SpeedRunners sprints to early access with a new trailer g21

A couple of months ago we heard about SpeedRunners, a side-scrolling superhero racing game. Imagine if the members of the Justice League were all hanging around on a rooftop when they heard a crime being committed, then all just raced to get there first so they could claim the credit. SpeedRunners just hit Steam Early Access, so for ten bucks you can get in on the action. Sprinting vigilantes use grappling hooks, speed, and jumps to race around obstacles, but they can also use those things to screw over their opponents. The goal of the game is to be the first player to run off-screen. If you can't keep up with the player in the lead, you get to call a taxi back to headquarters and cool your jets. The current build features the four-player competitive mode and a few available heroes, but new content is coming through regularly. They recommend playing with an Xbox controller, so this sounds like an ideal party game for Big Picture mode, some beer, and a large couch. You can also play a combination of local and online multiplayer if you've only got one friend available. The post SpeedRunners sprints to early access with a new trailer appeared first on PC Gamer.

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Here’s what Metro: Last Light’s new DLC, the Tower Pack, is all about g21

A soggy, post-apocalyptic underground is no place to find oneself trapped in—so let's jump right back into it, shall we? The second of Metro: Last Light's DLCs was released yesterday. Okay, so the screenshots don't look like the post-apocalyptic Metro we've become far too familiar with—in fact, there's an odd, clinically Portal-like feel to some of these scenarios. That's because 4A Games is using this DLC as an opportunity to focus on what it feels wasn't given enough attention in the base game: the combat. "We changed everything [about Last Light's gameplay]—from the control scheme, to our animation system, AI, projectile modelling, audio…" 4A says in a developer blog post. "And ultimately, all this work only really came to bear in a few gunfights spread across the campaign! "We wanted to create some DLC that took advantage of these new, refined combat mechanics, that allowed players to explore the system in more depth—and so the Tower Pack was born." The Tower is a "combat simulator" almost entirely removed from the Metro universe, with the only familiar carry-over being Last Light's combat mechanics. It's a kind of arena, filled with all of Metro's enemies and weapons, in which you'll get to really let loose with the mechanics in a place separate from Artyom's mission. The Tower Pack went live on Steam yesterday. If you previously purchased the Season Pass, your game should update automatically. This is the second of Last Light's planned four DLCs, and we've also got some vague hints about the content of the final two DLCs. The next pack, the Developer Pack, will include a shooting gallery, an "AI arena" and a museum of all things Metro, as well as a new solo mission. The final Chronicles Pack sounds like it'll be the real corker of the bunch, though, offering three new single-player missions played from the point of view of four side characters. The post Here's what Metro: Last Light's new DLC, the Tower Pack, is all about appeared first on PC Gamer.

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Particulars developer: more Steam Greenlight games means more competition, and that’s good g21

Last week, we saw the news that the normally glacial pace of Steam Greenlight had just hit a thaw: 100 games were greenlit at once. Greenlight approvals were usually limited to a mere ten at a time, and the process seemed to be a magnet for controversy. Now, an indie developer writes that although more approvals are great, more approvals also mean less coverage and prestige for greenlit games. "[R]elativity is the key to understanding the ramifications of this significant boost in Greenlight's throughput," Saul Whitton, of indie developer See Through Studios, wrote in a post titled "Yay! but Hmm…" "I'm not saying it's a bad thing, by any stretch, but ramifications there will be. Basically: the more games that are greenlit, the more crowded and competitive the Steam marketplace becomes. Perhaps even more significantly, the less attention will be paid to each game that gets through. The previous lists of seven or fourteen greenlit games were splashed across the news sites of the Internet. But this hundred? Steam couldn't even fit the list in their blog post, and had to make a separate page for them. They're just not going to enjoy the same amount of individual attention as the previous batches." Digital distribution sites like Steam and GOG continue to dominate the PC gaming marketplace, so these sites are becoming more and more crucial for indie developers if they want their games to be noticed. Having these indie games on board is also good business for the marketplaces themselves, which is why we've recently seen GOG establishing new generous contract terms and Steam is working hard at upping its Greenlight approval rate. It's a huge, competitive marketplace, and everyone's looking for an edge. In unrelated news, Whitton has a game called Particulars working its way through Greenlight right now. Curse you, Whitton! I played right into your hands! Check out the full blog post at See Through Studios' website. If you liked the art for this post, go visit Particulars on Steam Greenlight. The post Particulars developer: more Steam Greenlight games means more competition, and that's good appeared first on PC Gamer.

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Budding artists can now tool around in StarCraft 2 g21

Is crafting silly hats for Team Fortress 2 just not artistically challenging enough? It's time to move on, my friend, and reach for the stars—of StarCraft 2, that is, thanks to Blizzard's newly released Art Tools. The release of the toolset was first promised two years ago, months before expansion Heart of the Swarm's release. According to the StarCraft 2 blog, this isn't a simplified interface or anything. This is reportedly the real deal: 3ds Max plugins and source art files used by Blizzard's own designers, repackaged with some extra tutorials and ready for your magic artist's touch. If only this had been around before those guys started on their StarCraft MMO project, huh? The Art Tools have been in a closed beta stage for awhile now—the images you see here were produced by fans, and that's some Blizzard-quality stuff right there. If you want to jump in and get creative too, you'll be able to download 32- and 64-bit versions of the tools via Battle.net, though be sure to check the installation instructions for some possible fiddly requirements. The post Budding artists can now tool around in StarCraft 2 appeared first on PC Gamer.

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