March, 2013 - Softonic English

GDC 2013: Warface is the future for Crytek [video]

Having finally gotten into the closed beta of Warface after being on the wait list for about a year, I found the game to be a solid experience. Crytek knows first-person shooters like Warface aren’t a far step from what the the company is known for.

Using CryEngine 3, the game scales well on different hardware, but the experience is made for high-end machines that can produce quality visuals. Crytek’s display at GDC 2013 showed off more of the co-op mode in Warface. Co-op sets you up in teams, requiring you to complete objectives as you move through a level. Players need to work together to succeed, as lone wolf players will quickly get overrun from enemy AI.

When I talked with Senior Producer, Wim Coveliers, about Warface and GFACE, he quickly assured me that Crytek considers Warface a top priority for the company. Crytek is actively working on improving during the closed beta as they test and balance the game. I was given a chance to talk with Coveliers about the game, the update cycle, performance optimizations, and a possible release date.

Wim was very open about discussing the game and how Crytek is working on improving the game to prepare Warface for an official launch.

Watch the interview below.

Continue reading “GDC 2013: Warface is the future for Crytek “

GDC 2013: EA Mobile shows off casual games [video]

Electronic Arts’ mobile division showed off some of the games they have lined up for 2013. There are, of course, classic games like Tetris as well as having a few surprises under its sleeve.

The first game we saw was EA Mobile was Tetris, the classic puzzle game. Since the game is almost 30 years old, EA had to do something unique with it and they have. One of the most popular places where people game is on the bus or train, during a person’s commute. That’s where Tetris Blitz comes in. The game has been redesigned for quick gameplay that only lasts two minutes. We asked Executive Producer of Tetris Blitz, Jeff Peters, about how they decided on the two minute mark and he brought up research about how the average length of time between train stations in Japan is two minutes. This time limit makes the game fast and furious and easy to pick up, even when you don’t have a lot of time.

Gameplay has evolved quite a lot from the regular Tetris we all know and love. You will have to drop blocks into place but the game helps you out by silhouetting all of the possible location drops for that block. Tap on a silhouette and the block will instantly drop there. There are also tons of power ups that players can purchase and use in the game. One of the coolest ones is the magnet where it pulls all of the blocks to one side, making it easy to drop a 4×1 piece to clear the blocks. There’s also a hold slot to store different powerups when they appear. Continue reading “GDC 2013: EA Mobile shows off casual games “

GDC 2013: ‘Loadout’ and almost endless possibilities

When I first saw Loadout last year, I found it to be a really fun and fast-paced third-person shooter with solid gameplay. With a free-to-play monetization model and massive amount of weapon customization, Loadout is accessible to everyone. I was both equally excited and curious about how the microtransactions system would work.

Edge of Reality brought Loadout back again for GDC 2013 to offer an update on the development of the third-person shooter. The original introduction to Loadout was a preview into the large variety of weapon customizations, but not much with different characters, game modes, and the monetization aspect of buying parts to create a custom weapon.

In the previous demo, gameplay was already solid and while it included a smaller amount of weapons and customizations, the gameplay experience was still great. What they showed during GDC 2013 blew the previous demo away.

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GDC 2013: ‘Heavy Gear Assault’ looks awesome, if MekTek can pull it off [video]

MekTek showed off a very early, alpha build of its upcoming mech game, Heavy Gear Assault. The Heavy Gear franchise is actually quite old, first appearing on the PC in 1997 so there’s a lot of lore and back story to work with.

Gameplay is fast paced arena battles, which differentiates it from other mech games like Hawken. The game will be free-to-play with tons of parts and accessories for sale so there will be a lot of customizations for mechs. The area setting makes battles intense and quick. Mechs will show battle damage that reveals the skeletal frame below their metal skins.

We spoke with the president of MekTek, Vincent McMullin, about his ideas for the game. He wants there to be over 300 Heavy Gears and Striders. He also told us that MekTek is in talks with hardware manufacturers about creating a controller specific for mech games.

Heavy Gear Assault is very much in the early stages of development from the short hands on we got with the game. The controls need to be tweaked to be more intuitive and responsive. The game is using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4, which looks very impressive in the tech demos. The early build we saw doesn’t look anything as impressive as the Unreal Engine 4 demos but that’s understandable since it’s still in its infancy.

The company plans to bring Heavy Gear Assault to Windows, Mac, and Linux through the Steam distribution platform. MekTek will be taking the game to Kickstarter in April with a planned open beta for Q1 of 2014. MekTek is planning on raising $800,000.

GDC 2013: ‘Framed’ is an awesome comic book puzzle game

We met with Joshua Boggs of Love Shack Entertainment at GDC 2013 and got to play Framed, a comic book puzzle game. It may sound like a weird combination, but the idea is innovative and definitely works. The game is designed for touch, which is a perfect medium for this type of puzzle game. There’s still no date set for launch.

The concept of Framed is that there are a series of comic book panels for each puzzle but they’re out of order. Players will have to rearrange the panels to alter the series of events to progress. The game starts off with simple puzzles. There’s a room you have to get into but you don’t have a key. There’s a key behind a potted plant so you’ll have to move that panel forward to make sure the detective gets the key before reaching the door.

Each new page of the interactive comic book plays through once before you’re allowed to manipulate the panels. Move the panels around until you want to try your solution again. You’ll fail a lot in this game but the puzzles are rewarding. One thing that is a bit frustrating is that you can’t cancel out of a play-through of a puzzle, even when you instantly realize that your solution won’t work.

The soundtrack to the game is awesome and gives the game a film noir feel. There’s no dialog in the game so the story must be completely conveyed through music, action, and art. I’m very excited for this game and it’s one of my top picks at GDC this year.

What we saw is still very much in development as there was only one level but I have high hopes for this game. The art is beautiful, the soundtrack is great, and the touch controls are intuitive. Framed is definitely a mobile game to look out for in 2013.

GDC 2013: SEGA bets on mobile, free-to-play, and nostalgia

For many gamers, the name SEGA brings back great memories of consoles like the Genesis as well as great games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Panzer Dragoon. The company still wants to leverage this gamer nostalgia but is branching out free-to-play mobile games.

Sonic is one of SEGA’s most successful franchises and they’re going to keep pumping out Sonic games until the end of time. The original Sonic The Hedgehog game has been out on iOS for a while, but it was a port running through emulation. The updated Sonic The Hedgehog no longer requires emulation and runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second. The whole game has been remastered, including the soundtrack.

This will also be the debut of Sonic The Hedgehog on Android. SEGA demoed the game on an Android tablet with full controller support. The game ran smoothly and the controller worked flawlessly.

The game will retail for $2.99 on both platforms. Customers who have already purchased the game on iOS will receive this update for free.

We also got a glimpse into two free to play MMOs that SEGA is working on. Puzzle Pirates and Godsrule will be coming to mobile, but Puzzle Pirates isn’t actually a new property and has been around since 2003 on the PC. In 2005, the company made the game free-to-play on browsers. Continue reading “GDC 2013: SEGA bets on mobile, free-to-play, and nostalgia”

Windows Blue will probably be called something else

Windows 8 and RT will be updated soon with something everyone has been calling ‘Windows Blue‘. But Microsoft have pretty much confirmed this will not be the eventual public name.

Frank X Shaw, the Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications said on the Official Microsoft Blog that the ‘chances of products being named (Blue) are slim to none. And don’t start with the “so you’re telling me there’s a chance” bit.’

Shaw also took a dig at Google ‘Spring cleaning‘ (and killing Reader) while Microsoft was focusing on improving user experiences.

Last year Microsoft also insisted people drop references to Metro when describing the new Windows 8 interface. The reasons may be different, but the timing is just as bad.

windows blue personalize

With Metro and Blue, Microsoft created simple names people could use easily, and more importantly remember. Talking about the ‘Window 8 modern user interface’ is just awkward; I’d prefer not to have to do it.

What will Windows Blue actually be called when its released? The experience with Metro suggests something uninspiring like Windows 8 Obligatory Pack of Updates.

If Microsoft’s catchy internal project names keep leaking and sinking into the public consciousness, they’ll have trouble every time they have to change them.

Maybe it would be better to start with an internal name that can last?

Flipboard update for iOS lets you create your own magazines

Flipboard is one of the most attractive ways to read content from around the web and social networks. The latest iOS update, version 2.0, lets you save articles in personal magazines that you can keep or share. Flipboard can notify you when people like, comment or subscribe to your magazines.

Flipboard was always a nice app for reading articles, but like Twitter or RSS readers, it was always changing as stories were published, and there was no way to save things you liked.

The new magazine feature adds a + button to every article or update. Tapping this allows you to keep the article in a ‘magazine’ you create. You decide on the name and content of each magazine, and you can then share it via email, or on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other services.

It’s really easy to create your magazine. The design is handled for you, just as Flipboard does for all content, and collecting articles is really easy, especially if you already have lots of subscriptions in the app.

The only thing you have to do to start making your magazines is sign up for a Flipboard account.

GDC 2013: Hands on with Dragon’s Prophet, Sony’s free to play MMO [video]

Taiwanese game studio, Runewaker, and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) are bringing Dragon’s Prophet to North America, with a planned European and Taiwan release as well. Dragon’s Prophet is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) with a focus on dragons, which can be used in battles or as mounts.

To differentiate itself from other MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars, SOE and Runewaker are making Dragon’s Prophet free-to-play with tons of player customizations. Of course, other MMORPGs feature customizable characters and loadouts but Dragon’s Prophet goes further and lets you adjust the play style of your character any way you want. As players progress, they are given skill points, which they can manually apply to specific attributes. There will also be a customizable skill tree, which isn’t locked down so players can choose to change their style of play at any point in the game.

There are four main classes to choose from, but players can adjust their attributes to adapt to their specific play styles. There’s the classic brute, ranger, sorcerer, and cleric type classes and they’re all fully customizable. While there aren’t an insane amount of character creation tools like in Dragon Age, there’s still enough to make each character look unique.

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Slender: The Arrival out now – watch the introduction

Slender: The Arrival is out now, and available for Windows and Mac. The sequel to the massively popular free horror phenomenon Slender: The Eight Pages, developer Parsec Studios has expanded the original concept, adding a story and more to the experience.
The game is split into five stages.
Check out the opening of the game in our video below.

As we saw when the beta was released in February, the improved graphics are the first thing you notice. But the beta only showed us the basic Slender gameplay, which was a bit disappointing. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Slender: The Arrival does have more variety and more depth than The Eight Pages.

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Will Slender: The Arrival repeat the massive success of the original?