Friday 30 September 2011

Study shows that 51% of gamers are against 3D consoles.

Moments later, they were brutally killed by the A-Team.
Does any more need to be said. 3D is quite horrible and it needs to stop being pushed onto us.

So 47% said they'd buy it and 2% have said that they'd need to try it first. But given the commercial failure of the 3DS until it dropped to decent price, how does anyone expect gamers to buy what will undoubtably be an incredibly expensive console?

I'm really not a fan of 3D; it's a useless gimmick and really needs to die. Please stop.

Oh, and do that with zombies too please.

Credit: Destructoid.

Assassin's Creed Revelations delayed on the PC


In a move that let an awful lot of PC gamers exhale in relief and loosened the corporate vice around their testicles, Ubisoft have told the world that Assassin's Creed Revelations has been delayed until December on the PC.

The purveyor of ultimate filth-DRM has literally said nothing more, so it's just likely a technical thing.

I've found that to be one hell of a relief though. Although November is my birthday, it's also the birth of a lot of other games that I really rather want. Battlefield 3, Arkham City, Skyrim... the list is still far too large, but now at least I can request this for Christmas and not have to bankrupt myself totally.

And no, I can't buy it after launch. What are you, mad?

Credit: CVG.

PC gaming on the up.


Woo!

It's news that we've all been wanting for a while. If by 'all', you mean 'PC gamers'. And by 'PC gamers', you mean 'the pretentious ones who care'. But who else counts really?

So apparently PC gaming figures are climbing back up above consoles again. Since people have started taking digital purchases into account alongside retail (duhh), the numbers has risen again. PC gamers abandoned traditional game stores a long time ago, so it's nice to see the numbers reflect that.

Here's a colourful image that explains it all, courtesy of Ignite.

The one at the bottom seems a little confusing. Surely they could have picked a better month than July 2010? Seems like it was a little PC biased in that example.

But hey, good news for all. Hopefully developers will soon admit that the PC isn't as dead as they'd hoped.

Woops, did I say 'hoped'?

Credit: Destructoid and ExtremeTech.

Thursday 29 September 2011

Deus Ex DLC now available on Steam for those who didn't pre-order.


So for those people who weren't willing to pay the extra buck for their Deus Ex: Human Revolution game, the stuff that the rest of us got for free is now available to be bought on Steam.

Frankly, apart from the extra 10,000 credits and the automatic unlocking device, the stuff was pretty boring. The extra mission wasn't great, and I blew through it in about ten minutes, and I never used the weapons I got anyway. So far, so meh. I'm a fan of sneaking anyway, and I thought the shotgun might be a little bit unsubtle for my needs.

Still, the AUD is almost worth the price alone - there's a point in the game that I'm not even sure I could have done without one - so pick it up if you have the cash. If not, it's not gonna keep you up at night, so keep trying to get your achievements in peace.

Explodey stuff - £1.99.
Tactical stuff - £1.19
Both - £2.49

Credit: PCGamer.

Pre-order Modern Warfare 3 and get a copy of a game that you probably already own.


If you pre-order Modern Warfare 3 from Steam now, you'll get a free copy of Call of Duty 4. It's usually a great idea to bundle prequels with the next release in the series, but in this case I can't help but feel that it's a little unneeded. Chance are, if you're a Modern Warfare 3 fan, you have been since it went 'modern' with Call of Duty 4. Of course, you can always gift it, or exchange it for TF2 items, but it still feels like a somewhat senseless promotion.

Still, it's always nice to get free stuff with something you're probably going to be buy anyway, as long as that free stuff doesn't impact on the game and give you an unfair advantage.

Seems like no-one told GAME that, and they're offering double XP to anyone who pre-order the game from either GAME or Gamestation in a desperate bid to keep gaming stores alive.

GAME, who basically own the UK retail market for games, is probably aiming this more towards console gamers than PC gamers, who worship at the unholy altar of Steam and anger the one true god of GAME, but it still reeks of desperation in a constantly more and more unfriendly market.

Credit: PCGamer and CVG.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Team Fortress 2 patch changes - more fashion!

Think TF2's been through enough changes recently? Valve don't!

Loading up the TF2 Beta today will show you the range of changes in-line for TF2 in the next patch.

The documented changes are:
  • Synced with all changes and fixes from the official release
  • Added support for multiple Misc slot items being equipped at the same time
  • Added support for character loadout presets
And the ones not being revealed yet are:

  • Updated the Foster’s Facade and Noh Mercy to use the misc slot.
  • The class select screen now displays currently equipped loadout.
  • The Reserve Shooter can now be equipped by the Pyro and Soldier.
  • The Tomislav now reduces the wearer’s health by 50.
  • Metal consumption while using the Widowmaker was reduced to 30 from 60.
  • The cloak delay when using the Enforcer was increased to 1 second from 0.5 seconds.
  • The Claidheamh Mòr charge extension is increased to 1 second up from 0.5 seconds.
  • The Grenade Launcher and Stickybomb Launcher now use the in-game slot notation on the loadout screen.
So, multiple misc slots allows you to wear EVEN MORE cosmetic items, furthering the uniqueness of your character. Also implemented are character preset loadouts - giving you a helping hand if you're not sure what to equip. How nice!

Interesting that Valve either haven't noticed, or don't care that Dead Ringer Spies still have no downside when it comes to The Enforcer. Obviously they think we have enough problems at the moment. The added downside to The Tomislav is interesting too - I can see the community going against that change, but they obviously thought it was over-powered. I never thought the silent-spinning would be such a big problem, to be honest.

Mostly positive changes though; looking forwards to this hitting the real servers.

Credit: PCGamer and Steam.

The Old Republic goes all EVE-y.

Bioware have released more information about their upcoming science fiction-opera MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. People have been able to sign up their guilds for some time now, in readiness for the launch. PC Gamer have already started setting up their US and EU guilds, and you can join today.

Today's news is that the guilds will have the ability to set up other guilds as allies or enemies, lending a EVE-like air to the game, even ahead of launch. I was considering cancelling my pre-order, but with the emergence of inter-factional wars, I'm rather more excited than I was before. I can't wait for my first inter-guild war to erupt. It lends an atmosphere to PvP that other games just can't scratch.

Go Imperials!

Credit: PCGamer.

My Craft of MineWorld.



In news that'll make Minecraft fans shudder, Minecraft and World of Warcraft have been combined to make... Mine of Worldcraft! Whilst not the snappiest title, it has a certain something about it.

But hey, it's all for good humour, and the video certainly takes the piss out of traditional MMOs, listing class roles as either 'watching enemy red bars go down, 'watching friendly green bars go up' or 'can stand in front of enemies while being told how incompetent he is and then blaming it on the Healer'.

No word on whether this is actually around for people to play, or just a video. With enough publicity, it may well become real.

Credit: Tom's Hardware.

Monday 19 September 2011

Avengers tie-in game looked amazing



Iron Man. Thor. Captain America. The Hulk.

They are... The Avengers!

And now, this movie tie-in game has been cancelled. From the footage above, this could have been amazing. First-person might not be the best viewpoint for melee combat, but for pre-alpha footage, this looked smooth and intuitive. And hell, it was co-op! Truly co-operative superhero games are quite rare things, and good ones are even rarer. With the Avengers license, and the chance to relive the events of the Skrull invasion, this could have been amazing.

So let us bow our heads in respect for what could have been. Farewell, sweet prince.

No CoD 'Prestige' edition.

For those of you who like to buy over-priced special editions of games - like me, in that case - you'll be disappointed to learn that the next Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 3, will not have a 'Prestige' special edition.

Previous games had a 'Prestige' edition of the game, often for silly-large amounts of money. There's no indication of why there's no Prestige, but presumably it doesn't sell as well - as you'd expect for something so expensive - and seeing as the LinkHardened edition comes with a a year's subscription to the new Call of Duty Elite service.

The much maligned Elite service - touted as a social network for Call of Duty - will be charged on a monthly basis, much like current MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. Gamers haven't exactly been happy about this service, thinking that subscribers will get an advantage over non-subscribers, but really, isn't that all in the spirit of Call of Duty anyway? The better people get advantages over those who aren't as good? Perhaps that's being bitchy.

Still, I'll probably end up buying it anyway. I doubt I'll sign up for the Elite service though, not with the amount that I play.

Credit: The Escapist.

More Arkham City news - no Scarecrow?

Rocksteady's Paul Crocker has spoken about Scarecrow's involvement in Arkham Asylum and cast doubts about Scarecrow's role - or even involvement - in Arkham City.

'In Batman: Arkham Asylum we had the whole Scarecrow thing, and we didn't want to do that again we wanted something different.'

It's a fair point; the open world of Arkham City seems like it'd be much harder on Scarecrow than the claustrophobic confines of Arkham Asylum. But I can't help but remember that the Scarecrow scenes were my most memorable and favourite of all of the boss scenes in Arkham Asylum, and I was looking forward to more of the same alongside the new supervillains.

Still, this certainly isn't confirmed, being thrown into the 'rumour and supposition' bucket for now, but I'll want to see more news about this in the near future.

Credit: Destructoid.

American age-rating for Skyrim released - 'sex, alcohol and bloody gore'.

'Blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and use of alcohol'.

It sounds like a typical Friday night, but it's actually part of the ESRB ratings document for the latest Elder Scrolls game, number five, Skyrim.

Without further ado, here is the full document:

'This is a fantasy role-playing game in which players assume the role of Dovakin, a prophesied figure with the power to combat dragons in the fictional world of Skyrim.

'As players traverse through mountainous open-world environments, they complete missions and quests that impact the eventual fate of their character. Players use swords, bows and arrows, axes, and magic attacks (e.g., fireballs, ice shards) to kill various enemies (e.g., wolves, dragons, human bandits and soldiers).

'As players engage in melee-style combat, some sequences are highlighted by slow-motion effects, particularly for decapitations. Large blood-splatter effects also occur during combat, and some environments are stained with blood or body parts (e.g., heads impaled on spikes).

'Some sequences allow players to injure/kill nonadversary characters, including prisoners chained to a wall; they scream in pain amid splashes of blood or fire.

'As the game progresses, the dialogue and on-screen text contains references to sexual material (e.g., '. . . all the whores your heart, or any other organ, desires,' 'She . . . raped the men as cruelly as Bal had ravished her,' and 'Remember when you thought [he] was . . . intent on making you . . . into his personal sex slave?').

'Alcohol such as wine, mead, and ale can be purchased and consumed by players' character throughout the game; and in one sequence, players can engage in a drinking contest with another character, which eventually results in slurred speech (e.g., 'One more. No problemsh . . . Thash grape!').'


Sounds good to me; it's everything that I expect from Grand Theft Skyrim.

Credit: CVG and ESRB.

Sony demands that gamers leave their rights at the door.

Sometimes, I'm really glad to be a PC gamer. This is one of those times.

In response to the constant hacking of the Playstation Network, Sony have decided that the best course of action was to ban users unless they forwent their rights to sue Sony if their information is hacked. Under Sony's plans, the users are required to speak to a Sony arbitrator before any legal cases can take place.

My worry is that a lot of people will agree to the terms without even glancing at the terms. Many clients won't even realise that the terms have changed. And what about the children who use the service, who have just accepted for their parents?

Of course, it means diddily-squat. Courts will generally side with the consumer over cases such as this, so Sony is simply trying to scare the ignorant with their 'legalese' and trying to ignore the fact that their EULA means nothing to the real law. Sony would be forced to give.

Of course, the true bad guys here are the hackers whose thoughtless actions have forced Sony to take such stupid measures.

Anyone else seeing a comparison to DRM here?

Credit: BBC News and Skrrp.

Crazy Dave can rap



PopCap have released this amazing new video showing Cray-Z's rap career. It's incomprehensible, but catchy. So, y'know, just like normal rap.

Not entirely sure why they've released this, other than it being rather good fun. Has PvZ sold a certain number of copies?

Well, I don't know. But I do know that it's rather good, and that PopCap are amazing.

Credit: PCGamer.

Sunday 18 September 2011

UT3 modders add Nyan Cat.

This is brilliant.

Remember how, many moons ago, how an obscure Team Fortress 2 achievement map exploded into the mainstream when people discovered a piece of hidden content that caused Catnarok to awaken and lay waste to the server? Well, Simon Coxhead and friends have created a mod that replaces the Redeemer skin with a Nyan Cat, complete with rainbow tail and a 'nyansplosion' when it reaches the target.

Words can't do it justice. Just watch the video and quake beneath the certain fear that cats have come to rule the internet. Soon, they'll be here for us too.



Download it here. If I ever played UT3, I would too. Hell, I might just for posterity.

Credit: The Escapist.

Orcs Must Die - new trailer, new ways to kill!



Orcs Must Die - the novel twist to the now familiar tower defense genre - has released a new trailer. And the best part? It's interactive!

Through YouTube's normally annoying annotations system, you can choose the combination of traps, archers or just plain old fighting that you likeLink, and see how they'll all tie together in the final game.

I must say, this was another game that I was initially very dismissive of, but slowly grew on me the more I knew of it. Perhaps I'm more willing to spend money after having gained a job. Perhaps I'm more susceptible now, having stopped drinking regularly. Perhaps I'm slowly losing IQ points through repeated beatsing at medieval re-enactment. Whatever the case, I'm really looking forward to this, and will probably bye it on launch. Like so many other good looking games this year.

God damn.

Credit: PCGamer and The Escapist.

Portal freedom is limited.

More details have come to light regarding the free version of Portal on Steam. In my earlier post, I revealed that Portal was now available for free from Steam. However, it now appears that the deal is for a limited time only. Until the 20th of September, Portal is indeed free. And if you claim your version, it will stay free. But for anyone who misses the window, Portal will stay locked and purchasable.

So whilst Valve isn't being quite as philanthropic as I'd assumed, they're still giving away a great game for free, albiet for a limited time.

ALL HAIL THE GREAT OVERLORD OF STEAM!

Credit: PCG.

Friday 16 September 2011

Deadshot revealed for Arkham City.



Despite my earlier misgivings about Arkham City's DLC, the game still excites me to a massive degree. One of my favourite parts of the last game was the hunt for The Riddler's puzzles, and I was disappointed that it didn't feature more in the game.

Well now, not only is The Riddler returning, with much more deadly puzzles, Deadshot will also be taxing Batman's skills as 'The World's Greatest Detective'. Your job will be to track the assassin for-hire across the city, uncovering his targets and stopping yourself from becoming one of them. Promised in the trailer above is the ability to forensically track him by using his bullet trajectory, bullet casings, et cetera... but be sure, Deadshot didn't become the 'World's Greatest Assassin' by being careless and just leaving stuff lying around.

Credit: CVG.

Deus Ex patch adds ads.

The latest Deus Ex: Human Revolution patch on the PC has stealthily added advertisements to the game. I was fine with this revelation, until I saw that the ads themselves were on the loading screens, rather than the in-game billboards.

I was fine with ads in-game, on the billboards. I felt it added a certain authenticity to the game, certainly in a future where corporations reign as they do in Human Revolution's vision of the future. But on the loading screens is too much. The loading screens are too numerous as it is, and far too long. I don't want an ad popping up halfway through my game.

And since the game is on Steam, there's no option to opt-out, unless you don't sign into Steam for the rest of your life.

Credit: Exophase.

Valve gives away Portal for free

Following Team Fortress 2 being made free-to-play, Valve have also made Orange Box companion, Portal, free as well.

This means that anyone with Steam on their PC has the option to download and play Portal, completely free of charge!

Valve seem to be on a philanthropic bent as of late, and I do wonder what their next target will be. Although it does seem like they're working their way through their Orange Box compilation at the moment.

Keep your eyes on this blog for any more news.

Credit: MCV.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of news yesterday, I was travelling up to Birmingham so I barely had time to post the news for my job, never mind this blog. I shall try to post as often as I can in the next few days, but the news may be slightly sporadic until I settle back down at my own computer again.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

The majority of Catwoman in Arkham City to be DLC?

According to OXM, only two and a half of the reputed twenty-five hours of gameplay in Batman: Arkham City is likely to be Catwoman-orientated. But fear not! Another four episodes for Catwoman are to be released as DLC.

Is it just me, or is this DLC thing really starting to take the fucking piss? I don't mind DLC as a thing that exists, but I'd primarily assume it to be a way of adding new content to a game after it's been released. Planning the DLC before the game has even gone gold just reeks of money-grubbing to me. They could have just released the missions in the actual game and not risked looking like such douchebags right off the bat.

But then, should I expect any different? Games companies are companies; they're there to make a profit, and it seems that DLC is the hot profit right now. As a commenter on PCGamer puts it:

'It's perfectly simple, people. Look at the game, look at the price. Is the game worth the price? If you think so, buy it. If not, don't. All this BS about how they have "cut out content" is insane. It doesn't matter if the DLC was cut out, developed later, developed in parallel, or developed by Activision's CEO's son as a school project. The question is whether what they are including in the game is worth the price they are asking. Period.'

Thank you, Zloth.

But it makes me wonder anyway, why don't they just go the whole way and add on microtransactions too? Hatman: Arkhat City has a nice ring to it.

Credit: OXM and PCGamer.

Hilarious farts confirmed! New Street Fighter x Tekken footage gives a lot of information.



Despite sounding like a slash fanfic mash-up, Street Fighter x Tekken is looking better and better each day. Capcom's newest video details the storyline, characters, game modes... pretty much most of the game in fact. Why don't they throw in a few cheat codes whilst they're at it?

The trailer gives an overview of the storyline; super-duper thing box falls to Earth and researchers who know their narrative duty nickname it 'Pandora'. Because that can't go wrong. They find out that the box resonates with energy when it detects nearby conflict - how they figured that out I'm not sure; researchers don't tend to be the fighting type - and that obviously leads them to bring the cast of two fighting games together for a big punch-up. Yay for fighting game storylines! They think they're people.

The gameplay upshot of this is 'Pandora mode', both, an evil purple mode for your character (everything purple is evil, right?) and a new gameplay mode. In order to activate your Pandora mode, it seems you have to sacrifice a tag-team partner, something that leads to a massive boost in power. Dragon Ball Z connotations aside, this looks to be something fun and something that should cause many friendships to be broken and controllers-related injuries should soar. Pandora mode is... erm, I think it's the gameplay mode where that happens. So sue me.

The aforementioned tagging system should be interesting, as the new 'Scramble Mode' puts all four players on the screen at once. It's this I'm really excited for, to be honest. I don't even own a console that can play this, but I'm seriously thinking of buying it for a friend's console. It looks that damn fun. Not since Mashed has four-player looked so intriguing.

Oh, and a bunch of characters have been confirmed. According to this trailer, the newly characters are: Rolento, an army-type with a stick; Ibuki, a stereotypically cute female ninja; Heihachi, shame on you if you don't know this guy; Kuma, a bear. Heihachi's pet bear, to be exact; Zangief, the Russian wrestler and staple of the SF series; and Lili, a petite and spoilt American blonde who can inexpicably kick ass.

Damn, I haven't been this excited for a fighting game in... ever!

Credit: The Sixth Axis.

Blizzard a games developer, not a PC developer


No-one could acuse Blizzard of jumping ship to the console market, even after people claimed that the PC was dying. However, Blizzard has rejected claims that it is a 'PC developer', intead claiming that they just happen to publish games on the PC. In fact, Jay Wilson (game director of Diablo 3), in an exclusive interview with PCGamer asserted that 'Blizzard has done quite well off of that – the fact that people have the illusion that PC is not a place where you can make money. It’s made it even easier for us to do really well.'

And do well they have. World of Warcraft was just the first in a massive line of new generation Blizzard games, a line that includes StarCraft II and the upcoming Diablo 3.

Jay went on to claim that it was down to functionality, rather than platform loyalty, that had kept Blizzard in the PC market all these years. And that makes sense. It's hard to see how World of Warcraft or StarCraft II could be easily ported onto a controller. My first RTS experience was on the PSX with Command and Conquer: Red Alert. It's safe to say that I didn't know what I was missing until I used a mouse and keyboard.

Blizzard's assertion that they're a games developer rather than a PC developer is actually rather good, in my mind. True, they have no platform loyalty, but as long as they continue to make great games for the PC, we're laughing. And more focus on the game, rather than the platform, has got to be a good thing.

Good on you, Blizzard!

Credit: PCGamer and Tom's Hardware.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Blizzard store now selling WoW, Starcraft2 and Diablo 3 soundtracks



And not to forget yesterdays warriors before todays titans - the original StarCraft, Warcraft III and Diablo II soundtracks (amongst others) are also on sale!

Blizzard are known for making great soundtracks, even in the days of yore, so this should hopefully be able to fill some holes in your hard drive. And your heart and soul.

Personally, I do love the Cataclysm soundtrack. It has some of the most epic pieces they've ever made. It really shows how Blizzard have come on over the years and yet have managed not to lose their roots. Still, the original WoW soundtrack has a lot of meaning for me. The Dun Morogh theme is just breathtakingly beautiful, especially when paired with the stark beauty that was the old Dun Morogh.

Credit: PCGamer.

Sick of zombies? Treyarch aren't!



Treyarch are releasing yet more DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops, and guess what! It involves yet more zombies.

I'm not a Call of Duty hater - I've enjoyed the series since CoD2, but something about Black Ops leaves me cold. The zombie was a good gimmick, and Treyarch might have done it before. But why hasn't it stopped yet? I never found the zombie mode to be anything other than a little bit shit. Why keep releasing more? I guess someone must like it.

The fact that Black Ops' multiplayer has never once worked for me has made me somewhat bitter on the subject. Still, if you enjoy zombies on the moon, I'm sure you'll enjoy this.

Credit: PCGamer.

Minecraft 1.8 leaked early.



And by 'leaked' I mean 'not leaked at all'. This isn't exactly news (having been out for a few days now), but what the hell; this blog is new. Expect me to be reporting on Doom's release soon.

Anyway, Minecraft 1.8 is playable for anyone who is willing to download and install the .jar file. It's very simple, so it shouldn't be a problem. However, here's a quick guide.

  1. Download the .jar file from here.
  2. Open Windows Explorer.
  3. Go to Tools > Folder Options (You may need to press the Alt key on Win 7 or Vista) > View > Click the circle that lets you show hidden folders.
  4. C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin
  5. Copy the new .jar file into this directory.
So that could have been easier, but what the hell. Enjoy the new mobs, and the massive number of changes!

More Street Fighter X Tekken details released.



And in video form too! My favourite kind of release.

Even if this game isn't likely to have a PC port (an earlier report of a PC version was put dowbn to a 'typographical error'), I'm still enjoying watching the trailers and anticipating it anyway. Hell, there are a few Xbox 360s in my house next year. Maybe... just maybe...

Anyway, my two favourite fighting franchises, together at last! I've been waiting for this for years, and now it's finally happening. This trailer is hopefully the first of many - those shitty 'reveal' ones don't count for squat. More please!

Credit: Destructoid.

Twenty minutes of Skyrim footage blows me away





Durrrrrrrr...

*Dribbles on the floor*.

Now I know that many people aren't impressed by this footage, complaining about the 2005/2006 era graphics and the third person kill cameras... but good golly damn, look at that third video. The first two made me want to play this. The third made it and absolute certainty that I will buy and make sweet, sweet love to this game.

Credit: PCGamer.