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Paradox Interactive's 4X sci-fi strategy game Stellaris will be getting its previously promised diplomacy boost next month, when fourth major expansion Federations arrives on 17th March.
This time around, the focus is on expanding players' diplomatic options and, to that end, Federations will introduce the likes of Trade Leagues, Martial Alliances, and Hegemony for those looking to "build up the internal cohesion of their Federations".
There's also a new galactic senate, which can vote on a wide variety of resolutions. Empires that hold a position within the senate can sanction those that defy its rules, enact a single galactic focus, or even "sway the senate to position [themselves] as a leader, trading favours and manoeuvring, doing whatever it takes to gain influence among schemers."
Image: Larian Studios
Larian Studios finds a middle ground between two of the biggest RPG franchises ever
If you play tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons – heck, if you play a lot of video games like Hitman or XCOM where you rely on a blend of skill and luck – you’ll know that it’s more fun when everything goes wrong but you manage to make it through anyway. Things going according to plan are boring. This is why it was great that, when a handful of journalists were shown a hands-off demo of Baldur’s Gate III, founder of Larian and director of BG3 Swen Vincke failed almost every dice roll, every passive skill check, and every attempt at sneaking he made.
The Epic Games Store exclusivity of Borderlands 3 will end on March 13th with a Steam launch, developers Gearbox Software announced today. They had previously said the looter-shooter’s exile would end in April 2020 so apparently the Steam launch has been bumped up a bit, now coming exactly six months after the Epic debut. Steamers will be able to join Epiceers in multiplayer to burst monsters together, though some multiplayer features won’t be enabled for crossplay at launch.
Gearbox also today announced the second story expansion, a stag do gone monstrously wrong named Guns, Love, And Tentacles: The Marriage Of Wainwright & Hammerlock.
Click here to watch embedded media On this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, I am joined by Dan "The Jacket" Tack, Ben Reeves, and Leo Vader to discuss Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Baldur's Gate III, and the latest next gen news on Xbox and PlayStation. After we handle some hot topics, we jump into the always entertaining and enlightening community emails.
Thanks for listening! Please make sure to leave feedback below, share the episode if you enjoyed it, and follow me @therealandymc to let me know what you think.
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Our thanks to the talented Super Marcato Bros. for The Game Informer Show's intro song. You can hear more of their original tunes and awesome video game music podcast at their website.
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In case you haven't noticed, we're excited for Baldur's Gate III. If you missed it, go read our impressions from a recent two-hour demo or watch our New Gameplay Today video preview. But before you go, check out this gorgeous CG video that helps set up the story.
Click here to watch embedded media The Baldur's Gate series gave players a chance to explore worlds based on the D&D license while engaging in combat that adhered to the pen-and-paper ruleset. Larian Studios is bringing the franchise back with Baldur's Gate III, and Ben Reeves recently got a chance to see it in action. Now it's your turn!
Ben answers Leo's most pressing questions, including "What's going on?" and "Is this game fun?" Take a look at the video to hear the hard-hitting answers and see some of the choices players will be able to make, both in dialogue and in combat.
Baldur's Gate III is coming to early access on PC this year, with console versions TBD.
Gearbox Software has unveiled the next DLC expansion for Borderlands 3, and fans won’t have long to wait before they can get their hands on it.
During Gearbox’s Pax East 2020 press conference, the company’s president Randy Pitchford revealed that Borderlands 3’s next DLC Expansion pack to be Guns, Love and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright and Hammerlock.
In it, the two titular characters finally attempt to come together in holy matrimony. Unfortunately, an otherworldly horror is unleashed on the same day as their wedding thanks to the vault hunter Gaige, forcing them to turn to the world’s other Vault Hunters for assistance in regaining control of the best day of their lives.
The company then revealed a trailer for the DLC. Along with the aforementioned characters making appearances, Cthulian horrors aplenty stand in the player’s way, dishing out bullets and tentacles alike for a wide array of chaotic shootouts.
The DLC is set to launch on all platforms on Mar. 26. The teaser trailer can be viewed in its entirety down below.
Today at PAX East 2020, Larian Studios took the lid off of Baldur’s Gate 3 and allowed a ton of new information to release into the wild. We already got to see an extended demo of it in action, and we interviewed executive producer David Walgrave to try and squeeze a few extra details out.
If you read all that already though, or you don’t care about any of that and just want to see what it really looks like, then we have plenty of screenshots for you to peruse below.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an extremely ambitious game that will have an incredibly complex dialog system, turn-based combat done in the style of traditional CRPGs, and a beautiful world that you can explore at your leisure. Those with better perception though will of course enjoy the world a little more than others.
PAX East may provide even more details about Baldur’s Gate 3 and as we learn more we’ll continue to cover it. But in the meantime, while you’re here, go click through some pretty screenshots will ya?
To the (pleasant) surprise of many, Baldur’s Gate 3 was revealed to not only be a thing last year at E3 but that it was also going to be revived under the care of one of the CRPG genre’s most respected names: Larian Studios.
The other day, Twinfinite alongside other members of the gaming press had an opportunity to speak to David Walgrave, executive producer at Larian Studios about Baldur’s Gate 3.
Like many of you, we wanted to learn more about how deep the game’s connections to Dungeon’s & Dragons will be this time around, how you’ll be able to interact with party members, and most importantly the level of care Larian Studios is putting into this beloved IP. Below is everything we learned.
Ed McGlone: What are the most important aspects of Baldur’s Gate series and how do you intend to ensure that all of that is carried over and improved upon and Baldur’s Gate 3?
David Walgrave, Executive Producer Larian Studios We thought about this before we started in pre-production obviously, and we decided that the most important thing that we need to keep from the original [games] is the party aspect, the trust aspect, and the companions.
So if you talk to anyone about Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, they’re usually going to talk to you about characters and personalities and companions. I don’t think there are many other aspects that they talk about… they just want to talk to you about Edwin, they want to say like I hate his guts or I really like that guy. Why don’t you ever pick him up?
Baldur’s Gate was an important franchise to many people in or around my age group (early 30s). I didn’t really know what I was doing when I was young and playing it for the first time, but I did know I was having fun and it introduced me to the world of CRPGs. Many people are probably in a similar boat with varying degrees of loyalty to the genre over the years.
Traditional CRPGs would eventually fall out of favor, but recently there has been seeing a bit of a renaissance, and it’s no surprise then that Baldur’s Gate 3 would eventually emerge from its long hibernation.
While the announcement back at E3 was a big deal to CRPG fans, there were of course no guarantees about the game living up to its storied past.
However, the fact that Larian Studios, one of the most experienced and respected CRPG developers still around today, is taking the helm is definitely comforting.
The other day, Larian invited Twinfinite to see a roughly three hour long extended hands-off demo of Baldur’s Gate 3 and, although I wasn’t particularly worried heading into it, what I saw erased any concerns that were still rattling around.
There’s really no other way to put it than it looked absolutely ace in just about every factor that would matter to long time CRPG fans.
Today at PAX East Larian Studios finally showed more of the upcoming and anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3. The other day however, Twinfinite was able to speak with executive producer David Walgrave and chat him up about some of the most important little details that we wanted to make sure we got an answer about. Of course we wanted to know if you could romance and make sweet love to NPCs in-game.
Fortunately, for those that are fans of romance in their video games (becoming more and more common these days), Walgrave was able to confirm just straight up that there will be romance. Here’s what Walgrave told us when we asked him about deep NPC interaction and romance:
Whenever you are making important decisions or even side decisions, they will react to it. They will start reacting to other people in the party as well. The encampment moments are also very important. You can select who to talk to, and in the camp, there will indeed be romance.
During the demo we watched in New York City the other day, we were able to see the ways that your character can interact with their party members in meaningful ways.
Your party members can react to thing you’re doing as you’re doing them and can be spoken to after conversations you have with other non party members. There was an instance for example where he took his evil character out of the sight from one of his more lawful party members to do something shady because he knew that the lawful character would react negatively to what he was doing and possibly even leave them.
In addition, you can choose to set up camp while out in game’s world and each night you’ll be able to talk to various members of your party and occasionally get special cutscenes.
During Gearbox’s 2020 PAX East presentation, a Homeworld Mobile game was revealed with a new trailer showing off the series usual real-time strategy gameplay.
The new trailer promises that you will be able to explore a new galaxy, customize your ships, battle new kinds of enemies, as well as make new allies, all while being able to play absolutely anywhere.
There is no release date for the game as of yet but there will be a closed beta coming sometime in 2020.
The first Homeworld was released back in 1999 and became a cult hit. Gearbox purchased the rights to the game back in 2013 and has since gone on to publish remasters of the first and second game, with a crowdfunded third game set to release in the winter of 2022.
Homeworld 3 was crowdfunded through Fig and was reached its goal in September 2019.
If you’re a fan of horror games then there is no doubt that you have played Resident Evil. The franchise has spanned decades and has become one of the most successful games series of all time. First created by Capcom back and released in 1996, Resident Evil was an instant hit.
It was initially supposed to be a reboot for the Japanese game, Sweet Home, which was also based on a horror movie of the same name. Resident Evil was originally made by Shinji Makami and Tokuro Fujiwara with Makami often working on the game in his free time before presenting it to Capcom.
Capcom was impressed by the game and thought that with the introduction of 3D gaming that the PlayStation had brought, that a horror game would thrive on the system, and oh boy were they right. Many of the developers of the original game were cited as saying that development was very hectic and that all the testing and debugging of the game was done in-house.
The original game coined the genre “Survival Horror” and has been an inspiration for plenty of other horror games since. Mikami said that he wanted the feeling of killing zombies and fighting for your life to feel new to players.
What does Baldur's Gate look like through the lens of Divinity: Original Sin 2 developer Larian Studios? Today, during an on-stage gameplay demonstration of Baldur's Gate 3 at PAX East, we found out.
First off, combat is turn-based – not real-time with pauses – and it's built after D&D Fifth Edition rules. It's possible to start a turn outside of combat and enact a plan in six-second increments to get the jump on someone. Baldur's Gate 3 will also let you split up your online party "to follow your own quests."
As for the story, well, let's just say I'm now afraid of brain tadpoles. Here's the setup, per Larian.
"Abducted, infected, lost... You are turning into a monster, drawn from a Mind Flayer parasite planted in your brain, but as the corruption inside you grows, so too does your power. That power may help you to survive, but there will be a price to pay. More than any ability, the bonds of trust that you build within your party could be your greatest strength. Caught in a conflict between devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces, you will determine the fate of the Forgotten Realms together."
"The save game system is broken, so that means that if I die, if it's a party wipe, I'll just have to restart," began Larian founder Swen Vincke. He warned that "combat is fairly high-stakes" in Baldur's Gate 3.
Later, during a turn-based combat encounter against a trio of Intellect Devourers, he missed multiple all-but-guaranteed arrow shots – we're talking a 90% chance – and was surrounded. The party wiped!
The Game Developers Conference is going to be missing a lot of the biggest game developers. In a little more than two weeks, GDC will kick off in San Francisco without attendance from PlayStation, Oculus, Facebook, Electronic Arts, PUBG Corp or Kojima Productions. They all canceled their plans in response to the ongoing concerns over coronavirus and its potential to become a global epidemic.
Now, three more heavy hitters are out. Microsoft, Epic Games, and Unity have announced that they're also skipping GDC 2020. Epic tweeted confirmation that it's pulling out by saying "Regrettably, uncertainty around health concerns has made it unviable to send our employees, and so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw attendance." Epic is always one of the biggest names at GDC considering how many developers work with the Unreal Engine.
It's a similar story for Unity. Another one of the most popular game engines, Unity has also pulled out of GDC while citing concern for its employees. "While we did not make this decision lightly, the current conditions with COVID-19 (also known as Novel Coronavirus) present too much risk," Unity says. "We take our employees' wellbeing very seriously. We do not want any Unity employee or partner to compromise their health and safety unnecessarily."
Microsoft's withdrawal is more nuanced. According to Microsoft's official Game Stack blog, it seems as though all Microsoft and Xbox-related sessions will be moved to a digital-only format that is available to be streamed. Microsoft won't have any physical presence at GDC, though.
Here's some old news that somehow feels like new news: Borderlands 3 is coming to Steam on March 13. Technically, we already knew that! Borderlands 3 was a six-month Epic Games Store exclusive, meaning, of course, it'd launch on Steam exactly six months later.
Now, it's almost a reality. Borderlands 3 now has a Steam store page ahead of its March 13 release. It's not yet ready to pre-order, but it can be added to your wishlist.
It appears as though the Steam version will have immediate parity with the Epic version. The Steam description says that the first add-on, Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, is available right away. It's reasonable to assume that DLC will launch synchronously on Steam and Epic from here on out.
Publisher 2K Games has been thrilled with Borderlands 3's performance thus far, calling it "a massive hit by any standard" after it hit eight million lifetime sales. A launch on Steam should put some wind back in those sails, as a new platform -- a platform that some have intentionally held out for, no less -- will bring a wave of fresh buyers. Good news for them: Mayhem doesn't go stale.
Borderlands 3 [Steam]
“This is a DC 5,” said Swen Vincke, the charismatic CEO of Larian Studios, during a recent press event for his company’s newest game, Baldur’s Gate 3. In Dungeons & Dragons parlance, “DC” stands for difficulty class, and it represents some sort of obstacle, like climbing a mountain or deceiving a stranger. You roll a…
Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution is a remake in the truest sense of the word. If you’ve seen the animated film from 1998, Evolution’s story of a vengeful Mewtwo seeking to assert its dominance over humanity and naturally born Pokémon will ring familiar, as it more or less recreates every scene from the original…
GTA Online’s newest update adds open-wheel racing to the game. Think F1, but with more chaos and destruction. These new open-wheel races feel different than previous modes, with a focus on skillful driving and managing your car’s tires and damage. These races can be fun, though a lot of the GTA Online players seem to…
During its PAX East 2020 panel, Gearbox announced Borderlands 3's next campaign-focused DLC. On March 26, Borderlands 3 will take a Lovecraftian turn in Guns, Love, and Tentacles (beginning the game's season-long series of Spring 2020 updates). The DLC will be followed by two more major expansions in 2020--one in the summer and another later in the year.
"One of the key pillars of [Guns, Love, and Tentacles] was to put the love back into Lovecraft," Gearbox art director Jonathan Rancourt said in an interview with GameSpot. "We're going for a strong contrast between those [Lovecraftian] landscapes and the story of a love worth telling. You're going to be in a frozen wasteland where there are high mountain peaks that convey a sense of horror in some ways. But the story is lighter and it's about Hammerlock and Wainwright sharing their wedding. There's always trouble when you're going through your wedding and, this time around, it's even crazier."
Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright Jakobs won't be the only familiar faces you'll be running into during Guns, Love, and Tentacles--Borderlands 2's first DLC character, Gaige, is finally coming back. Much like Lilith, Mordecai, Zer0, and the rest of the Vault Hunters from previous games, Gaige returns as a companion NPC, not a playable character.
Continue Reading at GameSpotDuring a panel at PAX East, the first gameplay from the much-anticipated Baldur's Gate 3 was revealed by developer Larian Studios, which is best known for the acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel. Prior to this showcase at PAX, we were able to sit down with Larian creative director Swen Wincke to discuss the challenges of creating the game, working with Wizards of the Coast, and much more. Read on for our full chat and check out our breakdown of the new intro cinematic.
Mike Mahardy: I know Larian has been pursuing the Baldur's Gate license for a while now. Is it true that Divinity: Original Sin 2 was kind of like a tryout for Wizards of the Coast? A way for you to say, "Hey, we can handle this license?"
Swen Wincke, Creative Director: I approached them after Divinity: Original Sin (DOS 1). I said, "You should let us make Baldur's Gate 3. We have a lot of Dungeons and Dragons fans in the office. It's something that would really motivate them." They said no, then. Then we were working on DOS 2. In between, I kept on bumping into Nate Stewart at Dungeons and Dragons. He asked me, "What game would you make actually?" I said, "This is what I would make." He said, "Okay, all right, that's kind of cool." But yeah, at the time, the stars were not aligned.
Continue Reading at GameSpotFortnite's 12.61 update has arrived, and it's brought one more set of challenges to complete before the upcoming Doomsday event closes out Season 2 and Season 3 of the game officially begins. The Storm the Agency challenges are now live, and one of the missions asks you to eliminate henchmen at different safe houses. If you're having trouble tracking them down, this guide will show you where the safe house are located and how to complete the challenge.
Shadow's safe houses have been a fixture of the map since Season 2 began, but they're tricky to find because of their inconspicuous appearance. The safe houses are all disguised to look like normal buildings from the outside, but there are some telltale signs that give them away. You'll know for sure when you stumble upon one as they're swarming with AI henchmen, so you'll need to be cautious when approaching them. We've marked down the safe house locations on the map below:
Strange Quest, the Swedish developer behind mobile games like Go-Go Grenade, is closing its doors after 3 years. ...
It's early days for Baldur's Gate 3. An end of year release window seems to have leaked but there's "no exact date" for when it's coming out, according to developer-publisher Larian Studios, of Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin 2 fame. And when it does come out - simultaneously on Google Stadia and Steam - it'll be in early access first. Understandably, early access can seem a bit icky to some, but Larian's argument for it seems fair enough: the game needs en-masse testing from its own audience if it's ever going to come together, and having now seen a marathon, over three hours long presentation of live gameplay, I can see why. Baldur's Gate 3 is a game with an extraordinary level of systemic depth and remarkable complexity. Across the board it's a game that'll need time. Time to polish, time to balance, and quite a bit of time from the player, I'd imagine, to really get anywhere close to understanding and mastering its systems. But from what was shown of the game and what Larian has told us in our Baldur's Gate 3 interview, it'll be worth the wait - and then some.
Larian has finally shown off some Baldur's Gate 3 gameplay, via their panel at PAX East today, and as you might have already read in our preview, it is very impressive.
But, impressive as it may be, there are still plenty of questions for Larian to answer. It's self-publishing the game, which is quite remarkable given its scope and reputation. It's one of the first major games to be releasing simultaneously on Google Stadia and other platforms - at this point just PC - and there's been an assumption amongst some that this would mean Google would have some kind of say in things, akin to a first-party relationship the likes of Sony and Microsoft have with some games on their own platforms.
And then there's, you know, the actual game itself. Larian's Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin 2 garnered a reputation for brilliant turn-based action, but Baldur's Gate is known for its real-time with pause system, so how will they bridge that gap? How will they manage the darker tone when Divinity has been as much a comedy, in recent years, as a heavier fantasy drama? And will there be a Dungeon Master mode, what with Baldur's Gate being driven by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons itself?
Sega has revealed the opening for Sakura Wars The Animation, the anime adaptation of the PS4 series revival.
The post Sakura Wars: The Animation Shows Off Its Grand Opening Movie appeared first on Siliconera.
Stadia’s official unveiling at GDC 2019 was an exciting day. It gave us our first real look at the streaming service that Google was touting as “The Future of Gaming,” and – most importantly (for me, at least) – Divinity: Original Sin 2 studio Larian was deep in development on Baldur’s Gate 3.
After watching two hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay, it’s hard not to compare it to Larian’s most recent RPG-darling, Divinity: Original Sin 2. But BG3 is not simply Baldur’s Gate: Original Sin. It builds upon and morphs DOS2’s isometric turn-based RPG system into a gorgeous world, touched – well, more like bathed – in Dungeons & Dragons’ current rules, systems, and lore.
As someone who loves Original Sin 2 and D&D, I’m absolutely on board for all of it.
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My heart is telling me to start with the D&D nerdery, but, damn, Baldur’s Gate 3 is beautiful. Definitely watch the full video preview above to get a sense of what it looks like, and the full cinematic below.
Sure, we saw a few hiccups here and there, like admittedly misbehaving hair, but since our preview build was running on what’s basically a whole new engine we were reminded Baldur’s Gate 3 is “still very much in development."
While some elements have been ripped straight from the last iteration of Larian’s engine – like the 2-player local, 4-player online co-op multiplayer – Baldur’s Gate’s new rule system, its entire cinematic pipeline, and – to quote Larian directly – a “shitload” of features added on top that aren’t finished yet, are all new updates. A lot of these changes are visual – like a new dialog-driven cinematic camera, and a zoomed-in “almost-third-person” camera-view option – but some of the bigger differences are mechanical.
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Image: Game Freak / Nintendo
