Archived News:
The Academy Of Interactive Arts & Sciences
has the nominees for the 12th annual AIAS awards, which will be presented during
the D.I.C.E. Summit, on February 19th at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, NV.
LittleBigPlanet leads the way with 10 nominations, and other games with
more than one nomination are Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Metal
Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Fallout 3, and Fable II.
The Independent Games
Festival Website lists the Student Showcase Finalists & Winners for the 11th
Annual Independent Games Festival, offering all the links and details to check
them out. The list is as follows: City Rain - Building Sustainability, The Color
of Doom, Dish Washington, Feist, Kid The World Saver, Tag: The Power Of Paint,
The Unfinished Swan, Where is My Heart?, Winds of Orbis, and Zeit². Thanks
Gamasutra.
A new version 0.85 of the Project Reality
modification for Battlefield 2 is now available. The new version adds new
weapons, maps, and vehicles, along with other new features, tweaks, and of
course, reality. Word is: "Thanks to the continued support from you, the
community and our dedicated team of testers, we have successfully corrected many
of the bugs and game-play issues in v0.8 with also adding several new features,
tweaks and assets. Please note that due to the size of the mod, we have split
the download into two parts: Core and Levels. You will need to download and
install both to run the mod."
GOG.com is offering a bundle
of the Jagged Alliance series as their sale this weekend for $24.99, or
more than 30% off their normal price. The bundle includes Jagged Alliance,
Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, Jagged Alliance 2, and Jagged
Alliance 2: Unfinished Business. As with all the games on their online
marketplace, they are all DRM-free and guaranteed to work with Windows Vista and
XP. Also, Steam News
announces a weekend deal where they're offering
Mount & Blade for 75%
off.
Steam News has word a
Left 4 Dead update is available, closing off a couple of exploits in Valve's
teamplay zombie shooter, including the melee weapon switch scam.
A new trailer from Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. shows the "Enhanced Reality
System" in the upcoming aerial combat game, presuming it's safe to fly while
experiencing enhanced reality. The clip is posted on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, and
Gamer's Hell.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Stardock reveals more details on next version of Impulse Reactor Two on Big
Download Blog is based on a conversation with Stardock's Brad Wardell, who
explains how the next version of their Impulse Reactor software will offer
developers an alternative form of online activation for game installations,
described as a way to easily sell a game online and at retail simultaneously.
Under the plan, game owners would register their game and email address on the
Impulse servers so that subsequent installations could be authenticated via
re-entering that email address. Impulse Reactor is free to developers who
distribute online via Impulse, and this authentication service would be
implemented via a simple .dll, and is characterized as a way to protect an IP
without DRM problems.
Videogaming247 contacted Electronic Arts following the re-opening
of the Battlefield Heroes beta test to ask when DICE's subscription-free
online shooter will go live. Seems we can expect them to announce a release date
right around the same time we can expect our brother-in-law to pay us back,
which is "soon," as they say "No release date confirmed as yet for Heroes.
Should be more news on this soon."
GamesIndustry.biz announces that Eidos has closed its Manchester studio, the
mobile game developer formerly known as Rockpool Games; leaving its staff of 14
jobless. Of the move, Eidos says, "in these incredibly challenging and
competitive times we need to pro-actively manage our cost base," and, "This
decision was a difficult one to make and we would like to thank these employees
for their hard work and we wish them well in their future careers."
A new version 1.988 of Evochron Renegades is now available on the
official homepage of this space combat and trading game. A number of bug
fixes are in the new version, and as always, the patch also serves as a playable
demo. Also now available is a corresponding updated dedicated server program.
StarCraft II Q&A Batch 48 on Battle.net offers the latest answers to
fan-submitted questions about StarCraft II, Blizzard's upcoming RTS
sequel. Topics include environmental effects, interface options for users with
physical issues, lack of multi-monitor support, the possibility custom maps will
enter the ladder rotation, and more. Thanks
StarCraftWire.Net.
The
Gridrunner+++ interview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun talks with Jeff Minter about
Llamasoft's plan to release an updated version of Gridrunner+++ for the PC:
"Well, there are a few advantages to prioritising PC development. We can be much
more thorough in testing and tweaking gameplay, since we can run a closed beta
with a reasonable sized bunch of testers since everybody’s already got a PC,
you’re not stuck with trying to find people with devkits and time (unusual that
those two things go together). There’s unavoidable slack in the console
development cycle that simply isn’t there when you’re running PC dev with a
bunch of testers you can get in immediate contact with and who are happy to
pound on your game. Not having to go through such rigorous vetting, scrutiny and
rating means that you can get a PC title completed a good few months ahead of a
console title."
Mod DB now offers downloads of Predator: Heat of the Jungle, a modification
for Crysis that is definitely not based on an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie about
a predatory alien stalking the jungle (in case any movie studio lawyers are
reading). The current version of the mod is alpha 0.2. Thanks Ant.
Edge Online - Should Publishers Charge for Game Demos?
"Such a move would cause outrage among gamers. But how justifiable is this
outrage? How is offering $10 of playable content before the release of a
game, worse than offering it as an add-on after the release of the game? Of
course, anyone who bought the first episode would have paid an extra $10
for, effectively, the same content. But they'd really have paid it for the
right to play that content prior to the game's release. They would have
always had the option to wait for the full release."
Ten Ton Hammer - AoC
Server Merges- Is the Sky Falling Yet?
"The truth is that server merges are very common and not at all unexpected
after a game launch. MMOGs generally experience a burst of excitement and
high head counts at their release and for the first couple of months after.
Not being overly prepared for this would be a sin in the eyes of the
community so of course developers are going to make sure there is plenty of
room for everyone. Inevitably, subscriptions will decline and this leaves
servers with lightened loads scaring off more players who are unwilling to
ride the wave of gaming ups and downs. To keep the server communities
healthy for both the players and the marketplace, merges are needed."
I got a gift card to Nordstrom's for my birthday, and just when I thought I
wouldn't find anything fun (since it's mostly clothing), we stumbled across a
Mova globe, which is now residing on my desk. The thing is solar powered, and
almost as interesting a desk decoration as my lava lamp, without the conspicuous
power consumption. This
YouTube video
shows this off better than I can explain it. Of course, we saw a similar globe
on sale in Brookstone after for a much lower price, but this one has a spiffy
crystal base, and of course, made use of my gift card.
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