Time to take down Braniac: exclusive reveal of DC Universe Online’s next big update
That intergalactic jerk Braniac has been bottling the cities in DC Universe Online and stealing Earth’s citizens for too long. His attempted take-over for Earth has been the primary storyline in DC Universe Online for the past year, since the game’s launch in January 2011. A year and a few raids later, we’re finally going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Mr. smarty-pants when the next content pack takes us to Wonder Woman’s native island of Themyscira. We’ve got the exclusive scoop on what players will find there, and where DCUO is headed after its big, bad villain is down for the count.
A Game of Thrones trailer and screenshots explore Riverspring
Riverspring is the setting for the latest Game of Thrones trailer. It’s the home town of Red Priest, Alester Sarwyck, one of the RPG’s two playable characters. The other is Mors, a member of the hardened, reclusive order of the Black Watch. The threads of their separate stories are sure to tangle in a campaign that promises “a twisting plot filled with betrayal and violence.” A typical day in Westeros, then
Cyanide have taken the dark fantasy label a little too literally in the eight new screenshots they’ve released, but if you squint, you can make out some scowling warriors and the worn stone of Riverspring’s great halls. The release date is set for “early 2012.” Wait, that’s pretty much now! The RPG could bridge the gap until April 1, when the second series starts on HBO. You’ll find the screenshots below, but you’ll probably want to click on this first to set the mood.
Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai screenshots show gatling gun carnage
The Samurai are doomed. That’s according to the latest batch of Total War: Shogun 2 screenshots, which show off lots of new imperial weaponry. Cannons, gatling guns and muskets will make defending the Shogunate a very tough task. Fall of the Samurai’s new weaponry has to be dramatic, mind, “mild decline of the Samurai” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. We’ll get to fight with the expansion’s new land and naval units on March 23.
You’ll find plenty more in our big preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK. Meanwhile, see samurai being blown apart and roasted in the new grabs below, which also feature some of Fall of the Samurai’s new Agents.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown screenshots show Sectoids and ‘splodes
More screenshots of XCOM: Enemy Unknown have appeared on Game Informer, illustrating two combat missions featuring some familiar enemies. The first encounter has a three-person squad taking on a squad of aliens that have decided to invade a convenience store to grab a can of Coke. The heavy weapons guy gets pinned behind a van, and a soldier must take to the rooftops to get a firing angle and distract the monsters. That frees up the heavy, who unhooks his boomstick and slots a rocket through the doorway, obliterating the alien menace and saving vital Coca Cola stocks for the coming war.
They also manage to raid the mulchy green invader remains, finding alien tech to send back to base. in XCOM, your scientists can dismantle alien tech to learn how it’s made, and incorporate that tech into new toys for your ground-assault teams. Here are nine screenshots from the fight.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion screenshots show Titan class battleships
Rebellion will be the first standalone expansion for the marvellous 4X space strategy, Sins of a Solar Empire. It’ll split the universe into two factions, loyalists and rebels. You can join one side or the other to gain access to new tech trees and alternative versions of each faction’s most powerful vessels.
The expansion will also add jumbo sized battlecraft called Titans. These monsters will be even bigger than capital ships and will be able to take on enemy fleets single-handedly. They’ll get to dissolve incoming pirate raids with new giant laser beams, prettified by a new lighting engine. See Titans and their pet lasers in action in these new screenshots.
Warface screenshots have sliding, shooting and massive mech
Today I accidentally knocked over Owen’s coffee, and SAW THE FACE OF WAR. It looked like this: >:(
All the soldiers in Crytek’s free to play multiplayer shooter, Warface, make this face at all times, even in victory. Sadly they’re all facing away from the camera in the three new screenshots over on RPS, doing soldiery things like shooting mechs from the cover of a shattered tree stump. One chap is firing and sliding simultaneously, one of Crysis 2′s most common manoeuvres.
Warface will have class-based competitive multiplayer, co-op missions and a “constantly updated extensive PVE universe.” It’s built with CryEngine 3 as well, so it’ll be Maximum Pretty. See for yourself in these carefully posed shots.
Muster the Rohirrim! Lord of the Rings Online rides to Rohan
Fresh off the heals of the Lord of the Rings Online expansion that pit us against Saruman, Rise of Isengard, players will finally get to take their first step in the realm of Theoden himself, Rohan! I sat down with the game’s executive producer, Kate Paiz, to hear all about the new content, gameplay mechanics and adventure coming to ring-chasers this Fall.
League of Legends’ AI bots multiply, get smarter, and move to Dominion [Hands-on]
I ran out of my spawn area on League of Legends’ Dominion map and made a move for the nearest capture-point, which an enemy Sona was stealing from us. I was confident I could take the flimsy healer and reclaim our home point, but before I can get in range, a burst of flames erupts around me and burning-man Brand bursts from the bushes. He’s now pacing side-to-side between me and Sona, tossing out flames if I get close, but stubbornly refusing to let me drag him off point, where I could safely kill him.
Now, Brand running interference on a point in Dominion isn’t that unusual—but this Brand is a bot, and he’s ruining my day, courtesy of the improved AI and bot rosters being added to League of Legends in the next few weeks.
Resident Evil 6 screenshots show zombie president, armoured cars and EXPLOSIONS
Capcom have sent over the first set of Resident Evil 6 screenshots. They look to be high res renders taken from the debut trailer which means we get a closer look at the zombie president, and other ‘orrible creatures afflicted by the latest escaped virus. If it’s in keeping with previous Resident Evils, the bioweapon was no doubt created by the least secretive, most evil secret evil organisation ever devised for a videogame, The Umbrella Corporation (and its various malicious subsidiaries).
Most of the shots are the dark brooding sort that you’d expect from a series with Resi’s survival horror roots, but it’ll almost certainly contain lots of action, a la Resident Evil 5, so let’s kick things off with an explosion. BOOM!
World of Warplanes trailer and screenshots soar in
If Wargaming.net can make World of Warplanes as addictive and accessible as World of Tanks, we may slightly doomed. The new trailer above gives us an idea of the number of customisation options that each plane will have, even if there’s no actual in-game footage just yet.
A batch of new screenshots have been released, though, showing a selection of planes in action. They’ll come in three classes, single engine light jets, heavy fighters and strafing aircraft designed to dominate ground forces. Check them out below. You can find out more on the World of Warplanes site.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 screenshots show new maps set in Italy and Central Park
Here are nine new screenshots from the first two DLC maps for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The maps will arrive first for Xbox 360 Elite subscribers, but will likely come to our machines about a month later. The sunny, continental map, Piazza is a tight, winding map set in Italy. As with every Call of Duty map “attacks from behind, above and below are an ever-constant threat,” but there will be a strong close combat focus, with plenty of flanking routes.
The other map will be called Liberation, and is set in a militarised Central Park, full of long sight lines perfect for snipers. If there’s one thing everybody loves most about Call of Duty, it’s snipers. “Always be aware of nearby sightlines to avoid becoming fodder for the enemy,” reads the fact sheet. Alternatively, just go sniper and own the map yourself. Screenshots ho!
The Old Republic tries out survival-horror with its next endgame Flashpoint, Kaon Under Siege
It’s easy to forget that the world of Star Wars is filled with dirty, scary places–it’s not all Gungan cities and Ewok campfires. BioWare’s tapping into this darker side of Star Wars in the first Flashpoint added to The Old Republic after its launch, in the big Rise of the Rakghouls update coming on January 17th. It looks spooky, frantic, and – most importantly – will feature a full story with group choices and consequences, much like the game’s first two Flashpoints: Black Talon and Esseles.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown screenshots get close to combat
Three more XCOM: Enemy Unknown screenshots have appeared on Game Informer, giving us a closer look at Enemy Unknown’s soldier and alien design. As with the original X-Com, soldiers will be fully customisable. Enemy Unknown’s combat engine plans to reflect all of these customisations visually with an engine that will let us zoom extremely close to the action. There’s no sign of the original’s bizarre haircuts yet, though.
South Park screenshots show combat, elves, hippies, hammers
Some new screenshots of Obsidian’s South Park RPG have appeared on The Guardian. They look uncannily similar to the TV show, which somehow only seems to compound the strangeness of the fact that the creators of Fallout: New Vegas are making a South Park game. Is it really happening? It must be.
The Guardian mention that the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are writing the game, and have forwarded oodles of artwork and style guides from the TV series onto Obsidian. That explains why the screens are so authentic. Combat will be turn based, with your party lining up on the left and an array of enemies on the right. Soda pop and coffee can be used to buff your team, who will be made up of the shows most famous stars.
It’s due out sometime this year. The screens below show plenty of combat, and an instance in which Butters attacks a hippy with a massive hammer.
Max Payne 3 screenshots show multiplayer combat
The latest Max Payne 3 screenshots give us our first look at the new multiplayer mode, as season favourites MaxPayneDev3, 4 and 5 take on blue team underdogs MaxPayneDev7, 8 and 9. It’s weird to see nametags floating over people’s heads in a Max Payne game, but it looks as though we’ll be able to dive through things and over things with the same dexterity as Payne himself in multiplayer
The closest comparison I can think to how the whole thing might work is John Woo’s Stranglehold, and that was completely bonkers. You could swing from chandeliers and run up and down dinosaur spines in slow motion shooting each other. Max Payne 3 is likely to take a much more serious tone judging from the screenshots below.
