And in other PC gaming news…
The music, voices and video editing in the video above were all done by ONE MAN. It’s a Portal 2 themed version of Danny Elfman’s This is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It proved so infectious that it’s taken over today’s top spot. Have no fear, you’ll find our pick of the day from Dead End Thrills just below, with today’s collection of PC gaming news.
Prison Architect “paid alpha” planned for later this year
We met up with Introversion at A Bit of Alright last week to talk about how development is going on their new project, Prison Architect. Creative director, Chris Delay and managing director Mark Morris told us about their plans for a “paid alpha” later this year.
The alpha could be released “maybe half way through/two thirds through of this year, so maybe September time,” says Chris. The paid alpha will give players the opportunity to pay for a pre-order to get immediate access to the build that Introversion are currently working on.
Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai lead designer on the rise of guns and “the last hurrah of archery”
Which are better, guns, or bows and arrows? Guns, of course, you might think, but then you have to consider the long reload times, their tendency to explode, their unreliability in wet conditions. These are some of the issues that Total War lead designer James Russell and the team at The Creative Assembly think about every day as they balance the clash of old and new weaponry in Fall of the Samurai.
Tim Schafer says he’d “love to do” Psychonauts 2, Notch offers to fund it
Did you love Psychonauts? Have you often wished for a sequel that would continue Raz’ adventures? You’re not alone. Psychonauts creator, Tim Schafer mentions to Digital Spy that he’s pitched Psychonauts 2 several times to different publishers, but “no-one has taken the bait so far.”
“I’d love to do that game,” he says. “But I’d have to convince someone to just give me a few million dollars, that’s all.”
A few million dollars? If only there were some sort of successful indie developer. One who loved the original, someone with the kind of dosh to prop up development on a sequel. Perhaps someone with a nice hat and a name that rhymes with “scotch.”
Blizzard’s Battle.Net balance is live
The Battle.net balance will let players convert cash into Blizzard bucks, which can be used to buy Blizzardy bits like World of Warcraft game time, realm transfers and name changes, or even digital downloads of StarCraft 2 and Diablo 2. A post on the Battle.Net site says that the Battle.Net Balance is now up and running for everyone with a Battle.Net account.
It’s also a very important piece of infrastructure that’ll prop up Diablo 3′s in-game auction house. The system will let you put the profits you’ve made selling off useless loot towards other Blizzard game services. We can expect to see Battle.Net balance syncing up with the Blizzard Arcade in future. That could let players charge for mods they’ve made using StarCraft 2′s editing tools. That’s set to arrive alongside StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm.
Hawken will be free to play, out in December, sign up for the closed beta now
“I’m throwing my wallet at the screen but nothing is happening!” is a common reaction to the trailers for stunning indie multiplayer mech-war project, Hawken. According to a blog post on the Hawken site, you won’t need your wallet at all. It’ll be released as a free to play game on December 12 this year.
And in other PC gaming news…
We’ll be showing off more of Duncan Harris’ excellent screenshot work – like the image above – as time goes on. You can see the full version at Dead End Thrills.
From videogame photography to videogame history. Graham took a look at the first hours of Minecraft, as unwitting TIGSource forumites witnessed the birth of one of the most important games of recent years – as well as the beginning of a job for life for Notch’s accountant. Bethesda finally announced a release date for the Skyrim Creation Kit, which while a little more complicated than stacking blocks will allow you to start making your own mods from tomorrow. Finally, the third part of our Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai interview series revealed that the average player spends more than a hundred hours in the game.
Total War: Shogun 2 average user plays “for about a hundred hours”
Lead designer of Shogun 2, James Russell, knows just how much fans love Total War. The series typically produces enormous games capable of generating epic storylines across decades of war. Even then, it’s surprising just how much time players spend building their empires. Russell says that “the average” Total War campaigner “plays for about a hundred hours.” That is a lot of war.
The process of managing your empire from the strategic view and then fighting hour-long battles can eat up a lot of time, but “the real crux of it,” according to Russell, is that “Total War has great replayability.”
Indie Gala 2 is live, includes Greed Corp, InMomentum, Roboblitz and more
The second Indie Gala bundle is go! It includes three escalating indie game packages. The Carebear Bundle contains Critical Mass, Fortix 2 and Bunch of Heroes as well as three music albums, Casey Lalonde’s Skitter EP, Comfort by Giraffage and the Beautiful EP by The Numbers. You can choose to pay between $1 and $5.55 for that lot, and can choose how your payment is distributed between the developers, charities (Save the Children and Child’s Play), and the Indie Gala organisers.
Skyrim Creation Kit to be released tomorrow with “special surprise”
A tweet from Bethesda’s VP of PR, Pete Hines, on Friday announced that the long-awaited Skyrim Creation Kit will be out tomorrow. TOMORROW. The tools will let modders create their own campaigns using the same tools that Bethesda use to create their environments. Take a look at last week’s Creation Kit trailer for an idea of what’s included.
We’ve upgraded our Minecraft US server. Come build with us!
You all have built some amazing things on our Minecraft server over the past year, and we’re excited to keep things going! We recently upgraded our server’s hardware and software to boost performance and allow for more simultaneous users, and we added some new plugins to keep things interesting.
Check out the video that Jpang (one of the server’s volunteer moderators) made to showcase the awesome things the community has built, and then come join us!
Server IP address: 207.210.252.12:25566
Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/PCGMCUS
Contact mdoerators: pcgmcusmods@gmail.com
Champion Roundtable: Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert
Every two weeks, we give you our verdict on whether or not the latest League of Legends champion is worth buying. Take a seat at the table with Josh, Lucas, and Hollander Cooper as they wax poetic on the joys of blowing people up with magical bombs as a maniacal Yordle. Could Ziggs be the diminutive demolitions expert you’ve been looking for?
Trion reflects on a year of Rift
I’ll admit it. The first time a rift’s tentacles came out of the sky at me, I squealed and ran like a little girl. A lot has happened in the year since that terrifying exchange. Scott Hartsman, Chief Creative Officer and Executive Producer at Trion Worlds, helps us reflect on all that’s changed and reveals what might come to Rift in the next year.
The Old Republic chart shows you the path to 50, every planet and Flashpoint included
Today is a day of maps, apparently. OldRepublic.net just released an awesome galaxy guide that maps out the suggested path to progress through all of The Old Republic’s Flashpoints and planets.
It looks like I’ve already missed two Flashpoints on my new Sniper—whoops! Well, at least I shouldn’t have a problem beating them now that I’m 10 levels higher than the enemies there. I’ll be keeping this guide handy as I continue leveling up this weekend, and you can use it to avoid my same foolish mistakes.
Never get lost in DCUO’s Watchtower again with this detailed fan-made map
DC Universe does a lot of things really well, but building easily-navigable hangout spots is not one of them. The Justice League Watchtower and Hall of Doom serve as the primary meeting points for all Hero and Villain characters, respectively. Both house a ton of useful objects—like the Phase Shifter, which allows you to swap between PvE and PvP phases of the server at will—but not all of them are easy to find.
The cryptically-named RedDragon74 over at DCUO Life has done heroes a great service by putting together an all-encompassing map that labels the locations of everything you’ll need in the Watchtower and also provides a full list of bounty locations and a complete breakdown of how to earn the different PvE currencies at endgame. It’s not the prettiest map ever made, but all the info is here.
