Archived News:
NeoGAF has a
list of features that were posted to the
Infinity Ward Twitter Suggestions Box
purportedly posted by a beta tester revealing plans for Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2. Apparently the way the post was deleted and the user was banned
have bolstered the belief that the post was genuine. Thanks
Primotech.
The
Eidos Forums have a couple of pieces of art purported to be from Deus Ex
3, one looking like a screenshot, and the other a piece of concept art.
These are not official, and there is considerable argument back and forth as to
whether they are genuine. Thanks
VG247.
IGN reports that
console plans for World in Conflict: Soviet Assault have been cancelled,
quoting Ubisoft saying: "A console version of World in Conflict is not planned
for release at this time." Also, the
MassGate Forums
confirm the recently revealed March 13 EU release date for Soviet
Assault as well as the World in Conflict Complete bundle, and adds a
March 10 release date for the US editions of the expansion and World in Conflict
Complete. They also note a complication that prevents mixing the Steam and
boxed editions of the game and add-on: The Steam versions are a bit
different from standard boxed retail versions, so a Soviet Assault expansion
downloaded from Steam won't run with a store version of WIC. Same thing the
other way around, a Steam WIC version won't run with a store version of Soviet
Assault. World in Conflict Complete will be available in the US, EU and other
regions. The standalone Soviet Assault mission pack will only be available for
North and South American users.
Mythic
Entertainment announces the launch of the Bitter Rivals event in
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the launch of the
official Warhammer Online
community forums. Here's a bit on the Bitter Rivals event, which will run
for the next week: The live event includes the new Twisting Tower, an
exclusive Realm vs. Realm Scenario which will only be available during Bitter
Rivals. The scenario, which takes place in a ruined Chaos temple above a
perilous vortex in the Chaos Wastes, pits Order against Destruction as they
battle for control of the temple while avoiding the purging fires of a vengeful
god.
Bitter Rivals marks the start of the massive Call to Arms live expansion that
will continue over the next few months with additional live events and new
in-game content. The Call to Arms culminates with the launch of the Land of the
Dead, a massive new dungeon zone set in the deserts of the Tomb Kings.
New version 182.08 reference drivers are available from the
NVIDIA Drivers
Downloads Section. The new drivers add support for new GeForce GTS 250
accelerators. Thanks
Voodoo Extreme.
Steam News announces
Steam is now offering the recently launched demo for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Word is: "Dominate the skies for the first time and battle planes, tanks, and
amphibious assaults. Try out two full missions and gain experience points to
unlock three real, licensed planes: the F-16A Fighting Falcon, the SU-35
SuperFlanker, and the AV-8B Harrier II."
Exosyphen Studios announces the release of the MacOS edition of Hacker
Evolution: Untold, described as "a game that challenges the gamers
intelligence, attention and focus, creating a captivating mind game. Solve
puzzles, examine code and bits of information, to help you achieve your
objectives." The Mac edition is available for digital distribution only, and a
playable demo is available. They also announce the release of
Hacker Evolution - Nanovirus for PocketPC.
The Creative Coast outlines
an offer being extended to game developers to entice them to relocate to
Savannah Georgia. They outline the incentives for such a move, including up to
one year free rent in their new Game Development and Digital Media Center and a
30% tax credit "on qualified Georgia expenditures for animation, interactive
entertainment and video game development companies."
The Spore API Contest
challenges programmers to come up with "the most exciting and original
visualization or app and share it with us!" To help get you started they have
posted sample apps on their API Page
and there is forum
discussing the process. First prize is an NVIDIA graphics card.
The
EVE Online Q&A on
MTV Multiplayer talks with CCP's Noah Ward about EVE Online and its upcoming
Apocrypha expansion. At one point the conversation touches on game scandals, as
the science-fiction MMORPG has had its share of those, and Noah expresses the
opinion that player-caused scandal is part of the game's appeal: "It’s what the
people like, they have this freedom and that’s why this stuff is happening. Even
if you were on the losing side of that, in a few years you’ll look back and say,
'I was part of that crazy thing that happened.' Another big interesting thing
that happened was during the alliance tournament, there was an assassination.
Somebody killed one of the guys on his own team as part of some contract. People
in the gaming press were comparing that to the assassination of Lord British."
- BattleForge on
1Up.
- Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures on
Joystiq.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
The new
Terminator Salvation Trailer is online, featuring music by Nine Inch Nails
and some spoilers. Thanks nin.
Dedicated server programs are now available to allow users to host their own
servers for Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Pandemic's LotR action game. The
PC dedicated server is available on
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell, and
The
Patches Scrolls.
Two new trailers from Watchmen: The End is Nigh are now available,
offering more promotion for the upcoming beat-em-up tie-in with the imminent
Watchmen movie. You can play good cop with the Nite Owl clip on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers; or bad cop with the Rorschach trailer on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
A new "Recover the Documents" trailer depicts a mission from The Wheelman,
the upcoming driving action game starring a digitized Vin Diesel. The clip
features a foot and motorcycle chase through and beneath the streets of
Barcelona accompanied by developer narration and plenty of gunplay and
bullet-time. The clip is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
Gamesonice, and
MyGameTrailers.
The Salt Lake Tribune
reports the truth in advertising law coauthored by erstwhile attorney
Jack Thompson has passed the Utah House of Representatives by an overwhelming
margin of 70-2. If passed into law this bill would open retailers to civil
lawsuits for selling adult-rated media to minors if they advertise they will not
do so. The bill will now be voted on by the Utah State Senate.
Aspyr Media announces a spring release date for the PC and Xbox 360 editions of
Black Football College Experience (BCFx) – The Doug Williams Edition, the
sports simulation based on the football programs at Historically Black College
and Universities. The new version of game has picked up the endorsement of
one-time Super Bowl MVP and former Grambling coach Doug Williams since it
was first announced in 2007.
This press release offers full details on the game, and here's a little
snip: "The game fuses realistic, bone-jarring football action created using the
Unreal 3.0 engine with two unique new rhythm games – the interactive Halftime
Show and Drum Line Challenge. In addition, a wealth of historical data has been
integrated in the Legacy Museum and dozens of licensed tracks performed by
college football’s most entertaining marching bands are included in the game’s
Jukebox." The BCFx Website has movies,
game info, and preorder offers.
The good old gamers at GOG.com announce the
addition of
Rise of the Triad: Dark War to their DRM-free online marketplace, offering a
WinXP/Vista-compatible edition of this first person shooter that was originally
intended as a Wolfenstein-3D sequel. For those unfamiliar with the madcap nature
of Apogee's 1994 shooter, there's a gameplay movie on
YouTube. Also now on
GOG.com is Seven
Kingdoms 2, Enlight's RTS sequel. Both titles are $5.99.
A new launch trailer is now available for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, showing
off dogfighting and more airborne action from Ubisoft's aerial combat game. The
clip is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
A new trailer from Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom offers the opening
cinematic from the upcoming RTS sequel. The clip introduces the game and
outlines its back-story, though disappointingly the Sean Connery
impersonator doing the narration doesn't answer any Jeopardy questions. The clip
is posted on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
Gamesonice, and
MyGameTrailers.
Another Flair vs Bear clip is now available, promoting the upcoming Uprising
add on for Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 by showing another encounter
between actor/wrestler Ric Flair and the number one entry on our threat-down:
bears! The movie can be found on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
2K Games announces that Major
League Baseball 2K9 is now available for Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 2, and Wii. Here's the deal: This season, Major League
Baseball 2K9 offers fans improved two-step Precision Pitching™ controls, deeper
Swing Stick™ batting and quick fielding responses for even greater control of
the game. The improved batting controls provide the ability to influence hits
with timing and aim, improved hit distribution and variety to deliver more hit
types including spray shots, pulls, line drives and long bombs. With more than
six years of scouting reports infused into the action on the field, Inside Edge
produces remarkably accurate player tendencies to ensure players react to
in-game situations as they would in real life. Major League Baseball 2K9 also
features new commentary, as Gary Thorne provides the play-by-play calls
alongside color analyst Steve Phillips giving a new perspective and more depth
for a true-to-life, insightful broadcast. In addition, Living Rosters has been
added this season to provide fresh and active roster updates that guarantee
every game is current and automatically updated behind the scenes, so players
are never late on a trade and always have the hottest players in their starting
lineup.
The Galaxy Online Website is now accepting
testers into closed beta testing of IGG's space-based MMOG. It looks like all
comers are being accepted, so this is the open sort of closed beta testing. They
also say that stats will not be wiped from the closed beta, and since the game
will be subscription free, in essence this is a soft launch for the game.
GamePolitics follows up on yesterday's reports on Midway's
financial woes, reporting that new owner Mark Thomas has denied any undue
relationship with former Midway owner Sumner Redstone, and also quoting court
papers where Thomas states Midway is "hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate,"
and that between February 9, 2009 and May 4, 2009, Midway "will burn through
approximately $12,392,598 in cash representing an approximately 75% depletion of
its cash reserves..."
An overhaul to the QuakeCon Website gears
up for the 2009 installment in the long-running gaming expo/LAN party to be held
in Dallas, TX starting August 13. The site will be updated continually leading
up to the event, offering a timer counting down to the launch of registration
this Friday night, and another counting down the 163 days to the launch of the
event.
Matrix Games announces the release of Crown of Glory: Emperor’s Edition
for digital download, offering a sequel to the Napoleonic-era wargaming of Crown
of Glory. The boxed copies of the game will be ready next week, so customers
interested in those should wait. Also, owners of the original Crown of Glory are
entitled to a $10.00 discount on the sequel. They have some tutorial movies
on this page offering tips and showing off the game.
A new Napoleon in Italy patch is now available, updating Hussar Games
Napoleonic combat simulation to version 1.1 with fixes and AI improvements, as
outlined on
the Matrix Games website. The patch, which will update any previous version
of the game, is available on
this page.
The
Demigod interview on IncGamers talks with Brad Wardell about Demigod, the
upcoming RTS-action/RPG in the works at Gas Powered Games. Topics include the
mythology on which the game's demigods are based, types of demigods, the origins
of the story, RPG elements, multiplayer support, length of the solo campaign,
AI, the closing of Ensemble Studios, and more.
Wojciech Pazdur on
Surviving a Different Kind of Horror on GameZone is an interview about
NecroVisioN, the upcoming World War I shooter from The Farm 51 that will
offer vampires, zombies, robots, and more. How is that supposed to work? Easy:
"The war with the demons was fated to failure as demons possessed most of the
combat skilled vampire fighters. Vampires needed to look for a new army beyond
their kingdom, so they reached the Earth’s surface and started to gather live
and dead humans from battlefields, turning them into zombies. Single zombies are
much weaker than vampire fighters, but when the number counts, the undead army
gets the advantage."
Gamasutra - What Does 'Game Developer' Mean?
"So what is the core of game development? It's not programming and it's not
development, folks -- it's design and art. Programming is a support
function, not the heart of an electronic game. And if we look into the world
of non-electronic games, we have design very much dominant, and we have some
art, but we have no programming at all. So why do we call ourselves “game
developers”? We can continue to be Humpty Dumpty and use a term that often
confuses those outside the industry, or we can adjust to the change in
reality -- that programming is no longer the heart of game creation. Why not
Game Creators Magazine, Game Creators Conference, International Game
Creators Association?"
GameSetWatch - What Makes a Horror Game Truly Scary?
"Horror games have had an interesting, if not bumpy, past. The last 20 years
has seen the genre develop, die suddenly, return to life like a zombie, and
escalate to mainstream proportions, surpassing even horror movies as the
hair raising entertainment medium of choice. "
Okay, it probably wasn't a foot of snow yesterday, but it was several inches. It
was harder to tell because the insane winds that accompanied the snowfall
created serious snowdrifts in some places and bare spots on the ground in
others. All in all, quite a scene: If this was the last snowfall of the season
(and you won't find me complaining if it is), it sure was a doozy.
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