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Archived News:
BioWare Planning Nearly Two Years' Worth of 'Dragon Age: Origins' DLC on MTV
Multiplayer highlights comments from BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk suggesting
Dragon Age: Origins will have more downloadable content than you can shake a
stick at, provided stick-shaking is your idea of a good time: You have to
remember that video game consumers are some of the smartest, most connected
people on the planet. You can’t trick them with anything, so don’t even try. I
don’t think it’s so much as to trick them, as it is the strategy behind it has
to be fully thought out. This is the reason that with “Dragon Age,” our DLC
strategy is doing it in maybe a year and-a-half or two years, planning exactly
when you’re going to do it and how you’re going to do it. Some of our fans would
really like us to extend the world, so it’s going to be something that will make
the world even bigger and more interesting. It’s not going to wreck it or break
it.
The Terminator Salvation:
The Game Website is online, as a multi-language home to the multi-platform
tie-in with the upcoming Terminator movie. Word is: "View images of the latest
deadly Terminators, learn about your fellow resistance allies, and see video of
the battle for humanity. Relay this information, join the resistance and help
spread the latest news on Terminators within your vicinity." Just be careful,
SkyNet is no doubt aware of this already.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
An
Assassin's Creed 2 Teaser Site is online, offering clues about the upcoming
stealthy follow-up, offering a DaVinci-themed animation with hints about the
game. More is promised on April 16 in relation to previews of the game in Game
Informer magazine. Thanks
Kotaku.
Stardock announces Demigod is gold, and that Gas Powered Games'
action/strategy game will be in stores on April 14, and is now available for
preorder: PLYMOUTH, Mich., April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Stardock (www.stardock.com)
announced today that the highly anticipated real-time action strategy PC game,
Demigod, has gone gold. Demigod is set to hit store shelves in North America on
April 14 and will also be available for download on Stardock's digital
distribution platform Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com).
Pre-orders are now available on Impulse for both the standard edition ($39.95)
and the collector's edition ($49.95.)
Developed by renowned gaming studio Gas Powered Games, Demigod delivers an epic
game experience by combining elements of its acclaimed strategy game Supreme
Commander and its award-winning Dungeon Siege role-playing game series.
In Demigod, a god has fallen, leaving an opening in the Pantheon. Players take
control of a Demigod, waging war in spectacular arenas against others to ascend
to godhood.
Each battle takes place in an arena, where players earn gold and experience in
battle which can then be used to acquire new abilities, learn magical spells,
purchase better equipment and improve their faction's Citadel with the goal to
lay waste to the opposing faction.
Demigod makes use of Stardock's Impulse Reactor which provides intelligent
match-making, on-line tournaments, player skill ratings, and much more.
"We are extremely happy with how Demigod has turned out," said Stardock's CEO
and president Brad Wardell. "Demigod is the kind of game that we think players
will be playing years from now. It has a really fun single-player tournament,
and it has online features that let both casual and competitive players create
their own fun and unique gaming experiences."
"We're proud of what the Demigod team has accomplished," said Chris Taylor, CEO
of Gas Powered Games. "They've created an original world and setting, with
spectacular art direction and characters, and have matched it with unique
gameplay that seamlessly mixes elements from multiple genres."
While most PC games are released at $49.95 or more, Demigod has been priced at
only $39.95 due largely to Stardock and GPG's confidence that Demigod is a game
that will appeal to a very broad set of PC gamers.
For further details about Demigod, please visit
www.demigodthegame.com.
For more information about Stardock please visit
www.stardock.com.
inCrysis has news on how to prepare for the free Crysis Wars trial
planned for later this week. They have links to where the trial
version can be downloaded already, and while players must wait to receive a key
to start playing online on Thursday, you can play Crysis Wars locally on a LAN
as soon as it is downloaded. Here's the deal: You will be able to download
the complete Crysis Wars game, and install it on your computer for free. From
then on, you will be able to play on LAN with your friends, without any time
limitation. This is the best opportunity to check the gameplay, adjust the
settings to your fitting (from best performance to best visuals), and train with
your friends on LAN, in preparation for the online week. You will not be able to
connect online during this time.
This Thursday 9th April, starting at 9pm CET, MyCrysis members will receive a
browser message confirming that they can claim their Free Trial CD-Key. This
Demo CDKey will only be valid for your MyCrysis account, and will allow you to
play online for the whole week. By the end of the week, your demo CDKey will be
deactivated and you will have to purchase the game to keep playing
online.
Raven: Wolfenstein is "not a WWII game" on VG247 quotes Raven's Eric
Biessman saying that the upcoming Wolfenstein game is not a WWII game:
"While the game is set in WWII, it’s not a WWII game – that’s like saying the
Indiana Jones movies are WWII movies." Of course the Indiana Jones movies are
basically set before and after WWII, but we think we see the hair he's splitting
here, as he goes on to describe the game's non-WW2 elements: "Dark science and
strange occult mysteries combine to create larger than life characters, weaponry
and enemies. This also lets us stray outside the realm of reality to create
compelling game play – we don’t have to have realistic enemies and weapons, we
can do things just for the sake of being fun and exciting. It really opened a
lot of creative doors for us."
John Romero's
planet rome.ro describes a vintage video called
A Visit to id Software on Vimeo
that John got from Joe Siegler at 3D Realms as a VHS tape (ask your
grandparents) of a visit to id Software back in 1993. Word is: "In 1993, Dan
Linton, owner of a hugely successful BBS called Software Creations, visited
Texas and made his way to id Software. This is the footage he recorded one night
in November 1993. Shown are several of id's employees at the time: Jay Wilbur,
Shawn Green, John Romero, Dave Taylor, Sandy Petersen and Adrian Carmack, Bobby
Prince was visiting to finish the music and create the sound effects. This video
has 21 minutes of me playing DOOM before the sound effects were put in as well
as some early deathmatching with Shawn Green." Thanks Redwood.
There's
a DRM petition on the Entertainment Consumers Association Website (thanks
GamePolitics). This is more open-ended than the typical petition where your
signature voices agreement with a premise, as it asks you to supply your
opinions on Digital Rights Management. This all has a specific purpose, as they
are looking to collect consumer's thoughts on the topic for presentation to the
US Federal Trade Commission: The FTC is holding hearings on the issue of
Digital Rights Management (DRM) and End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs). The
ECA respects the careful balance that must exist between the content community
and the customer, and agree, that piracy is an ever-present challenge for the
trade; it is also becoming evident that consumer rights are being diminished.
We acknowledge that these are weighty and topically-important issues, without
easy solutions, and we are pleased to see the FTC providing a forum for
thoughtful discussion of the matter. We wanted to give you, the consumer, an
opportunity to express your opinions on DRM, which will be delivered to the
FTC.
Konami announces Six Days in Fallujah, based on 2004 Iraq battle on the Los
Angeles Times profiles an upcoming third-person survival/horror shooter set
in Iraq being developed by recently revived developer Atomic
Games. There is also an article on the game in the
Wikipedia
offering details from the May 2009 issue of Gamepro magazine, quoting Atomic's
Peter Tamte describing this as "a meticulously recreated in-game version of
Fallujah, complete with real life Marines lending their names and likenesses, as
well as recreations of specific events from the battle. It's almost like time
travel. You're experiencing the events as they really happened." The
survival/horror theme is ascribed to the game based on the atmosphere created by
clearing a city house-by-house, rather than the presence of zombies or their
ilk, and word is the game will also include destructible environments. The game
is in development for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, but no release date is
offered.
Sanctuary of Secrets is a
website with riddles that may or may not relate to The Secret World, an
upcoming MMORPG from Funcom. The site was found as the result of some clues in a
movie called "They Are Coming Back"
posted to the
Secret World forum over the weekend, and
Eurogamer outlines the discovery and the reasons this is thought to be a
promotional alternate reality game (ARG) for The Secret World.
Fansite
GateWorld has further indications that the Stargate Worlds MMOG in
the works at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment may never see the light of day.
Following rumors late last year that developers on the project
were not being paid, and a more recent lawsuit over unpaid bills,
there is a new interview with Stargate executive producer Brad Wright, who has
consulted on the game, expressing pessimism: "We don’t know," they quote Mr.
Wright on the topic, as he goes on to say: "It’s a shame. If it doesn’t happen —
and, let’s be honest, it should be happening now if it was happening. It’s a
shame. It’s a terrible shame." He goes on to elaborate: "They had an opportunity
and they got our support, and they obviously had significant funding, and it
didn’t happen. It’s kind of a drag for the fans and the time that we invested —
what little of it there really was, in comparison to what they did — was still a
shame that it was wasted, because it should have happened." Thanks
GamesIndustry.biz.
Metaboli announces this European online
gaming service has signed a three-year deal to distribute the Unreal
series through their service in a refreshingly DRM-free form. Word is:
April 6, 2009 – Metaboli SA and Epic Games, Inc. have signed a three-year
agreement to offer Epic's complete, multimillion-selling Unreal series of games
through Metaboli, Europe's leading distributor of video games for download.
Under the agreement, the Unreal catalog will be available through Metaboli and
Gamesplanet in Europe and GameTap in the U.S. on a subscription basis and for
full purchase. The library includes Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening,
Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor’s
Choice Edition, and Unreal Tournament 3 Black. Unreal Tournament 3 Black is the
fully updated version of UT3 that includes the massive Titan Pack title update
and downloadable content.
Furthermore, these electronic software distribution (ESD) offerings will be
completely free of digital rights management (DRM) software – which means there
will be no unnecessary inconveniences in the name of piracy protection for end
users.
A new "sniper" trailer from Men of War teaches you to keep your head down
in the recently released World War II RTS sequel. The clip is available for
viewing and download on the
Men of War Website, or for viewing on
YouTube.
The
R.U.S.E. interview on Games On Net is a conversation from way back in the
good old days of the GDC discussing this recently revealed RTS game with Ubisoft
producer Mathieu Gerard. They discuss the game's Texas Hold 'Em approach to the
fog of war, reconnaissance, unit types, terrain, control schemes, hints about
possible touch screen support, resource management, and more. There are also
some new
screenshots from the game on Strategy Informer.
Making
MMOs on a Shoestring- The NetDevil Story with Scott Brown on The MMO Gamer
is an interview with NetDevil's Scott Brown about the history of this company,
and how it manages to compete with the big players in the MMOG marketplace.
Topics include the company's formation, their "shoestring" approach, growth, the
appeal of creating online games, their early days, the mistake of partnering
with 3DO for the original JumpGate, the unfortunate ending of Auto
Assault, and a bit on future plans for the LEGO MMORPG and other projects.
Kerberos Productions announces a new patch for Sword of the Stars: A
Murder of Crows is now available via
GamersGate to update the space strategy expansion to version 1.6.6. For the
wary, the post also says: "Bear in mind it is passed April fools, so this is NOT
a joke." The 88 MB download is mirrored on
The Patches Scrolls, where they have also reproduced the
patch notes.
TechRadar UK - Why the future looks bright for PC gaming.
"Declining retail sales and the Bittorrent bogeyman aren't, then, a death
knell for PC gaming. Whether it's growing into something new, beautiful and
impressively independent or returning to the ideals it was founded upon back
before Doom brought about the age of graphics and adrenaline, it's in
probably the most exciting state it's been in for years. Vive la evolution."
STARFEEDER - A Segmented community when SC2 comes out, will it happen?
Thanks Mike Martinez.
"Timing is everything. Fans in America have been waiting for a new
StarCraft game for 10 years; new gamers at the perfect SC competitive age
are awaiting the next game to make their own name. Veterans like me will
always talk about the purity that is the original StarCraft; however, I
recognize that what N.America needs is a modern game to be its next eSport.
That game is StarCraft 2, and I believe that the community is ready and
willing to help SC pass the torch."
Last night was opening day for Major League Baseball, and the Mets and most
others get underway today. I hate the economic imbalance of baseball and the
spectre of performance-enhancing drugs, but my childhood love for the sport runs
too deep for too long for me to feel anything but happy about the start of the
season every year. To once again paraphrase the title of a book by Thomas
Boswell, it is why time begins on opening day. Play ball!
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