We didn’t really have a good idea about what DOOM’s single player would be like, outside of the DOOM single player demos from last year’s E3. That all changed with the recent 2 hour live-stream hosted by Bethesda where we learned new details like the fact that sometimes, especially on custom Snap-map game types enemies will fight amongst themselves before getting to you. Some fans have described the gameplay as “fairly large open sections with enemies sprinkled into them”, and after watching a lot of single-player footage I’m in agreement. This might feel like a bit of a step back, especially since games like Call of Duty have had us expecting huge set-pieces, but it looks like the new DOOM is trying to take things back to basics.
The new DOOM single-player launch trailer doesn’t give us much in the way of story – outside of the fact that the player character is “the only flesh to walk between this world and theirs (presumably Earth)”. Then again, the original DOOM titles weren’t exactly known for their stories – you were basically one marine versus several levels of demons.
DOOM releases on May 13th for PS4, Xbox and Windows PC.
Bethesda‘s Dishonored II will be dropping on November 11th 2016 according to an image that appeared on the German branch of the publisher’s website. It is unknown if this post was made live by mistake but no English version of the post has yet to appear. The full title of the game appears to be Dishonored 2: Legacy of the Mask” if this German post is accurate.
In part (according to google translate) the post reads:
“Take what belongs to you! Under the slogan starts on November 11th worldwide “Dishonored 2: The Legacy of the Mask”, the successor of Arkane Studios’ critically acclaimed first-person action game on PS4, Xbox One and PC.”
Dishonored II was originally revealed at E3 2015 by Arkane Studios, a re-mastered version of the original Dishonored was released on PS4 and Xbox One last Fall.
The Penny Arcade Expo floor is absolutely massive and it’d almost be impossible for one person to see every game, exhibit and custom piece of kit being shown off. Over the course of the last three days I’ve checked out everything from hardware manufacturers, to Square Enix’s latest offerings to the Indie Mega Booth in search of some of the coolest stuff to be found on the show floor.
Fionna shot an excellent 7 minute floor walkthrough video that gives you a small taste of the PAX East experience.
Fans of id Software’s DOOM franchise have literally been waiting years for the closed beta for Bethesda’s upcoming reboot since it was announced via a pack-in advertisement bundled with Wolfenstein: The New Order. After spending 3 hours with a limited version of the game’s multiplayer this weekend I’m left with far more concerns and questions then fun moments to tide me over until the games’ May release date.
Two of DOOM’s six multiplayer modes were available in the closed beta – the FPS staple Team Deathmatch and a King of the Hill variant called Warpath. The inclusion of TDM just feels odd, literally every other online shooter and In all honesty the beta would have benefited from one of the more unique modes like Soul Harvest and instead what we are left with is a paltry selection of modes that does little to showcase how DOOM’s multiplayer will set itself apart from the competition. Read More
id Software and Bethesda games today revealed the many different game modes that players will be able to experience in DOOM’s online multiplayer. Below is a brief description of some of the modes I found the interesting:
First up in this new trailer is Soul Harvest, which rewards players not for kills but for collecting a soul token that spawns upon a player’s death. Like kill confirmed from the Call of Duty franchise and Headhunter from Halo: Reach this could mean hunting down the player with the highest number of souls to snag an easy victory or jumping in at just the right minute to collect a fresh soul. Next up is
Next up is Freeze Tag is very similar to the game we all played as children, make contact with your opponents (via bullets) to freeze them in place. Other friendly players can unfreeze their buddies by making contact with shooting their friends in the face.
Warpath is a single target king of the hill variant with a very narrow pathway to the objective. To complicate things a demon rune continuously spawns, allowing one of the teams to control a hellish demonic creature like the Reever, able to do massive amounts of damage to their opponents. The team that controls the hill the longest wins the match.
Team Deathmatch – I shouldn’t need to explain this FPS staple.
Doom will be released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC on May 13th. id Software will be holding a closed beta between March 31st and April 3rd for those who purchased Wolfenstein: The New Order back in 2014. Maker sure to check out Bethesda’s official site for a lot more information on these multiplayer modes, it’s almost time to get fragging.
The surprise mobile hit Fallout Shelter has been updated to version 1.4 according to a press release that Bethesda released this morning. This brand new release offers players the chance to check out a crafting system for the first time. Overseers can turn the useless junk that their vault dwellers might have laying around into useful items to help them survive. Other enhancements include new rooms like the barbershop which will allow you to customize the look of any dweller as well as new pieces of fashion and pets.
Fallout Shelter was one of the many surprises Bethesda had in store for fans at 2015’s E3 conference. The game was immediately announced and release the same day and allows players to take on the role of an overseer, building and expanding one of the universe’s many fallout shelters. The game has been among one of the most played titles in Apple’s app store and has grossed over $5.1 million dollars in microtransaction related purchases. It is available for both ios and Android.
Here are the partial patch notes that Bethesda released today:
· Turn worthless junk into useful items! Introducing… crafting!
· New Rooms! Build the new Weapon and Armor crafting rooms and use them to create your own items in game!
· Lunchboxes now contain a bonus 5th card: Junk! Trust us – it’s more useful than it sounds. Lucky wasteland explorers may also find junk on their adventures.
· Take the Overseer role to the next level. Build the new Barbershop and customize the look of any Dweller.
· Keep up with the latest fashions! Find new Outfits and Weapons straight from Fallout 4 in lunchboxes, or craft them yourself!
· Because four-legged companions bring overwhelming happiness, we’ve added new Dogs and Cats, and are introducing… Parrots! Plus, new Pet bonuses!
· Time of day is now properly reflected. Because authentic Vault simulation is our #1 goal!
Fallout Shelter, which was released last year during E3, had a surprising amount of success. As a result, Bethesda has expressed a desire to create more games like it. Speaking to Gamespot, Director Todd Howard said:
“It’s in your pocket, a lot of [the games are] free or easy to try. So every time you’re playing, you’re thinking, ‘We could do one of these, I think we could do something special here.’ So we’re gonna do more.”
Fallout Shelter did so well it temporarily over took Candy Crush Saga as the number one game on the Android and IOS marketplace, and is still making quite a bit of profit to this day. Bethesda is also not the first publisher to have success with mobile spin-offs of major franchises either, with both Tomb Raider Go and Hitman Go making a tidy profit for Square Enix. With these proven successes in the mobile market, it would not surprise me to see more of these spin-offs very soon.
Apparently Bethesda is working on no less than three big projects, each of which represents a “Bethesda-style game”. Speaking at Dice in Las Vegas today, Todd Howard, the director of both Fallout 4 and Skyrim, had this to say:
“We have three longer-term projects we’re doing that are all … we’ll talk about them at a much future date. But they’re different than anything we’ve done before while also being a Bethesda-style game; (they’re) big and crazy.”
It is not known whether one of these three projects is the next entry in the Elder Scrolls franchise, although seeing as “they’re different than anything we’ve done before”, they might very well all be new IP. Calling them Bethesda-style games seems to suggest they will be modern RPG’s in the vein of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Like with Ubisoft, I am somewhat worried that making the same game with a different coat of paint will eventually become tiresome. Bethesda isn’t milking that cow nearly as hard as Ubisoft however, and applying the formula to vastly different settings could be interesting. We still have far too few wild-west RPG’s in my humble opinion. Plus, if that happens, somebody will mod in Macho Man. Somebody always mods in Macho Man. And it will be glorious.
Bethesda revealed today on their official site details on the upcoming expansion packs for Fallout 4. The first DLC, titled “Automatron” arriving at $9.99 USD offers a new story line and the ability to build and repair your own robotic companions just as you would with a set of power armor. Here’s the official description. “The mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons like the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices!”
The second bit of DLC is named “Wasteland Workshop” coming in at a mere $4.99 USD. This DLC adds a slew of new build-able items to your settlement workshop as well as cool new “cages” that allow you to trap everything from raiders to deathclaws. Build your own arena! Here’s the official description. “With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!”
The third and most meaty DLC so far is “Far Harbor” listed at $24.99 USD. A case comes in at the Valentine detective agency and of course your character has to check it out for themselves. The DLC leads you on a quest to find some woman among an island full of synthetics named “Far Harbor” off the coast of Maine. The official description is as thus. “A new case from Valentine’s Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths. Travel off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where higher levels of radiation have created a more feral world. Navigate through the growing conflict between the synths, the Children of Atom, and the local townspeople. Will you work towards bringing peace to Far Harbor, and at what cost? Far Harbor features the largest landmass for an add-on that we’ve ever created, filled with new faction quests, settlements, lethal creatures and dungeons. Become more powerful with new, higher-level armor and weapons. The choices are all yours.”
It is of note that the season pass will increase in price from the current $29.99 to $49.99 USD on March 1, 2016. Of course if you have already purchased the season pass for $29.99 nothing changes.
All of it looks very exciting and I certainly hope they offer all the fans have been asking for, which looks like it might be the case.
New gameplay details regarding weapons, the ability to share maps made with SnapMap socially, new playable demons and other tidbits have found their way onto the internet thanks to a synopsis of the latest issue of Game Informer.
Players will be able to customize their weapons with mods which will allow them to add things like remote detonation to the rocket launcher for example. Two iconic weapons – the B.F.G and Chainsaw will not be selectable by the scroll wheel. Instead, the chainsaw is mapped to the D-Pad and the B.F.G will come up in a quick-time fashion. The chainsaw will be a one hit kill on smaller enemies but larger enemies like Pinky may require multiple hits.
It was also revealed that multiplayer will have more weapon types then the single player campaign – one example given was a lightening gun that was exclusive to multiplayer. A new multiplayer mode was also unearthed, called “Warpath”, it is essentially King of the Hill with a moving territory.
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New details about SnapMap, doom’s easy to use map editor that allows players to make their own death match arenas. SnapMap will offer a number of different game modes to creatures including VIP, tower defense, racing challenges, traditional deathmatch and even racing gametypes! Since areans made in SnapMap are small instruction sets that inform the game on what pre-fabricated assets to use to build the map & game mode they will be easily shareable through a social interface in game called SmartHub and individual creators will have their own profiles to showcase their favorite creations.
There are a lot of details to digest here and to be honest a lot of it feels slightly disconnected because it was only provided in a brief bullet point summary. The Bethesda published Doom reboot was originally revealed to the world behind closed doors at QuakeCon 2014 before being shown publically at E3 2015. A number of Alpha multiplayer tests have taken place, with an invite-only beta (with the purchase of Wolfenstein: The New Order) to take place sometime later this year. The last available date for Doom’s release was April 2016, as leaked by Amazon France but those plans may change.
It’s about five or six days short of two months owning the game and I’ve still been playing it, off and on, to pass the time when I’m bored with other games. There’s always downtime with Final Fantasy XIV, too, as my server has some pretty well defined times when it’s better off you just log off if you don’t want to solo quest. I’ve found that in playing it for as long as I have, I’ve pretty much done all that I can do, short of starting again or waiting until Bethesda patches the multitude of issues the game has, so I really have to prioritize what I do with my first playthrough character if I don’t want to play the waiting game with Bethesda: I’ve turned my attention to the fact that I really am only 11 trophies away from getting my very first platinum trophy and that will be my next goal for this game before I can dedicate to a new playthrough when Bethesda decides to really fix this game.
You have to understand, though, that wanting to go platinum for a game is kind of an unusual thing for me: I play for the fun of it and trophies, to me, are just a way to show off. I’m not interested in showing off my accomplishments in that way and if I want to show you how good I am, what I have in-game, or how far I’ve gotten, I’d rather just stream and show everyone, first-hand. Getting a platinum trophy, to me, in this game, would be like getting all the items in the game, bringing them to life, and showing them on a shelf – it’s not a point of arrogance but rather a kind of collector’s pride; a measure of how much I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the game. I love playing Fallout 4 but there’s been some serious thorns in my side and they’ll continue to be so long as I’m playing with this one character.Read More
The Broken Cast is back once again with Episode 7 –The FPS Rundown. This week on the show we talk about three major First Person Shooters that have all hit the market or had closed betas in the last few weeks.
First up we venture through the wastes with Fallout 4, quite a few people on our staff have been playing the game since it was released a month ago and we recount our early hours exploring the burnt out city of Boston. If you haven’t heard of it by now, Fallout 4 is one hell of a game.
Next up we talk about the recent Overwatch Weekend Stress Test. Our EIC absolutely loved her time with the game enough that she went out and pre-purchased the game. Expect lots of gushing about the beta version of the game and hopes of the future.
Last up we talk about Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Our reviewer, Erika, gives us her impressions of the game.
You can find our podcast on Itunes or on Soundcloud.
Oh, buddy, I’ve seen some things. I’ve finally gotten through the story content and a majority of the side content that’s presently available and reachable that has been found. I’ve seen references to Cthulu mythology, I’ve battled giants by the handful, I’ve established enough settlements to say I hold command over a small army, I’ve mastered enough of the game to finally understand is actually bugged and what is intended without needing to be told, I’m one of those that now feels confident enough to walk around in aesthetic armor – the Silver Shroud outfit, if you’re wondering – and I think I’ve finally got Fallout 4 underneath my heel.
It’s starting to happen and I can slowly feel it: even though I know there’s better games out there, much less in my PlayStation 4 collection, alone, I find myself coming back to Fallout 4 every single time. There are days where, in spite of the fact that there is an autosave and dedicated saving features, I simply refuse to turn the game off. These are all signs that this game has its hooks in me, hardcore: kind of like McDonald’s, you know there’s better food out there and you’d enjoy it much, much more, you find yourself hankering for their food every so often in spite of that. This game’s like a drug. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, or not, because I’m still scared of doing certain things due to glitches that haven’t been addressed, but I keep going anyway.
“This Gun is the Best Gun Ever.”
So, I have to admit that building settlements and modifying weapons and armor are probably two of the best parts of this game, mostly because the materials, weapons, and armor you find out on your own are… how to put this… crap. However, though, in being rather obsessive about collecting legendary weapons and armor, I’ve been able to find and modify my daily drivers: a legendary shotgun whose bullets explode on impact, doing 15 points of AOE damage, modified to the point where it’s doing 139 base damage, has a fire rate of 181, a range of 53, and accuracy of 42, meaning this bad boy can tear up a close range battle in no time, flat; a legendary sniper rifle that boosts base damage by 25%, with a base damage of 102, a fire rate of 3, a range of 197, and an accuracy of 98, meaning unprotected and unwary enemies may be dead before they even see me; and, finally, almost a full set – I’m only missing the right arm piece – of Heavy Combat Armor modified to be deep pocketed and have the BOS paint for added radiation protection. I’ve gotten rather crazy about my modifications and, as perks allow, things will only get better. I mean, I can even use this shotgun in long range situations as each bearing in the shotgun shell explodes on impact, meaning that even if you miss by a fairly large margin, you would still do some nice damage, especially if there’s explosive barrels in the vicinity. I am blowing through the game now and taking names now that I’ve modded that shotgun.
If you’re having trouble making it in the Commonwealth of Fallout 4…
…you’re far from alone on that one. There’s a lot of people out there who are already kind of burned out on the game with the sheer amount of things you can do. It’s kind of overwhelming. I totally agree with you! That’s why I came up with a rather handy-dandy guide so you can get a leg up on the terrible atrocities of the Commonwealth so that way you can get the most out of your Fallout 4 experience. Read More
