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EA has a new CEO: VP of EA Sports Andrew Wilson took the throne today, filling the seat John Riccitiello left behind in March. In a blog post, Wilson describes a plan to keep on doin’ what they’re doin’, saying that EA’s strategy is sound, and that continued investment in next-gen consoles and “mobile and PC free-to-play” is the thing to do.
Bohemia’s mobile turn-based strategy game, Arma Tactics, is coming to a more stationary platform on October 1st with a $9/£6 Steam release. It’s like Arma 3 (read our review) in that there are soldiers, but unlike Arma 3 in pretty much every other way. Tactics is a game of XCOM-style (at least on the surface) turn-based close-combat with story missions and randomly generated scenarios.
Blizzard has announced a plan to close Diablo 3′s real-money and gold auction houses next year, according to an announcement today by game director Josh Mosqueira and production director John Hight. Hight called the auction houses, where players could pick up hard-to-find, in-game items for real money or in-game currency, “a double-edged sword.”
In a world saturated by technology, The Long Dark wants to simulate “what-if?” moments of isolation, struggle, and survival, when our digital lives get stripped away. Hinterland Games, a brand new indie studio full of veteran developers is pitching the first-person game as a Kickstarter project, according to its official website.
Before Dark even begins, it spends a couple of hours staring into the mirror and hating its wannabe-vampire self for still having a reflection. It’s That Guy at the goth club, desperate to fit in, its clothes and makeup a copied uniform rather than a personal statement. Just for starters, its protagonist is called ‘Eric Bane’. Please let that sink in.
Hordes of postmen fill the street, armies of retail staff scurry through their fluorescent aisles, and the world’s console-owning population have simultaneously phoned in a variety of minor ailments. Grand Theft Auto V has launched and, by all reports, it’s A Big Deal. Unless you own a PC, that is, in which case, it’s a Tuesday.
What hope do we have of joining GTA 5′s triumvirate of crims and, more importantly, when? Rockstar’s sandbox of car chases and petty violence began its life on PC, but without an official announcement, can we assume that we’ll have a chance to holiday in Los Santos? Let’s delve into the murky lake of internet rumour, and fish out any facts we can find.
Former PC Gamer section editor Tom Francis has taken a break from his new job – playing Spelunky – to provide some new opportunities for existing and potential players of his own game, Gunpoint. Not least of these is a Steam Midweek Madness sale, which makes it half-price as of right now.
Also available are DLC upgrades, giving buyers of the Standard edition a chance to get the bonus-laden special and exclusive edition content, and Steam Trading Cards, giving players the chance to earn an emoticon of Conway punching some dude. Think of all the Steam chats you could spice up with that piece of pixel art.
An asylum surrounded by abandoned police cars, a main character rushing to the scene, the unmistakable sense that Bad Things are afoot. But what happens next? Is it: a) cheery resolution, joviality and picnics, or b) mounting dread, gore, and bursting limb monsters? I’ve got my suspicions. Let’s find out if they’re correct as we go through The Evil Within’s Tokyo Game Show trailer.
Rise of the Triad is a messy game. Partly because eyeballs can burst out of a man’s head and fly onto your screen, but also because its launch version had a fair share of glitches, exploits and performance problems. This first, massive patch attempts to fix those latter issues. You’ll still be strafing through a procession of raining man-chunks, but at least you’ll be doing it at a steady frame-rate.
In addition, the ‘old-school’ FPS is bolstering its rather good multiplayer mode with new maps. Five are being added, from a weird science tube, to a weird collection of chunky floating platforms. An update trailer takes you on the tour of these free battlegrounds.
Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator is a co-op game about flying a starship. Each member of the team takes a separate screen to take care of one aspect of the ship’s operations – weapons, science, communications, engineering and piloting, for example. Then you head out to explore space, meet mission-givers at space stations and battle space bandits while swaying theatrically in your chair every time the ship takes a hit.
Also, whenever you put all power to the engines, you have to say “all power to the engines!” and the captain has to say “engage!” There will be no tangible affect on your performance if you don’t, but it is nonetheless absolutely mandatory. Artemis is available on Steam now for £5 / $7, which is all the excuse I need to recommend it to anyone who can get a group of friends together in the same room to try it.
