Archived News:
A post to the Croteam Website has details on the upcoming deathmatch update for Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, their first-person shooter remake. The post, by Croteam's Alen Ladavac, reveals the upcoming update will not only add deathmatch mode, but also seven deathmatch maps (including remakes of their most popular maps from previous games), as well as spectator mode, map rotation, viewing server details from the server browser, improved text chat, and detailed logging of chat messages, kills, and player joining (in a parser-friendly format, so custom stat trackers can be created). Thanks Seriously.
The Game Developers Conference announces their just-concluded 2010 show had a record 18,250 attendees, surpassing the 17,000 industry professionals who attended last year's show. They also announce that GDC 2011 will return to the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco from February 28-March 4, 2011. They say a call for lecture submissions will open this summer.
A post to the Elemental: War of Magic Website by Stardock's Brad Wardell announces that the Impulse::Reactor is now in beta testing, offering five reasons to justify the claim that this set of development tools is "revolutionary." There are some screenshots and a trailer illustrating the points, and word is: "The only string attached is that the game has to be available non-exclusively on Impulse at the same time as it is available elsewhere. The BETA for Impulse::Reactor began today with key internal partners with its general availability this Summer."
Matrix Games announces that Field of Glory – Rise of Rome is now available, offering an expansion to the historical strategy gaming in the original Field of Glory, which is required to play the expansion. Word is: Field of Glory – Rise of Rome is the first expansion pack for Field of Glory, bringing tons of new content and features in addition to a comprehensive Digital Army Generator (DAG). The DAG allows you to design armies to a specific number of points and then take these armies in to single player against the AI or online in multiplayer. Making its first ever appearance on a Slitherine title, the DAG is a powerful tool for any wargames addict! If the ability to create one’s own finely tuned army isn’t enough, Rise of Rome also includes 5 new terrain types, 6 new battles, a random battle generator, and over 100 new units including camelry, scythed chariots and artillery!
New patches are now available to update Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion to version 1.24e. The myriad language editions of The Reign of Chaos patch are available from Blizzard Support and mirrors of one or more patches can be found on AtomicGamer, FileFront, Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls. The Frozen Throne patches are available from Blizzard Support and one or more are mirrored on AtomicGamer, FileFront, Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls.
Steam News announces Metro 2033 is now available in certain territories, beginning the worldwide launch for the post-apocalyptic shooter. The game is now available in Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, and India.
A new Transformers: War for Cybertron "Behind the Scenes" Trailer features developer commentary from High Moon Studios about the upcoming game that will tell the preview story for the Autobots and the Decepticons. The trailer, which includes cinematic and gameplay footage, is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight "Kane" Trailer features Joe "Kane" Kucan, who discusses being Kane, and the cain he gets to raise as the antagonist for the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy games. The clip is mostly live action, though it includes some gameplay footage. Here's an embedded version of the clip. Continue here to read the full story.
2K Games and Gearbox Software announce plans for Borderlands Double Game Add-On Pack, the retail DLC box for Borderlands, Gearbox's role-playing shooter. The plan for this is different from what was revealed earlier this month, as it will contain the first two DLC releases, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, but not the third DLC, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, which will continue to only be available via download. The Borderlands Double Game Add-On Pack will be available for $19.99 USD for Xbox 360 and PC on April 6, 2010 in North America and April 9, 2010 internationally.
Bethesda Softworks announces they will publish Hunted: The Demon's Forge, a third-person co-op fantasy/action game being developed at Brian Fargo's inXile Entertainment for Games for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The announcement doesn't offer much detail about the game, which doesn't yet carry a release date, but this Fact Sheet has a bit about the project, which they are calling a "Dark Fantasy Shooter" that offers a choice of mêlée as well as ranged combat. Here are some screenshots, and there are previews of the game on Ars Technica and Computer and Video Games after they got to see it behind closed doors at the GDC.
There's a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Q&A on the Battlefield Blog with answers to some questions relevant to players of DICE's military shooter sequel. Topics include manual PunkBuster installation, server browser bugs, and more. Along the way they repeat that they "currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections," and say the report that 360 accounts will be reset this weekend is a rumor. They say there is currently no solution for a problem of missing stats, pointing to this forum post with discussion of that, also saying a fix for when clicking on a server gets no response is on the way: "This is fixed in a patch going out on PC today."
A new patch is now available for FIFA Manager 10 to update the association football/soccer simulation to version 2.0.0.6. The new version includes a full database update, 56 new XXL player pictures, 227 new standard player pictures, 142 other new pictures, a Live Ticker update, some bug fixes, and more. The patch is available from AtomicGamer, FanGaming, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying.
Hi-Rez Studios announces that the second patch for Global Agenda will be released tomorrow to update the MMO-ish shooter to version 1.2. This page has an overview of the new version, including the addition of the 4v4 Arena Queue, Theft Missions, trading and abandoning territories, tax changes, map adjustments, and more. There are details and screenshots in this forum post about the patch on the test server, where they also have information on the version 1.3 patch to follow.
Eurogamer quotes Ubisoft's Maxime Béland saying it is "too early to even think about DLC" for Splinter Cell: Conviction, their upcoming action/stealth sequel. He made the comments as they previewed the game, telling them "Once the game has shipped, we will shift our focus towards DLC content." He also comments on stated plans to release future installments in the series with greater frequency: "I think it's a great thing, for you and for us," he told them, "as long as we keep focusing on making great experiences with high quality production values."
NVIDIA announces 3DTV Play, an initiative with Panasonic to take 3D technology on the road, showing how to bring 3D to the living room via NVIDIA hardware. This is how they are getting in on the ground floor of the home 3D revolution that Hollywood and others are convinced is upon us. Word is: "3DTV Play software lets you connect any compatible NVIDIA GeForce GPU-powered PC or notebook to 3D TVs for the ultimate, high-definition, big-screen, 3D entertainment experience. By leveraging the processing power of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs, 3DTV Play software delivers the best the PC has to offer: play hundreds of standard PC games in stunning 3D environments such as World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and James Cameron's Avatar™: The Game. You can also watch upcoming Blu-ray 3D™ Hollywood blockbusters, view digital 3D photographs, and even watch streaming 3D movies for the ultimate viewing party. The active-shutter glasses bundled with each VIERA full HD 3D TV sold work seamlessly with NVIDIA GPUs and off-the-shelf PC gaming titles and other 3D entertainment content."
The Kingdoms Collide Website now offers a public beta for Kingdoms Collide, a fantasy-themed multiplayer modification for Half-Life 2. There are a couple of trailers showing off the mod, and here's word from the description: "Kingdoms Collide offers originality and innovation in gameplay and style. The core concept behind the project was to firstly make a game where the player took on a highly customizable character viewed from third person, but, differently to all current games of this style, we wanted to have balanced and highly skillful combat action that would work in online multiplayer." Thanks Ant.
There's a recap on Shacknews of "Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies," which was Rob Pardo's Game Developers Conference 2010 presentation. In his talk, Pardo looks at things they've done right and wrong over the years in game design. For example, he discusses the failure of the Diablo II economy, citing the economy in World of Warcraft as a success in comparison. Another case in point is made about hero units, describing the disappointment in how they are implemented in StarCraft, and how this was improved upon in Warcraft III.
Watching the Watchers - The Esquire Gamer Never Shoots for the Face.
This is the kind of commentary that you get when you put an old-media critic on the spot and ask him something about video games. Given the importance of video games for… well… masculinity, I can see that Esquire magazine (Marche’s employer) would like someone in those pages to write something smart about them. Yet the rest of Marche’s writing on culture is mostly about movies and TV, and it shows. He writes about video games as someone who doesn’t seem to know a thing about them. (The first protest game? Come on!) And he writes a commentary on a particular game (MW2) without spending enough time with it to know that he sounds foolish. Would a television critic write about a TV show without watching it? Yet that’s the state of the art in high-culture game commentary.
Beware the Ides of March! That should include being wary of the rain today, as this has actually caused school closures around these parts, which I can't recall ever happening before. The internet also seems to be impacted by the ides, as the connection here in the BlueTower seems flaky today (with the rain this may be the tides rather than the ides: I'll have to check with my soothsayer).
We now have a Feeds & Services page with a work-in-progress listing of the various news feeds and other services offered here. This is further testimony to the work Frans has been doing to spiff things up.
R.I.P.: 'Mission- Impossible' star Peter Graves dies in LA. Thanks Ant. Spoiler warning (for Stalag 17). "That's Clarence Oveur. Over."
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