PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

A happy coincidence. I had recently installed Grid, having never played it before and feeling a craving for velocity. I’d gently eased myself into the world of cars wot drift when Codemasters appeared in my inbox, offering a preview code for the sequel. Before playing Grid, I hadn’t spent a great deal of time with any racing game for a couple of years, but the series seems to be pitched at those, like me, who want something more complex than a kart game but less intricate than a sim. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre – and we’re off.

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Did Sega and Gearbox create a false impression of the final quality of Aliens: Colonial Marines? That’s now a legal matter, for lawyers to battlerap about and judges to scorecard (lawsuits are much more entertaining in my head). Multi-faceted games site Polygon has obtained a lawsuit that was filed yesterday, claiming that both companies falsely advertised their troubled Alien troubler, showing off demos to the public that were unrepresentative of the released game.(more…)

Blade Symphony is the sort of name I can’t help but appreciate. It is blunt yet majestic, giving us a crimson-flavored taste of exactly what we’re going to get (swords!) paired with a certain high-class flourish, an alluring suggestion that this is far, far more than mere cyber-ninjas dueling each other into awesome giblets. One day, I will name my child Blade Symphony, I think. That way, no one – and I mean no one – will mistake what he or she is all about. For now, though, the videogame of my future offspring’s namesake is available for all to play via Steam’s early access program. The Jedi-Knight-II-inspired showdown sim will run you a few bucks, but it looks quite intriguing, to say the least.

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Not so long ago, we brought you word of Epigenesis‘ victory in this year’s Make Something Unreal competition, the theme of which was “Mendelian inheritance: genetics and genomics” because that is something it is indeed possible to make games about. So of course, Epigenesis turned it into a sky-scraping, neon-pulsating ball sport. I mean, how else would you convey that idea aside from literally every other conceivable way ever? But you know what? Now that a new trailer’s out in the wild, the idea’s actually starting to win me over. It’s just crazy enough to work, and where it wasn’t crazy enough of its own accord, developer Dead Shark Triplepunch (yes, that’s their real name) just added tornadoes. Done and done. I believe that also qualifies it for victory by default in the first annual Sports Nathan Wishes Were Real competition. The prize is getting mentioned in a throwaway joke that’ll be appreciated by nines of people and also several million dollars. Anyway, trailer, break, etc. Go watch.

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Not a nu-jazz trailer, though, thankfully. I don’t think the world’s ready for that. But are you, dear, patient reader, ready for more absolutely dire (aka wonderful) boat puns? Delivered in a soulful yet nonchalant vocal style that will make you rethink your choice of Morgan Freeman or Brian Blessed at the next god election? Of course you are. Is that even an actual question? And so, the best trailer in recent gaming memory has unfurled the sails on a follow-up. Oh, and also I guess Paradox’s Leviathan: Warships is out now, if that sort of thing floats your boat. Ugh, apologies for that one. What is it up here? Amateur hour? I can’t even look at myself right now. See a real professional in action after the break.

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Star Citizen has reached over $9 million in funding, thanks to its almost 170,000 contributors. The space exploration MMO, spearheaded by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, began with a successful $2 million run on Kickstarter, and has since raised almost $7 million on its own website. The original goal was "just" $500,000, but Star Citizen has topped every stretch goal it set and then some.

As part of its stretch goals, Star Citizen's launch plans include a tablet companion app, celebrity voice acting, a free mission pack for every player, and over 100 star systems to explore while playing. Developer Cloud Imperium Games has just opened offices in Santa Monica, and the game's website is proclaiming a victory for post-publisher game development.

Players will get a chance to explore the world of Star Citizen in an alpha release, scheduled for sometime this winter.

"Our goal for Act 2 has been to release it by the end of April," a monthly newsletter sent to Kentucky Route Zero players notes, before announcing the second episode of the five-part series has been pushed to mid-May. No exact release date has been specified.

Developer Cardboard Computer says that "exciting but unexpected work" setting up the adventure game's distribution, troubleshooting issues for users, and venturing to the IGF have forced the team to push the release of the second act by a few weeks.

"It's looking really good though, and we're anxious to have it out in the world." To tease the release, Cardboard Computer will be posting "a small/weird screenshot from Act 2" on its Twitter and Facebook pages daily, the first of which is available above.

Kentucky Route Zero launched its first act in January 2013, before finding its way on Steam in February. For more on the game that looks out of this world, make sure to read Joystiq's detailed Indie Pitch feature with the developer.

Citing an anonymous source close to Eidos Montreal, Polygon reports that the team's planned reboot of the Thief series has run aground of several major issues over its troubled five-year development period.

According to the source, many senior members of Thief's team previously worked together at Ubisoft Montreal, and favoritism played a role in subsequent hiring practices, alienating fellow developers. High-ranking design roles saw an unusually quick turnover; some key members would leave the project less than two years after joining, and replacement designers would bog down the project by rebuilding or scrapping content.

Amidst office politics, the project was sidetracked by difficult-to-create press demos that strayed from initial concepts greenlit by publisher Square Enix. Polygon's source claims that Thief's production costs have inflated beyond initial estimates, and the project has changed so much over its development that content originally pitched to Square Enix no longer loads in the current build's heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 3.

Square Enix is expected to show off Thief at E3 in June.

StilAlive studios has kicked off its Kickstarter campaign for the single-player and co-op action adventure Son of Nor with a goal of $150,000. The game has been bouncing around for a bit and the international team of developers says they've taken it as far as they can without help.

Son of Nor features the last remnants of mankind fighting the lizard-man army of Sarahul using a combination of fire, wind, terraforming and telekinetic powers. In this dark future, it appears humans have learned to wield rocks with their minds, but have lost all ability to whack something with a stick. Maybe we should just let the lizard men win? The final version of Nor is targeted to be about eight hours, with a 50/50 blend of combat and puzzle exploration.

If the Kickstarter is successful, the team plans to continue development through the year, updating its progress with developer diaries. A closed beta is planned for Q1 2014, with the final game scheduled for mid-2014. Head on over to the Son of Nor Kickstarter page for more details on reward tiers.

Industry veteran and outspoken Duke Nukem co-creator George Broussard sets his sights on the indie-focused Ludum Dare competition with The Road, a side-scrolling browser game that reflects on the futility of existence.

Ludum Dare is an online game jam held every four months in which indie creators are given 48 hours to create a game based on an assigned prompt. Designed around the theme "minimalism," The Road challenges players to survive endless waves of falling objects and ground hazards in the hopes of living a long, fulfilling life.

In an interesting twist, the player's squarish avatar grows into a tall rectangle as it ages, making it more difficult to survive as the game progresses. After each death, players are given a brief (and often morbid) summary of how they made their fate. Broussard challenges players to survive past the age of 20; be warned that you'll likely suffer many deaths before you reach your teenage years.

Personally, I made it to age 19 before I died of explosive diarrhea. Harsh.

The shards of Eador’s Broken World drift in space, waiting to be conquered by a commander versed in turn-based combat, RPG levelling, questing and looting, and town management. Fortunately, despite my extreme cowardice and feeble frame, I am just such a commander, and after many hours of play, I’ve finally decided wot I think.

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Battle Worlds: Kronos recently concluded its Kickstarter funding round with 7,564 backers pledging $260,235. Under development by KING Art, Kronos surpassed its goal of $120,000 early on in the drive with 22 days to spare. Battle Worlds: Kronos is intended as a streamlined tactics game á la Advanced Wars.

"45 days ago we were not sure if we could collect $120,000. We're a small studio, we hadn't had a well-known IP and we're German - so we got a fair amount of 'angst,'" KING Art studio head Jan Theysen told us. "We see ourselves on the way to become a 'Kickstarter company.' Making games together with a community of gamers and funded by that community... what could be better?"

KING Art previously found success (mostly in Europe) with the point and click adventure game The Book of Unwritten Tales. Battle Worlds: Kronos is scheduled to enter closed beta in the third quarter for backers and go full open beta shortly after. The game is planned to launch in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Rummaging my empty head for games I was particularly excited about in 2013, I largely came up worryingly blank. I think, though, that’s got a lot to do with the fact that a lot of the most exciting upcomers are happening via Kickstarter, which means ‘twould be foolish to presume any of them will actually happen this year. Also because The Mainstream is all bound up in those new XStation things due out in the back end of the year, and of what we do get from that on PC, we probably won’t be shown much of it until Microsoft starts talking about its next big, ugly, advert-spewing box. One thing I my main did burp up without much prompting, however, was Space Hulk. I want that on my PC and I want it now. (I also want it on my tablet thing, but that’s primarily for when I’m not, erm, sitting on a chair). I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I am so far convinced by dev Full Control’s enthusiasm for it. In the following video Q&A, there’s a bunch more of that, plus some very pleasing hints about what they’ve got planned post-release. Maudlin, semi-traitorous hands in the air, fellow Dark Angels fans!(more…)

A motley crew of beloved nerd characters makes for some good laughs, just don't overstay your welcome.

Trion has announced the first Defiance transmedia event, offering a chance to get your in-game character onto the TV series.

Yeah, Notch’s game got a mention on its own, because a big name is a good way to encourage those who otherwise wouldn’t be interested to take a look at the many splendid things created as part of the twenty-sixth Ludum Dare global game jam. It is very important to reiterate, in this case via the medium of a post (and in addition to the one below singling out The Unseen), that you will be generously rewarded for looking at LD anyway, regardless of whether or not anyone you’ve heard of is involved. Ludum Dare – and many other speed-development events across our blue’n'green marble – is the bleeding edge of game-making, where ideas and pure talent hold far more sway than fancy graphics and big-budget explosions. It is ur-game and omni-game, a wild, wonderful badlands for every potential software holds.(more…)

Given that Ludum Dare 26 spawned several trillion games, we’ll probably be talking about it for the next 30,000 or so years. I will, however, almost certainly do a round-up sooner or later, seeing as the theme – minimalism – has led to a teetering tapas tower of bite-sized, sometimes seconds-long experiences. Don’t get me wrong, though: I have come across a few slightly meatier efforts. Of those, The Unseen stands out as well worth a mention, if only because I’d love to see it take on a life beyond LD26. Doubtless, it’s got some oily, hair-strewn warts on its style-savvy skin, but the core idea is brilliant on a number of levels. See, you’re dead. And how’d you die? Well, while searching for your body, you’re almost certainly going to find out. Agonizing step by agonizing step.

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The Kickstarter to create a new Realm Vs Realm MMO successor to Dark Age Of Camelot has just two days left on the clock. They need three hundred thousand dollars at the time of writing. A tense time, then, for its lead Mark Jacobs. I spoke to the man behind Dark Age Of Camelot and Warhammer Online, and asked him about the story behind Camelot Unchained.(more…)

Over the course of my many years as a game-enjoying human fleshcreature, I’ve been on many adventures that could be described as hell raids. I cannot, however, claim to have experienced the Hellraid – which might also be some kind of lava-themed rollercoaster/water slide/burrito. But now, with Dead Island and Call of Juarez developer Techland claiming hell and the raiding thereof as its professional purview, that’s all about to change. And by change, I of course mean “bear a rather strong resemblance to either devil-thwacking Dead Island or first-person Diablo.” Here’s hoping for more latter and less former. Details after the break.

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We may have reached a point where many developers are attempting to coexist semi-peacefully with the big, bad, money-chomping wolf that is piracy, but that certainly doesn’t make the situation ideal. Pirates are still sauntering away with sloshing tubs of developers’ blood, sweat, and tears, so I think a little (or more than a little) spite is only fair. In the past, that’s meant theft-thwarting failsafes like Batman: Arkham Asylum’s flight-impaired hero and Serious Sam 3′s immortal pink scorpion, but Greenheart’s recently released Game Dev Tycoon might just be the best yet. In short, the pirated version makes your games crash and burn once they’ve hit the market because of – wait for it – piracy.

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Last time Notch competed in a Ludum Dare game jam, he made Minecraft again, only tiny. Also Zelda. And this time around? He, er, didn’t throw his unmistakable hat into the ring at all. But he coincidentally released a game that practically fits the theme – minimalism – to a tee on the same day the competition wound down, so close enough. Titled Drop, this one contains no traces of survival, blocks, or ill-timed creative blocks. Instead, it’s about typing, pulsing dance beats, Super Hexagon, and Notch’s home ceiling. Naturally, I’m expecting it to be the next Call of Duty.

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We all love origin stories here at RPS. Who could forget Doom: Origins, in which it was revealed that Doom Guy’s actual name was Wallace Burgerstance, a man born from the unholy union of a lady Archvile and a nervous sprite-faced man? And what better example of the form can there be than Half Life: Origins – who could have guessed that the G-Man was both Gordon’s MIT post-grad professor and his brother from another dimension? Arkham: Origins may not tickle our fancy in the same way though because it is out of Rocksteady’s steady hands, doesn’t have Kevin Conroy’s Batman voice and actually exists. Let’s have less Origins and more Oranges. Loads of screenshots below.

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Oceanic adventure game Big Blue, put together by members of the team that made Ecco the Dolphin, has failed its Kickstarter bid. The game raised just under $56,000, falling well short of its $665,000 goal.

Creator Ed Annunziata isn't giving up though, and has already announced plans to launch a second Kickstarter campaign.

Annunziata admitted that "it is hard to get people to see how compelling a game like the Big Blue will be," and revealed plans for Little Blue, which will essentially serve as a "slice" of the original project. Little Blue will require a "much lower" level of funding, and should serve to properly convey Big Blue's full potential to players. The game will be less ambitious, featuring significantly fewer environments and creatures, though one of the two playable creatures is promised to be a dolphin.

Assuming its funding is successful, Little Blue will be launched for free and contain a link to forward players to another Kickstarter for the full-fledged Big Blue. For the moment, the launch date for the Little Blue Kickstarter is still murky.

Since 2010, Indie Fund has helped launch high-profile games such as Dear Esther, QUBE and Antichamber, each one recouping investment within days or even hours. The first game in which Indie Fund ever put its faith (and money), Monaco, launched last week and made back its $100,000 investment in negative time, before the game went live on April 24.

Developer Andy Schatz opened Monaco pre-orders via the Humble Store in December, and Steam pre-orders went live on April 17. By April 20, Monaco had grossed $120,000, Schatz said, exceeding its Indie Fund investment a full four days before the game launched.

"For me the most significant thing about the early success with regards to Indie Fund is that it shows that there are many ways of approaching funding, from crowdfunding to investment models like Indie Fund, to personal loans - I know a number of devs that have taken loans from other devs - to the traditional publisher model," Schatz told Joystiq. "More options means the studios can customize their relationships to fit their personalities and their projects."

Schatz used the Indie Fund investment partially to pay contractors and then to sustain himself and company expenses, including trips to PAX. Regardless of the cold, hard numbers, we thought Indie Fund's investment paid off particularly well with Monaco.

“I’m in the front row at New York University’s last “Practice” developer talks, staring at the projector with intense wariness. A trap?”

Walden, A Game could not be any more RPS*. Developed on an arts grant, this is the upcoming tie-in game to Henry Thoreau’s 1854 philosophy book Walden. A book detailing the author’s experience of escaping modern life by living in the woods near Lake Walden, Massachusetts, for two years.

In other words, it’s a first person sojourn simulator.

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Upon launching its debut title Game Dev Tycoon for Windows, Mac, and Linux yesterday, creator Green Heart Games implemented a clever approach to anti-piracy, targeting non-paying players with a game-ending dose of ironic retribution.

The cracked version of Game Dev Tycoon, which Green Heart Games created and distributed itself, functions normally for the first few hours of play. Soon, however, the player's up-and-coming studio encounters a serious problem.

"Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally," reads one in-game message in the pirated version of Game Dev Tycoon. "If players don't buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt."

Shortly thereafter, all games created by the virtual studio suffer a very high piracy rate. The end result is bankruptcy, and a premature end to the player's quest. As a result, Green Heart Games received a series of help requests from baffled software pirates on its forum. "Why are there so many people that pirate?" one player asked. "It ruins me!"

Though it finds humor in the situation, Green Heart Games also notes an unpleasant reality: paying players make up only 6.4 percent of Game Dev Tycoon's userbase. By tracking anonymous usage data, the developer found that 3,104 players opted to pirate the game, while only 214 users paid $7.99 for a legitimate copy.

"When I was younger, downloading illegal copies was practically normal but this was mostly because global game distribution was in its infancy," Game Dev Tycoon co-creator Patrick Klug admits in a follow-up blog post. "We are not wealthy and it's unlikely that we will be any time soon, so stop pretending like we don't need your 8 dollars! We are just two guys working our butts off, trying to start our own game studio to create games which are fun to play."

We’ve peered at the glitchy, distorted Memory of a Broken Dimension before but an insightful post over at Eurogamer alerts me that a new playable version is now available, featuring the first-person sections that follow the nightmarish command line opening. It does tickle the memories – of DOS and directories – and there is something dark and dangerous lurking between the static bursts and confused mechanics of its shattered world. You can play online or download, for either Mac or Windows, and I suggest that you do so as soon as all of the light has withdrawn from your corner of the world. I haven’t played a game that so effectively uses my screen, mouse and keyboard as the functional part of its fictional user interface since Uplink.

Grand Theft Auto V’s Epsilon Program invites you to attend its Enlightenment Seminar in Los Santos in September!

You know how you are always wishing that there were more space-based RTS games? Well, there’s at least one happening thanks to the Kickstarters, and its backers will no doubt it abundantly pleased that the game now has a playable prototype. It’s looking particularly fancy, given that it’s basically the work of one man, and that man – who I previously spoke to here – has put out a tutorial video for his prototype-users. This video conveniently acts as twenty minutes of gameplay footage for everyone else, and you can see it below.(more…)

Our chums over at Indiegames spotted an interesting-looking freeware game out there in the open wild country of the internet. It’s called Fragment and has seen the light of day thanks to a busy team of Vancouver Film School students. It’s a stealth sort of thing where you can assimilate your enemies, deploy clones to distract them, and so forth. There’s a video of it running below, or you can just grab it here.(more…)