Archived News:
Total Video Games has a Q&A with Epic's Cliff Bleszinski talking with the artist formerly known as CliffyB about progress on Gears of War 2, the upcoming console shooter sequel he says is nearly gold. When asked about PC support, he cites piracy as one of their problems with the platform, saying: "Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy." He elaborates: "The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips. Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC." Thanks Dagok and Kotaku.
An updated demo for Ironclads: American Civil War is now available,
adding Vista compatibility to this sample of 19th century naval combat. The mere
18 MB download is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Magic Stones Website now
offers a new "Three Challenges" add-on for Magic Stones, Winter Wolves'
fantasy-themed turn-based RPG card game. According to Winter Wolf Riva Celso:
"This last add-on has only three encounters, as the title says, but those three
are super monsters that even an expert of the game Magic Stones will have a hard
time to beat. I am also proud of the new damage system implemented, and now you
can see a preview of the damage your attack will do to the target directly in
the battle screen, making the game more strategic than before." Users can get
the free expansion by re-downloading the game.
- Duke Nukem Forever on
Blue's
News. The originals. Third time's the charm.
I'm heading out to a dinner for Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown
tonight. To all who are celebrating, happy new year!
Aspyr announces that the
Macintosh edition of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is deploying to
stores, offering the latest installment in the military shooter series. The
game's system requirements include an Intel-based Mac, and a specific list
of video cards, and there is also this note about copy protection: "This game
contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disk
and virtual disk drives." The game is also available for online purchase
through Aspyr's new
GamesAgent portal, an offer apparently open only to North American
residents.
Spore &
Piracy- EA, ESA, Analysts Weigh In on Gamasutra gathers opinions form
analysts and EA to examine whether assertions that the controversial SecuROM
DRM in Spore has actually harmed sales of the life simulation, rather
than helped them by protecting the game from piracy. EA argues against the
theory that DRM has cost them sales saying they do not automatically equate
every copy of the game that's pirated as a lost sale, a contrast to claims made
by many developers and publishers in the past. A couple of other opinions
expressed in the article are the assertion by many that online authentication is
inevitable for more PC games going forward, and Chris Remo's
Penny Arcade editorial
suggesting that the response to this situation represents an overreaction.
An English language demo for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, following the recent
German sample of ASCARON Entertainment's action/RPG prequel
( story). Sacred 2 was recently declared gold
( story), and is expected in stores soon. The demo includes one of
the game's six playable characters, one of its 12 regions, several quests, and
the ability to advance your character to level 10. The 1.7 GB download is
available on AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Eurogamer
reports Konami plans on releasing playable demos on Thursday for Pro
Evolution Soccer 2009 for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The demo
will offer five minute exhibition matches, including multiplayer, offering a
choice of Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and the Italian
and French national teams. Word is the demo (and game) will support the
revised Xbox
360 controller ( story) with its innovative non-random D-pad.
Slitherine
Strategies announces that Commander: Napoleon at War is now available
for online purchase and download, offering the latest installment in this
turn-based strategy series. The game includes a grand campaign and seven
additional campaigns all set in the Napoleonic era. The game can be purchased
online from Slitherine Strategies
and they say it is also available on
Matrix Games, though it has not shown up there as of this writing.
Battlefront.com announces the release of Combat Mission Shock Force:
Marines, saying the first module for Combat Mission Shock Force is available
for purchase and download now, while boxed copies are in duplication so they can
be mailed out in the next couple of weeks. Word is: "CMSF:Marines is the first
Module to the Combat Mission Shock Force modern tactical ground combat
simulation from Battlefront. It introduces new weapons, equipment and formations
of the United States Marine Corps, Syrian Ariborne [sic] Special Forces units,
as well as many game engine enhancements, dozens of new scenario and quick
battle maps and a completely new "Semper Fi, Syria!" campaign."
The Broken Sword 2.5 Website now
offers downloads of Broken Sword 2.5, an unofficial fan-created sequel to
the first two installments in Revolution Software's adventure game series. The
free game is just under 700 MB, and the download is mirrored on
ComputerGames.ro and
Gamer's Hell.
The
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Q&A on Sound Blaster Gaming talks with
Mythic Entertainment audio director Brad Derrick about the ear candy in Mythic's
new MMORPG. They discuss the different musical themes for each faction,
influences on the game's sound design, and of course EAX support.
- Duke Nukem Forever on
Duke4.net. High-rez versions of those XBLA shots.
Well yesterday was not a storybook ending for the Mets and Shea Stadium, unless, like the old joke, it was a Stephen King story. It was still touching to see the
ceremonies surrounding the closure of Shea, the place where I saw my
first baseball game. It was neat seeing the demonstrations of affection the fans
have for role-players like Ed Charles and Tim Teufel (who looks exactly
the same as he did in his playing days) as well as the superstars, and
while the star of the show was naturally The Franchise (Tom Seaver), the
occasion was also graced by the presence of Willie Mays, who ended his career in
the orange and blue.
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