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Fan-made Half-Life reimagining Black Mesa will launch on March 5
Black Mesa, a fan-made “reimagining” of Valve’s groundbreaking Half-Life, has taken its development team on a long and winding road. First revealed back in 2005, the game received Valve’s blessing in 2012 and later launched in Early Access in 2015. Since then, the team at Crowbar Collective has spent years rebuilding Gordon Freeman’s world from the ground up, taking particular care with the alien environs of the game’s divisive Xen chapter.
But now they’re finally ready to launch “Version 1.0” of Black Mesa.
Crowbar Collective’s Adam Engels shared the news on Steam, and confirmed that the complete game will finally be available to download on March 5th:
I hope that everyone has something that inspires them as much as Half-Life inspired us. I hope that everyone embraces the setbacks and challenges that come, and I hope no one fears the long road in front of them.
Black Mesa 1.0 will launch Thursday March 5th on Steam.
If you’re planning to be in Boston for this weekend’s PAX East expo, you’ll be able to try out a playable demo of Black Mesa for yourself at Crowbar Collective’s booth (#24081) on the show floor.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged PAX East 2020
Sumo Digital will bring arcade-inspired Hotshot Racing to PC and consoles this Spring
From 2004’s OutRun 2 all the way up to last year’s Team Sonic Racing, developer Sumo Digital has spent the majority of their long history producing some of the best arcade-style racing games in existence. And today, the UK-based studio announced their next major project… the retro-inspired Hotshot Racing.
Previously known as “Racing Apex,” Hotshot Racing will be co-developed by Lucky Mountain Games and published by Curve Digital. The game will feature multiple racers, as well as online multiplayer for up to eight players, four-player local splitscreen, and an amazing polygonal style that’ll pop off the screen at 60 frames per second:
Curve Digital is delighted to unveil the colourful retro-inspired racing game, Hotshot Racing, from Lucky Mountain Games and experienced racing genre stalwarts, Sumo Digital. Hotshot Racing channels classic arcade racers sporting colorful polygonal visuals, boost-fueled drift gameplay and a silky smooth 60 frames per second in the game’s single-player modes regardless of platform.
Hotshot Racing is set to emulate and expand upon the classic ‘90s arcade racing game formula featuring eight different hotshot drivers to choose from (each with their own personality and multiple varied four-wheeled rides), 16 personality-filled sun-baked tracks from across the globe, and multiple game modes for players to prove their driving prowess.
Hotshot Racing will be released this Spring for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. And be sure to peek a glimpse at the Announcement Trailer embedded above.
Control leads the way with seven nominations at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards
The SXSW Gaming Awards will once again play a big role in the annual Austin arts festival, and this year’s nominees were announced earlier this week.
Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding lead the way with seven nominations apiece, but Kojima’s latest mindbender won’t be competing for “Video Game of the Year.” Instead, Control will do battle with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the coveted award.
Winners at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards will be determined by a split vote between the festival’s advisory board and a public poll, which is now open at SXSW.com through Sunday, February 23.
This year’s ceremony will be held on on Sunday, March 15, and it’ll be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s Janina Gavankar. All SXSW registrants will be able to attend the ceremony as part of their festival ticket, and the rest of us will be able to tune in to the festivities via SXSW’s Twitch channel.
You can find a complete list of this year’s nominees in all categories after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Devil May Cry 5, Disco Elysium, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Tabletop Games
Half-Life: Alyx will be released on March 23
Valve will make their first foray back into the Half-Life universe this March with the release of Half-Life: Aylx. The VR-powered adventure will star resistance fighter Alyx Vance, and it’ll take place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (so don’t expect to get a cameo from Gordon Freeman).
After first teasing the game back in November, it looks like Valve is finally ready to announce a official release date for Half-Life: Alyx, which they did this morning on Twitter:
Half-Life: Alyx, available March 23, 2020 https://t.co/NCOLWqSp3e pic.twitter.com/Q04EZwNfBt
— Valve (@valvesoftware) February 13, 2020
So there you have it. Now go get your VR headset ready, because Half-Life: Alyx will be released for the PC on March 23.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Half-Life: Alyx
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the best-selling game of January 2020
We’re less than 12 months away from the launch of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and consumers have started to react accordingly. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), consumers spent $678 million on video games, consoles, and accessories in January 2020, about a 26% drop versus January 2019.
But there were still a few big moneymakers in the first month of the year, starting with Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which was the best-selling game of the month. It was followed by some of 2019’s most popular titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (#2), Madden NFL 20 (#3), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#4).
While none of these games are available for the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console held on as the best-selling console platform during the month, besting the aging PS4 and Xbox One.
Another highlight for Nintendo from the January 2020 sales report was Ring Fit Adventure, which broke into the Top 10 for the first time (at #9). That’s impressive, but it’ll be a very long time before it catches Grand Theft Auto V, which continued to sell well in its 196th month of availability (it appeared on the list at #5).
You can find the full list of best-selling games from January 2020 after the break. (more…)
House House’s Untitled Goose Game wins “Game of the Year” at 2020 DICE Awards
I guess The Goose can cross “Win a Few Major Awards” off of its To-Do List. And that’s because House House’s Untitled Goose Game won “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Character,” and “Game of the Year” at this year’s DICE Awards.
While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s voting body (which is comprised of more than 30,000 members) loves The Goose, it was Remedy’s Control that took home the most statuettes last night. Predictably, the outstanding action game won “Action Game of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.” Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was the only other game to win multiple awards, with the AIAS honoring it with “Outstanding Technical Achievement” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.”
A nice array of other games were also big winners at the 2020 DICE Awards, including Sayonara Wild Hearts (“Portable Game of the Year”), Apex Legends (“Online Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker 2 (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat 11 (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Baba Is You (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”), and more.
The complete list of winners and nominees for the 2020 DICE Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Batterystaple Games will release 30XX in 2021
Batterystaple Games’s 20XX launched to rave reviews when it was released in 2017, filling a gap in the roguelike platformer genre (“Mega Man but with procedurally-generated levels”) that most fans didn’t even realize was there.
But rather than rest on their laurels, the developer is travelling 1,000 years into the future to bring a sequel, 30XX, to the PC and consoles in 2021. Once again employing a procedurally-generated structure, 30XX will feature a new “hi-bit art style” from Art Director Glauber Kotaki, as well as eight new worlds to explore:
20XX heroes Nina and Ace return with a myriad of new abilities. No longer merely wielding different primary weapons, in 30XX the powerful pair possess entirely distinct move sets allowing greater freedom of expression for both exploring levels and beating back the machines holding Earth prisoner.
Nina’s new Power Fusion system allows her to meld together abilities earned from vanquishing bosses and tailor them to the situation at hand with 64 separate attacks. Meanwhile, the blade-brandishing Ace boasts a versatile set of Techniques, which can be chained together with standard attacks to unleash fierce combos, adapt to any situation, and reach new heights.
Batterystaple Games will be hitting the road with 30XX very soon. The developer plans to showcase the game at this year’s PAX East expo (February 27 – March 1 in Boston) as part of the Indie Megabooth. In the meantime, an Announcement Trailer for the game has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged PAX East 2020
Darksburg is now available for PC in Early Access through Steam
Darksburg is a colorful “co-op zombie survival action game” from Shiro Games that is giving off some serious Diablo vibes in its latest trailer. The short video clip was also used to announce that the game is now available to download for the PC (via Steam) as an Early Access title.
Up to four players can team up to trample the undead menace ravaging the titular town in Co-Op Mode, or they can switch sides and take control of an undead Revenant and hunt down the heroes in PvP Mode. Rounding this early version of the game is a wave-based Last Stand mode:
A cooperative action game set in a medieval town overrun by hordes of shambling corpses, Darksburg tasks up to four players to band together, complete objectives across atmospheric maps, and push back against the zombie assault. Choose from one of four Survivors, including Sister Abigail, a holy nun hell-bent on saving her home, and Varag, a wolfman whose ferocity is matched only by his taste for undead flesh.
Coordinate with player or computer-controlled allies, unleashing devastating special skills and unlockable abilities to cut through Darksburg’s zombie invaders while completing objectives in co-op. Alternatively, players can take up arms as Revenants, powerful undead champions dedicated to hunting down the Survivors in a dedicated PvP mode. Then test your skills and see how long you can hold out battling endless waves of monstrosities in Last Stand mode.
Players who take the plunge on Darksburg during its first week of release will receive a 10% discount on the purchase price. According to the developer, they plan to use this Early Access to give the game time to “grow exponentially,” while also “adding content, updating features, iterating, and developing the game in order to align with community expectations throughout the whole process.”