Talawa Games today announced the release of Unmechanical on the major digital distribution portals. The game is currently discounted 10% in price and a demo will be released on Steam tomorrow.
“Unmechanical is an award-winning 2.5D side-scroller which combines tricky puzzle solving, alluring exploration, and an engrossing atmosphere. The game had humble beginnings as a student project and since then both game and team has grown. Unmechanical focuses on accessible controls that makes it easy to pick up and play, and challenges you with a wide range of challenging puzzles.”
Valve today announced that other creative and productivity software will be making its way to Steam and several packages will be taking advantage of Steamworks.
“The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to your personal Steam Cloud space so your files may travel with you.
More Software titles will be added in an ongoing fashion following the September 5th launch, and developers will be welcome to submit Software titles via Steam Greenlight.
“The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games,” said Mark Richardson at Valve. “They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests.”
Valve today announced that gamers can now pre-purchase Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam and customers who do will receive a 10% price discount and be given access to the upcoming beta on August 14th.
“CS: GO expands on the classic team-based action gameplay that Counter-Strike pioneered.Featuring an arsenal of over 45 weapons, loads of maps, new game modes, new visuals, leaderboards and over 165 Steam Achievements.
Additionally, players can take advantage of huge savings on the entire Counter-Strike franchise during this week’s Midweek Madness from August 7 – August 9.”
A trailer for Rise of the Triad, the “rebirth” of the classic game in development at Interceptor Entertainment, was released over the weekend.
“Rise of the Triad made a huge splash at QuakeCon this weekend, with a surprise announcement and players blasting the crap out of each other all weekend in multiplayer mayhem.”
Bethesda updated its blog yesterday announcing the PC release of The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard on Steam, which was released at the end of June for Xbox. PS3 gamers really get the end of the stick as the company is having trouble with performance – stating that it won’t be released until they have the issues resolved.
“Dawnguardâ„¢ is the first official game add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim® – the 2011 Game of the Year. The Vampire Lord Harkon has returned to power. By using the Elder Scrolls, he seeks to do the unthinkable – to end the sun itself. Will you join the ancient order of the Dawnguard and stop him? Or will you become a Vampire Lord yourself? Featuring an all new faction questline and locations, the ultimate choice will be yours.”
Two new interesting Kickstarter campaigns were launched within the last couple of days. One is Project Giana (working title), which is the “grandchild” of The Great Giana Sisters, a Super Mario Bros clone released in 1987. The game is in development by Black Forest Games, which is made up of mostly former Spellbound Entertainment developers, and the company plans on releasing the game on the PC and later on XBLA and PSN.
The other campaign is for a game called Eternal Fate, which was announced today at QuakeCon. Eternal Fate is a PvP-Focused Action RPG by Escalation Studios that has been in development for about a year. The company is currently targeting a fall/early winter release.
Apogee Software and Interceptor Entertainment today announced the rebirth of the classic FPS game Rise of the Triad at QuakeCon.
“Powered by the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games, “Rise of the Triad†includes a full single-player campaign, a fully featured multiplayer experience and so much more.
Set for release on PC via Steam late this year, “Rise of the Triad†is packed with features that are sure to melt your face off:
Step into the shoes of the H.U.N.T. (High-Risk United Nations Taskforce) with five unique characters, each with different play styles.
Blast through over 20 of levels of explosive single-player action.
Unique multiplayer maps bring back all the fun and excitement of classic ROTT.
The full arsenal of over-the top weapons is back, including the Flamewall, Firebomb, Split Missile, Drunk Missile and, of course, the Excalibat!
The maniacal modes return, too, with God mode, Elasto mode, Mercury mode, Shrooms mode and everyone’s favorite, Dog mode!
Build your own levels, mods and share them with Valve’s Steamworks.
Offline single-player and multiplayer allows for instant action.
Find tons of secrets, collectables, special events and hidden areas to explore.
Get more than 100 achievements to add to your score, which is tracked on our worldwide leaderboard and stat-tracking system.
ROTT is bloodier and more ludicrous than ever, with full character and enemy dismemberment.
The iconic original soundtrack has been completely re-forged in the fires of heavy metal!
Nostalgia abounds with the option to play with all the original sounds and music.
Built on fully-licensed Unreal Engine 3 technology, ROTT will run on low-end PCs and push high-end PCs to their limits!”
Nordic Games today announced the launch of a limited-access closed beta for Painkiller: Hell & Damnation. Interested players can still register for a spot on the official site and should watch Facebook and the game forums for key giveaways over the next couple of weeks. In addition, new game screenshots were released.
“The eagerly anticipated Hell & Damnation installment is powered by Unreal Engine 3 and continues the hardcore fast gameplay of the original “Painkiller”. Players will be able to battle it out in the beta within 5 modes, including Single Player, Network Co-op, Deatchmatch and Team Deathmatch. It also features a Feedback button that links through to the Beta Forum so players can give direct feedback.”
A new blog post was added to the Valve blog highlighting Source engine hardware testing. In an interesting development, the team has Left 4 Dead 2 running about 17% faster with Ubuntu and OpenGL than the standard Windows and Direct3D version of the game. Valve has been working with Windows for a long time, which makes these new stats interesting. The team was also able to increase the OpenGL speed on Windows by about 12% vs Direct3D. Additionally, the team is working with Nvidia, AMD and Intel on testing and boosting performance, which should benefit the Linux gaming community.
“This experience lead to the question: why does an OpenGL version of our game run faster than Direct3D on Windows 7? It appears that it’s not related to multitasking overhead. We have been doing some fairly close analysis and it comes down to a few additional microseconds overhead per batch in Direct3D which does not affect OpenGL on Windows. Now that we know the hardware is capable of more performance, we will go back and figure out how to mitigate this effect under Direct3D.”
Ronimo Games today announced the launch of Awesomenauts, an action platformer game, on Steam.
“The game boasts 8 powerful characters vying for cosmic dominance in a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. For example, Froggy G the hiphop frog deals deadly water dashes. Meanwhile, Yuri the Russian space monkey is outfitted with a proximity mines and a jetpack. And Leon the sneaky Chameleon wields a powerful lightning sword. In Awesomenauts two teams of 3 players battle each other using these and other awesome characters. Their goal? To destroy the other teams’ base!
To celebrate the launch of Awesomenauts on PC, we’ve decided to throw in a couple of extra goodies and options when buying Awesomenauts. First off: Team Fortress 2 goodies! When you pick up Awesomenauts on Steam before September 5th, you will receive an exclusive Sheriff Lonestar hat (with authentic mustache!) for the Sniper, Yuri’s jetpack for the Pyro, and a unique medal that can be used with all Team Fortress 2 characters – to show to the world that you’re part of the Awesomenauts! These goodies will be available starting August 2nd.
Meanwhile, if you’re planning to form an Awesomenauts team with two of your friends, go grab the 3-for-2 bundle! It’ll save you and your friends a round of drinks. If you’re planning on drinking while playing might we suggest getting something with caffeine in it, because it could quickly turn into an all-nighter.”
CD Projekt RED gathered questions from the community and answered a few of them in detail. Here is the first one:
“Richie79: What elements are you using as inspiration (references) for making Cyberpunk?
Marcin Momot: There are quite a few actually. Aside from the obvious ones like the works of William Gibson or the Blade Runner movie, we also take from the first Ghost in the shell, both anime and manga. We’re also looking up to ShellShock because of its interesting approach to gameplay. The first part of Deus Ex is also a very important source of inspiration to us.”
A new Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset for video games, was launched today and the company has recommendations from some of the largest names in the industry including John Carmack, CliffyB, David Helgason, Michael Abrash and Gabe Newell.
“Oculus Rift is a new virtual reality (VR) headset designed specifically for video games that will change the way you think about gaming forever. With an incredibly wide field of view, high resolution display, and ultra-low latency head tracking, the Rift provides a truly immersive experience that allows you to step inside your favorite game and explore new worlds like never before.
We’re here raising money on Kickstarter to build development kits of the Rift, so we can get them into the hands of developers faster. Kickstarter has proven to be an amazing platform for accelerating big and small ideas alike. We hope you share our excitement about virtual reality, the Rift, and the future of gaming. “
Nordic Games today announced the worldwide release of The Book of Unwritten Tales via major digital distribution portals.
“In a world torn by war, the aged gremlin archaeologist Mortimer McGuffin discovers a reference to a legendary artefact of unimaginable power. Whoever holds this treasure in their hands will determine the fate of the world.
While the Army of the Shadows sends out its best agents on the merciless hunt for the artefact, the Alliance’s three heroes find themselves involuntarily drawn into the crisis…
More (A)BoUT:
An epic story providing more than 20 hours of gameplay
Multi-character gameplay. Play as Wilbur, Nate, Ivo and the Critter, in turn or simultaneously to solve some of the tougher puzzles of the game
Excellent character animation with fine-tuned facial animations
Loads of crazy characters — from two-headed ogres and vegetarian dragons to moronic mummies and good-natured zombies
An extensive game world with detailed graphics and more than 60 elaborate locations
Over 200 mind-boggling puzzles and more than 300 items that can be used and combined
Highly detailed, zoom-able 2D backgrounds with real-time 3D characters in full HD (supports screen resolutions of up to 1920×1200 pixels)”
Stardock today announced the launch of The Political Machine 2012, giving players a chance to play as one of the 2012 US political candidates in a simulated election. The game is available via major digital distribution portals.
“The Political Machine 2012 features updated political topics from across the United States such as Afghanistan, the economy, Obamacare, income inequality, gun control, gay rights and the national debt. Regional issues require the candidate to walk a tight rope between appealing to the widest range of voters and appearing to “flip flopâ€.
Players take to the campaign trail against a computer controlled opponent or a human challenger over the Internet. Can you conduct a campaign savvy enough to win the hearts and minds of America’s voters to achieve victory in the 2012 presidential election?”
