The post Astro’s Playroom nearly had a chainsaw level appeared first on Game News.
]]>In the latest issue of Edge magazine, E353 which you can buy here (opens in new tab), Astro’s Playroom director Nicolas Doucet spoke about cut content from the game. “Yeah, we had to cut some stuff that just didn’t fit naturally,” the director says. “We had a really great chainsaw demo where you would rev the chainsaw and just cut through stuff coming at you – you’d cut through ice, through metal.”
“And that felt really good, the adaptive trigger and the haptics were working really well together,” Doucet continues. “But that was one where we tried and tried to find a way to fit it, but it just felt like it just didn’t fit for this type of game. But if somebody wants to make a horror game, you know, that’s a good one. That works [laughs].”
Well, that sure seems like a mantel for Doom to pick up. Although it’s absolutely wishful thinking, I can bet chainsawing through the legions of hell with the DualSense in id Software’s sequel would feel absolutely incredible.
Elsewhere in the latest issue of Edge magazine, Doucet says there aren’t plans for any extra content for Astro’s Playroom in the pipeline. In fact, the Astro’s Playroom development team at Sony aren’t decided as to what they’ll do next, let alone if they’ll expand upon the PS5 pre-packaged game.
This would appear to throw cold water on the theories coming from the Platinum Trophy for Astro’s Playroom. When the PS5 launched last month in November, users noted that the description for the games Platinum Trophy said “see you on our next adventure,” possibly indicating that a sequel was in the works. The comments from Doucet appear to point to the description instead referring to whatever the team at Sony decide to do next.
If you’re still on the road to the Platinum Trophy for Astro’s Playroom, why not head over to our Astro’s Playroom Artefacts guide for a helping hand.
The post Astro’s Playroom nearly had a chainsaw level appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post The Lord of the Rings: Gollum uses ray-tracing and more new features on PS5 appeared first on Game News.
]]>In Official PlayStation Magazine 182 (opens in new tab) this past week, developer Jonas Husges offered some hints at how Gollum will work in tandem with the new tech on Sony’s next-gen console. “Gollum’s actions become more tangible and his physical struggle when he runs out of stamina translates directly to the way the game is played,” says Husges.
The comment from Husges points to the DualSense controller reacting in some way to Gollum’s depleted stamina. NBA 2K21 boasts this feature through the PS5 DualSense controller, with more resistance being applied to the triggers when a player is tired and fatigued.
Husges then praises the PS5’s SSD component, saying that it allows for vastly detailed, open areas to be fully explorable. The SSD also drastically decreases the loading times throughout The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, meaning it’s a quick trip back to the latest checkpoint whenever Gollum meets an untimely end.
“Clean, ray-traced shadows allow for maximum effect in player guidance in building stealth passages while dynamic and moving light sources bring in the extra challenge when Gollum is roaming through the darkness,” says Daedalic art director Mathias Fischer of the PS5’s ray-tracing capabilities. “All these things, of course, have the nice side-effect of making the game feel vast, and such free roaming environments we are creating look as spectacular as Middle-earth deserves.”
For some added information from Daedalic themselves on why they decided to go with Gollum as the protagonist for their new game, check out our Lord of the Rings: Gollum interview with Daedalic for more.
If you’re still trying to reserve Sony’s next-gen console after a hectic launch period, check out our PS5 deals guide for detailed information on predicted stock from various retailers.
The post The Lord of the Rings: Gollum uses ray-tracing and more new features on PS5 appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post Alan Sugar tells Retro Gamer his plans to create an Amstrad museum appeared first on Game News.
]]>Speaking exclusively in Retro Gamer 209 (opens in new tab), which is on sale now, the Apprentice UK host opened up on why he wants to create a space for people to see his computers that took the European home computing scene by storm.
“I’m thinking of taking one of my warehouses somewhere and just allocating a space where I can collect all these things and put them nicely on display,” Lord Sugar says. “I just decided it could be useful to start collecting these items.”
However, this isn’t a brand new business plan, as Lord Sugar is clear that this is more about preserving the past. He told Retro Gamer: “I won’t be trying to make a business out of it, it will be a personal thing for myself but if Amstrad people want to come and see it, then I’ll make it accessible for them.”
Lord Sugar might not need to dip into his own personal stash of Amstrad computers though. After tweeting about his plans, Roland Perry, Amstrad’s former group technical consultant, responded by suggesting that he would be “happy to help coordinate a larger collection (opens in new tab)“, while The Centre For Computing History in Cambridge have also offered to help with the efforts to preserve the memory of Amstrad.
For more on Lord Sugar’s plans, as well as a look back at the BBC Micro on it’s 40th anniversary and in-depth feature on the return of Alex Kidd, be sure to pick up your copy of Retro Gamer here, or subscribe down below.
The post Alan Sugar tells Retro Gamer his plans to create an Amstrad museum appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post Telling Lies coming to consoles this April appeared first on Game News.
]]>The award winning narrative game, which first released on PC and mobile devices last August, is now going to be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in a week’s time.
The unique thriller, which won a Golden Joystick Award last year for Logan Marshall-Green’s performance, sees you searching through video clips on a desktop computer, trying to piece together the story that connects the four people featured prominently in said videos.
You can watch the launch trailer for the console ports here (opens in new tab).
In the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine (opens in new tab), which you can buy here (opens in new tab), creative director Sam Barlow spoke to the magazine about how replaying on controllers helped the game feel fresh for him.
Speaking to OPM’s Oscar Taylor-Kent, Barlow said: “The first time I played it on console, and this was like after I’d played the game for four hundred [hours]… I was done with the game. But I sat down in my living room and for three hours played the game just because it was fun to discover it again.
When I played it in my living room, and obviously this depends on the size of your telly, but it pretty much worked out that like, the characters were real scale essentially. And with the pacing of it being more realistic and not compressed, it became interestingly more intimate to be in my living room, having these characters just talk to me through the screen.”
Barlow also spoke about how he was aware of people trying to play the game in a more communal setting already. He continued: “I know like a bunch of people who go to lengths to get the iPhone version to play on their TV or use their Steam Machine or whatever, so they can play it with friends and family and stuff. So it’s really neat that it will be on a screen without people having to actually do any of the clever stuff.”
If you haven’t got around to Telling Lies, it’s one of our favourite games from last year, with Sam Loveridge describing it in her review as: “a game that stays with you, and through the medium of its storytelling manages to make you as much a part of the voyeuristic, privacy-invading problem as the entire game tries to take apart.”
Want to make sure you don’t miss out on any issues of Official PlayStation Magazine? Subscribe here today. (opens in new tab)
The post Telling Lies coming to consoles this April appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post Gabe Newell opens up on why Steam Machines didnt work out in latest Edge magazine appeared first on Game News.
]]>In a wide ranging interview with Edge, where he also discussed why Valve are referring to Artifact’s large scale update as Artifact 2 (opens in new tab), as well as the competition it shares with Epic Games (opens in new tab), Newell was candid about the failure of Steam Machines.
If you don’t remember the hardware Valve helped to launch in 2013, they were pre-built PCs that ran SteamOS and were designed to sit under your TV so you could play Steam games in the living room. However, it never quite took off with players.
- P (opens in new tab)re-order your copy of Edge Magazine’s Valve special edition (opens in new tab) for delivery to your door. Hurry, while stocks last.
After discussing how Valve fell in love with their plan without seeing customers do the same, he spoke in detail about the key issue regarding Steam Machines. Newell explained, “The hardware we were pushing for was super-incomplete at the time. I thought, ‘This is clearly where we all want to end up, and this is a point along the pathway to getting us there’.
“And people were like, ‘Yes, but you’re asking me to pay you money for the privilege of being on your roadmap, and I’m not really sure what I’m getting out of this at this time’. We needed to be a lot further along in terms of delivering polished consumer experiences before we were trying to get people to actually pay money for those things.”
If there’s a silver lining to this, it’s that Newell discussed with Edge how Valve learned key lessons from the Steam Machines, and how it impacted their design philosophy. Newell said, “The combination of Index and Half-Life: Alyx, to my mind, is where we were always hoping we would get to – which is the ability to be designing hardware and software in concert with each other.”
For more from Gabe Newell, as well as Edge’s Half-Life: Alyx review, pick up your copy from My Favourite Magazines (opens in new tab) here.
Or, if you’d like to guarantee a copy on day of release, you can subscribe to Edge Magazine for 5 digital issues for £5 (opens in new tab) with this special offer, a saving of over 80%.
The post Gabe Newell opens up on why Steam Machines didnt work out in latest Edge magazine appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post Valves Artifact “reboot” is so large, its internally being called Artifact 2, says Gabe Newell appeared first on Game News.
]]>As part of Edge Magazine (opens in new tab)‘s all-access trip to Valve HQ in Bellevue, Washington, the studio’s founder and CEO looked back on the failures of its 2018 card game, and how it plans to respond to its first major flop.
Get five issues of Edge for $5 / £5
This feature first appeared in Edge Magazine. If you want more great long-form games journalism like this every month, delivered straight to your tablet or phone, you can get five issues for $5 / £5 (opens in new tab) while this amazing offer lasts.
“Artifact was an interesting failure in its first go-round.” Newell tells Edge, “We were surprised. We thought that it was a really strong product.”
“We ran an experiment, we got a negative result, and now we need to see if we’ve learned anything from that, so let’s try again,” he says. “And that’s what [the Artifact team] have been doing and that’s what they’re getting ready to release. Based on the reaction to it, what was wrong with the product? How did we get there? Let’s fix those things and take another run at it.”
Edge reports that, internally, the follow-up to Artifact is being referred to as Artifact 2, though it’s unclear if this will be a full blown sequel, a No Man’s Sky (opens in new tab)-style comeback, or something else entirely, but Newell stresses that Valve has “to do a larger reboot in order to justify its existence to customers and to markets.”
Valve is days away from the release of its virtual reality Half-Life prequel, Half-Life: Alyx (opens in new tab), and you can read all about that – as well as Newell’s thoughts on the Epic Game Store and Steam Machines – in the latest issue of Edge Magazine (opens in new tab), on sale Thursday 26th March in stores, with an early digital release on Monday 23rd March.
You can subscribe to Edge magazine for 5 issues for $5 / £5 (opens in new tab) on tablet / phone, and have the full 34-page Valve special edition as your first issue.
The post Valves Artifact “reboot” is so large, its internally being called Artifact 2, says Gabe Newell appeared first on Game News.
]]>The post How the Hytale Model Maker will let you be a fighting pigeon appeared first on Game News.
]]>In its cover feature on how Hytale is looking to radically evolve the blockgame genre, Edge has spoken to the developer who is (mine)crafting the game, and got a look at its Model Maker in action. Publishing lead Chris Thursten explained to Edge how it works: “This is a kind of a modding interface, functionally, or customisation interface that touches almost every aspect of the game and it can be used on the fly to change a hell of a lot of things.”
An example of this is when Thursten’s avatar turns into a pigeon. It’s not just any silver-winged bird though, but one that has a sword perched underneath the aforementioned wing, which isn’t just a cosmetic touch, but actually functional in the game. Content lead Sean McCafferty expanded on how weapons working with any character is possible, as the engine can share animations across different models due to a naming convention it uses.
It’s more than just models that you can tinker with in Hytale’s world, as you’ll also be able to change the weather, time of day, and so much more. Plus, if you have the permission of the owner of the server you’re playing on, all of this can be done without reloading in the game. Thurtsen explained: “What this means functionally is that there’s no sending files between modders as they work on a custom game.”
To discover more about Hytale, from its evolution from a Minecraft server called Hypixel to a standalone game built from scratch with a custom engine and a launch trailer with over 54 million views, make sure you pick your copy of Edge 342 (opens in new tab). Or, why not subscribe to get it delivered to your door every month? It even comes with a gorgeous variant cover to boot.
The post How the Hytale Model Maker will let you be a fighting pigeon appeared first on Game News.
]]>