Archived News:
Big Download has word to expect Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter in "late April" of this year. They say this is a delay from a planned first quarter release, though the second installment in the shooter revival was announced for "early 2010." They also say Devolver Digital tells them the deathmatch and dedicated server update for Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter should be available "soon," while The Second Encounter will have deathmatch support out of the box.
Activision announced at their post-earnings conference call that Raven's temporal first-person shooter Singularity is due in the second quarter of this year, confirming the delay reflected by changes in January to e-tailer listings for the game (thanks Big Download). This is the game's fourth release date, as it has previously been expected summer 2009, fall 2009, and first quarter of this year.
One last tidbit from Activision's post-earnings conference call is to expect a playable demo for Blur next month. This racing simulation in developer at Bizarre Creations is expected on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, so it's not clear what platform(s) the demo will support (just last month the German ratings website listed a Blur demo for Wii). Thanks VG247.
A post on inCrysis has more about Crysis 2 from the current round of non-English magazine articles about Crytek's upcoming shooter sequel. They have some details from an interview with Cevat Yerli from Finnish magazine Gamereactor along with some new screenshots, as well as a translation of a German interview with Nathan Camarillo. Here's a tidbit from Cevat Yerli: "Compared to Crysis there will be more openness and freedom of choice, larger gameplay areas and more tactical warfare." Thanks SlamDunk.
The Fallen Earth Website announces the release of a new patch to update the post-apocalyptic MMORPG to version 1.3, which is also already available for the Steam version of the game. The new version raises the level cap, adds new missions, craftable items, and weapons. Here's word: "The patch adds a new level of content—raising the level cap from 45 to 46—by introducing a new base camp in the higher level area of Sector Three. The new camp, Deadfall Point, will provide over 50 new missions, a dozen new encounter areas, nine new craftable items, including a slew of weapons and consumables, several irradiated creatures and a new storyline. New instances have also been incorporated, making way for new 'veteran' creatures, which operate similar to bosses and 'hazard' creatures which players will want to avoid."
The official M.U.D. TV Trailer is now online, showing off this game that puts players in control of their own television station, emphasizing the more cutthroat aspects of the game. Here's word on the game, which is due next month: "Are you disappointed by how they started the final season of Lost? Are you ready to burn down the networks corporate offices for cancelling Ugly Betty? While all of those are good reasons to go postal on the network execs in monkey suits, it won’t solve your need for decent programming. You need to take control; you need to be the one making the decisions!" The embedded version of the trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Dark Void Community Website announces the promised release of the official Dark Void soundtrack, composed by Brian Crecente doppelganger Bear McCreary. The soundtrack is for sale through Sumthing Distribution.
Torchlight developer Runic Games is looking to fill a couple of positions at their Seattle, WA studio. They send along help wanted notes for a Level Designer and a 3D Environment Artist. Word is: "Runic Games offers a fun, creative, and rewarding environment with excellent benefits and compensation. We’re in the heart of Downtown Seattle with numerous living, entertainment, and social options a short distance away."
A new patch is now available for the German edition of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, updating GSC Game World's first-person shooter sequel to version 1.6.02. The patch contains fixes that are already present in the more recently released English edition of the game. The patch can be downloaded from FileFront and The Patches Scrolls.
The Supreme Commander 2 Interview on AtomicGamer hears from Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games, who discusses Supreme Commander 2, their upcoming real-time strategy sequel. One answer describes how their experience creating maps for Demigod has influenced the game: "What we did on Demigod totally opened up the map design in ways that we could never have imagined. For years the norm was a big square map, with perhaps some water and rolling hills. Now we have the most incredible maps that just blow the old designs out of the water. We have stuff that is so visually spectacular; we can never go back to the boring old maps. But this doesn’t mean we can’t have big, open area maps or huge maps with big battlefields. The possibilities are endless now."
There's a Gamers4Croydon interview on Games On Net talking with Kat Nicholson and Chris Prior, the candidates from the newly formed Australian political party. They discuss the goal of unseating South Australian attorney general Michael Atkinson over his staunch opposition to an R18+ rating for games in Australia that would allow the sale of mature game titles down under.
G4BOX announces tomorrow they will release a new update for Cross Fire, updating their online military shooter with two new maps, three new weapons, a new Rival Factions story mission, and an all-new "Mutation" game mode. They offer a new Mutation Mode gameplay trailer showing off the new game type along with some screenshots. Here's word on the game's new zombies mutants: "This update marks a whole new chapter in the ongoing conflict between Black List and Global Risk mercenaries, the two factions whose rivalry is at the core of Cross Fire. When a deadly bio-technological weapon begins transforming the masses into deadly Mutants, Black List and Global Risk must team-up to eliminate the threat. What they don’t realize is that Mutants can turn soldiers to the Mutant side with just one swipe of their gigantic claws! Players must work together to fight off Mutants while avoiding being transformed into a Mutant themselves!"
The StarCraft 2 beta test is set to begin later this month, notes IncGamers, as Blizzard President Mike Morhaime announced the plans for beta testing of the RTS sequel during Activision Blizzard's fourth quarter earnings conference call. Also, Big Download notes the game itself will be available for digital distribution through the new Battle.net when it is released in the middle of this year. Of course that conference call followed Activision Blizzard's December Quarter and Calendar Year 2009 Financial Results, with the latest financial reporting for the game development and publishing behemoth, who reported GAAP net revenues of $4.28 billion and non-GAAP net revenues of $4.78 billion for the year which translates to GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.09. For the quarter they report GAAP net revenues of $1.56 billion, non-GAAP net revenues of $2.50 billion, and a GAAP loss per diluted share of $0.23. They also mention a few highlights of the year, including how World of Warcraft has approximately 11.5 million subscribers as of December 31, 2009, and that as of December 31, 2009, Activision Blizzard completed its $1.25 billion authorized stock repurchase program.
Impulse lists the ten bestselling games on their service for the week of January 31-February 6:
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy (Pre-Order)
- Demigod
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment
- Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition
- Star Trek Online
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity
- Majesty Bundle
- GalCiv II - Ultimate Edition
- Mass Effect 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
- Sins of a Solar Empire
The four bonus multiplayer maps that are part of the Survivor and Hunter Editions of Aliens vs Predator will be available for free "soon after release" for all owners of Rebellion's upcoming shooter remake, reports VG247. "Downloadable Content on day one for those who purchase the Special Editions will consist of four brand new multiplayer maps: two new Survivor maps and two for the other multiplayer modes," Rebellion’s head of art and design Tim Jones tells them. "That will become available to everybody else soon after release. As for post-launch DLC, watch this space."
Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer AGEOD announce a March 9 release date for Rise of Prussia, their recently announced military strategy game set during the Seven Years' War. The announcement is accompanied by a batch of new screenshots and a video developer interview where AGEOD game director Philippe Thibaut explains the game's concept, their "simultaneous turn-based" gameplay, drag-and-drop troop movement, and more. The embedded clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Guardian.co.uk has a report on a research study suggesting playing first-person shooters desensitizes young people to violence, based on an experiment where 40 boys were asked to play games for 20 minutes, with half playing a football sim, the other half "a first-person war game." These kids then had their heartbeats monitored as they watched violent news footage, which showed that the boys who played the violent game "retained slower heart rates during the news footage," leading to the conclusion: "Shockingly, just 20 minutes of violent gameplay was enough to densensitise the boys." If this doesn't necessarily sound scientific, take it up with the "Supernanny" who is behind the whole thing, with the assistance of Dr Doug Gentile, a psychologist who apparently doesn't rate the "super" prefix. The Guardian shares our take on all this: "Finally, the underlying statistical nugget that haunts this whole debate: violent video games have been around for 30 years. If just 20 minutes of exposure is enough to turn normal boys into desensitised monsters, our streets should be filled with violence. They're not. Violent crime has plunged during that period. And of the violence that does take place, how much more would be prevented by restrictions in the sale of alcohol rather than of violent games? Police would scoff at the very question." Thanks GamePolitics.
A new update is live in Warrior Epic, updating this subscription-free fantasy action/MMORPG with "a massive amount of new content," including a new team boss, objective PvP, a full tutorial, a new targeting system, and new items for purchase. To kick off the launch, Warrior Epic is now hosting two events giving away "fantastic" prizes. Here's a bit from the announcement: "The new update makes significant improvements to the player experience by introducing a full tutorial that allows a new player to choose from one of the 12 different character classes to begin the game. The Targeting System has been improved to scroll and tab through enemies rather than pointing and clicking. In addition, a brand-new boss fight in Aberas called 'Megafauna' - who is a major challenge to beat even in teams - will drop very powerful, new items." Here are a few new screenshots.
Iceberg Interactive announces Sail Simulator 2010 is gold, and will go on sail sale in the UK and Scandinavian on February 26, with the release of the sailing simulation in Germany, France, and Benelux to follow in March and April. Here are some new screenshots, and here's a bit from the announcement: "Sail Simulator 2010 treats its players to remarkably accurate sailing conditions and techniques as well as astonishingly realistic graphics. The ability to race online against other sailors adds to the realism and excitement of competitive sailing. On top of this Sail Simulator 2010 is also very useful for navigation training with WinGPS. In short, Sail Simulator 2010 simply is a must have for all sailing fanatics."
Beta testing of Avalon Heroes has concluded, and this online RTS/RPG developed by Wemade/Movon is now live. Word is: "Avalon Heroes offers a stunning combination of real-time strategy and role playing with competitive elements, as previously seen in the game modification "DotA". The free-to-play online strategy game already offers plenty of new contents: Six new heroes, a battle mode map, a new chapter in scenario mode for both factions, and two supplementary maps in the adventure mode are provided to real-time strategists and role players at no cost." They have high hopes for this as an esport contender, and the ESL - Avalon Heroes Website is now live.
The 2K Forums have a thread complaining that widescreen support in the PC edition of BioShock 2 does not work properly, as it displays a cropped version of the 4:3 screen, rather than true widescreen depiction of the scene (thanks Gamer's Hell). This is pretty surprising, considering the original BioShock suffered the same problem until a patch came out several months after the game's release. One post by 2K Elizabeth acknowledges the problem, saying it is restricted to the PC edition, while a later post says a fix is on the way: "I am compiling a complete list with a nifty screenshot for you, but in short: Yes, there's a problem, yes, a fix is on the way, yes the view will expand horizontally for you widescreen gamers. I wanted to let you know as soon as I could - so stay tuned for the details."
Also, Shacknews notes a Please bring back 360 Controller/Gamepad Support for BioShock 2 on PC Petition is online, asking for gamepad support, as reflected in this forum thread. However, 2K Elizabeth explains that lack of gamepad support is intentional: "We made quite a number of significant changes to UI / HUD for the PC version of the game. The decision was made early on not to support controllers at all in order to ensure that we got the mouse and keyboard control absolutely right. This of course required a redesign of large parts of the UI and the player HUD. For example, we removed the Weapons and Plasmid Selection Radials in favor of a custom created Weapons Selection Strip which more accurately reflects the keyboard layout." An unofficial gamepad support workaround is available.
There's a Crysis 2 article on PCGames.de recapping a German IRC chat with the website's staff about Crysis 2 after their visit to Crytek to check out the upcoming shooter sequel and the updated version of its game engine. Taking advantage of Google Translate we can see the discussion includes word that an SDK is planned (though they aren't sure it will be delivered alongside the game), how the game is being developed for all three platforms simultaneously, their estimate that the single-player campaign will be 15-20 hours, how most of the game will be placed in New York City, NPC AI, vehicles, and more. They are also asked about multiplayer support, and say Crytek played it coy. Update: This story has been corrected, as it originally stated this was an interview with Crytek thanks to our shortcomings in reading German. Thanks SlamDunk for setting us straight.
City of Heroes/Villains is getting a visual makeover, announces Paragon Studios in an apparent follow up to a recent choice posed to players of the superhero MMORPG combo. Word is the upcoming Issue 17 (Dark Mirror) will include a free "Ultra Mode" graphics upgrade when it's released in April, offering "a new look and feel with a heightened level of detail in lighting, reflections, shadows and water effects. Ultra Mode will be scalable to ensure that all City of Heroes fans can enjoy their favorite comic-inspired game." They also announce various other improvements to gameplay the content update will bring in advance of the upcoming Going Rogue expansion, as well as a preorder incentive for the expansion itself: "Beginning March 2, players who pre-purchase City of Heroes Going Rogue (€19.99 / £17.99) will be given immediate early access to the Dual Pistols power set, and access to the Demon Summoning power set starting in April." Here are some screenshots with a side-by-side comparison between the old and new graphics.
PopCap announces plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of Bejeweled with a 10 month celebration of the casual gaming juggernaut. They announce that over that span Bejeweled has sold more than 50 million units, "making it one of the top ten best-selling video games of all time," and that they continue to sell a copy of Bejeweled every 4.3 seconds. Over the course of this year, PopCap will introduce an all-new way to play Bejeweled Blitz and will conduct various contests and promotions.
NCsoft Q4 net posts more than 11-fold increase has the impressive quarterly results for the South Korean developer/publisher. Word is: "Net profits stood at 71.22 billion won (US$60.77 million) during the three months ended Dec. 30, compared with 6.42 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales almost doubled on year to 197.28 billion won while operating profit also logged more than a six-fold increase with 87.32 billion won, it said."
The weatherman seems to have hit today's storm on the head, as there is a good deal of snow out there, and it's still coming down. MrsBlue is snowed in, and the pooches are loving every second of romping in the snowy backyard, so all is well here, here's hoping all of you caught in this mess are safe and sound as well.
R.I.P.: Capt. Phil Harris of TV's 'Deadliest Catch' dies after stroke. Thanks scorsese.fan.
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