Archived News:
The Smithsonian American Art Museum announces they are inviting the public to vote on The Art of Video Games, an exhibition on the evolution of video games as an artistic medium which opens in Washington, D.C. March 16, 2012. Here's a bit: Voting will take place online, www.artofvideogames.org, from Feb. 14 through April 7. A valid e-mail address is the only requirement to vote. The website will offer participants a chance to vote for 80 games from a pool of 240 proposed choices in various categories, divided by era, game type and platform. The winning games will be displayed in the exhibition as screen shots and short video clips. The website will include an online forum where gaming enthusiasts can campaign for particular games and voice their opinions about the selections.
The games on the voting site were selected for their graphic excellence, artistic intent and innovative game design. Results will be available online in May.
Steam's AI War: Fleet Command Page now offers AI War: Light of the Spire, the new expansion for AI War: Fleet Command. Here's word on what this offers: "Light of the Spire also brings 180 new ships, including the powerful 'Spirecraft' vessel class which stands as the second largest unit class in the game. New music from composer Pablo Vega, new AI types, map types, bonus ship classes, minor factions and quite a bit more packs the expansion to the brim. Prepare for a new war!" To celebrate, Steam is offering the base game for 50% off as well as a 10% discount on the new expansion. There's also a new automatic update that brings the game to version 5.0. Here's word on the patch: "With this update, nearly every combat ship in the game has been rebalanced in an effort to integrate all the new units added over the past year. Golems have been completely revamped and the AI have received major intelligence upgrades such as more proactive retreats, a network of core shield generators, and the new "stalking" mechanic where it lies in wait until the player is at their most vulnerable." Finally, Steam also offers an updated AI War: Fleet Command demo, and Arcen Games has PC and Mac playable demos for the game and the new add-on.
Epic announces the February beta of the Unreal Development Kit is now available, offering an updated version of the free edition of Unreal Engine 3. They add: "Look for exciting news from the Game Developers Conference, which will be held February 28 to March 4 in San Francisco. Epic will be demonstrating major new features and upgrades to Unreal Engine 3 at the show." The download is available on the UDK Download Page and mirrored on Gamer's Hell and WorthPlaying.
Disney•Pixar announces Cars 2: The Video Game, a tie-in with their upcoming animated movie sequel in development at Avalanche Software (not to be confused with Avalanche Studios) planned for release this summer. Word is: "Cars 2: The Video Game brings players inside the international training center CHROME (Command Headquarters for Recon Operations and Motorized Espionage), where they choose from more than 20 different characters and train to become world class spies. As part of their international training, they will participate in simulated hazardous missions using high-tech gadgets to evade and slow down adversaries."
2K Sports now offers a new patch for NBA 2K11 to update the North American edition of the basketball simulation to version 1.0.1. The accompanying blurb is truncated, as their format makes Twitter seem generous, so all it says is: "Download the North America NBA 2K11 PC patch for the PC DVD version only (if you bought it digitally, please return to the original site of..." There is a change log outlining all that's new and different. The North American and European patches are mirrored on AtomicGamer, Gamer's Hell, and WorthPlaying, and Gamer's Hell also has a patch for the Direct2Drive edition and an update for the Steam edition is automatically available.
The League of Legends interview on Big Download talks with Riot Games' co-founder and president Marc Merrill to discuss the future of League of Legends, and the impact of Riot's recent acquisition by Tencent Holdings. Here's a bit: "This is, across the board, great news for Riot – and most importantly, our community. Tencent's investment provides Riot with additional resources to expand our talented team, bring constant and rapid innovation to League of Legends, and launch new projects in the future. Because we are both aligned on the vision for League of Legends, we remain committed to expanding player's experiences and improving League of Legends."
- Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition on Steam. Save 75%.
- Real Warfare - 1242 on Impulse. Save 80%.
- Square Enix Games on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
Still (permanently?) on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.
Link of the Day: Spider-Man reboot gets a title and a brooding new image (thanks nin). Title's perfect and the suit is fine. So far it sounds like they're on the right track, with the return of the mechanical web-shooters and a proper Gwen Stacy. I have high hopes for this.
MyCrysis has another statement from Crytek's Cevat Yerli about the Crysis 2 leak taking a somewhat different approach than his first statement by thanking gamers for their support and offering reassurances that the PC "will always be important to Crytek in the future" (thanks SpectralMeat). Here's the whole post: As you all have heard by now, an early, incomplete build of Crysis 2 has been leaked online. While we are deeply disappointed by these events, we are all completely overwhelmed by the support we have received from you, our community.
Despite this unfortunate incident, we can assure you that PC gaming is very important to us and will always be important to Crytek in the future. We are all still focused on delivering a great gaming experience to our true and honest fans. I hope you will enjoy Crysis 2 on PC, as we think it is our best PC game yet!
We appreciate all of your continued support, and look forward to playing online with you soon!
Ubisoft's Fiscal Q3 2010 sales results are now online for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, reporting €600 million in sales, an improvement over the same period last year, not to mention higher than their projections. They also announce that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood tallied over 6.5 million "sell-in units." The announcement also quotes Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot saying: "Going forward, we intend to continue to innovate and pursue our refocus on key franchises in the high definition segment, while investing in upcoming opportunities in digital, in the casual segment and in future consoles, notably the 3DS and the NGP." Siliconera has some notes from Ubi's follow-up conference call with investors where Guillemot said that one of the elements currently harming their profitability is their support of digital efforts like CSI: Crime City on Facebook and The Settlers Online in Germany, saying that these games are high quality, but are not bringing in much revenue, though they are committed to the continued pursuit of success in the free-to-play and online gaming marketplace.
JoWooD Entertainment and Spellbound Entertainment announce Arcania: Fall of Setarrif, a standalone expansion for ArcaniA - Gothic 4 to be released on March 25. Fall of Setarrif will provide about 10 hours of gameplay, all new enemies, and new environments. They also announce it will allow you to import your character from ArcaniA - Gothic 4 or choose a predefined archetype, while also saying: "for the very first time players can experience the compelling storyline from a different character’s point of view!" Here are some screenshots, and here is a feature list:
- 10+ hours of new compelling game play
- Experience and fight as each of your famous allies, utilising their unique skillset
- Battle all new enemies & monsters and hone your combat skills with new items & weapons
- Discover new environments such as jungles, the volcanic mountains, Setarrif & the coastal regions
- Import your character from ArcaniA - Gothic 4 or choose a predefined archetype
- Standalone Add-On
A new 'Cry Havoc' trailer from Rift shows off the fast and furious combat in Trion Words' upcoming MMORPG, some of it especially fast as it seems sped up. On a related note, here's a reminder that tomorrow will begin a promised six-day open beta event in the game, so those interested in participating should sign up here. The embedded trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
This Portal 2 preorders page has links to where Portal 2 can be preordered, saying: "Several outlets around the world are offering special pre-order incentives including special pricing and exclusive in-game content." This covers the U.S., U.K., and several European countries, also noting that all territories can also pre-purchase through Steam, where they are offering a 10% discount on the first-person puzzle/platformer. The U.S. channels are Amazon, where they offer a $5.00 promotional credit and GameStop where they are offering GameStop exclusive customized skins for the co-op bots Atlas and P-body. Thanks Gamer's Hell. Portal 2 is currently scheduled for release on April 21, 2011. Also, Big Download notes the game's system specs are now posted. Here are those: PC System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000
Processor: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
Memory: 1GB XP / 2GB Vista
Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
Video: Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher).
Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Mac System Requirements
OS: MAC OS X 10.6.6 or higher
Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
Memory: 2GB
Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
Video: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher
You may recall a story mentioned here last month that discussed game servers on company networks run by IT administrators without the explicit knowledge of their superiors. The author of that article, Paul McNamara, is interested in doing a follow-up if he can get insights from an admin who is running such a server. Now I'd never imagine that any reader of this site would actually go behind a boss' back to do such a thing, but on the off chance that you or someone you know is operating such a rogue game server, Paul would love to hear from you to ask a few questions, promising complete anonymity. You can contact him at pmcnamara@nww.com.
The Ultramarines: The Movie Website has details on free fan screenings of Ultramarines to be held in several U.S. cities the weekend after next, offering a gratis look at this movie using the Warhammer 40,000 setting. This animated film will be the first-ever feature length movie interpretation of the Warhammer 40K universe, and will feature the voices of Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Sean Pertwee. There will be screenings in Dallas, Seattle, and Chicago on Saturday, February 26 and in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and New York on Sunday, February 27. You can reserve up to two places, or take your chances on the day of each screening, when remaining tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.
WBIE announces that Paxton Fettel will be available as a playable character in the single-player campaign in F.E.A.R. 3, the upcoming horror-themed shooter sequel in development at Day 1 Studios. The character, previously announced for the co-op campaign, will be unlocked at the end of each level after first playing through it as Point Man. Word is: "Paxton Fettel offers a unique single player experience focused on his supernatural abilities giving players a new way to play through the level in a way that’s different from Point Man’s enhanced super soldier abilities. In the single player campaign, Fettel will wield his telekinetic abilities to suspend, possess, stun or crush enemies. Giving players a choice in who they play as in single player offers additional gameplay value and enables players to re-play a level using different powers and tactics." These new screenshots show off Fettel's mettle, and this trailer offers a brief autobiography and some glimpses of gameplay. The trailer is also embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
Bulletstorm Bulletpoints with Cliff Bleszinski #3 is another trailer with words to live (and die) by in Bulletstorm, the upcoming first-person shooter from Epic and People Can Fly. Today we get advice on going green. Below is the embedded version. Continue here to read the full story.
MCV has word that development of Mirror's Edge 2 is on hold after translating an interview on Press2play.tv with EA's Patrick Söderlund. He explains that DICE actually prototyped a sequel to the first-person platformer, but that the project has stalled, and its developers are now involved in other projects. He also comments again on the original game's disappointing sales, which were discussed at the time.
The Grammy Awards were held last night to honor the people who create the music for BitTorrent. Along with awards for Lady Gaga, Lady Antebellum, and Lady Godiva, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded the Grammy for best instrumental arrangement with an accompanying vocalist to Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. This was composed as the theme song for Sid Meier's Civilization IV, marking the first time a song from a video game has earned such an honor. Ars Technica has explains that this song from a six year old game won a current award because it was included on Tin's 2009 album Calling All Dawns.
Lazygamer has word from Sony Online Entertainment that DC Universe Online game keys are permanently tied to players' PSN accounts, the game cannot be transferred or sold used in any way, and that apparently activation codes will not be sold separately for used copies of the game. In reporting this story, MCV adds that this restriction applies to the Windows edition of the game as well.
The APB-Reloaded Blog announces a deadline for entries to beta test the upcoming relaunch of APB: All Points Bulletin. This is a little nebulous, as they list the deadline as "midnight PST on Tuesday February 15," which is actually the middle of tonight (3:00 am EST in the wee hours of tomorrow), but it's possible they mean overnight tomorrow, so if you feel strongly about participating, it would be best to sign up here sooner, rather than later. Here's word on testing: The Beta will be geographically rolled out, with three different regions planned; US-West, US-East and Europe turned up at slightly different times. Tentatively we are aiming to turn up the first Closed Beta during the week of February 28. Given the million of infrastructure items and dependencies that we are handling in order to get this out the door, we reserve the right to delay the launch of the Beta for any reason if we think that the first launch needs additional infrastructure tweaks or if QA catches any last minute issues.
Desura now offers online sales of a Windows edition of Amazing Zombie Defense, which is also available for XBLA. Playable demos are available on either platform and here's a trailer from the game. Here's word on the game from the developer's blog: "The game is a top-down arcade zombie shooter with tower defense elements. You're able to choose from nine different weapons and mount them onto auto turrets or set up defensive barricades to stay alive as long as you can. It's aimed at hardcore gamers who like to put their skills to the test, find optimal strategy, compare their score with world's best gamers using in-game leaderboards and try to reach the top!"
NCsoft announces they will launch a new High Five update tomorrow for Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne, their MMORPG sequel. They say the update adds a number of improvements all based on player feedback and offer some screenshots and a new gameplay trailer to show off what this is all about. Here's word on the new update: "The High Five update brings a new array of skills that players have been seeking including a new hunting system with new buffs, visually enhanced mobs and an assortment of new Grand Olympiad enhancements. Additionally, Lineage II players can look forward more accessible Epic bosses and an improved matching system in hopes of encouraging more people to engage in epic raids and battles as a whole." The embedded trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
GFK Chart-Track has the top 20 bestselling PC titles in the U.K. for the week ending February 12. This week Football Manager 2011 retains the top spot and Test Drive Unlimited 2 enters the charts at number two.
Activision announces Transformers: Dark of the Moon, saying High Moon's upcoming sequel to their Transformers: War For Cybertron will tie in with the upcoming movie sequel of the same name, which is due in theatres on July 1. Unlike the first game, this Dark of the Moon is not coming to Windows, as the announcement lists the following platforms: "The Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game is currently in development by High Moon Studios for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Behaviour Interactive is developing distinct versions for the Wii system, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS hand-held systems."
Valentine's Day Gift Buying is a new trailer from Aperture Labs (Valve Software) promoting Portal 2. It doesn't actually contain any gameplay footage from the platformer sequel, but does include a portal in the style of the game's instructional icons, and of course a timely theme in honor of today. Thanks Big Download.
Happy Saint Valentine's Day! Got a significant other? Got flowers or candy or dinner reservations lined up? If not, do you have a comfortable couch?
Also, happy Telework Week (thanks [H]ard-OCP). I'm doing my part, but I always do. Is anyone who doesn't normally telecommute getting to do so this week as a result of this?
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