Archived News:
Gratuitous
Space Battles Beta Page has details on how to get to play with the beta of
the "spacebattle porn" of Gratuitous Space Battles if you preorder this
upcoming science-fiction strategy/management/simulation from Positech Games.
Indie developer Cliff Harris outlines what he thinks still needs work on the
game in a post to his Blog.
There's a video from the game on
Shacknews and there's
an interview with the man also known as "cliffski" on
Rock, Paper, Shotgun where he outlines what this game is all about, which is
not 4X strategy: "Take a game like Galciv II or Sins of a Solar Wossname… they
take AGES before you build up enough resources and enough ships and money to
actually have a big space battle. GSB is like spacebattle porn, without all the
foreplay of empire-building. Although it would work well if it had a traditional
4x built around it."
Steam News has word that
a new update for Team Fortress 2 is now available the next time you log
into Steam. The new version of Valve's class-based multiplayer shooter adds a
new server console variable, three player requested changes and a bunch of bug
fixes.
The EVE
Online Website announces plans for EVE Online: Dominion, an eleventh
free expansion for CCP's sci-fi MMORPG planned for release this winter. A
Dominion feature page is online
for the expansion, offering a gameplay trailer, and here's word: Ten free
expansions down. Now an eleventh. Set for Winter 2009, EVE Online: Dominion will
focus on what is often cited as EVE's "end game" - alliance warfare. It offers a
complete overhaul of the current sovereignty mechanics in favor of a system
that's a brilliant mix of our game design vision and the input we've received
from fans on forums, at conventions (FANFEST!) and via the CSM. Savvy alliances
will benefit greatly from following and understanding these changes, which will
receive extensive testing.
In addition, we'll be adding some new epic arcs for pirate factions, offering
the first iteration of the integrated social networking platform known as
COSMOS, setting our artists free to rebeautify planets and more.
Warhammer Online's The Wild Hunt event kicks off today, the first of the
many planned events celebrating the one year anniversary for
Mythic's MMORPG. Word is: "Groups of six players can test their mettle against
the ultimate quarry in the new instanced dungeon: The Hunter's Vale—the hunting
grounds of the Spirit of Kurnous! But be warned, the sacred vine portals to The
Hunter's Vale are located only in RvR battlefields, where the looming Ghostly
Avatar of Kurnous curses all who incur his wrath. If the God of the Hunt lays
his Beast Hex upon you, you may have only seconds to pass it on to someone else
before his wrath transforms you ... and not for the better. In addition, players
who sight the fabled White Stag will be granted a special experience buff ("The
Blessing of Kurnous"), and vie for the honor of slaying Kurnous's sacred deer."
Thanks
Massively.
A new
producer's letter on the Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Website
discusses the recently announced Rise of the Godslayer expansion
for Funcom's MMORPG, as well as other upcoming plans, including the possibility
that the version 1.06 update will be rolled out in stages, plans for the House
of Crom level 80 instance, new Tier Three Raids, and more details on the veteran
rewards system they've previously hinted about. Thanks
Voodoo Extreme.
Gamasutra
has word that Jade Raymond will manage day-to-day operations at Ubisoft's
recently announced Toronto studio. Raymond, who garners
significant attention due to being particularly easy on the eyes, served as
producer on Assassin's Creed and is executive producer on the upcoming sequel to
the stealth action game. According to Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal and
Toronto, "I'm excited to have Jade managing our Toronto studio. With more than
12 years of experience in the video game industry, Jade’s knowledge and
leadership as an industry veteran are major assets in building the Toronto
studio and expanding Ubisoft’s presence in Canada."
Simon & Schuster offers free downloads of an excerpt from Heaven's
Devil's, the upcoming novel that introduces the story in StarCraft II,
Blizzard's upcoming RTS sequel. Thanks
Big Download.
The Serious Sam HD Website is
online as home to Croteam's upcoming first-person shooter remake. The site
includes before and after screenshots showing the game's new HD glory, gameplay
trailers, forums, awesome marketing bullet points, and more. Thanks
Seriously!
The Champions Online Launch
Interview on Ten Ton Hammer talks with Bill Roper as Cryptic wraps up beta
testing on Champions Online and prepares to open the doors on their new
superhero MMORPG. They discuss the balance issues Cryptic worked through during
the beta, other things learned during testing, preparations for launch, the role
of the game's crafting system, gamepad support, and more. There's also a video
interview with Roper on
GameTrailers.com discussing creating super groups in the game. Avengers
Assemble!
The
Blizzard interview on Joystiq chats with Samwise Didier about his role as
art director on StarCraft II. Topics include his long term plan of entering game
development to become Ozzy Osbourne's opening act, his art, whether delaying the
game is a relief for him, his stint at Blizzard since "the Jurassic period," and
more.
The
Global Agenda Interview on MMORPG.COM talks with Todd Harris, executive
producer on Global Agenda,
Hi-Rez Studios' futuristic espionage-themed MMOG. The focus of this conversation
is PvP gameplay, discussing how the whole spy versus spy thing is going to work.
The WoW: Cataclysm
interview on Ten Ton Hammer features answers from J. Allen Brack to
questions from a number of WoW fan-sites about the recently announced Cataclysm
add-on as well as other topics related to their moderately successful MMORPG.
Topics include level-caps and character progression rates, bosses, content
updates, WoW in China, Battle.net accounts, updating character models, and lots
more.
- Jumpgate Evolution on
MMORPG.com. Blog: Making the Sound of Music for Space.
Today is the birthday of one of my absolutely favorite people in this world,
Hudson the wonder dog. Our loyal friend turns nine years old today, and
celebrated the occasion by chasing a friend's cat for a bit, demonstrating
pretty nicely that she's still got a lot of her youthful verve. And, yes I said
she was a people: anyone who'd deny it has not been exposed to her personable personality.
Frogster
Interactive announces plans to expand
Bounty Bay Online
with a third add-on called Beyond the Horizon, which will launch for the
English and German editions of this subscription-free MMORPG before the end of
this year, with a French version to follow.
Here's a batch of new screenshots and a
Bounty Bay Online- Beyond the
Horizon Microsite is dedicated to the free expansion, which will offer "five
new character classes, the active pet system, new instances, new PvP arenas and
tournaments, new ranking system and new mini-games."
There's an interview with
Blizzard's
Paul Sams on GamesIndustry.biz talking with the Blizzard COO specifically
about Battle.net, and what to expect as they evolve their online service with
some recently announced changes. They are intent on finding out
what sort of fees or charges may be coming, but do not get anything concrete,
though
Sams does say: "It's certainly possible that there could be a charging
mechanism at some point - we're looking at all possibilities for each of the
areas of Battle.net."
There's a very short
interview
about Borderlands on Fragland.net where Randy Pitchford answers six quick
questions and escapes before anyone gets hurt. They cover familiar turf about
the role-playing shooting of Borderlands, and conclude sharing the insight that
there will be no achievement for collecting all hundred-trillion of the game's
weapons.
There's a GameGun Update
video on the YouTube offering another look at this first-person shooter
peripheral first revealed a couple of months ago. The clip shows
more of the Game Gun in action, which features a gun-mounted screen for full
motion tracking, and announces Windows will be one of the supported platforms
along with consoles. They say preorders begin soon, and that the Game Gun should
be ready for Christmas, though details about pricing are not being discussed
yet. Thanks Mike Martinez and
Engadget.
An Age To Come: Ray Muzyka On BioWare's Dragon Age on Gamasutra talks with
EA RPG/MMO group GM Ray Muzyka about Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare's
upcoming RPG that hopes to revive memories of the Baldur's Gate series.
Topics includes what it means when they say the game is a "social experience,"
BioWare getting input on social mechanisms from their MMO development
colleagues, sharing fan-created content, control differences between the PC and
console versions, the ramifications of the BioWare and Mythic reorganization,
retaining BioWare culture under the EA brand, and more.
Disney to
buy Marvel for $4 billion has word that the Walt Disney Company is set to
purchase Marvel Entertainment for approximately $4 billion USD in cash and
stock. This values Marvel at $50 per share, 29% over Marvel's closing stock price
on Friday. Word is: "The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies. "
Thanks Neutronbeam.
The Postal III
interview on UGDB is a lengthy chat about the coming installment in the
outrageous shooter series with Steve Wik of developer Running with Scissors and
Andrew Belkin of publisher/partner Akella. They discuss how the third go-round
with the Postal-dude will present a more character-focused game with more
"coherent" storytelling using more cut-scenes, how the new game fits with the
events of the previous Apocalypse weekend, how the game can be played without
any killing, the game's locale of Catharsis City, the progression from the
isometric view of Postal to the first-person view of Postal II to
the third-person view of Postal III, groups they are looking to offend
with their NPCs this time around, weapons like BadgerSaws and cat-silencers, how
most of the poor reviews of the first two game were written by "douchebags," how
Uwe Boll is the new Gary Coleman, DLC plans, and unbelievably, still more.
Today is the "Summer Bank Holiday" in the UK. This seems a great contrast to
here in the US where there's been a trend over years to take away holidays, with
lots of people working through occasions like Columbus Day and Washington's Day
that were previously more commonly taken off. I like the "Bank Holiday" concept
a lot, and move to adopt them over here too. We're off today! Why? It's a
holiday! Dig.
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