Archived News:
Steam News announces this
Friday will be "Freaky Friday" for Left 4 Dead, their multiplayer zombie
shooter. The festivities kick off at 12:01 am GMT on Friday, which by our
reckoning is 8:01 pm EDT tomorrow night. Here's word: Beginning Friday at
12:01 am GMT, the PC version of Left 4 Dead will be available for a free 24-hour
trial via Steam. The free trial will include access to the recently released
Survival Pack DLC, which introduces a new multiplayer game mode and two
additional Versus campaigns. Those who wish to give L4D and the Survival Pack a
try may now pre-load everything
needed to play with no obligation to purchase.
Steam News announces the
release of additional content for The Maw, the action game from indie
developer Twisted Pixel Games. Word is: " Speeder
Lane, the latest "deleted scene" for the hit indie game The
Maw, is now available as downloadable content on Steam. The Maw plus all
three deleted scenes are also available as The
Mawesome Pack for a discounted price."
Gamestop's Dragon Age: Origins Page is now accepting preorders for Dragon
Age: Origins, BioWare's upcoming RPG (thanks Mike Martinez and
DarkZero). The preorder bonuses they offer sound like they could have a
fairly noticeable impact on gameplay: Reserve Dragon Age Origins and
receive:
• The Memory Ring - An in-game item that allows your character to accumulate
experience points at an accelerated rate and therefore level up more
efficiently.
• The Memory Band - Made by the Formari, these lyrium-infused rings are
supposed to help apprentices retain their lessons.
Indie UK developer SaintXi announces their science-fiction colony-building game
Light of Altair will be released worldwide on June 4 via digital
distribution (thanks Gamer's Hell). The SaintXi
Website has some new screenshots, and here's a quickie primer on the game:
"Light of Altair is a colonization game set in our own solar system and beyond.
You must set up a strong economy to survive in the hostile void of space as you
compete with other factions, the deadly environment and internal conflicts of
interest. But most of all it is a strongly story driven game that will pull
people in to this vision of the future."
The manual version of the version 1.01 patch for FLOCK! is now available,
following Monday's Steam patch. The patch offering balance tweaks
and bug-fixes for the platformer can be found on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
The Windows and Linux dedicated servers are now available for the new version 1.5 of Crysis
Wars released earlier today. The downloads are mirrored on
The Patches
Scrolls.
NIMF Urges
'Thoughtful Conversation' In Game Addiction Study Debate on Gamasutra
reflects NIMF's statement that "Regardless of whether you agree with the exact
statistics in Dr. Gentile’s study, it provides the gaming industry, medical
experts, and public policymakers with a new opportunity to have a thoughtful
conversation regarding the effects of video games on kids." Meanwhile,
Iowa State University Responds To ESA Criticisms on IncGamers talks with Dr.
Gentile himself, and he tells them criticisms of his reports'
methodology (specifically using "convenience sampling," rather than a
"probability sample") is a "trick the ESA is trying to get you to pick up on," explaining, "Every survey is a volunteer survey, you have to agree to do it, so
therefore it is a ‘convenience' sample."
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
The Fallout
Downloads Page now offers a new patch for Fallout 3 to update Bethesda
Softworks' action/RPG sequel to version 1.5. The patch is also automatically
available via Games for Windows LIVE, and the corresponding patch for the Xbox
360 edition can be applied automatically through Xbox LIVE. Here are the
patch notes that describe the update: New Features
New achievements for Broken Steel
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue with VATS calculations not appearing properly for perks (PC)
Fixed crash related to altered references between master files
LOD objects render properly when loaded from DLC worldspaces
Fixed issue with companion NPCs not loading into cells immediately after
player
This press release has the official statement from French developer
Widescreen Games confirming speculation about problems with development of
The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, the console version of CD Projekt's
action/RPG, as there have been widespread recent rumors the project was
cancelled. While it has not been cancelled, development of the game "has been
suspended in an attempt to resolve financial problems among the various project
partners." Widescreen manager Olivier Masclef has this to say about the
situation: "I hope that we can find an amicable solution with our present and
former partners involved in this ambitious project," but
GamesIndustry.biz has a more straightforward quote saying: "We've not been
paid for a few months and we had a very nasty broken payment. We had no choice
but to put the product on hold. We've not been able to find a solution." There
is an interview with CD
Projekt cofounder Michal Kicinski on rpg codex, but this is coincidental,
and was conducted before Rise of the White Wolf rumors surfaced, but
Voodoo Extreme has a statement from Kicinski saying that their payments were
on time based on the milestone plan, but that production delays have caused
delayed payments. He goes on to say that delays became a bigger issue as time
passed, jeopardizing the game's release, and concludes saying: "Currently the
works are on hold. We are evaluating all possible options to continue the
production. Making this decision was extremely difficult and sad as we know that
many people are waiting for this project. We do our best to find a way out of
this situation. But final decision must guarantee high quality of the product,
otherwise we won’t continue the production no matter what consequences it will
bring. We are committed to the highest quality of all our games, and this is
unnegotiable [sic] for us."
City of Heroes is not the only MMORPG currently celebrating its fifth
anniversary, as
Lineage
II: The Chaotic Throne is having a fifth birthday party of its own. The
event includes the release of the third and final part of the Gracia expansion:
"NCsoft®, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer
online games (MMOs), commemorates five years of Lineage® II service in the West
with the launch of Gracia™ Final, the latest free expansion to the legendary
Lineage II franchise. Gracia Final, the third part of the Gracia expansion
series, brings Lineage II fans a whole new continent and refined
player-versus-player (PvP) combat. Other highlights of the Gracia Final
expansion include more clan features, territory wars, new items, and new skill
effects."
Mythic Entertainment announces the Stygian Abyss expansion for Ultima
Online will be released this summer. The expansion, which will be digitally
distributed, will add a new playable Gargoyle race and "a flood of new content
for the citizens of Britannia to explore and conquer." The
Ultima Online - Stygian Abyss
Website offers more on the Gargoyle race and other new content for EA's
long-running MMORPG.
Dawn Of War 2 Community
Site announces the release of the soundtrack for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn
of War II, Relic's sci-fi RTS sequel. The site has links to streaming
versions of the individual tracks, while
Steam is offering the
whole shebang for download, completely free of charge, and no Steam account
required.
Valve is now offering
preorders on Steam of
Killing Floor, the upcoming co-op survival horror-themed shooter from
Tripwire Interactive ( Red Orchestra). The game is due for release on May
14, but those who purchase it before then will receive a 25% discount. Word is:
"Killing Floor features over 40 Steam Achievements, persistent perks to level up
your character and a solo game mode for offline play."
A new patch for Empire: Total War is now automatically available via
Steam. The release notes
for the new version are quite extensive, as a large number of issues are tackled
along the way. They also note a couple of changes that will wait for the next
patch, one where user-created patches can crash the game and improvements to AI
naval invasion behavior.
MyCrysis has
the release of a new version 1.5 patch for Crysis Wars as well as the
promised updated SDK for mod authors to allow single-player mods based on Crysis
Wars. They have complete change notes for the patch, and a flythrough movie
showing off the included new map called Ruins. The patch is also automatically
available for the Steam
edition.
Ubisoft financial report reveals Red Steel 2, Ghost Recon 4 has word that
Ubisoft's latest financial reporting reveal plans for Ghost Recon 4 among
the titles expect in their fiscal 2009-2010 line-up, which includes the following
games: Assassin's Creed 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction,
Rabbids Go Home, Red Steel 2, Ghost Recon 4, and Dawn of
Discovery.
The Official 1C
Company forum has posts from some users indicating their preordered copies
of Tomorrow War have already arrived from
Amazon.co.uk, even though the space sim
is not supposed to be released for another week. Thanks InBlack, who can confirm
his own copy of the game has already arrived.
Ars Technica has an interesting article on the reaction of developer ACE
Team to finding their recently released combat game Zeno Clash available
for illegal download. Carlos Bordeu of the Chilean developer
commented on BitTorrent Sites explaining the impact of piracy on an
independent developer, saying in some cases they were surprised to find a
positive reaction: "We've received several mails and posts in our own forums of
people who pirated the game that decided to buy it because of the message. I
don't know if it is a significant percent, or whether this is good strategy as a
whole... but it has sparked some very positive reactions in the community." Here
is the statement they made on the torrent sites, indicating a demo is in the
works: I’m one of the developers of Zeno Clash. I would appreciate you
read this if you are about to download this file.
Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group
of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a
sequel) is to have good sales.
I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are
working on one which will be available soon.
We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don’t intend to
do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I
would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game
development scene) if you enjoy it. We plan on updating Zeno Clash with DLC and
continuing support for the game long after it’s release.
Thanks for taking the time to read this… hopefully it will make a
difference.
Mezmer Games announces the release of Stalin vs. Martians, the World War
II/sci-fi arcade-RTS game. The
Mezmer Games Website
lists the digital distributors carrying the game, there's a new music video
celebrating the launch on the
YouTube, and there's
an interview on Mine-Dog.net discussing the game with Alexander "Zima"
Shcherbakov of developer Dreamlore. Here's a bit on the game: Stalin vs.
Martians is an absolutely over-the-top PC thriller. Fun and accessible, it takes
a simple arcade-like approach to the genre of real-time strategy. The player
controls the Red Army, as it defends Earth from the Martian Invasion of 1942, a
highly classified military operation which even today remains a closely guarded
state secret. Stalin himself conducts the mission briefings and later even
becomes a playable unit.
The
BioShock 2 Interview on Gameplayer chats with Hogarth de la Plante and
Melissa Miller, respectively the Lead Level Architect and Producer on 2K Game's
upcoming waterlogged shooter sequel. The game received lots of critical acclaim,
but Hogarth sees room for improvement: "In some respects when we look back
critically over the first Bioshock we didn’t pay off on a lot of those things as
well as we could have. There were so many things we were trying to do new. Now
we’re really starting to think about how can we give you more meaningful choice.
In Bioshock 1 you got to choose to harvest or save the little sisters, but in
Bioshock 2 how can we really make that more meaningful than a yes or no and an
animation?"
NCsoft celebrates the anniversary of City of Heroes, the superhero MMORPG
that launched five years ago yesterday. There is a
City of Heroes Fifth
Anniversary Interview with Matt "Positron" Miller on Ten Ton Hammer
discussing the milestone, and NCsoft announces that former subscribers with
accounts in good standing can return and check out progress on the game between
now and May 3 and participate in the various events commemorating the game's
first five years.
This page outlines the planned anniversary celebrations.
505 Games announces June 26 is the new release date for
ARMA II, Bohemia Interactive Studios'
military shooter sequel. This is a delay from the first quarter 2009 release
window announced last summer. No explanation for the setback is
provided, but the announcement is accompanied by
a batch of
five new screenshots.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is now available via digital
distribution as promised, offering Ossian Studios' adventure pack
for the D&D RPG. The pack can be purchased via the
Atari North America Store and the
European Atari Store. Update:
This Forum Thread outlines how DRM limits users to three activations (thanks
vrok). Here's the deal on the Mysteries of Westgate: Mysteries of Westgate is the
first Adventure Pack for Neverwinter Nights 2, developed by Ossian Studios. This
single-player Dungeons & Dragons® game comes with over 15 hours of non-linear
gameplay, an epic story of horror and intrigue with multiple paths and endings,
new creatures and tileset, as well as brand new music and voice-over. In this
city-based adventure, players can explore 4 bustling districts of the city of
Westgate: Harbor Loop, Market Triangle, Arena District, and subterranean
Undergate.
Neo Steam announces that open beta
testing is now underway for this subscription-free anime-style steampunk MMORPG.
Word is: "After selected players were blown away by the closed beta, everyone
can now join the epic battle between the mystical Elerd Kingdom and the
technophile Republic of Rogwel. Players can register absolutely free at
www.neosteam.net download the game and
start playing immediately."
The maintenance at Free Realms
is complete, and this youth-oriented subscription-free MMORPG is now officially
live, about a day later than planned. They say: "Once you create your character,
you can explore a massive virtual world, learn all sorts of fun jobs, train
pets, take on challenging quests, race karts (or destroy them in demolition
derbies), play exciting minigames and much more. You can do all of this online
with your friends!"
Boom or
Blurst- A New Business Model for Videogames is a Wall Street Journal article
on alternative game business models that describes plans by
Flashbang Studios to see if a
subscription plan will work with their offbeat web-based games like
Jetpack Brontosaurus and
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari that
have proven very popular as free offerings. The article also reveals that a new
version of Paper Moon is planned for release on Flashbang's
Blurst portal on Friday, and the
Infinite Ammo Blog has a bit on their collaboration with Flashbang on this
project. Back to subscriptions: Later this year Flashbang will see if they can
entice enough fans to support their development efforts by subscribing, while
games will still be offered for free to non-subscribers, testing the
1,000 True Fans premise put forth by Wired founder Kevin Kelly. Word is: "In
addition to giving away its games for free, it'll charge $20 for a six month
subscription for additional features such as a downloadable version. Blurst will
also be taking requests from fans to add features over time. Mr. Swink and his
team calculated how many people they'd need to keep a staff of six and cover a
$20,000 per month budget. They arrived at what they considered to be a
reasonable goal: only 5,000 people every half-year."
The Eidos Forums
outline PC specifications for Batman: Arkham Asylum, the upcoming
Bat-em-up (thanks
BeyondUnreal). Word is: Minimum:
• CPU: Intel single core 3 Ghz or AMD equivalent
• Memory: XP = 1 GB, Vista = 2GB
• GPU: Shader Model 3 NVidia 6600 or ATI 1300 or higher
Recommended:
• CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Dual core)
• Memory: XP = 2GB, Vista = 3GB
• GPU: NVidia 7900 GT or higher
Enhanced for multi-core
• Online features:
o Friends
o Achievements
Inside the sausage
factory is a new status report from Brad Wardell on Demigod, Gas
Powered Games' new action/strategy offering. Brad admits that after working on
things, "the included multiplayer matchmaking is still flakey," and he goes into
a good deal of detail explaining exactly what the problem is and why a complete
solution has eluded them. His estimate is that 30% of their users are
experiencing no issues, and 10% of players can't connect at all, but he thinks
they are nearing a solution to help that middle 60% experiencing "flakey"
connectivity: And that is where we are on Tuesday with regards to the
connectivity. Figuring out why the message is sent from the NAT but not received
by the game. There’s a lot of thoughts on this. UDP (unlike TCP) isn’t
guaranteed. You can learn more
on this here. Another thought is that the NAT queues up its messages and
that by the time it sends it back to the game, it has timed out. The team
tells me they think they’ll have this mystery solved today. If so, I’ll report
here on this. But this will put us up to 90%.
The Mafia 2
Interview on Shacknews talks with 2K's Denby Grace about the upcoming
organized crime game sequel. Topics include differentiating the game from other
open-world shooters, changes to the driving system, the new 40s-50s timeline,
the cover system, linearity, and more. So hat's the biggest difference between
the sequel and its predecessor? Denby says: "Ultimately it's a crime action
game.. The big differentiation for people who played Mafia 1 to Mafia 2 is this
intense gunplay. It's more like a first person shooter for us. So once you get
into these combats, in this interior rooms, and the exterior [areas], you have
so many dynamic objects going around. The way people use cover, the way you use
cover, the way the weapons handle, it feels more like a--we put much more focus
on the actual gunplay."
ZootFly talks Mr. T on Joystiq offers a tongue-in-cheek conversation with
ZootFly about their equally cheeky upcoming Mr. T versus the Nazis
game. One semi-serious response indicates the game will be ready for release
soon after they secure a publisher: "We're looking for a good publisher to pick
up the game. Then time starts to fly as fast as Mr. T's dukes, so, to answer
your question, not long. In the meantime, why don't you check the Mr. T graphic
novel?"
My plans to get together with my buddies this evening have changed, so my
socializing streak has ended at two (still a record). I will still try
to get this evening's news posted a bit earlier anyway, as that's probably
desirable in and of itself, but that won't be as early as if I was heading out.
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