Archived News:
A post to the front page of the
World of Warcraft Website
has more information about the upcoming version 3.2 "Call of the Crusade" patch
for Blizzard's MMORPG than you can shake an orc at. They outline the content on
their Under Development
page including info on
Crusaders' Coliseum,
Isle of Conquest,
Argent Tournament updates, along with a look at
future of Battlegrounds and
new cat
and bear looks for druids. They also direct us to a
Call of
the Crusade Q&A a
Class Q&A Series and posts with details on
upcoming emblem system changes,
mount system revisions,
epic gems, a
new Shaman totem bar (hic!), and last, but not least, the latest update to
the
PTR Patch 3.2.0 Notes. Thanks Ant.
Battlefront.com has news on the release of Combat Mission Shock Force:
British Forces, which actually came out a couple of days ago, offering the
latest expansion for the military strategy game Combat Mission Shock Force,
(which is required). They offer a download so purchasers can play immediately
while waiting for delivery of a physical copy, and a new bundle is also
available that includes the new module and the previous Marines add-on at a
discount. There's a British Forces trailer on the
YouTube, and
this page offers a new version 1.2 Combat Mission Shock Force demo with
content from both the Marines and British Forces add-ons.
NeedForSpeed's
YouTube Channel has the promised "driver experience" videos. These are live
action clips with commentary from drivers, but aside from the brief title roll,
the clips deal with real driving, and don't discuss or show the game at all.
Video games lure
Hollywood stars on BBC NEWS talks briefly with a couple of Hollywood actors
about their roles in video games, hearing from beauty and the beast: Mickey
Rourke and Eliza Dushku (presumably no clarification is required over which is
which) about their perspectives on performing in games. Eliza comments that
adults are more comfortable admitting they are gamers at this time, while Rourke
admits that when he gets together with other actors, they're not likely to spend
a lot of time talking about their roles in video games.
A War of Angels Website is
online for this upcoming subscription-free MMORPG, which like so many of such
games, is a westernized version of a game that's already established in Asia.
The game is currently in closed beta testing with a launch planned for later
this year, and here's word on what it's all about: "War of Angels is the new,
free to play Online Role Playing Game from gamigo. Discover this detailed
fantasy world with its unique anime style. Fight on land, under water and in the
skies. Create your own alliances to conquer rival cities or to explore the
immense dungeons. Whether you prefer PVE or PVP - War of Angels will capture
your imagination."
The Dragonica Online
Introductory Interview on Ten Ton Hammer is a conversation from Comic-Con
'09 with Evan Berman about this upcoming subscription-free MMOG. Topics include
their microtransaction system, classes, customization options, art, combat, and
more.
GameSpot quotes new NPD
research indicating more than half of all US citizens are video gamers, which we
imagine might include a bit of Solitaire and Minesweeper (the largest
demographic identified is "mostly female gamers who play less than four hours a
week and don't own a console"). The NPD indulges in their predilection for
stereotyping, breaking down gamers into seven categories, which if we had our
way would be identified by the names of the seven dwarves, or at least the seven
deadly sins. Anyway, here is a bit of breakdown on the US PC gaming
scene: Though it does not lump them into a single category, NPD estimates
that some 67.3 million Americans use the PC as their primary gaming platform. Up
slightly at 25.9 million were "Online PC Gamers," a mostly female group who
spent 73 percent of their eight hours of weekly game time online. The country's
17.3 million "Avid PC Gamers" were the most hardcore PC segment, playing 23
hours a week. Finally, "Offline PC Gamers," totaling 24.1 million, were the
polar opposite of their online cousins, spending 82 percent of their time
playing unconnected to the Internet.
GameSetWatch - On The Casual-Core Game Development Divide.
Right now we have no embassies and we have no envoys to the strictly
casual world. There were a handful of guys from Bioware and a few of the
local Games for Windows crew in attendance this last week at Casual Connect,
other than that almost all of the tags came from strictly casual game
companies. Almost every major developer I know of could have learnt
something from that conference. Does this mean that everyone needs to send
somebody to conferences like Casual Connect? No, but every AAA studio should
have somebody in the office who has a good contact at PopCap or Zynga or
WildTangent. They’ll be a day when you’ll be wanting it.
It looks like I need a new UPS for the BlueTower, as my existing one is
starting to fade away, as Douglass MacArthur would have put it. The electrical
storms that have become the summer norm around here have recently picked up,
leading to a few power dips here and there. The trouble is that the charge the
UPS holds has apparently dwindled over time, and when it kicks in during a dip,
it decides it must hibernate the computer before the UPS is completely drained,
which is especially silly since the shutdown procedure takes a minute or two,
while the power dip was under a second. It could be worse, of course, as I
haven't lost any data along the way, but it's certainly an annoyance, and I look
forward to putting an end to it.
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