Travis | Cheerful Ghost

Penny Arcade Report is shutting down

http://hw1.pa-cdn.com/par/img/editorial/parDone.jpg

This is really sad news. I have been a fan of PAR since they started two years ago.

The post by Ben Kuchera doesn't go into the details about why they're ending their run, but alas, it's over.

Ben, feel free to come post over here :)

See more here: http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/it-was-a-great-two-years-but-now-its-time-to-say-goodbye

EDIT: Penny Arcade proper posted some info about this, saying that it was to streamline things, but it isn't entirely clear.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/12/06/changes

John Carmack leaves id Software

John Carmack, co-founder of id Software, has stepped down from the company. This is presumably to focus more on his work at Oculus, where he took on the position of CTO earlier in the year.

Tim Willits at id reached out to IGN to share the news. According to him, no active projects should be affected-- Carmack has finished the work on id Tech 5 and won't be leaving anything hanging.

I was afraid this would happen at the time, but it's sad to see. Carmack is responsible for so much of the fun I've had gaming over the years. It won't be the same without him.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/22/doom-creator-john-carmack-officially-leaves-id-software

Black Mesa releasing a paid version and a new free update

Black Mesa, the remake of Half-Life in the Source engine with all new textures, has been out on Steam for a while for free. Currently it's only about the first half of the game, but there's more coming! They'll be sprucing up the whole game and selling it via Steam, and updating the free version as well.

There's no specific info about the differences between the two, but I'm just glad to see this getting off the ground. What's available right now is quite good, and I can't wait to see more.

http://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=17088

Blizzard working on Warcraft 1 and 2 for modern PCs

At Blizzcon, a question was posed asking if Blizzard would consider making these games work for modern PCs, and as it turns out, they're already on it!

"So, we actually have a guy on our team — actually several guys on our team — who are actually working on a side project to do something like that in some form or fashion. We're fans of Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, and we'd love to replay those games for sure."

Good news for fans of Blizzard's older games. I personally also hope they're working on Diablo, Diablo 2, and Starcraft. All I need is a widescreen resolution, Blizz.

More: http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/10/5087768/blizzard-warcraft-and-warcraft-2-working-on-modern-pcs

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/11/2013 at 04:47am

HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING! I loved all those games and i'd love a port for the new Battle.net. Plus, I own them all so... Well I guess I never owned the original DOS game. But id rebuy War 1 & War 2 for sure.

Have modern ports of all classic Blizzard games NEEDS to happen!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/11/2013 at 05:55pm

That's so rad! I'd love to get an old school LAN party going of 1 or 2!

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/12/2013 at 12:53am

Hmmmmm. If memory serves the original game only supported modem or direct connect over a null modem cable.

War 2 supports the old battle net and LAN play though. Have to rustle that one up, see if it works.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/12/2013 at 01:30am

Wouldn't you think they'd make them work over LAN now?

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/12/2013 at 02:20am

The new versions are not out quite yet so if we played it have to be on the old versions. And of Warcraft 1 & 2 only 2 is LAN worthy(to my knowledge).

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/12/2013 at 03:37am

If we could get 2 up and running, that would be cool, but I meant specifically after they re-release them :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/12/2013 at 05:56am

I see, that would work. I bet two might be playable in some form at like a 25x13 resolution.

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Metro: Last Light out on Linux, shipping with Steam hardware

Metro: Last Light, Deep Silver's follow-up to Metro 2033, has been released on Linux, and it's been announced that it will be included in Steam's hardware beta test to the 300 lucky people who get chosen to help take Steam Machines for a spin.

I decided to fire it up and see how it went, and I have to say, this is no sloppy port. I played about an hour in Windows and in Ubuntu 13.10, and while there are pros and cons, the Linux version outperformed the Windows version in almost every way.

I bumped up the settings of the game in each OS until I noticed framerate issues, and then compared the two at that point. Unfortunately I can't tell where that point is, and can't give any more accurate info. More on that later.

First off, this game is beautiful. Bioshock Infinite has become my gold standard for beautiful games, but this is nearly the direct opposite of Bioshock Infinite's aesthetics. Metro: Last Light takes place after the world has essentially been nuked and everyone lives in the Metro tunnels, and the outside environment is an amazing representation of post-apocalyptia.

I bring this up because the textures are notably better at my video card's limit in the Linux version. I didn't really notice how stunning the world was in Windows because of some fuzz. Character models are about the same in both versions, and they look great either way. There's more tearing in the Windows version as well, but there were a few grainy textures that popped in randomly in an otherwise sharp world on the Linux version.

As far as controls and sound go, there's nothing different enough to notice.

The biggest complaint I have about the Linux version is the graphics settings. There's a single slider from low to high quality, and that's all you get. In the Windows version you can tweak various specific things about the settings like you'd expect. The Linux version did outperform the Windows version but I may have been able to get an even better experience in Linux with more granular control.

Overall though, I'm highly pleased with this. It's great to see big games like this getting treated well in Linux, and it gives me great hopes for what we'll see once Steam Machines get established a bit in the market.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/11/09/metro-last-light-will-come-bundled-with-steam-machine-prototypes/

Hearthstone going open beta next month

Blizzard's TCG, Hearthstone, has been in closed beta for a few months now, but good news for everyone who has been missing out: It's going to be in open beta starting some time next month. Rob Pardo did warn that this means it could be January in "Blizzard speak."

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/08/hearthstone-entering-open-beta-next-month?abthid=527d726df58b64d613000010

In addition, Hearthstone for iOS and Android has been confirmed. I think the game would be a great fit for mobile, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/11/8/5081278/hearthstone-heroes-of-warcraft-blizzcon-2013

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/09/2013 at 08:35pm

This is good news, id like more people on the site to try it out and love to hear what they think of it.

rettisawesome wrote on 11/11/2013 at 07:59pm

I've been following this pretty closely. And while I'm not a fan of blizzard. I think this a good idea. I'd like to see it succeed. I hope it does it's best to steer away from pay-to-win though. Been hearing a lot about that lately.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/11/2013 at 10:56pm

Yeah, its a free to play game and I don't see the really heavy handed play to win. That said, you can totally pay to get a ton of cards which will give you a pretty large advantage over others.

So really no different than Magic The Gathering except you can't just play and get Magic cards for free. :D

rettisawesome wrote on 11/11/2013 at 11:21pm

If you are good at magic, you can develop a self sustaining hobby. Buying and selling with the trends. and getting involved in events. You can earn tons of free cards and packs. I know several people who compete and never spend a dime. Other than entry fees for tournies.

But for real. Totally similar. Also i like (even though i hate wow) that they really rooted it well in there.

I tried to get in to the closed beta. But couldn't. Looking forward to it now being open

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/12/2013 at 12:51am

Huh wow, yeah so I have't known about that aspect to Magic. I am for sure not one of those people and just pay for cards. Pay to win as it were, but I am not very effective because I don't often win :D

Open beta will be great for the game.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 11/12/2013 at 02:49am

Paying for individual cards always felt like cheating to me. A major part of the appeal to MTG is opening a pack of cards and seeing what you get. Buying individual cards to build a winning deck isn't at all fun.

Although I did consider selling my foil Tarmogoyf when that was the card to have four of in every green deck.

JaBo wrote on 11/15/2013 at 09:44pm

Tarmogoyf still sees tons of play and has high value. What I like about Magic is the different event styles. Tomorrow I'm playing in a tournament that everyone shows up (pay $40) and gets 6 packs of cards to open and build a deck out of. There are others similar to that like drafting and then there's the constructed where you use your own cards. In that case you do need to have spent a good amount of money on them to have the ones you want for your deck. But it all depends on the seriousness of the event. If you're playing a free FNM event, who cares, play with your cards and try to win more, if it's a big event though, you have to make sure you have the cards you want or need for your deck or it's inferior to what it could be and ultimately someone else will have everything they need and beat you.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/17/2013 at 06:38pm

Sealed deck tournaments are fun. Last Magic event I went to that was sealed deck, I got my ass kicked hard. It was fun, but yeah you know... apparently many "arm chair" magic players don't do sealed deck tournies :D

JaBo wrote on 11/25/2013 at 05:51pm

I played this (Hearthstone) all day Saturday and Sunday, it's really fun! Quick matches which lots of options and growth. There's 9 different classes with different class specific cards to choose from plus the general pool. 30 card decks - 30 life. Each class has a different special ability that's always available for 2 cost. Your mana builds up 1 a turn.

Anyways, if you are on there and want to add me, my email is [email protected]

My name on there is Nardraug, but you also need the numbers after it to add that way...weird.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/25/2013 at 06:36pm

Awesome, I just added you in game. If I see you, lets play.

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Updates to the console and mobile versions of Terraria

505 Games dropped some info on the official Terraria forums yesterday.

First off, the mobile versions of Terraria now have multiplayer over Wifi, along with a few bug fixes.

Secondly, the console versions of Terraria have been updated with a few items from the 1.2 update, as a teaser for the full update which will be coming to consoles early next year.

I'd personally love to see Ocram show up in the PC version. I've played the Terraria demo on PS3 and, while it was a perfectly serviceable port, I much prefer the PC version and would love for everything to reach full parity in terms of items and enemies.

More details here: http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/all-new-updates-have-arrived-for-both-console-and-mobile-versions-of-terraria.120561/

First Heroes of the Storm gameplay footage, beta signup

Blizzard has released some gameplay footage of their new MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. This game is basically "Blizzard: The Game" as it has characters from all their franchises.

This is early footage but the gameplay in this video seems far easier to keep track of than most MOBA's.

If you're interested in getting into the beta when they start it, sign into your battle.net profile, go to account management, and then click "beta profile settings." This will be one of the games you can choose.

Wasteland 2 nears beta, original submitted to Steam, GOG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/72/Wasteland_screenshot.jpg

inXile has updated their Kickstarter page with some info about the beta of Wasteland 2, coming soon.

In addition, the rerelease of the original Wasteland has been submitted to Steam and GOG for approval. I've never played this game at all and I feel like I'm missing a huge chunk of video game history. Wasteland was developed by Interplay and was the basis for another game series you may have heard of: Fallout.

The full post from inXile can be found on their Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts

Reaper of Souls additions outlined in new trailer

This quick trailer outlines a few of the new features coming to Reaper of Souls.

Adventure mode and bounties will do a lot to add some variety to the game. And clan support-- If enough people are interested, I'll be starting up a CG clan :)

What do you think? I've been holding off on D3 until this comes out. This is a game where breaks are important anyway.

Travis4

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