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'Splitgate' is getting a map builder and new modes on January 27th
Splitgate is getting a slew of updates on January 27th with its Beta Season One update.
Portal shooter 'Splitgate' launches Season 0, a bigger, better beta
Splitgate is launching its Season 0 beta today.
Blizzard's 'Overwatch' hits consoles and PC on May 24
The wait is almost over for Overwatch, Blizzard's first original game in some time. The shooter will hit PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on May 24, the company announced today. Additionally, you'll be able to get your feet wet during an open beta from May 5 through May 9. Those who preorder the game will also be able to get an early start on the beta on May 3.
Nintendo launched a multiplayer web portal for Splatoon stats
How do you get your Splatoon fix when you're away from your Wii U? With SplatNet -- the game's newly christened web portal, of course. Okay, it's not actually that new: Japanese players have had access to the website for months, but Nintendo only just recently got around to translating the portal for international audiences. It's a convenient online hub that lets users check their weekly ranking, plan future matches with friends, view equipped gear and more.
The Division developers explain the 2015 delay
A lot of people weren't particularly surprised to learn that The Division was being delayed until 2015, but it's still nice to find out exactly why. After all, if you're looking forward to the game at all, you would like to see it sooner rather than later. Gamereactor recently spoke with the development studio, and the developers explained the core reason behind the delay as simply being a matter of properly exploring the concept rather than releasing an unfinished game on a tighter schedule. According to the interview, the development team was upset at the original announcement of a 2014 release, as there had been no in-house discussion of release dates. The game's engine is quite powerful, but even the 2015 date may be overly optimistic, with The Division's multiplayer components still having major issues with implementation. Hopefully the delays will help ensure that the game is more polished and playable when it does release, whether that's in 2015 or later.
What's in a name? WoW study explores the answer
Do your characters' names change depending on the race or class you're playing, or do they reflect your play-style as a whole? A recent article at Gamasutra by games analyst Anders Drachen explores the patterns that emerge when studying names in games. Speculating that patterns in naming exist, Drachen and colleagues studied millions of World of Warcraft character data and found a relationship between the name selection and the class and race of a character; the most popular names had virtually no overlap between classes and races. It was also discovered that unique names in the game existed at a higher frequency than in the real world. The researches found that an average of 58% of the names overall were unique and that 83% of names were unique on RP servers. Additionally, names with negative connotations were six times more common than positive ones. Taking the study beyond WoW, the researchers looked at shooters and found "hints that it may be possible to predict some aspects of play behavior or perhaps even personality of people based on their character names."
Daily iPhone App: Pixlgun 3D is full of surprises
Even after browsing the description of Pixlgun 3D on the app store, you may still not know what to make of it. It looks like Minecraft, but it's a shooter. It emulates analog sticks on a touchscreen, but boasts fantastic control. And it looks cartoony, but offers a very real sense of panic and dread. In short, it's a game that will pleasantly surprise you on several fronts. Pixlgun 3D bills itself as a "survival shooter," and that label describes the game's action quite well. With no story or plot to speak of, you are tossed into a blocky world where you must defend yourself against a wide array of enemy types ranging from bouncing blobs to skeletons to blood thirsty birds. Almost everything that moves can kill you and should be treated as a threat. The arenas that make up the game world are modeled after settings like hospitals, deserted streets, and Egyptian ruins. Various power-ups such as health boosts and weaponry litter the levels and your time will be split pretty evenly between dispatching enemies and searching for better guns or ammo. Each level has a set number of foes that must be dealt with before you can move on to the next stage, and once that number hits zero a portal opens up allowing you to progress. The difficulty ramps up with each new level and it doesn't take long to find yourself stuck in a corner without ammo or an exit. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you view microtransactions in general) you are afforded the ability to purchase items from a shop at any time you wish. The shop offers only in-app purchases using actual cash, and there's no in-game economy that allows you to purchase ammo or health in the same manner. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise that Pixlgun 3D provides is its buttery smooth controls. Many games that attempt to emulate twin analog sticks on-screen fail horribly, but that's just not the case here. If you've played a first-person shooter on modern consoles the learning curve is extremely small and you'll be picking off blocky bad guys in seconds. For USD$0.99, there's quite a bit of content here and if your trigger finger is fast enough to save your life without having to spend money on in-app aids, it's a fantastic value.
Riccitiello: We were 'horrified' by Newtown, studies don't link video games to gun violence
EA CEO John Riccitiello said EA didn't see any impact on sales of shooters following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, nor during the following political maelstrom. Riccitiello said he has a unique vantage point on the issue of gun violence and the media, since he chairs the ESRB and ESA alongside his day job.During a financial call, Riccitiello fielded a question about the potential impact of real-life gun violence on shooter sales and EA's internal approach to violent games."I was hoping we weren't going to do this question," he began.
Call of Duty now Online in China, monetization not ready yet
An alpha version of Call of Duty Online – the China-exclusive, free-to-play game based on the Activision shooter – is now live, Kotaku reports. Monetization systems for the game (i.e. those sweet, sweet microtransactions) are unavailable in its current form; however, Call of Duty Online is playable in the region.Call of Duty Online was announced by Activision last year and pairs the western publisher with China investment holdings firm Tencent, a company that offers social networks, e-commerce, multiplayer online games and more within the country.China has a rich history with freemium video game experiences, including Tencent's own hugely successful Cross Fire. But if a brand as large as Call of Duty strikes gold in China, we may see other popular franchises form-fitted to work in the region's microtransaction-focused industry.
Under Defeat's Maruyama on shmup stagnation
G.Rev's Under Defeat was already part of a "new generation" of shooters when it was released in arcades in 2005 and on Dreamcast in 2006 – at least, compared with what most people would think of as the "golden age" for the genre in the late '80s and early '90s.And now, six years later, Under Defeat returns in HD on PS3. I asked G.Rev CEO Hiroyuki Maruyama how shooters have evolved since its original release."Well ... to be honest, I do not think there has been any evolution in the genre in the past few years," Maruyama said. "Around the year 2000, if you discussed shoot 'em ups, you could talk about several different types of games within the genre. It's sad to see that recently you do not come across the same variety of shooters in the market. As a company, we have tried to release shmups that we feel are 'different' than others ... but it is a difficult environment right now."%Gallery-163195%
Interview on The War Z outlines more on gameplay and design goals
If you've been waiting patiently for your zombie survival kit in the basement to stop gathering dust, you're probably very interested in how the upcoming title The War Z will play out. The game's billed as a persistent open-world zombie survival sandbox, but how will that work in practice? According to executive producer Sergey Titov in a recent interview, the key is making a game that has a wide enough set of tools for a single objective and then allowing players to make most of the actual gameplay. Titov elaborates that the game won't have any traditional quests or missions; instead, players are simply given the goal of surviving against hordes of zombies. Experiences emerge through interactions with environmental situations, such as dealing with "safe settlements" that have created hard rules to ensure the town's safety against zombies. Take a look at the full interview for more peeks at the game's development cycle, shooter style, and economic design. [Thanks to Joseph for the tip!]
DayZ shooter mod reaches 500k users
What do you get when you cross a hyper-realistic open-world shooter with a zombie-driven third-party mod? A certified phenomenon with more users than your average MMORPG, according to our friends at Joystiq. "Congratulations everyone, with your support through tough times, mistakes, troubles, and technical problems, we now have over 500k users," DayZ dev Dean Hall tweeted yesterday. The mod has taken the shooter world by storm with its blend of realism, unforgiving gameplay, and brain-munching undead. The project turns Bohemia Interactive's Arma 2 into a desperate fight for survival in a world ravaged by zombie apocalypse. While the mod isn't technically an MMO, its persistence and massive world are certainly MMO-like. DayZ is on track to overtake the sales of the game on which it is based. "Currently we're running 22,000 concurrent at full peak, and 10,000 off peak, which is pretty huge numbers considering the original data structure and system was designed to handle 100 concurrents and two servers," he said.
The Firing Line: American aircraft and a real-life shooter
What's happening, shooter fans? Hopefully everyone's getting ready for a long holiday weekend filled with family, food, and gaming (of course). Several interesting online shooter nuggets came across my desk this week, including a deeper look at World of Warplanes, a Firefall beta clarification, and some sexy new DUST 514 details. Also, would you believe a real-life -- and real, live -- online FPS featuring actual locations?
The Firing Line: Tribes impressions and a visit to Hi-Rez
What's up folks, and welcome to The Firing Line. We've been branching out our coverage lately, first with MMO-specific columns and then with Not So Massively and MOBAs. Now we're doing something similar with online shooters. This genre is positively huge, and while there's a lot of room for debate in terms of what constitutes an MMO shooter, there's also no denying that all of the games hovering around the periphery of that designation are a lot of fun. So what will we be talking about in The Firing Line? Well, this is the part where I rub my hands together in anticipation! Naturally we'll spend a lot of time with the genre's big guns (sorry, I had to use that at least once), so I'll be playing huge amounts of PlanetSide 2, DUST 514, Firefall, Global Agenda, and the semi-obscure free-to-play titles crowding the market -- all in an effort to bring you the very best news and views from the world of pew pew.
Firefall announces beta, details launch
Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios, dropped by the Firefall forums today to write an open letter to The Escapist regarding Firefall's beta testing and launch. In the post, Mr. Kern states that the game is currently in friends and family beta testing. But there's good news for those of you who aren't friends or family of the folks at Red 5: The expanded beta program will begin later this month after PAX Prime. As far as the game's launch is concerned, Mr. Kern goes on to explain that the team already considers the game to be launched, as Red 5 seems to feel that the traditional closed beta to open beta to launch process is outdated "in a modern, online, service oriented business, especially a free2playgame." Instead, they will be modeling the game's launch after Gmail's invite system, wherein certain players will be invited by the team, and those players will receive invitations that they can pass on to friends, thereby allowing the game to gradually grow as layers of invitations are passed around. Stick around for more, because you can bet we'll have the first news on the beta this month after PAX.
E3 2011: Trion Worlds talks Defiance
Straight from E3, we have some brand-new information on the upcoming project Defiance from Trion Worlds and Syfy. Three members of Trion Worlds got up on stage to demo the game and answer questions from the audience (which included our own Rubi Bayer), and there's a wealth of new information to cover, so let's dive in, shall we? Follow on past the cut for all the Defiance goodness you could ask for.
TUAW's Daily App: Archetype
Well now, this one's interesting. Archetype is a brand new title on the App Store that's aiming to put what seems like a big budget experience on Apple's small screen. The game is made by MunkyFun (a company led by ex-LucasArts developer Nick Pavis) and published by Villian, "an independent producer and publisher of portable game titles" that seems to have a history in mobile gaming, but not much of a website. Basically, Archetype is purporting to be Eliminate without Ngmoco -- a full-featured multiplayer FPS without any of the microtransactions or other nonsense. And it lives up to the hype. The controls will take some getting used to, even if you're a WASD veteran. In just 30 seconds on Wi-Fi, I was loaded up and playing a 5v5 deathmatch FPS game. Even on an Edge connection, I was able to play smoothly, and even pull off a kill -- I don't know what kind of code witchery makes that possible, but it works. The graphics don't really compare to modern console shooters, but I think the multiplayer gameplay easily beats Metroid: Prime Hunters and the current crop of iPhone shooters. Of course, the game still has to deal with the issues of the genre -- if you're not a twitch gamer, you'll likely get murdered very quickly, and while there are plenty of high-ping people to play with now, it's not clear what will happen if the servers get overloaded or, conversely, if the crowd thins out. You're still playing a FPS on an iPhone, and I'd much rather play a shooter on my PC or a console than this. But given the limitations of the genre and the device, Archetype is certainly an impressive title. You're still kind of going in blind at US$2.99 -- Archetype doesn't have a free version to try yet. But if you can expect to put three bucks of your time into playing this surprisingly solid multiplayer FPS, by all means, jump on in.
HAWX 2 features 'all aspects' of air combat, four-player campaign co-op
Ubisoft has revealed new information about Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2, which Joystiq got to see in an early build last week at a pre-E3 event. The sequel to the flight combat simulator is expanding its purview to include "all aspects of aerial combat," including takeoffs and landings, recon missions in UAVs, air-to-air refueling and dogfighting missions, and even laser-guiding bombs down to targets. The game will use satellite imagery to create realistic locations from all over the world, including Moscow, the Arctic Circle and a desert area we got to see in the Persian Gulf. Ubisoft also told Joystiq that the game would offer four-player co-op throughout the whole campaign, as well as "full adversarial multiplayer" with up to eight players involved. It was also hinted that H.A.W.X. 2 will tie in some of Ubisoft's other Tom Clancy properties, though we weren't yet told how. We'll learn more when we get to play the game (which is due out on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC this fall) in a hands-on at E3. %Gallery-92365%
TUAW's Daily App: Space Storm
Space Storm is about as conventional as space shooters get; enemies come into the screen from the right, and your ship flies from the left, blowing things out of the sky with a few different weapons and picking up health or power-ups along the way. In this case, though, conventional is good. The game feels right, and the dual-stick setup will have you navigating your ship around enemies and bullets and even slowing time down with occasional power-ups, in no time. Boss levels add a little variety to the mix, but basically, it's fly and shoot. It's very simple and pretty darn fun. OpenFeint adds some replayability to the somewhat short game, but a shooter is a shooter. As of this writing, the game is free on a promotion, but if you enjoy a good space shooter, it's definitely worth a couple of bucks.
GDC10: Land of Chaos Online interview
MMOs are a strange genre without many of the clearly-defined borders for something that is or isn't a part of the field. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of innovation in the field that's confined strictly to the absolute edges of what could be considered an MMO. Games such as MAG and Global Agenda feature several shooter conventions mixed with several MMO conventions, and it's an interesting formula. Land of Chaos Online is pushing the formula as well, by adding in third-person shooter elements to a Defense of the Ancients-style match format. The game is on the outer edge of the genre, but it draws much of its gameplay and feel from MMOs, with a strong emphasis on coupled character persistence and more shooter-style elements. We caught up with Achim Kaspers, managing director of Burda:ic, during GDC to talk about what the game would play like and get an idea of what we could expect. More information on this unique game after the cut.
