Archived News:
Battle.net has relaunched with a new look
and feel, and
StarcraftWire.net reports that not only does registering automatically opt
you into applying to beta testing Blizzard's sci-fi RTS sequel, but that the
first invites are already going out (though only to randomly selected members,
not everyone gets invited). In other StarCraft II news, some
new screenshots are online showing off the new replay functionality, and the
StarCraft II Q&A Batch #50 is now online.
Play ball! MLB Dugout Heroes has
entered open beta testing, allowing full access to this subscription-free sports
MMOG. Don't forget your cup!
Steam now offers yet
another new update for Team Fortress 2. The new version of the teamplay
shooter fixes a decal related crash and removes the upper limit for the
"tf_flag_caps_per_round" convar for clients, and for servers, it stops players
being kicked with an "INVALID_STEAM_TICKET" rejection and adds a message to the
server console to show when the server has reconnected to Steam.
The Sins of a Solar
Empire Website has news that a new version 1.16 of Sins of a Solar Empire is
now automatically available via Impulse,
as is a new version 1.02 of the Entrenchment add-on for Ironclad's space
strategy game. This forum
post has the details on the new Sins patch, while the Entrenchment patch is
outlined in this
thread.
Freeverse now offers
a new patch to update the MacOS edition of Commander Europe at War to
version 1.06. The new version includes performance improvements, balance tweaks,
bug fixes, and more, all outlined in
this forum post.
A new Demigod movie offers a look at a battle with The Vampire Lord in
Gas Powered Games' upcoming team-based action/strategy game. The clip is posted
on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
- The Godfather II on
IGN.
- Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim on
IGN.UK.
- Red Faction: Guerrilla on
Eurogamer and IGN.
- World of Warcraft on
IGN. Patch 3.1
Report.
R.I.P.:
Natasha Richardson. Should've posted that earlier. Thanks Ant.
Steam announces a 24 hour
prepurchase sale for Zeno
Clash, the upcoming melee fighting game from ACE Team. The game will be
half-off between now and 8:00 pm tomorrow in preparation for its release on
April 21. Word is: "ACE Team's debut title, Zeno Clash is an action/fighting
game set in a punk fantasy world. The game blends first person action with up
close and brutal combat made popular in third person console classics. The
game's art style pushes the boundaries of the Source engine features (the same
used to create Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, etc) and represent a departure from
the visuals seen in any of today's games."
Wolfenstein.com
is now online as home to Raven's upcoming entry in the Wolfenstein series
of World War II shooters. The site offers the QuakeCon reveal trailer, some
previously released art, and a preliminary developer blog, as well as a
"mission" system where the first mission is to sign-up to "receive 100 gold,"
though it's not clear what this gold will buy you.
Steam News has word that
the Fortunes Pack
is now available as new DLC for Far Cry 2, for $4.99. Word is: "This pack
includes three brand new weapons, two new vehicles, and five new Multiplayer
maps."
GameRanger announces a new feature in
this independently developed game server browser they hope will extend the
multiplayer life of PC games by providing a notification when players are playing one of your preferred games. Word is: GameRanger's new
notifications mean that people can be always ready for a game even while
occupied with other PC activities by simply having the GameRanger icon in the
system tray. This increases the pool of available players for all games at all
times. Once people have decided they want to play, GameRanger handles the rest
so they have no need to worry about the usual headaches of network issues or
connection problems.
Most multiplayer games have a spike of activity just after release and then
trail off, making it increasingly harder to find others to play against. Some
games never even reach the levels needed for their built- in lobbies and
auto-matching in the first place. Potential players end up quitting out of
frustration or boredom before they find a match, perpetuating the problem,
because they can't do anything else while they wait.
Primotech follows up on the lack of a subtitle in the recent Game Informer
preview of BioShock 2, as previous indications were the game would be
called BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams. The response to their query to 2K Games
community manager Elizabeth Tobey, who says the game does not actually have a
subtitle: "You won’t be seeing 'Sea of Dreams' moving forward, just 'BioShock
2'."
The
Internet Explorer 8 Homepage now offers downloads of Microsoft Internet
Explorer 8 (thanks Ant), as the new installment in MS's web browser is now out
of beta. Among other things, they tout the new version's security, though IE 8
was a
day one victim of Pwn2Own along with Safari and Firefox.
Frogster America announces that
Runes of Magic is out of
beta testing, and the subscription-free MMORPG is now officially live. There's
an interview with Frogster's
Sean Kauppinen on Ten Ton Hammer discussing the conclusion of the beta
period, and here's the announcement: SAN FRANCISCO – March 19, 2009 -
Frogster America, Inc. today announced the official launch of Runes of Magic,
the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining
the standard for free-to-play titles. Starting today, players can immerse
themselves in the first chapter of the game, Rise of the Demon Lord, and
experience the wonders of Taborea. Runes of Magic is available as a free
download from the official website at:
www.runesofmagic.com.
Anyone who has not yet registered can do so for free at the official website and
begin adventuring immediately. Players with existing accounts can continue to
use their characters created during the beta and can also expect an expanded
game world in comparison with the previous open beta version. New quests and an
epic quest series, as well as new instances, offer fresh game content. A final
fine-tuning of the German and English translations and bug fixes have also been
implemented.
The fantasy world will soon been expanded with the addition of ‘Ravenfell’, a
coastal area with a distinct pirate feel. The game world will be further
complemented by regular updates following the release.
A new patch for Settlers: Rise of an Empire is now available to update
the sixth installment in Blue Byte's city building RTS series to version 1.7. The
patch removes the copy protection that requires the game disc be in the drive in
order to play. You can download the 161 MB patch from
The Patches Scrolls.
Raven Software announces that tomorrow night's episode of
Gametrailers TV will offer "the
exclusive first-ever look at the new Wolfenstein in action." Neither point is
completely accurate, as the "Friday night" episodes of the program actually air
on Saturday morning at 1:00 am, and the first look at the World War II shooter
remake came at last year's E3, in a trailer that was
expanded for QuakeCon. Anyway, here's the word on the program:
"This half-hour special features the World Premiere of a brand new trailer, a
first-look at one of the game's bosses, loads of exclusive gameplay footage,
your first look at cut-scenes and interviews with members of id Software & Raven
Software. Check out GTTV, Friday night at 1 AM Eastern/Pacific on Spike TV.
(Airs at 10 PM Pacific on DirecTV)." Thanks Ant and
Planet Wolfenstein.
Mortal Online Beta Signups are
now being accepted for Star Vault AB's upcoming MMORPG. To apply potential
testers must first
register for the Mortal Online Forums. There aren't any details about when
testing begins, the only accompanying note says: "Please be patient if the
server times out. Beeing [sic] the first to register doesnt [sic] improve your
chance to be selected." Thanks
IncGamers.
Online used games marketplace SwitchGames
announces a new plan to give developers and publishers a cut of used games sold
via their service. This could help redress some of the constant industry
complaining about used game sales, though in an interesting twist, they are
putting the decision about cutting in devs and pubs in the hands of the
consumer: “We want to tackle a fair concern head-on,” said SwitchGames
founder and CEO Jason Crawford, “and I think we’ve arrived at a practical
solution. Current annual used game sales of $2.4 billion are a goldmine for
retailers. But neither game publishers nor developers can touch that revenue.
SwitchGames is changing that. When gamers sell used titles on SwitchGames
they’ll have the option to share a percentage of a used game sale with the
people who actually made the game. Like everything else at SwitchGames, gamers
are always in control and it’s up to them to decide whether they’d like to cut
in developers and publishers.”
Today, SwitchGames also announced a developer contract provision available on
its website. The contractual language entitles developers to a percentage of any
proceeds paid to publishers by SwitchGames. SwitchGames encourages developers to
copy and paste the text into their development contracts with publishers. Find
the provision text at:
http://www.switchgames.com/contract_provision.php
The
Ubisoft Forums serve up a pair of new patches for Tom Clancy's EndWar
to update either the retail boxed version or the digitally distributed version
of the RTS game to version 1.01.
The Patches Scrolls
offers the complete change list (mostly bug fixes) for the new version, and
the retail patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
The Patches
Scrolls and the digital distribution patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront,
and The
Patches Scrolls.
Matrix Games now offers a new patch for Empires in Arms, updating the
turn-based strategy game to version 1.05.05. Word is: "The update comes with
several bug fixes including a fix for a bug with guard commitment, a fix for
possible game looping in the naval phase, fixes for the Insurrection corps,
foraging bug fixes, and more." The patch is on the
Matrix Games Website and mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamesonice.
Develop has word that Acclaim and ZooKazoo have new game development deals
with SyFy, the cable network formerly known as the Sci Fi Channel.
The first game to result from this deal is a youth-oriented online world from
ZooKazoo, and while Acclaim's current focus would indicate their end of this
will also be MMOGs, that's not spelled out just yet. Meantime,
Penny Arcade (thanks
Ant) explains the channel's new name, while
io9 offers a list of 25 better alternative names for the Sci Fi channel,
including "The Sci-Fi, But That's Not A Bad Thing Channel" and "The Why Isn't
Battlestar Galactica On Anymore Channel."
The
City of Heroes Official Forums announce that open beta testing of Issue 14
for City of Heroes is now open to subscribers to NCsoft's superhero MMORPG.
Issue 14 introduces the Mission Architect that will allow user-created missions.
The post also outlines how user-created missions will work within the game, and
how missions will be ranked by both players and developers, with badges and
awards to be handed out for highly rated designs. Thanks
Massively.
Steam has news that a new
update is now automatically available for Team Fortress 2. The new version
addresses a crash under Vista 64, adds alt-tab and mode-switching tweaks,
performance improvements, and a new multicore rendering option, which is turned
off by default for now since the first release of this option is for
compatibility testing.
Steam now offers
worldwide digital distribution of of
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X,
Ubisoft's new aerial combat game. Also now on Steam is
The Path, "a short horror
game inspired by older versions of Little Red Riding hood, set in modern day."
This indie horror title is the latest project from developers of
The Graveyard. Also, now
on DRM-free retro marketplace GOG.com
is the sci-fi RTS
Earth 2140 Trilogy, the point-and-click adventure
Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure, and Apogee's shooter sequel
Blake Stone:
Planet Strike.
IGN has word
that Windstorm Studios is the third
new development studio formed from the ashes of now closed
Ensemble Studios, following the formation of
Robot Entertainment by
Tony Goodman and other Ensemble vets and
Bonfire Studios by 35
other Ensemble expatriates. The new developer is founded by Dusty Monk, and
while their plans are not clear yet as they are currently rounding up funding,
their splash page indicates we may soon get our flying cars, at least in an
online game: Windstorm Studios is an independent game studio whose
mission is to bring a new era to online gaming! Are you tired of online games
filled with depressing predictions of post apocalyptic destruction? Are you
weary of walking through grey streets beneath grey skies and killing grey
zombies? Have you had your fill of dank cellars and dark caves? Well so have we!
And we’re ready to build a brighter world! A better online game - a game with
the promise of of a hopeful future -- cities of glass and steel, and most
importantly, flying cars!
The Derek Smart Interview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun talks with the main man at
3000AD about All Aspect Warfare and his storied career. Derek express his
opinion that the space combat genre is "as dead as a doornail" in outlining the
reason for switching to a game based on planet-side ground and air combat as a
project to fill the gap before the release of 3000AD's MMOG. He also expresses some of the strong opinions for which he's known, with
critical comments about Steam, skepticism that a new Elite game will ever be
made, the "injustice" of Metacritic
scores, and the bloat and mismanagement that leads to the prevalence of
high-budget games, a situation he blames on Electronic Arts. The conversation
then covers further details about All Aspect Warfare.
Adventure Classic Gaming - Adventure game puzzles we have known and hated.
"A vivid example of puzzles falling into this trap, to the point of parody,
is in Shadowgate. Although the game is largely a standard adventure, it has
an extensive list of inventory objects that players can collect, many of
which are not actually used in the game. The majority of the game’s puzzles
simply consist of using the right inventory object to bypass some barrier or
defeat some monster, but in most cases, clues regarding which object is
appropriate to use are vague or nonexistent. Death is so instantaneous and
unpredictable, and the puzzle solutions so illogical, that the game appears
to actually be self-consciously lampooning these adventure game clichés in
deliberate fashion. As such, this game stands as an artifact of the
adventure game industry providing its own social commentary."
Trembling Hand- Why Women Don't Make Games.
"There's evidence to suggest that this is because women simply aren't
interested in such high-level abstract subjects, and are drawn away to other
subjects during their education and subsequent career. But there's also
evidence - and this'll sound controversial... heck, it got Larry Summers
booted from Harvard for mentioning it - that women also aren't as proficient
as men in high level mathematics."
Well, it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow, but it's pretty clear that spring has
finally sprung around these parts, as it's been pretty delightful the past few
days, and it was actually still daylight when MrsBlue arrived home yesterday.
The annoying thing is calculating back to Groundhog Day indicates that the
weather turned almost six weeks to the day after the little rat saw his shadow.
Curse you strangely accurate superstition!!!
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