‘System Shock 2’ Is Now On Steam, H-H-Hacker
The Extent Of My E-E-Empire Is Now Infinite, In-Insect… (Insect)….
Just as we foretold in February, System Shock 2‘s arrival on Steam is now reality. Those willing to embrace some DRM will now be able to induct the cult horror RPG into their Steam library immediately. For its first week, the game is on sale for $6.99, so you should snap it up right away. This moment, even!
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‘Legends Of Eisenwald’ Developer Says Steam’s Greenlight Service “Is Great”, Explains Inner Workings
Belarus-based developer Aterdux says Greenlight is still the “Holy Grail” for indie developers like them.
Earlier this week, I wrote a feature about Steam’s Greenlight service, the democratized portal for indie developers to get a shot at being inducted into Steam’s online store without publisher support. I wasn’t very researched in what the service did, but it seemed odd to me that the same indie developers it was designed to help were railing against the service. Greenlight isn’t drawing enough traffic to their indie games; Greenlight isn’t transparent about its selection process; Greenlight isn’t picking out enough games; etc. After we ran the story, Alexander Dergay of Minsk, Belarus-based developer Aterdux, whose medieval RPG is currently #8 on the Greenlight chart, contacted me to explain that the service is still a “Holy Grail” for developers. At its worst, Greenlight is a sometimes frustrating, but valuable lesson on how to sell a game.
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‘Half-Life 2’ Joins Roster Of Oculus Rift-Supported Games
Eyegasm!
This list is growing faster than a weed in…well, my front yard; and weeds grow fast there! We’ve been following the Oculus Rift for a while now (and we will own several of them when they are released) and we’re getting more and more excited to see the ever expanding list of games which are gaining support for the upcoming virtual reality headset.
As seen over on the official developer forums for the Oculus Rift, the mega hit FPS Half-Life 2 has now joined the list of games which will be the best thing since sliced bread.
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Google’s “X Phone” Becomes “Regular Phone”
Well, hopefully it’s still stock
Boy Genius Reports is sending out word today that, based on some notes from a Chinese analyst, the rumored Google X-developed Motorola phone that’s due to be announced this month at Google I/O will not move stars, save Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from Titanic, or even have stock Android. No, it’ll just be a regular phone with a big battery. That might still be cool, right?
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21st Century Fox Joins The Future, Embraces Awful New Logo
Appropriate for Cable TV, but not a big corporation.
It’s been nearly twelve years since the century turned over (yes, I’m one of those people) and I was extremely curious why 20th Century Fox wasn’t terribly interested in updating their brand. They still aren’t changing it, but in the split of its parent company (News Corporation), the new entertainment-themed corporate entity containing 20th Century Fox will be branded 21st Century Fox. Are you following me?
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Precursor Games Says Denis Dyack And Silicon Knights Weren’t Malicious
There are other reasons why Silicon Knights went down the tubes, apparently.
As it turns out, Denis Dyack didn’t become a kind of hellspawn after Eternal Darkness, ruining Too Human, siphoning funds away from X-Men Destiny (which was awful) to work on an Eternal Darkness 2 demo to pitch to publishers (that was also awful) and running the company straight into the ground. That’s the narrative that a massive, scathing expose from Kotaku last year painted of Dyack and the Canadian developer, but according to Sean Thompson, the technical director over at Precusor Games, which is now trying to crowdfund an Eternal Darkness 2 of sorts, that’s simply not true.
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An Android User Buys An iPad Mini For Games; Impressions From A First-Time iOS Owner
Yes, I have a pink smart cover. You can tell it’s my iPad because Shodan is in the background.
I bought a Nexus 7 nearly a year ago to, perhaps unconsciously, prove the point that you could sell a good tablet at $200. Amazon’s efforts to dip below the $499.99 entry barrier for the iPad with the Kindle Fire were critically lukewarm, even if people bought a number of the things. I didn’t even really need a tablet, but it finally got me out of hauling out my Chromebook or new laptop while I sat in bed, waiting to fall asleep. It’s the perfect nightstand device. Of course, since I’ve been doing the FleshEatingZipper thing for real, I felt a little left behind in the mobile gaming scene, so I finally bit my lip and picked up my first iOS device, a 16GB iPad Mini. So how does it feel to be on the other side? More and less, more or less.
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Google Timelapse Is The Coolest Thing You’ll See Today
Columbia glacier in 1984 (left) and 2012 (right)
A lot’s changed since I was born in the Year Of Orwell. Primarily, I grew up and become a cool guy. While that was happening, the world was shifting and moving at such a massive scale that it’s been hard to grasp. Until today, that is. Google unveiled Timelapse, a feature mined from decades of satellite information gleaned from the United States Geological Survey that shows the world changing before your eyes.
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U Mad? Windows 8 Isn’t The Flop People Want It To Be
Doom and gloom? Not so much.
It’s not really a surprise to me that people want to see Microsoft with a huge wad of egg on its face for merely suggesting that Windows 8 should exist. Microsoft is the old guard now; aside from Xbox, their products feel outmoded. Their late Zune and their current Bing exempify how their ‘second to bat, first to lead’ charge isn’t working so well anymore. But let’s not fall for the rhetoric: Windows 8 is doing pretty well, far from being the perceived disaster of Windows Vista.
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‘Minecraft’ Meets Oculus Rift With This New VR Mod
Hoo boy!
Let’s take my favorite future peripheral with my favorite game of the past decade and put them together, shall we? Make matches? The marriage of these two is something I dream of. To build a world and then wander around in it as if you were really there. Minecraft already does terrible things to my time when I’m in the mood and I can’t imagine things getting any better when Mojang decides to induct this into their game proper.
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