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It has previously been mentioned by Blizzard that they were planning to balance the console and PC versions of their game Overwatch separately to avoid accusations of one platform ‘ruining’ it for the other platform. Now the first change in this manner is being made, with an incoming patch set to nerf the damage of Torbjörn’s turret.
Comparing the win rates for Torbjörn, they come in as 59.6% for PC but 68% for consoles. While that doesn’t seem like a big markup, you have to remember just how popular Overwatch is. During its first full release week players totalled up 119 million hours of play across all platforms, and many, many copies have sold. Heck, even as I write this someone else across the room is currently playing the game – 10% is a fairly large percentage in this context.
Game director for Overwatch Jeff Kaplan spoke about the upcoming nerf patch on a Reddit topic saying “In an upcoming patch, we will reduce the damage done by Torbjörn’s turret by 30% on Xbox One and PS4. PC will remain unchanged.”
The patch should be coming sometime towards the end of the month once it clears certification and is just the first step on the plan to balance each game separately.
Separate balancing might sound like a lot of unnecessary work for Blizzard but I’m in favour of it. Remember, PC gamers have more choice of input devices while console players usually only have use of their game controllers. As well, the way you will play games on each platform also varies, with console users having less distractions than a PC player who might also be connected into a Discord buzzing with messages or their Skype. Separate balancing for each version therefore makes sense because each platform is bound to have their own little quirks that could make a hero overbalanced on one platform but not the other. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Blizzard taking a chance by trying something a little bit different with one of their games.
Last year, Bethesda unveiled Fallout 4 at it’s E3 conference. So many were asking, what could they bring to 2016? The answer: A lot.
Since so much was revealed, I’ll just run down the major bullet points now with more detailed articles to come:
Dishonored 2 gameplay was shown, with some awesome footage of Emily in action.
Dishonored 2 will have a sweet collector’s edition featuring Corvo’s mask and Emily’s ring. But supplies will be limited.
Prey isn’t dead! Its getting a reboot headed by Arkane studios and it looks great.
Fallout Shelter is getting a huge update and a PC version.
Fallout 4 is getting about 90 DLC packs. Experiment on people! Build Rube Goldberg machines. It looks nuts!
Quake is back! Quake Champions was revealed, although we have to wait for Quakecon in August to get more info.
Skyrim is getting a remaster for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
The Elder Scrolls Legends is coming, and its now going to be on Mac, Android and iPad as well. Plus, it has a campaign mode!
The Elder Scrolls Online is getting an update called One Tamriel, which will let players explore the world freely after the tutorial. No level restrictions.
Doom is getting a DLC called Unto Evil.
id promises more play modes, playlists, SnapMap updates and more coming to Doom in the next few months.
Fallout 4 and Doom are getting VR versions for HTC Vive in 2017.
A brief clip during the Quake trailer seemed to tease a new Wolfenstein.
It looks like a pretty epic year for Bethesda, with a little something for everyone.
I remember when I was a young boy. At this age, that is a distinct achievement but back then we didn’t have computer games to keep us occupied. At the centre of every boys collection was the toy car. Usually made by Matchbox, Hot Wheels or Corgi, these stalwarts of an 80’s childhood are still popular, even today. In 1986, however, the toy car market was rocked by the introduction of Micro Machines, toy cars so small that they were about the size of a pencil sharpener. This turned toy car collecting in to a hobby you could keep in your pocket and so popular was the Micro Machines phenomenon that a computer game was bound to follow. Sure enough, in 1991, Codemasters released the first Micro Machines game as a top down racer. It sold well enough to spawn three sequels and two spin offs, although the last of these games was in 2007.
This has paved the way for the team at Playrise Digital to release their take on the mini-combat-racer genre with Table Top Racing: World Tour (TTR:WT). At the time of writing, this game is available for free to anyone who has a Playstation Plus account and with a 15% discount on Steam. In fact, there aren’t many platforms this game isn’t on. It has even made its way on to most tablets.
On first playing, you might be surprised at why anyone would like this game. The cars seem slow and difficult to handle and the pickups not particularly visually attractive or even enticing, being blue question marks sitting in little bubbles. There is no handbrake turning, there is no jump, although you can fit tyres to help you drift. Like a real car, however, what’s really important is what’s under the hood. As you progress through the levels you can purchase upgrades for your vehicle. They’re not expensive and with the amount of times you play to get 1st position in all of the tracks, most things will be easily available to you fairly quickly. Upgrading your car is only part of the fun, however. The skills you need to start achieving in this game are much the same as you would in a traditional racer. You have to know what your best lines are if you want to make the best times. Usually, this isn’t as important in combat-racers like this, the pickups and attacks being a larger part of the action. Here the pickups could easily be an afterthought to what is a fairly good racing game that doesn’t bother with the hard numbers, like a proper simulator would.
That said, the pickups are still fun. There are several available from rockets to targeted rockets. There is the ever popular oil slick, the bomb and a really nice frost ray that turns your opponents in to blocks of ice. To that end, however, none of these items are particularly special, although the ice was my favourite as it could take out more than one player at a time.
The AI in the game works well with the surroundings. There were times, when I was in the pack, I really felt like I was racing hard against another player, and the cars will try to push you in to obstacles, or off the edge of tables, in order to get past you. The largest selling point for this game is, however, the multiplayer. Gamers can set up tracks the way they want and include the specific options they want in the game before others are invited in (joining through the simple multiplayer menu). You can see exactly how many people are already waiting to start a match, so finding people to play with is pretty straight forward. Once in, you’ll be able to compete with people of different skill levels, really helping you to up your game. Don’t have a car of the right class? Don’t worry because one will be provided for you.
Multiplayer is actually really fun and it makes the game a little more dynamic. This is where I learned about some of the shortcuts and some good tactics for knocking other players off the table or in to obstacles. It really does add something to the game although one of the ‘hosts’ of a game seemed to be suffering from lag, which made playing difficult for everyone.
Of course, the big thing about this game is the setting. There aren’t many locations yet (a total of five) but these are broken down in to 20 tracks, each with challenging jumps, passageways and shortcuts for you to find. One of these locations is a Yo! Sushi restaurant and I must admit to having a few pangs of excitement as we rushed around the semi-familiar setting. It’s actually a really nice touch from something that could otherwise have been a bit of a corporate grab and something missing from the Micro Machines games that I played. Let’s not fool ourselves, the biggest sell for this game is that the cars are very small in a big and familiar world. The Yo! Sushi location really cements this in to your consciousness. I do wonder how international audiences would take to this, however, as the company is a distinctly British one. Generally, you won’t be disappointed with the locations here and it is clear that a lot of thought has gone in to them.
Of course, this leads us in to talking about the graphics. I rather liked them even though they are a little bit plastic in their look and some of the animation could be a little smoother. What they have done, however, is really fill the environment with well created elements that are reminiscent of an attic with toys in, a yacht, a junk yard or a garage. What can I say, it works.
I really liked this game and it is one that I think I will return to from time to time. It’s an easy game to pick up and put down, something simple to give you a break from the vast fantasy lands or sprawling battle arenas of other titles. You find the fun with TTR:WT because it’s a good racer without being a simulator. As such, it’s much more accessible than something like Gran Turismo but without the quirkiness of Mario Cart. A micro-combat-racer for a more discerning gamer. This won’t give you the pangs of excitement that the old Micro Machines might have done or the true to life racing experience from F1 Simulator, but it can get your adrenaline pumping. I’d really recommend getting the game and giving it a go. Even at its full RRP, it’s not that expensive and will give you hours of enjoyment. Overall, the game is well worth three and a half corgi miniatures out of five.
I know that you don’t need a reminder of how sometimes people on the Internet can be really horrible people, but sometimes it’s needed so we can all remember how not to behave online.
No Man’s Sky has been quite the awaited game since we first saw its announcement trailer. A game that promises procedurally generated planets, with space travel to allow you to skip between them? Hell yeah, a lot of people are understandably excited about it.
However, the team working on it at Hello Games has had a run of bad luck with one of the most notable past incidents being the flood on Christmas Eve 2013 that destroyed laptops, furniture and development kits along with quite a bit of work. At the time the studio said that it wouldn’t cause a problem with meeting their release target, but that was a few years ago and things change. Hello Games recently announced that they would need to delay No Man’s Sky a little bit and some people didn’t like that at all.
So they sent death threats to the people at Hello Games. For some inexplicable reason.
The founder of Hello Games dealt with it in a very classy way through, tweeting that Hello Games now resembled the house from Home Alone so he was safe now. But then he followed up by adding “Tell me when its safe to remove the marbles and oil from the stairs. It’s getting really cumbersome, and I need the toilet.”
Tell me when its safe to remove the marbles and oil from the stairs. It’s getting really cumbersome, and I need the toilet
Of course, making light of it is all well and good but really, death threats? Over a video game delay? Come on.
As I have written many times previously, delays in release can only help a game by allowing more time for bugs to be stamped out and the game polished and improved. Sure, they’re annoying if you really want a game but speaking as someone who understands impatience, you’re better off waiting.
Because really, no matter how many times you threaten to kill someone for delaying a game, it’s still going to release in August now.
