General Game News

[Compound]

I do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That would be Claptrap from the Borderlands series. Same color lens. There's a difference in the iris on the eye's edging between the screenshot and the illo, but the physical models of Claptrap do have the larger ridges shown in the illo.

[mrbasehart]

I'm going to guess it's a sequel to the poker thing, with new characters.

[Compound]

And the news is.... well, what everyone expected.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/04/01/telltale-games-poker-night-2-teaser-trailer?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ign%2Fvideos+%28IGN+All+Videos%29

(Yeah, can't embed those.)

Sadly...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, that's not Bruce Campbell. Oh well. I'm still happy Warburton's in there.

[mrbasehart]

Weird that they used Ash but couldn't get Bruce Campbell.  Otherwise I love the line-up.  I guess it would've been a little out of character to see Lee or Clementine in the game.

[Johnny Unusual]

Maybe he was signed up and things fell through Back to the Future style.  Otherwise, it seems like an odd choice.

[Compound]

Several sources are reporting that Disney has closed LucasArts' game division and cancelled all upcoming games that LucasArts was working on (primely the Star wars 1313 game.)

Several of my favorite games from the 90s PC era were LucasArts releases (Dark Forces, Tie Fighter and/or X-Wing, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle) so it's sad to see them go, even if the more recent releases have been "meh." Except for the Lego games, which rocked but weren't really done in house.

[Pak-Man]

Yeah, this was mentioned over in the Star Wars thread and I'll repeat it here: I miss that company, but it's been a very long time since Lucasarts has been that company. Every good Star Wars game has been done by third parties anyway, so I guess I don't mind if they go all third-party. Shame about 1313, though. That had promise.

[The Lurker]

More footage focusing on the upcoming Chronicles of Mystara Collection, this time focusing on the fighter character.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/dTUkGje-Cus" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/dTUkGje-Cus</a>

[The Lurker]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/oib9CW-W0Zw" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/oib9CW-W0Zw</a>

[Pak-Man]

OK. This preview has me drooling over the Civ 5: Brave New World expansion.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/civilization_v_brave_new_world/b/pc/archive/2013/04/12/civilization-v-brave-new-world-expansion-will-be-quintessential-civ-experience.aspx

Especially this:

The new mechanic is fueled by the addition of “Great Works” slots to buildings like museums and opera houses. Great artists have now been divided into three categories (artists, musicians, and writers), and each can be consumed to add a piece of historically accurate visual art, music, or literature to one of your cities (provided you have room). Each building will provide a theme bonus when filled with the appropriate combination of works from different civilizations and eras. Building sets is facilitated by trading on the world market, creating a metagame that feels a bit like gin.

In the late game, archaeologists (who are completely coincidentally portrayed by a rugged, fedora-wearing gentleman) can be produced in cities with universities. At the same time, antiquity sites appear on the map. These emerge in places where important things happened in the early game. Did you lose a unit to a barbarian incursion? You might find a new artifact for one of your museums. These clever callbacks create an endearing thread that links the beginning days of players’ empires to the otherwise static endgame, infusing the sense of wonder in a period typically devoid of it.

[Pak-Man]

Earthbound is finally coming to the Wii-U Virtual Console in the US later this year!

[Variety of Cells]

Earthbound is finally coming to the Wii-U Virtual Console in the US later this year!

Lucky bastards. Not enough to make me throw down for one. If it was a new earthbound, that might be another story.

[MSTJedi]

This looks interesting.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123440-Indie-RPG-Takes-Inspiration-From-PS1-Games

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nKd3UbRm1hY?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/nKd3UbRm1hY?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0</a>

This is an early look at an indie turn-based RPG with pre-rendered backgrounds like the games back on the PS1. I like the idea quite a bit and if they can make the gameplay and story engaging, I'm in.

[Compound]

So, Saint's Row IV has been in the works since late last year when they cancelled a proposed expansion pack for SR3. (And then THQ went out of business and then SR was sold to another company.) Well, they're just announced the upcoming collector's version of the game.

Saint's Row IV: The Commander in Chief Edition.

Hmmm. I detect a possible plot element in that title.

On the plus side, if you preorder the game, you get the automatic upgrade to the CiC version. It'll be out sometime in August.

[Variety of Cells]

This looks interesting.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123440-Indie-RPG-Takes-Inspiration-From-PS1-Games

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nKd3UbRm1hY?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/nKd3UbRm1hY?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;rel=0</a>

This is an early look at an indie turn-based RPG with pre-rendered backgrounds like the games back on the PS1. I like the idea quite a bit and if they can make the gameplay and story engaging, I'm in.

Pre rendered backgrounds were great back in the day because they allowed the environments to be detailed and complex while staying within the limits of the hardware. But the pre rendered backgrounds in that video could pretty much all be created in full 3d and look even better now days if they had the budget of a AAA game. If you're going to advertise the game as having pre rendered graphics then take the time to make them spectacular, not just alright. Maybe it will improve over time. Who knows.

Now THIS is how you do modern pre rendered backgrounds. (Skip to 1:45)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AUleDEFkUtE" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/AUleDEFkUtE</a>