Look for Donald Trump’s heart in ‘Surgeon Simulator’

Surgeon Simulator is putting the life of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in your (shaky) hands. With the Inside Donald Trump expansion, you’re tasked with performing a heart transplant on the priapic real-estate mogul turned politician. Players can choose from swapping in a heart of stone or one made of gold, and should your procedure be successful, which heart you chose will show up on a tracker site along with the choices of every other would-be doctor. What’s more, a running total of the cost of the procedures will populate the tracker as well.

A handful of The Donald’s signature items like Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks make an appearance here as well, and there’s even a “small hands” mode (pictured above) that should make Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver giggle. There’s no word if the game was coded using Drumpf’s programming language, though. Oh, right: You can play with Trump’s hair during the operation, and can even give him a makeover while his chest is splayed open. Not that there’s any need to mess with perfection, but the option’s there if you so desire.

The downloadable expansion is free for Surgeon Simulator Anniversary Edition owners, but the team at Bossa Studios have an upgrade plan if you only have the game’s 2013 edition. Through June 11th on Steam, those folks can upgrade to the latest and greatest version for $2 and get the Trump add-on for $0.60 — 80 percent off the normal price. If that still seems too steep, maybe the video below will convince you otherwise.

‘Sims 4’ removes gender barriers in Create a Sim

The Sims franchise is all about customization. The city-building games feature wild objects, buildings, people and professions that can be combined in all manner of ridiculous ways, from blue-skinned rocket scientists with a deep love of cactuses to museum curators who enjoy a good naked walk around fine art displays. Personal choice is the joy of the game. That’s one reason it was strange to have customization options in The Sims 4 that were exclusive to either gender. Female characters couldn’t use the clothes, hairstyles, physiques and voice options that were designated for men, and vice versa.

That is, until today.

A free update released Thursday for The Sims 4 makes more than 700 existing pieces of content gender-neutral, allowing players to alter their characters in any way they wish for the first time. Women can have deep voices, broad shoulders and blazers, and men can have dresses, long hair and heels, for example. The update applies to customization options in the base game as well as existing DLC packs for the “Create a Sim” mode.

“The Sims has long been an inclusive game built by a diverse team for a diverse audience,” lead producer Lyndsay Pearson says. “We’ve been working on this update for more than a year, and it’s about giving players more ways to be creative and express themselves. Players have always been able to customize their Sims’ hair, age, skin tone and more. This is a natural evolution of that gameplay freedom.”

“We’re passionate about creating an inclusive environment where players are empowered.” – Lyndsay Pearson

Pearson says players would often ask for gender-neutral options, and removing those restrictions makes perfect sense for a game focused on creativity and personal style. After every new update, the Maxis team looks forward to seeing what players come up with and how they use the tools they’re given, she says. Removing gendered items only broadens the potential for creativity and expression.

“We’re excited to see how players use the gender customization options to express themselves and tell their stories,” Pearson says.

Today’s update wasn’t prompted by recent real-world conversations about transgender rights or bathroom politics — it’s been in the works for more than a year, after all, nearly since the game’s launch in September 2014. However, Pearson acknowledges that video games, just like other forms of mass entertainment, can influence the way people think about issues like gender, sexuality and social mores. In turn, society influences how developers approach their craft. Video games are immersive forms of entertainment and they can’t be separated from the people creating or playing them.

Maxis and publisher EA are proud to have a “long history” of fostering personal creativity and providing representation for all types of people, Pearson says.

“That’s why we’re passionate about creating an inclusive environment where players are empowered to be creative and express themselves,” she adds. “We give players the tools to reflect the world around them and bring their imaginations to life.”

Pearson hopes the update inspires players to tell their own stories — or the stories of a succulent-loving, blue-tinted rocket scientist. It’s entirely up to the players.

“For Sims players, more freedom, more customization options and more tools to express themselves are always a good thing,” Pearson says.

​GOG will add select Steam games to your library for free

Juggling multiple digital libraries can be complicated. Did you buy that game on Steam, or GOG.com? Depending on the game, it might not matter anymore. Today, GOG.com announced a new service that will automatically add select Steam games to your GOG library — for free.

For folks juggling a fractured library of digital content, the GOG Connect’s promise is enticing: link a Steam account to your GOG Library, get your Steam games on GOG. Actually redeeming the games is as easy as it sounds, but not every game available on both Steam and GOG qualifies for transfer — GOG says the selection of eligible games varies “depending on various agreements with our partners.” Right now, that limited selection includes games like FTL, Shadowrun Returns, Trine, Braid, Saints Row 2 and more.

Adding Steam games to your GOG account won’t remove them from your Steam library, but you might lose the ability to transfer them if you haven’t already — each eligible game seems to come with a time limit. GOG says the transfer eligibility period will vary from game to game, but once it transfers over, it’s yours forever. The rules may be a little complicated, and the selection limited, but ultimately it’s hard to complain. A free game is a free game, after all.

Via: Polygon

Source: GOG Connect

Ready at Dawn’s new game is nothing like ‘The Order’

While Ready at Dawn developers were working on The Order: 1886, they saturated themselves in big-budget single-player experiences. The office’s gaming nook was usually occupied by one person running through a gorgeous digital world as developers studied 3D environments, motion-captured facial expressions and cinematic cut scenes. In the end, Ready at Dawn created a beautiful game that was widely criticized for its lack of mechanical or narrative innovation. For many players, The Order was missing something.

That thing might have been a sense of pure, unadulterated fun — specifically for more than one person at a time.

Ready at Dawn co-founder and president Ru Weerasuriya missed the atmosphere that had pervaded the office’s gaming space before work started on The Order. Back then, groups of developers would play Bomberman or Mario Kart late into the night, laughing, yelling and trying to out-maneuver each other. In short, Weerasuriya missed co-op.

That’s one reason Ready at Dawn’s new game, De-formers, is such a drastic shift from The Order. It’s a cheery, multiplayer-only title starring a lineup of adorable boneless blobs that come in a rainbow of colors. The characters are called “Forms” and they use a variety of globulous moves to battle each other by rolling, jumping, shooting, dashing and throwing across a series of arenas. The Forms get bigger and stronger by consuming objects in the world — and the remains of their defeated opponents. It’s cannibalism combat in a 3D cartoon.

Matches in De-formers are short, just a few minutes each. The game supports up to eight players in a combination of local and multiplayer co-op, meaning you and some friends on the couch can jump together into an online game, or you can dive into a one-one-one round, local or online. There are no skeletons in the Forms’ characters models; they roll, distort and stretch based on a physics engine that responds to the specific elements in each match. Plus, they’re adorable.

With such an extreme shift from The Order to De-formers, Ready at Dawn should be nervous about disenfranchising its existing fans. Right?

“Not really,” Weerasuriya says.

As he sees it, Ready at Dawn has pivoted plenty of times since the studio’s founding in 2003. Its first game was a PlayStation Portable exclusive called Daxter, based on the cartoonish Jak and Daxter series. From there, the studio worked on both the God of War and Okami franchises before diving into The Order.

“We hope that people realize we make games for gamers,” Weerasuriya says. “We’ve always looked to, ‘What could be fun?’ Rather than, ‘What should we do?’”

He says De-formers is a deceptively complex game that’s easy to enter but hard to master, and it’s executed with the same polish as The Order. There’s no narrative in De-formers — its focus is pure competitive fun, coming “soon” to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Another reason De-formers is different is the partnership taking place behind the scenes: It’s made in conjunction with GameStop’s new publishing division, GameTrust. GameTrust promises a hands-off approach to publishing, allowing independent teams to create the games they want without bureaucratic influence. Insomniac’s Song of the Deep is also part of GameStop’s new program, alongside Trine studio Frozenbyte and Deadlight house Tequila Works.

Ready at Dawn owns the rights to De-formers, full-stop. This is the game Weerasuriya wants to make — a multiplayer combat experience with an old-school couch co-op vibe. Basically, it’s something that the entire Ready at Dawn office can enjoy.

‘Neverwinter’ will debut on PS4 later this summer

Neverwinter, the free-to-play MMORPG that debuted on PC then made its way to Xbox One last year, is making its next stop on PlayStation 4. All aboard the Drizzt train!

The Cryptic Studios-developed role-playing adventure based on the Dungeons & Dragons universe is arriving on the console with all of the content from the original game as well as its nine expansions to play through as one of eight varied classes. Neverwinter features enemies pulled straight from Dungeons & Dragons lore, with locations from the Underdark and Icewind Dale that may be familiar to longtime D&D fans.

You won’t have to worry about ponying up for a subscription fee for the game itself, but publisher Perfect World Entertainment has announced that it won’t require you to pay for PlayStation Plus, either.

There’s no exact release date for Neverwinter just yet, but it’ll be out at some point this summer.

Source: PlayStation

‘Resident Evil 5’ comes to PS4 and Xbox One on June 28th

Capcom’s Resident Evil series set the standard for a generation of horror video games — so it’s no surprise that the company is celebrating the franchise’s 20th anniversary by selling some of its greatest hits again. In reverse order. Starting with Resident Evil 6 back in March, Capcom has been counting backwards to the game that redefined the series: Resident Evil 4. That coveted release is still awhile out, but if you need a zombie fix right now, there are options. At the end of June, Resident Evil 5 will be available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

If you can’t remember what made this entry in the series special, it can be summed up in one word: multiplayer. Resident Evil 5 suffered mixed reviews for theming, pacing and an failure to balance action and horror, but it was the first entry in the series to introduce local co-op play. It’s not a perfect game, but it builds on the combat system that made Resident Evil 4 such a hit. If you’ve got a friend and want some action, it’s worth a look. Plus, the PS4 and Xbox One release comes with all of the original game’s add-on content. Interested? The digital release will set you back $20 on June 28th. Looking for a physical disc to collect? You’ll have to wait until June 12th — but at least it won’t cost you anything extra. Check out Capcom’s official release at the source link below for more details.

Source: Capcom