Unreal Engine 4 to be shown at GDC next week
Slip into a beautiful nightmare with the Alan Wake Collector’s Edition [Giveaway]
Sure, we might’ve gotten it a tad later, but clearly the definitive Alan Wake experience is on the PC. In fact, this surreal survival-horror game looks so good that we’d like to share it with you. Well, to be honest, we just don’t want to be the only ones who have to go to sleep with the lights on after playing it. Read on to find out how you can snag yourself a free copy of Remedy Entertainment’s cerebral thriller—the Collector’s Edition, no less!
Exclusive: first MechWarrior Online trailer
Mechs are the best things to shoot at in games, I think. They’re expressive and durable: they have layers of armor and discrete body sections; they lose limbs; their ammo storage can spontaneously explode; they can power down to hide from your radar. MechWarrior Online sent along their first trailer for us to share with you—a teasery gaze at its mascot mech Atlas falling out of a dropship. Register a pilot name on the game’s website, if you’d like.
Guild Wars 2 graphics settings walkthrough
Guild Wars 2 is pretty, everyone knows that. But it’s also designed to scale down smoothly so that the game can run on lower-end machines as well. In this video, Gavin and Josh walk you through every graphics option available in the beta, and show you step-by-step how they effect the visual fidelity of the game in a variety of settings.
Storming into Hell (again) in The Secret World
So far, I’ve talked about The Secret World’s hit-and-miss Illuminati starting area, the frustrating-yet-awesome open-world Egypt zone, and the brilliant character customization system. But today, we’re getting into the really good stuff: the no-frills, fast-paced dungeons.
First up, we step through “The 13th Gate” and go straight to Hell. That’s right, the burning lake of fire where demons use liars for chew toys.
City of Heroes Dev Diary: Balancing story and combat in Bloody Bay
PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, City of Heroes’ World Designer Cord “Think Tank” Carney talks about their design goals of the Drowning in Blood trial, and how they tried to balance story and combat inside. Let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.
X-Plane review
The eight DVDs’ worth of scenery files have been installed, the joystick has been configured, and the cat has been fed. The moment has come.
Excitedly, I type the name of my local aerodrome into X-Plane 10’s search box and press ‘GO TO THIS AIRPORT’. A minute or two passes, then one of the dullest splash screens I’ve ever seen dissolves to reveal…
Hmm.
Would you like free satellite broadband for a year?
Do you live in rural Britain and can’t get a decent internet connection over ADSL? Satellite provider Tooway is offering to hook up 20 broadband ‘not spots’ with access to its 10Mbps service, completely free of charge for a year.
Competition entries must be submitted by a local council, but the equipment can be installed in any way the application sees fit. So if you’ve got a convincing case as to why your home, street, community centre or library should get a dish, you’ll need to convince your democratically elected representatives of your argument first.
Diablo 3 beta footage shows 20 minutes of barbarism, looting and levelling
Here’s 20 minutes of whacking we’ve taken straight from the latest build of the Diablo 3 beta. See a barbarian carve a path through the opening dungeons, picking up oodles of gold and powerful weaponry as she goes. Blizzard have been talking a lot about changes they’re making to the classic formula, but it’s still Diablo alright, albeit bigger and considerably prettier. It looks a lot better in motion than screenshots tend to suggest, and monsters have a satisfying tendency to fly absolutely miles when you thwack them. The fights aren’t especially tough at the very start, which is why they tend to fall over at the slightest touch. Still, it provides a lengthy insight into how Diablo 3 is shaping up. It’s due out spring this year.
Otherland trailer surfs realities, fights lizards
After initially reading this as “Otterland” I was always going to be slightly disappointed when this trailer on Evil Avatar turned out not to show a gritty RPG about a band of armoured otters. In fact, it’s another bemusing, violently colourful video for the upcoming MMO based on Tad William’s Otherland novels.
The books explore a future in which virtual reality is part of everyday life. Citizens spend much of their time as avatars, building their own virtual spaces and exploring the creations of others. These can take the form of be gleaming futuristic cityscapes, medieval castle grounds and sweeping green landscapes full of floating chess pieces, for some reason.
OnLive indie showcase lets you try 16 IGF nominees for free
You can play free trials of 16 IGF-nominated games right now using cloud-streaming service, OnLive. For the next two weeks you can log in and play 30 minute demos of games like Dear Esther, Dustforce, Frozen Synapse, Space Chem and, as Tom mentioned earlier, the excellent FTL. When GDC kicks off next week all OnLive games formerly nominated for IGF awards will be discounted by 75%
There’s a list of links to the OnLive demo page for each IGF nominee below. You’ll need to sign up for a free OnLive account first to get access.
Superb spaceship game FTL is now playable through OnLive, buyable through Kickstarter
Graham and I have been harping on about FTL every chance we get, and it’s been irritating you all a great deal because it’s not out. It’s still not out, but last night they started a Kickstarter project and launched a free demo via OnLive. The demo is really just the whole game in its current state, but time-limited to 30 minute sessions.
Kickstarter lets you pledge an amount of money that you’ll only pay if the project reaches its funding goal. FTL’s goal is $10,000, and they just passed it as I wrote that intro – 10 hours into their 32 day campaign. Backing them for $10 or more gets you the game when it comes out, but $25 or more will get you in on the closed beta, starting in a few months time. The game itself is due out later this year, probably.
If you want to play the demo, and you should, here’s what you need to know.
Dear Esther sells 50,000 in one week
When Dear Esther turned a profit in six hours it was already obvious that it would exceed expectations. Dear Esther’s Indie Fund backers were originally unsure about funding Dear Esther, but it looks like their faith has been well placed. It sold 16,000 copies on Steam on day one. A week on, it’s sold more than 50,000.
Developers, Thechineseroom made their sales public over on the Dear Esther blog, saying that the 50,000 figure is “an extraordinary amount for an indie release.”
Unreal Engine 4 to be shown at GDC next week
Epic will be showing off Unreal Engine 4 behind closed doors at GDC next week. This time last year Epic showed off the impressive Unreal Engine Samaritan demo above. That demo was running on a souped up super-PC running several GTX580s in parallel, so we’re unlikely to see that sort of carefully choreographed loveliness running in the next engine. Still, given how much has been gradually added to Unreal 3 over the years, the new build must be making quite a leap to justify sticking a 4 on the end.
The Secret World’s skill system is even better than I thought
As I mentioned in Friday’s post about playing through Egypt in The Secret World, my character started off with a pretty standard build. Hammer and sickle in hand, I could smash a single target pretty quickly and had a few AoE tools for when the enemies came in 6-packs.
But I quickly grew bored with it—it was a fine build, but a little simple for my tastes, so I decided to create my own build from scratch. And then the heavens split open and my mind was exposed to the nigh-unlimited options and combinations that Secret World’s incredible do-it-yourself skill system allows.
20 things you don’t know about Guild Wars 2
Who would’ve thought slapping a half-naked Norn around would earn you a skill point, or that you could turn invisible just by logging into Guild Wars 2? Josh and Gavin join forces to help you discover these and 18 other fun facts about the wonderful world of GW2′s beta. Also, see why Josh should never, ever be allowed to play in the snow with your children.
DISCLAIMER: Everything on this list is based on the beta event weekend held on February 18. Some of the things discussed may change before the final game is released.
