July 3, 2009 6:00 AMBlizzard Entertainment has posted another lengthy Q&A with Ghostcrawler and the World of Warcraft Development Team. This discussion focuses on the Warlock class in the popular MMORPG with a range of topics including the Warlock's role in the game, weaknesses in PvP, and future plans for the class.Where do warlocks fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do we see them going from this point forward? Ghostcrawler: The warlock is a caster -- a ranged damage dealer. They can fill only one role, which makes them a “pure” class as opposed to a hybrid. Warlocks have a reputation for trafficking with darkness, and their spells and abilities reflect this -- demons, curses, drains, fears. All warlocks rely on damage-over-time spells and demonic pets to some extent. The Affliction tree focuses on damage-over-time spells, curses, and shadow magic in general. The Demonology tree emphasizes the damage and abilities done by demons. The Destruction tree gives up a little of both to become a little bit more like a mage with direct damage and fire magic. Overall, the vision is for warlocks to feel less fragile than mages. They have historically had higher health pools and easier to sustain mana, but fewer emergency escapes. Keeping the mage and warlock feeling distinct is a big challenge. They fill a similar role and share similar gear so sometimes even the profiles of their character art look similar. Going forward, we want to try and make the warlock experience more different from the mage. Our new plans for Soul Shards will help here. We want to make them a core mechanic instead of a minor feature that can be neglected at best and feels tedious at worst. We’re happy with the relative damage done by Affliction and Destruction. Depending on which Lich King patch you look at one or the other are slightly on top, but they’re close. Demonology still seems to lag a little behind. We think there is still room for a strong Felguard build in there. It might be that the pets still require too much management or it could just be that the rotation isn’t as interesting as the ones Affliction or Destruction use right now. Demonology suffers from a little bit of the same problem as the Beastmaster hunter, which is when the pet is such a big part of your damage you are crippled in moments when the pet is killed or ineffectual. Except for a brief moment early in Lich King, warlocks have been under-represented in PvP and we want to see more of them. We don’t want to get there through fear bombs, though. In fact, we think the damage locks can do is in a pretty good place. The problem is survivability, especially when stunned. Now some of the 3.2 changes are going to chill out damage across the board and we are increasing the survivability of pets in PvP. Both of those changes should help warlocks, who historically have been a little better in endurance fights than quick scrums. If those changes aren’t enough, we’re prepared to make additional ones. Lich King made the warlock pets more interesting but we think there is still a lot of opportunity here. Some of the pets have abilities that just don’t get much use (Imp Fire Shield anyone?) while other pets could benefit from a couple more abilities. The voidwalker for example does all of his damage through just a simple autoattack. While we are slightly positioning the imp as a Destruction pet and the felhound as an Affliction pet, we think we can make the choice of what demon to use at a particular time more interesting. The succubus has too narrow a niche, and the voidwalker is still used mostly as a level-up pet. Click over to the link below to read more.WoW: Warlock Q&ABlizzard EntertainmentWorld of Warcraft

July 3, 2009 6:00 AMThe New York Times Online has published a new review of Spore Galactic Adventures. The expansion for Will Wright's evolution sim offers players the ability to beam down to planets, an equipment editor, and an Adventure Creator that will give gamers the chance to create their own missions and share them with others.From the review:In the original Spore the final phase entailed little more than flying around an abstraction of the Milky Way, shooting at spaceships that represented various alien incursions. Galactic Adventures is meant to provide myriad, uh, adventures throughout the galaxy that give meaning to why you’re warping around all the time. The player creates an avatar, called a captain, which improves its various attributes by completing quests. The more quests you finish, the more powerful you become, in true role-playing style. The strength of Galactic Adventures is in the rich pool of tools it gives players to create their own scenarios. The basic visual style is goofy and kid friendly, but there is nothing stopping you from creating an evocation of the infernal regions. Players can shape the landscape and place buildings and creatures. For every creature the player can set up a hierarchy of behaviors like “mind your own business, but once a hostile creature gets close, make defending the nest your prime objective.” Galactic Adventures’ strongest suit is how easily it explains how to create such behaviors and environments. The problem is that Electronic Arts itself does so little with these prodigious tools. It is almost as if the company were waiting for its customers to create the game for it. Most of the levels included with the game are almost embarrassingly mundane: kill the enemies, defend the base from attackers, escort some dude from here to there, collect an arbitrary number of doodads, race the course as fast as you can. By contrast LittleBigPlanet also revolves around allowing players to create their own content, but its maker, Media Molecule, set an incredibly high bar in demonstrating what its own tools were capable of.Click on the link below to read the rest.NYTimes.com: Spore Galactic Adventures ReviewElectronic ArtsSpore Galactic Adventures

July 3, 2009 6:00 AMShacknews has posted a new Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty Q&A with Blizzard Entertainment's Dustin Browder. The questions cover a range of topics related to the game's units, interface, and single playerfeatures. StarCraft 2 will pick up a few years after the end of Broodwar and will follow the story of the Terrans.Shack: You haven't shown much of the singleplayer component, and that may be one reason for a lot of the skepticism. Do you think the Terran campaign will catch some people by surprise?Dustin Browder: I hope so. It's going to be pretty huge. It's really different than anything you've seen before in our titles. This is sort of a level of choice and options for the player--RTS is typically, you're on the rail man. And if you get a mission you can't beat, I guess you'd better take it back. Well, you can't take it back anymore. [laughs] I'm [thinking] of when you could take games back at [Electronics Boutique].But you were just stuck right, and that's terrible. But now if you get stuck, you can go, "I'm going to come back to this one. I'm going to go myself something powerful and come back here and make this one suffer." At the same time, I think players--we learned a lot obviously in StarCraft, and I think this team learned even more in WarCraft III, in terms of the kinds of mechanics that you're going to get in this campaign. The kinds of things you're going to be doing in missions, I think is pretty cool stuff that maybe players aren't quite prepared for.We've got a mission right now where every five minutes, lava rises and kills everything on the ground. Everything dies. You've got to get to the high ground or die. We've got a mission right now where infested Terrans are attacking at night, but they're hiding in the ground by day, so you need to just hold out all night long like you're in I Am Legend. Like, "I've got to live!" and then day, "Get 'em! Kill 'em while they sleep!" And you run out and you burn everything as fast as you can, and then when darkness starts coming you have to get back and hide out.We've got missions where you're trying to defend a Terran colony that's getting infested one piece at a time, and you've got to try to put out all these fires while fighting off these infested units. We've got this mission where you are a lone ghost trying to influence the course of an entire battle. So each of these missions is like a little minigame. Shack: Is (the) hub for players to explore between levels?Dustin Browder: Yeah, it's like a hub. It's like a place that lets you choose your mission, your technology. We've added some parts that haven't been in there in the past, that I don't think I've told anybody else about today actually--we've actually got some mercenaries you can hire, which is a new way to get some troops onto the field. And they're one use per mission, but they regenerate after every mission.We've got some research that you can do, and that's really just a fancy way of saying we have some quests for you. So you have a scientist that says, "Okay, here's the deal: I can get some really cool technology for you, but I need you to go get some stuff from the battlefields." So when you get into the battlefields, some battlefields will say hey, there's a research objective. Find the Protoss artifacts, or find and kill that giant horrible Zerg creature that's going to really wreck your day unless you're really ready to fight him.So then once you complete enough of those, over multiple missions we unlock some special tech for you. And then of course the armory tech where you choose what upgrades you want to have for your units.So it's a hub for all these things, and then in addition, it's a chance for you to get a little bit closer to these characters and find out more about the story if you're inclined. If you're not inclined it's cool. We've got lots of little cutscenes that are full of action and people shouting at eachother and stuff. You can just watch those and you get the gist. But if you want to find out more of the inner motivations, you can delve into it.And our theme in this one, it's like, look, everyone has a different tolerance for story. Some people want more, some people want less. We don't want to force it down their throat, but we don't want it not in there. So we create an environment where it's much more of an optional experience. If you're really interested in these characters--and we kind of hope that at some point everyone is interested in at least some of them--then you can sort of customize your story experience and get as much of it as you want.Head over to the link below to read the whole interview.Shacknews: Dustin Browder Talks SC IIBlizzard EntertainmentStarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

July 3, 2009 6:00 AMCCP Games has announced work on Apocrypha 1.5, a new update for its popular sci-fi MMO, EVE Online. As revealed in a recent developer blog the update will feature the addition of small and medium ship rigs, several new epic mission arcs, specialized cargo holds, and factional warfare improvements.Things have been silent on the dev front since the release of Apocrypha this March. Apocrypha was a major success for EVE Online. We rose to new heights in terms of concurrent players and subscribers, and more importantly, we are very proud of the new features and functionality it provided. Now we are working hard on our winter expansion. Winter is quite far away, and we felt because Apocrypha was really early for a summer expansion, we should put out a mini-expansion, rather than wait until winter to release all the stuff we are working on. It should come out mid-August if all goes well. We refer to it as Apocrypha 1.5. Small, Medium and Large rigs:Ever wanted to build the ultimate speed kite frigate but couldn‘t afford the rigs? Tank your cruiser to the max? Mod your little hauler? Now you can!We are adding small and medium sized rigs ( existing rigs will be considered large rigs ), which will be cheaper to buy and make. With this we are hoping that more people may get introduced to the joys of rigging and the sorrow of losing your specially fitted beautifully rigged ship. CCP Chronitis will explain further in an upcoming blog. Level 4 epic arcs in Apocrypha 1.5:Apocrypha 1.5 will be rich with content. We have several new epic mission arcs, which unlike the level 1 epic arc we introduced in Apocrypha are all level 4, meaning they will be more challenging, but also more rewarding. With each themed around a specific race, these captivating stories deal with moral ambiguity, intrigue, honor and some people's lack of it. This should come as no surprise to those who know EVE and what we are about. As before with the epic arc that was released in Apocrypha, they provide a deep, interesting story, where your choices influence the outcome.CCP Games has also announced that Hjalti Dan?sson (CCP Abraxas) has written a new novel based on the game. EVE: The Burning Life will follow the exploits of a lone survivor of a vicious attack and a woman seeking redemption. It is scheduled to be released this November.Hjalti Dan?sson (AKA CCP Abraxas) noted writer of a cargohold full of EVE Chronicles and various other forms of EVE Online fiction, has birthed EVE's next big novel, EVE: The Burning Life. It's set for cross-oceanic release in November by Tor Books and Orion Books. If Abraxas' dark SciFi moodiness was ever in question, this summary of the novel should quell all doubt: "A vicious attack on a deep space mining colony results in its destruction and the death of nearly all its inhabitants. Of the handful of tattered survivors, a lone young man swears revenge upon the forces that cost him everything but his breath. In another part of the universe, an agent of death loses her tenuous grip on sanity, leaves her profession and everything of her past life, and goes on a journey of redemption. Their respective paths will take them through galactic empires built on faith, hedonism, discipline and rebellion, and plunge them into the darkest parts of space where they encounter denizens of the chaotic and dangerous pirate kingdoms. And all the while, as they draw closer to what they seek, they begin to realize that the only stakes worth playing for are the ones that bring danger and change..."Check out the post linked below to learn more about future plans for the game. EVE Online Blog: August Update PlansEVE: The Burning Life Coming In NovemberCCP GamesTransGamingEVE Online

July 2, 2009 6:00 AMBlizzard Entertainment has announced work on a new faction change service for its popular MMO, World of Warcraft. When finished the service will allow Horde and Alliance players to switch sides on the same realm, transforming an existing character to an equivalent type on the opposing side.We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it. As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.Learn more about the game at the pages linked below.WoW Forums: Faction Change ServiceBlizzard EntertainmentWorld of Warcraft

July 2, 2009 6:00 AMRobert Clotworthy has confirmed that he will be returning as the voice of Jim Raynor in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard Entertainment's next installment in the successful StarCraft RTS franchise. This is a change from Blizzard's original intention to hire another actor to voice the popular character. There is no word yet on whether or not the company might also reconsider its decision to drop Glynnis Talken as the voice of Kerrigan.Joystiq recently interviewed Chris Sigaty about StarCraft II single player. This interview revealed that the former voice actor behind Jim Raynor had returned, despise their decision to change its direction with a fresh voice actor, one that met Chris Metzen’s original plan. For those who think to have read wrong, I contacted Robert Clotworthy, who I interviewed twice in the past two years. This is what he said this afternoon: Robert: Yes, I can confirm that I’m working with Blizzard Entertainment to reprise my role as the voice of Jim Raynor in StarCraft II. I’m looking forward to the release of the game and I hope that StarCraft players will enjoy going into battle with Jim and following his adventures throughout the galaxy.Head over to the Blizzplanet page below to read more.Blizzplanet: Robert Clotworthy's Jim Raynor Returns To SC IIBlizzard EntertainmentStarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

July 2, 2009 6:00 AMDiablo community manager Bashiok recently offered an update on the status of the promised 1.13 patch for Diablo II. Work on the patch was unexpectedly delayed when the team had to shift focus quickly to resolve a harmul Warcraft III custom map exploit which could allow malware to be spread to users' computers. Now that the Warcraft III patch is in testing work on the Diablo II update will soon resume.The Warcraft III patch is now on the Public Test Realm (PTR) and testing is progressing. Once that patch is released work can shift back to Diablo II and the 1.13 patch, and we'll be working to getting that patch up on its own PTR as soon as possible. This could be a matter of weeks. Once it's up and in a testing state for all of you, it's then going to be a matter of ensuring the features are good and it's a solid patch. The more people we have testing the patch and providing valid feedback, the better the patch will be, and hopefully the quicker it will be released. So that's my challenge to you. You've been waiting a long time, you want an awesome patch, you want a reset. To get all that, we need good solid testing and feedback, reproduction steps for bugs, detailed descriptions of issues or errors, etc. So once this goes live on the PTR, I expect some crazed-youruinedtheeconomy-testing.For more information click over to the links below.Diablo II Forums: Diablo Patch UpdateBlizzard EntertainmentDiablo IIWarCraft III

July 2, 2009 6:00 AMApple Games' latest feature returns to the magical world of Harry Potter with a review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest game in the series based on the popular books and movies. Apple's article includes an overview of the game's action, commentary from executive producer Jonathan Bunney, a description of the main characters, and a run down of the various side tasks players will encounter.Dueling has also returned for The Half-Blood Prince, and Bunney and I later take in a meeting where Harry and Ron battle with their wands for the right to represent Gryffindor’s dueling club. You can now move around while dueling, allowing you to dodge your opponent’s spells while launching some of your own. You won’t have much trouble defeating Ron, as Bunney and I observe, but more intense matches against members of other Hogwarts houses await. (You can also join the flying and potions clubs, letting you practice those skills any time.) “We’ve rebuilt wizard dueling to make the controls tighter, more fun, and more powerful,” Bunney remarks. “We’re allowing players to see what it would be like to take part in a series of competitions that J.K. Rowling only briefly covers, but everything we do is approved by her, so we and our players know it’s real.” As Harry and Ron run off in search of further adventures, Bunney and I take a seat in the large hall where the duel took place. Other Gryffindor students mill around, full of excited chatter about the dueling club, and the subject turns to Rowling’s participation in the game’s development. “We send her scripts very early on and get her feedback,” Bunney explains. He continues: “It’s almost always positive — because we love the fiction — and always constructive. For example, she might recommend that we use a different character because a line or situation may be more fitting for them. And since the movie studio is only about an hour away from the game studio, we get amazing access to their work and regularly share our work with them.”Read the full article at the link below.Apple Games: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood PrinceElectronic ArtsHarry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMSakari Games and TransGaming have released Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood a cartoon-style third-person shooter. In the game players take on the role of a "last-standing hard-boiled Legionnaire on a mission to protect a village against an entire rebel army." The game features a soundtrack which responds to the players' actions, a variety of weapons, and a broad range of difficulty levels.As the last survivor of a Foreign Legion strike team, you alone must protect a village against a local rebel group. The villagers took refuge and fortified themselves inside the town hall and are waiting for the rescue helicopter to arrive. It's your job to protect the villagers from the rebels' ambushes! Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood Features:• A dynamically evolving soundtrack that reacts to your actions!• An complete arsenal of weapons, including personal air-raid support to slaughter attacking hordes at once!• A broad range of difficulty levels with fun for both casual players and veteran players!Requirements:Minimum Requirements:• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better• CPU: 1.2 GHz or equivalent• 512 MB RAM or more• 200 MB hard-disk space or more• Video card: Any 3D graphics card less than 5-years old• Keyboard and mouse Recommended Requirements:• Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard (or better)• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor• 1 GB RAM or more• 200 MB hard-disk space or more• Video card: ATI X1600 or NVidia 9800 GT with 128 MB of video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100• Keyboard and mouseForeign Legion: Buckets of Blood costs $9.99. Head over to the links below for more information.TransGamingForeign Legion: Buckets Of Blood

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMInside Mac Games has posted a review of the hidden-object/puzzle game Coyote's Tale. In the game, it is your job to help the coyote used his wit and trickery to save the world from evil through hidden object games and other puzzles. Here's and excerpt from the review:To play the search game you are provided with a list of items and a picture of some area. The items you are looking for are in the picture and you must locate them. Items are occluded in a variety of ways. First there is the sheer density of objects in the image. One needs to focus on one item to locate it amongst all the other things. Another way of hiding an object is for the artist to incorporate the object in the scenery in such a way that you are tricked into believing it is a normal part of the scenery. One can quickly go "cross-eyed" after staring at the screen too long.Follow the link below to read the full review.IMG Review: Coyote's TaleCoyote's Tale

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMBlizzard Entertainment has posted a lengthy Q&A with Ghostcrawler and the World of Warcraft Development Team. The discussion focuses on the Death Knight Hero class in the popular MMORPG, with topics ranging from the Death Knight's unique abilities to future plans for the class.What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?Ghostcrawler: Their resource system is very unique. It is impossible for death knights to ever run out of resources. Any kind of benefit that makes rune-based abilities cheaper or finish their cooldowns faster are generally useless to a death knight. In fact, the whole rotation risked being very regular and even boring until we came up with a strong role for the Death Runes. The death knight can do excellent melee damage, but also better ranged damage than most melee classes, and all three specs deal a large amount of non-physical damage. Death knights also have a lot of abilities with medium-length cooldowns. This means they can be used multiple times per fight, but aren’t always there exactly when needed. A lot of the skill involved in playing a death knight, whether for PvP, tanking, or doing raid dps, involves using these at the right time. Death knights also hybridize into a lot of different directions. What I mean is that they have surprisingly high area damage for a predominantly melee class. They have a pet. They have interrupts, (reverse) gap-closers, and strong snares. They are very well-rounded, which has been the cause of many of the balance problems we’ve had with them in PvP. Death knights don’t have a dedicated tanking tree. Blood, Frost or Unholy death knight tanks are all viable, and each one can be slightly more useful depending on the boss encounter. And then there is the obvious: they start at high level, showered in blue gear and even a mount. They have some of the best quests in the entire game in their start zone, and their identity is stitched heavily into the story of Northrend and the Lich King specifically. What are our current thoughts on the status of death knight tanks and do we have plans for further changes?Ghostcrawler: Almost all of the top raiding guilds considered the death knight to be overpowered as a tank and the only real option for many of the Ulduar hard modes. While the community isn’t always right about everything, they are right a lot, and in this case we think the evidence is overwhelming. We wanted to make the cooldowns the unique part of death knight tanking, and we haven’t given up on that design, but it has also turned out that having lots of powerful cooldowns is just an extremely potent way to tank. Many of the Naxx and Ulduar bosses were dangerous from predictable blasts of damage on cooldowns longer than the death knight ones. Plus the cooldowns could be used to survive just a bit longer. When the other tanks could survive two hits, the death knight could survive three. It’s entirely possible you’ll see Icebound Fortitude on a two-minute timer in the 3.2 patch. I want to reiterate though that our vision hasn’t changed -- we still want death knights to be able to tank every encounter. Rather than posting in the forums that you are now doomed and will have to reroll, help us get the death knights in a place where they are an attractive option but not the clear best option on most fights. Read the rest of the article at the page linked below.WoW: Death Knight Q&ABlizzard EntertainmentWorld of Warcraft

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMAwem Studio, developer of Cradle Of Persia and Cradle Of Rome, announced the release of the Mac version of Star Defender 4 version 1.11. Star Defender 4 is the last in the series of Star Defender games and features side-scrolling vertical space shooter action."We continue to look into the opportunity of bringing our games to the wide array of gaming audience," said Oleg Rogovenko, Awem studio's CEO. "Now we are gearing up towards the release of Star Defender 4 for Mac and Star Defender 3 is next in line." Star Defender 4 is a side-scrolling shooter that turns boundless space into one big warzone. Enter the ravaging struggle between insects and humans and make sure not a single alien escapes its part of free lead. Star Defender 4 has 8 extra large and unique missions, each with a devastating Boss. Featuring 100 levels of most explosive action with tons of upgradable weapons, many different foes and a set of cool bonuses, Star Defender 4 is a game that you will enjoy for a long time.Star Defender 4 runs on Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.5 and requires a 1.83GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. A single-user license costs $19.95 (USD). More information is available at the website below.Awem Studio

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMThe EA Play Label of Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince videogame will be available in stores across the globe this week. Available on multiple platforms, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince videogame allows players to experience the game adaptation of the film based on J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in the Harry Potter series.In the game of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players return to Hogwarts™ – reproduced from movie blueprints in exacting detail - to help Harry survive a fraught sixth year. Players will be able to master gesture-based spell-casting as they explore the Hogwarts school grounds, from the heights of the Astronomy Tower to Professor Slughorn’s Potions classroom in the depths of the dungeons and iconic locations in between such as the Gryffindor™ common room and the Great Hall. For the first time players can move and cast spells simultaneously, creating intense and fast-paced wizard duels as the champions from each house line up to challenge the Boy Who Lived. Players can also chase down the Golden Snitch™ as they take to the air as the Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch™ team. In addition to spell-casting and flying, players can put their potion-mixing skills to the test when they learn how to mix and brew magical ingredients in Potions class. Players may even get sidetracked by Ron’s romantic entanglements as they journey towards the dramatic climax and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.System Requirements:• Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later• 1.8GHz Intel (Intel only, PowerPC not supported)• 256MB RAM• 8x DVD-ROM or faster• 5GB hard disk space• ATI X1600 or Intel X3100 or better 3D graphics.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince costs $30 and is available as a hybrid release featuring both Mac and PC versions on the same DVD.Electronic ArtsHarry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

July 1, 2009 6:00 AMNCSoft has launched Issue 15: Anniversary, the next patch for City of Heroes, the comic-book inspired MMO. Commemorating the game’s recent five-year anniversary celebration, Issue 15: Anniversary brings City of Heroes its 15th major free content update introducing players to all-new content, missions, features and customization tools. The update features ten new missions related to the return of the villainous 5th Column, 20 new character faces, new costume sets and emotes, and several improvements to the Mission Architect feature. “City of Heroes continues to reinvent itself with each Issue launch providing players with new content, developmental tools and exciting game play experiences they can’t get anywhere else,” said Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer of City of Heroes. “Issue 15 is no different – it brings players the revival of one of the most popular villain groups in the game, streamlined Mission Architect search and navigation, as well as enhanced character customization featuring even more costumes, faces and costume change animations which will all surprise and delight the community.” Issue 15: Anniversary allows City of Heroes to come to life with more in-depth gameplay experiences and storytelling options as it marks the revival of The 5th Column, the most popular villain group, through 10 new action-packed missions. Players will participate in a Hero Task Force or a Villain Strike Force, in order to uncover the mystery behind this long dormant foe. Along with the new missions, players can now customize their characters with more than 20 extra character faces, Vines and Ulterior themed costume sets and several new costume change emotes - visual animations that come to life when characters transition between costumes within the game. Additionally, Issue 15: Anniversary introduces players to new mission creation enhancements, testing tools and navigation services as part of the recently launched Mission Architect system. These features allow players to more easily create and polish their own unique custom content before sharing it with the public, and help streamline the process of searching through user-generated missions. Since the release of City of Heroes’ Mission Architect system, two months ago, users have developed and published more than 200,000 stories for the community to enjoy.For more information about Issue 15: Anniversary follow the links below.City Of Heroes Official WebsiteNCsoftTransGamingCity of Heroes

June 30, 2009 6:00 AMStarcraftWire.net and IncGamers has posted a large collection of new articles and images revealing new information about Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The posts include a new developer interview, preview, gameplay video, 31 new images, the release of StarCraft II tech trees, and confirmation that the game will not have a LAN mode and will not be coming to consoles.From IncGamers Develpor InterviewSo what's Battle.net all about and how is it different?The new Battle.net will completely revolutionise the current version, but Blizzard is still looking to making this experience free for anyone buying StarCraft II or future games that use Battle.net. One idea which has been discussed in different iterations is microtransactions, meaning the service is free, but added value services like starting a custom tournament, league, or the like would cost a small amount of money. "Obviously those things have been discussed but nothing has been decided," said Browder to us, and mentioned the small add in the current Battle.net. "We spent a lot of money on Battle.net, right, so we need some way to sustain it," he continued, but "current mockups don't include ads." Rob Pardo added: "Pretty much all of it [is free] as far as Europe and America is concerned, Asia is a little different how they do things, [but] there will be certain features that you pay for." He mentioned WoW as an example, where "value added services" like server transfers are paid for, but "you can get the full experience of Battle.net with all the features just from buying the box." The StarCraft II and Battle.net teams are looking to make Battle.net more than just a meeting place. Chris Sigaty said: "We are definitely a company that is very aware of technology and were things are going, and all of us have involved in all things that have happened in the world since Warcraft III, Facebook, Myspace, all these sort of social networking sites." He also made reference to gaming-specific networks like  Steam and Rupture as other "sites that attempt to bring gamers together," but pointed out that they are looking at the full spectrum." "At the core we want to make sure people get into meaningful games and play against people of their skill level and therefore have fun. "Our aim is to deliver far better than we have done in the past, and basically connect players because the social side is important," said Sigaty. An example is the current Battle.net forums, which are currently the only social side to the network, but Blizzard has plans to be able to reach them directly from within the game without having to exit the game and open a browser window. "Whether it will be directly available at launch with Battle.net is something I don't know if it's going to happen," Sigaty said.Head over to the links below to check out all the new StarCraft II information.IncGamers: StarCraft II PreviewIncGamers: StarCraft II Dev InterviewIncGamers: StarCraft II Game VideoIncGamers: StarCraft II New Screens & ArtIncGamers: StarCraft II Official Tech TreesIncGamers: No LAN Mode For StarCraft IIIncGamers: StarCraft II Not Coming To ConsolesBlizzard EntertainmentStarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

June 30, 2009 6:00 AMBoomtown has posted a new interview with Paragon Studios' Matt Miller, Senior Lead Designer for the super hero themed City of Heroes. The Q&A covers some of the content planned for the Issue 15 update as well as some of the new experiences players can expect from the upcoming Going Rogue expansion.Boomtown: In your own opinion what will be the main feature of Issue 15?Matt Miller: I think the villain Strike Force which frees Reichsman is the star of the issue. Boomtown: Where are you trying to steer Mission Architect with the new features?Matt Miller: We want players to be able to tell the stories they want to tell, and we want players to be able to easily find the stories that they like to play. All the new features in Mission Architect apply to one or both of those tenants. One of the main elements we’re bringing to the table for Architect is the use of key phrases. Players and authors alike will be able to tag stories with key phrases that they feel best define what the story is about. They will then be able to search for arcs that contain these phrases. For example, you can tag and/or search for an arc with the phrases of ”Solo Friendly, Comedy and Canon Related Story.” Boomtown: Looking forward the first paid expansion has been announced – Going Rogue. Please explain to our readers what the new expansion will bring. Matt Miller: I can’t release much information yet. Hopefully the name alone, Going Rogue, provides a good foreshadowing to what the game will encompass. But among other things there will be new zones, the ability to switch a hero to a villain and vice versa, and difficult tasks for level 50 characters to do that make them more powerful. Boomtown: Free Issues expanding the game continuously has always been one of City of Heroes trademarks. Why was it decided to release Going Rogue as a paid expansion? Matt Miller: Scope. Going Rogue is well beyond what we could normally do in the scope of a free update. We will continue to provide our players value in the form of future Issues, but Going Rogue is going to feature a breadth of new game content that warrants expansion pack-style treatment.Visit the site below for more of the Q&A.Boomtown: City Of Heroes Q&ANCsoftTransGamingCity of Heroes

June 30, 2009 6:00 AMMacworld has posted a new review of Apocrypha, the latest expansion for CCP Games' sci-fi MMO, EVE Online. The latest addition to the game features wormholes, Tech 3 modular ships, NPC agents capable of assigning epic mission arcs, and the arrival of Premium Graphics for Mac users. Macworld gave Apocrypha a score of 4 out of 5 mice.From the review:Apocrypha makes it a bit easier for new players to get into the game. New players get a bonus to their learning ability to make it easier to get started with the skills they need to pilot bigger and better spaceships. Players who buy the Apocrypha retail package (distributed by Atari and sold anywhere you can get PC games) get a couple of bonuses; a special ship and a standings boost that lets players experience EVE Online style warfare right away, without having to slowly improve standings by playing missions that increase their reputations with different factions within the game. The new player experience also introduces an “epic mission” arc, a series of dozens of interconnected missions given to you by non-player character “agents” within the game. If you follow the epic mission arc to its conclusion, you’ll be well set-up to play the game for a long time, because you’ll have quite a bit of in-game money to use and you’ll have amassed an impressive amount of equipment and standing with various elements within the game. Unfortunately, much of the epic arc involves combat missions. I hope that CCP will expand the types of epic arcs in the future to include other types of play, for new gamers more interested in becoming industrial titans, researchers and so on. Social gaming is a key part of the EVE Online experience. While it’s possible to play solo in EVE, it is, frankly, boring. Players are strongly advised to join a player-run corporation (the EVE equivalent of a guild) as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Apocrypha really doesn’t do anything to streamline that process or familiarize new users with it. I hope this is something that CCP can work towards in the future.Click over to the link below to read the full review.Macworld: EVE Online ApocryphaCCP GamesTransGamingEVE Online

June 29, 2009 6:00 AMGamasutra and IGN have posted new interviews with representatives from id Software, Bethesda Softworks, and Zenimax media. John Carmack, Pete Hines, and Robert Altman discussed the merger and what it will mean for id's employees, the company's future games, and consumers.From Gamasutra:Renowned id developer John Carmack told Gamasutra that Fallout 3's blockbuster status solidified while acquisition talks were underway. "We looked at this and thought, if they can take this old niche IP like Fallout and turn it into this huge, successful phenomenon, then I think they are incredibly capable of taking Doom 4 and changing the world with it." JC: We're going to take every opportunity to share our knowledge, hard-won wisdom of recent product cycles, anything we can share technology-wise, Bethesda is welcome to cherry pick. We already have slated our plans years ahead, so there aren't going to be any massive changes. We're not going to splice id Tech5 into anything Bethesda is doing. But anything they want to cherry pick, they're more than welcome to. JC: There are also things that we want to learn from Bethesda -- the things they're doing with downloadable content, marketing, we want that to be applied on our behalf for our products. We don't want to say, "Leave us alone, we want to be exactly as we were before." We're going to do all the things we have been doing, but there are opportunities for us to improve as a result of this.From IGN:IGN: There's no overlap in terms of the genres each company has focused on. Is this going to affect the day-to-day operations of either studio? Do you feel the need to address any gaps or differences in terms of the culture of the two studios?John Carmack: Actually, the cultures are remarkably compatible but the development teams are separated by half a continent and they're staying that way. There's no relocation of any assets. They will definitely continue to evolve in their own way. But because we're sister companies now and we benefit from the success of each other, we have every incentive in the world to do anything that we can to help out the other teams, whether it's design reviews or technology sharing or just helpful comments about experiences we've had in different areas. All of that is certainly going to go on. But the teams are not going to dramatically change one way or the other as a result of this. IGN: Some gamers are intrigued and other are disturbed by the possibility of cross-pollenization of franchises. What are the chances we'll see a Doom RPG or a Fallout FPS? Anything like that in the works?John Carmack: Not in terms of major titles. I would expect that, now that it's legal for us to do so, there will be little homages that are tossed back and forth between the franchise -- just things to make people smile. Game development is a multi-year timeline now and this acquisition does not change any of those multi-year plans already in motion. IGN: When can gamers expect to hear the first details of titles released under this new structure and when might we see the games published? John Carmack: Again, nothing really changes in the way things are going. Rage is our next major title coming out. We have a Wolfenstein title still being published by Activision, due out very soon and Rage published by EA partners due out next year. Doom 4 would be the first ZeniMax-only distribution title and that's still a ways off. In the near term, nothing really changes here. This is something that impacts how things look three or four years down the road. id will be a different place at that point than it would have been if we had stayed independent. Read the rest of the interviews at the pages linked below.Gamasutra: How Fallout 3 Helped Seal The DealIGN: id Buyout Full Storyid Software

June 29, 2009 6:00 AMApple Games' latest feature article takes to the stars for an examination of Galactic Adventures, the first expansion for the evolution focused god sim, Spore. Designed to expand the original game's universe, Spore Galactic Adventures delivers new adventures to players who can now become their own space captain, beam down to strange new planets, and create customized adventures. Apple's article includes and overview of the expansion's features and a guide for using mission creation tools.A mission features a storyline with up to eight acts, each containing three goals — the tone can be serious, silly, or somewhere in between, and the goals can involve anything from simple tasks to major battles. You could even create a mission that’s an arcade game, complete with a maze, objects to collect, and enemies to avoid. And if you see an adventure in the SPOREpedia that you think could use a few tweaks, feel free to make some changes and share your version with the SPORE community. Each mission also stars a space captain, who can be a unique creation or a character drawn from the SPOREpedia. The captain beams down to a planet, with or without a crew in tow, and earns SPORE Points for completing the adventure, bringing him closer to a new rank. Each rank attained unlocks new accessories and weapons, such as the powerful Energy Blade or the ever-useful Jetpack. As in the main game’s space stage, your captain follows a specific path, such as trader or warrior, with appropriate accessories and weapons unlocked along the way. At the end of an adventure, you can compare your captain’s performance against other players on the leader board, where the top three earn gold, silver, and bronze medals. (If someone bests your score, you’ll lose your medal.) Galactic Adventures also ships with over 50 new achievements to accomplish, so get ready to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilization, and boldly go where no captain has gone before.Click over to the page below to read the full article.Apple Games: Spore Galactic AdventuresElectronic ArtsSpore Galactic Adventures

June 29, 2009 6:00 AMMacgamestore.com has announced the release of CLUE Accusations and Alibis for the Mac through its web site and digital download service, Mac Games Arcade. The game was created and published by Real Arcade.Macgamestore.com also announced a special promotion in celebration of the release of CLUE Accusations and Alibis. Until July 3rd, customers who order CLUE Accusations and Alibis can get the original CLUE Classic game, valued at $19.95, for free when they order CLUE Accusations and Alibis.Use your powers of perception and ace detective skills to solve a riveting mystery in this original new hidden object game inspired by everyone's favorite board game. When the host of an elegant dinner at a stylish Hollywood mansion is found murdered, a celebratory evening turns into an intriguing whodunit. Now it's up to you to crack the case before the other guests do. Search each room for cleverly hidden clues, interrogate the suspects, and examine each weapon. Features:* A whole new way to play CLUE* Brilliant blend of hidden object gameplay and classic CLUE fun your* Your favorite CLUE characters: Prof. Plum, Miss Scarlett, Col. Mustard and more* Over 400 unique cases to crack - nearly endless replayability* Gorgeous 3D graphics that bring the CLUE mansion to vivid life System Requirements:CLUE Accusations and Alibis requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higherCLUE Accusations and Alibis is available immediately as a digital download purchase through Macgamestore.com and Mac Games Arcade. A free demo is available for download. The full version costs $19.95. In order to take advantage of the special offer to receive CLUE Classic for free, customers must add CLUE Accusations and Alibis to their cart, then add Clue Classic to their cart. During the checkout, customers will then need to enter coupon code: freeclue.Buy Clue Accusations And AlibisMac Games Arcade

June 29, 2009 6:00 AMIn recent posts on the official Diablo III forums, community manager Bashiok discussed how long blood will remain on screen, the implementation of floating health bars over monsters, and how tomes of knowledge will be used in the game. Diablo III is Blizzard Entertainment's long awaited return to the popular action RPG franchise.On keeping blood on the floor:Even decals, which are textures, impact performance. So there has to be some limit on how many of them are allowed to linger and for how long. We have to try to strike a balance somewhere. Also, a ground literally covered with corpses or blood becomes less and less interesting, more and more confusing, and can actually create some frustration. Regarding visible markers, we put a lot of effort into building rooms and areas to ensure that the randomly generated dungeons are indeed random, but also not confusing and maze-like. We don't want everything to look the same. So in that respect a visual marker of a blood spot or corpse really shouldn't be necessary.---Ok, you guys pushed and pushed, and now I have to talk about things I don't understand! HAPPY!? Julian Love, our lead tech artist and forum lurker extraordinaire offers some additional insight into these things we call graphics: Every independent thing that we show in the game has to be put into a special package that we call a "draw call," which is then delivered to the 3D card to be rendered on screen. It’s not too different from preparing xmas gifts in that everything you want your relatives to receive must be packaged up in some way and then driven across the country in order to arrive there on time. Your CPU does this packaging and delivery and it takes a lot of bandwidth, so it ends up being one of the most crucial expenses to manage. Now, the truly horrible thing is that from a draw call cost perspective, each individual splattering of blood on the floor is every bit as expensive as a character or a dead body: they both cost one draw call. Beyond that, the differences tend to be somewhat trivial. So, that's a lot of words just to say that blood splats can be every bit as expensive as, and in some ways, more expensive than dead bodies. It's counter intuitive, but this is the way it actually works.Thanks JLove.Head over to the GameBanshee page below for more information.GameBanshee: Bashiok Diablo III CommentsBlizzard EntertainmentDiablo III

June 27, 2009 6:00 AMIndustryGamers has published a new interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Rob Pardo. During the discussion Pardo covered a range of topics including the success of World of Warcraft, his thoughts on free to play MMOs, his advice to company's seeking to enter the massively multiplayer market, and the possibility of Blizzard developing a new game franchise.IndustryGamers: It seems that the MMO space has been heavily moving in the free-to-play, micro-transaction supported direction, especially in Asia, but World of Warcraft has been incredibly successful with the traditional subscription model. Is there any thinking at Blizzard about creating something that's free-to-play? Rob Pardo: When we create games, we create a game and then we decide on the business model that makes sense for that game. We don't do it in reverse. So whatever game we make next, it's not going to be like “Let's make a free-to-play game.” It's going to be, “What's the game we want to make?” Then we'll start thinking about how we want to monetize it. Will it be subscription based or free-to-play? I don't know yet. IG: Right, it just seems like one of those trends that Blizzard, as an online leader, can't ignore. Subscriptions are working great right now, but what about the future?RP: Trends are trends; they aren't necessarily mandates. For every trend you look at, there's always the exception too. I don't know if I subscribe to the notion that everything's going to be a free-to-play game in the future. I don't think that's true at all. With digital distribution, cloud computing... if anything there's going to be more business models.   IG:  Is there any thinking about Blizzard working on some new franchises we've never heard of? Right now the focus is on WoW, StarCraft and Diablo. How about some new IP?RP:  I think you'll see us do it, but every time a development team frees up, in large part they decide what they want to make next. And historically, at least in recent years, the dev teams have wanted to work on our existing franchises. After we finished Warcraft 3, that team wanted to make StarCraft 2. It wasn't that the executives at Blizzard said that we have to make it. If our decisions were driven like that we wouldn't have made it after StarCraft 1 – it's been 11 years since StarCraft 1 came out.  So it's clearly not a business driven decision; it's a team passion driven decision. Same thing for Diablo 3. So I think you'll see us do something new eventually. It's just always challenge, because just as our fans love them, we love our franchises too, so we always have ideas to do something within our existing franchises. It's just a push-pull situation.Visit the site below to read the full interview.Industry Gamers: Rob Pardo Q&ABlizzard Entertainment

June 27, 2009 6:00 AMTale of Tales, developer of the unique The Path horror adventure title, has announced work on its next project. Currently under the working title Fatale, the title is described as an interactive vignette in realtime 3D. The game's storyline will be based on Salome, daughter of Herodias, who at her mother's urging called for the beheading of John the Baptist. Fatale (working title) is a work in progress by Tale of Tales. It will be an interactive vignette in realtime 3D based on the story of Salome, particularly the play by Oscar Wilde. CreditsDesign & production: Auriea Harvey & Micha?SamynCharacter design & modeling: (secret)Character animation: Laura Raines SmithMusic: Gerry De MolSound and voice: Jarboe & Kris ForceSupport: Flanders Audiovisual FundCoproduction: VillanellaFatale is currently scheduled for an October 5th release. Check out the page below to read more.Fatale

June 27, 2009 6:00 AMEA and Maxis have released a new patch for the Spore, Will Wright's evolutionary god sim. The patch includes fixes for bugs reported by players, gameplay tuning, the option for players to reach all Grox worlds, and allows download of creations from website directly to game.Updates in the latest version:• Buildings have high quality textures in the game like they do in the Editor, if display settings are on High.• Fixes occasional corrupted backgrounds on Sporepedia Cards• Includes ongoing improvements in animation to be more responsive to weapons placed anywhere on a Creature's body.• Increases the number of "charges" of Space Tools Player can purchase in a single transaction.• Increases the range and damage for turrets defending against enemy spacecraft• Enables Player to reach all Grox worlds• Fixes a bug with the Terraform Tutorial Mission not being complete-able for all planet T-Scores by giving four basic tools to change score in any direction.• Improves general performance across the entire game• Improved searching in Sporepedia • Allows download of creations from website directly to game• YouTube movies publish as privateFor more information click over to the links below.Spore Patch InformationElectronic ArtsSpore

June 27, 2009 6:00 AMAspyr Media has announced that Call of Duty Deluxe Edition for Macintosh is now available as a download through Aspyr's digital distribution site, GameAgent.com. Licensed by Activision, Call of Duty Deluxe Edition contains the original Call of Duty and its expansion pack, Call of Duty: United Offensive. The downloadable release marks the first time Call of Duty Deluxe is available for Intel Macs.In the war that changed the world, no one fought alone. Experience the cinematic intensity of World War II¹s epic battles including D-Day, the Russian Charge at Stalingrad and the Battle for Berlin. Call of Duty Features:* Play through 24 epic single-player missions on four interconnected campaigns, or go online for Axis versus Allies team-based multiplayer action.* Intense battlefield moments put you in the heat of the action, capturing the chaos of battle like never before.* Together with your squad, take on Nazi forces through a variety of authentic combat missions.* Move through the ranks, taking on more dangerous missions such as sniper missions and ambushes until you are promoted to tank commander. Call of Duty: United Offensive Features:* 13 new Single-Player missions!* 11 new Multiplayer maps and 3 new modes, with vehicles including tanks and jeeps!* Fight in tanks, jeeps, motorcycles, even a bomber.* Work with your squad through snow and rain, using new weapons including flamethrowers and deployable machine guns, or by calling in artillery strikes.* Join the 101st Airborne for the climactic moments of the Battle of the Bulge.* Fight as a British airman shooting down German ME-109¹s from the gunner position of a B-17 bomber, before transferring to Churchill¹s elite S.O.E. and clearing the way for the invasion of Sicily.* Finally, follow your Russian comrades into the Battle of Kursk, one of the greatest tank battles of all time.Requirements:Minimum System Requirements:Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.11, 10.5.7 | Processor: PowerPC G5 or Intel | CPU Speed: 1.6 GHz | Memory: 256 MB RAM Hard Disk Space: 2.5 GB free disk space | Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9800 | Video Card (NVidia): GeForce 5200 | Video Memory (VRam): 64 MB | Peripherals: Macintosh mouse and keyboard. | Supported Video cards: NVIDIA GeForce 5200, 6600, 6800, 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800, 9400, 9600, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, ATI Radeon 9800, X600, X800, X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600, HD 3870 Recommended System Requirements:CPU Speed: 2.0 GHz | Memory: 1 GB or higher | Video RAM: 128 MB NOTICE: Intel integrated video chipsets are not supported. 
NOTICE: Apple original CPU's only. CPU upgrades are not supported. 
NOTICE: This game is not supported on volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive).Call of Duty Deluxe (Mac Universal) costs $29.99 and is available as a download through GameAgent at the link below. Aspyr has also revealed that a Mac Universal patch for the retail version of Call of Duty Deluxe is under development and will be released soon.Game Agent: Call Of Duty Deluxe EditionCall of Duty Deluxe EditionAspyr Media

June 25, 2009 6:00 AMZeniMax Media, parent company of game publisher Bethesda Softworks, has announced it has completed the acquisition of legendary game studio, id Software, creator of games such as Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, and its upcoming title, Rage. id Software will continue to function as a studio under the direction of John Carmack with no changes made to the developer's game development process.Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: “This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans.” “This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward,” said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director. “We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.” Robert Altman, the founder, Chairman & CEO of ZeniMax Media stated, “We, along with many others, consider id Software to be among the finest game studios in the world, with extraordinary design, artistic and technical capabilities. They have demonstrated, repeatedly, that rare ability to create franchise properties that are critical and commercial successes. Our intention is to make sure id Software will continue to do what they do best – make AAA games. Our role will be to provide publisher support through Bethesda Softworks and give id Software the resources it needs to grow and expand.” id Software will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of its founder, John Carmack. No changes will be made in the operations of id Software in the development of its games. All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts, assuring they will continue in their roles developing games at the studio.Follow the links below for more information.ZeniMax Mediaid Software

June 25, 2009 6:00 AMSome time back, one of our writers, Mike, started a personal campaign to benefit his daughter, Marissa, who was diagnosed with a little known but series condition, Infantile Spasms. This is a serious epileptic condition that has no known cure and is extremely difficult to relieve. Mike started a blog, Marissa's Bunny, in order to bring awareness to this disorder.Not only does Mike write for us in his limited spare time, but he is also an avid Halo gamer. When Halo blog Hawty McBloggy caught wind of his efforts, they began their own campaign to bring awareness. Now, they have started a virtual raffle known as the Fundfax Fairraiser in order to raise money to benefit baby Marissa. They have received some incredible donations from gaming companies such as Bungie, EA, and Hudson. Here's what the blog has to say about it:The Fundfax Fairraiser gives you, the passionate gamer, a chance to win some absolutely incredible video game-related prizes. For every $1 you donate, you will receive one virtual raffle ticket that gives you a shot at winning everything from a Kotobukiya Steel Spartan 12” Figure (covered in more Bungie autographs than you could ever begin to count) to an EA Sports Pack to an autographed copy of The Godfather II to one of dozens of games spanning across the various platforms. So, you are interested in trying to win some cool stuff while helping out a worthy cause?Many of the items are one-of-a-kind. Head over to Hawty McBloggy's blog and support a truly worthy cause. You might win some cool stuff, and you'll be helping a fellow Mac gamer.The Fundfax FairraiserMarissa's Bunny

June 25, 2009 6:00 AMVirtual Programming has announced the release of The Abbey, a point-and-click adventure game from Emilio de Paz. In the game players take the role of Leonardo who, with the help of his assistant Bruno, must unravel a series of mysterious crimes occuring at a remote monastery. The game features a complete reproduction of a medieval abbey, over 70 minutes of orchestral soundtrack, and an adventure spanning 20 hours of gameplay."Thou shalt not kill!" An old abbey is the scene of a series of mysterious crimes, and only one man can get to the bottom of them. Former royal advisor Leonardo and his assistant Bruno are on their way to the remote monastery unknowing of the strange goings-on surrounding a carefully guarded secret. Yet even before they arrive there, their quest is overshadowed by an attempt on their lives... A thrilling mystery story! Having reached the abbey, the two companions are confronted by one mystery after another, and the old walls stubbornly refuse to reveal their secrets. Piece by piece, Leonardo and Bruno uncover a plot that could shake not only the foundations of the monastery, but also those of the Church itself... "The Abbey" is a mystery story in the format of a classic point-and-click adventure game that has been penned by Emilio de Paz, who, among other games, was responsible for the highly successful "Clever & Smart". Using the mouse, the player guides Leonardo and his assistant Bruno through a faithful reproduction of a medieval abbey. Innovative technologies enable camera angles and sequences which, until now, have only been seen in movies. Overview of features:• Innovative cinematic presentation through a new method of combining 2D and 3D graphics unique in a point-and-click adventure game• A complete reproduction of a medieval abbey, with architecture, works of art, secret passages, and treasures vast amounts of camera angles and scenes in 20 locations promise 20 hours of gameplay• Cinematic sound: music, effects, and top quality voice output completely in Dolby Surround Sound Over 70 minutes of orchestral soundtrack played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Requirements:• Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher• Any Intel CPU• 512 MB RAM• GeForce 7300, Radeon X1600 or Intel GMA• X3100 128MB• 3 GB Hard Disk space• Internet connection for product registrationThe Abbey is available for $19.95 (€19.95, £14.95). Learn more about the game at the links below.Virtual ProgrammingThe Abbey

June 24, 2009 6:00 AMColadia Games has announced the release of Return to Mysterious Island, a new adventure game title based on the writings of novelist Jules Verne. The first person survival adventure places players in the role of Mina, a courageous young woman who must survive a shipwreck and deal with the ghost of Captain Nemo.Return to Mysterious Island The true essence of adventure is captured in this second PC game inspired by renowned author Jules Verne. In this first-person survival adventure, players will encounter recognisable locations from the famous novel, including the granite house, the volcano and the Nautilus. However, Return to Mysterious Island goes beyond Jules Verne's storytelling as players take on the role of Mina, a courageous young woman on a solo round-the-world sailing expedition. In your quest for survival using logic, discovery, creative inventory management, and elements of the supernatural, the adventure unfolds across splendid photorealistic pre-rendered vistas. Intuitive puzzle challenges and vast exploration of the lush tropical landscapes of the island, all combine for a brilliantly executed adventure game. Round-the-world saling expedition... Ship wrecked on a deserted island.. The ghost of Captain Nemo... The quest for survival... Caught in a tremendous storm, Mina, our heroine, becomes stranded on the shores of a wild and apparently uninhabited island. As she explores her new surrounding, she uncovers artifacts, living spaces and technologies left behind by the people who came before her to this uncharted island. Main Features:• Second game in the series inspired by Jules Verne's classics (Nautilus has sold over 117,000 copies worldwide).• Mass Appeal Theme: "stranded on a desert island".• Survival, exploration, discovery and puzzles, set in a tropical island setting.• Original interactive inventory system allows you to combine and create new items and tools.• Propriety engine allows for fluid and intuitive point-and-click navigation.• Photorealistic settings and numerous recognizable locations to explore: Granit House, the volcano and the Nautilus.• Meet and interact with the ghost of Captain Nemo.Requirements:Minimum:• Intel or PowerPC G5 processor running at 1.6 Ghz• 512 MB of memory• 2 GB free space on your hard drive• Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 Recommended:• Intel processor running at 2.0 Ghz• 1 GB of memory• 2 GB free space on your hard drive• Video card with 64 MB of memory• Mac OS X 10.4 ou 10.5Return to Mysterious Island costs $29.90 for the full version. A demo is also available. ColadiaReturn To Mysterious Island

June 24, 2009 6:00 AMFidget has posted a new interview with The Sims 3 producer MJ Chun. The interview covers a variety of topics related to the game including inspirations for some of the game's features, the impact of choosing negative traits for characters, and Chun's favorite moodlets.TC: A sim can only have five traits. How did you come to the magic number of five traits? Was there a discussion about having fewer or more than five?MC: You never want to make it so the player doesn't understand why something happened. Whatever happens in the game, the player should be able to deconstruct why their sim all of a sudden cackled or wants to steal candy from a baby or go outside. Too many traits seemed to be giving lots of mixed messages. Too few traits seemed like having a really 2D personality, without a lot of depth. We felt like five is a good number. b>TC: One of the things I've noticed, and I blame this on RPGs where you can minimize and maximize your characters, is that there doesn't seem to be any incentive to take some of the negative traits, such as unlucky or clumsy. Now I realize that's not a problem for most people, but did you guys anticipate that some gamers like me might sulk about the fact that there's no reason to take those?MC: We wanted to make sure that different types of players would get something cool out of it. There's a great blog about Kev and Alice. Have you seen it? It's a storytelling-driven game experience where a character happens to be unlucky and clumsy. And we wanted people to be able to tell stories about their friends, or their family, or themselves. Sometimes people consider themselves clumsy. It's one of those things where not all the stats have to benefit you, but they have to impact your game. Even if you choose to be a vegetarian and you force your sim to eat meat, they'll be sick. There are consequences to your decisions. But in terms of min/maxxing, there are still a lot of great traits to choose from. TC: You mention wanting everything to be very clear to the player. One of the great new things that drives that point home for me are the moodlets. The moodlet system has pushed the needs system from center stage. Almost literally. The moodlets now occupy that spot in the interface, front and center. How did the moodlets system come about?MC: The team is made of a lot of gamers and we loved the moodlet system because it gives you an understanding of what impacts your sim without focusing on the micro-needs. When I play, I don't have my needs panel open at all.Read the full interview at the page listed below.Fidget: The Sims 3 Q&AElectronic ArtsThe Sims 3

June 24, 2009 6:00 AMInside Mac Games has posted a review of Black & White 2 from Feral Interactive, the sequel to the original God-sim/RTS. Take control of a God-like creature, get your subjects to follow you, and take over the island. Here's an excerpt from the review:In addition to your direct divine influence, you also have a pet, a large creature that adds quite a bit of flavor to the game. You can train your pet to encourage or discourage certain behaviors, or command them to do specific tasks, or just let them roam and do as they please, even if their desires sometimes conflict with yours (do you REALLY want your pet to eat your villagers and destroy your houses?). The choice is yours, once again. (For the record, I encourage my pet to eat just a handful of my own villagers every now and then. They need to be a LITTLE afraid of me. Though I have finally convinced him that pooping on the villagers – and no, I’m not making this up – is a bad idea. Still trying to get him to poop on the fields instead, to fertilize the crop. It’s been a tough lesson to teach him.)Follow the link below to read the full review.IMG Review: Black & White 2Black & White 2Feral Interactive

June 24, 2009 6:00 AMSoldak Entertainment, developer of Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld, is requesting fan input on the company's next game title. The game is described as a real time dungeon crawl and Soldak is asking fans to post their feedback and ideas about the genre on the company's forum.This is mostly a post to point to all of the other dungeon crawl idea threads, but I want to reiterate that we love hearing feedback from all of you. So if you have some cool ideas (old or new) that you want to see in a dungeon crawl type game, please tell us. You can post here, on a more specific thread, email me, or even send me a tweet or post on our facebook page.Click over to the link below for more information.Soldak Forums: Dungeon Crawl IdeasSoldak EntertainmentDepths of PerilKivi's Underworld

June 24, 2009 6:00 AMMaxis and Electronic Arts have announced that Spore Galactic Adventures, the expansion to the evolution sim Spore, is now available at North American retailers and will hit store shelves internationally on June 25th. Designed to expand the Spore universe, Spore Galactic Adventures delivers new adventures to players who can now become their own space captain, beam down to strange new planets, and create customized adventures. Maxis has also announced the download release of ten all new adventures created by the writers of the Robot Chicken television show.“Spore Galactic Adventures enhances the Spore experience by blasting players off into space, turning ordinary creatures into legendary Space Captains,” stated Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “For the first time, players can beam their creatures down to planets to experience all-new adventures or create custom-made missions of their own and share them with the world. With more than 105 million creations available in the Sporepedia, the Spore library of user-generated content for use in players’ missions, the only limit is their imaginations!” Expanding on the original Spore game, Spore Galactic Adventures adds variety and fun by allowing players to get out of their spaceship and explore colorful, wacky new planets. Players will turn their creatures into space captains, battle epic monsters in intergalactic arenas and fight intense planet-side races. In each mission, players earn experience to rank up their captain and earn game-changing items such as the Plasma Pulser and Swarm Magnet. In the box, the game includes 16 off-the-wall missions as well as an “Adventure Creator” tool that players can use to design their own missions. These personally-created missions can be shared with friends online and can be classed in leaderboards that track accomplishments, rank and medals earned. In addition to the adventures in the box, players can download ten all-new adventures created by the writers of the outrageously funny, pop-culture parody TV show, Robot Chicken. Available for free to all Spore Galactic Adventures owners, the Robot Chicken adventures take players through such wacky quests as a mission to obtain a library card by finding a ruler-yielding librarian her true love, and an adventure to save a princess by battling demonic snowmen in a snowglobe. Conceptualized by Robot Chicken co-creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, the Robot Chicken Adventures were imagined by the show’s writing team including Matt Beans, Doug Goldstein, Mike Fasolo, Breckin Meyer, Dan Milano, Tom Root, Kevin Shinick, Hugh Sterbakov and Zeb Wells. With such a unique cast of imaginative characters, players can expect to experience missions with exploding poo, angry yetis, and banana wars. To support Spore’s dedicated fan community, www.spore.com will feature a bevy of fun content including additional downloadable adventures, contests and news.Requirements:• Requires a Mac with an Intel processor• Requires the SPORE game to play.• Mac OS X v10.5.6 Leopard or higher• CPU: Intel Core Duo Processor• 1024MB RAM• Video card: ATI X1600/NVIDIA 7300 GT/Intel Integrated GMA X3100 graphics chip with 128 MB of Video RAM (Intel GMA950 not supported)• Keyboard and mouse• Hard Drive: At least 2.0GB of hard drive space with at least 1GB additional space for creations Spore Galactic Adventures costs $29.95 and requires the original Spore to play. Visit the links below for more information.Spore Galactic Adventures

June 23, 2009 6:00 AMDownload Squad recently published a list of 25 free cross platform titles available for a variety of platforms including OS X. Some of the games included in the list are Battle for Wesnoth, FreeCiv, VDrift, Scourge, and Cube 2: SauerbratenBattle for Wesnoth - One of the best known open source games around, Wesnoth is an excellent fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game. There's plenty here to keep you busy - multiple campaigns and large maps, and online multiplayer for when you grow weary of playing on your own.FreeCiv -Another cornerstone of open source gaming. Inspired by Sid Meier's classic series, FreeCiv challenges you to develop your civilization from primitive roots into a thriving, modern society. Multiplayer mode support up to 30 (yes, 30) players. With more than 100 playable nations and 29 translations, FreeCiv is a truly international Time Waster. Scourge -Scourge bills their project as a "graphical Rogue-like game." If that's true, think of Rogue as the plate and Scourge as a multi-layer, fancily decorated cake piled atop it. It's packed with open source Dungeons and Dragons style action. The project has some ambitious goals and is looking for contributors - if you enjoy playing it and can offer your skills, find the team on the #scourge IRC channel on Freenode.Check out the link below to view the full list.Download Squad: 25 Awesome Cross-Platform Games You Can Download For Free

June 23, 2009 6:00 AMWorthplaying has posted a collection of new screenshots from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The video game will follow the adventures of Harry in his sixth year at Hogwarts. It is scheduled to be released this summer at the same time as the film.In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn't counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simmering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again. In the game of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players will return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive a fraught sixth year. They will also have a chance to engage in exciting wizard duels, mix and brew magical ingredients in Potions class and take to the air to lead the Gryffindor Quidditch team to victory. Players may even get sidetracked by Ron’s romantic entanglements as they journey towards a dramatic climax and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.Visit the page below to view the new screenshots.Worthplaying: Harry Potter New ScreensElectronic Arts

June 23, 2009 6:00 AMPaper Dragon Games has announced the release of Constellation 1.2. The game is an original space themed strategy board game designed for 2 to 4 human or AI players. Version 1.0 of the game took second place in the uDevGames competition earlier this year. Version 1.2 is the game's first release as a shareware title and features the addition of special planet types and series gameplay.Constellation is a computerized strategy board game for 2 to 4 human or AI players. The combination of simple rules and complex strategy on randomly generated boards makes it infinitely replayable. Its never the same game twice! Constellation's gameplay is designed to be fast paced and simple to learn, but tricky to master. Randomly generated game boards make it infinitely replayable. Fans of the game have called Constellation addictive, and have compared it to such timeless games as Risk, Go, Othello, and Minesweeper.Constellation is available for $6. Head over to the site below for more information.Paper Dragon GamesConstellation

June 23, 2009 6:00 AMBlizzard Entertainment has released its promised third battle report for the upcoming StarCraft II. The new video features a battle between two game developers on a new 2 player map titled Scrapyard. The game showcases some of the units and abilities available to Zerg and Protoss players.We have just released the third installment of our StarCraft II Battle Reports, a series of videos created for the official website in order to give you a closer look at the fast-paced, intense, and exciting-to-watch multiplayer matches of StarCraft II. In this latest battle report, you’ll see two of Blizzard Entertainment’s best players go head-to-head as the zerg and protoss while our commentators, StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder and eSports team member Robert Simpson, dissect and analyze the on-screen action for you.Click over to the Blizzplanet link below for more information about the battle report.Blizzplanet: SC II Battle Report ThreeBlizzard EntertainmentStarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

June 22, 2009 6:00 AMGamasutra has published a new interview with Introversion Software's Mark Morris and Chris Delay. The developers discussed a variety of topics including the company's relationship with the press, the need to focus on gameplay rather than visuals, and the unique styles used by indie developers.Where more mainstream developers have continually added to their feature lists, boasting about the best new technology or the most gruesome ways in which you can decapitate an antagonist, Introversion's titles are stripped back: simple yet entirely effective, without sacrificing the core experience of becoming involved in their games. "Chris and I were talking about this on the train on the way up," Mark tells me. "We were talking about Assassin's Creed, and the effort they put into creating those great animations. But when you've seen that animation for the tenth time, it's kind of like a mobile uncanny valley. You know that someone wouldn't climb up that exact same way ten times. They've missed, they've failed somehow: it looks good but there's something wrong with it. So our aim is not to try to simulate the real world; it's to create a self-consistent game environment that provides massive immersion for the player." "With Darwinia, it was all about the construction of the world," says Chris. "Everything's blocky and chunky because it's a digital world. They haven't put the shading in yet." These game environments - be it a fully three-dimensional playing field or a futuristic computer monitor - are certainly novel, and seem to exist in a world where photo-realisim does not equate to the most arresting gaming experience. If you can invest in the fiction, even if it's a fiction driven by technological limitations, you'll have a lot more fun than if you're observing the pixel-perfect realisation of something that is, quite simply, not that interesting.Visit the page below to read the rest.Gamasutra: Introversion Software Q&AIntroversion Software

June 22, 2009 6:00 AMVGTribune recently posted a new review of Elven Legacy, a turn-based strategy title set in a fantasy world. The game more than 100 units, five heroes, five playable factions, multiplayer combat, multiple game endings, and a game editor for players who want to create their own missions. VGTribune gave the game a score of 8.5 out of 10.From the review:As a wargame, EL is one of the best I’ve seen in recent years. It is balanced and simple to learn, but rewards the player with extended play and by putting some thought into army selection and upgrading units. Further depths can be tapped into in multiplayer and it is these attributes that might make this title a cult classic in years to come.The AI is better than most strategy titles of recent years and the computer can provide a reasonalby stiff test, especially on medium and hard difficulty settings.The game’s appearance is very easy on the eye. The landscapes and towns that comprise the playing surface are well rendered and colourful. The units are well modelled and their motion in movement and combat is smooth. The artwork in all the game’s menus and loading screens is of a similar standard and this is a real strength of the game.EL’s only problems are in terms of the plotline, script and voice acting, but these pale in significance to the game’s sheer playability and compulsive qualities.EL is a game that will delight old school strategy fans and may well convince some younger RTS fans that Total War is not the only game in town (if you’ll pardon the pun). It’s graphics are pleasing on the eye, while the game mechanics lead to a balanced affair with real depth and great multiplayer potential.Virtual Programming recently announced it will be bringing the game to Mac users sometime this year. For the full review click over to the page listed below.VGTribune: Elven Legacy ReviewElven LegacyVirtual Programming

June 22, 2009 6:00 AMApple recently posted a new trailer for City of Heroes Mac Special Edition, NCSoft's super-hero themed MMO. The game allows Intel Mac owners to join in the action as a hero or villain. The Mac version features both City of Heroes and City of Villains as well an exclusive Valkyrie costume set.In 2004 City of Heroes® was launched, bringing the world of comic books alive in the first massively multiplayer game of its kind, and winning numerous awards. In 2005 City of Villains® arrived representing the dark side of the struggle between good and evil, and again received heavy critical acclaim. Today the battle continues. Players have created millions of unique heroes and villains and set off to fight crime in Paragon City™ or become infamous villains in the Rogue Isles™. City of Heroes® Mac Special Edition includes both award-winning titles in one box, along with a set of exclusive in-game items! The only question is whether to protect Paragon City as a crime fighting hero or help Lord Recluse™ bring it to its knees! Mac Special Edition includes the following exclusive in-game items: Mission Teleporter Power - Players can save time and get right into the action by teleporting directly to their active mission. Exclusive Valkyrie Costume set - Costume pieces include two varieties of wings, a cape, a skirt/kilt, pants, boots, shoulders, chest, gloves, belts, and helmet with multiple details.Check out the trailer at the link below.Apple Games: City Of Heroes TrailerNCsoftTransGamingCity of Heroes

June 19, 2009 6:00 AMStrategy Analytics, a market research firm, recently released a new report forecasting a large growth in players for virtual worlds in the next few years. Among other things the report predicted that the number of players will grow from the current 186 million to almost 640 million by the year 2015.The firm said it sees the global population of virtual world users growing from 186 million today to almost 640 million by 2015 -- that's almost one hundred million new players a year, a nearly 25 percent compounded annual growth rate. The fastest growing demographic is kids between the ages of 5 and 9 which the company predicts will grow 27 percent; the current largest segment of virtual worlds players, tweens and teens, should grow by some 21 percent, according to the company. Overall, as virtual worlds continue to improve the user experience, Strategy Analytics see a conversion rate from registrations to active users at a growth rate of 38 percent through 2015. "The high conversion of registrants to active users demonstrates that users are finding value -- in the form of entertainment, engagement, and social interaction." That is according to Barry Gilbert, Vice President of the Strategy Analytics Gaming Sector and author of the company's just-released Virtual Worlds Market Forecast 2009-2015. "Virtual worlds have largely overcome enabling restrictions in terms of broadband access, computing power, and ease of use, and are now experiencing significant interest among major brands, as well as traction among targeted demographics," added Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics. When it comes to revenue growth, the key drivers, the company says, will be microtransactions, subscriptions, and advertising/sponsorships, with microtransactions expected to grow from slightly over $1 billion in 2008 to $17.3 billion in 2015. Microtransactions will account for approximately 86 percent of all revenue generated by virtual worlds.Click over to the page below to read more.Virtual Worlds News: Skyrocketing Growth

June 19, 2009 6:00 AMVentureBeat has posted a new interview with Electronic Arts COO John Pleasants. In the interview the executive discusses a variety of topics including the shift from traditional game distribution to online models, how the idea of games as services will lower costs, and the company's future plans.VB: How do you look at this whole shift from software to Internet services? Everyone from Microsoft to Autodesk is doing this.JP: Ticketmaster was a software and infrastructure company that moved to a direct-to-consumer model. For anyone in software, the move is going to be like moving from Blockbuster to Netflix, record label to iTunes, Siebel to Salesforce.com. They all carry elements that are directly parallel to us. If you believe all games will eventually be services — as I do — then the idea of game teams that make a game, ship it, and then do something else goes away. They will now ship and day one begins when the customer gives feedback to the live service. The way you distribute will be different. The way you charge will be different. There will be more permutations in pricing. Merchandising will be much more important. Co-marketing will be much more important. You have to have persistent identification and entitlements for a user, no matter where they are or in what game they’re playing. VB: But there is something I don’t understand about how much games cost to make these days.JP: There’s no question that in a world where games are a service, the cost to deploy any one game should be coming down over time. We have been investing in infrastructure for that. You can make games faster and then test them and revise them. We had big teams in high-cost locations. We had $2.3 billion in costs and were on track to spend $2.6 billion last year. We took $500 million out of that run rate through internal cuts. None of that was pleasant. But we did take the cost structure down significantly. At the end of the day, you have to make hits. If we don’t grow our revenue and we have $2.1 billion in costs, that’s not good enough. If we grow revenue by a billion, then it’s OK to have $2.1 billion in costs. You look at the bang for the buck you get from your investment. Our operating margins this year are double digit, but they’re low double digit. That’s unacceptable to us as a management team. We want to double the operating margin over time. To do that, you either grow revenue or cut costs. We want to grow revenue or shift revenue to higher-margin products. We are making fewer titles to focus on quality. If you make fewer titles, you have to make more revenue per title. It’s a hit driven business. You are only as good as your hits. EA used to have lots of hits. If you looked at the top 30, we used to have 10 games on it. Last year, we had four. If you do the math on it, your cost structure is not right.Visit the page linked below to read the full interview.VentureBeat: Shift To Digital Game DistributionElectronic Arts

June 19, 2009 6:00 AMGuild Software has posted an update on the news blog for its massively-multiplayer online space strategy game, Vendetta Online. Upcoming changes discussed in the entry include the introduction of detail textures and adjustments to graphics support for older hardware.First and foremost, I had Ray drop detail textures into the engine. This is a feature that allows the primary texture on an object to be modulated with a secondary "high detail" texture; so when the first begins to look blurry, the second comes through and creates the impression of increased surface detail. Combine this with specularity and bump shaders, and you can add a lot of detail. This is particularly important with Very Large Objects, since they tend to have much more obviously "blurry" textures. Large or small, however, detail textures can have a big impact on the perceived visual quality of objects in the universe. Adding detail textures only took him a few hours, but handling the more aesthetic tradeoffs and balancing that against shader performance has been an ongoing process. We had been planning to add this feature for years, but just "hadn't gotten around to it". Although they have general applicability on any object, the need for detail textures tends to be greatest with large objects. For this, and other reasons, we've historically tended to avoid "really large" objects, preferring clusters of smaller objects to yield more detail. However, as part of the greater "Universe Redux" process, I'm looking at getting some physically-bigger content into the galaxy. If I'm going to spend the time to repopulate most of the galaxy with more asteroids, I would just as soon add in some new types of asteroids, and giant ice, and other features that can add to the tactically complex environments that will become that much more central to future gameplay. Aside from this, you'll also begin to see a lot of added detail on ships like the HAC and Constellation, as well as our stations and the like. Some of the current asteroids, like the broken tan-color chunks, will be among the first to get the added improvement. All in all, detail textures add a significant bit of enhancement for a relatively small amount of development work, which is exactly the sort of graphical update that is worthwhile when convenient (despite all our pressing gameplay needs). Detail textures will only be visible to people with "fairly" modern hardware (ie, only six years old, heh), as it will only be present for shader 2.0 capable cards.Read the full post at the link below.Vendetta Online NewsGuild SoftwareStrategy FirstVendetta Online

June 19, 2009 6:00 AMCCP Games has released a new development blog for its sci-fi MMO, EVE Online. Following up on user requests the post crunches the numbers to reveal the most popular ships in the game. The popularity of vessels was calculated by determining the amount of trading associated with each ship type.After the release of the last statistics dev blog, one of the main requests for information to go alongside the PVP data was for information on the actual popularity of various ship types. Instead of raw numbers on how many are blown up, in this blog we shall show the relative popularity of various items against others of its type on the market throughout the past. These do not show the total individual numbers of these ships/items, they show the number of them traded on the market. This means that if the same ship was traded through the market twice, it would count for two.Head over to the website link listed below for more information.EVE Online Blog: Ship PopularityCCP GamesTransGamingEVE Online

June 18, 2009 6:00 AMVirtual Programming and Atari have announced that the latest chapter in the Riddick franchise, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, is coming to the Mac. The game includes both the new Assault on Dark Athena campaign and an enhanced version of the original Escape from Butcher Bay.The Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena contains a brand new full-length Riddick campaign in addition to a high-definition pixel-by-pixel remake of the universally acclaimed title Escape from Butcher Bay. In addition to the thrilling, visceral single player action, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena brings Riddick into the multiplayer arena for the first time, with six intense online multiplayer combat modes including the unique Pitch Black mode. Reprising his role as Riddick, Vin Diesel brings his unique vocal talent to The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, creating a powerful anti-hero with a talent for chilling one-liners. Diesel is joined by a high calibre cast of actors including Lance Henriksen, Wade Williams, William Morgan Sheppard, and Michelle Forbes who brings depth and weary malevolence to Riddick’s chief adversary on the Dark Athena, Captain Revas. Starbreeze Studios’ proprietary ‘vo-cap’ technology ensures that every nuance of the actors’ vocal and physical performance ends up in the game, creating a uniquely absorbing experience. In The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena the player takes the role of Riddick, as played by Diesel, using stealth and action to overcome the merciless crew of the predatory Merc-ship Dark Athena which awaits its prey in the dark reaches of space. Cheating death through a series of spectacular battles and events, Riddick will fight for his life amid a storm of malevolence and horror. The Chronicles of Riddick series of games takes the player deeper into the universe of Universal Pictures’ films The Chronicles of Riddick and cult classic Pitch Black, which first introduced Diesel as enigmatic anti-hero.For more information about the game click over to the links below.Virtual ProgrammingThe Chronicles Of Riddick: AoDA

June 18, 2009 6:00 AMIndustryGamers has posted a new interview with veteran game developer Will Wright. The interview covers Wright's new Stupid Fun Club think tank, his continued involvement with the Spore franchise, and his views on the future of artificial intelligence in game design.IG: Concerning the future of Spore, obviously there are a lot of talented folks at Maxis still working on it, but are you planning on any return to that franchise or your other franchises even though you're not with EA now?WW: I don't think it was widely reported, but alongside this whole [Stupid Fun Club] thing, I also entered into a consulting agreement with EA. I'm spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions. So I will [still] be involved with EA on developing the Spore franchise as well. IG: Well, fans will be happy to hear that. With that in mind, considering a theoretical Spore 2, what about the first Spore would you like to change or improve upon for a sequel?WW: As soon as we released it, because we're giving so much involvement to the players, we ended up learning a lot from seeing what the players do; we've already seen a lot of unexpected stuff happening in the player community that we're learning from. We're finding out cool areas the fans want to bring the game in, what direction they want the tools to go, what experiences they're enjoying in the game the most, which levels they enjoy the most. So I think now we're at a maximum learning where the fans are going to be steering the franchise as much as we will – they have their hands on the steering wheel too. We're listening to criticisms of parts of the game, we're looking at parts that were unexpected successes and we're going to go in other directions with Spore.I think part of it is stuff we wish we had done, but it's more what we see the fans wanting us to do. We're going to probably add more depth to different areas of the game – and we're certainly already doing that with the Galactic Adventures expansion pack – and we're also taking output from the tools in different directions, so you can take your creatures you made in the creature creator and bring them into different experiences. IG: Working with games like Sims and Spore, AI is obviously a very important part of the design, but AI in general seems to perhaps lag behind others areas in gaming (graphics, sound, etc.). What kind of advancement do you think we'll see when it comes to AI in video games?WW: Well AI is a funny term because it means so many different things to different people. For some people it's route planning, for some people it's conversational ability, for others it's strategic goal planning. AI is really just a bunch of tricks... One thing I think we've found in general, especially with the net and things like Google, is that computers are much, much better at kind of collecting and distilling human intelligence than they are at fundamentally recreating it. If you think about Google's search results, that's what they are – a distillation of thousands of people's decisions of what pages they've decided to link to. But it gives this impression of this search engine that's very smart at figuring out places you might find useful.And in Spore it's almost a distillation of human creativity. Spore as a program is not creative at all, but it does a very good job of distilling the creativity of millions of individuals and presenting them back to you. I think you can get a lot more traction using that approach, and I think reversing that we're also starting to look at how we can analyze human metrics inside of a game or any kind of computer experience, and then change that experience to customize it to that person. Using the intelligence of other people is kind of the base data set for that. So I think we're going to see a lot more progress in what we think of as AI from that approach. For the future, there are still people out there fundamentally trying to recreate human intelligence... but they're still on this very slow, linear slope, whereas the other approach is really taking off exponentially.Click over to the link below to read more.Gamedaily: Will Wright InterviewElectronic ArtsSpore

June 18, 2009 6:00 AMApple Games' latest article examines The Path, a unique artistic horror title which takes place within a world crafted from the well known Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Apple's article includes an overview of the gameplay, comments from designers Micha?Samyn and Auriea Harvey, and a brief history of the enduring Red Riding hood story.Of course, the game’s wolves are not necessarily of the lupine variety, notes Samyn: “We wanted to think about growing up, about exploring, about changing. We wanted to think about relationships, and how they are never as simple as we may wish. We wanted to ask the question if the moral that Charles Perrault attached to the story in the 17th century — that, as a young girl, you should watch out for seductive men because they may have bad intentions — was as straightforward as it seems.” Harvey muses: “It’s an interesting question whether the six girls could be seen as different stages of a single person’s life. That is an intriguing way to look at the story and will certainly lead to some poignant ideas in the player. The Path is not only about a girl growing into a woman, but also about growing into men, or growth in general.” She adds: “It could be seen as a reassurance to know that one keeps going, on to the next phase of life, on to the next experience that helps you shed another layer of your innocence. The loss of innocence is tragic but essential to life. So if these bittersweet moments when we change are universal, then the six girls represent man and woman alike.”Visit the page listed below to read the full article.Apple Games: The PathBuy The PathTale Of Tales

June 17, 2009 1:22 PMVirtual Programming and Atari announced today that the latest chapter in the Riddick franchise, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, is coming to the Mac.The Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena contains a brand new full-length Riddick campaign in addition to a high-definition pixel-by-pixel remake of the universally acclaimed title Escape from Butcher Bay. In addition to the thrilling, visceral single player action, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena brings Riddick into the multiplayer arena for the first time, with six intense online multiplayer combat modes including the unique Pitch Black mode. Reprising his role as Riddick, Vin Diesel brings his unique vocal talent to The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, creating a powerful anti-hero with a talent for chilling one-liners. Diesel is joined by a high calibre cast of actors including Lance Henriksen, Wade Williams, William Morgan Sheppard, and Michelle Forbes who brings depth and weary malevolence to Riddick’s chief adversary on the Dark Athena, Captain Revas. Starbreeze Studios’ proprietary ‘vo-cap’ technology ensures that every nuance of the actors’ vocal and physical performance ends up in the game, creating a uniquely absorbing experience. In The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena the player takes the role of Riddick, as played by Diesel, using stealth and action to overcome the merciless crew of the predatory Merc-ship Dark Athena which awaits its prey in the dark reaches of space. Cheating death through a series of spectacular battles and events, Riddick will fight for his life amid a storm of malevolence and horror. The Chronicles of Riddick series of games takes the player deeper into the universe of Universal Pictures’ films The Chronicles of Riddick and cult classic Pitch Black, which first introduced Diesel as enigmatic anti-hero.For more information about Virtual Programming and its game offerings follow the link below.Virtual Programming

June 17, 2009 6:00 AMDevelop has published a new interview with OnLive CEO Mike McGarvey. The interview focuses on the company's promised broadband gaming distribution service, which will offer a variety of game choices to subscribers by handling each game's video and audio on remote servers and streaming the results to players. The service will be compatible with Mac and Windows based machines, or without a machine at all through the use of a "micro console" television attachment.There’s a lot of scepticism about the video encoding and streaming – what can you tell us about the technology that makes OnLive work?OnLive works by taking input from your controller, keyboard or mouse and connects the player to the OnLive service. Then, the service’s custom game servers render the game graphics. OnLive’s proprietary video compression technology streams back low-latency video to the player’s TV via the OnLive MicroConsole, or to a PC or Mac via a small browser plug-in. A proprietary compression algorithm and custom silicon make it possible for us to deliver games instantly over the Internet.Our revolutionary video compression algorithm was designed specifically for video games and can encode and compress video into data in about one millisecond. A custom-built silicon chip does the actual encoding calculations at the server end, and that information is decompressed at the gamers end, inside the MicroConsole for those playing on their televisions, or if someone is playing on Mac or PC, the decompression is handled within a small software client downloaded into a Web browser.The data delivered from the game server to the MicroConsole or to a PC or Mac is proprietary and highly tuned to not only produce low-latency HD video, but it is designed to tolerate packet corruption, and pass through consumer-grade firewalls, routers and switches. The current demo shows established big brands that have debuted on console as well as PC – are you hoping to secure original exclusive IP for the OnLive platform?In a way we have ‘exclusive’ games for people with Macs and low end PC’s. Crysis is a great example. The game isn’t currently developed for the Mac and doesn’t run on low end PC’s yet both of those user groups will be able to play the game on OnLive, because we do all the computing in our server centres in the cloud and it just runs on their hardware.Also, the OnLive platform opens up several new avenues for game development and distribution – episodic games that update throughout the year, for example – and we expect games developed specifically for the OnLive platform to be available in the near term. Because we are the only platform that is wholly online, those games would – by necessity – be available only on our service. Aside from the questions regarding the technology, there’s also a big question mark hanging over the cost of the whole operation. Is OnLive going to be affordable to the masses or more of a ‘core’ gaming luxury? Can you give us any indication of pricing?We can’t say a lot about our pricing strategy quite yet, except to say that games will pay a basic monthly fee for access, and that the cost of the MicroConsole will be much less than competitive consoles. With respect to the games sold on the service, we expect them to be priced competitively.Regardless, we’re confident that the economics of the OnLive system will be favorable for consumers. Essentially, we’ve removed the reliance on high-end hardware, so gamers will never need to upgrade their PC or buy another console. So OnLive is very cost-effective, particularly over time.Visit the site below to read both parts of the inteview.Developmag.com: Online Q&A 1Developmag.com: Online Q&A 2OnLive

June 17, 2009 6:00 AMBasilisk Games has released a new Q&A entry for its series featuring answers to fan questions about the upcoming Eschalon: Book II, the second in the company's "old school" RPG series. The latest installment covers possible distribution methods for the game as well as discussion of the mechanics of shields and torches.Question #12:[Xixao] Are you going to be using multiple distributors? If so will the steam version be available at the same time as the others? Will you be fixing torches and shields? The whole not being able to use one while wearing a shield seems very unrealistic. Also how to I view previous developer questions that may have answered my many questions?- Yes, we will use multiple distributors, but for the first 3-4 weeks it will probably only be available on our site. As for Steam, we would love to have them distribute Book II, but it is up to them to offer to do so. Just because they took Book I (more than a year after we released it) doesn't mean they'll accept Book II onto their service.- Fixing Torches and Shields? I didn't know it was broken. In Book II, shields will offer better protection and even "bashing" abilities at higher skill levels. I could see how it might be possible to hold a small buckler and a torch at the same time, but how is someone supposed to hold a large steel shield and a torch simultaneously? Don't worry- there will be an additional light-producing option in Book II that will specifically help people who want to use a shield and weapon together in the dark.- Looking here, or through some of the links at the top of this thread are the best ways to see if your question may already have been answered.Click over to the link below to read more.Eschalon Book II Q&ABasilisk GamesEschalon: Book II