Steam experiences major growth in 2011
The Old Republic scoops Guinness World Record
Saturday Crapshoot: Pyst
Myst, as everyone who ignores people who are wrong can tell you, is a festering boil upon the gaming industry, found just off to the side of adventuring’s anus, on the itchiest part of point and click’s clammiest buttock. It landed in 1993, with its pretty graphics instantly bedazzling all who gazed upon it, especially those who found a copy stuffed with their first CD drive or nestled in the packaging of their printer for reasons that still escape all comprehension. To this day, it has armies of admirers. Unrelated, there are millions of people whose idea of a good time is watching obese members of the opposite sex bathing in porridge to the tunes of Barry Manilow. Probably. In conclusion, Myst is rubbish.
But did you ever wonder what happened to scenic Myst Island after some four million players had tramped across it? Of course not. But if you had, Pyst might just have been your answer…
Plantronics reveals GameCom 780 7.1 headsets/GameCom 380 headsets
Plantronics met with PC Gamer today to talk about their new headsets, the USB 7.1 Dolby Pro Logic II GameCom 780 (and their lower-priced stereo GameCom 380, with analog jacks rather than USB). The 780 and 380 are both set for US release on January 15th. At launch, they’ll be available at retail in Best Buy stores nationwide, or—if you prefer shopping via mouse and keyboard—you can snag ‘em online through Plantronics.com/us or Amazon.com. The 780 will set you back 80 clams, while the 380 will cost you $50. Read on for more details!
StarCraft II Protip: Baneling Bust
Are your Zerg rushes constantly being hampered by filthy buildings? Stupid industrious capitalist jerks—always getting in the way with their “progress.” Stick it to Ayn Rand with this Protip, in which Josh teaches us how to clear a path with a StarCraft II tactic that’s as explosive as it is gooey: the Baneling Bust. Watch the introduction above, and see the strategy play out versus both Protoss and Terran bases in the following videos.
Video – comparing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
We’ve dug into Valve’s sorta-sequel Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to try and gather some data on the only question we (and probably you, too) care about—what’s different? Within, we compare map segments, weapon animations and audio, smoke grenade opacity, bomb planting time, and other elements from all PC versions of Counter-Strike.
Tell us what other aspects of CS you’d like to see scrutinized, and we’ll get crackin’ on them.
Steam is doing quite well: 100% sales increase, 40 million registered accounts
We know that Steam’s on the grow, the five million concurrent users earlier this week indicated as much. Valve have released some more info to prove that their digital distribution service is still expanding at an impressive clip.
Sales have grown by 100% for the seventh year in a row in 2011. There are now 1800 games on Steam. 40 million people have registered for accounts (though not all will be active), and 780 Petabytes of data has been distributed to customers over the course of the year. 19 million items have also been traded. Valve don’t mention how many of those were hats.
Age of Wushu announced: a free to play martial arts MMO with no levels or classes
Age of Wushu is an intriguing free to play MMO from China. You play as a martial arts expert, but there aren’t any levels or character classes. You learn your skills from one of eight schools of combat, and will be able to raid other schools to gain bonus knowledge and unlock more abilities. You’ll be able to train your character outside of the game as well, using 30 “offline activities.”
Expect lots of customisation, too. Apparently there will be more than 5,000 equipment upgrades, 17 progressions and aerial combat. The fighting style draws heavily from Wuxia genre, so there will be plenty of superhuman acrobatics and, as shown in the trailer above, water-running. It’ll be released in the UK as well, under the name Age of Wulin. An “international test” is supposed to be starting soon. Keep an eye on the official Age of Wushu site for news of the beta.
CTA launches US Army brand peripherals
Branded peripherals rarely have much to offer over the cheaper versions of the same kit without a special logo, but when they come with official endorsement from a power as high as the US Army, surely they must be worth considering? That’s what CTA Digital is hoping to convince us with its new range of gaming gear which comes decorated with the registered trade mark of the larger US fighting force.
Star Wars: The Old Republic scoops Guinness World Record for voice acting
According to the Guinness World Records 2012, Star Wars: The Old Republic has more voice acting than any entertainment project that has gone before. With over 200,000 lines of dialogue voiced by more than 200 actors, there’s not much that can really compete.
We caught up with game director James Ohlen just before TOR launched and asked him how Bioware made the ambitious decision to create a fully voiced MMO. “That was really exciting,” he said. “I remember showing a demo to Ray and Greg to budget, and actually calculated out “here’s how much extra money we’re going to spend if we’re going to do player voice.” I did the demo to them and they were like “we have to go this way.”
X-COM Complete Pack super cheap on Steam and Gamersgate
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was revealed yesterday, a modern remake from Civilization developers, Firaxis. Tremendously exciting news for fans of the classic original, but what if you never played it? Steam and Gamersgate have you covered. You can get the XCOM Complete Pack today for a fraction of its original price. That means you can grab X-COm: UFO Defense, X-COM: Terror From the Deep, X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: Enforcer and X-COM: Apocalypse for just £2.49 on GG, and £3.05 / $5.09 on Steam. Blimey. There’s just six hours left on the Steam deal. Go go go!
Project Zomboid to get new lighting system, improved NPCs and carpentry
Project Zomboid developers, The Indie Stone have enjoyed more than two months of development time in which nothing has caught fire or exploded. A robbery in October wiped out weeks of progress, but the team is back on track and have been teasing some new features that players can expect to arrive in upcoming updates, including a new lighting engine and new ways to interact with Zomboid’s NPCs. Also, carpentry!
Indie Royale New Year’s Bundle goes live, includes Nuclear Dawn, Fractal and more
The Indie Royale New Year’s Bundle was announced coyly earlier this week. You could pre-order it without knowing what the four games included were. The deal has now gone live, lifting the veil on FPS/RTS hybrid, Nuclear Dawn, Max & The Magic Marker, a puzzle platformer in which you can draw objects into existence, lovely musical puzzler, Fractal and mad arcade shooter, Super Crossfire. You can pay what you want above the current asking price of £2.66 for all four games.
Because this is an Indie Royale bundle, the price will change every few seconds depending on the amount of money each buyer puts up for the pack. The handy graph on the Indie Royale front page shows that it’s been slowly increasing in price since it went live yesterday, so you might want to snap it up quickly. Here are trailers of the four games, to give you an idea of what they’re like before buying. The bundle will close in four days, six hours and counting.
Binding of Isaac “Wrath of the Lamb” expansion announced, coming “when it’s done”
Or at least, it’s as officially “announced” as an indie game can get. Brilliant madman Edmund McMillen’s been gradually revealing gore-spattered bits and pieces via Twitter, allowing a few particularly interesting tidbits to slip out. Foremost, the expansion will increase the total item count to 205 (up from 131) – thanks in part to a new “trinket” item category that grants passive bonuses. Also, it’ll go for a mere $3 when it’s ready for primetime. Sadly, there’s no release date beyond “when it’s done” at the moment, but there are worse fates. For instance, being chased into a monster-packed death dungeon by your crazed mother. So that’s… comforting? Well, I tried, anyway.
Mass Effect 3 preview
Commander Shepard is the hero the Mass Effect galaxy needs. But he can’t be everywhere at once in the fight against the Reapers. So ME3’s multiplayer mode takes you out of Shepard’s snug space-suit for the first time (barring ME2’s titchy Joker section), plonking you into an enclosed space with up to three other no-names and asking you to fight against waves of enemy forces.
Pow, thwack, delay: Gotham City Impostors pushed into February
Gotham City Impostors’ armed-to-the-teeth cast of Bruce Wayne wannabes may look sloppy and ragtag, but it’s all subterfuge. Zany vigilante justice takes hard work, so Monolith’s opted to delay the game into February to make sure every last hair is meticulously out of place. Currently, the developer isn’t offering any further whens, whys, or wherefores, but I’ve requested details with emails and gravily bellows of “WHERE IS HE?” I feel like they might not be getting the message, though. Maybe I should try my Bane impression.
Blizzard launches Diablo 15th anniversary site, declares Diablo III “almost done”
Diablo III’s road to completion has been long and fraught with lengthy periods of radio silence. Granted, while disappointing, it’s not altogether surprising, given that Blizzard is one of the few remaining practitioners of the ancient art of “When it’s done.” Fortunately, we may finally be approaching a light at the end of the randomly generated tunnel. So said Jay Wilson in a celebratory video on the newly launched Diablo 15th anniversary website:
“We are almost done with Diablo III, and that’s a fitting celebration of the 15th year anniversary for Diablo. So, we are getting it to you as soon as we can.”
Fingers crossed, then, that Blizzard’s able to hit the “early 2012″ mark. I don’t know if my poor heart can go another cold, Diablo-less winter without bursting like a brittle, brittle loot pinata. But instead of totally rad swords, it’s filled with longing.
