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Archived News:
Ian Livingstone is departing Eidos almost 20 years after launching the company,
reports
Develop. They say the 63 year-old game industry stalwart, who also
co-founded Games Workshop, will focus on projects "such as setting up the
Livingstone Foundation to open Free Schools and Academies, with a focus on
coding and using games as a learning tool." They also have word from Eidos
parent Square Enix saying they would like to work with him again on future
projects, along with their nice farewell message. "All of us at Square Enix do
want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Ian for his unparalleled tenure
and contribution to this business and the UK games industry," reads their
statement. "And we wish him every success with his future projects and new
ventures."
A new Pirate Heist
trailer from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, offering more of the
swashbuckling adventures in the upcoming continuation of the stealthy
assassination series. The description accompanying the clip indicates that in
spite of recent apparent
reassurances that the game would be released on all platforms on October
31st, the PC edition is actually now expected almost three weeks later, on
November 19th. Here's the latest schedule: "Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag will
be released on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation 4
from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Xbox 360 games and entertainment system
from Microsoft, Xbox One, Nintendo’s Wii U™ system, and Windows PC. The game
will be available on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360
games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Nintendo’s Wii U™ system on
October 29, 2013, Windows PC on November 19, 2013, and as day one launch titles
for PlayStation 4 from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Xbox One." Continue here to read the full story.
Devolver Digital announces Defense Technica, a tower defense game in the works
at Kuno Interactive for release on Windows and OS X on October 24th.
This video includes a
look at gameplay, and the game is up for
pre-purchase on Steam at
20% off if you like what you see. Here's word, including the always-welcome Fork
Parker quote: Defense Technica is the next evolution in hardcore tower
defense strategy games. Players must protect the core from an onslaught of
biomechanical and mecha enemies with a powerful range of tower defense units –
each with their own upgradable features and methods of attacks. Engage the
opposition in gorgeous maps and prepare to rapidly shift tactics as the weather,
enemy paths, and even the terrain itself physically changes upending the flow of
the battlefield. Presented through sharp 3D visuals and backed by a soaring
soundtrack, Defense Technica is the next big step forward in strategic tower
defense.
“This country was built on the tenets of life, liberty, and tower defense with
our forefathers giving their lives to defend high-tech cores from invading alien
hordes,” said Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. “It’s each gamer’s civic duty to
buy Defense Technica.”
Continue here to read the full story.
AMD now offers a new second beta version of the AMD Catalyst 13.10 reference
drivers for AMD/ATI graphics cards. Among other things, version 13.10 beta 2
includes a 32-bit single GPU and a AMD Crossfire game profile for Battlefield 4
and a Total War: ROME 2 CrossFire profile update. There's also a new
AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta Driver for Linux.
Not to be outdone by the new AMD beta drivers, the
GeForce website now offers new version 331.40 Beta Drivers for NVIDIA
graphics cards. The new drivers have improvements for a bunch of games as well
as improvements to the ambient occlusion feature they describe like so: "331.40
beta also includes a major update to our
NVIDIA
Control Panel Ambient Occlusion feature, which allows you to apply
fidelity-enhancing, realistic shading and shadowing to games that do not
natively support Ambient Occlusion. With a few simple clicks, you can greatly
increase the image quality of your favorite games, and now, with 331.40 beta,
the quality of the Ambient Occlusion shading will be significantly higher thanks
to the introduction of
HBAO+."
Link of the Day:
Johnny T's NYC
Tourist Tips. That's one street-smart muppet.
Origin
tweets that preloads are now underway for those eligible to participate in
early access beta testing of Battlefield 4, which begins tomorrow. Word
is: "Pre-load is now available for everyone in the Exclusive #bf4beta. Download
now to be among the first to fight on Oct 1." The beta is open to those who
preorder Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe and will be released for all to play
on October 4th. Thanks
VG247.
Blizzard has trademarked the title Heroes of the Storm in New Zealand,
reports
PCGamesN, though we cannot find this listing, and the link they provide for
this is not actually a link, but we've found the
U.S.
Trademark filing. This has renewed speculation about Blizzard's plans for
the MOBA that's been referred to as Blizzard All-Stars and Blizzard DOTA over
the years.
Vlambeer announces Nuclear Throne is the new title of their game
formerly known as Wasteland Kings, an apparently amicable outcome to
being informed by InXile Entertainment that this might cause confusion with the
Wasteland series (thanks
VG247). Here's part of the civilized explanation: After announcing
the game for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita during Sony’s press
conference at gamescom, we were contacted by a Dutch employee of InXile
Entertainment, the studio behind 1988 title Wasteland and the recent Kickstarter
for Wasteland 2. They explained that InXile CEO Brian Fargo and some of the team
were worried about possible brand confusion and argued that Wasteland Kings
could be misinterpreted as a title in the ‘Wasteland’ franchise.
We’ve been through a lot of trouble with people riding on things of ours, and we
understand that American trademark law is pretty strict in that not defending a
trademark weakens it. We realize that both games are set in a similar setting,
that the names are similar and that InXile obviously felt the need to reach out.
Although we aren’t sure Wasteland Kings and Wasteland are confusing enough for
this to be an issue, both us and InXile really don’t want to spend development
time on arguing over trivialities.
Most of all, we appreciate that the first contact between us was by a normal
employee, and not a lawyer. There was no extravagant Cease & Desist-letter, nor
a threatening letter in an envelope labelled ‘URGENT’. The e-mail we received
was short, amicable and to-the-point. It was followed up by a quick conversation
on Skype, in which we established that it would be the right thing for us to
change the name.
This is the way business should work nowadays: between people, not companies,
not lawyers, not departments. There’s so much paperwork between one and another
that it’s easy for people to forget that they’re dealing with people instead of
numbers and dossiers. Things can be friendly, rather than formal for the sake of
formality.
GfK Chart-Track returns with their weekly outline of the bestselling games in
the U.K. The
PC full-price top 20 reflects the week's new release, as FIFA 14
enters the chart at number one. The new installment in the association
football/soccer series is takes the top spot on the
all platforms/all prices chart, knocking off Grand Theft Auto V after
just one week. Here's their information dense write up: One week after
the launch of ‘GTA V’, the biggest game of all time (week 1 sales), the
rollercoaster journey into Q4 continues with the launch this week of EA’s
8-format ‘FIFA 14’ debuting at No1.
In terms of the FIFA series the current version is down on last year’s
record-breaker ‘FIFA 13’ by around 24% in volume, possibly due to all the money
spent last week and also perhaps due to the nature of a transitional year, where
consumers may be delaying this purchase until PS4/Xbox One versions are
available. In terms of 8-format games, only 2 other titles have been released
simultaneously in the same week on 8 formats (EA’s FIFA 13 last year and EA’s
Need For Speed: Carbon back in 2006, another transitional year).
Rockstar/Take 2’s ‘GTA V’ drops to No2 (-83%) but even with such a drop this
week 2 number is equivalent to being the 18th biggest week if ranked against
week 1 sales of any other games ever released. Microsoft are back in the Top 3
after a 5 week break thanks to ‘Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition’, No3 (-2%) and
Konami drop 2 places to No4 having debuted last week with ‘Pro Evolution Soccer
2014’ (-46%). Sony drop 2 places to No5 with ‘The Last of Us’ (-41%) and
Ubisoft’s ‘Rayman Legends’ re-enters the Top 10 thanks to some price promotion,
No10 (+34%).
- ASUSTOR AS-304T 4-bay NAS Server on
Mad Shrimps.
- Cooler Master CM Storm Pulse-R Aluminum Gaming Headset on
eTeknix.
- Corsair Obsidian Series 350D on
LAN OC.
- Corsair RM Series 850 W on
techPowerUp.
- Creative Airwave on
Vortez.
- Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 PC Case on
OverClocked inside.
- Gigabyte Z87X-D3H LGA1150 Motherboard on
OCIA.net.
- Kingston 10th Anniversary HyperX 16GB 2400MHz on
Overclockers Club.
- Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-2400 8GB Memory Kit on
ThinkComputers.org.
- Thortech Thunderbolt 1200W Semi Modular Power Supply on
eTeknix.
- Tt eSPORTS Meka G-Unit Illuminated on
LAN OC.
- TTesports Meka G-unit mechanical keyboard on
RBMODS.
The Felina finale of Breaking Bad was just like the series itself, almost
perfect. It was an amazing ride, hats off to Vince Gilligan, AMC, Bryan
Cranston, and all those involved for the level of quality they consistently
achieved. Speaking of consistent, the Giants are looking very consistent right
now, which will make for a rough season, not unlike my NFL picks, which have all
been in the toilet the past couple of weeks. Ouch.
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