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Archived News:
Is Marvel Universe Online
Dead? on 1UP is a speculative report following up on reports that a major
title is on the verge of cancellation ( story), identifying Marvel
Universe Online as the title that's hit the rocks. According to the story,
Cryptic's upcoming superhero MMORPG has not been cancelled outright, but 1Up
says it has been "told" development of the game is in trouble, though the source
of this information is not clear. The majority of the article bolsters the case
that MUO is in trouble by noting a number of recent instances where
questions about the state of the game were ducked to some degree during
interviews.
A playable demo for Alarm für Cobra 11 - Crash Time offers a test drive of this
new racing game. In spite of the umlaut in the title, this is a multilanguage
demo with support for English as well as German. The 408 MB download is
available on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Atari CEO Resigns as Company Withdraws from Production has word that David
Pierce has stepped down from his position as CEO of the troubled gaming company,
which has also announced its exit from the production end of the business.
Here's a bit: Amidst concerns about the company's lack of funds and
ability to continue its business, Atari officials announced today that the
publisher will "re-focus its operations on publishing and distribution in North
America, completing its withdrawal from the production business."
According to the release, Atari's operations going forward "will involve title
acquisition, sales and marketing, and physical distribution of products from
[Infogrames] IESA, its 51% shareholder, and other selected partners."
Atari has agreed in principle to terminate its Production Services Agreement
with IESA in the near future. The company is planning to transfer certain
employees and contract other staff on a project basis for a limited period of
time. Unfortunately for Atari's employees, this restructuring initiative will
also reduce the company's current workforce "in order to re-align the Company's
cost structure with its on-going business base."
Along with the withdrawal from production, Atari CEO David Pierce has also
announced his resignation. Curtis G. Solsvig III, Chief Restructuring Officer,
has been appointed interim CEO and will assume Pierce's responsibilities for
now. Atari said that an executive search for a new CEO has already been started.
Interplay Reports Moderate Q3 Earnings, Revives In-House Development has
word that Jason Anderson has been hired, and the Fallout and Fallout 2 veteran
will be creative director of "an unannounced MMOG." The article also mentions
Interplay's efforts at funding their option for a Fallout MMOG
( story), and it doesn't seem to be a stretch to imagine those two
tidbits are interrelated.
Kane & Lynch Dead Men Ships
For Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC announces IO Interactive's third-person
shooter is now available in the US for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3: Eidos
Interactive, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of
entertainment software, today announced "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" has shipped to
retail stores nationwide. "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" comes from the award winning
team at IO Interactive responsible for the critically acclaimed Hitman
franchise, and will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment
system, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, and PC Games for Windows
platforms as well as digital download, and mobile handsets. "Kane & Lynch: Dead
Men" is a cinematic crime drama that tells a raw and gritty tale of two
anti-heroes -- one a flawed mercenary, the other a medicated psychopath -- set
in an intense third-person action shooter. Forced to embark on a violent and
chaotic journey, hating each other every step of the way, "Kane & Lynch: Dead
Men" features a gripping storyline, relentless third-person action and an
innovative twist on the online multiplayer gameplay experience.
"'Kane & Lynch: Dead Men' achieves a level of narrative complexity and cinematic
realism rarely seen in the videogame industry," said Robert Lindsey, Executive
Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eidos Inc. "From the first frame onwards,
players will know they entered a fully realized world filled with all the drama
and intense action usually reserved for Hollywood spectacles."
Kane is able to use the world around him to his advantage, creating mayhem in
every highly destructible environment; blowing up cars and fuel tanks to
efficiently take down pursuers. Creating panic by opening fire in a packed Toyko
nightclub, just to use the ensuing chaos to cover his escape and using cover to
avoid enemy fire while taking precise aim to shoot down single or multiple
enemies.
Providing additional backup, Kane has the option to control a crew of criminal
mercenaries to scout new and potentially dangerous locations or take out
specific enemies. The optional crew-based combat system allows for added
tactical strategy when in heavy gunfight situations enabling Kane to direct a
crew member to cover fire at a specific target while sending another crew member
to protect his flank position.
One element Kane cannot control is Lynch. Succumbing frequently to psychotic
episodes, Lynch flies off the handle at critical moments, foiling Kane's plans.
In the two player Co-op mode, players get a split screen glimpse at the world
through Lynch's eyes. Players will also have the opportunity to play in the
unique online multiplayer mode, supporting up to eight players online. This new
multiplayer twist will shake up the online gameplay experience.
"Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" was developed by IO Interactive and will be on store
shelves beginning Nov. 13, 2007 for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 system, and PC
Games for Windows platforms as well as for digital download and mobile handsets.
The game is rated 'M' for Mature by the ESRB. For more information on the game
please visit http://www.kaneandlynch.com.
Sony Online
Entertainment Simultaneously Launches Expansions for Two of Its Massively
Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games EverQuest and EverQuest II announces
the release of the Secrets of Faydwer expansion for EverQuest and the Rise of
Kunark expansion for EverQuest II. Word is: SAN DIEGO, CA – November 13,
2007 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announces today that both EverQuest®
and EverQuest® II MMORPGs have brand new expansion packs set to go on sale today
throughout North America. EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer™ and EverQuest II Rise of
Kunark™ are complete and inclusive including all previous expansions and
relevant adventure packs in each, for a suggested retail price of $39.99 at
participating retail stores and via digital download at
www.station.com.
Gametap announces the concluding
episode of Jim Lee's Tomb Raider Re\Visioned series is live, and that the next
season in the series will focus on Activision classics: GameTap launched
today “A Complicated Woman,” the final episode in the premiere season of its new
animation series “Re\Visioned” which features story and art from legendary comic
book illustrator Jim Lee of Wildstorm/DC Comics.
Launched in late August, the first season of “Re\Visioned” features ten episodes
focusing on the legendary Tomb Raider franchise and the adventures of popular
video game heroine Lara Croft. Academy Award-nominated actress Minnie Driver
provides her unique voice for leading lady Lara Croft, while Jim Lee, Warren
Ellis, Peter Chung, Brian Pulido, Gail Simone, Michael Stackpole, Ivan Reis,
Cully Hamner, Christos N. Gage, Louie Del Carmen, David Alvarez, and Six Point
Harness, have provided their ‘Re\Visioned’ view of the famous video game
heroine.
GameTap has also announced that the second season of “Re\Visioned” will feature
six animated episodes that spotlight games from the golden age of Activision.
For the new season that launches in December, GameTap has partnered with The
Hero Initiative to develop episodes that will feature the work of top industry
writers, including Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come, Legion of Superheroes), John
Ostrander (X-Men, Punisher, Star Wars Republic) and Paul Jenkins (Spectacular
Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Civil War: Front Line).
The Hero Initiative is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic
book creators in need. “We’re thrilled that GameTap is continuing to support
comic book creators with this second season of the ‘Re\Visioned’ series,
especially since so many creators are video game fans,” said Jim McLauchlin,
President of Hero.
Episodes in Season Two will revolve around the worlds and characters featured in
Activision’s most iconic titles such as Pitfall, Kaboom and Pressure Cooker.
“Re\Visioned” is exclusive to GameTap and visitors can watch the finale and
previous episodes from the first season absolutely free. For more information
and to see the latest episode of Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider, visit
www.gametap.com/tombraider.
- Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory
A new trailer from
Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory shows off the invasion of Crimea in the
World War II sequel where the Red Army sought to free the country from
German occupation. The clip is available on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
- Stranger
A new trailer from Stranger is now available,
showing off Fireglow's upcoming RPG. Word is: "In this trailer, the three
heroes unite to assault an enemy castle." The clip can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
- Beowulf
A new "Monsters Within" trailer for Beowulf shows
off more of the upcoming movie-based game in low and high resolutions. One
or both versions can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
This page provides
downloads of a new beta version 169.09 WinXP ForceWare reference driver for
NVIDIA graphics accelerators, also available for
32-Bit Vista,
64-bit Vista,
and 64-bit WinXP.
This release promises "several game and application compatibility fixes," and
while this is a beta, the release notes also call this the "Recommended driver
for Crysis."
The Battlefield Website offers the finalized version 1.40 patch for
Battlefield 2142, now out of beta, also offering the first non-beta release of the
Highway Tampa map that's now in Battlefield 2. Daredevils with the last version
1.40 beta are already set, as that
release candidate was elected with nary a hanging chad, and is fully
compatible with version 1.40 servers. Additional mirrors of the client patch can
be found on
4Players.de,
ActionTrip,
FileFront,
FileShack, Gamer's Hell,
Internode
Games Network, and
The Patches Scrolls.
Update: The Windows and Linux server are now also
available on
FileFront, Gamer's
Hell, and The
Patches Scrolls.
EA announces SimCity Societies is shipping, and the new twist in the
long-running city building series is available for multiple platforms on four
continents (Africa and South America are left out in the cold with Antarctica).
A new "evolution" trailer on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell, and another new trailer on
FileFront and Gamer's
Hell show off how this isn't your father's SimCity, and here's the
announcement: REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — November 13, 2007 — Electronic Arts
Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) has shipped SimCity Societies™, the newest edition of the
top selling PC franchise, SimCity™, to stores across North America, Asia,
Australia and Europe today. A version of the game is also available for mobile
platforms.
In SimCity Societies, players construct not only the cities they desire, but
mold their cultures, societal tendencies and environments as well. They can
build artistic cities, authoritarian dictatorships, spiritual communities and
many more. With this accessible, innovative and versatile city-builder, players
can create the city of their dreams, or their nightmares.
“"We are delighted to release this innovative new version of SimCity which
focuses on relaxing game-play and creativity,” said Studio Head of The Sims
Label, Rod Humble. "Players can create any city they desire with a variety of
buildings, cultures, environments and societal behaviors. With all of these
options to choose from, SimCity Societies is the most flexible city building
game ever!"
With more than 500 buildings and decorative objects to place, the possibilities
are almost limitless. A revolutionary feature set allows gamers to effortlessly
combine buildings that produce or rely upon a particular societal value – a
special kind of resource. How players mix and match these resources –
productivity, prosperity, authority, knowledge, spirituality, or
creativity—determines the social energy of their city.
Will the city be happy and creative, spiritual and knowledgeable or obedient and
fearful? Its fate is in the player’s hands! From futuristic metropolises and
fantastical haunted cities to obedient Orwellian states and devout contemplative
towns – what to combine and connect is up to the creator.
SimCity Societies will also be available for mobile phones starting later this
month. Like the PC game, the mobile version allows players to not only construct
the cities they desire, but also create unique cultures, societal behaviors and
environments. SimCity Societies for cell phones welcomes new players to the
SimCity franchise with casual ‘on-the-go’ gameplay perfectly suited for mobile.
For SimCity fans they will find that the true benefit is in the game’s depth and
the complexity to maximize the efficiency of their city.
The SimCity franchise is one of the most popular PC gaming franchises in
history, having sold more than 18 million games worldwide to date since the
SimCity launch in 1989. Subsequent base game releases include SimCity 2000™
(1989), SimCity 3000™ (1989) and SimCity 4 (2003). SimCity Societies is being
published by Electronic Arts and developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment. It is
rated “E10+” by the ESRB and has a MSRP of $49.99.
Gamers and hardware vendors rejoice, as EA announces Crysis is shipping, and
Crytek's highly anticipated nano-powered first-person shooter should now be
available in North America and Europe: Redwood City, Calif. – November
13, 2007 – The wait is finally over! Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS)
and Crytek announced that Crysis® is now shipping to stores in North America and
Europe. Featuring jaw-dropping visuals, industry leading technology and
open-ended gameplay, Crysis is set to break new ground in the FPS genre and has
already received a 98% from PC Gamer, the highest score ever awarded in the
magazine’s 14-year history. Crysis is also setting the bar internationally, with
a 94% from Gamestar in Germany – in its 10-year history no other game has earned
a rating over 94%.
“Crysis is the culmination of the dedication and tenacity of everyone here at
Crytek who shared the goal of creating a true next-generation FPS,” said Cevat
Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “Our vision from the beginning was to
deliver an immersive, open-ended single-player campaign, to innovate in
multiplayer and to give our community a powerful, easy-to-use editor and we’re
extremely proud of the end result.”
“Crysis is nothing short of amazing. It is an innovative, technical achievement
that has blown us all away,” said David DeMartini, Vice President and Global
General Manager, EA Partners. “EA Partners has a long history of working with
the most talented independent studios in the world and helping them deliver
their creative vision to a mass, global audience and our experience with Crytek
is adding to that legacy.”
The complete Crysis package is composed of three primary components:
• An Epic Single Player Campaign – Players are
thrust into the middle of a global conflict between the US and North Korea over
a mysterious artifact that turns out to be extraterrestrial in nature.
Fortunately, players are outfitted with a high tech Nanosuit that allows them to
alter their strength, speed, armor and cloaking abilities and an arsenal of
fully customizable weapons, helping to even the playing ground against a highly
mysterious and intelligent enemy threat.
• Multiplayer Reinvented – Crytek has also focused
much of their development efforts in creating two unique multiplayer
experiences. PowerStruggle is a new, team-based multiplayer mode where players
need to work together strategically to capture resource points throughout the
map to win the ultimate arms race for nuclear technology. And for those who are
looking for a more action-packed experience Crysis also features Instant Action,
traditional deathmatch made even more frenetic as every player is outfitted with
the revolutionary Nanosuit.
• CryENGINE 2TM Sandbox Editor – Also included with
Crysis is the complete version of Crytek’s Sandbox Editor. Extremely powerful
with a simple user interface, the editor will give the community full access to
one of the most powerful design tools in the industry.
Crysis has been rated ‘M’ for Mature by the ESRB (Blood and Gore, Language,
Violence) and 16+ by PEGI in Europe. Visit
www.esrb.org and www.pegi.info for
updated rating information. For more information about the game, log onto
http://info.ea.com or the game’s official
website at www.nanosuit.com.
A new patch for Loki is now available, updating Cyanide's action/RPG to version
1.0.8.0 (thanks The Patches Scrolls). In addition to addressing a number of bugs and issues,
the new version also adds cheat protection to detect players' use of modified
game data and prevent them from gaining rank on the ladders. Downloads of the
patch for the CD/DVD edition are available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront,
FileShack,
Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls.
The patch for the direct download edition of the game can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls.
A new update for World of Warcraft is now available, bringing Blizzard's hit
MMORPG to version 2.3. Manual editions of the US/Aus edition of the patch are
available
ActionTrip,
FileFront,
FilePlanet (registration required),
FileShack, Gamer's Hell,
Games32, The
Patches Scrolls, and
PixelRage, while other localized editions of the patch are available on
Gamer's Hell and
The Patches
Scrolls.
WBIE announces LEGO Batman: The Game, an upcoming brixilated game based on the
adventures of the dark knight in the works at TT Games for release next year. A
teaser trailer from the game is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell, and here's the announcement: London, England - Warner Bros.
Interactive Entertainment and TT Games will bring LEGO® BATMAN™: THE VIDEOGAME
to next-generation and current generation platforms and the PC in 2008 with
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment serving as the game’s EMEA publisher,
including all sales and distribution functions.
In LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME, TT Games brings the world of DC Comics’ Caped
Crusader to life in an entirely new way. Players can explore a richly
interactive LEGO Gotham City as Batman and Robin, capturing infamous villains –
and even take control of the villains themselves.
“Batman spans several generations as one of the most popular DC Super Heroes,
and LEGO BATMAN will appeal to several generations of gamers who grew up
idolizing the Dark Knight and playing with LEGO toys,” said Samantha Ryan,
Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive
Entertainment. “Working with TT Games, we are confident they will continue their
LEGO games’ success with this title, and we will expand our publishing endeavors
with the introduction of the LEGO BATMAN franchise.”
“We’re sure our fans will be excited to know that we have the same fantastic
team at Traveller’s Tales responsible for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars II
working on LEGO BATMAN,” said Tom Stone, Director of TT Games Publishing.
"There's nothing more appealing to our youngest fans than the chance to be The
Batman," said Paul Levitz, President and Publisher of DC Comics, "and the LEGO
BATMAN video game will provide a unique opportunity for them to immerse
themselves in Gotham and Batman's adventures."
The LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME story unfolds with Batman’s greatest foes
escaping from Arkham Asylum and creating mayhem throughout Gotham City. Tracking
criminals, including The Joker and The Penguin, players will utilize Batman’s
gadgets as well as build and operate fantastic vehicles in one or two player
cooperative gameplay.
A new developer diary clip from Mythos is now available, discussing the addition
of a second world to Flagship Studios' upcoming casual MMORPG. The 220 MB clip
is available
ActionTrip,
FileFront, Gameplay Monthly,
and Gamer's Hell.
It was nine years ago today that Thief went gold. I'm silently sneaking around
the BlueTower in celebration.
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