I'm a gamer. I grew up in and around one of the best cities anywhere, Austin, Tx. Head down if you like live music or games!
132178 stories
·
8 followers

Titan Quest 2 early access delayed due to 'a lot of noise' from ARPG competitors, but the developers say closed playtest results have been 'incredibly motivating'

1 Share

I have unfortunate news for everyone else who spent too much time reading about Greek mythology when you were a teen: We can't play Titan Quest 2 as soon as we'd hoped. In a Steam news post today, developer Grimlore Games announced that the Ancient Greek Diablo-like's early access launch is being pushed back to summer.

Considering it was originally announced as a Winter 2024/2025 release, we probably shouldn't be surprised, because, you know. That was a season ago. The reason, Grimlore Games said, is that it was "closely monitoring the market and realized there was a lot of noise with regards to ARPG in our targeted release window."

(Image credit: THQ Nordic)

If anything, that's an understatement. In the last six months, Path of Exile 2 hit its own early access launch, embarking on a rollercoaster of difficulty discourse and disastrous patch rollouts. Diablo 4, meanwhile, is causing upsets with ever more expensive cosmetic bundles. And while those two heavy hitters stir up turmoil, Last Epoch has emerged as a Diablo-like dark horse for discontented loot goblins.

So, yeah. Things are a bit loud in ARPGs at the moment. Probably better for Titan Quest 2 to wait for the volume to die down. But despite the delay, Grimlore said it's gotten "incredibly motivating" data from its closed demo playtest in March, which contained the game's introduction chapter, Mastery selection (subclasses, basically), and a boss fight with what looks like some kind of giant, horrible griffin.

In a refreshing case of game development transparency, the studio shared some of the numbers from its playtest survey, and the responses from early testers sounds promising. 92% of surveyed players reported a "very positive experience," which includes the 66% of players who described themselves as recent Titan Quest players or TQ1 experts. Good sign if the diehards are pleased.

(Image credit: THQ Nordic)

Grimlore said results were similarly positive for the game's atmosphere, quests, and combat design, with players reporting—on a scale of 1 to 6—an average difficulty rating of 3.6.

"This is a good place to be—challenging but not unfair," Grimlore said. "We want to strike a balance between engaging combat and an experience relaxing enough to enjoy after a long day." Given my own appreciation for casually blowing up screens of skeletons, that's reassuring to hear.

The studio did acknowledge areas that players identified as needing some improvement, however—namely that some described the combat as feeling a little low tempo. Grimlore said its goal is to make combat feel "tactical and meaningful, but it should never feel sluggish," and that it's "looking into improvements." Work's also been done to alleviate struggles that some players had with aiming abilities during fights.

We don't know when exactly to expect Titan Quest 2's early access launch this summer, but the developers said they "hope to be able to announce a fixed date very soon."



Read the whole story
· · · · ·
Jagmas
1 hour ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete

Elder Scrolls Online’s new housing contest could gift top designers with a year of sub time

1 Share
The Elder Scrolls Online hasn’t been overly forthcoming about future development plans for the MMO’s housing, but the team certainly hasn’t forgotten housing exists, and we’re not just talking about the latest house giveaway. Today we’re talking about a major housing contest that ZeniMax Online is offering – and winners could score kind of a […]
Read the whole story
Jagmas
2 hours ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete

Dune: Awakening beta weekend release date and times

1 Share

Even though Dune: Awakening saw a short release date delay, pushing it to June 10, you can still sample the anxiety of a sandworm chase this weekend. Starting tomorrow, Dune: Awakening kicks off a new round of beta tests through the weekend with "much more hardware" than previous closed tests, so here's to hoping there's sufficient infrastructure and plenty of spice to support us all.

We know a lot about the survival sandbox take on Frank Herbert's Dune series, but test runs have historically been far more limited and tight-lipped. Funcom's recent blog post also notes, "unlike previous Betas, this one has no NDA, meaning you can share any info you want with friends, or even stream the game for all to see."

When is the Dune: Awakening beta weekend release date?

The Dune: Awakening beta weekend begins on May 9 and ends on May 12. That gives you four days to explore a limited slice of its starting areas, a journey Funcom estimates will take roughly 20-25 hours. As for more specific windows, we've got the timings broken down by region.

Dune: Awakening beta weekend by timezone

  • North America
    • May 9, 8am EDT – May 12, 6pm EDT
    • May 9, 5am PDT – May 12, 3pm PDT
  • South America
    • May 9, 9am BRT – May 12, 7pm BRT
  • Europe
    • May 9, 2pm CEST – May 13, 12am CEST
  • Asia
    • May 9, 9pm JST – May 13, 7am JST

How to get a Dune: Awakening beta key

You can register for the Dune: Awakening beta on Steam, sign up on Funcom's official site, or luck out and score a key during its global LAN broadcast on Twitch. Funcom says it's got "tens of thousands" of beta codes to give away during its marathon stream starting May 10.

We've also spotted Dune: Awakening code giveaways out in the wild, like through Razer's X account or other content creators. Supply goes quick, so do some extra social media lurking if you're antsy.



Read the whole story
· ·
Jagmas
3 hours ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete

Fallout season 2 wraps filming and celebrates with video of Walton Goggins ripping his skin off

1 Share

Fallout season 2 has finished filming – and we're headed to New Vegas.

Prime Video announced that the live-action Fallout TV series' second season was completed with a video of Ghoul actor Walton Goggins ripping off the facial prosthetics for his makeup in slow motion. You can watch the video below.

You might remember that, in the final moments of Fallout season 1, we see villain Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) look out over the horizon and begin to walk toward New Vegas. New Vegas was also confirmed as the central location after a set video leaked, showing dazzling New Vegas before the nuclear disaster.

Season 1 also ended with the location of a cold fusion device, which supposedly has enough energy to restart civilization. So it's possible that season 2 will see civilians attempt to restart in none other than New Vegas.

Goggins recently told GamesRadar+ that season 2 is "on a whole 'nother level," and that he "wasn't prepared for where the story was gonna go and how fully fleshed out" the world would be.

Fallout: New Vegas is the fourth installment in the video game franchise and centers on a location made up of parts of Arizona, California, and Nevada that was built out of the ruins of what used to be Las Vegas. The story also concerns a conflict over who will ultimately control both New Vegas and the Mojave Wasteland – and it's possible we may see this conflict play out in season 2.

Fallout season 2 does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the best Prime Video shows and the best Prime Video movies to watch right now.



Read the whole story
Jagmas
3 hours ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete

K-2SO’s Andor Origin Story Was Almost a Standalone Horror Episode

1 Share
Andor K2 So Lucasfilm

The Rogue One droid almost encountered Cassian in a very different way than we saw in this week's Andor episodes.
Read the whole story
Jagmas
3 hours ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete

Rush Endgame With These Path of Exile 2 Huntress Tips

1 Share

If you spend any amount of time online, you’ll find that, as is common with anything cool on the internet, there’s a ton of discourse surrounding the Huntress in Path of Exile 2. Some find her incredible, myself included. Others think she’s weak, subpar, and squishy. To those doubters, I’d like to emphasize that I’m…

Read more...

Read the whole story
Jagmas
3 hours ago
reply
Round Rock, Texas
Share this story
Delete
Next Page of Stories
Loading...