Dwarf Fortress update adds “secret vampire dwarves” and werewolf invasions
Remarkable indie adventure generator, Dwarf Fortress has just received a great big update. Version 0.34.01 is now free to download from the official site, adding fresh new ways for your Dwarves to die horribly. Vampire dwarves can infiltrate your settlements and full moons bring the added threat of werewolf invasion. More unpleasantly, “Ingested syndromes are now possible” in adventure mode, so you’ll have to watch what you eat when exploring the new cities present in the latest update.
There are some gems in the bug fix list as well. “Demons masquerading as gods will try a little harder” and the devs have “restricted mandates so they’ll be more reasonable.” Thank heavens for that! Find the rest of the patch notes below. For more Dwartress, check out our Dwarf Fortress diary, a tale of seven drunk dwarves and their quest to reach hell.
Star Trek Online season four kicks off on Saturday, the Jem’Hadar are back
Star Trek Online’s following up on its recent relaunch as a free-to-play MMO with a new episode titled “the 2800,” which will start on Saturday. The new season of story quests will kick off with the reappearance of a Dominion fleet of genetically engineered super-soldiers called the Jem’Hadar at Deep Space 9.
The remaining four episodes will be released every Saturday after that until the season finale on March 10, in which the [glowing light/sparkly cloud/space amoeba] you thought was god turns out to be [an advanced alien lifeform/a satellite that's reached the edges of space and evolved into a troll] who can only be stopped using [a really big missile/ a discombobulated tachyon energy pulse/ true love].
You can play Star Trek Online for free by signing up and downloading the client from the Star Trek Online site. As well as the trailer above, there are these four screenshots featuring wormholes and space-walking.
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.
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.
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?
This week’s best free PC games
Last week played host to the annual Global Game Jam, in which developers around the world strive to create an entire game within the ludicrously short period of 48 hours. The sheer number of entries is overwhelming, and I’ve not managed to play nearly enough of them to say which are the best. Among this week’s pick of free games are three I’ve found interesting so far, along with a collection of titles developed in association with the London Science Museum. Head below the jump for another week’s worth of free PC gaming.
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.
DCUO offers a creative solution to the age-old “Where’s the healer?” problem
I’ve always liked DC Universe Online’s twist on the classic tank-healer-DPS trinity that defines most MMORPG’s group roles. DCUO gives everyone access to two roles—DPS and then either tank, healer, or control (CC and power-restoration), based on their power selection—and lets them swap between them whenever they want.
It’s a hybrid system that lets players specialize, while limiting the usual problem of there being too few healers or tanks because most people want to be able to level and solo efficiently. As a result, the queue times in DCUO are much shorter than they are in many other MMOs. And with the Role-Optional Alerts SOE’s adding in the game’s next update, which use specialized buffs to make any combination of players an effective group, players should be able to form groups almost instantly.
This week’s best free PC games
It’s the unsettling, frozen warzone of The Snowfield that’s had me most intrigued this week: an experimental indie game that plays with original ideas in narrative design is always worth a few paragraphs of rambling in my book. But there are three other freebies of exemplary quality. The Cat That Got The Milk is a delightfully chaotic two-button title, and the wonderfully named Eunaborb is an intriguing take on crazy golf. Elsewhere, The Fourth Wall takes a single clever game mechanic and runs with it, in exactly the right direction. Read on for my thoughts on these lovely free games.
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.
This week’s best free PC games
This week, I’ve mainly been wowed by wonderful Half-Life 2 mod The Stanley Parable, which I finally got round to playing. Since it’s a mod, and it’s not from the past seven days, I figured it’d be a bit unreasonable to spend these column inches on that, which is why this week you get a wholly irrelevant introduction. However, read on, and you’ll find such riches as: a rabbit that’s been turned into a were-bunny, a tin man with one leg, a claustrophobic triangle and a game about setting up a business. Also: play The Stanley Parable.
Dungeons & Dragons Online leaps into The Forgotten Realms with its first expansion
The Forgotten Realms is as classic a D&D setting as they get: a lost realm related to our own where magic runs rampant, deities are active, and–well, just imagine most any classic RPG game you’ve played and you’ll see hints of The Forgotten Realms’ influence. And Update 13 is finally bringing it to Dungeons & Dragons Online, which is still offering it’s brand of flexible free-to-play options to the masses. I recently sat down with the game’s Executive Producer Fernando Paiz to talk about what the upcoming content will look like in DDO’s first-ever expansion: Menace of the Underdark.
Q.U.B.E. recoups Indie Fund investment in four days
Q.U.B.E. is the first project released to be bankrolled by the Indie Fund, an organisation made up of a series of successful indie developers looking to provide hands-off financial support to exciting new game makers. A post on the Indie Fund blog, spotted by Joystiq, says that they have recouped their $90,000 investment after just four days.
“In the short time that it’s been available on Steam, Q.U.B.E. has sold over 12,000 copies,” say the Indie Fund. “Indie Fund recouped its investment in Q.U.B.E., and now we’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Toxic Games.”
This week’s best free PC games
So, a Ludum Dare 48-hour development competition happened recently, and three of the games below are a result of it. Frostbite smartly works an entire game around the concept of deadly cold, Last Breath is about a dead dog, and ZERO2 sees you investigating something odd among snowy hills. Elsewhere, absolutely enormous point-and-click adventure Donna: Avenger of Blood is a dark and brooding title that demands many hours of your time. Read on for more juicy details on this week’s best freebies!
Red Orchestra 2 mod tools released
The full version of the Red Orchestra 2 SDK has been released for free, giving RO2 owners the opportunity to create maps and game modes for Tripwire’s multiplayer shooter. The developers have released a few limited versions of the SDK, but the full suite of tools is now available.
“Users can now make and publish everything from simple mods and mutators, through custom maps and on to full total conversion mods,” Tripwire say, mentioning that big mods like Rising Storm, In Country Vietnam and Iron Europe are already in development. You can grab the mod tools from the Tools tab of your Steam account.
Tripwire are no strangers to the modding scene. Killing Floor and Red Orchestra started out as mods for Unreal 2004. Hopefully the SDK release can inspire another wave of talented modders.
