Archived News:
Cyanide Studios and Focus Home Interactive announce the worldwide launch of
Dungeon Party, their
subscription-free dungeon-crawling MMOG. Here's a bit on the game:
Dungeon Party is an online, free-to-play game based on team play. In a
totally crazy heroic-fantasy universe, groups of Heroes battle in teams of five
in dungeons filled with lethal traps and horrible monsters... all in a quest to
win the valuable treasures hidden inside… before the other team does!
In Dungeon Party, you create your characters and customize them via a huge
variety of costumes and items. Styles are numerous and varied! Each player can
equip their character with various potions, traps and other items, before
throwing themselves into battle against the opposite teams.
Carefully choose spells and skills during the matches to adapt to the opposite
teams’ strategies and to help your team the most.
A Beta version of the mod tools for Left 4 Dead is now available via
Steam. Accessing the beta tools is explained on the
Valve Developer Community Wiki. There are also new
SketchUp
Source Tools, which: "allow you to create 3D content for the Source game
engine using Google SketchUp." Thanks
Shacknews.
The Day 4 Team Fortress 2
Sniper Update offers a curveball, describing two new items to be added to
the Spy's arsenal in the upcoming Team Fortress 2 patch. These are two
new watches, one which will feign the Spy's death after a non lethal hit
allowing him to sneak off under the cloak of cloakiness. The other offers a
cloaking recharge while standing still, allowing the judicious spy to remain
constantly invisible.
The BlizzCon Website has a reminder that
tickets for the 2009 installment of Blizzard's gaming convention will go on sale
tomorrow at 1:00 pm EDT: Just in case Saturday, May 16 isn’t circled on
your calendar, here’s a quick reminder that BlizzCon tickets will be going on
sale tomorrow. After our gnomish engineers here in Southern California get to
work and finish making the final preparations late Saturday morning, they’ll
activate the ticket-purchase process at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and BlizzCon
tickets will officially go on sale. If you are unable to purchase tickets
tomorrow, a second batch of tickets will go on sale May 30. And for those unable
to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by
DIRECTV as a Pay
Per View event, available both via satellite and Internet stream.
BlizzCon 2009 will take place August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center,
and tickets cost $125 each. For further information about the convention, check
out the official BlizzCon site,
and keep an eye on the
ticket sales page
tomorrow for the chance to get yours.
Dawn Of War II Website
has patch notes for a version 1.3.2 patch for Relic's real-time strategy sequel
they say will be released next week. This patch will include a few bug fixes and
balance tweaks, and they also say they are hard at work on a version 1.4 patch.
No ETA for the patch is offered, but they say, "you can expect many bug fixes, a
balance update, new maps, and some awesome new features."
Steam is offering a free
copy of Second Sight
right away for anyone who pre-purchases
Damnation between now and
the worldwide release of the horizontally challenged shooter on May 22.
Recoil
Games Reveals Eco-Themed FPS Earth No More on Gamasutra is an interview with
details on Earth No More, the first-person shooter that's been in
development in relative silence since being announced nearly two
years ago, though there was a lawsuit early last year over the
title. The game is still in development, and they say the closure of their
partners 3D Realms "has no effect" on the project, though the concluding answer
seems equivocal: "We are keeping all the doors open for now. Once we have a
publisher in the picture, we will figure all this stuff out."
A new "E3 prelude" trailer from Mass Effect 2 is now available, offering
some gameplay footage and developer commentary from BioWare discussing what they
will be showing of their RPG sequel at the upcoming trade show. They describe a
greater emphasis on combat, and a darker side of the Mass Effect universe. The
clip is found on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, and
FileFront.
The Dragon Age:
Origins Website has a new video from BioWare's upcoming role-playing game.
They say: "The Mabari are an essential part of Ferelden military strategy.
Trained hounds can easily pull knights from horseback or break lines of pike
men, and the sight and sound of a wave of war dogs, howling and snarling, has
been known to cause panic among even the most hardened infantry soldiers." From
the conclusion of the clip we can assume we were observing a male Mabari.
The Hard-Won Wisdom of Bill Roper on Gamasutra is a Q&A with the design
director on Cryptic's upcoming Champions Online. They discuss the highs
of being part of Blizzard's accomplishments and the lows of being part of
Flagship's disappointments, offering the perspective on how there can be more
learned from failure than success.
Activision announces that preordering
Transformers- Revenge of the Fallen on Gamestop.com will make you a
gold-plated, well, transformer, as pre-orders will get special in-game
gold-plated transformers. This may be a console-only deal, as the
Gamestop.com Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen PC Listing only mentions an
"e-Movie Cash coupon code good" bonus. We have not yet received an answer to our
inquiries about this.
Shacknews has some
court documents from the Take-Two lawsuit against 3D Realms
indicating the publisher is claiming it is owed "millions of dollars," and is
seeking the court's help in protecting the source code and other assets from
Duke Nukem Forever. They also have a comment from Scott Miller, who says 3D
Realms will have more to say on the matter soon, but in the meantime he denies
Take-Two's claim that it paid 3D Realms $12 million for the DNF publishing
rights, "No. We didn't get a penny of that money," says the 3D Realms co-owner,
who adds: "This, along with so much else, is 100% spin, being eaten up by those
who have no clue whatsoever."
Steam News announces a
50% off sale this weekend on
Call of Duty: World at War, offering the latest installment in the military
shooter series for $24.99.
"We ran into an unexpected financial challenge some months ago and we had to put
The Crossing on hold," is the quote from Raphael Colantonio, CEO of
Arkane Studios posted on
Joystiq after they inquired about the "cross-play" game that was
announced in 2006 and was intended for release sometime
last year. Arkane, you may recall, was cut loose by EA last
year amid EA's cost-saving efforts. "On hold" is often a euphemism for
cancelled, but Colantonio does cryptically say, "I can't comment too much about
The Crossing other than saying that we have a really fun demo (really, really
fun)." He also tells them Arkane is still working on two projects, an iPhone
game, and Harvey Smith's recently revealed first-person RPG.
Norwegian developer Funcom has released their
first-quarter 2009 financial report ( Adobe Acrobat-format) and its ( Adobe Acrobat-format)
related presentation (thanks Ola). After a rough fourth quarter
last year, Funcom has rebounded to profitability, and their presentation says
"The Company’s financial position remains strong." They also say "positive
indications on subscriber retention from January 2009 has been reinforced and
strengthened in the following months for the Age of Conan game …
combined with an increase in new customers in Q1 2009 has led to a stable and
solid subscriber base" for the MMORPG. They also say "The strong potential for
The Secret World was confirmed by the broad and very positive coverage
and feedback from both world gaming press and gamer communities at GDC in April
2009." Here is their status report for The Secret World: Status:
• Game reached important mile-stone on May 7:
• 1st iteration combat
• Character creation
• First cut-scenes
• 1st iteration of mission system
• First underground playfield
• Content development tools
• 11 game areas close to complete or in development
• 100 people working on project
The Star Wars: The
Old Republic Website has a new movie to promote the upcoming MMORPG set
a long time ago in a galaxy, well, you know the drill.
The
clip, or holorecord if you're role-playing, features the voice of actor
Lance Henriksen as Master Gnost-Dural, Keeper of the Jedi Archives, describing
how a smuggler convoy broke a Mandalorian blockade. The movie contains no
gameplay footage, just pseudo-animation in the style of the 1960s Spider-Man
cartoons and some Ken Burns documentaries.
Eidos Interactive announces that Battlestations: Pacific is now available
in Europe and Australia for either Windows or Xbox 360. Here's a reminder of
what to expect from the World War II action/strategy sequel to
Battlestations: Midway that was released in the US on Tuesday:
"Battlestations: Pacific offers one of the most authentic gameplay experiences
with over 100 air, sea and undersea units to master: fighters, bombers, kamikaze
planes and subs, aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, battleships and
more. Each unit is recreated with incredible visual detail and comes complete
with a full damage model that brings the battle to life. AA fire can rip planes
to pieces, with wings and tails sheering off while carefully placed bombs or
shell fire can pierce the hulls of even the largest ships, causing engines to
stall, fuel stores to catch fire, magazines to explode and ultimately ships to
break apart."
Bloomberg.com reports that Take-Two Interactive is suing 3D Realms and
Apogee over the 3D Realms' closure and the whole Duke Nukem
Forever in limbo situation ((thanks
GamesIndustry.biz). Word is: Take-Two Sues Apogee Over ‘Duke Nukem’
Game Sequel
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” video
games, sued Apogee Software Ltd.’s 3D Realms over the failed development of a
sequel to the “Duke Nukem” game called “Duke Nukem Forever.”
Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to the game, said Apogee breached an
agreement to design the latest installment of Duke Nukem, a game in which the
player “shoots” enemies. The new version has been under development since 1997,
the company said yesterday in a complaint in a state court in Manhattan.
3D Realms, which was based in Garland, Texas, never produced the game and
instead closed its studio on May 6, terminated development of the game and fired
employees who had been involved in the Duke Nukem project, Take-Two said.
“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,”
Take-Two said in the complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the
video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing
development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”
Take-Two said in 2000 it had an agreement with Apogee and paid $12 million for
publishing rights to the forthcoming game. In 2007, the two companies entered
into a second agreement.
The case is Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. v. Apogee Software Ltd.
601457/2009, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).
Kotaku - Making A Game Out Of Today's War - Six Days in Fallujah.
When approaching a game that realistically depicts a modern combat
situation, one criticism that often arises is the subject of fun. Can a
realistic military shooter be fun? According to Ian Bogost, that's the wrong
question to ask. "We use the word fun as a placeholder, when we don't even
really know what we mean when we look for some sort of enjoyment in a
serious experience," he said. Fun and entertainment aren't mutually
exclusive, especially when it comes to entertainment based on real-world
military conflicts.
Charlie Stross's Diary: gaming in the world of 2030. Thanks Ant and
Boing Boing.
Welcome to a world where the internet has turned inside-out; instead of
being something you visit inside a box with a coloured screen, it's draped
all over the landscape around you, invisible until you put on a pair of
glasses or pick up your always-on mobile phone. A phone which is to today's
iPhone as a modern laptop is to an original Apple II; a device which always
knows where you are, where your possessions are, and without which you are —
literally — lost and forgetful. Welcome to a world where everyone is a gamer
— casual or hardcore, it makes little difference — and two entire
generational cohorts have been added to your market: one of them
unencumbered by mortgage payments and the headaches of raising a family.
I'm doing an anti-rain dance here, as we have some family coming tomorrow, and
the weather is calling for even more rain over the weekend, which will make like
20 days in a row or something. Maybe we could have an ark-building party.
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