Archived News:
gamigo announces Dungeon Empires, an upcoming browser-based dungeon construction RPG in the works at German developer Limbic Entertainment. The game will feature the ability to create your own dungeons to trap hapless adventurers, as well as the ability to attempt to plunder other dungeons with your own hero, with both modes interdependent, as explained here: "Only those who plunder enemy dungeons will receive new monsters, rooms and items for their own chamber of terror. The clever connection between the two gameplay modes keeps motivation high." The Dungeon Empires Website is accepting signups for their upcoming closed beta test, and here are some screenshots.
Iceberg Interactive announces that Baron Wittard: Nemesis of Ragnarok is now gold, and off to manufacturing, saying the suspense/adventure game will hit retail stores across Europe and other territories on February 18, when it will also be available on digital download portals. Here's word on what to expect from the game: The eccentric architect Baron Wittard has built something really special: a city inside a building. This monumental pleasure dome, called 'The Utopia', features 1000 apartments, a shopping mall, and hundreds of offices and leisure facilities. All under one roof. Its grand opening was supposed to have been two years ago. That event never happened. A chain of mysterious events has now left the Utopia abandoned and silent. People have gone missing. Electromagnetic disturbances are increasing. These happenings all point to Wittard's desolate Utopia. Armed with only a camera and a torch, you must journey there alone to explore its winding corridors, its secret passageways, and its gloomy halls. Local townspeople say Wittard kept a terrible secret. They speak fearfully of someone or something malevolent lurking at his city. They say it is waiting and growing in power. They say time is running out...
Big Download has a new trailer from Darkspore showing off the hero editor in the action/RPG from EA/Maxis. After showing off the versatility of creature creation, the clip concludes with the game's release date, saying it's due on March 29, 2011, very early in the game's previously revealed Spring 2011 release window.
VG247 has a confirmation that the Dead Space 2: Severed DLC mentioned in the Dead Space 2 release announcement will not be coming to Windows. The statement they received from EA on the topic is short, and to the point: "Dead Space 2: Severed will not be available on the PC."
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti product page has a "Built for DirectX 11" blurb that indicates Crysis 2 and H.A.W.X. 2 will feature DirectX 11 support, also mentioning Civilization 5, though DX11 support for that was already announced. Word is: "Enjoy all the visual glory of the latest DirectX® 11 blockbuster games like Crysis 2, HAWX 2, and Civilization 5. With massive geometry processing power of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti lets you enjoy incredibly detailed environments and characters." Thanks PC Games Hardware.
The official RAGE Website has gotten a revamp, now offering a preorder link that shows the game's previously announced September 13, 2011 release date (September 16 in Europe). There are also new Q&As on the Bethesda Blog, where three of the game's developers share their thoughts, as they talk with Matt Hooper, Tim Willits, and John Carmack about their careers. Finally, there are three new RAGE screenshots on Flickr.
The Operation Flashpoint: Red River Developer Diary #1 offers insights into Codemasters' upcoming military shooter sequel from the development team. Word is: "The developer diary features explosive footage of the game in action, including the devastating effects of JDAM airstrikes. Marines are shown engaging insurgent enemies at close quarters, clearing them out of towns and villages and hunting them down in mountains. The overwhelming conventional might of the Chinese PLA is also shown with state of the art equipment, including the tanks and helicopters that make them such a formidable foe. The footage shows off the new setting of Tajikistan with its epic vistas and huge open landscapes which present unique and evolving tactical challenges as players are tasked with achieving objectives on their own initiative." There's also an Operation Flashpoint: Red River Interview on Strategy Informer where Codemasters' Adam Parsons tells them that Operation Flashpoint is a "thinking man's" FPS and that ArmA is "no threat" and the admission that Dragon Rising was "over-stretched," and that "key areas fell short". The embedded version of the trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Atomic Games announces that Breach is now available, offering a new multiplayer military shooter for Windows and Xbox 360. The game features destructible environments, an advanced cover system, and other technology originally created for Six Days in Fallujah. Breach is now available on Direct2 Drive and Steam at the same discounted price, which Direct2Drive says is 40% off, but Steam says is a 20% discount. There is also a thread on the Breach Forums complaining about lack of the promised support for dedicated servers (thanks Garrett2112 and Joao). We contacted Atomic, who explain that now that the game is live on Steam, players will find the dedicated server under the tools tab in their Steam menu. They also acknowledge that having this tied to players' Steam accounts is less than deal, indicating that they are working on a standalone dedicated server to be distributed separately. Word is: There is a legitimate complaint about the dedicated server being tied to the Steam account. We are working to remedy the problem. Once we've got a version of the dedicated server app that is independent of Steam, we should be able to release it through our website.
New version 11.1 Catalyst reference drivers for AMD/ATI graphics cards are now available, along with a new version 11.1a Catalyst hotfix and new version 10.12 application profiles. The new drivers have performance improvements for F1 2010 and Left 4 Dead 2, and they are available for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, and Windows XP 64-bit. This page offers details on the version 11.1a Hotfix for Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit.
Paradox Interactive announces that Magicka has sold over 30,000 copies since its release yesterday, saying this makes Arrowhead Studios' action/adventure the number one bestselling game on Steam over that period. They also reaffirm their commitment that began with yesterday's patch to clear up bugs and other issues, saying: "However, the fantastic success of Magicka is not a signal for the development team to pop open the jars of mead and relax after celebrating. Arrowhead Studios is working around the sundial and is fully committed to ongoing support by zapping glitches and communicating with players. The dev team has plenty more to conjure up so be on the lookout for more announcements and keep those wands ready, wizards!"
Star Wars: The Old Republic may be released this September, reports MCV, saying they've heard this from "development sources." About a year ago the BioWare-developed Star Wars MMORPG was projected for a Spring 2011 release, though in November BioWare's Ray Muzyka indicated they were "just saying 2011" when asked about the game's release date.
Champions Online: Free For All is now live, offering the chance to practice your heroism in Cryptic's superhero MMORPG without having to find a place to hide your wallet in your tights. These Release Notes outline what's changed in the game, explaining the difference between silver and gold, and explaining their newly introduced archetypes system. The notes also include an address from Executive Producer Shannon Posniewski, who is also the subject of a Champions Online: Free for All Launch Day Q&A on Ten Ton Hammer.
The Natural Selection 2 Website has word that build 162 of the Natural Selection 2 beta is now available on Steam for those who have preordered Unknown Worlds' upcoming action/strategy sequel. A new NS2 Build 162 Patch Video offers patch notes in an unusual format, and the update also mentions some under the hood changes: "This build also includes several weeks of work rewriting the physics and collision systems to yield better performance and support for multi-threading. Our new physics/collision system is also designed to give us better control over the shapes the game uses to detect bullet hits, melee attacks and movement. This is something we're hoping to take advantage of in the next patch." A change list follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The Pete Hines interview on VG247 is now online, offering their chat with the vice president of public relations and marketing at Bethesda Softworks about the many irons in the fire in the Zenimax family. In addition to the previous newsbits from this conversation, topics include what a big year this will be for them, Kinect and 3DS plans, crossmedia strategies, RAGE, when to expect a DOOM 4 unveiling, Fallout: New Vegas bugs, and more.
WSJ.com - The Benefits of Videogames. By Jane McGonigal. Thanks j.c.f.
These examples are just the beginning of what is possible if we take advantage of the power of games to make us better and change the world. Those who understand this power will be the people who invent our future. We can create rewarding, transformative games for ourselves and our families; for our schools, businesses and neighborhoods; for an entire industry or an entirely new movement.
We can play any games we want. We can create any future we can imagine. Let the games begin.
GEARFUSE - How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The @. Thanks Ant via Boing Boing.
This is why I love Nethack and other rogue-likes so much. Rogue-likes form a genre of game that embraces the limits of what can be conveyed symbolically in ASCII text and turns those limits into strengths. By making a far greater assumption of a player’s imagination than most games — requiring that a gamer will imagine an azure equal sign to be a ring of frost, or turn a rouge semi-colon into a piranha, or a accept a lower-case p as a prancing pony, for example — rogue-likes free themselves of the development overhead that both suffer and limit other forms of video games. Money and man hours can be ignored. Rogue-like developers don’t have to draw, render, animate and give voice to every new monster, item, location or player action in their games; all they need to do is program it and assign it an alpha-numeric symbol.
Thanks to j.c.f. for sending along this article (registration required) explaining the very harsh winter weather we've been seeing, which is apparently related to an unusually mild period further north and on up into the arctic. Oh yeah, and it's snowing here again at the moment, and we have a heavy storm predicted for overnight. Time to plan a warm vacation at the north pole.
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