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Archived News:
A new Jackal Trailer
from Far Cry 2 is online with action from the upcoming shooter sequel set
to music, while another narrated version of the clip highlights "some
interesting parts of the game's convention trailer," pointing out a few subtle
clues about the Jackal character in the upcoming shooter sequel. After
concluding with the day of the Jackal, community developer Kimi goes on to
discuss other aspects of the gameplay and game environments. This second clip is
posted on the Far Cry 2 Website (thanks
FarCry2Game)
and mirrored on
ActionTrip and
AtomicGamer. The clip concludes with the almost offhand comment: "Only two
months to go before you get your hands on Far Cry 2 on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3."
The Sins of a Solar Empire
Website has a link to an
Impulse Phase 2 Preview looking at the next version of Stardock's
distribution platform. The update also gives mid-September as the tentative
release date for the final version 1.1 patch for Sins of a Solar Empire
that's currently undergoing beta testing ( story). Here's the
dope: In June we launched our next-generation digital distribution
platform, Impulse. And in July, we released the beta of the mega update to Sins
of a Solar Empire that Ironclad has been working long and hard on. There's been
a lot of talk about Impulse (pro and con) since then.
Our tentative date for the final version of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 is mid
September. We want to have plenty of time to address your feedback and Ironclad
has been doing a great job in implementing features and adding content to the
game (feel free to give the Ironclad team some kudos in the forums, they'd love
to hear some positive feedback on this free, huge, update).
One of the big goals of Sins v1.1 is to greatly ease on-line play in terms of
connectivity. This is something we're working on with Impulse which will support
game-listing, achievements, rankings, and the rest and allow developers to query
this data and display in game.
GameTree Online now offers online sales of a Macintosh edition of Jade
Empire: Special Edition, BioWare's martial arts-themed action/RPG (thanks
Ant and
Gamasutra). The Mac edition requires an Intel-based Macintosh, as it uses
TransGaming's "Cider Portability Engine."
As noted on the
Tomb Raider Website, a new trailer is now available for Tomb Raider
Underworld, the next installment in the action/adventure series. Eidos says:
"The trailer demonstrates the visual prowess of the game as our female
protagonist clambers her way across the ruins of beautifully realised temples in
Thailand, replete with moving foliage and incredibly detailed environmental
effects and lighting." The clip is on
ActionTrip and
PC Games.
A new diary movie is now available for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition,
Polish developer CD Projekt RED's upcoming action/RPG reissue. The diary movie hears
from several members of the development team about the project, and gives a
chance to put a little polish on your Polish, as it is entirely in their native
tongue with English subtitles. The movie can be found on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
The Russian-language
Swarm Website
has a gameplay trailer from The Swarm, showing the main character's
metamorphosis over the course of Targem Games' upcoming action/adventure. The
clip is almost entirely third-person combat, showing a variety of ranged and
melee weapons. The movie is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
EA drops
hostile Take-Two bid and enters talks announces EA's attempted hostile
takeover of Take-Two is ended (thanks Mike Martinez), and as implied by
the announcement earlier today ( story), Take-Two and EA are
now engaged in negotiations: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc
(ERTS.O) will drop its hostile $2 billion bid for rival video game publisher
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (TTWO.O) on Monday and instead pursue private
talks with the company.
While shares of Take-Two fell 4 percent on the specter that EA might walk away
entirely, or come back with a lower bid, analysts said a deal was more probable
now that friendly talks were in the offing.
EA said on Monday its chief executive, John Riccitiello, and Take-Two Executive
Chairman Strauss Zelnick held talks over the weekend, and Take-Two's management
has agreed to present its three-year product pipeline and financial forecasts to
EA.
"I think EA called Take-Two and said 'you can either participate or not,"' said
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "I think Take-Two ... is
going to negotiate a dollar (per share) higher and then claim victory. A deal is
going to get done."
EA, publisher of the popular "Madden," "Need for Speed" and "Rock Band" games,
had in April offered $25.74 per share for Take-Two, which rejected the price as
too low.
With no chance to add Take-Two's blockbuster "Grand Theft Auto" game to EA's
roster before the holiday shopping season, EA said it was taking a second look
at its offer price.
"That $25.74 was predicated on distributing their products at Christmas this
year," EA spokesman Jeff Brown said. "Going forward, we are challenged to
validate that $25.74 price."
Take-Two shares fell 77 cents to $24.07 in midday trading on Nasdaq. The stock
stood at around $17 in February, just before EA's first offer was announced. EA
shares were off $1, at $47.24 on Nasdaq.
While today's promised post is not yet added to the
A Heavy Update on the Team Fortress 2
Website, a retroactive update
to Wednesday's post
confirms how to earn the 35 new Heavy achievements to be introduced as part of
the Heavy class upgrade coming to Team Fortress 2. Thanks Richard.
The Suba Games Website is now accepting
applications for the closed beta testing of Ace Online,
Wicked Interactive's upcoming
MMO space combat game. The first 5000 applicants will be accepted to the test,
and here is word on the game: ACE Online is a 3D space shooter that
combines action and MMORPG elements. Developed by Yedang Online, one of Korea's
most renowned gaming enterprises, the game puts players in the role of fighter
pilots and behind the controls of ships known as "Gears". As the player battles
in this intergalactic world at war, they will complete missions and engage other
players in intense aerial dogfights.
ACE Online injects action and shooting elements into the traditional MMORPG
formula. Players have complete control over their gear and must engage enemies
directly in combat - relying on quick shooting and skillful maneuvering in order
to survive. As players progress through the game, they acquire credits which can
be used in the game's item shop to purchase hundreds of customizable weapons and
add-ons for their "gear". Players can then fly their "gear" into immense online
space battles as part of ACE Online's "Nation Wars" PvP system. These RPG
elements add a layer of personal customization and multiplayer strategy to ACE
Online's already action-packed gameplay. Through the blend of these two gameplay
genres, ACE Online offers a fully unique and unrivaled MMO experience.
Kotaku points out a listing on
Amazon.com for Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor for Windows XP and Vista,
which offers no details, but carries a $29.99 price tag and a March 1, 2009
release date. This may well be a second expansion for Relic's World War II RTS
game, but that is conjecture at this point, so feel free to come up with your
own speculation.
The Space Siege Q&A with Chris Taylor on
Play.tm discusses the action/RPG that's recently made its retail debut
(though the Q&A includes an answer saying "Space Siege is released in Europe on
22nd August"). One answer touches upon the game's "horrific choice," as Chris
says: "The primary hook in the game is the question of what it means to be
human. If you remove your real arm and replace it with a cybernetic arm, are you
still human? Of course. But what if you replace your brain? At what point does
the person you once were simply fade away and get replaced by a cybernetic
version of yourself? This choice plays out both in terms of the actual gameplay,
including the types of weapons you can use, and in terms of the story. Certain
characters will respond to you differently if you install and use cybernetics."
There are a couple of
The Secret World screenshots on Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks
Videogaming247), offering the first looks at Funcom's mysterious upcoming
MMORPG ( story). The game was announced as being "inspired by
history and mythology, modern conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries." The
shots don't shed much light on these mysteries, showing off what looks like an
ordinary town, except for the presence of what looks like a zombie.
We may not know much about All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds' upcoming
MMORPG, but thanks to a new announcement from NVIDIA, we know it will use PhysX
for physics: SANTA CLARA, CA—AUGUST 18, 2008— Often underappreciated by
those who only casually play games, fast and accurate physical models and
calculations are a key to a game’s playability and realism. From the effect of
explosions on nearby objects, to the impacts of car accidents, to how a
character reacts when hit, physics is as important to realism as high-quality
graphics. Because of this, Realtime Worlds’ upcoming massively multiplayer
online game, APB, will take advantage of NVIDIA® GeForce® GPUs and PhysX™
technology to enhance the game’s free-form combat and real-time driving
environments.
APB will bring players into a living, breathing city where cash is king and
territory equals respect. Scheduled for release in 2009, APB is one of many
titles to take advantage of NVIDIA PhysX technology, the world’s most pervasive
development platform for physics acceleration in interactive
entertainment.
GSC Game World announces S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
Clear Sky is gold, and their first-person shooter prequel will be released
internationally on September 5, about a week later than the previously planned
( story) August 29 release date: Hermosa Beach, Calif. --
Aug 18, 2008 -- GSC Game World, computer games developer, its publishing
subdivision GSC World Publishing and Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media,
a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, today
announce that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has gone gold. The international release
date of the game has been set to September 5th of 2008.
More information about the game is available on the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
Clear Sky channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/stalkerofficial
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a survival FPS game for PC based on a 'what-if'
scenario of the second Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident. The game is
created as a warning to mankind against mindless play with technologies.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the official prequel to the renowned S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
game by the Ukraine-based GSC Game World studio. The game is set in 2011and
brings forth the events to have preceded the third campaign of Strelok to the
Zone center. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky introduces an alternative look onto the
events of the original game and offers the player to try himself out as a
mercenary s.t.a.l.k.e.r. in search of his own path in the world of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Official game site:
www.stalker-game.com
EA Reveals Open Beta Details for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, has
word on plans to check out Mythic's new MMORPG that's due for release one month
from today. An open beta is set to start on September 7, going head-to-head with
the Spore release: FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mythic Entertainment,
an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that the open beta
for their highly anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR),
will begin on September 7th, 2008. This means that hundreds of thousands of fans
will be able to enter the gritty fantasy world of WAR to experience the thrill
of Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) combat before the game goes live on September 18th,
2008.
"For three years we have been saying that ‘WAR is coming’ and the team has been
working hard to deliver on this promise," said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and
general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "In just a few weeks, we are going to
throw open our doors and invite more players into the game than ever before.
They will have a chance to delve into the open beta and see for themselves that
WAR has arrived and it is glorious!"
Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer
Online from select retail partners. Participants of the North American closed
beta will automatically be granted open beta access. For more information about
the WAR open beta, visit
www.warhammeronline.com/openbeta.
Available for PC, Warhammer Online is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB. WAR will
be the first MMORPG to launch servers simultaneously in North America, Europe,
and Oceania when it goes live on September 18th, 2008. For more information,
visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.
A small update on
the Alan Wake Forums has word from Remedy Games CFO Mika Reini on the state
of Alan Wake (thanks
BrightFalls). He basically states they are continuing to work on the
psychological thriller: : Dear people,
We feel we owe you all a small heads up, and our apologies for lack of updates.
This is just part of our psychological thriller, is it all real or imagined...
Seriously, yes, we're still here and working hard on getting Alan Wake for you
to enjoy. Sure, we've been in development for a long time and if everything had
gone perfectly smoothly there probably would be a game out for you guys to play
already. But designing a completely new game can be hard, and sometimes you need
to take a detour to find the best route forward.
We want to entertain you guys in the best possible way and our team is putting
in every effort possible in order for that to happen. That is the way Remedy
wants to do things. I'm sure you will enjoy Alan Wake when we're done.
Just follow the light...
Electronic Arts won't extend Take - Two deadline (thanks Neutronbeam) has
word that Electronic Arts will not renew its tender offer to Take-Two after it
expires at 11:59 pm tonight. It sounds like between now and then, a meeting will
take place where Take-Two will pitch for more cash one last time: EA said
Monday that if it does buy Take-Two, it no longer believes it can integrate the
smaller company in time for the crucial holiday season. And ''given the passage
of time,'' EA said it needed to review assumptions made to support its offer
price of $25.74 per share, or about $2 billion.
Take-Two shares fell $1.54, or 6.2 percent, to $23.30 in premarket trading.
Shares in EA fell 24 cents to $48 in premarket trading.
EA already has extended its deadline for the offer five times, mostly to let
regulators continue their antitrust review. The company said it would let the
offer expire at 11:59 p.m. EDT Monday, saying it ''remains confident that
antitrust issues will not prevent or delay a transaction.''
EA also said Monday it would entertain a financial presentation by Take-Two
under confidentiality agreements.
New York-based Take-Two has repeatedly rejected EA's offer as too low.
Take-Two's management said it would present EA with its three-year product
release schedule, financial projections and other nonpublic information meant to
support that claim.
Meridian 4 announces that those who preorder
Tank Universal
on Steam will receive a copy of Shadowgrounds for free. A similar offer
was made for preorders of Shadowgrounds Survivor ( story).
Here's word on plans to release this Tron-like shooter: "Tank Universal will be
available on August 21st for $9.99 on most digital online channels including
Steam, D2D, Impulse, GamersGate and many more."
Blizzplanet has
word that Robert Clotworthy ( IMDB)
will not be reprising the role of Jim Raynor in StarCraft II after
supplying the voice of this character in the original version of the sci-fi
RTS game and the Brood War expansion. The prospect of this change was
raised when a different actor's voice was used in last year's BlizzCon trailer
for the game, but Blizzard said a final decision has not been made for this part
at that time. Now Clotworthy tells BlizzPlanet he didn't even get to read for
the part: "I was looking forward to returning as Raynor and was hoping that
Blizzard would at the very least have given me the opportunity of auditioning."
505 Games announces a European publishing deal for ArmA II, saying
Bohemia Interactive's military shooter sequel is coming to Europe in Q1 2009. While the
game never carried a firm release date, this would seem to represent a bit of a
delay for a game that is "set in the near future, year 2009." The announcement
comes with a new info sheet, allowing the chance to revel in some ArmA II
factoids: Milton Keynes – 505 Games is today proud to announce it has
signed a publishing agreement with esteemed developer Bohemia Interactive to
bring the follow-up to 2007’s most realistic PC tactical shooter, ArmA: Armed
Assault, to Europe in Q1 2009.
Featuring some of the most realistic warfare ever, ArmA II promises to build on
the excellent features that have made Bohemia Interactive a respected name among
gamers. So, you can expect in-depth team-based combat, a comprehensive playbook
of military tactics and an enormous battlefield to push your strategies to the
limit.
ArmA II benefits from a game engine that has been in constant development for 10
years and no other developer can offer such a great heritage in creating
open-world military shooters. In fact, Bohemia Interactive is so skilled at
producing realistic warfare simulations that the developer has used its Real
Virtuality engine as the basis for training simulators used by armies across the
globe, including the United States Marine Corps, UK Ministry of Defence and
Australian Defence Force.
This experience is also helping Bohemia Interactive to craft an incredibly
detailed storyline, full of political intrigue and plot twists, which blurs the
boundaries between fact and fiction. Set in the near future in a fictional
post-Soviet country called Chernarus, players take on the role of a United
States Marine Corps Force Recon squad, who are called to the country as a
peacekeeping force to prevent further civilian casualties and ensure ongoing
stability.
“After the success of ArmA: Armed Assault in Europe, we’re thrilled to bring
PC gamers more action-packed warfare with ArmA II,” said Alex Price, Senior
Global Brand Manager. “This continues to demonstrate our strong support for the
European PC market by publishing top quality titles.”
ArmA II, published by 505 Games and developed by Bohemia Interactive, is
scheduled for release on PC in Q1 2009.
KEY FEATURES
• A whole new chapter in the ArmA franchise with new characters and an in-depth
story
• Unlike most war simulations, ArmA II focuses on team play – including
co-operative play, the ability to switch between team members and dramatic
moments when you must give first aid to team mates
• Improved AI for team mates and enemies, now they use cover, hide and work
better as a unit
• Dynamic conversations and events that shape the storyline
• Incredibly realistic game engine that’s been used by the military for combat
simulations
• Comprehensive online multiplayer modes
• An extremely strong modding community among the ArmA II fans
EA now offers a
new beta version 1.03 of the public beta for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
(thanks Ant and
Planet Command &
Conquer). The patch is almost 900 MB, which may say something about how
close testing is to completion, or it may not. It certainly says something about
the size of patches these days and the speed of broadband connections.
Destructoid Interviews Russell Williams talking with the CEO of Flying Lab
software about Pirates of the Burning Sea at GenCon. In addition to discussing
the present and future of the seafaring MMORPG, he also offers
his opinion on why console MMORPGS fail.
For the historically minded, the past few days mark the twelfth(!) anniversary
of the first QuakeCon, which was also the same week that the original Prey team
left 3D Realms, Hipnotic (later Ritual, now Mumbo Jumbo Dallas, or something)
was formed, and Tom Hall teamed back up with The Romero for the company to be
known as ION Storm.
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