Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love is a satirical point and click inspired by the classic adventure games. It smuggles you out of your comfort zone and throws you into the middle of a Cold War spy intrigue - where there?s an even bigger game being played...
Game Of Thrones Boss Leaves To Work On Amazon's Lord Of The Rings Show
Amazon has made a huge hire for its upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show. Bryan Cogman, who worked on HBO's Game of Thrones since the beginning and wrote 11 episodes of the fantasy drama, is joining Amazon to contribute to its ambitious Lord of the Rings TV series.
George R.R. Martin confirmed this on his blog, writing that Cogman will contribute to the Lord of the Rings show at Amazon in addition to developing his own series. Variety reports that Cogman will do some consulting work for the Lord of the Rings show, though his exact title is unclear.
Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff hired Cogman as their assistant at the start of the show's production a decade ago. Weiss and Benioff had no experience writing for TV before Game of Thrones, so they turned to Cogman. Benioff knew him as his nanny's husband.
Cogman eventually became the co-executive producer for the entire Game of Thrones series. The 11 episodes he wrote for Game of Thrones is only eclipsed by Weiss and Benioff. He was instrumental to Game of Thrones, according to cast members and Martin himself.
Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark, told Vanity Fair that Cogman was the backbone of Game of Thrones, while Jaime Lannister actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau said Cogman is a "walking encyclopedia" of knowledge about Game of Thrones. Martin himself said Cogman was "the third head of the dragon" as it relates to his relationship with Weiss and Benioff.
At Amazon, Cogman will work alongside the Lord of the Rings TV show's creators, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, who--like Weiss and Benioff before them--have no experience writing a TV show.
The Lord of the Rings show doesn't currently have a title or release date, and no casting has been announced as yet. We do know that it's set in the Second Age, long before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
The Guacamelee! One-Two Punch Collection Has Been Delayed
Following on from Hollow Knight earlier this week, the trend of delayed physical releases on the Nintendo Switch continues with the Guacamelee! One-Two Punch Collection being pushed back to August.
Instead of launching on 28th May for $39.99, physical distributor Leadman has now revealed the game will arrive on 6th August, due to some technical difficulties. Despite the delay, the two-in-one collection –including both Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition and Guacamelee! 2 – can still be pre-ordered.
A press release further explained the delay and also confirmed the game’s DLC in the Switch release would be included as codes in the box:
We just wanted to let you know that due to unforeseen circumstances, the physical release of the Guacamelee! One-Two Punch Collection for Switch and PS4 has been officially delayed until August 6th. It turns out that it’s not as simple to release a multi-application cart/disk as we initially thought! We’re confident in this new date however, and do not foresee any further delays.
On the plus side, while we were figuring all of this out we’ve also figured out a way to include all of the DLC for both games as part of the purchase. On PS4, all DLC will be included on the disc, and on Switch the DLC will be included as codes in the box.
Will you still be adding this physical release to your collection? How do you feel about the DLC being included as codes? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-22-2019, 06:21 PM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft recognizes outstanding contributions by suppliers
REDMOND, Wash. — May 22, 2019 — On May 8, Microsoft Corp. announced the recipients of the 2019 Microsoft Supplier Program (MSP) Excellence Awards. The MSP Excellence Awards recognize excellence by Microsoft’s top suppliers in performance, relationship, value, reduced risk, diversity, sustainability and impact sourcing. The MSP mission is enabling a compliant, capable and competitive supply base to deliver increasing value to Microsoft and its suppliers. Winners of the 2019 MSP Excellence Awards were vetted by an award selection committee including representatives from procurement, business group stakeholders and external judges.
Winners were announced at the 2019 MSP Supplier Excellence Awards ceremony at Microsoft on May 8, 2019, in Redmond, Washington.
“Congratulations to all the MSP Excellence Award recipients and finalists for your outstanding work,” said Mike Simms, general manager and chief procurement officer at Microsoft. “These awards represent your deep commitment to delivering high-impact results contributing to the success of Microsoft. Microsoft’s Supplier of the Year winners, Compass Group, Wiwynn, Nextant and AnRui Digital, have collaborated with Microsoft to demonstrate efficiency gains, strategic partnerships, innovation and risk management. Amaxra and Sutherland Global have created amazing opportunities for diverse and disadvantaged people to succeed, and Tech Mahindra exhibited a huge commitment to an aggressive set of absolute emissions reduction goals. On behalf of Microsoft, I want to thank the award winners and all the finalists for their significant contributions and partnership.”
Following are the 2019 winners, finalists and an overview of their excellent service delivery.
MSP Supplier of the Year – Small category Winner: AnRui Digital
Finalists: Bastion Effect, BES Events
AnRui leveraged its in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s products and solutions to design and deliver training to users, technical partners and developers, as well as facilitate hands-on lab sessions. AnRui developed innovative solutions, such as a new mobile app that enables Microsoft Partners to access Microsoft learning and certification materials, to help broaden reach and increase engagement and collaboration.
MSP Supplier of the Year – Medium category Winner: Nextant
Finalists: Lenati, Upwork
Nextant has been a strategic partner and trusted advisor on a range of topics by truly understanding Microsoft’s business, aligning with Microsoft priorities and taking feedback to improve. Nextant consistently delivered amazing performance and savings through automation and improved processes, while remaining flexible and adaptable to the business needs. Nextant also helped scope and build a power app that revolutionized the way Microsoft communicates to the field, and helped reduce operational risk by implementing business-critical quality assurance plans.
MSP Supplier of the Year – Large category Co-Winner: Compass Group
Finalists: Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services
Compass consistently demonstrated strategic partnership to identify solutions that delivered savings without compromising the customer experience. Compass focused on customer service by completing more than 10 capital projects over the seasonal holiday closure to minimize Microsoft employee impact. Compass redesigned its service response protocol using Microsoft technology to improve its response time from 24 hours to one hour. Compass also strongly delivered in alignment with Microsoft’s Accessibility and Sustainability values by developing a first-of-its-kind navigation bar, allowing those with visual impairments to use the cashless ordering/payment system and launching a zero-waste café pilot.
MSP Supplier of the Year – Large category Co-Winner: Wiwynn
Wiwynn is a component developer and system integrator of cloud servers for Microsoft, which has partnered with Microsoft on strategic initiatives and consistently delivered a high level of support. Wiwynn development support has been valuable in helping Microsoft achieve time-to-market on new technologies and is very supportive of Microsoft supply-chain initiatives. Wiwynn was instrumental in ensuring that Microsoft was not affected by 2018 industrywide component shortages through proactive implementation of a strategic buy process to ensure on-time delivery of Microsoft servers. Wiwynn has made significant investments to proactively mitigate risks by opening a new factory in Taiwan, increasing rack capacity in China and opening a satellite office in Redmond to support Microsoft teams.
MSP Supplier Diversity Award Winner: Amaxra
Finalists: Accenture, Wimmer
Amaxra has been awarded the 2019 MSP Supplier Diversity Award for being the supplier to make the most progress on diversity values. Amaxra is a certified diverse business and a business management and technology solutions firm. It was established in 2007 by Microsoft alumni Rosalyn Arntzen. It successfully supported a number of projects involving cultural and gender awareness, and community engagement. As a supplier, Amaxra’s ability to understand Microsoft’s most crucial business priorities, while reinforcing progress toward diversity goals, is of significant value to Microsoft. Diversity is the first of Amaxra’s top six values. In its own words, “Diversity leads the way. The workplace needs to be one where diverse individuals (walks of life, experiences, situations, skills sets, work styles and more) and diverse teams come together to drive best contributions.”
MSP Sustainability Award Winner: Tech Mahindra
Finalists: AT&T, Cisco and Infosys
Tech Mahindra was recognized for its leadership on climate change. Tech Mahindra committed to an aggressive set of absolute emissions-reduction goals, approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, that will result in emissions 50% below 2015-2016 levels by 2050. Tech Mahindra has undertaken a thoughtful and comprehensive program to reduce Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. To date, it has installed solar generation at its plants in the Indian cities of Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Noida and Chandigarh. Tech Mahindra has developed a “Connected Solar Plants” solution using Microsoft Azure, aligning with Microsoft’s mission to help empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.
Judges for the Sustainability Award were Betty Cremmins with CDP, Verena Radulovic with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Elizabeth Willmott with the Microsoft Environmental team and Michael Mondshine with WSP.
MSP Impact Sourcing Award Winner: Sutherland Global
Finalists: Compass Group, Hanson Consulting Group
Sutherland was recognized for its leadership on helping their employees achieve more by eliminating barriers to employment and empowering individuals through Impact Sourcing. Sutherland has the mission to impact one life or family for every person employed by the company. Over the past 10 years, Sutherland’s taken a systems approach to inclusion through education intervention and job opportunities for tens of thousands of individuals across the globe. The company collaborates and shares with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to expand their impact. Sutherland’s model is the first of its kind to be used in a commercial setting.
Judges for this award included Sara Enright with Business for Social Responsibility – Global Impact Sourcing Coalition, Mamadou Biteye with the Rockefeller Foundation and Geoff Talbot with the Sourcing Industry Group.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
2K cuts off Borderlands 3 pre-orders on PC during Epic Mega Sale
Publisher 2K has suddenly ended pre-orders for the PC version Gearbox’s upcoming game (and Epic Games Store exclusive) Borderlands 3.
In a statement given to Eurogamer over the weekend, 2K notes that it has removed the ability to pre-order the game on the Epic Games Store for the time being. While it doesn’t explicitly spell out the reason for doing so, 2K does mention it’s “working closely with Epic” in the wake of the decision.
The decision to pause pre-orders does come during the Epic Games Store’s first big sale event, however, an event that has already ruffled the feathers of several developers on the platform and caused some to pull their games for the duration of the sale.
The Epic Mega Sale launched last week with the promise of offering $10 off every single game on the store priced over $14.99. The bill for that discount is fully footed by Epic, so devs and publishers don’t see any less income from each individual sale, but many with games on the Epic Games Store aren’t happy with their games being devalued by a sudden deep discount.
2K’s statement doesn’t plainly say that the sale was the reason for the decision, but notes that the company is “working closely with Epic” and “[looks] forward to the game being back on the Epic Games Store soon. Games bought during their Mega Sale will be honored at that price.”
Other developers with upcoming releases have made similar calls as well. Publisher Paradox Interactive temporarily pulled its upcoming gameVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from the store entirely last week, and Epic’s director of publishing later said the company wasn’t “properly informed” about the sale ahead of time. Klei Entertainment made a similar decision for its early access game Oxygen Not Included and opted to temporarily remove it from the Epic Games Store around the same time.
Some publishers pay streamers as much as $50k an hour to play new games
“They could have spent on ads on Twitch or IGN and it would not have made as big of an impact.”
– Gamesight CEO Adam Lieb discusses the value of marketing through influencers
Streaming has become a massive part of the video game industry in just a few years time, so much so that a report from the Wall Street Journal says that companies like Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Ubisoft are willing to pay a $50,000 hourly rate for streamers to play up their new releases.
A story from Kotaku dives into that figure even more, speaking with those familiar with both sides of the arrangement to explore how streamers now play into the marketing process.
As the story points out, arrangements with streamers present would-be customers with something more authentic feeling than a regular ad while still giving the companies footing the bill a small level of control over the content being produced (so long as they stick to endorsement guidelines presented by the FTC).
The full read over on Kotaku offers a more in-depth look at how that side of game marketing has shifted to include Twitch streamers, along with additional insight from several individuals involved in both the streamers’ and the publishers’ side of the deal.
New Iron Throne Console Revealed for Xbox’s Game of Thrones Giveaway
Last week, we announced a new Game of Thrones sweepstakes featuring custom House Targaryen and Night King designed consoles, and you didn’t think we’d just stop there, did you? We’re thrilled to unveil this giveaway will also include a third prize – an Iron Throne designed custom console! The fight to rule from the Iron Throne started nearly a decade ago and launched countless wars, battles and betrayals. It’s almost time to see who will reign victorious over the Seven Kingdoms, and it’s only right we made an epic custom console to honor this moment in television history.
Just like the Iron Throne that sits in King’s Landing, the console features the swords of enemies that surrendered to Aegon the Conquerer. This is only the third custom design created for the newest member of the Xbox One family – the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Built for disc-free gaming and entertainment, the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition comes bundled with Minecraft, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 3. This Iron Throne console is truly fitting of the king or queen of Westeros!
Open until May 22, fans just need to RT our official Twitter post or “like” the official Facebook post announcing the giveaway. At the end of the giveaway, only three fans will be able to game with House Targaryen, the Night King or the Iron Throne at their side. What new heights will your gaming reach with “Game of Thrones” at your side? For full giveaway rules, see here.
Fans can also pre-order Season 8 of Game of Thrones on Xbox with Microsoft Movies & TV and receive an exclusive Iron Throne avatar with their purchase. For those who pre-order the “Game of Thrones” Seasons 1-8 Complete Series digital bundle, you’ll get the Iron Throne avatar plus two additional avatars. Full details here.
Don’t forget to tune in to the “Game of Thrones” series finale on May 19 to see what prophecies come to life, which characters will give their lives to their cause, or whom – if anyone – is left as the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
Your favorite characters have killed, schemed, risen back from the dead and much more in their quest to ascend onto the Iron Throne. Don’t miss out, these custom consoles are the ultimate prize for gamers and “Game of Thrones” fans around the world!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-22-2019, 09:49 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Dauntless Officially Launches Out Of Beta With Cross-Play Support
The action-RPG Dauntless has officially launched, ending a year-long open beta. The free-to-play game is now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC through the Epic Games Store. Phoenix Labs notes that this official launch fulfills its promise of cross-platform functionality, letting you play with friends regardless of platform or take your account with you.
The launch also comes alongside several updates. A new Mastery system lets you refine your skills and achieve rewards, and each Behemoth and weapon have their own unique Mastery cards to customize. The campaign has also been revised, and the update includes the new Season 5 Hunt Pass, named Hidden Blades. Hidden Blades opens a Moon Blossom festival and unlocks a bunch of new cosmetic rewards as you work your way through the levels.
As previously announced, this update launches alongside the new Arcslayer pack. It comes with a set of mech-inspired armor, consumables, and some premium currency. Switch and mobile versions are in development but a release date for either has not been announced.
"No one has ever launched on console with full cross-play support from the start, but we believed in our vision and, thankfully, our friends at Epic Games, Sony, and Microsoft did too," said Phoenix CEO Jesse Houston. "Keeping the community connected is one of our top priorities, and with all the new players coming in at launch, there's never been a better time to be a Slayer in Dauntless."
We Can’t Wait for Terraforming Mars Mobile to leave Beta
By Michael Coffer21 May 2019
Like many greats before it and to come, Terraforming Mars is both a hybrid of existing archetypes and something fresh all its own. The digital app stays true to that ground-breaking (pioneering, geoforming) spirit. It features robust AI, a thorough tutorial, and generally well-organized menus and interface, as well a pretty sophisticated online multiplayer. If the beta is any indication, the final release is going to be spectacular, launching an already popular game into the stratosphere. Accessible and quick, the game’s app is about as good as it can (and should) be.
Just like with older, established Eurogames like Castles of Burgundy or Princes of Florence, Terraforming Mars comes down to cold, hard Victory Points. It scrambles the path to acquire them, making players undertake the seminal work of, you know, actually terraforming Mars. There are a host of resources, card types, and effects to cross-reference, the sort of thing that produces grand strategy through a million cogs and gears. Featuring a great level of competition and finesse, the game is also about ecological creation as much as it is economic competition, and it is this push-and-pull between the two which animates the core gameplay.
The tabletop game is excellent, but full of borderline busywork as everyone trundles through the phases of a turn. Not for nothing does it call its’ turns ‘Generations’. It takes time because the decisions are agonizing, and there are so many to fuss with. Map layout is crucial, card management & memorizing the deck are almost must-haves for build planning. The bean-counting of resource generation, not to mention cost-benefit analysis, are all important and mentally taxing. Dozens of hotspots of activity and intel need to be on the player’s radar more or less constantly to allow peak performance.
Fortunately, the app organizes these multiple variables into a single screen, with the map dead centre, an individual player’s attributes along the bottom row, and the full player roster on the left-hand side. Details of how many effects, tags or cards someone has are behind tabs, which work like drop-down menus would. In short, the information is logically nested and more easily researched here than on a sprawling table. (For five player, anyways). Another benefit of the layout is that each player can separately spend their time between turns parsing the information most relevant to their aims discreetly and with a minimum of fuss. Terraforming Mars has a little bit of disruption and player interaction, more-so in the (superior) drafting variant, so the fact the app makes opposition research a breeze is no trifling matter.
The multiplayer lobby and experience is equally polished, though it does require an active Asmodee account (to be fair, that one account will cover any of their digital properties, so you get your mileage). In lieu of matchmaking, players host and join each other’s games, with ranking determined by the existing ELO scores of the participants. There’s a chat lobby, which was relatively lively and handy despite only being in beta. Games are ‘asynchronous’ in the sense that they are disconnect-friendly; each player can be replaced by a bot or will auto-forfeit if they are away for too long; otherwise the game preserves a snapshot of the last stage. Because a game will last between one to two hours, the soft asynch option will prove a great fit for those craving regular play amidst the micro-interruptions of everyday life.
This tired broken record of a pre-re-viewer must dutifully report that the game, which I hadn’t played in ages, has aged excellently. Moreover, its digital incarnation is fast displacing the bulky physical predecessor. Some games (Can’t Stop, Targi, a host of others) are simple enough in gameplay and small enough in shelf-space to keep around, but for complicated, intense games a good app breathes second life into the original’s excellence and lets those Kondo-ing their collections a way to say goodbye without excising the game from their repertoire entirely.
Terraforming Mars has been ‘almost out’ for over a year now, so it’s hard to say how much longer the wait will be (or the price of the app), but before the end of 2019 is a safe bet.
