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Archived News:
LucasArts announces the
Star Wars
Galaxies Trading Card Game, a digital collecting game to kick off with a
series called "Champions of the Force." The game will be exclusive to Star
Wars Galaxies subscribers, who will receive five free booster packs a month
(naturally, with the option to buy more) and will feature cards that are
redeemable for in-game items.
What goes on in Vegas will stay at Surreal Software until 2009, as
GameSpot reports a delay
for This is Vegas, the open world Sin City simulation previously expected
later this year. Though the game's release is pushed off until next year, This
is Vegas will be shown off at this year's E3. Here's how the game's publisher
explains the setback: "Midway is committed to developing and publishing the best
quality products. It is important for us to make sure the game was given the
development time needed in order to make This is Vegas a triple-A videogame and
a must-have for all PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC owners."
The Live for Speed Website now offers a new
Patch Z for Live for Speed S2 Alpha, the online racing simulator. The new
version includes a number of changes, which are all outlined on
this page. The new version can be
applied to version V, W, X, or Y via the game's auto-updater, or there is a
manual patch for Version Y, or a full installer of Version Z (which also serves
as a free trial). The incremental patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell; while the
new full version is available from
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
Games32.
Joystiq reports that GameTap has an
unusual plan for releasing episodes of American McGee's Grimm, the
upcoming episodic fairy tale game (thanks Mike Martinez). Each episode will debut as a
free release, with a 24-hour window for free downloads, supported by "minimal
up-front advertising." After 24 hours there will be a charge to download an
episode, though the price has yet to be determined. The first episode, "A Boy
Learns What Fear Is," is slated to launch on July 31.
Blizzard's Mike
Morhaime Q&A on Eurogamer has more on the state of PC gaming, as the chief
executive of Blizzard Entertainment expresses his agreement with Valve's Gabe
Newell's comments on the ongoing viability of the PC as a gaming
platform: Yeah, and I agree with a lot of Gabe's comments. I think that it
is just completely dead wrong to think about the PC gaming market and conclude
that it's a declining market. It is far from declining. If you look at the
numbers, there are probably more people playing games on the PC than any other
platform. More than there ever have been before. If you look at the revenue,
it's also growing. It's only not growing if all you're looking at is PC retail,
and even then, I think it's just flat, I don't think it's declining very
much.
A new patch for the PC edition of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is now available to
update the high-rolling tactical shooter sequel to version 1.03. The new version
includes new ranks, new A.C.E.S. a grenade indicator, a High Stakes setting, and
more. Downloads of the global patch are available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, eXp.de,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
GameSpot (registration required),
Strategy Informer, and
The Patches
Scrolls. There is also a separate patch for the German edition on
AtomicGamer,
eXp.de,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and The Patches
Scrolls.
MassGate now offers a
new version 1.0.0.9 patch for World in Conflict, a hotfix for patch #008
for Massive Entertainment's alternate-history action/strategy game. The patch
addresses one bug where the Special Abilities buttons stopped responding and
another bug that increased the loading times before map cycles. Thanks
The Patches
Scrolls, where the download is mirrored.
The official Team
Fortress 2 Blog has details from Valve's Robin Walker on the next class pack
for Team Fortress 2, which will concentrate on upgrading the Heavy
character. Word is they are taking a slightly different approach to this update,
as they are opening the process a bit to offer players insight into their goal,
which is summed up like this: "Make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic
to pair with." They describe the constraints they face in this task, while
outlining the skills a good Heavy should display. Here's a bit on the
considerations they are facing: Constraints:
> It shouldn't have a cumulative effect when being healed by
a Medic as well. Heavy/Medic pairs do pretty well as it is.
> It shouldn't significantly change the Heavy's role,
relative to other classes. In particular, it shouldn't significantly encroach on
another class's role.
> It should be understandable for both the user and the
player it's being used on.
Extra:
> How much work is it? How many new models, sounds, effects,
etc?
> Does it deepen the Heavy's skill curve? Is it easy to
learn? Hard to master?
> Is it an interesting tool to choose relative to the base
Heavy weapon it's replacing? What scenarios can you envision in which each is
useful? What arguments can you raise for why each is better than the other?
> How often does the Heavy need to think about it? Is it
something he uses once every 5 minutes, or is it something he needs to be
constantly thinking about? A greater impact on player decision making is
generally a good thing.
> How many other features of the game does it affect? Often,
the best ideas are "economical", with a small set of required actions, but a
wide set of resulting effects
Reports like
this one on StarCraftWire indicate Blizzard is working on an unannounced MMOG, so folks are sending in
tips about the news. The thing is this is the exact same story that was reported
in December 2007 ( story), down to the fact that it is based on
the same job listing from the time. We tend to ignore previously reported news
here, but the flood of mail about this makes me think this may not be the right
approach. I'll have to contemplate this, but I think I may have to start
re-reporting some of these things just to make things easier on those helpfully
trying to keep us informed.
In commemoration of the 2000th post to the
Out of Memory
Error thread on the Age of Conan Technical Issues Forum we highlight this
issue that's impacting a number of players in Funcom's new MMORPG (thanks
John). The initial posts suggests this
CAD Forum post
has a solution, but there are other users who seem unable to avoid memory
related crashes, or to paraphrase one poster, involuntary logouts.
I recently mentioned troubles I was having with my satellite reception in bad
weather. When I checked my signal strengths, there were a few readings at zero,
and a number of others in the 40-percent range (oddly on every other transponder
on the same satellite). I called tech support, and they agreed that those 40s
were a problem (surprisingly, the zeros were not, they were for local signals
that are aimed elsewhere), and we scheduled a service appointment. The
technician showed up, and when I told him that I thought the dish may need
adjusting he told me this was unlikely, since other signals were quite strong,
so he checked the connections of the wires coming off the dish into the house,
replacing the male-to-male adaptor along the way, and declaring the job
complete. I pointed out the problematic signals were still in the 40s and he
told me you couldn't always go by that, so I reminded him that this was why he
was here (we couldn't confirm or deny that he'd fixed anything yet, since the
problem only exhibited itself in bad weather), and he might have to call his
supervisor for advice. At that point I ran through what I knew about the
problem, and isolated it to the LMB array that reads the signals after they
bounce off the dish. He told me he had never heard of this as an issue, and when
I outlined how I isolated the problem he seemed dubious, but he swapped the unit
anyway. The readings in question immediately jumped into the 70s, so we had
similar strength on every transponder on the previously iffy signal. I couldn't
be positive this was fixed until our next storm, but this came last night and
the picture didn't break up, so my issue is cleared up.
You know? I don't think I'll even charge DirecTV for my services.
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