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Archived News:
Dragon Age Website has not yet been
updated, still teasing saying: "More July 9, 2008." On what may or may not be a
related note, however, EA sends word to expect a trailer from BioWare's upcoming
RPG this weekend on both the telly and the internets in preparation for the
game's showing at next week's E3. Update: The teaser page has been
replaced with an update making it clear the news of the trailer debut already
posted below is what they were teasing all along. Here's the announcement, which refers to the
game's title as Dragon Age: Origins and once again confuses 1:00 am
Saturday morning with Friday night: Dragon Age™: Origins, the highly
anticipated dark fantasy epic from leading video game developer BioWare is set
to be shown during E3 2008! Beginning with a world exclusive trailer on
GameTrailers TV, airing this Friday night at 1:00 AM on Spike TV and Spike HD,
fans will get their first look at Dragon Age™: Origins before it is shown to
media during E3 2008, July 15-17. The trailer will be available in high
definition after it airs on TV at
www.gametrailers.com
CD Projekt RED and one2tribe announce
The Witcher: Versus is now live, offering the web-based combat game formerly
titled The Witcher: DuelMail. The game suffered a delay to incorporate
suggestions from beta testers ( story), one of which was
apparently to change its name. Here's word: Warsaw, Poland – July 9 –
Pick up your sword and slash your so-called friends into submission in The
Witcher: Versus, the web-based dueling game formerly known as The Witcher:
DuelMail. In The Witcher: Versus, players can finally fulfill their dreams of
challenging a friend or complete stranger to a duel without having to put their
real-world lives on the line. The game is free to play at
http://versus.thewitcher.com.
The Witcher: Versus should be considered a serious hazard to productivity for
anyone with computer access at work, due to its “just one more fight and then
I’ll quit for today” nature. As a sorcerer, witcher or frightener, players
challenge others to head-to-head battles with magic, swords, claws and more at
their disposal. Winning a duel earns the player experience and money, which they
can then use to upgrade their character’s attributes, learn new skills and buy
new weapons in hopes of reaching the upper echelon of the game’s online leader
board. The Witcher: Versus will be continually supported in the coming months
with special events, competitions and more.
More than 48,000 people played the beta version of The Witcher: DuelMail, and
the name was changed in celebration… or something. Just accept it – the name
changed, and now The Witcher: Versus has launched with a number of improvements
that have been implemented thanks to fan feedback during the beta. The game’s
motion-captured animations have been overhauled, background visuals have been
enhanced, balance between character classes has been improved, and new visual
effects make spells and attacks even more impressive.
So what are you waiting for? Head to
versus.thewitcher.com and start fighting everyone… and don’t worry about
getting arrested.
Kotaku Australia has follow-up on reports that Fallout 3 has been
banned in Australia ( story), providing the OFLC's official report
on the action. In short, it was not any violence or gore in the game that
triggered it's banning, which was based entirely on the game's depiction of drug
use. Here's the relevant quote from the OFLC report: The game contains
the option to take a variety of "chems" using a device which is connected to the
character's arm. Upon selection of the device a menu selection screen is
displayed. Upon this screen is a list of "chems" that the player can take, by
means of selection. These "chems" have positive effects and some negitave
effects (lowering of intelligence, or the character may become addicted to the
"chem"). The positive effects include increase in strength, stamina, resistance
to damage, agility and hit points.
Corresponding with the list of various "chems" are small visual representation
of the drugs, these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe
and blister packs. In the Board's view these realistic visual representations of
drugs and their delivery method bring the "science-fiction" drugs in line with
"real-world" drugs.
QJ.net reproduces a set of preliminary patch notes for a patch for Age of
Conan: Hyborian Adventures that's slated to go live tomorrow (thanks
GamesRadar). The changes
listed are quite extensive, but they were posted with a caveat from the
developers at Funcom that they do not necessarily reflect the final live version
of the patch.
The open-world action of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is on display in
a new clip with gameplay from Pandemic's current project that demonstrates the
ability to improvise your approach to missions. The movie is posted on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell, and
MyGameTrailers.
A new gameplay trailer from Legendary highlights some combat in the
first-person shooter currently in development at Spark Unlimited. The clip can
be found on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
A new Velvet Assassin trailer shows off the buttocks-cam view of Replay
Studios' upcoming World War II stealth game formerly known as Sabotage. The
movie is posted on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Will there be news left when the show begins? Thanks Mike Martinez.
Ubisoft's upcoming sequel to Crytek's Far Cry is the topic of
a new Q&A
on Gamasutra talking with Dominic Guay about the Dunia engine, the
multiplatform technology that underlies the shooter follow-up and a number of
Ubisoft's other future projects. The exchange also includes a discussion of the
state of PC games, relating to high-end system requirements, and recent comments
by Crytek on the piracy issue. Here's a larger than usual excerpt: This
is a high-end PC game, and that's an interesting place to be right now, but it's
not PC exclusive.
Dominic Guay: No. We kind of cover all our bases. Obviously, our key focus is
going to be on the PC, and it's pretty scalable. We haven't defined any minimum
requirements yet, but we have the game running on a Pentium 4 and an [Nvidia
GeForce] 6600. Obviously, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of what you
just saw there, but the key experience is still there. You have the same game on
that system.
But we'll also be having a PS3 and 360 version shipping at the same time. For
the gamer that has a maybe four- or five-year-old PC, he can play it on his PS3
or his 360.
Do you think that it would be dangerous if it were only a high-end PC game?
DG: If it were only a high-end PC game? Considering the amount of time we spent
on that game and the investment, yeah, it's probably not a good idea to make an
only high-end PC game, because you'll only limit your market a lot.
That seemed to be something was more feasible in the past. The market for
high-end PC games is kind of shrinking, piracy is big, consoles have become more
capable.
DG: Well, yeah, but games were always scalable on the PC, to a certain extent.
Games usually let you have a two- or three-year-old PC and still be able to
play, even if it isn't optimal or anything.
There have been examples of, at the time, high-end games that required almost
for you to have a brand-new PC. That might not be possible anymore, actually.
Not in this period, for sure.
They ran into some problems last year with Crysis. Crytek did come out and
say that they don't believe that they can stick to being PC-exclusive for their
games in the future. Obviously, you've already made the decision not to.
DG: Yeah, I've read that. I think they referred to piracy as a major issue for
them. Their game was perceived as being very high-end - and it is true that in
order to get the kind of quality we were used to seeing in their videos, it did
require a pretty high-end PC - but you could play their game on a lower-end PC,
and you could still get a very good framerate. I don't know how much of it is
piracy or not.
- Battlefield Heroes on
GameShark.
- Jumpgate Evolution on
GameSpy
and IGN.
- The Lord of the Rings: Conquest on
IGN.
- Multiwinia on
1Up.
- Puzzle Quest: Galactrix on
IGN.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
The C&C3
Support Forums indicate the problematic ( story) version 1.01
patch for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath is now officially live
(thanks The Patches Scrolls), with the following word from community manager Apoc: "And again,
if you downloaded it through Large Downloads yesterday and are having issues,
please re-install your game, and re-install the patch through autopatcher or
download manually at the links I am going to post here shortly." Unfortunately
some comments in that thread indicate that after patching some users are still
experiencing the desync problems the patch is intended to address.
Kotaku Australia has word that Fallout 3 has been officially refused
classification In Australia, confirming indications that the content of the
upcoming RPG sequel was not meeting the Aussie Office of Film and Literature
Classification's standards ( story). This makes it illegal to sell
the game down under, though it is possible that an edited version of the game
will be resubmitted for approval, but at this point Bethesda has refused to
comment on this situation. It is not clear why the game was refused
classification, as it contains scenes depicting drug use as well as a good deal
of gore, either or both of which can run afoul of the OFLC.
- Winter Wolves
In
The Company of Wolves: Celso Riva Interview Rock, Paper, Shotgun chats
with Celso Riva of Italian developer
Winter Wolves about life as an independent, and their various projects
like The Goalkeeper, Magic Stones, and Supernova 2.
- Quotable
BioShock
shouldn't have worked on Eurogamer is another striking developer quote
(following the recent chestnut about game length), as Blue Omega's Jason
Minkoff suggests that making a good game is secondary to it actually
succeeding: "Take BioShock: no frigging way that thing should have actually
worked out. Fantastic game, awesome design, and beautiful artwork, but the
thing is a damn underwater Steampunk 1930s combo thing. How should that ever
have done well?"
In reporting the release of the introductory movie from Neverwinter Nights 2:
Mysteries of Westgate the other day ( story), the developer of
the D&D RPG adventure pack was misidentified as original NWN2 developer Obsidian
Entertainment, when in fact Mysteries of Westgate is being created by
Ossian Studios. Apologies to Ossian
and to you for causing confusion here.
Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
Some friends gave us a freestanding air conditioner they were no longer using,
figuring we could make occasional use of a portable unit since there is no AC in
most of our usually cool house (portable is theoretical in this case, as it
weighs as much as a window unit, but has wheels). So this thing has an adaptor
for the window to draw fresh air, and one of the lights on the front panel was
to warn that the water needs emptying, so I figured it had some sort of internal
reservoir to collect condensation. Amid the recent heat wave we decided to give
this thing a try, and while it could not cool our entire downstairs (there
was no way to just close it off in the living room), it helped a bit, so we ran
it a couple of times. Last night MrsBlue noticed a puddle of water on the floor,
demonstrating that the assumption it was collecting internally was incorrect
(not to mention that this theory that should have been tested better,
considering the outcome). Sadly this already seems to have been enough to cause
a slight of warping of the wood floor where it was standing, which is not a
prominent spot, but a bummer nonetheless.
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