| Would you like a 'Dragon Age Tactics' game in the style of XCOM or Fire Emblem? Posted: 20 Feb 2016 11:30 AM PST Two of the hottest games this month are Fire Emblem Fates and XCOM 2, which seems to have Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah wondering if fans would like to see BioWare develop a more strategy-oriented entry in the franchise at some point in the future. An informal Twitter poll seems to suggest, yes, most folks would fancy a "Dragon Age Tactics," with nearly 80 percent of respondents saying they would like to see it in one form or another. BioWare hasn't made any official indication that this will happen, but executive producers don't typically go around teasing fans about dream scenarios that would never happen. Moreover, Darrah later indicated he's put some thought into this, suggesting in subsequent tweets that this would be a "full game" that would likely include a romance or companionship system. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) was the latest entry in the franchise to see release. No sequels have been announced at this time. Other projects BioWare is currently known to be working on include space opera Mass Effect: Andromeda and Star Wars MMORPG, The Old Republic. Mark Darrah [Twitter]  |
| Microsoft doesn't want HoloLens to be another Kinect Posted: 20 Feb 2016 10:00 AM PST Microsoft is taking its sweet ass time with HoloLens by design, says creator Alex Kipman. Speaking at a TED talk in Vancouver, Kipman explained that while the device is consumer ready, Microsoft wants folks to have something to do with the thing before rushing to market. The company's reason for this is, it wants to avoid repeating its mistakes with Kinect. Despite strong initial sales (10 million units in two months), public interest in the motion controller cratered shortly after release, in part, because there was hardly any software to support it. "It was not a pleasant experience,” Kipman said, asserting the Kinect "was just not ready." Kipman says Microsoft hopes HoloLens can escape suffering the same fate as Kinect by waiting for content creators to catch up with the hardware, thereby ensuring lasting use. "If a consumer bought [HoloLens] today, they would have 12 things to do with it," Kipman explained. "And they would say 'Cool, I bought a $3,000 product [Note: That's the price of a development kit, not a final MSRP.] that I can do 12 things with and now it is collecting dust." Kipman is in no rush. "When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it," he said. "It could be as soon as we say ‘yes,’ and it could be as long as a ‘very long time." Burned by Kinect’s fizzle, Microsoft is taking its time with HoloLens [Recode]  |
| Firaxis is 'working very furiously' to fix XCOM 2 Posted: 20 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST XCOM 2 might be a fine strategy game, but for many players, it's one marred by bugs. Speaking with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, lead designer Jake Solomon expressed surprise at the title's rocky launch, saying "I can honestly say that we didn’t know it would be this way." "Maybe this is damning on me, but I’m sitting here talking to you now on the laptop I use to play [the game] on," Solomon said, explaining he didn't see the issues currently plaguing a sizable portion of the XCOM 2 player base, and the problems didn't come up in pre-release testing. Despite that, Solomon conceded Firaxis is "fully, fully accountable for the product in people’s hands," and is taking responsibility for performance issues. According to Solomon, it's the what the development team is working on all day and is something they're committed to right now. Because there are so many issues, a good portion of which impact certain players greatly and others not at all, Solomon couldn't commit to saying when a patch might arrive, but assures players he and the rest of Firaxis are "working very furiously" to work out the kinks. Firaxis 'working Furiously' on XCOM 2 fixes: “We didn’t know it would be this way at launch' [RPS]  |
| ESPN tries to be hip with the LoL kids Posted: 20 Feb 2016 08:00 AM PST I know the general response to ESPN's embarrassing attempts at referencing League of Legends will be cutting snark, and I get that. They are painfully out of touch and trying too hard. But I also can't help but find it kind of endearing. It reminds me of when older family members would try and connect with me by asking about the latest Mortal Fighters and if Ren and Kyle, "the fireball brothers," were in it. God bless 'em, they're trying their best. I think the little basketball court mini-map is pretty cute at least. Apparently, Gordon Hayward is a serious LoL player in his downtime, which explains the goofy highlight reel. When he's not traveling the country playing games, practicing, working out, and doing all the other things professional athletes need to do, he's finding time to pentakill entire teams. I'll try hard not to think of that next time I blame my poor MOBA performance on "I never have any time to practice!"  |
| Splatoon's battle over Pokemon Red vs. Blue is underway Posted: 20 Feb 2016 07:00 AM PST On the off chance that, like me, you follow news about Splatoon's online events but can't seem to retain the information for more than a day at most, here's a timely reminder: the Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue Splatfest is live in North America, Europe, and Japan. This is the one that matters, people! Hop online, choose a side, and score some wins for your cause. Which do I prefer? Red has Scyther and Electabuzz, but Blue has Pinsir and Magmar. That's essentially a tie, in my book, but I tend to prefer water-type starters and that means Blue wins by default.   |
| Sega is giving out Gunstar Heroes, Viking, and Renegade Ops Posted: 20 Feb 2016 06:00 AM PST It's hard to follow that last set of free Sega games (have any of you dug into Binary Domain yet?), but the final group of Make War Not Love 3 titles has at least one great thing going for it: Gunstar Heroes. Treasure's classic run-and-gun game is joined by the rather decent Renegade Ops and Viking: Battle for Asgard. You can claim all three on this page by scrolling down and clicking "redeem prize" and submitting your email address. Sega is overloaded with requests at the moment, so you are unlikely to get your code this weekend. It might take up to three days, actually. There is also a separate gift for Dawn of War II: Retribution players. I know you're still out there! You can put yourself down to get the Tau Commander for use in the outstanding Last Stand mode, which is something I hope people are still playing in 2016.  |
| The Division's open beta is fantastic on PC Posted: 20 Feb 2016 05:00 AM PST With The Division only a few weeks away from launch, Ubisoft is giving prospective players an opportunity to see what the open-world shooter has to offer. This weekend, the publisher is hosting an open beta test, which is something I've been looking forward to since EGX, when an overly-guided demo left me confused as to what the game was actually about. Now, I'm excited to say, I've finally had the chance to to do a bit of off-roading. In addition to that, it's given me an idea of what state the PC port will be like at launch. While betas are of course subject to change, and this is long before game-specific drivers for the full release are available, I am genuinely shocked at how fantastic The Division’s PC port is shaping up.
With The Division launch being only a few weeks away now, Ubisoft has been running an open beta test for all to see what’s on offer. When I played it at EGX I was hand-held and guided by the PR rep so much that I left still not knowing what The Division actually was, so I was excited to do a bit of off-roading in this test. It’s also an excellent chance to get an idea of what state the PC port will be in at launch. While betas are of course subject to change, and this is long before game-specific drivers for the full release are available, I am genuinely shocked at how fantastic The Division’s PC Port is shaping up.  Read more... |
| Review: Devil Daggers Posted: 20 Feb 2016 03:38 AM PST I had no knowledge of Devil Daggers until about two weeks ago, when the developers contacted us through our tips email. The name was intriguing enough, but after a hurried look, it subsequently faded from my memory and began its descent into inbox hell. In the last couple days, I've heard chatter about it through various social media platforms, so I decided to dedicate at least a few minutes to it before I went to bed. That was last night. Since then, if I haven't been playing Devil Daggers, I've been thinking about playing Devil Daggers.  Read more... |
