Notch skeptical of free-to-play, says it’s loved by devs – not players
Don’t call Scrolls a free-to-play game. Sure, you can buy new pieces of legally contested parchment using the contents of your real-life piggy bank, but Notch isn’t mincing words. His game, you see, isn’t free. Moreover, he finds the claim that these money-munching games won’t take a bite out of your bank account to be about as ludicrous as the notion that Scrolls could be confused with a sprawling, open-world fantasy RPG.
EA: There’s “scope” for a strategic Syndicate remake, “loads of potential” on PC
Instead of making your head hurt with brain-taxing tactics, Syndicate’s now all about making brains explode. That’s not to say the hack-tacular FPS looks bad by any means. It’s just that, instead of teaching an old dog new tricks, EA simply bought a new dog.
What of Syndicate’s long-time supporters, though? Well, things may not be as grim as they initially seemed. Turns out, EA’s open to the idea of giving the original futuristic noggin-scrambler a modern makeover. It’s simply a matter of finding the right platform.
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter launches on Steam with a live-action trailer (of sorts)
Often have I turned my face toward a deaf heaven and cried, “Why can’t Serious Sam be a turn-based RPG?”
Apparently, it can. In a shocking turn of events, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, from indie developer Vlambeer, follows Sam into something that looks a lot like an SNES-era JRPG. To judge from the trailer above, however, The Random Encounter has one big advantage over its predecessors: it knows exactly how ridiculous it is.
The Steam page promises turn-based battles, “serious strategy,” and a “challenge mode” in which players battle endless waves of enemies until they are overcome and sent to leaderboard Valhalla. I’d love to tell you more, but words fail when faced with something like this.
You can get Serious Sam: The Random Encounter via Steam.
CCP chief on layoffs, mistakes: “We had the mindset that we could achieve anything.”
Last week, CCP announced major layoffs and a significant shift in priorities away from Vampire: The Masquerade-themed MMO World of Darkness and back toward EVE Online.
We had a long chat with CEO Hilmar Petursson about the changes, and where they leave CCP. He explains why CCP is narrowing its focus, and says that it was “hubris” that led CCP astray.
Have your say: What do you think of World of Warcraft’s new expansion?
At Blizzcon this year we caught a glimpse of the future of World of Warcraft, and it’s full of kung-fu Panda monks. This time round there won’t be a world-ending monster threatening to destroy Azeroth, only Pandas, and their lovely homelands of Pandaria. And a new Monk class. And new PVE scenarios. And a new poke-tastic pet battle system. Oh, and the talent system is being scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.
One way or another, Mists of Pandaria is going to be quite something, but what do you think of it? Did the very mention of a race of pandas send you running for the ‘cancel subscription’ button, or do you dig the cuddly new race? If you’re a lapsed subscriber, will Pandaria tempt you back into Azeroth? And what about all the other announcements at Blizzcon this year? Are you tempted by the WoW Annual Pass, and what do you think of Blizzard DOTA? And what about those new StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm units? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
And in other PC gaming news…
Today in the PC gamer offices, Tim Edwards killed over 200 police officers.
It wasn’t his fault, he was just trying to rob a couple of banks, but the poor coppers kept trying to stop him from taking what he’d rightfully stolen. So he shot them. He shot police officers and security guards, he shot S.W.A.T. team members and snipers. He even shot the occasional civilian who popped his head up at the wrong moment. He killed them all. It wasn’t just him though, Tom F, Henry and I backed him up. We weren’t as bloodthirsty as him, but we certainly gunned down our own fair share of five-ohs. We are bad men. If the mainstream media ever find out about Payday: The Heist, we’re all doomed.
Get down on the god damned floor and give me a selection of PC gaming news!
Team Fortress 2 free-to-play shift increased player base “by a factor of five” says Newell
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell gave a fascinating insight into the pricing experiments Valve have been running with Steam at the WTIA TechNW panel in Seattle recently, revealing that Team Fortress 2′s shift to free to play quintupled its player base.
During the course of the seven minute aside, covered on Geekwire, Newell also revealed that the conversion rate of the number of free players who go on to buy something is “20 to 30 percent” for Team Fortress 2, much higher than the 2-3% conversion rate seen by other free-to-play games.
Newell said that he thinks the announcement of Team Fortress 2 as a “free-to-play” game, and not just outright “free” was part of TF2′s successful shift of payment model, perhaps underestimating the power of the raw, uncontrollable human drive to acquire and hoard sweet new hats.
Battlefield 3 trailer mixes live action with in-game footage
EA has released a new boundary-blurring trailer for its upcoming Battlefield 3. Consisting of live-action video intermingled with in-game footage, the trailer poses the question, “Is it real, or is it Battlefield 3?”
It’s a fairly smart way to promote the new game’s Frostbite 2 engine, which promises a new level of gritty, military realism. The fast cutting and (presumably) CGI effects in the live-action portions video challenge the viewer’s notion of reality, and this piece is fast becoming an A-level media studies essay. That said, it’s fairly easy to spot the live-action bits – they’re the ones that look like they’re not from a computer game.
There are a few other clues. The camera’s generally level and smooth, whereas the in-game footage is marked out by its shakicamness. The contrast levels generally seem to be stronger in the in-game footage, too. But we still reckon EA’s going to turn around and say, “This is actually all in-game footage. You fools!” Connection issues with the multiplayer side of the game have delayed our review, but you can still read our Battlefield 3 first impressions.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer goes live action, fights dragon
No, Bethesda haven’t upgraded their engine again, this is real life. Right down to the dragon. Yes, that is a real dragon, genetically engineered in Bethesda’s bio-vaults, where a series of iterative experiments from Bethesda’s top mad scientists yielded a creature that could land dramatically in front of heroes and roar at them without actually attacking or hurting anybody. All it took was some minor gene splicing, incorporating several species of lizard, a honey badger and a little bit of Ostrich to achieve the desired effect.
Interestingly, the man you see walking towards the dragon is entirely constructed from CGI, as putting a real person near the monster was considered too dangerous. An easy task for a company with enough money to create a high-budget live-action trailer for a game that looks great on its own. We can’t wait for Skyrim. It’s out on November 11.
Battlefield 3 first impressions
I’ve been playing Battlefield 3 for the last few days. You might have noticed reviews appearing on other sites, but not here on PCGamer.com. That’s because, due to issues with the game, I haven’t been able to play enough of either the co-operative or multiplayer modes. I don’t know if these problems will be part of the final release, or whether they’re specific to the review set up, but for now we’ve decided to wait until we can play it more. Read on for more details on the problems we encountered, and my thoughts on the singleplayer, which I’ve completed.
Medal of Honor 2 teased in Battlefield 3 boxed copies
Boxed copies of Battlefield 3 come with a flyer for an upcoming Medal of Honor title, according to a post on NeoGaf.
It’s been widely hinted that Danger Close – who made the single-player campaign of last year’s beardy MoH reboot – is working on a new instalment of the franchise.
Watch the sensational Blizzcon 2011 StarCraft 2 Grand Final
It wasn’t only the GSL finals that took place at Blizzcon 2011 this weekend. Blizzard threw a separate tournament with a $50,000 prize pot to take advantage of the wealth of top StarCraft 2 talent in California. It was a dramatic and close fought contest that resulted in one of the most spectacular StarCraft 2 finals ever. VG247 have spotted a video of that final game online. You’ll find it embedded below. If you don’t want to know who the finalists are, then read no further. If you want to see an incredible StarCraft 2 game played in front of thousands of rapt fans then you’re in for a treat.
Team Fortress 2 Halloween update incoming, modders launch Night of the Living Update
The Team Fortress 2 Halloween Update is fast approaching, the first since it went free to play earlier this year. To prepare new players for the sheer terror of the annual TF2 event, Valve are recommending that players return to the Mann Manor map to battle last year’s boss monster, the Horseless Headless Horseman. They also indicate that the TF2 modding community has started their own unofficial Halloween event, a week long Night of the Living Update.
Valve and Xsolla add Steam Wallet support to Russian cash kiosks
Gamers in Russia can now add hard-earned rubles to their Steam Account Wallet via cash kiosks, according to an announcement posted on Steam.
The move will allow Russia’s 38 million gamers to buy games with real cash through the country’s 450,000 cash kiosks in an effort to make it easier to buy games legally in a country with very high rates of PC game piracy.
Pre-order Sonic Generations, get other Sonic games for free
For a complete genetic freak of a hedgehog (he’s blue!), Sonic’s not done too badly. His latest adventure – Sonic Generations – sees the speedy erinaceinae travel through time with his mates and hopefully revisit the period of history before Sonic titles became a bit poo.
Pre-order the title on Steam and you’ll get Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic 3 and Knuckles chucked in, gratis. If you weren’t alive in the 1990s, 3D Blast is the uncontrollable isometric one, but Sonic 3 and Knuckles still stands up, with Knuckles as a Moriarty to Sonic’s Holmes.
That’s on top of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, which is an unlockable within Sonic Generations itself. That’s like meta-meta textuality.
Generations runs and rolls onto Steam on 4 November for £19.99.
