You might remember Divinity: Original Sin selling 500,000 copies in its first two months on sale, and developers Larian planning to leave Kickstarter behind. Well: they’ve changed their minds. Not without due consideration, mind you. In fact, you might say this is all due consideration’s fault.
Larian CEO Swen Vincke wondered aloud on his blog whether the return of success stories to Kickstarter might actually help smaller projects - rather than pull funding away from them, as he’d previously worried.
Valve release annual Team Fortress 2 comic six months early
Do you like Team Fortress 2? How about comics? If you answered no to both of those questions, tough: the chances are you’ll still enjoy the latest TF2 comic, so head-jigglingly entertaining is it.
There is foreboding. There is introspection. Valve have named it Blood in the Water, but it really oughta be called the Daddy Issue.
Unreal Engine 4.5 promises to make skin look less like paper mache
The Unreal Engine 4.5 release is almost upon us, and by us I mean developers who are paying the $19 per month subscription for the engine. There’s a long, meaty list of new features like the new dynamic shadowing technique, ray traced distance field soft shadows; a new subsurface profile which, among other things, can be used to create more realistic skin; and Unreal Motion Graphics, the new GUI designer.
Epic’s been continuing to work on the engine with the community of developers who are actually using it, and more than 40 features have been contributed by them. A similar approach is being taken with Unreal Tournament as well as the Unreal Marketplace.
Rift’s Nightmare Tide expansion open beta is being opened a little wider
Nightmare Tide, the free upcoming expansion for Rift, was due to go live next week and unleash its underwater horrors on the unsuspecting heroes of Telara. For those who have trouble sleeping, events are underway that will hold off your nightmares for just a little longer. The Nightmare Tide open beta is being extended, meaning it won’t invade the main game for a few weeks yet.
Unreal Tournament has a flash new logo
With Unreal Tournament returning to claim the shooter crown, there had to be a few updates. Updating the game with a whole new… game… was obviously the first step, but fancy graphics and new mechanics don’t always scream “THIS IS NEW” to potential players.
No, for that you need an eye-catching, informative, groovy logo. And you can see Epic’s choice in the big image above. Isn’t that just smashing?
Dying Light lets you hunger for brains in ‘Be The Zombie’ multiplayer mode, provided you pre-order
Zombie games have, on the whole, mostly been about splattering the walking deceased in relatively gruesome manners. Sure there are some that focus on human relationships and feelings, and others on how important it is to steal can-openers from other people, but most of the time we’re charging at zombies like bulls at gates, desperate to reduce them to quivering piles of gore.
For every zombie that fell in battle, this is for you: Dying Light’s Be The Zombie mode. Refuse to be a victim of the survivor’s baseball bat. Fight back! Kill some bloody humans and devour their grey matter like the delicacy it is.
Get a sneak peak at Warlords of Draenor’s new dungeons
As the gears churn in Blizzard’s MMO factory, the components of brand new dungeons clunk onto the production line. Monsters squeal as they’re forced from their hatcheries, and shining loot is being forged ready for adventurers to discover.
If you just can’t wait to find out what lurks in World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Blizzard have provided a little preview of what’s to come in the game’s eight new dungeons.
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