Archived News:
Steam News has word that
Steam preorders are being accepted for Left 4 Dead, the multiplayer
zombie shooter, which is due for release next month. There are no physical
preorder incentives, but they are offering a discount: "Like the pre-purchase
promotions happening at retail for the PC and Xbox 360 versions, those who
pre-purchase via Steam will save 10% off the regular price."
GamingShogun has word that preorders are now underway for EverQuest II:
The Shadow Odyssey, SOE's upcoming MMORPG standalone expansion. The
announcement outlines the bonuses such an advance commitment provides: those who
preorder the digital download edition will get a Void Beast Pet and a Legends of
Norrath Loot Card, while those who preorder the retail box will earn an
in-game Dire Bear mount, a Legends of Norrath loot card and collectible poster,
and a pewter figurine. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Kotaku has a report based on a radio interview with Dan Aykroyd on
105.3 KLLI where the actor says the
Ghostbusters video game is out of limbo ( story), and will be
published by Atari. According to the alter-ego of Dr. Raymond Stantz, the game
is "about a year away" from release.
Gamasutra
has quotes from John Riccitiello, learning how much the EA CEO hates DRM, in
spite of EA's use of strong copy protection, though he continues to dismiss the
nature of protests about their DRM use, saying this of those complaining about
Spore: "I'm guessing that half of them were pirates, and the other half
were people caught up in something that they didn’t understand." He also
restates his desire to continue to improve the quality of their offerings,
saying the cancellation of Tiberium "is a perfect example of EA investing in
quality." He also declares how they will continue to ruthlessly enforce quality
with such moves: "EA will kill a game or two a year. Forever."
Rock, Paper,
Shotgun has the first video from Love, showing off this unusual
MMORPG under construction by the one-man studio of Eskil Steenberg. This
pre-alpha footage shows off editing of landscapes, the game's sweeping visual
scope, and even some combat.
Gamasutra
reports that Stardock has revised its Gamer's Bill Of Rights from the version of
this call to action they released during the summer ( story). This
is an interim update as Stardock says it is still discussing the proposal with
other publishers. The noteworthy change is item #8, which formerly read: "Gamers
shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or
publishers." This entry now reads: "Gamers whose computers meet the posted
minimum requirements shall have the right to use their games without being
materially inconvenienced due to copy protection or digital rights management."
The news is accompanied by
Stardock's full 2008 customer report ( Adobe Acrobat) that also describes their views
on DRM, delineating the difference between complaints about DRM they feel are
"legitimate" and "illegitimate." An example they offer of an "illegitimate" DRM
complaint is the objection if it "keeps people from installing the program on as
many PCs as they own," while a "legitimate" complaint is "a program should not
be installing drivers or other hidden files on the system that use system
resources." They also have a post outlining
Stardock's
release plans, among other things, teasing Strategy Game 2010 ("Not Master
of Magic").
This press release
announces Quantum Rise, an upcoming ninth free expansion for EVE
Online, CCP's science fiction MMORPG. The add-on will be rolled out in
stages, and the first part is already in place. Word is: "EVE Online: Quantum
Rise offers limitless opportunity to the talented starship pilots of New Eden as
the roots of conflict spread deep for their lifeblood."
The
Operation Flashpoint 2 Interview on Edge Online talks with Clive Lindop,
lead AI designer on the military shooter sequel. Along the way he says the
follow-up will be a little easier than the original, bringing back Flashpoint
flashbacks with his accurate description of how hard the first game was: "What
made the first one really hard was that there was simply nothing there, and if
you can’t hide anywhere that means death. Now, there’s cover. The other reason
was that the AI in the original game had no fear of anything. It would see you
from 400 metres away and take the perfect shot right through your eye."
The Interview with Randy
Pitchford on 1Up talks with the big cog at Gearbox about their various game
projects, discussing managing such a heavy development schedule as well as
specifics about the games. They discuss the delays to Brothers in Arms: Hell's
Highway, whether the game was publicly revealed too early, why they are so mum
about Aliens: Colonial Marines, though Randy does think they will have some
Aliens news soon: "I think you'll see something this year. But I don't know
when. [Laughs] We're crafting plans right now."
New version 178.24 WHQL ForceWare reference drivers are now available for NVIDIA
accelerators, adding support for newly-released GeForce 9-series motherboard
GPUs, and offering several application compatibility fixes. There are new
drivers for
Windows XP 32-bit,
Windows
Vista 32-bit,
Windows XP
64-bit, and
Windows
Vista 64-bit. Thanks MTE.
The ATI Drivers & Software Page
now offers new version 8.10 Catalyst reference drivers to ATI accelerators
running under Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Linux. The new Windows drivers
offer performance improvements for Unreal Tournament 3 and Prey
for HD 3800-series and HD 4000-series accelerators as well as Catalyst Control
Center enhancements. The release notes for the Linux drivers are not yet posted.
New patches for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel are now available that will update
Ascaron Entertainment's action/RPG sequel to version 2.11.2.0. The separate
patches for the UK, French, German, Russian, Polish, Italian, and Hungarian
editions of the game can all be found on
AtomicGamer
and
FileFront.
Warhammer
Online Website has word that the planned outage for server upgrades for
Mythic's MMORPG were completed sooner than expected and all North American and
Oceanic servers are back online running the new version 1.0.3.
These patch notes outline the changes in the new version 1.0.3, which
include a new regional chat system, an improved /ignore command, improved pet
behavior, a "report gold seller" option, and more.
DRM is official on the Far Cry 2 Forums is a post by a user reporting that a
conversation with a Ubisoft representative about DRM in Far Cry 2, and a
subsequent post by a Ubi Forum Manager confirms the use of the SecuROM DRM
indicated on
the French Ubisoft Shop yesterday ( story). On a semi-related
note,
Riccitiello Says DRM a Minority Controversy has comments from the EA CEO
saying he feels that Digital Rights management only represents an issue for 0.2%
of their users: "We're still working out the kinks. We implemented a form of DRM
and it's something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice. But for the other
.2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to
protest against it." Ubisoft has not answered our mails on the topic, but here
is the forum post on the Far Cry 2 DRM: Some DRM points that will
hopefully answer some of your questions and will clarify some misunderstandings
about our DRM and SecuROM:
- You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.
- Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called
“revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to
install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
- You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke
system)
- Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations
can be provided.
- Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be
able to play Far Cry 2.
The 2D Boy
Website now offers a playable demo for World of Goo, the indie puzzle
game that recently hit the tubes ( story). The demo includes the
entire first chapter of the game. Also, as noted on
Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the game is not available on Steam for European
users, which is explained as some sort of contractual accident. On this topic,
however, 2D Boy points out that the version
for sale on their website "is 100% region free."
The Frank
Pearce Interview on StarCraftWire.Net talks with the Blizzard cofounder at
the just completed BlizzCon event, talking about Diablo III, StarCraft II, and
more. They also discuss the planned direction for the World of Warcraft team
after the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and even get a couple
of mentions of Blizzard's still-unannounced fourth project. There is also
a new video interview on Diii.Net where Jay Wilson answers more questions
about Diablo III, discussing things like runes, the removal of assignable
attributes, and drop rates of that sweet, sweet lewt. Meanwhile, there's a video
of the
BlizzCon 2008 Diablo III Gameplay, Classes, Skills Presentation Slideshow on
PlanetDiablo. Finally,
PlanetDiablo also has a video of Diablo III music being performed by
VideoGamesLive.
The
Gearbox Software Forums have word on a bug in Brothers In Arms: Hell's
Highway that slipped through which can cause crashes or slowdowns on the Black
Friday level of the World War II shooter sequel. According to Gearbox: "If you
have an ATI graphics card and are seeing crashes or severe slowdowns when
playing the Black Friday level (the one with rain), it is a known problem with
the ATI driver. We are working on a patch and are trying to make it available as
soon as possible." Thanks PawPaw.
Okay, I misinterpreted the "code view" that Frans added to the forums last week
as a way of getting smilies to stop showing up in URLs and other posts, but now
he has changed the way these smilies are handled to allow these characters to
display properly if they are not surround by spaces. There's also a new code to
insert actual URLs. Good stuff. Thanks Frans!
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