Archived News:
The Official Portal 2 Website now offers "Songs to Test By: Volume 2," the free second installment in the soundtrack for Portal 2, their puzzle/platformer sequel. Word is: "Give your ears the gift of sound and let them relive the glory days of testing in full fidelity, without the distracting hisses and pops that accompany being submerged in acid. Songs to Test By: Volume 2 (of 3) is now available for download. Plus: Free!" The download is available on this page.
The Word of Notch offers brief word on the latest startling milestone for indie sensation Minecraft: Minecraft just passed 10 million registered users.
A new trailer from Deus Ex Human Revolution introduces us to the year 2027 in which the upcoming action/RPG prequel is set. In the clip the development team explains how mechanical augmentation has spread throughout the world, creating a world that's interesting but grounded in current reality, the two organizations competing to control the augmentation market, non-shooting gameplay elements, and more. The clip is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
A lengthy new trailer from Batman Arkham City shows off some Catwoman gameplay from the upcoming superhero stealth/action sequel as Selina plays cat-and-mouse with some burglars before being interrupted by a couple of former D.A.s. The clip also features Batman in action, showing city travel, combat, questing, interrogation, and more. The clip is embedded below. Continue here to read the full story.
The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has a new trailer from the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG, showing the progression of the Bounty Hunter class, though they skip the archetypal clone to worm food progression. Word is: "The Bounty Hunter is feared across the galaxy for his ability to track elusive prey from the bustling metropolises of the core worlds to the further reaches of known space. As his targets become more evasive and his enemies more powerful, the Bounty Hunter will learn new skills and abilities to match the advanced weapons and armor he discovers during his travels."
A new patch is now available for Iron Grip: Warlord, updating this steampunk RTS/FPS hybrid to version 1.13. Word is: "Responding to player feedback, several of the game’s characteristics have been expanded. The most important change is the addition of an entirely new level, known as the Bunker map. Secondly, the game now has full compatibility with Steam and has integrated Steamworks voice chat, leaderboard and achievements." The patch is available on this page and mirrored on AtomicGamer and Gamer's Hell.
Firaxis Games sends word to expect open beta testing to begin next week for Sid Meier's Civilization World, the sociable installment in their strategy series. They don't offer an exact date for when the beta opens, but they do provide this description of the game: From the multi-award winning Sid Meier’s Civilization® strategy game series, comes the famously addictive gameplay that has made it one of the greatest game series of all time, accessible to everyone on Facebook for free. In Sid Meier’s Civilization World, players join together with their friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. Leaders will also manage and grow their own city to maximize production and happiness. Collaborative players benefit the most as they team up with friends to win great battles, create great wonders of the world, share technologies and spy on enemies. Play as much as you like, whenever you like on your epic quest to build the most powerful nation and rule the world.
Games
Patches
- Alliance of Valiant Arms on Steam.
- Iron Grip: Warlord on Steam.
- Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam.
- Portal 2 on Steam.
- STORM: Frontline Nation on Steam.
- Super Meat Boy on Steam.
- Team Fortress 2 on Steam.
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
- BioShock on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- BioShock 2 on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- Braid on Steam. Save 75%.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops on Steam. Save 33%.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops on Direct2Drive. Save 33%
- Devil May Cry 4 on Steam. Save 50%.
- DUNGEONS - Steam Special Edition on Steam. Save 66%.
- Grand Theft Auto Classics on Steam. Save 75%.
- Hamilton's Great Adventure on Steam. Save 50%.
- Heroes Pack on Steam. Save 75%.
- Interplay Summer Staycation package 3 on GOG.com.
- July 4 Sale on Macgamestore.
- Just Cause Series on Steam. Save 75%.
- Railworks 2 on Steam. Save 75%.
- SpaceChem on Steam. Save 66%.
- Star Wars Battlefront II on Steam. Save 75%.
- Star Wars Empire at War: Gold Pack on Steam. Save 75%.
- STAR WARS THE FORCE UNLEASHED II on Steam. Save 50%.
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on Steam. Save 75%.
- Total War: Shogun 2 on Steam. Save 40%.
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Digital Premium Download on Direct2Drive. Save 25%.
- World in Conflict Gold Edition on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
Still on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.
The Games For Windows Website has the surprise announcement that Microsoft is merging the Games for Windows Marketplace with Xbox.com. Here's what they are revealing for the moment: Games for Windows Marketplace is coming to Xbox.com!
Games for Windows Marketplace will fully transition over to Xbox.com. Now you can get all of your gaming needs in one place. It’s convenient, it’s concentrated, and it’s a whole lot of great games.
Discuss the move here!
Funcom announces that Age of Conan has made the promised transition to a free-to-play business model. A new Age of Conan: Unchained launch trailer celebrates the news, and here's word: Players now get to choose whether they want to experience the free offering, or become a Premium member with access to even more game content. An in-game store also allows both free players and Premium members to purchase in-game goods such as weaponry and mounts. For more detail about the differences between the free and Premium offering, visit the new ‘Age of Conan: Unchained’ website.
Eurogamer has a report that Disney has closed the doors on Pure and Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios. This was originally a rumor, but they have since confirmed the news. In May it was reported the racing game developer was to suffer some layoffs, but they now have the following word from Disney: "Disney Interactive Studios confirms that Black Rock Studios' current project has not been greenlit for further development, consequently the company informed employees yesterday of the intent to enter a consultation process on the proposal to close the studios." They also have a follow-up post describing this project, tentatively titled Champions Alliance, a departure from the racing genre that was going to be in the vein of games like League of Legends. According to their source: "Disney seemed unable to work out what to do with the studio and didn't trust us to do anything other than racing really - despite having a range of great talent at the studio, from a wide variety of backgrounds."
A reddit thread has an email from Valve's Robin Walker confirming theories that Team Fortress 2 going free-to-play means the Source engine SDK will now be free to all as well. There's confirmation of this from Walker on Rock, Paper, Shotgun: We are in the process of getting it all done. It’s a bit messy because we have multiple versions of the SDK, and there’s some dependencies we need to shake out. But yes, the gist of it is that we’re just going to go ahead and make the Source SDK freely available.
DC Universe Online is adding microtransactions, according to Massively. Word is: These items are Proto Repair-Bots, which are exactly what they sound like, as they provide players with the convenient ability to repair on the go. Also included are Vault Tickets, which are sold either in singles or in stacks of five. These tickets allow players extra access to the Vault instance, where they can earn unique rewards. We don't have any other information about what will be available for sale in the future, but keep an eye out and we'll be sure to update you as soon as we know more.
Dino Patti tweets about plans to bring platformer LIMBO to Windows and PSN: "LIMBO is coming for PSN and Steam... Soon: www.limbogame.org." The website he points to confirms this, indicating the game will be released through Steam. Thanks IGN.
Wired.com - In Gaming, Free-to-Play Can Pay. Thanks Darth Guybrush.
The business model has since ripped through the games industry like a particularly nasty pox. Today, more than eight leading MMOs (from EverQuest II to City of Heroes) have free-to-play elements either implemented today or planned for down the line. On the iPhone App Store, eight out of 10 “top grossing” games are currently free-to-play apps. Zynga’s CityVille courts 80 million architects a month; EA has 17 million users on free-to-play games.
With the Monday being the Fourth of July, today kicks off the Independence Day weekend here in the U.S. As usual, this will involve cooking out, alcohol, and fireworks, and while we will avoid that last item as best we can, since Hudson the wonder dog is deathly afraid of fireworks, as Meat Loaf once so wisely put it, two out of three ain't bad.
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