So, the Steam Summer Sale might have just had its dates leaked out ahead of time. All thanks to Steamworks users, going against some of the rules that they’re supposed to read before signing up. Oops.

The dates say that the sale will run from June 22 to July 5, and were originally shown off in screenshots to the Steam subreddit by deliteplays and later backed up by fellow user Jelman21. Valve contacted Steamworks developers to let them know so they could prepare deals and bundles ahead of time, and the dates were meant to be confidential. Users were then added to Developer groups after gaining access to alpha and betas of games via Kickstarter and it seems that the ‘confidential’ part was unheard by the users who have leaked the screenshots. Whether this will have consequences is yet unknown.

Other than the dates though, it’s far to say we’re in the dark about the Summer Sale. We can only guess at what games could be discounted and by how much, but until we’re in the thick of it (or Valve themselves give us official information) it’s far to say we just don’t know what to expect.

Introversion Software released their game Scanner Sombre back in April, depicting the player exploring a save network using a VR headset – although it’s not an actual VR title. That’s set to change though as Introversion have announced that they will be bringing the game to both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in the near future.

Speaking at PDXCon, co-founder of Introversion Software Mark Morris said that while the game is coming to VR it would be “nuts at the moment” to focus on VR-exclusive titles which is why they released Scanner Sombre onto other platforms first. He said that Introversion’s Defcon VR game was downloaded by “about seven people”, so he is convinced that VR-exclusivity is not yet a viable way to make a game successful. Now Scanner Sombre has a player base, they’re following up the PC game with the VR version.

“We deliberately didn’t want people thinking Scanner Sombre is a VR game” he said, noting that people would have avoided the game if they had pushed it as a VR compatible title from the off simply because they didn’t own a headset. Indeed right now VR headsets are still fairly pricey and game developers working on those platforms need to keep that in mind.

They’re hoping to have the VR-ready version of Scanner Sombre ready to go in about six weeks, so by the end of the month we’ll probably hear more about it. Until then, you can have a look and see what the fuss is about by finding the game on Steam for $11.99/£8.99.

So, it seems that we’re going to be getting something Halo-related shown off at E3 this year by Xbox and Microsoft. However, before you get excited hold on, because it won’t be Halo 6.

Halo’s community manager Brian Jarrard is the source of this news, as he told people on Reddit that while Halo will make an appearance it won’t be the next entry in the franchise.

“We’ll have a little something at E3 but it’s not related to the next major entry in the franchise,” he said, further backing up comments Phil Spencer made that we wouldn’t be seeing a Halo first-person shooter in 2017.

However, while that might be disappointing for fans of the series waiting for the next game that fact that Halo will be there means it’s prime speculation material. We can only guess though, because so far there’s really been no other information about what they could be showing off. All we know is that Microsoft have promised to bring all their upcoming first-party games to PC in the future and that if it’s the sort of game to need it we’ll get splitscreen after it was removed from Halo 5.

Ah, the lead up to E3. So much speculation and rumour. It’s exciting.

So it’s been another week and I’ve made some progress in the game, although I’ve not had a great amount of time to play this week. Still, both Bodeclaw and Teddired have had their adventures.

The Long Run Back

You might recall that we left Bodeclaw extremely far away from the last mission I had to complete in Ashenvale, thanks to me wanting to start some of the Stonetalon Mountain quests – which led to my hopping on a survey vehicle that carried me away from Honor’s Stand and all the way to Northwatch and the Barrens. And I was adamant that I would run back to Honor’s Stand because of it.

Now part way across the Barrens I found the spontaneous jungle known as the Overgrowth and with it more quests to take and complete. So I did, because I thought I might as well complete some along the way and so had one of my first encounters with the Nightmare.

I’ve read up on some of the World of Warcraft lore since getting into the game, I know about the Emerald Dream and the Nightmare corruption that moves through it and tries to break through to the waking world of Azeroth. I also know that the Dream has a lot of druidic ties, so I was bound to encounter it at some point. Fortunately it wasn’t a strong breech but I know that it gets worse later on. I’ve watched others play the later missions…

Anyway, with those tasks completed I returned to the camp and found myself directed to another fortification which I headed to, just to get the flight location for my map to make going back easier… and picked up even more missions in the area. It was at this point that I decided that I had been sidetracked long enough, got down into Running Wild mode and headed back for the Overgrowth and the path to Honor’s Stand.

Dangerous terrain though in some places…

Once I got to Honor’s Stand I briefly debated running my way back through the Stonetalon Mountain area to get back to Ashenvale and this furbolg uprising quest I was heading back for. I decided to basically say fuck it and take a flight back. Now I’m back at Stardust Spire, and poised to start this uprising…

… next week.

Admiring Strangethorn While Killing Everything In It

I should have known when I chose Hunter that I’d be doing a lot of just that… hunting. Now I was in Strangethorn, there was an awful lot of game and many quest givers who wanted to see me murder it.

Of course, it wasn’t all just wild beasts I was being tasked with killing, oh no. Some Venture Co goblins had tumbled stones that someone wanted, so I ran my way into that camp and began shooting any Geologists I saw, just to pick up enough for satisfy the quest. He did fix the pot I’d been given to take to him though, so I guess it’s alright.

Oh, and also some people at the rebel camp wanted me to grab Bloodscalp items. Of course, trolls are Horde and Teddired is Alliance. They wouldn’t just give me what they wanted… so I had to do even more killing.

Of course, this week wasn’t all killing and murder. No – I had time to explore the jungle while running between quest areas hunting for animals or goblins or trolls. And honestly, some of the scenery was amazing… even if getting too close would have been dangerous and potentially deadly.

I also found myself with full bags a little bit too often, so I grabbed myself a gryphon flight back to Stormwind and then ran around trying to find a seller for more bags to fit into my bank slots so I could store some items I couldn’t use now but might be able to later on.

Then I found someone I’d been keeping an eye out for since I got into the game wandering around Stormwind and… well…

… I’m at the Faire! Woo!

Currently Amplitude Studios are releasing videos to show off the four X pillars of the game Endless Space 2 – Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. They released Explore last week and now they’re showing off the second, Expand.

Of course, for a game of this genre expansion is a very big part of the game. It’s a slow and often risky process, especially when you’re moving the unit to set up your new outpost/base/colony/etc. through territory that they could easily fall prey to someone else’s attacking unit, or even AI controlled mishap. It’s essential though to make progress – areas must be controlled, resources brought under your sway and so on. This is true for many games that hold 4X as their gameplay mechanics. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all factions in a game will do this in the same way – Endless Space 2 will have one race (the Vodyani) that never builds outposts of colonies at all as they ‘settle’ in ark ships that orbit the planet instead.

Of course, it’s not just getting there and setting up your colony or outpost. There’s always stuff to be done to maintain and grow your new holdings, whether that be growing technological progress, making good use of newly controlled resources or even just building the necessary things for one of your outposts to function at peak efficiency. This is what makes a good part of the 4X strategy game’s time. After all, how can you win over or destroy your opponents if you don’t have the resources or staging areas with which to do so?

Endless Space 2 is due to be released on May 19th, but can currently be purchased as an Early Access title on Steam for about $30 or just over £26. Go forth, expand.