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The new trailer contains a few more bits of action (including one horrifying moment with an octopus) alongside some new gags from its affable co-leads.
Despite Nick Offerman’s opening gag about noone giving a damn about the Jump Street reboot, we’re rather looking forward to seeing the boys back in action for round two. That said, it’s still a pretty great line…
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and co-starring the returning Ice Cube, 22 Jump Street will open in the UK on 6 June 2014.
What do you think of the new trailer? Tell us, below
The next patch update for Starbound has been released, but wait just a moment before you update your game. Acting too hastily could lose you your ship’s locker and fuel system.
The patch released last night is called ‘v. enraged Koala’, following Chucklefish’s tradition of naming their beta stages after angry marsupials and was released in two stages, an initial one and then one to add some of the new content that wasn’t included with the first patch. The major changes are engine tweaks that will allow Chucklefish to more easily add new biomes to the list already found upon the planets you can visit in game and make changes to existing worlds although they acknowledge that a future world wipe (but not character/ship wipe) could happen in the future. There’s also been a massive overhaul of the way the game is patched, allowing new content to be released when finished rather than having a chunk of content updates happening in one big patch as happens now (they say updates could be ‘nearly daily’).
New content include a greater variety of weapons for the Avian players/NPCs to wield, Valentine’s Day themed items, tech that can now be granted by armours, new death animations, dogs that can be captured (the first of the pet system! Hooray!) and most noticeably the microphone’s sounds are now being provided by ‘Smooth McGroove’.
However, as I said above hold off updating your game just yet. The original patch broke interactivity with beds and pilot seats and the hotfix applied to try and fix this issue has reportedly caused a number of players playing pre-existing saves to lose the locker on their ship and the fuel gauge that allows players to fuel their ships so they can travel to new systems and planets. Chucklefish have been very apologetic to those affected and a partial fix has already been applied to try and stop more players from losing theirs but it is still recommended that you make a back-up of your ship file and your worlds files in case the fix doesn’t work for you. Instructions on where to find these can be found on the blog post at playstarbound.com which I have linked below.
Pop culture, and video games in particular seem to have a fascination with giant robots. Coming along to scratch that itch is Titanfall from EA and Respawn Studios. The multiplayer version of the game is currently in Beta for both XBOX One and PC, allowing you to run, jump, shoot and punch giant mechs to your hearts contents.
My time with the game has been interesting so far. But before I get to that, a brief layout of Titanfall’s Beta. There are currently three match types available: Attrition, Hardpoint Domination, and Last Titan Standing. Attrition is a standard Deathmatch with teams competing for the most score. Hardpoint Domination is a Titan-centric take on the traditional “capture objectives and hold them for points” mode, while Last Titan Standing sees every player spawn in a Titan. There are no respawns, and the last team standing wins.
One thing that will immediately stand out to FPS veterans is the freedom of movement you have as a pilot in Titanfall. Your Titan is not immediately available, instead being on a two minute countdown before you can call it in. You can decrease this timer by killing enemy players and AI controlled grunts. During this time, you are merely a pilot on foot with a primary weapon (like a rifle), some form of pistol and an Anti-Titan weapon. Pilots are outfitted with gear that allows them to sprint, double jump and even wall run. It is entirely possible in Titanfall to come into an alley and spy a nice rooftop vantage point that you can access simply by wall running up one side of the alley, leaping to the other wall to continue your run and gain height, then leap off and grab the edge of the rooftop and heave yourself up.
This mobility is a key part of playing a pilot particularly when a Titan enters the field. These hulking machines are surprisingly mobile and are almost instant death to an unwary pilot. Being blown away in one shot from a chaingun three times your size, stepped on or just punched out of existence are all standard ways a pilot will die if he takes a Titan head on. Fortunately for the squishy pilot, he has an arsenal of tools to help deal with these behemoths. Anti-Titan weapons such as sidewinder missiles will put a dent in the offending mech. Also available is the ability – if timed right – to leap onto the Titan, rip off a panel covering some of it’s vital electronics and blast them to bits. Satisfying in the extreme, its a neat twist on the gameplay that keeps Titans from feeling all powerful.
While on foot, the game plays smoothly. Controls are snappy and responsive, shooting feels good and each kill is satisfying. Then there are the Titans themselves….
Call down a Titan and you are rewarded with a massive ball of fire raining down from the sky. Pressing the embark key will see your Titan pick you up in it’s giant metal paw and shove you into the cockpit. From here, everything changes. The sense of power that comes with a Titan is immensely satisfying. Armed with formidable primary weapons, offhand rapid fire rockets and the Vortex shields, these mechs are walking weapons of mass destruction. Firing down on offending pilots and grunts is satisfying as you exact revenge on the same people who moments ago were sniping you from third story windows. The real challenge is taking down another Titan. Combat is fast and fluid, particularly when you employ the shield mechanic of the Titan. Engaging it allows you to throw up shield that will catch incoming projectiles. Upon release, they can be fired back at your target. This ability has a short cooldown, so don’t expect to spam it. Even when a Titan is doomed, as the game calls it, not all is lost. You can eject, catapulting up and out of your Titan as it explodes. Landing safely will allow you to jump right back into the fight.
If I sound like I’m enthusiastic about the game, I am. It plays wonderfully and has enough balance to keep titans from becoming unstoppable juggernauts. The only times I have felt completely overpowered was in a handful of matches where my team was playing poorly and the entire enemy team ended up in Titans. Among my only complaints with the game is that the on foot shooting does feel a lot like Call of Duty. This is to be expected, considering that the developer of titanfall, Respawn, is comprised of many former Infinity Ward employees – the studio responsible for many Call of Duty games.
In the end, the one thing that has me impressed with Titanfall is the fun factor. Despite feeling frustrated after a bad match, I was never directing that frustration at the game.Instead, I was berating myself for poor play or bad decisions. All in all, I can’t wait to jump back into the game, call down my Titan and go unleash some hell.
Here’s some gameplay footage to hold you over till the game releases on March 11.
If you’re a massive fan of the Bioshock games, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. The developing company of the game, Irrational Games is being closed.
On their site at irrationalgames.com every page was taken up with a long message from Ken Levine, one of the founders of the company and the current Creative Director saying that after seventeen years and some enormous success in the recent years he had taken the decision to concentrate on other types of projects and so “I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it” and moving to a smaller group within Take-Two with only fifteen of the people currently working at Irrational Games coming with him.
He does stress however that they are committed to helping those who are being let go survive the transition and find new work.
Besides financial support, the staff will have access to the studio for a period of time to say their goodbyes and put together their portfolios. Other Take-Two studios will be on hand to discuss opportunities within the company, and we’ll be hosting a recruiting day where we’ll be giving 3rdparty studios and publishers a chance to hold interviews with departing Irrational staff.
He says that the next thing for him and his new smaller group of game developers will be to work on new narrative-driven games for the core gamer community, with hopefully a closer working link to those players and digitally delivered content exclusively. As for the Bioshock Universe? There’s no need to worry about it vanishing for good as Levine states that the reins for the games and its world are being handed over to the people at 2K who have worked with Irrational on the games in the past.
The message on the site will be updated with an FAQ later as questions come in, so more information will slowly be made available for those with questions that need answering.
