Author - Jerry Paxton

The Role Playing Company Unveils Nights & Candles

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
News, Screenshots / Photos, Windows PC News

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Munich, March 8th 2013 – Established German publisher, UIG Entertainment, are excited to announce their brand new label The Role Playing Company, focusing on classical ‘old school’ RPGs and remakes of well-known and beloved RPG franchises beginning with Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny releasing in Q2 this year and followed by Nights & Candles, developed by Atmosphere Entertainment Studios.

In Nights & Candles a shadow of insidious evil has fallen over the city of Candlewind as foul creatures prepare to step out of the shadows. Afraid that these dark forces will soon overrun their kingdom, the city’s council desperately assembles a group of fearless heroes to search for an ancient artifact hidden in the deepest dungeons of the Frost Mountains, an artifact that could be their salvation.

Commenting on the creation of The Role Playing Company and its first two releases, Stefan Berger, Head of Business Development at UIG said, “This is a company specifically designed to cater to fans of so-called ‘old school’ RPGs beginning with Realms of Arkania – Blade of Destiny and Nights & Candles. This is an exciting new label that will release many more great role-playing games over the coming years, so lovers of the genre should feel very excited as we are doing this for them.”

“The team behind The Role Playing Company not only have many years of working on role-playing games behind them, they are also passionate about the genre, so I’m convinced that with that kind of combination of expertise and knowledge they will successfully introduce Nights & Candles to expectant fans all over the world” added Kiril Hristanow, Managing Director of Atmosphere Entertainment Studios.

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Richard Garriott Begins New RPG Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
News, Windows PC News

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AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2013 — Richard Garriott, award-winning game designer and creator of the hugely successful Ultima® series of games, is returning to the origins of game design that helped make him a pioneer and legend in fantasy role playing games. Shroud of the Avatar™: Forsaken Virtues from Portalarium™, Garriott’s Austin-based game studio, was announced today via simultaneous live stream on Rooster Teeth and the Shroud of the Avatar website. The announcement also falls on the opening day of SXSW Gaming taking place at Austin’s Palmer Auditorium.

The game is being backed on Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0. Backers have a chance to fund the project via multiple levels of giving, which are all documented on the Kickstarter page. One of the most anticipated pledge levels will include access to in-game player houses. Available in multiple sizes and styles, the houses provide players a chance to own their own virtual property in the game. Players can outfit their homes how they want, gather there with friends and potentially run their own business from their properties.

“Shroud of the Avatar will include what I think are the keys to an ultimate role-playing experience,” says Garriott. “These important tenets include things like a fully interactive virtual world, deep original fiction with ethical parables such that players’ choices are relevant, cultural histories and fully developed alternative languages and text. Also we want our players to have physical game components like cloth maps, fictional manuals and trinkets. These are all things that people came to expect in my earlier works and we plan on bringing them all back to create Shroud of the Avatar.”

Players in Shroud of the Avatar will be introduced to the game, but then discover their own story. There is an overarching story woven into the player experience, and players may choose to follow the life of an adventurer or, if they prefer, focus on exploration and discovery. Players may even choose the life of a homesteader, either safely within the settled lands or on the dangerous but potentially lucrative frontier.

From familiar psychological profiling used to create your character to organically derived game response to player behavior, fundamental virtues and consequence of actions play a huge role in Shroud of the Avatar. Players will be free to choose their path, but must then live with the consequences of their actions.

Shroud of the Avatar will be a PC product available via digital download with episodic content available later for a charge. The game is being built to be enjoyed as a solo experience but it will also contain a persistent world where you can meet and share your experiences with friends both old and new. “This will not be a Facebook or casual game,” said Garriott. “We think it will appeal to a multitude of audiences, but we are planning on making a game that will harken back to the same design principles that you can find in my earlier games.

“And we couldn’t be happier to be introducing the game on Kickstarter, which has really changed the landscape for game developers. It allows us to connect directly with our fan base and it keeps us from being so dependent on the traditional publishing model. There’s now a direct feedback loop with people who like our game and have decided to back it. With Kickstarter we can listen to what our fans are saying about how we are developing the game and make changes and additions based on that feedback, before the game launches. We hope people will like what they are seeing and hearing about Shroud of the Avatar and back the project on Kickstarter.”

Those interested in backing Shroud of the Avatar on Kickstarter, can visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0. For more information on the game you can also visit the website athttp://www.ShroudOfTheAvatar.com.

Toment Kickstarter Passes 2 Million

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
News, Windows PC News

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Wow. Looks lilke inXile Entertainment’s new Kickstarter for Planescape: Torment follow-up, Torment: Tides of Numenara, has ALREADY surpassed the $2 Million dollar mark with more than 28 days to go on its Kickstarter campaign. Technically, the press release below is more specifically talking about its raising $1 Million dollars only seven hours and two minutes after going online but, come on, that was so $1 Million dollars ago! 😉

Full PR Text

(NEWPORT BEACH, CA) March 8, 2013 – inXile entertainment announced today that its latest Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera) for Torment: Tides of Numenera™ (Torment) eclipsed the previous record for fastest campaign to earn a million dollars in funding achieving that benchmark at seven hours, two minutes and besting the previous top mark by more than 80 minutes. Of 37,000 Kickstarter campaigns that have achieved their funding goal, only 21 have ever reached the million dollar milestone and inXile has accomplished that feat twice.

“Even though this was our second Kickstarter campaign, we were very cautious in our expectations. We knew there were some negative sentiments regarding crowdsourcing fatigue, and the fact that we are still finishing Wasteland 2, but the massive community acceptance to our latest Kickstarter effort was overwhelming, unexpected and a great honor. With great honor, comes great responsibility to our backers that we will deliver Wasteland 2 in October 2013 and then deliver Torment: Tides of Numenera by December 2014,” said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment.

With the initial success of inXile entertainment’s first Kickstarter project, Wasteland 2, which recently released a first look gameplay video to the game’s backers in February to an overwhelmingly positive response, they decided to forgo the traditional publisher-developer business model and focus on crowdsourcing for upcoming projects, beginning with Torment. inXile entertainment’s second successful Kickstarter campaign marks a historical first with Kickstarter as they become the first video game company to fund a second major project concurrently, thereby proving that crowdsourcing is a viable business model. In the history of Kickstarter, only 21 out of 37,000 plus campaigns have achieved at least one million dollars in funding and inXile entertainment now has two projects that have exceeded the milestone.

ABOUT THE GAME

Torment: Tides of Numenera will be a single-player role-playing game, distributed DRM-free for Windows (PC), Mac, and Linux. It will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Torment will continue the thematic legacy of the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment™ by having to face complex and nuanced morality decisions, carefully contemplating deep and reactive choices with consequences that echo throughout the game all the while immersed into a new and strange vision taken from by renowned designer and writer Monte Cook’s new tabletop role-playing game, Numenera™.

In Torment: Tides of Numenera, players will have to decide for themselves the answer to the eternal question, what does one life matter? Numenera’s Ninth World is a fantastic vision of a world in which massive civilizations continue to rise and fall with only cities, monuments, and artifacts left behind to serve as reminders of their past existence. These reminders have become part of the accumulated detritus of eons and now this assortment of ancient power is there for the taking. The humans of the Ninth World call the ancient power left behind the numenera. One of these humans has discovered a way to harness the numenera to grow strong, to cheat death, to skip across the face of centuries in a succession of bodies. But he discovers an unexpected side effect: You.

Oingo Boingo and Toto Hit Rock Band Music Store

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
News, Nintendo Wii News, PlayStation 3 News, Xbox 360 News

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Cambridge, Mass. – March 8th, 2013 – Harmonix today announced that singles from Oingo Boingo and Toto are headed to the Rock Band™ Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™. Facetious

Rock Band provides the deepest and best selection of artists, songs and albums through the Rock Band music platform, which features more than 1,400 artists and more than 4,000* tracks via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks atwww.rockband.com/songs). Rock Band’s gigantic music library dwarfs that of any other rhythm video game on the market. More than 100 million songs have been sold through the Rock Band Music Store since its launch on Nov. 20, 2007.

Tracks downloaded from the Rock Band Music Store are compatible with the award-winning full-band Rock Band 3 experience, as well as the controller-based rhythm-action title, Rock Band Blitz, available now on PlayStation®Network and Xbox LIVE® Arcade!

Rock Band DLC Additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Wii™

On March 12th, American new wave band Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science,” from the band’s fourth studio album, 1985’s Dead Man’s Party, will hit the Rock Band Music Store! Led by composer/vocalist Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo wrote the track for the cult classic 1985 sci-fi comedy film of the same name.

Toto’s Grammy Award-winning single “Rosanna,” from the 1982 album Toto IV, will also be available! Both “Rosanna” and “Weird Science” will feature support for keyboards; an optional Pro Guitar and Pro Bass upgrade will be available for “Weird Science” for an additional $0.99!

Available on Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation®3 system (March 12th, 2013): 

  • Oingo Boingo – “Weird Science” O X
  • Toto – “Rosanna” O

(These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation®3 system March 13th)

Price:
$1.99 USD, £1.19 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points ™, 200 Wii Points™) per song
$0.99 USD (80 Microsoft Points™, 100 Wii Points™), £0.59 UK, €0.79 EU per song for eligible Pro Guitar/Pro Bass upgrade

Tracks marked with “O” feature support for keyboards; tracks marked with “X” will offer Pro Guitar and Pro Bass expansions for $0.99 per song.

** Dates and pricing for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change. **
 
*Available on-disc, via download and disc export. Internet connection and export key purchase required. Wii™ Shop Channel has more than 1,500 song tracks available for purchase on the Rock Band platform on-disc, via song import, and download. Not applicable to Nintendo DS™.

2K Games, Crystal Dynamics, Obsidian, and more developers join Videogamer: The Film

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
Geek News, News

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Atlanta, GA. – (March 8th, 2013) – Videogamer: The Film is an exciting never-been-done-before full length movie exploring the creative process of making an innovative video game (and game related products and services) and the marketing involved to make it a successful release. What makes the Halo series such a smash hit game after game as compared to cult classics like Okami or Indigo Prophecy? And how will that innovation evolved as the industry shift towards digital game downloads and next gen hardware? By combining the views of developers, publishers, studios, journalists, writers, directors and gamers across the globe, this revolutionary film will no doubt spark a much needed conversation for transparency in the gaming community and influence the future of gaming.

The Kickstarter project, “Videogamer: The Film” approaches gaming as a whole with the idea-it’s bigger than just one country, it’s a worldwide industry. Videogamer: The Film intends to travel abroad to several countries to film at development studios and annual conventions. Studio visits in Japan, China, and Germany have been confirmed, and more are soon to come.

  • 2K Games and Gearbox Software have allowed us the opportunity to conduct some great interviews in preparing to announce the film. They’ve invited us to their studio for filming, and we intend to go behind the scenes to bring you closer to some of your favorite 2K games, and of course the incredible Borderlands series!
  • Crystal Dynamics has been hard at work on the critically acclaimed “Tomb Raider” for the past few years and that resulted in a very successful release! We visited the studio in December of 2012 and are happy to have their participation in Videogamer: The Film, providing us the opportunity to film the brilliant team behind “Tomb Raider”
  •  Obsidian has developed a number of remarkable titles: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, and is actively working on a new project titled “Project Eternity” We are filming at their studio in Irvine, CA April, 2013.
  • Crytek is well know for both its Far Cry and Crysis series, and for the CryEngine. Crytek has consistently delivered highly polished games, and most recently added Crysis 3 to that list. Meeting up with the team behind the games is scheduled to happen at this years GDC.
  • Atlus has published many classic titles, and is well known for its championed library of role-playing games. A number of well know titles come from its Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series.
  •  More to be announced!

“Videogamer: The Film” maintains both a confident and realistic view on the promising future of gaming and the major players within the industry. “Videogamer: The Film” is being created with the industry’s future in mind, compiling only the best commentary from developers, publishers, journalists, and gamers.

The gaming industry is worldwide, and as such, “VideoGamer: The Film” will be a monumental documentary with international appeal. For more information on the film please visit http://videogamerthefilm.com

Divoom ONBEAT-X1 Bluetooth Gaming Speaker Now Available for Pre-Order

2013/03/08
Jerry Paxton
News, Tech News

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Lake Forest, Calif.–March 8, 2013–CompuExpert, a division of Digital Interactive Systems Corp., today announced that the Divoom ONBEAT-X1, a Bluetooth gaming speaker specially designed for smartphones, tablets, and other Bluetooth-enabled devices, is now available for online pre-order at Amazon, GameStop, NewEgg, and NCIX. The ONBEAT-X1 is slated to ship in North America on March 27, 2013.

A compact, Bluetooth-based speaker system, the ONBEAT-X1 is expertly crafted to amplify the sound of any smartphone, tablet, or other Bluetooth-enabled device. With its earmark “Vibration Bass” feature, the ONBEAT-X1 offers a more realistic and enhanced gaming experience by producing shakes and vibrations in reaction to gameplay audio and music playback.

No Bluetooth? No worries–the ONBEAT-X1 also includes a traditional 3.5mm audio cable ready to use with non-Bluetooth media devices. The consumer-friendly speaker can readily be attached to the back of any device using three strong suction cups, and allows for up to 8 hours of music amplification provided by the built-in lithium ion battery, rechargeable via micro USB.

Amazon:

Amazon Link

GameStop:

NewEgg:

Newegg Link

NCIX:

NCIX Link

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Teaser Trailer and Screenshots

2013/03/07
Jerry Paxton
News, PlayStation 3 News, Screenshots / Photos, Trailers / Videos, Windows PC News, Xbox 360 News

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March 7th, 2013 — Today, Ubisoft is releasing a new teaser trailer for Call of Juarez® Gunslinger. From the dust of a gold mine to the dirt of a saloon, Call of Juarez® Gunslinger is a real homage to the Wild West tales and era. Players will live the epic journey of Silas Greaves, a ruthless bounty hunter who spent his life on the trail of the West’s most notorious outlaws. Now it is Silas’ time to tell his story, which is linked to the history of the Wild West era: a mix of myths and historical facts.

Made of memorable encounters with some of the West’s most notorious names such as Pat Garret, Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, the game blurs the lines between man and myth. Call of Juarez® Gunslinger lets players live the greatest legends of the Old West.

Teaser Trailer

Screenshot Gallery