Archived News:
The Left 4 Dead Blog has
a lengthy post outlining details for the upcoming survival pack for Left 4
Dead, Valve's multiplayer shooter. The article includes more insights into
the extensive research Valve uses to help with game design (though only one graph
this time for you PowerPoint fans), describing how they determined the way
difficulty will ramp up over time in survival mode.
As announced in this press
release, the F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin "Toy Soldiers" map pack is
now available for Windows, Xbox 360, and PS3. The PC edition is available for
free automatically via Steam
and for manual download as part of a new version 1.03 patch, which can be found
on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. Here's the deal: The F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin “Toy Soldiers”
map pack allows players to experience multiplayer from a terrifying new
perspective as they are reduced in size to be only inches tall and battle inside
a pinball machine, a gruesome hospital lab room, and a playground sandbox.
• FullTilt: Players battle inside a retro 1970s era pinball
machine “Snake Fist” style as they use flippers, targets, spinners and
pop-bumpers for cover in fast paced action. The multi-level playfield and
authentic sounds set the mood for destruction.
• Cockroach: Featuring a blood drenched hospital room
filled with heart pounding action, players can climb up electrical cords,
laboratory equipment and pill bottles in a tightly connected environment.
• Recess: Players wage mayhem from the top of a giant
sandcastle to the cockpit of a toy bulldozer.
This is the first of three DLC packs that will be made available now through
summer 2009 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, PlayStation Network and Windows PC.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin players can look forward to additional multiplayer
Elite Powered Armor (EPA) maps in May, and more to be released late this
summer.
Square Enix Announces ORDER OF WAR, a World War II RTS game due for release
this fall. The ORDER OF WAR Website is
live with screenshots and a teaser trailer, and here's a bit: In the
summer of 1944, the Second World War entered its end-game when the Allies
launched two major operations that would drive back German forces on both the
Western and Eastern Fronts at once.
In the ultimate test of military strategy, ORDER OF WAR will challenge you not
only to lead America's finest to victory in the west, but also place you in
command of German forces charged with repelling the Red Army's seemingly
unstoppable offensive in the east.
Even the keenest military minds will find that it's one thing to make history,
but quite another to change it.
Do you have what it takes to command?
Features
• Experience WWII warfare on an epic, cinematic stage; that
truly captures the intensity and scale of the battlefield
• Command of an entire armed force consisting of up to
1,000 soldiers, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air planes
• Players can choose between two different campaign modes
offering completely different storylines, missions, objectives and environments
• Experience the unique dynamic camera that allows players
to command troops over huge geographical scale whilst maintaining movie-like
vistas and detail
• In-depth gameplay mode: two different campaign modes,
multi-player, Deathmatch and Skirmish
Ubisoft officially announces Assassin's Creed II, though the stealthy
sequel has already been confirmed. The announcement is accompanied by
a piece of AC2 character art and a teaser trailer which can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. Here's the announcement, which says to expect the game for the holiday
season this year: SAN FRANCISCO – April 16, 2009 – Today Ubisoft
announced that Ubisoft Montreal is developing Assassin's Creed II on all
current-generation platforms for a scheduled Holiday 2009 release. The initial
installment of Assassin's Creed® was released in November 2007 to popular and
critical success, selling 8 million copies worldwide and garnering awards such
as Best Action Game 2007 from 1UP and Outstanding Achievement in Animation from
the AIAS.
Assassin's Creed II is the product of over two years of intensive development by
the original creative team behind the Assassin's Creed brand. In a vast open
world environment, the game invites players to incarnate Ezio, a privileged
young noble in Renaissance Italy who's been betrayed by the rival ruling
families of Italy. Ezio's subsequent quest for vengeance plunges players into a
captivating and epic story that offers more variety in missions, surprising and
engaging new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and a profound character
progression that will appeal to fans of the original Assassin's Creed as well as
entice players new to the brand.
"Our creative team is working hard to top the experience of Assassin's Creed,”
said Patrice Desilets, creative director at Ubisoft. "We've made improvements to
every aspect of the game. We've plunged ourselves into the stunning history of
the Italian Renaissance so that we can offer fans a unique, varied and
innovative Assassin's Creed experience.”
Additional details on Assassin's Creed II are revealed in the May issue of Game
Informer.
Cross Fire is now officially live,
offering a free online military-themed first-person shooter. Here's word on the
launch: The Cross Fire Official Launch is marked by a substantial update
to the game which includes, three new game modes (including the long-awaited
"Free For All" deathmatch and the knives-only battle-arena), playable female
characters, and ranked clan matches on a dedicated server. In addition, the
official launch will introduce loads of new in-game weapons, items, and
accessories. Cross Fire officially went live at 1:00 AM on Thursday April 16th,
2009. The launch is also supported by an in-game event that allows players to
earn extra experience for a limited time in order to level-up faster.
The Borderlands Website
now offers the promised screenshot showing off the game's somewhat controversial
new art direction. The screenshot is posted in normal and high
resolutions, offering your the chance to judge for yourself whether
or not that it cel-shaded.
GameSpot Rumor Mongering Control hashes through indications
that Eidos Montreal may be getting set to announce Thief 4. The evidence
is
this image discovered by the
Through the Looking Glass forums, which uses a Thiefy font.
Steam News has word that
a new update is automatically available for Grand Ages: Rome, imbuing the
Steam edition of the historical strategy game with the same changes as
last week's version 1.11. Bug fixes, balance tweaks, and UI
improvements are the order of the day.
The
Warhammer Herald has word that maintenance is now in progress to add the new
version 1.2.1 patch to Warhammer Online, as
described here. There is some unscheduled maintenance being done at the same
time to some realms, and there's also a note for participants in a current
siege: "We are aware Phoenix Throne is currently in the middle of a city siege
on Altdorf, once the servers are online the timer will reset and you will have a
full two hours to continue your assault."
StarcraftWire has the second Blizzard shoutcast for StarCraft II,
offering gameplay footage from the sci-fi RTS sequel. The site adds their expert
analysis to what is seen in the clip for your speculative needs. Also,
IncGamers confirms plans for a Collector's Edition for StarCraft II, as
Blizzard has spilled the beans about work on a behind-the-scenes video to
include with the CE.
Another trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine is now available with a
behind-the-scenes look at the retelling of Wolverine's and Sabretooth's pasts.
The clip is found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Demigod Day 2 Update on the Impulse Website has news of a new patch that's
now automatically available for Demigod via Impulse, intended to address
multiplayer issues in the recently released action/strategy game.
Included in Brad Wardell's description of the patch is the admission that this
"isn't a silver bullet" for problems with the game as well as confession that
such a patch would normally run through a couple of rounds of beta testing, but
these are unusual circumstances. Brad also says they expect to release another
patch "in the next few days." Here's the change log: + Connection dialog
now allows the host to eject players trying to connect.
+ New NAT Connection Server now isolated so not affected by general server load
resulting in much faster, better connectivity.
+ Eliminated check for update on launching the game
+ CVP calls asynchronous (a server hicup on our side is a lot less likely to
cause users to be disconnected)
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Activision Blizzard has announced it expects
its upcoming quarterly earnings report will reflect higher than projected net
revenues and earnings per share. They do not specify how far beyond the 8
cents/share prediction they are expecting to report, but say the good news is
based on strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero
franchises and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. The report also
comments on
Blizzard's break with The9 to publish WoW in China and their new partnership
with NetEase: "We believe this new relationship will promote a consistent level
of quality and service in mainland China for each of the games that Blizzard
Entertainment is partnering with NetEase on, including Warcraft III and
StarCraft II, as announced last year."
Gamasutra
has more on Midway's attempts to help sell itself by offering
incentive bonuses to employees who help facilitate the sale of the
company's assets. Poking through the company's bankruptcy filings reveal that
Midway hopes to generate net proceeds of at least $30 million from the sale, and
is offering a cash pool of "no more than" $600,000 to eligible employees.
The Mars Website has a new
gameplay video from the PS3 edition of Mars, the upcoming action/RPG in
the works at Spiders, a new indie developer founded by the creators of
Silverfall and Earth Awakening. We initially mistook this for a
console-only title, but word is the game is due for release in late 2010 for PC,
Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Here's a description: "Mars is an action RPG for
next generation consoles. It blends the sensation of power and rhythmic aerial
battle of beat’em alls with the progression, immersion and storyline of RPG’s in
a dark and dreamlike post apocalyptic universe." The release is accompanied by
a batch of new screenshots.
The King's
Bounty: Armored Princess Videos Page now offers a new gameplay video
introducing The Driller from King's Bounty: Armored Princess, 1C
Company's upcoming strategy/RPG sequel. Here's the party line: "The Driller is
controlled by the Gremlins and is a very dangerous enemy - with a powerful
weapon and the ability to create droids that protect him."
No Mutants Allowed notes that
Interplay's annual 10-K filing is online, and in it they've uncovered
indications a legal battle is brewing over the rights Interplay retains to
create an MMO Fallout game, provided the project meets certain criteria
established when Bethesda bought rights to the Fallout franchise.
One of those stipulations is that the project should begin development within two
years of that deal, which would make such the deadline for that a couple of
weeks ago. Under the "legal proceedings" section of their filing, Interplay
indicates they expect to be hearing from lawyers about this situation soon:
Interplay recently received notice that Bethesda Softworks, LLC
("Bethesda") intends to terminate the trademark license agreement between
Bethesda and Interplay which was entered into April 4, 2007 for the development
of FALLOUT MMOG. Despite the fact that no formal action is currently pending,
Bethesda claims that Interplay is in breach of the trademark license agreement
for failure to commence fill scale development of same by April 4, 2009 and to
secure certain funding for the MMOG. Interplay adamantly disputes these claims.
Although the potential damages are currently unknown, if Bethesda ultimately
prevails and cancels the trademark license agreement, Interplay would lose its
license back of the "Fallout" MMOG and any damages resulting therefrom are
unknown at this time.
The Atari
Forums have an "explanation" of the DRM in The Chronicles of Riddick:
Assault on Dark Athena, focusing on why DRM is used and their three
activation limit that is the focus of many objections (thanks
Voodoo Extreme). The post points out that people do actually attempt to
pirate games (they say one activation key has been tried over 50,000 times), but
they feel their limits suit most users, in "only about 10% of all the Riddick PC
games sold have been activated more than once." The post conclude with these
reassurances: DRM is not designed to keep you from playing the game, nor
is it designed to combat any after market sales. After market sales for PC games
are nowhere near what they are for console games anyway, aside from ebay,
craigslist and yard sales I can’t even really think of anywhere to get used PC
games.
I want to make it clear that there are people who are monitoring activations so
if and when we get into an issue with people not being able to play that issue
will be addressed. Should the case get so severe it effects a large portion of
the gamers, more activations will be set in place as needed. Further down the
line the DRM will be removed and a new unprotected exe will be released.
So to summarize if you buy Riddick legally on the PC we are going to do our best
to make sure you can play it for as long as you want. I hope this helps answer
some of your questions / concerns.
Shacknews has word
from Capcom that PC (and PS3) users should not expect a playable demo for Bionic
Commando, for which a multiplayer demo is planned for the Xbox 360. When asked
for a reason, Capcom offered "no comment."
The Cities XL Website
is now accepting signups for closed beta testing of CITIES XL, Monte
Cristo's upcoming urban planning game. This will be limited at first, as word
is: "After completing the registration process, a few lucky beta testers will be
selected. The Cities XL team will accept qualified testers as they are needed,
and participants will be notified via the email address provided in their
registration account settings."
Demigod PC Games Behind the Scenes - Urgent Issues video on IGN offers a
brief tour by Brad Wardell of Stardock's offices in Michigan, showing how they
collaborate with Gas Powered Games in Seattle via Skype. Brad discusses the
issues they've been experiencing with multiplayer in Demigod since the
recent launch of the action/strategy game, and what is being done to fix them
going forward. Brad outlines some solutions they are working on, which they hope
to roll out by Friday.
Matrix Games now offers a new patch for Forge of Freedom, updating
the Civil War strategy game to version 1.12.2. Here's the deal: "Specifically
for fixes, VPs are now properly assigned only for decisive battles and the
National Will bug for capturing empty cities is now fixed. There are also many
other improvements and tweaks with detailed battles, especially with the AI and
with reinforcements now adding to the Will to Fight. In addition, the US will
now lose one additional National Will point if it loses a decisive battle in a
US province and the CSA will gain one NW point in the same situation. New
features include 10 new special abilities for units, improvements to generals’
statistics, new generals’ biographies (now 300 in total), and much more."
The Brainy Gamer- Voice for change. Thanks
Kotaku.
"Voice actors in games can't find their meat and potatoes because they
are routinely denied the basic information they need to do their jobs well.
Lacking this, they rely on instructions issued into their headphones: 'Say
it louder and angrier, and throw in an evil laugh at the end.' They deliver
the goods, and the result is an amateur performance with a professional
sheen."
Well April 15 has come and gone, we got our taxes in the mail with a good 12
hours to spare before the midnight deadline. I was flipping channels and saw a
comment on the odd nature of making the annual tax deadline here in the US on
the anniversary of the death of one of our most beloved presidents (Lincoln), but that seems to make sense to help maintain it as a perpetually
somber occasion.
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