Archived News:
Steam News announces that The Penal Zone, the first episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, is now available, kicking off a new season in the comedic adventure series. The episode is also available from Telltale Games, where they also offer a playable demo. Also, an update on Steam News has word that a new version of Team Fortress 2 is now available. These two updates are actually related, as the new version of Valve's multiplayer shooter includes special Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse preorder items, as detailed here. There are other changes as well, which are outlined below. Continue here to read the full story.
The Blizzard Store now offers sales of the Celestial Steed, a World of Warcraft mount priced at a healthy $25.00, and perhaps a Trojan horse for a more microtransaction-based future. Here's word on the pricy pony: "Freshly born from the Twisting Nether, the Celestial Steed flying mount lets you travel in style astride wings of pure elemental stardust. So saddle up, because this supernatural warhorse will fly as fast as your riding skill will take you, and it will travel at 310% speed if you have at least one other 310% mount. Once activated, this World of Warcraft in-game mount key applies to all present and future characters on a single North American World of Warcraft license."
Another new major update for Supreme Commander 2 is now available automatically via Steam, updating Gas Powered Game's real-time strategy sequel to version 1.11. The new update is referred to as the AI patch, as it "addresses a number of issues with the game's AI, including adding several new AI difficulty levels; a number of ease-of-use features in multiplayer game lobbies; and, a veritable HOST of AI and game play tweaks as well as specific unit behavior changes." The extensive patch notes are below. Continue here to read the full story.
A new automatic update is now available for Order of War: Challenge on Steam, to update Wargaming.net's World War II real-time strategy game. Here are the major changes. Continue here to read the full story.
An update on Steam announces the Steam client has been updated to fix an issue preventing Madballs from properly running, which follows an earlier post announcing an automatic update to the client to fix an issue retrieving master server information. Steam News also announces the availability of a new automatic update to patch Plain Sight on Steam to version 1.0.1.0. The new version has a new map, two new achievements, and more. The complete patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Direct2Drive Spring Sale Week One: "Direct2Drive will be giving gamers $15 in store credit when they spend $75 or more on any titles site-wide during the Spring Sale."
- Star Wars The Force Unleashed- Ultimate Sith Edition on Steam. Save 50%.
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction on Direct2Drive. Preorder and get Splinter Cell free.
Still on sale (previously reported)
Continue here to read the full story.
As revealed in his Twitter feed, game designer and Dopefish inventor Tom Hall has suffered a stroke. You're not mistaken if you think Tom is young to be the subject of such news, as he is just 45 years old. That he is tweeting can probably be considered a positive sign, and according to a Facebook post by John Romero: "Tom is back home from the hospital and is doing WAY BETTER now! Amazingly fast, not quite full, recovery. GREAT JOB, TOM!" Tom first mentioned this in a tweet, "Um, had a stroke. Yeah, I know right! The hospital food is decent though. (Excuse if I don't respond quickly though--lotsa tests.)," followed by: "Thx for all the good thoughts. Start rehab tomorrow to fix strength/coordination in right hand/foot. Woo hoo! Rockin' the rehab! Oh yeeeah!" That upbeat message was followed later by a joke: "They took 20 vials of blood this morning. My arml [sic] went flat like apiece of paper. Lucky I had that inflation tube installed." Hall's rich résumé includes work on Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM at id, Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem 3D at Apogee, and Anachronox, and he is currently working on an unannounced MMORPG for KingsIsle Entertainment. In addition to being creative and talented, Tom is also a very nice guy, and we wish him a swift recovery.
Kotaku has news of two more departures from Infinity Ward in the lingering aftermath of the firings of studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West, saying lead animator ( and rapper) Mark Grigsby and lead character animator Paul Messerly have both left the studio, which is confirmed on Joystiq by updates to Grigsby's and Messerly's LinkedIn profiles. Just a month ago an article on Kotaku speculated why there had not been mass departures from Infinity Ward, but following the resignations of lead designer Todd Alderman and lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti, programmer Jon Shiring and designer Mackey McCandlish, programmer Rayme Vinson and lead artist Chris Cherubini, a story we missed saying MW2 lead designers Steve Fukuda and Zied Reike have quit, and these latest two exits, that question that seems pretty moot by now.
A new version of X-Motor Racing is now available, updating this independently developed racing simulator to version 1.25. The full version is available on this page, and the updated playable demo is available on their downloads page. The list of what's changed from version 1.24 follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Zombie Driver Downloads Page has another new patch to update this game of undead motoring to version 1.12. The new version fixes car selection in story mode, and as before, the patch carries a warning that it is not to be applied to the Steam version of the game. The download is available from Atomic Gamer, FileFront, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and Strategy Informer.
A post on 1UP hears from 2K Games about yesterday's announcement of the XCOM shooter. Though the announcement says the game is in development at 2K Marin, 1Up reports that this is not actually the core team behind BioShock 2, as the studio formerly known as 2K Australia is now a "sister studio" to California-based 2K Marin, which they elegantly refer to as "the Canberra, Australia arm of 2K Marin." They do say that the Australian studio did contribute to BioShock 2, but the core creative team behind the shooter sequel is in Marin itself. They have no one but themselves to blame for the confusion, as the announcement specifically says the game: "is currently in development at 2K Marin, the studio behind the multi-million unit selling BioShock 2."
Heroes of Might and Magic Online is now accepting applications to participate in closed beta testing of what they are calling the "first persistent world turn-based strategy MMO." This MMO installment in the Might and Magic series is being developed under license by Chinese developer TQ digital, but clearly English support is part of the program. The beta is supposed to kick off next month, and word is: "HoMM Online combines the classic elements of HoMM III with the updated graphics of HoMM V to present a unique gameplay. HoMM Online is also a turn based online game that puts the emphasis on strategic planning and tactical skill while allowing players to socialize and create their own stories."
The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Paladin class preview is now online, a couple of days earlier than originally promised. The preview outlines new spells, changes to abilities and mechanics, and talent tree bonuses.
A story on GamePro tells the tale of a project to create an artificial intelligence 'bot to play StarCraft with the goal of developing an AI that can play the game "like a pro" (presumably without the cheating), by learning from replays of expert players. Word is: "The bot, which currently plays Protoss exclusively, and is already enjoying a sustained 20 percent win-rate against human players, is a development of a previous UC Santa Cruz project that used reactive planning to play the open source WarCraft II clone Wargus. The code also makes use of the custom A.I. language that was developed for authoring characters in Mateas' interactive drama Facade, which was an artificial intelligence-based story that blended video game elements with natural language processing. The game won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Slamdance Independent Games Festival." Thanks Ant via Digg.
A story on Asylum.com tells the story of Randy Fitzgerald, aka NoM4D, a 30 year-old aspiring game designer who is a professional gamer in spite of being paralyzed from the neck down since birth. They tell the tale of him overcoming this at the age of three as a Pac-Man prodigy playing with his chin to his leadership of a the gaming team EOG (Equal Opportunity Gaming). Randy plays using his lips and chin, "I've got a lot of facial movement," he explains. "I can do Jim Carrey–style expressions with my face. I can get to hard-to-reach buttons with my lips." He has also worked with peripheral companies on controller designs, and there are games like Call of Duty 4 that feature "Nomad" control schemes, though his controller of choice is a flaky prototype that sometimes leaves him unable to compete when it fails. It's a very inspirational story. "The first time I played a video game was the first time I ever had real control over something," says NoM4D. "It was my first real taste of independence. 'Hey this is something I can do on my own. I don't need Mom or Dad or my brothers or sisters to sit here and help me. I can sit here locked away in my room 24 hours a day and do this'." You can see videos of Randy in action on his YouTube Channel. Thanks Ant via Digg.
GamePro - Out of Sight, Out of Mind -- why women didn't make The Game Developer 50.
Feminist blogger Alice at Wonderland was the first to cry foul: "Off the top of my head, without doing any research, here's a handful of women working in games who I think Gama could happily have included in that 50." She names Meggan Scavio, the woman who runs Game Developers Conference, which in turn owns Gamasutra; Kim Swift, a female game developer list favorite; Paulina Bozek, someone I think people ignore because they don't play enough Singstar; Margaret Robertson, an editorial legend among games journalists; Babsi Lippe and Claudia Kogler, whose game I'm sad to say I've never played; and Rhianna Pratchett, the video game scribe behind Mirror's Edge, Overlord, and Heavenly Sword.
Strategy Informer - What Lies In The Future For The MMO?
Another subgenre that has never really been explored to any real extent and one that I personally would love to see is the MMORTS. Very few companies have attempted to make a title that even generally fits into this category and with good reason. Figuring out how to allow hundreds of players to envelop a world, develop their own nations, then fight with each other, and have it last for a long period of time is tough. The only real attempts we have seen are the likes of CityXL, which was more of an MMO style SimCity. One title that has all but vanished that held real promise was one from Stardock Studios called Society. They had figured out the key to doing a title right. They would tile the whole world, allow only a few dozen players and once a player has taken 75% of the map, reset the whole thing and let them do it again. But sadly the last time there was any news on the title they were informing the public that it was being placed way, way back on the backburner.
Happy Tax Day, as income tax returns are due in the U.S. by the end of today. Of course this is not a particularly happy occasion for all of us, but think of how happy CPAs are all over the country now that the taxing tax season is over.
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