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It’s time for the weekly look into Kickstarter’s gaming campaigns.
Started as always with our previously covered campaigns, there’s a few to cover and unfortunately a lot of it is a tale of unsuccessful campaigns, cancellations and ones that have a lot of fund to make up in little time. There are three of the previously covered campaigns that have now ended without meeting target, but only one of those ended up running out time. This was The Salt Fortress which unfortunately hasn’t seen an update since it failed a few days ago. The other two had their campaigns cancelled before they ran out of time, being Blood Ancestors (the team of which are analysing what went wrong so they can try again having learned lessons) and Badlands: Outpost of Humanity (the team of which admit that they made mistakes and will be trying again in September). As well a few campaigns are struggling, with Two Scoops, Ash of Gods and (surprisingly) Project Rap-Rabbit all running out of time as I write. Indeed, by the time I publish this, the third might even have concluded it has so little time left to it.
However, as always there is so good news to report as well. Pathfinder: Kingmaker has not yet reached its target but it is well along and has a lot of time left so it is almost certain to make it. As well, spaceBOUND has concluded as a success.
First up we have a game that’s very Megaman in art style.
Android Hunter A is described as a “hardcore side-scroller shooter” that aims to bring platforming gameplay back to modern audiences. The game itself is obviously heavily inspired by the Megaman X series and this influence is even noted on the page for the game. There will be fourteen unique stages to play through, with the usual Megaman-esque abilities to upgrade your armour and skills after each victory.
Android Hunter A has a $150,000 goal to reach, with $8,086 made so far and 29 more days to run.
Next up we have a big game with a big name attached to it.
Rumours about deGrasse Tyson’s game were flying around before E3 and now it’s been announced as being a space-based game and the fans and gamers are going to be the ones to help shape it. Questions asked, suggestions made and help with development will all be at the fingers of the people who want to play the game. The game’s foundation will be based in scientifically-accurate gameplay through, so expect the laws of physics to stay unbroken.
Space Odyssey has a goal of $314,159, has 39 days left to run and has made $99,700 so far.
Next is a tactical space-based game based off of a cult classic!
The Infinite Black 2 is a tactical, role-playing game in space in which alien machines have reached humanity and when humanity tried for friendship, instead they were demanded of for flesh, violence and pain else the sun would be imploded and humanity wiped out. The game is a turn-based game, and is sequel to the original The Infinite Black – a game that the campaign page states “spawned many real-life weddings, pregnancies, divorces, parking lot brawls, and maybe a few stints in jail.” Nice to see devs with a sense of humour.
The Infinite Black 2 has 24 days left to go, and has made $13,848 of its $20,000 goal.
Finally we end with something cyberpunk. Hell yes.
Human Interface is a board game of miniatures for 1-5 players, and what is described as an “evocative cyberpunk backstory”. The miniatures come as plastic by default, but it is listed that metal ones are also an option. The aim is that you join together to “escape a high-security, illegal prison (black site) and gather evidence on the unlawful doings of massive corporations.” As suggested, cybernetics play a big role in this game and that makes me happy.
Human Interface: Be a Better Human has a goal of £48,000 which it has already crushed. It has 12 more days to go, so go check it out if this sounds your kinda thing.
After several hints on Twitter Firaxis have announced a brand new DLC for XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Unlike Shen’s Last Gift and Alien Hunters this is a full expansion with two main overarching mechanics as well as a slew of smaller features.
The first major feature is a group that the expansion is named after: a group of aliens known as The Chosen. This is an elite force of three powerful foes: the Ranger-like Assassin, the long range sniper Hunter and the psionic Warlock. The Chosen are trying to recapture the Commander with each having their own strengths and combat doctrine and each will return again and again growing stronger just as XCOM does until you find and defeat their stronghold much like EXALT in Enemy Within.
To help deal with The Chosen as well as other new threats they have introduced three other resistance factions: the Reapers, the Skirmishers and the Templars. Working alongside these factions and helping them over the course of the campaign will eventually allow you to recruit their members as what are referred to as “Hero” classes.
Reapers specialise in stealth, sniping and sabotage. Skirmishers are stated as being alien-human hybrid defectors who are extremely quick and can perform multiple actions per turn and Warlocks are psionics who charge up their power over time to perform a big play off.
The Chosen are not the only new foes however. So far a new alien, the Spectre who has the ability to create copies of your forces, as well as two ADVENT units have been shown off. The ADVENT Purifier has so far been stated to use explosives whereas the Priest utilises psionics. In addition to this there is The Lost, zombie like mutants found in pre invasion ruined cities.
Ruins aren’t the only new environment however, also confirmed are underground tunnels and xenoformed wilderness.
In addition to the new sub factions Firaxis have put greater emphasis on customisation and replayability. One part of this is that soldiers build bonds with their teammates to gain new abilities and perks. Whether or not they keep these when not with their friends is not clear however although I would doubt it.
Additionally the new SITREP system will dynamically add modifiers to tactical missions which combined with the already existing dynamic mission map generation (which will most likely see new tiles being added) will allow for each operation feeling much more unique.
War of the Chosen is stated for release on the 29th of August on Steam, Xbox One and Playstation 4.
MMOs are very big games, so there’s a lot more to go wrong. It seems that Final Fantasy XIV is no exception.
Friday was the launch day for Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood’s Early Access, and players piled in but unfortunately it wasn’t without its problems. The main issues stemmed from the increase of player numbers, as you might expect. Quests that throw people into instanced dungeons and battles have been the most affected, and have meant some people have been unable to complete quests and stranded them at a point where they cannot access the further quests down the line that Stormblood offers. One of the big offenders is a quest in the main line which flings players into their own single-player instance, and it seems players are catching onto this so they’re queuing to speak to him so as not to force the servers to generate too many new instances at one time.
Producer Naoki Yoshida responded to the problems with a post; “As announced earlier, there are a huge number of players currently playing Stormblood, and as a result, the servers continue to experience a large amount of stress. For this reason, we are currently limiting the number of players that can enter instanced content so that it does not lead to major server crashes.”
A second even stranger issue has occurred when players who leave or disconnect during the Susano Primal fight have found themselves unable to log back into their characters. The cause has been nailed down to, oddly, players emoting as they enter ‘The Pool of Tribute’. A community representative asked that “users please finish their emote actions before entering ‘The Pool of Tribute”. Fortunately it does seem that while each case of this bug must be sorted out individually, it is possible for it to be fixed as some affected players are now able to log back in again.
Never thought I’d hear of the day when in-game emoting caused you to be locked out of your game account…
Destiny 2’s coming up soon, and Bungie confirmed last week that the threat of Destiny ‘The Darkness’ wouldn’t end up being discussed during the sequel either. Players would love to find out what it was so this is a little disappointing, but turns out that actually they might not be the only ones who don’t know.
Talking to Game Informer, game director Luke Smith said “Destiny 2 is a game about Light, and what happens when it’s taken from you, and the lengths that Guardians will go to get it back. We’re exploring the relationship between the player and the Ghost in terms of Light, and Ghaul’s coveting of the Light. As such, we wanted to carve off other things that we didn’t think were important to the release, such as words like The Darkness.”
He did admit that players were due some closure on The Darkness, but said it wouldn’t be happening in Destiny 2. Why? “We had no idea what it was. Straight up. We had no clue.”
So it seems that the mysterious The Darkness is so mysterious that not even its own creators know quite what it is. They admitted there’s been some ideas thrown around such as saying it was the name for the group of aliens you fight, but decided that their IP deserved much better than just that.
Hopefully if there’s a Destiny 3, we’ll find out just what players have been fighting against.
