#gaming feature

[hardcoregamer]

SimCraft's $150K Apex GT: Unleashing Euphoric, Healing Racing at Sim Racing Expo

SimCraft wowed attendees at the Sim Racing Expo with their $150K Apex GT cockpit. Is sim racing the future of cognitive rehabilitation?

SimCraft offers hardware that is actually used for repairing cognitive function and other medical uses, and it was in attendance at the Expo. Everyone who tried it over the weekend agrees that there is nothing else like it.

[feministfataley]

If You Build It They Will Come – Crowdfunding Gaming Projects

The games market can be a fickle thing.   One minute your product is the talk of the internet, everyone is playing it and discussing it and making weird fan art of it.   The next minute the shareholders of the publisher decide it’s not making enough money and kill the series off.  That’s business for you I guess.  Except now that doesn’t necessarily mean the end.

Gaming companies can now ask fans to help fund the game directly.  There are a few ways this can be achieved.  Patreon allows game designers to offer a monthly subscription to fans to help them fund projects they love and access other rewards.  The amount a person can pledge is set into tiers ranging for a few dollars to a few hundred dollars a month.  At lower tiers the reward might be access to exclusive content only Patreon backers can access.  At higher tiers this could mean backers receive physical rewards, such as art prints or unique accessories.  

For example, American McGee is crowdfunding a third Alice game.  His first game, American McGee’s Alice, was a cult success.  You play as Alice Liddell falling into Wonderland again after the death of her parents in a fire.  This time Wonderland has changed.  The bright colours and childlike whimsy give way to a dark gothic horror aesthetic. In the early 2000s - the age of the Emo - this game was very well received.  The second game, Alice:  Madness Returns, was greeted with the same enthusiasm.  

However, EA have not seen fit to commission a third game.  American McGee is instead asking fans of the series to help him fund the pre-production of Alice:  Asylum. At the top end of the sponsor tiers on Patreon fans can receive a monthly signed art print and a piece of jewellery that is a replica of something Alice wears.  This campaign has seen a lot of support and a Kickstarter to fund the production of the game itself is planned for this Autumn.

Kickstarter is another popular choice to crowdfund a gaming project.  This platform has seen many successes already, with projects being entirely funded by fans now available.  Kickstarter involves tiered rewards also, but instead of paying an amount monthly this involves a one-off payment.   Rewards for this again vary widely.  The lowest tiers may get a thank you email, with mid tiers receiving copies of the game once completed and their name in the end credits of the game.  The highest tiers may offer backers the chance to have themselves put into the game as a non-playable character as well as a copy of the game and other physical rewards such as merchandise.

Shenmue 3, a sequel to the Sega Dreamcast era Shenmue series, has seen a lot of support on Kickstarter.  It is the fifth most funded gaming project on Kickstarter, reaching $6.3 million dollars of support.  Preorders are now available for the finished project – this game was entirely funded by the generosity of it’s fanbase.  

Broken Age by Tim Schafer was also entirely funded by Kickstarter.   Schafer’s studio, Double Fine, was the first to use Kickstarter to fund a project of this size.  Fans pledged $3.3 million dollars to see this game come to fruition and Double Fine has since funded two other games through this medium.

This has seen backlash however.  Broken Age’s original funding goal was only $400,000.  The amount raised being far more than that raised questions about what they would do with the extra money raised, and some backers were upset that more content was not promised because of the extra funding.  

This has not dissuaded creators however, and new gaming projects appear on Patreon and Kickstarter every day.  It’s a great time for creativity in the industry.  The ability to seek funding from people who care about your product and not just the profit allows for some interesting concepts to come forward and receive funding to make this idea a reality.  

It couldn’t come at a better time.  The industry tends to get clogged with remakes and sequels of games proven to make money.  It is tiresome to see the predictable annual releases of FIFA and Call of Duty continue to see big profits.  The industry would stagnate if not for smaller producers and companies willing to take risks to create an interesting story.  The best gamers can do as a community is support these creators. After all, money does make the world go round.  Enthusiasm and creativity only get you so far.

[continueplay]

Why is Total War always so broken on release?

by Jay Adams

From a very young age I loved to read stories of massive battles in history, just the sheer scale of some of them blew my mind. As a kid, your mind runs wild just trying to visualize what that many people in one place looks like, and at the time it was something that I thought I was never going ...

[fiiery2weg]

Gaming Feature (SolDave)

Sollux, Dave, Karkat, Aradia, and Gamzee- who stood there in his clown glory doing nothing- all belong to Hussie.

Rated M for Mature? I guess?

Contains Troll x Human relationship, which can be either Yaoi or Hetero depending on how you think about it. Don't like it? Keep Scrolling.

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"KK, II'm thcared," said a scared Sollux- who wouldn't be saying he was scared if he wasn't.

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"Welcome to Casa de Strider," said Dave, opening the door to his apartment. Sollux gave him a confused look. "What de Thtriider?" Dave chuckled. "Casa means house in Spanish. And house, as you've learned from us humans, is what you call a hive." "Oh...Cool.  "Yeah...so, whatcha wanna play?" Dave lead the yellow-blood over to his massive collection of video games. He had all sorts of things- Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, Grand Theft Auto, and this one game that was some stupid Pokemon get up. All that, and about fifty other games- and those were just for his gaming system. He also had board games, like Monopoly and Twister, and about a dozen computer games. None of them were as cool as Sburb though- even if said game caused the end of the world and killed a lot of people. Sollux looked at the choices he had to choose from and eventually settled with Mario Kart. He picked up the game and held it out to Dave, not really understanding how the heck it worked. "Mariio Kart." Dave took the game from the troll's hands and popped it into his gaming system. He handed Sollux a remote and picked up another for himself. "Ready to have your butt kicked?" "Briing iit Thtriider." And the gaming commences- and of course, Sollux won. He was a god to the gaming world...Mostly because he knew all the cheats by heart. Shh, don't tell Dave. Just kidding- Mario Kart was different than Troll Mario Kart and so didn't have exactly all the cheats that Sollux knew, which led to them tying. "Dang," muttered Sollux. "Geez, you're good at this." "Whiich iith thurpriithiing beecauthe II played thiith once beefore." Liar. "Huh... Wanna go another round?" Dave asked, ready to click the restart button. Sollux shook his head. "Nah, II wath thiinkiing of watchiing you play thomethiing elthe.." Dave gave him a curious look. "Oh? What do you mean?" "Twiithter." Dave smirked, going over to his closet to pull out said game. "Let's play then." "II don't know how. That's why II thaid II would watch you play iit." "Heh. It's usually better with two players but whatever." Dave opened the box and gave Sollux the spinner. He takes the plastic sheet with colorful dots on it and spreads it out on the living room floor. "Okay, just flick the spinny arrow on that spinner and I'll either put my hand or foot on one of the colored dots. Easy enough, yeah?" "Thould II athk why iit hath flamboyant colorth or jutht leave iit?" Sollux asked as he spun the spinny arrow on the spinner. Heh, say that five times fast. "Thome thiitty yellow color." Dave put his hand on yellow and Sollux spun again. "Ugh, thiith iith boriing, jutht thiittiing here." The yellow blood went over to the sheet and put his hand on blue. "II thiink II'll jutht go ahead and play two. Your move, Thtriider." The two of them go back and forth with the spinning- Dave put his foot on red, Sollux put his other hand on green, Dave put his free hand on blue, and then Sollux put his foot on red. But when Dave went to move again, he put his other foot on red- but it was on the same red spot as Sollux'. "Waiit, you can do that?" Sollux asked, blinking in confusion before spinning. Yellow. He stretched out and put one of his hands on the yellow that Dave was on, almost hitting his head on the albino's shoulder.  "Yeah." Dave spun and put his other foot on a yellow spot under Sollux. "Don't underthtand why but okay." Sollux put his free foot on blue after spinning. Dave smirked. "Well, this is okay~" he said, looking at the position they were in. "What do you mean?" asked Sollux, who didn't understand. "Well..." Dave was sort of under Sollux, so he flipped the troll onto his back. "This position-" "Pleathe don't randomly flip me- and you're thtiill not makiing any thenthe, Thtriider." "Geez, you're so dense. More dense than Jake English." Dave got off of Sollux and let out a sigh. "And Kanaya told me it would be easy..." The albino held out a hand for the other to take. Sollux took hold of his hand, letting the other pull him up. "Eathy for what? Confuthiing me wiith human culture? IIf tho, then congratth, you won at that." BOOM! Suddenly a wild Aradia appeared, in Maid of Time garb, and froze time for just Sollux, leaving the poor yellow blood standing there with the most adorable confused face ever. The rust blood looked at Dave with a smile. "Dave, what are you doooing?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything at all," mumbled Dave as he went to go to the kitchen- but when he noticed Aradia he stopped. "Oh, hey Aradia. Nothing much." "Doooesn't looook like 'nooothing much,'" said the rust blooded troll with a cute grin. "You were making an advance ooon Sooollux, weren't yooou?" "What? Nah, he's too dense for me." "Oooh? Then why were yooou doooing acts ooof human cooourtship?" Her grin got big like she just discovered a giant treasure in an ancient ruin. Dave blushed lightly at her words. "I wasn't, it's normal for humans to do that." "Oooh really? Well, then I guess Rooose was wrooong then..." "What did she say?" Dave asked curiously. "She said 'yooou have the biggest man crush ooon Mr. Captooor, and yooou knooow yooou can't resist his fine plush rump'... I assume that a 'rump' is the surface that ooone sits ooon?" Aradia asked with a giggle. Dave was internally screaming, his body shaking to keep his cool. "I could never like Captor. He wanted to learn how to play Twister, that's all." "And sooo yooou flipped him ooover because...?" "I flipped him over because I lost focus and tripped on air." Aradia flicked him on the nose with another giggle. "Liar~" "Why would I lie? That's unironic," muttered Dave, who rubbed his nose after it was flicked. "Dave, yooou knooow that I already knooow yooour feelings fooor him. Just let it ooout already." "I don't. It wouldn't work out anyways- every time a past or future me confesses to him, he is either dead or rejects me. I feel the rejection and the pain when I see him die. And I can't do a thing about it." "But it doooesn't happen with this timeline- boooth ooof yooou end up having a happy ending, sooo tooo speak," reasoned Aradia, trying to get the Strider kid to understand. But he only shook his head, not getting it at all, muttering that 'he can't.' "Can't what? Can't let it ooout?" At her question, she unfreezed time in a manner that is pretty undetectable by anyone, even a hero of time, thus letting Sollux to have a chance to hear what was going on. Dave looked at Aradia in the eyes. "I love him, okay?! I love the way he talks with that stupidly cute lisp. I love the way he always smells like honey. I love it when I can make him smile or laugh. I love it when we're alone together. But I couldn't tell him that...Because if I told him that I felt that way, I could never see or do those things again. And I could never bear living with that." "...that'th beecauthe you never thought to try, fuckath" Sollux came out from behind Aradia, looking at Dave. "You can bee really thiinkpan wiithpleth at tiimeth, Thtriider." Aradia giggled and goes behind Dave, who she then pushed into Sollux. Captor ended up kissing Dave before they fall to the floor because Aradia had very strong shoves. Dave tried to pull away to apologize but Sollux stopped him just as Aradia giggled again and vanished. "Runniing away, Thtriider? We thtiill have a game two fiiniith, and iif II remember correctly, we were liike thiith when you pauthed the game." Dave could only blush lightly, doing nothing so Sollux could do whatever. But the yellow blood had no idea what the heck to do when it came to human 'courtship' so he gave the albino a sheepish look. "II don't know who two play thiith part... teach me-" Sollux was cut off when suddenly Karkat and Gamzee showed up. Dave was oblivious because only Sollux could see them at that angle, so he smirked and kissed him, pushing a hand up his shirt. "I'll teach you a lot more than this~" "STRIDER, WHAT THE FLIP ARE YOU DOING TO SOLLUX?" Karkat shouted. Sollux's face went the same shade as mustard, both at Dave's actions as well as Karkat's shouting, let alone being there. Dave flipped off Karkat- and Gamzee- as he snaked his other hand into Sollux's pants. "NO NO NO NOPE NOPE NOPE." Karkat pulled Dave away from Sollux, who whined when his...not sure what to refer Dave as, was pulled away and dangit, did he have to end up breaking the button and zipper to his pants? Anyways, back to Karkat. "YOU ARE NOT HUMAN COURTING SOLLUX UNTIL YOU EXPLAIN TO HIM WHAT THE INSUFFERABLE NOOKSTAIN HE IS GETTING INTO." Dave sighed. "Geez, fine. Sol, do you want me to pail you so hard that you can't walk tomorrow? Because when you can't walk, I will shower you with kisses and I will cuddle you before I make us breakfast- pancakes with honey, of course. What I'm trying to say is...Will you let me be your matesprit?" "...well, fiirtht off, II would out paiil you on the hardneth thcale. Thecondly, II'd out thower and 'cuddle' you- whatever the fuck that meanth. Thiirdly, no miind honey, pleathe. And lathtly...II dunno, Thtriider, wiill you bee miine?" Karkat's jaw dropped to the ground and then some. "YOU'RE SHITTING ME, RIGHT?" "Thut the fuck up, KK." Dave almost laughed at Karkat's reaction "Heh, yeah if you want mind honey. But Aradia told me not to... but I'll let you have it if you like licking~ and I would totally out pail you any day." "Theriiouthly, no miind honey- even iif iit iinvolveth liickiing... And you thiink tho, Thtriider? Briing iit on." "NOOOOO GOG FUCKING NO. NO PAILING, NO LICKING, NO ANYTHING!" shouted Karkat. "Heh, you're jutht jelly, KK." Karkat glared at Sollux. "FUCK YOU AND YOUR HUMAN PAIL BUDDY...WAIT, I TAKE THAT BACK!" "Yeah, yeah, beep beep meow..." Dave rolled his eyes and picked Sollux up bridal style and started walking towards his bedroom. "If you don't want to hear us pailing, then leave." "GET THE FUCK BACK HERE, STRIDER YOU ARE NOT PAILING MY FRIEND. GAMZEE, STOP THEM!" Sollux laughed a little whilst being carried... gah, did they seriously have to break his pants? Dave chuckled lightly as he got to his room, opened the door and walked in. He closed the door with his foot. "Now, you want some new pants or should we get started?" "GET BACK HERE! SOLLUX YOU'RE MAKING A MISTAKE...IT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE ME!" Karkat yelled at the door- which Dave locked- but Sollux ignored him and grinned at Dave. "Thtriider, what diid II thay about fiiniithiing gameth? Fiiniith what you thtarted." Dave smirked as he took Sollux to his bed and put him on it. He then took off his and Sollux' shirts before pressing up against the yellow blood. "Let's finish this game~" And so they did and sometime later, Dave had to make Sollux an honest troll and married him. They named the wriggler who was the cause of said marriage 'Applebee Captor Strider' and Karkat was the custodian. THE END.

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II HAVE NO 2HAME. Really, II don't. Thii2 ii2 a fanfiictiion II wrote month2 ago on my dA. IIt'2 ba2ed off a RP my friiend and II diid. IIt'2 actually iin three part2 on my dA but why not ju2t have iit a2 one wiith thii2? II kiinda hope II can wriite more fanfiictiion2 but II've got wriiter'2 block. We'll ju2t have two 2ee. 2o whatch guy2 thiink?

[indiegamergirl]

Out of the loop

Every now and then a game comes along that everyone's talking about. They're sitting on the edge of their seats waiting in anticipation for its release date, and afterwards it's all anyone is talking about. You can't get away from it. Every piece of news is about that game. you can't stop hearing about it. Until you just want to scream enough! Enough already enough!

Last year that game was Skyrim. You couldn't get away from news about skyrim, new mods for skyrim, how high graphics people had got for skyrim, new texture pacts for Skyrim, new patches for Skyrim. And you know what? I didn't mind, because at the time I was playing Skyrim. I had played Morrowind, i had played Oblivion, I was with them. I was on the edge of my seat waiting just like everyone else, and I was drooling at the prospect of one day having a computer powerful enough to run all the mods people were talking about. (One day I will have my dream!)

But what about when you don't have the game? When you know nothing about the series? what then? this years big game is Diablo 3. There's no denying it, we'll probably be talking about Diablo 3 for months. Especially if blizzard encourages some harmless modding. 

Now I know nothing about the Diablo series. I was probably too young to play the first one, and I didn't have the money to afford games when the second one came out. It's not like you can buy either anywhere. There's not even a classic edition, (at least not from what I've seen.) You can't buy it on GOG, so how you're meant to know about a franchise which is probably just as old as you are, when there's no way to play it without pirating?

So I am probably the only game journalist right now who doesn't own a copy of Diablo 3, and had zero interest in playing it before release, but here I am feeling left out as everyone online joygasms over it. I will of course buy the game, in a few weeks when Blizzard have sorted out their servers and fixed the game breaking bug. I will play it and probably not even like it that much, because to me it doesn't look that interesting, and I am a person who loves fantasy RPG's more than anything else in the world. I feel a little bit out of the loop as to why people enjoy this game and want it. Because it just looks like a lot of mouse clicking, and a lot of very dark visuals. It confuses me as to why computers are currently being advertised as "CAN PLAY DIABLO 3!!!!" like Diablo 3 has amazing graphics. Sure it looks nice... through that haze of very dark darkness... but I'm pretty sure you don't need a super computer to play it. I'm pretty sure my computer probably wont break a sweat to play it. 

It's just so much hype... I just wish there was a way to play the previous two games without facing risk of infecting my computer with a bajillion viruses. Because I'm fairly sure my computer can not survive another virus. and then I might be able to get behind the game more... and the hype. I don't know... Feel free to yell at me as to why you love Diablo. I am eager to hear why. And then maybe I can get a bit pumped for when I purchase it in two weeks.