The
Global Agenda Forums have an update from Hi-Rez Studios about
Tribes Ascend, their upcoming revival of the TRIBES series of first-person shooters (thanks
reddit). They are looking to address concerns that the game's
recently revealed free-to-play business model will include "pay-to-win" elements, which they say will not be the case:
No. Even as a 'free-to-play' game our general philosophy is to make all gameplay affecting items and loadouts earnable thru gameplay.
However we will allow players a path to earn loadouts and items more quickly by spending their money rather than their time. And we will offer a variety of cosmetic/prestige items for sale that do not affect game balance.
We will not be using the same exact system as Global Agenda, but you can see that general philosophy in place within Global Agenda. When speaking with IGN we described our intent to have load-outs earnable thru gameplay or purchasable, but to also maintain balance between all the load-outs. The writer found that analogous to League of Legends in that their champions are earn-able or purchasable but without any power discrepancy between the free ones, earned ones, or bought ones. And it is a model/game that has been embraced by the e-sports/competitive community. The writer's analogy is fitting but only goes so far since the Tribes: Ascend gameplay is so different.
An update to
bitComposer Games' Jagged Alliance: Back in Action product section adds a whole bunch of new screenshots, showing the upcoming Jagged Alliance 2 remake, well, back in action. On a related note, there's also
new preview of the game on The Armchair Empire with firsthand impressions after seeing an alpha version of the game. Thanks Callaway.
The
Paradox Interactive Forums now offer a new patch for
Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland, updating the World War II strategy expansion to version 3.04. The download is mirrored on
Gamer's Hell, and the
patch notes, which are pretty extensive, are reproduced below.
Continue here to read the full story.
Blind Mind Studios now offers a new patch for
Star Ruler, updating the space-based strategy game to version 1.0.8.2. The patch is mirrored on
Gamer's Hell. The
change log outlines what the patch does, and this follows.
Continue here to read the full story.
Carey Chico of
Carey James Music is now offering the music he created for Battlezone II as a free download, including some tracks that were not previously available. The soundtrack is available on the
same website that hosts the unofficial beta patches that have continued to support the action/strategy hybrid over all these years.
Here is the list of the ten bestselling games on
Steam for the past week:
- Portal 2
- Fallout: New Vegas
- The Sims 3 Pack
- Valve Complete Pack
- Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
- Terraria
- Assassin's Creed Collector Pack
- Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition
- THQ Hit Collection
- Left 4 Dead 2
We go through over 20 lbs of birdseed in the feeder every week, and to this point virtually none of it is going to the squirrels (at this point the feeder is actually causing the squirrels to lose weight, as they burn a lot of calories being chased when we let the dogs out). The 20 lb bag of nyjer seed I bought for the finch feeder is still looking like a lifetime supply, as only a couple of ounces of it are gone at this point. I found a little bag of fancy finch food that includes cranberry and other enticements, so I figured that's worth a try, though I'm starting to think there may be some other aspect of our yard that the finches find unappealing.
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