Archived News:
There will be no playable demo for Assassins Creed II, reports Connected Consoles from the EuroGamer Expo, saying they were informed of this by a Ubisoft representative. No reason is offered, but there was no playable demo for the original Assassins Creed either, as Ubisoft explained the game's sandbox nature made it difficult to scale down for a demo, and presumably the same considerations apply to the stealth action game's sequel. Thanks Kotaku via Game Stooge.
The Arcen Games Forums reveal plans for The Zenith Remnant, the first expansion for AI War, their science-fiction RTS game. They are currently offering alpha-testing access to the prerelease with the public getting access to a trial version, while those who preorder can test the whole shebang (thanks The Patches Scrolls). Here's word on content: In a broad sense, here's what will definitely be in the expansion:
* 80 to 100 new ships, including:
* At least 12 new ship classes with a variety of abilities.
* At least 6 massive "Golem" ships.
* At least 5 new "capturables" other than Golems.
* Several new ships for allowing players expanded ways to control fleets.
* At least 4 new map styles.
* At least 12 new AI Types.
* A new, neutral minor faction in the galaxy: the Zenith Aliens (NPCs).
* 30-40 minutes of new in-game music tracks.
* At least two universal new AI ship subsystems (like Astro Trains).
A Tweet from Cliff "Cliffski" Harris indicates the completion of development on Gratuitous Space Battles approaches. Word is: "testing the final release build of Gratuitous Space Battles."
The Battlefield Blog warns against falling for any fake sign-up sites for the Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta: "We do not have any form of beta sign-ups, nor would we ever endorse such a practice or shady url to do so. Please do not let these e-tards take advantage of your enthusiasm for BFBC2 in their scam and only give them the middle-finger if anything. So, unless you read it here or from our official Twitter page it isn't real."
Kalypso Media Community Manager Timo Thomas tweets that a Tropico 3 patch is imminent. Here it is in the Twitterized short and sweet fashion: "Tropico 3 patch is just around the corner. Just a bit more testing ..."
The next unofficial patch for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines will offer "the biggest content restoration in one go ever," as hard as that is to imagine after so many of these patches over the years. This seems worth noting since folks might be picking up the game since it's on sale at Direct2Drive for under five bucks. Word is: "Acleacius, please don't start playing 6.5 because 6.6 will be released soon and this one has the biggest content restoration in one go ever, so I really need to get some good feedback!" Thanks, yes, Acleacius.
Infinity Ward has pulled the "Fight Against Grenade Spam PSA" they had posted to the YouTube for Modern Warfare 2. Robert Bowling attempted to deflect controversy over the childish "F.A.G.S." joke at first by tweeting: "I think it was more of a social commentary joke of that stereotype than it was a fist-bump of acceptance to it." But later he Tweeted a partial change of heart: "I agree. I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled."
Left 4 Dead Mods announces the release of the Dead Before Dawn modification for Left 4 Dead that brings gameplay inspired by the Crossroads Mall in Dawn of the Dead to Valve's Zombie shooter. They offer the mod by bit torrent and have a download mirror listed, but it may be difficult to get through to the site at the moment. Thanks fearless.
The Skulltag Forums announce the release of a new version 98A of Skulltag, the Windows and Linux multiplayer shooter built on id Software's DOOM engine. The new version includes the ZDoom updates made over the past couple of years, along with new features and new maps. Thanks Ant via LinuxGames.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A on GameSpot offers answers from BioWare's Dallas Dickinson about the Jedi Knight class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming Force-powered MMORPG. Here's a bit: "At its core, the Jedi knight is about getting into battle as quickly as possible, dominating the fight and protecting allies. Players who enjoy fast melee combat will identify with this class--there's no passive auto-attack combat here. The Jedi knight has a smorgasbord of lightsaber abilities to choose from as the situation dictates and must continue to evaluate the battle to see whether he should strike hard at one or two targets or swing widely to keep a whole cluster of enemies at bay. Sometimes it's more advantageous to simply push them all back with the Force, take a second to breathe, and then leap back into the fray with both lightsabers drawn. Players who enjoy that kind of tactical decision making in combat will find a lot to like in the Jedi knight."
The change I hinted about recently has come to pass, and as of today we are no longer part of the UGO network. Some of you may have noticed there are no ads here today, while many of you are finding things no different, as you have taken to blocking ads here due to the preponderance of pop-ups and takeovers. Ads will return tomorrow or the next day, but without the types of disruptive ads we've seen in the past, and they will not return unless there is no way to keep the site online without them. More about this going forward.
Other stuff: More kudos to Frans who helped make this transition go smoothly. To those who wanted pics of the doggies in their minimalist costumes, I will try and get one up soon, in the meantime, here are a couple of shots of Bellevue's TF2 Engineer and Sentry getup. Also, today is the first day back on Standard Time here in the US, but there probably aren't too many who need reminding of that with so many clocks on cable boxes, computers, and cell phones able to update automatically.
Finally, happy birthday mom. I still miss you.
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