WG Labs has announced that Master of Orion will launch globally on August 25, 2016.
Master of Orion is a reboot of the classic 4X space strategy title released in 1993. WG Labs aims to bring the best elements of the original game series while adding new gameplay mechanics to keep the modern gamer engaged. MoO will feature ten races and feature voice acting from Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Alan Tudyk (Firefly) and more.
Jacob Beucler, Publishing Product Director, Master of Orion said:
The journey for Master of Orion’s reboot has been an amazing one, and now we’ve approached our destination. Along for the ride was the Master of Orion community, sharing their thoughts and guiding us toward an amazing Master of Orion experience for the new age!
Players who purchase Master of Orion will get a free copy of the 1997 RTS classic, Total Annihilation, by linking to a Wargaming Account. The standard edition will be available for $29.99, while the Collector’s Edition will be $49.99 and feature a digital art book, sound track, retro ship skins, and an exclusive race, the Terran Khanate.
Master of Orion can be purchased on Steam and GOG.
Hirez has just concluded their livestream patch notes of SMITE patch 3.15, featuring the conclusion of the Summer of SMITE skin reveals, some more exclusive skin releases as part of the effort to migrate LatAm and Brazil players from LevelUp back to the Hirez homelands!
Players who migrate back to the NA/EU server will receive both the Quetzakukulkan Kukulkan and Lord of the Amazon He Bo skins. Which, by the way, are rocking Portuguese voice packs! These skins will likely be purchasable for all players eventually, so never fear NA/EU players. Unless you fear the added competition from South America. For a comprehensive FAQ on this transition, check out this link.
On the Summer of Smite side of things, we have gotten a look at Get Served Freya and Sea Maiden Medusa skins, the final two skins available from the event. Be sure to check out the official patch notes for a preview of all these ridiculous voice packs.
Finally in balance and item changes, there isn’t a lot to report. Terra is finally getting some follow-through on those slow motion punches, buffing her damage to a more appropriate place. Geb’s rollout gets a slight damage boost and a very small increase on stun time on his ultimate. Other buffs/nerfs aren’t really noteworthy.
One new item rolls out though that should strike terror into hunters and mages alike. Poisoned Star is a ridiculous 2,000 gold assassin focused item that inflicts a weakening poison upon every critical hit, lasting 3 seconds, slowing gods by 20% and reducing their damage by 20% too! Yikes Hirez… Yikes.
With the Rio 2016 Olympics underway, everyone is turning towards sports. This event helps bring all types of people together; even those who are not normally interested in sports are brought together under their country’s banner. The Olympic craze does not stop in Rio; it often seeps into our beloved games. It’s always great to see game’s incorporating events going on in the real world into their virtual worlds. Read on to learn more about the Olympics Summer Games in Overwatch!
Overwatch’s latest update introduces the Summer Games featuring over 100 unique items and a even their first ever stab at a new game mode, Lucioball. Try your luck with the new Summer Games Loot Box for a chance to unbox new skins, sprays, voice lines, and player icons. These items will only be available during the three-week Summer Games and are not purchasable using coins. However, you are still welcome to spend your real money to purchase Loot Boxes. I’m trying to avoid doing that though, I have horrible luck when it comes to random drops. Hundreds of dollars across Dota 2 and CS: GO have lead to nothing…
Summer Games Loot Boxes are guaranteed to contain at least event item
Collectors will love this update as they work to acquire all the new limited time items before the end of the Summer Games. While I would love to get some of the soccer themed skins, I’m not going to be playing the game just for the unique items. This is where Lucioball comes in – A new brawl featuring Rocket League style soccer with Lucio.
Lucioball is a four minute fast paced 3v3 soccer match limiting the hero choice to just Lucio. Continuing the theme of being easy to pick up and play, this new brawl revolves around one simple idea: push the ball into the opponent’s goal and keep them from getting it in yours. All of our favourite beat-dropping Brazilian’s abilities have been altered to interact with the ball. Since the point of this brawl is to score goals, your primary fire has been disabled – it would be no fun playing soccer if you’re getting shot at!
A bug makes it possible to play as DVA or Soldier 76
Lucio’s primary fire has been replaced by a simple punch which can be used to, well… punch the ball. While this is a good approach at getting the ball away from your goal and into the opponents, a measly punch won’t be enough against even semi-competent opponents. Enter your alternate fire – use this to push back both players and the ball. At first I really thought this ability only pushed back other players but it turns out it’s great for hitting the ball too, just make sure you’re close enough. This realization made the game so much easier as I was no longer just running around throwing out weak punches…
Lucio’s Crossfade ability is also available and acts as a speed boost. Due to the nature of the game, healing is not required and therefore you are unable to switch your supporting music between speed and heals. It’s important to note, that while this is a team game, Crossfade only affects yourself. That’s fine though since all of your teammates have their own Crossfade. Make sure you use this ability wisely; it can be the difference between saving a goal or letting the ball go in.
Finally, Sound Barrier, Lucio’s ultimate ability, acts as a blackhole sucking the ball towards you. It’s quite difficult to charge this ultimate in a four-minute match and you will realistically only get to use it once. There are many ways to use this ultimate ability such as pulling the ball into the opponent’s goal or keeping the ball away from your goal. Make the best use of this ultimate; it can make or break a game.
Sound Barrier can lead to some easy goals
Lucioball is a pretty fun brawl but it isn’t something that will keep me coming back to the game. To serve that purpose, there is Competitive Play. I always see myself coming back to games where you can strive to reach perfection. Like Rocket League, Lucioball is very easy to pick up and play but it lacks the competitive side and near limitless skill cap. Even so, I was surprised and quite pleased to see such a unique (compared to the rest of the game) brawl being introduced to the game. It serves as a great teaser for what is to come.
Conclusion: A Glimpse into the Future
There are more seasonal events planned for the future but no details are available. It’s great to see new brawls popping into Overwatch. While we did always have different brawls featuring fun matches limited to specific hero choices, these brawls were still the same old Overwatch. Lucioball shows us that more unique brawls completely changing the gameplay are also possible.
With Overwatch being full of fun and interesting heroes, there is a lot of potential for new brawls. Even Lucioball could be taken further in the future by simply adding additional heroes and abilities to it. Wouldn’t it be great to see someone like Roadhog being able to pull opponents or the ball? Or Tracer with her amazing mobility? Of course ability and other balance changes will need to be made but even simple additions such as additional hero choices can make a huge difference.
Yeah… that’s how physics work
There is no reason to limit yourself just to Lucioball though. What about some crazy Go Kart or Bumper Car action with Bastion tanks? Or Genji target practice? Or wrestling with Winston? The possibilities are endless. Also, although this is wishful thinking… it would be great to see the ability for players to create their own brawls with some sort of map editor. Who knows? Maybe we will see something like this in the future. Blizzard has usually been good about custom player content with games such as Warcraft and Starcraft.
To conclude, it was great to see a seasonal event introducing a unique brawl to the game. While I don’t see myself playing Lucioball a lot, this addition shows us what is possible in Overwatch. With additional seasonal events planned for the future, it is highly likely more unique brawls will make their way into Overwatch. Lucioball was a great teaser, I can’t wait for more! Be sure to check out the Summer Games before they conclude on August 22nd!
The other day, I streamed the Demon Hunter starting area or rather, most of it right here. I enjoyed the pacing, how they introduced abilities, showed the Demon Hunter lore. I got to hang out with folks like Altruis the Sufferer [which is a really cool name when you get down to it. #teamaltruis]. It was a good pace to show what the Demon Hunters can do, and how fun double jump+glide is. Because it is, and I won’t apologize. However, it’s not all greenfire and rainbows in the WoW Legion Pre-Launch event. I have a few complaints. The first one is a fundamental complaint. I play on a PVP server, to play with friends. I understand that Blizzard’s stance is “You knew what you were getting into. Don’t want to be there? Pay up to transfer, bitch!” and that’s fine. Wait, no. That’s not fine! So many games have better uses of PVP. Like SWTOR for example, where you can toggle it, enter a different instance for PVP, so the rest of the community can be at peace. Why does that matter?
The point of the game right now is to band together to fight the Burning Legion. To do battle with the endless hordes of demons plaguing Azeroth once again. How can we do that if we have to fight them in places like Gadgetzan, where huge demons stand on top of important vendors and spam kill players? Or when you’re trying to fight a Demon Lord for an objective, but the other faction is mercilessly killing you just because you’re there. LOOKIT ME, I’M DOING THE PVP! I KNOW THIS IS A PVE OBJECTIVE BUT THIS IS WHAT WE DO HERE HURR. And I’m not knocking PVP. I love it. But that’s not what the point of these objectives are. I think it’s a very backwards way to think. The only other major complaint I have is: YOU ARE NOT PREPARED! Why did you beat this into the ground!? It’s even in a Talent! “Prepared”. “You are not prepared!” “You are now prepared!” Come on guys. You’re better writers than this. I was expecting more. So much more. . .But thoughts so far are still positive. Lots of very strong things going on, especially the Transmog Tab. My rare tabards from the card game are now in my possession again! Huzzah!
Bluehole, developer of the popular MMORPG, TERA, today announced it has successfully concluded the first pre-alpha test for PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, the open world strategic shooter produced in collaboration with PLAYERUNKNOWN, creator of the fan-favorite “Battle Royale” game modes for ARMA 3 and H1Z1. Over 600 players participated in the test sessions, with overwhelmingly positive feedback on the game’s progress after just four months of development—particularly with regard to the project’s core gameplay, responsiveness and stability. Additional tests will take place every six to eight weeks as the game advances.
In development for PC using Unreal Engine 4, the standalone game will expand the core Battle Royale experience enjoyed by millions of players into a highly competitive player vs. player (PvP) game in a dynamic open world. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS will put up to 64 players on a remote island for a winner-takes-all showdown where strategic gameplay is as important as shooting skills. Players will enter a last-man-standing battle where they try to locate weapons, vehicles and supplies in a graphically and tactically rich battleground that eventually forces players into a shrinking safe area as they engage in a tense and spectacular fight to the death.
“The enthusiastic response of the players after experiencing the bare bones of the game tells me we are on the right track for strong gameplay set in a realistic open world,” said Brendan Greene, aka PLAYERUNKNOWN. “Our Bluehole team has made amazing progress and everyone is fired up for the next play test when we’ll have more of the game to show.”
Bluehole and PLAYERUNKNOWN are committed to an Open Development philosophy for the game, sharing regular updates with the passionate community base, providing early assets and information, answering questions and taking in feedback. This spirit of collaboration is integral to the game’s success, as the online game will grow and thrive with the participation of its player community.
“I want to thank all our testers for their participation and feedback as Open Development is at the heart of this project,” said Chang Han Kim, Production Director of Bluehole. “We are producing new game content daily to enrich the experience and the core gameplay of strategic combat driven by player tactics is already coming through loud and clear.”
Gaming can be incredibly therapeutic. Being able to immerse oneself in a story can really make things better; for me at least, this is definitely true. However, I find that I very seldom finish games these days. The last few years this has occurred more than ever. I used to say a lot that the primary reason that I don’t finish a game, is that I have too many to review. This isn’t false, though lately I do far more than reviews. The average time spent on a game is probably 10-15 hours, sometimes more sometimes less, depending on the content. But I don’t often come back to things I’ve reviewed unless I know it’s going to receive more coverage down the line. Is “I have too many things to review” really all that fair though? I don’t think so. I’ve been thinking about it, and the more I mull over it, the real reason is, I don’t want the story to end. Saying goodbye to stories and people are equally hard. So I stop. I find a reason to stop. Whether it’s losing an encounter, or simply finding something else to start. I have so many games I’m working on right now. However I have a solution of sorts.
Streaming has helped a great deal. On our Bottom Tier off-nights, I tend to play single player RPGs, because Colton tends to have other stuff on his plate and that’s okay! It’s good for me to be able to play and immerse myself in a story with an audience. And if I have a co-pilot, that’s even better. Being able to share these stories with a crowd, about why I love or don’t love them, it makes me feel better. It’s almost invigorating. The last RPG we finished to completion on stream was Final Fantasy X. Start to finish, most of the people who started watching it stayed and showed up every episode, cheering me on, having a few laughs, and mocking the silly parts of the story. I’ve also started streaming on OnRPG’s Facebook, as I said yesterday. That audience is really quiet, which is different and in a way makes me feel uncomfortable, like nobody is really there or interested. But I’m not giving up. It’s something I enjoy doing. I wasn’t always so extroverted. As a lad, I did not like talking to people at all but I’ve really grown to love interviewing people, finding out what makes them tick, makes them successful, hoping their words might inspire someone else. It helps me socialize, and makes my days just a little bit brighter. And I tell myself: it gets better. Because it does. It’s something I get to do with some of the people that are closest to me, where I can be myself with no fear, no judgment. Making new friends all over the world. Making funny videos with Colton. I find that I’m able to complete the games with more frequency now. I don’t always need an audience, but it’s kind of nice. Knowing I’m doing it as a way out is helping me push forward and complete these stories, and move on to new ones.
In the end, it does get better. Streaming’s probably one of my most effective coping mechanisms, it reminds me that I’m not alone. What do you guys do?
The long-awaited PVP mode is on the way to Armored Warfare – Lords of War! The end goal is to accrue the highest team stream and Prestige in certain areas. If you want to know more about how it works, my.com has it!
Heroes & Generals has a new update, Furness – Fist of Steel, named for British Soldier Christopher Furness. If you want more than just the highlights, we have you covered.