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Archived News:
DICE has patched the Windows edition of Battlefield 4, their military
shooter sequel. The update addresses a number of bugs and issues, though it may
have introduced a couple of new ones, as word is SLI rigs may now exhibit
graphical flickering and the revive bar sometimes gets stuck, two problems they
say they are looking into. In addition to bugfixes, they also promise
improvements to what they themselves refer to as the game's "so-called
'Netcode'." Here's the list of fixes:
- Fix for a crash that would cause the game to
stall, resulting in a sound loop. This should eliminate most of the problems
relating to this.
- Fix for the SUAV (introduced in the China Rising
expansion pack) not exploding when hitting enemy soldiers. While these
indeed should be deadly, they were never designed for “roadkilling”
opponents.
- Fixed one of the issues related to the so-called
“Netcode” (see below for details).
- Fix for an issue where 4x the damage from a
vehicle's minigun would be applied to the chest when a player had the
Defense specialization equipped.
- Fix for player tags not always showing when needed
to, resulting in players shooting team members.
- Fix for graphical flickering appearing on terrain.
- Fixed the instance where players suddenly would
transition into Spectator Mode while playing the Defuse game mode.
- Fix for a Defuse bug where none of the teams would
win a round by letting the timer run out. -Fix for players getting stuck in
the revive screen after being killed.
- Fix for players getting stuck in the kill camera
after being revived.
- Fix for the game mode specific ribbons being
counted twice in the multiplayer progression.
- Made NVidia 331.82 or later driver versions
mandatory for all players.
- Disabled DirectX 11.1 on NVidia cards that have
outdated drivers.
- Fixed driver version not being properly detected
on NVidia Optimus systems.
- Fixed a minor crash that could occur when bringing
up the scoreboard.
The Season Three Pack is
now available for Pinball
Arcade on Steam, offering a discount on the ten tables to be released
throughout next year at a discount. Here's word from
Steam News: "The Season
Three Table Pack includes all TEN of the tables in Season Three as they are
released throughout 2014 at a discounted price. Kicking off Season Three is the
great Williams'® table Fish Tales™. Included in Season Three will be Whodunnit™,
Junk Yard™, and Black Knight 2K™ just to name a few!"
Steam News announces the
promised
release the Just Cause 2: Multiplayer Mod
on Steam, coinciding
with an 80% off sale on Just
Cause 2 on Steam. Word is: "JC2-MP is a project to bring multiplayer to Just
Cause 2 in all of its magnificent glory. Imagine the chaos of normal Just Cause
2, then extending it out to dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of players."
- Blockland on
Steam. Save 33%.
- Postal 2 Complete on
Steam. Save 75%.
- The Typing of The Dead: Overkill on
Steam. Save 50%.
- The Urban Guerilla Bundle on
Bundle Stars.
Link of the Day:
James Cameron Says Avatar Sequels Are Like The Godfather. Apologies if you
just spit your drink all over your monitor.
Steam now offers early
access to DayZ, the standalone game based on the Arma II zombie
modification of the same name. Here's the warning about what this does and does
not include: "DayZ Early Access is your chance to experience DayZ as it evolves
throughout its development process. Be aware that our Early Access offer is a
representation of our core pillars, and the framework we have created around
them. It is a work in progress and therefore contains a variety of bugs. We
strongly advise you not to buy and play the game at this stage unless you
clearly understand what Early Access means and are interested in participating
in the ongoing development cycle." Here's the overview of the project: DayZ
is a gritty, authentic, open-world survival horror hybrid-MMO game, in which
players follow a single goal: to survive in the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape
as long as they can. Players can experience powerful events and emotions arising
from the ever-evolving emergent gameplay. There are no superficial tips,
waypoints, built in tutorials or help given to players. Every decision matters,
there are no save games, no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you
fail, you lose everything and you need to play again from the beginning with
nothing but your wits, and your two hands. Fight the hostile environment, where
every other player can be friend or foe and nothing can be taken for
granted.
Ubisoft announces new Freedom Cry DLC is coming tomorrow to all platforms
for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, noting this is available separately,
or as part of the season pass for their stealth/action sequel. They offer
this new trailer to
show off the pack along with the following explanation: "Once a pirate, now a
trained Assassin and illustrious member of the Brotherhood, Freedom Cry tells
the story of Adewale 15 years after the events of Black Flag. Taking place in
18th-century Haiti, Adewale will take his new crew and new set of weapons,
including a machete and a blunderbuss, to assassinate enemies, and free slaves,
delivering merciless justice in plantations and cities alike. When the fight
goes to the seas, Adewale will command the Experto Crede, a fearsome brig that
can take down the slavers in the Caribbean." Continue here to read the full story.
The
Unknown Worlds website reveals plans for Subnautica, an open-world
(open sea?), underwater exploration and construction game the Natural
Selection 2 developers say may represent a new genre. They have a small team
prototyping this right now, and they haven't reached the alpha stage yet, so
the
three
trailers they offer for
now are just concept art and mood music. In spite of announcing it now, they
say: "We are not ready to announce it and try to ‘build buzz’ or ‘attract
attention’ – But we are ready, and excited, to share our work with you." On the
other hand, they also say: "Every week, we will be releasing new Subnautica
concept art, screenshots, design proposals, technical details, plans and
progress. You can find out all about these releases via
Twitter,
Facebook, Google+, Reddit, and
more." They explain this is because they are
looking to the community for feedback all along the way: The creation of
Subnautica will be extremely open. We hope everyone in the Unknown Worlds
community, and new faces, will be interested in giving feedback, sharing ideas,
and participating in development. You can talk to most of
the
development team on Twitter and on the Subnautica forums. We will be opening
up early Subnautica ‘builds’ (versions of the game) to a wider and wider
audience over the coming months, and you will be invited to play.
GfK Chart-Track now offers their
list of the 20 bestselling full-priced PC games for the week ending December
14th. There are no new entries, though a couple of titles saw large jumps,
including Total War: Rome II moving five spots to number three and
Rocksmith 2014 Edition leaning nine places to number 10. The
all platforms/all formats chart seems pretty set too, with Ghosts defending
the top spot once again. Here's their
abstract on the results:
With only a few weeks until Christmas 'Call of Duty: Ghosts' (-21%) takes
the No1 for a 3rd consecutive week and its 5th time at the top since launch.
EA's 'FIFA 14' (-3%) just falls short of taking the crown at No2 by less than
600 sales. 'Lego Marvel Superheroes' (+70%) climbs up to No3 with retailer
promotions propelling it 3 places while 'Battlefield 4' (-5%) slips a spot to
No4. 'Assassin's Creed: Black Flag' (-12%) is also down a place to No5 while
another Ubisoft title 'Just Dance 2014' (-5%) continues its climb to No6. 'Need
for Speed: Rivals' (+35%) reaches its highest position since launch climbing
back into the Top 10 at No7. Take 2's record breaker 'Grand Theft Auto V' (-40%)
is down three places to No8 a place ahead of their other Top 10 title 'WWE
2K14'(+12%) continuing its week on week climb to No9. After its debut last week
current PS3 exclusive 'Gran Turismo 6' (-37%) is down to No10 just edging out
'Killzone: Shadow Fall' (-36%) at No11.
Further down the chart Xbox One exclusive 'Dead Rising 3' (+43%) delivers a
strong week of sales which sees it climb from No29 to No18. Elswhere in the Top
40 retailer bundling sees Sega's 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' soar 38 places to
No33.
Here's a new trailer
from LEGO The Hobbit ( L'Eggo
My Eggo!), showing off the upcoming brick-based videogame adaptation of the
movie trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's work. Here's word: "LEGO The Hobbit
sends players of all ages on an unforgettable interactive journey through the
first two films in The Hobbit Trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the
upcoming The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Players will follow Bilbo Baggins as
he is recruited by the Wizard Gandalf to aid Thorin Oakenshield and his Company
of Dwarves. Bilbo leaves the comforts of the Shire on a journey through
Middle-earth to help the Dwarves reclaim their lost Kingdom of Erebor within the
Lonely Mountain. Along the way, he is introduced to ravenous Trolls, dangerous
Orcs and, of course, Gollum and his precious Ring. Players will utilize and
combine the Dwarves’ unique abilities – often with hilarious results – to solve
the most diverse Quests of any LEGO videogame to date." Continue here to read the full story.
Some movie watching was part of escaping the snow over the weekend here in the
BlueTower, and two of the films on the bill were North By Northwest and
Notorious, in part because I wanted to address my lack of appreciation of
Hitchcock. For some reason I had only previously seen a few of his works, and
the only one that really stood out was Rebecca. This seems like it all
ties in some way together this morning as I see the coincidental news of the
death of Rebecca star Joan Fontaine. This was the second coincidence I
noticed about this, because I was struck while watching North By Northwest
that the cast includes Leo G. Carroll and Ed Platt, each of whom played heads of
spy agencies in 60s TV series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart
respectively, which I think was pretty cool. Oddly, Platt's character was named
Victor
Larrabee, and his assistant on Get Smart was also named
Larabee. I
better stop now, before one of these spy agencies realizes I know too much.
R.I.P.:
Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, dies aged 81.
R.I.P.:
Legendary Actress Joan Fontaine Dies at 96.
R.I.P.:
Tom Laughlin, Star of 'Billy Jack,' Dead at 82.
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