PopCap Games, Inc.

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title="Permanent Link to Ultra Street Fighter 4 coming to PC in August">






A post on Capcom's official website reveals that Ultra Street Fighter IV will come to PC in August. Players who own Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition will be able to purchase it as an upgrade for $15 rather than at full retail price.



Because PC gamers have to wait longer for the release, Capcom is offering a special deal that includes the digital bundle and all previously-released costumes for the price of $30.



The new version introduces four new playable characters: Elena, Hugo, Poison, and Rolento. It also adds the Ultra Combo Double, Red Focus Attack, and Delayed Standing (we wrote about these changes in more detail, here). These may seem like minor tweaks to the casual player, but they are significant changes that competitive players need to study and grow accustomed to if they want to stay on top.



Unfortunately, the release schedule will not give PC gamers the opportunity to get acquainted with Ultra Street Fighter IV before the Capcom Cup event, which will be held on Dec. 14 near San Francisco, or the famous fighting game bonanza and tournaments of Evolution 2014, which will be held in Las Vegan on Jul. 11-13.



If you're one of these unlucky few and don't have a console to play on, Capcom also has a list of test locations where you can go and play Ultra Street Fighter IV.

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title="Permanent Link to Thief graphics technology detailed, makes use of “heavily modified” Unreal Engine 3">






A sly thief like Garrett needs the darkest shadows he can find. Thankfully, the team behind the upcoming Thief reboot has its sights set on cranking up the PC edition's visuals—shadows and all—according to an interview with Eidos Montreal's technical art director Jean-Normand Bucci at Dark Side of Gaming.



"The PC version will support all the graphical features of the next-gen consoles with numerous improvements, including even better anti-aliasing, higher resolution shadows and support for multi-monitor," Bucci said. "Thief on PC will also be amongst the first batch of games that support AMD’s new Mantle API for high performance graphics."



The minimum specs for the PC haven't been nailed down yet, but Bucci said Thief will make use of a "heavily modified version" of Unreal Engine 3 and includes a number of tweaks that are PC-specific. An FOV slider—super useful in a first-person game like Thief—and mouse sensitivity options are also set to be included, according to Bucci.



"We don’t apply acceleration or smoothing to our mouse based camera controls—we want you to have direct control of Garrett’s POV," he said.



Since both the next-gen consoles now share so much DNA with PCs, let's hope the visual appeal and interface control of un-modded, multi-platform games like Thief won't be as much of an issue as it sometimes has been in the past. And Thief has been looking gorgeous for a while now, even as there's been some thoughtful chin-scratching about how the latest entry in such a classic series will handle Garrett and his stealthy gameplay. If you're curious about how game has been playing, check out our recent hands-on. Thief releases February 25.

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title="Permanent Link to Train Simulator 2014 developer flagging negative Steam user reviews as “off-topic”">






Train Simulator 2014 has had a rocky start. Though we enjoyed our look at the alpha build, when the game properly launched in September many users complained about bugs and a hamhanded transition for Train Simulator 2013 players, who saw their achievements deleted and other technical hiccups. As Train Simulator’s players, known to be a devoted and niche audience, began to complain on the community Steam forums, those forums were unceremoniously wiped clean. It also appears that the developer began flagging negative Steam user reviews as “off-topic.”



In a post describing the issues, a redditor (who has since deleted their account) pointed to Train Simulator’s review tab, where the user reviews marked “most helpful” have been flagged as off-topic by the developer. Once flagged, a review is still visible but appears collapsed, and must be expanded to be read. In the content of many of these reviews, there is no mention of the dispute over forum moderation. Instead, flagged reviews are from veteran players with hundreds of hours in the game warning others about patchy AI or expensive DLC.



According to Steam’s announcement of the user review system, developers can’t delete reviews of their products, but flagged reviews will remain partially hidden until a Steam moderator deletes the review. While a moderator might simply remove the flag if they find no cause, the moderation process and its timeline is not transparent. After news of this situation hit the front page of r/Games, a moderator has since removed the off-topic flags from the affected reviews. Without this level of publicity, though, there’s no way to know how long or what result these flags would have had.



It should be noted that Steam user reviews are still very much in beta—the system launched barely two weeks ago—so this situation could be worked out with time. Neither Valve nor RailSimulator, the developer of Train Simulator 2014, responded to requests for comment on this story.

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title="Permanent Link to DayZ Standalone developer says early access alpha will be rough">






DayZ standalone developer Dean Hall says in a forum post that buying early access to DayZ on Steam will be disappointing for those wanting a complete experience. "It's a true-blue alpha," he writes. "So I really plead for anyone who is on the fence to take a skeptical approach—watch streams, read reviews, watch some let's play and form your opinion. You could always come back to the game in three, six months time and buy it then."



Our expectations and understanding of "alpha" and "beta" builds of games changed drastically over the past few years. Whereas these used to be much cruder versions of the game seen and used strictly internally, they now often act more like demos. Developers may be stress testing their game with a lot of these betas, but in reality they wouldn't make them so wildly available if they weren't pretty confident in the game at its current state. I spent almost 50 hours with the Battlefield 3 "beta," for example, and my experience with it was practically indistinguishable from the experience I had with its retail release.



People who purchase early access to DayZ Standalone on Steam, Hall warns us, should not expect a similar experience.



On the other hand, as Hall explains, if you're actually interested in the development process, and not just the finished product, the DayZ Standalone early access might be really interesting to you. "To enable a smooth launch, we really are targeting it at a core audience who want to get deeply involved in a very barebones experience that is a platform for future development."



Sadly, Hall still didn't give an exact date for when we should expect DayZ Standalone's early access release on Steam. We await it bated breath, and commend those gamers curious and brave enough to play it in its nascent, alpha state. You will not crash to desktop in vain, we hope.



Hall also shared a bunch of technical details about the progress he and his team have made in the past month. You can find that information here.

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title="Permanent Link to Next Car Game hands-on: reducing racers to wrecks in Bugbear’s FlatOut follow-up">






You'd have to be an archaeologist - or perhaps a doting mother - to look at my car and say it had ever been roadworthy. It's been mashed down to two wheels, and what's left of the chassis looks more like a glitch than the rumbling muscle-beast I kicked off Next Car Game's tech demo driving. Brilliantly, as broken as it is, it's still attempting to act like a car. I can gun the engine and move this lump. It's a cruel mockery of damage modelling. Just look at this video to see for yourself.







The tech demo I'm toying with provides a glimpse of the engine that will power Next Car Game, an as yet un-named spiritual successor to FlatOut. It's given to those who pre-ordered the game in the series of funding grabs (pre-orders now the Kickstarter failed), and it's exactly what you'd expect from Bugbear's twisted metal minds. It's a goal-free playground filled with destructive toys. There's a hammer that pounds the ground, there are poles that spin around like drunken boxer, and best of all there are grinders. Put me and some suicidal AI in this sort of arena and I can put the car in "carnage".



The cars appear sturdy, but the smallest bump will gleefully tear metal and flip them over. Harder hits will crumple wheels and compact front-ends, leaving a surprisingly functional vehicle underneath an otherwise wrecked, stubbed body. You just have to accept that this will happen, because the AI has no fear. They smash and crash with an admirable single-mindedness no matter what state they're in. I was looping around the outside of the arena, just to get an overview of what to do. I watched as an impromptu destruction derby was taking place between the rest of the cars, occasionally glimpsing a smash through a haze of grey smoke and tumbling car parts. When I thought it was safe to drive back in, I was nudged by one of the AI's cars - now just a wheel with a small block of non-Euclidian metal on top. It was gently pushing at me, attempting to ram me in a sad echo of its former glory. I guess it had succumbed to the attentions of one of the three grinders in the level, the largest of which is a pair of spinning, spiked cylinders that gobbles up cars, but doesn't quite eat them alive. As long as the resulting out has a wheel that touches the ground, what's left can still drive.







The rest of the level is a bit less brutal, but no less spectacular. There's a pachinko board that you launch the car into. You hit the bottom with considerably less car than you started with, and all those torn bits come tumbling down after you. There's a giant mallet will pound you flat, there's a cannon that spits you out at speed towards a stack of barrels. It's a sandbox of mayhem while a destruction derby takes place. And the AI seems to enjoy it: when they're not aiming sideswipes at you, or crashing into each other, they'll head straight for the jumps and toys. In another game, their lack of self-preservation might seem stupid, but in this setting it makes them almost human. They're doing what every player would when he sees a device that bats cars into piles of boxes.



Still, there's a few flubs in this early tech. The camera is pretty bad, and tends to lurch about when the car is tossed around, and the car's slight floatiness and steering means you need a delicate touch to keep in control. There's also no end-game, so all you have is carnage. There's no customisation, selections, or other tracks to play with yet. It is an early peek, after all. Whatever it becomes, and whatever it's eventually called, it's already really enjoyable.

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title="Permanent Link to Corsair Carbide Air 540 chassis review">






Now, this is my kind of companion cube. Those fluffy plushies do nothing for me, give me something like the Corsair Carbide Air 540, which will happily house a raft of high-performance graphics cards and be my Battlefield 4 enabler at crazy-high resolutions.



The cuboid dimensions of this $140 chassis may make it seem like a hilariously large PC case, but despite the extra width it’s actually a fair bit shorter and more shallow than a good selection of proper mid-sized towers.



That’s because the Air 540 has ghettoised your PC’s components. Segregating the components is a smart move because it has allowed Corsair to shift the placement of the PSU and drive bays, cutting down the height and depth of the case.



On the left is all the beefy stuff, like graphics card and mobo, and on the right, hidden away, are all your drives and power supply. This means there’s little clutter around the key components, the ones most likely to be generating a significant amount of heat and therefore most in need of good spacing and decent airflow. A pair of front-mounted 140mm intake fans, and another 140mm at the rear help out here.



As well as being a pretty darned functional form factor it’s also an absolute joy to build a big gaming rig into. Unfettered access to the motherboard's surroundings makes it a doddle to drop components in and out. Huge cutouts on the partition wall between the two compartments mean fitting CPU cooler backplates is simple, and cables can be routed neatly around the back.



The Corsair Air 540 is also pretty modular too. If, like me, you’re sick and tired of optical disk drives taking up unnecessary space in your PC you can pluck out the drive bays. There’s also a quad-bay 2.5-inch drive caddy on the right hand side you can remove too.



On the left side, in the base below the motherboard, are a pair of hot-swappable 3.5 / 2.5-inch tool-free drive bays. The SATA data and power plugs are built into the barrier between the different side of the case making the drives easy to slide in and out if need be.



There's even a funky silver option too



Corsair has done a mighty fine job designing the Carbide Air 540. It may be a little chunky when you’re used to thinner mid-tower cases, but they seem to have considered everything. I haven’t had as much pleasure putting together a new machine as I have building into the Air 540 and that’s down to just how hassle-free the whole process is made when you’ve got room to build.



It’s a blessed relief having ripped whole butcher’s shops worth of flesh from my poor hands over the years building PCs. Especially in the last few months of battling with mini-ITX machines.

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title="Permanent Link to The Wolf Among Us Episode 2 is “close to completion”, release date to be announced after holidays">






I've not yet played the first chapter of The Wolf Among Us, but, having enjoyed The Walking Dead, I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into another quality adventure. And it now looks like I'll have the entirety of the Christmas break to catch up. In an update to their community, Telltale have announced that the episodic game's second chapter, titled Smoke & Mirrors, is "now close to completion". Despite that, they won't have an update on the chapter's ETA until "very soon after the holidays".



"We know many of you are anxious to see where Bigby's story goes next," write Telltale, "and the dev team is hard at work finalizing our live development process on the upcoming episode, Smoke & Mirrors. At Telltale, we always aim to deliver quality content across the season at a pace that will keep you glued to your screen and talking about 'your story' as the season progresses."



As a teaser for that episode, they've released the following new screenshots:











"We wanted to thank everyone for playing the first chapter in The Wolf Among Us," Telltale continue, "and ask for your patience as the team works very hard this month to finalize what is shaping up to be another episode full of surprises. We're anticipating another update on its ETA for release very soon after the holidays, and we couldn't be more excited to continue this series with all of you."



Meanwhile, the studio's other series, The Walking Dead, is, according to an updated Steam page, due to start its second season on the 17th December.

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title="Permanent Link to Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed is also having a free weekend on Steam">






Your choices for free gaming this weekend are numerous, incorporating everything from massive free-to-play timesinks, to cool and compelling browser games. Your choices for free gaming with purchasable games on Steam are slightly narrower. Of them, War of the Vikings is the obvious choice, what with it featuring burly man smacking each other about the head with sharp implements. But also check out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, because - against all odds - it's pretty flipping good.



In one of the weirder super-jumble multi-franchise crossovers, Sonic, a selection of other excitable animals, that girl from Space Channel 5, Football Manager from Football Manager, the anthropomorphic embodiment of Russian winter and some characters from TF2 race along tracks inspired by games like Panzer Dragoon, After Burner and The House of the Dead. Also your vehicles will frequently transform into other vehicles. Also you can shoot bees.



It's genuinely quite weird, but also a solid and enjoyable karting game. Our review - which was unfortunately never published on the web - gave it an 85%, and having played it a bit over lunch, I can sort of see why.



In addition to the free trial, the game is also 75% off during the course of the weekend, reduced to £3.75 / $5.



At the very least, it's worth a try, if just to see the Heavy firing remote control drones at Alex Kidd.

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title="Permanent Link to Eldritch to get free Mountains of Madness expansion later this month">






The first few seconds of this trailer for Mountains of Madness might be enough to convince you that Eldritch's upcoming free DLC will be a happy, Christmas-themed adventure. After all, penguins are too ridiculous to be scary, even in a first-person stealth roguelike. Of course, when the ice of the winter wonderland clears, we're instead left with darkness, evil and creeping dread. An apt metaphor for a family engorged on sprout-heavy Christmas dinners? Probably not.



Beyond the trailer and accompanying screenshots, details of the expansion's added content are thin. What we do know is that this Arctic horror will arrive on the 19th December.

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title="Permanent Link to Neverwinter’s Shadowmantle module is now live, bringing a new class and campaign">






What is Shadowmantle? Well sure, it's the second "module" for Neverwinter. But what is Shadowmantle. A dark corruption of the Earth's undersurface layer, ineffectually oozing its evil plans? The ominous, Sun-blocking dread of a giant flying mollusc's dorsal body wall? An unholy pollution of any of the other things listed on Wikipedia's disambiguation page? Ah, having looked at the feature list, it's the name of a boss, as well as the billowing cloak of darkness that marks them out as being Proper Evil. That makes more sense, even if I still think hovering death squid would be far scarier.







That feature list in full:





"Hunter Ranger playable class: This new class is deadly from afar and has incredible damage capabilities up close as well. Log in and play as one now!

"Hunter Ranger Booster Pack: This pack is now available for purchase in the Zen Market. Get a head start on your new Hunter Ranger!

"Dread Ring Campaign: Enter the Dread Ring and encounter new foes. If you survive, you'll be able to face Valindra Shadowmantle herself.

"Active Companion Bonus System: Each active companion will grant bonuses for your character giving you an extra edge in combat!

"Collections System: Track all of your existing loot and hunt for new loot, including missing set items, with this system.

"New Paragon Paths for existing classes: New skills are now available for existing classes! Which path will you choose?

"Artifacts System: This new item type is now added to Neverwinter. These items will become permanent fixtures for your character, and will be able to level up and get more powerful as you advance.

"Sword Coast Adventures (coming very soon!): Send companions out to complete tasks to earn rewards and gain companion experience, all through the Neverwinter Gateway!

"Item Progression System: Read more about changes and improvements to the fusing system in Neverwinter."





The expansion is now live for the free-to-play MMORPG, which is itself now available on Steam. Also on Steam is an exclusive Starter Pack, which comes with a variety of boosts and consumables, and a magic panther.