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Archived News:
Blizzard Entertainment announces World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launch events for the night of December 6 to pave the way for the release of the new MMORPG expansion on December 7. On a semi-related note, MMO-Champion has details on the new aspects of Cataclysm that will be available on the PTR tomorrow when a version 4.0.3a patch launches (thanks PC Gamer). Word is: Come celebrate the dawn of a new age of Azeroth! On the evening before World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's launch, select retail stores in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the region of Taiwan will be holding special events to celebrate the expansion's release. Join your fellow World of Warcraft players for a night of camaraderie and exciting events, including contests, prizes, costumes, dance, music, and more before the stores open their doors to welcome gamers who want to be among the first to purchase and play the new expansion.
Telltale Games and Steam now offer Poker Night at the Inventory, the gaming-themed poker game, which is a Steamplay title for both Windows and OS X. Here's the deal: "Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club. In Poker Night at the Inventory, you'll deal with Penny Arcade's clever, cunning Tycho, Team Fortress 2's hulking Heavy, Homestar Runner's self-proclaimed "awesome icon" Strong Bad and the hyperkinetic 'rabbity-thing' from Sam & Max. These characters come together in ways some never thought possible, in a setting few would have predicted."
Though CD Projekt is planning on releasing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings without DRM, it does not mean they plan on taking piracy of their upcoming RPG sequel lightly. Eurogamer has word that their plan is to attempt to "fine" those who pirate the game. "Of course we're not happy when people are pirating our games, so we are signing with legal firms and torrent sneaking companies," CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński tells them. "In quite a few big countries, when people are downloading it illegally they can expect a letter from a legal firm saying, 'Hey, you downloaded it illegally and right now you have to pay a fine.' We are totally fair, but if you decide you will not buy it legally there is a chance you'll get a letter. We are talking about it right now."
Crystal Dynamics tweets that the PS3 update adding the promised co-op support for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is now available, and a subsequent tweet has word, such as it is, on plans for a Windows patch to do the same, saying: "News on the PC update to follow soon."
The Natural Selection 2 Website has the patch notes from a new beta version of Unknown Worlds' action/strategy hybrid that's now available for preorder customers. Word is: "Well it was a long weekend but we think we've gotten all the biggest problems in the beta fixed! There was a lot of other stuff we wanted to change on the gameplay side that we are holding off on right now just to make sure we could get this patch out as soon as possible." The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Steam is now offering pre-purchases of Test Drive Unlimited 2. The advance commitment will get you a sports car, and the accompanying sweater to drape over your shoulders: "Pre-Order now to get the Pagani Zonda Tricolore and a stylish in-game pullover to wear when driving!"
Link of the Day: Nicolas Cage Losing His Sh*t NSFW. Thanks Acleacius via HuffPo.
Shrapnel Games announces the release of World Supremacy, a turn-based strategy game of global conquest developed by Malfador Machinations (Space Empires series). The game can be purchased online through the World Supremacy Website, where they also offer a playable demo if you want a sample. Word is: "Light in the rules department, heavy in the strategy area, World Supremacy is a beer and pretzels wargame whose roots can be traced back to such games as Axis and Allies, Supremacy, and Empire Deluxe. Set in the contemporary era players command infantry, armor, helicopters, jets, submarines, nuke and neutron bombs, in an all out battle to control the world. No diplomacy, only destruction."
Yuplay now offers digital distribution of a PC edition of Apache: Air Assault, Gaijin Entertainment's multi-platform combat flight simulator. That page also offers downloads of the first patch for the game, which will update it to version 1.0.0.1. Here's word on the game: "Apache: Air Assault is a new combat flight simulation game based on the Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopter. The player takes on the role of three distinct Apache crews that each deal with what at first appears to be localized enemy activity, but eventually reveals itself to be part of the larger plan. The gameplay intercuts back and forth between the three crews as the action and stakes escalate." Thanks Big Download.
The good old gamers at GOG.com report a rousing response to their recent announced preorders of a DRM-free edition of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, CD Projekt's upcoming RPG sequel. Here's a bit: "Since our announcement on Thursday, GOG has been seeing an incredible and enthusiastic response from members of the community, gamers on the Internet, and blogs and press outlets everywhere. Thanks so much for your interest and support, and thanks for all your (many, many!) preorders."
MCV quotes Cédric Lagarrigue on the topic of smaller publishers competing in today's marketplace, something he knows about, since he's the CEO of French publisher Focus Home Interactive. Focus has opted against boxed retail copies of Cities XL 2011 in the U.K., which Lagarrigue explains. "It was impossible for us to secure a strong place at retail because of difficulties with distributors and the extremely unfavourable conditions of the PC market," he says. "It has become very difficult to sell a good PC title there. If people can’t find a product they want in stores, they will buy online. It is the same in the US, where PC does not have the place at retail that it had before. It was no surprise when NPD announced in September digital sales had exceeded that of boxed product for the first time."
Ars reviews the OnLive microconsole, service offers Ars Technica's impressions of the cloud gaming service and hardware. They discuss the good news of the service's convenience, quibbles with frequent software updates and lack of social tools, but of course the real question is how does it all play? Here's a bit on that: FiOS is great with OnLive, but I did have the chance to test it on other, slower connections as well. Even then, I can still say that OnLive is entirely playable, but there are some issues. Latency, bandwidth and caps, distance from the nearest server, and even whether you use a gamepad versus a keyboard and mouse makes an impact. Latency is by far the most prevalent factor, and unless you're playing next door to one of OnLive's servers, you'll feel it. Even with my 20Mbps down and 4Mbps up, I could tell that the game was not running natively.
Three main indicators give away the fact that this isn't a native game: framerate bumps, sudden resolution drops and gameplay blips. The framerate is supposed to be 60fps, and it often is, but there are hiccups, most likely due to packet loss or someone else in the house using the internet. The 60fps doesn't look or feel steady; it acts more like a spiky 45fps, with sudden drops that occur randomly, but not when the action gets hot or the graphics explode onscreen. The resolution is also variable, and the image is compressed to help with latency. One second you might see the pores in someone's face, and the next their head will look like an angular peach. It doesn't happen often, and this problem is much worse when on Wi-Fi.
- Cities in Motion on Paradox Plaza. Developer Diary #1 - A Prelude.
Thanks for the well wishing on my birthday. I will now get to celebrate with what should be a fairly quiet week here as the U.S. gears up for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, something I'm used to by now, since my birthday is the last day in November that can't be Thanksgiving, which, even when the first day of the month is a Thursday, can only be as early as the 22nd. As always, we will be hosting a bunch of family for the holiday, and are greatly looking forward to the occasion.
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