Watch Killing Floor: Incursion's dev talk from the PC Gamer Weekender

Born from an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod in 2005, Tripwire's Killing Floor created a splash when it launched in full in 2009. By 2014, the zombie-slaughtering FPS had shifted close to three million copies.

The in-development Killing Floor: Incursion offers familiar Zed-slashing fare but with an up close and personal VR twist. At the PC Gamer Weekender, Tom invited Tripwire president John Gibson to the Dev Stage to talk all things Killing Floor, not least its incoming virtual reality-inspired iteration.

Expect trailers, in-game footage and questions from the presentation's live audience. Over to Tom and John:

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Planet Coaster cheat lets you drive go-karts in first person

Apparently a new holiday has been christened today, as Frontier Developments declared it Planet Coaster Cheat Day and took the opportunity to reveal some previously undiscovered cheats hidden in its theme park builder. There's a whole slew of them, but the one in the video above is easily the coolest. Name a go-kart track in your park "Bollard" and you'll be able to take direct control of a go-kart in first person.

WASD steers the kart, Shift honks the horn, and there you go: it's no Mario Kart, but you can drive around a course of your own design at ground level. For an extra boost, name an NPC "Andy Chappell" and take control of their kart. If you can avoid spinning out, you'll rocket past the other racers in their pathetic, normal speed go-karts. Hopefully the modding community will find a way to make this multiplayer, and we'll give it a week before horrific first person go-kart accidents start showing up on YouTube.

Some highlights from the other revealed cheats include being able to take control of a park guest in first person as they walk around your park by renaming them "TegidCam", turning off roller coaster friction by renaming a guest "Andy Fletcher", and giving security guards the ability to plow through guests like a bulldozer by renaming them "Lockettman". You can also make all of your guests simultaneously vomit by renaming a shop "MCLINTHE" if that's the sort of thing you are into.

You can see a full list of all the cheats Frontier showed off today on Planet Coaster's official forums, though it's safe to assume there's more where those came from waiting to be found. I thought cheats were nearly extinct nowadays, so it's nice to see a game keep the unscrupulous torch lit.

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Stardew Valley adds six new languages, improves controller support

After months of murmurs within the farming role-player's forums, Stardew Valley now has localisation in six new languages. Update 1.2 also brings with it improvements to controller support as well as a host of bug fixes.

Surplus to its default English option, players can now sow and socialise in German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Brazilian-Portuguese.

Publisher Chucklefish bills this as the latest update's "biggest" new feature, however controller support has been improved across a couple of key areas—such as snapping between menu buttons as default, and accelerating faster in the event this function is disabled.

On the bug fixes front, the following points have been resolved/adjusted:

• Fixed lighting shader not covering the whole screen on Mac and Linux.
• Switching from 'Windowed Borderless' to 'Fullscreen' should now go straight to fullscreen instead of Windowed mode.
• Wallpapers and floors no longer have a tile placement indicator showing a random object.
• Increased stability of preference-saving code. This should fix infrequent crashes that require the player to delete startup_preferences.
• Fixed a crash that can happen when a pig tries to spawn a truffle but there’s no space for it.
• Fixed a couple of rare crashes that could have occurred at any time during the game.
• Fixed a typo of the word ‘pronounce’ in the marriage event.
• Fixed the player not getting the recipe for Cookies if they skip Evelyn’s event.
• Farming level now affects crop yield prior to level 10.

Chucklefish also notes that update 1.2 is for now exclusive to PC and that while Steam players should see the update installed immediately, GOG players may notice a slight delay in its implementation.

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Prison Architect developer's next game is coming out later this week

After developing Prison Architect for six years, three of which were in Early Access, developer Introversion Software's next game is getting a much quicker turnaround. In fact, the first-person exploration game called Scanner Sombre will be coming out this Wednesday, April 26. No Early Access, no beta, just a full launch later this week for what Introversion's lead designer Chris Delay tells us is a "palate cleanser" after Prison Architect.

Scanner Sombre uses a unique visual mechanic that mimics a real-life LIDAR scanner. The game's world is completely invisible, but you can send out thousands of points of light to cover the landscape and slowly reveal the space around you. Delay told us the whole game is essentially one giant particle cloud with no limit to the number of LIDAR dots you can create, and every dot's position is saved exactly where you put them. A rainbow color scheme indicates distance and depth as you slowly work your way through the game's mysterious cave system.

Scanner Sombre is a shorter game compared to ones Introversion has made in the past, obviously with a much shorter development cycle than Prison Architect, and Delay said that was the goal from the very beginning. "We've actually spent longer on it than we initially intended. We wanted it to be a really quick turnaround, nice breath of fresh air, nice palate cleanser as we called it internally."

It was also apparently no small task to get this particle effect working. "It was really hard," Delay said. "It took us ages. We started out using a particle system that stopped working after about 10,000 particles, and then ended up [restarting] basically entirely from scratch just so that we could have enough particles on screen to make it look as dense as it does."

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The Witness designer shows off prototype of new game

The Witness designer Jonathan Blow has shown off an early prototype of a new game. While not official in any capacity, the unveiling happened during his talk at the Reboot Develop conference in Croatia. Thankfully, it was livestreamed on Twitch, so we're able to get a look at it as well—it's been uploaded to YouTube by Daniel Bross, and you can see it in the embed above.

It looks like it's a puzzle game that consists of pushing blocks around. According to Blow, it's still very early on in development, as most of the work has been focused on creating the level editor and engine, which will be made available to other developers for free. He said that he "should make and ship" a game on this engine, so we could could end up seeing it come to fruition. And apparently, he's already thrown together more than 25 hours of single-player gameplay, but he noted that it's unpolished and the visuals aren't final.

It might be a while before we see or hear anything else about this untitled game, but we'll be sure to report back when something is revealed. Blow's last two games, Braid and The Witness, were both puzzle games that garnered many positive reviews.

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Call of Duty: WWII's first images leak, include a guy with a gun

Activision announced Call of Duty: WWII with nothing but an image of a lone soldier. The company's plan was to make the actual big reveal on April 26, but for a short period of time, people could get a look at three separate, very small images of the upcoming first-person shooter.

Reddit user Braderz_12 noticed the images on the Call of Duty website's login page. There isn't much to them, but it sure is nice to see a Thompson submachine gun again. However, if you're hoping to get a look at them on the site itself, the images appear to have been replaced.

On top of this, Amazon has put up boxart for Call of Duty: WWII, and it features the same image of the soldier from the announcement. However, we can't be sure that this is the final artwork, and personally, I hope it's not.

Call of Duty: WWII's reveal is set for April 26 at 10 AM PT. There's no word on what will be shown, but if history is any indicator, we'll likely get a trailer that highlights the campaign. We do know that Sledgehammer Games is developing it.

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Free N++ Ultimate Edition update adds another 2000 levels

Today's launch of the free N++ Ultimate Edition update doubles its size to a ridiculous 4340 "hand-crafted, finely-tuned levels."

And in case the game wasn't hard enough for you, the update also brings a new Hardcore mode, "which changes the rules of the game and lets the player see Solo in a whole new light," developer Metanet Software said. "Hardcore mode is all about skill, so it's a true challenge for the Ultimate ninja!"

The Ultimate Edition update also includes 60 new color schemes, new ninja headbands, secrets, and at least one new achievement. And, as mentioned, it is free, while N++ itself is on sale for half-price—that's $8/£6/€8—on Steam.

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GTA Online goes old-school with top-down Tiny Racers mode

Grand Theft Auto didn't always look like it does today. The original, released in 1997, was built around not-entirely-dissimilar over-the-top crime spree action, but featured top-down, arcade style gameplay. It's a look that Rockstar is reaching back to for Tiny Racers, a new stunt racing mode coming to GTA Online next week.

Rockstar didn't have much to say about the mode except that it puts "a new spin on classic Grand Theft Auto action," but the trailer shows groups of four cars racing along narrow tracks, DMA Design style (that was the name of the original GTA studio), battling for powerups including weapons, mines, and parachutes—which look like they'll come in handy, given elevations (and lack of guardrails) involved.

GTA Online: Tiny Racers is set to go live on April 25.

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Cities: Skylines Mass Transit expansion gets a release date

On May 18 the Cities: Skylines gets more syklines in the Mass Transit expansion. Monorails, cable-cars, ferries and blimps are included in the $12.99 / £9.99 pack, which also adds new types of landmarks, and roads, and massive transport hubs to link all these things together. No mention of an Elon Musk style Hyperloop yet, though.

The update also includes new scenarios that challenge you to solve traffic problems. "Become an expert in traffic flow," says the blurb on the official Mass Transit update page, "use that knowledge to improve your city!" There are also new hats for Chirper the definitely-not-Twitter social media bird.

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Bandai Namco teases new project with the tagline: 'Prepare to Dine'

Bandai Namco has dropped a teaser trailer for an unnamed "new project" which flaunts the tagline: 'Prepare to Dine'.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, the Bandai Namco-published Dark Souls series' axiom is Prepare to Die, and the following animated short does echo the gothic architecture and towering adversaries of Hidetaka Miyazaki's twisted games. That said, Miyazaki has said the Souls series is finished for now and there is no mention of developer From Software here. It's most likely the use of this slogan is purposefully tongue-in-cheek, however what does could it mean?

"Enjoy this original animation inspired by a new title in development by Bandai Namco Entertainment," reads a statement on the Bandai Namco website, "due to be announced on April 20th, 2017".

There's no mention of platforms either—for whatever this mystery project may be—however here's the ultra-stylish animated teaser nevertheless:

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The Long Dark launches countdown that probably relates to long-awaited Story Mode

Open world survival game The Long Dark entered Steam's Early Access initiative in 2014. It first teased its much-anticipated Story Mode in late 2015, and set a provisional due date of spring 2016. That slipped, forcing Hinterland Studio to post a lengthy community update in December explaining it didn't want to rush something that wouldn't meet both it and players' expectations.

The developer has now launched a mysterious countdown which, at the time of writing, stands at 21 days, and 23 hours. Besides the game's logo and iconic axe moniker there's nothing else to go on beyond that, except the option to sign up for further updates.

The folks over at The Long Dark's corner of Reddit are convinced this is it, and, against the delays and Hinterland's previous updates, I struggle to imagine they're wrong. As part of the December update, Hinterland quoted Shigeru Miyamoto's philosophy on delayed games saying "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

Here's an excerpt from that update, posted by Raphael van Lierop:

"2016 has been a challenging year for me, and for Hinterland. We opened the year with the plan of launching Story Mode this past Spring, but I just didn’t feel good about where things were at, given the compromises I felt we were making to do that. I wanted to push further, do more, with the game, knowing that after all this time of you waiting for Story Mode, it would have to be something truly groundbreaking to really live up to your expectations. And to live up to our expectations."

"It’s been a constant balancing act between keeping our Sandbox players engaged and happy with updates, and also having the majority of the team working away on Story mode. Since it’s difficult to share Story progress without spoiling it, people sometimes feel as though we’re not working on it, which is frustrating for them, and for us. We deal with this by trying to stay focused on our launch and remember Miyamoto’s adage: “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” We appreciate all of you who continue to support us patiently."

When The Long Dark's Story Mode finally arrives, it promises new regions which will serve to flesh out the background of the game's end-of-days scenario, and will let players see how the Aurora affects the world. New hazards are planned too, which we'll  have the chance to see in detail come May 4.

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Smite now has a limited kart-racing mode

Smite, the third-person MOBA which pits a motley crew of gods and deities against once another in brutal hand-to-hand combat, now has a cute kart-racing mode. Or at least, it does for a little while: Apollo's Racer Rumble is a limited game mode which is available from now until May 9.

As far as seasonal novelties go, it's a neat one, and as a palette cleanser it looks like a lot of fun. There are two tracks – one set on Elysium Beach and another in the doomy depths of Molten Pass – and the mode supports up to eight players online. Oh, and you won't have to press a button in order to accelerate, which is nice.

Each of the tracks is strewn with relics (or Mario Kart-esque powerups), so there will no doubt be lots of raging about "fairness" and "rubber banding".

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Mass Effect: Andromeda update locks pirates out of eye-fixing patch

Despite being protected by both its Origin platform and Denuvo, Mass Effect: Andromeda was cracked by pirates less than two weeks after its release. The space-faring role-player's latest patch—which, among other things, targets the vanilla game's questionable eye design—comes packing the newest version of Denuvo, which comes with its latest, as yet uncrackable anti-tamper tech.

As reported by DSO Gaming, Mass Effect: Andromeda's 1.05 update patch notes don't mention the newly installed version of Denuvo, however what this means is that those playing on illicit copies of the game won't benefit from last week's quality of life improvements.

DSO notes that evidence of the change can be found in the game's executable file which supposedly contains strings found in other games powered by the anti-tamper tech's most up-to-date iteration—a list which includes Nier: Automata, Dead Rising 4 and 2Dark.

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Far Cry 4 director leaves Ubisoft, starts new studio

After seven years, Far Cry 4 director Alex Hutchinson has left Ubisoft. The veteran developer announced his departure on Twitter, while simultaneously revealing the name of a new studio he's founded with some fellow developers including former Warner Bros. and EA executive producer Reid Schneider.

"Extremely proud of all we achieved on Far Cry and Assassin's, but very excited to build something new," Hutchinson wrote. "Myself, [Reid Schneider], and some other wonderful people have founded a brand new company: Typhoon Studios."

"Probably won't have much to announce in the near future as we hire, build our studio, buy a coffee machine, and build Ikea furniture, but... we are hard at work imagining a brand new world to inflict on all of you, so stay tuned."

You can check out Typhoon Studios' logo on its official website, and it looks quite a bit like Ubisoft's logo. Far Cry 4 is one of the best action games from the past few years, so I'm excited to see what Hutchinson and his new studio are up to.

At Ubisoft, Hutchinson also directed Assassin's Creed III, but prior to that, he worked at EA on games such as Spore, The Sims 2, and Army of Two: The 40th Day.

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Besiege update to add multiplayer and a level editor

Medieval build-'em-up Besiege offers a lot of physics-based shenanigans for not very much money, letting you build vaguely Robot Wars-esque siege engines, before letting them loose on Medieval villages and fortresses. Released at the start of January 2015, it's still in early access—however, there's a big update coming that should breathe new life into the game.

The update's named, rather grandly, the Besiege Multiverse, and it will add co-operative and competitive multiplayer, a level editor, and an open sandbox you can mess around in to your heart's delight.

Excitingly, you'll be able to build levels while your friends are in there playing them. You'll also be able to fine-tune things like the physics and stats of units placed in the world.

There's no date yet for the Multiverse update, but developer Spiderling Studios hopes to have it released to the public by the third quarter of this year. It'll be free if you already own Besiege, while the price of the game will increase by $2 to accommodate the new features, when Besiege Multiverse arrives.

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Valve is now selling a real-life Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 'Five Year Veteran Coin'

Are you a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive veteran with an urge to blow a few bucks on silly swag? If so, then allow me to direct your attention the Valve Store on WeLoveFine, where a real-life version of the Five Year Veteran Coin is now available for preorder for $45.

The offer isn't open to everyone, though. As the FAQ explains, if you haven't earned the coin in the game, then you're not allowed to buy this physical rendition. And yes, they check: In order to preorder, you have to log in with your Steam account, and if there's no coin in your inventory, you're out of luck.

If it's simply a matter of timing—say, you're a four-year CS:GO vet—then "stay tuned," because the FAQ notes that "more purchasing opportunities" will be coming in the future. If your account is straight-up ineligible for some other reason, however, that's the end of it. "We have no way of allowing ineligible users to purchase the Coin, nor can we bypass any VAC bans or ownership checks to allow users to purchase," it says. For those who are eligible, purchases are limited to one, and only one, per account.

The coin, made from die cast zinc alloy with the "5" up front in copper, is 63mm in diameter and 3mm thick, and weighs just a hair under 56 grams. It arrives in a box with an acrylic cover that can be hung on a wall, and also includes an acrylic coin stand if a shelf display is more to your tastes. Worldwide shipping is included in the price, except to Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Burma, Syria and Sudan, although you may have to cover VAT or other region-specific taxes.

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Paradox sale discounts Stellaris, Cities: Skylines, Tyranny, Crusader Kings 2

Paradox' varied, frequently excellent catalogue of sims and strategy games is on sale on Steam this weekend.

Highlights include the superb Cities: Skylines, true heir to SimCity's throne, which is 68 percent off. The gorgeous, evolving space 4X Stellaris is 40 percent off. Crusader Kings 2, actually one of the best games in the world, is 75 percent off. Glorious co-op wizard-'em'-up, Magicka, is also 75 percent off.

If you want to dig into Paradox' back catalogue you can grab Hearts of Iron 3 and the complete Crusader Kings 1 pack for cheap too.

Great sale. If you were short of something to sink your teeth into this weekend, any of the above will serve you well.

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Game sales on Twitch are now live, offering free "Twitch Crate" rewards and more

Twitch has announced that the ability to buy games directly through its platform, a new feature that was first revealed back in February, is now live. The option will enable developers to make special offers to fans who are watching their games being played on the platform, and will also let partnered streamers earn money off of purchases made through their channel pages. Buyers will also be rewarded with free "Twitch Crates," which will contain randomized drops of items for Twitch including emotes, chat badges, and Cheer bits.

Beginning today and continuing over the next week, roughly 50 games and "related in-game content" will be made available for purchase through Twitch, with titles including For Honor, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Smite, Tyranny, Atlas Reactor, Broken Age, Firewatch, and Warframe. Purchases can be made from live Twitch channels or a game's 'details' page, and can be downloaded and played through either the Twitch Desktop App or publisher-run services like Uplay.

A Twitch Crate will be awarded with every purchase of $5 or more, and Twitch will hold a weekly "Twitch Crates Gear Giveaway" draw throughout April as well, with a grand prize of more than $500 worth of streaming equipment. (You can also go for a "no purchase required" entry right here.) Games available through Twitch are currently only priced in US dollars, but Twitch aims to bring in "localized purchase experiences" soon.

Purchases made through Twitch are fulfilled by Amazon, and it seems to work smoothly enough once your accounts are connected appropriately; to buy For Honor, for instance, you'll need to connect both your Twitch and your Uplay accounts to your Amazon account.

More information about buying games on Twitch can be found on the Twitch Blog.

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Terraria: Otherworld update reveals a new 'development partner'

It's been a couple of years since the announcement of Terraria: Otherworld, the followup that is not a sequel to the 2011 crafting-and-survival game Terraria. Developer Re-Logic hasn't had much to say about it since, but today it took to its forums to share some "important news." The good news is that the game is still in the works; the bad news is that co-developer Engine Software has been dropped from the project for reasons unknown, and that means it may take a little (or maybe a lot) longer than expected to get things done.

"Our team had a clear vision for this game—one that we shared with all of you with much shared excitement—and, as much as we hate to say it (and in spite of all of the reforms we tried last year) the current state of the game is still equal parts far from that vision and well behind schedule," Re-Logic wrote.

"As a result, we have made the decision to move on from having Engine Software continue development of Terraria: Otherworld. Re-Logic has possession of the game (code, art, sounds, etc.) as it exists today, and we have been examining the array of options available to us to get TOW to a place to where we can confidently deliver on the vision and expectations we all have for this game. After taking a good hard look at everything, we feel that a new and fresh start/direction is the only way Otherworld will ever reach its full potential at this point."

Pipeworks, which has been working since last year on the console and mobile version of Terraria, has now been brought on as the "development partner" on Otherworld. The two studios will "examine the entire game, from top to bottom, to see how it fits with our high expectations and core vision for this project," and while Re-Logic didn't commit to updated release timing, it did warn that the "quiet period" will likely go on for awhile longer while Pipeworks gets brought up to speed. It also promised that "a full refresh of all of the Otherworld public-facing locations" is on the way—even the Terraria: Otherworld logo is changing.

"Come whatever may, quality is simply not something we are willing to compromise on to make a quick buck. It may be painful in the short term, but our sincere hope is that it will pay off for everyone in the long term," the studio said. "Clearly, had we known this would be the scenario way back then, we would have held off on announcing the game until a later time—but such is game development. That said, we are really happy and confident with the new team and new plan—and cannot wait to get back on track."

Re-Logic said it would share more "very soon," but added that it "will not delve into some areas out of either respect or confidence or the unknown."

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Overwatch cheat maker ordered to pay $8.6 million in damages to Blizzard

Last summer, Blizzard filed a lawsuit against German cheat programme maker Bossland for "copyright infringement, unfair competition and violation of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision". Last month, we learned that the Overwatch developer was seeking upwards of $8.5 million in damages, despite Bossland's resistance, and now it appears a California court has ordered the latter to pay $8.6 million.

As reported by Torrentfreak (via the BBC), Blizzard argued that Bossland had "reverse-engineered and otherwise altered its games without permission". While attempting to have the case dismissed, Bossland did not defend itself in court but was nevertheless found guilty of 42,818 counts of copyright infringement—a case which follows similar court rulings in the UK and Germany. According to Torrentfreak, Bossland also faces around $177,000 in legal costs beyond the substantial court-ordered charge.

Despite the ruling, the BBC reports that the Bossland website is still active—and still boasting the tagline "botting is not against any law"—however, having tried to access it just now, UK browsers are met with the following message:

"On 16th March 2017, Bossland GmbH, and its directors Mr Zwetan Letschew and Mr Patrick Kirk admitted, in and for the purposes of proceedings before the High Court of England and Wales, that the sale of its software which it sells as Honorbuddy, Gatherbuddy, Demonbuddy, Hearthbuddy, Stormbuddy and Watchover Tyrant, to any person resident in the United Kingdom, constitutes an infringement of Blizzard’s intellectual property rights and an inducement to players of Blizzard’s games to breach their agreements with Blizzard."

"Accordingly, Bossland and its directors are no longer permitted to advertise or offer for sale such software to UK residents."

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