Gearbox’s FPS/hobby-grade coop campaign/genre blended, multi-mode competitive e-sports/meta-growth, choice + epic Battleborn heroes game, Battleborn [official site], is being put out to pasture. By that I mean that the shooter has no more planned content on the horizon and creative director, Randy Varnell, is moving to another project but the servers are staying up for the time being. Read the rest of this entry »
G2A, the controversial marketplace for key sellers, will soon require any users hoping to shift game keys to reveal their name and address. “Starting July 1st, 2017, buyers will have access to detailed information about the sellers on G2A.com, including their names and addresses,” G2A told Polygon. “This information will be included, among other places, on the bills provided to buyers, allowing them to know exactly who they are purchasing products from.” Read the rest of this entry »
Having attempted to try out Gearbox FPS/hobby-grade coop campaign/genre blended, multi-mode competitive e-sports/meta-growth, choice + epic Battleborn [official site] heroes… thingummy Battleborn’s new PvP mode, Supercharge, I must excuse myself to make an angry cup of tea.
I HAVE MY ANGRY TEA NOW. Right. So what is Supercharge? Read the rest of this entry »
Homeworld: Cataclysm, the standalone expansion to Relic’s splendid spacefaring strategy game, has popped up on GOG after years of not being sold anywhere. Though the original Homeworld and its sequel were rereleased and remastered in 2015, playing Cataclysm has been the preserve of pirates and that ‘physical media’ rabble. No more! Homeworld: Cataclysm can be yours for £7, though it is now renamed Homeworld: Emergence because Blizzard have since swiped the “Cataclysm” trademark for that World of Warcraft expansion. Read the rest of this entry »
My brother’s elderly cat decided to start pooping behind the television rather than take himself outside. To combat this my mother set up a row of cacti at cat butt height behind the television and thus began a battle of wills which spanned that cat’s remaining years. Speaking of free-to-play competitive multiplayer scenarios you can enjoy from the comfort of your living room, Battleborn has now made its competitive multiplayer modes available free of charge. Read the rest of this entry »
Days after launching an exclusive physical ‘Collector’s Edition’ of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition [official site] on key reseller marketplace G2A, Gearbox Software have reeled and demanded that the controversial store change its practises. Gearbox’s list of demands for G2A includes stopping selling fraud protection as an extra, and letting developers find and remove fraudulently-bought keys on G2A. If not, Gearbox will… do something. The demands sound sensible, given that G2A have long been accused of enabling shady shenanigans. However, even the briefest of Googlings before launching a high-price exclusive edition — costing around £226 — with G2A would have uncovered all of those complaints. None of these problems are secrets. Read the rest of this entry »
RPS Feature Dropped a Duke
What a peculiar thing is Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition [official site]. It’s Bulletstorm from six years ago, that entertaining FPS, but this time with an optional additional mode that is loads worse. That’ll be full price, please! Read the rest of this entry »
Gearbox are so excited about releasing Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition [official site], the (slightly) prettied-up and expanded re-release of People Can Fly’s 2011 fun trickshot FPS, that they’ve shoved the launch trailer out two weeks early. You big sillies! It’s not a great trailer — nor were the original’s, mind, almost putting me off playing it — but I do welcome the reminder that Full Clip is due on April 7th. That’s soon. Where is 2017 going so quickly? Read the rest of this entry »
Gearbox Software have opened up a little more about the next Borderlands, after yonks of mutters and murmurs. Well, about some of its technology. Potentially. Gearbox head honch Randy Pitchford showed off some of the Unreal Engine 4 tech “that will power the next Borderlands game” during Epic’s ‘State of Unreal’ presentation at the Game Developers Conference yesterday. Gearbox have been working on lighting with black outlines, cross-hatched shadows, all that jazz. He showed a few scenes but did stress it “is not a video game, it’s a technology demonstration”. You can watch it online. Read the rest of this entry »
Bulletstorm might not have sold enough copies to ever get a sequel, but the new console generation mean that it’s getting the HD treatment. Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition [official site] promises hi-res textures, increased polygon counts, smoother framerates and support for 4K resolutions, as well as some new levels and modes.
Old Man Duke Nukem has gotten the band back together to show us disrespectful whippersnappers what for in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour [official site]. Out today (in a few hours), it’s a re-release of 3D Realms’ 1996 first-person shooter with an extra episode made by the old gang. Original level designers Allen Blum III and Richard ‘Levelord’ Gray have made new levels, composer Lee Jackson has musicated them, and ol’ Jon St. John is back in the recording booth saying movie quotes. Read the rest of this entry »
Duke Nukem very nearly said, “It’s time to announce a video game and prematurely leak the announcement of the aforementioned video game, and I’m all out of leaks.” Very nearly. As rumoured, Gearbox Software last night announced Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour [official site]. It’s an expanded and revamped re-release of 3D Realms’ 1996 proto-Gone Home FPS, including a new episode and an (optional) 3D graphical makeover. What’s neat is that Gearbox have reunited some of the old gang, including level designers, a musicman, and of course the voice of Duke.
They’re releasing another Duke Nukem, then. Gearbox are muttering to themselves and engaging in dreadful brandter so yup, it’s on. Predictions: the return of jokes already ten years old when Duke Nukem 3D borrowed them twenty years ago; an awkward attempt to reframe Duke’s earnest trashiness as ‘ironic’; a game hoping to coast on former glories. If rumours and leaks are to be believed, the new game is Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour, a ‘remastered’ version of the 1996 FPS with new content and ugly lighting.
Battleborn [official site] publisher 2K will continue to support the game despite a performance which its parent company described as “below our expectations”. You could also title this article:”I listened to the Take-Two Interactive Q1 2017 earnings conference call so you didn’t have to.”
I was curious as to how the subject of Battleborn would be handled because, although Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, said on the call that “the game launched to solid reviews”, mine was not one of those. Audiences on PC didn’t flock to the game either despite all the marketing I saw and it quickly vanished from the top 100 in terms of Steam’s daily player/concurrent player charts. When I put the review up the week after the game’s release it was actually below Gearbox’s four-year-old game, Borderlands 2.
Here are the relevant bits:
Okay, shh shhh I’m going to do it. Keep quiet or you’ll blow everything. If the news editor finds out I’m posting about another already-released game during E3 week, I’m really in for it. Though this is perhaps a game not many have even noticed is out, going by player numbers. Okay, I’m going to do it. One of you distract her for me – bottle of whisky dangling from a stick should do it.
So! With bloody-minded persistence despite playercounts which have fallen out of Steam’s top 100, Gearbox and 2K’s so-so FPS Battleborn [official site] is going ahead with plans to add optional microtransaction cosmetic doodads.
Alec was jolly pleased with the Homeworld Remastered Collection [official site], revisiting Relic’s spaceship real-time strategy classics after Gearbox spruced them up. Now they’ve even fancier, as the promised mega-patch has arrived with everything from improved fleet formations to proper ballistic weapons.
The Collection has also now arrived on GOG, for those who prefer their games DRM-free, with a hefty discount t’boot.
Gearbox’s hero-centric shooter/MOBA/co-op project, Battleborn [official site], has given a proper look at the first of its five additional heroes – Alani, the water-bending warrior monk. Alice mentioned her a while back but there’s now a run-down of her abilities if you’re interested in playing as her.
The official release is on 31 May but if you picked up a season pass or the digital deluxe version of the game you can unlock her early with a hero key. (Also if you played in the PS4 open beta of the game but I don’t know if we’re allowed to mention that on a PC gaming site without alarms sounding and the walls starting to crumble.)
Here’s her intro video:
After a rather long drought, Homeworld: Remastered Collection [official site] will be getting a sizeable update that will introduce sweeping changes to fleet formations while also adding ballistics to projectile weapons. Oh, and bug fixes, lots of ’em. According to a report by Fists of Heaven, the update has been in the works for more than six months and is the core focus of a small team within Gearbox Software. As of yet, no official release date has been announced.
Battleborn [official site] will get its first free extra character later this month, Gearbox have announced. More specifically, Alani will arrive on Tuesday, May 24th for folks who’ve bought the DLC season pass, then May 31st for everyone else. Pip didn’t really like Battleborn but if you’re still playing then hey, I guess you do. You’re probably quite keen to soon have some sort of healy warriory waterwoman to play as. Wouldn’t turn down a double XP weekend either.
RPS Feature Battlebored
Battleborn [official site] is Gearbox’s hero-shooter-sometimes-a-MOBA-sometimes-co-op-story-sometimes-all-these-other-things… thingummy. Having spent many hours with it I’m no closer to a succinct definition of what it actually is but I can tell you I did not have a great or inspiring time. Here’s why:
