VG Tribune

Valve has today announced the details for tomorrow’s Team Fortress 2 Halloween update. This time we get a terrifying look at Merasmus, the Soldier’s roommate who just happens to be an evil wizard. And while Merasmus is trying to kill all of you, you’ll be experiencing new types of horrifying things for the game, things like the Wheel of Fate and Magic Spells. If you’re playing Mann vs. Machine mode, you’ll be fighting Horde 666: the zombie team.

Along with the update comes a new comic (as TF2 updates usually do) which can be found here.

To get all the info you’ll need on tomorrow’s event, go to the main page here.

After what felt like a long spell of hardly any Bioshock-related news, Bioshock Infinite needed to pick up momentum again and did just that by releasing their Beast of America trailer, with content voted by their Facebook followers.

And of course, since a single trailer can’t the be the only thing to get the ball rolling again, collectors will love what they have in store in their Premium and Ultimate Songbird edition sets, now available to pre-order. And that’s not all: Starting today, those who already pre-ordered the game will be able to play nearly 60 puzzles, all free, to earn in-game items.

How’s that for getting back on the radar?

The beta for SOE’s MMOFPS is finally coming to a close as Planetside 2 becomes officially available and free-to-play for everyone on November 20th. And as though the scale of the game didn’t seem large enough with two whole continents for the three factions to consistently battle in for territorial dominance, along with this news is the announcement of the upcoming implementation of a new swamp-covered continent called Amerish to join the arctic Esamir and rocky Indar continents.

You can still apply for the beta or by the Alpha Squad pack to gain instant access to the beta along with some other goodies if you’re desperate, but otherwise you’ll be able to give the game a shot in just over a month.

Valve has today announced the second round of games from Steam Greenlight to make it to the distribution service. Highlights from the previous release include Black Mesa, Cry of Fear, and McPixel (which was reviewed by us here.)

In the previous round, there were ten games released, but this time, Valve has decided to double the production and release 20 indie games that have been voted on by fans. Like the last time, though, they won’t all release at once, each will be coming out in the coming months. The new games are as follows:

Read the rest of this entry »

Hawken is an upcoming independent multiplayer mech combat game under development by Adhesive Games. The game focuses on creating an intense battle experience that captures the feel of piloting a mech while keeping the action fast-paced and strategic. It has been confirmed that the game will feature two unique game modes, as well as conventional team deathmatch and free-for-all modes.

At New York Comic Con, Archaia announced plans to launch a graphic novel anthology surrounding the universe of Hawken. As well as give attendees a chance to sample the game as well as be able to get free Beta access before the game launches. If you couldn’t make it to comic con to check out the title, but still want to be able to play in the beta. You can do so by following the instructions below.

• Go to http://playhawken.com/enlist
• Create an Account
• Enter NYCCPILOT in the Redeeem code field
• You’re officially signed up for the Beta

Code Expires on October 21st 2012, so be sure to sign up soon. Share the code with your friends or anyone who is interested in one of the coolest Mech games around.

This awesome guy on YouTube has been putting out some amazing song covers from various video games. His latest cover is a guitar medley based around the Binding of Isaac. Which is a challenging indie game designed by Edmund McMillen, Florian Himsl, and composed by Danny Baranowsky.

Those of you unfamiliar with the title, the game revolves around a crying naked young boy named Isaac. He is desperately trying to escape from the clutches of his mother. His mother hears the voice of god calling to her. Asking her to prove her faith and loyalty by giving her sons life as a sacrifice. Isaac barely manages to escape with his life after fleeing into the monster filled basement under the house.

However, the corner stone of the game is the soundtrack itself. The medley does a good job at maintaining the integrity of Baranowsky’s work while stringing together the various tracks of the game into one harmonious piece. You can check out the video to the medley after the jump and even download an mp3 of the track from the link below. Read the rest of this entry »

Valve has made this week a surprising one. Unveiling a new co-op mode for Team Fortress 2, releasing info on their new Source Engine (Source 2), and even showing off their new design for steam. Even with all the great news, there has been a few hidden secrets kept under wraps this week. One of which was the cover for next months Game Informer supposedly sporting something to do with Valve. While, its hard to be an optimist with Valve in general due to their humorous ways of trolling and making their fans work for information. A lot of people have been speculating that Half Life 3 info would be released soon.

Specifically at Gamescom due to their presence at the convention. However, an official Gamescom PDF containing all the games viewable at the show was leaked today. This list contained a few games that were not announced like Dragon’s Age 3, but the most notable game on the list was non other than Half Life 3.

If Valve is really showing off Half Life 3 at Gamescom it would mark the end of a long running joke that Valve can’t count to 3. It would also give them a distinct opportunity to show off Source 2. It would also mark that Half-Life 3 has been in development for over five years. Since it was originally set to appear back in 2007 as the third chapter in the episodic chronicles of Half Life 2. With the amount of polish and shine Valve gives its games, the new Source 2, and the overhaul to steam itself, it seems like it would be the perfect time for this game to be shown to the world.

Update: The PDF was altered at the request of Valve and EA. Here’s a screen shot before the update.

Gearbox has released the new trailer for the upcoming game Borderlands 2, which shows off what we can assume to be the main villain, Handsome Jack. Not much is left to be said about the game, now that we’ve come so close to the September 18 release date. This making anyone else want to pick up the game though?

Valve has announced today that the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available to pre-purchase through Steam. The game will cost $15, but is lowered by 10% for the pre purchase, and those who order it early on can get the beta on August 14th. Along with those enticing incentives, the entire Counter-Strike catalog is on sale until the 9th of this month, as a part of Steam’s Midweek Madness. It has not been confirmed, but it can be expected that those who are already in the game’s beta can get it for free upon release, and if you’re not in on the beta, I can tell you personally that it is well worth the purchase.

As the old saying goes, better late than never. After well over two years of localization related woes, the remake of La-Mulana is finally ready to make its first international release via localization service Playism, which will also use the occasion to mark its debut. For the uninitiated, La-Mulana is an action-adventure (or Metroidvania, if you will) archaeological romp by Nigoro, a small team with a deep love of old computer games, who released the thing as freeware. It became a bit of a cult classic for its nods to the old school, and all the uncompromising challenge to go along with it. (DeceasedCrab’s entertaining Let’s Plays definitely didn’t hurt either.) It was well received for being tough but fair, offering a few contemporary concessions to offset the difficulty, and being wider in scope than the games from which it took inspiration, specifically Konami’s Maze of Galious for the MSX. The remake, which is even more forgiving if less slavishly retro, was released in Japan on WiiWare last year, and had been on Nicalis’ plate until they recently pulled the plug via tweet, leaving that version of the game hanging in limbo. Thankfully, Nigoro made little secret of the PC version that was in the works.

That the game would not debut on Steam has been met with some disappointment. It is important, however, to note that the more distribution services there are, the better it is for the marketplace. More to the point, Playism is also dedicated to localizing other doujin games, and the success of La-Mulana here will also lead to even more making it over. Better still, other distribution platforms (i. e. Steam, Desura) are still very much on the table!

La-Mulana will cost $15 when it releases on Playism.