The previous semester I thought that as an English major it would give me street cred to purchase a MacBook Pro, so of course I did this, but I’ve run into a problem that I thought was just myth: the ghost town that is Macintosh gaming.

As a PC gamer, I have been spoiled by being able to play any games that I purchase with little to no issues. But the Mac is infuriating, to say the least. Upon initial purchase, I was a rabid League of Legends player, and when I went to download the game, I was shocked that there was NO Mac client (actually, the Mac client was scrapped in 2011, but it seems like Riot took their heads out of their asses). Like I said, being a PC guy left me completely ignorant of the issues that plagued the Mac gaming space. After some research, I found this site and managed to have an unofficial Mac client for LoL. Now, almost 4 months after getting my MBP, Riot has put the beta Mac client for LoL out for testing–about a month too late, seeing as I don’t really play the game anymore. The re-release of the LoL Mac client is a step in the right direction, but there are other issues with Mac gaming.

Another big title for 2012 was Borderlands 2. One downside of Borderlands 2 is that it is too expansive, and it has sidequests that are laborious and unoriginal. I figured that I could spend my downtime at work doing some of the less inspired quests, so that I could eventually finish the game. Initially, the game was not supported on the Mac, so that idea fell through. I eventually got bored of the game and stopped playing. A few weeks ago, I decided to jump back into the quirky world of Pandora since Borderlands 2 was available on the Mac. After a few hours of downloading and installing, I was ready. But of course, the game wasn’t going to work through Steam directly, no, that would be too easy. Instead the game runs on Stream through a service known as Aspyr. I was fine with this, initially, but when I went to jump into my game I realized something: the Mac and PC versions of Borderlands 2 do NOT sync. Fucking hell… It was the first time since Dead Space that the thought of a game made me sick. I admit it, I’m a late adopter, and most longtime Mac users must be thinking “fuck this guy, I was gaming on Mac when there was nothing available.” Well, I’m part of your struggle now, accept me or not, I don’t really care. All is not doom and gloom, however, this cloud has a silver lining.

Despite the sparse selection of games–sparse of course being in terms of the total games available on Steam–on the Mac, paired with the a lot of the other shit the plagues the platform, there are some games that stand out as being just as good on the Mac. The first game that comes to mind is World of Warcraft. Everything about WoW on the Mac is just as good as on the PC, except that I don’t have any mods on the Mac. The framerate is consistent, no screen tearing, no texture pop, and no muddy textures. It is an absolute treat on the Mac. Blizzard games in general are just pleasing on whatever platform I’ve played them on. Diablo 3 is gorgeous as well, and Blizzard’s games support the 2880 x 1800 resolution that my MBP with Retina is capable of.

Wow, so maybe I was being a bit too generous when I said that there was a silver lining… I admit, I don’t play many games at work because of only having my MBP on hand, but I guess I’m there to work, not to game. But I still think that in 2013 the Mac should be just as viable as the PC when it comes to gaming. It would be understandable if a handful of games weren’t supported on Mac, but it’s literally half of the 300+ games I own on Steam that aren’t compatible on Mac.

Screenshots and trailer have some very nice effects…

My buddy @evanvelez and I spent a solid amount of time trying summon each on in the PC version of Dark Souls. Summoning failed, Summoning failed, and Summoning failed.

Evan: Hey Drew, I threw it down next to those bushes.

Me: Okay! It failed, but I’ll try again!

(Repeat 50+ times)

Fuck.

I just picked Dark Souls during the Steam sale, and it’s pretty damn hard if you’re used to spamming attacks in normal action games like God of War. It took me about 30 tries to beat a mini boss… I’ve been streaming it on twitch by the way, too (twitch.tv/caktv). The Dark Souls PC port at least happened. You’ll be laughed at trying to play the game with mouse and keyboard, but at least the 1080p fix is a god send. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=488240

So I found a post on the steam community page which might help a few, or help you understand what makes matters worse when trying to summon each other.

Originally posted by jonaswashe:

The Definitive Dark Souls (PC) Network Connectivity Guide

1. Summoning rules:

The host must be human (The client can be human or undead) and WITHIN 15% + 10 Whole Number Soul Levels above or below the client. (i.e. SL 65 could summon SL 83, but not SL 84(9.75+10=19.75+65=84.75)) The area boss must still be alive.

2. Dark Souls creates a P2P IP Pool of other players as you play the game:

Dark Souls connects to GFWL (65.55.42.54, 65.55.42.52 and 64.4.11.25) for authentication and then Data.exe communicates with a single GFWL ip (65.55.42.52, for me) and starts adding player ip’s into your P2P ip pool. This begins at the title screen. It continues to feed you a new ip every few seconds to several minutes. This appears to not be prioritized by location, but seems to be completely randomly selected as I’ve been connected with Canada, Finland, Australia, the UK, and just now Sweden, long before I’ve been connected to someone in the US. In addition, since IPs start being added when you are at the title screen and are not dropped when you raise your soul level significantly, I doubt it’s based on in-game area or soul level. (Can others verify if their game uses an ip different than 65.55.42.52 to get ips once the game finished making its initial authentication checks?)

What the Dark Souls P2P IP Pool looks like in Comodo Firewall

3. Just because GFWL says you have OpenNAT and are using UPnP does not mean you will have no problem summoning or being summoned:

You can check connections by installing Comodo Firewall or Network Traffic View, and opening the Active Connections menu from Firewall Page. If all is working correctly you should see the game (Data.exe) making UDP IN and UDP OUT communications to various other player’s ips after a few minutes. Check the above link of a healthy IP pool for a reference to verify connections.

GFWL does not always use port 3074 on the local side, but will uncommonly select a dynamic port in the 0-65535 range. In the example IP Pool above, my local port used by GFWL is 38413. If you do not or cannot use UPnP you may have to forward this “random” port to 3074 (The dynamic port is always the same port for your computer). I am thinking this happens if GFWL detects multiple instances of itself on the LAN. You can use Network Traffic View or Comodo Firewall to find the UDP port Data.exe is choosing.

Note: Even if you do the above, you will still get summoning failed, I will go into detail on the causes of this later.

4. Dark Souls uses your IP Pool to create a P2P web which sends messages and souls signs throughout the player base:

It takes roughly 10-15 minutes to reach a healthy IP Pool (~10 ip connections) and this begins when you hit the title screen. Quiting to the title screen will purge your ip pool. Changing areas, will not. Anyone you summon or anyone who invades you is added to your IP pool, this is why it’s much easier to summon someone once you have done it once, however, the delay on repeat invasions prevents you from invading the same person immediately. (Unless they use the dried finger) Messages, bloodstains, summon signs and invasions are sent through the P2P network through direct IP connections, but are not necessarily from someone directly connected to you.

5. Nearly all the summoning advice you’ve read is wrong:

Spamming summon signs, “Join Session in Progress”, and sitting at bonfires, do nothing and soul sign spamming actually hurts.

When you drop your soul sign, it is sent to all of the clients in your ip pool, then it is sent to each client they are connected to until it reaches someone who wants to summon you. Therefore, the bigger your ip pool, the higher the chance you will be summoned. Spamming your soul sign is actually counter-productive as it sends false signals throughout the P2P network. When trying to play with someone specific, doing anything but waiting tends to be counterproductive. Once you have about 10 ips each, their summon sign will usually begin to show up. You will probably get summoning failed during your first attempt to summon them.

6. Why do I get summoning failed?

There are a number of causes for summoning failed. Obvious ones being that the player disconnected, the player was summoned, the player died, the player left the valid summon area, the player is soul sign spamming, or your firewall is blocking inbound UDP traffic. However, the most common cause is what I call P2P echoes. As mentioned above, when your sign is placed it must travel across direct ip connections to reach another player. Since it may have to travel from Germany to Australia before it gets to you, there is quite a bit of lag involved (on average ~15-23 seconds) The summon sign sends out pulses for about 30 seconds before disappearing. Thus, when it pops up in your game, it’s actually no longer a valid connection as the pulse has ended. You will notice that the summon sign will usually disappear within seconds after a summon attempt which fails. This works the same way with invasions. The best thing you can do is wait for the summon sign to show up again and keep trying. You will usually get the summon to work within 2-5 attempts. Having the client spam soul signs just makes the problem worse, and quitting the game/re-loading completely purges your P2P IP Pool, making you start from scratch.

There is one more cause of summoning failed. I have no idea what causes it, but if both the host and client have an ip pool that is nearly full (~20 connections), you will sometimes get summoning failed over and over again. You generally know this is happening if the summon sign sticks around long enough for you to summon the same failed sign again before it disappears and you receive the summon failed message. In this one instance, I advise the host or client (not both) to reload their game and purge their ip pool. After a few minutes you will re-establish your ip pool and your partners summon sign will show up. After that, the first or second summon attempt should work. I’m theorizing that this problem is caused because the P2P summon sign echoes completely override the actual summon sign, but figuring this out will require more testing by manually clearing the ip pool rather than purging it.

Using the above guidelines, I can reliably summon a friend in around 5-10 minutes on average.

TL;DR

Best way to summon a friend:

Use Network Traffic View to make sure the game is making UDP IN and OUT connections. Make sure host is human, the boss is alive and you’re within SL Range. If you’ve both just opened the game it will take around 20 minutes to create your P2P ip pool. For best results, leave the game idling in the background an hour or so before your co-op session. If you get summoning failed multiple times in a row before your partner’s sign disappears, quit to the title screen and re-load on either the host or client computer, but not both.

Summoning takes 5-10 minutes on average.

Under no circumstances should you spam your summon sign.

(Please note that everything in this guide is based on my own observation of Dark Souls network data and may be subject to change at any time)

Almost everything that needs to be said.

We’ll still be around:

@andrewespejo
@thedonallen
@evanvelez

Special Thanks:

Our Affiliates, PR, Friends, Listeners, Fans, Readers, Subscribers, Developers, and Passersby.

KillCast Out.

Everyone can now play Star Trek Online for free as of Jan. 17th! Provided that you can run it, which should no problemo. Newbies should check out the wonderful STO wiki page whilst diving head first into the thick of things or even ask life time subscriber @Kim_Jay for details on how to rise through the ranks of Starfleet.

Download with Star Trek Online Downloader

Star Trek Online Downloader

After the download is complete, please follow these steps to log into the game and begin playing:

1. Locate the file downloaded in your download directory, and double-click it.
2. Complete the installation process to start the Star Trek Online launcher.
3. When the launcher starts, enter your Username and Password, and click Submit.
4. Patching should begin automatically. The progress bar displays the percentage of patching completed. When the patching completes, click Engage to start playing!

http://www.startrekonline.com/download

After defeating the last boss of Trine 2 you’ll look back on other could be solutions and come to the realization that you might have been doing it wrong. You see, one could easily trudge through Trine 2, but they’d be missing one of the finer points of Trine 2, experimentation. The entire campaign might run you for around 6-8 hours depending on how adept you’re at physics based puzzle solving. Frozenbyte’s addition of online co-op also raises the value of the title if you’re so inclined as opposed to 2009′s Trine which lacked these features. So how does this one stack up?

Games Looks Good Man. Real Good.

Trine 2 is essentially the same game as the terrific Trine, but that much more gorgeous. Aside of from a few new simple powers to level up, the combat remains relatively the same which leaves much to be desired. However, the game looks extremely pretty. Rays of light seem to just penetrate through intricate leaves while the wizard, knight, and thief dance seamlessly across parallax planes. You should in fact take your time to look around in Trine 2. I found myself carelessly walking off giant chasms to my death before I picking my jaw off my keyboard. Artistically, Trine 2 holds a very bright candle next to other technical marvels on PC who often have great artists at their disposal as well.

It’s Time To Choose… Wizard + Box Lift = Profit?

Just as in older Trine, you’ll be able to swap between three characters including Amadeus the wizard, Zoya the thief, and Pontius the knight, to cross each game level. Amadeus can use magic to grab onto certain objects in the game world, and create boxes and planks to be used to get around; Zoya can strike at objects with her arrows, and grapple onto certain surfaces; and Pontius is strong in combat against foes, can bash apart walls, and deflect projectiles with his shield. Combining these elements are necessary to complete each stage in the game’s world. Exploration is rewarded through experience which allows you to upgrade and augment existing abilities such as allowing the wizard to conjure more boxes (up to 4) or allow the thief to shoot ice arrows. Some abilities are often needed to reach hard to get experience orbs such as more boxes. Alternatively, one could even quickly join a online co-op game to use the abilities of the other two characters.

Clever Girl…

In hindsight, the puzzles in Trine 2 aren’t that hard, but you’ll often brute force your very own clever strategy of what you “think” is clever. Playing wrong sometimes becomes just as fun as playing right, but can often times quickly turn into spite when playing with 2 other minds online. In my own experience playing with “DyslexicAlucard,” we would use the wizard to box lift ourselves often skipping the “hard parts” of each puzzle, which is great because Frozenbyte’s puzzle design works for almost every situation, but at times makes solving the puzzles a little clunky for other characters. For example, some moving puzzles and hazards have just enough “give” to let your character pass right on by be it enough health to walk right on through acid, fire, or just make a luckily timed physics based platforming jump. It’s hard task to accomplish and I could commend Frozenbyte on this feat alone for making puzzles “work.” There are 13 chapters to complete in Trine 2, but there aren’t more levels in Trine 2 than Trine. However, Frozenbyte made the effort to make levels definitely run longer, which is acceptable because you’re able to save anywhere and pick up where you left off.

Angry Birds

The composer of the Angry Birds Theme, Ari Pulkkinen happens to be the composer for Trine 2. The melodies of Trine 2 are very akin to your traditional fantasy soundtrack, but when combined with the sound design and particularly funny voiced lines it makes you believe that you’re playing out your very own fantasy tale read to you as a child. Ah, the days of childhood.

All’s Well That Ends Well

When put together, Trine 2 seems to be dead even on all fronts including platforming, story telling, combat, and rpg elements, but we’ve seen each of these ideas executed better in games focused in two or three of theses areas. Trine 2 on its own has its strengths in visuals and puzzle design. Although the boss fights were very clever by fusing puzzling, platforming, and combat, I often found myself wanting to get through the bulk and get right to the action. The game needed more of this stuff. If you’re looking for some fun online with friends in a less scatterbrained manner then look no further, Trine 2 is your ticket.

Played On:

• OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
• Processor: Intel Core i7 3.4 GHZ
• Memory: 8 GB
• Video Card: GeForce 560Ti 1 GB
• Additional: A copy of the game was provided by PR for review.
  http://store.steampowered.com/app/35720/

Verdict: B+

OOOOHHHH YYYEEAAAHHH!!! This mod combined with spawning 100 dragons could only end up being a win win situation. If only Mr. Savage could see this now. RIP sir, you’ll live on in our Skyrim adventures.

Instructions:

OOOOHHHH YYYEEAAAHHH!!! ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, intercontinental World Heavyweight Champion, now available in dragon form!

Install:

Copy the data folder in the archive to your Skyrim folder.
In the launcher, ensure that ‘Load Loose Files’ is checked.

[Download]

Non-nexus mirrors:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HQDQEZ4V

http://www.mediafire.com/?m5u8bv3vxhe9i8z
http://www.fileserve.com/file/W5pPX5e/MachoDragonMod.zip

Intel at CES is off to a rocky start after attempting to demonstrate DirectX 11 running on an Ivy Bridge based Ultrabook. The actual gameplay ended up being recorded footage after all as the VLC media player popped up in the bottom portion of the screen for all press to witness.

Video Courtesy of [Network World]

There was somewhat of a resurgence of fast paced old school first person shooters with last year’s crop of fps including the likes of Bulletstorm and Hard Reset. How well does Serious Sam 3: BFE stack up?

So how well does Splitfish bring over the FragFX Shark to the Xbox 360?

The Frag FX Shark 360 is Splitfish’s answer to “an almost perfect PC mouselike FPS experience for gamers on the XBOX 360.” For a long time PC first person shooter veterans accustomed to the precision of aiming with a mouse, this really could be the difference between a higher kill death ratio. However, after weeks of testing multiple games in multiple genres the Frag Fx isn’t quite the fit for every shooter. The top shooters I’ve played on the Xbox 360 include Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, Halo Reach, Crysis 2 and other third party titles. It’s important to note that every game’s aiming mechanics are different and all do not perform equally well. In short, you’ll be buying the FragFX Shark for games like Call of Duty that have relatively optimal turn speeds and deadzone shapes.

The entry price of the Frag Fx Shark 360 is $89.00 not including the required Xbox 360 Wired Controller ($20 – $25) for authentication via dongle. For someone who switches out wired controllers from PC to 360, this a hassle that must be overcome every time controllers are switched out. The features and feel of the Frag Fx 360 are mostly the same as the Frag Fx for the PS3 which does not require an extra wired Xbox 360 Controller. If you’d like detailed impressions and video on the comfort of the Frag Fx Shark PS3 refer to my older review. The only difference between both products are the face buttons and that left and right click buttons have a ‘sticky’ feeling to them which is off-putting.

Each game’s aiming mechanic is different depending on deadzone, level of sensitivity, customization, and etc. On the onset, the FragFX Shark 360 opted out of having firmware updates starting with the FragFX Shark on PS3 which I reviewed. This simplifies every customization so that they can be made on the fly on the peripheral itself, but cuts down on future compatibility with other software that require deadzone tweaks and even more increased sensitivity to counteract low turn speeds in games like Gears of War 3, something that even competing products such as the XIM 3 are having a difficult time with.

Micromovents vs. Macromovements

For each game you use the Shark, you’ll want to adjust in game sensitivity all the way up to counteract the slow turnspeeds. This helps looking around while not in ADS mode (iron sights). The most trouble in setting your game’s sensitivity is using the built in on the fly dead zone dial. As the dial is increased (1-10) you’ll feel the mouse become more tolerant of your input. This effect is similar to lowering the sensitivity of your mouse in Windows and helps with Micromovents that help with headshots and moving targets.

Also, I could never find the right adjustment for most games I’ve played. For example in Modern Warfare 3, I struggled with the recommended (3-5) setting. These settings were not enough to keep the balance between looking around and having a responsive iron sight experience. Perhaps the solution to these problems is profile settings for each game that you can adjust via PC such as the XIM 3. While in the process of simplifying the Frag Fx Shark, the mouse is severely handicapped by competitors that provide what PC players actually love, options. This isn’t a controller for the casual player, it’s supposed to be for hardcore PC players and Splitfish has lost sight of that. There needs to be more options.

If you’re willing to spend $89.99 for a few functional games like Crysis 2 or the Call of Duty Series, then your purchase is somewhat redeemed. If you’re looking to play almost every shooter under the sun on Xbox 360 with the perfect precision of a mouse on PC, then you might want to throw $60 more at the XIM3 (Xbox Input Machine) which does the same thing but with significantly better results.

Key Features: (From Splitfish.com)· Play with the mouse on the XBOX 360* as you would do on a PC
· Plug and Play
· Full XBOX 360, PC and MAC support
· NEW 50h + play time
· NEW 500h + power save standby
· 1 AA battery per unit (requires only 2 AA batteries per set – batteries not included)
· Fast access to special features (eg macro, rapid-fire, button swap, stick swap, etc.)
· Brand new wireless 2.4 GHz technology
· Easy in-controller setup (no more firmware updates required)
· On the fly dead zone adjustment wheel
· SixAxis support

Verdict: C-

We’re still working on finishing Trine 2‘s new online co-op campaign as well as the single player experience, but you can give Trine 2 a go yourself since there’s a PC demo out now for download. I’ve discovered so many inventive ways to solve puzzles alone and with friends so far that it’s insane, but the game is not without a few issues.

“We are excited to bring Trine 2 to the Mac App Store so close to the release of the game on Steam,” says Lauri Hyvärinen, CEO of Frozenbyte, and continues: “The original Trine has been a great success on the Mac and we look forward to all the feedback for Trine 2!”

The Mac App Store version will be getting and update next week that will fix technical issues, improve lighting on some Macs, and controller customization. Both demos, PC and Mac supports online multiplayer.

For customers who encounter these issues, Frozenbyte can be contacted at http://www.frozenbyte.com/contact/

Trine 2 Steam [Download]

First Alan Wake PC Screen

“Remedy Entertainment is proud to announce the PC release of Alan Wake. Coming in early 2012, the game will give PC gamers the Alan Wake experience they have been patiently waiting for. Remedy is a developer with deep roots in the PC space (Death Rally and Max Payne 1 and 2), so the game will have the high resolution polish that longtime fans will expect.”

Why didn’t Alan come to PC initially? Well, Microsoft gave this reasoning behind their decision to hold Mr. Wake back on PC, aside from the obvious reason of piracy.

“Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience “Alan Wake” was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform.” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Originally announced for the next generation of PCs in a tech demo showing off what’s capable in now standard CPUs was Alan Wake‘s dynamic open world engine. While the final game was a tad bit linear, the game still had large environments to roam around and surprisingly good lighting.

There’s a great interview on the reveal of what Pid is all about in the link above on GiantBomb’s site if you want to know more. The game releases mid to end of 2012 with the goal to launch on PC, 360, and PS3.

Finnish developer, Frozenbyte, releases Trine 2 today – the sequel to one of my favorite eye gushing games of 2009, Trine – on Steam right now for $14.99.

Here’s a couple graphical settings added in the final version not present in the beta in which I wrote a preview for.

The playable menu screen. Right click view full size in next window for 1920 x 1080p. (slightly compressed due to Steam pic upload)

GO’s goal is to be a mix between 1.6 and Source, but in reality all players really want is 1.6 right? Well, Valve wants to make everyone happy and is tasking Hidden Path a developer known for making tower defense games and Counter-Strike: Source in crafting a balanced a mix of Source and 1.6. How they’ll get closer to 1.6… I don’t know. But someone on YouTube by the name of (NYAGaming) has taken the time to expose what nuances Counter-Strike 1.6 players expect.

Good on you beta tester. Thanks for being a Good Guy.

Wall spamming.

Centered viewing angle.

C4 Bomb exploit/bug.

Credit [NyaGaming]

No turkeys were harmed during the filming of this video.“Did you ever sit back and think “hmm” I wonder what one day making a videogame at Gaijin Games REALLY looks like? Well… here is your chance to see an 8 hour day in 60 seconds!”

GOG.com will be having a sale for 50 percent off virtually all of their DRM-free titles starting December 12 12:00 GMT through January 2, 2012 ranging from publishers such as Interplay, EA, Ubisoft, Atari, Activision, Sierra, and more.

All sales start and end December 8 through January 2, 2012.

However, on the specific dates of December 8 at 12:00 GMT through December 10 at 11:58 GMT The Witcher 2 + The Witcher: Enhanced Edition will be “at its lowest price for the whole season” at $23.99 according to GOG.com.

GOG.com will also be giving away 400 game codes for random PC classics from December 10 until Sunday(the 11th)  on their website, twitter, facebook, etc. Not too sure about these giveaways, but start picking out games and comparing prices before all the holiday sales empty your digital wallets.

Serious Sam 3: BFE gameplay footage on ultra settings.

Users can now bunny hop  somewhat and others are reporting that movement feels a lot more like Counter-Strike 1.6.

“Fixed movement exploit – Made movement more responsive per pro feedback – Fixed an out-of-sync issue that was causing some players to get shot by invisible players – Added mp_restartgame for competitive matches.”

Since today seems to be SWTOR Friday for me, I thought it would be a good idea to remind our readers about the sexiest peripherals I have ever seen.

At E3 in June, I met with Razer and got to see the SWTOR mouse, mousepad, keyboard, and headset, and with SWTOR a few weeks away, that means that these will all be releasing as well. Although the price tag may seem a bit steep initially, remember that Razer is providing their best mouse, keyboard, and headset. However, if I had to recommend one peripheral over the others, I would say get the keyboard. The keyboard has 10 dynamic keys, that will adapt to what you’re doing in the game, also it has a multi-touch lcd display. My only gripe is that it has Mac style keys.

These peripherals are currently available for pre order on Razer’s store.

Thanksgiving is a time for family, food, and rest; however, when the intergalactic struggle between the light and dark side of the force calls for one’s help, you cannot ignore their plea. Last weekend, I was able to participate in the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta, but the question on everyone’s mind is: Will this game measure of to World of Warcraft? Luckily, I have an answer, so strap yourselves in and prepare for the good, the bad, and the ugly of SWTOR.

Once I booted up the beta, I was greeted with a familiar CGI video of the Sith taking back their homeland from the Jedi. The familiar music and lightsaber-fight choreography was enough to make my inner Star Wars nerd shout with joy. After that cinematic, you are directed to the usual MMO fare, which is choosing your faction, class, and customizing your character. Emo hair, check; handlebar mustache, check. I decided to make a Jedi Knight that would make most fans of the franchise cringe, but that’s all part of the fun in an MMO. After character creation, you get to watch another cinematic that gives you some background on the faction that you chose.

Let’s just get this out of the way now, while I played SWTOR, I only dabbled with the Light side of the force, I wanted the Sith story and zones to be a surprise since I would most likely be playing Sith. Once inside the actual game, the mood is set right away, and that is a mood of emergency. Flesh raiders have attacked the Padawan training area, and it seems like most Padawan are completely useless. After you clean up some messes, you eventually proceed to the next area of the map. The next area is the main hub of the map, and you get to interact with more Jedi’s and you even meet the leader of the Jedi. Now that we have some introductory game information out of the way, no more spoilers, let’s talk about what’s good and what isn’t so good.

Star Wars: The Old Republic feels like an old friend, which isn’t a bad thing. The game felt like I had played it before, mechanically. The story telling felt organic, and the voice acting on most major characters was a huge plus. If you feel anything like me, other MMOs just give you the text, and after a long session of leveling, I don’t care about the quests’ lore. The game itself felt like a Mass Effect World of Warcraft, luckily for Bioware, I enjoy both of those games. The graphics aren’t insanely intensive, and I was able to run a consistent 110 frames per second (remember Shift + Ctrl + F when you start the game, that displays FPS). The combat was intuitive, and the animations seemed pretty spot on, from what I experienced. The music, as expected, was wonderful, and it gave a feeling of epicness to the play experience. However, now we move on to the not so fun stuff: the bad.

SWTOR has a cartoonish graphical style, and it seems to be less intensive on my machine than WoW at full settings. This doesn’t sound like a terribly bad thing, but the game has horrendous amounts of texture pop. Every time I would exchange dialogue with an NPC, every time I entered a new zone, every time I rode a speeder, and every time I started the game there was texture pop. Also, on the highest settings, I had an unforgivable amount of jagged textures (however, Anti Aliasing wasn’t available in the settings). Another problem I had was the ease of the game. SWTOR felt too easy, I know this is a bit nitpicky, but when I play an MMO, I want a game that will teach me how to play my class properly while leveling. I hate when an MMO holds a players’ hand and then they get to endgame content and they suck. I may catch some hate for this, but I think that the morality bar is superfluous. I mean, if you’re a Jedi that goes fully evil, that doesn’t make you a Sith, it just makes you a shitty Jedi. Sure some of the gear requires a certain level of light or dark, but it just feels like Bioware giving the game a mechanic that works for their other games to an MMO, it didn’t work for me. Combat is also problematic. SWTOR felt like mashfest 2011 while I was in combat. This could be due to the lack of an auto attack, or this could be due to the seemingly off ability cooldowns. My main attack used to build up combo points seemed to have a nonexistent cooldown, so spam away and then use a finisher.

Conclusion? Consider it handled.

Overall, my experience with SWTOR was a positive one, but I can understand why the game has received harsh criticism. I honestly don’t think this game will rival World of Warcraft. Although it will take users away from WoW, I doubt it will serve as more than a distraction until a new patch releases. While the beta isn’t representative of the finished product, it still gives a good idea of what the games’ strengths and weaknesses are. If Bioware manages to fix the graphical issues by the release of SWTOR, I think I will be able to put up with the game long enough to see the raid content. I have seen hate on this game from a lot of Star Wars fans, but I think a majority of this is from people who haven’t played an MMO and expected SWTOR to be another Knights of the Old Republic. If you are a Star Wars fan and an MMO fan, I would say give this game a try; however, if you are only a fan of Star Wars, I would say wait until release, read reviews, and make an informed decision. SWTOR has a release date of December 20, 2011.

Looks like the Microsoft Flight launch sequence has begun which means closed beta applications are now open for all.

However, Microsoft will be cherry picking which accounts get into the beta. If you think you have what it takes see the following link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#

“We’re thrilled to announce that the Microsoft Flight Beta is scheduled to kick-off in January 2012 and we are now accepting applications to participate in the beta program – to apply click here. Note that any beta applications sent via e-mail to msflight@microsoft.com will not be considered for inclusion in the beta program.”

As one who started playing PC games in the early 90s, the Microsoft Flight Simulator series always had a special place for me even though they weren’t really games. I played them as if they were with the intent and goal of piloting a Boeing 747 as if it were a fighter jet. Let’s hope that Microsoft Flight keeps playing like a simulator and less like Pilot Wings.

I’ve been playing for about a few hours. These are my thoughts.

I can’t add much more to what has already been said for the first Trine’s critical praise, gorgeous visuals, and rather enjoyable puzzles. One could only hope that Frozenbyte wouldn’t succumb to ‘sequelitis,’ but after dabbling a few hours with Frozenbyte’s Trine 2 beta I’ve realized they’ve pretty much struck all the chords of the first and more. Right when I booted up the beta I was immediately surprised at the quality of presentation. Instead of opting for a animated CGI menu screen, Frozenbyte simply sliced a real time playable environment for you to fiddle in because yes, the game looks that damn good. One of Trine 2′s main selling points for me is more or less addition of online co-op that works fantastically so far in the beta.

There’s of course in game voice, text, and the ability to join and create your own private games. When you create your own games you have the choice of selecting Classic or Unlimited. Classic restricts each of the three players to one class and Unlimited allows each player to change to Knight, Wizard, or Thief at anytime. This allows for some crazy possibilities on the puzzle solving side where two wizards can keep each other afloat on boxes simultaneously. It may seem kind of like broken fun, but you can always switch back to Classic mode.

Graphics, Graphics, Graphics.

Although you’re limited to adjusting graphical settings outside of game via launcher, there’s a decent amount of options for hardware enthusiasts out there. Graphical details options range from Very High, High, Medium, Low, and Very Low which all look respectable. However, you’ll want to run this game at least on High to Very High.

Anti-aliasing options range from Off, Medium (FXAA), High (FXAA + 2xSSAA), and Very High (FXAA + 4xSSAA). On a GTX 560 Ti, 8 gigs ram, and i7 2600k 4.5 ghz rig I’ve only been able to attain an average 30 fps on Very High AA, but well over 60 fps on High AA. Since it’s a beta afterall, this type of performance for the most part is better upon final code.

It’s not all just graphical settings though, the lighting in Trine 2 is tremendously improved from how it’s used in combination with the art design. Trine 2 has some of the most colorful and detailed backdrops I’ve ever seen for a 3D side scroller. It takes 2D/2D parallax planes to a different level because even the planes distant in the background seemingly have just as much detail that’s brought forth in plane that you’re playing on. When in motion, it all comes together in a fountain of gushing awesomeness.

Oh and the gameplay, yeah it’s good, too.

One of my gripes in the original Trine was the wizard’s limited mana that was often used up lifting boxes or planks. The Wizard had to wait for their bar to regen or find pots to refill it. It was easier to say ‘oh well I’ll use the Knight or Theif for this instead.’ However, in Trine 2 lifting boxes and conjuring boxes don’t affect your mana! That’s good! This left me the opportunity to at least experiment more with more ad-hoc methods of puzzle solving aside from the straight forward mix and match approach.

Take the screenshot above for example. See, there was a giant snail on the right drinking water, so using the wizard’s ability to levitate objects you’ll have to redirect that water (depriving the poor snail of H2O) to a seedling that can grow large enough to jump on so that you can…. yeah, you’ll be doing a lot of this stuff. This is just one of the fairly straight forward puzzles, but the type of puzzles you’ll be scratching your head on will be against the larger enemy types such as the one of the first mini bosses. It took me a couple of minutes until I took hint of the environment. The serpent ended up being his own worst enemy, not to draw any spoilers out for you.

Experience seems to be put to use in more effective ways in powering up the abilities of Knight, Wizard, or Thief. More points down each characters skill tree means that you’ll be driven to solve puzzles in more creative ways. For instance, by using wizard’s augmented ability to conjure four boxes instead of one or two you can traverse your way up via box rather than use the Thief’s grappling hook. Since there’s only two levels of the beta to level up from, I’ve only seen a few other abilities another being the frost arrow for the Thief. All of these abilities you gain solo seem to show up in the multiplayer games, however it is beta.

I’d like to talk more about the online co-op side of things, but there are so few players out right now in the beta that it’ll have to wait until the game launches later in December on Steam. The first two levels are a bit too easy and short, but developers say it’s basically a tutorial. The difference between the sequel and the first game is instead of more levels, the levels will be longer. I’m definitely looking forward to it. In the meantime I’ll be grinding some experience points since progress made in the beta is said to carry over to the full game when it releases according to developers on the Frozenbyte forums.

Pre-Order yourself into the beta – http://store.steampowered.com/app/35720/

Battlefield 2 veterans rejoice. We’re going back.

Well not right now, but amidst the festivities of the holidays next month when the first DLC expansion map pack goes free for all Battlefield 3: Limited Edition purchasers and the rest for $14.99. The three combat vehicles that they’re bringing back from Battlefield 2 in Back to Karkand are the STOVL fighter jet, desert buggy, and one of the APC’s.

“I wanted to complement what we already have in the base game, plus I wanted to bring back some of the classic vehicles from Battlefield 2 that we know players loved, such as the Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing fighter jet and the desert buggy. In today’s trailer, you can also get a first glimpse of a hitherto unannounced fourth vehicle bound to strike fear into the very hearts of the enemy. See if you can spot it!”, said Back to Karkand Lead Designer Niklas Fegraeus.

Your lives will end come December 1, when Terraria 1.1 releases for free. Well, our lives at least.

Meanwhile, the game has sold over 1 million copies, insane right? Also, check out this Terraria 1.1 patch overview.

“Good news everyone! Steam is having a massive Autumn Sale and the best part about this? Terraria once again is on sale for an incredible 50% off. This is a great opportunity to grab a few copies of Terraria to give to your friends before the big 1.1 release.”

Available on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/

http://www.Terraria.org

As Don Allen would say, “What comes after fall? Winter? No! Insanity!”

Well, now you can try Afterfall: Insanity on PC right now and see for yourself how visceral it is. Nicolas Games has also announced a release date for Afterfall: Insanity being Nov. 25.

“Gamers who pre-order Afterfall will receive the soundtrack as a gift, regardless of whether we reach the ten million mark or not,” said Patryk Hamerlak of Nicolas Games. “This is our way to emphasize that market rules have changed. Additional content and add-ons to games used to be free but now they cost much more and those costs are continuously inching upward. We see an opportunity to help change the world, while also giving a quality game experience to players at a reasonable price.”

If you missed our preview check it out here. Music in the trailer seems pretty good.

www.afterfall-universe.com/en/buy.

http://download.afterfall-universe.com/Afterfall_InSanity_DEMO_ENG.exe

This includes black screens, squad functionality, stat padding prevention, improved damage modeling, and a whole lot more. The list below is sort of like a short story for Battlefield 3 lovers. I am one of them.

NOTE
Battlefield 3 will have a scheduled down time on Nov 22 between 07:00-09:00 AM UTC, during which you will not be able to play the game.

PATCH NOTES

Selected improvements in the Nov 22 Battlefield 3 client-side update

A full list of changes is available on the Battlelog

Major client update for the PC version Battlefield 3 as well as a server-side update for all platforms.

The update will be made on Nov. 22nd 7:00 AM UTC / Nov. 21st 11:00 PM PST.

We’ll share release timing on the console patches as soon as we are clear on the timing, these take a bit longer due to console certification process.

—- Client-Side Changes:

– Visuals, Stability and Performance Fixes:

• General performance and loading time improvements
• “Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC Configurations
• Stereo and Rendering Support for Nvidia and AMD Graphics Cards
• Adjusted the “stuttering” encountered on some PC configurations.
• Fixed several Crashes when joining MP and Co-Op sessions
• Fixed multiple problems when using multiple monitors (Eyefinity / Surround).
• Fixed visual corruption issues on certain Nvidia Cards
• Improved loading times for certain textures
• Added console command “GameTime.MaxVariableFps” to limit max FPS
• Added console command “UI.DrawEnable” to hide UI for screenshots / videos

– Balance and Gameplay Adjustments (PC)

• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement
• Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
• Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it(note the affect this will have on Hardcore mode!)
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
• Added joystick deadzone setting
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against jeeps.
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control.
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly.
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex.
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons.
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R.
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range.
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles.
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons.
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft.
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds.
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters.
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells
UI Changes (PC)
• Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
• Advanced squad polish – should be more intuitive
• Significant changes to the Join Squad functionality (see below)
• Fixed a problem regarding keybindings while playing
• You should now get a better error message when being disconnected via Battlelog

—- Server Update Highlights

• EOD Bot exploit fix
• Several crash fixes
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
• Improved team kill kick configuration
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players’ scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings

– Share your profile and stats with new Battlelog functionality

• Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user’s URL
• Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you’re not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server

– Quick notes on Squad changes in the Nov 22 update

• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text

– A detailed look at Squad refinements

A detailed look at Squad refinements

Today’s PC client patch features numerous tweaks to Squad functionality and is part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier to play with friends and Platoon mates. These changes will also be implemented for consoles when we release the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates shortly. Stay tuned for the exact date of the console updates.

First, we need to look at how joining with Squads and Platoons affects the balance of teams. Initially, servers are commanded to equal out each side, so joining with friends can impact that balance while joining with Platoons further hinders this. As a result we have made some adjustments to the in-game Squad management screen.

For PC, you are now able to highlight the various Squads and select which one you wish to join by selecting a Squad and then clicking the Join Squad button. Please note that the Squad Privacy option still allows 2 man Squads which, during 64 player sessions, can lead to players with no squad position –- the number of people with no Squads will be shown at the bottom of the Squad selection list.

After the patch is applied to consoles (in the near future) you will be able to join Squads by cycling through the list and selecting which Squad you wish to join.

The goal of Skyrim Mod Manager is to make modding your PC version of Skyrim simple, clean, and fast. Why should you use this? Well, it makes things less complicated further down the road when hundreds of Skyrim mods start cropping up. Right now it may seem counter intuitive, but realize that if you don’t have perfect memory of which files you’ve changed, then you’ll end up having to reinstall Skyrim from scratch to get everything back to vanilla Skyrim.

Please keep in mind that this is in beta, but will be well supported by its creators.

“We cannot stress enough that we are still in the beta stage of NMM. NMM is in a very good state and will be usable by nearly everyone, but Beta stages are typically used for testing and bug fixing, and some of you will find bugs.”

“We are using a bug tracker system on our forums that allows you to post any bugs you might have with NMM. We cannot fix a bug if you do not report it! Using the tracker system is as intuitive as making a post on a forum, and you can login to it using your Nexus username and password.”

“We also have a beta test subforum that contains all the information you need to know to get started, report bugs and help us with development of NMM.”

“We don’t want to make you think that NMM is the solution to your problems getting 1,000 mods to all work together right now. It’s our aim to to reach that point and it’s what we’re working towards. However, even simple mods can be a complex business and trying to get many mods to all work together is something people in the community have been working hard to do since the start of this community. NMM is designed to make your life downloading, installing, updating and managing mods easier, but it will not currently be the wonder pill that will make all your conflicts and compatibility issues disappear. Load orders, conflicts and compatibility issues still exist with NMM at this time.”

“Mods may not work for a number of different reasons, and not all of them are the fault of NMM or the mod author who created the mod(s). Please remember this before you verbally abuse us, or the mod authors, for not being able to get your mods to work.”

“Having said that, development is ongoing with NMM to make these difficult aspects of modding as easy to overcome as is possible within the limits of the game. We are working hard to not only ensure these issues are mitigated as much as possible within NMM, but also to ensure our program is compatible with any other tools and utilities you might use at the moment to deal with them.”

Nexus Mod Manager – OPEN BETA - 0.12.7

[Download] via Skyrim Nexus

How well does Overkill Studio’s Heat inspired four player online co-op shooter hold on PC?

At first glance Payday: The Heist sounds like the type of shooter where pre-planning and calculated execution come together in triumphant glory; however, PayDay is a lot more about the shooting dudes part than anything else. Much like other popular four player online co-op shooters, there’s a rough framework of objectives to follow, but a good portion of them feel like checkpoints once you’ve killed enough dudes. Missions boil down into three parts.

In true fashion, each heist begins with the setup, the job, and the escape. Somewhere in between this three step process, men of the law will die bravely in the hundreds. There are only six missions in Payday including First World Bank, Heat Street, Panic Room, Green Bridge, Diamond Heist, and Slaughterhouse. The mission titled Heat almost perfectly resembles the final assault that Robert De Niro and company made across a multiple blocks in the movie Heat. This includes car filled streets for cover and civilians that flee the scene as a hail of gunfire ensues from both sides. Each mission is varied enough in objectives and setting that it avoids repetitiveness, but only for a little while. Only a select number of missions can be played on Easy including the first couple of missions and the last couple of missions immediately start on hard with no option for easy or even normal. As difficulty ranks up, A.I. will simple do more damage and pay more attention directing their fire toward you.

The PC version of the game has options to change keyboard and mouse bindings, but limits graphical options to only what resolution the game can run in. For those looking to set extra AA or MSAA will be disappointed since it’s only a DX 9 game. However, the game looks quite sharp in 1080p and the art direction more importantly is serviceable, but not beyond amazing. What’s more is that finding groups is a bit easier to do making use of Steam PayDay Groups for organizing games. Right now there quite a low amount of players online so taking advantages of Steam features or finding others to play with on forums is what will have to do for now. The max players I’ve seen on a regular weekday afternoon is around 2,000 estimated.

There are only three types of classes to play in this four player co-op game including Assault (raw firepower with weapons, Mark 11, Crosskill .45, Brenner 21), Sharpshooter (a precision based class with weapons, M308, Locomotive 12 Gauge), and Support (“for those that like supporting teammates” with weapons, Brono .44, Compact 5, and Reinbeck). Role is assigned to what package you outfit your character at the beginning of each mission rather than during the mission. Each member has optional load outs along with deploy-able ammo bags to replenish ammo. These bags though are limited in placement and position. Once you’ve deployed a bag that’s it, you can’t move it and once your team has filled up on ammo the bag disappears. This works the same for health packs that restore your base health which is your last line of defense over your regenerating health. This adds an extended layer of strategy, one where you’ll be communicating with your team when to drop the bags and when not to.

As missions carry on, ammo and health become a scarcity for new players on normal and essential for hard and overkill difficulty settings. Overkill is exactly what it is, overkill. The only way to beat these from experience and from watching several other high reputation (level) players is to know exactly where A.I. spawns and to immediately cheese and bottle neck them. As missions progress, hard enemy types with riot shields and annoying tasers start to crawl out of the woodwork which will require one of you to flank. Other missions get interesting when stealth becomes a factor, but it’s an all or nothing affair that is very hard to pull off with random players.

Where Payday truly shines is in the ridiculously hectic, but coordinated four player human co-op sessions. A.I. is atrocious when playing alone, but there is a significant amount of joy when playing with others, especially friends on your Steam list. Occasionally, there’s a low reputation player that will ruin Diamond Heist’s stealth setup, or activate and objective before finishing a side objective that will net the group more cash, but that can be usually communicated before the match.

What Overkill Studio’s churned out feels like game that needed a few more months of development. When taking hostages, shouldn’t there be a ability to hold one by gunpoint or to use as human shields? What if extra modes were added that included “Inside Man,” where one of your members are tasked with turning on the whole crew? What if the objects weren’t simple button presses, but had built in mini hacking games? There are so many what ifs that my head could explode at the possibilities. However, PayDay still by its own merit has solid foundations that make for an enjoyable game, but pales in comparison to what other online co-op shooters offer in variety, modes, or polish that the Left 4 Dead series has set with its high watermark.

C+

Trine 2–the followup of 2009s hit, Trine–is less than a month away, and we have been graced with some new screens that show the beauty that captivated us at E3. For me personally, Trine 2 feels like it will be the perfect game to play after absolutely obliterating Skyrim.

The screens showcase Amadeus, Pontius, and Zoya in action with some of the games wonderfully designed enemies. The expansive color palette is something that should catch the eye of any gamer who has complained about the brown and gray color palette of most first person shooters and post apocalyptic games that have gained so much popularity.

With the inclusion of online multiplayer, Trine 2 is a game that should be on most gamers radar by this point. Trine 2 will be available December 6. It will be readily available on PC, Mac, and some other platforms that we don’t cover for $14.99. Yeah, I just did that.

A slightly faster response compared to Sony’s breach of PSN accounts which hit the PlayStation brand hard. CtrlAltKill received the following letter from Gabe Newell.

–

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6.  We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums.   This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely. 

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.

###

Now hurry up and announce Half-Life 3.

What’s your Battlefield Moment?

YouTube Credit: [W0LFEYE1]

Still happen to have a PC copy of old faithful Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare? Don’t have enough to buy Modern Warfare 3? Well, you’re in luck good sir. Star Wars: Galactic Warfare is surprisingly good. Gameplay is pretty much like Call of Duty, except for some laser rifles, thermal detonators, as well as rebel and imperial skins. Although the player counts are low on most servers, there’s usually a better way to find a busy server using GameTracker.

“This version contains seven maps (“Mos Eisly”, “Bespin”, “Bestine”, “Not A Cave”, “Jundland”, “Jundland Dusk” as well as the new “Anchorhead). There is also a new killstreak called “viper droid”.  The Y-Wing and Tie-Bomber are now part of the killstreak “airstrike” (finally!).  We have also fixed some bugs of course.  With version 1.0 you will also get an installer which makes your life a bit easier (see the video tutorial below).”

“Thanks to all who supported us over the last years. We are still stunned by the enormous feedback we have received. Around 75,000 downloads and more than 900,000 visitors on our YouTube Channels were our motivation to go on with the mod for such a long time.  A lot of your ideas and recommendations are integrated to this final release.”

“We also like to thank the worldwide CoD Modding Community. It’s so awesome that most  of you old  scruffy looking nerf herders have participated to this project. Awesome! The Force is strong with you! Hopefully you will enjoy our new version of SWM: Galactic Warfare for the time being and we hope to see you on our server for some battles:”

Normal (non-Hardcore):
DE: 213.133.110.38:30000 Galactic Warfare 1.0 FINAL | www.blackmonkeys.de
208.167.250.217:28960 Galactic Warfare 1.0 FINAL | www.blackmonkeys.de

Hardcore:
DE: 178.63.77.4:28960 Galactic Warfare 1.0 FINAL | HardCore | www.blackmonkeys.de

You can also download the Mod (incl. Serverfiles) here:

Discuss with fans: forum.blackmonkeys.de

May the mods be with you.

Here’s a nice teaser trailer highlighting Battlefield 2 maps re-imagined in Frostbite 2: Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula, Strike at Karkand, and Wake Island. We’ll have to wait until some unspecified date in December for its release free for those who pre-ordered Battlefield 3 and $14.99 for post day 0 purchasers. Battlefield 2 vehicles and weapons, and the expansion pack also features the return of a variation on Conquest called Conquest Assault, details of which will be revealed later on. Phooey.

[Battlefield Blog]

Sonic Generations surprised a majority of gamers when it was announced that there would be a PC port of Sonic Team’s Sonic Generations by studio Devil’s Details whose port job of Virtual Tennis 4 turned out well. So how does Sega’s best kept secret look like on PC in full 1080p?

Well, look on below. There’s PC specs too which are quite modest assuming you aren’t on four year old hardware with the recommended GTX 460 being released in 2010 and minimum GeForce 8800 released in 2006.

Minimum Requirements
Microsoft Windows 7/Vista/XP Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4200 (2×2.0GHz) or AMD equivalent
2GB RAM (Windows 7/XP)/3GB RAM (Windows Vista)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 2900
11 GB free hard drive space

Recommended Requirements
Microsoft Windows 7 Intel Core i5 @ 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.0 GHz
3GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850
11 GB free hard drive space

The Hedgehog Engine is a beautiful thing and I’d like to see it running on my computer, for sure. Pre-Order on Steam here or choose your favorite digital distributor.

Sonic Generations releases Nov 4, 2011 for PC at a modest price of $29.99.

With Blizzcon taking place last weekend, there were a great deal of announcements, but none were quite as genius as the World of Warcraft annual pass. The real genius of the annual pass was the inclusion of Diablo 3, a mount, and beta access. I think that a lot of WoW players that were on the fence about coming back to WoW will be returning. So, this Monday, Mod Monday will cover 5 of my must have add-ons for world of Warcraft. Just an FYI, I’m not a WoW scrub. I am in a 6/7 HM Firelands guild.

1. Hydra’s TukUI
Hydra’s TukUI is the Inception of add-ons, as it is an add-on based on an add-on. Hydra’s edit to TukUI is cleans up the clunky WoW interface and gives it a clean, sexy look. Every component of this UI can be moved and toggled on or off. There is a lot to learn while using this UI, but after you master it, it’s wonderful. You can also edit the files and make the UI even more custom, but that takes knowledge of editing LUA files.

2. Skada Damage Meters
As any raider knows, knowing your DPS is always key in a fight. Basing your DPS off of world parses and using the add-on to make sure that you are pulling good numbers is the key to DPS success. I find Skada to be more accurate than Recount.

3. ForteXorcist
ForteXorcist is a buff/debuff add-on that allows for players to micromanage not only their buffs and debuffs, but the debuffs that they have applied to enemies, which makes it awesome if you play a class that needs to reapply dots during a fight. It has a custom set of bars and looks nice with the rest of your set up. I’m simplifying my explanation of this add-on, but a full explanation would take quite a long time.

4. Deadly Boss Mods
This should be self-explanatory to anyone who has ever raided, but it is the key add-on in any serious raiding guild. It tells you when to get out of fire. Enough said.

5. Quartz
Quartz is an add-on casting bar that allows you to place a custom casting bar for yourself and enemies. It is extremely useful if you are on interrupt duty during a boss fight. The bar can be resized and it is another sexy add-on to add to your arsenal.

I hope that this crash course on WoW add-ons has proven useful, if you have any add-ons that you think are viable, list them in the comments.

The first draft of the Battlefield 3 PC Server Administrator Manual has been released as well as client side commands posted by Mikael Kalms on the EA Battlefield forums.

Some highlights:
- Remote admin protocol spec included
- lists of all maps
- lists of all gamemodes (and all maps can be used in all gamemodes)
- list of gameplay-affecting settings in the admin manual
- you can mix gamemodes in the maplist
- For BF3 PC, Normal / Hardcore / Infantry Only are umbrella names for a specific group of settings; details in the manual
- there is a section in the manual which describes how changing server settings affect filters and Quickmatch on Battlelog
- unranked mode is, well, “nearly working” so for the first few days after launch all servers will run ranked
- in ranked mode you can control all settings (but at some point we will enforce PB on, game-password off .. or similar)

One thing which requires some extra elaboration is player counts, gamemodes, and how those things work together.

When you rent a server from an RSP, you rent a certain number of slots. The RSP controls the max number of players on your server.

In addition, you can temporarily lower the number of slots below the RSP-enforced setting through a remote admin command.

Now. There is currently no mechanism that enforces that a given gamemode can have at most a given number of players… so you can in theory run any gamemode with up to 64 players.
Some game modes (such as Squad Rush) will probably not work very well if you set the limit higher than intended. Most will function. Some will become less playable because the matches get a bit unbalanced. But for instance running Team Deathmatch with a lot of players should not be a problem.

[Download]

Feedback has been taken since Modern Warfare 2, and will combine the best of what Call of Duty 4 started and what Modern Warfare 2 left off.

From Modern Warfare 2 they took the Lobby System, Matchmaking with a Party, Matchmaking for Public Games, Steam Integration (Friends List, Server Browser,Achievements, Join on Friends).

From Call of Duty 4 they took Dedicated Servers (Join your favorite or set up your own,without any 3rd party hosting requirements), In-game Server Browser that allows you to filter by ping, map, gametypes, hardcore, voice, password, and more.

PC specific features that give you even more control over your experience like RCON, Custom Game Saving, NoGFX / Audio Card Requirement on DS.exe, Voice Chat, and SSAO.

It seems like both developers are on the right track when Modern Warfare 3 launches Nov. 8 2011 which available for pre-loading right now on Steam.

Does the PC version of Modern Warfare 3 support the same Private Match options?

Yes! PC players can fully customize their private / dedicated server games through full control over Class Restrictions, Custom Gamemode creation, access to unique private match modes like One in the Chamber,Gun Game, and Infected, as well as save their custom games for future use.

Will Modern Warfare 3 have Dedicated Servers?

Yes! Modern Warfare 3 supported matchmaking as well as Dedicated Servers, allowing players to find and filter via an in-game server browser or set-up their own Dedicated Server for complete control, without being restricted by any 3rd party hosting requirements. If looking for a Dedicated Server to join, if you choose not to set up your own, you can filter and favorite by Ping, Map, Gametype, Hardcore Variants, Voice, Password, and many other options.

Will MW3 on PC have unique graphic options available?

Yes! You have a lot of graphic options, including enablingand disabling of new rendering features such as SSAO, you’ll also be able to modify DOF, Shadows, Anti-Aliasing, Texture Resolution and more.

Will Remote Console (RCON) be available to server admins?

Yes! You’ll be able to admin your server using RCON. We’ll support all things you’d expect, such as Kicking & Banning players, map rotation, private chat to players, reloading the map, and more.

Does Modern Warfare 3 on PC support an in-game Server Browser? Can you also use matchmaking?

Yes! In addition to the public matchmaking system for finding Ranked public games, you can use the in-game server browser to find and favorite unranked Dedicated Servers to join, which can be filtered by a number of options mentioned above.

How is Modern Warfare 3 on PC handling anti-cheat?

Security is a major focus for Modern Warfare 3, especially coming out of Modern Warfare 2. We will be utilizing multiple methods of Anti-cheat and Security methods, including Steam’s VAC system, CEG, and our own propriety methods implemented to provide multiple layers of defense in keeping online multiplayer fun, fair, and secure for all players without limiting the control they expect on PC.

Will Modern Warfare 3 on PC support STEAM?

Yes! MW3 is fully integrated with Steamworks, including the Steam Friends List (in addition to the in-game friends list), Steam Server Browser (in addition to the in-game one), Steam Achievements, and the ability to join friends matches.

Will Spec Ops have matchmaking on PC?

Yes! As well as Spec Ops specific leaderboards and a full progressive ranking system.

What is the Maxplayer count for Modern Warfare 3 on PC?

Currently it is 18 players max (in Ground War) but it may increase post launch.

Will Modern Warfare 3 on PC have LAN support?

Yes!

What is the overall design philosophy regarding PC? How is IW/SH providing for the unique needs of PC players?

We value the PC player and have gone to great lengths inproviding a more rich experience for our players.  We keep our ear near the ground and try todeliver items most requested.  The big feature for MW3 we are supporting is Dedicated Servers, this includes a serverbrowser, voting, RCON, and more.  Also we’ve implemented some PC only rendering features including SSAO.  Lastly we are embracing the STEAM platform by integrating fully with Steam including friends list, STEAM achievements.

How is the game being optimized for PC hardware?

We do wide testing across all tiers of PC, in our office we have an old minspec machine that receives just as much care as our top tier PC.  We’ve also engaged the hardware manufactures for wider compatibility testing for us to ensure an optimized bug free launch.

Can we set our max FPS?

No. Setting Max FPS is not a user controllable option.

Will ‘lean’ be in the game?

No. We chose to keep lean out of the game to keep the gameplay experience universal across all platforms. This was a gameplay design decision.

Will there be Modtools for Modern Warfare 3 on PC?

Mod Tools will not be shipped at launch.  As always we are continually evaluating features to support post launch and this is one requiring further discussion.

What is the MinimumSpecs for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on PC?

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
OS: Windows® XP / Windows Vista® / Windows® 7
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X38750 processor or better
Memory: 16 GB free hard drive space / 2GB RAM
Video Card: Shader 3.0 or better 256 MB NVIDIA®GeForce™ 8600GT / ATI® Radeon™ X1950 or better
Sound Card: DirectX® 9.0C or later

[Source]

If you’ve ever used gaming mice and keyboards, then you are aware of the painstaking process of configuring your peripherals so that they fit like a glove. As someone who has had 3 different PCs in the last 4 years, I know the pain all too well. As if my gaming habit wasn’t nerdy enough, my folder that contains my TV calibration settings and profile set ups for mice and keyboards puts the icing on the “not getting laid” cake.

Luckily, today, Razer has announced a new service called Synapse 2.0. Synapse is a cloud-saving service for your Razer gaming peripherals. No longer will you have to write down or remember your profile settings. The cloud service is something I would love to see other companies start as well, because, in hindsight, it seems ridiculous that this kind of service isn’t standard yet.

Sadly, there is a catch to this service. That catch is that Synapse 2.0 is in beta and will only be supporting the Legacy line of products and any new products releasing after its inception, which means you will be spending some cash to buy new products. If you are someone who likes to upgrade, or will be buying the sweet Star Wars: The Old Republic line of products, then you are in luck.

In addition to the cloud storage, Synapse 2.0 will be the way to update your peripherals, and it will also allow for backwards compatibility for the products you own.

If you wish to sign up for the Synapse 2.0 beta, click here. The concept is amazing, but let’s hope the execution lives up to the standard of excellence that Razer has established.

The PC patch 1.3 is now available. Steam will update the game automatically.

Now, I’ve had my issues with Dead Island, but now that Techland and Deepsilver have slowly rolled out updates to the rocky launch of the PC version as well as the respawn issues several reviewers had, I think it’s getting better. Although I would like to have seen this update sooner, there are certain certification issues that get in developers and publishers way to make sure these updates don’t break the games further.

The current level cap is 50 on consoles and raising the cap to 60 on PC seems like an incentive to start leveling up for DLC, in which Deepsilver and Techland have delayed until Dead Island is stable enough.

This patch includes the following fixes:

1) Gameplay improvements:

•  Level cap raised to 60
•  New blueprints for weapon mods added
•  Infected damage reduced
•  Infected no longer interrupt player attacks
•  A series of improvements to subsequent playthroughs implemented:
•      o quest XP rewards adjusted
•      o XP rewards for challenges adjusted
•      o in subsequent playthroughs XP is awarded for all quests completed in co-op
•  Purna’s ammo carrying capacity increased by 50%
•  Character state from a save game can now be loaded when using the Start from Chapter option
•  New balancing option added: enemy levels can now be adjusted independently for each co-op player
•  Players respawn with more health
•  Lock pick skill level required to open a lock is now clearly indicated
•  Improved rewards in weapon crates
•  All weapon crates now contain rewards

2) Fixes and interface improvements

•  Fix: players are no longer left without a weapon after dropping the equipped item and healing with a medkit.
•  Fix: equipped items no longer swap mysteriously after drinking an energy drink
•  Tweak: healing with medkits from inventory works better, makes smarter choices of medkits
•  Fix: loot from dead enemies is now always identical for all co-op players
•  Fix: Purna no longer finishes her Fury with fists equipped
•  Fix: map tracking after death
•  Fix: zone info in the quarantine zone (City of Moresby)
•  Tweak: respawn point selection is now smarter

3) General

•  Improved stability and network performance in co-op
•  V-sync option added
•  Quest and reward fixes implemented

Be sure to check out our Mod Monday of Dead Island  which vastly improves the PC Experience!

Origin released a client update to version 8.3 today introducing the cloud storage beta similar to Steam and PSN’s cloud saving system just in time for Battlefield 3. Storage in the beta is limited to PSN’s paid for limit of 100 MB with PSN Plus while Steam’s free storage is seemingly unlimited as long as you have the game for each save connected using Steam Play.

Steam wasn’t 100 percent when it launched day 1 much to the chagrin of PC gamers who only wanted to play Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike 1.6, but as time went on Valve earned gamers’ trust with community features, steam play, and infrastructures to which the rest of the industry aspires to. It remains to be seen whether EA can earn this similar trust considering their history and backlash from gamers. Origin’s high entry level game comparable to Counter-Strike 1.6 is Battlefield 3, which can only be played online with a launch from Origin. Although multiplayer requires Origin, the singleplayer portion of Battlefield 3 is confirmed to have an offline play.

• Added the ability to change your password from Settings menu.
• Added the ability to purchase DLC while in-game.
• Added the ability to import friends from select EA titles.
• Added the ability to contact Customer Support while in game.
• Added the ability to check and repair games by right clicking on the game.
• Improved search so you can be found by real name, if you added it to your profile.
• Introduced Cloud Storage Beta – store your saved games on the cloud, so you can continue playing from any computer.
• Introduced Free Games – place PC demos to casual games from the free Games page in the Origin store.

Well, we’ve come this far and Battlefield 3 fans only have to wait one more week until release. Sweet sweet release. In this video some of the bullet points that were important to me have now been checked off, namely the aircraft carriers. It won’t be long now.

DOWNLOAD THE CORE INSTALLER
OR:
DOWNLOAD THE CORE ZIP ARCHIVE

Detailed information on how to install the mod is included within the files of either link. Be sure to let the modder know you thought!

At Indiecade, I was fortunate enough to get some quality time with Phil Fish’s labor of love, FEZ. First, here’s a little background: FEZ has been in development for 5 years by a team of two people, yes, two. FEZ is a platformer in which players’ can manipulate the 3D environment in order to solve certain puzzles. It capitalizes on the faux-retro look that is popular in the indie scene; however, the only sprite based things in the game are the characters.

The 5 minute demo (rough estimation) left me with a decent grasp of the game. The aesthetic is simple, but once you look at the world from the different perspectives, you really appreciate all of the thought and time that went into producing each zone. The music also fit the aesthetic nicely. The sound effects varied from a Zelda-esque chest opening fanfare to noise sounds when certain events took place.

The controls were tight and extremely responsive. The ability to catch ledges and pull the protagonist up was a welcomed mechanic for getting to those hard to reach spots. Dialogue from the townsfolk was good for a chuckle and made me realize that life in two dimensions is as flat as those in the town. Additional devices, such as a pivot, build on the 3D puzzle concept that the game embraces. The core of the gameplay is collecting portions of a cube in order to gain access to the other zones in the game.

The game gains its name from the fez that allows for the protagonist to explore the world in 3D. Fish commented that the reason for going through the town initially without the fez was so that the player would be able to make the same trek again in 3D and go back to all the areas to explore with the new mechanic.

If 3D TVs could make life as amazing as Fish does with the use of three dimensions, then I would be sold on the concept. For now, 3D TVs will still suck and FEZ will be amazing. Look forward to FEZ in early 2012.

Music Credits: performed by Taioo “Rage – Intro theme (Apophis)”

One of the biggest RPG series on the PC in the eighties and nineties was Might and Magic. Created by New World Computing, each game in the series featured a large open world to explore, numerous side quests, and odd plot twists that one would not expect in a fantasy game.  While the story revolves around a team of adventurers trying to stop an immortal wizard from sending planets into the sun, it was the large worlds and interesting creatures that kept players coming back.  The first saga in the Might and Magic series continued five games that revolutionize RPGs on the PC.

After the completion of the first saga, New World Computing took a chance by creating a spin-off game called Heroes of Might and Magic.  This time the player would be battling other kingdoms in a tactical setting.  This series was designed around using hero characters with armies made up of monsters and traveling around a map hoping to conquer all other towns and heroes.  This game also introduces the Ironfist dynasty a series of Kings and Queens who would control the fate of the lands.  The world created in this game would be the basis for the new saga in the main RPG games.  In addition, all the Heroes sequels made by New World Computing would fall into the same world.  While it is not necessary to play both series to understand the story, the Heroes series filled in back story and developed the lords more so than the RPG series.

While Heroes IV and Might and Magic IX would involve characters from these series, they would be criticized for changes to the series that many fans of the previous games would not agree with.  While New World Computing would not have much chance to redeem themselves before their parent company 3DO went bankrupt, the legacy of their games lives on.  Many argue over which Might and Magic game was best, but Heroes of Might and Magic III is often considered the best of the tactical series.  It contained a long campaign, two expansions each with longer campaigns, and some of the most difficult tactical gaming ever.

Recently, I decided to dig out an old copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III.  While I have been playing more modern tactical games like Agarest War, Frozen Synapse, and Fire Emblem I have been drawn back into the world of Erathia due to nostalgia.  I first played the game when it came out and I found it difficult but rewarding.  I remember being very annoyed that the computer usually had an overwhelming advantage and that I never seemed to have enough resources.  However, completing a mission did feel like a major accomplishment and I spent many hours fighting through the story and finding ways of dealing with the almost always cheating computer characters.  After a couple months the struggle became less rewarding and more tedious.  By the final campaign I was so frustrated with the game that I used cheat codes to beat the last two missions of the story in order to watch the ending.  Since I never completed the game properly I never picked up the expansions.  I eventually moved on from the series and dropped all of Might and Magic for other titles and less aggravating games.

I was reminded of this series by Good Old Games when they put the franchise on sale a short time ago.  Wanting to relive the series I gave Heroes of Might and Magic III a second try.  Even if I found it too difficult at least I could try the expansions that I never played before.  In the beginning the game felt much easier than I remembered.  I flew through the majority of the original campaign.  Even the final mission was not nearly as hard as I remember.  I was quite happy with myself being able to breeze through the majority of the main game.  With my new found confidence I moved on to the first expansion Armageddon’s Blade.  The first campaign was very difficult and required me to restart missions and change my strategy several times.  However, after many hours I found that I had saved Erathia once again.  I then moved on to one of the side story campaigns from Armageddon’s Blade with the odds stacked against me to an insane degree I was able to pull through and beat “Dragon’s Blood” a campaign that is considered by many to be unbeatable due to the very difficult third mission.  However, while playing I could feel my patience for this game once again wearing thin.

HoMaM - The Shadow of Death

Realizing that I was starting to get annoyed with the game once again I shifted my focus to the second expansion The Shadow of Death which acts as a prequel to the event of the main game.  This expansion allowed the player to change the difficulty in order to make some of the more insane maps easier to handle.  I found that with the game set to normal and a story that was more compelling than the side stories of Armageddon’s Blade there was much more to enjoy in this expansion.

Even after playing for nearly two months I still have yet to complete everything in Heroes of Might and Magic III.  I feel redeemed for using cheat codes when I was younger, but I also feel the same annoyance I felt all those years ago.  Even on the lesser difficulties the computer has a tendency to come at you with overwhelming numbers of troops that do not seem possible in the short amount of time that has passed.  In addition the computer will cheat by going directly to objectives and by having luck and morale bonuses occurring with nearly every attack.  The advantages given to the computer make even easy difficulty a struggle on some maps.  Overall, I am both happy to replay this series and angry that I have spent so many hours trying to complete every mission with only moderate success.

Heroes of Might and Magic III was not designed for casual players.  It is a very hardcore tactical game and bonuses and skills picked up in previous missions might just make later missions unbeatable.  This game will test your skill and your patience.  That being said, I do not regret playing this game again.  In fact I have more respect for the franchise now than I had before playing again.  The game still stands up today even with the graphics looking a little dated.  This return to the series allowed me to learn more about the other games and it reminded me that sometimes I want an “unbeatable” mission because when I beat it, I know I have achieved something others have not.  With new sequels made by a new company it can be easy to forget the classic entries.  However, no matter what is done in the later titles none of them can compare to the challenge and reward found in Heroes of Might and Magic III.

The game and developer winners this year are…

Grand Jury Award: FEZ, Polytron Corporation – The award distinguishes the game that cultivates artistry and embodies complete passion for game development. This year the jury chose from 36 game finalists from 14 different countries.

LG Mobile Innovative Game Award: Hungry Hungry UFOs, Asher Vollmer, Sam Farmer and Ben Bharier- The nominees for this award were brought together and established the prototypes for consideration at the IndieCade 3D Mobile Game Jam, presented and sponsored by LG Mobile.

Visuals sponsored by Nvidia: Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Superbrothers, Capybara Games, Jim Guthrie

Audio: Proteus, Ed Key (E.P. Coming Soon!)

Impact sponsored by G4: Johann Sebastian Joust, Douglas Wilson and Friends

Interaction: Ordnungswissenschaft, Till Wittwer, Marek Plichta and Jakob Penca

Game Design: Deepak Fights Robots, Tom Sennett

Technology sponsored by Transgaming: Johann Sebastian Joust, Douglas Wilson and Friends

Story/ World Design sponsored by BBC Worldwide: FEZ, Polytron Corp.

Special Recognition: The Swapper, Facepalm Games – it’s a game specially selected by the Jury for being a stand-out game, but not one that could fit into any other category very well.

The Trailblazers Award: Megan Gaiser

Developers Choice Award: Way, Coco & Co (Carnegie Mellon)

Audience Choice Award: The Depths to Which I Sink, Bigpants

[IndieCade2011 Games]

Straight from one of the hog’s mouth on the Steam forums Hashmallum hinted at Hard Resets next 1.02 patch. “Yep – we are finishing the second patch, and you will get a Survival mode Guess what that can be!”

One might remember Flying Wild Hog’s immediate response to criticism and users with patch 1.01 adding in triple buffering, benchmark mode, the ability to change weapon modes while in cooldown, and much more. In a statement the studio went on to say “FWH remains dedicated to their game design philosophy, and will continue to address community concerns as they arise.”

I say bravo to these fine Polish developers and their continued support for PC gaming post release. Bravo.

Don’t forget to check out @TheDonAllen‘s video review of Hard Reset here.

A once enjoyable puzzle heavy job is quickly diminished to a mix between shooting and puzzling once you gain access to a firearm early in the game. If one were itching to finally just blast through enemies, so be it, but the satisfaction gained for solving puzzles greatly outweighs muscle particularly in the earlier sections. A gun with infinite ammo (Rock Blaster), although having a cool down period, doesn’t completely transform Rochard from good to bad, but I feel the developers put a gun in your hands prematurely. Taking the alternate route of disallowing the player the use a gun could have led to more satisfying outcomes against foes by instead letting the player use the environment and Newton’s laws of motion.

Rochard plays in multiple genres of gameplay. A classic design choice term dubbed ‘Metroidvania’ snuggly fits the description of Rochard. In the case of upgrades, Rochard’s G-lifter (Gravity Gun) can only lift crates early in the game yet can later bend bullets away and launch explosives back at enemies that of which I never cease to tire.

Rochard is well paced offering up good mix of physics based puzzles, shooting, and low gravity platforming that turn normal jumps into epic feats of traversal. Gravity is changed with an easy press of the L1 button at any given time. The mass of objects stay the same, and you’ll soon find how they interact at different levels of gravity. The HUD is also nice enough to let you know the weight of the object. Even though the game offers a nice mix, there are portions of the game that feel as filler, or become a chore since the solutions become so apparent. It often ends up the case of being busy work rather than a real puzzle.

Recoil Games then explores the realm of logic puzzles by use of differing force fields. Blue force fields disallow non living matter through, while red force fields block carbon based life forms, more importantly, you. Other fields block laser fire (yellow), and the all encompassing white field block all matter. Things can get quite fun when you come across an intricate wave of different colored force fields and multiple types of objects at your disposal. Sometimes, there’s even more than one solution. Rarely will you get stuck because objects required to finish puzzles regenerate quickly, a good design choice. It’s also nice that the check points are plentiful and each save is located at those checkpoints so that you can come back to a puzzle with a clear head.

The charm of Rochard’s story and writing quickly turn predictable. Characters soon turn out to be not as humorous as they could have been and rewarded cut scenes turn out to be ones I wanted to skip. Rochard’s personality is hard to pin point. Rochard appears as it should be funny at face value considering the setting and character designs, yet the game only netted a few smirks from me throughout. Take Rochard for what it is, as I assume developers never intended on enthralling story, but one that at least kept you playing.

Minor quibbles aside, Rochard does a lot well. Something to note as well is the awesome music that reminds me of early John Carpenter and 80′s inspired electronic music. An early portion of the game even features music from Poets of the Fall. The puzzles are original, mechanically the controls feel good, characters are brought to life with solid voice acting, and replay value is present due to hidden items whenever Rochard ventures off the beaten path. Rochard will net you around 6 hours to complete and is well priced at $9.99. I’m surprised Sony didn’t push this game harder, it’s really good. Recoil Games came out of nowhere with this one taking me by complete surprise. Rochard is definitely worthy of what time you have.

B

It won’t be long now until a flood of new Origin accounts will be made just to play Battlefield 3 on Oct. 25, so EA and DICE have put out a trailer to reassure that there’s destruction in Battlefield 3.

How much destruction is actually in Battlefield 3? Well, I’ve seen most of everything in the trailer above except for that giant Caspian Border tower pole getting knocked over by an airstrike. I think that’s new.

It seems that Techland and Deepsilver are still working to patch the PC version to the best possible product with PC patch 1.2.1. No need for a link to download, Steam will update the game automatically.

When Dead Island first released, Steam had the developer build uploaded into their servers for download allowing players to noclip anywhere they wanted in the game. A later patch fixed that, and it’s nice to see developers supporting their game post launch.

This patch includes the following fixes:

1. Fixed running game on Steam in offline mode
2. Fixed damaged saves when a player has more than 190 items in inventory (weapon or stacked items, counting in items from Jin’s storage and player inventory). Corrupted savegames will be recovered when possible.
3. Fixed problems with unlocking “There and back again” with progress 72/72
4. Fixed duplicating weapons:
a. When throwing and dropping at one time
b. When dropping items from inventory
5. Optimized scanning for friends-process, to decrease lobby server workload
6. Fixed random freezes when playing 4 players coop no longer appear
7. Fixed issues when using medkits from inventory menu
8. Stacking items issue solved: miscellaneous items to 9999, medkits and alcohol to 30 instead of 10.
9. Added the option to disable voice chat in game.
10. Limited Jin’s storage capacity to 150
11. Fixed: disappearing items when there is no place in inventory and a player tries to get an item from Jin’s storage
12. Improved trading: items will be removed from the smallest stack instead of a random one.
13. Fixed problems with corrupted profiles, which caused the game to start with black screen and freeze.
14. Fixed levitating zombies after killing
15. Fixed not being able to show quest details in quest menu using Xbox controller

Our review of Dead Island on PC is still on its way.

[Source]

Gaijin Games’ next project after their long running Bit. Trip. series of games will revist the gameplay stylings of Bit. Trip. Runner with Runner 2. The sequel will be different in art style in contrast to the 8 bit look of Runner.

Runner 2 Concept Art

“The new art style is smooth, graphic, and somewhat cartoony… The style of Runner 2 is a huge departure from the 8-bit style of the BIT.TRIP series, but it will still be amazing nonetheless! Look out!”

Bit. Trip. Runner

Keep up with the development closely on Gaijin Games’ web blog http://www.runner2.com/

Terraria 1.1 won’t be released until near the end of this year, but even the developer is still treading down the long road to 1.1. This teaser will have to hold us over until then to the popular 2D-MineCraft-Vania game.

“I haven’t brought up the release date because I simply don’t know yet. There are a lot of things planned for this update, and just because of it’s nature, it doesn’t make sense to split it up in to smaller parts. You might think of it as being a (free) expansion pack.”

“The best I can give you for it’s release is that it probably won’t be any sooner then November, and quite possibly sometime in December.”

Couple things of note from GAF user Grimm Fandango:

Maxwell's Pink Hammer

Here come the FF7 Cloud Look A Likes (see Buster Sword)

Old Lighting

New Lighting "New Hotness"

More New Hotness

Faaaalllcor!!!

Disco Disco?

Feeling a little left out on the impressive console ports of Crysis 1 to the 360 and PS3? Well, the only answer to that on PC is more particles… thousands more.

Here’s what this mod does. But, be sure to see what DonAllenDoes.com on his personal site as well as to view a nice catalog of all the great work he does.

This mod adds  1,000′s more particles MAXIMUM PARTICLES, physics to most of the Particles, Bigger Explosions. And lots of fun.

“Forget exclusivity, THIS is why the PC version is the one to play.” – @TheDonAllen

File details:

1. Unzip the System.cfg and Chaos.pak files, Drop the System file into your Crysis folder located .

C:Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis

if theres one in there already, Simply open my System file with notepad and copy the text, and paste it in the one thats already there.

2. Drop the Chaos.pak file into your Game folder located.

C:Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\CrysisGame

3. Make sure theres no other Particle mods in there.

Download [XtremeChaosV7.zip]

“The development of Blacklight Retribution has been a hard earned labor of love and after receiving praise from both fans and media, we’re confident that our work will pay off,” said Jared Gerritzen, Creative Director at Zombie Studios. “Closed beta is another step towards a game that we know people will have a great time playing.”

“We’ve been looking forward to getting Blacklight Retribution into the hands of gamers, so we’re excited to open the game up to thousands of players,” stated Andrew Brown, Executive Producer for Perfect World Entertainment. “We are confident that many gamers out there will be pleased and will finally have a real first person shooter experience in a F2P environment.”

Note:  Not all players can be let into each phase.  We want to open the flood gates slowly, so we can monitor and fix any issues that arise. But with each coming phase, we will let more players in.

Minimum:
Windows XP/Vista/7(32bit)
Dual Core CPU
2GB RAM
256MB DX9 GPU
4GB Free HD Space
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
Broadband internet connection

Recommended:
Windows 7(64bit)
Quad Core CPU
4GB RAM
1GB+ DX11 GPU
4GB Free HD Space
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
Broadband internet connection

https://register.perfectworld.com/blacklight/

[Blacklight] 23

The midweek Steam sale is Portal 2–the critically acclaimed release from earlier this year–and it is half price. That’s right, Portal 2 is $14.99. I may not be the biggest fan of the franchise (I know, feel free to stone me in the comments) but at this price, it would be downright foolish to not purchase. Well, unless you’re waiting for the Christmas sales, since it will probably show up for less, maybe not. Portal 2 also comes with the “Peer Review” DLC.

It is also worth noting that the Portal pack is half price as well, for $17.49. The sale ends on October 6, so I would advise that you buy NOW.

Afterfall: Insanity is the project from Polish developer Intoxicate Studios, it started as “a fan project by a number of Polish gamers and professionalized mid-2008.”Apparently being Polish now in the video game industry means you have a lot to live up to now from the likes of CDProjeckt and Wild Flying Hog. The premise of the game is basically an action horror game based on the Unreal 3 engine. Intoxicate Studios says their small but aim for quality.

“We’re striving to prove that the creation of a great game by a small studio without extensive past experience is in fact possible.”

The game takes place in an alternate Afterfall universe set in an alternate version of history since the Second World War and the shocking events that occur in the year 2032.

You’ll play as a mysterious psychologist named Albert part of a team of medical scientists in charge of monitoring the fugitives’ mental stability in the claustrophobic depths of the underground.

SOE’s take on four player Left 4 Dead like co-op will soon be realized later this month after a short delay. In Pay Day: The Heist you’ll play cops vs. robbers along with three other friends pulling off some crazy heists. It was pretty fun at E3 2011 though not without a few hiccups which should all be sorted out now.

“This delay is a move to ensure players and fans of our promise and vision to produce high-caliber games that deliver the best quality game experience.”

System Requirements

Minimum Requirements

Well well well, with the impending release of Valve’s take on competitive Counter-Strike on the Source Engine (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), I thought it would be interesting as to what developers in the modding community could muster up themselves. I introduce to you CSPromod, this mod has been around since 2007 as an alternative to competitive Counter-Strike: Source. All the intricacies into gameplay have been painstakingly recreated in CSPromod, including bugs that have been incorporated into pro player gameplay in Counter-Strike 1.6.

If you own a copy of a free version of Team Fortress 2 or a paid version of Counter-Strike: Source, you’ll have all you need to install it. Simply download the .exe and install to the recommended directory.

Download (http)
Download (torrent .exe)
Download (torrent .zip)

[Official CSPromod Site]

Hilarious.

Thanks! [YouTube cb2198]

Before taking a look, it’s important to note that these beta benchmarks for Battlefield 3 are subject to change due to patches from DICE, driver updates, and retail code when BF3 releases Oct. 25.

Next, SWE Overclockers looked at Battlefield 3 on Medium on the same map, Operation Metro.

Benchmarks Courtesy of [SWEOverclockers]

A 9 minute taste of Caspian Border gameplay including Jets and Helicopters.

After raising over $2 million since its inception, the humble bundle is now offering Frozen Synapse and the Frozen Byte collection which includes one of prettiest 3D side scrollers I’ve ever seen on PC. Also, included in the bundle is Splot and Shadow Claw as pre-orders.

“Please note, while Frozen Synapse, Trine, Shadowgrounds, and Shadowgrounds: Survivor are very polished games and ready to play on all platforms, the Splot and Jack Claw bonuses are different.”

“Splot is still under development and will be added to your bundle once it is completed. Jack Claw is a prototype of a game Frozenbyte was developing, but canceled before completion.”

The Mac versions of the Shadowgrounds games require at least Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6+) and Frozenbyte games will not run on Intel integrated graphics (used in many Windows netbooks / notebooks or cheap computer systems).

“For other questions check out the Frozen Synapse FAQ and the Frozenbyte FAQ.”

As long as you pay more than the average of $4.54 you will also get the entire Humble Frozenbyte Bundle as well. Frozen Synapse itself is about a $25 value which is redeemable on Steam along with Trine.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

“I built the entire Normandy SR2 by hand. I had no plans going into this project and just made most of it up as I went. I started by making the basic interior design out of dirt, and I replaced them with the proper materials after. Once the interior was done, I built the exterior shell around it. I spawned most of the materials because it would’ve been nearly impossible to collect tens of thousands of iron and wool blocks. Even though materials were spawned, I placed every single block myself. The entire project took more than a hundred hours over the course of a couple months.”

ProDumbDog from YouTube was kind enough to provide a link so that even you can take a tour inside. http://minecraft.myservr.com

Duh dun, duh, duh dun.Ultra Settings.

PC Specs:

• NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti
• i7 2600K 4.3 Ghz
• 8 Gigs Ram

• Avg 40 FPS
• Min 27 FPS Explosions, Hectic, Drops
• Max 80 FPS In doors

For everyone who pre-ordered Battlefield 3 on Origin or bought Medal of Honor Limited Edition, the open beta for Battlefield 3 has started.

The beta will be running from September 27 – October 10. I think it is safe to assume that a good deal of us will be losing any free time that we once had. The two days of early access should provide a sizable advantage for those who will play a great deal.

The download is roughly 3.5 gigs, so I’d recommend downloading as soon as possible. Add Andrew and myself on Origin: ctrlaltkill and tomarcus.

AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview driver:

• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurations
• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Enables support for Eyefinity 5×1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations  using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Vision Engine Control Center:    User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.

Instructions:
Download and install the AMD Catalyst preview driver from the following location:

[Updated Correct Link]

AMD Catalyst 11.10 Hotfix for Windows 7  32-bit / 64-bit Edition

Although all platforms should look beautiful, this video is undisputed evidence that the PC is the platform to play Battlefield 3. Remember, you have a month to build a gaming rig before the game releases on October 25.

WHAT YOU NEED

• RE5 on PC
• Wiimote/Nunchuk
• Sensor Bar
• Bluetooth adapter
• GlovePIE (I use with Emotiv, but no clue if it’s required)
• RE5 GlovePIE config

WHAT TO DO

1. Start GlovePIE and click File–Open–re5.PIE
2. If you’re not playing at 1920×1080, change the 1920s and 1080s in the first few lines of the config to whatever respective resolution they need to be at, then click Run at the top by the green arrow. Your Wiimote should now have the first LED on if it’s synced properly.
3. Start up RE5. You now need to set the keyboard/mouse controls to look like the following pic, and make sure they’re set to default otherwise.
4. Enjoy.

Make sure your settings look like this before playing.

Some things to note:

• I recommend you play with these once you get infinite ammo just in case things glitch out mid-level.
• I might just be sitting too close to the sensor bar, but the cursor can get a bit wonky sometimes in menus, so you might use a mouse or controller to navigate them. The gameplay is spot-on, though.
• QTEs are doable with this setup, but not ideal. For the A+D icon, simply wiggle the analog stick left and right repeatedly very quickly and it’ll register, and F+V is + and A on the Wiimote.
• Wesker+Jill fight, skip it. It’s all a glorified cutscene, anyway.
• Turret levels/portions are fully playable with this control setup, but they’re highly sensitive.

For any questions/comments you can find me on Twitter: @TheDonAllen

Let me know what you think!

Ever since pre-orders went live for Star Wars: The Old Republic, most gamers were left wondering when this MMO would be releasing. Surprisingly, the release date is relatively close to what Amazon had listed as the filler date.

Today at the Eurogamer Expo, Bioware announced that SWTOR will be releasing December 20 in the United States and December 22 in Europe. Don’t forget to have that money in your account if you pre-ordered off Amazon; they don’t take out money until the item ships, so don’t let that overdraft you during the Holiday season.

In addition to the release date, Bioware also announced the pricing plan, which will look very familiar to anyone who has played WoW or Rift.

1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

With all of this out of the way, the next big question is when will early access begin for those gamers who pre-ordered SWTOR? Well, maybe that’s just the question on my mind. Leave a comment if you’re wondering about this as well, that is, if you feel so inclined.

Straight from the official Space Marine forums, Noun announced Space Marine’s first patch for the PC today. Mainly fixing the butterfly exploit. Yes. That one.“We thank you for your patience as we continue to work to ensure Space Marine is the best gaming experience possible on all platforms.”

Patch Notes:

• Added mute all functionality and push to talk
• Fixed ‘butterfly’ exploit.
• Update matchmaking parameters to search for local matches longer.
• Fixed a crash when cancelling a search
• Fixed an issue where profile progress would not be saved properly if steam cloud was disabled.

While the PS3 doesn’t get exclusivity on Call of Duty DLC, the console scored a sweet deal for Battlefield 3. The PlayStation 3 will be receiving the Battlefield expansions a week earlier than the 360 and PC, which seems smarter than the month-long timed exclusivity of the Call of Duty DLC–having to wait a month for content that is $15.00 seems a bit foolish (I’ve never bought COD DLC for that reason).

The first expansion will be Back to Karkland, which includes 4 Battlefield 2 maps redesigned with the Frostbite 2 engine. Also included are new dog tags, vehicles, persistence, and weapons. It is set for release later this year. As a die hard Battlefield 2 player, this first bit of DLC will be a treat.

Remember to check our post about the Battlefield 3 beta and PC specs here. We will see you on the battlefield later this month.

Today Valve announced two new game modes for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO). One of them might already be one of my favorite modes… Arsenal Mode Gun Game. Oh how I loved the haphazard display of battles between late joining glock users and AWPers.

“Targeted for release via Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam (for PC and Mac) in early 2012, CS: GO will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched 12 years ago.”

Now here’s some classic Gun Game for those of you unfamiliar with it from CS 1.6.

“Arsenal Mode is based on the popular Counter-Strike: Source mod Gun Game. “Arsenal: Arms Race” and “Arsenal: Demolition” add eight new maps and expand on the classic Counter-Strike gameplay.”

“Valve is working directly with creators of Gun Game to create Arsenal Mode. “We are excited that Valve reached out and is working with us to ensure Arsenal Mode is the best version of Gun Game.”, Michael Barr project lead of Gun Game.”

For more information, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/1800/

[Source: Press Release]

The other night I was playing Jamestown, and I figured it was time to cap some footage of the bonus modes. Mainly, I thought it would be enjoyable for you guys to see me get destroyed over and over. Just thought I’d warn you all that this video contains some strong language.

If anyone has requests for other games for me to cap footage for, let us know in the comments. Remember, the more difficult, the better.

DICE and EA announced today that the open beta will be live September 29 for PC, 360, and PS3 as well as PC specs. The map the beta will be on is Operation Metro set in Paris, which was the exactly the same map the closed Alpha was on. That map was horribly imblanced so hopefully we’ll actually get to see the final M-COMS for that map instead getting pushed back 90 percent of the time.

DICE has also revealed the PC requirements/minimum to which they are actually a fine balance of mid range cards.

Minimum System Requirements
OS: WINDOWS VISTA (SERVICE PACK 2) 32-BIT
PROCESSOR: 2 GHZ DUAL CORE (CORE 2 DUO 2.4 GHZ OR ALTHON X2 2.7 GHZ)
MEMORY: 2 GB
HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DIRECTX 10.1 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 SERIES, WITH ATI RADEON 3870 OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DIRECTX 10.0 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 SERIES WITH NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

Recommended System Requirements
OS: WINDOWS 7 64-BIT
PROCESSOR: QUAD-CORE CPU
MEMORY: 4 GB
HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD: DIRECTX 11 COMPATIBLE WITH 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 OR ATI RADEON 6950)
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

Hey now, hey now, don’t dream it’s over. Soon your headaches, overused bloom, blurred vision, mouse menu speeds, micro-stuttering, save back ups, black screens, and field of view problems will be gone in less than 3 clicks. Yup, this mod is that damn easy to install and it certainly won’t get you banned from Steam’s VAC [forums].

Oh, and yes it was just updated, too.

UPDATE #13 19/09/2011: v1.91 beta has just been uploaded. Here’s what’s new:

• Added a save game and profile backup and restore. Once activated, you can press F5 in-game to create a backup of your save game and profile (up to a maximum of 10, at which point, the Helper will replace the oldest backup with a new one). Important: This is not a quick-save! It only backs up what the game has saved, in case it becomes corrupted.
• Added black screen fixes – one changes the “Monitor” value in Video.scr, while the other disables Desktop Composition while Dead Island is running. These aren’t guaranteed to fix every black screen issue under the sun, but it should help with those caused from having more than one monitor.
• Slight bug fix for the vertical synchronization tweak. Shouldn’t have cased problems for a majority of cases.

Above, is a screen shot of my updated FOV to 82.5 degrees (best for 16:9). It does however, take a bit getting used to and gives a odd fish eye lens look compared to the claustrophobic default setting.

http://downloads.zafehouse.com/deadislandhelper/dih_latest.zip

[Modder's Blog]

Well, it looks like DC Universe is joining the ranks of other mediocre MMOs. DCUO is going free to play with a tiered payment plan.

Free Access – Just like it sounds. Download and play the game for free. You also get all ongoing game updates (except DLC packs).

Premium Access – This next level of access opens up to you if you spend at least $5 in the in-game store. Premium Access grants you additional benefits that improve your experience in the game, such as more inventory slots, more character slots, bank slots and more free Vault tickets. So all you have to do is pick up some cool items in the store or buy a DLC pack and you unlock Premium Access. The best part? Once you unlock Premium Access you keep it for the life of your account.

Legendary Access – With Legendary Access you can unlock the maximum level of features and benefits. To unlock Legendary Access you can pay for a $14.99 per month game pass, or save big with a discounted multi-month pass. Lifetime members are automatically granted Legendary access. Legendary Access also includes all DLC packs at no extra charge.

http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/

Find out if Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete stands the test of time.Spinning off from the popular old school RPG franchise Heroes of Might and Magic was one of the first tactical games to incorporate RPG elements such as leveling up and equipping artifacts.  The first four games in the series were created by New World Computing, the developers who also made the main Might and Magic series.  To many fans of the Heroes series part three is considered the peak of the series in terms of depth and difficulty.  Beyond the original campaign New World Computing also created two expansions that gave players new heroes, new artifacts, and new challenges.

The story focuses on Queen Catherine returning from a foreign war and finding that her father’s kingdom has fallen.  Gathering her forces Queen Catherine begins her campaign of restoration and with the aid of allies rebuilds the kingdom and defeats the dark foes that began this war.  The first expansion entitled Armageddon’s Blade continues the story with a new villain who intends to forge Armageddon’s blade in order to conquer the world.  In addition the expansion comes with several stand alone stories that expand the world of Heroes of Might and Magic III.  The second expansion, The Shadow of Death, tells of the events that led to the restoration war that began the main game.  Overall, the main story is interesting and will keep you wanting to know how the heroes team up to save the land.  The side stories are nothing special, they often focus on a power hungry individual who rises to power with either cruelty or heroic deeds.

The graphics are simple, but in a tactical game the graphics are not the primary concern.  Overall, the monsters that are used in combat are unique looking and the map you move around on is easy enough to understand.  The CG cut scenes are not that great.  Not only do they look dated, but even at the time of release (1999) they were not very impressive.  The music is simple and repetitive, but gives the game a fantasy feel that fits the settings.  The voice over is not that bad, but there is also not much of it in the game.  Aesthetically it is a little dated, but it will not hinder the enjoyment of the experience.

The game is easy to pick up and even has a tutorial in order to help new players.  The big problem with this game and what often turns people away from this franchise is the difficulty.  In almost every map you will be facing heavy odds.  The computer can be brutal even on easy difficulty and with the exception of The Shadow of Death the difficulty cannot be adjusted at all.  Many maps will take multiple reloads and replays before they can be successfully completed.  There is no singular tactic to beat a map or a campaign.  In addition some campaigns can be nearly impossible to beat without the right combination of spells or level bonuses.  This comes together to give this game massive depth in terms of strategy and allows for numerous variations in play style.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete is a great game and has one of the better storylines in tactical games.  The age of the game has not detracted from the game other than the handful of cut scenes.  This game is very easy to pick up and nearly impossible to master.  In fact there are very few who can claim to have beaten every mission without using chat codes.  Overall, if you are looking for something with old school difficulty and an interesting story then give Heroes of Might and Magic III a chance.

Verdict: Recommended (for those who can handle brutally difficult games)

Quick Hit Reviews are in no relation to CtrlAltKill’s standard F/A+ grading scale.

Codemasters has released developer diary #4 detailing the unique Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which gives players an acceleration boost to launch out of corners, and the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which adds acceleration for overtaking rival cars.

Don Allen captures a quick glimpse into the indie sci-fi platformer inMomentum due for a late Summer release from Digital Arrow. Currently the game is in a closed beta.

More about inMomentum http://momentum-game.com/

Awesome Music Composed by Composer: Gareth Coker (Primal Carnage) (Website): http://digital-arrow.com/?p=351

Follow Don Allen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thedonallen

Earlier today, Microsoft announced that they will be bringing Xbox LIVE to the PC along with their new Windows 8 OS.

Revealed earlier at E3 this year, the design will follow Windows 8′s “live tile design” in an interview with Mike Delman, vice president of global marketing for Microsoft’s interactive entertainment unit, told the Seattle Times. While Microsoft’s designs aren’t final, don’t let the tiles fool you. There will still be a traditional task-bar and start menu of course.

“We are confirming that we will be bringing Xbox LIVE to the PC with Xbox LIVE on Windows. We are very excited about Xbox LIVE coming to Windows 8.  Xbox LIVE brings your games, music, movies, and TV shows to your favorite Microsoft and Windows devices.  Bringing Xbox LIVE to Windows 8 is part of our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy.  At BUILD we are showing that it is easy for developers to create games for Windows 8 that take advantage of the power of Xbox LIVE.  We have much more detail to share about the capabilities of Xbox LIVE on Windows and look forward to the opportunity to do so in the near future.”

However, all of these capabilities will have to come with some sort of cost. A cost to PC gamers already accustomed to playing for free online, and at their own leisure. If Microsoft does get back into PC gaming, I’d like to get achievements for flying a 747 for 8 hours while on an oceanic flight to Japan, or for at least landing.

“If you want to learn more about Windows 8, you can watch the Keynote from earlier today.”

[MajorNelson]

[LATimes]

Image Credit: MajorNelson

Start building your characters in preparation for the forthcoming Diablo 3 madness!  Skill trees and character guides are now live on battle.net, so get tinkering on those points and taking a look at those rune effects. You can even link your builds for others to see. For example, here’s a Wizard Build. Another interesting piece of information is that: “In the brutal new Inferno mode, available only once the game’s been beaten on Hell difficulty, monsters outstrip players in level range. Inferno difficulty is an epic challenge intended for players who have reached the game’s level cap, and it offers epic rewards as well.”

There seems to be a ton of customization so far as the closed public beta nears, which apparently has no NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Make sure you opt in for the beta too on your battlet.net account.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard

The PC-exclusive FPS is here. Is it a faithful throwback, or a soulless imposter?

Follow me on Twitter!

For reference, my PC specs:

AMD Phenom II x4 3.5 GHz
2GB Radeon 6950 w/ unlocked shaders
4GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

As with most mods, you should read the readme file before installing. If you have no idea what this mod does, I implore you to watch this embedded video. As always, have fun. More on Fist of the North Star.

Installation:

• Extract this zip as-is into your Documents\DeadIsland\out folder. Meaning that this text file will be in the “out” folder.
• Full path: “C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\Documents\DeadIsland\out” (Or My Documents on WinXP).
• Ensure that “Data” is now a subfolder in the “out” folder. The contained files will be overriding the game’s files.

Removal:

• Unless you have other mods existing in the same folder you can simply delete the Data folder (and only the Data folder) from your Documents\out folder to restore your game. Well, and this readme.

About:

• These files will override the punch/kick strength, jump height, and strafe/move/sprint speed of the player.
• They will also override ragdoll characteristics to counteract gravity.
• Because the jump height is high enough to harm the player, I added strong health regen to each of the four characters in their respective blunt/sharp skills, this is strong enough to basically be cheating but will not keep you alive from a big fall. If you don’t want this, delete the individual skills files in Data\Skills but leave default_levels.xml.
• Fall damage is nigh impossible to turn off, I tried.
• Sorry but you’re not going to be getting any audio modifications with this, as of now there are no reliable tools to edit Dead Island’s sound banks. In the future if they are made, I will add that change.
• IntroMovies.scr disables the startup movies of the game, it’s unrelated but was already in there.
• This is optional and can be deleted without affecting the game, just a time saver.
• May be outmoded by any patches that change these files.
• Some of the contained files are named “.scr”, these are plaintext but windows believes they are screensavers, Double-clicking on them will not do you any favors.

WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

• This mod is not for use in multiplayer, and may not even work anyway, I haven’t tried.
• DI VAC Ban information: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2106453

Download: http://www.gamefront.com/files/service/thankyou?id=20769796

Here’s some footage of Hard Reset on Hard. Review forthcoming.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thedonallen

Waves is from indie developer Squid In A Box, whose aim is to create a shooter with a threshold just high enough to tease skilled players while leaving an inviting entry skill level for beginners. In essence, easy to learn hard to master. After ten years of making games for other people, Rob Hale decided to make a game for himself.

“I wanted to make an action game that didn’t punish you if you weren’t part of the twin-stick elite, but also let shooter fans really test their skills. Everything else has been abandoned in the pursuit of making the world’s best twin-stick shooter. There are no space marines in my game.”

The aim of the game is to rack up multiplier combos and set off bombs around grouped enemies in order to activate “Time Buffer” which sounds like a bullet time mechanic across five different modes. Hey, the music is pretty good and graphics and style seem cool. Keep an eye out for this one.

Waves will be available Q4 2011, for digital download on PC from squidinabox.com and Steam.

As always. Do Your Own Research

Official Website – http://www.squidinabox.com
Debut Trailer -  http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-trailer-waves/720396
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/squidinabox
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/squidinabox

It’s a rough future.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thedonallen
Stuttering is due to FRAPS

PC used:
AMD Phenom II x4 3.5ghz
2GB Radeon 6950 w/ unlocked shaders and OC’ed to 6970
4GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 64-Bit

The Hard Reset demo offers a good amount play throughout the first level, but be sure to play around with the weapon upgrades. There’s said to be about 12 of 20 weapon modes open and be sure pay attention to those elaborate upgrade menus. We need more of that. Get it on Steam here, read about what I thought here.

While the day one patch should have solved a host of issues, the PC version for North Americans on Steam remains not without its issues. According to Deep Silver’s facebook page:

“We deeply regret that an incorrect version of Dead Island was inadvertently made available to players on Steam launch in North America. We are very sorry for any issues you may have experienced while playing the game – the correct, patched version will be made available to North American players ASAP. Other territories are not affected by this situation, the fully patched game will be available on Friday as announced.”

[Updated 1:52 p.m.]

While it isn’t fair to pass judgement on the PC version while bugs are being sorted out, we’ll still give you a fair review of Dead Island. While the core mechanics of the game are solid, the experience you may be playing now could be better with a patch as soon as possible according to developer Techland.

I decided to capture early parts of Dead Island on PC to give those weary about purchasing it on their rigs. Early in the video I show some of the video settings and some of the environments of Dead Island. I’m getting about 75-90 frames per second.

I’m running this all on:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Memory: 8 GIGS RAM

I think that’s about it.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thedonallen

At the start of summer, I was saddened by the loss of my computer mouse.

The mouse was a Logitech G5, and it served me well for over 5 years. I used it when I played Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, and many other games. The mouse had an ergonomic design, on-the-fly DPI changing, and programmable buttons. Unfortunately, when the mouse died, I had no funds to purchase a new mouse, so I had to use a stock HP laser mouse. After using the HP mouse for several months, I realized it was time to purchase a REAL mouse. My criteria: programmable buttons, DPI switching, different user profiles, ergonomic design, and precision control; I need this at a good price too.

At E3 this year, I was lucky enough to meet with Razer, and I got hands on with a lot of their new products. This experience paired with good word-of-mouth marketing, led to the decision to try out Razer—also Andrew had a brand new DeathAdder that was still in the box. However, does the DeathAdder live up to the hype?

First and foremost, let’s talk packaging. The DeathAdder’s packaging is clean and pleasing to look at. The box has a flap that can open so you can see the mouse and say hi. Inside the package, Razer includes some stickers, a certificate of authenticity, and more pamphlets than a Jehovah’s Witness.

Installation was extremely simple; just plug in the mouse, go to the Razer support site, download and install the drivers, then reset your PC. After that, I was able to set up my custom profiles, which includes DPI settings (450,900, 1800, or 3500), polling rate (125Hz, 500Hz, 1000Hz), logo and scroll button light, and button programming. In addition to these things, there are options for sensitivity, and you can even get into specifics and change the X and Y axis to different sensitivities. Also, if you set a button to Advanced Functions, you can make the button into a custom macro. As you can tell, this mouse has a great deal of customization, but let’s get down to how the mouse feels and performs.

The mouse has a 2-piece body. The lower half being made up of shiny plastic and it houses the two side buttons and the stock switch for profile switching. The upper half has a matte finish with a non-slip coating, to keep your fingers from sliding off when sweaty from a long marathon of gaming. The mouse has an ergonomic design, and it felt good after hours of gaming—by hours, I mean an all-nighter of Counter-Strike: Source. The main buttons were set up for easy access; however, I did have a problem with the buttons, but I will get to that in my cons section.

The mouse has low latency and is extremely precise. My main profile was set to 1000Hz with a DPI of 1800. Once I found my preferred mouse sensitivity, I noticed that the performance was exceptional. In Counter-Strike: Source my headshot ratio has gone up considerably; also when playing Battlefield Bad Company 2, the sniper sway was negated almost completely by the precision and added control of the DeathAdder and its 3.5G infrared sensor. The mouse performed well in Rift as well, it kept up with the game, and there was no lag whatsoever. The ultraslick material on the mouse feet lives up to Razer’s claims, providing an experience that has no interruptions from sticky mouse feet—something that happened quite frequently with the HP mouse and even with the Logitech G5. Also, the braided mouse cable is near 7 feet long (no snags or worry of unwanted desk interference) and if it is anything like the braided cord on my old G5, it should hold up for years. Now with the pleasantries out of the way, it is time to focus on the shortcomings of the Razer DeathAdder.

The DeathAdder is victim to a few design flaws that may not be deal breakers, but they warrant mention in this review. The ability to change to 3500 DPI, although helpful in certain situations, provided movement that was unnecessary for someone who isn’t anal about quick movement. The shiny plastic underbody is easily coated by dust after sweat is left on the mouse, but that problem is easily remedied with proper mouse care. The stock button setup on the DeathAdder has a major flaw, and that is that it lacks proper buttons for profile switching on the top of the mouse. The only button that can switch profiles is located on the underside of the mouse. The only way to remedy this is by changing the side buttons to that task; however, you have to switch this in every profile, which is extremely annoying. This problem is compounded since the ability to make custom macros isn’t very appealing when the side buttons are the best choices for that function. While the mouse has a decent weight, I am a fan of a slightly heftier mouse, and I wish that the DeathAdder had the ability to insert weights in order to give the mouse the heft that I desire. Lastly, the DeathAdder tracks motion when lifted which can prove annoying when making wider swiping motions.

The Razer DeathAdder is an exceptional mouse, and it is just the tip of the Razer iceberg as it is part of the Essential line—the Expert and Elite lines are its older brothers. The mouse boasts a modest price point of $59.99, which is surprisingly low when you think about the features that this mouse includes. Even though the mouse has some shortcomings, they shouldn’t change anyone’s mind about whether or not to purchase, since most mice in this price range don’t offer all these features. The DeathAdder may not be the most action-packed mouse in Razer’s lineup, but if you don’t have $100+ to spend on a top-tier gaming mouse, then this is a wonderful product. You can purchase the DeathAdder here; however it is currently on back order, so try Amazon—see, my review has some weight. Also, since the HP mouse failed to perform, you will be able to see the punishment that it endures later in the week.

A-

Took me a couple times…. then I started thinking like an Aug.

The Debug Menu allows you to manipulate the game (no health regen, infinite power, infinite ammo, AI options, UI options) and has a “Shop” feature, which lets you spawn yourself augmentations, money, weapons, weapon mods and other in-game items, as well as tons of debug options which you probably should leave alone.

1. Navigate into ..\Steam\steamapps\common\deus ex – human revolution\ (finding these folders depend on where you have Steam installed) and make a backup of patch0.000 though you can have Steam redownload it by doing verify integrity if you want the original file back.
2. Unpack the download into the same folder, so you’ll have a “new”, modded patch0.000 file. If you don’t need a backup, over-write the existing file.
3. Play!

The modding has just begun!

Download

via [Eidos]

Dead Island is pretty darn big. I’m sure you’re going to get lost and my scatter brained self will, too. Rather than leaving you out to dry, Brady Games have announced that they will be doing a detailed map app for every square mile of the island known as Banoi in the game. You can scrunch, squeeze, and zoom in on the maps to your heart’s content.

Features:

• Explorable maps of every area in the game
• Locations of all collectibles, including:
• ID Cards
• Banoi Herald excerpts
• Investigation Tapes
• Objective Completion tracking
• Official music from the game

The Dead Island Map App will be available for $2.99 from the iTunes App Store on Sept. 6, 2011.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (PS3)
As an RPG junkie, I would have to say this game is first on my list. Disgaea is one of my favorite game series this generation. I know it has been around since before the PS3, but I started with Disgaea 3. The writing is humorous and silly. The gameplay is deep and gives the player different ways to tackle the same fight. The visuals for Disgaea 4 are getting an upgrade, so the sprites will be higher resolution. If you are an RPG junkie with a PS3, and you like games that have hundreds of hours of playability, then Disgaea 4 may be the game you have been waiting for.

Dark Souls (PS3/360)
Two complaints that I hear far too much from gamers are that modern games are too easy, and that developers hold your hand too much. Well, enter Dark Souls, the sequel to 2009s controller-breaking, rage-inducing game, Demon’s Souls. Dark Souls is a game where it will only take one mistake to completely derail any progress a player is making, however, this makes for an experience that is tough yet completely refreshing. The large bosses and elaborate fights will make for a gaming experience that shouldn’t be missed.

Uncharted 3 (PS3)
If you have a PlayStation 3, then this comes as a no-brainer. Naughty Dog have developed two absolutely stunning entries in this franchise already, and Uncharted 3 looks like it will continue this proud tradition. Uncharted 3 is a game that truly pushes the limits of what a console can do, but manages to maintain a consistent framerate while making this push. The series has been known for having wonderful characters, excellent, playful banter amongst characters, and fun, inventive storylines that balance suspense with blockbuster action sequences. If you own a PS3 and don’t buy this game, then I hope you just use the PS3 to watch Blu-rays.

Gears of War 3
This is in the list just so I don’t get shit for not putting it on my list. I hear Gears of War is a game. I hear a lot of people like it. I have the first two games; maybe I should get on it.

Resistance 3
In Resistance 3, gamers will play as soldier Joseph Capelli. The third Resistance game follows Capelli’s Kerouac-esqe journey from Oklahoma to New York. Along the way, Capelli will meet other survivors of the Chimeran invasion. The journey won’t be without its fair share of bloodshed. Resistance 3 will be reintroducing many of the crazy guns from the franchise, and most guns have newer, crazier alternate fires. Actually, his journey isn’t very much like Kerouac’s at all…

The follow up to the well received tactical multiplayer shooter Red Orchestra released back in 2006 is now in beta for those who pre-order the game on Steam. The original game brought in gameplay mechanics such as bullet drop, more realistic tank play, iron sights, and threw away regenerating health points for certain wounds on the body. In Red Orchestra 2, wounds must be bandaged to stop the bleeding. These are all aspects of what make the game so appealing as a nice palate cleanser to the bread and butter dude bro shooters out there. Also, the gameplay and graphics look even sharper running on an advanced Unreal Engine 3 compared to its older counter part in 2006.

Of note is that composer Sam Hulick, composer from the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 games, has been chosen to score the game.

Pre-orders through Steam, you will get you into the beta and 10 percent off when it releases September 13.

Techland’s zombie survivalist game Dead Island is less than a week away from its world wide launch, September 9, and Deep Silver has just released Dead Island’s launch trailer earlier today. Remember that music in the first trailer? Well, it’s back and it seems that Deep Silver have brought things full circle.

If you haven’t already read our hands on co-op preview of Dead Island, please do so here to see what we thought at E3.

Live from the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, WA – GameSpot brings you the PAX Prime 2011 Keynote with David Jaffe. Be sure to check out the abridged version, too!

Most of everything we need to know about Hard Reset was announced today by developer Flying Wild Hog, namely its $29.99 price, September 13 release date, and its generous requirements to run on your PC rig.If the preview build of what I’ve played of Hard Reset wasn’t convincing enough, here are a couple more screens that might push you over the edge to pre-order Hard Reset for an additional 10% off the buying price. If that wasn’t enough, I’d recommend taking a look at GiantBomb’s Quick Look of Hard Reset that they were allowed to capture much earlier than other sites. Considering GiantBomb’s audience, which is mostly console players, the comments on the game were generally favorable aside from the “just another shooter remark,” which basically what Hard Reset is, but to me it’s a different modernized old school shooter that I find enjoyable even after playing big budget AAA modern first person shooters.

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon 64
RAM: 2 GB
Graphics card: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS / ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 4 GB free hard drive space

RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel Quad Core 2.3 GHz / AMD Phenom II x4 2.5 GHz
RAM: 3 GB
Graphics card: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 4 GB free hard drive space

As always you can do your own research on Hard Reset directly on their updated website.

Impressions on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Disgaea 4, as well as talk about publishers and developers dumbing down sequels such as the Splinter Cell series.

Runic Games unveiled the price point for Torchlight II today, for $19.99, the same price as the original Torchlight. What’s also interesting is that if one were to read between the lines, “no further purchases needed.” To a gamer today that means your $19.99 purchase is content complete unlike what some other companies are doing by holding content back.

“It’s always been our goal to provide exceptional value for the price,” says Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games. “Everyone who wants to play Torchlight II will be able to comfortably afford to do so, and they’ll be able to play with their friend online or via a LAN, or play single player offline, all with no further purchases.”"

Runic Games also announced the fourth playable class of Torchlight II, the magic-wielding Embermage. The mysterious Embermage joins the previously announced Engineer, Outlander, and Berserker classes. This marks the culmination of a month long buildup introducing each class to players.

Torchlight II will release for PC in 2011.

[Check Our Hands On With Torchlight 2]

The latest patch for Deus Ex: Human Revolution is now live via Steam which addresses lengthy loading times on some computers by about 50 percent. I’m happy to say that I’ve tried it and the load times are considerably shorter than 30 second load times even on my i7 2600K 4.6 CPU.

This latest patch addresses:

• A frequent issue for AMD/ATI hardware users that can cause the game to crash on startup.
• Improvements to loading speed. The speed increase depends on machine spec and settings, but loading time improvements of over 50% have been measured on some machines.

Some control fixes:

• Diagonal movement is no longer faster as intended.
• Adjustments have been made to mouse sensitivity in response to user feedback.
• Mouse sensitivity for X and Y axis can still be configured separately, but is now consistent when set to default settings.
• The range of settings for mouse sensitivity has been adjusted to provide for more accurate adjusting.
• The default mouse sensitivity has been altered to be somewhat less sensitive.

I like WhiteRa, but no toss? Seems like quarter finals to me.

The article opens with Antoniades claiming “we’ve got a plan and we’re not changing it” a simple, but arrogant statement that should instantly bring ire to those who do not want the radical changes to the Devil May Cry franchise.  The article is padded with quotes that focus upon the idea that this reboot will play and feel like the classic games in the series.  While Antoniades claims it will “feel like a proper Devil May Cry, when you have the controller in your hand”, the abundant flaws in the game leave skeptics questioning and irate fans raging.

Ninja Theory has made some dramatic changes to Devil May Cry with the new reboot.  This includes a new graphical design, a complete redesign of Dante, and gameplay that looks far less smooth than the previous titles.  In fact, the article contains a video that shows off the new combat in Devil May Cry which pales in comparison to the look of combat from Devil May Cry 4.  After a brief comparison of game footage can clearly show that this game does not stand up to the previous title.

This is compounded by the change in the frame rate from 60fps, the standard of the Devil May Cry series, to 30fps.  No matter what you do graphically the frame rate reduction will never look as smooth or polished when it is running at half the speed of the previous game.  No aesthetic design can ever make up for a lack in frame rate.  One of the excuses for the reduction in frame rate is to allow stages to transform as the game progresses.  This is not an excuse, it is a copout   Nothing looks smoother or better in a lower frame rate.  All the reduction in frame rate shows is the incompetence of Ninja Theory.

The claim that this game will be “Devil May Cry in essence” is not reassuring, as the same could be said of any game the copies the feel or style of the original Devil May Cry games.  In addition fans cannot feel good about the “dozens of meetings” about character design that have led to the drastic changes in Dante’s design and the poorly stylized design of the game.  No one was complaining about Dante’s design.  He is a beloved character and fans want him to look, play, and act just as he always has.

If fans were hoping to be reassured by this interview then they will be disappointed and this interview will only leave them even angrier.  Claiming that “the people who are skeptical secretly want to like it” shows how out of touch Antoniades is with the Devil May Cry fanbase.  No fan wants to endorse this game, while fans may try it as it is part of the series they love that does not mean that they want to like it.  Fans would not be upset with a remake, reboot, or prequel, but fans want that game to look and feel like a Devil May Cry game.  No matter what you do to a series, fans will eventually accept it, but only if the characters they love remain unchanged.

As there is no set release date, at this time, for Devil May Cry the fans can only hope that things will turn around for the game.  However, if the Eurogamer interview is any indication then this game will live up to the fan anger that has come with each trailer.

The original interview article can be found here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-17-dmc-sceptics-secretly-want-to-like-it

League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Talon, the Blade’s Shadow with expert strategy and tactics provided by Riot Games.

Play League of Legends FREE at http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=talonspotlight

Coming out in time to tie in with the movie Captain America: Super Soldier arrives on the Xbox 360 with a bang.  The game takes place within the movie universe and tells the story of Captain America and his team attacking a Hydra base during World War II.  The game takes many cues from Batman: Arkham Asylum, which makes this one of the better superhero games.

The game begins with a tutorial mission where Captain America is fighting in the trenches and assisting US soldiers.  The game then airdrops you into the outskirts of a Hydra base.  The base is made up of a small town, a large mansion, and several bunkers.  As you progress in the game you will find that the sewers connect to other areas in the game and you can backtrack in order to power up Captain America or to find various collectables.  While there are no major story twists it is interesting to see how Captain America and his team battle substantial odds and beat down the nearly endless minions of Hydra.

The gameplay is great, the controls are very responsive and it is easy to pull off impressive looking moves.  The game does have quite a bit of exploration and has very few respawning enemies.  The collectables are easy to find and there are extra spots for them to spawn if you missed them earlier.  Most of the collectables are for the sake of achievements; however, the schematics that can be found make it easier to beat down the various enemies you come across in the game.  There is a minor stealth element, wherein Captain America can instantly knock out a surprised enemy, but there is no stealth only sections and even though you save other soldiers there is no escort mission.  Quick time events are few and far between.  The majority of the QTEs are done during fights and are nothing more than rapid button presses.  The only annoying part about the QTE moments is that most bosses require you to perform a QTE to end the fight and if you mess up the boss will regain health and you must beat them down to that point again.  Finally, there are moments where you can control turrets which add some variety to the gameplay.

The graphics look very good and the game supports 3D for those who have 3DTVs.  Captain America looks just like his movie counterpart and has some very accurate alternate costumes.  In addition the various villains are designed to fit in the movie world which adds notable comic book villains such as Madam Hydra and Iron Cross into the game.  There is a good amount of décor in the base and mansion, but the majority of the area is designed to look beatdown from war.  This makes things look more realistic due to the lack of décor in the bombed out areas.  Overall, everything looks great and there are very few graphical glitches.

The sound design is also very solid.  The music fades in and out with the action and the ambient effects are passable.  The voice acting is very good, Chris Evans gives it his all as Captain Americaand you can tell he was having fun voicing the character.  In addition most of the team is voiced by their movie actors with a few exceptions (Red Skull, Armin Zola, and Howard Stark).  The replacement voices are fairly good, but the actor for Zola plays him differently than the Toby Jones in the movie.  Some of the most amusing parts of the voice acting are the various comments made members of Hydra during the challenge mode.  It is obvious that care was taken with the design of the audio in Captian America: Super Soldier.

The game progression is very straightforward and after going through the game once you will know what to expect.  The only reason to go back through the story is for achievement gathering or attempting a higher difficulty.  As you progress in the game you will also unlock various challenges that can be accessed from the main menu.  The challenges are fun, but add very little to the game.  The majority of the achievements can be gathered in the first play through with little trouble.  Overall the game will run about ten to twelve hours, more if you are hunting the collectables or achievements.  The challenge mode will add a little more to the time to the game.

Captain America: Super Soldier mixes combat, exploration, and story with fantastic results.  The game has great controls, nice graphics, well designed audio, and enough action to keep the player coming back for more.  The major downside of the game is that it is linear and the challenges do not add much to the game.  If you are a fan of the movie or the comic book you will enjoy this game.  If you loved Batman: Arkham Asylum then you will also enjoy Captain America: Super Soldier.  There are not many good super hero games, but Captain America: Super Soldier is one of the very few exceptions.  It is very fun to play and after it ends you wish there was more.  Captain America: Super Soldier is highly recommended and is very much worth a run.

Pros:

-Gameplay is fun and easy to get into

-Lots of exploration

-Great voice acting featuring movie cast members

Cons:

-Feels short

-Limited upgrades

-Only 10 Challenges

Anyway, Fouts notes some of the improvements that have been made to the game:

We’ve polished a lot of aspects of the game along the way to get it approved including seamless quicksaving, better controller remapping, and better cinematics transitions. I’ve also jacked up the supported max resolution of the game to 1680×1050.

With these improvements in place as well as the gun-stacking mechanic, it’s time to get excited and wait. Serious Sam Double D will be out on Steam and other services for $7.99 on August 30.

I will admit, from time to time, I look at PC gaming through rose-colored lenses, but with the rise of League of Legends, Starcraft II, and MMOs, I don’t think anyone thought PC gaming would die any time soon. The gesture is nice, but maybe a tad hyperbolic.

In this message, Razer announced that there is something in the works for August 26. This seems like it would be a product announcement, I mean Razer does release products–Wow, I can be dense. I guess all we can do is wait until the 26th and follow up on this story. Now, we contain our excitement.

Looks like the Ukraine Team dominated Valve’s own first ever Dota 2 Championship.

The International, the inaugural Dota 2 Championships held at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany over the past five days, has concluded with team “Na’Vi” from Ukraine taking first place and the $1 million grand prize.

The event was viewed by millions via the live broadcasts, and the live audiences via the tournament at Gamescom swelled to fill the enormous International pavilion and surrounding area of Hall 7 on the final days.

Valve has confirmed that it will be holding another International next year (exact location and date still to be announced), and is in discussions with organizers of upcoming Dota events to offer Dota 2 during its beta phase.

The International featured the 16 best Dota teams in the world competing in the Dota 2 Championships through a group stage, double elimination playoff format over the course of Cologne’s five-day trade show. In addition to the cash prizes awarded by Valve, Nvidia provided all the hardware  for the event plus hardware prizes for the winning team.

Dota 2 will be available for the PC and Mac later this year. For more information on The International and Dota 2, please visit http://www.dota2.com/

With less than a month until release, NIS America has unveiled the Official Trailer for Disgaea 4. The trailer may be over 5 minutes long, but it is filled with all the information any new or returning Disgaea player needs to know, including: an easy point of entry, limitless gameplay, the ability to invade a friends world, and huge crazy battles. For those not familiar with the Disgaea series, here is a slight rundown. The games are Strategy RPGs with a deep play style, humorous dialogue, and ridiculous characters that happen to have the most insane dispositions. If you are the type of gamer who likes to purchase games that will last 300+ hours, this is the series for you. Disgaea is exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and will be available September 6, 2011.

Disappointed with the first Trine’s lack of online co-op, this trailer for its sequel makes me happy. Game’s beautiful, too.

The sequel to GameSpot.com’s Best Downloadable Game of E3 2009, Trine 2 takes the first game’s beloved triad–the powerful knight, the swift rogue, and the crafty wizard–and puts them into an all-new adventure filled with more action, more puzzles, and the introduction of online support for the series’s popular cooperative 3-person gameplay.

Coming soon for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and PC.

For more information, visit:
http://www.trine2.com

Skyrim will be using Steamworks according to the validity of @ElderScrolls Twitter feed.

via [NeoGAF]

I don’t think I’m as mad about Origin anymore.

Info from the [NeoGAF] thread. The OP has summed up all the info thus far.

Battlefield 3

• Developer: DICE
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
• Release Date: October 25, 2011 US
• Open Beta: September 2011
  • Medal of Honor LE/Tier 1 Edition: 48-hour early access
• Game Modes
  • Single Player Campaign
  • Co-Op Mode
    • 10 maps
    • Online
    • 2 Players
    • Tie into SP story
  • Multiplayer
    • 24 players console, 64 players PC (32 in Rush mode)
    • Conquest
    • Conquest 64 (PC Only)
    • Rush
    • Squad Rush
    • Team Deathmatch
    • Squad Deathmatch
    • 9 total maps excluding “Back to Karkand” pack
      • Caspian Border
        Operation Metro
• Multiplayer Customization

All Battlefield vs Call of Duty discussion belongs here: Modern Warfare 3 Versus Battlefield 3 Garbage Thread

Latest News/Updates

• Commo Rose Confirmed
• [Gamescom]PS3 Co-op stage demonstration
• New MP Trailer and Co-op Footage Tuesday, 4v4 TDM in Forest Map, Co-Op on PSN
• TDM rumored to be at Gamescom
• 64 players confirmed at Gamescom
• [BF3 Alpha]LAV Thermal Vision footage
• [BF Twitter]Beta launches early September
• BF3 Preorders up 2000% over BF2
• [BF Twitter]Find BF3 at Gamescom
• [EA UK Forum]Battlefield 3 will not be on Steam
• [BF3 Alpha] Terrain Deformation
• Gamepads supported, no aim assist on PC
• BF3 Co-op, Conquest Modes to be Revealed at Gamescom 2011
• [BF Blog]Detailing pre-order items for Battlefield 3

Battleblog Posts

• Battleblog #6: Building Battlefield 3 from the gun out
• Battleblog #5: Years worth of unlocks and rewards in Battlefield 3
• Battleblog #4: Up Close And Personal
• Battleblog #3: With An Army By Your Side
• Battleblog #2: With A Bit Of Class
• Battleblog #1: Lars Gustavsson on DICE’s new multiplayer philosophy in Battlefield 3

GAF Threads

• [Gamescom] New Battlefield 3 MP Trailer – “Caspian Border”
• Battlefield 3 Requires Origin, even for retail purchased copies
• Battlefield Battleblog #5: Persisting Persistance
• Priority access to the Battlefield 3 Beta (alpha testers email) [Or Free DS2/ME2/MoH]
• EA: Battlefield 3 to use Online Pass due to ‘server costs’, not to punish consumers
• Battlefield 3 Alpha Test Invites Going Out [Psyduck And Conquest At GamesCom]
• Battlefield 3 – Snipers will have Scope Reflection & Sway
• Battlefield 3: E3 2011 Gameplay Trailers
• Battlefield 3: Fault Line Series (Campaign Trailer) [Up 4: More Pre-Order Goodies]
• Battlefield 3 – Gameplay Debut [Update 2: First Direct Feed Screenshot In OP]
• Game Informer: Battlefield 3 – New Thread of Details

Trailers/Footage

• Caspian Border Gameplay – Jets and Conquest
• Paris Multiplayer Gameplay
• Thunder Run Tank Gameplay
• E3 Campaign Trailer
• Operation Metro Multiplayer Gameplay
• E3 Frostbite 2 Features
• Back to Karkand Pwned Special
• Full Length “Fault Line” Gameplay
• “My Life”

If you are a PC gamer, sometimes a mouse and keyboard can’t cut it. This is mainly the problem with platformers, since they feel better with a controller as opposed to the PC norm. One quick solution was to use a PlayStation 3 controller with the provided USB cable and downloading the MotionJoy drivers. However, this is where the problem lies if you later switch to an Xbox 360 controller.

The other day, while playing LIMBO on the PC, the game would freeze after jumping and I would have to unplug the controller to resolve the issue, just to have it happen again. Luckily, the LIMBO forums on Steam had a solution for this problem. If you have the MotionJoy drivers installed (this is on a Windows 7 PC, so it should be similar menus to get to where you need to go) go to Control Panel > Uninstall a Program, and then find the MotionJoy drivers and delete them.

After this, go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager and find the Xbox 360 controller that you have plugged in and select it. Under the controller, the MotionJoy driver will still show up, so click it and select Uninstall.

With that finished, then you shouldn’t have to worry about the controller freezing games anymore. This issue seemed to be caused by the rumble feature of the controller. If you have any other issues, leave them in the comments, and I’ll see if I have any other solutions.

Sources [MotionJoy] [Steam Forums]

If you’re not going to GamesCom to witness Conquest mode, jets, or to find out whether there will be commander mode in Battlefield 3 then zh1nt0′s livestream will be the closest to a live QnA panel as you can get without traveling to GamesCom.

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

You´re welome to join me and Gustav Halling on a livestream at 11:40 from the 18th to the 20th of August live from Gamescom!

Other than that, I will use my iphone filming skillz0rz to bring you updates on what´s being done, said and what is going on over at gamescom

The EAUK has a very special place in a very black and cold part of my heart but since we love you with a lot of passion, we will do our best to answer your questions .

Global Battlefield Community Manager

www.twitter.com/zh1nt0

Dungeon crawlers get ready to drop down on your knees and start crawling because ClaDun X2 is coming. For those of you not familiar with ClaDun, here is our review of the game.

ClaDun X2 will feature Ran-geons, New-geons, and Tri-geons. Although that doesn’t sounds like much, with the random generation system, it turns into ENDLESS content. There are also systems in place for even more customization, including changing weapons, your character, and the background music.

I, for one, will gladly jump back into the world of Arcanus Cella. The game will be releasing via PSN on the August 30, so make sure you buy some kneepads, because you’ll be dungeon crawling for a long time.

I went of the ESEA facebook page and low and behold, look… it’s Torbull at Valve turning one of their valves… hrm…. all of this looks to be almost confirmed…

What can I say? It’s been a long time coming! Just today news from the VALVe office has emerged as our own Craig “Torbull” Levine has taken the trip down to supposedly “help develop” the new version of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO). Is this VALVe reaching out to the community, recognizing the competitive community?

News first arrived about the new version on the ESEA.net Facebook Page, saying:

“Counter Strike: Global Operation… More info tomorrow!”

Jess Cliffe, one of the original creators of Counter-Strike, was seen posting on the SteamPowered forums, saying “Global Offensive.”

Rumors:

• Planned to be released Q1 2012
• Focuses on 5v5 competition
• Press release within 24 hours from VALVe
• Plays on an updated source engine
• Individual & Team rankings
• New Guns added
• New Grenades
• Dust & Aztec major revamp
• Spamming still viable
• Ammo is free

We can only hope and wait in anticipation as more details are revealed and are made public. As always, keep it tuned to ESEANews.com and the ESEA.net Facebook Page for more info!

[Sources]

Bunch of links from this thread “more info tomorrow”
https://www.facebook.com/ESEA.net
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment…_headquarters/
http://www.cadred.org/Forums/Thread/154712/
http://eseanews.com/index.php?s=news&d=comments&id=9967

Taking a step back into the 8-bit era Breath of Death VII brings old school RPG fun to the PC.  Breath of Death VII originally was an indie game for the Xbox 360 and has been faithfully brought over to PC.  However, on Steam Breath of Death VII comes with Cthulhu Saves the World, the other old school stylized RPG by Zeboyd Games.

The story follows Dem, a skeleton who joins up with a ghost, a vampire, and a zombie to explore the ruined world.  The story is very simple, but the comedic dialogue is what keeps the game interesting.  Not only is the basic dialogue of the game amusing, but there is the ability for the characters to discuss the situation from the game menu.  There is even some new and modified dialogue in order to make reference to the new release.  The humor is what will keep you coming back to this game even with the short play time.

The game plays like any other RPG, with exploration and turn based battles.  You travel around the world exploring dungeons and fighting random monster encounters until you come across the boss of the dungeon.  In the process you will gain levels and gather new items and equipment.  One of the differences that is added in Breath of Death VII is that each area has a limited amount of random encounters and upon defeating all the monsters of the area you can travel unimpeded.  To speed this process up you can choose to fight monsters from the game menu rather than waiting for them to attack.  The game also includes a bonus dungeon which is very difficult and score attack mode, wherein the play is rewarded for beating bosses while under leveled.

The graphics are done in a throwback 8-bit style.  The game resembles the classic Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) games for the NES.  The stylization makes navigating around the world easy and keeps things simple.  The music on the other hand is far better than old 8-bit audio, but features the simple loops that video game music had back then.  Overall, the design gives the game a nice retro look without the midi music and endless palette swapping.

If you are looking for an old school stylized RPG with some very funny moments then you cannot go wrong with Breath of Death VII.  The game is great (even with a 6-8 hour story) and includes an extra play mode and variable difficulty to keep things interesting.  Breath of Death VII is highly recommended for PC and Xbox.

Good:

-Old School style

-Full of humor

Bad:

-Wish it was longer

Hooray! Terraria is now updated to version 1.0.6 and there are a ton of graphical changes as well as new items and enemies. I’m still waiting however for full steam server support and join-able sessions directly from your friends list.

Full notes on the following link as well as helpful videos and reactions from truly hardcore Terraria players.

via [TerrariaOnline]

Spec Ops co-op returns in Modern Warfare 3 with all-new Survival mode.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look into the design process of League of Legends: Dominion. Watch as members of our design team, and more of your favorite Riot personalities, explain their goals and objectives when constructing this exciting new game mode!

Dominion will be shown at PAX 2011 this month!

Sign up and play League of Legends for free: https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/index

You’d be hard pressed to find a first person shooter exclusive to the PC these days, even more so one that does take advantage of one’s hard spent cash on a PC gaming rig. As Flying Wild Hog’s debut game, Hard Reset came off as a old school first person shooter refined for the modern fps gamer. Instead of carrying nine different weapons bound to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or 9 keys, you’re instead armed with an assault rifle and an electricity gun. In lieu of wild types of guns is the ability for both of your two weapons to transform at will into for example a rocket launcher, black hole grenade, shotgun, tesla gun, or electro bolt, etc. There’s plenty of player choice with up to 5 different modes for each gun, with each of their own secondary firing modes. The more upgrade points you get, the further you can upgrade your two main guns into a more efficient killing apparatuses.

Does it look that good on PC?

Yep. Hard Rest is a very pretty game to look at, and I found myself staring out into the sprawling world seemingly ripped out of Blade Runner before moving onto the next piece of eye candy. When it was announced that Hard Rest would be a PC exclusive I had my doubts, but this game is definitely pushing my Core i7 2600K and GeForce 560 Ti on max settings limiting me to only 30-40 fps. The lighting is fantastic, especially noteworthy is the use of different colored neon lighting rigged up in each district of the city. This lighting gives it a “alien noire” vibe, ahem. This cyberpunk world is dark, brooding, and dangerous but not without quirkiness and secrets behind every half cracked wall. There’s a hint of humor if you look in the right places and read some of the off beat advertisements. There are a ton of secrets to find, but most of them are simply placed in a branching path in plain sight. The textures are detailed as hell, and the game’s skyboxes are teeming with flying cars, transports, and animated signs that you’d totally miss if you didn’t look up.

Dead Space UI?

To add to the presentation, the UI in this game rips out Dead Space’s virtual 3D interactive menus and makes them better. You can now actually interact with every screen, prompt, and store without breaking the flow of the game. Just as if you’re aiming at an enemy, your crosshair becomes your cursor and once you leave that store your cursor turns back into your gun. It’s small features like this that make ponder why other PC shooters haven’t adapted this earlier. Every shooter needs this!

It’s pretty hard…

Hard Reset is quite challenging on hard difficulties, and with no multiplayer of any sort it’s meant for multiple replays. At the end of each mission you’re graded on time, deaths, N.A.N.O. collected, secrets, achievements, enemies killed, environmental kills, objects destroyed, damage done, and damage taken cumulating into your mission score. There’s no regenerating HP, but there are regenerating shields which take forever to regenerate… FOREVER (until you upgrade the recharge time). Even on Normal the enemy HP is a fair bit too high.

Most of the firefights consisted of hordes of tiny robots followed by larger gorilla like robots that just love to ram you if you happen to be standing in the same spot unloading everything you’ve got into it. Flying Wild Hog makes circle strafing and running backwards a strategy again as well as using exploding enemies against other enemies while corralling them into easily digestible parts. Even though you don’t fight any humans at all,  I’d love to see what an electric bomb would do to human flesh or see the flashing outline of a skeleton posing with arms and legs in mid-air.

So what?

Is it worth your money? Well, the four level Hard Reset preview build only took under an hour to finish on normal and I’ve had a solid experience from what I played. Visuals are outstanding and the game feels great, which is important for any shooter. While the comic cut scene driven story is very lacking, the gameplay somewhat makes up for it.

Hard Reset is coming this September to a PC in front of you.

Personally I’d go Shadow well… because it sounds cool.

Here are some of the differences and background. “The Jedi Consular wields that power with an even hand studying the mysteries of the Force. They use their knowledge to bring peace, but when words fail, their understanding of the Force makes them dangerous foes. Choose your Consular’s path — become the strong, silent hand of the Jedi Council as a Shadow, or immerse yourself in the mysteries of the Force as a Sage, healing and empowering your allies.”

So what would you choose? Study wisely http://www.wikiswtor.com/Jedi_Consular

Well that was fast. Usually PC gamers have to wait a couple of months after the initial release of the console version. Good on Warner Bros. Interactive and Super Giant Games to capitalize on the buzz Bastion has been receiving lately.

I remember checking out Bastion at E3 this year and loving every bit of it while speaking to the voice actor for the narration of the game. One of the best original games to come out this year pulling elements out of Diablo II.

Bastion is available now for pre-order on Steam for $14.99 and will debut later on other PC distribution services later this month.

The PC version will be DRM free, Steamworks clouds saves, achievements, leaderboards (Steam only), full 1080p art, re-mappable PC control scheme, and gamepad support.

Also, just-released Bastion Original Soundtrack!

To pre-order Bastion on Steam, visit its product page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100

Verdict: B+

Games based on movie licenses usually are terrible.  Back to the Future is a prime example of a movie that had terrible games based upon the license.  However, Telltale Games have come forward to break that tradition.  Back to the Future: The Game is a point and click adventure that continues the story of Doc, Marty, and Hill Valley.

The story begins in 1986 with Marty trying to stop the sale of the estate of Dr. Brown. From there Marty finds himself on a new time traveling adventure to 1931.  Each episode ends with a cliffhanger and the next episode picks up right where the last one ended.  Although some episodes may cover similar areas, the sections that can be explored expand and change in each episode.  The story moves in a mostly logical manner and the finale adds some interesting twists and surprises.

The graphics are done in a cell shaded style.  Thus even on lower settings they look pretty good.  The character animations can be a little stiff, but are not too distracting.  The backgrounds are well designed and are very reminiscent of the movie Hill Valley.  The characters from the movies look like stylized versions of the original actors.  The alternate versions of characters and new characters created in the story also look good and suit the world they inhabit.  Overall the atmosphere presented looks and feels in synch with the movies.

The audio is very strong.  The music used in the game is from the movies, with a few extra songs to fit the time period.  The voice acting is great and features Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown.  The actor for Marty McFly is a great voice match for Michael J. Fox.  The subsequent voice work is very good and overall the acting is some of the best that can be found in video games.  In addition Michael J. Fox voices a couple characters in the final episode, which is great to hear.

The game is designed as a classic point and click adventure game.  The puzzles do not stand up to the crazy puzzles from King’s Quest and Maniac Mansion.  There are one or two tricky puzzles that pop up in the second and third episodes, but they can be resolved with a little patience.  The ease of the puzzles do make the episodes pass by quick, but they do allow the story to move in a more logical fashion than older point and click games.

This game is like a love letter to the fans.  If you love the movies then the game will be hours of fun.  Even just exploring and trying different dialogue options feels like they are part of the original script and vision.  The episodes go by quick, but the ride is well worth the price.  Between the story and great voice acting there is quite a bit to make fans of the movies happy Back to the Future: The Game is highly recommended.

Pros

+ Amazing voice acting

+ Very reminiscent of the movies

+ Well priced

Cons

- Episodes are short

- Not as hard as classic point and click games

If you didn’t get in this Alpha Trial, then wait for September when the open beta begins.

While a majority of Bungie’s titles have been on console, they did start on the PC and MAC with Marathon. I always love watching these documentaries because I just like seeing the behind the scenes stuff, so sit back and relax.“To cap off Bungie’s 20th Anniversary festivities, the team has assembled a near hour long documentary covering the studio’s past, present, and future. Featuring insight from the team — including their ever illusive Creative Director, Jason Jones — and interviews from key industry veterans and luminaries, “O Brave New World” is both a celebration of Bungie’s legacy and a love letter to the community of gamers who have embraced Bungie’s games for two incredible decades.”

Watch Jay, Evan, and me die! This is only the beginning, or is it?

Gearbox software and 2Kgames announced today that Borderlands 2 is currently in development, showing at Gamescom and PAX Prime in Seattle, and will be coming to PC, 360, and PS3 on April Fools’ day 2012. Damn, that crazy Randy Pitchford loves him some crazy release dates! So, I’ve beat Borderlands 1 and would give it a A if it weren’t for the lacking story and somewhat anti climatic ending. I did however have a ton of fun via co-op, which was the best part of the experience…. and the loot…. the loot!

“Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story. Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora.”

“2K Games and Gearbox Software are taking this show on the road, and fans and media will be able to get their first look at the game at Gamescom 2011 from August 17 – August 21, and at PAX Prime (Booth #3417) from August 26 – August 28.”

The long awaited and highly rated game Limbo from developer PlayDead is now available for download via Steam.

“Independent game development studio Playdead today announced that black & white puzzle-platforming adventure, LIMBO, is now available for download on Steam for a price of $9.99. The PC edition is the only version of the game that runs at a full 60fps.”

Check out our review.

While games like Duke Nukem may have been quite successful in sales, games like Bulletstorm and the forthcoming Serious Sam 3: BFE continue to breathe some new life into a genre easily viewed as stale. Hard Reset looks to do the same. This is game from Polish developer Wild Flying Hog set in a cyberpunk era of crazy weapons an whacky looking dudes to shoot at. As a PC exclusive it should be interesting to see how it does in sales as well as the reception from hardcore PC gamers when it releases this September.

Don’t worry more waves of codes are coming via EA.

With the release of Disgaea 4 a little over a month away, NIS America decided to bomb us with screenshots. The screens not only show off one of my most anticipated games of 2011, but they are also in English. The nice thing about English, is that I can actually read it. If you have played a Disgaea game in the past, then you know the game has ridiculous dialogue, and it is excellent to finally see some of it.

Digaea 4 will be releasing on September 6 in the US, exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

Who hasn’t dreamed of building an empire? As the leader of a nation, you could be a benevolent demagogue, or an iron-fisted tyrant. You could live in peace with your neighboring nations, or carry out an all-out assault on those who dare to encroach on your shores. Create a golden age for philosophy and the arts, or build machines of war. The possibilities are endless.

This weekend, the Steam sale is one you don’t want to pass up. Sid Meier’s Civilization V is on sale for 66% off, which puts the price down to only $17.00. Civilization V is a masterpiece which allows for you to build your own nation in any way you see fit. The game has near limitless replay value, since each match will be different from the one prior. Also, a full match can last more than 10 hours.

If you’re looking for a game that offers hundreds of hours of gameplay and looks damn good doing it, then stop reading this. Go. Now. You should be buying it right now. It should be downloading… Tell me when it’s finished.

If you’ve never played a Mommy’s Best Games game, or a Serious Sam game, then now’s the perfect time to start. Serious Sam: Double D is an indie title that fuses both worlds into a kind of irreverent stew of blissfulness.

It surprises me that Double D is the first ever foray into the second dimension for the franchise, to be honest. Serious Sam has always been about crazy enemy counts, adrenaline-fueled shootouts, and, of course, self-sacrificing headless (yet somehow still screaming) hordes, and Double D fits that description to a T. It’s also extremely reminiscent of Weapon of Choice, Mommy’s Best Games’ first title which can be found on Xbox Live Indie Games. This means that you can expect great-looking art combined with great animation to produce an experience not found often enough.

In a world dominated by three-dimensional assisting games that simply allow players to act out a part in an entirely scripted experience, Serious Sam: Double D is a throwback to a time when a game’s outcome was left entirely up to the player’s skill level, willingness to take some punishment, and patience to get better. Rather than give the player the illusion of being good, in order to successfully navigate through Serious Sam: Double D on anything other than the Chilled difficulty, one will actually need to BE good. What a concept.

To aid the player on their journey, a system has been concocted to match the game’s over-the-top personality called Gun Stacking. With Gun Stacking, the idea is simple, the player is given up to 8 slots to configure whatever tools of destruction he or she sees fit. Like that shotgun you’ve been using for the past ten minutes but found a Tommygun you’d like to use instead? Don’t worry, just stack that Tommygun right on top of that shotgun and use both. This can be repeated until up to five weapons are stacked goofily on top of each other forming a ridiculous, yet awesome looking pyramid of debauchery. Some other nice touches are the game’s raucous and rowdy soundtrack ranging from guitar-shredding to occasionally fittingly ambient tunes, and the ability to quick save at any point in time (even when playing with an Xbox 360 controller!) in true PC-gaming fashion. Also present is the absolutely under appreciated ability to speed the game up or slow it down from the start with options ranging from 50% all the way to 200% normal speed. The only complaints I could really lobby toward the game from the few hours I’ve spent with it would be that I strangely found myself running out of ammo at times, and a few too many enemies spawned right on top of me, disallowing me a chance to react.

I’d say Serious Sam: Double D is shaping up to be a great compliment to Serious Sam 3, but that would be selling it short. Even without being tied to a license at all, the game is outstanding fun, and surprisingly lengthy with 18 levels spanning 3 time periods, 62 secrets to find, numerous Challenge levels in addition to the main campaign, and tons of combinations to try with the Gun Stacker system. Look for Serious Sam: Double D to release sometime at the end of July/early August on Impulse and GetGames (and possibly other digital distributors) for $10.

After selling out earlier this week, Amazon has put the game back up for pre orders, so order now.

“Young Padawan, your training is almost over, and one of the last things you need to do is pre order Star Wars: The Old Republic.” Until this morning, it looked like training would never end, but Amazon decided to let all the training Sith and Jedi a short break, because the game is now available for pre order.

However, let’s go over the contents of the Special Edition for anyone not in the know. The Special Edition contains the following:

Limited Collector’s Edition Features

Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Star Wars: The Old Republic game disks in collectible metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural annotated by Satele Shan
Star Wars: The Old Republic galaxy map
Custom Security Authentication Key
Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High-quality Collector’s Edition box

Limited Collector’s Edition – Seven Additional Digital Items

Flare Gun: Fire flares into the air
Training Droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky Droid to join your adventure
Exclusive Collector’s Edition Store: Unique in-game vendor with an assortment of items

The price seems right on the mark as far as Special Editions go, but I think one’s dedication to Star Wars is going to be a driving force on whether they will bite the bullet or not. I’m going to say this right now, if the Darth Malgus statue sucks, I will regret this purchase. May the force be with you on this purchase.

Learn ‘em, live ‘em, love ‘em. Particularly useful is the demo command instead of capturing gigs of material on your hard drive through FRAPS.

Demo Commands

demo.recordDemo [demoname] – Starts recording current gameplay and saves the file as demoname.bf2demo in your \Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield 2 Demo\mods\bf2\Demos\

demo.stopRecording – Stops current demo recording

demo.ShutdownDemo -

Game Commands

game.sayAll [string] – Says the specified text in global chat

game.sayTeam [number] [string] – Says the specified text in team chat

game.lockFps [framerate] – Caps the game’s maximum framerate to specified number

game.allowToggleFullscreen [0,1] – If set to 1 allows toggling of fullscreen/windowed mode

game.toggleFullscreen – Toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode

Localprofile Commands

localProfile.setName [name] – Sets the name for your current account

localProfile.setNick [nick] – Sets the nickname for your current account

localProfile.setGamespyNick [GameSpyNick] – Sets the GameSpy login name for your account

localProfile.setEmail [email account] – Sets the email account for the current account

localProfile.setPassword [password] – Sets the password for the current account

localProfile.setNumTimesLoggedIn [number] – Sets the number of times the player has logged in with the current account

localProfile.setTotalPlayedTime [seconds] – Sets the time the game has been played using the current account

localProfile.save -

localProfile.addDemoBookmark [ ] -

Globalsettings Commands

globalSettings.setDefaultUser [number] – Sets the profile to use, the first one being 0001, then 0002 etc.

Renderer Commands

renderer.drawHud [0,1] – Turns the Heads Up Display (HUD) on or off.

renderer.drawConsole [0,1] – Turns off access to the in-game console if set to 0.

renderer.drawFps [0,1] – Displays the current and average frames per second (FPS) in the top left corner.

Sv Commands

sv.allowNATNegotiation [0,1] -

sv.interface -

sv.timeBeforeRestarting [0,1] -

sv.autoBalanceTeam [0,1] -

sv.teamRatioPercent [0,1] -

sv.autoRecord [0,1] -

sv.demoIndexURL [address] -

sv.demoDownloadURL [address] -

sv.autoDemoHook -

sv.demoQuality -

sv.adminScript -

sv.sponsorText -

sv.sponsorLogoURL [address] -

sv.communityLogoURL [address] -

sv.radioSpamInterval -

sv.radioMaxSpamFlagCount -

sv.radioBlockedDurationTime [seconds] -

sv.useGlobalRank [0,1] -

sv.useGlobalUnlocks [0,1] -

Gamelogic Commands

gameLogic.togglePause – Toggles pausing the game.

Settingsmanager Commands

SettingsManager.stringSet -

SettingsManager.boolSet -

SettingsManager.IntSet -

SettingsManager.floatSet -

SettingsManager.u32Set -

SettingsManager.stringGet -

SettingsManager.boolGet -

SettingsManager.intGet -

SettingsManager.foatGet -

SettingsManager.U32Get -

Controlmap Commands

These settings should be used in the Controls.con file under your \Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Battlefield 2 Demo\Profiles\[profile]\ directory.

controlMap.deleteControlMap -

controlMap.dump -

controlMap.setButtonRiseTime -

controlMap.SetButtonFallTime -

controlMap.SetDoubleTapTime -

controlMap.addAxisToAxisMapping [string] -

controlMap.addButtonsToAxisMapping [string] -

controlMap.addKeyAndButtonToAxisMapping [string] -

controlMap.addKeysToAxisMapping [string] -

controlMap.addButtonToTriggerMapping [string] -

controlMap.AddKeyToTriggerMapping [string] -

controlMap.setAxisScale -

controlMap.setYawFactor -

controlMap.setPitchFactor -

controlMap.addAxisToTriggerMapping -

controlMap.InvertMouse [0,1] – Set to 1 for inverted mouse, 0 for default mouse

controlMap.mouseSensitivity [number] – Determines the sensitivity of the mouse

controlMap.keyboardSensitivity [number] – Deterimes the sensitivity of the keyboard

Maplist Commands

These commands are used to manage lists of maps by server administrators.

mapList.list – Lists map ID numbers, map name, game mode and the number of players if specified.

mapList.configFile [new location for file] – Used to specify the location of the _mapList.con file. Default is \My Documents\Battlefield 2 Demo\ServerConfigs\

mapList.load – Makes the server reload _mapList.con

mapList.save – Saves the current map list on the server to the file _mapList.con

mapList.mapCount – Shows the total number of maps in the current map list

mapList.currentMap – Shows the map list ID number of the current map being played

mapList.clear – Clears the current map list

mapList.remove [map ID number] – Removes the specified map from the map list

mapList.append [map name] [game mode] [number of players] – Add a new map to the end of the map list. You must specify the map name and game mode.

mapList.insert [map ID number] [map name] [game mode] [number of players] – Same as mapList.append command, but with this command you can specify at what map ID number to insert the new map into the list.

Inputdevices Commands

InputDevices.setInvertAxis -

InputDevices.setAxisScale -

Admin Commands

These commands are used by server administrators.

admin.listPlayers – Lists the players connected to the server, showing their name, ID number and IP number.

admin.runNextLevel – Forces the server to end the round and start the next map in the map list.

admin.currentLevel – Shows the map list ID number for the current map being played.

admin.nextLevel – Shows the map list ID number for the next map to be played.

admin.restartMap – Restarts the current map.

admin.banPlayer [player ID number] [timeout] – Enter the player ID number you want to ban. Bans the player from the server by using their IP address. The timeout value controls the length of the ban e.g. perm for permanent ban, round to ban them for the rest of the round, and 180 is 180 seconds (3 minutes).

admin.banPlayerKey [player ID number] [timeout] – Enter the player ID you want to ban. Bans the player from the server by using their CD key hash.

admin.addAddressToBanList [IP address] [timeout] – Enter the IP number you want to ban.

admin.addKeyToBanList [CD key hash] [timeout] – Enter the CD key hash you want to ban.

admin.removeAddressFromBanList [IP address] – Enter the IP address to remove from the ban list.

admin.removeKeyFromBanList [CD key hash] – Enter the CD key hash you want to remove from the ban list.

admin.clearBanList – Clears all ban lists.

admin.listBannedAddresses – Displays a list of the currently banned IP addresses.

admin.listBannedKeys – Displays a list of the currently banned CD keys.

admin.kickPlayer [player ID number] – Enter the ID number of the player you want to kick.

Remote Console

These commands are used by server administrators.

To setup remote console access to the server, onthe server create a new plain text document in \admin\ called default.cfg and enter the following text into the new file:

port=4711

password=YourPassword

Save the file, and start the server. Now you can access the server remotely by using the following commands from a client:

rcon login [YourPassword] – Use this command to login to the server.

rcon users – This command lists all the users connected to the server. Very similar to admin.listPlayers

rcon exec [command name] – Replace with a console command you would like to execute on the server. For example: rcon exec admin.kickPlayer 3

Exit - Quits the game to desktop.

via [Mavrick]

Yeah I know the 360 version of The Witcher 2 will include all DLC free in GOTY package fashion, but free DLC is mostly why I’ve turned away from most other games’ poorly overpriced DLC offerings. At least with free DLC I’m assured that the breadth of content, especially with a hardcore RPG isn’t locked away by some gate keeping publisher.

Of note is that 3D vision technology related problems with nVidia have been resolved relieving the player having to roll back on previous drivers for the game to run more smoothly. Assorted improvements have been made in the game’s 3D Vision, SLI and Crossfire functionality as well as improvements for running the game in Ubersampling mode on nVidia cards.

“A Sackful of Fluff” is a new quest in Chapter 2 of the game. To start the quest, players must visit the eccentric Elthon, who inhabits a solitary hut near the quarry outside Vergen. The quest will prove most rewarding to those who demonstrate patience.

Key improvements in the 1.3 Update include:

• Game now supports 4:3, 5:4, and 16:10 aspect ratios.
• Item storage has been added. Players can now store items from their Inventory at inns. To leave items in storage or collect previously stored items, talk to innkeepers.
• A ‘Junk’ panel has been added to the Inventory to provide greater clarity in item classification.
• A new menu option has been added under ‘Extras’ – this enables players to view in-game animated sequences (flashbacks, memory flashes, dreams stolen by harpies) outside of the game.
• ‘Dragon’ section of Prologue does not become available until after all assault-related sections have been completed, thereby softening the difficulty curve at the start of the game.

http://www.thewitcher.com/patch1-3/

The Steam summer sales may be over, but Codemasters’ has made the effort to donate profits to video game industry-supported charities. The sale will last July 19-21.

“As part of Codemasters’ fundraising charity drive, the PC edition of the BAFTA award-winning circuit and street racing game GRID will be available at the discounted price of $4.99, exclusively on Steam.”

“Codemasters will work with existing causes supported by the videogame industry charity GamesAid, as well as offering support to initiatives through Nesta and the Livingstone-Hope review.”

GRID is available now for download on the Steam store and at the following link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/12750/

If video  games are more of your thing than the comics themselves, then this guide might be of some use since Comic-Con rapidly evolved from a small humble affair into a yearly pop culture mecca. Comic-Con 2011 will be more than just comics complete with celebrity guests, panels, video game demos, and swag. Here’s a list of panels to the four day affair.

THURSDAY

10:00-11:00 Journey— Get into the indie spirit with thatgamecompany and the PlayStation Network: From the developers who brought you Flower and flOw, comes one of this year’s most highly anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusives, Journey. Meet and chat with thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago as they (along with special guests) provide insight on their creativity and the inspiration behind their work and discuss what it takes to be successful as an independent developer. Room 23ABC

10:00-11:00 Kinect Star Wars Panel— Enter the Galaxy with studio head Jorg Neumann(Kinect Publishing) and lead producer Craig Derrick (LucasArts) as they discuss the highly anticipated title with USA Today’s Mike Snider, sharing new game play from the iconic Star Wars universe, revealing an all-new mode, and unveiling an exciting announcement. All attendees will receive a limited-edition poster. Room 32AB

11:00-12:00 X-Play Live— Now into its 13th year, G4′s X-Play is TV’s longest-running and most watched video game show. Each episode is packed with brutally honest reviews, live demos, and of course intern humiliation. Hosts Adam Sessler, Morgan Webb, Blair Herter, and Kristin Adams and executive producer Wade Beckett make their triumphant return to Comic-Con and promise a no-holds-barred live panel. They’ll take questions from the audience, debut a new comedy short, challenge the hardcore fans with trivia, and give out prizes to a chosen few. This hour of reflection and finger pointing is guaranteed to be a life-changing experience. Room 25ABC

11:00-12:00 The Evolution of Web Series: The Guild to Dragon Age— Writer/actorFelicia Day (The Guild), actor Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), Dragon Age: Redemption director Peter Winther (Leverage), and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah discuss the secrets to The Guild‘s success and what happens when you take that winning formula to the dark fantasy video game universe, Dragon Age, for the upcoming web series Redemption. Room 7AB

11:00-12:00 The World of 2027 in Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The Line Between Science and Fiction—How do video games incorporate real-life science into their storylines, weapons, and characters? This talk will provide fascinating insight into how “sci” was used to create the “sci-fi” in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one of the most highly anticipated games of 2011. Mary DeMarle, lead writer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal) and Will Rossellini, CEO of Microtransponder and consultant on the game, discuss how they created a realistic future vision for transhumanism and a world where mechanical augmentations have changed the fate of the human race. Room 5AB

12:00-1:00 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Bringing Worlds to Life, From Concept to Pixel— Todd McFarlane (award-winning artist and creator of Spawn), Big Huge Games art director Tim Coman, and a panel of Reckoning designers discuss the artistic process of creating a massive fantasy epic in this all-new role-playing videogame. Room 25ABC

12:00-1:00 Spreading The Darkness: From Comic Book to Video Games and Entertainment— In a world of comic book icons, The Darkness has not only stood the test of time but flourished in various forms of media. Celebrate the upcoming 15th anniversary of The Darkness with the creators that know Jackie Estacado and his world the best. The Darkness creator Marc Silvestri (X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia) and team members from Digital Extremes and 2K Games discuss not only the comic but the upcoming video game, The Darkness II, arriving in October. Plus special surprise guests! And be the first to hear about an exciting announcement regarding The Darkness in other media. Room 9

1:00-2:00 World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft Swag Show— Blizzard Entertainment creative and licensed partners unveil and discuss World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft-inspired products. In attendance: Chris Metzen (Blizzard Entertainment SVP of creative development), Nick Carpenter (Blizzard Entertainment executive art director), Christie Golden (New York Times bestselling author), Hank Kanalz (SVP Digital, DC Comics and World of Warcraft comics editor), Sean Gailey (creative overlord, J!nx Clothing), and Cory Jones(Cryptozoic Entertainment president and chief creative officer). Moderated by Kat Hunter (host of BlizzCon coverage on DIRECTV). Room 6BCF

2:15-3:15 Street Fighter X Tekken— Legendary Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono provides the latest update on the highly anticipated fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken. Learn just what’s in store for your favorite Street Fighter and Tekken characters in this explosive genre-defining game. Street Fighter fans are encouraged to come in costume as Capcom deems Thursday to be “Street Fighter Day.” Katsuhiro Harada of Tekken will also appear to face Ono-san and continue their fierce rivalry over which fighting game franchise is the best. Followed by a Q&A session plus some special surprises! Room 6BCF

3:30-4:30 Star Wars: The Old Republic : Join Us, It Is Your Destiny— BioWare and LucasArts are creating the most immersive MMO experience you’ve ever played with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Hear from BioWare developers as they discuss development of a story-driven MMO, debut new gameplay footage, and perhaps spring a few surprises along the way. Exclusive reveals, giveaways, guests, and Q&A! Room 6BCF

4:30-5:30 City of Heroes: The Future of Super-Powered MMOs— Be the first to find out about the top-secret release coming later this year to City of Heroes, the world’s most popular super-powered MMO. Paragon Studios team members Melissa “War Witch” Bianco (lead game designer), Matt “Positron” Miller (lead systems designer), David “Noble Savage” Nakayama (art lead), Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz (development producer), and Andy “Zwillinger” Belford (community manager) share exclusive revelations about the City of Heroes game update that will redefine the online gaming industry. Room 24ABC

5:00-6:00 Batman: Arkham City— Get the inside scoop on Batman: Arkham City, the highly anticipated follow-up to Batman: Arkham Asylum, one of the top-selling games of 2009 and the Guinness World Record holder for the Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever. Be among the first to see and hear new details about the next chapter in Batman’s gritty, immersive world — including some surprise game and character reveals — from panelists Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series), DC Comics co-publisher
5:00-6:00 Resistance 3: Exploring a 1950s Altered America: The Continuing Creation of the Resistance Universe— Critically acclaimed developer Insomniac Games presents a journey through the evolution of the universe surrounding PlayStation 3′s bestselling Resistance franchise. Discover the secrets behind Insomniac’s vision of a post-apocalyptic ’50s-era America, ravaged by the merciless Chimera, and explore the human experience of struggling to survive an alien invasion when nearly all hope is lost. Learn how the team is continuing to build the Resistance canon through books and social media integration. Attendees will be treated to an first look at new game content and other surprises, with special guest appearances by members of the Insomniac team, including Marcus Smith (creative director), Kevin Grow (animation director), and Grant Hollis (art director), as well as actors from the Resistance 3 cast, including Robin Atkin Downes (Joseph Capelli) and Crispin Freeman (Charlie Tent). A Q&A with the team will follow the presentation. Room 7AB

6:00-7:00 Gears of War 3— Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski, executive producer Rod Fergusson, and special guest contributors to the Gears universe offer a look ahead at the most-anticipated game of 2011. Includes a live game demo and key announcements. Moderated by X-Play (G4) co-host Adam Sessler. Room 6BCF

FRIDAY

10:00-11:00 Writing in Video Games: In-Game, Novels, Comics, and Other Franchise-Building Offshoots— The biggest names in SF/fantasy publishing and the video game industry area of in-game writing get together to discuss their separate projects and their unique experiences working in both worlds. Get your game face on with Greg Bear (Halo),Karen Traviss (Gears of War), David Gaider (Dragon Age), John Shirley (Bioshock: Rapture), Tony Gonzales (Eve Online), Frank O’Connor (chief of 343 Industries), and Kevin Grace (managing editor of 343 Industries, Halo: Evolutions). Moderated by Matt Staggs of Suvudu.com. Room 32AB

11:30-12:30 Halo Universe— Frank O’Connor, Kevin Grace, and others from 343 Industries, as well as special Halo guests Greg Bear and Karen Traviss, discuss the first 10 years of Halo and offer a sneak peek into what’s next for this exciting sci-fi universe. Room 6BCF

1:00-2:00 There and Play Again: Video Games to Comics— We all know that comic books have been fertile ground from which video game developers can harvest great characters and games. These days the tech has caught up with the art and we’re seeing that road run both ways. This panel includes video game and comic book industry luminaries intimately familiar with bringing a comics sensibility to games and transporting virtual, interactive worlds to the printed page. Join them to discuss what it takes to be successful in multiple dimensions. Room 23ABC

4:00-5:00 Developing Interactive Entertainment: The Performance Capture Techniques of the Uncharted Franchise and Today’s Film Industry— Naughty Dog has consistently led the industry in adopting advanced performance capture processes and technology to propel their critically acclaimed Uncharted video game franchise to greater heights of quality and presentation. Launching in November, Uncharted3: Drake’s Deception delivers character-driven narrative and dramatic action sequences to create an engaging experience that grounds the player in the game world with relatable and believable characters. Moderated by USA Today’s Mike Snider, Uncharted 3‘s creative director Amy Hennig and cast members Nolan North, Richard McGonagle, and Emily Rose discuss the influence of theatrical techniques and styles from the history of film that have helped the team produce interactive entertainment. Room 25ABC

5:00-6:00 The World of Capcom— Capcom fans won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn about all the new games coming from their favorite video game publisher. Plus, get in-depth details straight from Capcom’s stellar producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Resident Evil 4) about his exciting new open-world action adventure game, Dragon’s Dogma. Producer Jason Leigh talks about the zombie-infested streets of Fortune City in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, and producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya discusses the new over-the-top rollercoaster IP, Asura’s Wrath. Followed by a Q&A session. Room 25ABC

6:30-7:30 Resident Evil Round-Up!— 2011 marks the 15th anniversary of the legendary video game franchise that gave fear a face and horror a home. Get the latest information about the newest entries to the Resident Evil franchise: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, with producer Rey Jimenez; Resident Evil: Revelations for the Nintendo 3DS; the gorgeous reimagining of Resident Evil 4 HD; and Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD, plus some surprises! Followed by a Q&A session. Room 5AB

SATURDAY

10:00-11:30 Activision— Legends from across the Marvel landscape and the entertainment industry come together in one epic panel to discuss their roles in upcoming Activision Marvel video games X-Men Destiny and Spider-Man: Edge of Time. Comic book legend Stan Lee reflects upon the latest adventures of his creations with famed Marvel writer Peter David(creator of Spider-Man 2099) and Marvel VP of Games TQ Jefferson. Dee Brown, studio head of Beenox, and Jullian Spillane, project director of Silicon Knights, give everyone an inside look into how they balance staying true to the Marvel universe while bringing something original and exciting to fans in a video game. A talented voice cast of known celebrities rounds out the legends to discuss bringing Marvel characters to life in the games (check Facebook.com/HeroHQ for announcements). Finally, see an exclusive preview of never-before-seen footage for the upcoming games, and enter a chance to win a one-of-a-kind poster signed by Stan Lee himself at the panel! Moderated by Ryan Penagos, editorial director of Marvel.com. Room 5AB

11:00-12:00 Marvel vs. Capcom— Fighting fans! Come to this panel to hear the fantastic news about this legendary fighting game franchise straight from producer Ryota Niitsuma. Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek as well as a chance to come onstage to showcase your fighting skills against each other for fantastic prizes. Followed by a Q&A session. Room 25ABC

12:30-1:30 Marvel Interactive: Marvel Video Games— Learn all about Spider-Man: Edge of Time, X-Men Destiny, Captain America: Super Soldier, Super Hero Squad Online, Super Hero Squad 3DS and uDraw, Marvel Pinball, and the Marvel Universe MMO. Also, find out some exciting new details about the future of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and other Marvel games via exclusive trailers, surprise reveals, and Q&A with the game creators from some of the industry’s top publishers. Room 6A

2:00-3:00 Rethinking the Online RPG: How Guild Wars 2 Explores New Dimensions in Social Gaming— Are you tired of grind, repetitive combat and no community in your fantasy RPG? Learn how Guild Wars 2 will set a new standard for social play in online fantasy RPGs. Accompanied by stunning concept art, key creators Colin Johanson (lead content designer),Bobby Stein (lead writer), Kekai Kotaki (concept art lead), Kristen Perry (character artist) and Leah Rivera (game designer) examine how the lore, design, and gameplay of Guild Wars 2 offer a fresh, social-driven approach to cooperative online fantasy RPGs. Room 23ABC

3:00-4:00 Assassin’s Creed: The Creation of a Universe— The writers behind Assassin’s Creed Revelations discuss and answer your questions about the thrilling fourth installment in the critically acclaimed entertainment franchise. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Ezio’s final journey will unfold as he walks in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altair, on a perilous journey of doubt and discovery. Watch the exclusive preview of Assassin’s Creed Embers, the animated short film and explore how the Ubisoft Montreal development team has created an Assassin’s Creed universe that weaves real world history and global conspiracies into an ancient war between Assassins and Templars through a variety of media. Panelists will include creators of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Revelations game, animated short film, and comic book. Room 25ABC

4:00-5:00 Dark Horse and BioWare: A Comic and Video Game Partnership— Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect are creations of one of the most distinguished developers in video games — BioWare! Join Star Wars: The Old Republic senior writer Alexander Freed, Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters, Mass Effect comics scripter John Jackson Miller, Dark Horse editor Dave Marshall, and a cast of celebrities, as BioWare and Dark Horse announce their next collaboration and reveal exclusive details about the games and comics they’re working on. Room 23ABC

6:00-7:00 Twisted Metal— David Jaffe, director and lead designer of God of War and co-director of the upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive Twisted Metal, reveals the newest Twistedtrailer featuring the demented Dollface and shows off a near final cut of the game’s opening live-action cinematic. David will also take the audience through the single-player campaign, including a sneak peak of a new boss: The Brothers Grimm! Plus lots more Twisted surprises! Room 5AB

SUNDAY

10:00-11:00 The Evolution from Warhawk to Starhawk: The New Universe that Is Starhawk and the Characters Behind the Conflict— Meet the creative minds behind Starhawk, the spiritual successor to Warhawk, as they introduce you to an exciting new world set in the lawless frontier of space. The team at LightBox Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Santa Monica Studio bring you an action-packed story with compelling characters, beginning with hired gunslinger Emmett Graves. Learn about how Emmett must navigate through Starhawk‘s brutal playground of large-scale combat, where the tide of battle turns all the time. You’ll discover details about Emmett’s backstory, his affliction to Rift Energy, and his overwhelming distaste for The Outcast, the war band of deadly monstrosities that he must fight to destroy in this PlayStation 3 exclusive. IGN.com’s Greg Miller moderates with Starhawk‘s creative director Lars DeVore (LightBox Interactive), senior producer Harvard Bonin (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), studio director John Hight (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), and writer, Koen Wooten, who provide insight into the creative process behind Starhawk‘s space western universe with never-before-seen concept art, exclusive story details, and in-depth commentary, straight from the men behind this innovative new shooter experience. Room 25ABC

Hard Reset is game from newly formed Polish game studio Wild Flying Hog, a concoction of former People Can Fly Bulletstorm and CD Projekt The Witcher 2 developers.

In an preview from BeefJack, “It’s a classic first-person shooter with loads of physics, destruction, and hordes of enemies,” says Zych. What he hopes sets it apart, though, is an experience-based upgrade system, which Flying Wild Hog reckon will add some depth to your action plans as you progress through the game. “It’s a Painkiller-meets-Diablo kind of game,” Zych smiles.

What’s odd is that it will be only a single-player affair in a world ripped from Blade Runner. Story is centered around the last remaining human city of Beozoar, and Major Fletcher, an Army Combat Veteran and solider of the CLN dragged into a conflict between two of mankind’s greatest enemies.

Look for Hard Reset later this year.

Today Miki Takahashi of D3Publisher gave more information for White Knight Chronicles II on the Playstation Blog.

It looks like the story for White Knight Chronicles II will be more about the action of trying to overthrow the Yshrenian Empire than about the love aspect that the first game focused on. The Georama features will be back, but players will also be able to customize their own personal Incorruptus. Other improvements include: A faster action gauge to speed up battles, the acquisition of Action Chips will be easier, an autorun feature will help players to traverse the vast maps faster than before, and a reworked combat system.

White Knight Chronicles II will also come with a remastered version of WKC, and unlike the Japanese version, gamers can jump right into the second iteration. Once again, the target release window is September 2011.

If you are familiar with desktop GPUs, AMD claims that it’s HD 6990 is the fastest non-overclocked GPU on the market. While that is fine and dandy, there is a portion of PC gamers that only have a laptop to game on. This week AMD announced the Radeon HD 6990M GPU for laptop computers, and they insist that it is much faster than NVIDIA’s GTX 580M. While we don’t have any benchmark information on whether this claim is true or not, both GPUs are wonderful additions to any laptop gamers rig. The HD 6990M comes with DirectX 11 as well as HD3D support.

Origin PC, who we met with at E3, announced today that the Radeon HD 6990M is now available on any EON-15S or EON-17S model laptop. This addition to the laptop lineup continues Origin’s promise to provide the most up to date technology as it comes out. Don’t forget to take advantage of their free maximum overclocking and shipping promotion that will be running until August 1.

If you’re attending Comic Con 2011, Deep Silver announced it will host a panel at Comic Con 2011 that promises to blend the pop culture fascination with zombies with realities of medical science titled, “The Science of Zombies.” The panel will take place in room 8 of the San Diego Convention Center on July 22 at 7:30 p.m. and will explore society’s fascination with the Zombie genre as a whole, and demonstrate how creative talent are harnessing medical science to define and explore horror entertainment in more realistic (and therefore more frightening and engaging) ways.

The panel features the creative talent behind the acclaimed and highly anticipated Dead Island™ (www.deadisland.com) game, the world’s foremost zombie enthusiasts, esteemed interactive entertainment industry journalists and the nation’s leading medical professionals in the field of brain research and brain disease. Scheduled particpants include:

· Max Brooks, universal zombie expert and author of The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks

· Haris Orkin, writer of the anticipated video game, Dead Island

· Steve Schlozman, M.D., author of The Zombie Autopsies and assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

· Bradley Voytek, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Fellow: Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco

· Andrew Groen, freelance journalist and editor of GamePro Magazine’s “Real Science” column

· Bruce Geryk, M.D., Resident Physician, Department of Neurosurgery, University of North Carolina Hospitals

“We’re excited to bring some of the world’s great medical minds together for what promises to be an intriguing discussion about the human body and its capabilities,” said Deep Silver Chief Operating Officer Geoff Mulligan, quickly hiding a plastic bin filled with suspiciously grey and squishy looking unidentified objects under his desk . “I have an ongoing belief that brains are a vastly underrated source of vitamin B12 and thus will base my potential intake of human brains on this panel’s ultimate decision on whether or not this is a solid nutritional strategy. I look forward to this discussion at Comic Con 2011.”

Dead Island is the upcoming gruesome zombie action game with RPG elements developed by renowned developer Techland and combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customization of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

The Dead Island Special Edition is now available as an automatic upgrade to early preorder customers at GameStop stores nationwide for a limited time, while supplies last.

Dead Island launches on September 6, 2011 at retailers across North America.

Official website: www.deadisland.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/deadislandgame
Twitter: http://twitter.com/deadislandgame

Nice recap of the first year of StarCraft II, for anyone interested in the competitive scene.

[Thanks Casey]

Minimum:
- OS: Windows XP/Vista
-  Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz and up
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 and up supported (operation on-board is not guaranteed)
- Video: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 and up (except for NVIDIA GeForce 7300), VRAM: 256MB and up (operation sharing with main memory is not guaranteed)
- Hard Drive: 4.5 GB free hard drive space
- Sound: DirectSound, DirectX9.0c Compatible Audio
- Other Requirements: Online play requires software installation of and log-in to Games For Windows – LIVE

Recommended:
- OS: Windows Vista
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo 2.0 GHz and up
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 and up supported (operation on-board is not guaranteed)
- Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 and up, VRAM: 512MB and up (operation sharing with main memory is not guaranteed)
- Hard Drive: 4.5 GB free hard drive space
- Sound: DirectSound, DirectX9.0c Compatible Audio

We’re back this week discussing the recent Crysis 2 1.9 update with DX11, WoW firelands patch, and oh boy… Steam Summer Sales have begun.

What is it? What is the game about? I don’t know yet… but I do know that there’s something in the water that all those Eastern European developers are drinking up because both CD Projeckt (Witcher 2) and 11 bit studios (Anomaly Warzone Earth) are both one my favorite games I’ve played this year.

So, here is the very first screenshot of this yet to be announced title… it looks pretty interesting. Artwork on Flying Wild Hog’s site seems to be a close up of the strange bio-mechanical concoction in the screen above.

In the coming weeks there will definitely be a formal announcement, but this is all we have for now. In light of all this, I am digging the name of the studio though.

If you fancy annual events like Quakecon or Blizzcon where you can play unreleased titles before anyone else, then Call of Duty XP might by your sort of thing. Instead of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm or Diablo 3, stick Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer and spec-ops in their place. XP is an event for fans that finally celebrates the community that Activision’s money maker has garnered.

XP will kick of its inaugural event Sept. 2 – 3 in Los Angeles, CA. Tickets for Call of Duty XP will be available for $150, but Activision will donate 100% of the ticket sales to The Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit, public benefit corporation that seeks to help veterans transition to civilian life, find work and establish careers, and assist other organizations that provide career training and job placement for veterans.

Tickets will go on sale July 19, giving attendees a two-day pass and the chance to be completely immersed in the action and excitement of Call of Duty. Players will be able to challenge each other in a paintball firefight on a life-sized Call of Duty multiplayer map, as well as attempt to speed-run Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′s legendary “The Pit”-for real.

A summary of events like tournaments, panels, museums, entertainment, and attractions are detailed on Activision’s Call of Duty XP site.

Although $150 dollars per head may be a bit steep, all proceeds will be going to The Call of Duty Endowment, and that’s good. Other events like Blizzcon also charge event goers and include sought after goodie bags that sell for hundreds on eBay.

Seattle developer Zombie Studios’ should have learned a lot from their last release Black Light: Tango Down for 360, PC, and PS3. Most qualms I’ve had with that game can be read from my review. This time Zombie is building Blacklight Retribution from the ground up on DX11 on top of the Unreal Engine. Its publisher Perfect World have also stated that it’s also going to be Free 2 Play. You can add that to Perfect World’s list of free to play games, most of which are fairly decent MMOs with surprising production values.

Why DX11? In a Q&A with Jared Gerritzen, Lead Designer, he said, “We wanted to create a game that not only takes advantage of the latest technologies, but also delivers unparalleled graphics. There are a lot of gamers out there who have built their own gaming computers and with DirectX 11, we’re able to push those high-end machines to the processing edge.”

“DirectX 11 allows us to take advantage of multi-core processors for faster frame rates, tessellation to compute smoother curved surfaces and DirectCompute, a technology that allows us to boost graphics on discrete graphics cards.”

“In laymen’s terms, this means that not only with DirectX 11 make Blacklight Retribution run a lot smoother and look a lot better, it also optimizes the graphics for all types of computers.”

“It’s not just one thing that DirectX 11 does well, but rather all the little things it does great, which add up in the big picture. DirectX 11 allows us to create a more immersive, living breathing environment with realistic reflections, textures and animation that would not have been possible before in previous DirectX iterations.”

“Players can look forward to a great looking first person shooter that not only has been built from the ground up for the PC platform, but also will be the first free-to-play FPS utilizing DirectX 11. We certainly hope that by releasing Blacklight Retribution, this will be a warning shot to all of the deeply entrenched FPS franchises – players should expect more from their games regardless of cost.”

Through Thursday, June 30th at 10 a.m. PDT, Sam and Max the complete pack will be available for 66% off for a total of $16.95 which is a $49.95 value! Suit up and grab your pistol for comical noire detective cases! Direct2Drive will be taking 66% off ALL Sam and Max titles including:

• Sam and Max Season 1
• Sam and Max Season 2
• Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse

And summer isn’t even over yet…

Today marks the first major content patch for World Of Warcraft Cataclysm, and it is the hottest content patch we have seen in a long time.

This content patch includes new tier, arena, and raid gear. Additionally, there is the inclusion of several new mounts for PVP and achievements.

PVPers get ready because Arena season 10 will be starting next week, so be prepared to fight for the new arena gear as well as arena rank.

Help your faction and Malfurion Stormrage by partaking in the new dailies in Hyjal. These dailies will have new achievements, gear, and reputation for any adventurers who wish to take the time and help the cause of the Avengers of Hyjal.

Raiders should also be ready to fight the guardians of the Firelands raid instance, and its master Ragnaros, the lord of flames (with legs). Casters should also start gathering the pieces necessary to forge the new legendary staff, Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest. Valor Points have all been converted to Justice points and the previous Valor gear is now available from the Justice Vendor.

Hopefully all you WoW nuts will enjoy this patch. Full Patch notes available:

General

New Daily Quests: The Regrowth and Molten Front
A large assortment of all-new daily quests and rewards are now available in Hyjal, where players can help the Guardians of Hyjal push back the allies of Ragnaros and establish a forward operating base in the Firelands! In order to partake in the Regrowth and Molten Front daily quests, players must have at least completed Mount Hyjal up to and including the quest Aessina’s Miracle. Once this quest has been completed, players should speak with Matoclaw in the Sanctuary of Malorne to take part in the Regrowth efforts.

New Quest Chain: Elemental Bonds
A New quest line is now available to level-85 Horde and Alliance characters, bringing brave adventurers to Thrall’s aid. The Call of the World-Shaman, the quest which will point players toward Thrall and The Nordrassil Summit, can be obtained at the Earthshrines in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.

New Raid: The Firelands
Located within the Elemental Plane, the Firelands is an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties! Battle-hardened veterans of the Horde and Alliance now have an opportunity to strike at Ragnaros the Firelord and his loyal servants by venturing into their domain via Sulfuron Spire in Mount Hyjal.
New Legendary Item: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest
Steadfast raiders have an opportunity to embark on a series of quests to create an all-new legendary caster staff. In order to begin the process of assembling the staff, players must first kill a Molten Lord in the Firelands, or have completed any of the achievements Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, or Throne of the Four Winds. Once any of these achievements have been unlocked, players can accept the quest A Legendary Engagement from Ziradormi in Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar, or Coridormi atop the Wizard’s Sanctum in Stormwind (players who have already completed any of these achievements are immediately eligible for this quest). Players who become eligible for the quest series by killing a Molten Lord in the Firelands will automatically receive the quest Your Time Has Come, leading them to the start of the questline. The legendary item questline is only available to druids, mages, priests, shaman, and warlocks.

New User Interface Feature: Dungeon Journal
A host of dungeon information is now built into the user interface via the all-new Dungeon Journal. This feature can be accessed via a new button in the Navigation tray from anywhere in the world. Boss background story, encounter details, abilities, and loot can be viewed with the Dungeon Journal for all bosses which have been integrated into the new system (this includes bosses for all Cataclysm dungeons and raids). Additional dungeons are planned to be incorporated in future updates.
Recruit-A-Friend now awards bonus experience and free level grants to level 80, up from level 60.
Players with a copy of the original World of Warcraft who had not yet upgraded to The Burning Crusade have had their accounts upgraded to access the content and features of The Burning Crusade expansion at no additional cost.

Achievements

Bear-ly Made It (new achievement): Save all four prisoners before they are sacrificed in Zul’Aman on Heroic difficulty.
Classes: General

All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
Players are once again free to dance in combat (without causing graphic errors). Other animations, such as attacks, will take precedence over dancing. The dance animation will be suppressed until the higher priority animation is complete. Fun has been unnerfed.
Buffs

All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.
Crowd Control

Many crowd control abilities no longer cause creatures to attack players when they are cast. The creature will not attack the player when the crowd control wears off, and nearby creatures will not become hostile to the player either. However, if a visible player gets too close to the target creature, the creature will remember and attack the player when the crowd control effect wears off. The intent is to make it easier for dungeon groups to manage crowd control assignments and pulling packs of hostile NPCs. The abilities affected by this change are: Hibernate, Entangling Roots, Wyvern Sting (will still cause hostility when it begins to deal damage), Freezing Trap, Polymorph, Repentance, Shackle Undead, Blind, Hex, Bind Elemental, Banish, Seduction.

Pets
The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player’s pet to attack the player’s target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.
The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player’s pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.

Spell Interrupts
When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended.

Stats
Death knights, paladins, and warriors no longer receive any bonus to their chance to dodge from Agility. Their base chance to dodge is now a fixed 5%.
Death knights, paladins, and warriors now receive 27% of their Strength bonuses as parry rating, up from 25%. This conversion still only applies to Strength above and beyond their base Strength.

General Class Bug Fixes
Players should no longer incorrectly receive a message stating they interrupted a spell cast when they did not.
Action bars will no longer briefly disappear when characters that have a stance bar enter a vehicle.

Death Knights
Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.

Talent Specializations
Frost
Hungering Cold now has a 1.5-second cast time.
Might of the Frozen Wastes now increases two-handed weapon damage by 3/7/10%, down from 4/8/12%.

Unholy
Unholy Might now increases Strength by 20%, up from 5%.

Glyphs
Glyph of Dark Succor has been redesigned. Rather than placing a 15% maximum health floor on Death Strike healing while in Frost or Unholy Presence, it causes the next Death Strike within 15 seconds after killing a foe that yields experience or Honor Points to heal for at least 20% of the death knight’s maximum health (still requires Frost or Unholy Presence).

Death Knight Bug Fixes
The talent Killing Machine can now properly be triggered from off-hand attacks as well as main-hand attacks.
Druids

Druids now gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, down from 2. They continue to gain 2 attack power per point of Agility while in Cat Form or Bear Form. In addition, Cat Form’s scaling rate from gear upgrades was slower than other classes, which was causing them to fall behind in damage with higher item levels. To counter the Strength change and improve scaling, the following changes have been made. All numbers cited are for level-85 druids.

Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 540% weapon damage, up from 460%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 302.
Rake initial damage on hit now deals the same damage as each periodic tick (and is treated the same for all combat calculations). Periodic damage now gains 14.7% of attack power per tick, up from 12.6%, and base damage per tick has been lowered from 557 to 56. There is a known issue with Rake’s tooltip being incorrect from this change will be corrected in a future patch.

Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 950% weapon damage, up from 850%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 532.

Savage Roar now grants 80% increased damage to melee auto attacks, up from 50%. The Glyph of Savage Roar remains an unchanged bonus of 5% to that total.

Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 540% weapon damage, up from 450%, and bonus damage has been lowered to 302.

Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature’s Grasp no longer deal damage.

Innervate now grants an ally target 5% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds, but still grants 20% of the druid’s maximum mana over 10 seconds when self-cast.

Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.

Starfire damage has been increased by approximately 23%.

Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.

Wrath damage has been increased by approximately 23%.

Talent Specializations

Balance
Earth and Moon’s duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.

Feral
Bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so the following balance changes have been made. All the numbers cited are for level 85 characters; numbers will be lower for lower-level characters.
Faerie Fire (Feral) base damage has been raised to 2950, up from 679. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 10.8%, down from 15%.
Maul base damage has been raised to 35, up from 8. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 19%, down from 26.4%.
Pulverize weapon damage percent has been decreased to 60%, down from 80%. Damage per Lacerate application has been increased to 1623, up from 361.
Mangle (Bear) weapon damage percent has been decreased to 190%, down from 260%. Bonus damage has been increased to 3306, down from 754.
Swipe base damage has been increased to 929, up from 215. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 12.3%, down from 17.1%.
Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1042, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 581, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 1.67%, down from 3.26%. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.
Lacerate initial base damage has been increased to 3608, up from 2089. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 5.52%, down from 7.66%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 69, up from 16. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 0.369%, down from 0.512%.
Natural Reaction damage reduction has been increased to 9/18%, up from 6/12%.

Restoration
Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.

Glyphs
Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
Glyph of Innervate now causes the druid to gain 10% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds when Innervate is used on a friendly target, in addition to Innervate’s base effect.

Set Bonuses
The 4-piece Balance druid tier 11 PvE set bonus, Astral Alignment, now provides a total of 15% critical strike chance with 3 charges, decreasing by 5% per charge, instead of 99% decreasing by 33% per charge. This change was made because the set bonus proved so valuable it was not possible to upgrade out of the set into tier 12. To compensate, changes have been made to Starfire and Wrath (listed at the top of the druid class section).
The 2-piece Restoration druid tier 11 PvE set bonus has been redesigned to work with the new Restoration druid mastery. Druids with this bonus now receive the bonus to Spirit while the Harmony mastery bonus to periodic healing is active.
Druid Bug Fixes
It is no longer possible in some encounters to use Feral Charge when closer than its minimum range.

Hunters

Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%.

Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.

Talent Specializations

Marksmanship
Careful Aim now grants additional critical strike chance against targets over 90% health, up from 80% health.

Survival
Black Arrow damage done has been increased by roughly 40%.

Pets
10 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth’tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.
Intervene (Pet Tenacity) has been redesigned. The pet runs at high speed toward a group member, reducing the damage done by the next melee or ranged attack made against them equal to 50% of the pet’s total health.

Mages

Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.

Pyroblast cast when Hot Streak is not active was doing slightly less damage than the Hot Streak version. Its damage has been increased so that both versions of Pyroblast now do the same amount of damage.

Spellsteal mana cost has been increased by 100%.

Talent Specializations

Fire
When Impact spreads Living Bomb, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the mage’s most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.

Frost
Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will cause diminishing returns on each other, in addition to the spells they normally share diminishing returns with.

Paladins

Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.

Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.

Guardian of Ancient Kings uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.

Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.

Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.

Seal of Righteousness now can be activated by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can activate this seal. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now be critical effects.

Talent Specializations

Holy
Beacon of Light can no longer be dispelled. In addition, it now transfers 100% of the heal from Holy Light, but still 50% of the heal from other spells.
Denounce has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effects for the next 6 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
Holy Shock mana cost has been decreased to 7% of base mana, down from 8%.
Illuminated Healing (Mastery) has been adjusted slightly so that if a paladin refreshes an existing copy of his or her own Illuminated Healing on a target, the new absorption amount will be added into the old absorption amount and the duration will be reset. The total absorption created can never exceed 1/3 of the casting paladin’s health.
Infusion of Light can now lower the cast time of Flash of Light by 0.75/1.5 seconds, in addition to Holy Light and Divine Light. In addition, the old Denounce spell overlay effect has been transferred to Infusion of Light since Denounce is no longer a proc.
Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30%, in addition to its current effects.

Protection
Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.
Guarded By The Light no longer interacts with Holy Shield in any way.
Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
Holy Shield has been redesigned. This talent is now an activated ability off the global cooldown. It grants 20% increased block amount to a paladin’s shield blocks for 10 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown.
Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren’t capped on hit rating.

Retribution
Inquiry of Faith now increases Inquisition duration by 66/133/200%, up from 50/100/150%.
The Seals of Command talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.
Selfless Healer can no longer be dispelled and cannot be stolen via Spellsteal; and, in addition to its current effects, it lowers the cooldown of Word of Glory by 5/10 seconds.

Glyphs
Glyph of Seal of Truth expertise bonus now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.

Priests

Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%.

Mind Blast damage done has been increased by 12%.

Shadowfiend uses the new Assist pet stance functionality.

Shadow Word: Death damage done has been increased by 12%.

Shadow Word: Pain damage done has been decreased by 12%.

Talent Specializations
Shadow
Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%.
Psychic Horror no longer has a forward facing requirement, making it consistent with other non-projectile-based crowd control spells.
Sin and Punishment’s Vampiric Touch backlash fear effect no longer has diminishing returns.
Vampiric Touch damage done has been decreased by 12%.
Priest Bug Fixes
Players will no longer prematurely cancel a channeled spell when clicking on the Lightwell.

Rogues

Cloak of Shadows cooldown is now 2 minutes, up from 90 seconds. In addition, Cloak of Shadows is no longer on the global cooldown.

Combat Readiness and Cloak of Shadows now share a cooldown.

Blind duration against enemy NPCs is now 1 minute, while the duration against players remains 8 seconds.

Stealth now once again begins its cooldown once the rogue leaves Stealth.

Talent Specializations
Assassination
Assassin’s Resolve damage bonus has been increased to 20%, up from 15%.
Vile Poisons now increases poison damage by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.

Combat
Savage Combat now increases attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
Vitality now increases attack power by 30%, up from 25%.

Subtlety
Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20, and now also reduces the cooldown of Combat Readiness by 15/30 seconds.
Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.
Sanguinary Vein damage to bleeding targets has been increased to 8/16%, from 5/10%.

Shaman

Fire Nova damage has been increased by 15%.

Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.

Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman’s Nature school has been locked out.

Unleash Wind now deals 175% weapon damage, up from 125%.

Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields. The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.

Talent Specializations
Elemental
Call of Flame now also causes Fire Nova to add 3/6 seconds to the duration of Flame Shock auras on targets that Fire Nova damages.
Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.

Enhancement
Stormstrike now deals 225% weapon damage, up from 125%.

Restoration
Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster’s Spirit, down from 400%.
Glyphs
Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.
Set Bonuses
The 4-piece Elemental shaman PvP set bonus (Gladiator’s Thunderfist set) has been redesigned. It now causes Lightning Shield to generate an extra charge, rather than consuming one, when it is triggered by receiving damage, up to a maximum of 3 (9 with the Rolling Thunder talent).

Warlocks

Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.

Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.

Glyphs
Glyph of Soul Swap now applies a 30-second cooldown to Soul Swap, up from 15 seconds.

Warlock Bug Fixes
It is no longer possible to leave combat while channeling Drain Soul.

Warriors

Overpower now has a 1.5-second cooldown and global cooldown (Taste for Blood’s Overpower cooldown has not changed).

Recklessness and Deadly Calm can no longer be used at the same time. One cannot be used while the other is active, but using one does not put the other on its full cooldown.

Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall no longer have stance requirements.

Talent Specializations
Arms
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 12%, down from 20%.

Fury
Dual Wield Specialization weapon damage increase has been lowered to 5%, down from 10%.

Warrior Bug Fixes
It is no longer possible in some encounters to use Charge when closer than its minimum range.

Currency

Conquest & Honor Points

All existing Conquest Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Honor Points. All Honor Points exceeding the 4,000 point cap have been converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point and mailed to characters.

The minimum cap on Conquest Points earned per week from Arenas is now 1350 at 1500 or less Arena rating. The maximum cap is now 2700 at 3000 or more Arena rating. The cap continues to scale non-linearly between those two points. For comparison, during season 9 the cap ranged between 1343 and 3000.
The game now separately tracks different Conquest Point caps for Battlegrounds and Arenas. Battleground ratings receive a bonus of 22.2% to the cap they generate, meaning the cap from Battleground rating now ranges between 1650 and 3300. Players may earn a total number of Conquest Points per week equal to the higher of these two caps, but once players have reached the cap for either Arenas or Battlegrounds, they can no longer earn Conquest Points from that source. Conquest Points from Battleground holidays only count toward the total Conquest Point cap.

Example: During the first week of Season 10 everyone starts with a rating below 1500. Therefore, the cap from Rated Battlegrounds will be 1650 and the cap from Arena rating will be 1350. In the first week, the character wins enough Arena matches to reach the 1350 point cap. After that point, Arena wins will no longer grant Conquest points for the week. However, the character can still earn up to 300 additional points, but can only earn those points from either Rated Battlegrounds, or from the Conquest Point bonus for holiday and/or daily random Battlegrounds. The following week the cap will be recalculated based on the character’s ratings, and it is possible Arena rating could now generate the higher cap. The second week, the character’s cap from Arena rating is 1800, and the cap from Rated Battlegrounds is 1650. The character has a total cap of 1800 Conquest points for the week. Up to 1650 points can be earned from Rated Battlegrounds, but the last 150 must come from a different source.

Valor & Justice Points
All existing Valor Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Justice Points. Any points above the Justice Point cap will be converted into gold at a rate of 47 silver per point and mailed to characters.

The maximum number of Valor Points which can be earned in a week from any and all applicable dungeons and raids is now 980, down from 1250.

The maximum number of Valor Points awarded for completing Rise of the Zandalari dungeons remains at 980.

The maximum number of Valor Points awarded for completing Heroic dungeons remains at 490.

The number of Valor Points awarded for killing a boss in the Firelands is 120 in 10-player mode, and 140 in 25-player mode.

The number of Valor Points awarded for killing Occu’thar in Baradin Hold is 120 in 10-player mode, and 140 in 25-player mode.

The number of Valor Points awarded for killing a boss on Heroic difficulty in The Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four winds is 35 in 10-player mode, and 45 in 25-player mode.

Dungeons & Raids

Raid Profiles have been added which allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.) for future use.

Players can select PvE, PvP, specialization, and group size. Each Raid Profile type will then automatically setup going forward.

This feature is available for 5-player content as well when Use Raid-Style Party Frames is selected in the Interface options.

Raid Profiles can list groups horizontally as well as vertically.

A Raid button has been added to the Navigation tray which will bring players straight to the Raid window in the Social pane.

Baradin Hold
Occu’thar has broken free from his cage and presents an all-new boss challenge to players in 10- and 25-player arrangements who control Tol Barad. This boss will be available with the start of Season 10, one week after the release of patch 4.2.

The Bastion of Twilight
The damage modifier on normal difficulty has been reduced for Arion, Elementium Monstrosity, Feludius, Ignacius, and Terrastra.

One of each type of bound elemental in the Ascendant Council chamber has been removed.

Bound Deluge’s Frost Whirl ability now deals 50% less damage.

Arion
Chain Lightning damage and chain distance has been reduced.

Cho’gall
Health, melee damage, Health of Corrupting Adherent, Depravity damage, Corrupting Crash damage, Flaming Destruction damage, and Unleashed Shadows damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Corrupting Crash and Depravity

The amount of Corruption they give has been reduced to 5, down from 10.

Corrupted Bite effect caused by Blood of the Old God has been reduced.

Damage taken from Corruption of the Old God per Corrupted Blood has been reduced from 3% per stack to 2% per stack.

Debilitating Beam damage has been reduced by 20%.

The duration of Twisted Devotion has been reduced by 25%.

Dragon Siblings
Health, melee damage, Twilight Meteorite damage, Devouring Flames, Blackout damage, Unstable Twilight damage, Twilight Zone damage, Twilight Blast damage, and Fabulous Flames damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Elementium Monstrosity
Electrical Instability damage has been reduced.

Feludius
Damage due to being frozen while Waterlogged has been reduced.

Halfus
Health, melee damage, Fireball/Fireball Barrage damage, Furious Roar damage, Scorching Breath damage, and Shadow Nova damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Nether Scion, Slate Dragon, Storm Rider, Time Warden, and Orphaned Emerald Whelp health has been reduced by 20%.

Shadow Nova base cast time has been increased.

Ignacious
Rising Flames now increases damage by 3% per stack, down from 5%.

Terrastra
Harden Skin now increases physical damage dealt by 20%, down from 100%.

Blackwing Descent

Atramedes
Health, melee damage, modulation damage, Roaring Flame Breath damage, and Searing Flame damage have all been reduced by 20%.
Modulation no longer causes Sound in normal difficulty.

Sound given by Sonar Pulse has been reduced to 3, down from 5.

Chimaeron
Health has been reduced by 20% and melee damage has been reduced by 10%.

Chimaeron will now only cast two caustic slimes per 30-second cycle.

Drakeadon Mongrel
Time Lapse no longer stuns.

Frost Burn silence is now 3 seconds.

Dwarven Kings
Whirlwind no longer drops threat.

Execution Sentence now deals damage only.

Shield of Light absorption has been reduced.

Magmaw
Damage and hit points have been reduced by 20%.

Lava Parasites have been diminished.

Lava Spew damage, Magma Spit damage, Massive Crash damage, and Infectious Vomit damage have all been been reduced.

Mangled Lifeless no longer instantly kills, and its damage has been reduced.

Parasitic Infection has been decreased.

Maloriak
Health, damage, Aberration health/damage, Arcane Storm damage, Prime Subject damage, Flash Freeze/Shatter damage, and Scorching Blast damage have all been decreased by 20%.

The Aberration stacking damage buff has been decreased.

Prime Subjects no longer fixate, and are no longer immune to taunt effects.

Nefarian
Health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.

Animated Bone Warriors take 33 seconds to fall over, down from 50. In addition, fewer Animated Bone Warriors spawn.

Blast Nova cast time has been increased.

Chromatic Prototype health has been reduced by 20%.

Electrocute damage has been reduced by 30%.

Magma Stacking debuff effect has been reduced by 75%.

Nefarian’s Shadowblaze cast frequency cannot increase beyond 1 once every 15 seconds.

Onyxia health and melee damage has been reduced by 20%.

Shadowflame Barrage damage has been reduced by 20%.

Tail Lash damage has been reduced by 50%.

Omnotron Council
Health, Melee damage, Electrical Discharge damage, Lightning Conductor damage, Health of Poison Bomb, Incineration Security Measure damage, and Arcane Annihilator damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Barrier absorb amount has been increased by 100%.

The cooldown on Power Conversion (Converted Power chance) has been increased.

Flamethrower damage has been reduced by 40%.

Static Shock caused by Unstable Shield damage and Poison Bomb damage has been decreased by 50%.

Deadmines
Vanessa VanCleef (Heroic difficulty) now has a sweet, sweet voice to accompany her dialog.

Throne of the Four Winds

Al’Akir
Acid Rain now stacks every 20 seconds, up from 15.

Electrocute now pulses every 1 second, up from 0.5.

Feedback duration has been increased to 30 seconds, up from 20.

Health, damage, and Wind Burst damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Lightning and Lightning Rod recast time has been increased.

Lightning Strike friendly chain damage has been reduced by 50%.

Static Shock will no longer be used on normal difficulty in phase 1 or phase 2.

Conclave of the Four Winds
Rohash, Anshal, Nezir melee, Ravenous Creeper health/damage, Ravenous Creeper toxic spores damage, Hurricane damage, Sleet Storm damage, Permafrost damage , Slicing Gale, and Wind Blast damage have all been reduced by 20%.

Gathering Strength cast time has been increased.

Ice Patch slow effect is now 5% per stack, up to 10 stacks, down from 10% per stack, up to 30 stacks, and damage has been reduced by 20%.

Wind Chill damage has been decreased by 20% and now increases damage taken by 5% per stack.

Zul’Gurub
All cauldron buffs are now usable while mounted.

High Priestess Kilnara’s death now turns off the flaming tiki mask gauntlet.

High Priest Venoxis’s death now removes the poison from the plants at the start of the dungeon.

Dungeon & Raid Bug Fixes
Bosses are now immune to the shrinking effect from Gnomish Shrink Ray.

The achievement Aberrant Behavior should no longer incorrectly reset its kill tracking during the Maloriak encounter in Blackwing Descent.

Anshal’s Soothing Breeze should no longer cause combat pets to behave erratically in Throne of the Four Winds.

Raid Marker icons are now visible in all phases of boss encounters.

Guilds

Guilds of level 3 or above may no longer be disbanded. Guild leaders wishing to leave a guild will need to promote another member to Guild Master first.

Guild Finder
Long comments will now work and not be cut off in the display.

The daily guild experience cap has been increased by 25%.

The weekly guild reputation cap has been increased by 25%.

The guild experience cap is now removed at level 20, down from level 23.

The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It’s now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.

Items

If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.

Applicable tier 11 items now cost Justice Points.

Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player.

The Keyring bag slot has been removed to make room in the user interface for new features.

Keys which no longer serve a purpose in the game will be removed from player inventories. Compensation for the keys will be automatically provided in the form of each key’s vendor sell price in gold.

Keys which are obsolete quest items will be removed from player inventories.

Keys which may still be of use to players will be transferred to regular inventory space. If a player’s bags are full, these keys will sit in a backlogged inventory until sufficient space is made available. Once space is opened, the keys will appear in regular inventory upon the player logging out or switching zones.

PvP Items & Rewards
Applicable Season 9 items now cost Honor Points.

Gladiator Weapons
Season 10 Conquest Point weapons will only be purchasable once a required minimum sum of Conquest Points has been reached during the current season. For example, Ruthless Gladiator’s Pike costs 3400 Conquest Points to purchase. However, players must first earn a total of 7800 Conquest Points during Season 10 before they are able to purchase it.

Season 9 Honor Point weapons will only be purchasable once a required minimum sum of Honor Points has been reached during the current season. For example, Vicious Gladiator’s Pike costs 3400 Honor Points to purchase. However, players must first earn a total of 7250 Honor Points during Season 10 before they are able to purchase it.

Once the minimum sum of points required to purchase weapons is reached, all available weapons can be purchased for their listed costs. The point requirement is not reset once a purchase is made.

Weapon tooltips from the vendor will let players know how many more Conquest or Honor Points must be earned in the current season before the item can be purchased.

Rated Battleground Rewards
New PvP ground mounts, the Vicious War Wolf (Horde) and Vicious War Steed (Alliance), will be awarded to players for completing achievements to win 75, 150, and 300 Rated Battlegrounds respectively, rather than for being in the top .5% of the ladder at the end of each season as with Arenas. This award system is to better compliment the spirit of Battlegrounds. One account-bound mount will be awarded for each achievement unlocked, allowing players who obtain 150 and 300 Rated Battleground wins to earn this mount a second and third time. The additional mounts earned can then be sent to alt characters, given they’re account-bound. These mounts are awarded as soon as an associated achievement is unlocked and do not correspond with end-of-season rewards.

Set Bonuses
The 2-piece resilience bonus from Cataclysm PvP sets no longer stacks. If a player wears 2 pieces each from 2 different Cataclysm sets, the player will only receive the 400 resilience rating bonus once. This change does not apply to PvP sets from prior expansions.

Professions

Engineering
D.E.H.T.A. has recently placed a great number of critters under their protection, especially rabbits and squirrels. Because of this, Flintlocke’s Woodchucker has been re-fitted to use wild chickens until an “agreement” can be reached.

Skinning
Players can no longer skin corpses already being actively skinned or looted by other players.
PvP

Arenas

The individual Matchmaking Rating column has been removed from the Arena scoreboard.

The Ring of Valor has been added to the Arena rotation once again. Players no longer start the match on elevators at the center of the map. They now begin the match in starting rooms on opposite sides of the Arena.

Battlegrounds
The individual Matchmaking Rating column has been removed from the Rated Battleground scoreboard and replaced with a team Matchmaking Rating.

Eye of the Storm has been added into the rotation as a 10-man Rated Battleground. The tug-of-war style capture points have been replaced with Arathi Basin style capture points to better support 10v10 competition. This change applies only to Rated Battlegrounds. Eye of the Storm is otherwise still a 15-player Battleground with tug-of-war style capture points.

Warsong Gulch has been added back into the Rated Battleground rotation.

War Games
Many improvements have been made to the War Games interface. It now has its own panel for ease of use and raid/group leaders are the only ones who can challenge another group to War Games.

Quests & Creatures

There are no longer oddities in the critical strike and dodge chance of lower-level creatures.

Creatures will now display smooth energy regeneration for players.

Races

All character races now have a /roar sound.

User Interface

The Interface Options screens have changed size to match the Video and Audio screens. This allows for a larger Compact Unit Frames Profiles panel.

Addons will no longer be able to intelligently swap items by working with the built-in Equipment Manager.

The order in which characters are listed at the Character Selection screen can now be rearranged and saved.

The cast bar can now be moved to display below the Character frame.

Character talent specializations can now be viewed on mouseover of the Battlegrounds Scoreboard.

There is now a Dismiss Pet option on unit frames.

The durability character display will now show items as yellow when they are below 20% durability, instead of when items have 5 durability or less.

The Macros window and Spellbook can now both be open at the same time to allow for more intuitive macro creation. In addition, the Macros window has a Save/Cancel button.

It is now easier to change the language of the game client to any language available in the region.

A target or focus target can be selected within the mini-map tracking (does not include enemy players).

Vendors now display currency types they use.

Technical

The Blizzard Launcher now utilizes Universal Plug and Play for port configuration. If your router supports UPnP it will automatically open the ports that it requires and your downloads will be unrestricted.

Couldn’t help but take screens and throw together a short video. Be sure to view video above in 1080p along with the PC specs in the notes.

“The DX11 Ultra Upgrade is a free visual improvement add-on introducing DirectX 11 support as well as a wealth of graphical improvements and performance optimization for both DX11 and DX9 API’s.”

“When using the new “Ultra” spec, DX9 platforms will benefit from real-time local reflections and contact shadows. The owners of DX11 platforms, in addition, will be able to enjoy hardware tessellation (requires the installation of the “DX11 Ultra Upgrade”), parallax occlusion mapping and several improvements for shadows, water, particles, depth of field and motion blur.”

Shortly after Crytek released their 1.9 patch and DX11 update for Crysis 2, the first benchmarks of Crysis 2 at UQ in 1920x1080p have been released with some significant performance reductions for both red and green teams, which is to be expected with higher resolution textures and DX11 tessellation. If you’re worried, it shouldn’t be long until better drivers are released for both teams in hopes of better optimization for this update. I’m now sitting around 32 fps in DX11 compared to the average 43 fps in DX9 (GeForce GTX 560 Ti). It feels like 2007 all over again.

Benchmarks courtesy of [GameGPU]

The upcoming CG movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance will be coming to theaters for one day only on July 26.  The events of the movie are going to be set between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 and will feature many familiar faces from the series. The story will focus on Ling Xiaoyu (Carrie Keranen, Annie Stoakes in Red Dead Revolver) as she infiltrates a school to gather information on Kamiya Shin (David Vincent, Jin Kisaragi in BlazBlue).  The movie is set to expand the universe of the games instead of being a unique continuity.

Tekken game director Katsuhiro Harada has been involved with the project and has claimed that is has nothing to do with the Tekken live action movie, which failed to get wide release and will be available on home media in July.  Blood Vengeance is written by famed anime writer Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) which gives hope for the story and dialogue.  There will be many familiar voices in the English cast including: Kyle Hebert (Ryu in Street Fighter 4) as Kazuya Mishima, Cristina Vee (Noel Vermillion in BlazBlue) as Alisa Bosconovitch, and Tara Platt (Temari in Naruto) as Anna Williams.

If you are looking for theater locations or tickets go to fathomevents.com.  Tekken: Blood Vengeance will be released on DVD and BluRay will be later this year.

As this is a simple browser game the graphics are nothing impressive.  The graphics work and the characters are differentiated and colorful enough to keep track of everything on screen.  The sounds a well done and the audio cues help you keep track of what is going on and death sounds are amusing.  The simple presentation suits the simple gameplay and makes the game stand out from other tower defense titles.

Although, zOMT is not the most complex tower defense game; it is fun and memorable.  The challenge level can get rough at times, but it makes winning all the more of an achievement.  There is a nice amount of humor in the game and the variety of play options allows payers to try many different tactics to save their tribes.  If you are looking for a quick fun tower defense game then give zOMT a chance.

Overall, we recommend zOMT and if you want to check out head over to the folowing link.



Codemasters released their first dev diary for F1 2011 featuring new work-in-progress gameplay and commentary from the designers and producers.

Game designer Stephen Hood reminds the viewer that they’re not just giving you new tracks and roster updates, but actually building more onto the game. This includes gameplay advancements, new competitive and co-operative multiplayer, 16 players online plus eight AI to simulate 24 cars, a new co-op championship mode and split-screen mode.

F1 2011 launches for PC Games for Windows on September 23.

Here’s how to get into the beta. Simply click this link and register! https://register.perfectworld.com/rhad

“Many fans are anxiously waiting to play Rusty Hearts and we are very excited that we will soon be able to welcome players into the fast paced action game,” said Mark Hill, Product Manager for Rusty Hearts . “We’ve been working hard to ensure a smooth closed beta launch for Rusty Hearts and aim to continue raising players’ expectations for free-to-play games.”

Players in the beta can level up, quest, change difficulty, customize characters, gear up, and PvP. So, it’s a very substantial beta for players to give feedback before its world wide release date to be announced.

After nearly five years, Team Fortress 2 is finally going Free 2 Play in  Valve’s latest experiment.June 23, 2011 – Valve, creators of bestselling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), announced today that after four years and over 200 updates, its popular and critically-acclaimed online action game Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is now Free To Play (F2P).

The F2P announcement comes as part of the “Über Update”. Released today, it is the largest content pack delivered to TF2 since it shipped in 2007.

New players interested in experiencing what PC Gamer calls “the most fun you can have online” will have access to training and offline practice modes, so they can hone their skills before jumping into the ever-expanding TF2 universe.

To celebrate the launch of the Über Update, Valve has released “Meet the Medic,” the latest in its series of TF2 animated shorts.

TF2 is now Free to Play for PC & Mac players via Steam.

For more information on Free to Play, please visit http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay.

For more information on the “Über Update” and “Meet the Medic”, please visit http://www.teamfortress.com/uberupdate.

Metro: Last Light will be developed by 4A games, which is a wonderful thing for PC gamers. If you had a chance to play Metro 2033 on the PC, then you are already aware of the beautiful graphics and DirectX 11 support. 4As love for PC gamers was once again apparent in what I saw for Metro: Last Light. The game is gorgeous, and the build we saw isn’t even representative of the finished product. The lighting and shadow effects were impressive as well. The guns sounded like guns, not like the airsoft guns of Call of Duty. The ambient effects and sound design once again added to the immersion and experience that Metro series has come to provide.

One of my biggest issues with Metro 2033 was the loose, almost sloppy, gunplay. From the demo shown, the aiming looked improved, which is a big plus for me. The demoer also stated that in addition to the combat being improved, the stealth and AI are being improved as well.

Metro 2033 was all about the mood and story, and Metro: Last Light feels no different. The demo pulled me in and made me want more. As far as I’m concerned, 2012 can be 2034.

In the late 90s, I was introduced to the concept of online gaming on the PC, and at the time, the most coveted computer was an Alienware. Over the years, Alienware became less and less appealing, overcharging for parts and not building machines to people’s wants. Also, with the ability to buy parts cheap and build my own PC, my need for buying a pre made PC doesn’t really exist. However, Origin PC is a new high-end custom PC builder, and they are doing customization right.

At Origin, their company mantra seems to be do what the customer wants; with an impressive list of components at their disposal, Origin goes above and beyond. Also, if they don’t have something listed that you may want, you can call them and they will do it for you, this includes certain paint jobs also.

Origin has several different tiers of PC builds: Chronos, Millennium, and Genesis. The Chronos PCs start at $919.00, which is a fair price for what you are getting. As you move up to the higher tiers, the cases get bigger, and the possibilities grow with them.

At E3, I was able to get some hands on time with the Genesis model PCs, and these machines weren’t just aesthetically pleasing, they were fast. Upon first glance, I saw a big side window with red light shining out, and visible red water-cooling tubes—you can customize both of these things. I opened up the PC and saw something that made me feel like I put no care into my PC builds. The inside of this PC was immaculate. The wires were all out of sight, the water cooling system was installed in a way that wasn’t at all intrusive, and all the components inside the case were easily accessible.

One of the more interesting PCs sold by Origin was one that they didn’t have at E3, which is known as the Big O. The Big O consists of a water cooled PC as well as a water cooled Xbox 360 Slim. Although, the idea seems a bit asinine, at least you know that your 360 should have sufficient cooling.

Origin PC is a company whose founders came from Alienware, and that can be seen from their ambition to build high-end machines. Although the company is only 1 ½ years old, they have solid product, and they continue to add the newest components as they release. Check out Origin PCs website here.

The game will feature numerous weapons and 20 different gadgets to help with hunting alien bounties.  The gadgets range from simple scanners to cool things like jet boots all of which can alter how players approach dealing with missions.  Since the player has many choices in playing the game there is also a morality system that will influence how NPCs react to you in the game.  Even simple choices like having your gun holstered can influence how an NPC will react.  However, the morality system will not be the focal point of the game; it is merely a way of making NPC reactions more realistic.

There is a major graphical step up between the first and second Prey game.  The alien city looks amazing and being able to parkour throughout the city allows players to admire the beauty while exploring.  There are some great touches that have been made to the game to make the areas of Prey 2 appear to be a living world.  In addition of the graphics the sound design is pretty good.  There looks to be a good amount of voice work in the game, which helps complete the experience.

Even if the first game did not appeal to you, Prey 2 might just win you over.  Giving players choice in how to play, adding in interesting gadgets and weapons, and creating an immersive world help it stand apart from other first person shooters.  There is something for everyone in this action packed game.

Remember that burger man in earlier Call of Duty: Black Ops videos? He’s back again. Coming later this month is the Annihilation Content Pack including maps Hangar 18, Drive-In, Silo, Hazard and Zombies. PC gamers will have have to wait though because of Microsoft’s business dealings about its timed exclusivity. 

This will be the third DLC map pack aside from two others that have sold particularly well. More reason for to keep Call of Duty fans happy until the release of Modern Warfare 3, although the price of these DLC packs adds up. Activision continues to stick to their $15 premium.

The Annihilation Content Pack will be available first on Xbox Live on June 28, 2011 and to PC and PS3 at a later date.

• Added Contact Shadows
• Added DX11 benchmark level
• Added DX11 support for Crysis 2 (the following features only work when downloading the optional DX11 package here):

• – Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
• – High Quality HDR Motion Blur
• – Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra
• – Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field
• – Parallax Occlusion Mapping
• – Particles Motion Blur, Shadows and Art Updates
• – Water Rendering improvements and using Tessellation + Displacement Mapping

• Added Realtime Local Reflections
• Added support for Higher Res Textures Package
• Added various new console variables to whitelist
• Fixed bullet penetration, which had been broken by a bug introduced with the DLC 2 patch
• Fixed issue in MP where player stats weren’t always saved at the end of a game
• Fixed issue in MP where player stats would sometimes randomly reset
• Fixed issue with MP time played statistic, which would sometimes be too low on leaderboards and in stats
• Fixed issue with JAW rocket not firing through window’s containing broken glass
• Fixed rare issue where a user could not access MP with a valid CD key if they had previously used an invalid CD key
• Improved advanced graphics options menu
• Improved anti-cheat measurements: fixed exploit which could prevent vote kicking working against a user
• Improved multi-GPU support
• Improved Tone Mapping
• Re-added possibility to enable r_StereoSupportAMD via config file (unsupported)

Saw the community manager for Battlefield 3 @zh1nt0 post this on twitter and I couldn’t resist not sharing it with you all. ADHD_WACKO_JACKO, 66, loves to garden, is proud of his boat, and loves to play Battlefield.

Skyrim, the long anticipated continuation of The Elder Scrolls saga will be coming out in November.  A behind closed doors presentation was given by game director Todd Howard, who did a basic run through of the game. The first thing that hits everyone is how good the game looks.  After the initial reaction Todd Howard revealed that the demo was running on the Xbox 360.  The run through showed off the new menu system, the new combat system, and the excitement of battling dragons on the plains of Skyrim. Overall, the presentation was great and it showed off just how amazing Skyrim will be.

Very little was revealed about the story in Skyrim.  However, what was revealed was that dragons have returned to Tamriel and that dealing with the dragons will be a major part of the story.  The protagonist of the game will have a connection to the dragons and will be able to use dragon powers that can be obtained after killing a dragon.  In addition to the story there will be many different side quests and 150 unique dungeons that can be explored.  The world in Skyrim is massive and the possibilities for adventure and entertainment are almost limitless.

The key reason why the graphics looks so good is that the engine was built from the ground up.  Taking their time since Fallout 3, the new engine was built to near perfection and allowed E3 spectators to be in awe of how good Skyrim looks on the Xbox 360.  While there was a little particle grain here and there, it was not very noticeable and this was only an early build of the game so it may just be a glitch that will be dealt with before release.  After all the bugs are worked out, Skyrim will likely be the most beautiful game on the 360.

The revised item system looks interesting.  It no longer takes up the entire screen.  It is more akin to a series of lists like the Windows start menu.  In the item lists players can examine objects in close detail.  Not only does this allow players to appreciate the art in the game, it also is a necessity for some quests.  The menu allows players to also equip weapons and abilities to their two hands.  You can equip your character as you please with each hand independent of the other.  Two weapons, a weapon and a spell, a spell and a shield are just a few of the options available.  In fact if a character uses two spells at once they can combine for more powerful effects.

Leveling up in Skyrim is somewhat different than Oblivion as the level up screen is now designed as a series of constellations that seem to interconnect.  As characters progress they will build up their personal constellations and unlock new perks.  There are no longer major skills and minor skills, now all skills build toward leveling.  However, the frustrating skills of athletics and aerobics have been removed to make leveling more focused on skills rather than tedium.  The leveling system looks to be very refined and appears to have taken some lessons from Fallout 3.

The guilds will also be making a comeback in Skyrim.  Players will have the option of joining the Fighters guild, the mage guild, or the thieves’ guild.  So far there is no mention of the Dark Brotherhood, but as those missions were very creative it would not be that much of a surprise if they made a comeback too.  In addition there are plenty of odd jobs people can do around town and players can influence the economy of the different towns they come across.  If you want to sabotage a mill you can and it will have an impact on the town.  Characters will be influenced by your actions in the game and completing different quests will change how things are in the world.

Overall, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim looks to be a very ambitious game with nearly endless hours of game play.  Knowing the track record of The Elder Scrolls we can be confident that this entry will meet, and possibly beat, our expectations.  Look forward to Skyrim coming out this November.

“D2D EA Deal of the Day: 60% OFF of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2! Don’t miss your chance to decide the fate of the galaxy while defending helpless settlers, pursuing relationships with your crew and solving the mysteries of an extinct alien race.“

Individually Mass Effect 1/2 costs $7.95 and sadly there’s not discount for a bundle.

Indie Game The Movie isn’t finished yet. They need your help. That’s why they started a kickstarter page to help fund it.

What’s it about?

Indie Game: The Movie is a feature documentary about video games, their creators and the craft. The film follows the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create their games, and as they release those works, and themselves, to the world.

Indie Game: The Movie is about making video games, but at its core, it’s about the creative process and exposing yourself through your work.

The film tells the emotional story of a two-man team, Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, as they craft and release their first major game for XBOX, “Super Meat Boy“. It follows Phil Fish, the creator of the highly- anticipated game, “Fez“, as he shows it for the first time in 4 years at the giant gaming expo, PAX EAST. And, the film tells behind-the-scenes story an independent designer, Jonathan Blow, who made one of highest-rated video games of all-time, “Braid“.

Four developers, three games, and one ultimate goal – to express one’s self through a video game.

The Music

We are extremely excited/proud/lucky to announce that the uber-talented Canadian musician, Jim Guthrie, will be composing the music for the film. In case you don’t know Jim, he is the composer/collaborator/muse behind this year’s much-lauded indie game release, Superbrothers: Sword and Swocery EP. (It is beautiful and magical – check it out now if you haven’t!).  You can check his soundtrack (‘The Ballad of the Space Babies’) and more of his great work on Bandcamp.

The Current Status & Why We Need You

We’re done filming and have a very solid rough cut.  The finish line is wonderfully close and we’re on target to have IGTM complete in mid-August.

So far, we’ve done everything ourselves on this project. The producing, directing, cinematography, editing, and writing for the feature film and all the web videos we’ve made during the process. But, now we need some help from others and support to get the feature film done right and taken to the next level, technically-speaking.

We’re looking for help with the finishing costs of the feature film (audio, colour, and mastering) in order to make this movie the best possible version of itself.

To date, this project has been solely funded by the original Kickstarter campaign, website pre-orders and personal savings (often ill-advised in the film world :)

If you like what you see in the trailer and on the website, please consider pre-ordering your copy today. These pre-orders are really help us make the film better.

Please pass on the trailer and tell your friends about the project. We hope to get a lot of people to see this film, hear these stories and learn more about indie games. Many thanks!

The Regular Edition DVD

The DVD will include the film, deleted scenes, videos about the making of the film, a directors commentary and a real-time commentary of the film from Edmund and Tommy of Team Meat.  Basically, we plan to cram as much extra features as we can on the regular edition.  Whatever can not fit (which will be a lot) will find a home on the Special Edition.

The Special Edition DVD

The Special Edition will everything in the regular edition DVD, as well as feature new content, stories behind other notable indie games, and expert discussions about games and game design. We will be telling these stories individually and thoroughly, with the same polish and motion graphic treatment of the feature film.

The Digital Download Pre-order

Today, we’re now taking digital pre-orders for the film! (Please note that this will include only the main film itself and NOT any of the extra / special features.)

But, now, what if you ordered a DVD version over the past year, you’d prefer a digital version? Our solution:  You’ll get both :)

All DVD and Special Edition pre-orders from start of the project until the end of our latest Kickstarter campaign, will get a digital copy free of charge. After this date, digital copies will likely be sold separately.

The Release Plans

We’re hoping to screen the feature film at some festivals and create a number special event screenings this Fall.

Our goal is to release the DVD, the digital download, and the DVD educational version/license by the end of this year or very early in 2012.

The Special Edition will be release in early 2012. However, those backers will not be left in the cold and will receive a digital copy when the digital version / regular DVD is released.

Who have we filmed with?

Over the course of production, we have filmed with the following people – all of whom make appearances in either the film or the film’s Special Edition: Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy), Phil Fish and Renaud Bédard (Fez),  Jonathan Blow (Braid/The Witness), Ron Carmel (World of Goo), Alec Holowka (Aquaria/Marian), Derek Yu (Aquaria/Spelunky), Steph Thirion (Eliss/Faraway), David Hellman (Braid), Adam Saltzman (Canabalt/Gravity Hook), Jason Rohrer (Passage/Sleep is Death), Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen (Flower/Journey), Matthew Wegner (Flashbang/Blurst), Chevy Ray (Beacon/Flashpunk), Mark Johns (Hot Throttle/Space Barnacle), Mark Essen (NIDHOGG/Flywrench), Erin Robinson (Puzzle Bots), Jeff Lindsay (Hacker Dojo), Steve Swink and Scott Anderson (Shadow Physics), Kyle Pulver (Snapshot), Simon Carless (UBM TechWeb Game Network), Brandon Boyer (The Independent Games Festival), Anthony Carboni (Bytejacker), Gus Mastrapa (Contributor Wired, EGM, Edge), Jamin Warren (Kill Screen/Former Reporter, The Wall Street Journal), Chris Dahlen (Kill Screen/Pitchfork/Onion AV Club), and Ken Schachter (Trapdoor/Warp).

This project will only be funded if at least $35,000 is pledged by Saturday Jul 23, 2:59am EDT.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blinkworks/indie-game-the-movie-the-final-push

Serious Sam 3: BFE isn’t a serious game at all. That’s probably why it will be so fun. Publisher Devolver Digital sannounced SS3BFE on the heels of Duke Nukem Forever, holding on to the theme of the old school first person shooter. Now that forever is out and the impressions and reviews are in, I think it’s time to get serious again. Seriously. Oh, and there’s 16 player co-op, again.

With PC as the lead platform, Croatian developer Croteam knew what hardcore Serious Sam fans wanted. From what I played so far, they’ve stayed true to what the series is all about. Arcade shoot em up fun. They took the Serious Engine 3 used in the HD release and cranked things up a notch. The engine they’re working with now is more of a Serious Engine 3.5 with several updates for today’s standards. This means levels are larger, more enemies can spawn, lighting is better, and etc. The alpha build of the game was running DX 10; however, most of the graphics and animations were still too early to pass judgment on.

Headless Kamikazes, Werebulls, Scrapjacks return along with many new ridiculous enemies, some revealed in trailers. There’s also a bunch posted in the SeriousZone forums. A new addition which might cause an uproar is the first iteration of iron sights to the series. I for one enjoy iron sights as opposed to shooting from the hip just for those enemies approaching between sniping and close quarter distances when enemies are dot sized.

Also, new to BFE is the destruction system. An example of this was when a werebull slammed through a building where I was replenishing my guns ammo cache. I admit, I screamed. From that moment on, it was all man, no cover.

The demo took place in what is left of Cairo, Egypt after the invasion of Lord Mental. When asked if we would be finally fighting Mental in an epic showdown, I was left with the answer of wait and see as  this was the most requested piece so far from message boards and fan mail. New to the series are the brutal melee animations. It was said that there are melee finishers for almost every creature in the game, with one of them being Sam ripping out the eye of poor sap show in a teaser trailer.

The size of the game is definitely serious. Returning are even wider more open areas great for running backwards and circle strafing around hordes of enemies. One of the early levels is 3 times the size of First Encounter. Also, there’s a bit of scripted sequences that go on in the background that increased the production value leaving it a bit more mint. These are not cut scenes per say, but add more to the context of the seriousness of where Sam is and what he’s gotta do.

I long forget when sound played a large part of the gameplay when I stopped playing Counter-Strike a few years back. Just as it’s important to hear footsteps in CS, it’s as important to hear where the hell those Headless Kamikaze’s are coming from. They still freaked out one of the Devolver Digital demo representatives with him mumbling “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” It was hilarious. That’s what’s great about Serious Sam, it’s self aware and made to break down the fourth wall.

When asked for a proper date, all that was said was that fans won’t go past September without playing it. Nearly everything they’ve said feels like a nice improvement and if that’s all that Croteam does it’s fine. Best to not fix what isn’t broken.

We’ll be shooting things up later this summer first on the PC and consoles at a later date.

F.3.A.R 3 launches this Tuesday and we’ll see how Day 1 Studios and Monolith Productions handles this one later this week. In this third installment you’ll be able to play through co-op with a friend on campaign as Point Man and Paxton Fettel, the protagonist and antagonist respectively, from F.E.A.R. What’s cool is that you can replay each the campaign differently with Paxton’s unique abilities, hopefully this is handled well.

Multiplayer will feature four modes including ”Fucking Run” “Contractions” “Soul Survivor” and “Soul King.” Fucking Run will have you and 3 others running away from Alma’s “WALL OF DEATH.” Contractions is basically Call of Duty zombie horde mode against most enemies from the singleplayer campaign and the other two modes will have you possessing each other and vice versa.

Dead Island so far appears to be an amalgamation of most of the great gameplay elements made popular by other zombie game brethren. If Dead Island is anything, it’s not the zombie shooting gallery one would expect it to be. Take the addicting and generally rewarding RPG shooter elements of Borderlands, the comical gore and melee combat of Dead Rising, the co-op elements of Left 4 Dead, and you have Dead Island.

I sat down to play co-op with three other games writers and the 30-40 minute experience I had flew by. In its current beta form, most of the animations were place holders until their final versions are finalized. The framerate of the Xbox 360 version held up at around 30 frames per second despite the vast size of each zone. It took around 30 minutes to get through only 50 percent of the zone we were playing and each zone is only about 8 to 10 percent of the entire island to give you an idea how large the world is.

Upgrade, collect quests, and repair in safe zones!

Churches in the game act as safe houses where you can pick up quests, repair items, and buy new weapons. In each safe zone there’s a workbench, which is an integral part of the game. Here you’ll repair weapons because of the nature of the melee focused combat. Weapons you pick up will dull and breakdown emphasizing the survival portion of the gameplay. At each bench you’ll also be able to upgrade your weapon’s damage and durability. Lastly, you can modify your weapons by adding mods to them. One of the mods I added was a shock mod which had a proc (chance on hit) to electrocute zombies leaving them incapacitated.

Because of the scarcity of ammo, the focus here is on melee combat. If played like a normal hack and slash game you’ll quickly find out that you’re only leaving yourself defenseless. Swinging your weapons is limited to your stamina. Each swing chips away at your regenerating stamina, for each missed attack is a missed opportunity and a greater risk of having to run away and recuperate. Each limb depending on if you have sharp weapons, can be cut off much like in the gameplay video reveals for example disabling and cutting down their speed. Aiming for the head also, is encouraged.

If I aimed my crosshair on zombie’s head on the ground and curb stomped it, blood oozed and gushed from the infected’s jugular. That was pleasing to see. The controls and character movement have a significant weight to them. Dead Island doesn’t move like Left 4 Dead, it’s much more realistic and acceptable from normal human beings. Still, the movement felt a bit too clunky which I mentioned to one of the developers. He responded that they’re still balancing it, but the way the controls were presented was intentional.

Ammo is scarce, use guns mainly to explode propane tanks. Rain increases effects on electrifying zombies, too.

You’re not going to be fighting the typical layman zombie. In the demo we ran into a particularly large zombie that would ram into you fittingly named The Ram. The dodging mechanic in Dead Island was showcased here along with carrying and throwing propane tanks. To dodge, one simply has to press A and the direction one would like to dodge to compensate for the realistic movement speeds. My partners died a couple of times, but it was okay because they could either be revived once more or use a health pack on themselves borrowing Left 4 Dead‘s mechanics.

A feature I had to check out was the lobby system. Since singleplayer will not have AI to play alongside with, it’s recommended to play with 3 others for a fuller experience. The game scales as you add more players like Borderlands and the system Techland has implemented should be drop in drop out.

The PC version will also be ran through Steam and the specs of the game aren’t ready to be released yet. It’s confirmed that Dead Island on PC will ship with Direct X 10 with a consideration to update to DX 11 later on when plans are hashed out later down the road.

Dead Island appeared to be a Frankenstein of several popular zombie gameplay mechanics and RPG loot grinding. That’s probably why I liked what I played issues aside.

Dead Island releases later this year.

When most gamers think of the Elder Scrolls franchise, they think of expansive environments, paired with fearsome beasts. They also think of spells, quests, and a plethora of loot. However, they also remember cringe-inducing animations, archaic menus, and graphics that aren’t bad, but leave something to be desired. However, at the Bethesda booth at E3, I was able to get in the theater showing for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and let me tell you this right now, I was floored. Now let’s get a little background of the game before getting into the improvements and demo impressions.The core team working on Skyrim is the same team that did Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3, and they are armed with the brand new Creation Engine. Skyrim will include the 10 races from the previous Elder Scrolls games, and it takes place in Skyrim, which is the northernmost province of Tamriel. There will be 9 cities in Skyrim, with each one having it’s own theme, such as Whiterun City, the city of the warriors. Additionally, the game will take place 200 years after the events of Oblivion.

The inclusion of the Creation engine allows for newer, more organic character models and animations, as well as dynamic weather, and facial customization features. The dynamic weather system was fantastic. Weather will be different depending on when you travel to an area, and, for example, if you walk up a mountain and it starts to snow, the snow will blanket.

There is a more streamlined inventory system, which includes full 3D renders of all the items in your possession. Additionally, this allows for full inspection of all items, and the ability to read the notes and the over 300 books that you find throughout your journey. Inspecting items and reading the books will be critical while playing Skyrim.

The new skills system is represented by numerous constellations, which is a creative way to display skill trees and it is aesthetically pleasing. There is a system for bookmarking spells, which leads to a more fast-paced, flowing gameplay experience.

The combat of Skyrim is something that will be familiar to those who have played any older Elder Scrolls title. Weapons can be mixed and matched to either hands, and spells can be tossed in as well. A new combat feature is the shout system. As a Dragonborn, you have the ability to harness the power of the dragon language by shouting phrases to buff your abilities or to damage enemies.

An extremely interesting aspect of Skyrim is that cities have a working economy, so you could become a lumberjack while you aren’t slaying beasts. You could just be a dick and derail the economy of a city, if that’s more your thing. The members of each town serve a purpose in the economy of each city, which adds importance to every NPC.

The word that seems to define Skyrim is dynamic. In addition to the dynamic weather, the quest system is dynamic as well, and quests will be unique to the game that you play as opposed to how someone else plays.

Bethesda boasted that Skyrim will include over 150 dungeons, which is mind-boggling in itself. Even if each dungeon was 5 minutes, that alone is more gameplay than most games out.

Upon first glance of Skyrim, I couldn’t believe that the demo was running on an Xbox 360. The framerate was solid, the textures were crisp, and the streaming in of textures in the distance was not at all intrusive.

The demo began with the protagonist traveling through the lush environment of Skyrim, it showed off the expansiveness of the foreground, but we were reminded that the giant mountain in the background would be reachable and climbable. As he approached a mountain, the dynamic weather system was shown off when it began to snow, and as he continued to climb the mountain, the snow become more densely packed. After climbing up for a bit, he encountered a dungeon and entered. The loading time was quick and after a short wait, it was time to explore the dungeon. In the inner depths of the dungeon he encountered a very large, very menacing spider and fought it to the death. The spider enemy brought a shiver down my spine, it was beautifully hideous. After defeating the spider, the hero found it’s dinner wrapped up, and he sets him free. However, upon freeing the victim, he runs off screaming about how he won’t share his treasure. Knowing that sharing is the right thing to do, the demoer decided to bring divine retribution to this scoundrel. The victim dropped a book, and upon inspection, the book reveals information about the treasure that the man was talking about. In addition to dropping a book, he drops a quest item that the hero was looking for. Further in the dungeon the Word Wall is encountered. Word Walls, are where the hero will learn the words of the dragon language, but defeating dragons and acquiring their souls is how the words get unlocked for actual use. After killing more, the hero reaches the exit of the dungeon.

Upon his exit, the hero finds himself on the tundra, which is expansive and flat, with the city of Whiterun in the background. On the tundra, giants roam with mammoths, and these creatures aren’t hostile unless provoked. While roaming the tundra, an ear-piercing screech is heard and a dragon drops down to attack. The dragon combat is unscripted, so each encounter with a dragon will be unique. The dragon does usual dragon stuff: flying around, picking up enemies, and breathing fire/ice/???. Halfway through the encounter with the dragon, a reinforcement showed up. The arrival of the help caused the demoer to run to higher ground in order to command the elements (I doubt you HAVE to go to higher ground to do it, this was most likely for effect). Using the power of a storm, the hero strikes down the fire dragon with a bolt of lightning (FROM THE FRAKKING SKY). In Skyrim, when the dragons’ health drops low enough, they will fall to the ground and be unable to fly. Once on the ground, the hero goes in for the kill on the ice dragon and takes it’s soul. With that, the demo was over.

Skyrim will be coming out 11.11.11 on 360, PS3, and PC–PC is what we’ll be playing it on. Expect a rich story and over 300 hours of gameplay. Skyrim should be on gamers’ most anticipated titles list for 2011, but for now, we wait.

If you listened to the Killcast this week, we talked about the new content patch for World of Warcraft. The 4.2 patch will introduce a new raid dungeon, The Firelands. This raid instance will pit players against Ragnaros, the lord of flame, once again.

In addition to a new raid, 4.2 will bring a new set of tier gear, and it will mark the beginning of a new PVP season. The new raid items will have an item level of 378 for normal modes and 391 for heroic. The new PVP gear will have an item level of 371. One thing that doesn’t make a lot of sense is that the tier bonuses all include additional fire damage, but if all the enemies in the Firelands are fire-based, then shouldn’t the damage be water damage? Who knows, maybe I’m just over thinking it.

The new raid content looks like it will live up to the challenge of the first series of raids that were available with the release of Cataclysm, so most guilds will have plenty of content to raid. There will also be a new reputation, The Avengers of Hyjal, with whom players can do dailies for and earn raid-level items after repping up. Blizzard also announced that they would be nerfing the current content in order for less hardcore players to experience the content as well. Additionally, the valor point cap will be reduced to 980 per week and all valor points will be converted to justice points when the patch drops. The current valor items will all be moved to the justice point vendor.

The public test realm is currently up, if you would like to get in and try out some of the new content, or at least get a feeling for what your stats will be with Firelands gear. The patch is currently set for a June 28th release. I’ll leave you with the trailer for 4.2.

By no means is Natural Selection 2 out of beta, but build 179 has massive improvements to perceived server performance, framerate, lag, hit detection, and more. These changes are due to the awesome Unknown Worlds team that are working extremely closely with beta players and fans to shape Natural Selection 2 into the go to FPS/RTS game that the NS before it was. This video update is courtesy of Natural Selection HD, he’s been reporting and following the development of the game since its conception and I highly recommend you subscribe to his video updates.