Mass Effect 4 survey suggests BioWare are paying attention to Dark Souls, Diablo and Dota

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The Mass Effect series has always been better for the odd questionnaire. BioWare used console achievements data to work out what players spent their time doing in the original game, and set about its sequel with knives until there was nothing but good.

The new game looks to be getting a similar treatment. A year and half after longtime series custodian Casey Hudson asked Mass Effect 4 players whether they wanted prequel or sequel, his studio have published a survey.

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Infinity Ward veterans to make VR shooter with celebrated Disney animator

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Four men responsible for helping shape Call of Duty over the past decade have teamed up with the animator of Disney’s Roger Rabbit, Jafar and Ursula. Together they’re making an FPS for use with VR heasets like the Oculus Rift, which they plan to release next year.

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Sepia swordplay: Jagex launch old-school combat mode for Runescape

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Runescape first began splitting into alternate dimensions early last year, when its community voted through a separate live version of the game, as it was in 2007.

That polling process has since been codified as the Power to the Players system, and it’s just yielded yet more results - a traditionalist, alternative fighting style to that the Evolution of Combat update introduced a couple of years ago.

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Oculus wash their hands of second-hand Rift owners: "If you buy on eBay you are on your own"

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Oculus VR are halting shipments of Rifts to buyers they suspect intend to resell the headsets via eBay. What’s more, users who buy development kits second-hand are “on [their] own” when it comes to customer support.

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The Hum: a first-person horror game that looks more horrifying than the name implies

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I cannot decide if The Hum is a very silly or very ominous title for a horror game. It’s vague and innocuous, but it heralds an apocalyptic alien invasion, which makes it suddenly a lot more menacing. The Hum is a first-person horror game, set after humanity vanishes and aliens prowl the streets of dilapidated, nearly empty cities.

Players are thrust into the role of a survivor, who hides in a barn until new memories and abilities begin to surface. The trailers are certainly setting an uncomfortable tone, with appropriately wild strings and bellowing horns accompanying panicked movement and stealth. 

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Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty gets pre-order DLC in the form of a costume and a new level with an old friend

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Abe’s Oddysee hails from a more egalitarian time for game consumers, when you were guaranteed to get all of the content for a single price, regardless of when you bought it. But Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, the remake of the classic game has taken another step towards modernity by offering pre-order DLC. 

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Gardens Gone Wild: Guild Wars 2's Entanglement update is now live

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The next chapter in Guild Wars 2’s Living World has gone live. Entanglement is the second act in the evolving storyline of the MMO. Heroes can continue to explore the Brisban Wildlands, attempting to uncover the mystery of the plague of extremely angry vines that’s spreading out from the Wildlands. 

If you missed Entanglement’s trailer last week, here it is again.

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Divinity: Original Sin patch breathes life into AI characters and reduces faffing

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I’m quite smitten with Divinity: Original Sin. It walks the line between nostalgic throwback and fresh inventiveness, and if you want more detail than that, then you should read my Divinity: Original Sin review. 

If you’ve already done that, you’ll know that one of my few complaints about the game was the lack of a consistent personality for AI Source Hunters. If the latest patch does what it says on the tin, then this issue has been completely dealt with.

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Paint the town orange and blue in Aperture Tag, a Valve-approved Portal 2 mod

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A new Portal 2 campaign, licensed but not made by Valve, hit Steam today. Aperture Tag removes the iconic portal gun, replacing it with a new puzzle-solving weapon that fires out globs of gel. 

It’s inspired by the student-developed game, Tag, which led Valve to hire its creators and implement the goo mechanic in Portal 2. The game gives Aperture testers the new paint gun, a campaign and 27 new maps to play around in. 

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A few of my favorite things: hands-on with Techland's parkour FPS Dying Light

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Let’s skip all the nonsense about how zombies are an overused theme but this time it’s different. it doesn't really matter. Here’s why you should care about Techland’s Dying Light, in four words:

It’s Mirror’s Edge - STALKER.

Now that I have your attention, we can proceed.

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OlliOlli Comes To The PC Next Week, Comes With Additional Features

Abyss Odyssey – 2-D Side-Scrolling Action Adventure Game – Now Available

Atlus announced that Abyss Odyssey – a new 2D action adventure game from indie developer ACE Team (Rock of Ages, Zeno Clash) – is now available on Steam and comes with a 33% discount (for the next 5 hours). Continue reading →

 

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Halfway – 2D Isometric Turn-based Sci-fi Survival RPG – Releases Next Week

July 16, 2014 John Papadopoulos 0 Comments

Robotality has revealed that its upcoming 2D isometric RPG, Halfway, will release on July 22nd and in order to celebrate it, the team has released a new trailer for it. Halfway is a turn-based sci-fi strategy RPG with survival elements, taking place a few hundred years into the future, and sports retro RPG visuals that will remind you of all those classic 2D RPGs from the SNES and early-PSX eras. Continue reading →

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Slightly Mad Studios’ Free Racer, World of Speed, Gets New Gorgeous Gameplay Trailer

July 16, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

My.com and Slightly Mad Studios have released a brand new gameplay trailer for World of Speed. The short video features the Mazda RX-7 and Mercedes Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution battling it out on a couple different tracks and in some particularly nasty weather conditions. The Dream Drive trailer also teases a few iconic London landmarks from the London Eye, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Enjoy! Continue reading →

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Hazard Ops – Third-person Online Action Shooter – Open Beta Phase Launched

July 16, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

Infernum announced today that the open beta phase for its third-person online action shooter, Hazard Ops, is a go. While the closed beta phase of Hazard Ops offered a multitude of co-op and versus game modes, the open beta phase adds a brand new co-op map called “Skull Island”. Continue reading →

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Rainbow Six Siege Gets New “E3 Awards” Trailer

July 16, 2014 John Papadopoulos 1 Comment

Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the next installment in the Rainbow Six series, Rainbow Six Siege. This new trailer features scenes from the E3 demo that was shown earlier last month, so no; it does not feature anything new. Still, this trailer packs direct feed footage so some of you may be interested in it (though what’s the point of direct feed when YouTube destroys its quality with its video algorithms). Enjoy! Continue reading →

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Unreal Engine 4.3 Is Out – Comes With Oculus Rift DK2 Support, Adds New Skylight Global Illumination

July 16, 2014 John Papadopoulos 3 Comments

Epic Games has just announced that Unreal Engine 4.3 is available to all those who have purchased Epic’s engine. Unreal Engine 4.3 comes with over 500 updates, as well as some new graphical features and native support for the Oculus Rift DK2. Continue reading →

Eve Online Crius expansion brings enough industrial change to yield "good-old fashioned space conflict"

16 July 2014 • 15 hours 47 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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Pew! Someone must have shot Eve Online’s next expansion with an Asteroids laser, because it’s split into ten smaller expando-rocks set to spin out across the next year. The first, Kronos, hurtled into one of the best PC space games last month. CCP’s radars indicate its follow-up is on a similar collision course. Named Crius, it’s due to make shockwaves in Eve’s industrial sector come July 22.

“As the fuel that powers the ‘infernal machine’ of harvesting, creation and destruction, the industry changes will catalyze player-driven action, create new opportunities for veterans and new players alike,” write CCP. “And most likely start some good old-fashioned space conflict.”

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Boom: Star Citizen goes bombing in celebration of $48 million milestone

16 July 2014 • 13 hours 58 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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Chris Roberts’ Cloud Imperium Games last month asked the Star Citizen community whether they still wanted stretch goals to fuel the game’s ongoing crowdfunding campaign. They voted yes, and so the neverending telethon continues.

The increasingly absurd total has now topped $48 million, and funded a sleek new video advertisement for one of the game's bombers. As well as the PC space game and international games studio, obvs.

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The Long Dark will Hinterland on Steam Early Access this September

16 July 2014 • 12 hours 48 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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It’s tricky to imagine freezing your bollocks off right now, at the end of Planet Earth’s hottest three months on record. But raise your hand in front of your face, and think about the snowy squalls that’ll prevent you from seeing it. Which’ll be just as well, because your fingers will have come off, leaving frostbitten stumps behind.

That’s your future in The Long Dark, the first-person survival sim from Far Cry 3 narrative director Raphael van Lierop. It’ll be released in Early Access sandbox mode once Autumn comes.

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League of Legends unleashes the Doom Bots of Doom

16 July 2014 • 9 hours 6 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Are you the bravest summoner on the rift? You’ll need to be exactly that if you plan on taking part in Riot’s latest League of Legends experimental Featured Game Mode. The Doom Bots of Doom turns the game’s already tricksy AI champions into fiendish, apocalyptically difficult foes. 

And they’re stomping their way into battle from July 17th. Gulp. 

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Criminal ex-dictator Manuel Noriega is suing Activision for portraying him as a bad man in Call of Duty

16 July 2014 • 8 hours 9 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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If you played Call of Duty Black Ops II, you may recall this chap you can see above. His name is Manuel Noriega, and - unlike so many aspects of Call of Duty - he’s actually a real person. Quite a nasty one too; he’s currently sitting in a prison cell in Panama for crimes he committed during his reign as the country’s dictator. Murder ranks among his more awful crimes.

He’s in the news today though not for committing any further atrocities from his jail cell, but because he’s attempting to sue Activision for portraying him in a negative light in Call of Duty. 

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Kerbal Space Program adds Contracts as part of First Contact patch

16 July 2014 • 6 hours 59 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Floating through the abyss of space is Kerbal Space Program: First Contact, or code-name patch 0.24. It’s currently being frantically tweaked and bashed into position so it’s ready for atmosphere entry, where it will plummet down the cable lines of any existing owners and upgrade their Steam accounts with this shiny new version. 

The big deal here is Contracts: a brand new way of playing Kerbal that asks you complete specific tasks in reward for financial and reputation gain. 

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Alien Isolation will be accommodating to pacifists: you don’t need to kill a thing

16 July 2014 • 6 hours 39 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Everyone got a little touchy when it was revealed that there would be guns in Alien Isolation. This is, afterall, based on Ridley Scott’s horror masterpiece and not James Cameron’s more explosive action flick, and so caution should be at the heart of the action. Thankfully our Steve reported that the guns don’t spoil the game at all, but if you’re still worried listen up: you can get through Isolation without harming a soul, synthetic or otherwise. 

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Abyss Odyssey is out now and it's kinda rad go buy it.

Here Are The First Details For The New Doom Game, Straight From QuakeCon 2014

Assassin's Creed Unity to be overseen by Ubisoft's new Chief Parkour Officer

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Ubisoft have appointed a new Chief Parkour Officer. Rather than promote a fleet-footed executive from within, they’ve hired on noted freerunner Michael ‘Frosti’ Zernow. He’ll advise on the imminent Assassin’s Creed Unity.

“I’ve been a long-time fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and it’s one of the few highly visible examples of parkour that attracts younger athletes to the sport every year,” said Zernow of his role.

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There will be blood: Titanfall's Frontier's Edge DLC turns a mining site into a map

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Titanfall is one of the best PC games of 2014 so far, thanks in no small part to maps which freed like Battlefield and funnelled like CoD and somehow captured the best of both in fifteen minute matches. Frontier’s Edge DLC map Dig Site’s the latest to subscribe to that philosophy - forcing Titans down narrow pathways between industrial processing buildings while pilots leap over their heads.

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Europa Universalis IV makes despotism a relative concept in new Res Publica expansion

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The idea of mini-expansion will be familiar to most of us. We enlarge by increments, and our features grow fat before we’ve even noticed the change.

The same thing’s happened to Europa Universalis IV. The already-stuffed grand strategy game has ballooned again this week with the £3.99 Res Publica update, which has found room for a new government type and faction system.

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David Braben says Elite: Dangerous will be future-proof: "Moore's law is our friend"

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Moore’s law states that, broadly speaking, computer hardware tends to double in performance every two years. And Frontier are building Elite: Dangerous with that sort of exponential change in mind, folding support for “beautiful” effects and ultra high-res displays into their PC space game.

One day, David Braben expects we’ll be able to use them.

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Yogscast scrap Kickstarted Yogventures project, offer backers another game in its place

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Yogscast and Winterkewl Games have ceased development on their open-world post-Minecraft sandbox game, Yogventures. But according to Yogscast co-founder Lewis Brindley, that’s “actually a good thing”.

“Although we’re under no obligation to do anything, instead we’re going to do our best to make this right, and make you really glad you backed the project!”, he said.

There will be no refunds for Kickstarter backers. Instead, they’ll receive a Steam Early Access key for a different open-world survival game, from another developer.

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Heroes of the Storm's new Garden of Terror map has a day/night cycle and "plant zombies"

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I’m sat in a garden right now, and it’s really quite pleasant. The only sign of impending terror is the suspiciously granular birdsong which might - might - herald an incoming android patrol a la Sir, You Are Being Hunted.

The triumphant Heroes of the Storm is much more upfront about its horticultural horrors. When night falls on its new three-lane battleground, the creatures of the night will come out.

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The Elder Scrolls Online is coming to Steam today

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So, let’s assume you haven’t played The Elder Scrolls Online before today. What can we tell you? It’s okay. Very solid, like a dining table. But equally like a dining table, not something you’d want to spend an awful lot of time with unless you’ve got friends around.

Elder Scrolls Online patches have expanded its range of dungeons, but done nothing to improve on its back-and-forth quests. Try The Elder Scrolls Online for yourself on Steam, by all means. It’s absolutely fine.

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The Walking Dead Season 2 continues next week

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The penultimate episode of The Walking Dead Season 2 - Amid the Ruins - will release on Steam next Tuesday, July 22nd. Tensions begin to boil as things draw close to the inevitably distressing and emotional finale, and you can catch a glimpse of what horrors are to come in this new trailer.

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Hearthstone’s Curse of Naxxramas adventure will be dealt onto the table next week

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If you’ve quite had enough of having your rear-end handed to you in Hearthstone’s competitive matches (or, indeed, handing other people’s rears to them), then you can soon enjoy a little solo time with those fancy cards of yours: Curse of Naxxramas, the single-player adventure for Hearthstone, will be landing on Tuesday, July 22nd. 

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Clockwork Empires set to open in “Earliest Access” form on July 18th

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When Steam Early Access just isn't enough, what do you do? Well, you make your own “Earliest Access” scheme, of course. That’s what Gaslamp Games is doing for steampunk/occult crossover city builder Clockwork Empires. Ahead of the game’s launch on Steam Early Access in August, Clockwork Empires will be available directly from Gaslamp in an early manifestation. 

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The Banner Saga: The Collectors Edition – Boxed Edition Releases July 25th

Sold Out Sales & Marketing Limited has today announced that The Banner Saga will be heading to retail stores on July 25th. The Viking-themed tactical role playing game from Stoic – which has won countless awards for its beautiful, atmospheric but brutal gameplay – will be available as a physical release for the first time ever. Continue reading →

 

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The Crow’s Eye – First Person Horror Adventure – Third Teaser Trailer Released

July 17, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

3D2 Entertainment has released the third teaser trailer for its upcoming first person horror adventure title, The Crow’s Eye. This new teaser trailer pack pre-alpha gameplay footage and while we can all agree that the voice acting is kind of average, its environments are really atmospheric and spooky. The Crow’s Eye is inspired by folklore horror stories, and modern games storytelling like Bioshock and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and will be coming exclusively to the PC. Enjoy! Continue reading →

 

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Risen 3: Titan Lords – New Details Unveiled + New Screenshots

July 17, 2014 John Papadopoulos 7 Comments

Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes revealed details and a new look at the Demon Hunters in Risen 3: Titan Lords. The Demon Hunters are one of three dynamic factions populating the world of Risen 3. Players will have to choose their allegiance, which will greatly impact the quests, skill sets, armor and overall experience in the open-world role-playing game. Continue reading →

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The Evil Within Will Be Released Earlier, Coming On October 14th

July 18, 2014 John Papadopoulos 1 Comment

Bethesda’s Pete Hines has just announced that The Evil Within will be coming earlier than planned. While the game was planned for an October 21st release, it is now scheduled for an October 14th release. According to Hines, Shinji Mikami asked for some time in order to enhanced and polish its title but it appears that the game is ready earlier than anticipated. Continue reading →

Wait. Doom will use the idTech 6 engine?

Tech 5 has had a short and problematic life.

WellI wouldn't be surprised if Tech 666 is built ontop of Tech 5, as Carmack said after RAGE they wouldn't start from scratch again. Tho I hope they have dropped Megatextures TBH, or at least use it only where it makes sense rather than for everything. Speaking of id Tech it seems they have replaced Carmack as lead engine programmer, and it's kinda a surprise

Signs Of The Times – Crytek’s Lead R&D Graphics Engineer Moves To id Software, Will Work On New Doom

MachineGames on releasing Wolfenstein in Germany: “It’s up to the developer to figure out what can lead to legal action”

17 July 2014 • 1 day 12 hours ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Wolfenstein: The New Order is one of our most favourite games of the year. It’s a terrific shooter, and it’s got magazines full of heart to boot. But of course, the Nazi theme and splatterific violence in the game makes it a tough call when it comes to the German market, a country where not only are violent games censored, but any mention of Nazism is a ticket to a courtroom. 

Trying to re-work the game for the German release was a huge exercise in guesswork, explained Jens Matthies, creative director at MachineGames. “It’s up to the developer to figure out what kind of symbolism can possibly lead to legal action.”

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The International 2014 Dota 2 Championships will be broadcast live on ESPN

17 July 2014 • 1 day 11 hours ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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You’ve probably heard of ESPN, if only during the sports sections of Microsoft’s E3 conferences. They’re pretty damn big in the States, and they cover serious sports like football, basketball, and Dota 2. 

Yes, this year ESPN expands its boundaries to eSports with coverage of The International 2014 through its online ESPN3 channel. Not only that, but a preview of the tournament final will be broadcast on ESPN2, a cable network accessable by 97,717,000 US homes. 

Looks like Dota 2 is invading the America living room.

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Quake Live fragging its way onto Steam "very, very soon"

18 July 2014 • 1 day 8 hours ago • Story by Nick Wilson

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At this year's Quakecon, Bethesda VP Pete Hines has announced that their browser friendly FPS, Quake Live will be coming to Steam “very, very soon”. When it does land, it’ll come with 25% off pro subscriptions: various packages that give you access to exclusive maps, game modes and server tools.

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Blizzard restore the StarCraft II widow mine to former glory in balance test

18 July 2014 • 1 day 29 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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Blizzard have just last night published a new version of StarCraft II’s balance test map to the great PC strategy game's Custom Games list. Catchily titled ‘(2)OvergrowthLE (2.1.3 Balance v1.1)’, it’s seen tentative changes to one unit that’s made its mark on the competitive game since Heart of the Swarm - the Terran widow mine.

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Yogventures cancellation is a "matter of deep regret" for Yogscast

18 July 2014 • 23 hours 22 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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Yogscast broke the news yesterday that they couldn’t deliver on Yogventures, the open-world survival game they helped Kickstart in 2012. The ambitious project had proven to be beyond six-man team Winterkewl, who are now headed for probable closure.

Yogscast have issued Steam keys for a different game, TUG, to backers - “in many ways” the survivalist experience they hoped Winterkewl would make. And they’ve issued a second statement on the “deep regret” they feel for Yogventures.

“The game as it stands it is not capable of being released and certainly wouldn’t live up to the expectations of the people that backed the Kickstarter or pre-ordered the game,” wrote Yogscast.

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Kerbal Space Program: First Contract update now launched, just like shuttles sometimes are

18 July 2014 • 22 hours 6 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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Like TF2 fans, Kerbal Space Program players can tell the importance of any given update by watching the animated short that accompanies it. Squad’s new trailer is a full 1:57 seconds long - because it heralds a huge expansion of the game’s career mode.

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UPDATED: Steam security failings called out in open letter to Valve. Valve respond

18 July 2014 • 19 hours 16 min ago • Story by Julian Benson

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In an open letter to Valve, security specialists and developers have called out “Valve’s inconsistency in rewarding those who report bugs (occasionally punishing people), the speed at which Valve addresses bug reports (if at all), and the problems users face attempting to report bugs to Valve.” Saying that all of this is making an insecure client “whose systems process sensitive data for millions of customers and partners.”

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The 30 best Minecraft seeds

18 July 2014 • 18 hours 9 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Minecraft seeds are the codes that the game uses to generate worlds for you; worlds full of interesting landscapes and hot spots ripe for exploration. Just drop these words or digits into the seed field when creating a world and Minecraft will do all the heavy lifting for you. 

Regardless of if you’re a professional miner or someone about to load up their first world, there’s something you can't control in Minecraft: the terrain itself. Whilst your mind may be brimming with possibilities, all too frequently you’ll spawn in a bland, uninspiring world full of flat grassland and the odd chicken. Hardly the canvas for your masterpiece. 

Hence this piece. 

We present to you here 30 of the very best, most interesting seeds we’ve found.

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Crypt of the Necrodancer trailer announces Steam Early Access release date

18 July 2014 • 18 hours 1 min ago • Story by Julian Benson

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Crypt of the Necrodancer is headed to Steam Early Access on the 30 July,expect your local corpse depository to thrum with the sound of bassy hits. the roguelike dungeon crawler has you explore and attack enemies to the beat of the music - only allowing you to score hits on enemies by acting in time with the music.

The new trailer reveals some of games soundtrack and it is awesome.

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Elder Scrolls Online apparently has more than 750,000 subscribers

18 July 2014 • 17 hours 11 min ago • Story by Julian Benson

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The Elder Scrolls Online has had a lot of problems since launch - duplication bugs, gold farmers, and stuck NPCs - but apparently that’s not stopped it from racking more than 750,000 subscribers. According to a report from SuperData, the game boasts 772,374 paying accounts.

That number should only grow with it’s recent move to the Steam storefront.

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Sniper Elite 3 Save Churchill DLC now available to all sharpshooters

18 July 2014 • 14 hours 31 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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The guys at Rebellion sure do love their historical personalities. In the last Sniper Elite 3 DLC pack we were tasked with blowing the moustache off Hitler himself, but this time around you’ll be preventing an assassination, not performing one. Your charge: Winston Churchill. If one ember on his cigar is out of place by the end of your mission, it’s to the brig with you. 

The DLC will be made up of a trio of parts, and the first is available to buy right now from Steam. 

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Rainbow Six Siege multiplayer footage blows out the walls and floors

18 July 2014 • 13 hours 35 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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The Rainbow Six Siege E3 unveiling was an astonishingly brutal assault on both an average suburban home and everyone’s expectations. Considered by many as the star of the show, until now we’ve only been witness to a single round of Siege’s signature multiplayer mode. 

Until now, that is. Last night Ubisoft ran a live stream where two teams proceeded to blast each other to smithereens over the course of six matches. Whilst they were all fought on the familiar family home map, the prolonged footage gives us a good insight into the small complexities of the game. 

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Be part of The Crew earlier with PC open beta

18 July 2014 • 12 hours 56 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Ubisoft’s crime-spree open world racer The Crew is skidding into open beta this month, but PC players get to seize pole position by getting into the event a whole two days earlier than console gamers. 

To paint a picture, that means we on the PC are hurtling along in McLaren P1s whilst the Xbox and PlayStation crowds trundle along in their Nissan Micras. 

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Doom was only shown off at QuakeCon to squash fears that id were in trouble, don’t expect to see it until next year

18 July 2014 • 11 hours 32 min ago • Story by Matt Purslow

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Yesterday Tim got to see Doom in action at QuakeCon. It was bloody. It was gory. It was carnage. It looked good. And that’s exactly the reason id Software showed the footage off: to stamp out the fears people seemed to be gathering that the developer was somehow in trouble and that Doom would be a failure. 

But that footage was a compromise. Id didn’t want to show anything off at all, especially to the public, but something had to be done about the murmurs. QuakeCon was chosen as the isolated showcase point, meaning everyone else must rely on word of mouth until the team feels the game is ready to unveil to the public. 

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It Lives Again: Blood Rises On Steam

By Adam Smith on July 18th, 2014 at 3:00 pm.

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If I wrote a post every time an old game popped up on Steam, I wouldn’t have time to gather my thoughts about new games, or to drink this delicious cuppa. I’d also be wasting a lot of words on Putt-Putt And Fatty Bear’s Flatulent Festival, along with various other fetid blasts from the past. Blood is different though. It isn’t a difficult game to find but when I spotted that it had emerged on Steam, I felt the butterflies that live in my stomach fluttering into action (assistance required – send a lepidopterist with a scalpel). It’s a brilliant FPS, with credible environments and intelligent enemy placement, particularly throughout the first episode, which I’ve probably played more than any other collection of levels.

Do not buy the sequel though. It’s a rotten mess.

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Yep, megatextures is a cool idea, but it didn't worked as it should have had. And man!, that's a really surprise there. Noone will be able to say that the man replacing Carmack doesn't know what to do, if Crytek is known for anything is for its the visuals they get with their engines.

A big win for id, a big and very worrisome lose for Crytek.

Adventurezator is a make-your-own point and click adventure game

Games that help you make games have been a novel idea for a while now, but Adventurezator takes it a step further. Using the power of Steam Workshop, players can create their own point and click adventures, and share them with the community. Everything is customisable too, including characters, environments and cutscenes.

It’s out on Steam Early Access in just a few days, on July 23rd.

Darkwood interactive trailer proves that flash lights are still your best friend

Darkwood is a promising top-down, roguelike, horror game coming to Steam Early Access on July 24th. To celebrate the release date, Acid Wizard Studio has released a special interactive trailer which allows you to choose the fate of our nameless wanderer.

Will you fight or flee?

Heroes of the Storm progression overhaul incoming; introduces hero levels and artifacts

Heroes of the Storm is still evolving in its technical alpha; the latest announcement is that of a new leveling system. Players will not only have a player level, but individual levels for each hero. Increasing your hero level will unlock core gameplay features such as heroic abilities and talents, as well as cosmetic skins and mount variants.

Also announced is the introduction of artifacts, but their exact use is yet unclear. “We’ll have much more information to share on that in the coming days” promises the blog post.

Valve debut infamous cult hero Techies at the Dota 2 International

TECHIES! That’s right, just as predicted Valve gave a spectacular debut of Techies in the All-Star match last night during the Dota 2 International main event. His absence has been the talk of the Dota 2 community for years, so there’s little surprise that both the crowd and internet went berserk.

Mighty No. 9 trailer shows off transformations and unique enemies

Mighty No. 9 far exceeded its Kickstarter goal, clocking over $3.8 million dollars compared to its initial goal of $900,000. However there was some controversy when studio Comcept came back asking for even more funding to add English voice acting and more.

That hasn’t seemed to stop Comcept though, who’ve just released another trailer previewing their work with various transformations and unique bosses.

Warframe update 14.0 released; includes Mirage class and revamped tutorial

Third-person space-ninja shooter Warframe has just received a huge patch with the aptly named update 14.0. Inside is a revamped tutorial and UI, a new warframe, weapons and the introductions of pets.

The new Warframe is named the Mirage - a master of illusion that confounds the enemy with smoke and mirror tactics. She's quite snazzy.

Meet Shadowmoon Valley: new Warlords of Draenor zone offers a "false sense of security"

It’s like they say: never anger a riverbeast. Like heavily-armoured environmentalists on all fours, these rock-like hippoposters appear docile until their habitat is disturbed. After that, they appear as 4,000 pounds of fat and muscle charging headlong towards your avatar.

Level 90 or no, Shadowmoon Valley promises “countless hidden perils” for Warlords of Draenor first-timers once they’ve trudged through the Tanaan Jungle.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic made $165m in 2013, according to SuperData report

Despite Guild Wars 2, Wildstar, and its own efforts to split its playerbase into have-mounts and have-mount-nots, Star Wars: The Old Republic remains one of the best PC MMOs around. 

That’s reflected in the findings of SuperData Research, who report that SWTOR made $165m last year. They say BioWare’s first MMO accounts for 8% of the market for MMOs with subscription options.

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15 minutes of Brutal Doom v20 will do nicely in lieu of id's remake

Our Tim’s first impressions of Doom from QuakeCon 2014 were that it’s gory. Players can rip open a demon’s jaws, or shoot all of its extraneous bits off until its torso looks like a wine gum. It’s fair to say that id have reclaimed the gib-factor that Brutal Doom made its headline feature.

But it’s worth remembering that the mod doesn’t just throw an extra pint of blood over an already-reddened engine. Rather, it imbues Doom 1 with some of the qualities modern developers would describe as visceral - though modder Sergeant Mark IV spends more time talking about actual viscera. 

Watch a 15-minute, work-in-progress demo of Brutal Doom's most recent version below.

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Visceral promise there won't be any "gravel voiced super soldiers" in Battlefield Hardline

Battlefield Hardline creative director Ian Milham doesn’t want you to get him wrong.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he writes. “ Like all gamers, [Visceral] have enjoyed some great, linear, roller coaster style games in our day. We may have even made one or two. But these days we think gamers are looking for more tactical choice and depth in their games, not just whack-a-mole shooting galleries.”

The Battlefield Hardline beta might not have rang new - but Visceral say its single player relocation to the parking lots and precincts of Miami has allowed them to “fill [their] world with choices”.

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Take another look at Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's quite good.

Whatever it was that draws millions to Star Wars, many were unconvinced that The Old Republic had it. The feeling of adventure, heroism, mysticism and drama just wasn’t quite right. In the old days, SWTOR just didn’t feel “Star Wars-y” enough for core fans. It’s not an opinion I ever held, but I am an extremely patient person and SWTOR, in the early days, was tailored to a player like me. But I struggled to argue with the naysayers on a critical point, it was a poor MMO.

Over two years have passed since Star Wars: The Old Republic launched.  And it has changed almost beyond recognition.

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Battlecry preview: multiplayer mauling in a strange steampunk world

It didn’t take long before I found myself slamming my mouse in frustration. Not because I was annoyed with Battlecry. Far from it: I think it’s going to be very good. I was slamming my mouse down because I wanted to win at Battlecry. 

For a game that’s barely in beta, Battlecry is doing a lot of things very, very right.

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Train Simulator 2015 will include trains from the future, of all things

Dovetail Games, purveyor of sims, has become pretty prolific of late. After recently announcing Dovetail Games Fishing, a new Microsoft Flight Simulator and the studio’s acquisition of distribution rights for Microsoft Flight Simulator X, it’s only gone and announced new installment in its Train Simulator series. 

Train Simulator 2015 will put you behind the controls of trains that won’t even be in use until 2018 - time travel remains unconfirmed however - and Dovetail hopes that it will open the doors to new players with the TS Academy training area. 

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ESPN2's coverage of the Dota 2 International is just too much for some viewers

The growth of eSports, you could assume, has laid to rest the tired old arguments of what constitutes a sport and how Dota 2 or League of Legends don’t fit the bill. There are fewer and fewer things that separate traditional sports and eSports, and the latter becomes more like the former every year. 

It looks like there are still plenty of folk who aren’t ready for eSports to be considered real sports, however. And there are quite a few who are genuinely outraged, because outrage is a compelling hobby. The Dota 2 International has been airing on ESPN2, and people have taken to Twitter to express just how devastating this is. 

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Dark Souls 2 receives a meaty update ahead of tomorrow's Crown of the Sunken King launch

Ahead of the launch of Dark Souls 2’s first slice of DLC, Crown of the Sunken King, which is due out tomorrow, From Software’s slapped a massive update on the game. Really bloody massive. Some of the changes are rather sweeping, such as health recovery items not longer being usable in PvP, tweaks to continuous attacks and corrections to damage. 

If you’re wondering if now is a good time to dip into the game, take a gander at my Dark Souls 2 review. Or I could just tell you right here that you should get it. 

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The myriad emotions of FIFA 15

EA has just announced that the next FIFA game will introduce simulated player emotions, imbuing the tiny football men with every manner of mood and feeling known to science, transforming them from glassy eyed 3D automatons to living, breathing virtual creatures each with their own hopes and ambitions.

For example: one football man, upon doing an especially good kick, might feel "happy". Another, having witnessed a nice goal, might feel "humbled by the continuing spectacle of sport". It truly is an incredible time to be alive, and having now emulated the human condition down to the individual neuron, EA can finally create little football men capable of kicking the ball in a truly convincing manner.

But what emotions can we expect to see in FIFA 15, and what effects do they have on players? I'm glad you asked, because here they all are.

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Slot up: Blizzard unveils Heroes of the Storm's artifacts system

Last week, Blizzard revealed its already divisive plans for out-of-game levelling system in Heroes of the Storm. Today the developer has gone into the nitty gritty of one of these features: artifacts. The reaction from the community appears to be overwhelmingly negative. 

When you hit Player Level 15, you’ll unlock one of three artifact slots. Two further slots can be unlocked with gold. Gems, relics and trinkets can be placed into their specific slots, conferring bonuses to the heroes using them. It’s not unlike League of Legends’ rune system. 

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NewBee wins the 2014 Dota 2 International

NewBee have beaten ViCi Gaming in the Dota 2 International 2014 grand finals for a total of over $5 million dollars. The Chinese team have had a rollercoaster of a tournament: only last week they were fighting elimination from the playoffs. But since then they stormed through the brackets to secure their place in the grand final on day one of the main event.

The first place prize ensures that each player will receive at least one million dollars each, and automatically places them as the highest earning eSport players in the world.

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Super 3D Noah's Ark might be the best Christian game built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine

Wolfenstein is fairly violent. I’ve been faffing around in the latest incarnation, New Order, for a few hours and barely a moment goes by where I’m not shooting off limbs, slicing tendons or putting holes in faces. It’s progenitor, Wolfenstein 3D, didn’t skimp on the violence either. 

That’s why it was a tad unusual when, in 1994, it spawned Super 3D Noah’s Ark, a game showing the harsh realities of life on the mythological Noah’s Ark. And when I say harsh, I mean you have to feed a lot of animals. It’s been re-released, too. And, not at all surprisingly, it’s on Steam Greenlight. 

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Behave: Riot is instantly banning toxic players in League of Legends today

Riot’s running an experiment today in League of Legends. Any player in the MOBA who shows “toxicity” such as racism will instantly be banned for two weeks or permabanned. 

Social system lead designer, Jeffrey Lin, dropped the news on Twitter today, prompting a slew of questions due to its somewhat vague nature. Lin took to Reddit to clarify how this works and that it’s just a one-day experiment. 

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Ultimate General: Gettysburg Early Access review

It’s been about seventeen years since Sid Meier’s Gettysburg showed how you could do real-time tactical wargaming in a way that was both easy to learn and incredibly authentic and nuanced. For years it has been the gold standard for accessible battlefield command games, even as compatibility issues make it harder and harder to get working.

Fortunately, Ultimate General: Gettysburg has arrived on Early Access to fill this void and put a new spin on this most familiar of American Civil War battles. With lightning-quick pacing and a clever branching campaign, Ultimate General might do for battlefield wargames what Unity of Command did for the operational level.

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Will NVIDIA announce GeForce GTX 870 and 880 at Gamescom?

New rumors are showing some interesting developments regarding the upcoming GeForce GTX 870 and 880 from Nvidia. The two Maxwell Gm204 based graphics cards could make an early appearance or announcement mid-August already. There are two events rather soon  where ‘something could be shown to public’. First is SIGGRAPH the second Gamescom. This event takes place in Germany between 13rd and 17th August. 

Now some user at notebook-review forums posted the following:

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/will-nvidia-announce-geforce-gtx-880-at-gamescom.html

Farming Simulator 15 is going Nordic, but won't mess with the fertiliser

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Did you know? The last iteration of Farming Simulator sold over two million copies. Agricultural emulation has become more profitable than rearing actual, foul-smelling mammals.

That’s why Giants Software and publishers Focus Home are, as their press release puts it, “sticking to the recipe”. Farming Simulator 15 won’t change up the pig feed, but it will stick a new graphics and physics engine in its tractor this October.

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Frozen Endzone becomes Frozen Cortex, because it's not a Madden game with robots

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Mode 7’s Frozen Endzone has just undergone some drastic changes. The most obvious of which is the game’s rebranding. It’s now Frozen Cortex. The use of “Endzone” made folk think it was an American football game with robots, which it isn’t. The new name also brings it closer to the previous Frozen game, the wonderful Frozen Synapse. 

On top of the name change, there’s a big update today, tweaking a whole slew of things. 

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Areal Kickstarter suspended after exceeding its target

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Update: West Games co-founder Eugene Kim said that the developer was unable to provide an update on Kickstarter or notify backers at the moment. It's not clear why. An official statement will be go up in the next couple of hours, however.

Post apocalyptic shooter and so-called STALKER successor Areal has had a dramatic Kickstarter; one filled with accusations, spam-filled comment sections and a lot of strange characters cropping up. It’s almost become fantastical. 

And today, only a few days after the Kickstarter campaign exceeded its goal - a surprise to everyone - the campaign has been suspended. 

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Take a break, MOBAs, because you're drowning us

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“We’re making a MOBA, an ARTS, a ZOMBA, a MOTA, a MOBAFPS,” is something we’re hearing a lot of these days. No IP or theme is safe. There’s one for Lord of the Rings, one with zombies and another with gods. Even EA is getting in on the action, and Blizzard, too. The heavens have opened up and we’re being drowned in MOBAs. 

Dear industry: please, slow down.  

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Guild Wars 2 has an Elder Dragon problem in The Dragon's Reach Part 1

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There’s never a moments peace in Tyria. Right now, adventurers are dealing with some serious plant problems in season two’s second episode, Entanglement. And it looks like the impending third episode isn’t going to give them a break. 

Arenanet is teasing the next part in the Living World, The Dragon’s Reach Part 1.

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Battlefield Hardline has been delayed until 2015, and that's okay

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Battlefield Hardline’s delay until next year shouldn’t come as a surprise given how thin the beta was. It’s a smart call by Visceral. Despite the developer claiming that it’s not simply a Battlefield 4 reskin, that’s exactly what it felt like during the beta. Steve and Matt put some time into it, so check out Two men complain about the Battlefield Hardline beta. They were not impressed. 

Visceral will be using the extra time to push the game further based on feedback from the beta. “The more we thought about these ideas, the more we knew we had to get them into the game you will all be playing,” said DICE VP Karl Magnus Troedsson. “However, there was only one problem. We would need more time. Time that we didn’t have if we decided to move forward with launching in just a couple of months.”

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EVE Online's going through its own Industrial Revolution with the launch of Crius

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CCP’s decision to move away from big expansions separated by long periods of time to 10 a year doesn’t seem to have stopped the developer from filling them with content. The latest expansion, Crius, launches today, bringing with it substantial changes to one of EVE’s core concepts: industry. 

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Assassin's Creed Unity's redesigned engine sounds promising

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Ubisoft’s pretty chuffed with the tech behind Assassin’s Creed Unity. And well they might, because at a glance, it does seem fairly impressive - at least in terms of creating a lively, detailed city. 

Creative director Alex Amancio lends his voice to a video breaking down the improvements brought about by Ubisoft Montreal and the redesigned game engine, including buildings that are no longer just facades and more fluid movement when travelling and in a fight. Take a gander below. 

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Crysis 3 & Ryse Producer, Mike Read, Has Left Crytek – “Wish we could have done more on Crysis 3″

Things are definitely not looking good for Crytek. Homefront’s producer has left the building, Tiego Sousa – the man behind CRYENGINE – has recently left Crytek and we just found out that Mike Read, producer of both Crysis 3 and Ryse – has resigned from this German studio. Continue reading →

 

Video-News

Gods Will Be Watching Gets Launch Trailer

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 1 Comment

Devolver Digital has released the launch trailer for Deconstructeam’s minimalistic point and click thriller, Gods Will Be Watching. Gods Will Be Watching releases on July 22nd and is an adventure game that centers on despair, commitment, and sacrifice as players face intriguing puzzles and tough decisions that will affect their entire crew’s well-being. Enjoy! Continue reading →

 

 

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Project CARS – New Screenshots Focus On Dynamic Weather & Different TODs

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 3 Comments

Slightly Mad Studios has released a new set of screenshots, showing off the new weather & time of day engine changes that have been made during the past few months. Project CARS looks gorgeous, and promises to be among the best looking racing games (though we have to note that environments still look somewhat ‘empty’ and ‘lower-ish’ compared to the highly detailed cars). The game is planned for a November 2014 release on PC. Enjoy! Continue reading →

 

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Lichdom: Battlemage Enters Beta Early Access, Comes With Major Performance Improvements

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 2 Comments

Xaviant has announced that Lichdom: Battlemage has entered the BETA phase of Early Access. According to the development team, this new build invalidates all save data from previous builds, meaning that those who have access on it will have to start all over again. In addition, this latest build of Lichdom comes with major performance improvements, support for both SLI and Crossfire, as well as support of Eyefinity multi-display setups. Continue reading →

 

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Randy Pitchford Defends Battleborn, “If we didn’t bet on new, Borderlands never would’ve existed”

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 6 Comments

Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, decided to break his silence and defend Battleborn on Twitter. As you must be aware of, Battleborn is a new FPS with MOBA elements. And while people compare it to all MOBA games and marked it as ‘yet another MOBA game’, Pitchford made a stand and said that Battleborn is first and foremost an FPS game. Continue reading →

 

Video-News

The Witcher 3 Gets New Live-Action Video in Preparation for its Comic-Con Presence

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 0 Comments

YouTube’s Sneaky Zebra has joined forces with Eve Beauregard and CD PROJEKT RED, and created the following live action teaser video for The Witcher 3. As Sneaky Zebra revealed, during this year’s Comic-Con there will be a Witcher Cosplay contest. Moreover, CDPR revealed a couple of days ago that it will show new gameplay footage from its upcoming RPG, so stay tuned for more! Continue reading →

 

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Warframe – Hits 10M Registered Users In 14 Months, New Update Deployed

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 7 Comments

Digital Extremes has released a massive new update for its hit sci-fi action game, Warframe. The new PC update titled – Update 14: The Mad Cephalon focuses on simplifying the new user experience and immersing the player further into the universe of Warframe. This includes a completely redesigned user-interface introducing players to their new player ship, a new Quest system starting with Vor’s Prize, arrival of the highly anticipated pet companions,and the unveiling of a new Warframe – Mirage, plus more. Continue reading →

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Watch_Dogs – TheWorse Mod V1.0 Final Released

July 22, 2014 John Papadopoulos 15 Comments

Our reader ‘Juan M. Brizuela’ has informed us about the final version of TheWorse’s graphical mod for Watch_Dogs. This final version of TheWorse mod comes with several changes and adjustments to the rain, speed, intensity, as well as some other minor changes. Continue reading →