PC Game News

A new trailer for Dead Island: Ryder White has been released, giving viewers some more background on the upcoming DLC pack that’s scheduled to be released on February 1st.

“The DLC stars Ryder White as a newly playable character and offers a single player campaign with several hours of story content with twists and turns that will shed new light on the game’s happenings. Two blueprints and weapons will further expand the already impressive arsenal of Dead Island.”

Valve today announced the release of a Steam mobile application for Android and iOS devices, giving users a chance to chat, browse community groups and profiles, view screenshots, read news and stay up-to-date on sales. The app is currently in closed beta status and more users will be added as the service ramps up. There is no mention of Steam mobile supporting mobile games and apps at this time but one has to wonder as it seems like a logical step.

The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale – these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone.”

More info can be found at: http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

Paradox today announced the release of a demo for King Arthur II: The Role-playing Wargame, giving players a chance to try out the upcoming role-playing strategy sequel by NeoCore Games.

“This demo for the anticipated sequel to Neocore Games’ critically acclaimed King Arthur series gives players a taste of what’s to come, allowing champions of Britannia to play through the title’s tutorial and first mission. With an expected gameplay session of about 60 minutes, King Arthur fans will be able to manage their army and territories, and lead their battalion into battle.

Help set Britannia free when King Arthur II – The Role-playing Wargame releases on January 27th, 2012 (PC, $39.99).

Pre-order King Arthur II: The Role-playing Game and get access to the prologue chapter for free: http://www.kingarthurii.com/buy

A list of download mirrors for the demo can be found on the official site.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced The Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan, an upcoming expansion where players join forces to ride into the Plains of Rohan. The expansion is scheduled to be released next autumn.

• “Experience the Riders of Rohan – Join with the Rohirrim and ride across the sprawling Plains of Rohan; witness the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen; forge alliances with the Ents of Fangorn; and aid Éomer, adopted son of Théoden, as he seeks to protect his homeland from the growing Shadow.
• Introducing Mounted Combat – Ride into Combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Customize your War-steed’s armor and level its skills over time to aid you in mounted defense of King Theoden’s lands. Mount your steed and gather your fellows to fight against Warbands, contingents of roving warg riders that have been scouted all over the Plains of Rohan! It falls to you to head off and defeat this new threat before they over take the land.
• Advance to level 85 – Continue your legend in the next chapter of The Lord of the Rings Online. Experience new adventures in the epic story, and gain new skills and deeds as you face new challenges on your journey to 85!”

Vehicle Mayhem was released for Battlefield Heroes today, which adds two new outfits and new weapons.

“It’s time to kick start your engines and blow stuff up, because Vehicle Mayhem is HERE!

That’s right, today you get to go grease monkey as heroes from the deserted wastelands join in on the fight in their ever growing battle for supplies, territory… and just because they plain love blowing things to kingdom come.

New Outfits

Step into the shoes of Road Ranger, a proud Royal peacekeeper always hot on the heels of the crafty National rebels seeking to gain ground in their territorial battle. Or grab your blowtorch and wrench and wreak havoc on any who stand in your way as the National mercenary Track Hunter

New Weapons

Their expertise not only makes them worthy warriors in the on-going battle between Nationals and Royals but their never ending love for blowing up everything they see (particularly enemy vehicles) has allowed them to create some terrifying, destructive, never before seen weapons which they will be trading with their faction buddies.

First up are Bernhardt’s Blowlamp & Faust’s Panzercutter but they have new weapons for each class in in transit as we speak and they will be hitting the battlefield VERY soon… apparently they lost a wheel and Track Hunter won’t let anyone near his wrench.”

A demo for The Darkness II was released on Steam today, giving players a chance to try out the upcoming FPS by Digital Extremes.

“Embrace the Darkness and download the demo now! In this specially-constructed demo, experience the gripping and brutal journey of Jackie Estacado, head of a New York crime family and wielder of a ruthless force of chaos and destruction known as The Darkness. Master the power of Quad-Wielding as you slash, grab and throw with your Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons.”

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-ray releases and movies opening the week of January 23rd, 2012.

PC Games:

• Assassin’s Creed Revalations: Mediterranean Traveler Pack DLC
• Astro Avenger 2
• Cradle of Rome 2
• Dark Tales 3: Edgar Allen Poe’s The Premature Burial
• Emergency 2012
• The Sims 3 Master Suite Stuff Pack
• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine: Dreadnaught Assault DLC

Movies opening this week:

• Albert Nobbs (limited)
• Declaration of War (limited LA/NY)
• In Darkness (limited)
• Man on a Ledge
• One for the Money
• The Grey
• We Need to Talk About Kevin

DVD and Blu-ray releases:

• 50/50 [Blu-ray]
• American Experience: Custer’s Last Stand
• Ancient Aliens: Season Three
• Annie Hall [Blu-ray]
• Another Happy Day
• Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Collection Six – Part Two
• Beware the Gonzo
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Season One
• David and Kamal
• DiMeola, Al – Morocco Fantasia [Blu-ray]
• Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries – Episodes 9 & 10
• Elvis Found Alive
• Fascination [Blu-ray]
• Few Options
• Flash Point [Blu-ray]
• Godzille [Criterion Collection Blu-ray]
• Happy, Happy [Blu-ray]
• Hell and Back Again [Blu-ray]
• House on Sorority Row
• Kojak: The Complete Movie Collection
• Limelight
• Manhattan [Blu-ray]
• Mannix: Sixth Season
• Me Again [Blu-ray]
• Meet the Browns: Season 4
• Memphis: The Original Broadway Production [Blu-ray]
• Notorious [Blu-ray]
• Paranormal Activity 3 [Blu-ray]
• Punished
• Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?
• Real Steel [Blu-ray]
• Rebecca [Blu-ray]
• Restless [Blu-ray]
• Revenge of the Electric Car
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil [Blu-ray]
• Shiver of the Vampires [Blu-ray]
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
• Sister Mary
• Spellbound [Blu-ray]
• Stir Crazy [Blu-ray]
• Stripes [Blu-ray]
• Tales of an Ancient Empire
• The Adventures of Milo and Otis [Blu-ray]
• The Confession
• The Doors: Mr. Mojo Risin’: The Story of L.A. Woman [Blu-ray]
• The Iron Rose [Blu-ray]
• The Moment of Truth [Criterion Collection Blu-ray]
• The Summer of Massacre [Blu-ray]
• The Toy [Blu-ray]
• The Whistelblower [Blu-ray]
• Today’s Special
• Waits, Tom – Complete Review
• Wings [Blu-ray]
• Woman
• World God Only Knows: Complete Collection [Blu-ray]
• World is Ours: Everywhere Further Than Everyplace [Blu-ray]

Ubisoft today announced the release of the Mediterranean Map Pack for Assassins’ Creed Revelations, which includes six multiplayer maps along with new trophies and achievements.

“The Mediterranean Traveller Map Pack enriches the Assassin’s Creed Revelations multiplayer experience with features that include:

• All-new multiplayer maps to maneuver through: Jerusalem, Constantinople and Dyers
• Fan-favorite Italian Renaissance maps from Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood to revisit: Firenze (Florence), San Donato and Siena
• All-new Trophies and Achievements to earn

The addition of six multiplayer maps introduces new gameplay opportunities through each map’s varied terrain, perches and hideouts. The new collection of Trophies and Achievements will allow players to try their hand at kills and escapes that are as impressive as they are effective.

For more information on Assassin’s Creed Revelations, please visit: assassinscreed.com“

2K Games today announced that BioShock Infinite will feature a new 1999 Mode, which is intended to give players a more demanding experience with increased focus on specializations and consequences.

“1999 Mode is a way of playing designed for gamers who long for the days of games that demanded more of the player. It will include tweaks and features that BioShock fans will not experience in a standard play-through of BioShock Infinite, no matter the difficulty level.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me. So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.”

In addition to these permanent decisions, 1999 Mode will feature demanding weapon, power, and health management. The mode also takes a much harder stand on player respawning, sending the gamer directly to a “Game Over” screen if he or she lacks the resources to be brought back to life. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

BioWare announced that a demo for Mass Effect 3 is scheduled to be released on February 14th.

“The extensive demo will allow players to experience the all-out galactic war against an ancient alien race known as the Reapers from multiple fronts, including the mind-blowing opening attack on Earth that kicks off the single-player campaign.  Players will go deeper into the campaign and also get a taste of the franchise’s new co-operative multiplayer mode as they preview the epic story, adrenaline-pumping action and deep customization options that lie ahead when Mass Effect 3 launches on March 6, 2012. The Mass Effect 3 demo will be available for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC.”

Hitbox Team interactive announced the release of Dustforce on Steam, a 2D platformer in which players take on the role of an acrobatic janitor.

“Clean up the world with style!  As an acrobatic janitor, you are an adept force against dust and disorder. Leap and dash off walls and ceilings, and deftly traverse 50 precarious environments varying in difficulty.  Cleanse each level swiftly and thoroughly to achieve mastery in this 2D sweep-‘em-up platformer.

Dustforce will offer an online leader board where you can instantly watch replays of everyone’s best attempts.  Fight it out online and see where you rank on each level by thoroughness and combo or speed and agility.

Team up with four-player local multiplayer and compete on game modes like King Of The Hill and Survival for loads of dust-cleaning fun!  
“We’re so excited to finally be able to share with the world what we’ve been working hard on for over a year,” says Lexie Dostal of Hitbox Team.  “We put so much of ourselves into Dustforce, and so we hope everyone can have as much fun playing the game as we’ve had making it.”

Dustforce is now available on via the platform Steam for $9.99 for PC (Windows), with an update for Mac and Linux shortly after. Early buyers can get 10% off the game during the first week of sales.”

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-ray releases and movies opening the week of January 16th, 2012.

 PC Games:

• Dustforce
• Cities in Motion: US Cities

Movies opening this week:

• Carol Channing: Larger Than Life (limited NYC)
• Coriolanus
• Crazy Horse (limited NYC)
• Haywire
• Miss Bala (limited)
• Red Tails
• The Flowers of War
• The Front Line (limited)
• Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (limited NYC)
• Underworld: Awakening

DVD and Blu-ray releases:

• Abduction [Blu-ray]
• Adam 12: Season Six
• Adventures of Bailey: The Lost Puppy
• Age of Heroes
• America in Primetime [Blu-ray]
• Bad Girls [Blu-ray]
• Belle de Jour [Criterion Collection Blu-ray]
• Bilal’s Stand
• Bill Moyers: Amazing Grace
• Bombay Beach
• Boys in Company C [Blu-ray]
• Car’s Life 2
• Caterpillar
• Citizen Kane 70th Anniversary Ed. [Blu-ray]
• Cold Sweat
• Courageous [Blu-ray]
• Dead Poets Society [Blu-ray]
• Delocated: The Complete Seasons One & Two
• Division III: Football’s Finest [Blu-ray]
• Donner Pass
• Drive Me Crazy [Blu-ray]
• Dutch [Blu-ray]
• Eclipse Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin
• Forgotten Bomb
• Gantz II: Perfect Answer [Blu-ray]
• George Gently: Series 1 [Blu-ray]
• Good Morning, Vietnam [Blu-ray]
• Journey to the Center of the Earth [Blu-ray]
• Joy Road
• Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain [Blu-ray]
• KickOff
• Killing Bono
• License to Drive [Blu-ray]
• Mad: Season 1 Part 2
• Merlin: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray]
• Mysteries of Lisbon [Blu-ray]
• Over the Edge
• Project X [Blu-ray]
• Redline [Blu-ray]
• Ridiculousness: Season 1
• Serving Life
• Sliders: The Fifth and Final Season
• Special Treatment
• Sunrise Earth Alaska [Blu-ray]
• Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless [Blu-ray]
• Teresa
• The Coast Guard [Blu-ray]
• The Color Purple [Blu-ray]
• The Ides of March [Blu-ray]
• The Josephine Baker Story [Blu-ray]
• The Love Patient
• The Overcoat
• The Perfect Student
• The Tuskegee Airmen [Blu-ray]
• Thurgood [Blu-ray]
• Traffic [Criterion Collection Blu-ray]
• Undocumented
• Unguarded
• United Red Army
• Walking the Dead: Complete Season Six

Rockstar today announced that the PC version of Max Payne 3 is scheduled to be released on May 29th in North America and June 1st in Europe.

“For Max, the tragedies that took his loved ones years ago are wounds that refuse to heal. No longer a cop, close to washed up and addicted to pain killers, he takes a job in São Paulo, Brazil, protecting the family of wealthy real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco, in an effort to finally escape his troubled past. But as events spiral out of his control, Max Payne finds himself alone on the streets of an unfamiliar city, desperately searching for the truth and fighting for a way out.

Featuring cutting edge shooting mechanics for precision gunplay, advanced new Bullet Time® and Shootdodge™ effects, full integration of Natural Motion’s Euphoria Character Behavior system for lifelike movement and a dark and twisted story, Max Payne 3 is a seamless, highly detailed, cinematic experience.

In addition to an expansive single-player campaign, Max Payne 3’s multiplayer offering brings the game’s cinematic feel, fluid gunplay and kinetic sense of movement into the realm of online multiplayer. Building on the fiction and signature gameplay elements of the Max Payne universe, Max Payne 3 features a wide range of new and traditional multiplayer modes that play on the themes of paranoia, betrayal and heroism, all delivered with the same epic visual style of the single-player game.

Look for much much more from Max Payne 3 in the weeks and months ahead, including the next video in the Design & Technology Series and the official site launch.”

Deep Silver today announced Ryder White for Dead Island, a new DLC pack that’s scheduled to be released on February 1st.

“This time the player will get the chance to play as Ryder White, the antagonist of the main game; learn more about his motivations and why, from his point of view, he did what he had to do. This fresh take on the Dead Island story shows Ryder White both as a military man and a loving husband.

The DLC stars Ryder White as a newly playable character and offers a single player campaign with several hours of story content with twists and turns that will shed new light on the game’s happenings. Two blueprints and weapons will further expand the already impressive arsenal of Dead Island.

The DLC will be available on February 01, 2012 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC.”

In a forum post that will certainly disappoint many gamers, BioWare has confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will require EA’s Origin for all PC versions of the game.

1) Will Origin be a requirement to play all versions of Mass Effect 3? (Digital and/or from a retail brick and mortar store)
Yes, Origin is required for all PC editions of Mass Effect 3, physical or digital.

2) Is constant Origin connection required or is it a single one off authentication when the game is first installed. Is there also a limit to the number of installations available?
Mass Effect 3 will require a one time, single authorization for the single player game. There is no limit to the number of installs. Playing Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer will require a constant connection.

3) Is Origin required for the retail versions of the game?
Origin is required for the PC versions of Mass Effect 3, both physical and digital.