Archived News:

Thursday, Oct 14, 2010

Medal of Honor Patched

The Medal of Honor Website has word on a new automatic patch for the military shooter offering multiplayer fixes. The change list follows. Continue here to read the full story.

StarCraft II Patched

Battle.net offers word on a new patch that's automatically available for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, updating the real-time strategy sequel to version 1.1.2. Here's the change list. Continue here to read the full story.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned Sunk

Disney has cancelled Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, their upcoming swashbuckling action/RPG, reports Kotaku, who have a confirmation from Disney of earlier rumors to that effect. "Disney Interactive Studios confirms the cancellation of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned video game which was scheduled to be released in 2011," Angela Emery, Disney Interactive Studios' vice president of communication told them. "As a result of this decision, Disney Interactive Studios completed a restructuring of Propaganda Games, its Vancouver, BC internal studio, affecting one of the studio's two development teams. The studio is still in active production of TRON: Evolution, the video game, which will be released on December 7, 2010 with additional DLC (downloadable content) support following the game's release."

Industry Down 8% Over Last Year

Gamasutra has NPD sales figures for September that show revenues for the industry are down 8% from the same period last year. Word is: "The $1.22 billion in new retail sales for hardware, software and accessories in September dropped from $1.32 billion in revenues in September 2009." They also offer sales figures for the month:

  1. Halo: Reach (Microsoft, Xbox 360) 3,300,000
  2. Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
  3. Dead Rising 2 (Capcom, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
  4. NHL 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3)
  5. FIFA Soccer 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, NDS)
  6. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Square Enix, PSP)
  7. Mafia II (Take-Two, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
  8. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Activision Blizzard, PS3, Xbox 360, NDS, Wii)
  9. Metroid: Other M (Nintendo, Wii)
  10. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Cities in Motion Trailer

Paradox Interactive offers a new gameplay trailer very briefly showing off the metro system in Cities in Motion, the forthcoming mass transportation simulator developed by Colossal Order Ltd and releasing on PC in early 2011.The Metro trailer gives a glimpse into one of several ways for players to transport the masses across one of four cities in the game, showing an underground subway mode as well as elevated track sections with trains travelling up above the city streets on their way to various destinations.

Valve Denies Steam Trade-in Plans

A post on NowGamer quotes Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter from an interview talking about the possibility that Valve is working on a way to allow game trade-ins through Steam (thanks Kotaku). Says Pachter: "Steam gives gamers enough other stuff so that they don’t resent the fact they can’t trade in their games. And you know, name all the Steam games that you’ve purchased that you’ve traded back in to somebody else for credit. Steam’s about to let you do that supposedly, you know like trade and exchange, but they’re going to take a fee from it." We contacted Valve for comment on this and received the following response from Doug Lombardi: "Untrue. We've never met with Mr. Pachter."

Fearless Studios Launches

A new Fearless Studios Website is online, offering this press release announcing this new developer launched by LucasArts veterans Haden Blackman (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed) and Cedrick Collomb (formerly LucasArts Director of Engineering). They are not revealing any game projects at this time, but they have set forth their philosophy. "At Fearless Studios, we believe great videogames should leave a lasting impression, an indelible mark on players, our industry, and even the wider culture," said Haden Blackman, Co-President and Chief Creative Officer. "By taking bold creative risks and tackling new challenges, Fearless Studios will fuse the best of story and gameplay to immerse, engage, and affect players just as deeply as our favorite films and novels."

Next ARMA 2 DLC Next Month

There's an ARMA 2 interview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun discussing the military shooter sequel with Karel Moricky and Jay Crow of Bohemia Interactive Studios revealing that the next DLC for the game is expected on November 24 for £7.99/€8.99/$9.99. The new content is called Private Military Company, as it will allow players to go all Blackwater Xe Services, and word is it is focused on cooperative play: "The whole campaign is co-op multiplayer compatible. Instead of creating set of loosely connected campaign, single player and multiplayer scenarios, we focused solely upon a cooperative campaign. All missions will be playable in two-player co-op, giving you the opportunity to invite your friend and share your progress. Missions are built upon a broad range of different gameplay elements which enforcing team play, like sniper/spotter or helicopter pilot/door gunner situations."

War of Angels Open Beta Today

Closed beta testing for War of Angels will conclude today, and an open beta will commence for this free-to-play, fantasy-themed MMORPG. Word is: "War of Angels offers countless challenges and dungeons abound with puzzles and traps. A levelcap of 60 warrants many exciting adventures. In addition, a large community awaits new players - over 50 guilds have been founded so far. There are plenty of community features for guilds and guilds can engage in RvR warfare to fight for the right to rule the large guild town. The guild that comes out victorious can construct buildings and hire merchants and other NPCs."

On FIFA and Discs

MCV quotes Peter Moore from an upcoming interview with the EA sports honcho where he discusses the future of the FIFA series, which may have less emphasis on disc-based delivery, though he indicates this is still a long way off. "We need to provide that persistent world, maybe sometimes powered by discs, maybe on social networks, or the cloud or whatever. That's the team's vision, that no matter where you are or what you’re using, there’s a FIFA experience to be had, it all links together, it lifts your level up and identifies your status," he tells them. "“Personally I still think there’ll be discs five years from now. But generally yes, of course, I think there will come a time when FIFA is less a disc that you wait for in late September/early October, and more something that we provide 365 days a year." Here's his outlook: "In a few years time I expect to have less of a team developing and as many if not more doing live operations."

Early DNF Access for All Steam Borderlands Owners?

The Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition is available on Steam, offering Gearbox's shooter/RPG and all its DLC, as well as early access to the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever demo via the Duke Nukem Forever: First Access Club. Now we're seeing multiple confirmations of reports from our forums that everyone who has purchased Borderlands through Steam has received a Duke Nukem Forever: First Access Club Key, presumably providing the same early access as GOTY customers.

Morning Previews

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews

Out of the Blue

Well, they got all those miners out of their situation after all that time. It's a pretty stirring tale, though all the talk of a movie seems a little overblown, as knowing how the story will turn out will ruin a lot of the potential suspense. If they focus on that guy whose wife and mistress were both holding vigil it could be great, but I don't think that's the kind of story they're looking to tell.

Storied Links: Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius.
Play: 1 Will Survive 2.
Feed the King.
Road of the Dead.
Stories: Korean man in wheelchair falls to death after missing lift. Thanks The Flying Penguin.
Russia's Inflatable Military.
The Little Cars That Moved Europe.
Science: Water Bouncing on a Superhydrophobic Carbon Nanotube Array.
Images: Bender in Minecraft.
Only Take What You Can Handle.
A Gallery of Rare Empire Strikes Back Shots.
Media: South African Police Chase.
Clever Halloween pumpkin design.
FIGHT!
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