It sounds like we might be in for a long wait before we see another Deus Ex game, despite the fact that Human Revolution left plenty of plot threads to tie up. Eurogamer is reporting that the bulk of Eidos Montreal's resources are now focused on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the title of which leaked last October, while a smaller team is working on the Avengers project that was revealed last week, and still more are working on an unannounced Guardians of the Galaxy game.
This is largely because Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, despite much hype and coming off the success of Human Revolution in 2011, was not a big seller. And despite the need to address those plot threads, the two follow-on story DLCs are dedicated exclusively to stand-alone stories—one is about robbing a bank and the other, coming in February, is a prequel story about Adam Jensen's first mission with TF29.
The report was backed up by Kotaku, which said its own separate sources indicated the same thing: That Eidos Montreal is focused on Tomb Raider and Guardians of the Galaxy, and is lending a hand with The Avengers. That can't be good news for the future of the Deus Ex Universe, which Eidos Montreal boss David Anfossi described in 2013 as "an ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core games."
A Square Enix rep said the publisher had "no comment to make on this story at this time," but Eidos Montreal issued a statement to Eurogamer saying, "While we are still working on expanding the Deus Ex Universe, along with creating new content and updates for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, we're also devoting our talents towards working with Crystal Dynamics and Marvel on The Avengers project."
Want to make a perfect copy of your favorite pet dinosaur? You can now, thanks to Ark: Survival Evolved's patch 257, which adds a Tek Tier cloning chamber. Have your dino step inside, and what was one is now two. That's not the only Tek goodie the patch brings: there are also new sticky grenades, cybernetic armor for Megalodons, and auto-firing turrets. And don't forget, the volcano has been transformed into the "ultra-dangerous new cave" that leads to the Ascenion end-game system. Check out the trailer above.
New dinosaurs? Yep, four of them, including giant bees that produce (presumably giant) honey. There's also a stegosaurus-like creature, though it can't be ridden because it's covered in spikes, and something known as a "Hell Pig" that has a quick-healing attribute, making it difficult to tame. There's also a new sea creature called Liopleurodon Magicus that sounds a bit mysterious:
"...this mythical creature has been said to have the ability to reward the adventurous survivors who tame it, the special attribute of luck. Treasure hunting tribes who have encountered the beast have used this magic to obtain loot beyond their wildest dreams. You're probably wondering why these claims are tales, well it's said that the Lucky Liopleurodon's magic is so powerful, it cannot be kept under control, and after some time, it harnesses this power to get away."
Okay.
Other offerings: new hairstyles and facial hair, 15 new music tracks, 20+ new explorer notes, and some more tweaks to Ark's improved UI. When the patch goes live, players will also receive a perk for the weekend granting 1.5x harvesting, taming, and EXP rates. Have a look-see at some screens below, and read the full patch notes here.
The Long War 2 is great, but the modding community can make anything better. TLW2 is a total overhaul that affects almost all of XCOM 2's systems, which ought to make it hard to mod without causing conflicts. However, a useful Long War 2 compatibility list is being regularly updated on Reddit and there are dozens of mods worth subscribing to via XCOM 2's Steam Workshop.
As we're loading a bunch of criss-crossing mods at the same time, normal caveats apply. There's always a chance that conflicts could cause problems, so save regularly. Having said that, I've been playing with all these mods on alongside The Long War 2 and haven't experienced any problems. If you're looking to supplement your Long War 2 campaign, they should be a good bet. To install, simply follow the link to the Workshop page and click the green 'subscribe' button.
New enemies and maps
A Better ADVENT has already been updated to work with The Long War 2, adding even more alien variants to the enemy pool. Instead of raising the difficulty with super-hard monsters (there are quite enough of those in the game already), the mod focuses on giving the aliens a greater range of loadouts and behaviours. Expect baby Chryssalids, Sectoid soldiers and some funky new shades of ADVENT soldier.
In addition to new enemies, consider subscribing to some map mods to mix up terrain generation and introduce some extra challenge to the campaign. The More Maps Pack adds new layouts to terrain generation. Additional Mission Types is worth a look if you want some extra variations on some of The Long War 2's new scenarios. Avenger Events adds a few dilemmas specifically designed for The Long War 2.
Soldier customisation
The Long War 2 seems to work happily with mods that add new props to your armoury. Capnpub's Accessories Pack adds some excellent headgear, including berets and night vision goggles, that look completely suited to XCOM 2's aesthetic. If you prefer a futuristic look then Stenchfury's Modular Armor and Modular Helmets adds Mass Effect style gear with plenty of sleek surfaces and tiny lights. The armour mod also adds shoulder pieces such as the impractical but cool over-the-shoulder combat lamp. It's very Aliens. Also, as you can see above, you can give soldiers two sets of night-vision goggles for very dark nights.
These mods are all enhanced by the self-explanatory More Armour Colours mod. I love the simple Uniforms mod too, which simply lets you save outfits and apply them to new soldiers much more quickly. If you enjoy XCOM 2's multinational flavour then subscribe to the International Voices pack for extra Russian and Polish voices. Oh, and you naturally might want the Unlocked Customisation mod, which will low-level soldiers access all customisations as soon as you recruit them.
User Interface
XCOM 2's user interface is decent, but you can always have more data. Perfect Information displays hit, crit and dodge figures to attacks made by XCOM recruits and aliens in combat, which allows you to laugh at aliens that completely whiff a 90 percent shot. Additional Icons adds a collection of stats above alien health bars, displaying the damage of the enemy's primary weapon, their aim stat, movement range and health. There is also an icon that tells you whether an alien is carrying loot or not. This might feel like cheating, but you can toggle any of the stats off in the mod's .ini file.
There are a few small, frivolous mods that are worth a look. Mission Award Variety changes the awards that appear at the end of a mission—I particularly empathise with the "Hates Stun Lancers The Most" award. On the Avenger base view, Restored Avenger Navigation lets you pan the view with WASD again, rather than flicking between rooms.
Those are the best I've found so far. The Steam Workshop and XCOM 2's mod management interface makes it beautifully easy to flick these on or off in any combination, so experiment away. If you've found some good ones, do share them in the comments.
A high resolution texture pack will arrive as a free update for Fallout 4 next week, Bethesda announced. The announcement included a single screenshot, which you can see and enlarge above, plus a note that you'll need a smidgen of extra room for the texture pack: an additional 58 GB.
Your PC will also need to meet or exceed the recommended specs:
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7-5820K or better
GTX 1080 8GB/AMD Radeon RX 490 8GB
8GB+ Ram
If you try it and find your PC isn't up to the task, Bethesda says you'll be able to disable the texture pack through the game's launcher.
The PC Gamer Weekender will be an event for players of any style of game, from competitive strategy games to cutesy platformers. Yep, we’re bringing Yooka-Laylee to the stage.
The spiritual successor to Rare’s Banjo Kazooie (a console-only game, but don’t hold that against it), Yooka-Laylee was a huge Kickstarter success when it brought in plenty more cash than it asked for back in 2015—to the tune of £175,000 in 38 minutes and over £1,000,000 in 21 hours. People want this game.
Which is why we’re very proud to welcome Yooka-Laylee and Playtonic Games to the PC Gamer Weekender, where attendees will be able to discover more about the upcoming platformer in a special talk dedicated to the game ahead of its launch on April 11, 2017. It's currently available to pre-order Steam/GOG, for £34.99/$39.99/€39.99, and pre-orders grant players access to the Yooka-Laylee Toybox demo.
Yooka-Laylee will be shown alongside plenty of other attractions at the PC Gamer Weekender, which is being held February 18-19 at the Olympia, London, in the UK. For more details see the site, and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Tickets are available now from £12.99.
The Magma Chamber was planned to be one of the most expansive game modes introduced to League of Legends. Riot had originally shared their plans for a new Field of Justice back in 2010, as the development team wanted to explore new ways they could build upon the MOBA genre. The community was excited to explore the new volcanic arena, but after multiple teases the new map was cancelled and its development ceased. Here are all the details on a map that briefly saw the light before being condemned to the darkness of League of Legends history.
The lore
The volcanic Field of Justice was sculpted deep within an obsidian mountain by the Institute of War in order to create the League’s most intense arena. The Magma Chamber was built specifically to address the increasing number of disputes between Demacia and Noxus, while also stopping the violence from ravaging the surrounding land. Summoner’s Rift may be the most commonly used Field of Justice in Valoran, but the Magma Chamber was by far the largest.
Hot magma oozed and cascaded throughout the arena, which forced champions to work together when pushing toward the enemy nexus. The molten landscape also created many options for those who enjoyed planning their attacks, but because of the map’s size, coordinated team play was always essential to every victory. The League even prepared a host of new monsters that would inhabit the Chamber, and aimed to provide champions with their greatest challenge yet.
How it played
Magma Chamber was designed for 5v5 play, similar to Summoner's Rift, but it was intended to have a different feel and strategic approach. Unlike the Rift, which focuses on larger team fights in the mid to late game, Magma Chamber put emphasis on smaller, more tactical fights that required players to have excellent map awareness if they wanted to achieve victory in specific lanes. The map was much bigger than Summoner’s Rift and featured longer lanes that actively discouraged players from roaming round as a team. The sheer size of the map meant that players also had to rely on their own skills in 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 scenarios, as receiving support from a fellow teammate would be a much rarer occurrence.
A failed gank in Magma Chamber would waste a lot of time and had a greater impact on the outcome of the game. In Summoner’s Rift ganking has it risks, but you rarely lose multiple turrets when you’re roaming to help a fellow teammate. It was hoped that the increased risk would lead to greater strategy and coordination between players.
The map concept art shows that Magma Chamber featured four static teleportation pads located between the lanes. These pads weren’t designed with ganking in mind, but they did offer unique ways for players to quickly get back to their lanes and access key objectives. Riot had also planned a slew of new neutral jungle monsters that would buff the team who managed to successfully defeat them. Even League’s resident minions were going to be given a fresh new design to better reflect their new fiery surroundings. However, despite these additions, Magma Chamber still followed the same three lane formula of Summoner’s Rift.
Why it was cancelled
It’s speculated that Riot cancelled the 5v5 version of Magma Chamber as the mode didn’t fit all of the game’s various playstyles. For example, champions who greatly benefit from grouping up and supporting their team in 5v5 encounters would be at a major disadvantage. The huge emphasis on the solo lane would also force many players into picking strong carry champions and duelists, as they can win their lane without the fear of being ganked constantly. Magma Chamber had set out to create an entirely new meta, but in doing so it created one that punished more play styles than it encouraged.
After further testing, Riot decided that they wanted to create a new mode that would offer more features than just a bigger map with the same three lanes.
However, the original Magma Chamber concept wasn’t entirely scrapped, as Riot used it as a platform to find a new ways to evolve the MOBA genre. After thousands of hours of playtesting Riot came up with the game mode known as Dominion. Dominion delivered fast-paced matches that involved small skirmishes centred on objective control and was confirmed to be the successor to Magma Chamber. It finally looked as though Riot had locked Magma Chamber in their vault for good, but the mode made a surprise appearance at the 2013 All-Star Showdown in Shanghai, China. However, the 5v5 mode had been tailored towards 1v1 and 2v2 skill matchups, and only featured a single lane with one tower either side.
Victory was achieved by either killing 100 minions, destroying the turret or obtaining first blood. The idea was that Magma Chamber would support this ruleset, so players could create custom game modes and play solo or duo matches with a partner. This mode allowed players to settle disputes in a clean and fair environment with no outside influences to distract them.
The newly revamped Chamber was originally scheduled for release before the launch of season four, but once again Riot cancelled the map in January 2014, and this time it would be gone for good. Riot concluded that Magma Chamber wasn’t the right place to develop a 1v1/2v2 experience and found that the mode wouldn’t be sustainable as a permanent feature. It’s certainly a shame that such a great concept was ultimately cast aside, but in a game with so much diversity there'll always be concepts that get sealed away never to be seen again.
Although skin gambling in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been around for a number of years, last year saw Valve crack down on a series of sites—issuing cease and desist orders to several gambling outlets for using their Steam account for commercial purposes. Valve is now turning its head towards its other major online shooter, Team Fortress 2.
If you're unfamiliar with how skin gambling works, Evan's detailed overview in relation to CS:GO is worth checking out as it's a similar process in TF2. At this stage, Valve hasn't revealed its next move beyond stating its intentions.
"In July of last year we outlined our position on gambling web sites, specifically noting that Valve has no business relationship with these sites. At that time we also began blocking many CSGO gambling accounts. You can view the original post here.
"More recently, some gambling web sites started leveraging TF2 items. Today we began the process of blocking TF2 gambling accounts as well. We recommend you don’t trade with these sites."
Following last year's crackdown, a number of shuttered CS:GO gambling sites suggested the way in which they operated was entirely legal, and that they'd relaunch following talks with Valve. A cursory Google search would suggest this has not been the case, which of course sends a pretty clear message to those still operating under the radar.
With Game of Thrones' seventh season fast-approaching, it's getting harder to avoid casting and story spoilers by the day. I've already re-watched season six in preparation (and will almost certainly do so again nearer the time), which is why I'm looking for other GoT-themed entertainment to quench my make-believe medieval murder fest desires.
If that's you too, you may fancy a trip to Westeros by way of Total: War Attila, as the Seven Kingdoms Development Team has updated its Thrones-inspired Seven Kingdoms mod to include the Free Folk, the Night's Watch, House Hornwood, and 15 new characters.
All of which means you can recreate that infamous Jon Snow scene in Battle of the Bastards, which is shown below around the 1.38 mark.
Here's the full list of 15 generals that the mod's Beyond the Wall update introduces:
Ned Stark
Rickard Karstark
Euron Greyjoy
Greatjon Umber
Kevan Lannister
Loras Tyrell
Roose Bolton
Theon Greyjoy
Davos Seaworth
Larence Snow
Styr Magnar of Thenn
Mance Rayder
Tormund Giantsbane
Alliser Thorne
Jeor Mormont
More information on Total War: Attila's Seven Kingdoms mod can be found this way—including download and installation instructions.
Back when Interplay and Black Isle Studios were still making Fallout games—prior to Bethesda's acquisition of the series—"Van Buren" was the codename given to an ill-fated unreleased turn-based version of Fallout 3 that long predated the three-dimensional open-world game launched in 2008. What you may not know is that 2000's D&D-inspired role-player Icewind Dale also began life as a 3D take on the post-apocalyptic wasteland in a bid to serve as a counterpoint to Baldur's Gate.
That's according to Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, who, in conversation with IGN, explains that prior to working on Van Buren Black Isle Studios also worked on a different version of Fallout 3—immediately following Fallout 2, while Planescape: Torment was still in the works.
"It was actually the second Fallout 3," says Urquhart of Van Buren, suggesting that the decision to make Fallout 3 three-dimensional wasn't necessarily first thought of years later. "Now 3D was the cool stuff. So we were going to move from being a 2D engine and be a 3D engine, and so we actually started working with this 3D technology called NDL."
Interplay's well-documented financial bother ultimately led the Californian publisher to capitalise on Baldur's Gate's popularity, as it changed the direction of the proposed Fallout 2 follow-up and instead began crafting a dungeon-crawling RPG. "The Fallout 3 team became the Icewind Dale team," adds Urquhart.
And the rest is history, so goes the well-worn cliche. Interestingly, Urquhart says the aforementioned NDL technology was purchased by Gamebryo, who ultimately powered Betheda's version of Fallout 3 years later.
Last week, I talked to Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA designer Thomas Grip about how Resident Evil influenced the way he designs video games. He told me that the first time he saw Resident Evil, he never realized games could be made in such a way and that every horror game he's worked on has been influenced by Capcom's seminal horror series.
But our conversation left me with some questions. I wanted to know what he thought the future of horror games held, so over the past week, we talked about what the "Exorcist of video games" looks like and how Frictional Games plans to pursue the telling of innovative stories.
Mat: How do you feel about the future of horror in video games? Do you feel like it's something that could go away at some point, much like how fighting games went out of vogue for a while?
My hope is then that the horror will go away from hunted-by-monster scenarios
Grip: Them going away seems extremely unlikely given that horror is a genre that has basically been around since humans first developed language. As for the future, I think that what we will be seeing a lot more of is horror simulators—games that put more effort into making the core mechanics about horror. As much as I love the first Resident Evil, for the most part, the game has the horror as a sort of thematic layer. At its core, Resident Evil is not about horror—it is about collecting ammo, shooting enemies, and solving puzzles. The horror aspects are just a wrapping on that. Compare that to a game like Alien: Isolation, where the game is really all about avoiding being eaten by the Alien creature. It feels like [Resident Evil 7] is going more in that direction as well. It is the sort of horror design I find the most intriguing and also the one that I think has the biggest impact on an audience. My hope is then that the horror will go away from hunted-by-monster scenarios and try to recreate other types of horror in a playable fashion. For instance, it would be interesting to figure out what the video game version of The Exorcist is.
That's a very interesting idea. As for some of the more popular horror games in recent years, it's hard to think of one where you're not hiding from, shooting at, or being chased by someone or something. What do you think something like The Exorcist looks like in video game form?
Grip: In terms of horror not about escaping from monsters, that was what we tried to dabble with a bit in SOMA. We did add monsters there, so it is obviously not a pure example, but we feel we at least learned from valuable lessons. And the idea is that we continue along that path, so it is totally something we want to explore.
The Exorcist of video games, however? Very hard to say. For one, I think you need to find some interesting play around the idea; for instance, wrapping it all as a sort of detective/mystery narrative. I don't think it needs to be The Exorcist either, just used that as an example where the monster/horror is handled differently compared to a movie like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or similar.
I guess being a video game limits you in some ways that movies don't. Do you feel that's true or is the more the other way around?
Grip: It goes both ways. Video games can do certain things that movies cannot, and vice versa. It is just that we are so used to seeing our stories in movie form; plus, movies have refined the storytelling process over a long time, and so we tend to consider movies as more versatile. But games also have a wide range of stories that they can tell, and many of them would be very hard to make into movies. For instance, games are very good at using real time—the time it actually takes to do certain things and having that as an engaging element in the story. But in movies that gets boring fast and you have to cut.
As an example, in a horror game you can have the protagonist conducting a long investigation of a place and really have the audience get the mystery piece-by-piece at their own pace. In movies, this is really hard to do and longer investigations often have to be juxtaposed with something else in order to keep the engagement up. So games have the upper-hand in a lot of storytelling situations.
Do you feel that actually being able to interact with and influence video games through gameplay can detract from a story?
Video games can do certain things that movies cannot, and vice versa
Grip: The big problem is that videogames can be really fun to play, even if the story is crap. Really old movies are no longer much fun to watch, but old games—Pac-Man for instance—are still very fun. So there has been much less pressure on videogames as a medium to grow its storytelling potential. In movies, people quickly got tired of seeing people sneezing and trains going through tunnels. So there was a lot of pressure on making movies more engaging. But in videogames, we are sort of still happy with that sort of thing—there has not been any urgent need to make games more engaging, story-wise. For the most part, tweaking what we had from the start has been quite successful.
Then there is also the fact that since books and movies are where we consume most of our stories, we are accustomed to them being presented in a certain way. Structured as a string of plot events at a certain pace. Video game stories don't really apply to those rules, and as such, it is not possible to just cram the Exorcist as-is into a game. And I think this in turn means that many people simply think it is not possible, and never really pursue the idea.
I would definitely say that SOMA focuses on telling a good story a lot more than Amnesia: The Dark Descent does. Is this a sign of you and everybody at Frictional wanting to pursue the telling of great stories that haven't been attempted in video games before?
Grip: The intent behind SOMA was to tell a story and provide an experience that would only be possible in a video game. We also wanted to make a game where the themes were not just something in a background, but something the game was actually about. I think it went pretty well with SOMA, but I think we can do much better still. We totally plan to continue pursuing that.
