Iceberg Interactive announces the release of
Gladiators, a new free DLC pack for
Starpoint Gemini. LGM Games' tactical space role-playing game. "We feel there's no better way to thank all fans of Starpoint Gemini, Iceberg Interactive and Little Green Men for their tremendous support than offering a free add-on to the game." says Mario Mihokovic, CEO from LGM Games. "We hope gamers like this little gift called SPG Gladiators." There are two downloads for this, one for the English edition of the game, and the other for the German, edition, and they can both be found on
The Patches Scrolls. Here's word on what the new DLC adds:
- Four new ship designs add to the already large number of unique vessels
- 50 new special ship systems that can only be awarded for victories in Gladiators
- Outer Horizon, a new sector of Gemini where the special tournament is held
- Series of difficult combat situations like Free-for-all and Team fights
- Completely free-of-charge as a big thank you to everyone who supported us in developing and improving Starpoint Gemini
As outlined in
this story on Develop, Crytek managing director Avni Yerli has struck back at accusations about the independent German developer's hiring and firing practices that showed up last week
this anonymous tumblr blog. "I think the blog is unfair to the people who are working here at Crytek," Yerli says. "It harms the great work they’ve done. It is very distressing for us to think that an individual thinks we have been treating them unfairly. It’s very disappointing." The blog says: "that staff feel uncertain of their futures within the company and either jump ship, or get fired unlawfully and are forced to legally settle their dispute in the courts. Several ex-Crytek employees have already been successful in mounting legal battles and won settlements, yet Crytek still treat staff as disposable pieces of meat to be discarded at will." It also accuses management of "demanding six months of crunch time due to project management failures. This caused certain members of staff to suffer both in medical and personal ways." It offers a list of positions vacated due to "resignation and / or unlawfully firing," a well as a vague assertion about the sinister nature of the developer moving to new offices with "70 fewer seats."
Yerli's responses, excerpted from
a full unedited interview, include a dispute of that last point about their new space. "The new Frankfurt office is larger and has more desks than the old Frankfurt office," Yerli told them. "Our new office is laid out for growth and not for reduction." And while admitting that the list of vacated positions is accurate, he says that some of those were contractors, and the remainder left of their own accord. He also admits that the company has been involved in a couple of court cases over labor disputes, which were settled in Crytek's favor, adding" "I don’t want to make glory out of this. We are not proud of 'winning'." Finally, on the subject of crunch time, he says the crunch on
Crysis 2 was "three months maximum," and that: "we had not enforced weekend work – during crunch people were given the choice to work one weekend day, but only if they chose to."
GfK Chart-Track offers their weekly list of the top 20 full-priced PC entertainment titles for the week ending September 3, 2011.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution holds on to the top spot, the new
Pirates & Nobles adventure pack for The Sims 3: Medieval enters the chart at number seven on a largely unchanged chart. Deus Ex: Human Revolution also retains the top spot on
the all platforms chart, where
Driver: San Francisco enters at number two and Zumba Fitness continues its free fall to land at number three. The other new entry on that chart is this week is Bodycount, as Codemasters' first-person shooter squeezes into the top 40 at number 36. I'm, Casey Kasem, until next week, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.
Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish is a six-plus minute fan-made live-action
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 movie following up on the
Find Makarov trailer that came after
a countdown many thought was a buildup to a Modern Warfare 3 reveal. The new clip was unleashed as part of this past weekend's Call of Duty XP festivities. Word is: "The real life movie reveals a key moment in Modern Warfare history as Soap recalls one of his most memorable Task Force 141 missions. For more information visit
findmakarov.com" (though that site does not actually have more info, or even the new trailer, at least at this point). Thanks
Gamer's Hell, where they offer downloads of the trailer.
Today is Labor Day here in the U.S., a federal holiday celebrating the joys of working, or something like that. As described yesterday, I have loads of food still to make on the man stove, though I'm still a little stuffed with sausage and peppers from last night's cookout, and I'm pretty sure after today, we'll have enough leftovers to last the week.
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