February 8, 2013

Daikatana Comes to GOG.com

Marshall Lemon | 8 February 2013 7:21 am

The infamous shooter that tarnished John Romero's reputation can now be sucked down on Windows 8.

Before Duke Nukem Forever, there was Daikatana. The brainchild of John Romero and Ion Storm, Daikatana was supposed to be the next big thing in PC gaming. Three years after its planned release, gamers finally sat down to discover out-of-date graphics, incompetent AI companions, and artificially limited level saves. Coupled with a marketing campaign that promised to make us John Romero's bitch, the game found itself reviled even by fans of Romero's work. Now the infamous PC shooter has found a home with GOG.com, where today's gamers can decide for themselves whether Daikatana was a misunderstood gem, or honestly deserves all the hatred heaped upon it.

More: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121999-Daikatana-Comes-to-GOG-com

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It's not a terrible move by GOG, since they probably were able to secure the right to sell it for practically nothing. But I think they got the price point wrong. Apparently they're selling it at $5,99, which I think is much too high. By all accounts the game is as bad as everybody says (having watched some of a Let's Play on YouTube I would agree), so they can only sell it to people who buy it out of sheer morbid curiosity or the ones who want to be able to say they own one of the worst games ever. And to do that I think they should have set the price at $0,99 - $1,99.

January 24, 2013

THQ dissolves, auctions off franchises and studios – here’s who bought what

Source: PCGamer
Article: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/24/thq-dissolves-auctions-off-properties-heres-who-got-what/

Tyler Wilde at 01:30am January 24 2013

THQ is no more: the bankrupt publisher and developer auctioned off its assets in U.S. Bankruptcy Court today. Though the court must still approve the sales, a letter from THQ’s CEO (which was passed to Kotaku by an employee) reveals the bidders, which include Sega, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Crytek, and Take-Two, and the THQ franchises and studios they’ll acquire. Below is a breakdown of who’s getting what, and what led to today’s sale.

Who’s getting what? Based on what we know right now…
Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000 developer Relic Entertainment is going to Sega.
Saints Row developer Volition, Inc. and the Metro series are going to Koch Media (Deep Silver).
The Homefront franchise is going to Crytek.
THQ Montreal and the South Park license are going to Ubisoft.
Evolve, a game in development by Turtle Rock Studios (which worked on Left 4 Dead), is going to Take-Two Interactive.
THQ will “make every effort to find appropriate buyers” for its remaining assets, such as Darksiders developer Vigil Games.

What happened?

On November 13, 2012, THQ announced that it had defaulted on a $50 million loan. Its subsequent Humble THQ Bundle raised about $5 million for THQ, charities, and the Humble Bundle organizers, but it wasn’t enough: the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 19th.

Bankruptcy isn’t necessarily the end—Chapter 11 allows the debtor to stay in control of the company under court oversight—but things didn’t go as planned. THQ expected to sell itself in whole to a private equity firm called Clearlake Capital Group, but THQ’s creditors and the bankruptcy court rejected that proposal earlier this month, which led to today’s piece by piece auction.

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It's too bad it had to end this way. A few IPs (like Darksiders) haven't been picked up yet, and I also have a feeling that a fair amount of people are going to be losing their jobs...

The IPs I was interested in (Metro and Saint's Row) were both picked by Koch Media (nothing to do with the Koch Bros. , who run Deep Silver. I'm not really familiar with them so I don't know how that bodes for the future. The only Deep Silver titles I have are the X Series of space sims.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

December 21, 2012

Whatever you do during this Apocalypse...

December 6, 2012

Play over 300 emulated DOS games in your browser (PCGamer)

The team over at RGB Classic Games is giving us our nostalgia fixes in the form of Java-based DOS emulation. They currently host over 300 games from days of yore including Doom, Commander Keen, Earthworm Jim, and many more that didn’t get spotlighted because they were too far down the alphabetically-organized page. And it’s totally free.

It almost seems too good to be true. You might expect the hammer of legal action to be looming just above the dusty library of classics, but the site’s intentions appear noble. As it explains: “The highest ideals of this site are to support the authors by providing links to their web sites and ordering information for the full versions of games that are still sold, and to encourage the authors of classic games to preserve their games for future generations by making them available for sale or as freeware. If you enjoy a shareware game, please consider buying it from the author.

“All of the games on this site are freely distributable because they are shareware, freeware, or because the copyright holder has officially and legally released all rights to the public domain (abandonware).”

Assuming that’s the case, the site shouldn’t see any problems, but if it does offend a copyright holder, we’d expect a simple removal of the game in question to suffice. Cue up some Nirvana and have a look for yourself.

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/05/play-over-300-emulated-dos-games-in-your-browser/

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Who knows if it's gonna last, so go play while you can!

December 2, 2012

The Humble THQ Bundle! Pay what you want for seven games

The guys from the Humble Bundle are at it again, but this time with major releases; I've heard rumors that THQ is in dire straits financially, but this seems like a crazy deal.

The games are:
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
Red Faction Armageddon
Metro 2033
Darksiders
Saint's Row The Third (if you beat the average price paid, which right now is $5,65)

It's pay what you want, and you can split up the money as you like between the developer, charity (Child's Play and American Red Cross) and the Humble Bundle People.

More info at http://www.humblebundle.com

Of the games I know only two Metro 2033 and Saint's Row The Third.

I enjoyed Metro 2033, even though it took me a while to get into it. I actually got into it more after reading the book (even though the plot deviates, since the book didn't have that much fighting in it). It does have a minor case of consolitis (regenerating health, checkpoint saving system only, and the controls felt a bit wonky to me) but it's a good FPS if you enjoy the post-apocalyptic setting.

Saint's Row The Third is a great game, if you like GTA-style games. It's much better optimized for PC than SR2 was. The dialogue and cutscenes seemed a bit better in SR2, but other than that I thought SR3 was superior in pretty much everything. Especially the non-story activities are much better; there are only three levels per activity (not six, like in SR2) and the difficulty level is a bit more reasonable; some activities in SR2 became ludicrously hard at higher levels. Keep in mind there is a metric ton of DLC for this game, mostly additional clothes and vehicles, but three of them also have new missions.

As for the rest I don't like hack'n slashes much (which is what Darksiders looks like) and I'm absolutely hopeless at RTS games. I actually own Company of Heroes, it came with my graphics card (which really ages my rig), but I never actually played it. The only RTS I've played is Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, because I enjoyed the wacky characters. But after some point I had to play the missions on easy because I was getting slaughtered.

If anybody has any input on the other games let me know.

August 22, 2012

PC gaming has "around a 93-95% piracy rate" claims Ubisoft CEO (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Tom Senior at 05:34pm August 22 2012

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been speaking to GamesIndustry International about Ubi’s reasons for embracing the free to play model. He says free to play games are more cost effective to create because typical PC releases are so heavily pirated. He claims that "only about five to seven per cent" of players pay for PC games, "the rest is pirated."

Guillemot doesn’t provide any evidence for this, but insists that the rate of paying customers for a traditional release is equal to that of a free to play game. He says that the free to play model lets Ubisoft "take content which we’ve developed in the past, graphics etc," to make "cheaper games and improve them over time."

(snip)

"It’s a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content."

It would be very interesting to learn where Guillemot has taken the "93-95 per cent" figure from, but a belief in that high a rate of piracy would explain the aggressive DRM strategy that Ubisoft have been pursuing for the past few years. Ubisoft recently announced that they’ll be charging into the free to play market with three new games, Anno Online, Silent Hunter Online and Heroes of Might and Magic Online.

Atricle: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/22/pc-gaming-has-around-a-93-95-per-cent-piracy-rate-claims-ubisoft-ceo/

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As one of the commenters on the PCGamer site said "around 100% of Ubisoft CEOs are fucking morons". This follows from exactly the same data that the Ubisoft CEO cites (none at all).

It is not the first time that Ubisoft has made this sort of claim, and I don't remember ever seeing any shred of evidence for it. Every time the claim was made in defense of Ubisoft's always on-line DRM. Could it be maybe that people stopped buying Ubisoft games, because of that DRM?

I haven't bought an Ubisoft game in ages, and I have very poor impulse control during Steam sales! I don't pirate either, so I haven't played any of their recent titles at all. In this and other cases players who pirate games have much less hassles compared to legitimate buyers, who have to jump through endless hoops, and from what I've heard Ubisoft's UPlay system isn't bug free.

If what the CEO says is true, why is Ubisoft releasing PC Games at all? Ironically (again if what he says is true), if Ubisoft were to release their games completely without DRM their revenue would probably go up, since more people would be willing to buy their games... But they seem to go out of their way to discourage people from wanting to buy their games.

Piracy is only one of PC gaming's problems. A huge one is games being released as lazy console ports; I'm not referring so much to graphics as to terrible performance issues, checkpoint-only saving systems, no mod support, key bindings that can't be remapped (or only partially with a bunch of tasks being assigned a single key), or control responses optimized solely for gamepads and no other input method (driving in Saint's Row 2 on PC is a nightmare). If these things were addressed properly I think it would help sales a lot more than all the DRM in the world.

And if they think they're gonna make it in the free-to-play MMO market with cheap old assets, I doubt they'll get very far. That sector seems pretty unforgiving.

And, although I sometimes sound like a huge Steam fanboy, it took me a long time to warm up to it, and I'm still not comfortable with the control it has over a large portion of my games library. But in the end the sales are good, and it's mostly hassle free, so it's a compromise.

Ok, rant over.

Discuss.

August 17, 2012

(VR Headset) Oculus Rift hands-on video: everything you’ve heard is true (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Owen Hill at 05:05pm August 17 2012

The Oculus Rift is the most exciting peripheral I’ve ever used. This is the virtual reality headset I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little boy; true future tech that will redefine what it means to play games.

I got to demo it running Doom BFG at this year’s Gamescom. Even better, the kind chaps at Oculus let us film the wondrous thing in action, so you get to share in me looking silly but having a truly joyous gaming experience. Click through for the video.

For more on the Oculus Rift, check out the official site or, if you’re feeling even more enthused, sign up for the Kickstarter campaign and get yourself a dev kit. I’m not rich enough to lay down the $335 dollars quite yet but I’ll be buying Palmer Lucky’s product once it’s released, no doubt. Keep checking the site for our exclusive interview, where he reveals which two games he’d most like to play on the Rift.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/17/oculus-rift-hands-on-video-everything-youve-heard-is-true/

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Colour me intrigued...

August 17, 2012

Modders restore missing Fallout: New Vegas content, companion, much much more (PCGamer)

Source: PCGamer

Richard Cobbett at 10:00am August 17 2012

Much like earlier Obsidian game Knights of the Old Republic 2, what we got in Fallout: New Vegas was only part of what was planned, or even implemented only to be dummied out. Modders to the rescue! Investigating the source with forensic care, there are now many fixes available to do everything from turn Freeside back into the single map it was meant to be, to adding back characters that were cut. Better still, you can grab the necessary mods in a set of easy packages – right here!

There are more changes still to be made, but the ones on offer so far include full quests, missing characters, an in-engine version of the introduction, and several packs containing small changes that don’t warrant their own full mods. Check the descriptions for compatibility information though, as a few apparently don’t play well together (a Brahmin companion called Betsy and the new Open Freeside being the most obvious.) Head over here for a preview of what might be coming back later.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/17/modders-restore-missing-fallout-new-vegas-content-companion-much-much-more/

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Since I'm currently playing New Vegas I won't install any of this until after I at least finish my vanilla playthrough, but this certainly seems to add a bit of content. Hopefully by the time I'm done they'll have worked out some of the compatibility issues.

Also recently PCGamer reported that another mod team had done the same for Knights of The Old Republic 2 (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/25/community-heroes-modders-debug-and-restore-cut-content-in-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii/). But in regards to that game I have one big question: LucasArts, why is KOTOR2 not on Steam???? (while KOTOR is...)

August 16, 2012

Humble Bundle for Android, PC, Mac & Linux 3 - Indie Games and Charity

The new Humble Bundle has been published. This will be available for the next two weeks.

All games work both on the computer (PC, Mac & Linux) and on Android Phones.

It is pay what you want, and the money goes to the developers, the Humble Bundle people and charity (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation). You can decide how to split your payment.

The games featured are:
Fieldrunners
Bit Trip Beat
SpaceChem
Uplink

If you pay more than the average offer ($6.06 at the moment) you also get:
Spirits

There's a chance that over the course of the offer more games might be added to the pay-more-than-average portion (which you will access to even if you bought the bundle before they were added).

All games are DRM-free and work cross-platform on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
Also included are the soundtracks to Uplink and SpaceChem.

You can find all the info here or watch the video above:
http://www.humblebundle.com/

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I know two of the games SpaceChem and Uplink.

SpaceChem is a puzzle game in which you have to program machines to dis- and/or reassemble molecules to create whatever output is needed. I had a great time playing it until it eventually got too hard for me. My solutions tended to be pretty messy and nowhere near as elegant as the ones you see on YouTube. Still a great game though.

Uplink is a hacking game by Introversion (makers of Darwinia and Defcon). I was actually playing it when I got the message that this bundle was released! It's very spartan as far as graphics go, you just see your terminal you get your jobs per email and you break into whichever systems you need to complete them (and then cover up your tracks). With the money you earn you upgrade your system to be able to pull off bigger hacks.

I enjoy Uplink a lot now. The problem I had at the beginning is that I didn't really understand how you are supposed to go about playing the game and so got stuck pretty quickly; the tutorial gives you all the basic information on how to perform simple jobs, but it's pretty superficial and does not prepare you for when things get more serious. Then last week I watched the beginning of a Let's Play of Uplink and finally got to see how the game is supposed to be played. I get on much better now.

Another thing I want to mention is that Uplink has a great soundtrack. Although it's not proper chiptune music it is very similar in style and reminds me of the music I used to hear when playing on my Commodore 64 and Amiga.

If anybody knows the other games let me know.

August 9, 2012

Steam to start hosting non-game software (PC Gamer)

Source: PC Gamer

T.J. Hafer at 07:51pm August 8 2012

First: movies. Now, Valve has announced that it wants to be your supplier for non-game programs. Beginning September 5th, you’ll be able to grab a variety of software ranging “from creativity to productivity” that “take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.”

The press release didn’t give any specific names for launch titles, but it was revealed that devs will be able to submit apps for the community’s approval using Steam Greenlight, just as game creators can.

“The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” Vavle’s Mark Richardson said. “They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests.”

As far as I know, the non-game software market lacks any sort of Steam-like unified distribution platform as of now, so this is a potentially huge development. What kinds of applications would you like to see added?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/08/steam-to-start-hosting-non-game-software/

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Now this looks interesting. Of course it largely depends on what kind of software they will be offering. But also the ability for developers of "regular" (i.e. non-gaming) software to be able to go through Steam Greenlight to make their product available could be a boon for them.

Of course the non-gaming software market probably works very differently than Steam's gaming product range. I doubt I'll be seeing a 75%-off Steam sale of music production software any time soon. But I can, dream can't I?