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Archived News:
The Bethesda Blog has word that
"Fighter's Stronghold," the last piece of downloadable content for The Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion, will be released for free next week. On Monday October 15,
the content will be released for PC on The
Elder Scrolls Downloads Page and for Xbox 360 on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
Word is: First, I wanted to let you know that we are finally releasing the
last piece of downloadable content we created for Oblivion. We had mentioned it
a long, long time ago but we hadn’t released it, until now. Starting Monday,
October 15 it will be available to download via Xbox Live (for Xbox 360) and
elderscrolls.com (for PC). And, for one week, it will be free to anybody who
wants to download it and play it. So mark it on your calendars and don’t forget.
Fighter’s Stronghold provides the last of four themed domiciles (along with Vile
Lair, Thieves Den, and Wizard’s Tower) for the adventurer on-the-go. You inherit
the rights to Battlehorn Castle, located on a lovely stretch of the Colovian
Highlands, west of Chorrol. Dining Hall, barracks, wine cellar, training room,
and your own private Shrine of Julianos. Update your castle furnishings, perhaps
even a Dwemer Forge for the aspiring Armorer? Hire a taxidermist to tastfully
decorate your new abode with trophies from your adventuring. You can read all
about Fighter’s Stronghold
here.
- Fallout 3
Post
Nuclear Living in Fallout 3 on PlayStation Universe is a Q&A with Pete
Hines about Bethesda Softworks' upcoming continuation of the Fallout series.
They discuss music, the graphical style, NPCs, weapons, their lead platform,
and more.
- Tabula Rasa
The
Tabula Rasa Pre-Launch Q&A
on TenTonHammer joins the previous 10,000 pre-launch Q&As about the
game, talking with April Burba about Destination Games' MMORPG.
- TimeShift
The
TimeShift Q&A on Adrenaline Vault chats with Saber Interactive CEO
Matthew Karch about their 4D shooter, Topics include how they've taken
advantage of the game's delay, how it will appeal to shooter fans, the PC
version, working with Sierra, and more.
- Leland Yee
The
Anti-Gamer? on GameAlmighty.com talks with California State Senator
Leland Yee about his obsession with the possibility that violent games will
fall into the hands of young people, and his repeated attempts at
introducing legislation to prevent that from happening.
- Boxing Manager on
Hooked Gamers.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on
1Up.
- Cyclomite on
1Up.
- The Chosen: Well of Souls on
RPG Vault.
- EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark on
IGN.
- Guild Wars 2 on
PlayNC.com. Dev Corner: Imagining Guild Wars 2.
- Guitar Hero III on
GameSpot. Developer Diary #2.
- Kane and Lynch: Dead Men on
1Up.
- Pirates of the Burning Sea on
WarCry.
- SimCity Societies on
GameSpy.
- Sony Online Entertainment Media Event on
RPG Vault.
- Stranger on
IGN.UK.
- Unreal Tournament 3 on
FiringSquad and
Planet Unreal.
- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning on
1Up.
Activision sends a note about the promised demo for Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare, Infinity Ward's upcoming military shooter sequel. They say the demo
"will be out later this week," suggesting the report that it is due tomorrow
( story) is not carved in stone. In the meantime, they send along
the requirements for the demo to see how your system stacks up:
“Recommended Specs”
CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better is recommended
RAM: 1GB for XP; 2GB for Vista is recommended
Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI
Radeon X1800 or better
“Required (min) Specs”
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or
any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista)
Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
Video card (generic): NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600 or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R)
9800Pro or better
Valve announces that The Orange Box is now available, offering Half-Life 2, its
first two episodic follow-ups, Team Fortress 2, and Portal: October 10,
2007 - Valve®, a leading entertainment and technology studio, is pleased to
announce the availability of The Orange Box for PC on Steam (www.steamgames.com).
The Orange Box features three top-rated new games by Valve: Half-Life® 2:
Episode Two, the second installment in the Half-Life 2 episodic trilogy; Team
Fortress® 2, the sequel to the game that put class-based, multiplayer team
warfare on the map; and Portal, the game that blends puzzles, first person
action, and adventure gaming to produce an experience like no other.
To bring gamers up to date with the Half-Life 2 universe, The Orange Box also
includes Half-Life 2, the best-selling and highest-rated action game series of
all time, and the episodic debut Half-Life® 2: Episode One-together, more than
30 hours of award-winning gameplay. Purchasers of the PC version of The Orange
Box who already own Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One can conveniently
"gift" them to a friend from within Steam.
The Orange Box is now shipping to retailers and will be available for a
suggested retail price of $49.95 on the PC and $59.95 on the Xbox® 360 console
system. Contact your local stores for details.
For more information about The Orange Box, please visit
http://www.whatistheorangebox.com.
The Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising
Website announces that this MMORPG set in the Roman Empire is "on indefinite
hold" (thanks
WarCry), and if "hold" is code for cancelled, then "indefinite hold" must be code
for super-cancelled. While the game has been in development for some time and
was in the midst of beta testing, word from Chris McKibbin is that "achieving
the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant
investment," and putting the project on hold allows them to concentrate on their
platform services and development of Star Trek Online: Loyal and faithful
community members and Beta testers, thank you for your support, help, and
understanding during the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising development process.
The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the
initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to
evaluate the competitive landscape, the game's current state, and the overall
goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with
what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level
of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant
investment.
The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing
both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game
Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual's opportunities, we have
made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold.
I want to express my overwhelming gratitude to the community, engineers,
designers, artists, animators, and the game services team for the support and
effort that has gone into Gods & Heroes.
Moving forward, we're shifting our collective focus, resources and development
efforts to Perpetual's Platform Services division and Star Trek Online, thereby
ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the
dedicated Star Trek fan base.
Again, I would personally like to thank all of the Gods & Heroes supporters who
have been with us from the beginning. Hopefully, your continued support will be
as valuable to our future endeavors as it was with Gods & Heroes..
Unreal Engine 4 in Development on Voodoo Extreme offers a brief report from
Epic's offices with the news that Tim Sweeney is already at work on Unreal
Engine 4 (just in time for the Too Human sequel?).
Breaking: Battlefield 3 Leaked Info on DigitalBattle has what are purported
to be leaked details on Battlefield 3, which would be the next installment in
the military shooter series (thanks
GameSpot). This unconfirmed report (EA responded to questions about this
with a "no comment") is said to be based on a Adobe Acrobat document intended for investors, and lists details, including a return to the near-present setting of
BF2, and word on weapons, vehicles, and classes. According to their report the
game will be announced in January, released before the end of 2008, and will
possibly involve a public beta during the summer.
Here's another rumor:
Exclusive Prince of Persia 4 screens and information offers an
unsubstantiated report on plans for Prince or Persia 4, saying the next
installment in the action/adventure series will be a prequel to the recent
trilogy of PoP games, and offering some blurry screenshots of cooperative play
alleged to be taken from the project. Thanks
GameSpot, who seem to think this rumor has legs.
TheSims2.com now offers downloads of a new patch for The Sims 2: Bon Voyage,
addressing several bugs by simply removing features that triggered them in the
little people expansion (throwing the baby out with the bathwater programming?).
The download is mirrored on
FilleFront and The Patches Scrolls.
Open
borders sought for virtual worlds (thanks Mike Martinez) has word that IBM and Second
Life purveyor Linden Labs are working on ways players can use a single avatar in
multiple online services, though such a breakthrough may be years off. Here's a
bit: Designing a detailed avatar can take well over an hour, so a closed
system discourages customers from abandoning that investment. But it is also a
barrier to growth since few people bother to start the process anew in multiple
virtual worlds.
An open system would let people create one avatar that would keep the same basic
appearance and customer data no matter where it was in cyberspace.
"It is going to happen anyway," said Colin Parris, IBM vice president of digital
convergence. "If you think you are walled and secure, somebody will create
something that's open and then people will drain themselves away as fast as
possible."
Linden Labs, whose Second Life is one of the market leaders with about half a
million active users, is betting that an open system will reward interesting
worlds with more customers and punishes dull ones with an exodus of users.
But such a virtual passport system may be years away, if it doesn't first fall
prey to the kind of conflicting interests that occasionally bog down efforts to
draw up standards in the fast-changing technology industry.
IBM's Parris said the effort would first focus on studying situations where the
ability to travel between virtual worlds is most in demand. The nuts and bolts
of how to make different software work together will come later.
IBM and Linden announced the partnership ahead of a virtual worlds conference
that starts in San Jose, California on Wednesday and is expected to discuss the
formation of industry standards and other issues.
- Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun on
2404.
- EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark on
WarCry. Dev Diary: Tradeskills.
- Mythos on
GameSpy.
- Richard Garriott’s on
Tabula Rasa.
Starr Long on Control Points.
We got the first severe rainstorm after finally getting our gutters properly
cleaned recently (it seems the people who were doing it before was just leaving
them clean-ish). Thankfully our basement seems to be remaining dry after the
downpour, so we are gaining hope that the easy/obvious solution to our wet
basement issues may have been successful.
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