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For the first time in many years, Blizzard announced a new franchise today: Overwatch, a team-based multiplayer shooter with Pixar-like graphics.
The game looks great. It’s a PvP shooter with classes, very reminiscent of Team Fortress 2. Here’s the cinematic trailer:
And, more importantly, here’s gameplay footage from the newly-christened Overwatch, which really does look fantastic:
Here’s Blizzard describing the game in a press release:
The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes.
With an emphasis on accessibility and pure fun, Overwatch brings Blizzard’s signature easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay to the FPS genre. Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every battlefield is iconic and built to highlight each character’s unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies within the span of a breath.
“Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,” saidMike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”
The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and superabilities to bear. Here’s just a glimpse of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch’s rosters:
– Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.
– Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.
– Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.
– Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies—and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.
The beta will be out in 2015 and you can sign up HERE!
Overwatch is a reworked version of the PVP portions of Blizzard’s Titan, the long-in-development MMO that was overhauled in mid-2013. Despite reports earlier this year that Titan had been cancelled, the game was actually turned into Overwatch last year, according to a person familiar with the project.
Planetary Annihilation, the successor of Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, was a massive draw on Kickstarter, as you can see above…
But THEN, they released it on STEAM, for… wait for it… £40 ($60) on Early Access, After making $2,229,344 on Kickstarter. Hell, it was £20 for Kickstarter backers, so they actually paid for the game TWICE!
All this and two years down the line, PA is STILL not complete, its only just gotten its offline mode and the game is atrocious
“Today, we busted out a new Kickstarter for a new strategy game called Human Resources. Built on the same engine that you helped us create for Planetary Annihilation, Human Resources expands on the scale and destruction you’ve come to love in exciting and different ways. We realize that some of you might take this news as concerning, so we wanted to come out and say this: work on Planetary Annihilation will not stop if Human Resources funds; both games will have a team dedicated to these separate projects”
So, Human Resources was a second team?
Ok, lets quickly look at the now cancelled Kickstarter for it
Now, I admit, the game looks cool (actually, its looks like the Planetary Annihilation we wanted and mainly thats because it uses the game engine made for it)
But there are two reasons Human Resources failed. GREED and GREED
The loyal fans that would have backed this in a heartbeat didn’t, because of the unfinished game Planetary Annihilation.
The fans with more money than sense though, even most of them saw through the kickstarter rewards this time:
They start off fairly reasonably (ok, I backed it too)
Then it ramps up
Then it starts to get a little crazy…
$125 pledge to get a tshirt and soundtrack? Oh and team colours…
The mini figures and USB stick look fun, but that’s a LOT of money
Ok, this is getting silly now…
Umm… No!
Ok, this is getting stupid
I’ve heard a lot of Indie devs talking about the demise of Kickstarter, even on our own Indie Game Show on a Sunday. And Uber Entertainment prove why this is happening. They aren’t being realistic!
They made $2.2mil just from the KICKSTARTER for Planetary Annihilation. Thats MORE than enough to release a game of the quality PA should have been. But this is hurting the smaller developers more than anything, as backers are starting to lose faith in Kickstarter and what its actually for. Helping small companies bring us good new games and getting going. Its not just Uber Entertainment, 22Cans did the same with Godus last year and there are many others.
So while I am a little disappointed that another potentially good RTS has died, I am laying the blame squarely on the developers this time.
Seems Paradox Interactive have jumped in to catch teh ball Maxis fumbled with SimCity…
The Sky is no limit!
Inhabit a world where you define the rules. Cities: Skylines invites you to create the city of your dreams in a sprawling landscape dominated by cloud hugging structures and jaw dropping architectural marvels.
Developed by Colossal Order, Cities: Skylines offers sprawling landscapes and maps with endless sandbox gameplay and new ways to expand your city. Key to progression is the ability to influence your city’s policy by incorporating taxation into districts. All this including the ability to mod the game to suit your play style makes this the definitive city building simulation.
You’re only limited by your imagination, so take control and reach for the sky!
Main features:
>City policies: Set policies to guide how the city and districts develop over the course of your playthrough.
>City districts: Personalize city districts with names of your choice for variety and personality.
>Road building and zoning
>Unlock buildings and services
>Taxation: Fine-tuning the city budget and services and setting tax rates to different residential, commercial and industrial levels and controlling what kind of areas are more likely to spawn in the zoned areas
>Public transportation: Build transport networks throughout the city with buses and metros
>Outside connections: Make industry and commercial districts flourish with new customers in the neighboring cities
>Wonders: the ultimate end-game content that the players strive towards
>Huge maps: Unlock new map tiles with unique possibilities to expand the city
>Water flow simulation: Add new challenges to water services.
>Polished visual style and core gameplay
>Modding tools: Built in feature designed to encourage creative pursuits.
It’s time for us to pre-release the next major Minecraft update, the Bountiful Update! This will bring Minecraft to version 1.8, and should be officially be published in the launcher on Tuesday, September 2. This is the update that to date has taken the longest time to create (over 300 days), and is the result of many, many changes.
These changes consist of both new features, and large game structure changes such as replacing the hard-coded “block renderer” with a system that is able to read block shapes from data files, or performance enhancements such as multi-threading the client-side chunk rendering. We hope you will enjoy it!
Here’s a list of the major changes in the game:
-Added Granite, Andesite, and Diorite stone blocks, with smooth versions
-Added Slime Block
-Added Iron Trapdoor
-Added Prismarine and Sea Lantern blocks
-Added the Ocean Monument
-Added Red Sandstone
-Added Banners
-Added Armor Stands
-Added Coarse Dirt (dirt where grass won’t grow)
-Added Guardian mobs, with item drops
-Added Endermite mob
-Added Rabbits, with item drops
-Added Mutton and Cooked Mutton
-Villagers will harvest crops and plant new ones
-Mossy Cobblestone and Mossy Stone Bricks are now craftable
-Chiseled Stone Bricks are now craftable
-Doors and fences now come in all wood type variants
-Sponge block has regained its water-absorbing ability and becomes wet
-Added a spectator game mode (game mode 3)
-Added one new achievement
-Added “Customized” world type
-Added hidden “Debug Mode” world type
-Worlds can now have a world barrier
-Added @e target selector for Command Blocks
-Added /blockdata command
-Added /clone command
-Added /execute command
-Added /fill command
-Added /particle command
-Added /testforblocks command
-Added /title command
-Added /trigger command
-Added /worldborder command
-Added /stats command
-Containers can be locked in custom maps by using the “Lock” data tag
-Added logAdminCommands, showDeathMessages, reducedDebugInfo, sendCommandFeedback, and randomTickSpeed game rules
-Added three new statistics
-Player skins can now have double layers across the whole model, and left/right arms/legs can be edited independently
-Added a new player model with smaller arms, and a new player skin called Alex?
-Added options for configuring what pieces of the skin that are visible
-Blocks can now have custom visual variations in the resource packs
-Minecraft Realms now has an activity chart, so you can see who has been online
-Minecraft Realms now lets you upload your maps
-Difficulty setting is saved per world, and can be locked if wanted
-Enchanting has been redone, now costs lapis lazuli in addition to enchantment levels
-Villager trading has been rebalanced
-Anvil repairing has been rebalanced
-Considerable faster client-side performance
-Max render distance has been increased to 32 chunks (512 blocks)
-Adventure mode now prevents you from destroying blocks, unless your items have the CanDestroy data tag
-Resource packs can now also define the shape of blocks and items, and not just their textures
-Scoreboards have been given a lot of new features
-Tweaked the F3 debug screen
-Block ID numbers (such as 1 for stone), are being replaced by ID names (such as minecraft:stone)
-Server list has been improved
-A few minor changes to village and temple generation
-Mob heads for players now show both skin layers
-Buttons can now be placed on the ceiling
-Lots and lots of other changes
-LOTS AND LOTS of other changes
-Removed Herobrine
The pre-release is available if you have activated development versions in the launcher.
Sincerely, the Minecraft and Minecraft Realms teams
So yeah, there’s the prerelease, but we have two weeks until the full release of it apparently
Q: How do I play SimCity offline?
A: The new Single-Player Mode allows you to play SimCity anytime, anywhere, without the need of an active Internet connection. For the full details please read our blog post here – http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-…y-now-available-for-pc-and-mac.
Q: How do I download the Single-Player Mode for SimCity?
A: The Single-Player Mode will be included as part of Update 10 at no additional cost. This will be available to all current and future players on PC and Mac starting March 18, 2014.
Q: Will I still require an Internet connection to play?
A: An Internet connection is required to download Update 10 when it becomes available on March 18, 2014. You will not require an active Internet connection to play SimCity offline in the Single-Player Mode.
Q: Can I still play the game Online?
A: Yes, the Online game and all of its features are still intact. This includes Multiplayer, SimCity World and Online Save Games.
Q: Will my previous Downloadable Content (DLC) be playable in the Single-Player Mode?
A: Yes. All of your previous DLC is available for use in both the Single-Player Mode and Multiplayer Mode.
Q: Do I need an Origin Account to play?
A: Yes, you use Origin to download and launch SimCity. Once you’ve installed Update 10, you can put Origin into offline mode when you are playing Single-Player Mode.
Q: How do I put Origin into Offline Mode?
A: To put Origin in Offline mode, log in to the Origin client and select: Origin>Go Offline
Q: Do I need to login to Origin online in order to play the Single-Player Mode?
A: No. If you do not have an active internet connection, you can put Origin in the offline Mode and play SimCity offline in the Single-Player Mode.
Q: What features are available in Single-Player Mode?
A: Single-Player Mode allows for a multi-city Single-Player experience without requiring an internet connection. All region maps are available in Single-Player Mode. Since Single-Player Mode does not require a persistent internet connection, Leaderboards, Citylog, Achievements, Friends List, Player Profile, the Region Wall, and region invites are not available in Single-Player Mode. The Global Market will be available in Single-Player Mode, but prices will be fixed.
Q: What are the requirements to play in Multiplayer mode?
A: The requirements to play Multiplayer have not changed. An Internet connection is required to play Multiplayer mode, Origin must be running in online mode and SimCity must be updated to the latest version.
Q: Can I transfer my regions between modes?
A: No. Single-Player and Multiplayer are separate modes and regions cannot be transferred between modes.
Q: Where are Single-Player regions saved?
A: Single-Player regions are saved locally, not on the server.
You can find your regions on PC here: \Documents\SimCity\Games\~ID NUMBER~\
You can find your regions on Mac here: Go->Documents->SimCity -> Games -> ~ID NUMBER~
Q: If I uninstall or change machines, can I transfer my Single-Player Mode regions to the new install or Machine?
A: If you uninstall SimCity, your saved games will still be available. However if you change machines, you will need to manually move your game files to the games file location on your new machine.
Q: Can I move my Single-Player Mode saved game from my PC to Mac and vice versa?
A: Yes, you can transfer your Single-Player Mode saved games between PC and Mac.
Q: How many regions can I have?
A: There is no limit to the number of saved regions a player can have in Single-Player Mode. The file size of your regions will vary depending on density and population of your cities.
Q: How do saves work in Single-Player Mode?
A: Autosave is on by default and saves your region every ten minutes. Your region is also automatically saved if you quit your region or switch to another city in the region. To disable Autosave, go to the Options menu > Settings > Gameplay tab and uncheck “Enable Autosave in Single-Player Mode”. Disabling Autosave will allow you to save at points you want to save at. If Autosave is disabled, you will be asked if you would like to save your region when you quit or switch to another city in the region.
You can manually save your region at any time by pressing “Save Game” from the options menu.
Q: How do I rollback my regions? How do I make a copy of my region?
A: If Autosave is disabled, you can save your region at a certain point and then experiment with your region. If you wish to go back to a previous save point, you can choose not to save your region when exiting the game. If you load that region from the main menu or resume page, it will load from the last saved point.
If you would like to make a copy of your region, press “Save As…” from the options menu. You will be prompted to name the copy of your region. This gives you the control to come up with a naming convention that works for you for your copied version. Once you submit that name, you will load the copy of the region. The original region will remain at the last saved point. You can access the original or the copy from the Main Menu in the Play tab.
Q: What cheats are available in Single-Player Mode?
A: Existing live cheats are available in Sandbox regions while playing Single-Player Mode. The following cheats are available in Single-Player Mode in non-Sandbox games.
Add §10,000 to City budget. Windows: CTRL + ALT + W OS X: CTRL + ALT + W
Add §5,000 per hour to City budget. Windows: CTRL + ALT + S OS X: CTRL + ALT + S
Add §100,000 per hour to City budget. Windows: ALT + W OS X: ALT + S
Disasters are unlocked in Single-Player Mode.
Remember we also have an active SimCity region you can join, just add Lonesamurai as a friend on Origin for an invite
