Happy Monday, time to chase away the Monday blues with this week’s Indie GalaEvery Monday Bundle. Bundle #72 contains six great indie games for only $1.99 during the first 24 hours of the sale.
Polyball– A new twist on the classic ball rolling platformer, this game is currently in Steam Early Access.
Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio – An 8-bit style platformer starring Tcheco the Adventure Boy in a castle packed in wacky enemies and tons of traps.
Shadowgate– The classic adventure game has been rebooted with a modern flair.
Daedalus – No Escape – The developers describe this game as the love child between Quake 3 Arena and Alien Breed. We happen to agree.
Incandescent – A top down arcade shooter filled with neon colours and plenty of enemies to blast.
OVERLORD™: FELLOWSHIP OF EVIL INFORMATION FILM DISCUSSES THE BENEFITS OF EVILING ALONE OR EVILING WITH FRIENDS
UK – August 10, 2015 – The dastardly development minions at Codemasters today unleashed the latest video for Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, their digital only, angelically-priced, devilishly fun Action RPG which is coming to PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Windows PC soon. Fans of evil doings can watch the trailer in action now at www.overlordthegame.com.
Whilst eviling alone is fun, the second in their series of training videos from The Minionstry of Information also teaches Netherghūls-in-training the value of working together. Bringing a friend (or at least someone you can tolerate for a while) along to help with the carnage can really help lift the levels of nefarious nastiness.
But in Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, your friends can also be your biggest enemies. Co-operation becomes “co-opetition” as Netherghūls compete to be more evil throughout the game and traps offer opportunities for mischief.
“Whilst you are welcome to indulge in some solo mayhem and destruction, sometimes you need a friend to back you up,” said Gnarl, evil Minion Master. “And when I say friend, I mean enemy who hasn’t killed you yet.”
“Fellowship of Evil has been designed to be equally fun playing solo or with your friends in co-op,” said Carl Johnson, Chief Design Minion, Codemasters. “Whether you’re at your happiest causing chaos alone with a horde of minions at your heels or together with some equally evil companions, there’s always plenty of deviousness to be done. Remember, evil never plays by the rules!”
Overlord: Fellowship of Evil is a dark and twisted Action RPG filled with the series’ signature black humor. Penned by award-winning original Overlord scriptwriter Rhianna Pratchett, Overlord: Fellowship of Evil delivers an epic new quest featuring four Netherghūls – undead servants of the dark arts, resurrected in the absence of a true Overlord, to bring evil back to a world overrun by the forces of good.
Assisting gamers once again are the mighty, maniacal and occasionally moronic minions, ready to unleash their charmingly chaotic brand of destruction and led by Gnarl, their wise old master, voiced, as before, by actor Marc Silk.
Players will embark on a brand new Overlord adventure filled with fun combat and twisted fantasy tales in single-player or with up to three friends in local and online single-screen co-op. Overlord: Fellowship of Evil invites players to dive into an Action RPG where it’s good to be bad, but it’s GREAT to be evil.
Overlord: Fellowship of Evil invades digital stores on consoles and Steam for Windows PC in 2015. Follow the Codemasters minions’ progress towards world domination on the Codemasters Blog and on social media on Twitter and Facebook.
To plunder the press treasures, including the devilish new trailer, head to www.codemasterspress.com.
ABOUT CODEMASTERS
Codemasters, the award winning video game developer and publisher, has a 25-year heritage. With titles distributed globally, Codemasters is a leading developer and publisher of driving and racing entertainment games including DiRT, GRID and the official BAFTA award-winning FORMULA 1 series of videogames. In March 2010, Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (RBEL), a part of India’s Reliance ADA group, acquired a 60 percent shareholding in the company, alongside existing investor, Balderton Capital, the leading European venture capital firm. For more information on Codemasters’ product portfolio, please visit www.codemasters.com. Join in the conversation with @codemasters on Twitter or Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/codemasters.
ABOUT RHIANNA PRATCHETT
Rhianna Pratchett is an award-winning scriptwriter for videogames, comics, film and TV. Rhianna has regularly been named one of the top 100 most influential women in the games industry by various publications, including Edge, MCV and Develop, and won the Women in Games Hall of Fame award in 2013. She has talked about wrestling the wild beasts of narrative for numerous panels, documentaries and lectures. For more information, visit www.rhiannapratchett.com
ABOUT MARC SILK
Marc Silk’s voice is heard around the world in Cartoons, Films, TV Shows, Commercials, Theme Parks & Games, including F1 Race Stars, and the Overlord games, as the voice of Gnarl and a stack of wild Minions! For more information, visit www.marcsilk.com Twitter: @marcsilk
“PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION” and “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.
What’s that you say? You want something old and something new? While Travis Bruno wasn’t available to do his normal appearance, Dustin Spencer and the newly added Garrett Cheater have come together do basically share news if they can find their files to share the news on. We also speak about a newfound love for twolling (that is a word), some gaming stuff, and a nice introduction from our new contributor. From Splatoon, to Zelda, and all the awkward silence you could ask for while Dustin shuffles through notes, this is an episode you should give a listen to down below.
Grab those puppies, tell your friends, and prepare to get UNPLUGGED!
Nintendo Australia and EB Games have quietly partnered once again to distribute a rare Pokemon event. This time the prize is a level 70 shiny Rayquaza holding a Dragon Fang. It has the moves Dragon Dance, Dragon Claw, Dragon Ascent and Extreme Speed so it’s pretty much ready for battle once you train it.
At the moment the event is exclusive to Australia and runs from today until the 31st of August. Simply walk into your local EB Games store and grab a card that will have a code on it which you can then redeem through either Pokemon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire using the Mystery Gift function on the games main menu. No purchase is necessary.
UPDATE: The Rayquaza event is now available in North America through the Internet Mystery Gift option. UK users can receive a code from Smyths stores and the rest of Europe also seem to be getting their own methods of distribution.
ANNOUNCING THE VAINGLORY INTERNATIONAL PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL), OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH GIANT INTERACTIVE IN CHINA, AND $26M RAISED IN FUNDING
We’ve had a busy July over at the Lair. We’ve been delighted to see the rapid growth of Vainglory — both in player numbers and viewer numbers. We were thrilled to see the first broadcasts from the Vainglory World Invitationals with OGN, and the awesome reception for our new spectator system. And we’ve been overwhelmed by the continued support and help from our players around the world.
Today, we’re announcing three major news items that all mark important steps forward on our journey of growing the global Vainglory community and Super Evil Megacorp as a company.
1. Announcing the Vainglory International Premier League
Following on from the overwhelming success of the Vainglory World Invitationals in Korea, we’re today announcing a strategic partnership with OGN around the Vainglory International Premier League (IPL) starting August 16. The Vainglory IPL will be an elite competition featuring the best teams in the world, including teams from Korea, Europe, North America and China competing for a $70,000 prize pool. Cast by superstar casters including Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles and Brendan Valdes, this first season will be a six-week league, broadcast twice a week live on prime-time TV in Korea and streamed to millions around the globe. Confirmed international teams include Team Unknown (EU), Team Gankstars (North America) and Team Hunters (China), who are all moving to Korea to take part in the inaugural Vainglory IPL season together with the top Korean teams. Broadcast times will be announced soon.
OGN invented eSports as we know it today with StarCraft more than 10 years ago. We’re thrilled that they’re once again breaking new ground by throwing their full weight behind Vainglory and touch-screen eSports. OGN brings the same passion and craftsmanship for the eSports experience as we do at Super Evil. We’re very fortunate to get to work with their unique talent to create a competition and a broadcast format that we can share with the whole global Vainglory audience. In addition to the Vainglory IPL, we will continue to support local community-run leagues, tournaments and events all over the world. And while waiting for the Vainglory IPL to start, remember to tune into the epic Vainglory World Invitational Final between Team Invincible Armada (Korea) and Team Divine Brothers (Japan) on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 11:30 PM PDT / 08:30 CET Friday on the following official OGN Twitch channels:
2. Announcing our China partnership with Giant Interactive
Our Chinese player community has grown rapidly — despite the game not being available there yet and not having a dedicated server in China. (Sorry for the 250ms+ lag!) We are very excited to announce that we are soon launching Vainglory in China with our partner Giant Interactive. Giant is one of the most respected core PC gaming companies in China, and we will work with them closely over the coming months to optimize the experience for Vainglory players in China. Vainglory (虚荣 in China) will have synchronized updates with other regions and will launch in a major way on iOS and Android later this year. We can’t wait to welcome the most populous country in the world to the Halcyon Fold!
3. Announcing the $26M round of investment into Super Evil Megacorp
We’re today also announcing a new $26M round of funding to help us continue to build incredible core gaming experiences on touch screens, and to pursue our dream of evolving Vainglory into what we hope will be the world’s first mass-market esport. While the $26M number is pretty cool, fundraising is actually mostly not about the money, contrary to what people think. Fundraising is about choosing amazing partners to help you grow as a company. We couldn’t be more excited about the new expanded international team around Super Evil.
In addition to our incredibly supportive existing investor team from Signia Ventures, General Catalyst, Raine Ventures, Initial Capital and CrossCut, this new round is led by Index Ventures (Supercell, Skype and others) and backed by Yuri Milner, Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital (early investor in Facebook and one of the most experienced American venture capitalists investing in China) and Korea Investment Partners (the largest and most highly regarded venture capital firm in Korea). Together, we now have a truly global team that gives us both the resources and the connections and expertise to grow our international reach to new heights.
HERE’S WHAT SOME OF OUR NEW PARTNERS ARE SAYING:
“We have had phenomenal success previously backing excellent teams making innovative mobile and tablet games. SEMC clearly fulfill these criteria and are taking a bold and pioneering approach within the category. Index Ventures is delighted to have been chosen to support them on this journey.” — Ben Holmes, Index Ventures.
“Nine months ago, Vainglory was a bold experiment to perfect the MOBA genre for touch screens. Today it is emerging as a global competitive platform, with its own star athletes, a league broadcast on TV in Korea, and millions of players around the world playing the game for over an hour each day. Super Evil is proving that the future of esports is mobile, and that Vainglory is poised to become the next frontier.” — Adam Valkin, Managing Director at General Catalyst Partners
And finally – DOUBLE GLORY!!
We are still at the beginning of this journey, and our days are spent perfecting our upcoming updates instead of daydreaming about the future. But today is an important milestone not just for us but for touch screen eSports as a whole. And we’d all love to take the opportunity to extend a huge “thank you” to all the players, broadcasters and YouTubers for helping us get this far!
To celebrate and say thank you we’re announcing TWO ADDITIONAL DOUBLE GLORY WEEKENDS – namely August 14-16 and August 21-23!
We can’t wait to show you all what we have planned and to keep working with all of you to build out the Vainglory community, one match at a time.
Madman Entertainment is releasing several manga releases in Australia today. A couple of manga series are beginning in Australia this month while many continuations of on-going series and even a couple of box-sets are also now available. These manga releases include:
In addition to volumes 22-48, Bleach Box Set 2 will also come with an exclusive mini-comic featuring the series’ pilot story and a full-colour, double-sided poster. In addition to volumes 28-48, Naruto Box Set 2 will also come with an exclusive mini-comic featuring the series’ pilot story and also with a full-colour, double-sided poster. This box-set of Naruto features the end of what was adapted into the original 220-episode Naruto anime series and the beginning of what was adapated as a part of the Naruto Shippuden anime series.
When I first reviewed The Crew I noted that it’s graphics were great considering the sheer size of the map but wouldn’t be winning any graphical achievement awards. In comparison to most racers out now the game did look a bit dated. However that will be changing soon as The Crew Wild Run expansion that is releasing isn’t just bringing with it new events, race types and new vehicles, it’s also giving the graphics a complete overhaul.
You can watch the trailer to see the improvements for yourself including the awesome new dynamic weather feature. The new graphics are an appreciated feature but not the most substantial. Motorbikes are being added to the game as well as 3 new tuning types; Dragsters, Drift Cars and Monster Trucks. The Summit Championship will add new events to the game as well.
Ivory Tower have continued to support the game by adding features requested by its passionate community. The latest addition is the ability to create FreeDrive Challenges. Basically this means you can create your own race by placing checkpoints on the map and then challenge your Crew and other players in those races. It seems this feature will land when the Wild Run Expansion launches.
This wild expansion might just be what The Crew needs to get its player base back, although it will be tough as the expansion releases only two weeks after the Need for Speed reboot. The expansion releases on the 17th of November for the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and will be available as a download or in the Wild . Sorry 360 players, seems like your left out in the cold once again.
Edit: After further research it seems the graphic overhaul will be free for all players of The Crew and not only those who purchase the Wild Run expansion.
Deck13 (Lords of the Fallen) and Focus Home Interactive have revealed the action RPG they teased a few months ago as The Surge. The reveal teases the world players will explore in the game; a dystopian sci-fi that gives a grim vision of Earth, where the cities are massively overpopulated, the environment is horribly polluted, an aging population is pushing the social programs to the brink of collapse, and a vast majority of young workers are trapped in laborious jobs using exoskeletons.
Deck13 will be releasing more information about the game in the coming months. The Surge is scheduled to launch sometime in 2017. No platforms have been announced at this time.
It’s gamescom 2015 folks! In case you missed the Microsoft press conference, check out the recap with Xbox Newsbeat!
Xbox Unveils More of Its Greatest Games Line-up in History
The gamescom 2015 briefing served up the first gameplay videos for Crackdown 3, Scalebound, and Killer Instinct Season 3. Additionally, we saw more from Quantum Break, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Motorsport 6, FIFA 16,Just Cause 3, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Cobalt, and a slew of indie games participating in the ID@Xbox program. The real star of the announcements was probably the Halo Wars 2 reveal. The second installment of Halo strategy game is slated for launch on Xbox One and Windows 10 in fall 2016.
Additionally, Microsoft announced that Over-the-Air TV users will be able to use their Xbox One as a DVR for their antenna. This feature will come to all Xbox One owners in 2016.
Xbox One Backward Compatibility Launches in November with Over 100 Xbox 360 Titles
Microsoft has fleshed out their plans for Xbox One backward compatibility. The program is leaving beta in November with 100 games from Microsoft, 2K Games, Bandai Namco Games, Bethesda, Capcom, Codemasters, Deep Silver, Disney Interactive, EA, Koei Tecmo Games, Majesco, Sega, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Gamers can look forward to many of these games being bundled as bonuses with upcoming titles.
Halo 5: Guardians Goes Big with Premium Hardware
Microsoft is going all out with Halo 5: Guardians. the game will be seeing a limited edition 1TB Xbox One featuring a contrasting light and dark grey body with blue metallic accents. The console’s sound effects have been completely replaced with effects from the game. The bundle also includes a matching limited edition Halo 5: Guardians controller, a digital copy of Halo 5: Guardians, the “Warzone REQ Bundle,” an alloy Guardian model designed by Metal Earth, the Halo: The Fall of Reach animated series, team dossiers for Blue & Osiris, and Spartan Locke’s classified orders. The console will be available on October 20th for $599.99 AUD.
Two limited edition controllers will also be available. One will be the same one bundled with the 1TB Xbox One, while the other is an olive green and gold controller inspired by Master Chief. Both controllers come with a bonus REQ Pack and are of the new design that includes the 3.5mm audio jack. The controllers will be available in Early October for an MSRP of $69.99 USD.
Finally, Microsoft and Astro Gaming are partnering to launch a Halo 5: Guardians themed Astro A40+Mixamp M80. The dark grey and blue metallic accents matches perfectly with the limited edition console and comes with a bonus REQ Pack. The headset has an MSRP of $220 USD and will launch in September.
Introducing the Halo World Championship
Halo 5: Guardians will be the first game in the new Halo World Championship series. The competition kicks off this winter with 4 vs 4 combat in Arena mode. The new Spectator Mode will let everyone join in on the action as the best gamers around the world compete for a million dollar prize pool.
Viewers can get their first taste at the ESL Arena at gamescom 2015. The Halo 5: Guardians gamescom Invitational 2015 features Epsilon Esports (EU), Supremecy (EU), CAZ.Esports (EU) and OpTic Gaming (NA) duking it out on an early game build.
Forza Motorsport 6 Celebrates gamescom with New European Rides Added to the Garage
This week is bringing more garage announcements for Forza Motorsport 6. Last week was all about Britain, so this week we’re hopping across the channel into continental Europe. As a nod to gamescom 2015, the two headlining vehicles are the German made 1975 BMW #25 BMW Motorsport 3.0 CSL and slightly more modern 2014 BMW #55 BMW Team RLL Z4 GTE. This week will see the following cars added to the garage:
1973 BMW 2002 Turbo
2012 Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Coupe Black Series
2005 BMW M3
1991 BMW M3
2009 BMW #92 Rahal Letterman Racing M3 GT2
2006 #2 Audi Sport North America R8
2013 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG
1998 Mercedes-Benz AMG Mercedes CLK GTR
1939 Audi Auto Union Type D
1989 #4 Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO
2004 Audi S4
2015 Audi RS 6 Avant
2014 Volkswagen Golf R
2014 Bentley #7 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3
2014 Dodge #93 SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R
2014 Mercedes-Benz #84 HTP Motorsport SLS AMG GT3
2011 Audi #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15++ TDI
2011 Mercedes-Benz #35 Black Falcon SLS AMG GT3
2004 Audi #5 Audi Sport Japan Team Goh R8
2015 Honda #5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports IndyCar
2015 Chevrolet #67 CFH Racing IndyCar
2015 Honda #14 AJ Foyt Enterprises IndyCar
2015 Chevrolet #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar
2014 McLaren #98 ART Grand Prix MP4-12C GT3
2015 Honda #7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports IndyCar
2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupe
1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI
2015 Audi S3 Sedan
1981 BMW M1
2006 Audi RS 4
2009 Audi RS 6
2009 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series
1995 Audi RS 2 Avant
2010 Audi TT RS Coupe
2003 BMW M5
1983 Audi Sport Quattro
2011 Audi RS 5 Coupe
1995 BMW 850CSi
2014 Lamborghini #18 DragonSpeed Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo
1963 Volkswagen Type 2 De Luxe
1988 BMW M5
Four Easy Tips to Power up Your Windows 10 PC for Gaming
With millions of users upgrading to Windows 10 thanks to the free upgrade program for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, Microsoft has released the following guide for gamers.
Tip #1: NEVER Defrag Your Solid State Drive (SSD)
You are better of installing your games onto an SSD, and you should seriously consider putting your Windows 10 installation onto an SSD (not the same one, though) as well. Solid state drives are just so much faster than rotational media – you’ll spend far less time waiting around for things to load.
On top of that, you don’t need to defragment them. Ever. In fact, defragmenting an SSD is just going to unnecessarily reduce its lifespan. So don’t do it!
Tip #2: Get Rid of Unnecessary Apps and Memory Resident Junk
There are some quality third-party applications that can help you streamline your Windows 7 and/or 8 installations before you move up to Windows 10. The idea here is to get rid of the vestiges of old, or disused programs, or stuff that’s booting up when you start your PC that you never, ever use. You’ll free up memory by not booting that stuff at all.
MAGIX Software makes a program called PC Check & Tuning that can really dig deep into your Windows installation and make it easy for you to update drivers, streamline installations, and get rid of the stuff you don’t need. SUPERAntiSpyware is an absolutely fantastic, free tool to get rid of any little nasty bugs and spyware that might have found a way into your system (and could be slowing it down, or worse). And CCleaner by Piriform is an awesome free alternative to MAGIX PC Check, which can clean out your dead files and installs – as well as your Windows registry – safely. AVG makes an all-in-one “Uninstaller” and “Program Deactivator,” too, which can quickly and easily track down and kill anything you want to get rid of.
Tip #3: Slightly Overclock Your System
Editor’s Note: We strongly recommend you not follow this tip unless you know what you are doing. Overclocking can result in permanent damage to your expensive computer parts if done incorrectly. Please do some research to decide if overclocking is right for you. Capsule Computers is not responsible for any damage you may do to your computer.
Note that this one entails a little bit of risk – if your system is already running hot or if you’re uncomfortable with overclocking, skip this step entirely. That said, most modern gaming rigs (especially if you’ve bought them from a reputable manufacturer) are more than capable of a 5-10% overclock with zero ill effects. Still, understand that overclocking always entails a risk.
If you’ve got a gaming-focused video card and/or motherboard, it should have come with some software that you can use to affect the clock speed. If so, go ahead and use that if you’ve got it. If not, check your video card manufacturer’s website for their recommended software. You can also use AMD OverDrive, which is AMD’s overclocking tool, if you have one of their chips. Intel makes an excellent stress-testing tool called Intel BurnTest that we recommend you use, to see just how much pressure you’re putting on your system with any given overclocking setting that you decide to use. You don’t need to be using an Intel processor to use it – but it works best with one.
However you decide to implement your overclock, we recommend not going over about 5-10% of the default setting (at most) for your CPU and memory clocks. Remember that overclocking adds heat to your entire system, not just the CPU and memory clocks. You don’t want to push things too much!
Tip #4: Install User Mods to Your Favourite Games to Improve Performance
You might be surprised to find out that a whole mess of folks have already created modifications to your favourite games that make them run faster, look better, and do all sorts of weird (but cool) stuff. These mods are available, often for free, from all sorts of places on the web. Check them out at the Windows Store, on Steam, or through your favourite communities and social media sites. Applying mods to games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin can greatly improve not only the games’ loading speeds, performance, and stability, but also the graphical fidelity and even the user interface.
In addition to volumes 22-48, Bleach Box Set 2 will also come with an exclusive mini-comic featuring the series’ pilot story and a full-colour, double-sided poster. In addition to volumes 28-48, Naruto Box Set 2 will also come with an exclusive mini-comic featuring the series’ pilot story and also with a full-colour, double-sided poster. This box-set of Naruto features the end of what was adapted into the original 220-episode Naruto anime series and the beginning of what was adapated as a part of the Naruto Shippuden anime series.
