Author - Jerry Paxton

Microsoft Backpedals on Xbox One Policies

This just in from Microsoft, the Xbox One will not require an online connection to play offline titles! Also, the company backed off on their used game policy. Check out the official policy points below:

-An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

-Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

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Nordic Games Sends Out New Deadfall Screenshots

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JUNE 19, 2013 — Nordic Games today revealed the cover-art as well as new screenshots for their blockbuster release of Deadfall Adventures, out on the Xbox 360 and Windows PC September 27th. In keeping with the style of Deadfall Adventures, the beautifully created cover-art takes its inspiration from the Lost World genre of literature, popularised in the early 20th century through novels such as King Solomon’s Mines and The Land That Time Forgot that depicted the discovery of unexplored and exotic worlds. The cover art also pays tribute to the science-fiction and adventure “Pulp” magazines of the same era that gave rise to one of the greatest treasure hunters and pulp action heroes of all time – Indiana Jones.

Developed using Unreal Engine 3, Deadfall Adventures is full of spectacular jaw-dropping moments, as players battle natural and not-so-natural enemies across stormy deserts of Egypt to the icy depths of the Arctic and all the way to the steaming jungles of Guatemala.  Assuming the role of adventurer Quatermain, players will encounter fiendish puzzles, deadly traps and stunning set pieces, making this one of the greatest adventures ever told – let alone played.

For more information on the Deadfall Adventures like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/deadfalladventures or follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/DeadfallAdv

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World of Tanks Update 8.6 Brings New Artillery Units

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June 19, 2013 — Wargaming, the leading free-to-play MMO developer and publisher, today announced that Update 8.6 is now available in Europe and rolling out to the rest of the world later this month. Southeast Asia will see the update go live on June 20th, while American and South Korean players will get the update on June 25th and July 4nd, respectively.

The latest update to World of Tanks brings further changes and balance to the in-game economy, as well as adds new SPGs that further bolster that line of vehicles up to Tier X. Along with the new artillery units, Update 8.6 also adds a new premium British tank, the A33 Excelsior, as well as a new battle arena—Sacred Valley, based on a Korean setting.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops II Vengeance Release Date

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Santa Monica, CA – June 18, 2013 – Get an early start on your 4th of July weekend celebration with Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Vengeance.  Available first, exclusively on the Xbox Live® online entertainment network from Microsoft beginning July 2, the game’s third epic Downloadable Content (DLC) Pack from Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) and its award-winning studio Treyarch,Vengeance takes players to four diverse locations around the globe, including a deserted tropical island, a destroyed suspension bridge, an abandoned paintball course, and the jungles of Myanmar.  Vengeance also serves up a new addition to the game’s esteemed Zombies experience with “Buried,” where the undead residents of an abandoned subterranean Old West mining town have come back to claim their home.

“When it’s difficult to see the line between playtesting and leisurely gaming around the studio, it’s a sure sign that we’ve created something fun with Vengeance,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch.  “From the four multiplayer maps to our new Zombies experience, “Buried,” Vengeance continues doing what we set out to accomplish from the very beginning of development on Call of Duty: Black Ops II: pushing the boundaries of fans’ expectations.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Vengeance delivers four new, diverse multiplayer maps starting with “Cove,” where the stage is set for all-out conflict on this small, forgotten island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with players battling it out amongst the wreckage of a jet that crash-landed during a smuggling operation gone wrong.  Next up is “Detour,” a destroyed suspension bridge, high above an East Coast waterway, packed with scattered vehicles, exposed iron and collapsed pavement where the head-to-head action will play out on multiple levels.  The third map, “Rush,” sets the stage for fast, close-quarters engagements in this paintball course turned full-combat arena, giving players new opportunities and challenges to use the cover to their advantage.  Rounding out Vengeance’s multiplayer maps is “Uplink.”  In this re-imagined adaptation of the fan-favorite multiplayer map “Summit” from the original Call of Duty®: Black Ops, players clash deep in the rain-soaked jungles of Myanmar, high atop a hi-tech mountain facility.

Treyarch yet again expands the Zombies storyworld in new, mind-bending ways with “Buried.”  Players meet up with old characters and will encounter new ones as they face off against the undead residents of an abandoned underground Old West mining town.  A healthy arsenal of equipment and weapons that will be at players’ disposal, but with one very special addition – something so powerful it will also appear in all other Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies maps (with the purchase of Vengeance DLC): the Ray Gun Mark II.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Vengeancewill be available first, exclusively on Xbox Live for Xbox 360® game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 1200 Microsoft Points on July 2, with other platforms to follow.  Call of Duty: Black Ops II is rated “M” (Mature – Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs – content suitable for persons ages 17 and older) by the ESRB.  More information on Call of Duty: Black Ops II can be found at http://www.callofduty.com/blackops2 or on www.facebook.com/codblackops.  Fans can also follow @Treyarch on Twitter.

Dark Matter Starts Kickstarter and Steam Campaigns

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(SITTARD, THE NETHERLANDS) June 18, 2013 – InterWave Studios announced today a dual Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaign that will run simultaneously for their upcoming DRM-free game Dark MatterDark Matter is a Metroid-like, intense sci-fi side scrolling game that combines the twitch mechanics of a first person shooter with an adventure platformer.

“We could release Dark Matter right now in its beta form, but there is a level of polish and some necessary tweaking to gameplay mechanics required in order to ensure the game provides people with an exceptional, fun and intense experience. The funding will provide us with the additional two months we need to complete Dark Matter. At the same time, we are looking to publish Dark Matter via Steam Greenlight’s system that uses their community to pick upcoming new games,” said Igor Raffaele, general manager of InterWave Studios.

InterWave Studios will attempt to crowdsource and publish Dark Matter simultaneously over the course of the next 30 days.  The funding will go directly to the game’s final two months of development to ensure that Dark Matterachieves the level of polish it deserves. In addition, InterWave will begin to reach out to its community with unique access to the game and the developers to help achieve the level of support it requires in the Greenlight community in order for Steam to publish the game.

“As part of the Kickstarter campaign, we are going to do something truly unprecedented by granting our higher level backers access to Dark Matter‘s beta version during the campaign so that they can help dictate the game’s development by providing feedback to us directly via our forums and one-on-one meetings. With our backers’ feedback and support, our goal is to create the type of game we want to play rather than the type of game big studios would force on players. Big publishers would normally ignore smaller games with lower profit margins like Dark Matter, but we are an independent studio, so we don’t have to sell millions of games in order to be successful. We don’t have to appease shareholders. We only have to make our fans happy. It is this philosophy that allows us to create games like Dark Matter and we look forward to sharing it with everyone,” said Raffaele.

Mars War Logs Gets English Story Refinement

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JUNE 18, 2013 — Mars War Logs was released in late April and, if most players who bought the Spiders Studio title liked the game itself, they were disappointed with the narrative element because the English version strayed too far from the original French. The general feeling was that the translation didn’t stick closely enough to the original French story and dialog.

Luc Heninger, Director of Production at Focus Home Interactive, explains:

“Mars contains a vast amount of dialog, even by RPG standards. The plot has numerous strands and the dialog often has many variants to mirror the hero’s changes in reputation. The tight deadlines between the game release dates meant that the initial English translation lacked depth and contained a number of errors; it was then sent to the recording studio, making the job of the actors extremely difficult. The actual game was thoroughly tested and released with very few bugs on PC, but unfortunately the procedures for the audio and text QA failed and allowed many English localization issues to slip through. We realized the extent of the problem after seeing the first feedback from the press and gamers. The result was so far removed from what we usually produce that we took the decision to halt the submission process for the console version, which was due for release only weeks after the PC title. We have re-written the game text and dialog and, of course, recorded the actors again, replacing the sections that weren’t true to the characters in Mars. All these problems will therefore be fixed in the console version. An update is now available for players with the PC game, and we have also incorporated the new audio in the PC versions on the various download sites.”

We are pleased to share with you a video showing the first 7 minutes of the game, featuring the new localization and the new English voices present in all versions of the game.

Mars War Logs is currently available on PC and will be today’s Daily Deal on Steam, at -33%. The game is scheduled for release on Xbox LIVE® and the PlayStation®Network in September 2013.

Shadowrun Returns Release Date and Editor Info

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Harebrained Schemes has announced that its highly-anticipated Shadowrun Returns will be released on July 25th, 2013 for the Windows PC, iOS tablet, and Android tablet platforms. Additionally, Harebrained Schemes has revealed that they are releasing the game editor for players to experiment with in creating their own content.

“The idea of releasing all of the editor files for the Shadowrun Returns campaign was based on my experience working with Trent Reznor on the Alternate Reality Game (ARG) for his album Year Zero. Trent empowered his fans to re-mix his music anyway they wished by releasing the GarageBand tracks with the album. With Shadowrun Returns we are doing the same thing, players can start from what we have created and build on it, revise it, or use it as a starting point for completely new stories. I believe we are the first to release an editable version of an entire campaign, and we are excited to see where the players take this universe,” said Jordan Weisman, founder of Harebrained Schemes and originator of Shadowrun.

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Endless Space: Disharmony Expansion Nearing Release

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Haarlem, The Netherlands –  June 18, 2013 –  Amplitude Studios is excited to announce it has entered the last stages of development for ‘Disharmony,’  the first official expansion to its 4X space-strategy hit Endless Space.  The expansion pack follows the release of four free add-ons that have extended gameplay since the game’s original inception in 2012.

Upon the Disharmony expansion pack launch, Amplitude plans to unlock the ‘Sheredyn Faction’ and the ‘Endless Hero’ from the Emperor Edition for all players, as well as the addition of “Automaton ship models” as a gift to the community for being so awesome.

The Disharmony expansion pack will be available on Steam, June 26, 2013 as DLC for $9.99, with publisher Iceberg Interactive releasing the English retail version (key-only box with 16 page artbook) on June 28.

For more information about Endless Space: Disharmony, please visit the official Website: http://endless-space.amplitude-studios.com/

Two New Space Hulk Screenshots

Full Control has released two new screenshots take from the alpha build of its upcoming PC, Mac and iOS release Space Hulk, which is set for release this Fall.

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