Crew Members Station Commander : Allen Stroud – Heldaban Kel Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri Lavian Space Program Director : Andy Barnes – Cmdr Kurgol
In theory I had all day at EGX again, however I might have lost a couple of hours to Sunless Skies in the morning before I set off! I interviewed them last year and it’s come on leaps and bounds since then, and is a very easy game to get lost in!
However I did make it to two panels. The audio for these are not available yet, but hopefully will be out “soon”
The 1st was on the power of gaming and creation vs bullying where 2 You Tubers chaired a discussion with the audience about how gaming and online communities have improved lives whilst acknowledging that cyber bullying is a thing. It was a nice and mostly positive discussion that touched on many aspects, from being bullied at school or online, having a teacher recognise your you tube channel through to how gaming and streaming can help with mental health issues for example depression.
The second panel I went to was on the Future of VR I enjoyed it but I didn’t find it particularly enlightening. For example anyone who’s tried VR knows that the goggles need to improve, made more comfortable and breathable, lighter, not being tethered etc. We also need better ways to move around in VR, but equally does anyone really want to run on an omni-directional treadmill for 10 miles to get to their next way point! Of course costs need to get more consumer friendly and haptics need to be improved. There are some truly amazing VR experiences that have been set up but these are obviously things you go and see as opposed to something you have at home. They also felt that VR needs to move away from “a gaming thing” to a tool that we all can use in our day to day lives. Teaching for example would be a great use of VR if done right.
Following on from this panel I went to play Skyfront VR which (as far as I know) is one of the 1st VR multiplayer shooters and I was able to get an interview with one of their community management team after the game.
I really enjoyed Skyfront, I wish I’d been able to play it “un-tethered” Although I know that technology is in its infancy. The game is a zero g shooter, where you use your gun to get around. This is a nice way to solve the movement issue that some VR games have, whilst not “planting” you in one spot, and jumping… The controls felt very natural, although I wasn’t a fan of where the grappling hook button was, though this is more a fault of the vive controller rather than the game! I am probably bias, but I found the environment being a castle but a zero g environment is a bit of a missed opportunity, since obviously one of the key benefits of being in zero G is that there’s no limitation of “up or down” and you could be incredibly creative with your maps. However their next map will be set in space, it will be very interesting to see how the game develops. It certainly has a lot of potential.
Finally I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Euro Gamer for allowing me to come to their event. As ever their support has been amazing. So that wraps up our coverage of EGX 2018 I hope you enjoyed it and until next time, fly safe and if you can’t do that, fly dangerous.
I tried to wheedle out some information out of Bethesda about Vault 76, but sadly all they had was the Vault Door, with an opportunity to hug Vault Boy, who enjoyed knocking my hat off and a Fallout themed van service Blanco Mac and Cheese!
The 1st Developer Session I went to was about the next Generation of NVIDIA Cards, the RTX series hosted by the guys from Digital Foundry. It was a good interview although they seemed to feel that without Ray-tracing making it into the next generation of consoles, that technology might fall by the wayside or at least be little used by “prosumer” PC Master Race gamers.
The 2nd Developer Session was with Paul Arendt who is Failbetter Games’ CEO and Art Director who gave a nice bit of history and update on the Game Sunless Skies as well as announcing their (Spoiler) Free Pen And Paper RPG set in that Universe! I love how their going more for a Victorian, Steam Punk take on what the universe is like, with living suns and rich moons with plenty of life on them as opposed to the more Scientifically Accurate version of what is actually there!
Finally I had a chance to watch a demo of Just Cause 4 where the walked through some of the crazy stuff you can do in that game – For example they made a FLOATING TANK!, but also how the game maintains a realistic(ish) physics engine.
I also interviewed the developer behind a new Flight Simulator called Deadstick, and I bumped into our friends from Snapshot Games who were there showing off a very busy Pheonix Point Booth.
Deadstick actually reminds me a little of Elite Dangerous if it were set on Earth, and you were a small independent pilot! In that it’s an open world and wont force you to do anything BUT you can run missions, upgrade you ship. It’s modelling much simpler planes than DCS, so instead of taking 30 minutes to take off you only need to flick a couple of switches. HOWEVER the depth to tinker is there if you want to and you can adjust your fuel mixture, and flick all the dials and switches in your cockpit to your hearts content. Also it matters where you place your cargo since its mass can effect how your plane handles. http://deadsticksimulator.com/
Most of us know about Phoenix Point, but it was great to hear that they have a provisional release date as well as why the game no longer shows you hit percentages.
Once again I had “real life” get in the way of fun, though I was still able to get a couple of good interviews in. The 1st was with Vanguard which is a cross platform space combat game. The second was with Shadow who run a gaming PC streaming service, essentially letting you have access to a full powered gaming rig from, pretty much anywhere! Psykokow talked about them on the main show a couple of weeks ago.
As always, these interviews were recorded in a noisy environment, and I apologise for any sound issues in advance.
Vanguard is a LOT of fun, I played on Mobile, PC with a HOTAS and on Oculus Go. Naturally I felt most comfortable using the HOTAS, however the game looked and handled brilliantly in Oculus Go using its motion controller. I personally didn’t feel as comfortable playing on the phone, and it could just come down to familiarity however one of the devs told me that he was routinely beaten by another of his colleagues using the phone. https://www.vanguard.game/
I think that the Shadow Interview covers most of what needs said about them. It’s an interesting concept and a great way to guarantee you always have a top of the line PC… so long as you have a good internet connection! I feel surprised to say this but it’s actually really good value for money even at £30 a month (I am giving you both the subscription and some extra drive space AND over estimating) you’re still cheaper doing this than you would be replacing a top of the line PC every few years… https://shadow.tech/gben/
I didn’t have a lot of time today due to “real” work but I did have a chance to re-visit one of my highlights from last year the National Film and Television School Game Development Students.
Firstly I spoke to Rose and Dr Timothy Kalifmann who are producing a game called MISFOLDED which is a delightful and dark story of Alzheimers.
Secondly I spoke to OIC (Obviously Inappropriate Content) The Game.
MISFOLDED had some really touching moments in it and beautiful graphics I don’t want to say too much less I spoil it. The game-play is a fairly straight forward, and a little slow with the game waiting for you to maybe take in the scene fully before moving on. However the story and the emotions it makes you feel definitely makes it worth your time.
OIC is a very unique game as well as a bit of a satirical political statement on Censorship in a less liberal society. The idea of the game is that you’re a game tester and have to spot potential inappropriate content as directed by your company’s management as well as “the supreme leader”. The actual game-play is divided in to 2 halves. The 1st part where you’re playing a fairly compelling if basic side scroll-er whilst looking for and taking screenshots of issues. The second part is unique as far as I am aware in that you’re at your desktop logging the bugs whilst getting instant messages or emails from people as well as news from your government’s political office.
Crew Members Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Archivist : Colin Ford – Cmdr phoenix_dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri Lavian Space Program Director : Andy Barnes – Cmdr Kurgol
Ed and Will on Monday’s Live stream explained that Frontier will not be talking about anything that comes after Beyond until after Chapter 4 has been released!
Crew Members Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri Lavian Space Program Director : Andy Barnes – Cmdr Kurgol
Want to win a Hyper X headset and mouse mat, as well as some in-game goodies? Take a screenshot of your ship at one of the new Engineer bases and email it to us at community@frontier.co.uk with the subject line ‘Contest: Engineers in Colonia’, to be entered in to the prize draw.
Competition starts 29th August and ends 28th September at 4PM BST
Crew Members Head of health and safety : Ben Moss-Woodward – Cmdr Eid LeWeise Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow (In)Human Resources Director : Shan – Cmdr Shanaeri
PSA Bulk Delivery Missions : (The missions where they say Deliver N tons of ‘stuff’ to ‘location’) Before we were given the stuff to sell. NOW we need to buy it from the station that you’re in.
Crew Members Head of Archives : Colin Ford – Cmdr Phoenix_Dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow Lavian Space Program Director : Andy Barnes – Cmdr Kurgol (in)Human Resources Director : Cmdr Shan Station Commander : Allen Stroud
IDA – Karmov Survey was completely repaired last week. Bao Landing Is the current target for repairs.
Anti-Xeno-League – the Eagle Eye network, which has been taken offline by Thargoid Sensor bombing of Dante Enterprise. Means that we theoretically don’t know where the Thargoid attacks will come next. But Canonn has become VERY good a t guessing 🙂 rumors that new group may be implicated. – Both target systems from week 23 – Magec and HIP 30045 were successfully defended, both having the Thargoid threat repelled. The residents of both systems can breath more easily today thanks to all who assisted in these efforts.All six Eagle Eyes this week are OFFLINE – transmissions are just “system error system error system error system error.”The Aegis megaships Vanguard and Acropolois remain in Nu-1 Columbae and Magec.Thanks to the hard-working Lab 69 XIA analysts who have toured systems with Ammonia Worlds or Ammonia Gas Giants scouring for non-human signal sources, we have identified the targets as Pemepatung and LP 102-320.Coincidentally, that bumbling oaf Aden Tanner was quoted in a Galnet transmission stating that Dantec Enterprise was unable to transmit to Eagle Eye due to Thargoid Sensor interference. Really sounds like those guys could do with a few pointers from our scientists on how to handle these things safely.However, their call for meta-alloys is likely to be met by all who – like us – are concerned at possible Thargoid developments over coming weeks. Like it or not, we need Aegis support for this intelligence.–Captain Rebuy–
Crew Members Director of Pest Control : Ashley Devine – DrToxic Head of Archives : Colin Ford – Cmdr Phoenix_Dfire Chief Bar Steward : Grant Woolcott – Cmdr Psykokow Lavian Space Program Director : Andy Barnes – Cmdr Kurgol
Gamescom Event – There is an Elite Meet at games com. In the DLC announced at Gamescom? Thread Ed got on the thread to dampen down expectation. He said they were only going to talk about new content coming in Beyond (Probably 3.2) , so no news about Elite Feet, Space Legs or any paid for DLC this season.
PAX West Community Event –We’re headed to PAX West in Seattle and we want to meet up with you to chat, enjoy free food, drinks and even more fun! We can’t wait to see you there! If you;-
Are available on Friday, August 31, 2018 from 8PM -12AM PDT;
And can make it to our venue at Melrose Market Studios in Seattle…
We’d love to invite you to our Frontier Community Meet! Spaces are limited so it will be first come first served!
Player Numbers – Brett C made an interesting point over the constant use of Steam Stats :-
It feels as if people are using Steam stats as the be-all-end-all argument that “Elite Dangerous is [dieing|dead|abandoned|on the death bed]”.
Unfortunately for those folks that are attempting to use Steam’s player count as ammo for the above… Steam stats only paint a very small picture of our actual player counts[b][c].
Elite Dangerous was not originally released on and locked to the Steam platform in 2014. It was made with our own client patcher, our own accounts system, our own developed systems. Completely split away from Steam. We do not force people to launch the game through Steam. At last check, players can download Elite Dangerous from Steam, and not have the Steam client running at all while playing Elite.
PS4 Issue – Reports of slow downs in the loading screens on the PS4. IF you have this issue Frontier recommends to do a PS4 reset ;-
Turn off the PS4 using the Turn off option not Rest mode. (r/http://manuals.playstation.net/document/gb/ps4/basic/power.html)
Disconnect the power cord from the machine.
Wait for 30 seconds and then plug everything back in and turn the power back on.
I hope this helps but if you continue to face issues, open a support ticket and we can investigate your connection to see if that may be facing issues.
Anti Xeno Initiative – Dhanhopi was attacked this week, Bok was saved. New Targets confirmed as CW Ursae Majoris and Kamadhenu, both have NHSS and wrecked Megaships (useful for interceptors). There are interceptor-grade NHSS in CW Ursae Majoris, only scouts in Kamadhenu. Aegis ships are in both systems – be aware that if the target locations for Thargoid Massacre missions are in other systems they will not count to save the systems.
IDA – So, the summer is finally taking its toll. Having rushed Artemis in record time, Kamov Survey in HIP 17892 has been slower to repair. But, slowly and steady the stations is being brough back online. Now, if you’re in the area (or want to visit beautiful Pleiades), please pop by Kamov Survey with a load or two. Some amazing commanders.