Travis | Cheerful Ghost

Transistor, the next game from Supergiant, drops May 20

Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that invites players to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as they fight through a stunning futuristic city.

I've been looking forward to Transistor for a year now, I'm glad to see that it's finally got a release date. You can pick it up May 20 on PSN (Playstation 4 only) or Steam.

Transistor is being developed by Supergiant Games, the creators of the masterpiece and indie darling, Bastion. It looks like a very beautifully styled isometric ARPG, and while we certainly aren't hurting for isometric ARPGs these days, Transistor seems to be bringing some new hotness to the table.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/10/2014 at 06:14pm

Important to note that the May 20 PSN release is only for Playstation 4. At least next-gen adopters will finally have some love rolling their way.

This is one of my most anticipated games coming out this year. Didn't get the chance to play it at PAX Prime last year, but watching the demos was enough to expect good fun. Can't wait!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/10/2014 at 07:28pm

Yes, thanks. I'll update my post now.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 01:54am

PS4 only at first huh? That kind of makes sense but I think i'll wait to play it.

I heard Jonathan Blow's The Witness will get the exclusive treatment on Playstation at first too.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 01:55am

That said, the trailer looks great. This may not be popular, but I didn't really get the drawn of Bastion. Transistor looks more to my liking and in a way it looks as if Lightning might be getting a run for his money in the HUGE SWORD department.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2014 at 03:09am

"... Lightning might be getting a run for his money in the HUGE SWORD department."

I'm not sure if you're talking about Cloud or Lightning here, since Lightning had a big sword but it was *her* sword, not his.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 03:52am

Uh yeah, Cloud sorry. Sort of never played that one but I know the dude has a fairly big sword.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2014 at 01:18pm

Wait. Wait wait... You. You never played FF7?

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 02:24pm

Yeah. At that time I kind of stopped away from gaming for a bit.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2014 at 02:35pm

*hands Jon a PSX*

Get to it! :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 02:36pm

It's on Steam too. One of the games on the ol' list of shame.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2014 at 03:40pm

Ah right, I always forget it's there.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/11/2014 at 04:27pm

It's okay. I missed entire catalogs, because I didn't have much exposure to Sega systems growing up. It was usually Atari or Nintendo under our TV.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2014 at 07:37pm

Yeah, me too. Because of that I like Sonic but don't love that franchise like others do.

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New Borderlands coming this year, not developed by Gearbox

I have mixed feelings about Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

On the one hand, more Borderlands! And we finally get to go to the moon base that everyone has been wanting for years now.

On the other hand, it isn't being developed by Gearbox. In the past we've seen good and bad things come from franchises that get games passed around like this, so I'll hold out hope for good things. It's still staying inside 2K, and Randy Pitchford loves the way 2K Australia is handling it, so I'm choosing to trust them until I'm proven otherwise.

The game takes place between Borderlands 1 and 2, and you'll play as familiar characters from the franchise, including Claptrap. Yes, Claptrap is a playable character. The four new characters fight alongside Handsome Jack as he gains power.

It's running on the Borderlands 2 engine, and from the screenshots it looks very similar, which isn't a bad thing. Borderlands 2 was quite a beautiful game.

Destructoid has a ton more here: http://www.destructoid.com/borderlands-the-pre-sequel-takes-the-shooter-looter-to-the-moon-272973.phtml

Mario Kart 8 Rides the Rainbow Road to our TVs May 30

I don't have a Wii U. We make fun of the poor Wii U a lot because of the less than stellar launch, the lack of quality third-party games, the confusing name, and so on.

But look at this trailer and tell me you don't want one!

It's official: Amazon set-top box, out today, plays games

We've heard rumors for months about an Amazon set-top box or console, and recently saw some very convincing leaked images of an Amazon controller. All the rumor and speculation ends today, however, because Amazon is now shipping the Fire TV, their new set top box that will stream your media and play games.

What's more, Amazon has formed Amazon Game Studios to develop games for the device. One game, out now, is called Sev Zero and looks like a pretty good shooter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXI898kyBgM

It's pretty impressive to me that they managed to keep an entire game studio secret for long enough to pull this off.

The FireTV itself will set you back $99, and the controller (sold separately) is $40.

Read more about the Fire TV here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CX5P8FC/

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/02/2014 at 09:21pm

This is huge. I would expect Apple to follow suit, probably as early as this fall. I'm really surprised (and disappointed) that Apple didn't do this first, actually. They've had everything in place for years. Now Amazon has the infrastructure, hardware, and customer base, to be one of the hottest thing in home entertainment (no pun intended). If it works. I like the idea of the mic on the remote. Looks like it has double the gpu power that the Ouya has, too. Very, very interesting.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/02/2014 at 10:05pm

Eh, I don't know how well this is going to do. It's interesting as a media device, but with more and more TV's being "smart," most of the features of the box are being built directly into TV's. And as far as games, I think the kid who gets this as a game system will feel like the kids back in the 80's who got a VTech Socrates rather than a Nintendo.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/03/2014 at 04:05am

@scrypt I agree. I expected Apple to do this first so it's cool and strange to see Amazon head in. That said, I am happy they have as this set top box is the most powerful of the bunch and I hope it sparks a "cheaper set top box spec war."

@Adym It isn't the greatest offering as far as games go right now for sure. That said, over time I imagine more developers will port games over and things should work pretty well. Amazons Android store isn't too bad and it's catalog of games is growing. It hits the right price point and has enough power to play some games. That said, this ain't gonna run BioShock Infinite.

Orionnoir wrote on 04/03/2014 at 03:18pm

Well maybe its because Apple 'sort of' did this... e.g., AppleTv + Airplay? I push whatever I am playing to it at times. Ironically just to record videos for demos... I don't really use it for anything but capturing a stream now that I think about it. I did demo a few games to my kids with it. Ok so maybe its not even remotely a single purpose console device experience. But my point is Apple might feel like they already HAVE entered the market... That is a very un-researched opinion. I do believe Apple is a horribly small company for the revenue stream they achieve. And at times it feels like they are holding this stuff together with bailing wire and duct tape. Covered in a a very pretty surface layer... but underneath there is chaos and hell chained with fury and just waiting to crack the surface and spew forth its vitriol onto the consumer or developer in some fashion if allowed.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2014 at 12:28am

Apple does have Apple TV for sure and like you say you can fling stuff from your iPad, iPhone and Mac to it. I think what we were talking about it not doing was having an app store and official controller. Right now you just get the apps it comes with, which is nice BUT no app store. So for me, it seems like Apple is right on the line of having something that could be WAY better.

On thing that keeps me away from the Apple option is I serve all my media off a NAS. Apple TV requires you fling content on it through the iPhone through AirPlay. If Apple TV had an app store I could use my NAS and uPNP.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:15am

One thing you can do is configure something else to act as an Airplay server. It's a little cumbersome, I've never done it, so I don't know how predictable it is.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:16am

As far as serving media, Apple TV primarily works through iTunes on a network Mac/PC. iOS apps require mirroring from an iPhone or iPad. Like you say, Jon, without access to native, downloadable apps, it is quite lacking compared to a Roku or Fire TV. That said, I love my Apple TV, and hope that, someday, Apple sees it's full potential. I hope the Fire TV will do just that. I tried Airplay once for gaming, and it's not optimal, or even playable. They have much work to do.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2014 at 01:19am

Airplay is great for Apple gear and I love the idea, I just hope it becomes a more open standard so you don't need to only use Apple stuff with it.

That said, if Apple TV got the full app store treatment i'd be more down with it so I can use non-Apple internal file sharing and such. But as is, it's kind of Apple only and whereas I do use iTunes, my NAS is always on for the reason of file sharing, I don't need to have my laptop on for it to magically work, Apple just makes me have use it.

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Tetropolis -- "Tetroidvania" platformer starring a tetronimo

With all the news about the big AAA releases dominating what's coming out of GDC, this indie announcement is the one that's stuck with me.

In Tetropolis, you play as a defective tetronimo. As the story goes, there's a factory that creates all those puzzle pieces for all the puzzle games. Perhaps that's why you only see the next one piece in Tetris-- it's the one currently being made! At any rate, our hero gets made with only three blocks instead of four, and is sent to the disassembler. Along the way you'll meet another defective tetronimo, one with only a single block, and work together to try to escape disassembly and find a place to fit in.

The gameplay is what's really intriguing here, because while there's some standard platformer fare, there are also some puzzle sections where you and your cohort will have to reassemble yourselves into a specific piece to get into certain areas. This leads to some Metroidvania-style backtracking, but what's more, all the rooms in the factory are also tetronimoes, and you can rearrange the rooms to access parts of the map that are normally off-limits. The lead developer of the game calls this "Tetroidvania."

Joystiq was at GDC and shared their impressions here: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/21/tetropolis-the-platformer-starring-tetris-pieces/?ncid=rss_truncated

And you can read about the game on the game's official site: http://tetropolis-game.com/

Unreal Engine 4- Linux, Steam Machines, Oculus, and Github

I lied to you yesterday when I said GOG.com's Linux support was the best news all week.

This is.

Unreal Engine 4 launches today, and will soon support Oculus VR, Linux, Valve’s Steamworks and Steam Machines and HTML5. And the source is hosted on GitHub, though you do have to pay a subscription to access it.

That Linux support is for deployment and development. Linux will be a first-class citizen all around for the new engine.

They're also building an app store model for sharing awesome code-- free stuff and paid-for.

Read the full release here: https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/20/2014 at 10:47pm

Pretty! I like the low cost of entry, although a free version to learn on would be nice, but the 5% royalty to Epic seems sketchy. I just hope other companies don't start doing this. Imagine if all the software you used as a professional took a cut of your success (Adobe, don't you dare!)?

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/21/2014 at 02:55am

I agree. That said, if you are wanting to build the next amazing shooter, that might not be that bad. Well, depending on what you are used to. One of my friends who developed for consoles and such said that kind of rev cut isn't that uncommon and that engine companies have been doing that for a while. That said, if you don't want a rev cut then Unity might be the ticket. And really, I kind of would rather just buy tools outright than pay them scrilla per month and a rev cut.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/21/2014 at 04:28am

I like Unity's approach. The subscription cost is higher, but the option to purchase a license is, I feel, still important. Of course you can learn to use the tools at no cost, which is the way it should be. I'm glad that model is working for them, and hope they continue with it. UE4 is so beautiful, though (graphically). I've never used it, but watching a few of the training videos they have on it make it seem less intimidating than I imagined. I've only gone as far as making test levels in Unity, but if UE4 is as welcoming to use, and (I would assume) more powerful, then it would certainly be worth $20 a month to try it out, at least.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/21/2014 at 04:58am

I'd love to see what you cooked up with Unity. I downloaded the free version but I haven't gotten around to playing with it yet.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/21/2014 at 06:18pm

My test level isn't much more than going through some tutorials that I followed to get used to the tools. When I was finished I had hills and a wooded area all textured with grass, some bushes, proper rocks, some sand (texture), and a skybox. First person perspective. Playing around with it made me thing two things: "Yeah, I can do this," and "I have a lot more to learn." I'll see if I can dig it out and send it to you.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/21/2014 at 06:42pm

Nice! Looking forward to going through those tutorials myself.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 03/22/2014 at 03:11am

"Yeah, I can do this," and "I have a lot more to learn." I'll see if I can dig it out and send it to you.

That's the best place to be. Seriously, I love that feeling.

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GOG.com to support Linux in the Fall

In the best-news-of-the-week department, GOG.com has announced that they will be adding a slew of Linux games in the fall. When Linux support launches, expect at least 100 games with Ubuntu and Mint supported fully (which means Debian and its variants should work as well with a little encouragement). More games and a wider base of supported distributions will be added later.

It's important to note here that they will be bringing in games that already have a native Linux version, as well as porting new games to the platform.

For quite some time now (years?), Linux support has been the #1 requested feature on GOG.com. Good to finally see the "in progress" badge on it.

For more on GOG Linux support, read the official release: http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_soon_on_more_platforms

Many of us, myself included, had all but given up hope on seeing GOG.com support Linux. In an interview 6 months ago a GOG representative gave some very good reasons for why they wouldn't support it. The diversity and rapid development in the Linux world makes things very difficult to support, and if I were in their shoes I wouldn't be too keen on a money-back guarantee on Linux either. But it's great to see them putting in the extra effort.

The aforementioned interview: http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/gogcom-dont-plan-on-introducing-linux-support-in-the-foreseeable-future-updated.2369/

Valve unveils the new Steam controller

The new model seems to address some of the complaints people had with the last version. There are now traditional buttons next to the touch pads.

I was worried with how some games would work with the new controller, but at the same time I was looking forward to seeing how the strange and unique layout would work for PC games that, by default, only use mouse and keyboard.

So good and bad, I suppose. I'm still intrigued by it and can't wait to get my hands on it.

More details at Ars: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/valve-replaces-steam-controller-touchscreen-with-new-analog-face-buttons/

Dong Nguyen speaks about Flappy Bird

The somewhat reclusive creator of Flappy Bird recently accepted an interview with Rolling Stone. In it, he discusses the ups and downs of creating a hit mobile game.

I have to admit to a slight addiction here, folks. I've criticized the game and Mr. Nguyen on the site before, and I still stick by those criticisms. The game is derivative and unimaginative, and its creator handled criticism very poorly. I still believe that. However, upon the news that it was being removed from the various app stores, I re-snagged it just in case I changed my mind. Well, I have. Kinda. The art is incredibly derivative, going farther than just homage, and the mechanics are identical to a game that's a decade old, but the game is still damned addictive. It plays very well on the human need to see a number go up, and the difficulty sits right on the same Super Meat Boy edge of what is too frustrating.

All that being said, it's interesting to hear from Dong Nguyen about what's been happening in his life. Some of the messages he received are just mean, and some were concerning to him. At all the criticism over the addictive nature of the game, he said "At first I thought they were just joking, but I realize they really hurt themselves." The feeling of success could easily be negated by thinking you've legitimately hurt someone with your creation. I mean really, if you had 10,000 people singing your praises and a single person who mentions failing responsibilities due to something you created, which are you likely to listen to?

The decision to take the game down makes more sense now, and I'm glad he agreed to a rare interview. If you managed to miss the game and want to play the original (not one of the thousands of clones), there's hope. Mr. Nguyen has said he may put it back up, but if he does there will be a Wii-style reminder that you should take breaks from it.

The full interview can be found at Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-flight-of-the-birdman-flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-20140311

That's my personal high score in the image, by the way. Beat it if you dare!

Valve bringing Direct 3D to Linux

Valve has pulled code straight from the belly of the beast (by which I mean DOTA2) to bring ToGL to the world. ToGL is a translation layer to convert Direct3D code to OpenGL.

The code is being released as-is, and isn't necessarily ready for prime-time, but it can hopefully be used by other game developers to bring their D3D-only code into the OpenGL world, enabling future porting to Linux.

This is great news for the gaming community looking to get a Steam Machine, and obviously a good decision for Valve. It's nice to see a developer contributing back to the community with good code. I hope to see more games building on this to expand the Steam Linux library, as I'm sure Valve does as well.

The GitHub repository is here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL

Travis4

547 Posts

Transistor, the next game from Supergiant, drops May 20

New Borderlands coming this year, not developed by Gearbox

Mario Kart 8 Rides the Rainbow Road to our TVs May 30

It's official: Amazon set-top box, out today, plays games

Tetropolis -- "Tetroidvania" platformer starring a tetronimo

Unreal Engine 4- Linux, Steam Machines, Oculus, and Github

GOG.com to support Linux in the Fall

Valve unveils the new Steam controller

Dong Nguyen speaks about Flappy Bird

Valve bringing Direct 3D to Linux