Archived News:
Steam now offers
preorders of The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition, confirming the
recently revealed
Windows edition of SNK's fighting game (thanks Joao). They offer 17% off on the
pre-purchases, and also provide
this link, which is where to register for the chance to be selected as one
of 300 beta testers. They list a September 17th release date, and outline fairly
modest system requirements. They also describe some PC-specific netcode
enhancements: "THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII Steam Edition" now features
vastly improved netcode that will provide you with the most comfortable online
experience yet! The new netcode features improved communication speeds between
you and your opponent, and also tailors your online experience according to your
PC environment!
Torn Banner games announces that Chivalry: Medieval Warfare has now sold
more than 1.2 million copies in nine months of availability, offering
this infographic
breaking down sales by region. They also announce a new patch is now
automatically available via Steam (Steam News seems to have a problem, and has
not been updating properly at times lately). The new version adds a bunch of
character customization option to the first-person slasher, fixes a bunch of
bugs, and tweaks balance a bit.
ComputerAndVideoGames.com has word from Microsoft that their new
$100 million Xbox One controller will eventually be PC compatible at some
point next year, though they say the software to allow this won't be available
when the consoles are first released. "There is also some work that we need to
do to make sure that existing PC games that support the Xbox 360 controller,
will work with the Xbox One controller. While it seems trivial, it's actually
quite a bit of dedicated work for all that to be seamless for the user," they
were told. "We know people want to use the Xbox One controller on their PC, and
we do too - we expect to have the functionality available in 2014."
Crystal Dynamics confirms for
GameInformer that they've laid off roughly a dozen staff, though none of
them are from the Tomb Raider development team. "We've made some decisions at
Crystal Dynamics this week around the second project we're working on, which has
resulted in a small number of roles (roughly 12) becoming redundant as we
re-scope the project," a representative told Game Informer. "This doesn't affect
the Tomb Raider development team, who, as confirmed last week, are well into
production on a next-generation sequel. We're a close-knit team at Crystal and
wouldn't be making these changes if we didn't feel it was absolutely necessary.
We'll help those affected as best we can and we want to thank them for their
hard work and commitment. If anyone is looking for development talent, please
contact: mtrout@crystald.com and we'll
put you in touch direct [sic]."
- The iPhone's 'tri-tone' text message alert was made for a 90s MP3
player on
The Verge.
Time for an ever-popular announcement of an announcement, as
Rockstar Games has word to expect a Grand Theft Auto Online gameplay video
on Thursday along with previews of Grand Theft Auto V. Word is: "Look for
the world premiere of the official GTA Online Gameplay Video as well as coverage
of first press previews here at the Newswire and at
rockstargames.com/GTAOnline
– this Thursday, August 15th."
Morphopolis is a
point-and-click hidden object game for Windows, Linux, OS X, and mobiles with a
fine-art style inspired by games such as Machinarium and The Tiny Bang Story.
Developer Micro Macro Games is offering access to the current alpha version of
the game, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year (the fact
sheet says it's due this summer, but the bottom of the page says Q4 2013). Alpha
access costs USD $19.99 and will also get your name in the credits, while they
also offer preorders with no alpha access for $9.99. Here's a new
alpha launch trailer.
Continue here to read the full story.
GtK offers its new array of weekly game sales charts in the U.K. Nothing much is
new on the
full-price PC games chart, where The Sims 3: Island Paradise continues to
bask in the number one spot and 19 of the 20 titles return from last week. On
the
budget-price PC games chart Spore makes a jump to number one. There's a new
entry in the top 10 on the
all platforms all prices chart, were Tales of Xillia debuts at number
four and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition remains firmly dug in at number one. Here's
their summary of the
new charts: 'Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition' (+13%) digs in at the top of the
All Formats Chart for a third successive week.
It is Microsoft's longest unbroken run at No1 since 'Forza Motorsport 2' held
top spot for 3 weeks back in W25 2007. With the start of the Premiership
football season a week away, 'FIFA 13' (+24%) continues its rise back up the
chart, climbing another two places to No2. 'The Smurfs 2' (+35%) also continues
to grow in popularity, up two places to No3 after 4 weeks on release. The
'Tales' series of titles might not be a big name in the UK, but this week's only
new entry, Japanese RPG 'Tales of Xillia 'still manages to give Namco Bandai a
No4 debut.
'Animal Crossing: New Leaf' (-16%) drops two places to No5, but this week
outsells the critically acclaimed 'The Last of Us' (-25%) which has to settle
for No6. Familiar faces complete the Top 10 line-up with 'Black Ops II' (+9%) up
one place to No7, 'Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes' (-3%) down one place to No8
and 'Tomb Raider' (+0%) and 'Assassin's Creed III' (-7%) both non-movers at No9
and No10 respectively.
This trailer offers
the first look at gameplay from WRC 4, the next installment in the World Rally
Championship racing series that's coming to Windows, last-gen consoles and Vita
in October. Here's what this depicts: The video shows the 2013 Citroën DS3
driven by Mikko Hirvonen and the unprecedented 9-times World Champion, Sébastien
Loeb. With a total of 90 wins since their first WRC rally, Citroën will compete
against 60 other competitors in 8 makes of car over 13 events for the 2013
crown.
The second part of the video presents for the first time in-game footage of WRC
4 with Loeb’s car during Rally Sweden. In 2013, Rally Sweden is the second event
of the season and consists of 22 stages over a competitive distance of 339
kilometers through ice- and snow-coated roads. Rally Sweden was only one of four
rallies contested by Sébastien Loeb in 2013, as the reigning WRC Champion winds
down his long and illustrious WRC career. On that event, Loeb finished second
behind Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier – the young Frenchman who now leads the 2013
WRC Championship for Drivers.
Continue here to read the full story.
There's a follow-up to the news the other day
about the disappearance of Katherine "Kate" Masson on
the Raven, saying they have additional details about this leading them to
the "near-unavoidable conclusion that Kate has not gone missing, so much as she
has chosen to vanish." They add more details on this and say they will follow up
with more as it's learned, but there is a reduced sense of urgency about all
this, as it seems she does not actually wish to be found.
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