Destiny’s Beta begins July 17 on PlayStation and July 23 on Xbox.
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Yearly Archives: 2014
Oculus Announces Oculus Connect + New Acquisition
Oculus just announced its first ever developer conference: Oculus Connect. Oculus Connect is set for Los Angeles, CA, at the Lowes Hotel in Hollywood, September 19-20, 2014. The actual sessions will be announced as we draw closer to the show, but it will feature keynots from Brendan Iribe (CEO), Palmer Luckey (Founder), John Carmack (CTO) and Michael Abrash (Chief Scientist).
“In the last two years, we’ve seen more virtual reality content built than in the last two decades, and that’s a direct result of incredible work by the community. With virtual reality’s momentum at an all-time high, this is a unique moment for the developer community to come together to take the virtual reality to the next level.
Oculus Connect 2014 takes place Sept 19 – 20 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. Attendee applications will be available on the Oculus Connect website, www.oculusvr.com/connect, starting on July 10th and attendance confirmations will go out the following week. We’ve reserved a block of discounted rooms at the Loews for registered guests.
Attendees will be the first to learn about upcoming Oculus technology, with sessions and workshops led by Oculus engineers and industry pioneers. Developers at the event will also have opportunities to receive design and engineering feedback directly from the Oculus team in hands-on labs.”
For more info, visit http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/announcing-oculus-connect-raknet-open-source-and-e3-2014-awards/
Weekly Hutstream 7/3: ZMR and Elsword
JamesBl0nde is now live on Twitch.TV playing Zombies Monsters Robots (ZMR) and Elsword! Watch the team gaming it up and get a preview of upcoming First Look videos with us every Friday at 11am PST!
Skara: The Blade Remains Reaches Kickstarter Funding Goal
Today, Skara: The Blade Remains has reached their funding goal of $35,000, with only a day left on their Kickstarter.
Now, the team is pushing for its next stretch goal: at $40,000, the team will fund a third playable character, the Celea.
For more information on the Skara campaign, which includes early access founder’s packs, visit the official Kickstarter page.
Hazard Ops Open Beta Preview
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)
The past week I have been fighting all sorts of battles, ones that can only be solved with a proper gun and enough ammo. I had the chance to be one of the first to try out a new and upcoming game called Hazard Ops. This game takes you into a wild rollercoaster ride where having enough ammunition is a life and death matter, and not needing to reload at key moments can be a blessing from the heavens. Hazard Ops, the EU publication of what’s known as ZMR stateside, you will be forced to tackle a variety of challenges either alone, with friends, or against other thinking players looking to put you down.
Before I go fully into detail on my thoughts of what Hazard Ops does well and where it lacks, let’s lay out exactly what sets it apart from most free to play shooters. In Hazard Ops you will face all sorts of challenges, typically consisting of a boatload of enemy soldiers, zombies or monsters of a set theme. They want to kill you, and you will have to survive through a wide variety of maps and scenarios. While there are rare exceptions, most modes base success around raiding an enemy base to take out its boss, or bunkering down and protecting your home base through the onslaught. Now let’s talk how the game plays out.
You can play Hazard Ops alone, but it’s a hollow experience. I would definitely recommend you to try it out with others gamers you enjoy playing with. Whether taking a stroll through Zombie Park with friends or complete strangers though, you will quickly learn the brotherhood that is required to get through the difficult levels. When you are ready to go and have picked the weapon set that will carry you to hell and back, the gauntlet will begin. One the first match, most players make the mistake of going wild with a spray and pray mentality. I assure you that tactics and stealth go a long way in Hazard Ops though, as the rambos will run out of ammo and serve as nothing better than a meat shield for the core players. I have always been a big fan of these arcade type shooters that force you to make it from point A to B rather than mindlessly and repetitively slaughtering enemy players again and again. The only downside is they can get repetitive if there aren’t enough levels to challenge yourself with, but Hazard Ops already packs a ton of them, and each are huge with tons of epic moments to keep the adrenaline pumping from log in to log out.
Hazard Ops is played in the third person view, with a variety of weapons from your typical modern armaments to oversized gaiting guns and swords. But as goofy as it might feel to run into a horde with a katana, you’d better be on your game as some of the bigger enemies are packing melee weapons of their own to put you in your place. Choosing the right weapon for the right moment is key, and sometimes takes some trial and error to figure out. Some levels feature objectives that require you to drop off supplies or utilize extra tools to disable traps. Robot levels feature turrets and even mech suits you can climb into to gain a fighting chance. Mini-bosses are also scattered throughout the level to ensure rounds don’t just become a mindless slaughter of minions. It’s a thrill knowing you need to rely on your teammates to take these bosses down through strategic means that adds a more standard MMO feel to the typically soloist shooter genre. But besides the many enemies you will be facing, there are also a lot of dangerous environmental gameplay elements that you should watch out for. Moving lasers are especially fun if you do not figure out their pattern, because instead of moving right through them, you have to activate your mission impossible moves to sometimes live through it all.
Besides teaming up with other players all the time, you can join competitive scenarios with two opposing human sides. Essentially it’s PvPvEvEnvironment. Gameplay speeds up noticeably in these battles as humans can take you out with much less warning than the typical monster. Humans are also a lot less predictable as they could be bringing any of the numerous weapons available into a fight. To get the right weapon for putting your thinking foes down, you can head into the shop where you can find all sorts of items that can be bought with real money or in game money, but do note that most items have a level requirement so don’t be like me trying to buy all the good items in the shop before my account level was ready for them. Leveling your account up will also unlock new challenges to breathe new life into familiar maps and monsters. Finally once you feel you are a true master of Hazard Ops, you can put your confidence to test in ranked matches.
Conclusion
Hazard Ops literally takes a mixture of a wide variety of games, and blends this perfectly together into something that feels relatively new. Currently the game is still in closed beta, but I had a glimpse of some of the open beta content such as player controlled monsters, and can’t wait to test these modes out more on the live server. It didn’t take long for addiction to set in, as did nostalgia of an older generation of shooters more focused on challenge completion and story advancement than esports. It is a concept you do not see regularly lately, and especially not within the free online realm. If you are a big fan of third person shooters, you should definitely check it out. If you want to try the EU servers out, you can do so right now! We’re giving out 1500 beta keys in our giveaway section right now.
The Red Solstice: New co-op survival game heading for Steam Early Access
The Red Solstice, from Croatian developer Ironward, will be hitting Steam Early Access on July 10. The game is a tactical, co-operative survival game set on distant-future Mars, during a great storm known as The Red Solstice. Rewarding tactical and strategic cooperation between squad mates, The Red Solstice offers 8-player co-operative play, randomly generated battlegrounds, eight different player classes, customizable equipment and so much more. It will be published on Steam by Nkidu Games in cooperation with New Blood Interactive.
Development of The Red Solstice was self-funded by the team until a recent crowdfunding campaign successfully raised an additional $60k to get the game ready for launch. Going into Early Access allows the team to get real-world gameplay feedback, and we’ll offer some great value to encourage players to dive in early.
For more info, visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/265590/
Radial-G: F-Zero inspired racing game hits Kickstarter
Created by former Black Rock Studios and NCsoft developers, Radial-G is the debut title from newly-founded, Brighton-based games company Tammeka and will be the first Oculus Rift-ready racer to market and is currently the most polished VR racing experience available. Climb into the cockpit of an alien craft and tear up the anti-gravity track as you do battle with over 30 real and AI opponents. Rift ready, and offering single and multiplayer action, you’ll be able to fully immerse yourself in intense races on tubular tracks featuring gut-wrenching twists, turns and drops. Plus Weapons! And Explosions. AND Customization.
Kickstart the future of virtual reality racers
The Radial-G prototype has been lauded by VR enthusiasts at several national events and this Oculus Rift-ready PC title is due to arrive on Kickstarter on Thursday July 3, where gamers will be able to play the FREE single-player demo and help turn this amazing single player demo into a fully-fledged multiplayer game.
Try out the PC title for free using the Oculus Rift VR headset, or play as normal “NOculus” mode on your monitor if you don’t have a VR headset. Both versions support xbox gamepads with rumble to really feel the speed! Mac and Oculus Rift DK2 support is coming very, very soon.
For more info, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tammekagames/radial-g-a-high-octane-sci-fi-racer-for-the-vr-gen
Arma 3: New ground vehicle crew
Bohemia Interactive today released a brand new video to further introduce the role of the ground vehicle crewman in Arma 3. Just as in real life, most vehicles in Arma 3 require multiple people – either controlled by AI or co-operative players – to operate efficiently, which are typically divided into a driver, gunner, and vehicle commander position. The new video takes a closer look at each of these crew member’s responsibilities, while exploring some of the core principles of ground vehicle combat.
In continuation of the official Arma 3 Community Guide series, the Ground Vehicle Crew video is narrated by Andrew Gluck (better known as Dslyecxi, former service member and leader of the popular Arma community group Shack Tactical), who discusses the strengths and weaknesses of ground vehicles, the responsibilities of each vehicle crew member, and some of the basic communication protocols. While there are many more ways to play Arma 3, it represents one possible method by which players can go more in-depth with their vehicle operations in Arma 3’s open military sandbox.
For more info, visit http://www.arma3.com
Might & Magic Duel of Champions: “Road to Paris” Tournamanet Update
Today, Ubisoft released the third monthly news video for the “Road to Paris” eSport Tournament series. This episode highlights action from the June Gold Cup and gives fans a preview of the upcoming Might & Magic Duel of Champions expansion, Griffin Bane.
The Griffin Bane expansion will add 100 new cards to the game and will introduce the ability to stack cards, which will allow players to put two creatures with the same name on one battleground position. Players will have time to learn about the new cards and test out the new features through July and starting in August Griffin Bane will be incorporated into the Tournament.
More details about the expansion will be revealed on July 3 at 5pm UK time on the Might & Magic Duel of Champions Twitch channel.
For more info, visit http://www.duelofchampions.com
Heroes & Generals: Introducing Paratroopers
Reto-moto is proud to introduce the Paratrooper as a new character class in the new “Quesada” update we have just released for Heroes & Generals.
As a US or German Paratrooper you will jump out of a Douglas C-47A Skytrain or Junkers Ju-52/3m plane and land at strategic spots on the battlefields to perform surprise attacks and help your fellow tankers, infantrymen or fighter pilots secure the objectives and win one more battle along or behind the frontlines in the persistant war fought out between the German and the US factions.
You will also be able to customize your paratrooper with new uniforms, as we have introduced uniform variations for some of the classes. In this update the US Recon, US Paratrooper, German Tank Crew, German Recon and German Paratrooper characters can get new uniforms. Uniform variations for the rest of the classes will follow in later updates.
The Quesada update also includes more ammunition types for vehicles, new personalization options for the US Bazooka and the German Panzerschreck, minor changes to the Town map and much more…
For more info, visit http://wiki.heroesandgenerals.com/wiki/Changelog