Assassin's Creed Unity AMD performance issues provoke prompt Ubisoft response
Fraser had a fiddle with Assassin’s Creed Unity PC port yesterday, and came away with a number of technical reservations about Ubisoft’s Parisian playground.
While the most dramatic framerate troughs have been reserved for consoles, PC players have discovered performance problems across a range of rigs. In fact, the only point of consistency seems to be that AMD users have had the worst of it.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's Spires of Arak previewed as launch trailer appears
Our Nick’s spent the night working on his Warlords of Draenor review-in-progress, but you’ve probably spent it sleeping. You’ve yet to pass through the portal into the alternate orcish realm.
In that case, you’ll want to take a look at Blizzard’s latest trailer - and maybe hear a little about the grumpy winged beasts awaiting you on the Spires of Arak.
Why the Summoner’s Rift update is good for League of Legends' performance
“What good is a spiffy update if your toaster explodes during loading?”
That’s the question Riot’s engineering team have been asking themselves while developing the new League of Legends update for Summoner’s Rift. They’ve made it their mission (as well as their jobs) to ensure that the new map runs at least as well on bog-standard machines as the old Rift.
Just Cause 3 is not free to play. This and other rumours debunked by CCO
Just Cause 3 is a thing and that’s the best news of 2014. There’s not a single open world game out that competes with the sheer joyful abandon of Just Cause 2.
However, since the announcement a number of trouble rumours have emerged. Chiefly that Just Cause 3 is a free to play game.
Christofer Sundberg, Avalanches Chief Creative Officer, has taken to the internet to set the record straight.
Nvidia Grid aims to be Netflix for games
Nvidia Grid hopes to end OnLive’s monopoly on Netflix-style game streaming. The graphics card manufacturer has set up data centres around the world that will stream high spec games to whatever screen you like.
This month sees Grid launch in the US, next month it comes to Europe, and it will launch in Asia in 2015.
Rome 2 DLC adds Massilia faction for free. Black Sea Colonies announced
Creative Assembly may be spooling up for Total War Attila’s release date but they’re still releasing new factions for Rome 2. Better still, they’re giving away one of those factions for free.
On 20 November everyone who owns Rome 2 will find themselves able to play with the new Greek faction Massilia.
That same day also sees the release of the new Black Sea Colonies DLC.
Chaos returns to Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament can be pretty crazy - it’s fast, hectic and people blow up a lot. But the series was at its most weird in ChaosUT, a mod designed with one thing in mind: craziness. It was a mod where horrible, grinning mines chased you around and weapons were clearly made by mad scientists at ACME.
The new, free Unreal Tournament that Epic’s developing with the community is getting some chaos pumped through its veins now, as Chaotic Dreams has started working on a new version of the mod.
Humble Bundle is infested with Worms
While you might normally expect to find worms in dirt, these horrible, wriggly creatures can really get in anywhere. You’re probably only a few feet away from thousands of worms right now. And that’s not good, because they are violent, well-armed wee beasties.
Even game bundle sales aren’t safe, and today, Humble Bundle has been infested with the creatures. For the next week, Team17 are offering nine Worms games, with some of the proceeds going to GamesAid.
Riot's rewarding League of Legends players with Influence Points, but only if they've been good
Riot’s continuing its attempt to curb negative behaviour in League of Legends, but this time, instead of punishing the bad players, the developer is rewarding all the good boys and girls.
In what Riot says is a “first step”, players who haven’t been suspended or had chat restrictions in the 2014 season will receive a 4-win Influence Point boost, to be doled out across the next week.
Tales from the Borderlands starting "soon"; watch the first in-game trailer while you wait
Tales for the Borderlands’ first episode, Zer0 Sum, will be out soon, teases Telltale. In the mean time, you can gorge on the first in-game trailer which, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like Borderlands, but with less shooting and more gags - which I can definitely get behind.
Slap your eyes on it below.
Watch Vikings getting up to no good in Mount & Blade: Warband - Viking Conquest
I still remember that sinking feeling when I watched Fatshark’s War of the Vikings and noticed a serious absence of ships. As it turned out, War of the Vikings did end up having ships, but they were all stuck in beaches or impossible to reach, and while the game proved to be lots of violent fun, I never quite got over not being able to see everyone’s favourite hirsute coastal raiders faffing around on ships.
This is why I continue to be very excited about Viking Conquest, a Mount & Blade: Warband expansion being developed by the lovely brains behind the wonderful Brytenwalda mod. It was announced last month, and it looks like we’ll be seeing it in Early Access next month. Taleworlds and the Brytenwalda team have put together a gameplay trailer, so direct your eyes towards the action, some of it in the sea, below.
David Kim and the impossible balancing act of StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void
Blizzard designer David Kim is “the balance guy” for StarCraft 2. His name is at once a curse and an incantation, the Godot of StarCraft. If something is broken — and something always is — it is Kim’s fault. But Kim will fix it. Kim will make it worse.
It’s easy to parody Kim. His role is one of inherent conservatism. He’s constantly dealing with the physics of avalanches. His goal is to try and ensure that each race can beat every other race roughly 50% of the time, all other things being equal. But then he must also look at how those games are being won and lost, and ask whether StarCraft remains entertaining and rewarding game to play and watch.
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