2K Games and Turtle Rock Studios on Wednesday released a new trailer for upcoming monster-hunting game Evolve. Dubbed the “Survival Guide Trailer,” the seven-minute video aims to be a the “ultimate playbook” for winning, whether you play as a Monster or a Hunter.
Set on a beautiful yet deadly planet called Shear, Evolve challenges teams of four Hunters to take down a fifth player-controlled character, the hulking Monster, which can evolve with new abilities.
The four Hunter characters are Assault, Medic, Trapper, and Support. Meanwhile, three Monsters will be available when Evolve launches next month: Goliath, Wraith, and Kraken. The game’s fourth Monster, a massive beast called Behemoth, will launch later as paid DLC.
Exploding Kittens, a card game that its creators call a “highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette,” has become the latest Kickstarter success story. The project page went up yesterday with a $10,000 funding goal, and needed only 20 minutes to become 100 percent funded.
At press time, funding stands at an incredible $1.6 million from more than 42,000 backers. Funding closes on February 19.
Exploding Kittens was designed by The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman and Xbox veterans Elan Lee and Shane Small. Players take turns drawing cards until one unfortunate player picks up an exploding kitten card and loses the game.
It’s not all luck, however. “The deck is made up of cards that let you avoid exploding by peeking at cards before you draw, forcing your opponent to draw multiple cards, or shuffling the deck,” its creators explain. The game should become increasingly intense with every card drawn because fewer cards remaining in the deck means there’s a better chance of drawing the exploding kitten card.
“So if you’re into card games or laser beams or weaponized enchiladas, please help us make this game a reality. We think you’ll love it as much as we do,” the developers said.
$20 gets you the standard, 56-card set that comes with instructions and box. This versions is aimed at people ages 7 and up. You can also pay $35 for a NSFW version of the game that comes with the standard deck, as well as extra cards that are “too horrifying and/or incredible to include in the kid-friendly version.”
Writing on the Battlefield Blog, DICE reveals that the reward for completing the mission is the unlocking of the Heist mode for Hardline’s upcoming beta, which is due to launch soon on all platforms.
The Battlefield 4 community mission starts today, January 21, and challenges players to work together to score 2 billion points in the game’s Rush mode. The mission officially begins today at 9 AM PDT and runs through January 24 at 11:59 PDT.
Hardline’s Heist mode sees robbers trying to destroy objectives and then escape with the cash inside. The police force, meanwhile, will try to stop them. You can read more about Heist mode here.
In addition, DICE has announced that every Wednesday from now until March 17 (the day Hardline launches), the developer will give out in-game goodies to Battlefield 4 players. These include:
Gold Battlepacks
Community Missions
Hardline-themed Dog Tags
Exclusive wallpaper
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Launch problems for H1Z1, Sony’s open-world zombie survival horror game, have dragged on into the sixth day, with the game now completely offline as a major patch is being introduced.
John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, apologised on Twitter after a new bug slipped into the code while the team was trying to fix other problems. Fans found that the game’s servers fell offline on Tuesday at 2pm Pacific, then went back online several hours later, and went back down again moments after that.
At the time of going to press, the game is still offline and Smedley–having worked a punishing schedule to combat the launch problems–has decided to try and resolve the new problems as opposed to re-introducing the old patch.
Ok servers are up. Patch away. Good to go for h1z1
Meanwhile, the game’s popularity has led to extensive queuing, which can last more than an hour, while Sony Online Entertainment is trying to invest in more servers for the EU territory. The burden of its popularity has led to numerous in-game bugs, to the detriment of features such as frame-rate and network stability.
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The newest update, when its own bugs are removed and goes live, is expected to come with the following fixes:
Fixed issue with loot rules which were preventing spawning items inside containers
Metal Gate should now work properly
Floating Arrows should no longer cause damage or obstruct vehicles.
Structures are now more resistant to damage
Zombies should no longer slide or attack while knocked down
Dragging a stack of items that was too large to fit in your inventory would not move any of the stack. It now tops off as much as it can fit
Fixed issue where the inventory wouldn’t accept the maximum it could hold when picking up items from proximity/containers.
The dew collector should work now, seriously
Adjusted many items so that they will stack in the inventory properly
Added a recipe for a Metal Door that is more durable than a wooden door
Additional server list sorting options are now available
The inventory option “Delete” has been removed
“Drop”, “Unload” and “Place” inventory options have been removed from proximity items
Rebalanced melee damage, including fists
Enabled melee headshot damage for NPC’s and players Have feedback on the new melee changes? Post them inJimmy’s thread here
Fixed issue with the Runamok Toxic Cavern container not working
Stagnant water can now be purified in barbecue.
Bear meat can now be cooked on a barbecue.
Rabbit stew can now be cooked. It now requires cooked rabbit meat instead of raw rabbit meat.
Hammers, wrenches, and combat knives can now be melted down into bars inside of a furnace.
Some larger items like the machete and AR15 now yield more metal bars when melted in a furnace.
Animal traps now take damage.
The animal trap recipe now require four nails.
Fixed picking overlapping blackberry bushes where players sometimes had crouch to pick them successfully
Fixed event tickets so that tickets found in the world are granted and the name and count show up properly
Theme Hospital, the clinical management sim that has amassed a cult following since its 1997 release, is the latest free offering by Electronic Arts.
The iconic Bullfrog-developed game usually costs $4.99 (£3.99), but those who have downloaded the Origin platform can own it for free. As part of EA’s ongoing ‘On The House’ promotion, those who download it will have it in their library permanently.
‘On the House’ is one of many new digital services hosted by EA. Others include the subscription-based EA Access program, which gives Xbox One owners unlimited access to select EA titles, as well as digital content discounts and early access to upcoming games, for $5/month. Another new initiative is Origin Game Time, which offers up free play for PC games.
Further information on the EA Access deal can be found here.
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Apple has patented an iPhone design that shrewdly incorporates an analogue control stick into the Home button.
The pop-out button, when elevated from the phone itself, behaves in a similar manner to the PSP and Nintendo 3DS analogue nubs, allowing for 360-degree movement. If ever brought to market, the spring-mounted input would be the first time an iPhone used mechanical controls for games.
However, design patents are not solid confirmation of commercial rollout, and Apple has never publicly expressed a desire to change how its games function.
The patent, unearthed by Forbes, was filed in 2013 and only very recently was made public for the first time.
Presently, iPhone and Android games that require a more traditional controller input tend to add virtual analogue sticks and buttons onto the screen, though this imitation has not caught on with all developers. Many of the most successful iPhone games are built specifically for touch-screen input, while a few make use of the device’s accelerometers.
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The game line-up for this year’s iteration of annual fighting game tournament Evolution Championship Series was announced today. Speaking on a live stream hosted by Mike Ross, EVO tournament organiser Joey “MrWizard” Cuellar revealed the games which will be present at the event.
The event marks the first time Tekken 7 will be making its global tournament debut, and it will be played on arcade machines. The event itself will run from July 17-19 at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Last year’s EVO drew competitors from around the world, pulling almost 2,000 entrants for Ultra Street Fighter IV, the event’s most popular game. Registrations for this year’s EVO will be open “very soon.”
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Writing on Twitter, Spencer thanked Xbox fans for their support, attributing their faith in the Xbox brand as the key element in helping Microsoft turn the tide.
“PS4 is also doing very well. Console and game sales are strong, which is a good thing for the industry” — Phil Spencer
“Most important thing was Xbox fans sticking with us, they kept believing,” Spencer said. “More work to do but it was a good holiday.”
Another fan pointed out that, even though the Xbox One outsold Sony’s console for the final two months of the year, in fact, the PS4 was the top-selling system overall for all of 2014.
Spencer replied: “PS4 is also doing very well. Console and game sales are strong, which is a good thing for the industry.”
Microsoft has not announced a new Xbox One sales number since November 2014, when the company said shipments of the system were approaching 10 million units. It’s possible we’ll hear a new number next week when Microsoft reports its latest earnings on January 26.
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Steam Broadcasting, a new, Twitch-like feature that players can use to stream their games for anyone to watch, is now available to the platform’s 100 million+ users. Broadcasting was announced in early December 2014 and had previously been available to some Steam users in beta form.
The feature is currently available to all Steam users as part of the the latest client update. This patch, which will be automatically downloaded, also introduces an in-game FPS counter and lots more.
To use Steam Broadcasting, users can click “Watch Game” on their friend’s profile. Viewers don’t have to also own the game, pay a fee, or install any additional apps. Though Broadcasting was designed to highlight game clips, users can also utilize the feature to broadcast anything on their desktop.
Steam Broadcasts do, however, forbid a range of content. This includes the following:
Porn, inappropriate or offensive content, warez, or leaked content or anything else not safe for work
In launching Steam Broadcasting, Valve is entering the streaming market currently dominated by Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. Steam is indeed a force, with 100 million accounts and close to 4,000 games, though it remains to be seen what effect Steam Broadcasting might have on Twitch.
Earlier this year, Steam rolled out a major design overhaul that introduced a range of features and functionality aimed at helping you filter through the flood of new releases.
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A long-suspected match-fixing scandal that has plagued the Counter-Strike pro-player community has resurfaced following a new investigation undertaken by The Daily Dot.
Suspicions were immediately raised in August when iBUYPOWER, a then-revered and successful pro-Counter-Strike team, were crushed 16-4 when playing against a team that were believed to be easy opponents.
Combatants of iBUYPOWER were heard laughing as they died at key points, while their use of combat knives instead of firearms was considered a curious decision. A video of the contest, which took place during CEVO Pro-season 5, can be seen above.
Suspicions regarding the infamous CEVO August match began immediately, as the team was seen making curious choices
It was believed that multiple bets were placed just prior to the match, with wagers that garnered more than $10,000 in earnings.
While the accusations had quietened in the months that followed, an ex-girlfriend of Derek Boorn (a pro-player who has joined a new team with former members of iBUYPOWER), published text messages that appear to show him confessing that the match was thrown.
“By the way, all that drama with iBUYPOWER,” he wrote, “they really did throw the match lol.”
Initially, as images of text messages published by the ex-girlfriend–Ashley Leboeuf–had spread across Reddit, she began to face claims that she had forged them. However, The Daily Dot has been able to verify their authenticity after meetings with Ms. Leboeuf.
The text messages can be found below:
As the images spread to members of the ESEA (a Counter-Strike pro-player community), a representative for the group confirmed on Reddit that Derek Boorn’s membership had been terminated.
“Derek is an event manager that connects Insider users with professional players for those types of events,” the representative said.
“He does not work with the League division in any capacity and after reviewing things we’ve terminated him from his role with Insider events.”
In a statement to The Daily Dot, Boorn did not address the text’s authenticity, only claiming that he had “zero interest in participating in any type of revenge mission she [Leboeuf] has going.”
“It really pains me to do something like this to someone I care about” — Leboeuf
Leboeuf said it was not an easy decision to incriminate her ex-boyfriend.
“It really pains me to do something like this to someone I care about,” she said. “But I can’t stand that the community respects these players when they do things like this. Amateur players look up to them, and they just use that to get away with anything they want.”
Meanwhile, Shahzeb Khan, another ex-iBUYPOWER player, has confessed that he took part in match fixing during the inafmous match in August.
“The day of this match I had placed a bet on iBUYPOWER. I brought up the bet while talking to [pro-player team manager] Casey Foster; he then voice-called me on Steam Friends and told me to change my bet. He made it very clear the match was going to be thrown. I didn’t want to get involved with any of it but I changed my bet, as I thought would be logical at the time while also sharing this information with a friend whom I assumed to have bet the same.”
The full confession, along with more evidence that connects iBUYPOWER to the match-fixing scandal where more than $10,000 of earnings were made, can be found on The Daily Dot.
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