Archived News:
THQ Reports Fiscal 2009 Second Quarter Results, Reduces Fiscal 2009 Outlook and
Announces Significant Business Realignment has some number-crunching from
THQ's latest financial reporting. Included is news of a delay to Red Faction:
Guerrilla, the shooter sequel originally announced for release in
THQ's fiscal 2009 (which ends March 31, 2009): "The company's decision to
release original titles Red Faction(R): Guerrilla(TM) and Darksiders(TM): Wrath
of War(TM) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, instead of the previously
scheduled fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 accounted for approximately $125 million
in lower forecasted net sales." The report also confirms recent
indications that cuts are coming, as jobs and unannounced titles will be
getting the axe: "The company is in the process of implementing its plan with
the cancellation of several titles that were in development but had not been
publicly announced, the closure of five studios and a reduction in product
development personnel of approximately 250 people, or 17 percent of its studio
staff, and the streamlining of its corporate organization to support the new
product strategy."
THQ also announces CFO Colin Slade will be taking a medical leave of
absence. Thanks
GameCyte.
Matrix
Games offers a new version 1.04.07 of Empires in Arms, describing
this as a "major" new update to the Napoleonic-era wargame in spite of the minor
version number. Word is: "This latest update comes with a raft of over 70 bug
fixes and continued AI improvements, in addition to a few minor enhancements."
Downloads of the patch can be found on
this page.
True Games Interactive has released details about gameplay in Warrior Epic,
their upcoming subscription-free online action/RPG, these can be found in an
itty-bitty window on the
game's official website. The announcement is accompanied by
some new screenshots and a new gameplay trailer, which can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. There is also a new
Warrior Epic
Interview on RPG Vault, part one of a conversation with Peter Cesario about
the game.
A new "cops" trailer from Need for Speed Undercover shows off the law
enforcement side of the upcoming installment in the street racing series. You can
find the clip on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers. Now lets all sing together: ♫ Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha
gonna do? ♪
The
Elven Legacy Interview on Strategy Informer chats with Tom and Pavel (we're
all on a first-name bases around here) about Elven Legacy, the turn-based
strategy sequel to Fantasy Wars. The discussion covers topics like the game's
storyline, its fantasy theme, graphics, the possibility of bringing the series
to consoles, and more.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Stardock has released the promised version 2.0 update for
Galactic Civilizations II, updating the 4X space strategy game. The new
version can be acquired automatically via the Impulse platform, and word from
the Impulse Driven
Website is: "The update adds a host of new features to its latest expansion
pack Twilight of the Arnor as well as expands on features found in the Dark
Avatar expansion pack." Among the changes in the new version is the ability to
design new starships from the main game menu, the ability to play all game
campaigns within Twilight of the Arnor, a revamped espionage system,
auto-building for starbases, and more.
VideoGamer.com
has an excerpt from an upcoming interview with Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
producer David Silverman where he makes one of those quotable comments about the
deplorable state of PC piracy. Apparently he hasn't noticed all the recent
indications of rampant console piracy from the tone of this comment: "In all
honesty piracy is a huge concern. Luckily people haven't figured out an easy way
to pirate on consoles, otherwise you'd be telling me, 'oh, the console market's
dying!'. It's a big problem and it's hard because you've got people like Greg
(Black, lead balance designer) and a lot of guys on the development team who
have been spending countless hours and someone just goes to download on a
torrent site and they get the game. It's an unfortunate likelihood and it's one
of the penalties that broadband came out. But unlike the music industry which
went about it in an interesting way, we're trying some new things and I think
we'll be productive in the years to come."
The
Cities XL Interview on Gaming Nexus talks with Jerome Gastaldi, asking the
CEO of Monte Cristo questions about Cities XL, the latest installment in
their urban planning series. The conversation inspires some lengthy answers,
covering topics like graphics enhancements and gameplay mechanics, including new
persistent features and Gameplay Extension Modules (GEMs): "As for the city
builder core game, the GEMs are designed so that players get higher challenges
while learning. They really will be intuitive to every skill level of player. As
far as selling creations is concerned, we aren't planning a real-world currency
exchange, but you will find out that your creations can be sold to in-game
citizens. An example that we're throwing around is the automobile manufacturer
GEM. Let's say you build that GEM and start designing your own cars. The next
step will be to advertise those cars in other online cities and pretty soon you
will find citizens in other towns driving those customized cars, and your
resources start getting boosted by all these deals."
Though it's not mentioned on the
Far Cry 2 Website, a new patch is now available for Far Cry 2 to
update the first-person shooter sequel to version 1.01. The game should update
itself automatically upon launch, though if you are looking for a manual update,
the patch can be downloaded from
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and The Patches Scrolls.
Details on the new version can be found
in
the Far Cry 2 forums, and an outline of outstanding issues still being
investigated by Ubisoft are outlined in
this
forum post.
A rolling demo for X3: Terran Conflict is now available, offering a look
at the latest installment in EGOSOFT's space combat series. This should not be
confused with a playable demo, as a rolling demo is non-interactive, offering
the chance to see what the game looks like using the actual game engine. As such
this rolling demo can also benchmark your system to show how it can handle
running the game. The 422 MB download is available on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
Strategy Informer. X3: Terran Conflict was released a couple of
weeks ago, and can be purchased through
Steam.
This page is accepting beta
signups for closed testing of Shin
Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, a subscription-free MMORPG under construction
at Aeria Games. This page gives a
sense of what this fantasy themed game is all about, and as for testing, word
is: "Remember: As a Closed Beta tester, you can expect there to be bugs and
frequent downtime as we still are fixing issues. Also, we appreciate our testers
to come to the forums to report about bugs/glitches that they find."
The Sims 3 Q&A on GameSpot hears from Ben Bell about the next installment
Maxis' lifestyle simulation series. At one point Ben explains how they are going
all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on us: "One example of the work we're doing is the AI behind
the people who live in your town. You control a household of sims, but all of
the other sims in your town live and develop as you play. It takes an impressive
amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to
seeing lots of other characters in a gameworld, but they've never seen a
gameworld where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits
and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we're working on is a feature called
Create a Style, which allows players to customize just about everything, from
clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game
like our artists can. The interface is really powerful, and we want to make it
perfect."
What? We know who is going to be the next president without recounts and court
decisions? I guess that's democracy FTW.
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