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Archived News:
GameDaily has word that EA has secured a line of credit of up to one billion
dollars to support its two billion dollar bid to acquire Take-Two. Take-Two has
so far rebuffed EA's advances, but the cash is ready should an agreement be
reached (or, you know, if something really cool pops up on eBay).
A post on the
Steam
Website has word that Everyday shooter is now for sale via Steam and that
the Portal: First Slice demo is now freely available to all: Everyday
Shooter, the independent musical shooter developed by Jonathan Mak, mades
its worldwide PC debut today via Steam.
Winner of numerous Independent Game Festival Awards including Design Innovation,
Everyday Shooter is everything but what its name implies. Drawing upon a mixture
of arcade shooter gameplay styles, Everyday Shooter stands apart from the crowd
by offering both a wide variety of challenges and an all-guitar soundtrack,
including procedurally generated guitar riffs used instead of traditional game
sound effects.
Everyday Shooter is now available for just $9.99 via Steam, and those who
purchase during the first week of availability will save 10% off the regular
price.
In other Steam news,
Portal- First Slice -- the official demo for the title named Game of the
Year by over 30 publications -- is now available for free to all gamers via
Steam.
And, finally, Steam has been
re-launched to better showcase the growing number of titles and publishers on
Steam.
Criterion Games' Burnout Paradise Media And Downloads Page offers a new
"Welcome to PC" trailer to celebrate the announcement of a PC edition of
Burnout Paradise. Thanks Gamer's Hell.
Auran announces Fury League, offering
the chance to win cash prizes playing their PVP MMOG: Auran Games,
creators of Fury, the fast-paced arena combat game, today announced the launch
of a new skill-based online competitive format called Fury League (www.FuryLeague.com).
Players can not only test their skills against other players but also win Fury
Gold which can be converted into real cash.
To introduce players to the new “turn skill into cash” concept, the Fury League
Qualifying Season will run throughout the month of May. This is a totally free
to play Qualifying Season aimed at building a large social and competitive
online community based around fast paced arena combat.
To get the competitive juices flowing, and to ensure plenty of hard fought
competition, the Qualifying Season will culminate in two special “Cash Ladders”.
The top 1,000 players on each Ladder will win cash prizes with a total of
$25,000 to be won. The first Cash Ladder will kick off May 20 with players
competing in 8 v 8 team Vortex. The second will begin on May 27 with players
competing in the 4 v 4 Elimination game type.
In addition to the Cash Ladders, for every game played during the Qualifying
Season players earn one Free game entry in Fury League which will kick off in
June. Players can earn up to a maximum of 1,000 free game entries, so players of
every skill level will be rewarded for participating in Qualifying Season
matches.
Atari announces the launch of a new
Alone in the Dark Website. Word is: "The site allows visitors to investigate
some of the ominous Central Park locales that the title's protagonist, Edward
Carnby, will encounter throughout the game. With each click of the mouse lives
information about in-game vehicles, items, weapons and item combinations that
allow gamers to solve puzzles and defeat enemies creatively and intelligently.
From the Huddlestone Arch to the Belvedere Castle, visitors can see the sites of
Central Park, and investigate and collect the in-game items that form the
advanced inventory system in Alone in the Dark. Items like lighters,
screwdrivers and duct tape scattered throughout the game can be used to create
improvised weaponry and ingenious tools, while visitors can get a glimpse at the
intriguing gameplay depth that these items open up."
- Project Origin
The
Project Origin Q&A on Crispy Gamer talks with John Mulkey of Monolith
about their upcoming sequel to F.E.A.R.: "Project Origin picks up just prior
to the end events of the original game. You and the rest of your Delta team
are heading to the penthouse residence of Genevieve Aristide, President of
Armacham Technology Corporation, to take her into protective custody in
connection to the events unfolding in Auburn, when you're caught up in the
explosion that destroyed the containment facility and released Alma at the
end of the first game."
- Blackstar Chronicles
RPG
Vault's Blackstar IP Acquisition Q&A chats with Gary Gattis of Spacetime
Studios about how they regained the IP rights from publisher NCsoft for the
Blackstar game they created.
- Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition on
FileFront.
Video Game
Testers/Quality Assurance Positions Available at Pi Studios to work in their
Houston, TX-based studios. Word is: "If you are at least 18 years of age, have a
passion for games, good written and verbal communication skills, and better than
average logic and attention to detail, then you may have what it takes to make a
great game tester. "
The Mass Effect Community Forums offer a post from BioWare community
manager Jay Watamaniuk called
Official BioWare/EA Response to DRM Discussion that follows up on discontent
over plans to require online authentication every ten days for Mass Effect
( story) with word they are scrapping this unpopular plan for one
that requires a single online authentication (thanks Gamer's Hell). Update: Word
on Kotaku
is this change applies to Spore, as well. The post includes a FAQ on the
topic, along with this announcement: There has been a lot of discussion
in the past few days on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC
will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect
will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication.
BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision
to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the
fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who
expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as
required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.
The solution being implemented for Mass Effect for the PC changes copy
protection from being key disc based, which requires authentication every time
you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to a one time online
authentication.
This system has an added benefit of allowing players to seamlessly play the game
without needing the DVD in the drive.
Key points---
•This solution allows gamers to authenticate their game on three different
computers with the purchase of one disc. EA Customer Service is on hand to
supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a
case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.
• Games are authorized to the machine when the player installs and launches the
software for the first time.
• We’ve all had those times when the discs get lost or scratched and you can’t
play a game you’ve bought because you need a working disc in the drive. With the
new system players will no longer need the disc to play the game, but can
instead simply retain the disc as back up for re-installation.
A playable demo for Race Driver GRID is now available, offering a test drive of
the PC edition of the next installment in the Race Driver series of motorsports
simulations. Word is: "The demo offers 3 events to compete in. The eBay Motors
Muscle Cup sees you taking the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT-R and the streets of
San Francisco, the Advan International Trophy hands you a Nissan S15 Silvia and
your playground is Yokohama Docks, and the Euro Touring Car Series provides some
old-school tin-top thrills with a BMW 320si touring car and the sweeping curves
and hairpins of Jarama." The 894 MB download can be found on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro, eXp
Download,
FileShack,
and Gamer's Hell.
MCV
reports that Call of Duty 5 was unveiled in a conference call where
Activision discussed its most recent round of financial reporting. The
conference call
is transcribed here (thanks Gamer's Hell), so here is exactly what was revealed
about this project, which will be moving to another theatre of
operations: For Call of Duty, we’ll bring the intensity of the recent
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare title to yet a new military theater, to engage our
significantly larger user based, which nearly doubled last year as new users
came into the franchise.
We’ll launch on all four platforms we participated on in fiscal 2008 plus we
will launch on the PS2 and the Wii. We’ll drive category sales of downloadable
maps and enhanced Call of Duty 4 retail SKUs.
Bond Called to Duty on IGN offers more of the outcome of Activision's
financial conference call, where Quantum of Solace was unveiled, a game
based on the upcoming James Bond movie of the same name. The game will use the
engine from Call of Duty 4 and a number of developers are involved (Treyarch,
Vicarious Visions, Beenox, and Eurocom), as the game will apparently appear for
Windows and a number of consoles and handhelds, though only PC, Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 are specifically mentioned. What was sais in the
conference call is: In addition to the strong DreamWorks slate, we
look forward to launching Bond: Quantum of Solace in Q3, concurrent with the
movie. This game uses the Call of Duty 4 engine and technology to bring Bond
games to a new level.
EA announces plans for a PC edition of Burnout Paradise, the open world
racing game named after a head shop: Criterion Games, a studio of
Electronic Arts, today announced that the award-winning driving game Burnout
Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the
first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer,
enhanced online features, and community driven content. Originally released for
the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and
entertainment system, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide. Burnout
Paradise delivers an open-world environment built for intense speed, excitement
and exploration and sets a new standard in the seamless transition from
single-player offline to social online gameplay.
Burnout Paradise for the PC will combine all the open world racing, intense
speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version.
Gamers can tune into a live webcast at
http://criteriongames.com at 8:00 AM PST on Friday, May 9 for more details
on this announcement. For more information about Burnout Paradise, please visit
http://criteriongames.com
Burnout Paradise for the PC has not been rated by the ESRB or PEGI.
Codemasters announces it has secured worldwide rights to create video games
based on the Formula 1 racing series, with the first release expected to appear
on the starting grid next year: UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - May 9, 2008 -
Codemasters®, developer and publisher of award-winning racing video games, has
secured the exclusive video game rights to FORMULA 1. In a worldwide licensing
agreement with Formula One Administration Limited, Codemasters will develop a
new generation of the multi-million selling FORMULA 1 game franchise across
multiple platforms.
Codemasters Studios, creators of genre-leading racing titles DiRT™ and GRID™,
will lead the design and development of official FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP games for home console, handheld and PC gaming formats.
"FORMULA 1 is ambitious in expanding its reach with more circuits planned beyond
recent additions in the Middle East and China," said Rod Cousens, chief
executive officer, Codemasters. "It is also ambitious in expanding its reach via
technology. The digital communities that computer and video gaming creates will
play a key role in further growing the FORMULA 1 audience and connecting them
globally. As a world-leading creator of driving games, this alliance with
FORMULA 1 is the jewel in Codemasters' racing crown and creates an undisputed
segment champion. FORMULA 1 has gone with the best, the segment leader. It has
gone to the home of the EGO Engine for quality; it has gone to the company that
can host FORMULA 1 Online, to the company that is streaking away from the pack."
"Codemasters' success and recent innovations in the racing game space makes the
company more than appropriately tuned for the challenge," said Chris Deering,
chairman, Codemasters. "The combination of FORMULA 1's new momentum of expansion
and Codemasters' contemporary technology and past experience is the breaking of
a new dawn for the sport, on the track and on the HD game screen."
The worldwide deal provides Codemasters with rights to feature all Grand Prix
circuits, FORMULA 1 teams, cars, and driver likenesses.
The FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP games will be developed using the
evolution of the award-winning EGO™ Game Technology Engine, Codemasters' highly
versatile cross-platform middleware technology. Its advanced graphics and
physics technology brings an unmatched cinematic quality and realism to
interactive entertainment.
The EGO Engine is currently being deployed in the creation of GRID™, the latest
in Codemasters Studio's international circuit-based racing series, set to be a
landmark release when it launches on June 3.
Codemasters expects the first game based on the FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP to launch in 2009.
Digitalmindsoft offers
updated 3ds Max plug-ins for Men of War, which will facilitate the
creation of vehicles that can be imported into the World War II real-time
strategy game.
This
page has details on how this can be accomplished, and offers some sample
files to get you started.
The
Battlefield Website has news that the servers and other techie bits behind
the Battlefield 2142 stats and accounts system has been upgraded:
Our stats system provider has been experiencing an unprecedented amount
of load on the system that is being alleviated as we speak. In the past 24 hours
they have:
-Quadrupled the load capacity
-Add several more server clusters to the server farm
-Improved back end efficiency of a number of processes
-Added several more load balancers to evenly distribute the services.
While we expect that these changes will largely restore connectivity and improve
stability in a very short period, there may be periodic instability while we
work to fully debug all of the work that has been done. Network engineers are
working around the clock on these improvements and to accommodate the new load
on the system.
We appreciate your patience during this time, and assure you that the changes
made this week will make for radically improved stability and scalability for
your titles in the immediate future.
GamesIndustry.biz quotes EA Mythic designer Josh Drescher says that
Warhammer Online is being designed with longevity in mind, saying they have
about five years worth of content: "All the under-the-hood numbers all
actually scale through the next five years," he said.
"What you don't want is when you launch the game you've got 40 levels - and it
takes however long it takes to get to level 40. You then launch an expansion and
it now takes two weeks to get to level 40 because now we need everyone to spend
six months to get from level 40 to 50," Drescher added.
- Mass Effect
The Mass
Effect Q&A on Play.TM chats with Al Reed from Demiurge about the PC
edition of Mass Effect, BioWare's RPG: "One major area that you'll
immediately notice a difference in is the squad controls, where you can now
give orders to individual squad members. You can check out Dan's developer
diary on the subject here. We've implemented a new HUD, we've reworked the
inventory system, we have an entirely new mini-game, and there are a few
more surprises for players as well. We've also upgraded the ME graphics
engine and texture resolution to take full advantage of a high-end PC."
- Lord of the Rings: Conquest
There's
a Pandemic Studios Q&A on TheOneRing.net talking with Eric 'Giz' Gewirtz
about Lord of the Rings: Conquest, the just-announced game that will
bring Star Wars: Battlefront-style gameplay to Middle-earth.
- Activision
Bobby
Kotick on another huge quarter for Activision on Variety gets some
responses from the Activision CEO to the company's recent round of favorable
financial results (story).
- Europa Universalis: Rome on
Boomtown.
- Penumbra: Black Plague on
2404.
Thanks for all the well-wishing on the occasion of my brother's birthday. Seems
like I may be getting a present out of this deal, as it sounds like he might be
getting an Xbox 360 for his birthday, which would allow us to play Rock Band
together. Watch out, here come the Blue Brothers.
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