F.E.A.R. 2. S.c.r.e.e.n.s.h.o.t.s
27 New Project Origin Nudies
Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Four New Screenshots
StarCraft 2 Battle Report
20-Plus Minutes of Video
Duke Nukem Forever Nudie
Merry X-Mas from 3D Realms
| - Playstation 3 A Sinking Ship? | (105) |
| - 2008 Game of the Year? | (76) |
| - A Tribute to 3DFX | (48) |
| - Duke Nukem Forever: Christmas Screens... | (40) |
| - New York Governor Wants To Tax Digita... | (39) |
| - The Hunter Trailer | (37) |
| - Dragonball: Evolution Movie Trailer | (33) |
| - World of WarCraft: 11.5 Million Subsc... | (33) |
| - Scrabble DS Causes Outrage In UK | (31) |
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As one of the most historic companies in the video game industry crumbles into non-existence, the company’s higher-ups haven’t shouldered the burden. Despite massive cutbacks and layoffs over the past few years, the salaries of top Midway executives remained unchanged despite the company’s consistent downward spiral.According to filings with the SEC, former President and CEO David F. Zucker made over $4.5 million in the past two years. This includes over $3 million in stock options and sold stock. Since 2003, Zucker has made just under $11 million.
The filings address his massively disproportionate compensation specifically, stating that extra compensation was awarded in order “to motivate Mr. Zucker to devote all of his energies to the company.” Since 2006, Midway’s stock value has dropped from nearly $23 to 18 cents. Zucker left Midway in March.
Last month, Sumner Redstone sold his 87 percent stake in the company to a private investor for $100,000, yet several of Midway’s top executives continue to make over four times that amount annually.
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IGN: Is there any aspect of Prince of Persia that you thought would be a sure hit with gamers that didn't get the attention you think it deserved? Likewise, is there anything you felt was a design gamble that people really took to?Mattes: The design gamble one is easy -- Elika. We were constantly doubting ourselves during development as to whether or not Elika was a strong enough feature. We knew she was pretty to look at, but that was never enough. In the end, though, I've read many kind words about Elika that really reinforces that we made the right decision in including her in the game and giving her such a prominent role.
I'm also surprised (in a very good way) to read all of the positive comments regarding our On Demand Dialogue system – the ability of the player to dig deeper into the story by initiating dialogue with Elika throughout the game. After E3 there was some backlash within the community regarding our choice of voice actor for the Prince (Nolan North) as well as the type of character we were developing for the Prince (again -- I'll get deeper into this below). Generally speaking, though, the people who played with the ODD system seem to have developed a stronger appreciation for the story and the characters and I couldn't have asked for more out of this mechanic -- it did exactly what it was designed to do.
In terms of us taking a shot and missing, I guess I would have to go a little higher level here and speak about risks in general.
For years we've all been reading complaints about sequels and companies churning out carbon copies of proven formulas without focusing on innovation or taking risks. Fans, developers and critics alike seemed ravenous for new ideas -- new IPs; major innovations -- advances in this art-tertainment (I'm trying to coin a new term here ;)) form we all love.
We tried to really embrace this challenge on PoP. We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general (and we weren't alone. EA took some major risks this year with new IP and innovations - Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, for example).
What surprises me is how little these high level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward. Perhaps I'm an idealist, but I think perhaps I was expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back for our attempts to do something new.
Whether this means we didn't totally succeed in our risk taking or whether our industry in fact has a stronger appetite for the familiar then it wants to admit remains to be seen. Honestly I hope it is the former.
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After tallying the results of over 2,400 completed web-based surveys, researchers told BBC News that females make up roughly 40% of the EverQuest II "gaming population."Furthermore, those women were found to display "an unusually high level of bisexuality," beating out the rate of "general population" bisexuality by more than five times.
The study suggests that men and women play online games for different reasons, with men wanting to win and women wanting to socialize. In fact, a "high proportion" of women claimed to play EverQuest II with a romantic partner.
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Players will have to hunt and kill a certain mountain goat we will have spawned. The exact location where this specific goat can be found will be told in form of riddles which we will post here on the community portals. The location of the mountain goat will be different on each server to make it a bit more challenging.Keep an eye out on the Season Event entries on the portal at 23rd, 24th, 29th, 30th and 31st of December. These will be the dates the competition will be held.
The event will run exactly once on each of the servers during the whole period of the competition (one single time on only one of the the 5 days mentioned above) so make sure you don't miss the one running on yours.
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GameSpy: Can you talk a bit about how you're embracing the mod scene?Browder: We're big fans of custom maps for our RTS games which is why with every successive game we release more and more powerful editors for our community. We're looking to do the same with StarCraft II and make sure that players have the ability to create awesome game types. Internally we love playing custom maps like DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) and the tower defense maps, so we're looking forward to seeing what the community comes up with for StarCraft II.
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Ross Gardner
Lead Programmer, Dragon Age: Origins
Designer, Baldur's GateIt was an afternoon, and we were about two months from shipping BG. Back then, there were only about 30 people at BioWare, so all we had was a single Millennium Falcon-type hallway with cords and wires scattered all over the place. We were all in a strange state mentally, the kind that only working 100-hour weeks can bring about. I was sitting at my desk making some toast when all of a sudden, my computer shut off... and it wasn't long before I began hearing angry noises from the hallway.
I popped my toast and hunkered down (looking guilty), trying to eat it before the others figured out what had happened. Alas, the smell wafting through the hallway defeated me, and I soon had heads popping over my little office wall - caught! We all had a good laugh afterwards, but I'm pretty sure I didn't make any friends that day.
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I've heard that an Ender video game is also in the works. What can you tell us about that?The basic synopsis is that humanity is fighting against a hostile insectiod alien species that lives some 80 light years away. They travel at slightly less than light speed, so it literally takes 80 years to get from system to system. They've already invaded Earth twice. Fully expecting a third wave, the military has been breeding promising military leaders who can command their fleets against them in a preemptive strike.I'm working on the game with Chair Entertainment, a team I collaborated with on my novel Empire, which began as a rudimentary story for their video game of the same title. Since then, Empire has been optioned by Warner Brothers, and Chair was acquired by Epic, which funded them in developing a much fuller version of the Empire game. Once that game ships, we'll be in a position to keep Ender's Game moving forward.
My hope and plan is that the Ender's Game computer and console games will not be mere tellings of the story, but rather true games with a high degree of replayability. In other words, you don't play the game once, so you can act out the story (as with, say, the Harry Potter movie-based games), and then discard it. The Ender's Game games will immerse you in the experience of different aspects of the life of these kids who train together in order to fight the war. I can see a Battle School online game as well as a Battle Room game, various Formic War games, even the Mind Game (or Fantasy Game) that Ender plays relentlessly on his computer.
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Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the addition of four new tracks to the Rock Band® Music Store catalog of downloadable content from bands Snow Patrol, Deep Purple, James Gang and Jethro Tull.Scottish alternative band Snow Patrol makes its debut in the Rock Band music catalog offering their first single “Take Back the City” from their new album A Hundred Million Suns (2008).
In addition, the Rock Band music catalog will expand its collection of Deep Purple tracks, giving players access to the classic rock band’s single “Space Truckin’’” from the influential album Machine Head (1972). Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” was featured on the original Rock Band soundtrack.
Next week’s offering also includes the classic rock single “Funk #49” from the album James Gang Rides Again (1970) featuring Joe Walsh, Dale Peters and Jimmy Fox.
The Jethro Tull single“Hymn 43” will become the second Tull track in the Rock Band music catalog, joining “Aqualung” which was featured on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack. Both songs are from the band’s fourth studio album Aqualung (1971).
These tracks will be available starting December 30, 2008, for the Xbox_360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and January 8, 2008, for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Each individual track will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points).
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CD Projekt RED welcomes player feedback and the Hotfix patch was created in response to fan community feedback. The Hotfix patch resolves problems related to EAX technology, which did not operate properly in conjunction with the game and generated critical errors when activated in the Game Options panel, and also eliminates the blur remaining after cut scenes and dialogue sequences.You can download that directly here.
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Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. This new high was reached following the November 13 release of the game's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.Within its first 24 hours of availability, Wrath of the Lich King sold more than 2.8 million copies, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. In addition to winning a number of editor's choice awards from major gaming publications, the expansion has now gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in its first month, setting a new record for monthly PC-game sales. Both sales records were previously held by World of Warcraft's first expansion, The Burning Crusade.*
"We're pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game's global community has continued to show," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come."
"Not only is Wrath of the Lich King still doing well, the base World of Warcraft game and the World of Warcraft Battle Chest are performing better than last year," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop. "That type of traction is very impressive for a game that is going into its fifth holiday season and speaks to the enthusiastic player base Blizzard Entertainment products have."
To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs. More information about the latest World of Warcraft expansion is available at the official Wrath of the Lich King website: www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath.
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That brings us to today's question, which asks:
Do you think that hardware makers have outpaced game developers as far as being able to push out the pixels is concerned? Do PC's have too much horsepower for today's games?
*Shoddy unoptimized ports notwithstanding, of course.
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Keep your eyes peeled. A little xmas surprise is on the way later today. Don't get too excited, but I think you'll like it.That's dated a few days ago, so... Thanks, Duke4.net.
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Don't worry, all you ask for is there and coming. This was originally a level that Allen made and printed, to use as wrapping paper for our xmas party gift exchange. We thought it looked neat, tweaked it and released it as a wallpaper. There is a lot of color and whacky locations in the game. These are just some of the enemies. We're going for a non-cartoony style so you're not going to see lots and lots of color and camp on the enemies themselves.
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1UP: BioWare's previously said that the "Origins" in Dragon Age: Origins refers to the game's character-development system. What is this, and how is it different than the system you've used in your Dungeons & Dragons-inspired games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect?Mike Laidlaw: Origins are playable sequences that set a tone for the rest of the game. They introduce you to the world from a very specific angle, and they set the stage for future interactions between other characters. Your race, gender, and even choices you make in these early days of your career may come back to haunt you later. You could compare it to Mass Effect's background choices. One background for Commander Shepard in Mass Effect was as a war hero from a Batarian attack on a colony. Imagine playing through that sequence and potentially running into others you'd met there later in your adventures. That's what an origin story is like. Choose wisely!
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Former players hoping to return to see the game's added content can log on to their PlayNC master accounts at www.plaync.com and visit Account Management to reactivate their accounts.You can download the client from NCsoft.New players can also join in on the festivities by requesting a Tabula Rasa serial code through the game's support site. Eager fans can then use that code at www.plaync.com to create a new account. Keep in mind that the activation process will prompt players for their credit card numbers, but the game's official web site reads, "that's just so we know who you are. We will not charge your card for Tabula Rasa gameplay."
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We will be bringing all North American servers offline at 9:00 AM EST for an update to improve server stability. Oceanic servers will follow shortly thereafter at 11:00 AM EST (1:00 AM WDT) with downtime expected to last no later than 1:00 PM EST for North American servers and 2:00 PM EST (4:00 AM WDT) for Oceanic servers.
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On three shiny floors of a former fish factory is CCP, a company best known in computer gaming for Eve Online, which has 300,000 participants all over the world - as many inhabitants as Iceland itself. However, restrictions on access to foreign currency for individuals and businesses and on foreign investment into Iceland are making life difficult. “To make new games, we need foreign investors,” says Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, formerly an assistant professor at the University of Akureyri, who supervises Eve’s virtual economy. “The present currency restrictions are putting us in a straitjacket. We are in talks with the government, but if we can’t let capital in, we might be compelled to leave Iceland, even though this would be against our wishes.”
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Could Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios be at work on a title about Disney's seminal Mickey Mouse?Gamasutra has seen concept art and information that indicates a title codenamed "Epic Mickey" may be in development at the Austin-based, Disney-owned developer.
Concept art from early versions of the game that we viewed showed mockups of the potential game's environment, including pencil sketches of cities assembled from junk.
Another sketch included a surreal seashore invasion scene, in which machines wearing the faces of the Seven Dwarfs deposit old-fashioned renditions of Disney characters onto the beach with mechanical hands.
Though the kooky environmental concepts, with visible large cogs, gears and even a large fork that serves as a building's awning, are somewhat reminiscent of Disney's Toontown Online MMO, the images -- particularly the cloud-stained seaside painting -- have a distinctly shadowed, steampunk vibe.
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Speaking of ninjas, those who loved the high-tech, invisible ninjas of the first-game won't be disappointed. They make a memorable entrance in F.E.A.R. 2 and you'll have fun getting your butt knocked around a bit by these guys. They move so quickly that the only way to deal with them is to kick in your superfast reflexes to enable the bullet-time slow motion and unload into them. There's also a new enemy that's sure to creep you out: specimens. These are human cadaver experiments gone horribly awry. They have the wall-climbing abilities of spiders, as well as heads and limbs that are attached to their torsos in ways that are all completely off. There's an entire lab full of them that you have to battle.
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Rest in peace, twitter.com/cliffy_b. We're going to miss you, now that the No Funsters at Twitter and Epic Games have shut you down, killing off the delightful parody of the Gears of War designer.Sorry, no more updates from cliffy_b about doing one-armed push ups, physically abusing Epic VP Mark Rein or, in general, how awesome it is to be Cliff Bleszinski on a daily basis. The gentlemen responsible for the 166 fake Twitter updates from the fake Cliffster were informed that their account had been renamed, locked, and was being investigated for "allegations of copyright violations."
Wait... seriously? Or is this just one of those baseless threats that companies like to toss around hoping someone's just as clueless on the receiving end of the e-mail?
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A lot of people are writing in asking about the release date for the Braid PC version.Thanks, Evil Avatar.I had originally announced the release date for the end of 2008, but for various reasons, this hasn’t happened. Once we slipped into mid-October and all the big Christmas-season blockbusters started coming out, it just seemed like a bad idea to schedule Braid for that time period, as it seems likely it’d get released and then disappear.
At this time, we’re looking at a window of February-March 2009 for the PC release. I know this isn’t good news for those of you who have been waiting a long time for the game, but there sure are lots of games out there for you to play in the meantime.
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1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Activision Blizzard - $39
2. Spore - Electronic Arts - $47
3. Call Of Duty: World At War - Activision Blizzard - $46
4. Left 4 Dead - Electronic Arts - $43
5. Fallout 3 - Bethesda SoftWorks - $43
6. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts - $20
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $17
8. Bejeweled Twist - PopCap Games - $17
9. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Activision Blizzard - $34
10. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $18
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Valve today announced Spore(tm), Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Mass Effect(r), Need for Speed(tm) Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in most of Europe, the United States and Canada via Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.The funky pricing should be fixed soon as well.In the coming weeks, Mirror's Edge(tm), Command & Conquer(tm) Red Alert(tm) 3, and Dead Space(tm), will be added to the catalog of EA's titles available via Steam.
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Today's question:
How much money do you estimate that you've spent on games this year?
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