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At Blizzcon today, the next expansion for Hearthstone was announced, although it seems that it’s not going to be whatever piece of gaming software they registered the “Eye of Azshara” trademark for earlier this week.
The name of the expansion is Goblins vs. Gnomes which ties into the goblinesque card back that’s recently been revealed. We already knew that this next expansion was due to bring over 100 new cards to the game, and now we’ve been told that the number is going to be 120 new cards and one of those will be an explosive sheep. Finally they’ll have use outside a Hunter deck!
The developers of Shadowrun have a new project on the table it seems, and it’s going to be an action roguelike.
Hairbrained Schemes have called the game Necropolis, which gives you several rather defined clues about the setting for the game. It’s one where you enter hunting for treasure, fighting enemies along the way and hoping that you don’t fall victim to anything nasty lest you join the hoards yourself. In-game it’s the final resting place of an archmage called Abraxis and the corridors change because of his servant, the magical intelligence called Brazen Head – who apparently does it when he feels like doing so. But the developers are hoping to make Necropolis a little bit different.
“At its core, Necropolis is an action game,” says the developer. “Unlike other popular Roguelikes, Necropolis features a combat system based on timing and animation. It’s fast and deadly – learn to anticipate enemy attack patterns, time your actions for maximum effect, and use smart combinations of heavy and light attacks to defeat your enemies. You can’t just button-mash and win.”
It’s not all bad news though, it seems that an ecology exists in the Necropolis between the monsters that make it home and the undead adventurers forced into servitude after falling victim to the dangers, and you can exploit that as you make your way through the levels.
If you want to find out more information, pop yourself over to their teaser website and learn some more.
Ubisoft have revealed the system requirements today for the new entry into the Far Cry series (well its PC version anyway), and they’re not too bad, although the amount of hard drive space required is still pushing it a bit for my liking. Still, we’re beginning to see the minimum requirements as a guideline so most machines should be able to run it.
The requirements are:
Minimum
Supported OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8/8.1 (64bit versions only)
Processor: Intel Core i5-750 @ 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.2 GHz
Memory: 4GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD5850 (1GB VRAM)
Direct X: Version 11
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
Optimal
Supported OS: MS Windows 7 SP1, MS Windows 8/8.1 (64bit versions only)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400S @ 2.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or better
Memory: 8GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon R9 290X or better (2GB VRAM)
Direct X: Version 11
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
If you’re running it with a GPU that supports Nvidia’s technology too you can expect some fancy shadows and anti aliasing during the gameplay too.
Far Cry 4 is due out November 20th in the UK and Europe, and the 18th across the water.
Ever since Nintendo hit on the concept of using online video to communicate the latest information about upcoming games, new DLC or any other news related to Nintendo to its fans and gamers, the company has developed a habit of encouraging people at short notice to come to the website or Twitch to watch live the latest Nintendo Direct as Nintendo employees (mostly Iwata) reveals the next little titbit from the company.
And so it came to pass that at 10pm on Guy Fawkes’ Day (that’s November 5th for you non-Brits), Nintendo put live its latest Nintendo Direct, which this time was focused on “new information about upcoming titles”. One of these titles was entirely new – I’ve covered the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D in the last article; and Digmbot has covered the Xenoblade Chronicles Xreveals elsewhere on the site – but here’s a quick summary of everything else that was revealed during the 30-odd minute discussion:
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M imagines a world where Steam power is still king. One fateful day, a steam-powered bridge over the River Thames is due to open, but as crowds gather to witness the event – suddenly, a monster invasion breaks out! A gang of four unlikely heroes, spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abraham Lincoln – the trailer even refers to him as “United States President”) have to use steam-powered technologies to bypass or defeat the monsters and… save humanity, I guess? I don’t know, the Trailer doesn’t explain the plot… or make much sense at all if I’m honest! Check it out below:
Amiibo support in Mario Kart 8
Nintendo announced earlier in the year that their popular Wii U racer, Mario Kart 8, will receive DLC for Amiibo suppoort in the near future – and now, thanks to a trailer revealed in this Nintendo Direct, we now know what it consists of. When you touch a compatible Amiibo figure (currently any Wave 1 character) on the Wii U gamepad while playing Mario Kart 8, you will unlock a special Racing Suit depicting your character. Then, whenever you race as a Mii, you can have it don the suit and it’ll dress up as that character – so your Mii can pretend to be Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Captain Falcon or any of the other Amiibo figures you may have. It’s unknown at this point if the racing suits have any other purpose besides cosmetics.
Mario Kart 8 DLC
And staying on the topic of DLC in Mario Kart 8, Nintendo also revealed what will be coming in the first two DLC Expansions:
Hyrule Warriors: Spinner Link
Something that WAS a little shocking of late was Nintendo revealing that Hyrule Warriors – which had not previously announced to be getting any support for Amiibo – WOULD be patched to add in support in the future. A new Trailer in this Nintendo Direct revealed just what this support will be; and for once it’s actually pretty cool. Use the Amiibo figure of Link while playing Hyrule Warriors and you’ll unlock Link Spinner, a new form of link who rides atop a bladed Spinning Top which he can use to slice through enemies and other cool tricks! Check out this bad-assery below:
Mario & Luigi in Monster Hunter 4? WTF Capcom?!?
Okay, so it’s not ACTUALLY Mario and Luigi, but whoever in Capcom decided to do this should be fired for damaging the serious nature of the Monster Hunter games. It’s been announced that the long term cat-like assistants in the Monster Hunter franchise, the Felynes – who, among other things, are known for their love of cosplay in various MH Titles – will be able to dress as Mario and Luigi in at least some part of Monster Hunter 4. Yes, really.
Though, given Mario and Luigi dressed as cats in Super Mario 3D World, maybe the Felynes just want to return the favour.
Pikmin make their movie début!
…Well, short movies at least! The loveable Pikmin will be starring in a series of three short movies which will soon be downloadable via the eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Splatoon’s Single Player campaign revealed!
Rounding off this episode of Nintendo Direct, at E3 earlier this year we were treated to our first look at a third-party, cartoon-style, ink-based Shoot-em-up coming to Wii U next year, called Splatoon. The E3 Trailer and subsequent discussion focused mainly on the game’s Multiplayer aspect; so this time, the footage focused on the single-player Campaign instead – which looks AWESOME, if I do say so myself.
It’s time to take a break from the slew of superhero news that’s come our way over the past week, and shift our focus back to a galaxy far, far away. Yep, that’s right, folks! According to the official Star Wars website, Star Wars: Episode VII has finished principal photography and finally has a subtitle: The Force Awakens.
