Archived News:
Steam announces that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution and all other Dawn of War games are on sale this weekend for 50% off. This is also a free to play weekend for the standalone RTS expansion that runs through Sunday afternoon.
The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website announces December 20, 2011 is now the global simultaneous launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This represents a change in plans, as last month BioWare announced the European release of the Star Wars MMORPG would be two days after the game's North American launch. Word is: Those who have pre-ordered the game and redeemed their Pre-Order Code at the Code Redemption Center before the game’s official release are eligible for Early Game Access as well as an in-game ‘Color Stone’ to change the color of your weapon’s visual effects. If you haven’t yet reserved your copy of the game, be sure to visit our Pre-Order page and secure your place in the Old Republic now!
On related notes, the game's website also offers a new "Signs of War" trailer showing some diplomacy failures in action, and the site now offers a new operation page with word on these large-scale multi-group missions.
Ubisoft announces that Assassin's Creed Revelations will be playable in 3D for Windows PC via NVIDIA 3D Vision as well as on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Word is: For the first time in the history of the storied franchise, players will be able to experience the thrilling, action-packed gameplay and vibrant, breath-taking world of Assassin's Creed in 3D on all available platforms.
Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3 players can take advantage of TriOviz InficolorT 3D support and dive deeper into the war between Assassins and Templars with 3D glasses. Assassin's Creed Revelations is also compatible with all 3DTVs using top/bottom, side-by-side and frame packing via HDMI 1.4.
Assassin's Creed Revelations on the PC is compatible with NVIDIA® 3D Vision.
Capcom offers details on a North American Collector's Edition for Street Fighter X Tekken, which includes a mini-arcade cabinet, among other things. They also reveal a console release date of March 6th in North America and March 9th in Europe. This does not apply to the PC edition that was announced at Captivate 11, as they say it "just began development," adding: "More details on the PlayStation Vita version and the PC version will be revealed in the future." Here what the CE will include: Continue here to read the full story.
The Battlefield Blog now offers Battleblog #14 with the promised details on the remaining multiplayer maps in Battlefield 3, DICE's military shooter sequel. They offer screenshots and information for the following maps: Grand Bazaar, Caspian Border, Seine Crossing, Noshahr Canals, and Kharg Island.
A third video developer from The Secret World looks at The Secret War in Funcom's upcoming conspiracy-steeped MMORPG. In the clip the game's developers introduce the underlying conflict from the game, which pits secret societies in a three-way war. Continue here to read the full story.
A new patch is now available for WRC 2 to update Milestone's rally racing sequel to version 1.1. There's no word on what the patch does, but the download is available on AtomicGamer, Gamer's Hell, and The Patches Scrolls.
The L.A. Times has a bit on the September sales figures reported by the NPD Group. Word is game sales are up and hardware sales are down: The starting gun for the video game industry's crucial holiday season went off with a bang in September as sales of games perked up 4% after four consecutive months of declines, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group.
But as the industry scored $630.2 million in sales of games sold at retail stores last month, up from $612.1 million a year earlier, sales of consoles tumbled 9% to $349 million from $382.9 million in 2010, as manufacturers cut the cost of devices used to play those games. Nintendo's hand-held 3DS console, for example, saw its price tag fall to $170 from $250 when it launched in March.
The decline in hardware offset the gains in game sales, leading to a 6% overall drop in total sales to $1.16 billion from $1.23 billion in September 2010.
Following the recent mea culpa from CCP's Hilmar Veigar Pétursson over EVE Online missteps, Massively has word that most former subscribers whose accounts lapsed during or before what they call "the Summer drama" are receiving emails offering a special rate of $4.95 USD for 30 days of subscription time.
The FINAL FANTASY XIV Website has word that subscriptions are returning to the MMORPG (thanks GamesInustry.biz). Here's the official statement: Allow me to thank you all for your continued interest in FINAL FANTASY XIV.
One year has passed since the game’s release, and despite the disappointment surrounding its launch, we have received a wealth of support from you, the players. Your encouraging words and continued loyalty have been a source of immeasurable inspiration to everyone involved with FINAL FANTASY XIV’s development.
In the ten months since the FINAL FANTASY XIV team’s restructuring, we have put forth the utmost effort into not only improving the game’s existing features, but also creating a concrete plan to outline the game’s new direction. Today, I am pleased to announce we can confidently present that plan to our customers. We fully realize this is but a single step towards our ultimate goal, and that to meet the high standards set in the plan, more time is required. In the meantime, however, we will not waver in our commitment to bringing players exciting and engaging content, even as the game moves through its evolution.
With this, it is my hope that we will continue to receive your support as we will need to bring the unbilled period to a close between late November and early December 2011, and introduce our subscription-based billing system. I appreciate that this decision will not be popular, but it is a necessary step in building upon the foundation our fans and development team have made together and to realize the full potential of FINAL FANTASY XIV.
The team will stop short of nothing as they move towards realizing the new FINAL FANTASY XIV, and as they do so, I humbly ask for both your understanding and support.
President and CEO, Yoichi Wada
The Alien Arena Website now offers an updated version 7.52 of Alien Arena, the freeware, sci-fi first-person shooter. Word is: "Version 7.52 boasts a host of updated and new content, as well as a new stats account system, renderer updates/improvements/bugfixes, and a new game mode, Insta-Rockets. Four brand new levels have been introduced, as well as a new violator model, updated player skins with glow effects, all new powerup models (including the new megahealth!), and updates to a variety of other skins and textures." The change list has these details: Continue here to read the full story.
X-Motor Racing version 1.32 is now available, offering an updated version of this racing simulation. As always, there's a new demo based on the new version. The patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
The Rise of Immortals forums have details on the new Talia Immortal that's now available in Petroglyph's MOBA game. She carries a theme appropriate to the coming of Halloween, which can be seen in this trailer. Apparently the game's next Immortal has also been revealed, as forum members have noted the name "Pycon" showed up in an in-game tooltip.
Updates to the Public Test Realm Patch 4.3 Notes for World of Warcraft outline more upcoming changes for Blizzard's MMORPG. Thanks Ant.
Ars Technica reports having received "a number of reports" from Xbox LIVE account holders saying they have had unauthorized purchases charged to their accounts. According to the stories they share, this seems to somehow center on FIFA 11 and FIFA 12, as users see they have achievements in these games, in spite of not owning them, and the purloined space bucks were used to by in-game items for the association football/soccer games.
As Halloween approaches, I have to confess to an unusual failure of will power. We picked up a couple of large sacks of candy for the kiddies, as usual picking out stuff that we (okay, I) like, since I'll have to (okay, get to) eat the leftovers. Normally I'll let them be, but somewhere along the way I opened one of them, and by now I have probably eaten half of it. I guess I'm going to have to replace what I took, and maybe I need to rethink the part about getting stuff I like to reduce this temptation (mmm, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups).
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