Archived News:
Telltale Games now offers It's About Time, the first episode of Back to the Future: The Game. Word is: "As the series premiere begins, we join Marty six months after the events of the third film. Doc Brown's missing -- and that's where you come in!" The episode is available for Windows and OS X, and the game is also expected for Playstation Network and iPad early next year.
Reuters follows up on Viacom's plan to sell Harmonix, saying the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer behind the Rock Band series has been sold to investment firm Columbus Nova. Terms of the sale are not disclosed, but they quote Wedbush Securities analyst James Dix saying the deal will likely contribute between $100 million and $200 million to Viacom, "in large part from tax benefits and the buyer's assumption of liabilities such as write-downs on holiday sales." They also note financial statements say that Viacom's net loss from operating Harmonix for the nine months ended September 30 was $316 million. Word is: "Columbus Nova, which created Harmonix-SBE Holdings to hold the asset, is a multi-strategy investment firm managing over $10 billion of assets through its own funds and affiliated portfolio companies."
The R.U.S.E. Website has word on the status of The Manhattan Project Pack, the free DLC for R.U.S.E., which they announced was available on Steam yesterday. They are not shy about blaming the delay on Valve: "Also, due to a Christmas overload, the guys at Steam weren't able to add The Manhattan Project Pack to the Steam store yesterday as promised. We are in close contact with them to get this solved ASAP, and we apologize for the delay and any frustration it's causing!" Thanks Big Download.
LucasArts offers new patches for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, updating the North American and European editions of the Star Wars action game to version 1.1. The downloads are mirrored on ActionTrip, AtomicGamer, Gamer's Hell, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Closed beta testing of Dreamlords: Resurrection is now underway, offering the chance to check out this MMORTS game. Word is: "You will play a Dreamlord, a powerful collection of souls from ancient times, awakened by the turmoil and suffering of the living. Your personal goal is to raise a powerful civilization, lead an army, conquer land and grow in strength so that you might stand up against the mighty Nightmares that threatens to unleash the Nedom Wolven, Cynos of ultimate Destruction. During your journey, you’ll have to gather gnosis to gain strength. Gnosis is the attention of the Dreamer, the highest and most absolute of gods, and gnosis is the purest form of energy in Elysion. Everything is dependent on it to live, especially Dreamlords." The beta client is mirrored on Gamer's Hell.
CosmicBreak officially launches today, offering a free-to-play third-person shooter with an anime/mecha theme. The game's final beta test concluded yesterday, and word is that everything earned by players during the final beta test is carrying over into the live game.
More sales than you can shake a discount stick at.
- Amazon - Up to 75% off on game downloads. Thanks jimnms.
- Atari - Dozens of downloadable games on sale.
- Direct2Drive - Dozens of games on sale. Also three coupon codes, offering up to an additional 25% off.
- EA Store - Two or more select games are 50% off.
- GamersGate - Dozens of games on sale. Buy four, pay for three.
- GOG.com - All games up to 50% off. Also, Tyrian 2000 for free.
- The Humble Indie Bundle #2 pay what you want and contribute to charity.
- Impulse - Hundreds of games on sale.
- Matrix Games - Many games on sale.
- Steam - Over 1,000 games on sale.
- Telltale - Several games at 50% off.
Still on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.
Link of the Day: Failed Diablo 3 Character Classes. Thanks Kxmode.
The Divinity 2 Website now offers downloads of a playable demo for Divinity 2 - The Dragon Knight Saga, Larian Studios' role-playing sequel. In addition to the Windows demo, there is also a demo on Xbox LIVE, but this is restricted to those in European territories. Here's word on what to expect: "In this demo, you will live the beginning of your adventure as a Dragon Slayer. A Dragon Knight has been sighted in the surroundings of Broken Valley, and this is your chance as the latest initiate of your Order to prove your value! Exploration will be rewarding, as many epic battles, numerous quests and rewards await you around every corner of this big demo’s playground!"
Two Worlds II Website now offers the release of Two Worlds II: Gold Edition, a free upgrade for all owners of Reality Pump's role-playing sequel. Among other things, this adds multiplayer interoperability with the just-released Mac OS X edition. Here's more: "The Gold Upgrade provides an immense download package for the award winning role playing hit. With over 100 modifications and enhancements, Reality Pump and TopWare guarantee even more fun with the top selling hit! The Gold Upgrade provides a PC adapted Interface, upgrades to enemy AI and gameplay balancing, as well as technical updates for ATI graphic cards just to name a few."
The Fallout Wiki has excerpts from another round of court documents related to the ongoing legal action between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to the Fallout franchise, as Interplay continues to pursue development of Fallout Online. Here's bit of their summary: "Among other things, Interplay asserts that 'Bethesda has breached its agreements with Interplay by refusing to allow Interplay the right to use the Fallout related intellectual property assets'. However, Bethesda lawyers now claim that when Interplay licensed the rights to develop and publish Fallout Online from Bethesda back in 2007, it actually never had the rights to use any elements of the Fallout universe and Fallout games aside from the title Fallout itself." Thanks Acleacius via rpg codex.
In an Edge Magazine interview, EA's Ben Cousins discusses in-game advertising, saying that microtransactions have proven to be a superior way to monetize their free-to-play games. "We hedged our bets," Cousins says of the dual model they used for Battlefield Heroes. "We thought we'd do in-game advertising and virtual goods sales, and one of those took off really fast and the other hasn’t really taken off at all." He goes on to suggest that while specific promotions could make sense, the in-game ad model may be coming to an end: "We did a deal with Dr Pepper for Battlefield Heroes, where if you buy a bottle and scan in the code you get an exclusive outfit. That kind of deep integration will work, I think, but I’m not convinced that we’ll have billboards in games and things like that. Maybe those days are over." Thanks Shacknews.
The pack shot for the upcoming PC edition of Bulletstorm GameStop Website is adorned with the Games for Windows LIVE logo. While nothing has been officially announced about how online support for the upcoming shooter from Epic's People Can Fly studio will be handled, this clearly suggests the game will use Microsoft's service. Thanks BeyondUnreal. Update: Big Download confirms the game will indeed use GFWL.
The Natural Selection 2 Website has details on a new version 160 of the Natural Selection 2, which is now available through Steam for those who have preordered the action/strategy sequel (thanks Joao). Here's the change list. Continue here to read the full story.
- Get Gosu offers Counter Strike and Counter Strike: Source tournaments. Currently in beta, live cash games begin with the new year, and other games will be added soon.
Thanks Acleacius and Ant.
Happy Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us. I'm listening to the hammering again outside my window as I write this, so I guess I already aired my grievance yesterday, so maybe my feat of strength can be to take one of the Con Ed jackhammers and give it a good hammer toss. On the other hand, I should make sure in advance that they are not just working to put up a proper aluminum pole, as that would be a Festivus miracle! And happy birthday shul.
R.I.P.: Fred Foy, 'Lone Ranger' announcer, has died at age 89. Thanks Mike Martinez.
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