Buy Borderlands, get two DLC Add-ons Free at Amazon

        

It was a bank holiday in the US and the UK yesterday, and Amazon started something by putting up a deal for Borderlands, the hit game of late last year by Gearbox Software.

You can grab the game, currently going for $27.99, saving you a whopping $2 - but with it you’ll get the first two DLC packs released this year, The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, collectively known as the Borderlands Double Game Add-on Pack, for FREE. And that saves you about $20 right there.

By the way, this deal is only available for the PC version of the game.

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Sources: Amazon - Borderlands on sale at Amazon.com with two DLC expansions for free [Big Download]

Buy Borderlands, get two DLC Add-ons Free at Amazon

Activision Fires Infinity Ward Heads, Talks About Future Call of Duty Games

The big news that has swarmed all over the net lately is that there’s been a feud of sorts between Activision and Infinity Ward, the developers of Modern Warfare 2, and most other Call of Duty games.

Reportedly the President, Jason West, and CEO Vince Zampella, of the studio have been fired for "breaches of contract and insubordination”. Security guards escorted people out of the office too. The LinkedIn and Facebook pages of both guys confirms the rumours, and have left IW. Some rumours suggest that it was due to IW not being paid royalties from Activision.

Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich are the new interim heads at the company.

The infamous Bobby Kotick of Activision has apparently also held a meeting or two with the remaining staff. People all over are not only attacking Activision, but reckon that the situation is far from resolved.

But the development of Call of Duty games goes on, as there will be two expansions or DLC packs for Modern Warfare 2, set for release this year, a Treyarch developed game supposedly set in Vietnam, and now another Call of Duty game said to be an action-adventure game, developed by Sledgehammer games, formed by the heads of Visceral Games (developers of Dead Space), Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. And that still leaves another Call of Duty game probably coming next year, which must be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, by IW, if things settle down within the company.

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Source: G4tv

Activision Fires Infinity Ward Heads, Talks About Future Call of Duty Games

Borderlands DLC Retail Pack Coming Soon: 2 out of 3

Until now, the DLC packs for Borderlands, namely The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx have only been available for download on Xbox Live, PSN, and Digital Distribution sites such as Steam and Direct2Drive for the PC, as well as Games for Windows Live Marketplace.

There are even packs which combine DLC offerings, the best of which so far is the Borderlands Triple Pack on Direct2Drive, which includes the main game, Borderlands, as well as The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot.

Well, word has it that two of these DLCs are going to be released in retail form for stores.

It will offer The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot in one retail package, and is said to be releasing in the UK soon, on April 9th, with other territories likely getting it later.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx will not be included in the pack, although it was thought at one stage it would be, but Eurogamer claims the information supplied was incorrect. I suppose just like like Bethesda did, they’ll pack it together with a GOTY edition like they did with Mothership Zeta last year. Unless there are more DLC packs to come, which might be the case.

Apparently, so far only the PC and Xbox 360 versions of this bundle have been confirmed, with an announcement for the PS3 one still pending.

And wouldn’t you know it? You can preorder this pack from Amazon right now!

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Sources: [1] Eurogamer

Borderlands DLC Retail Pack Coming Soon: 2 out of 3

Borderlands: Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC out Today for Xbox 360

The third DLC pack for Borderlands, Secret Armory of Generally Knoxx, should be out today for the Xbox 360 and available on Xbox Live Marketplace, costing at 800 MS points. A release for the Playstation 3 and PC versions are coming on Thursday, the 25th of February, and should sell for $9.99[1].

Included features in this DLC pack: level cap raised to 61 [2], new locations, about 30 new enemies, new weapons, a new weapon class, improved AI, and new vehicles.

It was previously thought that the level cap would be raised to 50, but apparently a press release from 2K has confirmed that it is 61. They were also rumours that the game might not be released today, but I read just now that the DLC is “still on” for today, despite speculation.

You can check out this info and more over at the Borderlands wikia page.

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Sources: [1] TeamXbox - [2] Joystiq

Borderlands: Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC out Today for Xbox 360

Assassin’s Creed II DLC, Bonfire of the Vanities, out Today, PC DRM Issues

The second DLC for Assassin’s Creed II, Bonfire of the Vanities, should be out today. It was announced earlier this week, for Thursday the 18th.

This DLC as well as Battle of Forli was cut from the original game.

I’m just happy that the DLC will be included in the PC release, which comes out mid-March. Yippee!

For the bad news regarding the PC version, I was just reading that game will require Ubisoft’s new and all ready flawed constant internet connection DRM “solution”, that is suited to people living in a first world country and with easy, cheap broadband access - which South Africa doesn’t have for the most part.

If you aren’t connected you can’t play, and if you lose the connection you get kicked out of your game, to the main menu, and lose all your progress since the last checkpoint.

Sucks to be us. And as a lot of people say, this solution isn’t going to make piracy go away, it’s just going to make it worse.

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Source: 1up – CVG (Computer and Video Games)

Assassin’s Creed II DLC, Bonfire of the Vanities, out Today, PC DRM Issues

Rock Band Megadeth DLC: Rust in Peace

Like I’ve said time and time again, I couldn’t care less about these music games, even though I’m a big fan of music in general. But this is something I do care about: There’s a Megadeth DLC coming to Rock Band in the coming week, and all the tracks are from the 1990 classic, Rust in Peace: the album considered by many to not only be one of the band’s best, next to Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying, but also one of the best thrash metal albums ever.

I tend to agree. I’d also be inclined to put Countdown to Extinction up there as well.

The track list, if you don’t know all ready, includes most of the songs off of the album, and as you can see it includes some of their best known songs like the two singles, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" and "Hangar 18" . The only one it seems to lack is the bonus track of “My Creation”, but it wasn’t that good anyway.

• "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due"
• "Hangar 18"
• "Take No Prisoners"
• "Five Magics"
• "Poison Was the Cure"
• "Lucretia"
• "Tornado of Souls"
• "Dawn Patrol"
• "Rust In Peace... Polaris"

Source: 1up.com

Rock Band Megadeth DLC: Rust in Peace

Borderlands: New DLC Revealed, Retail Packs

Until now, the recently released DLC packs for Borderlands have only been available online. But this month, on the 23rd of February, retail packs for the PC and Xbox 360 versions will be available. You can preorder them now at Amazon. The packs no doubt include The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot. No word so far on a PS3 version.

In addition to this, the third DLC pack, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (parody on Fort Knox, you think?), will be released sometime this year, probably not that far off considering the close proximity of the other releases. This latest DLC pack will increase the level cap past 50. Regrettably it doesn’t look like this DLC content will be available in the Borderlands Add-On Pack mentioned above.

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Sources: Kotaku - Gamepro

Borderlands: New DLC Revealed, Retail Packs

Assassin’s Creed II PC Details: Release Date, System Specifications, DLC Inclusive

I don’t know why everyone’s making a fuss of this “new” release date for Assassin’s Creed II. The official word is that it’s March 16th, 2010. But I’ve known that for some time now, at least unofficially, and so have you, probably. If you didn’t, now you do.

Another interesting thing about the PC version of AC2 is that the DLC packs, “Battle of Forli” and “Bonfire of the Vanities”, which were cut out of the game and are being sold to console owners (which is low, low, low, as I’ve said before) are going to be included in the PC release! Just as I predicted, and it’s the right thing to do. So PC owners don’t have to pay for the DLC packs. They come included, just so you know.

The game will be sold as a retail and digital download version. The digital version’s price is quite steep, at $59.99. Also available for digital download only is the Black Edition, which is a few dollars extra. There’s supposedly no word on what’s included in the pack, but I have a feeling that because I’ve seen some mention of this Black Edition before, that it may well give you additional clothes for Ezio to play dress up in. I’m not sure, I just think it is.

As for the System Specifications:

Minimum Requirements:

OS: Windows XP (32-64 bits) /Windows Vista (32-64 bits)/Windows 7 (32-64 bits)Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHZ
Memory: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista - Windows 7
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 –compliant sound card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller

Recommended:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better
Video Card: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 or better
Sound: 5.1 sound card
Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, joystick optional (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)

Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

ATI RADEON X1950, HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7/8/9/100/200 series

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Source: Big Download

Assassin’s Creed II PC Details: Release Date, System Specifications, DLC Inclusive

Resident Evil 5 DLC and Gold Edition Coming Soon

At the moment I’m playing Resident Evil 5 on PC, so I found this interesting.

It looks as though in February and March there will be some DLC coming for the console versions of the game (Xbox 360, PS3). And on top of that, there will be a retail version called the "Gold Edition” or Resident Evil 5 Gold, which will bundle these DLC packs along with the original game, RE5. That will be coming in March too.

Unfortunately, as with most titles nowadays, neither the DLC packs nor the Gold Edition look like they’re coming to the PC – just consoles as usual.

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Resident Evil 5 'Gold Edition' Trailer Shows Off Downloadable Campaigns, Content

Resident Evil 5 DLC and Gold Edition Coming Soon

Modern Warfare 2 is (not) Surprisingly Short, Like Most FPSs Nowadays

I’ve read it online and I’ve heard it from other people: Modern Warfare 2 was too short.

My brother and I were talking lately and he happened to be pissed off. He said he finished Modern Warfare 2 in only several hours of playing and it was a total rip-off.

I started playing the game in the early hours of Saturday morning, and played a few sessions throughout that day and Sunday, and in the early hours of Monday morning, it was over.
I was really getting in to the game, and all of a sudden it stopped. I should have known that the ending with MacTavish lying on the floor with a knife sticking out of his chest and Shepard kicking the cr@p out of Price was the ending, but I was just so taken in to the game that I didn’t realize that soon the experience would end. I was kind of disappointed.

The thing is no Call of Duty game in history has ever been a long game. With practically every CoD game I’ve ever played, it only took me a few sessions over a period of 2 to 4 days (with breaks) to finish.

And to come across any game nowadays which takes more than several hours to finish is a rarity, besides Fallout 3 or something, which is an RPG. I’m talking about FPSs; shooters.

I mean, Wolfenstein was primarily an FPS with a few extra elements added in to the mix, and even though some claim it was boring, it still took me longer to finish than Modern Warfare 2.

Ever since the nineties, FPS games have evolved tremendously in several areas, but they have been getting shorter in lifespan for the most part. How many times have I played Duke Nukem 3D over the years, and how long did it take me to play through all four episodes of the Atomic Edition? More often, and much longer, to answer both questions.

Yes, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does have the added bonus of Special Ops missions, some of which are more challenging than what was offered in the actual singleplayer, but once again, the main campaign is pretty short. If only the effort that went into these Special Ops missions was used to extend the singleplayer missions. Most of them were just outtakes from the campaign, but the suspension bridge one was fun.

Well, there is that DLC or expansion which revolves around Ghost that everyone is talking about now, so maybe there will be an extra few missions.

Modern Warfare 2 is (not) Surprisingly Short, Like Most FPSs Nowadays