Archived News:
High Moon Studios announces a double experience points weekend for Transformers: War for Cybertron will kick off tomorrow at 9:00 pm EDT through 3:00 pm EDT on Monday, saying: "Anyone playing in multiplayer matches on the Xbox 360, PS3 or PC versions of the game will earn double XP rewards and level up faster than ever." Also, a Game with the Developers event on Xbox LIVE tonight will run from 9:00 pm EDT through midnight.
There's a new Modding Guide on the Elemental War of Magic Website, as the mod tools are available as of beta 4 of the 4X turn-based strategy game. The article has details on file formats and an introduction to the mod tools. Word is: "During the beta process, the team will try as much as it can to help users learn what can and can’t be done with the existing modding tools. Those who need a lot of hand holding should probably wait until after release since the team will have very limited time available to document what is what until post-release."
A new Shogun 2: Total War Gameplay Trailer offers a look at the upcoming installment in Creative Assembly's real-time strategy series. The clip features a naval invasion, and true to the series, large numbers of troops.
Haden Blackman, executive producer and writer on the Force Unleashed series, has departed LucasArts, reports IGN. "I've had a fantastic time working with the team at Lucasfilm and am really grateful for their ongoing support," he said in a statement. "While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career."
A new automatic patch is now available for Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter, the first-person shooter remake, announces Steam News. The new version fixes display of menus and the HUD on extra wide screens in systems such as ATI Eyefinity. Here's the list of changes. Continue here to read the full story.
Steam now offers a new automatic patch for Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge, the classic adventure game remake. Here are the patch notes. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Railworks patch is now automatically available via Steam, updating the transport simulation with several changes, including the addition of the RailSimulator.com Career System. The new version carries the following warning: "Note that the save file format has changed so saves will be lost from the previous version." The change notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
A new patch for Garry's Mod is now automatically available on Steam, adding two new game modes, among the changes, which are listed below. Continue here to read the full story.
Natural Selection 2 News has details on a new patch for the Natural Selection 2 Alpha that's now automatically available through Steam. Word is: "Our priority in this patch was addressing the issues that are preventing people from connecting to servers. The next order of business is addressing any issues running or maintaining dedicated servers along with issues that make the game feel "laggy" or otherwise unplayable." Here are the change notes. Continue here to read the full story.
Soldak Entertainment now offers new playable demos for the PC and Mac editions of Din's Curse, which are updated to the same version 1.004 as yesterday's new beta patch for the action/RPG. The demo offers play from the full game, but limits character advancement to level 5. Soldak also informs us they are at work on an expansion for the game, and that the new version 1.004 has some of the graphical improvements from the add-on already, saying: "We have been working hard on an expansion pack for Din's Curse. We decided to release some of the global graphics changes directly into the main game instead of waiting for the expansion though. In recent patches we changed to a perspective view, added a better shadows option, and redid a lot of the UI graphics. As usual we also fixed some bugs, added a few new features here and there, and made some balancing changes."
The Alien Arena Website now offers a new version 7.45 of Alien Arena 2010, the freeware first-person shooter, for Windows and Linux. Word is: "The latest edition of this open sourced, freeware FPS has been updated with a number of important improvements and bugfixes that not only enhance the visual appearance, but greatly improve the performance of the game." Here's the complete change log, and the highlights follow. Continue here to read the full story.
A Project: MyWorld Website is online as home to an upcoming project from Realtime Worlds ( APB, Crackdown), which they dare to call "unique," saying: "Project: MyWorld is a unique idea crossing social media, social gaming and traditional gaming. It’s an idea as big as the world and we want you to help shape it!" A Project: MyWorld Teaser Trailer offers a look at what seems to be a social SimCity/Monopoly game. They say this is due next year, and that beta testing will commence soon: "We plan to let everyone explore Project: MyWorld early next year. In the meantime, if you want to participate in our closed beta program, please sign up for our announcements. And keep following us over the coming weeks as we roll out more material to show why we’re excited about Project: MyWorld." Thanks Destructoid.
Deep Silver announces that Lost Horizon is gold, saying the point-and-click adventure from German developer Animation Arts has "now gone into production" (presumably meaning duplication) and is set for release on September 17. Of the game, they say: "With its classic 1930s setting, fascinating locations such as Hong Kong, Tibet, Berlin, and Morocco, and the eventful search for one of humankind's greatest secrets, Lost Horizon is bound to have adventure fans glued to their PCs." They also spill the beans on some bonus content: "Also, the publisher revealed that, after playing Lost Horizon, adventurers will get to enjoy additional bonus contents, including a surprise puzzle and an opportunity to play parts of the original prototype."
Capcom's Quarterly Earnings Report ( Adobe Acrobat-format) are now online, showing a startling 90% drop in profits from the same period last year. They attribute this to foreign exchange losses and lower Consumer Online Games Business sales and earnings, this in spite of the number of new titles increased from the same term in the previous year, "when most sales were made of repeat titles, resulting in higher game development costs." Thanks joao via VGChartz.
Technology Review writes about "Our Rotting Video-Game Heritage" in another examination of the issues involved in preserving video games, pointing the way to an article on the topic from the International Journal of Digital Curation. Similar to concerns expressed by the Game On Exhibition and the focus of a project at the University of Illinois, they discuss the issues involved as hardware becomes obsolescent. Here's a bit from the abstract: "Then different preservation strategies are described with a specific focus on emulation. Finally a case study on console video game preservation is shown which uses the Planets preservation planning approach for evaluating preservation strategies in a documented decision-making process." Thanks Ant via Slashdot.
Men of War: Assault Squad Debut Trailer is now available, showing off some action from the next installment in the next installment in the World War II action/strategy series. There is also a new second developer update from Best Way discussing the infantry in the game, describing them as the most important units on the battlefield.
Gamasutra - DeathSpank And The Evolving Role Of Comedy In Games.
DeathSpank extends its comedy through the player's experience, from its menu screens to its voice acting; from its art style to its quest-giving system; from its character animations to its wacky-answer puzzles. Nearly everything in DeathSpank is funny, and the comedy operates on two simultaneous levels. Characters such as Freen the Felt Salesman and Eubrick the Retired (formally known as Eubrick the Bitter, Eubrick the Undefeated, Eubrick the Bastard of Hillhaven, Sally the Stable Girl, and Eubrick the Bed Wetter) are funny creations regardless of how many games you've played.
GamesRadar - Games that didn't need zombies. Thanks Ant via Digg.
Listen, game developers – I know a zombie when I see one. Call the things "mutants" or claim they've been "infected" by some vaguely explained "virus", but here's the truth. You're getting lazy and, more and more often, you're falling back on a completely unoriginal and ridiculously overused cliche for your games' enemies. To be fair, I can understand why…
Happy birthday NASA, as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formed on this day in 1958, leading to the first man on the moon just under 11 years later, forever setting a benchmark to embarrass less ambitious projects that take longer to complete.
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