Archived News:
As noted on this page
for the Russian edition of Dark Sector, the rumored PC edition of
Dark Sector is now available for sale in Russia. A
translation of the page gives the rundown on all this in English, and the
page clearly shows the PC-DVD markings on the box, and offers PC system
requirements. Digital Extremes has still not commented on any of this, and it is
not clear if the Windows edition is headed to other territories. For the record,
the system requirements include Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or the Athlon 64 equivalent, 1
GB RAM, and a DirectX 9.0c/Shader 3.0-capable graphics card. Thanks Roman.
Report: EA
Black Box Lays Off Majority of Staff on Gamasutra has word that upward of
200 of the 350 employees at the one-time developer of the Need for Speed series
have been let go, which had been hinted at already.
Gamasutra
also reports that Microsoft has let go a large portion of the development team
at ACES Studio, the internal group behind the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.
A downloadable demo for Puzzle Quest: Galactrix offers another sample of
the sci-fi puzzle RPG dealie that also has a limited flash online
demo. The downloadable demo debuted on
Big Download, and mirrors are now available from
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FilePlanet (registration required), and
Gamer's Hell.
Steam announces the
release of Mayhem
Intergalactic on Steam, an independently developed turn-based strategy game
from Inventive Dingo. For the first week, they are offering the game at a 50%
discount. Word is: "Wage war on your friends and enemies in this simple and
engaging strategy game. Easy to learn and quick to play, Mayhem Intergalactic is
surprisingly strategic. Play against the computer, or duke it out with friends
over the internet. The universe shall be yours!"
Videogaming247 has word that of Ubisoft's post-earnings conference today
included the revelation that I Am Alive is delayed, and the survival game is now
part of the Fiscal 2010 lineup that's due before March 2010. You may recall the
game was listed with a Q1 2009 release date just yesterday, so
we're pretty sure this is some sort of record for quickest delay announcement
ever.
The cdv Software Entertainment Website now
offers free downloads of a Sacred 2: Fallen Angel "ebook" called Art and
Vision. Word is: "As a free gift to fans of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, cdv Software
Entertainment USA and Ascaron Entertainment are making available an e-book of
the game's 'Art and Vision' today. This lushly illustrated e-book showcases
hand-drawn character designs, renders and other artistic creations from the
game's diverse universe, while also showcasing the progression of Sacred 2:
Fallen Angel from an imaginative vision to an incredibly compelling RPG for
next-generation consoles and PC."
There's
a Postmortem of American McGee's Grimm on Gamasutra, though this is perhaps
more of a mid-mortem, as eight episodes in the series are yet to be released,
and the text of this article suggests it was written before the recent release
of the eight episode season two. The article discusses what went right and wrong
in development of the episodic adventure series, describing the technical hurdle
of using skeletal meshes with the UE3 engine, the ups and downs of working in
China, and more. An interesting element is how the game suffered a bit from some
nebulous roles in the leadership of the project, which seems odd for a game with
a designer's name in the title.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
It was 25 years ago today that
this commercial
(directed by Ridley Scott) had its single nationwide US television broadcast
during the Super Bowl.
New version 181.22 ForceWare reference drivers are now available for GeForce 6,
7, 8, 9, and 200-series desktop GPUs. These WHQL-certified drivers are
"recommended for the best GPU PhysX experience in EA’s hot PC title Mirror’s
Edge." There are new drivers for
Windows XP,
Windows XP x64,
Windows
Vista 32-bit, and
Windows
Vista 64-bit. Thanks Aemaeth.
Edge Online reports on Ubisoft's post-earnings conference call, in which Ubi
CEO Yves Guillemot confirms development of an Assassin's Creed sequel and a new
Ghost Recon game. Both games are on Ubi's schedule for release during
fiscal 2010, which ends March 2010, but Guillemot expresses the goal of getting
Assassin's Creed 2 out before the end of this year, praising the
first game in the stealth action series for outstripping their sales
expectations. He also apparently unofficially revealed plans for Red Steel II, a
sequel to their Wii shooter. No title was revealed for the new Ghost Recon game.
Thanks Mike Martinez.
Two new trailers from Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. show off some of the high
flying action in the upcoming aerial combat game. There's an "extreme maneuvers"
clip that's posted on
ActionTrip,
BiTT News, and
Gamer's Hell.
There's also an "air-to-air attack" clip that can be found on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
BiTT News, and
Gamer's Hell.
A new "desperation" trailer from The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark
Athena offers the lesson of the "opportunities" desperation can provide,
which basically seems to be the opportunity to shoot people in the coming return
of the Diesel-powered shooter series. The clip is posted on
ActionTrip,
BiTT News,
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell,
MyGameTrailers, and
Strategy Informer.
MCV
outlines Ubisoft's latest financial reporting, saying its €508 million in sales
for the third quarter of 2008-09 is an increase of 12.9% (or 17% per cent at
constant exchange rates) over last year, and Ubi's sales totals for the first
nine months of fiscal 2008-09 total €852 million, an increase of 19.8% (24.8% at
constant exchange rates). These results beat their projections, with Far Cry
2 and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party each selling well, though
Prince of Persia did not perform up to expectations. They offer outlook on
this from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot: "I think everyone was holding their breath
a little going into the holiday season but in the end the video game industry
did well, showing software sales growth in the UK of 23 per cent and consoles
sales growth of 14 per cent and that is good news. At Ubisoft, we were confident
that we had a line-up that offered games of quality to a diverse audience. And
the results show the solidity of our line-up. We came out of the season with 17
per cent growth (at a constant exchange rate) over last year and we are pleased
that we were able to outperform our targets. We are now looking forward to 2009
with our line-up aimed at continuing offering quality and innovative gameplay to
the widest possible audience."
Microsoft will be cutting 5,000 jobs following an 11 per cent year-on-year
decline in net profit, reports
MCV.
They say some 1,400 employees will be let go immediately, with 3,600 cuts to
follow over the next 18 months, which they hope will save them around $1.5
billion a year. Microsoft is not commenting at this time whether any of these
cuts will hit the Xbox operations of its Entertainment and Devices Division.
The amBX Developer Website now offers
free downloads of a PC SDK for amBX, the technology that uses special
peripherals to create environmental rumble, wind, and lighting effects for
games. This is not very widely supported yet, but freeing up the SDK may help
change that. Here's word on this software development kit: "It makes amBX very
approachable and this is a major step forward in game development. The whole
point of amBX is to immerse the player deeper into the game and the amBX SDK now
allows developers to harness and control the most powerful immersion experience
available in their games. The SDK makes a rather complex operation very simple
at extremely low cost."
Blizzard
Support now offers another new patch for StarCraft and its Brood
War expansion, continuing the relentless support for the old school RTS
game. The new version 1.61 patch address a few bugs and introduces a CPU
throttling feature, in case anyone finds that appealing. The patch is currently
only available for Windows, the MacOS patch is said to be "coming soon." The
game and add-on can both be updated automatically via Battle.net, and the manual
StarCraft patch is available on
ActionTrip
and AtomicGamer;
while the manual Brood War patch is posted on
ActionTrip and
AtomicGamer.
EA doubles down on the Spore franchise with a series of new 2009 spin-offs
outlines the next steps for the Spore franchise, which include more details on
the new Spore Galactic Adventures expansion pack, and word on plans for a
new game for youngsters called Spore Creature Keeper. They also have
aspirations for a Wii game called Spore Creature Heroes and a Spore game for the
DS. Here's word on Galactic Adventures: "If you don’t like these so-called
Planet Adventures, or if you play them until you get tired of them, you can
create your own adventures using what EA calls an Adventure Creator. You can use
that tool to essentially script out your own adventure. Bradshaw says many of
these ideas came from fans, who have uploaded more than 65 million creatures and
other creations to the Sporepedia. With the Adventure Creator, you can pretty
much give a make-over to the planet using a drag-and-drop interface and dictate
what happens on it." Also,
VideoGamer
reports that Maxis had plans to create a story-based expansion, a plan that
changed based on user feedback: "The original idea, I can't go into detail but
it was more of a fiction that gets layered over all of the games. Every game had
a little bit of a layer, some added fiction on top. But the assets just kept
coming in, and the community feedback and the critics feedback was just, 'More
gameplay, more to do'." Also,
Big Download Blog has some quotes from EA Maxis about the new projects.
The F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo is now available, offering the
promised sample of Monolith's horror-themed first-person shooter sequel. The
demo hasn't shown up on the official
website yet, but the 1.76 GB download can be found on
4players.de,
AtomicGamer,
AusGamers Files,
ComputerGames.ro, eXp
Download,
FanGaming, Gamer's Hell,
and
Games On Net.
The Whole Experience, Inc makes the
surprising revelation that they've revived Experience, the science
fiction first-person shooter they first announced a decade ago. We have
three
new screenshots from the game, which is set on a planet called Dagoth Moor,
where you are the Quagmire, the planetary custodian. They will be revealing more
soon, but in the meantime, here is the basic plot: "One massive Exod plant was
discovered by the Seers of the Renmus tribe. This plant was different than
anything they had ever seen before and it was moved into the safety of their
cave. For nearly a generation the plant continued to grow there in the Seers
home cavern. The elder Seer had heard of an old prophecy claiming that in a time
of need at the end of the world a stranger would come and restore balance to the
planet. There inside the massive Exod plant your body has finally grown and it
is time to fulfill that prophecy."
WoW
Insider reports on the new World of Warcraft update in a
report they are calling: "The disaster of patch 3.0.8." They describe numerous
problems, and state: "In short, patch 3.0.8 has been a disaster. If Blizzard
feels that this patch lives up to the quality of content they released in
Northrend (or if they, unbelievably, somehow though this was meant to be a
bugfix patch for Northend, that ended up screwing up more things than it fixed),
then they need to take a long, hard look at their quality assurance system
again." Thanks
Massively.
A new All Aspect Warfare Website
dedicated to All Aspect Warfare is live as a home for 3000AD's upcoming science fiction action
combat game. The site includes a new developer's blog on how the game is
progressing, and offers a whole bunch of new screenshots from a beta version of
the game.
European MMOG publisher gamigo AG announces Pirate Galaxy, a 3D
browser-based MMORPG with a science fiction theme that's currently in beta
testing. The Pirate Galaxy Website is
live with information, screenshots, and a trailer from the game, and word is
beta testing will open to all in the coming weeks. In spite of being entirely
browser-based, they express confidence that the game will offer a
state-of-the-art experience. As for gameplay, word is: "In the game, the player
takes the role of a daring starship pilot, exploring the galaxy and outlying
planets, hunting for worthwhile crystals and artefacts and fighting with other
players against malevolent alien species."
Mirror's Edge
Afterthoughts from 1UP.com is a Q&A with Tom Farrer from DICE about
Mirror's Edge, their parkour action game. They discuss the reasoning behind
why things are done the way they are in the game, and along the way get a hint
about an Easter egg: "There is one particularly odd one. There is something you
can do on level 8 that causes a rat the size of a bus to run down the street. It
is so obscure, though, so I doubt anyone will find it."
The
Zeno Clash Interview on Mod DB talks with ACE Team about Zeno Clash,
their upcoming melee combat game. They discuss the trials and tribulations of
being an independent developer, how they transitioned from mod development,
their use of the Source engine, creating proper first-person sighting mechanics,
and more. More details about game mechanics are promised in an upcoming second
part of this interview.
So I'm driving MrsBlue to the train station yesterday when we had a bit of a
scare. As we approached a couple of cars waiting at a traffic light, our car
demonstrated a noticeable reluctance to stop, even though we were going all of
about 10 mph. I could feel the anti-lock brakes pumping, but I don't think it
was due to the road being slippery, I think it may have been ice on our brakes,
but either way, it was a real heart-stopping moment as we came this close
(picture me holding my fingers really close together) to tapping the car
in front of us as I stood on the brake pedal with both feet. Obviously a
collision at that speed would have been trivial (all jokes about the other
driver claiming whiplash aside), but that was still far too much excitement for
first thing in the morning, or any other time for that matter.
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