Archived News:
Alpha Protocol is now expected in summer of this year, as SEGA explains to MTV Multiplayer that they have pushed back Obsidian's espionage-themed action/RPG to "give the consumer a very polished game," and bring "the whole quality level up." Alpha Protocol is a repeat offender when it comes to delays: In January 2009 a Q1 2009 release window was announced, but just a couple of months later this was pushed back to October 2009, which was later pinned down to precisely October 6. Precision notwithstanding, in late September retail listings surfaced showing a June 2010 release date for the game, which was later confirmed by SEGA, who said the game was expected in spring of this year. So after all that, Alpha Protocol is expected this summer. For now at least.
As noted in posts such as these on the BioWare Social Network, Giant Bomb, and GameSpot, owners playing the PC edition of Mass Effect 2 on multi-core CPUs (likely most users, since the game's minimum requirements call for a dual core CPU) have experienced long load times going between decks of the Normandy in BioWare's RPG sequel. This can be addressed by setting a system's CPU affinity to use just one core, which of course is going to impede performance elsewhere in the multi-threaded game. Now Playwrite offers a small utility called Mass Affinity to work around this problem, as when it is used to launch the game, it will automatically change a system's CPU affinity back and forth to provide shorter load times between levels while still maintaining maximum performance for gameplay.
There are profiles of the maps in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on Planet Battlefield (thanks Ant) and Bad Company 2.com (thanks Joker961). There's also some new information online that may be a spoiler for the upcoming military shooter sequel so look away if you seek to avoid ruining any surprises (apologies to those who saw this story before it was rewritten to add the spoiler warning). All set? Okay. On a related note, there's an interesting tidbit in the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 listing on the ESRB Website noticed by Connected Consoles that suggests Bad Company 2 will begin with some throwback World War II gameplay for some reason. Word is: "In single-player mode, players conduct missions on an unnamed Japanese island during World War II and then move into the modern day through jungles, deserts, and snowy terrain."
Magazines with articles on Fallout New Vegas are apparently now arriving in the mailboxes of subscribers, offering first details on gameplay from Obsidian's upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG. There's a thread with revelations about the game on the Bethesda Softworks Forums and a summary of what's been revealed on Duck and Cover. Some of the details provided could be considered spoilers, so we won't share too much here for those seeking a pure experience, but a couple of general details of note are that the game will be a first-person action/RPG using the same engine as Fallout 3 set in the Mojave wastelands, you don't play a Vault Dweller, and Vegas didn't get hit by as many nukes, leaving more buildings intact.
There was a Developer Conference Call yesterday for BioShock 2, offering further details on the upcoming first-person shooter sequel, a surprise since it seems the only thing we hadn't learned already is the name of the lunch lady in the early days of Rapture. You can evesdrop on the call itself on Gameflak.com, and original-gamer.com has a summary of what was discussed. There are also a couple of articles on the game on IndustryGamers, excerpted from their Interview with BioShock 2's Creative Director Jordan Thomas: They have word that BioShock on Wii 'Not Out of the Sphere of Possibility' and BioShock 2 Without Ken Levine: Why It Doesn't Matter. Finally there are some new gameplay trailers from BioShock 2 on GameTrailers (thanks Joker961), where they offer the following clips: Rumbler Battle, Big Daddy Combat, Little Sister Gathering, and Red Carpet.
Championship Manager Online is shutting down as of April 30 after five years of providing an online simulation of association football/soccer, reports Computer and Video Games, where they note a Facebook petition has been started to save the game. In a subsequent story they report co-developer Jadestone lays blame for the game's demise on Eidos, saying: "The game, the brand, the internet domain and the subscriptions are all owned by Eidos and the decision to cease the service is entirely theirs to make. The decision was made unilaterally by them, and we are not at liberty to comment on any reasoning."
This Kalypso announcement says (in German) that M.U.D. TV (Mad, Ugly, Dirty Television) is gold, and is scheduled for release in German on February 25. This is a game that puts players in the role of a professional weasel television producer (I can make those jokes, I once was a TV producer myself, and besides, here's part of the game's official description: "All is fair in the TV biz: do whatever it takes to leave your competitors in the dust even if it means a little sabotage here and there!"). They also promise the upcoming releases of an official trailer, a demo, and a character and film editor, but there's no word on when the game is expected in other territories.
The Mod DB announces the winner of the "Players Choice" award in their protracted 2009 Mod of the Year awards. After over 133,000 votes, MechWarrior: Living Legends for Crysis took the top honor. They have the top 10 in the voting as well as a bunch of honorable mentions which lead the way to a number of quality projects.
Joystick Division - Pretension +1: The Gameplay Fallacy. Thanks Joker961.
More than a few gamers believe they can see the Matrix. They'll tell you that gameplay is king and that that the other parts of games, such as plot, character, music and visual design, take a back seat to the mechanics of play. Strip away all this stuff and you'll find the pure game beneath -- one unfettered by art and plot.
And there a million games, everything from Nethack to Tetris, that seem to support this notion. Even bare-bones games can compel.
But I think the notion of gameplay is mirage, or at the very least it is being chased like one.
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II- Chaos Rising on GameSpot.
Super Bowl eve! I'm all a-tingle. I think I'll even risk aggravating my LPRD by making the first batch of my award-winning Texas-style Chili in a long time. It's going to he a hot time in the Blue Tower tonight!
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