Hacknet from Surprise Attack Games & Team Fractal Alligator launches today on Mac and Linux.
Hacknet is an immersive, terminal-based hacking simulator for Windows, Linux and Mac. Dive down a rabbit hoIe as you follow the instructions of a recently deceased hacker, whose death may not have been the accident the media reports. Using old school command prompts and real hacking processes, you’ll solve the mystery with minimal hand-holding and a rich world full of secrets to explore.
Bit, a hacker responsible for creating the most invasive security system on the planet, is dead. When he fails to reconnect to his system for 14 days, his failsafe kicks in, sending instructions in automated emails to a lone user. As that user, it’s up to you to unravel the mystery and ensure that Hacknet-OS doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Exploring the volatile nature of personal privacy, the prevalence of corporate greed, and the hidden powers of hackers on the internet, Hacknet delivers a true hacking simulation, while offering a support system that allows total beginners get a grasp of the real-world applications and commands found throughout the game.
Hacknet is available now on PC via Steam and the Humble Store. Mac and Linux versions were heavily requested after the announcement of the game and the developer is now working on supporting those platforms as soon as possible.
Hacknet’s Linux/Mac versions were made using FNA, a new reimplementation of the XNA framework. Hacknet is the debut title for FNA’s first official release, which will be available on Monday, December 21 at http://fna-xna.github.io/. “Given the UNIX-based nature of the game, it’s not surprising that the number one request we get is to add Linux support,” said Matt Trobbianni, developer of Hacknet. “Initially I thought this wouldn’t be possible given the game was developed in XNA and has some complex platform code, but with some help from Ethan “flibitijibibo” Lee and his FNA libraries, we’re excited to be able to bring the game to Linux and also Mac users.”
Launching for Windows PC’s in August 2015, close to 100,000 gamers have purchased Hacknet to date and it enjoys an overwhelmingly positive (>95%) user review rating on Steam.
Valve has a horrid track record of concealing literally anything from anyone ever, so it really ought not to come as a surprise that the time and some details of the next steam sale have been revealed. Shacknews broke the story that an image had leaked out of a PayPal advertisement telling the public the date of the start of the sale.
We also know there will be no flash sales again, just as with the autumn sale just a few short months ago. I however think this is a good thing, as the sale is quite broken when everyone just waits for the lowest price. I actually wrote about that very thing recently and personally im quite all right with the new format.
I remember a time when you couldn’t get computer games any way but by going out to Funcoland, or another store to buy them. In those days places like Funcoland had bargain bins, whole large bins full of games that were often rightly called shovelware. Most of these games would have fit right in on todays overcrowded indie game sphere, with the one difference that they had a box. Digital distribution has killed the bargain bin box, but not what lived inside it, it’s found a new home on Steam, and to a greater extent the twice annual steam sale.
Deep Discounts
As I peruse the current steam sale a title catches my eye “Angels Fall First” is an indie tactical, infantry, first person shooter, set in space, where you fly your ship in first person too. Whoa, that’s a mouth full, all of that costs 14.39 (20% off today!) and that’s just one example of hundreds. This one happens to be in early access and absolutely screams feature creep, but it still caught my eye. Why? Well it had the right price tag (for me <15$) a laundry list of features and a flashy splash image that was featured in today’s deals. It’s that kind of exposure that can mean a huge infusion of cash to a developer and major media coverage for an otherwise sleeper game. This has created a get rich or die trying type of culture in today’s indie game sphere where a game can go from being unknown to a major hit in just a few days, with no publisher or PR. The end result of this is that we get a lot of games that might not have ever seen the light of day going up on steam and getting a lot of sales during these twice annual times of deep discounts.
The Sale Now
Steam sales started out as something great. Twice a year Valve thanked their users by throwing them some pretty extreme sales on titles. The result was a great way to get your hands on games you might otherwise never play. It also had the perhaps unintentional side effect of giving huge boosts to several indie developers. The steam Green Tags have become legendary 20% 40% 70%, steam even has a tab for games under 10$ and games under 5$. The psychology of the sale keeps us buying, but is it really worth it? Its clear that Steam is playing its audience here. Steam knows at what price point people buy, and how much they have to discount a game to get it out the door in quantity. I remember the first time I saw a game on steam listed at 50% off, it was normally a 50$ game, and that green tag was just too much resist, despite having never intended to buy the game for various reasons, I put the game in my cart and bought it. Why? Because it was 50% off, I played about 20 minutes of the game and then got bored, never to play it again. It now sits in my library with literally hundreds of other 10$ titles that I buy on impulse because they are 10% off, and then install and play for 30 minuets or an hour then never touch again.
I don’t think cheap games have to be bad, I got more play time out of Terreria that almost any other game ever, and it’s been on sale for as low as 1$! I also have plenty of 60$ games in my library that haven’t been touched. It’s really a question of quantity and availability. I have over 300 games in my steam library and somewhere in the neighborhood of half of those have never been installed. Now you chalk a few of them up to things like the full Valve pack which I picked up on sale (40% off!) and humble bundles (2$ for 5 games?|!!?!?!) but a lot of those games I would never have if it wasn’t for the steam sales. The sum total of those games represents enough capitol investment to purchase lots of new computer parts, or invest elsewhere.
On the other hand, I also have some games I doubt I ever would have noticed if they hadn’t been on sale. Dungeons of dreadmore, Recettear, and Oblivion fall in to this category. In 2011 I purchased all three of these in various steam sales for <20$ total for all of them. All three of these games have >100 hours of play time in my library. They all together cost about 15$ during that steam sale. That same year (the same sale even) I also bought Supreme commander 2 (>30$ and also 40% off) and that game never even got installed. It’s a great good and a terrible evil. While I have a lot of games, the more games that I have it seems the less inclined I am to play some of them.
Quality vs Quantity
The quality of the sale has also decreased recently, the most prevalent games get 10% discounts and the smaller indies get larger ones. Im not sure im ever going to play Doorkickers, but you can bet I have it in my library. Why? Because in 2014 it was on sale for 5$ and I thought it looked kinda neat. Turns out its basically a mobile tactics game, and really not up my alley at all. If I had bothered to do any research like I would have if I had spent 20$ (the games MSRP) I would probably have known this and been fine and not bought it. Instead I saw a green price tag with -75% on it, and decided I need the game regardless of the content.
And so dear readers we arrive at our conclusion, and that is Caveat emptor (buyer beware) because Steam is an amazing platform for equalizing million dollar PR budgets and 0$ PR budgets. That of course creates an obvious problem. Those games with million dollar budgets also had three year (or longer) development cycles, whereas the others might have been put together in 6 months or 6 years, and not subjected to playtesting or quality control. Quality of the sale has also gone down as the number of sales has gone up. When you have 4 sales a year you have to find at least 4 sales worth of items to sell. While I appreciate the recent abolition of flash sales, which were clear bait to get you to come back to the sale as many times as possible, but I honestly think its time for Steam to evaluate how its running its sales, and maybe cut down to one a year.
Previously released on the Playstation 4 in September, indie game Zombie Vikings from Swedish developer Zoink Games is being released on Monday, December 7th for Steam. For those not familiar with the game it’s an entertaining adventure of up to four undead Vikings on a quest though Norse soil to retrieve Odin’s lost eye. With the Steam release coming around the corner, also comes a major update for the game, which will also be available for the PS4 later in the month. Among the updates are-
A unicorn pig named Oink for Single Player, which not only will accompany your viking, but also has the ability to carry items on it’s back and eventually strap a cannon onto it!
New Enemies
A weapon progression system where the player can unlock weapons by completing levels
Weapon improvements across the board, including special abilities for every weapon and stats in the store
Combat improvements including target hints, better damage stat tracking, mini health bars for enemies, and directly rolling
In addition to that, the Steam release will be including Steam Cloud Saving, and Steam Trading Cards.
The Steam version releases on December 7th at 7:00AM PST and includes the update for $19.99USD with a 20% launch discount for the first week, so if you’ve been wanting to get it, now’s the chance! In addition to that, a bundle containing DLC characters Frostbjörn and Raybjörn along with the game’s soundtrack will be available for $24.99USD.
Zombie Vikings will be available for purchase on Steam and is currently out for the Playstation 4
Many people find themselves regretting a spur of the moment steam purchase, knowing that that game will stay in the see-through grey text of a game that is not installed taking up space for the rest of time you have a Steam account. No more, Steam will now allow users to delete games. This option while it may seem frivolous is huge for many people who like to keep extremely organized and not have large gaps in their Steam library. I mean, how many of us have literally 100 uninstalled games we have 0 hours playing? Just me? oh…. well if like me you just cant resist a good sale this new feature might be a much wanted one.
The new feature was discovered by a Neogaf user and seems to functional right now. Removing games is a simple matter of choosing Help, Steam Support, selecting the offending game and banishing it into oblivion with the button labelled “I want to permanently remove this game from my account”. This is a far cry for the pervious method of even attempting to have games removed from the list which involved a ticket to steam support and a lot of hope and crying.
This is a review of Undertale that is 100% spoiler free. Reasons why are given in the review but I want you all to understand that this is a very difficult game to review because of this very reason. Almost any detail, even from the game’s own store page, can harm your first experience should you learn it. Knowing this, if you wish to not even risk reading this carefully written review then just know that my verdict is as follows; buy Undertale and play it as soon as possible.Read More
Gabe Newell is man who is known to eat. As reported by Eater Gabe it seems has now become interested in the world of cooking. Chef Steps is a well known gastronimic cooking channel on Youtube, they feature sous vide cooking, cooking with liquid nitrogen, and other hi tech tools. Chef steps produces a product line, the top of which is a sous vide machine called the “joule“.
Gabes intrest was piqued after he won a dinner prepared by Fat Duck founding chef and now ChefSteps CEO Chris Young, and ChefSteps’ Grant Crilly. The two are often features in the Youtubes channels videos, and the sous vide method of cooking is prominently used in the videos. Evidently the science based approach to cooking impressed the Valve CEO, as he is now investing in the company’s first product, going so far as to appear in their media to endorse it.
Says Newell: “They talked to me like a scientist, like an engineer, and this isn’t how I thought people in the cooking world talked. These guys are cooking nerds. And the science is super interesting. Their understanding of what’s going on in the experience of cooking resonated with my experiences in the world of creating entertainment. In the end, your target is the subjective experience of the consumer. You have to know all this hard stuff, but at the end of the day you have to have a really good connection with the inside of someone’s head to be good at it.”
Perhaps we can look forward to seeing a Chef simulator soon on steam, or perhaps the previously digital only platform will expand to sell physical items? Perhaps not, either way take a gander at the video below to get an idea of what Chef Steps is all about
Have you seen the trailer for the new Friday the 13th? I don’t mean the movie, which is due out next February from Paramount Pictures. I mean the game. Yes, there is a game on the way.
Like the 2009 film was kind of a modern retelling of the original 1980 film, this is also a modern video game retelling. Heck, the last Friday the 13th game was for the NES way back in 1989!
Mugen Souls Z the sequel to Idea Factory International’s 2012 turn based RPG is heading to Windows PC next week thanks to publisher Ghostlight. To celebrate the game’s release Ghostlight will be discounting all of the game’s previously console-only DLC and the game itself by 40% – pricing Mugen Souls Z at $19.99 USD during the week of October 22nd!
Mugen Souls Z tells the tale of a universe with seven inter-connected colorful worlds each with their own individual culture and aesthetic. With a ton of customization options, collectibles and levels to gain it seems like there will always be something to do.
Ghostlight provided the following list of features included in Mugen Souls Z:
Expansive worlds to explore: Travel freely on each world to explore and find treasures and items. Monsters are roaming the lands, so be cautious or fight them head-on and make them your subservient peons!
Free-roaming style battle maps: Use Combo attacks to execute spectacular moves with your allies! Destroy Crystals on the battlefield to activate Hyper mode!
Moe Kill: Execute the Moe Kill technique to enslave enemies and turn them into items by exploiting their weaknesses!
Customization: Create a full cast of characters! Customizable body parts, facial expressions, and job classes!
Duel in Dual Audio: Experience the game in either Japanese or English audio.
The PC release will also support steam cloud saving, achievements, a higher frame-rate and more resolution options when compared to the console version of Mugen Souls Z.
Idea Factory International’s third Hyperdimension Neptunia remake will make the leap to Windows PC on October 30th the publisher has announced. Rebirth;3 was previously released on the PlayStation Vita this past summer to many positive reviews. The game takes players back to the 1980s when there were less bits, very few cut-scenes and no online play.
Rebirth;3 features a combo system allowing you to string together up to 5 moves into a truly devastating blow. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the games features as provided by IFI:
You Can Tell From the Pixels With a fantastic 1080p resolution, experience the two dimensions like you’ve never seen before! Every slash, stab, and stomp will look better than ever!
+1 to Combos! Customize attack combinations with up to five moves, opening up a whole new array of ways to defeat your enemies! New Story!Play through new story and scenarios when someone else joins the Console War fray and refuses to play by the rules!
Bring a Dungeon Buddy! Stella’s Dungeon is back, and this time she can bring friends! Each is equipped with special skills that lend their support to Stella in her items quest, so choose wisely!
Remake in your Image! Modify the world of Gamindustri to your liking by creating “Plans” that alter dungeon treasures, enemy difficulty, and more!
Get Crafty! Customize powerful equipment that can unlock the true power of the CPUs, opening up a world of new skills for them to use!
Alongside the release announcement we’ve also got the minimum specs required to run Rebirth ;3 and they’re not too bad considering that this is a port of a PS Vita game. Here they are:
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7(64bit)
Processor: Core2Duo 2.66 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 10.x or OpenGL 3.3 or better graphics card with 1 GB RAM and support for v4 shaders
DirectX: Version 10
Hard Drive: 14 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Additional Notes: Caution: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5xxx, 1GB VRAM 5000 series may not work properly with this game.
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7(64bit) or later
Processor: 3GHz Intel i3 or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 10.x or OpenGL 3.3 or better graphics card with 1 GB RAM and support for v4 shaders
DirectX: Version 10
Hard Drive: 14 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Additional Notes: Caution: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5xxx, 1GB VRAM 5000 series may not work properly with this game.
For Old Honest Abe’s 18th birthday, the complete Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty video game soundtrack is being released by German record label Black Screen Records on 180 gram green vinyl!Currently available for pre-order, it will be released and shipped in late November. Coming in a full-coloured gatefold sleeve with RuptureFarms art by Raymond Swanland, with the soundtrack being composed, mixed, and mastered by Michael Bross.
Doesn’t it look amazing?
If that wasn’t enough for die-hard Oddworld fans such as myself, also included is not only an exclusive two-sided A2 poster, or that it includes official DLC downloads for Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee MP3 soundtracks, all that is shadowed by the fact that it includes Steam codes Oddword: New ‘n’ Tasty on PC, Mac, and Linux!
For anyone that wants to give a listen to the newly mixed version of Abe’s Moon on Oddworld’s Soundcloud channel. After giving it a listein, I feel like it really captures the mood from Oddword after playing the previous games long ago.
As far as pricing goes the regular black vinyl is priced €26, with the limited edition green vinyl is €28 and shipping running €12 additional per vinyl to the USA. A bundle for both will be €50 with €17 additional for shipping to the US. Fair warning though, the green vinyl edition is limited to only 500 copies, so those will most likely go quite fast for anyone who wants to order them!
Namco Bandai Games will be releasing the next entry in the Tales of series in Europe and North America later this month and to celebrate the upcoming western release the publisher has detailed some of the first downloadable content coming for Tales of Zestiria, and hey some of it is totally free!
Fans who purchase the game and register on either Bandai Namco’s VIP Corner in Europe or North America will gain access to an additional chapter titled Alisha’s Story which will expand the game’s single player story. The VIP Corner will play host to some free Mystic Artes as well, so make sure to grab those! There’s also a free theme available for PS3 players as well, sadly no such bonus for PlayStation 4 players.
In terms of paid downloadable content Namco Bandai will release several licensed cross-over costumes for your party members. The first of which is none other costumed inspired by the 1990s classic anime (and one of my personal favorites) Neon Genesis Evangelion. There will also be an Idolmaster cross-over costume pack available as well – complete with accompanying background music!
Here’s the full run-down from Namco Bandai Europe:
Additional Chapter: Alisha’s Story ( An additional quest available for free until 18/11/2015, available on the BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment VIP Corner)
Exclusive Mystic Artes for Mikleo, Lailah and Alisha available for free for all Tales of Zestiria buyers on the VIP Corner
When buying the game on PlayStation®3, players will unlock the same free theme offered to Japanese players for the Tales of 20th Anniversary. Meanwhile, PlayStation®4 owners will get an exclusive dynamic theme featuring Sorey, Rose, Mikleo and Lailah.
The legendary mecha license created by Hideaki Anno, Evangelion, will be represented through costumes for Sorey, Alisha, Lailah, Edna and Rose for the delight of European fans!
Idolmaster Costume Set: Dedicated outfits, attachments, unique battle voices and BGM for Alisha, Rose, Lailah and Edna!
More costumes will also be available from launch: including the Seaside Resort Costume Set & School Costume set.
We’ll have more on Tales of Zestiria as it approaches release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC (via Steam).
Daily Espada is the newest indie from Pedro Gabriel, pits an ordinary man against Brazil’s most bizarre and exciting fictional game show. Our hero will be given a sword and a gun and forced to fight against hordes of Brazil’s greatest mythological creatures in exchange for fabulous prizes. The sword gives our hero the power to transform in a super-sentai kind of way, donning a black suit with red accents that give you additional more powerful combos and a super ability. The gameshow’s rewards are fantastic, and will ensure our heroes family will be set for life.Read More
Tales of Zesteria the next entry in Bandai Namco’s Tales Of series is set to launch late next month and the publisher has updated their official blog with some PS3/PS4 /PC technical specifications. If you’ve been wondering how these three different versions may differ and are concerned about things like resolution, draw distance and frame-rate then this may be of interest.
In terms of resolution Bandai Namco confirmed that both the PS4 and PC version of Zesteria will run at 1080P with the PC version supporting all the way up to 4K! The draw distance will be doubled when comparing the PS3 and PS4 version and the PC build will have a “far” option allowing PC players to enjoy even more draw distance.
In terms of frame-rate all three versions are capped at 30 FPS to preserve the flow of combat. As Bandai Namco’s blogpost explained:
All versions of Tales of Zestiria will run at a constant 30 frames per second….. The Tales of battle system has always been an integral part of the gameplay experience, and changing the framerate proved to have profound consequences on things like: animation, balance, difficulty, and overall fighting mechanics tuning. We do this in the best interest for the players’ experience!
In terms of minimum specs Tales of Zesteria should run on rigs that are even quite a few years old with the minimum graphics card and processor being Circa 2009.
Warhammer 40K Regicide marries chess and the turn based combat of the Warhammer table top game. The core game play is chess like, but blended with previous entries in to the Warhammer strategy world it takes the brutal game play of Warhammer 40k Space Hulk and frame it on a chess board, mixing in a variety of fun non-chess mechanics, to get an satisfying Warhammer 40K experience.
Blood flies as my knight takes a pawn with a brutal finishing move that reduced the pawn to gore splattered heap. Bolters spit bullets at orks with that trademark sound, and chaos Magiks fly across the board. This is CHESS! But, chess in a brutal future where there is only warRead More
ailable for PS3 players as well, sadly no such bonus for PlayStation 4 players.
