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The team is too busy working on upcoming DLC to address issues, a rep says.

They say that history often repeats itself. People feud endlessly over similar issues, trends ebb and flow, and you already are your parents (THERE IS NO ESCAPING IT SEARCH YOUR FEELINGS YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE). But it’s not all bad. Sometimes, for instance, classic game genres are reborn in glorious blazes of phoenix-like beauty, and you’re like take that dad you had to play Dungeons and Dragons with pens and paper I’m totally different please let me be different. And so, as it was in the days when games like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment swapped genetic material, so too shall it be soonish with Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera. Torment will borrow Eternity’s gorgeous engine tech, allowing for hyper-detailed backgrounds that ooze and skitter with intoxicating weirdness.

… [visit site to read more]

We continue our year-long journey to relive the most seminal adventure games, with King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne and King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human.

Grid-based movement on a 3x3 grid can make moving around feel so ... simple. Right until you're dodging a storm of laser bullets, vertical beams of death and melee attacks, that is. Developer Sets and Settings is building Trestle upon this mechanic, placing the sense of victory in a high score.

Fans of the Mega Man Battle Network series' battle grid may feel right at home with Trestle. While dodging incoming attacks, Trestle allows players to swap out their weapon - boxes appear on grid spaces at random, which contain weapons like a flamethrower that covers an entire horizontal row of the opposing side's grid. Crates that replenish health also appear, but in early gameplay shown on SleepCycles' YouTube channel, they appear to spawn far less often than fresh types of ammunition.
Trestle's Tumblr page notes that the "base game is done," but Sets and Settings is adding new content and planning on an early 2014 release for PC, Mac and Linux. [Image: Sets and Settings]

The sky is eating the island. Guess the language inside your friend’s head. More hellish glitch zones than you can shake a #<#<<##U#YGE#&4378 at.

… [visit site to read more]

OMG HD Zombies, an expansion of a PSP Mini, is slowly chomping its way up the platform chain - after shuffling to Vitas last year, the chain-reaction zombie killer is headed for Steam's PC users on February 13.

HD Zombies is stingy with bullets, but it doesn't make its players creep around dark corridors in a survival horror manner - instead, players look down on horde-filled stages, aiming with a scrolling reticle. Once a zombie is shot, its explosive gush of blood inspires the same fate from its surrounding brethren. Players clear screens of zombies by chaining together as many kills as possible per bullet, trading their killcount at the end for a bronze-through-platinum rating.

Different zombie types switch up tactics over HD Zombie's 100 levels, and 100 unlockable upgrades stand to make clearing out each stage a bit easier. Resolution settings, gamepad support, cloud saving and trading cards have also been added to the PC port. If you're interested in spreading crimson gore over a gray cityscape, HD Zombies will cost $4.99 when it launches next week. [Image: Laughing Jackal Games]

MinMax Games will be taking to the stars a second time soon; the company recently announced Space Pirates and Zombies 2, a sequel to their 2012 game, Space Pirates and Zombies. Despite the name, Space Pirates and Zombies 2 is less about swashbuckling swordsmen fighting the flesh-hungry undead and more about capturing enemy ships, blowing them apart, and tractor beaming their broken bits to attach to your ship. We're okay with this.

The sequel will feature several improvements over its forefather, including a 3D environment, AI ship captains that can do everything the player can, and time-based story events. The game will also have a multiplayer arena and local co-op modes. Because what's a pirate/zombie without their crew/horde?

MinMax did not give an expected release window with the announcement. [Image: MinMax Games]

OMG HD Zombies, an expansion of a PSP Mini, is slowly chomping its way up the platform chain - after shuffling to Vitas last year, the chain-reaction zombie killer is headed for Steam's PC users on February 13.

HD Zombies is stingy with bullets, but it doesn't make its players creep around dark corridors in a survival horror manner - instead, players look down on horde-filled stages, aiming with a scrolling reticle. Once a zombie is shot, its explosive gush of blood inspires the same fate from its surrounding brethren. Players clear screens of zombies by chaining together as many kills as possible per bullet, trading their killcount at the end for a bronze-through-platinum rating.

Different zombie types switch up tactics over HD Zombie's 100 levels, and 100 unlockable upgrades stand to make clearing out each stage a bit easier. Resolution settings, gamepad support, cloud saving and trading cards have also been added to the PC port. If you're interested in spreading crimson gore over a gray cityscape, HD Zombies will cost $4.99 when it launches next week. [Image: Laughing Jackal Games]

In indie game Catapult For Hire, you can go fishing with a catapult. Okay? Let's just get that out of the way first. Fishing. With a catapult. Actually, there's a lot you can do with one of these time-tested trebuchets in Catapult For Hire. You can teleport, solve puzzles, explore dungeons, defy physics, play golf, or compete in an arena. Or at least you will be able to do all those things if Catapult For Hire reaches its $36,000 funding goal on Kickstarter.

Catapult For Hire is being developed by one man, Tyrone Henrie. Henrie notes in the opening of his Kickstarter video that he grew up in a small town where those who wish to be entertained have to make their own fun. Catapult For Hire follows in that spirit by taking something simple - a catapult - and modifying it to do something extraordinary - in this case, fire payloads like sticky balls that can transform into massive, heavy boulders.

Henrie modeled the world of Catapult For Hire after Nintendo 64 classics like the Legend of Zelda series, and has tapped chiptune specialist Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac)for the music. You can give the soundtrack a sampling over on the Kickstarter page.

Should funding be successful, Henrie plans to launch a beta for Catapult For Hire on PC, Mac and Linux in August 2014. [Image: Tyrone Henrie]

Sundays are for visiting family in the frigid north, before the country detaches and sets sail to hang out with Iceland. They’re also for reading pre-prepared game writings from across the week.

• OXM UK’s Edwin Evans-Thirwell takes to The Guardian to write about how videogames provide his brother, who has Down’s Syndrome, with a mechanism by which to escape the expectations placed upon him. “We expect “disabled” people – that’s to say, the vast spectrum of individuals branded as such for convenience’s sake – to be passive, unaware, content to live within tacit, carefully managed social nooks in exchange for support and guidance. We don’t expect them to recognise such overtures for what they are: well-meant, but limiting. We don’t expect them to break the rules. We don’t expect them to cheat. By contrast, most video games outright encourage you to misbehave, or at least refrain from bringing down the gavel when you do: it’s what makes them such wonderful, liberating escapism.”

… [visit site to read more]

Developer Rebellion also hints at a mobile future for the strategy classic.

The zombie series makes its way to PC for the first time.

And I’m back. Welcome to the Year of the Horse, the one creature in the Chinese Zodiac cycle Rats like me are supposed to inexplicably, viciously hate. Sorry about the lack of a Bargain Bucket last week. I thought I could type around fireworks, nosy aunts and people trying to shovel sea cucumber into my face. I was wrong. So, very wrong. (Does anyone else celebrate the Lunar New Year around here?) But before I get unceremoniously dragged back into a heap of curious, personal space-blind relatives, let me just chuck this big bucket of discounted goodies. (Send help.) Also, this week’s plushie is from one Yuya Fukuda. According to the e-mail I received, the answer is: yes. Yes, he’s floating that octopus in an aquarium. … [visit site to read more]

The greatest games of 2013, as voted by you, have been decided!

First-person sandbox survival game Rust has issued a new update, this time to remove content rather than add it. Developer Facepunch Studios has stripped zombies entirely from Rust.

Zombies have been replaced with red bears and red wolves. "You hate them. We know. They're just plugging a gap for now. All will be revvvealed," Facepunch writes in the update description.

The update also makes wildlife act more realistically: Animals will be spooked by gunshots and docile wildlife now fear predators. On top of that, some general bugs have been squashed, some animations have been tweaked and workbenches now allow you to craft items faster when standing next to them.

Rust has sold over 750,000 copies since its launch on Steam Early Access in December. Rust was created by Garry Newman, of Garry's Mod fame, and is currently available as a $20 alpha on PC, Mac and Linux. [Image: Facepunch Studios]

The Sun at Night raises many questions. Is it moral to experiment on animals? Is communism practical, or will it always lead to corruption? How viable are old-school, indie side-scrollers in 2014, several years into the retro nostalgia indie revival? Can we accept a cybernetic space dog as the lead character in a game that is otherwise dreadfully serious?

The Sun at Night turns the real life story of Laika the Russian space dog into a rote run-and-gunner. Laika's one-way trip to space in 1957 was a show of force for the Soviet space program, and either a depressing abdication of man's responsibility to animals or an inspiring step forward for science, depending on how you feel about murdering a dog for nebulous reasons and minimal scientific gain. The game speculates an alternate history in which Laika survives, returns to Earth with a robot suit and the ability to speak, and becomes an ersatz Samus Aran.

It's not quite a true heir to Metroid - there is much back-tracking through twisting tendrils of shafts and corridors, and there are many upgrades to acquire, but the game's divided into a handful of discrete levels that don't connect to one another. Still, like Metroid, it's a sprawling adventure with re-traversal elements, and you'll spend most of the game running toward the blinking spot on your map, juggling between your guns and an invaluable shield in order to survive the Russian attack.

Welcome back to Joystiq Tiny Streams, our new series of bite-size streams wherein the Joystiq staff takes you on a brief tour of what they're playing. Today's stream comes from one Xav de Matos, who decided to dig into a little State of Decay. Undead Labs' open-world survival game fits right in line with Xav's Four in February horror picks, so it's best to think of his early exploration here as training for the month ahead (as well as training for the zombie apocalypse).

If you'd like to check out the full stream, head over to Xav's Twitch channel, and you can watch full Joystiq Streams from our Twitch channel as well. For more Tiny Streams, tune back in every Monday and Friday at 4PM EST right here on Joystiq. [Images: Undead Labs]

Sometimes, I want to go off-world. I look up at constellations and think that there might be, out there somewhere, the remnants of our imagination. A planet full of the wondrous things that we dream of: a race of noble cyborgs, canyons and canyons of undisturbed blue rock, stalactites of green fragile crystallations, or perhaps somewhere it rains neon yellow. Perhaps our kin might one day crash-land on that undisturbed planet and make all our grimy chores and overcast skies, even our trips to the moon, seem insignificant. This planet of wonders drifts somewhere in space, turning itself over with care.

I’ve been wanting to talk to you about Peter Moorehead’s new project, the exploration-based adventure game Stranded, for a long time. Its little preview build puttered into my inbox a few weeks ago, and crash-landed in my head. It sits there lodged now, like an adventure game lens into Stanley Kubrick’s mind. … [visit site to read more]

Despite earlier claims that Obsidian's Kickstarter-funded roleplaying epic, Pillars of Eternity, would be released in the Spring of this year, the developer is now backing away from that timeframe, saying the game's current scope simply won't allow for it.

"When we started with a million-dollar budget and a relatively modest game with five classes, that was assuming if we get $1 million we can make this game and we'll probably get it done by April," project lead Josh Sawyer told Eurogamer. "We got almost four times as much money and that's a much bigger game, and that doesn't mean that immediately we just dump four times as many people on it and it also gets done in April. There's a lot more stuff to do."

While Sawyer notes that "more than half" of the game's content has been completed (if not polished), he's hesitant to offer a new timeframe for the game's release. "[U]ntil we get really close to releasing the game we don't want a specific release window, because we're not a publisher, we don't have to! Virtually nothing good comes from us releasing a date before we're very confident in it." [Image: Obsidian Entertainment]

*Furiously bangs gavel on empty oil drum*

Listen. You can go fishing with your catapult. I’ve been violently enthusing about Tyrone Henrie’s Catapult For Hire since I first encountered it in October of 2011. The game has been in development for three and a half years, and the freelance protagonist faces many of the struggles that are familiar to a hard-working indie developer, balancing projects and financial matters. The prototype I played was joyous, a whimsical and superbly crafted blend of high adventure and physics-based destruction. The Kickstarter is aiming for $36,000 to allow Tyrone to devote all his energies to the game for the first time and if it doesn’t succeed, I will be moved to believe that people do not care for wonderful and strange creations. A video should convince you if I cannot.

… [visit site to read more]

What is the Elder Scrolls MMORPG going to be like on the next-gen consoles? We hack an Xbox controller into the PC version and find out.

If you ever find yourself in Hell, do check out the Empirical War Museum. Their tank collection makes Bovington’s look paltry, their 1:1 scale ‘Little Pearl Harbour’ diorama will literally take your breath away, and their seemingly empty Landmine Gallery is pure genius. Last time I was there I bumped into a couple of Battlefront.com researchers outside the Hall of Flamethrowers. The pair claimed they weren’t there on business, but their camera bags, tape measures, and smouldering eyebrows told a different story. … [visit site to read more]

The ending of one expansion and reveal of a next has caused Blizzard's behemoth to enjoy a change in fortune when it comes to sub numbers.

Flappy Bird, the came-out-of-nowhere flyaway hit on Android and iOS, has you guiding a little bird through a gauntlet of horrible pipes. If it's driving you up the wall, you might prefer Squishy Bird, a free-to-play online game where you control the pipes instead, and attempt to squash as many of the floppy fowl as possible. Like the game it parodies, Squishy Bird is simple and free-to-play.

Creator Dong Nguyen revealed to The Verge that Flappy Bird is raking in $50,000 a day on in-app ad revenue. Flappy Bird is currently the top app on iTunes and the Google Play store, and has been downloaded more than 50 million times. [Image: Squishy Bird]

Double Fine delivers tons of prototypes, a new Humble Bundle promotion, and a great launch video.

Gone Home, the emotional exploration game from indie studio The Fullbright Company, has sold 250,000 copies, founder Steve Gaynor tells Joystiq. Roughly 80 percent of those sales were through Steam, he said, and 50,000 of them were in the first month.

Gone Home was a favorite of ours last year, hitting No. 6 on our Best of 2013 list - but not everyone shares our taste for suburban mystery and familial letter-writing. On our first DICE podcast this week, Gaynor discussed the suggestion from some players that Gone Home "isn't a real game," during which he shared the following story:

Gone Home Designer Karla Zimonja was heading home on the train in Portland, and she had an email from Gaynor open on her phone with the game's name in the subject line. Someone read it over her shoulder and tapped her arm just to say, "Oh, Gone Home? Yeah, I don't think that's really a game."

Hilarity ensues on the podcast after that tale. The first DICE podcast also features Rami Ismail of Vlambeer and Davey Wreden of The Stanley Parable (a game that suffers from a similar player response). [Image: The Fullbright Company]

The upcoming VR headset continues to offer better and better experiences.

A crazy spin on Team Fortress 2’s proven formula, but major matchmaking problems derail the fun.

"There are already enough ways to die," says developer Facepunch Games.

Deep Silver's free-to-play Dead Island spin-off, Dead Island: Epidemic, is now accepting applications for its upcoming closed beta.

The free-to-play PC game is a multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) set in the Dead Island universe. Three teams of players fight against each other amidst mobs of CPU-controlled undead who equally hate all players. That's just how zombies roll, you know?

Curious zombie slayers may head on over to the official site and sign up for the Dead Island: Epidemic closed beta today. If you're newly registered, you'll automatically get access to Dead Island: Epidemic's ongoing Alpha test - of which 30,000 players have joined - ahead of the closed beta. All participants will earn in-game goods that carry over into Dead Island: Epidemic proper whenever it launches. [Image: Deep Silver]