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Archived News:
GameTap
gives Myst Online back to Cyan. Cyan says it's opening the game to fan
development (thanks Mike Martinez) has word that GameTap has surrendered the rights
to Myst Online: Uru Live back to Cyan Worlds after closing their revival of the
MMO Myst game ( story). Though Cyan's attempts to run the game
also met with failure years ago ( story), word is they are
prepared to give it a go once more, offering users the chance to create their
own content for the game for a minimal subscription fee ($25 for six months is
the example provided). No money changed hands as part of the deal, but if the
revival is commercially successful, GameTap will receive some compensation.
Kotaku
contacted GameTap's Rick Sanchez, who denies that GameTap is in trouble, saying
this is to benefit the game's fans: "It’s just the right thing to do, giving
Cyan and the fans the opportunity to continue to enjoy this rich universe that
has become a second home to many of its inhabitants."
Ten Ton Hammer reproduces a
post from the
Age of Conan Forums (vexingly user-only) saying that Funcom has promised to
address inequities in attack speeds for female characters in their Hyborian Age
MMORPG in an upcoming update. According to the explanation, this was not an
intentional balance difference between genders, but a bug based on the length of
their attack animations.
This AoC forum
thread on the topic seems to be viewable for unregistered users.
The C&C3
Support Forums have word to expect the release of the new Command & Conquer
3: Kane's Wrath patch by Friday, and that ladder season 2 will kick off Thursday
at Noon (thanks Ant and
Command and Conquer DEN). Here's a bit: We've made a late-night
decision to start our official Ladder Season 2 on Thursday at Noon to better
coincide with the patch release for Kane's Wrath, it makes most sense. Right now
the patch is in the last approval stage and just awaiting the final greenlight.
That did not happen today and will not happen tomorrow but we're planning on a
world-wide fireworks celebration by the 4th of July this Friday for the patch
celebration, i've invested millions of dollars and hours of time for this big
fireworks celebration, so I personally am highly invested in our release this
week as you can tell =) Unless I want to lose millions, i'm counting on it as
much as you are.
Steam
News announces the availability of a new version of Team Fortress 2
that includes some fairly significant balance adjustments for Valve's teamplay
shooter: Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will
be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific
changes include:
Team Fortress 2
• Fixed backburner's flame critical hits not being
recalculated after collision. This meant that it would check if the target was
looking away once and after that the flame could score a critical hit again even
if the orientation changed
• Added back some damage falloff to the Pyro's
flamethrower. Not nearly as extreme as it was before the Pyro class pack
• Fixed bug that caused Demomen to take a small amount of
extra damage from their own grenades and fly farther using them
•Fixed spy getting stuck in players after removing his
disguise
• Fixed spy stabbing and being able to go invisible
instantly
• Fixed spy disguised as enemy medic being able to spam
voice commands
• Fixed buffed health not decaying properly after being
healed by a dispenser
• Selectable menus can now be operated with number keys
even if they are not bound to slot1, slot2, etc.
• Removed the remaining speed adjustments for carrying
intelligence (a couple of game modes still reduced your maxspeed)
• Fixed a buildable item placement bug where the object
would not rotate after the user tried to place in an invalid location
Microsoft Game Studios Europe Q&A Part 2 on GamesIndustry.biz talks with
Peter Zetterberg about the gaming scene. One bit
highlighted here seems a pretty tacit admission that Microsoft's approach to
cross-platform releases is meant to promote the Xbox 360 at the expense of the
PC, offering support for theories that the PC sometimes gets the short end of a conflict
of interest situation: "On a global scale the Windows Vista business is
as important as our Xbox 360 business. But in Germany for example, we want more
gamers to buy our Xbox 360,” he said in an interview published today.
"If we launch a game that is on 360 and PC simultaneously, we basically shoot
ourselves in the foot by allowing the German market to choose to play the PC
version – because they are more likely to buy that than spend their money on the
Xbox 360."
"If we launched a Halo game on PC and 360 in Germany simultaneously, 80 per cent
of sales would be on the PC," he added.
Funcom is celebrating the seventh anniversary of Anarchy Online, their
science-fiction MMORPG. This
press release
expresses their pride in the project, and concludes with word on anniversary
celebrations: The seven year anniversary naturally bring along great
offers for both new, former and existing players. People who have previously
played Anarchy Online should check their mail-box for special offers, while all
free players can upgrade to the full game experience for only $7/€. Active
Anarchy Online players will receive seven special guest passes, as well as 700
paid points for free. These can be used on whatever in-game items they want,
ranging from jet bikes and hover boards to luxury apartments, pets and social
clothes. All the special offers are only available until July 7th, so be sure
not to miss out and join us in celebrating the wonderful history of Anarchy
Online! For more information on the offers, or to try the free version of AO,
please visit www.anarchy-online.com
As a part of the celebration Funcom has put together a video where former
luminaries like Gaute Godager, Ragnar Tørnquist and Morten Byom speak about
their time with Anarchy Online, while current Lead Designer Colin Cragg and Game
Director Craig Morrison join in to speak about the current state of the game.
It’s a great trip down memory lane for everyone who has enjoyed Anarchy Online,
while showing some of the tremendous evolutions the game has gone through since
its inception. You can find the video at
www.anarchy-online.com
The Z-Hunter Website
has the release of the Z-Hunter modification for DOOM 3, which offers a top-down
third-person gameplay perspective for the normally first-person shooter.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Blizzard Support announces the availability of new Warcraft III patches,
updating Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne to
version 1.22. The game's can be updated automatically via Battle.net, or there
are instructions on how to manually update if this is problematic. In addition
to game fixes and updates the new patches include new maps.
Icculus.org offers a new
patch for the Linux dedicated server for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,
that brings it in line with the new version. Word is: "This patch can be used to
create a new server (if you supply the retail data files) or patch an existing
server to 1.7."
TaleWorlds
is serving up a new patch for Mount & Blade, the latest installment in a
beta test that has lasted for more than four years now. A number of bug fixes
are included in version 0.960, which serves as a patch and a trial version for
the medieval role-playing game. The download is mirrored on
Gamer's Hell.
A new patch for The Sims 2: FreeTime updates the leisure-time people sim
expansion to version 1.13.0.161. The update address an in-game bug with a number
of appliances and fixes a number of compatibility issues, including with the
newly launched The
Sims 2 Store (thanks Gamer's Hell). The patch is located on
TheSims2.com and mirrored on
FileFront and The Patches
Scrolls. The
full patch
notes are here.
The Political Machine Forums
have word on Stardock's return policy for the strategy game in case users
experience video card compatibility issues with The Political Machine,
their politics simulation: The Political Machine requires video cards
that support pixel shader 2.0. Normally, on our other games, this isn't a
problem as nearly all video cards support this.
But due to the more mainstream appeal of The Political Machine, we're getting a
number of people with old video cards which simply can't run the game. Because
they were purchased at retail where returns are generally not allowed, those
people, especially people with older laptops, are usually out of luck.
However, Stardock will take your game and provide a FULL refund even if you
bought it from a retail outlet. All we need you to do is send us the box, the
receipt, and a brief letter letting us know what type of video card you have (so
we can document this). The only caveat is that you need to do this within the
first 10 days of having purchased it.
- American McGee's Grimm on
Kotaku. Thanks
Mike Martinez.
Well here we are in July, which for Hudson the wonder dog is the cruelest month
(apologies to T.S. Eliot) with the Fourth of July fireworks causing her no end
of anxiety. The good news is that we have had very few preliminary explosions so
far, but the bad news is this is probably partially due to all these
thunderstorms we've been getting, and these freak her out too. Sometimes you
just can't win.
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