It’s been over a year now since Double Fine took to Kickstarter to raise $400,000 and ended up with $3.3 million in crowd-sourced funds. In return, Double Fine promised its funders it would deliver a classic, 2D adventure game similar to Schafer’s work at LucasArts in the ’90s, such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle.

Those who funded were treated to behind-the-scenes progress reports through episodic updates produced by 2 Player Productions and a teaser trailer released late last month. The public seems anxious to see whether or not a game funded completely by fans can withstand development without a legitimate publisher pouring cash into it as needed.

Double Fine’s literally putting its (or rather, your) money where its mouth is. Which makes the reveal of the game in its playable state all the more precious. It’s hard not to envy Tim Turi for getting to play the game. Let’s take a look at his thoughts on it so far.

In Broken Age you play as either “Space Boy” or “Sacrifice Girl.” If these aren’t exactly inspired names, don’t fret, they’re tentative. Double Fine hasn’t settled on the final cut of names just yet. Those names, however, are telling of what kind of story gamers are in for.

Space Boy’s perspective is that of an coddled boy on a spaceship with a friendly AI, while Sacrifice Girl is, well, a girl who is literally about to get sacrificed in her village. You can switch between characters at any time. Let’s see what Sacrifice Girl is up to…

She wakes up hillside, her sister calling her to return to Sugar Bunting, her hometown. When she gets home, she finds a surprise party to greet her. She’s just been selected for the Maiden’s Feast, which is more literally than she’d like to imagine. (But seriously, how could she live in this town that routinely sacrifices people and not at least suspect foul play?)

Anyway, everyone’s acting shady about the whole “feast” thing, but they distract SG with a pretty dress lathered in cake frosting before dropping her into a ball gown-shaped cake. Subtlety isn’t their strong suite. Turns out the so-called Maiden’s Feast is a ritual sacrifice to a monster known as Mog Chothra.

Turi describes SG as a “heroine [who] doesn’t fit the mold of your typical video game damsel.” According to Schafer, the inspiration for this comes from Hayao Miyazaki’s films “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”

“They have strong, young, female characters [who are] very resilient and resourceful. It’s not a big deal like in Brave. Even in the trailer for Brave she’s like ‘I want my freedom!’ and she’s fighting against all these things. In Miyazaki movies it’s more understated. She’s not making a big deal out of it. She’s just a strong, independent-minded girl.”

So, SG books it after she’s been giving the “Princess Diaries” of confectionary treatment. Bad move. Turns out Mog Chothra doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t will their bodies to its stomach acids, and “may have doomed her hometown with the monster’s terrible vengeance by breaking tradition.”

The latest developer series video reveals that Double Fine is well on its way overspending the $3.3 million raised through Kickstarter. That raises problems when there isn’t a developer to run to when more money is needed, leaving Double Fine to either make cuts or “[void] everything we’ve said about the project and everything we’re trying to do” by getting a publisher.

“Most of the backers I think would be unanimous in saying they want a great game,” said Schafer. “They’re trusting me to use the judgment of how much to cut that still makes it a great game, and they don’t want us to cut more than that.”

So far, without actually playing the game myself, it looks like Double Fine is creating an innovative and perhaps ambitious game game that isn’t a mere tread of its classic formulas.

I highly suggest reading the full Game Informer preview to read what Tim Turi thought of his playtime with Broken Age, as well as Tim Schafer’s comments on how development is progressing. We’ll keep you guys updated with more information on Broken Age as we get it!

Source: Game Informer

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Announced at PAX 2012, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a return to the Old West setting after the 2011′s, unfortunate modern-setting of the last outing in the series.

Fourth game in the western themed first person shooter series, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger features Silas Greaves as the main protagonist of the story. The game’s narrative features Silas as he sits in a backwater saloon as recounts tales from his past 30 years of encounters with real life famous names of Old Wild West.

The game itself is divided into three modes; Story, Arcade and Duel where the gameplay takes a leave from the deliberate pacing of the past iterations of the Call of Juarez series, and ventures into past paced arcade shoot-em-up style, twitch gameplay.

In essence, the story mode is a myriad of flashbacks that take the player through Old West staples and scores of gun fights as well as meet some historically significant people of the era, legends like Billy the Kid and Jesse James.

Levels in the game a fairly linear, as the player is taken through different areas and maintain the ‘get from point A to point B’ while eliminating everyone in the area. The game’s basic focus is on how you achieve that process of clear the areas out.

Silas Greaves is basically a sponge for bullets as he can take a fairly good dose of harm before going down. Moreover, the game utilizes the contemporary FPS staple of regenerating health, which replenishes itself as the player spends a few seconds in safety without getting hit.

On the other hand, the enemies in the game feature a competent A.I., as they shoot at the player while employing cover and using objects like doors as shields to block oncoming bullets.

The meat of the gameplay revolves around finishing the levels while earning larger XP by stringing up shooting-based combos and earning bonuses for actions like Headshots and moving targets as well as getting multipliers from maintaining consecutive kills.

These kills can be achieved through utilization of ‘Concentration meter’ which allows the player to slow down time and highlight the enemies to string up more targets, as the meter depletes. Moreover, the character can also employ a bullet dodging mechanic, which can come in handy to keep the character alive when in a pickle

XP is the main currency by which the player can upgrade their weapons and skills. The leveling and Skill progression in the game is featured through three specific class systems; Gunslinger, Ranger and Trapper. Upgrading and selecting options in each skill tree allows the players to upgrade rifles, revolvers, dual wielding as well as concentration meter upgrade.

Another system that is employed in the game is the dueling mechanic, which allows the player to control the drifting cursor to draw and shoot within a specific time frame. While this mechanic is featured in the story mode, it is also prominently featured in its own section, aptly labeled; Duel Mode.

This mode features 15 levels of Dueling action, ranging from a straight-forward duel, to more complicated scenarios where the player has to deal with additional factors and objectives like moving targets, hand placement and honorable kills.

The third and the last mode offered by Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is the Arcade Mode. This mode allows the players to go through a numerous of smaller levels with the sole objective of clearing the room while attaining the highest combos possible.

Levels in Arcade mode are basically shooting galleries that a populated with myriad of opponents allowing players to memorize their locations and string up multipliers and combos in repetitive plays. The mode also offers leaderboard support to those competitive players that love to post and compare their high scores.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger also deviates from the franchise norm in its approach which presentation.  With its new shading and color palate as well as the pop up kill scores, the game looks less like Call of Juarez of the old and more like Borderlands.

The game has a cell shading feel to it and features lots of neat little details like cracking of the screen as if bullets had penetrated the glass, splatter of blood after a kill and motion effects in slow motion; concentration mode.

Moreover the game also features great voice acting which is featured in a new storytelling mechanic where Silas Greaves provides running narration throughout the gameplay.  This not only serves as a novel story telling mechanic but also acts as a clever way of highlighting the game objectives.

This storytelling mechanic is further elaborated where the levels get populated as Silas recounts various details.  Furthermore when Silas is, at times, caught embellishing the story he is telling and the game responds by changing the visual details as Silas recounts how things truly unfolded in his past.

All in all, Gunslinger is shaping up to be a much different game than its immediate predecessor. Whether that is good thing, depends on how much you enjoyed Call of Juarez: Cartel and how much you like arcade FPS experience.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is scheduled to be released next month; 22nd of May 2013, as a download only title for PC, PSN and XBLA.

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The game includes a wide variety of race types, asynchronous races, a dedicated stat-tracking site, and featured match-ups against Rivals so you can continue to step up your game and improve against the best.

The huge list of multiplayer modes includes Race, Endurance, Drift, Touge, Checkpoint, Face Off, and Time Attack. You can also take part in Global Challenge events like Overtake and Power Lap. You’ll be able to play with up to twelve racers online, or in two-player split-screen, and modify your car with a new livery editor.

The modes will use Codemasters’ own RaceNet as the stat-tracking backbone, letting you check your races, rivals, community stats, leaderboard challenges, and Global Challenge events. Global Challenges are an asynchronous competitive mode that will refresh with up to nine new challenges every week. The developer is planning a dedicated mobile and tablet app launch near the game’s release.

This RaceNet feature will pair you up with custom Rivals. A Weekly Rival will be automatically selected for you to compete against, and the system promises to pick someone based on game ability and activity. A Social Rival will be selectable from your friends or players you’ve previously raced.

Finally, a Custom Rival can be picked based on criteria like event type. You can also earn virtual “Followers” on RaceNet, or steal Followers from your Rivals by beating them in Global Challenges.

On top of all these fancy features, Codemasters also claims its new anti-griefing technology will group racers of like types together — aggressive racers with other aggressive racers, clean drivers with clean drivers.  As someone who tends to avoid online play because of the more aggressive types, it’s good to see Codemasters doing something like this.

Grid 2 is due out on May 28 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC.

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The development team describes the four “wise guy” characters, voiced by the legendary quartet of Ray Liotta, Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano, and Michael Madsen, and looks at how it went about creating the weapons, the power ups and the Afterlife mode.

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Revealing that their May cover story will be about Arkham Origins, they’ve been allowed to play an extensive demo of the game and they’ve got a laundry list of features.  From details about the story to gameplay tweaks and new additions, this news has fans clamoring for a game they’ve been teased with for almost six months.

It will be a story penned by Eric Holmes, who served as lead designer of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and has experience writing Transformers: Megatron Origins for IDW Comics.  You’ll be going back in time a bit, to a time inspired by the “Batman: Year One” story arc.  Batman is still a crime-fighting “newbie” and can take his special brand of vigilante justice a bit too far. 

The Black Mask has put a hit out on him and every villain from Gotham and the DC universe has arrived to cash in.  There will be more of focus on the detective side of Batman this time around, with The Dark Knight having to simultaneously find out why Black Mask put a hit on him while fighting off every villain trying to earn a quick buck.

Things like the free-flow combat system and challenge modes will be intact, as Warner Montreal have taken a “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it” mentality to the game.  Although, they do mention that they’ll be adding to these modes with new tactics and moves.  They’ve also brought on Rocksteady in a consulting capacity, getting their input on gadgets and how various in game mechanics should work.

In a surprising addition, we’ll also see the release of Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. Releasing on 3DS and Vita the same day as the home console version, Blackgate is a completely separate experience that takes place after the events of Arkham Origins with a different feel.

You can pick up the new Batman adventure on October 25^th of this year on all major current-gen consoles.

Source: CVG

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It’s nice to see Capcom trying some new things with the games they put their name on. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments!

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Sporting 104 total launch titles, there’s mostly a lot of unknown games with the few shining gems of Final Fantasy III and the ever popular Oregon Trail.  Here’s the full list for your viewing pleasure:

• Abbigale and The Monster
• A Fist of Awesome
• Airstrike
• AmpGear
• Around the Rock Disc Golf
• A Space Shooter For 2 Bucks
• Barley-Break
• Beast Boxing Turbo
• Blood
• Bubblr
• Bunibon 2
• Canabalt
• Chomper Deluxe
• Combat Demonstration
• Command Crisis: Callsign
• ConSoul – x86 PC Emulation
• Deep Dungeouns of Doom
• Donut Get!
• Dubwars
• EMUya – NES Emulation
• Escape
• Escape F2P
• EVAC
• Farm Invasion
• Final Fantasy III
• Fist of Fury
• Flying Car
• Forsaken Planet
• Gamius Type IV
• Giana Sisters
• God Of Blades
• Grow
• Guns N Glory WW2
• Gunslugs
• Happy Vikings
• Hexicheckers
• Highway Rally
• Ice Rage
• iMech Online
• Jelly Bounce
• Jsidd Code Factory
• King of Booze
• King of the Hill
• Kinito Ninja
• Knightmare Tower
• Lemming Rampage 2
• Lord of Portals
• Maze City
• Monocle Man
• Mosaic
• Multi Space
• Mupen64Plus – N64 Emulation
• Natural Soccer
• One Tap Hero
• Orbiter
• Organ Trail
• Paper Wings
• Phoenix Revival
• Pinball Arcade
• Pingo: Puzzle Poker
• Pixel Pig Deluxe
• Pix n Love Rush
• Polarity
• Powerups That Kill
• Proton Pulse
• Puddle
• Puzzle 2
• Quizania
• Radiant
• Rage Runner
• RED
• Regular Ordinary Boy
• Riding Rhodri
• Saturday Morning RPG
• Save the Puppies
• Shuttle Rush
• Skymaze 3D
• Sophia’s World
• Space Buggers
• Space Repair Inc
• Space Sokoban
• Space Tech Quality Assurance
• Spin Wars
• Square Off
• Stalagflight (Julie Uhrman’s favorite game)
• Star Shipping
• Striker Soccer Euro 2012
• Stupid Zombies 2
• Subatomic Kangaroo World Tour
• Super Daddio 2
• SuperGNES – SNES Emulation
• Swindler
• Syder Arcade
• The Amazing Frog
• The Ball
• The Little Crane that Could
• The Secret Universe of Alpha
• The Vestibule
• Tower Master
• Twitch.tv
• Vector
• Wizorb
• Word Shaker
• Zombies & Trains

I’m personally looking forward to Donut Get! and the exciting Zombies and Trains!  Who doesn’t love Zombies and trains?

Are you guys picking up an Ouya on June 4^th?  Or have you gotten one already as a backer?  Let us know in the comments!

Source: Destructoid

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Well now, they’ll finally get their wish as thegamecompany has finally announced a “Rocket Launcher-Deathmath DLC”.  Slated for April 1^st, 2014, it looks like the DLC will include multiple maps with tons of death match excitement.

Be sure to check out the trailer above and let us know what you think!

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It also features road races on the Côte d’Azur, street racing in central Paris and track racing at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal.

Check it out and let us know what you think! 

Grid 2 is set to release in the UK on May 31^st.

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“Showing multiplayer would’ve been hard I think. It’s hard to showcase multiplayer in a good way so everyone gets it. Also I think we have a strong heritage of making good multiplayer games, so I don’t think people are as worried about multiplayer as they are about our single-player.  It’s hard to convince someone with ‘only’ 17 minutes of software, but in general I think yeah – people are more worried about what we’re doing with single-player than what we’re doing with multiplayer.”

This makes a lot of sense to most gamers out there who are familiar with the FPS market and have seen what that online multiplayer is like.  In most cases, if you’ve seen one online multiplayer mode, you’ve seen them all.  Where a game like Battlefield 4 can set itself apart is its single player mode.  This is where Bach feels they needed to try a bit harder.

“I think that we are more confident with multiplayer than we are with single-player, so to us we need to step up our game when it comes to single-player too in order to earn the respect of Battlefield players.” 

“We have the luxury of having an awesome multiplayer and only a ‘good’ single-player in BF3,” he added. “So of course people have been positive with our single-player, but nobody thinks it’s as good as our multiplayer – so that’s where we have to step up our game.”

You can check out the full interview here.

Battlefield 4 is set to release on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this fall.

Source: CVG

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According to the blog post, it’s going to be an “atmospheric puzzle game” that will center on, of all things, infographics. 

The idea has been in our heads for a few years, and was born out of noticing how beautiful infographics can look as an art form. It was reinforced by seeing that infographics have become increasingly important in contemporary pop-culture. While they haven’t made their way to videogames yet, we think it’s a place where they can work exceptionally well. This is not just because of their pretty aesthetics as much as it is about actively changing data and how that can be visualized.

Now before you go shaking your head with confusion and scepticism the post also mentions that the last prototype of their game won the Indiepub propeller Award in 2012 in the category of “Best Design” and that’s what eventually got them a deal with Sony.

There’s no official release date set as of now, but there should be one soon.  What did you guys think of the teaser trailer?  Weird? Innovative? Both?

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Simple questions aren’t overlooked, and more in depth questions are fleshed out and fully answered. One of the most common questions people seemed to have was the, significantly smaller than most MMOs, six skill slots.

Our shortcut bar is a tool more than a means to define our combat. Our combat is based more on what you’re seeing in the world and how you react to situations. Combat stays engaging because situations change, requiring you to think about what you are seeing in front of you. It is probably much easier to think of the combat from Oblivion and Skyrim than a more common MMO system.

So it sounds like The Elder Scrolls Online is going to be much different than any other MMO you’ve played before and may be a gateway MMO game for fans of The Elder Scrolls franchise.

Furthermore, in case you were wondering if an arrow to the knee will become a killing blow, the developers can reassure you by saying that this only happens in Star Trek VI.

Feel free to Google that reference, it’s hilarious.

You can check out the full list of questions and answers over at The Elder Scrolls website

Source: The Elder Scrolls Online

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“This is the Protoss on their last legs, in their final hours, fighting against the darkness that threatens to consume the Universe. And they are the only ones who can stand up to the forces that are arrayed against them. They are the proud few warriors facing the void, facing oblivion on their own, and slowly being picked off one by one. And that’s what we’re going to try and get across in Legacy of the Void, that real sense of doom, and really give you the sense of what it is like to be this race with those long, and amazing, and glorious traditions, slowly being consumed and snuffed out.”

With this quote from Starcraft 2 Game Director Dustin Browder, it’s safe to say that the overarching story in Starcraft 2, and its expansions, is going to come to an epic conclusion.  Coming off of the darkest storyline in “Heart of the Swarm” it sounds like it’s only going to get darker as the Protoss’ light continues its path to being snuffed out for good.

The Legacy of the Void expansion is scheduled to be released later this year.

Source: Shack News

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The studio also gave us a reveal trailer, introducing the sci-fi-action-RPG’s setting and main character. According to a post on the developer’s website, the Bastion development team has returned to work on the project, and will be assisted by a “handful” of new staff members brought on since the game’s publication.

“We’re designing our next game to seamlessly integrate thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience, complete with our studio’s signature melding of responsive gameplay and rich atmospheric storytelling.”

What do you guys think of the reveal trailer?  Do you think Supergiant Games has another hit on their hands?

Source: Polygon

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According to the game’s official website, you’ll be able to jump into the cockpit of everyone’s favorite magic powered mech from Final Fantasy VI.  This awesome nod to Final Fantasy lore will be available in the upcoming revamped re-release of Final Fantasy XIV, titled A Realm Reborn

You can head over to the game’s official blog site to check out some of the in game screenshots, as well.  While these are still in the prototype stage, the designs have been approved, so they won’t look much different when you finally get your hands on them.

I’m sure any long time fans of Final Fantasy can appreciate what the Final Fantasy XIV team is trying to do here and we’re all looking forward to what other wonderful surprises this new re-vamp has in store for us.

So what do you guys think about the inclusion of Magitek Armor in the new MMO?  Will it persuade you to join the community?

Source: Polygon

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Realism is core to our game experience. Many games have car accidents, gunplay and explosions, but most of time I feel that the essential part is missing. For me, every real life incident comes with real human drama. So in Watch Dogs, you will feel the gravity of each situation you play. 

Just the idea of a game where the things you do actually matter is something gamers have been looking for.  More than a simple “Good or Evil” karma system or a pre-determined outcome based on how you react to a coin flip situation, things will happen in more real time.

Everyone involved in any event should matter. Everything you do as a player will have consequences on people’s lives. The media will talk about your approach to these events and it will have gameplay consequences. So when you play the game, you will have to consider people around you before you make a choice. 

Ubisoft is looking to make the hacking and cyberterrorism elements of the game grounded in reality as well. They’ve been consulting with experts in the cyberterrorism and security industries, and Morin explained that the developers’ intent is “not only to make sure we were still within the boundaries of ‘possible’ but also to be as precise and authentic regarding the use of technology and the people using it.”

Morrin, overall, wants to make sure that players feel the weight and seriousness in the story he’s telling and the game he’s creating.

“I have two mantras I use all the time with every director in the team to make sure we deliver our serious tone, the first one is, ‘Do you feel the gravity of this situation when you play it?’ The second one is, ‘Make it more Michael Mann and less Michael Bay.’ These [kinds] of statements always help [remind] ourselves who we are and what we are aspiring to achieve.”

Watch Dogs is gonna hit shelves this holiday season on Windows PC, PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox 360 and WiiU.

Source: Polygon

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You’ll be able to play as legendary heroes from Greek Mythology, such as Achilles, Odysseus, Orion and Perseus.

God of War: Ascension is out on March 12 in North America and March 13 in Europe.

The post God of War: Ascension Trailer Shows off Mythilogical Heroes appeared first on SegmentNext.

What do you think of the new trailer?  Has it got you even more pumped for the newest game?

The post Hideo Kojima Cuts His Own Trailer For Revengeance appeared first on SegmentNext.

Let us know what you think it could be in the comments below!

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Developed by Digital Extremes, the actiony-shooter releases on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on April 26, just in time for the new movie on May 15th!

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