Company of Heroes 2 unveiled

Well this is quite the treat, isn't it? THQ has officially announced the sequel to their wargame Company of Heroes, with the game Company of Heroes.. 2. With the headline "The Motherland is calling", we can quickly assume (and by reading the details of the game) that this game takes place on the Eatern front during WW2, and instead of controlling our American friends we instead are given command of Soviet forces pushing back German forces during Operatio Barbarossa, the massive campaign to conquer Mother Russia.

The game features a new engine called Essence 3.0 Engine, with improved technology rendering Fog of War in a new way and introducing a new idea of it not seen before in the series.

"With the unprecedented new TrueSight™ system, fog of war is no longer a guessing game as unit visibility on the battlefield relies on true and proper line of sight."

Well this sounds interesting. They will also be adding new mechanics to emulate the up-close-and-personal aspect of the war on the Eastern front. I for one am looking forward to it.

Here's the official site itself, have a look yourself.

Developer's Diary from Vostok Games

In case you missed it, during the recent time, the subject of STALKER 2 being cancelled has been brought up again, and this time, it seems it's for real. The team behind STALKER, this time did not fail at getting investments and money, but they did not manage to get the IP of the game.. However weird that may sound. So they did what any other smart developer would: make another game. And a new studio, it seems. Thusly, GSC Game World is, as of 25th of April this year, dead. Say hello to Vostok Games, and their new game Survarium. Here's their first developer's diary of things to come. Enjoy!

Review: Journey

Developers: thatgamecompany

Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment

Genre: Platform

Release Dates: March 13-15, 2011

Platforms: Playstation 3

So. Journey. Wow. Just.. Wow. First of, let me tell you this: I love exploring in games that lets me. I have spent hours riding aimlessly in Shadow of the Collossus, gazing over the horizons and out over the oceans as I spur my horse ever onwards over never-ending fields. I've run from one end to the other in the mountainous regions and thick forests of Mortal Online, only to meet my fate at the hooves of an ill-tempered horse. I search every little crevice in STALKER, trying to find new content all the time. And Journey? Journey satisfies this need in just the right way.

I saw some footage from Journey some time ago when they started releasing their gameplay videos, and my attention was really caught. The aesthetic of the game and the tranquil exploration of just walking around sandy dunes just woke something within me that gave me such a desire to test it out. And now it's out. And I played it. And just... My god. Truly, it is not the destination that matters, it's the journey.

Official indeed: Dark Souls to PC

"Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will include an untold chapter in the world of Lordran where the player must stop the spread of darkness at all costs by facing and defeating the Dark Knight Artorias of the abyss. Available world-wide August 24th, 2012 for your PC."

Now it is truly official, from the words of Bandai themselves, and not just pictures from a German magazine. Dark Souls is coming to PC.

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

 

Man. Look at that thing. That is quite the cover...

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Oh yea, they're also using Games for Windows Live, apparently. Just so you know.

Review: Bastion

Developers: Supergiant Games

Publishers: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Genre: Platform/Adventure

Release Dates:
   XBLA: July 20, 2011
   Steam: August 16, 2011

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360


Have you ever loved listening to another person telling a story? Just sitting back, engrossing yourself in their words as they weave a story that spellbinds you and makes you feel like you're really there in the world of the story itself, living the characters and feeling the world? That's sort of how I felt with this little Indie game called Bastion. At first, I tried the demo, and most of what I thought was, ugh, another action game. Welp. Then I listened to a few of the songs from the soundtrack by the very talented Darren Korb, and thought, eh, why not give it another go. And I am very glad I did. 

I snatched it up during one of the sales on Steam and tried it for real. And I haven't regretted my decision even once, except for maybe not buying it earlier. Bastion has a very story-time like feel to it, with a narrator that has just the right voice and tone for the story, narrating more or less your every move. The more you play, the more the story unfolds, but not through cutscenes, dialogues, tedious CG full-motionpictures, but simply by the words of the narrator. It all unfolds as you play, the gameplay never really ceasing to force you to listen to the narrator: everything rolls on smoothly in balance with gameplay and story exposition.

So to go into further depth of the game, I will elaborate why this has won the price for Indie game of the year. Trust me, the developers deserved it.

Prepare to Die: Dark Souls on PC

Dark Souls for PC? Hooray!

Praise the Sun! It has been revealed that the glorious, so-far Console exclusive title Dark Souls is coming to PC, after all! In the announcement, it is also said that the PC users will indulge in a few new bosses not featured in the console editions, but will otherwise remain the same.

Read more about the announcement here and the original forum thread here.

The release date has been slated for August this year, and will be called Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition. That sure sounds fun, and really, I am glad for all my PC bros. I'll probably pick it up for PC, even if I already have it for the PS3, just because.

What's going on with Dark Souls

A while back I mentioned that there was something going on over at the fellas at From Software and their game Dark Souls. I also forgot to show you this. Go over there and like it, and the more likes, the further the wall will tear down. I want to know what's behind there. Help!

EVE: The Tesselationing

So, as you may or may not know, there's this thing called EVE Fest, where company CCP does this huge thing and brings together a buttload of gamers and does awesome things, most having to do with their very large and renown MMO "EVE Online", which you also may or may not have heard of.

During it, CCP’s CTO Halldor Fannar and Tony Tamasi from Nvidia (you know, them fellars with the graphics and the dealio), spoke about tesselation, a concept in games that makes it possible to add or substract triangles in models ingame, in real time, depending on your distance from it, forming an effective level of detail.

This is what they had to show for their experiment in EVE:

Before

After

Edit:

CCP put out this video, showing this exact thing in more depth and real-time. Enjoy.


Well, I know I'm excited for the future of EVE at least. How about a new subscription, perhaps?

More about the article here. 

Baldur's iPad

 

If you, like me, enjoy Baldur's Gate, may have noticed that it's getting an Enhanced Edition soon, both the original and the sequel. If you enjoy it and also own one of them fancy iPads, then the fellas over at Overhaul Games will please you by showing that they intend to release it as an app for the iPad, that will be avaliable this summer of 2012. Yet another reason to buy an iPad, as well.

Read more here.