Posts from ‘Multiplayer’ Category
Hawken on G4
By: Derek Yu
On: June 16th, 2011
Here’s an interesting G4 interview with Hawken art director Khang Le, where they show off a new stage from the game as well as a new mode, “Siege”, where players vie for resources to launch battleships against each others’ bases. According to Khang, the game will be more casual than mech games like Mechwarrior, but it won’t just be “just an FPS with a mech skin over it”. There are three types of mechs – light, medium, and heavy – and you will be able to configure your right and left-hand weapons as well as collect power-ups during the match. There are seven maps planned for the game, with five of those having unique scenery. The tentative release date is early-to-mid 2012 on various platforms.
The interview:
Terraria 1.0.4
By: Derek Yu
On: June 14th, 2011
Terraria has received a large update that adds, among other things, “social slots” for equipment (these slots only affect your appearance), resolutions of up to 1920×1200, new characters and items, and improvements to multiplayer and server operation. The full list of changes can be seen here.
Vertex Dispenser
By: Derek Yu
On: June 11th, 2011
Vertex Dispenser is a clever RTS where the goal is to overrun your opponents on abstract 3d worlds, claiming your territory vertex by vertex. The most interesting aspect of the game, in my opinion, is the resource management – resources come in seven different flavors, from blue, the least valuable, all the way up to white. The more nodes of a color you own, the faster that resource replenishes, but what color a node becomes when you tag it is dependent on the colors of the adjacent nodes. Specifically, it defaults to the lowest value color that is not present in the adjacent nodes. White, the most difficult color to obtain (because it requires that all six adjacent nodes are different colors), yields the most powerful abilities, and blue the weakest.
Getting the most out of the nodes requires some simple puzzle-solving, but it becomes much more difficult on a constantly changing battlefield where opponents are also expanding and poking at your defenses. It’s a cool idea, and despite the serenity of the abstract audiovisuals, Vertex Dispenser is pretty exciting to play at higher difficulties. The game comes with a single-player campaign, puzzle and battle modes, and the ability to play multiplayer games across platform (Windows/Macintosh).
Hawken Design Goals
By: Derek Yu
On: June 2nd, 2011
Khang Le, the lead artist on the upcoming multiplayer mech combat game Hawken, shares some thoughts on its art direction and overall design.
Videos after the jump:
Wanderlust: Rebirth enters Open Beta
By: Alehkhs
On: June 1st, 2011
Online co-op rpg Wanderlust: Rebirth entered open beta today, allowing interested players to experience a polished preview of the game before its planned launch on June 14th.
TIGSource has covered the game here before, and it’s exciting to see the game so close to release after almost five years in development. The beta spans the prologue and the first three chapters, includes a tutorial, as well as collectible gear and an item-crafting system. Characters created in the beta will be available once the final game releases, giving a nice head-start to those who play the beta.
The creators have posted a short series of videos of them playing the game cooperatively, and another series of them playing the game’s “Crawl” mode (which will be available in the full game), which sees them fighting wave after wave of enemies in an effort to place on an online high-score board.
Once the game releases, it will be sold either as single copies, or in packages of two, three, or even four games together at an overall discount, so be sure to jump online and bring a friend or three to check out Wanderlust: Rebirth.
King Arthur’s Gold Build 40
By: Derek Yu
On: May 29th, 2011
King Arthur’s Gold is a team-based, online multiplayer versus platformer that’s already lots of fun, even in beta. The game features three player classes that you can switch to at your team’s home base. The builder can dig, mine, and build all kinds of structures, including doors and catapults; the knight has a powerful melee attack and uses a shield and bombs; the archer has a long range attack. To win the game, your team has to accumulate gold through a combination of mining and pillaging.
Hit the jump for some footage of KAG in action (a couple weeks old):
Frozen Synapse Released
By: Derek Yu
On: May 26th, 2011
The simultaneous turn-based squad tactics game Frozen Synapse has been released, with a discounted launch price of $19.99. The game features 5 multiplayer modes and a 55-mission single player campaign. There’s no demo available, but if you purchase the game you get a free copy to send a friend.
Released: May 26th, 2011
Price: $24.99 ($19.99 Today)
TIGdb: Entry for Frozen Synapse
Terraria Released on Steam
By: Derek Yu
On: May 16th, 2011
The multiplayer, sandbox platformer Terraria has been released on Steam for $9.99 ($29.99 for 4 copies). Release trailer after the jump:
Spy Party Early-Access Beta
By: Derek Yu
On: May 12th, 2011
Chris Hecker has been taking sign-ups to play a beta version of his current project, the multiplayer Spy Party. The beta costs $15 and will give you access to the full version of the game when it’s released. Chris has also released some interesting data regarding the first day and a half of sign-ups on the game’s blog.
Capsized
By: Derek Yu
On: May 9th, 2011
For me, the second-to-last mission is where the campaign in Capsized really starts to show off its full potential, letting you gleefully bounce, grapple, wall-climb, and jetpack your way around a giant, sprawling area made up of open areas as well as dungeons. All the enemies in the game show up here in large numbers, forcing you to fight smartly, spare ammo, and hunt down hidden weapon caches. The game’s frenetic combat, open-endedness, and physics-based tools all shine here, so it’s unfortunate that it’s also so close to the end of the game.
There are some annoying design choices, too. For one thing, it’s easy to lose your foes amidst all the foliage and light bloom, an effect which I felt was overused. Also, the automatic weapon switching upon ammo depletion often means vaporizing yourself with an unexpected point blank blast of your plasma mortar.
That said, it was quite fun while it lasted. Jesse McGibney’s detailed artwork and the soundtrack, by Solar Fields, are both noteworthy. If Capsized ever gets a sequel (and it deserves one, in my opinion), then hopefully Alientrap can pull out all the stops and make something more epic.
Released: Apr 28, 2011
Price: $9.99
TIGdb: Entry for Capsized
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