League of Legend’s harrowing Halloween update adds new skins, Mystery Gifting
Riot has begun League of Legend’s Halloween themed event The Harrowing, which introduces Mystery Skin Gifting among friends and turns your sight wards into spooky things like Tombstones and Evil Trees and other such kitsch symbols. In addition, there are two new hero skins on sale, a police offeicer version of Vi and a spooky version of Zyra, for about $8 each.
Draugen is the ghostly trip to the 1920 fjords of Norway I’ve never wanted to take
Red Thread Games has announced Draugen, a first-person survival horror adventure set amongst Norway’s misty fjords in the 20s. The studio received a $144,000 grant from the Norwegian Film Institute to develop the game for PC/Mac/Linux and next generation consoles. Check out some screens and art after the break.
Dark Souls 2 screens show combat, Phantoms and decay
Dark Souls 2 publisher Namco Bandai has entered into our site like a phantom and given us a batch of fresh screens for the gruelling RPG. Check them out here.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 gets a very special Halloween trailer, steelbook case at Zavvi
Considering the star of Lords of Shadow 2 is Dracula, it only makes sense that on Halloween we’d get a spiffy new trailer. As a bonus, we also learn how you can get a copy of the game in a steelbook case in Europe.
Wadjet Eye celebrates Halloween by giving away The Blackwell Deception
If you you’ve wanted a new thematically appropriate game for Halloween but can’t or won’t spend money, then you should know that ghost-y point-and-click adventure The Blackwell Deception for PC is free for all today (it’s $10 normally). If you already own it, you’ll find it’s been updated with nicer visuals and stuff. Just go here and click the “buy” button and download away.
South Park: The Stick of Truth bumped to the spring
Obsidian’s RPG version of South Park is being delayed again. Previously set for launch on December 10, it is now scheduled for March 4, 2014. Amusing statement from Trey Parker and Matt Stone below.
New Rome 2: Total War DLC adds beautiful blood sprays and decapitations
As with Shogun 2 before it, The Creative Assembly is inserting some extra nastiness into Rome 2 with DLC aimed at making the battlefield experience a more revolting yet also more exciting by adding blood, gore and dismemberment. This pack is $3, and you can buy it now on Steam. Get a taste of the carnage in the trailer below.
Starcraft 2 update 2.1 will hit Public Test Realm after Blizzcon
The biggest update to date for Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, dubbed only patch 2.1, is on its way, and Blizzard will open it up to public testing in a couple weeks — “after Blizzcon,” which takes place November 8 and 9. You’ll need to watch the Bnet blog for info on how to get into that server, and you’ll also need the new universal Blizzard launcher.
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z releasing March 4 in North America and Feb 28 in Europe
Tecmo Koei has let the world know Keiji Infafune’s Ninja Gaiden spinoff, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z will be bringing its lovely cell-shaded style to North America on March 4th next year. In Europe the over the top game will be launching half a week earlier, on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and surprisingly PC.
Arma 3′s first campaign episode launches, gets trailer
Bohemia Interactive has launched the first of Arma 3′s three episode campaign today on Steam, which the game notoriously didn’t have at launch. About 1.5GB to download, this first episode is called ‘Survive’ and casts you in the role of a peacekeeper on the game’s fictional island nation of Altis. Five years after the US stopped a conflict their mandate for peacekeeping is up, but pulling out has led to more war, as just about everything seems to.
RuneScape devs launch charity drive using in-game gold, hope to fix its economy
RuneScape’s developer Jagex has launch a charity drive in which players can donate their in-game gold and bonds to the developers, who promise to donate $1 to charity for every 10 million gold pieces players donate for a month. The program has so far gathered more than $11,000 and according to Jagex, will serve as the gold sink RuneScape’s economy needs, given that the game has been struggling with dramatic inflation over the last few years.
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Football Manager 2014 release blighted by code activation and region lock issues
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Today was the big kick-off day for football managers across the country. Yet for some of those budding managers, their day was ruined. Not by players being rained off the pitch or the ball being improperly inflated, but by technical issues marring the activation process of Football Manager 2014 on Steam.
Some players’ beta failed to update to full retail release, whilst others failed to be supplied with a retail release code altogether. Another group of players were region locked out of the game. It’s another ‘launch disaster’ for 2013, but don’t fret too much. Sports Interactive are aware of all the issues and are working hard on getting them fixed. SI team members have been addressing forum users all day, and hopefully resolutions are on their way.
We investigated a little ourselves, and have the fullest picture we could paint for you.
RimWorld Kickstarter enters its final hours
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Canadian Kickstarter recently became a thing, and that thankfully means the most polite nation on earth can now campaign for our money. One of those lovely people is Tynan Sylvester of Ottawa, and he’s making RimWorld, a sci-fi colony simulator influenced by Firefly (AKA the best sci-fi show in the known universe). An AI-driven storytelling system drives the whole thing, producing an emergent narrative that molds to your gameplay.
The RimWorld Kickstarter is in its final hours and has passed its goal. It will be made. Permission to engage excitement drive is granted.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive chickens are less bwark, more boo
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We interrupt your usual PC gaming news to bring you this horrifying report. Strange creatures have been sighted in the Italy, Militia and Inferno regions of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Floating approximately three inches above the ground and making chilling noises, the creatures were first reported in by terrorist forces as spectres from the afterlife, come to act as a warning to UN forces not to meddle in their bomb-planting affairs.
After a lengthy investigation, counter-terrorism UN operatives have revealed the creatures to not be ghosts at all, but in fact chickens dressed up in white sheets. Commanding Officer in the investigation Sergeant William Blake said in a statement: “The chickens in the three affected regions were just celebrating the Halloween holiday in the normal manner, and pose no threat to the peacekeeping operations we perform in the areas. We’ve negotiated with them at length, and they’ve agreed to take off the sheets before sunrise tomorrow.”
Pack two space suits, it’s time to take off in Kerbal Space Program Multiplayer
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Space is a lonely place. But as critically acclaimed film Gravity tells us, space isn’t too bad if you have a friend with you. Especially if that friend is George Clooney. If you know George Clooney and fancy exploring space with him, why not ask him to join you in a game of Kerbal Space Program? It’s got multiplayer these days, so you could pretend to be Sandra Bullock.
Even if you don’t know George Clooney, your life is still exciting. There’s a mod that makes Kerbal a multiplayer game. How much further from mundane could you possibly get?
Fjord focus: Ragnar Tørnquist is making a first-person survival horror game
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Surprise always tastes better as a chaser to that much sweeter drink, Nice. We thought Ragnar Tørnquist had formed Red Thread Games a year ago with the express purpose of making the Dreamfall sequel that never was, but what’s this? Another game: a first-person survival horror affair called Draugen.
League of Legends champion Nasus' voice to be switched after death of original actor
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Number-fact #1: there are 116 champions in League of Legends today, and plenty more to come. Number-fact #2: there are 365 days in a year, and the character models in this four year old game look a little shabbier with each passing one. Consequently, Riot employ a full-time ‘relaunch’ team to tackle every ageing champion in turn, giving each a visible and audible overhaul and releasing them back into their lanes.
It’s a process that’s going on all the time. But it’s a little different with Nasus, because his voice actor has passed away.
Command & Conquer “wasn't there yet”, but EA Victory's developer roadmap was “much more promising”
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“We are not making the game you want to play.”
It was difficult to argue with EA’s statement on the state of the new Command & Conquer on Tuesday - but in closing Victory Studios outright it seemed the publishers were not only throwing out baby and bathwater, but also pulling the vinyl from the floor and the tiles from the walls, before dumping the lot in a skip for the whole street to see.
That’s a sentiment (unsurprisingly) shared by the studio’s community manager, who believes the team would’ve really had something in just a “few more months”.
Xaviant Talks Lichdom Tech – Multicore CPU Support, Global Illumination, PC Options, Tessellation
A couple of days ago, we had the pleasure to interview Xaviant about its upcoming CRYENGINE-powered title, Lichdom. Xaviant discussed with us about the game’s multicore CPU support, whether or not it will sport a FOV slider, its Global Illumination solution, DX11.2, the reasons why they chose PC over next-gen consoles, and AMD’s Mantle. Enjoy the interview after the jump! Continue reading
First Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag PC Screenshots Look Glorious
Nvidia and Ubisoft have released the first PC screenshots of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and let us tell that they look spectacularly amazing. Nvidia’s Andrew – we informed us about these new images – has also written a nice article about the features that will be included in the PC version of Ubisoft’s upcoming title, so make sure to pay a visit to GeForce’s website. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is currently planned for a late November release on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. From the looks of it, the PC version will be the definitive version, therefore we are really looking forward to it. Enjoy! Continue reading
Avadon 2: The Corruption Is Now Available
Spiderweb Software has announced that Avadon 2: The Corruption is now available for PC and Mac on Steam, GOG.com, and directly from the Spiderweb Software website. Avadon 2 is said to be an epic, indie fantasy role-playing adventure that features an enormous world.
Lords of Xulima is a Classic-inspired single-player RPG coming to the PC
Indie European studio Numantian Games announced that the next development stage of their ambitious Single-player RPG, Lords of Xulima, is now up on Kickstarter. Spotted by our reader ‘Johnny Bravo’, Lords of Xulima is a 2D isometric, turn-based Role-Playing Game with the depth and challenge of old-school classics and a modern, intuitive interface. Continue reading
The Scariest News Of All: The 7th Guest 3 Announced
By John Walker on October 31st, 2013 at 8:00 pm.
This is too much, even for Halloween. Proof that the universe hates me, and that entropy affects video games, is the announcement of The 7th Guest 3. I thought the evil of the two previous dreadful games had been safely locked in the 90s, but keep your pets inside, they’ve escaped. You think you remember liking them? You’re forgetting what an idiot you were when you were 20 years younger. These half-arsed petrol station puzzle book puzzles, draped in the dullest FMV since man first drew on cave walls, were a novelty at the time. 7th Guest even predates the ghastly Myst, for dazzling our dumbass eyes with pre-rendered backgrounds and Z-list actors drooling careless dialogue projected over the top. You can fund it via Kickstarter!
Clockwork Empires Offers Endless Laughs, Ageless Demons
By Nathan Grayson on October 31st, 2013 at 4:00 pm.
If you place some kind of weird one-trailer-per-day restriction on yourself and are currently fretting about finding Mr or Ms Right: The Extremely Brief Videogame Preview, then look no further. Clockwork Empires, the latest ball of bits and bytes from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, just got its first trailer, and it’s sending RPS’ hyper-sensitive Delight-O-Meter into a tizzy. The game is a 19th century steampunk colony builder, but the trailer reveals that it’s so very much more than the staid stew of trite aesthetic cliches that description seems to imply. Somehow, it manages to prompt tearfloods of both uproarious laughter and bitter sadness within the span of, like, a minute. Also, there are giant squid monsters. Enough of my blathering. Watch.
Prison Architect’s Halloween Secret Wins Halloween
By Nathan Grayson on October 31st, 2013 at 2:00 pm.
Oh, this is so good. This is so very, very good.
One Giant Learning Curve: Subject X Interview
Dylan Locke from Ludum Games chats with TPG about the upcoming survival horror title, Subject X.
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