Hasta La Gadget!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you likely know that Arkane’s new game Dishonored launched yesterday. It launched to critical acclaim too, despite the fact that it’s missing one key element that seems to be present in most modern games: multiplayer. Publishers, much to the chagrin of single player fans, are notorious for requiring multiplayer in the games they release these days, but in a new interview with Kotaku, Dishonored director Harvey Smith says that Bethesda never pressured Arkane to include a multiplayer mode.

That probably won’t come as a shock to most, considering that Bethesda is responsible for such single player epics as Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Oblivion, but often times publishers will look at a new IP like Dishonored and will decide that they’re not willing to take the risk unless the game can meet a list of desired features. Bethesda, apparently, is not one of those publishers. “I’ve been at a lot of publishers,” Smith said in the interview. “I’ve worked in games for 18 years. I’ve worked independently at times; I’ve worked in big teams, small teams. And I can honestly tell you, no smoke, that this is the smartest group of executives I’ve ever worked with.”

Smith continued by saying that at some points during Bethesda’s talks with Arkane, it was obvious that Dishonored was doing some things that fell outside of Bethesda’s comfort zone. Despite that, Bethesda allowed Arkane to keep its creative vision for Dishonored intact. “And at every step along the way those guys have supported us… This is as close as you’ll get to me saying that I have not had that experience with other publishers I’ve worked with, who forced us to bolt on multiplayer, or who said inane things like ‘First-person perspective doesn’t sell!’ or ‘RPGs don’t sell!’ I can tell you from the inside, 18 years, that this is a crazy, crazy business.

“Long story short: No one ever pressured us to do that. We told them that this was an aggressively single-player game, and they said alright, we moved forward, and that was it.”

It’s great to hear that Arkane wasn’t pressured into doing anything it didn’t want to with Dishonored, and that approach to development seems to be paying off, at least as far as review scores are concerned. The PC version of Dishonored currently holds a 92 out of 100 on Metacritic, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions boast aggregate scores in the high 80s. Dishonored is definitely one of the coolest games to launch this year, and we’re happy to see that at least some publishers still know that a single player game can do well in this market that’s dominated by titles with a focus on multiplayer.

Dishonored dev wasn’t pressured by Bethesda to add multiplayer is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft’s Surface tablets could already be considered warning shots across the bow, signalling that a change in strategy was underway. For anyone who was in doubt, however, CEO Steve Ballmer has clearly spelled out in a shareholder letter that Microsoft now sees its own devices as crucial to the company as anything else. There’s a “fundamental shift” in how the Redmond-based crew works, he says, and investors should expect that Microsoft will periodically make “specific devices for specific purposes” (like Surface or the Xbox) that show off services in the best light possible. Ballmer adds that plans in the long run focus on new device types and learning interfaces. The message is ostensibly a rosy one for the company’s future, but there’s also a subtext for hardware makers that have complained about competing against their OS partner: get used to it. Ballmer sees Microsoft-designed hardware like Surface as complementary to what third parties do, and his company isn’t about to reverse course anytime soon.

Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Ballmer braces us for a ‘fundamental shift’ in strategy with more Microsoft-designed devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever wanted to stop by Valve‘s offices and have an early look at the studio’s upcoming games? Swinging by Valve Towers for a visit may seem like a pipe dream to most, but now the company is actually giving ordinary players the chance to do just that. In an announcement on the Steam forums, Valve invited players to fill out its new playtester survey. If you’re selected, you’ll get to drop by Valve’s offices and test out the studio’s upcoming games and hardware prototypes.

No, we’re not kidding. Since the playtest involves a trip to Valve’s offices, the company is specifically looking for people in the Seattle/Bellevue area. However, even if you have the misfortune of living anywhere else in the country, you’re not entirely out luck. Valve is inviting anyone who lives in the United States to fill out the survey, as it says it may want to conduct remote playtests in the future.

At the moment, the playtest survey is only open to those who live in the United States. That may not be the case forever, though, since Valve says it’s looking to “add international support in the future.” We’ll be keeping an eye out for more details on that international roll out, but sadly, Valve fans living outside of the United States can probably expect to be left waiting for a while.

Valve likely won’t let you leave its offices without first signing an NDA, so now you have to ask yourself: if you get selected to stop by for a playtest and you get to play an early build of Half-Life 3, can you keep that yourself? We have a feeling that some Valve fans would struggle with that one. In any case, this is a great move by Valve, and one that’s sure to net it even more points with the gaming community. Who’s ready for some playtests?

Valve seeking playtesters for new games, hardware is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Skyrim‘s second serving of DLC, Hearthfire, launched on PC today, meaning that eager homebuilders can get to work constructing their dream house (or at least something resembling their dream house). Hearthfire costs the same on Steam as it does on Xbox 360 – $5 – and for that paltry amount, you get to buy up plots of land, collect raw materials, and then use those materials to build a house, which could potentially include things like a greenhouse or an armory. You can also move your spouse into your freshly-built home and, if you really want your Skyrim experience to mirror real life, adopt children.

That’s all well and good, but while Xbox 360 and PC players are enjoying both Dawnguard and Hearthfire, they’re still nowhere to be seen on PS3. Unfortunately, it looks like that will remain the case for a least a while longer, as Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines says that there isn’t anything new to report as far as PS3 DLC is concerned. “I don’t have any info on Hearthfire, Dawnguard, or DLC in general for PS3,” Hines said on Twitter. “We’re still on it. Will share update when I have one.”

Bethesda’s issues with Skyrim on PS3 have been well documented. First, there was that particularly nasty save bug that bloated save files to the point where lag made the game unplayable on PS3, and now, the studio is having some issues porting its Skyrim DLC to the console. Bethesda stays away from specifics when talking about its DLC problems on PS3, so we’re not sure exactly what the studio is dealing with, but we do know that the problems are severe enough that Sony had to step in to lend a helping hand.

Sadly, it’s looking increasingly likely that PS3 players won’t get any Skyrim DLC at all. Bethesda said that it won’t release Dawnguard or Hearthfire on PS3 in a broken state if it can’t solve these issues, and the lack of significant updates suggests that progress is slow-going at best. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed and watching for more updates from Hines and Bethesda, so keep it tuned to SlashGear for more information.

Skyrim: Hearthfire now on PC, no new updates on Dawnguard PS3 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski announced today that he will be leaving the company. This is a surprising announcement to be sure, but it doesn’t sound like Bleszinski will be leaving Epic for another company. Instead, Bleszinski says that he needs a break from the fast-paced games industry after working for Epic for the past 20 years.

His departure was announced in a post on the Epic Gamers blog, where a number of Bleszinski’s colleagues at Epic said their goodbyes. “In 20 wonderful years with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski has grown into a true design luminary, and his contributions to the ‘Unreal’ and ‘Gears’ series have helped shape the game industry into what it is today,” said Epic founder, CEO, and technical director Tim Sweeney. “Cliff leaves Epic with our gratitude for his many contributions, and our wishes for continued success in the next chapter of his life!”

Epic also shared an excerpt from Cliff’s note to his co-workers, in which he says that he’ll miss working with everyone at the studio. Have a look at it below:

I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break.

I will miss the projects, the playtests, the debates, and most importantly, the people. Epic only hires the best of the best, and it has been a joy working with each and every one of you on a daily basis, whether you were hired weeks ago or decades ago. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a variety of disciplines, from code to art to marketing and PR – it’s been one big, rewarding learning experience. I’m confident that each project that is being built, whether at Epic, Chair, PCF, or Impossible will be top notch and will please gamers and critics alike.

Bleszinski, believe it or not, has been working at Epic for more than half of his life. Those who have been fans of Epic from the start will remember one of his earliest efforts at the studio creating Jazz Jackrabbit. Bleszinski also worked on the Unreal series, which took the PC gaming crowd by storm in the late ’90s. He’s always been an outspoken and active member of the game development community, and was widely known as “CliffyB” for a number of years before dropping the persona a while back and going by his actual name.

More recently, Bleszinski served as creative director on the Gears of War series, a franchise that made Epic a household name among console gamers. He was working on Gears of War: Judgment when he announced his departure from the company, which is scheduled to launch on Xbox 360 in March 2013. Bleszinski will certainly be missed at Epic, but we’re definitely looking forward to seeing what he does once he decides its time to come back to the games industry. Stay tuned.

Cliff Bleszinski announces departure from Epic Games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.