Remain calm, but it's really happening. A new trailer was released for the upcoming Mass Effect game, Mass Effect: Andromeda about an hour ago on their Youtube Channel. Much to the delight of the fans, of course and introducing our new enemy that is replacing the much-feared Reapers from the previous three games. 

It's a fantastically done video, giving you the slightest hints at what you can be expecting in the game without giving anything away, masterfully created to keep the hype going strong. In it we see some of our new squadmates will be getting some much needed attention and a rather intimate moment between our new protagonist and one of their subordinates.

I guess in the future there's not much emphasis placed on maintaining military discipline, but that's exactly the point made in the trailer- we're not dealing with a war anymore, everyone we're going to come to know and love is fleeing a war. This is a group of peaceful explorers who have bee forced into an ugly position of having to wage yet another battle for species survival. 

We're shown the story but not much else of the actual game and gameplay, of what we're going to be doing when not fighting or exploring and that's okay with me, I like a little bit of mystery. Initially. But with the release date of March 21st fast approaching I expect the number of these trailers is going to increase. 

After the official release of the The King and the Warlord DLC on October 20th, Creative Assembly has uploaded a video to their youtube channel giving a detailed walkthrough of how one would go about the initial stages of leading one of the Dwarvish clans under King Belegar Ironhammer (depicted above in all his Dwarfish glory.) Assuming you haven't already beaten the campaign, the video offers some helpful tips and suggestions as to what you should be doing once the game loads and what you can expect...

Read the rest at Keengamer. 

Things have been pretty busy for Amplitude Studios in recent days. They've added a new faction to one of their more recent games, and are in the midst of creating another one for their brand new game. Which  has just gone into Early Access on Steam today. And if that wasn't enough for us, we've also gotten two new videos that offer a closer look at what we can expect from Endless Space 2 when we sit down to play it.

There are two videos, each one focusing on a different faction. One for the Sophons (a fan favorite who starred in the first Endless Space) and one video for a new faction unique to this Endless Space, The Vodyanoi. Both of them feature much of the same dialogue and  themes, the visuals have just been tailored to fit the species staring in the video, you're far better off watching the official faction introduction trailers hereand here. Both videos show the evolution of their respective species, opening with the chilling words the plan is in place. Dust is spreading, in every corner of the galaxy......

​Read the rest at KeenGamer

The hero of history's oldest work of literature returns to the spotlight, this time as the latest confirmed leader in Civilization IV game. The leader of Sumeria joins the ranks of Emperor Trajan of Rome, President Roosevelt of the United States, and Queen Victoria of the British Empire in the upcoming Sid Meier's game set for release at the end of this upcoming October. 
 
Sumeria's ability, aptly named epic quest means that every barbarian outpost captured yields a reward and in another not-so-subtle nod towards Gilgamesh's literary past the ability adventures with Enkidu means that pillage rewards and combat experience are shared in joint-wars with allies. The War Carts, Sumeria's special unit, are available at the games start, implying that Sumeria is meant for an aggressive play style and the research required for joint war is easy to acquire.
 
The uniqe building for the Sumerian civ is the Ziggurat, providing science and culture when adjacent to a river, another nod to the area known as the Cradle of Civilization between the Tigrus and Euphraties rivers, which saw numerous civilzations rise and fall alongside Sumeria.
 
Whereas history has quite a bit to say about men like Ghandi, Roosevelt, and Trajan relatively little is known about Gilgamesh himself. According to legend is was two parts god and one part man, ruled for 126 years and consorted with Gods and survivors of the biblical Great Flood. While it might seem outlandish and outrageously false to us now, remember that his influence was so great that even though his civilization crumbled thousands of years ago knowledge of him is still so commonplace that we incorporate him into our modern stories.  

Civilization IV will be officially released October 21st, 2016 and for those who want more information feel free to check out the details yourself here. 

Because I am such big fans of Amplitude and their work (but how often do I remind you of that?) I'm on their Newsletter and religiously follow it for news so that you don't have to and boy do I have something fun for you. An email came out at 3:04 PM (that's east coast time here in the United States) warning us all to get ready because Endless Space is coming to steam this September!

Now I want to warn you its only Early Access, I wouldn't imagine them shipping a full product anytime soon. Its a classic Amplitude move, putting their product on Early Access. Amplitude has this philosophy called Games Together, they really try to keep their fans as engaged as possible, letting them play around with a game thats not fully finished and seeing what they think, allowing them to tinker with it and then giving them back a completed version with their requests and wants addressed if not fully integrated. 

Now that's not all that came out in this email, we also got a new bit if info about one of our playable races, and Amplitude has been somewhat hush-hush on this front. I mentioned last time that the faction creation contest was now up and that is still going on but we have a brand new never-before-seen species thrown into the mix. The Lumeris. 

The Lumeris are one of the eight major playable races, a species of amphibious traders, that have built a society that revote around trade and economic deals. Their society is organized around a series of families that have balanced power and negations between them. There are four of them, the Four Families. The Arrakyo deal in politics and legislation, the Meos run farms and agricultural products, the Omokar handle union issues and construction and the Lancellum build ships and ports. 

Now the interesting about this faction is that they don't use colony ships, instead they buyout planets, and then they can sell them to other empires at a profit which is super cool. Their leader is Fenestra Omalfi'Meos (most likely from the Meos family, which could give some kind of food bonus in addition to the +2 dust bonus they already get) but if you'd like to see more, there is a faction trailer here and I for one, welcome the amphibious mafia people to the club and cant wait to see more of them. 

Amplitude Studio's is back at it again with yet another faction creation contest, this time for their newest title Endless Space 2. The details can be found here for those interested but lets just give a rundown of what is to be expected. For those of you who don't know, Amplitude Studio's is very closely linked to its fanbase and has a philosophy called Games Together, and here is what Amplitude Studios co-founded Romain de Waubert de Genlis has to say about the idea; 'working together with players is a good thing, but you need to give tools to our players so its easy for them to participate. They need to be able to voice their opinion in one click.' 

In Endless Legend the fan made faction was the Cult of the Eternal End, a faction that could only build one city and relied heavily on the minor factions scattered around the world to develop and build its power. According to the rules, this time around Amplitude is looking for a more diplomacy heavy race, using peaceful ideas to expand and develop. You need a 2,000 word description of your faction and you need to explain how it's unique to the gameplay. Remember, the Cultists were unique not because they only had one city and a strange aesthetic but because they used the minor factions more than any of the other major factions and did things with them that no one else could even attempt to replicate and you do need a name! 

Now this is the important one, you're due your ideas by August 25th of this year and the deadline is 6:00 PM CEST! 

I'm actually really excited about this one and am looking forward to seeing what the fanbase creates, because Amplitude has always been so good to its fans I'm sure that they won't disappoint and something inventive and new will join the ranks for the upcoming game, which is gunning for an Early Access on Steam this summer and has released two faction trailers to mark the occasion, found here and here. 

Firstly I'd like to apologize for my lengthy absence, college is starting back up and that's gotten my schedule in a real mess these past few days but not so thrown out of shape that I've missed the news about Battletech. For those of you who don't know I've been following this game for a very long time and have always kept an eye out for new information, be it lore based or more about the gameplay mechanics. 

On August 4th an update went up on the Kickstarter page (Backers only I'm afraid, but thanks to that one Redditor who posted the information for all to see) that detailed the combat system that the game would have, including a 20 minute video that showed what the game looked like as of today, shown above. And I have to say, it looks and sounds pretty good as of now. Remember that for the initial kickstarter campaign, Harebrained Studios asked for 250,000 USD and raised 2.8 MILLION by the end of the month, there are a lot of people who are excited for this project.