EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Sorry. Just need a moment to come down from having written that title. Whew.

Geek/nerd icon and legendary writer Neil Gaiman has officially announced that he has joined up with game studio The Odd Gentlemen and producer Moonshark to write his first video game, called Wayward Manor. Inspired by films from his childhood like “Arsenic And Old Lace”, “Blithe Spirit”, and “The Man Who Came To Dinner”, Gaiman has apparently been sitting on this story for a while, trying to find the right medium in which to tell it.

The story takes place in an old house in New England during the Roaring 20’s, where the player character has been killed and is haunting his former abode. Unfortunately, people keep moving in to Wayward Manor and disrupting our hero’s peaceful afterlife. It’s the player’s job to scare everybody out of the house, and unravel the mystery of his death and the afterlife in the process.

Given the studio’s past work (see The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Slap Happy Sam’s Stageshow), and the tone of Gaiman’s work (see The Sandman or Neverwhere), this is a bit of a match made in heaven. The images shown in the announcement video (See Below) reveal an appropriately unique aesthetic, and the premise offers a great deal of promise for incredibly fun and innovative mechanics.

The game will be released in an undisclosed number of episodes, the first of which will be released this fall.

Preorders are open at http://whohauntsneil.com/welcome/, using a Kickstarter style funding program with different incentives ranging from a $10 copy of the game, to a $10,000 dollar invitation to dinner with Gaiman himself, which Gaiman claims will be the “spookiest ever in L.A.”.

The ability of the studio to continue to produce more episodes will be dependent on sales of the first episode, so get over to the site now and place your preorder.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see if my bank will loan me $10,000.

The next generation of console gaming may have finally found its niche – as the generation that blurs the line between video game players and video game creators. That’s according to a new announcement by Microsoft, which confirms – like Sony with the PS4 – that XBox One owners can use the next-gen console as their very own development kit.

Xbox’s corporate vice president Marc Whitten said that all Xbox Ones will function as development kits, which are usually only available to licensed developers. This will give everyone who owns an XBox One the tools to build their own XB1 games as part of the very system they’re playing them on – a trend Ouya started with its independently-focused Android-based console; and subsequently adopted by Sony for the Playstation 4. To add to the appeal, reports spreading on the internet claim Microsoft will allow indie developers to self-publish on the Xbox One, though Microsoft are yet to comment on this part of the equation.

UPDATE: However,  the functionality WON’T be available immediately at the console’s launch; it will be installed on all consoles at a later date.

Here’s Microsoft’s official comment:

Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We’ll have more details on the program and the timeline at gamescom in August.

Let me be the first to claim this day, Global Gamedev Independence Day 🙂

UPDATED TO ADD:

Mark Whitten added in late-breaking news today that independently-published games will have just as much potential for exposure as professionally-published games, with Microsoft having no intention to separate the two from the future XBox Live Marketplace:

“My goal is for it to just show up in the marketplace. Of course there will be different pivots inside of that. There will be everything from what are we curating, kind of like spotlight content, to the normal discoverability stuff like recommendations, what’s trending, what’s got a lot of engagement on the platform. And you’d be able to find that content in any of those. There wouldn’t be any difference based on what type of game it was. Then of course there will be other type of pivots where you can go and look at whether its a genre of game or any other. But you shouldn’t think of it as there’s an indie area and a non-indie area.

Just as today, where we will highlight things that are coming in on the service, we want to make that more discoverable. We’ll make it things that we curate as well as the other ways that you find content whether that’s what your friends are doing or what we recommend based on your play behaviour. Or top listings. We want to make sure we have all of those types of discoverability mechanisms.”

Microsoft are yet to comment on whether indie developers will experience any cost to their own pockets to acquire devkits or publish their games. But you WILL have full rights to charge for the games if you prefer; and pricing is aimed to be similar to today’s Xbox 360 Marketplace. With little else revealed, Whitten says we’ll have to wait to Gamescon to know the rest of the details. Stay tuned!

Set to retail with an RRP of £49.99, compared to $59.99 in the States.

Microsoft has announced Xbox One games in the UK will come with a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of £49.99.

OXM spotted the prices on the company’s online store, which currently lists Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Forza Motorsport 5 and Kinect Sports Rivals for that price.

Last month, Microsoft announced that first-party Xbox One games would be sold in North America for $59.99, which is the same price games are currently sold for there. In terms of the UK, it’s worth remembering that retailers are likely to undercut Microsoft – in fact, Amazon is already listing Need for Speed Rivals at £43.99.

Sony has yet to announce any UK pricing for its games, though the company has similarly confirmed an American price point of $59.99.

Last week, I posted my thoughts on my first look at the PvE environment and overall gameplay in Firefall. For the past week I’ve been playing both PvE and PvP, and, as promised, I have thoughts to share.

There are four different game modes in which to participate in PvP competition. Of course, there is a traditional Team Death Match that pits two teams of six against one another, first to twenty five kills wins. Orbital Comm Tower is a capture/defend style game with three control points. One team attacks these points and attempts to capture them, while the other team defends. Then, when the round ends, the teams switch roles. Whoever makes it farther, faster, wins. Blackwater Harvester is more of a king-of-the-hill style game with three control points. As teams occupy and hold these buildings, they will accumulate points. The fourth style of play is a brand new game type called Jet Ball. In Jet Ball, two teams face off to try and move a centrally located ball to hanging ring in the opposing teams base. Essentially, it looks like basketball with hallways, jetpacks, and guns.

Team Death Match was the first game mode I attempted, seeing as there weren’t any new rules for me to learn. I jumped into the queue, and within about two minutes was in a game. I was spawned into a room with five other, randomly selected players using a variety of other bioframes, on the blue team. As I am timid and easily startled, I chose to play my biotech battleframe, and fill the role of the healer on the team, rather than trying to directly engage enemies. Thankfully, I was matched up with two recons (snipers), a dreadnaught (big beefy tank), an assault (solider with a grenade launcher), and another biotech. I’m not sure if the nice balance of frames was part of the match-making, but in case you get a not so well balanced team, there is a battleframe changing station in the spawn point.One nice touch that Red 5 put into the game is a “warm up period” where players can leave their spawn points and explore the map without risk to score. Of course the other team can do this too, so it usually devolves into both teams hurling themselves against each other in consequence free battles, but it’s a nice touch to let the players look around without worrying about the other team for a while.

After the warm up (or, as I’ve taken to calling it, “dicking around”), the players are transported back to their spawn points, given twenty seconds to prepare themselves, and the match begins. My team bolts out of the spawn point and I immediately identify the largest teammate behind whom to hide myself (the dreadnaught) and decide that they are my best friend and I will follow them everywhere. Within the first twenty seconds, I’ve lost my new best friend, and decide to head to the top of the map to see if I can find him again. This is a mistake. There are two recon players on the other team and I am immediately slaughtered as soon as I stick my head above the rooftops of the shanty town we are fighting in, appropriately named “Shanty Town”. When a player is downed, there is a brief time period in which they can be revived by a teammate. However, if they are executed in this time, they cannot be revived, and their respawn time is increased. I go softly into the night to respawn a few moments later. I decide that, this time, I’m going to keep my head down and stick to the streets.

It’s interesting to note that the jetpacks in Firefall entirely change the feel of deathmatch games. No longer are players relegated to simply one level of play. Indeed, there are three distinct levels to play in Shanty Town, not to mention the open air above it all, and players can switch between them at a moments notice. But, unlike Tribes where there is a lot of open space on the levels, Firefall’s environments are quite confined below the rooftops. It encourages players to really think about whether they are going to take more time and travel the streets, or expose themselves to the enemy by moving on the top level. It also helps to facilitate more strategic play, drawing enemies into choke points, and ambushes. Thankfully the biotech battleframe I’m playing is well suited to close quarters combat.

I am overjoyed to have located my new best friend again and we engage the enemy with gusto. I am throwing out healing waves and poison gas clouds with reckless abandon, and even manage to get a few kills on my own. I quickly discover that my team is much better than I, and we end the match with a decisive 25-6 win.

Convinced that I contributed in any way to that victory, I quickly hop back into the PvP queue to try my hand at one of the other game modes. This time it takes about five minutes, but I am dropped into an Orbital Comm Tower match. I’ve been looking forward to this game mode. Not to brag, but I was quite the badass at the assault mode in Unreal Tournament 2004 in my day. This time, we’re not let out of the spawn area during warm up, so my team spends the time jumping around and shooting each other. This still fits my “dicking around” idea, so I’m not too worried about it. This team has a similar balance between battleframes, so I’m feeling pretty good. No one has said a word in chat yet, so I’m feeling great because clearly, there’s a plan that everyone is in on. Oh hindsight, you bastard…

The match begins and it’s utter chaos. Everyone heads off in a different direction. I make for the first control point in an effort to try and get everyone to see what’s supposed to be happening. Lead by example, right? I make it halfway there and a member of my team calls for healing. I am the only healer on the team, so I feel obligated to make my way over to them and help. I head to the other side of the building I am trying to enter and find my teammate lying on the ground, incapacitated. I move to help. I am on fire. What? Why am I on fire? What wrong choices did I make to come to this conclusion? I turn to find a red dreadnaught firing a massive weapon I have never seen before, leaving giant flames with every footstep he takes. Needless to say, my poor biotech doesn’t last long.

I am very confused, as I have played dreadnaught, and have yet to set anything on fire, much less the very ground upon which I walk. It turns out this player has one of the advanced battleframes. In fact, the entire opposing team has them. Well, butts.

The rest of our assault goes similarly poorly. I manage to capture the first control point for about ten seconds before I am promptly set on fire and killed again. This is as far as we make it, and then it’s our team to defend against these guys. Double butts.

We spawn, and I quickly make my way to the first control point in a vain attempt to defend it. We spend the next ten minutes getting regularly massacred, but thanks to the two engineers throwing up turrets in every available space of the room with the control point in it, we manage to keep them from capturing the point even once. Wait… did we just win? A look at the score board after the match reveals that despite them killing us an astonishing 92 times (44 of them were my fiery dreadnaught friend) to our measly 22 kills, we won. Alright. Not sure how I feel about that, but a win is a win I guess.

I head back out into the overworld, and drop myself back into the queue. I get my wind back when I see that I’ve been put into a Jet Ball match. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I first saw this game type during the first Firefall-Fest last October. I go into warm up and see that there are three advanced engineer battleframes called electrons on my team. I feel like I’ve missed something. The countdown begins and all of my team takes off on a variety of paths towards the center, where the ball is located. I follow the players going to the left.

Or, more accurately, I attempt to follow. Apparently all of these people have fully upgraded battleframes, with speed enhancements and abilities to further increase movement speed. I have only upgraded any of my battleframes to the second level speed enhancements. This is fifth grade gym class all over again.

Jet Ball is divided into three periods, each lasting five minutes. Each team has to reach a ball that spawns in the middle of the arena, take hold of it, then navigate to the opposing team’s goal, which is a large ring hanging in mid air. If a player throws the ball through the ring, they score one point, but if a player passes through the ring while holding the ball, they score three points. When a player is holding the ball, they cannot use weapons, but they have the ability to throw the ball a significant distance. This leads to some interesting play where passing is strongly encouraged to move the ball towards the goal. There are even some players who will pass the ball to the opposing team to prevent players from attacking.

This is all information I have going into this match. Even with my sub par battleframe, I am equipped with knowledge of the game. I am determined to contribute to my team. I finally toddle into the central room to find a pitched battle already under way. The ball is being passed around and other players are dividing their time between attacking each other, and chasing the ball. It’s oddly beautiful to watch these players alternately running and flying around the room, coordinating with each other without even speaking, each with their understood role and position.

I charge into the fray, firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.

I end up next to an electron carrying the ball. Despite my best efforts to serve a purpose by shielding her with my body, she goes down. The ball is free. I pick it up. Oh no. What do I do? There’s no way I’m going to outrun the other team to move the ball in any significant way. Think Kemosaabi! What would fifth grade gym class Kemosaabi do?

I throw the ball as hard as I can. Any direction will do. Miraculously, my teammate picks up my “pass” and runs the ball in to score a single point. And I helped!

We score one more point before the period ends. After each period, the teams go back to the “locker rooms” where we can discuss plans and change battleframes as needed. No one says anything. The others feel secure, and who am I to argue? I’m the slow kid.

The second period begins and again I fall behind. I decide maybe I should stay behind and guard the goal. I won’t have to move very fast, and my biotech frame is particularly well equipped to knock around anyone who gets close to the goal. I don’t do much this period. No one even stops by to say hello.

The third period begins, and I decide to go on the offensive again. I end up chasing around my teammates shouting “Wait up guys!” while they proceed to go on an aggressive offensive. Unfortunately, it may have been better if I had stayed in my goal tending position, as one of the opposing dreadnaughts fly through our goal to take the lead with three points, with thirty seconds left on the clock. We lose the game 3-2.

I am disheartened, but darn it all, I had a lot of fun doing it, so I jump back into the queue, ready to tackle the one remaining game mode: Blackwater Harvester. Unfortunately, either something has gone wrong, or no one is playing that at 8:30 on a Monday night, because I spend about 45 minutes in queue and I don’t find a game. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to check in on that later.

A couple of general notes about PvP in Firefall:

It’s really refreshing to see some gameplay that is equal parts twitch and tactical. It’s worth noting that there is no free for all, or individual PvP beyond dueling in the over world. It’s all team based, and rightly so. There is a lot of thought that has to go into what battleframes, and tactics to use in every game type, but there is still that essential reflex component that makes PvP exhilarating to play. The matchups between individual players isn’t particularly interesting, but the combinations of battleframes on each team starts to resemble unit composition from RTS play.

The level design is exemplary, highlighting the movement and capabilities of each battleframe in turn. There is no frame that feels underpowered in any situation, and just moving around the map is intuitive and fun.

That said, it would be nice to see a little more attention being paid to balancing teams in random match-making. Unless you’ve put serious time into levelling up your battleframes, you are going to get decimated in PvP as it is. I don’t know that I’ll be able to jump into PvP without advanced battleframes without feeling like I am dragging my team down. I would love to be able to play against similarly inexperienced players, without feeling like I’m hurting my team.

Obviously, being still in beta, there are only a few maps available to play PvP on right now. They are fun to play, but I’m sure that their secrets and exploits will be discovered and the maps will grow stale soon, and new maps will have to implemented soon or else PvP play may lose some of it’s appeal for me.

Bottom line, I am still enjoying Firefall tremendously. Both the PvP and PvE environments show enormous progress, and even in the first week since the launch of the open beta, there have been vast improvements over what was shown on day one. I can’t wait to jump back into New Eden and find out everything that it has to offer.

If you are curious about PvE play, you can check out my first piece on it here

To check out Firefall and download the open beta (which I highly recommend), go here: firefallthegame.com

Capcom has released a new trailer for Ultra Street Fighter IV showing off gameplay for four of the five new characters

Capcom announced Ultra Street Fighter 4 during Evo 2013. The update will introduce five new characters, six additional stages, new modes and features.

Four of the five characters have been confirmed as: Rolento, Poison, Hugo and Elena (pictured below). The fifth character, who has “never been in a Street Fighter game before”, remains unannounced. The six new stages include Pitstop 109, Mad Gear Hideout, Cosmic Elevator, Blast Furnace, Half Pipe, and Jurassic Era Research Facility.

Ono also recently said he’s not currently working on a new Street Fighter game for Xbox One and PS4 as he doesn’t currently have the research and development budget or the staff.