May 9th, 2013 -- Ugly Baby Update -- Waffles!

Are you hungry? Amy apparently wants you to be. What’s that, you say? Staying away from the carbs? Well, hopefully this update is just as delicious.

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE: Michael went all crazy with the UI! Brand spanking new graphics to tickle your eyes. He’s a perfectionist, so he says he’s not done yet. How do you think it’s coming along? What can you figure out from it? What doesn’t make sense?

GAMEPLAY: A new stunt has joined buzzes and grooves, because they were getting lonely. Meet the NEEDLE! Can you figure out how to do it? Gameplay has changed slightly, so listen closely. Get near anything to buzz an object. Orient the world to your stomach (bottom of the screen), to groove. If you hit things, you damage your sensor. If your sensor’s damaged, you can’t do stunts! As your sensor detects stuff, you build up a score multiplier, so keep doing stunts!

VISUALIZER: Dave’s research continues to pay off. Play level one with some fast/heavy music. Dubstep, Rock, Death Metal, EDM. That’s all I’m sayin’.

We’d like to personally call out, the progress bar feature in this recent update was due in part to a user suggesting it. I’m an awful person and can’t remember who did originally, so if it was you, thank you, keep ‘em coming!

As always, tell us what you love, what you hate, and where you think Michael’s running off to next week. He won’t tell us.

Update 1.05 Now available!
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army ups the ante with Spring updates

Two major new features added in less than a month based on player feedback

Independent UK developer Rebellion has today released update 1.05 for co-op survival shooter Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, not only enabling co-op players to multiply the numbers of enemies they face, but also adding support for drop in / drop out functionality.

Hot on the heels of April’s popular ‘Multiplier’ update - allowing solo-players to multiply the numbers of enemies they face to terrifying levels - this update is the second major feature added to the game in less than a month based on suggestions and comments from the game’s growing community.

Update 1.05 also includes a small selection of fixes.

Key Features:
Drop in / Drop out functionality added. (See technical notes below)
Co-op enemy multiplier added. (e.g 2 players can play against 4 player numbers of enemies)

Fix list:
Fix for potential progression blocker on Cathedral level.
Fix for progression blocker on Library Of Evil.
Fix to make sure Bullet cam "minimal" settings reduces bullet cameras in game.
Fix to stop score points exploit on skeletons.

Known issues:
Some single player inter level saves will be invalidated with this update. This was due to level progression fixes. If problems are encountered a level restart may be required.

Technical notes on drop in /drop out:
- Can only join whilst players are in lobby or in actual gameplay.
- Cannot join whilst in loading, waiting for players, syncing, cutscenes or end game menus.
- Private match option blocks all joining.
- Quick match can be found and joined by any player unless private match is selected.
- Private game can only be found and joined by friends, either through an invite from host or by selecting to join game from steam in-game overlay, unless private match is selected.
- The private match option can be toggled both in the lobby and in game via the pause menu.
- The private match option is not available when in cutscenes or end game menus.

- Players joining outside safe zones will spawn at the host position.
- If the enemy multiplier is set to default then when a player joins the enemies increase to match the number of players.
- If the enemy multiplier is set to default then when a player leaves the number of enemies will only decrease to match the player numbers when a safe zone is reached.
- Host must wait for players joining a game to be fully in gameplay before being able to restart a game - a message box will popup informing the host of this.

Insurgency has just been updated on Steam.

Update Includes:

- Resolved a crash occurring during changelevel that a lot of servers have been experiencing
- Fixed some issues with Linux Dedicated Server (see this post for more information)
- Updated District and Heights
- Heights now supports Battle, Firefight and Occupy game modes
- District and Market now support Firefight game mode
- Fixed a bug in Push where defenders can re-capture points
- Fixed an issue with helmets not being precached properly
- Tweaked shotgun slug damage
- Adjusted supply rate so it's closer to what it was before the 5/4 update
- Adjusted reinforcement times based on community feedback
- Tweaked AI placement on Heights_Coop
- Fixed a bug in the server browser causing the Battle game mode not to display under Modes
- Improved syncing between player animation and movement speeds

Changes:
- Fixed dedicated server depots missing shared content
- Fixed dedicated servers not registering properly with the master server
- Fixed yellow screen corruption that occurs on AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series hardware
- Updated database to include video cards from the Steam survey through April 2013.
- Adjusted add-on sorting when loading the main menu so Mutation add-ons can override UI elements.