Watch CCP's EVE Vegas event unfold on Twitch right now; find out what's in store for EVE Online
If you didn’t manage to snag a ticket to CCP’s EVE Vegas event, don’t worry: you can watch the event live on Twitch right now. You can expect CCP devs regaling the latest events to unfold inside New Eden, as well as what’s to come for EVE Online in the future in the CCP keynote.
It’s live now, so check out the stream below.
Here's what's coming in EVE Online's Phoebe expansion, and beyond
CCP have just dumped a megaton of information about the new features in the upcoming EVE Online "Phoebe" expansion, as well as what’s to come as we head into 2015. Phoebe will introduce the long awaited “unlimited skill queue”, allowing players to queue up year’s worth of skill training at a time. There’s also new exploration content aimed at rewarding skilled probers, and new tech II weapons - dubbed “glass cannon weapons” - that offer considerable firepower, but at a cost.
Meanwhile, CCP have big plans for December’s “Rhea” patch. A lot of it is top secret stuff, but CCP teased two new ships - the “TUG” freighter-sized ship hauler and Tech III Tactical Destroyers - with a slew of major model reworks.
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward expansion announced; coming Spring 2015
The first expansion for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has been announced at this year’s FFXIV FanFest Las Vegas. Coined as the “Heavensward” expansion, it plans to raise the level cap to 60, add new areas, jobs and races.
There’s a flashy new cinematic trailer to go with it, and it’s full of beautiful CG goodness.
Londinium's burning in this new Total War: Attila siege battle trailer
The next Total War game, Attila, is going to be exceedingly good at burning things if this new trailer is anything to go by. Creative Assembly more aptly call it “Dynamic Fire Simulation”: fires can break out from burning projectiles, and spread from building to building according to the weather conditions.
Sieges themselves now possess multiple “escalation states” too. Conduct your attack early, and you’ll face the full might of the defenders; with robust walls and high morale. If you prolong your siege however, the environment and defenders will slowly start to wilt; things may be already burning before you fire a single arrow.
Killing Floor celebrates Halloween with evil, demented killer toys and new maps
Tripwire are up to their old tricks again by releasing two new maps and an official mod pack to celebrate that scary time of year, Halloween. Club Cladestine is a nightclub themed map, but you won’t find people dancing. Instead it’s filled with torture devices that have been put to good use by its new zombie denizens.
There’s also Devil’s Dollhouse, which when combined with the new Toy Master Mod creates a meddlesome concoction. Zeds are replaced by bloodlusted toys of twisted porcelain varieties. If you want to check it out for yourself, we’ve got the trailer below.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare system requirements are after your hard drive spacey
The future of geopolitical double-jumping is almost upon us. Sledgehammer have kitted out the Steam page for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in preparation for its release in two weeks’ time. Most notably, they’ve handily affixed a bunch of specifics about what needs to be on the inside of your PC to run it.
How Battlefield Hardline has got better since beta
We’d originally expected to be holding down left-click to read a perp’s rights to them before Christmas - but early beta feedback was so sharp-tongued that Battlefield Hardline was delayed into 2015.
There’ll be another Battlefield Hardline beta before launch, in which we’ll get to test everything Visceral have changed about the shooter since June. Executive producer Steve Papoutsis says we can expect new approaches to all sorts: especially heavy weapons, faction distinction and recoil.
Minecraft has now sold 17 million copies on PC
The newly Microsoft-owned Minecraft passed 17 million sales over the weekend, Mojang announced in characteristically casual fashion this morning.
“Not sure if this continues to be noteworthy,” tweeted Minecraft Realms developer Marc Watson.
Of course, Minecraft sales are noteworthy as long as we can drudge up the figures of famous games it's outsold. Let's get to it.
XCOM: Enemy Within Long War mod ramps up the difficulty till you cry
The developers of Long War, a mod for XCOM: Enemy Within, aren’t messing around. They’ve “removed every bit of code [they] can find that cheats for the player on the lower difficulties.” They’re looking to make XCOM more difficult and the alien invasion more realistic.
Some of the changes they’ve managed to make are incredible, especially considering Firaxis haven’t released any mod tools.
Clockwork Empire update means stew no longer requires eyes to boil
You’ve probably heard the saying that a watched pot never boils. Not in Clockwork Empires, at least, not initially. Workers had to stare at pots, for them to cook, presumably radiating some kind of dark, Lovecraftian energy. However, irradiated stew is no longer! The latest Clockwork Empires patch means cooks don’t have to intently watch the pot.
Other changes mean that colonists will no longer have conversations with cultist murderers and the enemy AI's been overhauled, too.
1m Space Engineers copies sold thanks to developer’s use of blood magic
Since its release in October 2013, Space Engineers has sold one million copies, making developer Keen Software House swear by their use of blood magic to raise the game’s sales. That and its regular update cycle which consistently brings new features to the Early Access build.
Dragon Age: Inquisition - Catching up with Cassandra
You’ll probably remember Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Cassandra as Varric’s irritable interrogator from Dragon Age II. While she missed all the action in that game, instead playing catch up, in Inquisition she’ll be one of your party members.
Miranda Raison, who lends her voice to Cassandra, explains how she’s changed since we last saw her, and confesses that she fancies her a wee bit. Take a gander at the video below.
Prepare for BlizzCon 2014 by joining a Hearthstone or StarCraft II fantasy league
BlizzCon 2014 is close, kicking off on November 7th, and to celebrate the big fan event, Blizzard and ESL have teamed up to create the BlizzCon ESL Fantasy League for StarCraft II and Hearthstone.
While Hearthstone and StarCraft pros will be duking it out at BlizzCon, you can relax at home, on the sofa, and set up your own fantasy team. If you make the right picks, you might end up winning some prizes, too. You won’t be showered in gold, but you will be able to win a plushie. The latter hurts less when it lands on you.
Far Cry 4 will let you fight yetis, but only if you have the season pass
Far Cry 4 is full of rhinos, tigers, elephants, angry gun-toting folk and weird spirits, but one Himalayan beastie is notable for its absence: the yeti.
Well, it’s absent unless you fork over £23.99 for the season pass, which will also net you some bonus missions and a PvP mode.
In The Evil Within, even gods can be decapitated
The Evil Within’s PC port might have been a bit guff, but the debug wizardry ensures that it is at least a bit better than the console versions.
It’s rubbish that you need to use it to change the aspect ratio (by zooming in, of all things) or unlock the framerate, but you can also cheat, and that’s nice. One cheat transforms Detective Castellanos into an immortal, which has an unexpected side effect.
Play Civilization V for free while you pre-load Beyond Earth
Civilization: Beyond Earth is due out this Friday, and pre-loading on Steam has already started, so you can be ready to jump in the moment it launches if you’ve already thrown money at Firaxis.
In the mean time, you can go back in time and back to Earth with Civilization V, which is free on Steam until Thursday. Beyond Earth is Civ V on an alien world, essentially, so the game will be a good primer.
Uber cancels its Human Resources Kickstarter: "We simply don’t have the human resources"
Uber Entertainment has been unable to replicate Planetary Annihilation’s Kickstarter success with the studio’s new RTS project, Human Resources. As of today, the Kickstarter has been cancelled.
Human Resources would have seen giant robots and elder gods fighting over Earth in a bid for domination. While the promise of two ridiculous, asymmetrical factions; destructible cities, where buildings can be ripped out of the ground and used as weapons; and battles featuring hundreds of units intrigued backers enough to net the campaign almost $400k in pledges, it looked like the project wasn’t going to come close to its $1.4 million goal.
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