Adopt Argi the alien goat in World of Warcraft, and help the American Red Cross
You probably never realised that you wanted, no, needed an adorable alien goat in your life. You woke up every morning thinking your life was complete, never realising that there was a tiny, cute hole in your existence that could only be filled by a cloven-hoofed creature from another world, in another time. But now you do, and I bet it’s eating you up inside.
Argi, the space goat, has been added to World of Warcraft’s roster of pets, and you can purchase the cuddly wee creature now for $10 or £9, yeah, we Brits are getting the short end of the stuck. But! Oh, it’s a big but. From now until December 31st, 100 percent of the “adoption” fee will be donated by Blizzard to the American Red Cross, and the charity will use the money to aid in ebola relief efforts in Africa.
GOG's Big Winter Sale won't let your wallet rest
If Black Friday and the recent Steam sale haven’t left your wallet empty of anything but moths, then I’ve got good news. You’ll have another opportunity to pour a jug of money all over some games in the GOG Big Winter Sale, which kicks off tomorrow.
And if you are flat broke, then don’t worry, because GOG’s also giving away 250,000 copies of Age of Wonders.
Super Wolfenstein HD is a brilliant, silly homage
Super Wolfenstein HD is very silly. It’s Id’s classic shooter, reimagined with physics that range from surprisingly realistic, where enemies can be disarmed with a well-aimed knife toss or bullet, to delightfully wonky, with foes flailing around as they try to stand up after being knocked down, sometimes getting very amorous with walls.
You can download the game jam created homage right now, for free. It’s an updated version with some kinks smoothed out, and you can watch me playing it for five minutes below. I killed many naughty Nazis. But also some dogs, which made me sad.
Team Fortress 2 Tomb Raider item contest (inevitably) puts the Heavy in short shorts
Last month, Valve announced their Team Fortress 2 Tomb Raider contest for Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - the first occasion on which tie-in items had been thrown open to the Workshop community to design.
At the time, Valve told potential creators that the only thing they didn’t want to see was the Heavy in short shorts. Many, many short short designs later, they’ve picked the best - alongside two other winners and three runners-up.
Swamp Thing sprouts into Infinite Crisis
The roster of DC heroes in comic book MOBA Infinite Crisis grows ever larger this month with the addition of Swamp Thing. Made famous by a phenomenal run of stories by Watchmen’s Alan Moore in the 1980s, Swamp Thing is a hulking giant formed of vegetation with a mighty fist but honorable nature.
His inclusion in Infinite Crisis offers up a new hero with strong brawling abilities, and the voice of Star Trek’s Worf.
Door Kickers promoted to version 1.03, perks include a new campaign
SWAT simulator Door Kickers has received a promotion from developer KillHouse Games in the form of a shiny badge announcing its upgrade to version 1.03. The update comes with all the usual bug fixes that you’d expect, but also something much more interesting: a brand new campaign set out on a cruise liner.
Another classic RPG resurrection may be on the cards at inXile
Developer inXile has teased that it’s in the early stages of creating a new classic-style RPG. The studio has had solid success over the last year or so thanks to the boom in interest in old-style RPGs, with Wasteland 2 being critically admired and Torment spiritual successor Tides of Numenera picking up lots of cash on Kickstarter. But inXile’s new project involves an RPG that the studio’s fans have been demanding for some time
Is inXile working on a new Bard’s Tale game?
Space Engineers may use player created content to help generate infinite space
The developers at Keen Software House have come up with a plan to get their goal of infinite space in Space Engineers working. To add the thousands of new ships and stations required to populate the game world, Keen would have to put hundreds of designers to work, either producing ships from scratch or creating a software system that would randomly generate them.
Or they could use the designs of the thousands of community members Space Engineers has accumulated. There are 50,000 of them sitting there on Steam Workshop, afterall.
YouPorn eSports team revealed: Play2Win become Team YP
YouPorn, creators and hosts of specialist gentlemen’s media, have revealed their Dota 2 team, Team YP.
Back in July, YouPorn announced they were looking for eSports team to sponsor and by the end of the month said they’d drafted a contract with a team. However, not a peep had been heard of them since.
Until yesterday.
Runescape players donate $160,000 to charity
Jagex opened Runescape’s Well of Goodwill throughout November, allowing players to donate bonds, coins and items to charity.
You might be thinking that charities have little use for the virtual pickaxes and piles of coal players were throwing into the Well, and you’d be right. However, the value of the items and coins thrown into the Well is converted into real money by Jagex.
Over 512 billion gold was donated in the month of November alone, raising $160,158 for the three selected charities.
Wargaming.net dismiss eSports porn sponsorship: World of Tanks is "a family product"
This weekend sees YouPorn’s Dota 2 team take part in its first tournament. It’s the first time a porn site has sponsored an eSports team. I recently spoke with Wargaming’s head of eSports in Europe, Nicolas Passemard, about the effect YouPorn’s sponsorship could have on eSports’ audience.
“When we see the audience coming to our events, a father with his son I find this personally really satisfying,” Passemard said. “I’m proud of it and I’d like it to stay like that. [... But] If we start adding YouPorn or whatever company which is very adult oriented then I expect the parents to be responsible enough not to bring their children.”
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