Tag Archives: DLC

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 12.12.12

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The Train2Game blog has once again been searching the internet and has found some of the biggest news from across the week.

The Rapid2D engine has gone live as of yesterday following its demonstration at the Evolve conference in London. Rapid2D is designed to help developers create apps for PC, tablet and Windows Phone 8 through the Windows 8 Marketplace. The engine uses C++ for scripting, and includes features such as physics, visual effects, sound particle systems, collision control and animated sprites. As well as the free version of Rapid2D, there will also be extra add-ons, upgrades and a pro-version available to developers.

Randy Pitchford, one of the developers behind Borderlands 2 has confirmed that there will be a new character class coming as DLC. Mr Pitchford previously said it was unlikely because of the amount of extra work the Mechromancer class took. The news was revealed after someone tweeted the developer saying “My mate says you won’t” to which Randy replied, “yes – we’re working on another character.” It’s as simple as that.

PopCap, the team behind hit casual games such as Plants v Zombies has announced that they are now working on a AAA title. The news comes following a tweet and job posting from PopCap. The game is a console game, inspired by Team Fortress 2. The job posting confirms that the game will use the Frostbite 2 engine, which is becoming more and more popular.

The final issues of PSM3 and Xbox World have gone on sale today. One of the many features in the last PSM3 magazine is a feature written by editor Dan Dawkins talking about the making of’ PSM3, office secrets, the highs and lows, how things have changed and how the future looks. Meanwhile Xbox World rounds up the biggest, loudest, saddest, funniest, most shocking moments in Xbox history and gives GTA5, arguably the biggest Xbox game of 2013, one final, epic preview.

Rovio has announced plans to release an Angry Birds feature film in the summer of 2016 and it will be in 3D so you can feel what those bad piggies go through. Despicable Me producer John Cohen has signed on as producer for the CG-animated movie, while David Maisel, former chairman of Marvel Studios and executive producer of Iron Man, will serve as executive producer. The movie will be produced and financed by Rovio outside of the studio system, allowing the Finnish company to retain full creative control of the project. Over 100 billion Angry Birds games have been downloaded since the games début in 2009.

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 10.5.12

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The OnLive console is not dead according to CEO Charles Jablonski and UK general manager Bruce Grove. The new plan is all about forming partnerships to provide OnLive’s service, instead of relying on PCs and its own console.

The Volus race has come to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer with the new DLC, The Retaliation Pack. The comic relief character has been put in to the online game play to show the ever expanding war according to BioWare’s Chris Schanche. The new pack also sees the return of The Collectors to battle against.

Earlier this week it was announced that Windows 8 will primarily use real world currency over Microsoft points. This had the games world speculating that the Xbox Live Arcade was going to start phasing out MS points. Microsoft have announced this is not the case. XBLA will still use the previous points system.

Rovio and LucasArts have teamed up in an interesting combination to create Angry Birds Star Wars. The game will see the birds dressed as the main Star Wars protagonists and the pigs are going to be dressed as Storm Troopers and Darth Vader. The levels will be famous Star Wars locations such as Hoth and Tattooine. The game is being released November 8 for iOS.

IGN have brought their application to Xbox in the UK. The app is already available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The app offers content, shows and access to its pro-gaming league.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook has now surpassed one billion users. Since Facebook’s formation in 2004, it has seen more than 140 billion friend connections made, 219 billion photos uploaded, and 1.13 trillion likes. Facebook’s director of developer products said around a quarter of its active user base, about 230 million people, play games on the site in a month. He also noted that Facebook has more than 130 apps.

A one-man company, Cryptic Sea, has created a game called A New Zero. The game has no animation and only uses physics for any movement in the first person shooter. In addition, visuals are also procedurally generated, chopping Zero’s total size below a single megabyte. You can download the game from Cryptic Sea’s website.

Train2Game News: Mass effect of Bioware ‘fathers’ on the move

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Bioware has announced its plans for the future following the departure of their founding members.

Earlier in the week Dr Ray Muzyka and Dr Greg Zeschuk, the founding fathers of Bioware, left the company.

To reassure the world, the company announced what’s next in line for development. The biggest announcement was that of a new IP for the next generation of consoles.

Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of Bioware Edmonton and Montreal, said “Casey [Hudson, Mass Effect series boss] and his leads are putting together their vision for an all-new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology.”

Their next project to launch will be more DLC for the highly popular Mass Effect 3. They have said they will develop more multiplayer and single player content. The single player content is strongly rumoured to be set on the Mass Effect 2 location, Omega. The add-on should see players team up with angry asari Aria T’loak to retake her crime-laden home from long time antagonists Cerberus.

Bioware are currently looking in to how they can expand the Mass Effect series in to another game for the series.

The company have also been working on their other highly popular series, Dragon Age. The third instalment was announced a few days ago named Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. No more details have been released about the game to date.

Mr Flynn said about the departure of the Doctors “I know this might be concerning for some of you but the leaders at BioWare have had some time to think about it – to think about how the games, the fans, and the creative teams would move on without the two guys who started this organization back in 1995.

“We – including Ray and Greg – think the studio is solid and the team here is ready to embark on a whole new era of games.”

Train2Game News: Peter Molyneux will be “shocked” if anyone buys “amazing cheat” £50,000 diamond chisel

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Peter Molyneux would be “shocked” if someone buys the £50,000 diamond chisel for his upcoming ‘experiment’ Curiosity.  The game designer made the comments while speaking at BAFTA’s Games Industry Question Time.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, Curiosity, the first game from Molyneux’s 22 Cans studio, sees players chiselling away at one black cube, with the chiselling of every other player available to see. The cube will open to just one player after a certain number of taps.

However, one player will be able to buy a £50,000 diamond chisel which speeds up mining the cube by 100,000 times.

“There’s only one diamond chisel and it’s an amazing cheat” said Molyneux, revealing that there are already groups of people trying to club together in order to purchase the diamond chisel.

The veteran game designer wouldn’t be drawn on what’s actually inside the cube, or when it’ll open but believes “the most amazing thing” is at the centre, and it’ll be up to the one person who finds it to decide if they want to tell the world or not.

During the BAFTA event, Molyneux revealed that 22 Cans are still hiring, and urged anyone interested to get in touch. The former Lionhead man was one of a number of high profile industry figures who mentored Train2Game students at Make Something Unreal Live.

There’s more Peter Molyneux news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on his comments about Curiosity and its diamond chisel?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Peter Molyneux’s £50,000 DLC experiment ‘Curiosity’

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Peter Molyneux’s upcoming game has DLC that costs £50,000. The former Microsoft and Lionhead man told New Scientist that it forms part of an experiment to explore the minds of social media users, he told New Scientist.

Curiosity, the first game from Molynex’s new 22 Cans studio sees the player in a virtual room that contains just one black cube. As players attempt to chisel away at the cube, fractures will appear and you’ll also be able to see all of those left by others.  After a certain, unspecified amount of taps the cube will open, revealing its contents, but only to the player that performs the final tap.

Players will be able to buy a limited chisels in order to speed up their mining, with the cheapest at 59p improving progress by over ten times. A special one of a kind diamond chisel speeds up mining by 100,000 times, but costs £50,000.

“It’s an insane amount of money,” said Molyneux. “This is not a money-making exercise; it is a test about the psychology of monetisation.” Will one person buy the chisel, or will players club together to share its power?”

Curiosity is will be available for PC and mobiles, and is expected to arrive within the next six weeks.

Of course, Peter Molyneux was one of a number of high profile games industry figures who mentored Train2Game students taking part in Make Something Unreal Live. You can see Molyneux giving advice to Train2Game students here.  He’s also going to be taking part in next week’s  BAFTA Games Question Time.

What are your thoughts on Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity experiment?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Paradox on “major hassles” of developing Crusader Kings II Sword of Islam DLC

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Paradox Interactive have posted information about their upcoming Crusader Kings II DLC, Sword of Islam, detailing a number of changes they’re making in order for the game to make sense when using one of the soon to be playable Muslim characters.

The amount research going into Sword of Islam is evident in a post on the Paradox Interactive forum that should make interesting reading for Train2Game students.

“One of the major hassles with making Muslims playable was the prevalence of text with obviously Christian or Western terminology.” said ‘Doomdark’ senior programmer and project lead.

“Therefore, we had to go through all text to make it fit the setting if you are playing a Muslim. Often, this required writing whole new events and decisions. For example, Muslims don’t hold tournaments, they have the Furusiyya instead, which is an exhibition of martial arts and horsemanship.”

“They don’t hold Grand Feasts, they observe the Ramadan, etc. We also added some completely new decisions, like going on the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), which will initiate a cool little event driven story of what happens on the way to and from the holy city. Of course, there is also a whole slew of events dealing with various new gameplay features.” they added.

A trailer for Crusader Kings II: Sworld of Islam is below.

Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam DLC is scheduled for release later this month. There’s more Paradox Interactive news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam DLC and the work and research going into it?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to get 9 months of DLC

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Train2Game student Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players will see nine months of downloadable content for the hugely popular shooter.

The DLC will include new multiplayer maps, special ops missions and new game modes, and be available for Call of Duty Elite Premium members using Xbox LIVE before being released to those on other systems at a later date. Activision promise 20 ‘content drops’ for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 during the nine month period.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, it’s possible that user-created multiplayer game modes could find their way into Modern Warfare 3, possibly via this newly announced plan for DLC.

“The mammoth launch of Modern Warfare 3 and the breakout success of Call of Duty Elite were just the beginning.  Call of Duty Elite provides an ‛always-on’ connection to our fanbase, and the MW3 Content Season is the ultimate way to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Call of Duty community and provide tremendous value to Call of Duty Elite premium members,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.

“With the Call of Duty®: MW3 Content Season for Call of Duty Elite we are delivering on our promise of more new content, more often, and with more variety than ever. With three studios collaborating on the first season, the breadth and depth of material on tap is truly extraordinary. It’s rare you can successfully execute both quantity and quality, but thanks to the expertise of our developers, the reach of Call of Duty Elite and the passion of our fans, we intend to deliver.

Train2Game students can find out more about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s ‘Content Season’ from the developers themselves in the new video below

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 became the biggest entertainment launch ever when it was released in November, as reported here by The Train2Game Blog

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Activision’s plans for Modern Warfare 3 DLC? How important do you think DLC to game developers?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or the Train2Game forum.

Fable III gets first batch of DLC

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Fable III

Microsoft has released the first piece of DLC for Fable III and it’s called the Understone Quest Pack.

The additional content gives Fable III players three new quests to complete based around the town of Understone, which perhaps unsurprisingly is underground. It’s below the streets of Bowerstone to be precise. Microsoft give the new addition to Fable III the following description:

“Designed by the peculiar mind of inventor Montague Hummes following the uncertain events that unfolded in “Fable II,” Understone brings new houses and stalls to own, creatures to conquer and a mystery to solve.”

Heres what Fable III players can expect from the three new Understone based quests:

“The Voice”: In the main quest, explore the mysterious underground land built by Montague Hummes in fear of the Spire in “Fable II”

  • Discover the origin of the voice that controls the people of Understone
  • Features a moral decision that will lead to two drastically different outcomes in Understone

“Shooting Range”: After defeating Saker during your quest to become King or Queen, the remaining Mercenaries have turned their camp into a tourist attraction. The main attraction being the re-playable shooting range mode

  • Beat the high scores to win three prizes that can be used while playing the mini-game: the Marksman 500 (gifted to players for downloading the pack), Money Shot (prize) and Black Dragon (prize)

“The Wheel of Misfortune”: After Reaver vacated his home, he set up a venture for budding heroes to replay the thrilling arena-based challenges within his new dwellings

  • Beat the high scores to win three new weapons that can be used while playing in the mini-game: The Full Monty (gifted to players upon downloading pack), Dirty Harriet (prize) and Dead Ned’s Revolver (prize)

The Understone Quest Pack for Fable III costs 400 Microsoft Points.

Other new bits and pieces of DLC for Fable III include the Exclusive Hair Pack, which allows you to give your character “corn rows, afro and asymmetrical bob styles” and costs 160 Microsoft Point. The 5 Star Dog Potion which ““gives your canine companion the full 5-star ability for digging, diving and tracking down hidden chests right from the start” and will set you back 80 Microsoft Points.

Also out today are a Reaver Industries Hero Outfit and a colourful Dye Pack for 160 and 80 Microsoft Points respectively.

Fable III topped the UK Chart in it’s first week of release at the end of October. In this weeks UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats Top 40, the game lies in 24th spot.

You can check out the Fable III trailer here.

So Train2Game, have you finished Fable III? If so are you at all interested in the Understone Quest Pack? Would you part with your money to give your character a special hair style or some brightly coloured clothes?  Or have you already finished with the game for good?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Red Dead Redemption Liars and Cheats DLC details

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Red Dead Redemption Liars and CheatsRockstar has revealed more information about the new Red Dead Redemption ‘Liars and Cheats’ DLC pack ahead of its release on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live tomorrow.

Liars and Cheats, the penultimate DLC pack for Red Dead Redemption offers something that Rockstar stay is the most fan requested multiplayer feature, Multiplayer horse racing.

The races will support up to eight players in a tournament that consists of three to five races, with players earning points for the position they finish and deciding their final ranking when the cup is over.

Unlike horse racing in Red Dead Redemption’s single player campaign, the multiplayer horse racing introduced in Liars and Cheats lets you shoot at your opponents, but not until after designated brief period of calm at the start of reach race.

However, in order not to make things too easy, and to allow players to actually race, there’s no auto-aim and a limited supply of weapons say Rockstar. If you are killed during a race, you simply re-spawn with a time penalty.  You can see full details about the Multiplayer horse racing set for introduction in Red Dead Redemption: Liars and Cheats here.

Other features set to be introduced in the Red Dead Redemption Cheats and Liars DLC include multiplayer poker and liars dice games, new hang hideouts, new hunting grounds and a new attack and defence game mode, Stronghold. The DLC will also allow players to choose multiplayer skins of a variety of characters from the Red Dead Redemption single player campaign and introduces new achievements.

The Red Dead Redemption Liars and Cheats DLC pack is released on September 21st at a cost of 800 points on Xbox Live, or £7.99 on the PlayStation Network.

Red Dead Redemption is one of the most successful games released this year, and still features in the top ten of the UK chart, despite being released all the way back in May.

So Train2Game, are you still playing Red Dead Redemption at all? If so, would you be tempted to part with your money for new multiplayer content? Or do you think Rockstar are going a bit far and charging too much for the Liars and Cheats expansion pack?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Bioware reveal Dragon Age ‘Witch Hunt’ DLC

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Bioware have revealed yet more DLC for their highly successful RPG Dragon Age: Origins, a game the Train2Game blog has  heavily praised in previous articles – and deservingly so!

The new downloadable content is called Dragon Age: Witch Hunt, but be warned, if you haven’t finished Dragon Age: Origins this news will reveal massive spoilers about the end of Bioware’s epic role playing game. You have been warned, read on and Dragon Age: Origins will be spoiled for you.

Dragon Age: Witch Hunt takes place a year after the events of the Dragon Age: Origins finally in which the Archdemon was slain and the Darkspawn threat has been vanquished.

One question remains: what happened to Morrigan?

If you’ve finished Dragon Age: Origins (and if you haven’t, you should really have stopped reading by now) you’ll be aware that no matter which one of the multiple story choices you made towards the end of the game, Morrigan leaves straight after the battle with the Archdemon.

Morrigan’s whereabouts have been unknown, but with reports that she has returned to Ferelden you’ll have the opportunity to tie up one of the biggest loose ends from Dragon Age: Origins. The official Dragon Age Witch Hunt site says “But whether you seek answers, revenge, or reconciliation with your lost love, you may find more than you bargained for.”

Will The Warden have the choice to slay Morrigan? Well, yes probably, seeing that many of your companions can be killed by your own hand in the many, many different available plots in the Dragon Age: Origins story.

Dragon Age Witch Hunt is available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as downloadable content from September 7th.

So Train2Game, if you played Dragon Age: Origins, are you keen to play this conclusion? Or are you just waiting for Dragon Age 2 now? And do you think all this downloadable content from Bioware is a positive or negative thing?

Leave your thoughts about Dragon Age here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source –  Dragon Age: Origins offical website]