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Archived News:
Mike O'Brien's
user talk on the Guild Wars Wiki reflects the ArenaNet president's
excitement that the "day is almost here" when fans will get their first glimpse
of Guild Wars 2 (thanks
Tadej). Also, a Guild Wars 2
teaser site is online (thanks
IGN). Here's the
preview of "an exciting week ahead," as Mike puts it: Last week I promised
you’d get your first glimpse of Guild Wars 2 “very soon now”. That day is almost
here.
I want to thank all our fans for their patience as we developed the game to the
point where we can start talking about it publically. I know you’ve all been
anxiously awaiting this moment. You’ll soon understand how ambitious we’ve been
and what we’ve accomplished during these past two years of development. We still
have a lot of work ahead of us, but from here on out we’ll be able to provide
you with more regular updates.
Guild Wars 2 is going to be a huge leap beyond the original. We have the best
team in the industry executing at the top of their game, and I’m very proud of
what our team has accomplished so far. As I said last week, I’m confident that
when you get your first look at what we’ve been working on, you’re going to love
what you see. Stay tuned for an exciting week ahead.
This EVE Online
Dev Blog has more on CCP's efforts at curbing real-money transactions in
EVE Online, their sci-fi MMORPG, describing a campaign against RMT they've
dubbed "Unholy Rage." As part of this effort, they recently banned over 6200
paying accounts in one shot, and the post goes into what the culprits were doing
and how they were caught. Thanks
Massively.
The Champions Online
Website has the promised update on issues with the launch of
beta testing of Cryptic's MMORPG from Bill "Chronomancer" Roper. The first part
of the update outlines the problems users experienced and what caused them,
while the second part describes how things stand right now: There is
now a new build of the installer at
fileplanet.com that addresses the incorrect file placement and patch
size, as well as a known Windows 64 Bit issue. We tried to keep the new install
a simple single-file .exe autoextract, but those can't be bigger than 2GB in
size. This requires players to do a second ~300MB patch after newly installing
the game. If you previously downloaded the game from fileplanet.com, you do not
need to do so again. The latest version of our patcher will move the incorrectly
installed files and not require the previously massive patch.
Some players are currently experiencing issues where the Patcher can “freeze.”
The main problem is we’re delivering a 400 MB patch to ~20,000 people
simultaneously. At the current speed, the patching crush should clear up in
about six hours. We are also currently working with our hosting partner to
deploy more patch servers.
We appreciate the patience of our testers and hope that you’ll all stick in
there as we go through our first day of getting the huge number of moving parts
that is putting an MMO out there meshing together.
Steam News announces that
both All Aspect Warfare
and Angle of Attack are
now available via their digital marketplace. All Aspect Warfare features
ground-based combat, described like this: "After an intense battle, a badly
damaged GALCOM ship carrying a devastating 'planet killer' weapon crash landed
on a hostile Gammulan planet. The crash survivors, a group of combat veterans,
must fight off the enemy while trying to locate and disarm the catastrophic
weapon - code named R.A.N.D.O.M. (Random Access Nuclear Destruction of Obsolete
Matter) - or get off the planet before it detonates." Meanwhile, Angle of
Attack features aerial combat set in the same universe, here's word on that:
"The events that take place in Angle Of Attack occur during the final days of
the air campaign of the assault on LV-115 - an important planet used by the
Gammulans for military purposes and as a staging area for their assault on
GALCOM forces." Also both games are available together in an
All Aspect War Pack.
Steam now offers an
automatic update for Day of Defeat: Source that features a fix for an
engine crash. They also offer a new automatic update for Team Fortress 2
with a bunch of fixes and a tweak for the map PL_Hoodoo.
Computer
and Video Games reports that Eidos plans to offer a downloadable version of
Championship Manager 2010 and will allow customers to choose their own
price for the game, similar to Radiohead's promotion for their most recent
album. Here's word on the plan, which apparently is valid until the day before
the game's official release: The 'pay what you want' promotion will run
until midnight on September 10 - from which point users will be able to download
their game purchase directly from
www.championshipmanager.co.uk," says Eidos. "All fans need to pay is a £2.50
transaction fee plus any additional amount of their choice, starting from just a
PENNY before the game will be available for full price from all good retailers.
"
The
Spellborn Discussion Forum announces that
Chronicles of Spellborn is
subscription-free as of now, a change from the recently announced
plan to continue the subscription version of this fantasy themed MMORPG as
re-development continues on a subscription-free version for a re-launch next
year. The re-development continues, but in the meantime, the game in its current
form is now free. Word is: Today, as you read this, Spellborn as it
currently exists is now free to play. Keep in mind that there will be no
upgrades and no patches. It has become in effect, an Action RPG with superior
Multiplayer. The only thing it will cost you to play is the time it takes to
download.
So play it. Tell your friends.
Now because it is frozen in time, we will be creating events for the players and
we will help support any players that want to make their own events. And if you
have thoughts on how we might make this version more enjoyable as we wait for
the New free to play version, we are glad to listen.
The
Bethesda Blog clarifies statements attributed to Todd Howard
saying that Bethesda had no current plans for an Elder Scrolls V, but
that "there's always a chance" an Elder Scrolls MMOG would be made (thanks
Kotaku). Apparently the comment about ES5 was misinterpreted:
Apparently some folks got a bit upset by reports based on Todd’s talk at
QuakeCon last week. An article came out where Todd was quoted as saying we had
no plans for a TES V. He did not say that. That was not a direct quote from him.
That was someone’s interpretation of what he said. I know, I was there.
At his QuakeCon talk he was asked when TESV is coming out and Todd replied,
“Don’t look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future.” He also went on to
say how much the franchise means to us and that it definitely will continue. He
just wasn’t going to provide any timeframe on “when.” This should not be news to
anyone that has been paying attention. Both Todd and I have said repeatedly
that, of course, we’re going to do another Elder Scrolls game. The last one was
enormously popular. So was the one before that. You get the idea. So do we.
Todd and Bethesda Game Studios are hard at work on their next big game, and
we’re not ready to discuss it. As always, we prefer to have something amazing to
show when we talk about it. We aren’t going to confirm or deny or comment on
speculation, nor are we going to give hints about anything. If you know us by
now, you know we don’t really do that.
In regards to the MMO comment, he was asked if there was “any chance of an Elder
Scrolls MMO” and he replied — in a joking fashion — by saying “I guess there’s a
chance.” To be clear, Todd and his team do not make MMOs, for any franchise, at
all. We have another division – ZeniMax Online Studios – which is lead by Matt
Firor, and they are working on an MMO. They have not said anything about what
game they are making. When ZeniMax Online is ready to show what they are up to,
we’ll let everyone know. Until then we aren’t going to provide hints or
speculate on what they’re doing either.
Hope that helps clear things up.
As noted on the
Champions Online Official Website announces open beta testing of
Cryptic's MMORPG is underway. This is not quite as open as all that, as you must
be a preorder customer or a paid FilePlanet subscriber to participate. There was
a post on their website earlier with workarounds for problems with a client
patch that was apparently a staggering 3GB download, but the post has been
deleted, so this issue may have been resolved along the way. Also, a new "Travel
Powers" trailer from the game shows off how to get from here to there in the
game while saving on bus fare. You can find the clip on
GameTrailers.com. According to
Massively, Bill Roper is preparing a statement on beta issues that will be
released shortly.
A new version of East India Company is now available through the game's
auto-update function, and the
East India Company Downloads Page lists where to find the new manual
patch to update the naval combat RTS game to version 1.06. This is a
non-essential update that adds
the
winners of their "Rule the Waves" competition to the game.
The PC edition of Fairytale Fights is not expected until next year, but
the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of the grim adventure game will ship on
October 23 in Europe and October 27 in North America, reports
Gamer's Hell. No reason
for the staggered release is offered, presumably it's something logical like
piracy or sunspots or crop circles.
Crytek's
Yerli On The Future Of Gaming Graphics on Gamasutra shares some thoughts
from Crytek co-founder Cevat Yerli's GDC Europe keynote where he discusses the
history of their engine development efforts and the future of game graphics.
Here's a bit: Talking trends, Yerli observed that GPUs and CPUs are "on a
collision course", as CPUs get more parallel and GPUs -- already highly parallel
-- are moving towards more general-purpose computing. He recommended OpenCL as a
good base for addressing the issue.
In general, Crytek is trying to make all of its engines very scalable, due to
the uncertainty about when the next-gen consoles might arrive. Yerli suggested
that Crytek is estimating 2012 to 2013 for the next generation of home console
hardware. But thanks to the success of the relatively horsepower-light Wii,
"there's a big debate about whether there will be a next generation at all", he
admitted.
The Crytek co-founder also discussed the dangers of the Uncanny Valley in work
that companies -- even Crytek -- are doing. So he suggested most games use
artistic styles, physics and AI to differentiate themselves, at least up to 2012
when the next generations may arrive.
Early visual style development is key, even now, he said. Procedural content
development is also a heavy research area for Crytek, with Yerli saying that his
dream is to create a game made by just a few people that looks like it was
created by many more.
The team behind RAGE speak on Big Download is an article-format interview
with Stephan Martiniere, Matt Hooper, Jason Kim, and Tim Willits about id's
upcoming shooting and racing game. One thing they discuss is the hour-long
demonstration of the game at QuakeCon to give an idea about all it entails,
since they felt shorter demonstrations were not conveying it properly: "You
can't get that in a five minute E3 demo," according to Hooper. The interview is
accompanied by a
hands-on RAGE preview.
Dustin Browder talks StarCraft 2 development and delays on Joystiq is an
interview with the lead designer on Blizzard's RTS sequel, while
Andy Chambers on writing StarCraft 2 is their conversation with the game's
scribe. There are also previews of the game on
G4tv.com,
GameSpot, and
Joystiq. Finally,
Shacknews has a reassurance from StarCraft II Producer Chris Sigaty
that they view the second and third parts of StarCraft II as "expansions" and
that "we're not going to gouge people. We're going to charge them what's fair."
The debut trailer for Silent Hunter 5 is available for the
just announced next installment in the submarine warfare series.
The clip is available on
AtomicGamer.
A new trailer from Need For Speed: SHIFT introduces one of the world's
most famous rod racing course, the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. The clip shows
off the game and the track, and even offers a couple of tips on how to drive the
course. You can find the clip on
AtomicGamer,
Gamer's Hell, and
GameTrailers.com.
Joystiq passes along an anecdote told by Randy Pitchford on how Gearbox
Software came to possess their name. According to the Gearbox boss, he won the
name in a poker game with Valve's Gabe Newell. Apparently Gabe was trying to
show Randy why AK is sometimes called Anna Kournikova (looks great but never
wins), but instead learned why K9 is sometimes called a pair of dogs. Woof.
Zootfly's Troha On
Trials, Tribulations Of Prison Break Game on Gamasutra discusses the
upcoming Prison Break game, and how a the recently announced
publishing deal with Deep Silver saved this project from cancellation. The
article discusses the demise of Brash that lead to
Zootfly suing the game's former publisher, and the somewhat
scattered direction they got on the project before Brash went under.
Link of the Day:
'Spider-Man'- Sony Looking Towards Franchise Reboot? But they're going to
make a fourth movie first? Oh, yeah, and
Last Person
Shooting (NSFW) is a fun compilation of the stuff that enemies utter (in
some cases repeatedly) in shooters.
Paradox
Interactive announces September 18 is the release date for Supreme Ruler
2020 GOLD at retail as well as digital distribution. This edition includes
both the original Supreme Ruler 2020 as well as the Global Crisis
expansion for Battlegoat's strategy game.
The full announcement
has details on the bundle, and is accompanied by
a couple of
screenshots.
Steam announces plans to
carry Football Manager 2010 when the next installment of the association
football/soccer series is released in October. Those who
prepurchase the game via Steam will receive a free copy of
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
to play right away and they are also offering a 25% discount on the previous
Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009.
A new gameplay mode for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is in the works,
reports
Big Download based on information found in the schedule for events for the
Penny Arcade Expo. According to the schedule, Relic's seminar on September 6
will include discussion of a game mode for the RTS sequel called "The Last
Stand," said to "expand the game to include co-operative based arcade gameplay."
Ubisoft announces
Silent Hunter 5, saying the next installment in the submarine combat
game is in development at Ubisoft Romania to be released exclusively for the PC
early next year. The
Official Silent Hunter 5 Website is online, and the announcement is
accompanied by a batch of
Silent Hunter 5
screenshots. Here's their list of "key features" in the sequel: •
VIEW AS A CAPTAIN: Walk through highly detailed submarines in the new
first-person view and access every part of your U-boat.
• BECOME A REAL LEADER: Interact with your crew, watch them perform their daily
jobs and experience the tension and fear inside the U-boat through the new
advanced order system.
• WAR STRATEGIES: Choose your own strategy and select your targets with a new
objective-driven, dynamic campaign.
• ENEMY REACTIONS: Open new locations, upgrades and resupply possibilities,
while the Allied ships adjust dynamically to your approach. Your actions will
directly impact the evolution of the campaign.
• NEW USER INTERFACE: Prowl the waters with a brand-new user interface. Now,
every beginner can successfully command a sub while remaining free of confusion.
In expert mode, experienced players will be provided all the necessary
information and controls to command the sub completely on their own.
• CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: Experience the most realistic and immersive Silent
Hunter ever created. Improved environment graphics create a powerful level of
immersion as you operate authentic, highly detailed U-boats and fight against
surface ships.
The ATI
Graphics Drivers & Software page now offers the official release of the new
version 9.8 Catalyst Reference Drivers for ATI accelerators that were
released early on Friday on the
AMD QuakeCon Blog. This release includes the official release notes and a
couple of programs not available Friday; version 9.8 of the Avivo video
converter and version 9.8 of HydraVision for Windows Vista (thanks Bill). The
new Windows drivers boast DirectX 10 improvements in several games and OpenGL
3.1 support, while the Linux drivers add support for RHEL 4.8 and Ubuntu 9.04.
NCsoft announces
that Aion is gold and the western
version of this MMORPG is scheduled for launch on September 22. Word is there is
still further content to be revealed at
GamesCom and
Penny Arcade Expo, so there are still some
previews to be seen between now and the game's release. Here's word: In
advance of the game’s launch, Aion will be showcased at both GamesCom 2009 in
Cologne, Germany, as well as the Penny Arcade Expo 2009 in Seattle, Washington.
Both events will feature exclusive hands-on access to the 1.5 version of the
game, which has yet to be unveiled to Western audiences. This version of the
game introduces numerous enhancements, including continued improvements to
Aion’s innovative character customization that will now include a host of
Western styles, as well as new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued
game balancing and improvements.
Aion has already built major momentum among gamers across Europe and North
America, with more than three million hours of gameplay logged in the game’s
closed best testing alone. Additionally, the Limited Collector’s Edition version
of the game is nearly sold out in retailers, and Aion is currently on the
best-seller lists for PC games weeks ahead of the game’s launch. Aion is
available for pre-order from several participating online and brick-and-mortar
retailers, including Aiononline.com, Amazon, Best Buy, EB Games Canada, Fry’s
Electronics, GameStop, Steam and Target.
An NDA for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty previews ends today, so here is
the first information overload on the upcoming real-time strategy sequel.
New info:
IncGamers reports on plans for DLC as well as trial versions of the
game, which will be released after the game, not before, and they
also
report on DRM (even though
Blizzard seems relatively unconcerned about piracy) saying the game will
require a Battle.Net account and an online verification to install, but
players will not need to be connected for solo play after that. Also,
VG247 reports there will be no co-op campaign and that the game has a
new logo. Finally,
Shacknews discusses classic StarCraft units that will be making cameos
in the sequel.
As for media, There's a new
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty story/gameplay movie on the YouTube
(mirrored on
ActionTrip and
AtomicGamer) and a
StarCraft II "Old Rivals" cinematic trailer on GameTrailers as well as
StarCraft II screenshots on Computer and Video Games.
There's
a Q&A with Blizzard’s Rob Pardo on VG247 and
StarCraft II Developers Talk Single Player on IncGamers (highlights:
Blizzard: PC Gaming Is NOT Dying! and
Metzen Prefers StarCraft over WarCraft). There are also hands-on
previews of the game on
1Up,
BlizzPlanet,
Destructoid,
IncGamers, IGN,
Shacknews,
and
VG247.
Finally, the
LAN in
Starcraft 2 Please Petition now contains over 100,000 signatures (thanks
VG247).
An All Points Bulletin/ APB FAQ clarifies
that Realtime Worlds' upcoming open-world action game will not carry any
subscription fees: "The actual price for the game itself is still under
discussion but we’ll keep you up to date. We can confirm that APB will not
require a monthly subscription." Thanks
VG247 (this should have been posted earlier, thanks
MCV for
the reminder).
The Lionhead Studios Website has its
latest image/quote combo presumably leading to a Gamescom announcement this
week. The new image is of Emma Goldman, and they offer the following quote from
this anarchist once described as the most dangerous woman in America: "If I
can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
Eidos interactive announces plans to release a demo for Mini Ninjas for
Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 this week. The PC and Xbox 360 demos for IO
Interactive's action/adventure game are due Wednesday, and the PlayStation 3
demo is to follow on Thursday. It was announced least week the
game is expected on September 8 in North America, September 11 in the United
Kingdom and PAL territories except France and Germany, and October 9 in those
last two countries. The description of the demo is pretty vague at this point,
saying it "takes you on an exciting journey to feudal Japan where you join Hiro,
Futo and Suzume on their biggest ninja adventure ever as they embark on an epic
and electrifying quest to restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos."
Redbox is
experimenting with renting video games through its automated kiosks, even as
legal battles continue over their dollar-per-night movie DVD
rentals. According to
Inside Redbox (thanks
Gizmodo) a pilot program is being tested in Reno, NV, where Redbox kiosks
are currently offering rentals of Xbox games for $2.00 per night. Support for
other consoles is planned, and word is this program will be expanded to other
territories if successful.
BioWare
talks Dragon Age delay, DLC on GameSpot is an interview with BioWare
executive producer Mark Darrah, among other things discussing the
just-announced delay to the RPG. "It's just taking an extra
couple of weeks to get through the finalization process. We'll take any
opportunity to spend a little bit more time making the game even better, Mark
explains, and when asked if this had to do with not wanting to compete with
other fourth quarter releases, he says: "I think we try to make our games stand
on their own. It's not about competing with other products, it's about making
the game that our fans and the gaming public in general are going to like and
enjoy."
Average age of adult computer game addicts is 35, US study shows reports on
a study at the CDC, Emory University, and Andrews University with stats on how
overweight and depressed game players supposedly are. This report seems to
present pretty strong conclusions on the topic, going to far as to attempt to
define a distinction between play and playing video games, characterizing the
latter as "play like activities." Here's a bit from this "science like
study": Dr Brian Primack, from the University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine, suggests that many video games are different enough from original
forms of play that they may be better defined as "play-like activities."
He said: "There are noteworthy differences between the oldest forms of play -
for example chase games - and today's 'play-like activities.'
"These play-like activities may stimulate the right centres of the brain to be
engaging.
"However, the differences between today's 'play-like activities' and original
forms of play may illuminate some of the observed health-related correlates
discovered."
Dr. Primack said the greatest challenge will be maintaining the balance.
He added: "How do we simultaneously help the public steer away from imitation
play-like activities, harness the potentially positive aspects of video games,
and keep in perspective the overall place of video games in our society?
We visited some friends in the country yesterday, which was very pleasant, as we
got to enjoy a little nature along with the company of our friends and their
neighbors. On the way home we were making a wonky turn from one country road to
another when we heard a sound we thought came from bottoming out, until a little
while later when we could detect the effect of rolling on a rim, because we
actually had a flat tire. This was a first for me, but I've helped change tires
before, and was pretty comfortable with the job. After getting the car jacked up
on the included mini-jack and removing the lug nuts, however, it became apparent
that the rim was pretty stuck on the hub, perhaps from the short distance it was
driven with the flat. At this point I decided to get the dogs out of the car so
they wouldn't overheat (in retrospect, I'm not sure why I left them in there
while working on the tire), and a bit after getting them out, the car actually
fell off the jack, presumably from closing the door after the dogs. After
getting past the image of what could have happened if I had been working on the
tire when the car fell, I noticed that at least this had loosened the stuck rim,
and after getting the car jacked up again (this time with a real jack from a
passing good Samaritan), and were able to get home safely as that car puttering
along in the slow lane riding on one of those undersized spare tires.
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