Some of the biggest news this week in the gaming world has come from Valve, well known for their digital gaming client Steam as well as games such as Team Fortress 2. Over the course of five days they made three big announcements related to their long teasing of opening up gaming and revolutionising the console market. One of the central parts of this is their entry into the console market: the Steam Box. Or rather as they are now, Steam Machines.

Valve had previously released some details on their console offering, but Wednesday saw a lot more detail being revealed to the public. Valve plan to make the console very flexible, you can hack it, run operating systems other than Valve’s own Steam OS upon it, there are many different manufacturers creating their own version of the console, there’s even been talk of using it to build little robots (seriously, it’s in the Steam Machine Q and A). However the big surprise was Valve’s announcement that they plan to make available 300 prototypes for testing, which will be sent out… to the public. It’s a bold move given that most companies don’t make their new hardware available to the wider-audiences until it’s time to start selling it to them, but one that could work out and certainly fits into Valve’s ‘open gaming’ strategy.

The lucky participants will be (mostly) chosen at random, although Valve say a few spaces (about 30) have been reserved for community members who have contributed the most to Steam in some way. There is a beta ‘quest’ available to enter Steam accounts into the draw for the prototypes which mostly requires completing a set of tasks that make use of Steam’s many functions (for example, one condition is you need at least 10 people on your friend list). The ‘beta quest’ will be open until October 25th.

Friday saw the final of the promised three announcements of the week with the link between Monday’s Steam OS software and Wednesday’s Steam Machine hardware: a hackable, programmable controller. Beta versions were shown off and a few working prototypes made so invited game developers could get hands-on with the new hardware and test its functionality with their own games in mind. The controller’s main selling point is its lack of the traditional double joystick, replacing these with two trackpads as well as a touchscreen in the centre (although the latter was missing from the tester prototypes). There are buttons too but not where you’d expect to find them. Numbering sixteen at all, two flank the inner side of each trackpad and another two are on the back of the controller.

Customers can set up the buttons to work any way they want however and the controller is also supposed to feature a mode that allows it to function as a mouse and keyboard for those games in the Steam library that require it. The general view from those who have tested it seems to be it works well, even if it take a little getting used to at first.

Both pieces of hardware are said to be planned for retail next year, but depending on how much the selected beta testers share online (which Valve encourages them to do by the way) we could know a bit more about both before the release.

This was the week of Steam, with company Valve making three big announcements relating to it and their plan for a new open gaming revolution over the week, the first being the reveal of the company’s new operating system named simply Steam OS on the 23rd.

The Linux-based system has been introduced according to the website as part of Valve’s bid to bring Steam into the living room and that this operating system has been built around that idea in a bid to make it as simple as possible. It will provide access to all the games and features that the Steam client does now, only improved in some ways. Already the website for Steam OS claims that the graphics processing of the system has achieved ‘significant performance increases’ and that better audio and reductions in input latency are also on the table of improvements Valve hopes to make with Steam OS.

Valve have been talking about bringing Steam ‘to the big screen’ (the television one that is) for a while now. Along with the announcement of this new operating system, there are many titles being planned for release for Steam OS, with a number of games being ported over, and Valve plan to make the entire Steam library accessible through something called ‘in-home streaming’. Valve also lists a number of new features to be included with Steam OS among them streaming, parental restriction options and even provision for other forms of media such as music to be used with the system.

Steam OS will be available as a free download for users and a ‘freely licensable operating system for manufacturers’. It will also be the operating system for Valve’s offering for the home console market – the Steam Machine.

the hardest murder to solve is your own

When Ronan O’Connor, a detective with a chequered past, gets caught up in a burglary, his life is brought to an untimely end by a brutal and relentless killer.

Shocked to find himself in the afterlife, his only escape from the limbo world of ‘Dusk’ is to uncover the truth behind his killer, track him down and bring him to justice using new-found supernatural abilities.

As Ronan, you have freedom to explore the town of Salem: its wooden houses, narrow streets, gothic churches and mental asylum for clues. Battle demonic spirits to save your soul and uncover the shocking revelations about who is responsible for your death.

During the dev chat, the developer played the first “mission” and commented over the top of the gameplay

The game looks great, and the idea is amazing (I wish I’d had time to check out the booth at the expo)
Basically, you start off having to solve your own murder. Going through the evidence and crime scene as a ghost. Which has upsides and downsides of course. Downsides, you can’t pick up and touch evidence and actually get a sense of it, upside, you can possess people, see through their eyes, hear through their ears and generally get a sense of the world and things around you

The game is set in Salem, Massachusetts, so every building is warded against ghosts (as you do), so outside Ronan can walk through people and objects, however to get into buildings, a door or window needs to be open to allow entry/exit (useful for loading areas huh? very clever)
Being a Ghost, you have a number of talents that will be upgraded as the game progresses…
– You can see flashbacks of scenes that happened, playback the scene to get insight into what happened, these are called memory residue, to aid the investigation “Real World”, like turning on a cooker hob to distract people, this allows for puzzle elements later on in the game
– Possession can also be used as a tactic against the Demons, human spirits that are tormented and think that devouring other human spirits will turn them into regular spirits again so they can lay to rest, like possessing a cop so you can get close without being noticed and jumping into the demon to rip it apart
– Also ghost side quests and investigations will unlock new info and generally make you feel better about yourself, like helping a young lady who was murdered and buried by an old couple in the block

The game is shaping up very nicely, it looks great on current gen (it’s due for release early 2014 on PC, PS3 and XBox 360)

Garrett, the Master Thief, steps out of the shadows into the City. In this treacherous place, where the Baron’s Watch spreads a rising tide of fear and oppression, his skills are the only things he can trust. Even the most cautious citizens and their best-guarded possessions are not safe from his reach.
As an uprising emerges, Garrett finds himself entangled in growing layers of conflict. Lead by Orion, the voice of the people, the tyrannized citizens will do everything they can to claim back the City from the Baron’s grasp. The revolution is inevitable. If Garrett doesn’t get involved, the streets will run red with blood and the City will tear itself apart.

This is actually the most interactive of the Eurogamer dev chats so far, not only did we get a full on play through of the game, but the dev on stage actually took the time to speak to people there and asked their names for the Q&A, much respect to him on that one

Ok, onto the actual gameplay. The new Thief game is paying a LOT of homage to the original, while at the same time, making it more “realistic” and more technical, compared to games that have gone before (hopefully no undead this time)

First thing you notice, the game is polished, VERY polished, it looks smooth and beautiful, however it was mentioned the next gen versions will have better textures, quicker loading times, etc, but where the PC version will sit is unknown right now.

In a nutshell though, you play as Garret again, this time as a “silent partner” to Orion in his revolution against the Baron.

During the Demo-

Arrows aren’t just for killing, the examples shown were the water arrow for snuffing out torches and fire to remove light sources to stay in the dark, and obviously the rope/grappler arrow to make escapes
Lock picking and frame checking (running your hands round a painting frame for secret switches) is now a quicktime event, not only using the on screen indicator, but also the controllers rumble function for feedback (love that idea, very clever use of force feedback)
Maps are a clear reference tot eh original aswell and the map usage is smooth and simple UI improvement

It was asked in the Q&A if you could Ghost the game (basically doing as much as possible of the game without doing any kills or enemy takedowns and it was confirmed it is possible. Hopefully that will be a super hard, but worth getting achievement
Gameplay will change depending on how gun ho you play the game, if guards are after you, running into the dark won’t make them lose you, the AI will follow you (although this may also used as a fun trap, drag a guard into the dark for a take down)

Thief is out 25th feb 2014, but its already available to preorder on STEAM

GODUS empowers you in the role of a god, allowing you to sculpt every inch of a beautiful world that you look down upon, on which a population of Followers settle and multiply. As you mould every aspect of your unique utopia, a civilisation will blossom across your land and offer you their belief. The more Followers that believe in you, the more powerful you will become.

Whilst you are free to lose yourself in this tranquil experience, other gods reign outside of the ever-expanding reach of your influence. If you so wish, you may challenge other gods and their civilisations to epic multiplayer battles that involve hundreds of Followers fighting in your name whilst you cast devastating god powers from the skies above. As you conquer more lands, your powers will grow allowing you to nurture the advancement of your own Followers.

Obviously GODUS was the release from Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity experiment earlier this year (a mobile “game”, where you chipped away at a maHOOsive block with other gamers and the final block being removed gave the person that did it some control over GODUS when it releases)

Now GODUS has ALREADY been up on STEAM since the 13th Sept on the Early access system, so this won’t be much of a preview, as its already out, technically, however, Early access games are essentially open beta’s at a cheaper price (sometimes… *cough*Planetary Annihilation*cough*), in this instance, £15. But when you buy the GODUS Beta in Early Access (available 13th September, 2013), you will get any subsequent updates plus the finished game completely free. So yeah, you can play now, bugs and all

Now from the game play they showed on stage, there are a few important things to talk about, firstly the god controls, this is a typical RTS, put a way point for your people and dependant on the place you put it, depends what they will do, build a village, attack enemies, etc etc

The difference here is, as a god, you can actually remould the terrain, meaning you can give your followers an advantage and the enemy obstacles, of course there are also other things, like the meteor shower, that looks fun, but what most people will probably do, is enjoy using the finger of god to swash enemy towns and villagers or even fling them across the map.  Seriously, I just bought the game myself to squish people with my God Finger 😀

One of the other items they showed in the dev chat was how quickly they can change aspects of the game based on player data, it’s all in a basic spreadsheet D:

Also, evolution, when a red head appears, do you let him stay in your village to add red heads to the population, or kill him straight away to keep the population ginger free?    hmm…   decisions, decision…

I’m very interested in this, so I’ll leave it at at and go play it 😀   you should too!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/232810