SWD tech games is an indie development team founded in 2013. This diverse group of passionate game developers, co founded by Len Stuart and Kunal Mujmdar, are going to be releasing their first game in November. After working in the industry on multiple types of projects from small to AAA, the group has successfully come together to crowd fund and develop Pixel Noir.
Pixel Noir is a retro style RPG game in which you are a detective who has lost his career as a police officer, his partner and his sanity; you must piece together what happened and through detective skills, making sense of hallucinations and finding allies, prove your innocence. The game displays a turned based combat system, similar to a JRPG, has a focus on a rich story and characters. Straight from the 16 bit era of the SNES, this game finally has a demo after one failed Kickstarter and a successful second crowd funding effort and has also been greenlight on steam and became a Kickstarter staff pick. They have promised two crossover elements with other indie games, including Shovel Knight and Heart Forth Alicia. According to the Kickstarter, there will be Easter eggs and moments that reference these games, though details are still yet to be announced. These crossovers were sought out by SWD tech because they were inspired by fellow developers such as Yacht Club Games.
The developers plan to include features that will make a mobile phone version of the game easier and also plan to make the game available cross platform, which includes a 3DS version due to meeting their stretch goals. As there are updates on this game, SWD tech has been updating their development blog, Facebook and Twitter. You can follow this indie developer’s story and try out their demo on their website http://www.swdtechgames.com/ .
You cannot pre-order the game as of yet, but the website states they have plans for pre-orders and exclusives in the near future.
The DigiDestined are about to hit the big screen for the first time in 16 years thanks to the collaborative efforts of Toei Animation. Eleven Arts and Fathom Events.
A special one night only event will take place on Thursday September 15th at 7PM where 400 select theatres all across the United States will air the English dub premiere of Digimon Tri – Chapter One: Reunion”. This new dub features Tai’s original English voice actor Joshua Seth alongside a new cast of voice actors who will help bring the original DigiDestined back to theatres for original fans as well as a whole new generation.
Digimon Tri is a continuation of the 1999 original Digimon Adventure anime series and picks up six years after the events of season 1. With the portals to the digital world closed for a number of years the DigiDestined children have matured, enrolled in high school but the bonds formed during their digital adventures still hold strong. As a new threat looms can they reunite to unravel the mysteries of strange portals to the digital world that have suddenly appeared?
The original Digimon Adventure series aired from August 1999 until early 2000 in America and was dubbed by Sabban Entertainment and was distributed by Fox Kids. It was followed by a direct sequel Digimon Adventure 02 which picked up 3 years after the original series. Fox Kids released a theatrical film for the Digimon franchise in North America titled “Digimon: The Movie” – this movie was in fact a re-working of three of Toei Animation seasonal celebration shorts: ‘Digmon Adventure’, ‘Our War Game’ and ‘Digimon Hurricane Touchdown’.
For a complete listing of participating theatres check out this site.
If you missed any of our E3 coverage of Warhammer 40K Inquisitor Martyr, you might have missed my rampant love for the game. Just in case here it is. I got to go hands on with the next best thing in the 40K universe and man was I impressed. Though the game was in a very rough state, Neocore games promised me that it would get better, and this new trailer shows some of that.
Filled to the brim with blood and gore , this new trailer is all about how many aliens your gonna shoot. The video also came with a new game dev log. which you can watch here. There is no release date yet for this game, but it seems to be coming along quite well. I hope to see more of it at PAX and then E3 next year.
Battle grounds is developer Bluehole’s newest game. The veteran developer of the popular MMORPG, TERA is working in collaborate with PLAYERUNKNOWN to bring you an all new experience in the world of Battle Royale. Battlegrounds will be a battle royal style game. Over 600 players participated in the test sessions, with overwhelmingly positive feedback on the game’s progress after just four months of development—particularly with regard to the project’s core gameplay, responsiveness and stability. Additional tests will take place every six to eight weeks as the game advances.
In development for PC using Unreal Engine 4, the standalone game will expand the core Battle Royale experience enjoyed by millions of players into a highly competitive player vs. player (PvP) game in a dynamic open world. Playerunknowns Battlegrounds will put up to 64 players on a remote island for a winner-takes-all showdown where strategic gameplay is as important as shooting skills. Players will enter a last-man-standing battle where they try to locate weapons, vehicles and supplies in a graphically and tactically rich battleground that eventually forces players into a shrinking safe area as they engage in a tense and spectacular fight to the death.
“The enthusiastic response of the players after experiencing the bare bones of the game tells me we are on the right track for strong gameplay set in a realistic open world,” said Brendan Greene, aka PLAYERUNKNOWN. “Our Bluehole team has made amazing progress and everyone is fired up for the next play test when we’ll have more of the game to show.”
Bluehole and PLAYERUNKNOWN are committed to an Open Development philosophy for the game, sharing regular updates with the passionate community base, providing early assets and information, answering questions and taking in feedback. This spirit of collaboration is integral to the game’s success, as the online game will grow and thrive with the participation of its player community.
I for one cant wait to get in on the beta of this game, I love these types of games, and King of the Kill is a major player in my game rotation. Hopefully I will get to see and play it at PAX WEST.
I love a good platformer. Talent not included looks like it coudl be my next major obecssion. Set in the fantasy land of Notthatmuchfurther, Talent Not Included tells the story of three monsters: Zordok, Derp, and Kevin, all three huge fans of slaughter, bloodbaths, and Shakespeare. One night, as they were bored out of their minds, they decided to put on their own play. Unfortunately, nothing went as planned. That’s mostly because Zot, a demonic critic hired for the occasion, chose three mediocre actors with strong personalities, hoping to sow hell on stage for the public and his own amusement.
The game features
a Theatrical setting
Absurd humor
Cylinder-based platforms
Combat galore
Local co-op
I especially love the inclusion of local co-op, something that makes having friends over so much more fun.
Activision Publishing, Inc., in collaboration with Marvel Entertainment, is this week making the classic Super Hero action RPGs Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 available digitally on the PlayStation4 system and Xbox One for the first time, as well as once more on Windows PC via Steam. If you love marvel and generic beat em up RPG’s this is the game for you!
Personally I am a big fan of the fact that you can chose so many heroes from the Marvel World. Including some that Sony owns like the Fantastic 4 and Spiderman. You can litreally build your own team!
The pair of critically praised titles can be purchased separately for $39.99 each – or together in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Bundle for $59.99 Releasing today via PS store, Xbox Store, and Steam.
Featuring a cast of over 22 playable characters, the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lets players create their own teams of heroes from the Marvel Universe, or recreate their favorite existing ones, like the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and more. Experience a story starring more than 140 legendary characters, including Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, Loki, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Ultron and many others. Customize and upgrade these mighty squads of champions to unleash upon the single-player campaign, or in cooperative and competitive online and local multiplayer for up to four players.
Set within the climactic events of Marvel Comics’ Civil War story arc, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 throws players into the struggle for or against the infamous Superhuman Registration Act. The missions, challenges, and threats players face are affected by which side of the conflict they choose. Like its predecessor, the game lets players assemble and level up their own Marvel Universe dream teams from over 24 playable characters, each with specialized abilities that can be combined for amazing results. Play alone in single-player, or battle together in online and local co-op with up to four friends.
Neon Gensis Evangelion is my absolutely favorite anime series despite its disconnected narrative and massive plot threads / teases the end up going absolutely nowhere and fans have been waiting for an entire decade to see the alternate vision of director Hideki Anno‘s classic 90s mecha series make its way from beginning to end. It has been four years since the last film, 2012’s Evangelion 3.0: You Can (NOT) Advance made its’ Japanese theatrical debut and now Hideki Anno has offered an apology to fans.
Here is a partial translated quote from Kotaku in regards to Anno’s apology:
“To all the Evangelion fans, I’m really, really keeping you all waiting … Evangelion can only be described as my soul. It’s a work that chips off parts of me.”
Further in the original article Kotaku quotes Anno as explaining that producing Evangelion can be draining to his mental health and like many creatives he needs time to recuperate. It won’t be surprising to learn for long time fans that during the production of Evangelion 3.0 Anno wasn’t even sure if he wanted to complete the tetrilogy given these costs. Thankfully it looks his work on the upcoming Godzilafilm has recharged him enough to finish work on the Eva film series that began production back in 2006.
Did you enjoy any of the Rebuild series that has been released thus far? Let us know in the comments! As soon as more information on Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 becomes available we will bring it to you.
Today is finally the day, Telltale Publishing announced the release of hit survival horde crafting game 7 Days to Die on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Telltale have teamed up with the developer The Fun Pimps (yes that’s their actual name), to bring this horror game to consoles.
7 Days to Die is now available in stores at retail and digitally in North America on the PlayStation Network for PlayStation 4, the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One. As an added bonus the game will also be available starting July 1st both digitally and at retail for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Europe.
The console version of 7 Days to Die adds a new multiplayer mode supporting local split-screen for couch play. The game will also be supported by exciting DLC content, beginning with a Walking Dead skin pack featuring characters from the Telltale series, set to release in the coming weeks.
Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, 7 Days to Die is an open-world survival game that is a unique combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. Players will have to master combat, crafting, looting, mining, and exploration to succeed. This is a particularly fun game to stream and make video content for as its full of fun moments, and exciting adventure.
Steve Allison, SVP Publishing at Telltale, Inc, said about the games current popularity:
“7 Days to Die has already proven to be wildly popular with over 1.5 million PC users worldwide, and we’re thrilled to be expanding this unique take on the survival genre to console players everywhere. The Fun Pimps have created something special with this title. The way the game seamlessly combines elements from disparate yet complementary genres, it all comes together in a challenging, terrifying, and above all, enormously fun experience – one that we’re incredibly excited to bring to a whole new audience on consoles.”
The game that ruins friendships, Move or Die is adding more content and more great features. With the addition of chat players can use the online chat feature to scream at their friends when they die. Emote spam in coming! This new update also adds a large number of emotes Let the Ruthless taunting begin!
The skinny
To prepare for the onslaught of chat insults, Move or Die is now available for the Steam Summer Sale price of $8.99, a whopping 40% off the standard retail price!
To prepare for the update check out the trailer which I have embedded above! Cant wait to see you out there, and get mad at you for beating me!
Where can I get this gem of a game?
Available for $8.99 for a limited time during the Steam Summer Sale, Move or Die has gamers battling each other in an ever-growing list of game modes.
The Toxic Update adds to the friendship-destroying mayhem with seven insane character skins, three crazy game modes, rockin’ soundtrack packs, and a new in-game announcer – Stereotypical Russian Guy! Dasvidaniya comrade!
I don’t usually consider the thing that sits on my head while I am gaming a premium piece of hardware. Usually it’s just whatever headphones I use for editing video or audio. Turtle beach wants to change that with their newest set of headphones, the Elite Pro headset. The Elite Pro sells for $200USD and Turtle Beach have pulled out all the stops making this one.
Here you can see the adjustment for how tight the headset sits on your head
E3 2016 with Turtle Beach
The first thing turtle beach said to us was that this headset has been designed with “competitive gaming” in mind. I was a skeptical, but when Turtle Beach sat me down and started to tell me about the features this headset had, I started to believe that claim.
E3 is a crazy haze of booths, competing with noise, colors, and size for the attention of the people who enter the Los Angeles Convention Centers two main halls. Turtle Beach knowing this had a full stage for E-Sports set up and was blasting a loud speaker, full tilt, e-sports of one sort or another. Their booth was full of colors and lights, and loud announcers; this struck me as odd because the new headset is anything but flashy.
You can just see the fabric peeking out of the leather ear cups in this shot
Ancient history
If you have been a gamer since the PS2 and Xbox era you probably remember when Turtle Beach was the absolute last word in gaming headsets. Their wireless sets dominated the market for years, with their precision sound allowing hard core gamers to hear their enemies before they ever saw them. Sadly as the years rolled on Turtle Beach began to focus on more options, and their ultra high end sets started to suffer a bit as they played to the dominant market force of low cost. As brands like Astro and Razer rose, Turtle Beach found themselves in an increasingly crowded market with too many products and no focus.
Enter the Elite Pro
The Elite Pro Tournament headset is their answer to that problem. Created they say from the ground up for ESports team OPTIC, and clearly marketed at the very top end of all gaming headsets, Turtle Beach is hoping that the Elite Pro can see them return to the top.
The first thing I noticed about the Elite Pro was that it wasn’t wireless. For me at least this is a good thing, if you want maximum performance, you don’t use a wireless headset. The second thing I noticed was the muted colors, many gaming headset are very concerned with the idea of having you be seen wearing the headset, Turtle beach have gone instead with a muted black color scheme with a few orange accents.
In this shot you can also see the $200 TAC
yah but what does it do?
Features wise the headset has a pair of 50mm drivers, that Turtle Beach says use “NanoClear” technology, when I asked what that was, I was told it was proprietary, so I have no idea what that is at all. These speakers nest in a huge set of foam ear pads which are very round and have plenty of cushioning. One really neat feature with the ear padding is a sort of pull that allows you to create a channel in the padding for glasses. The cups use combined leather and fabric the leather provides a beautiful finish while the fabric prevents major ear sweating during long gaming sessions.
Beyond the comfortable ear cups, the headset does a few other things with comfort in mind. Turtle Beach says they have designed this headset with long gaming sessions in mind, and so have put in some features to help that. The set uses a well-padded floating headband to try and prevent any painful contact points on the head itself. As well as an adjustment on the headset band itself for tightness. This one seems like it’s a bit excessive but if the shoe fits.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to try any of these comfort features so I can’t tell you if they really make a different feel, and the only set that was available for a demo unit wasn’t hooked in to anything so perhaps more importantly I can’t tell you what it sounded like to have them on. What I can tell you is that the marketing people really sold the set as being gaming first.
Gaming Performance
Turtle Beach promises that this is first a gaming headset, and so they haven’t spent a ton of time working on the sound response. Instead they have focuses on making sure that you can hear your opponents coming and that your team mates can hear you when your talking to them.
To that second point, Turtle Beach have said that they have deigned an all new microphone with the same quality as a boom mic so your teammates never miss your call out of one enemy at B site. There is an inline mic mute and volume control. The headset will work with any 3.5mm jack, but Turtle Beach recommends plugging it in its 200USD Elite pro Tactical Audio Controller (TAC) for best results. Again I was totally unable to try the microphone so I can’t speak to its ability to block outside sound (a major feature of tournament grade microphones) or its fidelity.
This is the full list of accessories for the Pro line
accessories
Turtle beach are also making two accessories to go with the Elite Pro Headset. First you have the $200 TAC, and then the Elite Pro noise canceling microphone ($30). The TAC’s purpose is the same as the old Astro mixamps, to control the levels of various things.
To use the TAC you’ll need to plug in the headphones, the microphone, and the controller you are using. On the back you’ll find an Aux in port, a stream out port, a selector switch to tell the amp which device you are on, Ethernet in and out, and optical in and out. There can be no doubt that the TAC has a lot of cables when it is all plugged in, but what you get in exchange is a huge degree of control over in game sound. The Ethernet ports are not for internet, but instead daisy chaining multiple mix amps together.
On the front you have a large volume knob, and 4 sliders. Each slider has a center click to tell you when you are at 50%. The 4 controllable sliders are for game volume, background noise cancellation, outbound mic boost, and mic monitor level. Since this is a powered amp your going to be able to do a lot more than you would with a just the headset. The TAC comes with 4 preloaded presets, but if you are spending 200 USD on an audio set up, you should probably be setting your own levels.
The second accessory is the $30 noise canceling microphone. This microphone has a bit of magic in it, with a front mounted mic that pics up noise around you, and then uses the mixamp to filter it out that noise. Once again I have only the word of the rep giving the presentation to go by on this one, but hopefully independent testing will arrive in the future to verify this claim. According to the current reviews that are out there the consensus seems to be that there was very little difference between the default Elite Pro headset and the extra offered microphone.
There are a lot of ports on the back of the TAC
The final word
Overall this headset looks promising, unfortunately I am unable to bring you and real “testing” of the set as Turtle Beach have not provided a review model, but I can say this. This is a very well-constructed pretty headset. The Elite pro is designed with comfortable long gaming sessions in mind. It is a project that comes from a need in the space for a dedicated tournament grade headset. If you are in the market for a new high end headset, this should for sure be on your short list. Hopefully when Turtle Beach has the available inventory for reviewers, I can get one set for you our audience to do a full run down with.
It is all too easy to lose sight of news post E3 and just talk about all of the amazing games you played, things you saw, and stuff you did. However something as important as this shouldn’t be ignored. Titan Fall was a good shooter, its lack of campaign kept it back from being great, and it had a few mechanics that needed tweaking, but it introduced several elements that most modern shooters now emulate. So good was it that even with lack luster sales on PC and a fan base that cried for a single player experience in its rich world it is still getting a sequel. Rae and I both got to play that sequel at EA’s fanfest, and we will bring you a review when its out, you can read the preview here. Now I fully expected EA and Respawn to fuck up the sequel with that oh so EA day one DLC. So you can imagine my surprise when last week it was annoucned that all of the DLC for the game would be free.
During EA play Titanfall 2’s lead programmer Jon Shiring said: all of Titanfall 2’s maps and modes will be free. “One of our lessons is we’re not gonna sell maps anymore,” Shiring says. “All the modes and maps coming to Titanfall 2 after release will all be free.”
Well that awesome I thought at the time, and well still mostly do. Now we are getting a little bit more detail about what really went in to that decision. Vince Zampella head of Respwan entertainment said yesterday: “We still want to provide post launch content because people want it, but it’s not free to do. If we’re going to support the game, that costs money. The specifics aren’t nailed down yet, which is why it’s really hard to talk about it, but the smart money would seem to be on paid DLC that won’t keep people from playing together if they don’t all have it: cosmetic items, boosts, and that sort of thing.”
I have never minded cosmetic DLC, and find that I even end up buying some usually, especially if it has that cool element of gambling or randomness like crates in Overwatch, or cases in CS:GO. I guess we wont know what exactly the DLC model will be until Titanfall 2 comes out on Octobter 28, but we do know it wont involve maps or game mode, so good on you Vince and EA.
If you haven’t heard or Mirage: Arcane Warfare the new first person mage fighting game from Torn Banner Studios (Chivalry: medieval warfare) now is the time to take a look at it. Torn Banner have released a new trailer for their upcoming game Mirage: Arcane Warfare that gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the team is utilizing technology to infuse this “first-person slasher” with their trademark brutality.
If you ever played Chivalry, you understand how much fun and how brutal a game in first person about non-ranged combat can be. Now we will get to jump out of the world of swords and armor, and in to a whole new world of sorcery. Mirage: Arcane Warfare will be shown at the PC Gaming Show at this year’s E3 starting at 11:30 AM PDT on Monday, June 13th 2016. Brokenjoysticks will be there bringing you all the news from this years E3, so make sure you follow us on twitter, Facebook, and youtube so you can see all of our content from the floor!
So if your alive, and awake at all, you probably have been playing Overwatch, Blizzards huge new shooter. I my self have spent about 40 hours playing since the games release just over a week ago. I often found my self wondering if some of the more prevalent “myths” about the game are real or fake. Well DefendTheHouse (of mythbusters halo fame) is here to answer your questions. With this second volume they are covering many popular myths like can you block a Hanzo ultimate with a D.iVa shield? and can Bastion kill people by landing on them.
Take a gander at the video and while you are there be sure to subscribe to us on Youtube so you can catch all of our videos too!
Yesterday was May the 4th, which is as close to a real Star Wars holiday as fans will ever get, so EA chose it to announce they will be making another Star Wars IP. Their exact quote was “all-new third-person action adventure game set in the Star Wars universe.” what does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but id guess its going to be another shooting game, possibly something in the vein of republic commando but set around the time of this years Star Wars installment (Rouge One) and following a story with single player and action and adventure styling.
Respawn is already hard at work on Titan Fall 2 which is set for a release date later this year. So once they wrap that we can expect to see news for this new IP to start ramping up. Lets just hope this game is not a disaster on the level of Star Wars Battlefront which currently sits basically empty with player counts so low its difficult to even find games. There are so many Star Wars related games on the way that I think I have lost track of them but just in EA’s house alone you have EA-owned studios Capital Games, Visceral Games, DICE, BioWare, and Motive also currently working on Star Wars projects. That is a lot of games, I expected a large number of games to show up after the sucess of The Force Awakens kick started Disneys want for more money, but my most fervent hope is that this doesn’t turn in to a shovel ware situation.
Soderlund also said in his announcement post “Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Vince Zampella and his group, their obsession with making games that feel amazing has helped make Titanfall one of the most successful new game launches of this generation.” We do know that Stig Asmussen former director for the God of War series will be leading this project and having played most of the amazingly fun God of War games I feel confident that he has the experience to bring third person combat to the Star Wars universe.
Mr. Asmussen did publish a lengthy blog post on the Respawn blog about the game, but it doesnt really say anything you need to read. There is however at least one very encouraging line in the blog post “I have been playing Star Wars games my whole life, now I get to make a Star Wars game,” lets hope that love translates over to the game, and we dont get a bit of shovel ware pushed out EA’s door to just try and ride on the back of the Star Wars hype.
Overwatch may not have a dedicated story mode, but Blizzard is doing a good job telling its story through little vignettes and other lore material. Now with the open beta just one day away the masses have been given one more cinematic teaser, this time with a distinct recruitment feeling
It features the same character that was present in the last short Winston, who further explains the back story of the omnic crisis and the world of Overwatch, then implores you to return and “do something” to make a difference. The short then closes with “are you with me” and some pretty awesome cinematic footage of Overwatch itself. If you haven’t already decided to play the game, I encourage you to at lest get in to the beta for a short time, and give it a try.
I can honetly say that through both of the stress test weekends (I was not in the general beta) I had so much fun that my opinion of the game changed and I purchased it. So I emplore you to at least give the game a try and see if it feels like something you might enjoy. Join me in the beta, and lets go frag some newbs.
