Precursor Games Says Denis Dyack And Silicon Knights Weren’t Malicious
There are other reasons why Silicon Knights went down the tubes, apparently.
As it turns out, Denis Dyack didn’t become a kind of hellspawn after Eternal Darkness, ruining Too Human, siphoning funds away from X-Men Destiny (which was awful) to work on an Eternal Darkness 2 demo to pitch to publishers (that was also awful) and running the company straight into the ground. That’s the narrative that a massive, scathing expose from Kotaku last year painted of Dyack and the Canadian developer, but according to Sean Thompson, the technical director over at Precusor Games, which is now trying to crowdfund an Eternal Darkness 2 of sorts, that’s simply not true.
‘Minecraft’ Meets Oculus Rift With This New VR Mod
Hoo boy!
Let’s take my favorite future peripheral with my favorite game of the past decade and put them together, shall we? Make matches? The marriage of these two is something I dream of. To build a world and then wander around in it as if you were really there. Minecraft already does terrible things to my time when I’m in the mood and I can’t imagine things getting any better when Mojang decides to induct this into their game proper.
What Is Steam’s Greenlight Service And Why Do Indie Developers Hate It So Much?
Lots of buzz about Steam’s indie release service, good and bad.
Self-publishing your work is hard. I should know. After spending months or years of your life forming something the public can consume from the deepest pits of your brain, you not only have to learn the technical ropes to make it happen, but the art of promotion and juggle all these hats in the hopes that it’ll pay off. If you’re writing a book, you’ll want to make sure it’s on Kindle; a movie: Amazon or Netflix, but if you’re making a game, Steam is the promised land. Sure, there are other platforms that will distribute your game digitally with fewer barriers to meddle with, but none compare to the clout that comes with being carried on Steam, a previously near-impossible task. With Steam’s Greenlight service, more developers are closer to realizing their dreams, but why are the same independent developers it’s designed to help passionately railing against the service?
OMG: ‘Just Cause 2’ Developer Almost Made Open-World ‘Star Wars’ Game
Be still, my beating heart.
Urgh! Hurp… phew! Oh, don’t mind me, just almost having a heart attack after hearing about this news. According to current and former key personnel at Avalanche Studios, the people behind my second favorite game of the past decade (behind Minecraft, obviously) lobbied LucasArts to make an open-world game in the Star Wars universe, which may have become the best game ever made in history, had it come to pass.
PlayStation 4 And Next-Gen Xbox Games Won’t Appear On Wii U Because Duh
You’ can see this graphical power on the Wii U… in video form.
I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but media outlets are, again and again, reporting how various studios will be unable to bring their next-generation efforts to the Wii U. Somehow, people have some kind of expectation that graphics engines that are being optimized for hardware ten times as powerful (I’m just spitballing, but considerably faster) as the Wii U will fit on the Nintendo console. This isn’t news, but the fact that it’s being reported (and re-reported) is blistering my mind.
New Double Fine-Themed Humble Bundle Is Worth Losing Your Mind Over
It’s insane like a manatee. Hmmm, that doesn’t really have the same ring about it, does it…
It’s time for a new Humble Bundle! Most of these have been great, but c’mon, having those holdouts back yet again is getting a little thin. Now it’s time for Tim Schafer’s Double Fine to shine, now featuring almost all of the studio’s output in one fell swoop!
How To Make A Better Strategy Game: 4X Edition
While it predates the term, Civilization is the 4X genre’s most popular game.
Strategy games have been around for thousands of years. We’ve played them in all of their various forms, but before we had StarCraft, we had Chess and Carcassone. There came a time when the bustling utility of the computer allowed for more sophisticated fare that didn’t require tons of custom paperwork, massive table tops, a complex set of dice and the inefficient industry of the human calculator. One of the most popular genres to emerge from this new computer gaming was the XXXX strategy game, which isn’t short-hand for extra-dimensional porn, but the perfect way to produce a game of a massive scale – like building an empire – without bogging you down in minutiae. With developers continuing to push out 4X “tribute” games that fall way short of their influences, I’ve decided to step back to explain what makes those games so special, rather than rag about what makes these would-bes inferior. Read the rest of this article…
The Sims 4 To Be Released In 2014? Whoopidy Doo!
Like The Sims 3, only… Ok, like The Sims 3
Yesterday, Electronic Arts sent out a press release letting us all know that they are planning to release The Sims 4 in 2014. N wrote an article earlier talking about the fact that he never really enjoyed The Sims.
I have a slightly different take on the franchise.
‘SimCity’ 3.0 Update Will Finally (Finally!) Fix Traffic, Goes Live This Week
Will we finally embrace that idyllic suburbia?
While we wait for SimCity to get fixed, Maxis is still busting their buttons to get it done. They’re still not nowhere near Game of the Year contender, but they inch just a little bit closer with every major patch.
Electronic Arts Will Make ‘Star Wars’ Games In Exclusive Deal, Can’t Be That Bad?
This announcement makes my head hurt.
Do you know Electronic Arts? The company with the talented developers and the dreaded management? The company that was voted worst of the year for the second consecutive time and their CEO resigned? The one that launched SimCity and hasn’t come close to fixing it? Microtransactions? Well, they’ll be the only ones making Star Wars games for a couple years.
