|
|
 |
Archived News:
DiabloFans.com has word from an Activision/Blizzard business teleconference, reporting "Mike Morhaime said that Diablo 3 would be heading into Beta 'later this month'," though we've seen several indications this may be the friends and family beta, rather than a more widespread test of the action/RPG sequel. They also have a follow-up post with some leaked Diablo III beta video which may not last long.
The website for Deus Ex: Human Revolution announces The Missing Link, new DLC for the action/RPG sequel expected in October. Here's the post: The Deus Ex: Human Revolution conspiracy grows deeper in The Missing Link. During Adam's quest for the truth in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he mysteriously vanishes for three days. Where was he? What did he find out? The Missing Link reveals it all.
After being tortured by Belltower agents and having his augmentations disabled, Adam Jensen must rely solely on his basic capabilities to escape from a freighter, destined for an unknown location. While fighting for his survival on the ship, he uncovers another layer to the conspiracy that he never would have suspected. As Adam, befriend new, mysterious allies and fight ruthless enemies to discover what was happening in the shadows during the events of Deus Ex: Human Revolution!
-New layers of conspiracy unveiled
-Sprawling new environments
-Brand-new characters to interact with
-Rebuild Adam's augmentation set from scratch. Build up a brand new Adam!
What is The Missing Link? You'll find out soon...
This announcement covers much of today's Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles, outlining the festivities for attendees, and offering a summary of what was revealed about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the next installment in the military first-person shooter series. This includes an revelations of the game's strike packages,. an overhauled killstreak system, new weapon proficiencies, new Confirmed and Team Defender game modes, and more. They also offered further details on the premium Call of Duty Elite service, including its annual price tag of $49.99, as well as free elements for players unwilling to pony up. Here's the rundown: Activision and developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games delivered a knockout punch to the thousands of attendees present at the XP keynote with the reveal of new Modern Warfare 3 features. Strike Packages—including Assault Strike, Support Strike, Specialist Strike and others—will overhaul the Killstreak system and create the most balanced and immersive multiplayer experience ever. The new Weapon Proficiencies system empowers players to modify their load-out to suit their individual play-style. User-generated game modes, a universal player card, loyalty rewards and new game modes like Kill Confirmed and Team Defender capped a stunning lineup of gameplay innovations.
These innovations will work in tandem with the Call of Duty® Elite social gaming platform to dramatically enhance the multiplayer experience. Launching alongside Modern Warfare 3 this fall, Call of Duty Elite is designed to help gamers Play Better Together. Also on display at this morning’s presentation, Call of Duty Elite delivered detailed stat tracking and performance analytics, integrated Facebook friend support, clan creation and management, and a device-agnostic hub for all things Call of Duty, connecting gamers via console, smartphone, tablet and web. Users can even customize matches via mobile and push them to the game remotely—the changes will be waiting the moment they boot up their console.
Call of Duty Elite features the deepest free service in gaming. For uncompromising Call of Duty devotees, the premium annual membership offers an unrivaled level of integration with the franchise and likeminded hardcore fans. The premium membership includes a year’s worth of Modern Warfare 3 DLC available monthly during the 9-month DLC season, daily competitions for in-game and real-world prizes, 24/7 competition calendar, clan competition, up to 24 minutes of HD gameplay video capacity, and the highly-anticipated Call of Duty Elite TV.
The new Call of Duty Elite TV will offer original, episodic video programming from top Hollywood talent, including executive producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. RSA (Ridley Scott Associates) is working on a new program, Friday Night Fights, where real life rivals battle it out in Call of Duty multiplayer. Additionally, digital content and production studio DumbDumb, led by Will Arnett and Jason Bateman in partnership with Ben Silverman’s multimedia studio, Electus, is also working on content for Call of Duty Elite. The production company is in development on two new programs, Cocked Hammers and n00b tube!, both airing this fall on Call of Duty Elite TV.
And it didn’t stop there. All Call of Duty XP attendees were treated with a redemption code for a free copy of the limited Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition when it becomes available, which includes a free year’s membership of Call of Duty Elite featuring all Modern Warfare 3 DLC.
Call of Duty Elite will launch this November with an all-inclusive DLC premium annual membership for the annual price of $49.99, less than $5 per month.
IndustryGamers has thoughts from game designer, amateur astronaut, and Lord British Richard Garriott on the prospect of returning to the Ultima series of RPGs he originated in the early days of computer gaming. The franchise is currently dormant, but remains the property of EA, who have owned it since buying Origin Systems, the development studio Garriott formed with his brother Robert. Here's what came up following a question about EA applying the Origin name to their new online service: "I find the use of the word Ultima to be more interesting as they’ve tried to give that legs again. I hope that Ultima does survive forever, yet I also, of course, have my own very particular ideas for what Ultima can and should become over time and so we’ll see if they do things quite the way I would do them... since I’m not there at the moment," he commented.
IndustryGamers asked Garriott if he could still collaborate with EA. "We would be open to that. In fact, we’ve had some discussions at what I’ll call very high levels, but the individuals who are currently shepherding the property don’t seem to be particularly interested in that, so we’ll see," he replied. "Who knows? You never know what’s going to happen in the future... the doors always open if they were ever interested."
Games
- RailWorks 2 Northeast Corridor Expansion Pack on Impulse.
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Preloads on Steam.
Patches
- Bethesda Promotional Bundle on Direct2Drive. Save 65%.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Impulse. Save 50%.
- Codemasters Promotional Bundle on Direct2Drive. Save 55%.
- Commandos Ammo Pack on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- Commandos 2+3 on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- Constructor on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- Delve Deeper on Steam. Save 50%.
- Imperial Glory on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- Kalypso Promotional Bundle on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- Mob Rule on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- Paradox Promotional Bundle on Direct2Drive. Save 60%.
- Praetorians on GOG.com. Save 50%.
- The Sims 3 Generations on Impulse. Save 50%.
- The Sims 3 Town Life Stuff on Impulse. Save 50%.
- The Sims 3 Outdoor Living Stuff on Impulse. Save 50%.
- THQ Promotional Bundle on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
Tripwire Interactive announces they are adding three new maps to the multiplayer beta test for Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, bringing the number of maps in the testing of their upcoming World War II first-person shooter sequel to six. The maps, Grain Elevator, Red October Factory, and Barracks, go live today, and all three include both Territory and Countdown game modes, while Barracks also supports Firefight mode. The beta is open to anyone who pre-purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game on Steam, and for those who have pre-purchased the vanilla edition, they are also now selling a separate upgrade to the Deluxe Edition for $9.99 USD.
Steam News announces the availability of an automatic hotfix for Sid Meier's Civilization V addressing a couple of bugs. There's also an updated forum post about this (helpfully) explaining that (unhelpfully) the version number for Firaxis' turn-based strategy sequel does not change with this patch (thanks Bill). Here are the accompanying notes. Continue here to read the full story.
Call of Duty XP is now underway, kicking off two days of gaming, music, and other festivities related to the Call of Duty series of military first-person shooters. The Call of Duty XP Website has info and videos related to the event, including this trailer from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with the world premier of multiplayer footage from the next installment in the franchise. They also offer a live stream of the show, so those not there can attend virtually without having to wait in line to use the bathroom. Continue here to read the full story.
Following the confirmation earlier this year of indications from a year ago that Sledgehammer Games was working on one of three upcoming Call of Duty games for Activision, comes word that Sledgehammer's CoD never made it out of the prototype stage, explaining why the team was shifted to work on the single-player portion of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The developer doesn't actually say their third-person Call of Duty action/adventure was cancelled, just that "the opportunity" to work on Modern Warfare 3 arose, and the studio accepted it. This comes in a Who is Sledgehammer Games GameSpot Video (thanks VG247) talking with Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, who were hired away from EA Redwood/Visceral Games in 2009 after helping create Dead Space (or as they refer to it, "another game"). At around the 2:18 mark the clip explains what happened to their CoD project: Narrator: "Sledgehammer Games' first title was intended to be an entirely new style of game set in the Call of Duty Franchise, a third-person action/adventure title. But as the structure of Activision's internal studios shifted, it was clear that the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 would need additional support in order to achieve the success that is expected of the series. The team at Sledgehammer Games was all too eager to answer that call."
Glenn Schofield: "Yeah, we came on board to make a third-person action/adventure game in the Call of Duty franchise, and, I don't know, we were working on it about six months?"
Michael Condrey: "Yeah, maybe a little longer. It was pretty exciting, I mean the idea of the sort of global appeal of Call of Duty meets sort of the third-person genre for the first time. And there are a lot of fans out there who enjoy games like uncharted, right? So you can imagine that genre meets a world-class franchise. Yeah, I think we had about six, eight months on that; we had a prototype together that was pretty compelling and looked really good, and then, you know, the opportunity to work on the biggest thing in the industry with a developer in Infinity Ward that's demonstrated that they know how to do exceptional software, was just an opportunity... A lot of people on the team had worked on Call of Duty before and first-person shooters before, so there was a lot of built-in knowledge about the first-person shooter genre and a lot of passionate gamers; there's guys on the floor that are on their tenth prestige on Black Ops, so it was a nice meeting of... a nice marriage of experience with the genre and fan desire to work on..."
Glenn Schofield: "It was pretty easy to steer the boat after we have the studio voted on 'do you want to work on this game?,' and once we all agreed on it and we just went in that direction."
News.com.au follows up on yesterday's news that Team Bondi has entered administration with an indication that the LA Noire developer may not emerge from this process, as the Team Bondi offices in Sydney, Australia are now closed, and the space is up for lease. "This recently refurbished commercial office floor is located in Ultimo / Pyrmont and is available for the first time in over 5 years," says this real estate ad. "The building has a vast floor plate of over 3300 square metres which allows any large business or corporation to utilise only 1 floor and have all staff located together." The story states Team Bondi told them it will not be issuing a statement on the closure. Thanks Darth Guybrush.
Nick Baynes, the former director of Black Rock Studio, tweets that the Disney-owned studio is now officially closed, saying: "@blackrockster officially closes it's doors today. Thoughts go out to all facing their last day. A bright future awaits all though I'm sure!" The developer of racing games such as Split/Second and Pure suffered layoffs back in May, and in July Disney announced plans to close the studio. In between some of the former Black Rock staff formed a new Brighton, England-based "micro-developer" called ShortRound Games, which has not yet revealed its first project. Thanks Gamasutra, where they note other Black Rock vets have been part of two other startups since the layoffs. BOSS ALIEN and Roundcube Entertainment. There's a Black Rock Studio obituary on Develop.
Here's a new trailer showing off the "deadly" Battlefield 3 Physical Warfare Pack items in action. As noted on the
Battlefield Blog, the Physical Warfare Pack for the upcoming military shooter sequel contains the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun, Type 88 Light Machine Gun, flechette ammo for the DAO-12, and a flash suppressor for the SKS sniper rifle. And while this is a preorder bonus at select retailers and at Origin for the PC digital download version of Battlefield 3: Limited Edition, they also offer this reassurance: "At a later date, we will unlock all of these items to all players of Battlefield 3 at no extra charge." Continue here to read the full story.
TORWars' interview with Georg Zoeller talks with the Principal Lead Combat Designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, picking up many details on how combat will operate in the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. Georg talks about the challenges of staying faithful to the source material, the roles the various advanced classes will be able to fill, stealth, PvE versus PvP skills, ranged versus melee combat, the role of lightsabers and Force powers, and balance issues.
Serious Sam 3: BFE Help Line with Rich Knuckles - Episode One is a video offering a humorous look at what makes Serious Sam 3: BFE stand out compared with many other recent first-person shooters. This includes gameplay footage from Croteam's upcoming firs-person shooter prequel, an the theme of the clip is summed up in its tagline: "All cover, no man," and this quote from Rich Knuckles: "Stop being such a f*king p*ssy." Continue here to read the full story.
IndustryGamers - Google+ Games: What It Needs to Beat Facebook. By Ed Del Castillo.
I think the number one shortcoming of Google+ is that it isn’t doing anything fundamentally different from Facebook on the gaming side. Yes, it’s a lot less annoying, and for that alone I think it could win over the vocal minority of Facebookers who are bothered by game notifications and posts. These people will love the serenity of not having their wall and notifications cluttered with the accomplishments, gifts, and invitations from friends who are playing the new, hot social game. As an additional bonus I even found that when kept in their place, these announcements actually became interesting to me again. When I’m on the gaming channel, that stream is relevant and I actually read it. Nice job, Google!
This is Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., and annual celebration of the unofficial end of summer, though this is not something I'm that eager to celebrate, recalling how harsh last winter was around here. I'll probably do a little cooking out, but I may have to take it easy on the spiciness, as I made 72 hot wings this week to make use of the chicken wings the doggies didn't eat as I fed them a bland diet for their tummy woes. Now I have tummy woes of my own from eating most of those wings myself over the course of four days, which may have been overdoing it.
Sorry about the late update, I had a little trouble with the administrative interface here this morning.
|
Twitter 
