Category: News

New Steam Store Releases: LEGO Jurassic World

Releasing alongside the new movie this week was the LEGO video game adaptation, LEGO Jurassic World. The game actually lets you play through the plots of all four Jurassic Park movies, so if you are a fan of the series, or dinosaurs in general, or virtual LEGOs (or all of those things), you may want to check it out. Also on the Steam Store this week is a new Alone in the Dark game, a physics puzzler with a pen and paper art style, and a crazy underwater crustacean shooter. Play God with your LEGOs, then venture past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
  • LEGO Jurassic World (Warner Bros, Single-player & Co-op, $39.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Alone in the Dark: Illumination (Atari, Single & Multi-player, $34.99) (Steam Achievements)
  • TransPlan (Kittehface Software, Single-player, $2.99) (Steam Achievements)
  • Neo Aquarium (Nussoft, Single & Multi-player, $8.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
  • Fox & Flock (Smarter Games, Single-player & Co-op, $1.99)
  • Weird Park Trilogy (Viva Media, Single-player, $19.99)
  • Kholat (IMGN.PRO, Single-player, $19.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
[Image: Warner Bros]

Andrew J Amideo

New Nintendo eShop Releases: Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon comes to the Wii U Game Boy Advance Virtual Console this week. Specifically, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which, itself, was a remake of the earlier PlayStation Harvest Moon game, Back To Nature. For those unfamiliar with the series, it's kind of like FarmVille, except that the Harvest Moon games came out way earlier and were infinitely better. Also out this week, LEGO Jurassic World, and a new version of Dr Mario for the 3DS. Reap what you have virtually sown, then jump past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
Wii U

3DS

[Image: Natsume]

Andrew J Amideo
[Source: Business Wire]

Shovel Knight will be found somewhere in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Just call it a Kickstarter Crossover.
The latest Project Update for Bloodstained contains some fascinating info:"We've got good news: Inti Creates and Yacht Club Games have agreed that Natsume's reimagining of their hero (above) feels right at home in the demon castle!
They won't tell us any more than that, but when the game comes out remember that you might bump into this guy in a crowded corridor somewhere. Who knows what might happen after that?"

This is a neat little cameo to look forward to in Bloodstained. Castlevania games in the "IGA" style have contained more than a few joke enemies and clever nods to other series. I'm sure another walking suit of armor won't look out of place. Maybe you can use the shovel?

Picture

Source: Bloodstained Project Update #23

Oculus Rift Consumer Headsets Bundled With Xbox Controller

In a surprise partnership with Microsoft, Oculus announced today that the consumer version of it's virtual reality device will include a wireless Xbox One Controller and Wireless adapter. In addition, those of you who wear eye glasses might want to learn more about this consumer version after the break...
If that wasn't enough Phill Spencer took the stage to also announce the Rift will have Native Windows 10 Support along with Direct X 12. He also stressed the ability to be able to stream compatible Xbox One Games to their PC for Rift usage. Among the mentioned compatible titles where Halo, Sunset Overdrive, and Forza.The Rift comes with removable headphones, a camera for tracking head movement, and enough space to wear eyeglasses inside of it. More info on the device will be revealed at E3, with the Consumer version playable at the event itself.

For more check out the consumer Rift and more at Oculus' official webpage. 

Hyrule Warriors 3DS has a trailer

A trailer for Hyrule Warriors on 3DS leaked, so let’s take a look at it:
You didn’t know that this was even a thing? Don’t worry, that’s because it wasn’t yet announced. The video itself was supposedly unlisted on the official KoeiTecmo YouTube channel in preparation of an E3 reveal.

Thanks to Laura Kate Dale for providing a mirror of the trailer.

New PlayStation Store Releases: The Elder Scrolls Online

This week, the new releases are a bit sparse on the PlayStation Store. Though they do have a couple of heavy hitters. Namely, The Elder Scrolls Online and Gradius. As much as I appreciate Bethesda bringing The Elder Scrolls universe to the PlayStation 4, I think I would rather see them provide us with an Oblivion/Skyrim collection (and make them playable on a Sony console for once). Maybe they could throw in an HD remaster of Morrowind to sweeten the deal.I am pleased to see a great arcade classic like Gradius hit the store. In addition to last week's release of Renegade, along with Q*bert, which has been on there for several months now, the PS4 is starting to become quite a little retro arcade machine. ESO and Gradius aside, the only other notable release this week is a Japanese dungeon crawler for the Vita. Create your character, select your class, and then venture past the break to see this list of new releases.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation Vita

[Image: Bethesda Softworks]

Andrew J Amideo

TellTale Finally Set Bigby and Clementine Free!  DRM-Free!

If you’ve passed on The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us for the longest time because they were on Steam and thus DRM’d, then you’ll be pleased to know that both up on GOG now.  And, for a limited time – which coincides with the Summer Sale over at Gog, you can get them for rather cheap.

Both games have steep, 75% launch discounts, but that only applies for the next two days.  Snag both before 11 June, 2015 at 11:59 AM GMT to get those real low prices.

If the idea of the launch prices hasn’t exactly sold you and you need to know a little more about both games, follow along after the break and we’ll discuss both in a little more detail.

The Walking Dead is based on a series of comics that have been adapted into a TV show.  In this particular set of books/TV series, the world has been thrust into a nightmare scenario as a Zombie Apocalypse has taken place.  There are no safe hiding spots and certainly no one can be trusted.

In this particular episodic adventure, we meet a young lady named Clementine, who is hiding away from the monsters because her parents still aren’t home from wherever they have gotten to.

You play as Lee, an older gentleman who isn’t exactly the moral centre of the Universe, but who does educate Clementine enough to help her understand the harsh reality of the present situation.

The Wolf Among Us is – by turns – a gritty fantasy where the Fables you knew and loved as a child have been spirited into modern day New York.  The particular Fables we meet are just trying to make a living and blend in with the Mundies [mundane folk] by taking jobs and living ordinary lives.

Their “peaceful” [for want of a better word] existence is shattered when murder comes to their small community.  But this particular slaying is just a little part of a far greater mystery.

Bonus!  The summer sale is still going.  Buy these games and add them to your running total to get more games.

Extrabonus!  For the next twenty four hours, there’s a whole raft of bundles to be had in the summer sale.

Finalbonus!  For the next 48 hours, grab a free game in the form of Battle Realms as well as its expansion, Winter of the Wolf.

Humble Indie Bundle: All-Stars

Time for another Humble Bundle, and it’s a good ‘un. The Humble Indie Bundle All*Stars features some of the best indie games available, like World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Risk of Rain, and more.
Only issue? You probably already own them all, so why would you buy them again? Good point, and Humble has an answer: Sountracks!

Even if you own the games, less than $6 bucks is still a great deal for the OSTs to World of Goo, Dustforce DX, Dungeon Defenders, Limbo, Braid and Antichamber

via Billy

Become Master Of Orion, again

What a great time for turn based strategy fans who are also into sci-fi. First we get the decent, but flawed Civilization: Beyond Earth, then the micromanagement heavy, but interesting Star Drive 2, a couple of other smaller ones, and finally the recently released Galactic Civilization 3, which actually got really good reviews (Metacritic: 84).
It looked like the trend was finally dying down, and I would be able to catch up on all of them, when suddenly and out of nowhere the above trailer appeared.
The hype was strong for a minute. I didn’t play the first 2 games in the series until only a couple of years ago, but to my surprise, they still held up quite well and I immediately understood why people loved them.
But who is actually developing the new one? Let’s take a look.

Ok, so Wargaming, the folks behind the f2p World of Tanks, bought the license and NGD Studios is developing it for them. What did they release again?

Champions of Regnum? Never heard of it. A f2p MMORPG with mixed ratings. 

Bunch of Heroes. I’ve played that. Enjoyable enough top-down shooter, but hardly something worth having. 

And Adventure Time: Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest. Steam users gave it a mostly positive, but you don’t find many reviews that say it’s really good, just that it’s worth the low price.That’s all? That’s all.
So what can we really expect from this? In short: nothing. My hype is gone, so should be yours. Supposedly “key members from the original title’s team” will work on it, but the original is rather old now and despite those games still holding up, there have been quite a few advancements in the genre.
The best thing that could come out of this is a simple, easy to get into space 4x, because those are still a rarity, despite a resurgence in the genre.

Any thoughts on this? Did you play any of the previous MOO games? Which did you like best? 1&2, or the more complex 3? Tell us in the comments.

Via: Destructoid (well, and pretty much everywhere else, but we love our buddies there, so they get the shoutout)

The Witcher 3 Sold 4 Million Copies In 2 Weeks

In an open letter from Co-Founder of CD Projekt RED,  Marcin Iwiński thanks the community by expressing his surprise and gratitude regarding the success of their most ambitious title to date. You can read the letter yourself right after the break.
"Dear Gamers,May 19th was a crucial date for all of us here at CD PROJEKT RED -- we released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, our open world role-playing game that we had been hard at work on for over 3 years. Since day one, you have given us tons of positive feedback and support -- the sheer volume of emails we’ve gotten since launch simply congratulating us for our efforts is both epic and heartwarming, and I wish every developer comes to have such a fantastic community. In terms of media reception, we’re really humbled by the scores the game has received all around the world. With an average of 90+ on every platform, Wild Hunt is our dream coming true.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the four million gamers worldwide who bought The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the first two weeks from launch. Four million RPG fans spending their hard-earned money on our game is a sign that we did something right, and you can be sure that we’ll harness all that positive energy and make the upcoming expansions worthy of the grand adventure that you’re telling us Wild Hunt already is! Until then, keep on enjoying Wild Hunt, do not forget to grab your weekly set of free DLCs, and stay tuned for constant updates and enhancement to the game we are continuously working on.

Dandelion once said to Geralt that the world is changing, the sun is setting, and vodka’s running out -- go, play, and have fun!

All the best,
Marcin Iwiński
Co-founder, CD PROJEKT RED"

We're still hard at work on our Witcher 3 Review, the game is quite long, but this is another great piece of news for a game that celebrates a people and their vast, yet harsh, history. It's always great to see a thank you from an appreciative developer.