Major Features:

• PVP - Shoot your friends!
• LAN Mode - Play offline with reduced latency! Great for LAN parties!
• Nemesystem - Dying has consequences, but revenge has its reward!
• Two New Enemies - The Ghost in the Shellfish and the Scorporation
• Minions - Summon your own combat AI!
• Reflections - Oooh, Shiny!

Would you like to know more? Keep scrolling! I've got more details on the major features below.

Minor Features:

• Cloaking Enemies affix - The Predator comes to mind
• Rebalanced Server Difficulty - Now just look at your player level to figure out what level server to hack!
• Retooled Level Generation - Easier to find servers of your level!
• New Unique Item - The Porta Device - A Unique Mod which has a chance to teleport your attackers away
• H or Q to hack - No matter which slot your Icebreaker is equipped in!
• Halloween Surprise 2014 - Find your own #HackOLantern, or make one IRL and win a Black Ice T-Shirt!. Don't like the Black & Orange servers? Select "I Hate Halloween" in the top left of the main menu.

Not to mention Bug Fixes and System Enhancements all over the place!

PVP:

Just select PVP from the Advanced Options when creating a multiplayer match to jump into PVP. You'll be automatically assigned to the Red or Blue team, although you can switch teams at any time by holding Tab and pressing the Switch Team button. Note that all servers and enemies are still active - and not friendly to you - so it's a race for each team to try to outlevel each other via hacking. Damage numbers are enabled for all players, which makes it much harder to hide from your enemies if you're hacking.

LAN Mode:

This takes a little extra work (instructions here!) but the benefit is that you can play multiplayer with no internet connection and with drastically reduced latency. And if you also own Disco Dodgeball, it's the same LAN setup :)

Nemesystem:

Dying to a server near or below your level will cause it to level up, but also will increase the odds of getting good loot from that server. And of course, the server will taunt you by displaying a large red skull hologram on the roof.

New Enemies:

The megacorps have been busy upgrading their security. First, the Ghost in the Shellfish is a big beefy crab-like enemy who can really knock your socks off (or your ass out of the hacking radius). The other new enemy is called the Scorporation. This high-tech scorpion AI packs a highly-damaging lasgun and can be very accurate, so keep moving!

Minions:

Ever wanted your own pet AI? Now you can have one! Or eight! Minions are great for distracting enemies and can put out some damage to boot. Grabbing a health powerup will also heal your minions.

Reflections:

The world of Black Ice just got a bit brighter with the addition of high-fidelity raytracing reflections. This does affect performance, but you can turn it down to Simple Reflections mode in the options, or turn reflections completely off. One side effect of the Fancy Reflections mode: enemy death particles look super cool now. Still want more info? Find me on Twitter! @BlackIceTheGame

[ 2014-10-25 19:21:50 CET ] [ Original post ]