Archived News:
The QuakeCon Website has details on next
year's installment in id Software's long-running gaming convention, saying the
event will run August 13-16, 2009 in the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX.
Online registration will begin at 9:30 pm EST on March 6, 2009, and as
usual, participation in the BYOC, tournaments, exhibits, conferences, and all
other events is free of charge. Though event registration is months off,
registration for hotel rooms is already underway, and there's a special
QuakeCon Reservation Page and the website also has instructions on how to get
the special rate for the event if you make phone reservations. Here's the
description, indicating Quake Live will be the feature attraction:
"QuakeCon will once again host North America's largest BYOC
(Bring-Your-Own-Computer) LAN party - with spots for nearly 3,000 gamers to hook
their systems up and play on our world-class network. Of course, it wouldn't be
QuakeCon without the drama and intensity of the big-money pro tournaments,
featuring id Software's new free-to-play, web-based multiplayer game QUAKE LIVE.
QuakeCon also offers non-stop fun and entertainment for those that don't bring
their own computer. The world's leading gaming and technology companies will be
on hand to demonstrate their latest hardware and software in the 35,000 square
foot exhibit hall, and every day of QuakeCon is packed with contests,
entertainment, announcements, panel discussions, and parties."
A new patch is now available for Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, updating
the turn-based strategy game to version 1.07.001, smoothing out some of the
game's jagged edges with "many gameplay tweaks and a fix to prevent the
“vanishing squad” icon bug appearing in new games started with this updated
version." Full details and the patch can be found on the
Matrix Games Website, and the patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The
winSPWW2 Website now offers a new patch for winSPWW2, updating either
the free or enhanced CD editions of this turn-based strategy game based on
Steel Panthers: World at War to version 3.5. Word is: "Bringing the game to
version 3.5, the upgrade patch is available for immediate download and weighs in
at 5.9 MB of digital excellence. The upgrade is for both the free download and
the Enhanced CD Edition. Please note that if you have missed out on previous
upgrade patches you must install the patches in their numeric order; patch
contents are not all inclusive." Downloads of the patch are mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
A local UK paper's website has follow-ups to this morning's
reports that Free Radical Design has closed. The official news is
that the company entered administration yesterday, and as many as 185 jobs are
at risk if the company goes under. Here's word from Cameron Gunn of
administrator Resolve Partners: "We will be spending the next three or four days
assessing the financial position of the company but it's business as usual,
although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton
crew remain at home." Gunn goes on to say: "All employees have been paid up
until the end of December and we hope to make another announcement before
Christmas or very soon thereafter, but we must stress at this stage that it's
business as usual." Thanks
Shacknews.
TweakTown reports that once-mighty motherboard manufacturer ABIT is shutting
down operations as of December 31. Word is: "Fast forward to this year and ABIT
were left with a single product line to try and keep the company from collapsing
– digital picture frames with the ability to print. They didn’t work out as
planned, there were rumors of ABIT re-entering the graphics card market once
again, but those rumors didn’t eventuate."
VSTEP announce the next installment in the Ship Simulator series will be Ship
Simulator 2010 Extremes, to be released in Summer of 2009. There are no
further details about the next version of this seafaring sim, but a teaser movie
offers a look. The clip can be found on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
The World of Warcraft Website
announces the availability of a 10-day free trail for World of Warcraft:
Wrath of the Lich King, offering the chance to get addicted to
sample the latest expansion for the incredibly popular MMORPG. This is not for
the uninitiated, however, as participating in the trial requires a full version
of World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade expansion, as well as a
character of at least level 55 (to create a Death Knight) or level 68 (to
explore Northrend).
This
FAQ has further details. Thanks Ant.
Spore Sculptor Website outlines how
to get a sculpture of one of your creations from Spore, EA's life
simulator. Creatures created with the Spore Creature Creator can be made into
sculptures up to 4" tall using Z Corporation’s 3D printing technology. The cost
of each sculpture is $49.50.
VideoGamer.com
has a release schedule for Take-Two's fiscal 2009, which concludes at the end of
October next year. Included is a listing for Mafia II for PC, Xbox 360,
and PlayStation 3 and a listing for BioShock 2, though target platforms
are still not specified for the waterlogged objectivist first-person shooter
sequel. Other games on the list include Gearbox's multiplatform shooter
Borderlands and The Lost and Damned Xbox 360 DLC for Grand Theft
Auto IV. Thanks Mike Martinez.
GameSpot has word that
Take-Two's 2K Games has dropped plans to publish Cryptic's upcoming MMORPG
Champions Online that were announced during the summer. It has
been widely speculated that this move would occur following Atari's
acquisition of Cryptic as it seems obvious to assume Atari would prefer to
publish the game themselves, and sure enough, the article quotes Take-Two
president Ben Feder from a post-earnings conference call with analysts saying:
"We no longer intend to publish the MMOG Champions Online due to Atari's
acquisition of Cryptic."
Oxygen Games announces CID The Dummy, a new multiplatform action game
based on the anthropometric test devices also known as Crash Test Dummies. The
game is to be released in Q1 2009, and a playable demo is available even as you
read these words. A CID The Dummy Website
is online with information and media, and
a batch of screenshots accompany the announcement, which describes gameplay
involving puzzles as well as combat. Here's a bit: "Interact as only a crash
impact dummy can. Climb walls, swing on ropes, burn obstacles, destroy exploding
barrels, use lifters, bounce on springs and with a neat head butt destroy walls
all in stunningly realized environments. Game environment interaction is the
most important part of the gameplay." Word on the demo is it: "contains a
tutorial to let you get a hang of CID with his tricks, skills and weapons and
then it lets you unleash what you’ve learned onto one of the best (and
scariest!) levels from the game – The Graveyard!" The 275 MB download is
available from
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The Spore Website now
offers downloads of the promised de-authorization tool for
Spore, which allows users to manage the digital rights management in the
life simulator. They say: "You can de-authorize at any time, even without
uninstalling Spore, and free up that machine authorization. If you re-launch
Spore on the same machine, the game will attempt to re-authorize. If you have
not reached the machine limitation, the game will authorize and the machine will
be re-authorized using up one of the five available machines." This is a Windows
utility, Mac owners are told to check back for a future update to cover their
needs. Thanks
Voodoo Extreme.
As noted on the
Command & Conquer Forum, the recently promised patch is now
available for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, updating the real-time
strategy expansion to version 1.02. The update is available automatically from
within the game, but there are also manual patches for the million different
localized editions of the game, these can be downloaded from the
Command & Conquer Website or the mirrors on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and The Patches
Scrolls.
GOG.com offers holiday gifts in
the form of the free releases of
Beneath a Steel Sky
and Lure of the
Temptress, two point-and-click adventure games from Revolution Software. The
free releases from the developers of the Broken Sword series represent a
discount of (calculates) infinity over Good Old Games' typical $5.99 and $9.99
price points. Though free, the games are still Windows Vista and Windows XP
compatible, and contain no digital rights management. Word is: "Both games were
developed by Revolution Software and famously introduced the Virtual Theatre
game engine, which enabled non-playable characters to interact with the
environment without players interaction. The two games have been wrapped with
GOG.com's smooth and slick installers, and “Beneath a Steel Sky” even includes
Dave Gibbons’ comic book inspired by the game itself."
A cinematic trailer from Wheelman offers a theatrical-style look at the
upcoming action driving game. Word is: "As highlighted in the trailer, Wheelman
stars Vin Diesel as an undercover agent and highly skilled driver who must
infiltrate the Barcelona underworld to gather intelligence surrounding a covert
heist. Posing as a driver-for-hire, he ends up caught in a crossfire of
corruption and chaos while trying to stay one step ahead of local law
enforcement and rival gangs." The clip is available from
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
GameTap now
offers A Christmas Carol, this week's episode of American McGee's
Grimm, the adventure game series based on the Grimm fairy tales (or in this
case a Dickens novella). In the spirit of occasion, this episode is free through
the end of the year so you can play it over Christmas. Here's word: "In this
very special Christmas episode of American McGee's Grimm, our dark anti-hero and
history revisionist corrupts Dickens' classic tale, A Christmas Carol. If you
thought Ebenezer Scrooge was bad, you haven't met Grimm!"
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Free Radical Design has closed, saying
they've heard this from "multiple sources," including a report that staff
arrived at work to find the doors locked and a note telling them to attend a
final company meeting at a nearby hotel. They recap their recent reassurances
from Free Radical about the company's situation, but say that their calls over
the past couple of days have gone unanswered. The developer was working on
TimeSplitters 4 and an unannounced project for LucasArts, and the story also
reflects rumors that the LucasArts project is Star Wars Battlefront III,
and that development of the sequel to this Star Was action game has already been
shifted to Rebellion, developers of Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
for the PSP.
Fallen Earth Announces Sign-Ups for Alpha Testing on the Fallen Earth Forums
has word that all registered forum members are now eligible to participate in
alpha testing of this science fiction MMORPG. Remember, it's all fun and games
until someone pokes an eye out, so the offer comes with this warning: "Although
we are on our way to a completed product, our testers must expect many bugs
while we are in Alpha phase. We strive to fix these as quickly as possible but
ask that you be patient while we work. This is not a preview or demo; this is
chance to help us find as many bugs as possible during test phases so that we
can make the best game possible for you. As testers, the information you provide
can make or break our success."
NDOORS announces new content for
Atlantica Online,
their MMO turn-based strategy game: "NDOORS Interactive has expanded the game
with its first major content upgrade, dubbed the “Next Frontier.” For the past
month since the game launched, Atlantica adventurers have battled and explored
some of the ancient civilizations of the Eastern Hemisphere. Now they will cross
the oceans into the Americas, where they will encounter monsters drawn from the
myths and legends of the American Old West and Aztecs. In addition to new
geographic regions being added, new mercenaries will be made available. The
level cap has also been increased from 100 to 120." They are also running a
Christmas event in the subscription-free MMOG.
There's a
Battlefield interview on Total Gaming Network talking with DICE about
upcoming support plans for the Battlefield series. They discuss efforts at
competing cheats, plans for a version 1.51 patch for BF 2142 to include security
measures from the latest Battlefield 2 patch, and plans for a new unnamed map
for Battlefield 2 for which they have some screenshots.
There are new F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin interviews on
3dzone and
Strategy Informer, each playing what would you say with Dave Matthews about
Monolith's upcoming first-person shooter sequel. Strategy Informer asked about
multiplayer support, and here's the response: "We don’t have co-op. We thought
about it a while back and we tried it, but ultimately getting two people to
experience the same combat - that’s great - but the horror aspect always felt
watered down, so we made a conscious decision to keep FEAR 2 single-player, so
that we could tailor the emotional responses. With regard to multiplayer, I’d
love to tell you all of the features of multiplayer, but I can’t (keep an eye
out for our multiplayer hands-on in a few days). Very soon we’re going to have a
big announcement about it. What I can tell you is that we’ve been playing it for
months and we’re not sick of it. We love it, and there’s a lot of cool stuff
we’re doing with multiplayer that’s really fresh. I think people are going to
like it."
- Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge on
Games32.
- Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - 8-Bit Is Enough on
Gaming Nexus.
Well my cable modem is operational again, but it's not 100%. I'm not getting my
full bandwidth, but that's not the problem, since even a fraction of this pipe's
usual fatness is impressive, but there is a noticeable lag when connecting to
websites and the such, which seems to be packet loss. All in all it's all
workable, but just a trifle annoying.
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