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Today’s Homefront: The Revolution developer session was a bit of a surprise today here at geek towers. We all expected Homefront 2, as the Devs from Dambuster Studios also joked about at the start of the session.
What we got, was a more than pleasant surprise. We started seeing what we first thought was another open world dirge fest. What we saw, was a structured area game (including green, yellow and red zones where gameplay takes place as separate maps), that including stunning graphics and effects including weather effects, such as fog and rain that creates puddles that then dry out naturally as the tarmac warms up again and a real day/night cycle (an overly inflated one by the devs to show it off to better effect). To the near end of the presentation showing off the dynamic enemy spawn areas, meaning that no two people doing the same mission will see the same troubles.
It’s this dynamic enemy placement that Digmbot and I most found interesting. The idea that a snipe could be around any corner, or as you walk through a building, a full enemy patrol with an APC may be there to surprise you (or for you to surprise)
They ended the session with a bit of info about the map they were using at EGX this week, which also happened to be the Gamescom map aswell this year, and that they had been pulling player activity info the whole time. Including where people died in the map, how they died and which enemy killed them, including one sniper who accounted for the most players deaths (apart from self inflicted ones). The funniest statistic was how many players had set themselves on fire. Not been set on fire from an enemy as none in that zone had flamethrowers or similar, but had walked through flame (your clothes are flammable) and even those that had misused Molotov cocktails (including one guy who must have dropped one at his own feet at the very start of the zone, which they took great delight in laughing about, I hope that guy wasn’t watching)
This all culminated in a beautiful looking game that I went from not caring about to being determined to play it tomorrow when I’m back at EGX and may even get early next year when it’s out!
Great Job Dambuster Studios!
Homefront: The Revolution is slated for a Spring 2016 release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and STEAM
That’s about standard for one of Steam’s free weekends, but Sega has used the occasion to add some new content to both games.
The original Dawn of War is receiving a new, official multiplayer map, while its sequel is offering up some extra gear. Here’s a rundown from Sega of what’s included:
“The Temple of Cyrene is a brand new, official multiplayer map we’re adding into the Dawn of War I rotation. This map will be playable in DoW I, as well as the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions. The Temple of Cyrene sits on the blasted landscape of a world scoured clean by the Exterminatus of the Imperial Inquisition. Homeworld of Gabriel Angelos, Cyrene is now a ghost-world of ruined cities and ashen fields. Fight for supremacy amidst the remains of Cyrene’s once-mighty temples. Claim the three critical locations at the heart of the ruins or drive into enemy bases and deliver annihilation.”
Dawn of War II is getting some love aswell:
“In Dawn of War II, we’re giving away four free sets of Wargear; The Vanguard, Sniper, Sternguard, and Destroyer, to equip in the main campaign that were previously only available as pre-order DLC, or as rare loot drops. Now everyone will be able to equip items like the Veteran’s Grenades, Blade of Ulyus, Armor of the Destroyer, and many more to complete your sets!”
Day 1 of EGX 2015 kicked off yesterday and while sat this morning with my aches and pains (I’m getting too old for this, I’m sending Cyborg next year), I was sorting through what games I saw there that I wanted to write about first and there was a stand out winner in that regard
Tears of Avia is a turn based tactical RPG with a core focus on build crafting. We want to make a game where the party composition, skills, items and strategy that you design are just as fundamental to the game play as the battle itself. We are coupling this with a dynamic story system that delivers a unique experience each time you play.
It’s Kickstarter started a couple of days ago and, as of writing right now, has 26 days left on it. BUT, it has already been Greenlit on STEAM, so thats a great sign of the games popularity already.
Now, I love a good JRPG, I’m a long term Final Fantasy fan (7, 8, 9 and 10 especially), and Tears of Avia gives me a FF7 vibe off the bat, but it changes things up with a slick RPG combat system, a fresh take on skills and beautiful graphics and effects
The game looks stunning, even the prototype build the team from CooCooSqueaky, the system was slick and it was beautiful to watch other people play the game and get excited about what they were doing.
So, whats the game about? Well, lets head over to the kickstarter page and get the info:
Over 200 years ago a war was waged against the floating city of Avalon lead by the demonic overlord Vylenkine. A powerful mage stood up against his evil forces and cast a spell that would seal the portals to the demonic realms forever. Except… there was a problem. The city froze and crashed along with the love of his life, Avia. For hundreds of years he has been seeking a way to free Avia with little success. That is until you came…
The trailer is gorgeous and tells the story in suitable anime way and the character models and enemies look like they were dragged smoothly from some of the best animes to come out of Japan
In fact, if this story isn’t picked up by Manga, they are missing a trick
Tears of Avia is set for a Jun 2017 release so far, with kickstarter backers at certain levels getting beta access (£30 or more pledge) and lots of other perks
Who remember their first game of pokemon? Whether it was on the grainy black and white screen of the classic Gameboy, or in colourful 3D on the N64, pokemon is close to a lot of gamer’s hearts. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live in a world inhabited by strange and wonderful creatures, that can be tamed and used to battle your friends? Well now you can!
A new phone app allows you to search out pokemon in your local areas, and with the use of a pokeball watch, capture and battle them with people around you.
Geo-caching is not a new phenomenon. It’s a simple premise where you are given map co-ordinates and go treasure-hunting. This sort of real-world application is always open to abuse; some people may remove the treasure, or you might not live in a place where a treasure hunt has been initiated.
Pokemon Go eliminates all these problems by making everything digital. Your pokemon are available in cyberspace, located over physical co-ordinates. Although details are scarce on release dates and game mechanics, I for one have never been more excited to wander round my town and collect ‘em all.
Not too long ago, computer hardware manufacturer Asus had a slogan: “Inspiring Innovation, Persistent Perfection”. It was an excellent summary of the company’s core traits: As well as trying to make computers which utilised existing technology well, Asus also regularly tried to push the envelope and look for the next new thing.
It seems this spirit still remains with the company, as during this year’s IFA – which seemed to put a heavy focus on gaming – the company managed to unveil a gaming laptop that goes beyond anything shown off by its competitors.
Dubbed the Asus GX700, the newly-revealed gaming laptop is the first ever to use water cooling. Water cooling is something that has become common in gaming desktops, used often by the hardcore gamers both as an efficient enhancement to standard cooling solutions and to prove their salt as hardcore gamers; and as companies have started developing self-contained water-cooling kits that take a lot of the pain (and spills) out of the installation and the components in computers continue to get smaller, the practice has become a lot easier to achieve. Even so, to see the technology make it into a laptop for the first time is the kind of insanity we at Sanitarium.FM adore.
Asus are keen to state this is not the only first the laptop will bring: supposedly, it is also the world’s first 17-inch laptop to incorporate a 17-inch display. The actual water-cooling rig will take the form of a dock; with the premise of this laptop being that the device can be used in its own right as a mighty pixel-pushing machine in its own right, but once it’s docked, everything can be turned up that extra bit further. Going by this, we can assume the laptop will also enable overclocking while docked; and there’s also a suggestion there’ll be an Nvidia GeForce graphics card inside it.
Sadly, the rest of the Asus GX700’s specs remains very much a mystery at this point in time, with the company keeping quiet on the details for now. Also unrevealed at this point is the planned price point and launch details. We hope to report such information when it becomes available; but for now, lets just admire the almost ludicrous imagination of Asus’ product designers.
