Eve Online, CCP Games’ nearly 10-year-old massively multiplayer online role-playing game, will receive its 19th expansion, Odyssey, on June 4, the developer announced today at PAX East.

The update will include a revamped scanning mechanic, user interface tweaks and hidden locations among the ever-expanding game’s 7,929 solar systems.

Polygon spoke to Jon Lander, executive producer of Eve Online, at PAX East about the expansion and how CCP aims to entice new and old players alike with its components.

Lander framed Odyssey as a continuance of the game’s evolution, which is tied to its roots.

“Really, 2012 was about getting the foundations in place for a second decade, and Odyssey will be the the first step in that. It’s taking is back…

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Via: Polygon

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Using elements from mythology and religion in video games can help developers tell a “better” story, because providing a real-world background familiar to players can paint a broader narrative in fewer words, according to speakers at a PAX East panel today.

Vancouver School of Theology graduate student Emily Jarrett and Michael Lowings, technical team lead at genetics program developer Delta Genomic, believe that use of religious tropes and elements in games can help create greater stories, as they provide pre-existing foundations that can easily be built on or adapted.

“We’re interested in telling better stories,” said Jarrett,”and what matters isn’t necessarily [the audience], but how [developers] tell those stories, engage people…

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Via: Polygon

The post Mythology and religious elements in games help tell broader stories in fewer words, scholars say appeared first on I Am Videogames.

Day two of PAX East gave birth to new DuckTales: Remastered details, the announcement of Dust: An Elysian Tail on Steam, a whole slew of XCOM and Civilization news, and more Mass Effect 3 stats than you could ever want to know.

It also played host to some of the most imaginative cosplayers this side of Comic-Con.

The post The Cosplay of PAX East, Day Two appeared first on I Am Videogames.

My biggest accomplishments in Minecraft so far have been building my dream home (complete with fireplace, library, greenhouse, and swimming pool) and a five-way track switcher that I definitely did not copy off a Youtube video. Redditor AllUpInHyuh, on the other hand, created what he or she is calling “a working neuron.”

An Imgur gallery is accompanied by snippets of text like the following:

The box on the left represents the extracellular concentration of sodium (initially high). Stacks will be drawn out and “diffuse” into the intracellular chest.

And:

Gold pressure plate can be thought of as a binding site for neurotransmitters. As the number of sprites released from dropper grows, the signal from plate increases. The quantity of items in chest determines the threshold for stimulation.

I have no idea what any of that means, but given that the discussion in the comments turned almost immediately to this project’s hypothetical applications toward creating artificial intelligence, I think we can conclude that it’s pretty serious. After all, according to this sciencey-looking page, a human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons. That seems doable, right?

Just made a working neuron in a video game. thought this transcended r/minecraft
[Reddit]

Via: kotaku

The post A Minecraft Player Just Created What Could Be The Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence, Sort Of appeared first on I Am Videogames.

Gun Media and former Infinity Ward developer Robert Bowling’s new mobile game, tactical military hybrid Breach and Clear, aims to bring a tightly-knit tactical military experience to players who want a quick mobile fix.

In the game, players are tasked with raiding areas and clearing them of enemies, or “breaching and clearing,” as the military term explains.

The game will release with four starting maps: a dusty Turkish bazaar, an underground Afghanistan bunker, a German Black Forest outside environment and a Chinese cargo tanker in a thunderstorm. Each map has four separate areas that must be breached and cleared of enemies. Maps can be switched between three-quarter and top down views as well as rotated to allow a clear view of the…

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Via: Polygon

The post Robert Bowling's Breach and Clear aims for a distilled console experience on mobile appeared first on I Am Videogames.

A brief glimpse of the future of XCOM was shown off during Firaxis’ PAX East 2013 panel moments ago, hinting that a new alien threat may be aligning against planet Earth.

The teaser, which featured a static-riddled message from the “councilman,” delivered an ominous message to close out the panel.

“This next one is big,” Firaxis’ Jake Solomon told the panel’s attendees. “You’re not going to see it anywhere else, we’re not even going to talk about it for a while. This is for those of you who care enough to be super fans and came to this panel. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at what may be coming next, so, we have an incoming transmission from the councilman.”

The message, which was fairly difficult to translate, was not an…

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Via: Polygon

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Sanctum 2 is a sequel to 2011′s Steam title. The trailer, which you can watch above, features a look at the game’s environments, tower defense elements and more. Conflict from a shooter perspective is also included.

Sanctum 2 is being developed for Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network and is expected to launch later this year. The game will feature co-op for up to four players. Coffee Stain recently revealed a new character class, the designated marksman SiMo. Check out the game’s development blog for more.

Via: Polygon

The post Sanctum 2 trailer offers a first look at gameplay appeared first on I Am Videogames.

Via: kotaku

The post Could This Be A New XCOM Game In The Works? appeared first on I Am Videogames.

Firaxis today announced at their PAX East panel that the recently announced Civilization V expansion, named Brave New World, will release in North America on July 9th. International gamers can expect to play the expansion on July 12th.

Update: Here’s ten minutes of footage from today’s panel—this is everything you need to know about the expansion.

Via: kotaku

The post Civilization V's Next Expansion—Brave New World—Releases In North America On July 9th appeared first on I Am Videogames.

Today Firaxis—the makers of both XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization V—announced that you can research something called the XCOM Project in your game of Civ V.

What that does is replace what would normally be paratrooper units with actual XCOM soldiers that drop from the Skyranger. Check out what that looks like in the screenshot above.

Here it is in action:

Via: kotaku

The post You'll Soon Be Able To Use XCOM Soldiers In Civilization V [UPDATE: Now with video] appeared first on I Am Videogames.