Mildly dissatisfactory space strategy game Homeworld 3 will receive its last major update this week, developers Blackbird Interactive have announced. Due to launch on 21st November, Update 1.3 will deliver "a gargantuan number of improvements, fixes, and some entirely new features". These broadly consist of combat and balance overhauls together with changes for the Skirmish & War Games modes, though they've shown the campaign a little love as well.
]]>Homeworld 3 is condensing its release schedule for post-launch updates. Instead of free and paid content arriving into 2025, it will all - three free updates, and two paid DLCs - arrive together in a "one major update" in November.
]]>Nic reckons Homeworld 3, the long-awaited spacefaring RTS, is mostly pretty good. Qualified hoorays for that, as well as for the fact that it doesn’t make especially mad demands of your hardware: besides netting a Steam Deck Playable badge from Valve, its minimum PC specs only list the likes of the Intel Core i5-6600 and Nvidia’s GTX 1060. Easily doable, for most aspiring galactic admirals.
Once a battle gets underway, however, Homeworld 3’s performance can start tanking, turning an initially smooth engagement into a more stutter-prone light show. The good news? You can more than double your framerates with a relatively small handful of graphics setting changes, even if some these (including the DLSS and FSR 2 upscalers) can be a tad inconsistent in their own right.
]]>Spacefaring RTS Homeworld 3 is good sci-fi. Monolithic structures scorched with plasma burns. Sleek spacecraft. Alien sunrises. It’s also good sci-fi because its characters converse through reams of inscrutable but cool-sounding space science, and at no point does a grinning quipster tell a scientist: “Whoa there, professor. Why don’t you try saying that again... but in English!” Basically, if your wishlist for Homeworld 3 has tone and atmosphere at the top, rest easy. At no point did I get the sense that Blackbird ever took making the first proper Homeworld in eight years lightly.
]]>Blackbird Interactive, the team behind upcoming strategy game Homeworld 3, have released details on both the planned roadmap and the game’s chunky-looking collector’s edition, ahead of the game’s release next month, 13th May.
The roadmap details three pieces of paid DLC for the year ahead, plus an additional planned paid piece in 2025. This is alongside several free content updates. Together, they’re all targeted at fleshing out the game’s ‘War Games’ three player co-op mode. Specifically, the roadmap details new playable factions, starting fleets, challenges, emblems, and maps.
]]>After delaying the launch of Homeworld 3 by two months to address criticism of the spacefleet shoot-o-strategy game's demo, developers Blackbird Interactive have now laid out what they're changing. Improved controls, tougher ships, more useful formations, better Attack Move command, more HUD options, and more types of War Games mode objectives are among the tweaks and improvements detailed by game director Lance Mueller in a 3000-word blogblast. "This past month, everyone was heads down discussing every post we saw from Steam, social, Reddit, Discord and beyond," he explained. They have plans.
]]>The studio behind Homeworld 3, Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak, and Hardspace: Shipbreaker have cut a number of jobs, explaining this is "part of a realignment plan that's necessary because of new projects that were shelved by some of our partners". Blackbird Interactive haven't confirmed the number of people who lost their jobs, nor have they said what the mystery projects were. It's been a grim year for people working in the video games industry, with thousands losing their jobs, and we're only halfway through February.
]]>February's Steam Next Fest demo bonanza officially concluded on Monday, and Valve have now revealed the 50 most played games you all tucked into across the week-long event. Ordered by the number of unique players that spent time with them during Next Fest proper (meaning all those early demo plays from earlier in the month haven't been counted), the most popular game of the lot was one that was only formally announced right at the end of January. So congratulations Dungeonborne - your blend of PvPvE dungeon crawling and fantasy skelly monsters clearly struck a chord with this year's Next Festers.
]]>Homeworld 3's release date has been pushed back from March 8th to May 13th 2024, in order to build on player feedback to this week's Steam Next Fest War Games demo, which will be available till February 12th, 10am PT or 6pm GMT. The associated joint statement from developers Blackbird Interactive and publishers Gearbox arrived within hours of me posting about said Homeworld 3 demo and saying that while I am fully onboard with many aspects of the new space strategy game, I do have reservations about its controls.
Naturally, and self-flatteringly, I'm now petrified that I'm single-handedly responsible for the delay. Please come back, Homeworld 3! I didn't mean it! I'm pretty sure I'll acclimatise to the control scheme with practice! True-3D starfleet management is always a bit fiddly! Besides which, I might not get to review it now!! I'm moving flat in May!!!
]]>Good news, star admirals with decent CPM! Gearbox and Blackbird Interactive's strategy escapade Homeworld 3 has a demo on Steam. It's been live for a few days, actually, but whether due to the bombardment of other Steam Fest goodies or my being led astray by the similar-but-nerdier Nebulous: Fleet Command, I didn't try it till last night. The demo includes a tutorial mission, four maps and the War Games mode, a one-to-three player affair which essentially turns Homeworld into a roguelike - pitching you up against unpredictable opposition while unlocking new fleets and doling out Artifacts that augment your vessels.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as Avowed, Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.
]]>Homeworld 3 will launch on March 8th 2024, completing a development journey that began with crowdfunding back in 2019. To give some insight into that journey, developers Blackbird are going to release a documentary this December, a clip from which you'll find below.
]]>One thing I never tire of ranting about is the brilliance of the original Homeworld Mothership - both for its elegant crescent-moon design, and for its more practical function as a giant compass needle shoved into Homeworld's then-unprecedented 3D volumes, so that players can orient themselves and strategise. I admit, I was a little piqued by Homeworld 3's redesigned Mothership, which lies flat as a doormat - an act of blasphemy akin to flipping a crucifix upside down, or wearing a baseball cap backwards in your 50s. But I've come round to the new Mothership after reading Blackbird Interactive art director Karl Gryc's thoughts on its creation.
]]>Homeworld and its sequel were real-time strategy games that stuck in the memory mainly due to the atmosphere they managed to create via dialogue, music choices and striking ship designs. I had mentally labelled coming sequel Homeworld 3 as "more of the same, but better looking", without thinking much more about it.
A new development update from developers Blackbird Interactive doesn't so much prove me wrong as go into great detail about what "better looking" really means - while also making me excited about the new "flavor layer" of ship-to-ship communication.
]]>Crowdfunding platform Fig will go offline on Sunday, May 28th, and all pages related to previously funded campaigns will disappear along with it. That means that creators who were continuing to use the platform to communicate and deliver rewards to backers are currently scrambling to transition to alternative methods, including the likes of Double Fine and Gearbox.
]]>RTS threequel Homeworld 3 has been delayed to February 2024, flying away from its previous "first half of 2023" release window. The developers say they need more time to live up to the series’ standards, presumably with more epic spacefleet shootouts. For those missing the series’ galactic megastructures, the devs have promised to share their biggest “progress update” yet later this summer. Possibly at one of this year’s NotE3 showcases.
]]>Want to know the expected Homeworld 3 release date? After 20 years, the Homeworld franchise is back with a full sequel. Homeworld 3 continues the RTS series that's now remembered as a PC classic, but the long wait likely has fans feeling both excited and nervous. Fortunately, we're here to round up everything we know so far, so that you know what to expect.
Below, we'll break down everything we know so far about Homeworld 3, including the expected release date, a look at the announcement and gameplay trailers, a dive into what's new for the franchise, and any story details that are currently available. Rest assured that we'll keep this guide updated with the latest reveals as they come.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Crikey, there are a lot of games coming out this year, aren't there? When I first asked the team to put together their most anticipated games for 2023, I was thinking we'd have a reasonably sensible number of things we were all looking forward to, you know, somewhere in the region of the 43 games we highlighted at the start of 2022. Very quickly, though, it became apparent that, actually, there are simply loads of games the RPS Treehouse is personally excited about this year, and cor, it would be rude not to include every last one of them. I'll be upfront: there are a fair number of TBA games on here that probably aren't going to come out in 2023, but as ever, we remain hopeful and optimistic all the same. So let's dive in.
]]>Nebulae are nice and black holes are dramatic, but I firmly believe that space battles are at their very coolest when whizzing around supersized ships and megastructures. I am therefore delighted by the new Homeworld 3 trailer showing a battle around sprawling technoruins in the long-awaited spaceship strategy sequel. And yes, absolutely it still has those cool Tron engine trails.
]]>Homeworld 3, threequel to the OG melancholy spaceship strategy series, has been delayed into the first half of next year. The developers say they need more time to make the engine trails glow just right, and to make the derelict megastructures mega enough. We will apparently see more of the game in action this August, though.
]]>Blackbird Interactive, the makers of Homeworld 3 and Hardspace: Shipbreaker, have announced plans to switch to a four-day work week for all employees. They join a small but growing number of game studios aiming to actively combat burnout by giving employees more time to themselves. Like many others who've tried a four-day week, they say that not only were people happier, productivity was not harmed. Cool. Who's next?
]]>2022 is finally here and that can only mean one thing. We've got another year of hip new video games to look forward to, and we've been busy rustling up the ones we're most excited about. In truth, there are tons of games on the horizon that could easily sit on this list, and some of them are so close to release we can practically already see the pixels on our screens morphing into their lush, polygonal landscapes. Games like Monster Hunter Rise, God Of War and Rainbow Six Extraction. You won't find them here, but trust us, you'll be seeing a lot of them over the coming weeks.
There are always more games coming out than we have fingers to write about them, but the 2022 games we've listed below are the ones the RPS team are personally most looking forward to playing. We've got games big and small here, and they're all listed in alphabetical order. After all, release dates are increasingly slippery beasts these days. Think we've missed something? Why not take to the comments below and tell us all about it. You might just convince us to put it on our radars. But enough from me. Here are our 43 most anticipated games of 2022.
]]>After 19 years, Homeworld 3 will arrive in 2022 to continue the sci-fi strategy series about leading an armada of spaceships. A new "gameplay" trailer arrived today during the Game Awards pre-show today and yes: absolutely the spaceships still leave those pretty engine trails behind them. The trailer also gives neat-o peeks at spacebattles raging through the ruins of derelict megastructures. See for yourself below.
]]>When Homeworld 3 launched a token crowdfunding campaign in 2019, it was through a site which not only lets people throw in cash, it lets some actually invest in the game and get paid if it does well. Well, that's off. While development continues, the investment aspect has been binned, presumably as a consequence of Homeworld owners Gearbox being bought by the ever-growing Embracer Group. But Homeworld 3 is still on. So that's fine.
]]>After almost 16 years, oh me oh my Homeworld 3 is finally happening. Gearbox Publishing today announced the spacefleet RTS will blast off again a full-on sequel. Homeworld 3 is being made by Blackbird Interactive, a studio who were founded by some of the folks who made the original Homeworld at Relic Entertainment then brought the series back with the recent spin-off Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak. And it's crowdfunding. Now. Already. The actual release is yet a long, long way away.
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