Actually r4di0fly3r's motion-tracking turret probably won't keep intruders out. But it will startle them. And it will probably keep cats and dogs out from sheer terror of "OH GOD WHAT IS THAT."
You can download the software for your PC or Mac, or just run it off of the deviantART page since that didn't seem to work for me.
Interactive Portal Turret [deviantART via Reddit]
The man behind The War Z has apologized to his fans for some of the controversies that have entangled the much-maligned survival horror game over the past couple of weeks.
In an extensive letter that tackles some of the game's well-publicized issues—like misleading Steam descriptions and community mismanagement—War Z boss Sergey Titov says he'll be hiring new staff, changing the War Z forum's policies, and "[providing] better communication" in the future. He also apologizes for his missteps.
Here's the full letter he sent to War Z players today:
Dear fellow Survivors,
It has now been more than two months since we launched public access to The War Z. We've definitely had our ups and downs, and I thought that this Holiday break was the right time for me to try to step back a little and think about our journey since it started. This may be a little long, but I would appreciate if you could stay with me for a few minutes as I try to go over the highlights of the game as well as some of the hurdles and controversies, how we have addressed that and what our plans are.
First of all a very big and sincere "Thank You!" to all of you. We are really proud of the community we have formed with you guys. Every day we have hundreds of thousands of players on our servers, and this is a life-changing event for the team and me. We are blessed to have you as members of the community and we are well aware that without you the game would be nothing. Along with that thanks, though, I need to admit that we failed to effectively communicate some of our plans and actions to both our existing players and to our new prospective players. This failure to communicate resulted in some very negative feedback from some members of our community, but while it might be easy to label them as "haters" or some other dismissive term, in all honesty this is my fault. I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others. This failure is entirely on my shoulders and if anything I owe thanks to that vocal minority and admit that I should have paid attention sooner. I chose instead to concentrate on the bigger picture – my dream of turning The War Z from being a game developed by a small indie team into a large online venture, instead of addressing small things first and staying focused on the game issues. At the end my arrogance led us to the moment, when all those small things finally caught up and created a "perfect storm" that affected all of our community members. For that I'm truly sorry and apologize to all of our community as well as the larger PC gaming community that is not yet playing The War Z.
I do not take this situation lightly, and last week events were especially humbling for me. I've experienced a range of emotions, most of which centered on regret for not having addressed some of the issues differently than we did, but we can't change the past. The only thing we can do is to be sure that we won't repeat the same mistakes in the future. I have realized that as the leader of this ship, I missed all early warnings that were saying, "Your community is not as happy as you think they are, you need to alter course." I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period. Though that is something to be very proud of, allowing that to overshadow the existing community and their satisfaction was poor judgment.
I want to give you some insight into what our plans are for the future, but before we get to that, I'd like to clear the air with you on several important topics.
Community management and moderation – the problem
Even since the early Alpha launch, this game has always cultivated a large and loyal player base that is very active in the game. Again, thank you for this. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for this large success and the way we managed the community was not the way it should've been. We relied too much on forum moderators, whose primary role was to punish those who break rules, not to engage the community and guide conversations into productive discussions about problems. There wasn't enough presence of the development team on forums, there wasn't enough updates on development of UPCOMING features. We failed to communicate our position and messaging on the outside platforms such as Facebook, twitter and various online websites, and when we did this we chose to rely more on arrogance rather than being humble and trying to understand why people were saying negative things. We chose to tune out negative reactions to the game, not paying enough attention to them – and this, again, is my fault. We chose to rely too much on numbers – percentage of refund requests, number and dynamic of our daily and monthly active users, etc. Well, in hindsight – those things probably work well for more casual games, but the hardcore PC gaming community is much different and can be very vocal about what they feel. Even when the percentage of players with negative comments is small, as the community grows, even a small percentage can add up to be a very significant absolute number. And it's not just a number – those are real people with real issues they are having with the game. OP Productions (publisher for War Z) and me personally have failed to address those issues effectively.
Community management and moderation – the solution!
We're changing our community management procedures and rules right now. We're going to reevaluate publishing and marketing team performance, and I will make sure that Hammerpoint Interactive developers will have a much stronger voice when it comes to community management and we won't rely 100% on OP Productions to single handedly handle this. Lots of changes will be happening very fast in the weeks to come. One of the ideas that I proposed was to select 10 players from around the world who can represent the player community and invite them to our offices in Los Angeles, to meet the team, check out what we're doing, and share with actual developers their concerns, wishes and thoughts on the game. We also will involve community, to a much higher degree, in the process of making our next map for The War Z (called "California"). We'll be discussing many of the aspects of the map with you and asking for feedback.
We're revisiting our forum policies; we're going to bring on an additional community management team, additional moderators and we'll train them how to respond to things properly. There will still be restrictions on harassment, trash talk, etc. But we'll make sure that every opinion is heard. At the same time, I must also be cautious: we cannot address all issues and there cannot be only one voice. Please accept that. With hundreds of thousands of players playing, talking, chatting, voicing their strong opinions, there will always be diverging opinions. And some issues that are minor ones are sometimes brought to light by very vocal channels. I would even say there is sometimes a beginning of controversy because the game is now so popular. So there is sometimes a distortion between the severity of the issue and the attention it gets. But we will clearly implement steps to better listen to the community.
What is Foundation Release?
The most asked question of the last week was "is this the final release?" My answer has always been that for an online game a "final" release means that the game is dead – so there's really no such thing, you never stop developing, making changes to and adding new features to the game. This is how we came to call the current version of The War Z "Foundation Release." We launched the Foundation Release on December 17, 2012 as our first-stage release that we use as a foundation to build upon. It does include the core features and a fully playable environment. This is our version 1.0, and of course we will continue to improve that version as time goes on. Did we rush to get it done? That is a tough question, but to answer honestly I think that we all pushed very hard to be first to market and in time for the holidays. Our entire team was working late, long hours to iron out issues and include as many features as possible. This is part of the reality of being a smaller, independent game developer. If we had a larger team and more funding we may have done things differently, but I'm not sure. I don't think it was a mistake because our numbers have been strong since day one and, even with the recent negativity, our metrics are really solid and we've been continuing to grow. The negative opinions are always the most vocal, but most players are really enjoying the game and we've been attracting more and more daily active players every week. A lot of the gaming journalists that have been playing the game have also given us some great feedback. I realize that we will take a few hits from some of the traditional gaming press in terms of review scores, but I'm hoping that even they will consider that this game is a living project that will continue to evolve as time goes on. We are very proud of our Foundation Release, and we do stand behind it like we have stood behind any previous version.
What's on the Horizon?
As for what will happen next with The War Z? We're currently evaluating the relationship between Hammerpoint and OP Productions. I firmly believe that Hammerpoint should be playing a more prominent role in publishing/game operating process. We're in a process of adding new key members to our team, bringing on guys who have much more experience operating and growing successful online games and I know this is going to make a huge difference in terms of development. We'll be making some big decisions in terms of leadership for both companies and I will personally change how I handle many things. Above all we will continue to develop and make this game the best that it can be.
I know that to some people my words won't matter much. I understand that. I hope that will change as we move forward and deliver the features that our players have been waiting for. I can promise you that from now on things will be much more transparent, and we'll provide better communication and engage our community to discuss upcoming features way before they appear in the game.
I do believe that we aren't even close to uncovering the true potential for The War Z, and I hope that in the coming year, we'll be able to regain trust from people who were alienated by our actions and we'll be able to move forward and grow the game together.
Thank you for reading all this, thank you for supporting the game and thank you for helping us to change and realize what's important as well as what is not.
I hope you are all having a happy holiday and I wish you the best for the New Year!
Sincerely,
Sergey Titov
Executive Producer, The War Z
Sometimes what you need is a little realism in your power fantasy. If you feel that Far Cry 3 is missing some crucial realistic bits, maybe this mod is for you.
Here is the "extremely in-depth Realism Mod" by Ubisoft forum user Panzerjager1943. According to the creator, this mod includes:
-Damage is based on actual weapon terminal ballistics tests
-Sway in sights and aiming are factors of the weapon's weight
-Recoil is a factor related to actual weapon recoil, incorporating bullet weight, powder, velocity, and weight of weapon
-Accuracy is based on actual Minute of Arc extreme spreads for the most realism
-Reload time is 25% slower on Assault Rifles, LMG's, and SMG's
-All weapons have realistic magazine capacities, including with Extended Magazines
-All weapons have vastly more maximum range
-Weapons have proper rates of fire (most especially that PKM.)
-Weapons have a new attachment setup that is a modified version of Leechmonger's attachments mod
You can find it here.
Not sure how to mod Far Cry 3, need a little guidance? The initial post in this thread has some tips and resources you can check out.
And remember: this realism mod will probably pair well with HUD-less Far Cry 3.
Diablo III's Team Deathmatch mode—shown off at a number of conventions and promised for the months following the game's launch earlier this year—has been axed, Blizzard says.
The player vs. player feature just wasn't good enough, Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson writes on Battle.net today:
So, our core problem is that our Team Deathmatch mode doesn't feel like a great addition to Diablo III. It's not up to the quality that Blizzard gamers expect or that we feel you deserve, and it doesn't really fit with our goals for the rest of the game. The question now is what are we going to do about it?
First and foremost, if our original goal was to support dueling, then we're not achieving that goal very well if we don't actually give players a way to duel in-game. You've been asking us for dueling for a while, so we're going to add it to the game soon. Dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, which is set to hit sometime after the new year. (We'll be providing details about that feature very soon, so stay tuned.)
But as I mentioned before, we are going back to the drawing board on a new replacement for Team Deathmatch, something that feels more appropriate for Diablo III. And as we stated previously, regardless of when we release it, it'll be a free addition to the game. Team Deathmatch provided us with the foundation that we needed and served us well. Hell, it may even still be added in some form in the future. For now, though, we're going to first be looking at new modes that play up to the strengths of the character classes, focus on objectives beyond just defeating other players, and possibly even integrate PvE elements and rewards.
I didn't notice how fairly quiet a year it's been for zombies until doing this round-up of all the flesh-eaters this year's media has to offer, but there were definitely some highlights that more than fill those gaps. Some duds, too, but you can't expect such a watered down narrative to always go over so creatively.
So let's take a look back at 2012 and all the zombie media that it had to offer. From games to comics to TV shows to film, here are a few highlights. If we missed any you're keen on, share your noteworthy selections in Kinja below.
This is the star of the list. Telltale's wonderfully harrowing episodic series was a somber exploration through your personal judgments as the game threw increasingly difficult decisions your way. The point-and-click adventure game also featured some refreshingly interesting characters, including a remarkably enjoyable young Clementine and a steadfast Lee. Though definitely the mediocre platform of the bunch, the iOS version available was an alternative to non-console gaming users. Which is great, because the more people that play this touching eye-opener the better.
There were hits and misses embedded in this franchise's 2012 existence. Resident Evil 6, for instance, was incredibly underwhelming. As much as the game tried to make interesting changes to the series, it felt too outdone by other games. Resident Evil: Revelations was a surprise hit on the 3DS, combining a quality Resident Evil vibe with an episodic structure that suited the mobile game well. And then Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City ran somewhere in the middle at mediocre.
The mod so good it's getting its own standalone game, DayZ has had an incredibly good year. It's marked by hundreds of compelling player tales on survival and trust, and a bunch of funny videos, too. Truly an experience unlike any other MMO or zombie game.
Not only is ZombiU arguably the game that makes best use of the Wii U's GamePad capabilities so far in the early launch days of Nintendo's new console, but it's also a fascinating game. The shooter experiments with new concepts—like having to kill zombified versions of your previous lives—and includes an incredibly fun multiplayer mode, too.
But, wait! This is a first-person, war shooter! Well it also has a multiplayer option completely dedicated to zombies. And it's quite good, if not a little tough.
Zombro is a clever, bright puzzle game where you can dismember your zombie body to roll, bounce, and crawl your way around each level. It's a lot of fun.
Deploy survivors, give them tasks, and survive.
Here's an interesting take on the world of zombie games. Zombies, Run! is an exercise game. As you go for a run around your neighborhood, you'll be listening to the story and taking instructions from the game, picking up supplies while being chased by zombies.
I imagine viewers are split on this one, as video games adapted into movies are never great. But our movie reviewer, Matt Hawkins, thinks that there are enjoyable elements to the latest film. Like great action sequences and some actual nods to the game, albeit not always too accurately.
This stop-motion animated zombie flick is different than what you're used to. It leans to the comedy variety rather than a horror film. Protagonist Norman has to use his ability to speak with the dead to fend off against the living dead. It's an adorable entry in what is normally a gross and scary one.
Perhaps not the most unique of zombie movies, REC 3: Genesis is at the least packed with gore and ludicrous action. What else can you expect of a wedding gone awry at the hands of a disgusting and infectious illness?
AMC's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series, started off strong. Though losing some of its viewer loyalty somewhere near the end of season one and a whole lot of boring farm episodes in season two, the show has since picked up the pace in recent months with season three where the group of survivors finally starts to make more moves. The highlight of which has to be Daryl, who is certainly my favorite character, and unique to the show.
Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead series is absolutely fantastic. Artist Charlie Adlard's powerful black-and-white imagery adds to the many, many tense moments in the series that has been ongoing since 2003. It follows a group of survivors as they meet their biggest threats head-on: other survivors. Think of the series as less about zombies and more about the world zombies have left in their wake.
From Evan: If you only know Robert Kirkman from The Walking Dead or his other creator-owned hits like Invincible, you may not know that he delivered a gleefully gross mash-up of superheroes and shambling undead a few years back. Marvel Zombies gave us versions of Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man and others who devoured every human being on their home planet and went battling across the multiverse to hunt for more fresh meat. This year, a massive anthology collected all the MZ mini-series between two covers. It's good gory fun that makes the good guys very bad. Get it for the zombie lover in your life.
It took Gavin and Geoff of Achievement Hunter about four hours to build Super Mario Bros.' 1-1 level almost block-for-block in Minecraft.
You can watch them "play" the level from two camera perspectives. Then they'll zoom out to show you how the level was constructed. It's pretty neat.
Vergil, Dante's twin brother in the Devil May Cry continuity, returns as a playable character in next year's DmC: Devil May Cry. Yesterday Capcom released a couple minutes of gameplay footage in that trailer above, showing Vergil in the DLC extension due shortly after the game launches. It's free if you preorder the game.
The video was accompanied by another trailer (at bottom) showcasing the game's combination system and how a player increases his style ranking by chaining together offensive and defensive moves.
DmC: Devil May Cry arrives Jan. 15 in North America and Europe, Jan. 17 in Japan.
Every corner of this dirty little ball we live on has been mapped and uploaded to the internet. Now it's time to play with it. Life is Magic gives players the chance to team up and take over a fantasy version of the real world, one city at a time.
Once you choose one of the three character classes available in Red Robot Labs' Life is Magic—mage, machinist or monk—the game presents you with a map of your location, only instead of asphalt streets and concrete builds there are trees, dirt paths, inns and shops straight out of a fantasy novel. This is your world transformed.
Depending on where you live, your local map might be peppered with shops and crisscrossed with paths bearing the names of the streets you walk every day. If you live in a more rural area the effect won't be quite as impressive, but that's what zooming out and teleporting is for.
The world map is where the action is. Elemental dungeons dot the landscape, hungry for foolhardy adventurers to brave their depths. Other players appear on the map as well, waiting to be invited into your adventuring party. Up to three players can form an alliance, lending their particular talents in turn-based battles against fierce fantasy foes. Each dungeon level ends with a choice—leave and keep your loot, or delve deeper and chance losing it all to more fearsome beasts?
Players gain levels as they adventure, powering up towards the ultimate goal—conquering the tower that represents a major city. No one in my area has grown powerful enough to take Atlanta yet. I ventured into the tower and was slain in a single round. More grinding is in order. Luckily this is a persistent alternate world, and the tower will still be there when I am ready.
Location-based games are a passion of mine, even if my location seems to always get the short end of the stick. Limited teleportation allows me to visit bustling cities like New York...
...but when I get home, this is what I see.
The downside to living in a sparsely-populated area is there is only one shop in town to influence—The Coca-Cola Employees Federal Credit Union (yes, real-world names on fantasy places). The upside? I own that credit union. It's all mine. Feel free to grab the game and try to take it from me.
Life is Magic — Free [iTunes]
There it is: a glorious new gaming PC, specc'ed out all to hell and ready to take you to all sorts of wondrous places. Or maybe you went the Cupertino route and wound up with a glossy Mac machine that you want some video game bonafides for.
Our Best lists have you covered, either way. Whether you're a member of video games' Glorious Master Race or an OS X loyalist taking advantage of Steam and/or ports, these titles offer first-class experiences for when the work days' over. Get to clicking.
PC gamers have reason to crow, since they get often the best of both worlds. Quirky and cheap smaller titles? Yup. The shiniest, most impressive versions of AAA multiplatform games? Yeah, they get those, too. Mostly. More »
Hey, look! A sleek computer with a piece of fruit embossed on it. Did you splurge for a Mac Pro or save money and get the totally capable iMac. Either way, good move, those things just work. More »
There are what Kotaku thinks are the best games on Facebook, and then there are the games Facebook's game curators and players think are the most playable pieces on the social network. I find their lack of Robot Rising disturbing.
For the most part the official Facebook list contains the usual suspects. There's a couple of Zynga sequels in FarmVille 2 and CityVille 2. Thanks to the inclusion of mobile gaming on the list there's Draw Something, CSR Racing, Clash of Clans, Bike Race and Subway Surfers. King.com's Candy Crush Saga gets a nod, which is good because I am currently addicted to matching colorful candies and cursing at the top of my lungs.
Most of these games we've written about at one point or another, but in case you missed them, here's what Facebook's vox populi likes to play, courtesy of the Facebook App Center.
Dragon City — Breed cool dragons, make them grow and combat with friends in a world of magical islands!
SongPop — Test your song knowledge with Song Pop, the best music game! Play with your friends or other music-loving strangers today!
Bike Race — Drive through amazing jumps and loops as fast as you can to beat your Facebook friends!
Marvel: Avengers Alliance — Lead a team of heroes to keep New York safe from a mysterious threat and save the world from villains in the newest Facebook RPG.
Subway Surfers — Subway Surfers is a game for iOS and Android by Kiloo Games and Sybo Games. Follow the adventures of Jake, Tricky and Fresh!
FarmVille 2 — Grow and harvest beautiful crops, raise adorable animals, and craft delicious treats on your very own lifelike 3D farm.
Draw Something — Play the addictive social drawing game!
Baseball Heroes — Form an unbeatable team with your friends and make it to the Majors!
Angry Birds Star Wars — A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... a group of desperate Rebel birds faced off against the Empire's evil Pigtroopers!
Clash of Clans — Dominate the Realm! Clash of Clans is an addictive combat strategy game with thousands of other players in epic online battles.
Candy Crush Saga — Mix and match candy for spectacular effects in the sweetest facebook game ever! Lots of exciting, fun and challenging levels!
Dungeon Rampage — Join your friends and battle your way to victory in this multiplayer action game.
Jetpack Joyride — Suit up with a selection of the coolest jetpacks ever made and take to the skies on a one-way trip to adventure!
War Commander — Build a powerful army, show no mercy and battle enemies for earth's remaining resources in the hottest MMORTS war game on FB!
Criminal Case — A teenage girl has been found murdered at the entrance of the town. Bring the killer to justice!
You Don't Know Jack — Play the trivia game with an attitude where high culture and pop culture collide!
CSR Racing — Race your dream car in a drag race along city streets. CSR Racing combines stunning high-fidelity graphics with addictive gameplay
CityVille 2 — Build your own 3D city to towering heights as you help solve an unfolding mystery. The city is alive, restless, & yours to create.
Citizen Grim — Battle waves of zombies, fight with Mercenaries & challenge friends on the global leaderboards in the bloodiest game on Facebook!
The Wizard of Oz — Build your own Munchkinland and lead Dorothy down The Yellow Brick Road in this fully immersive 3D environment!