Here’s another treat for all you Kingdoms Collide fans: an overview of the different character models and some in-game footage of the magic system in use. Since Kingdoms doesn’t work on a traditional class-based system, the team had to find a way to visually display what kind of loadout you would be playing with. Depending on the equipment and abilites you choose to enhance your character’s appearance changes to reflect those strengths, and weaknesses, to others in the game.
As the Kingdoms Collide team takes some extra time to polish up the bits and bobs of their first beta release, they’re also taking this opportunity to crank up the visibility of the project to gamers far and wide. With that in mind, Instant Respawn has helped them organize a whole line-up of extra media and coverage to help make the wait a little more bearable. Today we’ll start out will a brief overview of what kind of experience you can expect from the mod straight from one half of the creative force behind it, lead artist Leigh Jackson:
The latest Make Something Unreal contest has finally wrapped and Epic has announced the master final phase winners. Congratulations to The Haunted and The Ball, the two mods taking home 1st and 2nd prizes respectively, along with all the other winners. This contest showcases some of the real productivity that can come out of the modding scene. It should come as no surprise that these top two mods will also be going stand-alone and commercial some time this year! Take a look at trailers for both below the cut.
Do you love indie games but find you’ve been neglecting them lately? Well now is your chance to make amends, with the Indie Love Bundle! Cheaper than a last minute trip to the florist to salvage the affections of a scorned lover, the Indie Love Bundle gives you the complete enjoyment of six award-winning indie game for the low price of $20! Best of all, you can rest assured that all of your cash goes straight to the developers, helping fund them for future indie excellence.
This is only a limited time offer though and it expires Friday, February 19 at 11:59 pm EST. Show these indies you care and that sometimes, these important dates just slip your mind. Grab the Indie Love Bundle
Jailbreak: Source's Big Breakout
Jailbreak: Source has recently graduated to a full-blown total conversion and does it with style. Check out why Jailbreak is a mod worth playing, with feature commentary from the developers themselves! It’s wild and wacky, fast-paced and explosive, it’s Jailbreak like you’ve never seen before!
Read ‘Jailbreak: Source’s Big Breakout’…
Once you’ve read up on the mod, why not take ‘er for a spin? Jailbreak devs are hosting a Big Breakout Weekend. Hop on, have fun and get the chance to win a free game!
Here’s something interesting. It’s not often the big name developer studios will disclose much of the happenings behind the scenes. No, those heavily scripted “developer diary” videos littered with marketing speak don’t count. It should come as a blessing then that the re-re-named Irrational Games (formerly known as 2K Boston) now has their own “insider” blog. Shawn Elliot, GFW Radio & Magazine alumni, is one of the contributors to the blog that mines Irrational’s past for interesting tidbits. For example, did you know Bioshock has working code for a atmospheric, region-based, pressure system? How differently would the game play out if the Little Sisters were actually Dogs in Wheelchairs? What if Irrational made a zombie game?
Get the background info behind all these questions and more over at Irrational’s Insider blog and check out their podcast, Irrational Behavior, too! It’s an interesting look at what could have been (and what should have never happened).
The Making of Out of Hell
With games constantly pushing the graphical envelope these days, it’s rare to find a mod that built on an antiquated engine and still manages to visually impress. It’s all the more rare to find that it was, for the most part, put together by a one person. Instant Respawn had the chance to meet with Long Nguyen, creator of the recently released Out of Hell mod built upon the Unreal 2 engine. He recalls the trials and tribulations of a 7 year long journey to his version of the perfect zombie apocalypse.
Welcome to Instant Respawn: A site that will focus, for the most part, on games (and mods), the people who make them and the communities that form around them. We’ll be taking stylish, in-depth looks at all videogames both great and small, old and new as our way of celebrating their contributions to gaming culture.
What you won’t find here is NPD numbers and endless sensationalistic pandering to everything on the release horizon. Regurgitated press releases and release day sales are covered to no end on other numerous videogame-centric blogs. Here we’ll be discovering and re-kindling why games are fun and sharing that with you. Think of it as an alternative gaming community. Not as secular as modding or indie games, but for folks who want to sample from everything gaming-related, past and present.
If this is the kind of thing that interests you, feel free to jump in on the discussions on our newly-minted forums and thanks for stopping by.
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