Archived News:
GamersGate now offers online sales and downloads of Sword of the Stars: A
Murder of Crows, about a week earlier than was announced when the 4X space
strategy expansion went gold ( story). The expansion requires
ownership of either Sword of the Stars: Collector's Edition or the
Born of Blood expansion, and not coincidentally,
GamersGate now offers both in a Sword of the Stars Bundle.
The Stargate Worlds Website is now
accepting sign-ups for closed beta testing of FireSky's science-fiction MMORPG,
testing that will get underway on October 15, according to a press release
posted on Ten Ton Hammer.
Word is: "Beta sign ups are live at register.stargateworlds.com/Registration/.
More testers will be invited to sign up over time, so it’s not too late to put
your name in the selection pool." The game is currently slated for launch next
year.
Amazon.com and
Gamestop.com both have listings for a Spore Cute and Creepy Parts Pack,
each site proffering a November 18 release date, and GameStop listing a $19.99
MSRP. Thanks
Hooked on Spore.
Steam News now announces
the first of the promised Source-engine modifications are now hosted by Valve's
online service for download. To celebrate the occasion, they have lowered the
price of Half-Life 2: Episode
One to $4.99. The first set of mods on tap is
Age of Chivalry,
D.I.P.R.I.P.,
Insurgency,
Synergy, and
Zombie Panic.
Piracy,
age ratings, and Manhunt on VideoGamer.com is a Q&A with Michael Rawlinson
of the European Leisure and Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) about game
ratings and piracy. Specific topics include communicating effectively with
parents, obstacles to keeping mature-rated games out of the hands of children,
fighting piracy across borders, challenges facing the UK games development
industry, and more.
- Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway on
Edge Online.
An essay by Randy Pitchford.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 on
1Up and
GameSpy.
- Divinity 2: Ego Draconis on
GameSpot.
- Fallout 3 on
GamesRadar.
- Freaky Creatures on
RPG Vault.
- The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria on
IGN.
- PT Boats: Knights Of The Sea on
Games32.
- Venetica on
GameSpot.
- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King on
Eurogamer.
EA and Crytek
announce that they are offering the chance to play Crysis Wars for
free next weekend, giving everyone a chance to sample the enhanced Crysis
multiplayer play included with Crysis Warhead, Crytek's first-person
shooter follow-up. Beginning Monday, those willing to register on
MyCrysis can download a Crysis
Wars client and get an activation key to allow online play from Friday, October
10th at through Sunday, October 12th. This sparked our curiosity over whether
this was intended to promote Crysis Warhead or perhaps an indication that a
standalone Crysis Wars release was being considered, so we asked EA about this,
and were told: "There are no plans at this time to make Crysis Wars a separate,
standalone product."
Full Spectrum Warrior, the military combat simulation developed by
Pandemic with the assistance of the US Army is now available as a free
ad-supported release. This is not reflected on the
Full Spectrum Warrior
Website, but the game is available on
FileFront as a 1.6 GB download. Thanks Ant and
Voodoo Extreme.
City-Interactive announces the release of Sniper: Art of Victory in
North America, a Chrome-engine shooter that puts the player in the role of a
sharpshooter for the Allied forces during World War II. Word is: "Sniper: Art of
Victory drops players into the thick of the action during various battles of
WWII. Taking on the decisive role of a military sharpshooter, it will be up to
the player to track down and eliminate key German targets, including the general
in charge of the Stalingrad assault. Realistic ballistics, true-to-life sniper
rifles and a unique aiming system ensure the ultimate combat experience for
players."
New patches are now available for Combat Mission: Shock Force, updating
the three different distributions of this military strategy game to version
1.10. The patch for the edition sold through Battlefront.com can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell. There is a patch for the GamersGate edition on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell. Finally, the Paradox Interactive edition of the game's patch
is available from
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
Acclaim has launched Tribal Nations,
a subscription-free MMORPG "for all ages," that can be played in a web-browser,
"where players can create their own characters, and through skill and
perseverance, might just end up the Ruler of a Nation." The game is set in the
"new world" of North America, just prior to the arrival of the European settlers
who made all these tribal nations moot.
Warhammer Online tops US PC chart has NPD sales figures showing Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) topping the US PC sales chart, and also coming in
at #3 with its Collector's Edition in a top 10 that only includes six different
games due to multiple SKUs for some titles. The top 10 includes two variants
each for WAR, Spore, The Sims 2, and World of Warcraft.
The Cal Ripken's Real Baseball
Website indicates that this MMO baseball game is offline, saying: "The
service for Cal Ripken's Real Baseball is currently halted until further notice.
We apologize for any inconvenience." There is no indication of what this means
about the status of the game, which is failing to live up to the "iron man"
legend of the player for which it is named. The note we got about this from a
player named Matt says the game was abruptly shut down during league playoffs
with no accompanying explanation. We looked to contact maintainer Netamin about
this matter, but in a discouraging note, their
website has been replaced by a holding page.
The RHIANNON: Curse of the Four Branches
Website offers two playable demos for this point-and-click adventure game
based on Welsh mythology. There is one demo with the game's first chapter, and
another for Chapter 5. The chapter one demo is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront and the chapter five demo is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
Folks mentioned wanting to swap the "share" and "comments" links on each story,
which has been done. On a note related to recent changes here, I got a report
from a reader experiencing a wild version of the site's format under WinXP and
Firefox, which we are looking into. None of the recent changes should have
drastically changed font sizes or anything, so if anyone else is seeing results
like this, please feel free to bring it to our attention.
|
Twitter 
