Travis4

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

Web developer and all-around geek.
https://travisnewman.me

547 Posts

Second Life devs Linden Lab purchase Desura
http://i.imgur.com/D1gkyKY.jpg
Linden Lab, creators of the massive virtual playground and sex dungeon Second Life have purchased Desura, the game distribution platform focused on Indie titles.

Whether Second Life is your thing or not, you have to give credit to Linden's creativity. In addition to Second Life, they've created Versu (http://www.versu.com/) a mobile experiment in interactive storytelling, and Patterns (http://www.buildpatterns.com/) a world-building game.

This is their second acquisition this year, having purchased Blocksworld (http://www.blocksworld.com/) earlier, an iPad game that will be released soon.

There are no immediate plans to change the way things are run at Desura, so it remains to be seen what effect this acquisition may have on the platform. The Second Life client app is open source, allowing other third-party clients to improve on their work and contribute back to the project. Hopefully this openness will extend to Desura. CEO Rob Humble says "Our aim is to invest and support the Desura team in making it the most open and developer-friendly platform in the world.”

Press release here: http://lindenlab.com/releases/linden-lab-acquires-desura

So, Dota 2 has been released.
http://cdn2.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/570/extras/gamepage_image.jpg?t=1373475257
Now you can finally play it! I jest, I think at this point, everyone who wanted it already has it. Now, however, the beta is officially over and anyone can play with or without a beta code. It's odd to me that this game that's been the subject of major eSports tournaments wasn't officially released until today.

The big news for me is that there are official Mac and Linux versions on the way! They're currently testing it internally and will be releasing them soon. There may be more beta out of this thing yet.

http://www.dota2.com/thebetaisover

System Shock 2 Giveaway Winners!
Congrats to our winners! There were 65 entries total, and nine lucky winners who will be playing some retro awesomeness. We will be handing out the keys shortly.

http://cheerfulghost.com/FaeDine
http://cheerfulghost.com/scrypt
http://cheerfulghost.com/MeP
http://cheerfulghost.com/Lou_MacDaddyo_Pattinson
http://cheerfulghost.com/Arturo_Garcia
http://cheerfulghost.com/shockwave
http://cheerfulghost.com/Soup
http://cheerfulghost.com/Christian_Sanchez
http://cheerfulghost.com/Wilson_Wong

Hope you all enjoy it! Be sure to give some love to Night Dive Studios who gave us these keys to hand out!

https://www.facebook.com/NightDiveStudios

System Shock 2 Giveaway
http://i.imgur.com/0tDrAtg.jpg
Hello folks! We're back with another giveaway. This time we are excited to hand out System Shock 2 the classic horror shooter by legendary developer Ken Levine. If you are looking to pick this game up to add it to your Steam collection or are curious about checking out this classic after playing Bioshock we are here to help you out!

We are giving away a copy on Steam Gifts as per usual to drop in one lucky person's Steam account on July 9th. Head over to SteamGifts to enter:
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/q39V8/system-shock-2

For another chance to win the game, simply comment below. We will choose 9 comments purely at random, assigning a numerical value to each entry and using random.org to determine the winners.

We are doing this contest alongside the awesome people at Night Dive Studios that brought the game to Steam. Please head over and give their Facebook page some love for being so awesome.

https://www.facebook.com/NightDiveStudios

Interview with Andrew Spinks, creator of Terraria

http://i.imgur.com/5ONqGZz.jpg
Terraria is an amazing world-building game released by Relogic in 2011. It's surprisingly deep, and through many playthroughs I've clocked hundreds of hours into it. We've had a few Cheerful Ghost Terraria servers, and we're all looking forward to the release of 1.2, which promises to change the game more than any update has so far. I recently asked Andrew Spinks (redigit) some questions about the games past and near future.

Thanks for your time Andrew! Terraria is an amazing game, still making news long after release. How did the journey start for you? What was the basic idea that led to the game?
Hey Travis. No problem, man! Really, the basic concept was just me wanting to make a fun game for people to enjoy playing. I figured that if I took elements that I liked and put them all together, that it would work out, and it has so far!

How has it been working with Engine Software and 505 Games? What are your thoughts on the changes and additions added to the console versions?
Engine and 505 have been great! They have been very flexible to work with and have stayed true to the original feel of Terraria. When they started production of the ports, 505 approached me about both companies’ thoughts on exclusive content, and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Some PC players were initially upset when the new content for consoles was announced, since you had previously stopped development on the PC version, which wouldn’t be getting this new content. How do you view the community response to this?
It was somewhat to be expected. The existing fan base already felt bad enough that they weren’t going to get anymore free content before we started putting out teasers about the console ports. So when we announced it and some fans weren’t thrilled with the news, we could definitely understand where they were coming from.

On the other hand, fans are excited that you’ve started development on a new patch for the PC version. Can you share what’s coming, or when we’ll be diving into some new and awesome content?
There is already so much content that we’ve added that it’s hard to know where to start! We are packing this update full of new aesthetic, new game mechanics, items, enemies, and all kinds of stuff for the builders! We couldn’t be more excited about 1.2, but there is still a lot of work to be done, so it’s hard to nail down a date.

Taking both of the previous questions into account, is there any chance of content collaboration between Re-Logic and Engine/505, either bringing Engine’s new content to PC, or your new content to consoles?
We don’t yet have plans to bring console content to PC, but we’ve already been working with 505 on the details of bringing 1.2 to consoles.

Other games developed with XNA, such as Bastion, have later gone multi-platform. There are currently some functional methods to play Terraria on Mac and Linux using Monogame, but they aren’t stellar. Do you have any plans for official releases for these platforms?
The last time I checked on MonoXNA, it couldn’t support a stable build of Terraria, so I haven’t actively sought this out for a while.

There are two enemies and two bosses that are evil disembodied eyes, and the Wall of Flesh, which has some creepy giant eyes. Do you find eyes particularly creepy?
Sure, man. I mean there’s something just ominous about a giant eye just staring you down with big red blood vessels bulging and everything. It’s like the definition of creepy!

There have been many high-quality mods released for Terraria that change mechanics, add items, or aid in multiplayer, but they all involve
overwriting or editing game files. Do you have any plans for official mod support?
I actually haven’t had that much time to look into this since I’ve been so busy with 1.2, but that has always been a strong request from the community so we’ll see!

Terraria is an astonishingly deep game. We have run a few Cheerful Ghost servers and we always have a blast. Exploration, creation, epic boss fights-- the game is amazing. As you look back on what you have built, what accomplishment or milestone are you most proud of?
I don’t know if there is just one event that I could single out regarding my experiences with Terraria. Just the very fact that people are so immersed with something that I’ve created simply amazes me!

The community has done amazing things with the game. What builds really stick out for you?
Amazing is a good word for it! There are so many awesome creations out there that it’s hard to really choose favorites.

How many planets has the Eater of Worlds consumed?
Haha, I’ll leave that one for the fan to speculate!

Adding a bit of realism to Katamari
Ah, Arduino. I have seen some truly innovative and useful things done with the Arduino, but mostly it's fun, beautifully useless stuff. This falls solidly in the second category, and I love it.

Using an Arduino, a dismantled PS2 controller, some casters, and a yoga ball, these brilliant hackers have made a lifelike Katamari controller, where the movements of the ball translate to the Katamari on-screen.

In other news, that song is now in my head and I need to play this game again.

Scrypt's favorite game: Journey
http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-10.jpg
A few of us this week have played Journey (scheduled through the awesome event system) and will be sharing our thoughts. Anyone who wants to share can comment below or in a new post, whatever strikes your fancy.

This post contains spoilers, so tune out now if you don't want them. I don't want to hide all the text with the spoiler option because of the text above. You have been warned!

The one thing that comes through for me more strongly than anything in Journey is the sense of purpose, though that's never known to the player or the player character (that we know of). All we know is that we must strive for it. There's never any dialogue, but you can still almost feel your character's sense of wonder as the world you traverse changes. Perhaps that just means thatgamecompany did a great job with putting you in the game.

The graphics are absolutely stunning. The first time through, it didn't really click just how beautiful the game is, but the second time through, knowing more about what I could expect, I was able to just enjoy the visuals way more than I had in the past.

There's nothing in the gameplay that hasn't been done before in the past, really. It controls basically how you would expect, and the controls work marvelously. The puzzles scattered about aren't very challenging, but they serve their purpose.

The big wildcard with this game was the multiplayer. As you progress you may join someone's game, or be joined by them. You never know who it is, and you can't talk to them. The only form of communication is the "ping" system. You can ping at them to your heart's content, but without some other context, your companion will have no idea what's being said. People have tried (and thankfully, failed) to come up with a ping language, so you can tell people specific things, but this misses the point entirely-- the point is that you are two strangers who must communicate without any kind of language. That adds to the tension.

My first time playing the game, I had been playing with a single person for about an hour, when suddenly the connection messed up on someone's end, and I was alone. This, for me, was a very brief traumatic moment, much like the loss of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII or any other death in a plot-driven game. This was the only other character that had any importance to me in this game, and now that character was gone. In a flash, I went from "NOOOOOOO" to realizing what was going on, and it was over. But for that brief second I realized I had come to care about this other player.

Journey is one of my favorite games of this generation, if not all generations. It's one of the few games I'd give a perfect 10, and it's one that I'm considering buying in hard copy even though I own it digitally, because in 10 years who knows if the PSN will still be available? I want to know I can play this whenever I want.

I highly recommend this to anyone. It may not appeal to you if you only like in-your-face action, but if you're interested in deeper experiences, definitely give it a play.

XBox One's internet requirement fix: The Xbox 360
You just can't make this stuff up.

When asked about what the 1/4 of the country without broadband should do about the Xbone's phone-home requirement, Xbox chief Don Mattrick said "Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360."

Suggesting people use their almost obsolete console is a bold marketing move, to be sure.

Diablo III on consoles looks pretty nice, actually
I saw this video last night, and today I read about some ways they're changing the game for consoles. Some of this looks really interesting. A new dodge mechanic will change how you approach battles to some extent, allowing you to dodge out of attacks easily. This adds a little more hack'n'slash skill to the battles. Some camera angle and perspective changes here and there seem to give you a better view of what's going on. And especially the loot changes-- since there's no Auction House on the console versions, they've made it more likely that the gear you find will be for your character.

What do you think? Will you dive back into the game on a new platform? I was hesitant at first, but I might pick this up.

Polygon has more info here: http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/12/4423050/diablo-3-console-next-gen