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Archived News:
Galactic Civilizations II
expands again on GameSpot has news of plans for Galactic Civilizations II:
Twilight of Arnor, a second expansion for Stardock's turn-based strategy game.
The add-on, due for release this year, will offer new features, including new
spaceship customization options and new technologies for each alien
civilization. The
Galactic Civilizations II Twilight of the Arnor Q&A on GameSpot offers a Q&A
with Stardock's Brad Wardell discussing the project.
Widescreen
messed up ... on the 2K Forums has hundreds of posts about problems with
widescreen monitor support in BioShock impacting both PC and Xbox 360 owners. At
issue is how images are expanded and cropped to accommodate widescreen modes,
meaning widescreen users actually get less image than fullscreen users, a
situation bordering on irony. There is no good news from 2K or the studio
formerly known as Irrational on the forum, and our attempt to contact 2K about
this directly has met with no response so far.
Macworld
reports that Aspyr is at work on a Macintosh edition of Neverwinter Nights 2.
The news was apparently precipitated by a slip-up by a couple of online
retailers who posted placeholder pages for the game. There is no official
announcement of the project at this point, but they were able to confirm the
plans for a Mac port with Aspyr. Word is: "The PC version also includes
extensive editing tools to let users make their own games. Alas, the Mac version
will once again lack those tools (the same limitation existed with the Mac
conversion of the first Neverwinter Nights game). Neverwinter Nights 2 will be
able to play user-created modules from the PC however."
A new World in Conflict GC 2007 trailer offers a New York City cinematic clip
from the upcoming strategy game, the first indication the town so nice they
named it twice will be included in the game. The movie is available on
ActionTrip,
FileFront, and
Gametrailers.
The
Far Cry 2 Q&A on Computer and Video Games discusses Ubisoft's upcoming
sequel to Crytek's first-person shooter with Pierre Pharand and Clint Hocking.
Topics include the high expectations for the sequel based on the success of the
first game, comparisons with Crysis, characters, settings, guns, AI, and more.
Jessica Biel Strips For
Blue (thanks Ant). It's good to be Blue!
Wild Hare Entertainment announces Instinct is now available, offering a
first-person shooter with RPG elements and some high-end buzzword graphics:
Richardson, TX – August 21, 2007 – Wild Hare Entertainment has today
announced Instinct PC is shipping to stores. The wait is over; Instinct will be
available beginning the week of August 20, 2007 for the suggested retail price
of $39.99.
Instinct is an action packed first person shooter (FPS) that features High
Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, physics with incredible realism and dynamic
lighting and shadows. Instinct is unlike most standard FPS and features a rich,
intricate storyline that draws the player into a world where nothing is as it
seems and former comrades are now enemies. Shawn Russ, Director of Operations
states, “Instinct is intensely addictive and offers players light RPG elements
and really immerses the character in game play, setting it apart from other FPS
games. We are excited to work with Noviy Disk and Digital Spray studios to bring
this title to the US market.”
Instinct allows players to see the story through the eyes of three playable
characters. The player steps back and forth through time to see every event
unfold and uncover every secret of Instinct’s complex, action-packed
world.
Take 2
Games announces Mafia 2 (thanks Tiscali Games), offering the expected
( story) official word on the crime sequel first revealed by
developer Illusion Softworks in 2003 ( story). The game is being
developed for Windows and unspecified consoles, but carries no release date at
this point. The Mafia 2 Website is online,
offering five screenshots, and here's the announcement: New York, NY -
August 21, 2007 - 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software,
Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced that it will publish Mafia 2, a sequel to
the original Mafia title that sold more than two million copies worldwide and
helped popularize the gangster genre. Featuring a deep mobster-driven narrative
packed with both behind-the-wheel and on-foot action, Mafia 2 is the sequel fans
have been clamoring for. The game is being developed by Illusion Softworks,
developers of the original Mafia title, for next generation consoles and Games
for Windows®.
Like the original Mafia title, Mafia 2 immerses players in the mob underworld of
a fictitious late 1940's-early 1950's scenario. Players will easily become
engaged in the game's cinematic Hollywood movie experience with strong,
believable characters in a living, breathing city. By fusing high octane gunplay
with white knuckle driving and an engaging narrative, Mafia 2 looks to be the
industry's most compelling Mafia title to date.
"As the original Mafia was a big success, we are excited to leverage the power
of next generation console technology to create an all-new experience, while
embracing the elements that resonated with the previous game's fans," said
Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "The 'wow' factor of Mafia 2 is definitely
the benchmark-setting visual quality and action that you expect to see only in
Hollywood movies."
For more information on Mafia 2,
http://www.2kgames.com/mafia2/.
2K Games
Announces BioShock Now Available has word that Irrational Games'
first-person shooter is now available in stores for PC and Xbox 360. The game's
playable demo was released last night ( story), and here's the
announcement: New York, NY - August 21, 2007 - 2K Games, a publishing
label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today
that BioShock is now available in North America for Xbox 360™ video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows®, and will be
available in Europe beginning August 24. Developed by 2K Boston and 2K
Australia, BioShock is a "genetically enhanced" first-person shooter that lets
players do things never before possible in the genre.
Gamers enter the game as a castaway in Rapture, an underwater utopia torn apart
by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically
modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, players have to come to grips
with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating
characters. No encounter ever plays out the same and no two gamers will play
BioShock the same way.
"With the release of BioShock, we are redefining the shooter experience by
providing players with the freedom to decide how to proceed and which actions to
take," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "The teams at 2K Boston and 2K
Australia have captured the essence of this underwater world and brought it to
vivid life in the art design and open-ended storyline. Welcome to Rapture."
In the decaying art deco underwater city of Rapture, players can turn everything
they encounter into a weapon, biologically modify their body with plasmids, hack
devices and security systems, upgrade weapons, craft new ammo variants, and
experiment with different battle techniques.
"The development team has been working on BioShock for years to push the limits
in every way possible, so we are excited for gamers to finally experience
BioShock as we've always imagined it," said Ken Levine, President and Creative
Director of 2K Boston. "We delivered on our promise of bringing gamers a unique
and enriching first-person shooter experience that not only challenges their
capacity to adapt and survive, but tests their values and commitment to the
inhabitants of Rapture."
10TACLE STUDIOS and Reakktor Media announce Black Prophecy, an MMO action/RPG
centered around ship-to-ship combat in deep space. The Flash-tastic
Black Prophecy Website is online
with information and media from the game, which does not carry a release date at
this point. Here's the announcement: Darmstadt, August 21st 2007 – In
“Black Prophecy” 10TACLE STUDIOS and developer Reakktor Media will for the first
time be leaving space and time behind them at this year’s Games Convention in
Leipzig. Today’s launch of the
www.blackprophecy.com website reveals a number of secrets concerning the
Action-MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) title and shows some impressive images
from the depths of space. As well as fighting epic multi-player battles and
fulfilling exciting single-player missions players will experience a fascinating
story from the pen of prize-winning German science-fiction author Michael
Marrak. In addition to many roll-playing game elements and a comprehensive
resource-management system the tactically demanding “Black Prophecy” also offers
a tremendous depth of play and spectacular deep-space action for the PC.
By the mid 26th century humanity has conquered the universe and colonized
countless planets. Yet life in space requires a great deal of adaptation. Bred
for just these conditions, the cybernetically adapted Tyi and the biogenetically
optimized Geniden have outgrown their creators to become the new ruling races.
Their uncompromising battle for total mastery of space leads humanity into the
sphere of influence of an ancient alien life form – a life form which tolerates
no other cosmic civilizations but its own. In this battle against an
overpowering enemy, players must first choose which of the two rival factions
they wish to join as they try to save humanity.
Starting in the fall of 2008 the fascinating science-fiction universe from
“Black Prophecy” will present players a complex online universe featuring
cinema-quality space battles. A universe in which they fly their spacecraft
alone, as a clan member or as part of a fleet as they fight political battles
and prove themselves in the fight against extinction at the hands of the aliens.
The search for their home world and the answer to their dark secret soon becomes
a race to save all the races of mankind.
The Official Two Worlds Website now
offers a new "service release" for Two Worlds, updating Reality Pump's RPG to version 1.5. The patch can be found in the Updates section under the Support
heading in the right-hand margin. Likewise, a playable demo for Two Worlds is
now available, along with a patch to update a version of the demo that has been
distributed via CD. The demo and the patch for the CD demo are located in the
Demo section under the Downloads heading down the left-hand margin of the site's
discombobulated navigation system.
New updates for StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood Wars are now available to bring
the sci-fi RTS game and its expansion to version 1.15.1. The updates can be
applied automatically by connecting to Battle.Net and there are also manual
editions of the patches for both PC and Mac on the
Blizzard Entertainment
Technical Support Site. The downloads are also mirrored on The Patches Scrolls.
This is your brain on video games, ads discusses the role technology from
EmSense Corporation is playing in the
development of Frontline: Fuel of War, the upcoming first-person shooter from
Kaos Studios (thanks Mike Martinez). Instead of quizzing focus groups about their
feelings about the game, this EmSense technology is being used to ostensibly
read their minds to gauge their emotional reaction. Here are a couple of
excerpts: Developing a first-person shooter video game that can rival the
genre's top-selling hits like Call of Duty is always a long shot.
So game maker THQ tried an unusual research method last year to evaluate
people's early emotional response to its in-development shooter game Frontlines.
Instead of asking a test group how it liked the game, as with most market
research, the company hired technology specialist EmSense to measure people's
brain waves, heart rate and sweat responses while they played the military-theme
game. Armed with that data, THQ took Frontlines in a whole new direction
developmentally, said Bob Aniello, chief marketing officer at THQ.
"We typically rely on people to tell us what they think. Using EmSense
technology, it's not what people say, but what they're thinking about it. And
that's so much more accurate," Aniello said.
[…]
THQ is looking to EmSense for more information on how people respond to its
content before it hits stores. The game maker will test an early-in-development
game, or "pre-alpha," by creating a minute-long CGI video that captures the
essence of the game. Showing the clip to a small audience, THQ gets a read on
the general response of would-be players, without them actually playing the
game. In later stages of development, THQ might evaluate player responses to the
game by exposing them to 20 minutes of play.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
A new "Perks" trailer from
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare shows off more of the upcoming modernized
installment in Infinity Ward's military shooter series. This clip is
available on
ActionTrip,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
- Codename Panzers: Cold War
A new clip from Codename
Panzers: Cold War is now available, offering a look at the upcoming Cold War
installment in the series. Word is: "Against a background of music from the
50’s the video shows the physically determined destruction of buildings and
demonstrates the new Gepard3 engine’s performance." The clip is
theoretically available on the
Codename Panzers: Cold War Website, but unable to locate this needle in
a Flash haystack, I defer to the mirror on
Gamer's Hell.
Warfighters: "Battle
to become the GRAW ELITE." A UK-based Xbox 360 GRAW2 tournament.
So Hurricane Dean is described as the third most powerful storm to hit the
Atlantic basin since they started keeping track of such things. Of course, this
means the morning news is populated by on-the-scene reporters standing out in
the midst of the storm offering their reports. This would at least be
understandable if these stories were actually illuminating, but all you get is
some poor rain-soaked correspondent trying to shout over the wind as a camera
lens covered in water drops tries to survey the limited visibility behind them.
If it were up to me, they could just have someone point out trends on a weather
map from the safety of the studio, but I guess someone thinks the current method
is a good thing, as it is so widespread. Oh well, if it helps, I can promise the
news networks of the world that if they stop this I will never switch to a
different station to find a newscast that features "better" coverage of a
hurricane because they have on-location reporting.
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