Aion: Steel Cavalry expansion drops for free on January 29, trailer inside
Aion: Steel Cavalry is the next expansion for NC Soft’s MMO, and it’s dropping for free next week.
World of Tanks finally gets nation vs. nation combat mode
Fan-requested mode to roll out to tank MMO shortly, new winter map Windstorm also due.
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Alienware Steam Machines can be upgraded, manufacturer explains – statement
Alienware’s Steam Machine line came under fire from gamers this week, after it surfaced that the rigs could not be upgraded. Alienware has since responded to say that he units can be upgraded, but it won’t be as easy as what you’re currently used to.
Source code for Half-Life mod Natural Selection released for free
Unknown Worlds has released the source code for Natural Selection but it’s not entirely ‘open’ source.
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Dragon Age: Inquisition lead writer calls romance options a “pandora’s box,” discusses challenge of equality
Dragon Age: Inquisition will continue the series’ trend of enabling players to romance their allies, and lead writer David Gaider has penned a blog post explaining why romance is often a “pandora’s box,” capable of whipping up controversy, hard-feelings among gamers and on the other hand, a lot of enjoyment and appreciation.
Watch Dogs DLC plans were being made before delay, lots of stories to tell, says Ubisoft
Watch Dogs may be delayed into spring, but a new interview conducted before the date change confirms that Ubisoft Montreal was considering its DLC strategy at the time, and is keen to tell more stories from within the game’s universe. There’s also some clarity on who Aiden’s female friend is.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer is full of web-slinging action
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a new trailer available showing the superhero title in development at Beenox.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2: new trailer shows Gabriel, Zobek, more
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 developer Mercury Steam has released a new trailer for its whip-happy sequel called ‘Dracula’s Desiny.’ It’s a character video, focusing on Gabriel, his new role as Dracula, and returning characters Zobek, Satan and more. Watch it here.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified – Mac version now available on Steam, 75% off this weekend
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is now available for digital download on Steam courtesy of TransGaming Inc., which initially brought the game to the Mac App Store. The title is 75% on Steam as well starting tomorrow until Monday, January 27.
The Elder Scrolls Online’s voice cast is a star-studded affair
The Elder Scrolls Online’s voice cast as been announced by Bethesda, and it includes such notables as John Cleese, Malcolm McDowell and the lovely Kate Beckinsale.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Nemesis System creates procedurally-generated enemies
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor orcs are individuals: no two are the same, and no two players will have the same encounter with these foes, according to the game’s director of design Michael de Plater.
Paradox announces new Norse mythology RPG RuneMaster
Publisher pulls back curtain on new role-playing game built at Paradox Development Studio. First teaser video right here.
Might & Magic 10: Legacy is now available on PC
Might & Magic 10: Legacy is now available on PC, and if you’re up for it, the Deluxe Edition is available for £24.99/$29.99 on both digital and retail channels. There’s always the Standard Edition as well for £19.99/$24.99, but it’s only available through digital channels.
The Debut 9 Bundle from Indie Royale is live
The Debut 9 Bundle from Indie Royale is live and features six titles: Airship Dragoon, Little Trus Man, Sky Nations, Inescapable, Dark Gates, Chronicles of a Dark Lord: Episode 1 Tides of Fate and one yet to be revealed, bringing the total to seven. Currently, the minimum is $3.33 All games are available for Windows via Desura and in Greenlight looking for a place on Steam. In tangent, there are deals for Face Noir (70% off), The Ship (75% off) and Zafehouse: Diaries (75% off) running right now through the service. Hit up the link for more information.
Agarest: Generations of War Zero is heading to Steam
Agarest: Generations of War Zero is heading to to PC via Steam soon, according to a lovely mail sent out by Ghostlight.
The Evil Within video goes behind-the-scenes with special effects crew
The Evil Within looks to be a scary affair, and to help bring some of the monsters in the game to life, last March Studio ADI put together key characters and effects for the horror title.
Hearts of Iron 4 announced for early 2015 release
Hearts of Iron 4 has been announced by Paradox Interactive. The latest installment in the World War 2 strategy series has an announcement trailer and a set of artwork available for you to peruse. Not much is known about the game at present other than it will be releases on Linux, Mac and PC early next year.
WoW: Warlords of Draenor revamped character models detailed in latest blog post
As promised during BlizzCon 2013, World of Warcraft character models and animations for many of the game’s existing playable races are being fully revamped. The new models will go live alongside Warlords of Draenor. Chris Robinson, senior art director for WoW, has posted a developer blog over on Battle.net detailing the modeling process, the increase in polygon count to over 5,000 in some cases, and the retouching of nearly every animation for all of the characters. Read up on more of this through the link. Closed beta testing for Warlords of Draenor is looming, and the expansion is slated for release in the fall.
Humble Weekly sale: Paranautical Activity, Dungeons of Dredmor, and The Binding of Isaac when you pay over $6
The Humble Weekly sale is upon us, and starting today you can pay-what-you-want for Paranautical Activity, Dungeons of Dredmor Complete and Hack, Slash, Loot. Pay $6 or more to unlock The Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb DLC, Teleglitch: Die More Edition – Guns and Tunes and Sword of the Stars: The Pit – Gold Edition. The bundle also includes five soundtracks. Go buy the thing through the link and support the charities Child’s Play Charity or Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Guild Wars 2 PvP Community Tournament schedule announced
Guild Wars 2 PvP Community Tournament events have been scheduled by ArenaNet.
Ubisoft to create 100 new jobs in Quebec through 2016
Ubisoft has secured CAD $510,000 from the Quebec government as part of a CAD $28 million investment in job creation in Quebec City, the publisher announced today. GameInformer reports Ubisoft intends to create 100 new jobs over the next three years. The new roles are part of a plan to employ 500 staff within Quebec, announced in September 2013. The Quebec City studio currently employs more than 300 staff, and has contributed to the Assassin’s Creed, Might & Magic and Prince of Persia series, particularly in motion capture.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor uses Assassin’s Creed assets, says ex-Ubi staffer
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor produced a new gameplay trailer today, but it hasn’t gone down well with one former Assassin’s Creed developer, who claims it contains evidence of assets from Ubisoft’s series.
Kerbal Space Program blasts into schools with KerbalEdu
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This was always around the corner. With its technical detail and painstaking scientific accuracy, Kerbal Space Program was always going to be noticed by the education sector. We’ve already reported about how one professor used Kerbal as part of his high school class, but Kerbal is about to meet a wider range of students, thanks to KerbalEdu.
Minecraft snapshot 14w04a sets fire to all your bushes, gives villagers some intellect
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Another day, another snapshot glides gracefully down from the Mojang cloud above and implants itself inside your Minecraft. 14w04a contains a multitude of goodies, but the best is clearly “bushes can now catch fire”. Now you can create mazes of green, only to set them alight and create a labyrinth of scorching heat. It’s the perfect little torture in your world of insane challenges. If you're that way inclined, of course.
Paradox: “We can’t have a platform holder who tells us what to do and what not to do”
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Paradox Interactive’s CEO Fred Wester has pledged his support to open platforms like Steam and the SteamOS. “We can’t have a platform holder who tells us what to do and what not to do,” he told the audience at this year’s Paradox Convention. “We need full freedom on how we connect to our gamers.”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance Has Already Hit Its £300K Kickstarter Goal
Great news for all RPG fans as the Kickstarter campaign for Kingdom Come: Deliverance has already met its initial £300K goal. Obviously this is great news as Warhorse was unable to sign a deal with a publisher due to the nature of this RPG. What was it you publishers claimed? That the game would not attract gamers because it did not feature dragons? Guess again. Continue reading
Resident Evil 4 – Wii Version vs PC Vanilla vs PC Ultimate HD Edition Comparison
Well, we gotta admit that Capcom has indeed included some HD textures for the PC Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4 that is planned for release next month. Capcom has released some comparison screenshots between the vanilla and the Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4, while Steam’s member ‘MarkfromTheRoom’ has made a comparison between the Wii version (running on Dolphin) and the PC Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4. Continue reading
Nvidia Talks OpenGL – Offering Massive CPU Performance Boost Via Modern OpenGL
During Valve’s Steam Dev Days, Nvidia talked about OpenGL and how developers can take this open-source API in order to overcome the CPU limitations of the past and get performance similar to Mantle. Now before jumping around like little kids, know that this solution has not been adopted by anyone and we may never see this getting used to any triple-A games, as most games nowadays are using DirectX rather OpenGL. Continue reading
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