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Archived News:
The BlizzCon 2008 has
word that their complication has suffered a bit of a complication: Due to
continued extreme demand, the Blizzard Store is again temporarily unavailable
while we make some adjustments to better accommodate the volume of BlizzCon
ticket purchase requests. For continuing updates on sales availability, please
visit the World of Warcraft forums
here.
Though Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford has already indicated they plan to
create a demo for Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway ( story), a
more recent Q&A
on the topic on Eurogamer indicates the chances of demo for the PC edition
is a coin-toss: We are 100 per cent certain there will be a demo for Xbox
360, 99 per cent certain there will be a demo for PS3, and about 50 per cent
certain there will be a demo for PC.
This press release
announces Midway's cancellation of a project that was in the works at its
Austin, TX studio. The project was never announced, which normally might lead to
thinking this was an Onion story, except the cancellation has the very real
negative side-effect of costing a number of people their jobs, as many as 90 if
we read correctly: Midway Games Inc. today announced that it has canceled
an as-yet-unannounced project in production in its Austin, TX, facility, and as
a result Midway will have a reduction in force of a portion of the affected
development team. The studio will remain open and will continue to operate both
the Company’s Central Outsourcing Group as well as two teams that are working on
unnamed prototype projects intended to expand Midway’s portfolio of new
intellectual property.
This decision will allow Midway to maximize its development resources and apply
manpower and capital to projects with the highest chances of success. The
workforce reduction will affect approximately 90 of the 130 people currently
employed in the studio. For further details on the reduction and the financial
impact, please reference the report filed today on Form 8-K with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Matt Booty, interim CEO and president of Midway Games Inc. commented, “While
this was a very difficult decision, we feel it was the right thing to do for the
future of Midway. We view every game as an investment that must meet certain
standards for quality, scheduling, and profitability. Midway remains committed
to producing the highest quality entertainment, as evidenced by our strong
holiday line-up which includes TNA iMPACT!, Blitz: The League II, and Mortal
Kombat vs. DC Universe starring a team of MK characters and some of the most
recognizable DC Comics personalities such as Batman, The Joker, and
Superman.”
The SunAge Website has word that a
new patch is in the works for Vertex4's real-time strategy game, as well as a
playable demo (thanks Gamer's Hell). Word is: Work has begun on the next SunAge
patch and the long-awaited Demo! We wanted to get a few new features, balance
changes and general improvements (and fixes!) implemented before we released a
Demo and we are well on our way.
For all of you who have the game, come join us on the Forums! We will be
discussing balance changes and improvements for the game as well as inviting a
select few to participate in testing the patch before it is released.
This is just a quick update. However, whether you have SunAge or not, stop by
the forum and give us a shout! Tell us how we can improve your SunAge
experience.
• Come on the forums and
discuss this news
article!
The
Star Trek Online Q&A on GameSpot talks with Craig Zinkievich of Cryptic
Studios about the upcoming science-fiction MMORPG, among other things, asking
what parts of the game remain from Perpetual Entertainment's previous go at the
project: "We took some of the concept art--but the game design, assets, and
engine are 100 percent Cryptic." Perpetual's legacy is also part of
GameSpy's Jack
Emmert Q&A, a conversation that also takes a look at the guiding philosophy
behind development.
The X-Plane Website has an updated version
9.20 RC-1 of this flight simulator for Windows Linux, and Macintosh. Word is:
"X-Plane 9.20 Beta-1 is here now, with tons of features that people have asked
for, and with many features from 9.10 that are designed for FAA-Certified
flight-training. X-Plane 9.20 is one of the more FAA-Certified-feature-packed
releases we have ever done." Thanks Gamer's Hell.
The
Multiwinia Mondays Page kicks off a new weekly media release for
Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest, Introversion's upcoming "retro-arcade
multiplayer experience." Here's word on Multiwinia Mondays: "Every Monday for
the next 6 weeks we will be showcasing a whole host of new content, including
video tutorials of each of the 6 game modes, the latest screens, wallpapers,
artwork and interviews with the developers themselves." The first movie and
screenshots in this series is described like this: "This week we bring you
'Domination', an epic tale of stickman slaughter where you must fight your
enemies for control of spawn points dotted around the map."
Fallen Earth Q&A on Ten Ton
Hammer chats with Lee Hammock, asking the lead programmer on Icarus Studios’
upcoming post-apocalyptic MMORPG questions about the state of the game, which is
now feature complete: "Really, aside from content complete we’re primarily
focused on getting the outside testing process rolling, but most of our energy
is being spent on reaching content complete. We’re concentrating on getting
missions, crafting info, vehicle stats, instances, levels, and storylines into
the game now. Our next big goal is to get all of that in the game and running so
we can switch over to a primarily bug fixing stage. Over the next few months
players will see how our initial plans may have changed after they’re run
through rigorous testing. Much a no battle plan survives contact with the enemy,
no game design doc survives contact with the testers."
From the Ashes
of Flagship on Edge Online is an article-format Q&A with Travis Baldree,
president of newly formed developer Runic Games. The article highlights their
ongoing ambitions to create an online action/RPG, but grants that this will
probably not be Mythos, and does not rule out a console project: Baldree
is confident that Runic's future endeavors will still find an audience with
gamers. "We very much believe in what we were doing with Mythos--creating a
fast-paced MMO in the Diablo mold, that brought together socialization and
visceral, fun combat," he says. "Our testers' response was great, and we think
there's really a place in the market for what we were doing, even with Diablo
III on the horizon. We really want to get there again."
With a new name but essentially the same staff, Runic still has ties to the
people who founded the original Flagship Studios. But even with Runic's intimate
involvement with Mythos, the relationship between the studio and that particular
IP appears to be over.
"At present, we're proceeding under the assumption that continuing with Mythos
won't be possible for us," Baldree replies when asked about the possibility of
working with the game again. "There are some enormous obstacles to making that a
reality."
He continues, "The future of the IP and technology are in question, and in cases
like this, as engineers drift away it becomes increasingly difficult to make use
of what's come before.
"We're fortunate enough to have our entire Mythos team on board for Runic--but
the good folks from Ping0 who were responsible for the network back-end have
begun to find employment elsewhere, so that door really does seem to be
closing."
But perhaps it's best that Runic take advantage of this soft reset to embark on
a whole new adventure. While Runic is currently focused on PC titles, Baldree
admitted that his team has "long wanted" to do an action-RPG for consoles. The
talented team is keeping its options open.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked (thanks Ant and
Slashdot).
Oh well, I thought there was one part of it all I liked. Maybe next time. Sigh.
BlizzCon 2008 Website
has word that the glitch from earlier ( story) is fixed, and that
BlizzCon 2008 ticket sales are underway. Word is: This morning, we
experienced some technical difficulties with
ticket sales
for BlizzCon. Please be aware that no tickets were sold during the service
interruption. If you reached the confirmation screen but did not receive an
email receipt, the order did not go through.
We have found and addressed the source of this morning's issues, and ticket
sales are now functioning correctly (though extremely high traffic volumes may
still result in occasional delays). We'd like to apologize for the
inconveniences caused by these issues, and to thank you for your patience as we
resolved them.
Paradox Interactive announces one more beta version for the multi-year beta
testing of Mount & Blade, as the medieval-themed action/RPG is to have its full
retail release in just over a month. The new beta is available on
GameSpot (registration required),
and word is: NEW YORK - August 11, 2008 Paradox Interactive today
announced the opening of the final beta, version 0.960, for their upcoming PC
medieval, action-RPG title, Mount & Blade. Mount & Blade will be released in
North America on September 16th and in Europe on September 19, 2008. To sign-up
for the beta, please visit
http://www.gamespot.com/event/codes/mount-and-blade/. The beta period will
be open for two weeks, closing on August 25th.
Mount & Blade is a single-player, third or first-person action/role-playing game
with a focus on medieval combat. Developed by the Turkish development house
TaleWorlds Entertainment, the BETA version of the game has received acclaim
worldwide from gamers impressed by the game’s realistic horseback combat,
luscious graphics, and open-world sandbox gameplay. The latter enables players
to roam the map freely in a medieval world that offers activities ranging from
hunting down bandits, to trading for profit in the game's complex economic
system, to becoming a commander and taking part in the wars, with the ultimate
goal of becoming a great lord of the realm.
Mount & Blade will be available for purchase in stores and for digital download
at GamersGate, the leading digital distribution platform creating easily
accessible gaming experiences for gamers worldwide. For more information, please
visit
www.paradoxplaza.com/Mount&Blade
Telltale Games now offers Homestar Ruiner, the debut episode of Strong
Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, with the PC edition available from
the Telltale Games Website
for all territories. Additionally the North and South American WiiWare editions
are on sale though the Wii Shop Channel, with the WiiWare edition for Europe,
Australia, and New Zealand expected on Friday, August 15. Homestar Ruiner is
available as a standalone release or as part of a season pass for all five
monthly episodes, and there is also a demo version
on this page
for those looking to sample the
webcomic-inspired adventure.
A
walkthrough of the game is also now online.
Will Wright
Interview on Eurogamer talks with the designer about Spore, EA Maxis' upcoming
evolutions simulation you may have heard of already, kicking off a
Spore Week
to supply additional hype for the game. The interview gets pretty heavy right
away, asking Wright about his religious beliefs, leading to this highlighted bit:
Most criticism
of religion in Spore is from militant atheists, claims Wright. Along the
way, Wright also
hints at new
projects in the wings, some of which may be smaller in scope, and
then shifts
gears to suggest an MMOG may be part of the game's future evolution, though
it seems the main point he was making was about how the game's user-created
content bridges the gap between single-player and MMO-type gameplay: "So for
Spore we tried to figure out, how do we get the best aspects of a
massively-multiplayer game without all these huge design limitations?"
This press release announces that tickets for BlizzCon 2008 are now on sale
via the official website
of the upcoming Blizzard-centric gaming convention, and tickets are sure to sell
out fast in spite of their $100 price tag. Word is: BlizzCon is a
celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard
Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® game universes. The event
will take place October 10–11 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim,
California, and will feature an array of activities, including developer panels,
contests, tournaments, hands-on gameplay with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment
games, and more.
Update: If you are having trouble getting
through, you are not alone, as the
WoW Forums (on page 68 of a 96 page, and counting, thread) confirms that no
tickets have been sold at this point due to technical difficulties, saying: "I
can tell you that we have confirmed that no tickets have been purchased at this
time, so no one should fear that they are going to be sold out while they are
refreshing."
Not Content to Cash Out: CD Projekt’s The Witcher Enhanced Edition Q&A on
GameCyte talks with Maciej Szczesnik and Tom Ohle of CD Projekt RED about
the imminent enhanced edition of The Witcher, planned for release as a new game
and as an update for owners of the original edition of the action/RPG. They
discuss planned improvements to the games graphics and gameplay, delving into
the reasons for working so hard on a game after its initial release. As the
enhanced edition will also offers improvements to the games dialogue, they offer
a couple of before-and-after samples of rerecorded segments compared with their
original counterparts.
Capcom & GRIN announce the upcoming release of Bionic Commando (not to be
confused with the even more imminent release of Bionic Commando Rearmed)
will include NVIDIA
PhysX for cross-platform physics support: SANTA CLARA, CA—AUGUST 11,
2008—CAPCOM Co., Ltd., GRIN Entertainment, and NVIDIA® Corporation (Nasdaq:
NVDA), the world leader in visual computing technologies, today jointly
announced that CAPCOM’s upcoming Bionic Commando video game will use
GPU-accelerated NVIDIA PhysX™ technology to enhance the game’s debris, smoke,
dust, and weapon effects. Bionic Commando, which will be released by GRIN in
early 2009, is one of many titles to take advantage of NVIDIA PhysX technology,
interactive entertainment’s most pervasive physics engine.
“CAPCOM is extremely excited to work with GRIN to bring the world-class
franchise of Bionic Commando into the 21st century,” said Ben Judd, producer of
Bionic Commando at CAPCOM. “CAPCOM has also always been strong partners with
NVIDIA and with Bionic Commando we are taking things to a new level by adding
GPU-accelerated PhysX to increase the title’s realism.”
“Physics is changing the industry. We evaluated all of the commercial physics
systems out there for gaming, and the choice was easy,” said Bo Andersson, CEO
at GRIN Entertainment. “NVIDIA PhysX runs faster than other solutions and it
works across PCs and consoles, which is important to us because Bionic Commando
will ship on all major platforms. We believe PhysX will help make the game seem
even more lifelike and immersive.”
Wickedly Interactive is a newly
formed video game publisher located in Toronto, Canada that plans to bring more
Korean MMORPGs to western audiences, saying later this month they will unveil a
"proprietary technology platform" for their games: Toronto, CANADA--August
11, 2008-Wicked Interactive (http://wickedinteractiveltd.com/),
a newly formed North American MMO publisher, announced today that it has
launched a new online game publishing group and entered into a strategic
partnership with Yedang Online. Yedang Online is one of the largest leading
online game publishers and developers in Korea. Wicked Interactive will bring
Yedang Online's top properties, PristonTale, PristonTale2 and Ace Online, to
North America this year.
Videogaming247 has a new NPD Group report that identifies an "Extreme
Gamers" segment of the market that is certainly pretty hardcore, saying 3% of
gamers fit into a category that purchases about eight games a month, and spends
45 hours a week gaming (though later in the report this number seems to be
listed as 22.3 hours). The article, based on data collected through January,
also reflects on platform preferences: "According to the report, while the PC is
used more than any single console for gaming, Console Gamers, Young Heavy Gamers
and Extreme Gamers are more likely to use consoles than a PC to play video
games." Here's a bit more from the report, which offers some interesting
correlations: Amongst next-generation console owners, PlayStation 3 owners
are most likely to own other next-generation consoles compared to Wii and Xbox
360 owners. While 45 percent of PlayStation Portable owners also own a Nintendo
DS, only 21 percent of Nintendo DS owners also own a PlayStation Portable. Only
10% of PlayStation 2 owners also own the PlayStation 3.
Both Console Gamers and Extreme Gamers dominate when it comes to the number of
hours spent playing video games per week, with an average of 8.2 hours per week
and 22.3 hours per week, respectively.
When it comes to purchasing power, Extreme Gamers lead all segments, buying
nearly 24 titles across all their systems in the past three months. This is over
seven times more than the second leading purchasing segment, Console Gamers, who
on average purchased only 3.2 games in the past three months.
Xfire announces the addition of a video
capture function to their server-browser/instant messenger client. Details on
recording movies are on this page,
and word is the function even includes "Xfire Flashback," a TiVo-like ability to
capture gameplay that occurred five to ten seconds before a recording is
initiated.
UK game e-tailer
GAME has details on an "exclusive" Red Alert 3: Premier Edition
(thanks Ant and
Planet Command & Conquer), set to offer the following goodies in addition to
the Command & Conquer RTS game: A collector's tin, five exclusive
multiplayer/skirmish maps, a bonus making-of DVD, a soundtrack, and an exclusive
beta key to a future C&C game. Also on the Red Alert 3 front,
BBC News has an inside
Electronic Arts feature that offers a behind-the-scenes movie shot at EALA that
mostly focuses on progress on Red Alert 3.
The
Star Trek Online Fact Sheet on Binge Gamer (thanks
N4G) anthologizes all the
revelations from yesterday's unveiling of Star Trek Online at the Trek
Convention in Sin City. What we know includes that
players are all Star Fleet or Klingon ship captains in the game (I so wanted
to be ensign redshirt) and that the
game launch sooner than you think (though no stardate is specified), but a
number of other revelations are outlined in the fact sheet.
Internode
Games Network has a follow-up on the fallout from the banning of Fallout
3 down under ( story) saying that the edited edition
( story) of the RPG sequel has been approved for sale in
Australian territories with an MA15+ rating. It's not clear exactly what was
removed to earn this rating, but indications that the game's drug use was being
excised entirely were not accurate, as the game will still carry the following
consumer advice: "Strong violence, drug references and coarse language." On a
semi-related note, there's
a Fallout 3 interview on bit-tech.net where Pete Hines answers questions
about the game, though this is about the project as a whole, and not about the
whole Australian kerfuffle.
Artificial Studios has word
that they are not actually merging with UK developer Ignition Entertainment,
saying "Despite widespread rumours, Artificial Studios did not 'merge' with
Ignition Entertainment. Although the remaining team went on to become the
foundation of Ignition Entertainment's Florida studio" (thanks Gamer's Hell).
The original report on the merger ( story) seems pretty
unequivocal, and includes quotes Jeremy Stieglitz, founder of Artificial
Studios. This new report from programmer Tim Johnson indicates he also joined
Ignition at technical director, but departed due to differences of opinion, so
this merger may have reverted to a rumor when Johnson left Ignition.
The barebones OpenArena Website has the
release of a new version 0.8.0 of OpenArena, the open-source first-person
shooter based on the GPL Quake III Arena engine. Word on the front page is that
the mouse doesn't suck, good news for shooter fans, though possibly a
disappointment to sucky mouse enthusiasts, and more complete details on what's
new and different are listed in
this
forum post. The new version is 310 MB, and the download is mirrored on
Gamer's Hell.
The Star Trek Online Website
has the debut trailer that launched at the Star Trek convention yesterday for
Cryptic's upcoming Star Trek MMORPG. The clip is said to be 100% in-game
footage, described like this: "See Star Trek Online! Our debut trailer shows
some of the environments, ships and combat you will experience as you discover
the future of the Trek universe. Explore the final frontier as the captain of
your own starship and adventure on planets, in space and inside ships!" The
trailer is on the Star Trek
Online Videos Page along with the webcast debuting the trailer, where
Leonard Nimoy introduces the game and Jack Emmert, and Jack goes on to field
questions about the project.
The
BattleGoat Forums offer new that a new update 3 is automatically available
for Supreme Ruler 2020, bringing the global strategy game to version
5.3.1. The post outlines all the changes in the update, including a new
scenario, and
this forum
post has word on a subsequent small version 5.3.2 update that is now
available to address a bug in update 3. Manual editions of both patches can be
found on The
Patches Scrolls.
Gameplayer's BioShock 2 Q&A is a short conversation with Jordan Thomas of 2K
Marin who is asked about what he can discuss about the follow-up to BioShock,
the immersive first-person shooter. They discuss goals for the next BioShock
game, continuity on the development team, the response the first game met with,
and more.
Well, the Olympics are in full swing (and swim, and run, etc.), but watching the
events has never been my thing. We did catch some highlights of the opening
ceremonies that were very watchable though: the most impressive fireworks show
I have ever seen, by a very wide margin. Normally fireworks on TV make me think
it would be more impressive to be there in person, but in this case, it seemed
the only vantage point better than TV may have been from an aircraft, as the
show seemed to literally cover miles.
R.I.P.:
Soul
legend Isaac Hayes dies.
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