Archived News:
A playable demo is now available for LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Demo, the upcoming action/adventure from Traveller's Tales that combines the magic of LEGO with the simple construction of the Harry Potter series (or something like that). The demo is available on this page, and it is mirrored on AtomicGamer and FilePlanet. There is also a new launch trailer for the game, which is expected for release next week. The embedded version of the trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
A new patch is now available for Splinter Cell: Conviction to update the stealth/action sequel to version 1.04 with a handful of fixes. The patch is available on AtomicGamer and The Patches Scrolls. The patch notes from the Ubisoft Forums follow. Continue here to read the full story.
BitMob has word from an interview with Jon Shafer, lead designer on Jon Shafer's Sid Meier's Civilization V on the ability to import maps from Civilization IV into the next installment in the turn-based strategy series. Word is: "You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it -- the conversion process will just do that for you automatically. We’re hoping that the first week Civ 5 is out, people will use that function and port all of the Civ 4 stuff over to Civ 5, so everything will be out there already."
Steam now offers a new automatic update for Sniper: Ghost Warrior, the sniperific military first-person shooter. The fixes in the new version follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Eurogamer.net has word from Square Enix's Hiromichi Tanaka that the Final Fantasy XIV Online beta test "will be starting soon." He expresses confidence that the MMORPG will have a simultaneous launch for PC and PS3 before the end of the year.
Steam News announces a new automatic patch is now available for The Scourge Project, and that the game is on sale for the next week for $4.99/4.99€/4.99GBP. The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
A new automatic patch is now available for Global Agenda, announces Steam, enacting some zone changes and fixing some bugs in Hi-Rez Studios espionage-themed MMOG. Here are the changes. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Singularity trailer gives lots of detail on multiplayer support in Raven's upcoming temporal first-person shooter. The clip has a couple of the developers explaining the game's class-based team deathmatch, where one team plays as soldiers using a first-person perspective, opposed by the other team of alien creatures, who operate using a third-person view. They give a quick outline of the different classes, and show some of the weapons and creature attacks in action. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Direct2Drive is offering BioShock 2 at a 50% discount on 2K Games' underwater shooter sequel between now and Monday. They also offer the same discount over the same period on a Bioshock 1 + 2 Bundle.
A post on NeoGAF has a photo of a Korean Air plane decorated with a StarCraft II skin, word on StarCraft II fast food, and word that a LAN enabled version of the real-time strategy sequel will be released in Korea, which will be for professional televised tournament use only. Thanks Big Download.
Steam has a new patch that's automatically available for Puzzle Dimension. Here are the change notes. Continue here to read the full story.
Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
Interstellar Marines: Running Man is now online, as the second playable preview paving the way for the upcoming release of Interstellar Marines, following the launch of Interstellar Marines: Bullseye in January. The game can be played for free in your browser, with the choice of registering to be able to save your progress, or without registering, which permits access to the tutorial levels and will not save your progress. Thanks joao.
GOG.com now offers sales of Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich, Irrational Games' World War II superhero RPG, now devoid of DRM and updated to work on Windows Vista. Word is: "A great, super hero comic-book style, tactical RPG with deep characters, destructible environment and interesting story. Recruit new members (each with unique back-story and abilities), train the old ones, gather your team and test your tactical skills in this awesome, action packed, game."
Killspace Entertainment, the recently revealed developer composed of veterans of Obsidian Entertainment, Pandemic Studios, Red 5, and EALA, has filed a Trademark registration for Necromancer. Also, the company's LinkedIn profile says their focus is "3rd and 1st Person Character-focused Action, Horror, and Sci-Fi," and: "Currently in development: an original IP with a major publisher and a licensed IP to be announced." They previously registered a domain called Apocalypsenowgame.com, which covers the licensed IP, so it seems Necromancer is the original IP. Thanks VG247 via Destructoid.
Cryptic Studios announces that the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack is now available for free for Champions Online, the superhero MMORPG. Word is: "Serpent Lantern will take players from the skyscrapers of Millennium City to the jungles of Africa to stop the Supreme Serpent from finding the lost Serpent Lantern and uniting VIPER into one deadly purpose." They add: "The Serpent Lantern adventure pack provides players at every level (11 - 40) with the chance to experience new features, ranging from heroic new storylines, to adventurous new locations, setting the pace for the most exciting and engaging quest our players have ever experienced." This page has details and a video, and the feature list follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Steam has launched a big "Perils of Summer" sale, offering a big batch of games at a discount between now and July 4, including 33% off on a Valve Complete Pack, 66% off all Codemasters games, 33% off all Ubisoft games, 75% off on a 2K Complete Pack, 66% off all Atari games, 18% off on a Rockstar Collection, 25% off on a Square Enix Eidos Collector's Pack, and more. In addition to the ongoing sale items they will be offering a selection of titles for daily 24-hour specials. For today these include Killing Floor for 75% off, Counter-Strike- Source for 66% off, Overlord Complete Pack for 85% off, BioShock 2 for 50% off (including four-packs), Unreal Deal Pack for 66% off (or 50% off on any of the individual Unreal games), Trine for 80% off, and Aion Standard Edition for 50% off.
A tweet by Barrie "Bazajaytee" Tingle follows up on yesterday's news that the PC patch for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 suffered a failure during Steam testing, saying a fixed patch is back in Valve's hands for evaluation: "BFBC2 PC patch is back on its way for STEAM compatibility testing with Kalms making all the fixes and QA here confirmed it working." This is confirmed in Community News #1 on the Battlefield Blog, where Barrie says: "I would also like to add that the BFBC2 PC patch is currently still in development and we have sent it for STEAM compatibility testing today. All being well the patch will be released early next week. For information on what the patch fixes take a look at the changelog on the official forums at http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk." Bazajaytee also declares Wednesdays "Community Wednesdays" where he "will give you guys a weekly update in the form of a blog post, but also in forums and a direct link to this on the official BFBC2 twitter account at http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2."
Frictional Games announces their plans to release Amnesia: The Dark Descent on September 8, 2010. The post includes some details about the game, in a lovecraftian narrative. They also link to a new trailer from the game showing some exploration through a darkened area giving a feel for the game's eerie atmosphere. The embedded version of the clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.
BioWare spoke with Computer and Video Games about the state of PC gaming, saying it continues to be their lead platform following what seems to be a mini-trend of vocal support for the PC as a gaming platform. "Every two or three years we hear the announcement of fantasy being dead, PC gaming being dead and RPGs being dead. And yet, all of the biggest games that ever come out - that set the records - are nearly always PC games, and a lot of them are fantasy games," says Bioware designer and writing director Daniel Erickson. "The biggest game in the world is a fantasy, PC, RPG MMO. We all know the drawbacks of PC. We all scream at our boxes and try to make stuff work. But at the same time, the interface is made for games. The mouse/keyboard interface allows so much less restriction [than console]." He concludes noting that this is not lip service, as they are walking the walk: "There was not a question when we started Old Republic - or any of our games, for that matter - [what the lead format would be]. There's a reason the lead SKU for Dragon Age was [PC] as well. When we're developing an RPG, it's a natural place to be." Thanks joao.
The Steam Users' Forums have word from Hidden Path Entertainment that the new patch for Counter-Strike: Source removes the -tickrate command that allowed server operators to specify the rate at which the server updates the game state. The post says that for now the default server tickrate is 66 and the client rate will remain 20-30, though they add "this may be something we update soon." Unsurprisingly, this has prompted a lot of strong responses, ranging from praise for the change, to harsh criticism. Thanks Bob Bob.
WonderKing has launched in the UK, offering an English version of this anime-style, free-to-play MMOG. Word is: "Starting now, players anywhere in Europe can download the English WonderKing client software at www.wonderking.co.uk. Moreover, localised versions of the website are available for Belgium, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Besides lots of bonus materials, it contains thorough "first steps" instructions in each language in order to facilitate quick immersion into the game. From now on, WonderKing players in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, who have been using the successful German version for several months, can meet their European neighbours on the same server and join them in an epic battle against the forces of evil. French, Spanish and Italian versions of the gripping MMO will soon be available as well."
The Official Ubisoft Online Store is offering a post-E3 digital games sale, offering discounts of up to 50% on many of their downloadable titles. Thanks Big Download.
The LIVE Activity for week of June 14 on Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson is now online, including the Games for Windows Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s), which follows. Continue here to read the full story.
This Wimbledon Match is crazy, huh? I'm not generally a tennis watcher, but they started showing this after yesterday's World Cup game (not that I'm generally a soccer watcher either), and that's just nuts. I have a perverse fascination with the fact that a baseball game can theoretically go on forever, but never thought that much about how tennis shares that trait. Just wild stuff.
|
Twitter 
