RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Orogun01]

 

 

And Bruce is going to be happy..

 

ign - First ME:Andromeda story details revealed

 

 

 

A trailer accompanying the announcement concealed the featured character’s race, making it uncertain whether it'll be a human-centric story or not. However, a new BioWare blog post reveals that the mysterious character featured in the announcement trailer isn’t the game’s main protagonist and confirms that players will be be able to play as both human male and female characters.

 

According to the developer blog, Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place far away from and long after the events of the original trilogy and offers “exciting new worlds to discover, great characters, and intense action.”

“You’ll be exploring an all-new galaxy, Andromeda, and piloting the new and improved Mako you saw,” the post reads. “And through it all, you will have a new team of adventurers to work with, learn from, fight alongside of, and fall in love with.”

 

 

 

That does me happy but its also just confirms my view that " that Romance sells and should be an intrinsic part of all RPG where you  interact with your party ( this wouldn't apply to an action RPG for example ) " 

 

Romance really can enhance the RPG journey, I just wish most of  you guys accepted and supported this notion 

 

Sadly it mostly is cringe worthy and people who support it come off as dense saps or middle aged housewives.

[Malcador]

We’ve brought back save games, so you can save your progress anywhere

The future is here!

 

Talk is cheap, I expect this to be another Absolution. The timed contracts thing might be impractical for some people as well.

[Raithe]

I would throw down that romance isn't inherently bad as a concept in an RPG. I would say that the majority of current trends in romance in-game can be a touch silly.

In many ways its as much a part of relationship building that should happen between groups of people involved in quite often deadly adventures, but I do wish we'd see more of the other aspects as well as romance. In other words, the nature of friendship and rivalry and building those sorts of relationships between companions , not just the "make the right dialogue choice, give the right gifts, and have a safe-pseudo-pg13-rated sex scene in the middle of the game" type of events.

 

Whether its simple companionship, best-buddy bromance, or pseudo-sibling establishment between people, that can be help flesh out characters and involve you deeper in a story. Especially when companions and other party members have their own inter-connected stories beyond the main game plot.

 

But it simply comes down to that meaning a lot more trouble to write out, and develop game mechanics that will handle in a non-simplified/childish manner. So it seems easier for most rpg's to focus on throwing in a cheesy-romance than doing anything that's actually deep.

[Keyrock]

 

[Malcador]

[Mamoulian War]

And it is already TBA on GOG!!!

 

https://www.gog.com/game/shadow_warrior_2

 

I just wish Flying Wild Hog would put Hard Reset on GOG as well :'(

[Lexx]

Updated my Betsy mod. It is now possible to turn her into a radio new vegas broadcaster! For if you think the world is too silent...

 

 

 

[ManifestedISO]

Yay, Magma Red DS4 available now, two weeks early. 20th Anniversary DS4 available for pre-order today. 

 

 

[Lexx]

Haha, holy bananas. First I don't manage to get there at all and now *two* of my mods are on the nexus frontpage and it looks like they will remain there for a little while.

 

So much internet fame.

[Volourn]

"That does me happy but its also just confirms my view that " that Romance sells and should be an intrinsic part of all RPG where you  interact with your party ( this wouldn't apply to an action RPG for example ) "

 

The number of sales a BIO game gets because of romance is a miniscule number.

[Sarex]

"That does me happy but its also just confirms my view that " that Romance sells and should be an intrinsic part of all RPG where you  interact with your party ( this wouldn't apply to an action RPG for example ) "

 

The number of sales a BIO game gets because of romance is a miniscule number.

 

Though the drama and free marketing they get from that drama is significant...

[Raithe]

Kotaku - The New Hitman's Creative Director is Saying All The Right Things

 

For a selection from the article...

 

 

 

 

 

Elverdam walked me through one of the new game’s early levels while repeating talking points that seemed focused on addressing the concerns of Hitman fans who’ve recently felt let down by the series. He laid out the template for this new Hitman: To lift the best elements from each game in the series and create an “ultimate” Hitman game. He identified those elements, more or less, as: The open-ended sandboxes and fundamental design ethos of Blood Money; the globe-trotting variety and high-class lifestyle porn of Silent Assassin; and the control scheme and overall playability of Absolution. Having played and enjoyed each of those games, welp, that sounds pretty good to me! Of course, we were at E3, the place where every sequel is going to be a perfect combination of the best traits of each of its predecessors. The eventual reality is usually less pristine.

 

Here’s what I saw, and why Elverdam got me feeling optimistic:

• The level I saw was a swanky palace located on the Seine river in Paris. The palace, normally a museum, was playing host to a high-class fashion show with hundreds of guests, service people, and guards in attendance. The bald-headed Agent 47 had two targets: A spymaster named Viktor Novikov and his business partner Dahlia, who operates behind the scenes.
• Elverdam walked 47 toward the party and pointed out that as long as he stayed in the main areas, he could walk around freely. “We don’t have to pressure you up front,” he said. I asked if they were deliberately moving away from the stealth-focused Absolution, which often had players creeping through hostile territory from the get-go. Elverdam said that the levels will all be a bit different, but gave me the sense that this sort of setup, where you’re okay to walk around, explore, and plan things out up front, would be how most missions were arranged.
• Elverdam quickly zoomed out using a debugging tool and began to fly me through the level. I didn’t actually get to watch him play; rather, he focused on showing me all the stuff that was going on behind the scenes. The building was very large, with all kinds of various opportunities for creative players to set up death traps. Among other things: Gas lamps that could be punctured and turned into a waiting explosive for anyone with a cigarette; a hanging PA speaker that 47 could loosen with a screwdriver, priming it to fall on an unsuspecting target; a bar where 47 could dress up as a bartender and serve drinks with a variety of lethal and non-lethal poisons; a barge off the back of the building with a raised platform that could make for a sniper’s nest. Key takeaway: This level is huge and complex.
• Players will be able to save at any point in the mission. Elverdam said that they were still working out how to limit saves on the higher difficulties, but in general, it sounds like the Blood Money style of creep-and-save will return.
• Elverdam says Hitman’s level design philosophy will closely mirror Blood Money. Each level will be a large sandbox populated by hundreds of AI-controlled characters. (For reference, Elverdam said that Absolution levels had between 20 and 40 AI characters that could challenge the player, but that there were 300 in the Paris level he was demoing.) For each level, 47 will have a target to kill, and that’ll pretty much be it. It’s a marked change from Absolution, which often featured restrictive story missions with various objectives in between its more open-ended assassination missions.
• The story itself will be told in between assassination missions, rather than during them. There won’t really be any linear “story missions” like there were in Absolution, where story events and cutscenes played out over the course of the level. Elverdam described the game as “about a hitman and his target,” and said that “we won’t force the player’s hand by saying ‘this needs to happen, that needs to happen.’”
• The Hitman series has often stumbled when it comes to handling female characters. I asked Elverdam about some of the criticism that accompanied Absolution’s lurid tone and marketing campaign. His response: “I think that if you take computer games as a medium, I think it’s super good to be critical about what we do in general. I think the tone of what we’re doing here is a little bit different to Absolution. Absolution was in many ways a game that was over the top, and here I’m speaking in a general sense. Everything was just a little bit more crazy […] So what we wanted to do this time around is create a world that feels a little more grounded.” Will 47 be garroting any latex-clad killer nuns in this new Hitman? “No.”
• Players will be able to choose their loadout for every mission, and will have to consider which weapons and tools to take with depending on how they want to play—another return to form after Absolution’s story mode.
• The pre-mission briefings will give access to information about the target and a map of the level, but the majority of hidden tricks and traps will be up to the player to find. Elverdam said they don’t want to overwhelm players at the outset.
• Hitman’s disguise system has been changed significantly. In Absolution, you could dress up as any type of character, but that same “type” would recognize you if you got too close. If you dressed up as a security guard, the cooks in the kitchen would let you pass, but other security guards would quickly recognize you. It made a sort of sense, but wound up curtailing the player’s freedom outside of a few specific instances. This time around, if you’re in disguise, you’re generally good to go, though certain specific characters will be more attentive and harder to fool than others. Elverdam mentioned how Novikov’s bodyguard—who, naturally, is by his side at all times—would be able to see through just about any disguise. To get to Novikov, first you’d have to deal with the bodyguard.
• 47 will no longer be able to hide his face to magically slip by guards, and Elverdam said that Absolution’s Detective Mode-like instinct system, while still present, has been simplified. He made it sound like equipment and loadout will play a larger role in determining a player’s tactical options, and said that 47 wouldn’t have any “superhuman powers.”
• Bombs and other explosives can now be placed on any surface, and the world in general looks much more flexible and reactive than in past games. To demonstrate, Elverdam had 47 place a remote-detonated bomb on the ground, then toss a coin onto it to attract a nearby guard. The guard saw the bomb and disarmed it, then picked it up and carried it inside, presumably to an office somewhere. Elverdam pointed out that not only did this get the guard to take one of his explosives inside the building, it also caused him to leave his partner standing alone, which would make him much easier to take out. Elverdam said that kind of complex AI routine will be commonplace in the new game.
• Absolution’s interesting Contracts Mode, which allowed players to go back into levels and create their own custom assassinations to share with other players online, will be back. Elverdam wouldn’t go into too much detail about how it will work, saying that wasn’t the focus of this particular preview. I’m guessing it won’t be all that much different from how it was in Absolution, only now players will have much larger, more complex levels to work with, and a whole lot more potential targets.

Now... this is the one that could be a touch quirky.

 

This new Hitman will be released in an unusual way. It’ll be available digitally on December 8, and it will be incomplete. Players who buy the game will receive regular updates into 2016, with each update bringing new missions and locations. Eventually, it’ll be a full game that can be bought on a disc. Hitman will be full-price at launch, but Videogamer reports that all the additional content will be at no extra charge, and that there will be “no DLC or microtransactions,” per IO studio head Hannes Seifert. Seifert also tells Videogamer: “It will be a very big release on day one. There will be hours and hours of gameplay.”

[Malcador]

Nice, early access.

[Mamoulian War]

Well, Telltale is doing episodic content games forever and no one is raising an eyebrow. Unlike the EA, they will give you additional downloadable content to the incomplete game for free...

[Agiel]

Full 25-minute E3 demo of Deus Ex now available:

 

 

As someone who actually preferred Human Revolution over the original (for pretty much the same reasons Tom Chick does), this looks pretty exciting. The initial portion of the demo also sort of allays most of my fears that the game will become too "action-y".

[Orogun01]

Well, Telltale is doing episodic content games forever and no one is raising an eyebrow. Unlike the EA, they will give you additional downloadable content to the incomplete game for free...

I quite frankly don't care much for episodic content, I have just one question: is it the same payment model of paying for a full game that you get in small portions or do you pay a small price for each episode? I ask because committing to a full game that hasn't been released sounds a bit off putting, since it can't be completely reviewed until the end. I may leave any series at any point and only have paid for that episode but that's different from committing to buying a whole series beforehand and finding you don't like it.

[Keyrock]

I just don't bother with episodic games until all episodes are out.  For example, I've had my eye on Kentucky Route Zero, but I won't buy it util it's finished, simple as.  I don't care what the reviews are now, I'll read reviews of the full game when it finishes.  I kind of take the same approach to television shows.  Conventional television is dead as far as I'm concerned.  I haven't seen a single episode of Game of Thrones yet and I avoid all discussion of it.  I'll binge watch the whole show when it finishes.  I watch shows on my time now, not on their time.

Edited June 21, 2015 by Keyrock

[GhostofAnakin]

Is the new Resident Evil Revelations done yet?  Or are they still in the midst of doing weekly (monthly?) episodic releases?

 

I'm waiting until they release all the episodes in one go to purchase it.

[Oner]

It's been out completely for a few months now.

[Mamoulian War]

I just don't bother with episodic games until all episodes are out.  For example, I've had my eye on Kentucky Route Zero, but I won't buy it util it's finished, simple as.  I don't care what the reviews are now, I'll read reviews of the full game when it finishes.  I kind of take the same approach to television shows.  Conventional television is dead as far as I'm concerned.  I haven't seen a single episode of Game of Thrones yet and I avoid all discussion of it.  I'll binge watch the whole show when it finishes.  I watch shows on my time now, not on their time.

 

I am doing it the same way actually

[Ganrich]

I also do not typically buy Episodic games until it is finished.  If there is a sale... then I am willing to break that standard, but I don't pay full price for unfinished product.  That depends on the sale price, as well.  I do own the Game of Thrones game (I haven't played it, but it is 4 episodes in) and Kentucky Route Zero.  Games that are episodic like Telltale games are usually story focused, and that means I am less likely to bite.  I wouldn't buy a Diablo-clone if it only had a quarter of the classes in the game either.  

[GhostofAnakin]

It's been out completely for a few months now.

 

A full version?  Like a copy that comes with every episode?

[marelooke]

 

It's been out completely for a few months now.

 

A full version?  Like a copy that comes with every episode?

 

 

You can buy all episodes together in a pack, yes. But it's not considered  as one game but individual episodes (which they try to abuse in the sales by making Episode 1 dirt cheap with only moderate reductions on the rest), but they've all been released.

 

During the game they present it as if it were a tv series as well ("Next time on ..." and "Last time on Resident Evil Revelations 2, blah blah blah"), I find this extremely off putting personally as it breaks the flow of the game in a major way (Since I've just completed half of Episode 2 I can't really say much more about the quality of the game overall, but that wasn't the topic either).

[Malcador]

[Lexx]

Damn, why does it still take so many months till the new Deus Ex game is out. I want it now.