Archived News:
The Bionic Commando
Website offers the first patch for the PC edition of Bionic Commando
Rearmed. The new version should address performance issues encountered when
playing the game on single-core computers. Word is the patch: "should get
Rearmed up and running on your machine like molten butter."
Steam
News announces the latest of what seem like regular weekly sales, saying
they are offering all
id Software
Games for 50% off. This offer ends September 8. In other news for bargain
hunters,
Steam
is also now offering sales of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, offering
Funcom's MMORPG for 10% off until September 11. Finally,
Steam
News announces they are taking preorders for the Steam edition of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, offering 10% off of purchases before the release date
of September 15. This has caused some consternation on the Steam forums, as
the game supposed to be available for online purchase when it arrived in stores
( story). Thanks theyarecomingforyou.
Videogaming247 reports an interesting tidbit about Far Cry 2 they picked up
at the Games convention. Apparently when one of the game's NPC "buddy"
characters meets an untimely demise, the game content associated with that
character dies as well. They quote Patrick Redding, the narrative head on the
shooter follow-up: "That’s the price you pay for having buddies. When I unlock a
buddy like that and then use him, either by getting involved in one of his
missions… or by allowing him to come and rescue me, there’s always a risk that
he could be killed. If he’s killed, he’s gone forever and the content associated
with that character is no long available to me. So for example, any side quests
that he’d be able to give me are no longer available."
Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
GameSpot follows up news
of the UK Far Cry 2 release date ( story) saying that
they've learned from Ubisoft that October 21 is when to expect the shooter
follow-up in the US, which is the date listed by online retailers for some time
now. As mentioned in the announcement of the UK date, a Collector's Edition will
be sold in addition to the standard edition, offering a wooden box and
additional goodies.
MCV
reports that BioShock 2 is planned for release during Take-Two's 2009
fiscal year, which runs from November 1, 2008 through October 31, 2009. This was
revealed during the investor's conference call that followed the announcement of
Take-Two's third-quarter financial results ( story). In addition
to the sequel to the objectivist first-person shooter, other products planned
for release during that period are Borderlands, Mafia 2, GTA IV
"episodic content," and the mobile game GTA Chinatown Wars.
Electronic Arts UK Forums have word that EA is aware of issues purchasers of
the just-released (in Europe) Spore are having logging in, along with
other server problems. They say they are working to fix this as soon as
possible, and in the meantime, you should remove your clothes: "We are aware
that many of you are having login problems with Spore. This is being
investigated so please bare with us." Thanks
Eurogamer.
Eurogamer.de
reports hearing from Electronic Arts that the report that Dead Space has
been banned in Germany ( story) are not accurate. According to the
story (which is in the site's native German), the game has not yet gone through
the rigorous German classification process, which has been known to harshly
judge games with violent content.
Destructoid's had also reported the horror game has been banned in Japan and
China, but there has been no follow-up on the accuracy of that part of the
story. Thanks
Videogaming247.
MCV
has word that October 24 is the UK release date for Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's
African follow-up to Crytek's tropical first-person shooter. That date applies
to the Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 editions of the game, as well as a
special Collector's edition that will include a t-shirt, a making-of DVD, an art
box, and give you wood, as it is all housed in an "exclusive" wooden box.
Activision Blizzard announces a UK release date for Call of Duty: World
at War, saying the Windows, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation
3 editions of the military shooter sequel will hit ye olde game shoppes on
November 14. Europeans will also participate in the October beta test that was
announced with yesterday's news of a November 11 US release date
( story). Call of Duty: World at War, developed by Treyarch,
returns the series to its original setting of World War II.
Aspyr announces the completion of development on the Macintosh edition of
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, saying the now-gold Mac edition of Infinity
Ward's military shooter sequel should be in stores on September 15. An Intel Mac
running OS X 10.5.4 or later is required, and integrated video chipsets are not
supported. Those interested in preordering the game can do so
via this page.
Paradox Interactive announces that Mount&Blade is gold, ending a beta
period for Turkish developer TaleWorlds' medieval role-playing game that's gone
on for years now. The game will be released for digital download on
GamersGate and will be available in
North American stores on September 16, and in Europe on September 19. Word is:
"Mount & Blade is a single-player, third or first-person action/role-playing
game set in the medieval war-torn land of Calradia. The game features
groundbreaking horseback combat, intuitive swordplay, and a free-form
environment in which players can roam freely to explore new cities, conquer
foreign armies and earn a reputation as the realm's most courageous warrior."
Spore - changing the
game is a BBC article talking with Maxis about Spore, getting Will
Wright to overcome his aversion to hype, quoting the designer as saying: "Spore
will change the way people look at games forever and change hopefully the
perception people have of their own creativity." It's that creativity that is
the focus of the article, as they talk more about creature creation, and the
role players have in furthering the content of the game going forward. They also
touch on ambitions for Spore as a brand, once again mentioning the possibility
that this will eventually be another label for EA, like Wright's The Sims.
Also,
Behind the prototyping of 'Spore' on CNET looks at the role of prototyping
in the development of the game. In another Spore related note, we want to
follow-up on yesterday's Spore shipping news ( story) by clearly
stating the game's North American release will be this Sunday, September 7, a simple date that was posted incorrectly here at first, and was still wrong
even after a first attempt at correcting the error. Apologies for the confusion.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
MCV reports that
October 10 is the planned release date for LEGO Batman, the action game
based on the exploits of the brick knight, speculating that the success of the
Dark Knight movie will have a positive impact on the game's sales, even though
the two do not directly tie-in to each other. They press developer Traveller’s
Tales for a clue about their next brixillated game, and were told that TT is
still concentrating on LEGO Batman, but that "as long as we
create fresh and fun LEGO games there is certainly life in the brand."
Destructoid reports learning from Dead Space community manager Andrew Green
that the science-fiction horror game has been banned in Germany, China, and
Japan due to its gruesome content. It's not clear if EA plans to submit censored
versions of the game for these territories. Follow-up: EA says the report
that Dead Space is banned in German is not accurate ( story).
Gamasutra
quotes Stardock's Brad Wardell saying that the success of Sins of a Solar
Empire is in part based on design decisions by developer Ironclad Games that
lead to low system requirements, saying the game will look great running on a
four year-old video card. As to that success, he says the game has sold about a
half-million copies, about 400,000 boxed copies and another 100,000 via digital
distribution. Those numbers are more than sufficient to make the game a roaring
success, as it cost less than one million dollars to produce.
Devs Leery of -Gamer’s Bill of Rights on Edge Online follows up with
Stardock's Brad Wardell about the recently proposed Gamer's Bill of Rights
( story). As the article's title suggests, there has been some
resistance among developers to the idea, which was co-authored by Chris Taylor
of Gas Powered Games, with Edge finding numerous developers to be "standoffish"
when asked about the subject. Wardell says he also found some of his colleagues
more receptive, but there were vagaries (like defining when a game is "in a
finished state") and intellectual property issues that would prevent a
wholehearted endorsement. The article specifically quotes Microsoft's Kevin
Unangst saying: "Microsoft certainly agrees with the importance of improving the
quality and consistency of PC games. For two years now, Microsoft's Games for
Windows program has worked to make great Windows games even better, and this is
why Stardock and many other publishers are participating in the program."
The Diablo III
Q&A on GameBanshee hits Fallout/Troika veteran Leonard Boyarsky with their
+1 club of interrogation to learn about his participation in development of
Blizzard's eagerly anticipated action/RPG sequel. They discuss how he came to be
part of the Diablo III team, gameplay, expanding the game's RPG
elements, fleshing out non-player characters, and more.
The
Empire: Total War Q&A on Strategy Informer hears from Creative Assembly
about Empire: Total War, the next installment in the large-scale strategy
series. Topics include campaign changes since Medieval II: Total War, that
battles can feature up to 10,000 units, the increased focus on battle AI, the
addition of naval combat to the series, and more.
The
PAX08 Interview with Dane Caruthers on Massively talks with this associate
producer on Tabula Rasa, NCsoft's clean slate MMORPG. The short
conversation discusses efforts to get new and former players to give the game a
try in its current state and changes in the current update 12 and the upcoming
update 13 for the game.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Early September tackle football is disorienting enough, but a Thursday night
season opener is that much weirder. The Giants won, though, so I won't complain;
and they played during the final convention night for each of the major
political parties, so I think they fulfilled the requirements of all applicable
equal time laws.
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