Christian Allen has done some very bad things in his career. He has taken hostages and barricaded himself inside buildings. He’s been a burglar, hunted by police. He has been deranged and distraught, attempting to commit “suicide-by-cop”. He has shot and killed law enforcement officers. He’s particularly proud of that part.
MLG have announced that they will no longer be operating the American division of Blizzard’s World Championship Series. Instead they will focus on their own eSports competitions. The WCS America will now be handled by the NASL and Blizzards own in-house team.
Last year, we reported on several things that went wrong for troubled zombie survival horror MMO War Z. First there were accusations of similarities to the similarly-named DayZ. Then it was discovered the War Z's Steam store page contained inaccurate claims about non-existent features amounting to false advertising, and developers Hammerpoint edited the game's product description to more clearly delineate between upcoming and existing content and issued an apology. Valve then investigated The War Z's Steam forum following complaints from players claiming to have been unfairly banned.
Today they renamed War Z to "Infestation: Survivor Stories".
A huge update to Witcher 2 is inbound from one of the games own designers. Combat has seen a complete rebalance from stats to brand new moves. It aims to tighten up a myriad of animations and add new ones. All for a game that’s over two years old. Respect.
THE HIIIIIIILLS ARE ALIVE, WITH THE SOUND OF ROMANS DYYYYYYYIIIIIIING. WITH SONGS THEY HAVE YELLED FOR Creative Assembly's Total War game.
Creative Assembly have done the loveliest thing. They invited the ladies from the Horsham Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society to step out of their role as nuns in their production of The Sound of Music and become barbarians for a day for Total War: Rome II. They obliged with what looks like aplomb and gumption. Check out those grimaces. I'd buy a game in which these ladies lobbed spears at people. Wouldn't you?
On national Chinese television last week, Xinwen Lianbo (新闻联播), the official Chinese government-sanctioned nightly news, reported that DOTA 2 would be part of a national esports tournament from the 20th of June (if I have got my Chinese right). They showed footage of the game, and remarked that a Chinese national esports team would be selected from the players in the tournament. According to Dotaland, no other game was referred to by name.
More details have come to light: specifically, the tournament will be hosted by the Zhejiang Daily Newspaper in conjunction with the e-sports broadcaster Gamefy.
The excellent motorbike stuntman racers Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2: The Movie from Hello Games are coming to PC, with all new stuff, a level editor on Steam Workshop, and as VG24/7 reports, an entire playable cast from Team Fortress 2 thanks to Valve, and levels based on Minecraft (all Mojang endorsed!). Watch the trailer here!
The trailer for the sequel to omigod amazing top-down twat-em-up neon bliss machine Hotline Miami went up today, revealing what more lovely Gamemaker-made violence from the talented guys at Dennaton Games would look like.
Earlier today Maxis announced they'd be rolling out update 5 for the woe-begotten always-online city intercourse simulator Simcity. It includes an update to stop your neighbours from kidding on about sending some fire trucks over to your city, and a Regional Mission called Wheels On The Bus, which I assume is about buses, and not about super cool school trips where you get to go to the Jorvik Viking Centre in York for the day.
Our Spotlight units plug content our journalists have made, that our advertisers want to promote. Sometimes the promotion is paid for, but the content they go to is always independent with no client oversight or approval.
Known for being an amazing toilet-deleting, people-drowning life simulator, the next installment of The Sims, The Sims 4, notably missing from EA's E3 line up, will be revealed at Gamescom in Germany in August. It is sad but not that sad to note that I will in fact be seeing Knightmare Live at the Edinburgh Festival during this time, so I will not be able to attend the Sims 4 reveal but I will be able to yell SIMON SIDE STEP TO YOUR LEFT.
Those hawkeyes on Neogaf have spotted that the latest beta update on Steam suggests borrowing games may become a function. Either this, or the small people from a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton have somehow hacked the system and are taking over.
The true next generation isn’t fancy consoles, it’s virtual reality. Leading the charge is Oculus Rift, who have recently announced they’ve secured over $16m in funding. Last year, Oculus Rift managed to dazzle the video game industry by smashing its Kickstarter target to raise $2.4m. With today's announcement we are a little closer to Oculus Rift heading to the consumer market, and into your hands.
A teaser trailer has arisen from the depths of Activision detailing the next map pack for Black Ops 2: Vengence. Four new multiplayer maps will grace the game as well as a new zombies map which brings pack a fan favourite weapon. It’s coming July 2nd to Xbox and other platforms soon after.
BOOM! That’s Wargaming firing version 8.6 of it’s tank brawler, World of Tanks. Inside is a new map, Sacred Valley and a new British heavy tank: Excelsior. There’s also been a bit of SPG (fancy word for tank) balancing to make random battles more “harmonious in terms of vehicle type distribution”.
What is the best champion in League of Legends for beginners and new players? Where should you start? What LoL champion should you play? These are a daunting set of questions: so many choices! So much information!
Despite being billed as the most accessible MOBA, League of Legends isn’t exactly the easiest pool to dip your toe in. To help, we've rounded up what we think are the best champions to start with. This isn't meant to be exhaustive: one of the best things about MOBA games like League of Legends is that they offer so many choices for you to try.
Prison Architect is exactly that: a prison management simulator in which you build, maintain, and occasionally ruin a prison. It’s funny, clever and deep. It’s also still being improved: it’s available to play now as an Alpha, but developers Introversion are still working on making it better.
Should you give Prison Architect a play? Here’s everything we know.
In Scotland, it is mainly called Torchlicht, and it is used as part of an ancient mating ritual up in the craggy Grampians where there is a secret internet connection in a series of caves that have been there since the Picts roamed the hills. Scots use Torchlicht as a way of calling other gaelic nerds to mate and LAN, and for them there will be a great 'pairty' tonight, as what we down south call 'Torchlight' is actually free to download for the next 48 hrs. Imagine what's going on up in the mountains tonight. Imagine.
Outerra is a planet simulator. But it’s not just simulating any old planet, god no, it’s simulating our planet, the one we’re on right now! That’s a brave choice. Considering all of the planets that they could’ve chosen to simulate, they chose the one that could be held to the highest degree of scrutiny. You need only look out of your own window and spot one errantly simulated mountain to prove Outerra wrong, but you can’t, because Outerra is never wrong*.
The engine uses elevation data from satellites to render with incredible precision the valleys and plains and coastlines of our dear Earth what we live on. It’s also got aeroplane and flight physics built in, which means, thanks to modders, you can pilot a Millennium Falcon over the Alps and zip along the Pennines on a speeder bike.
*Often wrong.
A question: have you ever shot someone in the neck in a videogame and then wanted to embark on a social union or legal contract making each other spouses that establishes rights and obligations between the spouses, between the spouses and their children, and between the spouses and their in-laws? Well these two people have PROBABLY DONE THAT and now are to be wed in wedlock.
Our Spotlight units plug content our journalists have made, that our advertisers want to promote. Sometimes the promotion is paid for, but the content they go to is always independent with no client oversight or approval.
Previously only available on Xbox Live Arcade, the super-fast zombie seller State of Decay is coming to PC, and had always planned a release on the Best Platform.
