Archived News:
Hitmanforum has the latest hints that Hitman 5 is on the way, outlining what seems to be an ARG related to IO Interactive's assassination series. This is the latest discussion of the continuation of the series following rumors going back to 2009. The latest news involves an Agent 47-styled barcode and a string of deductions leading the Official Xbox 360 Magazine to speculate the game will be revealed at E3 this year. Thanks Gamer's Hell.
GAME British Academy Video Game Awards results are now available. Highlights include Assassin's Creed Brotherhood as best action game, Mass Effect 2 as best game, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit as best multiplayer game, and Civilization V as best strategy game. The winner of the GAME award is Call of Duty: Black Ops.
GameInformer reports that one-time Looking Glass Studios designer Doug Church has joined Valve. They noticed word of this in a since-deleted tweet by Irrational's Chris Remo, and got a confirmation from Valve that the designer who helped create Thief and System Shock is now working for them, as Doug Lombardi tells them, quite simply: "On the record: It's true."
In spite of news that THQ stock has dropped in value due to reviews of Homefront, this story says the first-person shooter sold 375,000 copies in the U.S. in its first day of sales. This figure, which does not include Europe, seems pretty respectable, though they note that juggernaut Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies on its first day in stores in North America and the United Kingdom. "We are delighted with first day sales for 'Homefront' and are already fulfilling re-orders for the game from multiple retailers," Brian Farrell, THQ's chief executive said in a statement.
After coming under increased criticism that retail game sales reports do not accurately reflect the industry, the NPD Group reveals plans to begin including digital sales in its monthly reports in the future. NPD's Anita Frazier tells GameIndustry.biz (registration required) the group is investing in its online consumer panels so it can increase the frequency of its digital reports from quarterly to monthly, and these reports will include revenue from subscriptions, DLC, mobile, social, and rental businesses. "We are expanding the number of digital retailers we have relationships with in order to develop a digital POS (point of sale) service," said Frazier. "The goal is to provide our clients with a total POS games tracking service that incorporates the growing digital channel as well as the currently predominant physical format, and to deliver this at the same frequency as we currently do for new physical retail sales (monthly)."
Activision Blizzard's lawsuit against Electronic Arts over the Jason West and Vince Zampella/Infinity Ward situation will continue, reports Bloomberg, where they say: "California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle in Los Angeles today refused to dismiss all but one of the claims against Electronic Arts. The judge, without ruling on the merits of Activision’s claims, said the company had provided sufficient facts in its complaint for the case to proceed." Their report continues, saying: "Electronic Arts had said in court filings that Activision failed to provide facts to support its allegation that the rival company intended for two of Activision’s executives to breach their contracts. The judge referred to Activision’s assertion that Electronic Arts sought confidential information from the executives in overruling the objection." Thanks Big Download.
Steam News announces the recently announced Steam Guard is out of beta, and now automatically available to all Steam users. Steam Support explains in detail how this can be used to safeguard your account, and here's a summary of how this works: With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer or browser must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.
Big Sandwich Games announces plans to release HOARD for Windows and OS X via Steam on April 4, saying the arcade strategy game will be $9.99 USD. They also announce a pre-release sale will begin next week, offering the game at a 25% discount beginning March 21st. Here's word on the game: The Steam version includes the same fire-breathing fun as the console release plus some brand new features. The game has 4 modes, over 35 levels, leaderboards, full multiplayer suites (4-player co-op and competitive), and 100+ Steam achievements. In addition, never seen-before features such as Night Mode (for vibrant fiery goodness), a Winter tile set, and new maps are added as a reward for PC and Mac fans’ patience. Finally, cross-play allows PC and Mac users to compete or cooperate in their quests for gold.
Dragon Age Legends is now live, offering a Facebook tie-in with BioWare's Dragon Age RPGs. Here's the deal: Set in the Free Marches, the primary setting of Dragon Age II, Dragon Age Legends combines accessible and engaging turn-based tactical combat with gripping co-operative gameplay. By simply logging in Facebook, players can jump in to the online RPG to recruit their friends and embark on a battle-rich journey filled with challenging quests. Like all classic RPGs, players will earn loot and share rewards with their friends to grow their hero’s might and their kingdom’s power. The game includes a gratifying character-customization and upgrade system that allows players to tackle demons and darkspawn to become a legendary hero within the Dragon Age universe.
The Spring Break Sale on Direct 2Drive gives 20% off when you use the code "hangover" at checkout. Week two of the 5th Anniversary Sale on GamersGate offers another huge selection of games up to 75% off.
Thanks Acleacius and Ant.
Thanks Acleacius and Ant.
The Battlefield Blog now offers a second installment in the Fault Line series of trailers for Battlefield 3, DICE's upcoming military shooter sequel. Word is: "This in-game footage from Battlefield 3 shows off the ANT animation technology (and prone!) in the game, with an explosive ending that neatly shows how the new Frostbite 2 engine handles destruction."
Stardock announces the release of a new patch for Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity updating the sci-fi real-time strategy bundle to version 1.2. Word is: "The updates consist of a new and improved Pirate system, updated gameplay balance for the TEC, Advent and Vasari (based on player feedback), engine improvements to handle memory better and provides increased performance, AI tweaks to enhance computer player behavior and more." The entire change log is below. Continue here to read the full story.
Though the story of the Dragon Age II player who was unable to play his game when he was banned from the BioWare forums was fairly quickly resolved when the player's ban was lifted, an odd element of the original story remained. It was noted at the time that the EA Community Terms of Service were said to include the possibility that such a game ban was valid, explained like this: "EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC." Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks Joao) has a follow-up on this, reporting other incidents where players lost the ability to play their games as a result of T.O.S. violations on the forums, including a player claiming he was locked out of the PS3 edition of the game last weekend. We asked EA for definitive word on whether their policy meant players could be banned from a single-player game based on forum postings, and they repeated their explanation of this being due to a bug: As noted last week, we have identified an error in our system which can suspend a user’s entire account when our terms of use policy has been violated. We are working to fix this and expect to have the issue resolved by the end of this week. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience -- it is not our policy to prevent customers from playing a single-player game. Any registered player who feels they have been banned inappropriately is urged to contact EA Customer Service at http://EA.com/support.
A new "This Ain't No Place for a Hero" trailer from Batman: Arkham City shows off gameplay from the upcoming superhero sequel, including a bunch of villains, concluding with an afterword from the Joker. There's also word on Computer and Video Games from Rocksteady on the length of the game's single-player campaign, saying their game testers can blast through the core game in eight hours because they know exactly how to rush through the game, but for players who don't know their way around and are being more completionist, "it's going to be significantly more than that." The embedded version of the trailer follows. Continue here to read the full story.
A new patch for the Windows edition of BioShock 2 is now available, updating the first-person shooter sequel to version 1.4, enabling support for the new free Protector Trials DLC. The patch is available on GamePron, Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls. The patch notes follow, including word that this "Dramatically increases Single Player GFWL sign-in time due to added GFWL sign-in bug," which may be a typo. Continue here to read the full story.
The "Ides of March" Trailer from F.E.A.R. 3 offers a short, but melodramatic, cinematic from Day 1 Studios' upcoming continuation of the horror-themed shooter series. There is also a preview on Joystiq of the "F***ing Run" co-op multiplayer mode from the game which was shown off at PAX East.
There's a Prey 2 Trailer on G4tv.com for Human Head's upcoming shooter sequel. Harkening back to the heyday of F.M.V., this is a live action clip with no cinematics or gameplay. It depicts an airplane disaster involving an alien spacecraft, supporting yesterdays rumors about the game's plot.
World of Tanks is now offering Clan Wars signups for North American and European players of this MMOTPS. Here's word on what they call a separate game layer: "Clan Wars concept revolves around the Global Map divided into a number of provinces each providing a particular revenue stream, with hundreds of clans fighting for gaining control over them. Comprehensive diplomatic and economic systems will provide a wide array of options to wage war for global domination not only on tank battlefields but at bargaining tables as well."
"In PC days people were used to swapping out video cards, putting in their own memory, formatting your own harddrive... you were kind of your own tech support so the idea of having an unfinished product to play with and be involved with it was exciting. But when you move to the black box of the console it was sealed, and if you opened it you voided the warranty and so it was much more hands-off," says Gears of War 3 producer Rod Fergusson on the topic of beta testing. "The idea of a console beta that's an unfinished product is really foreign to that audience and so their expectation is that this is representative of the quality of the game and they have to judge it on this. It's really hard to do betas then because you have to make it so polished and so far along that it's hard to get the feedback you want."
Some of the Homefront roundup (thanks Joker961) are from console versions.
A new shop recently opened up nearby to cater to the need of birdfeeders, so I dropped by to see if they had any squirrel-proof suet feeders. The proprietor said they didn't carry any because he hadn't found any sturdy enough to withstand a rodent attack, but he did have suet cakes laced with cayenne pepper, which he said would deter the squirrels but not the birds. He certainly was right about the squirrels, as they have been leaving it alone, but he seemed to be exaggerating the bird's willingness to overcome its spiciness, as there don't seem to be many birds willing to eat from it. This certainly does make the greater expense of these suet cakes seem economical, because even though three dollars and change apiece, the one I bought may last the rest of the year. Back to the drawing board.
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