Archived News:
Spiderweb Software announce the release of
Geneforge 5:
Overthrow for Windows, the concluding chapter in this role-playing series.
Here's their overview of the game: "Geneforge 5: Overthrow has a huge, open
storyline. You can choose to serve one of five different factions, each of which
has its own path to bring the war to an end. There are dozens of different
endings and paths to victory. Help the rebels or fight them. Kill your opponents
or use stealth and diplomacy. Focus on the storyline or simply seek wealth and
carnage. No matter how you play, Geneforge 5 offers an epic adventure with
plenty of replay value." A playable demo is also available, which is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro, and
Gamer's Hell.
Focus Home Interactive announces Dungeon
Party has entered open beta testing, offering a crack at this zany
subscription free MMORPG. There's a new video celebrating the opening of the
beta, described thusly: "Cyanide Studios and Focus Home Interactive are pleased
to offer an exciting new video of Dungeon Party -- giving you a complete glimpse
at what is waiting for you in this crazy game where fun is king! This video will
show you some of the available character customization options, along with the
highly charged atmosphere that's omnipresent inside the game's dungeons, where
teams of heroes are fighting to capture the Chest." The movie is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
EA: We've learned our lesson on release dates on GamesIndustry.biz talks
with Glen Schofield of EA's Redwood Shores studio, who indicates that he thinks
the industry finally agrees with game fans who have been saying for years that
targeting the holidays for every major game release doesn't make much
sense: "I think the industry has finally gone, 'Wow, we could probably
just come out just like the movies do'. Movies launch on Christmas day, they
launch blockbusters during the summer, and we're now learning that we could
probably launch a game at any time, and if it's a good game it will be well
received.
"I think that we traditionally thought that people only buy games at Christmas
or around holiday time, and now we're looking back and going, 'You know what,
GTA launched in May; Resident Evil comes out in March'."
Joystiq has an excerpt from an interview with id Software's John Carmack,
who says they have an outside contractor working on Mac and Linux support
in the browser-based shooter, though he says compatibility: "is going to be a
much bigger factor in [the Mac and Linux markets] for people wanting to play the
game than it is on the Win32 market where you have so many more options." The
story also includes word from id's Marty Stratton that the game currently works
in Google Chrome "with some glitchiness," but that he suspects Chrome full
support will eventually arrive.
Steam News has word that
another new update is now automatically available for Team Fortress 2,
their multiplayer shooter. The update addresses several bugs, and includes two
tweaks: Removal of the damage reduction against non-stunned enemies with the new
Scout bat, and players with full health can now pick up dropped sandviches.
The Battlefield
Heroes Website has news that all beta keys for those who signed up for the
Battlefield Heroes beta through QA Boss have been sent out. This means
they are preparing to send keys for those who applied as testers directly
through their website, saying: "It’s going to take us a couple of days to soak
in this new flood of players. After that we will be ready to steadily start
sending out keys to everyone who has been patiently waiting since signing up on
January the 21st."
The Savage 2: A
Tortured Soul Forum has word that a new version 1.80 is live in S2 Games'
action/strategy sequel. That thread offers discussion of the patch, and
this post
includes the complete change list for the new version.
There's a video teaser
for Ulduar on the World of Warcraft Website, introducing the new raid
dungeon in the upcoming content patch for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the
Lich King. Word is: "Check out the video now to get a taste of some of the
environments and denizens that wait within this ancient Titan structure."
A new movie from DC Universe Online introduces the Doomsday, one of the
supervillains in the upcoming comic-inspired MMORPG, describing the character,
how he fits in the DC comics universe, and his role in the game. The clip is
available on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
The
Battlefield 1943 interview on Gamasutra talks with Patrick Liu of DICE about
Battlefield 1943, the project Patric describes as an "experiment that turned out
too good not to release." Topics include plans for digital distribution,
regenerative health (which he optimistically calls "just another kind of
depth"), how the game will fit in the Battlefield hierarchy, download size,
plans for a summer 2009 release, and more.
There's a
Need for Speed Online Interview on the Need for Speed Website discussing the
upcoming Asian launch of the MMO racing game, and the launch in the west to
follow. One relevant question is about their previous experience with Motor
City Online: "We tried an online game with American muscle cars on a
subscription basis. Some of the experience and the things we learned about the
community features will translate, but NFS World has some marked differences.
The new game plays in an open-world environment with a huge number of cars and
events. Modes such as Co-op, Team Events and presence of cops all provide a very
different experience than Motor City Online delivered." Thanks Gamer's Hell.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Spider-Man
musical set for 2010. Thanks Mike Martinez. My spidey-sense is tingling to beat the
band. And not in a good way.
Tom Clancy's EndWar is now available for digital distribution via the
Ubisoft Digital Store, and it looks like it is also available
on Steam. Also, a new
EndWar launch movie features cinematics and gameplay from the PC edition of the
Tom Clancy real-time strategy game. The clip is posted on
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell, and
MyGameTrailers.
A new Stormrise movie profiles the line-of-sight features intended to
help console playability in the post-apocalyptic real-time strategy game under
construction at Creative Assembly. The clip is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Stardock announces the Entrenchment "micro-expansion" for Ironclad's
Sins of a Solar Empire is now available for online purchase and download on
Stardock's Impulse service. Here's a
description: "Entrenchment adds a host of new features including starbases,
defense upgrades, a new defense technology tree, mine fields, and hundreds of
enhancements to both the gameplay and graphics of the game." Of course, the
original Sins of a Solar Empire is required to play. Word is Ironclad has plans
for further micro-expansions over the next year.
A playable demo is now available for The Last Remnant (aka THE LAST
REMNANT), offering the chance to sample the upcoming PC edition
of Square Enix's fantasy-themed RPG. Word is: "The Games for Windows version
boasts a host of new features, these include; giving the player the choice to
select Japanese or English voice-overs, improved character animations, the
ability to allow multiple leader units to form unions and faster gameplay during
battles." The 1 GB download is available on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileShack,
Gamer's Hell, and
Games On Net.
There is also a benchmark utility to test your system's worthiness, which is
available on AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro, and
Gamer's Hell.
A new trailer from Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood offers a look at the
upcoming wild west shooter prequel in the works at Techland. "Call of Juarez:
Bound in Blood is going to heat things up this summer," is the accompanying
quote from Tony Key of publisher Ubisoft, who goes on to say: "With all of the
makings of an epic Western, this game will remind players what the genre is all
about – outlaws, duels, treasure and women, and will leave them wanting more."
The clip is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The
World of Warcraft Test Realm Patch Notes have been updated to reflect a new
version 3.1.0 patch that now on the test realm for Blizzard's MMORPG. The notes
outline new features like the ability of ground mounts to swim with a rider, the
new Uldar area, dual talent specialization, a new gear manager, and a healthy
list of balance changes.
Valve announces Braid will be released via Steam when the Windows
edition of puzzle platformer is released on March 31. Word is this version will
support Steamworks: "Created by Jonathan Blow, Braid is a multi-award winning
title that blends platform and puzzle game play with time manipulation. The game
features a rich story and plays out across seven unique worlds, each its own
time-based game mechanic. The Steam version of Braid will also leverage
Steamworks for integration of Achievements and Steam Community features."
ESA fees jumped 1,700% from
'06-'08 on GameSpot outlines some details about the financial ups and downs
of the Entertainment Software Association as the trade group has downsized and
then re-upsized the format of E3 of the past few years. The headline highlights
the fact that as E3 income has dropped, income from membership fees has
increased, and the article's math is actually generous to come up with that 1700%
figure, as the ESA's income from membership fees has risen that much over the
past three years, but a dwindling membership over that time would suggest fees were raised by an even greater percentage.
David Kondor's LinkedIn Page
has another indication that Obsidian's Aliens RPG has been axed,
following rumors the game has been either cancelled or
shifted to a new developer by publisher SEGA. David is listed as
an ex-designer for Obsidian Entertainment, and his online CV lists his last
project as "Designer for canceled third-person action Aliens RPG (Xbox 360, PS3,
& PC)." Thanks
Strategy Informer.
Steam News announces the
new Scout update for Team Fortress 2 is now available, and in celebration they
are selling Team Fortress 2 on
Steam for half-price through Friday. The update to the teamplay shooter has
been detailed for the past week, but here's the rundown: Updates to Team
Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when
your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:
New features
• Added The Force-A-Nature, The Sandman, and Bonk!
• Added 35 new Scout achievements
• Added crit boosted on/off sound effects
• Added new sounds for upgraded teleporters
• Added new sound for a fully charged medic dying
• Add bonus points section to scores
• Scouts earn a bonus point for killing Medics who are actively healing a
target
• Added several new speech concepts, mostly hooked up to new Scout lines
• Added new "Remember last weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer
Advanced dialog
• Spies can now control which weapon the enemy team sees them holding. Hitting
the "last disguise" key while disguised updates the disguise to show the Spy's
currently held weapon
• Added several new Arena mode announcer speech events.
• Added "First Blood" to Arena mode
• Removed 2x item respawn times in arena
• Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs
• Spies disguised as enemy team can now see player IDs for enemies
New maps
• Added community maps: cp_egypt, arena_watchtower, and cp_junction
• Updated cp_fastlane with Arttu's new version
Mapmaker requests
• Added new input for forward speed modifier to FuncTrainTrain
• Added TeleportToPathTrack input to func_tracktrain
Bugfixes
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes gib from non-gib damage kills
• Fixed stat screen showing an entry for a class called "map."
• Fixed item model panels not using team skins
- Fixed obscure bug where spectators were able to carry the flag
TriSynergy announces they will be
distributing Trainz Simulator 2009 World Builder Edition in North America
this spring. Full details on the game are on its
official project section, where they offer this overview: "Create and
operate the rail world of your dreams. Build routes, drive locos, issue Driver
Commands, download content and much more. Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder
Edition delivers a whole new level of realism. With new graphics capabilities,
higher detailed terrain and dozens of great new features. TS2009 is the
"must-have" version for all Trainz lovers."
Voodoo Extreme has some rough cut movies from Tiberium, the cancelled C&C
first-person shooter. The clips were released by EALA animation and cinematic
director Robert R. Coddington to show the direction the game was taking.
An ad server switch here has caused some pop-up problems. The wonky code has
been disabled until things are worked out, apologies for the problems. Also,
sorry for being a few hours late on the Scout update for Team Fortress 2. We got
caught up watching the president giving his speech, as the White House failed to
coordinate things properly with Valve last night.
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