Archived News:
Steam News announces the
release of Killing Floor,
the new multiplayer survival horror game from Tripwire Interactive: Killing
Floor, the new zombie action game from Tripwire Interactive - makers of Red
Orchestra, is now available via Steam. Killing Floor features multiplayer co-op
action for up to six players, over 40 Steam Achievements, persistent perks to
level up your character and a solo game mode for offline play.
Details on the upcoming map pack for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin are now
available, outlining the two maps and new character heads in the DLC. Though the
trailer for the map pack that set its release date as May 21 lists
Games for Windows among its platforms, a PC version goes unmentioned in today's
announcement. We inquired whether a Windows version is coming, and were
reassured it is, but at a later date, which is not being revealed right now. The
announcement also says the third of the three planned DLC releases will come
this summer. Here's the word on the content: • Conductor Map:
Push your way out of a train yard into the vast and open-ended junction station
built around a turntable. EPAs will battle their way through the ground floor,
as infantry can choose to either support from below or scale the heights of the
station and engage in long-range combat.
• Decoy Map: Put your skill to the test in this full-scale training
ground for Replica soldiers! Once a controlled arena for combat exercises, now
it is under a full-blown assault for control between Replica and ATC. Watch out
for ambushes, and don’t let the pop-up target dummies fool you!
• Character Heads: Four unique heads to customize your
character.
Another Team Fortress 2 -
The Sniper Update introduces another new item to be included in the imminent
Sniper upgrade patch for Valve' teamplay shooter. Here's word on the Razorback,
a tribal shield that's been customized for counter-espionage purposes:
The Razorback is a beautiful hand-carved tribal shield, built using
indigenous techniques passed from father to son since before recorded time.
Sometimes the old ways really are the best ways. And after using the Razorback
in the field, we quickly discovered this was not one of those times.
All the tribal craftsmanship in the world, it turns out, cannot stop a modern
butter knife. So we taped a car battery to it. Sure, the added weight of the
redesigned Razorback’ll slow you down a little. But any poor sap dumb enough to
backstab you while you’re sporting one is getting a surprise to the tune of
10,000 volts. Plus, if they want to stab you again, they’ll have to wait until
their knife cools down. Which is lucky for you, since the Razorback collapses
into a million finely crafted pieces after a single stab.
Steam News announces a
sale celebrating the fifth birthday of Telltale Games. Between now and May 18,
they are offering a 50% discount on
Sam & Max Season One,
Sam & Max Season Two, and
Strong Bad's Cool Game for
Attractive People. Also GOG.com has added
Heroes of
Might and Magic to their DRM-free marketplace, offering it for $5.99 ($4.00
off) between now and May 21. Finally, there's no deeper discount than free, and
for the coming week GameTap is offering
free play on
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and
Battlestations: Midway.
Runes of Magic announces this subscription-free MMORPG has passed the one
million registered user milestone. There are plans to further expand the
user-base for the game with "at least two additional localized versions this
year." They say: "In addition to this, the previously announced Korean version
will be published by Frogster Asia, and a Russian version will be published in a
cooperative partnership with Game Factory Interactive."
Gamasutra
reports that Factor 5 Germany has confirmed the closure of Factor 5's U.S.
studio. According to CEO Achim Mollar: "We are sorry to announce the closure of
the San Rafael-based Factor 5, Inc. studio, but the obstacles created by the
sudden bankruptcy of Brash Entertainment for the continuation of operations have
turned out too great to overcome in the current economic climate." Factor 5 U.S.
developed Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Lair.
A Transformers: Revenge of
the Fallen Playable Character List outlines the playable characters in the
upcoming Transformers game sequel. The announcement also has details on the
game's soundtrack, saying: "Secondly, we are also pleased to announce that the
soundtrack to Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is headlined by composer
Steve Jablonsky, and he is joined by composer Bobby Tahouri and electronic music
act Julien-K."
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
There is a status report from
Croteam on their website from Roman Ribaric, CEO of the Croatian developer.
The update describes the three projects keeping them busy, which are the
next-generation Serious Engine 3 and two games, one being the next Serious
Sam game. Roman also says that their "work-for-hire" development on a
military game was halted "some time ago" by investors and publishers, and that
this also means that our next title won't be published by Gamecock as had been
announced. As for the next installment in the not-so-serious Serious Sam series
of shooters (suffering succotash!), he says they "are pretty close in signing
the publishing deal, so when that happens, you'll hear it here as well," though
he also adds that: "Since a lot still has to be done, especially on the next Sam
game, we don't have a firm release date on it yet. When we do, we'll announce it
here on our pages." Thanks Mocib.
A new movie from Battlefield 1943 showing the depiction of the Battle of
Iwo Jima in DICE's upcoming online World War II game is now available on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell, concluding
promising the game's release next month for Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. The delay
to the Windows edition of the military shooter is one of the main topics of a
new Battlefield
1943 Interview on Shacknews talking with Gordon Van Dyke about the project,
who describes improvements planned for Battlefield 1943 on the PC, which he says
will probably not be worked back into the console versions. He also addresses
conspiracy theories about the PC edition, pointing out that intentionally
delaying a game that's ready to go would cost them money, and that they are not
doing this over worries about piracy, since that's less of an issue with an
online game. One other topic of interest is the possibility of cross-platform
play, which he rules out completely.
The Consumerist reports on a discovery made by someone attempting to collect
on a $10.00 rebate from Creative Labs that came in the form of a debit card. The
card was denied when it was used, because Creative charged a $3.00 maintenance
fee to the card every month until its balance reached zero. They point out that
this really does make this Creative rebate a "creative rebate," and wisely
suggest that if you have such a rebate card you should make use of it before
suffering a similar fate. Thanks Mike Martinez.
True Games announces that their free fantasy-themed action/MMORPG
Warrior Epic will launch next Tuesday,
May 19, at 5:00 pm PDT (8:00 pm EDT). In the meantime they will continue to put
Warrior Epic through further closed-beta testing, and are accepting a
second round of testers before the official launch. They say participants in the
closed beta will be rewarded through in-game events and promotions.
A post by Chris Taylor to the
Interplay Forums
offers a patch for Fallout Trilogy to address a Windows Vista/XP
compatibility issue some users are experiencing with the recently released
Fallout bundle. The patch is only for those encountering a black screen and an
hourglass when attempting to load Fallout Tactics, and Chris says most players will not
need this patch. Thanks
No Mutants Allowed.
Gossip
Gamers has some details picked out of the Modern Warfare 2 cover
story on Infinity Ward's military shooter sequel in the latest issue of
Game Informer Magazine and another story in UK-based PSM Magazine. Word is there will be no
co-op support in story mode, but there are separate multiplayer missions with
co-op, the game will run at 60 FPS with more detail than CoD4, stealth
and swimming are included, there will be vehicles and a helicopter-based level,
and more.
IGN Video now offers a new "Hunting the Big Sister" movie from BioShock 2
showing off about nine
minutes of gameplay from 2K Games' upcoming waterlogged
shooter sequel. The developer-narrated clip features interactions between your
big daddiness and your little sister, demonstrates combat, shows off Rapture,
and suggests the Big Sister is not to be trifled with. The clip is also now
available for download from
ActionTrip and
Gamer's Hell.
All Aspect
Warfare developer blog #10 is online with more from Derek Smart on 3000AD's
upcoming science fiction combat game. There are also some
new screenshots
from the game and a new 10-minute movie is also available, a clip called "man
down" that centers on gunship combat. The movie is posted on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
MCV
reports on the wrapping-up of the sale of ATARI's PAL distribution
operation to Namco Bandai, and as the sale is completed and all staff are
transferred, ATARI's US division will become the company's sole headquarters.
How to Develop a Gaming Career on Crispy Gamer gets advice on breaking into
the game development business from some experts on the topic: Gabe Newell, Sid
Meier, Ted Price, Brian Reynolds, Lars Gustavsson, Chris Taylor (the GPG one),
Randy Pitchford, Dr. Greg Zeschuk, and Ken Levine.
Wired.com - Goodbye, Good Riddance to Antiquated Action Hero Duke Nukem.
We still love our action heroes, but we love them with a touch of
humanity. Instead of simply fawning over men with huge muscles, we crave the
tortured superhuman archetypes of comic book films, like Hugh Jackman in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. We’re drawn to Robert Downey Jr.’s believable
portrayal of a playboy in a weaponized suit of armor in Iron Man. Characters
like these deliver huge explosions and cool-as-hell quips before offing the
bad guys, but they also give us a glimpse of the human condition through
their emotional turmoil and actual acting.
IGN -
Intelligent Design.
The polar opposite is the stubborn camera, as used to underwhelming
effect in Path of Neo. Here the camera would simply refuse to play nicely,
looking in the opposite direction to the action or, worse still, moving in
for extreme close-ups of Neo's buttocks at the most inopportune times. It
was like swallowing the red pill shortly after the accidental ingestion of a
mixture of Toilet Duck, horse tranquillisers and someone else's sick. For
most of us, this was not ideal.
Separated at birth:
Jammie Thomas &
John
Romero. Thanks nin.
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