Archived News:
Edge Online has word on plans to create a new Digital Rights Management
solution from Stardock, a developer/publisher vocally opposed to DRM
in the past. While Stardock prez Brad Wardell maintains they do not
plan on adding DRM to their own games, other publishers have challenged them to
help make DRM more acceptable to consumers: "So the publishers are telling us,
'Put your money where your mouth is. Why don't you guys develop something that
you think is suitable that would protect our IP, but would be more acceptable to
users?' We're investigating what would make users happy to protect their needs,
but also provide some security for the publishers. ... We're actually developing
a technology that would do that." They are exploring ways to make it possible to
reinstall a game after losing the physical media, and are soliciting ideas from
users about what will and won't be acceptable from their points of view.
Widescreen Gaming Forum has a homebrew fix for the widescreen FOV
issue recently identified in Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's recently released
shooter sequel. The fix was created by Racer_S, who also created a
homebrew fix for similar problems in BioShock. Thanks Derek.
The
Steam Users' Forums have reports from several owners of the Bully
Scholarship Edition for the PC, who are stuck with an endless looping
problem when trying to run the game. There are reports from owners of the boxed
version as well as the Steam edition, and while some users' problems cleared up
after disabling their antivirus software, others have not had success with this.
The problem may be related to Vista, as this seems common to many posts, and
Rockstar is said to be looking into the problem. Thanks Aemath.
Bethesda Softworks and Best Buy Bring Fallout 3 to Fans with Midnight Launch
Events Across the Country has word on plans for several Best Buy stores in
some major US cities to allow lines to begin forming at 3:00 pm local time and
to begin offering Fallout 3 for sale at the stroke of Midnight on October 28.
Additionally, folks from Bethesda Softworks will be on hand at their local store
to celebrate the event: "The Fallout 3 team’s hometown Best Buy in Rockville, MD
will serve as the flagship location of the midnight events, with special
festivities including game kiosks, giveaways, contests and a live broadcast from
the event with DC 101 FM. Game director Todd Howard will be on-hand along with
other key members of the development team to sign copies of the game and chat
with fans. In addition to the Rockville event, 11 Best Buy stores across the
country will be hosting special midnight sales events." Also,
Steam is now accepting
pre-purchase of the game for online sales, though it's not specified when on
October 28 the Steam edition will be released/unlocked.
The new television commercial for Grand Theft Auto IV that mentions the
coming soon PC edition of the game is apparently taken from the PC edition. The
clip is now available on the tubes as well as your TV, you can view or download
it from AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
A third Prince of Persia developer diary is now online, gathering
thoughts from the developers on their upcoming new installment in the long
running and jumping series, discussing their "illustrative art style" and how it
fits their attempts at creating a new storybook setting for the series,
accompanied by gameplay footage to demonstrate what they're talking about. The
clip can be found on
ActionTrip,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Another new trailer from Tomb Raider: Underworld is now available,
showing Lara playing biker mama as she motorcycles around the Mexican jungles
and does some stunt riding through temples just the way they teach it in
archeology school. The download is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
What's Tim
Cain Up To? on Edge Online talks with the designer who worked on games like
Fallout and Vampire: The Masquerade--Bloodlines in the full
version of the Q&A that was excerpted in a smaller article a couple
of weeks ago. Carbine executive producer Jeremy Gaffney also participates,
and in addition to thoughts on Fallout 3, Tim also discusses other games,
and touches on a couple of the design decisions for the MMOG he's creating at
Carbine.
- Puzzle Quest: Galactrix on
1Up.
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment on
NeoSeeker.
The Hellgate: London Website has
Namco Bandai's announcement that January 31, 2009 will be the last day of online
server support for Hellgate: London, the announcement coming less than a
year after the game launched and scant months after the
demise of developer Flagship Studios (thanks nin). Here's the
announcement, which emphasizes the positive; the remaining life of the game is
being supported for free: Santa Clara, Calif., (October 24, 2008) - NAMCO
BANDAI Games America Inc., today announced that they will continue to support
customers of PC game Hellgate™: London with online server support and play
through January 31, 2009 despite the closure of Flagship Studios. In a further
gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of
charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.
NAMCO BANDAI Games appreciate the enthusiasm of all the Hellgate: London players
and looks forward to providing them with future entertainment products.
For questions regarding the shut down or additional information about Hellgate:
London, please visit the game’s official website at
www.hellgatelondon.com.
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is gold for its release in North America announces
cdv Software, saying the Windows edition of ASCARON Entertainment's action/RPG
sequel has passed Microsoft's Games for Windows certification process. The game
will be available in North American stores on November 11 as
previously announced, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions are
still expected on February 17, 2009.
NVIDIA now offers another set of beta ForceWare drivers, which are now up to
version 180.43, enabling NVIDIA SLI on Intel X58-based motherboards and offering
further improvements in Far Cry 2 performance as described in the
accompanying quote from Ubisoft's Louis-Pierre Pharand: "Since we first began
working on Far Cry 2 in early 2005, we have used GeForce GPU’s to develop the
game and worked closely with NVIDIA’s excellent engineers. While Far Cry 2
represents an outstanding PC gaming experience for a wide range of systems,
GeForce users can expect to enjoy the game quite literally 'The Way It Was Meant
To Be Played'." There are new beta version 180.43 driver for
Windows XP 32-bit,
Windows
Vista 32-bit,
Windows XP
64-bit, and
Windows Vista
64 bit. Thanks Tr0n.
The Multiwinia: Survival of
the Flattest Website offers a second playable demo for Introversion's newest
release. Multiwinia is a multiplayer variant on Darwinia, but the first
demo ( story) surprisingly did not feature multiplayer support,
just single-player competition with AI bots. The new demo redresses this
problem, featuring true multiplayer support. Word is: "The new demo provides a
fantastic online multiplayer experience with the available demo maps and also
allows demo players to join full games when hosted by a fully paid up player
over a LAN. That’s not all – the demo also now contains an extra mode from the
full game called Rocket Riot!"
Eidos and Beautiful Game Studios announce Championship Manager 09,
saying the next installment in this football/soccer management series should be
expected in April 2009, preceded by a playable demo in March. The game will
feature a completely overhauled graphics engine, and more: "Championship Manager
09 has dramatically improved navigation for the user and the game features an
entirely new fully animated 3D match engine. Designed and developed to reflect
and enhance a management experience, the engine uses over 500 motion-captured
animations per player and has been built and developed specifically for a PC
football management simulation." The announcement is accompanied by a batch of
new
Championship Manager 2009 Screenshots.
A new "campaign" trailer for Empire: Total War is now available, to show
off more of the large-scale battles in the next installment in Creative
Assembly's real-time strategy series. The third installment in this five-part
series of movies demonstrates gameplay and the user interface, accompanied by a
narration explaining what's going on. The clip is available on
ActionTrip,
Gamer's Hell, and
MyGameTrailers.
Swedish gaming site FZ.se
reports (in their native tongue) that Swedish developer Avalanche Studios has
laid off 77 employees, representing about half of its workforce. Avalanche lost
two publishing contracts worth something in the neighborhood of $34 million,
though neither of these were announced yet, and their previously announced
project, Just Cause 2 and The Hunter, are still in development.
FZ.se has a conversation with Avalanche CEO Christofer Sundberg, which can be
viewed in English via
this translation. Christofer says this situation is "absolutely" impacted by
the current global financial crisis, and that they have already been able to
find jobs for some of their ex-employees. There is also a somewhat confusing
answer to a question about whether either of the two cancelled titles might
still see the light of day: "The first title is well with another publisher."
None of this is reflected on the
Avalanche Studios Website, an under construction page that somewhat
ironically features only one section,
available positions, and
boasts a headline saying "Big News Update Soon!"
The
Interview with Craig Morrison on the Age Of Conan Vault talks with the game
director on Funcom's latest MMORPG. Topics covered include his past as an
associate editor at the Vault Network, his prior role at Funcom as Game Director
for Anarchy Online, the rough treatment someone in his position can receive at
the hands of the fans, Age of Conan's arguably derailed update schedule, DX10
support, instancing, PvP "consequences," and more.
The Damnation Website offers
two new trailers from this upcoming steampunk-themed, vertigo-inducing shooter.
There is a single-player walkthrough and a multiplayer walkthrough for your
viewing pleasure. Damnation is expected this winter for Windows, Xbox
360, and PlayStation 3. BYOD (Bring Your Own Dramamine).
Variety reports "Private equity-backed film financier Legendary Pictures is
in negotiations to acquire Epic Games, the North Carolina-based developer of
videogames including 'Gears of War.'" They say this is based on reports from
multiple sources, but that both Legendary and Epic have declined to comment. Shacknews has a
comment from Epic's Mark Rein, who says this is "just another rumor." Of course
when it comes to deals like this, "rumor" can mean something that will never
happen, or is already a done-deal, so we shall see.
The
Atlantica Online Website offers word of an unusual satisfaction guarantee
for NDOORS' strategic MMO strategy game, currently in open beta testing. Even
though the game is free to download an play, players with a character at level
50 or above on an account started after October 11 can trade their character for
$20.00 between now and November 30. Additional word is: "NDOORS Interactive is
also currently running a promotion that gives players multiple chances to win
thousands in cash and prizes through participation in the game’s PvP area called
the Free Leagues. Players now have until Nov. 30 to win any of the bonuses."
Gaming Nexus' Fallout 3 Interview chats with Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Designer
and Writer on Fallout 3, the RPG sequel nearing release from Bethesda
Softworks. Interestingly, the one-time game journalist apparently did not know
exactly what he was getting into when he signed on for the project: "Not really,
but part of that is because I don’t think I was fully cognizant of just how
highly some gamers regarded the property. I mean, I had always loved Fallout; so
did everyone else at Bethesda. That’s the very reason we wanted to obtain the
license in the first place. But as a gamer I’ve played lots of titles, and there
are other licenses I love as well. I’ve never been completely attached to just
one game the way some fans are attached to Fallout, so it was interesting coming
into that. So that ignorance on my part was sort of to my benefit, because I was
able to go into all of this without that pressure. I just wanted to make an
awesome Fallout game, and a sequel that was true to the originals. I wasn’t
concerned with meeting anyone’s expectations but my own."
Following a request from the forums, it is now easier to browse through user
posting history, as Frans has added more posts to each page and created an index
to navigate between pages of posts.
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