Star Wars Battlefront 2 developers have announced their plans for free post-launch DLC
- By Ash
- in News
Given how EA and DICE often like to go overboard with paid DLC, I am very happy to say that they have now announced a whole bunch of free updates and community events instead. Everything will kick off on December 5th by having the players align with either the First Order or the Resistance, with the end goal being to complete various challenges in order to receive faction specific rewards.
On December 13th Finn will join the Resistance as a new hero, while the First Order will receive Captain Phasma. You will need to purchase them with in-game credits though, so make sure not to waste all of them before this update even arrives. As for the whole faction war, whichever side completes the most challenges that week will get a special reward: a create full of upgrades for Finn or Captain Phasma.
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition developers are now giving Closed Beta access to everyone with a pre-order
- By Ash
- in News
Age of Empires: Definite Edition has been delayed a couple of times now, the latest one pushing its release date from October 19th all the way to early 2018. Unfortunately, this shift in release dates did not go over smoothly and some players have ended up being charged for their pre-order despite the launch still being a ways off.
If you're one of the affected players you'll be glad to hear that you're not only getting a full refund, but also an apology in the form of a free code for Rise of Nations: Extended Edition for Windows 10 - a rather awesome game if memory serves! More information will be sent to your email, but just keep in mind that the refund process will cancel your pre-order, so if you're still interested in the Definitive Edition you will have to purchase it again.
The 50 vs 50 tactical multiplayer shooter Squad is free to try out on Steam for the next two days
- By Ash
- in News
Squad is a 50 vs 50 tactical multiplayer shooter that aims to be as realistic as it can possibly be. So if team-based strategies and methodical FPS gameplay sound like something you would love to mess around with, you'll be glad to hear that Squad is free to try out for the next two days!
Simply head on over to Steam, click on that giant green "Play Game" button, and you'll be getting riddled with bullets in no time. If you need a bit more information before diving in, however, allow me to share with you the relatively old "Introduction to Squad" video. The gameplay might be outdated, but it should still give you a pretty damn good idea of what to expect from Squad. Have a look:
EA is set to acquire Respawn Entertainment, the developers behind the Titanfall series
- By Ash
- in News
Three weeks ago EA closed down Visceral and restructured the previously singleplayer Star Wars RPG into some sort of multiplayer focused title, much to the public's dismay given how popular the original two Dead Space games were. With that in mind, it might come as a bit of a shock to hear that EA is now set to acquire Respawn Entertainment, the developers of Titanfall and Titanfall 2.
According to the brief press release, Respawn will continue to have their own culture and creative freedom, while EA will mostly provide the resources necessary to expand the scope of all future games. As lovely as that statement is, I can't help but feel a tinge of dread as EA has a bit of a history of meddling with their studios, with the end result usually being them bleeding all of their creative talent and eventually getting shut down. I can only hope this fate won't befall Respawn as well since the Titanfall series is just too damn awesome to go the way of Dead Space 3.
Obsidian has released the results of their recent DLC and gaming background survey
- By Ash
- in News
On October 4th Obsidian published an in-depth survey asking players about their preferences regarding DLC, as well as a bit about their gaming background, the type of games they play, and so forth. All in all, around 55,000 people from across the various online communities participated in the survey, bringing with them some rather interesting insights about the average cRPG player.
You can probably guess a few answers given the type of players attracted to hardcore RPG games, but even so its a bit surprising to see that 92% of the participants were male, while only 6% identified themselves as female. This result was probably a bit skewed given how the survey was advertised and spread, but even so its a bit out of the ordinary to have such a low female representation, especially when the average for RPGs is around 20% from what I remember reading a little while back.
The point and click adventure game Syberia is free on GOG for the next two days
- By Ash
- in News
While the recent Syberia 3 has received only mixed reviews, the original point and click adventure Syberia is still widely considered as a classic. So if you're up for a bit of a blast from the past, you'll be glad to hear that GOG is currently giving away the original Syberia for free, and yes, it actually works on modern systems!
It is important to mention that this promotion will only last for two more days (as of the time of writing), so if you're even remotely interested in Syberia you should head over to GOG as soon as possible. You don't even need to install it in order to secure yourself a copy. Simply add it to your GOG account and it will be yours to keep, a process that will only take you minute or two.
Hand of Fate 2 is an interesting hybrid between an action-RPG, a roguelike dungeon crawler, and a deck-building game
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Hand of Fate 2 is a bit of a curious game. Its essentially a combination of an action-rpg, a deck-building card game, and a roguelike dungeon crawler. How it works is that each overturned card reveals some sort of challenge or effect, which can range from an action-orientated combat section that is very reminiscent of the modern Batman games, to a short minigame, or just some good ol' fashioned choose-your-own-adventure decision making. The most interesting part of this whole system is that the various different elements are interactive, so if you have a couple of armor and weapon cards, you can actually use them in the combat sections to give yourself an advantage!
As you can see, all of this is not exactly the easiest concept to explain through words alone, so allow me to instead share with you the launch trailer. Its not a very long video, but it should give you a pretty damn good idea of what Hand of Fate 2 is all about and how it plays. Have a look: