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Harrier Jump Jet Out for FSX

Flight Simulator X fans, take note, Wilco Publishing has released their latest add-on pack for the still-going-strong flight sim: Harrier Jump Jet. Harrier Jump Jet simulates the amazing VSTOL aircraft, while also bringing new game mechanics to simulate the aircrafts unique vent system.

Highlights :
· Fully detailed exteriors depicting the famous GR3 (RAF) and FRS1 (RN) from the Falklands War period.
· Fully functional Head Up Display with target designation box.
· Advanced radar showing AI traffic and other player aircrafts.
· Unique flight model to allow highly realistic simulation of the vertical takeoff and landing VTOL characteristics of the Harrier.
· New programming technology replicating the exact auto nozzle/flap settings. No other simulation technique can replicate this as accurately!
· Cannon gun effect, firable from the cockpit.

Atari Announces New Games to Show at E3

Atari has released their lineup of new games to be shown at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Their new games include the upcoing MMO, Tera, as well as new takes on arcade classics Warlords and Centipede: Infestation.

TERA

TERA is a fast-paced innovative action MMO that offers all the depth of an MMO with the gratification and intensity of true action combat creating an experience beyond traditional point-and-click-style MMOs.

Players will jump into a vast breathtaking fantasy world conjured by two dreaming primal gods and travel over rugged mountains, across searing deserts, and through hazardous jungles. They will arm themselves for the seven character races and eight classes where they will battle hundred of monsters throughout 80+ zones and embark on thousands of quests to fight for political control of the world itself.

TERA combines lush graphics powered by Unreal Engine 3 with an immersive, engaging combat system in a world rich in dramatic story and lore. It consists of a vibrant community in a faction free world where all players can impact the community and social, political and economic structures of TERA.

Warlords

Players show no mercy and take no prisoners in Warlords as they fight to the death for title of the almighty Warlord.  They must defend their castle from mischievous minions and ferocious fireballs spun from the mouth of a maniacal dragon in this whimsical reinvention of the beloved classic.  Warlords is the ultimate battle of speed, strategy and survival, and players must command their troops with shrewdness and skill to capture control points, collect power-ups and destroy the other warring factions.

Warlords’ multiple local/online game modes sweeten the quest for power and allow for cooperative and competitive battles with up to four players. Gamers can select the faction of their choice and engage in a number of competitive variations, including co-op siege mode, 2v2 or classic free-for-all battles.

Centipede: Infestation

Centipede: Infestation reimagines the classic gaming franchise when it takes players into an expansive new world with seven environments, 40 stages and five boss battles. Gamers will play as Max, the hero and bug slayer, who must defend Maisy, a girl whose gardens bring life back to the wasteland that the planet has now become. They can choose from over 20 different weapons and power-ups to battle up against centipedes, spiders, beetles, grubs, caterpillars, moths, and other mutated bugs.

Centipede: Infestation allows gamers to team up with a friend to kill even more bugs with the two player co-op multiplayer feature and offers a unique “street pass” feature for 3D, which shares content between passing Nintendo 3DS units.

Crysis 2 Retaliation DLC Pack Trailer

Electronic Arts and Crytek have released the official trailer for their upcoming Crysis 2 DLC pack, Retaliation. Retaliation will feature four new maps supporting all of the game modes and is due out on May 17th, 2011.

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First Image from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The NY Times has the first image from the upcoming 20th Century Fox film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. In AL:VH, the titular character is played by Benjamin Walker(The War Boys, Kinsey) and the film depicts what the NY Times refers to as an “accurate” depiction of the American President. The Times also says that Director Timur Bekmambetov has kept true to the book, which was written by Seth Grahame-Smith. The novel is a mash-up of real events which took place during the President’s life and an alternative look at those events if he were actually doing battle with the undead (vampires, not zombies).

Also starring in the film is Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Thing 2011) as Mary Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a purported budget of roughly $70 million dollars and is set for release on June 22nd, 2012 – so we will have time to see it before the pending December 2012 apocalypse.

LINK: The NY Times

Total War: Shogun 2 Gets HUGE Patch, DirectX 11 Support

SEGA and The Creative Assembly have released a huge patch for their popular strategy title, Total War: Shogun 2, which adds a plethora of game updates – including DirectX 11 visuals! The patch will automatically-apply itself to your Steam release of the game.

Official Patch Notes

DirectX 11 support, including

  • Advanced Shadows
  • Support for MSAA 2x,4x,8x.
  • Enhanced Depth of Field
  • Tessellation Support
  • Anti-aliasing support

Note: Enabling Anisotropic Texture Filtering on DirectX9 is not working in this update. This will be fixed in the next patch.

General fixes (includes single player and multiplayer fixes)

  • Fixed firing-arc overlay for blinding grenades to show minimum range
  • Slight changes to the intercept for igniting buildings
  • Fix for battlefield dominance being awarded to both players
  • Fixed triggers for the Elusive Strikeforce and Inspiring Counterattack achievements
  • Legendary force achievable in single player
  • Fix for stacking effects
  • Ninja hiding tweaks
  • Change to how victory types are assigned so that Heroic victories are a bit rarer (they’re the most common now) and decisive / close are more common. Pyrrhic can be more common than before
  • Fixed entities floating outside castle wall when they get knocked down or knocked flying while climbing off the top of walls
  • Fixed bug with looping transition animation due to move orders with invalid path locations being spammed by the squad repeatedly
  • Capture buildings cache if the building was captured from held before telling the Aide de camp
  • Improved torch caching
  • Fix for crash in battlefield zone cursor intersection
  • Adjustment to AI to make it more difficult for the AI to use cavalry against spearmen
  • Fix for drop-in ambushes not starting if the player under ambush presses ‘Start Battle’ first
  • Ship banners are now appearing correctly in replays
  • Fix for men staying at the bottom of the walls when they are attacked whilst climbing
  • In naval replays, some ships’ flags were appearing in the wrong colours, now fixed
  • Order to burn down a building now finishes if the building is destroyed by other means
  • Fix to rare crash when placing mines in naval battles
  • Experience system revision: experience-level thresholds rebalanced to allow for faster overall level-progression. Per-unit-type threshold multiplier introduced that scales the thresholds to compensate for differences in the damage output of different unit types. AI experience levels now fully derived from combat (the AI experience boosting mechanism has been removed).
  • Updated pre-battle speeches to take greater advantage of available situational information
  • Grass and scrub no longer gets in the way of the camera during pre-battle speeches
  • Armies sharing the same deployment zone are no longer deployed on top of each other by default
  • Fixed bug in tracking-camera caused by restricted camera behaviour activated by Legendary difficulty mode
  • Improved first-person camera and projectile camera: time dilation effect is now relative to projectile speed. Artillery engine crew now trigger the projectile camera when their engine fires. Projectile camera remains stationary at the projectile’s terminus to allow the player to see the results
  • Pre-battle speeches now distinguish between multiple causes of the gates being forced open at the start of the battle
  • Adjustments to morale calculations, dependent on who is in control of an army and in what context. Allows for fine-tuning of morale calculations separately for single-player humans, multiplayer humans and AI armies
  • Improved the calculation of unit combat status. This corrects errors in the reporting of a unit’s tooltip win/loss state, and also fixes some issues in the unit morale calculations that use this status information
  • New weather gameplay effects added: Fog now causes a range penalty to all missile units, and causes non-commanding units to be hidden at a distance of 600m or more, even if they are out of cover
  • Fixed issue where the Total War camera sometimes snaps downwards when switching the camera type and/or starting a transition. (This was particularly evident at the end of the pre-battle cinematic)
  • Fixed issue in reinforcements system that allows multiple armies to feed more units into one army than is allowed on the battlefield
  • Fixed crash-bug caused by placing Yari Ashigaru into pike wall formation, then incrementing/decrementing their formation width and moving the unit before ending the deployment phase
  • Fixed issue that allowed siege defenders in ‘fight to the death’ mode to continue fighting in the end phase of battle after their fort was successfully captured by the attacking force
  • Pre-battle speeches are now disabled in custom battles if the player does not field a General
  • Fixed crash bug where the Stand and Fight special ability was used in a custom battle on a general unit that had been removed and re-added to the battle setup
  • Fixed crash bug resulting from construction of an RTS camera with specified position
  • Fixed crash bug that could sometimes occur when the FPS camera’s context-entity died
  • Cinematic camera movement speed is no longer height-relative. This allows for greater control and adjustment of camera positions in the cinematic editor
  • Fixed flaw in unit logic that could cause a crash in the multiplayer lobby when interacting with a veteran unit that has zero men.
  • Pre-battle speeches now allow for minor clans to be playable.

Naval combat

  • Fixed intercepting with surrendered ships
  • Fixed ships getting stuck on the edge of the battlefield
  • Fixed sail-configuration not fully working when using speed-up
  • Fixed enemy naval mines being visible in deployment
  • Hull-damage indicators now consistent across campaign and naval battles

Audio

  • Audio rebalancing
  • Added projectile injury sounds
  • Added special ability UI sounds
  • Added new unit melee sounds (male/female units, swords/spears, mixed)
  • UI sound when unit ordered to climb wall
  • Naval mines trigger launch sound
  • Front-end seasonal sounds to match scene
  • Fixed problem with music not playing on custom battle screen
  • Music volume now defaults to 75%
  • Fixed rare issue with sounds not triggering after extended gameplay
  • Separate sounds for female units
  • Added reverb for distance sounds
  • Fix for host being able to hear UI sounds for units that have been gifted to another player
  • Fixed move-UI sound being played instead of attack-UI sound when choosing artillery bombardment location
  • Added new sound when buildings selected in campaign map
  • Aide de camp now supported during pre-battle speech

User interface

  • Fix for some effect-bundle tooltips being cut off
  • Fixed finance summary profit totals
  • Fixed radar map image not updating when new clan discovered, and fixed rebel-owned region tooltip
  • Fixed front-end camera transition
  • Fixed mpc win movies showing same faction for both allies
  • Fixed radar flee- icon crash bug
  • Changed public-order display on finance panel to show current factors (rather than predicted)
  • Re-enabled slider for mission-event text
  • Fix to block co-op tax exemption exploit
  • Fixed assassination-movie location bug with garrisoned generals
  • Fixed bribe/move options panel text
  • Fixed mpc multi-turn move diplomacy panel exploit
  • Added extra update for diplomacy 3D model view
  • Fixed avatar snapshot uploading so that it only occurs when avatar changes
  • Made regions with imminent rebellion flash red on public order maps
  • Changed ‘become shogun’ event message into a movie popup
  • Mousing-over factions in diplomatic relations now previews faction details
  • Fixed avatars with bow-skill not loading customised model into battles
  • Added display of convalescing characters into radar list
  • Fixed agent options crash bug
  • Customised avatar of opposing player in MP battles now loading correctly
  • Fix for saving replays in results screen
  • Battle-regroup flag now has tooltip and is shown on radar
  • Fix for cards getting stuck to cursor
  • Enabled right-click on multiplayer units to show encyclopedia
  • Made selected cards more recognisable
  • Minor chat fixes and polish
  • Fixed toggling of group-behaviour
  • Text input improvements
  • Added timer to special-ability buttons to display cooldown in minutes/seconds when mousing over
  • Morale and charge bonus icons now show correct images on unit-information panel, and now show in campaign
  • Weather/Waiting panel in battle now gives details on effects current weather will have on battle
  • Added extra guarding for accessing model to prevent potential crashes
  • Modified drag-out behaviour so if user holds CTRL while dragging out units, they will walk to destination

Battle camera

  • Fixed bug in historic battles where the camera would be left in cinematic mode after the end of the intro cutscene (particularly in Okehazama where it never returned to normal)
  • Sekigahara and Okehazama historic battle in-game cutscenes are now skippable
  • Heat haze in Nagashino historic battle reduced

Campaign map

  • Katana cavalry is no longer immune to attrition
  • Wako trade ships upkeep cost reduced (to match other trade ships)
  • Various fixes in general’s retainers
  • Increased chance of critical success for successful actions
  • Slightly increased the value of resources not traded away
  • Changed general skill ‘strategist’ to award the movement extension instantly (not just in the beginning of a new turn)
  • Fixed issue where rebellion in regions could happen without prior warning of unrest
  • Fixed issue where rebellion could happen in region on the turn after it was captured
  • Finances map now shows regions that will rebel next turn as flashing. Tax-exempt regions with negative public-order value also flash
  • Movement-distance display now updated when skills applied
  • Random first-level art picked for research in first turn if researching nothing
  • Accuracy mod bonus applied correctly
  • Fix for issue where double-click on character skills could make skill points get lost
  • Added preferences variable to control campaign-camera edge-scroll delay
  • Re-added ‘trade route raided’ messages
  • Fixed navies being deregistered from trade nodes when the commander dies
  • Trade-route raiding now updates when war declared
  • Fixed predicted number of turns for replenishment
  • Fixed issue that wouldn’t always allow navy-merging very close to trade nodes.
  • Fixed rare lockup with agent acting against garrisoned settlement
  • Fixed Namban trade port not updating number of available trade routes correctly
  • Fixed path-finding state bug which could leave armies unable to move for a turn.
  • Fixed inability to disembark army from navy in port which is under blockade.
  • Fixed negative bonus-value modifiers for looting
  • Fixed instance of trade route removal not cancelling existing raids
  • Fixed rare disembark-at-port problem
  • Reordered code on becoming Shogun to prevent inappropriate messages being issued
  • In Diplomacy, probability of acceptance is now reported as high for gifts
  • Fixed crash in family-system after adopting uncle back into family
  • Workaround for bad path-finding data in starting position
  • Fixed rare lockup where army disembarks from navy into zone-of-control in player settlement, the navy is too close to a third party neutral navy, and the player declines to attack the disembarking army
  • Fixed rare load-crash when loading a pre-battle save game during an AI turn when that AI had previously issued a multi-turn order that involved an army disembarking from the navy in a future turn
  • Agents will no longer play multi-turn action animations if the player cannot afford the action
  • Autoresolve battle visual fix: army cannot drop to zero soldiers before the last round
  • Night battle support for pending battle power-bar. Will update if night battle is selected (and if the UI queries the value again)
  • Autoresolver will destroy or capture ships that are too weak to be used in battle
  • Repairing a ship in a port no longer invalidates its hull panel information.
  • Fixed a glow under the shroud when a castle is under siege
  • Kyoto has an additional defence bonus in the autoresolver
  • Improved defensive behaviour of single-region clans when building up forces to attack
  • Improved force conglomeration when pulling in defensive forces from distant regions
  • Fixed Bribe and Demoralise action-usage
  • Fixed naval-repair behaviour
  • Fixed minor clan alliance-breaking behaviour
  • Fixed a number of issues that may lead to corrupted save games
  • Fixed a number of AI-recoverable lockup issues
  • Fixed number of AI/model positional inconsistencies
  • Some efficiency improvements
  • Fixed case where ninjas could end up standing on top of each other
  • Fixed issue with not being able to back out of a sally-out attack
  • Fixed issue with not being able to withdraw from an attack against an army that is standing very close to a castle (but not besieging) when the attacking army is inside that castle
  • Fixed various issues with agents remaining in castles or armies they shouldn’t be in after creating a vassal or bribing an army or castle
  • Fixed AI lockup involving agents attempting to join a force that already contains three characters
  • Fixed not being able to issue an order to blockade a port when the cursor was over a navy inside that port
  • Fixed rare crash in recruitment system where armies could end up with the wrong unit leading the force
  • Fixed issue with being unable to issue orders to agents inside a castle
  • Improved recruit-to-general performance, especially when clan has a very large number of regions
  • Sabotage Building action now applies a varying amount of damage linked to the ninja’s skill
  • Fixed rare bug of a new Daimyo spawning a castle where a battle had just occurred, forcing the battle to be fought again
  • Fixed spawned Ashikaga clan armies appearing on top of Ninjas
  • Agents can no longer be recruited within besieged settlements
  • Reinstated missing realm-divide event-log entry
  • Fixed generals defecting to Wako or European Traders
  • Fixed issue with AI not correctly issuing Demoralise and Bribe orders
  • Fixed rare crash bug where merge-cursor would appear when the cursor was over a farm or special building, when the user had a navy with an agent onboard selected
  • Fixed night battles being able to exclude a human player from participating in a battle
  • Fixed lockup when carrying out a bribe action when another character is moving
  • Building Sabotage events now show region name
  • Fixed rare crash involving ambushers standing on top of each other
  • Fixed Generals enlisted statistic so it takes into account generals acquired via dilemmas
  • All newly recruited Geishas will be between 18 and 25 years of age
  • Agent options dialogue no longer appears if the target army is in the same clan but already contains the maximum number of agents
  • Removed gap in Agent Indicator flag on enemy army which signified Ninja presence
  • Fixed bribed armies not ending their siege
  • Fixed armies created via Incite Revolt appearing on top of the monk that incited the revolt
  • Fixed rare crash in matched animations on campaign map

Units

  • Removed passive ‘encourage friendly morale’ bonus from General’s units
  • Increased flanking morale-penalties
  • Changed casualty morale-penalties to be smaller at low casualty levels, and higher at large casualty levels
  • Reduced siege-unit accuracy
  • Increased detonation-radius on fire rockets
  • Inspire ability bonus to morale reduced to 10 from 12
  • Inspire ability bonus to accuracy reduced to 15 from 40
  • Inspire ability bonus to reload reduced from 50 to 20
  • Inspire ability bonus to melee attack reduced from 7 to 3
  • Rapid Volley reload-rate bonus reduced from 70 to 30
  • Whistling Arrow penalties to units reduced
  • Fixed Hattori Daimyo’s portrait in campaign
  • Tweaked AI recruitment-priorities so more clan-specific units are recruited
  • Added in missing bridge map from Iwami province
  • Fixed errors with some Yari Ashigaru unit morale values, so clan specific versions now always have higher morale than generic versions

Multiplayer-specific fixes
————————–

Unit costs

  • Increased multiplayer costs of Cannon bune and Nihon Maru to 4000 and 5000
  • Morale for Warrior Monks reduced by 2
  • Naginata Warrior Monks melee attack reduced by 3
  • Bow Cavalry cost reduced to 650
  • Katana Cavalry cost reduced to 800
  • Yari Cavalry cost increased to 850
  • Fire Projecting Mangonels cost increased to 1500
  • Fire Rockets cost increased to 1800
  • European Cannons cost increased to 1500

Gameplay

  • 14k is now the maximum fund bracket for matchmade battles
  • Reduced siege unit accuracy
  • Inspire ability bonus to morale reduced to 10 from 12
  • Inspire ability bonus to accuracy reduced to 15 from 40
  • Inspire ability bonus to reload reduced from 50 to 20
  • Inspire ability bonus to melee attack reduced from 7 to 3
  • Whistling Arrow penalties to units reduced
  • All siege maps: Defender has 60% of funds instead of 50%

General

  • Removed passive encourage friendly morale bonus from generals units
  • Increased flanking morale penalties
  • Changed casualty morale penalties to be smaller at low casualty levels and higher at large casualty levels
  • Increased detonation radius on fire rockets
  • Rapid volley reload rate bonus reduced from 70 to 30

Bugs

  • Alt-F4 problem fixed. When any player disconnects from a matchmade battle, they will accrue a loss regardless of whether they are the host, or not. The player disconnecting will also suffer a 5% penalty on their ELO rating. The player not disconnecting will receive a win. It is, however, possible that wins accrued in this way will not update correctly on the leaderboard and avatar stats. All other gains from the win do work (eg unlocking of units, clan points, ELO skill rating etc)
  • Enemy avatar customisations are now viewable in battle
  • Bug where team matchmade battles always use small funds has been fixed
  • Veteran unit speed upgrades are now working
  • The ‘Hold firm’ clan speciality has been fixed
  • The ‘Scares enemies’ clan speciality has been fixed
  • Bug where matchmade battles sometimes result in incorrect battle type has been fixed
  • Occasional soft lock in ‘opponent found, arranging battle’ has been fixed
  • Various fixes to the matchmaking system and networking code
  • Ability to delete hero units has been removed.
  • Ability to clone veteran units has been fixed
  • Bug where players randomly drop ELO points has been fixed

4 new multiplayer maps:

  • Aki
  • Hida Mountain
  • Flood Plains
  • Sanriku Ria

Diablo III Beta Test Set for 3rd Quarter

Today, during an Activision financial conference call, Blizzard President Mike Morhaime stated that the Diablo III beta test would begin sometime in the third quarter of this year. So, look for a Summer beta!

Morhaime said, “The game looks great, and we’re currently targeting a Q3 launch for external beta testing”.

Morhaime was quick to mention that, although the team is trying for a 2011 release, there is still no definitive date for the highly-anticipated game, which pits players once again against the evil minions of Diablo.

Nival Sends Out E3 2011 Party Save the Date

Nival, a Russian developer currently working on the upcoming cross-platform strategy title, PrimeWorld, has sent out the save the date cards for their E3 2011 after party. The party is set for the evening of June 8th, so we will make sure we keep you guys up-to-date with the goings on at the shindig as it unfolds.

If you are interested in learning more about PrimeWorld, checkout their official website.

Nintendo E3 2011 Press Conference Confirmations Sent

Nintendo has sent out the official invite confirmations for their upcoming E3 2011 press briefing, which is set to take place on June 7th, 2011 at 9:00 am. The big news? A possible successor to the popular Nintendo Wii console. Other news? Most definitely new titles for the DS, 3DS, and Wii platforms.

So, stay-tuned as we bring you the latest from the Electronic Entertainment Expo!

Red Faction: Armageddon Packshots (European)

Here are the official European packshots for THQ’s upcoming shooter, Red Faction: Armageddon. Armageddon is due out on June 7th and set after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla. The game features both single and multiplayer gameplay along with the Geo Mod 2.5 game engine.

All Three Packshots

Battle: Los Angeles Blu-ray to Include Resistance 3 Demo

This is a few days old by now but we wanted to post it as a reminder that those of you looking to purchase the sci-fi war flick, Battle: Los Angeles, on Blu-ray will be also be getting a game demo for the upcoming shooter, Resistance 3. The game demo will consist of about a half hour of gameplay and this also marks the first global release of a hybrid Blu-ray/PS3 game disc. The movie is due out on June 14th while the full version of Resistance 3 is due out in August.