Monthly Archives: October 2015

ARK: Survival Evolved Surpasses 2 Million Units Sold

ARK: Survival Evolved Surpasses 2 Million Units Sold news header

Studio Wildcard is excited to announce today that its expansive survival-adventure ARK: Survival Evolved has now sold more than two million units on Steam, with more survivors joining the Jurassic journey every day.

To celebrate this sales milestone and to offer survivors a chance to talk with the team, Studio Wildcard is hosting a Developer AMA on Reddit with @ArkJesse right now on /r/games! Watch your AMA feed for the link: #playARK.

ARK also has an ongoing Halloween event. You can find out more about the event here.

Since its wildly popular launch in June 2015, ARK: Survival Evolved has exploded dramatically and rapidly in real estate, reach, and units sold.

  • Every week, at least one new dinosaur is added to expand the exotic fauna in the game.
  • Two weeks ago, ARK expanded significantly by adding two new biomes, snow and swamp, greatly increasing the scope and type of real estate and adding complexity to the environment and AI behavior.
  • And most significantly Studio Wildcard over the last two months has built out a massive competitive aspect to the game and is in the third phase of its Survival of the Fittest competition, “The Last Stand,” featuring more than 230 players and $60,000 in prizes, throwing the survival-adventure title into the competitive e-sports field with a whole new twist.

Armored Warfare now in Worldwide Open Beta

 Armored Warfare now in Worldwide Open Beta news header

Today, on October 8th, developer Obsidian Entertainment and publisher My.com have launched Armored Warfare into Worldwide Open Beta. Beginning now, the highly anticipated strategic multiplayer tank combat game is open to all players and available in English, German, French, Polish, and Russian languages!

Armored Warfare offers challenging PVP battles and cooperative PVE missions, more than 60 modern armored vehicles and maps from unique environments from around the world right out of the gate.

“Armored Warfare heading into Open Beta is an incredibly exciting time for the team here at Obsidian,“ said Feargus Urquhart, founder of Obsidian Entertainment. “After several years of development, and months of Early Access Testing, we are looking forward to showing off everything we’ve created. We want to thank you, our fans and the community, for all their support, input and all the great feedback we’ve already received. Your passion for the game, and ongoing input, is critical to making Armored Warfare a success.  Open Beta is a big step forward for us, and it’s one that will bring new challenges, as we test our game services and features with more gamers than ever before. However, these are challenges that we are really looking forward to with Armored Warfare. Getting to make the game better based on how you play the game, and your insights, is something we have been looking forward to for months and months. And, while that is all going on we are continuing to move forward creating new maps, new vehicles, and some cool new features we will talk about soon. It’s really an exciting time in Armored Warfare land right now, and for the months, and years to come.”

Created exclusively for the start of Open Beta, new Armored Warfare Collector’s Editions are now available. Aside from securing players stockpiles of credits, gold and Premium Account time, these packages will let players get access to unique armored vehicles. The new Collector’s Editions and the bonuses that each grant are below:

OPERATION EMPEROR Edition – the ultimate edition that includes 5 exclusive and premium vehicles, a long-lasting premium account and lots of gold and credits:

  • 2 exclusive tanks: Mowag Taifun II, RDL/LT
  • 3 premium tanks: LAV 150-90, FV433 Abbot, Object 430
  • 120 days of Premium Account Time
  • 6,000,000 Credits
  • 6,500 Gold
  • “Emperor”, “Typhoon”, and “Lightning” achievements
  • +25% credits & experience for 2 weeks

OPERATION TYPHOON Edition – an exclusive pack presenting Mowag Taifun II tank destroyer that was developed as a private project for the Swiss army. Built as a single prototype and never mass-produced, now it is reborn in Armored Warfare along with:

  • 60 days of Premium Account Time
  • 3,000,000 Credits
  • 3,250 Gold
  • “Typhoon” achievement
  • +25% credits & experience for 1 week

OPERATION LIGHTNING Edition – an exclusive pack featuring RDF/LT, firstly introduced in 1980 for U.S. Army and presented in several prototypes with various guns. Never went into mass production and now available in Armored Warfare along with:

  • 60 days of Premium Account Time
  • 3,000,000 Credits
  • 3,250 Gold
  • “Lightning” achievement
  • +25% credits & experience for 1 week

Players can pick up these Collector’s Editions at the Armored Warfare official website here.

Armored Warfare will continue to receive regular content updates throughout its Open Beta, including new PvP maps, new PvE missions, additional vehicles through brand new dealers, improvements to the Base system and more leading up to the game’s official release. All player progress and items purchased in the Open Beta will carry over to the full release.

RuneFest Reveals Franchise Highlights for 2016

RuneFest Reveals Franchise Highlights for 2016 news header

Jagex Games Studio, creators and custodians of the fantasy MMORPG RuneScape, are pleased to announce that RuneFest 2015 was a resounding success. Held this past weekend for the third time at London’s Tobacco Dock, the annual fan convention played host to many thousands of passionate players both in person and online from around the world.

New content for the RuneScape franchise was announced, including a new quest from the game’s original creators, Paul and Andrew Gower, a new continent for the Old School game, as well as confirmation of the closed beta for upcoming online strategy card game, Chronicle: RuneScape Legends. A playable virtual reality prototype of Chronicle was also available for fans to try out, as well as a whole host of developer Q&A sessions, cosplay competitions, live music, and many other distractions and diversions.

Away from the thoroughfares and stages of the venue, the wider RuneScape community experienced the exhilaration of the day via a range of social media and live streaming platforms. Content on the day reached far and wide via Periscope, Twitch, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter. The live stream enjoyed more than 234,000 total plays during the course of the event, while around 3,100 tweets were posted using the #RuneFest hashtag with more than 11.7m impressions. Approximately 3,000 people tuned in to watch the backstage and roaming Periscope stream.

“We were thrilled to once again bring RuneFest to Tobacco Dock. It was fantastic to see the hard work of the team pay off, especially when the fans were so positively vocal about this year’s event,” said Tanja Ahles, events manager at Jagex. “Many thanks to our event partners, who all helped deliver what was the best RuneFest yet!”

Once again, RuneFest allowed fans from as every corner of the world, including Australia, Singapore, the United States, and – of course – the United Kingdom, to purchase entry using the game’s Bonds system. Flights and accommodation could also be funded this way, as well as buying merchandise and refreshments via a conversion into the event’s proprietary Zemomarks currency.

Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape, said: “Every year, RuneFest gets better and better. From announcements such as the new Gower quest, Chronicle: RuneScape Legends’ upcoming closed beta, VR demos, Old School RuneScape’s new continent, and more, RuneFest 2015 definitely supersedes what was a brilliant event last year. We’re looking forward to raising the bar even higher in 2016 to celebrate RuneScape’s 15th anniversary!”

NYCC 2015 – Square Enix Media Event: Pew Pew Edition

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot)

 

NY Comic-Con is here once more. Video games, comics and cosplay galore.

But as with every year during NYCC, Square-Enix was hosting their very own off-site press event, showcasing their latest and greatest titles for 2015 and beyond. This year had a very peculiar theme compared to last year’s press event and the year before that, however, as many of their titles were focused on action-adventure games of the FPS/TPS variety. The only exception to the lineup was the story-based adventure game “Life is Strange” which will be having its 5th and final episode released on October 20th.

Regardless of this year’s focus on action titles, I was more than eager to sample their line-up.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

The first game that was shown off at the SE event was the 2016 reboot of Hitman. This reboot focuses on the classic Agent 47 as he travels the world in search of assassination targets. It is set to take the series into a bold new direction with more focus on creativity, as players can choose how to assassinate their targets.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

In one demonstration, Agent 47 was seen stalking a criminal who was publicly disguised as a well-known fashion model manager. During a private runway show, Agent 47 had the option to dress up as a show floor staff member in order to get up close and personal with his target, or he could set up traps for his target, such as poisoning a plate of food which will cause the target to run off to a private bathroom. Perfect for getting a kill unseen from the public eye.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Of course, since I’m mostly terrible when it comes to stealth, I would have most likely ended up botching the assassination attempt and ruin everything by running & gunning (which of course, may not even be an option in most cases, as some assassination attempts will instantly be marked as a failure if players fail to make a clean kill.)

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Regardless, the idea of being able to kill your own way was intriguing. The team at Io-Interactive wanted to emphasize this aspect of the game so much that they’re also introducing a unique asynchronous multiplayer function where players can assign NPC targets to other players all around the world. With player-created missions, other players can compare their assassination attempts with others to see who the better Agent 47 is. While I’m usually not fond of asynchronous multiplayer modes as they tend to feel like a glorified single player option, the idea of being able to watch assassination missions play out in so many different ways by many different players has me intrigued.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Next up was a preview for Just Cause 3, a sequel to the already amazing open-world sandbox action game where players can live out their action movie dreams in style. Playing as Rico Rodriguez for the third time, he revisits his hometown which has been overrun by a tyrannical dictator. With Rico’s new abilities such as a wingsuit and improved tether cables, and a more personal storyline where Rico sets out to take back his homeland from the dictator, Just Cause 3 is shaping up to be a big finale for the series.

In this presentation I was given a hands-on experience with the game’s latest build, running on a high-end gaming PC. As soon as the demo began, my first thought was that it’s a beautiful looking game, as the island of Medici was highly detailed with an incredible field of view. The island was just begging to be explored, and so I took off with my parachute on my back and a gun in each hand, just looking for cool areas to check out and stuff to blow up.

With the new wingsuit ability, traversing the island becomes a breathtaking experience as you soar across the villages, hills and mountains, essentially looking like a crazy superhero. However, using wingsuit in practice was a lot harder than it seemed. In order to use the wingsuit effectively, players must perform a tether shot towards a high structure or landmass and then pull themselves in. Before reaching the end of their tether, they must then release themselves using their parachute before switching to their wingsuit. Once they’re gliding in the air, they must keep themselves in flight by firing multiple tethers towards the ground or towards other buildings. It may seem simple, as one of the developers for Just Cause 3 demonstrated his skills with the wingsuit and made it look so easy, but I just wasn’t able to get the momentum going and was sadly forced to make Rico eat all sorts of dirt and pavement.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Despite my poor wingsuit skills, there was still a ton of fun to be had in this demo, as I was given a mission to take down an entire enemy base by myself. With Rico’s unlimited amount of C4, equipment supply drops that can be called in at any given moment, and the ability to use tethers to fling enemies across the map, taking down the base was a cinch, and a beautiful sight of death and destruction.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

While this game has been shown off at several events before like E3 and Gamescom, and there’s plenty of preview footage and dev diaries that users can find online, I can humbly say that watching demos versus going hands-on into the adrenaline rush yourself does not compare. You simply have to play it for yourself to truly appreciate this chaotic masterpiece. With the game’s release set for December 1st of 2015, you won’t have to wait much longer.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Next up: I was treated to an exclusive first look at a new mission for the upcoming sci-fi action title Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. As the story goes: Adam Jensen is now an experienced covert agent and will be fighting against time, as he must choose his missions and his targets carefully in order to unravel a worldwide conspiracy. The first mission presented was a tutorial mission with new players venturing out to a secret location in Paris to help federal officers watch over a business deal being conducted by some shady characters. The deal quickly went to hell as augmented assassins showed up to tear everyone apart, and Adam had to jump in to break up the conflict. The second mission, while still located in Paris, focused on Adam using his augmented abilities to take down non-augmented enemies with both stealth and brute force.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

The overall theme of Mankind Divided focuses on the separation of normal humans and augmented humans, as both kinds fight for survival. Seems like a pretty straightforward premise, but as the developers discuss more about the game’s story, they go on to say that Mankind Divided presents this theme as a way of expressing social issues that plague our society in the real world. They also go on to mention how the actions that players may or may not have expressed in the previous Deus Ex (Human Revolution) will be felt strongly in the sequel, regardless of which ending players may have finished the previous game with.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Last up: I got to try out a hands-on demo for the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider, a sequel to the rebooted 2013 action-adventure title Tomb Raider. In this demo, Lara Croft can be seen exploring a mysterious lost city, which was already being overrun by thieves who wanted to desecrate the ruins. So in comes Lara, who uses her new and classic traversal and combat skills to kill bad guys, dodge traps and find an ancient relic inside of the ruins, all before the site came crumbling down around her.

As for my personal thoughts on this game: I was impressed by overall presentation and gameplay, but not too impressed over innovation, as the game did feel (more or less) like the previous Tomb Raider title. The only main difference here was that Lara was not the frail human being that she was before. Now Lara is much more vicious in combat and more confident in her raiding skills, which gives obvious reference to the game’s title. Of course, it was merely a small demo for the game, so there could be much more to enjoy in the final release.

NYCC 2015 Square Enix Event

Overall, this year’s SE Media Event was a fun experience that showed off a handful of fun action titles that will appeal to chaotic, stealthy and adventurous gamers out there. I only wish that I could have had the chance to check out previews for the fifth episode of Life is Strange, but sadly I was running very late.

Of course, there’s plenty more chances for me to check the game out as Square-Enix will be having a booth at NYCC 2015 this week, so stay tuned for more details.

Phantom of the Kill Announces Male Killer Princes

Phantom of the Kill Announces Male Killer Princes news header

Today, gumi Inc. and developer Fuji&gumi Games are excited to introduce to the world Zero and a squad of brand new “Killer Princes” in the strategy RPG Phantom of the Kill. Male manifestations of the “Killer Princesses” that already battle demons in the phantom universe, these heroes are one part of a massive wave of brand new features to come to the international release of hotly anticipated strategy RPG, Phantom of the Kill. It will launch later this year.

Teased at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, these new experiences turn the world of Phantom of the Kill on its head, focusing on the darker apocalyptic regions seen in later portions of the game currently playable in Japan. With new heroes come new missions, new stories, and new optimizations, including Facebook integration to easily save file transfers, and a World Selection feature that allows players to play exactly what they want.

“When we developed Phantom of the Kill, we created it with tightly focused gameplay, beautiful art, and an epic sweeping story in mind,” said Jun Imaizumi, Executive Producer of Phantom of the Kill. “We know players in the West have already been finding ways to experience the game, so when we confirmed it for a Western launch, we wanted to add an extra layer of gameplay, story, and art.”

Phantom of the Kill is playable from Oct. 8-11 at New York Comic Con in gumi’s booth #354 at the Javits Center. NYCC attendees will have the chance to engage directly with developers of Phantom of the Kill and offer their feedback directly to the team by visiting gumi’s booth.