With PAX over, the year’s gaming convention cycle is also basically done. All that’s left to look forward to is the Tokyo Game Show, and that’s typically not a very news-heavy show these days.
But with conventions out of the way, it’s time for everybody’s favorite part of the year: The fall release window! And what’s not to love, with news this week that Total War: Rome II will get a free update, Grand Theft Auto V still exists on the PC, and…2k scanned NBA dance teams into its basketball game?
The bounty of Rome
I haven’t played much Total War: Rome II since its less-than-stellar launch last year. It was buggy, it was broken, and it just wasn’t the Rome successor we were all hoping for.
But Creative Assembly is still trying. Sega announced this week that those who already own Rome II will receive the upcoming Emperor Edition update for free, while those who come after will purchase it (and the included Imperator Augustus campaign) as a standalone product. The new campaign missions take place during the Roman civil war that heralded the fall of the Republic.
Damn it, Creative Assembly, you might’ve convinced me to give it a second chance. Look for that release on September 16.
Et tu, Crytek?
That other Rome game, Ryse, supposedly got a PC release date also: October 10. Morituri te salutant.
Rumor milling
Grand Theft Auto V for PC? Yeah, it still exists, if you for some reason believed the weird Internet rumor that it’d been delayed or even “canceled.”
Maniac Mansion
Tim Schafer revealed at PAX that he’d love to bring back other LucasArts adventure games from yesteryear if the Grim Fandango remaster sells well, so if you’re hoping for a re-release of Day of the Tentacle or Maniac Mansion…well, you’d better save up and buy a ton of Grim Fandango copies.
We also got some information about what’s planned for the Grim Fandango update—namely, that the game will use the original assets as much as possible, though obviously polished. However, all of the music will be re-recorded.
Stay in your tower
The first trailer for Campo Santo’s mystery game Firewatch is out:
Behind door number three
The Room 3. The Room 3. The Room 3.
Yeah, it exists, says Fireproof Games. The third Room will come to iOS and Android in Spring 2015. And hopefully we’ll get The Room 2 on PC around that time? Maybe?
Dance magic dance
“But Steve, we have all this incredible motion capture equipment plus this crazy rig full of cameras for scanning players into NBA 2k15. What do you mean there aren’t any more players for us to scan this year?”
“I mean just that, Natalie. We’re all done for this year. Put the dust covers up over the entire operation. We’ll unpack it all again next year.”
The door bursts open. It’s Rob. “Wait! I’ve got it!”
And that, friends, is (probably not) how 2k ended up mocapping dance routines into NBA 2k15.
More reading
As far as news goes, I got my hands on Harmonix’s new A City Sleeps, Deep Silver’s Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, and Monolith’s Lord of the Ring: Shadow of Mordor last week at PAX, plus 100 turns of Civilization: Beyond Earth.
Alienware revived its Area-51 gaming desktop, Amazon bought Twitch, AMD introduced the R9 285, and the Xbox One’s standalone Kinect will launch in October.
And finally, we reviewed magical first-person shooter Lichdom and zombie-murder-simulator Dead Rising 3. Get ready! Fall game releases are coming hot and heavy.