27 June 2014 • 8 hours 54 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
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The Elder Scrolls Online certainly looks like Tamriel, but one of the first signs we weren’t in Skyrim anymore came with the realisation that every bowl and bottle was nailed in place. Yes, all that power needed to be re-routed to support umpteen players on a server at once, yada yada. But no explanation could make up for the lack of physics-enabled bread rolls to bounce about the place.
ESO Update 2 is a step in the right direction: those ubiquitous weapon and armour racks just begging to be ransacked? They now can be.
But that’s not the headline news for the unfortunate subset of players left nauseous by fixed fields-of-view. They’ll be more interested in the new FOV slider for ESO’s first-person mode.
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27 June 2014 • 7 hours 53 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
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A select few will be setting foot on the long-dead planet of Draenor today for the beta of World of Warcraft’s bravest expansion yet.
From 2pm PDT this afternoon, they’ll be stepping through the Dark Portal, establishing a Garrison, and fighting back the Iron Horde - just as we’ll all be able to in a few months’ time. And within hours, we imagine, they’ll be flooding YouTube with the sights and sound of the orcish realm.
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I’ve a friend who said they felt they “became one with the dolphins” after a holiday in Florida, at the time I didn’t know what that meant, suspected there had been some inappropriate behaviour, and moved on with my life. I now understand it meant they had been killed, resurrected by a dolphin god, and could emerge from the back of any dolphin in their view. That’s what Twin Souls’ ‘be one with the shadows’ mantra means and I assume you can apply those qualities across the board.
Taking inspiration from the likes of Tenchu and Mark of the Ninja*, Twin Souls puts you in the Jika-tabi of a recently resurrected ninja. Your mission is to rescue the god who resurrected you and kill (or sneak by) everyone in your way.
You may remember the student project, Path of Shadows, that kicked Twin Souls off back in October.
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27 June 2014 • 7 hours 3 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
Comments7
For all its light satire and the ‘50s optimistism in its soundtrack, The Sims has always been deadly serious in letting players live the kind of suburban American dream most of us will never witness, let alone afford.
It turns out swimming pools are a huge part of that. News that they’d be missing from The Sims 4 at launch has been met with upset by the series’ community.
“Drowning sims is the sims,” wrote one disgruntled Redditor. “You might as well take away the green diamonds over their heads while you’re at it.”
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27 June 2014 • 6 hours 22 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
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Like a hiveminded horde or undying demon in one of its videogames, Battle.net wants only to consume everything. Once StarCraft II’s various launchers have been subsumed by the Blizzard desktop app, every one of the company’s games will be collected in one place for the first time.
StarCraft II players can upgrade now - or be forced to adjust once a mandatory update arrives in the coming weeks.
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27 June 2014 • 4 hours 56 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
Comments4
There’s going to be a Warhammer FPS, for the first time since Fire Warrior proved even the most videogamey ideas can pale in execution. It’s built by E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy types Streum On Studio, and is growing into an ambitious, squad-based tactical beast of a game.
Will it emerge from the Warp horribly mutated, or righteous in victory? This in-engine trailer seeks to suggest the latter.
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27 June 2014 • 3 hours 14 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
Comments1
Hossin. If the name of Planetside 2’s new continent sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been bandied about since the game’s launch - and been in development even longer.
“We’ve figured out that creating a ‘good’ outpost in Planetside 2 takes about 2-3 weeks of level design, art playtesting and iteration time minimally, per outpost,” said SOE’s Matt Higby. “Multiply that by 80 or so, and you’ll get a good idea of how much work is required for a high-quality continent.”
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27 June 2014 • 2 hours 36 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
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With a rush and a push that lasted nigh on fifty days, Dota 2 fans have bought enough International Compendiums to tip the tournament’s prize pool over the $10 million line.
They did it in $2.50 increments. It’s fair to say there are now a lot of Dota 2 fans.
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27 June 2014 • 2 hours 2 min ago •
Story by Jeremy Peel
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“No more shall all your laundry baskets gradually migrate to a single laundry room, leaving all the others empty!,” exclaim Introversion. “No more will your dead prisoners slide off morgue slabs and hearses, and lay there in the road forever!”
June was Bug Bash month - the first time the five-man Prison Architect team had taken a break from their monthly release routine to address the thousands of faults and glitches amassing at their door. They’ve just updated the Steam version of the game to reflect their cleanse.
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Curse of Naxxramas, Hearthstone’s expansion that promises to drag us out of the tavern and fling us in a foul dungeon, is due out next month. So drink all the mead you can in the mean time.
Blizzard gave up the release window in the forums, noting that there were still bugs to fix and things to implement before launch. Pricing details for the expansion are due to be announced on Tuesday, July 1st.
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There are currently two mods via which you can enhance Watch_Dogs’ visuals. One comes from Guru3D’s member TheWorse and the other one comes from another Guru3D member, Kadzait24. Kadzait24 was the first one that has managed to mod Ubisoft’s open world title and despite the harsh criticism he’s received, this modder is still trying to improve the game’s visuals. Continue reading →
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