"Make Arma Not War" is the name of an upcoming Bohemia Interactive contest which should greatly help incentivize community-led content creation for Arma 3. The studio is giving out €500,000 in prize money and here's the kicker: "Projects which show a lot of potential might also be offered a contract by Bohemia Interactive, whether they have won the contest or not." Potentially the start of someone's career, in other words.
The competition spans four categories -- single-player, multiplayer, add-on, and total modification -- with the top prize of €200,000 going to that last category. The other three will have the prize pool divided up into first (€50,000), second (€30,000), and third place (€20,000).
Interested parties can begin working on their projects, but applications for Make Arma Not War won't be accepted until next year. Submissions are due by October 28, 2014, and the winners will be announced on January 15, 2015. This contest is exactly the type of thing I'd expect Bohemia to do -- hope it works out for them, content creators, and players.
Nintendo has informed us that National StreetPass Weekend is happening on December 14 and 15 and yes, this is a serious holiday. While I'm content sticking to StreetPassing each year during PAX and calling it a day, this should be a nice little treat for more dedicated players.
The North American Nintendo Zones (find yours here) will be mixed about, meaning you'll have the opportunity to interact with folks from other areas. Those dancing Miis at 0:30 suggest that good times will be had by all who participate. Nintendo in the YouTube age sure is a sight to behold.
Bungie is releasing its next shooter, Destiny , on September 9, 2014 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4. Is that far enough removed from Titanfall's debut in March? Not that we can't have and enjoy both games, which will probably be the case for many of us.
Sometime this summer, the beta for Destiny will go live and it's coming to Sony consoles first, according to the company. I'm now thinking back to the first we heard about the game, which was a bunch of promises and some miscellaneous concept art back in February.
I know it's hard to keep quiet when excitement runs rampant, but jeez! This promotional cycle is a bit much.
Destiny Launch Date [Bungie]
Earlier in the week we asked you to sound off on your favorite new videogame characters in 2013. Here are the results!
From cartoon characters to muscular senators to a young woman who just will not stop dancing, a wide range of new characters were represented from just about every genre imaginable (no farming simulators this time, sadly). Hell, most of them weren't even unshaven white men with gruff voices!
Most of them, anyway.
So we've seen about how the travel system works in the upcoming title The Banner Saga but now we've got a good look at how the turn-based combat will work. Whilst turn-based on a grid isn't a new mechanic it's good to see how stats will affect the way your viking warriors will bash each others' heads in. I love how you see a battle unfolding in an ale house, with people standing around holding their pints watching these massive guys smash each other. Like a typical pub fight.
Combat will either take place in one of two forms: a battle or a war. The former is a small skirmish involving six of your heroes and the latter is a conflict between larger groups. Armour, Strength, Willpower, Exertion, and Break are all stats that must be juggled to maximize your heroes' abilities during a battle.
Whilst it all looks fairly overwhelming in this short trailer, I didn't find the combat too hard to get to grips with in the free multiplayer variant The Banner Saga: Factions. Hopefully there's a bit more depth in the single-player campaign.
IGN has gotten its hands on a Ubisoft survey that covers what players want out of the future of the Assassin's Creed series. More interesting than that, however, is talk of a theoretical non-AC pirate game, with questions about what elements we'd want in such a title.
One of the choices is indeed cooperative and competitive multiplayer naval combat, which was sadly absent from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , as well as a deeper economy or a customizable character, ship, and pirate hideout. Yes, Ubisoft, we want this. You can't turn back the clock and make Black Flag its own standalone IP, but this is the next best thing.
Going back to the next installment of Assassin's Creed, there's the obligatory question about interest level in a new present-day hero character. What's the verdict?
Ubisoft Surveying Fans on Assassin's Creed 5, PvP Naval Combat [IGN]
The endlessly creepy Eldritch will receive a free expansion later this month entitled "Mountains of Madness," based upon an H.P. Lovecraft serial of similar name. The original story describes an Antarctic expedition which meets with disaster upon the discovery of a lost city once inhabited by a forgotten and terrible race of beings. It also features six-foot tall penguins, the thought of which is almost as frightening as the Elder Things themselves, and the above teaser trailer confirms their presence in the expansion.
I really love Eldritch, unforgiving and cruel as it can be sometimes. I've still yet to have circumstances align themselves in such a way as I can actually complete the game, but the challenge it presents is so satisfying that I barely notice my failures before I've set off on another attempt. More of this is a good thing.
Mountains of Madness will release on December 19.
Earlier this week, we asked you to share your thoughts on the WORST new videogame characters of 2013. Here are the results!
Many of you took this opportunity to vent your frustrations (or at least upvote or downvote comments) regarding DmC's Dante, which is neat. Other than that obvious choice, there were quite a few other nominees for the wall of shame, and some that I certainly didn't expect!
On this week's installment of Hardline, Destructoid's new podcast about the week's gaming news and whatever else happens to be on our minds (in this case, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's sweaty body), I'm once again joined by Steven Hansen and we also got Conrad Zimmerman to fill in for Dale and Hamza. There wasn't a whole lot of captivating "news," but no matter -- this is more of an informal discussion show than an outlet with which to deliver timely facts.
That said, we chatted about a few topics, including: the PlayStation 4's far-off backwards compatibility via Gaikai cloud streaming, what we would want in a possible Fallout 4, that list of developers who will be self-publishing on Xbox One, and the best / worst characters of the year.
For the audio-only episode, you can subscribe on iTunes and RSS, or download directly. We also stream Hardline live via Twitch on Wednesdays at 11:00am Pacific, so be sure to stop by if you'd like to participate in chat while we record!
