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Joystiq Weekly: Bleszinski returns, Escape Dead Island, WildStar impressions and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Well, we did it. We used a ton of gun powder to make pretty shapes and colors in the sky, and we gorged on grilled food as it happened. Our self-appointed roles as Master Pyrotechnicians (read: the person hogging the lighter near a mound of fireworks) also left us without burns, so we're not sure the holiday could have possibly gone better. Just because the United States and Canada celebrated birthdays this week doesn't mean that everyone took time off though – heck, Cliff Bleszinski is about to end his extended vacation from the gaming industry! We've got details on his return, your last-minute hope to get in on the Evolve alpha, impressions from WildStar, a glimpse at Escape Dead Island and more, all waiting for you after the break!
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.
Evolve wins E3 Game Critics Awards, PS4 leading platform
As voted on by 29 publications, here are the winners of the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3. Spoilers: Evolve won quite a few, along with No Man's Sky and Smash Bros...
Natural selection: Evolve leads E3 Game Critics Awards nominations
Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve notched six nominations in this year's E3 Game Critics Awards, including Best Online Multiplayer and Best Action Game. The four-versus-one shooter is also up for the prestigious Best of Show award, where it's competing with No Man's Sky, Alien: Isolation, Batman: Arkham Knight, Shadow of Mordor and Rainbow Six: Siege. After debuting at E3, Rainbow Six: Siege tied second for most nods from the judges. Both it and Destiny picked up four nominations, while No Man's Sky was one of several games up in three categories, including Best Indie.
Evolve's new Kraken monster is a 'flying squid magician'
When I played Evolve during PAX East, I lost. I was playing as Goliath, an aptly named brute of a monster, well-suited for up-close-and-personal attacks. Alas, I was killed by my opponents, four human-controlled hunters (much more quickly than I care to admit). At E3 this week, I tried my hand at the monster again, only this time I tried Evolved's new beast, the Cthulhu-like Kraken. Senior producer Michael Boccieri describes Kraken as a "flying squid magician," capable of dealing a lot of damage from a distance – and yes, he can fly. I probably shouldn't spoil the rest of this article, but I totally won.
Joystiq's E3 2014 Selections
With E3 2014 in the books, Joystiq's writers look back at their favorites from the show. With the only stipulation being that the game must have been playable to qualify, the team presents its selections for favorite games of E3 2014. From independent gems to major releases from powerhouse publishers, Joystiq's list represents the variety of experiences available to video game fans worldwide. Here are Joystiq's first annual "E3 Selections."
Joystiq Weekly: Amplitude is funded, Wolfenstein review, video previews and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Amplitude fans just discovered a new favorite month of the year, as Harmonix's Kickstarter for a Sony-exclusive continuation of the lane-changing rhythm game cleared its goal within the final day of its funding campaign. Regardless of the original Amplitude's quality, the button-tapper's fan base is pretty niche - if games catering to slivers of the broader gaming population can find the funding they need via Kickstarter, it makes us wonder what other dream sequels we could get away with. There are always the down-and-out series begging for continuations like Shenmue 3, but that almost feels too obvious. What if we launched a Kickstarter for a team to continue an established property? We could start a campaign to glue the pieces of Wipeout developer SCE Studio Liverpool back together, then launch another to cover the resurrected studio's costs to make a new F-Zero! What's that you say? F-Zero is owned by Nintendo and is definitely not a property we can just give out to whoever we wish? Well, we can launch another Kickstarter to fund a protective shield until SCE finishes the game, and then Captain Falcon can finally get back on track with his career! On second thought, maybe we shouldn't take swings at the legal beehive. We'll have to think our F-Zero revival strategy over, but until then, we've got the cliff notes from this week's news and content ready for you. Details about the Xbox One's June update, reviews for Transistor and Wolfenstein: The New Order and video previews for Driveclub and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Morder - it's all ready for you after the break!
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]
Meet the new monster hunters of Evolve
The snarling villain of Evolve, an enormous monster that attempts to thwart and smash four hunters trying to turn him into a trophy, isn't going to like this. The four-versus-one shooter is getting a new set of hunters, each one lugging unique weapons to match the monster's ferocious power and bring him down by the end of the match.
Daily Roundup: Nokia joins Microsoft, a traveler's guide to in-flight WiFi, 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.
Watch this six-way trailer for Evolve, the latest shooter from the makers of Left 4 Dead
With each successive round of gaming consoles, developers get a little more inventive with the available technology -- the same goes for how they tease their audience ahead of a game's launch, too. Turtle Rock Studios (the team behind Left 4 Dead) recently released an interactive trailer for its upcoming co-op shooter, Evolve. The clip follows a session of four players as they stalk and then battle the gigantic, player-controlled creature that's out to end them. The rub of it is that with a single mouse-click you can swap between the perspectives of each combatant on-the-fly, and watch how the game unfolds from their respective points of view. Want jump from bipedal-monstrosity to soldier and back again just before the former attacks the latter? Go for it.
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.
Joystiq Weekly: Titanfall, The Last of Us DLC and Mario Kart 8 rivals
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Did you see that the Koopalings are going to be new characters targets in Mario Kart 8? The Koopalings, the brats responsible for loads of deaths dealt to Mario and Luigi with lava, twirling hoops and rings of death from magic wands? Yup, we've got new rivals. You're annoying, Baby Mario, but you haven't stopped us from moving on to the next world of a Mario game before. Watch your back, Koopalings. There's something about family-friendly, inclusive Nintendo games that bring our most competitive spirit. Have you ever calmly congratulated a friend after their star thievery earned them the title of Party Champion in Mario Party 2? Have you nodded in admiration of your opponent's strategy in Mario Kart Wii, right after they steal your victory with a red shell a few feet away from the finish line? We have a feeling your dialogue might have been more ... "spirited" than civil. We're not judging though - heck, we just threatened a bunch of baby turtles one graf above this! Of course, a lot more happened this week beyond the Koopalings opening themselves up for a world of hurt. This week brought NPD data for January, a review of The Last of Us' "Left Behind" DLC and video previews for Titanfall and Evolve! There's lots more beyond that after the break though, so jump the break and dive into the biggest stories of the week!
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]
Evolve Video Preview
Joystiq's latest video preview walks you through Evolve, a new competitive and cooperative shooter from Turtle Rock Studios. We discuss the jetpacks and unique tools that make combat interesting, and how the developer's history with Left 4 Dead bubbles up in this chaotic chase through the jungle. We explain and show the four classes of gun-toting hunters, and cover their violent intersections with the fifth player, bound in the muscular monster on the verge of its next evolution. Evolve is coming to PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One this fall. [Image: 2K Games]
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.
