PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Square Enix has revealed it is "definitely interested" in bringing future entries in the Final Fantasy series to PC.

I was recently show a few scenes from 'Zero Point,' a 360-degree film for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Here's what I thought:
Above: Mirror's Edge Movies and video games complement one another, except when they bust out the classic insults: one's 'videogamey' and the other is so 'cinematic.' 'Just like a video game' has long been the pejorative comparison from the movie critic, shifting in his seat when nothing in the computer-generated scene is real, not even the point. Video games are shorthand for too big, too loud and too stupid. Before you savage this critic and HOW DARE HE and so forth, we game critics are just as guilty of citing films among a game's successes and failures. Oh, this game is exquisitely cinematic - a groveling platitude that seems to put games one rung down as the medium that wishes it were a movie. And this game over here? Too movie-like, and a bad flick that doesn't even have the decency to let you jump around in it like an idiot. The conversation becomes more interesting when you introduce an exciting technology like Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset that's rocketed into visibility with every new user-turned-believer. Though a consumer model is on the way, most of the buzz has come from the increasingly-refined developer kits and the software created by talented individuals and companies who envision the Oculus Rift as the next step in 3D exploration, combat, disembodiment and unforeseen vomiting. Some people get sick from it, unfortunately.

Double Fine’s annual fortnight of pausing all their other work to focus on creating original prototypes has begun. With the pitches whittled down to four, the studio is now divided up into groups to create those games over the next two weeks. And you can watch a lot of it happening. Below.

… [visit site to read more]

From The Depths certainly looks ambitious. I’ll give it that. It’s a naval first-person mermaidurer where you build all of your own vehicles and then fly/sail/submarine/hot air balloon them into battle. Oh, and it’s voxel-based, naturally, so expect mighty capital ships that look like they were assembled by children who’ve yet to learn their capital letters. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it has kind of become The Style Of The Time. To be frank, I’m more worried about how all sorts of disparate elements – detailed physics, a random world, construction of every vehicle you use, and “dozens” of co-op and competitive modes – will come together. Freeform building tends make things a bit tough to balance, after all, and there are so many things here. But then, perhaps that’s the point.

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It’s been only slightly over a week since we first laid eyes on DmC/Bayonetta-meets-roguelike brawler Heart&Slash, and it’s already grown from bright spot on an overcrowded Internet to shiny new Kickstarter hopeful. It looks as spiffy as ever (i.e. one week ago), but now it hearts both you and your wallet. And like most robots, it expresses its nascent emotions through really big weapons, so you should probably fork over a dime or two lest you end up getting hugged a little too hard, if you know what I mean. Video and new info below.

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But not on a version of the delightful mobile game Space Team. Sometimes my headlines get away from me, take on lives of their own, and begin pulling nefarious pranks on innocent passersby. I apologize. I blame the public schooling system. But anyway, the two members of Kickstarter’s Might As Well Be Triple-A contingent, Star Citizen and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, are joining forces to sensually swap technology and probably tell each other all kinds of deeply personal secrets. I hope Star Citizen gets space horses. (Which, when couched in the previous metaphor, sounds like some kind of infectious disease. Clarification: I do not hope that Star Citizen gets the fictitious disease Space Horses.)

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I’ve got some good news and some great news. If you want the great news first, read the rest of this paragraph right now. If you’d like the good news first, skip to the next paragraph but don’t forget to come back. OK, so the great news is that with the release of the fourth episode of point and click Edgar Allan Poe simulator, The Last Door, all of the previous chapters are now available for free. I’ve only played the first but I intend to experience the whole thing now that the season is complete.

The good news is that the pixelated peril has been successful enough to convince the creators to work on a second season, which should debut in Summer once design processes have been overhauled and funding has been raised. Hurrah.

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Thanks to the Beasts of War DLC pack for historical strategy hit Total War: Rome 2, now you too can cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war - alongside the elephants of war, bees of war, camels of war, snakes of war and scorpions of war.

Every day, in addition to The Daily Fix, we list off the day's biggest stories in this simple and easy to read format.

Warlords of Draenor's level boost option appeared prematurely on live servers.

Tells the story of seven citizens framed for crimes, through seven episodes.

Pay what you want to play some of 2013's top indie games.

Bethesda game director Todd Howard says they're "waiting for an appropriate time to talk about it."

Game makers are interested in eschewing publishers for their next games.

As I continue my build-up to the announcement of my Game of the Year 2013, I think-

No, actually. Let’s just do it now. Let’s just state my Game of the Year 2013 right now. I feel like there’s been enough build-up. I was going to wait another five or six months, but maybe you’ll forgive me for stating it this early. I’m excited, you see.

I am excited about Caverna. … [visit site to read more]

FTL: Advanced Edition is due to launch as a free expansion on PC, Mac and Linux, and as a standalone game on iPad this year. Developer Subset Games has revealed some new systems for the expansion, which also boasts new alien races, equipment and an additional sector to explore.

Ships will remain capped out at eight systems total, Subset writes on its blog, so players will need to prioritize systems around preferred play style. The post also introduces a Clone Bay where you can simply grow a clone of your dearly-departed crew member - but if the cloning process is interrupted, then that crew member will be lost forever.

Hacking drones will allow players to target individual systems when encountering enemy ships in space. Sending a drone to hack the enemy shields, for example, will immediately drop all shields and open up the vessel to major damage. Finally, Subset is also adding a Hard mode to the game.

Subset Games still hasn't given us an official launch date for FTL: Advanced Edition yet, but has said both the iPad game and the expansion for existing platforms will be made available at the same time. [Image: Subset Games]

Banished is an indie sandbox city building simulation, in which you have free reign to grow a nascent medieval town using only the resources gained from the land around it. You build and you harvest, and you keep your population healthy enough in order that they might breed and expand. It’s out now, and I spent the weekend with it.

It made more sense once I decided that everyone in the town had tapeworm. Their prodigious appetites and the strange ease with which they would starve to death had more reason to it then. If I became frustrated, all I had to do was picture these weather-worn medieval folk shovelling endless amounts of fish, venison, potatoes, peppers, berries and mushrooms down their brown-toothed maws, only for the grim parasite in their guts to hoover half the goodness out of their rich harvest, leaving these peons hungry to the point of collapse. … [visit site to read more]

It almost sounds like a joke when you first hear about it. How does Harmonix, creator of wildly far-reaching rhythm hits like Rock Band and Dance Central, go for a more “core” crowd? Why, they make a musical shooter, of course. Hoho, what a topical yet preposterous notion! Let us adjourn to ye olde Chuckle Hut, where we shall instantly acquire wealth beyond our wildest imagination.

Yet, here we are. And you know what? Chroma looks (and sounds, obviously) like a pretty darn cool idea. If you perform actions – from shooting to running and jumping – on song beats, you’ll do them with more aplomb. Moreover, different teams represent different musical genres, with weapons and environments creating sounds synced to a beat underlying each level. It’s a giant, rhythmically thrumming combat arena, with DNA that crisscrosses between music theory and Quake.

Chroma is, however, Harmonix’s first crack at free-to-play, which could spell disaster in less dedicated hands. But between a firm no-pay-to-win stance and a partnership with Defense Grid and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developer Hidden Path, things certainly seem to be on the right track. … [visit site to read more]

A few days ago, a rumour appeared on Reddit that Valve Anti-Cheat, the software Valve use to crush aimbots and wallhacks across their games, was spying on people’s DNS cache and sending that information home. In other words, the Seattle game developer was watching every website you ever visited. It was only a rumour, and an unlikely one, but Gabe Newell appeared on Reddit last night to explain the situation. It’s a typically interesting look into Valve’s mindset and their approach to cheating. … [visit site to read more]

Sometimes a game is so startling in appearance that I don’t want to know how it plays lest the illusion of something new be shattered. DEIOS is such a game. It looks like the game equivalent of something like William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, a collection of ordinary things degraded to the point of abstract anxiety and mechanical melancholy. DEIOS is intentionally degraded though, every glitch hand-crafted, and it looks wonderful, like a cross between Sword & Sorcery EP, Another World and something else entirely. More images and video below.

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I’ve a few uncles, but if I was to tell a story about one of them, I’d probably pick the one who worked with Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean. Though I can understand why, if given the choice, you might go for the one capable of inter-dimensional travel and grappling hook tomfoolery.

A Story About My Uncle was a fun, free, first-person platformer released in 2012. Now it’s getting a full release due out this summer, and the first trailer is below. … [visit site to read more]

Space smuggler sim/adventure/ship-builder/I don’t really know Galactic Princess drew a salute of admiration from Craig late last year, and now it hopes to inspire a similar reaction from a few thousand people as it tries to obtain £20,000 without the Spacecops noticing. Er, by which I mean that it’s on Kickstarter, not that it’s stealing cash.

It’s a lovely looking (and sounding) thing, like FTL and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery threw a 1980s-themed party. Modular ship building, pew-pew party combat, Eliteish choice of what sort of space-type you want to be – a diplomatic sort, an honest trader, an arms dealer, even a slaver. Ick. … [visit site to read more]

Spooky games are set in hospitals, asylums, prisons, laboratories and mansions, right? The ingredients for terror are creaky floorboards, inexplicably locked doors, rusted wire mesh and filthy toilets (seriously, it’s a thing – a game can barely be described as an authentic horror game unless there’s at least one unflushed loo). Year Walk isn’t playing along. Inspired by nineteenth century Swedish folklore, it’s a game about walking toward a church at midnight, passing through cold, dark places along the way, and confronting the embodiments of fear and weakness that hide in the woods. Critically acclaimed on iOS, the game is heading to Steam on March 6th, which is fantastic news. Trailer below.

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Strider is an unbalanced yet extremely stylish platformer, and the series’ best game since the original.

‘Bullet hell’ is one of the best genres, not because I like playing it – liking things is passé – but because it’s an exciting example of the way in which a genre and its audience can warp, and focus, and drill down, and close themselves off to outside influence. I find just the existence of Touhou exciting.

If bullet hell was to be picked up and poured back into the wider world of videogames, Tower Of Guns might be what it looks like. Check out the trailer below.

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Newell offers some elaboration on Steam's anti-cheat protection.

Problems with Source licensing have necessitated a change of engine.

The first man I murdered probably deserved it. But not this guy. The only thing this guy had done wrong was wander into Berezino with some water, a compass and a rifle (without ammo). It was just his luck that we were there too, looking for baked beans amid the inexplicable piles of shoes which amass inside every townhouse of DayZ. We saw him go into one of the two apartment blocks that loom like huge, Gray tombstones over the city. I followed him inside, calling out: “Hello, anyone here? Friendly!” … [visit site to read more]

It’s rare that videogame violence makes me feel uncomfortable. After all, it’s just polygons, only code. I like the idea of games that purposefully make me feel uncomfortable with the heinous acts I commit – in ways more nuanced or subtle than po-faced script writing, at least. But I don’t think that’s what Sniper Elite 3 is going for with its X-Ray killcam. I think it’s going for, “hey bullets are awesome, look at how badass they are.”

The developer diary below outlines the changes to the system in their next World War 2 sniping sim. … [visit site to read more]

After several months in cryosleep, I finally landed on Pandora, a world teeming with life and ripe for exploitation. The setting and intro movie stirred memories of Alpha Centuari in the muddy pool of my mind, and while it would be unfair to expect any game to live up to that legacy, I was hoping that Pandora would scratch certain troublesome itches. I spent a few hours with the game just after release but only just found the time to plunge in for an entire weekend. Here’s wot I think.

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