Pre-order Steam Controller for 10th November and get Rocket League and Portal 2 for free

Not long left until the +Steam Controller release date of 10th November 2015 (as well as Steam Link and a number of new Steam Machines, too).

+Valve continue to run their pre-order promotion, introduced last month, whereby a pre-order of the Steam Controller or Steam Link awards a free copy of +Rocket League and +Portal 2. If you already own either of these games you can give away your free copy as a Steam gift.

Whilst Rocket League is not yet available for Linux, the developers at +Psyonix Studios have confirmed that it is planned for a 2015 release on SteamOS and Mac.

Steam Controller, Steam Link and Steam Machines Now Available for Pre-order

+Valve have announced the following:

A limited quantity of orders will be shipped October 16th, weeks in advance of our official launch. Pre-order now and be among Steam Hardware's first wave of users."

The controller can be pre-ordered for £39.99 on the +Steam Store.

Steam Link is also £39.99.

Two Steam Machines are also listed: +Alienware's and +Syber's. However, the prices are listed in US$ and there is no add to cart option if you are connecting to Steam Store from the UK.

So it appears as if the controller and the Link are available to pre-order in the UK, but Steam Machines are not yet available to pre-order in the UK.

Batman Arkham Knight will Arrive on Linux

Yeah Batfans! Batman Arkham Knight is being released for Linux via Steam (SteamOS). OK, so it may be several months behind the PC and console slightly delayed release date (23 June on PC, Autumn on Linux and OS X) but this is certainly still something to look forward to, if some of the previous Arkham games are anything to go by.

Being developed by +Rocksteady Games who developed Arkham Asylum and Arkham City (but not the mediocre Arkham Origins), the game is in good hands.

There will be no multiplayer, the developers preferring instead to concentrate on making the single-player game as good as can be. They made the decision to develop for latest-generation consoles and PCs, but not PS3 and Xbox360, to allow for more technical scenes. For example, riots can have around 50 on-screen characters interacting with the environment.

Pre-purchasing will give an additional character to play, Harley Quinn, the Joker's psychotic side-kick.

It comes as no surprise that there is a season pass with downloadable content, as this seems to be the norm these days for AAA titles. The season pass is priced at £32.99 which has annoyed some. In defence of the price Warner Brothers said:

Earlier this week, we announced the Season Pass for Batman: Arkham Knight. While the story of Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Trilogy will come to a close on June 23rd, we are excited to continue telling stories and delivering more content to explore and play through in the 6 months following the game’s release. We’ll be building more narrative, more missions, more challenges and more characters and vehicles that we want players to experience, even though they didn’t fit into the storyline of Batman: Arkham Knight.

We’ve heard from our community that you want more information on what we’ll be delivering in the Season Pass. While we aren’t ready to unveil every aspect of the content we’ll be developing, we would like to share more detail now to give you a better sense of the scope of the Season Pass.

Batgirl: A Matter of Family

An all new prequel story expansion in an entirely new location where you play as Batgirl for the very first time in the Arkham series - check out the first render of Batgirl.

The Season of Infamy

Play as Batman in all new story missions featuring legendary super-villains invading Gotham City, with new story arcs, missions and gameplay features.

Gotham City Stories

Play as Batman’s key allies in narrative missions extending their storylines, from both before and after the events in Batman: Arkham Knight

Legendary Batmobiles with Themed Tracks

Drive the most iconic Batmobiles from Batman’s 75-year history, on custom-built race tracks, each themed to that Batmobile’s specific era. Every Batmobile will be drivable across every race track.

Crimefighter Challenge Maps

Engage in a series of new challenge maps utilizing the unique play styles of Batman and his allies.

Character Skins

A variety of skins from across the eras for Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Catwoman. As we fully ramp up development on the Season Pass, we will be sharing even more details on each monthly content drop. We hope you enjoy playing Batman: Arkham Knight as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.

WB Games

Here's to yet another top tier game coming to Linux. +Valve's Gabe Newell's prediction that Linux is the future of gaming looks more accurate with each new release.

Verdun 1914 - 1918

Another interesting title has been released for Linux.

 

Verdun is a first person multiplayer squad shooter set during WWI, attempting to strike the right balance between realism and gameplay. From +M2H and +BlackMill Games this looks like a well-executed breath of fresh air for FPS fans who feel they're growing tired of copycat games.

This is from the official website at www.verdungame.com:

Verdun is the first multiplayer FPS set in a realistic First World War setting. The merciless trench warfare offers a unique battlefield experience, immersing you and your squad into intense battles of attack and defense.
The game takes place on the western front between 1914 and 1918, in one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. The developers were inspired by the infamous Battle of Verdun France in 1916, The game includes many historically accurate features such as realistic WW1 weaponry, authentic uniforms and maps based on the real battlefields of France and Belgium.
The Frontlines game mode is unique in its tactical complexity. The realistic trenches are challenging to fight in and require tactical cunning to capture and defend. The Entente and Central Powers strive to gain control of frontline sectors. In one battle you're rushing the enemy trenches in an offensive battle in order to gain ground, In another battle you might be defending your recently conquered ground against an enemy counter-attack.

FEATURES:

• Realistic World War 1 gameplay: Authentic weaponry with realistic bullet physics, skill based weapon handling, poisonous gas with a claustrophobic gas mask experience and artillery barrages
• Tactical squad-based FPS: Unique squad leveling system, distinct squad types and roles, voice chat
• True trench warfare: Real-time dynamic frontline with momentum-based attack and counter-attack gameplay
• Authentic World War 1 setting: Typical WW1 music and style, historical battlefields set on the Western Front
• Challenging game modes: Team-based Frontline and skill-based Rifle Deathmatch

Currently available on +Steam for £15.29. Will you be buying it?

Pillars of Eternity: March 26th Release Date - Linux, Mac and Windows simultaneous release

Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity is due to be released on 26th March 2015 on Linux, Mac and Windows, distributed via +GOG.com - DRM-Free Games and +Steam.

Main features:

• Play as any one of six races: Human, Aumaua, Dwarf, Elf, Godlike and Orlan.
• Utilize five core skills to overcome any situation: Stealth, Athletics, Lore, Mechanics and Survival.
• Deep character customization: Build a character as one of eleven classes such as Barbarian, Chanter, Cipher, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Rogue and Wizard.
• Sculpt your own story: Side with various factions using a reputation system, where your actions and choices have far reaching consequences.
• Explore a rich and diverse world: Beautiful pre-rendered environments laced with an engaging story and characters bring the world to life.

The game is inspired by the likes of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment, and was funded through crowd funding (it raised $3,986,929 and became the highest funded crowd sourced video game on Kickstarter at the time). This model has allowed the developers at Obsidian to make the game the way they wanted, rather than be restricted by publisher demands, as +Joshua Sawyer explains in a Reddit AMA with with Obsidian, here.

Whilst unashamedly based upon the aforementioned classic games, such as a pausable real-time system and fixed isometric gameplay with 2d pre-rendered backgrounds, it will not be based on D&D rules and will have an original plot and setting, all thanks to the freedom that Obsidian had as a result of the crowd funding model.

I think this game could do really well in terms of Linux sales alone, and I'm pleased to see it has a simultaneous release on all three major PC platforms.

Will you be buying it on release day?

Steam Controller - will it be love or hate?

So, the folks at +Valve and +Steam have listed the Steam controller in all its glory on the Steam Store and the Steam Universe site.

According to Valve, the controller will be available from November 2015 for $49.99. 


Some tech journalists have had a try out and reported mixed feelings. The consensus seems to be that it's a bit, well, unusual. Whilst I've not picked one up yet, I have to say that I do fear that they might only succeed if the games are designed around the controller. Harking back to the Nintendo64 (what do you mean you weren't born then!?) with it's new-fangled, tri-pronged, analogue/digital hybrid gamepad this took some getting used to, but N64 games (e.g. Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Pilotwings 64, Turok) felt like they had been designed with the N64 gamepad in mind (in fact, some had been). Soon, it felt like this gamepad was the most natural way to control a game, especially Super Mario 64. In my humble opinion, it's the best controller I've ever used, but let's not get on to that now. If you revisited Super Mario 64 on the Wii with the Wii's classic controller, you'll know how it just didn't feel right - this demonstrates how important it is for the game to fit the controller.

It takes practice and perserverance to get used to a new control input, particularly if the new design is radical. The change from digital d-pads to analogue sticks took some getting used to but of course, all console makers were on the same band-wagon, so it created its own momentum, and was unlikely to fail - everyone wanted the new generation of 32 or 64-bit consoles back in the '90s, and the new analogue gamepads that came with them.

My concern is that regardless of how good the design is of the Steam controller, and of how much potential it might have for better control than the Xbox360 controller, I believe its success (i.e. how many are sold) depends as much upon first-rate marketing as it does AAA games being designed specifically for the Steam controller.

If players feel the Steam controller is restrictive, either before buying or after, and revert to keyboard and mouse, then it's doomed.

I really hope that as we draw nearer to November we hear the media singing this controller's praises, and developers announcing they have built their game control mechanics around the Steam controller.

I, for one, am hoping this is the successful birth of a new generation of control pads, as we saw in the 1990's with digital to analogue.

Bioshock Infinite now available on Linux

Following the recent news that Steam for Linux now has over 1000 games in its catalogue, Linux gamers can now buy the acclaimed Bioshock Infinite from Steam.

Ok, so it's two years old, having originally been released for Windows, PS3 and Xbox360 in 2013, but nonetheless this is great news for Linux gamers, adding yet another AAA title to the roster of available games.

The Linux version runs in a wrapper as explained here at Boiling Steam which means it has been made to run on Linux in a similar way that The Witcher 2 was. By the look of early reports it appears as if it has been very successful and even modestly specced machines should be capable of running the game at a fair whack.

Steam lists the minimum requirements as needing an NVidia/AMD OpenGL 4.1/DirectX 10.0 level compatible video card, with an Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz processor.

Recommended specs are an Intel Core i5 3GHz (or similar AMD processor) and
NVidia/AMD OpenGL 4.2/DirectX 10.1 level compatible with 2GB of video RAM.