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King's Bounty: Princess
An expansion to bury Heroes V deeper still
An expansion to bury Heroes V deeper still
    | Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, Portal In Summer 2007 Delays seem to be the order of the day, so here's another one - Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Oh, and Team Fortress 2. And, of course, Portal. They all go (down) together, after all. Initially scheduled for release in late 2006, Valve's collection was first pushed back to early 2007 in August (story). Now, the developer says that Episode Two won't arrive before the summer of 2007. That's roughly a 6 months delay so far... and they still have a ways to go until they set a final release date. The bad news was broken by CVG, who writes the following:
Given this delay, and the fact that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Half-Life 2 will feature all the back content up to - and including - Episode Two, it's pretty safe to assume that the next-gen versions of HL2 won't be released before summer 2007 either. At this rate, how on earth are they going to finish Half-Life 2: Episode Three by the end of 2007, as previously promised? And how much of an "episodic gaming" is it, when you have to wait a whole damn year, just to play another "episode" with a few hours worth of gameplay? This is even more ridiculous, as it comes from a company like Valve, who pioneered digital distribution with their Steam platform. So much for setting an example. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) Oblivion, Sonic, F.E.A.R. To Miss PS3 Launch, NBA Live Cancelled What little good could be said about Sony's PlayStation 3 is slowly dimming, day by day... Even the launch line-up is shrinking at an alarming rate, and over the past few days it was revealed that three more games will miss the console's release on November 17 (actually four games, unofficially speaking). Oblivion and Sonic have both been pushed back, NBA Live 07 was outright cancelled, and the PS3 version of F.E.A.R. is also said to be slowly drifting away. The first among these titles to be delayed is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, bringing back memories from last year, when Bethesda's RPG also missed the Xbox 360 holiday line-up. In a similar manner, the PS3 version has now been pushed back until Q1 2007. Although the upcoming Knights of the Nine extra pack is included in the PS3 version of Oblivion, if you're waiting for it on the PC or Xbox 360 you need not worry: Pete Hines from Bethesda calms us with the following statement:
Another loss for Sony's launch line-up this week is Sonic the Hedgehog. According to SEGA representatives, Sonic will arrive on PS3 sometime in December, and the developers will use the extra time to implement some kind of downloadable content (what kind exactly, we have no idea yet). A more drastic loss is EA Sports' NBA Live 07. The basketball game was released on current platforms at the end of September, and was met with some lousy reviews (or at least lousy ratings). Not sure if this had anything to do with Electronic Arts' decission, but the official story is that they abandoned the PS3 port of this year's NBA Live in order to focus on NBA Street: Homecourt (NBA Street 4, due in Q2 2007). And finally, F.E.A.R. is also very likely to miss the release of Sony's console, as major retailers have changed the game's PS3 version release date to February 6, 2007. There's no official confirmation on the matter yet, but don't be too surprised if / when it comes. And so, the crippled PlayStation 3 line-up currently includes the following nine titles:
Still some solid games left there. And hope we didn't miss anything. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) PlayStation 3 Countdown: Queues, User's Guide Online, Day-One Patch The first big countdown - for the first big console to launch this month - is nearing zero, and in just a few hours, Sony's PlayStation 3 will be released in Japan. So what's wrong with a few waiting lines popping up here and there? Not much... except that the queues are forming back in the US, and they have been forming for a couple of days already, despite the fact that the PS3 is still another solid week away from launch in North America. Talk about people with too much spare time on their hands... The first reports about PS3 maniacs camping in line at Best Buy date back to November 8, and you can read some of them on Kotaku, Joystiq, and VideoGamesBlogger (via Slashdot). That's nine days ahead of the console's launch in the US, mind you! But who are we to judge how people choose to spend their vacations... or their money. Some even went as far as to offer money, in their desperate attempt to get more people involved in the highly-socialist act of waiting in line. In a Craigslist ad that has since been removed, one PS3 buyer began his man-hunt with the following paragraph:
Oh dear... But anyway, moving on to more useful novelties, the entire PlayStation 3 system software User's Guide has been posted online this week! So before you go out camping next week, make sure to get a print copy of the PS3 manual, and start learning all about the XMB (XrossMediaBar), Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Friends, and Network sections. Though by the time you get home with your brand new PlayStation 3, some of that information will probably be out of date. That's because the console's system software will be patched to version 1.10 from day one, when you first connect it to the Internet. This update will unlock all services on PlayStation Network, and in late November a second update will follow. 1UP has more about it:
Meanwhile, all is peaceful and quiet on the European front... So quiet, in fact, that we're not even sure anymore if the PS3 will be ready for launch in March 2007. And what's worse, neither is Sony! In an interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine (reported by GamesIndustry.biz), Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison declined to offer Europeans any guarantee that they will receive the PlayStation 3 in March 2007, as previously Well that's just great. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) Splinter Cell: Double Agent Single- And Multiplayer Demos // UPDATE In the sneaky footsteps of the game's release into stores for the PC this week, Ubisoft now sends along two very distinct demo versions for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent: a single-player one, and - you guessed - a multiplayer one as well, for a grand total of 1.64 GB! Both versions are available for download locally, and here is a tidbit about each of them. The single-player demo has 850 MB, and it allows you to partially try out one level from the game, called "Okhotsk". (You'd think that for that kind of size you would at least be allowed to play an entire level, not just "partially"...) The multiplayer demo has 790 MB, and it allows you to try out one map playable in LAN and online. There are Free and Rankings modes available, only one skin per team (spies / upsilon), no bots, only one gadget, no bonus, no coop challenges, no live news. And no single-player of course. Even if you can deal with these enormous sizes, you're not out of the woods just yet! Just take a look below at the recommended system for playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent:
There were no minimum requirements included with the demo notes, but you can take a wild guess if it's going to run well on your system, before choking up your bandwith. UPDATE: Tz, tz, tz... It's been a while since I've seen so much lazyness, as there is stuffed inside Ubisoft's Shanghai studio (the one that is said to have ported Double Agent from Xbox 360 to PC). Are you sitting down? Splinter Cell: Double Agent requires a graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support. If you don't have one, tough luck! And it's likely that you don't, since only about a quarter of gamers have a graphics card that supports SM 3.0 - while the other three quarters are left completely outside by the new Splinter Cell PC game. In case you're already boiling with rage after reading these lines, I suggest you take that rage and unleash it in this topic from Ubi's forums. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) WoW: The Burning Crusade Set For January 16 // UPDATE #2 Blizzard figures we had enough time to get over the disappointment of seeing The Burning Crusade delayed until next year, and the blues are now ready to reveal the expansion's final release date: January 16, 2007. This is when World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will go online for the public at large, both in Europe and North America. The expansion will be available in a similar time frame in Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore as well, and availability for mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau will be announced in the near future. Retailing for 34.99€ in Europe and $39.99 in North America, the launch will be accompanied by that of a limited Collector's Edition (69.99€ / $69.99), that will include the expansion on both CD-ROM and DVD, the Art of the Burning Crusade coffee table book, an exclusive in-game pet, a behind-the-scenes DVD, two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game starter decks and three exclusive cards, a map of Outland mouse pad and the official soundtrack CD. Of course, in order to play the expansion you'll also need the original World of Warcraft, which is now selling for a suggested retail price of 19.99€ / $19.99. To find out more about The Burning Crusade, you can check the official F.A.Q. that was updated this week with many new questions - and just as many answers. Also new are a whole bunch of TBC screenshots that we added in our local gallery today. And finally, another worthy announcement made by Blizzard today is that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft has reached a new milestone, with 7.5 million players worldwide. The 10 million mark is not much farther now... UPDATE: The Burning Crusade beta has just been patched to a new version that raises the level cap to lv.70 (it was previously set at lv.67), and finally brings Flying Mounts to vendors. Let the fun begin! [10.11.2006, 01:45] UPDATE #2: Blizzard sent us a correction to yesterday's press release, pointing out two changes related to the WoW: TBC Collector's Edition. This package will actually include *two* WoW: TCG decks (instead of one), and the number of WoW: TCG exclusive cards that players will receive in the Collector's Edition has been specified as three. [10.11.2006 12:40] (N.B. Archive text, links removed) I hear it's this kick-ass game, where you get to defend your system from never-ending swarms of anti-M$ hackers, and that it has some cool new features and enhanced graphics. But the question is, will run ok on my computer? Well, I doubt it will run on mine in particular anytime soon, since it's a pretty easy choice between getting a Wii, or a new Windows. But hey, that's just me. I'm sure many of you are just dying to get your hands on Windows Vista, and try out those upcoming DirectX 10-enabled games. Such as... Crysis. And, uhh... Crysis? But seriously, Windows Vista just went "Gold" this week, as Microsoft finished work Wednesday on its long-delayed operating system. The Redmond giant said that Vista would be broadly available on January 30. A report from Yahoo! News has more details, for the OS-savvy among you.
"This is a good day"?! Well, let me just tell you mr. Allchin, for us gamers the release of a new Windows operating system is never a "good day". Remember those games that ran just fine on Windows 98, but wouldn't start on '95? Or when Microsoft switched to Windows XP, and some gamers switched to DOSBox? Let's just hope that the transition won't be as drastic this time. UPDATE: Speaking of DX10, nVidia released the first DirectX 10-supporting graphics cards: GeForce 8800 GTX (£500) and GeForce 8800 GTS ("just" £400). That's around $950, or 750€ for the £500 model. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) Team17 Readies Worms For XBLA And Lemmings For PS3 More and more classic games are joining the Xbox Live Arcade line-up these days. Before the end of the year, Microsoft plans to release Small Arms, Novadrome, Assault Heroes, Heavy Weapon, Defender and Contra on XBLA, and this week Atari also promised to enrich the online marketplace with six of their classics in 2007: Centipede, Battlezone, Asteroids, Missle Command, Tempest and Warlords. And the best is yet to come. If you were to ask someone what is the most fun multiplayer classic game, 9 out of 10 mentally deranged people will tell you it's Worms. Which is why an Xbox Live Arcade version of Team17's series would be more than welcome among their fans. Luckly for them, one such Worms game for XBLA is "pretty much all finished" and is currently in final certification stages with Microsoft. The British developer confirmed the news on their forums this week:
Unfortunately, Worms is still nowhere to be seen on Microsoft's XBLA schedule for 2006, so fans will probably have to wait until next year to unleash the wacky annelids on their Xbox 360. Though we should know more about this next week. In the meantime, as Martyn reminds in his post, they'll have Lemmings 2 up and running, climbing and tumbling on the PlayStation 3 "very shortly". Where would digital distribution be without decade-old games?... (N.B. Archive text, links removed) All PlayStation 3 Games Will Use The Same Online ID Ambiguous reports surfacing in recent weeks have left us wondering if PlayStation 3 games would use a single centralized online ID, or if each game would let players create a different account for accessing the online features. For reference, the PlayStation 2 uses a single "Central Station ID" which identifies players in every game, and the Xbox Live service also uses a similar system for Xbox 360 games. So where does Sony's next-gen console stand, then? As expected, they're sticking with the centralized approach. Dan Brooke (Resistance: Fall of Man producer) spoke to GamesIndustry.biz yesterday and set the record straight, saying that he "wishes to be clear that Resistance uses the PlayStation online ID to sign into the game. There is no separate login for Resistance and the online ID you create will be the same you use for all titles". Just last week, another Resistance developer (Ted Price, head of Insomniac Games) discussed the game's online functionality, revealing that players will build an in-game buddy list unique to Resistance - even though the PS3 is known to offer a central buddy list of its own. So apparently this is one feature that will not apply to every game, and only the PS3 online ID will be unique throughout the system. Confusing enough for you? Again, for reference, Microsoft's Xbox Live system requires all online titles to use the same buddy lists, messaging and voice chat features, making things a lot simpler. Simpler isn't always better, but ultimately it sells better. UPDATE: This is just in from Sony: they sold 40 million PlayStation 2 units in Europe and PAL territories to date!
(N.B. Archive text, links removed) Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Expansion Details Emerge A few days ago, during THQ's latest financial conference, the publisher officially confirmed the existence of a Titan Quest expansion pack. Iron Lore's debut Action-RPG was bound to receive the add-on / sequel treatment, sooner or later, and from the things revealed during THQ's conference, it looks like the add-on will arive quite soon indeed - in the first quarter of 2007. Initial details regarding the actual content of the expansion were scarce to say the least, but today FiringSquad reports that the Holiday 2006 issue of PC Gamer magazine has more concrete info on the upcoming Titan Quest expansion pack. For starters, the expansion will be titled Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, and will bring over 30 new quests, which should translate into about 10 to 15 hours of additional gameplay. 20 new monsters will also make their menacing appearance in the expansion, and a new "Dream Mastery" system will add 8 additional classes to Iron Lore's original game. Aaaand... that's about all, for now. But it's probably more than enough for Titan Quest players to decide if they're going to get the add-on. Or not. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) EA Co-Publishes Hellgate: London, Unveils Hunter Faction When the folks from Flagship Studios, headed by Bill Roper, left Blizzard and started to work on a new Action-RPG, many people were wondering which publisher would be the first to sign their mystery project. And I think that just as many were surprised when the console-centric Namco was announced in 2004 as the publisher for Hellgate: London... Time passed, Namco became Namco Bandai in 2005, and this year - in fact, this week, a new faction joined the Hellgate syndicate. Both virtually and literally. The first announcement reveals that Electronic Arts entered an agreement with Namco Bandai, that will see the two companies co-publishing Hellgate: London in Europe and North America. The general terms of the deal are as follows:
At the same time, EA and Flagship have also unveiled the Hunter faction from Hellgate: London. This is the third playable character class revealed so far, following the previously announced Templar and Cabalist classes, and offering gamers freedom and flexibility as they take up arms against the demon hordes.
Hunters are highly-trained ex-military operatives and members of secret government agencies who are most comfortable clinging to the shadows and dealing with threats in their own deadly ways. But after the Demon invasion, these rogues switched their crosshairs from human foes to the monsters now threatening their world, utilizing hyper-advanced weaponry that mixes new technologies and theoretical science to stay a few steps ahead of the Cabalists and the Templar. The archetype of the Hunter is obscure, cloaked in mystery and subterfuge. In one way he is the Assassin, the Ninja, the knife in the dark. In other ways, he is the Ronin, a highly-trained warrior with no master. More, he is the Destroyer, a force of blazing gunfire and deadly accuracy that lays waste to any foe that stands in his way. Last we heard, Hellgate: London will be out in early 2007. (N.B. Archive text, links removed) | Top stories Filter news Search news Latest comments
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