Keeping things interesting today, the fine folks over at Capcom have released 35 (!) new screenshots from their upcoming fighting game, Street Fighter IV. These latest screenies give us a sneak peek at a handful of different levels, characters and the new art style. Enjoy:
Street Fighter IV is scheduled for release on PC in 2009.
Wrapping up this long-weekend, the guys over at Frogster Interactive have released six new screenshots from their upcoming free-to-play massively multiplayer online RPG, Runes of Magic. These latest shots give us a sneak peek at the game's crafting system in action. Check 'em out:
The Rune of Magic Open Beta is scheduled to launch in early December.
Keeping us droolin' today, the guys over at BioWare have released seven new screenshots from their highly anticipated MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. These latest shots feature some force powers, lightsaber battles and a handful of different enemies. Enjoy:
Pretty hot stuff! Can't wait to see more. :D
Delivering the goods tonight, Ascaron Entertainment has released a new content patch (v2.31) for their latest Action-RPG, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. Weighing in at 620MB, this update feature a huge list of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, a new in-game options menu, ten new bosses, eight new portals for quicker travel, performance improvements and a whole lot more! You can check out the full changelog right here or just hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
GamersHell - US / UK / German / French / ItalianFileShackWorthPlayingSounds like a must-have update. So don't miss it! :D
IGN UK has posted a Q&A with Rockstar on the subject of Grand Theft Auto IV and DRM on the PC. The title will employ SecuROM with online activation, but without installation limits. On the other hand, you do need to keep the disc in the drive with the retail version.
GTA IV PC uses SecuROM for protecting our EXE until street date has passed, to ensure the retail disk is in the computer drive, and is used for Product Activation of the title. Product Activation is a one time only online authentication when installing the game. GTA IV has no install limits for the retail disc version of the game, and that version can be installed on an unlimited number of PCs by the retail disk owner.
Online play will also require *two* accounts and you also need a bunch of additional components installed. Thankfully Games for Windows LIVE accounts became free a while back.
In order to upload videos to our internet site and play online multi-player modes, you will also need an active internet connection and accounts with both Rockstar Games Social Club and Games for Window-LIVE. 21d0
GTA IV PC also requires a number of software installations, including Games For Windows, Adobe Flash, Internet Explorer, SecuROM and our Rockstar Games Social Club application.
In other words, for minimum hassle, buy the game from Steam. It won't require a disc for obvious reasons and since there are no installation limitations, the only inconvenience is the requirement to activate the game online after installation. Main reason for the activation in this case is to ensure that even if someone could get a leaked copy before release, it won't do any good because the executable is encrypted and the activation decrypts it.
Giving us something to play this long-weekend, the guys over at Eipix Entertainment have released a new singleplayer demo for their latest sci-fi racing title, Pyroblazer. Weighing in at 790MB, the demo allows you to play through a small portion of the full game. You can grab this bad boy from any of the following mirrors:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingHappy Thanksgiving to our US readers! :D
If you are planning to spend a few years and many thousands of dollars making a MMORPG, you have the odds stacked up against you. Most MMORPG's lose money. It is only the few that manage to retain a large player-base, many months after the initial launch. But if your game is a hit, the pay off can be huge.
One new MMORPG that is coming up is called Fallen Earth. It seems to have a few things going for it: instead of the tired fantasy world YAMFRIES design (Yet Another MMORPG Featuring Rogues, Imps, Elves or Sorcerers), Fallen Earth takes place in a 22nd century post-nuclear world inhabited by the remnants of new societies, in a region around the Hoover Dam. The game is a FPS-MMORPG cross, but the combat has more 'twitch' elements than, say, Tabula Rasa did -- but it isn't a full-fledged MMO FPS like Huxley is, Fallen Earth is defintely a MMORPG.
The game is currently in alpha testing, with no firm release date set. Recently a guy named 'Baka' has been posting about his experiences with the game, on a forum. Overall, he reports a positive experience with the game, and is looking forward to its release. Here is a couple of key highlights:
1- There are no classes in the game. You don't pick skills or powers at the start of the game. Basically every character begins the same (beside appearance), and you develop the character by choosing allegiances and working on your skills. You enhance your stats (dexterity, strength etc.) by gaining levels, and dispersing your stat points.
2- Crafting plays a big role in the game, through 11 different trade skills, including Cooking and Medicine.
3- There is an incredible 22 different armor slots for your characters. That's a lot of armor ! The slots include such areas as gloves and earrings and belts.
4- You can sneak and crawl in the game.
Judging from what Baka was saying, the game does have a strong FPS feel to it: "FINALLY, I enter FPS mode. Oh My God!! It feels like a true FPS game, everything is so natural at this point, both as far as animations and controls go. As you can see, your weapons actually move/hover, instead of being stiff and frozen, it gives it that very natural feeling."
Here are two videos from the game: the first one shows the character creation options, the second shows some standard gameplay.
Hot off the presses, MICROÏDS and Kheops Studios have officially announced the development of Return to Mysterious Island 2, a sequel to 2005's popular Point & Click Adventure title. Due out on the PC and iPhone in March 2009, the game will feature data-sharing online community tools, iPhone-to-PC synchronization tech and a whole new storyline based around an unknown disease that's destroying all forms of life on the island. Here's a little snippet from the PR:
Return to Mysterious Island 2 begins with the crash of the helicopter that came to rescue Mina. She survived but is once again trapped on the island. All of a sudden, under her very eyes, an unknown disease afflicts the plants first, then the animal life. Mina explores the island to locate the infection source. She searches Captain Nemo's base in vain, then the ruins of an unknown civilization, and finally understands that it is outside pollution that threatens the island. The only w 2158 ay to save this natural wonder is to turn the shield back on. But if Mina makes this decision, she gives up -as Captain Nemo did before her- the idea of returning to civilization…
Head over to the official website for more details and some screenshots!
Moving right along, Spellborn International has released a launch trailer for their latest MMORPG, The Chronicles of Spellborn. Running just under two minutes long, the video features a mix of press quotes and in-game footage. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontStrategyInformerWorthPlayingTo learn more about the game, head over to the official website!
A new PC MMORPG was launched today, in some parts of the world. It is called The Chronicles of Spellborn, made by Dutch developer Spellborn International.
The game is set in a fairly regular fantasy world, and in many ways, the game seems like your typical YAMFRIES (Yet Another MMORPG Featuring Rogues, Imps, Elves or Sorcerers.)
There are 9 classes to choose from, and two races -- though your choice of race only determines your looks.
Combat is much more 'twitch' based instead of the usual WoW-way -- so you actually have to run up to people and control your swings, or dodge manually. There is also a sort of spinning UI feature that allows you to develop more powerful attacks. The game also features PvP.
Spellborn aims to be more about tactics and thinking, over stats and skills.
To encourage people to try out Spellborn, the first portion of the game is free to play. The free content is roughly 20 hours' worth of stuff, and you'll have access to three zones. After the free content is done with, subscription rates seem to be $15 a month.
The launch dates are spread all over the place for this game. Today the game went live in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. On December 5th the game comes to France and Scandinavia; in January, the game will be available to North Americans. As for the rest of Europe, including the UK, I hunted around the Internets and that information was surprisingly difficult to find.
Will this game have what it takes to make a profit? It's a pretty crowded market for YAMFRIES. Only time will tell, but the odds look stacked against Spellborn.
Hitting the web today is a brand new teaser trailer for the upcoming PC edition of Rockstar Games' open-world Action title, Grand Theft Auto IV. The minute-long clip features some humorous gameplay footage created with the new PC video editor. Hope you're thirsty!
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingGrand Theft Auto IV is scheduled for release on December 2nd.
Spreading the "good news" today, Spark Unlimited and Gamecock Media Group have announced that the PC edition of their action-packed First Person Shooter, Legendary, has begun shipping to stores world-wide. Here's the official word:
Gamecock Media Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SouthPeak Games, announced today that their latest entry into the fast paced genre of FPSs, Legendary, has now shipped for Games for Windows®. Legendary is Spark Unlimited’s latest shooter that places you in the role of art thief Charles Deckard as he tries to undo the world-destroying chaos created by unleashing the mythological beasts of Pandora’s Box.
Windows PC users can now join the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 owners as they experience the mystery, mythology, and massive destruction that centers on Deckard’s opening of Pandora’s Box. With secret societies battling over control of the Box, players will be thrust forward into an adventure that spans the world as they guide Deckard from one devastated location to the next as he fights against griffons, werewolves, minotaurs, and 20b1 more in an effort to stay alive long enough to stop the creatures, and the societies, from taking over the world.
Legendary is rated M for Mature and is available for a suggested retail price of $49.99.
And the Holiday onslaught continues!
Although the PC release of Grand Theft Auto IV is coming about 8 months after the console release, the PC version is shaping up quite nicely. Probably the best thing it has going for it is the higher resolutions and better graphics that the PC version will be capable of.
Beyond the better graphics, there are a number of other small features that Rockstar is plying to the game. Confirmed today, Grand Theft Auto IV will be able to handle 32 simultanoues players online at a time -- which is double the 16 that the console versions can handle. Besides the boosted player limit, there are no other changes to multiplayer.
The most noteworthy feature being added to the PC port of GTA IV is the in-game video editor feature. It allows for a great deal of control in position and recording and making in-game movies of Niko in action. The follow three videos show it in action -- the first one shows how it is used, the second and third videos are demo videos made with it.
This video editor feature looks like it'll become a holy grail for machinima makers.
The Video Game Awards (VGAs) this year are touted as being extra special; Spore designer Will Wright will receive the first ever Gamer God award as a "testament to his contributions to the electronic gaming medium" over the years. To make it really something else, the guys and ladies at Spike TV and Electronic Arts (EA) are putting off “The Wright Stuff SPORE UGC” contest.
“Since launch, Spore players have created nearly 50 million of the most unique and creative creatures, vehicles and buildings the gaming community has ever seen,” said Spore Designer, Will Wright. “The Spore VGA contest takes creativity to a whole new level, allowing budding filmmakers and novices alike to unleash their imaginations in search for the best 60 second Spore film short. I can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with!”
Essentially you make a 60 second Spore film short, and if you win, you and whoever you like (please don't bring your Mom) get sent to the awards and get to chill with Wright. Maybe you can ask him why he sponsored McCain or why he sold out Spore...
Using in-game tools in Spore, or the Spore Creature Creator (trial edition and complete), Spore players can upload their most creative and entertaining 60 second movie to http://www.spike.com/group/spore/landingpage through December 2nd. A panel of judges, including Spore creator Will Wright, will then select the best video, to be revealed on December 4th. The winner and a guest will receive round trip airfare, 2 nights’ hotel stay, and ground transportation for the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards on Sunday, December 14th in Culver City, California.
For official rules please, visit http://www.spike.com/group/spore/rules.
The sixth annual “VGAs” will bring together megastars from the worlds of video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more to celebrate the outstanding achievements within the video game industry over the past year. The 2-hour extravaganza will premiere LIVE on Spike TV Sunday, December 14 at 9:00pm, ET/PT (tape delay west coast) from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA.
As promised, Electronic Arts has released a new singleplayer demo for their latest RTS, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. Weighing in at 1.82GB, the demo includes a 7-minute opening cinematic, three tutorials and two campaign missions (Krasna-45: Circus of Treachery and Heidelberg: The Famous Liberation). You can grab this bad boy from any of the following mirrors:
GameSpotFileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingSo what are you waiting for? Get downloading! ;)
Moving right along, the guys over at Rocksteady Studios have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming Action title, Batman: Arkham Asylum. Running just over a minute long, the video gives us a sneak peek at the game's gritty environments. Pretty hot stuff! Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingBatman: Arkham Asylum is scheduled for release in 2009.
Bethesda offered details on upcoming downloadable content for their RPG, Fallout 3, today.
The DLC was expected, but probably not many thought that they would release it as quickly as they plan -- the first content pack is due in January.
Here is what coming, for both the console and PC versions of the game:
Operation: Anchorage
Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe - the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
The Pitt
Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
Broken Steel
Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.
In the Fallout universe, the Chinese took Alaska before the nuclear war started. Around this time the US was busy raping and looting Canada. It seems unlikely that there is still any sort of Chinese military contingent in Alaska because they would've been nuked in the Great [nuclear] War, so it seems plausible that Operation: Anchorage will be some sort of simulation in Fallout 3 -- or will possibly take place way before the plot of Fallout 1,2 and 3, during the original Reclamation. Continuing with the overall design of Fallout 3, it also seems that Operation: Anchorage will be focused on combat, and not role-playing.
In addition, the Fallout 3 community will be thrilled to hear that the SDK is also coming in December. Named the G.E.C.K, after the game's Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the community will now be able to get to serious work on the game, modifying it and improving aspects of Fallout 3 that could use some work. "Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more," wrote Bethesda. "We can’t wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K.”
Mods brought an unprecedented amount of content and expansion to Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- with the popularity of Fallout 3, and the die-hard legions of Fallout fans out there, you can bet your house that there will be a mass of mods coming for the game.
Bethesda also announced that a PC patch is in the works, and coming soon (though no date was set.)
Personally, this gamer has put the game aside in anticipation of all the mods that will be coming out. A year from now, Fallout 3 will probably be so modified and expanded that it will offer twice the fun as the current game.
Giving us a quick heads-up tonight, Electronic Arts has announced that they'll be releasing a Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 singleplayer demo on Monday, November 24th. Debuting at GameSpot.com, the demo will feature the full 7-minute opening cinematic, three tutorials and two campaign missions (Krasna-45: Circus of Treachery and Heidelberg: The Famous Liberation). We'll let you know when this bad boy goes live. So stay tuned! :D
Finally tonight, the folks over at Ubisoft have released a brand new teaser trailer for their upcoming Action-Adventure title, Prince of Persia. The minute and a half-long video introduces us to Elika, a supporting character who has a direct impact on the storyline and gameplay. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Hit-u 20ff p any of the following websites for a mirror:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingPrince of Persia is scheduled for release in North American on December 9th and in Europe on December 12th.
A new PC adventure game was released in the U.K and Scandinavia, and online through the Lighthouse Interactive European Web Shop (but only for Europeans at the moment.) It is selling for €29.99.
The plot of the game was cooked up graphic novelist Enki Bilal, and goes like this:
"It is the year 2023 in Paris, France – now ruled by a power-hungry dictator, it is a place where the fascist rich and the abandoned poor are separated by both a literal and figurative wall. As our hero Nikopol, you must thwart a dark conspiracy as one of the leaders plot to take control of Paris and its people, but the story takes a sharp twist. You receive shocking news that your father, Alcide Nikopol, an astronaut sent into orbital exile many decades ago, may be alive and hidden in the city's underground. At the same time an eerie and mysterious pyramid appears floating above the city and is said to be inhabited by powerful Egyptian gods; among them Horus, god of the sky. Your journey will be entangled with political intrigue as you are caught between two worlds… one of anarchy and one of immortality."
Forbes recently published an article which stated "only 4% of games that make it to market actually make a profit", this referring to an interview with analyst group Electronic Entertainment Design and Research's (EEDAR) Geoffrey Zatkin. Naturally, skepticism arose once this news got spread around, and a company spokesperson issued a statemtent to clarify. Here it is:
Unfortunately, there was a miss-quote in the article that a lot of sites noticed and reported on. Below is the
line from the article.
"Only 4% of games that make it to market actually make a profit, he says. About 60% of a game's budget is spent reworking or redesigning a game. Armed with all this data, companies can make those tough calls early in the development process."
The actual statistic is only 4% of games that enter production will return a significant profit. Of games that are released to the market, only 20% will produce a significant profit. (Source for the second sentence: Secrets of the Game Business by Francois Dominic Laramee).
We understand that miss-communications can happen, especially during phone interviews, but given the inaccuracy of the statistic and how many other sites have picked up on the story, we wanted to ensure that the
major media outlets received the correct statistics on the subject.
Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR's President and COO, has provided some clarity on the subject:
"Only 20% of games that begin production will ever finish. Of those 20% that are finished and released to the market, only 20% of them will ever realize a significant profit (Source: Secrets of the Game Business Francois Dominic Laramee).That equals 4% of games that start production return a significant profit.
During the concept and design process of a game, publishers and developers often analyze every feature in a game to ensure proper implementation for a successful release. At EEDAR, we believe that enough historical information is now available to aid publishers and developers during the concept and design process of a game. The EEDAR database, which now consists of over 6 million historical data points, can help remove the burden for publishers and developers from having to justify every feature in their title. Specifically, our DesignMetrics(tm) reports help publishers and developers by identifying early in the development cycle the correct feature combinations most likely to meet consumer expectations. This allows developers to focus more time and resources on creating a high quality and well polished video game."
An honest mistake, it seems, but the journalist in question should certainly have thought the statistic, as it was perceived by her, to be be absurd, and asked for clarification. In any case, 20% is still a depressing statistic. No wonder studios are closing left and right and bigger companies are buying the smaller ones so often!
Keeping the good news coming tonight, Valve Software has announced that the upcoming PC edition of Rockstar Games' open-world Action title, Grand Theft Auto IV, is now available for pre-order via their Steam digital distribution service for $49.99 USD. The announcement also notes that if you pre-order now, you'll receive a FREE copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Click here for all the details!
Treating us to a little eyecandy today, Liquid Entertainment has sent over eleven new screenshots from their upcoming Action-RPG, Rise of the Argonauts. These latest screenies highlight the game's combat system, leveling menus, dialog trees. Enjoy:
Rise of the Argonauts is scheduled for release in "Early 2009"
Delivering the sad news today, NCsoft has announced that they've decided to pull the plug on their troubled MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, due to an underperforming subscriber base. Servers will officially shut down on February 28, 2009, but before the game goes offline, players can expect some special in-game events and other bonuses. Here's the scoop:
Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expe 20a8 cted. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for.
So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009.
Before we end the service, we'll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009.
We can assure you that through the next couple of months we'll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while. For more details about what we are doing for Tabula Rasa players, please click here.
Stay tuned for more information. We thank you for your loyal support of the game and encourage you to take us up on the benefits we're offering Tabula Rasa players.
NCsoft spokesman David Swofford has confirmed to Kotaku that the closure will result in layoffs. How many people affected by this is still to be determined. Sad news indeed! :(
Grabbing our attention tonight, the folks over at EA DICE have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming Action-Adventure title, Mirror's Edge. Running just under two minutes long, the video highlights some of the physics and visual improvements included in the PC edition of the game. Pretty hot stuff! Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers fo 2141 r the above stream. Prefer a manual download? We have you covered:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingMirror's Edge is scheduled for release in January 2009.
And another one bites the dust: this time around, it is Richard Garriott's MMORPG Tabula Rasa. The science fiction themed, action-intensive MMORPG is closing its spaceports on Febuary 28th, 2009 (Earth time.)
"Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for," stated a letter on the game's website.
Not a big surprise, I suppose. It's the same old story: millions of dollars spent on producing a MMORPG. Gamers have impossibly high expectations for levels of content that will be available at launch, thanks to WoW. Developers make promises to pique gamers' interest. Developers do not follow through on promises. Game is launched with tons of bugs. Tons of people play the game in the first month, because they think it'll be different than other games. People find out it the MMORPG is just like any other MMORPG besides a few small changes. MMORPG dies in about a year's time. Another five MMORPGs take its place. Its the MMORPG developing blues.
Richard Garriott was in space and could not be reached for comment.
Do you hate having to ALT-TAB out of The Witcher to consult the a walkthrough? Do you want to watch stupid videos while you try to hit level 76 in WoW ?
“By offering an excellent in-game web browser, GotGame is unlocking the door for gamers to explore all of their favorite websites, while they play,” said Win Betteridge, CEO of GotGame. “The possible ways that gamers can use Rogue are as broad as the Internet itself.”
(Broad as the Internet itself! Imagine that. That's so broad.)
Rogue is a new browser built for gamers dudes and gamer dudettes. It is specifically designed to be used while games are running -- it has low memory requirements, and can be brought on screen at the push of a hot key. Supposedly it'll never ever crash your game.
It seems like the browser is specifically aimed at WoW'sers, and other MMORPG fans, who don't actually need to pay much attention to the game they are playing, when locked in endless grinds.
"Rogue previously functioned as a part of GotGame’s LIVE application. The choice to launch the web browser as a standalone application comes from an immense quantity of positive feedback from LIVE’s beta testers.
Rogue’s Notable Features:
• Game overlay for Windows XP & Vista
• Full CSS, JavaScript, and Flash support
• Editable homepage and bookmarks
• GotGame Search powered by Google
• Hot key to open/hide browser when in game
• Configurable transparency settings
• Optimization toggle for faster/slower computers"
You can download it here .
Spreading the good news today, Codemasters has officially announced the development of Colin McRae: DiRT 2, a sequel to 2007's hit off-road racing title. Due out in 2009, the game will feature all-new tracks and cars, head-to-head online multiplayer with new social tools, an improved physics system, new damage engine effects, and a major visual upgrade. Here's the full press release and some "target visual" screenshots:
Thursday 20th November/... Codemasters® today announced that Colin McRae: DiRT™2, the sequel to the acclaimed best-selling off-road racer of 2007, is now in development at Codemasters Studios for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and Games For Windows® LIVE with further editions for Wii™, Nintendo DS™ and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system due for simultaneous release in 2009.
The announcement marks confirmation that the game will be headlined by Colin McRae, honouring the life of the rally legend. Colin McRae, who consulted on the series for over ten years, tragically died in a helicopter accident in Sept 2179 ember 2007. The decision to continue the famous series bearing his name was made jointly between the McRae family and Codemasters.
“Colin McRae was all about the speed, the excitement and the entertainment of rally driving. Even when we first worked with him over ten years ago, he captured a freedom and a spirit that enthralled rally fans.” said Gavin Raeburn, senior executive producer at Codemasters Studios. “Later his showmanship shone through in events such as the X-games, the Dakar Rally and the Race of Champions. He could do things with a car that no one else would and that’s where we’re taking the series with new events at the extreme edge of rally and autosport. It will be a great tribute to an incredible champion.”
Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will feature a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to the most diverse and challenging real-world environments. This World Tour will have players competing in aggressive multi-car and intense solo races at extraordinary new locations, from canyon racing and jungle trails to city stadium-based events.
“Rally has attracted new stars and a new style that makes it more vibrant and exciting than ever before; it’s right up there as a premium extreme sport, attracting fresh crowds and a new confident attitude,” said Raeburn.
“Colin McRae: DiRT 2 mirrors this new, exciting direction and, in a way, we’ll be throwing off some of the shackles and constraints that real-world rallying has to abide by. We’re pitching players against the most spectacular and dangerous environments in the real world.”
To be powered by the third generation of the EGO™ Engine’s award-winning racing game technology, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will benefit from tuned-up car-handling physics system and new damage engine effects. It will also showcase a spectacular new level of visual fidelity, with cars and tracks twice as detailed as those seen in Race Driver: GRID.
Colin McRae: DiRT 2’s garage will house a best-in-class collection of officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles, specifically selected to deliver aggressive and fast paced racing. Covering seven vehicle classes, players will be given the keys to powerful vehicles right from the off. In Colin McRae: DiRT 2 the opening drive is the Group N Subaru; essentially making the ultimate car from the original game the starting point in the sequel and the rides just get even more impressive.
In addition to the World Tour, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 will come complete with full online functionality that will be core to the overall experience, with head-to-head competitive online play and new social features to engage the racing community. Prepare for mud, gravel, dust and dirt too in Colin McRae: DiRT 2, coming 2009. Sign up for the drive of your life at www.codemasters.com/dirt2.
Personally, I'm not a fan of "target visual" screenshots...but those look great. Hope they can pull it off! :D
Hitting the web today are some official mod tools for Treyarch's recently released World War 2-based first person shooter, Call of Duty: World at War. Weighing in at 1.1GB, these tools include everything you need to create your own single/multiplayer mods and levels. Mirrors are available at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontFilePlanetFileShackWorthPlayingTip: They say mods are one of the best ways to break into "the biz". So if you're feeling a little creative.. ;)
Magazines of all sorts have a long shot at succeeding, we know this, but when media giant Ziff Davis is feeling the burn, you know something's up.
Earlier this year their print mag Games for Windows went online only after 27 years, having been struggling for some time, and now the news is in the same will happen with another of their publications -- PC Magazine (also after 27 years). The circulation has been declining since the late 1990s (when computers got cool, as it were), where its peak was 1.2 million. This year it's about half. The last print issue will be for January 2009.
“The viability for us to continue to publish in print just isn’t there anymore,” Jason Young, chief executive of Ziff Davis, said in an interview.
So what's happening exactly? Three main things: advertisers are doing less advertising (December issues are down 17% from last year), printing costs have increased, and demand is shifting to the Internet.
“Obviously, the macroeconomic condition is putting pretty significant pressure on all forms of advertising,” Mr. Young said.
As it stands, magazines are shutting down printing operations all over the place.
“If you look at the list of the magazines that have gone to online, almost all of them have been magazines in trouble,” said John Fennell, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. “Magazines in general are going to be dependent on print advertising for a long time into the future,” he said.
PC Magazine gets most of its profit (80+%) from its website anyway, and has for awhile, so there won't be much adjustment necessary.
“All content goes online first, and print has been cherry-picking for some time what it wants for the print edition,” said Lance Ulanoff, the editor of the PCMag Digital Network.
Seven production, circulation and advertising employees who worked on the website and print publication will be cut out of about 140.
Effectively, this leaves Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) as the only print publication left under the Ziff Davis banner, and they're considering chopping down that tree, too (ironically).
The future looks bleak for print and bright for online video game journalism, but there are advantages to this shift (more stories, increased length, immediacy of news, uncut interviews, more media, fewer costs, environmental friendliness, etc.), though of course there are disadvantages too (see: The state of the preview). Anyway, it's what most of us want, isn't it?
It's official -- the latest Terminator title will be paired up with the new movie, which releases nationwide on May 22, 2009. However, the worry is that the game will be nothing more than a movie property tie-in, putting players in the role of John Connor taking on Skynet (like in the film).
Halcyon notes they are going to include some unique models and features in the game, but it's always a problem when companies pull a stunt like this. Despite whatever additional features the game might have, basing it too closely on the original film can be problematic. By watching the movie, we are basically ruining the game for ourselves because then we already know the entire story and ending.
Warner released a brief description of the title:
Terminator Salvation – The Videogame allows players to battle for survival against Skynet enemies utilizing an incredibly fluid and realistic control set,” said Cos Lazouras, President of Halcyon Games. “The player will be led through a visceral story with extremely polished production values to create a fully interactive Terminator experience.”
Terminator Salvation is slated to become a cinematic experience capturing the action and excitement of the original property, and one can only hope that this time around, Halcyon can do what many developers before them have failed at: bringing a worthwhile movie-based title to the masses. They're already one step ahead, considering the Terminator franchise has so much potential for great products. We'll find out more as things progress. I only hope they'll keep it interesting and continue cranking out the violence.
Keeping us on our toes this afternoon, the guys over at Ironclad Games have released a new patch (v1.1) for their hit 4x RTS, Sins of a Solar Empire. This beefy update features a HUGE list of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, performance improvements, some visual upgrades, AI improvements, enhanced network code and a whole lot more! You can check out the full changelog right here or just fire-up Impulse to start downloading. :D
Hot off the presses, White Birds Productions have announced that their upcoming Point & Click Adventure title, Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals, has officially gone gold and will begin shipping to stores across the United Kingdom and Scandinavia on November 21st. Here's the scoop:
Haarlem, The Netherlands – November 19, 2008 – Adventure game fans across the United Kingdom and Scandinavia will be delighted to hear that Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals for Windows® has achieved Gold Master status. Published by Lighthouse Interactive and developed by White Birds Productions, Nikopol allows players to experience the fascinating and elaborate universe inspired by the famed Nikopol Trilogy 2059 graphic novel series and feature film Immortal, created by esteemed graphic novelist Enki Bilal. After a 30 year hibernation in space, your father returns to an authoritarian and decadent Paris, France. As Egyptian god Horus tries to install himself as overlord, your mission is not only to prevent him from carrying out his plans, but also to find your father who is under the sway of the cold-blooded and ambitious god. Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals will be available at the Lighthouse Interactive European Web Shop and major retail outlets across the United Kingdom and Scandinavia beginning November 21, 2008.
To help whet our appetite, the devs have released five new screenshots. Check them out:
Wondering how the game plays? Then be sure to give the 354MB demo a spin!
The lovely ScrewAttack put together another Top 10 list, this one inspired by Capcom's recent success with classic revitalizations like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Super StreetFighterII Turbo HD Remix, and Mega Man 9. The jist of it is it goes through the ten games (some being Capcom) they'd most love to see brought back to life with a shiny coat of new paint. Check it out:
Have to concur about Power Stone, especially considering how online gaming has evolved since. NBA Jam! Almost forgot about that. How awful of me. Should've definitely put it in my Sega Genesis retrospective. A new version with online play could be inconceivably good. Super Mario Bros. 3: II was particularly hilarious, and as for the #1, well, fortunately that's already been given a "yes"! The future looks bright for retro-futuristic retro games, and stuff.
Now, Capcom it seems is a fan of ScrewAttack and were in turn inspired. A community blog post runs like this:
"After giving Capcom the props for revisiting games like Bionic Commando and of course Street Fighter, he mentions a few things I'd personally like to see (like Starfox!), as well as a bunch of choices from the Capcom stable, including Power Stone, Strider, and... I won't give away their #1 choice.
But really? People want that? We had no idea! Anyway, tell us, what games do YOU think Capcom should revisit?"
I just love it when developers and gamers talk to each other directly. We're all geeks, folks. Peace not console war!
There's already near 200 comments on the site, which suggestions range from Darkstalkers to Comix Zone to Duck Tales, for gosh sakes. It appears the retro community is alive and well, indeed.
Myself, I'd vote Breath of Fire, though honestly, that game couldn't get any more perfect. I also think a new Gunstar Heroes could rule, and none of that lame-o anime cheese stuff -- gimme the hard stuff. Oh, and for the love of god, a new Shining Force that is actually Shining Force (go to hell Neo, EXA, and whatever else -- even if you are decent, you're not Shining Force so stop pretending). Actually I'm going to just make a brief list of games that should be brought to life in their true spirit:
Gunstar HeroesShining Force -- modelled after the first two games, none of this Giant World Resurrection of the Dark Dragon stuff (great game, looked awful)Altered Beast -- just as creepy as the first, more transformations, hotter graphicsPerfect Dark -- um, one of the best FPS' with possibly the greatest set of multiplayer options ever? Online? Hello?! Do it proper, Rare!Parasite Eve 3 -- more RPG, less action, screw lame-o side-story spin-off junk (see: Parasite Eve)What are yours?
While many saw it coming, maybe some didn't see it being this big, the 24 hour launch data is back for WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and it's pointing out that global first day sales for the game are hitting the 2.8 million unit mark over 15,000 stores. Blizzard expects to see this continue to rise of course given the installed userbase of over 11 million players in WoW. Just for those wondering the figures on that, 2.8m x 39.99 brings the sales numbers right up to $111,972,000 or so in a single day, it would have been handy though to know how many new subscribers they pulled out as well with this launch or renewed players. One would expect the subscription base to continue climbing to 12 million and beyond with the release of a new expansion and so much already existing world content.
A note from Blizzard on the milestone:
“We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead.”
One can only hope that this success is somewhat mirrored in the coming ventures by Blizzard with Starcraft II and Diablo III as it seems Blizzard is also renewing interest in the Battle.net structure for improvements.
It's official now and it seems the latest Terminator title to come to gamers will be paired up along with the new movie which releases nationwide on May 22 of next year, the worry of course is that this is a movie property tie-in putting people in the role of John connor taking on Skynet like in the film, the company notes they are going to do some unique models and features to the game but it's always a problem when companies latch themselves onto things like this especially since if you see the movie you know how it ends already which helps defeat the linear story path that most movies turned video games suffer from.
Warner had this to comment on the game:
Terminator Salvation – The Videogame allows players to battle for survival against Skynet enemies utilizing an incredibly fluid and realistic control set,” said Cos Lazouras, President of Halcyon Games. “The player will be led through a visceral story with extremely polished production values to create a fully interactive Terminator experience.”
The game plans to be a cinematic experience capturing the action and excitement of the property, one can only hope that this time around they can do what many other developers / publishers have failed to do and bring a worthwhile movie title to the masses given that they have a good license to actually exploit with Terminator. We'll find out more on the title as things progress, for me I only hope that they crank out the violence and keep it interesting.
It's a very likely explanation, considering the lengths North American publisher G4BOX has gone to in promoting Cross Fire.
Earlier, G4BOX was giving potential players a chance to sign up for beta even after it was closed to the public. Now they're adding a feature that would allow registered players to invite their friends into the exclusive (or not so) beta.
It's a rather strange move considering how much trouble people usually having accessing closed beta for the majority of games out there. Now, not only will Cross Fire players be able to invite a friend, G4BOX is giving them a chance to invite 10 friends.
The invitations will be sent out via email, which is then used to register a Cross Fire account on the official website.
"A game like Cross Fire is an experience players will want to enjoy with their friends," said Howard He, CEO and Co-founder of G4BOX. "Cross Fire's addictive, high intensity fire-fights have been a hit with first-person shooter fans and now they can quickly and easily get their friends in on the action too."
Keeping the good news coming tonight, Mythic Entertainmnet has announced that they've launched a "Heavy Metal" event for their hit MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. This in-game event features a new scenario (Reikland Factory), along with daily quests which you can complete to earn new trophies, a unique cloak, and a chance to play the upcoming Knights of the Blazing Sun and Black Guard classes before anyone else. Click here to learn more or just fire-up the game's auto-updater to start downloading!
Spilling the beans today, Funcom has announced that they'll be adding two new high-level dungeons and full DirectX 10 support to their novel-inspired MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, in its next major content update. This is big news for fans of the game, as it helps solve some of the end-game issues AoC had at launch, along with adding some visual punch for those of you with the hardware to take advantage of it. No word on when this update will go live, but we'll be sure to keep you posted. So stay tuned!
PC buffs may have already been hoping for it, and it is indeed coming -- Mirror's Edge will utilize NVIDIA's PhysX hardware acceleration when it hits the open platform this January. Assuming you have a GeForce 8 or better GPU or will be getting one, you can confidently flip off your console-only friends and their "weak Unreal engine" (I'm kidding a terrible lot, here). The tech has been used in over 140 current-gen titles on all platforms to date, but, as it seems, Mirror's Edge hasn't been one of them.
NVIDIA described the technology's utilization as follows:
With the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine, the world of Mirror's Edge comes to life with real [e]ffects of wind, weapons impact, and in-game movements. Every-day objects within the game become part of the overall experience. Cloth, flags, and banners can now impact weapons and players; ground fog interacts with the player's footsteps; explosions fill the air with smoke and debris; and weapon impacts are enhanced with interactive particles.
DICE's senior producer Owen O'Brien stated why it's so necessary:
“Faith’s world in Mirror’s Edge is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous; it is imperative that the gameplay reflect this level of urgency. Nvidia PhysX technology affords us the ability to bring a totally new level of immersion to the game, and by doing so, gamers can truly become part of the world.”
NVIDIA sent out a video of the technology in action with the title, which you can see below. It's YouTube, so it doesn't give you the best idea, but still a pretty good one. Course, you can always go to the source of the video and click 'watch in high quality' for a slightly better experience. Anyway, here it is:
Sigh. Grand Theft Auto IV has been getting all kinds of conflicting reports on its PC release date. I've heard December 2, 3, and 20 from various sources. Rockstar's Social Club TV website its December 2, so let's go with that, hm?
When the game launches, they say with it will come a video editor; if you're a member of the Rockstar Social Club, you can post your videos online, track the ones you've posted, and get in on special contests and video-based competitions. Once the game is out, you can confirm/link your Games for Windows LIVE Gamertag to your account and "get on your way to becoming the Cecil B Demille of Liberty City."
If you ask me, this is a great idea true to the spirit of Grand Theft Auto; half the fun I've long thought is hanging out with friends and outdoing each other in terms of how much craziness and/or humour you can create. So props to you Rockstar, not only for this, but for making the PC version of the game worthwhile (even if it is coming over six months later).
The company says these "Social-Club-TV-supported in-game video features" will be in many more Rockstar titles in the future.
There are four videos up on the website already which you can check out. Here's one of them, a personal favourite titled "Niko vs. Niko":
Keeping our modems nice and toasty tonight, the folks over at Maxis have released a new patch (#3) for their hit evolution title, Spore. This 105MB update includes a handful of minor bug fixes and 24 new exoskeleton limbs for the creature creator. You can check out the full changelog right here or just hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
Official MirrorFileShackWorthPlayingGreat to see some new free content! ;)
Spreading the good news today, Telltale Games has announced that "Episode 4: Dangeresque 3" of their popular Point & Click Adventure series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, is now available for purchase through participating digital distribution outlets. Here's a brief description of this latest installment:
Move over, James Bond! Strong Bad's here to show you how it's done in his hand-crafted cinematic masterpiece. You play Dangeresque, a dirty cop in pursuit of action and big sacks of cash. Can our hero defeat his arch-nemesis and save the world? Looks like he's gonna have to jump... 2147
Want to try-before-you-buy? Then be sure to grab the 90MB demo from any of the following mirrors:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingGrab it while it's hot! ;)
Crazy about baseball? Then here's a potential new way to experience your favorite game.
Online game publisher GamesCampus has announced today that it has signed an online interactive licensing agreement with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media company of MLB, granting them rights to use the official MLB league and club marks and logos as well as other registered trademarks in their upcoming micro-transaction online game, MLB Dugout Heroes.
Whew, that was a mouthful. MLB Dugout Heroes is a free PC-based baseball (obviously) game set to launch in the 2009 baseball season.
"It is an honor to be working with MLBAM to bring baseball fans a fully licensed online baseball experience," said David Chang, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, GamesCampus. "Baseball fans are so passionate about the teams they enjoy following, and now they will have the opportunity to play as their favorite team in a high-quality online game experience."
The multi-year agreement with MLBAM gives GamesCampus the rights to all current and historical Major League teams, ballparts, All-Star teams, and jewel events. The publisher will also be able to use the 2009 MLB regular season game schedule in their game so fans can simulate the season in the PC game.
MLB Dugout Heroes features a 3D cartoon style, targeting casual gamers with easy to pick up mouse-only controls.
"We are excited to partner with GamesCampus in offering fans this interactive baseball gaming experience," said Alex Pigeon, VP of international at MLBAM. "The ability to utilize current or historical teams and ballparks along with simulated on-the-field management will be an engaging way for players to interact with the game."
Moving right along, the guys over at Monolith Productions have whipped up a new video developer diary for their upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Running just under two minutes long, the video focuses on the game's storyline and how it ties into the original F.E.A.R.. Enjoy:
Thanks to FileFront for the above stream. The video is also available for download at GamersHell and the FileShack. Stay tuned for more mirrors!
Moving right along, the guys over at Monolith Productions have whipped up a new video developer diary for their upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Running just under two minutes long, the video focuses on the game's storyline and how it ties into the original F.E.A.R.. Enjoy:
Thanks to FileFront for the above stream. The video is also available for download at GamersHell and the FileShack. Stay tuned for more mirrors!
Hitting the web today is a brand new demo (v1.1) for Exotypos' late racing title, X Motor Racing. Weighing in at 76MB, the updated demo includes improved physics, a new Fly camera, new customization menus, and various other improvements. You can check out the full list of changes right here or just hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
GamersHellofficial websiteWorthPlayingDig the demo? Then click here to purchase the full game for $50.
Hitting the web today is a brand new demo (v1.1) for Exotypos' late racing title, X Motor Racing. Weighing in at 76MB, the updated demo includes improved physics, a new Fly camera, new customization menus, and various other improvements. You can check out the full list of changes right here or just hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
GamersHellofficial websiteWorthPlayingDig the demo? Then click here to purchase the full game for $50.
A big question and answer document was released today by EA. If you are a fan of answers -- or merely like reading questions -- you might find the following Questions & Answers very stimulating:
The Sims 3 Q&A
After all these years of creative thinking, Sims Fans have made many interesting Sims, houses and other objects. Will it be possible to transfer Sims from previous version to The Sims 3? And what about other objects like house and furniture designs?
There are so many innovations in The Sims 3 so it’s really not possible to transfer items or Sims from previous games. The level of detail in The Sims 3 is so high that any conversion from older games would not be satisfying for players.
Also many Sims fans have gathered a huge pile of CD’s with add ons for 2nd version of the game, which will turn into junk once 3rd version comes out. And what add ons will be included in The Sims 3? Can we expect pets, seasons and magic in the initial release? And what of additional extras for previous version we will have to re-purchase for new one?
At the moment, we’re only thinking about The Sims 3. We have a huge team devoted to making the best possible game and we’re not going to think about anything else until it’s perfect.
Also there are many questions about ‘living neighborhood’. Before Sims 3, player-made families just waited patiently until someone plays them, now it appears to be that they will live on their own. Let’s assume that player created two families: “Mary and Bob” and “John Smith”. Then he played with “Mary and Bob” for long time, almost forgetting about that other family. It’s quite possible that when the player returns to John Smith, he’ll find no one there, since he could live his entire life, get old and die, so there will be no opportunity to play with him. Is there any solution already?
There are lots of options in The Sims 3. In the example that you just presented, the families that you don’t control will develop along with the household that you are controlling. However, you can switch between families at any time. You can also move families between save files, so you can develop one family to a specific point and then merge them with another save file. Story tellers will do that a lot.
We’ve already heard that there will be ‘Hand of the God” in the game, that allows to pick up and move Sims and other objects. Also it will be possible to feed and clean Sims with one click of the mouse. Which other simplifications should we expect?
There isn’t a feature that works exactly like you describe. However, players can do something that we call “live dragging”. In simple terms, you can manipulate some objects directly with your mouse. In the past, The Sims had to clean up everything for themselves. Now you can grab trash and throw it away, or grab an item from the floor and put it in your Sim’s inventory.
And what about robots, Aliens, Vampires and others? Will be they available in the initial release or we will have to wait for them to appear in outgoing expansions?
We have some tricks up our sleeve…
Since there will be quite big virtual universe on player’s disposal, are there any plans for minigames like car driving? And what about dance simulators, which are so popular on consoles?
There are some really interesting collection games and skills have a lot of rich detail.
Are there any plans of extending Sims’ vocabulary, e.g. will their words really mean something? Or they will keep mumbling some meaningless Simmish like before Sims 3?
The Sims always speak simlish. We’ve tried to teach them the languages of the world but they don’t want to listen.
Some years ago The Sims Online was started. But we didn’t heard about this project for a while. Are there any plans to include some online components in Sims 3, like chats or minigames where players can use their Sims as avatars?
The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create-a-Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.
The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.
Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.
What kind of player activity have you planned for The Sims 3?
Sims can do things that they couldn’t do before, like ride bikes, work out at the gym, go to the beach, grab a snack at the bistro and more!
What about the game has been upgraded and what is completely new? Also, can you explain a bit about how the new 'boundaries' work? What kind of activity will be opened up for the Sims?
The first thing that people will notice about The Sims 3 is the world around them. If you see it, you can go there. In the past, The Sims players were confined to playing on little levels that we called lots. Now there are now boundaries. The technology is incredible because we can show you the tiniest detail of your home, like the petals on a flower. A few seconds later you can look at the tiniest freckle on a Sim on the other side of town. This all happens in real time. We're in a great place as developers these days: Realism has been achieved...check. We can just focus on style and delivering seamless experiences so that the player can be completely immersed in their story.
How, if at all, has the customisability of The Sims evolved for The Sims 3? How will players be able to integrate this into their Sims experience?
We're going to give the player unprecedented control over the visuals in the game so that they have the same control that our artists have, right in the game. The new Create - A - Sim allows players to make just about any person they can imagine, and there are tools in the game that let you change the look of almost any surface on your Sim or in their home.
Can we expect to see our favourite Sims families return, having grown, as they did between The Sims and The Sims 2?
Yes! You will see many of your favourite things from past games in The Sims 3.
How has player feedback impacted changes you have implemented for The Sims 3?
We're all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team. We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world. I don't think the game would be what it is without The Sims community. Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.
How do the 'new personalities' work?
There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims display. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more.
What challenges did you face in the creation of The Sims 3?
Working to tune the AI so that the people who live in your town have lifelike behavior. Over time, all of The Sims in the town grow and develop, and it takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.
We understand that the game features a continuous neighborhood and no loading times, but there won't be multiple neighborhoods as in The Sims 2. Tell us a bit about this decision. How will it change what different players do with the game once they get it in their hands?
There is one neighborhood, and it is pretty amazing. We’ve been working exclusively on this one neighborhood, Sunset Valley for the last few years. It’s bigger and richer than anything we’ve made before. We really just wanted to make something that would blow people away, and we wanted to do more with the town than we have in the past.
No two towns will ever be the same after one generation in The Sims 3. As I mentioned, every Sim has complete AI throughout their life, so you’ll see people grow up, go to school, fall in love, get married, get jobs, move out, have families, grow old and pass away. It’s also possible to change all of the Sims in your town, so you can fill the town with whoever you like…yourself, your friends, characters from your favorite show, favorite band or sports team, anyone you can imagine…you get the point.
We understand that every Sim has a dream that can be fulfilled as part of a lifetime achievement goal. What are some examples of lifetime achievements, and what happens when you reach it? What if you fail?
Just like people, The Sims have wishes. Some of their wishes are really big and we call those Lifetime Wishes. A Lifetime Wish is a really big achievement like becoming a rock star, raising a huge family, getting rich or becoming an astronaut. Along the way to achieving your lifetime wish, you’ll fulfill smaller wishes. As you fulfill a Sim’s wishes, you earn points that can be used to purchase special Traits and reward objects that are generally hilarious and awesome. There really is no way to fail in the game, but you can make some really funny things happen if you want to cause trouble for your Sims.
How much dedication does it take to reach the pinnacle of your respective career ladder? Are there any shortcuts to the top?
If you play your cards right, you might be able to get to the top of more than one career in a lifetime, but it would take a lot of hard work and your Sim would need the right traits. Workaholic Sims will be happy if they live at the office, so that might be a good way to go. There are definitely some shortcuts, and your Sims will get Opportunities from time to time that give them a boost.
Plenty of open-ended moral choices will pop up in The Sims 3, like giving you the choice to skim off the top of campaign contributions in the political career. Give us some more examples of these moral choices depending on your career. What are the consequences of such decisions?
The game is full of moral choices. Some of them are presented to the player as career Opportunities. I don’t want to give too much away on this subject. A lot of the moral choices in the game come from the social simulator, and this is where the game becomes so compelling. A lot of players use the game to explore moral questions in their own lives. It’s sort of a “what if” simulator. For example, your Sim can choose to Whoohoo at work, but if they get caught then both Sims run out of the office naked. Now, that could be a lesson you don’t want to learn in the real world!
What can you tell us about the community features and sharing options players can use to build and share with their friends and with the larger Sims fanbase?
The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create A Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.
The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.
Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.
As in The Sims 2, throwing parties is all the rage in The Sims 3. What are the different party types available depending on your career?
There are new party types in The Sims 3, but there are also some pretty cool locations to party with your friends. If you want to call your friends down to the beach and set up an afternoon BBQ, you can do that. Break out your guitar, turn on the radio, call up some friends and chill out. If you’re a rising politician, you can throw campaign fundraisers to build up your campaign fund as well.
Please give us an update on the game. What aspects is the team working on at the moment?
A lot of our time is spent playing and perfecting the open, living neighborhood and all of the gameplay that takes place there. In The Sims 3, we’re opening up the other half of life that players have always wanted to explore. What happens when you’re not stuck at home? It’s been a huge undertaking for us, but we’re very happy with the way it’s working out.
One example of the work we’re doing is the AI behind the people who live in your town. You control a household of Sims, but all of the other Sims in your town live and develop as you play. It takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.
We're sure The Sims 2 community was very vocal about what it wanted from a sequel. What were the most popular requests that fans made for The Sims 3?
We're all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team. We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world. I don't think the game would be what it is without The Sims community. Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.
We understand that the game features a continuous neighborhood and no loading times, but there won't be multiple neighborhoods as in The Sims 2. Tell us a bit about this decision. How will it change what different players do with the game once they get it in their hands?
There is one neighborhood, and it is pretty amazing. We’ve been working exclusively on this one neighborhood, Sunset Valley for the last few years. There have been many versions of it. Some ideas were scrapped, while others survived for a while until we had a better idea. This town is bigger and richer than anything we’ve made before. We really wanted to make something that would blow people away, and we wanted to do more with the town than we have in the past.
No two towns will ever be the same after one generation in The Sims 3. As I mentioned, every Sim has complete AI throughout their life. You’ll see people grow up, go to school, fall in love, get married, get jobs, move out, have families, grow old and pass away. It’s also possible to change all of the Sims in your town, so you can fill the town with whoever you like…celebrities, yourself, your friends, characters from your favorite show, favorite band or sports team, or anyone you can imagine!
As players create their Sims, they will now be able to select five personality traits that will help define their dispositions. How will this new system let players create characters with more-defined personalities...and more importantly, how will it do a better job of letting players re-create the personalities of themselves, their friends, or their favorite celebrities? What are some extreme personalities we'll see in The Sims 3?
There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know, so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims have. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more...
We understand that every Sim has a dream that can be fulfilled as part of a lifetime achievement goal. What are some examples of lifetime achievements, and what happens when you reach it? What if you fail?
Just like people, The Sims have wishes. Some of their wishes are really big and we call those Lifetime Wishes. A Lifetime Wish is a really big achievement like becoming a rock star, raising a huge family, getting rich or becoming an astronaut. Along the way to achieving your lifetime wish, you’ll fulfill smaller wishes. As you fulfill a Sim’s wishes, you earn points that can be used to purchase special Traits and reward objects that are generally hilarious and awesome. There really is no way to fail in the game, but you can make some really funny things happen if you want to cause trouble for your Sims.
How much dedication does it take to reach the pinnacle of your respective career ladder? Are there any shortcuts to the top?
If you play your cards right, you might be able to get to the top of more than one career in a lifetime, but it would take a lot of hard work and your Sim would need the right traits. Workaholic Sims will be happy if they live at the office, so that might be a good way to go. There are definitely some shortcuts, and your Sims will get Opportunities from time to time that give them a boost.
Plenty of open-ended moral choices will pop up in The Sims 3, like giving you the choice to skim off the top of campaign contributions in the political career. Give us some more examples of these moral choices depending on your career. What are the consequences of such decisions?
The game is full of moral choices. Some of them are presented to the player as career Opportunities. I don’t want to give too much away on this subject. A lot of the moral choices in the game come from the social simulator, and this is where the game becomes so compelling. A lot of players use the game to explore moral questions in their own lives. It’s sort of a “what if” simulator…
What can you tell us about the community features and sharing options players can use to build and share with their friends and with the larger Sims fanbase?
The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create A -a-Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.
The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.
Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.
As in The Sims 2, throwing parties is all the rage in The Sims 3. What are the different party types available depending on your career?
There are new party types in The Sims 3, but there are also some pretty cool locations to party with your friends. If you want to call your friends down to the beach and set up an afternoon BBQ, you can do that. Break out your guitar, turn on the radio, call up some friends and chill out. If you’re a rising politician, you can throw campaign fundraisers to build up your campaign fund as well.
Although the game has been in development for about 2 years now, there is a good chance you might have not heard of East India Company, coming to the PC in the first quarter of 2009.
The game is set during the trade explosion of the 17th century. You take the role as a British, Dutch, French, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian or Spanish director of a high-seas trading company. But this game isn't centered around trade -- it is a RTS centered around ship-to-ship combat.
You start with a single ship with which to build your global empire. 40 different towns and ports are the game, which you explore, trading different goods and building a respectable fleet. The trading companies operate on the far side of the world, Asia, so you can start battles and wars at will.
Build fleets to run back tea and opium, and other hot commodities of 17th century Europe. Blow stuff up with your devasting array of arms. Get rich and build a global empire.
Judging from the screen shots, it looks like the game has two seperate components: a Civilization / Colonization type trading game, with a naval RTS battle simulator handling the combat.
Features (include (from a press release):
FEATURES
Manage!
• Hire and manage your own crew
• Buy guns and ammo
• Repair and upgrade your ships at port
• Trade goods (tea, spices, gold…)
• Establish profitable trading routes
• Open diplomatic relations or declare war
• Negotiate tense political situations
Rule!
• Lead the most powerful company in history
• Take over colonies and expand your empire
• Build a powerful fleet to rule the seas
• Conquer strategic ports
• Accomplish tasks ordered by your company or the Crown
Fight!
• Declare war on rival empires fought at a real-time tactical level
• Command ships and fleets independently
• Wage war on the vast open sea
• Sink your rivals’ ship or board them to take control in bloody hand-to-hand combat
Multiplayer (Internet or LAN)
• Supports up to 10 simultaneous players
• Player statistics tracked on the EIC game server
• Raise your ranking by thwarting your opponents
• Supporting several exciting multiplayer modes, such as "Escort" and "Breakthrough" testing the player tactical online skills.
While us mere mortals are happy to just have finished leveling our first character to level 80 while sleeping only a few hours for the past three days, the hardcore is once again on whole another level. Two of the top World of Warcraft guilds, Nihilum and SK-Gaming recently merged under the label "TwentyFifthNovember" and they have pulled off quite a feat. In 65 hours and 30 minutes they...
Got full 25-man raid worth of characters to level 80 (a very impressive feat on its own)Cleared 25-man Naxxramas, all four side wings and Frostwyrm wing, including Kel'thuzad in 4.5 hoursCleared 25-man Obsidian Sanctum and killed SartharionCleared 25-man Eye of Eternity and killed MalygosWrath of t 233f he Lich King (what's available so far) cleared in less than 72 hours after launch! Partly a testament to the stability of the servers after launch (they have worked almost flawlessly), partly to the uncompromising attitude of Kungen and his team. They just... I'm speechless. I know that it's quite possible, if hard, to hit level 80 in less than three days (done that myself), but to actually have a full raid ready in that time and then manage to clear all the raid content straight through without any breaks after such a non-stop leveling rush is just something that's hard to comprehend.
Even if you consider that two of those three raids are just a single boss encounter (similar to Magtheridon), it's still a mind-boggling feat. It also means that you can beat all the current content without spending one moment gearing up your characters after hitting 80 - a marked disappointment for end game raid guilds. Granted, Blizzard still has at least two, probably three major raid instances scheduled to be added to WOTLK over the course of the next year or so. Let's hope they offer some actual challenge.
TwentyFifthNovember states;
We are proud to declare that all WOTLK PVE raid content has now been cleared. This is both a moment of triumph and a cause for concern. The question in all our minds right now is if we could do this, how soon until the rest of the top guilds in the world clear all the raid content that WOTLK has to offer? Did Blizzard miscalculate in the tuning of these encounters? Or is this Blizzard folding under the weight of a large casual player base that demands to be on equal footing with end-game raiders?
Malygos down...
Those of us who played during the beta tried to tell Blizzard that the content was too easy for the high end raiders. Now I guess TwentyFifthNovember kinda proved that point. Personally I'm prepping up for first raids myself and based on this feat, expect our guild to be in the same situation with all Wrath of the Lich King raid content cleared in less than two weeks.
Wrapping things up tonight, Electronic Arts has released a small patch (v1.04) for their latest RTS, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. Weighing in at 53MB, this update improves online ladder/player stat reporting and player name sorting in lobbies. You can grab this bad boy from the official website or any of the following mirrors:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FilePlanetWorthPlayingSounds like a solid multiplayer update. So don't miss it! ;)
Soren Johnson, the programmer behind Civilization 3 and now designer for EA Maxis (he worked on Spore), has spoken up in his blog about this whole used games 'debate'.
Similar to the piracy thing (dreadful as it is to compare the two), at least some small portion of developers in the industry feel used gaming is hurting and/or killing their profits. Johnson is a smart man, though, and sees both sides of the matter. He writes:
"I certainly agree with many of the arguments - the less money developers get from sales of their games, the harder it is for them to take risks further down the road, let alone stay in business. Nonetheless, a few words should be said in defense of used games."
His first main point is we need to stop hating on GameStop, at least quite so much. Looking at the bigger picture, he says the used gaming sector directly affects the health of the 'new' gaming sector. GameStop is kind of like the evil sibling I want to love, so this works for me.
Next is 'market segmentation'. I don't really dig on this language too much, but in plain English, it seems to be the idea of selling the same thing at multiple price points. This happens in most other industries and segments of each (i.e. matinee movies, for one example) and is important for maximizing revenue (which ties in with the first point). It also helps keep more customers in the loop, decreases piracy, and makes them more likely to buy games new where before they may never have. Which leads into the third part...
More gamers. A larger community is the result here, fueled by and fueling the word of mouth system. And don't forget downloadable content (DLC)! While someone may buy your game used, with no real profit going to you, they might take that saved money and put at least some of it towards DLC. When you think of it this way, you'd have to be cracked not to embrace it. Sure you could argue banning used sales would force everyone to pay you more money bla bla bla, but I doubt it would be as effective as that. Especially when you have release schedules like we do this autumn...
Interestingly, he notes companies like Epic and EA will be offering bonuses to customers who buy the game new, where those who buy used will have to pay extra for certain features, bonuses, etc. It's definitely going to be intriguing watching the industry evolve over the next five years or so...
And finally, used games, he states, increase the perceived value of new games. Basically by offering games at a lower price, we see new games as worth the difference. I would say the 'launch day' thing is certainly a factor in this; there's a certain excitement to be found in pre-ordering and/or buying a game you've been waiting like crazy for on launch day. On a related note, he feels strongly digital versions of games need to be cheaper than their physical counterparts, if only because they cannot be resold. So, in short, the option to resell increases the perceived value of the game to the buyer. Digitally available games have no excuse anyway, in my opinion -- there's a lot of money saved on the company's part as there are no manufacturing costs. Well okay, I take that back. It's a nice idea in theory, but on the part of the publisher, there's a conflict of interest. Their job is to maximize sales, and if the digital versions are priced much lower, it's likely more people will shift to buying the game that way, leading to a huge drop in retail sales. Overall then, and long-term, this is potentially detrimental to the publisher, sales-wise. But I put faith in the free market and if that's more efficient (digital distribution) and what most people want at some point, then that's what we'll do. Of course people will always enjoy a physical product, so we'll see how the balance works out...
Johnson ends off with this:
(Of course, the real answer may be to ditch sales altogether for a free-to-play, service-oriented approach, but that’s a different story altogether…)
Keeping us entertained this weekend, the fine folks over GRIN have released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming Action title, Bionic Commando. Running just over a minute and a half long, the video features an action-packed battle against a Biomech. Enjoy:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the 2114 above stream. Mirrors are also available at GamersHell and the FileShack. Stay tuned for more links!
Giving us a peek behind the scenes tonight, the guys over at Turbine have thrown together a new video developer diary for their upcoming Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria expansion. Running just over two minutes long, the video focuses on the expansion's art direction and world design. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Prefer a manual download? We have you covered:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontWorthPlayingLord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is scheduled for release on November 18th.
Keeping things rollin' tonight, the folks over at Paradox Interactive have released a small patch (v1.0.7.0) for their 4X strategy game, Lost Empire: Immortals. This 5MB update addresses a rare crash issue and a bug which ignored Game.xls for Start/Max Leaders and Planetary Shield Recharge/Strength settings. You can grab this puppy from any of the following mirrors:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingmmMMmm..squished bugs!
Keeping the good news coming today, Kalypso Media has announced that they've acquired the Tropico IP from Take-Two Interactive and are currently working on a third installment in the popular city-building series, which will ship in Summer 2009. Here's the official word:
Kalypso Media has secured the worldwide rights to Tropico 3 from Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Kalypso will release the third iteration of the famous and admired PC strategy game series in summer 2009. Tropico 3 is based on the first Tropico game.
“The Tropico series is a great IP which we are excited to continue. The game will be the biggest project Kalypso has realized so far in its short history and we are focussing on achieving a worldwide PC hit with this brand. The acquisition of Tropico along with other key licenses is fundamental to our future growth,” says Simon Hellwig, Managing Director of Kalypso Media.
Tropico 3 will be developed by Bulgarian studio Haemimont Games, who are also responsible for the development of Kalypso’s Grand Ages: Rome.
The game will attract the fans of the Tropico series, 208d as well as newcomers with state-of-the-art graphics, complex gameplay similar to the other titles in the series and a comprehensive multiplayer mode.
Glad to see this franchise is still kickin'! :)
For a lot of people the Street Fighter news has been fine enough for the moment with new screens and videos but the real question has always been where on earth is the release date? Today Capcom clears that up for those eager to get their hands on the latest in the Street Fighter universe, the release of the game will fall on February 17, 2009 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with no word on the PC edition right now, our European friends will see the release of the game only days later this time on February 20, 2009 instead of months as some releases seem to be.
Capcom also has a new SFIV trailer with Gouken as well, check it out below!
You know a soccer management game is getting serious when a real life pro club wants to use the game's database as a scouting tool.
Everton FC (which I believe is in Everton) has announced that they signed an exclusive contract with Sports Interactive, makers of the long-lived and popular series Football Manager, to use the game's database as a scouting tool for real life talent.
If you played a Football Manager game, you might not be too surprised to hear this latest piece of news. As far as truly 'hardcore' games go, Football Manager deserves a spot on the top of the list. It has an incredible wealth of data on players from all over the world in the game -- the database has 370,000 players in it, from 20,000 different teams across 50 countries worldwide. All this mass of info was gleaned from the world's largest talent scouting network that includes over 1,000 scouts worldwide.
Previous Football Manager games accurately identified the exceptional talent of future football stars, including 15 year old Wayne Rooney.
In Football Manager games, each player has a mass of attributes rated between 1 and 100. There are so many fans of the game, that just from the power of Internets, through forums and fan sites, Football Manager fans are often able to find real, real life deals -- players that are talented yet can be signed for a reasonable amount of money.
Football Manager's Paul Collyer had this to say: “The game’s database is a valuable resource with the most extensive scouting network in football so Everton FC is making a top signing. I am personally delighted with today’s announcement as I’m a Toffees fan. Standing on the pitch with my signing on shirt is as close to my boyhood dream of playing at Goodison Park as I will ever get.”
Football Manager 2009 for PC and Apple Macintosh, and Football Manager Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP are both released today (November 14th).
This gamer tried Football Manager 2005 and immediately became addicted, finally managing to get the Dresden Dyanmos up into the first league. Even if you aren't much of a soccer fan, but like managing games, you might want to try out the game -- it can be a lot of fun.
For the first time in the series, Football Manager 2009 is introducing a 3D match engine, so you can watch your team either be destroyed or achieve glory in full detail.
Treating us to a little eyecandy today, the guys over at GRIN have cooked up a fresh batch of screenshots from their upcoming Action title, Bionic Commando. These latest shots feature some intense Polycraft battles. Enjoy;
Bionic Commando is scheduled for release in Q1 2009.
Spreading the good news tonight, Valve Software has announced that their highly anticipated zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, has officially gone gold and will be available in stores on November 18th. They also note that if you pre-ordered the game through Steam, you may now start pre-loading. This will save you the headache of trying to download on launch day. ;)
Some of you may have heard this before, but for those that have not: it appears that Blizzard will be introducing some character customization options with the Wrath of the Lich King that will cost real money to take advantage of.
Eurogamer managed to squeeze a couple of details out of Blizzard about the coming microtransaction addition.
"When you create your character, often times you wish you'd done things differently. You wish you were on a different realm, you wish you'd had a different name or you wish you'd chosen a different look and feel," said Blizzard's Paul Sams.
"We want to give you the ability to do this, but we don't want you to do it all the time," said Blizzard's Lee Sparks. "The same thing goes for [the existing] paid character transfer, we don't want people bouncing back and forth."
Although the prices have not been set, it appears that you'll be able to change fundamental qualities about your character in Warcraft through the new system, such as facial features and skin color.
"I think the reason for the monetary expense is more of a barrier so that people don't do it every day," Lee Sparks was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate on why an experience penalty or large in-game gold cost would not achieve the same sort of barrier.
Blizzard would not be the first MMORPG to have both subscription services and microtransacations at the same time -- but what do you think? This seems like double dipping at bit to me. It's not like Blizzard is losing money with WoW -- not that I blame them for squeezing every last dollar out of the game; the customization features are optional after all.
Wrath of the Lich King comes out -- well, it came out just today actually. If you are a WoW fan you probably aren't going to read this news item, and are probably playing the game right as type this, as a matter of fact.
Update: Lydia informs me that you can already change your face and skin color for free with the in-game barber, so it seems hard to guess what changes they'll allow you to alter with a cash payment. Changing your race and class seems a bit too fundamental, but if it is not your hair, face or skin color, what else could it be? Unless they are switching the free barber to a pay-with-real-world cash barber. WoW Insider seems to believe that gender re-assigment and race changing are possible.
Queues for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King were quite impressive. Our local midnight launch store, Puolenkuun Pelit (Espoo), had a queue of over 100 people - and we got some pictures.
Blizzard actually surprised everyone by jumping the gun with the servers. It appears that the EU servers actually allowed those with early copies to start in Northrend as early as 22:00 CET - much to the disappointment of many who got their copies at midnight here in Finland. They expected to have a hour to get home and install the game before opening, but found out some were already out there before leaving for the store.
Anyway, I'm not off to get some levels...
Update: Level 71, after about 4.5 hours of solid questing! Everything has worked smoothly for me and the only troubles I've heard of have been about Zeppelins tending to unload their passengers at Stonetalon Mountains.
Jumping on the delay bandwagon tonight, Stardock and Ironclad Games have announced that their upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment micro-expansion has been delayed for an unspecified amount of time to allow for more testing and polish. Entrenchment was originally scheduled for release on November 18th. To help make up for the delay, those of you who pre-ordered the expansion will be invited to the public beta test. So I guess it's not all bad news! ;)
In an interview with Shacknews,Games for Windows Live general manager Chris Early stated his company's vision to offer PC games through its Marketplace application before not too long.
Just today MS updated their downloadable Games for Windows Live program to be able to handle videos, demos, and DLC. At the moment Steam can't handled DLC plugins, so this one area where MS already has a bit of a leg up.
Further integration of Games for Windows Live also seems likely with the new Windows, Windows 7.
Microsoft being Microsoft, they are in a good position to leverage support for their Games for Windows Live program. Perhaps Games for Windows Live will become the premier online distribution service for Xbox-to-PC game ports..? It also seems likely that more PC games will support playing online against Xbox gamers in the future.
For those of you who like to read their Wrath of the Lich King quest spoilers in book form, BradyGames' official strategy guide for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is scheduled to be out simultaneously with the expansion. It's a 350+ page tome that contains all the information about the new c 2048 ontent.
In-depth information on all the new quests, bosses and loot.Instances mapped and explained.All crafting information covered....plus all the other new stuff added with the expansion or just before it covered in depth - Achievements, Death Knights, Inscription etc.
The Wrath of the Lich King Official Strategy Guide will be available on 13th of November at 16.99 UKP / $24.99.
With the console versions of Mirror's Edge hitting store shelves this week, you're probably wondering when we'll be getting our hands on the PC edition. Last we heard, "Winter 2008" was the target, but it looks like we'll have to wait a little bit longer. According to today's Xbox 360/PS3 shipment announcement, the PC edition of EA's highly anticipated Action-Adventure title has been pushed back to January 2009 in North America. A reason for the delay wasn't given.
Blizzard banned a massive 350,000 accounts for various hacking and cheating offenses today. The vast majority are Diablo II players, then followed by Starcraft players.
The banned account holders are receiving a 30 day no-play sentence. After that, if they are caught cheating anymore, they will recieve permanent banishment.
Diablo II has already been pretty much ravaged by hacks and item duping many years ago, so some might see this move as coming a bit late.
Wrapping things up tonight, the guys over at Isotx have released a new singleplayer demo for their latest First Person Shooter-RTS title, Iron Grip: Warlord. No word on what this demo includes exactly, but if you're still interested in checking it out, you can grab the 430MB installer from any of the following websites:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell))FilePlanetFileFrontFielShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingJust in time for the weeken 221d d!
Keeping the good news coming today, Electronic Arts has announced that their highly anticipated racing title, Need for Speed: Undercover, has officially gone gold and will begin shipping to stores in North America on November 18th and in Europe on November 21st. Here's the scoop:
Need for SpeedTM Undercover, the latest version from Black Box's blockbuster action driving franchise, has gone gold. Need for Speed Undercover is the ultimate combination of stunning gameplay and big-budget Hollywood-style live action movie segments.
Need for Speed Undercover has players racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals as they go deep undercover to take down an International crime syndicate. The new game heralds the return of high-intensity police 211d chases and introduces the all-new ‘Heroic Driving Engine' -- a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles.
Need for Speed Undercover is being developed by Black Box in Vancouver, B.C., and is slated to be in stores in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21. The game will be available for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and WiiTM as well as the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DSTM, PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) handheld entertainment system, PC and mobile. More information can be found at www.needforspeed.com.
Gotta love a good police chase! ;)
In late October, publisher and distributor G4BOX was offering early access to the Korean online military FPS Cross Fire. Already highly successful in Asia, some one got the bright idea to introduce this free-to-play shooter to gamers in North America and the UK. Beta will run for approximately one month, and those said gamers have a chance to play-test selected modes before Cross Fire officially launches later this year.
Well, there are still a few spaces available, and G4BOX is still enlisting potential players to fill those spots.
"With its addictive pick up and play game play, simple learning curve, and high intensity fire-fights, Cross Fire has the appeal to captivate the first-person shooter community throughout North America and the United Kingdom," said Howard He, CEO and Co-founder of G4BOX. "Players have read about its success in Korea and China, have seen the awesome screens and trailers, and now finally they get a chance to check it out for themselves!"
Hey, at least it's something to do. For anyone who may still be interested, exclusive beta keys can still be obtained through FilePlanet. The keys must then be registered on the Cross Firehome page before downloading the client.
The ubiquitous convenience store chain that usually never shutters its doors gains an unlikely, new ally in MMORPG provider Nexon. The force behind such free-to-play MMORPGs (well, until you want to access the premimum content) like MapleStory and Mabinogi, and the upcoming Sugar Rush, is looking to promote their franchises at 7-Eleven in the U.S.
Expect to see stores offer free Nexon game discs with the purchase of any 22-oz Slurpee (or larger), as well as promotional Slurpee cups featuring codes for in-game items or bonuses. For example, redeeming the code on the MapleStory Slurpee cup will allow player characters to score double experience points for 90 minutes. Offering the game discs is actually a pretty nice idea, assuming there are enough potential Nexon customers who simply can't spare the bandwidth to download the games instead.
Now what would be nice is if there was a "Limited Edition Nexon Branded" Slurpee cup featuring either Nao or Goddess Morrigan (or both!) from Mabinogi.
Keeping us entertained this weekend, the folks over at Electronic Arts have released a brand new teaser trailer for their upcoming racing title, Need for Speed: Undercover. The minute-long video features a mix of cinematic cutscenes and in-game action. Enjoy the ride:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingNeed for Speed: Undercover is due out in North America on November 18th and in Europe on November 21st.
Moving right along, the folks over at Ascaron have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming Action-RPG, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. Running just over a minute long, the video introduces us to the world of Ancaria with some action-packed cinematic cutscenes. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Hit-up any of the following websites for a mirror:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingSacred 2: Fallen Angel is scheduled for release on November 11th.
Following weeks of speculation, Atari has announced that they've acquired the publishing rights to Terminal Reality's upcoming movie-inspired Adventure-Adventure title, Ghostbusters: The Video Game. How do the two sides feel about their new partnership? Super excited of course:
"Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a fantastic addition to Atari’s global line-up in 2009," said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames Entertainment, the parent company of Atari. "The title has built considerable anticipation and excitement among game fans for its high quality action and all-out mayhem. T 20e1 here’s no more thrilling Ghostbusting experience to be had, short of building your own proton pack."
"We're thrilled to partner with Atari on Ghostbusters: The Video Game", said Mark Caplan, Vice President of Licensing-Hardlines for Sony Pictures Consumer Products Inc. "As one of our studios’ most valued film franchises, we wanted to develop a video game that would be exciting for both new and old fans and with Atari we have a publisher that fully understands Ghostbusters, and is committed to producing engaging entertainment that fans will thoroughly enjoy."
I'm just glad someone picked it up. :D
Finally tonight, the fine folks over at Elecronic Arts have released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming people-sim, The Sims 3. Clocking in at just over six minutes long, the video walks us through character creation, moving into a neighborhood and pushing for your lifetime goals. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Prefer a manual download? Then look no further:
GamersHellFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingThe Sims 3 is scheduled for release in February 2009.
Kicking things off today, Electronic Arts has released a new patch (#2) for their latest sports sim, FIFA 09. In addition to the usual bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, this 9MB update adds the ability to "de-authorize” your game install, freeing up authorizations for other PC's. You can check out the full changelog right here, or just hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
GamersHellFileFrontStrategy InformerWorthPlayingIsn't DRM fun? :p
As promised, the early access demo for Valve Software's highly anticipated zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead, is now available for those of you who pre-ordered the game via Steam or participating retailers in North America. So grab your favorite "survival" weapon and let the games begin! Didn't pre-order? Then you'll have to wait until November 11th, when the free public demo is expected to go live.
What I would estimate is one of the most hyped series' right now, Street Fighter, has many fans excited for what's to come. First we have the classic Street Fighter II being revamped for PSN and XBL in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and then of course, there's Street Fighter IV. The former is due out sometime this month, while the latter is coming in February, and later in 2009 for the PC.
So, if you're keen to feed your own excitement, first up we have a combo video for SSF II THDR (even the acryonym is tiring), which shows some of the more impossible things which can be done in the game. It's the kind of thing where if you haven't been playing Street Fighter every other day since grade school, you feel like crap after watching it. It isn't in HD, apparently, but you take what you can get:
Next up is one for Street Fighter IV, where we see the boss character Seth in action at last. Known as "The Puppet Master" (snicker), he is the CEO of S.I.N., the weapons division of Shadaloo. Seth's body has been modified using advanced technology, and his Special Moves are techniques used by other characters (standard fighting game fare). If you ask me, his super move is about the weirdest and cheesiest thing I've seen in a fighting game, but other than that he looks great and so does the game. Check him out:
As a part two to yesterday's "Video games, art and interactivity" article, I'm going to dive into the piracy issue, and how this is significant in our relationship with developers and publishers.
This came about from the same conversation mentioned in that story. Following my friend's diatribe about how "video games are created only to make money", he began to tell me about how in his home country of Bangladesh, pirated (physical) versions of games are rampant, and it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between these and the real thing. Cultural differences, I suggested. He explained it's more like they pay what they think what something is worth, which "leads to a much greater overall profit". Not sure about that, but if it's accurate, a greater overall profit for who? People who know how to pirate?
In any case, I tried to take the positive out of it, which is the "pay what you think something is worth" option is really quite a lovely thought, if not idealistic. However, as many probably know, bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have been doing similar things the past while, with great success. From what I understand, they've made more from these last few albums (each) than they have from any other single album. And if I calculate the sales from NIN's Ghosts correctly, it must be much, much more (as in millions). So it's obviously possible to survive without a publisher, and better (companies like Pinnacle Software might be best to work with in the early and maybe later stages, though), and with more flexible payment options.
With that said, personally, I don't think $50 or $60 (CAD) is too much to ask for a game, when often they cost millions (sometimes tens of millions) to make, often give you 5 times more play value than a movie (which costs 2-3 times less), and typically every person on the team works their arse off, sometimes pulling 100 hour weeks and basically giving up their social lives. I'm not just assuming here -- I've read these stories straight from developers countless times.
I'm not saying a price drop couldn't have its benefits, I'm just saying personally, I'm comfortable where it's at. That and should developers have to lower prices to make a good profit? Seems kind of demeaning. I'm also not convinced pirates would spend $40 for a game instead of pirating. How low would it have to be?
Assuming the developer and publisher treat the gamer with trust and respect (as cdv are doing with the DRM for Sacred 2, for example), I'm more than happy to pay that amount, knowing I'm supporting a game/series/developer I love. This will make more games like it come.
Especially these days when innovation can be pretty scarce and studios are either closing or being gobbled up by bigger companies (resulting in less innovation, typically), I think this is all important. I'm not lecturing people here and saying "Don't pirate, you're a bad man" -- I understand why people do -- but I think it's also good for those who do pirate without remorse to be reminded of why others support gaming.
Note of clarity: I'm not at all implying piracy is the death of PC gaming and so gamers should buy games -- that's just silly.
Getting our adrenaline pumping this afternoon, the guys over at Treyarch have released a brand new teaser trailer for their upcoming first person shooter, Call of Duty: World at War. Running just under two minutes long, the video features intense in-game action set to some rockin' tunes. Pretty hot stuff! Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also availabel at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontWorthPlayingCall of Duty: World at War is scheduled for release in North America on November 11th and in Europe on November 14th.
Hitting the web tonight is a new patch for Capcom's latest racing title, MotoGP 08. This 2MB update addresses an issue that pops up when you try to install the game to a custom folder (not the default one). You can grab the update from any of the following mirrors:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingTo apply the update, follow just follow Capcom's step-by-step instructions:
Capcom regrets to inform consumers who have recently purchased the PC version of MotoGP 08 that we have just identified a technical issue with the PC version of the game. This issue only happens with MotoGP 08 PC when installing the game to a custom location on a hard dri 207f ve; This issue does not affect the default installation, as it only occurs when the destination location has been changed.
Capcom advises all consumers to download an updated installer specific to their region that addresses this issue. To install the game,
1. Do not install the game from the original MotoGP 08 DVD
2. Please download the installer file below for your region
3. Run setup.exe from the downloaded installer
4. Follow the on-screen instructions (you will be asked to insert the original MotoGP 08 DVD)
There you have it! Now go burn some rubber ;)
The original Sims was a break-out smash-hit, and the second Sims offered more expansion packs than any other game in the history games. What will The Sims 3 break?
A developer's walkthrough video was released today, showing some of the upcoming changes made in the game. The Sims 3 seems to be shaping up quite nicely.
In The Sims 3, your character is not limited to his home. You have a much larger neighbourhood that you'll be able to go out into, and check out. There also seems to be greater customization options when it comes to designing your alter-ego: you'll be able to pick life goals, and tweak their personality quirks to your heart's content.
The Sims 3 comes out for the PC on Feburary 20th.
Although Will Wright wasn't behind this one, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that The Sims 3 will far out sell Spore. Okay -- so maybe that wasn't much of a prediction, seeing how Sims 2 is one of the most popular PC games of all time and has had expansion packs consistently been on the best-sellers list since release.Incredibly, The Sims series has so far sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
Tomb Raider will be back soon - November 18th (US) / 21st (EU) - and the we got the system requirements. You can easily compare your system to these requirements using the Game-o-Meter. Oh, and don't forget to check out the demo, available now.
Tomb Raider: Underworld Minimum System RequirementsOPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP / Microsoft Windows VistaCPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz+ or AMD Athlon 2.5 GHz+RAM: 1GB (Windows XP) / 2GB (Windows Vista) system memoryGRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce 6 series 6800GT (or better) / ATI 1800XT (or better)HARD DRIVE: 8 GB Free SpaceINPUT DEVICES: Keyboard and mouseTomb Raider Underworld Recommended System Requi 20d4 rementsOPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP / Microsoft Windows VistaCPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or Athlon 64 X2 4400+RAM: 2 GB system memoryGRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX or ATI HD 4800 seriesHARD DRIVE: 8 GB Free SpaceINPUT DEVICES: Microsoft Xbox360 ControllerI'll fancy a guess that mouse + keyboard will once again be a better way to steer Lara around, just like it was with Tomb Raider: Anniversary, so take that pad recommendation as related to the "Games for Windows" badge that requires any GFW-labeled game to support the pad.
Keeping us on our toes tonight, Crytek has released a new patch (v1.1) for the multiplayer portion of Crysis Warhead, dubbed "Crysis Wars". Weighing in at 93MB, this update features a handful of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, removes online activation (Release Control), adds Linux server support and rolls out a 64-bit version of the game. You can check out the full changelog right here or just launch the game's auto-updater to start downloading. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FilePlanetFileFrontFileShackWorthPlayingGrab it while it's hot!
Moving right along, KOEI has announced that the upcoming PC edition of their popular Hack & Slack title, Dynasty Warriors 6, has officially gone gold and will be available for purchase exclusively through digital distribution outlets in North America and Brazil on November 18th. Here's the scoop:
Burlingame, CA – November 3, 2008 - KOEI, recognized worldwide as the premier brand of strategy and action games, today announced that DYNASTY WARRIORS 6 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system has reached gold status. The highly-anticipated Tactical Action game ships on November 18, 2008 to North American retailers including: Amazon, EBGames, Game Crazy, GameFly, GameStop, and Walmart.
Featuring the full cast of playable characters of the original release, DYNASTY WARRIORS 6 for PlayStation 2 comes action-packed with platform-exclusive content including: 10 new scenarios, five additional stages, plus new “Musou” mode stories and weapons for popular characters Zhang He, Cao Pi, Ling Tong, Ma Chao, Taishi Ci and Yue Ying.
DYNASTY WARRIORS 6 also comes to Windows-based PC on November 18, 2008 exclusively through digital download for reside 2112 nts of North America and Brazil. The game is in stores now for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
Want to 'try before you buy'? Then be sure to check out the 320MB demo!
Wrapping things up tonight, Valve Software has announced that they'll be launching their Steam Cloud service alongside the Left 4 Dead demo later this week. This service is basically a feature update for Steam that allows you to store all your saved games, key bindings and various other settings online, so you won't lose them if you have to format or decide to install your games on a different PC. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me! Click here to learn more.
I have a feeling this little article might ruffle a couple of feathers, in the gaming flocks. After all, game reviewers are going bat-balls crazy for the game. Some reviewers think the game is better than water; others believe it better than Gears of War crossed with Final Fantasy 7, etcetra. Some reviewers think Bethesda does better work than Dostoevsky.
Don't get me wrong. Fallout 3 isn't good -- it's great. One of the best games of the year, easily...but even still: could it have been better? Are mods going to bring Fallout 3 to incredibly new heights, like mods made a gem out of the rough diamond of Bethesda's Oblivion?
Fallout 2 is probably my favorite RPG of all time. So, understandably (I hope), any game I'm going to compare to Fallout 2 is going to come up short. Well Fallout 3 is the sequel to Fallout 2, right? Well I'm going to compare them. And guess what -- Fallout 3 is going to come up short.
Here's my brief list of 11 ways Fallout 3 fell short of Fallout 2. In no particular order.
1. Tag skills
Bethesda completely missed the boat on the whole notion of 'Tag Skills' from the original games. In the originals, you picked three tag skills at the beginning of the game. They were your character's specialties. You want a medic with a good throwing arm that can pick locks? Pick Medicine, Throwing, Lock Picking. For the rest of the game, every time you level, and skill point put into a tag skill will be doubled. So, like, it's easier to become proficient at your character's specialties.
This isn't how it works in Fallout 3.
In Fallout 3, you pick three tag skills at the beginning. These tag picks give you a +10 bonus to the skill and... that's it.
How dumb is that? Not sure why the crippled the Tag skills. Why not just give the player an extra 30 skill points to allocate when he makes his character? It would have the same in-game outcome.
Another criticism of the skills: In Fallout 3, like Oblivion, many characters are going to be masters of everything in the game. This wasn't really possible in Fallout 2 -- well not to the same extent. Stuff like tag skills and actually having to specialize gave your character more... character.
Oh yeah: Fallout 2: 18 skills. Fallout 3: 13 skills. Enough said.
2. Items that magically boost stats
Only a small handful of items in Fallout 2 modified your skills or attributes. Not so in Fallout 3. This time around, we have leather jackets that magically give you bonuses to melee combat. What's up with that? Having a dictionary in my pocket may prevent me from making less errors when writing something like this out -- sure. But what if I'm wearing a shirt with a dictionary on it? Should that cut down on my grammatical errors? No, I don't thinke so.
And bobbleheads. There are 20 or so bobbleheads in the game. The all magically give you stats. I don't want to feel like my character is gimped if I don't track down some damn bobblehead hiding on some ledge some place that I'm never going to find without a in-depth walkthrough. Screw the bobbleheads.
3. Dumb weapons
The Fallout games never strived for realism, sure. But at no point in Fallout 2 did I build a weapon that shoots rail road spikes.
And the Fat Man launcher? Oh man. Don't get me started. I'm just going to pass on that one.
In Fallout 2 you could make molotov cocktails with gasoline and a bottle. Fallout 3, you can make a Rock-It Launcher that'll launch tin cans and plungers at people.
I'll stick with the molotov cocktails.
4. Random encounters
There was a bunch of cool random encounters you could have in Fallout 2. Sometimes you'd come across trading caravans that you could slaughter. Some were more rare, like the Cafe of Broken Dreams. Some were non-combat encounters -- people in the Wastes that you could talk and trade with.
In Fallout 3, enemies are all over the place, according to what zone you are in. There aren't really any random encounters per se -- which is another reason why the Luck stat isn't as much as big deal in Fallout 3 either.
Bethesda, here's a free idea you should use in Fallout 4. I won't charge you for it. Bring the Outdoorsman skill back. Any time you fast travel, to a skill roll on the Outdoorsman skill. If you fail, you run into a random encounter. And 'random encounter' doesn't have to mean 'Random people that want to kill you.' It can be other stuff instead... like roleplaying game type stuff.
5. Difficulty levels
This one will be short. Fallout 2: difficulty levels make combat harder, and all skills rolls harder. The game is much harder.
Fallout 3: higher difficulty levels gives your enemies more health... and that's it. On the harder difficulty levels Fallout 3 is only harder because you run out of ammo more often.
Ho hum.
6. Open world freedom
Fallout 3 has a lot of this. But not as much as Fallout 2.
In Fallout 2 if you knew what you were doing you could go right from your starting point in the game to the final location. Sure, you wouldn't be able to beat the opponents with out some tricks, but you could do it.
In the entire south-eastern quarter of the Fallout 3 map you are in a city that has invisible walls everywhere. There basically only one way you can go. You are on a quest train track that starts at one location, has 13 (or whatever) stages, and ends.
Don't go down that street dude. There is a big pile of rubble blocking the path. Strangely, just like the other 40 streets.
Just follow the path through the open world.
7.Immersion free NPC's
Most of the dialogue in the game is not memorable, consequently, most characters are forgettable. Many times half way through conversations I just clicked right through to the end bit, where they dispense the quest or what-not.
People like the wasteland super-hero Antangonizer just would not exist, even after a nuclear war. Give me a break.
So many characters are just so unbelievable -- even by RPG standards. The NPC's don't exist as non-playing characters. Most exist solely as pieces of game mechanic furniture -- like the Nuka Cola machines everywhere that somehow, amazingly, all still have Nuka in them. They are function. Not personalities.
I don't want to battle through a legion of Super Mutants, climb through a tunnel, then run into this strangely dressed guy deep in the wreckage of the Wasteland that greets me by saying, "What would you like to purchase?"
In the real world, I've never met anyone anywhere who introduced himself, and then thirty seconds later offered me some money to nuke a city. I wish there were more NPC's in the game that didn't give quests or heal you or trade with you -- they are just like, you know, NPC's that are doing there own thing.
8. Ghouls
In Fallout 2, most ghouls were like radiated, semi-mutated ex-human being people. You could talk with them. Have them join you as team members. Ghouls were people too, in Fallout 2.
In Fallout 3, ghouls are zombies. Besides that one dude Gob, in Megatown, ghouls are stupid zombies that immediately attack you on sight.
I realize RPG's need random enemies to kill. Sure. But why did Bethesda have to make them ghouls? Why not anything else? They had the whole wasteland of creativity at their disposal. They could have made you fight anything. Like L. Ron Hubologist cultists. Or mutated raccoons.
Every time I shoot a ghoul I want to cry. I think to myself: "Damn! That ghoul could have been innocent!"
Maybe it was all a misunderstanding.
9. Open ended quests
Not much tops Fallout 2 when it came to open ended quests. Let's take one of the better examples in F2 -- dealing with the Slavers in the city called the Den. The Slavers have a buddy of yours, Vic, that you want to rescue. There were many ways of getting this done.
You could go into the slaver headquarters and shoot them all up. If you were a explosive traps guy, (like my guy was), you could go in the building and plant dynamite, then leave, and blow everyone up. If you had high intelligence and high speech, you could convince the slavers to stop trading slaves, and get them to free Vic. If you were a jerk, you could join the Slavers, get a slaver tattoo on your forehead that would have consequences for the rest of the game, and sell your tribal companion into a life of servitude. If you were a chick with a decent charisma, you can have sex with the head slaver guy for Vic's freedom.
The vast majority of quests in Fallout 3 are like this: go talk to this guy. Kill everybody in your way. The end.
Some of the quests, if you have a high speech skill, you can lie and not have to kill the dudes.
Yay. Woot. Let's RPG it up. Let's go kill all the enemy dudes and get the magical hamster or super Frisbee or W-ever-TF they want me to get. Yay this is fun.
10. Not-so-funny humor
There were parts of Fallout 2 that made me laugh out loud, even before the acroynm LOL was even around.
Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has them and they all stink.
That last paragraph was a pair of lines that I remember from a game that came out more than 10 years ago. Do you remember any lines from any games that you played 10 years ago? Do you remember any lines from a game -- say, Fallout 3 -- that you played last night? All hail Fallout 2.
Some of the characters are often so un-funny in Fallout 3 that I wish the game had a strangle button.
Like when that ditzy chick in the supply store came up to me, asking me to go hunt molerats for her. Her voice is so grating. Her character is annoying.
Where is that strangle button?
"Oh you are such a sweet heart for getting severly wounded for me so I can study wounds for my book. I hope it didn't hurt! Tee-hee-hee-haw-haw."
Strangle. Strangle.
11. Complete abandoning of any sort of realism
Bethesda, listen up.
Years after a global nuclear holocaust you will not find unopened boxes of macaroni all over the place. You will not be going through a sewer and trip over a box full of 5.56 mm ammunition.
People will not be launching mini-nukes at super-mutants. Not even every once in a while.
Drinking water mixed with radioactive waste will not fix you up after being shot five times in the face with a shotgun.
People will not be all friendly and nice to me in the barren wasteland. Some people will be jerks. Many won't even have quests for me. Some won't even care about me at all.
Forlorn offices in abandoned dilapidated factories will not have working computer terminals that control robotic guards.
Every-day dudes will not have robotic butlers, after a global thermonuclear war.
In the end...
In the end, Fallout 3 is a lot of fun, is one of the better games I played this year. But it isn't three-quarters of the RPG that Fallout 2 was. I'm sorry -- it's just not. Maybe with mods. But not at the moment.
Next time you see someone saying that in some ways Fallout 2 was better than Fallout 3, please, be easy on him. Cut him slack. He at least has an argument worth listening to.
And if you never played Fallout 2, then please, please, I beg of you, don't trash the game. That's just not right. You just don't know what you are talking about.
If 30 megaton bombs were falling from the sky and I could only install two games on my Pipboy 3000, I'd pass on the F3, and double-install Fallout 2.
Can't get enough Mirror's Edge? Well, me either, so there's another trailer here for you. This one, like the Faith City trailer (my personal favourite, aside from that legendary E3 one), is animated and delves into the background behind what we're presented in this brave new world.
But first I'd like to go into some of the rumblings across the ol' WWW. As it's not clear whether or not these scenes will be in the final game or not, user "un om bun" over on ActionTrip says, "I hope I'm not expected to watch anime crap on teh interwebz to really "get" the story. All this stuff had better find it's way into the finished product." Myself, I'm assuming it will be (why wouldn't it?), but even if not, I'm really enjoying these little set-ups -- the more ways I can get into this game, the better. Of course, when replying to another user, who says you can't "do anything fun like blow stuff up", he replies, "They made the mistake of building it around one simple idea. It is not enough. Also, the entire game is basically a speed run. It'll last half as much as the shortest games." Sigh. Clearly, not a game for everyone. I think it's just depressing when any game that doesn't involve killing something isn't considered "fun" anymore. I really like the minimal violence approach in the game, it's really quite nice for a change, and reminds me of the martial art Aikido in its nature.
Meanwhile, "CoreContingency" on Shacknews stated his experience with the PS3 demo was some severe aliasing problems, describing it as a "jaggy feast for the eyes", and as such he'll be waiting for the PC version. Did anyone else feel this way?
But onto it -- trailer #4 (or 4.5, if you prefer):
Keeping things rollin' tonight, GSC Games World has released a new patch (v1.5.07) for their latest first person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. The 53MB update addresses some issues that popped up in the recent v1.5.06 patch. Mirrors are available at the following websites:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingAnd yes, you're saved games are compatible with this latest patch. So don't worry!
Spreading the good news today, Relic Entertainment has officially announced the development of Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, a standalone expansion for their popular World War 2-based RTS. Due out in Spring 2009, the game will feature three new campaigns, new multiplayer modes and a new Direct-Fire feature that will offer "even more tactical control during the heat of battle". Here's a little snippet from the press release:
"Company of Heroes is one of the most critically acclaimed RTS series of all time," said Peter Matiss, vice president of glo 216b bal brand management, THQ. "With Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, Relic Entertainment is delivering an all-new, standalone chapter in the franchise and continues to push the boundaries of innovation and quality in the genre."
"In Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, we're offering players a ton of rich, new content including more strategic options in single-player and multiplayer," said Tarrnie Williams, general manager, Relic Entertainment. "With fresh new campaigns and multiplayer modes, brand-new units, additional maps and the introduction of the 'direct-fire' feature, we're once again committed to delivering the best in strategic gaming."
It's not a full-on sequel, but more content for this great series is a welcome thing. Can't wait! :D
A trailer was released today for Lord of the Rings: Conquest, a strategic action game in the same vein as Star Wars Battlefront. The game is coming January 13th, is made by Pandemic Studios, and being published by E.A.
This trailer is the first I've seen of the game -- and it looks pretty good. The player animations seem fairly fluid and well-done.
The plot of the game mostly follows the plot of all three of the Lord movies, highlighting each big battle. You can choose to play either as the good dudes or the bad dudes. Both the good dudes and bad dudes have their own versions of the predictable fantasy archetypes: the wizard, the warrior, the scout, and the archer.
But you will play as no regular dude. No, instead you'll get to pick your choice from an abundance of heroes taken from Tolkien's world. From Aargon to Treebeard to the Witch-King, you'll be able to help dice, slice, mince and skewer your opponents across a range of different maps.
Hitting the web today is a new patch (v1.1) for Activision's latest Action-Adventure title, Spider-man: Web of Shadows. Weighing in at 18MB, this update features some general performance improvements, addresses stability issues during cut scenes and fixes a billboard rendering bug with the GeForce 7000 line of cards. Mirrors are available at the following websites:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingSounds like a must-have update. So don't miss it!
Spicing things up today, EA Phenomic has announced that they are now accepting applications to beta test their upcoming online trading card RTS, BattleForge. According to the official press release, the beta will go live on November 7th. To sign-up, just enter your info right here or if you happen to live in North America, you can pre-order the game at participating retailers to guarantee a spot.
Keeping things rollin' tonight, Obsidian Entertainment has announced that their upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir expansion has officially gone gold and will be hitting stores sometime this November. What new content does this expansion offer? Here's a brief description from the press release:
The Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Overland Map feature lets players explore the Chultan Peninsula and Sword Coast in a way never before possible in any Neverwinter Nights game. Players will explore well-known locations, like Neverwinter and Crossr 20a2 oad Keep, alongside lesser travelled areas, such as the xenophobic jungle nation of Samarach. Vicious monsters and groups of bandits populate the Overland Map, and the farther from civilization the player roams, the more difficult the encounters become.
The 20 to 30-hour campaign in Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir introduces new classes, including the fearsome Hellfire Warlock and the daring Swashbuckler, as well as brand-new spells, creatures, and playable races. Fans of the compelling multiplayer features of Neverwinter Nights 2 will be able to play through Storm of Zehir's campaign in the online cooperative mode, while modders can use the included editor to create their own campaigns and Overland Maps to share online.
We'll be sure to let you know when an exact day is nailed down. So stay tuned! ;)
As promised, the guys over at Crystal Dynamics have released a new singleplayer demo for their upcoming Action-Adventure title, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Weighing in at 1.2GB, the demo allows you to play through some of the early Thailand missions. You can grab this bad boy from any of the following mirrors:
YouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFilePlanetFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlayingSo what are you waiting for? Get downloading! :D
Kicking off a $10 million marketing campaign, Valve Software has released short TV trailer for their upcoming co-op based zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. The 30 second clip introduces us to the game's main features in humorous fashion. Enjoy:
Thanks to FileFront for the above stream. The video is also available for download at GamersHell and WorthPlaying.com. Stay tuned for more mirrors!
Also available for download today is a new teaser trailer for Autumn Moon Entertainment's upcoming Point & Click Adventure title, A Vampyre Story. What would Halloween be without Vampires, Ghosts and other creepy creatures? Luckily, this trailer has them all! Enjoy:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
GamersHellFileFrontWorthPlayingA Vampyre Story is scheduled for release this November.
Probably most people who read this news item will think 'Who cares?' and the rest of you are sick of hearing about Hellgate: London, the little game that almost could.
But for the other couple of you guys, you might be happy to hear that it looks like Hellgate: London is coming back from the dead.
And dead it is indeed, at the moment. All thirty-four of the Hellgate: London player base very much expected the game to fully descend into the P.C game-Abyss in February, with the few remaining servers finally being shut down. But this might not be the case!
Nutshell of the story so far is that Flagship Studios lost the whole game (code, kit and kaboodle) to Korean company HanbitSoft earlier this year. The game first came out a year ago today, and generally did poorly where ratings and box sales are concerned. But the end is sometimes not the end it seems, as Korean game-smiths have been diligently working on the Korean Hellgate: London, and an entire new version of the game appears to be coming to the US around February.
HanbitSoft has said that they have started a new studio in San Fran to work on the project, and that they have poached some ex-Flagshippers to work on it. The game will be re-launched with a whole bunch of new content that surpasses anything yet released. The North American Hellgate will be handled by a Taiwanese company called Redbana -- a company that has launched a good amount of successful games.
Perhaps even more importantly, it looks like Mythos is still alive. If you haven't heard of it, you can think of Mythos as Diablo 2.5. It is another game that has been forfeited by Flagship. Having played it in beta, I can tell you that it will be the best Diablo clone to come out, until Diablo3 does (in 2010 at the earliest.) HanbitSoft as said they will work on the game, and launch it in North America as well.
If the re-launched Hellgate: London does somehow manage to be a really good game (which is, at least theoretically possible), the history of its development may turn into the best great-idea-released-prematurely-then-completely-defrayed-to-a-Korean-company-then-re-released-in-North-America story ever heard.
Hellgate: London was generally reviled by gaming critics, and disappointed droves of gamers. But unknown to many, underneath deep layers of bugs and repeating tilesets were some solid game mechanics -- and even a bit of fun. With HanbitSoft finally being able to complete the game, about a year after its release, there is a small chance that the game could even turn out to be somewhat, halfway not unreasonable.
