GAMES
Moo Lander Xbox One Demo Out Now
Summary
- Mighty cows and milk-powered weapons
- Addictive multiplayer mode in a free demo
- Hand-crafted graphics and self-recorded music for an immersive experience
Moo Lander is coming to Xbox One! The game’s free demo has it all – unlockable milk arsenal abilities, worthy enemy AI, cow boss battles, beautiful art style, self-recorded orchestral music, RPG elements, multiplayer and lots of milk! And now you can experience all these features on your Xbox One console.
The Sixth Hammer game studio has updated their special demo just for the Xbox consoles – bigger, better, more beautiful than ever, more challenging than before! Packing a nice 30 to 40-minute single-player campaign and almost limitless multiplayer fun with three addictive modes – PvP, PvE, and milk soccer simulator.
What Is New?
Since our last demo iteration of Moo Lander, we have added numerous awesome new features to the game! Gameplay mechanics like camouflage modules and Lander tech are making a debut. Now you can unlock the “milk shield”, used to block enemy fire and deflect special projectiles, the “milk saber” to slash away at every hostile creature out there, and a completely new gameplay system – the Camouflage Modules. Last, but not least, is our completely revamped UI system – every bit of the game now has beautiful and user-friendly interface. Milk hunting has never been so mesmerizing!
The Ancient Mighty Cows
The cow bosses are called the “Ancient Mighty Cows”, and they are back! And with a completely new rework to our home-brewed cow AI to boot. You can expect angrier, harder cows to battle, both in the mooltiplayer arenas and in the single-player endgame. The talented developers over at our indie game studio have added some interesting options to select different bovine species for the mooltiplayer, where you can play as a cow. Challenge yourself with our multi-phase cow boss battles and master the Lander’s tech to defeat them.
Demo Length
With all that being said, the new Moo Lander demo is extended to about 30-40 (and even longer on harder difficulty) minutes of intense gameplay, not including the mooltiplayer options. There are also four new difficult levels added – story mode, cheasy, challenge and legendairy. The story mode is an excellent way to enjoy Moo Lander without any difficulty whatsoever, and the cheasy option is our version of the normal playthrough. The challenge option is for seasoned metroidvania veterans and will do exactly that – pose a worthy challenge. The last one is intended for those of you who fancy a souls-like challenge. Expect environmental puzzles as well, and many, many alien creatures along the way to victory. But you don’t have to be alone in this journey – you can invite some friends over to enjoy the four-player couch co-op multiplayer!
The Mooltiplayer
Yes, you are reading it right – Moo Lander has an awesome local mooltiplayer, and it gives you the option to play as the cows! How cool is that? The demo presents several special arena maps and three multiplayer mods – PvP, PvE and Galactic Mooball. Gather some friends to go up against the AI cows, or gear up and do two landers vs. two cows, all controlled by the players. Or if you are a soccer fan, you can team up with a buddy to go up against two other players in our Galactic Mooball mode (you can even play as a Mighty Cow). Moo Lander couch co-op moopltiplayer offers tons of fun with family and friends, all together in front of the TV.
“Mars Is One Beautiful Place!”
With an upgraded art style, graphics, particle effects and shaders, Moo Lander will stun you with beauty and detail. Get to know our world better, immerse yourself within the strange planet that is Mars – with its lush flora, dangerous, but memorable fauna, environmental hazards, and last, but not least – the Ancient Mighty Cows. They protect the cosmic milk, but you need to get it in order to save your dying civilization. While doing this epic quest, you are accompanied by self-recorded orchestral music.
As dedicated game developers and passionate gamers themselves, the team behind this game knows the value and importance of a free game demo. That is why I personally want to present to all of you – our friends, fans and supporters, the chance to experience the adventure that is Moo Lander. It is both our personal adventure, and (I hope) yours as well. And remember – there is a cow level, be part of it!
Moo Lander Demo
The Sixth Hammer
Ever wandered what a cow-overlord would look like? Moo Lander is an action-adventure RPG with Metroidvania elements featuring an epic story about cows and milk.
In the game the milk is the purest and most effective resource. You will unlock a unique arsenal of milk weaponry and defenses, while stranded on a dangerous alien world with your faithful ship AI.
Together, you will have to fight and outsmart intelligent enemies, while uncovering the motivation for your character’s journey and the emotional story behind it. You will meet memorable characters and unearth ancient secrets while the story twists and turns at every corner.
Then comes the most brutal aspect of our astonishing world – you will have to challenge our Mighty Cow bosses! Expect glorious action battles, while trying to find a way to defeat our lightning-fast lethal Cow AI.
You will also be able to get together with your family and friends and have lots of fun with Moo Lander’s up to 4 people couch multiplayer. With vastly different modes to play, you will be able to face each other in a variety of ways. You can even take control of the Mighty Cows and experience an entirely new skill-set, then go up against the heroes of the story in order to protect your Milk!
### A story about the milk
It is all about the milk! The purest and most powerful energy source, rivaled only by the brightest hyper-novae, the milk has been lost after The War with the Anunnaki! Without it, the civilization of the Landers is left on the brink of extinction – so you will have to take the only left interstellar spaceship on a mission to recover an ancient device. This device is believed to be able to produce infinite amounts of milk. Can you get the job done on time? The fate of the Landers is in your hands!
### Alone in an alien world
Moo Lander’s story explores the adventures of the last Hero of the Landers and his trusty AI – Hamilton! You can be a part of this adventure! Experience shocking revelations and discover the secrets of the Mighty Cows, explore the beautiful environments of the game – all handcrafted with passion and devotion, and listen to amazing music along the way. With branching dialog choices and optional action paths, you are in control of the fate of an entire civilization!
### Tame the mighty cows
As you progress through the game, over 20 different types of Mighty Cows will stand in your way. From the darkest dungeon to the steepest peak, these powerful bosses are everywhere and will threaten the mission. We have developed an advanced Cow AI and you will need to master your skills in order to match the cow’s superior intellect! Every single cow boss is cinematically crafted and has its unique attacks, abilities and strategies. A cosmic challenge awaits every single gamer who chooses to be the Hero of The Landers!
### It’s an action RPG
You will gain experience with every enemy defeated, become stronger and unlock new abilities. As you progress further, you’ll equip special arsenal and deploy different ship camouflage modules, tipping the scales of battles in your favor. Gather every last drop of the milk resource and use it for powerful upgrades! Managing this resource carefully is crucial to staying alive and being up to the challenge of Moo Lander!
### Four-player couch multiplayer
Our vastly different multiplayer modes offer numerous ways to play with dozens of different skills and terrains to explore.
You will freeze and burn, spit and stab your way against friends as you take control of a Mighty cow. Master over 20 different species – each will different deadly and powerful attacks.
You’ll be able to harness the milk weaponry and fight together with friends with an arsenal of over 15 different abilities against our fierce Cow AI. Then you can turn on each other in our deathmatch Arenas – carefully crafted for fast-paced PvP combats.
The Arenas in all modes are not just visually different – each offers unique hazards and tactical opportunities. You will need to study the alien world of Moo Lander and learn to use it to your advantage.
Once you figured it out, you can try facing off against our alien flora and fauna – try to survive the enemy waves long enough together with friends. But you should be careful, because all encounters are different – one can never be sure about the best strategy.
After hours of brutal action, you can continue exploring the game by playing our signature Sport – the Galactic Moo-ball! Here you will have to master playing with dozens of different balls – each with its own characteristics. And then show off your skills on all sorts of terrains – boney doors, mazes, teleportation tubes – our multiplayer has it all!
GAMES
This Week’s Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale
GAMES
The German Empire Marches to Italy in a Free Expansion Today
We have a new expansion for our WW1 Italian Front FPS game Isonzo releasing today! It’s the first part of our Caporetto season of free expansions, and features a whole new faction with the arrival of the German Empire on the Italian Front, and brings a new map for the Offensive game mode. There will be two more releases in the Caporetto season, each one with a new map to ultimately link together into a three map Caporetto Offensive.
The German faction comes with more than ten new weapons, as well as historically accurate uniforms and equipment. This first Caporetto map sees you taking part in the early stages of the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, with German troops assaulting Italian positions on the road to Caporetto. Historically it was a military disaster for Italy which brought down the government – but maybe things can go differently with you on the battlefield?
The update sees new uniforms and equipment from the German Empire for Isonzo’s six classes: Rifleman, Assault, Engineer, Officer, Marksman and Mountaineer. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, each class has different weapon, gear and perk options that allow you to specialize your play style within the overall focus of the class. For instance, Marksmen are always sharpshooters, but a lot depends on your loadout. You could be a long-range sniper and observer identifying and eliminating high value targets with a scoped rifle, or you could equip body armor to take and hold a front line position with deadly accurate mid-range fire. Every class has choices to make in this regard.
In Isonzo’s signature Offensive game mode, one side must attack and break through multiple defensive lines. Thick layers of barbed wire, trenches, and whatever extra defenses the enemy engineers put together will stand in the way of a successful attack. Objectives can be taking and holding key points, or planting dynamite to sabotage enemy supply stashes or heavy artillery guns.
The new Caporetto map – the first of three in the season – is a huge battlefield based on the strategically important Monte Kolovrat. There are five defensive lines, where each line has two objectives for the attackers before they can advance further. While in the historical Battle of Caporetto both German and Austro-Hungarian forces were involved, in Isonzo we’ve chosen to focus on the German contribution, so the map recreates the stunning German advance from the town of Tolmein all the way to Kolovrat Ridge. It’s a damp, overcast day when the attack begins, and the attackers must first cut their way through lines of wire to break into a devastated town – including capturing a church defended by multiple heavy machine gun positions. Fortunately, in Isonzo there are many tactical options available to deal with such strong points: artillery barrages, smokescreens, snipers, rifle grenades, even poison gas. From there, it becomes a literal uphill battle for the German attackers as they begin to climb towards the peak of Kolovrat Ridge. They’ll need to sabotage bunkers and capture command posts while navigating rocky trenches and steep forested slopes. At the penultimate fourth defensive line there is a huge siege mortar to sabotage and a cluster of houses providing cover to the Italian defenders – then it’s one last climb to reach the final objective: Hill 1114. If the Germans can take it, the Italians will finally be the ones fighting uphill as their reinforcements stream in to try and counterattack.
Of course, things are no walk in the park for the defenders either – although it’s easier to maneuver when going downhill, and it’s much simpler for officers to deploy flares to call in support, the extensive trench lines can become a liability once the Germans get a foothold, providing cover as they advance. Some of the Italian defensive positions can be exposed against the sky, making it easy for German marksmen to pick off targets. Italian engineers should make good use of their construction abilities to put down additional sandbags and lay out extra wire to prevent German assault troops sneaking through the trees to flank trenches with their grenades or light machine guns.
As we mentioned before, historically the Battle of Caporetto was a disaster for the Italians. Appalling leadership led to poorly motivated and unprepared troops falling apart in the face of the combined Austro-Hungarian and German armies using cutting edge infiltration tactics. The Italian soldiers were not allowed to retreat until too late, and in the end hundreds of thousands would surrender. After Caporetto the top Italian general was fired and replaced by someone far more competent, who managed to turn the war around for the Italians. In Isonzo, it’s a more fair fight where both sides have an equal chance of winning, if they can use all the tactical options available better than their opponents.
The release will also bring other improvements to the game, including a prestige mode and higher level cap. Additionally, for those who want more options for visual customization of their character, the Royal Units DLC is releasing alongside the free expansion and contains uniforms from the German Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. Though part of the German Empire, these states had their own distinctive uniforms which we’ve carefully recreated with the same accuracy and attention to detail as with the other uniforms in the game.
The Battle for Caporetto Begins…
Isonzo is available right now on the Microsoft Store for Xbox, and the free Caporetto expansion is out today! Plenty of time to master the art of mountain warfare before the German Empire joins the action on the Italian Front. Follow us to get the latest development news as we add the finishing touches!
We’ll see you in the trenches!
Isonzo
BlackMill Games
$29.99
World War One expands to the mountains of the Italian Front – beautiful but deadly in equal measure. Inspired by the two year struggle for control of the Isonzo river valley and the Alps during World War One, Isonzo elevates the WW1 Games Series, figuratively and literally.
From the makers of Verdun and Tannenberg…
Take part in historical offensives from the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo to the Strafexpedition. Reflecting the course of the actual battles, as the attackers advance the fighting will shift through vastly different landscapes within a single offensive: from hillside fortresses to mountain trenches and fierce urban combat on city streets. Everything is recreated based on research and field trips, from sound effects and uniforms down to the houses, vineyards and trenches you’ll be fighting over.
The new Offensive game mode puts you right in the middle of key historical offensives on the Italian Front. Lead the charge across stunning Italian landscapes as you choose your path to victory – cut paths through barbed wire, flank your enemies by following mountain trails, or man a mortar to blast a way through. Shape a dynamic battlefield by laying sandbags and wire, placing ammo crates, deploying trench periscopes or sniper shields, and more.
Call in support with a unique historically accurate flare system: flare guns can mark targets for artillery or biplane flybys, or different colored flares can be used to guide your team. Once the big guns have softened up the enemy, finish the job at close quarters with an Arditi dagger or mountaineer’s pickaxe. Man heavy machine guns, mortars and even mountain guns for more direct fire support.
Choose from six classes based on historical combat roles and build your loadout from a selection of weapons, equipment and perks linked to that class, giving flexibility and variety while staying grounded in what real soldiers might have carried. You’ll be operating wire cutters, bandaging yourself and wounded teammates, and blowing the whistle to start an assault. One shot can kill and even lighter injuries can lead to quickly bleeding out.
Being an effective soldier in Isonzo is not just about being a good marksman. Mastering the terrain is also key – the mountain can be a friend or foe. Learn how to navigate well to maintain cover and surprise your enemies or support your allies.
Finally… watch out for the dreaded poison gas. You’ve never experienced WW1 action quite like this!
Isonzo key features include:
• MOUNTAIN WARFARE: Assaulting mountain fortifications, battling through ruined towns, and fording rivers are just a few of the challenges you’ll face as you fight your way through numerous enemy positions
• TACTICAL MULTIPLAYER FPS: Choose your role and loadout carefully to survive this high altitude combat – play a sniper to pick off the enemy engineers before they can cut your wire, use rifle grenades to clear enemy machine guns, and much more
• WORLD WAR ONE GAMEPLAY: Historical Offensive game mode based on real battles and focused on the unique challenges of Alpine warfare. Fight with 30+ WW1 weapons, poisonous gas attacks, and intense artillery barrages
• BUILD FOR VICTORY: Place your own wire, sandbags, trench periscopes, and more! Whether you’re digging in or on the attack, shaping the battlefield to your advantage will be key to victory
• FACES OF WAR: Make every class your own by picking from a variety of historically class-appropriate uniforms, accessories and headgear. As a finishing touch, you can even pick your mustache from several famous period-accurate styles!
• AUTHENTIC WW1 ATMOSPHERE: Accuracy in everything from maps and weaponry to music and the uniforms – fight for the Kingdom of Italy, the German Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy
MORE GAMES IN THE AUTHENTIC WW1 GAME SERIES
Immerse yourself in more WW1 action with our other standalone titles Tannenberg and Verdun. Experience trench warfare on the Western Front in Verdun, or maneuver for control of key sectors in Tannenberg on the Eastern Front. These authentic WW1 shooters let players choose from a range of squads from across the war, as they fight for control of the ever-changing frontlines.
GAMES
Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is Bringing the Full Transport Tycoon Experience to Xbox
Today, we proudly share a sneak peek into the development of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition, and how we managed to bring the full transport tycoon experience to Xbox.
Transport Fever is a very popular and highly rated transportation tycoon franchise on PC. Its latest entry, Transport Fever 2, delivers a level of size and detail never before seen in the genre. The goal of the game is to build a successful transportation company by constructing railroads, streets, water and air lines. Starting in the 19th century, the player connects towns and industries to transport both passengers and cargo. In addition to a customizable free game mode, there is also a fully-fledged campaign mode with challenging missions set in real-world transportation history.
After the huge success of Transport Fever 2 on PC, it was only logical to bring the experience to consoles as well. Not only that, but no efforts were spared to give the console community the full experience that made the game great on PC. In order to achieve this, the engineers at Urban Games had to pull some rabbits out of their engineers’ hats.
Always providing the freshest layer of paint
One of the most cherished features of Transport Fever 2 are its highly detailed vehicles. The game comes with more than 200 lovingly hand-modeled trains, ships, and airplanes, each sporting multiple 4k textures and normal maps.
On PC, it is easily affordable to have all the models and textures in memory whenever needed, as a typical rig has 16 GB of RAM and a GPU with a dedicated extra memory. Consoles, however, are built differently. They have a unified architecture with an overall smaller amount but ultra-fast memory. The key to make it work on consoles is texture streaming, which allows to clear textures of models that are not in view anymore. Moreover, this technology is used in Transport Fever 2 to constantly load textures at the highest affordable resolution to present the stars of the show, like the classic Class A 3/5 steam locomotive, in their best coat of paint at all times.
Keeping the ground like a console pro
A trademark of Transport Fever 2 are its huge maps. During development of the game, it was always paramount to provide a real sense of scale. The engine should allow for maps where a high-speed train, such as the famous Japanese Shinkansen, can really make use of its superior speed. So, a lot of effort was put into designing a highly effective terrain rendering pipeline that can handle maps of more than 120 sq miles of size with a detail resolution of almost 1 yard. Central to this is a dynamic terrain tessellation algorithm on the CPU that, while costing a bit of extra memory, makes sure the engine can render these maps on a wide variety of PCs.
Now, enter the world of consoles with their incredibly well-designed GPUs and graphic APIs. Here, the hardware can be leveraged very well for terrain rendering by making use of the GPU tessellation feature. This feature generates the render mesh for the terrain fully on the graphics card, saving valuable processing time for the complex economy and city growth simulations. While generating more triangles, the hardware approach still costs less memory overall due to its efficiency. So vast maps can be viewed from a bird’s view high up in the sky and seamlessly zoomed in down to individual rocks on a riverbank.
Inspiring the inner architect
Finally, let’s talk about constructions, a central and defining part of the Transport Fever 2 experience. Constructions are large assemblies that consist of dozens of assets, street segments, ground decals and terrain modifications. Think of structures like airports, train stations, docks, highway crossings, and many more. Anything that is needed to build a vast transportation empire.
For a smooth construction experience, it is key that the player really feels that he has precise control over the building placement. On PC, constructions are typically built using the mouse. As the average PC user is very well adjusted to this method of input, it is sufficiently performant to calculate the entire construction each frame and place it under the cursor. However, on consoles, the best way of building constructions is to have them always kept in the center of the screen and move the camera along the map for placement. And moving the camera needs to be as smooth as silk.
So, for the console release of Transport Fever 2, the construction preview pipeline was overhauled. All dynamic calculations are now performed in the background while a static preview of the structure and its underlying ground plan are shown. Not only are constructions now completely stable in terms of FPS, but they also give feedback to the player on what environment features the construction would tear down when built.
Let’s get tycooning on console
We are very excited to bring the Transport Fever franchise to consoles for the first time ever with the release of Transport Fever 2: Console Edition on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One in February 2023, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did developing it.
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