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WGA nominates Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3 for 2016 Writers Guild Award

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

wgaThe nominees for the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing were announced by the Writers Guild of America yesterday.

The WGA bestowed nominations on four titles this year, including Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It’s hard to pick a frontrunner at this point, but Syndicate is the seventh game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to be nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing since the WGA began honoring writing for video games in 2008. The complete list of nominees can be found here:

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft)
Story: Marc-Alexis Cote, Hugo Giard, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem
Narrative Director: Corey May
Lead Writer: Jeffrey Yohalem
Assistant Narrative Director: Melissa MacCoubrey
Scriptwriters: Richard Farrese, Russell Lees, Mark Llabres Hill, James Nadiger, Jared Schincariol, Travis Stout, Ceri Young
Additional Senior Writer: Paul Monk
Additional Writing: Judith Flanders, C.J. Kershner, Gabrielle Shrager, Danny Wallace

Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
Lead Writer: Eric Fenstermaker
Writers: Carrie Patel, Olivia Veras
Additional Writing: Chris Avellone, Jeff Husges, Matt MacLean, Jorge Salgado, Josh Sawyer, George Ziets

Rise of the Tomb Raider (Microsoft)
Lead Narrative Designer: John Stafford
Narrative Designer: Cameron Suey
Lead Writer: Rhianna Pratchett
Additional Writer: Philip Gelatt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt)
Lead Writer: Marcin Blacha
Lead English Writer: Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz
Writers: Arkadiusz Borowik, Aleksandra Motyka, Bartosz Ochman, Karolina Stachyra, Jakub Szamalek
Additional Writers: Marcin Batylda, Michal Galek, Tomasz Marchewka, Robert Oglodzinski, Rafal Praszalek, Artur Sliwinski, Stanislaw Swiecicki, Pawel Zych
Story: Marcin Blacha, Jakub Szamalek

The winner of the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing will be announced on Saturday, February 13.

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Be Disturbed (as in, the band Disturbed) by this week’s Rock Band 4 DLC Update

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

The men and women of Harmonix must really love Disturbed. The Chicago-based metal band will be the featured act in a downloadable content pack for Rock Band for the fourth time. The Disturbed Pack 04, the first for the band since the release of Rock Band 4, is available to download now.

Priced at $5.49, Disturbed Pack 04 will include a pair of tracks from the band’s most recent album (“The Vengeful One” and “Immortalized”), as well as the song “Warrior” from the 2010 album Asylum. All three songs can also be purchased individually for $1.99 apiece.

You can get a preview of all three songs from Disturbed Pack 04 in the trailer embedded above.

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Coldwood’s inspiration for Yarny and Unravel… “What if we could make a game about love?”

Posted on January 11, 2016 by John Scalzo

“What if we could make a game about love?”

This sentiment is expressed several times in the video above by Coldwood’s Creative Director, Martin Sahlin, as he talks about the inspiration behind Unravel, and its adorable main character, Yarny. The developer revealed that Yarny’s red string is meant to symbolize the “bond” between people and that its tethered to something very important at the start of the game. He also shared a nice story about creating the first concept art for Unravel on a family camping trip with a handmade Yarny doll (and with his kids serving as an impromptu focus group). Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye…

Unravel will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 9.

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New trailer for Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India released ahead of January 12 launch

Posted on January 11, 2016 by John Scalzo

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India will be released tomorrow, January 12, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. To get fans ready for the franchise’s next 2.5D installment, Ubisoft recruited Lead Designer Matt Duff to narrate this brand new gameplay trailer.

Prospective players will be able to see many of Arbaaz Mir’s stealthy secrets, including smoke bombs, sound darts, a grappling hook, disguises, and his trusty Trident Blade. There’s also a brief look at the game’s futuristic Challenge Mode, along with the tougher Plus and Plus Hard difficulty levels.

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Deep Silver might release Homefront: The Revolution on May 17

Posted on January 9, 2016 by John Scalzo

homefronttherevolution

They say “war is hell,” but it might be just as accurate to say “developing war games is hell,” especially when you look at the sorted history behind Homefront: The Revolution.

After the massive success of the first game, Homefront 2 was announced by THQ and Crytek nearly five years ago. The game was set to be developed by Crytek UK, who revealed a plan to move the action to Europe, adding a second theater to the franchise’s US-Korea conflict. After THQ’s bankruptcy woes, the rights to Homefront 2 were purchased by the developer, who promptly shifted the story back to America (specifically, Philadelphia) and added the “Revolution” subtitle. Crytek went through their own financial crisis several months later and ultimately passed the game’s rights to Deep Silver, who also acquired the developer’s UK studio, which they renamed to Dambuster Studios.

While it seems like Homefront: The Revolution might be cursed, Deep Silver has carried on anyway, and it looks like they might release the game this Spring. Officially marked with a “TBA 2016” release date, XboxAchievements recently published a picture of a Target Pre-Order Card for Homefront: The Revolution that lists the game’s release date as May 17, 2016.

Obviously, we don’t know if Homefront: The Revolution will actually be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 17, but the date is a Tuesday and the original Homefront did manage to find its fairly large audience after a Spring 2011 release. Deep Silver hasn’t commented on the release date leak, but I feel pretty confident that this could turn out to be true.

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Nominees for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced

Posted on January 9, 2016 by John Scalzo

gdcawardsBloodborne, Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Rocket League, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will all be competing for “Game of the Year” honors at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held on Wednesday, March 16.

With four nominations apiece, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt became the most-nominated titles this year. In addition to “Game of the Year,” The Phantom Pain is also up for “Best Audio,” “Best Design,” and “Best Technology.” Meanwhile, The Witcher 3 will attempt to also take home “Best Visual Art,” “Best Narrative,” and “Best Technology.”

Fallout 4 and Bloodborne were just a step behind both titles with three total nominations of their own. However, they have a lot of company as Star Wars: Battlefront, Splatoon, Her Story, and Undertale all received a trio of nominations as well.

Viewers at home will be able to watch the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards through Twitch, and a complete look at this year’s nominees can be found after the break. (more…)

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Xbox Store Today: Lovely Planet, Unepic, Cubot

Posted on January 8, 2016 by John Scalzo

It’s a colorful update to the Xbox Games Store today as Lovely Planet, Unepic, and Cubot are now available to download for the Xbox One…

  • Lovely Planet is a ridiculously adorable first person shooter that gives players a Nerf gun and lets them loose in a cartoonish world of angry squares and acute triangles that seem a little mean… some might even say obtuse.
  • Unepic is a side-scrolling RPG that harkens back to the 80s.
  • And Cubot is a minimalist puzzler that asks players to move color cubes towards tiles of the same color.

More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)

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Mini Metro, Her Story lead all nominees at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards

Posted on January 7, 2016 by John Scalzo

independentgamesfestival-header

The Independent Games Festival has announced the nominees for their 18th annual awards, and two very different games lead the pack as Mini Metro, a tranquil public transportation sim, and Her Story, a detective story that uses 90s-era full motion video, will both be competing for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.”

The minimalist Mini Metro collected three other nominations including “Excellence In Visual Art,” “Excellence In Design,” and “Excellence In Audio.” Meanwhile, Her Story also racked up three additional nominations including “Excellence In Narrative,” “Excellence In Design,” and the “Nuovo Award.” Both games will be competing for the “Grand Prize” against Darkest Dungeon, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Superhot, and Undertale.

The 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 16, during this year’s Game Developers Conference. If you aren’t going to be in San Francisco to attend the show in person, you can watch the festivities live through Twitch. However, if you are attending GDC 2016, all of this year’s finalists will be playable on the show floor at the IGF Pavilion.

A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)

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