2014
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The Soapbox: My MMO resolutions
Today is the last day of 2013, a long year of extended betas, early access pre-purchases, and soft launch nonsense. The release slate for 2014, however, brings slightly more excitement. 2014 is the year we'll (hopefully) first set foot into Elder Scrolls Online, EverQuest Next Landmark, Destiny, Star Citizen, WildStar, and more. It's the year in which a record number of MMOs will go live on consoles. And most importantly, it's likely the year in which consumers will decide whether the traditional MMO is dead or just in need of a good kick in the pants. Ordinarily I'm not the type to make New Year's resolutions. It seems arbitrary to hang important life changes on a date on the calendar. But the end of the year does bring a nice opportunity to look back on my gaming habits over the last 12 months and provides me with an opportunity to draft a list of things I'd like to do better moving forward. 2014 will be an MMO year like no other, so perhaps it warrants a few adjustments in behavior. With that in mind, these are my 2014 MMO resolutions.
The Daily Grind: What are your gaming resolutions for 2014?
Finally, 2013 is almost over. It feels like it went on for, like, a dozen months. And that means we all have a chance to look back at the past year, assess what we've done, and ask ourselves how we can make the next year even better. At least in terms of gaming; we can't really help you on the usual string of resolutions meant to make you a better person that wind up discarded by 8:00 p.m. on January 2nd. Maybe you spent most of 2013 hopping through games and want to settle down more firmly this year. Maybe you want 2014 to be the year that you finally give World of Warcraft or EVE Online a decent shot at catching your interest. Heck, maybe your major resolution is figuring out how you're going to balance four or five different games at the same time. So what are your gaming resolutions for 2014? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Help us design Joystiq Jelly 2014 game
In 2014 we want to try a communal social experiment, but we need your help to come up with the video game industry topics that will make it a success. We're going to have a Joystiq Jelly Bean Jar that we'll consume a bean from every time an event happens from the list we're creating together. A crass person would call this a "drinking game," but since we're using jelly beans, it would be socially acceptable for you to play along at work or school. We'll be starting the year with a 3 pound (1.68kg) tub. Here's the thing, we don't want 2013 topics. We want the concepts of 2014. So, something like "a developer double-dips in Kickstarter pool" or "a AAA game launch didn't work due to servers" could be bridges between the two, but we want forward thinking. The concepts that have been simmering for a while and will bubble over in 2014. We'll make an official Joystiq Jelly list come New Year's Day. You can leave ideas in the comments below or hit us up on the @Joystiq Twitter with #JoystiqJelly. Bonus points for fun and irreverent additions that make us exclaim, "Of course! LOL." [Image: Guillermo del Olmo via Shutterstock]
Captain's Log: A Star Trek Online 2014 wish list
We're coming up on 2014 and staring Star Trek Online's fourth anniversary right in the face. It's an anniversary that many naysayers said would never come. Next week I plan on taking a look back at the past year in Star Trek Online, so this week I thought it would be fun to prognosticate on what we might see in the year to come. A few days ago, STO Community Manager Brandon Felczer wrote a blog post on the game's site, and buried within that post was the announcement that Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment have slated another expansion for the game in 2014. The news was actually a bit surprising, and although there were no additional facts about what the expansion might entail, there has been a lot of speculation by the players. I am no exception to the speculation frenzy, so here's my own personal wish list for what I'd like to see in the upcoming expansion and other releases in 2014.
OlliOlli setting up sick trick line to 2014
OlliOlli, the pixelated, Vita-exclusive skateboarder set in the hilliest town we've ever seen, has bailed from its planned November launch. Developer Roll 7 Games explained in a blog post that the delay stemmed from an issue that would have allowed players to submit multiple scores to the Daily Grind mode, a feature meant to provide one-and-done attempts at leaderboard fame. Now that a few extra layers of wax have smoothed out the issue, OlliOlli has been resubmitted to Sony for final quality assurance. Roll 7 will share a new launch date "as soon as possible."
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze rolls down a Retro track
"Okay, where are the minecart levels?" That's a novel, ill-advised question when it comes to platformers, but Retro Studios achieved the improbable with 2010's Donkey Kong Country Returns (updated this year with a 3DS version). The side-scrolling platformer knew how to do a good minecart level, exhibiting creative design in a realm meant to be firmly on tracks – sometimes the whole track would curl up and break loose, rolling forward as you spun around a makeshift motorcycle cage. The rickety rail-jumping returns in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, along with some of the other special traits that rightly suit Nintendo's tie-wearing gorilla. I played a handful of levels set at various points of the game, getting a sense of its challenge and momentum. As before, Donkey Kong and an optional companion – the diminutive Dixie Kong joins this time – run from left to right, leaping and swinging to avoid flames, falls and the fury of nasty animals marching about. The backgrounds are a vivid mix of jungles, caverns and cloudy skies, and all benefit from Retro's graduation to HD on the Wii U.
Daily Roundup: Galaxy Gear and Note 10.1 (2014) reviews, CEATEC 2013, GTA 5 multiplayer and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Crytek's Warface coming to Xbox 360 in 2014
Crytek's online first-person shooter, Warface, will launch on Xbox 360 in early 2014. The game will retain its free-to-play model in the move to the Microsoft console, though the online play will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription. The PC version of Warface recently entered its final closed beta phase, which players can still apply for on the GFace site. The game will launch later this year in North America, Europe and Turkey. Crytek's free-to-play ambitions don't end with Warface, as CEO Cevat Yerli said in February that the company hopes to better support the free-to-play model within the next five years.
Thief steels itself for Feb. 25, 2014 debut
Thief is snatching a spot on retailer shelves for a proposed launch date of February 25, 2014 in North America, and February 28 in Europe and other PAL regions. Eidos Montreal's reboot recasts the cynical protagonist, Garrett, as a lone liberator of valuables in a city swelling into civil unrest. First announced as a sequel in 2009, Thief has endured claims of troubled development (when is that not the case for major games?) and questioned leadership. It has been a dark project by public accounts, but it wouldn't quite be the first one in the franchise's long history. Thief will distribute its pilferage across several platforms next year, including PC (download), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Fantasia: Music Evolved scores Fallout 3 composer Inon Zur
Fantasia: Music Evolved will not only feature the imposing presence of sorcerer Yen Sid, but the original works of Inon Zur, a wizard of a different sort. Zur has a long history of composing music for video games, having accompanied players across irradiated wastelands in Fallout 3 and beneath besieged castles in Dragon Age: Origins. Disney has announced Zur will conjure the original soundtrack to Fantasia: Music Evolved and produce new orchestral versions of classic songs by Vivaldi ("Four Seasons: Winter: First Movement") and Mussorgsky ("Night on Bald Mountain"). He also arranged the orchestral mix of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," one of several contemporary songs that players can reshape in the game. Fantasia: Music Evolved is a motion-driven music game being developed by Harmonix for Kinect on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Look and listen for it sometime in 2014.
Puzzle-thriller Hybris is Coraline meets Spielberg on a dark night
The alpha screenshots of Hybris speak more about the game than words do, and developer Monsters seems to have done this on purpose. We know Hybris tells the story of Kevin, a lonely kid who escapes his fragile home life by visiting the top of a hill, and while there he witnesses a light that fills the sky and alters the world. Monsters divulges the gameplay will involve physics and "inventory-based" puzzles, and a time-freezing mechanic, but doesn't specify how these will all work together. Somehow, these mechanics have to ensure Kevin survives the night. Hybris features music by Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated composer behind Journey, Monaco and the recent Leisure Suit Larry reboot. But that's enough of the intangibles – early images of Hybris show an eery, polished game in a style similar to Coraline, though Monsters promises it's a "pretty dark" adventure a la Spielberg. Hybris is due out in two parts, with the first one hitting in early 2014. There may be a Kickstarter to help finish development down the line, but for now that's just another layer of mystery.%Gallery-195810%
Rainbow Skies assaulting PS3 and Vita in 2014, Rainbow Moon to Vita this year
Good news for fans of grind-tastic dungeon crawler / strategy RPG hybrids: Rainbow Skies is headed to the PlayStation 3 and Vita in 2014. A sequel of sorts to last year's Rainbow Moon, Rainbow Skies promises "countless hours" of content and features new combination attacks and a monster taming system. The game is coming exclusively to PSN and will feature cross-save support, allowing players to begin a game on PS3 and continue it on Vita, or vice versa. Whether the game will be cross-buy is still being determined, publisher Eastasiasoft tells us. Eastasiasoft also tells us that Rainbow Moon will arrive on Vita later this year. More details will arrive "in the coming weeks." We found Rainbow Moon to be a passable RPG, though its dependence on unrewarding grinding was disappointing.%Gallery-195389%
The Crew aims for Q1 2014 release
Buckle up, racing fans: You might be sitting in the driver's seat of The Crew early next year. In an investor's call, Ubisoft said that it's aiming for a Q1 2014 release for the persistent online racing world. Production Director Pete Young said in a recent blog post that the studio is striving to connect players through this racing title: "We're making it extremely easy to see the players that are around you, quickly group up with those guys, make new friends and take on missions cooperatively." The Crew will be available for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If it's got you itching for more info, check out Ubisoft's guided gameplay video from last month after the break.
The Witcher 3 DRM-free on PC; 'gamer-friendly' solution sought on consoles
The Witcher series of action role-playing games is reaching further than ever before, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launching simultaneously on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2014. The new consoles have been mired in discussion over DRM (digital rights management) recently, with Microsoft instituting connectivity requirements to play games, and PlayStation leaving publishers to decide how to control the sale and resale of their content. The Polish developer behind The Witcher, CD Projekt RED, now tries to find an ideal incarnation for its publicly asserted values, which are staunchly opposed to DRM of any kind. "I can only talk about our intentions; we don't have any agreement finalized yet," CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński tells me, carefully choosing his words. "It's all quite early and we're finding out about it this week, at the conference. But our intention, obviously, is to choose the most gamer-friendly solution." In CD Projekt's perfect world, those solutions would be aligned with their PC- and Mac-based digital distribution platform, GOG.com, where games are 100 percent DRM-free. "Whatever the solutions will be for our partners, we choose something ideally as close to what we have on GOG as possible."
Harmonix and Disney delve into 'Fantasia: Music Evolved' for Kinect
Harmonix is teaming up with Disney to develop Fantasia: Music Evolved, a new motion-driven audio game for Kinect on both Xbox One and Xbox 360. It's not an overt adaptation of the 1940s feature film, but a contemporary, interactive take on Fantasia's evocative melding of music and visual artistry. Nix "Night on Bald Mountain" for Bruno Mars and you're halfway there. You complete songs in Fantasia: Music Evolved by responding in rhythm to on-screen symbols and willing your feeble sausage arms into various pushes and directional swipes. You can also augment the music and its accompanying input pattern at several points by seamlessly swiping into one of two different possible remixes. In a demo shown to press, I was able to switch to an oddly formal but pleasant orchestral rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Harmonix has also included a strong freestyle component in Fantasia, reflected in abstract but intuitive symbols that allow further augmentation of the current track. Drawing shapes on a sphere with your hand, in one example, can create new instrumentation and layer that on top of the active track. Once a song is completed, it spills into the level hub and gradually enriches the environment. One such hub, "The Shoal," is an aquatic playground for fish that becomes more dynamic as you complete songs and prod the scenery back to life and sound. The musical progression, so perceivably tied to the gorgeous environments, does conjure memories of Fantasia, even though the two share no characters – save for a certain wizard. Fantasia: Music Evolved is currently set to debut in 2014. In the meantime, you can enjoy the game's first trailer (above), in which a bunch of gyrating Bieber-mages duel to the max. The track list as announced thus far is right after the break.%Gallery-190255%
Dying Light adds a dash of Parkour to Techland's zombie tour
Techland is keeping its zombie vendetta going in Dying Light, a new first-person action game coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2014, care of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The ruined-world game hinges on a realistic day/night cycle, as well as the agility and Parkour skills of the protagonist turned traceur. Day is pitched as a preparation phase, in which you scavenge a warmly lit urban wasteland for supplies and craft weapons to fend off undead walkers. The night requires a stealthier approach, if not a swift homeward retreat from deadlier monsters. Combat in Dying Light appears to be largely based on upgradeable melee weaponry (eg. an electrified machete), with bone-breaking blows triggering an x-ray visual effect. Zombies can also be pushed into spiked walls with a jump-kick to the chest. The frequency of fighting drops once night arrives and faster, more powerful creatures emerge. These can be detected via an on-screen pulse – one of the abilities you have by virtue of being an infected human yourself. When the monsters of the night do give chase, the camera can quickly flip 180 degrees to show their proximity, even while you dash and vault in the opposite direction. Movement certainly appears to be more fluid than in Techland's Dead Island, with which Dying Light shares a theme of smashing zombies in the tropical sun. The openness of the environment, overall game structure and the true nature of nightfall, the publisher says, are details left for another day.%Gallery-188905%
Warhammer 40K Armageddon gets details, coming in 2014
There are a couple of Warhammer-related titles on their way to iOS soon, but this is the most interesting yet. Developer Slitherine has revealed that it's working on a title called Warhammer 40K: Armageddon, a turn-based, hex-tiled strategy game coming to PC and iOS next year. The game will set Space Marines against Orks across 35 different scenarios, and feature over 100 units with upgradeable stats and attributes, along with a modding system and a separate set of maps balanced out for multiplayer. Armageddon joins a number of other Warhammer games in progress, including Warhammer Quest and the upcoming Space Hulk adaptation. This is an extremely popular game franchise, and iOS is quickly becoming the home of choice for its games. Unfortunately, we won't get to see Armageddon in action until next year at least, but we'll look forward to seeing it then. Show full PR text Armageddon™ invasion starts in 2014 Warhammer® 40,000® turn-based strategy videogame details are disclosed Slitherine and Games Workshop® are pleased to announce Warhammer® 40,000®: Armageddon™. Having announced an exciting partnership with Games Workshop a few weeks ago, Slitherine are delighted to release further details. Slitherine have acquired the exclusive rights to Games Workshop's "Battle for Armageddon" setting in order to create a series of amazing multiplatform, turn-based, hex-based games. Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon will make full use of Slitherine's expertise in creating compelling and challenging strategy gaming experiences. The initial game is set during the Second War of Armageddon and players will lead the Imperial forces of the Armageddon Steel Legion and Space Marines® from the Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Salamanders Chapters against Ghazghkull Thraka's massive Ork Waaagh! invasion through over 30 scenarios, on the hostile terrain of the planet and its gigantic Hive Cities. "It is very exciting to see a game like this come alive - I just can't wait to play it!", said Iain McNeil, Development Director of the Slitherine Group. "It's been almost 15 years since a turn-based strategy game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe has been released and we think it is now time to deliver that experience to all fans around the world". "The Battle for Armageddon is a classic event in the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, having been detailed in games, models and novels over the past 20 years." said Jon Gillard, Head of Licensing at Games Workshop. "Slitherine's masterful use of their classic digital wargame style applied to this seminal setting will delight fans of both." The game is currently in development for PC and iOS and will release in the first quarter of 2014. Main features of the game include: The game portrays the Second War for Armageddon™ in great detail, from the initial Ork landings to the final liberation of the planet; It contains a large branching campaign with 30 major scenarios, plus additional 5 tutorial scenarios that explore the story in detail; A complex plot, which can develop during a mission, right in the middle of battle, creating an engaging story line with unexpected twists; Players lead Imperial troops of the Armageddon™ Steel Legion, with supporting assets from a number of Space Marine chapters against the ferocious Orks; Fight alongside Commissar Yarrik and Commander Dante against the cunning Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka; Carry over battle-hardened veterans from scenario to scenario, using their experience and upgrading their equipment; Detailed combat model with terrain, weather and morale effects; Extensive modding options delivered through a powerful and easy-to-use game editor. Some numbers: Over 35 scenarios; Over 100 unit types, with unique roles, stats and special abilities; 20 different units stats; A separate set of maps are designed and balanced specifically for multiplayer via Slitherine's PBEM++ system.
NVIDIA Q1 earnings: $77.9 million profit on $954 million in revenue
NVIDIA's balance sheet may not look as appealing as it did just a quarter ago, but the company nonetheless managed to beat the consensus expectations and its stock is now climbing in after-hours trading. Profit for NVIDIA's fiscal Q1 2014 rang in at $77.9 million, which is a 55 percent decrease from the previous quarter, but still 29 percent higher than what it netted in Q1 of last year. It's a similar story for revenue: the company reported sales of $954.7 million, down 13 percent from the previous quarter, but up slightly from Q1 2013. Even beyond beating Wall Street's expectations, NVIDIA is giving investors two other reasons to smile: the success of Kepler has led to record margins of 54.3 percent, and the company will return over $1 billion during the year by way of stock repurchases and dividend payments. As for where it's headed? NVIDIA is looking to return to growth as the year progresses, thanks to a little something called the Tegra 4.
Bravely Default coming out in North America
Square Enix's 3DS RPG Bravely Default: Flying Fairy will be released in North America, in partnership with Nintendo. It's expected in 2014, which is ... a long time from now!
The Walking Dead season two peers through a fall 2014 release window [Update: It was fogged, coming 2013]
Update: Telltale Games confirmed to Joystiq that The Walking Dead season two is coming in fall 2013, citing a statement to Game Informer: "The current estimated release window for season two of The Walking Dead is for fall of 'this' year (2013), and not 'next' year (2014) as has been reported after a recent interview. We apologize for any confusion and thank you and all of our fans for your continued excitement for Telltale's series."The horde is coming!Original Story: These ain't no 28 Days Later zombies: Telltale's The Walking Dead season two has a tentative launch window of fall 2014, studio CEO Dan Connors tells Eurogamer. Season one concluded in November 2012, and recently writer Gary Whitta outed a mysterious "something extra" coming before season two hits."He's been sacked. We threw him into the zombie pit," Connors jokes. But really, "We'll probably have something to announce fairly soon about what we're going to do. It'll be different."Whether something "different" is a line of trading cards, collectible stuffed animals or a Broadway show is still up in the air. Connors says he's a fan of the PS4 but he can't announce The Walking Dead on Sony's console yet. Executive Producer Kevin Boyle tells IGN that Telltale is looking forward to trying its formula on next-gen platforms."Season two will read what you did in season one and that will tailor some of the things that happened in season two," Boyle says. "They'll be a lot more social and in-between episode features for season two that definitely exploit what the new platforms have to offer. We're super-excited about PlayStation 4 and what all the other big console manufacturers have in store."There's no word if saves from PS3 games will transfer to the PS4.
