Archived News:
Steam now offers an
update for the edition of The Witcher: Director's Cut purchased through
Valve's service. Future copies of CD Projekt RED's action/RPG purchased through
Steam will automatically receive the mature content of the Director's Cut (and
the European editions of the game). Update:
Steam is also now
offering The Witcher:
Enhanced Edition Director's Cut for 30% off.
A post by id Software's Peter Sokal on the
Wolfenstein
Forums reveals a multiplayer build of Wolfenstein has been leaked
(thanks
Voodoo Extreme). On a semi-related note, a new trailer that puts the
"castle" back in Wolfenstein can now be found on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell. Back to
the leak, the id Community Manager outlines the consequences of dallying with
the contraband version of the supernatural shooter revival: It was brought
to our attention on Friday, 7/31 that a build of the Wolfenstein Multiplayer was
leaked and is now being distributed illegally through breach of NDA and mirrors
posted on the internet. I must warn anyone involved that Activision’s legal
department is taking this matter very seriously.
Same applies here on the forums. If you mention that you have acquired this
build, you are openly admitting to illegally obtaining the build and will be
banned straight away. You have been warned.
With regards to any footage, screenshots and comments posted here and all over
the internet, an important thing to keep in mind is that these were not created
from a build of the game that was final or consumer ready. There’s nothing we
can do about it now except continue working on the game.
Wolfenstein has been designed to retain elements that are the core of the
Wolfenstein multiplayer experience, such as distinct classes and objective-based
teamplay. We are also introducing new elements to the game with the Veil powers
and persistent upgrades. After release we’ll make our SDK available, as well as
release updates to address feedback from the competitive community.
We look forward to seeing you online upon release.
Steam News announces a
new patch is automatically available for ARMA II, Bohemia Interactive's
military shooter sequel. There are a couple of new features in the extensive
change log, but it mostly outlines bug fixes.
The Dawn Of War II
Website announces the release of the Dawn of War II SCAR
documentation, saying: "Combined with our recently released World Builder, this
documentation gives fans that are willing to put in some time and effort the
tools to modify the game in some very significant ways or create something quite
new." They've also launched a new
Mods Forum to
support mod authors.
Storm Eagle Studios announces the release of
Ship Pack 1 US North Sea, the first expansion pack for JUTLAND, their
World War I naval combat game. The download-only expansion adds eight ship
classes, 43 new ships, and new campaigns. Word is: "The 1916-17 US North Sea
Fleet provides an excellent starting point for the first Expansion of JUTLAND.
Historical gamers have long wondered if an early US entry into WWI would have
ended WWI by the end of 1916. Now they have the chance to find out! In addition,
What if the US joined the war on the side of the GERMANS? We have included 2
additional BONUS Campaigns to answer that very question!" There's also an
updated JUTLAND demo, which can be found on
AtomicGamer.
Some new deals at Direct2Drive may
appeal to bargain hunters. First, they announce a
price drop
on a number of games. They are also offering
Prototype for $10.00 off and
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for 30% off through Sunday. D2D also has a
new
Best of Indie Bundle that includes Zeno Clash, Defense Grid, Cogs, Democracy
2, and The Path, and for a limited time they offer the whole shebang for $17.75,
a full $60.00 off the price of all five games separately. Finally,
Steam announces
Foreign Legion: Buckets of
Blood is now available, and being offered for 25% off until August 11.
Eurogamer has word from Dave Perry about a project called Plague,
which was cancelled about three years ago by Atari. "The idea was you could fire
nano-weapons into things that would actually generate objects and delete objects
in real-time. It was pretty neat. I was working with a book author, and we were
going to get a movie made. It was a big deal," Perry tells them. "But it was a
little too big for Atari." Perry says he "wanted to get back to old Shiny," with
this project, and while he's too wrapped up with other things to pursue this
now, he is not done with "big games," and as for Plague: "that idea is nowhere
near done yet."
MTV Multiplayer has a new video showing the first ten minutes of gameplay
from Batman: Arkham Asylum, if you'd prefer to experience the beginning
of the imminent superhero game vicariously, rather than first-hand.
Destructoid's F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn Interview chats with Lucas Myers of
Monolith about the recently announced add-on for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin,
their horror-themed FPS sequel. This is a pretty straightforward discussion
about what the add-on will offer, discussing environments, the story, action,
mechs, stealth, and more, concluding with a question about what color the add-on
would be that we presume is inspired by Paula Abdul.
The Left 4 Dead 2 interview on the electric playground is yet another
conversation with beleaguered Valve writer about plans for a sequel to the
zombie shooter. This video interview covers the new features Valve has revealed
in a conversation that begins with the interviewer telling us that L4D2 is
coming this year, and concludes with his unbridled excitement at learning L4D2
is coming this year.
- Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod on
PC Games Hardware. AKA the braless Alyx mod? Thanks Mike Martinez.
Link of the Day:
Legend of Zelda Baby Outfit. Thanks Ant. Now that's a hoot!
The Wall
Street Journal offers the latest financial reporting for Activision
Blizzard, saying: "Activision posted earnings of $195 million, or 15 cents a
share, compared with $28 million, or 5 cents a share, a year earlier. Earnings
excluding deferred revenue and other items fell to 8 cents from 14 cents. Net
revenue nearly tripled to $1.04 billion. Adjusted for deferals, revenue more
than doubled to $801 million." The company is tempering expectations looking
forward, as the report indicates: "However, the company cut its 2009 revenue
guidance by $300 million, to $4.5 billion, as it pushed back two releases and
sees more difficult market conditions. Activision also offered disappointing
third-quarter guidance." The two delayed games are StarCraft II, which
Blizzard today announced was delayed to next year, and
Singularity, which is also a 2010 release, as we learned last
month.
VG247 has some follow-up from a post-earnings conference call, reporting new
James Bond, Tony Hawk, and Spider-Man games are expected in 2010 as well. Also,
Shacknews confirms
that it's not out of the question that both StarCraft II and Diablo III
will be released next year. Finally,
Blizzard says its new Battle.net is "similar to Xbox Live."
GamesIndustry.biz reports rumors that Atomic Games creative director Juan
Benito has parted ways with the developer of Six Days in Fallujah, the
controversial action game set in the US/Iraq War. They have attempted to confirm
this with Benito, but have been unable to contact the Red Storm Entertainment
cofounder. They also reached out to Atomic Games, who issued a brief statement
that does not deny the report, saying: "Atomic Games has no comment at this
time."
New patches are now available for Warcraft III and Warcraft III: The
Frozen Throne, updating Blizzard's RTS sequel and its expansion to version
1.24a. There are about a billion patches accounting for the various language
updates for the game and the expansion for Windows and Macintosh. The patches
can be found through
this Blizzard Support page and the Warcraft III patches are mirrored on
The Patches Scrolls
while The Frozen Throne patches are mirrored on
The Patches Scrolls.
Blizzard Entertainment confirms speculation of a delay to StarCraft II,
saying the sci-fi RTS sequel will not be out by the end of this year, but will
be released in the first half of 2010. This is in part due to setbacks in
preparing the new version of Battle.net for
the release, though it will also give them additional time to polish the game
itself: Today we announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will not
be ready for release by the end of 2009. Over the past couple of weeks, it has
become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new
Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral
part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our
games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us
realize our vision for the service.
Our mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience.
As part of that commitment, we will always take as much time as needed to ensure
that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the
standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers. As we work to make
Battle.net the premier online gaming destination, we’ll also continue to polish
and refine StarCraft II, and we look forward to delivering a real-time strategy
gaming experience worthy of the series’ legacy in the first half of 2010.
We will share more details about the beta, Battle.net, and StarCraft II’s launch
in the future. Keep an eye on the official website at www.starcraft2.com for
updates, and as always, thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support for
StarCraft II and all of Blizzard Entertainment’s games.
Microsoft now offers a new version 3.0 of the Games for Windows LIVE Client,
which is also available for download on
this page. There are no details about what might be new or different in the
new version. Thanks TheWeaponeer.
Acclaim announces open beta testing of
Rush Fighters is now underway,
offering the chance to play this MMORPG for free before it goes live, at which
point you'll still be able to play for free. They describe Rush Fighters
as "a free to play cartoonish action fighting game where players battle against
other fighters in intense online PvP combat."
A manual demo for Order of War is now available, for those who want to
sample Square Enix's upcoming World War II real-time strategy game without
resorting to the demo released yesterday on Steam. The download
is available from
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront,
and Gamer's Hell.
Pitchford On Borderlands on IncGamers is another interview with Gearbox
Software CEO Randy Pitchford about Borderlands that's available as a video, as
well as a text transcript if you're feeling literary. Randy discusses the
drop-in/drop-out multiplayer support in their role-playing shooter, skills,
playing styles, the reasons for the game's stylized art ("You know, it's a good
question"), comparisons with Fallout 3, and more.
This press release
narrows September 11 as the European release date for Championship Manager
2010, the next installment in the football/soccer simulation series. Eidos
has released
a box
shot showing the cover athlete to be Doctor Manhattan, and the announcement
also includes details on a demo that's due next week on August 14: Ahead
of the games release, players will be able to try out all of the latest features
and more in a full demo available from August 14th via the Championship Manager
website. With 6 months game time (over half a season) contained in the demo and
fully compatible with the full version of the game on its release, players have
a full four weeks to prepare themselves for the release of Championship Manager
2010.
Activision announces some preorder bonuses for Blur to inspire advance
commitment to Bizarre Creations' upcoming racing game.
GameStop is offering preorder customers an exclusive bonus that may just
offer multiplayer advantages, as it is called the "Multiplayer Advantage Booster
Kit," which unlocks the Ford Bronco so you can "shunt the multiplayer
competition into the next millennium," a Super Destructo Multiplayer (Last Man
Standing) mode, and a double fan bonus for your first 10 multiplayer races, which
"increases your upgrades, powerups and additional car abilities! More fans means
more cash, upgrades, power-up slots and cars." These bonuses are also available
for
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3. There is also a double cash bonus for your first three solo
races for those who preorder from Game Crazy.
Finally, Best Buy will be offering a day one purchase incentive of a code to
unlock the 600 horsepower Dodge Hennessey Viper early in multiplayer for those
who buy the game on its launch date, currently expected to be November 3, 2009.
The All Aspect Warfare Media
Page now offers updated versions of the All Aspect Warfare and
Angle Of Attack demos. The sample of the class-based sci-fi combat of All
Aspect Warfare is now up to version 1.00.21, while the sample of the aerial
combat in Angle Of Attack is now also updated to version 1.00.21.
The Champions Online Website
has further pricing details on Cryptic's upcoming superhero MMORPG besides the
extended subscription options outlined yesterday. The retail
price for the game is $49.99 USD, $54.99 CAN, €49.99 EUR, or £29.99 GBP, and the
standard monthly subscription fees are $14.99 USD, $16.49 CAN, €12.99 EUR, or
£8.99 GBP per month. They also add international pricing of $59.99 USD, $65.99
CAN, €44.99 EUR, and £35.99 GBP for the six month subscription and $199.99 USD,
$219.99 CAN, €147.99 EUR, and £119.99 GBP for the lifetime subscription. They
also clarify that the six month and lifetime subscription offers are only
available until September 1, 2009, when the game is scheduled to launch.
Cevat Yerli says Crytek may have to leave Germany if a proposed ban on action
games is passed in the English portion of a mostly German article on
PC Games. The good news is there are indications the number of
signatures on the petition protesting the proposed law are
inspiring a reconsideration of this. According to their translation of Yerli's
comments: "A ban on action games in Germany is concerning us because it
is essentially like banning the German artists that create them. If the German
creative community can't effectively participate in one of the most important
cultural mediums of our future, we will be forced to relocate to other
countries.”
"The current political discussion will deprive German talent of its place on the
global game development stage, and deprive German consumers of entertainment
that is considered safe and fun around the world."
Valve writer Chet Faliszek is the subject of interviews on both
Edge
Online and
Destructoid to discuss Left 4 Dead. The extensive conversations
discuss the just announced L4D DLC, Left 4 Dead 2, the New Orleans
setting of the sequel, L4D as a platform, accusations of racism, and more.
Randy Pitchford Vs The Fans on Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a conversation with
the Gearbox CEO about Borderlands. Topics include another comparison of
the PC and Xbox versions, DLC, another discussion of stylized graphics,
balancing random weapons, RPG elements aside from different guns and skill
points (or lack thereof), and a bit of fun stuff.
As highlighted on the
Team Fortress 2 Blog, there's a
Beginner's Guide to Competitive TF2 on Steam Users' Forums with helpful
information for anyone looking to break into the competitive Team Fortress 2
scene, or just seeking to improve their game.
Steam announces some
planned downtime for scheduled maintenance tomorrow starting at 9:00 pm EDT, to
last about three hours. Word is: Some Steam services will be offline
during this time. Affected services will include the Steam Community, in-game
matchmaking or lobbies, downloading games from Steam content servers, and making
purchases from the Steam store. Games that do not rely on Steam matchmaking
services should remain playable.
The New York Post (thanks All4naught) has the follow-up on that horrific
auto crash MrsBlue and I came close to witnessing last week. It
turns out the woman who was driving the wrong way on the parkway was apparently
plastered on vodka and weed. This makes the accident easier to understand, but
it is impossible for me to fathom driving while so inebriated, much less with a
load of kids in the car. It's positively stupefying.
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