Developed mainly by Human Head Studios after 3D Realms decided they had bitten off more than they could chew after monkeying around with it for nearly a decade, Prey would prove to be a rather interesting mish-mash of science-fiction, horror, brutality, and presented with an H.R. Giger flare that few games used at the time, and even fewer were able to pull off nearly as well. The game quickly took a hard left turn to alien abduction, and then reveals it’s true form as a story about escaping from a massive alien spacecraft and it’s various horrifying inhabitants. But wait, there’s more. Throughout the course of the journey, the main character, Tommy ends up using some spiritual powers of his own to help level the playing field against his technically superior enemies such as astral projection, to great effect.

Other elements that were ahead of their time like actual portals and tinkering with security systems were also thrown in. In fact, even the simple act of dying was innovated  upon here, with death not really being a thing that Tommy ever experiences, but rather, just has to deal with being temporarily transported to a realm where he needs to take out some flying spirits before returning to the actual game. So the game ended up being quite the adventure, and quite the package overall. This wasn’t attained easily though, as Prey was a project that was started and stopped several times between the time of its inception way back in the mid 90’s and the time that the wizards at Human Head Studios were contracted to take over and fill in the gaps that 3D Realms could not.

Simply put, this game is lucky it ever got to see the light of day, let alone end up being good and adored by fans all over the world. Prey was and is a great game, despite all the stumbles it needed to go through in order to exist. It would eventually launch on the PC, Mac, Linux, and the Xbox 360. I suppose getting the thing to run on the PS3 was just asking too much after everything the game had been through up to that point. Towards the end of 2006, the year of its launch, 3D Realms would confirm that the game sold over a million copies and that it was indeed a success on all fronts. Plans for a sequel were also announced, although Prey 2 wouldn’t get the various strokes of luck that its predecessor enjoyed.

Sadly, this is where the world of art and passion would once again clash with the realm of business and intellectual property management. 3D Realms wasn’t doing so hot in 2007 and entered into a series of sell-offs and shared ownership agreements with different companies that existed for this very purpose to help bring struggling projects to their desired conclusions. This shuffling around of rights and properties would eventually land Prey 2 under Bethesda while still supposedly being developed by Human Head. After a re-reveal of Prey 2 in 2011, several years after development of the game was reportedly started, Prey 2 would eventually wind up in a foggy state of so-called “development hell” and would get pushed around to different levels of priority at Human Head, as they juggled various other projects with Bethesda that were shorter-term and helped keep the lights on.

Eventually, Bethesda would attempt to acquire Human Head with an offer that would be refused. This would land Prey 2 in the hands of Arkane Studios, but would take a back seat there as well as that team were primarily focused on finishing up Dishonored. The rumor goes that Arkane ultimately would scrap everything that had been done with the game up to that point, and start fresh with their own vision for the game. Unfortunately, the game still wasn’t meeting Bethesda’s standards, and would itself become prey to the various trappings of game development, and would be officially cancelled sometime in 2014. This was a gut-punch to many, as fans were excited to see more of the game that was announced several years before, not a cancellation.

However, Prey 2’s cancellation would pave the way for a path that ultimately made more sense for the series anyway: a reboot. A clean slate. Seeing as how Arkane studios wanted to take a fresh approach to the series anyway, a reboot was a more fitting way to do it than an abrupt shift in tone for a sequel. As a result of this creative freedom, Arkane blew the doors off of the original setting by changing it into something that felt completely different; a setting in an alternate timeline where an accelerated space race led to a huge expansion in interstellar travel, and ultimately, a precarious situation where the US and the Soviets worked together to contain a mysterious alien species they had encountered on a space station dedicated for that very purpose.

At this point, you couldn’t be blamed for failing to see any remnants of the original Prey’s concepts in the reboot. 2017’s Prey has almost nothing in common with the original aside from the name and aliens being involved. Some common denominators did manage to sneak in though, like various powers for the player to experiment with and a dark science-fiction setting. That said, the influences of Arkane’s flagship Dishonored games was more prevalent than anything. Prey 2017 would release to mostly favorable reviews, and was by all measures a great game in many respects. But Arkane Studios has moved on to its upcoming project Deathloop, which also seems to embody a lot of Dishonored elements.

In that case, where exactly does Prey fit in? Who could take the baton and run with it at this point? With Tango Gameworks, perhaps Bethesda’s most qualified studio for the franchise currently toiling away with Ghostwire: Tokyo and MachineGames almost certainly working on a third Wolfenstein game, it’s tough to say. We’ll probably need to get out from under all of the current projects being worked on currently before a new Prey game can really be considered. At that point though, I think it probably has a good chance of coming back in some form.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It was a long time coming, but Rune 2 finally released last year. The adventure game based around Norse myth came to some mixed reviews, but overall the game performed well when it released on PC. The game, unfortunately, had a share of bad luck post-release when Human Head Studios was purchased by Bethesda, leaving a legal dispute between the developer and the publisher of Rune 2, Ragnarok. Well, it seems that dispute is now settled and the first patch is on its way.

Via a statement from Ragnarok’s new development team, they have acquired the source code for the game. While they don’t go into details as of yet, they do say the first major update can now be worked on. The game had a lot of issues that have gone unaddressed due to the legal battle. Now with it settled, hopefully those issues can be ironed out.

Rune 2 is available now exclusively on PC via the Epic Games Store with a Steam version planned sometime in 2020.

Justice Online Player Loses $1.4 Million Character

Last month, a player for NetEase’s Justice Online sued the company and his friend. Why? Well, he had a character that was worth a whopping $1.4 million and gave it to his friend, who proceeded to sell it for just $552. Everything was settled by NetEase who gave the character back but the man in question had to pay $13,000 in damages to whomever purchased it online. Moral of the story? Well, there are many morals to take away from this so take your pick.

Human Head Studios have been well acquainted with major issues in the past, but a month ago, the developer officially shut down, before reforming under Bethesda as Roundhouse Studios. It was a curious turn of events, because their shuttering happened just a couple days after the launch of their newest game, Rune 2.

Meanwhile, Ragnarok LLC, the publisher of Rune 2, said in a statement that it had had no knowledge that Human Head was about to shut down, and that their shuttering was as much of a surprise for them as it was for everyone else. They did, however, promise that they would continue to support Rune 2 even in the absence of Human Head.

Now, however, it looks like that’s not exactly going to plan. It seems there’s trouble between employees of the former Human Head Studios and Ragnarok LLC, with the latter filing a legal complaint against the former for withholding assets of Rune 2, which are required for the game’s continued support.

“As mentioned previously, we had no warning that our long term partner and friends in this project would abandon it during its most crucial moment, leaving our team at Ragnarok Game LLC to shoulder both the development and publishing burden of launch all on its own,” the publisher wrote in a statement.

“Since Human Head’s sudden closure, announcement, and discovering the active concealment of their acquisition, we have repeatedly requested access to the final launch build source code and RUNE II game assets,” they added. “This is so we can continue to support, update, and execute future DLC for our community.

“As part of the publishing agreement on RUNE II, Ragnarok Game LLC has paid for the development of these assets and is the rightful owner of them. After repeated refusals by Human Head to produce these assets, we’ve had no choice but to file a legal complaint in order to obtain the RUNE II game assets. We have exhausted all possible options before getting to this point.  This is not the step we wanted to take, but it is necessary in order to fulfill our promises to our community.”

In their lawsuit, Ragnarok have demanded heavy damages, monetary and otherwise, including a $100 million compensation, the restitution of all money transacted by Ragnarok to Human Head, return of the game’s property, and more. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates as this story develops.

Yesterday, Rune 2 developer Human Head Studios revealed that it had closed its doors. The announcement was shocking but even more shocking was the news that the entire studio was reforming as Roundhouse Studios under Bethesda. This has left current players asking about the future of Rune 2 which is currently available on the Epic Games Store for PC.

Publisher Ragnarok LLC allayed some of those fears on its forums, first announcing that the game’s demand “exceeded our expectations.” It then confirmed that support would continue for Rune 2. “Yesterday, we successfully launched RUNE II onto the Epic Games Store and the game’s demand has exceeded our expectations. We’re very thankful that everyone wants to play our game. First and foremost – we love this game and we will continue to support Rune 2.”

Of course, the announcement of Human Head Studios closing down was “shocking news” to the company. “There are several entities working on Rune 2 – we found out about this news when you did. Human Head had a longstanding agreement with Rune 2 publisher, Ragnarok Game, LLC, to provide ongoing support for the game. We are working quickly to resolve any current technical issues while we build the team that will execute the exciting planned future of Rune 2’s post-launch content strategy. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work through any launch issues.”

The publisher then confirmed that work would continue to bring Rune 2 to other PC platforms (most likely referring to its Steam release) next year. It’s also excited to showcase the “future” of Rune 2 content. Where that could lead and what plans the publisher has remains to be seen as well as how the former Human Head Studios developers will handle things. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Human Head Studios, which recently released Rune 2, has shut down. In an odd twist however, the studio has reformed as Roundhouse Studios under Bethesda. The new studio will be working on “unannounced projects” in Madison, Wisconsin.

What makes this strange is that Human Head Studios was originally developing Prey 2 for Bethesda. The project was cancelled in 2014 (rumors that it was intentionally sabotaged were denied later by Bethesda’s Pete Hines) and rebooted as Prey under Arkane Studios. Creative director Chris Rhinehart stated that, “Sadly, we had to wind down the business of Human Head Studios and close its doors, which was particularly devastating due to the passion and creativity of the team we’d assembled.

“We reached out to our friends at Bethesda for help, and they saw that same creativity and passion in our team. With the formation of Roundhouse Studios, Bethesda offered every employee of Human Head a position at the new company. We are excited our team will remain together, pursuing the work we love, as part of a company we already know and admire.”

Bethesda senior VP of development Todd Vaughn said that, “While sorry to hear of their challenges as Human Head Studios, we were excited by the opportunity to bring under the Bethesda umbrella this talented, established development team. We are delighted that the entire staff will remain together and is now part of the Bethesda family.”

Could the studio return to work on the Prey franchise, perhaps incorporating its ideas into a new sequel (especially since Arkane Studios is busy with Deathloop)? What will become of Rune 2 in the meantime? Time will tell but this is just the latest in studio acquisitions for Bethesda. The publisher acquired mobile games developer Alpha Dog Games last month with the intention of developing games for iOS and Android.

Nearly two decades after its predecessor launched, Rune 2 is now available for PC via the Epic Games Store (though it launches for Steam in 2020). A lot has changed in Midgard especially since Loki has returned and wrought destruction. As a warrior, you must pledge allegiance to a deity and ultimately stop Ragnarok from taking place.

The quest is fairly straightforward – craft Loki’s sword and then kill him with it – but your journey will involve battling giants, Surt Warriors, cannibals and much more. Artifacts can be located and skills upgraded to improve your battle prowess. There’s even co-op for a friend to join in.

Co-op supports up to four players, which can result in either mayhem or hilarity. Regardless, Rune 2 is finally here – now let’s see if it was the worth the wait. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days. Hopefully the PC version performs well enough to warrant ports for Xbox One and PS4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvYcYrhxrCM

After a long time in the oven, we finally got a release date for Rune 2. The game is a sequel to the 2000 game, Rune, and will take us to a Norse inspired setting filled with action and bloody violence as you try to stop Loki during Raganork. You won’t have to go it alone, however, as there’s co-op. Today we got a trailer showing off that aspect of the game.

You can check out the trailer below. It does still look a little on the rough side, but still looks fun in its own way, especially when you can play up to 4 players. It highlights some streamers and influencers who are having some fun bumping into each other.

Rune 2 will release sometime in November 12th on PC. The game will be exclusive to Epic Games Store, and if  you’re curious how and why that deal came together, you can read more about it through here.

https://youtu.be/n-LuVIyWycA

If you’ve followed the development of Rune 2, back when it was called Rune: Ragnarok, then you know it’s been a while coming. However, developer Human Head Studios has finally announced a release date for the PC version. You can partake in some good ol’ Viking carnage on November 12th.

Rune 2 sees the player venturing through Midgard, only this time around, you’ll need to choose which Norse god to align with, be it Odin, Thor or Hel. You get different powers from each (guess who gives the hammer of thunder?) and have to stop Loki from ruining the place. New weapons can be crafted throughout one’s journey and there are artifacts to also discover.

Rune 2 can be played solo but also has co-op support. There are also multiplayer modes like deathmatch and team deathmatch with an open beta taking place on September 20th to 22nd. The game is available exclusively on the Epic Games Store and the deal has been “pretty good” for the developer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y_yEvPoBXQ

When Human Head Studios announced the return and rebranding of Rune II, the Epic Games Store exclusivity was, as you can imagine, a lightning rod for those against the storefront, with Rune II being yet another notch for Epic Games’ strategy to combat Steam. The studio today explained their choice, and say they took the deal for the sake of the game.

In an interview with Wccftech, the exclusive deal was the huge focus for Human Head Co-Founder and Project Lead Chris Rhinehart. He dove pretty headfirst into the business side of the deal. He understands why people were not particularly happy, but said the deal came at the perfect time to move the game’s development forward, and revealed the studio had a good working relationship with Epic long before the Epic Games Store was causing such heated debate.

“As we were working on the game, we originally planned to have the game out a little bit sooner, but we did a number of Closed Beta deathmatch tests before that,” said Rhinehart. “They originally started as testing out combat, to get a sense of how it worked in multiplayer and so forth. So we wrote a kind of simple form of deathmatch at that point and we were testing it. As we were going through that, we, collectively, us and our funding partner up to this point (ESDF), decided that the game needed just a little bit more time to cook.

“We were getting a lot of great feedback from our fans and from the people in the deathmatch test and we just needed more time. And frankly, we needed more funding, so we went out and did a lot of meetings with different publishers and different potential partners, just trying to figure out who would be the best people to partner with on this. One of them was Epic and it was a pretty good deal they offered us. It’s not Ferrari money or anything like that, as all the money we got, we’re putting into the development of the project.”

“I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but Human Head and Epic have got a really good relationship that goes way back to our first game, or actually when we were working on a different game,” he continued. “We were using the Unreal Engine at that point, the original Unreal Engine. That game ended up going away, but we really liked the engine a lot and we liked working with Epic, so we talked to them asking if we could keep using their engine and they said ‘Sure!’ In fact, we showed them the game that we were working on, Rune. And they were like, that’s great actually, we want to publish that. Epic was for a while, until Gathering of Developers came into the picture, the original publisher of Rune, though it was called Ragnar at the time. So we’ve stayed friends with Epic, we’ve stayed good business partners with Epic. It just kind of made sense. There was kind of this poetic aspect to it as the original Rune started with Epic, and then Rune II is also going with Epic as well.”

As far as his opinion of the store and what Epic is doing in the PC scene? He seems to have no issue with it at all.

“Epic Games Store will be a good thing for us as developers, it’ll be a good thing for the gaming public as well,” he said. “But you know, we totally understand and respect that people might not want to get a game on that store. They can wait or just decide what they want to do.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that the Epic Games Store exclusivity deal will be good for a game or company. That, of course, won’t stop the debate, and whether or not this is something that Epic Games can continue in the long term remains to be seen. But as it stands now, Rune II will release this summer on PC, available only on the Epic Games Store.