Archived News:
Cliffski’s Blog announces the release of The Order, a new downloadable content pack for Gratuitous Space Battles, the tactical space combat game from PosiTech. Details, screenshots, a gameplay trailer, and instructions on how to order the DLC are all on this page. Here's word on The Order: "The order have three new weapons. Radiation guns, firing radioactive bullets which infect your ship and do damage long after the impact (cue nice green glowy effect), Nuclear Missiles, which are a similar effect in missile form, and limpet mines, which are like remote controlled drones which stick to enemy fighters and drag them, down to speeds where anyone can hit them. They also have faster firing cruiser rockets called ‘firefly’ rockets. In terms of ship bonuses’ they are big on power, low on speed."
The promised patch to fix widescreen views in BioShock 2 is now available, updating 2K Games' underwater shooter sequel to version 1.0.0.2. The patch, which also addresses an issue with the mouse one button in multiplayer play, can be downloaded from Gamer's Hell and WorthPlaying.
A new version of the StarCraft II beta is now available. A bunch of balance changes are included, which are detailed on Voodoo Extreme.
The Dins Curse Patches Page now offers new patches to update the Windows and Mac editions of Soldak Entertainment's upcoming action/RPG to version 0.906. This page has a change list outlining a large number of new features, balance changes, and bug fixes. Beta access is offered to those who preorder the game, which can be done through this page.
A new trailer from Metro 2033 is now available on GameVideos, showing off the "kill or be killed" environment in the upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter that, in fairness, is the doctrine in about every FPS ever made. Also, the Metro 2033 team tweets about how the game will not feature a prerelease demo: "lots of questions about a Metro 2033 demo - there won't be one pre-release, we simply don't have time."
A few new trailers show off multiplayer play from Splinter Cell: Conviction, Ubisoft's upcoming stealth/action sequel. The three clips can be found on Gametrailers, where they have Multi-Player Experience Part I trailer showing "The Prologue," a co-operative storyline which precedes the events in the game, a Multi-Player Experience Part II trailer showing the four co-op modes that comprise the game's "Deniable Ops" feature, and a Multi-Player Experience Part III clip that explains Conviction's "Persistent Elite Creation awards."
A new "Variety" trailer from Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, is now available for Ubisoft's upcoming submarine simulation sequel. True to the title, the clip shows various different elements of interest from the game and details on the user interface. Here's the embedded HD version. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Flowfield Pathfinding Trailer from Supreme Commander 2 demonstrates a new method of group pathfinding being used in Gas Powered Games' upcoming real-time strategy sequel. The clip is narrated by lead designer Chris Taylor, who shows how a new method based on "crown continuum" research conducted by the University of Washington allows groups of units to seamlessly maneuver around each other. On a related note, Chris Taylor speaks to Ars is an Ars Technica interview with the GPG boss-man, who discusses the setting of the sequel compared with the original, new units, new story elements, features like Eyefinity support, as well as his feeling that this game is a return to the feel of the Total Annihilation series. The embedded HD version of the pathfinding trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
A new trailer from Transformers: War for Cybertron reveals gameplay from the upcoming action game prequel for the first time. The clip is accompanied by a batch of new screenshots as well as this gameplay description: "Transformers: War for Cybertron features two distinct storylines: the AUTOBOT campaign tells a story of heroism to save their home planet against overwhelming odds, and the DECEPTICON campaign tells a story of an unquenchable thirst for power to control the universe. For the first time in a TRANSFORMERS title, fans will be able to play the game with their friends through team-based online co-op, or go head to head in a variety of intense, online multiplayer game modes. The game features a sci-fi art style that introduces to fans the entire living, metallic world of CYBERTRON, as well as all-new visualizations of the iconic TRANSFORMERS characters in their original Cybertronian forms." We tried to post this to our own YouTube channel, but it seems any videos there for Transformers get instantly lawyered up by Viacom, a strange situation we are trying (without success) to sort out.
A demo version of the Escape from Enemy Mountain modification for DOOM 3 is now available. Here's how the mod is described: "Escape from Enemy Mountain takes place in a hellish outpost. You have been captured and locked in the prison cells inside Enemy Mountain, and you must escape to the main governmental headquarters, from which you can take a spaceship back to civilisation." The demo includes one level, but word is it should be replayable, "because it is quite large, and the random monster/item placement is 100% implemented and working. No two playthroughs will be the same." Thanks Ant via Planet Doom.
A new version of ScoreDoom is now available, offering what's called the "final" release of this mod that adds a new scoring system to the original DOOM. ScoreDoom also features gameplay enhancement such as alt-fire modes for some weapons, new monsters, and new power-ups. Thanks Ant via Planet Doom.
IndustryGamers - Japanese RPGs Are Dead.
Games are nothing without their interactive mechanics, and the JRPG genre has suffered from its own stagnation. JRPGs where combat was turn-based with enemies standing in a row and players in another row was perfectly acceptable when that's all the computing power of the time period could handle, but now it seems like tradition merely for tradition's sake or (even worse) simple laziness. Despite spanning four DVDs, Hironobu Sakaguchi's (creator of Final Fantasy) Lost Odyssey's basic combat did little to evolve beyond the turn-based combat of its JPRG predecessors and just seems stale and laborious compared to something like Mass Effect 2's dynamic, real-time combat.
Well the snow finally stopped here (the final tally for our area was 25") and the cable modem is cranking along again, so things are pretty much back to normal here at the BlueTower. Even were they not, it would be hard to gripe on a morning when all the news is about an 8.8 earthquake, which makes dealing with some harsh weather seem quite trivial. Here's thinking of the victims in Chile and wishing Godspeed to rescue crews.
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