Lots of videos coming out of last week’s San Diego Comic-Con, the Steam Controller may be getting tweaked (again), Doom now runs on an ATM, and woo boy Crytek’s in trouble—this is your must-know gaming news for the week of July 28.
Bucking tradition
The Steam Controller gets more and more traditional with each design pass. First Valve ripped out the LCD touchscreen in the center of the controller and added four diamond-array A/B/X/Y buttons. Now a new (legitimacy unconfirmed) image found by Steam Database seemingly indicates Valve has added an analogue stick to supplement the dual trackpad control scheme.
Steam Database Steam Database found this image of a revised Steam Controller with a thumbstick.
Ultima For-One-Year
Here’s some irony—Ultima Forever indeed does not last forever, and instead will come to an end just a year after its launch. As part of Mythic’s shuttering, EA announced that the free-to-play RPG will close down after August 29. Ultima Forever ain’t exactly a classic of the genre, but it does prompt the same old questions about the permanence of the gaming landscape and game conservation in an age of always-online, free-to-play, and multiplayer-only.
Early bird gets the Xbox news
Microsoft has announced the timing for its Gamescom press conference—Tuesday, August 12 at 1pm BST (British Summer Time). I hope you American readers like early mornings, because that works out to 8am Eastern or 5am Pacific.
The conference will stream on Xbox Live, Xbox.com, and the Xbox Twitch channel. Sony’s conference will happen later in the day, at 6pm BST, while EA’s happens the following day (August 13).
BeWare
Speaking of EA’s Gamescom conference, hopefully we’ll get to see more of what BioWare is working on—the company has been releasing surreal teaser trailers lately, like this one:
We have the technology
I can’t lie: I look forward to BioWare’s new IP more than another Mass Effect game. I don’t particularly feel like I need “another tale of the Shepherd.”
But if you’re still on-board for all things Mako, good news—BioWare released an archive of its San Diego Comic-Con panel, which focuses on the upcoming Mass Effect sequel.
And if Halo is more your speed?
But wait—what about The Witcher 3?
Crytek troubles
Lots of bad news out of Crytek this week. According to Kotaku, most of Crytek USA—a.k.a. the remnants of former Darksiders developer Vigil—quit earlier this month because of unpaid wages. Crytek USA’s upcoming game The Hunt will finish development in Europe.
And the rights to Homefront have been sold from Crytek to publisher Deep Silver, with many of the Crytek staff working on that title transferring to a new Deep Silver-owned studio.
Record Halo
Typically people play Halo on Legendary like this: run forward, shoot, run behind cover, recover shields, try again.
Speedrunner goatrope just beat Halo on Legendary in 1:36:40. Yes, less than an hour and thirty-seven minutes. And he was mad because he had seven deaths and “wasted” so much time. So mad that he posted the archive with the description “world’s worst world record.”
I wish I could have a world record that “bad.”
More reading
Ding-dong, July is dead. Finally.
There were a few stories to come out of this last week, though. A group of Australian hackers loaded Doom onto an ATM, the Xbox One is pricey in China, the Firefly cast is reuniting for a game, Logitech unveiled the world’s fastest mouse, and EA announced a $5 per month game subscription plan—which Sony said isn’t a great value, right before it unveiled its own questionable value with PlayStation Now.
See you next week!