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Archived News:
The Left 4 Dead 2 Achievement List on Xbox360Achievements.org offer a quick
confirmation of the accuracy of the revelation that "Hard Rain"
and "Dead Center" are the two other campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2. They
offer the full list of achievements for the Xbox 360 edition, including
achievements for completing each of those campaigns. Thanks
Joystiq.
A new "sacred ashes" launch trailer for Dragon Age: Origins is now
available, offering a look at the upcoming RPG from BioWare. Word is: "This
trailer takes a look into a quest in search of the Sacred Ashes, where danger
awaits the band of warriors in the glacial, jagged edges of a treacherous
mountainside. Darkspawn assault the group, and pressed into action, the soldiers
leap into battle. Using world-class skill, magic, might and outright brute
force, the Darkspawn are being eviscerated; just when the situation appears to
be under control, a massive Dragon – stunning in its size and might – swoops in
and crushes everything in its path, threatening the very survival of the
heroes." The clip is available on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer, and
FileFront.
As noted on Steam News,
an updated Steam client is now available. The new version address a crashing
bug, adds some Steam API fixes, adds SSE 3 and SSE 4 detection support to the
hardware survey, and adds support for some upcoming games.
Steam's THQ Week will
offer a sale on one THQ title each day this week:
- East India Company on
Direct2Drive. Only $5.00.
- Titan Quest on Steam.
Save 50%.
Still on sale (previously reported)
-
GoGamer's 48 Hour Madness. Far too many to list, even for us!
- Borderlands on
Direct2Drive. Save 10% on preorders.
- Borderlands on
Steam. Save 10% on pre-purchase of the game or the four-pack.
- Cricket Revolution on
Steam. Save 10% on
pre-purchases.
- Gratuitous Space Battles on
Impulse. Save 13% on
preorders.
- Machinarium on
Direct2Drive. Preorders save 25%.
- Metal Drift on Steam. Save 20% on pre-purchase and get beta access.
- Nemesis of the Roman Empire on
Impulse. Save 47%.
- Painkiller: Resurrection on
Steam. Save 10% on
pre-purchases and get PK: Black and PK: Overdose free.
- Raven Squad on Steam. Includes a free copy of Legendary.
- SFI Mission 4-Pack on
the Strategy First Website. Four games for $19.99.
- Spiderweb Software Store. All games 10% off through October.
- Team Fortress 2 on
Best Buy and
FRYS.com.
Only $9.99. Thanks Johnny.
- THQ Classic FPS Bundle on
Impulse.
Save 25%.
- Tropico 3 Pre-purchase on
Steam. Save 10%.
- Tropico 3 on
Direct2Drive. Preorders save 10%.
- Warlords Battlecry III on
Impulse. Save 47%.
- Wolfenstein on
Amazon. Save
46%.
- Assassin's Creed II on
IncGamers.
- Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight on
IGN.
Oops, almost forgot: Happy Columbus Day! I think our neighbors, who are
teachers, are the only ones who had the day off.
Aspyr Media and Mindware Studios announce that the Windows edition of
Dreamkiller is now available
through Steam, offering a
horror-themed first-person shooter from the developers of Painkiller Overdose
and Cold War. There's an "Alice" trailer from the game on
FileFront,
and here's the news: AUSTIN, TX – OCTOBER 12, 2009 – Aspyr Media and
Mindware Studios announced that the fast, frantic new horror FPS Dreamkiller is
available now exclusively via Steam®, Valve Corporation's delivery and
management platform for the PC. Dreamkiller for Windows PC features 50 Steam
Achievements, Leaderboards and frantic online multiplayer action. To delve
deeper into the nightmarish world of Dreamkiller gamers can visit the newly
launched official website at
http://www.dreamkillergame.com.
In Dreamkiller gamers take on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the
extraordinary ability to enter the minds of her patients and combat the ravenous
foes haunting their dreams. Utilizing a host of fantastic weapons and her own
special abilities, Alice confronts our common demons only to discover an even
deeper menace reigns within. Dreamkiller features 12 rich levels of
single-player gameplay each laced with swarms of hideous and disturbing enemies
reflecting the mind’s infinite palette of fear. The onslaught continues with
numerous multiplayer modes and a host of over-the-top weapons and supernatural
abilities.
Dreamkiller will ship later this month for the Xbox 360® video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft. The title is rated M for Mature by the
ESRB.
Quest Online
announces an exclusive distribution agreement with IGN/Direct2Drive for
Alganon, their upcoming MMORPG. They
are
offering preorders which will provide benefits that will no longer be
available after the game's launch on October 31: Those who pre-order
Alganon will gain access to bonuses not available after launch, including study
bonuses, mounts, character enhancement items, and family heirlooms.
"In addition to the pre-order system, IGN/FilePlanet also has exclusive rights
to distribute BETA keys between now and launch. So if you want to get into BETA
head over to FilePlanet. It's very important for us to get quality testers that
have a vested interest in the game, and we felt the pre-order system and teaming
with FilePlanet was the best way to accomplish this goal."
Funcom is once again offering a free
Age of Conan Trial,
which allows a one-week sampling of the Hyborian Age MMORPG. The trial allows
full access to the game, though they note a few limitations: "Please note that
trial accounts have some restrictions to them, the most noticeable are inability
to trade with others, restrictions to use public channels, inability to post on
forums and inability to send in-game mail." Thanks
Voodoo Extreme.
2K Games
announces The Stronghold Collection, a DRM-free bundle of the entire
Stronghold series of medieval real-time strategy games planned for release in
North America two weeks from tomorrow on October 27, and for the rest of the
world sometime next year. The package has an MSRP of $29.99, and here is what it
will include: • Stronghold: The original, award-winning
castle sim that takes players through medieval Britain as they lead strategic
military and economic expansion, defend against invaders, and conquer enemy
castles.
• Stronghold 2: The King, having fled after the defeat of his
own armies, is now attempting to rule his country from a secret location.
Powerful barons are jostling for what is fast becoming a disintegrating kingdom,
and it is up to you to stem the tides of their ambition and unite the land again
under the King.
• Stronghold Crusader and Stronghold Crusader Extreme: Journey
to distant Arabian lands and lead a determined group of Crusaders. Relive the
historic Crusades in four campaigns as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, the
Sultan of Syria. Stronghold Crusader Extreme adds 20 new missions, new buildings
and larger armies of 10,000 troops.
• Stronghold Legends:: Play as epic leaders throughout history,
including King Arthur and the forces of Camelot, Siegfried and Dietrich in the
German Ice Campaign, and Vlad Dracul and his evil forces in Transylvania.
This Taiwanese Website has
what appear to be the two movie posters showing off the two unrevealed campaigns
in Left 4 Dead 2. One poster is titled "Hard Rain," subtitled "Come Hell and
High Water," depicting a flooded factory complex, and the other is "Dead
Center," subtitled "Prices Aren't the Only Things Getting Slashed," showing the
now-clichéd zombie location of a shopping mall. Thanks
Kotaku.
Publisher Oxygen Games ( PDC World Championship Darts) is insolvent, and
has entered administration, reports
MCV. The
report is pretty sparse, so that's about all there is to know for now, but they
promise further details later today.
MMO Champion has some details on Battle.net accounts for World of
Warcraft players they say they found on
The new Battle.net Frequently
Asked Questions before the info was deleted. The since-removed entries
described a November 12 cutoff date, after which a merged Battle.net account
would be required to login, and how Blizzard will send players an in-game
penguin pet when they do merge their WoW login with Battle.net. Presuming this
is accurate, this info was on the EU site, so the plan may be different in the
US, not to mention the deletion of the info may indicate this plan is not
finalized yet. Thanks Mike Martinez via
WOW Vault.
The Direct2
Drive interview on MCV talks with Direct2Drive marketing boss "Clean" Rich
Keen about the state of their digital distribution network. Topics include their
growth, competing with Steam, and
their desire to see a digital sales chart, saying they've had discussions
about this, but one of the big obstacles to this is retailer privacy: "One of
the big negative comments we get when discussing a digital chart with others, is
that retailers don’t want to release their market share. But there’s no need for
that secrecy – it’s a group figure we think people are interesting in, across
all portals, not individual sales data."
Jay Wilson interview Part IV on Diii.net has another four questions from
their discussion of Diablo III at BlizzCon. This installment discusses
skill trees and how they are working on a new customization system to allow
greater diversification of characters.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun- The Steamy Issue Of Digital Distribution.
Of course, if Steam were the only viable digital distribution platform
(let’s say that Valve had patented the system, and no one else could
compete) then this could clearly be an enormous issue. It would be a
monopoly. But of course it’s not – there’s many others from the indie
systems like GoG to IGN’s (and therefore News International’s) Direct2Drive.
There’s GamersGate, Impulse and there’s Metaboli. Major publishers have
their own online distribution services. The question is, how much of this
market does Steam dominate? Is it viable for a developer or publisher to
refuse their game on Steam?
PlayStation University - Electronic Arts No Longer the Evil Empire of
Gaming. Who is?
What really throws me off is that Kotick isn’t even happy the price hike
as is, he’s been quoted as saying “And Tony, you know if it was left to me,
I would raise the prices even further.” Seriously? You’d hike the prices up
even further, diminishing the respect that your user base has for the
company as a whole? Don’t worry – We’re sure that Guitar Hero 12 will recoup
all of those fans lost in the quest for money. Which brings me to my next
point; what ever happened to Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend being published
by Activision? Don’t worry – the answer is simple. Kotick only wants the
company to deliver titles that they can exploit the gamer with through
yearly releases, you know, like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty (though
developed by different teams).
Gamesindustry.biz - Disorderly Queue.
When the uptake of the game is higher than anticipated, companies can
respond to the demand by opening new servers - but this is a blunt,
unfocused tool at best, and in many cases, is utterly useless as a solution.
Players who have already invested time in a character don't want to start
afresh on a new server. More importantly, players who have started the game
with a group of their friends will find it very difficult to move en-masse
to a new server. Instead, you see the spectacle of a game with a cluster of
servers afflicted by huge queues, while new servers sit half-empty.
- Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Dawn on
PC Games.
Bryan Singer Up For Another -X-Men (thanks Ant). Sounds promising, but
that Superman movie was so meh, it's too bad he didn't just skip that to do
X-Men 3 for the betterment of both series.
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