Terminal velocity.

Titanfall 2 is a game about momentum. It knows when to rush forward at a breakneck pace. It knows when to give us time to breathe. Both in its single player campaign and its multiplayer modes, Titanfall 2 has a more measured pace than its predecessor, making the build-up to its climactic battles just as enticing as the events themselves. It's every bit as kinetic and fluid as the first Titanfall--but in many respects, it's a much better shooter.

As with the first game from Respawn Entertainment, Titanfall 2 revolves around two layers of combat: conventional firefights between human combatants, and clashes between massive bipedal mechs. As a boots-on-the-ground pilot, Titanfall 2 feels more like a traditional shooter--albeit one with pristine controls and a fluid traversal system. The first Titanfall sparked the trend of shooters focused on movement, and with its sequel, the series reestablishes its place at the head of the pack. The loop of sliding, double jumping, vaulting a ledge, and running along a wall to flank an enemy feels invigorating and intuitive.

Then it comes time to call in your mechanical ally from orbit, and everything changes when it hits the ground. Because it's when these two layers engage in a tug-of-war that Titanfall 2 reveals its true brilliance. What was once an even fight becomes a David versus Goliath scenario: a pilot rushes to cover, fires off a rocket, glides along a nearby wall, avoids a missile salvo from her robotic opponent, activates her cloaking device, and enters a nearby ravine to order a Titan of her own.

This sequence is intense, but in Titanfall 2, it's commonplace. Momentum often shifts as one team gains control of the battlefield, only to lose ground when the other notices a weak spot, and attacks it.
This is crucial in Titanfall 2. Now more than ever, combat requires forethought and intelligence. Humans may be careening across the map with grapple hooks, while phase-warping ninja mechs cut through laser-powered robot warriors--but beneath all of this is a hidden nuance. Despite the bombast and spectacle, Titanfall 2 is a thinking person's shooter.

The sequel's new Titans embody this sentiment. In place of the basic light, medium, and heavy variants from the first game, Titanfall 2 employs six distinct walking battle tanks with arsenals of their own. They're almost like superheroes: one attacks with a thermite launcher and flame attacks, while another fires a chest-mounted laser cannon at unlucky opponents.

Each of the Titans' abilities are easy to learn, but difficult to master, as the saying goes. Their loadouts immediately make sense, and it's easy to see that Northstar's low armor and long-range railgun make her an ideal sniper--but new layers reveal themselves the more you play. Take Scorch, for example. His flame shield dissolves incoming projectiles, providing extra protection while he tries to back away from close-quarter engagements. But the flame shield has other uses: at one point, an enemy pilot came flying at me on a grappling hook. By igniting my fiery barrier, I melted him just as he came close to my cockpit.
Learning the intricacies of each Titan is paramount not just for offense, but defense, too. Each mech has a distinct aesthetic, so as you round a corner and see a Ronin approaching you, you know to put distance between your Titan and the shotgun-toting enemy. There are elements of fighting games or MOBAs here--each Titan has a tell, and you only have a few brief moments to counter it to your advantage.

The new Titans lend a very different pace to multiplayer matches. While the first Titanfall was always turned up to 11, so to speak, with smaller maps and cookie-cutter Titans focused on dealing damage, Titanfall 2 understands the value of breathing room. It doesn't burn you out with an onslaught of firefights--its maps are focused on exterior environments, and are often on the larger side, giving you time to plan out your attack with the intricate Titan loadouts. The plan may go awry, but it lends more weight to each enemy encounter. There's a sense of build-up as you approach a capture point, knowing full well which Titans occupy the area, and thinking through each step in your head.

Each multiplayer mode is tailored to facilitate Titanfall 2's interwoven combat systems, but also to twist the formula in creative ways. Bounty Hunt is my favorite--you gain currency by killing the enemy team and AI grunts that litter the map, and at the end of each wave, you're given the option to deposit your loot in one of several banks. But here's the wrinkle: you have to leave your Titan in order to do so. What's more, clever players will camp near banks to pick off unsuspecting Pilots as they approach their goal. It's a frantic game of cat and mouse that increases in tension as the banks open and each team knows exactly what the other is doing, or trying to do.

Dishonored Dev's The Crossing, Put on Hold in 2009, Gets a New Trademark Filing

This doesn't mean an announcement is coming soon, if ever.

Before Arkane Studios made Dishonored, the team worked on a first-person shooter called The Crossing. The game would have merged single- and multiplayer into what it called "cross-play," but it was not meant to be. Arkane put the game on hold in May 2009 due to an "unexpected financial challenge," the studio told Joystiq at the time.

Bethesda parent company ZeniMax purchased Arkane in 2010. Now, it looks like Bethesda may have plans for The Crossing, or at least it wants to keep hold of the name for potential future use.

ZeniMax filed a trademark application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office on October 11, records show. The trademark application covers video games, but the document doesn't contain any details about the status of the game or Bethesda's plans for it.

A Bethesda representative told GameSpot this afternoon, "We don't comment on trademark filings."

The existence of a trademark application doesn't necessarily mean much. There are many examples of trademark applications for things that never happen, like Call of Duty: Future Warfare and Call of Duty: Space Warfare. It might be that Bethesda filed the trademark application to allow it to hold onto the name, should it want to revive development on The Crossing someday.

Arkane CEO Raphael Colantonio said in the past (via double klondike) that layoffs at Electronic Arts--a partner for Valve, The Crossing's publisher--might have contributed to the need to put the game on hold. Check out the video above to see a teaser for The Crossing.Arkane's next game is Dishonored 2, which comes out in November. After that, the studio's Austin, Texas branch will ship the new Prey in 2017. Arkane is headquartered in Lyon, France.

HITMAN: EPISODE 5 REVIEW

The trouble with reviewing each individual Hitman level—and I'm definitely not saying this entire endeavour has been a waste of time—is that so much of what makes Hitman good happens in its systems. The levels are important, particularly in regards to the guard placement, disguise flow and creative opportunities. But all, so far, have been variations on the same theme. That it works is because, at its core, Hitman's stealth and AI manipulation systems are satisfying.

Episode 5's new level departs from the template set over the past four episodes. And yet, this is still a competently constructed space in which to cleanly and creatively kill some people. It's good, because, like past episodes, it's attached to a good game.

What makes this new mission, Freedom Fighters, different, is that 47 is operating in hostile territory. Previous episodes, much like Blood Money before them, feature an area of public space to explore, giving the player chance to watch, learn and plan. Here, 47 is infiltrating a Colorado farm occupied by a patchwork militia of hackers, explosive experts and assassins. If you're spotted, you're in trouble. In that sense, Episode 5 features a style of challenge reminiscent of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

The shift places a bigger emphasis on sneaking, at least up to the point of securing your disguise. Still, while Colorado eventually morphs into a more familiar style, the change in atmosphere keeps things feeling fresh. We've infiltrated a lot of mansions in Hitman up to now. It's nice to try something a bit different.

Episode 5 features a style of challenge reminiscent of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

This episode also brings stronger ties to the overarching story that, up until now, has been told almost exclusively in the cutscenes that play after each mission. It's still just a small part of the level, but, ultimately, that's all it can be. Because of Hitman's release model, each mission must stand alone to preserve its replayability over the life of an episode.

The farm is broken up into distinct sections, some with specific restrictions on who is allowed inside. A basic grunt can't enter the patch of land used for creating and testing explosives, and the main house is off limits to all but the elite guards. Freedom Fighters features four targets, each doing their own thing in a separate part of the compound. The structure creates lots of small-scale stealth challenges, reinforcing the hostile theme. 

Normally, I prefer the more open, public levels. But Hitman needed to mix up its formula, and Colorado does the job. In terms of murder methods, it's a little less interesting than previous episodes – only a few Opportunities exist spread over all four targets. But there's plenty to try, and the layout of the farm, and the nature of its restrictions, opens up the possibility for a satisfying series of contracts, escalations and elusive targets.

Colorado isn't the most visually appealing or intricate level in Hitman. But it provides some much needed variety—a change of scenery and challenge that rounds out the Hitman experience. It feels as if IO has spent most of this season demonstrating that it can still get Hitman right. It's nice to see they're now confident enough to move away from the template they've created.

Worms W.M.D. Review

Worms W.M.D. marks a return to form for the classic turn-based strategy series.

Team17’s Worms series has been happily bumping along since the mid-'90s with no signs of stopping. Despite some absurd spin-offs and missteps, the franchise’s tried-and-true turn-based, scorched-earth-style formula has allowed Worms to become one of the most consistently entertaining series around. The latest game, Worms W.M.D., is an excellent example of why Worms continues to thrive, and why it's original formula had the right idea all along.

If you’ve never played a Worms game before, the concept is simple: opposing teams of well-armed worm commandos face off in a turn-based battle in a completely destructible 2D landscape. Physics play a key role; gravity, acceleration, charging power, and even wind direction affect the huge array of weaponry. The old standby bazooka, which you can charge to adjust its range and power, is still the default weapon, but exploding sheep, airstrikes, a variety of grenades, melee weapons, the dragon punch, and more are up for grabs. Jetpacks, the ninja rope, teleporters, and other vital tools are at your disposal for traversing the landscape. But no matter what you choose, you still have a limited amount of time to perform any action.

Airdrops keep more supplies coming. Some of these actually deliver parts instead of complete weapons or power-ups and are used for crafting--a new wrinkle to the series. It’s not a sea change, but the ability to make new weapons and supplies (even during an opponent’s turn) can occasionally help turn the tide of a battle.

W.M.D. adds two other major facets that make considerably more impact. The first is the inclusion of vehicles. Tanks and helicopters appear on some levels and greatly change the dynamic of the action for the brief period of time they’re in use. Tanks, in particular, provide exceptional protection and firepower to chew through the terrain and other worms with a multi-shell attack.

Meanwhile, the helicopter has a killer mini-gun assault and is comically awkward to control and aim. There are even mounted guns to be had, which provide ample firepower but can also leave your worm incredibly exposed. Worms isn’t, in any way, a “driving” game, but these new elements feel like natural additions. Aiming the tank gun or helicopter is far from a sure thing most of the time, and these vehicles don’t feel so overpowered that a normal worm can’t destroy them. Using the left stick for both moving and aiming, however, makes the controls feel a little finicky on consoles, since it’s easy to accidently move when simply trying to line a shot up using the analog stick.

The other interesting addition comes in the form of structures. You can actually enter houses, barns, pubs, bunkers, and other buildings now. They frequently hide goodies like supplies and vehicles, and buildings can also provide invaluable protection from attacks and add much more compelling reasons to explore the map. At times, enemy worms can be hiding in a structure without you even realizing it, leading to extra reasons to destroy more parts of the map.

Given that you stand to benefit from surveying the map, it's unfortunate that W.M.D.’s camera feels unreliable at times. Even when you take manual control, the game has a tendency to just whip the screen back to a less-than-optimal spot. As a result, you regularly fight with the camera when you try to take in all the action or focus on a specific worm. It’s by no means a game-breaking problem, but it’s certainly in need of refinement.

Typical of the series, W.M.D. offers an array of single-player levels that cover all aspects of the game. Unlike recent entries into the series, however, there’s no underlying plot thread or story. Instead, the single-player game feels like an extended tutorial. Playing through various offline modes unlocks new ways to customize your worm team--voices, skins, clothing items, and so on--and there are tutorial maps, themed campaigns, and special challenge maps.

Playing Worms against an AI-controlled opponent is still tons of fun, but there’s something intrinsically entertaining about mixing the hilarious graphics, audio, and action of Worms with multiplayer. So, whether your opponent annihilates your worms with expert finesse or totally crashes and burns during their turn, the game is almost always fascinating just to watch.

Online play can support up to six players in ranked or friendly matches. While there isn’t much variety in terms of game modes (it’s pretty much all worm-versus-worm), Worms W.M.D. is a great reminder of how far humor and sheer wanton destruction can carry a game. Which is to say, it’s still terrifically fun after more than 20 years.

W.M.D. is easily the best game in the Worms series in several years. It stays true to the 2D, animated roots of the ’90s games while adding enough new features to keep it feeling fresh and relevant. The relatively simple gameplay is overflowing with finesse and strategy, the presentation is fantastic, and offline or on, Worms is just incredibly fun.

Multiplayer survival game Osiris: New Dawn may be Steam’s next breakout hit

The premise for Osiris: New Dawn as a product sounds improbable, if not impossible. A multiplayer adventure survival game — complete with crafting and base building — coupled with an action-packed first-person shooting experience. If the team at Fenix Fire can pull it off, it has every chance of being the next smash hit on Windows PC.

"We really have no business making a game this ambitious," said Brian McRae, one of just a pair of developers that’s been working on the game for the past five years. "But we just couldn’t help ourselves. I guess, left to our own devices, we wound up searching for the holy grail of … something? Is it a role-playing game? Is it survival? I don’t know. It’s just a game that we’ve always wanted to play."

I got a chance to play the single-player demo at this year’s PAX West and was stunned by the diversity of experiences on offer. It feels stable, it looks polished and it just might be the kind of all-inclusive experience those disappointed by games like No Man’s Sky have been looking for.

Native creatures come in nocturnal varieties too. A full day/night cycle lasts about 40 minutes.

Players start out by joining a faction, either the United Nations of Earth or the Outlanders, which McRae likens to space pirates. The final game will be class-based, with scientists, marines and engineers each starting out with slightly different stats. Ultimately, experience will be use-based so that players can customize their characters by doing what they best like to do in-game.

After character creation, players crash-land on a deserted planet. There are two starting planets in the game, a Mars-like environment for the UNE and a Hoth-like planet for the Outlanders. After gathering up the scattered components of their dropship, players will need to forage in the wild for the resources to build up a habitable basecamp, smacking rocks with NASA-inspired tools.

"Here we are 40 years in the future," McRae said. "But humans are still fragile, right? Space travel is hard. It doesn’t agree with you. You have to pay attention to what you’re running into. You might touch a plant that’ll scratch your suit and puncture it. You have to pay attention."

The starting pistol has a very slow recharge rate, but it will never run out of ammo.

Every player starts the game with a single-shot, rechargeable energy pistol and an assault rifle. Both first- and third-person views are available, as well as down-the-sights aiming.

You’ve also got rocket boots.

"As soon as we put those in," says McRae, nodding slowly, "we were like, yeah. This feels good."

Populating each of the game’s starting planets are indigenous flora and fauna. I saw scuttling stingray-like creatures, hulking crab monsters and even a Dune-scale sand worm. The attention to detail stood out. Every enemy felt like they belonged on their home planet and fit in with their environment. They also behaved in very interesting ways.

"We put little hiding nodes around every little rock in the game," said McRae, "so that if they’re wounded as they’re going along and if the creatures have a line of sight, they actually see the rock and then they know to path-find around it and hide.

"They also know how to flank, just like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. One of them starts to attack, and the other ones will go around."

Four decades in the future, rocket boots are standard issue for all astronauts. So are droid companions. The game will feature more than 20 craftable chips, and each will allow your robot companions to perform different tasks autonomously or at your side.

But in Osiris, you don’t have to kill everything that you see. It’s also possible to tame many of the game’s creatures so that you can ride them.

The closest comparison I can make for Osiris is to Ark: Survival Evolved, the prehistoric-themed title that exploded into the gaming zeitgeist nearly a year and a half ago. Since its launch, Ark has maintained a top-five position among the most played games on Steam thanks to its survival hooks and open-world, team-based exploration mechanics. As it turns out, Osiris is being published by Reverb Triple XP, a new initiative from the marketing team at Reverb Communications — the same public relations company that represents Ark.

"They really helped us out a lot on how to dial in some of the crafting components. Because we’re a two-person team and we both kind of come from more of a Nintendo background. We love action and gameplay and just sort of that magic that Nintendo games have. The ease of use. To be able to just jump right in and everything is intuitive. So, on one side of the coin you have simulation. On the other side you have gameplay. Just fun. And we wanted to be more on the fun side."

In addition to an experienced publisher, McRae also has his own bona fides in spades. He’s built multiple experiences for the Oculus Rift and was the environmental artist on StarCraft: Ghost.

Yes, that is a sand worm. No, you can not ride it, Maud'Dib.

"I love graphics and art," McRae said. "I was in the room when Ghost got indefinitely postponed. I’ve been asked to do interviews on it, but I decline because of the NDA."

With Osiris, McRae’s work didn’t stop at wildlife. There is an entire base-building mechanic that allows you to make large, habitable structures. These structures are modular, so you can mix and match and connect them however you like. There’s also a laundry list of vehicles: a hoverbike, an eight-wheeled party bus, a tank and a 30-foot tall mech. There’s rockets, starships and space stations. And, eventually, each one will be customizable.

"In the near future," McRae said, "we want to offer vehicle crafting. To allow players to be able to start choosing what pieces you want to put onto your mech, onto your tank, onto your hovercraft. The whole thing’s gonna be modular.

"Everything is object-oriented. And that’s one of the ways that we’ve been able to build so quickly and have such a stable build is everything in the game just sort of runs itself. So, take the guns. Nothing else in the game knows how many bullets the gun has except for the gun. And then, when the gun shoots, nothing knows how much damage it’s going to do except for the bullet. The bullet actually has to hit something to then cause the damage, so everything is object oriented. When you push throttle on the hoverbike, we actually have a computer on the vehicle that then sends the throttle to the stabilizers and the engines. So if those are damaged, then they don’t function and the hoverbike leans to one side."

The eight-wheeled rover features articulated wheels and room for multiple players and their robot companions.

I only had a chance to see a fraction of what Osiris can do during a short demo, but if even half of what Fenix Fire has shared works at scale, the final product could be something very, very special. And players will have the chance to experience it themselves before long.

Ten separate public-access servers will launch soon, each with two 60-square kilometer planets that players can travel between.

"It takes two to three hours to walk from one end to the other," McRae said. "They’re hand-crafted, the whole thing. The only part that we did procedurally is the erosion and sediment carry from the mountains, mountains that we placed with our own artistic brush. We did the procedural generation to make them feel like they’ve been there a while."

If those ten servers fill up — which I expect they will, and quickly — McRae says he has a plan to scale their infrastructure rapidly into the cloud. In my opinion that’s a gamble, and in the early months it was something that Ark failed spectacularly at.

We’ll see how it goes when the game enters Steam’s Early Access program on Sept. 28. The team also plans to launch on modern consoles at a later date.

Your Card Playing Stories--Play Free Solitaire Game

Your Card Playing Stories

We asked members to submit their most memorable card playing stories, and you delivered. Below are just a few of them.

From Ashley A.:

My amazing achievement of this year was having my own deck made and funded by a great website called Kickstarter. I never thought I would get the money for my deck, and it’s such a great felling to have other people you have never met around the world that love your deck, too . . . To have your own deck made at the age of 16 makes me so happy, and makes me feel good to be alive.

From Austin H:

It was in July at a family party. I was performing magic for my uncle as my entire family watched. Using my red Bicycle® Standard deck, I did this great trick where. . . I rip a card he picked, put it in my uncle’s hand ripped, and then he opened his hand and it was back together! It was awesome; I blew everyone’s mind and felt good! They tried guessing how I did it, but could not figure it out. I even signed the card for him after. I decided to make business cards and I’m going to perform magic at parties now! That day performing was a day I will never forget!

From Joe B.:

My favorite memory from this past year has to be from teaching my daughter some basic card tricks. Recently, she was in the hospital with complications due to her Type 1 Diabetes and she would spend her time impressing nurses with her “pick a card” tricks.

From Jesse A.:

Earlier this year, my wife and I spent what amounted to literally weeks of real time playing Grand Theft Auto 5. We had a blast, but as we both finished the game separately I became very aware that while we were spending time together, we weren’t really engaging each other at all. I had managed to destroy our only deck of cards in a tragic tea accident, so I jumped in the car and headed to the store to pick up some new Bicycle® decks. I remembered playing Cassino with my grandmother as a kid so I looked the rules up online and we started playing. One night turned into every night, that game sparking my love of cards all over again. . . my favorite thing of all is that we are playing together games that make me feel present in the moment and engaging with her. We are excited to learn more games and turn this into a lifestyle, something that someday we hope to share with our children.

Agram--Play Free Solitaire Game

Agram

The Pack

The kings, queens, jacks, the 2s of all suits and the ace of spades are removed from the deck. The cards of each suit rank, from high to low: A, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Because the ace of spades (called "Chief"') is removed from the deck, the highest card in the spade suit is the 10.

The Deal

The dealer will deal six cards to each player, three at a time.

The Play

The player to the left of the dealer leads with a card of their choice. The next player to the left then follows with their card. If possible they must follow suit. However, if they cannot, they may play a card of any suit. If the card played does not belong to the original suit, it has no value. After all players have played their card, the player who has the highest card of the original suit (suit of the leading card of the round) wins the trick.

The winner of the trick leads any card from his hand to begin the next trick, playing it face up on top of the pile. Once again, the other players must each play a card of the same suit as the card that was led, if possible. Otherwise they may play any card.

This continues until six tricks have been played. Whoever wins the sixth and last trick wins the game.