Archived News:
A playable demo for Legendary offers the chance to open Pandora's Box in
a sample of Spark Unlimited's recently released first person
shooter based on the Pandora myth. The demo is a 1.92 GB download, so get ready
to take a vacation while the 28.8 modem grabs it for you from
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
A patch is available for the Windows edition of Grand Theft Auto IV that
will load automatically when you star the game and log into Games for Windows
LIVE.
Voodoo Extreme has a list of all the patch should do, with the key word
being "fix."
SEGA's update yesterday in Empire: Total War indicated
Creative Assembly's RTS sequel is being delayed by about a month, and now
a news post on the
Sega website explains why, including word that they are laying the
groundwork for post-release multiplayer support: "Significantly the additional
time will also allow us to implement the underlying technology for a much
desired feature (thanks to your feedback!); a multiplayer campaign mode. An
opportunity to participate in the 1 versus 1 multiplayer campaign mode beta will
be made available to all Empire Total War buyers post release."
The Sins of a Solar
Empire forums report users have been experiencing disconnections when
playing games via Ironclad Online. For users who then also cannot see available
games in the server lobby they offer an interim workaround, of manually typing
in a game name to join. As for the underlying problem, they say: "Ironclad and
Stardock are investigating these issues and will be working on fixes for them.
We apologize for the trouble and appreciate everyone's patience while we track
things down."
The THQ UK Website
now shows off more of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II in a new video
with multiplayer action from Relic's upcoming futuristic RTS sequel (thanks
Fausticle). On a related note,
VideoGamer.com
recently spoke with Dawn Of War II associate producer Jeff Lydell about plans
for digital rights management in the game, and he says while they are "looking
at some form of DRM" for the game, it will likely not entail a limitation on
active installs, though his statement hedges a bit: "Not that I'm aware of, at
this point." Here's what he says about their approach to DRM: "We are looking at
some form of DRM for Dawn of War II, but we're heavily concerned with the
consumer end of that, and the consumer experience. We want people to be able to
play their games on multiple PCs. We want them to be able to play it with their
friends, and most importantly we want any authentication to not be annoying or a
detriment to the experience." In a separate
excerpt from that
conversation they quote Lydell on the topic of piracy: "It's certainly a
threat to triple A gaming. It makes developers and publishers reluctant to
invest large amounts of money in a just-pc product, unless there's some form of
guarantee. Sometimes they hedge their bets with cross-platform developments,
sometimes it's persistent online stuff that you need to subscribe to. But piracy
is not going away. As an industry, piracy is something we have to work around,
not something to try and eliminate - because that's a losing fight."
Team Fortress 2 on Steam is
half-price this weekend, making Valve's multiplayer shooter $9.99. Also, GoGamer
is offering
Red Friday Deals, so maybe my dream of a fuchsia sale is not far off.
Mirror's Edge interview on Crispy Gamer is a postmortem conversation with
producer Tom Farrer of DICE about the critical and retail reception for
Mirror's Edge. Topics include the game's mixed critical reception and
lukewarm sales, regrets over not placing more emphasis on assisting the player
and too much emphasis on not using weapons, the antiseptic aesthetics of their
city, the 2D cutscenes, and more. In conclusion, the question comes about
whether we'll see a sequel: "We'll see. Keep your fingers crossed, mate."
Exosyphen
Studios offers digital sales and distribution of Hacker Evolution: Untold,
a game that puts the player in the role of a young computer programmer who must
use his elite hax0ring skills to save the world, and maybe just find love. Okay,
we made the love part up, you will have to save the world. Word is: "The concept
behind Hacker Evolution: Untold is to create a game that challenges the gamers
intelligence, attention and focus, creating a captivating mind game. Solve
puzzles, examine code and bits of information, to help you achieve your
objectives." A three level playable demo is also available.
The Child's Play Website has
news that the charity has surpassed its $750,000 goal for the year, and that
after training over $200,000 at their annual auction dinner, they have now
raised over a million dollars worth of donations for children's hospitals.
A new version of the Steam
Hardware Survey is online, offering results from the month of November as
this hardware poll takes a new monthly format. The survey offers graphs and pie
charts for PowerPoint fans, and a new set of results for trend watchers,
showing, among other things, clear majorities for NVIDIA and Intel Hardware, a
noticeable bump in DirectX 10 adoption, and a smaller trend towards quad CPUs.
Other segments with pluralities include 32-bit Windows XP, and systems with more
than 2GB RAM.
A thread
on the Steam Users' Forums announces the launch of beta testing of a
European currency conversion for the Steam store. To access the currency
conversion, log in via this link:
http://store.steampowered.com/?localizedcurrency=1, and word is: "You will
need to use this link each time you wish to purchase in localized currency
during the beta. Your having opted into the beta is only saved for the duration
of your browser session. Pound Sterling is available only in the United Kingdom;
Euros are available only in Europe. You won't be able to actually purchase if
you manually set the store to a country/currency other than that in which you
actually live." Users on the forums are reporting mixed results, as this
apparently has raised prices in some areas and lowered them in others. Thanks
theyarecomingforyou.
Video Documentary #1 on
the Star Wars: The Old Republic Website offers developer commentary from
BioWare and LucasArts about the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG, as well as the debut
of some preproduction footage of gameplay; primarily combat with lightsabers.
A major topic of the commentary is the emphasis they are placing on taking
storytelling in an MMORPG to a new level while creating an environment where
your actions have consequences. Other topics are the role of companion
characters, "stylized realism" art design, supporting various play styles, and
more. According to designer James Ohlen TOR will offer "more content than every
BioWare game that we've created put together," and BioWare cofounder Ray Muzyka
expresses his belief that this will be "the best thing that BioWare's ever
done."
World of Warcraft Public Test Realm Patch Notes have been updated with the
rundown on patch 3.0.8, which will introduce a bunch of changes and balance
tweaks to Blizzard's MMORPG. There are general changes, achievement tweaks, PvP
changes, tweaks to just about every class (most extensively to the Death
Knights), quest updates, item changes, and bug fixes.
This page on the Command & Conquer Website offers downloads of a new beta
patch for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, allowing the chance to check
out changes in the upcoming version 1.06 of the real-time strategy sequel. The
new beta closes off the "crane exploit," and implements an improved version of
Automatch that should connect to games much faster. The patch comes with a
utility to uninstall the beta and revert to version 1.05, as word is: "Players
with the beta 1.06 patch will be unable to play against 1.05 versions. To
clarify, 1.06 players will never Automatch against 1.05 players, and custom
games will appear grey in the lobby list if the host is on a different version.
We ask that you please encourage your friends to download beta patch 1.06, so we
can get more 1.06 games happening in the system!" The numerous localized patches
are also mirrored on The
Patches Scrolls.
GamesIndustry.biz has an excerpt from
an
interview with Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas where they discuss the state of things
following recent news of job cuts at the Norwegian
developer. He explains the job losses as routine cuts in QA six months after a
product launch, since less support is needed for Age of Conan, and some
US Customer Service jobs that were shifted to Europe. Looking forward, he says
they are very busy with various projects, including the upcoming Xbox 360 launch
of Age of Conan, supporting AoC on the PC, their planned entry into casual
gaming, and The Secret World, their upcoming MMOG, which for now lives up
to its name by remaining mostly secret. He does say they are expanding the
development team for The Secret World at a steady pace, and that: "This is a
very exciting project for us, and the team working on it has been able to draw
on the innovations of Age of Conan for quite some time now – especially from a
technological standpoint." As for Age of Conan, he seems upbeat about the
changes they've implemented following the launch of the MMORPG, saying they've
seen "positive trends," but he is cagy when asked about their subscriber base,
as he is only willing to repeat previously released subscriber counts from back
in August.
The Movies
section on the Rise of the Argonauts Website now offers a new "allies"
launch trailer for Rise of the Argonauts, Liquid Entertainment's
action/RPG that will launch today in much of Europe and next week in North
America, though it was recently revealed that the game is not due
in the UK until February. The allies on display are the various mythological
figures who will help with your quests in the game, portraying Hercules,
Atalanta, Pan, and Achilles. Hercules was actually the Roman name for the hero
named Heracles in Greek mythology, but he's usually called Hercules in
portrayals of the Argonauts these days, and we're more than willing to forgive
departures from history if it means Pan won't be playing too much of his
panflute. The trailer is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
Storm Eagle Studios announces
JUTLAND is complete, and this sequel to the naval combat in DISTANT GUNS
is now available via digital distribution as a Standard Edition, or a
Professional Edition that expands the scope of the campaign and includes a
scenario editor. JUTLAND features World War I naval combat, and if you
feel like going ballistic, detailed trajectory modeling for each shell and bullet
fired in the game. A demo/trial version is also available, which features
unlimited play in two demo scenarios (multiplayer included), and an additional
17 scenarios that can be previewed and played for 10 minutes. The demo includes
the full content of each edition of the game, so it can be unlocked with the
online purchase of a game key.
The Digital Combat Simulator
Website is offering digital sales and distribution of an English version of
DCS: Black Shark, a combat flight simulator from Eagle Dynamics centered
around the Russian Ka-50 attack helicopter. Word is the game: "will offer an
unprecedented level of realism in regards to flight dynamics, instruments
modeling, avionics systems, and weapon systems. The artificial Intelligence of
ground vehicles and helicopters has been improved dramatically as well as weapon
modeling. A new Mission Editor includes a powerful electronic mapping system
that allows user to easily create missions and campaigns. A new campaign system
allows the front line of the battlefield to move back and fourth according to
your mission success or failure. Due to the increased flexibility of the DCS
system, additional fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter add-ons will follow
shortly." Thanks Jeff.
A Rockstar Games Social
Club Weekend kicks off this weekend, offering the chance to play Grand
Theft Auto IV online with its developers. This evening and Sunday afternoon
various folks from Rockstar will be online in the console versions of the
open-world action sequel, while tomorrow afternoon they will be playing on Games
for Windows Live. They offer a schedule of when the devs will be online along
with their Gamertags and PSN IDs. All Social Club members who log in and
participate at any time during the weekend will be eligible to win one of the 24
Rockstar prize packs being given away each day.
This page leads to the
rules for the giveaway translated into several languages.
Gaming
Performance Versus Antivirus Software on ExtremeTech tests out various
current antivirus programs in a gaming environment, noting that many gamers do
not run such programs while gaming due to performance considerations. They test
how this conventional wisdom holds up using both synthetic benchmarks and real
games, and they check out the new gamer modes a couple of AV products now offer
to see if they help.
A new Dragon Age: Origins "Grey Wardens" trailer offers a cinematic
sequence to promote BioWare's upcoming role-playing game, showing a lull in a
battle that looks like it resulted in a high body count. The clip is available
on ActionTrip,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
A follow-up visit to the vet yesterday confirmed that Hudson the wonder dog is
healing properly following her surgery, and can resume normal activity. Of
course, as far as she is concerned, normal activity resumed as soon as the
anesthetic wore off, but we've tried to keep her relatively subdued on doctor's
orders (go ahead, you try to subdue an Airedale Terrier!). The vet did suggest
we wait three or four days before giving her a bath, a flattering implication
that this is something that happens more than infrequently, but other than that,
we can just make like she's doing and pretend the whole thing never happened.
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