Gaming News of The Week

This week was just...Wow.  I am excited for everything to come!  Forget any summaries, let's get started!

Torment: Tides of Numenera Reaches 2-Million Dollars on Kickstarter

Perhaps the most exciting news for myself this week, Torment: Tides of Numenera was announced and posted up on Kickstarter, asking for 9 hundred-thousand dollars.  It was clear the game is in heavy demand because backers rushed to the aid of the developers and pledged 1.1 million dollars within THREE HOURS (I was lucky to get in on the twenty dollar one on the first day because there is now only one left)!  As of writing this, the game has approached 2.1 million and every time you refresh the page, the number just keeps rising.  This is truly a victory for all the Planescape Torment fans who really want that spiritual successor.  The game is stated to not be a direct sequel but rather it is "set in the world of Monte Cook’s new tabletop RPG setting, Numenera."  Not being a tabletop fan (not that I wouldn't play it), I am somewhat excited to see what they will be doing with this and am anxious to see the new setting.  They continue to throw the icing on the cake by giving us bonus rewards that are mostly additions that they are throwing into the game and have a goal of 2.5 million with the most noteworthy bonus reward being a "video apology [by Colin McComb] for the most embarrassing work of his career: 2nd Edition D&D's Complete Book of Elves."

If this game sounds remotely intriguing to you, I suggest you head on over to Kickstarter to back this game.  I'm planning on upgrading how much I am backing it by another dollars so I can get a physical copy...Ooooh yeah.

Simcity 5 Released Yet Players Still Wait to Play!

Simcity 5 was released this week and it was prone to many issues.  One of the biggest issues was an issue where people were waiting to play the game they had just purchased.  Issues like this actually irritate me to no extent, even being one of the many who hadn't bought the game.  To leave my personal irritation out of this though, this is a prime example of why single player games which require you to log in to play the game are not a good idea and developers need to learn that a good online-mode practice would be to give the players the option to log in rather than being forced to.  Kotaku journalists gave a review of the game and the answer to the question "should you buy it" was a big-fat "not yet."  I'll take their word for it and stick to Simcity 4 until I hear word that the issues are all fixed.

Neverwinter Gears Up for Another Beta Weekend!

Any fans of the up-coming Neverwinter release should go get their Hero of the North or Guardian of Neverwinter packs now because if my calculations are correct, at this very moment the Beta is just starting!  I'm anxious to hear about everyone's experiences in the game this weekend and am keeping my hopes up for a very thrilling adventure.

You can get your Hero of the North pack here.

Steambox to Hit Tester's Homes This Year

Gabe Newell discussed in great detail with BBC what was going on with Steams console that we keep hearing about.  He stated that the console will be handed out to some customers “in the next three to four months" for testing.  He shared that they are working on nailing down heat and noise issues.  I wonder who will be the lucky few who get to test this awesome machine.

Follow Command Receives Major Change in World of Warcraft

The "/follow" command was removed from battlegrounds with the 4.2 patch this week.  The removal was meant to stop the basic form of botting.  There was much back-lash from the WoW community, some of the backlash from people who do multiboxing (or pretend not to be one of those and have "good reasons" for needing a follow command).  Blizzard responded in the midst of the backlash.

"We disabled /follow from use in battlegrounds to curb some of the most basic types of bots that use the command. We chose not to communicate it beforehand in attempts to catch as many bots unaware as possible. Removing /follow in battlegrounds is one small change we can make immediately to stop a number of bots, and those that choose to transition to more overt botting methods will have a much higher chance of being caught and banned.

"We did consider those who use /follow for other reasons, including multiboxing, before making the change. Multiboxing in battlegrounds has been a long-fought battle within the community, as the effect of multiboxers in those situations is considered unfavorable by many. When we were looking to make a change to disable a command used by bots, which would benefit the game as a whole, we were ok with it also resulting in multiboxing in battlegrounds also going away due to the poor experience it can create for others.

"Right now /follow is also disabled in Arenas, but we’re looking to revert that change as bots don’t typically exist in Arenas, and multiboxing in that kind of pre-determined group environment doesn’t tend to be as disruptive."


And that's the gaming news of the week!  I hope you guys have a good one and as always, feel free to leave any comments and discuss the news of the week!