Archived News:
Dreamcatcher Interactive
announces the release of
Murder in the Abbey, an adventure game offering a cinematic mystery set in a
medieval abbey. Word is: "Former Grand Inquisitor Leonardo and his assistant
Bruno are sent by the Vatican to the isolated abbey to investigate the strange
goings-on surrounding a carefully guarded secret. Yet hardly have they arrived
when their quest is overshadowed by an attempt on their lives…" The game is
available for online purchase for $19.99.
Ask Cryptic
- on the Star Trek Online Official Website features answers from Cryptic to
a number of questions about their upcoming MMORPG that will boldly go where no
man has gone before. Topics include how the game will follow canon and even
provide some "soft canon" for Trek fans, ship customization, music, exploration,
the dynamic game universe, and more.
Silicon Alley Insider has the latest on the discussions between Electronic
Arts and Take-Two, which recently took a turn for the less hostile
( story). Word is
EA has filed a confidentiality agreement with Take-Two, so presumably the
next thing we'll hear about a potential merger between the two companies will be
after it does or does not happen. They article also offers a recap of the brief
but stormy history of EA's attempts to takeover Take-Two. Thanks
Kotaku.
Accident Halts
Terminator Shooting (thanks nin) has sad news about Helena Bonham Carter,
who is on indefinite leave from the new Terminator movie after losing four family
members to an auto accident.
Shacknews has quotes
from IGDA chairperson Jen MacLean on the recent report that some of the
developers who have created Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) will
not be listed in the credits of the upcoming MMORPG ( story) and
Mythic's subsequent statements that they are comfortable only crediting
developers who are sill members of the company when the game ships
( story). In response the IGDA chair says this is "disrespectful
of the effort of the game developers who worked on the game, and misleads both
consumers and game industry peers." She also has an answer for those who feel
the credits are unimportant, because many never read them: "The number of people
who read a game's credits is irrelevant. Even if only one person reads the
credits of a game, integrity demands that all work be accurately and honestly
represented."
The Bionic
Commando Website highlights the positive reviews garnered by Bionic
Commando: Rearmed and has news that their digital release of the platformer
remake has sold over 130,000 units via digital download.
They describe this as a "friggin JUGGERNAUT" in the world of digital
distribution, saying "we have set a standard in digital gaming," and, "The bar
has been raised."
The Righteous Kill: The Game Website
offers hidden objects gameplay in what's described as "the first downloadable
casual game based on a major theatrical release." That release is Righteous
Kill, a film starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino due in theaters on
September 12. The game can be purchased online, and a playable demo is available
to check it out in advance. Players must sort through more than 1,000 objects
spread over 16 different crime scenes to uncover the party or parties
responsible for a string of murders.
Big Download has been doing a little digging to see how things are shaping
up for this October's second annual E for
All Expo, created as an egalitarian alternative to the scaled-down E3 expo.
Game companies at the inaugural E for All last year were Nintendo, Electronic
Arts, Konami, THQ, and 2K Games, but so far only two game companies (albeit
large ones) are confirmed for this year, Microsoft and Electronic Arts.
Meanwhile, Big Download has confirmed with a number of companies that they will
not be at the show, getting negative RSVPs from THQ, Konami, Sony, Midway,
Atari, Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive, NCsoft, LucasArts, Sony Online, Square
Enix, Codemasters, Gamecock, Southpeak, Disney Interactive, and Capcom. They
also got ambivalent replies from Nintendo, 2K Games, and Activision, all
uncertain about their participation, and are yet to receive responses from
Ubisoft and Namco Bandai. E for All will play host to the
World Cyber Games USA 2008 finals, and in attendance will be competitive
gamer
Fata1ty, who may have spoken too soon when he said, "The second E for All
will be even bigger and better than the first one held last year."
Mystery Adventure Games
announces White Birds Productions'
Sinking
Island is now available in North America, offering this adventure game from
comic artist and game developer Benoît Sokal ( Syberia, Paradise).
Sinking Island, which is already available in France, is a detective
story set on an island that requires the player to solve a murder mystery within
three days before a tropical storm takes the island and all the evidence to
Davey Jones' locker.
Mystery Adventure Games also
announces the North American release of
Dracula 3: The
Path of the Dragon, described as "the REAL next chapter in the Dracula
series - following Dracula: Resurrection and Last Sanctuary." The adventure game
sequel once again inhabits the world of the Transylvanian vampire as envisioned
by author Bram Stoker, offering "complex and engaging puzzles that lead to a
final confrontation with Dracula."
A fan-created
remake of Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire is now available, an updated
version of Sierra's 1990 sequel to Hero Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero for your throwback
role-playing enjoyment. The project is almost eight years in the making, and the
developers say: "We have taken great measures to ensure that this remake
maintains the charm of the original version and that all of the dialogue,
locations, scenes, characters, and Easter Eggs which people have grown to know
and love are completely intact and portrayed in the way the Coles intended them
to be experienced when they first designed the game." Thanks
Joystiq.
SouthPeak Games announces that
Two Worlds: Epic Edition is now available in North American stores for an
MSRP of $19.99. The Epic edition of Reality Pump's role-playing game includes
the original Two Worlds along with the
Tainted Blood and Curse of Souls add-ons. The bundle will offer over
70 quests, eight multiplayer maps, and a bit of new content: "Epic Edition also
introduces the additional town of Tharnburg to explore, a place where warriors
can train and challenge each other in the Gladiator District."
The Introversion Website is now
accepting preorders for Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest, the
multiplayer Darwinia spin-off that promises "the ultimate retro-arcade
multiplayer experience." The game is due for retail release on September 19,
and those who preorder will be able to play on that day, as they will receive a
game key through the mail. Word is the game has three different preorder
schemes: "There will be a three-tiered pre-order menu; digital download, digital
download plus boxed unit, or customers will be able to treat themselves and
purchase our limited edition special pack presented in a beautiful custom-made
Darwinian tin. These Darwinia logo-embossed tins will be exclusive to the
Introversion Store and will contain DVDs of both Multiwinia and Darwinia, a
fantastic coffee-table book featuring award-winning artwork from both games, the
complete postcard set of Multiwinia cartoons and our very own Darwinian foam
toys, loved by journalists and fans alike!"
GamesCampus announces the official
launch of Asda Story, the
anime-themed free-to-play MMORPG. Update: A couple of hours after
announcing the launch, someone got around to telling us the game has not
actually launched yet. Apologies for any confusion we helped spread.
This press release announces the launch of the expansion for SAGA that
brings The Undead playable race to the MMORTS game. The
SAGA Website has the notes
on the new version 1.44 update that also offers new quests, new features, and a
number of fixes and new features, including multi-core CPU support. Here's a bit
on the new quest system: "One of the exciting, and unmentioned, aspects of this
new patch, is a new quest system. This new system allows us to do pretty much
anything we want with a quest, whereas previously we've been limited to 'kill
everyone' or 'capture the building', etc."
AMD Works with Leading Developers to Drive High Performance DirectX 10.1 Gaming
announces a push by ATI to promote DirectX 10.1 gaming on their hardware, saying
"Only AMD graphics offer top-to-bottom DirectX 10.1 support: the ATI Radeon™ HD
3000 series and the new ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series." AMD/ATI has been working
directly with some developers on DirectX 10.1 support for titles such as
Battleforge, Stormrise, and Cloud 9, which "all exploit
DirectX 10.1 for advanced gaming performance and visual realism." Additionally,
for those with appropriate hardware, the
ATI Developer Website
offers a new ATI Radeon HD 3000-series real-time "Ping Pong" demo, saying: "the
demo shows off a new lighting technique known as real-time global illumination,
together with a scalable physics simulation optimized for multi-core systems.
It's also interactive - move around the room and see how many ping pong balls
you can maneuver into the goals!"
Leipzig 08 interview with Gabe Newell on GameKings.tv talks with Gabe Newell
at the Games Convention, asking the Valve boss about progress on Left 4 Dead,
getting a hands-on demo of the game. Near the very end at about the 12:30 mark,
Gabe admits to a slight delay for the multiplayer zombie game, which was
previously expected on November 4 ( story). Since setting that
date they apparently realized it was tantalizingly close to the tenth
anniversary of the November 19, 1998 release of the original Half-Life ( story).
Thus they have pushed back the release of Left 4 Dead to November 20/third week
in November to coincide with the Half-Life anniversary. Thanks
Voodoo
Extreme.
This press release from Amazon.com announced the e-tailer will begin
offering game deliveries on the day of game releases in the continental United
States, overcoming one of the main issues with purchasing online, as eager
gamers will no longer have to wait to accept delivery of new games a day or two
after they are available in retail stores. This service will carry a $5.98
premium, but Amazon Prime customers will receive release-date delivery of new
games for no additional cost. Titles for which they are offering this service
are: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 on Aug. 26, Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed on Sept. 16, Fable 2 on Oct. 21, and Gears of War 2
on Nov. 7, 2008, but it is not clear if they will be extending this to other
titles.
A new THIS IS VEGAS movie from the Games Convention is now available,
word from Midway is: "The trailer, highlighting the open-world environment
within THIS IS VEGAS, gives players a sneak peak at the adult playground where
they can live out their all-access VIP Vegas fantasies in the world's wildest
city." You can find the clip on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
The Leipzig GC trailer for Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim shows off some of
the main characters in 1C:Ino-Co's upcoming real-time strategy sequel, and
"hints at their characteristics." The clip is available on
FileFront and
Gamer's Hell.
A new update to Obsidian Conflict
brings this modification for Half-Life 2 to version 1.33. The new version adds
some new content and bug-fixes to the cooperative gameplay mod, and there is a
post-release update with word on plans for the next version within a couple of
weeks. Thanks Ant and
Planet
Half-Life.
This is from a post I made 12 years ago today about a LAN party experience:
"Awesome. Two P166's, two P133's and a P120 hooked up to a 486-100 (Overdrive)
via Ethernet was flawless. Client's pings averaged around 35-40 ms." That's a
funny blast from the past; I get better pings across the country now, and
probably have the processing power of that server in my cell phone.
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