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[Update]: After nearly seven years in development, the System Shock Remake will finally be launching in March 2023!
System Shock, previously known as System Shock Remastered, is a modern recreation of the classic action-RPG that brought about an evolution in the genre. The remastered version, besides bringing in modern graphics and audio, also features improved gameplay mechanics, level design and even enemy behavior, all in an effort to create the ultimate version of System Shock.
The project launched on Kickstarter around two weeks ago and from the very beginning it was obvious that the gaming community is more than ready for a brand new iteration of System Shock. After gathering well over $400,000 during its first two days, the project has now breached its initial $900,000 goal as well, and with 18 days left its time to start thinking about stretch goals!
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Team Fortress 2 was recently updated with a proper competitive mode, a feature that has taken Valve around 7 years to finally complete, but a welcome feature nonetheless. However, while the competitive side got some much needed improvements, the bread and butter of TF2, the insanity-fueled Casual Mode, ended up not only getting the short end of the stick, but the stick was also on fire.
Queue times went sky-high, a leaver penalty was implemented, players could no longer join matches in progress to fill out slots, autobalance was disabled so an undermanned team would continue getting stomped on until they all finally left, and a whole bunch of other nasty stuff. The point is, Casual Mode turned out to be neither casual, nor fun!
Thankfully, it does appear that Valve is well aware of these complaints and that they are currently working on correcting every single one.
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[Update #2]: Dwarf Fortress' new and improved version has now landed onto Steam, and I'm happy to say that it has done so alongside overwhelmingly positive reviews!.
[Update]: Dwarf Fortress devs have revealed the upcoming mouse-driven UI improvements!
Despite looking like a rejected game concept from the 1980's, Dwarf Fortress is incredibly complex as it runs simulations for nearly every event that happens within the game world, even the absurd stuff such as drunk Dwarves staggering about. Naturally, all of this is quite taxing on the performance and its not unusual for the frame rate in longer campaigns to dip down considerably, hence the constantly ongoing efforts to modernize the Dwarf Fortress client.
While the recent update to 64-bits most likely won't result in much of a speed boost just yet, it will allow you to create bigger and older worlds, though at the cost of even longer loading times, but such are the sacrifices you make when you want to create the greatest fortress in the world! Since the patch notes for Update 0.43.05 are quite brief, here's the whole thing:
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[Update]: Turns out its actually Pharah's mom, Ana! You can read all about her here.
While she was never officially confirmed, the Overwatch community has known for many months now that Blizzard is working on a new support sniper named Sombra. There's even an in-game voice line where Reaper specifically mentions her: "Where is Sombra when you need her?"
If the already overwhelming pile of evidence isn't enough to convince you, Blizzard has recently teased an image of a sniper rifle that has the capability to heal people from range, but also to cause a serious amount of harm. As you can see from the image above, Blizzard still hasn't released any actual information on this upcoming hero, but the full reveal will be coming in the near future.
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The Just Cause series seems like it would be a perfect fit for co-op multiplayer, just you and a couple of buddies causing chaos and wanton destruction for no reason other than to look at pretty explosions, yet its a feature that never came to be. Not in an official fashion anyway!
Nanos, the folks behind the rather excellent Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod, have recently posted an update on their progress with Just Cause 3's variant, and I have to say, its looking pretty damn impressive already. Here's the video showcasing a whole bunch of people flying around without any lag or issues with synchronization, and most surprisingly, no collisions with those pesky trees:
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While the Call of Duty series has practically become synonymous with modern military shooters, it appears that Activation was once more than willing to expand their horizons and try out some truly innovative ideas. In an open call for pitches back in 2008, Activision offered developers a chance to create their very own Call of Duty game, with the best prototype being granted the rights and funding to actually go through with the concept.
One of the most intriguing prototypes that came out of this was Vicarious Visions' Call of Duty: Roman Wars, a third-person action game that would've put the player into the role of a front-line Roman Soldier, with all of the technology and mounts you might expect from that era. While the project never came to be, GamesRadar has managed to gather a surprising amount of information about it, as well as an actual video demonstration of the game itself. Have a look:
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I've previously talked about the issues with Overwatch's Competitive Play and how they can potentially be solved, but I certainly didn't expect Blizzard would come out and start patching out all of the flaws, one by one, a mere week later. For a company quite famous for their lethargic patching schedule, its quite impressive to see how much work the Overwatch team has been putting in.
As for the patch itself, it has finally corrected the issue that resulted in disconnected players getting a loss and a massive rating penalty even if they swiftly reconnected back and subsequently led their team to victory. Along with this comes a small list of seemingly insignificant, but rather meaningful balance changes and bug fixes. You can read the full patch notes over at the Overwatch forums, but here are the most relevant bits:
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The latest weekly Civilization 6 video has arrived, and this time around the spotlight is on the Egyptian civilization. In a bit of a surprising turn of events, the Egyptian leader has been confirmed as Cleopatra, rather than Ramses II or Hatshepsut as many have expected given their prior appearance in the series.
If you're interested in all of the details on what Egypt is good at and what sort of playstyle they're orientated towards, I would suggest you direct your eyes to the video below:
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Attack on Titan is a currently insanely popular anime about a bunch of acrobats fighting against hordes of naked giants with a taste for human flesh, and no, I'm not actually exaggerating. Given its worldwide popularity it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that there is a video game adaptation in the works - A.O.T. Wings of Freedom.
From what is known so far, Wings of Freedom will give you the opportunity to follow the first season's story and its main characters, customize your Titan-slaying gear in a variety of ways, and naturally, slice up Titans in either singleplayer or multiplayer. If you're wondering what all of this looks like in gameplay terms, here's the recently posted "Decisive Battle" trailer:
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CD Projekt Red, despite a few blunders, has been absolutely tremendous when it comes to their post-launch support. The Witcher 1 was practically recreated with the free Enhanced Edition update and The Witcher 2 received a whole bunch of new content and quality of life changes with its free upgrade, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that they are doing something similar for The Witcher 3.
However, while the previous Enhanced Editions were just updates, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game of the Year Edition seems to be a stand-alone title that contains all of the available DLC. Whether its going to bring any new features or content, I don't know, but given CDPR's track record I wouldn't go as far as to discount it.