You never forget your first.
It seems like there’s a fairly big movement to get back to the roots of first person shooters lately, with games like Toxikk, Xibalba, and even the Doom franchise returning to the mechanics and sensibilities that started it all. Wrack began this journey six long years ago and has almost reached its full release. If you have great memories of those early “Doom clone” days, share one with us in the comments and you can win a copy of Wrack on Steam! To get things started, some of the staff has shared their own. Just add your memory from those early corridor-stomping days in the comments, no matter how brief, before August 19th at noon Eastern time and you’re entered to win one of five Steam codes for Wrack!*
You are e-Sisyphus.
It seems like we’re all battling our backlogs these days, and with the Steam Summer Sale fast approaching, things are only going to get worse. Well, NeoGAF forum member SenseiJinx has provided us with a way to gauge how long it will take to complete our Steam catalogs.
One shall stand...one shall fall.
Well, we goofed. Due to circumstances beyond our control, this episode of NWP is woefully lacking a second segment. Worry not though, true believers! We’ll be bringing you the intended topic of this episode (vices and video games) next week. So sit back and enjoy what we’ve been playing and some bloopers.
Available for the PC, Mac, on the PlayStation 3's PSN store, and as an Xbox Live Arcade tile for the Xbox 360 on August 21.
The Virtual Insanity panel at QuakeCon goes nuts for advances in VR, but Valve still hasn't committed to supporting the newest gear.
It’s hard not to get swept up by the excitement exuding from the four people on stage for a panel about virtual reality at QuakeCon. It’s the Oculus Rift VR headset (with a kickstarter that recently broke the million dollar funding level) that has gotten panel members thinking that virtual reality gaming is feasible. John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead of id, Michael Abrash of Valve, and Palmer Luckey from Oculus talked about the problems with virtual reality headsets through history, where things are now, and where they are headed. Id has solidified their interest in the Oculus Rift headset by agreeing to provide a copy of Doom 3 BFG Edition with every headset sold in the future. For now, that’s the only software confirmed to be playable with the product intended primarily for developers. When Abrash was asked if Valve had plans to make their products playable with Rift, he could only confirm his desire to do so but not any concrete plans.
Makers of Left 4 Dead, Rage, and Halo 4 multiplayer discuss what makes playing with friends so engaging.
Marty Stratton from id, Chet Faliszek of Valve, and Max Hoberman of Certain Affinity sat down for an intimate conversation in front of a hundred person audience for a panel all about multiplayer games at QuakeCon. The panel started by discussing why they find multiplayer gaming to be so engaging, and all agreed that it was the openness of it, and that their experiences in multiplayer were much more memorable than any single player experiences they had had.
All game developers in the making need to find out what Bethesda and Valve think is key to getting into the industry.
“How do you get into the games Industry? I don’t know. How do you make a game? Make a game.” Chet Faliszek of Valve offered this obvious but important advice to aspiring game makers during a QuakeCon panel on modding. With the release of Steam Workshop and Skyrim editing tools, the modding scene has gotten a bit more attention lately, and with good reason. Apparently the modding community continues to be an integral part of finding and training game devs. Nick Breckon and Joel Burgess of Bethesda along with Matt Scott and Faliszek of Valve filled an hour with plenty of advice for aspiring game designers and tons of appreciation for the existing mod community.