Looking to create some hype for tomorrow's big launch, EA Bright Light Studio have released a short teaser trailer for their upcoming movie-inspired Adventure title, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Running just under two minutes long, the video features a mix of cinematic cutscenes and in-game action. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at the following websites:
FileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlaying
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scheduled for release in North America on June 30th and in Europe on July 3rd.
Creating a little buzz today, Aspyr Media and Mindware Studios have officially announced the development of a new first person shooter called "Dreamkiller". Due out this Fall, the game promises "mega-bloodbath" action and a twisted storyline that revolves around a psychologist who enters her patients minds to battle their demons. Here's the scoop:
AUSTIN, TEXAS – June 29, 2009 – Aspyr Media and Mindware Studios probe the insidious depths of the subconscious to bring Dreamkiller to the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC. A fast, frantic and mega-bloodbath first-person shooter, Dreamkiller takes gamers inside the dark and twisted nightmares of tortured souls possessed by unknown forces.
Gamers will take on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the extraordinary ability to enter the minds of her patients and combat the ravenous foes haunting their dreams. Utilizing a host of fantastic weapons and her own special abilities, Alice confronts our common demons only to discover an even deeper menace reigns within. The ultimate showdown becomes inevitable between that which would torment and she who will protect, and only one force will p 21de revail amidst a variety of dreamscapes as varied and bizarre as the human mind itself.
Dreamkiller features 12 rich levels of single-player gameplay each laced with swarms of hideous and disturbing enemies reflecting the mind’s infinite palette of fear. The onslaught continues with numerous multiplayer modes and a host of over-the-top weapons and supernatural abilities. Stay awake, Dreamkiller will be available this fall.
Included with the announcement are some new screenshots. Enjoy:
Sounds like something id Software would do if they had the Psychonauts IP. lol
Giving us a reason to dust off our wallets this weekend, Valve Software has announced that the Heroes of Might and Magic V games, Dark Messiah Might and Magic, The Heroes Pack, and Zeno Clash are all 50% off through Steam from now until Sunday, June 28th. So if you're looking for something new to play this weekend, you may want to consider checking them out! ;)
ARMA II System Requirements have popped up on Steam along with the ARMA II demo that was just released and here they are.
Minimum Requirements
OS: Windows XP or Windows VistaProcessor: Dual Core CPU (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster)Memory: 1 GB RAMGraphics: GPU (Nvidia Geforce 7800 / ATI Radeon 1800 or faster) with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAMHard Drive: 10 GB free HDD space
Recommended Requirements
OS: Windows XP or Windows VistaProcessor: Quad Core CPU or fast Dual Core CPU (Intel Core 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or faster)Memory: 2 GB RAMGraphics: Fast GPU (Nvidia Geforce 8800GT or ATI Radeon 21c2 4850 or faster) with Shader Model 3 and 512 or more MB VRAMHard Drive: 10 GB free HDD space
The reference to a "Dual Core CPU" with a listing Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz and AMD Athlon 3200+ (Athlon XP or Athlon 64? There is a difference...) as examples is just a tad confusing and I'd place a bet that the "Dual Core" bit is an error. The recommended specs are also somewhat odd as a 2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo (that would be either E7400 at 2800Mhz or E8300 at 2833Mhz, I guess) is a lot faster than a mere Athlon64 X2 4400+ is.
On the other hand, there are reports that the game runs poorly even on fairly high end systems equipped with quad core CPUs and high end GPUs well exceeding the recommended specs. The issues apparently are not universal across all configurations, so your performance may vary based on the exact configuration. I seem to recall similar issues with the first ARMA as well... another buggy release pushed out too early? I hope not.
ARMA II requirements have also been added to the Game-o-Meter and you can compare your system to them here.
There many conflicting rumours over the state of Obsidian Entertainment's role-playing game take on Aliens. Was it dead? Was it merely wounded with a gunshot and soon going to jump out and shock everyone from behind a pile of crates? The game was declared postponed, then declared in stasis, and now declared, for sure, that it is dead (or is it)?
"Unfortunately, it is true that we are no longer working on the game, and we wanted to finally announce that officially to everyone who has been following its development," said "The Guildmaster," an Obsidian employee, in the Obsidian forums.
Probably most people who have been into gaming for awhile realize that if a project is postponed for any length of time, it has just about as much chance to get back into production as G.W. Bush has at getting re-elected for a third term. However due to some ambiguous reports that surfaced a few weeks ago, hardcore fans of the game were still holding out hopes that the game would be resurrected.
But this is not the case and no, there will be no Aliens RPG from Obsidian.
Besides, Obsidian is hard at work putting the final touches on their single-player spy RPG Alpha Protocol. Then they are going to be diving into the stand-alone Fallout: New Vegas. So there's no time for aliens.
Giving us a quick heads-up this afternoon, Kalypso Media and Haemimont Games have announced that they are now accepting applications to beta test their upcoming city-builder, Tropico 3. The closed beta is expected to launch on July 13th. To sign-up, head over to the official beta page and fill in your information. Selected candidates will be emailed details on how to grab the client ect, just before the beta's launch. Cheers!
CCP announced today that they are pushing EVE Online Apocrypha Patch 1.3 to the live servers on Monday 29th June. Servers are expected to be down between 8:00AM and Noon GMT. Major features include an updated database backend for the massive item inventories and changes to the drop rates of wormhole materials required for Tech 3 production - which should drive down the astronomical prices of Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers quite nicely.
CCP is also finally shortening the anchoring and unanchoring timers of starbase structures, hopefully cutting down the setup time of a fully fitted Deathstar POS from 10-12 hours to less than 6! The rest of the fixes are mostly related to minor bugs in missions and exploration sites. No word yet about the next "major" EVE patch - a refreshing change that will hopefully mean we 2315 get more much-needed balance tweak patches to EVE.
Read on for the full patch notes.
Patch notes for Apocrypha 1.3, released 29 June 2009FEATURES
Need for Speed
The inventory service, which keeps track of the ownership and location of everything in the game, has been changed to use the new database service backend to connect and communicate with the Tranquility database. This will yield noticably less network I/O and memory usage than the previous system. The performance of most inventory related operations will improve, but there may be cases where performance will degrade. We fully expect a good performance gain on the whole though. The in-memory inventory storage has had a new index added which will address "The Jita Problem" where performance has been degrading over time as more items are primed in local storage. Maintaining an extra index induces some overhead, but frees the server from having to search through very large sets in highly populated systems. Degredation of searches over time is now a function of the player population at a given location and not a function of the number of items in a location as before.CHANGES
Tech 3
Several changes have been made to fix the cost of Tech 3 production: the volume of some gases required will be halved; the drop rate of the Neurovisual Input Matrix salvage item has been increased; and the material requirement for the power conduits has been switched from carbon-86 to Scandium Metallofullerene.Reverse Engineering will see several improvements. We are increasing the drop rate of Tech 3 datacores, increasing the runs on the blueprints from reverse engineering jobs and increasing the presence of radar sites in wormhole space.
Modules
The Omnidirectional Tracking Link I has had its description changed and will now correctly state that it "Improves optimal range and tracking on all drones."Strip miners, ice harvesters, doomsdays, triage module, siege modules and other modules which previously used a CPU bonus on the ship to allow you to fit a special module now use a new "Can be Fitted To" attribute and no longer need the high base CPU to restrict the fitting of the module. The CPU on each of these types of modules has been adjusted to no longer require a 10,000 CPU base as a result of employing this new method.
Weapons & Ammunition
The siege module explosion velocity penalty for Citadel Torpedoes has been changed from -92.5% to -60%.
Drones
The drop rates for faction drone blueprints have been increased substantially. In addition, we have increased the material quantities needed in many containers for the parts required to make meta drones. The materials required to make faction drones and rogue drone component material volume have both been decreased.
Skills
The pre-requisite skills for Capital Shield Operation have been changed. The new requirements for the training of this skill will be Shield Management V, Shield Operation V and Engineering V.
Starbases, Outposts and Stations
Multiple changes have been made to the anchoring and onlining of starbase modules and structures. All offensive starbase structure anchoring times have been reduced by 50% and all offensive starbase structure online times have also been reduced by 50%. Defensive starbase structures such as hardeners will have their anchoring, online and un-anchor times reduced by 50%. Finally, all starbase tower un-anchoring times have been reduced by 50%.
Miscellaneous
The Basic Drone Control certificate will now require the skill Drones to be trained to Level 4.FIXES
Modules
All five variations of the Gas Harvester module have had the "Crystals Damage" attribute removed under Show Info. Since these modules do not use crystals, the attribute was redundant.Mousing over a module on the fitting screen will now always display the correct CPU and powergrid requirements when the target ship has a specific bonus to fitting. For example, hovering the mouse over a Covert Ops Cloaking Device II while in the fitting screen of a Covert Ops ship will display the proper CPU requirements. If you have Covert Ops trained to level V then it will display the CPU required as "0" rather than "10,000."
Tech 3
The Offensive Covert Reconfiguration System has had its description fixed and will no longer say that you can fit a Covert Cynosural Field Generator.The reverse engineering of the Intact Power Core ancient relic was incorrectly generating Electronics subsystem class BPC’s. This has now been rectified and the correct Engineering subsystem blueprints will be created as intended.
Agents & Missions
A redundant empty room has been removed from the mission "Cash Flow for Capsuleers (4 of 10)."The mission "Cash Flow for Capsuleers (8 of 10)" has had the "objective completed" location fixed. Players will now be required to approach the destination as per the agent’s instruction. Previously, this mission would be marked as complete as soon as players warped into deadspace area."Balancing the Books (3 of 10)" will now have the correct NPC, depending upon the faction you are running the mission for. Amarr variations will have a Blood Raider pirate, Caldari will have a Guristas pirate, Gallente will have a Serpentis pirate and Minmatar will have an Angel pirate.The NPC’s in the mission "Vitoc Vector - A Terrible Thing (4 of 4)" have been rebalanced. The overall number of enemies has been reduced but their difficulty has been increased.The missions "Delving into The Past (1 & 2 of 3)" now have their completion triggers fixed. The mission journal will now blink correctly when the mission objective has been looted from the container.The orbit range of the two rogue drones in the mission "Making Mountains out of Molehills (4 of 10)" has been reduced from 50 km to 5000 meters.The storyline mission dialogue for "The Numon Claim - Imperial Intervention (3 of 5)" will now correctly refer to the Amarrian Empress rather than Amarrian Emperor. Jamyl Sarum thought it more prudent to ask the agents to update their information rather than go through an unnecessary sex change.The mission "Drone Distribution" has had the name of some structures changed. In addition, players can also use a microwarpdrive in the mission area.Structures have been moved around in the deadspace areas for the missions "Angel Extravaganza" level 3, "Silence the Informant" level 3 and "Spies R Us (Serpentis version)" level 4.The mission "Spies R Us (Blood Raider version)" level 3 has had a missing trigger added. Additionally, the number of destroyers in this mission has been reduced.Grammatical errors have been fixed in the mission description for "Seek and Destroy."A typographical error has been fixed in the pop up warning for the COSMOS mission "Contested Amarr Bastion of Blood."A grammatical error has been corrected in the name of the fighter group in the mission "The Big Sting (3 of 3)."A grammatical error has been corrected in the mission objective for "Lost Records."
Exploration & Deadspace
The exploration site "Blood Raider Naval Shipyard" will no longer throw an exception error in the final room.
Science & Industry
The Reprocessing window will now refine large stacks of items much more quickly. The window has been adjusted to display a message that reprocessing is in progress and the speed has been increased up to 25 times faster.
Markets & Contracts
Many blueprints for COSMOS items have been added to the contracts database and can now be contracted normally.The Amarr Navy Heavy Capacitor Booster Blueprint is now published and can be searched in contracts.
Graphics
Multiple NPC’s have had missing guns added to their ships. Now they look much cooler before you blow them up.
User Interface
The starmap has been fixed and stars will no longer vanish when zooming in and out.The certificates for "Battleship Advanced Artillery Turrets - Elite" and "Battleship Advanced Beam Turrets - Elite" now display the correct description.A ship GUID icon has been added to the Show Info window for all Doomsday Devices.A grammatical error has been corrected in the error messa 2250 ge displayed when attempting to overload Cruise Missile Launchers.We have cleaned up the double spaces and trailing of some names in groups and items. A search for said items will now yield the proper result.A grammatically incorrect attribute which was displayed in the Show Info of the Naglfar has been removed.A grammatical error has been corrected in the "Military-Damage Types (3 of 5)" tutorial.A grammatical error has been corrected in the World Map Control Panel.Several typographical errors have been corrected in the "Mining" tutorial.
EVE Voice, Mail & Chat
It is now possible to join voice chat on newly created chat channels. The "Join Audio" button will now display correctly on all newly created player chat channels.Players can now join other player created channels normally without getting a message stating "You may own at most 10 mailing channels or mailing lists."
Localized Clients
Several grammatical errors have been corrected in the Show Info window for all ships in the Russian clientSeveral words which were displayed in English have been corrected in the German and Russian clients concerning player-owned structures.
Hitting the web today is a new patch (v1.1) for Gas Powered Games' latest Strategy-RPG, Demigod. In addition to the usual laundry list of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, this update features major network improvements, AI improvements, a new "concede game" option and more! You can check out the full changelog right here or just launch your Impulse client to start downloading!
Hot off the presses, Maxis and Electronic Arts have announced that their highly anticipated Spore: Galactic Adventures expansion pack has begun shipping to stores across North America today, with an international release to follow on June 25th. Here comes the sales pitch:
"Spore Galactic Adventures enhances the Spore experience by blasting players off into space, turning ordinary creatures into legendary Space Captains," stated Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. "For the first time, players can beam their creatures down to planets to experience all-new adventures or create custom-made missions of their own and share them with the world. With more than 105 million creations available in the Sporepedi 210d a, the Spore library of user-generated content for use in players’ missions, the only limit is their imaginations!"
Full PR is available for your viewing pleasure right here. :)
An indie game that could double as a screen saver turned up recently on the Internet.
The game is called Polynomial, and it was made by a Russian guy named Dmytry Lavrov. The concept of Polynomial isn't that special -- you basically fly around in space ship, first person perspective, shooting stuff up. What is exceptional is the execution of this simple concept.
Mr. Lavrov used randomization and fractal generation to generate the landscape space-scape for the game. Each cool looking fields of light you fly around in represents some variety of math equation.
You can get in dogfights with nasty alien shapes, just fly around, or use the included editor to make up your own space-arenas.
A demo version of the game is available for PC, Macs and Linux OS'es. The demo version if fully featured -- it only lacks the ability to save. You can get it here.
Moving right along, the fine folks over at Cryptic Studios have released four new screenshots from their upcoming superhero-themed massively multiplayer online RPG, Champions Online. These latest shots feature some sword play, rooftop battles and massive explosions. Check 'em out:
Champions Online is scheduled for release on September 1st.
Keeping our modems nice and toasty today, Turbine has announced that the "Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum" content patch for The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is now live on North America servers, with the European launch to follow on June 25th. This beefy update feature a new 12-player raid, several new instances for smaller groups, various gameplay tweaks and the return of The Summer Festival, which includes two new events. You can check out the full changelog right here or just launch the game's auto-updater to st 2058 art downloading. Cheers! :D
Grabbing out attention this afternoon, the fine folks over at Creative Assembly have released a new patch (v1.3) for their hit Strategy title, Empire: Total War. In addition to the usual laundry list of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, this beefy update adds 14 new units to the game and implements multi-threading support, which should provide a "huge" performance increase for PCs running multi-core processors. You can check out the full changelog right here or just relaunch your Steam client to start downloading!
While the Steam edition of ArmA II is scheduled for release in North America on June 26th, those of you looking to pick up a boxed retail copy of Bohemia Interactive's highly anticipated military shooter will have to wait until July 7th according to a press release issued by the developer today. Here's the scoop:
Prague, Czech Republic, June 22nd - Bohemia Interactive, creators of award winning military simulation Operation Flashpoint* and ArmA: Combat Operations and Got Game Entertainment, US leading publisher of interactive entertainment games, announced today their partnershipfor the North American retail release of ARMA II, one of the most anticipated PC Game of 2009. The two companies have partnered 2176 together to bring the game to most major retail outlets throughout North America this July.
Bohemia Interactive once invented the genre of realistic military sand-box games and it aims now to re-define that genre with its upcoming game ARMA II, the ultimate military simulator, powered by the 3rd generation of their original Real Virtuality engine that's also used to train soldiers in numerous countries from Australia to the United States.
"North America is one of the most powerful and important markets in terms of a game's marketing and distribution," said Marek Spanel, Bohemia's CEO. Spanel continues "We were looking for responsible and credible partners who will focus on ARMA II with the kind of drive and enthusiasm that this huge project deserves. We feel Got Game Ent. will be the right partner for us and I believe together we will make ARMA II a success in North America."
"We are very excited to bring ARMA II to the North American market," said Got Game Entertainment President Howard Horowitz. "This caliber of game brings Got Game Entertainment to a new level of excellence and certainly ushers in a new era for our company."
ARMA II will offer the ultimate realistic combat simulation experience in a modern day setting. With unprecedented freedom of movement, actions and tactics, unbeatable detailed weapons and military hardware, easy-to-use built in mission editor and one of the most dedicated online communities around. The game will allow players to immerse themselves into the battle as never before.
ARMA II is scheduled for an in store Date of July 7th, 2009. For more information please visit the official homepage at www.arma2.com and www.GotGameEntertainment.com
The European edition of the game hit stores last week. Hope you didn't miss the big launch! ;)
Saving us some cash this weekend, Valve has announced that Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War and Empire: Total War - Special Forces Edition are both 50% off on Steam from now until Sunday, June 21st. So if you've been waiting for a sale to pick this bad boy up, here's your chance to grab it dirt-cheap!
Wondering if the game is any good? Then be sure to check out our in-depth review. :)
Attention mod authors! Valve has announced that they'll be releasing a "Custom Campaign Update" for Left 4 Dead sometime next week. This update will include an official (non-beta) SDK, a new Add-Ons menu to view which mods you have installed and full Add-On Campaign matchmaking support. They also note that they've updated their Developer Community wiki with a new tutorial on how to package your creations. We'll be sure to let you know when the update goes live, so stay tuned! ;)
Keeping things rollin' today, Rockstar has released a small patch for their hit open-world shooter, Grand Theft Auto IV. Weighing in at 55MB, this "Maintenance Update" tweaks resource management based on the OS you're running. You can grab it through Games for Windows LIVE or hit-up any of the following websites for a mirror:
RockstarGames.comYouGamers (courtesy of GamersHell)FileFrontFileShackStrategyInformerWorthPlaying
Wonder if it offers a performance improvement. Anyone notice anything?
Moving right along, Turbine has sent over twelve new screenshots from the upcoming Eberron Unlimited update for Dungeons & Dragons Online. These latest shots give us our first look at the new in-game store, where you'll be able to purchase convenience items, dungeon packs, additional character slots, hirelings (hired muscle), potions and a whole slew of other goodies. Check 'em out:
The Eberron Unlimited update is scheduled for release later this Summer.
The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) are the folks fighting for rights pertaining to computer and video gamers.
Their latest waged battle concerns Internet bandwidth caps, that is, how much data you can download to your computer per month. It is the ECA's position broadband customers aren't in the best interests of their providers, and so they've introduced the Broadband Internet Fairness Act, H.R. 2902, which they're asking the public to get behind with them.
"The internet is the economic and entertainment engine of our time," reads their statement. "We don’t need the telecom companies increasing costs, while offering more bandwidth intensive services.Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) believes that gamers should be able to play the games they want on the internet. These user caps could limit or stop game play by arbitrarily and artificially limiting bandwidth in the name of network management."
Supporting the cause is simple -- just head to the source link below, enter in your information, read over the message they've written up to make sure it's something you're behind, and click send. If you want all the details, links to the full text of the bill can be found there, as well as means by which to contact the ISPs directly.
Celebrating the additions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Call of Cthulhu to Steam today, Valve has announced that these classic Bethesda RPGs are 20% off for the first week. They're available individually or as part of a package deal. Here's the scoop:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition - $16.79 (Reg $20.99)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe - $19.99 (Reg $24.99)The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of th 2084 e Year Edition - $11.19 (Reg $13.99)The Elder Scrolls Game of the Year Pack - $25.19 (Reg $31.49)Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - $11.19 (Reg $13.99)
Pretty awesome games...so don't miss out on the savings! :D
Moving right along, Blue Byte Software has released a new singleplayer demo for their upcoming RTS, Anno 1404 (aka Dawn of Discovery in North America). Weighing in at 1.68GB, the demo allows you to play through Chapters 1 & 2 of the campaign, along with the Continuous Game mode for an hour each. Sound good? Then hit any of the following mirrors to start downloading:
GamersHell - US / UK / FRFileShackFileFrontStrategyInformerWorthPlaying
Dig the demo? Then keep an eye out for the full game when it hits stores in North America on June 23rd and Europe on June 25th.
According to an update on the official World of WarCraft website tonight, Blizzard Entertainment is working on a new 80-player Battleground for their hit MMORPG, which they plan on rolling out in the upcoming "Call of the Crusade" content patch. The new Battleground, entitled The Isle of Conquest, sees the Alliance and Horde fighting for control of a small island just off the coast of Northrend. To claim victory, you'll have to make use of "devastating siege weaponry" to capture strategic locations on the map and push the enemy team back to their Keep, where you'll then face their General in an epic final battle. You can find a full preview on The Isle of Conquest right here. Sounds like a blast! :D
Spreading the good news today, Telltale Games has announced that they've launched the third episode in their popular Point & Click Adventure series, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures. Available for purchase through the Telltale Store and Steam, "Episode 3: Muzzled" introduces a new character named Monty Muzzle, who's holding a fundraiser to rebuild the local dog shelter...or so he'd like you to believe! Can Wallace & Gromit prove that this stranger is up to no good? You'll just have to play to find out! ;)
UK publisher Mastertronic -- who run their own digital distribution service (DDS) -- have started up a publishing outfit specifically for independent games at retail, calling it "Great Indie Games" (how did you guess?).
The company is kicking things off by putting out a boxed version of World of Goo (the mockup below looks really nice, hey?), which will debut in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the Nordic region early next month at the cost of 14.99. There's no word of a North American release, but worst case scenario you could import.
“We have always wanted to work more closely with developers and we believe we can add real value to indie games by getting them in front of a mainstream retail audience and shouting from the rooftops about the fruits of their considerable labour,” Mastertronic MD Andy Payne stated.
“With the many and varied PC games offerings out there, casual or otherwise, there is a place for great games that have been produced on a lower budget than normal by small development teams. Every other creative art has indies, indeed the games industry grew out of indie pioneers, so it is about time we helped them get back to where they belong.
“Great Indie Games is a vehicle to make this happen and I am proud to be representing this talent. We are on the look out for more indie developed games so any developers who want their game sold at retail should get in touch with us.”
Breaking out the eyecandy this afternoon, Monte Cristo has released seven new screenshots from their upcoming city-builder, Cities XL. These latest shots give us an overhead and street-level look at some of the massive cities you can build in the game. Pretty sweet! Check 'em out:
Cities XL is scheduled for release in Europe on September 3rd and North America sometime in Q3 2009.
Keeping things rollin' tonight, Cryptic Studios has released a fresh batch of screenshots from their upcoming superhero-themed massively multiplayer online RPG, Champions Online. These latest shots feature some high-flying attacks, colorful special abilities and duel wielding weapons. Enjoy:
Champions Online is scheduled for release on September 1st.
Keeping things rollin' today, Techland has released a brand new teaser trailer for their upcoming Western-themed first person shooter, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Running just over two minutes long, the video introduces us to the McCall brothers and Marisa via some action-packed cinematic cutscenes and in-game footage. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. A mirror is also available at the FileShack.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is scheduled for release on June 30th.
Keeping us on our toes this weekend, Blue Byte Software has released a brand new gameplay trailer for their upcoming RTS, Dawn of Discovery. Clocking in at just over two minutes long, the video walks us through the new Harbor system and the different ways you can customize it to optimize and expand your trade routes. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. The video is also available for download at WorthPlaying.com.
Dawn of Discovery (also known as Anno 1404 in the UK) is scheduled for release in North America on June 23rd and Europe on June 25th.
Up until now, a second installment in a Mirror's Edge (ME) trilogy was planned, but not confirmed. EA Games Europe's senior VP Patrick Soderlund has brought it to light in an interview at E3, however: the game is indeed in the works.
When asked for an update, he commented on the first game: “Mirror’s Edge was a risky move. It was a bold move, a very innovative and inspiring move. The game wasn’t perfect by any means. We would have liked the game to sell better even though the game has sold better than most people think," adding, "You will see another Mirror’s Edge for sure. It’s just a matter of when that time is and what we do with it. We have a small team on it and I’m excited about what we do.”
CEO John Riccitiello has previously stated: "[It] is one that was very strongly reviewed. That one's gonna go forward--we'll be looking at some issues around the design to make sure strong IP is married with strong business," adding, "Many times, what happens with new IP is the first edition doesn't generate the units that subsequent editions could generate."
Interesingly, aside from putting its faith in the Wii and Natal, EA also appears to put a lot of stock in multiplayer as a selling point, as many other studios are, like 2K with its BioShock sequel (oddly enough to some), and Naughty Dog's Uncharted. In a separate interview with EA Games prez Frank Gibeau, it's revealed the Mirror's Edge sequel is likely to get the same treatment:
"[The game] was a fresh, new take that did quite well in Europe, but not as well in the US, and I think that one suffered a bit from a lack of multiplayer, as well as being a relatively short experience, shorter than we had hoped."
While at first the thought of ME gone multiplayer provoked an "Oh God no" reaction from us, G4 has some pretty good ideas for how it could genuinely enhance the experience, such as races, tag-based Capture the Flag, competing to disarm bombs around the city, etc.
The way Gibeau sees it, investing in new properties is something that takes time to pay off, helped by improvements to each of its franchises. So here's our hope EA puts out some solid multiplayer for the title, and fans are more receptive to this and other changes. By the way: the length was fine, partly because it was still so fun to replay. Silliness!
Disclaimer: I don't believe there is any "wrong" or "right" with these Specials (or with anything really) -- essentially, only infinite speculations and possibilites. Debate and discussion are strongly encouraged in the comments for these!
With fear of sounding like an old grouch, I recall days when the Internet was not so popular, or even not popular at all. For the video game world, this carried with it one wonderful positive: mystery. It's not that print media was completely free of giving us some juicy details months (even years) before we played a game, but it retrospect, it seems it was more tastefully done, and well-orchestrated, as opposed to what the rabidly curious nature of the Internet produces.
This Special was initially inspired by a story I spotted on NowGamer last week, which ran the headline "Mass Effect 2 has bloodbath ending". The game doesn't come out for at least seven months, and I already have a good idea of one of the endings (not to mention a wad of other details, from that story and various other sources). I hope it's not just me, but I prefer some mysterywith my games. I don't want to know every dirty detail about it seven months or more before it ships -- I want enough to know if it's something I'm interested in, and then I want to open it up on the release date, stare at the package in awe, wonder what lovely things are inside, and let myself become absorbed into the experience. I know almost no details as such on this game, yet still more than I like. In either case, I do know it's something I'm interested in, and here's why:
It's from BioWareI really enjoyed Mass EffectThe concept art is quite nice
For this particular game, that's all I need to know. Maybe like many felt with KOTOR versus KOTOR II, the game won't live up for me in the end, but I'm interested in the meantime.
Console owners have the advantage of being able to rent a game to see how they feel before purchasing (if they do), assuming there is no demo. As a primarily PC gamer (for now anyway), no demo means I have to rely on the opinions of friends and reviewers who share my perspectives. To bring the point home, and not to sound self-righteous, these are the only things I need in whether or not I decide to buy a game, and if I do, for the best experience thereafter.
A second example (there are many) is BioShock 2. If you check out all the news we have on this game on GameGrep, you'll see damn near all of the game pretty much laid out for you. Multiplayer details, screenshots, nine straight minutes of gameplay footage, setting, villians, etc. This is why I loved 2K's initial teaser so much, cleverly snuck into the PS3 version of the game and shortly after put out onto the Internet by a fan. Let's take a look:
I got really excited over this with a friend of mine as we tried to interpret exactly what it meant. Did it take place in an overground city? Was there just one Sister left? Oh, the possibilites. But that all went downhill in the ensuing months, and before I knew it the gaming community had revealed and dissected nearly every possible detail to death.
Of course, this is typically more the fault of publishers who want to build as much hype as possible before release, and make the biggest possible return for their investment in the end. Though I understand this, even from a capitalist perspective: is that the best way to build anticipation? I'm just one person, of course, and I realize a good portion of the gaming community just has no patience at all, but maybe that's the point; maybe we need to learn patience, maybe publishers need to learn money shouldn't get in the way of mystery, and that it's largely a good thing for them anyway.
All I knew about BioShock before playing was the following:
It takes place underwaterIt has a dystopian premiseThe graphics are real niceThe story is original (judging from the trailer below)
I'm a sucker for a good dystopia, and have always been fascinated with tales of Atlantis, so I dove right in knowing only these things. The result, I can tell you, is a more engaging experience. Because I didn't have any preconceptions going in, I very much felt like I was Jack, in this new world, with no idea of what was going on or where I was or what to expect. In my opinion, this is how the game is meant to be played, and if the sequel lives up, the way it is to be played for the best experience, too.
Ubisoft is one team that seems to know how to do it properly, perhaps because they develop great games, too. Case in point here is Prince of Persia: after launching a teaser website campaign, featuring pretty much only the image you see at the top of this article and some nice music, I was definitely intrigued. They followed this with some fan service, noting an Altair skin would be unlockable in the game, and a series of trailers; one in particular is easily among the most beautiful I've ever seen:
This alone swooned me; I knew it was something different, and something well-worth playing, despite what any dissenters had to say (including myself, at one point). Having played it, I can state it's every bit as wonderful as you could hope from that footage.
So with that, I say there's more than one way to promote a game, and I implore gamers, members of the press, and publishers to keep some of the mystery alive: it only adds to the experience.
Speaking with Kotaku at this year's E3, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed that the team behind Criterion's Burnout series is working on a new "revolutionary" Need For Speed title. No other details are revealed, but he does state that this is a true NFS game and not just Burnout Paradise with a different label slapped on. With that concern out of the way, I'm sure NFS fans will get behind this move. Hopefully we'll be learning more about the title in the not-too-distance future. /fingers crossed
Valve's announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 actually riled a few feathers in their community. Some fans were dismayed with the prospect of shelling another $50-60 for a standalone sequel in just about a year after fans purchased the first title. Outside of obvious concerns over getting short charged on their investment, naysayers also feared the sequel would threaten to split and dilute the existing Left 4 Dead community. Valve has already argued that the content promised in Left 4 Dead 2 warranted a full release as a separate game versus an incremental update for the first title. Now Valve director Gabe Newell himself steps forth to assure fans that Valve remains committed to long term support for their titles, including Left 4 Dead.In astatementto Kotaku:
"Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren't changing our plans for L4D1.
"In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4x4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1. We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community."
While Newell acknowledged that a yearly release schedule for new games will be quite new for Valve, he explains that Left 4 Dead 2 fit the bill as the product announcement expected from companies showcasing at E3. The coming months ought to show just how much steam (pun not intended) Left 4 Dead will really be running on.
A playable demo for Codemaster's Overlord II became available today. The full game comes out in North American on June 23rd.
Overlord II is an action adventure game. You play as an evil bad summoner dude, who wants to wreck havoc because he is such an evil bad summoner dude. Also, being an evil bad summoner dude, your goal in life is to become the King of Chaos. Apparently their is an opening in your kingdom for the position of King of Chaos.
You get most stuff accomplished via these imp minion-types you can get working for you. For example, say there are some pesky warrior dudes after you -- you can call up some red imps guys to toss fireballs at them. That sort of thing.
Interested PC gamers can download the demo here. Interested PS3 gamers can get the demo from the Playstation Store, of course.
Here are the PC requirements:
Minimum Requirements - Windows XP. - DirectX 9.0c - Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz or Athlon 2400+ - 512 MB RAM - Graphics Card: GeForce FX5700 / Radeon 9500 or above - DirectX Compatible Sound Card - 2x DVD-ROM Drive - 4.5 GB Hard Drive Space
For those of you looking forward to the launch of America's Army 3 on June 17th, Valve has announced that the upcoming freeware-based tactical shooter is now available for pre-load through Steam. They also reveal that AA3 will feature Steamworks support, which will allow the developers to do automatic-updates, add Steam Achievements and utilize Steam Cloud features like storing your saved games and keyboard configurations online. Pretty cool stuff! Click here to start downloading.
Getting our adrenaline pumping this afternoon, Eidos Interactive have released a short teaser trailer for the upcoming Battlestations: Pacific "Volcano" map pack, which is scheduled for release on June 25th. The minute and a half-long clip features some massive battles in the new multiplayer levels. Check it out:
Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. Mirrors are also available at GamersHell and WorthPlaying.com.
AMD's Sr. Manager of Developer Relations Richard Huddy wrote a neat little blog post last week about DirectX 11, which should shed a lot of light on what to expect from the next generation of the API collection -- a much bigger jump than DirectX 9 was to 10, to be sure. Couple that with the advancements and improvements Windows 7 has in store (it will be available for Vista, too, though), and well -- it's a good time to be a PC gamer.
Huddy outlines three main areas (there are many others) in which DX11 will affect your graphics experiences, particularly with games, of course. If you're not really into this whole "reading" thing, feel free to skip to the bottom where a summary can be found.
The first step lies with "a beast called the tessellator", which will be behind the stuff we'll be most aware of, like in landscape silhouettes or character profiles (say goodbye to blocky features), as seen above. Most interesting is the change in dynamics -- whereas for what seems like forever, gamers have had to trade-off graphics for performance, or vice versa, old tessy here should offer much more freedom to developers, in turn giving us a more "naturalistic" experience. We've been getting a taste of this for awhile now, as the technology has been in video cards for a bit, including the Xbox 360's, but in combination with DX11, things should be stepped up considerably.
Number two comes from "Compute Shader", aka "GPGPU", a feature which will allow programmers a radically different way of writing for graphics chips (similiar to programming using NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing engine). In scenarios like this, they can treat the GPU more like a highly parallel CPU, something Huddy says will abolish the "triangle approach" programmers have been forced to use before, allowing for more freedom of expression, also in keeping with the "naturalistic" mode of work offered by the tessellator. For the gamer, the Compute Shader will allow higher frame rates overall -- can't complain, there.
Quite notably, this could evolve into a situation where integrated graphics go the route of integrated sound, becoming substantial enough on their own, with the ability to run most modern games; the big boys from NVIDIA and ATI, then, would be sold to enthusiasts (e.g. those who want to crank the settings). In short, PC gaming would be accessible to just about everyone if this came to fruition.
On the CPU end, 11 is touted as being much more optimized to make use of the power multicore hardware offers, also helping in the frame rate department, as well as with realism and detail.
Though without elaborating, Huddy lastly notes "corner cases" should be significantly improved performance-wise, which would mean more consistent gaming experiences across the board.
In summary, here are his predictions:
We’ll see higher frame rates because the way DirectX 11 uses CPUs will be more efficient.We’ll see higher frame rates because games developers will be able to use our GPUs more like CPUs.We’ll see smoother, more realistic characters and more realistic terrain as we move away from blocky polygonal representations to the kind that are used in movies.And a side-benefit, that will help PC gaming generally, is that the new version is easier to use, so it will help to keep game development costs down.
Windows 7 ships October 22 -- sounds like we have a lot to look forward to, and not long to wait.
Getting us ready for the weekend, the fine folks over at Monolith have released a major update for their hit first person shooter, F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, which adds two new "Armored Front" multiplayer maps, unlocks the Collector's Edition multiplayer heads for everyone to use and addresses a bug with music cross fades. You can check out the full changelog right here or just relaunch your Steam client to start downloading. :)
Keeping things rollin' tonight, Trion World Network has released 15 (!) new screenshots from their upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, Heroes of Telara. These latest shots give us a sneak peek at the game's detailed environments, monsters, suits of armor and rideable mounts. Check 'em out:
