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Archived News:
Telltale Games announces the release of The City That Dares Not Sleep, the fifth and final episode in Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, the latest series of Sam & Max adventures. To celebrate, the five-episode season is now on sale for $19.95, and going that one better, they are also offering the Sam & Max: Complete Collection on sale for $49.95, which combines The Devil's Playhouse with Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. Here's word on the new episode: "In the stunning finale, a rampaging monstrous beast of gargantuan proportions has put the city on high alert and Sam has assembled a crack team to put a stop to the destruction. To end the pandemonium, Sam, aided by some old friends, must venture inside the creature! You won't want to miss the truly shocking conclusion!"
Preorders are now underway for Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, a shop-simulator/RPG first released in Japan in December 2007. Word is: "Recettear is the story of an item shop, the girl who lives in it, and the fairy who turned her life upside down. Recette Lemongrass finds herself in charge of an item shop built into her house, in order to pay back a loan her father took and then skipped out on - and Tear, her newfound fairy 'companion', won't take no for an answer! As Recette, you have to decide how you'll get your stock - either through playing the markets in town or going out into the wild with an adventuring friend and thrashing beasts until they give up the goodies - how much to sell things for, what the shop should look like, and how to best go about getting the money Tear needs to pay off the loan. If you can't come up with the money... well, hope you like living in a cardboard box." Preorders are underway at GamersGate and Steam, with the Steam edition carrying a 10% pre-purchase discount, and the answer to a trivia question, as this is apparently the first independently-developed game from Japan on Steam.
The Sims 3 Website announces The Sims 3: Barnacle Bay, another expansion for EA's lifestyle simulation sequel. They offer a few screenshots, and the following explanation: A Whole New World for your Sims to Explore! An island nestled in the Simuyan Sea, Barnacle Bay is a vibrant vacation getaway with stunning beaches, campgrounds, parks, and a curiously modern downtown. First settled by pirates, fisherman, and artists – the world’s inhabitants now enjoy relaxing at Smuggler’s Beach and letting loose at The Wanderer’s Watering Hole. Will your trip be a vacation or a staycation?
The RuneStorm Forums have word that The Crucible, which was originally planned as an Unreal Tournament 3 modification is now planned as a commercial game and they also have another project in the works (thanks BeyondUnreal). Here's a bit: The idea behind this is to get the Crucible to a profesional standard, playing well and supporting us to make more cool games
The final result will be it's own game, and not a UT3 mod, as the currently released versions play
We'll be sure to update you as we progress, but we hope to manage it quickly, and we'll be working very hard at completing it and other projects. Which brings me to my next point.
Other Projects:
As i'm sure you've guessed, that we are working hard on something other than the Crucible. While it was the main focus, with the switch to a commercial Crucible plan, we are developing two simultaneous projects. The other is working well it so happens, and it's very fun. DC has been at this one for a couple week's, and it's showing great progress. We'll be sure to keep you posted on this one as well, as well as announce it propper in due course.
The EverQuest II Website announces this will be a double XP weekend for EverQuest II and EverQuest II: Extended (thanks Voodoo Extreme). Word is: This coming weekend, from 10:00 am PDT on Friday, September 3rd, until 10:00 am PDT on Tuesday, September 7th, we will be running a true Double XP promotion (+100% XP).
The bonus applies to AA, tradeskill and adventure experience gained this weekend. Our French, German, Japanese, Test and EQ2 Extended servers will also be enjoying the increase in XP gain.
Steam News announces the release of a new automatic patch to update the Source engine, Counter-Strike: Source, and Team Fortress 2. The brief patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
The BRINK Developer Diary #4 is now online, the video is titled "Endless Horizon," as: "In this latest doc, the team at Splash Damage discusses Brink’s unique visual flavor — both for the game’s characters and environment."
The Secret World interview on Ten Ton Hammer (NSFW) is a video of a conversation with Ragnar Tørnquist about Funcom's upcoming MMORPG. In spite of the failure to appreciate the attenuation of audio when you hold the mic a foot farther from the subject's mouth than the interviewer's, we hear Ragnar faintly describe the game's social hubs, its new player experience (which dare not be called a tutorial), and The Crucible, which allows the testing of new skills before they are acquired.
GOG.com now offers digital distribution of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, with Croteam's shooter sequel, updated to work under Windows Vista and XP, and devoid of DRM.
Steam News announces the release of a large new patch for Supreme Commander 2, updating the real-time strategy sequel from Gas Powered Games to version 1.2. The new version includes balance tweaks and bug fixes as well as new content, as the maps that were a preorder bonus are now available to all players. The lengthy change list follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The EVGA Website has details on how owners of eligible EVGA graphics cards purchased between March 26 and August 23 of this year can get a free copy of Mafia II via digital distribution. This entails uploading a copy of the invoice for your card, and word is: "These are in very limited supply, the faster you get your invoice uploaded the better your chances are to collect." Thanks Shawn.
A new Paradox Interactive Blog called The Wester Front is now online to collect the musings of Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester. They promise weekly updates, the first of which is now online, titled "Bobby, Mark and Paradox Interactive," discussing the seeming resurgence in PC gaming. Here's a bit: Developing games for PC is great. I don't say that just because we have only released one non-PC title to date (Lead & Gold for PlayStation Network) and a small minority of our upcoming titles are played on machines other than the PC. No, I'm not biased at all. I'm a morally sound individual, and what you will find in this blog are nothing but my completely honest, unbiased opinions. What I find most exciting is that more and more people consider PC the gaming machine of the future. Seeing what you can do with a PC in comparison what you can do with other consoles, how you can connect with other gamers, release new stuff and keep control of your releases makes more and more people understand the true potential of PC gaming.
A re-cut version of the recent "Istanbul" trailer from James Bond 007: Blood Stone uses much of the same footage as the original, but offers an even more stylized presentation, capturing more of the flavor of a James Bond movie. The clip is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
Developer Malfador Machinations and publisher Shrapnel Games announce World Supremacy, "the upcoming game of global death and destruction," from the developer of the Space Empires series. The light strategy game is currently in beta testing, and while it does not carry a set release date, they say they have a general plan to release it before the end of this year. The World Supremacy Website is online, offering info, screenshots, and the game's modest system requirements. Here's a bit on the game, which mentions their emphasis on mod support: World Supremacy is a Windows beer-and-pretzels strategy game of contemporary conflict for one to eight players. In World Supremacy players have but one goal: total global control through utter annihilation of all who oppose. Control is derived from conquest and the tools of conquest are many; land, air, and sea. And when you care enough to send the very best you can even say hello to your foes with a well placed nuke or two.
In World Supremacy the game world is created fresh for each game with players choosing a variety of settings to tailor their experience. While this means that initially one cannot fight over already familiar territory mod makers will be pleased to learn that any type of map can be created. Want to fight over the real world? Middle Earth? The world of the Destroymen series? Create and conquer.
2K Games announces plans to release the previously announced Jimmy’s Vendetta DLC for Mafia II next week on September 7, adding new content to the open-world crime game sequel for $9.99 USD/800 Microsoft Points. We have some new Jimmy’s Vendetta screenshots, and here's word on what this adds to the game: "Jimmy’s Vendetta takes players into an alternate perspective of the mob through the eyes of Jimmy, the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job. Players will get their hands dirty helping Jimmy clean up other people’s messes as they deal with the Italian and Irish mobsters that reside in Empire Bay. As players progress, a slew of new quests are unlocked, including assassination and timed vehicle pursuits ending in dramatic shootouts and explosive car chases. Execute with deadly head shots or charged explosives, and rack up points for precision-timed vehicular power slides, lofty jumps, and supercharged velocity. Multipliers and combos add bonus points to overall scores that will be immediately posted to the new online leaderboard system, providing extensive re-playability as players work to rise to the top of the ranks."
The FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test Application Site has word that beta testing of the upcoming FINAL FANTASY MMORPG, which was to begin today, is postponed due to "a confirmation of critical bugs." They say a new schedule will be released "at a later date," which may spell trouble for the game's launch, as FFXIV is scheduled for "early release" in just over three weeks, and is supposed to go fully live in one month. Thanks Ant.
Wargaming.net announces the completion of the first phase of beta testing for World of Tanks, their upcoming team-based MMO action game of armored combat. They say the first round of testing involved more than 70,000 players, and peaked at more than 4,000 concurrent users, saying more than a half-million battles were fought, with more than 150 million shots fired to destroy over 15 million virtual vehicles. The next phase of the closed beta is supposed to kick off tomorrow, and you can register your interest in testing on this page.
The Diablo III Website has a new feature outlining how crafting will work in Diablo III, Blizzard's upcoming action/RPG sequel. They link to the previously released Artisan/Caravan trailer, and offer some more on how they will operate. Here's the overview: "In Diablo III, we want you to be able to build your arsenal as you progress through the game, turning old, outdated gear into... well, more than just extra money. We want you to be able to make deliberate choices about your equipment alongside the joy of acquiring random items from enemies and treasure chests. To do that without slowing down the game's action, we've implemented a unique crafting system."
Thanks Ant.
IGN - The Future of Co-Op Gaming.
Co-op is the new everywhere mode, a bullet point that's wormed its way into Mario, Call of Duty, and Fable. What we generally mean by "co-op" is a mode that allows collaborative destruction, which is cooperation in only the most marginal way. While those two concepts frequently overlap in games like Gears of War 2, Crackdown 2, and Modern Warfare 2, there is an inherent contradiction in working collaboratively with another person only to destroy everything around you. What other ways of cooperating in play are there? How does our innate nature to both trust and mistrust one another affect the way we play together?
IGN - Why Facebook Games Matter.
Some of the latest Facebook games are even nicely prepping their players for the broader gaming world by implementing tried and true mechanics from traditional games. Things like quests, collectibles, and even turn-based battles are starting to pop up all over the place, and the more complex games are generally gaining larger player bases more quickly than the simple ones. Not to mention that lots of traditional game developers and publishers have started moving in. Electronic Arts and Disney have already snatched up two of the biggest players in the space for hundreds of millions of dollars, and we can expect more to follow. Casual gaming giants Big Fish and PlayFirst are both making games for the platform. Even BioWare has made a Facebook game.
Happy birthday to one of my favorite people, as Hudson the wonder dog turns 10 today. Okay, I may be defining people loosely, but she is indeed quite personable. 10 is getting on in years for an Airedale Terrier, but she still has a remarkable youthfulness to her, probably helped by the endless ebullience of the Gunnar-man, who remains a puppy in his mind to this day. The pups will celebrate the occasion with some canned salmon, as Huddy is absolutely wild for fish.
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