Author - Jerry Paxton

Namco Bandai Announces Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for PC

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

SAN JOSE, Calif. (April 11, 2012) – Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., today announced that, by popular demand, Dark Souls™: Prepare to Die™ Edition will be releasing for the PC platform in North America on August 24th.  This special, content-enhanced edition of the critically acclaimed Action-RPG developed by FromSoftware will be finely-tuned to cater to the PC gaming audience while retaining all of the deep challenge, rich atmosphere, and compelling gameplay that made the game a worldwide phenomenon. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on the PC platform will also include an enhanced PVP mode allowing players to more closely assemble battles against one another online in an all-out fight to the death that fans have demanded.

In addition, the development team at FromSoftware has revealed an untold chapter in the world of Lordran created specifically to help further expand upon the lore of the game. ‘Artorias of the Abyss’ will include all-new areas to explore, enemies to encounter, and bosses to take down one by one as players are treated to an unseen side of Lordan where players must stop the spread of darkness at all costs by facing and defeating the Dark Knight Artorias.

“Our fans demanded to see this game brought to the PC, and the noise they have made was simply too loud and too passionate to ignore,” said Hidetaka Miyazaki, Creative Director for Dark Souls at FromSoftware, Inc., “This also allowed us to dive back into the world of Dark Souls, offering a special edition of the game that offers more ways to die over and over again than ever before.  Adding a whole new chapter to tell the tale of the Dark Knight Artorias was an opportunity we’re also proud to have taken, as we’ve managed to expand the experience for our biggest fans without compromising the balance of the core game that we worked so hard to create. This edition of the game is our gift to the fans.”

Heralded by critics worldwide, IGN referred to the original Dark Souls™ release as, “One of the most thrilling, most fascinating and most completely absorbing experiences in gaming,” while GameSpot called it, “Extraordinary… an awesome and menacing world you may never forget.”

With tense dungeon crawling and fearsome enemy encounters, the seamlessly intertwined world of Dark Souls is full of extreme battles, rewarding challenges, nuanced weaponry and magic, and the flexibility to customize each character to suit any desired play style.  The innovative online component allows gamers to draw from the collective experience of the Dark Souls community as they either help or sabotage each other on the journey through the world of Lordran to save the land from darkness.  With a massive, seamless open world design, Dark Souls encourages deep exploration and an adaptable gameplay experience.

Dark Souls™: Prepare to Die™ Edition will be available for digital download on the PC platform in North America on Augist 24th.  For more information on the game, please be sure to visit www.PrepareToDie.com and www.facebook.com/DarkSouls.

New Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Screenshots

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today unveiled new screenshots for METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection for the Playstation®Vita system. From the critically acclaimed director, Hideo Kojima, METAL GEAR SOLID HD Collection includes two beloved classics, METAL GEAR SOLID 2: Sons of Liberty and METAL GEAR SOLID 3: Snake Eater. Both titles feature stunning, upgraded graphics, optimized controls designed to take full advantage of the PlayStation®Vita system touchscreen capabilities, and trophies that are shared via TRANSFARRING (save data sharing) with the PlayStation®3 title of the same name.

Screenshots

Georges St-Pierre Collaborating on Sleeping Dogs

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

LONDON – (April 11, 2012) – Square Enix London Studios, a part of Square Enix Europe, today announced its partnership with highly acclaimed mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Georges St-Pierre to collaborate on the development of Sleeping Dogs. St-Pierre, known to his legion of fans as “GSP”, has been working with Square Enix and United Front Games on multiple elements – including combat – in Sleeping Dogs, a gritty open world cop drama set in the vibrant city of Hong Kong.

“Working with Square Enix has been an incredible opportunity,” said St-Pierre. “I’m really impressed to see how the hand-to-hand combat in the game is shaping up – it’s been a great experience being involved.”

In the stylized, high-action Hong Kong setting of Sleeping Dogs, every street corner, market stall, harbor dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat as players take on the role of undercover cop Wei Shen. Featuring an intuitive and imaginative combat system, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, single-handedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crushing kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic set of environmental takedowns making use of countless real-world items from circular saws to phone booths, incinerators to refrigerator doors.

St-Pierre is working on an ongoing basis with Sleeping Dogs, consulting on elements in the game as well as sharing insights with the public on the game’s progress. Stay tuned for more detail.

“When it comes to professional fighting, names don’t get much bigger than GSP,” said Square Enix London Studios general manager Lee Singleton. “We are thrilled with the expertise that GSP brings to Sleeping Dogs”

Sleeping Dogs will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PCs.

Related Links

  • Sleeping Dogs Official Homepage: www.sleepingdogs.net
  • Sleeping Dogs Official Facebook® page: www.facebook.com/SleepingDogsGame
  • Follow Sleeping Dogs on Twitter®: @SleepingDogs

Nexuiz Beta Now Underway

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

AGOURA HILLS, Calif.- THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) and Machinima today announced the immediate launch of a public PC Beta for Nexuiz, the CryENGINE® 3 powered Arena FPS from Illfonic.

“PC is the home of the arena shooter”

Places are limited, and access keys can be claimed on a first come, first served basis via Alienware’s website at AlienwareArena.com/Nexuiz.

After a successful launch on Xbox 360, Nexuiz is now scheduled for release on PC on May 3, with a suggested retail price of $9.99 and substantial PC-specific enhancements.

“PC is the home of the arena shooter,” said Kedhrin Gonzalez, creative director at Illfonic. “We’ve been working hard to make the PC version of Nexuiz the best we can, and add the features and support that the discerning PC audience expects. This Beta will help us fine tune our online service, and we hope players will have a blast with it.”

The PC version of Nexuiz will include a number of enhancements and changes over the console version including:

  • Dedicated server support and game browser
  • Enhanced, CryENGINE 3 powered graphics with DX11 support
  • Advanced custom controls, new HUD and a 15 percent increase to player speed for ultimate twitch-shooter experience — and Immersive feedback utilizing Alien FX by Alienware!

More details can be found on the Nexuiz community forums at Forums.Nexuiz.com.

Nexuiz for PC is now available to pre-order from Steam at Store.Steampowered.com/app/96800 with a 10 percent discount applied to all pre-orders.

Western Digital Begins Shipping Scorpio Blue Ultrabook Drives

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

IRVINE, Calif., April 11, 2012 – Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), a worldwide storage leader, today announced it is shipping the WD Scorpio® Blue™ 7 mm hard drive, the latest addition to its mobile hard drive family and the 2.5-inch drive with the lowest power consumption on the market today. Specified to a best-in-class 400Gs shock tolerance, the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue small form factor hard drives are available in 500 GB and 320 GB capacities and the drives’ compatibility with industry-standard 9.5 mm slots make them ideal storage options for mainstream notebooks as well as slimmer notebook and Ultrabook™ devices that require a 7 mm drive height.

“Consumers want thin and light personal computers, but the limited storage capacity of SSD-based notebooks forces them to pick and choose what files to bring from their library,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager for WD client storage products. “With the release of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm mobile hard drives, WD is able to offer capacity, reliability and data-protection features combined with excellent power management all in a slim form factor perfect for thin and light notebooks.”

Features of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm hard drives include:

  • Low power consumption – Advanced power management features and algorithms optimize the way the drive seeks data, which significantly improves power consumption.
  • Shock Tolerance – WD’s ShockGuard™ technology, now increased to a best-in-market 400Gs shock specification, protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
  • Cool and quiet – In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive™ technology enables quiet performance.
  • Reliable – WD’s SecurePark™ parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
  • Compatibility Tested – WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give customers confidence that drives will work in specific systems.

KRATER Gets A Release Date

2012/04/11
Jerry Paxton
News

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. April 11, 2012. Fatshark today announced a release date for their upcoming adventure roll-playing game KRATER. PC gamers can join the adventure on June 12, 2012 via Steam. A Mac version will be available in July.

“We are very happy to announce a rock solid – oh well – release date for KRATER. A game with enormous depth, it really has, it takes place in a very deep crater.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “KRATER brings a rich experience for anyone that likes the post apocalyptic roll-playing genre, and I’m looking forward play coop with other adventurers.”

KRATER is a lush post-apocalyptic top down RPG and the base pillars are crafting, exploration and consequence. Consequence brings not only the ability for the characters to level up and improve themselves, but also permanent injuries and death. The grim reaper never been so grim!

“During the winter and spring, we’ve had over 20 000 pre-alpha/alpha testers and the feedback has been great,” says Victor Magnuson, Game Designer, Fatshark. “Before we release the game, there will be a beta available for everybody that has pre-ordered KRATER.”

If you want to get your KRATER on, and save a few “whatever currency you have” while you’re at it, visit http://store.fatshark.se and pick up the game today!

To get the latest info on all Fatshark activities; follow us www.twitter.com/fatsharkgames, like us www.facebook.com/fatsharkgames, visit us www.fatshark.se.

Path of Exile Raises Over 200k in Funding

2012/04/10
Jerry Paxton
News

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – 11 April 2012 – Following a hugely popular public test weekend, the makers of Indie Action RPG Path of Exile, New Zealand-based Grinding Gear Games, have launched a ‘crowd-funding’ campaign where players can pre-purchase game currency and receive rewards such as Closed Beta Keys and exclusive in-game pets in return.

In first six days the free-to-play ‘ethical microtransaction’ funded action RPG has sold over USD $200,000 worth of supporter packs to 13,000 fans.

The previous weekend 46,911 players stress tested the game.  “We literally had hundreds of people asking how they could support the game to get to Open Beta sooner.  We were blown away by the community enthusiasm at the stress test weekend, so we moved quickly to open our shop earlier than planned.  We’ve been blown away again by the support over Easter,” says Grinding Gear Games’ co-founder Chris Wilson.

13 people have bought the $1,000 Diamond Supporter package, which will let them help design one of the game’s Unique magic items.

Path of Exile features its own dark, gritty take on the Action RPG genre, a unique skill gem system, a huge passive skill tree and PvP combat in a persistent online world.

“The crowd-funding presales mean Path of Exile will enter Open Beta in June with three acts of content.  Although we plan to pile on the content for years to come, further support will greatly accelerate it and help pay for our US and European servers.”

Grinding Gear Games have committed to never charge for content or power. “Selling supporter packs and currency has also been a great test of our ‘ethical microtransaction’ philosophy.  We hate the concept of pay-to-win games, so it’s great to see that players are willing to support the game and to buy purely cosmetic items,” says Wilson.

A range of supporter packs are available on Path of Exile’s website.  The cheapest tier is $10 which includes Closed Beta access. Higher tiers come with in-game Kiwi bird Pets, a collector’s edition copy of the game, t-shirts, soundtracks, signed posters, and the option to design a Unique Item. All packs include game currency which can be used to buy extra character slots and stash tabs for compulsive item hoarding.  More personalisation options and player services are planned for the Open Beta.

Any purchases made now will continue into the Open Beta, although Closed Beta characters and non-microtransaction items will be wiped upon entering Open Beta in approximately June.

During the stress test weekend, 46,911 people tried the game with the servers successfully handling a peak load of 7310 players. “The stress test was great – we learnt a lot about how people are playing and enjoying the game. We’ve built Path of Exile as an online game with PvP and support for various leagues and game modes from the ground up, and we’re really pleased with how the servers performed,” says Wilson.

Path of Exile has been in development for five years by Grinding Gear Games, an independent studio of hardcore RPG fans based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Key features of ‘Path of Exile’:

  • Completely free to download and play, but never ‘pay-to-win’
  • A persistent online world capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of players
  • A dark and gritty game world rendered from a fixed 3D perspective
  • Randomly generated levels and items for extreme replayability
  • Online ranking and ladders for every game mode
  • Visceral combat with dozens of combinable skills
  • Battle in PVP tournaments for worldwide recognition
  • Dynamic skill system

View the trailer at www.youtube.com/grindinggear 

Naval War: Arctic Circle Out Now

2012/04/10
Jerry Paxton
News

New York – April 10, 2012 – After months of anxious waiting in the cold of the North Atlantic, two great fleets now sit ready to answer your every command. An energy-starved world takes advantage of the melting ice caps and races to claim the bounty of the sea. Paradox Interactive and Turbo Tape Games are proud to announce that Naval War: Arctic Circle has been released.

Paradox Interactive and Turbo Tape Games give you the opportunity to decide the fate of the world in two scenario-driven campaigns – play as either the NATO forces pulled together to combat a rising threat or as the Russian Navy, hungrily pushing out of her Northern bases to secure badly needed resources. Meticulously researched ships, planes and submarines are at your disposal, along with their powerful weapons systems. Realistically modeled weather and radar systems further enhance your experience.

Naval War: Arctic Circle challenges veteran wargamers to a fatal game of hide-and-seek, where the first one to be spotted could be the first one to go down.

Naval War: Arctic Circle comes to you today, April 10, via retail and all major digital distribution platforms for a recommended retail price of $19.99.
Buy the game here: http://www.navalwargame.com/buy

Act now and make a name for yourself as one of the future’s great admirals!
Do you think you have what it takes to seize control of the riches of the North Atlantic? Are you brave enough to risk everything to change the world’s balance of power in your favor?

Mass Effect 3 Resurgence Pack Released with Screenshots

2012/04/10
Jerry Paxton
News

Electronic Arts and BioWare have announced the release of the Resurgence Pack DLC pack for Mass Effect 3.

The Mass Effect 3: Resurgence Pack includes the following content:

  • Two New Action-Packed Maps – Take the battle to Firebase Condor, a warzone outpost located on one of Palaven’s moons and Firebase Hydra, an old abandoned quarian colony which has since been converted into a critical power facility. Each map represents a crucial asset in the overall fight against the Reapers.
  • Six Powerful New Unlockable Characters – Assume the role of new characters for each class, including the Asari Justicar Adept, Krogan Battlemaster Vanguard and characters from new playable races with the Batarian Soldier, Batarian Sentinel, Geth Engineer and Geth Infiltrator.
  • Lethal New Weapons – Obliterate wave after wave of enemies by unlocking the Striker Assault Rifle, Kishock Harpoon Gun and Geth Plasma SMG.
  • New Consumables – Cash in your credits to purchase reinforcement packs that could include the following new consumables:
    • Strength Enhancer – Applies a melee damage boost for one mission
    • Targeting VI – Applies a headshot damage bonus for one mission
    • Stabilization Module – Stabilizes weapons while firing and moving for one mission
    • Shield Power Cells – Shortens the length of time shields take to begin recharging for one mission

Screenshots

EVGA Announces Release of Z77 FTW Motherboards

2012/04/10
Jerry Paxton
News

April 8, 2012 — The perfect combination of features and performance has arrived with the EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard. With 3rd generation Intel Core processor support, full PCI-E 3.0 and 4-Way SLI Support, this motherboard is ready for the future of high performance computing.

The EVGA Z77 FTW is engineered from the ground up for the enthusiast. Robust overclocking features and BIOS settings allow you to maximize your performance and maintain stability.

New and Key Features introduced on the EVGA Z77 Motherboards:
* Supports Next Generation Intel Core i5 and i7 Socket 1155 Processors
* Intel Z77 Chipset
* Supports up to 4-way SLI
* 4 DIMM Dual-Channel DDR3 2133Mhz+ (up to 32GB)
* Native USB 3.0 and SATA 6G

Learn more about the EVGA Z77 here

About EVGA
EVGA is the #1 NVIDIA authorized partner in channel sales throughout North America. Based on the philosophy of intelligent innovation, market knowledge, and the real time operation, EVGA continues to identify the need in the market place and providing the solution to that need. By offering product differentiation, 24/7 tech support, a 90 day Step-Up program, and other customer focused programs, EVGA is a clear leader in all categories: etail, retail, distribution, and system builders. With headquarters in Brea, CA, EVGA’s global coverage includes EVGA GmbH in Munich, EVGA LATAM in Miami, and EVGA Hong Kong. For further information online about EVGA, visit http://www.evga.com.