PC Gamer |
- Marvel Heroes hands-on: punch a Hulk armies in Gazillion’s free-to-play MMO action RPG
- Planetary Annihilation planning December release, alpha access begins next week
- Crusader Kings 2 patch 1.10 prepares for The Old Gods
- Scrolls release date announced, launch trailer shows tactical battling and sacrificial bunnies
- Heavy Gear Assault adds singleplayer stretch goals, Oculus Rift support
- Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition already has 350,000 words of additional content
- Curiosity unboxed, winner to become the god of Godus
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn trailer shows colourful in-game footage
| Marvel Heroes hands-on: punch a Hulk armies in Gazillion’s free-to-play MMO action RPG Posted: 27 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT
This article was originally published in PC Gamer UK issue 252. Marvel Heroes embraces an idea that has been kryptonite to other superhero-themed MMOs: it lets players take control of its iconic characters. “It plays like a gamma-irradiated purée of Diablo II and Marvel Ultimate Alliance”The official reason that this is possible in this free-to-play action-RPG is a simple plot trick: Doctor Doom is using the Cosmic Cube's reality-bending abilities to reshape the universe in his image, and his efforts are why armies of Hulks can appear onscreen together at once. But the unofficial reasoning is that it doesn't really matter. Gamers want to play as the heroes they love, so why not let them? When your costume is on, Marvel Heroes plays exactly like a gamma-irradiated purée of Diablo II and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Realtime mouse-clicking combat? Check. Tons of loot? You bet! Crafting? Absolutely. Randomly generated levels and loot drops? Stop it, my nipples are getting hard. Speaking as a fan of both series (as well as the Marvel universe in general), my time in the closed beta was pure nerdvana.
Upon selecting Fantastic Four's The Thing as my hero, I was taken to Avenger's Tower, which serves as one of the game's public hubs where you can meet other heroes, visit your stash, talk to vendors and crafters, get new missions, and transport to mission areas. My first assignment was to squelch an inmate uprising at The Raft, a prison for superhuman criminals, and as I smashed through the onslaught of revolting prisoners, side missions would pop up, such as saving a fallen guard from a surprise attack by HYDRA operatives. Every namedrop makes me do a squee. “Players can join the X-Men, The Avengers, or The Fantastic Four.”Fight your way to the end of the campaign and there'll be more to do. The story, or individual missions, can be replayed, and Gazillion CEO (and one time Diablo designer) David Brevik is toying with the idea of adding higher difficulty settings. Endgame content is in the process of being finalised, but expect to see PvE dungeons, raids, challenge levels (boss runs against your favorite supervillains), and, of course, PvP. While Gazillion aren't ready to spill too many details about PvP, it will be faction-based. Players can join one of three factions – X-Men, The Avengers, or The Fantastic Four – for original story-based encounters that pit hero against hero. Any hero can join any faction, so my Thing can go clobberin' on The Fantastic Four, comic book allegiances be damned. Gazillion emphasise that almost all of the game's content will be free-to-play, with all characters and outfits available via random boss drops. If it's taking too long to unlock a character you really want to play as, however, and you simply cannot wait, any of the game's 22 heroes and their alt costumes available at launch can be purchased immediately with real money. Marvel Heroes is due out on June 4 this summer. The post Marvel Heroes hands-on: punch a Hulk armies in Gazillion’s free-to-play MMO action RPG appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Planetary Annihilation planning December release, alpha access begins next week Posted: 27 May 2013 09:27 AM PDT
Planetary Annihilation developers Uber Entertainment have, like an impending asteroid attack, come crashing down onto some solid release plans for their galaxy-spanning RTS. The big reveal is the first teasing of a final launch date – just glancing the end of the year with a planned December release. Those unafraid to battle amongst the rough code of the alpha will get the chance to try the game much sooner, however. The end of next week, in fact. Here’s the release timetable, as revealed on their most recent Kickstarter update.
Alpha access will go out to anyone who backed at the relevant, $90+ Kickstarter level. Uber also announced their plans for Steam, saying: “Steam access is a convenience for some people who prefer to keep all their game keys in one place. If you wish to move your key to Steam, you'll be able to once the game is live on Steam. If you wish to continue to simply play though our own service UberNet, you'll be able to. No action is needed at this time for Steam access. We'll send information once Steam keys are available for use. It also means it's our first digital distribution platform besides our own, which means another way for the community to grow further and bring in more players.” For an indication as to what the alpha will bring, here’s the video of the latest development live-stream: Thanks, PCGamesN. The post Planetary Annihilation planning December release, alpha access begins next week appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Crusader Kings 2 patch 1.10 prepares for The Old Gods Posted: 27 May 2013 08:31 AM PDT
Crusader Kings 2′s The Old Gods expansion launches tomorrow. In preparation, Paradox have deployed a huge patch list of tweaks, balance changes, fixes and new additions. And that means more funny-out-of-context patch notes. Last time, we got such gems as “tweaked deathdate of Mubashir, Duke of Mallorca, and made him eunuch.” This time? Missing children restored, marriages fixed and inbreeding increased. First though, the major changes:
For the rest, head over to the full changelist forum thread, where the developers have also been answering questions about both the update and tomorrow’s expansion. As for the more ridiculous elements of Paradox’s expanding medieval soap opera, here are some patch highlights:
That last one can probably be renamed “The Lannister Fix”. For more on The Old Gods, check out our in-depth Q&A from earlier this month. The post Crusader Kings 2 patch 1.10 prepares for The Old Gods appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Scrolls release date announced, launch trailer shows tactical battling and sacrificial bunnies Posted: 27 May 2013 07:00 AM PDT About a minute and ten seconds into this launch trailer for Scrolls, Mojang’s strategy card game, you can clearly see a player firing a catapult at a little group of bunnies. Now I know morality can be a tricky thing, but come on! What harm have bunnies ever done? Lynched lagomorphs aside, the trailer also reveals the date of the open beta, due next week on June 3rd. For more on the game, you can peruse Mojang’s mini-guide. At least, you can when the site stops being trampled under the weight of the studio’s excited fans. And if that’s not enough, we took a look at the game’s deck system last year. Scrolls will be available for £13/€15/$20. The post Scrolls release date announced, launch trailer shows tactical battling and sacrificial bunnies appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Heavy Gear Assault adds singleplayer stretch goals, Oculus Rift support Posted: 27 May 2013 04:57 AM PDT
Fans of multiplayer skirmishes between colossal walking death machines aren’t exactly short of options at the moment, with both Hawken and MechWarrior Online providing free-to-play metal mayhem. That may be one of the reasons for the muted early response to the Heavy Gear Assault Kickstarter, which in its first week has made just $27,449 of the desired $800,000 goal, despite the impressive destruction tech on show. For the team at the aptly named Stompy Bot Productions, that means an alteration to their plans. Now, in addition to the eSports chasing online battles, an episodic singleplayer mode will be added if the project reaches its target. Producer Vince Mcmullin released a video, explaining the new mode. The revised stretch goal page details the first episode: “This first offline, single-player episode details the initial contact with Earth’s Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF) and sets the stage for Terra Nova’s bid for independence. Bitter enemies will unite to repel the CEF in what will be known as the War of the Alliance. This gripping first episode will be told through the eyes of military veterans turned duelists.” While the first episode will unlock with the $800,000 base target, the second is reserved as a $900,000 stretch goal, and the third secured at $950,000. In addition to the new singleplayer plans, the Stompy Bot team have also confirmed Oculus Rift support, saying: “Heavy Gear is the perfect game for Oculus because Pilots in the HG universe actually wear VR Helmets! We are currently working on gameplay concepts which incorporate the Oculus and the uniqueness of the HG lore.” Heavy Gear Assault has 33 days remaining to raise its Kickstarter target. Thanks, Joystiq. The post Heavy Gear Assault adds singleplayer stretch goals, Oculus Rift support appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition already has 350,000 words of additional content Posted: 27 May 2013 03:40 AM PDT
Beamdog president Trent Oster has given a status update on the sequel to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, saying that their upgrade of the classic Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn has already received multiple novels worth of added words. “We’re hard at work on BG2:EE and it is going well,” Oster told ShackNews. “Phil (our design lead) mentioned to me there is over 350,000 words of new content.” Which sounds promising. One of my biggest issues with the Enhanced Edition of the first Baldur’s Gate was that the relatively small amount of new content didn’t outweigh the benefits of a modded version of the much cheaper regular edition. But Oster says those hundreds of thousands of words relate to story and quests for Shadows of Amn and the Throne of Bhaal expansion, which will be bundled for the PC release. If Beamdog can add new, well integrated content into the sequel, it’ll be a far more enticing prospect. Beyond that, Oster wouldn’t go into details regarding the game’s release, except to say that he hoped to start talking about it soon. He did, however, reaffirm that the sequel would take precedence over any DLC that Beamdog may have lined up for the original, saying, “DLC-wise, we have plans, but nothing completed, yet.” The post Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition already has 350,000 words of additional content appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Curiosity unboxed, winner to become the god of Godus Posted: 27 May 2013 02:39 AM PDT
After just over six months of collected Android and iOS owners inexplicably tapping at a giant cube, 22 Cans have finally revealed what’s inside the box. Turns out Curiosity hadn’t caught a quantum cat, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s decapitated head, or any other unlikely guess. Instead, it held a mini-Molyneux, with a message to the winner about their ultimate prize. And unlike Curiosity itself, that prize will have an impact on PC gamers – at least, it will for those backers of 22 Cans’ upcoming Godus. “You, the person who reached the centre, will be the god of all people that are playing Godus,” Molyneux revealed. “You will decide – intrinsically decide – on the rules the game is played by. And – here’s the life-changing bit – you will share in the success of the product. Every time people spend money on Godus you will get a small piece of that pie.” “You will have fame, you will have fortune, and you will have the power to introduce morals into a game.” Which means, as questions are answered on one project, they’re raised in another. Specifically, phrasing like “every time people spend money on Godus,” which is just open-ended enough to obscure how that money is being spent. It was announced last week that Godus’ mobile version was being distributed through a publisher, with speculation that the game would be free-to-play for mobile users. When questioned by RPS, 22 Cans stated that the PC version wouldn’t have a publisher attached, but couldn’t confirm pricing methods on any platform. Secondly, it seems odd that “the rules the game is played by” – whatever that actually means – are being decided by a single person, when Godus is a project that began life through Kickstarter, and so only exists through the backing of 17,184 others. Of course, 22 Cans are free to design their game in whatever way they see fit. But it does seem like Godus backers have, perhaps unwittingly, been dragged into the studio’s madcap experiments. The new god in question was revealed as Bryan Henderson, from Edinburgh. In an interview with Wired, he said, “People are going to hate me for this, but I only registered for the game earlier this morning, about an hour before I won the thing.” So if nothing else, we at least know he’s a sensible deity. The post Curiosity unboxed, winner to become the god of Godus appeared first on PC Gamer. |
| Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn trailer shows colourful in-game footage Posted: 26 May 2013 11:50 PM PDT With Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn set for an August 27 release, it’s time for those who haven’t partaken in one of the MMORPG’s closed betas to see a bit of the world they’ll soon be frolicking in. Cast your eyes on that video above and you’ll notice that A Realm Reborn couldn’t look any more “Final Fantasy” if it tried. Set in Eorzea, the video provides a glimpse at some of the pretty realms in which you’ll soon be grinding, providing you trust that Square Enix will make good on 2010′s utterly botched outing. Hopefully they will. A Realm Reborn director Naoki Yoshida admitted in February that his team “took [it's] fanbase for granted. We lacked the knowledge of other titles. We didn’t have the passion,” he said. A Realm Reborn enters its last closed beta phase next month. The post Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn trailer shows colourful in-game footage appeared first on PC Gamer. |
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