Deceptively cutesy battle royale game, Fortnite, just got its fourth ‘state of development’ announcement, courtesy of the Epic Games website. The post explains where the team’s continued efforts at improvement will be focused, which includes social media integration, server stability and a new time-limited game mode. Read on for a breakdown of the key points.
RPS Feature the real pre-sequel
Strange now, when Borderlands is as big as it is and as synonymous as it is with bug-eyed shrieking, to think back to the transformative and ambitious promises of the first few times we glimpsed it. The idea of an FPS with the mentality of Diablo was ahead of its time, and at the time seemed thrilling rather than, as is the case now, the most lucrative business model. And that cel-shaded look in the era of Gears of War? Woof-woof. Read the rest of this entry »
Vintage joke game Desert Bus, where players drive the eight-hour journey from Tuscon to Las Vegas in a wonky bus which veers slightly to the right, is now remade in full modern fancy-o-vision as Desert Bus VR. Published by Borderlands devs Gearbox, this new version is completely free, it adds online multiplayer, and yes, it has a non-VR version too. The original Desert Bus was part of an unreleased Sega CD game, Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors (yes, Penn & Teller the wizards), which leaked online then came to fame through Desert Bus for Hope, the annual charity fundraiser marathon. Read the rest of this entry »
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak launched in January last year, doing for ground combat what the original Homeworld did for space. Yet it seems like we’ve barely heard a peep from Blackbird Interactive since, and updates have been few and far between. So the 1.3.0 patch that went live yesterday has come as something of a surprise. It squashes some bugs, tweaks the AI and introduces a tactical pause feature to skirmish mode and the singleplayer campaign.
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 »
Bulletstormers Gearbox have dropped out of a deal to sell their remastered shooter on G2A.com, following a spat over the key reseller’s business practices. They were selling Bulletstorm: Full Clip [official site] and its expensive, statue-sporting collector’s editions through the site but following complaints and a backlash focusing on the reseller’s less-than-wholesome history of complaints, that has fallen apart.
Last week we saw that Gearbox seemed to listen to those complaints and had openly given G2A a list of demands, including better protection against fraud for both developers and customers. Gearbox have since decided those demands were not met and have now cut ties with the reseller completely, taking their game off the shelf. Obviously, it’s more complex than all this. If you really want to dive into this slurry pit of videogame distribution, come with me and I’ll try my best to explain.
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 »
RPS Feature Nuked from orbit
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
You probably haven’t and you probably shouldn’t. A year before the world finally got the Alien game it deserved with Alien: Isolation, the burning wheely bin known as Aliens: Colonial Marines was dragged into public view and stank out the industry with countless bugs, terrible writing, awful levels and magically teleporting NPCs. There were so many problems, they were coming out of the god damn walls. 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.
RPS Feature Occasionally bet on Duke
Duke Nukem 3D [official site] turned twenty this year, which means it can get away with drinking hard liquor and smoking cigars in a strip club legally in some parts of the world, but might not think that’s as cool as it once seemed. Mr Nukem is actually twenty-five years old, however, having appeared in two platform games before his FPS adventures. Years of development hell later, he also appeared in Duke Nukem Forever, a game remembered more for its delays than its eventual release.
Today, we’ve been thinking and chatting about all things Duke, from wonderful level design to wonky nipples and weird space tigers.
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.
