Dying Light Spotlight Edition
I really loved the game Dying Light. If you haven’t had a chance to play it, this may be a chance to pick it up: A single copy of a new “Spotlight Edition” has just gone on sale.
You get 4 copies of the game, pro acting lessons, a supporting role in the coming Dying Light movie, you can live in a camper on the set and have the FX crew give you a complete Zombie makeup.
The only downside: Its price tag is $ 10’000’000.
Heads up! Elder Scrolls Online on PC installer can delete your files if a custom folder is selected.
If you don’t stick to the default installation directory, you HAVE to create an empty folder somewhere and point to that as the Elder Scrolls Online installer will erase anything it finds in the folder that it is given for installation instead of creating a subfolder itself.
So I wanted to install the “Elder Scrolls Online” on PC yesterday which ended up with me restoring large portions of my PC for several hours. And a lot of foul language was included. So here is what happened.
By default, the installer wants to install the game into “%systemdrive%\Program Files\Zenimax Online”. If you plan not to change this, you are OK.
But if you are crazy enough – like I am obviously – to have games installed to a custom folder, “%systemdrive%\Games” in my case, the installer lets you select a different folder.
I picked my “%systemdrive%\Games” folder at which point the installer said: “%systemdrive%\Games” – but not “%systemdrive%\Games\Zenimax Online”. This got me thinking for a split second, but then I pressed “Install”.
At this point, the installer created “%systemdrive%\Games\Elder Scrolls Online” and all seemed good.
But then my Steam client crashed and the Origin client started to show weird errors.
I soon noticed, that besides creating the new folder, the installer had completely erased everything inside “%systemdrive%\Games”, including the Steam client, Origin and the Blizzard launcher.
It sure seems like I failed the first quest of the Elder Scrolls Online miserably 
MS Virtual Academy Live event: Porting Unity games to Windows 8.1 & Windows Phone
Microsoft Virtual Academy Live events presents a fast-paced live virtual session on “Porting Unity games to Windows 8.1 & Windows Phone” for developers, free of charge.
Basic knowledge of the Unity editor and engine is recommended.
The event will be hosted by Michael “Mickey” Macdonald, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist @ScruffyFurn and Bryan Griffiths, Video Game Design Instructor at triOS College.
The live event will take place December 6, 2013 / 9:00am – 5:00pm (PST)
Details and registration at http://corti.ch/6bkoc
Halo: Spartan Assault in the Store for Windows 8, coming soon to Windows Phone 8
Halo: Spartan Assault is the first touch-optimized game set in the HALO universe. It plays on any Windows 8 system, but really shines on a tablet.
Even though the controls are touch-based and very easy to master, the game feels very dense and immerses the player in the Halo universe.
Set between the events of “Halo 3” and “Halo 4,” “Halo: Spartan Assault” is a new chapter of the award-winning “Halo” universe that explores the first missions of the Spartan Ops program and dives deeper into the backstory of Human-Covenant wars. Play through the eyes of either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis stationed aboard the UNSC Infinity as they fight never-before-seen battles against Covenant forces.
Visit the official site for screenshots and gameplay videos.
Download Halo: Spartan Assault from the Windows 8 store. The soundtrack is available from Amazon.
My Celtic Cross Tarot for Windows 8 is now available in the Store as a free download.
One of my recent pet projects I have been working on in my spare time (to put the new Surface Pro to good use…) was to create an implementation of the classic “Celtic Cross” Tarot that would guide the user step by step through a reading, even for users that have no previous knowledge of Tarot readings.
The app makes use of the “Sharing Charm” in Windows 8 to allow the user to share the result so it can be kept it for further reference.
I added some visual effects but left out sound so the app wouldn’t seem too much like a game.
It uses the classic Rider-Waite deck and way of interpreting the major Tarot Arcana, including the differentiation between normal and reversed cards.
The app can be downloaded for free here, if you want to give it a try: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/celtic-cross-tarot/1d584f86-3e18-44e7-bade-179f7b89585f
Begin the reading by asking your question.
See the meaning of each card while you select it from the deck.
After all ten cards has been selected, each card is revealed and its reading is presented.
In the end, the full reading is summarized.
You can share the question and the reading using Windows 8’s share charm.
Zombies!!! Or my journey into the next generation of the social board game.
I have been a long time fan of the board game Zombies!!! where players have to escape a Zombie infested town. it’s an interesting mix of competing to reach a heli-pad first and co-operating to handle the crazy amounts of Zombies.
The downside of this game is the huge amount of material you need to play it and the time it takes to set up / tear down.
Now this game has been ported to a Windows 8 Store App that has all the aspects of the full board game and adds very atmospheric sound and graphics of the town, that can be viewed and zoomed in real time. It also adds very cool animations to the Zombie fight sequences which adds a lot to the overall atmosphere.
It still doesn’t alter the gameplay experience of the board game and we recently played it with 5 people on one tablet and had a great time in a epic battle that lasted for over three hours.
Computer opponents can of course take the place of missing players.
The downside is that the game is meant to be passed from player to player as the current player’s card hand is shown over the entire screen when activated, so it has to be concealed from the other players.
The player’s card hand.
Also, this would play real nice on a large tablet, seeing the action was sometimes a bit hard for all five of us as my 11-inch tablet was a bit small in the center of the table.
Adding new parts to the ever growing town.
A fully laid out town, Helicopter waiting on the far left in this case
A player plotting his move.
Fighting a Zombie with the fire axe from the fire station. Our winner was using this tool for this victory….
“Where’s my Water?” and “Where’s my Perry?” games for Windows Phone free for one day.
Two great titles by Disney can be downloaded for free for one day:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/where-my-water/15e6bf4d-b1ea-4b21-9301-fbf27fa00c2a
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/where-my-perry/73165b83-0398-4c7e-a4cb-9ac422b1fe81
A GREAT excuse to get two new games if you don’t already own them.
Did you like “Ghosts and Goblins”? Then you will LOVE “Maldita Castilla”.
Head over to http://www.locomalito.com/maldita_castilla.php for more info and to download the app.
I can highly recommend the Point-and-Click Adventure “Deponia”.
It plays like the classic Lucas-Arts adventures and has a great story, very good and likeable characters. By far the best PaC adventure I have seen in years.
The first two episodes can be downloaded from Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214340/
“Like” the Metro 2033 Facebook page and get the game for free.
A great promo for the upcoming “Metro: Last Light” – if you “Like” the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/MetroVideoGame?sk=app_395840630491782 you will be given the first episode “Metro 2033” as a free download. If you haven’t played this game, it’s a superb survival-horror game where survivors of the nuclear holocaust struggle in a fight against mutants and human aggressors in the Moscow subway system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Xc2hhef-Nzo
Sascha Corti aka. TechPreacher 
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