Category: Game

Get ready to explore the zone of Arcterra and get a bunch of new loot and rewards Sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game Wildstar went free-to-play late last year, but since then players have been left waiting for new content, while developer Carbine Studios has focused on special timed events and holiday celebrations. That will change soon, though. Carbine is preparing a major new update for the game, along with another move to open it up to an even wider audience.
Speaking to Polygon last month, Carbine Studios creative director Chad Moore said the new update will launch in the first quarter of this year, though an exact date is still being pinned down. It will include a new zone called Arcterra, which will be filled with bosses, unique loot and a zone-wide mechanic that’s never been seen in Wildstar before.
As players fight through Arcterra, they’ll run into a series of two-man bosses. Defeating those bosses will slowly fill a bar, which will then summon five-man bosses, and defeating those will summon in massive 20-man bosses. Rewards for participants will improve with each tier, and the faction that does the most each day will open up a special instances dungeon underneath the zone.

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Moore says these “snowballing boss encounters" are a way to encourage group content without making it mandatory.
"You don’t have to do this stuff," he said. "But so many of our players now are at max level, because we’ve had a really loyal group of players that have followed us from the very beginning. Once Arcterra releases, there’s going to be a ton of people in there. Giving them something that they can work on together daily — I think we’re going to see players engage and enjoy this content for a lot longer than we would otherwise."
In addition to the bosses and traditional story quests, the new zone will feature a reward bar that fills up, granting special loot, mounts and costumes. Moore said the idea is for players to be "constantly rewarded for engaging in content."
Another mechanic being added to Wildstar with the update is a new item upgrade system. Players will be able to take armor and weapons that they don’t need, salvage them into special components and use those components to upgrade their currently equipped items.
"It creates a whole new economy around the existing weapons in the game," Moore explained. "If you’re out doing boss encounters in Arcterra and getting a lot of drops, those weapons will probably be high-level. Now you can choose to salvage those for trade skills, runecrafting or item upgrade components. Then you can use those components to make yourself more powerful."

The update will progress Wildstar’s world story forward with chapter two of the game’s Nexus Saga. Titled "Vault of the Archon," this new story instance will be the first in the game to allow a full party of five players, though it can also be soloed like previous story-driven instances if you’d prefer.
Moore promised that Carbine is also far along in prepping the next tier of 20-person raid content, an area called Redmoon Terror. This won’t be ready when the Vault of the Archon update launches, but it will hit test servers around the same time. Wildstar has not received a new tier of raiding content since the game launched in June 2014, so the most hardcore members of the community have been antsy for something new.
"most of the PC games I play, I’ll only play if I can run them through Steam"Finally, Moore revealed that Wildstar will come to Steam, the popular game download service from Valve, this spring. An exact date will be announced soon.
"I’m actually one of those people where most of the PC games I play, I’ll only play if I can run them through Steam," admitted Moore. "I think it’s going to be a really great thing for the game to bring a bunch of new players in."
Speaking to the general reaction to Wildstar’s free-to-play transition, Moore said it has been largely positive thus far.
"Free-to-play has been very successful in terms of getting tons of new players into the game," he said. "But I think the other part of it that’s been really cool for us to see is that pretty much everyone that’s played the game before and now has tried it as a free-to-play game, or even new players, they all feel like our free-to-play model is really fair. We see a lot of comments with people saying it doesn’t feel like a typical free-to-play game, because they’re not constantly being reminded about where they should spend money and how to spend money."
Wildstar can be downloaded and played for no cost from the game’s official website. For more information, you can check out our review from just after launch.

A little earlier than ‘mid-February’ The closed beta for Overwatch will re-open Feb. 9, Blizzard announced today on the Battle.net blog. The beta, which was taken offline in December, was recently bumped from January to a “mid-February" return date.
When it comes back, the build will sport two new maps, a new game mode, a new progression system as well as updates to both private games and character balancing. Blizzard noted that these were key areas it would tweak during the beta’s downtime back in December.
Players can continue to sign up for the Overwatch beta, and those who participated in it previously will again have access. The full game will be available to PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One owners later this spring, and will have additional content offered to players for free post-launch.

Nintendo plans to launch its new rewards program, My Nintendo, and its first mobile app, Miitomo, for Android and iOS in March, according to an investor presentation from Nintendo of Japan.
My Nintendo is the company’s replacement for the shuttered Club Nintendo program. My Nintendo will launch globally this March in 39 countries throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The service will reward members with two types of points: platinum points and gold points.
Platinum points can be earned by logging into Nintendo’s eShop, playing games and visiting Nintendo’s websites. Those points can be spent on digital goods, like wallpapers and themes for Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo described platinum points as being used mainly “for fun."
Gold points can be earned by purchasing content from the eShop. They can be used for discounts on games and software, Nintendo said.
Miitomo, the Mii-powered social communication app that Nintendo unveiled in October, will launch mid-March in Japan. Nintendo expects to roll out Miitomo to other territories in March as well, supporting eight languages — English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Russian — in 16 territories throughout North America, Western Europe, Japan, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Nintendo said it will be accepting "pre-registration" for Miitomo starting on Feb. 17.

There’s almost too much desert in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. But there’s also not nearly enough.

For a real-time strategy game series that utilized outer space as its core environment for a decade, it’s weird to open Deserts of Kharak’s campaign for the first time and realize just how much sand you’re going to have to drive through in this Homeworld prequel. The opening narration even emphasizes it. “Our planet is dying," says protagonist Rachel S’jet, who adds that "the desert grows with every passing year."
The characters are motivated only by survival, searching for an "anomaly" that they say will save them from the growing starvation and dehydration that are hurting the population. Their vehicles are land rovers of various sizes, their abilities limited to smoke screens and long-range launchers. It’s so simple and straightforward that the only jarring element seems to be this endless desert.
it’s weird to open Deserts of Kharak and realize just how much sand you’re going to drive through

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But the drastic change in this setting makes sense, not only in terms of the narrative, but also as a way to reboot a franchise whose first installment dates back to 1999 and has been stagnant for years. The history of the Homeworld name is complicated, with the licensing changing hands multiple times before landing with Gearbox in 2013. Besides a re-release of the first two games, there hasn’t been much anchoring the franchise in the public consciousness. Luckily for fans and the uninitiated, the game that would eventually become Deserts of Kharak bridges that gap in time.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a prequel, but also exists as a stand-alone title. Thanks to a streamlined story and a beautiful, hand-drawn style that emphasizes the emptiness of sand and dust, I never felt at a loss as someone who never played much of the original Homeworld games.
The game is filled with Easter eggs and references that connect the two sides together. For example, main character Rachel S’jet is an ancestor to Karan S’jet, who leads Homeworld 1 and 2. But this mostly serves as a link rather than an important plot point; you don’t need to know future events to understand the story beats. You just need to learn how to drive the Kapisi — a giant production facility that also doubles as a self-sufficient aircraft carrier and battle fortress — and how to strategize your units.

Deserts of Kharak never feels too static despite taking place over one long road trip through the desert where you fight the same enemies, the Gaalesian, again and again. Each level requires its own strategy and multiple steps to clear each objective, and the game drops hints and slowly reveals techniques and systems over time. As the team discovers more technology as they move across the desert, more vehicles and upgrades are unlocked.
I suspect that this could get tedious for more advanced players, but even newer players may find some monotony as well. The Kapisi crawls across the dunes, and the expanse of the maps means your small assault vehicles will take their time getting to an area, but this becomes more manageable as the style of play becomes more familiar.

With just 13 missions that take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour each (depending on your skill level), the story is brief, although not necessarily lacking. Developer Blackbird Interactive keeps plot on the outskirts of each campaign, allowing dialogue, lore and character moments to book-end battles.
For example, Rachel S’jet is a prime member of your team, and her motivations move the story forward without too many bumps. But there’s not too much to Rachel as a character that is complex or interesting, While her determination allows her to lead a team, it also gets her into situations that make you question whether you should let her out of the Kapisi at all.
More intriguing are the Gaalesians, a desert race that look upon Rachel and her companions’ need to reach space as heresy. The details in their compounds and their clothing, which seem reminiscent of a previously nomadic lifestyle, are more impressive than their place in Deserts of Kharak’s story, where they mainly function as a barrier to the Coalition.

for the most part multiplayer is more of the same

For Deserts of Kharak, it feels like the destination is more important than the journey. The story is secondary to Blackbird’s need to get the Coalition to space in time for the events of the original Homeworld. The "anomaly" Rachel and the others are searching for is ill-defined for most of the game — how do they know it’ll change everything? Why doesn’t the Coalition try and work with the Gaalesian for survival tips? Who knows?
Once you’re done with the story, there’s multiplayer, assuming you have more luck than I did in finding a game. The lobby was usually dead, with a game popping up on the public games list and disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared. Matchmaking was just as useless, timing out before matches could be made.
Once I found a game, there wasn’t much to explore. The campaign does plenty with its desert format, but Deserts of Kharak’s multiplayer offers only five maps — and each map has a particular player limit that only serves to lessen the kinds of matches available. There are a few options in the menu that can change up each round, such as including extra objectives, but for the most part it’s more of the same.

Last summer, developers from around the world spent a few happy weeks living and working together in a cabin in rural Sweden.
They were taking part in an initiative called Stugan (the word means ‘cabin’ in Swedish) which was organized and sponsored by various local developers. A new Stugan is now planned for summer of 2016. The organizers are once again looking for participants, who have a project ongoing, and might benefit from working in a peaceful and collaborative environment for a few weeks. You can apply here.
This month also sees the launch of last year’s Stugan’s first game. Created by Clint Siu, it’s a shape manipulation mobile game, called Prism.
“We couldn’t be happier with the way last year’s Stugan played out," said Stugan manager Jana Karlikova. "We set out to provide a platform to inspire undiscovered game developers across the globe and ended up with an amazing group of teams that not only made huge strides in their projects, but in turn fueled inspiration for some of the industries top veterans across all categories who came to mentor."
You can find out more about Stugan in Polygon’s in-depth feature.

The two are producing their own Mr. Robot-type show Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are about to venture into television once again following a series order from SyFy for their new show, Incorporated.
The series, which is described by the network as a “futuristic thriller," follows young executive Ben Larson as he masks his identity in an attempt to infiltrate one of the biggest corporations in the world and save the woman he loves.
The show stars Sean Teale (Reign) as Larson, and will also include the acting talents of Eddie Ramos (Teen Wolf), Dennis Haysbert (24) and Julia Ormond (Mad Men). Affleck and Damon will act as executive producers on the show, which will be run by Ted Humphrey (The Good Wife).
Incorporated is the latest to join SyFy’s recently rebranded slate of programs, including The Magicians, The Expanse and Brave New World.
Dave Howe, president of SyFy and Chiller, said that Incorporated was the type of science-fiction that "holds up a mirror to the world" and "challenges the notions of the world we live in today."
If it sounds like the type of genre programming made popular by shows like Mr. Robot, that’s exactly what it is. Networks like SyFy have seen what USA accomplished with the type of dark, off-kilter dramas they’re producing and are jumping on board.
Incorporated will air later this fall.

Beta gets going for PlayStation 4 on Feb. 12, a week later on Windows PC Hitman will favor the PlayStation 4 with exclusive content when it launches, Io-Interactive said today in an update on plans for the game.
In addition to getting a week with the beta before Windows PC, starting Feb. 12 (next Friday) PS4 owners will also get six bonus missions all to themselves, under the heading “The Sarajevo Six." Hitman launches, or perhaps "premieres" is a better word, on March 11 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.
Hitman will launch episodically, meaning it will add missions to its ongoing story throughout the year before recapping everything on a retail disc at the end of 2016. Someone can buy the year’s worth of content for $60, or pick up episodes piecemeal. The debut episode is $15, subsequent chapters will be $10.
Io-Interactive says Hitman’s new structure allows them to explore multiple points of view, centering not only on its iconic protagonist Agent 47, but also his handler, Diana Burnwood, and even his targets.
"The sturcture is inspired by contemporary TV series and will unfold over multiple seasons," Io-Interactive wrote on PlayStation Blog. "To begin with, the overall story and the individual mission stories run in parallel but as the first season progresses, the tracks will merge and become one."

This trailer, released today, sets the tone for Hitman. It doesn’t feature any gameplay but it sketches out the Bond-esque world of action and geopolitical intrigue for which the Hitman franchise has been known for the past 15 years.
The PS4 exclusive missions involve dismantling a paramilitary group known as CICADA. It’s unclear if that group will be the main antagonist of the International Contract Agency (Hitman’s employer) or a side target for PS4 players only.

Thank the Force he didn’t, too The editors of Star Wars: The Force Awakens have admitted to being tempted by the side of the Force that involves pointlessly jarring cameos of old characters. In the end, however, they opted against one for Yoda.
Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey told Entertainment Tonight they were all set to do it, too. Frank Oz, Yoda’s voice (and puppeteer, on the occasions Yoda has been a puppet) “came in for a day and did a whole bunch of Yoda," Brandon said. He was happy and they were happy and that was that.
Then the two editors went back on it, tossing whatever Yoda material they had. Oz’s voice is still part of the much-talked-about montage when Rey has her Force vision, but no Yoda.
Yoda, of course, croaked in Return of the Jedi, whose events are set about 20 years before those of The Force Awakens. Nothing precludes him from reappearing as a blue-haloed Force ghost or in some other form, corporeal or otherwise, but considering how much The Force Awakens drew on content and themes from the original trilogy, probably best to let sleeping 900-year-old Jedi Masters lie.

Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, who once were signed on to create a new Silent Hill game together at Konami, will be on stage together during the DICE summit last this month to discuss their creative visions, the organizers announced this morning.
The Thursday afternoon session, entitled “A Conversation with Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro", will be moderated by Geoff Keighley and "revisit some of their fondest memories from their own individual careers as well as some of the pivotal moments from each other’s work that remain a constant source of inspiration."
Last month, DICE organizers announced that Kojima, the auteur formerly behind Konami’s Metal Gear Solid series, wil be the twenty-first member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

The 2015 Hall of Fame award will be presented to Kojima by film director and writer Guillermo del Toro during the summit.
All of this Kojima news comes after a tumultuous year for the game maker. The well-known developer left Konami last year during a corporate restructuring. His departure seemingly led to the mothballing of a new Silent Hill game that was to be co-directed by Kojima and del Toro.
In December, Kojima was meant to attend The Game Awards, but according to host Geoff Keighley, was blocked from the show by Konami. On Dec. 15, Kojima officially ended his career at the company and formed an independent studio called Kojima Productions. Its first game will be a console exclusive for the PlayStation 4.
The DICE summit, which runs Feb. 16-18 will also include talks from Randy Pitchford, Todd Howard and others.
Make sure to check out Polygon’s full DICE coverage once the show kicks off. Here’s what we wrote about at last year’s summit.

Creator Ryan Murphy explores a much bigger topic The tone for Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson is set within the first two minutes of the first episode, before O.J. Simpson is even introduced.
The show begins with real life footage of cab driver Rodney King being beaten by four Los Angeles Police Department officers after a high speed chase. The footage, which would eventually be broadcast to millions, led to the riots. It’s this specific event that Murphy wants viewers to keep in the back of their minds while watching American Crime Story.
American Crime Story could have been just another retelling of the infamous Simpson trial that shook the country to its core in 1995. Murphy could have decided to focus on nothing but the trial and the people closest to Simpson involved in the case, but he didn’t. Instead, Murphy used the case to open up a discussion about race in America and the issues that still face the people that come before the judicial system on a daily basis.
Because as much as the Simpson trial was about a man that allegedly murdered his ex-wife, it also became a story within the public eye as a battle between the white prosecutors and police officers who were taking on a black celebrity. That’s the story that Murphy focuses on and that’s the heart of American Crime Story. It’s also what makes it such an invigorating watch.
It’s important to note, however, that Murphy never makes an excuse for Simpson.
The majority of people know exactly what happened during the Simpson trial. Or, at the very least, they know what the outcome was. It still stands as one of the most controversial verdicts in history and defined itself as one of the top stories of the decade.
With the amount of coverage being given to Simpson this year, including a seven and a half hour documentary on ESPN, American Crime Story needed to figure out a way to make the story interesting again for an audience of people that already knew what was going to happen.
Choosing to focus on the racial tensions that had spread out among the country, and internationally, was the smartest decision Murphy could have made. It was a way for him to move the story forward and have it still relate to an audience in 2016 without having to rely on a twentieth anniversary to capture attention.
The way Murphy explores the tension surrounding Simpson’s trial could be used as a backdrop for many of the protests we’re seeing today. It’s important to note, however, that Murphy never makes an excuse for Simpson. He never hints that Simpson is innocent and never glorifies the death of Nicole Brown. Rather, he lets the public debate speak for itself and dives into the controversial debate that was being held at the time.
For the first time in Ryan Murphy’s career, he doesn’t go for the over-the-top shock value, but sits back and lets history speak for itself.
As the episodes go on, you never lose sight of the Rodney King beating or the riots that followed. There’s a reason Murphy decided to start the series with it, after all. It acts as a turning point in public opinion on the case and raises the question, “Is there a bigger aspect to this case that we’re not addressing?"

As the trial progresses, Murphy does focus much more on the interesting relationship between Simpson and his team of lawyers, including the now iconic team of Robert Shapiro and Johnny Cochran. The courtroom drama picks up, Simpson begins to deteriorate and the Kardashians get some play. The late Robert Kardashian, father of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Rob, was one of Simpson’s best friends and a supporting figure throughout the trial.
But none of this ever feels as important as the discussion being held outside of the courtroom about racial tensions in America and the ongoing battles between the LAPD and the black community.
It never feels as important as going back to 1991 and remembering the pain and anger that the Rodney King footage instilled in American citizens.
And for that reason alone, for Murphy’s decision to focus on the larger subject matter instead of making American Crime Story a simple retelling of the trial, the show is a complete success.
American Crime Story airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET on FX.