Master of Draenor I'm pulling your strings: Metallica are playing at BlizzCon 2014
The appearance of widescreen popsters Imagine Dragons at the League of Legends Worlds final last weekend drew nods of approval. It was another marker of mainstream success to note down alongside the LoL Coca-Cola bottles, American Express LCS sponsorship and Staples Center takeover.
But if eSports has a natural soundtrack, it’s metal. And if metal fans can agree on anything, it’s Metallica. The Californian sultans of speed will play out BlizzCon 2014.
Ragnar Tørnquist defends ableist language in Dreamfall Chapters: "Those people exist in real life, and so they must exist in fiction"
Dreamfall Chapters’ first episode is out now, and by early accounts it’s typical of Ragnar Tørnquist’s finest work: a bustling sci-fi world that takes pleasure in defying cliché.
But a flurry of ableist language from one character in the game has upset fans who’ve come to expect inclusiveness and diversity in the Dreamfall series. Tørnquist, however, is unrepentant.
“You know, when we create and write characters, those characters are not always pleasant and they don't necessarily reflect our own point of view,” wrote the Red Thread boss. “Those people exist in real life, and so they must exist in fiction.”
The Stanley Parable sells over a million copies; "The Narrator decided not to tell Stanley"
The Stanley Parable is the story of an office drone who looks up from his desk to find his workplace deserted. It began life as a Source mod, and grew last year into a standalone work of quiet genius.
The game introduced a wonderful twist to PC gaming’s traditional malevolent AI routine. Its narrator, the English actor Kevan Brighting, begins Stanley’s story in the time-honoured mode of BBC audiobooks - but becomes rueful, flabbergasted and downright grumpy as the player begins to contradict the tale he’s telling.
Sound like fun? A million other PC gamers thought so.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor has a place called Gorgrond that’s positively beastly
Lots about the next World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is being kept under wraps but as we get closer to Blizzcon and the expansion’s release date Blizzard are starting to pull back the blanket and show us what’s underneath.
Oh God, look away, it’s a dissected murloc!
Wait, no, it’s a new land for us to explore, Gorgrond, and it’s absolutely filled to the brim with wild beasts.
Aliens by way of XCOM game, Halfway, gets mod support
Halfway, the turn-based strategy game that harks back to the original XCOM in its mechanics but with a story more akin to the Alien films, has just been updated with mod tools.
If you’ve burned through the original campaign you can either get started on your own or start chewing your desk while you wait for someone else to make one for you.
That’s not the only thing to have been added in the new update.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor gear guide: getting started
Ah, that pre-expansion excitement. Warlords of Draenor, the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft, launches in only three weeks as of today. Servers are a hustle and bustle of activity as players prepare for the onslaught of new content and challenges ahead of them. If you’re thinking of coming back to Azeroth to see what the fuss is about, or maybe you’re already playing but you’re a bit clueless as to what to do, then this preparation guide should help you.
I’ll be discussing the best way to get to 90, how to get some raid-ready gear, and most importantly, how to obtain your level 90 heirloom: a powerful item that will accompany you on your travels throughout Draenor, all the way to level 100.
Elder Scrolls Online and Skyrim books will cover the lore and the land of Tamriel
Bethesda have announced a publishing deal with Titan Books to produce book series tied into Elder Scrolls Online and Skyrim. The MMO will have two books, one covering the lands of Tamriel and the other assembling the lore for players who want to know more of the game’s backstory.
The Skyrim book series will collect together all the in-game books as anthologies to put on your shelf.
Red:Out is Wipeout, but on the PC. It’s about time.
I don’t think I’ve played a game that ever gave me a similar thrill from speed as I got from WipeOut. It was masterful at throwing you round tracks, always very edge of control.
Red:Out is that game, but for PC.
Lords of the Fallen is a ferocious, and infuriating Dark Souls clone
I’m about to be cut in half again.
I’m fighting Lords of the Fallen’s tutorial boss, the First Warden, and it’s teaching me about timing and positioning, largely by slicing me in two. Every time I make mistake either by attacking too soon or attacking too late, or positioning myself too close to the warden it’s game over. Often with a single blow.
I’m also about to be cut in half again because Lords of the Fallen has some serious flaws.
Win a ticket to the Tank Museum and a premium Fury Sherman with World of Tanks
You would not believe the fun you can have at tank museums. It was above the usual spot of a tank in the foyer of the Imperial War Museum that Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi forlornly asked our Paul why schoolchildren were “not exposed to the beauty of tracked vehicles?”. And it was at the Polish Tank Museum that our Jules first saw a mother tank with her child.
Perhaps you can enjoy similar escapades to the PCGamesN team at the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, England. Wargaming are giving away a family ticket as part of a celebration of their new M4A3E8 Fury Sherman.
Judge dismisses securities fraud suit against EA; executives were just being optimistic
Remember the lawsuits against EA and its executives over Battlefield 4? The securities fraud suit that appeared last year has been dismissed by a Federal judge. The suit claimed that EA’s top brass knew about all the problems with Battlefield 4 and then lied to investors by making public statements espousing the quality of the game. The judge disagreed.
Lucas Pope's Return of the Obra Dinn is a 1-bit mystery, and you can play some of it right now
Papers, Please developer Lucas Pope is letting everyone take his latest project, Return of the Obra Dinn, for an early spin. It’s a short demo, a teaser that will no doubt leave you with a few questions.
A first-person mystery, players take on the role of of an insurance investigator onboard the titular Obra Dinn, a ship thought lost at sea, but recently returned to London, absent crew.
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