Friday news, part two:
At last, democracy has come to Helldivers 2: A new Democracy Space Station lets players vote on which planet gets bombarded for truth and justice every 24 hours
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/at-last-democracy-has-come-to-helldivers-2-a-new-democracy-space-station-lets-players-vote-on-which-planet-gets-bombarded-for-truth-and-justice-every-24-hours/
Helldivers 2 already had democracy in spirit (my democracy officer, who is definitely not standing over my shoulder with a gun, tells me this) but now it has democracy in practice. After a gauntlet of major orders, a feature so thoroughly anticipated that it encouraged players to form the Freedom Alliance, the Democracy Space Station (DSS) has been deployed.
This thing is actually way more than just some flavour text for your next major order—it's a whole new game mechanic, and a great place for already kitted-out divers to spend their hard earned resources. Once every 24 hours, the divers of Super Earth can literally vote on a planet for the station to be redirected to.
Phil Spencer says Microsoft's PC-heavy lineup this year is 'historical' and an 'anomaly', so don't get used to it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/phil-spencer-says-microsofts-pc-heavy-lineup-this-year-is-historical-and-an-anomaly-so-dont-get-used-to-it/
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has recently been doing the interview circuit (…)
Spencer clearly knows this, telling Stephen Totilo that one of his favourite releases of the year so far has been WoW's The War Within, as part of a longer-term righting of the ship at Blizzard. (…)
But while Spencer's bullish about Blizzard, and who wouldn't want to have a feather like WoW in their cap, he chooses a very odd word to describe Microsoft's end-of-2024 slate, which is PC-heavy. Totilo points out to Spencer that three of Microsoft's nine releases in this period are PC-only (The War Within, Towerborne in early access, and Ara: History Untold), and asks whether this is a new norm for Microsoft.
"No," says Spencer. "This is historical. There might always be some anomalies, but I look at those three as an anomaly. We want our games playable across as many screens as possible. We think about the Xbox platform as the Xbox console, PC and cloud. We want all the games playable across all of those. We want them to be Play Anywhere."
Microsoft Gaming head honcho Phil Spencer says 'I don't like expansions that are manipulative... like, the third level you cut before you launched'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/xbox-head-honcho-phil-spencer-says-i-dont-like-expansions-that-are-manipulative-like-the-third-level-you-cut-before-you-launched/
(...)
In a new interview with newsletter GameFile, reporter Stephen Totilo pointed out to Spencer that three of Microsoft's nine fall releases are expansions: Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred, World of Warcraft's The War Within, and Starfield's Shattered Space. Given that the Game Pass model is the blindingly simple subs, subs and then more subs on top, Totilo suggested that expansions are becoming more important revenue-wise, with Microsoft able to hive off paid expansions for popular titles and then offer them to a captive audience. This isn't small beans: Shattered Space was a $30 release while Vessel of Hatred was $40.
Spencer says there's no "top down mandate" on expansions, but then that's exactly what he would say from the top. "It's really left to the creators what plan they have for their stories. I think it's a great way for us to re-engage players who may be lapsed."
Big Phil points out that Vessel of Hatred offered a new class in Diablo 4, while Shattered Space added a new world to Starfield, both being of obvious interest to existing players.
"I don't like expansions that are manipulative," said Spencer. "I want it to have a unique point of view. I don't want it to be, like, the third level that you cut before you launched.
'Forget Celebrations': This War of Mine creators say their 'mission to shed light on the civilian cost of war is far from over' as they announce new DLC for its 10th anniversary
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/forget-celebrations-this-war-of-mine-creators-say-their-mission-to-shed-light-on-the-civilian-cost-of-war-is-far-from-over-as-they-announce-new-dlc-for-its-10th-anniversary/
To mark the 10th anniversary of This War of Mine, a game that aims to simulate the horrors of war from a civilian perspective, developer 11 Bit Studios has announced that all-new DLC is on the way, with funds raised going to support multiple charities.
After 'regrets and lessons learned,' and 2 months of tuning, Blizzard is 'happy' with Delves as WoW's newest endgame destination
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/after-regrets-and-lessons-learned-and-2-months-of-tuning-blizzard-is-happy-with-delves-as-wows-newest-endgame-destination/
Dungeons and raids have been core to World of Warcraft's endgame progression for most of the 20 years it's been around. (...)
The War Within introduced Delves, mini dungeons scattered throughout the world that are designed for solo players. (…)
(...)
Outside of Brann's new role, Delves don't have any major changes on the way. Hazzikostas said Blizzard is "happy with this as a starting point," and that it will expand on them as the expansion continues.
A Fortnite player wondered why there was 'mold' in their game: turns out it's a texture Tim Sweeney added to Unreal Engine in 1995
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/a-fortnite-player-wondered-why-a-picture-of-mold-appeared-in-their-game-turns-out-its-a-texture-tim-sweeney-added-to-unreal-engine-in-1995/
There's a growing field that I like to call 'digital archeology': the excavation and analysis of weird artifacts that have become buried in decades-old software or only exist on archived websites. Sometimes those artifacts just rise to the surface on their own, as was the case with an image of "mold" spotted by a Fortnite player in the game's news feed.
It isn't a picture of mold, but a stock photo of "cave pearls, a kind of calcium carbonate deposit that forms in limestone caves," Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said on X in response to the question from M1das.
Sweeney says he added the texture to the first version of Unreal Engine all the way back in 1995.
Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament are now free on the Internet Archive, and Epic says that's A-okay
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/unreal-gold-and-unreal-tournament-are-now-free-on-the-internet-archive-and-epic-says-thats-a-okay/
Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gosh, I've heard such good things about the classic 1998 shooter Unreal and sure would like to try it, but I just don't know where to get it these days?" If so, I have good news: The Internet Archive has made it free, along with the multiplayer follow-up Unreal Tournament, and it has Epic's blessing to do so.
>> No, it’s not the same thing I posted yesterday. Maybe these will work with Win98, so poor Pem can play them In the correct hardware.
Avowed will be available on Battle.net, which means you can buy it for about 1.4M gold in WoW if you want to
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/avowed-will-be-available-on-battle-net-which-means-you-can-buy-it-for-about-1-4m-gold-in-wow-if-you-want-to/
It's time to start gold farming in World of Warcraft because Avowed is coming to the Battle.net launcher when it releases next year. You can pre-order Obsidian's big fantasy RPG on Blizzard's store right now, including the premium edition that includes five days of early access to the game.
That means that, with some effort, you could acquire Avowed by farming gold in WoW. According to this site that tracks the price of WoW Tokens, a game time voucher WoW players can buy for in-game gold and convert to $15 of Blizzard bucks, they're selling for about 273,000 gold. You need five of them to buy the standard $69.99 version of Avowed, which means it costs a total of around 1.4 million gold.
Finally, I can be a gross little rat guy in Vermintide 2's 4v4 versus mode, which is out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/finally-i-can-be-a-gross-little-rat-guy-in-vermintide-2s-4v4-versus-mode-which-is-out-now/
After years of development and beta-testing, Vermintide 2's long-awaited versus mode is finally here. In this mode two teams of up to four players take it in turns to play as the heroes or the villainous Pactsworn. When it's your turn to be the heroes you'll be completing objectives to rack up points, and when it's your turn to be the Pactsworn you'll want to slow down the heroes or kill them off, with your scores being compared once both teams have had a turn.
Uh oh—Helldivers 2's state-owned missile platform players voted into existence is blowing them up, too
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/uh-oh-helldivers-2s-state-owned-missile-platform-players-voted-into-existence-is-blowing-them-up-too/
I said a lot of nice words about the Democracy Space Station added to Helldivers 2 yesterday, and I want to clarify two things. Firstly, I still think it's a really cool concept, but secondly, I also said that before players had bought any of the station's "actions", such as the planetary bombardment. Now the planetary bombardments are online, players are realising that they've just voted in a synthetic meteor shower that's killing them as often as it's killing bugs and bots.
If you were too relaxed playing Webfishing, you might like this fishing roguelike shooter where your catches can mercilessly gun you down
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/if-you-were-too-relaxed-playing-webfishing-you-might-like-this-fishing-roguelike-shooter-where-your-catches-can-mercilessly-gun-you-down/
I've been enjoying Webfishing a great deal, recently—a chill, tidy little multiplayer fishing game where you can customise your pixelated cat (or dog). But I couldn't help but wonder, as I had insightful conversations with strangers by the river, whether the experience would be improved if the catches could shoot bullets at me out of their eyeballs. The answer is: Sorta.
Lake of Creatures is a new roguelike from solo developer Antenna Games, and having messed around for a bit, I can safely say it's a solid romp. Like a can of tuna, it does what it says on the tin—you swoop around a set of lakes filled with mutant fish and alternate between gunning them down and trying to catch them.
And here are the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:
+GOG
+Steam
- Ara: History Untold is going to be 20% off during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/
- The Cozy Qest Sale has up to 90% discounts, but they’re so comfortable that they’ve forgotten when the sale will end. The Sale page says the 18th, Steam’s front page says the 21st and I’ve seen some games with deals lasting until the 27th. So, better check it yourselves: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/CozyQuest2024
- Left 4 Dead 2 will be free to try during the weekend and 80% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/550/Left_4_Dead_2/
- The Turn-Based Carnival 2024 comes with up to 90% discounts. Most deals will last until the 20th, but some may last up until the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Acram/sale/turn-basedcarnival2024
- The WePlayExpo 2024, from Shanghai, will last until the 22nd and has lots of games to check, some of them are on sale with up to 70% deals. The length of the deals varies from game to game: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/weplayexpo2024
- Publisher Hooded Horse puts its games on sale with up to 50% deals (there’s a DLC at 90%, but the games don’t go beyond 50%). Most deals will end the 23rd of November, but there may be an outlier or two: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/HoodedHorse/sale/novembersale2024
- Millennia will also be free to try during the weekend, but it has a 50% discount until November 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268590/Millennia/
- ASTRONEER is going to be 67% off until the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
- Isonzo joins the ranks of free to try games this weekend, and gets a 67% discount until November, the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/
- Hearts of Iron IV will be 70% off until the 27th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/Hearts_of_Iron_IV/
There, done with all the news. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.
Essay Pro