Yearly Archives: 2018

Laser Guided Games Announces a Release Date for Golem Gates

Golem Gates on Steam

Golem Gates is a hybrid of Real-Time Strategy and Deckbuilding Card Games for PC, by Laser Guided Games. It’s a studio founded by an Epic Games alumni who formerly worked on major game franchises such as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, alongside Hollow Earth Inc. They are an art design studio behind some of the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Golem Gates combines the best elements of real-time strategy and collectible card games. With nearly 100 cards (called Glyphs) at your disposal, strategically weave a deck to prepare for battle against figures known as Harbingers — dark commanders of nanites drawn from “The Ash” — and their armies.  Golem Gates is slated to come to PC via Steam on March 28th, 2018 for 19.99.

The Tomb Kings Arrive in Total War: Warhammer II

Nehekhara stirs today as legions of skeletal warriors and their vast constructs rise from the sands to reclaim their former glory. The Rise of the Tomb Kings is here in Total War: Warhammer 2. The Rise of the Tomb Kings Campaign Pack introduces new experiences with rac-specific gameplay mechanics, victory objectives and some good ol’ fashioned authentic lore. In battle, the Tomb Kings field countless skeletal units, supported by towering stone constructs such as the Tomb Scorpion, Necrosphinx and the colossal Hierotitan.

Playable in both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns, the Tomb Kings have their own specific victory conditions that focus on collecting the Nine Books of Nagash. With their own skills, traits, quest-chains, legendary wargear and situational challenges, players may embark on Tomb Kings campaigns as Settra the Imperishable, Khalida, Khatep and Nagash’s former lieutenant, the malignant Arkhan the Black. Also released today as a free addition is Skaven Legendary Lord Tretch Craventail, who is playable in both the Eye of the Vortex campaign as well as the Mortal Empires campaign. Few Skaven possess the cunning and guile of Tretch, and he empowers his underlings to fight harder as they return from every rout. Tretch begins play in Naggaroth, and is available as a free download via his own Steam page under the WARHAMMER II free content listings.

Deadly Premonition: The Board Game Now Available for Pre-Order

Amazon.com_ Deadly Premonition_ The Board Game Deluxe Edition_ Video Games

Rising Star Games has announced that a board-game version of Deadly Premonition will have a limited run via Amazon.com on January 31st. It is presently available for pre-order, the board game will be made as a new “Deluxe Edition” featuring premium game-enhancing items such as the custom die, original soundtrack and themed gaming cloth. It will also include a download key for the original PC game, upon which it’s based. The pre-order can be found at this link.

About Deadly Premonition: The Board Game Deluxe Edition
Welcome to Greenvale. In this small mysterious town a young woman has been murdered. Anna Graham’s death marks a tragic loss for the community.

The town is home to many strange characters. With no significant leads on the killer, each must be considered a suspect. It’s time to kick-start the investigation and get to work, isn’t that right Zach?

Each agent has been assigned six suspects to investigate. You must protect the innocent, uncover incriminating evidence, apprehend an accomplice and identify the hidden killer among you before it is too late.

Game Length: 30-45 minutes
Recommended age: 18+
Players: 2-4
Contents:

  • Cloth Gaming Mat
  • 1 Custom Die
  • Original Soundtrack
  • 60 Profiling Cards
  • 24 Suspect Cards
  • Token Sheet
  • 4 Line-Up Boards
  • 4 Alignment Cards
  • 5 Agent Bio Cards
  • 4 Guide Cards
  • 10 Weather Cards
  • Rulebook
  • Steam key for Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut

Dynasty Warriors 9: Hands-On & Informal Interview w/ Akihiro Suzuki

by Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)

Sure, there are a ton of Warriors games, offshoots, and clones out there these days, but Dynasty Warriors was one of the first to make take an arcade beat-em-up game in an entirely new direction.  The series puts you in control of a famous Chinese general of the late Han Dynasty, letting you carve a path through history.  The previous incarnations of the title focused almost entirely on the characters themselves; however, the ninth numbered installment changes this completely.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Environment - Battlement

You see, Dynasty Warriors 9 takes a complete departure from its predecessors by putting you in the middle of the conflict in ancient China — all of it.  That’s right, if you were unaware, the long awaited continuation of the series has gone open world.  “Is that such a good idea?” you might find yourself asking.  After all, the series has always been incredibly localized when it came to the character stories, letting them play out in predetermined stages.  “Surely an open world as large as ancient China would be a monumental task!” you might wonder, and you’d be right.  Luckily, I got a hands-on demonstration of the game at a recent press event, all the while sitting with Akihiro Suzuki, director of the Dynasty Warriors series from the start, and executive officer of Omega Force, the team at KOEI Tecmo responsible for the games.

DW9 Xin Xianying

The demonstration they provided had me controlling one of the new characters, Xin Xianying, and threw me right in the middle of the action.  Xin Xianying is one of seven new playable officers, bringing the total roster of Dynasty Warriors 9 to 90 characters.  That roster is enough to make most fighting games blush with embarrassment.  I asked Suzuki-san if the systems of the previous Warriors titles were difficult to implement into an open world, especially given the number of characters.  He responded that while the systems themselves were easy to develop and implement, the biggest challenge he and his team faced was making sure there were plenty of things to do.  See, most open world games suffer from being too open.  While playing the demo, I’d argue I had almost too MUCH to do!  Battles rage across the land, missions develop based on these battles, and there’s even hunting, gathering, and crafting to accomplish.  Not to mention the sightseeing opportunities — trust me, the lands of ancient China never looked quite as good.

DW9 Weapon System

Veterans and fans of the series will notice one thing almost immediately about the game, and for many people, it’s troublesome.  A lot of characters now share weapons, something that was almost universally despised in Dynasty Warriors 6.  This change was two fold.  First, it’s to handle the way the game plays across an open world.  The second is to showcase more historical weapons than the extreme fantasy the game held to before.  Sure, the characters and their weapons are still heavily stylized, but as Suzuki-san explained, a lot of the reason they went with a more historical approach was because of the modern consoles and PCs the game is being released on.  With more power comes more realism, he explained, and they wanted to focus the characters heavily toward that direction.  Gone are the claws, the benches, and the miniature boats.  Rest assured, though, every character has their unique moveset despite sharing a weapon type with others.

Speaking of things to do, crafting also plays a major role in the game.  In addition to collecting gold, you can also grab a variety of items throughout the world, either by running over them on the field or by defeating enemies.  These materials can then be used to upgrade weapons, craft accessories to help your character become even more powerful, and make usable items for battle (such as restoratives and battle enhancers).

DW9 Story Scene

One final question I had for Suzuki-san was in regards to how the game will play.  An open world with 90 playable characters seems to indicate no one character will stand out.  While the game is linked by the kingdoms, each character has a story within that overall world.  You can discover their stories by doing missions, granting cut-scenes and background stories.  The story itself feels very organic, playing out even as you wander the map.  In fact, things play out across the territory like they did in history, with battles you’re not participating happening at the same time.  This is what was most impressive to me in this case; an open world that develops beyond the playable character is practically unheard of.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Environment - Wartorn

I could really get the impression the whole team was proud of their accomplishment.  Suzuki-san took great delight in showing various locations in the game (through fast travel — once you’ve been to a location you can go there immediately) and explained how detailed the map was compared to previous Dynasty Warriors games.  In fact, if you were to zoom in on the map as far as possible, that single zoomed portion would equal just a single stage in previous installments.

Dynasty Warriors 9 releases in North America and Europe on February 13 for PC, PS4, and XBox1.  As a fan of the series, I highly recommend checking it out.  I’d even recommend it to people who’ve not played a Dynasty Warriors game before, but love open world games, because there’s simply so much to do and so much to see.  Oh, and if you’ve ever been curious about Suzuki-san’s favorite character, well, as much as he loves all of the portrayals he’s done over the years, he’s spent the most time with Cao Cao.

 

Move or Die Celebrates 2 Years of Friendship-Ending with New Update

For two years, Move or Die has been demolishing friendships with insane game modes and fun new content. Over 500,000 players have jumped into the fun over 2.6 million games, and it’s time to celebrate that. The “2 year anniversary update” is now live on Steam, and this DLC builds upon the Not-A-Store feature with the debut of new consumables that unlock decorative effects on players. Money Confetti, Flammable Head, Snow, and much more await. During this event, the game is also 65% off.

Laser League’s Open Beta Begins This Week

505 Games and Roll7 are proud to announce that Laser League, the arcade-style multiplayer action sport is coming to Open Beta over the coming weekend. From Friday, January 26th (9 am PST) till Sunday, January 28th (10 pm PST) on Steam for PC. All players who participate will receive exclusive in-game bonus items, including the Al Shama OASIS 401 Limited Edition Kit, unique emojis and character portraits. Catch a glimpse of the fast-paced fun in their latest teaser. Two more stadiums were shown in the latest press build, which will also be in the open beta. Twelve maps/arenas will be in the full build, with their own unique gameplay style. The two newest are Empire Campus Stadium (London, UK) and the Silvertip Arena (Detroit, USA).

AGDQ Changed My View on Speedruns

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

AGDQ 2018 - Sonic

Must move with expedience.

There have been a few people in my family that have perished to cancer, most far before I was born. However, my grandfather is another story. He was a good man, a strong man. He never had a speeding ticket, didn’t miss work, served the armed forces. He was the paragon of what it meant to be a good person. He taught me a lot, and I didn’t have a father figure to do that until I was well into adulthood. He died of lung cancer due to possible exposure to Agent Orange while he served. So this year’s “Prevent Cancer” charity meant quite a lot to me. I typically would skip AGDQ because I was not, at that time, a fan of speed runs. I did not get it, I suppose. I would tune in for some of the streams when something I really thought would be interesting came on, but I did not block out time for it. When I play games, for the most part, it’s to enjoy a story, so I don’t race my way to the end. I didn’t begrudge people who play for different reasons (still don’t!) but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. It wasn’t something I really found myself looking out for.

AGDQ 2018 - Punch Out

This kind of skill .. knocked me out? I’ll just go.

At least, it wasn’t. But something changed this year, and it felt far more interesting, exciting. I found myself catching every single run I possibly could, even if they were games I was not interested in. If I wasn’t streaming, I was watching. The crowd’s reaction, the positive responses, the eagerness to donate to a cause this important, it really spoke to me. I can’t always donate, but I try to donate to charity every year because it’s a good thing to do. It was a truly emotional week full of exciting content. They broke their record from last year, and I believe it was 2.1 million dollars for charity, by both companies and regular people who just love video games, whether their lives have been touched by cancer or not. Am I bad at speedrunning? I have not given it any serious try, but probably. Everyone starts off bad! I’m still not 100% sure that it’s for me, but the speedrunning community fosters healthy competition, friendliness, and really seem to work together to find better times, better ways to get through incredibly long games.

AGDQ 2018 - Metroid

A truly terrifying maze done at an insane pace.

I think that is what wound up fascinating me about it. My initial view of it was people simply exploiting glitches and getting to the end fast as possible. But that’s my fault. I was definitely wrong and in this case? I’m glad to be. There is so much math and technical skill that goes into many of these runs, stuff I am certainly not skilled enough to do. But to see it happen in a game as challenging as Dragon Warrior 1? That was mind-blowing. There were, of course, things that truly stood out to me at this years AGDQ. For example, the jimmypoopins/darkman78 Strider exhibition was a thing of beauty. Teaching someone who does not speedrun Strider, to do so right there in front of a crowd? That would be insanely stressful to me. I’d have probably exploded. But he did it, and now likely has an official time on the Strider leaderboards. It was incredible to watch someone learn right there on the spot, then do it with no help what so ever.

AGDQ 2018 - DW12

NESCardinality blew my mind with this run.

NESCardinality’s Dragon Warrior 1 (Any %) was probably my favorite run of the day. I struggled so much with Dragon Warrior as a kid, as I’ve written about (more than once, I’m sure) before, but to watch him break down the game into frames, numbers, and data, and blow it wide open was truly astonishing. A game I spent literal years beating he accomplished in less than a half hour. But I know that had to have taken months, if not years to learn how to do reliably. Maybe I’ll reach out to some of these talented speedrunners, have a chat with them. But this run came down to managing frames and attacking at just the right frame to guarantee a critical hit, to get the perfect encounter, all of it. I appreciated him taking the time to explain what he was doing and why. Even if he didn’t rescue the Princess. he did acquire all of the major items, get to the Dragon Lord, and defeated him in one-on-one combat.

Superman 64 by headstrong1290 AGDQ 2018 - YouTube

THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR SUPERMAN.

The Awful Block was hilarious as well, as I do so enjoy watching people play awful, awful, terrible video games (SUPERMAN ON THE N64 OH MY LORD). But I do feel the highlight of the entire week for me personally, was the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer Race, or the Megaman 1-3 Relay Race, or Super Mario World, No Cape, No Star World Race. These are games that made up much of my childhood, so seeing them done in such a unique way made me feel such a tremendous amount of joy. I’ve really come to love Randomizers (versions of games that have randomized item locations, enemy placements, a variety of other settings), thanks to my friend Rohner, who pointed out the Zelda one to me. To see one played at such a high level? Amazing. The race was very close, until just about the end, and Prolix made sure we understood what was going on. That’s the big thing to me. The people calling the action talking about important things concerning the games and players. Sure, friendly banter went down, but for someone like me, new to speedrunning, the explanations from the runners and the play-by-play team was wondrous. Between the above mentioned, Metroid, Punchout+Super Punchout (by one person, zallard1), and so much more, this week of gaming has something for everyone.

AGDQ 2018 - Zelda

Bet you didn’t think you’d see Mog and Dark Link racing across Hyrule.

Do you love video games? Tired of seeing them run in the same way every time? You need to watch Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick. It’s a semi-annual event with the goal to raise charities and show off some incredible gameplay, the likes you might have never seen before. Not to mention being able to donate to certain challenges/character names/etc. You can donate money to make the runs harder, or make them much funnier. Not to mention there are always wonderful prizes to raffle off. You’ll also learn about some truly fantastic livestreamers in these folks, and you might find another stream to watch loyally. Over 19 marathons, they’ve raised over 14 million dollars. You can find their Twitch stream here, and their Youtube channel here, and if you want to donate, you can do so right here. It really brightened up the start of my year and I now have a semi-annual tradition to look forward to. From the interviewers, the personalities, and the people who took the time to entertain, educate, and show off for us, I appreciate it wholeheartedly and sincerely. It was for a wonderful cause, and I was so glad to see so much raised towards it. I still don’t know if I’m going to reach into speedrunning, but seeing how much work goes into them, I’ve gained an enourmous amount of respect for the people that practice it. Perhaps I can go sometime and cover it live? Who knows? I’d sure enjoy it. But you can certainly count on more AGDQ coverage right here on MMOHuts.

Hyper Universe MVP Giveaway

We’ve partnered with Nexon to give away a limited number of MVP Starter Packs for Hyper Universe!

Leap into action with the most intense side-scrolling MOBA to hit the market. Join the battle-ready Hypers ranging from a mage who rains down giant snowmen, a mongoose riding astride an armored rhinoceros, a tentacled Admiral with the power of the kraken at his call, and more! Hyper Universe combines the gameplay found in a side-scrolling action title with the highly strategic team-oriented play of a MOBA. Every Hyper brings a new strategy and wealth of crazy techniques to the fight. It’s a Hyper Universe… Anything goes.


The Hyper Universe MVP Starter Pack contains the following Hypers, and their unique equipment:

  • Yuna
  • Sapitelbub
  • Green Pit Bull
  • Jack

To redeem your key:

  1. Launch Steam client and log into your Steam account. (If you don’t have a Steam account, create one and install Steam client.)
  2. Once logged into Steam, click on “Games” tab on the top left corner.
  3. Click on “Activate a Product on Steam” from the dropdown menu.
  4. Input the product code.
  5. Launch Hyper Universe.
  6. Go to Hyper Shop
  7. Click “Purchased Items”
  8. Redeem Items

Note: Unfortunately ad blockers may interfere with our site. If you have any issues claiming a key, please disable them and try again.

Still having problems redeeming? Please check this thread.