turtle rock studios
Latest
Gamescom Awards evolve, favor 2K's monstrous game
The votes are in, and the winner of the Gamescom 2014 Awards is ... *drumroll* Oh, you saw the headline and figured out the pun already? Well, you're right; it's Evolve, the 4v1 monster-on-human huntfest from Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios. The game took home not only the award for "Best of Gamescom," but also the awards for "Best Console Game Microsoft Xbox," "Best PC Game," "Best Action Game" and "Best Online Multiplayer Game." Other highlights include Super Smash Bros. taking home the "Best Mobile Game" award for its 3DS iteration, while its console counterpart took home the "Most Wanted Consumer Award," a title that premiered at this year's ceremony. LittleBigPlanet 3 also won multiple awards, specifically the "Best Social / Casual / Online Game" award and the "Best Family Game" award. We're relatively sure that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call won the award for "Best Simulation Game" due to its simulation of music, but we can pretend it won because it simulates being an adorable JRPG character singing along to catchy tunes, too. Check out the full list of winners after the break.
Team up, hunt down Evolve's beta beasts on Xbox One [UPDATE: Trailer added!]
We can't hunt what lurks in Evolve's winding maps until February 10, but at least now Xbox One owners have a sense of when they can get some practice in: During Microsoft's Gamescom presentation, it was announced that beta access will be available in January, with DLC arriving first on Xbox One later on. [Image: Major Nelson]
Evolve pushed back to February [Update]
The launch of Evolve has been delayed to 2015, Take-Two indicated in the company's fiscal first quarter 2015 financial report. The game will now launch globally on February 10, 2015. Evolve was previously expected to arrive on October 21. Evolve is Turtle Rock Studios' four-versus-one monster-hunting game for PS4, Xbox One and PC. In it, players team up with three friends to take down a large beast or can opt to take on the hunting party as the single monster. Our video preview of Evolve discusses the shooter's four character classes as well as its jetpacks and other tools that make the game's combat interesting. Update: Take-Two President Karl Slatoff said during the publisher's financial call that it "primarily decided the title deserves and should have more time to be polished so it can reach its absolute optimal state before we release it," and that "historically, we've benefited from giving the creative teams more time to polish the titles, we've never regretted it." Slatoff also stressed that he views the delay as not being a "meaningful amount of time," given that Evolve will still launch during Take-Two's fiscal year, and that February is a "pretty terrific" release window. "It's not at all crowded, and we will benefit from the fact that there are a lot of holiday sales of consoles. The install base will be bigger," Slatoff said. [Image: Take-Two]
Check your mail, Evolve alpha invites are out in the wild
You may want to investigate your inbox for signs of evolution, because 2K announced it's sent out invites for the Evolve alpha. According to images posted online, the alpha PC test will run this weekend between Friday, August 1 and Sunday, August 3. If you signed up but didn't get an invite, 2K says there'll be more opportunities in "future alphas." In the meantime, you can live Turtle Rock's Kraken-cracking shooter through our video preview. In it, Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann describes the game as similar to that Jurassic Park scene where Robert Muldoon is alone hunting the velociraptor, but now there are four Robert Muldoons and the velociraptor is Godzilla. But no Jeff Goldblum, sadly. If you'd rather wait for the game proper, Evolve hits PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 21. [Image: 2K]
Print your own 3D Evolve figures
The age of purchasing video game figurines from a store, like a peasant, has ... evolved. You can print out your own 3D Evolve hunters and monsters using files direct from Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games. Find the 3D file for each character on their individual hunter and monster pages, and print them out at home on the 3D printer that you definitely own, right next to your Twitter-connected refrigerator, talking air conditioning unit, hologram phone system and cotton candy maker. That said, if you don't own a 3D printer, Turtle Rock suggests uploading the files to Sculpteo, Shapeways or Thingiverse, and following the instructions to get the figurines direct from there. See the Evolve 3D printing overview in video form below. [Image: 2K Games]
Evolve wants you to try its alpha
Today of all days, America needs you to sign up and do your duty. By which we mean sign up to try the Evolve alpha, which this Euro reporter sadly notes is limited to North America. Personal grievances aside, here's what you need to do for a chance of being selected. Head to the sign-up site, and when asked enter the password "happyhunting" and referral code "JoinTheHunt" along with all required details. Also, make sure you have a Steam account as you'll need one. 2K Games aims to have its participant list nailed down by tomorrow, July 5, so don't procrastinate before you celebrate today.
Seen@E3: Evolve's gentleman Goliath
Walk through the doors into the LA Convention Center's West Hall and you'll come face to ... uh ... face(?) with the Goliath from Turtle Rock Studios' 4v1 monster hunting simulator, Evolve. Don't worry, he's actually quite nice. Why, just as we snapped this picture, he told us we looked good enough to eat! What a nice guy.
Evolve's hunters tracked down in gameplay video
This trailer for Evolve introduces each of the game's four hunters in video form, showing their unique abilities in action as they team up to take beasts down. Turtle Rock Studios' four-versus-one shooter will launch October 21 for PC, Xbox One and PS4.
GameStop nabs exclusive pre-order content for Evolve
Customers who pre-order Turtle Rock Studios' competitive shooter Evolve at GameStop will receive an array of exclusive in-game content at launch, the retailer announced today. GameStop's pre-order bundle includes exclusive skins for Markov's Lightning Gun, Maggie's Machine Pistol, Hank's Laser Cutter, and Val's Anti-Material Rifle, along with a Monster Expansion Pack that adds the Savage Goliath skin and a post-launch monster character. The offer applies to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC versions of the game. Evolve will hit retail on October 21. You can check out our video preview here. [Image: 2K / GameStop]
Evolve picks a fight in October
Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve advances worldwide onto Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 21, Take-Two announced today. Take-Two also revealed pre-orders of the four-versus-one first-person shooter come with a Monster Expansion Pack, which includes a Savage Goliath skin and an extra monster character that will be made available at some point after Evolve hits stores. Check out our new preview for a look at some of the human hunters hoping to take down the big beasties in Evolve. [Image: 2K Games]
Evolve gameplay is all about the hunt
2K Games and Turtle Rock Studios launched an interactive trailer this morning for Evolve, the four versus one mulitplayer game coming this fall to next-gen consoles and PC. There's about an hour of content in the video above and if you want more you can check out our video preview.
Becoming the monster in Evolve: Lessons from Left 4 Dead
For all of the technical wizardry going on behind the scenes, Left 4 Dead was a simple game: four players versus seemingly endless hordes of zombies, peppered with the occasional, amped-up special zombie. Evolve, the latest game from Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios, trims down the number of bodies on screen while simultaneously introducing new layers of complexity. Evolve ditches the undead hordes for a single, player-controlled monster pitted against four player-controlled hunters. On the surface, it's a much simpler formula, until you realize that each hunter has their own individual set of weapons, items and abilities, and the monster is constantly evolving, steadily becoming stronger and more deadly as the round progresses. (You'll find our video preview from February after the break, if you want a better idea of how it all works.) After trying my hand as the monster at PAX East – and losing, sadly – my first question to Executive Producer Denby Grace was obvious: How do you balance this? How do you make sure it's both fair and fun? "There's just a bazillion little dials that we can twist," he says. "The biggest thing we do is we playtest a lot. We have a huge telemetry system built into it." Every match that Turtle Rock plays internally, whether by the development team or QA, brings with it lots of data, he says. "Every ability, every item, every weapon has its counter as well, on the opposing team. In that respect, we're very careful about not giving people a bunch of overpowered stuff. It's a real precision exercise, and it only comes out with playtesting, so we do a lot of it." Everyone in the studio, he says, plays around two hours of Evolve every day.
Evolve opens fire in new cinematic trailer
For those craving more moving pictures for Evolve after watching our video preview of the game, Turtle Rock Studios issued a new "Happy Hunting" cinematic trailer today. Unlike our preview, it doesn't offer anything truly informative about the four-versus-one monster shooter, instead showing four characters cautiously stepping through a jungle before encountering one of the game's massive beasts. Of course, one of Evolve's main draws is the option for players to assume control of the beast, waging war against the four-player team. Players can check out the competitive-meets-cooperative multiplayer game on PC, Xbox One and PS4 this fall. [Image: Turtle Rock Studios]
Why Left 4 Dead devs are sticking with 4 in 'Evolve'
When Valve first got its hands on Turtle Rock's Counter-Strike mod, Left 4 Dead, it tried upping the number of players from four to five or six, even after Turtle Rock said it wouldn't turn out well. Valve tried it and it didn't work out, and Left 4 Dead shipped with four playable characters. Evolve, Turtle Rock's next-gen monster shooter, sticks with four hunters fighting against one monster (hunters shown above). Turtle Rock isn't sure why four players works out best, but creative director Chris Ashton shared his theory with Game Informer: "What happens is there's a weird thing in that most people I think are able to track three friends. I can know that you're over here and you're in front of me and you're to my left. And I can keep that in my mind, and I can keep in my mind that you have 50 health and you have 80 health, and I can keep track of that and fight another team. But if it's four guys, it feels like I'm always losing one. I always don't know where someone is, I don't know where somebody's health is – keeping track of four other friends is too much." Those who play as the super-powered monster will have their hands full keeping tabs on all four enemies, Ashton said. "That's what makes it a challenge for him," he said. "As soon as you kill one guy and get one guy out of the picture, I think three humans are way easier to deal with and keep mental tabs on." Evolve is due out this fall for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. And speaking of Left 4 Dead – is that Bill on the far left in that image up there? Or the far right? Or do we just really miss Bill?
Evolve launches in fall, pre-orders open today
Evolve, the four-on-one shooter from Left 4 Dead creator Turtle Rock and publisher 2K, will launch this fall for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, with pre-orders open now. Order the game through Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, Target, Toys R Us or Wal Mart to receive the Monster Expansion Pack, which includes the Savage Goliath skin at launch (for the game's first monster, Goliath), and adds a new monster once that's released later on. All pre-orders are available here. In Evolve, four hunters take on one monster – the hunters are playable in first-person, while the monster is third-person. There are four hunter classes: Trapper, Support, Assault and Medic. As a monster, players will have "savage abilities and an animalistic sense," Turtle Rock says.
Left 4 Dead creator Turtle Rock developing co-op shooter Evolve
Publisher 2K Games has partnered with Left 4 Dead series developer Turtle Rock Studios for the upcoming release of the cooperative multiplayer first-person shooter Evolve for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms, Game Informer reports. Evolve first crawled out of the ooze in 2012 as a trademark filing by THQ. When that publisher went under the same year, the intellectual property was purchased by Take-Two Interactive at auction for $10.9 million, beating out the game's developer, Turtle Rock, which had tried to keep the game inside its own shell for $250,000. Evolve centers around a four-versus-one Hunt mode in which four teammates square off against a fifth player, who controls a powerful alien creature that grows stronger as matches progress. The cooperative/competitive gameplay dynamic defined Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead games, which put players on opposing sides of a zombie apocalypse.
THQ's new head promises no more job cuts, but 'everything is up for change'
For a guy who's only been on the job for a dozen days, newly appointed THQ president Jason Rubin is awfully comfortable answering very specific questions. He probably should be, given his title, but it was impressive nonetheless that he was able to speak with such specificity to nebulous projects like Guillermo del Toro's planned "Insane" trilogy. "Currently it's still in the slate," Rubin told Joystiq in an E3 interview. That doesn't mean the barely detailed project is a sure thing, of course. THQ will be "a different company" in the next year or two, according to Rubin. Will ambitious projects like Insane make the cut?"I'm taking every project as clay, a clay statue that's been built. It's not nearly been completed. It can be augmented, it can be shrunk, it can be changed. Everything is up for change to make the best possible product that could be," Rubin said.With THQ's financial troubles as of late, it's fair to wonder if the trilogy will ever materialize, not to mention Turtle Rock's unnamed FPS project, or THQ Montreal's new IP. "I'm well aware of the other projects that are kind of in what you would call 'nebulous states' (though internally they may not be so nebulous)," Rubin said. "I have to go around and look at everything over the next few weeks, next month, and I have to then decide which of the titles are the titles we're gonna focus on based on what I believe our future should be."Thankfully for THQ's employees (approximately 1,750 as of March 31, 2011), the coming change within the publisher doesn't mean a reckoning. "We have the appropriate number of teams and the appropriate number of people working on products, and we're not gonna be continuing to cut teams," Rubin told us. "But as far as product goes, I think we'll have to find out exactly where that's going."
(Not) Left for dead: Turtle Rock still developing FPS for THQ
About this time last year, we heard that THQ had tapped Turtle Rock Studios for a new first-person shooter. Since then, THQ has struggled financially and issued numerous layoffs.Turtle Rock's FPS title is still in the works for the troubled publisher, according to a tweet issued by THQ's Jeremy Greiner, who stated work on the campaign portion of the new game is currently underway. Greiner's recent post was community manager at now-shuttered KAOS Studios, the developers of Homefront. In following tweets he says we won't hear anything more for a while, but that he'll be visiting Turtle Rock Studios -- which is located in Lake Forest, CA -- next week.
Left 4 Dead making-of feature recounts Survivor evolution, other odd stuff
Edge has an extensive and rather interesting look back at the development of Left 4 Dead that touches on design philosophy and how people behave while playing. "Some people would declare themselves the leader and bark instructions, whether they were qualified to or not," said Mike Booth, then CEO of Turtle Rock Studios, where the game originally began development. "Other guys just wanted to help out and make sure everyone had health kits. A few would just wait for the moment to stab you in the back." Other interesting anecdotes include a foursome who decided to just end it all by jumping off the rooftop at the opening of "No Mercy," and the Counter-Strike veterans who protected a gaming-illiterate father. The article also looks at how Turtle Rock and Valve initially got together, the technology that produces the 30 zombies populating the game world at any given time and, our personal favorite, the evolution of Louis from "a religious nutjob" to the likeable office worker based on Faliszek and Wolpaw's pal from Cleveland. "I remember helping him move house," said Faliszek. "He dropped something, ruined it and still made a joke about it. That's the perfect guy you want in the zombie apocalypse." Who else is going to help you find all those pipe bombs?
THQ publishing re-formed Turtle Rock Studios' next FPS
Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios has had an odd career trajectory, having been acquired and absorbed wholesale by Valve after gaining no small amount of attention for its zombie-slaying multiplayer title. The studio re-materialized last March under the supervision of original CEO Michael Booth, and presumably started work on something big -- as evidenced by a hiring push this past February, and their opening of a shiny new studio space. Today, one big detail about said project came to light: It's going to be published by THQ, and released in 2013. In a press release announcing the partnership, Turtle Rock COO Phil Robb said, "This project is the most ambitious thing we've ever attempted," later adding, "We're going to take the first person shooter experience to a whole new level, and we can't wait to show the game for the first time in the months ahead." The announcement lines up with a client list released by talent representation firm Verve (as discovered by supererogatory), which says GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Four Brothers writers David Elliot and Paul Lovett are working with Turtle Rock on a brand new IP for a "top-tier publisher." No more specific window was given for the game's proper announcement, though the press release explains that the title will not be shown off at E3. Or is that just to throw us off the scent? Nice try, you crafty press release, you. As for any complications this might cause concerning Valve's current relationship with the studio remains to be seen -- a THQ representative told us, "To clear up any confusion, we are getting clarification on the Turtle Rock/Valve relationship - and should have that info later today." Stay tuned!
