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Archived News:
The
Battlefield Heroes Website has a new post outlining plans for closed beta
testing for DICE's upcoming free-to-play multiplayer shooter: As you may
have noticed, you killed our website. We are not angry. We’re very pleased you
want to be in the Beta.
The beta for Heroes will be divided into several stages, the first of which is
all about testing out this new way of getting games to you all; by downloading
and installing them from a website. We’ll also be trying out some other dull
stuff to do with servers, so we are expecting the systems to be down as much as
they are up.
To help us track down all the technical issues, we have asked a third party to
find us some specialist Beta testers. We are doing all this because we want to
be sure that when we launch Heroes, everything will work smoothly.
So hang in there! We will announce here when it’s time to sign up for the public
stage of the Beta.
A playable demo is now available for
Sango 2, sampling the English
version of Magitech Games' war game based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms
that's already on sale. The demo is a 1.3 GB download, which can be found on
ComputerGames.ro and
Gamer's Hell.
Here's word on the game: Sango 2 is a historical war game based on the
Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Rewrite the history of the Three
Kingdoms era by playing as the ruler of one of the great nations, such as Liu
Bei, Cao Cao, or Yuan Shao. There are three campaigns to choose from,
representing three different time periods to reshape.
Your mission is to expand your nation, take control of all twenty-eight castles,
and reunite China. People from Chinese history are your subjects and your
enemies. Take advantage of the intelligence of a famous advisor, and the combat
skills of a famous general.
Use Sun Tzu's military strategy on the battlefield and when dealing with enemy
nations. Challenge yourself and see if you truly understand the Art of
War.
A introductory trailer for Far Cry 2 is now available, offering a
behind-the-scenes look at Ubisoft's upcoming sequel to Crytek's first-person
shooter. The clip features gameplay footage, and a narration from producer LP
Pharand, creative director Clint Hocking, and art director Alex Amancia. The
movie is available on Ubisoft's
FTP server with mirrors on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront,
FileShack, and Gamer's
Hell.
Fallen Empire: Legions, GarageGames' upcoming TRIBES-like game, is on display in
a new trailer. The 120 MB clip is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
A new Mirror's Edge teaser gives a feel for the high-flying parkour action in
DICE's upcoming first-person action/adventure game. This movie is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
MyGameTrailers, and
PC Games.
A new LEGO Batman shows off Two Face and Scarecrow, a pair of the villains in
the upcoming adventures of the cubed crusader. The clip is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
There's a massive thread on the
Mass Effect Community Forums about the SecuROM copy-protection scheme
planned for Mass Effect, BioWare's upcoming RPG (thanks Wolfox). The game
will not need the disk in the drive to play, but will require an internet
connection for installation to validate the CD (DVD) key and will need to go
online once every ten days in perpetuity for revalidation. BioWare attempts to
address all the questions this raises, at one point replying that this will be
the same system used in Spore when the evolutionary game is released:
"Yes, EA is ready for us and getting ready for Spore, which will use the same
system."
This thread continues the discussion after the first one was locked for
length. Here's the deal: Mass Effect uses SecuROM and requires an online
activation for the first time that you play it. Each copy of Mass Effect comes
with a CD Key which is used for this activation and for registration here at the
BioWare Community. Mass Effect does not require the DVD to be in the drive in
order to play, it is only for installation.
After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server
within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned).
Just so that the 10 day thing doesn't become abrupt, SecuROM tries its first
re-check with 5 days remaining in the 10 day window. If it can't contact the
server before the 10 days are up, nothing bad happens and the game still runs.
After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run.
Lighthouse Interactive has released a playable demo for Overclocked: A
History of Violence, their psychological adventure game, revealing along the
way that this psychological adventure game that was released a couple of weeks
ago in North America ( story) is also now available in the UK.
Word is: "Lighthouse Interactive and dtp Entertainment today released a
compelling playable demo for the psychological thriller adventure game,
Overclocked: A History of Violence. Created by award-winning developer, House of
Tales Entertainment, players will delve into the world of Overclocked to explore
the deranged minds of three of the five patients admitted to the Staten Island
Forensic Hospital. This highly anticipated adventure game on PC DVD-ROM was
released in the UK on May 2 and is available in stores now." The
Lighthouse Interactive Website lists some mirrors of the 952 MB download,
and here are some more:
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
Strategy Informer.
The Blizzard Store is now offering
digital distribution of some of Blizzard's titles, with plans to add more going
forward. The site also offers the ability to register CD keys for certain titles
to allow them to be downloaded. Finally, they are also accepting registrations
for a beta lottery to give access to beta testing down the road. Thanks
Shacknews.
GamesIndustry.biz has word from Codemasters that they plans to follow their
current crop of third-party developed MMOGs (currently four, with Jumpgate
Evolution to be the fifth) with in-house MMOG development. Here's a relevant
quote from vice president of Codemasters Online Gaming David Solari:
We always had a five year plan and it was always in the middle of that five
year plan that we would start developing our own games,
We are looking at that and we have to think very carefully about what title is
right, what will work in the future. These aren't easy questions to answer and
it's very easy to fail in the MMO market so you've got to take your time, be
careful and be sensible.
We fired up the grill for the first time in a while last night (I didn't work up
quite as much motivation for winter grilling as I had hoped). We had steaks
that came out perfectly, if I do say so myself. The neat thing for me was me
knowing they were properly done, even though my thermometer suggested they were
still raw, but my comfort level has grown to the point that I felt I knew better
than the thermometer, and I turned out to be right.
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