News::Find life on Mars and kill it in 'The Techromancer'

Miss the character decision-driven science fiction epic of Mass Effect, but wish it had a little more of a melee focus? Pay attention to Techromancer -- it could be the spiritual successor you've been looking for. The game's developer, Spiders, doesn't exactly bill it as a Mass Effect clone, but the similarities are hard to ignore: an action RPG with a robust leveling system, forking story paths based on player choices and the ability to befriend and romance your teammates? That sure sounds familiar.

Source: Focus Files

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News::Amazon to deliver 'Call of Duty' at midnight on release day in 20 cities

Going the physical route on day one videogame releases has always meant either braving an in-store midnight event or waiting for a package to be delivered. In the case of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Amazon has an alternative: midnight delivery straight to your door, at no extra charge. In 20 metropolitan areas (Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle) it promises to drop the game off -- along with any snacks you might order -- within a two hour window on November 6th through its Prime Now one-hour option.

Source: Amazon

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News::Playdate: A (probably terrifying) chat with 'SOMA' dev Ian Thomas

Well, the chat may not be terrifying, but the game certainly will be. Today on Playdate, we're diving into two horrifying, Halloween-worthy games, SOMA and PT. SOMA is the creepy underwater game from Amnesia: The Dark Descent studio Frictional Games, and PT is Konami's once-promising haunted-house exploration teaser for a game that's sadly not going to be made. While we're playing SOMA, we'll conduct a live interview with Ian Thomas, Frictional's level scripter and gameplay programmer. Let's find out what makes a master of digital horror tick. Playdate kicks off at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific and you can watch live right in this post, on the Engadget Gaming homepage or on Twitch.tv/Joystiq.

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News::Watch a live Director's Commentary of 'Until Dawn' right now

Until Dawn is a spooky spectacle of classic horror themes and beautifully branching narrative paths -- and today, developers at Supermassive Games will spill a bunch of behind-the-scenes secrets, live on Twitch. Supermassive is participating in an Until Dawn Director's Commentary livestream at 3:30PM ET, hosted on the official PlayStation Twitch channel. If you have questions about the characters, setting, mechanics or story of Until Dawn, this is where you might find your answers. Were we supposed to loathe Emily? Who was Josh modeled after? Will Sam be our BFF in real life (please)? For the answers, tune in right here, right now. Who knows -- the devs may even talk about Rush of Blood, the Until Dawn spin-off for PlayStation VR.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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News::SXSW apologizes, launches day-long Online Harassment Summit

South by Southwest organizers earned the ire of the internet this week after canceling two panels aimed at addressing online harassment and "GamerGate" culture in the video game industry. SXSW canceled the discussions because it received "numerous threats of violence" -- a reason that, to many, gave power to those threats and in fact encouraged continued harassment. Both Buzzfeed and Vox Media swiftly announced plans to skip SXSW entirely unless the panels were reinstated. Today, SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest offered an apology and announced the Online Harassment Summit for March 12th. It's a full-day event that SXSW says will feature people from both of the canceled panels, plus a lineup of additional speakers. SXSW will live-stream the summit all day, for free. However, one panel organizer says she's not on-board with this new solution.

Source: SXSW

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News::'League of Legends' shoutcaster loves the game, not the fame

Trevor Henry doesn't like to think of himself as "famous." He prefers the term "recognizable," and then only in certain situations -- like at the League of Legends World Championships in Europe this year. Henry, professionally known as Quickshot, is a shoutcaster for League of Legends, which means he's often the face and voice of professional matches as he commentates on live games and analyzes important moves afterward. Literally millions of people know who he is: In 2014, 27 million fans watched the final match of the League World Championships. For perspective, the NBA Finals in 2014 averaged just 15.5 million viewers per game. Quickshot has been in the shoutcasting game for half a decade, although at first as a hobby and now professionally in a rapidly evolving industry. He knows where professional League of Legends started and sees where it can go -- and he told us all about it.

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News::Sony's new PSVR shooter is a rollercoaster ride of horror

"When we announced this, we saw a 50/50 split among the fanbase," said Simon Harris of Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, Supermassive Games' recently announced virtual reality shooter. The title, which debuted at Paris Games Week, is an extension of the PlayStation 4 exclusive released last August.The reason for the mixed reaction? Although its predecessor is an intense interactive drama, Rush of Blood is an on-rails arcade shooter (think House of the Dead or Time Crisis). Fans of the original want more drama, more Until Dawn, and this clearly isn't more of the same. But after playing a brief session of Rush of Blood and talking to Harris about the studio's plans, I'm convinced Supermassive knows what it's doing.

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News::'Dreams' isn't an enigma, it's 'LittleBigPlanet' reborn

Sony hasn't worked out how to explain Dreams, the new title from LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway creator Media Molecule. Its debut at E3 was exciting but enigmatic, with a focus on player-driven creation and animation mechanics. At Sony's Paris Games Week press conference on Tuesday, the studio showed off a little more of Dreams. But it still wasn't clear how exactly what was shown on screen would work in practice -- we've seen a lot of creation tools, but not a lot of gameplay. Luckily, Media Molecule took some time after the event to talk us through its grand vision for Dreams. And, despite the confusion, it most definitely will be a game.

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News::Download every 'Tribes' game for free

Fancy yourself a fan of playing awesome PC shooters online? Boy howdy, do I have a story for you: Developer Hi-rez Studios has released every game in its Tribes series for free on its website as part of the franchise's 21st birthday celebration. That means everything from Starseige: Tribes to the free-to-play Tribes: Ascend is available right now, gratis. And you don't even have to buy it a drink -- the party's on Hi-rez's dime! As if you had any big plans for this weekend anyway.

Via: Dave Oshry (Twitter)

Source: Tribes Universe

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News::​Nier: Automata is hack-and-slash the Platinum way

A Nier sequel was one of the last things we expected to see at E3 this year -- which is why it was such a surprise when Square Enix showed off a proof-of-concept trailer for an upcoming PS4 sequel. Today, the company gives us something more substantial: the game's full name (Nier: Automata), a new gameplay trailer focusing on Platinum Games' combat engine and a bit of backstory.

Source: PlayStation

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News::Video games are pretty lazy in their portrayal of PTSD

It's reported that one in three troops returning home from war are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress symptoms. If you look at video games, those numbers are probably exponentially higher considering the events characters endure while saving the (virtual) world. But games aren't exactly known for being particularly subtle, and that's what the latest episode of Low Batteries from Eurogamer is all about. The clip examines Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Spec Ops: The Line, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and a few others. The findings? Sadly, games use PTSD as short-hand to fill in character backstory or motivations and sometimes are pretty lazy about it.

Via: (2)

Source: Eurogamer (YouTube) (1)

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