Archive for the ‘In the News’ Category

Dragon Oath Online is a popular 3D martial arts MMOG from China and is being localized in North America. The game has finally announced that it’s going Open Beta on November 5, 2009. There are nine classes to choose from and each class has unique and exciting magic skills. The pet system in this game is quite interesting, in which you can capture monsters as pet and use them to help fight.

Even though I’m not a big fan of MMOGs from China, Dragon Oath can be very entertaining with its unique crafting system, story, cities, roles, and other social features.

Kotaku confirms through the guys at Infinity Ward that their latest installment of Modern Warfare will definitely have a limited third person mode in multiplayer. The option will be limited to a game type, so individuals will not be able to turn it on or off. It’s either everyone or no one. Will this actually appeal to anyone? Maybe but for a dominate FPS, having a third person mode doesn’t make a tone of sense. We’ll have to see.

via Kotaku

Want to get a quick preview of Left 4 Dead 2? Steam has announced that those who have pre-ordered the game can now download the demo. But unfortunately, it’s just a tease since you can’t actually play until Tuesday, Oct. 27.

If you pre-ordered L4D2 at a retailer, you can now get your hands on the access code to begin downloading (both PC and Xbox 360).

Major Nelson, the spokesperson of Microsoft, announced on his blog that “unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360” once the system updates in November.

Now we have to buy a few 512MB of storage to replace our 4GB one. And worst of all, transferring our saved games profile sucks.

If you are not for the update, join me and make a comment on Major Nelson’s blog about this bad idea.

Last week, oft-pirated indie puzzle game World of Goo turned 1 year old, and to celebrate (and maybe get some people actually, y’know, buying the game instead of just stealing it), developer 2D Boy issued a special pay-what-you-want birthday sale.

Well, the results are in. Not so surprisingly, many buyers opted to pay 1 cent, an amount which never even reached the developers due to PayPal fees. A handful actually paid more than the game’s normal price, either to support the company or thank them for making such a fun game.

For the full results, check out the link above.

Those of you who get their daily news from Twitter probably heard by now that Mass Effect 2 is just around the corner.

Mass Effect will be released January 26, 2010 for the PC and Xbox 360. Along with the release date announcement, Bioware has revealed that exclusive in-game armor and weaponry will be available to those who pre-order.

“In North America, pre-order bonuses* include special-ops armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. At GameStop, Terminus Gear is available with pre-orders, which includes the powerful Terminus Assault Armor and the Blackstorm Heavy Weapon,” announced Diarmid Clarke, Project Director at Bioware.

Pre-orders taken at other retailers will receive the Inferno Armor, used to “monitor battlefield conditions by recognizing elevated heart rates, and regulates sub-systems with extreme efficiency to allow for greater response times.”

[Bonus Content for Reserved Copies of Mass Effect] Bioware

The big day has come! Both Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Brütal Legend have their North American release.  In the last months these games have received a lot of attention, and the building excitement has put me in the mood for art.  Please hold on for a second while I fire up the old MS Paint.

Ah, there we go.

Uncharted 2, the sequel to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, features more action-adventure… action, as well as the much-touted multiplayer system, which will let players go head-to-head or cooperate to complete missions as the game’s major characters. If this sounds like your cup of tea, pick it up for PS3 today.

Brütal Legend is the rock-n-roll fantasy adventure featuring Jack Black as a roadie on an odyssey through a heavy metal world.  Star-studded and sure to be packed with irreverant comedy, this Xbox 360 title is for mature audiences only. If you want to rock on in an open world, this should be right up your alley.

Now that I’ve bored you with the boring details, here’s what you’ve been waiting for: the unveiling of my masterpiece!

Look out, Jack Black!  Behind you!

In one more piece of CCP news, the first trailer of their upcomming console FPS DUST 514 has just been released. Based on the EVE universe the game is promising to fuse FPS and RTS gameplay elements and somehow, interact with the existing EVE Online.

It looks promising to say the least.

Words can’t describe, so I’ll leave it at this CCP=WIN

Lyrics:
Intro
First off – let me make a short introduction
I’m the space 5.0, keeping EVE from destruction
Guard is the name, Lead master of the game
Top dog in the gamemaster hall of fame

Im chillin at my desk with two girls and one pimp cup
Sippin champagne, reading mails checkin what’s up
Isk spamming scum bags disturbing the peace?
WOOP WOOP its the sound of space police!

Every day is a fight, there’s no room for bloopers
Bugs coming at us like in Starship troopers
We help when we can, every child, every man
Treat the boogie man to a permanent ban!

CHORUS x2

We’re CCP! We march on fearlessly!
Excellent is what we strive to be!

If you’re going to follow us to the top

HARDEN THE FUCK UP!

You best watch out bitch if you’re an exploiting scammer
Guard will gank you in the face with his big ban hammer
Remove all your Isk , throw your ass in the slammer
Make you share a cell with a manic ISK spammer

Like a never ending spam thread on racist biking
This song has something for everyone’s liking
Holy shit I see local spiking

…ladies and gents, its techno Viking!

Chorus x2

Ever flowing – never standing still
We roll with the punches, move in for the kill
The competition ends up six feet in the ground
With fists full of awesome we go round after round

United we stand never ever growing weary
We cannot fall cause gravity is just a theory
We reach higher than the giants in operations
Patience soon well be crip walking in stations

We’re more agile than a president dodging a shoe
We need three continents for our massive crew
From Atlanta to Shanghai to the Icelandic nation
Throw your hands up for World Domination!

Chorus

Today Final Fantasy XIII’s Background Technical Director, Ota Yoshihiko, posted his message to the game’s website.  In it, he reminesces on their development process.  He explains that the core concept of their team was to make an engine that wouldn’t stress players out with long loading times, and allow them to experience the world in which the graphics feel seamless, whether you’re in battle, experiencing a cutscene, or just running around on the field.  It’s nice when pre-rendered cutscenes don’t feel completely different from the core gameplay, though a lot more games don’t even use such cutscenes anymore nowadays, opting instead to show story through the same engine you play in. But, what would Final Fantasy be without its cutscenes? Perhaps I won’t be bothered by that miniscule jump in quality like I was when I saw FF XII’s ending scenes when XIII comes out.

Ota now spends his time experiencing the game from the player’s perspective, in an effort to make last minute adjustments based on the gameplay itself, and not on what he sees through his work monitor.