The very talked about, incredibly divisive Steam Greenlight service is back at it again, releasing a batch of 75 new titles to play. As always, I'm not even going to pretend like I've heard of any of these games. That said, it looks like my only choice is to take it back the mid '80s, and base my purchases on how cool the title art looks.
To start, why don't we give a chance to Heavy Fire: Afghanistan. If nothing else, you can shut your eyes real tight and imagine that it's Six Days in Fallujah . Going father down the list we have Minimon 3D, which looks like a riff on Digimon and Pokemon. Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby aren't out for another six months, so you can get your fix here in the mean time. It's not as good as the product Game Freak is slanging, but, you know, addicts can't be choosers.
In all seriousness though, you can check out the full list here, and the more indie inclined of you can probably comb over the list for something worthwhile. Happy hunting!
Ben Hibon is an artist who has worked across advertising, shorts and feature films. But it's his gaming work that's really interesting.
In these final days before GameSpy shuts down its support for a wide range of multiplayer games, here's how Relic Entertainment is handling the situation for its Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series. The franchise is being updated to use Company of Heroes 2's multiplayer backend, meaning not only will it continue to function, it'll come out of this mess "improved."
The first Dawn of War and its expansions already underwent an update, on May 22, to keep multiplayer going post-GameSpy by switching to Steam. And while Relic is at it, it'll be separating Dawn of War II and its Chaos Rising expansion from Games for Windows Live. "This migration is in progress and we'll have more details soon," says design lead Philippe Boulle.
"In the short term, there are likely to be some technical issues with the new setup," continued Boulle. "Recreating the multiplayer infrastructure for seven titles is no small feat, and there will be bugs. Ultimately, we felt that it would be better to get the update out in a slightly imperfect state in time to prevent an outright interruption in multiplayer play. So, bugs."
Nice! I'd love to replay the Dawn of War II games again, one day.
Dawn of War Letter from the Designer [Steam]
Between sending brass knuckles for the Godfather II release, sending out $300 checks to represent greed for Dante's Inferno , and sending copies of Mass Effect 3 into space, you have to wonder how fun the world of games PR can be sometimes.
The latest fun-fulled stunt involves Watch Dogs, and a mysterious black safe sent to the Sydney based ninemsn news offices. Attached was a note, asking the recipient to "check their voicemail," which didn't bode well for the reporter in question, as they had just received a hang-up phone call the night before. After attempting to open it, the safe started beeping, which is when the ninemsn staff decided to call the police. Pictured above is what tends to happen when you insist on messing with mysterious beeping boxes on your own. With the building evacuated, and the police on the scene, the safe was eventually opened to reveal a copy of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs.
While ninemsn, who doesn't cover videogames, are not used to stunts like these, I can't say Dtoid HQ wouldn't have freaked out any less. That said, suspicious black boxes are still way cooler than what we get sent. It's usually just used condoms with a marriage proposal for Hamza.
Police evacuate ninemsn office [ninemsn]
AMD and Nvidia have for years been locked in a struggle for dominance in the graphics card market, but this week that competition spilled over into something a lot nastier.
Every so often, I come across a Kickstarter project that I feel truly excited for. Most recently, it was Amplitude , but before that it was the peculiar Shiness, a gorgeous RPG that I'm hoping to see available for purchase soon. Take one look at it, and you'll understand why. It's almost difficult to believe this is an independent creation, what with the imaginary language and the great-looking character models. It's good stuff, and I definitely want to try it out when (and if) it's completed.
I suppose I'm attracted to the idea that it boasts its own made-up language, its lush environments, and the characters that remind me of a late '90s or early '00s RPG with anthropomorphic heroes and a carefree tale rife with throwbacks to a simpler time that really resonate with me. Take a look at the trailer and see if you feel the same way.
Shiness is undoubtedly one of the most professional-looking, polished role-playing games I've seen on Kickstarter, and yet it's still not at its goal, sitting at a total of $89,417 with 10 days left to go to meet its $100,000 ceiling. Take a look if you're so inclined and let me know what you think! It looks pretty promising.
Still playing Titanfall ? Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment will be unveiling a new mode and a handful of upcoming features for their flagship shooter at the EA booth.
If you don't have a E3 badge but will be in the downtown LA area, you can get hands-on time with all of the E3 content during the Nvidia Gaming Expo. Apart from being able to play the new content early, attendees can win real-life burn cards, Nvidia graphics cards, and enter giveaways. Fans at home will also have to chance to win prizes, so if you're not in LA, don't feel totally left out.
Personally, I've sort of tapered off Titanfall recently, but if you're already in the LA area, it should be worth the trip. You can register in teams of up to five too, so it's perfect for a bromatic night out.
Titanfall at E3 [Titanfall]
Did that leaked trailer for Visceral Games' Battlefield Hardline look rough around the edges to you? It's "six months old," according to vice president and studio manager Steve Papoutsis. Commenting on the leaks, he said "So yeah, that happened. Not how we wanted to unveil Hardline, but all good. Didn't want to wait til E3 anyway, so let's talk about it..."
Papoutsis went on to say that the video "was for an internal meeting. It's six months old now and [the] team has been cranking since then. See the real deal at E3." Finally, he wrote "Excited to see so much buzz for the old footage. Love it. Can't wait to show you how much further the team has taken things." Which is a positive way of reacting to what must be a frustrating situation.
My opinion of the game could quickly change for the worse, but right now, I'm generally digging Hardline. Still, it's frustrating to see it used as an extension of the Battlefield brand when it sure would be nice to see existing, well-liked spinoffs like Bad Company and 2142 return.
I had heard the name "Tangiers" before but wasn't aware of what kind of game it'd be. I'm still not entirely sure, even after watching this new trailer. It's labeled as stealth, though the genre connections aren't super clear in this latest unsettling, dream-like footage.
Here's more to go on from developer Andalusian: "While following the roots of the stealth genre, the game sits firmly in the leftfield. A love-letter to the darker avant-garde of the 20th century. A world built in the shadow of Burroughs, Ballard, Dada, Early Industrial and many, many others. Navigate a dying landscape searching for shards of a broken city. Steal language, re-use and corrupt it to further your goals. Journey through a fragile reality where careless actions will direct the world to fragment and rebuild itself. A unique collage every playthrough."
With all of that said, I'm not afraid Tangiers will be interesting, conceptually -- I'm confident it will succeed in that respect. Rather, I have to wonder if it'll be enjoyable as a well-rounded game. Windows, Mac, and Linux players can find out later this year. It's already gone through Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter, so that stuff is thankfully out of the way.
If this teaser poster uncovered by All Day Gamer is any indication, we could be looking at a Mortal Kombat reveal in the near future. With E3 right around the corner, anything is possible, even a sequel to Gitaroo Man. Well, perhaps not that. But there is always hope, children. We must never lose sight of it.
Considering Ed Boon switched up his Twitter profile image and header today to reflect a new dragon logo and seems to be teasing an upcoming reveal, it looks like we're getting closer and closer to some type of reveal. What do you want to see in the next Mortal Kombat? I want a non-Jackie Earle Haley Freddy Krueger, personally.
All Day Gamer [Facebook]
There was certainly hype surrounding Watch Dogs . From its surprising reveal back in 2012, there were a lot of eyes locked on this particular title. Even after delays and some controversy surrounding the graphics, it still managed to retain interest. And now, Ubisoft's open-world title has more than delivered by becoming its most successful launch in company history.
The publisher announced today that Watch Dogs has sold more copies in its first 24 hours of availability than any other game in its history. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot weighed in, saying: "Watch Dogs is an amazing achievement and our teams should be proud that the creativity, innovation and long hours they invested in making this game are paying off. It’s great to see so many players enjoying the game, and it shows that Watch Dogs has cracked the code for developing a new blockbuster IP and a thoroughly new-gen experience."
While they're not sharing exact numbers, the fact that it had a stronger launch than Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell shows the strength of the new IP. After a seemingly rocky development period, it's definitely clear that Ubisoft has a new pillar for its next-gen foundations. And to state the obvious, we certainly haven't seen the last of the Watch Dogs franchise.
There's a secret world hidden behind the windows of Chicago in Watch Dogs.
Update 5/28/2014: Monster Monpiece is finally out in North America (Europe gets it next week), and the sentiment in this Japanese preview still holds: It's a great game, but damn that embarrassing girl-stroking mechanic.
