New evidence points to Russian interference in Pokemon Go, among other popular online services.
A report from CNN claims Russian political meddling used YouTube, Tumblr, and Pokemon Go to “sow discord among Americans.”
It’s not quite as cut and dry as planting a hard to find Pokemon somewhere and hoping to gain intelligence information from a hapless NSA Pokemon Go addict. In fact, the meddling was more of a bait and switch as far as Pokemon Go is concerned.
According to the report, Pokemon Go wasn’t directly changed, but rather “game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties,” according to a statement in the report from Pokemon Go creators Niantic.
Horizon: Zero Dawn‘s “Frozen Wilds” expansion is coming next month, taking players to an area called the Cut. This is a “boreal wasteland” outside of the base game’s region. It’s a cold, snowy place, and quite a marked change from the lush, colorful areas from the base game.
Now, Sony has released a new trailer for Frozen Wilds that shows off some of the environments players will find, including snowswept mountains and icy rivers. “It is a place where none but the most skilled hunters dare venture, and those that do must survive against dangerous new machines and freezing temperatures,” developer Guerrilla Games said in a post on the PlayStation Blog.
The Frozen Wilds contains new storylines and characters, along with new machines to fight against. The expansion is enhanced for PS4 Pro with better graphics.
The Frozen Wilds launches on November 7. It costs $20, but if you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you can pre-order it now for $15. Pre-ordering gets you the Banuk Aloy avatar.
In other news, Sony recently announced a Horizon: Zero Dawn complete edition that comes with the base game and the Frozen Wilds expansion, along with all Digital Deluxe edition content. It launches on December 5, priced at $50 in the US.
Zero Dawn launched earlier this year and has sold more than 3.4 million copies. The open-world action game is a marked change from what the first-person Killzone series that Guerrilla is perhaps best known for.
Mike Laidlaw, a BioWare veteran who worked on Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and most recently served as the creative director for the Dragon Age franchise, has left the company. Laidlaw had been with BioWare for the past 14 years.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Laidlaw said, “It’s with a mix of emotions that I’m announcing my time with BioWare has ended. After 14 years and a chance to work on Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and all things Dragon Age, it’s time for me to move on.”
Regarding Dragon Age specifically, Laidlaw said he has “every confidence that the world we’ve created together is in good hands and I’m excited for the road ahead.”
Laidlaw did not give any specifics about what’s next for him, apart from saying he “plan[s] to spend [his] time reconnecting with all the amazing games and worlds that my peers have created.” Laidlaw added that he plans to stream himself playing games on Twitch and connect with fans on Twitter.
“To everyone who’s taken the time to share feedback and experiences, your amazing cosplays and artistic creations: thank you. You’ve made my time ‘in Thedas’ amazing. Your passion inspires and I look forward to our next adventure together.”
It is not immediately clear if Laidlaw’s departure from BioWare was by his own choosing. We’re following up with BioWare studio owner EA in an attempt to learn more.
Mass Effect producer Michael Gamble said goodbye to Laidlaw on Twitter. The wording of tweet suggests that Laidlaw’s departure was not as part of a layoff, though this is not confirmed. “Best to you in everything, Mike. We will miss you, but I admire you for taking the leap, and you can count me as one of your supporters,” Gamble said.
Laidlaw joined BioWare in February 2003 as a lead story developer and writer for Jade Empire. He worked in the same role for an unannounced game. He also worked on Mass Effect and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. In November 2008, Laidlaw became the lead designer for Dragon Age: Origins. He was promoted to creative director for the Dragon Age franchise in 2009, working on Dragon Age II and then Dragon Age: Inquisition. Laidlaw was promoted to senior creative director for the Dragon Age franchise in June 2017.
Survival games challenge you to gain control of treacherous worlds. You typically start with very little, and need to scavenge for supplies and resources in order to craft the tools needed to help you avoid death. Success usually means having enough power to establish yourself in a higher place on the food chain, or hunkering down and building a fortified space strong enough to keep the rest of the food chain out. The Flame in the Flood doesn’t allow you to achieve either of those goals and is a consistently gripping experience as a result.
Set in a rural post-societal America, The Flame in the Flood is a procedurally-generated survival game that focuses on constant movement and improvisation. The entirety of the game’s world consists of a large, overflowing river that has engulfed the countryside, destroyed man-made infrastructure, and isolated parts of the geography, turning them into islands.
The Flame in the Flood’s audiovisual presentation is integral to establishing its strong sense of place. The art direction invokes the aesthetic of a gothic storybook. The atmospheric sound design is ever-present. The rush of the flowing river is refreshing, and the heaviness of the thunderstorms is frightening. The musical score is an excellent array of Americana, ranging from mournful blues harmonica, cheerful acoustic guitar fingerpicking, wistful mandolins, and rough alt-country vocals. Together, they give The Flame in the Flood an aura of both despair and quiet beauty.
Your protagonists are a seemingly immortal dog and a survivor whose main concerns are keeping her hunger, thirst, body temperature, exhaustion, and any major injuries under control. Because the survivor can die from neglecting any of these concerns, players must keep them at bay by either scavenging or by crafting a variety of items using resources obtained from the land. But because of the game’s narrative conceit, you’re only able to scavenge on small islands with severely limited offerings. Finding the right components to create items you need often means exploring multiple islands as you traverse the river on your makeshift raft.
Your raft can be upgraded at marinas, provided you have the right components.
There are two major constraints that make this task both interesting and difficult. The protagonist can initially carry only a dozen items in her backpack, and you’ll only be able to dock at one or two islands in a cluster of many before the current pulls you further downriver. This design is frustrating at first–the impulse to grab every item and explore every area will cause you to waste far too much time and energy rearranging your backpack and paddling against the current. But once you embrace the idea of “going with the flow” so to speak, The Flame in the Flood becomes an engaging exercise of short-term prioritization and impulsive decision-making.
Though it will take a number of failures to understand the ecosystem, learning which items are universally useful and avoiding long-term hoarding are the key to staying alive. For example, keeping uncommon fire-starting materials in order to have a method of staying warm, dry, and being able to build a safe place to sleep is more vital than hoarding food–food eventually spoils, and edible flora is common enough in certain ecosystems to snack on as you come across it. Working out your priorities and having the courage to leave valuable things behind is a stimulating challenge. The Flame in the Flood keeps you on your back foot at all times. This feels like true survival.
Unfortunately, the user interface can prove to be a source of frustration. Essential tasks, like sorting your inventory and getting a broad idea of your current crafting options feel unnecessarily taxing because of the number of steps required. All pertinent information is kept within multiple subcategories accessed from a single screen. Inventory management and crafting existing in separate subcategories, and the recipes for different kinds of craftable items are separated into subcategories under that. Finding out what components are missing for a particular tool can be tedious because of the need to flip between menus and scroll through multiple entries to reach the information. Even after hours of play, I was still wrestling with the menu system, especially when using a controller. In fact, I began switching to mouse and keyboard exclusively for menus to make navigation a little easier.
Sure. I’m cold, wet, starving, exhausted, and lacerated all over. But man, what a view.
But switching to mouse and keyboard is not something I want to do because movement, especially piloting your raft, is far more precise and satisfying with a controller. Travelling to new locations via raft requires deft avoidance of rock formations, remnants of human infrastructure and floating debris. Lightly flowing waters regularly turn into violent rapids, which are as treacherous as they are fun to navigate–impacts are devastating on both your raft’s integrity and your own vitals. Using the last of your stamina bar to push your raft just shy of a large, jagged outcrop is consistently thrilling, and when things quiet down, gently steering your raft through the remains of drowned towns at sunset while a haunting lap-steel melody plays is a sublime experience.
The Flame in the Flood encourages you to put long-term goals aside and live in the moment, to make choices and overcome short-term problems with risky but satisfying spontaneity. Despite the awkward menu system, it’s an absorbing game that lets you experience a journey in the present, and fully appreciate the sights, sounds, and joys of floating down the river in its alluring world.
Update: The Flame In The Flood’s arrival on Nintendo Switch as a “Complete Edition” comes with the mechanical refinements and feature upgrades that have been added since the game’s initial release. These include quality-of-life tweaks to crafting, an insightful developer’s commentary, and more importantly, an alternate dog companion to choose from. While the visual fidelity noticeably lower on the Switch and there are some minor hiccups in performance that aren’t present on other platforms, The Flame In The Flood still remains a unique and absorbing survival game. We have updated the score to reflect our experience with the Switch version. – Edmond Tran, Fri. October 13, 2017, 9:00 AM AEST
On this week’s Xbox show, we give our impressions of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Star Wars Battlefront 2 multiplayer beta, and The Evil Within 2. Plus: four new Xbox One bundles, the hidden Master Chief inside every Xbox One X, God Eater 3, and more!
Oh, and Unlocked now has its own snazzy new homepage! Bookmark this: go.ign.com/unlocked
