Archived News:
Ubisoft's Driver Page, where the title-bar reads "Driver1999," has a countdown to the Ubisoft E3 conference, currently reading 7+ days, where more will be revealed about plans to revive the Driver series of automotive action games. The page offers a live action sequence recalling the parking lot training in the original game, featuring a beautiful Mustang, an even more beautiful Challenger, and a San Francisco 49ers keychain, which correlates nicely with Ubisoft's recent domain registration for driversanfranciscogame.com.
The Battlefield Blog announces details on the third VIP map pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which will be free for all owners of the PC edition of DICE's military shooter sequel and for those who bought the console versions of the game new (owners of a used console version can also buy a VIP code). The pack will bring new modes to Nelson Bay and Laguna Alta, and word is: "Fight for control of the M3A3 Bradley and achieve supremacy against 3 other squads as Nelson Bay is enhanced with Squad Deathmatch mode. Use all of your squad skills and tactics to secure M-COM stations as Laguna Alta is enhanced with Squad Rush mode." The console release is expected on Wednesday, while the PC release will follow at an unspecified later date. Here's the trailer that accompanies the announcement. Continue here to read the full story.
Peavey and Zivix announce a strategic partnership they say will "revolutionize" music gaming with Zivix's Jam Party, a music game to be announced at E3, and HeroMaker, Peavey.com's guitar peripheral that acts as both a game controller and an actual musical instrument. Here's word: Developed on Gamebryo LightSpeed, JamParty: Be the Music enables burgeoning musicians to become instant producers, mix-masters, and lead guitarists. Players can transition their mastery of traditional rhythm based music games into actual player-controlled live music creation using JamParty’s gigantic library of chords, beats, vocals, and soundscapes. Users can create and play songs, then share their music with other players as MP3s or upload to listening devices and social networks. JamParty is designed for use with the new full sized HeroMaker guitar, and is also compatible with existing USB supported Rock Band® and Guitar Hero® guitar controllers.
In addition, Zivix developed a patented “Finger Sensing” system that Peavey integrated into their six-string electric guitar, creating the HeroMaker, a full-sized guitar featuring real strings and frets to let any player play notes, slide and pick. With the HeroMaker, you can make live music and build basic guitar-playing fundamentals while playing your favorite music video game. You can then plug into a real amp for a fully functional guitar.
Turtle Rock Studios, who have collaborated with Valve on Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Source, and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, announce Turtle Rock Garage calling this a "small games division" focused on casual and experimental games for platforms like the iPhone, Facebook, and Xbox LIVE. They reveal their first title as Leap Sheep, which is available for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
A new patch is now available for The Settlers 7, updating Ubisoft's strategy management sequel to version 1.05. The patch is available automatically for the Steam edition of the game. There are also manual patches, available on AtomicGamer, FileFront, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. Here's the change list from the Ubisoft Forums: Continue here to read the full story.
Steam News has details on a new patch that's automatically available to update the Steam client. The change notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Chris Taylor's Kings and Castles Video Blog Episode #17 is now online, showing the team at Gas Powered Games hard at work preparing to show off their upcoming real-time strategy game at E3. The clip shows Chris engaging in some of his signature abuse of his minions, along with random snippets of in-game footage. Chris also interrupts a meeting, catches a slacker playing Supreme Commander 2, and shows off a user-submitted high-five video. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
BioWare and FUNimation announce plans for an Anime movie based on the Dragon Age franchise as a direct-to-DVD release next year. "We are thrilled to be working with EA and BioWare on the production of the Dragon Age anime feature," said Gen Fukunaga, President and CEO of FUNimation. "We are going to be bringing the classic visual and storytelling techniques found in anime to create a film that will extend the narrative of the world BioWare has created."
Here's the Impulse Weekly Top 10 for the week of May 30 - June 5:
- Sins of a Solar Empire
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity
- THQ Ultimate Bundle
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy
- Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition
- Sins of a Solar Empire Expansion Bundle
- Dragon Age: Origins Bundle
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Entrenchment
- Gratuitous Space Battles Complete
- Demigod
A new Crysis 2 "Master Pinger" trailer teases some of what will be shown of Crytek's shooter sequel at next week's E3. The clip runs under a minute, and is fairly vague, but certainly qualifies as a "ping." The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
GameStop announces a bonus for those who preorder Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood from them in advance of the planned November release of the next installment in the stealth/action series. Here's word on what you will receive with your advance commitment: "Reserve Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and receive the GameStop exclusive multiplayer character, Harlequin. Behind the gaudy costume and twisted smile lies the soul of a merciless Assassin. You call yourself the Harlequin. Your victims will call you a walking nightmare. Available online and in-store while supplies lasts."
Square Enix announces Dungeon Siege 3, a continuation of the action/RPG franchise launched by Gas Powered Games, and though a third installment in the series was first hinted at almost exactly two years ago by Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games, development of the sequel is actually being handled by Obsidian Entertainment (with "input" from GPG). This will bring the Dungeon Siege series to consoles for the first time, and will also include cooperative multiplayer support, though no projected release date is offered at this time. Here are some screenshots, and here's the feature list:
- For the first time, play DUNGEON SIEGE on high-def consoles
- Players will be able to adventure by themselves or with friends in co-op multiplayer
- Uncover a deep story that only Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment can deliver
- Pick from unique and highly customizable character classes with a wide range of abilities to choose from
- Recruit companions with unique personalities, abilities and views on the world around them
- Players will have weighty decisions to make that will impact their alliances, enemies and the culmination of the story
Paradox Interactive announces they kept their promise to release Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi on D-Day, so the new expansion for their World War II strategy game is now available through digital distribution. Here's the Semper Fi 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
Bohemia Interactive announces ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead is now gold, and the standalone expansion for their military-themed shooter is being manufactured for its release on June 29. Here's a bit on the project: Built upon over 10 years' experience, it thrusts gamers into the heart of the most realistic military combat simulation ever developed, featuring cutting edge technology, vast, detailed environments and authentically modelled units, weapons and vehicles. Branching, player-driven campaigns offer both singleplayer as well as multiplayer cooperative gameplay, accompanied by a huge range of single and multiplayer modes. Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead delivers a range of brand new features, such as FLIR thermal imaging, controllable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), 3 huge new maps of Central Asian settings and over 300 new models. This hotly anticipated release massively expands upon the scope and depth of the "Armaversum", and offers its passionate community a whole new set of exciting gameplay features.
Ignition Entertainment reveals the Hyper Reality Visor (HRV) in Blacklight: Tango Down, the futuristic military shooter in development at Zombie Studios. The visor allows an augmented view of the action, including the ability to see through walls, but does not allow you to shoot when it's in use (shooting while illuminating the action is a problem in the future, well known since DOOM 3). Word is: "The HRV is an advanced imaging system in the player’s Heads up Display that detects nearby enemy and friendly forces and relays the information back to players, giving them immediate battlefield intelligence. Based on real-life applications, the HRV uses cell phone towers and satellites to detect nearby enemy and friendly forces and identifies nearby objectives including health and ammo stations." This trailer offers a look at the HRV in action, and the clip is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Continue here to read the full story.
Planet Battlefield recounts a post from the EA forums explaining that the release of the next patch for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is being held up by a transportation strike in Romania, where their QA team is located. Their brief FAQ on the topic emphasizes that it is not the QA team on strike, just the transport companies that would allow them to get to work. There's no outlook on when the work stoppage might end. Thanks Ant.
Halflife2.net has received an email from Valve's Gabe Newell stating an image that seems to tease a Half-Life reveal at E3 is faked. Valve has promised an E3 surprise, prompting speculation that this may be an announcement of Half-Life 2: Episode Three or even Half-Life 3. Gabe's response does not indicate the surprise is not one of those games, simply that the teaser image is faked. Thanks Computer and Video Games.
New fan-created patches for Precursors and White Gold: War in Paradise are now available to add English-language support for this pair of games from Russian developer Deep Shadows. The patches are created by Wesp, the modder known for his series of unofficial patches for Vampire: The Masquerade -Bloodlines. The White Gold: War in Paradise patch is available on The Patches Scrolls and the Precursors patch is available on The Patches Scrolls.
The Natural Selection 2 Website has a new update on damage types in the action/strategy sequel in development at Unknown Worlds. The post explains the necessity of different damage types in a game combining the first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres, the complexity this adds, and the effort they are exerting to make all of this somewhat intuitive.
The I Hate Mountains Website now offers the first full version of the I Hate Mountains modification for Left 4 Dead, Valve's co-op zombie shooters. Word is: "The I Hate Mountains campaign is divided into five different maps, just like Valve did with their own campaigns in Left 4 Dead 1. The difference is that our campaign is entirely nature-oriented, there’s only a few building [sic] and most of the action takes place in outdoor environments, which is a challenge to build in itself. We also focused our development on offering a better re-playability by providing several long alternate paths in the levels that can totally change the way you play it." Thanks b00m. Update: Apparently the L4D2 version is not available yet (thanks Prez).
The Bloodline Champions Website has a new version 0.8.3 patch for the beta of this upcoming competitive online multiplayer game. Beta testing is closed at the moment, but it gives a chance to highlight this game, since it hasn't been mentioned here before. Thanks joao.
IGN - The Case For Gaming's Greater Good. Thanks Ant.
So you can see why perhaps some people might not want to contribute to his war chest. As someone who tends to look on organized boycotts as a tool of the enemy, I'd merely counter that, with development teams reaching into the triple digits, there's bound to be at least one person involved in every game who doesn't share your political views. In fact, Shadow Complex was written by another prolific sci-fi writer, Peter David, who is equally outspoken about how wrong he believes Card is on any number of subjects. I occasionally suspect David was hired onto the project without anyone mentioning it to Card until it was too late.
Games On Net -- Why Ubisoft's DRM worked.
And that’s what matters. See, what you have to understand here is that the DRM isn’t for you – it’s for Ubisoft. And I imagine they’re more than happy with it. Sure, they had to suffer a bit of negative publicity as predictably hysterical PC gamers howled for a total boycott of all Ubisoft products, but what do you think the associated loss of revenue would be? I’ll give you a little hint: not much.
Here's the list of bestselling titles for the week on Steam:
- Supreme Commander 2
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Gold Edition
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package
- The Orange Box
- Alpha Protocol
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- APB All Points Bulletin
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
A thunderstorm last night helped break the heat here. It was nice saving energy by cooking things by just holding them outside, but a little relief is nice at this point.
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