@News: I don't mind if the posts are with or without pics.

I'm not going to lie, with pics it's nicer to read the post as now it looks like a wall of text, but as I've always read the headline of each new, the missing pics haven't affected me.

@F*cking Msoft! Why the hell did they shot down Ensemble Studios if they keep making Age of Empires games?!

Because there have been a lot of turnover in management of MS game studios, and each new batch likes to clean house and ditch all the last batch's babies. And for some reason they thought that getting Ensemble to make a $100m Halo MMO project was a good idea even tho the studio had no experiance in the genre. And as they were focused on XBox at the time when that turned into a desaster they canned the whole studio because their attempt at a console RTS (Halo Wars) wasn't going too well either. Then there was the management group who saw the F2P market blowing up and decided to greenlight a bunch of F2P PC titles, but they weren't very successful because those franchises weren't really a good fit for the model and the next batch of management killed all that. And now the current management seems slightly more freindly towards PC gaming so it looks like we may get another attempt at reviving the franchise.

Hopefully it doesn't end up being a fucking XBOne Kinect title or something.

Molyneux fawns over Minecraft again, this time for breaking "game design rules"

Peter Molyneux’s been talking to Rolling Stone for their piece entitled The Wizard of Minecraft, full of fascinating answers to personal questions games journalists never thought to ask Notch. In it, he expounds on his love for the Mojang game which went some way to prompting his departure from Lionhead.

“There are game design rules that are carved in stone - about teaching people to play, having objectives, a character, an adversary,” explained Molyneux. “Minecraft threw all that away.”

Read and Comment

Team 17 partners up with Dlala Studios on Overruled, a "Worms-like" 2D multiplayer brawler

Team 17 and London-based indie developer Dlala Studios are teaming up on 2D multiplayer brawler Overruled, due out later this year. 

It’s being described as “Worms-like” by Team 17 and sounds a bit loopy, with players able to change the rules of a match while still playing. Deathmatch can be turned into King of the Hill, or a free-for-all can transformed into a team battle. Madness.

Read and Comment

EVE: Valkyrie lead designer wants the dogfighter to be Halo for the Oculus Rift

EVE: Valkyrie’s lead designer, Chris Smith hopes CCP Newcastle’s VR dogfighting game will sell Oculus Rifts, just like the original Halo was a major system seller for the Xbox. 

“I don't see it as pressure, I see it as a challenge. Damn right, I want it to be the Halo for VR,” he said in a chat with Digital Spy. 

Read and Comment

Unexpected: Unreal Tournament will be completely free and transparent

Epic Games has just announced that the studio will commence development of a new Unreal Tournament today. And you’re being told straight away. The last Unreal Tournament was released way back in 2007, and Epic is planning to do things a bit differently this time around. 

It will be free. Completely free. No microtransactions, just download it and play it without dropping a dime. And Epic wants the community to be involved. “From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers,” said project lead Steve Polge. 

Read and Comment

Beta get cracking: WildStar open beta begins today and ends on the 18th

If you’ve been intrigued by WildStar but haven’t managed to nab one of the 500 billion beta codes we’ve given out, you’ll be happy to know that Carbine’s colourful MMO is in open beta. But only for 10 days. 

If it does tickle your fancy and keep you playing until the 18th, you won’t have long to wait until you can dive back into the Nexus, as it launches on June 3rd. Carbine’s also chucked up a new beta trailer, which you can slap your gooey orbs of sight on below. 

Read and Comment

Company of Heroes 2: Western Front Armies returns to old haunts on June 24th

Sega has revealed that Company of Heroes 2’s standalone expansion, Western Front Armies will be breaking through enemy lines come June 24th. 

The expansion is a multiplayer affair, returning to the Western front, where the original Company of Heroes was set. Goodbye, snow-covered Russia. 

Read and Comment

Techland's oiling up Dying Light's joints, delaying it until 2015

Techland’s freerunning zombie romp Dying Light is getting pushed back a bit, and won’t be making its original 2014 window, instead expected to release in February, 2015. 

The delay is to give Techland more time to perfect the natural movement of its running, jumping protagonist. Perhaps he was a bit stiff like his zombie chums. 

Read and Comment

Dying Light’s Producer: “I laugh at those who kept predicting PC gaming to be dead by now”

Sounds like Epic are trying to replicate Valve's F2P model. Where the game is free but there will be a store where the community can sell their own content for the game. Will be interesting to see if they can make it work outside of Valve's ecosystem. And it also sounds like they are pushing it further by giving source access etc. I wonder if Fortnite will follow a similar model.

I personally look forward to it.

I MISS the days of Unreal Tournament vs Quake 3, we need some good ole' fashioned twitch shooters.


Also looking forward to the Company of Heroes 2 expansion, didn't like the vanilla game and it's lack of structures (Defensive) which really limited gameplay variety during multiplayer.

Oh God! Why did you said that?!

And Halo Wars would have performed a lot better if they had done a PC version.

Agreed, RTS is the domain of the PC. :)

However, credit where credit is due, I'm still pretty sure that Halo Wars is the best selling console RTS of all time? Personally I enjoyed the game for what it was... Expected more though coming from Ensemble Studios and really the Alpha/Beta footage looked more fun than the final product.

Being the best selling console RTS game would mean something if the sales of RTS games on consoles were significant, which they aren't.

With that said, I tried the demo and it was ok. Never bought the game, tho. I'm afraid that Halo is not my thing and I was busy playing World in Conflict on PC.

I'm pretty sure I have almost all the achievements bar one or two, not sure, probably spent a few hundred hours playing it, it *is* fun.
Just not as good as it could be, still recommend for everyone to give it a whirl, it's easily the most enjoyable console RTS.