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Archived News:
Auran announces plans for a worldwide Fury preview event from July 27 through
July 29 to give folks a chance to sample the game's MMO combat: Brisbane
Australia - July 19, 2007 - After the recent successful showing of their
upcoming PvP MMO "FURY" at Gamecock’s E.I.E.I.O. in California, and at China Joy
in Shanghai, Auran is very pleased to announce a special FURY Worldwide Preview
event that will commence at noon, Friday July 27 PST through to 11.59pm Sunday
July 29.
"After the fantastic press demos last week in LA, and the great feedback we’ve
seen from the closed beta testers, we believe it is now time to unleash Fury
upon the broader public," said Harry Miller, Head of Development at Gamecock,
the publisher of Fury in North America. "We love indie developers because they
innovate, and sometimes the best way for people to discover more about exciting
new games is simply to let them experience it first-hand.”
“As our Fury motto says, ‘Waste enemies, not time’,” said Tony Hilliam, Auran
CEO. “We had planned our first public event to be a little closer to release,
but we’ve come to realize that once people get two or three games of Fury under
their belt, they’re hooked. So we thought, why not just let them get sucked
straight into the action and see for themselves.”
“Besides,” Hilliam continued, “we’re risk takers. We took a big risk by setting
out to make a game that throws away the MMO hand-book. We took all the rewards,
loot and character advancement from the MMO genre and crammed them into an
adrenaline filled, fast paced combat game. People hear the word MMO and say
‘been there, done that’. But they haven’t played Fury.”
The servers will be open for 60 hours from midday Friday July 27 (Saturday
morning in Australia/Asian time zones) and up to 200,000 log-in accounts will be
issued on a first come first served basis. Simply visit
www.unleashthefury.com/PreviewEvent to get your key and receive download
instructions. Existing Closed Beta testers will be able to use their existing
account, or if they've lost it, apply for a new one.
“This Beta Preview Event will allow new players to experience Fury's unique
combat and multiple game types as well as the challenge of mixing and matching
more than 400 abilities to create their 'perfect' incarnation,” said Adam
Carpenter, Fury’s Lead Designer. “In addition, our existing beta players can see
the progress we've made in the past weeks with improvements to matchmaking,
player training and starter ability selections. And of course with all the extra
players, there will be shorter wait times and evenly matched battles for
everyone.”
Visit www.unleashthefury.com to see
more of the game.
Slitherine
Software now offers a new version 1.02 patch for Commander Europe at War,
saying: "This patch brings the game up to V1.02 fixing bugs, improving the UI,
adding new features, adjusting game balance and minor tweaks to the AI. The next
patch will focus more on the AI and gameplay." The download is mirrored on
FileNuts and The Patches Scrolls.
The
Universe at War: Earth Assault Q&A on Computer and Video Games talks with
Adam 'A Frog' Isgreen about Petroglyph's upcoming RTS game: "Strategy games are
thinking games, and we felt it was time to get back to making you think - not
just about what units to build, but about what strategy you were going to go for
in any particular battle. We believe that players are becoming more mature with
RTS games in general and that there's a desire for more diversity in strategy,
even on a unit-by-unit basis. Generally, units in RTS games are designed to do
one thing for the lifetime operation of that unit and that's it. We wanted to
expand on that and give units new vectors (ones that don't destroy their core
role) that could be explored via customization. Those new vectors in combination
with other staple units or other potential customisations open up new tactics
that the player can exploit."
GameDaily BIZ
reports that Silicon Knights is suing Epic Games over "inadequacies of the
Unreal Engine 3 code it provides to its licensees." They have quotes from
Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack and Games' Vice President Mark Rein. First
was a preemptive message from Epic's Rein: This morning we were served
with a lawsuit by Silicon Knights. We believe the claims against us are
unfounded and without merit and we intend to fully defend against them. We'd
love to tell you more about it but unfortunately our lawyers want us to save our
comments for the courthouse so we're going to do our best to comply with their
wishes. In that vein we'd appreciate if our friends in the industry and media
would refrain from asking us about the suit because we're only going to say 'no
comment.' We just wanted to share the news directly before the rumor mill starts
churning.
Prompting a prequel response from Dyack: We stand behind
everything in our complaint and believe it is highly unfortunate that Epic
forced us into this situation. We would rather spend our time focusing on making
great games, but as stated in our complaint, Epic simply refuses to acknowledge
the inadequacies of the Unreal Engine 3 code it provides to its licensees, and
refuses to accept the fact that its code has caused serious damage not only to
Silicon Knights, but a number of other developers in the industry. We look
forward to successful resolution of our claims in this court proceeding.
The Advanced Micro Devices/ATI Website now
offers new version 7.7 Catalyst reference drivers for ATI accelerators. There
are drivers for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux. The Windows drivers are
said to offer Far Cry performance boosts for the Radeon HD 2400 Series, Radeon
HD 2600 series, and the Radeon HD 2900 XT as well as support for 12X and 24X
Anti-Aliasing for the Radeon HD 2900 XT and ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series.
A demo for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is now available, providing a
sample of the turn-based strategy expansion. The 717 MB download is available on
3D Downloads,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gameguru Mania,
and Gamer's Hell.
Ubisoft follows the release of the first patch for Ghost Recon Advanced
Warfighter 2 ( story) with word that the shooter sequel is now in
stores: SAN FRANCISCO – July 19, 2007 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world's
largest video game publishers, announced that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced
Warfighter ® 2 PC, the next installment in the critically acclaimed, squad-based
military shooter franchise, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon®, is now available at
retail stores. Developed by GRIN, the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Advanced Warfighter ® 2 is being developed specifically for the PC and PC
gamers. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter ® 2 for PC has an ESRB
rating of "T” for Teen and an MSRP of $49.99.
The Far Cry 2 Website is online,
officially heralding development of a sequel to Crytek's first-person shooter.
The noisy Flash site offers links to the official
Far Cry 2
Forums and links to a contest, but no other information. This gap is filled
by the official announcement which names the developer as Ubisoft Montreal and
Spring 2008 as a release date: SAN FRANCISCO – July 19, 2007 – Today
Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it
will launch Far Cry® 2 in Spring 2008 for PC. Far Cry 2 is being developed in
Ubisoft's Montreal studio.
The original Far Cry® won PC Gamer's Action Game of the Year Award in 2004.
Since then the combined installments of the Far Cry® brand has gathered critical
acclaim and numerous awards, and sold over 3 million units.
"Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous
graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence,” declared Tony Key, vice
president of marketing at Ubisoft. "We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have
the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape.”
Far Cry 2 is featured in an exclusive first look in the October issue of PC
Gamer, available on newsstands in North America on August 21, 2007.
Check www.farcrygame.com regularly for
more news.
The Upshift StrikeRacer Website
has launched beta testing of Upshift StrikeRacer, the upcoming free-to-play MMO
combat racing game. They have a list of where to download the beta client, and
explain that the game's violence may be the path to enlightenment: You
are about to enter a world where death is reduced to an automatic respawn, all
material wants have been satisfied, and free men are allowed to pursue their
noble goals. Oddly, most free men chose to use their newfound freedom to blow up
friends and strangers alike with explosive ordinance while racing through our
city!
We did not initially realize it, but it turns out that this is in fact the way
to transcend to a higher plane of existence! You can actually destroy your way
to a higher of perception and understanding
Notice of Multiplayer Functionality Termination on the Sierra Website
announces the end of official support and closing of online servers for several
titles, including one of our all-time favorite games, Starsiege TRIBES (thanks
Kotaku).
Here's the complete list of games getting the axe, which will fall on August 16:
• 3-D Ultra Cool Pool
• ARC (Attack Retrieve Capture)
• Lords of Magic™
• NASCAR® Legends
• NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season
• NASCAR® Racing 2003 Season
• NASCAR® Racing 3
• NASCAR® Racing 3 demo
• NASCAR® Racing 3 Trucks
• NASCAR® Racing 4
• Professional Bull Rider 2
• PGA Championship Golf 2000™
• Starsiege: Tribes
• SWAT® 3 demo
• Throne of Darkness™
• Field & Stream Trophy Bass 4
• Field & Stream Trophy Bass 5
• Field & Stream Trophy Hunting 4
• Field & Stream Trophy Hunting 5
• You Don't Know Jack®: 5th Dementia
Perpetual announces BioWare has licensed online technology from them for
BioWare's upcoming MMORPG. It's not clear how this relates to their previous
announcement that BioWare was using
StreamBase tech
for the game ( story). Word is: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July
19, 2007 - Perpetual Entertainment announced today that BioWare's Austin studio
has licensed Perpetual's online technology platform for an upcoming Massively
Multiplayer Online (MMO) title. The agreement gives BioWare the platform to
deploy and support its online titles utilizing Perpetual's industry-leading
technology for online game operations, deployment, infrastructure development
and community support.
"We evaluated numerous technology solutions to serve as the service backbone of
our first MMO title and feel Perpetual's online platform is the best fit," said
Gordon Walton, Co-Studio Director of BioWare Austin. "The Perpetual team has
years of experience building infrastructure and tools for online games and we
are thrilled to be working with them."
"BioWare is one of the leading developers of AAA games in the world and we know
they will find the Perpetual platform provides both the functionality and
ease-of-use they are looking for to support their upcoming title," said Joseph
Keene, Co-Chairman and CEO, Perpetual Entertainment, Inc. "With the Perpetual
platform, BioWare's Austin studio can focus on making great games while
minimizing the time and effort required to deploy and support their titles."
The Perpetual online platform provides a technology backbone of modules
necessary to deploy and operate any modern online game, as well as a collection
of in-game features and services. Incorporating tools for player management,
billing, customer relationship management, game feature extension,
load-balancing, lobby servicing, patching and community management, the
Perpetual online platform gives developers and publishers the tools to bring the
next generation of online games to market faster, and with lower technological
and logistical restrictions.
For more information please visit:
http://www.perpetual.com/platform/
Matrix Games announces
a new patch for For Liberty! is now available, updating the turn-based strategy
game set during a couple of 18th century revolutions to version 1.80. The
download can be found
on this page,
and word is the update offers "several tweaks and a variety of AI improvements
in tactical battles, especially withdrawal logic."
The PeaceMaker Website now
offers a new patch to update this game of diplomacy in the middle-east to
version 1.063. The update corresponds to the recent QuickTime patch to allow
the game to play movies. There is also a corresponding new demo including the
same fix. The demo is mirrored on
FileNuts and the patch is mirrored on
The
Patches Scrolls.
-
Masters of Doom on GamesIndustry.biz is a Q&A with id's Todd Hollenshead
and Tim Willits: "I think the media is always looking for stuff to make
headlines, and they sensationalise things. They take something that they
know will make news and they run with it and then figure out whether it's
true or not later. When you talk about a game like Doom 3, if somebody is
thinking that a six-year-old is going to be playing it, then they might be
shocked that it's so violent. But the thing about it is that the games
aren't for small children, and id hasn't made games for small children since
Commander Keen. I think that the wider videogame market doesn't understand
that they're not just for kids, they're for adults too. That's where
paranoia and lack of rationality comes into it. You wouldn't go and get a
Quentin Tarantino movie and go, 'Oh my God! I can't believe someone was shot
in that film!' because you know there's Disney for kids and there's Quentin
Tarantino for adults, or there's Spielberg for everybody."
- Unreal Tournament 3
There's
a Tim Sweeney
Q&A on EVGA talks with the man behind Epic's Unreal technology about the
latest version of the engine that will power Unreal Tournament 3: "We’re
going to significant lengths to take advantage of 512MB video cards and PCs
with lots of memory. On PC, we’re shipping lots of 2048x2048 textures, a
higher resolution than we can support pervasively on console platforms.
However, PCs running 32-bit Windows XP or Vista run up against a glass
ceiling pretty quickly above 512MB of video memory. Because of the way the
OS maps video memory into the 32- bit address space, going beyond 512MB
doesn’t really increase the overall usable memory. Thus, we’re not focusing
on exploiting more than 512MB video cards."
- Half-Life
The
story behind Half-Life on Computer and Video Games talks with Valve
write Marc Laidlaw about the story in their shooter series: "We try to draw
strong relationships between the characters; making each one part of a
believable network of family and friends (and rivals) makes it easier for
players to relate to them. Characters in weaker science-fiction stories
often seem flimsy because they're solitary heroic figures without parents,
siblings or ordinary relationships. Character-driven drama depends on social
context, status transactions, how they relate to other people in their
world. We also assume our characters have spent their whole life in this
world - especially Alyx, who grew up surrounded by headcrabs and
Vortigaunts. The crazy SF details are just ordinary obstacles to them -
still full of potential threats and surprises, as in our own world, but with
a grim internal logic."
- Starcraft II
The
Starcraft II Q&A - Batch 6 on Blizzplanet offers answers from Blizzard
Entertainment RTS Community Manager Karune to five quick questions about the
upcoming RTS sequel: "Because of the Colossus's height, it will be
susceptible to Anti Air defenses like the Terran Missile Turrets, as well as
both ground and air attacks. It is possible for the Colossus to be hit by
ground and air attacks at the same time."
A new version 0.6 of the Project Reality
Battlefield 2 Modification is now available, updating this mod that imbues
the military shooter with an enhanced sense of realism. The update includes
gameplay changes, new vehicles, new weapons, and new maps.
Centrino, Penryn, and Tesla. Oh my!
Well, my access to the internet seems to be back in order, and I imagine that
some repair people burned some midnight oil, which is appreciated. I wish I
could say I appreciate Verizon's phone support as well, but being outsourced to
someone who speaks English just well enough to be able to read the script in
front of them, but unable to really converse is a little frustrating. At one
point during a pause I asked her: "Are you aware I keep asking questions, but
you don't respond?" Her silence was the perfect confirmation of the point. Her
supervisor was more knowledgeable, which gave him just enough insight to
completely misdiagnose my problem, claiming that because he saw a strong
connection on my end, I must need "new drivers for my router" (yes, that's really
what he said). I give him credit for following-up, however, as he actually
called this morning to inform me that the problem was on Verizon's end,
something I had long ago concluded. Humorously, he said the problem was
persisting, and he would call me when its fixed, so when there was a problem on
their end, he insisted there wasn't one, and now we have the reverse.
Meanwhile, the steam pipe explosion in Manhattan yesterday made MrsBlue's
commute home a several hour nightmare, and we had a fireworks show that freaked
out my poor Hudson the wonder dog. So, basically the only resident of the
BlueTower who didn't have a rough day yesterday was the Gunnar-man, but every
day is a good day for Gunnar.
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