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It seems that the mods over on /r/MassEffect have just received a leak of information from a source saying they have access to an early version copy of the new Mass Effect game – Mass Effect Andromeda.
Although they did get proof of the person’s identity the mods were asked not to share it publicly, so there is a chance that some of the information might not be real. On the other hand it could all be for real. We won’t know until closer to the time.
Included in the information was new of the character you supposedly play as as well as the mission the game is centred around. There were also details about some gameplay elements, including the reveal of two companions who can join you during gameplay and the fact that you can take two members of your squad on missions with you as the others stay behind on the ship.
The ship itself is said to be larger than the Normandy and there was also details provided on how you get from place to place. The enemy forces were also touched upon, with them apparently being dropped off in Cerberus ships.
Planet surfaces will be explorable and the combat will be greatly enhanced with the user of jetpacks to allow you to get to vantage points up high or across larger gaps and the omnitool now having a function to be used as a shield.
If you’re interested in reading more, or joining the discussion over on /r/MassEffect then navigate yourself to the thread over here.
Either way, we won’t get to know how legitimate any of this information will be until BioWare start releasing more official information next year.
Chaos Reborn, the wizard-warring strategy game from Julian Gallop (the creator of the original X-COM game) has just received an update that has added a lot as well as a demo having been added for those wanting to try before they buy.
The demo itself is available on Chaos Reborn’s Steam page, where you can pick up the game as well for the price of £14.99. It’s a pretty substantial demo too so you can get a really nice feel for the game before you pay up.
In an update on Steam Gallop said: “It gives players free access to the multiplayer modes and tutorials, but not realms, offline battles or social rank progression. The inventory limit is also restricted to 7 items.”
The update that has come at the same time is update 1.2 which adds a moderator to Realms to make sure that they are playable and work before they get released publicly. Kind of like what Nintendo did for the play made Mario Maker levels to ensure nothing impossible ever want public.
The rest of the update is a list of fixes and tweaks to other game mechanics:
The maximum number of concurrent asynchronous games has been raised from 20 to 40.
In the equipping screens the staffs and bodygear have a new display which shows the 3D model and compares stats with the currently equipped item. For staffs you can press a button to see all the spells that match the staff type.
The new realm moderation system has been implemented. New realms have to be approved by a realm moderator before being released to the public.
A realm design guide has been added to the realm editor, and the game guide is also accessible from the realm editor.
Aelfscyne talisman mana cost increased from 35 to 50.
Battle event log scrolling now works properly (and has a scroll bar).
Paralysed gooey blobs will no longer attack trapped victims.
Fixed a bug where a player wasn’t able to change equipment configuration that was used in classic private async game request.
Players in private matches will now be disconnected for inactivity.
Fixed a bug that caused the client to break if the server disconnects it during the login animation.
Fix: talisman target selection, battle log, mega spell activation, select rider button, and select player buttons are now selectable on touch devices.
Fixed the bug where allied victory against 2 wizards in realms is counted as 2v2 win achievement stat.
Camera zoom key bindings fixed – no longer mixes up zoom in/ zoom out
Fixed a bug that didn’t allow you to open equipment pack even if you have enough space in inventory.
Added check for max inventory items when buying equipment packs.
Fixed a bug where an encounter result offering allies, if interrupted by battle or exiting to menu, would not show the correct title and display an erroneous OK button.
Also improved the message where you have to dismiss multiple mercenaries in order to hire multiple allies from an encounter.
Gold awards are now given for wizard lords defeated in towns or wizard towers.
In an interview with GameSpot, the head of From Software Hidetaka Miyazaki has revealed that it is his desire as well as that of others in the company for them to move onto new projects. And that Dark Souls 3 could be the last Dark Souls game they make.
“I don’t think it’d be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I’m considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series. That’s not just limited to me, but From Software and myself together want to aggressively make new things in the future.
“I believe that From Software has to create new things. There will be new types of games coming from us, and Dark Souls 3 is an important marker in the evolution of From Software.”
Whether the IP will be handed to another developer is unknown, but Miyazaki does have a point. From Software have released a lot of games in the last few years with the same style, so you can see why they might want to do something a little bit different. As he put it in the interview:
“I don’t care about what type of president I will be in the future or how I’ll be remembered, I just believe that [moving on] is necessary in order for players to continue enjoying our games. We have to keep creating quality games and be aggressive about doing new things.”
It’s time for your weekly Kickstarter update ladies, gents and people in between and as far as previously covered campaigns, this week has seen a massive wave in funding cancellations.
Crematory Bot and Fathoms were both cancelled because they were looking likely to not reach their goals, something that both Dusty Raging Fist and Super Axe Boy did, with neither making anywhere near close to their targets in the end. Also cancelled this week were A Princess to Save Me and Chronicles of Time. Princess was cancelled because they felt that their campaign page was not good enough to show off to the public and that people would want a better quality of art and gameplay footage before they would fund the game. Fair play, they have said that the game is not dead so hopefully it’ll re-emerge at a later date. Of Chronicles I haven’t yet found any publicly released statement on its cancellation, which came soon after I’d published last week’s article.
Also in trouble are Econia, Vanity’s Dawn and Cold Blooded, all having a lot of ground to make up with very little time for each to do so. If any of them make it, I’d rather it be Econia, that game sounded interesting.
It’s not all bad news though, Pankapu: the Dream Keeper has 19 days to go still and has reached €31,874 of its €40,000 goal, so it’s likely that we’ll see this game make it to the finish line in the end.
This is a little game about wizard cats. Colourful, charming little wizard cats.
A spellslinging arena game, the goal of Bellus Mortem is to knock your opponent out of the ring without going out yourself. The game has apparently already been made and has basic AI, so the funds being raised is to help them put in online multiplayer and a little going towards advertising to hopefully attract more funding (from a publisher I’d assume). There’s also a demo available at IndieDB if you want to try before you back.
Bellus Mortem has made $175 AUD of $15,000 with 29 days to go.
This one is a pixel shooter, and honestly you can tell from its title what sort of a game it’ll be.
Kick Ass Commandos lets you grab your weapons (guns, rockets, flamethrower; whatever your poison) and assault the enemy base and rescue more commandos who will join you in your reign of destruction. The developers of this campaign also seem to be aiming to meet their target before Christmas so they can give their Backers the Early Access game key as a present. Sweet.
They could do it too, with a $250 target and 33 days to go, Kick Ass Commandos has made $47.00.
This one is a Staff Pick, and a point-and-click game.
Join Gus, the talking dog and Nancy, the ghost as they team up to go ghost hunting in their very own ghost hunting reality show! Because it is meant to be a reality show there will be jumpcuts and the narrative will proceed in a linear fashion intercut with behind the scenes stuff and interviews. If you’re interested in games that play with the narrative of a game, maybe give this one a look.
Poltergus has made $3,678 of its $35,000 goal and has 27 more days to go.
I’ll admit it, I included this one because it reminds me of student life. Not that I ever did anything like these dares myself, but it is a game that’d appeal to that kind of audience.
The Odds Game is a card game that has players reading off challenges from cards and rating how likely they’d be to do that challenge. If their number matches the one on the card, they have to do that challenge. Of course, there are some cards to screw around with other players, known as the ‘Dicey’ cards that can force other people to do the challenges with you, let you skip it entirely or permanently make someone your reluctant teammate in doing challenges.
The Odds Game is 26 days away from finishing and has made $1,234 AUD of its $3,000 goal.
The dates for Steam’s next two big sales have been leaked to the net, along with some other details regarding sales.
The Autumn Sale will run a full week and will kick off the end of next week on November 25th, while the big Winter Holiday Sale for Christmas will last for two weeks and will launch on December 22nd before it finishes next year on January 4th 2016.
The bigger news though is that it seems that the Flash and Daily Sales will not be returning for these sales, throwing it up into the air how big the discounts on games will actually be this time around.
“In past sale events, we’ve asked for two discounts—a duration discount that runs for the length of the sale, and a feature discount that runs in the event that a game is featured on the front page. This year, to optimize the sale for customers and to allow us to feature and recommend your products in more ways to more customers, we’re asking for just one discount, to run the length of the sale.”
The information, taken from a Steamworks developer group post, says that games will still be featured on the front page of Steam for around 24-48 hours; only the discounts on the games will stay consistent throughout the sale time period.
The waiting around for the big discounts on games that you get from Flash and Daily Sales is one of the defining features of the Steam sales I feel, and also makes me wonder if because they’re being discontinued that the discounts that are first applied will be that bit more than the usual 10-50% off or if the discounts originally applied will not actually be budging. It does mean you no longer have to watch for that game you really want going on sale, but adding it to your Wishlist usually helped with that quite a bit.
We’ll know soon though with the Autumn Sale just around the corner.
