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Tag: PC games

  • Steam Holiday Sale Has Begun, ‘Arkham Origins’ Half Off

    During this year’s Black Friday holiday shopping weekend, PC gamers were treated to this year’s Steam Autumn Sale. As expected, this sale was a small taste of the much larger sale that was to come.

    Today Valve launched its 2013 Steam Holiday Sale. Prices on a huge selection of PC games are at the lowest level they will be at until next year’s Steam Summer Sale begins. The sale will continue throughout the holiday season, ending on January 3, 2014.

    Like other big Steam sales, this year’s holiday sale highlights a selection of nine daily deals that feature heavily discounted popular games. These games will rotate on a daily basis, while four other flash sales will rotate every eight hours. Gamers can also vote for the community’s choice sale, which will change every eight hours along with the flash sales.

    The first set of daily deals includes big games from this year such as Batman: Arkham Origins, BioShock Infinite, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

    This year’s holiday sale also shares a particular feature that debuted in this year’s Steam Summer Sale. By purchasing games, voting for community’s choice sales, and crafting game badges gamers can earn snow globe trading cards. Ten snow globe cards, in turn, can be crafted into a snow globe badge that will provide players with a special in-game item, an emoticon, a profile background, and Steam level XP.

    Like the Steam Autumn Sale, today’s date matches the one given in a leaked memo from October that purportedly gave the dates of this year’s autumn and holiday Steam sales. By matching the correct dates and the correct names of this year’s end-of-year Steam sales, the memo has all but been confirmed as a legitimate leak.

  • ‘Final Fantasy VIII’ Out Today on PC

    Square Enix today announced that Final Fantasy VIII has been released as a downloadable title for PC. The game can be found on Steam and currently costs $12.

    As the follow-up to the beloved Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII is often cited as a step back for the Final Fantasy series. The game’s story is generally incomprehensible, featuring floating military schools, sorceresses, spaceships, gunblades (literally swords with gun barrels attached), a bland love side-plot, gigantic invisible cities, an orphanage, and some nonsense called time compression.

    The game’s battle system is also significantly more complicated than the one seen in Final Fantasy VII, implementing a system where spells tediously drawn out of monsters can be “junctioned” to various character stats to varying effect. The system is complex enough that smart players can easily break it, making the entire game simple to beat.

    Final Fantasy VIII was also a high-water mark (or low, depending on your view) for the summoning animations seen in Final Fantasy games. The summoning of “Guardian Forces” in VIII was accompanied by ridiculously long animations, the longest of which was well over one minute. The new PC launch trailer for the game today shows off some of those summons, as well as many of the CG cut-scenes that amazed gamers in 1999:

    Square Enix has tweaked the game for its PC release, allowing players to gain a collection of magic through a free “Magic Booster” rather than take hours to draw it from low-level monsters. The new version also includes Steam achievements and the Chocobo World tie-in game that was not originally available in the west.

  • Teaser Trailer For ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Game Hits at NYC Comic-Con

    The video game movie tie-in industry is littered with failed attempts to capitalize on a popular movie; and by failed, I mean the games that usually tie-in to movies are hastily thrown together and easily forgotten. In other words, the games are bad. For a perfect example of this, check out J.J. Abrams reacting to the critical failure that was Star Trek: The Video Game. Without doing any research whatsoever, I’ll still say it’s easier to name the successful movie tie-in video games than it is cataloging all the failures.

    In a world where Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher’s Bay and Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 are still the standard, it’s easy to see that particular niche has failed to live up to its potential.

    With that in mind, please use cautious optimism when reacting to the teaser trailer for the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in game, which actually comes out before the movie does. The trailer doesn’t reveal much about the game, but then again, that’s why they call it a teaser:


    According to VG247.com, ASM2 will again feature the free-roaming-via-web-slinging around Manhattan, which sounds like a good enough reason to play in and of itself. Further details include a behavior gauge that monitors Spidey’s fight against New York’s criminal element:

    The game also contains the “Hero or Menace” system, which incentivizes Super Hero behavior by rewarding the web-slinger’s crime-fighting efforts, and adds consequences for letting criminality fester.

    As indicated, the game is expected to be released shortly before the movie, giving players something of a leg up concerning the sequel’s plot. Activision is planning an across-the-board release, as well. The includes both versions of the PlayStation (3 and 4) and the Xbox (360 and One); the WiiU, and for the PC.

    [Lead image courtesy of The Amazing Spider-Man Game’s Facebook page]

  • SimCity Might Get An Offline Mode, Mod Support Is Coming

    When SimCity launched earlier this year, it became the best example yet of why always-online DRM doesn’t work. The game suffered from inconsistent performance and random log outs as a result of the game’s requirement to always be online. At the time, EA insisted that the always online requirement was part of the game’s design, but the now the developers at Maxis are backing away from that claim.

    In an update on the official SimCity blog, Maxis General Manager Patrick Buechner provided players with an update on the game. He first thanks the players and assures them that the team is listening to their complaints and suggestions. That statement would seem rather superfluous if it wasn’t for Buechner noting that Maxis is finally looking into adding an offline mode:

    Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode. I can’t make any promises on when we will have more information, but we know this is something that many of our players have been asking for. While the server connectivity issues are behind us, we would like to give our players the ability to play even if they choose not to connect. An offline mode would have the additional benefit of providing room to the modding community to experiment without interfering or breaking the multiplayer experience.

    Speaking of mods, Maxis announced that mod support is on the way. Unfortunately, the only kind of modding support Maxis is adding at the moment is the ability to swap colors. Anything else would “jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others.” That’s perfectly reasonable as mods do have the potential to break an online game like SimCity. If an offline mode is offered, however, EA should open the floodgates on modding to let players do whatever they want.

    Oh, and for those that want bigger cities – it’s not happening. The team at Maxis says that increasing the size of cities anymore would negatively impact performance for everybody. That doesn’t mean their experiments with larger cities is going to waste though. The developers say that the results of their work will be put into future performance improvement updates.

    So, there you have it. SimCity might finally give players what they’ve been asking for since launch. It certainly took them long enough, but it’s definitely appreciated. Now if only we could get another game to drop its asinine always online DRM.

    [Image: SimCity Blog]

  • Is Half-Life 3 Actually Under Development?

    Throwing the caution of attracting the ire of the The Answer Is No Twitter account, the idea of actually getting to play Half-Life 3 makes one take risks when it comes to article title conventions. The idea of the game actually seeing the light of day is point of extreme consternation of video game fans around the globe. Of course, if you’re making a sequel to a game that’s been called “Best PC Game Ever” by PC Magazine, it going to draw a lot of interest. In fact, the wait for Half-Life 3 has led to the creation of some pretty successful social media accounts that focus on this disturbing lack of more Gordon Freeman content.

    But thanks to a couple of occurrences, there maybe room for hope. First came the news of the title being registered for a trademark Europe. That, alone, was reason enough to get the “where in the hell is Half-Life 3” crowd active. Today’s news, however, may just get those wheels of anticipation turning at an overdrive rate. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has the details:

    There is a thing called Jira that Valve uses for project management. Everything they do is tracked on it, and last night it accidentally went public and OHMYGOD THERE’S A HALF-LIFE 3 TEAM ON IT! No Ricochet 2 team, however.

    It’s the second indication in as many days that suggests Valve has decided to focus on Gordon’s journey, following the discovery of a trademark registration. The list has a core of ten developers (called “Half-Life 3 Core, that has Minerva modder Adam Foster, Counter-Strike’s Jesse Cliffe and others, as well as a further 46 in the “Half-Life 3” group…

    Does this mean it’s time to start clearing your calendar of anticipation of the Further Adventures of Gordon Freeman? Considering the distinct lack of news recently, this could be the ray of hope people can legitimately hang their hat on; but then again, this could be just another chapter in The Further Adventures of the Most Desired Piece of Vaporware Ever.

    Adjust your “want” levels accordingly.

    [Lead image courtesy of Valve]

  • Valve Announces SteamOS, Brings Your PC To The Living Room

    Last year, Valve attempted to bring Steam to the living room through Big Picture. It worked well enough, but it required you to plug your PC directly into a TV. With its next breakthrough, Valve will now bring your PC to the living room through a dedicated operating system.

    This afternoon, Valve announced SteamOS – a Linux-based operating system that will bring all of your PC titles to the big screen. Valve will be doing this in one of two ways. The first is OTA streaming from your PC. In other words, you’ll use SteamOS to stream games powered by the PC in your bedroom to the TV in the living room.

    The second, and much more exciting option, is SteamOS itself. It will be a native option where the games run on SteamOS. Think of like Valve building a version of Linux that’s specifically made to play games. Valve says that it’s already “achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing” with SteamOS, and now it’s working on audio performance and input latency reduction.

    Of course, any operating system is only as good as the support it has. Unlike other players in the PC scene, Valve has the kind of clout to announce something like this and have developers already working to support it. As such, Valve says we can expect the first native SteamOS games to launch sometime next year. We’ll even see the usual AAA blockbusters that usually only support Windows supporting SteamOS as well.

    Besides the potential for games, the most exciting thing about SteamOS is that it will be completely free and completely open. That means manufacturers will be able to freely experiment with living room PCs running SteamOS, and software creators will be able to muck around with SteamOS to create their own versions. Valve even hints at some game development features as it says that “gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love.”

    So, when when will the general public be able to try out SteamOS? Valve says that it will be available as a free download soon. It will also open itself to free licensing from hardware manufacturers at around the same time. You can bet that Valve will have its own hardware on offer though.

  • GameFly Opens PC Game Storefront, Gives Away Mafia II

    GameFly Opens PC Game Storefront, Gives Away Mafia II

    For the past few years, GameFly has been the Netflix of gaming. Console gamers interested in trying out the latest games could simply add games to their queue and get them in the mail within a few days. Now GameFly has its sights set on the PC gaming market, and has opened a new digital storefront to cement its ambitions.

    GameFly announced today that it’s launching what it calls GameFly Digital – a Web-based storefront for digital downloads of PC games. GameFly promises over 2,500 PC and Mac games at launch with more titles to be added over the coming weeks.

    “We always wanted to bring the striking design and functionality of our PC client to the web so that everyone could access it from any browser,” said Saujin Yi, GM of GameFly Digital.

    With its entrance into the digital PC game storefront marketplace, GameFly joins an increasing number of digital retailers all trying to compete with Steam. Origin and Green Man Gaming have been able to snag some marketshare away through exclusives and sales respectively, but what does GameFly have to offer over the other guys?

    As part of its press release, GameFly boasts that it makes it easier for consumers to look for PC games with what it calls “Collection.” In short, it’s a curated list of games either from a specific publisher (i.e. Square Enix Store) or a specific series (i.e. XCOM Store). It’s a nice gesture, but it’s not exactly revolutionary as Steam also allows players to look for games by publisher.

    In its excitement over the launch of its new storefront, GameFly neglected to mention that it does have one thing that sets it apart from the rest – Unlimited PC Play. Much like its console rental service, Unlimited PC Play allows PC gamers to download any game as part of the service and keep it as long as they remain a subscriber. Unfortunately, the service doesn’t feature many new games so its appeal is limited. It is, however, something that GameFly may want to highlight in future advertising of its PC store.

    On a final note, GameFly has partnered with 2K Games to launch its new digital storefront. Gamers who choose to buy from GameFly will save up to 80 percent on a number of 2K Games’ titles. As a bonus, players who buy any 2K title from GameFly Digital will get a free copy of Mafia II.

  • New Football Manager 14 Trailer Focuses On Game Simulation Engine

    Although many prefer their video game sports to be played on consoles with full team control and interactivity, there is a strong community supporting the sports simulation side of the genre. With the 2013 version having a consistently strong showing in Steam’s game stats page, there’s no point in denying the popularity of Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series. In the age where playing in online rotisserie sports leagues is the norm, Football Manager 13’s success only makes sense. The idea of taking control of your favorite team in whatever league they may be in–chances are it’s featured in FM13–is certainly an attractive one.

    Making the soon-to-be-released 2014 version, complete with over “1000 improvements,” an inevitability. And, hopefully, a good thing as well.

    If you aren’t familiar with Football Manager’s presentation, it is essentially an in-depth graphical form of fantasy football (as in soccer, not NFL). As the title implies, you manager whatever team you’ve chosen. This means you’re responsible for the roster, the training, and the match-day preparation. Once these tasks are complete, you unleash your team on the opposition, and pray that your coaching/management impacts your team in a positive manner. In other words, players don’t get to control the players on the pitch once the game begins. This means you won’t be able to take your best player and dribble the length of the field, putting the ball in the back of the net while the defense looks on helplessly. If you want that kind of game, FIFA 14 will be out on September 25.

    Again, those used to fantasy sports should be used to this lack of on-field control.

    While you may not be able to directly impact the in-game outcome, you can watch every tortuous moment of it. To help make this a more enjoyable experience, Sports Interactive added some improvements to the match engine. While we’re not talking photo realism, the simulation doesn’t look bad at all:


    The release date hasn’t been set in stone yet, but according to the Steam page, it’s expected to be launched “late 2013.”

  • Total War: Rome 2 Preview Highlights Naval Battles

    Clear your calendars because the time-sink that is the Total War real-time/turn-based hybrid strategy game is about to pay a return visit to the Roman Empire, allowing players to fulfill their Julius Caesar/world domination fantasies, one turn at a time. The hype meter among the PC gaming community is really high for Total War: Rome 2, and considering the quality and success of the previous installments, it’s easy to see why. While the first couple of previews focused on cinematics and shots of the gameplay map, the latest video from developers Creative Assembly focuses on the naval warfare aspect of the game.

    In short, it looks pretty damn awesome:


    The idea of ramming an enemy ship and boarding it with land troops is an intoxicating one, and it’s just one of the reason PC gamers are excited for September 3rd. Another strong selling point is having the ability to absolutely decimate smaller enemy ships with the larger destroyer style warships. Watching the enemy drops fall into the ocean should give newcomers an idea about the level of detail involved in the Total War series.

    According to the game’s official site, pre-ordering customers will have get access to the first DLC pack for free, and while this is certainly not a pitch for the game–this publication is not a partner with Sega or Creative Assembly–if you’ve made up your mind that Total War: Rome 2 is a must-purchase, it makes sense to do the pre-order because, as most gamers know, free DLC has become a rare beast indeed.

    [Lead image courtesy]

  • Battlefield 4 Video Shows Us Multiplayer, Ultra Graphics

    Say what you will about Dice/EA’s upcoming sequel to their successful Battlefield series, especially when the latest iteration is still popular with the gamer community, the developers certainly now how to make a good looking game. Take this latest video, for instance. While short, it offers a look at the multiplayer aspect of things, and while those who are familiar with Battlefield 4 probably won’t see anything new, it should provide some reassurance that they haven’t screwed anything up, at least that’s how it looks.

    The bursts of gameplay viewers are treated looks to be centralized around the same Shanghai high rise that was gloriously taken down in the E3 trailer. Much like the Metro map became the mainstay for BF3 players, it would not be surprising to see the “Siege of Shanghai” map gain the same kind of popularity. It should be noted the video is not from EA or Dice. Instead, it was made by GamesHQMedia (YouTube page), and their reason for showcasing the video was to demonstrate how BF4 will look with the graphical settings turned up to Ultra, which brings up two things:

    First, you’ll have to select the 1080p option to enjoy the crisp graphics, and second, as VG247 points out:

    The video looks rather slick but since Youtube can only run videos at 30 FPS, some of its visual prowess is lost.

    Battlefield 4 will be available on just about every major console/gaming device you can imagine on October 29, including the PS3 and 4; the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One; and for PCs.

    [Lead image courtesy]

  • Game Mod Brings Dishonored Abilities To Skyrim

    The alter, change, or build upon PC game code to add features, content, and/or, desired improvements is, of course, known as modding. Thanks to the largely unpaid efforts of these “amateur” programmers, many a game has been given new life, courtesy of the fan-created content that pops up. While those who limit their gaming to the console environment miss out video game modding, the PC gaming community embraces it quite vigorously. So much so that Steam features a Workshop area for games that allow modding that feature the necessary files to alter your game experience.

    One game that has an incredibly active community is Bethesda’s Skyrim. To put it mildly, there are mods for just about everything in open-world RPG. If you want to add a realism mod that requires your character to relieve their bladder, among other things, you can do that. If you want to add lightsabers to the vast armory that’s already available to players, you can do that too. Do you want your games to have a more, um, adult theme, complete with character nudity? Skyrim Nexus has just what you need; although, apparently the site is undergoing some DoS trouble.

    There is a new mod, however, that is making news because it brings the powers of Dishonored, another Bethesda title, to the world of Skyrim. If you haven’t had a chance to play Dishonored, needless to say the main character’s powers are certainly a highlight, especially the “Blink” function. The idea of making this particular skill set to available to Skyrim characters at least looks like a brilliant idea:


    If you’re interested in learning another skill to vanquish your enemies throughout Tamriel, Skyrim Nexus again has the goods. Just be patient with the site as it deals with DoS griefers.

    (H/t to The Escapist)

  • Virtual Reality Porn Arrives On The Oculus Rift

    While Rule 34 dictates that if it exists, there is pornography of it, perhaps there should be an amendment or a subsection we can add to it; one that reads, “if it is capable of displaying porn, someone will make porn for it to display.” Such is the case with the Oculus Rift, a promising headset designed to give gamers that virtual reality/total immersion feeling many have longed for. Just in case you haven’t seen the thing in action, here’s some great footage of the device’s potential:


    Although the headset is still in preorder form, it has created a good amount of anticipation. Of course, linking your gaming peripheral to such gamer favorites like Skyrim and Half-Life 2 only helps with the reception. The fact that Oculus Rift is not available for the general public has not stopped some folks from working on independent projects for the device, and one of those includes a sexual intercourse simulation.

    As pointed out by PCGamesN, and thoroughly documented over at Reddit, user bumblebee7 has created two programs called “Mastery” and “Cowgirl,” both of which offer the player a virtual reality sexual encounter, complete with models of both the man (the player) and woman (the recipient). A screenshot demonstrates his progress:

    Oculus Rift Sex

    As you can see, the eyes probably need some work for this particular version to catch on. As for the creator, he was kind enough to post a guide in the Reddit comments, while indicating the eyes didn’t really bother him:

    Yeah. So this is best viewed laying down. I had no idea how to use either a 3d modeling program or Unity before I received my Oculus Rift Friday evening. It ain’t that good. But I haven’t seen any real porn for the rift. So I had to make my own. Took a good 10 hours or so. The other twenty were blowing my mind in rift.

    I used the models from daz3d.com and renderotica.com.

    Over at PCGamesN.com, the author gave the program a test drive, so to speak, and the findings confirm this is niche that is still in its infancy:

    It’s mostly a bit of a larf that you will probably try once and giggle about. I found the whole thing deeply unerotic.

    Not just because it looks faintly horrifying. The models come with disturbingly inaccurate ladybits; thereby somewhat missing the entire point of pornography, and their dead eyes are utterly terrifying.

    If realism is the concern, it appears as if other developers are working bringing better animation to Oculus Rift porn. As the following thread demonstrates (the links in the thread are NSFW), there are artists out there willing and capable of improving the visual quality of Oculus Rift porn.

  • Rise Of The Triad Reboot Launches July 31

    Apogee Software may not be a household name to many modern gamers, but PC gamers from the early 90s will remember the developer as being responsible for games like Rise of the Triad and the original Duke Nukem Trilogy. The former will finally be getting the reboot it deserves later this month.

    Rise of the Triad is a first-person shooter from a different era. An era take didn’t take itself too seriously with violence that would seem extreme even by today’s standards. The reboot being made by Interceptor Entertainment is a reboot/remake of sorts that retains all the insane, goofy violence of the original while giving it all the graphical flourishes of modern games. Check it out for yourself:

    If you preorder the game, Apogee will give you the Apogee Throwback Pack for free. The four game collection includes Rise of the Triad: Dark War, Extreme Rise of the Triad, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, and Blake Stone: Planet Strike. While old, these four games will give you a good idea of what the golden age of first-person shooters was like before everything involved the military and brothers in arms. Sometimes you just need to blow up some dudes, and Rise of the Triad will be bringing that back.

    Rise of the Triad will be on July 31 exclusively for the PC.

  • Green Man Gaming Starts its Summer Sale

    While the PC gaming world has been holding its breath for the imminent arrival of the yearly Steam summer sale and console owners are gearing up for both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live sales this week, Green Man Gaming (GMG) has gotten a jump on the competition. The online games retailer today launched its own summer sale, complete with a hell-themed site overhaul.

    As part of its “666” sale, GMG will be offering six big game sales every six hours for the next six days. The first six deals of the sale include the new Star Trek game for 66% off, Resident Evil 6 for half-off, and Borderlands 2 plus the Borderlands 2 DLC Season Pass for 75% off (together only $15). The sale began at 11 am EDT, and will switch over to the next six deals at 5 pm. As most of the titles bought on GMG require a Steam account, this 666 sale can be thought of as an early Steam sale.

    “Our 666 sale is Green Man Gaming’s most ambitious and twisted sale yet.” said Darren Cairns, EVP of marketing at GMG. “6 fiendish deals, every 6 hours for 6 days, makes our Summer Sale as hot as hell.”

    In addition to the sale prices, GMG is also offering an additional 10% off of 666 titles with the use of a voucher code located on its “Hot Deals” page.

  • Blizzard Talks Up New Features In StarCraft II: Heart Of The Swarm

    StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the next game in the StarCraft II trilogy, is quickly approaching. Some players may be content to keep playing Wings of Liberty, but others will want to jump on board the latest title to see where the story goes or check out the newest additions to competitive multiplayer. Those who fit into the latter category will want to check out all the new features coming to matchmaking as detailed in a new trailer.

    In a new “Ways to Play” trailer, Blizzard walks players through all the new features coming to matchmaking in StarCraft II. This is what players will be spending most of their time in. As such, Blizzard wants to make it super accessible for new players, while keeping the same highly competitive environment that made Wings of Liberty so popular.

    Competitive players will definitely want to check out next week’s video as Blizzard will be going through all the enhancements its making to the multiplayer portion of the game, as well as what it’s doing to support the eSports community.

  • Amazon Now Offers In-App Purchasing Services To PC Game Developers

    Amazon has always been a huge player in games retail, but the company is quickly becoming a major player in game development as well. It’s already heavily involved in mobile game development with a number of helpful APIs like GameCenter. Now the retail giant is starting to focus on its free-to-play PC gaming service again that started with Game Connect.

    Amazon announced today that its in-app purchasing service is now available to PC, Mac and Web-based game developers. In short, gamers will be able to use their Amazon account to buy stuff in games that use the company’s Game Connect service.

    “We’re passionate about making game developers successful, and we’ll continue to build services that make monetization easier and remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from developers,” said Mike Frazzini, Director Amazon Games. “Game developers build games that are used across multiple platforms and mediums. In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games is our latest service that helps game developers grow their business and increase their customer-base. For years, Amazon has focused on making the online shopping experience as frictionless as possible, and we are excited to share this expertise and technology so that game developers can offer customers this same great experience.”

    Here’s the benefits of using Amazon’s new service, according to Amazon:

  • Customers can use any credit card, gift certificate or promotional credit associated with their current Amazon account to purchase in-app items—making it simple and low friction for customers to purchase content and leading to higher sales and increased conversion.
  • Developers automatically have access to Amazon’s proven fraud detection technology, thereby reducing their exposure to fraud.
  • All transactions are supported by Amazon’s world-class, top-rated Customer Service to provide customers with the very best purchasing experience.
  • To help developers with game discovery and marketing, in-app items will automatically be available on Amazon.com, and in-app purchases can show up on best seller lists, recommendations and merchandising campaigns, helping customers discover new games and items, while adding another point of engagement for existing players.

    • The biggest benefit to developers is access to Amazon’s powerful retail presence. Millions of potential players flow through Amazon’s Web store every day, and they just might be compelled to check a game out after seeing a listing for an in-game item. Everything else is pretty standard fare that’s offered by other in-app purchasing services.

    The new service is an extension of Amazon’s Game Connect service, and as such, only requires a few steps to set everything up. Developers who want to join up with Game Connect will want to check out Amazon’s help page. All the information you need is there.

  • Trials Evolution: Gold Edition Coming to PC on March 22

    It’s almost as if Ubisoft and RedLynx are trying to upstage their recently detailed competition. The publisher and developer of the Trials series today announced that Trials Evolution: Gold Edition will be coming to PC on March 22.

    The title was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, with the game’s original developer, RedLynx, supervising the port. The game will feature all of the content found in the record-breaking Trials Evolution for the Xbox LIVE Arcade, including four-player multiplayer (local and online), global leaderboards, rider customizations, and the track editor. It does not appear, however, to include the recently released “Riders of Doom” DLC add-on.

    In addition, all of the tracks and skill games from Trials HD have been included. The tracks were recreated using the graphics and physics engines for Trials Evolution. RedLynx also assured gamers that Gold Edition has been “optimized and enhanced” for PC, and that some features in the game, such as the leaderboards and track sharing, have been re-designed slightly to fit the platform.

  • Valve “jumping” Into Gaming Hardware Creation

    It’s been rumored for months now that Valve is working on creating their own game console. Aside from hiring hardware engineers, Valve striking out with their own hardware just seems to make sense. The company is already porting Steam games over to Linux, a version of which could run on a Valve console. The company’s co-founder and managing director, Gabe Newell, is publicly opposed to what Windows 8 will do for PC gaming. Perhaps Valve simply sees the writing on the wall, and needs to make a console.

    This week, a new job posting up on Valve’s website adds fire to the fuel of console speculation. The listing is for an industrial designer who has “expertise in product design and manufacturing, ergonomics, usability, aesthetics, and surfacing.” The job description also contains an introspective look at why Valve needs a hardware designer. From the posting:

    Valve is traditionally a software company. Open platforms like the PC and Mac are important to us, as they enable us and our partners to have a robust and direct relationship with customers. We’re frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space though, so we’re jumping in. Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There’s a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked.

    There you have it. Valve will definitely be designing and manufacturing computer hardware. Whether this means a game console, however, is still unknown. It could be that Valve is simply looking to make PC gaming accessories it thinks gamers want or need. However, it’s unlikely that Valve would be frustrated with innovation in the gaming accessory market, which has recently seen devices such as the Kinect. It could be that Valve, a game developer and publisher at the forefront of PC gaming, is frustrated that the next-generation consoles aren’t coming fast enough, since the current-generation consoles aren’t powerful enough to run Half-Life 3.

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic May Be Going Free-To-Play

    For a minute there, it seemed like Star Wars: The Old Republic was going to be the next big MMO that could take on WoW at its own game. Interest in the game quickly wore off, however, and the developers have been scrambling to get updates out as fast as they can to renew interest in the game. One of those updates may be making the game go free-to-play.

    In a recent interview with GamesTM, The Old Republic’s lead designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi, discussed the challenges of running a subscription-based MMO when there are so many good free-to-play MMOs vying for attention. He acknowledged that their biggest competitor in the market isn’t WoW, but rather the free-to-play genre.

    So does that mean The Old Republic is going free-to-play anytime soon? When asked of the possibility, Lusinchi only said, “The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well.” He then goes on to directly say that they’re looking at free-to-play, but nothing is set in stone.

    If you’ve been following the MMO market over the last few years, you would see that the trend is now free-to-play. Even when a subscription-based MMO comes out, it quickly moves to free-to-play as users can’t justify spending a monthly fee. One of the major examples of the last year was DC Universe Online which went free-to-play within six months of its launch.

    So would it be a good move for The Old Republic to go free-to-play? Well, we need to look at a number of factors. Going free-to-play is usually a sign of failure and EA obviously doesn’t want that. At it’s E3 press conference, the publisher was touting its subscription numbers and the amount of work BioWare putting into the game. On the other hand, going free-to-play can increase revenue exponentially since more people are playing the game while buying lots of add-ons via micro-transactions.

    It’s a complicated issue. The best compromise would be to offer some form of free-to-play to everybody, while giving subscribers special perks. It would get more people playing the game, while retaining the current subscriber base. It’s a win-win for everybody.

  • Cyberpunk Video Game Announced by CD Projekt

    Polish developer CD Projekt, the development studio behind The Witcher series of games, has announced it is developing a new “AAA” roleplaying video game based on the pen and paper RPG Cyberpunk. The announcement came as part of the CD Projekt Red Group Summer Conference 2012.

    Cyberpunk will feature a decadent futuristic world in which ultra-modern technology co-exists with a degenerated human society. Similar to The Witcher series, Cyberpunk will be a mature RPG for adults. The announcer for the event stated that the game will be realistic and “brutal, when it has to be…we are not making a game for everyone.”

    The game will feature a “gripping, non-linear story” that is inspired by authors such as William Gibson and Phillip K. Dick, as well as by the movie Blade Runner. Players will be able to choose from multiple classes, and the combat system in the game is based off of the system used in the Cyberpunk pen and paper RPG. A “gigantic” arsenal of weapons, upgrades, implants, and high-tech toys were also promised, including ways for players to enhance their characters with cybernetics.

    No gameplay footage was shown during the announcement, though Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith was on-hand to speak about the origins of the pen and paper game. In fact, CD Projekt announced that they are currently hiring developers to work on the project, stating that they are looking for the best people since they are “making the best game.”

    Aside from the Deus Ex franchise, the cyberpunk genre has been virtually non-existant in modern video games. The development studio today promised to “set a new standard for the futuristic RPG genre” by delivering an intelligent, non-linear adult game with amazing graphics. Judging by the quality of The Witcher 2, CD Projekt just might be able to deliver on those promises and reinvigorate the cyberpunk genre.

  • Hitman: Absolution Gets a November 20th Release Date and Pre-Release Content

    Square Enix today announced the release date for next installment in the Hitman series Hitman: Absolution. The game will launch on November 20, 2012 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC.

    Square Enix also announced a special pre-order bonus for players who pre-order the game from GameStop stores in North America. Those players will get exclusive access to Hitman: Sniper Challenge starting on May 15. The content is separate from Hitman: Absolution and has players take on the role of Agent 47 to assassinate an arms dealer and his bodyguards from a rooftop.

    “Hitman: Sniper Challenge sets a new industry standard for pre-order incentives,” said Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing at Square Enix. “For all those HITMAN fans that just can’t wait to play Hitman: Absolution, they can immediately take part in an exclusive competition featuring the original assassin when they pre-order at GameStop.”

    Players will be able to unlock equipment upgrades and use score multipliers to top an online leaderbord for the game. Monthly prizes will be rewarded to top snipers, and the player topping the leaderboard at the launch of Hitman: Absolution will win a trip to Copenhagen where he or she will have their likeness captured for use in the next Hitman game.

    Players who pre-order from other retailers will receive an exclusive costume and weapon. Amazon pre-orderers will get a “high-tech” suit and a Bartoli custom pistol; Wal-Mart pre-orders come with a “high-roller” suit and a Krugermeier 2-2 pistol; and Best Buy pre-orders come with a “public enemy” suit and Bronson M 1928 SMG.

    A pre-order mini-game with prizes leading up to a major game launch is a great idea. Unfortunately, limiting the content to only those users who pre-order from a specific vendor is unfair to users who can’t or don’t want to use Gamestop to purchase their games. Also (because I know you are thinking it), Gamestop is clear that pre-orders cannot be cancelled after a special promotion code or item has been redeemed.

    Sadly, it looks as though retailer-exclusive pre-orders are here to stay. Both Electronic Arts and Activision have implemented the marketing scheme for games this year. What do you think? Are exclusive pre-orders unfair or a perfectly valid way for retailers to advertise? Leave a comment below and let me know.