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Archived News:
Left 4 Dead Interview on
GameTrailers has footage from Valve's upcoming co-op zombie game and an
interview with Michael Booth about the project (thanks
Shacknews). The main
topics of the conversation are cooperative gameplay and the game's reparability,
but along the way he also reveals a release date, saying: "Left 4 Dead is
shipping November 4th on both the PC and the 360." This confirms the November
date announced when the game suffered its most recent delay
( story).
PES 2009 announced
reveals plans for Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, the next installment in the
sports series that could have carried the title Winning Eleven 11, if the series
kept its old naming convention. The game will be released this autumn for
Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, and PSP. Here's a bit: New
additions include that will further bridge the gap between PES and the real
thing.
According to Konami: ‘The new game has undergone a stunning graphical update to
ensure its players look and move even more like their real-life counterparts.
‘Similarly, all-new options allow users to tailor the game to their own tastes,
while new moves, innovative new control elements and key online elements will
further the realism of the new game.’
An update on the
Battlefield Website has word on plans for an upcoming patch for
Battlefield 2, though the update does not make mention of the new maps that
we'd heard would also be announced ( story). Word is the release
of the patch will be preceded by open beta testing.
The
Battleground Europe Forums have the release notes for a new patch
that's live in Battleground: Europe, updating the MMOG formerly known as World
War II online to version 1.28. Word is: "What was supposed to be a minor game
update with some weapons audits and terrain fixes ended up introducing 26 new
towns, 3 new brigade types, a change to scoring against naval vessels and the
new 7th anniversary game decal amongst many other upgrades."
A new trailer shows off the "strategic dismemberment" in Dead Space, the
upcoming science-fiction horror game. The clip is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
FileShack.
A new Lord of the Rings: Conquest trailer offers a look at Pandemic's
upcoming Tolkien-inspired game that will use gameplay mechanics familiar from
Star Wars: Battlefront. The movie is posted on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
FileShack.
The NVIDIA
Drivers have some WHQL-certified drivers that were released last week
(thanks
Voodoo Extreme). The new version 177.35 drivers for GeForce 6, 7, 8, and 9
series GPUs offer performance improvements, beta folding@home support, and more.
BioShock 'was a sequence of failures and errors' on Develop has 2K Boston's
Chris Kline's interesting comments on missteps made during the development of
the submerged shooter: "Bioshock was basically a sequence of failures and
errors," he said. "But every one of them was a good thing - it forced us to look
at the game and reassess what we had, which worked in our favour."
Charting the development of the product back to 2002, Kline pinpointed almost a
dozen points at which wrong decisions or wrong paths were taken, ranging from
bad middleware decisions right at the start of the project to the team's
original misguided decision to simply remake System Shock 2, a game that had
failed commercially despite universal critical acclaim.
One of the original differential points for Bioshock was to be its
self-sustained AI ecology, which Kline called "life around you, but also without
you". While impressive results came from months of intensive focus on these
interactions, it soon became apparent to the team that it was incredibly boring
without any player involvement in this ecology. This forced the team to rethink
not only the entire system but also the designs of the AI agents themselves to
make them more interesting and empathic.
- Call of Duty: World at War
The
Call of
Duty: World at War Q&A on Computer and Video Games talks with Treyarch's
Noah Heller about the coming installment in the military shooter series:
"That's what we want to do with the WWII genre - we want to press the Reset
button, we want so say: 'This is not the WWII you're used to seeing. This is
something new. Yes you're firing similar weapons and yes, you've seen these
locations before, but this is nothing like you've ever played.'"
- Kane's Wrath
C&C
Kane's Wrath Producer Q&A on bit-tech.net chats with Jim Vesella about
the Command & Conquer 3 expansion, discussing differences between the
console and PC editions, what the future holds for the series, and a bit
about Red Alert 3.
- Life In Vegas
Surreal's
Alan Patmore On Open World Innovation on Gamasutra talks with the studio
head at Surreal about life in the bay area, life in the game development
industry, and of course, Life In Vegas, their upcoming open world
action game set in sin city.
- EverQuest 2: Legends of Norrath
The
EverQuest 2: Legends of Norrath Q&A on Yada Yada Vault chats with Chuck
Kallenbach, SOE Denver game designer about this collectible card MMOG tie-in
dealie.
- Lord of the Rings Online
The
Lord of the Rings Online
Q&A on Ten Ton Hammer talks with Jeffrey Steefel about the Korean
version of the LotR MMORPG.
A new Blizzard Entertainment
teaser page is online for your teasing pleasure (thanks Gamer's Hell). Is it a tease
of an imminent announcement? Are those runes? Is a Diablo III
announcement coming? Or is this a Rorschach test? I think I see a bunny, or is
that a football helmet? How many question marks are in this story? And what
about Naomi? Presumably some of these questions will be answered soon.
Update:
IncGamers say they have solved this mystery, saying the image is "a dead
ringer for a rune seen on Arthas' sword, Frostmourne in another picture." So the
image seems to relate to World of Warcraft, rather than Diablo III
or some other game, though it is still not clear what the image signifies.
In other Blizzard speculation,
Best Buy's listing for StarCraft II now carries a release date, saying
December 3, 2008 is when to expect the real-time strategy sequel. A grain of
salt is not included, but skepticism is probably in order until an official
announcement arrives. Thanks Mike Martinez and
Joystiq.
This press release has
new details about Call Of Duty: World At War, outlining plans for co-op support
and promising flamethrower details (which seem to consist of the fact that the
game will include a flamethrower). Here's word on the co-op support, which will
allow the chance to do battle in World War II with your band of
brothers: Call of Duty: World at War introduces co-operative play,
bringing fresh meaning to the “No One Fights Alone” mantra with up to
four-players online for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, or two-player local split-screen
on consoles. Nintendo Wii will also support a unique co-op mode for two players.
For the first time ever players will experience harrowing single-player missions
together for greater camaraderie and tactical execution. The co-op campaign
allows players to rank up and unlock perks in competitive multiplayer by
completing challenges and earning experience points, adding continuous
re-playability and team-based gameplay. Whether playing competitively or
cooperatively – if players are online with Call of Duty: World at War – they
will always gain experience points. Based on a player’s experience rank and rank
of the player’s friends, Call of Duty: World at War will scale dynamically to
provide a deeper level of challenge.
Beatles seek help to join the video game revolution on the Financial Times
reports that representatives of the Beatles are exploring the possibility of video
games based on the band's music. Like efforts at bringing the fab four's music
into the digital age on CDs and services like iTunes, the process has been
glacially deliberate, but apparently the new CEO at Apple Corps is having an
influence on this: The representatives have held discussions with both
Activision and MTV Games, the respective makers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band
games, in which players strum along to favourite songs or form virtual bands.
A final deal would be worth several million dollars, according to a person
familiar with the talks, and could be reached in a matter of weeks. However, it
would have first to win the blessing of both Apple Corps, the company
established by the band to oversee its business interests, and EMI, the UK music
group that owns the Beatles master recordings. Both declined to comment.
The surviving Beatles and their heirs have been cautious about exploiting their
material on new platforms. They were slow to re-issue their albums on compact
disc.
In spite of repeated discussions, EMI and Apple Corps have yet to license
Beatles recordings for digital use, including for sale through Apple's iTunes
music store.
Apple Corps has become more active in recent months since Jeff Jones took over
as chief executive.
The company, whose board includes Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison
and Yoko Ono Lennon, has allowed Beatles compositions to be used on American
Idol and in a Las Vegas show.
A new "Combat Redefined" behind-the-scenes trailer from Spider-Man: Web of
Shadows shows off action from the upcoming gaming return of the wall-crawler
with accompanying developer commentary. The clip is posted on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
There's a
new Huxley trailer on PC Games to promote Webzen's upcoming MMOFPS. The
voice -acting in the clip is Japanese, the accompanying article is in German,
and the clip is pre-rendered, but a sense of the game's futuristic combat is
still conveyed along the way. The clip is accompanied by a batch of
new screenshots.
The Eternal Silence
Downloads Page offers a new version 3.1 patch for this Source-engine
modification, which is explained like so: "It fixes the gameplay and balance
problems we uncovered in 3.0 and is certainly a must have update." In other
Eternal Silence news, a new map called cp_warpath can be found on
their custom maps page,
and there is also
a video interview about the project on ModTV.
I'm not above feeling pangs when famous people I'm fond of die, but it's not
something that usually bothers me too much. But I'm especially saddened by the
passing of
George Carlin, as the comic had been one of my heroes for almost as long as
I can remember. In memoriam,
here's a collection of
a few of his bits (link updated, thanks BicycleRepairMan).
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