Archived News:
UTV True Games And Gamigo announce plans to bring Mytheon to Europe, offering local servers for this free-to-play MMORPG. "With gamigo holding such a strong position in the European MMO marketplace, we know this is the perfect publisher to bring Mytheon to a whole new realm of players," said Jeff Lujan, Founder and Chairman at UTV True Games. "We are excited about our new relationship, and we hope gamers in Europe will welcome the title that has been highly anticipated in the U.S. for months."
Steam News heralds the release of a new automatic patch for Counter-Strike: Source, Valve's teamplay shooter. The change list follows. Continue here to read the full story.
A new " Marine Salvage - Central Station" trailer for Crysis 2 shows the impressive visuals of Crytek's upcoming fist-person shooter sequel. The clip shows off some nighttime outdoor combat in New York City as the player makes his way to the "safe zone" of Grand Central Station, which may not be so safe, after all. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
PC Games Hardware has an article with a retrospective on Quake-engine games, celebrating the recent 14th anniversary of the release of QUAKE. They offer screenshots showing the evolution of the engine over the years, starting with the QUAKE II-engine Heretic II all the way through the upcoming RAGE and Brink.
Impulse announces a weekend sale, and while we are at it, we'll note that Fort Zombie is on sale at Direct2Drive for 75% off. Back to Impulse, they are offering discounts on the following games:
Link of the Day: Vuvuzela Fail. Thanks Ant. Good girl!
Interplay announces plans to bring MDK to the Wii, and an updated MDK 2 to the PC, saying the Wii release will come this winter, and digital distribution of MDK 2 HD "will follow" through startup distributor Beamdog (co-founded by BioWare veteran Trent Oster). "It is a great pleasure to announce that we are returning to the adventures of Kurt Hectic, Dr. Hawkins and the 6-legged gun-toting robotic dog Max," said Hervé Caen, CEO of Interplay. Thanks Big Download. MDK, of course, stands for Mario Drives Karts.
The Left 4 Dead Blog explains how close the voting was on this week's encore mutation which turns out to be Chainsaw Massacre. Steam News has the corresponding update announcing the mutation has been patched back into Left 4 Dead 2 for the next time you play the co-op zombie shooter sequel.
Steam News announces a new automatic update is now available for America's Army 3, Uncle Sam's freeware military shooter sequel. The change list is enormous, with the top new feature listed as an upgrade to the TeamSpeak 3 VOIP API for "improved quality and performance."
The ARMA 2 Website now offers new patches to update Bohemia Interactive Studios' military shooter sequel to version 1.07. There is a patch to update any version, mirrored on The Patches Scrolls, and a patch to update the previous version 1.05 (no word on what happened to version 1.06), mirrored on The Patches Scrolls. A post on the Bohemia Interactive Forums (thanks joao) has word that the new Linux server will likely come after the weekend: "Please note that Linux server 1.07 is going to be released later, more likely on Monday but we decided to release the update now to move ahead towards release of Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead." The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
The Pro Cycling Manager Forums have news that a new patch is now available for Pro Cycling Manager 2010 to update the bicycle racing game to version 1.0.1.6. The patch is mirrored on The Patches Scrolls, and here are the patch notes. Continue here to read the full story.
The Transformers: War for Cybertron "Accolades" Trailer celebrates the launch of the Transformers: War for Cybertron, showing off a bit of the third-person shooter prequel along with some quotes from publications praising the game. Here's the embedded version. Continue here to read the full story.
Focus Home Interactive announces they have acquired the Cities XL franchise from now closed developer Monte Cristo, and are continuing development on Cities XL 2011, the next installment in the urban-planning series announced earlier this year. They say Cities XL 2011 is due in October, offer some new screenshots, and the Cities XL Website reflects the news as well. Word is the plan is to have Cities XL 2011 live up to the promise of Cities XL 2010: "It's important not to leave Cities XL without a future," declares Cedric Lagarrigue, CEO of Focus Home Interactive. "Though the game may not have reached the ambitious objectives set forth by Monte Cristo, it has been successful in Europe and via online platforms. There's a community that's developed around the game, hopes and expectations that we cannot leave without a future. We are convinced that the game must make its mark and become a reference as promised during the pre-release announcements of the original 2009 game. We will therefore release Cities XL 2011 in October and will do so with the intent to please those who bought the earlier version. Moreover, we are working on a special offer for the game's release which we will soon reveal. As for the other City Builder and management game fans, Cities XL 2011's content, options, and features should give them great satisfaction."
The Global Agenda Website announces the game will not be implementing subscription fees, a major change in direction for Hi-Rez studios' spy-themed MMO shooter. The original plan was to have a free online component and a premium subscriber service with additional features, but now all online play will be free, with additional content to be added once or twice a year through paid expansions. "Hi-Rez Studios is committed to delivering the best value in PC gaming", said Todd Harris, Global Agenda Executive Producer. "In addition to including all of the game’s initial launch content for free inside the single-purchase price, we are bundling nearly 6 months worth of post-release content and features and including that within the single-purchase game. One purchase of Global Agenda let’s you experience all of this content forever with no subscription." They will not need to deal with existing subscribers, since they hadn't started charging yet. The game is currently on sale on Steam for 33% off as part of their summer sale. The FAQ attempts to answer any additional questions this news may raise.
Massively has word that All Points Bulletin will feature audio advertisements over the game's VOIP channel, with an option of paying a premium to make them go away. They link to this forum post explaining how this works: You will receive a short audio ad once every 3 hours. HOWEVER ads will only be heard when first entering a district.
So for example:
1) You start up the game and enter the social district.
2) You will hear a short audio ad.
3 You stay in social for 2 hours and then switch to an action district.
4) Upon entering the action district you will NOT hear an ad.
5) You play in the action district for 5 hours and do not hear any ads.
6) You exit the game.
7) You start up the game at a later time and enter a district.
8) You will hear a short audio ad.
An interview with Activision Blizzard's Thomas Tippl on VentureBeat discusses the state of the games industry, the challenges of a bad economy, E3, and more. He also comments on the ongoing litigation between them and the now-departed heads of their Infinity Ward studio, saying this should not cause any Call of Duty game delays, and calling the situation "unique and unfortunate" in this answer: "The Infinity Ward situation was unique and unfortunate. We have been in this business 20 years. Seventeen game studios have joined us. We have never been in a situation like that. I don’t think we will be in a situation like that again because it was unique. We have great development talent. Two-thirds of the team is still there. We are complementing that with very aggressive recruiting and supplementing them with some of the very best resources we have in the company. We have made major investments in talent. We have launched the Sledgehammer studio with a very capable development team. We have added headcount. Treyarch is focused fully against Call of Duty. We have made big investment everywhere."
Develop has word from "insiders" who tell them that "one of the biggest game companies in the world" helped scuttle planned tax breaks for developers in the UK. Word is: "But in the aftermath of the disappointing turn of events, it appears as though one publisher at least is celebrating the success of its own lobbying. This company had apparently viewed game tax relief as a measure that would have given the UK an unfair advantage over other nations." Thanks joao via Kotaku.
A new Fallout: New Vegas trailer shows off some casino gameplay in Obsidian's upcoming action/RPG sequel. The clip shows a little blackjack, roulette, and slot machine play, featuring cards and chips that move about seemingly without human interaction. Thanks jimnms.
Big Download has a follow-up on yesterday's indications that a LAN-enabled version of StarCraft II would be supplied for pro tournament play in Korea. Activision Blizzard tells them this report is not accurate, but do say they are looking to address the needs of the pros, saying: "We will be addressing StarCraft II tournament functionality in a post launch patch to the game, soon after ship. This patch will include features to address the needs of location-based pro tournaments, but we have not discussed any specifics about tournament support beyond that."
In spite of us being in the suburbs, and not the country, we have seen deer wandering around on occasion ever since we moved here. Lately, however, we've seen the same young one around our house like he's a neighbor. I've seen him in our front yard, our back yard, our driveway... at this point I won't be surprised if I run into him in the bathroom. He is not afraid of me at all, and I can't even shoo him out of the yard if I find him there. The dogs give him pause, but he even seems to understand their limitations. Yesterday he and I had another encounter in front of the house, and after he took calm note of the fact that the dog barking was coming from inside the house, he proceeded to walk over to the fence and hop into our yard to do some grazing.
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