02 September, 2008

Disaster: Day of Crisis confirmed for Europe

NOE has stated that it's coming and sooner than you think. Disaster: DoD is set to hit Europe this October!

"Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, flood, hurricane... and the small matter of an ex-military terrorist group with their hands on some nuclear weapons - and all in just 24 hours?! Welcome to Disaster: Day of Crisis, the action adventure game on Wii from Nintendo and Monolith Soft., sweeping across Europe on 24th October 2008 guaranteed to bring out the survival skills in everyone.

Stepping into the shoes of Raymond Bryce, a traumatised but highly decorated retired US marine and former operative of the International Rescue Team, prepare for a day like no other. Called back into action to deal with the threat of SURGE, an ex-military terrorist unit led by former elite forces specialist Colonel Hayes, Ray must overcome personal tragedy and numerous devastating natural disasters to prevent the threat of nuclear warfare.

Wracked with guilt over the loss of his best friend in the line of duty, Ray finds out that SURGE has kidnapped a leading seismologist and his assistant to predict the arrival of an earthquake, which will act as a diversion for their plan to seize the nuclear weapons. However, upon finding out that the assistant is his lost friend's sister, Lisa, the mission turns personal and offers Ray the chance of redemption he's been craving for.

Disaster: Day of Crisis is a dedicated single-player all-out action adventure blending a variety of exciting gameplay activities around an intense and absorbing 23-stage storyline. In addition to vanquishing the SURGE threat, players must come face-to-face with a series of daunting natural disasters and take full advantage of Ray's survival expertise to rescue stranded civilians left helpless.

As the story unfolds, the player's skills are thoroughly tested as Ray finds himself in increasingly hazardous situations. Gameplay varies from exploring devastated city streets for survivors to thrilling shooting sequences, as well as driving, swimming and intense quick time events all intuitively controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players are awarded Survival Points and Battle Points which are vital for improving Ray's abilities and ensuring he has the skills needed to overcome the game's hard-as-nails bosses, survive the effects of each disaster and ultimately, rescue Lisa.

During the majority of stages, players will find themselves searching for civilians in need of rescuing, which will help improve Ray's skills. With each civilian saved, Survival Points are awarded that can then be freely distributed amongst five critical skills such as Strength for unarmed combat and lifting objects, Firearms for handling weapons and Mental for Ray's ability to concentrate his mind.

Along the way, Ray will face adversity from SURGE, at which points the game automatically switches into combat mode. Similar to an on-rails shooter, the action becomes fast and furious where players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to dispatch enemies with a variety of lethal weaponry including handguns, automatics and shotguns. Once every hostile is taken down Battle Points are yielded that can be used to purchase new weapons or tune current equipment to perfection.

Even after the main storyline is completed, there are numerous incentives for players to keep coming back for more. With additional modes such as a shooting range and a staminas campaign, and a wealth of hidden content covering unlockable weapons and costumes to the extra hard 'Real Disaster Mode' difficulty, Disaster: Day of Crisis will keep gamers entertained for many months to come.

So are you ready to step into the shoes of an action hero and emerge victorious after one hell of a day? If the answer is yes, then Disaster: Day of Crisis is crying out to be rescued from your nearest retailer across Europe on 24th October 2008."


[Source]

26 August, 2008

Steam updates

Team Fortress 2
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the correct Arena stats from being uploaded

Tank Universal

  • Fixed Level 2 crash some ATI users were experiencing
  • Fixed Enter/eject key remapping issues. Enter/eject messages now display correct key
  • Added minor texture optimization tweaks

22 August, 2008

TF2 updates coming to 360, will cost

Valve's Doug Lombardi has stated that a big TF2 update is coming to XBLA. Because Microsoft is making Valve charge for it Valve want to make one big update so it would be worth the money.

[Source]

GC Videos









Steam updates

Team Fortress 2
  • Fixed startup crash related to loading the tf2_playerstats.dmx file
  • Fixed material system crash
  • Added -noborder command line option to play windowed-mode with no border
  • Fixed an invalid skin crash on TF weapons
  • Fixed a viewmodel related crash when switching classes away from Medic
  • Fixed not getting the Arena team menu after watching the intro movie on Arena maps
  • Fixed some problems with localized textAdded 3 Heavy unlockables
  • Natascha, The Sandvich, The Killing Gloves of Boxing
  • Added 35 new Heavy achievements

Added Arena game mode

  • 5 arenas: Lumberyard, Ravine, Well, Granary, Badlands

Added 2 new maps

  • Badwater Basin, a new payload map
  • cp_steel, a community map by Jamie "Fishbus" Manson

Changes

  • Added server map timeleft to upper right of scoreboard
  • Added new firing sounds to The Backburner
  • Removed the Custom Tab in the serverbrowser, and added the Tags field to the base Internet Tab
  • Increased The Kritzkrieg's uber-charge rate bonus from 10% to 25%
  • 32 player servers can now support an extra slot of SourceTV
  • Made the freezecam item panel description easier to read
  • Players now broadcast whether they chose a team directly or use autoteam
  • Added proper handling of cart blocking recognition to Payload maps

Bug fixes

  • Fixed bug where switching from flaregun-wielding Pyro to another class meant you didn't get a full ammo loadout on first spawn
  • Fixed Spy watch arm not using team skins
  • Fixed weapon switching preventing you from using secondary attacks for a 0.2s window after the primary became available
  • Fixed players getting stuck in a bad animation state when class switching while spinning the minigun
  • Fixed a loophole that allowed players to pickup weapons of other classes
  • Fixed a bug that resulted in players earning more crit chance bonus in large, single damage events than they are supposed to
  • Fixed an issue with the floating HUD +X health indicators that resulted in them appearing incorrectly
  • Fixed a bug which caused the minigun spinning & firing sounds to occasionally stop while the Heavy was still firing
  • Fixes the Loadout player model panel causing the in-game player facial animation to perform incorrectly
  • Fixed spectators not having the target ID labels display correctly
  • Fixed the cart alarm sound occasionally getting stuck on in Payload maps

Smash Brothers Brawl World Records

The Smash Brothers Dojo has put on world records for Target Smash and Home-Run. You can check them out here.

18 August, 2008

Steam updates

Planet Busters
  • Fixed crash after completing Indi 3/Indi 4
  • Fixed difficulty on Daggers in Men's Smiles mission
  • Addressed bug with UTF-8 characters in user names
  • Anti-aliased graphics

17 August, 2008

Disaster: Day of Crisis get's classified downunder

Could this mean the game could still come out?
[Source]

Swords & Soldiers Press Release

- UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS – August 15, 2008 – The developers of the original version of 'de Blob' announce their new game studio Ronimo Games and their first title: Swords & Soldiers.

Ronimo Games is founded by seven developers in Utrecht, the Netherlands. As students the team was responsible for the original pc game 'de Blob.' Being an innovative and fun game, 'de Blob' became popular on the internet and was eventually picked up by THQ. The publisher bought the IP and will soon release the new version of 'de Blob' for Nintendo Wii.

Fabian Akker, one of the co-founders: "de Blob was the eye opener for us, that we can make cool games and function as a good team. The game definitely gave us the opportunity to start our own company".

The team is developing a new game for WiiWare: Swords & Soldiers. Swords & Soldiers is a sidescrolling real time strategy game, in which three distinct factions battle for the powers of the gods. The game will feature a single player campaign and a competitive splitscreen multiplayer mode as well as several other game modes. Three screenshots are included with this press release.
Akker: "We always dreamed of designing an RTS and when Wii Ware came out we immediately figured that this was our chance."

Swords & Soldiers will be the first competitive strategy game on Wii Ware and is scheduled for European, Australian and American release in Q4 2008.

15 August, 2008

Sega president Simon Jeffery "great opportunity for hitting hardcore gamers"


Sega of America president Simon Jeffery is unhappy with the amount of bad games on the Wii and thinks it will come to an end when developers realize they do not sell. He notes that "There is a lot of crap coming out for the Wii in general," but also points out the systems potential.

Jeffery also notes that hardcore games can work on the Wii. stating that:

"The Wii is a great opportunity for hitting hardcore gamers. No one is doing that. With MadWorld from Platinum Games, we are trying to show that millions of Wii gamers want to move on to mature games. They don’t have to have an Xbox 360 to do that."
More 3rd parties are stepping up there Wii games and it just be a matter of time until we see more quality game push out the "shovelware"

[Source]

Overlord Dark Legend, a ground up game for Wii


Codemasters has Climax Studios working on a new Overlord game for the Wii. The game will be made from the ground up and try to take advantage of the wiimote. There are not a lot of details yet but the game will be at Leipzig.

[Source]

Nintendo to target Latin American

Nintendo is setting it's eyes on expanding it's marketing in Latin America. They see the region as having potential and could be worth as much as $2 billion this year alone. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime stated that, "Nintendo has experienced phenomenal growth in the region over the past few years growth that has even surpassed what we have seen in the United States".

[Source]

New games hit Steam

Sega has put up 3 new games and Focus Home also add one to Steam. Sega's games include Space Siege The Incredible Hulk™: The Official Video Game Beijing 2008™ - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games. Focus Home has brought Pro Cycling Manager - Le Tour De France 2008 to the table. If any of these games tickle your fancy check them out.

Steam updates

Unreal Tournament 3
  • Fixed overlay mesh showing up on hidden sniper rifle when un-zoomed
  • Added motion blur menu option for PC (defaults to off)
  • Fixed zero extent collision bug in octree code (finding nodes in Z axis)
  • LOD Hysteresis / LOD Decision making bug fix
  • Fixed default mesh not having proper LOD settings
  • Fixed rare darkwalker physics crash
  • Added player name list to server browser

13 August, 2008

Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway


TF2 getting a Heavy update

It's so big it will be reviled in parts. The update is said to be the largest one yet! It will include several maps, a new game play mode, the Heavy's new weapons and achievements. One of the maps is a community map CP_Steel. One of the new weapons are the Killing Gloves of Boxing (KGB). Each hit gives the Heavy 5 seconds of critical hits. It is slower however...

[Source]

Wii could hit 1 million a month

Michael Patchter believes that the Wii could sell as many as 1 million a month. This would be an increase of around 300,000 units. The Wii's good sales are already well known but could they really hit 1 million a month? Let's wait and see...

[Source]

Left 4 Dead going in tour

Valve is taking L4D on the road/plane to several up in coming events for the public to play. Here there are:

Leipzig Games Convention, (Germany)
Festival du Jeu Video (France)PC Gamer Showdown (UK)
Penny Arcade Expo (Seattle, WA)

Penny Arcade will also get the unavailing of the Xbox 360 version. The came has already won some awards at e3 and will come out soon.

[Source]

08 August, 2008

Weekend Deal

Steam updates

Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
  • Monastery and Sanctuary no longer require an armory or nexus to be built. Note that the siege workshop and charm shrine can now be obtained more quickly due to this change
  • The Academy now requires both the Monastery and Armory to be constructed. The same is true for the Predator Den requiring both the Nexus and Sanctuary.
  • The battering ram no longer has a freeze time before it's attack
  • The battering ram can attack while flames are active
  • The battering ram will only do one fourth of its damage to hellbourne units
  • Steamboost for both the battering ram and the Steambuchet now has a 20 second cool down (down from 40) and lasts 10 seconds (down from 17.5 seconds)
  • Maliken now only receives 150 stamina from souls
  • Maliken Lungs now only return 150 stamina to the wearer
  • Maliken is once again able to be healed. He is no longer flagged as a hellbourne unit, meaning shaman and chaplain attacks will not do bonus damage to him
  • Maliken's soul cost has been reduced to 12
  • Maliken health reduced to 1000
  • Maliken healing per soul reduced to 50 from 100
  • Maliken receives the benefit of spent attribute points
  • Maliken now has a 4-minute buff, in addition to his armor buff, when he spawns. When this buff wears off, he will begin losing life at a rapid rate
  • Soul of Maliken now requires a hellshrine to purchase. Cost increased to 650 from 150. Note you do not have to physically visit the hellshrine to acquire maliken
  • Heart of Maliken cost increased to 1100 from 900
  • Brain of Maliken cost increased to 750 from 675
  • Lungs of maliken cost increased to 900 from 750
  • The chaplain's melee attacks now do 150% damage to hellbourne units.
  • Savage mana regeneration increased from 2.5 to 3.0
  • Decreased the mana cost of the Savage's morale ability from 80 to 50. Increased the health regen bonus from 25% to 50%
  • Token of life cost decreased to 350 from 400
  • Slightly increased the mana drain of the Hunter's venomous ability
  • Hunter's wingspin now has a longer delay on it. It should react more like whirling blade
  • Devourer's rot ability damage per second increased to 25 from 8. Mana cost per second increased to 10 from 7. Range of decay slightly decreased.
  • The Shaman's Storm shield ability has had its buff duration decreased to 12 seconds from 20
  • Slightly increased the unique area around arrow and strata towers. You should no longer be able to place two at one garrison. Note that you can still place two shield/chloro towers or two cannon/static towers.
  • The Shapeshifter's cheetah form no longer allows for dodging
  • The hunter's summonable bat is now closer to the ground, within melee range
  • Added the Rune Builder. It can be located in the game browser or in the persistent item menu at the loadout screen.
  • Added commander impeachment. The button to initiate the vote can be found in the loadout menu when a commander is active.
  • New icon for beast item lynx feet
  • Improved the distinction between regular items and enduring items in the loadout UI
  • The scar prop now uses the hellshrine commander portrait and icon
  • Building tool tips in the commander interface will now properly show multiple prerequisites
  • Improved angle lerping on preview gadgets, the preview that shows up when placing a gadget
  • Fix steam turret and static charge spire shots sometimes striking corpses and foliage
  • Fix several sources of memory leaks/corruption
  • Removed "connection interrupted" message when viewing replays
  • Misc other interface tweaks/improvements
  • Spawnstate and SpawnStateDuration can now take comma separated values
  • Added TargetTypeMaliken to skill toggles and spells
  • Fixed a few places players could get stuck on morning

07 August, 2008

Steam updates

Audiosurf
  • Audiosurf friend lists are now automatically populated with friends from Steam
  • Forced match collections can no longer reset the chain multiplier
  • Soundtrack CDs now use correct artist names instead of "various artists"

Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis and Dracula Origin are both now on Steam. They go for $19.99 with 10% off by the 14th.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Ready

That is right the game is ready for both Wiiware and PC. It is set to come out on the 11th. As of now there is no news of a Steam release but considering the Sam and Max games are on Steam it could happen!

[Source]

New Clash of Ninja Videos from IGN



05 August, 2008

Nintendo is interested in holographic storage?

A patent filed shows that Nintendo is working with InPhase on holographic storage. holographic disk are a new kind of disk capable of 300 GB to 1.6 TB of storage. The drives and disk are still to pricey for mainstream and Nintendo may not make use of this tech for quite some time.

[Source]

Valve open to acquisition?

For all of us who hoped Valve would stay independent there is some bad news. In an interview with Gamasutra Doug Lambardi stated that the company was open to acquisition. He goes on to talk about relationships with EA and compares them to other publishers.

[Source]

Steam updates

Eternity's Child
  • Improved controller compatibility
  • Allowed configuring which controller axis can be used for moving or aiming
  • Xbox360 controller bumpers can be used as buttons now
  • Birds are twice as fast, and have 35% as much health
  • Fixed crash when switching anti-aliasing
  • Fixed possible achievements issue
  • Changed the title page to fade out sooner for each level
Team Fortress 2
  • Fixed _resetgamestats command causing server crash.
  • Fixed clients earning achievements when a player they've recently damaged suicides

01 August, 2008

Steam updates

Strategy First Game Collection Hits Steam. Includes:
Save over $200 by the 18th

Audiosurf
  • Corkscrews removed when sidewinder camera is used
  • Fixed Pointman/Vegas dropping in 4th lane
  • Fixed achievement exploit
  • [as-wb100] now works as expected
  • [as-monoonly] [as-nogrey] now works as expected

Eternity's Child is now on Steam with exclusive HD resolution, features, and level creator.

Steam Client
  • Fixed not correctly pausing any current downloads when launching a game
  • Improved cache mounting checks. This should decrease the startup time when launching Garry's Mod
  • Fixed startup to only request info about apps once
  • Fixed rare cache corruption caused by defragging
  • Fixed vgui crash when hitting pageup/pagedown in a sectioned list-panel
  • Fixed rare crash when downloading
  • Fixed -voicerelay steam command line to actually force use of the relay

29 July, 2008

Wii can't do 1:1 Plus

Welcome to another edition of Wii can't do 1:1. This edition will cover what Wii Motion + is and what it does.

First let's recap how the wiimote's accelerometers work. They read motion based on the force put on them. This data is reported as a number on one of 3 axis. For instance a quick move to the right could read as x=7, a slow one x=3. The greater the force the larger the number. Left and right movement is read as x, forward and back y, and up and down z. For each axis one direction is a positive value and the other negative. In the case of x right is negative left is positive. With this you can make gestures that are as simple as a quick move to the right or as complicated as the shapes in a game like SSX Blur.

Tilt is done using the force of gravity. When you tilt the wiimote two of the 3 values change do to the pull of gravity. The wiimote uses this data to tell what angle it is being held at. It reports this as one of two angles, pitch and roll. It can't do yawn because gravity doesn't change when you tilt the wiimote left and right. Up until recently I thought this was a great way to read tilt.

Even though tilt controls tend to work well the way they are they still have there limits. The lack of yawn is one. The fact it uses the accelerometers is another. The force of gravity can not be used when the wiimote is in motion meaning you can not have both tilt and normal acceleration at the same time. A great example is Wii Sports baseball. The game uses tilt to make you think the Wii can do 1:1 motion but any quick motion triggers a swing. The Wii is just using tilt until it sees a quick motion and this triggers the swing. It can't determine the wiimote's angle while it's in swing because it can no longer feel the force of gravity. You can see this in Warioware was well in the samurai game. If you tilt the wiimote quickly the sword disappears for a second up till it can feel the pull of gravity again. You may also notice this in racing games if you turn the wiimote quickly. What Wii need is a something else to handle tilt.

This is where Wii Motion + comes in. It is a gyroscope. A gyroscope is a device that can determine it's orientation by resisting gravity. Using this the wiimote can always tell how it's tilted. To make things better it can also adjust the accelerometers so they know there being tilted and can discount the pull of gravity. This means the wiimote and always know how it is being held and moved! Similar systems are used in inertial navigation systems.

Now there are many thing that can be done with this setup. Sword fighting is just one of them. Now games like baseball, golf and tennis can read both the speed and angle of your swing like never before. Your passes in Madden can now take your angle into account like never before. Why not have a free throw system in an NBA game that requires you to have just the right angle and power to make the shot. It may even be possible to use the wiimote like a gyroscopic mouse and remove the need for the sensor bar. There is little doubt that this will be big for the Wii. If it will mean true 1:1 however I'm not fully convinced.

The accelerometers may still not be good enough to know distance the player moved. The wiimote knows how much force was applied to it but will that be enough to know how far it moved. If you look at the sword fighting in Wii Sports Resort you can see that the angle the sword is held at still determines where it is held. I have yet to see some one hold a sword in front of them and up at a 45 degree angle. If the sword is held at a 45 degree angle the Mii holds it up at a 45 degree angle even if the player holds it out strait.

Even though this is a big steep for the Wii I can not lie and say it is perfect. I started this feature not to make the Wii look bad but to explore it's potential. To do that I can not ignore what it can and can not do. Rest a sure what it can do is impressive but I don't want people to have unrealistic expectations. For now I say the Wii still can not to 1:1.


Here is a video that should help explain things (Thank you -VashTS):

Note this is the first Wii can't do 1:1 in this blog. Others can be founded on my other blog.
Update:
The accelerometers are better then I thought. The Wii can finally do 1:1.

Thanks AmazingJanet

Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure also on Steam

If these games where not enought now you have Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure:

"Hunt for the more than 1,000 hidden objects as you play across five different game modes and four fun mini-games."

Like before you can save 10% by August 5th.

Valusoft games now on Steam

Yea... not much to see here...

Are You Smater than a 5th Grader?
Ride! Carnival Tycoon
Midnight Outlaw: 6 Hours to SunUp
Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville
Mahjongg Investigations: Under Suspicion
Hot Dish
Dr. Daisy Pet Vet

As usual save 10% before August 5th...

Steam updates

Here is the list of todays updates:
Children of the Nile
  • Made installation of the latest DirectX redistributable more robust
Team Fortress 2
  • Fixed team switches on Attack/Defense maps spamming the console
  • Fixed the Kritzkrieg not working on servers with crits turned off
  • Fixed some clipped localized strings in various in-game dialogs
  • Fixed several cases where files were synchronously loaded while the game was running
  • Fixed a shutdown crash in the material system
  • Cached rendering of item model panels to improve performance, in particular while weapon selection was visible
  • Added a gear symbol behind the health bar for Engineer buildings, in both target IDs and freeze panels
  • Players killing themselves will now give a kill credit to the last enemy who damaged them
  • Fixed grenades, rockets, and flamethrower being able to fire through grates at round starts
  • Fixed players being killed and creating ragdolls during team switches
  • Fixed various exploits and performance problems in CP_Badlands, CP_Well, and CP_Fastlane
  • Removed health bonus from the Backburner
That last one is a big one. I hope the health was not you reason for choosing the Backburner...

Red Steel 2 Conformed may use MotionPlus

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz Ubisoft's Alain Corre stated that the game has been in development and hits that it may use MotionPlus:

It was a great announcement, what [Nintendo] showed [in its press conference], because it's true that on Red Steel it's the typical product that will appreciate the new device.

Red Steel 2 has been in development for many months now, and this new device will help us be even more precise in what we do with the product. The Red Steel brand is strong - I think we released it on year one, and that people understood that it was a first try on new technology, technology that wasn't completely finished.

And our game tried to grab the best out of it, and was a bit rushed to be sure to offer something in year one to Wii consumers. But Red Steel is still selling well - at a lower price of course, but still it's in the top 30 or 40 in every country on Wii.

So Red Steel is a brand, and as with every brand we have, we now have to reach the top quality possible. What was missing was the preciseness of the sabre - and with this new device I think it will change the experience.


[Source]

A group of IGN videos

Disgaea


Livewire


28 July, 2008

Tenchu 4 trailer

What of Gaming Left 4 Dead video interview


[Source]

Nintendo still working for the hardcore

In two different articles on Edge Online both Michael Pachter and legionary designer Shigeru Miyamoto say Nintendo will still support the hardcore. Pachter had this to say with his latest financial predictions:

"Some hardcore gamers were critical of Nintendo’s failure to announce new Mario and Zelda games at the show, but overall, we think that Nintendo focused upon building upon its formidable lead with the mass market, and do not consider the lack of major hardcore game announcements to be an abandonment of its core."


Miyamoto in a via Telegraph has stated this:

"Making these 'traditional' games is what I am best at, because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be fifty-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams. They are all working on more Mario, Zelda and Pikmin projects. And they all work in close proximity to me, so I can keep a good eye on them."


Many people can care less what an analyst has to say but Miyamoto's words my do some damage control. There are still people who want such a game shown and by Nintendo. When will we see these games? Keep it here to find out!

[Sources:1,2]

EA wishes it backed Wii more

The CEO of EA John Riccitiello has expressed feelings that EA should have supported Wii more to The San Jose Mercury News:

"One thing that's different is we typically figured out who the market leader was going to be before the start of the cycle and bet with our development resources on that platform... We made the wrong call there [by betting on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360], which made this transition harder than it would otherwise be. But now we're catching up, and I think we're fine... We've got some incredibly innovative Wii titles, incredibly innovative DS titles coming. And so I think that issue's sort of behind us."

EA is going to increase it's Wii support. This is not the first time EA has felt they should have supported the Wii more. Both the number and quality of there games have been increasing.

[Source]

Comcast giving out free Wiis

I'll spare you the full PR fulled press release and tell you the just of it. People who order Comcast Triple Play will get a Wii. They say the Wii and there internet are a perfect couple. It seems like a weird deal but ok.

[Source]

Steam updates

Only one this time:

Garry's Mod

  • Sped up startup times (by up to 15 seconds)
  • Slightly reduced 'sandbox' loadtimes
  • Reverted to older version of 'FindInSphere' function
  • Reverted gravgun hold to pre-orange box style
  • Fixed 'PrintMessage' not working on dedicated server
  • Fixed cs_fix.mdl server crashing exploit
  • Fixed exploit in RunConsoleCommand allowing any console command to be run

27 July, 2008

New redemption option hits Japanese Wii Shop Channel


Images have surfaced of a new option has been added to the Japanese Wii Shop Channel. This option allows users to use a redemption code to get "bonus software". The codes come from buying retail games. That is all that is known at this time. More as it breaks.

[Source]

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days official site opens


Yes, it's in Japanese...
[Source]

New Castlevania my come to WiiWare

A little investigation from the Wiire points out evidence that a new 2D Castlevania may hit WiiWare. In one interview with MTV the game's creator Koij Igarashi stated that he is "definitely interested in WiiWare and I think it's one of the areas that 2D can still be very strong...I'm very much looking into that." and mentioned to Wired about Mega Man 9 that he's "watching that very closely to see how it does. Myself, I'm a big retro gaming fan, so if it is successful, that definitely opens up doors for what I can do." This could be big news if you like 2D Castlevania games.

[Source]

Peggle coming to DS


Q Entertainment is bring the popular casual game to the DS. Some may know Peggle from it's release on Steam and it's free version that came with Orange Box on Steam. As stated before this version is being made by Q Entertainment and is set to come out this winter in the US with European released planed soon after and Japanese released is planned. It will be customized for the DS.

[Source]

23 July, 2008

RE5 to Wii?

Well we all knew that Capcom is a good Wii supporter. Not to long ago they said they where going to port Dead Raising to Wii. People felt RE4 was made for Wii. They started to want RE5 for Wii. Can it be done? Sega of America's Simon Jeffrey seems to think so:

"The Wii's selling incredible amounts of hardware, but Nintendo knows it needs to expand the demographic. It needs to connect with the core gaming demographic. Resident Evil 5 - when that happens on the Wii that's going to help."


Does he know something we don't? How will the newly announced coop work on Wii? Stay tuned for more!

Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop Press Release

Capcom, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop is in development for the Wii home video game system. Based on the critically acclaimed Dead Rising, which has sold in excess of one million units since its release in 2006, Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop is scheduled to hit store shelves this Winter.

Taking advantage of the same proven technology that brought Resident Evil 4 so successfully to Wii, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop delivers a more immersive, intuitive and interactive experience as players use the Wii Remote to shoot, slash and bludgeon their way through a zombie infested shopping mall, fighting for survival.

Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop follows the harrowing tale of Frank West, an overly zealous freelance journalist on a hunt for the scoop of a lifetime. In pursuit of a juicy lead, he makes his way to the small suburban town of Willamette only to find that it has become overrun by zombies. Frank escapes to the local shopping mall, thinking it will be a bastion of safety but it turns out to be anything but. It will be a true struggle to survive the endless stream of enemies, but players will have full reign of a realistic shopping centre and its varied stores offering an endless supply of real and makeshift weapons to fight off the flesh-hungry mob. If Frank is running low on health he can pay a visit to one of the many restaurants or cafes for a meal in order to restore his energy and continue the fight.

The game is split into a series of individual cases, all of which Frank must complete in order to gain vital information that will allow him to piece together the truth behind the horrendous epidemic. In addition to the cases, players will be faced with the dilemma of deciding the rescue priority of the residents of Wilamette who also sought sanctuary in the mall. Depending on the player's skill, some may not be so fortunate as each rescue needs to be undertaken in a set time period, therefore players may need to delay completion of a case in order to save a fellow human.

Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop's infectious humor delivers some welcome relief from the incessant tide of zombies with players able to dress Frank up in a variety of comedic costumes and take on the undead hordes with a selection of improvised and sometimes highly ineffective weapons such as a toy sword or a football.

Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop includes the following features:

-Utilizes the same engine as Resident Evil 4 Wii edition.
-New level of interaction - aim and fire guns, swing and throw weapons and shake off zombie attacks with added Wii Remote functionality
-Huge environment - expansive indoor and outdoor areas of the mall provide a variety of different locations to explore
-Improved save functionality allows for more seamless gameplay
-Hoards of enemies on screen at once resulting in non-stop, pulse-pounding action
-Anything in the mall is at Frank's disposal
-Grab environmental objects like umbrellas and benches to use as improvised weapons
Snatch items from different stores to use as weapons including golf clubs, lawnmowers, frying pans and more
Consume food and drink to revive health

New L4D Louis screenshot

Like it or not Valve is redoing the L4D cast. Although not ever one my like the new direction there is no doubt the quilt has gone up. Just check out this shot from shacknews:


Late Steam Updates

Sorry about the absents. For those interested here are the latest updates to hit Steam:
Children of the Nile
  • Lots of fixes for French, German, Italian, and Spanish where strings would be missing or have extra nonsense at the end of them. Cheats work again in French, German, and Italian. Some messages appearing with a "" marker in them have been taught to speak proper German
  • When running the game on Vista, you can now open scenario info screens without crashing, regardless of your user privileges. This will let you start a campaign or load a scenario without any of the fiddly rigamarole with properties and options you had to go through before
  • Fonts are now installed in-game if needed, fixing a problem where you'd lose most text and could crash if the game was updated without your machine being restarted
  • Steam achievements now work properly. IMPORTANT: On some machines, this will prevent you from running the game directly from the "steamapps/common/children of the nile" folder. You'll need to start the game from the Steam client, or use the client to create a shortcut (right-click on the game in "My Games", select "Create desktop shortcut", and move that shortcut wherever you like)
  • The latest version of DirectX is automatically installed if you need it when you first run the game


Audiosurf
  • Players can now easily experiment with custom game modes by
    combining special tags in song names. More info is available on the
    forums
    • [as-4lane] Play with 4 lanes
    • [as-monoonly] Mono characters required
    • [as-everybodymono] All characters have only 2 block colors
    • [as-lessgrey] Mono characters have less grey blocks
    • [as-allgrey] Mono characters have all grey blocks
    • [as-nogrey] Mono characters have no grey blocks
    • [as-monoptX] Base points for Mono characters (default 3)
    • [as-nostlth] Remove Stealth and cumulative hit bonuses
    • [as-swind] Sidewinder camera mode
    • [as-bankcam] Banking camera mode
    • [as-first] First-person camera mode
    • [as-caterp] Block caterpillars
    • [as-mszX] Minimimum match size (number for X)
    • [as-wbX] Percentage of white/black blocks
    • [as-mtX] Match collection ticks (default 10-25)
    • [as-prowsX] Puzzle row count (0-8)
    • [as-hidepuz] Play with an invisible puzzle grid
  • Fixed bug finding CD tracks in drives beyond the first

19 July, 2008

Bushing finds Wii security issue, tells Nintendo

Famous hack known for the Twilight hack Bushing has discovered an exploits that may let people run pirated Wii games on unmodified Wiis. Being the honest hacker that he is he sent word to Nintendo. Hopefully Nintendo will both fix it and respect Wii homebrew more.

E3 not the place to show core games any more?

Miyamoto says that due "the media that gathers at E3 now," Nintendo plans to share there games for hardcore gamers at other shows. This appears to be a response to the lack of 1st party core games shown by Nintendo at E3. Here are two quotes from the interview:

“For a very long time, E3 was an event where — and certainly Nintendo included — catered specifically to the core gamer. Now we look at more … an opportunity for us to introduce new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now,”

“The first that I’d want to clarify is that the concept that Wii intentionally does not cater to core gamers is probably a misconception, and perhaps one that’s almost a PR tactic used by some of the other companies to paint us as a company that’s not targeting core gamers,”

“So while attending an E3 event like this, they might be given the impression that Nintendo is no longer focusing on the games that appeal to the core gamer, in fact we’re still working on many of those titles, but it’s just not the type of event where we’ll be showcasing that anymore.”

Does Nintendo have some thing special waiting for us in the future? Wait here and see.

[Source]

Silverfall: Earth Awakening Now in Steam


Another action RP hits Steam. Silverfall: EA contains 6 races and a level cap of 45. It normally goes for $19.99 but there is and extra 10% when you get it before July 25. You can view more/get it here.

17 July, 2008

Left 4 Dead at the EA conference


Do you did the new look?

Wonderful End of the World brings puppets to Steam


Ever want to take on the world as an energy absorbing puppet? Well now is you chance! Wonderful End of the World is now on Steam. Save 10% off the $9.99 price.

New Pikmin is in the works


Shiguru Miyamoto stated that a new Pikmin is in development. At a Developer round table during E3 Mr. Miyamoto said "We're making Pikmin". This is the first official confirmation of a new Pikmin game.

*Image from Super Smash Brothers Brawl
[Source]

Steam update for Steam this time

This update is for Steam itself. Here is the changelog:

Steam Client

  • Improved cache defragmenter to both defragment at the OS level and internal files
  • Improved defrag progress dialog
  • Improved download status reporting in games list
  • Increased background update frequency
  • Improved voice quality
  • Added audio recording device selection for voice chat
  • Added push-to-talk support for voice chat
  • Fixed apps getting stuck at Updating 0% when downloading
  • Fixed possible crash when resuming from Standby mode
  • Fixed Steam preventing some PC's from entering Standby mode
  • Fixed overlay sometimes getting stuck up and not responding to hot-keys after server join
  • Fixed uninstalled apps becoming installed when viewing their Properties page after Steam restarts
[Source]

Valve hires Minerva creator Adam Foster

Adam Foster, creator of the episodic mini-MOD Minerva has been hire to work for Valve Software! Even better yet he will work on Episode 3.

"Like any of my projects, it started off small, but rapidly grew far, far, bigger. It's not finished yet, but this time I actually released something. 'Episodic' worked.

And, I accidentally acquired a job in the process. Oops?"


Great work, and best for luck. Live the dream Adam...

[Source]

Knights Reborn Podcast

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. The time I usually spend going though the days news was spent helping to record the Knights Reborn Podcast. It should be up soon and it covers E3. Don't worry I'll still have yesterdays top stories and I'm working on a special report for the weekend. It is also brought up in the podcast.

15 July, 2008

Conduit Developer walk through!



IGN and Miyamoto

IGN was able to track down Miyamoto and ask him a few things. Here they are all in one place.

About the next Zelda *1:

"The Zelda team in particular always works on Zelda titles. The core members of the Zelda team have for a very long time now been focused on Zelda games, and continue to focus on Zelda games, so they are hard at work and working away, and then, of course, we have the DS Zelda team as well, so even there we're having some switching of people in and out where the DS team is mixing in with the Wii team and working on the Wii version...I don't necessarily think it will change that drastically, but I think that Zelda is a franchise that does need some big new unique ideas and so the team right now is very focused on trying to find those ideas."


Wave Race and 1080 *2:

"Well, of course I worked on both 1080 and Wave Rave, so on the one hand I think it's very difficult for me to say, but I think that form in which we present the snowboarding game [in Wii Fit] and the power cruising game in Wii Sports Resort is something that's going to appeal to a much broader audience. And really, what I'm trying to do is find a way to bring these interactive experiences to as many people as possible. So I think for the time being I'm probably going to focus my attention on more of that, but if I find something that's particularly interesting or a way to take that and develop it into a much richer experience, I can't say that I'm not going to do that."


Storage *3:

"There isn't anything that we can announce today, but we have been thinking along a variety of different lines regarding this matter for some time now. So my hope is that sometime in the not too distant future we will be able to discuss some concrete solutions."


WiiSpeak *4:

Why it's not included:

"In all honesty, it's just in relation to cost. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who want to play Animal Crossing over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Maybe just as it is. There may be some people who want to use a USB keyboard to chat and we're fine with that. And there may be others who want to use something like WiiSpeak. So just from a cost perspective and being able to provide the game to everybody, we thought that was the best way to go."


On why it's not a headset:

"Basically, our idea with WiiSpeak is rather than to just provide a voice-chat function, we want to really connect living rooms to each other. In that sense, the microphone in WiiSpeak is really designed to be able to clearly capture many different voices being spoken in a room at the same time and convey that over the Internet. It's a very capable microphone and it's designed with that intent. And so that's why WiiSpeak has taken on the form that it has."

On background noise:

"Actually, that functionality is also very good and that's probably what's contributing to the cost of it."
On MS's Avatars *5:

"I don't really use the term avatar to refer to what we've done with the Miis. We created the Miis with the idea that the people you live with in your house or family, you also live together with inside the TV, and you can use those characters interchangeably in the games you play. To see that a company like Microsoft has taken something we've done and kind of looked at it in a way and brought it out on their platform to kind of show that we've done has become the standard, I find quite flattering. But on the other hand, I think probably the basic ideas behind perhaps those two different systems are different and because of that I think they will probably develop in different ways."


Sources:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Nintendo Press conference E3 highlights

Shaun White Snowboarding was announced,
Animal Crossing: City Folk,
WiiSpeak,
Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades,
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia,
Wii MotionPlus,
Wii Sports Resort,
Wii Music,

My thoughts latter tonight.

14 July, 2008

Portal: Still Alive For 360 announced

Portal is coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade with bonus content. It was announced today at the Microsoft press conference. You can view more here.

Real 1:1 with Wii MotionPlus

Nintendo has already anounced one of tommrow topics, Wii MotionPlus. It is a attachment that will go on the bottom of the wiimote and allow real motion tracking.

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

[Source]

Matt Casamassina speaks out over MS E3 08

There is a lot of talk about today's Microsoft press conference. The biggest controversy is no doubt on the new Avatar and Blade system coming out this fall. Some say it is a ripoff of the Wii. Even if it is some say it could be better than what Nintendo is offering. IGN Nintedo's Matt Casamassina put up an editorial to day with his view. Here is a snip:

"All right, so I'm laying it on a bit thick, but the Microsoft presentation really left me a little perplexed. I left the conference with the impression that the company has an identity crisis. If during this generation Nintendo has spread outward toward the casual sector, Microsoft has successfully hugged the hardcore demographic with successful franchises that really appeal to traditionalists. At the company's E3 2008 conference, we saw more efforts in that vein, like the gritty Fallout 3 and the beautiful Gears of War 2. Somehow, Xbox 360 owners even got Final Fantasy XIII on their system despite the fact that the console is drowning in Japan. But lodged between all of these revelations, we had to sit through an overly long dedication to a simplified experience -- a blatant attempt to Wii-ize the Xbox 360 interface and environment. A quick look around the message boards revealed that most 360 owners were not terribly impressed. Nauseated, yes. Impressed, no."

You can read the rest here.

Steam Updates

Updates to Garry's Mod have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Garry's Mod
  • Fixed crash when prop's physics object couldn't be created
  • Fixed Team Fortress 2 blood overriding Half-Life 2 blood
  • Fixed shotgun having wildly reduced damage
  • Changed default jump height so you can jump on a crouched player
  • Fixed not being able to override materials on clientside entities
  • Fixed not seeing hunter blood in MP

Updates to Audiosurf have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Audiosurf
  • Fixed a crash bug introduced by the last update that could occur during server communications

Updates to RACE 07 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

RACE 07
  • Added support for the upcoming GTR Evolution expansion
  • Added texture garbage collection
  • Added option to choose minutes instead of laps in dedicated server
  • Added "right-click to unbind control" in control settings. ESC will cancel instead of unbinding
  • Added reworked pitstops logistics
  • Added 'automatic gear' and 'automatic clutch' to in game host menu
  • Fixed mesh cache
  • Fixed description on Honda and Alfa 2007
  • Fixed driver feet animations
  • Fixed helmet view FOV in rain
  • Fixed so category buttons in custom championship track selection won't select the track
  • Fixed car alpha bug in replay
  • Fixed . issue in foldername
  • Fixed free flight cam in instant replay
  • Fixed camera change bug after instant replay
  • Fixed blue flag warning (24s before stop&go)
  • Fixed virtual mirrors still showing when looking back
  • Fixed time attack refresh button text (bug in non-english languages)
  • Fixed bink clear backbuffer. (Steam Community popup getting stuck in intro movie)
  • Disabled car collision in pit lane
  • Loading optimizations
  • Removed timings info from second race timings screen
  • Removed car class filter in lobby
  • Removed pit stop screen tint and added text shadow
  • Reworked pit strategies for AI
  • AI code tweaks
  • AI tweaks for Macau, Pau and Porto (reduced crashing)
Enough wasting time E3 is a foot!

12 July, 2008

Insurgency Beta 2.1 RC is out

The popular realism MOD Insurgency has released version 2.1RC. Check out the change log:
Key Features
  • Includes all the patches and hotfixes from 2.0 onwards (2.0b, 2.0d, 2.0e).
  • Improved server stability.
  • Improved client stability.
  • Immersive game experience with new suppresion and concussion and damage effects.
  • Four new maps:
    - ins_abdallah (pre-beta)
    - ins_buhriz (beta)
    - ins_haditha night
    - ins_samawah day.
  • Improved weapon system, new weapon sway system.
  • Head sway while walking has been improved.
  • Modular weapon accuracy modifier has been implemented.
  • Redesigned spawn protection system implemented on all maps.
  • Implemented slow crawling during reload.
  • Improved movement system:
    - Reload while sprinting.
    - Strafe while sprinting.
    - Walking, leaning and aiming (at the same time) is now possible.
  • When prone and using ironsights, you will now be able to crawl slightly without popping out of ironsights. If you move too fast or too much, you will pop out of ironsights, then pop back in automatically once you've stopped crawling.
  • Removed knives and bayonets from the game.
  • "mp_fadetoblack" cvar has been implemented for league play.
  • "wait" cvar has been implemented for league play.
  • New cvar ins_squadshuffle lets server admins manage the randomize weapons option on round restart (default: off)
Other Fixes & Changes
  • Sniper rifle aiming has been fixed.
  • Improvements and fixes to all maps, including performance optimizations and fixes for several reported exploits.
  • Improved animation code. Smoother head sway while moving.
  • Many new weapon sounds.
  • New and improved soundscapes in several maps.
  • Bullet ricochet effect has been removed.
  • Improved HUD: less intrusive, compass removed. Only the "new" objective indicator system is present, and it can be toggled on/off and flashed on screen.
  • Some iron sights have been adjusted (taken further away from the player).
  • Some frequent DX9-related crashes have been fixed.
  • Reduced ladder climbing speed.
  • Improved Al-Kadesiah scope / animations ("black scope bug" fixed).
  • Al-Kadesiah 3D-scope allows now a bit of lateral vision (doesn't cover the entire screen).
  • Players will now be able to use and reload an M203 properly when picking up an M16/M203 from the ground.
  • Fixed RPG requiring two right clicks to unshoulder after firing.
  • Fixed scoped view while leaning for the sniper rifles.
  • Fixed commander objectives having wrong colours.
  • Prevented several objects that provide cover from disappearing depending on the players view distance.
  • Fixed long distance texture problems while in scoped view.
  • Improved weapon data values. Some values may vary between the release candidate and the Beta 2.1 Release version.
  • Fixed animation latency issue for systems with lower performance.
  • Improved overhead maps.
  • Changed teammate colors in overhead map.
  • Changed player icons in overhead map.
Sounds like good changes. Check it out if it's your kind of thing!
[Official site]

L4D interview

Fansite L4D 411 has a email interview with Mike Booths about Left 4 Dead. Here is a snip:

Will there be things like the taunts from TF2 in L4D? I don't think taunts would really fit the games's style, what about things like "Whoop! Nice work people!" type expressions through animation?
The auto-vocalizations in TF2 were added after the dev team played L4D and saw how effective they were. We really do collaborate at Valve, and this is yet another example of the benefits of such cross-pollination.


You can check out more here.

HL2 Wars v0.5 out

The HL2 RTS mod has just released there next update. Here is a short change log:

Short Changelog:
  • Two new maps
  • Changed to Orange box engine
  • Added basebuilding
  • Improved stability
  • Improved units AI
  • Added support for navigation mesh
  • Improved balance between units
  • Improved various visuals
You can view more and download it here.

This Weekend Only!

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is 50% off of the weekend, going for only $9.99. Offer ends the 14th. You can get it here.

Latest IGN Pre-E3 Stuff

Interview With Iga
Hands-on With SmackDown vs. Raw 2009
Hands-on Castlevania Judgment
SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Hands-on (DS)

E3 is just a few days away. Are you ready?

10 July, 2008

Mega Man 9 trailer

Half-Life 2: EP3 Art wins Into the Pixel award


A piece of EP3 art was entered and has won an ITP award, a video game based art award. It shows a person that could be Gordon facing an Advisor in some strange location.

[Source]

Nippon Ichi eyes Wii

Nippon Ichi, well known for JRPGs has expressed intress in the Wii in The Kabushiki Shimbun. CEO Kouichi Kitazumi stated that "We'll be looking into signing on with Wii in the future." and "We wanted to sign on and get new fans,".

[Source]

Audiosurf update

Just in:
  • Adds "Everybody Mono" mode (to be unlocked only in upcoming radio songs)
  • Upgrades online CD track data searches to use XML
Enjoy!

Mark Rein says Wii not Epic's "medium"

In an interview with GameIndustry.biz Mark Rein once again confirmed that despite what CliffB may say Epic is not into the "Wii" way of making games.

"No we don't have any plans to make something for the Wii. That's like asking a sculptor when he's going to start painting. That's just not our medium. That's not our area of expertise - our area of expertise is the more high-end consoles and things that push technology higher. That's what we do - there's a lot more water in that well for us, when that runs dry then maybe we'd have to think of doing something else but I don't think that well is going to run dry anytime soon."
No real surprise...

[Source]

Grid update

Earlier today an update hit Grid:
  • Fix for sessions list overflow and missing characters in front end
  • Fix for errors generated on game shutdown
  • Support for TrackIR
  • Online experience points: more points awarded for completing longer races
  • Assists on/off toggle added to session creation and browsing
  • All offline events (apart from head-to-heads and touge) are now available online (event voting screen now scrolls to see additional championships)
  • Fix for failure to recognise some devices in user-created action map presets, including Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2
  • Fixed GRID startup issue where it appears as a process in Task Manager but fails to run
  • Additional experience points are awarded for not colliding with other cars whilst racing damage on or forward sessions
You can get by restarting Steam.

Mega Man 9 to have DLC

Famitsu has announced that MM9 will feature some kind of DLC. What will it be? Stay tuned...

[Source]

09 July, 2008

Episode 1 Source Engine update

Just in!

Episode 1 Source Engine

  • Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch customers running under Windows Vista can now take advantage of 5.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations

Nintendo patents new controller


Filed on February 28, 2008 this patent is for a new controller that looks alot like a Gamecube controller shell. As it stands Gamecube games are lock out of "Wii mode" for security reasons and can not access any Wii features such as the wiimote. It could just be Nintendo covering there bases but who knows. Stay tune for more as it beaks.

[Source]

Todays Steam Updates

Eve Expanding Via Steam

To celebrate the launch of the eighth free expansion to Eve Online, the popular massively multi-player online game (MMOG) from CCP, the full game is available for 10% off its regular price for one week. The limited-time offer which includes the latest expansion, Empryean Age, is accompanied by the release of an impressive new trailer which is freely available now via Steam.


Now On Steam - Sacred Gold

Sacred Gold, an action RPG from Strategy First, is now available for purchase via Steam.

Sacred delivers a huge, elaborate world comprising 16 regions beset with heroic quests, battle-hardened warriors and horrific enemies. Sacred Gold is the complete Sacred collection in one box, containing the full version of Sacred, winner of the 'Best Roleplaying Game 2004' award from PC GAMER, Sacred Plus and Sacred Underworld.

Pick it up today for just $9.99.

Now On Steam - Elf Bowling: Hawaiian Vacation

Elf Bowling: Hawaiian Vacation, the new casual game from MumboJumbo, is now available for purchase via Steam.

If you thought Santa's elves were crazy before, just wait until you see them on vacation! The zany crew has escaped from the workshop to hit the sand and surf in Elf Bowling Hawaiian Vacation.

Pick it up today for just $9.99 or try the Free Demo.

Source Sdk Update Released

Updates to Source SDK have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Enhancements

  • Particle Editor, Material Editor, and Commentary Editor are now included in the Source SDK
  • Updated SDK source code for Orange Box mods
  • Added example particle system files to SDK content

Bug Fixes

  • Updated Linux binaries and makefiles for dedicated servers and server plugins
  • The Faceposer phoneme editor now pops up a warning message when a phoneme cannot be saved
  • Fixed crash in 'splitskybox.exe'
  • Day of Defeat: Source now appears in the list of Orange Box games

Source Dedicated Server Update Released (7/9/2008)

Updates to the Source Dedicated Server have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Source Dedicated Server

  • Fixed crash caused by excessive rcon attempts sent with incorrect password set

It's always good to see new updates and new games come to Steam. The Commentary Editor sounds like a great new addition to the SDK!

Wario Land: Shake It! Gameplay trailer

08 July, 2008

The 3rd party quagmire

It's a problem Nintendo has had sense the 64 days. No one company can make enough games to fill a consoles life cycle. After the cost of cartages caused many third party games developers to make move there games to the Playstaion Nintendo systems have had to survive on Nintendo titles. This problem continues to haunt the Wii.

The problem is not an easy one to solve. There are now several things working ageist the Wii. One is the fact that third party games have not sold well on Nintendo system in a while. There is no prof that there will. Another is the Wii's market. No one knows what kind of gamers make up the most of the Wii owners. Last is the challenge of porting. When making a game for the Wii it is not easy to move it to or from another system.

It was once said that people buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games. When looking at sales numbers for the Wii it is not hard to see

Top 10 Wii games via VG charts:

  1. Wii Sports, 25.23m
  2. Wii Play, 13.26m
  3. Super Mario Galaxy, 6.72m
  4. Mario Kart Wii, 6.04m
  5. Super Smash Bros Brawl, 5.97m
  6. Mario Party 8, 5.35m
  7. Wii Fit, 5.24m
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, 4.90m
  9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, 4.68m
  10. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, 2.90m
Only the last two games not made by Nintendo. Compare this to the other two systems.


Top 10 Xbox 360 games via VG charts:
  1. Halo 3, 8.02m
  2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 6.17m
  3. Grand Theft Auto IV, 5.56m
  4. Gears Of War, 5.25m
  5. Forza Motorsport 2, 3.92m
  6. Assassins Creed, 3.79m
  7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, 3.12m
  8. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2.50m
  9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, 2.45m
  10. Madden NFL 08, 2.31m
Top PS3 Games via VG charts:
  1. Grand Theft Auto IV, 4.04m
  2. Motorstorm, 3.38m
  3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 3.35m
  4. Resistance: Fall of Man, 2.90m
  5. Assassins Creed, 2.73m
  6. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, 2.06m
  7. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, 1.85m
  8. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, 1.72m
  9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, 1.63m
  10. FIFA 08, 1.50m
Microsoft only has 3 games on the 360 list and one is made by a 3rd party. Sony has 4 games on the PS3 list. The next thing to look at are the sales numbers. Few Wii games have sold more than 500,000. Even good Wii games have little chance of selling well.

When looking at the Wii's market share it is huge. The problem is telling what theses people bought a Wii for. Some got it just to play Nintendo games. Others just for Wii Sports. Some want RPGs other shooters. Who do you make the game for?

Because porting games is not easy, Wii games have to be built just for the Wii. What games are ported are overlooked regardless of quality. Either way this means it's not going to be easy to make multi-plattform games for Wii and the Wii sales maybe all a 3rd party gets.

Although it may not look good there is still hope. Some big games are still coming. If they get the right advertisement and gamers give them a chance more can come. We can only hope that both gamers and 3rd parties are willing to not give up on the Wii yet.

Next Time: Wii need to learn from Steam

CliffyB Praises Wiimote

In an interview with CVG Cliff Bleszinski says that the 360 controller has to many buttons and gives credit to the wiimote.

"I think you could do things with a built-in camera or a little motion sensitivity. You look at the Wii controller with less buttons - they added functionality by doing waggle. Not a lot of games use the waggle well, but Super Mario Galaxy for example uses it perfectly. Zak and Wiki uses it rather well."

We can only hope the rest of Epic feels the same.

[Source]

Nintendo and Apple face lawsuit over touchscreen


John R. Martin is claiming that his 2005 patent for a game device was infringed on by both the Apple and Nintendo. He has already filed suit against Nintendo for the DS and is work on one for Apple (possibility against the iPod). Here is a clip from the patent:

An electronic game device system [which] is switchable between an amusement mode and a gaming or gambling mode and is useful for vehicles such as airplanes or boats which move geographically from jurisdictions where gambling is legal to jurisdictions where it is not...
An improved method of operating a touch screen on a CRT or ICD computer screen uses finger release as input registering... Mounting arrangements for mounting computer screens or monitors are also disclosed...

The DS came out in 2004...

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Two new Chocobo games for the DS

Square Enix has announced two new Chocobo games for the DS. One is Cid and Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Maze of Time DS+. The other is a casual mini game collection know as Chocobo and the Magic Storybook: The Witch and the Girl and the Five Heroes.

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Team Fortress 2 Dispenser Mod


Bit-tech has an article up on a TF2 dispenceer casr MOD made by TiTON. You can see it and others here.

Spellforce 2 on Steam

lforce 2 - Shadow Wars and it's expansion Spellforce 2 - Dragon Storm are hit Steam today. Together they are $29.99 or $19.99 each apart. Find out more here.

Children of the Nile: Enhanced Edition on Steam


Tilted Mill Entertainment has put Children of the Nile: Enhanced Edition on Steam. It is and updated version of the city sim with new content and Vista support. It is available world wide for $19.99

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