Archived News:
Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry are departing Criterion Games, the racing-oriented
developer ( Burnout series, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need
for Speed: Most Wanted) they helped cofound,
reports Polygon, where they have a statement about the change from
Electronic Arts. "Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have decided to leave EA," an EA
spokesperson told them. "We appreciate their many contributions through the
years and wish them well in their future endeavours." The EA statement also
mentions that Criterion continues to develop a new IP for next-generation
consoles, and the Criterion Games
website has a new year message saying they're "cooking up something new."
Following the original report,
Alex Ward
tweeted about plans for a new company, saying: "Just decided to start afresh
and form a new games company with @FionaSperry #freshstart."
Steam is suffering from connectivity issues, and attempts to use various
aspects of Valve's online service return "118" errors, which say: "Unable to
connect to server. Server may be offline or you may not be connected to the
internet."
Shacknews notes a pair of twitter users are claiming to be behind the Steam
outage, but Valve has not yet officially responded to the situation. Likewise,
Polygon notes hacking group DERP is
taking
responsibility/credit for knocking EA's Origin offline with a distributed
denial of service attack, but this seems to have ended, as
EA tweets
that Origin is back online, while Steam is still having problems as of this
writing.
PopCap CEO Dave Roberts has announced his retirement after nine years with the
EA-owned developer of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled, saying
this will take effect on January 8th when PopCap cofounder John Vechey takes
over the company. "We need to get back to the place where we used to be and not
just in mobile," Vechey
explains to GamesBeat. "PopCap’s mission right now is to create the greatest
mobile game studio in the world, and we’re going to do that by only making games
that are beloved by players. We’re focusing on our foundation in 2014 – talent,
process, and most importantly, great products, around that mission."
Paradox Interactive announces plans for a new Marvellous Monorails expansion for
Cities in Motion 2, which
will add an another way to get around in the transportation sequel. The release
of the expansion, which does yet have a release date, will coincide with the
addition of Linux support for the entire series. Here's word: “We believe
in Linux as a platform for the future of gaming,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO of
Paradox Interactive. “Gamers who currently use Linux are a smart and demanding
bunch, and they expect versatility and an experience that fits their personal
preferences, which makes our games a great fit. We’re bringing Cities in Motion
to Linux because we believe it’s just the type of game that Linux users will
enjoy.”
In Marvellous Monorails, Cities in Motion 2 players can add five all-new
monorail vehicles to their transit fleets, and give their cities a new look with
elevated rails to carry them. Monorails, which work best on circular layouts,
are ideal for inner-city connections, and offer a more affordable alternative to
metro lines, with a choice of cars from big-and-slow to
speedy-but-expensive.
Tobii and SteelSeries announce details on a collaboration for eye-tracking
for videogames, calling this "the next big thing in gaming and computer
interaction," as they expand on technology used to help people overcome physical
problems to interface with computers. This will be shown off at next week's CES
where development kits will be sold, and word is they plan on releasing this to
the public this coming summer. Here's word: Tobii eye tracking increases
the bandwidth between the gamer and the game, allowing gamers to do more at the
same time, which also creates a richer gaming experience. Add an extra aiming
mechanism, remove the interruption of the game play by creating easier access to
menus and commands, or make games with complex controls easier to learn.
“The integration of eye tracking into the game experience is literally a game
changer – not only for the gamers themselves but also for developers,” said
Hawver. “Eye tracking capabilities offer game developers a new, creative
approach to game development. It becomes a truly immersive experience for
players.”
The first three Fallout games are no longer available on Steam in addition to
the removal of the seminal RPG series
from GOG.com. There's no indication that the series is returning to GOG.com,
but Bethesda
tweets the games will return to Steam, saying "We’re working to return
classic @Fallout games (1, 2, Tactics) to Steam and will provide an update when
they’re ready to go,"
explaining they
were removed to update some details: "We have to remove existing publisher
info, legal text, etc." Thanks
GameSpot.
Well we sure did get socked by that winter storm around here, with most of it
coming overnight, as it looks like about a foot of snow is pilled up out there
waiting for me and my shovel. As unappealing as this sounds in general, it's
actually going to be worse than that, because when slogging out to tend to the
birdfeeder I got to experience the 6°F temperature that accompanies this, or
-17°F (-27°C) if you count the wind chill. This was enough to freeze my hands to
the metal on the feeder, and the snow might as well be a topical anesthetic the
way contact with it makes your skin instantly go numb. And with the Super Bowl
planned for this area exactly 30 days from today, one really does start to
wonder what it will be like if the weather is like this for the big game. Oh,
speaking of which, I found a free playoff bracket tracker, and I think I have
properly set up
an NFL
playoff pool, so if you are interested in another chance to crush me with
your football knowledge, you can participate via
this page.
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