Archive - 2012

Auto Club Revolution Adds Eliminator Gameplay Mode

2012/01/30
Jerry Paxton
News

January 30, 2012, London, United Kingdom – Auto Club Revolution, the free-to-play online racing game and car community, today announced the release of a brand new game mode as part of its latest upgrade to its ongoing closed beta test.  Alongside major updates to existing features, Eliminator joins as a new multiplayer racing mode, offering the closed beta community a brand new way to race fully licensed cars across a range of licensed and custom race tracks.

“We have the most amazing beta test community,” said executive producer Doug Wolff.  “The feedback we’re getting is absolutely fantastic and we’re working extremely closely with all our testers on the priority of new game play modes which make the most of our technology.” He continues, “The decision to move the Eliminator mode up in our development schedule is in response to requests from our testers and underlines our commitment to trial a wide variety of game play modes which are open up the Auto Club Revolution experience to different types of player.”

In Eliminator mode, players are eliminated from the race every 60 seconds until the last remaining driver becomes the winner.  Eliminator mode is playable across Auto Club Revolution’s current raft of race tracks, which include Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Infineon Raceway and the game’s range of custom race tracks.

Among the other updates to the Auto Club Revolution closed beta is a major update to the Workshop, including the roll out of new paints and paint technology, making cars and their designs even more realistic.

The game’s Closed Beta phase launched in July 2011, more information can be read at www.AutoClubRevolution.com where registrations to take part in Closed Beta are still being accepted.

EverQuest Goes Free to Play in March

2012/01/30
Jerry Paxton
News

Here is an open post from Tom Terrazas, Producer of the long-running EverQuest MMO from Sony Online Entertainment. Apparently, the game will be going into their free to play matrix this March! Checkout his full letter for more details:

/Tell Norrathians INCOMING BUFFS!

Hello everyone – I hope you all are doing well early on in the New Year! With an exciting Veil of Alaris expansion just released in November, we’re thrilled to announce the next big adventure for EverQuest®. After listening to your feedback and suggestions over the past few years, I’m happy to announce that in early March 2012, EverQuest will be going free-to-play.

We’re excited to be expanding the EverQuest experience by making the game more accessible to every type of player so that you can choose to play the game in a way that suits you best. Anyone who wishes to start, return or continue to play one of the “Best Games of All-Time” can simply download and play EverQuest on their terms – think of it as Free to Play, Your Way. Recurring subscriptions, non-recurring subscriptions, Silver or Free memberships, item unlockers, and more. The game will now be setup to be flexible so that *you* can decide how much to pay, based on how much fun you’re having.

EverQuest players are some of the most loyal, long-standing players of any MMO in existence. With the gaming landscape changing every day, we want to ensure we continue to evolve the game to keep players engaged and bring in even more new players to further expand the community. With no up-front costs or required membership, we might see a new player or two along the way, and more people is always a good thing!

Once we go free-to-play, here are some of the upcoming features and events you can expect:

  • On Friday, March 16th, EverQuest becomes a teenager: 13 years old!!! We will be having some extra added events in the game starting that week leading up to that Friday and we’re introducing some new items within POK to let you know what’s in store.
  • With the free-to-play launch, a renovated everquest.com website will be unveiled and after that, we will bring you upgraded EQPlayers pages.
  • We have improved the functionality of our Map system! Some improvements include being able to view appropriate level content for your character on the map, allowing you to find zone lines much easier; and also showing you your wisps on the map to help navigate to where you want to go!

Also at the free-to-play launch, all players will receive a Welcome Pack containing items to add to your gameplay experience. You’ll be able to summon a unique Mercenary to fight by your side and we’re including some Bayle Marks to help pay for the services of your newly summoned Mercenary. A couple of Experience Potions are also included to help you increase your experience gained while adventuring. For all the collectors that like to show off all the great wares to your friends, we’re giving you an item to display in your home and add to your collection. And finally, you’ll be able to customize the appearance of one of your weapons with a Weapon Ornamentation – also included in the Welcome Pack. So be sure to check the claim window for your free gifts.

We, the EverQuest dev team, are very excited about this new flexible system. Free-To-Play is the best fit for EverQuest and we are looking forward to supporting the game and our dedicated fans for years to come. This is a great year for everyone associated with EverQuest and SOE. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what’s coming in 2012.

One last note, we will be doing a Community Webcast on Thursday February 2, 2012 covering all of the exciting free-to-play details. Please be sure to send in any questions you might have via the Facebook page or Twitter so we can respond with answers during the Webcast.

See you in game very soon!

Thom Terrazas
EverQuest Producer
AKA “Phathom”

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Wallpapers

2012/01/30
Jerry Paxton
News

Kalypso Media has released some new wallpapers, in several resolutions, for their upcoming Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. The tactical game is due out on February 14th, just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Wallpapers

Please Stay Calm Review (iPhone)

2012/01/30
Ripper71
News, Reviews

This is one of those games I have been playing for quite a while (back in it’s beta days) and keep meaning to write up but find myself playing it instead.  Please Stay Calm is a zombie apocalypse game that utilizes your phone’s GPS and FourSquare to create locations for it’s MMO.  This isn’t the only game out there that does it, it is just probably one of the most successful.  Did I mention it is free?

Please Stay Calm is set in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse when all the government agencies have pulled out leaving survivors to their own devices and decisions on how they are going to live their lives.  Scavenging becomes a daily way of life and survivors rely on each other for defense or medical attention and build safe houses and outposts to store supplies and be able to hopefully sleep safe at night.  There is a global communications system designed to find fellow survivors and help them in any way you can.  You can help others, you can hunt others, you can join clans or you can lone wolf your way through a huge variety of zombies, some holiday related, some the bane of your pre-zombie life.  The key is survival and how you do that is really up to you.

The graphics are styled and enjoyable, there is a minimum amount of sound to it which works well if you are checking your outposts in the middle of the night while you are checking the time.  You build up stamina for healing of dueling, action points for scavenging and hunting and health is pretty much what you would think.  Things are bought with one of three things: cash, supplies or credits.  Cash and supplies are gotten through scavenging and hunting and credits can be bought with cash or by watching commercials and downloading programs, most of which are other free games.  This game can be played completely free just using the currency you get in game,  but if you get impatient you can buy credits at a very reasonable price for a free to play currency.

Hunting is a fun game of watching a bunch of you weapons pop up at the bottom of the screen and try to pick the best one before they go away and it is the zombie’s turn to take a shot.  You have to watch your health though because sometimes the zombies are strong enough to take you down with a single hit.  Dueling is picking someone who is rated around your level and then you have the choice to add a bonus item such as explosive ammo to give you an edge, in case they put a defense bonus on them such as a land mine.  Defenses usually last 6 hours so that you can go to bed and get at least a little sleep with some hope you might survive.  Unlike most games Duels aren’t live for both parties, someone attacks and wins or loses and the attacked gets a notice so they can get revenge if they want and attack back.  Using the same stamina as dueling is healing which just means picking someone on your friend’s list, checking their health and healing them.  The final thing, scavenging, involves moving a flashlight around your screen avoiding moving green dots, if they get in your beam of light you are caught and get nothing.

One of the real keys to the fun of this game is that you find yourself doing all this at real life locations.  Between GPS and FourSquare you may find yourself scavenging the local supermarket or fighting zombies in your neighbor’s shower.  Any place with a check-in is territory you can hunt, scavenge, outpost and safe house.  Right now I have an outpost on the Death Star.  Who knew that would have landed in Reno?

Last Call:

This is a great pick up and play a bit game that you can play a couple times a day and if you are like me those days wind up turning into weeks and months.  I love this simple free game and I know if I get too frustrated with the pace of building up my weapons or defenses I can pick up some credits for a real affordable price.  New players arrive everyday and meams new friends to play and chat with and people get really into the game with back and forth duels and clans being at each others throats.  At the end of the day though, it is about surviving the zombie apocalypse and the more practice we all have the better off we are!  Did I mention it is free?  Well, it still is.

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3D3qLRQnuVWGw img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/3qLRQnuVWGw/0.jpg embed=false share=false width=640 height=360 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn Deluxe Edition (Graphic Novel/DC Comics)

2012/01/30
Ripper71
News, Reviews

It really isn’t too surprising that with the success of the Dark Knight movies, the incredibly well done Batman Arkham games and the cancellation of Batman The Brave and The Bold for a darker Knight animated series in development that Dark Knight graphic novels and comics would start to take a grittier, darker approach than previous incarnations of the caped crusader.  As a result, a lot of jewels of the writing world got to shine in this element. A couple of the more notable being the dynamic duo of David Finch and Jason Fabok who were given the reins of the Batman: Dark Knight series in which we get to feel the pain that Gotham inflicts on it’s citizens, villains and superheroes in this modern world.

Gone are the days of the smooth skinned, perfectly painted Joker and the laughable bumbling Penguin and in its place are villains wracked with disease and addiction, a Batman whose lines have definitely blurred between hero and villain, and a Gotham where hell is closer than anyone would like to think.  The story concentrates on the disappearance of one of Batman’s oldest friends, Dawn Golden, who is one of his only good links left to his past before his parent’s murder and runs through Gotham’s usual list of suspects with some surprisingly strange twists.  I have read a lot of Batman over the years, particularly the darker ones such as The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke, and I have seldom seen the question of villain versus victim so well and deeply explored or had the lines between the heroes and the villains be so thin.  Gotham has damaged all its inhabitants and none feel truly safe from the street folks to the socialites.  Going into any deeper detail would spoil parts of the storyline but I can say the artwork is exceptional, as dark and gritty as the story itself and I often found myself stopping to just take in the detail of a panel or a page.

The Deluxe Edition is a collection of the first six issues of Batman: The Dark Knight and also includes Batman: The Return “Planet Gotham,” a short tale by Grant Morrison in which Batman realizes the best way to protect Gotham is to protect the world and start fighting terrorism in the Dark Knight way.  The story is really well written with excellent artwork and sets up a concept that bridges several previous Grant Morrison Batman stories together and defines new roles for the different individuals who have taken on the bat logo as well as Robin.  It was originally published as a one shot a year ago so it might have been easy to miss but is a solid read on it’s own.  There is even a two page story called “Eternal” by David Finch at the end of the book that tells the story of two of the inheritors of the Batman and Superman names walking toward the statue dedicated to their mentors and discussing what it means to be these iconic superheroes.  When all this is put together in a nicely bound hardcover format this is really a “deluxe edition.”

Last Call:

I am really glad I got the chance to read this graphic novel.  The main story is so well-written I want to go out and pick up more copies from the comic series right now and the additional Grant Morrison story makes me want to read a few of the stories I have missed from other graphic tales.  It is a true “deluxe edition” and is not only a great read but if read carefully can bestow the reader with a better understanding of how thin the line between good and evil really can get.

 

Yesterday Preview (PC)

2012/01/30
Ripper71
News, Previews

Yesterday recently came on our radar so it was time to give it a look and see how the company that brought us the Runaway series and The Next Big Thing did when they took on a thriller.  Pendulo Studios maintain their excellence in 2D animation with this work though the mood from the opening animation is one of creepiness and occult.  After the first animation it plays like a standard puzzle game, introducing the quirks of a couple of likable characters who it is soon revealed have some very unlikable quirks.  In New York City, beggars are disappearing one after another later to be found burnt alive.  Meanwhile, a Y-shaped scar forms in the palm of the hands of seemingly unrelated people.  The police and the media give little attention to these deaths so Henry White, a young and rich heir dedicated to a charitable organization, and his friend Cooper are the first to investigate these disappearances.  The preview is fairly short but tantalizing, giving us a chance to see that the gameplay is very much like that of the Runaway series but the subject matter might be a bit strong for the squeamish, even when rendered in amazing 2D.  Here are some screenshots to get an idea of what to expect but you will have to wait until March to get your hands on the game!

Screenshots

The Witcher 2 Console Release Date

2012/01/27
Jerry Paxton
News

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and CD Projekt RED have confirmed today that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is launching on April 17 in North America for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Additionally, here are some new screenshots from the game:

Valve Announces Steam Mobile App Beta

2012/01/27
Jerry Paxton
News

January 26, 2012 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the beta release of the Steam application for iOS and Android devices.

With the Steam app, gamers around the world may chat with Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, view screenshots and user-generated content for their favorite games, read the latest gaming news, stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales, and more.

“The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone.”

Those who wish to join the beta just need to download the Steam app (free of charge) and log in to their Steam account via the mobile app to express interest in the beta. Gamers will be added to the Closed Beta as the service ramps up.

Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC and Mac games with over 40 million accounts around the world and over 1,800 titles offered.

For more information, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/mobile