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