It’s been nine months, let’s look at Capybara Games’ baby: Below

Announced during last year’s E3, Capybara Games have been virtually silent about their visually arresting roguelike. Besides a short trailer we’ve had essentially nothing come out from the studio since then.

"Promotion, marketing, PR: they take a lot of time away from actually making the game,” Capybara co-founder, Nathan Vella, told Edge. “So having these last nine months or so to really work on the game has meant that it's come a long way since we first showed anything."

Now, though, now they’re ready to start showing off Below and it’s looking wonderful.

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Eve Online monument defaced within week of its unveiling

Last week CCP unveiled a five meter tall monument inscribed with all the names of players in the Eve Online universe. It’s already been defaced.

Someone has stuck a Goonswarm logo high up on the monument and one player has scratched out another’s name.

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Family Business - Wadjet Eye's Dave Gilbert publishing, adventure games, and life after Blackwell

When I caught up with Dave Gilbert at GDC, he looked like he’d been through the wringer since we talked at PAX East last year. He was still wearing his regulation uniform of jeans and a slightly faded hoodie, but he looked like a guy who is in the last mile of a marathon.

Little wonder: Gilbert spent 2013 making the final installment of the Blackwell series that formed the foundation of his Wadjet Eye Games. As if that wasn’t enough, he and his wife, Janet — who is also the technical brains behind Wadjet Eye — had a baby. Then they moved house four times.

It was a tough year, Gilbert conceded. “But we make it work. Somehow.”

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My offer is this: nothing — Oculus respond to ZeniMax claims

Last week, Zenimax opened up a can of worms on Facebook and Oculus VR when they claimed that Oculus infringed on ZeniMax’s intellectual property rights during the development of the Oculus Rift. Now, Oculus have sent back their own response.

Predictably, they concede nothing and argue that Zenimax are being both opportunistic and dishonest about the agreements arising from Oculus’ work with then-ZeniMax employee, current Oculus CTO John Carmack.

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The Lighthouse Customer: The Golf Club

By Christopher Livingston on May 5th, 2014 at 9:00 pm.

Each Monday, Chris Livingston visits an early access game and reports back with stories about whatever he finds inside. This week, diabolical golf course creation in The Golf Club.

It’s been a tough round of golf. I got a ball stuck on the balcony of a clubhouse. I got mired down in a sand trap that was five hundred yards long. I’ve had to play around trees, boulders, and a fairway covered with sailboats. And now I’m attempting to sink a putt through a massive crowd of grazing deer. Who the hell designed this terrible golf course? Oh right, it was me.

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New Indie Title “Nelo” Uses Unreal Engine 4, Looks Bloody Beautiful

Video-News

Bound by Flame Gets Launch Trailer

May 5, 2014 Thomas P 3 Comments

Focus Home Interactive has released the launch trailer for Spiders’ upcoming action RPG, Bound by Flame. This trailer highlights one of the important elements in the game, the background story and the gameplay: the relationship between the hero and the flame demon that possesses him. Bound by Flame releases May 9th on PC, PS4, X360 and PS3. Enjoy! Continue reading →

Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planewalkers’ devs aren't worried: “Hearthstone is at the other end of the spectrum”

“I wouldn’t say that they’re competitors,” European community manager Dan Barrett told me. He’s showing me the latest build of Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015, the digital version of Wizards of the Coasts Collectible Card Game, Magic: The Gathering. “Hearthstone is at the other end of the spectrum. It’s what I would call an Action Trading Card Game whereas Magic is more of a Strategy TCG.”

Hearthstone has made major waves since it was released earlier this year, introducing thousands of players to the genre, a genre created by Magic: The Gathering more than 20 years ago.

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Elder Scrolls Online devs talk absent Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests: "We aren't trying to be evasive"

The Elder Scrolls Online’s stealth quests are disastrous. Its one-way-in, one-way-out houses are populated by instantly hostile guards to sneak attack. Pray they don’t respawn before you’re done rummaging in the quest-marked hotspots.

Rubbish. But there’s hope in the shadows - Zenimax have said their first words on the missing Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines since launch.

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Battlefield 4 gets a dedicated pre-server squad join screen - but only on the consoles

Playing Battlefield 4 right now is a bit like attending a rave in an old factory (non-UK residents: yes, that is a thing we do). Everyone’s having a certain amount of base fun, but they’re surrounded by machinery nobody’s using - the commander abilities and squad tools the game was sold on. There’s simply not enough incentive to play nice - no incentive better than running down perps in jeeps or levelling skyscrapers, anyway.

Finally, DICE are doing something to fix that. They’re running a beta for a feature that really should’ve been there at launch - a squad set-up screen for before you join a server. But they’re not doing it on PC.

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$2.5 million to whoever is best at driving tanks: Wargaming.net League 2014 begins

Victor Kislyi has entered the blue-hued command centre. It is resplendent with bright LEDS and doomy bloops, reminiscent of war but signifying nothing. Men and women in military caps sit in their swivel chairs, far too close to their monitors.

It is time for the Wargames to begin.

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Carbine declare Wildstar open for beta for 10 days beginning May 8

Sad news: we’re never going to be able to run another Wildstar giveaway on the site. /sad news: that’s because Wildstar is very nearly in open beta and, invite or no, everybody will soon be able to go hoverboarding in Carbine’s green (and white, and purple), pleasant land.

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Now that's an Expedition: Titanfall DLC screenshots promise treetop parkour

We’re going on an expedition! Tickets for Titanfall’s first DLC pack are $10, and will get you into War Games - an intensely convincing simulated battlefield for people who take their paintball really seriously. More lethal are Runoff, the vertiginous industrial complex, and Swamplands, the forest battlefield. They’ll kill yer. Take a look.

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It's not the size that counts: EVE Online does away with big expansions

CCP is doing away with gigantic expansions in EVE Online. Where once massive updates changed the entire universe, introducing new systems and features all at once, CCPs new approach will see the online space sim continuously updated with smaller content packs. 

Ten of these updates are planned over the next year, compared to the 20 larger expansions that have built up EVE over the better part of the last decade. The first of these new updates, Kronos, is due out on June 3rd, and it’s one for the industrialists. 

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Valve pulls Earth: Year 2066 from Steam and is offering full refunds until May 19th

The saga of Earth: Year 2066 looks like it’s finally drawing to a close. An open-world post-apocalyptic survival affair, it was well-positioned to take advantage of gamers’ recent hunger for such titles. But after folk dropped $19.99 on the Early Access title on Steam, they were presented with a game that was essentially unplayable, irredeemably ugly and bearing little resemblance to the promotional materials. 

The Escapist’s Jim Sterling drew attention to the game, even making a Jimquisition about it, and he was far from the only one that has serious problems with it. Thankfully, Valve has taken action, removing the game from Early Access while offering full refunds until May 19th. 

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Chronology throws together a man and a snail and tasks them with saving a dead world

“Think Day of the Tentacle meets Lost Vikings,” says Chronology developer Osao Games. Well, I think to myself, that’s a bit dangerous. Drunk Scandinavians and time travel sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

But it turns out that Chronology isn’t about drunk Scandinavians at all, but is a time jumping platforming puzzler. It’s been Greenlit and will go live on May 12th.

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Telltale spills the Tales from the Borderlands beans

Telltale producer Adam Sarasohn has spilled the beans on the adventure game studios Borderlands spin-off. Not all the beans, but enough beans so that it’s hard to count them all. 

Why is Telltale forging an adventure game out of Gearbox’s shooter, you ask? “Because, if you pause to take a breath between shooting everything in sight and stealing your buddies’ loot in multiplayer, you’ll know that Borderlands features some amazing characters and stories in a world that’s rich in dark humor,” says Sarasohn. 

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Activision Blizzard's first quarter was dominated by Diablo, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone

Activision Blizzard hasn’t made as much money in the first quarter of 2014 as it did over the same period last year. But before you start feeling bad and sending them cheques, you should know that “not as much money” is still $1.11 billion.

The figure is higher than what Activision expected back in February, and has mainly been attributed to Blizzard’s output: Hearthstone, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls and World of Warcraft. 

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I dont think there's anything that can stop magic: the gathering. But definitely think Hearthstone has had some sort of impact on its user base. A lot of hearthstone streamers are former magic players.

Also, is there anyone here that managed to get into the Archage or Wildstar closed beta?

Wildstar open beta is coming pretty soon, I'm looking forward to trying it out

Caffeine – Unreal Engine 4 Pre-Release Demo Out Now

Steam Who? – Humble Bundle’s Spring Sale

By Nathan Grayson on May 7th, 2014 at 11:00 am.

Is there going to be a spring Steam sale? Or has Valve finally elected to give its wearied money counters – their abacuses gnarled and gnawed on, fear and desperation write large on waxen wood – a brief respite? I’m not entirely sure it matters now, though, as Humble has elected to fire the first shot with a sale of its own, and it’s off to a damn impressive start. Check it out for deep discounts on games like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Batman: Arkham Origins, Broken Age, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Thief. Tons more below.

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Oculus wants to build a billion-person MMO with Facebook By Sean Hollister on May 5, 2014 03:42 pm 161 comments

When Facebook purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion, both companies stayed fairly tight-lipped about Continue reading…

How to get a HUD in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: Valve enable custom UIs

CS:GO came out two years ago now, and wasn’t looking so shabby then. But through regular, incremental updates, it’s lately become both vibrant eSport and crate-fuelled community celebration - the beneficiary of all the lessons Valve have learned with Team Fortress and Dota 2.

The latest of those updates is like the rest: nondescript, but deeply important to somebody. Players now have the option to fiddle with the game’s HUD elements.

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Towns development halted as lead dev can no longer afford to pay rent

Towns is a management game built on the strong foundations of Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress. It was part of the first wave of Greenlight games to be approved for sale on Steam, and its three developers worked steadily for more than a year afterwards to build on its beta bedrock.

Trouble began when the team announced their February update would be their last, however, citing a lack of “strength to continue”. A fresher-faced indie was brought on board to take over development duties - but now he, too, has been forced to concede defeat.

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Star Wars: Battlefront is "coming along very well" - well enough to be shown at E3

Four times a year, the big publishers have to speak very gently to their money men so’s not to unnerve them into selling their shares and sinking the company. It’s our job to listen in for clues - and EA’s financial call yesterday hid a doozy.

Star Wars: Battlefront is “coming along very well”, said CEO Andrew Wilson - adding that DICE’s sandbox shooter is one of a couple of Frostbite-powered games EA are boxing up to take to E3 this year.

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Double Fine come out swinging on Steam Early Access with Hack 'n' Slash

Hack first, slash later if necessary. That’s the mantra of Double Fine’s genuinely unprecedented top-down Zelda-like. It’s not about hacking bits off orcs, nor even hacking the mainframe, man, but rather actual rearrangement of the game’s code in real time to suit your needs.

It’s also just now become Double Fine’s second game to launch on Steam Early Access.

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So I am trialing removing the images and just posting the heading and the byline of each story, at least for most stories. Let me know what you think.

^^^ Well, I've noticed it takes me much longer to go through the news, with pictures I just skim over most of them until I find something that really interests me, this way I actually have to stop for every headline. If that was your intention, I'd say it works. ;)

Mainly just trying to slim down the posts. The images take up a tonne of space, and some people feel that the massive posts make the thread hard to read.

Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure Is Now Available

Maia 0.42 update adds first planetary creature, new research stations, toilets

When we last checked in on Maia, it had just landed on Steam Early Access. Since then, developer Simon Roth has been busy building up his sci-fi colony sim. The latest update introduces some clever research technology, an adorable deadly giant, and—to the relief of every simulated colonist—toilets. In a new video transmission, Roth runs through the features of the patch.

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