Archived News:
EA tweets that the EA Battlefield Bad Company 2 master server status is now listed on the front page of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Website. For the record, all servers are running as of this writing.
The World of Warcraft Vault has a collection of Blizzard forum posts outlining known issues with World of Warcraft following the just released version 3.3.3 patch for Blizzard's MMORPG. Word is fixes for a couple of issues are in the works, including: "We're currently working on a fix to limit the buff on pets to just inside Icecrown Citadel. Enjoy the buff while it lasts!" Thanks Ant.
Eurogamer has word from Sports Interactive that Football Manager Live hasn't been "hugely profitable" since the launch late last year of the online association football/soccer simulation. The game is in the black, however, and has just been "rebooted" to give "a firm platform to take the game forward." Word is: "Today's reboot addresses three key areas: gameplay, price, operation. Change highlights include perpetually reincarnated players, a low £4.99 a month subscription with no upfront fee and more densely populated servers. The offshoot, however, is that all servers have been reset."
Ars Technica has some statements from Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, the President of Razer, who responds to recent comments by Kim Rom, CMO of SteelSeries, who made the claim that DPI does not matter in gaming mice. Razerguy explains why ultra-high DPI settings are useful for some gamers.
The Games for Windows LIVE Website has word that the Windows edition of Game Room is now available. They offer a list of the first wave of games for the throwback gaming sub-platform, including arcade games, Intellivision games, and Atari 2600 games.
A post to the Champions Online Forums by Cryptic's Jack Emmert indicates that plans for an Xbox 360 edition of Champions Online are no longer being pursued: "100% of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be. There are no current plans for a console version of Champions." Thanks VG247.
Claptrap at the AIAS (ep. 3) is a new trailer starring mechanized Borderlands mascot Claptrap, who makes the case for why his performance in the role-playing shooter was worthy of recognition at the AIAS interactive achievement awards. No robots were harmed in the making of this trailer.
Steam News announces the release of a new automatic update for Order of War: Challenge, the World War II real-time strategy game from Wargaming.net. The new version includes graphics improvements, interface tweaks, and bug fixes, while also introducing support for NVIDIA 3D Vision. According to Wargaming.net: "With NVidia 3D Vision technology every battle in Order of War: Challenge turns into a striking stereoscopic 3D performance filled with myriads of colorful details and astonishing visual effects allowing the player to enjoy strategy gaming from a new perspective." An updated version of the Order of War: Challenge Demo is also now available.
A post on NeoGAF shows a Spanish magazine page with some art seeming to promote F.3.A.R., which appears to be the 'leet-ified title of the third installment in Monolith's overly punctuated F.E.A.R. series of horror-themed first-person shooters. The accompanying text translates to "next issue," so presumably more light will be shed on this soon. Thanks Kotaku.
The ATI Graphics Drivers Page is where to find the new version 10.3 Catalyst reference drivers for ATI accelerators. The new drivers boast numerous performance games in various games, and the complete list of those follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Jason Bourne tie-in game is the Starbreeze game revealed yesterday to have been cancelled, reports the Los Angeles Times (thanks MCV). According to a source close to the Ludlum estate, a partnership between the late author's estate and EA remains in effect, but an EA spokesperson confirmed that there are currently no Ludlum-related games in the works. A subsequent follow-up adds another quote from EA: "EA and the Ludlum Estate are still discussing making a game based on the Bourne franchise." Starbreeze says they continue to develop one title for EA, which is believed to be a remake of Bullfrog's Syndicate.
A tweet by EA's Jeff Green relates his own experience with problems with the DRM in EA's own Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight which were severe enough that he thinks something needs to change (this was posted a few days ago, noticed by Ars Technica). He starts by tweeting: "Booted twice--and progress lost--on my single-player C&C4 game because my DSL connection blinked. DRM fail. We need new solutions," and: "Welp. I've tried to be open-minded. But my 'net connection is finicky--and the constant disruption of my C&C4 SP game makes this unplayable." He added: "Yeah, Steam's ability to have off-line play is the clear, better model when talking about SP games," and then added a couple of comments to temper his reaction, saying "However, C&C4 experiments w/what a 'single-player game' is--given it's constantly uploading progress/stats for unlocks. It's complicated," and: "I think if we think of C&C4 as an 'online-only' game--which it basically is--then maybe we'd adjust our expectations accordingly."
The Witcher Website now offers the official announcement of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the RPG sequel in the works at CD Projekt RED that has not been much of a secret prior to the announcement. The game does not yet have a release date, but they say more revelations are coming soon, as the game is being unveiled at the CD Projekt Spring 2010 conference, which is being webcast on this page, though it seems a working understanding of the Polish language would help there. They also link to previews and the debut trailer on this page, and they say the brand new official website will be launched on April 7. Update: It has also been announced that Atari will publish the game in North America.
The long-promised new patches are now available for Diablo II to update Blizzard's action/RPG to version 1.13c. Blizzard Support has links to download the Windows and Mac patches to update the original version of the game as well as patches for each edition of the Lord of Destruction expansion, adding: "The best way to obtain the patch is by connecting to Battle.net through the game. If you are having trouble connecting to Battle.net, please check the support site here." That said, the manual PC Diablo II patch is mirrored on ActionTrip, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying and the Lord of Destruction patch is mirrored on ActionTrip, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. Also, the promised ladder reset has taken place. Word is: "With the release of 1.13 the Diablo II ladder has been reset and all previous ladder characters are now normal non-ladder characters. To participate in the new ladder you'll need to create a new character and ensure the "Ladder Character" option is checked. For more information on ladder characters visit the Arreat Summit Realm Character Types page."
Gamasutra - Doing It For The Kids - On UK TV's Latest Games Panic. Thanks Joker961.
This isn't the first time that ITV, the channel on which The Alan Titchmarsh Show occupies a regular late-afternoon slot, has demonstrated a notable bias against the medium. Last year, the station broadcast a documentary about video game addiction. In the half hour programme, a single games industry representative was allowed just a few seconds of air time in which to counter various extreme claims: that games have been proven to be addictive; that this addiction leads to depression and, in one case, suicide; that this can somehow be linked with the terrible murder of a Counter-Strike player in 2002.
Strategy Informer - The Evolution and Contestation Of The Strategy Genre.
This new design was first seen in the Dawn of War and Company of Hero titles. In the case of Company of Heroes, you would have units that could level up if they stayed alive and it was about successfully using a few squads to win a match. Since the initial success of this formula more and more titles began to emulate, leaving behind the tried and true method that had launched the genre into the hearts of gamers. There was even a shift in culture perspective, games that remained true to the resource gathering gameplay were now labelled as using an older mechanic. It was clear that a shift was happening, people had gotten a taste for the more lean and personal gameplay that this new type of Strategy game presented and they liked it.
My gut is bothering me a bit this morning, as if I ate something that disagreed with me, though I don't know of any likely suspects for that. I think if I eat some spaghetti and let the alien burst through my chest I should be just fine.
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