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Have you tried to pre-order Hellgate London? Did the sales rep's head explode? Here's why:

You want to pre-order Hellgate: London. You walk into Best Buy or Wal-Mart, and no one knows what you're talking about. What gives?
Wow, this was confusing lots of people, us included. Apparently, Best Buy and Wal-Mart only start pre-order programs 30 days before a game comes out. That means until October 1st comes around, you can't pre-order Hellgate: London from them and get your hands on those awesome Dye Kits. Luckily, October 1st is right around the corner!
Also, please be aware that Best Buy will be taking pre-orders in-store and online, and Wal-Mart will only be doing in-store pre-orders. If you've been waiting for a specific Dye Kit from either one of them, you'll have your chance soon enough.

Topics: Games: Action / Roleplaying
Related Games: Hellgate: London (PC): Hellgate: London (Collector's Edition) (PC)

The Master Chief Toilet Seat

6:35 PM - -

9 Comments

Want to poop on Halo in real life? Then this Master Chief toliet seat on eBay may be for you...

The current bid is US $21.50. Thanks, HBO.

Topics: Consoles: Xbox 360
Related Games: Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

World of WarCraft Wrath of the Lich King Screenshots

6:33 PM - -

14 Comments

Blizzard squeezed out some new World of WarCraft Wrath of the Lich King screenshots for your weekend viewing pleasure:

Topics: Games: MMOG
Related Games: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)

Quake Wars Linux Server

6:24 PM - -

In preparation of Tuesday's North American Quake Wars launch, Splash Damage has released the dedicated Linux server for the game. It's out in Australia now, but there aren't a ton of players yet.

Thanks, Blue's News.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC)

Half-Life May Never Die

3:20 PM - -

11 Comments

The official half-life of Half-Life looks to be forever, as Valve's Gabe Newell told Computer & Video Games that the company has no plans to stop making games about its original IP.

Does Half-Life have an end? Do you guys have an idea of how you're going to wrap up this whole franchise?
Newell: Well, there's specific stories and character arcs or plot lines that we know terminate. We have this bible that covers a lot, and there's a lot of interesting stories to tell.
Portal, for example, is bringing out stuff about Aperture Science way before we had originally thought we'd be telling stories set in the Half-Life universe.
We'd certainly love to be working in other universes because any time you get two Valve people together they come up with five game ideas and thirteen universes that they would like to tell and play them in. So there's a lot of Half-Life left at Valve.

Thanks, CS-Nation.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Half-Life (PC)

Halo 3 Topples Gears of War

3:15 PM - -

6 Comments

It's a dark day in video gaming history, as Epic's Gears of War has finally lost the top spot as most played game on Xbox Live. Here's Major Nelson's latest top-10 list for the week of 9/24:

1. Halo 3
2. Gears of War
3. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
4. Madden NFL 08
5. Call of Duty 4 Beta
6. Guitar Hero II
7. BioShock
8. Forza Motorsport 2
9. Call Of Duty 3
10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Demo)

Topics: Consoles: Xbox 360
Related Games: Gears of War (Xbox 360): Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

CryENGINE 2 Tech Update

3:09 PM - -

3 Comments

Crytek's Christopher Evans released a bunch of CryENGINE 2 information and videos which were shown off at SIGGRAPH 2007 and Game Developers Conference 2007. In case his page gets hammered, InCrysis has it all mirrored.

During his SIGGRAPH Keynote, Glen Entis showed some Crysis gameplay as example of the future of realtime graphics in games. We also had a CryEngine2 piece in the Electronic Theater, which you can watch on our website. Last but not least, this year marked my tenth year working in the Guerilla Studio at SIGGRAPH. In the Animation Area we had some PCs where people of all ages could come in and animate animals from Crysis, then see them in CryEngine2. This lead to a lot of great collaborative stuff: from crabs walking around on their front claws, to breakdancing chickens.

In other Crysis news, TotalCrysis kicked up some multiplayer beta impressions.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Crysis (PC)

Gabe Newell lols at Macs

2:59 PM - -

16 Comments

Oh, teh funnies. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who think Apple is going to make an effort to support gaming. Kikizo asked Valve's Gabe Newell about it:

Kikizo: People keep asking you about a potential Macintosh version, and your stance is that this is a strictly Windows project...?
Gabe: Well, we tried to have a conversation with Apple for several years, and they never seemed to... well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow though on anything. So, they seem to think that they want to do gaming, but there's never any follow through on any of the things they say they're going to do. That makes it hard to be excited about doing games for their platforms.

Thanks, HalfLife2.net.

Topics: Games: Action, macintosh
Related Games: The Orange Box (PC)

Mass Effect @ MTV

2:51 PM - -

4 Comments

After 'Halo 3' Comes 'Mass Effect,' A Game With An Unusual Cinematic Touch is an interview at MTV with some machinima vets BioWare brought in to make its upcoming RPG more cinematic.

Marino is one of the most prominent members of the machinima community, a group that uses games such as "The Sims," "Half-Life 2" and "Neverwinter Nights" as staging grounds for its own stories. Until early this year, Marino's main gig was running an annual Machinima Film Festival in New York. But he has spent the bulk of 2007 working in Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, helping ensure that the interactive conversations featuring "Mass Effect" 's Jack-Bauer-style Commander Shepard have the verve of the best verbal showdowns in feature films. He and the handful of other BioWare recruits from the machinima field know that that's not the standard for most video game conversations.

Topics: Consoles: Xbox 360
Related Games: Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

StarCraft 2 Screenshots - Battlecruiser

2:36 PM - -

The boys at Blizzard popped up a unit profile for the Terran Battlecruiser which includes these two lovely new screenshots.

These massive, heavily armored combat ships are virtual flying fortresses, built to keep the peace and dominate the space lanes of the Koprulu sector. Outfitted with bristling laser batteries and thick neosteel armor, these imposing vessels are among the most powerful to be found in terran space. Many commanders use battlecruisers as their command vessels during extended campaigns. There are several examples of vessels specifically refitted for this purpose, such as General Duke�s Norad II and Norad III, as well as the battlecruiser Hyperion commanded by Jim Raynor.

Topics: Games: Real-Time Strategy
Related Games: StarCraft II (PC)

In Other News...

2:31 PM - -

9 Comments

It looks like I jumped the gun a bit for Quake Wars. I forgot that the game was released first Down Under and in Europe. North America gets the game on Tuesday. Oh well, it gives me time to finish Halo 3. It's a good game so far. Not as interesting as the original, but better than Halo 2. It's too bad that Halo 3 is basically $60 crippleware unless you have an Xbox Live Gold account.

Topics: In-House: In Other News...
Related Games: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC): Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Sponsored Links

Friday, September 28, 2007

NVIDIA ForceWare 163 XP Drivers Released

10:09 PM - -

16 Comments

Tired of using beta XP drivers? Well, NVIDIA has unleashed ForceWare Release 163 for XP. Thanks Yatta.

WHQL driver for GeForce FX, 6, 7, and 8 series GPUs.
Improved compatibility and performance for NVIDIA SLI� technology on Microsoft� DirectX� 9.0c and OpenGL� 2.1 applications.
Improved compatibility for game titles: BioShock, Crysis, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Hellgate: London, Team Fortress 2, and World in Conflict.
Added PureVideo� HD decode acceleration for GeForce 8600, 8500 and 8400 series GPUs.
Numerous game and application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.

If you got Vista, these drivers were released 10 days ago.

Topics: hardware
Related Games: BioShock (PC): Crysis (PC), Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC), Hellgate: London (PC), Team Fortress 2 (PC), World in Conflict (PC)

Siege Warfare in Age of Conan

7:37 PM - -

By Crom! The latest Clan of Conan newsletter is out this evening. Of interest, is an article about Player-versus-player siege warfare in Age of Conan. Here's a taste to get ya started:

Siege warfare was brought into Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures because Funcom as developers wanted to give players that epic feeling of being part of a large-scale battle. We have all watched movies like Braveheart, 300, Kingdom of Heaven � all these epic battle movies � and we realized how amazing it would be to bring that into a massive online game. So we did, naturally.

If you ever open a Conan book or comic, you quickly realize that war rages across the ravaged surface of Hyboria. Conflicts are not so much an exception as it is a fact of life, not necessarily between the nations themselves, but often between factions residing within their troubled borders.

In Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures player guilds will sooner or later end up in such conflicts with each other. Once a guild reaches a reasonable size and stature on a server, the opportunity to own a battlekeep will soon arise. But with only a limited number of battlekeeps per server allowed, guilds will have to war against each other in order to secure the power and fortune for themselves.

Topics: Games: MMOG
Related Games: Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (PC)

StarCraft 2 Official Q&A; Issue 15

7:12 PM - -

Blizzard smacked up issue #15 of its official StarCraft 2 Q&A; series (thanks Unofficial StarCraft 2 website) where they answer some questions about salvaging upgraded buildings, nukes, Ghosts, High Templer attacks and stimmed up Marines in bunkers.

1) Can an upgraded command center be salvaged? Does it lose its mobility when upgraded to a surveillance station?
No, the command center cannot be salvaged, nor can it lift off after it is upgraded to a Surveillance Station (allows the use of the Comsat ability).
2) In Starcraft 1, when you cancel a nuclear launch that is in progress, you lose the warhead. Will Starcraft II make any changes to this setback? (starcrafttwo.com)
Currently, if you cancel the nuke while it is firing, you will still lose the nuke. This outcome has not yet been finalized and may be changed in the final version.
3) Can a Ghost be equipped with both a Nuke and Drop Pod simultaneously?
Yes, any Ghost can launch either a Nuke or a Drop Pod, making the Ghost highly effective at responding to multiple battle circumstances.
4) Will "caster" units, such as the Protoss High Templar, have a regular attack, like Tassadar had in SC1, or will they only be able to attack through their spells? (blizzplanet.com)
Currently, there are no plans to give the High Templar a physical attack, though High Templar Story Characters will have additional abilities beyond that of the standard unit. At the moment, the High Templar is one of best support units in the game, with the ability to cast a devastating Psi Storm or choke off crucial areas of the map with the force field ability. Once youve used up its energy, no worries, convert it into an Archon with another Templar.
5) Can Marines be Stimmed while in a bunker? What about a Ghosts snipe ability?
In the current build, abilities cannot be activated while inside a bunker, but you can activate abilities before entering a bunker. For example, if you activate Stim Pack on a few Marines, then enter a bunker, they will attack at the higher rate of fire from inside the bunker. The Stim Pack effects will still wear off as normal though.

Topics: Games: Real-Time Strategy
Related Games: StarCraft II (PC)

Bungie Addresses Halo 3 at 640p

6:08 PM - -

83 Comments

This installment of the Bungie Weekly Update tackles Halo 3 running natively at 640p:

You Owe me 80p!
One item making the interwebs rounds this week was the scandalous revelation that Halo 3 runs at �640p� which isn�t even technically a resolution. However, the interweb detectives did notice that Halo 3�s vertical resolution, when captured from a frame buffer, is indeed 640 pixels. So what gives? Did we short change you 80 pixels?
Naturally it�s more complicated than that. In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers � both of which render at 1152x640 pixels. The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see � lighting. We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible � so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image.
This ability to display a full range of HDR, combined with our advanced lighting, material and postprocessing engine, gives our scenes, large and small, a compelling, convincing and ultimately �real� feeling, and at a steady and smooth frame rate, which in the end was far more important to us than the ability to display a few extra pixels. Making this decision simpler still is the fact that the 360 scales the �almost-720p� image effortlessly all the way up to 1080p if you so desire.
In fact, if you do a comparison shot between the native 1152x640 image and the scaled 1280x720, it�s practically impossible to discern the difference. We would ignore it entirely were it not for the internet�s propensity for drama where none exists. In fact the reason we haven�t mentioned this before in weekly updates, is the simple fact that it would have distracted conversation away from more important aspects of the game, and given tinfoil hats some new gristle to chew on as they catalogued their toenail clippings.

Topics: Consoles: Xbox 360
Related Games: Halo 3 (Xbox 360): Halo 3 Collector's Edition (Xbox 360), Halo 3 Legendary Edition (Xbox 360)

Team Fortress 2's Pyro Gets Tweaked

6:05 PM - -

12 Comments

The Pyro's love is a point blank range damage increase:

Added option to change Field-of-view, between 75 & 90, from the Options->Multiplayer tab
Added option to disable Player sprays
Fixed flamethrower hit detection
Increased flamethrower damage at point blank range
Demoman grenades (not stickybombs) no longer explode on contact after the first bounce
Fixed a startup crash
Fixed a case where players could get stuck in tc_hydro
Fixed player movement prediction errors
Fixed third-person sniper aim animation not matching player's view exactly
Fixed achievements and stats being awarded when watching other player's demos
Fixed rare server crash due to data corruption in networking
Fixed a case where some sounds had incorrect volumes

In other Valve news, the latest weekly update has been posted:

This week, Valve attended Digital Life, North America�s biggest consumer electronics and digital technology event. Our own Gabe Newell demoed never-before-seen content from Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Portal on Dell�s newest high-performance gaming notebook, the XPS M1730, and debuted a new Orange Box ad coming soon to major TV networks�stay tuned. In and around the show, "Alyx" look-alikes invited folks to play Team Fortress 2 at Dell's mobile gaming bus, which will be stationed at the show through September 30 and on tour in the US�with TF2 riding "shotgun" through the holidays.
Next week, over 700 players from 75 countries (along with an expected 70,000 attendees) will gather in Seattle for the World Cyber Games, one of the world's most prominent professional gaming competitions. If you're headed to the festival, stop by Valve's exhibit to playtest Left 4 Dead and register to win cool prizes.
Two new TF2 character movies are heading your way: On Monday, check the trailer link on Steam for the Russian language version of Meet the Heavy. Within a week or so, we'll introduce you to the one-eyed grenade-lobbing Scot, the Demoman.
Hot tip for weekend gamers: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, the next chapter in the #1 rated RTS franchise, is now playing on Steam.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Team Fortress 2 (PC)

Fallout 3 Interview

3:59 PM - -

5 Comments

Bethesda Producer Gavin Carter was interviewed over at GameShark today. The topic? Fallout 3:

GameShark - Some have criticized the PC version of Oblivion for having a UI that was too much like the console game, not taking enough advantage of higher PC resolutions for things like the inventory UI, etc. How different will the UI for the PC version of Fallout 3 be, compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions?
Gavin Carter - The interfaces will be very similar in terms of art and layout. We are more sensitive to the PC side of things this time around, and as such the default font is smaller than what we had in Oblivion. We have a number of other things we�re doing to make the PC interface better.

Topics: Games: Role-Playing
Related Games: Fallout 3 (PC): Fallout 3 (Xbox 360), Fallout 3 (PlayStation 3)

Harry Potter Calls Shenanigans Against Halo 3

3:24 PM - -

13 Comments

Since Microsoft saw fit to compare $60 games to $10 movies and declared Halo 3 to be the biggest entertainment launch ever, Harry Potter's publisher decided that $20 books should count too.

Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good says it sold 8.3 million copies of "Potter" in the U.S. on July 21. That means the book could have raked in anywhere from $149.3 million to $290.4 million in first-day U.S. sales.
...
Suffice it to say, it's a close call between the two -- that is, unless you look at unit sales. With "Halo 3" selling at anywhere from $60 to $130, that means Microsoft could not have sold more than 2.83 million units for the game. That's slightly better than one-third the 8.3 million "Potter" sales.

Read the full story at Market Watch.

Topics: Consoles: Xbox 360
Related Games: Halo 3 (Xbox 360): Halo 3 Collector's Edition (Xbox 360), Halo 3 Legendary Edition (Xbox 360)

Rock Band Pricing, Release Date Info

1:51 PM - -

13 Comments

MTV brings us some info on the pricing and release dates for Rock Band, including news that will inspire joy-joy feelings in all the PS2 groupies:

We�ve been told by our corporate chiefs that, actually, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will launch on November 23rd at a cost of $169.99. That package will include the game, one guitar, a mic and a drum kit.
The surprise twist? The Ps2 version of �Rock Band,� once thought scheduled for 2008, will actually ship this year. The full PS2 package ships Dec. 10 for $159.99.

Are you adequately prepared to rock?

Topics: Games: General, Consoles
Related Games: Rock Band (Xbox 360): Rock Band (PlayStation 3), Rock Band (PlayStation 2)

Need For Speed ProStreet Trailer

1:50 PM - -

13 Comments

Today's trailer examines the drift racing component of ProStreet:

Topics: Games: Racing
Related Games: Need for Speed ProStreet (PC): Need for Speed ProStreet (PlayStation 3), Need for Speed ProStreet (Wii), Need for Speed ProStreet (Nintendo DS), Need for Speed ProStreet (Wireless), Need for Speed ProStreet (PlayStation 2), Need for Speed ProStreet (PlayStation Portable), Need for Speed ProStreet (Xbox 360)

Fury Trailer

1:45 PM - -

Participate in the beta to win Fury goodies:

Topics: Games: MMOG, Action
Related Games: Fury (PC)

Army of Two Trailer

1:37 PM - -

5 Comments

Army of Two's producer leads us through a flashy presentation of the game's features:

Topics: Consoles: General
Related Games: Army of Two (Xbox 360): Army of Two (PlayStation 3)

ATI Driver Hotfix Released

1:33 PM - -

Hotfix? Ahem, I believe you mean "new driver set."

This hotfix resolves the following issues:
Enemy Territory Quake Wars: Crossfire flickering issues are resolved. Performance is improved
Bioshock: Resolved intermittent hangs for the Radeon HD 2400 and Radeon HD 2600
Call of Juarez: Texture corruption is fixed
World In Conflict: Performance is improved
Team Fortress 2: Facial morphing corruption is fixed
Time Shift: Resolved random crashes for Radeon 9xxx and Radeon X8xx series of products

Download here.

Topics: hardware: ATI

The Witcher 10-Minute Gameplay Movie

1:23 PM - -

5 Comments

The ten-minute video shows CD Projekt's Tomasz Gop making his way through the city of Vizima, getting into fist-fights at the local tavern, visiting the non-human quarters, and battling it out with a group of thugs.

If video isn't your thang check out some newly released screenshots.

Topics: Games: Action / Roleplaying
Related Games: The Witcher (PC)

Command & Conquer 3 Battlecast

12:48 PM - -

Aaron, a.k.a. Apoc, and his merry band of EALA developers have released the second Battlecast, a Command & Conquer 3 TV show covering the best online matches, news, events, and so on and so forth. Included in the latest 'cast is a preview of the new units in the expansion pack, a preview of patch 1.09, Apoc acting a clown at the Leipzig Games Convention, Kane getting pimped out by the PR department, and a selection of multiplayer matches from the best league players.

One final item of note is the launch of CnCMovies, a website made entirely by Apoc that features all the FMV sequences from the C&C; games, up to the launch of Generals - well worth checking out!

Update: The movies site got nuked due to legal nonsense:

If you had a chance to check out my special project website for the 12th anniversary that I have mentioned and which was mentioned on BattleCast Primetime Episode 2 and announced in the C&C; newsletter:
www.cncmovies.com
Right now the site redirects to our home page, www.commandandconquer.com.
The unfortunate reason for this is we are currently having some legal ramifications with the site that we are trying to quickly sort out. As you can imagine, a site which plays host to some 50+ actors who have been apart of the Command & Conquer series in its 12 year run thus far, can of course have some legal issues attached to it.
We had thought we were in the clear but were then asked to bring the site down temporarily. We will not have further info on getting the site back up until at least Monday. This of course is heart-breaking news to me as this special project was my personal community manager gift back to the community to celebrate the 12th anniversary.
So, lets all cross our fingers that we can get this legally sorted and this "historic" site back up and running.
Thanks again for the compliments and support, I hope to get this resolved favorably. It�s very uncertain right now. Will keep you posted.

Topics: Games: Real-Time Strategy
Related Games: Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (Macintosh): Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (PC), Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (Xbox 360), Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars -- Kane Edition (PC), Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (PC), Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (Xbox 360)

Dead Island Screenshots

12:25 PM - -

19 Comments

Gary noticed that the Dead Island website opened for business:

A couple flying to the vacation of their dreams is torn apart by a violent plane crash. Take on a harrowing quest to find your lost wife. Enter into the dark world of a devastated tropical paradise now plunged into chaos. It is a place where the word "dead" has an entirely new meaning. Face the nightmare and fight for survival. Explore the secrets hidden in the darkest regions of the island and fight your way through. Survival is your main goal!
"Dead Island" is a non-linear FPP (First Person Perspective) survival horror title. The ultra-realistic combat system will ensure that every confrontation is a thrilling experience. Use anything you find in your surroundings as a weapon. Make decisions that influence the entire world around you. Take advantage of opponent behavior and game physics. "Dead Island" is a mix of intense action and chilling horror environments in an engaging, strikingly realistic story.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Dead Island (PC): Dead Island (Xbox 360)

SEGA Rally Revo Demo & Patch

11:59 AM - -

8 Comments

One would hope the demo includes the lengthy list of patch changes, and even if it does I still don't recommend playing this without a wheel or Xbox 360 controller as the hard-coded keyboard controls are shockingly bad.

Grab the 560MB demo from...

Topics: Games: Racing
Related Games: SEGA Rally Revo (PC)

Evochron Renegades Demo

9:59 AM - -

4 Comments

A playable demo for Evochron Renegades has been released; what do you get for your puny 24MB download? A free-form space-sim/trading/combat game, that's what.

The trial can be found at FileFront and Gamer's Hell.

If you're keeping track at home, Renegades is the third title in the Evochron series.

Topics: Games: General, Space Strategy
Related Games: Elite (Commodore 64/128)

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties Goes Gold

9:14 AM - -

Out October 23rd, if anyone cares:

Microsoft Game Studios today announced that the eagerly awaited �Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties,� the second expansion pack for �Age of Empires III,� has gone gold and will hit retailers throughout North America on Oct. 23rd.
From renowned real-time strategy developers Big Huge Games and Ensemble Studios, �Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties� introduces gamers to Asian civilizations and a host of new gameplay features. Players will experience firsthand the rich and historical influences of Asia while commanding their units and expanding their empire in the Eastern world.
In addition to the introduction of playable Asian civilizations to Age of Empires III, the expansion pack provides new content, new ways of winning and trading, random map styles that feature remixes of classic �Age of Empires� game styles, and the return of Wonders - a favorite gameplay element in �Age of Empires II.� These new features will coincide with the basic core gameplay of �Age of Empires III� that gamers have come to know and love. �Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties� will also ship as a Games for Windows title with easier installation, enhanced reliability standards and support for key Windows Vista features, including the Games Explorer and Parental Controls.
�Age of Empires� and real-time strategy buffs can pick up "Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties� for the estimated retail price of $29.99 for Windows. �Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties� is rated �T� for Teen, for gamers 13 years old and above. �Age of Empires III� is required to play �Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties.�

Topics: Games: Real-Time Strategy
Related Games: Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (PC)

The Simpsons Game Trailer

8:30 AM - -

12 Comments

Neverquest trailer, spoofin' Everquest, I presume?

Topics: Consoles: General
Related Games: The Simpsons Game (Xbox 360): The Simpsons Game (PlayStation 3), The Simpsons Game (PlayStation 2), The Simpsons Game (Wii), The Simpsons Game (Nintendo DS), The Simpsons Game (PlayStation Portable)

Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command Trailer

8:06 AM - -

Take on the forces of Chaos on your handheld:

Topics: Consoles: PSP, Nintendo DS
Related Games: Warhammer 40,000: Squad Commander (PlayStation Portable): Warhammer 40,000: Squad Commander (Nintendo DS)

The Witcher Screenshots

8:02 AM - -

3 Comments

If you like the look of The Witcher, make sure to check out the rather entertaining Vader music video.

Topics: Games: Action / Roleplaying
Related Games: The Witcher (PC)

Guy Takes BioShock Too Seriously and Kills Real Little Sister; Big Daddy Says He Is Not To Blame

7:53 AM - -

31 Comments

Here's some more fuel for Jack Thompson's fire:

Videogames are often criticised for negatively influencing the behaviour of their players, and the latest report from KCTV, telling the story of a Kansas teenager who strangled his little sister after she interrupted him while he was playing 2K Games' Xbox 360 masterpiece, Bioshock, isn�t going to help the cause.
�I get really into my games and when Brit� came over to me to watch TV I forgot I was in a game and accidentally strangled her,� Sean Conner told KCTV yesterday.

Update: It looks like this incident is fake.

Topics: Games: Xbox 360
Related Games: BioShock (Xbox 360)

Bill Roper on the "Dying Single Player Genre"

4:07 AM - -

19 Comments

Has single-player gaming run out of steam? is a question The Guardian asked Flagship's Bill Roper. Here's what the man who brought you games like Diablo (and soon Hellgate London) had to say on the matter.

"We love randomisation," says Bill Roper, Flagship's CEO. "It adds so much replayability to the game, as there is always the chance that a player will find something new, or emergent behavior will create a new experience. When done right, randomisation doesn't come off as being random - which is kind of an odd way to think about it. Basically, you don't want your environments to feel haphazardly slapped together. You want them to feel cohesive and coherent. This sort of thing is the real challenge and art of creating a highly randomised game, and is why you don't see many of them. If you get it right, it looks really simple. But it's very hard to get right."
Tellingly, though, Hellgate also supports an extensive multiplayer component. "One of the unique things about Hellgate: London is that it is both a standalone, single-player experience," Roper notes, "and an MMO when you go online. The single-player version of the game provides somewhere between 20 and 40 hours of play. When you go online, you get much more. The storyline remains - of course, you can go through it alone or with friends - but in addition to that are all the community and economy aspects of an MMO. That means you can form guilds, groups, buy and sell items to other players via an auction house and so forth. The game is a complete experience, both for single players and online gamers, but we wanted to have a model that also supported continuing content."

Thanks Unofficial HGL site who also noticed there's some new (affordable) Hellgate London figurines on the market if you happen to shop Korean.

Topics: Games: Action / Roleplaying
Related Games: Hellgate: London (PC)

Devil May Cry 4 Screenshots

3:42 AM - -

Here are a bunch of new screenshots showing off the action in Capcom's Devil May Cry 4.

Topics: Games: Action
Related Games: Devil May Cry 4 (PC): Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360), Devil May Cry 4 (PlayStation 3)

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Screenshots

3:37 AM - -

Okay, it might not be a graphics powerhouse, but odds are Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles will be pretty fun (that's my theory at least).

Topics: Consoles: Nintendo Wii
Related Games: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)

Hardware & Tech Nuggets

3:26 AM - -

Cooling

Cooler Master Hyper 212 universal PC cooler - Bjorn3D
Deconstructing an OCZ XTC Heatspreader - BTX Form Factor
OCZ Vendetta Exposed HDT CPU Cooler - Benchmark Reviews
Sunbeam Tuniq TX-2 Quality Thermal Grease - MVKTech
CPU
Midrange CPU Roundup - Anandtech
Memory
OCZ Technology PC3-10666 Gold Edition 2GB DDR3 Kit - Big Bruin
Mice
Logitech G9 Laser Mouse - 3DX
Razer Diamondback 3G - techPowerUp
Power Supply
Ultra X3 600W Modular Power Supply - ThinkComputers.org
Video
Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 XT Ultimate - AMDZone

Topics: hardware

Game Reviews

3:10 AM - -

Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts - Eurogamer - 8/10
Medal of Honor Airborne - Boomtown - 6/10
Two Worlds - 1Up - 6/10
World in Conflict - Gameslave - 9/10
360
Halo 3 - Game Revolution - A-
Halo 3 - Gaming Age - A
Medal of Honour: Airborne - Play.tm - 71%
Two Worlds - Boomtown - 4/10
PS3
DiRT - GameSpy - 4/5
NBA '08 - GameSpot - 5/10
DS
Namco Museum DS - DS.IGN - 7.2/10

Topics: Games: General News
Related Games: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (PC): Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC), Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360), Two Worlds (PC), Two Worlds (Xbox 360), World in Conflict (PC), Halo 3 (Xbox 360), NBA '08 (PlayStation 3), Namco Museum DS (Nintendo DS)

RPG Vault Goodness

3:09 AM - -