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Archived News:
The Crysis December
Monthly Update #8 looks like it squeaked under the wire on the last day of
the month. Most of the content is familiar, but it concludes with a look forward
at plans for the next patch and the SDK: To those of you that celebrate
new year on the 31st December, we wish you all a happy new year, and we'd also
like to give you a special treat, about what's to come in the new year. The
Editor and SDK are being worked on and will be available for release in the new
year, we currently don't know when this will be, but good progress is being made
and we're hoping it will be sooner rather than later. Crysis Warhead will
receive a patch in the new year, it's almost finished thanks to some hard work
from the Warhead team, so thats something to look forward to.
MyCrysis will be seeing plenty of updates to the website and lots more content
all round, and Crymod will be getting a lot more interaction from the
developers, and hopefully some chances for you guys to directly communicate with
them about your map, mod and other work.
2K Games has posted a coupon for $10.00 off select games from 2K Games, 2K
Sports, and 2K Play through the end of this month at participating US retailers.
The coupon is posted on the 2K Games
and 2K Sports websites, and can be
applied towards the purchase of NBA 2K9 (PC, 360, PS3), NHL 2K9 (360,
PS3, Wii), BioShock (PS3), Civilization: Revolution (PS3, 360), Civilization
IV: Colonization (PC), Carnival Games (Wii, DS), Carnival Games MiniGolf
(Wii), and Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess (Wii, DS). Those
interested in more than one of those titles can print multiple copies of the
coupon, so no one needs to struggle choosing between BioShock and Dora Saves the
Snow Princess.
The Left 4 Dead Blog has
a post from a couple of days ago about the art direction in Valve's multiplayer
zombie shooter, following up as part two off a series that began in November
with an article on "filmic"
effects. The new piece discusses the game's "stylized darkness," and how
they used the game's dark setting to their advantage in creating gameplay, as
well as aesthetics.
EA has released the minimum system requirements for The Sims 3, which
will actually require a 21st computer or laptop to run. The minimum desktop spec
is a 128 MB GeForce FX 5900 or Radeon 9500 graphics card running on a Pentium IV
2.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2000+ CPU with 1 GB of RAM under Windows XP (sp2) or a
Pentium IV 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP 2400+ CPU with 1.5 GB of RAM under Windows Vista
(sp1). The laptop specs call for a 128 MB GeForce Go 6200 or Radeon mobile 9600
graphics running on a Pentium IV 2.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2000+ CPU with 1.5 GB of
RAM under XP or a Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or Athlon XP 2400+ CPU and 2.0 GB of RAM
under Vista.
The Wind Slayer Website
is now accepting applications for closed beta testing of Outspark's upcoming
fantasy-themed MMORPG, with testing slated to get underway on Wednesday. This
offers the chance to check out the game for free, since when it launches later
this year, the game will be, well, free.
Computer
and Video Games spoke with Beautiful Game Studios general manager Roy
Meredith, who says they have suffered an approximate 90% piracy
rate with their Championship Manager series of football/soccer
simulations, claiming this is a very accurate estimate, though the reasons for
this certainty are not offered: "That's not just a number in the air, we can
measure it and we know that there are a huge amount of pirated copies."
Interestingly, his thoughts on addressing this include revisiting the game's
price point, not just its copy protection: "There are actually other ways of
dealing with piracy too; One is to compete price-wise. We haven't got to pay
royalties to Sony or Microsoft, so we can go into territories and price
compete." Championship Manager 09 is currently expected for release
in April.
The Sandswept Studios Website
reveals development of DETOUR, their debut game, offering scant details
that are fleshed out a bit in a
subsequent update, which reveals this to be a real-time strategy game based
around road construction. Details like target platforms and release dates are
still not provided, but they do offer the game's theme music as an mp3, and in
an unusual twist, also as sheet music. Here's a bit on the game: DETOUR is
a road-oriented Real-Time Strategy game that takes a satirical twist on highway
construction, environmental activist groups, and cartoon humor. Players compete
against each other and/or AI opponents to outsmart and out-build them. The goal
is to build a road to the opposite side of the board and successfully deploy a
delivery truck, without being stopped, and at the same time, stop your opponents
from doing the same. The means of which we will discuss in good time.
With DETOUR we're putting a colorful twist on the RTS genre, creating a game
that is both simple to learn, and complex to master -- sort of like a chess game
with bombs. While we're not currently announcing the platform on which this game
is launching; with an endless amounts of unique strategies, a built-in map
editor, and online play, DETOUR is going to bring a great amount of
replayability and a whole new kind of fun.
Lenovo Brings Wii Functionality to PCs on PC World has word on Lenovo's
plans to unveil an all-in-one gaming machine at the CES that will offer
Wii-style remote functionality. The system will include a built-in 21"
iMac-style LCD monitor, an Intel CPU, wireless networking, Windows Vista;
and support for up to 4GB RAM and 1TB of storage for a starting price of around
$999.00 USD. Of course a catch here is that there aren't many PC games to take
advantage of motion-tracking, but their remote will also serve as an "air mouse"
and a VOIP handset, and they are also working on in-house software support, as
outlined in this excerpt: "We have an example of a bowling game [where]
you can wave the remote and that actually controls your game," said Ninis
Samuel, director of marketing strategy and programs.
The company is bundling some motion-based games with the PC to use with the
remote-based gaming controller. Titles of the games weren't immediately
available.
Lenovo is trying to capitalize on the trend of entertainment options merging
into the PC. Few are able to play motion-based games, which could make this
motion-based game controller a pioneer.
My New Year's Resolution: Play more games this year. We'll often engage in the
sport of game of the year nonsense here, but I just can't do so in good
conscience this year, since there are a number of them I haven't played. Of
course the news never stops, and keeping up with the ever changing scene is part
of the problem, so I'll have to find this gaming time from other sources: I
guess I'll look at cutting down on non-essential activities, like eating,
sleeping, or bathing.
R.I.P. Pat Hingle.
Gordon in the previous Batman movie series and a one-shot on just about every TV
series ever.
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