Archived News:
Infinity Ward tweets that Custom Game Mode downloads are temporarily disabled in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to address an exploit in the military shooter sequel: "We're temporarily disabling download of Custom Game Modes across platforms in #MW3 until we can release the patch for the CMR mods exploit."
Valve has appointed economics professor Yanis Varoufakis their "resident expert adviser" on economics, reports BBC News, saying the move was spurred by problems they ran into dealing with virtual currency exchange. This relationship seems to be a symbiotic one, as this will provide the opportunity to use in-game economies as test-beds for theories rarely available in his field. Thanks GamesIndustry International.
"We are 99 percent done," StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder told Kotaku when asked about progress on the upcoming Heart of the Swarm expansion for their science fiction RTS sequel. However, he makes it sound like one of those progress bars that will sit at 99% for a while, adding: "but that last one percent's a bitch." He goes on to explain that all the units are in place, but this next phase is open-ended: "It's the tuning and polish that really takes us a long time, and that's where we get into the unknowns."
GameTrailers TV shows off the extended E3 demo for Dead Space 3, previously only shown in behind-the-scenes showings of the upcoming survival/horror sequel. The clip includes cinematics and gameplay as Isaac explores the frozen setting of the game's new planet and includes a demonstration of how co-op looks.
Steam's Spec Ops: The Line page now offers the promised playable demo for Yager's military shooter. There are no details on the demo, but the 2K Games website can tell you all about the game. Steam also offers a couple of other recent demos for Bang Bang Racing and Plutonic Repulse. Thanks Frans.
The Neversoft Entertainment Website has word that the Tony Hawk developer is hiring for the CoD series, saying: "We have molded our team into a crack squad of eager developers ready to push the First Person Action genre in support of Activision's Call of Duty franchise." Thanks NeoGAF via GameInformer. Almost exactly two years ago superannuation noted that Neversoft was hiring for a shooter project, and since this news broke, the sleuth has posted a couple of tweets suggesting this is a sci-fi installment in the series, and another tweet questioning whether a 125+ person team might be overstaffed for a support role.
The Official PlayStation Magazine offers new details on the upcoming Dawnguard expansion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. They describe a new shout and new weapons this will add and offer detailed Perk Trees for Vampires and Werewolves. Thanks Computer and Video Games.
NetDragon Websoft announces Conquer Online 3, an upcoming reworking of their free-to-play MMORPG. This will involve gameplay changes as well as a graphical overhaul. and progress on the project can be tracked through the Conquer Online Facebook Page. Here's an awesome translation of part of the plan: "Compared to what the current iteration presents, the Conquer Online 3 game experience aims to make subtle changes to pacing, allowing both fierce actions and more relaxing enjoyments to harmoniously coexist. In the meantime, the balance for classes will be reshaped. The controversial Battle Power feature will be removed, and the economy system will be improved upon."
Analyst Michael Pachter tweets about yesterday's NPD figures, revealing sales of Max Payne 3 are less than half of those of L.A. Noire for the same period: "Without divulging too much NPD goodness, I can tell you that Max Payne 3 sales were less than 50% of L.A. Noire's. 8 years in development!" Thanks Strategy Informer.
The Gospel Coalition - How to Respond to the Video Game Crisis.
So far I have never struggled with addiction to video games, and I can't speak to the psychological research and theorizing. Instead, I simply wish to provide in this article some clarity and nuance for a subject too often considered in an alarmist context, especially within the church. Video games are a comparatively new medium, and as such they are the object of much skepticism and intrigue. Those who do not play games often view the medium as a waste of time at best and a corrupting influence at worst. Meanwhile, video game proponents---permanently on the defensive---make excuses for bad art and actual corrupting influences. We Christians must be truthful about these things, but neither side right now is telling the whole story.
- ASRock H77 Pro4 MVP Intel LGA 1155 Motherboard on OverClocked inside.
- ASUS Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 Express LGA 1155 Motherboard on techPowerUp.
- ASUS Zenbook UX31 Ultrabook on Hardware Canucks.
- BitFenix Shinobi XL Window Version Full Tower Case on TweakTown.
- Eclipse Stealth FX812R795 Extreme Case on Vortez.
- ECS Z77H2-AX Gold Edition Motherboard on PureOC.
- Huawei Honor U8860 Android SmartPhone on Nikk Tech.
- Leetgion Hellion on Vortez.
- MyDigitalSSD SMART 256GB mSATA SSD on The SSD Review.
- Steelseries Kinzu v2 Pro Edition Mouse on XSReviews.
- Thecus N5550 5Bay NAS on eTeknix.
- Thunderbolt tested with 2x SSD in RAID0 on Guru3D.
It took a long time to get to it, but we finally had the tree doctor in to clear up our multiple arboreal problems. To be honest, he's more of a tree executioner than doctor, but the two trees he came to remove in their entirety were already dead, and the couple of others he worked on are all the better for the removal of their broken bits, so this was all pretty surgical considering. It's also a relief, because our dead birch tree in particular was starting to look like it was going to fell itself one of these days, so we'll consider this a disaster we've managed to avert.
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