Valve will soon start requiring Steam Storefront 'screenshots' to actually feature in-game footage
- By Ash
- in News
While this trend isn't as widespread as one would expect, there are plenty of games on Steam that use concept art, pre-rendered cinematic images, or just plain ol' advertising material instead of actual screenshots from the game itself! Well, according to an image posted on the Facepunch forums (and subsequently confirmed by Valve) this little problem will soon be a thing of the past.
Once the Discovery Update 2.0 arrives in a couple of weeks developers of games with mature content will be able to pick and choose which screenshots to show based on the audience, but more importantly, the game's Storefront will be required to actually showcase in-game screenshots! Naturally, carefully engineered images and cinematic in-game screenshots are still fair game, but at the very least there will be no more deceptions. If you can see it on the store, you can see it in game as well!
Theme Park Studio is set to leave Early Access later this month
- By Ash
- in News
Theme Park Studio, as the name itself would suggest, is a collection of tools that allows you to design, build, and experience your very own amusement park... or torture chambers, all depending on what sort of stuff you're in to! It launched in Early Access back in 2014, and as a quick glance across the Steam reviews would tell you - it came with a clunky UI and more bugs than a freshly brewed Bethesda game.
Two years and numerous updates have passed since then, and it appears that Theme Park Studio is now finally ready to release from Early Access as the developers have pinned November 25th as their big day. While there is currently no launch trailer available, some of the previous gameplay videos should still give you a good idea of what Theme Park Studio is all about. Have a look:
After nine years in development the open-world adventure game Owlboy is now available
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
No, you haven't just read that wrong, Owlboy has actually been in development for well over nine years now! While this long of a development cycle would usually unleash an unholy abomination upon the world, I'm delighted to say that Owlboy not only looks amazing, but also appears to be just as good on the gameplay side of things.
But first things first, what in the world is Owlboy anyway? Well, its an open-world adventure game where you get to explore the clouds above, the monster infested ruins below, and fight a whole bunch of sky pirates somewhere in between... because why wouldn't there be sky pirates! In all honesty the concept is about as simple as it gets, but where Owlboy excels is in the execution as its world simply begs to be explored. But rather than simply ramble on, allow me to show you the recently posted launch trailer:
Dishonored 2's system requirements and advanced PC settings have been announced
- By Ash
- in News
From everything Bethesda has shown so far Dishonored 2 is looking to be a rather lovely game... in its own shadowy, blood-splattered way. But given the increased graphical fidelity I'm sure some of you are currently wondering if your your PCs actually run it.
Well, wonder no more as Bethesda has just recently decided to reveal not only the minimum and recommended system requirements, but also all of the advanced PC settings you'll be able to fiddle with. While this has no absolutely nothing to do with the system requirements, I just want to point out that one of the settings directly relates to the quality of rat shadows... rat shadows! With that bizarre little bit of trivia now out of the way, here are all of the requirement and PC specific settings:
ArcheAge will be getting its largest free expansion on December 10
- By Ash
- in News
To say that ArcheAge got off to a bad start would be a massive, massive understatement. From the very moment it launched there was a horde of bots placing claims on every available stretch of land, the lag was almost unbearable, and to top it all off there were also hour-long queues just to get a mere chance to play! Given how much ArcheAge advertised itself as a game with complete player freedom, the first few months ended up being a grand disappointment for the vast majority of the playerbase, which soon enough started to leave for greener pastures.
If you're one of these players you might want to take another look at ArcheAge as the upcoming Revelation expansion seems to be quite promising. It will bring with it Fresh Start Servers where you can once again experience the early days of ArcheAge with everyone on equal footing, but also two brand-new playable races (Dwarves and Warborn), a bunch of new regions to explore, a new Abyssal Skill system, as well as a variety of other additions.
Since trying to explain all of this in brief is a pretty damn impossible task, may I suggest you have a look at the recently posted preview video:
World of Warcraft will soon be getting a significant PvP balance patch
- By Ash
- in News
World of Warcraft: Legion brought with it massive changes to all classes, the biggest of which was a reduction in the number of available spells. While this ability pruning greatly benefited players who focused on raiding and dungeons, its effect on PvP balance has been rather disastrous. Back in the day classes were balanced around both their utility and damage output, but with so many abilities now removed the only thing some classes have to offer is pure damage, and as you can imagine that's not exactly easy to balance.
For example, the brand new and exciting Havoc Demon Hunters are currently almost entirely useless in high-end PvP as they have no real defensive abilities and only bring pure damage to the table. If you buff their damage too much they will suddenly become a part of 'instakill' team compositions which are obviously bad for the game, but if you err on the side of caution they will continue to be useless because you could just bring a highly versatile Frost Mage instead.
This unfortunate situation is exactly what the PvP balance team is trying to address with the upcoming balance changes. Whether they will actually have the desired effect or not, that I'm not sure, but here are the patch notes so you can see for yourself:
Myst's spiritual successor Obduction has been updated with Oculus Rift VR support
- By Ash
- in News
As I've mentioned numerous times throughout my review, Obduction features an incredible world that just begs to be explored. There's alien artifacts strewn about all over the place, every location oozes a particular atmosphere and charm, and overall Obduction is just downright lovely to look at.
Given how much of Obduction is centered around exploration and visual storytelling I am very glad to announce that it has just recently been updated to support Oculus Rift VR! And for those of you that are using the Vive, worry not as the developers have previously stated that they are working on it, though there is no release date set just yet. So why is this such exciting news? Well, just take a look at Obduction's launch trailer and try to tell me you wouldn't want to explore this place in person: