Archived News:
Ubisoft announces they are accepting applications for the closed beta test of Castle Empire, their free-to-play browser-based strategy game from Blue Byte, creators of The Settlers, saying those who sign up will be rewarded with an exclusive in-game item. "The game has had an excellent initial Beta phase in Europe, adding to Ubisoft’s growing list of top-notch free-to-play, browser-based games, and we’re excited to begin rolling it out to new territories," said Chris Early, Vice President of Digital Publishing at Ubisoft North America. "Castle Empire is a highly entertaining game that highlights Ubisoft's strategy to bring enjoyable experiences to their players while expanding its gaming expertise."
Activision announces a release date for Prototype 2, saying the open World action sequel is expected in stores on April 24, 2012. They celebrate the news with a new trailer offering the first in a three-part series of cinematic clips from the game. "We know our fans have been clamoring to find out when they would be able to get their hands-on PROTOTYPE 2, and the whole studio is excited that we can finally reveal the timing," said Ken Rosman, Studio Head, Radical Entertainment. "We're also thrilled to be at the point where we can show the game directly to our fans. It's always rewarding to see those first time reactions to what we've been working on for the past couple years, and we can't wait for them to see some of Sgt. James Heller's amazing new shape-shifting abilities at San Diego Comic-Con."
Ubisoft's latest financial report is posted on Gamasutra, showing sales of $146.3 million for the first fiscal quarter, slightly beating company expectations, though down 36.3% from the same period a year ago. Word is: "Ubisoft said it expects titles like Driver: San Francisco, Ghost Recon Online and Trackmania 2 to drive sales of around €99 million ($140.6 million) in the coming quarter, on par with the previous year. The company did not change sales expectations for the full fiscal year, which are expected to just top €1 billion ($1.42 billion)."
A new trailer for End of Nations shows off the factions in Trion Worlds' upcoming MMORTS game. Word is: "The new Factions Video shows off the different factions fighting against the Order of Nations, including many of the powerful units available, such as tanks, long-range artillery and swift scout vehicles." The clip includes developer commentary and gameplay footage. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Battlefront.com now offers patches to update the Windows and OS X editions of Combat Mission Battle for Normandy, the World War II strategy game. Word is: "Save games from v1.00 ARE COMPATIBLE with v1.01, provided that you save your turn-based games in the COMMAND phase (not the replay phase) before upgrading to v1.01." Downloads are mirrored on AtomicGamer and Gamer's Hell, and the patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
Games
- Runespell: Overture on Steam.
Patches
- BRAINPIPE: A Plunge to Unhumanity on Steam. Save 66%.
- Dead Island on Steam. Pre-purchase and get bonus weapons.
- FIFA 11 on Impulse. Save 40%.
- Ground Control + Expansion on GOG.com. Save 60%.
- Runespell: Overture on Steam. Save 10%.
- Smugglers IV: Doomsday on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
- Test Drive Unlimited on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- Test Drive Unlimited 2 on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction Deluxe Edition on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
Still on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.
Zeboyd Games announces that their recent release of Cthulhu Saves the World (and Breath of Death VII: The Beginning) via digital distribution for Windows has raked in more income through Steam than it had in over 18 months on Xbox LIVE: "We are pleased to announce that Zeboyd Games has already made more revenue in less than a week on Steam than we have in over a year and a half on the XBox Live Indie Games service. Thank you again to everyone who has made this huge success possible!" Thanks Joao and Nick via Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Activision denies that Raven Software is working on a James Bond game, reports Eurogamer, refuting a whole boatload of recent rumors to that effect. "No," GoldenEye 007 Reloaded producer James Steer replied when asked if Raven is working on a James Bond game. "We're focusing on Eurocom. Eurocom is our Bond developer."
The promised new patch for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is now available, updating CD Projekt RED's action/RPG sequel to version 1.3. The new version addresses some bugs and other issues and adds the new free A Sackful of Fluff DLC. The automatic patch for the Steam edition will follow, and it is warned that all fan-made modifications are incompatible with the new version. The download is mirrored on AtomicGamer, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying. Here's word: The update includes a plethora of fan-requested improvements, including difficulty adjustments for the game’s Prologue, support for a variety of aspect ratios and a host of other gameplay tweaks and fixes. Next to the long list of changes, this update also brings along free DLC - a quest called “A Sackful of Fluff”.
Manual versions of yesterday's patches for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty are now available to update the real-time strategy sequel to version 1.3.5. The manual Windows and OS X patches are available on The Patches Scrolls.
"Our game was hugely pirated – we don’t f*cking care. If there are let’s say 200,000 copies of SMB that are getting passed around for free, that's 200,000 people who are playing the game. If they like this game there’s a really high probability of their friends coming around and seeing it or them posting about it on their blogs. And it's not cool to go around and say I really like this game that I stole, so they’re not going to say that. So it's going to come around to sales." -- Super Meat Boy developers Team Meat. Thanks Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
This launch trailer (NSFW) shows off Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Techland's modern-day western sequel that's now available for consoles and coming to PCs in September. And for Deadwood fans, watch for the Al Swearengen lookalike (just sayin').
The other day I mentioned the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, and on this day in 1969 the phrase "the eagle has landed" was immortalized as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to reach the moon. One small step for man…
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