December 30, 2015

Splatoon’s Free Content To Dry Up Next Month

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Nintendo’s take on the competitive shooter, Splatoon, has managed to stay fresh for the past seven months thanks to a steady stream of free content – including new maps, outfits and weapons – since it launched this past May. It seems that the developers have finally decided to put an end to delivering new content to players and will instead focus on regular events like Splatfests and balance updates.

Speaking on the subject, the game’s producer Hisahi Nogami said:

“There are already 14 stages and over 70 kinds of weapons. So if they add even more, it would be hard for players to memorize all of them, especially when considering weapon compatibility with stages.”

Are you said to see the end of updates for Splatoon? The game was certainly one of the more pleasant surprises of the year – bringing a color art style, unique gameplay and frantic fast based multiplayer to Nintendo’s latest console. Here’s hoping even without regular content drops Splatoon will stay populated in the months to come.

[Source]

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IndieDB 2015 Indie of the Year Awards!

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Tamsin Heineman

IndieDB has just released the list of their top ten independent studio games of 2015 and the winners are just plain outstanding.

  • First Place – Space Engineers – Keen Software House – Early Access Oct 22, 2013
    This years winner is a personal favorite. Space Engineers is a procedurally generated voxel based space and building and exploration sandbox with both survival and creative modes as well as online play via hosted servers. In this game you build ships, stations and anything else you can imagine with their elaborate building system and wide variety of highly customizable blocks.
    Everything from programming blocks, gyros, thrusters, rotors, pistons, remote control, armor, and  just about anything else you can imagine make the possibilities endless.  Did I mention mods? This game has full access to the Steam Workshop and custom fanmade content.
    Almost forgot to mention their newest edition, PLANETS! A lot of new features have been added along with them. Also of mention is their weekly updates. They’re always tweaking and adding things and making the game overall more enjoyable for everyone. There’s really too much for me to go over in just this short blurb, so pick it up and check it out!

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Is Fire Fall finally at its end? Red5 and their game are in trouble we try to find out why

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

The headline that greeted me was “Firefall studio Red 5 couldn’t make payroll on Christmas Day” I suddenly felt nostalgic. Red5 I said? Firefall? The game with thumpers and chosen and the melding had been a home to me and a few of my closest friends for a period of an about a year between its mid and late stage Beta testing. An MMO fps, with an open world, Fire fall promised a lot and delivered on very little. So I thought to myself what killed Red5? And their brainchild and babby Fire Fall? Was it the lack of content? No we played the game when there was no crafting (and or it was completely unusable), no missions, and very repetitive un-ranked PvP. During my almost year of time playing the un-ranked, non-progressive, repetitive PvE content I often wondered what kept me coming back. I had no more unlocks to unlock, there were no more guns in game to loot (At the time loot drops were basically non-existent), and I had thumped so many times I had started to wonder if there was a pattern to how the enemies spawned that I could exploit. But, I kept coming back, day after day after day. Why? Because the game was an adventure and during the period from late 2011 to mid-2012 my self and my guildies found out own fun in the world of Red5s Fire Fall, and in the end Red5 removed that fun, and it was the removal of that fun, unbounded game that marked the beginning of their end.

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Transistor crosses 1 Million sales

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Tiny developer Super Giant Games  is no stranger to sucess. Their previous isometric styled RPG story game, Bastion was also a huge success, so it should come as very little surprise that their second time Transistor is also a success. According to the developer the game has sold more than one million copies as of December of this year. This is no doubt helped along by the fact that the game is now multiplatform, having jumped the gap and been added to the Ps4 earlier in the year.

transistor

“We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to stick together as a team and with any luck keep making the kinds of games that resonate with you for a long time to come,” Supergiant said in a blog post he went on to say “Word-of-mouth is what kept Bastion going for way, way longer than we could have imagined, and it’s what’s kept Transistor going strong, too,” Ios versions of both Transistor and its sister game Bastion have also been announced, but it seems Xbox users are still out in the cold, unable to play the beautiful story heavy RPGs.

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PS4 is all about the games in 2016

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

It looks like PS4 owners long wait is finally over. Aftere years of waiting for the exclusive games and content that was promised at the system released. PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, who said in an interview with 4Gamer  that 2016 is shaping up to be a banner year for the PS4. “2016 marks an unprecedented rush of big titles for PS4,” Yoshida said. “It’s also the year of the long-awaited launch of PlayStation VR. It’s the year PS4 users, and those who are on the fence on whether to buy it will absolutely think, ‘It’s good to have a PS4.’ Please look forward to it.”

This years exclusives fro the PS4 include Street Fighter 5, Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gran turismo sport, and the last guardian.

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Let’s Talk About Battlefront’s Overpowered DL-44

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

So I’m currently playing EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront for review on PlayStation 4 and I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in some of the multiplayer forces. No these lobbies aren’t a hive of scum and villainy but rather it seems like almost everyone is using the same weapon – Han Solo’s iconic Blaster the DL-44.
  
So why is everyone using Han’s favourite side-arm? Because it offers the highest damage per shot in the game combined with a fairly high fire rate. As the current end-game Rank 25 reward it makes sense that experienced players might be given a reward but when you’ve include weapon stats in the game giving players who theoretically the most polished skill set giving them the best weapon in the game can put newer players at an extreme disadvantage.

To add insult to injury in terms of the DL-44 being able to absolutely wreck, EA sells an unlock packaged in the the Deluxe Edition or higher that automatically unlocks Han’s Blaster right off the get go. $10 extra for the best weapon in a competitive multiplayer shooter? Why the fuck not?

  
So what can EA do to help balance out this flaw in game design? Here’s hoping the optional first Expansion Pass adds a new set of unlocks that provide extra equivalents up the DL-44 since Battlefront’s weapons are centred around stats and that’s not going to change. Perhaps DICE deeper into Star Wars lore – perhaps the Sand People’s Gaffi Sticks?

This weapon is so prevalent that it’s even caused discussions recently within dedicated Battlefront communities. When you’ve got something this strong, the DL-44 certainly is the blaster you are looking for.

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