StarCraft 2 Battle Report
20-Plus Minutes of Video
Duke Nukem Forever Nudie
Merry X-Mas from 3D Realms
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer
WOLVERINES!
Stunning Mafia II trailer
Game Delayed a Smidge
| - Playstation 3 A Sinking Ship? | (102) |
| - 2008 Game of the Year? | (50) |
| - Top 10 Pirated PC Games of 2008 | (46) |
| - A Tribute to 3DFX | (46) |
| - Duke Nukem Forever: Christmas Screens... | (40) |
| - New York Governor Wants To Tax Digita... | (39) |
| - The Hunter Trailer | (37) |
| - Mirror's Edge PC: PhysX Comparison Tr... | (34) |
| - Dragonball: Evolution Movie Trailer | (33) |
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The PC game of the year was Sins of a Solar Empire.
Xbox 360 named Fallout 3 as its choice.
The Nintendo Wii'ners went with World of Goo.
For all the little genre awards and stuff, hit up the index page.
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Today Ubisoft announced it will be releasing CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation Network from premier developer Immersion Games. CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars is a fast-paced first-person multiplayer shooter that puts players in the center of the battle of technology vs. humanity. Complete with next-gen graphics and robust gameplay, CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars allows players to wage war by using their choice of gunfire and/or telekinetic superpowers. Players can use telekinetic energy to rip objects from the surrounding environment and hurl them at enemies or draw on their powers to create a bullet-proof energy shield that protects against gunfire. Flying, teleporting and accelerated speed abilities give players countless ways to fight the good fight with plenty of intense combat action.CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Network and is rated "T" for Teen.
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1. Fallout 3 (PC/360/PS3)Dig into the full list of lucky weiners here.
2. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
3. Left 4 Dead (PC/360)
4. Gears of War 2 (360)
5. LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
6. Grand Theft Auto IV (PC/360/PS3)
7. Rock Band 2 (360/PS3)
8. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
10. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (NDS)
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In 1986, the world's worst nuclear disaster occurred at the Chernobyl power station. Soviet authorities established a 30km 'Exclusion Zone' around this nuclear wasteland, but in 2006 a second explosion rocked the stricken reactor, obliterating all living things and causing the Zone's boundaries to ripple outwards. From this epicenter came waves of mutated creatures, deadly radiation, and a strange, anomalous energy. The Zone was cordoned off by the military, who would shoot on sight anyone foolish enough to brave the horrors within.It is now 2012 - man has ventured further and further into the heart of the Zone driven by reports of strange 'artifacts' imbued with anomalous energy. Mercenaries and bounty hunters compete to recover these artifacts, which command extortionate prices on the black market. Others seek to find the truth behind the Zone, while some merely revel in the desolate lawlessness of the place. Whatever their motivation, over time these individuals - Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killer, Explorers and Robbers - have become known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s.
Awakening in the Zone, you are one such S.T.A.L.K.E.R., fighting for survival in this man-made Hell, while trying to discover the truth behind Chernobyl's sinister past and ominous future.
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Just in time for the holidays, Valve announced that, Spore™, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™, Mass Effect®, Need for Speed™ Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in North America via Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.In the coming weeks, Mirror's Edge™ , Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3, and Dead Space™ will also be added to the catalog of EA's titles available via Steam.
"EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year's top PC titles."
"We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President, Global Publishing & Chief Operating Officer.
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To celebrate the season, we are happy to reveal that as of December 18th all active accounts have been given a never before seen virtual item: The Kosalan talisman of clarity. In addition to both boosting both the stamina and mana reserves of its wearer, the talisman also features strong regeneration of both these values. Although better items are found deeper inside the game, this item is great for any new characters.Other topics in the newsletter include: details on the upcoming dungeons, pvp enhancements and oh-so much more.This talisman is available to all your characters, both existing and future. To retrieve your holiday gift in-game, type "/claim" and it's all yours!
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ReSolve will soon be marketing the business for sale as a going concern, which, if successful, will involve the transfer of any employees who are left in the company. It is understood that two undisclosed projects that Free Radical had been working on are still being looked over, as these were the two projects that generated the most interest from publishers and have the biggest potential. Yesterday’s selection of staff at the Novotel – where members were picked out and asked to continue working at Free Radical's offices for the time being – is said to be related to these two projects.“We are very confident that we will achieve a sale if we decide to market the business,” says Gunn,” it’s a testament to the employees and the regard of the company that a significant interest has already been shown.”
Gunn wouldn’t specify where the interest is originating from, neither by company or business sector, or indeed how many parties are interested.
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Click the above images to watch Demigod trailers, and to play the enjoyable, inspired-by-DOTA, real-time strategy game, pre-order here.
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With impressive lighting effects and convincingly real environments and weather conditions, this RPG will surely be one of the best displays of graphical wonders ever to burst on to the market! Those hard-working developers have also given us great gameplay elements as well! The story, AI and character development are only a few of the items that will cause a furore in the coming weeks! If you want to take a closer look at the developers’ work of the last few months, the “Antaloor Post” has all the details! The “AP” is published every week and is the official magazine for the new RPG world – you’ll find it here.
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EA expects the restructuring plan will result in annual cost savings of approximately $120 million and restructuring charges of approximately $55-65 million over the next several quarters.The plan is intended to reduce EA’s worldwide work force by approximately 10 percent or 1,000 people. The majority of these actions will be completed by March 31, 2009. This represents a four percent increase from the six percent reduction EA announced on October 30, 2008.
The restructuring also calls for consolidation or closure of at least nine studio and publishing locations. Among the facilities to be consolidated is the Black Box Studio facility in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Black Box development teams and associated game franchises will move to the nearby EA studio location in Burnaby, British Columbia.
EA is implementing a plan to narrow its product portfolio to focus on hit games with higher margin opportunities. The company remains committed to taking creative risks, investing in new games, leading the industry in the growing mobile and online businesses, and delivering high-quality games to consumers.
In connection with the plan, EA anticipates incurring between approximately $55 million and $65 million in total costs, substantially all of which will result in cash expenditures. EA anticipates incurring between approximately $30 million and $40 million of these charges during its fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. EA estimates these costs will consist primarily of severance and other employee-related costs (approximately $30 million to $35 million), charges related to facility closures (approximately $23 million to $28 million), and other asset impairment charges (approximately $2 million).
In related news, EA's failed Take-Two takeover bid cost $11 million.
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IGN went hands-on with the content and interviewed the developers, and the official Playstation blogimabob details the complete fan-service package.
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As some have said already, it is a bit of a slap in the face. We pay to use these forums, and to play this game. Generally when a company has a paid option for a forum community or website (which is very much what this is) it comes being ad-free. Next, lots of us already buy other Blizzard related merchandise. We see it in stores, on the website, tell each other about it from word of mouth. We don't need these things shoved in our faces in order for us to buy them and support you.Forum posting and interaction is over half of my game. And I know it's the same for many others that play. It's where I interact with friends when I can't access the game itself. It's where I plan things for my server. And if I lose that (which will more than likely happen if the ads stay - not certainly, but there is a good possibility), I will more than likely stop playing in general. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Now that I've explained to you guys how I and others feel, lets take a look at it from your side. Ads are a great way to expose your customers to new and interesting products that you, and companies that pay you, are coming out with. People are crying out about how Blizzard makes enough money without this - it would be silly for a company to stop trying to find new ways to make money just because they're doing well. A successful company will continue to come up with new and innovative ways to make money.
This is not to spit in the faces of it's customers, it is just common sense. If one of us were to become rich, and had a money making opportunity sat in front of us, do you really think we would just turn it down?
In short, I understand why the ads are being tried. I am asking, as are others, please don't put them on your forums like this. And if the decision is made to keep them, please make them less obtrusive, or find some way to compromise on them.
Being legible, balanced, and in the Queen's English, Blizzard allowed Lorellei's thread to remain open, and later responded with the following statement:
For those people demanding the ads be removed, there's not much we can say that's going to satisfy the nerves. We are carefully monitoring the constructive feedback players are providing on the subject so it can be compiled and presented to those who have a hand in such matters.We've extended the post cap of the following thread and suggest it be utilized for providing feedback/suggestions about the ads.
Those creating additional threads with little or no input are considered to be spamming and may be removed from the forums faster than they expect the ads to be.
Thanks Unibrow-Ve.
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A criminal raid at a shop and home premises in Cardiff has netted 1,800 infringing game copying devices and resulted in the apprehension of a man in his early 20s. The game copying devices bypass the technical protection measures of the Nintendo DS / DS Lite handheld system and enable the play of illegal Nintendo game software. The raid was carried out on the morning of December 17 by officers from the City and County of Cardiff Trading Standards Department and the South Wales Police. It resulted in the seizure of 1,800 game copying devices, which are illegal under the Trademarks and Copyright Acts.It was later discovered that the as-yet unnamed man had imported the game copying devices through Heathrow in four consignments and was selling them through a website discovered by diligent investigators from industry trade body ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Publishers Association). Action was taken following a test purchase.
The 21 year-old counterfeiter, who was also claiming benefit, painstakingly kept recorded delivery slips for every single game copying device he peddled over more than two years. Besides the 1,800 devices seized, a further 1,000 were discovered at his home ready for sale along with several hundred packed and ready for posting - by recorded delivery, naturally!
Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA, said: “We would like to thank Cardiff Trading Standards and South Wales Police for their sterling work in stopping this operation. Our team in the Intellectual Property Crime Unit (IPCU) has stepped up its fight against counterfeiters stealing game software and other intellectual property rights of our members. Increasingly sophisticated tracking techniques make it harder than ever for the thieves to avoid detection. The industry loses vital income and with it proper job security for its employees in the country, while the British public lose out because many circumvention devices actually damage irreparably DS Lite handheld consoles. ELSPA advises all gamers, parents and gifters to buy hardware and game software from respectable retailers – offering proper protection for their outlay.”
As far as I'm aware, R4s are storage devices that allow the use of homebrew and copied material, and are not "game copying devices."
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A free download from PlayStation Network, WipEout HD Trial Version will give consumers a complete track from the game to race at 600kph, delivered in 1080p High Definition. Strap yourself into an anti-gravity ship and speed into the thick of the action in a mix of racing, combat and pumping electronic music. You can go for all-out speed or for the blast-em-up approach – or a mixture of both. Play as many times as you like; then when the race is over, you’ll be given a preview of all of the tracks in the game – as well as a direct link to PlayStation Store, where you can unlock the full game for a reduced price until January 8th 2009.Unlock the full game for a full range of modes, ships and tracks to be raced alone, with friends or online. Recent enhancements to the single-player and multi-player modes have made the game that’s achieved an average review score of 87 per cent even better! With Mag-Strips that help your ship grip the track, as well as classic race features including white-knuckle loops and stomach-churning vertical drops, you’ll feel the adrenaline pumping. Tilt and swerve your way to victory with the DUALSHOCK®3 Wireless Controller, racing up to eight players at once on PlayStation Network to the tunes of a thumping electronica soundtrack featuring Stanton Warriors, Optical and seminal electro pioneers Kraftwerk.
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By the time Age of Mythology came out, there was a sense that the franchise, and genre in general, was getting played out. "There were several prominent articles back then about how the RTS genre was basically done," recalls Greg Street, the lead designer on Age of Empires III."Everything that could be done had been done -- or so the argument went. At the same time, we had people at Ensemble Studios who had been working on essentially the same game for 10 years and were starting to burn out."
However, with Ensemble's expertise in real-time strategy, there seemed to be little appetite at Microsoft, or in-house, for a radical new look at the genre. So Street took the team's resistance as a challenge, and challenged them in return to make "the best-looking game ever."
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Cases
Cooling
Mice
Power Supply
Storage
Video
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Today's question:
Do you think Duke Nukem Forever will be released in 2009?
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Folks,I'm thinking that I might play a little WAR next week (cough).As we head into the holiday season here’s a quick update on where we stand plus a little bit of holiday cheer.
As the community knows, our engineering team has been focusing on a number of key issues that have been affecting WAR over the last few weeks. These issues include crashes-to-desktop (CTDs), fortress crashes and lockup issues when exiting scenarios and at certain loading screens. I’ve got some great news to report on all of these fronts. Over the last few weeks we’ve gone a bit overboard in the number of patches that we have been making to both the client and servers in order to resolve these issues quickly, especially before the end of the year. Sometimes we have announced these patches but sometimes these patches were done quietly while we tested out some of them on individual servers. The results of these efforts by the team and these patches have been quite wonderful and I’m happy to be able to talk about them now.
Our client crashes (CTDs), are now at their lowest point at any time during development or since we’ve gone LIVE. Over the last couple of weeks we cut the number of CTDs down by 75% across all players in North America. In terms of fortress takes and their affect on server stability, we have had only one server that has crashed due to a fortress take in North America since Monday (and that was on a server that had the older code). While this is not a guarantee that we have solved all the issues, the fact is that the fixes we have made have resulted in numerous fortress assaults and lots of exciting open RvR action. Finally, in terms of client lockups, we have fixed the problems that came about after the 1.1 patch and we will continue to work on this issue with additional patches today and tomorrow. While I know that this has resulted in a bit more patching during the week than is usual for us, the results have been well worth it. All of these improvements have and/or are being sent to our partner GOA for rapid deployment for our European players.
And now for some more holiday cheer! Starting today we are going to be speeding up the leveling curve in WAR for a few weeks. We’re going to increase the rest experience multiplier bonus in a hotfix today as well as reducing the time that it takes you to earn rested xp while logged out of the game, especially in Tiers 3 and 4. This will result in players’ time to level being approximately 10% faster in Tier 2 and 20% faster in Tiers 3 and 4. We hope you enjoy the changes and have a great holiday season as you speed through the tiers faster than ever before!
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Here’s yet another twist to the long, sad saga of Electronic Arts’ failed bid for Take-Two Interactive: The Securities and Exchange Commission says day traders who were tipped off about EA’s interest in the videogame company ended up making $250,000 on the deal.Federal prosecutors say they’ve broken up an insider trading ring that scooped up some $4.8 million in illegal gains over a four-year period–some of which came from trades made before EA’s bid for Take-Two became public knowledge. That’d be very lucrative information to have in advance, given that EA was offering a premium of more than 50 percent when it offered to buy the company behind Grand Theft Auto in February.
The quick version: The SEC says that Matthew Devlin, formerly a Lehman Brothers. broker, gained information about secret takeover bids from his wife Nina Devlin, who works for the Brunswick Group, a PR firm that specializes in M&A; work. He then passed the tips on to his clients, the SEC alleges.
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Montreal actor Michael Rudder, who was shot in last month's attacks in Mumbai, returned home late Wednesday after spending several weeks in an Indian hospital, saying he received a "great gift" from his experience.Rudder was greeted by a cheering crowd of friends, fellow actors and supporters as he arrived at Montreal's Pierre Trudeau International Airport after travelling with the assistance of a nurse.
Speaking to reporters from a wheelchair, he said he owed a debt of gratitude for the "enormous outpouring of love" he received from people all over the world after the attacks.
"I'm going to get a sign that says 'World's luckiest guy,'" a beaming Rudder said.
He also offered a prayer for the people of India still reeling from the deadly series of attacks that rocked the country's financial capital and left more than 170 people dead.
"I hope they're protected," he said.
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Users with notebooks equipped with NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) now have the added flexibility of downloading upgradeable graphics drivers directly from NVIDIA.com so they can immediately take advantage of new features, improved application compatibility, and performance optimizations. The first graphics driver release from NVIDIA will extend the NVIDIA CUDA architecture to notebook GPUs, enabling the growing number of consumers moving to a notebook-only lifestyle to immediately experience the wide range of CUDA-based applications-from heart-stopping GPU-accelerated game physics to GPU-accelerated video conversion."Epic and NVIDIA invest an incredible amount of time and energy into ensuring that customers get an amazing experience with our software out-of-the-box," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "The only way to ensure that this value-add is realized by customers is for them to have access to timely driver updates. I congratulate NVIDIA for being the first to offer their customers a choice for notebook driver updates."
"NVIDIA is committed to giving the rapidly growing number of customers using notebook GPUs the same performance optimizations and innovative graphics features that desktop customers have grown accustomed to," said Dwight Diercks, vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA. "To accomplish this, we have worked diligently over the past year to modularize our driver architecture and develop a unified driver install package that will not only work with notebooks from all manufacturers but also maintain all of their specific model customizations such as hotkeys and suspend and resume functionality."
GPUs have long been essential platforms for rendering real-time images to computer screens, but software developers and system manufacturers have recently begun using their parallel processing power to deliver a new level of performance for a variety of visual computing applications. The new NVIDIA notebook drivers enable customers to experience the growing number of applications that use the power of NVIDIA GPUs. Video applications such as Badaboom from Elemental Technologies, Power Director 7 from Cyberlink, TMPGEnc from Pegasys Software, and TotalMedia Theater from Arcsoft are all seeing significant performance benefits by transferring the workload from the CPU to the more efficient GPU. Distributing computing applications such as Folding@home, Einstein@home, GPUGRID and SETI@home have also seen performance improve by orders of magnitude through NVIDIA CUDA technology. Recently Adobe Creative Suite 4 became the latest application to speed up performance and enhance features by moving processing to the GPU.
With NVIDIA PhysX technology, GeForce GPUs bring games to life with explosions full of dust and debris, characters that move with lifelike motion, or cloth that drapes and tears naturally. PhysX technology harnesses the power of NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series or higher GPUs, allowing games to deliver 10-20 times more visual complexity on screen. NVIDIA PhysX technology is the development platform of industry leading publishers such as Electronic Arts (EA) and 2K Games and is the physics engine in the blockbuster title Mirror's Edge from EA.
Starting today, customers with GeForce 8 and 9-series GPUs or Quadro NVS-equipped notebooks can download a BETA version of the drivers from http://www.nvidia.com. Customers will be able to download a WHQL-certified version supporting all GeForce 7, 8, and 9 series and Quadro NVS series notebook GPUs early next year.
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Gamasutra has learned that a Dundee, Scotland-based developer called Ruffian Games has been founded by key Crackdown-related employees, including lead designer Billy Thomson, with unconfirmed reports of a Crackdown sequel in development there.A recent Flickr picture set shows a trio of Ruffian employees, including Xen Group veteran Gaz Liddon, surveying offices in the Dundee area.
In 2006 and 2007, Xen Group provided "core technology" for rendering and physics, artwork, design and managerial resources to the original i>Crackdown, which was developed by David Jones' Dundee-based Realtime Worlds.
In addition, Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson, associated with Xen Group following his stint on the game, also appears to be a member of the new Ruffian team, which was in the process of moving into new permanent offices in October.
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God of War (2010) – Depending on how you feel about the Rush Hour films and X-Men: The Last Stand will determine how you feel about Brett Ratner directing the upcoming God of War film. No other casting news has been announced, but who would make a good Kratos?Gears of War (2010) – Creator Cliff Bleszinski is executive producing with Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard) attached to direct and Chris Morgan (Wanted, Cellular) penning the script. Bleszinki guarantees that he will make “a video game movie that doesn’t suck.”
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If you or a friend haven't yet experienced the new content Wrath of the Lich King has to offer, including the chance to face off with the dread Lich King Arthas himself, you can sign up now to play a 10-day free trial version of this latest expansion to World of Warcraft.During your 10-day free trial, you'll explore the frozen wastes of Northrend, wield the necromantic powers of the new death knight Hero class, take control of massive siege vehicles in the new open-world PvP zone of Wintergrasp, and much more.
To participate, you’ll need full versions of World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, as well as a character of at least level 55 (to create a death knight) or level 68 (to explore Northrend). More information on the 10-day free trial is available in our FAQ. Your journey awaits!
The sign-up page is located here.
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It is with great pleasure to announce that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has sold over 250,000 units year to date. HD Remix has shattered both day one and week one sales records and will most likely break 30 day sales records as well. It's on its way to becoming the highest grossing digital title ever.It would be idiotic and quite frankly, irresponsible to attribute the success of this game to just one person. That's like saying Boxer has better kicks than Chun-Li, it just ain't true. We'd like to thank everyone who poured their heart and soul to reviving one of gaming's most beloved franchises. From the producer, Rey Jimenez, to the folks from Backbone and Udon, to the product development, business development and marketing teams at Capcom, HD Remix was a labor of love for everyone involved.
Last but not least, I want to give a big shout out to the hard core Street Fighter community (yes you Shoryuken, Unity, and Key Stoners) who kept this game relevant for the past 15 years and spread the word to the entire gaming industry that Street Fighter is still the "best around"!
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in stunning HiDef and available via PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Developed by acclaimed Sheffield studio Sumo Digital, OutRun Online Arcade, will be available early 2009.Test your time, speed and handling ability as you race through vibrant, colourful stages and rediscover the 15 glorious OutRun courses. From the steep streets of San Francisco to the beautiful beaches of California, it’s mile after mile of unrelenting acceleration, thrills and action. Feel the kick as you put your foot to the floor in one of the 10 high-performance, fully licensed Ferrari cars as you race your way across the U.S. to a killer soundtrack.
For the first time on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE, OutRun Online Arcade delivers online multiplayer racing for up to 6 players, with fast paced OutRun, Heart Attack and Time Attack modes, the draw to the open road has never been so appealing. OutRun Online Arcade on Xbox LIVE will feature achievements and voice; and on PlayStation® Network will include trophies, voice over IP and leaderboards.
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Both games were developed by Revolution Software and famously introduced the Virtual Theatre game engine, which enabled non-playable characters to interact with the environment without players interaction. The two games have been wrapped with GOG.com's smooth and slick installers, and “Beneath a Steel Sky” even includes Dave Gibbons’ comic book inspired by the game itself.“We're very happy that we've managed to get those two great classics before the holidays. The free games are a sort of ‘thank you’ to GOG.com users who have been supporting us since our beta launch”, said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “We like to get things for free as much as anyone else, and we think that these games represent great introductions to classic PC gaming and to the entire GOG.com experience.”
Both games are now available on GOG.com. Everyone who creates an account at GOG.com can download both games and all additional materials for free. The release of free games on the service is part of the “GOG.com fever month” action which has seen the additions of classic PC games like Arx Fatalis, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Simon the Sorcerer to the games catalogue. As always, expect news about new features, new releases and more in the coming days.”
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It's hard for a multiplayer game to distinguish itself these days and often they can seem like they're unnecessary appendages patched on at the last second. And while F.E.A.R 2's multiplayer wasn't particularly in keeping with the themes of the single-player game, some of the modes added some genuinely interesting twists on the standard deathmatch and capture the flag modes. Capture the flag - titled Blitz - was a good example of some neat flourishes.Firstly, they've renamed the flags to Phlags (which, in case you're wondering, stands for PHosphoLuminescent Agent) but it's more than just a crazy spelling – they're canisters of luminescent material that spill their contents as run it towards your base, leaving a bright trial for the defending team to follow. It made for some really interesting play because if you were carrying the Phlag there really was nowhere to hide and you had to rely on your team-mates to protect you as you legged it back to base. I also really liked the way the mode was split into two rounds, for attacking and defending, and having a score that you knew you had to beat added a lot of excitement – it was really exhilarating when there were 20 seconds left on the clock and you had a flag in your possession that could tip the score.
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Atari's point was that Dark Athena deserves to be labelled a proper game. "It's around 11 hours of stealth and epic action, and the characters you meet throughout this story are very believable using an impressive game engine," a spokesperson insisted today."It's a mature experience which has memorable moments that will have you playing through time and time again. Dark Athena is a follow-up to Butcher Bay as the story follows on from the end of that experience, it features breathtaking tech throughout and Butcher Bay has been completely remade as well."
Atari also said that there will be "six multiplayer modes including the Pitch Black and Butcher Bay Riot modes, which are unique and need to be experienced."
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“Football Manager Live is a very different game to Football Manager – imagine a cross between Football Manager, fantasy league, eBay and social networking and you’ll be just about there,” he told MCV.“We’re targeting a slightly more mass market audience than with the Football Manager series. If FM is The Times’ sports section, then FM Live is the Daily Mirror’s sports section, and is the perfect game for the lapsed FM gamer who doesn’t have the time to put into FM Live’s older brother anymore.”
Jacobson also stated that Football Manager Live will be under ‘constant development’, and that Sports Interactive and Sega is keen to work with retail on future game bundles and promotions.
“The initial boxed copy is an exclusive package for retail,” continued Jacobson. “There are lots of possibilities for new packages in the long term, and Sega will continue talking to retailers from across the spectrum to find out what is working for them, and what could work for them in the future – which is the beauty of a constantly evolving game such as Football Manager Live.”
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The Fair Trade Commission said Sharp and Hitachi Display Ltd., a unit of Hitachi Ltd., had violated the Anti-monopoly law by controlling prices. A commission official said the investigation began in December 2006. He declined to say why Hitachi Display got no penalty.The two companies "exchanged information about display prices and agreed on the need to prevent a decrease in prices," said the commission in a statement.
Sharp, which is one of the world's largest LCD makers, has been instructed to pay ¥261 million (US$3 million) by March 19 next year, it said in a statement. The fine is related to LCD modules supplied to Nintendo from late October 2005 to March 2006.
Additionally Sharp received a cease-and-desist notice from the Fair Trade Commission over LCD modules sold to Nintendo between January and March 2007 for the DS Lite.
Sharp denies engaging in any activities that violate the country's Antimonopoly Act. The company said that it and Hitachi Display supply modules to Nintendo but that other display makers can compete for the same business and so price-fixing could not take place. It also said it "made continuous efforts to reduce costs and conducted price negotiations" with Nintendo to meet prices demanded by the DS maker as close as possible.
"We understand there is no precedent in Japan that a cartel in violation of Antimonopoly Act was found for a specific product which was sold to one private company for use of a single product model," it said in the statement. "Therefore, since Sharp would like to insist its company's view on this matter, we will determine next steps including whether to request a hearing."
Sharp was ordered by the U.S. Justice Department in November to pay $120 million in fines for fixing prices of liquid crystal display panels used for Apple and Dell computer products. Sharp said the company had agreed to pay the penalty in the U.S.
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Due to unexpected technical difficulties, the Fable II: Knothole Island expansion will not be available until late January 2009. As a result, the Fable II, Knothole Island Download and Win, originally scheduled to take place December 22 – 23, 2008, has been temporarily suspended. Please check back for updates. In addition, you can still register for the Download & Win by downloading the free Fable II: Knothole Island registration gamerpic, or by registering via Xbox.com.
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The ultimate item for an avid BioShock collector, each Little Sister figurine is cast in ceramic and hand-painted. She stands just over 3” tall and is designed to-scale with the Big Daddy figurine previously available in the Bioshock Limited Edition. This figurine is a one-time production run in very limited and is available for purchase only through this store.
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"I think Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings was our best game," says Bruce Shelley. Dave Pottinger agrees, as does Tony Goodman. In fact, if sales were a reliable indicator of quality, the gaming world's judgment would probably be the same. Two million copies were shipped on release, and they, too, quickly sold out. "People still play it online," says Shelley. "When Microsoft wanted to take down the servers, we stepped in to provide them because of demand.""It was our focus. We had our 2-D engine. We had all these features that we didn't get to put in Age of Empires. Age II was an evolved Age I. We still had our purist mentality about what was fun about the game." He argues that some of this purity has been missing in subsequent Ensemble games. "People who play their own products sometimes become hardcore and lose the ability to see what's fun and simple. With Age II, we were still in that stage where what was simple was still fun for us."
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In other news, Take Two will fund the development of new intellectual property at a new studio, created and operated by key Rockstar personnel. That's in addition to signing Rockstar's talent for another three years.
In other other news, the Grand Theft Auto franchise generated $710 million of revenue during Take Two's latest financial year, but did not stop the publisher from losing an overall $15 million. Failing to turn a profit for two years straight resulted in a 20% share price reduction.
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Independent UK studio Free Radical Design closed its doors this morning, GamesIndustry.biz understands, with multiple sources claiming that staff, including senior executives, have already left the company.It is also believed that the unnamed project for LucasArts - announced back in 2006 and thought to be Star Wars Battlefront III - has been shipped off to Rebellion, the developer behind PSP hit Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.
One source claims staff turned up to work today to find doors locked, and instructions to meet at a nearby hotel for a final company meeting.
Update: Free Radical is officially bankrupt. Edge details the final few months, and what lays ahead for the 200 employees.
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The classic vampire-hunting franchise Castlevania makes its way onto PLAYSTATION Network today, as Castlevania Chronicles is now available for download for $5.99. Until now, this iteration of the 2D, whip-wielding action game had yet to be released in America. In Castlevania Chronicles, players enter a world where Count Dracula has been resurrected to begin a new reign of terror across the land. As Simon Belmont, descendant of legendary vampire hunters, players enter Dracula's estate armed with a killer whip to destroy the count and his minions to bring peace to Europe.Castlevania Chronicles is available now, priced $5.99.
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By running the de-deauthorization tool, a machine "slot" will be freed up on the online Product Authorization server and can then be re-used by another machine.You can de-authorize at any time, even without uninstalling Spore, and free up that machine authorization. If you re-launch Spore on the same machine, the game will attempt to re-authorize.
If you have not reached the machine limitation, the game will authorize and the machine will be re-authorized using up one of the five available machines.
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Cases
Cooling
CPU
Memory
Power Supply
Video
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What do you think was the best movie of 2008?
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