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I remember playing the first Magicka a little while ago. As well as being very funny as a game itself, the game’s biggest draw was that friendly fire was most certainly not off. The number of times I remember being blown up by a friend…
Anyway, the game appealed to enough to get a sequel game and now a tweet from the game’s official Twitter has informed us that we can expect some new content to be coming to the game:
Exactly what will be offered as free content and what will become paid DLC is not yet clear, but that rock based move looks suitably Magicka. A big AoE spell that probably has as much chance of catching your allies as your enemies. Brilliant. Some of the paid DLC might be new questlines for the game though, as is standard for games such as this one.
Keep your eyes peeled for more news as it becomes available.
Every Pokémon Trainer worth their salt knows that with every new generation of Pokémon that launches, the officially announced Pokédex is never all the Pokémon out there to be discovered. Certain legendary Pokémon are always hidden from public eyes, waiting to be revealed by Nintendo later in the Generation’s lifetime to tease us and get us hyped for a potential exclusive giveaway in the future – and the current Generation VI is no exception. We’ve had Diancie and Hoopa; but today, The Pokémon company has revealed the latest “new” Pokémon for Gen VI; and there’s a very good reason to be interested.
Officially revealed in the January 2016 issue of CoroCoro magazine; and today announced worldwide by Nintendo in the form of a Youtube video on The Pokémon Company’s official channel, the third – and final – hidden Pokémon for Generation VI has been named as Volcanion (in Japanese: ボルケニオン Borukenion or Volcanion). Known as the “Steam Pokémon”, Volcanion is the series’ first dual-type Fire and Water Pokémon, with power to “blow away mountains” according to fan analysis of in-game Pokédex data.
Little else is known about this new Pokémon, but Nintendo have hyped that more information will be revealed “soon”. For now, just take a look at the official Youtube reveal:
It’s time for your weekly little update on the world of gaming Kickstarters, and we’ll start as always by summing up briefly the news with previously covered projects.
We’ll get the bad news out of the way first. Both Tunnels & Traps and Apocalypse Hotel finished their campaigns short of their target goals this week. The people behind Tunnels are alright with the failure saying that the point of the campaign was “never about funding the creation of the game” and they still plan to have the game released in Q2 of 2016. Apocalypse Hotel has had no update as to further plans.
As well The Odds Game, Bellus Mortem, Poltergus and Game Over Remix are all still short of their targets with less than 10 days to go, although the gap varies between projects. If you want to help get a game funded, do go give these ones another check.
In better news though, one of the games I covered last week, Smiling Bear: Attack has met its goal. It was a game co-designed by the dev’s children so it’s nice to see that their game will become a bigger thing, it’s a lovely thought. Blacksea Odyssey has also finished its campaign this week, having reached its target. Casting Call is not yet at its goal, but with plenty of time left its not far off either. Expect to see it finish with a met goal.
We’ll start this week with the weekly card/board/tabletop game, and this time it’s a 3-5 player bluffing game that’s designed to be family friendly. It’s actually already met target but I thought it interesting enough to still include.
Dungeon Busters sees the use of cards and gems and all players are playing cards face down in an attempt to fight off monster cards with a certain total. The sum of all the played cards must beat the monster, and any cards that are duplicates get ignored. If the players get defeated, then the player who contributed the lowest value card loses all their gems of a certain colour; but if the monster if defeated then the lowest cost contributor will be the best rewarded in the encounter.
Dungeon Busters has 19 days to go and has a target of $5,000 which it has already reached.
Next up is an open-world survivor with a low target and pixel graphics.
Set in a world where an illness has wiped out 87% of life, you play as a human trying to survive in a world that could throw anything at you. The game itself is not linear and asks one question – what would you do to survive?
With a target of $1,000 INDEF has made $149 and has 24 days to go.
This is a zombie game with a difference – you are the zombie and have to work to grow bigger.
Starting as a newly ‘born’ zombie, you have to feed on other smaller zombies and humans to grow larger. Humans are faster but are worth more, and as you grow you will develop abilities to help you. Of course, other zombies will also be trying to eat you and some humans will be able to fight back against you. The developer is also looking to the community of backers to get feedback on what abilities they’d like to see in game.
Zombie Fest has made nothing of its $50,000 goal yet, but has 27 days to go.
Lastly we have a 10 player online multiplayer game with cute little pixel graphics and a retro feel to it.
Super Micro Heroes challenges you to be the player at the end of the round with the most coins, however it won’t be easy with levels, traps and the other 9 players all trying to stop you. It sounds a bit like the Mario Kart balloon stages and little madcap games with simple goals like that in mind are always popular if well made.
Super Micro Heroes has 24 days to go and has made €1,170 of its €7,000 goal.
XCOM 2 is approaching release and now 2K have announced the preorder bonuses to try and get people to part with their money just that little bit earlier.
For XCOM 2 pre-ordering gamers will be able to get the Resistance Warrior Pack, which will contain extra customisation options and a new “Survivor of the Old War” recruit for no extra cost. A season pass has also been revealed publicly, which will add 3 upcoming and themed DLC packs to the game as well when they are released.
The pass, named the Reinforcement Pack will include the 3 DLCs – Anarchy’s Children, a “rebellion-themed” pack which will add more dramatic solder customisation options; Alien Hunters, which will bring new weaponry and armor to the game along with even more customisation options; and lastly a DLC pack named Shen’s Last Gift, which will add the most in the way of content with a new soldier class (with unique weapon and armour options) and an additional mission and map to the campaign. The Reinforcement Pack will be available for separate purchase at around $20, although if bought with the game which is estimated to retail along at $60, it’ll be $75 altogether. 2K have also said that the DLC packs might also get offered separately upon release, but for more then if they were bought with the season pass.
Release date-wise XCOM 2 will be out February 5th, Anarchy’s Children will follow it sometime in the Spring of 2016 while the other two DLCs will be coming sometime in the summer.
If you were looking round for a job in game development, you might have a chance to work with a big name soon. At least, they used to be a big name, but they dropped the name. Still technically a big studio though.
The studio that was once known as Irrational is hiring, looking for people to come work on games that will probably involve the things that Bioshock once contained. We’re not sure though about what sort of game, although the info under the listing of Gameplay Systems Designer and Tuner give us some ideas. It’s said that for the role some with “experience in a semi-open (e.g. Borderlands/Shadows of Mordor) or open world game” is required. Ooh.
That’s all we’ve got to go on right now though as far as the game goes, and the studio itself is yet to take on a new name. So it might be a while yet before we know anything more about this game. Suppose all we can do is wait and see.
And apply for the job if you think you fit the bill, of course.
