News Round-Up 28th March

Asura’s Wrath DLC Inbound

The first piece of Asura’s Wrath DLC arrives today for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Episode 11.5, unsurprisingly, fills the gap between Episodes 11 and 12. Episode 15.5 will arrive next week on 4^th April, which will no doubt fill us in on what happens between episodes 15 and 16. Both episodes will cost 160 Microsoft Points or £1.59/€1.99 on PSN.

Four new episodes will arrive on 25^th April as a bundle for 560 MSP or £5.49/€6.99. Then, more intriguingly, comes Asura’s ‘ultimate battles’ against Ryu and Akuma on May 9^th and 16^th respectively, again for 160 MSP or £1.59/€1.99 each.

Awesome Portal Laser Disco

Want to know how Portal’s classic “Still Alive” tune would sound on a fibre laser? Then take a look at this video:

Penny Arcade first reported the clip, which includes awesome footage of the laser producing the Aperture Science logo, as well as lyrics for you to sing-along to.

We could have a free-to-play game as good as Skyrim in two years, says Ngmoco

Not satisfied with Age of Empires, Team Fortress 2, and all the other great free-to-play games currently available? Well pay attention to Ben Cousins, Ngmoco Sweden’s boss, who believes we could get a “free-to-play equivalent of Skyrim” in as little as two years.

Speaking at the Free-2-Play summit (reported by GamesIndustry.biz) Cousins discussed the evolution of F2P games over the past few years, and where they could potentially be heading in the future, “I believe that single-player will be the next to be cracked in terms of freemium monetisation.

“I am totally 100 per cent confident – I will bet large amounts of money – that we will have, in the next few years, a free-to-play equivalent of Skyrim. A game like Skyrim, where you accrue skills and equipment over time, that you can play for hundreds of hours, is actually one of the easiest games to develop for a free-to-play model. That would be a big hit.”

What do you think? Do you want an F2P Skyrim? Would you prefer to just buy Sneaking Ability, rather than crawling up to sleeping villagers in a very creepy fashion?

The FBI Licences Unreal Engine 3

How many spy or cop movies have you seen where the hero spends most of his training camp playing Epic’s latest shooter? None right? Well apparently real life isn’t like the movies, because the FBI has just licensed Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 for use in their training simulators.

Eurogamer reports the deal is part of a deal with US sim developer Virtual Heroes. Mike Capps of Epic said “We recognise the growing market needs of our government customers and are excited to have Virtual Heroes provide a full spectrum of focused services and support using our game engine technology”.

I’m sure this simulator will be very useful for training the troops to prepare for the forthcoming Locust invasion.