New Games |
- Sportsfriends sees slight delay, PC version coming sooner
- You can download part of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls now
- King Candy: Candy Crush dev trademarks word 'candy'
- Rust has sold over 500,000 copies
- Out of the shadows: Eidos reveals Thief PC requirements
- Play this: Dojo of Death
- PS Vita PLAY campaign: Four new Vita games, discounts
- Live show: SNOW with Poppermost Productions
- Microsoft secretly pays YouTubers to advertise Xbox One
- Neat idea: A headset that can help stop gamer rage
- Quick! Watch this Titanfall alpha footage while you can
- Kojima teases the PlayArts Kai Quiet figure
- I'm dreading some of Dark Souls II's Achievements
- These ten free-to-play games made over $3B last year
- Nintendo won't put Mario on smartphones due to losses
- Disney abandons its Star Wars 1313 trademark
- Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons free for PS Plus this week
- Take a look at single-player in Smash Bros. for 3DS
- Preview: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Dead Rising 3 gets a 13GB update
- Resogun developer confirms that they're working on DLC
- Rumor: Harmonix has a canceled Xbox One Kinect game
- Marvelous AQL cancels European release of Rune Factory 4
- Nintendo shares fall following operating loss warnings
- A school in Norway uses The Walking Dead game to educate
- Sony files patent for a modular Move controller
| Sportsfriends sees slight delay, PC version coming sooner Posted: 20 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Something tells me a lot of you have forgotten about Sportsfriends. Maybe because it has the word, "sports" in the title. But don't forget. Sportsfriends is a bundle of magical, incredibly fun local multiplayer games. And while it's no longer coming out this month to PS3 and PS4, the Windows/Mac/Linux versions will now be hitting beta right when the game launches on Sony consoles, as opposed to a few weeks later. It's a delay couched in a pushed up release date, depending on your platform of choice. Sportsfriends consists of Hokra, Super Pole Riders, BaraBariBall, and Johann Sebastian Joust. They are all mad fun, especially BaraBariBall for its Samurai Gunn sort of precision combat and Joust for letting you beat up your friends in real life. |
| You can download part of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls now Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Those of you playing Diablo III via either the Battle.net desktop client or the game's launcher may, from this week, notice a 6GB background download initiate. That's quite big, and for good reason, because that download contains a lot of files for Reaper of Souls, Diablo III's first expansion pack set to launch on March 25 -- the client will download the Reaper of Souls files regardless of whether or not you've actually pre-purchased it. Also included in the download is files for patch 2.0.1, which will serve as a pre-expansion patch when the time comes. So, Reaper of Souls, is anyone getting it? |
| King Candy: Candy Crush dev trademarks word 'candy' Posted: 20 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Candy Crush developer King has trademarked the word "Candy." Snicker all you want, it happened. King filed the trademark for "Candy" as it relates to games (and clothing!) almost a year ago and, as Gamezebo has found, the trademark was successful Developers are already feeling the crunch and getting rolled over. Emails are coming in asking owners of apps with "Candy" in the title to remove them from the store. That, or lawyer up and prove your game doesn't infringe or that you came up with the name independently. All Candy Casino Slots developer Benjamin Hsu got such a notice. "Myself and other indie developers don't have the money or resources to fight back," Hsu explained. "I plan on changing the name if that is what I must do." "Candy" joins the word "Memory," which is also trademarked on the App Store. Good thing no one has been able to patent gameplay mechanics yet, allowing King to make an empire out of a match-three game. I think I'll go play Tetris Attack. King has trademarked the word CANDY (and you're probably infringing) [Gamezebo] |
| Rust has sold over 500,000 copies Posted: 20 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Putting the financial success of Steam Early Access title Rust into perspective, designer Garry Newman told GamesIndustry International that in the span of a month the multiplayer survival game "made about 40 percent of what GMod has made in about nine years." That's in terms of profits. Writing on his blog, Garry noted that Rust has sold over half a million units "in just over a month" and GMod has passed four million units sold. Asked if the new game would carry on for as long as Newman's prior hit, he explained that the team at Facepunch Studios "[has] about four or five other projects on the go right now! As long as Rust pays our wages we're going to keep working on it. Even when it's 'finished', it's not finished, it'll still be updated, in the same way that Garry's Mod did. I suppose it's the way with big games, there's never an end point, it just evolves." I'm conflicted about whether or not I should've waited until Rust was further along before getting into it, but there's no going back now. Newman talked about introducing disasters like tornadoes or volcanoes -- or "a flood of dinosaurs," as suggested on the forums -- to limit the number of player-made structures on any given server. Once again, the game's future sounds bright but I'm having a difficult time remaining patient for that time to come. "Rust has made about 40% of what GMod made in 9 years" [GamesIndustry International] |
| Out of the shadows: Eidos reveals Thief PC requirements Posted: 20 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST Eidos posted system requirements for the upcoming Thief, the PC version of which is done with the help of the team that did Tomb Raider and Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC. And then I posted the requirements here. You are now up to date with a portion of things going on in my life and Eidos' life, except for that weird growth on Eidos' left thigh and my blanketed ennui. Follow us on Twitter for those kind of updates. |
| Posted: 20 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Dojo of Death is a super addictive little browser game over on Kongregate. You are a ninja, and you must kill other ninjas with the simple click of your mouse button. Just aim, click, and slash away. The entire thing takes place in one room, and two enemy types spawn as you go on your slicing rampage. Enjoy! |
| PS Vita PLAY campaign: Four new Vita games, discounts Posted: 20 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST Sony still wants you to play the Vita. Frankly, if Tearaway for a measly $20 didn't motivate you, I'm not sure what will, but bless their hearts for trying. In the next four weeks, OlliOlli (1/21), Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (1/28), Dustforce (2/4), and TxK (2/11), will go on sale. You can get any of them for 20% off during their launch week. Additionally, if you buy two of four, you get a $3 credit. Three of four nets a $6 credit. Buy all four and get $10 back. Not a bad deal, even for the launch week sale prices. OlliOlli is pretty great -- catch our review tomorrow. And only one port (Dustforce)! Plus, TxK is a sequel to the Atari Jaguar Tempest 2000, from its original creator. I need that trippy neon in my eye holes. |
| Live show: SNOW with Poppermost Productions Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST [Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4p.m. Pacific on Dtoid.TV. Watch Rick 'King Foom' Olson play a variety of games, each day with its own theme. With a heavy focus on community and viewer interaction, you can be as much a part of the show as anything else.] The winter can be a harsh time depending on where you live, and if you don't find something to keep yourself occupied, you might just go insane. One of my favorite winter pastimes used to be skiing, but as of late I can barely find the time to get out and hit the slopes anymore. In an effort to satiate my desire to cruise down snowy hills at lightspeed, I tend to pick up and play any game featuring a set of skis or a snowboard that I can. Needless to say, I'm very excited to check out the early access title SNOW this evening on Mash Tactics. I'll be sitting down with the team members from Poppermost Productions, and chatting about upcoming features, game mechanics, and more as we take a few runs down the mountain. While the game is still in very early stages of development at this point, and there isn't a lot to show off, what is there is pretty darn impressive. More so when you take into consideration the small development team, consisting of three people total. Come by Dtoid.TV tonight and take a look for yourself, and see if the game is enough to remind you that winter doesn't have to be all bad. QotD: What do you do to keep busy during the winter months? |
| Microsoft secretly pays YouTubers to advertise Xbox One Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST As I was sitting here drinking a refreshing glass of Bulleit Bourbon -- the best small-batch, Kentucky frontier whiskey -- I was shocked to find that Microsoft has allegedly paired with Machinima to surreptitiously market the Xbox One, Ars Technica reports. It seems that Machinima was offering more money (an extra $3 per thousand views) to its partners for videos that trumped up Microsoft's new system. There was a deleted tweet by Machinma UK's Community Manager, a NeoGAF leaked image, and then the entire full legal agreement was leaked. The rules set down are clear: "You may not say anything negative or disparaging about Machinima, Xbox One or any of its Games in your Campaign Video." Qualifying videos have to be tagged with, "XB1M13," include 30 seconds of Xbox One gameplay footage, mention that the footage comes from the Xbox One, and so on. Those who made videos for the campaign were legally required not to disclose this partnership. The contract reads, "You agree to keep confidential at all times all matters relating to this Agreement, including, without limitation, the Promotional Requirements, and the CPM Compensation, listed above." According to Ars Technica, the non-disclosure clause that hides this paid public endorsement could be against FTC guidelines. "When there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience), such connection must be fully disclosed" While the contract goes between January 13 and February 9 of this year, there are videos tagged "XB1M13" from around the time of the console's launch. Machinima's PopTent feed links to a similar "xbox one + release titles assignment" in November. Stealth marketing: Microsoft paying YouTubers for Xbox One mentions [Ars Technica] |
| Neat idea: A headset that can help stop gamer rage Posted: 20 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST I don't know anyone who hasn't at one point in the life or another gotten upset at a videogame, whether that be due to bad design, an inability to play well enough, or something else entirely. Sam Matson has a novel solution for so-called gamer rage: a headset. "Immersion" started out as an Xbox 360 controller modified to read the player's heart rate with a pulse sensor and has since left its rough prototype beginnings to become a headset, shown above, which tracks this data via earpiece. Matson then made a first-person shooter game that changes its difficulty (fewer, weaker enemies, etc.) based on the user's heart rate as monitored by Immersion and synced over Bluetooth. Interesting concept for sure, although I don't know about the practicality of wearing a device like this unless the functionality was built into, say, headphones. Most of the time, I'm a mild-mannered person -- except when it comes to games. Thing is, I'm also super stubborn and wouldn't want a game to adjust its challenge level. Gotta brute force my way through the pain. Immersion [Sammatson via Slashdot] |
| Quick! Watch this Titanfall alpha footage while you can Posted: 20 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST There are some lucky people playing Titanfall right now. This is an alpha to specifically stress test the servers, and the invites for this were extremely limited. What you are seeing is Xbox One footage, but it doesn't necessarily represent what the final game will look like, at least visually. That said, this will give a good taste of what the combat looks like. It's still something you need to play with your own hands though, as Titanfall doesn't just play like any old first-person shooter. Oh, and watch this footage while you still can. Electronic Arts has been taking down videos as they appear. |
| Kojima teases the PlayArts Kai Quiet figure Posted: 20 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST Hideo Kojima teased a couple of images of the upcoming PlayArts Kai Quiet figure for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. These are "in progress" shots, and, well, it's exactly what you probably imagined what the Quiet figure was going to look like. It's a nice lookalike, but it doesn't compare to the Quiet cosplay of course. |
| I'm dreading some of Dark Souls II's Achievements Posted: 20 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST "This is Dark Souls - Die for the first time." Perfect. The Achievements / Trophies for Dark Souls II have come out and this is not a link to click if you're one to fear spoilers. Locations, bosses, friendly characters, and covenants are made clear and it's a bit silly how much of an effect little thumbnails and vague descriptions can have on me. My imagination is running wild trying to piece together what March 11, 2014 will entail. That said, I'm not too happy about there being Achievements tied to learning all scorceries, miracles, pyromancies, and hexes. Even if you were happily committed to multiple playthroughs, those types of goals were such a pain in Dark Souls -- with or without a checklist. Dark Souls 2 [Exophase] |
| These ten free-to-play games made over $3B last year Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST Super Data Research has released their digital sales review of 2013, analyzing how much revenue was made from free-to-play, mobile, console, and PC digital content. In the free-to-play category, the top ten games based on revenues worldwide made a total of $3.574 billion. Yes, billion. The top earner was CrossFire at $957 million, a free-to-play first-person shooter you've probably never heard of. League of Legends came in at second with $624 million, and Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online came in at third with $426 million. Other top earners include World of Tanks at $372 million, World of Warcraft with $213 million, Star Wars: The Old Republic with $139 million, and Team Fortress 2 at $139 million. Most impressive to me is that Lineage I, a game that's been out for 14 years now, made another $257 million last year. Impressive, if not a little disheartening. There's additional stats worth checking out on Super Data Research, just brace yourself at the mobile section when you see how much Candy Crush Saga makes every single day. US digital games market update: December 2013 [Super Data Research] |
| Nintendo won't put Mario on smartphones due to losses Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Last week, Nintendo revised its annual sales forecast for the Wii U, dropping it from 9 million units to 2.8 million, and president Satoru Iwata said something I've been waiting for him to say for a while: "We are thinking about a new business structure." In a press conference on Friday, he made another remark many of us will be elated to hear. "The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles," said Iwata. "It's not that simple ... It doesn't mean that we should put Mario on smartphones." He believes Nintendo needs to leverage these devices to make consumers aware of the company's titles and encourage them to play on a game console. Sure. More than anything, though, I hope this situation causes Nintendo to rethink its online infrastructure, including game purchases being tied to hardware and Virtual Console not living up to its full potential. Nintendo's Woes Don't Mean Game Over For Its Consoles [The Wall Street Journal] |
| Disney abandons its Star Wars 1313 trademark Posted: 20 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST After Disney shut down LucasArts, I thought I had completely given up all hope for Star Wars 1313 ever getting made. I have. But that's not to say the project can't affect me from beyond the grave. There was that story about how the game would center on Boba Fett taking jobs from Jabba the Hutt, for instance -- that stung. Perhaps now we have our closure and can move on with our lives: Disney abandoned its trademark for 1313 last month. As noticed by The Escapist, on December 23 of last year, the trademark's status on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website was changed to "Abandoned because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued." Well, at least we've got those Electronic Arts-published Star Wars games to look forw--I can't even finish that sentence. Disney Abandons Star Wars 1313 Trademark [The Escapist] |
| Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons free for PS Plus this week Posted: 20 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Out of all the games I feel bad about missing last year, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons has got to rank among the top of the list. It shouldn't take this much convincing to get me to play something I'm fairly sure I will enjoy, but that's the way of the world. Now I'll have my chance: the game joins the Instant Game Collection for PlayStation Plus members this week. Look for Brothers as well as Worms: Battle Islands for PSP / PS Vita, another free game for subscribers, on PlayStation Network once the store update goes live tomorrow. Sorry, Worms, but I feel a whole lot less awful about not playing you. PlayStation Plus: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for Members [PlayStation Blog] |
| Take a look at single-player in Smash Bros. for 3DS Posted: 20 Jan 2014 04:30 AM PST Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has taken another opportunity to remind us that the upcoming Wii U and 3DS title will, for better or worse, not have a story mode like The Subspace Emissary. The reasoning -- that players would just upload cutscenes online -- was disappointing, however there's still going to be a single-player campaign of some kind. We don't know what form this mode will specifically take, but here's a screenshot from the 3DS version of Smash Bros. in which Mario's just chilling in a forest. Looks a bit like Adventure Mode in Super Smash Bros. Melee. I'd be okay with that, I think -- I don't have particularly high expectations of the series' story outside of what's presented in cutscenes. Those are awesome. |
| Preview: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Posted: 20 Jan 2014 04:00 AM PST When Retro Studios' Donkey Kong Country Returns released for the Wii in 2010, I was ecstatic. Since I was 13 years old when I played Rare's original Donkey Kong Country for the first time, I marveled at its solid platforming and varied level design. Returns proved to be as solid in gameplay ideas as the original franchise, and when it was re-released in 3D for the 3DS, I did not hesitate to purchase it again. Next month, Retro Studios is releasing a sort of sequel to Returns in the form of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. After experiencing a solid four-hour chunk of the game that gave me enough time to get to the very end of World 4, I am glad to report that Tropical Freeze won't be just another by-the-numbers sequel, but an engaging addition to the revamped franchise that adds some intriguing new mechanics while taking out minor annoyances of the original Returns. |
| Dead Rising 3 gets a 13GB update Posted: 20 Jan 2014 03:30 AM PST I have family visiting this week, and I was going to boot up the Xbox One today to play some Dead Rising 3 with them. But after reading about the mandatory 13GB patch on The Escapist, I'll probably need to play something else for a bit. The Escapist noticed that Xbox Studio Manager Mike Ybarra tweeted about a 13GB Dead Rising 3 update late last night. He later said that he had no idea what was in the patch update. Some others are saying that this is one of the game's Season Pass DLC updates. That would make sense. Folks on NeoGAF are saying that the total size after patch install is around 25GB. I'm going to get my Xbox One going now. If you see anything new before I'm finished updating, let us know! |
| Resogun developer confirms that they're working on DLC Posted: 20 Jan 2014 03:00 AM PST It's safe to say that in my household, Resogun was the clear-cut winner on top of the pile of PlayStation 4 launch games. But after over a week of extended play, I kind of saturated everything there is to do in the game, and I was left wanting more. Thankfully, Housemarque has confirmed that DLC is on the way, while simultaneously stating that a Vita version is not in the works. This follows their nomination for Action Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, which they're pretty excited about. Housemarque has also confirmed that another PS4 related project is on the way. I can't wait! Resogun – Erhält DLC und für DICE Award nominiert [Inside Games.ch via VG24/7] |
| Rumor: Harmonix has a canceled Xbox One Kinect game Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:30 AM PST Kotaku (well, Superannuation) did some digging and found that there is an unannounced Harmonix Xbox One Kinect game that probably is laying in some desk drawer somewhere. Their lead level designer, Rob Stokes, had a listing on his LinkedIn profile. Remember hearing about a Harmonix game that needed a combat designer? I'd fight a bitch to find out what that was. Maybe that was the canceled project. I have an old friend that works at Harmonix. An old boss. A few other friends there too, so I asked them what's up. We'll see if they'll tell us anything. |
| Marvelous AQL cancels European release of Rune Factory 4 Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:00 AM PST As far as we knew, Rune Factory 4 was heading to European shores at some point this year, but as of this week, the localization has been canceled. Marvelous AQL confirms, "while we have made every effort to secure the title’s release for this territory, it is, unfortunately, not possible to do so at this time." This follows the news that the developer, Neverland, filed for bankruptcy. That's disappointing to hear because I actually enjoyed the game quite a bit. It's not perfect, but for those of you who want a little more "action adventure" in your Animal Crossing simulation genre, it's pretty much everything you could want. Rune Factory 4 European release cancelled, publisher confirms [VG24/7] |
| Nintendo shares fall following operating loss warnings Posted: 20 Jan 2014 01:30 AM PST Maybe you heard that Nintendo's Wii U didn't do as well as expected, and that they've just dropped sales forecast numbers for the console from 9 million to 2.8 million. And now that they're predicting losses for the fiscal year, Nintendo shares have taken a nose dive. BBC reports that shares fell to as low as 11,935 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday, down some 18 percent. For comparison's sake, the lowest Nintendo's share fell some six years back, following the 3DS price cut, was 12,290 yen, says Gamasutra. Personally, that Nintendo IPs on mobile/tablet talk gives me the heebie jeebies. But they've always bounced back. They'll do that again. [Sad Luigi by HarryPotter15] |
| A school in Norway uses The Walking Dead game to educate Posted: 20 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST Our methods of education are evolving all the time. When I was in elementary school, there were heavy amounts of Number Munchers, Oregon Trail, and Reader Rabbit involved in my learning experience. Now, a school in Norway is using Telltale's The Walking Dead series for guidance on ethics. One of the coolest parts of the class is how everyone votes on certain situations individually, then discuss the results as a group. The teacher states (roughly translated) "I want a good catalyst for ethical dilemmas. This game provides the students with a space to navigate and discuss based on the curriculum." He notes that his class is motivated to learn the lessons within, and at the end of the day, that's what mostly matters. Do you think Fox News will bother to report on this? |
| Sony files patent for a modular Move controller Posted: 20 Jan 2014 12:03 AM PST Sony has filed for a new patent regarding their PlayStation Move controller, and it looks like it's going modular, if the filing is actually going to be acted on at some point. The patent allows for the controller to be shaped by way of moving parts, which would allow it to morph into a gun or a sword. At one point this could have been a really cool idea, but I don't think enough studios support the Move enough for it to be a real game-changer. Especially when it comes to the PlayStation 4, things are decidedly DualShock oriented, and it looks like it's going to stay that way for at least a short while. Patent Application 20140015813 [USPTO via Engadget] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from destructoid To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
