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The launch of Arkham Knight’s PC version has been another one of those releases that’ll go down in gaming history, and not for the right reasons. It released with bugs severe enough to make the game unplayable for many, to the point that its been pulled from sale in numerous stores both real-life and digital.
Now during an update on its current status Warner Bros. have said that Rocksteady’s work on the game’s planned DLC will be taking a backseat while they attempt to get the game up to par. Which means delays are incoming for the Batgirl: A Matter of Family content and the release date it originally had for July 14th will now not be met.
“Our continued focus on getting the right PC fixes in place for the main game has had an impact on the development of all DLC content for the PC version of the game.” said Yorick. “This means that the Batman: Arkham Knight – Batgirl: A Matter of Family DLC will not be available on July 14th for those who are currently playing the PC version of the game. We apologize for the delay and only want to make sure that any content that we offer is up to the standards that PC players expect.”
As a result of the PC version’s faults as well WB have decided to overhaul their internal review process for all future games they make. There haven’t been any updates about specific fixes happening for Arkham Knight though, nor a date to expect it to be for sale again. Only that it will be out when “Rocksteady and all parties” are happy that it meets a “superior quality bar”
It’s been 17 years since the release of Baldur’s Gate, which, of course, makes this the perfect time for an expansion pack.
Last night, the folks at Beamdog—best known for releasing Enhanced Editions of the two Baldur’s Gate games—announced Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, a new entry in the series that’s set place between BG1 and BG2. Siege of Dragonspear will run on the Infinity Engine, they say, and it’ll tell a new story after the death of Sarevok but before the rise of Irenicus.
In case you’re not familiar: the Baldur’s Gate games are top-down isometric RPGs that follow strict D&D rules and let you pause during combat. They’ve held up really well today, especially BG2, which remains one of the greatest games ever made.
And now we’re getting a new one, developed by some ex-BioWare folks who have spent the past few years porting and enhancing those old Infinity Engine games. Says Beamdog:
The events between Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition are at last revealed in this exciting new expansion to the original game.
Though Sarevok is dead and his plan for war averted, peace eludes the citizens of Baldur’s Gate. A crusade marches in the north, seizing supplies, forcing locals into military service, and disrupting trade along the Sword Coast. A charismatic warrior known as the Shining Lady leads this army, her background shrouded in mystery. Can the rumors be true—is she, like you, the child of a god?
The closer you get to the Shining Lady, the more you realize your father, the dead Lord of Murder still casts a long shadow upon your path. Baldur’s Gate has put its faith in you, but you must determine whose interests you truly serve before you face the Shining Lady among the ruins of Dragonspear Castle…
Isometric RPGs sure are making a comeback, huh? There’s no firm release date yet, but the folks at Beamdog say Dragonspear will be out relatively soon for PC/Mac/Linux and then later this year for iOS/Android too. Hopefully it will be a worthy addition to the franchise.
One of the hits of last week in the gaming world was NotGames’ little parody game NotGTAV, has just gone through a strange day.
The story starts earlier, when a DMCA takedown notice was filed against the game by someone who was thought to be from Rockstar. This led to NotGTAV being removed from Steam and NotGames receiving this e-mail from Valve:
Valve received a DMCA copyright take down notice about your NotGTAV game on Steam, at [infringing Steam Link].
[Name], on behalf of Rockstar Games, alleges that your game uses the Grand Theft Auto V acronym and title GTAV, and your game title infringes its copyright in http://store.steampowered.com/app/271590/.
As a result, we have unpublished your game from Steam.
Now as a parody game, NotGames knew that this could have been a problem. But as NotGames’ Emma Kendall said, “We made sure we’d taken all reasonable steps from our side to let them know what we were doing.” and the game itself was donating money to a British charity as well. Not to mention that the only GTA related thing used in the game was… well, just the name. Thus while the team worked on a rebrand Rockstar were contacted about this. And their reply?
They had nothing to do with the claim, nor did they know who had filed it.
Valve began an investigation into the DMCA claim being false, and this eventually led to the game being republished on Steam after a few hours due to Valve making the decision to treat the claimant as a false one. NotGames posted to the game’s Steam page with news of what had happened and the words “NotGTAV lives!!!!!!”
In typical NotGames’ fashion though they have taken the events in stride and while the game will now not be rebranded or changed, the rebrand’s new page and art design (“you may be able to tell it was done in a bit of a hurry”) as “NotDMCAV” will be up on the page for a few days because (in their own words) “gives us a huge giggle”.
Having had NotGames on our Indie Game Show in the past, it’s good to see that they’ve come through this with the game and their reputation unharmed. It does highlight though that like all copyright systems on the Internet, abuse of the system can happen and often seems to happen against those people who do the most good. As I said above, this game donates profits to a charity.
Hopefully Valve are looking into measures to prevent similar things happening. It’s good though that they managed to get the mess cleared up and solved fairly quickly though.
In a brand new trailer for the crazy pop culture mashup, Warner Bros. has given us a glimpse at Dr. Who in LEGO Dimensions. Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez are all voicing the characters the play in the popular BBC show. The trailer showed some interesting situations, as Homer Simpson and the Doctor fought side by side in a Portal test chamber, Batman and Gandalf were shown in the TARDIS, and those things that shout “EXTERMINATE!” from Dr. Who interrogated a group of hero characters.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Dr. Who, having never been a fan of the series. But the trailer certainly looks interesting. And now, in an effort to add some authentic fanboy…Who-fan…Whovian…WHATEVER…flavor to the post….
<Insert Lonesamurai rambling on about how great Dr. Who is HERE>
