Archived News:
A free Football Manager 2010 on Steam weekend is now underway, offering the chance to kick around the association football/soccer simulation for a couple of days at no charge. Additionally, over the course of the weekend, the game is on sale for a 50% discount.
Paradox Interactive announces that the Semper Fi expansion for Hearts of Iron III will be released next Month on June 6, the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. They celebrate the news with a Semper Fi teaser trailer, and offer a concise feature list:
- Player-determined hidden victory conditions that will keep opponents guessing
- Greater cooperation with allies, allowing players to request troops, convince their allies to attack a specific target and more
- Hundreds of new events added to immerse players in their own version of World War II, comparing the unfolding, alternate timeline to real history
- Vastly improved AI that will defend its territories valiantly, marshal large naval taskforces and launch multi-stage invasions
Steam News has details on a new patch that's now automatically available for Left 4 Dead 2, making Realism Versus a permanent game mode, making Lobbies default to "Official Dedicated," and adding the encore of Last Gnome On Earth. On that topic, the Left 4 Dead Blog announces an encore week for the Last Gnome On Earth mutation for the co-op zombie shooter. This is also another play-with-the-devs weekend, and they list a bunch of Valve player names to watch for. Here's word on the mutation: "Do you crave attention? Want all the Infected to swarm you and the gnome you are carrying? Then we have the game mode for you. The team needs to carry the garden gnome from start to finish in any campaign. The Infected hate the gnome and will swarm whoever is carrying him. Watch out putting him on the ground, a boomer explosion will send him flying!"
Steam News announces a new patch is automatically available for Team Fortress 2, with a solitary change for Valve's teamplay shooter. The patch moves the "Whiskered Gentleman" to the Misc loadout slot.
Bizarre Creations announces the Facebook integration in Blur, the racing game in development at Bizarre Creations. Word is: "By seamlessly integrating an innovative 'Share' button, Blur lets players choose to light up the competition in both single and multi-player modes by sending game challenges to friends and posting in-game photos, racing stats, unlockable items and much more on their Facebook pages." Activision has also released three new trailers showing off the game's fan-oriented power-ups, allowing you to earn bonuses by pleasing the fans. These clips are embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News announces pre-purchases are now being accepted for All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds' upcoming MMOG. As an incentive, those who pre-purchase the game will receive five hours of district gameplay and unlimited social gameplay over a nine day period, three days of early game access that includes 10 Hours of district gameplay and unlimited social gameplay, and seven exclusive in-game items: Chicken and Strike a Pose Emote's, Criminal and Enforcer Cars, Criminal and CSA Outfit's along with a Pioneer Decal!"
Steam News has word for Mac users unhappy with the way the Steam Mac client installs games in their documents folder. The update explains why they chose to do this, as well as why they are changing it. Going forward they are looking to change the behavior of the Mac Steam client when uninstalling itself and when installing games.
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved Midway's liquidation plan at a hearing today in Wilmington, Delaware, reports BusinessWeek. Word is: "U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross said he was 'satisfied fully' that the plan complies with the bankruptcy code before he approved it today at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware." The story has a brief recap of the death spiral Midway entered after Sumner Redstone sold off his stake in the company, and outlines how Midway's remaining assets will be divvied up: "Under Midway’s plan there is about $34.7 million available to creditors, court papers show. Unsecured noteholders, owed about $155 million, will get about $25.5 million for a recovery of about 16.5 percent. Unsecured creditors of the subsidiaries with claims of about $36.7 million will get about $9.2 million for a recovery of about 25 percent."
- Football Manager 2010 on Steam. Save 50%.
Still on sale (previously reported)
Continue here to read the full story.
- Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge on Blue's News. Elaine art.
A playable demo for the PC edition of Split/Second is now available, offering a sample of this action/racing game from Black Rock Studio. The demo is about a 1 GB download, available on FilePlanet and WorthPlaying. Here's word from FilePlanet: "The PC Split/Second demo consists of a tutorial and an airport level for players to race their way on! Competitors in Split/Second don't just collide with other vehicles to knock them from the track -- they can also trigger explosive events that drastically alter the dynamics of the race. Players must use strategy and pinpoint timing to derail opponents, tactically alter the track or create entirely new routes."
SEGA announces plans to bring some of their 16-bit games from the SEGA Genesis to PCs via digital distribution. The first group of Genesis games will be re-released on June 1, and will include Golden Axe, Ecco the Dolphin, Comix Zone, and Vectorman, with all titles selling for $2.99 USD each. "It's exciting to be able to offer these classic games to a new audience," said Nick Pili, Network Business Director at SEGA Europe. "Delivered via our digital partners, every PC owner can now enjoy these timeless masterpieces whenever they want!"
GamePolitics reports (by way of German website Game Captain) that Germany has reconsidered the plan it was considering to outlaw violent video games outright. They say the petition to fight the move ended up garnering over 73,000 signatures, well exceeding a threshold Edge Online says is dictated by German law requiring an official review of any petition with more than 50,000 signatures. Word is that after review, rather than change the law in this regard, German authorities will concentrate on more public education on the PEGI ratings system. Thanks Mike Martinez.
A new "Deadlock" trailer from Singularity shows an additional function of the Time Manipulation Device in Raven's upcoming first-person shooter. In addition to being able to move objects forward and backward through time, the TMD also can slow the momentum of moving objects, pointing out you can use this to "stop enemies in their tracks" and "render modern weapons useless." The clip is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has a new planetary profile for this upcoming MMORPG, introducing the icy world of Hoth with text, a video, and some screenshots. Enjoy the tour, but don't go too far, because your tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker. They also announce the launch of the third issue of Blood of the Empire, which "chronicles two formidable confrontations--one between Teneb Kel and his former master, Lord Calypho, and another between Teneb Kel and the Dark Council."
Thanks nin for pointing out that if you wokka wokka wokka over to Google you can see they have a logo celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac Man. The fun in this is that the logo is playable. According to Wikipedia the game launched in Japan (using the name Puck Man) on May 22, 1980.
Microsoft Game Studios confirms multiple indications that a PC version of Fable III is coming with the official announcement of a Windows edition of Lionhead's RPG sequel. The announcement also includes details on an Xbox 360 Limited Collector's Editions. The game is expected for this holiday season, and here's a bit: "Lead a rebellion, start a revolution, and rule a kingdom in 'Fable III'. Microsoft Game Studios and Lionhead Studios present the thrilling new chapter in the “Fable” franchise exclusively on Xbox 360 and Windows. Action, drama, adventure and humour propel the story as players choose their journey to become King or Queen of Albion."
Rude Gameware earns a link to their gamer lifestyle website with a press release that sends up the recent white paper stating that the game industry is on the verge of losing 30 million customers due to age. This new release points out another problem: "Rude conducted its own research to try and determine how much revenue was being lost each year by not making games that were more accessible to the recently deceased. The findings were staggering." Having identified this hole in the market, they are poised to cash in: "Rude Gameware expects to have their peripherals for the deceased for sale at all funeral homes, mortuaries, Circuit City, Sharper Image, Game Crazy, and other defunct retailers."
Thanks Acleacius and Mike Martinez.
We had the exterminator out today to diagnose the pile of sawdust on our back deck that corresponds to a hole above it in the railing. We suspected this was wasps or something, and he confirmed it was from a carpenter bee. What's nice is he didn't make any effort to sell us on their services, explaining how simple this will be to address. He even confirmed that ignoring it would not be a huge problem, as this was not going to result in a huge hive, and the bees themselves are relatively benign, which I can confirm since Hudson the wonder dog snaps at them all the time, and only ever gets stung when she actually catches one in her mouth.
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