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At the moment The Division seems to be creating quite a few waves around what sort of a game it’s meant to be. Shooter? RPG? No one can seem to agree. Of course there’s also the typical question that surrounds any new game: what about the DLC and any possible microtransactions? Now in an interview the game’s Creative Director has confirmed that the game will not have any microtransactions… sort of.
Speaking to Eurogamer Magnus Jansen said that the game would just be supported by the DLC, and not microtransactions. At least, not as they define the word.
“It’s definitely just the one – the DLC,” said Jansen. “I don’t know if there’s a globally agreed definition of the word microtransactions, but you don’t pay to win or advance or anything like that. We have DLC plans – which we’re not talking about now – and obviously you’ll pay for that, but in addition to that there’s no microtransactions, as I define them.”
Ubisoft have since stated that there will be vanity items being sold through “first-party stores”, but calls it all DLC. The fact that it is just vanity items that are being offered as opposed to any weapons etc that could give someone an unfair advantage is good but…
I have always seen DLC – Downloadable Content – as being something akin to a bundle of things all in one big block. Some levels, some story, some missions, some items all in one package – that is DLC. What Ubisoft seem to be offering (although granted it’s not yet clear if they’re doing it like this yet) is individual items that you can buy separately.
And no matter how much Ubisoft try to paint it, that sounds an awful lot like what I tend to consider a ‘microtransaction’.
The game will come to PC on March 8th anyway, so I guess we’ll find out soon.
This does unfortunately mean that an awful lot more of the projects I previously covered did not meet target – Canvas, The Odds Game, Bellus Mortem, Poltergus, Furrious’ Conquest, Cycle of Tyrfing, Zombie Fest, Super Micro Heroes and Game Over Remix all finished their time with totals that fell far short of their targets in each case, although some did manage to get a reasonable total saying that. While I understand a few of these projects failing, others surprise me. I guess it just proves that even a game that could do well will sometimes not gain enough support to make it in the end.
This game is a 1v1 card game that borrows elements from games such as Hearthstone, but also was inspired by that classic dungeon builder game Dungeon Keeper.
The story follows that the ‘Dark One’ has fallen and you play one of his higher-ups attempting to take over all control of everything. Only problem is, so is every other higher-up demon. Players start with a similar deck of cards, but when they use dungeon upgrades can shuffle new cards into their decks, allowing for a dynamic deck building as part of the game.
Goblin Glory has 29 days to go and has made €101 of its €9,000goal.
This one is a 2-4 player shooter game that is inspired by similar games such as Samurai Gunn. Basically, one-screen, shoot at your friends, last one alive wins. Simple.
The world itself has been inspired by that popular anime Cowboy Bebop and while originally it was going to be a solely multiplayer experience, singleplayer is now being considered for addition to the game. The game itself has been half-finished in its current state; enough to have an alpha that is playable and can be seen in the trailer included below – but the developer would like to raise funds to help get the game finished that much quicker.
Space Revolver has made $1,075 of its$15,000goal and also has 29 days remaining to reach the goal.
We finish this week with a mobile device game, one that has the goal of surviving waves coming towards you.
King of the Hill places you as a Hero defending your castle as enemies attempt to reach it. Each enemy killed drops a diamond that can be spent on upgrading abilities for your Hero or for buying new ones with different strengths. The main limiter is your Stamina bar, which depletes as you attack and needs a rest period to rebuild. Switching Heroes or upgrading your Stamina can help to prevent that but you need to be sure your castle doesn’t take too much damage or else it’s game over.
King of the Hill has a $1,000 target and 29 days to go, although it has yet to make any of its target yet.
Unless you’ve been actively avoiding the news this week, you can’t help but have heard about the death of David Bowie.
Now Square Enix have made a game he played a major role in – as well as lending musical talent to – free to download while stocks last. Or until next Friday, 9am UK time at least.
Omikron: The Nomad Soul can be acquired from The Square Store and if you are accessing from the UK all you need to do is add the game to your basket and check it out, getting a useable Steam code for the game that you can redeem for the game. If you’re using the US store, the game will still show a price but you can get it free by using the special promotional code: ‘omikron’.
So if you want to game to pay your tributes to Bowie, just fancy hearing some of his music again while you play or even just want a free game, head over to the Square Store now. Just be aware that you might hit some traffic, so be patient.
DOOM was instrumental in the world of PC modding, being one of the most heavily modded games ever, even to this day. It’s modding community is still quite active but one of the latest entries comes from quite a source: the co-founder of id Software himself.
John Romero hasn’t made a level for DOOM is over 20 years, but he has just released a level that apparently he worked on for “several hours” in his spare time over the last two weeks, announcing its release through his Twiter:
Whether it’s because he was involved with the game itself or not, the replies so far seem to suggest that it’s a good level. It’s accessed through that DropBox link and according to the reply given to a fan it works with “most source ports”.
So, if you’re still into DOOM it seems this new level is one to at least consider giving a go. The fact that it’s made by Romero has to count for quite a bit.
While the Wasteland of Fallout 4 is, as always, awe-inspiring, large and full of things to do; most people can agree that one thing it lacks is… well that simple natural beauty it had before the War. Side-effect of nuclear fallout don’t you know? It also lacks much in the way of the changing of the seasons as time moves on, even though there is a dating system in the game (which decorates Diamond City in festive cheer if the date hits December 25th in-game fyi). That might also be down to the nuclear fallout, but it’s a little less clear.
However, it’s been over 200 years by this point and obviously there are some modders out there who thought that Boston and the Commonwealth really ought to have recovered a little bit better than this. So a number of mods have been released through Steam Workshop and NexusMods for the game, and one person released a mod that not only brings some green life back to Boston, but allows for the cycling of the seasons as the days pass:
The video seen here demonstrates how the Seasons mod changes the game around you, with an apparently minimal impact on the FPS of your game depending on your machine’s specifications. Imagine leaving Diamond City in its festively decorated form on December 25th and stepping out into the winter wasteland outside. A white Christmas never felt so awesome or felt so dangerous.
Of course, the video maker has used other mods in the video to enhance the effect. Those mods are the Subtle ENB mod that plays with the colour balance to make the colours crisper in the daytime and darker at night, the True Storms mod that enhances the weather effects of the storms that blow in from time to time in the Wasteland (rain, thunder, storms and radiation rains) and a character modeller mod called Caliente’s Better Bodies Enhancer that gives your some more options to play with upon character creation. All four of the mods seem to work together nicely with no suggested framerate drops in the gameplay section of the video, which is always nice to see.
If you’re aching to get a little bit more from Fallout 4, the mods are linked below from their NexusMod pages.
