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'Nex Machina' will show you exactly how someone hit a high score
Finnish developer Housemarque's ode to Robotron: 2084, Nex Machina is out for PC and PlayStation 4 this summer. And while we debuted it in December, details for the frantic arcade shooter have been relatively scarce since. But that's slowly changing. Perhaps the most exciting new wrinkle we've learned about is its replay mode. "All of the leaderboard entries are effectively recorded, which means it's possible to enter the leaderboards, select an entry and watch the replay," a post on the PlayStation Blog reads.
'Rock Band 4' devs will wipe the leaderboards next month
In a sign of what's to come for your favorite board game, Harmonix announced it's fixed a "gnarly" Rock Band 4 bug, and next month will deliver a patch that ends a number of scoring exploits. The bad news for players? That also means the games leaderboards will be entirely reset. While players will still have their high scores saved locally, they'll need to go again for online bragging rights. Speaking of online, in a recent blog post Harmonix said that bringing internet multiplayer to the new game is "very much on the table," but it hasn't committed to a timetable.
Red Faction: Guerrilla opens Steamworks public beta
Red Faction: Guerrilla is the latest game to completely shed its Games for Windows Live coat, and will now begin testing full Steam support features, Nordic Games announced. The publisher invited players to participate in a public beta of the game's new Steam-based functionality, which includes matchmaking and multiplayer support via Steamworks. The game's public beta will also feature leaderboards, voice chat and achievements via Valve's PC gaming service. Those interested in participating in the beta are instructed to follow this guide, selecting Red Faction: Guerrilla in step one and using the password "nordicrfgbeta" and the beta branch "publicbeta." First launching in 2009, Red Faction: Guerrilla was part of the $4.9 million set of intellectual properties purchased by Nordic Games in THQ's liquidation auction in April 2013, seeing itself as a "middle man" for potential sequels in its new series. The publisher told Joystiq at Gamescom in August that it's "not the right time" for Red Faction: Guerrilla 2. [Image: Nordic Games]
E3 2013: DCUO plans to remain completely free on PS4
The PlayStation 4 made headlines at this year's E3 thanks to its console wars one-upmanship as well as its newly announced launch library. But one previously announced had a live demo at the L.A.-based convention extravaganza; DC Universe Online offered players a chance to experience some next-gen superhero shenanigans for themselves, so we totally jumped in on the action! After engrossing ourselves in the world of capes, masks, and super powers, we nabbed Executive Producer Lawrence Liberty to talk with us about DCUO's conversion to the PS4. He shared details about performance, uses for the touchpad on the new controller, a new companion app, and the plan for DCUO to be available at the console's launch. Liberty also noted that the team is working with Sony to keep the game free on the PS4 so players won't have to purchase a PlayStation Plus membership.
Google Play Games leaks out, will feature matchmaking and achievements
The Android answer to Apple's Game Center app on iOS will be Google Play Games, according to information obtained by Android Police from a Play Services APK teardown. The service will bring lobbies and invites for matchmaking, in-game chat, cloud game saves, achievements and leaderboards to the platform for developers to make use of. The APK Android Police pulled apart is a file package primarily used to update Android apps, so this update was riddled with code that indicated what features would be coming to the platform down the road, but aren't accessible just yet. There is certainly a good chance Google Play Games will be fully unveiled at Google's I/O event next week in San Francisco.
Payback 2 goes free-to-play
Payback 2 arrived on the App Store late last year. It's the sequel to a game called Payback that was sort of a Grand Theft Auto for iOS (before Grand Theft Auto for iOS was actually released). Payback 2 added online multiplayer and a new "custom mode," and as of today, it has gone free-to-play, which means you can now pick it up for zero dollars. The game's seen plenty of updates since its initial release. Just recently, the controls were tuned up, and plenty of bugs have been fixed and extra options added in. By going free, the dev tells us, Payback 2 should attract an influx of new players, which means the multiplayer modes should be well-populated and ready to go. If you haven't given Payback 2 a try, now's the best time to do it.
Guild Wars 2's leaderboards are up and running
Guild Wars 2's big March update introduced leaderboards as an abstract concept. Things were being tracked and ranks calculated, but we couldn't really see what that all amounted to. Those of you who have been unsure of your self-worth up 'til now can rest easy, though: The leaderboards have gone live. You can check them out for yourself. Right now the leaderboards show the top 100 players for PvP, WvW, and achievement points. The PvP boards are based on tournament matches, which players will need to have participated in at least ten of before their stats are tracked by the leaderboard. The team is looking forward to expanding the functionality of leaderboards in the future, but at least we've got some sort of stick to start measuring ourselves by.
Borderlands 2 for Mac gets a multiplayer update
Borderlands 2 arrived on the Mac late last year, but unfortunately the publisher, Aspyr Media, wasn't able to get the multiplayer working in time for the release. Today the company has released a patch that enables multiplayer co-op through Game Center, along with leaderboards and achievements. Aspyr has also made five different content packs available through in-app purchase, so you can pick up new items, new levels and the Mechromancer class as well. To celebrate the game's update, Aspyr has put the title on sale at 50 percent off for a limited time, so you can grab it for just US$29.99 right now. It's a shame this content wasn't available at launch, but better late than never, and having the game available at such a low price puts us in a pretty forgiving mood anyway.
Guild Wars 2 adding Flame and Frost: The Razing update next week
On March 26th, the third installment of the four-part Flame and Frost series in Guild Wars 2 erupts on servers. In this update, the land of Tyria will come under attack by an army composed of the dredge and the charr Flame Legion, whose sole purpose is to completely raze the land and destroy everyone in the way. This threat will burst through the fiery portals in the Shiverpeaks, and denizens of the land need help to defend themselves to avoid annihilation. Plenty of new features accompany this update, giving players multiple ways to help neutralize this threat, from two new NPCs whose stories and missions send players into the fray to dredge-constructed spy outposts that must be found and destroyed. World-vs.-world gets a facelift with a new progression system that includes new abilities and the elimination of culling. About a week after The Razing goes lives, players will be able to peruse the new GW2 leaderboards, where WvW rankings, PvP player rankings, and total achievement points will all be listed.
Users report Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 leaderboard data reset [update]
If you're the type to meticulously pore over leaderboard data, you may want to boot up Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Some users are reporting their leaderboard data has been erased – total play time, points, rank and even zombies performance seem to have been affected.The forum thread in question only shows a few users complaining of having their stats erased, but we've still followed up with Activision for clarification on whether this is a widespread issue or isolated to a few specific players. We'll update you all as soon as our intel package arrives.Update: Treyarch took to Twitter to acknowledge the issue and the developer says it's working on a fix.
Mountain Lion 101: Game Center
Yes, with the arrival of Mountain Lion on the Mac today, Apple has finally extended its Game Center iOS gaming social service to the desktop. The easiest way to find Game Center on your Mountain Lion-equipped Mac is to jump on over to the Launchpad, where Apple's already set up an icon for you. Click that sucker, and you'll be able to sign in, either with a brand new account or (even better) the same account you use on iOS. Once logged in, you're able to see all of your friends, any leaderboard ranks and achievements you've racked up on iOS games, and any pending friend requests you happen to have. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of Game Center-enabled games on the Mac yet, but a few popular games have been able to make the jump, including Cut the Rope, SpellTower, Osmos, and Firemint's popular Real Racing 2. I'm sure we'll see plenty of other games making the jump soon enough -- part of Game Center's charm is that it's relatively easy for developers to implement and include in their titles. Other than that bigger screen (the wood and felt look really great, actually), and the fact that desktop games will be included, this implementation of Game Center isn't radically different from what we've known before. There are still achievements and leaderboards, and presumably there will be multiplayer tie-ins soon as well. But perhaps it's enough that Apple has enough faith in its social gaming system to finally bring it back to the desktop, and let it grow there, too.
Amazon announces GameCircle, similar to Apple's GameCenter
Amazon has announced a new service for its Kindle Fire platform called GameCircle, which is akin to Apple's own GameCenter service. It's set to provide a series of APIs for leaderboards, achievements, and other socially-centered game-related features. GameCircle has already been tested with a few popular titles on the Kindle Fire, and it's available for developers to sign up and check out right now. Obviously this has nothing to do with us iOS users, as GameCenter not only covers our needs on Apple's portable devices, but it's also coming to OS X in the quickly approaching Mountain Lion. But this does show that other device manufacturers are learning from Apple's history. Originally on the iOS platform, there was no official social gaming network, and it was a free-for-all between popular networks like OpenFeint, Crystal, and plenty of others. But Amazon's heading all of that off early, aiming to bring developers under its own official umbrella for social gaming.
Funcom unveils armory-like Chronicle for The Secret World
Imagine that -- keeping an upcoming feature of The Secret World a secret! Yet Funcom pulled it off, announcing today via a letter from creative director and senior producer Ragnar Tornquist the aptly named new player record that will actually chronicle a player's journey through TSW. Starting now, players active within the last four days can log into Chronicle and check out their stats on their profile page and compare themselves with players across the world using the PvP and PvE leaderboards. But that's only the beginning. Tornquist goes on to say, "We have a lot of great features planned, and we will be integrating the service more with the game and also, hopefully, with mobile devices and social networks in the future. We are going to add more stats, more features, more leaderboards, and more user control. We might also look at giving rewards tied to your status and standing on Chronicle." The beta is public so the team can gather as much community feedback as possible, so jump in, check it out, and give your feedback to help shape Chronicle's future. [Source: Funcom press release]
Trials Evolution getting bugfix update, resetting multiplayer leaderboards
RedLynx is delivering the first title update for popular motorcycle crash simulator Trials Evolution, adding fixes for a number of game issues, as well as tweaks to get rid of high score-ensuring loopholes.Because a lot of "corrupted data" made it on to the leaderboards at launch, according to RedLynx, the multiplayer scoreboards in Trials Evolution will be reset when the patch goes live at 2:00 AM PDT Wednesday morning. Single-player leaderboards, player-created track leaderboards, and multiplayer ranks won't be affected by this change.RedLynx recommends that players stay out of multiplayer for four to six hours after the update, in order to make sure that any scores earned are recorded correctly. What else can you do between the hours of two and eight AM? Sleeping is one option. Just throwing that out there.
Fishing, survival, and dragons: The Trion Team talks about RIFT's 1.8 update
As the Carnival of the Ascended draws to a close and the last of the piñatas and balloons are put away from RIFT's first birthday, Update 1.8 is just around the corner. It's full of new content, including the new raid zone Infernal Dawn, fishing and survival skills, and lots of game improvements. Massively took part in a roundtable discussion with Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, Design Producer Hal Hanlin, and Producer Adam Gershowitz to get all the details on Update 1.8 and more. Read on for highlights!%Gallery-153032%
Google quietly launches Latitude Leaderboards, threatens Foursquare under its breath
Google didn't exactly offer much fanfare for this new feature -- as far as we can tell, it still hasn't been officially announced. With the latest update to the Maps app, Mountain View delivered an extra level of functionality to the all but forgotten Latitude. Now check check-ins earn you points which are tallied and used to rank Google+ users on a global leaderboard, just like on Foursquare. Not everyone is seeing the feature just yet, and it only appears to reveal itself after you check-in somewhere. In fact, we still haven't found a way to pull up the leaderboard without first registering our location. You can see the rather sparse help page at the more coverage link and sound off in the comments if you're seeing your name ranked alongside your favorite Engadget editors and Leo Laporte.
Saints Row: The Third site adds interactive stats and leaderboards
SaintsRow.com has added a whole slew of new metagame features for chaos simulator Saints Row: The Third, available now by logging in to the website. In addition to standard stats like playtime and the number and type of kills, you can also check out leaderboards on various categories to see how you rate either among your friends or around the world. There's also an interactive map of the city, which will routinely add in player achievements, screenshots, and even custom hints from other players in the game, all displayed right on the spot where it happened. All of the updates are free to use, but of course you've got to create a THQ account and sign in to it with the game itself. And Volition is promising even more features in the future -- trust us, no purple dildos will hit a single head in Steelport without you knowing about it by the time they're done.
PSA: Iron Brigade (formerly Trenched) available worldwide now
Double Fine has announced that Iron Brigade (which is the updated version of Trenched, renamed and revamped for sale overseas) is now available worldwide on Xbox Live Arcade. The game is available for 1200 Microsoft Points (about $15). Double Fine is also selling an official release day I-shirt (not a T-shirt, they say -- "that would get us sued") for $20 on its website. Anyone who already owns Trenched will find an update when they log into the game, changing the name and adding new items, leaderboards on which to compete, and a new survival mode. We loved Trenched back when it released in June, and we're sure that by spending a little sit-down time with Iron Brigade, we can probably learn to love it too.
Final Fantasy XIV prepares a new company page in anticipation of tomorrow's patch
Tomorrow will see the truly massive patch 1.19 go live for Final Fantasy XIV, bringing with it a plethora of updates and expansions to the game as well as a renewed focus on the Grand Companies of Eorzea. So it only makes sense that before the patch goes live, the official page for the companies has been updated in full. Rather than providing a single and somewhat disorganized list, the revamped page gives each of the companies a spot for in-universe updates and a new feature honoring the recent heroes of each company. Starting on October 6th, the page for each company will track the contributions of players on each server, displaying the names of those individuals showing exceptional dedication to the cause. Each page also features one of the national newspapers reporting on the activities of the company, promising more lore and connected updates for players to follow. It's not the patch itself, but the page should give Final Fantasy XIV players just one more thing to look forward to in the coming days.
Xbox Live leaderboard data shows how House Party promotion fared
GamerBytes did a little number-crunching on the Xbox Live Arcade leaderboards for last month, and while we don't have exact numbers on Xbox Live titles (other than Major Nelson's usual list of most-played and purchased games), these are usually a rough indication of what business was like on Microsoft's network last month. Bionic Commando: Re-armed 2 was the biggest disappointment, picking up fewer than 10,000 players on the leaderboards, compared to over 130K first-week sales for the first title. Hard Corps: Uprising, the first game to come out under Microsoft's "House Party" banner, brought in a few more players, at around 27K, and Bejeweled Blitz Live did pretty well (for a game that's on nearly every platform known to man in its basic form) with over 14K new players in the single week of February it was out. Sales were big drivers -- Hydrophobia picked up over 10,000 new players thanks to a sale, and Geometry Wars 2 saw a huge bump as well. Outside of the new titles, Pinball FX 2 and Trials HD continue to grow their leaderboards.
