2013 was a pretty great year for games, and when it came down to picking the best of them, we here at Gamezebo had our hands full last December. Above all of the others, though, there were three games that stood out as simply amazing: Papers, Please, Device 6 and Kentucky Route Zero. These games made up our top 3 picks for the year, and while there was a definite #1, #2, #3 order to them, really, any would have been fair to call our Game of the Year.It looks like the annual Independent Games Festival Awards (a great indie celebration that takes place at GDC) happens to agree. Last night, Lucas Pope's Papers, Please took home the Seamus McNally Grand Prize for Best Indie Game (as well as two additional awards: Excellence in Design and Excellence in Narrative).
When Yahoo! bought Playerscale last year, we were wondering when they were going to do with it (much like we've wondered what they plan to do with the other hundred startups they seem to buy every other week). Today, Yahoo! launched the Yahoo! Games Network, offering distribution on Yahoo! and back-end infrastructure services to authenticate players, monetize games via in-app purchases and advertising, social sharing, hosting, and analytics across multiple platforms.Yahoo! also re-launched its Yahoo! Games channel with a responsive design across the Web, iOS, and Android, re-designed Yahoo! Games classic games like Pool and Poker, and third party games including KingsRoad, Ballistic, Rise of Mythos, Bingo Blingo, and Vegas World."For its back-end services, Yahoo! Is charging 0% (if less than 5000 daily active users) to 10% of revenues (it's a pretty darn good deal) and 30% for distribution and sales via its web site. Yahoo! claims its distribution reaches 800 million users, of which 400 million users are mobile. But, let's be honest -- it's questionable how many of those users are gamers. If they were all gamers and on mobile, Yahoo! would be making a lot more money from mobile app advertising like Facebook does.
Oculus Rift, the company leading the charge on virtual reality headsets, announced today during the Games Developers Conference that the second development kit version of their product is available for preorder. The headset costs $350 and will be available in July on a first-come, first-serve basis. So if you actually want to get it by then, you had better be quick. The new development kit (DK2) features enhanced positional tracking, which reduces the lag between movement of the user's head and the display inside the device. Reporters at the conference are saying this virtually eliminates input lag and nullifies the motion sickness some users have reported previously.Just as impressive are the new screens. The new kit uses OLED screens (the same sort found on the first generation PlayStation Vita) and displays at 960 x 1080 in each eye.
Love Midnight Castle, but wish you could take it on the go? Good news, Big Fishers - Big Fish Games has just confirmed with Gamezebo that their popular free-to-play hidden object game is heading to the iPad this Thursday.It's an interesting twist, when you think about it. Previous free-to-play titles from Big Fish, like Found and Dark Manor, have started life on iOS, only to make their way to the main site later, after they've had some time to prove themselves. With Midnight Castle, they've turned that formula on its head. And it seems to be working, too: a Big Fish Games representative told us that the game's PC players are averaging 70 minutes in game per day. And if it counts for anything, we liked it quite a bit too.To celebrate the launch, they'll be giving away an iPad Mini on Midnight Castle's Facebook page. The sweepstakes opens tonight at midnight, and closes in one week, on March 26. For more details, be sure to visit facebook.com/midnightcastle after the clock strikes 12 tonight.
Ready yourself for the most interesting rumor of the morning. We all know that Amazon is getting into the games hardware business. I'm not keeping score, but it seems safe to say that this is the worst kept secret of the year. What's been a rather well-kept secret, however, is what this gaming hardware would be.Now it looks like we have our first hint.TechCrunch is saying they've learned from multiple sources that the device is going to look an awful lot like the Chromecast, Google's $35 streaming device that plugs into your TV's HDMI port.There's also the very real possibility that the device will be more of an "all-in-one" unit than a dedicated games console. With a variety of instant services already in-house - Prime customers can stream unlimited movies, TV shows, books, and soon music - offering a set-top box to bring it all to your living room is just good sense. Think AppleTV meets Chromecast meets Spotify meets Netflix, but with games.
Prep your Gollop Chambers! Julian Gollop, the creator of X-COM: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown for those outside the United States), has just launched a Kickstarter for his new game, Chaos Reborn.The game is a successor to Chaos: The Battle of Wizards, which was published in 1985 by Games Workshop. In his pitch video, Gollop says the game "stands out with unrealized potential." This new version seems to be a hex-based, turn-based strategy game from the man who created one of the most influential turn-based strategy games of all time. That's certainly exciting.The Kickstarter campaign is asking for $180,000 and, at the time of this writing, sits at just over a sixth of that goal only a few hours after launching. There don't seem to be any announced stretch goals as of yet, but obviously that could change.
When word broke earlier today that a new RollerCoaster Tycoon was in the works, we were elated. When we discovered that it was RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile - a game whose trailer bears a striking resemblance to Zynga's CoasterVille, we were… surprised, I guess? Disappointed isn't the right word. We liked CoasterVille, after all. But putting a big "4" in the title seems to suggest "a direct sequel that should deliver on fans expectations."If you were just as surprised as we were about today's announcement, you can breathe a little easier - Atari sensed the panic in the gaming community and has confirmed on Facebook that a PC entry in the series is scheduled for later in the year."RollerCoaster Tycoon is back and it's coming to mobile (first)!," reads a status update on the official RollerCoaster Tycoon fan page. "Rest assured, there is a PC experience in production now for release in Fall 2014. This is just the first step in bringing the series back to its fans this year! We are excited and hope you are too!"
Less than a year following the release of the first game in the series, Neocore Games is releasing The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 on April 17th for both Windows and Mac. Pre-orders are currently open, granting buyers instant access to the Beta test on Steam. Setup similarly to Kickstarter backer-rewards, pre-orders are available in set price tiers which offer buyers certain in-game perks to accompany the amount paid for. These tiers range from the base, $15 "magic pack" tier, up to the $1,000 "leader of the pack" tier. Pre-orders are available on Neocore Games' website.With the first game releasing May 22, 2013, and the sequel following less than a year later, the amount of time in between releases may concern some. While Van Helsing I had batches of DLC released up through late September of last year, the real questions are if the Neocore team has had enough time to work on the sequel and whether Van Helsing II will attain enough support to financially support the third, and final, game in the trilogy.