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Archived News:
The Red War: Edem's
Curse Website now offers downloads of the open beta client for this
subscription-free MMORPG, while participants in the closed beta can get an
automatic update to the open beta client, though they warn this will take
"NUMEROUS large patches." This is all in advance of the beta opening to all,
which is expected in about an hour, at 9:00 pm EDT (6:00 pm PDT). Word is beta
characters will not be wiped when the game goes live, and here's a description
of what this is all about: Red War: Edem's Curse is an isometric MMORPG
in the vein of Diablo and other dungeon crawlers that revolutionizes dungeon
crawlers with new features such as the Red War tournaments. Red War's daily
tournaments are a pure test of skill rather than character level or equipment.
All participants are set to the same level at the beginning of the tournament,
and only stats and skills are allowed to be customized.
Steam News tells us a new
version of Left 4 Dead is now available via the magic of an automatic
update. Here's what's changed: • Removed the "Are you ready to play
Versus?" confirmation
• Fixed a crash when using mouse wheel or keyboard to select Campaign chapters
• Fixed sv_steamgroup_exclusive servers advertising for public lobbies
• Restored the ability to vote for a new campaign in Versus mode
Mass
Effect Forums have an explanation from Mass Effect 2 Lead Designer
Preston Watamaniuk on why you will not be able to replay the game with the same
built-up character after completing BioWare's upcoming RPG sequel, leading to a
corresponding change to how insanity mode will be handled, as explained in
a
forum post by Lead System Designer Christina Norman (thanks
1up). Here's word on
the change: The reason is progression. We have been working very hard to
make sure we design the abilities system to offer smooth progression into ME3
from ME2. Allowing double progression on characters makes that almost
impossible. We have to have reasonable knowledge about where a character could
end up finishing all content on a playthrough. We also want to offer choice of
character build within specific classes.
We replaced that feature with playing after you were done because it preserves
progression and allows for smoother downloading of PRC.
The
World of Warcraft Forums announce plans to introduce a faction-change
service in World of Warcraft (thanks nin and
WoW.com). There is no ETA yet, as it sounds like this will be rolled out in
"bits and pieces." Here's word: We wanted to give everyone a very early
heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service
for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from
Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many
details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the
service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character
of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and
leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been
asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be
getting closer to being able to deliver it.
As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the
faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on
the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service
can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of
implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it
lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much
more detail on all of this here at
http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime,
we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires
extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits
and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms
moving forward.
InformationWeek reports that China has banned trading virtual goods for real
money, making the practice of "gold farming" illegal (thanks
Slashdot). The report quotes
a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester
estimating that between 80% and 85% of the world's gold farmers are in China,
and says this of the new ruling: The Chinese government estimates that
trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that
it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is
currently equal to about $146 million.
The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users
in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency
trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft,
virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.
The most popular form of virtual currency in China is called "QQ coins," a form
of virtual credit issued by Tencent.com.
Tencent.com, which has about 220 million registered users -- about as many as
Facebook -- is quoted in the Chinese government news release as "resolutely"
supporting the new rule. The government justifies its ban on virtual currency
trading as a way to curtail gambling and other illegal online
activities.
There's a John Carmack interview on
MTV Multiplayer talking about DOOM Resurrection, the upcoming DOOM
iPhone game. A separate topic that comes up along the way is future plans, as
the id Technical Director reveals ambitions to bring QUAKE, QUAKE II,
and QUAKE III Arena to Apple's Smartphone as well. He says there's "no
doubt" that QUAKE and QUAKE II are coming to the iPhone and that QUAKE III Arena
will be possible "if Apple winds up addressing just a few things in their system
software," though he says QUAKE III Arena "would not be a problem at all" on the
iPhone 3GS. He also touches on plans for a RAGE-themed iPhone game, that
possible confusion with Wolfenstein RPG is what's holding up the release of
Wolfenstein 3D Classic, and that he envisions a DOOM 2 RPG in the future as
well. He acknowledges this is a pretty heavy schedule, saying, "I expect
we’ll have an iPhone project every two to three months over the next year." On a
semi-related note,
Joystiq has a brief story on how DOOM Resurrection was originally planned as
a Wii game.
Aspyr Media and Mindware Studios ( Cold War) announce Dreamkiller,
a "fast, frantic and mega-bloodbath" first-person shooter to be released this
fall for Windows and Xbox 360. Here are
the first
Dreamkiller screenshots, and here is the announcement: AUSTIN, TEXAS
– June 29, 2009 – Aspyr Media and Mindware Studios probe the insidious depths of
the subconscious to bring Dreamkiller to the Xbox 360® video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC. A fast, frantic and
mega-bloodbath first-person shooter, Dreamkiller takes gamers inside the dark
and twisted nightmares of tortured souls possessed by unknown forces.
Gamers will take on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the
extraordinary ability to enter the minds of her patients and combat the ravenous
foes haunting their dreams. Utilizing a host of fantastic weapons and her own
special abilities, Alice confronts our common demons only to discover an even
deeper menace reigns within. The ultimate showdown becomes inevitable between
that which would torment and she who will protect, and only one force will
prevail amidst a variety of dreamscapes as varied and bizarre as the human mind
itself.
Dreamkiller features 12 rich levels of single-player gameplay each laced with
swarms of hideous and disturbing enemies reflecting the mind’s infinite palette
of fear. The onslaught continues with numerous multiplayer modes and a host of
over-the-top weapons and supernatural abilities. Stay awake, Dreamkiller will be
available this fall.
A Different Track: Frank Gibeau Talks Strategy on Gamasutra is an interview
with the president of EA's Games Label that covers the broad topics befitting
his position at the top, discussing layoffs, the mood at EA following
recession-related cuts, EA's corporate culture, their roadmap for reinvigorating
the company, new IPs, renewing the company's focus on quality, and more.
IncGamers has a confirmation to their previous report that
StarCraft II will not support multiplayer play over a local area network.
They received a partial explanation of the reasons for this from Blizzard, who
inform them this "is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into
Battle.net." Blizzard plans on revealing more about this in the future.
The QuakeCon 2009 Website announces
a venue change for QuakeCon 2009, which has moved from the Hilton Anatole Hotel
to the Gaylord Texan
in Grapevine, TX, though is will still take place as scheduled, from August
13-16. Reservations already placed at Hilton Anatole will be automatically
cancelled, and that with id and the Gaylord Texan currently in the process of
finalizing the transition, and the hotel will begin taking room reservations for
QuakeCon 2009 "very shortly." Thanks
Shacknews.
A new Men of War: Red Tide
Website is live for the recently announced standalone
expansion to BestWay's World War II RTS sequel. The site includes a detailed
overview of Red Tide, screenshots, artwork, and a link to the first official
trailer on the
YouTube. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Friday Night Fights at Destructoid
will offer Flash and web gaming tournaments at for $80K in prizes, beginning
Friday with a QUAKE LIVE tourney. There are also random prizes for those who
would rather be lucky than good.
A launch trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince offers
another look at the wizardly game tie-in on the eve of its release in North
American stores and Friday's release in Europe. The clip is posted on the
YouTube and it is also
available on AtomicGamer
and
FileFront.
1C Publishing
now offers patches for the European Boxed editions of NecroVisioN,
updating The Farm 51's supernatural World War I shooter to the same version 1.2
as the recently released patch for the North American edition. As
before, version 1.2 adds dedicated server applications; physics, memory, and
rendering optimizations; a secret areas counter; bug fixes; and more. The
various language patches are also mirrored on
The Patches Scrolls.
WOW held up StarCraft II for a year on Eurogamer reflects comments from some
of the StarCraft II development team on how assisting with World of
Warcraft was responsible for setting back the upcoming release of StarCraft
II by about a year, which may offer comfort to players whose productivity in
other areas has likewise suffered at the hands of Blizzard's MMORPG.
Interestingly, this project management error delayed the first of their recent
games that didn't suffer one of Blizzard's famous returns to the drawing board:
"This may be the first game in our recent few games that we haven't done that
major reboot with," said Rob Pardo. "It's been a long project for sure, but if
you look at say World of Warcraft, or Warcraft III - or even the original
StarCraft - there was a halfway point where we took a dramatic left turn and
took a different direction. We haven't done that with Starcraft II. That said,
it's certainly taken a long time to get to where it's at, for a variety of
reasons."
A new post on the Steam
Website says ARMA II is now available "worldwide" via Steam. Bohemia
Interactive's military shooter sequel
appeared on Steam late
last week, and it was released in Europe before
that, so it's not clear what previously unserved territories are now entitled to
the game, but there it is. The boxed retail edition of ARMA II is expected in
North American stores on July 7.
Steam News announces a
sale on Meridian 4 games, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the indie
publisher. They are offering a 50% discount on all Meridian 4 games through July
6, including Shadowgrounds
Survivor and Meridian4
Complete Pack.
Impulse is now accepting
preorders for the PC edition of Street Fighter IV, as the Windows version
of the fighting game sequel will be released in North America one week from
tomorrow on July 7. There is no bonus associated with the preorder, but your
account will not be charged until the game is available for download.
There's another new
StarCraft
II preview on Kotaku with round three of their hands-on impressions of
Blizzard's upcoming RTS sequel, including discussion of the solo campaign and
the new Battle.net. There's also a
StarCraft
II hands-on preview on IncGamers with their own thoughts on seeing the game
first hand, and there is also a
StarCraft II interview on IncGamers where Rob Pardo, Chris Sigaty, and
Dustin Browder answer questions about the game, the new Battle.net, serving the
map-designer community, the solo campaign, and more. They get contradictory
answers to a question about multiplayer support for LAN play, but the question
about console support was less equivocal, as Pardo puts the chances of a console
edition of StarCraft II at "zero percent." As for multiplayer on a LAN, both
Dustin and Sigaty said they were still discussing it, but "we don't have any
plans to support LAN," is what Pardo had to say about LAN play. "We will not
support it." Also,
Joystiq has a clip showing seven minutes of StarCraft II multiplayer
play and yet another
hands-on StarCraft II multiplayer preview.
The Age of Conan Interview on
Ten Ton Hammer chats with Craig Morrison and Erling Ellingsen about the
recently launched Chapter 5 for Age of Conan that
introduces the Tarantia Commons and other new features to the MMORPG. Chapter 5
is also one of the topics in an interview with Craig Morrison on IncGamers to be
published tomorrow, and while the HTML on that dries, they've posted a
small
excerpt on why Chapter 5's new RPG mechanics weren't part of the game on
launch,
another excerpt on the game's rocky launch, and
still another snippet saying the Xbox 360 version of the game, like
Duke Nukem Forever, is "is still being worked on."
The Penny Arcade Expo announces famed
designer Ron Gilbert will be the keynote speaker at PAX 2009, the gaming
convention scheduled to take place at the Washington State Convention and Trade
Center from September 4 to September 6. Here's the announcement, which includes
word on some of the other festivities planned for the three-day extravaganza:
SEATTLE - June 29, 2009 - PAX 2009 organizers humbly announced today that
industry legend Ron Gilbert will grace the stage as keynote speaker at the sixth
annual gaming festival to be held Sept. 4-6 at the Washington State Convention
and Trade Center.
Legendary storyteller, game designer, programmer and producer Ron Gilbert has
created countless classic video games, including the seminal LucasArts works
Maniac Mansion and first two installments in the Monkey Island adventure series.
His more than 20-year career in the games industry encompasses co-founding three
game studios, creating the famous SCUMM scripting language and being inducted
into the Computer Game Hall of Fame. He is currently creative director at
independent development studio Hothead Games in Vancouver, Canada.
"This is an unbelievable moment for us," commented Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo.
"I wasted an entire family vacation one year trying to figure out how to win
that stupid spitting competition." Gilbert joins an illustrious group of past
PAX keynote speakers, including noted geek icon Wil Wheaton and innovative game
designer Ken Levine.
In addition to the highly anticipated keynote address, numerous panels and game
demonstrations, Omegathon and The PAX 10 independent games showcase, PAX 2009
will offer attendees an unparalleled musical experience with performances from
Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, Anamanaguchi and
Metroid Metal. As if all of this weren't enough, PAX organizers further
confirmed that this year's Exhibition Hall is down to its final availability.
Prospective exhibitors interested in securing these last coveted booth spaces
can write to paxsales@paxsite.com for
more information.
Shacknews has word
from publisher Nobilis that the PS3 edition of Trine will be half the
$40.00 MSRP of the PC edition of Frozenbyte's upcoming fantasy-themed
action/platformer for which a playable demo was just released. It
should be noted that many listings for the PC edition of Trine do have a lower
price point, but the $29.99 listed on
Steam is still 50% above
the PS3 MSRP. There is an discussion of pricing from Frozenbyte on the
Frozenbyte
Community Forums: I'm sure the price will be something what will
generate a lot of discussion. While guidelines are set by our publisher, in my
opinion price around $/€ 30 is very reasonable for a game which production
values are very close to a retail title. While we are labeled indie as
developers, Trine is far from a game created by a solo hero developer (we have
over 20 employees and Trine has contributions from a double amount of people).
We are very confident that we can deliver a full retail experience with Trine
(hence PC version is sold in retail also for approx 35 to 40 eur/usd!).
However, if players, sales and press show we are wrong we will definitely check
the pricing. In the meantime, please check out the $/€ 0,00 demo, add a total of
15 levels and judge by yourself!
Variety outlines plans by startup YooStar to launch a system that lets fans
insert themselves into classic movie scenes and act "alongside" the movie stars
with a package that includes a green screen, a high-resolution webcam, and
software that includes scenes from real movies and TV shows in which to
participate. The package should cost around $170 when released in August, and
while it is not technically a game, they are aiming to create "Guitar Hero" for
movies. Word is: Once fans have inserted themselves into a scene, they can
share the clip on their own computer or upload free to a YouTubelike site hosted
by YooStar, where anyone can view it.
Five studios -- Paramount, Universal, MGM, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate -- have
partnered with the company, as have the National Basketball Assn. and Sesame
Workshop's "Sesame Street" franchise. The package will ship with 14 clips (11
from films, one from "Sesame Street" and two "moving backgrounds," which allow
users to improvise a scene).
Included are single scenes from pics as old as "Double Indemnity" (1944) and
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) and as recent as 2006's "Rocky Balboa" and "Employee
of the Month." The original "Terminator" and "Beverly Hills Cop 2" are also in
the starter pack.
Strategy Informer highlights a tidbit from their
Overlord II Interview chatting with Lennart Sas about Triumph Studios'
just-released action/adventure sequel. Word is Overlord II
DLC is already in the works, though the only concrete thing he has to say about
this is that "it'll be announced soon."
There's a StarCraft II
Bonanza on Shacknews talking with Dustin Browder about the coming RTS sequel.
They fail in their efforts at wringing a beta start date out of him, but do get
Dustin to open up about the solo campaign, and have a couple of new screenshots
to illustrate the story.
A post
on Dave Perry's Blog has thoughts from the former Shiny front man on the
passing of Michael Jackson. It turns out Dave visited Neverland ranch a couple
of times, and there were discussions of releasing new material through a video
game, which Perry seems to think would have introduced a new audience to games,
rather than vice versa: Our discussions lead us to plan for him to
release his next music album as a video game FIRST, then as an album. This would
have introduced many new players to video games. He was incredibly interested in
the idea, and we got quite far down that road, working on the story, mechanics
etc. We were excited about the press potential, I remember saying to him, "Oprah
never talks about video games", to which he replied, "Oprah is a friend of
mine". This was a theme I learned, he had so many friends, and actually spent
time with them all. It was really impressive.
Matrix Games announces Gary Grigsby's War in the East, a new turn-based
strategy/war game based on Gary Grigsby's invasion of the east... No wait,
that's not right: It's actually based on World War II's eastern front, as is
clear from the game's full title: Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The
German-Soviet War 1941-1945. Here's word on this recreation of the bloody
combat between German forces and the then-Soviet Union: Gary Grigsby’s
War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II
strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in
an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical
terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results. As with all
the award-winning titles made by the 2by3 Games team, factors such as supply,
fatigue, experience, morale and the skill of your divisional, corps and army
leaders all play an important part in determining the results at the front line.
Gary Grigsby’s War in the East will come with a massive Eastern Front scenario
as well as smaller scenarios all with different strategic and operational
challenges.
Epic Games announces the launch of Epic
Games Korea, following up indications that surfaced last week
that such a plan was in the works. Here's a bit from the official announcement
on what this is all about: SEOUL (June 29, 2009) – Epic Games, Inc. today
celebrated the launch of Epic Games Korea, its wholly owned and operated
business unit based in Seoul. Select members of the media attended a press
conference and private reception to honor the new subsidiary, which extends
Unreal Engine 3 licensing services and dedicated support resources to game
developers in Korea.
Epic Games Korea is led by territory manager Ray Park, who was previously the
business and strategy development manager of Massive, Inc., where he launched
Microsoft’s dynamic in-game advertising network in Korea. Prior to Massive, he
helped third-party game publishers and developers ship over 100 games for Xbox
and Xbox 360 across Asia. Park also worked at Sony Computer Entertainment Korea
as one of its early founding members, managing the third-party software
licensing group to prepare games for PlayStation’s successful launch in Korea.
Okay, I'm going try evolving the posting patterns here a little further this
week, so we'll see how that goes. The plans is to keep all the bulleted lists as
part of the first update in the morning (there will still be evening
consolidation and tech bits roundups), and ceasing to stage the evening news, so
later stories will just go up as they come in. I've contemplated this for a
while, and am succeeding in convincing myself it will be for the best. We shall
see: I certainly welcome your feedback on this topic.
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