Archived News:
Videogaming247 has some indications they've collected that Criterion is
creating a sequel to Black, their Xbox and PlayStation2 first-person shooter. This is
based on reports from Eurogamer Portugal
and
Xbox 360 Play Diaries that a listing for Black: Second Mission showing a
2009 release for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC briefly appeared on the
Criterion Website before being
yoinked. On the other hand, it was earlier this year that Burnout Paradise lead
designer Craig Sullivan said: "Sorry to disappoint you, but as we've mentioned
many times on our podcast we're not looking at making another Black game any
time soon." Of course plans change, so we shall see.
The APB Portal now points to a
low-bandwidth teaser site and a
high-bandwidth teaser site for APB,
Realtime Worlds' upcoming open world action game. All that's there for now is a
small blurb, a teaser image, and a listing that says the game's release date is
"TBC" ("to be confirmed" - I had to look that one up). Here's the blurb:
APB is an action based massively multiplayer online title being developed
by Realtime Worlds (creators of the award winning Xbox 360 title Crackdown). The
game utilizes cutting edge technology (UnrealEngine3) in order to bring the
polish of next generation art and gameplay into the massively multiplayer online
space.
The game is set in a fictitious modern day metropolis and focuses on the
conflict between two factions: Enforcement and Criminals. The game itself
centers on player versus player combat and will be the first massively
multiplayer online title where player skill determines character progression as
opposed to the traditional model of time investment.
APB is arguably one of the largest and most ambitious independent game projects
in development worldwide.
The Iron Grip: Warlord Website now
offers The Winter Offensive, a free expansion for Iron Grip: Warlord,
Isotx's real-time strategy/first-person shooter hybrid. The expansion available
automatically via their CrosuS service, and
it is also available for
download here
along with an updated demo. The patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming, and
Gamer's Hell. The
updated demo that includes the new content in the add-on is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming, and
Gamer's Hell. The
Windows dedicated server is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
The Game Reviews has some interesting insights from recent financial reports
from Midway Games, which was recently sold and
devalued, suffering the threat of bankruptcy and
job cuts. They point out that amid all this, the company still has
one executive making over a half-million dollars a year, and perhaps more
interesting is the compensation package earned by the CEO that captained this
ship onto the rocks: According to filings with the SEC, former President
and CEO David F. Zucker made over $4.5 million in the past two years. This
includes over $3 million in stock options and sold stock. Since 2003, Zucker has
made just under $11 million.
The filings address his massively disproportionate compensation specifically,
stating that extra compensation was awarded in order “to motivate Mr. Zucker to
devote all of his energies to the company.” Since 2006, Midway’s stock value has
dropped from nearly $23 to 18 cents. Zucker left Midway in March.
Baldur's Gate
Memories on RPG Vault marks the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the
release of Baldur's Gate to talk with four folks from BioWare's Dragon Age
Origins team, three of whom contributed to the Baldur's Gate series. They
discuss memories of Baldur's Gate even as they work on the game dubbed its
spiritual successor, harkening back to a simpler time: "It was an afternoon, and
we were about two months from shipping BG. Back then, there were only about 30
people at BioWare, so all we had was a single Millennium Falcon-type hallway
with cords and wires scattered all over the place. We were all in a strange
state mentally, the kind that only working 100-hour weeks can bring about. I was
sitting at my desk making some toast when all of a sudden, my computer shut
off... and it wasn't long before I began hearing angry noises from the hallway."
Happy Festivus!
TheTechLounge is having trouble meeting their Toys for Tots goal, so we thought
it would be nice to try to help them out a little more, please lend a hand if
you can:
IDW Publishing announces an April,
2009 launch for a five comic miniseries based on American McGee's Grimm,
the episodic fairy tale inspired game on
GameTap. The series, written by Dwight MacPherson and illustrated by Grant
Bond, will successively insert the Grimm character into five different comic
genres, some of which are no longer around. "Crisis on Earth 57," the debut
issue, will be set in the world of superhero comics, followed by issues
featuring romance, westerns, "teenage high-school comics," and "anthropomorphic
comics" (okay, most of them are no longer around), and word is: "In each issue,
Bond's art style will reflect the archetypal art form of these traditional
universes before Grimm's dark influence fully takes over the comic." American
McGee says: "It's great fun to see the transformative 'Grimm effect' applied to
narrative universes outside the Brothers Grimm tales. The world needs more of
this -- exposure to the gritty, sometimes painful truth of the human condition
-- be it in Red Riding Hood's well-earned demise, or the reversal of 'good guys
win' scenarios that we all know to be far from everyday reality."
The Witcher Official
Website now offers a hotfix for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition,
addressing two specific problems in CD Projekt RED's action/RPG. Word is: "The
hotfix resolves problems related to EAX technology, which did not operate
properly in conjunction with the game and generated critical errors when
activated in the Game Options panel, and also eliminates the blur remaining
after cut scenes and dialogue sequences on certain system configurations." The
patch is mirrored on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, and
Gamer's Hell.
A new patch for Space Empires updates the US edition of Malfador
Machinations' 4X space strategy sequel to version 1.77 with a handful of bug
fixes. The patch is available from
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
JoWooD Productions has released the promised new patch for
Gothic 3 – Forsaken Gods, updating the RPG expansion to version 1.07, saying
the patch fixes current problems and improves overall stability. They recommend
reinstalling the game before applying the patch, and say that existing save
games should be deleted, as they cannot be used with the new version. The
English version of the patch can be downloaded from
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's
Hell, and The
Patches Scrolls. The patch for the German edition is posted on
AtomicGamer,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's
Hell, and The
Patches Scrolls.
GOG.com announces special deals
from their catalog of DRM-free good old games. They now offer the following
Holiday Special Bundles
for $9.98 each: Fallout & Fallout 2; Descent 1, Descent
2, & Descent 3 (including the Mercenary expansion);
Stonekeep & Lionheart; Freespace 1 (including the Silent
Threat mission pack) & Freespace 2; or MDK & MDK2. They
also announce the additions of
Patrician 3 and
Oddworld: Abe's
Exoddus to their online store and the addition of an
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee retrospective for your reading pleasure.
GameTap's usual schedule of new release
news on Thursday now runs afoul of the calendar, as both Christmas and New
Year's Day fall on Thursdays this year. They have pushed things up a bit to
compensate, and have now added Stronghold Crusader Extreme and Al Emmo
and the Lost Dutchman's Mine for subscribers, and for one week only have
re-added Overlord
to their catalog of free offerings. Also, as announced last week,
A Christmas Carol, the most recent episode of
American McGee's
Grimm, will remain free-to-play through the end of the year.
Analyst issues discount price warning reports on a warning issued by
industry analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital over discounts to "AAA" games
over the holiday season, pointing to a $10.00 price reduction for Call of Duty:
World at War as in illustration of a possible trend, saying: "we believe a USD
10 discount on one of the industry’s top holiday releases highlights the risk of
lower software pricing moving into the New Year." Obviously the "warning" part
applies to the business side of things, as consumers will welcome price cuts,
but as for business, as a result, Lazard has cut its earning estimates for
Activision Blizzard by about 10%, though Sebastion remains more bullish on them
than their competition: "To put our new estimates into perspective, the combined
change to EPS from our two recent revisions is -10 per cent, compared to a -40
per cent revision in estimates for Electronic Arts and THQ, and consensus
estimates for Take Two declining by more than 90 per cent last week."
The Exclusive DICE Interview
with CyberGamer chats with Richard Lawes, Karl Magnus Troedssen, and Barrie
Tingle of DICE about the state of the Battlefield series. A lot of the
conversation concerns upcoming changes, talking about what will be done about
the use of macros in Battlefield 2 and why they've decided to create
another patch for Battlefield 2142, as well as topics like other
conflicts the series might visit, console support, whether physics support
impedes innovation.
A new patch is now available for X3: Terran Conflict, updating EGOSOFT's
space combat sequel to version 1.4. The new version adds features, balance
tweaks, performance improvements, and bug fixes; and also integrates the
player-created "Gazz's Turret Fixing Mod." Full details on the new version are
in these patch notes,
and the patches are located in the
EGOSOFT Downloads
Section, where it is warned that this patch does not apply to the Steam
edition, which will update automatically when the appropriate patch is
available. Downloads of the full version 1.01-1.4 patch are also mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell; while the incremental version 1.3-1.4 patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
GamesIndustry.biz has PC game sales figures from NPD for the week ending
December 13 in the US. The Sims beats out the World of Warcraft, three
SKUs to two, but the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW is
king: 1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. Spore
3. Call of Duty: World at War
4. Left 4 Dead
5. Fallout 3
6. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
7. The Sims 2: Apartment Life
8. Bejeweled Twist
9. World of Warcraft Battle Chest
10. The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden
Battlefront now offers new patches for Combat Mission Shock Force,
updating the turn-based strategy game or its Marines expansion to version
1.11. The new versions now pre-compute turns and add a new suppressive fire
function to the AI, along with a number of other improvements and bug fixes. The
patch for the original game is
on this page, while the patch for those who have installed the Marines
module is available on
this page.
Vanguard Players Website outlines another program to invite former players
back to check out the latest changes to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, SOE's
fantasy-themed MMORPG, and to enjoy the
Festival of Gloriann. Word is players whose accounts have been inactive for
45 days or more have had their accounts reinstated, and can play for free
through the end of January. Those who no longer have their game disks can access
the game through the
Vanguard Trial, which also offers new players 14 days of free play. Thanks
Massively.
Icelanders' struggle to survive after banking collapse on The Guardian has a
look at the impact of the current economic crisis on businesses in Iceland, a
country where the economy has been particularly impacted. Word is CCP may be
forced to move against its wishes: "On three shiny floors of a former fish
factory is CCP, a company best known in computer gaming for Eve Online, which
has 300,000 participants all over the world - as many inhabitants as Iceland
itself. However, restrictions on access to foreign currency for individuals and
businesses and on foreign investment into Iceland are making life difficult. "To
make new games, we need foreign investors," says Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, formerly
an assistant professor at the University of Akureyri, who supervises Eve's
virtual economy. "The present currency restrictions are putting us in a
straitjacket. We are in talks with the government, but if we can't let capital
in, we might be compelled to leave Iceland, even though this would be against
our wishes." Thanks
Massively.
The videos page on the X-Blades Website
offers a new clip showing off some of the hacking as well as the slashing in
TopWare's upcoming hack-and-slash game. Here's the clips anthropomorphic
description: "Before Ayumi goes off on her well-earned Christmas holiday to
recover from her many test-phase battles against Boss opponents, our sexy
treasure huntress gave a film crew permission to film her daily routines." The
trailer is also available for download from
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's
Hell, and
MyGameTrailers.
A new version 2.9.7 of FRAPS is now
available, offering an update to this utility that allows the capturing of
screenshots and movies from within most games while also providing a framerate
benchmark. The 2.9x versions add support for Windows Vista and DirectX 10 games,
which provides an added benefit: "Since the Vista Desktop Window Manager (DWM)
runs through DirectX we have also added a new option to monitor the desktop
under Vista. You can now take screenshots and record video from the desktop just
like any other game or 3D application." Thanks Ant.
There's a Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Interview on
Adventure Classic Gaming talking with Mark Darin, lead designer on Telltale
Games' episodic game as well as Matt and Mike Chapman of the
Homestarrunner webcomic on which it
is based. Warning, beans are spilled: "We put all kinds of Easter eggs in the
game episodes. Every episode has secret content to find by experimenting with
inventory items or just poking around in the scenes. For example, in Episode 4:
Dangeresque3, if you click in a certain spot in Marzipan’s garden, you can dig
up a hidden onion with Bubs’ face on it and watch Strong Bad scream in response!
Easter eggs make the Homestarrunner.com website special and we thought we
wouldn’t be doing the series justice if we didn’t include them."
- F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin on
GameSpy and
IGN.
- Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures on
Eurogamer.
I've mentioned in the past this is a sleepy little town, but we have this one
local shopping center that hasn't enough spots in the parking lot to accommodate
busy days. It turns out yesterday was such a day, and after being forced to
experience this, I am convinced this parking lot may be the most dangerous bit
of road in the entire area. It also gets nasty, and I've actually heard blue
language from blue-haired ladies out there.
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