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Archived News:
There's an
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Interview on Eurogamer chatting
with Sion Lenton about Codemasters' military shooter. As they
point out separately, along the way they learn that the first DLC for the
game is due by the end of this month, along with a patch that will include
network optimizations. "Our intention is to align [the patch] with the first DLC
pack that's coming out as well, which is due around the end of October.
Hopefully we'll do the whole thing in one," Lenton tells them. He also says that
they have plans for more DLC after that, but they want to see what players want
first. "It's quite open-ended, it's not a lot of fuss for us to make new content
- it's actually quite easy for us to get it out there, with regards to things
like levels, game modes, etc," Lenton explains. "The other thing we actually
like to look at is getting some new equipment in there as well."
Rebellion
announces DirectX 11 support for Aliens vs. Predator, their upcoming
sci-fi first-person shooter "DirectX 11 provides opportunities never exploited
before in 3D graphical terms, with features such as the Shader Model 5.0
providing better shadow and depth of field aspects to the game, and also
multi-threaded rendering enabling the Aliens Vs. Predator futuristic characters
and environments to be realised in exacting detail but with absolutely no frame
rate issues," says Rebellion CTO Chris Kingsley. "We are confident we will
deliver a game the fans have been waiting for and one of which we will be very
proud."
The Sid Meier's Civilization
Network Facebook Page announces plans to launch Civilization Network
in 2010 on Facebook, offering a social network enabled installment the
turn-based strategy series (thanks
Gamasutra).
Word is: Hello Civ Fans!
I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us
develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished
Civilization® Revolution™ last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the
Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to
take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project
Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on
Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends
to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest
civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your
technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form
your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to
maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your
friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything
you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you
like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.
We’ll offer a closed beta of the game soon, so stay tuned for details on how you
can sign-up to participate. The full game will launch in 2010. For more
information about Civilization Network, including development updates and
behind-the-scenes posts from me and the Firaxis team, join our Facebook fanpage
here.
Thanks and Stay Civilized!
Sid Meier
Director of Creative Development
Firaxis Games
Listening
with Both Ears on the BioWare Blog has an in-house Q&A about
Dragon Age: Journeys, the flash
tie-in with Dragon Age: Origins BioWare's upcoming RPG. One answer
explains how Journey will allow you to earn in-game items for Origins:
This is one of the things I am most excited about, and I’m pretty sure
that you will be too. By completing certain accomplishments in Journeys, you can
unlock 3 items for use when you purchase a copy of Dragon Age: Origins for the
PC, Xbox 360 or PS3. By playing DAJ while signed in with your EA account, these
items will automatically be added to your inventory in DA:O when you sign in
with that same account. These entitlements work across all three
platforms.
Law firm
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins announces a
class action lawsuit
against The9 filed in the Southern District of New York over their operation
of World of Warcraft in China. Word is: The complaint alleges
that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made numerous positive statements
regarding the Company’s financial condition, business and prospects. The
complaint further alleges that these statements were inaccurate statements of
material fact when made because defendants failed to disclose that: (i) it was
becoming increasingly less likely that the Company would be renewing the WoW
contract with Blizzard; (ii) The9 had not even begun formal negotiations with
Blizzard regarding the contract renewal; (iii) The9 and Blizzard had been at
odds regarding The9’s operation of WoW in China; and (iv) the equity investment
by EA in The9 had made it less likely that Blizzard would renew the WoW contract
because Blizzard would essentially be doing business with one of its greatest
competitors.
GameStop May Make Strategic Investment or Acquisition to Accelerate Digital
Aggregation Plans on IndustryGamers outlines the game retailer's aspirations
to remain relevant as the industry shifts toward digital distribution. They
report on a GameStop-hosted analyst meeting where the retailer discussed three
points of its digital aggregation plans: "1) increase in-store sales of online
point cards; 2) expand the company’s digital distribution platform for PC and
casual games (digital revenues doubled Y/Y); and 3) make a strategic investment
or acquire an aggregator of online games."
Global Agenda: Conquest and
Pricing Options Q&A on Ten Ton Hammer chats with Todd Harris of Hi-Rez
Studios about the recently unveiled pricing details for Global
Agenda. Here's a bit that clarifies what non-subscribers will get out of the
MMOTPS: "That's definitely true, and in general we tried to make the
non-Conquest game much more than just a gimped version of a full MMO. It wasn't
like we said, 'Here's a full MMO, let's take away some stuff and make it a
teaser.' We wanted it to allow people to pay their $49.99 and they get a very
full experience that compares favorably. For one, subscribers and
non-subscribers are all in the same world. The non-subscribers can't participate
in AvA territories but as far as seeing each other in pick-up groups, teaming up
for pick-up matches - PvE or PvP, seeing each other on agent search
functionality, all that sort of stuff, they're in the same virtual universe."
There's an
Interview with Cliff Harris on The Examiner talking with the owner of
Positech Studios about the game business, life as an independent developer, and
Positch's upcoming Gratuitous Space Battles, as the developer also known
as Cliffski explains what makes it different: "It different because it is a
strategy game, whereas all space RTS games are tactical games. In all those
games you play this weird fictional role which can never exist, because you are
effectively multi-tasking as space captain of a dozen different ships. That
makes no sense. GSB makes you the admiral, and accepts right away that in the
heat of battle, you have pretty much no control over how things work out. It's a
game where you design the fleet and setup the orders, but you then have to trust
the real-time decisions to the AI. That gives it a totally different emphasis to
other strategy war games."
The Saboteur Website
now features a new trailer from The Saboteur, showing off some stealthy
and not-so-stealthy gameplay from the upcoming World War II action game. The
clip concludes without a PC-DVD logo, and the page only contains box art for the
console versions, but we contacted EA and were reassured that the game is still
heading for the PC as well, something that has also been confirmed in
a Pandemic
Tweet. Pandemic has also released a new
batch of The
Saboteur screenshots.
They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together
ooky, The Addams Family. Their house is a museum, when people come to see 'em.
They really are a scree-um, The Addams Family. Neat. Sweet. Petite. So get a
witch's shawl on, a broomstick you can crawl on. We're gonna pay a call on The
Addams Family.
R.I.P.:
Vic Mizzy, composer of Addams Family theme song, has died. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Eufloria, the strategy game formerly known as Dyson, is now available via
digital distribution on
Direct2Drive and Steam.
Steam offers the following concise description of the game: "Eufloria is an
ambient game of space exploration and conquest that employs surprising themes of
plant growth and bio mechanical evolution." A playable Eufloria demo is also
available, this can be found on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
A Steam update now offers
the Steam edition of the version 1.3 Race Driver GRID patch
released last week. We also see the
Direct2Drive Patches Page
added their edition of this patch last week. Also on
Steam is their version of
the Championship Manager 2010 October updated that came out
last week.
IncGamers describes some new functionality added to the World of Warcraft
mice offered by SteelSeries in
the recent version 3.2.2 patch for Blizzard's MMORPG. The game now recognizes
each of the 15 buttons on the mouse, and allows different key-bindings for each
of your toons. They also say the mouse no longer needs added software or
drivers, and that responsiveness has improved.
EA announces that
their Need for Speed franchise has now sold more than 100 million
copies over the years. The series has included 15 titles released in 22
languages in over 60 countries. "Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M
units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for
driving us to this milestone," says Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games Label.
"With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for
Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed
racing experiences."
A new Fort Zombie trailer sets the stage for Kerberos Productions'
upcoming "lite" action/RPG. The clip, available on the
YouTube, does
not actually feature any gameplay, or moving images for that matter, it is
camera pans and pushes on still shots (Ken Burns style), with a voiceover
covering the game's back-story. Thanks Bob.
The
Australian Classification Board offers a rating for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Predator, revealing the title
of the next installment in the Ghost Recon series of tactical shooters. There's no other information about the game, except
we see it is rated MA15+ in Australia for "strong violence." Thanks
Destructoid.
A playable demo for Painkiller: Resurrection is now available, offering
the chance to sample the latest installment in this supernatural shooter series.
Here's a bit on the game: "This new installment introduces a new
Coop-Multiplayer campaign mode, new levels, new monsters and a whole new story.
The demo offers a mere taste of the raw Painkiller action, check out improved
shadows and texture resolution, moveable light sources, post processing, motion
blur, ambient occlusion and all the carnage you can handle!" The download is
available on AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro, eXp
Download,
FanGaming,
FileFornt, and
Gamer's Hell. Update: The demo is an .iso that needs to be mounted or
burned to a CD, in case that effects your decision to try this. Update II:
The JoWooD
Forum has word that they accidentally released the wrong demo, an error they
will redress next week: "We are very happy about the feedback concerning the
demo but we are also sorry because we accidently released an old demo version.
We really feel sorry for that. Next week we will release a demo version in the
actual quality of the final game. So stay tuned and sorry for the
inconvenience." Thanks Ant and Eggtooth.
Tripwire
Interactive announces that preloads of Killing Floor are underway
through Steam in advance
of the free-play weekend for Tripwire Interactive's zombie shooter that gets
underway tomorrow. They describe the new content being added to the game, which
is previewed on IGN,
and say the game will be on sale for 25% off over the weekend: "The Free Weekend
will run from Thursday 22nd through Sunday 25th October and will allow anyone to
play the full game, including all the additional free content, all weekend. This
includes the latest “Level Up” content pack and the Defence Alliance mod, both
being released on Thursday. It also includes a 25% discount on buying Killing
Floor over Steam for the duration of the weekend."
The Games Company announces I'm not Alone, a PC survival/horror game
planned for release in the first quarter of next year. Here are
some
screenshots, and here's the announcement: Berlin, October 10th, 2009.
With their brand new survival horror action adventure I’m not Alone, TGC – The
Games Company guarantee to send cold shivers down the spines of players all
around the world. The gloomy genre highlight, developed by the Italian studio
Pix Rev, impresses with innovative gameplay elements, locations full of
atmosphere and perfectly staged shock moments. TGC releases I’m not Alone for PC
worldwide in the first quarter of 2010.
In the role of a bold exorcist the player travels to the Austrian mountains to
free an old mansion house from the grips of a supernatural power. On location he
has to face sheer horror. Disfigured demons have risen from the underworld and
spread fear and terror. Now it is the task of the player to put an end to the
sinister occurrences. His special skills as a psychic medium enable him to
change between reality and demon world in order to take up the challenge and
fight the creatures of hell. With a quick trigger finger and a sharp mind the
player explores the eerie mansion and reveals a dreadful secret …
„I am very glad that we have been able to secure the worldwide marketing rights
for I’m not Alone and expand our portfolio with a high-quality action adventure
for the first time”, comments Christian Sauerteig, director marketing & sales at
TGC. “With I’m not Alone we would like to offer a tense horror experience in one
of the world´s most popular genres.“
Matrix Games announces the release of Smugglers IV - Doomsday, a
sci-fi turn-based strategy sequel from
Niels Bauer Games. Here's a quick rundown on the game: "Smugglers IV -
Doomsday is a fun and challenging turn-based space-trading game where you take
command of an advanced space ship amidst a galaxy torn by war and crime! With
your ship and skilled crew you can choose to be a greedy trader, ambitious
bounty hunter, ruthless pirate, or one of the other professions in your quest
for riches, fame, and power!"
Subscription-free MMORPG
RuneScape announces the latest update to the game, describing the
Duel Tournaments Rework
that changes some of the mechanics of this mode, and adds a consolation prize
for those who place second in tourneys.
Kotaku Australia reports that Transmission Games has closed down, following
recent reports of layoffs at the developer of Heroes of the
Pacific, Heroes Over Europe, and Ashes Cricket 2009. They say
they've received reports that an administrator has been appointed and the
company is now in liquidation, but this has not been officially confirmed.
The PlayClaw Website announces their
screen grab utility now supports making videos in DirectX 10 games. Here's the
deal: "The video recorder has been designed in close collaboration with real
gamers whose practical feedback manifests itself in its ease of use and
gamer-oriented feature set. After installation, the player only needs to set
hotkeys to start, pause, stop video recording and choose the output folder.
Video recording can be started with a single touch of a button at any moment
during the game play, paused and then resumed, letting the gamer record only the
most exciting scenes. The captured video can then be played in any media player,
or uploaded to a website like YouTube to show interesting exploits to other
gamers, or just to share the excitement of the game."
Gold Buying
on the WoW Support Website has Blizzard's take on gold buying, explaining
how it impacts all players (thanks Ant). Here's a bit: We regularly
track the source of the gold these companies sell, and find that an alarmingly
high amount comes from hacked accounts. These are the friends, relatives, and
guildmates you may know who have gone through the experience of having
characters, gold, and items stripped from them after visiting a website or
opening a file containing a trojan virus. Our teams work to educate players and
assist them in avoiding account compromise, but the fact remains that the
players themselves are often these companies' largest target as a source for
gold, which the companies then turn around and sell to other players.
HIVE DIVISION offers the
impressive first installment in
Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy, a fan-created live action movie (thanks
Dr. D. and
PC Games). The clip runs 70 minutes and is the first in a series of three planned
clips.
Thanks Rhialto for all the Machinarium links:
- Blood Bowl on
games
xtreme.
- Borderlands on
Ars Technica.
- Machinarium on
Adventure Gamers,
Digital Spy,
Edge Online,
Endsights,
Eurogamer,
Gamer Limit, IGN,
IndieGames,
Platform Nation,
Resolution Magazine, and
Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
- Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising on
Eurogamer and
GameShark.
- Order of War on
Game Over
Online.
- Risen on
Actiontrip.
- Tropico 3 on
AtomicGamer and
GameSpy.
My throat thing is progressing, my voice is now almost as deep and raspy as
Kathleen Turner's. Ack, I just gave myself a Californication flashback
(shudder).
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