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Overwatch gets special limited edition content released for big events or holidays, we know this now. First it was the Summer Games content for the Olympics, then we had Halloween’s Dr. Junkenstein’s Revenge. Christmas content is inevitable and some eager gamers have been sneaking a look through datamining.
What’s been found so far are references to new maps, something that could be the holiday’s potential special gamemode (ala Lucioball or Junkenstein’s Revenge), which characters are getting new festive skins and even the menu music.
On the subject of the maps and gamemode, the file references seem to suggest something like the Halloween gamemode with a specialised map for it. Some other maps might also get a little Christmas decoration too for the length of the seasonal event.
On the cosmetic side, every character will be getting a new spray, voice line and victory pose through the Christmas loot crates, but just as with Halloween only not all of them will be getting a skin, emote or highlight intro though the loot crates. Those characters getting at least ONE of the three will be Widowmaker, Reinhardt, Mercy, Symmetra, Reaper, Sombra, Roadhog, D.Va, Ana, Soldier: 76, and Lúcio. The ones getting TWO are Winston, McCree, Mei, Pharah, Zarya, Tracer, and Zenyatta; however Torbjorn will be getting all THREE from the loot. This hints that maybe his character will be put into an important role for the new gamemode possibly.
We should see when the event kicks off. December the 13th is the estimated date of release right now, which would take it through to January 3rd if it ran for the same three-week period of time as other events. However, keep your eyes on the official channels for more information as Blizzard release it.
It’s December at last, so finally Christmas is allowed to be absolutely everywhere. Including in video game launch trailers apparently.
As the tale “Twas the night before Christmas” is read, we get a load of footage of the sort of gameplay the Dead Rising series is famous for – slaughtering huge packs of zombies in the most creative and strange ways you can. And, as the trailer confirms, Dead Rising 4 will be out on December 6th, well in time to make it under many peoples’ Christmas trees. The Xbox team will be doing “something” in London on Monday to mark the game’s release as well, so keep your eyes and ears open for what that is.
DR4 is going to be revisiting the start of the series in this game, but will come with the new weapons to make and photos to take that you’d expect from a new entry into any game series.
Titanfall 2 has already had quite the price drop despite having only launched recently. Now, if you’re still not sure, it’s getting a limited trial so people can try out the multiplayer for a few days before Christmas.
The trial has been open to Origin Access members since the end of November, and now it’s being opened to all from the 2nd to the 4th. There’s no provision of any of the singleplayer elements to it, but the multiplayer is the part that Titanfall was originally built on. Even if the singleplayer is reviewing greatly to people playing it, there’s no value to EA letting players have the chance to potentially finish it for free unfortunately. At least you can get a feel for the game before you decide to buy it or not for that story.
The trial might only be open for a few days but the hours aren’t limited at all. You could play the full chunk of hours non-stop if you wanted to… and were able to handle it. The demo is available for download now at the Origin store.
What’s more, a new map is dropping for the game pretty soon during the trial period. Angel City is the first DLC drop from developers Respawn for the game and is a free piece of DLC to boot. People who pre-ordered have, again, had access since the end of November, but it’s nice to think that even people in the trial will be able to play it soon. Respawn have also said that all post-launch content (maps, weapons, gamemodes etc.) will be free too, so there’s even more to come if you do decide to stick around.
What’s more, any progress you make in the trial can then be transferred over to the full game should you buy it. So really, you might as well give it a go if you’re curious. It’s free, so what do you have to lose?
It’s time for your weekly look into some of the interesting new campaigns that have appeared on Kickstarter in the Gaming section.
As always we start off with some updates on previously covered campaigns. We’ll start off with the bad news. Death Witch: Bloodlines, Cloud Runner, and Alone in the Woods have all completed their campaign times without meeting their goals. Death Witch and Cloud Runner have no updates available on their campaign pages, and while Alone in the Woods does have 2 updates, the last one was over a month ago. Whether we see any of these projects again is anyone’s guess. Also in the ‘bad news’ column are two campaign cancellations – PURRKINS and Space Wars: Interstellar Empires. Both were presumably cancelled due to having too little time to make up their goals, but Space Wars at least is going to continue on to its release date. They’re offering rewards in-game to those who did pledge certain amounts, as they made $32,000 of their $40,000 goal in the end. Not bad for a cancellation.
However, where there is a lot of bad news, there is a little good news to balance it out. The Station has made its target and still have 11 more days to go, which means this atmospheric game is going to be made. Even more surprising is that Drawing Dead, which last week I said would have to push hard to make its goal has finished having reached it. Well played that campaign runner! And grouped in with ‘good news’, Dragon Skies VR, which was crowdfunding only to get more funds for development and were offering a copy of the game to everyone who donated at least $1 has made $799 with just over 2 days to go. That’s a decently sized community for the game from the offset!
Let’s start off with the card game this week, and a game about… addictions in the shape of monkeys?
The game starts off with every players being dealt five cards. There are three types – the addiction monkeys which are what you want to avoid holding onto, action cards which let you pass the monkeys onto other players or into the deck and the figure cards which combine together into powerful combos. Each player has three lives and a life is lost each turn that is ended with a monkey still in your hand. Last one with lives wins. Simple.
Monkeys on Your Back has a €15,000 goal and has made €442 with 28 days to go.
Next up we have a first person shooter, with emphasis on choosing how you upgrade.
Overstep is a game that the developers want to be like the old-school fast-paced shooters, and its free-to-play as well. You dispatch opponents and then have the choice of how to proceed with your upgrades, even selling on tools or keeping them as your spoils of war. There will be built in capabilities for fast-paced stunts or just entering and blasting everything to pieces. It’s up to you how you play.
Overstep has 16 days to go, and it has made €10,247 of its€100,000goal
Next up, we have a game that’s planned for release onto consoles and PC.
Plague Road is a rogue-like game with some turn-based strategy elements thrown into it. You follow the tale of the plague doctor who once left his home and is now venturing back after a virilent disease, seeking survivors and possibly finding out the story of where this sickness came from in the first place. You will fight dangerous foes and have the chance to rescue survivors you find and return them to the safety of your farm home.
Plague Road has made $4,281 of its$30,000target. It has 29 more days to go.
Finally we have an interesting game based on the many worlds theory.
The game is at its base, a 2D pixel RPG set in a fantasy medieval world. However, going off the multiverse theory of each action creating a different split off universe of what happens when each solution is chosen, each action you take in this game creates an alternative universe – in other words each action will effect which way the story develops.
DämmerLicht has 22 days remaining to make its CA$450 goal, of which it has so far managed to earn CA$75.00 of.
There’s no disputing that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was a massive hit. Those of us that played it when it originally released can swap stories about quests, random NPC stupidity or the odd dragon crash landing on you out of nowhere in the middle of the mountains. The game was epic, the world amazingly realized and the gameplay was just absurdly fun. With Bethesda bringing the game back to the fore of our minds with the release of Skyrim Special Edition for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, I thought it was time to see how the new version stacked up against the original in one very important regard: modding.
Modding is a huge part of PC gaming in general, and Skyrim in particular. Don’t believe me? Thats my current list of mods, and there are at least 40 more I’m still trying to find Special Edition compatible versions of.
While there are a few mods that don’t work right now, I have faith that they will be updated soon. But, some of you may be confused. So, for the uninitiated, lets talk Skyrim mods, shall we?
Many of the most popular mods for the game are centered on improving the graphics. Adding dynamic lighting, dust effects, depth of field, lens flare, more grass, better trees, insanely high resolution textures. You name it, and you can add it to Skyrim. As an example, lets take a look at these two screenshots.
The shot on the left is from the vanilla remastered version, running with no mods. The one on the right is running a variety of graphics enhancing mods. Of course, upping the texture resolution isn’t the only thing you can do. Lighting also plays a huge part in making a game more immersive, as seen below.
Again, the shot on the left is from the vanilla version. Among the other mods that are quite popular are weather mods that improve fog and weather effects, more realistic water and enhanced blood textures. Just in case the gore was too unrealistic for you…
And of course, lets not forget about the plethora of other mods, most of which I won’t post shots of here. There’s the mod that turns all of the dragons into the engines from Thomas The Tank Engine. There’s the giant rabbit mod, the skimpy anime style battle armor mod. There are mods that put in more realistic armor, add helpful roadsigns to the main routes in Skyrim. There’s even a mod that adds BIRDS to the game, just for the sake of immersion. Basically, if you can dream it, theres probably a mod for it. On PC at least.
Having tested the in game mod manager that Bethesda has bundled with the game, I have to say it’s pretty anemic. The interface is fiddly, obtuse and generally an utter pain in the ass to use. In fact, it reminds me strongly of the menus system in the game and in Fallout 4. Someone should really fire whatever alien makes the GUI on Bethesda games and hire a real human. Or at least do some focus testing. (Hint: When the test subjects gouge out their own eyes, it’s a bad design.) But I digress. The in game system is serviceable at best. If you want to add a few mods here and there just to try out, it will get the job done. Just don’t expect navigating to the mods you want, downloading and then activating them to be a pleasant or hassle free process.
The PC on the other hand, has multiple ways to install and use mods. Most people will opt for the Nexus Mod Manager, at least until someone updates the Skyrim Script Extender to be compatible with the Special Edition of the game. Until then, NMM works just fine, allowing you to download, install and activate or deactivate mods in a simple window, as seen at the top of this article. And while the process may be frustrating sometimes, at least console owners finally have access to mods. And there are a lot of them in the Bethesda curated offerings. Still, the only way to get some of the more interesting ones remains the PC.
Whatever your platform of choice though, MOD AWAY! Oh…and just because it’s remastered, doesn’t mean the bugs have been totally squashed…
