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Monday, December 12, 2011
Mechwarrior Online Developer's Blog Details Community Warfare
11:20 AM - - 0 Comments
Piranha Games has published its first developer’s blog for MechWarrior® Online™. The blog focuses mostly on faction warfare, though it also include a large map of the Inner Sphere of space that you will be fighting over.

Players will be able to pledge allegiance to a particular faction, join a mercenary company, or remain neutral. This choice alters the effects of loyalty points (earned through dutiful service, winning matches, and generally destroying of enemy Mechs). Faction members gain ranks and privileges (skins, xp, membership in elite units) with their loyalty points. At the highest ranks, faction members will have a say in grand strategy, helping to determine which planets their faction targets. Mercenary companies work differently, with ranks divvied out by the mercenary leader. Loyalty points gained by mercenaries are shared by their company and collectively determine the type of contracts they may bid on. Loyalty points earned by lone wolves have no positive or negative effects.

As mentioned previously, there are planets to conquer. Here is a rundown of the types of worlds in the game.

  • Core Worlds – Are managed by the dev team. These are worlds that necessary for future planning and part of major historical events.
  • Faction Worlds – Are fought over by Faction players. These planets buffer core and border worlds, and do not play a significant role in major historical events. Rewards for controlling these planets are directly linked to global bonuses and abilities associated with a player’s Faction.
  • Border Worlds – Are fought over via a contract bidding system by player run Mercenary Corporations. These planets change hands on a regular basis, and have no impact on historical events. Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp.
Topics: MMOFPS, General News
Related Games: MechWarrior Online (PC)
Distant Worlds- Legends Patched
10:04 AM - - 2 Comments
Distant Worlds– Legends just received its first patch. The v1.7.0.6 Update brings “improved modding options, further improvements to the AI in many areas especially fleet control, fixes to all reported serious issues since release, and many other bug fixes and adjustments.” As a side note, the series is on sale at Matrix games, so it may be worth checking out if you are into turn based 4X space games.


Topics: Patches, Strategy
Related Games: Distant Worlds (PC)
VE3D Batman: Arkham City 3D Review
8:35 AM - - 0 Comments
We've finally posted our review of the PC version of Batman: Arkham City. In addition to the core game, we also look at how it looks and feels with NVIDIA 3D Vision. Give 'er a read here.

Note: Comments have been closed in this post, please leave any review feedback on the review page.

Topics: Games, Action / Adventure
Related Games: Batman: Arkham City (PC)
This Week's Releases
4:50 AM - - 5 Comments
What do you plan to spend money on this week?

Week of 12/11/11 - 12/18/11
-[Title Highlights]-:

N.A.:
Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol [ Theatre ]
Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows [ Theatre ]
Rise of the Planet of the Apes [ DVD | BD ]

E.U.:
Trine 2 [ PC ] (EU)

-[Next Week (12/18 - 12/25)]-
Star Wars MMO: The Old Republic [ PC ] (US,EU)
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (Theatre) (US)


Topics: Games, Releases
Skyrim Mounts Modern Warfare 3 - UK Charts
4:47 AM - - 3 Comments
For the week ending December 10th, Skyrim passes MW3, and the people of the UK drank Orangina to celebrate.

  1. THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM
  2. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3
  3. JUST DANCE 3
  4. FIFA 12
  5. ASSASSIN'S CREED: REVELATIONS
  6. BATTLEFIELD 3
  7. PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE SPECTRE'S CALL
  8. SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD
  9. UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE'S DECEPTION
  10. MARIO KART 7
  11. MARIO & SONIC LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES
  12. SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
  13. NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN
  14. FORZA MOTORSPORT 4
  15. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY
  16. LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7
  17. ZUMBA FITNESS
  18. SKYLANDERS: SPYRO'S ADVENTURE
  19. MICHAEL JACKSON: THE EXPERIENCE
  20. ABBA: YOU CAN DANCE
Topics: Games, Sales Charts
Related Games: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PlayStation 3), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)
The Morning Juberish
12:01 AM - - 65 Comments
I think I have writer's block. Or dry mouth. Is it even possible to get writer's block in the Juberish? It's just a bunch of streaming rubbish. Like Netflix Canada. I think I'll be cockney today. So, I made it through the bloomin' weekend wifaht a single injury. Oh 'eaven and 'ell, I fin' i'll just kick Hammer and Tack today wif an episode of the l'il andy sha. wot did ya aw do over the weekend?

Let's give away anovver batman: 'rkham city Brenda Lee. I fin' it might be for steam, but I dunna so figure it aahhht on your Jack Jones, eh? Random tom Brad Pitt in the bleedin' gaff. guess a number between 0 and 1000, the Damien Hirst ter come closest ter the randomly chosen number by 12 noon pacific (3:00 pm est) wins the Brenda Lee. One guess in the comments per Heap Of Coke.

Na donald duck Frank Bough and get me a Philharmonic.

Topics: In-House, In Other News...
Saturday, December 10, 2011
VGA 2011: Fortnite Debut Teaser - New IP From Epic
9:40 PM - - 41 Comments
Epic's newly announced IP, Fortnite, looks to be a Minecraftian take on the currently all-consuming zombie genre, with the stylised graphics of Team Fortress 2 and a sprinkling of tower defense. Cliff Bleszinski described it as "a game in which you explore, you scavenge, you build, and ultimately… you survive." More pertinent information, including release dates and launch platforms, doesn't quite exist yet.

Topics: Action / Adventure, Games, Tower Defense, Trailer
Related Games: Fortnite (TBA)
VGA 2011: Bioshock Infinite Trailer
9:16 PM - - 12 Comments
The new trailer for Bioshock Infinite includes a barrage of hailfire from a passing zeppelin, an owl attack and a collapsing belltower. While the lilting tones that the trailer is set alongside are quite nice, they didn't really work for me. I think it's difficult to successfully set game-goings-on to such a song. What are your thoughts?

Topics: Action / Adventure, Games, Trailer
Related Games: BioShock Infinite (PlayStation 3), BioShock Infinite (Xbox 360), BioShock Infinite (PC)
VGA 2011: Bioware's Command & Conquer: Generals 2 Unveiled
8:43 PM - - 26 Comments
After last month's rumours, it's been revealed that BioWare are indeed at the helm of Command & Conquer: Generals 2. The game is being developed by a new BioWare studio, BioWare Victory, and will be released exclusively on the PC in 2013. The frostbitten trailer is available below for your eye-delectation.

Topics: Strategy, Games, Trailer
Related Games: Command & Conquer (PC)
VGA 2011: Diablo III Cinematic Trailer
8:18 PM - - 17 Comments
Diablo III's opening cinematic is a slice of visual of delight. The first minute is my favourite.

Topics: Action / Roleplaying, Games, Video, Trailer
Related Games: Diablo III (Macintosh), Diablo III (PC)
The Winners Of Spike's Video Game Awards 2011
8:00 PM - - 29 Comments

After much teabagging jokery and shooting-to-the-nearest-celebrity, the award winners of the 2011 VGAs have been announced.

Game of the Year went to Skyrim, with Bethesda helping themselves to the Studio of the Year award for the game, too. Blizzard snuck in to pick up the Gamer God award and an entirely new category was created for Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, who won the Hall of Fame award for The Legend of Zelda. Minecraft won Best Independent Game while Bastion scooped up three awards, including Best Downloadable Game. Portal 2 earned awards for Best PC Game, Best Multiplayer, Best DLC and Best Performance by a Human Male & Human Female. Charlie Sheen presented an award and did not even once say the word "winning."

A list of all of the award-winners can be found below.

Read More
Topics: Awards, Games
Related Games: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PlayStation 3), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360), Portal 2 (PlayStation 3), Portal 2 (Xbox 360), Portal 2 (Macintosh), Portal 2 (PC), The Legend of Zelda (NES), Minecraft (PC), Minecraft (Xbox 360), Bastion (PC), Bastion (Xbox 360)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Concept Art (Perhaps)
4:28 PM - - 5 Comments
The following collection of concept art for the seemingly ill-fated S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 originated from a (since deleted) thread on Krautchan.net. It was created by somebody claiming to be a former artist at GSC, following the announcement of its disbanding. I predict a rather high sigh-quotient per image.


Topics: FPS, Action / Adventure, Games
Related Games: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (PC)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD Announced For "Digital Platforms" & Trailer
4:02 PM - - 5 Comments
Joystiq have managed to extract some information from Tony Hawk as he moseyed past them in the run-up to the VGAs.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD apparently includes select levels from the first two games and will be coming to "digital platforms" (which is ambiguous enough to make me think that we may, perhaps, see it on the PC) sometime in the first half of 2012.

I imagine much more on this will be appearing shortly amidst the award-givings and general onslaught of media enclosed within the VGAs.

UPDATE: Here's the trailer.

Topics: Consoles, extreme sports, Games
Related Games: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PlayStation), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Nintendo 64), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Dreamcast), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PC), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Nintendo 64), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PlayStation 2)
Tripwire Releases Unofficial Gun Game Mod For Killing Floor
1:07 PM - - 6 Comments
Tripwire's Founder and CEO Ramm-Jaeger aka John Gibson just announced the release of an alpha version of a mostly unofficial Gun Game mod for Killing Floor over at the Tripwire forums. The mod itself was originally done just for fun on the side by a couple of people at Tripwire (Ramm included), and a mapper from the KF community. According to Gibson, it might get some more attention if it's popular with the community:
Put very simply Gun Game is a game mode for up to 32 players where the player starts out with a weak weapon, and for every kill gets instantly upgraded to a better weapon. The goal is to be the first player to get to the final weapon and get a kill. There are two teams, but the focus is solely on killing as fast as you can. Gun Game is a fast paced action packed game type. While it uses the weapons and characters from KF, it is not meant to be done in a somewhat different style. There is a crosshair, players move faster, its funny, silly, and crazy.

This mod is something that myself, a community mapper, and another dev have been working on in our spare time. It is not officially developed or supported by Tripwire. If it really takes off in the community, who knows what we may do with it But for now it's just an unofficial thing we've been doing for fun.

Gmoist, Socketboy, and I all jumped in to test it last night, and we all had a great time. We even pulled off a couple first place finishes, go go team VE! Get on out there and check it out, there's no download required on the client side!

Topics: FPS, Games, Videos, Trailer
Related Games: Killing Floor (PC), Killing Floor (Macintosh)
Half-Life 2 Mod Trailer - City 17: Episode 1
12:20 AM - - 7 Comments
A trailer for a Half-Life 2 mod entitled City 17: Episode 1 has been released in the run-up to the announcement of Mod of the Year. The story behind the game is as follows:

With the impending collapse of the Citadel, two members of the Resistance are tasked with evacuating any citizens remaining. Little do they know that their mission sees them gaining critical information that puts the early fate of White Forest in their hands.

It seems intriguing, but there's not much to go on at the moment. There are a few more pieces of information about the mod over at MODDB.com, but no release date yet.

Topics: FPS, Games, Mod Watch, Trailer
Related Games: Half-Life 2 (PC)
Good Morrow! The Guilt-Burden & Ambiguous Initialisms
12:01 AM - - 27 Comments
I didn't make enough graphs this week. I disappointed somebody with my lack of graph-construction and I'll venture so far as to say I disappointed myself, too. Fortunately it is now the weekend, in which I traditionally attempt to discard any and all thought of university-related responsibility and achingly important university-related work and, traditionally, fail. Not in any productive way, though - only insofar as I refuse to do anything, but that choice then weighs heavily on every recess of my mind.

Weekeeeend! Yeeeeahhh! I'm going to guiltily play games. High on the list of guiltily playable games: Trine 2 (for which I will be rustling up a review in the near future) and Serious Sam: BFE. The more conservative members of society will tell you that the BFE stands for "Before First Encounter," but Urban Dictionary begs to differ. I actually have a BFE key to give to one of you distinguished people - if you have any insightful/hilarious ideas about those three letters and which words they may have been ripped from, throw them headlong into the comment section. The collection of words that brings me the most joy for whatever arbitrary reason will be the winner. I'll update this post with the name of the victor on Sunday night.

UPDATE: The winner is... Daeno! I like bees. Hey Daeno, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you a Steam code through the intertubes.

The news of GSC's closure looks to be based on more than just idle rumour, much to my dismay. I'm attempting to assuage my grief with the idea that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 would have certainly turned out like this.

Topics: In Other News..., In-House

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