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Archived News:
The Baseball Mogul
2010 Website now offers the new version of Sports Mogul's baseball
simulation, and there's a playable demo for download you can take a swing at. The new version has a new historical simulation engine, an improved fantasy
draft, new multiplayer features, and more, naturally including the 2009 rosters
and rankings. The playable demo is a 117 MB download, mirrored on
AtomicGamer.
KAOS Studios, the THQ-owned developer of Frontlines: Fuel of War, announces
they are embarking on an unannounced project, and will be expanding their staff.
No details about the new game are offered, but they say: "Building on the
success of Frontlines: Fuel of War, we plan to continue to introduce
groundbreaking new features in our next project." The
KAOS Studios Website has been
revamped, and outlines the new job openings at the New York City-based
developer, and they offer a top
10 list of reasons to work at KAOS in case you need further convincing.
A Most Romantic Tales:
Romeo & Juliet is now available for online purchase, offering a video game
celebration of the copious sex and violence in William Shakespeare's famed
tragedy. Word is: "The game play is presented in the style of a visual novel. As
you play, you'll be asked to choose from a variety of dialogue options. What you
choose affects the storyline, while still keeping true to the original. Most
Romantic Tales: Romeo and Juliet features an authentic, line by line translation
of Shakespeare's original play, presented in contemporary colloquial American
English. You can follow the original storyline, or choose a happy ending." They
offer a playable demo, which is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
FileShack.
The intro movie is now available for Terminator: Salvation, Halcyon
Games' upcoming tie-in with the next installment in the series of Terminator
movies. The clip is available on
Gametrailers.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
New updates are now automatically available via Steam for Company of Heroes
and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, updating Relic's World War II RTS
game and its expansion to version 2.400. The
list of changes in version
2.400 is epic, so you might want to brew a pot of coffee and order a pizza
before settling in to read them.
Steam announces another
new version of Empire: Total War is now automatically available via the
digital distribution service. Here's word on the solitary fix in the update:
"Fixed applied to sound caching which could caused crashes in land and sea
battles on some systems."
Paradox Interactive has unveiled Mount&Blade: Warband as the title for
the previously revealed expansion for Taleworld's hack-and-slash RPG. This is catch-up news for us, as this title was revealed at the GDC last week, along with some new details about the project, including a
Q3 2009 release window. A
YouTube Video offers a presentation of the game, and here's a bit: GDC
San Francisco, March 27th 2009 – Following on from the recent announcement that
a Multiplayer expansion was in development for the widely lauded Mount&Blade,
Paradox Interactive have today revealed the first detailed information for the
newly titled Mount&Blade: Warband.
Demonstrated publicly for the first time at GDC in San Francisco by the
development team at Taleworlds, the expansion introduces a number of features
that players have specifically requested and which will vastly improve the
gameplay experience.
The key features revealed:
· Multiplayer – previously announced, the ability for up to 32 players to play
simultaneously on a single map in Team Death-Match style battles · Faction
Rulers – A new in-depth system allowing the player to gain followers even as a
rebel and to become the ruler of their own faction and recruit Lords as their
vassalals
· Accessibility – Improved and additional detailed game information for players.
· Improved Graphics and optimisation – The introduction of state-of-the-art
rendering technologies including HDR (High Dynamic Range), as well as
significant improvement in the level of detail on characters, armour and weapons
· Increased interactivity - New interactivity implemented in the environments
that the AI will recognize and adapt to, directly impacting the Siege mode
Commenting on the development of Mount&Blade: Warband, Armagan Yavuz, Producer
at Taleworlds Entertainment said, “As a development team, we are used to short
development circles, fast feedback from our users and the ability to have our
gamers in the development loop. That is why we decided to create this expansion.
We have received a large amount of requests from players for multiplayer and
when we had published the game we saw an opportunity to explore this as well as
additional improvements that our gamers requested. I feel that the multiplayer
mode adds tremendously to the game experience.”
A summary of additional features includes customizable quick battles, extended
diplomatic options and new weapons, armor and animations. Other aspects
introduced in Mount&Blade: Warband are improvements to the combat system with
more physically accurate horse archery, a variation in horse sizes, and more
options when embarking on sieges.
Mount&Blade: Warband is scheduled for release in Q3 2009.
In-Depth:
Behind The Scenes Of Far Cry 2 on Gamasutra offers a look back at Ubisoft's
open-world shooter project based on an article written by Ubisoft Montreal
creative director Clint Hocking for Game Developer Magazine. The piece offers
some insights, but holds back others in an effort to promote sales of the
magazine.
Reakktor Media offers a new cinematic trailer for Black Prophecy, their
upcoming MMO outer space action game. Word is: "Amongst others, the trailer
shows never before seen in-game epic battle action between the two dominant
races, the Tyi and the Genides, and gives a first glimpse on the mysterious
alien race known as 'The Restorers'." The clip is posted on
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell, and
Gametrailers.
A new trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 promotes the upcoming
military shooter sequel in the works at DICE. It's hard to tell if the footage
is gameplay, as it has a stylized visual effect, but it is probably CGI, but it
does at least offer a caution about the dangers of smoking. The clip debuted on
Gametrailers (thanks
Ant and
Planet Battlefield), and it is mirrored on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, and
Gamer's Hell.
Disney Interactive Studios Reveals Top Secret Details for G-Force Video Game
offers info on a game tie-in for G-Force, an upcoming animated 3D movie from
Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films that involves guinea pig spies.
The game is planned for Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PSP, and DS. Word
is: G-Force is a fast-paced action-platform game featuring a unique team
of specially trained guinea pigs that use high-tech gadgets and specialized
talents to complete a dangerous secret mission. Players control Darwin, the
G-Force team leader, and housefly surveillance commando Mooch. Darwin and Mooch
team up with the rest of G-Force to use their unique high-tech gadgets, stealth
mastery, and pint-sized teamwork to save the world from a robot army of evil
household appliances. G-Force features innovative gameplay with a unique sense
of scale and puzzle solving that requires players to manipulate environments or
enemies, including evil household appliances like waffle irons, water coolers
and vacuum cleaners to complete their mission.
Joystiq interviews Gazillion VP about Marvel MMOs, Lego Universe and where the
publisher came from talks with Paul Baldwin, VP of marketing for Gazillion,
who seemingly came out of nowhere to announce a deal to make
multiple MMOGs based on Marvel comics. He discusses their stealthy acquisition
of NetDevil and the fact that they "actually have six or seven titles that are
in production right now." Also,
MTV Splash Page (thanks
GamesIndusry.biz) has word that Marvel Universe Online is now slated
for a 2012 release, quoting Marvel's Simon Philips who wants you to share his
perspective on time: "It sounds like a long way away, but it’s not."
A Dragonica Website is now online
for this upcoming subscription-free side-scrolling MMORPG. They are now
accepting signup for the upcoming closed beta test for the game
on this page. This is a
European site, but there's no word if this testing will be regional.
Simon Woodroffe on Wheelman and beyond on play.tm is an interview with the
lead designer on Wheelman, the newly released action/driving game (thanks
VideoGamer.com). They ask about future plans, learning an open world game is
planned using the Wheelman tech, though details are almost non-existent: Is
your next project an open-world game, and are you lead designer?
Yes, and creative director for now... we're looking for a new designer... I'm
not going to talk about it too much, but it will be open-world for sure, we need
to build on the technology we've used in Wheelman.
Is Wheelman a stepping stone?
Yes, it is, our long term plan is to reach the point where we can be genuinely
competitive with the big open-world games... the gorilla in the room! You can't
do that in one iteration, you have to take steps. We'll build our skills
gradually. Hopefully what we offer in Wheelman is something a bit different. We
do some things better than anyone else in this game, and if you buy this, it'll
help us make even better games in the future!
Gamesindustruy.biz quotes famed designer Warren Spector expressing the
opinion that the games industry needs to work on bringing down prices. Here are
some quotes conveying his thoughts on the topic: "We've been a niche
medium that over-charges for its product and therefore generates a lot of
revenue which makes us a little bigger than Hollywood, which is crazy."
"The key is removing barriers to the creation of content and removing barriers
to the consumption of content. Allowing people access to lots of it, at the
lowest possible price where you can make a profit."
"I've always had this anecdotal belief that there's this magic price point for
entertainment. And it's not a per dollar charge. No one thinks about how many
hours they're going to get out of their entertainment dollars."
"If I've got a 20 dollar bill in my pocket I can go buy a book, go to a movie,
but I can't buy a game. I can buy a CD, I can do so much even now, but you
cannot buy a game."
The DiRT2 Website has a new video
promoting the addition of Team Subaru driver Ken Block to Colin McRae: DiRT 2,
the upcoming rally racing sequel. "As one of the most talented and exciting
drivers on the rally scene today, Ken is a perfect fit for Colin McRae: DiRT 2,"
is a quote on the topic from Gavin Raeburn of Codemasters, who goes on to say:
"His insight into car handling and track design has already been invaluable to
the development team and his endless enthusiasm for the game and rally as a
great sport is absolutely priceless to us."
The X-Motor Racing Downloads
Section now has a new version 1.12 demo of this motorsports simulation,
saying those with a registered version of the full game can update to the new
version automatically. The new full version includes a new vehicle, three new
tracks, and a number of other new features, tweaks, and bug fixes. The demo
version includes two tracks and one car with some physics profiles.
VG247 reports on some comments from Cliff Bleszinski about Epic's upcoming
plans on the
Major Nelson podcast, as the Epic design director says an announcement is
coming from their Chair studio in the "near future," that People Can Fly also
has a project in the works, while they are also working on things internally,
prompting him to say "I feel that I’ve got five balls up in the air that I’m
juggling right now" (you can imagine how hard it is to resist crafting the
headline for this story from that quote). According to the artist formerly known
as CliffyB: "It’s an incredibly exciting time. Keep your ears peeled in the next
year. There’s going to be a lot of great announcements."
Another new thing I got to experience on my trip to Maine is the phenomenon of
"postholing." If you are as unfamiliar with the term as I was, this is when you
walk on the surface of the snow, and you break through and sink into the softer
snow below the crust, creating what looks like a posthole. The two New England
natives with us did fine walking about, as one wore snowshoes and the other had
ninja like skills in picking his footing, but the other city boy and I created
enough postholes to fence in the Ponderosa. It may sound trivial, but it is both
quite exhausting, and quite painful. Dragging one or both of your legs out of
crotch-deep snow (sometimes with a nice pocket of water beneath) takes a lot out
of you, and I have cuts and bruises on my shins from where they hit the crust on
the way down.
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