Category: #gaming

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey’s Alpha touches down today. #Gaming

Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) announced today the start of the highly anticipated Elite Dangerous: Odyssey PC Alpha. Available for Lifetime Expansion Pass owners and players who have pre-ordered the Odyssey Deluxe Alpha expansion pack, this Alpha phase is the eagerly awaited first contact with the new, feet-on-the-ground Elite Dangerous gameplay experience.

The Elite Dangerous: Odyssey PC Alpha phase will run over several weeks, gradually introducing players to new gameplay features and expanding the amount of content they can access. This progressive roadmap will give the Elite Dangerous development team invaluable data to adjust and fine-tune the gaming experience ahead of Odyssey’s full PC release in late spring.

The Elite Dangerous: Odyssey PC Alpha phases include*:

  • Phase 1: First Steps. Focussing on Odyssey’s core systems and network features, Phase 1 will group all Commanders in a single star system to maximize player interaction. Players can purchase the Remlock Maverick scavenger suit and the Takada and Kinematic weapon sets, and take part in a selection of activities, including salvage, collection and delivery. Players will not have access to spaceships at this stage, but in-system travel will still be possible thanks to the new Apex Interstellar feature.
  • Phase 2: Combat. Introducing Elite Dangerous: Odyssey’s first person combat experience, Commanders will have access to the Manticore Dominator combat suit. Faction conflicts will be enabled, in time for the Frontline Solutions Mercenary Company to start operations in this phase. Additionally, players will be able to travel up to 20 light years in their own spaceships, and can get involved in an expanded variety of missions, including trading with settlements in neighbouring systems.
  • Phase 3: Exploration. Expanding the playable bubble to 50 light years, this phase shall include unexplored planets and the coveted “First Footfall” experience. Commanders can now don the Supratech Artemis explorer suit and analyse alien organics with the Genetic Sampler tool.
  • Phase 4: Compatibility. In the final phase of the Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Alpha, players will have access to their own Commanders, and test the inclusion of existing features in the main game, like Fleet Carriers, ship-launched Fighters and SRVs.

*Areas of play and features during the Alpha are subject to change.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey releases on PC in late spring 2021. Prospective PC Commanders can pre-order now and secure access to the Alpha via Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Frontier Store.

Releases on the PlayStation4 computer entertainment system and the Xbox One all-in-one games and entertainment system are planned for Autumn 2021.

Epic Chef to serve up culinary combat on consoles alongside PC release. #EpicChef #Gaming

Team17 and Infinigon Games have announced that the quirky narrative-driven cooking adventure Epic Chef will be making its way onto Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch alongside the PC launch later this year. Fresh off the boat, new to the city of Ambrosia, and playing as Zest, players will find themselves in a quest to become the best chef in the kingdom, taking down master chefs in outlan-dish culinary combat along the way.

Before digging into the main course here’s an appetising new video

 

A histrionic story-driven adventure, Epic Chef  blends together several different genres in order to serve up a unique recipe for players; with farming, foraging, and food fights being a small slice of the action, Ambrosia offers plenty of activities to keep Zest busy from sunrise to sunset. Dynamic recipe creation means nothing is off the menu; players can craft and experiment with thousands of ingredient combinations, creating the very best – and worst – dishes imaginable, all in an attempt to take down the competition.

Key features

  • Story Time: A wonderfully crafted narrative unfolds as players journey to become the very best chef in Ambrosia
  • Delicious Dishes: Dynamic recipe creation means that you can experiment with thousands of different ingredient combinations to create a unique menu of delicious delights
  • Food Fights: Engage in battles across Ambrosia with master chefs; dishes are scored on a variety of things and no two judges have the same taste, meaning every battle is different
  • Home Sweet Home: Customise and repair your dilapidated (and slightly haunted) villa to its former glory
  • Discover Ambrosia: When the kitchen gets a little too hot players can go on spa trips, try fishing, or meet the friendly locals.

Epic Chef will be available digitally on PC and consoles, and available physically on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Lawn Mowing Simulator, a stunning exploration of mowing in Great British countryside gardens. #Gardening #Gaming #Xbox

Something a little different and for those who have greenfingers and like gardening, Curve Digital and Skyhook Games have announced Lawn Mowing Simulator, a stunning mowing simulator and detailed business management game set in the British countryside, coming to Xbox Series S|X and PC summer 2021.

Lawn Mowing Simulator explores the Great British countryside and invites players to ride an authentic and expansive roster of licensed lawn mowers from prestigious manufacturers; Toro, SCAG and STIGA as they manage their mowing business.

Before Lawn Mowing Simulator releases later this year, Skyhook Games and Curve Digital are giving players access to the game for a limited time period via the Xbox Insider program. Pre-registration starts now, with the flight taking place from April 2nd until April 16th.

“We’re incredibly excited to show the world our first in-house developed game,” said David Harper, co-founder of Skyhook Games. “We can’t wait for players to experience the satisfaction of manicuring a lawn to perfection within Lawn Mower Simulator’s idyllic setting.”

“It feels great to be able to reveal Lawn Mowing Simulator alongside Skyhook Games. The team have done an amazing job recreating the experience of lawn mowing across the gorgeous British countryside“  added Simon Byron, Publishing Director at Curve Digital. “We’re excited for players to get hands-on with Lawn Mowing Simulator as early as next week through the Xbox Insider Program and to hear everyone’s thoughts.”

Lawn Mowing Simulator will feature:

PHYSICALLY AUTHENTIC LAWN MOWING EXPERIENCE
Execute ground checks, set your blade height, and measure your engine load as you complete a variety of contracts across Career Mode, Free Mode or Challenge Mode. Take your mowing to further heights with several attachments from stripe rollers, mulching kits, grass collectors, recyclers, flail decks and more.

BEAUTIFUL RURAL BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE
Lawn Mowing Simulator is set in a beautiful British countryside town. Busy residential streets, vast castle grounds, quaint cottage greens, and large equestrian fields are just some of the locations that await your mowing blades.

REAL WORLD LICENSED MOWER MANUFACTURERS
Toro, SCAG and STIGA front line Lawn Mowing Simulator with their real-world machines painstakingly re-created visually and physically. 12 Mowers are available in the base game, each with their own challenges, attachments and upgrades to pursue.

ACCURATE AND ATTENTIVE BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Build your own lawncare business from the ground up. Purchase and upgrade your headquarters, hire employees, purchase advertising and balance the books as you grow and expand your business.

Team17 to unleash punishing action RPG Thymesia in 2021. #Gaming #Thymesia

Punishing action role-playing game, Thymesia, from OverBorder Studio, is to be published under Team17’s independent games label. Today’s partnership announcement will see the studio’s debut title arrive on PC later this year. Set against a world ravaged by a plague, Thymesia will challenge players with fast-paced melee combat while they unravel the mysteries that haunt the harrowingly beautiful world.

 

Thymesia steps out of the darkness with this announcement trailer:

 

 

At the heart of the story is Corvus, a mysterious character capable of seizing enemy diseases and using them as weapons against his adversaries; players will engage in visceral combat, combining ferocious offensive abilities, perfectly timed parries, and dynamic dodges to take down unforgiving enemies. Players will also have the ability to customise Corvus to their own play style, upgrading and improving various stats to aid in their journey to recover Corvus’ memories.

Thymesia Key Features:

  • Weaponising diseases: As Corvus, players can seize diseases from enemies and wield them as deadly weapons
  • Engaging combat: Players will need to use their entire arsenal to avoid death; dodging attacks and parrying at precisely the right time will be instrumental to survival
  • A dark and deadly world: With a sinister and gloomy backdrop, Thymesia oozes character through its environments and setting
  • Unforgiving enemies: Corrupted by the plague, and mutated into monsters, the enemies are twisted and incredibly hostile, challenging players at every turn
  • Replayability: The ability to customise Corvus and try different builds, coupled with the multiple different endings available, means no two playthroughs are ever the same.

 Moon Lee, Game Director, OverBorder Studio, said:

“The amount of enthusiasm from the community has been incredible and we’re happy to be working with Team17 on Thymesia. Their support has been instrumental in the game’s development, and we can’t wait to share the challenging world we’ve created with players later this year.”

Craig McCarthy, Producer, Team17, said:

“Thymesia is a unique title for Team17, and we’re dead excited to be working with OverBorder Studio on this dark and gloomy title. We’re confident that players are going to enjoy exploring the world and testing their combat skills as Corvus, challenging themselves against the monstrous foes that await.”

Six Days in Fallujah Announces Groundbreaking “Procedural Architecture” Technology. #Gaming

Victura and Highwire Games today announced that the upcoming first-person tactical military shooter Six Days in Fallujah will feature a groundbreaking technology developed by Highwire Games called “Procedural Architecture,” which re-shapes the entire battlefield each time the game is played, assembling entire buildings and city blocks procedurally.

See a video demonstration of Procedural Architecture:

 

 


Six Days in Fallujah recreates true stories from the 2004 Second Battle for Fallujah, with help from more than 100 Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who were present during the battle. It is scheduled for release on PC and consoles in late 2021.

The stories in Six Days in Fallujah are told through gameplay and documentary footage featuring dozens of service members and more than 26 Iraqi civilians with diverse experiences and perspectives about the battle. These eyewitnesses speak directly to players through video and audio, and players solve real-life challenges from the battle during gameplay.

These stories inspired the development team to explore new ways to make tactical military shooters more like actual combat.

“Marines told us they never knew what was waiting behind the next door,” says Six Days in Fallujah’s creative director, Jaime Griesemer. “But, in video games, we play the same maps over and over again. Just knowing the layout of a building in advance makes playing a combat encounter in a video game very different than actual combat.”

“Memorizing maps is fake. It’s that simple,” says Sgt. Adam Banotai, who led a squad of Marines block-by-block through Fallujah. “Clearing an unfamiliar building or neighborhood is terrifying. You have no idea what’s about to happen, and this is one of the reasons we experienced such high casualties.”

To simulate the uncertainty and danger of urban combat, Highwire Games and Victura invested more than three years building technologies that allow a modern game engine to assemble every room in every building procedurally, along with the dynamic AI and sound systems needed to support game environments that do not remain static.

In Six Days in Fallujah, every map is a new map, so players never know what to expect. While mission objectives and events are consistent with the true stories, every scenario becomes a unique experience each time players restart, ensuring no game ever plays the same way twice.

“With Procedural Architecture, even the game designer doesn’t know what’s about to happen in Six Days in Fallujah,” according to Victura CEO Peter Tamte. “And the best way to overcome this uncertainty is by deploying real military tactics, just like you would if you were really there.”

Six Days in Fallujah will launch for PC and consoles in 2021. For more information about the game go to Six Days in Fallujah at www.sixdays.com. Six Days in Fallujah is also on Twitter (@VicturaGG), and YouTube.

ABOUT SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH

Six Days in Fallujah is a first-person tactical military shooter that recreates true stories of Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians during the toughest urban battle since 1968. Players lead a fireteam through real-life encounters enabled by unique technology that simulates the uncertainty and tactics of urban combat. Six Days in Fallujah is produced and published by Victura and developed by Highwire Games, which is led by many of the original Halo and Destiny leadership. Six Days in Fallujah launches for PC and console platforms in late 2021. More information is available at www.sixdays.com.

GT MANAGER – Racing Management Game Launches Today for iOS and Android. #Gaming #GTManager

Today GT Manager lets players take charge of a Gran Tourismo racing team and speed along the world’s most iconic racing tracks. In direct line with the rise of a new genre within the racing category, GT Manager – developed by French studio, The Tiny Digital Factory – allows players to build their own GT team in the ruthless world of motorsports. Available for free today on all app stores, GT Manager offers the best experience of motorsport management in the market.

A new game genre anchored in The Tiny Digital Factory’s legacy

GT Manager is the result of more than 10 years of experience building racing games from The Tiny Digital Factory team, having worked in partnership with Codemasters and Eden Games, including co-development on the official F1 Mobile Racing game, downloaded by 16 million players and played daily by 150,000 people. In offering unprecedented features and content, comparable to the best football management games, GT Manager carries the ambition to join the segment’s leader, F1 Manager, at the top of the rankings.

Racing games on mobile never managed to reach the top spots of mobile game rankings because of the lack of accuracy and the quality of the racing experience inherent to the devices’ small screens. GT Manager positions itself on the fast-growing segment of Sport Management games and in direct line with games conceived specifically for mobile in the racing category which represents five percent of current mobile games revenues.  The game plays in portrait mode and offers short game sessions to be played on the go.

GT Manager: sophisticated and accessible, the perfect balance for motorsport management games fans

Players will be able to master the art of the race as a racing team manager through an experience centered in management and tactical decisions taken from the pit.

The game offers a deep immersive experience in the universe of race management. Every player takes on the role of a young manager who will reinforce their expertise and network through their encounters with the leading experts of the track. Here, the engineer, the mechanic, the sponsoring manager are as important as the driver. It’s the player’s capacity to hone his skills which will allow him to make the difference in Career mode. This progressive evolution brings both sophistication and accessibility to the experience. GT Manager features a wide range of official GT championships licenced car models and authentic tracks to add to the authenticity.

GT Manager: An in-depth experience from the pit lane

Players take charge of every aspect of their GT team, before, during and after the race. From the development center and their headquarters, they will take all the major decisions regarding investments and the budget management of the team. From their team’s factory, the player can – through experience and investments – manage more and more aspects of the team’s life, from training to sponsorship scouting.

On the track, the race strategy is essential to get in front of one’s rivals. Going faster is not the solution to win. Tire wear, car settings and the information provided by your race team will have a major impact on the race’s results.

“GT Manager has been conceived by a team with many years of experience in developing racing games. GT Manager is the result of our expertise and we are proud to offer the first racing game fully developed, produced and edited by our Lyon-based studio from The Tiny Digital Factory”, Stéphane Baudet, CEO of The Tiny Digital Factory, explained.

In GT Manager, players will…

  • Manage pilots from the pit without any driving skills required.
  • Collect 19 official cars from major brands with various GT championships, under licence : Porsche, Mercedes, McLaren, Nissan, Audi, Chevrolet, Renault / Alpine, Ford, Honda, Aston Martin, Brabham, Saleen.
  • Build their own headquarters (five buildings and 12 departments), invest in their production factory and in R&D, recruit pilots, engineers and sponsors…
  • Equip their factory with more than 200 different cards.
  • Score points in the championship ranking to move up the next league.
  • Improve the performances of cars and pilots’ statistics.
  • Take part in daily races in endurance, sprint, at night and in seasonal events, on 11 different iconic racetracks.
  • Compete online in 1vs1 races to build their weekly and seasonal rankings.
  • Choose their tire strategy and adapt their general race strategy to react to race incidents.

GT Manager is now available for free on the Apple, Google, Huawei and Samsung stores!

Sades announce new Battle Ram combo. #Gaming #Tech

Sades, manufacturer of high quality gaming peripherals is pleased to announce the release of the Battle Ram.

A gaming combo built for experienced and novice gamers, the Battle Ram is a keyboard and mouse combo complete with a mouse pad to give you everything you need to get started on your gaming. Quality gaming peripherals are a vital addition to a gaming setup, and the Battle Ram combo is designed to improve your gaming experience. 

FULL SIZE KEYBOARD

The ergonomically designed keyboard features 104 keys, 25 keys without conflict, plus 12 additional FN and multimedia keys. The WIN key can be disabled for gaming and with a switch lifespan of 10 million cycles you can start button mashing your way through a game without worrying about wearing out the keys. The optional Battle Ram software allows further customization to fine tune the setup to your preferences. 

Don’t worry about spilling any drinks mid gaming session – the Battle Ram keyboard is waterproof to keep you going through any accidental spills, and the optional RGB lighting gives you the chance to choose how you want your setup lit. 

CONTROL WITH PRECISION

The Battle Ram mouse performs well in speed, accuracy and responsiveness thanks to the PMW 3050 sensor and optimized sniper button. All buttons can be customized according to the game being played, and have a lifespan of up to 10 million clicks. The RGB lighting is also optional so you can create an eye catching gaming combo set.  

The SADES Battle Ram is available now from www.amazon.co.uk for £39.99

First Strike: Classic – the iconic nuclear war strategy game explodes onto PC and mobile on 10 March. #Gaming #FirstStrike

Swiss developer Blindflug Studios today announced a completely refreshed and optimised version of iconic nuclear war strategy game First Strike, launching 10 March for PC, iOS and Android devices. First Strike Classic reprises First Strike: Final Hour with a brand-new AI with new behaviours and a redesigned user interface. The First Strike Classic update replaces the older versions of First Strike on Steam, Google Play Store and Apple App Store free of charge.

First Strike has been played by over 11 million players since its release in 2014 in almost every country on Earth. Be it South Sudan, China, the Virgin Islands, the US or Mongolia, there are First Strike players everywhere with only one exception: North Korea.

See the First Strike: Classic trailer below

Over the years, the First Strike fan community has requested new content. This remastered version of the game will now serve as the base for future content updates. Those expansions are exclusive to the free version of the game, which are planned to start rolling out in summer 2021.

First Strike: Classic Features:

  • Twelve playable nuclear superpowers – You decide which real-world superpower you play, from the USA to Russia, China or North Korea.
  • Devastating superweapons – Build twelve technologically advanced rockets, from Tridents to the TSAR, unique to each nation.
  • Build rockets and missiles, conquer territories and research new devastating nuclear technologies.
  • Control the world – shoot and defend against nuclear rockets on a 3D globe.

Improvements of the remaster:

  • First Strike’s classic fast-paced strategy gameplay – completely remastered!
  • New artificial intelligence with new behaviors
  • Refreshed graphical user interface
  • Social Hub for the fan community
  • Update serves as base for future expansions, planned for summer 2021

First Strike: Classic launches 10 March for PC, iOS and Android.

NEOVERSE launches on PlayStation 4. See more for trailer and details #Gaming #NEOVERSE

The journey to the NEOVERSE for PlayStation gamers starts today! After successful launches and thousands of positive reviews on both Steam and Nintendo Switch, Tino Gamez now brings the charismatic Heroes, multiple skill combinations and unlimited destinations of NEOVERSE to both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 platforms.

Check out the NEOVERSE PlayStation Launch Trailer below..

About Neoverse

NEOVERSE is a time warping multiverse game consisting of thrilling adventures that are packed with exciting challenges. Combining roguelite, deck-building and strategy gameplay together, NEOVERSE puts your skills to the test. Embark on an adventure with a cast of unique heroes to save the living realms.

Be the Saviour of NEOVERSE

  • Create your own Strategy with 300 cards and over 100 skills.
  • Choose from three charismatic Heroes, each with their own unique abilities and specialties.
  • Over 70 types of Monsters to battle, each with their own skills, techniques and fighting styles.
  • Multiple skill combinations for each Hero. Play your way.
  • Play for fun and adventure or take on challenging levels for more hardcore players.

Start your Journey Across Time and Space

  • Every adventure is different! Customize your experience with new cards each time you play.
  • Your future destinations will depend on every decision you make.
  • The future and beyond are legendary tales yet to be told!

Endless Gaming Experience

  • Strategy customization is your key to saving the Neoverse.
  • Weave your talent tree and create your own skill combination.
  • Switch between gear options to master the game.

NEOVERSE is available to purchase from the Official PlayStation Store US here for $23.99 and the Official PlayStation Store UK here for £15.49.

NEOVERSE is available now for Nintendo Switch. See the Nintendo Switch launch trailer here.