Mereja

Category: PC

  • BioShock Infinite Trailer Reminds You That It Launches Tomorrow

    BioShock Infinite – one of the most anticipated game of 2013 – finally launches tomorrow.. To make sure that you don’t forget, Irrational Games have thrown together one final trailer for the title:

    There’s not much new in the trailer as we’ve already seen pretty much everything that doesn’t fall within spoiler territory. The game still looks incredibly fun though, and the reviews so far are confirming it as the first must-have game of the year.

    BioShock Infinite will be available tomorrow, March 26, for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Those who have preordered the game on Steam will be able to start playing it tonight when it unlocks. GameStop is also holding a number of midnight release events across the country for those who can’t wait to start exploring Columbia.

  • Krieg The Psycho Joins The Cast Of Borderlands 2

    It’s been a few months since Borderlands 2 has received any new content. It’s been even longer since the game has received a new playable character. That all changes in May.

    At PAX East, Gearbox Software announced that Krieg the Psycho will be joining the cast of Borderlands 2. He’s the first new character to join the vault hunters since last year’s Gaige the Mechromancer. Krieg will primarily be a melee character, but he has a few ranged abilities as well. He will be available as part of the Psycho Pack in May for $9.99.

    Joystiq is also reporting that Gearbox will sell a Vault Hunter Upgrade pack in April for $5. This DLC pack will increase the game’s level cap from 50 to 61. It will be available to all those who purchased the Season Pass. It will also feature a mode for those wanting to play through the game a third time called the “Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.”

    Those anticipating the final piece of DLC for Borderlands 2 won’t have much longer to wait as its expected to launch in June. After that, it’s anybody’s guess where Gearbox will do with the Borderlands franchise. My bet is on a third game for next-gen consoles.

  • Capcom Is Remaking The NES Classic DuckTales

    DuckTales is fondly remembered as one of the few licensed games that actually got it right. The perfect platforming and the amazing music have inspired countless gamers the world over. Now the classic is coming back and it looks better than ever.

    Capcom announced today at PAX East that it’s working together with Disney and developer WayForward to bring DuckTales back to current gen consoles. The game is being billed as a remake of the original NES title, but WayForward will be adding much more to the game. One of the additions is a recreation of Scrooge McDuck’s money vault that players will be able to swim in.

    Check out the first gameplay footage below and be prepared to get the DuckTales them stuck in your head all over again:

    DuckTales Remastered will be available this summer on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop and PC for $14.99.

    In other classic gaming goodness, Capcom will also be bringing two classic Dungeons & Dragons arcade titles to XBLA, PSN, PC and the Nintendo eShop later this year:

  • The Cast of Dead Island Riptide Can’t Catch A Break

    Dead Island Riptide, sequel to 2011′s popular open-world first-person zombie RPG, is set to launch in April. Besides showing off an offensive collector’s edition, we haven’t seen much of what the sequel will do with its tropical zombie setting. A new trailer offers a few more details.

    In the latest trailer for Dead Island Riptide, it reveals that the party from the first game find themselves on a military ship. Soon after, the ship crashes on a new island with a new zombie infection to deal with. The government wants to cover up the situation by nuking the island. It’s a decent idea, but one that probably won’t bode well for the future if the Resident Evil franchise is any indication.

    Dead Island Riptide will launch across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on April 23.

  • Play Games Before They’re Released With Steam Early Access

    Pre-loading on Steam has given gamers everywhere the chance to play a game the moment its released. Now Steam is taking that idea a step further – allowing gamers to play a game while it’s still in development.

    Steam Early Access gives players a chance to play PC games before they’re officially released so players can give critical feedback to developers during the development of the title. Here’s how it’s going to work:

    The goal of Early Access is to provide gamers with the chance to “go behind the scenes” and experience the development cycle firsthand and, more importantly, have a chance to interact with the developers by providing them feedback while the title is still being created.

    To support the interaction between Early Access players and developers, Steam offers easy and automatic updating of games, letting developers iterate quickly to respond directly to bug reports and feedback from customers. And, like all Steam games, Early Access players will be able to interact with other players, making it easy to create and share screenshots, tips, and in-depth guides.

    In essence, Early Access will have players buying into an alpha or beta build of a game to gain early access while helping the developers find bugs and work out balance issues before the game officially launches. This was a model employed most famously by Mojang for Minecraft as the game was available for purchase during its alpha phase, and players helped shape the game into what it is today.

    To kick off Early Access, Steam will be making a number of games available as part of the new program starting today:

  • 1… 2… 3… KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby)
  • Arma 3
  • Drunken Robot Pornography
  • Gear Up
  • Gnomoria
  • Kenshi
  • Kerbal Space Program
  • Kinetic Void
  • Patterns
  • Prison Architect
  • StarForge
  • Under the Ocean

    • The one thing these games all have in common is that they come from small indie studios. It will be interesting to see if any major studios take advantage of the program as it could provide them with a form of QA testing where participants pay to beta test products. That being said, the democratization of game development is a slippery slope, and some games are better off sticking to their original vision.

    Either way, Steam Early Access is another interesting experiment from Valve and it will be fascinating to watch what happens to the games that take part in the program.

    [h/t: Kotaku]

  • BioShock Infinite Dev Diary Details The Creation Of Elizabeth

    Elizabeth and her role in BioShock Infinite is still largely one big question mark. That’s not going to change until the game launches next week, but the developers are providing an in-depth look at how the developers brought her to life. More specifically, this latest dev diary focuses on the four women who helped bring Elizabeth to life.

    BioShock Infinite will launch across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 26.

  • PC shipments could sink by double-digit percentage in Q1 2013

    PC Shipment Projection
    It’s not easy being a PC vendor right now and the latest report issued by IDC indicates that it won’t get easier anytime soon. In particular, IDC says that an economic slowdown in China will lead to a further erosion of PC sales in the first quarter of 2013, a trend that is particularly worrisome because China accounted for “over 21% of global shipments in 2012,” making it the world’s largest market for personal computers. Because of this, IDC analyst Loren Loverde projects that “we could see a drop [in PC shipments] touching double-digits in the first quarter and a mid-single-digit decline in the second quarter before we see any recovery in the second half of the year.” Loverde also thinks it will be very difficult for the PC industry to return to growth this year and that the PC industry will need to deliver “attractive new PC designs and more competitive pricing relative to tablets and other products.”

  • EA Offers A Free Game To Those Troubled By SimCity’s Launch Woes

    There’s no denying it – SimCity‘s launch was a massive failure. EA didn’t anticipate the demand, and its always-online DRM scheme failed to compensate for the massive load on the servers. It prevented thousands of players who legitimately purchased the game from playing it. Now EA is trying to make it right… kind of.

    While EA won’t offer an offline mode for the game, the publisher is extending an olive branch to SimCity players in the form of a free game. Those who purchased Simcity around launch will be able to redeem one of the following games for free from EA’s Origin store through March 30:

  • Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Bejeweled 3
  • Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
  • Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
  • Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

    • It’s kind of ironic of EA to offer a previous incarnation of the SimCity franchise to those affected by the latest game’s launch. Well, at least those who pick SimCity 4 will be able to play a SimCity game without needing to be constantly online.

    It seems that this is as good as its going to get for SimCity players who simply want an offline only experience for the latest game in the franchise. After Maxis pretty much confirmed that an offline mode was possible, it just stings all the more that EA still won’t offer what players want. Despite all of that, SimCity seems to be up and running without any problems at the moment.

    It’s going to be interesting to see how the entire SimCity debacle will affect EA’s running in The Consumerist’s Worst Company In America award. It won the “prestigious” award last year, and this latest event might just help the company retain its Golden Poo award.

  • Left 4 Dead 2 Cast To Appear In The PC Version Of Resident Evil 6

    Last year’s disappointing Resident Evil 6 is hoping to find new life on the PC later this month. Part of that revival comes in the form of “No Mercy,” a new multiplayer mode exclusive to the PC version. What’s even more surprising is that Valve is bringing the cast of Left 4 Dead 2 to this mode.

    Capcom announced today that Resident Evil 6 players will be able to play as Coach, Ellis, Rochelle and Nick in the exclusive mode. To up the ante even more, Capcom is also bringing two enemies from Left 4 Dead 2 to this mode – the Witch and the Mini-Tank.

    As part of the working relationship between Capcom and Valve, the former will be bringing enemies from Resident Evil 6 to Left 4 Dead 2. Capcom is also calling on fans to put the human cast of Resident Evil 6 into Left 4 Dead 2.

    The new characters are a nice love letter to the PC fans of both Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead. The new “No Mercy” mode sounds incredibly fun as well. The only disappointment is that the PC version still won’t fix Resident Evil 6′s boring, and lackluster, singleplayer campaign.

  • Skyhooks May Prove More Deadly Than Guns In BioShock Infinite

    Painkiller wouldn’t be what it is without its titular weapon – the Painkiller. It’s a small device with three spinning blades that causes all kinds of havoc on the battlefield. I’m not saying that BioShock Infinite flat out copied anything, but its Skyhook, which up until now was used to traverse the sky rails of Columbia, has proven itself to be just as deadly as the Painkiller.

    BioShock Infinite continues to look more and more polished each time we see it. It’s making the wait until its launch later this month that much harder to bear.

    BioShock Infinite launches across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 26.

  • Dishonored Continues Its Story With The Knife Of Dunwall In April

    Dishonored was one of the best experiences of 2012. In fact, the only real complaint one could levy against the title was that it was too short. The developers at Arkane Studios are remedying that this year with the release of the title’s first story based DLC – The Knife of Dunwall.

    The Knife of Dunwall has players take on the role of Daud, the assassin responsible for the death of the Empress. New powers, areas to explore and story elements will be revealed as players make their way through the new content:

    New Powers, Weapons and Gadgets – The mark of the Outsider empowers you with unique supernatural abilities. Call upon the Whalers to assist in combat with ‘Summon Assassin’, track down hidden Runes and Bone Charms with ‘Void Gaze’ and learn to use new variations to powers, including ‘Blink’. To aid in your dangerous exploits your customized arsenal of weapons and gadgets will include Chokedust to daze your enemies, whale oil powered Stun Mines to shock your targets, and a concealed Wristbow to launch sleep darts and explosive bolts.

    Explore More of Dunwall –Make your way through the Legal District and infiltrate the Rothwild Slaughterhouse, a steaming factory filled with colossal whale carcasses and their hulking butchers. Revisit the decaying Flooded District, the location of Daud’s hidden base, first seen in the original game. Return to the scenes of key events in Dishonored with a new perspective, including the fateful moment that sets off Corvo’s journey.

    Choose Your Path – On your search for answers, approach each mission with your own style. Your redemption – or your turn towards darkness – depends on your skills and the decisions you make. Discover the mystery behind Delilah in this stand-alone chapter, and then conclude Daud’s story in the upcoming final add-on, The Brigmore Witches.

    The Knife of Dunwall will be available on April 16 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC via Steam for $10. The first piece of DLC for Dishonored – Dunwall City Trials – has been available since December.

  • Xi3 Piston “Steambox” To Cost $1,000, Preorders Now Open

    At CES, we got a look at the first “Steambox.” It was called the Xi3 Piston, and it was seen as a very real challenge to incumbent console manufacturers as it packed the power of a gaming PC into a small, affordable package.

    The affordable moniker may not apply anymore as Xi3 has revealed that the Piston will cost $1,000 when it launches later this year. It can preordered now for $100 off, but the device is still pretty expensive for a computer with specs similar to the recently announced PS4.

    The Piston is a fully-functioning PC built for the living room so the device is going to be compared to consoles. It can’t possibly win out in terms of price, so Xi3 will have to appeal to gamers who want to do more than their consoles will allow.

  • Planescape: Torment Sequel Smashes Kickstarter Goal

    Planescape: Torment is one of the most highly revered RPGs of all time. That being said, it was unclear if its spiritual successor could find success on Kickstarter. Those fears have been laid to rest as the game has reached its Kickstarter goal and then some in less than a day.

    Torment: Tides of Numenera went live on Kickstarter yesterday asking for $900,000 to fund the ambitious RPG. It raised the full amount required in less than six hours. Now at a little over a day later, the project has managed to raise almost $1.8 million with 32,900 backers.

    The developers behind the project, inXile Entertainment, are no stranger to Kickstarter success. The studio raised almost $3 million for another sequel to a classic RPG – Wasteland 2. That game is still in development, but inXile assures fans that it will have enough resources to complete both games on time.

    It looks like Torment will raise far more than Wasteland 2 did, and inXile has a few stretch goals on the horizon if it manages to raise more money. The project has already hit two of the stretch goals – the ability to play as either a male or female, and an expanded story with two new writers. If the game is able to reach $2 million, the development will add more story elements, a fully orchestrated soundtrack and a new companion character.

  • Dead Space 3 Awakened Brings Back The Scares

    A common complaint of last month’s Dead Space 3 was that it removed the scares of previous games in favor of more action-oriented gameplay. In fact, the only real scares to be had were in the form of hallucinations experienced by new co-op partner John Carver. Now those hallucinations are making their way back to franchise protagonist Isaac Clarke.

    EA announced last month that the first piece of DLC for Dead Space 3 would be called “Awakened.” A new trailer released today finally reveals more details on the expansion. Awakened takes place directly after the events of the main game, and features our two heroes facing off against a group of Unitologists on board a derelict ship. The DLC promises plenty of scares so those disappointed in Dead Space 3 might find more to like here.

    Dead Space 3 Awakened will launch on PSN, Xbox Live and Origin for PC on March 12.

  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Gets Debut Trailer

    Despite being one of the best genres in fiction, pirates are woefully underutilized in games. Last year’s Risen 2: Dark Waters was a fantastic, and somewhat broken, stab at pirate fiction, but we haven’t seen anything quite like Sid Meier’s Pirates! in a long time. Ubisoft may be fixing that with its latest Assassin’s Creed title.

    After having announced it last week, and its trailer leaked over the weekend; Ubisoft has now officially released the debut trailer for the latest game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Like all other debut trailers for Assassin’s Creed games, it’s CG without any gameplay footage.

    Despite having one hell of a trailer, Ubisoft has its work cut out for it. Many gamers were displeased with last year’s Assassin’s Creed III, favoring the Ezio trilogy over new protagonist Connor’s exploits during the Revolutionary War. Black Flag stars Connor’s grandfather in an entirely new setting that will hopefully correct the wrongs players found with the third game, and bring back the quality they expect.

    There’s no release date for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag just yet, but the game will be out across every major console and PC, including the PS4 and whatever Microsoft ends up calling the next Xbox.

  • BioShock Infinite Gets Three DLC Packs, Available Via Season Pass

    BioShock Infinite seems like it will be a complete experience when it launches. It’s hard to see what DLC can do to expand the world created by Irrational Games, but the ever alluring temptation of making money off DLC ensures more content will be created.

    Irrational Games announced this morning that BioShock Infinite will be getting three DLC packs in the future. All three packs will provide “hours of additional gameplay and continue the player’s journey in the sky-city of Columbia with new stories, characters, abilities and weapons.” Each pack will cost $10 upon release.

    If you want to save a bit of money, all three packs will be bundled into a season pass that will go on sale on March 26. The season pass will cost $20, and be available across all three platforms. Those who buy the season pass will also receive “Early Bird Special Pack” for free. Here’s what you’ll get:

    This bonus pack contains four pieces of exclusive gear, a Machine Gun Damage Upgrade, a Pistol Damage Upgrade, a gold skin for both weapons and five Infusion bottles that allow players to increase their health, their shield durability or their ability to use Vigors by increasing the quantity of Salts they can carry.

    While you wait for BioShock Infinite and its DLC, check out the wonderful mockumentary series from Irrational that explores the origins of Columbia and the Songbird.

    BioShock Infinite launches on March 26 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

  • The Joker Introduces Lex Luthor To A Crowbar In The Latest Injustice: Gods Among Us Matchup

    Last week, WB Games started up the Injustice Battle Arena where fans of the upcoming fighter could vote to see who fights who in weekly match ups. The first week saw Batman face off against Bane and Wonder Woman face off against Harley Quinn. Batman and Wonder Woman moved on to the second round.

    This week, the two match ups are a bit more interesting. First up, we have The Joker vs. Lex Luthor in a fight that sees The Joker using some classic weapons, like his trusty crowbar, against the power suit fitted Lex. Lex has some tricks of his own, however, including an orbital laser that he calls down upon enemies.

    The second fight is between The Flash and Shazam, which seems a little unfair. Shazam definitely holds his own though, and puts up a terrific fight. That being said, The Flash had this one in the bag.

    The Battle Arena will be back next week with two more match ups that will probably be just as exciting as the last four have been. Here’s hoping newly announced Aquaman gets his chance to shine soon.

    Injustice: Gods Among Us comes out for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U on April 16.

  • New BioShock Infinite Mockumentary Delves Into The Origins Of The Songbird

    Late last month, the folks at Irrational Games started up a mockumentary series about Colombia, the fictional floating city in BioShock Infinite. The first episode covered the origins of Colombia as a marvel of American engineering gone rogue.

    The second episode, released this morning, delves into the origins of the Songbird and what it means to the people of Colombia. Those wary of spoilers need not worry as the mockumentary keeps things intentionally vague while offering small clues as to its purpose to the overall world of BioShock Infinite.

    With this latest “trailer,” I think we can say that the hype train for BioShock Infinite is reaching all new heights. This is the kind of world building that gamers like myself absolutely adore, and I can’t wait to see more.

    BioShock Infinite will release on March 26 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

  • CD Projekt RED Talks Up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

    RPG fans everywhere thanked their respective deities when CD Projekt RED announced last week that it would be finishing up Geralt of Rivia’s story in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Now the developers are beginning to divulge details on what next game will bring to the table, and the lessons learned from The Witcher 2.

    As part of being Game Informer’s cover story for this month, the game’s director and lead quest designer sat down with the magazine to talk about The Witcher 3. The seven minute interview comes at you fast with a lot of information that makes The Witcher 3 sound like it’s going to be one hell of a game when it releases on PC and next-gen consoles next year.

  • Minecraft Pi Edition Is Ready To Teach You Coding

    One of Mojang’s more interesting projects of the last few months has been Minecraft Pi Edition. It’s a free version of Notch’s smash indie hit developed specifically for the Raspberry Pi. It’s been a few months in the making, and now it’s ready to start teaching kids (and adults) how to program.

    Mojang announced today that Minecraft Pi Edition is now available for download. It’s pretty basic at this point, but the team at Mojang says they will be adding new content in the future. Here’s how to get started:

  • Minecraft – Pi Edition runs on Raspbian “wheezy” with XWindows. If you need to set that up, visit http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads and follow the detailed instructions within.
  • Boot up your Raspberry Pi with Raspbian. If you haven’t set XWindows to start automatically upon boot, type in “startx”.
  • Next click the icon for LXTerminal to open a new terminal window. Use the following commands to download and launch:
  • To download it: click here or visit https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.minecraft.net/pi/minecraft-pi-0.1.1.tar.gz
  • To decompress it: tar -zxvf minecraft-pi-0.1..1.tar.gz
  • To run it: cd mcpi
  • Followed by minecraft-pi

    • If you’re able to follow all of that, you’re well on your way to learning the basics of programming. Once in game, you can fully hack away at the title to learn more about how code comes together to make games work.