EA’s on a roll this week! First there was the thing where it banned a user from its forums for (rather politely, actually, at least in forum terms) pointing out that, in his opinion, Dragon Age 2 was shit; the ban extended to his EA account and suddenly the dude was locked out of all EA games he owned. After public vilification the company backtracked, claiming a “mistake.” Then they refused a refund to a …
Feel free to file this one under Obvious News is Obvious, but the Nintendo 3DS has gone down pretty well after its long awaited launch in Japan. How well exactly? An entire launch shipment of 400,000 units snaffled by hungry gamers in just a few hours. Nom Nom. Predictable as this may be, those are pretty impressive figures. Nintendo are reportedly aiming to shift 1.5 million shiny new 3DS units by the end of March, …
On the 24th February RIFT began its ‘head start’ event. With 1 million Trion registered accounts, it was always highly likely as a result of a popular and successful open beta that RIFT was going to experience large numbers of players flooding onto the servers come head start. And sure enough, queue times to enter certain servers were and still are staggering…
I’m not entirely sure I believe this, but Atlus has announced – rather tersely – that its just-released-in-Japan erotic horror title Catherine will not be wading across any oceans. Specifically, they say this: Catherine is a Japan-only game and there are no plans for a NA release at this time. Sorry about that!
As Norn Week over at the Guild Wars 2 official blog rumbles on, ArenaNet have just updated the norn racial page with brand new wallpapers, expanded lore, and a brand new video featuring the Shiverpeaks, hunting grounds of the norn. If you haven’t already seen it, you really should head on over and take a look. The desktop wallpapers are absolutely brilliant (made from concept art) but most importantly, the new footage of Shiverpeaks makes me want to …
Gamesindustry.biz reports that Microsoft and NVIDIA have departed the PC Gaming Alliance, a movement the two organizations helped found. Neither firm offered a reason for departure. The PCGA was founded a couple years ago, if memory serves, to advance the PC as a viable platform for gaming. As consoles grow in market share, and development costs for PC (plus the ever-present threat of piracy) continue to spiral upward, the platform has long been losing its …
I know you’ve grown tired of the zombification of our planet. I have too, friends. However, being late to the party is not a crime, in fact sometimes it might even be a good thing. Enter: Dead Island. Sometimes you go away for a long weekend and when you come back you find electronically transmitted pieces of mail from your friends; heartwarming it is. Sometimes those pieces of mail show you a teaser/trailer that you …
Over at the official EVE Online site, CCP have begun to reveal details relating to the new Captain’s Quarters that players will be able to experience by the summer. The dev-blog describes the Captains Qaurters as: “your place of power, center of your control, operational nucleus, living room and home office. They are the dusty motel room for the vagabond capsuleer. Whether docking your ship to a station or entering EVE for the first …
After Guild Wars 2’s recent Human Week, ArenaNet have announced the second installment to their ongoing series dedicated to detailing the races featured in Guild Wars 2. This coming Monday the official ArenaNet Blog will give players an in-depth introduction to the shape shifting half-giants known as the Norn, and throughout the remainder of the week will provide readers with additional insight from the developers on the lore, the newest art, and a new video! If you haven’t already …
As my second piece of news, also Steam related, SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd have today announced that Total War: Shogun 2, will be available on Steam on February 22. The press release goes on to state: SEGA and The Creative Assembly are proud to let gamers everywhere know that a demo for Total War: Shogun 2 will soon be available on Steam. The demo will allow all armchair samurai to test their skills …
I should have been posting this bite-sized news yesterday, but I’ve been feeling under the weather lately (I blame Steerpike and his relentless beatings). So I’m posting it now, instead. Forbes Magazine in February’s issue have revealed that Steam controls up to 70% of the $4 billion market for downloaded PC games, with a staggering 200% year-over-year growth. Although Valve have never revealed their turnover or profit margins, its fair to say that their profit will undoubtedly …
So we knew that From Software, creators of the glorious Demon’s Souls, were working on a “sequel.” Now we know its name: Dark Souls, to be published in the west by Namco-Bandai. That’s a bit of a surprise, since Atlus did so well with the original it seems they’d want sequel localization rights, but there you go. All we know right now is that it’ll be a PS3 exclusive in Japan but probably a PS3/360 …
Rock Paper Shotgun are calling it “The Death of the Demo.” Could it be so? Newsy sources report that e-Distributor Direct2Drive are offering a new game rental service. Five dollars gets you five hours with a game… one that’s conveniently fully downloaded Directly 2 your Drive, as it were, should you decide to pony up full price after your time’s up.
I was meant to post this up ages ago — sorry HM — but better late than never, right? (“Better early than late!”) Anyway, in the same vein as our Revenge of the Titans discussion this one revolves around another — albeit very different — tower defence game: Radical Poesis Games’ Immortal Defense. Here’s a carrot: “The only problem is that, like Planescape: Torment, Immortal Defense has raised the bar.” If you haven’t already, go …
You may have heard of a game at IGF 2010; a game called Boryokudan Rue. We touched on it briefly last March. Well, that game is no longer called Boryokudan Rue; it now goes by the much more conversation-friendly title Gemini Rue. Aside from that it seems nothing else has changed: it remains a point and click adventure game for personal computers; part sci-fi, part steampunk, and part 1990s-adventure-gaming-halcyon-days nostalgia that is sure to appeal …