State of Mind is a futuristic thriller game delving into transhumanism. The game explores themes of separation, disjuncture and reunification, in a world that is torn between a dystopian material reality and a utopian virtual future.
[Live Now] Play Rainbow Six Siege Free This Weekend On PS4, Xbox One, And PC
Anyone who hasn't picked up Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege yet will have a chance to give the online shooter a try for free this weekend. Between now and August 20, anyone with an Xbox One, PS4, or PC can play the full game for free, including all maps, modes, and Operators.
PC players can grab the free version from their Uplay PC Launcher. PS4 owners can also get the trial version from Rainbow Six Siege product page on the PlayStation Store; a PS Plus membership is required to play. Those with an Xbox One can get it from the game's page on the Xbox Store. And for the first time, Xbox One owners don't need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to participate--the free Silver level will suffice. Note that you still need Gold to play if you end up buying it.
If you decide to buy the game, you can pick it up at a discounted rate on the various digital stores for a limited time. Any progress you make during the free weekend will carry over into the full game. Here's the date range for the sale.
PC (Uplay) -- August 16-27
PC (Steam) -- August 16-20
Xbox One -- August 16-27
PS4 -- August 14-25
This is all going on to celebrate the upcoming Year 3, Season 3's Operation Grim Sky, which will be revealed during Six Major Paris August 17-19. The event will be streamed live via Twitch. You can find more information about the free Rainbow Six Siege weekend here.
Treasure Hunters Fanclub is funding five new indie games
Treasure Hunters Fanclub, an indie investment group founded by Australian indie label Fellow Traveller (previously known as Surprise Attack Games), has announced it’s investing in five new independent games, bringing its overall total committed funding to $500,000.
As detailed in a press release, Treasure Hunters Fanclub is adding two new members to its roster, including the developer of Fez, Phil Fish and Twitter founding team member Britt Selvitelle.
The new games to be funded include noir adventure Genesis Noir, planet exploration game In Other Waters, survival game Neo Cab, asymmetrical VR multiplayer game Panoptic, and solitary farm sim The Stillness of the Wind.
The investment group works to find interesting projects in need of funding, and after deciding which projects to back, provide mentorship from experienced members of the industry and marketing support via a publishing deal with Fellow Traveller.
“I’m so proud to be helping these amazing and diverse teams to bring their visions to life,” said Chris Wright, managing director at The Treasure Hunters FanClub. “Developers have responded very positively to our model as an alternative to traditional publishing terms and we hope to grow the group of members to be able to meet the demand from the studios we are talking with.”
Treasure Hunters FanClub is also accepting pitches from developers with unique and original projects, and more information on how to pitch and the kinds of games that are suitable can be found here.
Video: Teaching rapid prototyping through creating a game a week
In this GDC 2018 talk, game developers and professors Douglas Wilson and Bennett Foddy present a close look at the “Game a Week” model of game education and discuss the challenges involved in successfully running such a class.
Inspired by the Experimental Gameplay Project, Foddy and Wilson discuss how they’ve been teaching two versions of a class in which students (working alone or in pairs) make a digital game every week of the semester.
The two also go over the results this method has produced: a body of critically successful prototypes as well as students who have rapidly improved in terms of technical competence, design flexibility, and creative vision.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.
10 Tips & Tricks for Mastering Hyper Universe on Xbox One
If you’re looking for a high-speed MOBA that combines team strategy with side-scrolling action, then you’re in luck, because Nexon’s brand new free-to-play game Hyper Universe is officially out now on Xbox One! Hyper Universe pits you in a 4v4 match with the goal of eliminating the enemy team’s towers, giving you 39 colorful characters to choose from (called Hypers), each with a specialized skill set that can wreak havoc on your foes. With a huge array of characters and equipment at your disposal, Hyper Universe is easy to pick up, but tricky to master, which is why we’ve compiled a helpful list of tips and tricks to help you get out there and start wiping the floor with your enemies!
Tips and Tricks:
Familiarize yourself with different Hypers. Each Hyper can only be used by one teammate at a time, so have a backup ready in case someone chooses your main!
Create different equipment loadouts for the Hypers that you like to play. Every Hyper has a default loadout that they can select at the start of a match, but creating custom loadouts will allow you to vary your Hyper’s play style to mesh with your teammates and exploit your enemies’ weaknesses!
When upgrading equipment, you’ll get the most value by completely upgrading one item before starting to upgrade another one. Fully upgraded items have special properties and abilities that they don’t have at lower levels.
Know your enemies. Your go-to target during a match should be your opponent’s least defensive Hypers and any low-health enemies. Focusing your attacks on these targets will ensure that your enemy’s forces are taken out of battle as quickly as possible.
Positioning is key. If you’re near a tower, be wary of enemy Hypers like Admiral W., Arslan, Hondukei, or Athena—they can use their abilities to push or pull you within range of the tower’s targeting beam. Similarly, with good positioning, you can use your Hyper’s abilities to separate enemies from their team and allow your allies to make quick work of them.
You can use the lanes above or below your intended target to get behind them. Dropping down from a ladder or holo tile is a great way to get the drop on your enemy. Plan an ambush the right way, and your opponent will never see it coming!
When chasing an enemy, you can maintain your pursuit speed by jumping and immediately attacking. Pulling off the attack in mid-air won’t break your momentum, and will allow you to continue doing damage to your enemies while they try to escape!
Killing Jungle mobs will give gold to everyone on your team. Certain camps also drop boxes that will give a permanent stats boost to your Hyper. Controlling the jungle is a great way to get an edge on the enemy. Make sure to have one or two team members patrolling the jungle while the rest of your team deals protects your towers.
The Dragon on Dragon Refuge and Invader MK II on Delta Station drop powerful buffs when killed that can help turn the tide of battle. If you can’t find the enemy team, you should check these locations. If you arrive and find the enemy team attacking the boss, don’t worry. The buffs belong to whoever picks them up, not whoever gets the killing blow, so it’s possible to dash in and steal these rewards away from your foes.
Pressing Right on the D-Pad will allow you to ping your location to the mini-map to request assistance or alert your teammates to danger. You can use the Right Stick to ping other locations on the map as well. Use this to show teammates where you want them to go.
There’s plenty of battling to be done, so visit this page to start playing Hyper Universe now for free! You can also purchase the Ultimate Hypers Pack, which will instantly unlock all 39 available Hypers and grant you access to all Hypers released in the future. The pack will also nab you six Xbox One exclusive skins to wear on the battlefield, so pick up the Ultimate Hypers Pack on the Microsoft Store now for $19.99!
Old School Musical Brings 8-Bit Era Rhythm Game Action To Switch Next Month
Game publisher Playdius and indie developer La Moutarde have announced today that their upcoming rhythm game Old School Musical will release digitally for Nintendo Switch in September.
The game follows the adventures of Tib and Rob, two video game characters trained by their mother to be top class gaming heroes. Players must stay in tune, synching inputs with flying notes to help Tib and Rob find their loving mother, who appears to have gone missing. Miss too many of these notes, though, and Tib and Rob’s adventure will fall flat.
Filled to the brim with nostalgia-fueled references and nods to classic 8-bit games, genres, and tropes, Old School Musical is aiming to be a well-rounded love letter to the ‘80s and ‘90s. The game features a whole host of different gameplay types, including levels inspired by retro racers and the ability to shoot down enemies in side-scroller shooter levels. From there, players will need to take the fight to evil chicken armies to the beat of chiptune tracks from famous artists in a soundtrack featuring over 50 different tracks.
Features: – Story Mode: Lead Tib and Rob on crazy adventure filled with humor and 8-bit nostalgia -Arcade Mode: Reach the highest score and challenge your friends -Challenge Mode: Play it hard with visual and audio penalties to unlock new music tracks – Over 50 chiptune tracks by the best of the chiptune scene: Dubmood, Zabutom, Hello World, Yponeko, Le Plancton – Travel through 20+ retro levels, inspired by 8-bit classics – Local multiplayer mode supporting up to 4 players -A rebellion led by chickens angry over their constant abuse in videogames
The gameplay trailer below is an odd one to say the least, but make sure to watch it to the end to check out how the game plays. The music sounds fantastic, and the game looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Old School Musical will be released on Switch on 13th September? Do you like the look of this one?
Take on the role of a modern farmer in Farming Simulator 17! Explore farming possibilities in a new North American environment. Drive over 250 farming vehicles and equipment from over 75 manufacturers, including new brands such as Challenger, Fendt, Valtra or Massey Ferguson.
Back from vacation, we’re now trying to finalize 1.13.1 and get it to you as soon as possible. We’re pretty happy with where 1.13.1 stands now, and are aiming to get the full release out next week unless some major bug pops up.
A full changelog for this pre-release can be found on Minecraft.net.
CHANGES IN 1.13-PRE1
Improved performance of rendering chunks
Improved performance of spawning mobs
Renamed /chunks to /forceload
Bug fixes!
BUGS FIXED IN 1.13.1-PRE1
MC-136051 – Mob spawning ignores light level, biomes and height
MC-135945 – Bone meal particles wont appear when bone mealing
MC-135428 – /chunk targets the overworld by default and not the sender’s dimension
MC-135426 – Cannot tab-complete chunk coordinates in /chunk
MC-135424 – Relative coordinates cannot be used with /chunk
MC-135398 – /chunk (force|unforce) with /execute store success
MC-135392 – Dimension arguments fail to properly serialize, breaking “/chunk in” and “/execute in” in multiplayer
To get pre-releases, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).
Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.
Pre-releases can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.
Share your thoughts on how 1.13.1 is shaping up in the comments below!
How many times have you found yourself in Crucible, saying “They’re… over there! On my X! By the Power Ammo! No, not that power ammo, the other one!” It can be difficult to communicate exactly where an opponent is, especially in the heat of battle. Our Community Focus this week, Relikt, knows this all too well, and has been building visual guides to assist players in learning callouts for some time now. Let’s dive a bit deeper into the story of this community cartographer.
Eyes up, Guardian. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Relikt: Hi there! My name is Henrik and in my day job, I’m a full-time graphic designer living in Germany and doing mostly stuff with lots of pixels and vectors. In the realm of online gaming, I’m known as Relikt but thanks to the cooperation with my amazing buds over at Crucible Radio most guardians might think of me simply as the official un-official Crucible Cartographer of Destiny 2. And as such, I’m proudly educating my fellow Crucible oriented guardians with callouts and maps since the beginning of the Destiny 2.
What led you to joining up with the Community?
Relikt: I’m one of these rather old Halo veterans with a somewhat competitive background, so naturally I was interested in Bungie’s big new project from the get-go. At first, when the game was revealed I wasn’t too sure what kind of game Destiny was exactly going to become and whether or not it would be my cup of tea. But boy, I can tell you, the moment I first stepped foot into the Destiny Beta, experiencing that unique, bold new universe, the gorgeous Art and most importantly how outstanding the gunplay felt once again, I fell in Love with the game. But what ultimately made me stay wasn’t the rather addicting Crucible, the Trials of Osiris or the brilliant Raid experiences. It was the people I did all that with. I have a wonderful small Clan, the Taken Legends, that we founded back in 2015 and over the years some of those guys and gals in it grew to be good friends of mine. So to me, it really is all about the Friendgame.
Glad to see you’re not too silent of a cartographer. What inspired your first callout map?
Relikt: If I’m completely honest, back in the day when I started my first ever callout map, my sole intention was to create a visually stunning map with a unique art style that was pretty to look at. And sure enough, when I originally posted the finished map of Shores of Time in the Crucible Playbook on Reddit, I got a ton of positive and in some cases actually flattering feedback for it.
At that point, there already were dozens of excellent callout maps from other invaluable members of the community and I simply didn’t have the time and resources to catch up, so I decided to leave it at that for now. After all, for a long long time, Shores of Time remained the only map I ever did. Then when Destiny 2 was eventually announced, I told myself that this time, I was going to seize my chance and become the cartographer who supports the whole community with useful eye candy!
What would you say is your favorite Crucible combat space in Destiny 2?
Relikt: That’s a tough one, but I’d say Endless Vale. It was the very first map I created for Destiny 2 and these Beta-Maps traditionally have a soft spot in my heart too. From a pure aesthetical standpoint, I really love how Solitude, Wormhaven, and Meltdown turned out. Oh, and on a little Side Note, I would LOVE to create a callout map for my all time favorite Destiny map ever too: Twilight Gap. So I wouldn’t be too mad if you decided to bring that one back too! Wink, wink.
Have any advice you’d give to players just getting started?
Relikt: Well, aside from improving the fundamentals like aiming and character movement in general, I feel like map knowledge and beyond that map-awareness are some major skills you need to build over time. A good way to work on that without getting too frustrated is to gather some of your more experienced friends and head into some private matches with them. At first, crucible can be somewhat overwhelming but don’t get disheartened when you lose against better players. Every loss can be an opportunity to learn something. If you see someone pulling off a play you’re not capable of yet, don’t get too frustrated! Instead, let it inspire you to practice – one day someone else will be impressed by something you do too. Good communication and callouts certainly don’t hurt either.
What loadouts are you thinking of running when Forsaken launches?
Relikt: Oh man, don’t even get me started on this! With the new weapon slot system, the possibilities seem endless! Right now, I’m beyond excited to try out these bows you guys keep teasing me with. At first, I was kind of iffy on whether or not they would fit into the “space magic opera” that is Destiny. After seeing a couple of bows in action, I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on them. I think combining that exotic Wishender with a nice hand cannon or an SMG and maybe some Rockets sprinkled in could be very fun and equally effective!
Last call! Any final words of wisdom or shoutouts?
Relikt: Massive shout out to my Clan and my friends, Bones, Birds and Swainstache from Crucible Radio and the whole community in general for their continuous support. It’s my pleasure and I really hope, that the work I’m doing here helps some folks to improve their game and to get a better understanding of these great Crucible Maps and how to play them. On that note, I’m very excited to announce, that I’m going to cover all Gambit Maps (and of course all Crucible maps) too once Forsaken hits. So keep an eye open for that!
Oh and one last thing: “Over there” is NOT a callout! Seriously. It isn’t.
Over there, by the things! Many thanks to Relikt for his time. It’s always awesome to see a skill evolve over time, and these maps will indeed help players to improve their Crucible play. If you have someone in mind, let us know by suggesting them on our
James Bottomley on Linux, Containers, and the Leading Edge
It’s no secret that Linux is basically the operating system of containers, and containers are the future of the cloud, says James Bottomley, Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research and Linux kernel developer. Bottomley, who can often be seen at open source events in his signature bow tie, is focused these days on security systems like the Trusted Platform Module and the fundamentals of container technology.
The Linux Foundation: Who should attend Open Source Summit and why?
Bottomley: I think it’s no secret that Linux is basically the OS of containers and containers are the future of the cloud, so anyone who is interested in keeping up to date with what’s going on in the cloud because this would be the only place they can keep up with the leading edge of Linux.
