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Archived News:
The
Flying Hog Studios Facebook page reveals that the Hard Reset developer is
the studio working on the Shadow Warrior project
reported earlier today (thanks
Polygon). Their logo is now on the
Shadow Warrior website, and here's the sparse announcement: "Our next
project is finally revealed, we're working on a total reimagining of Shadow
Warrior with Devolver Digital."
Steam News announces
that Sanctum 2 is now
available for pre-purchase in advance of next week's release of the Tower
Defense/FPS sequel. On a semi-related note,
Steam News also announces
a free weekend is underway for the original
Sanctum, which can be
played for free, and purchased on sale for 75% off.
One Of Swords notes
a tweet from
Treyarch saying a double experience points weekend kicks off tomorrow for
Call of Duty: Black Ops II, their military shooter sequel: Double XP
kicks off tomorrow at 10am/PDT (360,PS3/PC/WiiU) and runs through Monday
10am/PDT. What's that? You feel a sick day coming on?
Capcom announces the demo for Resident Evil Revelations is coming to
Windows PCs via Steam and to consoles next week: "Good news! That RER demo we
mentioned a week or so ago now has a release date - May 14 for Xbox Live,
Nintendo eShop (Wii U), Steam and US PSN, with EU PSN getting the demp [sic] on
May 15."
An update to the
Diablo III thread covering the aftermath of the recent gold-duping
fiasco says the auction house downtime will stretch on for at least 24 hours
more than originally anticipated. It seems the painstaking hand audit that that
they have chosen has proven more complicated than originally anticipated. They
remain resolute that this is the way to go over the database rollback the
userbase is demanding: > 5/9/13 12:10 p.m. PDT: As we mentioned earlier,
we're currently auditing transactions that were performed on the both the gold
and real-money Auction House following the discovery of a gold exploit after
patch 1.0.8 released. For those just tuning in, we decided to perform a complete
audit and focus on the few players that exploited this bug rather than
performing a full rollback and taking everyone offline for a day (or more) –
losing all the progress they made.
This audit is a time-intensive process, and to make sure that we can do a
thorough job, we’re going to keep the Auction Houses in maintenance until that
work is complete. Unfortunately, our previous estimate was incorrect, and for
that I personally apologize. We don’t have a new ETA, but we anticipate that the
service will be unavailable for at least another 24 hours. We’ll continue to
provide updates in this thread regarding the status of our Auction House
maintenance as they become available.
Stardock announces that Forbidden Worlds, the first DLC for Sins of a
Solar Empire: Rebellion is coming to Stardock's space strategy game on June
5th by way of digital distribution. The USD $4.99 pack will add new planet
types, planet specialization, technologies, planetary bonuses and additional
Steam achievements. Here's a feature list:
- Four new planet types to colonize and exploit
(Barren, Ferrus, Greenhouse, Oceanic), each created with beautiful high-res
textures.
- New Planet Specialization System: Dedicate your
worlds to either social or industrial output. Devoting your planet to social
improvements will increase its population and culture, at the cost of trade
income and ship production. Choosing an industrial path will limit your
growth and culture, but make your planet a trading and ship building
powerhouse.
- 15 new research subjects allow the races to
conquer and expand onto the forbidden worlds.
- Discover 40 new planet bonuses during your
exploration of the galaxy, unlocking the dark past of the Sins’ universe.
- Unlock five new Steam Achievements and display
your mastery of forbidden space!
The
Digital Combat Simulator shop now features online sales of Lock On:
Flaming Cliffs 3, offering Windows PC gamers a continuation of the Flaming
Cliffs combat flight simulator series. Here's
a launch trailer, and
here's the deal: DUXFORD, UK, May 9th, 2013 – The Fighter Collection and
Eagle Dynamics have released Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 3 for Windows PC. Lock On:
Flaming Cliffs 3 (FC3) is the next evolution of the Flaming Cliffs series. FC3
features the F-15C, A-10A, Su-27, Su-33, MiG-29A, MiG-29S, Su-25T, and Su-25.
FC3 aircraft provide an easy learning curve for new players and focuses on a
broad range of aircraft including air-to-air fighters and ground pounding attack
aircraft. FC3 adds a wealth of new features and improvements to previous
versions of the Flaming Cliffs series. FC3 is a module of DCS: World, which
makes it compatible with all other DCS: World titles like A-10C, Black Shark 2,
P-51D, and Combined Arms.
Continue here to read the full story.
Trion Worlds announces plans to release "as many as five" DLC packs this year
for Defiance, their television
tie-in MMORPG. Details are incomplete for the moment, but they say this will
take several forms, "including a free component, a paid component and a store
update." They offer what specifics they are willing to share for now in
this blog update, and sum things up like this: "Set to provide fans with a
flow of meaningful, exciting new content for the game, Defiance has its first
major update coming soon. It has numerous performance enhancements, as well as
new TV Tie-ins, one of which will utilize a new open world game mode called
Sieges. It’s a crossover event that you don’t want to miss!"
This trailer is called
Beyond the Battle: Part 1, offering a look at alpha footage of
Command & Conquer, the
upcoming free-to-play revival of the classic real-time strategy series. Word is:
"In Part 1 of Beyond the Battle, we go back to our roots as we explore the
formula that made Command & Conquer so popular and its design influences on the
next installment. Join us behind the scenes for new reveals, never before seen
footage, and exclusive interviews from the lead developers of Victory Games and
Co-Founder of Westwood Studios, Louis Castle." Thanks Ant. Continue here to read the full story.
- Bethesda Weekend on
GamersGate. Save 50%. Thanks MoreLuckThanSkill.
- Fallen Enchantress on
Steam. Save 66%.
- Go Home Dinosaurs! on
Steam. Save 50%.
- Trials Evolution: Gold Edition on
Steam. Save 25%.
The entire staff at TimeGate Studios was laid off today, according to an
unconfirmed report on
Kotaku attributed to two sources. They say the troubled developer of
Section 8 and co-developer of Aliens: Colonial Marines sent everyone
home early, and their call to inquire about this was answered by receptionist
who transferred them to voicemail. TimeGate recently lost over $7 million in a
court case with SouthPeak
Interactive over Section 8 and subsequently
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and
according to one of Kotaku's sources, SouthPeak won a court decision to convert
this from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
Thanks nin.
SEGA announces a September 3rd global release date for Total War: ROME II,
also revealing a preorder bonus and a collector's edition for the upcoming
real-time strategy sequel. The game can be preordered from the
SEGA store or one of the retailers listed
on this page, and those
who preorder any edition from a participating retailer will receive a free copy
of the release day DLC. The DLC is called the Greek States Culture Pack, which
adds three additional playable factions: Epirus, Athens and Sparta. Word is:
"These factions have their own unique units, buildings, missions and win
conditions alongside a distinct tech tree and, in the case of Sparta, will
present a considerable challenge to the advanced player wishing to restore the
famous city state to its former glory." The Collector's Edition is a limited run
of 22,000 individually numbered copies in a pleather case. Complete details on
the CE are
on
this page. Returning to the preorders,
Dealzon has a coupon
code for
Green Man Gaming to save 25% off the retail price, and their Steam
fulfillment includes the preorder DLC.
IGN Video has a new NSFW video presentation for Saints Row IV,
showing more of the insane administration of the game's President of the United
States following the character's
revent unveiling. The
clip is narrated by Volition and offers seven minutes of footage from the
open-world action sequel, showing off the dubstep gun, the presidential limo (a
monster truck), weapon customization, the game's alien enemies, a playable mech,
new activities, superpowers, gameplay freedom of choice, and more. Continue here to read the full story.
Thunder Wolves is now available for preorder
on Steam, where a 20%
discount is to be had for buying the Windows edition of the helicopter action
game in advance of its release next week. Word is: "Gratuitous explosions,
overzealous rookies, endless ammunition - Thunder Wolves is a love letter to the
macho, over-the-top action flicks of a bygone era. Plus, when was the last time
you played a helicopter-shooter that wasn't a retro-remake? Even better, this
one has local co-op." Here's a
new gameplay trailer. Continue here to read the full story.
A new website is now live at
Shadowwarrior.com, a domain owned by 3D Realms since before the release of
Shadow Warrior, their 1997 Build-engine first-person shooter. This is
entirely one gigantic screenshot and no details, but the site is a mirror of
this subdomain at Devolver
Digital which also has
this screenshot showing a dead yakuza. This suggests a more realistic
follow-up to the first game, which was anything but, as the original Shadow
Warrior was filled with tongue-in-cheek humor and goofiness which drew fire from
some critics for being racially insensitive and promoting stereotypes, but 3D
Realms defended at the time by saying the game was a send-up of bad kung fu
movies. The site re-launch coincides with a Devolver
announcing a
Steam
Greenlight campaign for Blade Analyzer Pro which seems to be a marketing
spoof. Tying these together is that Blade Analyzer Pro is offered by Zilla
Enterprises, which is the fictional evil corporation from the original Shadow
Warrior. Thanks Kristian.
The Diablo III
Forums have the latest on the
auction house disaster in Diablo
III. The reaction to the situation from the playerbase of Blizzard's action/RPG
sequel seems resolute, as every one of the threads in their Popular Topics list
relates to the situation. There's the post from Blizzard about the auction house
being offline, a thread about how the increased monster density in version 1.0.8
is a positive development, and after that the discontent shows, as 40% of those
threads request a rollback to a point before the exploit occurred (which
Blizzard has said they won't do), 30% of them are petitions demanding said
rollback, and the remaining thread suggests a class action suit. The auction
houses are still offline following the inadvertent free money Tuesday, and word
is they are taking a laissez-faire to bringing them back: In order to
allow auctions posted yesterday to expire naturally, we've decided to keep the
gold and real-money Auction House in maintenance mode until tomorrow morning.
We're currently targeting 10:00 a.m. PDT, but will provide an update for
everyone at 9:00 a.m. PDT. At that point, we'll be able to give a much more
solid ETA as to when the service will be up and running (or, conversely, if
additional downtime is needed).
Gold trades are still disabled for the time being. Once we have an ETA for those
being re-activated, we'll provide another update in this thread, as well.
Battlelog has details on a denial of service attack EA is currently battling
in Battlefield 3, their military shooter: Despite our security
measures, we have been working around the clock to mitigate the impact of an
ongoing denial-of-service attack on our Battlefield 3 game infrastructure over
the last several days. While the motives are unclear, the focus of the attack
has been interference with network communications preventing access to
multiplayer gameplay. At this point, no user data is involved. We share your
frustration about the impact this has had to our service and the ability for
many of you to play Battlefield 3. We are working tirelessly to mitigate the
problem.
As a part of our efforts to resolve these issues, we’ve conducted rolling
restarts of Battlefield infrastructure servers to apply some updates. Thank you
for your patience and support while we work to get everyone back and playing
Battlefield 3 as soon as possible. More updates to come.
Origin News announces a new beta version of the Windows Origin client should
now be available, with the OS X beta expected today (thanks
VG247). They say this will roll out to the rest of the Origin "community" in
the weeks to come, but those who want it now can still opt-in to the beta. Word
is this adds streaming support, 64-bit enhancements, and achievement
tracking: After downloading this update, you'll notice that we've revamped
the look and feel of the Application Settings menu. For PC users, if you've been
broadcasting your gameplay, you'll appreciate the new ability to auto-archive
your broadcasts. For you power gamers with muscular 64-bit systems on either PC
or Mac, the new multilauncher will give you additional options for taking
advantage of your hardware when starting up supported games. Finally, you can
now keep track of all the achievements you've completed in Battlefield 3, Mass
Effect 3, and Dead Space 3 on your Origin profile page. Start playing those
games after updating Origin, and watch your Origin Point total (displayed
underneath your name) increase by completing their achievements.
Discord Games announces
their
Kickstarter for Chasm is now funded with under three days remaining
in the campaign for the 2D action/RPG platformer. To help maintain momentum,
they have opened up preorders for
the game through the Humble Store, and say they will be applying these
orders to continue to fund stretch rewards past the end of the Kickstarter: "This pre-order system has no time limit other than the completion of
the game, so we'll be able to keep striving for these Stretch Goals long after
the Kickstarter ends."
The
Indie Mine - On the Topic of Indie Games and Game Categorization.
Perhaps we’re just looking at this in the wrong way. Another way people
tend to describe indie games is by calling them the innovators of the games
industry, which can be true. Indie games do sometimes innovate, and the
top-rated and best-selling ones typically do. However, this isn’t always
true. While I’d love to say that indie gaming is all about innovation, often
it really isn’t. Indie developers and studios also need to feed themselves,
so they are often just as worried about turning a profit as big publishers
and studios are. This isn’t necessarily a problem, although it does mean
that even indie gaming tends to follow trends, meaning that many of the same
type of game are sometimes released within a short period.
We've had a changing of the Char-Griller guard in Manstovia, as I have finally
replaced my smoker. For a few years my grill was a Char-Griller outlaw with a
side smoking box. This served admirably amid my abuse, as between 600+ degree
fires for charring steaks and a stubborn unwillingness to cover it or take it in
for the winter, it ended up more rust than steel and iron, and became a storage
place for brushes and other accessories when I got a new grill. The new grill
has no smoking capabilities, however, so it was perfect when the Char-Griller
version of a kamado grill showed up at our big box store for about a third the
cost of one of those more-famous large chartreuse ovoids. I haven't tried
smoking with it yet, but am looking forward to that, and it will also serve
nicely as a traditional grill which will allow some flexibility when using the
rotisserie on the big grill. I was also happy to see that the old grill was
adopted from the curb before the garbage men got it, so hopefully someone with a
welder and more repair wherewithal than myself is rehabilitating it for further
use.
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