Archived News:
The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has the news that BioWare's and LucasArts' upcoming Star Wars MMORPG will feature Space Combat. Here's word: If you’ve been following the news coming out of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ panel at Comic-Con International, you’ve heard the announcement that we will indeed have Space Combat as part of the TOR experience! But what does that mean? Space combat is an alternative gameplay experience to the primary game of storytelling, questing, and ground-based combat. In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map. From there, you will blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, frigates, destroyers, and a variety of other obstacles that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars™ space battles.
To learn more, pick up the October 2010 edition of PC Gamer which hits newsstands starting August 17th for screenshots and an exclusive interview or check back with us in the weeks to come.
Stardock CEO Brad Wardell responds to the sales figures for digital distribution recently released by the NPD. Here is Wardell's comment: "NPD's numbers on digital don't tend to have much reflection on reality. As much as I would love digital distribution to take over the world, I can't think of a single publisher (including ourselves) that sells even close to a majority of its units digitally. I am a big believer in the future of digital distribution but the numbers we typically hear from publishers is that it's about a third (which is pretty darn good, by the way)." He also explains why Impulse will continue its policy of not selling games that require "bundling of a third party store" in light of the announcement that Mafia II will use Steamworks. Also, Big Download has word from GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist expressing mystification over his service not being listed among the top five digital distribution services: "We did read the report and were actually quite surprised. We do not disclose our sales numbers and we were also not contacted during the research period of this study. That being said, from our numbers and most importantly our conversations with the leading publishers in the industry, I know we are easily one of the top retailers."
Gamasutra's Q&A with Paradox's Wester talks with Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester about the company's future plans, discussing digital distribution, consolidation, DRM, free-to-play games, and more. They get an update on his "bet" that he would shave his head if Victoria 2 turned a profit, learning he was on the verge of shearing his head already, saying: "it's kind of my way to support the team, show them I'm on their side, and that I don't have a separate agenda when we release the game." He also mentions a Paradox Connect service they are planning as a value-added alternative to traditional digital rights management: We're also releasing a service for our gamers. The working name is Paradox Connect. I can't say too much about it because we're going to announce it later, but it's going to allow extra services for the people who actually buy our games.
We're not really a pro-DRM company. We skip DRM for almost all of our titles, so instead we're giving something extra to the people who can prove they actually bought the game. I think that's the best way of fighting piracy. We can speak more about it next time we meet.
Steam News has details on a new automatic update that's now available for Eufloria, accompanied by news that the space exploration and conquest game is on sale for half-price for the coming week. Here's the change list for the patch. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Website is online as the official home to the upcoming action RPG from 38 Studios' Big Huge Games that was previously known by the working title Project Mercury. The site offers newsletter signups, a FAQ, and more on the game, all in a Flash-rich environment. There are also articles in the site's story section on the "four master visionaries" creating the game, and a piece about the creation of the debut trailer for the game.
The Patrician IV Website is now live for the upcoming installment in the long-running trading and economic simulation set during the middle-ages. The site has information on the game, screenshots, and the teaser trailer, with the promise of new assets in the future.
The Fists of Fu Website is now accepting signups from those interested in participating in a second round of closed beta testing of this martial arts MMOG. Word is: "When the beta begins, new invitees will be able to hop right into the action, and Outspark is even including in-game prizes for participants; more details on this will be available on the website on Monday."
Steam News has word that a new patch is now automatically available for Left 4 Dead 2 to add "Healthpackalypse," this week's new mutation. The Left 4 Dead Blog offers the simple explanation of what this does to Versus mode in the co-op zombie shooter: "Grind down the Survivors and don’t worry about them bouncing back. With no Health kits in Versus, their permanent health is on a one way ride to zero." They also have the results of their last poll, launch a vote for next week's encore mutation, and promise more Versus updates are coming, saying: "PC players will also be getting some Versus updates this coming week. We have more updates coming so don’t think this is all we are going to do. These changes will show up on the Xbox 360 in a later update."
The Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West free weekend on Steam is now underway, and will continue until 4:00 pm EDT on Sunday. Also, the wild west third-person shooter is on sale for 50% off on Steam, as part of their Paradox Interactive sale.
A new patch is automatically available through Steam to update Counter-Strike: Source, Valve's teamplay first-person shooter. The new version adds Steam Clan Tag support, a new Clan Warfare achievement, and reverts all weapon fire-rates "to match their pre-update, tickrate 100 equivalents" as outlined in this thread, the ability to reset player statistics, and more. The full patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
IO Interactive announces that next week they will follow the PS3 demo for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days with playable demos of the third-person shooter sequel for both Windows and Xbox 360. These new demos are expected on July 26. The release of the full game is expected on August 17 in North America, August 20 throughout Europe and other PAL territories, and August 26 in Japan.
Speaking of IO Interactive, in spite of an official denial that recently discovered (and since yoinked) Hitman concept art indicates a new Hitman game is in the works at the Square Enix-owned Danish developer, Eurogamer reports they've received indications that a fifth installment in the stealth/action assassination series is indeed in the works, and that the Hitman art "likely" relates to this new game. They say a "source" (with no other context) tells them a new PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 Hitman game will be released "at the very earliest Christmas next year." They say this is backed up by information they've received from retailers, pointing to Play.com listings for Hitman 5 that carry a November 28, 2011 release date.
This Comic-Con trailer for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood features new and familiar footage from the next installment in the stealth/action series to show off more of its multiplayer support. Though short on stealth, the clip demonstrates a good deal of action, as many assassins get assassinated along the way. Here's the embedded version. Continue here to read the full story.
Here's the debut trailer from Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the role-playing game previously known as Project Mercury that's currently in development at 38 Studios subsidiary Big Huge Games. Accompanied by some concept art and in-game screenshots, the cinematic trailer shows a battle with enough skeleton warriors to make Ray Harryhausen smile and concludes with the appearance of a big hammer and an even bigger boss. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Wall Street Journal corrects their recent report that the development budget for StarCraft II has exceeded $100 million USD. They say they were referring to the wrong game: "Activision Blizzard Inc. hasn't disclosed development costs for its 'Starcraft II' videogame. A July 16 Technology article about the 'Starcraft' sequel incorrectly said the company spent more than $100 million to develop the game; that figure referred to its 'World of Warcraft' game." Thanks Big Download. On a semi-related note, VGChartz has preorder data for StarCraft II, showing the real-time strategy sequel has 684,000 preorders, and they expect that figure to top out at 750,000 before next week's release. Thanks joao.
The TaleWorlds Downloads Section now offers a new patch for Mount&Blade: Warband, updating the medieval combat sequel to version 1.127 with bug fixes, balance changes, and new content, including free(!!) horse armor. The update is also available automatically through Steam for their version. The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Another new patch is available automatically through Steam to update Alien Swarm, the just-released freeware top-down shooter remake. Also, Slashdot points the way to an article on Thumb Culture explaining how to play the game from the first-person perspective. The patch notes from the new version follow. Continue here to read the full story.
This Darkspore Trailer offers a brief cinematic tease of EA Maxis' just-announced online action/RPG that's "inspired in part by the award-winning creature editor tech of Spore." True to that, the brief clip shows a bit of creature creation. EA also now offers a Darkspore Fact Sheet with a fuller description of the game, talking of players' ability to: "Collect an arsenal of living weapons - genetic heroes with different combat abilities - and upgrade them with tens of thousands of collectible body parts and armor," and: "Make your heroes truly unique and deeply customized in an enhanced version of the award-winning Spore Creature Editor." It also mentions the game is due in Spring 2011, just days after it was announced with a February 2011 release date. Here's the embedded clip. Continue here to read the full story.
This Star Trek Online "Ancient Enemies" Trailer teases the upcoming Season Two in Cryptic's Trekkie MMORPG. As the title suggest, this centers around some ancient enemies, though they don't look all that decrepit, which may be thanks to Botox. The clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Here's a new WRC Trailer composed of work-in-progress footage from Black Bean's upcoming rally racing game. The clip depicts racing from various perspectives, demonstrating vehicle physics, terrain effects, and damage modeling. The clip is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
The James Bond 007: Blood Stone Opening Credits Trailer offers the two-minute opening credits sequence from the just-announced James Bond game. This features the game's theme song performed by Joss Stone, and visuals styled after the openings of the Bond films that serve as the game's inspiration. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
There's a Primal Carnage video interview on BASHandSlash.com chatting with the folks at Lukewarm Media about their upcoming Crichton-esque dinosaurs versus mercenaries action game. Topics include the community's input into their game design, plans for dedicated server and modification support, matchmaking, and the game's underlying Unigine and its support for DirectX 9, 10, and 11. Thanks joao.
A new Captain Blood Website is live as a Flashy home to the upcoming seafaring action/adventure. The site includes information and screenshots from the game, a montage of trailers, and a collection of oddly mundane pull quotes from previews (like "...a new adventure on the high seas." - IGN).
We have the guy from local power utility Con Edison here this morning, and he is finally fixing our gas meter. Sometime around February, our utility bill started showing zero gas usage, which has persisted to this day. Our usage over that span was obviously greater than that, as we use gas for the water heater and the furnace, and while we don't really mind getting the gas for free, we didn't want them to discover this one day and charge us a fortune all in one shot. This has lead to MrsBlue making a dozen phone calls during the intervening months, inevitably encountering less-than-helpful people and less-than-satisfactory conclusions. She finally got someone to understand the situation properly, and today it should finally be addressed.
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