Archived News:
bitComposer Games' S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Website now has a
Q1 2010 release date for the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game, throwing cold
irradiated water on hopes of an imminent release since the game just
went gold in Russia. They also offer system requirements for the
game: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum
OS: Windows® XP
CPU:
2.0GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ 2200+
RAM:
512 MB
GPU:
128 MB RAM DirectX® 8.0 compatible Card e.g. GeForce 5700 or Radeon 9600
Recommended
OS: Windows® Vista®
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 or AMD 64 X2 5600+
RAM:
2 GB
GPU:
512 MB RAM DirectX® 9 or 10 compatible Card e.g. GeForce 9800GTX or Radeon
HD4850
FALLEN EARTH, LLC announces Fallen
Earth is live and accepting new players into their self-titled MMORPG
thanks to the joys of digital distribution, as the boxed version is not expected
on store shelves until the end of this month. Here's the full announcement:
Raleigh, NC -September 22, 2009 - FALLEN EARTH, LLC announced the
commercial launch of its self-titled massively multiplayer online (MMO) game
today. The game is scheduled to reach retailers nationwide by September 30.
Additionally, fans can download Fallen Earth digitally from
Direct2Drive, Steam
and the Fallen Earth store
for instant access to live service today.
"The thoughtful development and diligence of our team is realized in a physical
product, and that's exciting," said Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen
Earth. "We are pleased to add another avenue of purchase for our fans in
conjunction with our existing digital sales."
Fallen Earth combines the accuracy of first-person shooter style games with the
depth and character advancement of a role-playing game. The game features a
classless advancement system, a real-time crafting system in which players can
make 95 percent of in game items, six unique factions, 70 towns and more than
1,000 square kilometers of zoneless territory to explore. Set in 2156 after the
deadly Shiva virus and nuclear holocaust devastated the Earth, survivors are
left with the choice to rebuild civilization and rise above the destruction or
to embrace the chaos and tear down what's left of the old world.
Fans can gain immediate access to the game today by digitally downloading
through
Direct2Drive, Steam
and the Fallen Earth store.
All purchases offer a free 30-day subscription. Check individual web sites for
purchase offers and terms.
The Obsidian Forums have posts from Obsidian's Matthew Rorie to tidbits in
the leaked SCEA documents (thanks
Shacknews), this one
in particular responds to allegations that Alpha Protocol is not enough
of an RPG: And yes, I believe the gentleman in the quotes works for SCEA.
As for what he said, obviously we enjoy any feedback that we can get, but
without knowing how much of the game he played (and I seriously doubt that
someone as busy as a product evaluator for Sony is going to be playing through
an entire game if it's as long as Alpha Protocol), it's hard to judge what he
meant by those comments. Suffice to say that Alpha Protocol is going to tickle
your RPG tastebuds when it's released.
The QUAKE LIVE
Forums outline the changes in the latest update to id's free online shooter.
The new version includes gameplay changes, new console variables, and fixes for
a bunch of Mac issues and a Linux bug.
Cymons Games has the debut
release of ASCIIpOrtal, the ASCII-tastic puzzle game that uses the Portal
concept. We've linked to movies from this project once or
twice, and the release version includes the ability to make maps
using (what else?) an ASCII editor as well as the full source code.
Gamasutra
reports Junk: Battles is the debut title from Antic Entertainment, a new
developer formed by DICE founder Fredrik Liljegren. The game is a
subscription-free, browser-based real-time action/strategy title where users
build ships to do battle online, with stat progression and ship upgrades to
satisfy our OCD. The article refers to all this in the future tense, but the
Junk: Battles Website is online and
the game is already underway.
Champions Online Website
has word on the issues they are currently working on in Cryptic's superhero
MMORPG, one involving critter damage and the other a problem with item stats.
The Direct2Drive offers seem to all be North America or US only.
- Complete Strategy First Catalog on
GOG.com. Save
50%.
- Risen on
Gamestop.com. Save $10.00. Thanks
Big Download.
Still on sale (previously reported)
- Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Assassin's Creed Director's Cut on
Direct2Drive.
- Celtic Kings: Rage of War on
GoG.com.
Save 25%.
- Dark Void Preorders on
GameStop. Outlines the preorder bonus.
- Drakensang: The Dark Eye on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Elven Legacy on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Eve Online: Apocrypha on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Madballs on Steam. Save 20% plus a free Guest Pass.
- MDK on Steam. Save 10%.
- Neverwinter Nights 2 on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- PlanetSide: Aftershock on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Spellforce Platinum on
GOG.com. Save $2.00.
- Titan Quest Bundle on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Tropico 3 Pre-purchase on
Steam. Save 10%.
- Unreal Tournament 3 Black
Steam. Save 60%.
- Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition on
Steam. Now $1.99.
- Unreal Deal Pack on
Steam. Save 60%.
As announced on the Impulse
Forums, the promised new patch is now available for
Demigod to update Gas Powered Games' action/strategy game to version 1.19.
The new version, available automatically through Impulse, adds replay support,
balance changes, other adjustments, and bug fixes.
As noted on the World of
Warcraft Website, a new patch is now available for World of Warcraft
to update Blizzard's MMORPG to version 3.2.2. Here are the
full patch notes, and
downloads of a manual 3.2.2 for the English edition of the game are available on
Big Download,
FileFront, and
The Patches
Scrolls, and various other localized patches are mirrored on
FileFront and
The Patches
Scrolls. The US Mac patch is mirrored on
Big Download. Here's word on the update from the official
website: After years of lurking in her lair, battling brave adventurers who
travelled from afar, Onyxia has been reborn -- and she’s stronger than ever
before. To commemorate the upcoming fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft, the
classic Onyxia raid encounter has been updated in the newly released patch
3.2.2.
• Onyxia has been retuned to offer new challenges to
level-80 players (in both 10- and 25-player modes) while keeping the fundamental
experience of fighting her intact. Beware the Deep Breaths!
• Onyxia will now drop new level-80 gear featuring the
aesthetics of loot from the original encounter.
• The luckiest adventurers will have a chance to receive
the Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after the Brood Mother
herself.
Steam News announces a new
update is automatically available for Empire: Total War, offering the
promised version 1.4 update for Creative Assembly's RTS sequel.
The update included balance changes, bug fixes, and two new historical battles
(Battle of Rossbach and Battle of Fontenoy) playable in single-player and
multiplayer play.
Following today's announcement that Order of War is in
North American stores comes word that a multiplayer demo for the World War II
RTS game is due later this week, after a delay prevented its planned release
last Tuesday. A single-player demo is already available, and
here's word on the multiplayer demo and its release through GameSpy (presumably
FilePlanet): "The multiplayer demo will include two of the game’s multiplayer
maps -- Manor House and Across the Canyon – and will allow players to take on
the role of the Americans, Germans or Soviets (playing as Soviets not available
in single player mode). Each nation features about 20 units of historically
accurate planes, artillery, infantry and tanks. The objective of multiplayer is
simple – total domination of all Control Points and total annihilation of the
enemies’ units. The multiplayer demo will be exclusive to GameSpy and uses their
DRM."
Ubisoft Maps
Out The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom is the announcement that a
seventh installment in The Settlers series of strategy/management games is under
development in the Ubisoft Blue Byte studio for release next spring.
The Settlers Website
has a teaser trailer combining live action and gameplay, here are
some screenshots,
and here is a bit of the announcement: SAN FRANCISCO – September 22, 2009
– Today Ubisoft announced the development of The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom,
the next iteration in the popular multi-million selling strategy game franchise
for PC. Scheduled for release in spring 2010, The Settlers 7: Paths to a
KingdomTM gives gamers the opportunity to choose the best way to lead their
kingdom to victory, in a rich environment set in middle-Europe during the early
Renaissance.
"The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom brings The Settlers franchise to the next
level of the strategy-sim genre, employing the core mechanisms that made the
series a success while continuing to innovate in new areas that will give gamers
the ability to craft their own unique, thrilling experience,” said Adam
Novickas, director of marketing for Ubisoft.
Developed by the Ubisoft Blue Byte studio located in Düsseldorf, Germany, The
Settlers 7: Paths to a KingdomTM brings a fresh, innovative design to the
franchise, while reintroducing the strong game mechanics and deep gameplay that
are hallmarks of the highly acclaimed Settlers series. Players will easily
become engaged in an exciting campaign, skirmish maps or multi-player challenges
in a world of lush forests, open meadows, fast flowing rivers, and high
mountains.
A
post on PC Games that can be
roughly translated here says Wolfenstein is being recalled from
German shelves due to the inclusion of some swastika images, which are verboten
in Germany. A statement from Activision is expected in the coming days. There's
also a report on this on Planet
Wolfenstein, where they point out the fact that the Wolfenstein teams from
Endrant and Raven have both been laid off may
complicate creating an edited version.
The version 1.1 patch for Batman: Arkham Asylum should now be available
on Games for Windows LIVE, among other things adding PhysX support to the
superhero game (there's a new video on the
YouTube with
comparisons with and without PhysX). A manual version of the patch is also
available thanks to
The Patches
Scrolls, available on
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
The Patches
Scrolls, and
Strategy Informer.
Publisher Square Enix
announces Order of War is now available in North America, offering a
World War II real-time strategy game developed by Wargaming.net, with Square
Enix saying this is their first release of a western-developed game outside of
Japan. If you want to check the game out, a playable demo was
recently released, and here's a bit from the press release: ORDER OF
WAR is a historically accurate, World War II real-time strategy game that takes
the genre to new heights. Massive-scale battles and epic warfare are brought to
life with cinematic intensity as players are challenged to take command of vast
numbers of infantry, tank battalions, heavy artillery and aircraft. Planning
multi-pronged strategic assaults, players will navigate their ways through
missions based on key historic events and operations from 1944.
The single-player mode can be played out in two campaigns. The first features
American forces versus German forces as they land on the beaches of occupied
France on D-Day. The second lets players change sides, commanding German forces
in Poland battling against the mighty Soviet Army and in France battling
American troops. The multiplayer mode can be played in either LAN or Internet
mode, powered by GameSpy® Technology. With battles on six maps from campaign
mode, multiplayer allows gamers to play as the Americans, Germans or Soviets
with the objective of total domination of all Control Points and total
annihilation of enemy units.
ORDER OF WAR is the first of several upcoming titles from Square Enix that are
being developed through partnerships with North American and European
development studios, including SUPREME COMMANDER® 2 by Gas Powered Games® and
FRONT MISSION EVOLVED™ by Double Helix Games™. These titles mark the dawn of a
new strategic direction for Square Enix, publishing a broader variety of
western-developed games across different genres.
Today is the launch day for NCsoft's fantasy-themed MMORPG
Aion in a number of territories,
including North America. Massively has a couple of helpful resources for the
game:
A WoW player's guide to Aion and
The Aion server queue survival guide.
The Team Fortress 2 Blog
hints at upcoming plans for Team Fortress 2, reproducing some paperwork
related to a new guard dog class for the teamplay shooter, or more specifically,
#1308 - 'GUARD DOG' Item Retrieving, Cannon-Appended Canine Unit." The
accompanying Guard Dog Update (which
is not on the TF2 Blog) has full details on the dog's uses, which are offensive,
defensive, and support (including being a Jarate dispenser). The update includes
a complete list of related achievements, but looks like it is likely a spoof. According to a forum post here: "This fake update gained immense popularity on the steam user forums just over the last few days, so much that Valve decided to do a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of it on the main blog."
The first patch for the PC edition of Need for Speed: SHIFT is now
available. The update for the racing sequel adds two important changes: full
menu mouse navigation support, and multiplayer support for Local Area Networks.
There are two patches on the
Need for Speed, one
for North America, and the other for European territories. Both patches are
mirrored on
The Patches Scrolls.
The
Global Agenda Forums have details on the next phase of closed beta
testing for Hi-Rez Studios' MMOTPS, saying testing will resume from October 2-4.
Word is: "This test will be open primarily just to those players that
participated in CBT-1A and CBT-1B, with only small numbers of additional testers
added." Global
Agenda Access has a contest giving away a handful of keys for the beta.
The Runaway - A
Twist Of Fate Website offers a new teaser trailer from the upcoming
installment in the Runaway series of adventure games. Word is: "This is the
perfect opportunity for gamers to discover the characters who will be present
throughout this exciting new adventure, and to notice that the gorgeous graphic
style particular to Runaway that has enthralled gamers for years has been
retained."
Planet Calypso, the
cash-money MMOG dealie formerly known as Project Entropia, announces
a
Second Golden Age Skill Bonus that runs through September 30. This offers
the chance to double your take as a legit gold farmer: "For the next twelve days
normal skill gain (experience points) in hunting, mining and crafting will be
doubled. Since skills can be easily sold inside the game for actual money this
is a chance to both build up characters and bank accounts. If you engage in
hunting, mining or crafting activities during this promotion period, the system
will automatically allot double skill gains to the activity related skill."
The
Fort Zombie Interview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun talks with Chris Stewart of
Kerberos about Fort Zombie, the recently announced
zombified action/RPG. They discuss the reasons for creating a smaller spin-off
game, the switch to an action game from the space strategy genre, environmental
variety, gameplay, the reason for a zombie game, and more.
New patches are now available for the All Aspect Warfare demo and the
Angle Of Attack demo, updating each to the same version 1.00.35 as the
recent patches for the full games. The All Aspect Warfare demo
patch is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell; and the patch for the Angle Of Attack demo is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Direct2Drive announces their sales figures for the week of September 13
through September 19:
- Aion Collector's Edition (Preorder) - NCsoft
- Champions Online - Atari
- Batman: Arkham Asylum - Eidos
- Fallen Earth (Preorder) - Fallen Earth, LLC
- BioShock - 2K Games
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - Atari
- Need For Speed SHIFT - EA
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - LucasArts
- Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim - Paradox
- Aion (Preorder) - NCsoft
The Alganon
Developer Roundtable #18 is a four question Q&A distributed by the
developers of Alganon answering questions
found in their forums about this upcoming MMORPG. The four topics are the
Studies System, queuing studies, entertaining higher level players waiting for
new content, and crafting versus loot drops.
Gamasutra - Clone Vs. Genre - When Art Imitates Art.
When does an idea become large enough to lose its identity and flourish
into a full-blown genre? Perhaps it’s better said that the idea gains a new
identity, one that’s more generally applicable.
Most recently, we stopped referring to "Tower Defense clones," and began
discussing tower defense games as an entire genre, which has since been
expanded to include a number of variations by companies as diverse as Square
Enix and PopCap.
"Doom clones" stopped appearing around the time Quake came out, and we
started to deal with the first-person shooter as a genre.
Happy last day of summer to those of us in the northern hemisphere, as autumn
begins this afternoon. It was a pretty wacky summer, it never seemed to find its
groove in these parts, with loads of rain and cooler than normal temperatures.
And in spite of my jealousy, happy first day of spring for those below the
equator.
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