Archived News:
A new trailer from Deus Ex: Human Revolution offers a walkthrough of the first mission in the next installment in the Deus Ex series of action/RPGs, conducted by Eidos Montreal's Mary DeMarle. The clip demonstrates the game's multi-path/multi-solution gameplay based on two of the game's "pillars," combat and stealth (the other two being hacking and social). The clip shows three different approaches to the same scenario. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
THQ is planning a free content update for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution, reports Big Download, saying this will be released on April 6th. There aren't many details for now, but word is the game will add a dozen new Steam achievements to Retribution's Last Stand co-op survival mode, and each achievement will unlock a new piece of wargear.
Mad Vulture Games announces the Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods Enhanced Edition announced in November is expected next week. In addition to the patch version to update all available versions of Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods to the Enhanced Edition, the Enhanced Edition will also be for sale on Steam in the English and German languages, as well as English versions with the text translated to French, Italian, and Spanish. They also offer change logs in English, German, Polish, and Italian, noting that these contain spoilers.
Duke4.net has some scans of the Duke Nukem Forever preview from Official Xbox Magazine. The article in question outlines the multiplayer modes in the upcoming first-person shooter sequel, saying the game supports a maximum of eight players in four-versus-four teamplay games. They also outline four gameplay modes, which are a little, well, different, including a CTF-style game called "Capture the Babe," with a description that says: "when you grab the other teams [sic] babe sometimes she'll start to freak out as you take her back to your base, so you have to give her a gentle smack to quiet her down." They also outline weapons including the shrinker and the freeze ray and power-ups, including steroids and the Holoduke. They also describe an advancement system where you can spend rewards on customizing your Duke. Thanks Eurogamer.
Might & Magic: Heroes VI interview on Hooked Gamers chats with Julien Pirou, lead level designer on Might & Magic: Heroes VI, along with Max von Knorring, Ubisoft's Associate Producer on Black Hole Entertainment's upcoming turn-based strategy sequel. They talk about what it's like to work on a series as beloved as Heroes of Might and Magic, the challenges of being the series' third different developer (after New World Computing and Nival Interactive), the fragile alliance behind the game's story, character development, classes, resources, favorite new units, the decision to change the name of the series, and more.
Though not noted on the Cities in Motion Website, a new patch is now available to update the urban mass transportation simulator to version 1.0.14. The patch can be found on AtomicGamer and Gamer's Hell, and the change notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Here's the Impulse Weekly Top 10 for the week of March 13-19:
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity
- Evochron Mercenary
- Starpoint Gemini
- Dragon Age II
- Sins of a Solar Empire Expansion Bundle
- Divinity 2 / Sacred 2 Bundle
- Space Rangers 2 Complete
- Sins of a Solar Empire - Diplomacy
- Neverwinter Nights Diamond
- Gray Matter
Week three of the 5th Anniversary Sale on GamersGate offers another huge selection of games up to 75% off. The IGN PC Store is now online, which could be considered a puzzling move, since IGN Entertainment is also the owner/operator of Direct2Drive.
Link of the Day: This Is How We Surfed the Web In 1998: Slowly. We linked this recently, but Gizmodo posted it today, and we never get tired of seeing Blue's News pop up at around the 5:00 mark. Thanks GFKiller.
Treyarch Community Manager Josh "JD_2020" Olin tweets the release of the PC edition of the First Strike DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops is this Friday: "PC fans: #CODBlackOps #FirstStrike will be coming to PC March 25th! Pre-order today on Steam." As he notes, Steam is now offering pre-purchases of the DLC, and those who buy the DLC between now and 1:00 pm EDT on Friday will receive a 10% discount.
A new Section 8: Prejudice Trailer kicks off a series of clips going behind-the-scenes at Timegate Studios where comedienne and "single lady" Joy Gohring talks with some of the developers of the upcoming first-person shooter sequel about game design. They discuss how Section 8: Prejudice improves on the original Section 8 with gameplay changes, new game modes, and more, while attempting to have fun with an ongoing 'she's hot for game developers' theme.
The Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Website reveals Chivalry: Medieval Warfare as the new title for an Unreal Development Kit project formerly known as Chivalry: Battle for Agatha, the first commercial release from Torn Banner Studios, the new developer formed by Team Chivalry, the folks behind the Age Of Chivalry modification for Half-Life 2 (thanks Big Download). They also now two trailers, a Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Alpha Teaser and a 2D Lore Trailer. Here's a description: CHIVALRY: Medieval Warfare is a first-person medieval online combat experience that seeks to deliver the intensity of epic hollywood medieval block busters to the hands of a gamer. Centered around melee combat in the middle ages, the game is skill-based and controls like a FPS, but instead of guns, players are given swords, shields, maces, longbows, catapults and many other medieval weapons and battle it out in lush medieval environments. Battles have multiple stages and objectives such as smashing in the castles gate with a battering ram or razing and pillaging your opponent's encampment.
GFK Chart-Track has the top 20 bestselling PC games in the U.K. for the week ending March 19. It's a rush of new releases at the top of the chart, with Total War: Shogun 2, Homefront, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood respectively occupying the top three positions. Rounding out the top five is former perennial number one Football Manager 2011 at number four, and last week's number one Dragon Age II at number five. There is also an all formats chart on GamesIndustry.biz (registration required) where Homefront is number one and Dragon Age II is number two.
The Trine 2 Website now offers a new "Alluring Adventure" trailer from Frozenbyte's upcoming platformer sequel. This comes as Atlus announces the game, which was announced for release in spring of this year, is now due in late summer, though no reason for the setback is offered. Here's word on the trailer: "The 'Alluring Adventure' Gameplay Trailer will give fans a glimpse of the gorgeous environment and clever physics-based gameplay they can expect when they play as the powerful knight, the swift rogue and the crafty wizard. Boasting sumptuous visuals, a masterful musical score, more puzzles, and the introduction of online support, Trine 2 is the perfect mix of old-school platforming action, original physics-based level design, and cooperative multiplayer fun!"
Black Prophecy is now officially live in Europe, announces gamigo, saying Reakktor Media's space combat MMOG can be played in either English or German. They also promise the North American edition of the free-to-play game is coming "soon," with closed beta testing to commence "shortly." Here's word on the game: "Players can choose to join one of the two factions: the genetically-perfected Genides or the cybernetically-optimized Tyi. Whichever side they choose, there's lots to be done in the vast endlessness of space. Besides the story missions that unveil the plot, players can also complete hundreds of action-packed PvE and PvP missions or group up to form clans. Together they can collect resources and build their own clan station, which can then be expanded upon with a variety of different modules. Ships can also be customized to suit each player's preferences using some of the countless building parts available." The announcement is accompanied by this gameplay trailer, which is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
Hitmanforum.com has worked through the ARG that recently appeared that's believed to be related to an upcoming announcement of Hitman 5, a new installment in IO Interactive's assassination series. They have dug through the clues, and unearthed an image, which is posted on Eurogamer, along with further indications the game will be announced at E3. According to a post from Nick at IO Interactive, they have found all there is to see from this game, saying: "Nope. There's nothing to the 'Thursday' thing you're looking at, if that's what you're thinking about. You found the pay-off already."
Gamasutra has word from Blizzard's Frank Pierce, who says that their upcoming Diablo III may cannibalize World of Warcraft before the release of Titan, their next MMORPG. "It's hard to say. I think even a shorter-term concern is whether or not we might see cannibalization of WoW players from Diablo III when we launch it, because it's a similar type of experience. Not exactly similar, but it's that RPG feel," he tells them in response to a question about Titan cutting into WoW. "For us, I think it's really important that we recognize that somewhere, sometime it's likely that someone is going to cannibalize World of Warcraft players. So it's better we cannibalize them ourselves than let someone else do that, because if we cannibalize them ourselves, they're still a Blizzard customer."
The APB-Reloaded Blog discusses the state of closed beta testing of the APB: All Points Bulletin reboot, and says the European launch of the closed beta nears, as does open beta of the open world crime game. Word is: "The dev, design and art teams are still working on a few minor tweaks in CB, but are mostly now focused on the Open Beta build that's coming up. Most importantly the OB build works out several core issues that we have to solve before going into OB, everything from how to recover previous character data, to how to test taking premium payments, to working on several progression issues."
The NeoGAF Forums have details from the new issue of Game Informer magazine on Prey 2, the recently announced first-person shooter sequel in the works at Human Head Studios. Word is the game has been in development for three years, the Xbox 360 is the main platform, the game is "Heavily inspired by Mirror's Edge, but also Mass Effect, Riddick and Blade Runner," the game will have no multiplayer support, nor will the console versions support 3D, Kinect, or Move. The game will also have DLC and will have a loot system "similar to the one of Borderlands." Thanks VG247.
Paradox Interactive is now accepting signups for Pirates of Black Cove on this page where you can express your interest in an advance look at this upcoming RTS/RPG hybrid. Signups are being accepted between now and March 31st, and those accepted into the beta will be notified by April 7th. On a related note, there's a recent Pirates of Black Cove Developer Diary on GameZone, and further information on the game is available on its official website. Here's word on the beta: Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games have today announced details on how to sign up for the limited Closed Beta for their upcoming RTS/RPG Pirates of Black Cove. So prepare for the 16th century, the golden era of pirates! This is your chance to conquer the Caribbean, because Pirates of Black Cove challenge you to roam the open world with your pirate crew. Notoriety and pirate fame bring you closer to your goal to be the King of All Pirates.
A new patch is now available on yuPlay for Wings of Prey to update Gaijin Entertainment's World War II combat flight simulator to version 1.0.3.6 by removing its DRM. They celebrate the occasion by offering the game on their web store for a 50% discount.
This Execute trailer shows off a new project in the works using Epic's Unreal Development Kit created by nine students at Digital Arts and Entertainment under the label Digital Architects (thanks Big Download). The Epic Games Forums offer screenshots and some info on this side scrolling puzzle game: "You are the professor and you must pre program the female robot in a maximum of five steps each time within limited distance from each other. Simply press play and watch. Your goal is to finish the level by solving all the puzzles with as few programmed steps as possible."
The Crysis 2 video interview on Games On Net talks with Nathan Camarillo, executive producer on Crytek's first-person shooter sequel that's due in North America tomorrow and in Europe on Friday. Topics include reassurances for PC gamers that the console edition won't harm their experience, PC specific features, stacking nanosuit 2 powers, supporting different play styles, using feedback from the demo, how they had to tear down the CryENGINE to support multiple platforms, CryENGINE 3 licensing, and more.
The PC Gaming Alliance Members Page reflects more shifts in the membership of the PC gaming trade association. It appears Dell has reduced its level of support to Contributor, after previously occupying the top Promoter tier. It also seems that SecuROM vendor Sony DADC is no longer part of the alliance, which many PC fans will likely consider addition by subtraction. Just last month it was confirmed that Microsoft and NVIDIA parted ways with the organization. Thanks Big Download.
On the company dime: Rogue game server admins tell all on Network World is the article based on the recent call we put out for IT staff running game servers on their company's networks. These admins explain what they do, what level of approval that they do or don't have from higher-ups, close calls where their activities were almost detected, and other tales of intrigue.
ZDNet offers an internal Microsoft video showing the WGX (Windows Gaming eXperience) team's plans for the future. This involves a lot of social experiences with a decidedly casual appeal, and it all looks an awful lot like Microsoft's vision of the Xbox LIVE experience of today (and a misspelling of pwned that's reminiscent of seeing your boss wearing blue jeans at the company picnic). Thanks VG247.
We are in the middle of March Madness, and my bracket is still intact, because as usual, I have not filled one out. Here's hoping you college hoop fans are enjoying the festivities. Speaking of festivities, mother nature is celebrating the first full day of spring with some snow. I'm going to protest by going out in some shorts and making snowballs.
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