Codemasters' MMORPG ArchLord will become free-to-play from January 4, 2007, the British publisher announced this week! So if you ever felt the urge to try it, all you will need to do is buy the game and... that's about it, monthly fees will become obsolete in a month. Moreover, Codemasters is also planning to release a free expansion for the game developed by NHN Games, giving players even more reason to join their virtual world (if they somehow escaped other hugely successful fantasy MMOs until now... I won't even bother giving names).

The free expansion is called Episode II: Season of Siege, and Codemasters hopes to launch it in the coming weeks - probably shortly after ArchLord will become free to play.

"After the change, ArchLord will continue to be fully supported, including the second fantastic update Episode II: Season of Siege. However, players will now be able to access all this great content simply by buying the box; after that it's free!

Over the next few days all those playing ArchLord will be receiving emails updating them of the changes and how they will be affected. Also, keep an eye on the homepage as more information will be posted up over the course of today."

Despite all the good news, there's also a tiny let-down for existing ArchLord players, who were promised some bonus items for December 3. Codies are asking them to please be patient, because the items are on their way and will be issued "as soon as possible". And if that's not good enough for you, you can always go and complain on the ArchLord forums. Just don't overdo it, they are making it free (to play), after all.

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Halo 3 Beta Registration, Trailer Reveals Shield Grenade

Bungie was urging us not to panic a few days ago, saying that the "Halo 3 Beta will be available in the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world". But that doesn't mean that everyone can now enlist for the beta; because not everyone can. The registration process did begin as planned on the Halo3.com website, but for the time being only North American players are accepted. And from them, only the ones meeting the following requirements will be able to participate in the beta, should Microsoft shine down upon them and select them:

"Steve Scott, one of our amazing artists, showed me a new weapon today. No exaggeration to say that it is the single coolest graphical effect I have ever seen. He's busy trying to make the effect look cool from every angle - it looks amazing in third person, or even when it's in your face, but needs tuning in a first person view to look cooler, even though technically it looks the way it should. Sometimes artists have to exaggerate things to make them more obvious."

It never ceases to amaze me how much hype and speculation can Halo 3 generate, without actually revealing much. I mean, do you have any idea what uber-cool new weapon they're talking about?!

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More Next-gen Madness - The Japanese Wii Launch // UPDATE

Nintendo had one more stop in Japan this weekend, before finally bringing their Wii console to Europe and Australia in just a few more days. As expected, all available consoles were sold in Japan shortly after the console's launch this Saturday (December 2), and many stores had sold out even before opening to eager customers who made the mistake not to pre-order in advance. Early reports are estimating that Nintendo had around 400,000 Wii consoles available at launch, significantly more than what Sony had at the PlayStation 3 launch in Japan - or in any other part of the world, for that matter.

But even so, some customers were said to have left empty-handed from the hundreds-long controlled queues formed outside major retailers. In Tokyo, some stores reportedly had more than 1,000 (and even close to 2,000) people waiting to get their hands on a Wii, which in Japan is priced at 25,000 yen (167 Euro / $223). By comparison, the complete PlayStation 3 console package costs 60,000 yen (400 Euro / $534).

And since we inevitably ended up comparing the two consoles yet again, here's another one, from Kotaku: Wii buyers vs. PS3 buyers. Which queue would you rather wait in?...

Aside from the usual stuff bundled in the Wii package, the console also has a rather extensive safety manual in Japan, advising against various idiotic things you could do with the console or controllers, and also acknowledges that the Wiimote can interfere with pacemakers.

Nintendo previously promised around 1 million Wii units for the region by the end of the year, which, if the launch figures are accurate, would leave Japan with 600,000 more consoles still due for release in 2006.

Next up is Australia on December 7 (who already accounts for 30,000 pre-orders), and Europe on December 8. Hayaku!

UPDATE: The (estimated) results are in: after the first two days in Japan, the Wii sold 372,000 units. There were also reported 177,000 units for Wii Sports (sold separately) and just 145,000 units for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

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Aside from being one hell of an Arcade racer, among the very best for the PC this year, and in many regards what the original FlatOut should have been, FlatOut 2 was also the one game that ultimately saved Empire Interactive from a tragic ending, and brought the company back in business. You may remember Empire being acquired in late October by Silverstar Holdings, but what I'm sure you don't remember is ever playing a demo of FlatOut 2... because there simply wasn't any. Up until now, that is.

By some curious twist of fate, Bugbear's latest racing game has received a public demo no less than five months after it was first released, back in Summer. This version includes two tracks (Water Canal 1 and Timberland 3), two special events (Darts and Skyscraper Derby), as well as three cars to choose from. The FlatOut 2 demo is a solid 476 MB and is available for download locally.

Featuring an enhanced version of the original's lauded physics engine and even faster driving track designs, FlatOut 2 also boasts a plethora of improvements, enhancements and additions to make this the definitive FlatOut experience. Twice as many vehicles, a more sophisticated career mode, additional race environments, double the number of tracks; twice as many mini-games along with brand new and much requested online multiplayer modes are just some of the exhaustive features that are included in FlatOut 2.

With over 5,000 fully destructible objects on every track as well as 40 deformable parts on each vehicle, physical interaction in a racing game is taken to unprecedented heights with the destructive element influencing players racing tactics like no other driving game on the market. With a greater emphasis placed on causing destruction on the track by offering greater rewards, game play will be even more frantic than ever. Drivers will need to tear into competitors' cars, trash the local scenery thereby littering the track with all manner of obstacles.

You can read our review of FlatOut 2 here.

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Remember Derek Smart, his 3000AD studio and their neverending Universal Combat series? Well it finally seems to be coming to an end (or at least a halt), because they just announced that their next space game will be called Galactic Command. They are targeting it for both the PC and Xbox 360, as an episodic project comprised of four parts. The first one is due for release in March 2007 for the PC (for $29.95), with the next three episodes to follow at two-three months distance from one another, costing $19.95 each.

Each episode contains a campaign scenario with 16 missions, which take place in space and on the surface of planets, and range from basic escort and recon missions, to highly engaging and dangerous tactical strike missions. Overall, each campaign episode is designed to take approximately 20 hours to complete, and here's a bit about the game's background story:

"Many years have passed since the Gammulans invaded the sol system in full force and all but decimated the inhabitants of the planetary systems. cites were completely devastated and entire continents wiped out. In their wake, they left a splintered Galactic Command (GALCOM) alliance still engaged in a fierce battle with insurgents who oppose the alliance. Stretched to the limit Galactic Command scientists developed a new space craft that is lighter, faster and more powerful than any before it.

Episode One begins with this new Engstrom class carrier's first day in a live combat engagement. The player's Echo fighter squadron of fighters has been assigned to the WildStar battle fleet in operations against the Insurgent uprising. In episode 1 and 2, as an Elite Force Pilot and leader of the Echo fighter wing assigned to the IIS starstation in orbit Titan, the player's fighter wing is tasked with leading a series of defensive and offensive missions against the Insurgents occupying Sol territories. The player commands a different fighter in each episode."

A first batch of screenshots were added locally earlier today, and you can currently find more over on the official website.

The Xbox 360 version promises to support several multiplayer modes for up to 8 players on Xbox Live: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Co-Op and Base Wars (in which the objective is for each side to destroy the other team's command carrier). And, in theory, it will even be upgradeable to "a full massively multiplayer game with support for up to 256 players over Xbox Live" (that's not "MMO" at all, Derek dear!), when it launches on the Xbox 360 in Q4 2007. That is, assuming it will be concept-approved by Microsoft for their console.

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Earlier this year, Al Lowe made an announcement which, at the time, seemed like the news all Leisure Suit Larry fans have been waiting for - that is, the *old* Larry adventure games, not the latest Magna Cum Laude piece of jelly, which was done without Al's blessing. After a long break from the gaming scene, he announced in May that he was finally working on a new comedy adult game, called Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure. Since then, we didn't get to hear much about the game, and now we unfortunately know why: it was "put on indefinite hold" (a.k.a. cancelled) a few months ago!

With it, Al's new company iBase Entertainment was also shut down, after having underestimated the kind of money it takes to make games nowdays. FiringSquad got in touch with Al Lowe, who revealed that his last day on the job at iBase was on September 11, when most of the rest of the 20 or so team members got word that the company was shutting down. Here's more on why they came to this sad decision:

"Lowe did tell us that they discovered that developing a game for next generation consoles would be much more expensive than current gen systems and that they were also told by publishers that if they just released Sam Suede on the PC they would not sell enough copies to make it worthwhile. Sam Suede had been in deep production for about a year before the shut down of iBase Games and Lowe estimated they were still a year away from completing the game. So will this rather dissapointing experience with game development keep Lowe from pursuing future video-PC game projects? Unfortunately, Lowe said the answer to that question is yes. "This was the best shot I could have had", he told FiringSquad and said he doubts he will ever try to get into the game industry again. At the same time he said he was proud of the work that he and the iBase team had put into Sam Suede."

So not only was Sam Suede cancelled and the company shut down, but realistically speaking, this was also Al Lowe's last shot at making PC games (unless, by some miracle, they manage to get more funding and continue development). A sad news indeed.

Well, at least now he's back to updating his AlLowe.com website with all kinds of funny stuff. Ho-ho-ho.

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We've all heard before that there is no such thing as "bad publicity", but some publishers seem to be doing everything in their power to disprove that saying. Such was the case with Electronic Arts a few days ago, when they un-invited a Spanish gaming website / blog from a Command & Conquer 3 event, because it had bad-mouthed FIFA 07 (who hasn't?!). Apparently the story received way too much attention wordlwide (thanks to the likes of Kotaku), because the very next day, EA sent an apology for their previous mail - which was published in full on Merodeando. Here's what it said, in English:

"As you understand, there are many gaming websites that would like to collaborate with us, and we have to give priority to those which, in our modest understanding, treat us better.

It is not feasible for us to engage in fluid communications with you given articles of this type, and accordingly your invitation to visit our offices to see Command and Conquer 3 is canceled.

If you agree, we should let time pass, and we'll see how things evolve and see if it's feasible to send you materials and invite you to this type of event.

Salutations"

The original text in Spanish is said to have been equally non-diplomatic and poorly written, but the subsequent apology was clearly sent by an EA representative who was higher ranked, or at least better trained in the art of PR:

"A person from EA's Management (Note: They could also mean PR) contacted us this morning to apologize for the email we got, and to try to settle things with us. We've accepted the apology and we'll be meeting with them shortly to figure out a way to keep a normal business relationship, just like we do with other companies. They're man enough (Note: so to speak) to admit their mistakes, and we think it's only fair to let our readers know about it."

When will publishers learn that there are too many would-be-journalists who don't give a damn about politics, and stop blackmailing the press for positive coverage? Because that's what it is, ultimately.

No wonder the EA brand is getting more tarnished by the day.

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Sony Responds To Analyst Predicting No PlayStation 4

As expected, there is more than meets the eye behind yesterday's top-level reshuffles among Sony's management team. But I don't think that any of us was so bold as to expect that these changes would ultimately lead to the death of Sony's hardware division, and that a PlayStation 4 would never be released as a consequence. Well, maybe we didn't, but some sake-soaked (or plain paranoid) analysts from Japan sure did.

In the aftermath of Sony's announcement, the Financial Times published an article in which they quote Nomura Securities' Yuta Sakurai analyst as saying:

"The appointment of [Kaz] Hirai [as president of SCE] could be the start of a shift from hardware to software. I cannot now imagine a PlayStation4."

Well that makes the two of us, Yuta-san. But then again, I can't even imagine a PlayStation 3, until next March. So I'll let the "experts" do the talking. According to the same article, "analysts said that Mr Hirai's promotion to a global role at SCE could mark a critical shift in management thinking, with Sony changing its emphasis so that the current generation of games console will be its last as a hardware manufacturer".

Other analysts are more reserved to put such weight on Sony's executive reshuffle, arguing that former president Ken Kutaragi will still keep a firm grip on the business, from his new position as SCE chairman. But politics aside, no matter how you look at it, it's still highly unlikely (to say the least) for Sony to stop making PlayStation consoles anytime soon. Addressing GameSpot's enquiry, SCEA publicity chief Dave Karraker issued a polite - if not sarcastic - statement, in response to Yuta-san's nonsense:

"Following the launch of the PlayStation 3 just a few weeks ago, and witnessing the huge consumer demand for the product, I think it would be rather short-sighted for anyone to predict there might not be a next generation of PlayStation product."

The real question isn't whether there will be a PlayStation 4 or not (that's a no-brainer). But will it have any kind of disk drive, or will digital distribution have take over the gaming world by the time PS4 comes out?

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Somebody is toying with us over at Bungie. Or at Microsoft. Or both. Just yesterday, we were being told that the first round of sign-ups for the Halo 3 beta would begin this Monday, with the actual beta testing set to take place in Spring 2007. But now it seems like some Xbox Live users are way ahead of schedule, and they may already be playing one of Bungie's multiplayer projects. Do you know of any, other than Halo 3? Well, that settles it then.

We spotted the story on 1UP, who are claiming that some Microsoft employees were also among those users spotted on Xbox Live as playing a "new" game - called "Pimps at Sea (Alpha)". Which, as any hardcore Bungie fan should know, "is the oft-used moniker for different projects the company has worked on - and was also the subject of an April Fools' joke a few years back". 1UP continues:

"When the users in question were asked about Pimps at Sea, they simply replied "What's a pimp?" Considering the (Alpha) tag after the title, it seems highly probable that this is the first phase of testing for Halo 3's multiplayer. And by highly probable, we mean totally 100% true. We didn't even need to pay Encyclopedia Brown a quarter to sit down and solve this mystery. When's our turn to play?

Sometime next year."

Well, they definitely got one thing right: "sometime next year". Unless you're a Microsoft scoundrel or a Bungie pimp, that is. In which case, we would love nothing more than to be your friend and to share with you happy moments, drinks, Halo 3 beta passwords and stuff.

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As any highly-successful and over-hyped game, Gears of War was bound to backfire at developer Epic Games. Out of the various issues players have been complaining about, mostly in multiplayer, one mind-boggling bug was causing the game to display at a squashed aspect ratio on non-widescreens using VGA cables. Apparently it's an inherent bug for the current version of the Unreal Engine 3, and the reason I'm calling it "mind-boggling" is simply because it hasn't been spotted *before* the game came out. Which means that neither Epic, nor Microsoft's extensive QA testing department didn't use a lousy 4:3 LCD monitor with VGA cables when testing Gears of War.

Anyway, the good news is that Epic has since fixed the VGA aspect ratio issue (at least Mark Rein *thinks* so), however the bad news is that the fix will only be applied along with the next update. Which, as luck would have it, has yet to receive an ETA. But at least it will incorporate "a few other things" as well. For now, affected players will have to content themselves with an official apology for the oversight.

In other GoW backfiring news, 2old2play are making a big fuss over the banning of a Gears of War player from the Epic forums:

"Bryantson was commenting on how while the single player game was fantastic albeit short, the multiplayer was filled with bugs and other shortcomings. Soon after the post, Epic contacted Bryantson to inform him that he was banned from the forums forever."

You can read the victim's entire post on 2old2play, and the reason invoked by Epic for the ban was "continued trolling, railing against moderation". Well, that doesn't say much. It could be because of the guy's bitching against the Gears of War multiplayer, or comparing it with Halo 2 (which apparently goes against the regulations)... or maybe it was because of the following two bits:

"This game was shorter than Danny Divito. (...) So, I move on to multiplayer with high hopes only to be letdown faster than Hillary when she announces her bid for presidency."

I guess it's best if you avoid all of these things when posting on Epic's forums. Especially the one about Hillary...

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