Torchlight sets itself apart from other action RPGs with its intuitive, approachable interface, which enables gamers of all skill levels to quickly immerse themselves into the rich game play and varied world of Torchlight. The level randomizer will ensure that each adventure is unique, with different monsters, treasures, puzzles and items for players to find, defeat, and unlock. Through a powerful suite of development tools, Runic Games will empower players and game enthusiasts alike to create and share their own content and levels.

"We do have a couple of products in development which are PC-lead, that are not announced yet," he said. "That doesn’t mean that that content isn’t also going to show up on console, because it will."

"But the pedigree of the team and the primary focus of the design is around the PC, and the largest forecast is on PC for at least one of these projects."

A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam Client
    • Fixed issue with scroll bars on HTML pages not showing after javascript DOM modification changed page height
    • Fixed issue where Steam can not be closed after playing Section 8
    • Fixed Champions Online keys not always being available when Steam first starts

• Street Fighter IV on Steam. Save 50% this weekend.
• F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin on Direct2Drive. Save $10.00.
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on Direct2Drive. Now $39.95.
• Rainbow Six- Vegas 2 on GoGamer. Save 94%.
• Shadowrun on GoGamer. Save 100%. No, really.
• Maelstrom on GoGamer. Save 100%.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game of the Year Edition on GoGamer. Save 30%.
• Fallout 3 on GoGamer. Save 34%.
• Hearts of Iron 3 on GoGamer. Save 33%.
• Wolfenstein on GoGamer. Save 40%.
• Raven Squad: Hidden Dagger on GoGamer. Save 33%.
• Lord of the Rings Shadow of Angmar Special Edition on GoGamer. Save 98%.
• Battlestations: Midway on GoGamer. Save 97%.
• Call of Juarez on GoGamer. Save 98%.
• Prince of Persia on GoGamer. Save 90%.
• Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War on GoGamer. Save 25% and free shipping.
• Dawn of Magic 2 Pre-Purchase on Steam. Save 10%.
• Time of Shadows Pre-Purchase on Steam (North America). Save 10%.
• Pre-purchase Majesty 2 on Steam and get Majesty Gold Edition for free.
  
  Still on sale (previously reported)
• Crysis Maximum Edition on Direct2Drive. Save $5.00 through Sunday. Use code CRYSISMAX5 at checkout. NA only.
• Civilization IV: Complete Edition on GamersGate. Save 60% this weekend.
• Victoria Complete on GamersGate. Save 50% this weekend.
• Trine on GamersGate. Save 25% this weekend.
• Nation Red on Steam. Save 25% for the first week of availability and get features exclusive to Steam.
• GOG.com's first anniversary promotion. Buy one, get one free for the next week.
• Rise of the Triad on GOG.com. Save 10% through Sunday.
• Majesty 2 Preorder on GamersGate. Save 20%, get Majesty Gold, plus the new GG bonuses.
• Batman Arkham Asylum Preorder on GamersGate. Just the 250 coins and the price guarantee.
• Time of Shadows Preorder on Impulse. Save 10% this weekend. Thanks John.
• Aaaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity preorder on Impulse. Save 25% this weekend.
• Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition on Impulse. Save $10.00 this weekend.
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on Impulse. Save 60% this weekend.
• Evochron Legends on Impulse. Save 25% this weekend.
• Dawn of Discovery on Impulse. Save 50% this weekend.
• Sins of a Solar Empire Bundle on Impulse. Save 40% this weekend.
• Demigod on Impulse. Save 50% this weekend.
• Restaurant Empire on Impulse. Save 33% this weekend.
• Nation Red on Direct2Drive is now $9.95 USD.
• All Strategy First Games on Steam. Save 50% through September 7.
• F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin on Direct2Drive. Save $10.00 this week ($24.95). Thanks Kxmode.
• Dark Void Gold 4 Jetpack TV Ad. Outlines the preorder bonus.
• Free In-Game Bonus Items for CrimeCraft on Steam.
• Mass Effect 1 + 2 Bundle Download on Direct2Drive. $5.00 off.
• Fallen Earth is now on sale at the Fallen Earth Store. Preorder bonus, and a 10% discount on multiple keys.
• Cities XL Limited Edition Pre-Order Special on Impulse. $10.00 off.
• Ubisoft Expands Catalog Worldwide on Steam. Full list here. New titles 10% off.
• 50% Off Xbox 360 Game Offer at Best Buy. Thanks Joystiq.
• 20% discount on all in-stock items with Play-Asia's Visa Summer Promotion. Thanks Kotaku.
• Buy Guitar Hero 5 and get the unreleased Guitar Hero Van Halen Game for free. Thanks xXBatmanXx.
  
  Newly Available
• Might and Magic 6-pack: Limited Edition on GOG.com. The first six games in the series.
• Line Rider 2: Unbound - Now Available on Steam.
• New Indie Action Puzzler QuantZ on Steam.
• Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition preorders on Direct2Drive.
• Nancy Drew Adventure Pack on Steam.

• Diablo III on IncGamers.
• Dragon Age: Origins on Destructoid and Sorcerer's Place. Also: BioWare won't justify Dragon Age Collector's Edition.
• Left 4 Dead 2 on Eurogamer.
• RAGE on IGN.
• Star Trek Online on Kotaku.
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition on Destructoid.

• DeathSpank on Grumpy Gamer. Thanks Death-Spank.de.
• Global Agenda on Blue's News.
• Mass Effect 2 on Blue's News.
• The Secret World on Blue's News. Concept Art.

• Ex-Splatterhouse Developer BottleRocket Closes Its Doors.
• Grand Theft Auto IV Title Update for Xbox 360.
• Double XP weekend for Gears 2.
• Harmonix: How 'horrendous failure' led to Rock Band.
• L4D1 DLC pricing not Valve's decision.
• ‘Halo 3- ODST’ Live Action Trailer Will Knock Your Socks Off.
• Ban hammer comes down on naughty ODST players.
• Xbox 360 Lawsuit Seeks $50K For Alleged Disc-Scratching.
• Lost Planet 2 demo beat RE5 demo in 24 hours.

• EU fears Oracle will kill MySQL, but is that even possible.
• Diebold impeaches e-voting unit, sells it off for $5 million.

The unfortunate aspect of all this great news is that all of these new developments could have been ironed out before the announcement but they were not. Our partners felt an initial announcement was necessary and so did we. We plan to release Mechwarrior4 for FREE when developments are completed and considered stable. We are also waiting on legal paper work from lawyers and as anyone out there that has worked in the professional industry knows, something of this magnitude takes time on all fronts. MekTek is not receiving any financial support from the partners regarding this release and obviously no one can quit their daytime job to get the job done faster either. The release has entered beta status and will be delivered to the world very shortly. MekTek is supported through donations from our community and thus far we have received 50% of our goal to cover server infrastructure costs. We hope the community will continue to support us during this very busy time to ensure we have the best possible hardware in place for this release.

Required – Internet Connection
OS - Windows XP (Service Pack 3) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) / Windows 7
Processor – Intel Core™2 Duo 1.6 GHz or faster
Memory – XP: 1 GB RAM; Vista/Windows 7: 1.5 GB RAM
Hard Drive – 6 GB
DVD Drive - 8 SPEED
Video Card – 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 3.0*
Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX - DirectX 9.0c compatible
Online Multiplayer – 512 Kbps or faster; 2-12 Players
Input - Keyboard, Mouse
Optional – USB Steering Wheel / Dual Analogue Gamepad

*Supported Video Cards: ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB or greater; NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), the sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed action thriller from Valve is being shown this weekend at The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle, Washington.

The game is available to play, by the press and public, at Valve and Microsoft's Xbox 360 booth.

After debuting "The Parish" campaign (set in the New Orleans' French Quarter) at E3 and "Swamp Fever" at Comic Con San Diego, Dark Carnival is the third of the five campaigns shipping with L4D2 this fall.

Valve is also unveiling a new Boss infected monster coming in the full version of Left 4 Dead 2. Known as "The Jockey" this is the third new Boss infected from L4D2 revealed thus far (the Charger was revealed at E3, The Spitter at Comic Con). The Jockey lets you attack lone Survivors and wrestle control of their movement away from them-into fire, off ledges, or straight into the middle of a zombie horde.

In addition to the new campaign and boss monster the PAX showing of L4D2 marks the debut of the "Zombie Clown," the "uncommon common" exclusive to the Dark Carnival campaign, and a few more of the 20-plus new items coming in the full product (electric guitar, machete, and the American baseball bat being offered as a pre-sell exclusive with select retailers).

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC on November 17, Left 4 Dead 2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.

Section 8 allows players to join the epic conflict between the 8th Armored Infantry – nicknamed ‘Section 8’ - and the Arm of Orion by taking part in fierce combat across majestic alien worlds. Players create their own unique game experiences by customizing equipment Loadouts, and dramatically impact the flow of battle through strategic vehicle and asset requisitions. Dynamic Combat Missions (DCMs) are player-driven objectives, generated during the course of combat, that affect gameplay with tangible rewards for completion. In addition to the deep single-player campaign and multiplayer mode for up to 40 combatants, Section 8 features an Instant Action mode where players can challenge the game’s competitive AI on any of the multiplayer maps. For the competitive gamer, Section 8 will implement an online stats portal on Friday, September 11, which boasts a phenomenal in-depth stat-tracking system, showing clan and individual rankings on over 50 unique fully-searchable Leaderboards.

- Expanded interface including new map options, as well as more flexible control over what you can automate.
- Significantly improved AI, providing a greater challenge to the player.
- Improved game balance, with major focus on making diplomacy and officers more fun.
- Optimization to allow the game to run much smoother for most players.

• The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.
• Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.
• Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.
• Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!
• Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.

In Fort Zombie, players will find themselves trapped in the small town of Piety, Indiana. Faced with no other choice but to find shelter from an impending wave of zombies migrating from a nearby metropolis, players will be challenged to choose a building to be their fort throughout the entire campaign. By effectively focusing efforts on building up this structure in between scouring the town for supplies and searching out and training survivors, players will have a shot at surviving the massive zombie onslaught.

For the few remaining citizens of Piety, each new day brings more fear. Only the most prepared citizens of Piety will stand a chance against the zombie infestation. Choose from a variety of daily tasks and efficiently build up your character's stats and skills as you battle blood-thirsty invaders and attempt to avoid total infestation. Most importantly, you must build up your fort for anyone to have any hope of surviving the last, big stand-off against the coming undead swarm.

This fall, stay alive and be prepared for the fight of your life in Fort Zombie!

The letter claims that the use of certain trademarked figures from the Robotech/Macross universe are prohibited as a result of a prior settlement that dates back to 1996. While MechWarrior isn't part of the Robotech/Macross universe, the similarities between vehicles has been enough to cause legal issues and raise questions. Apparently, some of those trademarked figures appear in the trailer used by Piranha Games in its announcement of the MechWarrior reboot earlier this year, and a request has been made for that trailer to be pulled from IGN.

This development could put the future of MechWarrior in jeopardy. A trademark dispute could derail the game's development. On the flip side, it could also simply result in specific characters, logos, or other trademarked material from being included in the final product.

Gamasutra - The First-Person Immersion Myth.
Are first-person games inherently more immersive? A lot of developers seem to presume that they are, but let’s take a second look. Consider the last time you felt like you actually were the character in a game you played. I’d be willing to guess that most people will say “never.” We don’t generally take on the role of the character we’re playing, except as children in imaginary play.

What most of us do is identify with the character -- and how can you identify with a character you can’t see, a character who usually doesn’t even talk or have any opinions about the horrible things going on around him? This goes back to the “silent hero” dilemma that has existed ever since role-playing made its way into the electronic world, notoriously perpetuated by the Japanese console RPG.

• We're Giving Away Hundreds of League of Legends Beta Codes on Kotaku.

• Dragon Age: Origins on GameBanshee.
• Fallen Earth on Massively.
• For the Glory on the Paradox Interactive Forums. Dev Diary #1 for this Europa Universalis II engine game.
• StarCraft II on StarcraftWire.net.

• IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey New Missions Revealed.

• [Free] CCleaner v.2.23 Rebuild (2.23.999).
• SeaMonkey 1.1.18 Security Release.
• Solid State Drive Optimization & Longevity.
• [Phoronix] GCC vs. LLVM-GCC Benchmarks.

• Internet providers seek low broadband bar.
• Watching TV while surfing the Internet? You're not alone.
• Not enough Facebook friends? Buy them.
• Rumored YouTube streaming rental gambit could flop.
• Internet addiction center opens in US.

• Privacy advocates want regulation of behavioral advertising.
• Hyperlinked Contract Terms Are Enforceable. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Amazon: Google book deal possibly illegal, definitely bad.
• Canadian Hate-Speech Law Violates Charter of Rights.
• Cop cops plea for e-mailing nude pics to woman he arrested.

• Apple ships vulnerable Flash version with new Mac OS.
• Virtual detectives stalk in-game spammers.

• Dragonica Online on MMORPG.COM.
• Hearts of Iron III on Boomtown.
• Raven Squad on GameVisions.

• Acer Aspire One 11.6- Netbook on TechSpot.
• Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Cooler on Hardware Bistro.
• ASUS MATRIX GTX285 Graphics Card on Overclockers Club.
• ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim PCI Sound Card on Overclock3D.Net.
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
• DeepCool Killer Whale Premium Heatsink on FrostyTech.com.
• Foxconn Blood RAGE X58 Motherboard on PCShopTalk.
• Lenovo IdeaPad U350 Laptop on TechReviewSource.
• LevelOne WBR-6001 N_Max Wireless Router on CCE Reviews.
• LUXA2 H1-Touch Mobile Holder on ThinkComputers.org.
• Lite-On iHES208 8x Blu-ray Combo Drive on CRDLabs.
• Mionix Saiph 3200 Mouse & Alioth 400 Mat on PureOC.
• MSI N285GTX SuperPipe 2G 1GB Graphics Card on InsideHW.
• NVIDIA GeForce G210 Graphics Card on PC Games Hardware.
• Ozone Smog Gaming Mouse on XSReviews.co.uk.
• Patriot Convoy and Convoy XL Hardware RAID 2.5 inch Enclosure on TweakTown.
• PhotoFast G-Monster eSATA V2 Portable SSD on a Stick on TweakTown.
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 2GB Vapor-X Graphics Card on Legit Reviews.
• Seasonic S12D 750W PSU on Hardware Secrets.
• Silverstone Element ST85EF 850W PSU on johnnyGURU.
• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Smartphone on Futurelooks.
• Tacens Trio Notebook Cooler on Testseek Labs.
• Thecus N5500 five-bay enterprise NAS and DAS on HEXUS.net.
• Thermaltake Element S VK60001W2Z PC Case on Tech-Reviews.
• Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
• Verbatim TUFF-CLIP USB Drive 8GB on OverclockersHQ.com.
• Vizo Uranus 3.5 Inch SATA HDD One Touch Backup Enclosure on Tech-Xtreme.com.

• The 28 hidden characters in Batman: Arkham Asylum…
• Nielsen: Casual Gamers Play Less, Come Back Often. Thanks Slashdot…
• Penny Arcade's Dragon Age- Origins comic debuts…