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It’s a new month and so Valve have posted a new message, listing the latest games to have made it through their Greenlight process. Just like last month’s Greenlight post around 50 games are listed as having made it through the process since then.
The games in the list include 2D Viking game Jotun, where you fight your way through the levels of Viking purgatory to prove yourself worthy of Valhalla; an RTS game called Deep Space Settlement that has been 3 years in development already and Run or Die, an endless runner game which involves an ion cannon. These are just 3 of the games in the list.
Check out the list below, maybe you’ll find something to interest you.
Wildstar’s second drop is here. Sabotage, a 15 v 15 PvP map adds a few new twists to the already fast and frenetic Wildstar PvP formula. For starters, mounts are available for use, significantly changing the mobility of the teams. In addition, each side of the new map, Daggerstone pass, comes equipped with a fusion reactor. Teams are tasked with guarding their own base and destroying the opposing team’s reactor. The key to doing this is…bombs. Bombs are dropped off at each base, and players have to pick them up and carry them across the map. While carrying a bomb, they are unable to use mounts, making them much more vulnerable. Teams must guard their bomb carriers while attempting to take down the opposing bomb carrier. In addition, bombs can be stolen and even used to kill enemy players. Added to the chaos is the ability to capture uplinks ranged across the map to call in airstrikes on enemy bases.
During my time with Sabotage, I found the map to be fast, fun and action packed. Wildstar’s trademark telegraph system is in full force here with the sheer amount of chaos centered around bomb carriers being a joy to behold. Queue times were short and the map ran with almost no lag. In addition, I was able to turn in credible performances with both my level 50 and my level 30 characters, as the map automatically scales all players to the same level. This keeps the mode fair, while still allowing for PvP gear and stats to work well. And fun it is. If you play Wildstar, the drop is free and you should definitely check it out.
Part of 2D MOBA Awesomenauts set-up for defending your area from the opposing team’s assault is the way you customise your chosen character’s weapons and upgrades so that you can get stronger as the match wears on. However the way the game had it set up up until now has caused some of the less-popular upgrades to be chosen very rarely as they weren’t considered to be as good or left you at a disadvantage if you chose wrong. Developers Ronimo have decided that it needs fixing.
Right now you can choose three of your upgrade options per line before the match, so choosing wisely was a priority and so the same upgrades would be chosen over and over. It wasn’t possible to choose any other upgrades other than those ones once you’d locked them in, which could leave you wanting if you chose badly. To fix this, Ronimo are overhauling the ‘shop’ part of two bases on either side of the map.
“With a completely new interface and expanded shelves, you now have 6 options in the shop per skill row.” explained dev Joost. “You still can buy 3 items per row, but you will have all the items available to you to choose from during the game.”
This will allow for more customisable ability builds in game, without greatly changing the way an Awesomenauts match currently plays out. The only downside is that with choice, you could possibly spend too long choosing a new upgrade. Not a good idea in a game where you need to protect a drill core from being destroyed.
So, it’s the second week of Blizzard’s schedule for the single-player expansion they’ve released for their virtual card game, Hearthstone. A week that unfortunately brought with it many problems with the purchase of the second wing of the expansion, as many found themselves unable to access the Plague Quarter after purchasing it, even when the gold and real-life money payment had been taken out. So, is it worth it once you have the wing, open and paid for with the right amount of payment?
The three bosses are Noth the Plaguemaster, Heigan the Unclean and Loatheb, who is the most difficult of the three. Noth’s hero power is a passive one, spawning a 1/1 Skeleton for every minion that dies (not including the Skeletons themselves) and it can get out of hand very quickly if not contained, especially if you value board control as I do. Heigan’s hero power is a 1-mana cost, and causes 2 damage to your left-most minion; which causes you to actually think about where you’re placing your creatures on the field. Loatheb’s hero power is a 2-mana cost that causes 3 damage to your Hero, and as he has 75 health to your 30 it’s a very difficult battle. However, there is a trick for winning but I won’t reveal it here for those of you who want to figure it out yourselves.
So, how does it match up to last week’s Arachnid Quarter? I honestly found it to be somewhat easier myself, but maybe that’s because the way these computer opponents play is much easier for me to counter with the way I play. None of the bosses were able to trouble me for too many attempts and I beat all 3 in 30-45 minutes. Does this mean it’s bad though? Not at all. I found it challenging still and I had to work for all 3 victories.
And then I tried the Hunter Class Challenge and learned the value of a Webspinner. Originally I thought its Deathrattle ability to put a random Beast into your hand took only from your deck; but when random Beasts begin to appear in my hand that didn’t come from the special all-Webspinner deck I was playing with I learned: it literally meant ANY random Beast. Including Legendaries. Needless to say it’s the only Class Challenge I’ve beaten so far, and I keep going back to replay it. It’s just that much fun for me as someone who loves playing the Hunter class.
Overall I have to say that Blizzard are doing quite a good job so far as far as the gameplay content and challenge level is concerned. If only that carried over to the actual launching of each wing, we’d be golden.
The Aliens: Colonial Marines game was generally considered universally a bad game when it was released last year. Now a class action lawsuit has been brought against Sega and Gearbox claiming that the game was sold on false pretenses based on misleading footage shown at events such as E3 and PAX. While both companies seemed willing to fight, Gearbox are now attempting to pull out before a judge can even decide if a lawsuit is warranted.
Gearbox allege that they were willing to let Sega handle things but are now attempting to pull out before things go too far. They say that they plowed money into the game too for which they’ve yet to see returns and also that the lawsuit is too wide, including people who might have liked the game or people who never saw the early footage of the games. All of this is detailed in their request for summary judgement, linked below.
Obviously there is no way to tell how many people saw the footage shown at E3 and PAX, but thanks to the modern media it’s likely that soon after it was shown at the events it was spreading rapidly across the Internet, reaching many thousands.
One of the plaintiffs has already been removed from the lawsuit, so possibly Gearbox could find themselves able to escape from the class actions and leave Sega to potentially face the music.
