Archived News:
FilePlanet is now
offering access to open beta testing of Age of Booty, Capcom's
upcoming pirate-themed real-time strategy game. No subscription is required, as the
beta is open to all registered users, but beta keys are being issued on a first
come, first served basis, so get your booty in gear.
Far Cry 2
LiveText interview on Eurogamer is the transcript of a conversation with
producer Louis-Pierre Pharand about Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's upcoming sequel
to Crytek's first-person shooter. A wide variety of topics get covered, and they
have highlighted a couple of the more significant bits:
One excerpt
outlines the game's four multiplayer modes: the always popular Deathmatch, Team
Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag Diamond, and a mode called Uprising, described
as "a modified version of a VIP."
The other
says there will be no demo for the game because of the difficulties in demoing
an open-world environment, which is the exact same thing
they reported
two months ago ( story).
Paradox Interactive offers a new video from Dark Horizon, the space
combat game planned for release next week. The clip, which they call "a highly
classified mission overview." The movie is posted on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Linux.com reports that SGI has
relicensed OpenGL, saying that up until now the software licenses for the
graphics library first released in 1999 were never accepted by the Free Software
Foundation or the Open Source Initiative. Now after rewrites of both the
SGI Free License B and the
GLX
Public License, OpenGL is truly open, a development the FSF calls "one of
the greatest given to the community by a proprietary company." The background on
this is pretty interesting, as the problem with the licenses has apparently been
an "open secret" for some time now. Thanks Ant and
Slashdot.
MTV Multiplayer has a statement from EA Games president Frank Gibeau about
the ongoing controversy over the digital rights management in Spore,
learning EA plans to increase the number of activations allowed for each game
from three to five, saying "We’re willing to evolve our policy to accommodate
our consumers. But we’re hoping that everyone understands that DRM policy is
essential to the economic structure we use to fund our games and as well as to
the rights of people who create them." Much of the statement is further
justification for their stance, but he then relents, showing a newfound
appreciation that the DRM is a problem for legitimate customers: "But we’ve
received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect. And
while it’s easy to discount the noise from those who only want to post or
transfer thousands of copies of the game on the Internet, I believe we need to
adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers." He says in addition
to upping the activation limit to five, they will continue to offer channels
where additional authorizations can be requested, and will expedite development
of a tool that can de-authorize an installation, saying "When this system goes
online, it will effectively give players direct control to manage their
authorizations between an unlimited number of machines."
Videogaming247 has a follow-up on their report that European users were
having trouble logging into Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
( story), offering a step-by-step guide to accessing the game,
updating your client, and getting your account registered.
The
Sacred 2 Website announces the completion of development on Sacred 2:
Fallen Angel, saying ASCARON Entertainment's now-gold action/RPG prequel has
also passed Games for Windows certification and is in duplication at this very
moment, describing the game's development as "one of the most comprehensive
German games productions of all times." They don't specify a release date, but
recent reports indicate Sacred 2 is due at the end of this month in North
America and in early November in Europe ( story). Thanks Gamer's Hell.
Introversion announces the release of Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest,
the fourth standalone game from this independent developer. Here's how they
describe the game: "Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest is Introversion’s
fourth stand-alone title. With a choice of six action-packed multiplayer game
modes, and 40 unique maps set in one of the most beautiful, retro-arcade
inspired game environs ever created, Multiwinia promises to be the ultimate
homage to the halcyon days of gaming. Challenge your opponent to a game of
stick-man slaughter, and watch digital-war unfold, as your Multiwinian army
struggles to complete a chosen task faster and better than your rival’s. It’s
fast, it’s furious, and only the flattest will survive!" The game is currently
available from the
Introversion store as well as on
Steam, and it should soon
be appearing in retail stores worldwide. A playable demo for the game is also
now available on
this page, and mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The Witcher Website now
offers the promised updates for original copies of The Witcher to add the
content from the newly released The Witcher Enhanced Edition. This takes
the form of three different downloads, a 1 GB patch, a 500 MB language
pack, as well as an optional bonus pack that weighs in at about 1.2 GB. They
have posted an
set of instructions on how to install the update and a
The
Witcher update FAQ in case any of this raises questions. The update is
freely available, and is intended for those who have registered their copy of
the game, but with the site getting pounded, they're allowing mirrors, the patch
is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileShack, and Gamer's
Hell; and the English language patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileShack, and Gamer's
Hell.
The Chronicles of
Spellborn Website announces November 27 as the European release date for
The Chronicles of Spellborn, saying the German, English, and French editions
of Spellborn International's eponymous MMORPG will go live on that date. In
preparation for the launch, a large content patch was released on Wednesday,
kicking off a new phase in the game's closed beta testing. They also say that as
they near launch, they will be inviting more players into the beta, so European
players interested in participating should sign up
on this page. This
announcement does not cover the North American edition of the game, but it would
be surprising if the launch schedule in North America will differ significantly.
North American players interested in the beta can signup on
Acclaim's Chronicles of Spellborn
Website.
A
post on the Crysis-HQ.com Forum by Crytek Community Manager Sven Metzger
indicates (in German) that they removed the 64-bit files from Crysis Warhead
prior to releasing the first-person shooter follow-up. The reason they were
removed is not revealed, but he indicates they have plans to supply them at some
future time in a patch. Thanks
PCGH.
THQ Inc. and JAKKS Pacific,
Inc. announce development of WWE SmackDown vs. RAW (working title) for
Windows, the first PC installment in this wrestling series. The game is slated
for release in 2010 (the year we make contact), and here's the game's official
description: "WWE SmackDown vs. RAW Online is a fighting action game that allows
players to enter the world of the WWE and play as their favorite Superstar.
Players can create their own Superstar to compete and seek virtual wealth and
fame in order to achieve the ultimate ranking in the Hall of Fame. Offering
single player and multi-player modes, players can earn respect and points to
unlock special features, items and level up their rankings. Players can purchase
additional items, abilities and themes to enhance and personalize their
Superstar in this exciting head-to-head online wrestling experience. The game
will offer ongoing content updates and features to enhance the players'
experience as they progress through the ranks, as well as season mode. Players
will also be able to enter the lobby to challenge opponents, shop or interact
with other connected players. WWE SmackDown vs. RAW Online provides the ultimate
wrestling experience appealing to both beginner and advanced PC-online players."
Videogaming247 reports that some owners of the retail version of
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Europe are finding it difficult or
impossible to login and register to play the game. They contacted European
operator of the game GOA, who denied there was any issue: "Your information is
inaccurate, sorry. These problems stem prior to the launch" The twist is this
contradicts their own experience, as VG247 is unable to login to the European
servers to register or play either, saying "None of this is being helped by the
fact that there’s no customer support available for the game by phone. Only
email." This harkens back to difficulties GOA had during the
game's beta test ( story), and you may recall recent comments by
Mythic's Paul Barnett lauding GOA's acumen in this area ( story).
VG247 says they may have details on a workaround after making contact with a UK PR
rep.
1Up reports that the
cities and classes cut from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning during
development ( story) will be added back to the game as a free
update in the future, according to Mythic's Mark Jacobs: "What I've told the
users point blank is that we want to give it to you as part of subscription
content. We don't have a schedule penciled in for when that will be coming, but
we're going to release it without any additional charge to players."
A post by Maxis to
the Spore Forums has word that they are adding the ability to have up to
five screen names per Spore account, responding to one of the criticisms
of the life simulation ( story), though they cannot pin down an
ETA for this change. They will only allow one online account per copy of the game, but another post clarifies that this
change will allow players using that
account to be logged in simultaneously on different computers under separate
screen names. The one complication is how achievements will be handled, as they
are hoping to allow separate achievements for each screen name, but to begin
with, the active screen name will be the one that earns all achievements (the
example give is one player logging 99 hours, signing off, then another player on
the same account playing one hour and getting the 100 hour achievement). They hope to fix
this with a future update. On the other hand, each screen name will have its own
My Spore page and each screen name will get separate credit for any creatures
created. On forum poster asked why they didn't
just allow five accounts per copies of the game, and the response indicated that
this would actually be far more difficult for them to implement.
The Trials 2: Second Edition Website
announces a new patch is now automatically available to update Red Lynx's
motorcycle racing game to version 1.08. The update adds new voice-overs, new
multi-language support, new optimizations, and no fewer than 14 new tracks. The
patch will be applied when you launch the game.
The Battlefield Franchise Website has a status report on the pending version
1.50 patch for Battlefield 2, DICE's modern military shooter. They say
they have held back the release of the patch due to the discovery of the
existence of third-party exploits for the game that are being used to crash
servers and clients and spoof accounts. They have decided to roll their fixes
for these exploits into the version 1.50 patch rather than issue that patch and
then address the exploits separately. They offer "winter" as an ETA.
A separate update about Battlefield 2142 says they have worked with GameSpy
and their Ranked Server providers to address an issue that prevented the game
server browser from returning a complete list of Battlefield 2142
servers. They say their fixes are working and server lists are returning to
normal, though it may take longer in some area to see these results.
Ryan Gordon's .plan file seeks to end conspiracy theories about the ports
for Unreal Tournament III, as apparently he's been getting mail from
folks who think Microsoft is paying to block their releases. As a form of
reassurance, he offers a screenshot of
UT3 for
Linux and another from
UT3 for MacOS.
The RelicNews
Forums have word on plans to release a patch next week for Warhammer
40,000: Dawn of War -- Soulstorm, Relic's standalone RTS expansion, offering
apologies for how long the game's first update has taken. They explain they
encountered issues relating to updating the various digitally distributed
editions of the game, and then suffered a further delay when they found
additional bugs to fix, which they failed to communicate to the community (they
vow to try to do better with this in the future). The post also includes the
patch notes, outlining all the bug-fixes and balance changes it will offer.
Thanks Akkinokage.
Richard
Garriott's Tabula Rasa Website announces the Deployment 12.5 update is now
live for Tabula Rasa, NCsoft's science-fiction MMORPG.
This
page offers the extensive release notes for the new version. Thanks
Massively.
Wolfire Games announces Overgrowth, an adventure game sequel to Lugaru
( story) that will be released for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Word
is: "The game will pick up where Lugaru left off: in a world of anthropomorphic
rabbits and wolves who use paws, claws and medieval weaponry to engage each
other in battle. With a brand new engine, featuring next generation animation,
physics, and amazing rendering technology, Wolfire Games promises to stay true
to its tradition of combining high-end graphics with innovative fighting
mechanics." The Overgrowth Website
has more information and some concept art.
The Prepare For The Future Website
is an official Flash website for Fallout 3, which has the longest
initial load time we've seen since the old 28.8 days, though this may have been
a glitch. The site offers videos, including some gameplay footage and more of
the creative duck-and-cover PSA-style videos that convey a bit of back story for
Bethesda's upcoming RPG sequel.
Geoff Johns- Bringing Seventy Years Of DC Comics To Life on GameInformer is
a conversation with the comic book writer about his newly announced
( story) role in development of DC Universe Online. Topics
include how he became involved in the upcoming superhero MMORPG, his prior
experiences with Jim Lee, what he is contributing to the project, and more.
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