Rogue Trooper is a 2006 third-person shooter based on the comic 2000 AD. Rebellion, its original developer, is collaborating on Rogue Trooper Redux with UK studio TickTock Games. Today's announcement notes it's the first time a team outside of Rebellion will work on a 2000 AD game.
Redux "will remaster the Rebellion classic for a new generation of players, taking them to the chem-blasted battlefields of Nu Earth," reads the press release. "Rogue, a bio-engineered Genetic Infantryman (or 'GI') immune to the planet's poisonous atmosphere, is the last soldier standing against the colonial Nort regime. Carrying three fallen comrades as biochips in his equipment, Rogue is a one-unit squad of death and destruction, and he only has one thing on his mind: revenge."
There's no word on exactly what's being changed or updated in this remaster, nor do we know when it's coming or how much it will cost. We'll report back as more details are announced.
DICE's well-received 2010 FPS Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is currently half off on multiple platforms, with its Vietnam expansion completely free on at least one system.
The Bad Company 2 discounts might be available on PlayStation 3, too, as the game is currently listed for $10. We'll report back with more details on this and more deals as the PlayStation Store refreshes today.
Bad Company 2's Vietnam expansion includes four maps based on locations from the Vietnam War, as well as 15 weapons and six vehicles from it. There is also music of the time, including Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," the lyrics of which are about the Vietnam War.
Ubisoft and James Cameron teamed up for an Avatar game that was a prequel to the director's 2009 sci-fi action movie. Now, Ubisoft is again working on another game based on the series. The new Avatar game is in development at The Division studio Ubisoft Massive; the game will run on that developer's proprietary engine, Snowdrop.
The new and untitled Avatar game is coming to unspecified consoles and PC; it is described as being "cutting-edge," though no details were provided about this. A teaser video has been released, featuring commentary from people at Ubisoft Massive and Cameron himself. Note that everything you see in the movie is from 2009's Avatar, not the new game; no gameplay footage has been released.
Little is known about the new Avatar title, apart from the fact that it is set on Pandora from the movie series. Four sequels are in the pipeline, and Ubisoft said it is working alongside Cameron's film company, Lightstorm Entertainment, and Fox Interactive on a game that will "continue to expand and deepen in the Avatar universe in exciting and innovative ways along with the films."
"James Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment changed the way we think about immersive storytelling with the first Avatar, and the ambition that they have for the forthcoming films and this game is really inspiring," Ubisoft Massive managing director David Polfeldt said in a statement. "It's a privilege to work with them and we're honored that they've entrusted us to create an experience worthy of the Avatar name."
Ubisoft pitched this Avatar game to Cameron and Lightstorm with an "early game prototype," though there was no mention of what this prototype contained. Whatever the case, Cameron sounds excited.
"What impressed me about Massive were the group's passion for this project and the power of its Snowdrop engine," the director said in a statement. "I believe Ubisoft's team at Massive Entertainment are absolutely the right partners to bring the beauty and danger of Pandora to life."
Sony has launched a new promotion offering some incentives to subscribe to or extend your PlayStation Plus membership right now.
Buying 12 months of Plus through the US PlayStation Store at regular price ($60) will net you three additional months of Plus, as well as a three-month subscription to Showtime. The Showtime portion of the deal is only available to new Showtime subscribers and is offered through Sony's TV streaming service, PlayStation Vue.
This offer is available from now through the end of March. It's limited to one per person, so you can't buy multiple subscriptions in the hopes of receiving multiple sets of bonus months to Plus or Showtime. It presumably stacks with the ongoing spend $100, get a $15 credit offer, which expires at the end of today, February 28.
Sony says on the PlayStation Blog that this offer is valued at $112. That's perhaps a bit misleading, as you can frequently purchase a Plus membership for less than its regular price. But with the combination of extra months and Showtime--a channel that will soon get a lot more attractive with the return of Twin Peaks--it's a solid deal.
As long as you're a member by next Tuesday, February 7, you can claim February's free Plus games, which include LittleBigPlanet 3 on PS4. They'll be replaced that day by March's games, which should be revealed soon.
Full discloure: Showtime is a division of GameSpot parent company CBS.
EA and DICE have announced details of all four upcoming Battlefield 1 expansions, available as individual purchases, or as part of the game's $50 Premium Pass.
The first expansion "They Shall Not Pass" gives players the chance to play as the World War 1 era French army, fight across four French maps, and take control of the Char 2C tank, the game's newest behemoth class vehicle. A lot of info has already been released on this first expansion, as well as a series of videos posted from expansion content available on the Community Test Environment.
The second expansion is called "Name of the Tsar," in which players will take control of the Russian army and ride "with the legendary Hussars," taking part in the historic Brusilov offensive and Albion assault.
The third is "Turning Tides," which has a naval focus. A new destroyer and coastal class airship will be available, and players will take part in the Zeebrugge raid, and storm the beaches of Gallipoli.
Finally, the "Apocalypse" expansion will include "the most infamous battles of WW1," and introduce the "brutal tools and unique weapons born out of desperation and deadlock," so look forward to a chance to descend even further into the hell of war.
Those that commit to the Premium Pass will receive all four expansions, including two weeks of early access as they're released, priority server access, and 14 superior-level battlepacks full of in-game cosmetic unlocks.
In other Battlefield 1 news, the game recently took home the Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design award at the 2017 DICE Awards, as well as seven other nominations.
Following the release of the Turok remaster in 2015, a remastered version of the sequel, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, now has a date--and it's soon. Developer Nightdive Studios announced today that the game will launch on March 16 for Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store.
A new trailer has also been released and can be seen below.
Seeds of Evil, an FPS in which you play as a dinosaur-slayer named Turok, was originally released for the Nintendo 64 and reportedly sold more than 1 million copies.
The Seeds of Evil remaster contains everything from the original, along with new "grotesque" bosses and 20 new weapons. One of these is the Cerebral Bore, which can drill into skulls to send brain matter flying. A new game mode, Last Turok Standing, is also added in the remaster. This is a multiplayer mode that lets players fight to the death for an "even more visceral gaming experience."
Seeds of Evil is playable at the Game Developers Conference this week at the Intel booth.
Not unlike when Sony allowed fans to vote for a PlayStation Plus game, the company has announced a new initiative in the US where you can help decide which games are discounted on the PlayStation Store.
Voting continues until tomorrow, March 1, with the winner set to be announced this Friday, March 3. One of the two games will then go on sale for the weekend, which will see the price of Final Fantasy XV drop to $36 or The Ezio Collection to $30.
Subsequent votes will start on the Monday of each week over the next month. This campaign is based on one that's been run by Sony in other regions.
Separately from this, the newest round of weekly PSN deals should be arriving later today. We'll report back once those are live; in the meantime, you can check out our roundup of the best of the weekly ads.
Elon Musk's space travel company, SpaceX, announced this week that it will fly two citizens around the moon next year, marking the first time anyone's gone to deep space in more than 45 years. In a news release, SpaceX said two "private citizens" approached the company and paid a "significant despot" for the space flight.
"Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration," SpaceX said. "We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year.
The company added that others have come forward to express a "strong interest" in a trip around the moon and more are expected to follow.
SpaceX went on to thank NASA, which paid for most of the funding for the company's Dragon 2 rocket, calling the government group a "key enabler for this mission." SpaceX works with NASA to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.
The rocket headed beyond the moon will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center's famous 39A Pad, which is the same one that NASA used for its lunar missions in the '60s.
"This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years, and they will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them," SpaceX said.
By Anonymous on Feb 28, 2017 09:30 pm Can Sniper Elite 4 make you think twice before pulling the trigger? Dave takes a look at the hidden morality behind shooting men in the testicles.
With any crowdfunded project, there is a certain degree of skepticism. Will the developer deliver on their promises? Will the final product be any good? Will there even be a final product?
The game's developer, Playtonic Games, is a new, independent studio, but it contains a few familiar faces. Much of the company's talent is made up of ex-Rare employees, and this is a note that the group leaned on significantly during Yooka-Laylee's Kickstarter campaign, claiming the project would be a "3D platformer Rare-vival."
To find out how the project was coming along, we recently spent some time playing the game and interviewing the band behind the Banjo.
GameSpot: Did you ever worry about how to balance Yooka-Laylee for hardcore Banjo-Kazooie fans and newcomers, and meeting expectations of backers?
Andy Robinson, writer and comms director: Yes and no. One of the key features we wanted to put into the game is the expandable worlds, and that naturally helps appeal to different audiences. One of the big focuses of this game is we wanted to put a lot of player choice into it, and empower players to make their own decisions in how they take a route through the game. Even watching media guys today play the game, you could see that everyone was at a completely different section. Some people decided to go straight to the second world. Some people decided to expand the first world, make it bigger, and just hoover up all the collectibles.
In that way, if you're looking for more of a laid back experience, where you play through in a linear fashion and see lots of different cool environments, you can do that, but if you're a completionist, and you want to hoover up absolutely everything, you can expand the worlds and go through in that fashion.
We've said we're going to make a Banjo-Kazooie-style game and that's where we got all our Kickstarter backing from. But at the same time, we don't want to just be stuck in the past.
Steve Mayles, character art director
There's [also] not been a game like this for a long time. We think that just by that fact that there's a whole new audience out there who have perhaps never played a game like this, never discovered a game like this before--we're quietly optimistic that it will find a new audience just because of that. Even from the fact that there's no HUD, there's no big mini-map telling you where to go. There's no imposing nav arrow, waypoint arrow, telling you, "Here's the challenge." You are free to explore and discover the game at your own pace, which is a rare thing in games today.
Steve Mayles, character art director: It's a fine line to tread really because on the one hand, we've said we're going to make a Banjo-Kazooie-style game and that's where we got all our Kickstarter backing from. But at the same time, we don't want to just be stuck in the past because like you say, that's not going to bring it to new audiences. So we have tried to add in a few elements that weren't seen in their games.
Gavin Price, studio head: We've tried to be as inclusive as possible. We've got the co-op mode in there as well [for] people new to the genre. That was based off a lot of feedback we had from people who had played the old games and wanted to get their kids into this type of game. So we thought, what if we have a kind of hand holding co-op mode that gives families an easy choice to make in terms of, well we could buy this game, we know how to play it. We can slowly show, our kids can be involved as we're playing it and then hopefully they get to take over and become the main driver.
How does the co-op work?
Price: When you have a second controller, you control the B Team, which is a team of bees. They can basically help out Yooka and Laylee. Their storyline is they're a bit angry at [main villain] Capital B giving bees a bad name so they're here to sort that out. They can do things like pause and hold platforms for you, get out of reach Quillies [one of the game's currencies], grab and hold onto and then dispense butterflies for energy as and when the player needs it. It's very much a kind of assistant mode. And the B Team we think will be back in other games as well, and hopefully they'll have expanded roles. Something we talked about once we'd developed the B Team--we thought it'd be great like how you saw in old cartoons, you saw a swarm of bees create shapes and do things, so we think they could come back in future Playtonic games, where you might see the B Team create the shape of a hammer and then you can use it to help.
The B Team and another character, Trowzer Snake, seem perfect examples of the game's humour.
Price: The humour throughout is something that purely reflects the type of people we are when we're making the game--it reflects our personalities. It's kind of a key thing that you don't see so much of in large-scale video games these days--they don't have chance to let a developer's personality come out in humorous ways, they kind of have to play things a bit straighter and by-the-book for fear of overstepping the mark. Hopefully we don't overstep any marks, we just stay the right side of it. But it's brilliant to have that creative freedom--it happens quite naturally during office discussions. Someone will say a joke and we'll find a way of re-contextualising it and getting it in the game somehow.
With our history as well, we kind of had a reputation for trying to get content in under the radar. When we all worked at Rare and Rare were part of Nintendo and [then] Rare were part of Microsoft, we kind of made a rod for our own back. Everything we did was put under the microscope and looked at, and even stuff that was completely innocent, people said, "Hang on, are you trying to say something here?" and it's like "no, no, it literally is what it is." Being completely independent again it's up to us to decide how far to push things and what goes in. But a lot of us have mellowed a bit; we've all become family men now, and I know Steve Mayles got a bit of [abuse] off his wife when she first saw Trowzer Snake, which to the rest of us made it even funnier--that was the funniest thing about the character was the fact that Steve was going home and getting earache off his wife!
What's it like going down the Kickstarter route rather than working with a big publisher like Nintendo or Microsoft like you have done in the past? Do you feel the backers' pressure?
Price: We've got 70,000-plus bosses is what we say inside the studio. And it's good. We're really, really lucky that from day one every fan we've seen commenting on it, there's so much alignment between the type of game and personality they are and we are as developers. Spookily, there's been quite a few instances of stuff mentioned by fans on forums literally moments after we were saying the exact same thing in the office regards a game feature, a character, a potential future project and we start looking around saying, "Hang on, is our office bugged?" We've moved offices four times just to make sure!
We're really lucky with having that community along for the ride with us and they're just eerily aligned to the way we think already. Perhaps it's that we're familiar in a sense through the old games and that's great to have.
It definitely feels like there's a sense of getting the Rare family back together to make this game.
Price: When we're making content as long ago as 20 years ago together, we had a way of working with each other which just worked and brought the best out in us. Since then we've had a lot experience and learned how to improve and bring other elements into our development. It was like having a family. You could say anything to each other and say anything about the game and no one would take offense and it was all, "Yep, I see what you're saying, let's do this." There's such a strong commitment from everyone to continue raising the bar internally. It's exactly like that again now.
The funniest thing about Trowzer Snake was the fact that Steve was going home and getting earache off his wife!
Gavin Price, studio head
It really was, I think the way the industry went it kind of helped us by creating with factors outside of our control. A set of circumstances that meant guys like us could come back together and give it another go at being able to develop how we want to develop on content we want to develop. Things like Kickstarter, the independent game development scene, digital distribution, they've all just come together, but often experiences and genres perhaps being overlooked by companies in pursuit of bigger revenues leave really good gaps for nimble folk like ourselves who can be really creatively led to go into it. Saying, "Hey, we love making that type of game, there's plenty of people asking for it, we don't need 100 million dollars to do this." We don't have a fancy office in San Francisco. [We have] four rooms and a roof over our heads in Stoke-on-Trent.
Mayles: There's no egos, because we've all worked together in various capacities over the years. It's quite a flat hierarchy at Playtonic. So there's no one saying, "I'm in charge of characters. That one's shit, redo it." There's none of that rubbish. So it's just a pleasure to work with these guys, and I think they're all much more talented than me. It's just a pleasure to work with them all.
Andy, you didn't work with the original team; what was it like coming in and joining what was a pre-established team and family?
Robinson: It impressed me how much comes natural to those guys. People like Chris Sutherland, our lead gameplay programmer, these guys do this stuff in their sleep. It's a culture. It really is a culture. It's the whole reason that the company was formed, is because they wanted to return to what they had in the 90s, where it was basically ... There's no imposing structure. There's no line manager. There's no big design doc saying, "You can do this. You can't do that."
It's quite a flat hierarchy at Playtonic. So there's no one saying, 'I'm in charge of characters. That one's shit, redo it.'
Steve Mayles
They all know each other. They've worked for each other a long time. They trust each other. You're trusted to go, "I want a character like this," go make it. Go and animate it. They'll go from concept to creating the model to animating it, it's in the game, which is very rare today. That would probably be five people involved in that. That's probably what impressed me the most. Chris as well, being able to just ... He'd spend months controlling a cube [rather than an animated character] for this game. He'd get the cube fun to run around with. Then that's when [he'd] actually replace it with a character. It's like a science. Watching him is like watching bloody Beethoven.
The group that we've put together during the course of this game ... When we did the Kickstarter, we were seven people. I think we're 22 now. Some of those guys joined after we'd pretty much done the game as well. We made this game with I think an average of 15 people in less than two years, which is also incredible. It's because they know what they're doing. This is their bread and butter. The group that we have put together through the course of this game, personally, is very, very exciting. With people like Justin Cook, who joined us recently, who designed Viva Piñata, and Gary Richards, who designed every single handheld game that Rare did, it's exciting for the future as well.
How do you modernize a game like Banjo-Kazooie for a modern audience? Did you even want to modernize it at all, given many backers are simply wanting a sequel to those games?
Robinson: Obviously, the mandate for this game is that we would make a spiritual successor to the games that a lot of our team worked on in the past. We did have a mandate. The second is that we intentionally spent a lot of time on look and feel. There are a lot of things in the gameplay that we did to try and modernize the genre. Player choice is something that we thought was very important, because all games today give the player a lot of choice on how they experience it. It was important that tonally it felt right, and presentation is obviously front and center to that.
It impressed me how much comes natural to those guys. They do this stuff in their sleep.
Andy Robinson, writer and comms director
That's why we spent a lot of attention to detail in things like the font, which we had made completely custom for the game. It's big, and it's loud. Even the gobbledygook speak--which [composer] Grant Kirkhope and our programmer, Chris Sullivan, made for the Banjo-Kazooie games--recreating that, even that's a long process. You'd be surprised that you have to make sure that the sounds don't go below a certain pitch, or over a certain pitch. It's very, very complex to do that, but we thought it was worth it. We thought that players would appreciate that.
Do you think you can push the genre forward with Yooka-Laylee in the same way you did before?
Price: I think there's room to do that, especially within a sequel. I think the first thing we had to do was deliver on our promise to Kickstarter backers that this is a game that's gonna be familiar to you in cool ways and if you like those, you know you're gonna like this experience. I think then, as a company, if we return to 3D platforming in the future, which I'm sure we will at some point, the challenge is then on us to take it another step further and really push harder and try riskier stuff without breaking what people already love. That's a really exciting challenge. We think we may have an answer lined up for it but there could be one, two, four, five games between now and that point. We're open to existing in any genre. We don't want to be a company just defined by a single genre.
[UPDATE] Walmart has now confirmed that it will also have Nintendo Switch units available for walk-in shoppers at launch on Friday, March 3. 24-hour Walmart Supercenters will start selling the consoles at 12:01 AM local time on March 3. For stores that are not open 24 hours, Walmart said it advises people to call their local store to find out when units will be available to buy.
The original story is below.
The Nintendo Switch launches this Friday, March 3. Preorders for the console are sold out basically everywhere. However, if you're in the market for the system, you may still have a chance to get one for launch.
According to WWG, retailers Target and Best Buy have now confirmed that they will have some amount of units available at their stores for walk-in shoppers on launch day or via midnight release events. GameStop, too, will offer systems for walk-in shoppers, the retailer announced last week.
Target will have Nintendo Switch stock available for walk-in shoppers starting at 8 AM local time on March 3.
Best Buy will open its stores at 12:01 AM on March 3. People can buy the Nintendo Switch itself, as well as games and accessories. Additionally, the store is giving out free Zelda posters while supplies last. You can find out if your local Best Buy is holding an event on this website.
"Kolin works behind the scenes in order to fulfill the Prophecy of Miraha and stop any who dare stand in Gill's way," reads a line from Capcom's description of her. "She is typically calm and collected, but can suddenly fly into a rage when anybody threatens Gill and his plans. Spoiler-alert, she resurrects Nash and uses him as a pawn too, showing she will do anything to achieve her goals."
Kolin uses the power of ice, which allows her fight with "deadly icicles" and "frigid blasts." Additionally, she makes use of the Russian martial art of Systema, which is all about using an opponent's momentum against them.
"She is often heard speaking condescendingly towards her opponents, knowing they don't stand a chance before her, let alone Gill," Capcom said.
Kolin's story, premium battle, and nostalgia costumes are also available today, February 28. You can see the costumes in the image gallery below.
Kolin is included with the Street Fighter V Season 2 Character pass, which sells for $30. This pass includes the first Season 2 DLC character, Akuma, as well as Kolin and four more coming later.
By Anonymous on Feb 28, 2017 08:30 pm Check out a bunch of spoiler-free tips and tricks for exploring, collecting, and engaging in combat in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Microsoft announced a new Xbox One subscription today, Xbox Game Pass. For $10/month, subscribers can play more than 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games (via backwards compatibility) as much as they want for as long as the title is available. The catalog will be refreshed on a monthly basis as games are added and others removed.
Microsoft has not yet announced the full lineup of games to start, though we do know about a handful of them. We've rounded those up here and will update this post with more as they are announced ahead of launch this Spring.
Xbox Game Pass is currently available for people in the Xbox Insider Program for testing (with a limited selection of titles) before its public rollout.
Microsoft says it aims to stock the Xbox Game Pass library with titles across a number of popular genres, including action, adventure, shooter, puzzle, strategy, and RPG.
In the market for a new Xbox One controller? Amazon has a pretty good deal going on right now that you may want to consider. The online store is selling white and black controllers for $40; they normally go for $60.
The discounted controllers are the new, Bluetooth-enabled ones that launched in August 2016 with the Xbox One S. They also have better wireless range and texture grips. The controller works with Xbox One, Xbox One S, Windows 10 PCs and tablets, and Project Scorpio when it comes out this year.
This does not appear to be a Deal of the Day item, but there is no word on when the offer may expire. Here are links to the product pages (via Kotaku):
Can Sniper Elite 4 make you think twice before pulling the trigger? Dave takes a look at the hidden morality behind shooting men in the testicles.
Check out a bunch of spoiler-free tips and tricks for exploring, collecting, and engaging in combat in Horizon Zero Dawn.
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