|
|
 |
Archived News:
The Bionic Commando
Website has word that Bionic Commando Rearmed will be released next
week for almost all regions and platforms, with the worldwide PC release of the
swinging action set for August 14: Finally! It gives us great pleasure to
officially announce that Bionic Commando Rearmed will launch worldwide from next
week. Here are those all-important dates and prices:
• Xbox Live Arcade
Worldwide on August 13th
800 Microsoft Points
• PlayStation Network
Japan – August 13th (￥1,200)
North America – August 14 (US$9.99)
Europe – TBC
• PC
Worldwide – August 14 ($14.99)
Available on Steam, Direct 2 Drive, Gamer’s Gate, with more to be confirmed!
(Launch date and price may vary between distributors and location, check with
your distributor of choice for more information)
Apologies to the many fans out there eagerly awaiting the release of Rearmed for
being unable to confirm these dates for so long and leaving you in the dark,
because when we announced the date this time, we wanted to be 100% sure you were
getting the right information.
Thanks for sticking with us everybody. Look for reviews of Rearmed to start
hitting the Internet from early next week!
Open beta testing is now underway for
Project Powder, a free-to-play
online snowboarding game. Word is: "The newest addition to Outspark’s Virtual
Playground, Project Powder is an immersive snowboarding adventure for gamers of
all experience levels. Featuring intense multiplayer action, gnarly tricks and
hundreds of ways to customize your experience, Project Powder promises plenty of
fun for gamers interested in racing their friends for five minutes or several
hours."
The Russian 1C Games Website offers a new
Men of War movie, showing off Best Way's upcoming World War II sequel
previously known as Outfront II. The clip showing a couple of different
takes on armored combat is mirrored on
Gamer's Hell.
Pete Hines is the subject of the
Fallout 3 Interview on
AtomicGamer where Bethesda's front man answers another batch of questions
about the upcoming RPG sequel. Topics include balancing the VATS system with
real-time combat, the ratio of action to role-playing, whether intrepid users
will be able to cobble together homebrew editing tools, and more.
First preseason tackle football for the Giants tonight. I used to find it
jarring to have games in the summer, but more recently I seem to find it very
easy to accept the launch of the preseason.
10TACLE Studios has
filed for insolvency according to a report
on the German edition of the Wall Street Journal Website. According to
GamesIndustry.biz: "It is believed that the EUR 6.2 million in funding the
developer announced just last week fell through, causing the company to declare
insolvency last night. Since then, the developer has seen its share price drop
over 73 per cent on the Frankfurt stock exchange." They contacted 10TACLE for
comment, but have not yet received a reply. There is a report on
Gamasutra
(thanks Mike Martinez) with a statement from 10TACLE London branch Blimey Games
indicating this will not impact them: "Despite 10T’s unfortunate and recently
announced insolvency, Blimey Games is in a very strong position. We have
recently signed an unannounced major project for a top tier publisher which
secures our continued growth, and our Ferrari title remains unaffected. Work
will continue as normal at our studio."
The Blizzard Entertainment
Employment Opportunities Website now lists Art Director for
Diablo III as an open position (thanks
Kotaku), which causes recent controversy over the game's art direction
( story) to come to mind.
IncGamers
has a follow-up statement from Blizzard indicating that this was not based on
fan complaints about the art direction, and that the new art director will
continue along the same path: Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to
form a startup technology company (outside the game industry), which is why
we've posted about the open position. This change won't impact the game: we're
really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III,
and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team
to maintain the art style moving forward.
The Damnation Website offers a
new movie showing off Blue Omega Entertainment's "shooter gone vertical" that
began as an Unreal modification. The clip starts with a cinematic sequence and
concludes with gameplay footage, and the whole thing is pretty impressive. Word
is: "The video showcases the huge scale of the magnificent landscapes, each with
up to three hours of streaming gameplay and thousands of vertical feet. Flooded
with enemies, players can negotiate these immense levels using any of the
numerous paths available while avoiding the brutal destruction caused by PSI’s
advanced forces as their wave of terror drives civilians into hiding with the
overwhelming scale of their awe inspiring military might." Damnation is
to be released later this year for Windows, Xbox 360, and PS3.
Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman says he thinks music games will
need to pay greater licensing fees in the future to include songs in music-based
games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero. This seems to defy the
logic that such games have actually benefited music sales by creating
a
new revenue stream for songs and
sparking renewed interest in
older artists and their materials, but he does not see it that way, as he says,
"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are
entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small." Must be
heartening to be a musician and hear a label refer to your music as "content we
own and control."
GameTap may be on the market
( story), but that has not derailed the release of the second
episode of American McGee's Grimm,
the fairy tale-inspired adventure series. The new installment is titled
Little Red Riding Hood ("Hey, Granma! I brought a little bunny rabbit for
you - ta HAVE!"), and continuing the unusual distribution plan for Grimm, the
episode will be free for the next 24 hours. Here's word: "In this episode,
Little Red Riding Hood is sent by her mother to deliver some goodies to Grandma
and told to not stray from the path or talk to strangers along the way. Of
course, Little Red breaks both rules and ends up encountering one of the most
fearsome creatures in the forest. What could possibly go wrong in Grimm's
version of this classic tale?"
While writing the blurb below I noticed the
AGEOD Website offers a trial version of Birth of America II: Wars in
America 1750-1815 as well as sales of the full version of this turn-based
strategy sequel. Here's a bit: Birth of America II: Wars in America
1750-1815 follows the successful historical strategy videogame Birth of America,
AGEOD's American Civil War and Napoleon's Campaigns. It is the long-awaited
well-expanded sequel of the acclaimed first game that made AGEOD. You can now
fight all the big wars that made America between 1750 and 1815.
Wars in America 1750-1815 is a stand-alone game not compatible with the previous
one.
AGEOD announces that strategy
gamers will have the chance to get in the trenches with World War One in
November: Ascaron Entertainment and AGEOD have announced that the
historically accurate turn based strategy game,
World War One, will be
released in November 2008. The new game will allow players to take command of
one of six Great nations including Britain, Germany and Russia, as they try to
ensure victory and restore peace in Europe.
Players can take on the role of Kitchener, Joffre, Luddendorf, Clemenceau, Czar
Nicholas II or Enver Pasha as they search for the strategy to avoid defeat in
the first truly global war. All the tools for victory are available within the
game, but it is up to the player to identify them and employ them in the most
efficient way.
Charged with coordinating the manoeuvres of their Mother country and those in
league with it, players are in command of a number of armies and fleets as they
engage in combat on land and at sea. Crucial decisions, such as hiring the best
generals, timely deployment of reserves and investing in weapons research, will
help lead the player to a famous victory.
Clever tactical decisions can have a significant impact on the balance of war as
the player decides on how to handle the Press, manage public opinion, build
spirit or destroy enemy morale. Political actions, such as the deployment of
diplomatic envoys to recruit neutral countries, could broaden the scope of the
war, whilst tipping the balance of power in the player’s favour.
Highly accurate and greatly detailed, yet simple and fun to play,
World War One will give turn
based strategy fans the chance to change history and recreate the war that
shaped the world.
GameSpot reports that
Ubisoft is suing Optical Experts Manufacturing, alleging one of the employees of
the Charlotte, North Carolina-based disc replication company pilfered a copy of
Assassin's Creed and leaked it to the internet. The GameSpot story
indicates the game sold only 40,000 copies in the US through June, but
that over 700,000 pirated copies of the game were downloaded. They also relate
an odd-sounding claim that Ubisoft intentionally included a bug in the code that
would crash the game as a security measure, and that negative reviews of the
buggy leaked version harmed their reputation. The suit is said to be for
copyright infringement, breach of contract, and negligence, and Ubisoft is
asking for over $20 million in damages and legal fees. Here's the strange bit
about this supposedly intentional bug: In addition to lost sales as a direct
result of piracy, the publisher also claimed its reputation was hurt by the leak
as well. Ubisoft says it included a bug in the pre-release Assassin's Creed for
security reasons that would cause the game to crash partway through. The bug was
supposedly removed from the retail edition, but a mix of negative reviews of the
leaked and bug-equipped pirated version of the game and legitimate reviews of
the retail edition created customer confusion and caused "irreparable harm" to
its reputation, Ubisoft said.
Bungie.net has word that the version 1.0.8.616 patch for the PC edition of
Halo is now available (thanks Gamer's Hell), pointing the way to
this forum topic with downloads and info on the new version. The patch removes the CD check in the shooter port, and addresses
some bugs, and in addition to client patches for the regular and custom
(multiplayer only) editions of the game. There are new corresponding dedicated
servers, and to avoid confusion with the beta patches that preceded this
release, the new version is not backwards compatible with old servers, and when
the auto-patch hits the tubes tomorrow, the new version will be required for
multiplayer play. Interestingly, the bug fixes are characterized as a favor from
Bungie to the community, as they are actually updating Microsoft's game for
them, and as such, future support is not guaranteed: If you haven't been
following the pre-release threads, this patch contains several fixes for
server-crashing security bugs, and that's it. As I have discussed elsewhere,
anti-aimbotting is an arms race that we're not going to enter for this old game,
and this patch doesn't address that or any other feature-level changes. I should
also note that Bungie does not officially support Halo PC (which is owned by
Microsoft, not Bungie) but since the build machine is under my desk and not at
MS, I fixed these several bugs as a favor to the community. I can't promise any
future support, nor can I open-source the code for community
development.
Cryptic Comet offers new
patches for "Armadeddon Empires" that we believe can also be applied to
Armageddon Empires, the post-apocalyptic turn-based strategy game (thanks
Gamer's Hell). This page is where to
find the version 1.08b patch for the PC edition of the game along with patch
notes, and this page
offers the Macintosh edition of this "tip of the spear" update. In each case
word is: "All previous save games are compatible."
The official Grand Theft Auto IV
Website has been updated following the announcement that the PC edition of
the open-world action sequel is in the works ( story), and now
sports the
Games
for Windows LIVE logo (thanks
GameCyte). While the PC announcement includes word that it will offer "newly
expanded multiplayer just for the PC," since one of the earmarks of the Games
for Windows LIVE program has been the offer of cross-platform multiplayer
matchmaking "with other Windows® players or with or against XBOX 360 players (in
supported games.)," this provides the opportunity to speculate about whether
owners of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC may be able to play online with
owners of the Xbox 360 edition.
MTV Multiplayer has word from their conversation with BioWare co-founder
Greg Zeschuk on the possibility that more downloadable content is coming for
Mass Effect, the science-fiction RPG. Dr. Greg is guarded, but seems
optimistic: We’re talking about that. You know how we are. We’re always
very circumspect until we can go “Aha! There it is!” With everything we build
now, we want to have this long-term relationship with the customer and always
have something for them to try. So we’re definitely looking at that for “Mass
Effect.”
Yup, one more question mark: French site
jeuxvideo has a story about what they believe to be the next Medal of
Honor game (thanks Planet
Medal of Honor and
Tiscali Games). A
Translated version of the site says the next installment in the military
shooter series is titled Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda, which
supposedly follows the lead of Call of Duty 4 by leaving World War II
behind in favor of modern combat. The setting is said to be the war in
Afghanistan in 2002, based on
an actual operation.
This is an unconfirmed report, however, and our reading of the rough translation
suggests that this information was gleaned from a questionnaire sent by EA to
MoH fans, which seems less than definitive.
Savage 2: A Tortured Soul Website
has an update on the now overdue ( story) patch for S2 Games'
action strategy sequel, as well as word that the game is getting a price cut:
"Savage 2 will sell on Steam Client for $19.99 permanently. The native client
will receive the same $19.99 pricing after the next retail patch this week."
Back to that patch, here's the latest: We're working on putting out a
patch later today that will contain numberous balance improvements as well as
some other fixes and additions.
The
Fallout 3 interview on IncGamers is from a sit-down with Pete Hines of
Bethesda Softworks to discuss their upcoming continuation of the Fallout
series of post-apocalyptic RPGs that will be
even better than
Oblivion. They discuss the games story and mechanics in detail, and conclude
by asking him about his favorite parts of the game: "Honestly, for me, it's the
freedom to go do whatever you want. I love coming to events like this where
you've got seven or eight monitors set up like this and you look around the room
and everyone has started off at the same point, but then they're off in
completely different directions doing completely different things. That is one
of the things that people have really come to like about our games, is the
aspect of really having the choice to go and play wherever you want and however
you want. You can focus on quests, you can focus on free-form exploring or just
going out and shooting stuff for fun, using different weapons or making your own
weapons. All that stuff adds to the experience of getting to explore what kind
of a person you want to be in the game. So go and have fun however you want!"
Tilted Mill's Chris Beatrice on Hinterland on Big Download is a Q&A
discussing Hinterland, Tilted Mill's upcoming strategic role-playing game, while
also touching on other projects and the current landscape of PC gaming. It's
that last topic that kicks off the conversation, as Chris offers his upbeat take
on the state of PC gaming as long as the right approach is taken: I guess
it's hard if you are determined to compete for gaming or shelf space in AAA PC
gaming, which granted, is where most of us have been competing for years. There
are some great games and franchises that do this, obviously, but there are also
a whole lot of opportunities for a really wide variety of fun, innovative and
affordable PC games that get skipped because of the focus on the larger titles.
The main thing that has changed in the past several years is that big budget PC
games don't dominate the traditional retail space – while at the same time,
digital distribution is finally starting to come into its own, and also there
are great third party technical solutions available as well. When we started in
2001, this was not the case. In general it would take several million dollars to
develop a top notch 3d engine from scratch (and then you often find you need to
reinvent the wheel with each subsequent game), and then you'd need to get (and
hold onto) retail shelf space for a long time, and sell one million+ units just
to break even. This is not the right paradigm for a huge swath of the gaming
audience, including the surge in 'casual gamers' which has been extremely
successful despite ignoring the traditional AAA gaming space. A few traditional
PC games will do that, sure, but most won't, but that does not mean they lack an
audience, or should not be made available.
The Telltale Games Q&A on NotesOnGameDev.net talks with Dave Grossman,
discussing the world of episodic gaming with Telltale's Director of Design. They
discuss Telltale's philosophy, the benefits of the episodic format, key factors
to a successful episodic game, his favorite project, and more.
I got a message from loonyboi last night with the unbelievable news that
Mark
"JUDGECAL" Chamberlain is dead. For those unfamiliar, Cal was co-host of
QuakeCast and Shooters back at Pseudo Interactive. He was also a tremendously
nice, interesting, vibrant, fun-loving individual, and I'm not ashamed to admit I am so saddened by news
of his passing that I'm pretty choked up right now. I
don't really know what else to say, except this is a true loss; the world needs
more people like Cal, not fewer.
R.I.P. JUDGECAL.
|
Twitter 
