Archived News:
A playable demo for Revenge of the Titans offers a sample of this tower defense/real-time strategy game from Puppy Games. Word is: "Defend humanity against alien invaders in this retro-styled blend of tower defense and strategy, gathering resources and choosing a research path as you repel the invading hordes." There is a PC demo available on AtomicGamer and FilePlanet, and there is also a Mac demo which can be found on AtomicGamer.
The NVIDIA Driver Downloads Page is where to find new beta version 257.15 GeForce/ION reference drivers for NVIDIA accelerators. Word is: "This is the first driver release from the Release 256 family of drivers (versions 256.xx to 259.xx). This driver package supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, and 400-series desktop GPUs as well as ION desktop GPUs. Learn more about Release 256 drivers here." Thanks [H]ard-OCP.
No Mutants Allowed reproduces some "gun chat" from the Bethesda Forums where J.E. Sawyer discusses the merging of the small guns and big gun skills in Fallout: New Vegas, the upcoming installment in the Fallout series of post-apocalyptic RPGs. Here's a bit: "When I was looking at Big Guns for F:NV, I considered that the list of weapons was small compared to any other weapon category and several of the weapons arguably belonged (or at least could be easily categorized) elsewhere. Moving the Big Guns to different weapon skills and dissolving the Big Guns skill would allow weapons like the minigun to remain as a powerful top tier weapon without needing to invent low-tier "Big Guns" that might further confuse the dividing line. Coming up with a wide power spectrum of Guns, Energy Weapons, and Explosives would not be hard at all."
A new patch is now automatically available on Steam for AI Wars, which we're guessing applies to AI War: Fleet Command. Here's the change list. Continue here to read the full story.
The Frank Pearce interview on VG247 talks with the "Blizzard mega-head" about the future of World of Warcraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, and other Blizzardly matters. Recalling that World of Warcraft has been holding steady at about 11.5 million subscribers for some time now, they ask if the MMORPG has peaked: "No, I don’t think that at all. I mean, you can look at that number and if you look at some of the details around it… In China, for example, we haven’t even launched Wrath of the Lich King yet, and that expansion is already 18-plus months old. They’re still playing The Burning Crusade there, because we’re waiting for approval for Wrath from the appropriate agencies. And once we get that approval and launch Wrath in China then I think we will see growth."
Another new behind-the-scenes trailer from Transformers: War for Cybertron is now available, highlighting the multiplayer support in the Transformers prequel in development at High Moon Studios. They describe how the game was designed with multiplayer in mind from the start, how the game supports various strategies, and how teamplay is essential in some of their objective-oriented game modes, as well as the ability to unlock new skills and characters through multiplayer play. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
- Global Agenda on Steam. Save 25%.
Still on sale (previously reported)
Continue here to read the full story.
Gaikai announces it has secured over $10 million USD in series B funding for their service that promises the ability to stream AAA games over the internet. Some observers have expressed skepticism over plans for this service since it was first announced exactly a year ago tomorrow, but the bankers seem convinced: "Gaikai is poised to take advantage of sweeping changes in how games are bought, sold, and ultimately even played brought about by the industry-wide shift to digital distribution. Benchmark is delighted to join in this round and increase our commitment to Gaikai, David Perry and the team," says Mitch Lasky, Benchmark Capital.
An update to the Team Fortress 2 Blog announces the Team Fortress 2: Polycount Pack Contest, which is looking for a set of at least three custom items for one of the classes in Valve's teamplay shooter. Prizes include unique personal versions of these items, a signed Team Fortress 2 poster, and more.
Futuremark announces development of 3DMark 11, saying the latest version of their 3D graphics benchmark software is due for release in the third quarter of this year as both a free and premium version, and the software will be first publically displayed next week at Computex in Taipei, from June 1-5. A new 3DMark11 Website acts as home to the project, offering a trailer called Deep Sea, described as a demonstration of DirectX 11 technologies created using an early development build of the 3DMark 11 engine.
Viva Media announces an August 1, 2010 North American release date for Alter Ego, the gothic horror-themed point-and-click adventure game being created by Czech developer Future Games. The game was originally scheduled for release in the first quarter of this year, but the new announcement doesn't acknowledge this as a delay, so it goes unexplained. They do offer some Alter Ego screenshots along with a couple of pack shots, along with this description of the game: "The game combines elements of adventure and Holmesian mystery into a tight, macabre thriller that will certainly keep fans on edge."
1C Company and Katauri Interactive announce development of King's Bounty: Crossworlds, an upcoming standalone expansion for King's Bounty: Armored Princess. The new version includes a new full version of the original game, two brand new campaigns, new creatures, new items, and a King's Bounty: Armored Princess game editor. Word is: "As in the multi-award winning 1st game, the player has many options to battle both new and old enemies. Various new skills and abilities, as well as a flying steed, will help to overcome the hordes attacking the kingdom. The Princess is also accompanied by her tamed dragon, at the very beginning it is small, but its abilities develop steadily until it becomes an incredible ally. The dragon will do its best to protect the Princess during the battles, starting with simple attacks and finishing with fire breathing and volcano summoning."
NCsoft announces plans for a version 2.0 update called Assault on Balaurea for Aion, their fantasy-themed MMORPG. We have a batch of Aion: Assault on Balaurea screenshots and a trailer showing off some cinematics and gameplay. The update will add eight new instances, new advanced pet systems, new zones "with powerful monsters and content for players to enjoy," five additional levels, enhancements to flight mechanics, Twitter integration, and an increased level cap of 55. The trailer is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
Nicely Crafted Entertainment announces their MMORTS Time of Defiance is now free-to-play. Word is: "As a thank you to our community for all your support over the years we have now made Time of Defiance FREE to play. Yes, that’s correct, no more monthly subscriptions, no more time limited demo accounts, you can play in all our games for FREE! Over the last couple of years the development team here at Nice has been extremely busy producing a new game for the BBC. During this period we have been unable to give Time of Defiance the attention and updates it deserves. The good news is that we are now working on a number of new games that we’re sure you will be interested in." Thanks Gamer's Hell.
Nicely Crafted Entertainment follows up on the above promise of more details about new games with the announcement of Picaroon, a new online real-time strategy game. The Picaroon Website is already online as a placeholder for the project, and here's word: Set in a grim, water-world style future where the French, Spanish and English battle it out for supremacy of the resources that remain above sea-level. With vast stretches of potentially stormy giant-squid infested water between islands, players will need to explore, defend and attack in order to gain the materials, supplies, specials and new recruits necessary to dominate the world for King and Country.
The Split/Second Interview on Gaming Nexus is a chat with Nick Baynes, asking the Game Director of Black Rock Studios some questions about their upcoming arcade racing game. Topics include the critical reception of their previous racer Pure, the origins of the new game, the game's reality TV concept, their Michael Bay-style effects, influences, other features, the development process, and more.
- Aliens Colonial Marines on AvPGalaxy. New concept art. Thanks David.
Last week I mentioned the carpenter bee taking up residence in the railing on our deck, and how the exterminator explained I could deal with this myself, but that there was no rush since this was a benign variety of bee. I also mentioned we know these bees are mellow by how they deal with being hunted by Hudson the wonder dog, which should have been a clue as to what was to come. Last night we found our magnificent beastie of an Airedale Terrier with sawdust all over her face, because she figured out where her nemesis was, and, yup, had actually chewed through the deck to get to it. Not chewed at it, mind you, but through it: She made it all the way to the channel the bee had created, and exposed part of the bee itself. The bee was still alive when we discovered the scene, as it buzzed when I poked at it, so I'm giving it until later this morning to clear out of town before I have to take matters into my own hands.
R.I.P.: Martin Gardner, Layman's Mathematician And Fierce Foe Of Pseudoscience, Dies At 95. Thanks Acleacius.
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