Apocalypso's Atomic Arcade: 11/22/09

2009/11/28

Thi4f Still in Pre-Production, Except Further Along, Perhaps

Speaking of Thief 4 (Thi4f, officially), there’s been a rare update on the game's progress lately.

Months ago it was officially announced after being one of the worst kept secrets in the industry for months prior, and it was eventually noted that the game was in early pre-production, while Eidos Montreal looked for a team to actually work on the title.

The game is still in pre-production, but it’s more in the middle than the early stages, if general manager Stephane D’Astous is to be believed. He was contacted by IncGamers, and the following was said:

“Personally i (sic) have NEVER seen a team, at this milestone (middle of pre-production) in such good shape!”

And we will “NOT be disappointed with Thief 4”.

As if we haven’t heard that before. I just hope that Eidos doesn’t screw up this game like they almost, nearly did (some say they did) with Thief: Deadly Shadows. The game was still good, but not great, and a lot of stuff that was in Thief II, like all the potions and not to mention the rope arrows, was missing.

That title was by Ion Storm though, and they're not around anymore.

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Thief 4 Coming Along In "Leaps And Bounds"
Thief 4 now in pre-production, team in “good shape”

Far Cry Movie in the US on DVD

It's all been about Uwe Boll this week, it seems. Well, I was just talking about Far Cry 3, and now another Far Cry news piece is here!

Far Cry , released last year in Germany, has now crossed the pond to the US. It's not showing in theatres however, as it's going straight to DVD, with no supper!

The movie was directed and produced by the infamous Uwe Boll, and no surprise, it got sub-par reviews. It's supposedly based on the first game, Far Cry. Some of Boll's films at least have some recognizable names, but not this one, seeing as I don't really see any big names on there that are well-known, except...oh god, those d1ckeads from ScrewAttack, Craig and the other guy, Thomas. And Craig Fairbrass, who voiced Ghost in Modern Warfare 2.

Dare to watch?

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Big Download

An Interview with Daniel Thron, AKA the guy who did the Thief box art

…as well as quite a lot of other stuff

The other day, I came across a thread at TTLG.com forums where a guy was asking for people to come up with some questions for one of the people who worked on the original Thief games with the sadly missed Looking Glass Studios, as well Thief: Deadly Shadows: Daniel Thron.

Thron, not Thorn.

Daniel Thron was mainly known to me and others as the person who did the voice of the guard who constantly bickered with “Benny”, the other, drunken guard in all three Thief games. I think his name was supposedly Sinclair. He also voiced the creepy sounding Eye from Thief and Thief Deadly Shadows, as well as several other characters, allies and enemies, from the series.

But he’s done more than that, it turns out. He made the box art for both Thief: The Dark Project, and Thief II: The Metal Age. He did the wonderful cutscene art and animation in both games too, and on top of that, he had something to do with the in-game maps, and the particle systems (whatever that means).

So, quite a lot to do with the art of the Thief games, in general.

Anyhow, a few days later, and after sifting through all the suggested questions for the man, the most interesting ones were picked and quite an interesting interview was put together on the forum in another thread, as well as on the same domain, except on Dominus' blog, which has some pictures.

I like reading through interviews sometimes, seeing as the reveal a lot of behind the scenes style stuff, and give you more insight into what it was actually like to develop a game. And not just any game, in this case, one of the most iconic PC exclusive titles that helped start a new genre, instead of the usual FPS titles of the nineties.

So, Daniel talks about what he did before getting into the video game business, what it was like working at TTLG, the art of the Thief games that he was so heavily involved in, his inspirations while working on the games, his opinion on why Thief Deadly Shadows paled in comparison to the originals, what he thinks of the Dark Mod, and whether he will work on Thi4f (Thief 4), announced this year. And he also gives some other info on what he’s working on, some movies mainly, as well as tosses a few names around and such.

Quite a good read, so go and check it out.

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Questions for Daniel Thron
Out of the Shadows – interview with Daniel Thron
http://dominus.ttlg.com/?p=65
http://www.danielthron.com/

http://eidosmontreal.com/en/games.html
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=98473&page=3

2009/11/27

GoG.com adds BloodRayne 2 to their Games Catalogue

Black Friday

So I was talking about Uwe Boll's new BloodRayne film, Warhammer, which will begin shooting next year in January, the other day.

Well, just at the right time it seems, GoG.com (Good Old Games) has added BloodRayne 2 to their list of DRM-free games, in addition to BloodRayne all ready being there, since earlier this month.

You can pick up the game fro $9.99, and it comes with extras like a screensaver, artwork, and the soundtrack for the game.

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http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

Where in the World is the DeLorean? A Mod for Crysis, and...

It's funny, you're going to see why I titled the post the way I did just now.

Well, I've been reading about how there's a mod for Crysis and Crysis Wars, called DeLorean Time Machine. If you don't know what the DeLorean is, then please go and watch the entire trilogy of Back to the Future. It's a nerd favourite, produced by Steven Spielberg back in the 80s, and features the DeLorean, a time-machine on wheels. It also starred Michael J. Fox, when he was still normal and had a career.

It seems that even though this mod has all ready been around for a while now, the latest version 1.0 just came out a few days ago. What this mod does is it brings the famed DeLorean into the games, which allows you to travel through time. If it has to be explained to you, this is in-game, and is achieved by clever level design and mapping. By the way, the model for the DeLorean is very good.

Now, onto why I decided to post about this in the first place.

I watched the Back to the Future trilogy recently, but not only that, I saw the thing in another mod, but this time for Duke Nukem 3D (actually EDuke32). In the Community level in Duke Plus, you can find a model of the DeLorean as well: This one is not drivable like the one in the Crysis mod, and neither can fly, for the moment. Although, in the same level, there is a skycar that Duke can enter, and well...fly.

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http://www.crymod.com/filebase.php?fileid=4147&lim=0
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=43920&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=13
http://tirido.blogspot.com/
DeLorean Goes Back to the Future in New Crysis Mod

Destructoid Murders Assassin's Creed II in Review

Well, I was going through my feeds, when all of a sudden I cam across a review of Assassin's Creed II, by Jim Sterling, naturally one of the more cynical, negative journos or bloggers out there.

I was surprised to see that after reading through the review, which was overly negative, in my opinion, the game scored a 4.5. By Dtoid's standards, that's an average game, but try and tell that to a lot of "Assassin's Creed fanboys". I wouldn't regard myself as one of those, but I was just a little shocked to see this. It's one of the only bad reviews I've seen about the game.

Mind you, it is the console version, so perhaps when I get to play the PC edition next year, it will be better. That happens sometimes.

Besides, I've also read recently that reviews are very low on the list of things that get a person to buy a game anyway.

2009/11/26

AAA Update: The new Poll Feature, How to put Polls in Your Posts

Thanksgiving

I was thinking of some widgets I could add to the blog recently, and in connection with my post on Rage having classic id weapons, I put a poll widget on the blog, which is currently at the bottom of the right sidebar.

That poll will end next week sometime, and after that I'll have to think of a new poll question and answer options to come up with.

If you're interested in learning on how to put polls into your actual blog posts on Blogger, I know how, because I looked it up with Google. You can find the easy way to do this here, or here.

Commander Keen Remake Happening, Not by id Though

A lot of classic id games have gotten tons of attention over the years in some way or another, whether it's sequels or source ports and HRPs attended to by massive fan communities, Wolf 3D, Doom, and Quake have had it all.

But you may be surprised to know, as I was years ago, that id made another series years before all these titles: Commander Keen.

Well, this series of games has its followers, and in some forum called NZCGI (New Zealand Computer-Generated Imagery), a guy named Laz is going to lengths to make his own remake or "tribute" in his words, to this great series of games starring B.J. Blazkowicz' grandson. He's doing this project on his own, using Unity with Java/C Sharp code. The screen caps that he's posted there so far look pretty damn good.

It's a shame though that this is likely without id's consent, and they have shut down projects in the past, like UDoom, which I've talked about before, where id issued a C&D (cease& desist) order to the makers of a mod for Unreal Tournament which aimed to remake levels from Doom for multiplayer use.

So, like Kotaku said, this project might not ever be released, and it's a shame.

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NZCGI
Kotaku

Far Cry 3 in Development According to Ubisoft Guy

I guess this shouldn't come as a shock. We knew it was going to happen eventually. In fact many have expected it to happen, seeing as Far Cry 2 had almost absolutely nothing to do with its "prequel". People want a proper sequel that ties in with Far Cry, which was one 0f 2004's best games.

Well, like I was saying, Far Cry 3 is in development, and according to Kevin Shortt, the Ubisoft guy alluded to in the header, a scriptwriter for the studio, it's looking good.

While talking to Official PlayStation Magazine, and when asked if he was working on the title he replied, "No I'm not, but I know the team are (sic) and what I've seen looks pretty exciting."

From talk on Far Cry 3 before, it's being said that the title may once again be based in Africa, like Far Cry 2, or possibly even Antarctica. Now that's a place rarely covered in my opinion, if you thought Africa wasn't featured in games much.

Patrick Reading, the producer of Far Cry 2, had the following to say a while back:

"There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it's safe to say we'll continue to explore it."

The game will also supposedly use the Dunia engine, which was used in Far Cry 2- not the CryEngine or CryEngine 2, as was thought by some. Dunia is essentially a modified CryEngine 2. I guess they want Crysis 2 to debut with the CryEngine 3.

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CVG

2009/11/25

Id Software’s Rage to Have Classic id Game Weaponry

Tim Willits of id Software told Total PC Gaming that when Rage comes out next year, it will not only have some brand new toys to play with as far as guns go, but will also feature some classic id weapons too.

"Rage will feature many of the classic id Software weapons of the past, along with some new and unique Rage weapons as well. We are focusing not only on great weapons, but on engineering items that will add to the variety of gameplay. We will also have multiple ammo types available for a number of the weapons."

“We are focusing not only on great weapons, but on items that will add to the variety of gameplay”

"Rage also has an economy where you are allowed to choose how you spend your money earned through combat and racing,"

"You might decide you love the wingstick (a boomerang-cum-shuriken weapon) and stock up on them, or you may feel inclined to purchase parts to build more sentry bots or to keep your armour upgraded and repaired."

One thing I’ve noticed with id games is that one thing they didn’t do that the Unreal series has done all along, is implement alt-fire with their weapons. You might want to put that in there too, Tim.

So anyway, I went and got a list of all of the classic id games’ weapons, from Wolfenstein 3D, the Doom series and the Quake series.

Games that weren’t directly developed by id, like Quake 4 and Wolfenstein, don’t count for the purposes of this list. Remember, classic id weapons.

So here’s the list. Leave your favourites in the comments if you wish. There will also be a poll on your favourite classic id weapon (the best new guns from each game), which you can find at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Axe (Quake)
Berserk (technically not a weapon, but a powerup) - (Doom series)
BFG 9000 or 10K (Doom and Quake series)
Blaster (Quake II)
Chaingun (Pretty much every id game in some form)
Chainsaw (Doom series)
Fists (Doom 3)
Flashlight (Doom 3)
Gauntlet (Quake III)
Grenade (Quake II& Doom 3)
Grenade launcher (Quake series)
Hyperblaster (Quake II)
Knife (Wolf3D)
Knuckledusters (Doom and Doom II)
Lightning gun (Quake I and III)
Luger (from Wolf 3D)
Machinegun (Quake II, III and Doom 3)
MP 40 sub machinegun (from Wolf 3D)
Nailgun (Quake)
Pistol (Doom)
Plasma gun (Doom series and Quake III)
Railgun (Quake II and III)
Rocket launcher (Doom and Quake series, used by boss enemies in Wolf3D)
Shotgun (every id game except Wolf 3D)
Soul Cube (Doom III)
Super Nailgun (Quake)
Super or Double Barreled Shotgun (Doom and Quake series)

I would personally like to see the super shotgun and of course the BFG in some form. To leave these out would be folly, as well as the chainsaw perhaps, and the Chaingun… and the Railgun. Damn, just put them all in there! Borderlands did! Well, their weapons were mainly randomly generated, but still.

By the way: is it just me, or does that guy with the hat remind you John Romero, just a little, around the eyes? I guess the classic weapons aren't the only thing making a return.

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http://www.thatvideogameblog.com
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1802/xxx

Valve Christmas Cards for The Silly Season This Year

I don’t know if this is a completely new idea, but it’s a good one. Valve has now added video game themed Christmas cards to its list of merchandise. These cards are based on Christmassy themes inspired by Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2, and were drawn by artist Alexandria Neonaxis.

So, I keep hearing that Christmas cards are so uninspired nowadays, and that they don’t make them like they used to. Well, go and buy some of these then, and send them to someone who hopefully knows what Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 are, or what a video game is for that matter, so they can fully appreciate them.

It's a pity they don't seem to have any Half Life 2 ones, or even Portal. That GlaDos was funny.

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Valve online store
Big Download

Some Cool Mortal Kombat Concept Art

The concept art I’ve seen for a proposed Mortal Kombat by former Midway visual creative director ,Vincent Proce, is pretty good to say the least. Not only has some concept art been revealed, but Vince attempted to write a more in-depth back story for the characters, which so far include Sonya Blade, Raiden, Kano, and Scorpion.

“The basis for the idea was a re-imagining of the Mortal Kombat franchise from the original premise but mixing modern multi-player and dismemberment game design with the original fighting mechanic,”
“The game idea isn’t going to happen now that I no longer work there.”

The art for the latter two is very cool indeed. Vince is going to do more art and back stories for other characters in the series as well when “he finds time”. Do Sub-Zero. He’d be cool.

He made this post a couple of months ago though, so I don’t know when there will be any new stuff.

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http://vincentproceart.blogspot.com/2009/09/here-are-never-before-seen-mortal.html http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2009/11/20/the-mortal-kombat-that-could-have-been/

2009/11/24

Uwe Boll Making a new BloodRayne film, Rumours of a new game in the Works

750th post

Well, we’ve all watched at least one Uwe Boll film in our lives, and we have all agreed that this man should have his licence to thrill taken away, as he can’t seem to make a film to save his life, reputation, or career for that matter. The films that people have problems with are the video game adaptations- films based on games, which rarely ever seems to work.

This hasn’t stopped others from trying though, seeing as lately, Brad Pitt is interested in Dark Void, and Bruce Willis is set to star in Kane& Lynch- the movie.

Anyway, Uwe Boll directed and produced BloodRayne and directed BloodRayne II:Deliverance, and both films flopped. Now he wants to have a crack at a third one. That’s right, a third BloodRayne film, BloodRayne 3: Warhammer, and this has sparked speculation that a third title in the series is being made for game consoles too.

Kristanna Loken from the first film, as well as Terminator 3, will make a return, and some say that the film will take place during World War II.

Why is this guy so obsessed with BloodRayne? I mean, the whole story of the series and how it connects with another forgotten title, Nocturne, its spiritual prequel, is pretty cool, but surely nobody plays that game anymore, right?

Even though we all dread the idea of another BloodRayne film, and I personally think it might be someone having a laugh and starting a rumour for fun, I don’t say that I would be as cynical about another BloodRayne game.

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http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34389/uwe-boll-bloodrayne-3-warhammer-shooting-january
Uwe Boll to Bring Us Bloodrayne 3: Warhammer

Twitter Account, Sh*t My Dad Says, To Become a TV Sitcom

There’s an account on twitter called Sh*t My Dad Says, and it’s full of tweets by a guy named Justin Halpern. The thing is that these tweets are actually sayings taken from his father, a cynical, bad tempered old man, who likes to make comments and jokes in a cutting, sarcastic way.

Think Blackadder except American, old, and bald.

Well, anyway, these tweets have become sitcom gold, as it’s been harvested for script ideas, and Justin Halpern will be the producer on the show, seeing as it is his twitter account. I can just imagine that although it’s a good idea on paper, it’ll likely star someone like Larry David, and end up just like Curb Your Enthusiasm or something. I love that show. Or else, if not Larry David, it will be someone like that old man from My Big Fat Greek Wedding/Life. There are several old guys who could play the role, if you think about it.

The account has over 843 705 followers, and yet, he's only following one. Figures, seeing as he's one of those Hollywood types. His previous attempt at the big time failed apparently, but this one seems to be getting a lot of attention.

Although I first read about this weeks ago, it’s all over the news now, with local newspapers covering it and not to mention copying other articles verbatim. That’s right Techno Times; you stole that article practically word for word from another newspaper.

My dad has expressed interest in this news piece though. In fact, for years I thought of coming up with a sitcom of my own involving my dad or at least the things he says seeing as he’s kind of the same. At one point I even made some audio stories about it when I was younger. They were funny as hell. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll upload them somewhere.

The other day for example, my dad was busy washing the dishes or something, and a dish slipped, and he uttered some profanities.
Then my brother walked in, and said, “Did someone call me?”

My father replied, “Not unless your name is ‘Jou f*ckin’ m*er!’”

You had to be there.

Perhaps I should start my own twitter account with stuff like this…

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Sh*t My Dad Says Becoming a Sitcom

2009/11/23

Apocalypse Then- SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle

10 Years of SWAT 3

On this day in gaming, November 23rd, in 1999, SWAT 3 was released for the PC.

The SWAT series branched off of the earlier Police Quest series by Sierra, with the first two being of the isometric 2D variety, like a strategy title similar in some ways to Command& Conquer. SWAT 3 was the first title in the series to implement FPS gameplay in what was referred to as a Tactical First-Person Shooter.

It was developed by Sierra Northwest and published by its parent company Sierra Entertainment. SWAT 3 came in 3 different releases, CQB (Close Quarters Battle), Elite Edition, and Tactical Game of the Year Edition. SWAT 3 was highly praised by reviewers and is reportedly the best selling SWAT game in the franchise, and comes closest to the success of the Police Quest series.

For me, it was likely my favourite in the series. I got the game back in 2000 and played it for months on end, over and over. I mainly prefer it to SWAT 4 because the buddy AI in 3 was better than 4, I found.

Needless to say, the game was based on Close Quarters Combat and brought several realistic things in to the gameplay after observing real-life LAPD SWAT teams in action, and the motion captured animation was provided by a SWAT officer.

There were originally 16 missions, but later more were added in the other editions, which could be downloaded for free, and these missions took place in Los Angeles, California in the (at the time) futuristic setting of 2005. The aim of the game is to thwart several attempts of multiple terrorist groups to disturb a Treaty Signing, and to save hostages along the way, and prevent the destruction of L.A.

Since it was set in the near future, there was some science fiction elements brought in to the game, like the fully enclosed helmets of the SWAT team, which in real life isn’t the case, but explains the player’s HUD (heads-up display). Another science fiction item were the opti-wand, a miniature camera on a telescopic wand, that could be slid under doors to monitor the situation. This opti-wand has also since been used in the Rainbow Six series, like in Rainbow Six: Vegas, a contemporary series.

Unlike Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, even though the enemies are usually of the same type- terrorists and criminals of varying sort, in SWAT 3, you are essentially a police officer first before anything else, and part of a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team as element leader. Use of deadly force must be used sparingly and usually only in defence, like if a suspect shoots at you, you may return fire and deadly force is then authorized. You can shoot suspects but you will be penalized if you don’t go through the usual routine, which includes approaching in stealth mode, having the element of surprise, and giving the suspects a chance to surrender, and be arrested, before attacking. You can go dynamic once encountering suspects and shout at them, shoot them with the less than lethal ammunition and other tactics in order to get compliance. SWAT is jokingly referred to by real life SWAT teams to stand for Sit, Wait, and Talk.

Shooting of hostages or otherwise important characters will result in an instant mission failure.

Weapons are few to choose from, with an M4A1 assault rifle, MP5 and MP5SD (silenced), and the Benelli M1 Super 90, as well as the standard sidearm, a modified Colt M1911 .45 pistol. Different types of ammo can be used like beanbags or breaching ammo for the shotgun, and FMJ or JHP ammo for the assault rifle and sub machineguns. Other tools like CS gas and flashbangs, multi-tools for lockpicking, chemical lightsticks, and breaching explosives can also be employed. An omission in this title would be the taser, later included in SWAT 4.

SWAT 3 was succeeded by SWAT 4 along with its expansion, The Stetchkov Syndicate, developed by Irrational Games, the co-developers of System Shock 2, and later BioShock.

You can pick up SWAT 3 here if you want to play a classic.

SWAT at Amazon

Xbox Live Gamers Actually Spies in Training

They are hated by all, branded as homophobes and racists, as well as spoiled brats, and yet it’s been said that MI5 and MI6, you know, like in James Bond, through Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), are scouting Xbox Live for recruits between the ages of 18 to 34 to be put in to their top secret ranks.

The GCHQ is looking here because their criteria is "reflected in game-play experiences on Xbox, such as quick thinking, problem solving and team work".

Just wait until they meet them in person.

This is getting ridiculous now. I wish someone from those agencies would rather spend time on working as a consultant on making a good James Bond game instead. The last one, they say, was Goldeneye 007.

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Government intelligence organisation targets recruits with Xbox Live ads
British Intelligence recruiting Xbox gamers

What Happened to the Old Mouse Ball Ring?

Do you remember once upon a time when we all used those mice with the ball inside, and the ring covering the whole that you put it in, which you locked by twisting? Do you remember how dirt and dust used to get lodged in there and make the mouse so sluggish that you had to open up the mouse, clean it out and then out it all back together?

Nowadays we’ve all moved on to using optical mice and wireless desktops and all that, so it’s been a while since those days. I don’t think I’ve used one of those “analogue” mice in at least 5 or 6 years. And I’m thankful for it, believe me. I’ve looked for one I might have used at one time, but I think I donated it to a museum or something. Or else I just tossed it in the bin.

But whatever happened to my old nemesis, the mouse ball ring thing? I’ve broken at least a couple over the years by slamming the mouse down when it became unresponsive, either because of the dust or because the cable got caught under the keyboard or the tower. There were times when it just came undone all by itself, and the mouse ball rolled off the desk and crossed the room, never to be found again, until it was nearly sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.

Well, I think I found out the answer. It’s been sitting on top of my DVD spindles for the last few years. I just opened up a new spindle of DVDs to make a backup the other day, and there it was- the ring thing fell on the ground and just sat there. That image of the old bugger when it was at the bottom of my mouse just flashed in to my mind right then and there. It looked exactly the same except for the fact that it had lost its legs- those things that helped lock the ball inside the mouse. Besides that, nothing much had changed.

Its new purpose was to stop the DVDs from falling off the spindle. And it fails miserably at this too, just like it did at everything else in life.

There you are! *STOMP*

By the way, is it correct to say "mice"? I mean, it’s one mouse, two mice? Surely the same rules apply? I once heard a woman call the plural of mouse “mices”. Right…

2009/11/22

Video Game Deals: Direct2Drive Bundle Deals

There's a deal going on at the moment which ends tomorrow, on two game bundles at D2D:

LucasArts There's Action Adventure Puzzles Bundle Download

Star Wars Classics Pack Download

Video Games Coming out in November 2009 - 11/22 - 11/28

After last week, it's a little dry, with few titles that anybody really wants. Nothing here I would like to get, so there's no Pick of the Week, then.

Links go to each game's details page at Amazon, GameStop, Steam, etc, if available. Release dates can and usually do change.

PC

King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame (Steam)
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
Serious Sam HD (Steam)
Twin Sector

PlayStation 3

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Karaoke Revolution
Puzzlegeddon
Madden NFL Arcade
Tom Clancy: Double Pack

Xbox 360

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Karaoke Revolution
Madden NFL Arcade
Puzzlegeddon
Stoked: Big Air Edition
Tom Clancy: Platinum Hits Pack (GameStop)

Wii

Bit.Trip Void
Cold Stone Creamery: Scoop It Up
Chicken Riot
Karaoke Revolution
Marines: Modern Urban Combat
Marines: Assault on Terror
Rec Room Games
Rogue Trooper: The Quartz Zone Massacre
Scene It? Twilight
Your Shape: Featuring Jenny McCarthy

Nintendo DS

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Hello Kitty Party
myNotebook

PSP

Tekken 6

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Shacknews
Gamespot: 1 - 2

New Medal of Monor: Modern Combat Possibly Coming Next Year

Yes, everyone knows that a new MoH game is in development. We’ve all heard the rumours that have been going around for the past year or so, and I’ve even covered it a few times on the blog.

So, in case you need a bit of catching up to do, here’s the gist of it all. There’s a new Medal of Honor game in development, which may take place in modern times, or in the present, in another way to put it, instead of WW II, like about 100% of MoH titles before it.

Men of Valor was a title by the same people who did Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, 2015 Inc., and it took place in Vietnam, but that’s a different story.

And it’s been somewhat confirmed that there is a new title, and that it isn’t a rumour, by EA. And this title will follow in the footsteps of the Call of Duty series, which branched off into Modern Warfare and the recently released Modern Warfare 2. The new title will be called Medal of Honor: Modern Combat, according to reports that claim that this name has been trademarked, and it's rumoured to come out by the end of Q1 2010, in February or March, allegedly, according to MCVUK.

I doubt with almost zero marketing to speak of except these rumours that it will be that soon, but perhaps we will see more of it next year, hopefully.

The name's a bit unoriginal, for sure, and people are crying out that EA is copying Infinity Ward, but let’s not forget that the Medal of Honor series came first, years before Call of Duty entered the now overdone World War II FPS genre. So perhaps they’re even now.

In fact, some people who formed Infinity Ward worked at 2015 Inc., one of the MoH developers.

Nick Earl of EA had the following things to say about the new title in a leaked memo picked up by Kotaku:

"simply stunning"

"[EALA studio head] Sean Decker and Greg Goodrich have been leading a re-invention" of the first-person shooter series,"

"We couldn't be happier with the focus and progress these teams have shown,"

"The new team at EALA has turned this studio into a showcase for the 'fewer things better' initiative."

All the commenters on this story out there have started a little game, going from news article to news article putting in their thoughts on what the game should be called.

Don't do that here, or your comment will be deleted.

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Medal Of Honor: Modern Warfare incoming
EA Talks Command & Conquer's "New Digital Model," Medal of Honor "Re-invention"

Sunday Times: 40 Years of the Internet, and Doom Mentioned

This past weekend, there was a main feature in the Sunday Times magazine, claiming that sometime in 2009 is the fortieth anniversary of the world wide web, even though this is likely widely disputed, and events did happen before 1969 that led to this wonderful invention called the Internet coming into our homes. By the way, the writers mentioned, and I guess I should too even though I know this, that the World Wide Web and the Internet aren’t the same thing.

Anyway, I think there was one bit along the time-line of the internet, spanning from 1822 to the present, which featured about 19 main events, that caught my attention, and that was “Doom” at number 11.

The Sunday Times writes:

“Not only one of the greatest and scariest games ever made, Doom was arguably the internet’s first killer application. id Software’s bloody and brilliant (and hugely controversial) “first-person shooter” was released via shareware over the internet- meaning that the first seven of the game’s 28 levels could be downloaded free. It is estimated that those seven levels were installed on more than 10 million computers within two years. As well as being the first must-have game that could be downloaded from the internet, it was a fantastic advert for what networked gaming could be. It could be played by up to four people via a local area network or a modem, and introduced the tern “deathmatch” into the language.”

I thought there were more than 7 levels in the shareware episode of Doom (There are 9; 10 in the Xbox version. And there are 27 levels in the full version of Doom; 36 in Ultimate Doom), but anyway. What can you expect?

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http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%28video_game%29

Do You Want Thief Ringtones for your Cellphone?

I came across this on the ttlg.com forums the other day. Someone went and made it possible to play sounds from Thief II: The Metal Age on your cellphone as ringtones. All it really is, is a bunch of mp3s, converted from another format, (WAV, I think) which you can also listen to on your PC and so on.

It's fairly easy to do this yourself. All you need is the Thief CDs, and you can extract the sounds in the CRF files. I've done it myself a while back, with Thief II and Thief: Deadly Shadows (different file format) anyway. My Thief: The Dark Project CD isn't working anymore.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Thief series’ music and sound effects, and of games in general, and I downloaded at one point the Thief Gold Soundtrack, which is basically one big long mp3 that you can play.

By the way, you can download the ringtones and such from here. I like mediafire. More people should use it rather than rapidshare or megupload, I think.