Archived News:
A playable demo is available for Making History II: The War of the World, offering a sample of Muzzy Lane's World War II strategy sequel. The demo includes the Last Days of Peace (1939) scenario, "referring to the days before Hitler invaded Poland and declared war." It also makes use of the full game executable in demo mode so it can be upgraded to the full game with the purchase of a game key, and the demo can also be updated with fixes and changes. The download is available on the Making History Website and it's mirrored on AtomicGamer and WorthPlaying.
Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweets a follow-up to the video suggesting that some sort of multiplayer premium or subscription modes are in the works for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Word is: "Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they."
The Disciples III: Renaissance "Developers Blog" Part 2 offers more from .dat's new installment in this turn-based strategy series. The clip features one of the game's producers describing what's new and different compared with prior installments in the series. His Russian accent is pretty thick, but generally does not hinder understanding what he is saying. On a semi-related note, this forum thread indicates that a number of North American users have been unable to install the game from disc, though European users report they are not encountering this problem. It is not clear if this problem impacts all NA discs or not, but there are no posts from North American users who have been able to successfully install from disc, except for a user who says he used a Kalypso hotfix that was pulled after being posted, which is mentioned in this post where Kalypso says the hotfix was "recalled" as it introduced other problems. These problems must have been severe, as they threaten to ban anyone who posts the hotfix. Looking forward, they say: "We are working to have a solution for the disc detection problems tomorrow." Thanks Jeremy.
Following Positech Games CEO Cliff Harris' story of being heckled by Epic's Mark Rein at the Develop conference and a brief follow-up, Develop now has the text of an apology letter to Harris from Mark Rein. Here's a bit: First of all I want to apologize. It was completely rude of me to interrupt your panel with my opinion no matter how well intentioned. I'm supremely passionate about the plight of indie developers, and game developers in general, and I heard something I thought was incorrect advice and I just couldn't keep my big mouth shut. But there's no excuse for bad manners. You called me on it and it made me realize that it is a behavior I need to try and change for these types of events in the future.
It's not like some great injustice was being done and needed commentary from me. I was just being a jerk.
But I did want you to understand that it was not my intention to criticize the fact that you reply to your fans' emails or discourage anyone from doing that. What caused me to speak up was when I heard you talk about revealing important news items about games through 1-on-1 emails and in forums. My opinion is that doing so runs the risk of these things no longer being 'news' when you need to use them to get publicity for your game.
The GamersGate Offers Page lists the games on sale as part of their Platformer Week, which features selected platformer games for up to 75% off. Of course this is not a staple genre for the PC at this point, so other types of games are also represented, but there are also a number of games listed there for some reason even though they aren't on sale. Thanks CeeJay.
Gamestop announces their Power Saver Sale, offering discounts ranging from 10% to 50% on a large assortment of new and used games. This page lists what they describe as "Crazy Good Deals" and actually puts the upper limit of saving as 60%. They have 15 PC titles on sale, ten of them MMORPGS, which are outlined on this page.
Impulse is holding a week-long sale on games from casual developer Mumbo Jumbo. Different games will go on sale each day, with today's offerings being 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Luxor, Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena, and Zombie Bowl-O-Rama, which are all $9.99 USD each.
Steam News has news that a new version of the Steam client is now available. The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Here's the Impulse Weekly Top 10 for July 11 - July 17:
- Elemental: War of Magic (Pre-Order)
- Disciples III - Renaissance
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy
- Galactic Civilizations II - Ultimate Edition
- Sins of a Solar Empire Expansion Bundle
- Elemental - Limited Edition (Pre-Order)
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Entrenchment
- Demigod
- Armada 2526
Steam now offers the promised free release of an updated version of Alien Swarm, which includes the complete code base for the game. They say: "Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK."
Steam News announces the availability of Razor2: Hidden Skies, a vertical scrolling shooter sequel. Here's word: "Razor2 has easy, yet deep gameplay that challenges your skills with hundreds of enemies and bullets. The soundtrack features classic, orchestrated music composed especially for the game. Includes ten achievements and support for worldwide leaderboards."
Commander: Conquest of the Americas is gold, announces Paradox Interactive, who say Nitro Games' naval combat strategy game will be available on July 30. The game is also now available for preorder, and those who make this advance commitment will receive three extra ships, three new resources, seven new historical Commanders (one for each nation), and three new historical naval battles. Here's the official description of the game: "Developed by Nitro Games, Commander: Conquest of the Americas features elements from both trading and strategy games. Choosing from 7 different European factions, take charge of a European power aiming to conquer the New World. Found new colonies and manage their resources, production, military, and much more as they develop into a full blown empire. Choose to command ships in RTS fashion or take direct control as your fleet engages ships of an enemy nation or blood thirsty pirates."
The BioWare Social Network now offers a new patch for Dragon Age: Origins, updating the role-playing game to version 1.04. The download is mirrored on AtomicGamer, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. The new version addresses a couple of DLC problems, and also has fixes for the Awakenings DLC. The full patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
The first patches for Singularity are now available, updating Raven's science fiction first-person shooter to version 1.01. There is a "worldwide" patch for all but the German edition of the game on ActionTrip, AtomicGamer, FileFront, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. The patch to update the German edition is available from FileFront, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. The new version addresses a texture streaming bug that occurred on higher resolutions after playing for extended periods, and also fixes a matchmaking bug when searching for a game that would sometime hang on the "Finding Best Match" screen.
A trailer on the YouTube recorded by a 360 Junkies reader offers what they suggest may be evidence of plans to implement some sort of premium or subscription modes to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. The clip shows an option to add MS points to a Modern Warfare 2 Membership, though it also says "No memberships are available at this time, please try again later." Presuming the clip is bona fide, there's no indication of how or why they encountered this option. Thanks VG247.
The Medal of Honor Website has word that the PC and PS3 beta for the upcoming military shooter has been extended, rather than ending yesterday as planned. At this point there's no set end date for testing, as they say: "The Medal of Honor beta for the PlayStation 3 and PC is being extended! If you have a beta key rave card that says the code will expire on July 18th, don’t worry – it will not. The beta key redemption portal will remain open at www.medalofhonor.com/beta and keys will remain active for the duration of the beta. We are continuing to work with Microsoft on the Xbox 360 beta and are dedicated to delivering it as soon as possible." Thanks Big Download.
Matrix Games offers the release of a playable demo for Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge, Panther Games' strategy game described as "the most realistic simulation of WWII operational command ever created." The demo can be found on their downloads page, and word is: "The demo includes the fictional scenario called 'Return to St. Vith' which depicts Patton’s 4th Armored Division launching a fierce counteroffensive behind enemy lines to cut off the supply route for German units still in the Bulge." There are also three video tutorials for the game: Getting Started, Game Concepts, and Assess, Plan, and Order.
There's a StarCraft II GPU Performance Comparison on Hardware Canucks where they take Blizzard's imminent real-time strategy sequel for a test run on a number of graphics cards. The game's DirectX 9 graphics do not require the most advanced hardware, but they determine what it will take to get proper performance from the game at various resolutions and detail levels. There's also a StarCraft II Beta Performance Preview on Overclockers Club testing with a smaller set of hardware, and a similar article on PC Perspective, where they say: "Even your mom can play."
The BASHandSlash.com - BASH 157 Podcast talks with Charlie Cleveland of Unknown Worlds about Natural Selection 2, their upcoming action/strategy sequel. They discuss the game and its predecessor, as well as the state of PC gaming, and more. Along the way Charlie goes into more detail about plans to support mods with this game, including plans to include a LUA debugger, a level editor, a cinematic tool, and other mod support as part of the game, saying the game release will actually include the full source code for modders. Thanks joao.
Chris Taylor's Kings and Castles Video Blog Episode #23 offers the latest update on Gas Powered Games' upcoming real-time strategy game. Today we are treated to a little Spanish guitar and reflections on chicken tenders, followed by a field trip to Digital Double, where GPG is outsourcing some of their motion capture work.
A new trailer from Test Drive Unlimited 2 introduces the version of the Aston Martin One-77 from Eden Studios' upcoming racing game. Described as the "ultimate sports car," only 77 such cars will be produced in the real world, though it will likely be slightly less exclusive within the game. The embedded version of the trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
THQ and Syfy announce details on their planned TV movie tie-in with the Red Faction series of shooters, saying it is a prequel story with the working title Red Faction: Origins. This will be a two hour live-action movie pilot scheduled to air in March 2011 on Syfy. Word is: "The story of Red Faction: Origins follows the lineage of rebel hero Alec Mason and the Mason family, set during a period between the critically acclaimed Red Faction: Guerrilla video game and the recently announced and highly anticipated Red Faction: Armageddon video game, also scheduled for release in March 2011."
Over the weekend I was messing around with Facebook, as it struck me it probably wouldn't be too hard to get a rudimentary page for this site going there, something that has been requested in the past. Sure enough it was trivial to get an RSS feed going, which can allow you to get our headlines through Facebook, if you so choose. Here's the Blue's News FaceBook page for you to like, ignore, or mock as you see fit. Feel free to make suggestions on how to make that a more worthwhile experience.
R.I.P.: Major League Star James Gammon Dies at 70.
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