Star Wars is celebrated worldwide, and fans of the franchise put together some of the most spirited cosplay you'll see at a con. Boba Fett, Leia's Bounty Hunter disguise, and an Imperial Scout Trooper make for a delightful trio at London Comic Con.
Bill Paxton, an Emmy-nominated actor who's had prominent roles in films such as Apollo 13, Aliens, and Titanic, is in talk to join the cast of the upcoming BBC drama about GTA developer Rockstar Games.
The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which writes that Paxton is "in negotiations" to take on the antagonistic role of Jack Thompson. A Miami attorney, Thompson made headlines in the mid-2000s as an outspoken opponent of violence in video games; he also attempted to prevent the release of Rockstar-developed titles such as Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Thompson was disbarred in 2008 for his behavior during those court proceedings.
Earlier this month, the Hollywood Reporter revealed details that Daniel Radcliffe, known for his starring role in the Harry Potter films, is in talks to take on the role of Rockstar CEO Sam Houser.
Rockstar is not actively involved in the production, and former writers for earlier GTA games have expressed some trepidations that the project may be overblown compared to the true experience of development.
But in other film-making GTA news, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V released today, which includes a host of in-game video editing tools. That makes it possible for you to create your own personal documentary of GTA from within GTA.
Meta.
The best twin stick shooters turn tension and survival into an accessible kind of thrill. There's something inherently satisfying about flying around and avoiding being hit as you shoot at the increasingly numerous ships. Threading the needle with your ship as you narrowly cut through a tight blob of enemies is exhilarating, and the sheer act of moving the other joystick in order to fire your weapon makes the barrier to entry almost nonexistent. Because of the simple concept and ease of playability, twin stick shooters occupy a flexible design space, one that can hold any number of new ideas and concepts effortlessly. Unfortunately, while We Are Doomed gets what's so appealing about the genre and applies it to make a satisfying shooter in its own right, it fails to justify its existence, thanks to a lack of new ideas and predictable enemy placement.
We Are Doomed makes an excellent first impression, thanks to its striking audiovisual presentation. The enemies and animations all combine to form the same kind of strikingly jagged, abstract aesthetic that was featured in Everyday Shooter, while the music and backgrounds grant a trippy touch of synesthesia similar to what you'd find in a Jeff Minter game. And though We Are Doomed only ever features one aesthetic tone, it fuses with the game's mechanics and progression in small, smart ways. The swirling pink and purple of the main stage juxtaposes with the level's boundaries, which are marked by a starry, spacy backdrop. When you clear a wave, the pinkness wipes away for a moment as space engulfs it before it returns to deliver a new round of foes to clear. Your laser weapon looks big and powerful, almost as if it's ripping at the edges.
The Superbeam: Bigger, badder, and purpler. Movement is as smooth and effortless as a twin stick shooter should be, and enemies are clearly visible. It's easy to learn their particular patterns quickly (though many just bimble around aimlessly). But most importantly, shooting things feels good. The giant beam not only looks impressive, but it feels powerful when you're slicing through enemies. You don't immediately destroy them when they touch your beam, as they can withstand maybe half a second of direct exposure, but you can feel that resistance as you wait for the moment when they break, and that makes the moment of destruction all the more satisfying. The superbeam is the satisfying pinnacle of the action, letting you fire an even longer, more powerful version of your beam for a short time. The superbeam feels amazing, since the resistance you felt from the vanilla beam disappears when you cut through entire blobs of foes as if they were butter.
We Are Doomed's bells and whistles are silenced, however, when you look past its presentation. The game can be played in an endless mode or in a finite waves mode that features thirty scripted waves of enemies to survive. It features only one weapon: A beam that constantly protrudes from your ship, but only reaches so far, like a lance. Gathering flashing cubes increases your score modifier, and also grants you access to the superbeam. And that's it. You get no alternate weapons beyond the beam, no smart bombs that let you relieve the pressure when you're about to get overwhelmed, and no other fancy options in your bag of tricks. Though there is some charm in the challenge of playing with a limited toolset, here it makes for a flat experience. All you're doing is carving through swarms of enemies in one specific way each and every time.
We Are Doomed offers very few modes, putting a heavy emphasis on scoring. The big problem with We Are Doomed is how much it limits itself to its detriment. Not only do you get only one weapon, but the game also does nothing interesting with the environment or enemies. You end up shooting things like tiny squids, triangular missiles, and giant disco ball-like circles, but all they do is try to bump into you or shoot you. We Are Doomed features some non-enemy threats, but they also fall under the banner of ramming or shooting. There's so much potential for a wide variety of different encounters. Even genre stalwart Geometry Wars employed devices such as the black holes that messed with the gravity of the playing field. But We Are Doomed is unfortunately content merely to crowd you until you die.
That's the frustrating thing about We Are Doomed: Despite all these issues, you can have fun with it. Because Vertex Pop took so much care in making everything feel right, nothing gets in the way of your enjoyment. You'll still remember the near-deaths you deftly flew your way out of. You'll still panic as the blobs of enemies cluster in and choke every available escape route until there's nothing but death left. And you'll remember the elation when you clear all thirty waves. The problem is that you can get those exact experiences and more elsewhere, whereas We Are Doomed doesn't really care to stake its own claim in the crowded shooter space. You're not going to see the surprising environmental twists of the Geometry Wars games or the charming DIY spirit of Everyday Shooter. In reality, you're just playing Twin Stick Shooter: The Game.
Even a solid game needs some spice, and We Are Doomed never gives you much. You will certainly notice how good it feels to play the game, and the presentation is top notch, but it never really gives you a reason to care. Sure, you're thrown a bunch of stages including about seven different enemy types, but when the bump and shoot behaviors wear thin, you aren't left with anything more to look forward to. Soon, the only thing that's doomed is your waning interest.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is set to release next month on May 19, but will it be worth picking up the game early? We already know Wild Hunt could be over 200 hours long, and that it will include "dynamic beard growth," but the real deciding factor generally comes down to what you get out of the box and what you get if you pre-order.
Regardless of when you order the game, the standard edition includes quite a bit of content:
And we've seen the $150 collector's edition before, but here's a quick look at the more expensive box.
And everyone who purchases the game, pre-order or not, will have access to free DLC. The team plans on releasing 16 DLC packs total, with a new bundle available each week after launch. The first is the Temerian Armor Set, which includes horse armor, and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt.
Preorder from GameStop for an "exclusive Witcher keychain." The tchotchke will either ship with your game if you order online or be available in store when the game is purchased.
Amazon pre-orders will net you "the Amazon exclusive Witcher comic created by Paul Tobin, with art by Max Bertolini and covers by Joe Querio." According to the Amazon listing, "This 48-page hardcover comic describes the events preceding the Killing Monsters trailer."
Best Buy pre-orders get access to the SteelBook case pictured above.
But if you decide to forego physical editions, digital orders come with their own set of pre-order incentives and perks.
The list of perks for the Steam version include:
GOG.com is running a similar digital promotion, but with a few specific additions:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launches on May 19 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. And for even more information about the game prior to its release, you can read GameSpot's previous Witcher coverage here.
Grand Theft Auto V has, at long last, finally been released on PC, but some unfortunate gamers are encountering issues that are preventing them from being able to play. At least a few of those problems have workarounds, which we've outlined below.
If you've transferred your GTA Online progress from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions, you may lose your saved cars if you haven't played since December 2013. Unfortunately, to prevent this from happening, Rockstar says you'll need to log in to your character on console before initiating a transfer on PC.
As explained by Rockstar:
Once you leave GTA Online, an orange save icon will appear in the bottom right corner. Once that disappears, your progress will be saved, and you're free to initiate the transfer to PC. There's no indication that Rockstar will be able to offer a fix that doesn't involve first saving your progress on console.
If you already transferred your character and have lost vehicles, Rockstar suggests you submit a support request.
Your Windows account name could be to blame if the game hangs while downloading an update or is giving you errors like, "The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)." This is because Windows account names that contain characters other than a number (0-9) or letter (uppercase or lowercase A-Z) will prevent GTA V from being able to install and run properly. This has resulted in the bizarre situation of Rockstar's support site hosting a list entitled, "Supported Characters At Launch for Windows Usernames for GTAV PC."
Rockstar is already working on a fix for this issue. In the meantime, you can deal with it by creating a new user account with administrator privileges and a name that consists only of the aforementioned characters. Unfortunately, simply renaming your account won't suffice if you already have an unsupported character in your name.
There's not yet any word on when the fix will be released, but Rockstar's support page will be updated with details when they are available, as well as with instructions on how to transfer your progress from a temporary Windows account to your permanent one.
If you don't have Windows Media Player installed on your computer, you're likely running into an error during GTA V's installation that reads, "Unable to detect Windows Media Player on your system. Please install Windows Media Player, then retry the installation."
You can install it by following these instructions, courtesy of Rockstar:
Another problem brought to light by Rockstar's support site involves Rockstar Social Club. There are multiple error codes produced by the same issue, including the following:
If you're receiving any of these, your best bet is to manually reinstall Social Club from right here. It's recommended that you ensure GTA V is not running when you do so--check to make sure that GTA5.exe, PlayGTAV.exe, and GTAVLauncher.exe aren't running in the task manager--and that you have administrator privileges.
Should that not fix the problem, Rockstar outlines some additional steps you can follow:
The classic adventure game series Broken Sword, might well be making its way to the PlayStation 4. Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse was initially funded through Kickstarter and published on the PlayStation Vita, PC, Mac, Android, and iOS. A listing on the German version of Amazon shows the game with PS4 branded boxart and a June 26 release date.
The listing shows a price tag of €29.99, or just over $30. According to Google translate, this release is being labeled as a "premium edition" and would most likely include both of the released episodes. The Steam release runs $25 and includes Episode and 1 and 2.
GameSpot reviewed Broken Sword V close to its release in 2013, awarding it an 8 out of 10 and noting that the game was "immediately charming."
We've reached out to the game's developer, Revolution Software, asking them to comment on the posting and will update when we have more information.
Star Citizen, that ludicrously successful crowd-funded project, isn't just a space flight simulator. The developer, Roberts Space Industries is also creating a first-person shooter to accompany the space combat segments. In a new developer blog post, the team outlined some of its key changes to the FPS formula to improve "realism."
Standard FPS games, the post says only have two combat stances. One holds the player avatar's gun near the shoulder at all times while the other simulates careful aiming down the sights of the gun. Roberts says this isn't realistic and instead proposes a three stance system to improve balance.
The HUD in lowered stance. With the new system, players will have to manage a gun in a lowered position, in a ready position, and in an "aim down sights" position. The addition of a third stance allows for a clearer distinction between players that have a gun ready to fire at a moment's notice (as they are in the typical first-person shooter), and those that have their gun at ease to making moving around an area easier. This more accurately simulates real combat stances and will force players to be much slower and more careful when engaging in combat. That sounds complicated, but Roberts says that most of this system will be handled automatically.
"Sprinting or using contextual navigation initiates the Lowered stance," the post says. "Moving slowly and deliberately keeps your weapon in the Ready stance. When in the Lowered stance (entered by sprinting or using contextual navigation), pressing the Fire button will bring you back into the Ready stance. When in the Ready stance, pressing the Aim button brings you into the Aim Down Sight stance. Releasing the held button returns the weapon to the Ready stance."
The HUD while looking through the sights. Roberts is also adding a new system for breathing and stamina to help reinforce a system of stat trade-offs between different kinds of weapons and armor. Heavier gear will drain players of stamina more, causing them to breath more heavily which, in turn, makes their aim more erratic. Players, much like real soldiers, will have to be careful so that they don't end up tiring their avatars. For the best aim, they'll also need to fire at the tops and bottoms of breaths to ensure that the chest isn't moving when they're shooting.
Roberts says that this will provide more balance and a refocused approach to shooting in games. "This is intended to slow the pace of combat, so that it feels more tactical and reinforces our intention that survival takes consideration, rather than random firing."
These features will be included along with the introduction of the FPS module code-named "Star Marine." There is no concrete date for Star Marine.
In any case, Star Citizen has raised more than $77 million, making it by far the most successful crowdfunding project of any kind to-date.
Lorne Lanning, head of Oddworld Inhabitants, has confirmed in a Twitch stream that Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus will be getting a remake, just as Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee did last year with Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty.
According to Lanning, this Abe's Exoddus remake is still very early in development. Its existence was something decided by fans, who voted on what game they would like to see next after New 'n' Tasty launched. And just as New 'n' Tasty's name was decided by fan vote, so too will the name of the Abe's Exoddus remake.
Lanning added that marking for this remake will be stronger than that of New 'n' Tasty, and its success will directly determine the quality of future Oddworld games, which aim to have the scale and quality of a triple-A game. Finally, Lanning revealed that New 'n' Tasty received 2.4 million downloads as a free PlayStation Plus game.
Thanks, VG247.
Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine will come bundled together in the Witcher 3 Expansion Pass.
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