Blizzard nerfs Pyroblast and tweaks nine other Hearthstone cards

January 13th, 2014, 22:15 Posted By: wraggster

Blizzard has announced a bunch of changes to cards in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft as the game closes in on open beta.The cards that will be impacted by an imminent patch are Unleash the Hounds, Sylvanas Windrunner, Blood Imp, Defender of Argus, Pyroblast, Dark Iron Dwarf, Abusive Sergeant, Warsong Commander, Charge (the card, not the keyword) and Novice Engineer."Thank you so much for continuing to play, test, and give feedback on Hearthstone as the closed beta testing phase begins to draw to a close," community manager Zeriyah wrote on the official forum.I can't believe they haven't nerfed this guy. He's so OP.

"We are monitoring card balance over time, and without your continued testing efforts, we wouldn't have the necessary data we need in order to make changes to cards that may warrant them."This should be our last big set of balance changes; once we go live, we plan to make very few card changes, and only if they are absolutely necessary."Blizzard has yet to say exactly when Hearthstone will go into open beta. The open beta was originally scheduled before Christmas but was then delayed to add extra polish and squash a few remaining bugs.In the meantime, closed beta players will now have to get to grips with more card changes that nerf common constructed decks used by mages and warlocks, among others.Here is the full list of changes, along with Blizzard's notes on the thinking behind each:Unleash the Hounds' mana cost is now 2 (down from 4)
"Unleash the Hounds was intended to give Hunters their own form of AoE and to have synergy with other beast cards, but its old cost was too prohibitive."Pyroblast's mana cost is now 10 (up from 8)
"The 8-cost Pyroblast made for an un-interactive experience where the Mage only needed to do 10 damage during the course of a game and then double Pyroblast you for the win. We want Mages to be more interactive with the opponent to achieve victory, rather than delay the game until they can Pyroblast."Blood Imp is now a 0/1 and now reads: "Stealth. At the end of your turn, give another random friendly minion +1 Health."
"The Warlock has three very strong 1-cost minions and that made the Warlock rush deck slightly stronger than we were comfortable with."Warsong Commander has been reworked and now reads: "Whenever you play a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge."Charge (the spell, not the keyword) has been reworked and now costs 3 mana. The card's new power reads: "Give a friendly minion +2 Attack and Charge."
"Both of these cards were key components in 'One Turn Kill' or 'OTK' decks that kill your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. We want the game to be about playing minions and fighting for board control rather than just waiting until you can play your big combo and win in one turn with no interaction from your opponent."Abusive Sergeant now reads: "Battlecry: Give a minion +2 Attack until end of turn."
"Abusive Sergeant was changed to make its power the same as the Dark Iron Dwarf and to give it additional versatility."Dark Iron Dwarf's buff now only lasts until the end of the turn.
"This change was made to reduce the Dark Iron Dwarf's overall power slightly. We also wanted to make the Battlecry effect the same as Abusive Sergeant's as to not force you to permanently buff one of your opponent's creatures."Defender of Argus is now a 2/3 (down from 3/3)
"Defender of Argus was a card that found itself automatically included in many decks due to its power and stats. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal."Novice Engineer is now a 1/1 (down from 1/2)
"The Novice Engineer was played in most non-rush decks (and even some rush decks) due to its cost and power. Similar in reasoning to our Defender of Argus change, we want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks."Sylvanas Windrunner's mana cost is now 6 (up from 5)
"Sylvanas had power and stats that made it a bit too powerful compared to other 5-cost cards, which made it automatically included in many decks. We want players to have an option of what cards they put in their decks, so cards that feel like they must be in all decks (especially Neutral ones) are not ideal."Blizzard said it hoped these changes would "increase the variety of cards you will see at all levels of play" and confirmed that, as with previous updates to card values, it will be possible to disenchant expert cards affected by the changes at their original cost for a limited time after the patch.If you're playing Hearthstone, what do you make of the changes? Me, I'll be glad to see the back of turn-eight Pyroblast finishers and hopefully the Blood Imp change will neuter those warlock murloc rush decks that keep kicking me back out of rank 14. It will also be interesting to see if hunter feels stronger now that Unleash the Hounds - the one card in this selection that seems to be receiving a boost - is a bit more potent again.If you're not playing Hearthstone, incidentally, first of all well done on making it this far. Second, if you're a regular Eurogamer reader and want to play, drop me a direct message. I might have a couple of keys left...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...rthstone-cards

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OpenTTD 1.4.0-beta1

January 13th, 2014, 01:15 Posted By: wraggster

via http://www.aep-emu.de/

In the same moment as the final 1.33 release von OpenTTD a new beta has been released for testing.
You can read the long list of new features and and fixes after the jump.

Quote:

1.4.0-beta1 (2013-12-24)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Feature: [NewGRF] Vehicle variable 4D for determining the position within an articulated vehicle (r26157)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Invalidate vehicle colour palette when leaving a station [FS#5669] (r26027)
- Feature: [NoGo] New goal type that show a story page when clicked (r26012)
- Feature: Optional filter parameter to the ´content state´ console command, to limit the content list to only content where the name match the filter (r26000)
- Feature: When calling the ´content select´ console command without args, display all selected content (r25999)
- Feature: XDG base directory support [FS#5385] (r25975)
- Feature: [Script] ScriptTown::GetFundBuildingsDuration (r25969)
- Feature: [Script] ScriptTown::TOWN_GROWTH_NONE to indicate no town growth via ScriptTown::SetGrowthRate and GetGrowthRate (r25968)
- Feature: [NoGo] GSTown::TOWN_GROWTH_NORMAL to reset a town growth rate set previously via GSTown::SetGrowthRate (r25967)
- Feature: [NewGRF Debugging] Inspecting other vehicles in a chain (r25946)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Object property 0x18 to allow specifying the number of objects of that type being placed upon map creation (r25878)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Object property 0x10, bit 13 indicating that object amount scales with water content of map border (e.g. used for lighthouses) (r25874)
- Feature: Highlight active goto item in order list dropdown [FS#5784] (r25859)
- Feature: [Admin] Send info on bankruptcy quarters also in ADMIN_PACKET_SERVER_COMPANY_INFO [FS#5756] (r25845)
- Feature: Increase maximum number of object instances on the map from 64k to about 16M (r25844)
- Feature: Increase the total number of object types from 256 to 64000 (r25835)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Increase the object class limit from 32 to 255 (r25831)
- Feature: Toggle button for wrapping lines in the textfile GUI [FS#5748] (r25816)
- Feature: [NoGo] Game Scripts can now charge fees and give money to companies (r25788)
- Feature: [Script] Allow AIs and GS to found towns. Allow GS to rename towns (r25785)
- Feature: Add keywords to the openttd.desktop.in file (r25783)
- Feature: Sticky and shade buttons for jukebox window [FS#5743] (r25776)
- Feature: Additional layered main toolbar arrangements (r25772)
- Feature: Allow implicit orders even if no explicit ones are given (r25735)
- Feature: [OSX] Pinch gesture support for zooming [FS#4760] (r25666)
- Feature: Split unit localisation choice into a choice per type of unit, and move it to the advanced settings (r25508)
- Feature: Have tractive effort in imperial (lbf) and metric (kgf) units, have weights and volumes in imperial units (short tons, gallons) [FS#5482] (r25508)
- Feature: Differentiate between total waiting cargo count and available (not reserved) cargo count in the station list and sort based on the cargo count, not the cargo value (r25405)
- Feature: Timetable spreading of vehicles by Ctrl+Click when setting a start date (r25377)
- Feature: Allow opening a goal list and story window specific to a company (r25372, r25369)
- Feature: Show cargo by next hops and final destinations in the station GUI (r25365)
- Feature: Consider cargo waiting at other stations for rating at the origin station (r25362)
- Feature: Distribute cargo according to plan given by linkgraph (r25361)
- Feature: [NoGo] GUI for viewing story pages (r25344)
- Feature: Add industry list to scenario editor´s map menu (r25335)
- Feature: [NoGo] Allow more concurrent goals in a game (r25299)
- Feature: [NoGo] Goals can now have a progress text and/or be marked as completed (r25296)
- Feature: Allow saving window sizes as default sizes (r25295)
- Feature: Add another button to window title bars to resize the window to its default size (r25294)
- Feature: Save stickyness of windows when Ctrl+Clicking the sticky button (r25292)
- Feature: When opening the object-build window, restore the object build-window to the previous state (r25284)
- Feature: Show the approximate monthly supply to a station of the different cargoes (r25272)
- Feature: [Win32] Driver param for the DirectMusic driver to specify the ouput port to use [FS#5552] (r25269)
- Feature: Linkgraph overlay over main viewport (r25264)
- Feature: Linkgraph overlay for smallmap (r25262)
- Feature: Display imminent closure of an industry in its view window (r25238)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Expose sprite base of foundation and shore sprites via Action D Game Variables (r25230)
- Feature: [NewGRF] Variable 0x82 for canals and rivers (dike map) (r25229)
- Feature: [Script] ScriptStation::HasRating [FS#5514] (r25150)
- Feature: Add sorting on rating for the town directory window [FS#5288] (r25097)
- Feature: Introduce dropdown for selecting the sort criterion in the town directory window (r25094)
- Feature: Georgian Lari and Iranian Rial as currencies [FS#5212] (r25076)
- Feature: Collapse subtypes in the refit GUI and only expand them after selecting the cargo type (r25044)
- Feature: Only display subtypes in the refit GUI which are available for all selected vehicles. Also add a generic list item to refit while keeping the subtypes of individual vehicles [FS#3764] (r25043)
- Feature: Show the amount of cargo that has already been reserved by full loading vehicles in the station (r25013)
- Change: [NewGRF] Reset the temporary storage registers for every sprite resolving (r26173)
- Change: Improve layout of build-airport GUI [FS#5832] (r26165)
- Change: Make it slightly more clear what ports are coming from where in the debug output when listening (r25997)
- Change: Preselect the current replacement in the right-side list of the autoreplace GUI, instead of selecting the first resp. previous item [FS#5734] (r25919)
- Change: Unify behaviour when clicking on different items in the goto dropdown list when giving orders (r25894)
- Change: Do not offer subsidies for auto-distributed cargo [FS#5766] (r25882)
- Change: Allow to remove unowned objects unless they have the ´unremovable´ flag (r25879)
- Change: In scenario editor allow to build all objects which were available at any point in the past to support building scenarios with historic items (r25875)
- Change: Display the cost to upgrade a bridge at the end of bridge that was clicked and not the other end, which could be outside of the screen in some cases (r25854)
- Change: [NewGRF] Lower the limit of airport tile types, house types, indurstry tile types and object types per NewGRF from 256 to 255 to prevent usage of ID 0xFF in Action3, and thus allowing it to become an extended byte somewhen (r25841, r25839, r25837, r25834)
- Change: Clarify the relevance of the permissible palettes (r25792)
- Change: [NewGRF] Invalidate vehicle recolour palette during (un)loading [FS#5669] (r25648)
- Change: If an editbox is configured to be cleared with ESC, but the editbox is already empty, unselect the editbox instead (r25647)
- Change: Make the bridge and object picker not restore their previous size, but the previously saved size (r25543)
- Change: Right align the infrastructure statistics [FS#5595] (r25515)
- Change: Clarify the meaning of the server advertisement settings (r25252)
- Fix: Unify the time a RV needs to travel through a curve [FS#5831] (r26169)
- Fix: Certain hotkeys crashed the content GUI when the list was empty [FS#5834] (r26167)
- Fix: Backup data of altered persistent storage arrays was freed twice [FS#5830] (r26161)
- Fix: [Script] Various API functions did not check whether ScrtipRoad::SetCurrentRoadType was called appropiately [FS#5825] (r26149)
- Fix: [Script] API failed for vehicles with only implicit orders [FS#5824] (r26148)
- Fix: Several fixes found by static code analysis (r26132, r26130-r26097, r26091-r26077, r26073-r26046)
- Fix: Invalidate vehicle colour palette again when rearranging consist, reversing, etc (r26026)
- Fix: [NoGo] Properly validate the range of the growth rate passed to GSTown::SetGrowthRate, instead of masking it to 16 bit (r25966)
- Fix: [Admin] The frame of a command packet was not set for the packets that were sent via the admin interface (r25770)
- Fix: [OSX] The new 10.7 fullscreen code can now also be compiled with older SDK versions [FS#4744] (r25657)
- Fix: Under certain circumstances a track type change would make the end-of-line-is-red setting ineffective [FS#5216] (r25609)
- Fix: Highlight the right entry in the sorting selector in station view window (r25426)
- Fix: Suppress focussing editboxes which are not visible (r25413)
- Fix: Add missing compatibility settings in afterload (r25390)
- Fix: Allow changing GS settings in-game via the AI/GS config window [FS#5507] (r25104)
- Fix: [NewGRF] Do not compare GRF local cargo subtype IDs from different GRFs (r25042)
- Remove: Ordered refit with subtypes, since the cases where it worked were corner cases rather than the general case [FS#3764] (r25041)

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[Bunnie]‘s Open Source Laptop Is Ready For Production

January 13th, 2014, 00:30 Posted By: wraggster


Just over a year ago, [Bunnie Huang] announced he was working on a very ambitious personal project: a completely open source laptop. Now, with help from his hardware hacker compatriot [xobs], this laptop named Novena is nearly complete.
Before setting out on this project, [Bunnie] had some must-have requirements for the design. Most importantly, all the components should be free of NDA encumbrances. This isn’t an easy task; an SoC vendor with documentation sitting around on their servers is rare as hen’s teeth, and Freescale was the only vendor that fit the bill. Secondly, the entire laptop should be entirely open source. [Bunnie] wasn’t able to find an open source GPU, so using hardware video decoding on his laptop requires a binary blob. Software decoding works just fine, though.
Furthermore, this laptop is designed for both security and hardware hacking. Two Ethernet ports (one 1Gbit and the second 100Mbit), a USB OTG port, and a Spartan 6 FPGA put this laptop in a class all by itself. The main board includes 8x analog inputs, 8x digital I/O ports, 8 PWM pins, and a Raspberry Pi-compatible header for some real hardware hackery.
As for the specs of the laptop, they’re respectable for a high-end tablet. The CPU is a Freescale iMX6, a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 running at 1.2 GHz. The RAM is upgradeable to 4GB, an internal SATA-II port will easily accommodate a huge SSD, the ability to use an LCD adapter board to run the 13-inch 2560×1700 LED panel [Bunnie] is using. The power system is intended to be modular, with batteries provided by run-of-the-mill RC Lipo packs. For complete specs, check out the wiki.
Despite the high price and relatively low performance (compared to i7 laptop) of [Bunnie]‘s laptop, there has been a lot of interest in spinning a few thousand boards and sending them off to be pick and placed. There’s going to be a crowd funding campaign for Novena sometime in late February or March based around an “all-in-one PC with a battery” form factor. There’s no exact figure on what the price of a Novena will be, but it goes without saying a lot will be sold regardless.
If you want the latest updates, the best place to go would be the official Novena twitter:@novenakosagi

http://hackaday.com/2014/01/12/bunni...or-production/

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Steam top ten sellers chart: January 5-11

January 13th, 2014, 00:28 Posted By: wraggster

Early Access titles DayZ and Rust have settled in at the top of Steam's top ten sellers chart, and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere soon.
Bohemia's zombie survival title beat out Facepunch's general survival title, grabbing the top spot on the list for the fourth week in a row. Pushing the Early Access dominance further, Chucklefish's Starbound is right behind in third.
The PC release of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance debuted in fourth, while a free weekend/discount promotino has Torchlight II reentering the chart in seventh.
Here's this week's top ten:

1. DayZ
2. Rust
3. Starbound
4. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
5. 7 Days to Die
6. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
7. Torchlight II
8. Garry's Mod
9. Godus
10. Kingdom Rush

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Valve's Steam Machines Are More About Safeguarding PCs Than Killing Consoles

January 13th, 2014, 00:26 Posted By: wraggster

CES has come and gone, and we've gotten a chance to see many different models of Valve's Steam Machines. They're being marketed as a device for a living room, and people are wondering if they'll be able to compete with the Big-3 console manufacturers. But this article argues that Valve isn't going after the consoles — instead, Steam Machines are part of a long-term plan to keep the PC gaming industry healthy. Quoting: 'Over the years, Valve has gone from simply evangelizing the PC platform — it once flew journalists in from around the world pretty much just to tell them it was great — to actively protecting it, and what we're seeing now is just the beginning of that push. Take SteamOS. To you and me, it's a direct interface for Steam based on Linux that currently has poor software support. To Valve, though, it's a first step in levering development, publishing, gameplay and community away from their reliance on Windows and DirectX (and to a lesser extent Mac OS), systems that cannot be relied upon in the long term. ... As for Steam Machines, they are a beachhead, not an atom bomb. They are meant to sell modestly. ... The answer is that Valve is thinking in decades, not console generations

http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/0...lling-consoles

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Toshiba TVs with PC games streaming from cloud coming to the US

January 13th, 2014, 00:22 Posted By: wraggster

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance offline play bug now fixed on Steam

January 11th, 2014, 23:25 Posted By: wraggster

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Double Fine's Broken Age part 1 hits Kickstarter backers on Jan. 14

January 11th, 2014, 23:23 Posted By: wraggster

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Torchlight 2 is free to play, 75 percent off this weekend on Steam

January 11th, 2014, 23:19 Posted By: wraggster

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EA allowing official SimCity mods, imposing official restrictions

January 11th, 2014, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster

Modders have never really needed a developer or publisher's blessing to do their work, but EA and Maxis have, nine months post-release, begun to allow official mods for SimCity. There are some caveats to being an official mod however: according to a post on the SimCity blog, you can't modify any executable files (.exe, .dll, .so, etc), can't use copyrighted material, can't use material unbefitting of an E10+ rating, and cannot "jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay" or "affect the simulation for multiplayer games and multiplayer features."

While the first three items on the above list could be described as "restrictive," it's the rules about "jeopardizing the integrity of the gameplay" that raise eyebrows. In March, Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw tweeted that "the game was designed for [multiplayer]," and reiterated in a blog post that a single-player mode "didn't fit with our vision." So if the game was designed with multiplayer as an integral gameplay experience but mods can't affect the multiplayer simulation or "jeopardize" gameplay, this may be the most restrictive clause of all.

EA also has the right to use, copy, modify and/or distribute an official mod without asking the creator's approval, without paying the creator, and without crediting the creator. So feel free to change the game, modders; just don't change it too much, and don't expect to get paid or credited.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/11/ea...l-restriction/

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Microsoft pulling support for Security Essentials from Windows XP

January 11th, 2014, 00:47 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft is warning Windows XP users that as support ends in April, they will also lose access to Security Essentials at the same time.
"As a result, after April 8th, 2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date," reads the firm’s official webpage.
A number of IT distributors are urging resellers and retailers to migrate from XP to Windows 7 or 8, including Tech Data UK and Entatech.
“Should customers choose to not upgrade to a newer operating system, they could potentially incur future costs to maintain their estate, whilst also becoming vulnerable to malware and spyware attacks, with security risks and viruses also increased,” said Ellie Farley, Microsoft product specialist at Entatech.
However, Google has stated that it will provide Chrome browser updates for Windows XP users for at least a year after Microsoft stops its support for the OS, saying it recognises that ‘hundreds of millions of users’ still reply on XP.
Originally shipping in 2001, Windows XP has been the longest-running version of Microsoft’s operating system.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...dows-xp/032913

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PC shipments drop 6.9 per cent, suffering worst decline in history

January 11th, 2014, 00:42 Posted By: wraggster

Market growth slows in emerging countries as consumers skip PCs for tablets.
Total PC shipments totaled 82.6 million in Q4 of 2013, down 6.9 per cent year-on-year resulting in the worst decline in the markets history.
Lenovo and HP top the charts with 18.1 per cent and 16.4 per cent consecutive market share – however Lenovo has seen a 6.6 per cent growth compared to HP’s 7.2 per cent decline.
Dell took third place with 11.8 per cent of the total market share, however saw a 6.2 per cent increase compared to Q4 last year.
Mikaki Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said: “Holiday sales of technology products were strong in the US market, but consumer spending during the holidays did not come back to PCs as tablets were one of the hottest holiday items.”
The US experienced a massive decline of 7.5 per cent down to 15.8 million units sold in Q4 2013. HP maintain the top selling PC in the country despite a 10.3 per cent decline year-on-year accounting for 26.5 per cent of shipments.
Shipments in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Asia) dropped 6.7 per cent, but the decline had slowed compared to the first three quarters.
The total PC shipments from around the world hit 315.9 million, slipping 10 per cent.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/industry/m...history/042672

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SteamOS update improves AMD graphics card support

January 10th, 2014, 23:30 Posted By: wraggster

Valve has released a SteamOS update that offers much-improved support for AMD graphics card users.
According to the patch notes, the update released this week updates the AMD Catalyst driver "to preview release 13.11 Beta 9.9".
As Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais explains, "This update upgrades the Catalyst driver in our repositories with a preview release. This build should fix the poor in-game performance and malfunctioning return to desktop functionality.
"Known problems include tearing and poor overlay performance in-game," he added, before asking for user feedback.
The update also fixes the "Steam controller firmware upgrade process". SteamOS is Valve's new Linux-based operating system, which is available to download now for free in early beta form.
Valve confirmed 14 third-party Steam Machines at the CES expo in Las Vegas on Monday, with hardware pictures, specs and pricing details for all but two of them.
On the PC side, Valve launched Steam Family options for all users of the digital distribution service on Wednesday. Steam Family options afford users the ability to "limit an account's access to a subset of its content and features", whether it be your own account or your child's.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-card-support/

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Banished out next month

January 10th, 2014, 23:19 Posted By: wraggster

Medieval city-building PC strategy game Banished launches on 18th February 2014, its developer has announced.The aim of Banished is to keep your city's population alive and grow it into a successful culture. To do this you must feed your people by hunting, gathering, agriculture, trade and fishing.The game is the work of just one person: Luke Hodorowicz, aka Shining Rock Software. He worked as a professional graphics engine programmer making console games for about 10 years before going indie."Ah, I remember when I quit my job and thought I could make a game in one year," he wrote on the Shining Rock Software website. "It took three times as long, but it was definitely worth it, and the process was really satisfying!"Banished doesn't have a price just yet, but it'll cost around $20.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...out-next-month

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance PC doesn't work offline

January 10th, 2014, 23:17 Posted By: wraggster

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance's PC port was released today on Steam, but there's a problem: it doesn't run offline.Raiden, masking his shame from this whole ordeal.

At least that's what dozens of users are reporting on the game's Steam discussion page. This is especially baffling as Revengeance is a single-player only game. The consumer fury was only heightened as the game's Steam store page said nothing of this restriction.Upon first glance, it would appear to be some sort of insidious DRM on publisher Konami's part, but upon further investigation the culprit could be Valve due to an issue with Steam's API.NeoGAF user Guess Who found that using a modified API in Steam's Offline mode solved the problem, though that's not the simplest solution. "This is definitely a function of the way MGR uses the Steam API," Guess Who stated. "Using a modified steam_api.dll allows it to work in Steam Offline mode. I can't say whether it's a bug or deliberate implementation, but it's not any other sort of DRM, all Steam."Platinum Games producer J.P. Kellams tweeted that he's looking into the problem, but he'stied up in meetings all day. D'oh!We've reached out to both Konami and Valve to try to sort out what's going on here and if it will be fixed anytime soon. We've yet to hear back, but we'll update if we hear more.It's a shame this had to happen to Metal Gear Rising as EG-contributor Rich Stanton called it "a thrilling and almost flawless fighting game" in his Revengeance review. It then went on to become the recipient of Eurogamer's prestigious Most Rewarding Finishing Move award.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...t-work-offline

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Why Divinity: Original Sin might be the RPG you've been waiting for

January 10th, 2014, 23:16 Posted By: wraggster

Swen Vincke is a menace. I'm trying to solve a mystery, something that may or may not be a murder, but he seems much more interested in wandering off, in petty theft or in getting into fights. When I try and help him out he has a habit of setting me alight, knocking me down or simply getting me killed. "Whoops," he says, as he prepares to resurrect me again. He insists these are accidents.He's supposed to be a fellow adventurer, another member of the party, but he has a mind of his own. He's far more interested in following his own agenda and, right now, that agenda mostly involves experimenting. He tells me there's a lot in Divinity: Original Sin that he doesn't yet know about, that he hasn't seen, and he likes to have some distance between himself and his team so that he can be more objective about what they're adding to the game. It's more fun that way, he says. It's cooler. He likes the surprises.He wants to show me all these surprises, too. "Try this," he says, or "Go here; pick up that; use this item." It's not just that he's excited to show me Larian Studios' latest project, it's that he thinks I might not spot many of these things otherwise. I might not expect them. Vincke's team have been trying to pack Divinity: Original Sin with a host of different concepts, systems and ideas. They're mixing together what they think are the best elements of many other roleplaying games and hoping their dough rises into a big, crisp, bountiful loaf.It wouldn't be an RPG without gruesome combat.

And baking bread is just one thing that Vincke mentions when I ask him about the game's many influences. Chief among them is Ultima 7, a 20-year-old classic that Vincke says was something of an evolutionary dead end. "In my opinion, nobody made an RPG that actually improved upon Ultima 7," he explains. "That was my fix. That was what I was looking for in every single RPG since. I saw fractions of it, but I never saw it all again."What Vincke is talking about is the variety and the interactivity that Ultima 7 demonstrated. It gave players a world where, as well as taking on quests, fighting monsters and exploring the wilderness, they could manipulate, combine or craft with most of the items they found. The world itself could also be altered by player action and just about any character killed, regardless of the ethical or mechanical consequences. Its plot was open-ended. It gave players a lot to play with, without prescribing how they should play.It's that same level of complexity that Larian are aiming for and, while I'm busy chatting my way through dialogue trees or pouring over my character sheet, Vincke's keen to show off all the items he can craft and combine. That, and the many ways he can use magic to cause havoc.A plank of wood and some nails become a club. Meat can be cooked. Heavy items can be dropped on pressure pads to trigger traps. I'm free to grow my character's skills as I wish, but if I decide I want enjoy a little spellcasting then I open up another world of prankish possibilities. Blasts of chill air turn water to ice and send attackers skidding, while searing magical heat can turn that water to vapour, obscuring lines of sight. A zap with a bolt of electricity then turns this into a dangerous static cloud.Individually, all these elements are interesting, but it's when they come together that Divinity: Origin Sin's potential leaps out at you. A vapour cloud isn't just useful in combat, hiding you from a party of advancing monsters, it could also give you the cover you need to commit a quick theft and leave your reputation intact. There are, Vincke says, multiple ways to solve many of the game's problems and, should one approach fail, there will still be others available.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...al-sin-preview

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Quake Live gets its own standalone client

January 10th, 2014, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

Free-to-play Quake 3 Arena variant Quake Live is shifting its platform from a browser-based offering to having its own dedicated client.Available now, this new client will help alleviate compatibility issues with various browsers. Current Quake Live players' stats will transfer over to the client, while the browser version has been sunsetted in lieu of this sleeker format.Unfortunately, the client doesn't support Mac or Linux. "While we have reports from our testers that the game works through emulation or virtualization software, we are unable to support native Mac and Linux versions," Bethesda noted on its blog. "If you're using Mac and Linux and have a paid subscription, you will only be able to access the game using emulation or virtualization software."On the plus side, Pro subscribers can now host matches for standard users across all seven Premium game modes.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ndalone-client

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Broken Age Episode One comes to Early Access on Tuesday

January 10th, 2014, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

The first half of Double Fine's long-awaited Kickstarter-funded point-and-click adventure Broken Age is coming to Steam Early Access on 14th January.Studio head Tim Schafer publicly made the announcement earlier today on Twitter, where he noted that he's not released an adventure game in 16 years. (Has it been that long, Grim Fandango?!) "Haven't shipped a game of my own in 4.5 years, an adventure game in 16, a point-n-click in almost 20. Next Tuesday is going to be exciting!" the legendary developer said.Those who backed the project formerly known as Double Fine Adventure will receive codes for this early access rendition of Broken Age, while the second half of the game is due in a few months.Broken Age follows two parallel stories as the player switches back and forth at will between main characters Shay (Elijah Wood) and Vella (Masasa Moyo). The former is a teenage boy living alone in a spaceship following the destruction of his homeworld, while the latter is a girl who's been chosen as a sacrifice to save her village. While Shay rebels against the overprotective AI his parents left to coddle him, Vella runs from her fate and seeks to slay the monster that's been tormenting her village. The cast is rounded out by Wil Wheaton, Jack Black and Jennifer Hale.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ess-on-tuesday

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SOCOM spiritual successor H-Hour gets pre-alpha trailer

January 10th, 2014, 00:18 Posted By: wraggster

Pre-alpha action for H-Hour: World's Elite was shown off in trailer form today. The developer, SOF Studios, stressed that the tactical shooter hasn't been tuned or polished yet, so the smaller details seen in the teaser video are best viewed in a more forgiving light.

The game comes from former SOCOM Creative Director David Sears, who earned $252,662 on Kickstarter in July 2013 to develop what he called a "spiritual successor" to the series. H-Hour: World's Elite is a team-based PC and PS4 game, and as such it will feature community and clan management support. The multiplayer shooter is currently aiming to enter its beta program in July 2014, launching in full on PC in January 2015, according to the reward tiers on its Kickstarter page.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/08/so...alpha-trailer/

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Valve wants Dota 2 playable on Steam Controller

January 10th, 2014, 00:03 Posted By: wraggster

Valve Software readily admits its unconventional Steam Controller isn't likely to replace the keyboard and mouse PC gamers are familiar with, but the company still aims for a future in which the new controller can be used with such complex games as strategy hit Dota 2.

"[Dota 2] is a really complex game that uses a good half of the keyboard," Valve engineer Jeff Bellinghausen told Polygon at CES. "And it's a real challenge, but would also be really exciting. To be able to play Dota from the couch is a really neat opportunity."

Crucial to this plan is the upcoming debut of Steam Controller API support in Steamworks, which should make it easier for developers to tap the full functionality of the Steam Controller in their games.

Even with the new API support, Bellinghausen believes it will be impossible to perfectly replicate the experience of using a keyboard and mouse with the Steam Controller. "We're thinking we'll get 90 percent of the way there," Bellinghausen told Polygon. "Team Fortress 2 players who are really happy with their mouse and keyboard, we're in no way saying that's changing or going away," Bellinghausen added."What we're trying to do is find a way to get close to that performance, but [from] your couch. That's the goal, to get close to that performance level."

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/09/va...am-controller/

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