Duke nukem not dead? Whatever. Wow Magazine, and the LFD2 Midnight riders

More piles of verbal poo have been made available via 3d realms CEO Scott Miller, who via new game magazine Gamesauce had the following to say:

"There are numerous other Duke games in various stages of development, several due out this year." Miller still insists that Duke Nukem Forever is not dead saying, " . . . yes, we released the internal team, but that doesn't correlate to the demise of the project." Even a long-in-development Duke Nukem movie is still in play with Miller saying, " the Duke film is making steady progress."

Whats it called when you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?

WoW Magazine:

Blizzard Juggernaut of a game has now released a subscription only monthly magazine. That's right people, retail will not be available. Here are some of the promised features.

A deluxe, high-quality, collectible quarterly
coffeetable publication.

Every issue has 148 pages - and NO ads. It's more
like a softcover book than a magazine!

Every cover features unique, specially commissioned
artwork created by a top Blizzard approved artist

sign up here

Midnight Riders

For those of you that are not aware, Left 4 Dead 2's rock band has released a statement letting their fans know that the "green flu" epidemic will not stop them from touring. They also released there new Christmas song, titled "I'm gonna kick your ass"

Duke Nukem NotEver

So there's been this mild, disinterested buzz today as the remaining 100 Duke Nukem Forever fans discussed the following post on Duke's Facebook page, accompanied the the above picture.

Question: Does this mean that we may see another Duke Nukem game?

Answer: No, thank you for playing

And props to Tom Chick For noticing the shells being ejected from his laser rifle.

No Tech trees in Diablo III, no playing next year

For those of you that haven't heard, Diablo III will not be released next year. Sorry sports fans, better luck next time.

It also will not be using a tech tree system used in games such as WoW, as stated in an interview with Diablo Fans:

(natch) Wilson states, "About that, we've decided to remove the tree-type architecture and we are moving into a purely skill-based system." Wilson admits that their new skill system is still in the early design stages and that they wanted to try out a few new ideas. He adds, "It differs from the World of Warcraft/Diablo II type hierarchical styles and is more of a skill pool/path than a tree per se."

Ex- Pandemic Employees

So it turns out some recently layed off Pandemic employees did a tribute to office space on the way out the door. This should have been an EA logo

Left 4 Dead 2, Stalker Utility, Stardock

For the people who didn't know, Left 4 Dead 2 is now available via Steam. The game has been well received so far, getting a 9.0 from Gamespot, and 8.7 from 405 user votes (the meaningful one) and a 9 from a cumulative survey of gaming review sites.

In other news, the Developers of Stalker have released a utility that will basically help you figure out how well your computer will run on their upcoming sequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. Available for download here.

And finally Stardock, one of my favorite developers, released a report detailing where all of the companies projects are at, in addition to creating a separate site for their Gamers Bill of Rights

Left for Dead 2 Live

A few hours ago the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 did indeed go live on Steam. As stated the free demo for the zombie survival FPS sequel has now shut down. Sorry, no more demo for you.

Activision/Infinity Ward...OOPS

Via Bigdownloads:

Yesterday reports hit the Internet that the infamous "airport scene" in Modern Warfare 2's PC version had been removed from the game via a patch for Russian audiences. Today the game's publisher Activision has confirmed that is in indeed the case but said the decision was made on their own and not based on any reactions to the Russian government.

According to Eurogamer, Activision said that Russia does not have a formal ratings system for games. However they decided to pull the scene from the PC version of the first person shooter which depicts Russian terrorists mowing down civilians in a Moscow airport with the participation of the player character, "after seeking the advice of local counsel." The PC version is the only one that has been released in Russia. Previous reports that the console versions had been recalled were incorrect.

For those of you who were not aware, Modern Warfare 2 features a stage where you are sent to infiltrate a terrorist cell. During your time with them, you attack an airport in Russia and are givin the option of helping to slaughter civilians, sitting back and watching as they get massacred, or skipping the level entirely.

This obviously crossed a line with many people, and I'm surprised I haven't seen it on Fox News. In defense of it's critics however, it does seem to be out of place in the overall (poorly devised) plotline. So far the obvious conclusion people are drawing is that it was added to get the game in the news, and they are probably right.

In the games defense, people are saying that the single player campaign is a fun way to spend 6 hours.....I guess that's not a very good defense, seeing as the game costs $60, has no dedicated servers for multiplayer and only supports 14 players on a map (In the pc version).

Just by the first one if you haven't played it.

Want a cheap xbox?

According to an article on CNET, Microsoft's decision to ban xbox's modded to play pirated games from their live service has cause a flood of cheap xboxs to hit the market. Interesting, well see if this continues.

Dumbest game in recent memory

Every once in awhile a game comes out whose premise is so stupid it just makes you wonder who green-lighted it. I was reminded of this today when upon browsing through steam I encountered the game Cricket Revolution. Yes, apparently you can revolutionize the game of cricket. Here's an ad snippet:

"Cricket Revolution is a multiplayer cricket sports action title for the PC. With innovative gameplay, single and multiplayer game modes, local and global tournaments, and challenging AI opponents that learn from your every move, Cricket Revolution is a cricket gaming experience unlike any other!

Get into gear and get ready for global cricket competition in your bid to dominate the online leaderboards!"


Then the ads proceed to invite you to "Compete For Glory on the Revolution Servers"

Whew, cause that something I wanna be known for.

Left 4 Dead 2 Demo preloading

Via Steam:

Those who have pre-purchased Left 4 Dead 2 via Steam may now pre-load the game demo, which is due to launch for early access on Tuesday, October 27. Early access to the L4D2 demo is available for both retail (360, PC) and Steam (PC) customers. Those who pre-ordered via participating retailers should be able to pick up their early access codes this weekend and be ready to play on Tuesday when the demo launches.

Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer

I think this one is kinda clever.

New Nvidia Card

Via Bigdownloads:

This week Nvidia sent out invites for people to come to their Santa Clara, California offices on October 30 for a Halloween-themed launch event that will introduce "a rocking new graphics card designed by NVIDIA and EVGA to take PhysX to the next level."

Unless what they actually meant was that they are going to take physics to the next level. I would totally go to a Halloween party to see where physics goes next. Now that I think about it, even identifying that there was another level would in and of itself take physics to the next level. How often can we say that?

Where's that medication.....

Dead zone for news...until now

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but honestly I haven't seen anything really newsworthy in a few weeks. That changed today however when Impulse advertised a pre-order for diplomacy, their final Sins of a Solar Empire Micro Expansion. For those of you that don't know, Sins of a Solar Empire is the best real time galactic empire builder ever, and the last Micro expansion called entrenchment rocked. But anyway back to Diplomacy, here are some of the features:

Faction Status: New faction status screen lets the player see what each faction thinks of one another and why.

New Trade Pacts: Factions can establish research, metal or crystal pacts with one another, giving a substantial boost to themselves and an ally.

Issue Missions: Players can now create and issue missions to other factions, adding a whole new dimension to competitive play.

Envoy Cruisers: New envoy cruisers give factions the ability to found embassies on homeworlds, or destabilize opposing governments.

New Technologies: 30+ technologies to research on the new Diplomacy tree.

Deadlier Pirates: Pirates are more fearsome than ever as they collect bounty awards on their targets.

New Left4Dead content

It looks like valve just released a new mini campaign called Crash Course

And heres a summary:

Left 4 Dead's latest DLC delivers an all-new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay experience, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale.

At the finale of No Mercy, our four Survivors fought their way to the rooftop of Mercy Hospital, where they were flown away to safety in a helicopter. Crash Course continues the story moments later, taking our heroes from a fiery helicopter crash in the outskirts of Riverside to the escape vehicle that will lead them to the events in Death Toll.

While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, one of the primary goal of Crash Course is Versus mode. Crash delivers a complete, streamlined Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes. A recharge timer for infected teammates has also been added, so you can better coordinate your attacks. Item spawn behavior has changed for more balanced gameplay.

Homeworld 10 year anniversary

Interesting that this just popped up. I was playing Homeworld 2 days ago. Still a great game.

Via Relicnews:

The 10th anniversary of the release of Relic Entertainment’s first game, Homeworld, is right around the corner. That’s right, it’s been ten full years! Some long time fans of Homeworld have been dusting off their copies of the game, reinstalling, and firing it up to play once again. Not only that, but they’ve been organizing multiplayer matches. If you would like to get involved in these games, the team at RELICNEWS has some helpful links and information to get you going.

Announcing the Homeworld Multiplayer Revival:
HTTP://RELICNEWS.COM/ARCHIVES/2009/09/HOMEWORLD-MULTIPLAYER-REVIVAL/

The essentials on getting running:
HTTP://RELICNEWS.COM/KIT/

It is humbling to see players still playing a ten year old game, especially the first one that put your company of the map as a game developer. Our thanks to Homeworld fans everywhere who have supported us over these ten great years.

This is also good news because there are rumors that Relic is looking at making a new Homeworld game.

That would be sweet

A moment for something different

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jH0YjpygDi5_ckf0EOh5tBGbOnMAD9AR5R581

I think this is my next blog post

Lately in politics rhetoric has gotten so out of control that I mostly abstain from discussing it, but every once in awhile something comes up that gets me so irritated that I just need to let off a little steam. One of those topics, though it may seem odd, is missile defense. In his last year in office, President Bush began construction of 10 interceptor missiles place in Poland for the purpose of defending Europe from Iran should it launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. In response, Russia started building short range missiles in Kaliningrad to respond it what it interpreted as the United States trying to gain a strategic advantage should the need to attack Russia ever appear. In addition, they bought the lease out on an American airbase that is key in getting supplies to Afghanistan.

This week President Obama announced that this plan is being scrapped in favor of a missile-defense plan relying on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air that are designed to destroy medium range missiles. Obama says that adapts to the most pressing threat from Iran to U.S. troops and allies in Europe, potential attacks by short- and medium-range missiles.

In response South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham released the following statement:

"This is going to be seen as a capitulation to the Russians, who had no real basis to object to what we were doing. And at the end of the day you empowered the Russians, you made Iran happy and you made the people in Eastern Europe wonder who we are as Americans."

Now why does this tick me off? Well to kick off a two part answer, the old system that was to be put in place, and let me state this clearly so as not to cause confusion, DOES NOT WORK. It has in truth never worked, almost every test to date has failed to actually intercept a ballistic missile. For part two, which gets even better, is the fact that Iran does not possess and is nowhere near creating the type of ICBM that the old system was designed to shoot down.

The benefit of the current system is that it actually works, I know this because the U.S. Navy has been using it for years. If you don't believe me you can look it up, its called A.B.M.D. or Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Using this technology, any U.S. or allied ship equipped with this system can use the radar and targeting capabilities of any other ship, essentially creating one unified defense platform. In a test last year, a Japanese destroyed intercepted a short range missile that an American destroyer 5 miles away had targeted.

Now setting that whole issue aside, lets take a second look at that statement. What Lindsey fails to realize is that what he considers capitulation has another word used to describe it, diplomacy. In diplomacy, as I understand it, two sides often agree to compromise. He's right about empowering the Russians however, as they are currently empowered. So much so that they empowered themselves to disassemble a missile battery that was pointing right at Europe (which we could not have shot down using the old system). Perhaps when Eastern Europe asks who we are as Americans, we can tell them were the people who got that taken apart. I'm not sure why Iran would be happy about this, as the new system could actually stop a missile should they make the fateful decision to fire one.

So in short, this man would rather keep an ineffective defense against a threat that doesn't exist, rather than switch to a functional system that can protect against threats we are facing right now just so he can try and score points with an uniformed public. Nice job man.

Left 4 Dead 2

Valve has released the official list of melee weapons that will be available in the upcoming Left4Dead 2. They are as follows:

Baseball Bat
Cricket Bat
Crowbar
Electric Guitar
Fire Axe
Frying Pan
Katana
Machete
Tonfa (police baton)
Chainsaw

Zombieland

for anyone that has not seen it, this is definitely on my must see list for movies coming out.

Screw you Harmony Gold

via Bigdownloads:

PC gamers all over were happy to hear about a revival of the MechWarrior sci-fi action sim franchise earlier this year but now comes word that all may not be all wine and roses with this new version of the series. According to IGN Harmony Gold, the owner of the Robotech franchise, have asked IGN to remove the trailer that was used to introduce the new game series. That trailer has since been released out in the open and has been hosted on a number of sites including Big Download. As of the posting of this article, Big Download has yet to receive such an request to pull the trailer.

According to the story, Harmony Gold claims that there was content used in the trailer that are trademarked by them as part of the Robotech franchise. It's currenty unknown what specific content Harmony Gold objects to in the trailer and there's been no response from developer Piranha Games about this new development.

Here is a perfect example of a company abusing it's right to protect intellectual property. Even though the games are completely different, and no one in their right mind would mistake one for the other, one company has to seek out another because their product is "similar" This reminds me of when Wizards of the coast attempted to say that because the owned the Magic: The Gathering copyright they should have the rights to any combat based card game, like Lunch Money. Which by the way, is awesome.

Thanks a lot to both of you. Jerks

In case your wondering why I'm ticked off, watch this trailer

Stardock nvidia version

Via Bigdownloads:

Stardock will release an Nvidia edition of their Impulse game download client later this month. It will be designed to check which version of Nvidia's drivers are installed on your PC. It will then go and see if any updated drivers are available to download from Nvidia's web site. Impulse can then automatically download and install those drivers.

This is a clever idea. As simple as downloading drivers may seem, the public at large often forgets to updates theirs. Oftentimes this will lead to problems with various games. Automating that process through steam or impluse would be a good way to address it. Especially if it meant that you would be notified the moment your drivers were updated.

Interplay games on Steam

A few Interplay games, including the Fallout RPGs Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Sacrifice and Kingpin: Life of Crime.

Kingpin sucked, a lot of people went for fallout, but Sacrifice happens to be the most under rated strategy game ever.

Mini ninjas

Apparently a demo of Mini Ninjas was released. I'm definatly checkin it out when I get home.

Poor serious sam

I guess you could call this a human interest story:

via bigdownloads

If you know your first person shooters you know the voice of "Serious" Sam Stone. Actor John J. Dick (yep that's his real name) has provided the voice for the character in Croteam's series of Serious Sam shooters and will do so again in the upcoming Serious Sam HD remake and Serious Sam 3.

However, John J. Dick has a bit of a problem. He's deeply in debt and as he put it on his official web site, "I don't particularly want to start sucking c*** for rent money." So he is hiring himself, or rather his voice, out to anyone who would like to pay him. Yes, even you can have the voice of Serious Sam on your voice mail message at the rate of just $1 a word.(he does reserve the right not to do the Serious Sam voice if he feels its inappropriate). Sure it's a little desperate (OK, it's a lot desperate) but hey, you can scare the crap out of telemarketers with this deal.

Once again, I totally called it

The rumors have been rumbling and the analysts have been predicting and now Activision Blizzard has made it official. In their just released quarterly financial results they have indeed confirmed that their long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II will not be released by the end of 2009. Just before E3, Blizzard head man Mike Morhaime had said they had targeted the release by the end of the year but now its parent company has admitted it has moved the release date for the game into the first half of the 2010 time frame.

OHHH Mechwarrior

I think I need to go change my shorts......

A good ninja Movie? we hope so

A good ninja Movie? We hope so. Click on the movie for a better view.

Therapists on WoW? hmm...ok

via ign pc:

July 28, 2009 - In February came the report that a Sweden's Youth Care Foundation had branded Blizzard's World of Warcraft as "the cocaine of the computer games world." Today comes word from England that therapists are signing up to the game in order to provide therapy to those online.

The report, in the Telegraph newspaper, states that Dr. Richard Graham, a consulting psychiatrist, is calling on Blizzard to waive or discount the costs of joining World of Warcraft for therapists. Graham says that this will allow therapist better access to those who need help.

"We will be launching this project by the end of the year," Graham told the Telegraph. "I think it's already clear that psychiatrists will have to stay within the parameters of the game. They certainly wouldn't be wandering around the game in white coats and would have to use the same characters available to other players."

The article also said that Graham may recruit players to serve as "peer mentors" to help identify those who were addicted to the game.

I'm going to post something really funny about this later tonight. Not that this isnt funny on its own.

Bioware gets their freak on

Via bigdownload:

The upcoming BioWare developed fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins would have been rated "M" strickly for its violent content alone. But it looks like cutting up creatures and having them spew out tons of blood and gore won't be the only thing that will make some adults sit up and take notice of the game.

According to the content descriptions for the game at the ESRB web site, the game will give the player character a chance to visit a brothel. You can apparently ask for a man, woman, transsexual or animal (there's also apparently a random "Surprise me" option. While you can see whatever person or creature you are about to do the deed with, the ESRB states, "sexual activity is never depicted during these brothel encounters." There are also apparently cut scenes that show couples, "kissing, embracing, and caressing one another as the screen fades to black."

You can request to get it on with a tranny or an animal? I am going to make a prediction right now that their publisher will demand this content be cut.

Microsoft releases Windows 7

Between this, Internet Explorer 8 and Bing.com, I'm having trouble adjusting to Microsoft releasing quality products/services.

Via Microsoft.com:

REDMOND, Wash. — July 22, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

Solid State Drives


From everything I've heard, solid state drives are a giant leap forward when it comes to hard drive performance. With that in mind, I bring good tidings via Ars Technica:

Intel has announced two new solid state disk drives made on its leading-edge 34nm process. The two new SSDs are X25M SATA parts weighing in at 80GB and 160GB, and they're meant to replace Intel's existing X25M drives in those capacities, but at 60 percent less cost and with better performance. The 80GB X25-M is $225 in lots of 1,000 (down from $595), and the 160GB is $440 (from $945). That's some serious discounting, and it may well drive even more SSD uptake in the coming quarters despite the ongoing IT spending crunch.

So what do you get for 60 percent less? In a word, speed. The new drives boast a 25 percent reduction in read latency, which was already about 60x the speed of an average hard disk; write performance has also doubled with this new generation.

Demolition city

Link to be added soon:

Man Dies after falling into Chocolate Vat

So now I have been reading an article about an accident that happened a few days ago. I feel really bad about laughing at this, but I couldnt help it.

Via Foxnews:

The man had been in the melting pot for about 10 minutes by the time crews arrived, and by the time he was pulled out of the chocolate it was too late. He was declared dead shortly after 11 a.m.

The turnout gear of firefighters at the scene were covered with some chocolate, as were the clothes of an obviously distraught co-worker who was being consoled by an EMT. That co-worker appeared to have gone into the tank in an attempt to rescue the man who had fallen in.

Now, that in itself may not seem that funny. In truth, its not, but looking at the reader comments below it however, is a different story:

"ooompa loompa loompadi doo, swimming in boiling hot chocolate not good for you"

"8 OOPAH-LOOPAH's are being held for questioning"

"They can play Bach's Come Sweet Death at the funeral."
"Oh, is it too soon?"

"He should have fallen into a vat of salad lettuce, but people never do what's good for them."

"After falling into the chocolate the man was retrieved by clumsy emergency workers who then dropped him into a vat of toppings"

"No word yet on whether or not he will be buried frozen and holding a baseball bat...."

Am I a terrible person for laughing at this?

Ryan vs. Ulysses S. Grant

One of my favorite little known games definitely has to be The Political Machine, a cartoonish but still strategic presidential campaign simulation by Stardock. In this installment, I created my own candidate, who I will henceforth refer to as "Ryan". Ryan didn't have much experience, but he has read several books on the subject(notice the stack on his right) and he decided to give it a go. He almost went broke several times, in fact the entire time, but in the end his animal magnetism and charisma made the people choose him over Ulysses S. Grant.

Bye Bye Eidos, hello Mechwarrior?

via Bigdownloads:

The consequences of Square Enix's purchase of UK-based Eidos earlier this year are now being felt. Gamesindustry.biz reports that a new entity, Square Enix Europe, is being formed that will handle all of Square Enix's publishing duties in Europe. The Eidos name won't be used for publishing anymore but will still be retained via its use in development studios such as Eidos Montreal.

This move will affect Eidos's sales and marketing personnel who will have their offices either transferred (in the US) or combined with Square Enix's operations (in Europe). Square Enix has already revealed that they expect "some jobs to be impacted directly by this in both Europe and North America." Specific numbers of layoffs were not announced.

On a happier note:

Fans have been awaiting a new Mechwarrior game for the PC for years and today a new video hit the Interwebs that suggests that wait may be coming to an end. The 10 second video shows a really big mech-like foot making its presence known on a unsuspecting city street.

So is this truly a teaser for a new Mechwarrior game? We know that Microsoft, who published the last PC game in the series (Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries back in 2002), sold off the Mechwarrior interactive game rights to a company called Smith and Tinker some time ago. That company was formed by Jordan Weisman, who helped to create the Mechwarrior series in the first place when he formed FASA. Voodoo Extreme hints that the developer behind this teaser might be Piranha Games, a Vancouver-based studio who has done a variety of work over the years but nothing quite so high-profile as this. Hopefully we will get more info on this soon.

Update: Looks like IGN will get the reveal of the game early in the morning on Thursday . . . and what do you know; one of the folks who will be interviewed will be Jordan Weisman.

So I new this guy who said that he was a go between for FASA and Microsoft. I didnt buy it, and now I feel vindicated.

Impulse Sale

Sins of the Solar Empire bundle (with the original space strategy game and its mini-expansion Entrenchment) for $29.99.

For those of you who are not aware, this is one of the best RTS games ever created.

via bigdownloads:

Life imitates art and then imitates life again. That's the lesson for the makers of the Mana Energy Potion, a real energy drink that comes in a small spherical bottle that is supposed to look like similar health boosting items found in RPG and MMO games. This week it was announced that the Mana Energy Potion will actually appear in the anime-themed MMO title Lunia.

You can purchase the fictional version of potion for your characters via Lunia's in-game currency and when you purchase a certain amount of Mana, players will be mailed a four-pack of the real thing for free (yep, they even pay for the shipping and handling). Of course the Mana Energy Potion girls pictured above don't come with the real potion delivery . . at least not yet.

Gentleman, there are clearly retards with money in our midst.

Pirate Bay Sold, Starcraft 2 delayed

Via Bigdownloads:

One of the biggest and most well known web sites that deals in pirated software, including PC games, is going legit. Today The Pirate Bay announced that they have been bought out by Global Gaming Factory X for $7.8 million. The new owners have state they will now compensate companies that have their products downloaded from the site.

This represents a major shift in the BitTorrent based file sharing site. Earlier this year the four founders of the Sweden-based site were sentenced to one year in prison and nearly $1 million in fines each for allowing pirated software and other files to be traded on their site. On their official blog, The Pirate Bay stated, "The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets."

In other news:

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey is basing those thoughts on a comment over at Kotaku where StarCraft II's lead designer Dustin Browder stated that the beta for the game will last "four to six months" Since the beta has yet to begin that time table will make a fall/holiday 2009 release for the full game very close indeed for publisher Activision Blizzard. Because of this, Hickey claims, "We find it increasingly probably that the game will be released in [Activision's] fiscal '10 period."

Or, you could just assume that like every other Blizzard title it will be delayed. I totally called it way before this hack analyst.

Demigod's upcoming patch

Note: I still have a couple 20% off coupons left if someone wants to pick this game up
Stardock and Gas Powered Games are, or as of this moment probably have issued a major patch for their newly released game Demigod. It looks to be the first of what will be some serious upgrades to the game. Here is the summary, direct from Brad Wardell:

Version v1.1 highlights:

Teams can concede a game to end it early once it becomes apparent who is going to win.
Launch of the second Epoch online. Existing statistics archived and rankings based on new games.
Improved chat window handling
When players sell a minion idol, minions connected to that idol are destroyed.
Improved computer AI.
Removed “spammy” achievement alerts.
Improved visuals on certain nVidia cards at lower quality settings.
Heart of Life more expensive, now an artifact, longer cooldown.
Hex Scroll is more powerful
Pantheon games are forced to even teams (e.g. 3 vs. 3)
Reward for completing a game is now 40 favor points.
Reduced experience and gold reward from killing piling priests and angels.
Angel unit AI improved
Many small tweaks and fixes to engine and multiplayer
Custom Games fully make use of new Demigod Online system developed by Stardock:
Players who have opened their ports get directly connected.
Players who don’t have opened ports will get connected via a NAT server
Players who still can’t connect will have their games hosted by Stardock servers based in Asia, Europe, or North America depending on player location.

ID has been aquired

June 24, 2009 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has completed the acquisition of legendary game studio, id Software, creators of world-renowned games such as DOOM, QUAKE, Wolfenstein, and its upcoming title, RAGE. The acquisition by ZeniMax Media joins together two of the finest, most respected videogame developers in the world, combining the first person shooter (FPS) expertise of id Software with acclaimed role playing game (RPG) developer Bethesda Game Studios – creators of the 2008 Game of the Year, Fallout 3, and the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks will publish the titles of id Software other than upcoming releases previously committed to other publishers.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: “This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans.”

“This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward,” said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director. “We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

I guess John Romero was not so enthused, stating via twitter:

"ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting," he declared on his Twitter page, before going on to muse, "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow."

To which everyone replied " How are Daikatana's sales going?"

Well that last part didnt really happen. But it should have.

UPDATE:
Romero apparently sent another tweet:

"I just did an interview for Avault Podcast coming out friday. i am positive about the Zenimax deal. my initial reaction was harsh. sorry."

L4D user maps on the way soon

Now people will soon get their content for Left 4 Dead

via Bigdownloads

Valve is getting ready to release a major update to its zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead and this week the game's official blog site posted up some details. The update, to be released automatically via Steam sometime next week, will concentrate on supporting new campaign add-ons made by third parties.

The update will include the official release of the game's SDK editing tools (the SDK has been in open beta for some time) with a few changes and fixes. The mod tools will allow players to make their own campaigns for Left 4 Dead. The update will also have some UI changes to support add-ons as will as matchmaking for any new third party campaigns.

According to the note, "Content authors will be able to package up their new maps, along with new posters, models, and textures, into a single .VPK file." They can then be placed in an addons folder in the game

AAAAAaaaaAAA Reckless Disregard for Gravity

No kidding, that's the games name. And here's a neat little description:

"In AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!, you dive off of a building and rely on quick reflexes to negotiate the intricate tangle of girders that make up the City. You perform aerial stunts at terminal velocity before parachuting into the arms of your cheering fans. While other skydivers have it easy, you have to earn the adoration of the crowds by gliding within an eyelash of that glass super-skyscraper at 91 miles per hour."

And you can check out the Demo over at BigDownloads.com

Starforce? Oh no...

Gamasutra posted an interesting article about the Russian comany Starforce trying to bring back its copy protection onto the market. Its an interesting read, and Dmitry Guseff represtents his company well.

At the same time, no way would I trust this product until several titles come out with no issues. I strongly encourage everyone to take the same approach. And I'm still not convinced that copy protection can exist on this level without becoming an obstacle to the user.

For instance, Relic's anti-piracy measures for their warhammer RTS games is more effective than many other products, but on many occasions its been a royal pain to install. Then I buy it on Steam, and its absolutly painless. So I'm not buying his statement that Impulse and Steam are mere "distribution platforms". Anybody playing a cracked version of Defense Grid? Didn't think so.

Duke Nukem Fornever, the Saga continues

Because it is if nothing else one of the more interesting stories of 2009, I have been following Take Two's lawsuit against Apogee, of which more papers have recently been files outlining Takes Two's position.

From what I read, it basically looks like this:

Take 2 contractually owns the rights to "develop and exploit" DNF
Take 2 handed 3drealms a lot of money
3drealms didn't deliver anything
Take 2 asked 3Drealms to deliver an xbox360 and a pc version on a half now, half on completion arrangement.
Take 2 said "Um no, weve handed you a lot of money already. Just give us the source good(which they own....oops) and well shop it out to someone else"

Following that, 3Drealms shut down development and fired the DNF team.

I think Apogee better have something good up their sleeve,well see.

Hinterland happiness

Tilted Mill did a 180 and is now offering the enhanced edition of their game for free to previous owners. This makes me happy.

For those of you who dont know, Hinterland is a fun little rts/rpg for $20 on most digital download services and now for retail. Its one of my favorite games right now. Here is the press release:

June 10, 2009 – Tilted Mill Entertainment -- independent developers of strategy, simulation and role-playing games – today announced the release of Hinterland: Orc Lords, an expanded version of its innovative 2008 fantasy PC title featuring fast paced RPG combat and strategic town-building.

Hinterland: Orc Lords includes the full original full game, where you lead a diverse cast of characters to establish a small haven in the wild backcountry of a fantasy kingdom, and select individuals to join your party on expeditions of exploration and conquest in the surrounding lands. In Hinterland: Orc Lords you have the option to play as an up and coming Orc leader, with two Orc classes to choose from (Orc Lord or Shaman).

“Playing as an Orc makes you approach the game differently. It requires a different frame of mind to be successful, which was one of our goals. The fact that you need to employ a different strategic approach as an Orc also expands replayability,” said Jeff Fiske, design director at Tilted Mill. Orcs level faster, are generally better fighters, and can eat whatever they kill! But they also require more food, and produce items more slowly.

“Players have really enjoyed the “loot, level and build” gameplay dynamic of Hinterland, and we thought it would be fun to turn things around be able to play as the bad guys. After all, there are two sides to every story!” said Chris Beatrice, president of Tilted Mill. “And our fans have been so loyal and supportive, we really wanted to say thanks, by giving them something more.”

The game is available now for download, and in retail stores across North America. Players who already own the original version of Hinterland can get the enhanced Orc Lords version for free.

Damn Max.....What happened?

There is some discussion going on about the new look for Max Payne. Rather than the younger man with the stupid smirk, we will be playing an older man that looks like he got it handed to him by life. How can this sad old man possibly pull off bullet time?

My opinion on Left4Dead2

Ok, I'm going to take a moment to weigh in on the drama surrounding Left4Dead 2. As some of you may know, following the announcement of a sequel to Valve's Zombie survival game, there has been quite an overstated but loud group has been organizing a boycott of L4D based on the belief that the developer broke its promise regarding delivering content and new updates. My understanding is that these zealous fans of the original game are protesting based on the following remarks by Gabe Newell:

"He said: "One of the things that we're doing is we seem to be in a transition between games as a package product and games more of a service. So if you look at Team Fortress 2, one of things that's really helped grow the community is the continuous updates, where we release new maps, new character classes, new unlockables, new weapons. And we tell the stories about the characters, like the meet the sniper, or meet the sandwich. And that ongoing delivery of content really seems to grow the community."

"So each time we've released one of those for Team Fortress 2 we've seen about a 20% increase in the number of people who are playing online. And that number is really important because it determines how many community created maps there are, how many servers are running, and so on. So we'll do the same thing with Left 4 Dead where we'll have the initial release and then we'll release more movies, more characters, more weapons, unlockables, achievements, because that's the way you continue to grow a community over time."

So, let me go through some of the statements regarding this disagreement:

We were promised more content, this should be available for free.

Well, they have stated there is still more content coming. I'm sure the sequel will result in less than if it hadn't been made, but at the same time no one promised you everything would be free. My understanding is that they would like to figure out a way where new maps/missions/whatever you want to call them would be available for both, but I don't think they are there yet. I guess I can see a little merit here

The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games

2.5 million people bought L4D, not including Steam purchases. Somehow I think finding enough people for a versus game wont be a problem. Especially since L4D 1 fans will have 16,000 boycotting friends hanging around to play with. *Cough Cough*

The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes.

Says you, masters of game design that you are.

The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far.

You mean the few screens you saw a week ago at E3? Were the old character designs really that exciting by comparison?

L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1’s visual aesthetic

Oh bite me. There are plenty of ways to incorporate aesthetic appeal in the daytime. If nothing else, turn the gamma down on your monitors and shut up....morons

L4D2’s release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before.

I dunno about quality, but I'm guessing they are right on this one.

The community has lost faith in Valve’s former reputation for commitment to their games post-release

No, one tenth of one percent of you have lost faith in Valve's commitment to post release. But seeing as they keep adding to Team Fortress 2, I would say this does not represent a change in company policy.

To summarize, this is going to be a sequel, no matter what, it will not be DLC. Given the changes being made to the director along with many of the other adjustments made to address exploits and "cheap" tactics, I'll buy that it did require a complete overhaul to accomplish. There is a point where you can know longer implement changes and expect them to work on maps that were made a year ago. Yes, fans will not be getting as much free content as they were promised, but I think most of them got their moneys worth on an amount of entertainment per dollar spent scale. Ill put it this way, next November, would you rather have a better director, new specials, and several changes meant to address some pretty significant problems with how the game was being exploited online? Or would you rather have more maps for the original game? It's your $60, you decide.

With regards to this boycott thing, its time to be realistic. Remember those petitions that came around a year ago when gas was over $4 a gallon asking everyone nationwide to boycott purchasing fuel for a day to lower prices? Remember how it never worked? That's pretty much you, organizers of your L4D2 Boycott. You don't have a boycott, as the majority of the people on it will buy the game anyway. What you have is a petition, with 16000 people who signed it, against a 2.5+ million copy sold sales record. You will not change L4D2 to free content, the best you can hope for is to give Gabe a little reminder that when he says hes going to do something people get upset if he doesn't, which would have been admirable had it been your goal from the beginning.

If you don't believe me, tell you what, start your boycott early and have all of those people stop playing Left 4 Dead right now, and then see how many people follow through.

Then face reality. That's life.

Left 4 Dead 2

Good news for those of you not tired with L4D

Due to come out November 19th, 2009

Heres a snippet:


Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.

Full Press release here.

Starcraft 2 by 2009

From a Blizzard podcast:

"We're targeting an end of year release-this year-for StarCraft 2, but as always, we won't release it until it meets our standards and the expectations of our players."

But, as we all know, Blizzard always delays their releases, usually more than once.

Sims 3 lets you garden.

Fishing is pretty painless. Read a book to learn the basic skill, then go to a body of water and click on it. Gardening is a bit more involved. Read a book to learn the basic skill, which gives you some seed seeds. Then plant them. Then water them. Then weed them. Then water them again. Then weed them some more. Keep watering. Water them some more. Over the course of a few days. Don't forget the weeding. Then harvest them. All the while, you're getting really dirty, so make sure you've got a good shower. Science requires a good shower. Also, buying a lawn sprinkler and leaving it turned on 24/7 means you can skip the watering.

Or, you clowns can actually go start a garden outside......morons

I just saw a screenshot of this steaming pile of poo. Tell me, is that tree made out of bacon?



Bacon tree....mnnnnn

I totally called it...

heres a little snippet from Gamespot regarding a recently announced MMO called The Agency:

It's safe to assume that James Bond isn't a big massively multiplayer online game player. Sure, he has probably dabbled with World of Warcraft on one of those long flights from England to Russia, but we doubt orcs and paladins are really his thing. No, if he were to jump into an MMO, he'd probably wait until The Agency comes out. This MMO shooter from Sony Online Entertainment Seattle looks to provide a new take on the persistent online space by trading medieval fantasy for espionage, gadgets, and cocktails. We recently paid a visit to SOE Seattle's offices to see an updated build of the game in action.

I would just like to point out that if you read my post here, I came up with this a long time ago.

Heres the follow up on hinterland

A few questions many wanted answered:

Hi Jason:

Q: I was wondering if this game will be released via digital download (Steam or Impulse) ?
A: As I understand it, the game will be available for purchase via digital download via the Got Game Entertainment store which can be accessed via:
http://www.gotgameentertainment.com/hinterland/

Q: Will the people how own the previous version be required to re-purchase the enhanced game?
A: Yes. As the game costs only $19.99 it was the only financially-viable option.

Q: With the original game, Tilted Mill had planned to periodically release new content into the game (items, monsters, etc.) Is this still the current plan for Hinterland, or is a new approach being considered?
A: Not in the immediate future.

Hope this helps!

Hinterland: Orc Lords

As I have stated before, I am a pretty big fan of Tilted Mill, developer of Children of the Nile, a game that I consider to be one of if not the best real time civilization builder ever. Looking to break away from long development cycles, their next original game, Hinterland, debuted on Steam for $20. Although being far from state of the art, this little rpg/rts hybrid can be quite addictive, and has given me many hours of enjoyment.

So, imagine my glee when I discover that a new enhanced version is in the works. Unfortunately, Tilted Mill has been oddly quiet about its features. So in the interest of satisfying my curiosity, I contacted GotGame Entertainment and asked if they could clarify the differences between the old and new versions. Thankfully, they responded. Ill post it now:

Hi Jason:

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you sooner. In the GGE version, you can command an Orc tribe as Lord or Shaman, or lead a Human village as Human, Dwarf, Elf, or Undead Warrior. In the developer version you did not have the option to play as an Orc. Essentially, now, you can play as hero or villain.

Hope that helps!

Beverly
for Got Game Entertainment

To satisfy some of the other questions people have, I will be asking if owners of the original version will get credit towards the game, and if the enhanced version will be available via digital download Services.

A rare inside look

For those of you who didnt know. Chris Taylor's Gas Powered Games released a game called Demigod about a month ago. Personally, I think it is an 80%RTS/20%RPG game with really heavy multiplayer focus that kicks serious ass....now. Unfortunatly, the first 3-4 weeks of the game were mired by a complete failure of the games peer to peer multiplayer component, a bad sign with thats your games main focus.

Ihis personal blog, Brad Wardell CEO of Stardock went over what happened from release up until now and talks about whats next. For those of you in the IT field, especially involved in new product/service launches, I think its a rare glimpse of what happens when things take a very bad turn, and what went into bringing it back. This really could be used as a case study. Pretty fascinating read for me.

Demigod_So_what_the_hell_happened

13 years ends with a lawsuit

Via Bloomberg:

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” video games, sued Apogee Software Ltd.’s 3D Realms over the failed development of a sequel to the “Duke Nukem” game called “Duke Nukem Forever.”

Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to the game, said Apogee breached an agreement to design the latest installment of Duke Nukem, a game in which the player “shoots” enemies. The new version has been under development since 1997, the company said yesterday in a complaint in a state court in Manhattan.

3D Realms, which was based in Garland, Texas, never produced the game and instead closed its studio on May 6, terminated development of the game and fired employees who had been involved in the Duke Nukem project, Take-Two said.

“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,” Take-Two said in the complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

Take-Two said in 2000 it had an agreement with Apogee and paid $12 million for publishing rights to the forthcoming game. In 2007, the two companies entered into a second agreement.

The children born when Duke Nukem Whenever was first conceptualized are now in their early teens. Yes, literally 13 years. By comparison is took roughly 8 years to develop the atom bomb.

Granted, they didn't have Einstein, but still.

Update: 3DR officially responds to Take Two Lawsuit

Its to long to copy, so Ill just link voodoo extremes post, which shows the entire press release.

Duke NukeEM....Probably Never

Rumors lately have been flying about regarding 3D Realms shutting its doors due to financial reasons. In a post on a message board, longtime web developer Joe Siegler confirmed it in a forum post stating "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

Nothing like ending a 10 year developement cycle with nothing.

He ran for the president of Iran.....

Every once in awhile, something pops up that is so funny that I cant get it out of my head. This is one of those things:

And I raaaan. I ran so far away

Stalin, and his orchestra

via BigDownloads:

With info from the PC Gamer print article leaked out into the Internet, developer Tripwire Interactive has now sent out a formal press release officially announcing Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad.

If it actually involves running through Stalingrad playing the tuba, I'm so there.

What a stupid name....

Play Left 4 Dead free for one day.

This is really one of the things that makes steam great. I dont see any other way this kind of thing could be offered.

Via Bigdownloads:

On the first day of May, Valve is opening up the full version of Left 4 Dead for free for a 24 hour period beginning at 12.01 am on Friday GMT (that's 5:01 am ET and 2:10 am PT). This version will include everything in the retail version including the just released content update that includes the new Survival Mode as well as the new campaign level No Mercy. You can go ahead and pre-load the free version now via Steam so you can be ready when it unlocks.

Its a little overdue, but here is an overview of the new survival mode for L4D. I found it interesting:

Surviving the L4D Survival Pack
April 16, 2009 - Kerry Davis and Scott Dalton


Survival Mode pits your team against never ending waves of infected. Sounds simple. Just trap the survivors in a small part of a map, unleash the hordes, and record the longest time. Survival Mode, which will be released next week, is actually a bit more than that.

Our goals for Survival Mode are to deliver a mode of play distinct from Campaign or Versus, have games that regularly last under ten minutes, and emphasize competition with team play through leaderboards.

Survival Mode draws on the planning and communication aspects of a successful Finale or Crescendo event, while taking it to another level. It rapidly hits a fever pitch that only a well coordinated team will be able to successfully survive. Everything from simply covering a reviving teammate, to making every shot count to minimize reloads becomes crucial in Survival Mode.

Given the importance of pacing in Survival Mode, we need to define as precisely as possible how the difficulty ramps up during the course of a round. We have numerous variables to work with: mob spawn frequency, special infected spawn frequency, number of each type of special infected, total number of special infected, tank spawn frequency, total number of tanks, and so on. We need all of these variables to work together to create a fairly smooth difficulty curve.

If the curve ramps up too sharply, we find that teams of all skill levels tend to hit a wall at the same time. There isn't enough variation in the times to separate great teams from average ones. If the curve is too flat, then average teams will have a good experience, but really good teams can grind on long enough to cross the line from having fun to just getting worn out.

It might seem that just gradually increasing spawn rates and numbers of infected will create a nice smooth curve, but it turns out to be much trickier than that. Each type of infected has its own spawn schedule, so even though the individual spawn curves may be designed to be fairly easy at a particular point in time, sometimes they overlap in just such a way that the players find themselves in a really bad situation far earlier than we intend.

For example, a tank will be much harder to fight if a mob of common infected spawns at the same time - and nearly impossible if three hunters also show up right at that moment. A similar situation can happen due to variables outside our control - a team may not dispatch a tank or mob quickly enough, causing subsequent waves to start arriving and piling on to an already difficult battle. It's also hard to anticipate when teams will need to make an ammo run or heal up, both of which can be extremely difficult only a few minutes into the round. In order to help visualize these overlap points and the collapse of each spawn curve, we graphed out the wave behavior of infected over the course of a survival round.




The last variable we added was the "lull" - a short interval of time during which nothing new will spawn. Each lull gets slightly longer as the round progresses, but that's no guarantee the team will actually see the lull - it just prevents new infected from spawning. It doesn't help with infected that are already in the arena. Killing mobs and tanks as quickly as possible is the best way to ensure that a team can take advantage of a lull to heal, resupply ammo, or just move to a better location with more supplies.

Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign. Even optimizing towards using pistols to eliminate common hordes, ammunition usually becomes an issue at some point. As ammo piles provide a unique infinite resupply for players, they tend to be in relatively less defensible positions in the Survival arenas. This means making an all important ammo run is rarely a safe proposition and requires good teamwork and planning. Timing your resources correctly to be able to make a run when necessary can make or break a team. The perfect pipebomb or well placed molotov can mean the difference between a cakewalk and catastrophe.

The Hospital Elevator, for example, might seem like an easy Crescendo Event to conquer. Hit the elevator button and holdout until the doors open for a quick escape. In Survival Mode, however, the area begins locked down. Areas open as the hordes come in, breaking down the doors to reach the survivors. In each room there are additional caches of vital pills, pipes, and Molotovs. By moving from location to location, using up the plentiful supplies as needed, a team can maximize their time in a game where the elevator never arrives to offer escape. In other maps, items may be less plentiful and require careful planning on their usage. Managing one's inventory and resources works hand-in-hand with teamwork in Survival Mode.

Next week you will be able to see our design in action when the DLC is released for the PC and 360.

Woot!!! LD4 survival pack

Via Ign

April 20, 2009 - Blasting your way through endless hordes of zombies really never gets old, of course. But if you want to freshen up your Left 4 Dead experience look to Xbox Live around 2am Pacific time tomorrow, April 21. That's when Valve is releasing the free Survival Pack, which introduces a new mode called…Survival. The pack also includes two newfangled versus campaigns.

PC gamers will have to wait just a bit longer – the Survival Pack is scheduled to arrive on Steam later in the day.

Yeah baby, get ready to get slaughtered in under 10 minutes.

More Demigod drama

As much as I am a fanboy of Stardock, it appears that a few major flaws went unnoticed in beta testing. For many people with XP, there is apparently an issue where people will click on the icon to launch the game, an hourglass will appear for about 1 second and nothing will happen. From the e-mails I have received and some forum posts Ive read, here is a good plan to get this game up and running:

IF you have logitech drivers or comodo firewall, uninstall them or tell them not to load at startup(apparently there is a conflict)

If that doesnt work:

Delete following file:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Demigod\sig.bin

if that doesnt work uninstall google desktop and google toolbar, then try deleting above file again.

if that doesnt work, Ill try the above step and re-install demigod and impulse(making sure windows firewall is off)

For more information please visit http://esupport.stardock.com/index.php

For those of you that dont think its worth the trouble, Stardock does have an excellent return policy. I will say their tech support is on top of finding this problem and patching it.

Demigod Update - Go Stardock!

It's been an interesting week for the launch of Demigod. The Gas Powered Games-Stardock strategy game has suffered through an early release from GameStop that allowed a ton of warez users to gain access early and overwhelm the game's multiplayer servers. As a result some (but not all) of the game's early reviews have taken the game to task for the connection problems even as they also say the gameplay is excellent.

In his latest update post on the Demigod message boards, Stardock's Brad Wardell states that the launch issues of the past few days things have been dealt with: "As those of you who have the game can already see, the server issues are gone. We've recreated a duplicate of the server infrastructure we had but dedicated to users who have the most recent version of the game and a valid CD key (serial #)."

Wardell also wants to make sure people know that even with all of the pirate copies of Demigod out there, those players could not actually play the game online without a CD key: "What brought down servers was a lot more benign than that. It was the HTTPS requests to inform users if there was a new version along with checking the community features for info (friends lists, chat channels, etc.) and things like that. Things like that are pretty piddly. It's only when you get a ton of users doing that at the same time that it becomes a problem as we saw."

A new update for Demigod will be released via Impulse next week that will deal with various minor issues. Wardell states, "After that, we can look at the typical balance requests, cheese stuff, and whatever else crops up." He added, "Now, while the reviews are likely to have a pretty serious impact on sales, it does not affect our plans to continue to release updates and enhancements to the game nor does it affect our plans to release additional free Demigods.."

The true effect of piracy

For those of you that say piracy isnt a problem for pc games....

Via bigdownloads:

A few days ago, when it was revealed that Gamestop had broken the sales embargo for Demigod, Stardock's CEO Brad Wardell said this would be a interesting way to see the true effects of PC piracy. In his latest update on the status of their just released strategy game, Wardell states that users with warez copies of Demigod are overloading the game's multiplayer servers.

He states, "Sadly, most of the ~120,000 connections are not customers but via warez. About 18,000 are legitimate." Those warez users are being pushed off so that they are not " . . . slamming the same servers that legitimate customers are using." Server capacity has also been expanded and a new connection system for multiplayer matches (shown above) has been created that will be released later via a patch.

Wardell also took time to go after GameSpot's 6.5 (out of 10) review of Demigod. The review was critical of the game's current connection issues and while Wardell certainly has to agree he adds, " . . . I think that should be weighted with what the average user who gets Demigod will experience and in reality, as annoying as this issue is, it's not something that's going to be an ongoing issue, it's something that is likely to be taken care of in the next day or two." Wardell hopes other reviews of the game will take that into consideration before posting up their opinions.

Update: A new patch that is designed to fix some of the connection issues has been released for the game via Impulse. Another patch is expected in a few more days.

Time Warner backs down (thank god)

Via Cnet:

Time Warner Cable has put the brakes on a trial that was testing its new "consumption-based billing" system for its broadband service, the company said Thursday.

The company's CEO Glenn Britt said in a statement that there has been "a great deal of misunderstanding" by consumers and lawmakers who have criticized the plan.

Britt said that the company still believes that consumption-based billing may be the best way to handle rising network costs among its heaviest bandwidth users. But he conceded the company will not proceed with tests until it consults further with customers and interested parties.

Senator Chuck Schumer (NY-D) and Congressman Eric Massa (D) announced Time Warner's change of heart during a rally in Rochester, NY, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported earlier on Thursday.

Massa, who represents Rochester, was an early opponent of the plan and has promised to introduce legislation that he has said would protect consumers against companies introducing tiered services, such a Time Warner's proposed billing plan.

Massa is still not giving up on his legislation that would ban metered billing.

Time Warner had quietly been testing its metered billing service in Beaumont, Texas since last year. But last week, the nation's second largest cable provider said that it was planning to expand the test of the bandwidth caps to other cities, including Austin, San Antonio, Rochester, NY and Greensboro, NC.

The way the plan worked is that Time Warner would cap data downloads and uploads at between 10 Gigabtye to 60 Gigabyte a month with prices ranging from $25 to $65 per month, depending on the region. The company also planned to introduce a new plan that would have offered 100 GB of downloads for $75 a month. Additional downloads would be charged $1 a GB with a cap of $75 on the extra fee, essentially making an unlimited plan cost $150 per month.

Time Warner said that it was testing metered billing because some of its subscribers were using an inordinate amount of bandwidth. And as more video and peer-to-peer services come online, the company said that it needed a new business model to handle the rising cost of maintaining and managing its network.

But consumer advocates have argued that Time Warner is simply trying to protect is cable TV business by making it very expensive for users to watch competing video services online. Public Knowledge, one of the more vocal opponents to Time Warner's metering plans, was pleased with the company's decision to table the tests.

"The company properly listened to its subscribers, the public and policymakers, all of whom were highly critical of the proposition in the first place," Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said in a statement."It quickly became clear the plan had nothing to do with managing Time Warner's network, and everything to do with increasing profits at the expense of captive customers in an uncompetitive broadband market."

I can certainly understand the rationale that a few users taking up an obscene amount of bandwith with services such as peer to peer should be charged more, put this whole idea was literally nothing more than an elaborate price gouging scheme. Though the claims most users would get a slight break may be true (though I question those numbers, as they came from Time Warner themselves), it would in effect be nearly doubling the cost for many customers out there. And as I consider cancelling my cable service and simply using hulu, it does occur to me that this would "discourage" that practice. Not to mention those of us who use steam, impulse, or play games online would probably get screwed.

Dawn of War 2 and Duke Nukem

THQ went ahead and finally released the long promised single player demo for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II.

Steam is still being used to update the main commercial version of the game with a new patch released last Monday that fixes some issues and added a free multiplayer map. Now Steam owners who haven't bought Dawn of War II yet can get a 25 percent discount. The price cut ends on Monday.

Presidentof 3D Realms George Broussard (developer of the alleged Duke Nukem Whenever game), in a recent message on his own Twitter site he posted up this message (complete and unedited):

Closing out a milestone this week. 71 more tasks to do and we started with probably 800-900. Been a good push. Next one starts Monday.

That tweet has apparently caught several web sites attention as they posted up several totally speculative articles about what he meant. According to The Escapist (qouted via bigdownloads), it means that 3D Realms' long-in-development shooter Duke Nukem Forever is "about 85% complete". What? Broussard only says they are closing out a milestone. We have no idea what milestone they have reached and what it might mean to the development of the entire game.

I consider this games release date to be roughly as elusive as the giant squid.

New stuff for Mirrors edge, and a WoW patch

Via Bigdownloads:

Mirror's Edge was an interesting design for a game that didn't really fullfill its expectation. However one of the cool things about the first person action game was its more surreal time trial levels that were released as downloadable content after the main game shipped to stores. Now a few enterprising folks at the Beyond Unreal forums have figured out a way to create a Mirror's Edge level editor.

Basically the procedure is coping a few Unreal Tournament 3 editor files into Mirror's Edge which is obviously not approved by either Epic Games nor the game's developer Digital Illusions. The move does seem to work well enough that a few new Mirror's Edge levels had been made. However messing with game files is always a risk so don't blame us if your game is broken afterwards.

They should actually support this. There were some stupid puzzles in that game that really turned players off. Letting them make their own maps in order to avoid this game shortcomings would be smart.

In addition, it looks like World of Warcraft once again reinvented the games talent trees in their most recent huge update. There are too many changes to list, go here for patch notes

Huh, well theres a risky choice

Via Bigdownloads:

Few games in recent memory have generated as much critical comment as Six Days in Fallujah. The upcoming third person military shooter from Atomic Games and Konami is based on the real 2004 battle in the Iraq city where a number of US soldiers lost their lives. Konami recently held a press event for a number of their upcoming games and our sister site Joystiq got a chance to see a very brief gameplay video of Six Days in Fallujah.

However it's their interview with Atomic Games president Peter Tamte, creative director Juan Benito and one of the game military consultants, US Marine Corps Corporal Michael Ergo, that's very enlightening. Tamte claims that in addition to US military and Iraq civilians, they have also gotten input on the game from the insurgents that were involved in the battle. Tamte didn't reveal any more info on exactly how the insurgents were "contributing" to Six Days in Fallujah, saying, " I need to be careful about the specifics that I give." Tamte added that the game doesn't take sides on whether or not the US should have started the Iraq war, saying, "We're focused now on what actually happened on the ground."

Getting feedback from insurgents is a really risky move, but not for the reasons people think. The "Uproar" caused by this will fade when people find something else to get angry about. However, this will raise the expectations for making a successful game. If it turns out to be fantastic, people will defend it saying that they got input from all sides to make a truly realistic experience and a great game. However, should the end result be crappy, the developer will be accused of using the idea of collaborating with enemy combatants to gain press attention for a crappy product.

I wouldn't do it, but more power to them. Would anyone care if the creators of Silent Hunter spoke with German U boat captains? Doubt it

OOOH An MMO worth looking at?

Funny, just yesterday I was running my big mouth about fantasy MMO's being played out. As I finally got my computer working this morning, Im looking through games on steam when I come across a future-Spy based Online game called Global Agenda. Here is the description via steam:

GLOBAL AGENDA is a fast-paced action MMO using Unreal® Engine 3 set in Earth's near future, a spy-fi world of advanced technology and player-driven conflict.

In the wake of severe global disaster, the political face of 22nd century earth has changed and player-created factions scheme against each other for power. Traditional full-scale wars a thing of the past, factions must rely on covert agencies, teams of elite special operatives able to seize and defend key facilities. The future of humanity is their battleground, where knowledge is power, technology is a race, and everyone has an agenda.

The players control the world of Global Agenda, forging alliances with their peers and executing lightning strikes against their enemies. They determine which factions to aid and which to oppose, while the only thing that stands in their way is other agencies.

Develop your agent — Create, extensively customize, and improve your agent character over the course of your career, complimenting your FPS skills with RPG-style progression and high-tech gear.
Join with other agents — Engage in cooperative Pve missions to develop and refine your individual and team tactics
Advance your agency — Join a player-created agency, compete in technology races for advanced equipment, and capture critical locations to increase your influence in the world.
Compete in fast-paced PvP combat — Work with your allies to gather reconnaissance data, then raid or capture enemy-controlled facilities during objective-based missions. Equip yourself from a powerful array of weapons, armor, and strategic devices like triggered explosives, deployable turrets, stealth suits, holographic decoys, and remote control robots.
Experience a dynamic, player-driven world — Agency leaders navigate through a global conflict of other player-run groups, striving to reach their goals first. Territory, resources, technology, and influence are all valuable commodities, with agencies engaging in politics, intrigue, and outright deception to control them.

System Requirements
OS: Windows XP SP2+, Windows Vista SP1+
Processor: 2.4+ Ghz Single-Core Processor
Memory: 3GB RAM DAAAAAMMMMNNN
Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT+, or ATI Radeon 9800+
DirectX®: Directx 9+
Hard Drive: 15 GB Free Space
Broadband internet connection required

Perhaps signing up for this beta was not wise

Ninjas bring us good tidings

On a more uplifting note, I was checking out IGN PC when I encountered Mini Ninjas, an upcoming game for the PC. Kinda of cartoonish in nature, its supposed to feature some cartoonish ninja action. Some of the features include:

Leveling to gain new abilities
Magical attacks
Ability to freeze time
Ability to use stealth
Ability to traverse into the spirit plane, where you can take control of animals.

And there is a possibility your enemies turn into fuzzy bunnies when you slay them, though this is unconfirmed.

Just missed the mark on MMO's. EA, you suck.

"Taking place on our earth, in our times, The Secret World (TSW) is inspired by history and mythology, modern conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries. For there really is a world within ours, a secret world, where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals. In this world, even modern cities hide secrets. In this world, players can take part in the greatest conspiracies of our age, and battle the forces of darkness across the world and throughout time."

The beginning of this sounded OK, then they ruined it by adding monsters and magic. It makes me wonder why companies keep trying to release medieval MMO's, at some point you would think they would realize the market is dominated my World of Warcraft and Everquest, which is why every attempt ends in failure. How about an MMO based on current day spies? There are plenty of conspiracy theories to create quests around, and plenty of factions to play for. Where as WOW has Azeroth, Outland and Northrend regions, why not Have New York, Moscow, Beijing, Prague and New Jersey as locations? (Yes, I said new Jersey, glad you were paying attention). Making it in present day would help keep it out of Blizzard's Crushing Dominance over that genre.

Now to mention the next topic. I was just made aware of this news, via Fidgit.com:

The henchman for sale is unique for starting out with four skills (it seems that none of the henchmen already in the game start out with more than two skills). If you buy "Jimmy Lira", as he's called, you could promote him to underboss to get a henchman with six skills. Right now, you'll never have a henchman with more than four skills. But since these henchman are the characters you play when you're online, this still stinks as a way for players to buy an online advantage.

The level 4 weapons for sale aren't in the game unless you buy them. As it is, you start out with access to all types of weapons at level 1. A pistol, shotgun, machine gun, magnum, and sniper rifle. As you play, you can find level 2 and level 3 versions of each weapon. You can then spend money giving your henchmen these upgraded weapons. However, there are no level 4 weapons in the game until you buy them from EA.
If this is true, it would mean that players who made "Micropayments" would have an advantage over players who just bought the game by itself. Once again, EA demonstrates its ability to squeeze their customer base. I hope there is a backlash, and your sales flop.

And if my information is false, oops, my bad