Fog, trees, and castles, oh my!

Joe liked the first-person cooperative rat-smashing Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide quite a bit, even though he felt it didn't do enough to differentiate itself from Left 4 Dead. I haven't had? a chance to dig my teeth into it yet, but I'm all about Gothic castles and killing beasts with friends, so the three new upcoming maps might be a good time for me to jump in.

The Drachenfels DLC introduces new areas outside of Ubersreik: Castle Drachenfels, the Dungeons below, and Summoner's Peak. These new haunts will be filled with the same rats, but will now have deadly traps hidden throughout. A torch mechanic will also be implemented to illuminate these dark places. This DLC will be the second paid add-on for Vermintide (the first being map set in the fun-to-say Schluesselschloss), but no price has been announced at this time. If you're hungry for more loot-gathering and pest extermination, the Drachenfels maps come out on May 26.

Time for me to find some friends to play with. Or maybe? you guys want to play with me?&nbs??p;

The post Vermintide’s Drachenfels DLC introduces three new spooky maps appeared first on Destructoid.

Plus $4 Valkyria Chronicles too!

Today GMG switched to Part 2 of its PC games Spring Sale. If you're looking to overload your Steam library, you can now get up to 80% off titles from 2K Games, Kalypso, SEGA, and Capcom. Several titles are at their all-time low price such as Borderlands: The Pre-sequel - which is now only $8; or grab Borderlands: The Handsome Bundle for only $20.

Other choice pick includes $4 Valkyria Chronicles; $7 DMC: Devil May Cry; and Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide at a new low of $16.80. Evolve is also makes a return at the $10 price point, but we're not sure if you'll get much out of the game due to its dwindling population. Full list of the sale can be found here.

Use Coupon: DEALZON20

2K Games

• Borderlands: The Handsome Bundle (Steam) — $20.80  (list price $130)
• Bioshock Franchise Pack (Steam) — $19.19  (list price $120)
• Sid Meier’s Civil?ization: Beyond?? Earth - Rising Tide (Steam) — $18  (list price $30)
• Evolve Monster Race Edition (Steam) — $16  (list price $80)
• Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (Steam) — $12.80  (list price $40)
• Evolve (Steam) — $10.88  (list price $40)
• Sid Meier's Civilization V: Complete Edition (Steam) — $10  (list price $50)
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Steam) — $8  (list price $40)
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown The Complete Edition (Steam) — $8  (list price $50)

Capcom

• Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition (Steam) — $20  (list price $50)
• Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Steam) — $12  (list price $25)
• Ultra Street Fighter IV (Steam) — $12  (list price $30)
• DMC: Devil May Cry (Steam) — $7.20  (list price $30)
• Ultra Street Fighter IV Upgrade (Steam) — $6  (list price $15)
• Lost Planet 3 (Steam) — $5  (list price $25)
• Remember Me (Steam) — $4.80  (list price $30)
• Strider (Steam) — $4.08  (list price $15)

Sega

• Total War Grand Master Collection (Steam) — $33  (list price $165)
• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War II Grand Collection (Steam) — $16  (list price $80)
• Alien: Isolation (Steam) — $10  (list price $50)
• Total War: Attila (Steam) — $9  (list price $45)
• Company of Heroes 2 (Steam) — $8  (list price $40)
• Company of Heroes: Complete Pack (Steam) — $7.40  (list price $37)
• Alien vs Predator Collection (Steam) — $4.80  (list price $24)
• Valkyria Chronicles (Steam) — $4  (list price $20)
• The Typing of the Dead: Overkill (Steam) — $4  (list price $20)
• Binary Domain Collection (Steam) — $3.20  (list price $16)
• Rome: Total War Collection (Steam) — $2.60  (list price $13)

Kalypso

• Tropico 5: Complete Collection (Steam) — $24  (list price $40)
• Grand Ages: Medieval (Steam) — $14.08  (list price $40)
• Dungeons 2 (Steam) — $14.08  (list price $40)
• Crookz – The Big Heist (Steam) — $8  (list price $25)
• Tropico 4 Collectors Bundle (Steam) — $6.48  (list price $30)
• Port Royale 3 Gold Edition (Steam) — $6.48  (list price $30)
• Omerta: City of Gangsters Gold Edition (Steam) — $6.48  (list price $30)
• Crowntakers (Steam) — $5.64  (list price $15)
• Rise of Venice (Steam) — $5  (list price $25)
• Anna - Extended Edition (Steam) — $1.60  (list price $10)

More Top Picks

• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (Steam) — $16.80  (list price $30)
• Fatshark Pack (Steam) — $12.38  (list price $31)
• Hatred (Steam) — $10.24  (list price $20)
• Hard West (Steam) — $9.60  (list price $20)
• FIVE: Guardians of David Deluxe Edition (Steam) — $8  (list price $25)
• Syberia II (Steam) — $2.40  (list price $10)
• Syberia (Steam) — $2.40  (list price $10)
• Shelter 2 Mountains (Steam) — $2  (list price $5)
• Shelter (Steam) — $1.60  (list price $10)

These deals ar??e ??all part of GMG's Spring PC Gaming sale "Part 2". Part 1 ended earlier Friday morning, and these deals are set to run though Monday, March 28th a 9AM Pacific.

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.

The post New low o?n Borderlands titles as GM?G Spring Sale continues appeared first on Destructoid.

Survival, realism, and solo modes

I really liked Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide. It lacks some origi??nality, but what it presented was incredibly well-made and fun to play.

Turns out a lot of other people liked it too, as developer Fatshark announced it has managed to shift 300,000 copies since its release only a few weeks ago. For an indie released in the same month as Guitar Hero: Live, Halo 5, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, that is pretty damn impressive.

Fatshark isn’t slowing down post-release though, as it also announced there will be some free DLC coming to Vermintide on December 2. Sigmar’s Blessing wil??l mainly improve the game’s loot system, which I had no problem with but has been a complaint from other players ever since launch.

The DLC will give players the ability to control what kind of loot is dropped, as well as sacrifice loot at a new altar in the Inn to have a chance at even better stuff. On top of that there will be new item traits whi?ch give different powers to weap??ons, and a new “red” class, which will include gear that is better than anything in the game at the moment.

In other words: l?ots of better loot, and it'll be less of a pain in the arse to get the stuff you actually want for the class you want.? Neat!

Once Sigmar’s Blessing is out, Fatshark will be working on bringing new game modes toVermintide. There will be a private mode which will allow for true solo play, a realism mode which removes the HUD, and an endless survival mode. Anybody who’s played Left 4 Dead will know what to expect, but they're welcome additi??ons none-the-less.

For now Vermintide is only available on PC, however? Xbox One and PS4 versions are due for release in Q1 2016??.

The post Vermintide sold ??300K copies since launch, here are details on future DLC appeared first on Destructoid.

I feel like I've done this before...

Left 4 Dead is one of my favourite games. The summer of 2009 was ??????????????????????????spent staying up until five o’clock in the morning, playing the same campaigns with the same group of friends, and it was by far the most fun I’ve ever had with a game.  Sadly, we haven’t (officially) heard a peep from Valve about any signs of a third iteration. So over the years, I’ve drifted from title to title, hoping to find something that would get me as hooked as those games did.

Unfortunately, while many of them are great, the sea of co-op FPS games to come out since then haven’t ever managed to scratch that same itch that L4D did. Sure, I’ve had fun with the Paydays and the Killing Floors of the world, but nothing ever quite ma?naged to be comparable.

Be sure take that into consideration when I say this: Fatshark’s Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is the Left 4 Dead 3 we never had, for better and for worse.

Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (PC [reviewed], PS4, Xbox One)
Developer: Fatshark
Publisher: Fatshark
Released: October 23, 2015 (PC) / TBA 2016 (PS4, Xbox One)
MSRP: $29.99

Vermintide is set in the underused gothic End Times setting of the Warhammer universe, where the city of Ubersreik has come under siege from a rising army of Skaven (rat-men). Taking control of one of five different character classes, four teammates can fight their way through 13 different missions. Vermintide’s writi??ng certainly isn’t going to win any awards: each mission is very loosely connected by a pretty unimportant story that serves purely as exposition for the level about to be played and not m??uch else.

To take out the Skaven, each class has a huge array of different weapons and equipment to choose from. Some, such as the? elf and the mage, rely more on ranged tactics, whereas the likes of the dwarf and the old mercenary are more able to get up close and personal and do some real damage with melee weapons. Each class serves their own role, and no matter what combination of the five a team has, they all mesh well togeth??er to ensure no one character is carrying the others.

Melee combat feels meaty and bloody, and despite it ultimately comes down to mashing one button until everything is dead, it feels a lot more involving than that. Once I had mastered the timing required for blocking, I was going toe to toe with even the strongest enemies and coming out on top, and god damn did it feel good. It’s nowhere near as complex Chivalry or Bloodborne, b??ut Skaven were turning into puffs of red mist and piles of giblets left, right and centre, and for a brief time I was a rodent-killing god to be revered and feared.

There’s great variety to the different stages, and it's obvious Fatshark know how to make use of environments to make the co-op play interesting. From trudging through the city streets, to wading through the swamps toward a Skaven camp, each level feels unique and manages a decent balance of linear chokepoint corridors with some fantastically complex larger areas to make sure no environment gro?ws stale.

For example, one mission takes place entirely in one big area where the team are scrounging for barrels of what I assume is gunpowder. The different platforms turn the space into a vertical maze of ramps and ladders that mean they can be fatally separated in a very short distance. Good stuff. Once they’ve succeeded, the entire team are rewarded with random pieces of loot, decided by a dice roll. The character progression of Vermintide is one of the biggest differences between it and similar titles. In a way, it works a lot like Team Fortress 2’s massive array of items: much of the loot available works as more of a ‘sidegrade’ than an upgrade. Most items aren’t categorically better than an item you?? already have, but may mesh better with your preferred playstyle.

For example, my fire mage has two staves I like to swap between: one functions as a?? shotgun, with a focused beam as a secondary attack to take out further enemies; the other feels more like a rifle with faster more precise shots, and as a secondary it has a large short-range area of effect attack. Neither is better than the other, but I really have to change how I play depending on which I choose to use in a mission. There will, of course, come a point where I am vastly over-leveled for them, but by then I’ll have a whole new group of staves to pick from.

The chances of getting the loot you want in the dice roll can be improved through collecting grimoires, tomes, and extra die scattered around the mission. The catch here is that these two item types take up space that could be used for precious healing items. They add a degree of risk vs. reward to the game, as those who replay levels with a more gutsy approach will net better rewards than those?? who play super conservatively. It’s a cool system that can really pull teams together, knowing there will be tangible rewards for covering each other in the long run.

Unfortunately, these are just extras. When you strip away the superfluous bells and whistles and get down to just killing the shit out of a horde of Skaven, what you’re left with is a game that is ultimately treading into the same territory we saw years ago. Vermintide doesn’t wear its influences on its sleeve; it wears them as a full lycra bodysuit that leaves nothing to the imagination.

For starters, the Skaven’s AI is pretty much the same as any zombie game’s ever: they spawn, they’ll rush towards you and will keep hitting you until they die. I get rat-men wouldn’t be the most intelligent thing in the world, but if they’re smart enough to make armour and formulate tactics (stopping which is the basis for many of the missions), then surely they’d know how to freaking flank every once in a while? Most of the stronger boss type Skaven have an L4D analogue: the sneaky, pouncing Gutter Runners are practically Hunters, Pack Masters can pull players away from their team just like the Smoker, and the Ogre Rat is the literally just the Tank with a rodent face stapled on Silence of the Lambs style.

That lack of originality extends to the missions too. While the environments are brilliant, the way levels progress feels exactly like Left 4 Dead. You’re tasked with moving through an ultimately linear space while fighting back against procedura??lly spawned hordes of enemies, with supplies and more intense ambushes happening at the drop of a hat. Eventually, you and your comrades will come to a conclusion that generally involves holding out against an extended onslaught of enemies before escaping to an extraction point. If it’s not that, your team will be tasked with going through a slightly more open area to collect a predetermined amount of a certain mater??ial, all while surviving against the hordes of enemies.

Even the teamwork mechanics are the same as Left 4 Dead. If a teammate takes too much damage, they will become incapacitated on the floor until someone can get them up. If they happen to die while incapacitated, they will spawn a little later in the level to be rescued by the remaining members. Players can even become incapacitated by dangling over deadly drops, waiting for someone to pull them up. Identical to Left 4 goddamn Dead.

As I have said, I adore that series. It’s got hectic shooting, combined with a necessity for tight teamwork that can really pull even total strangers together. Dispatching hordes of zombies in a gory fashion with a variety of weapons and in a variety of locales always made going back into the game just as fun as the first time, and Vermintide very much feels the same way. Except Left 4 Dead 2 came out six years ago, and it shows the few improvements its made over its most obvious inspirat?io??n just aren’t enough to let it stand on its own merits.

Unoriginality aside, I also noticed a fair few technical problems with Vermintide, especially when it came to the backend server that manages the character progression and matchmaking. There were relatively frequent periods of downtime, or times where matchmaking would take far, far longer than normal. Fatshark have managed to keep on top of most pr?oblems, and seem to be fixing them quickly in the days following the game’s release, but they’ve still been prevalent enough to get in the way of me playing the game.

Ultimately, Vermintide is more than the sum of its parts. It has wonderful visual direction and level design, with a character progression system that made me want to carry on grinding for new loot just to see what options it’d open up for me. The combat is satisfying, and the way teamwork is encouraged meant I managed to connect with total strangers in ways I haven’t had the chance to for a very long time. I wasn’t getting annoyed at random people on the internet, for the duration of that mission they were my teammates, and even things like Payday haven’t managed to give me that feeling. I’ve had a lot of fun, and certainly don’t regret any of my time with it. I absolutely recommend anyone who enjoys co-op FPS to give it a try, because it might well be the best to have come out in a? long time. 

I just wished that Fatshark had tried to be as original in the gameplay as they have in the visual direction. At times, it just felt like I was playing a mod, and depending on how you look at it that’s either the biggest compliment or the absolute worst thing I could say about Vermintide.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the gam??e provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide appeared first on Destructoid.

For PC gamers, who else?

Mmm.. smells good. Pumpkin spices in the air. Orange decorations adorn public places. Yep, Fallout 4 is coming. Over at GMG they launched a new weekend 22% off code, discounting the aforementioned post-apocalyptic title (which has recently gone gold) along with a few other goodies such as Street Fighter V to $46.80.

In the case of SFV, the latest beta is live as of writing and if you want in on the action, pre-orders do include access to all beta phases till the game's Spring 2016 release. Matchmaking is apparently a bit slow but the game i??s looking sweet on the PC. Beta ends Sunday 4PM Pacific, so if you don't have time this weekend we'd just wait on it as the d??eal will come around again.

Console deals? Only thing you'll want to note is this PS4 deal from Groupon for $313.49. Its not a bad price, but if you can play the wai??ting game, we'll see what retailers have to offer in terms ??of bundles for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Update 10/30: Added latest coupon code below for FO4 and removed some expired deals.

Top Weekend Deals

Use Coupon Code: NWYEAR-20PERC-WTHGMG

• Fallout 4 (Steam) — $48  (list $60)
• Fallout 4: Season Pass (Steam) — $24  (list price $30)
• Total War: Warhammer (Steam) — $48  (list price $60)
• Street Fighter V (Steam) — $48  (list $60)
  
• The Witcher III: Hearts Of Stone (PC DLC) — $8  (list price $10)

Recent Releases

• 10/23: Guild Wars 2: Heart Of Thorns — $39.99  (list price $50)
• 10/23: Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (Steam) — $22.50  (list price $30)
• 10/23: RPG Maker MV (Steam) — $56.16  (list price $80)
• 10/21: Coast Guard (Steam) — $14.32  (list price $20)
• 10/20: Sword Coast Legends (Steam) — $31.20  (list price $40)
• 10/20: Tales of Zestiria (Steam) — $37.50  (list price $50)

Upcoming Releases

• 10/27: Halo 5: Guardians + $10 Xbox Gift Card (Xbox One) — $59.99
• 11/03: Anno 2205 (Uplay) — $38.21  (list $60)
• 11/06: Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Steam) — $43.80  (list price $60)
• 11/10: Fallout 4 Gold Ed. + Socks + Season Pass (XOne, PS4) — $84.99  (list $90)
• 11/17: Star Wars: Battlefront (Origin) — $45  (list $60)
• 12/10: RollerCoaster Tycoon World (Steam) — $26.02  (list $50)

PC Deals

• Grand Theft Auto V + $500K GTA Online Cash — $32.69  (list price $70)
• Blood Bowl 2 (Steam) — $32.78  (list price $45)
• Dying Light (Steam) — $27.72  (list price $60)
• Galactic Civilizations III (Steam) — $25  (list price $50)
• Tales from the Borderlands — $12.49  (list price $25)
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (Steam) — $8.78  (list price $15)
• Titan Souls (Steam) — $5.85  (list price $15)
• The Banner Saga (Steam) — $4.99  (list price $20)
• Hatoful Boyfriend (Steam) — $3.90  (list price $10)

Console Deals

• Xbox Live Gold 12 Month Gold — $34.50  (list price $60)
• Xbox One + Kinect (Refurb) — $274.99  (list price $400)
• PlayStation 4 + Last of Us Remastered — $313.49  <- use code VISA5
• Skylanders SuperChargers Starter (PS4/PS3, XOne/360, Wii U) — $49.99  (list $75)
• The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (Xbox One) — $31.35  (list price $55)
• FIFA 16 (Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3) — $39.99  (list price $60)
• Dying Light (PS4 - Europe Only) — 40% Off

Laptop Deals

• 1?7.3" Lenovo Y7??00-17 i7-6700HQ, 16GB, 1TB +128GB, GTX 960M — $1,149  (list $1,650)
• 15.6" Lenovo Y700-15 i7-??6700HQ Skylake, 8GB, GTX 960M — $1,129  (list $1,380)
• 15.6?" HP Gaming Laptop, Quad i5-6300HQ Skylake, ??GTX 950M — $719.99  (list $900)

HDTV Deals

• 50" Samsung 4K Smart LED Ultra HDTV — $649.99  (list price $1,350) <- what!?
• 40" Samsung 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV — $549.99  (list price $830)

Storage Deals

• Seagate 4TB 3.5" Hard Drive — $109.99  (list price $180)
• Silicon Power S60 2.5" 240GB SSD — $67.99  (list price $80)
• OCZ Arc 100 SSD 2.5" 240GB — $59.99  (list price $110)

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales from certain retailers help support Destructoid.

The post 22% off Stea??m copies of Fallout 4 and Street Fighter V appeared first on Destructoid.

It's a simple pest control simulator

The release date for FatShark’s Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide has been announced.

The Left 4 Dead-styled game, that has you take on hordes of Skaven (giant rats) in four-pla?yer co-op and an emphasis on melee combat, is going to be released on October 23 for PC. There's still no date for the Xbox One or PS4 versions other than "Q1 2016" unfortunately.

It's set in Warhammer's End Times, which is a nice change of setting compared to the normal Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K we often get.

There is a closed beta running from Monday, Se?ptember 28 through Thur?sday, October 1 too, so those who’ve been interested in this for a while will have a chance to play it before the full version drops.

When it’s released, Vermintide will set yo?u back £?;22.99/$29.99 for the base edition.

There will also be a collector’s edition available on Steam for £33.99/$39.99,? which will inc??lude the soundtrack, a map of the game’s setting Ubersreik, behind-the-scenes developer diaries, five in-game equippable hats, and two “Prestige Trinkets”... whatever they are.

If you're really into shooting rats in their stupid toothy little faces and don't care that this is an ambitious game by a developer whose last title was Escape Dead Island, you can pre-order the game on Steam for 10% off too.

The post Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide will be releasing rats into your house on October 23 appeared first on Destructoid.

Real time... weapon changing

IGN have released a video for the upcoming Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide (doesn’t that name just roll off the tongue?), showing interviews with the developers at FatShark, as w??ell as some snippets of gameplay.

The developers make it sound fairly bland, with weapon switching being spoken about quite a lot.?? But despite that, the gameplay we actually saw still looks pretty good.

I’m all for smashing my way through an army of Skaven in a grimdark Victorian-fantasy world, and if this can do that well then I am totally on-board with it. Being co-op focused as well, it’s basically a melee-based Left 4 Dead, which I am absolutely okay with.

Warhammer: The End – Virmintide is being developed and published by FatShark, and is being released Q3 2015 for PC, PS4?? and Xbox One.

The post Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide gameplay video decimates Skaven appeared first on Destructoid.