Gabe's thank you to Gamers 4 Croydon makes it into Australia's adult-rated Left 4 Dead 2
Next week, a full-blooded version of Left 4 Dead 2 will be released in Australia. It’ll be released under the country’s R18+ rating - the very adult classification for videogames it didn’t have until last year.
Gabe Newell and Valve have implemented a new in-game safehouse message - as thanks to the political activists who stood up to the South Australian attorney general and helped ensure R18+ happened.
Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer makes the case for BioWare's Orlesian opus one last time
At no point in the Dragon Age: Inquisition launch trailer does the player character stop a passing demon and query the nature of their business in Thedas. In fact, the latest trailer suggests that inquiry ceases to be the name of the game shortly into the new BioWare RPG - whereupon it becomes a game of mouse-scrolling in unabashed wonder about its dank and darkly beautiful locations.
Dragon Age: Inquisition preorders cancelled in India because of local obscenity laws
EA have cancelled all Dragon Age: Inquisition preorders in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh because the game broke “local obscenity laws”. EA haven’t clarified which obscenity laws Bioware’s RPG breaks but the game’s Indian distributor, Milestone Interactive, says it is because of the gay characters and sex scenes.
GoD Factory: Wingmen update v1.1.0 adds full joystick support and three new maps
GoD Factory: Wingmen’s update v1.1.0’s three new maps are just the icing on the cake. The patch changes a vast amount of the game’s workings, adding new features, fixing bugs, and making significant balance changes.
If you’ve been following Wingmen you’ll want to go into the fine details of this patch to see how the game’s been changed.
Blizzard say World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor server problems aren’t because of cost-cutting
Since launch, Warlords of Draenor’s been plagued with server queues. It’s the case with every major MMO expansion, everyone piles into the game and the servers fill up. However, Blizzard are adamant there’s nothing they could do to avoid the crush.
“There is no problem I've had in the last 72 hours I could fix with money,” World of Warcraft’s senior server engineer tweeted. “If there was I'd do it.”
Top heavy buildings no longer supported: Rust update will add structural integrity
Currently Rust lets you build towering doom fortresses that pay little regard to gravity. Facepunch’s founder Garry Newman’s teased an incoming update for the Early Access game, soon, structurally unsound buildings will collapse in on themselves.
This War of Mine developers give steam codes to would be pirates
This War of Mine’s developer, 11 Bit Studios, have gone on The Pirate Bay to give Steam codes to would be pirates. 11 Bit’s PR Karol Zajaczkowski explained the move saying “If because of some reasons you can’t buy the game, its ok. We know life, and we know that sometimes it’s just not possible.”
They’ve netted some extra sales and a lot of goodwill among the pirate community as a result.
Mordheim: City of the Damned, the Warhammer tactical RPG, is heading to Steam Early Access
When it comes to Warhammer video game adaptations, it’s usually Space Marines this, Orks that, with the spotlight firmly fixed on the 40K universe. Mordheim bucks this trend, by not only being set in the fantasy Warhammer universe, but also by being based off the spin-off of the same name.
It’s a turn-based tactical RPG where warbands of rats duke it out with imperious humans and loopy cults in the ruins of the titular city. It’s about to hit Early Access, and you can see it in action below.
David Braben explains why Elite: Dangerous' offline mode was fired into the sun
News that the planned offline single-player mode for Elite: Dangerous had been canned led to the typical forum mix of outrage, demands and simple requests for clarification. To clear things up, David Braben went into more detail in regards to what he describes as a difficult decision, in an interview with Eurogamer, while admitting that things could have been handled better.
World of Warcraft subscribers are getting five days of extra game time due to Warlords of Draenor's "subpar launch"
Warlords of Draenor’s launch has been very shaky, worse than any WoW expansion launch that I can remember. Our Nick, who has left behind sleep and a social life to review it, spent the first few days queuing more than playing, and when he did get in, he found himself trapped in his garrison.
At least he managed to get in, something I haven’t managed to do since the first hour of the launch. But I really gave up trying after two days. It’s unfortunate, but all is not lost. Or at least money and time isn’t, because everyone with a subscription from November 14th just got five free days of game time.
Thimbleweed Park is a time tunnel back to 1987, courtesy of Maniac Mansion creators
There are no dearth of Kickstarters that seduce with nostalgia, but they usually start with the question, “what would this game that you love be like if it was made now?” Pillars of Eternity is like a modern Infinity Engine game, War for the Overworld is Dungeon Keeper, but new.
Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick are taking their adventure game, Thimbleweed Park, one step further. “It’s like opening a dusty old desk drawer and finding an undiscovered LucasArts adventure game you’ve never played before,” says the Kickstarter pitch. It’s 1987 again.
Valve pulls back the curtain on Dota 2's impending update, Foreseer's Contract
Dota 2's next big update, Foreseer’s Contract, was fully unveiled today, introducing a new hero, Oracle, to the MOBA’s roster along with the Manifold Paradox arcana item for the Phantom Assassin, which was voted for during the Dota 2 International earlier in the year.
Those are the big additions, but new items, emoticons, awakened Compendium Gems and creep models have also been thrown into the update pile.
The Blue Flamingo is a handcrafted shmup from the team behind Shelter
Might and Delight, brains behind the emotionally-charged mother badger sim, Sheltered, just launched a new game on Steam today: The Blue Flamingo. It’s a shmup. And a very straight forward one at that. But of course there’s a twist: it’s been made using little handmade models of aircraft, props and terrain. Even the explosions are analog, with the devs employing firecrackers.
Direct your lucky eyes below to see the shmup in action.
Diablo III 2.1.2 patch notes speak of even Greater Rifts and ancient items
In a world where angels and demons throttle each other on the regular, things don’t age in quite the same way. In Sanctuary, ancient items don’t pale and wane or dissolve on exposure to sunlight: they benefit from stats up to 30% better than their legendary equivalents.
Ancient rarity items are just one pillar of a characteristically far-reaching Diablo III patch announced at BlizzCon 2014 - and now taking shape in the public test realm.
How puzzles are going to work in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Barring an overwhelming change of heart from Phil Spencer over Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Xbox exclusivity, there’s no way we’re getting a Tomb Raider on PC in the near future that isn’t Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. But that’s okay! Not only is the isometric puzzler not quite like anything else on this most varied platform, but it’s learned some lessons from big, blockbustery Tomb Raider too.
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