Pioneering AI character conversation game Bot Colony enters open alpha

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play a game where you choose exactly what your character says? Enter Bot Colony, an episodic sci-fi adventure game where players can have an authentic conversation with AI, and expect sensible responses in return.

In the game, which entered open alpha yesterday, players take on the role of a robot cognition specialist who has to find out why robot sensors have gone missing. This all takes places on a futuristic South Pacific island populated partly by robots with whom the player must interact as part of their adventure.

Unlike other games, Bot Colony uses an advanced form of ‘Natural Language Understanding’ which basically means that characters are able to understand human language and respond to it. According to indie developer and R&D company North Side, characters in the game understand and respond better than other popular bots such as Apple’s Siri.

Players can not only issue commands to ingame characters through voice and text, but they can also ask them to clarify things the characters have said, give opinions to them, and also ask further questions.

North Side CEO Eugene Joseph expressed confidence that “the ability for characters in a game to understand what you say and respond in an intelligent way has the potential to change the gaming world.”

Bot Colony entered an open alpha state yesterday after more than six years in development. Judging from an announcement on the game’s official website, the release is intended to allow the developers to build up funding to finish the game.

It is currently available for purchase as part of a subscription on their official website and already been greenlit by the Steam community.

1954: Alcatraz releases screenshots

Daedalic Entertainment today released a selection of screenshots for their upcoming noir point-and-click adventure game 1954: Alcatraz which is set for release in early 2014 on PC and Mac.

The game is set, as the title suggests, in the notorious Alcatraz prison of San Francisco in the fifties. It is focused around Joe, an inmate serving time for armed assault, who is seeking the help of his wife Christine to escape ‘the rock’ and get his hands on some hidden spoils left behind on the outside.

If only it was as simple for Joe as escaping and finding the loot. Instead, Christine faces threats from Joe’s former partner in crime and there are many others out there with their eyes set on getting hold of the cash.

According to multi-award winning developer and publisher Daedalic: “Players will have to make tough moral and action choices that will directly influence the course of the story, resulting in surprising twists and different endings.”

New zone and raid dungeon for Dragon’s Prophet

In the next few days free-to-play MMO Dragon’s Prophet will be updated, with a new zone and raid dungeon, along with new bosses to fight and an increased level cap, it has been announced by it’s European publisher Infernum.

The update brings with it Alentia, a new zone to the north of Auratia, characterised by “surging rivers of lava and gigantic rock formations” where players must help to neutralise a conflict and prevent a mighty devouring dragon from being reawakened.

It is also home to the game’s very first raid dungeon – Dragonheart Temple – which is designed to be tackled by groups of up to ten players.

To beat the dungeon, players must battle five all-new bosses, including at least four legendary dragons. Each boss has their own special abilities ranging from crystal manipulation for defense and offense, a special near-impenetrable shield, lava swimming for sudden attacks and the use of thunder elementals for phantom attacks.

Details of the fifth and final boss are being withheld until release day, but Infernum have promised “he is far more powerful than the four previous dragons and will deliver a fight to be remembered.”

The final major aspect of the update is a level cap increase to 90 so that players can improve their characters further than ever before.

Dragon’s Prophet is a free-to-play fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where players can tame and ride dragons to help them in quests, or as an ally in combat. It was released on September 18th this year, and is developed by Runewalker Entertainment, who are best known as the creators of free-to-play MMO Runes of Magic.

 

What games are out this week? – 4th – 10th November

Welcome to the first ever TGU ‘What games are out this week?’ post!

It’s a pretty busy week and there are releases on a variety of platforms with a diverse range of games from the new Call of Duty on the big consoles and PC (which has an exciting trailer – below), to the Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics 2014 game on WiiU and there are also a couple of iOS / Android game releases too.

Monday 4th November

Battle Worlds: Kronos – PC (Online)

Tuesday 5th November

Call of Duty: Ghosts – PC, PS3, PS4, XBOX 360

Zumba Fitness World Party – Wii, WiiU, Xbox 360 (North America Only)

Wednesday 6th November

A-Men 2 – PS3, PSV

Thursday 7th November

Dark Day LA – iOS (Online)

Rayman Fiesta Run – iOS, Android (Online)

Wii Sports Club – WiiU (Online)

Friday 8th November

Batman: Arkham Origins – WiiU

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection – PS3, XBOX 360

Assassin’s Creed Heritage Collection – PS3, XBOX 360

Final Exam – PC, PS3, XBOX 360 (Online)

Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games – WiiU

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy – 3DS

Storm the Train – iOS (Online)

Satuday 9th and Sunday 10th November

No Releases

Survival game 7 Days to Die announces Alpha 2 is coming next week

According to an announcement on the game’s official website, the Alpha 2 version of zombie-infestation-hardcore-survival-sandbox-fps-horror-crafting-rpg mashup 7 Days to Die “will be out next week” bringing with it new features and improvements.

The update will include new deathmatch and zombie horde game modes and maps to support them, new locations, new items and new enemies to fight against.

There will also be a “new menu look” with functionality improvements such as game mode customisation options and a server browser. Network protocols will also be improved meaning better performance and increased player counts. A full feature list will be available on release day.

7 Days to Die is described as “an open world, voxel-based, sandbox game that is a unique mash up of First Person Shooter, Survival Horror, Tower Defense and Role Playing Games combining combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth”

Players take the role of a survivor in a zombie infested landscape, fighting off the undead while trying to discover the truth about what really happened to the world. Exploration and survival are a key aspect of the game, with a diverse landscape, complete with wildlife, to explore and life off.

Developers ‘The Fun Pimps’ smashed their original Kickstarter goal of $200k, to raise a cool half a million dollars for their project between July and August this year. The game was subsequently greenlit on Steam in just 19 days and although it was briefly removed  it has since returned.

It is not yet available as part of Steam’s Early Access program, but Alpha Access (plus all future updates) is currently available for purchase on the official 7 Days to Die website for $35.

 

Auto Club Revolution announces ACR League Event

Eutechnyx have announced the biggest event so far for their free-to-play online racing game Auto Club Revolution – the ACR League.

The league which began yesterday is to be staggered over seven weeks and the ultimate winner will be “showered with gifts” and crowned “King or Queen of ACR.”

Other players who finish in the top ten will receive real-life prizes, including an MSI R7 260X Graphics Card, PC Tower Unit and a Cooling Fan, provided by Chimera Systems. The top 100 will also receive in-game prizes.

There will also be weekly prizes for the top three players on each leaderboard – an Xbox 360 Controller for Windows, Razr Mousemat and an Auto Club Revolution “Race The World” T-Shirt for first, second and third respectively. There will also be many in-game rewards given out as weekly prizes.

Every day a new leaderboard will be available, which are intended to cover “a host of different tracks and cars to really test your skills” according to Eutechnyx, Winning in these daily leaderboards mean players will get points which affect their position in the overall and weekly leaderboards.

Leaderboards will be updated and prizes will be awarded every Friday. To get involved, head over to the Auto Club Revolution official website.

‘Emotionally Gripping’ GRiEF game released

Student-led start-up Tarhead Studio today released their first title – GRiEF – an award winning 2D side scrolling platform game for PC about a grieving child.

In the game, players take on the role of a grieving child who recently lost their father due to cancer and the game centers around the grieving process.

Players move through five levels which represent the five stages of grief – notably denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The music, graphics and game mechanics are all designed in these levels to create an emotional experience for the player.

In a press release, Tarhead Studio said: “Our goal with the game has been to show the world that games can be so much more than just a toy, that the game medium has the potential to deliver just as deep and serious a theme as a book or a movie.”

The game has already won Best Scenario 2013 at the Swedish Game Awards and the Skövde Academic Game Award 2013.

You can find the game on Desura here for $1.99

Life is Feudal begins crowdfunding campaign

Indie games developer Bitbox today announced that it has begun a crowdfunding campaign for its upcoming fantasy MMO game Life is Feudal in the hopes of securing a 2014 beta release.

Life is Feudal is currently in a pre-alpha stage, but the developers say it will feature a a huge and seamless open world, impressive terra-forming capabilities, and very flexible free-building opportunity.

The game will also feature physics based combat, realistic player damage, a ‘formation bonus’ system, impressive depth, full looting, a complex food and cooking system and more.

The general premise for the game is that players will be able to colonise an open world and play politics or warfare amongst each other through diplomacy and classic siege warfare similar to games including Wurm Online.

If all goes to plan, the developers hope for a playable alpha version of the game to be available by the end of 2013.

 

 

Epigenesis now available on Steam Early Access

Indie studio Dead Shark Triplepunch today announced that their award-winning sports game Epigenesis is now available on steam Early Access for $9.99.

In the game, two teams of up to ten players in total play a ball game over rooftops with force-based, non-lethal weaponry and gravity boots to score points against one another and win seeds which grow into special-ability providing plants.

Project leader Michael Levall describes the game as “a love letter to Quake and Unreal Tournament‘s bombing run” albeit with a “modern twist.”

He adds that: “Whether you’re an old Quake player who misses the twitchy shooter, or if you’re someone who thinks you know the meaning of the word ‘hectic,’ Epigenesis has something for you.”

While the game is set for a Q1 release in 2014, it has already won Make Something Unreal Live (MSUL) 2013 from Epic Games and Game of the Year from the 2013 Swedish Game Awards.

Dead Shark Triplepunch will be hosting a community tournament from 15 – 18 November on their Twitch channel, and full information for that can be found on their website – http://www.deadsharktriplepunch.com

Rappelz Epic VIII part 3 update announced

Webzen has announced an upcoming update for free-to-play MMO Rappelz, which will be released ‘in the near future’ in the US and Europe.

The Epic VIII Part 3 update will expand on taming features introduced in Part 2, and players will be able to tame any of around 30 bosses to become powerful allies.

The update will also introduce 25 exclusive daily quests which reward the player with bonus EXP and special coins which will be used to buy powerful items.

Dungeon instances will also be improved and players will be able to select the right level of difficulty for their skill level, making them more accessible to all players. Rewards will be scaled according to difficulty.

Finally, the in-game inventory system will become more user-friendly and accessible after a full revamp.

Rappelz is a free-to-play MMORPG available in the United States (here) and Europe (here) where players battle in a “dark and devastated fantasy world” where they can train and tame pets, customise their characters in-depth and take part both PvP and PvE gameplay.