PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Have you ever expanded anything? For instance, how about your house? Maybe you caved a few walls and – with a liberal application of elbow grease – crafted the most impressive garage in the entire cul-de-sac. Well, Trion Worlds, by comparison, has the most impressive garage on the entire planet. And also, it’s not a garage. Rift’s Storm Legion expansion – which will apparently triple the already beastly beast-slayer’s real estate – will up the level cap to 60, introduce two new continents, add a smattering of new dungeons, and test out a form of player housing known as “dimensions.”

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Knocking out hardware guides for RPS has been heap good fun, thanks in no small part to the enthusiastic après-post banter. But it’s also created a bit of a monster. Problem is, things move fast in ye olde world of tech and especially in graphics. It’s been getting on for four months since our first perusal of the world’s finest pixel pumpers.

That’s long enough for AMD and NVIDIA to roll out a small army of new graphics chips. The good news is that the four 3D boards I recommended back in Feb still look pretty sharp, partly because the arrival of new chips has pushed prices down. But there are also some new GPUs I reckon you need to know about and some broader trends to think about. So here goes.(more…)

Due to some last-minute legal threats from the wet blankets at Wiltshire County Council, the Flare Path Diamond Jubilee street party (this Sunday, 13.00-22.00!) won’t be featuring bunting made from real buntings, an under-12s scythe leaping competition, or a low-level fly past by old Miss Musters in her half-scale Airspeed Elizabethan. The local government killjoys are also insisting we use pasteurised pigs’ blood in our Charles I execution re-enactment, and have all the badgers in our badger-hauled Boadicea races checked for TB. It seems bureaucracy trumps tradition in today’s health-and-safety obsessed Britain. (more…)

You should be excited about The Cave. It is, after all, Monkey Island maestro Ron Gilbert’s latest brainchild and – startling revelation that brains can have children aside - it looks to be a pleasant reminder that Double Fine’s far, far more than just a one-trick Kickstarter pony. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, the cave talks. So, after seeing it in action last week, I crept back into Double Fine’s offices for a nice, long chat with Gilbert himself, who – much like your average magical cave – also talks. There, we discussed the game’s parentage (Is Maniac Mansion the father? Shocking reveal on page 17), real life inspirations, why there’s an odd number of main characters, the cave’s voice, and the reason Gilbert can never go on a whirlwind tour of the world’s finest caves. Oh, and more, of course.

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Two Tribes received a request for EDGE swag (Two Tribes made the PC/Mac version of the iOS game) from the father of a six-year-old superfan about to turn seven. Instead of simply handing over some material, however, the developer invited Zias to come in and build a level in Lego, which would then be put into the game.

Zias then came in, built a level out of blocks, and spent the day working with Two Tribes' level editor to implement it into the game. "It's not the way we normally design levels," said designer Hessel Bonenkamp, "and it might not be the best experience for the average player but to me it is fascinating. It also reminded me of my past self fiddling with levels for Wrecking Crew or filling pages and pages of grid paper with my own overworld for the original Legend of Zelda on the NES."

The level is available for the Steam version of EDGE today. Try it out, but be warned: if you don't say you love it, you're a monster.

One of the issues that faced sandbox robot MMO Perpetuum was the frequent accusation that its world was simply too small. That’s one of a number of issues being addressed in a major patch tomorrow, which constitutes an expansion called Gamma Frontier. Aside from vastly expanding its territory, with twenty-four new islands (there are currently twelve), the game will be introducing player-built structures and bases, allowing players to terraform landscapes, erect base structures, and fortifying them with defences such as walls and turrets. Along with these features, there’ll also be fixes to a number of in-game issues, a reworking of the production and resource systems, and a new landscape rendering engine. Those robots are going to have a lot more space to roam, and plenty more tools to make use of it.

Gamma Frontier is set to go live tomorrow night. I’ll be intrigued to see how it changes the game.

The Korean Federal Trade Commission raided Blizzard's Seoul office on Monday as part of an investigation into consumer claims that Blizzard has refused to refund Diablo 3 to eligible Korean players.

The FTC says it suspects Blizzard of violating Korean law on electronic commerce and commercial contracts, and it gathered documents and other evidence relevant to its investigation in the raid. Some Korean players were frustrated with Diablo 3's server issues at launch and asked for refunds, which Blizzard denied, citing its sales contract terms, The Korea Times reports. The FTC considers these terms to be disadvantageous to players.

"We have received many complaints from Diablo 3 users," FTC spokesman Kim Hyung-bae says.

Another angle the FTC is investigating is whether Blizzard should be held liable for its "ill-preparation" in regards to player traffic, The Korea Times says.

On that note, who has a raid tonight? Oh, the Korean government. Right.

Tiny & Big is one of the oddest and cleverest indie projects I’ve had the pleasure to play in recent months. It sees you trying to rescue some pants, and chopping, lassoing, and rocket-propelling the scenery to do so. See the trailer below for the tone and feature-illutrative game footage. Black Pants have announced that they are expect to launch the game, via many of the usual digital distribution outlets, on June 19th. That’s good news. Better news: it’s available for pre-order.

Cheers to Pixel Prospector for the notification.(more…)

The 38 Studios saga continues as Curt Schilling, head of the beleaguered company, has posted screenshots of its long-in-development MMO, Project Copernicus. These are "images from the most magical, breathtaking and awe inspiring world ever created," says Schilling, images he was "'allowed' to peek at along the way, when the team wanted us all to see the magical world we were building."

Schilling also wrote regarding his recent statement that Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee's comments damaged 38 Studios and "scared off" potential investors. Wrote Schilling:

"Everyone has missed the point with regards to the public comments. Their impact was massive, and destructive. The 'leader' of the LARGEST investor in 38, next to me, and our PARTNER, is publicly condemning their partner. How on earth can ANYONE think for a second that is not incredibly impactful?"
Take a good look at the screens in the gallery below. Barring a miracle or an outside acquisition, it may be our last glimpse of Project Copernicus. It's also worth noting that, along with a brief flyover video, these screens represent one of our only glimpses of Project Copernicus.

Currently debuting exclusively in the Bundle in a Box, which contains several superb adventure games, The Sea Will Claim Everything is Jonas Kyratzes’ first commercial game. With illustrations that could happily sit in the kind of book that would have made ten-year old Adam very happy indeed and overflowing with imagination and creativity, it’s wordy and, at times, wonderful, but then there are the other times. Here’s wot I think.

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Phew, that was close. With literally hours to spare the Kinetic Void Kickstarter met its goal and has been successfully funded. Aiming for $60,000, and with only $40,000 raised with a day to go, it looked like the procedural space explorer would miss the target by a significant chunk. But then like in every basketball movie ever made, the coach called time out, pulled the Kickstarter into a huddle, and reminded them that the magic isn’t in their missing team pencil, but in their hearts. And with that they ran back onto the court and extraordinarily raised $26,501 on the last day. More than a third of the total.

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8-BitMMO is a super lo-fi player-driven sandbox MMO that is playable freely in your browser. We got excited about those facts a while back, but now there’s more: the game of building has upgraded to include a playable zombie plague, player-trading, an ultra-zoom map that allows you to move out and see the entire world, and also a bunch of character customisation options, including the ubiquitous head decorations.

This big update for the game is now available to play. Trailer below!(more…)

Oh, why can’t we all just learn to get along? In the happy-go-lucky world of Kickstarter, everything is meant to be made of flowers and unicorns, but as reported by Venture Beat, Al Lowe and Replay Games are marching in with their knee-high sue-boots and threatening legal action against Wisecrack Games, and their plan to raise half a million for a new Sam Suede game. Oh – they may have a point.

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Dreams are weird. When you’re in them, everything makes perfect sense: eyeball monsters, people with praying mantis bodies, random celebrities just hanging out in your living room – who are, in turn, also eyeball-coated praying mantis demons. It’s all just so matter-of-fact. And then you wake up, chuckle dryly at the ridiculousness of it all, and drive to your therapy session. That’s more or less the feeling Back To Bed attempts to capture, and it does so shockingly well in the grand scheme of trippy dream sequence games.

You play as the “subconscious protector” of a man named Bob who can’t stop sleepwalking to his untimely demise. And yeah, there are melting clocks everywhere and tophat birds that I wish were real so I could have one as a pet, but the real stars here are the little things. The vaguely unsettling, word-slurring narrator, for instance, won’t be mistaken for Rucks from Bastion any time soon. Puzzles, meanwhile, give your spatial reasoning brain biceps quite a workout – though the perspective caused me to put objects in the wrong places a few times. Beyond minor frustrations, however, it’s a fun, semi-demented little puzzler with a bizarre sense of style. Give it a try hereabouts.

CD Projekt Red, developer of the Witcher series, is looking into the fictional future for its next game, announcing development of a new "triple-A" game based on the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper game by Mike Pondsmith. Players will build a character from a series of classes including mercenaries or the cyberpunk-standard "hacker," load that character up with tech implants, and work through a non-linear storyline.

A new CDP team, made up of Witcher vets, is working on the game, and staffing up for additional help. There's no release window yet, and it seems early in development, so don't go buy a new video card for it yet.

The mystery sci-fi game from The Witcher devs CD Projekt Red is about to be announced over here. I’ll get more details up here as they arrive. All we have so far is the teaser image of a punk with techno-glasses and a gun (above) and the knowledge that it will be some kind of cyberpunkian thing.

What’s a man to do if he’s bored with Arma 2, and tired of Day Z, but still wants meticulous rifle-toting in Bohemia’s soldier sim engine? Should he look to history and pick up X1′s Iron Front: Liberation 1944? Or is this a trip to the Eastern front too many? Here’s wot I think.(more…)

Bethesda send word that they’re re-releasing Doom 3, with a few changes. It’ll release with the Doom 3 itself and expansion Resurrection of Evil, but there will be seven new levels – constituting “The Lost Mission” – and the feature we were all crying out for the first time around: “the new armour-mounted flashlight.” Now you’ll be able to illuminate stuff and shoot at the same time!

BFG Edition will arrive in the Autumn. Trailer below.(more…)

It is the year 2012. We have magic rectangles that contain our entire lives and an invisible web that connects all of humankind. And while I can’t claim to own a hoverboard, I’m still pretty OK with a future in which Divinity: Original Sin defies both Father Time and the shareholder mothership to exist. I mean, it’s an Ultima-inspired, turn-based RPG that’s doing its damndest to conjure fond memories of Cheeto-stained tabletop role-playing campaigns, and it looks damn impressive. I’m afraid that I’ll wake up any moment now, and it’ll actually be a modern FPS reboot set in a future where magic was given a swirly by Totally Rad Soldier Men – a swirly that killed it forever. Somehow, though, it is a thing with its very own trailer, and the elemental magic system paired with turn-based combat looks like it could actually make for some tantalizingly tactical co-op. Marvel at its implausibility after the break.

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Rezzed, the first PC and indie games show this 6th and 7th July, is adding more and more reasons to make sure you’re there. As if knowing that we’ll be there isn’t enough, last week we revealed that Borderlands 2 will be playable, along with a sweet demo of XCOM: Enemy Unknown to watch. And now we can tell you that Creative Assembly will be there to talk about the future of Total War.

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Belgium-based Larian Studios has announced that it will release a new title in the popular Divinity RPG series, called Divinity: Original Sin. Due out in the first quarter of 2013, Original Sin will serve as a prequel to Divine Divinity, feature two main playable characters in turn-based combat, and come with co-op multiplayer and an adventure building kit that players can use to create and share content online. The game will arrive on PC and Mac.

You can see more about the title on the official site, or browse through the gallery of screenshots below. Larian will be showing off Original Sin and Dragon Commander (another upcoming Divinity-based title) at E3 this year, so we'll see them up close in about a week.

The toughest boss in Diablo 3 continues to be the game's dreaded 'Error' codes, as Blizzard's Battle.net service has gone down for the count again this afternoon after being down all morning for scheduled maintenance due to the release of Patch 1.0.2. Blizzard says that it is aware of the issue, and is "currently investigating the cause."

"We're aware of an issue that is affecting our authentication servers, which result in failed or slow login attempts," a message in Diablo 3's 'Breaking News' module currently reads. Attempts to log into the game yield the message that servers are down for maintenance.

Blizzard is also working on the Auction House as well - commodities sales have been down since last week, and the Auction House itself was down for a few extra hours today, past the planned maintenance. The real-money auction house has been delayed indefinitely, but the in-game notification for the feature noted a new target date of June 12, since last night.

In the meantime, until the servers come back up, feel free to do exactly what a few select Joystiq editors are doing: Rocking back and forth in a corner, mumbling something about Belial being behind this treachery.

The effectiveness of a horror game often hinges on its ability to instill a sense of helplessness. Some do this by limiting the number of offensive options. Others do it by removing offensive options altogether. Among the Sleep, from Norwegian developer Krillbite Studio, ups the ante by putting players in control of a two-year-old.

Among the Sleep is played from a first-person perspective, presenting a world full of childlike imagination and terror, in which a child (accompanied only by his faithful teddy bear) must survive the nightmare happenings around him. We're not sure mysterious is exactly the right word, at least not judging by the spooky happenings in the trailer. Among the Sleep is slated to arrive next year on Mac and PC.

Be sure to check out the Krillbite blog to follow the game's development. We certainly will be.

Despite Diablo 3 taking hold of multiple Joystiq staff members, Blizzard's latest game has had a shaky launch. Server issues, auction house difficulties, and more have thrown a wrench into what our review feels is a must-play adventure.

In a blog post yesterday, Blizzard outlined its intentions with some of the game's upcoming fixes, and revealed a number of interesting statistics about the commercially explosive title.

Blizzard notes that players have an average of three created characters, with 80% of those characters falling between levels 1 and 30. Only 1.9 percent of players have unlocked Diablo 3's Inferno difficulty mode. Blizzard also revealed that 35 percent of "Hardcore" characters, which are no longer be available for use after death, have perished in Act I on Normal difficulty.

So yesterday I posted about Symon, a procedurally generated adventure game from a couple of years ago. And I suggested that the potential was there to do something on a much larger scale, but they’d need to figure out a way that didn’t involve the ‘cheat’ of using dream logic. Well, one of the creators at Gambit, Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab researcher Clara Fernández-Vara, got in touch to point out that’s exactly what they set out to do last year, with Stranded In Singapore.

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What contains stealth, scares, a rather unique first-person perspective and surreal dreamscapes colliding with recognisable realities? The answer is Among the Sleep, in development at Krillbite Studio in Norway. It could be the most interesting horror game of next year. Here’s why:

Among The Sleep invites you into the mind and body of a two year old child. After being put to bed one evening, mysterious things start to happen.

The trailer below, spotted at Edge, is also why.

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I reckon vertically inclined first-person adventure Against the Wall is one of the most interesting indie projects in development, not only because even in its alpha state its polished and playable, but simply because I’ve never played anything else quite like it. Tasked with climbing a wall upon the side of which entire settlements and ecosystems cling, the player is able to pull out sections of the wall by waving a sort of staff at them. In this way it’s possible to create steps and platforms. It’s a fascinating world with an immediately understandable path and means of progression. The latest version of the alpha adds a fair bit since I first took a look and future plans include randomly placed biomes.

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I can’t remember the last time I played a game challenging enough that it had me stop, sit back in my chair, and just think for a bit. That’s the rare pleasure the beta version of Gateways offers, as the fantastic puzzles start piling up. How can I, using my various tools such as changing size, portaling, and going back in time, reflect that laser onto that laser receiver, without my brain exploding? We can all find out answers to such questions now, as the beta version of the game is for sale for $10 from Smudged Cat Games. My thoughts on it are below.

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This is quite bad for me personally. Binding of Isaac, you see, unhinged one of its many grotesque orifices and devoured my life last year. The number of hours I sank into Edmund McMillen’s blood-sweat-tear-and-excrement-based roguelike could be described as substantial. Conversely, activities that failed to receive that designation during a similar timeframe include eating, sleeping, and not being presumed dead by most of my friends and family members. So, while you say hello to Binding of Isaac’s Wrath of the Lamb downloadable expansion, I say goodbye. Probably forever.

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It’s been an absolute joy to watch survival horror find new life (or un-life, I suppose) on PC. The games may be small, but the ideas that drive standouts like Lone Survivor and Amnesia lead to so many more shamefully high-pitched fear squeals than, er, evil Presidents. The Inflicted – A Battle For Sanity, then, takes that ball and flees in abject terror with it by designing an entire game around limitations. The whole production is done up in a simple isometric style that does an absolutely fantastic job of emphasizing how tightly enclosed your surroundings are. And while hallways are so claustrophobic as to sometimes felt like fingers slowly slithering their way around my neck, they’re visually minimal. As a result, I found myself focusing a lot more on sounds – jagged shards of shattered glass crinkling against the soles of my shoes, my character’s haggard breaths, a subtle background drone. I do, however, have a few bones to pick with this particular bone-chiller.

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