International Games System's time-manipulating, gravity-shifting physics puzzler Constant C is getting a worldwide release via Xbox Live Arcade on March 12, Japanese publisher 5pb revealed this week.
Constant C stars a rescue robot stranded aboard a space station where time has stopped. The robot can restore the flow of time using its Time Circle, temporarily bringing surrounding objects out of stasis and restoring gravity. Later stages require advanced techniques, challenging players to rotate their surroundings and manipulate inertia in order to dodge traps and solve puzzles.
Constant C is also available for Windows via Desura. A Steam version has been successfully Greenlit, but is not yet available.
Motherboard has the interesting, if also slightly hilarious, story of how Facebook fear-mongers and viral hoax merchants are spreading the tale of an iOS app that pervs on young kids.Read more...
InXile Entertainment has released a sizable update for the beta version of Wasteland 2, introducing more than 2,000 gameplay additions, features, and fixes along with a new in-game location.
New features in the lastest update include destructible cover, additional class skills, and an overhauled combat system. InXile notes that the new "Prison" area, shown in the trailer above, adds enough content to fill the current beta with over 30 hours of gameplay in total.
Wasteland 2 was funded via a successful Kickstarter project in 2012, and has since greatly expanded in scope. A full changelog for the latest beta update is available here.
Ubisoft's free-to-play dungeon crawler The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot has gone into open beta. Anybody can sign up and start playing through Steam, the game's official website or Uplay.
In The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, players choose a hero from four different classes and raid other players' castles in search of treasure and glory. To build a castle, you select trap placement and enemy spawn locations, then publish your personalized gauntlet online through the game's built-in social network. Each castle run culminates in some sort of boss encounter and, if the baddy is bested, a treasure room full of riches.
After being criticized for The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot's microtransaction elements in last year's closed beta, developer Ubisoft Montreal stripped all pay-to-win elements from the game. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is currently only available on Windows PC.
[Image: Ubisoft]
Update released: February 26th, 2014
Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.
If you have a Facebook profile, chances are good that you've populated it with some information about yourself. Like say, some of your favorite games—that way, anyone can look on your page and learn a little bit about you. It's a useful feature, but it's also used so that Facebook can spit more "relevant" ads at you. Read more...
While this might look like a rehearsal for an upcoming superhero movie, it's actually a working concept for a suit of armour built by Sydney company Chiron Global. Armour that's been designed not for show, but for sport.Read more...
Endgame Studios' dual-world platformer Fractured Soul has made the jump from the 3DS eShop to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and is now available for purchase from GOG.com, Desura, and the developer's website.
Fractured Soul divides its gameplay across two screens representing alternate dimensions. While its Mega Man-like platforming mechanics are straightforward, players must frequently shift between screens in order to solve puzzles and defeat certain enemy types, adding complexity to the formula. The PC version introduces a new "Easy" mode not present in the original 3DS release, along with upgraded graphics and an in-game timer for speedrunners.
Fractured Soul is available for $8.99 during its debut week. Endgame Studios continues to seek a Steam release via Greenlight.
PlayStation portmaster Curve Studios has announced it's working on PlayStation versions of Facepalm's indie sci-fi puzzle game, The Swapper, due on PS3, PS4 and PS Vita sometime in late May.
The Swapper strands players on a damaged space station called Theseus. With only a handheld cloning device at their disposal, players must search for a means to escape. The device creates up to four clones at any time and allows players to swap control between them, granted the clone in question is within the original player character's line of sight.
The Swapper's visuals employ hand-crafted clay model animations, which helped Facepalm to produce one of the most visually stunning experiences of 2013. The Swapper is currently available (with controller support) for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam for $15, or as part of the current Humble Indie Bundle.
Most of the time video game loading screens keep it pretty chill. They show some art, maybe share a helpful tip or two. Sometimes they're just a black screen and a spinning wheel. But sometimes... sometimes, video game loading screens go crazy in the best possible way.Read more...
Steamworks developers now have the option to set up their own sales, and they can opt into Steam weeklong deals at discount percentages of their choosing. Valve announced the new sale system in the private Steamworks Development forum, as spotted by Reddit user Sharkiller. According to Valve:
"With new Steamworks tools, you can configure your own discounts for custom sale periods or opt in to take part in upcoming weeklong sales. Once configured, the discounts will automatically start at the time specified." Developers can book weeklong or custom sales up to two months ahead of time, and custom sales can run for up to two weeks.
Valve launched Greenlight in 2012 to deal with the influx of indie (and larger) games vying for spots on Steam, and it started Steam Early Access in 2013, allowing developers to sell beta and alpha versions of their games, a la Kickstarter. Steam is at the heart of the indie PC bubble, and developers fear that the service could become overpopulated soon. Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano explains how gaming's deep-discount culture can have a negative impact on indies:
"The big challenge we now face is saturation, quality and protecting platforms from the race to the bottom, which happened to mobile. It's been a bit concerning to see that this most recent Steam Holiday Sale saw developers doing deeper discounts than last year, no doubt in an effort to try and rise in the charts against the ever-increasing competition. However, it's a very slippery slope, and if this continues, it will once again become less viable to be indie."
For now, consider putting your wallet in the freezer. For your own sake.
[Image: Sharkiller]
Whether you're a benevolent ruler willing to sacrifice everything for your island nation or a greedy sociopath looking to get rich on the backs of the working class, Kalypso Media wants your help.
Tropico 5, the latest entry in Kalypso's banana republic management series, enters beta testing at an as-yet-undetermined date in March. The beta test wouldn't be very effective without players to stress the game, thus Kalypso has issued an announcement inviting interested players to visit the game's website where they will find a simple beta registration page. "We're looking for gamers who have a huge enthusiasm for city-building titles and with a wide experience playing within the genre," noted Kalypso in this morning's announcement.
More details on what you'd be getting into by joining the Tropico 5 beta test can be found at the game's website. Unlike prior series entries, Tropico 5 sees players grooming a tropical country from the colonial era to the modern day, a change that both expands the game's scope and offers new, historically accurate ways of grinding the proletariat masses under your megalomaniacal bootheel.
[Image: Kalypso Media]
The cult of the Helix fossil/Omanyte is not the only 'religion' that's formed around the events of Twitch Plays Pokemon, you know. This makes sense: a random group of thousands of people aren't necessarily all going to believe in the same thing.Read more...
