“1999 Mode” difficulty announced for BioShock Infinite

Gamers are an odd bunch; we moan if there’s not enough change, but then we moan when there’s too much. One of the things that old fart gamers bitch about the most is just how easy today’s games are compared to ye olde games of yore. Clearly Ken Levine (creative director for Irrational Games) feels the same way about this and so has announced a “1999 Mode” difficulty level for BioShock Infinite.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me. So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games.”

This resulted in a bunch of BioShock fans (56.8% to be exact) saying that they really loved difficult, permanent decisions being forced on them insofar as character development goes. And thus “1999 Mode” was born.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 19, 2012

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Turn-based strategy XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced

When publisher 2K Games announced that the beloved X-Com franchise would be getting a reboot as an FPS, many fans of the original series were completely bummed out. Here was one of the best strategy titles being transformed into something completely different so as to cater towards mass market appeal – well, that’s what the pissed off fans would have you believe.

Sid Meir’s Firaxis Studio now rides in to the rescue as it’s been revealed (via a February cover feature in magazine Game Informer – where else?) that 2K will be publishing a true-to-its-roots, strategy title with XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

The game sees you taking control of X-COM forces as you attempt to rescue civilians and combat the alien threat across the globe. The game will feature real-time tactical elements with turn-based combat – so it’s basically a traditional X-COM game. It’ll be out this year during our spring time on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Now if only it’ll be revealed that EA is publishing a top-down strategy Syndicate game as well, it’ll feel like the nineties all over again!

Source: Game Informer

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 06, 2012

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Feature: hands-on with Spec Ops: The Line

The last time I saw Spec Ops: The Line was nearly two years ago at the reveal event in Berlin. The game’s ducked way below the radar since then, having barely shown its sand-swept face in the time between then and now. Just as I was starting to wonder if the game had stumbled into some weird cancellation abyss, it’s reappeared like a long-dormant Sandworm itching for an easy South African-journalist-flavoured meal. Which is to say that I got an email with “Spec Ops” as its subject header – but simply stating that wouldn’t have been anywhere near as theatrical as it needed to be.

Long story short, I find myself in London, surrounded by more winter clothing than I normally expect to see this time of year. Spec Ops is the purpose of this trip, and I’ve just had the opportunity to spend an action-packed hour getting some hands-on time with a title that still upholds all the gameplay and narrative ideals that it did when I first saw it so long ago.

Posted by Dane Remendes Nov 22, 2011

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Is a man not entitled to a film adaptation of BioShock?

“No,” says the movie studio, “it’s way too expensive and the R rating minimises our audience.”

“No,” says the once signed director, “I couldn’t find funding for it even though I made Pirates of the Caribbean.”

“No,” says the game’s lead designer, “we don’t have a need to get it made.”

That last one is exactly what BioShock lead designer, Ken Levine, actually said when asked about what was happening with the movie. That’s a total bummer.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Nov 15, 2011

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Hey Mr. Levine, what’s happening with that PSV BioShock?

If you cast your pixel-addled minds back to the PlayStation Vita’s debut, you might recall BioShock bossman Ken Levine getting up on stage to tell the world about how he’s planning on bringing the franchise to Sony’s upcoming handheld. Right after that, he vanished into thin air like a Houdini Splicer and hasn’t been heard talking PSV BioShock since.

Unless you count that very brief discussion Levine had with IGN a few months ago, we haven’t heard anything else. In that IGN encounter, Levine confirmed that BioShock PSV would be a standalone game and not a portable version of upcoming Infinite.

Luckily for us, website Joystiq caught up with Levine and asked how things were progressing; the bad news is that nothing much has changed in the last couple of months. In fact, Irrational Games is thinking of outsourcing the PSV BioShock entirely.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Oct 18, 2011

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Get Civ V on the cheap this weekend

Steam’s got one of their weekend deals running for the excellent Sid Meier’s Civilization V. If you head on over there right now, you could nab the base game (minus the many DLC packs that have been released for the game) for just $12.50. That’s less than R100, and an amazing price for a game that’s made purely for the purpose of devouring free time (and time that should be spent sleeping) without mercy.

If you end up spending a whole heap of cash on games this weekend, make sure this is one of them – if turn-based strategising is your thing, I mean. Mighty fine game at a might fine price – GO GO GO!

There’s also a weekend deal on various Need for Speed titles. Check it out.

Posted by Dane Remendes Sep 09, 2011

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Gamescom 2011: Borderlands 2 preview

Gamescom 2011 was Gearbox Software’s first real occasion to show off Borderlands 2. The game was outted by Eurogamer prior to Gamescom, but that did very little to quell the excitement amongst those attending the press preview sessions during this year’s show.

2K didn’t muck about when showing off their upcoming titles. Their preview rooms were more like mini cinemas than the poky little prefab nooks that other publishers utilised. In a darkened room that had been plastered with Borderlands 2 artwork, we ensconced ourselves on huge leather armchairs and said hello to what will be one of 2013’s most anticipated titles.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 25, 2011

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Borderlands 2 is official

Two days ago, Eurogamer jumped the gun and reported that they had “an anonymous source” in the industry that had confirmed Borderlands 2 is in development. Gearbox had no choice but to come clean.

The game has now been officially announced and will be making a debut appearance at this year’s Gamescom in Germany and then at PAX Prime towards the end of August. The game’s official website is already live.

According to a rep from the game’s publisher, 2K Games, Borderlands 2 will combine “invention and evolution”. It will also feature “all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story”. Of course, it’s still set on Pandora but expect to explore new regions. The game is scheduled for a release sometime between April 2012 and November 2013. That’s a massive release window but it at least gives me a metric ton of time to finally finish the first game.

Source: Kotaku

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 04, 2011

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Duke Nukem Forever DLC coming in spring

Called the “Hail to the Icons Parody Pack”, this first batch of Duke Nukem Forever downloadable content will add four new maps (each with a new weapon) and three game modes to the game’s multiplayer component. Each of the four new levels is designed to parody another first-person shooter that is popular today or is an iconic of the genre. The news comes via an official posting on the Gearbox DNF forums; descriptions for each level follow:

Call of Duke – Duke engages in modern combat in a war-torn city. Foes don’t stand a chance against the Duke when he spams the map with the N00b T00b.
Sandpit – Players take the role of mini-Duke in a giant sandbox with two bases at either end made out of children’s toys. This map features Sticky Bombs.
Inferno – Time machine engage! Duke does combat in a hellish landscape of lava and teleporters. Who turned on the 16-bit graphics, and more importantly, where did this DFG come from?
2Forts1Bridge – Hats? Duke doesn’t need no stinking hats. Give him a minigun and he’ll beat off all comers.

The new multiplayer modes are Freeze Tag (which is a team-based mode wherein you have to freeze opponents and shatter them to earn points); Hail to the King (a new free-for-all mode, but not sure how that is new considering a mode like that already exists in the game); and Hot Potato (a variation on capture the flag that will hopefully have you trying to steal the other team’s GLaDOS Potato, but I’m not holding my breath).

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jul 27, 2011

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This is how Rapture fell

Admit it: you’re so into gaming that any medium crossover, spin-off product has you salivating, especially when it’s a prequel book to the excellent BioShock series. The folks over at 2K Games commissioned John Shirley (a prolific Cyberpunk author you may have heard of; his titles include the Eclipse series, Black Glass and more) to pen a prequel to the events of the first BioShock game.

When players arrive in Rapture for the first time, there’s nothing civilised about the underwater dystopia. The place has gone to hell thanks to the unchecked nature of its society. In BioShock: Rapture you’ll get to read about what happened, right from the start.

The book launched yesterday in the USA so expect it in our local bookstores sometime soon. If you can’t wait until “sometime soon” then hop online and order an import copy from either here or here, but then your “sometime soon” becomes “usually within 14 working days”. If you really, really can’t wait and you have an iPad, then the book is already on the iBooks Store for $9.99.

Source: Kotaku

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jul 20, 2011

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