Pre-Twitch Stream Wednesday News Update.

A popular X-com mod team’s creators form their own studio, Splatoon reaches the end of DLC but still will get balance updates,  Far Cry Primal gets.. uncomfortable (but somehow avoids the AO rating of doom), and Mass Effect:Andromeda news..

Happy Twitch Stream day!  We have a news update for you, as while my side and back are all different kinds of interesting colors, at least I can sit without pain!

The creators of XCom’s most popular mod: The Long War have created their own studio and announced a new game in development. The mod, which significantly lengthened the campaigns of the 2012 game (and it’s 2013 expansion, Enemy Within), was popular because it made the game more difficult and made a campaign feel like an epic campaign with expanded items. The studio will be known as Long War Studios, and their first game will seem familiar.. , a game called Terra Invicta, where, yup, you guessed it, you defend Earth from an Alien Invasion. It’s not going to be an XCom clone, however, as this will apparently play at more of a high strategic level then the down and dirty turn based fighting that marked XCom. No further details were announced, but it’s likely at some point we’ll see a Kickstarter campaign for this game, as they note the game’s satus is “In pre-Kickstarter Development”.

It was announced that after the upcoming (January) DLC for Splatoon, it would be the end of new content for the game, but that there will be continued balance patches and community events. The January DLC Pack will feature two new stages, as well as the usual setup of new gear, etcetera. But don’t worry, Splatoon fans, they hinted there would be a sequel, as they praised both the reaction to the game in Japan, but outside of Japan as well. (Hat tip to Nintendo Everything, who translated an interview from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu)

Far Cry Primal, a game that landed on our bonus list for the “16 for 2016” games we were looking forward to.. got a wee bit uncomfortable, as the game got an ESRB rating of Mature, which doesn’t surprise me.  The details, however, did. The details of the ESRB’s decision was released, and it makes for some squirming reading.

“One cutscene depicts a character being held in a fire while screaming; another depicts Takkar tapping a hole in another character’s skull as the man screams. Some scenes depict corpses in various states of mutilation: heads and torsos on spikes; ears cut off and kept as trophies; headless bodies lying in pools of blood. Certain scenes or camera angles can depict male genitalia under garments or in shadows; some female characters are depicted topless.”

To be honest, I’m surprised that the “bare breasts” thing didn’t tip it over into AO.. because heck, most of that stuff is expected in our gruesome games, but think of all the harm that would be caused by some impressionable 15 year old seeing a bare breast! (yes, that is sarcasm if you were wondering)

And finally, we have news of a departure at BioWare that affects the status of Mass Effect: Andromeda , as it was announced that Senior Development Director Chris Wynn has left BioWare to move back to the United States. Work continues on the game at three North American studios (Bioware’s studios in Edmonton, Montreal, and Austin). Be interesting to see if this was just a cog in the machine thing, or this could delay the highly anticipated game.

See you tonight for the 6 hour stream! It begins at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time, and hope to see you there!