Monthly Archives: May 2015
D4 PC Release Date Revealed
Bizarre episodic murder mystery D4 will be released on PC June 5.
Previously only available on Xbox One, D4 will be available through Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and Playism for $15 USD, according to a Tweet from D4 creator Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro.
Announced for PC late last month, D4 casts players as David Young, a Boston detective investigating the murder of his wife. As David, you'll travel through time as you attempt to uncover the meaning behind your wife's final words: "Look for D."
Daily Deals: Two Wolfenstein Games For $30, Ghibli Blu-ray Sale, 500GB SSD
If you haven't played either of the great Wolfenstein game of late, this deal is for you. If you buy Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, the standalone expansion, Amazon will give you a $15 credit towards Wolfenstein: The New Order. The New Order is only $25 right now, so you'll be getting that second game for $10. Read our review of The New Order for more, and watch some gameplay from The Old Blood below, but know that both are old school shooter single player shooters with health pickups, dual wielding, and lots and lots of blasting, beating, and blowing up Nazis.
Smash Bros. Stream Donates $4k To Nepal Quake Relief
Super Smash Bros. Invitational participant and live streamer Neha "Lilo" Chhetri raised over $4,000 dollars for Nepal earthquake relief with the help of her fans, viewers, and others in the Smash community.
Chhetri, herself born and raised in Nepal, hosted a nine hour donation stream on her Twitch channel, streaming Super Smash Bros. Melee and chatting with other competitive players.
She set just $1,000 as the initial goal, but ended up raising four times that: $4,080.08 to be exact.
All donations were given to general relief for those affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25th.
‘Esports’ Officially Added to the Dictionary
It's official - with its addition to an actual dictionary, "esports" is now a legitimate word.
Dictionary.com was yesterday updated with over a thousand new words. It officially defines esports as the "competitive tournaments of video games."
"Esports" was not the only gaming-themed word to receive dictionary legitimacy. The update also adds the word "permadeath," defined as "the permanent death of a defeated character, after which the player of the game cannot continue with the same character," as well as "completionist," defined as "a player who attempts to complete every challenge and earn every achievement or trophy in a video game."
App Store Update: May 7
Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Goat Simulator GoatZ – ($4.99)
The video game industry's greatest simulation of the life of a goat is back, now taking the next most logical step in its evolution of absurdity: making the goat undead.
First Look at Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
The latest cover of Entertainment Weekly magazine gives us our first look at Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Western, The Hateful Eight.
The image shows us Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue, and Kurt Russell as John "The Hangman" Ruth. Check it out below, courtesy of EW.
Payday 2 Hits PS4 And Xbox One Next Month
PayDay 2: Crimewave Edition, the current-gen console version of the co-op heist shooter, is slated to digitally hit PS4 and Xbox One on June 16 for $50 USD.
The Crimewave Edition will reportedly ship with an improved frame rate and better textures running at 1080p resolution. Over a year's worth of already-released DLC and content updates from the original PC version will be bundled into the console offering, alongside “Clover,” the first female character.
Additionally, a greater assortment of weapons like shotguns, sniper rifles, and grenades should help players crack several new heists and multi-stage contracts.
Last but not least, the PayDay 2: Crimewave Edition includes a new perk system, a fifth skill tree for stealth-focused players, and a pre-planning stage to knock out those last-minute details.
BoxBoy! Review
BoxBoy! is a game that subverts your expectations. The game looks like it belongs on the original Game Boy, but even there it wouldn't seem visually inspired, and the initial puzzles are almost off-puttingly simplistic. However, this black and white platforming game about an anthropomorphic box offers up new challenges in such rapid succession that you quickly progress from smirking condescension over its simplicity to satisfying consternation caused by its more elaborate creations.
The puzzles, particularly in the beginning, can be finished in less than a minute, but this actually works in the game's favor. Like Tetris or any number of other puzzle games, after you finish one round, it always feels like you have time for just one more. That brevity is especially well-suited to a handheld platform like the 3DS, where you have time to solve a few levels while sitting on the bus, or in between TV commercial breaks.
Your goal in each stage is to navigate from point A to point B, generally through narrow, obstacle-filled passages. You run and jump over spikes and pits just like in any other platformer, but what makes your character special is his ability to spawn boxes. The number of simultaneous connected boxes you can create at one time varies with each stage, though you always control how many you want to create at a time. And when you make a new set of boxes, the previous ones disappear. Create one and toss it around for a quick step up, or turn three into an impromptu set of stairs that you push to bridge a hazardous gap. Unlike you, these boxes are not sentient and their only purpose is to help you get around. Instead of neatly detaching yourself from your box bundle, you can also choose to keep it attached and use it like an additional limb. In that role, it can be used to press buttons, lift you out over chasms, or transport you through tight spaces using your ability to reabsorb the squares like grappling hook.
You die often while trying to find the correct box placement to safely traverse a level, but checkpoints are so frequent that it almost feels like there's no punishment for failing. Instead, you're able to plot out a course using focused trial and error without having to repeat puzzles you already know how to do flawlessly. While the game keeps throwing new deadly impediments in your way, you eventually get to the point where you can tell at a glance what blocky shapes you need to chain together to survive. That's when the challenge becomes not just getting to the end, but collecting all of the crowns.
Early on, you run into these optional collectibles as part of making your way normally through each stage; in later levels, the crowns are purposefully placed in a way that requires careful box management. The solution to solving some of the more devious level layouts would only come to me after putting the game away for several hours and coming back with a fresh mind. Suddenly, the answer would stand out as ridiculously obvious, but I not only felt like a genius for figuring out combinations of moving, extending, and retracting boxes, but I also learned valuable lessons for overcoming later stages.
Your basic abilities never change, although you're eventually able to summon more than one set of blocks, and the unlockable costumes you earn by collecting crowns and beating levels are almost purely cosmetic, outside of a lone, late-game bunny costume. But that simplicity is what keeps the game exciting and the puzzles fresh. There are no obstacles that you need to come back to after you unlock a new ability or upgrade; from the moment you start the game, you have everything you need to solve every puzzle: your wits.
BoxBoy! may not make the best first impression, but through the course of my adventure, I began embuing the cute, blocky protagonist with his own personality. To me, he is strong-willed hero willing to brave adversity and overcome any obstacle. He just happens to also be a two-tone square. But going deeper than its simple exterior reveals a game filled with ingenious puzzles and a clever, box-manipulating mechanic. It does what a good puzzle game is supposed to: serve up a challenge and make you feel smarter for figuring out the solution, which was right in front of you all along. When I started BoxBoy!, I thought it would be a game for kids. In the end, it felt like a game especially made for me.
Tesla Home Battery Sold Out Until Next Year
A quarterly earnings call with Tesla revealed that its Powerwall home battery has already sold out, with over 38,000 pre-orders taking up production of the battery until the middle of next year.
Tesla announced its Powerwall battery system last week during a keynote presentation in California.
The Powerwall charges itself with electricity from your home's solar panels and can be used as a back-up during power outages or a central power unit altogether.
"Automated, compact and simple to install, Powerwall offers independence from the utility grid and the security of an emergency backup," said Tesla.
Risen 3: Titan Lords to Release on PS4
Publisher Deep Silver has announced their plans to release the Enhanced Edition of Risen 3: Titan Lords on PlayStation 4.
Combining the main game with all previously-released DLC including Adventure Grab, Fog Island, and Uprising of the Little Guys, Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition has also had several graphical upgrades to make it comparable to its highest settings on the PC.
The follow-up to Risen 2: Dark Waters, Risen 3: Titan Lords is a pirate-themed open world RPG originally released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2014. It releases digitally on August 21 for $40.