- By Ash
- in News
Telltale has recently gone on record by saying that all of their future games, starting with the upcoming Batman series, will sport local multiplayer in an effort to help bring players together. While that is a nifty idea on its own, they took things a bit further by saying that the system would allow for a couple of thousand people to simultaneously vote on in-game decisions!
If you think that sounds a bit too ridiculous, you are unfortunately correct as Telltale has recently updated their FAQ to bring that massive number down to a more manageable and realistic 4-12. Or in other words, the amount of players you'd be comfortable inviting to sit alongside you while you play as the caped crusader.
- By Ash
- in News
Overwatch has recently been updated with over 90 new cosmetic items, sprays and vocalizations, and while that would usually be cause for celebration, the way they were implemented mostly left disappointment in their wake. Unlike the previous batch of items, the new ones cannot be bought with in-game currency, will only be available for the next three weeks, and to top it all off, you can only receive them by buying (or slowly collecting) Summer Games Loot Boxes that contain a random mixture of old and new items.
As you might expect, this drastic shift towards the worst aspects of F2P gaming left many people puzzled and eager for an official comment from Blizzard, and in a pleasant turn of events, we've actually got one! Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch's Game Director, recently released a video discussing the new loot boxes and the team's future plans for other Seasonal Events. Have a look:
- By Ash
- in News
After being quietly rumored for around a month now, Ubisoft has finally come out and officially announced that The Division will be getting a movie adaptation. A move that I must admit is quite surprising given that The Division is not well known for its gripping story and compelling characters, but rather the opposite.
As for the movie itself, it will star Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar, The Martian) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, South Paw, Donnie Darko) in the lead roles, while the whole thing will be produced in a collaboration between Ubisoft Motion Pictures and Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories Productions.
- By Ash
- in News
Despite not being a fan of fighting games, even I can admit that the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 are some of the most fun comic book inspired punch-em-ups you can find. With that in mind, you would expect that a modern remaster of MUA 1 and 2 would be met with a shower of praise from long time fans and those that would soon become ones... but the reality is unfortunately a bit different.
As it turns out, the "remastered" version doesn't have any of the DLC characters, the menus are almost completely unusable as they don't respond to button prompts properly, you can't rebind the controls, and best of all, controller support is next to nonexistent. If you're among the unfortunate bunch of people that ended up buying the remastered versions for €60, you'll be somewhat glad to hear that the fixes are "on the way" according to a brief Twitter announcement:
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The cosmetics are now available. Visit this Reddit post to get a good look at all the new content.
Blizzard has stated multiple times now that the next batch of cosmetic items would be releasing near the end of summer, and with August now upon us we finally have a glimpse at the various new skins. As you might expect given the title, they are all themed around the various events from the upcoming Olympics, so you have skins such as track racer Tracer, Weightlifter Zarya, footballer Lucio and so forth.
Besides the various skins, there's also going to be a whole bunch of new voice lines, heroic intros, poses, and naturally, taunts. All in all, these new Summer Games Loot Boxes will come with 90 brand new items, and best of all, they won't contain any of the previous ones.
- By Ash
- in News
The Bioware forums were never exceptionally popular, but that's exactly why I enjoyed visiting them. There are very few other places you can go to in order to see what sort of insane theories the community has come up with in order to explain the various plot holes, character motivations, and other little elements only true RPG fanatics could ever find interesting.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and the same applies to the Bioware forums. In a recent announcement Bioware has stated that the official forums for the majority of their games will be closing down on August 26th as the team found themselves spending more time on social networks than in their own home turf. Here's the most interesting part of the message:
- By Ash
- in News
Bloodline Champions was once a truly unique and amazing game. It featured a cast of characters perfectly balanced against each other, and with no randomness in any aspect of gameplay every match was decided purely through player skill and team coordination. Unfortunately, one of the post-launch updates brought with it the very antithesis of balance, a whole bunch of stat boosting items and effects that ended up utterly destroying the delicate counterplay between the various characters and eventually drove the majority of the playerbase away.
While Bloodline Champions might be well and truly dead now, the studio behind it has decided to create a spiritual successor based on what everyone has come to love about BLC, the intricate balance and completely controlled environment. The good news, if the recent gameplay trailer is any judge, is that they have managed to do so quite successfully because outside of upgraded visuals this is exactly the same as the BLC as I remember. Have a look:
- By Ash
- in News
Fan projects with grandiose ideas appear every once in a while, usually populate a single web page with a bunch of concept art and then slowly fade away into obscurity. When I first heard about Starcraft Universe (or World of Starcraft as it used to be called) I thought very much the same as the idea of a fan-made MMORPG within the Starcraft 2 engine sounded like pure madness... and yet, here we are.
Starcraft Universe, after being successfully Kickstarted back in 2013, has finally appeared on the Starcraft 2 Arcade with an open and completely free beta, and from what little I've experienced so far, its a pretty damn impressive mod. Most surprisingly of all, however, the dev team has created a fully CGI trailer to celebrate its launch, and while its not on the same level as Blizzard's professional work, its quality is simply astounding. Have a look:
Prison Architect's Update 2.0 will bring in a new interface, more events, and better modding support
- By Ash
- in News
Despite releasing from Early Access last year Prison Architect has consistently been updated with new content, mechanics and balance changes. Among the various features that appeared throughout the patches the most interesting ones are the realistic weather effects, a hidden 3D mode, thermodynamics, and a constantly improving set of modding tools.
That already extensive list is soon going to get even bigger as Prison Architect's upcoming Update 2.0 brings with it a greatly redesigned and easier to use interface, a variety of new events to contend with, and best of all, another round of changed aimed at making the modding tools even better than they currently are. If you're interested in a detailed, hands-on look at all of these new changes, the developers have recently posted their customary preview video, though do be warned, its nearly 50 minutes long! Have a look:
- By Ash
- in News
With World of Warcraft's massive Legion expansion right around the corner, Blizzard has recently released a pre-expansion patch filled with a ton of class changes and reworks, a brand new transmogrification system, and various other minor changes and additions. The biggest and most widely announced feature of this long-awaited pre-expansion patch however, the early access to the new Demon Hunter class, was and still is unfortunately missing.
Thankfully, there is some good news as Blizzard has just announced that the early access for the Demon Hunter class will begin on August 9 for everyone that pre-purchases the Legion expansion. Do bear in mind, however, that due to the Collector's Edition being purely physical, you're not going to be able to play the Demon Hunter class early as there is no way to confirm your ownership.