Archived News:
Steam now offers the
release of X3: Terran Conflict,
saying EGOSOFT's space combat sequel is now available for purchase and download
via Valve's digital delivery service. On a related note, a trailer for X3:
Terran Conflict offers a walkthrough of the game's user-interface. The clip
is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
The Spore Website now offers downloads
of a second patch for Spore, updating the life-sim to version 1.02. Word
is: "The focus of this patch is to fix bugs that have been reported via our
customer service department and directly from the Spore Community. In addition,
we've modified some gameplay tuning, added a way for you to select multiple
items for deleting or banning while in Sporepedia and included a cool new planet
style." The patch can be acquired from EA using their Download Manager, and a
manual patch is also available on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.com. There's no Macintosh patch yet, Mac users are told to check
back soon. On a related note,
Loot Ninja has instructions from EA on how Mac users having trouble with the
version 1.01 patch can get things sorted out.
Kotaku has a piece up quoting Will Wright answering a question about the
controversial Digital Rights Management in Spore, his life simulation.
Specifically regarding Spore he touches on the issues user's may have with its
DRM, and he comments: "It was something I probably should have tuned into more.
It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore." He also discusses copy
protection in general, opining that the current state of affairs is "an interim
solution to an interim problem," going on to say: "You have games like
Battlefield Heroes coming out where the idea is you give away the game and sell
upgrades, which works more in the Asian markets where you need to monetize it
over the Internet. I think we’re in this uncomfortable spot in going from what’s
primarily a brick and mortar shrink-wrapped product to what eventually will
become more of an online monetization model."
GameDaily reports that Midway announces having come to a "mutually
beneficial" agreement with licensing partners for the "cancellation of future
versions of related game properties and associated development expenditures."
It's not clear which licenses would be affected, but the publisher says this
move will increase its projected losses for their just-completed financial quarter, but is intended to help the company's results in the future. They
quote Midway interim CEO and president Matt Booty saying, "The resolution of
these licensing arrangements on good terms for the company is a very positive
step as we continue to review Midway's involvement with underperforming projects
and focus on our core properties."
New patches are now available for the Macintosh edition of Call of Duty 4,
updating the different thinking variant on the military shooter sequel to
version 1.7, bringing it in line with the PC edition. The patch for the boxed
retail game is on
this
Aspyr support page and the patch for digitally downloaded edition is on
this
Aspyr support page.
A new trailer for Call of Duty: World at War shows off Treyarch's World
War II shooter sequel that's due for release next month. The clip focusing on
multiplayer play is available on
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
A pair of new Mirror's Edge movies show off DICE's upcoming first-person
action game. There is a cinematic "training" trailer, available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers. There is also a World Freerun Championships clip with
gameplay and live-action footage on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Oops, almost missed another occasion, as today is
World Food Day, which is not meant to be a happy occasion, and it seems to
be even less-so this year, as the worldwide financial crisis is causing even
more widespread hunger throughout the world.
R.I.P.:
Singer, Muriel cigar beauty Edie Adams dies at 81.
An updated (working) version of the LEGO Batman demo is now available,
replacing the version issued a couple of days ago that did not install properly
( story). Head to the brick cave, jump in the brickmobile and
drive on over to
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront, or
Gamer's Hell if you want a copy.
Shacknews quotes
Valve's Doug Lombardi saying there will be no addition updates for Team
Fortress 2 this year, as they focus on completing development of Left 4
Dead: "Well, it won't be this year," said Lombardi when asked about the next
update. "But we're going to keep evolving TF2. Once Left 4 Dead wraps, you'll
hear us clamoring more about [the next TF2 update]." Three of the nine classes
in the teamplay shooter have received weapon and achievement updates since these
updates began in April ( story).
The Community Bonus Pack Website offers
downloads of Volume 2 of the Unreal Tournament 3 Community Bonus Pack 3.
Word is: "The bonus pack features 10 new levels (3 DM, 6 CTF & 1 WAR) and 2 new
characters (War Machine & Kat)." Their
Download Section offers pack,
which is available for both Windows and PS3.
N4G.com has a revelation from the
end of the PS3 version of BioShock, as the conclusion of this console
version of 2K Games' submerged shooter offers a teaser trailer for BioShock 2,
revealing the sequel's (or prequel's) title as BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams. They offer
some screenshots and there's a super-crappy version of the video on
YouTube that was shot using a cell-phone. These carry a spoiler warning for
those who have not completed the original BioShock, and a description of the
clip that "shows a grown up little sister holding a big daddy plush toy, while
sand of buildings in Rapture rise from the sand. It's set on the Atlantic
Coast."
There's a preview of Left 4 Dead on
IGN looking at
both Co-op and Versus modes and another on
Shacknews
focusing on Versus mode, IGN specifies they were playing the Xbox 360 edition.
Both articles go into various aspects of gameplay and also offer movies, there is a
ShakyCam clip on Shack
and several direct-feed clips on IGN.
Shacknews also has
some screenshots, and a confirmation that plans for a demo in early November
have not changed in the last six days ( story,
story, and story).
Making
Co-op Work in an Open World on Edge Online is an article by Scott Phillips,
where the Lead Designer on Saints Row 2 discusses the considerations that
go into cooperative support in such an open-world game. The lack of multiplayer
co-op in many games is ascribed to difficulties with implementation and balance,
and Scott confirms that co-op support does not come easily: "It took a long,
long time to get co-op into a working state. In addition to the sheer technical
issues, there are obvious design issues. When an AI sees two targets, which one
is he going to decide to shoot at? We also had to increase the number of AI in
order to effectively balance both the single player and co-op so that there
would be similar difficulty levels across both. You’ve got to scale it to some
degree in order to make sure that it’s similarly difficult on both levels. We
had to script new methods for each player to complete activities and missions in
co-op and make that a different experience."
Videogaming247 has a word from Far Cry 2 multiplayer producer Richard
Gaetan, who says he expects the level editor for Ubisoft's open-world shooter to
allow users to create "hundreds of thousands of maps" after the game's release
next week. There's a video
of the game's editor in action on GameTrailers
and also another new
"anything goes" gameplay trailer.
DailyGamesNews reports A Vampyre Story is now expected on some
unspecified date in November, saying this information comes from publisher Focus
Home Interactive. Last we heard about Autumn Moon Entertainment's adventure game
being written by Bill Tiller it was expected by Halloween
( story), so file this under trick, rather than treat. Thanks
Mike Martinez.
The
Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows Q&A on GameShark hears from Lead
Artist for Kerberos Productions Chris Gerspacher about their just-released 4X
expansion. Along the way they provoke him into talking a bit about plans for a
Sword of the Stars sequel: "Oddly enough all ships in SotS used to have
directional thrusters, but they were removed as they ate into frame rate
significantly in larger battles and regardless, you could not really even see
them unless you were zoomed in closer. I can’t really go into the details about
what new features we have brewing for the ships down the road in SotS2, but I
can say we are working at a more complex level for the ship designs. As
processing power continues to improve, maybe by the time we reach SotS2 every
l’il thruster can be added back in. It terms of several new layers of custom
personalization per ship, we have plans, but we’ll have to wait and see if they
make it off the drawing board."
The
Multiwinia Forums have word on a new version 1.1 patch that is now available
for automatic download in Introversion's multiplayer Darwinia variant.
The new version incorporates lobby improvements, interface changes, balance
changes, and bug fixes. Thanks The Patches Scrolls.
The Adventure Company now offers a patch for The Hardy Boys: The Hidden
Theft that updates the game based on the antiquated mystery series to
version 1.1. The patch addresses issues with onboard video cards and a bug with
mouse pointer alignment. The download is mirrored on
The
Patches Scrolls.
The Fistful of Frags Website now
offers a new version 2.0 of this western-themed modification for Half-Life 2.
Described as a "massive" update, this point release incorporates the Source
"OrangeBox" engine "bringing to you major improvements in graphics and netcode."
The mod also adds a number of new features, and a greater degree of polish.
The Prince of
Persia Interview on IGN.AU talks with Ben Mattes, producer on the upcoming
return of the wall-running regent. A primary focus of the conversation is Elika,
the new sidekick character, and the efforts they've put into avoiding creating
one of those sidekicks you love to hate: "We had instances where we had interest
points in the world -- little objects that would attract her attention, and if
you idled for a few minutes she would wander over to one of those objects to
look at it, but then the player would, y'know, haul ass to the left and Elika's
wandering over there looking at that thing and then he has to stop and wait and
go and get her and bring her back, and it was these things that detracted from
that overall core message, which is more important than anything else. More
important than you liking her, more important than you loving her, more
important than anything like that -- you just can't hate her. So there was a lot
of design that we had to do to just make sure that you didn't hate her. And
sometimes that was reducing or eliminating her autonomy to ensure that it's
always the player who's in the lead, who's always in control and Elika's there
as sort of a support mechanism."
Something that's changed around here over the past several weeks is my effort to
reduce the number of posts that use bullet points. One aspect of this has been
to reduce the twice daily roundups of most non-game techie items like
"mobilization" and "metaverse." At first I was adding these to the first post
each morning, as it helped fill out the news when there aren't too many other
stories. The other day it struck me that this made such bits far less timely,
which is a bigger issue than those aesthetic considerations, so I've switched
them to be part of the last scheduled post of each day. No big deal, but I
thought I'd outline my thinking on this in case folks have feedback to share on
how this is handled.
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