PC Game News

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray Releases, and movies opening the week of October 21st. 2009.

PC Games:

• Elven Legacy: Ranger
• Tropico 3

Movies Opening This Week:

• Amelia
• Anticrist (limited)
• Astro Boy
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
• Motherhood (limited)
• Ong bak 2 (limited)
• Saw VI

DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:

• 100 Feet [Blu-Ray]
• Black Adder Remastered: The Ultimate Edition
• Blood: The Last Vampire [Blu-Ray]
• Brain That Wouldn’t Die
• Cheri
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Complete Series
• Easy Rider [Blu-Ray]
• Fados
• Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered
• Foodmatters
• Hawaii Five-0: The Seventh Season
• Homicide: Life on the Street – The Complete Series
• I Am Because We Are
• It’s Garry Shandling’s Show The Complete series
• Love N’ Dancing [Blu-Ray]
• Monsoon Wedding [Blu Ray Criterion Collection]
• Moon in the Gutter (The Jean-Jacques Beineix Collection)
• Numb3rs: The Complete Fifth Season
• Peanuts: The 1970s Collection, Vol. 1
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Those Aren’t Pillows Ed.
• Route 66: Season 3, Vol. 2
• Saturday Night Live: The Best of Amy Poehler
• Summer Storm
• Teenage Zombies
• The Copper
• The Crew [Blu-Ray]
• The L Word: Final Season
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Vol. 1
• The Secret of the Nutcracker [Blu-Ray]
• The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: The Best of Season 2
• The William Castle Film Collection
• Top Chef: New York
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [Blu-Ray]
• Vega$: The First Season, Vol. 1
• Waterworld [Blu-Ray]
• White Zombie
• Wrong Turn 3 [Blu-Ray]

Paradox Interactive announced that "Elven Legacy: Ranger," the first "Elven Legacy" expansion, has been released and is available via all major digital distribution stores.

"Thrust back in to the sacred kingdoms, Elven Legacy: Ranger sees our hero, Cornelius sent on a top secret mission by the Grand Master of the Order of Marcus to prepare their return to the continent from exile. Trusting only Cornelius, the most skilled of the rangers, he is tasked with finding the perfect site for their imminent landing.

With the shadows as his ally, and his blade as his deadly accomplice, Cornelius must use all his skills and elusiveness in order to stay one step ahead of his enemies, and in return strike fear into their hearts as he brings death to their doorstep!

Key Features:

• 16 new campaign missions
• Two new main heroes; the ranger Cornelius and Captain Lutius
• Brand new artifacts and spells
• New tactical skills for the main hero, including the ability to modify his attack before he strikes

Elven Legacy: Ranger requires the original game Elven Legacy, which is now available at 50% off for a limited time with the purchase of Ranger at most digital download portals. The expansion Elven Legacy: Ranger will be exclusively available for digital download at all major digital download portals for a suggested retail price of €9.99 and $9.99.

For more information, please go to: https://www.elven-legacy.com/"

Community manager Robert Bowling has updated his Twitter feed, linking to the "official" Infinity Ward response at GameInformer’s new site. All in all, PC gamers are still going to be extremely disappointed with the company over this new strategy and it will be seen as a huge blow to the PC gaming community. The higher price tag is also perplexing and is currently interpreted as paying more for less.

Here’s a snippet from the article:

"We’re just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners," says West. He points toward the mounting feedback IW has received from PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn’t find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game’s community fractured into. "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game," he laughs.
 
IW says that gameplay concerns for the majority of MW2 players are the overriding reasons for the decision. Zampella downplays the obvious piracy prevention angle (IW has cited numbers of people online playing illegal copies of Modern Warfare up to 60 percent). "The Steam stuff helps with the piracy. I don’t know that the matchmaking stuff does," he notes. West takes a shot at the motives behind some of the outrage, noting that there’s money to made by selling dedicates servers and adspace on them: "It’s a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."
 
Again and again during our conversation, West and Zampella hammer the point that hardcore PC players lose very little to this change relative to the returns that casual to moderate fans will see.

Streum On Studio announced that "E.Y.E." will be delayed so that the company can finish 3 additional chapters for the game. The source based RPG is now scheduled to be released is "hopefully before the end of the year."

"E.Y.E’s release is delayed to an indeterminate date – we hope before the end of the year – in order to add 3 new chapters, new enemies, new researches and new secondary missions. But before all to balance these new features the best we can.

There are now more than 50 technology researches, 26 artifacts to find and over 120 secondary quests.

Canard PC, a wonderful French magazine, wrote a preview of E.Y.E in their 200th issue! Don’t hesitate to buy it!"

24 new screenshots can be seen at the official site.

I’m not ready to pen this in the books as fact yet but there’s a BashandSlash podcast where community manager Rob Bowling stated that there is no delay but there will be no dedicated server support or mods for the PC version of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." If this is true, it is a major setback for PC gamers.

Here’s the full rundown of highlights from the podcast, which is from PlanetCallofDuty:

• We’re doing a lot on the backend to make the game accessible for everyone.
• There is no delay for the PC version of MW2
• There’s prestige mode
• Jason West at the MP event, said that he was dead on, on the matchmaking servers. We’ve been building a system on the backend called IW.NET.
• You are completely reliant on IW.NET. There are no server lists. There are no dedicated servers.
• You have private matches where you can customize the game
• You cannot put MW2 on a dedicated server.
• This is the first time we’ve ever done something like this and the team has huge plans for what IW.NET develops into.
• Customizing your game…you have quite a few options in a private match
• You’re getting same game (as in Console), plus matchmaking and private match.
• Server admin point-of view, NO DEDICATED SERVERS

There’s a petition up with several thousand signatures at PetitionOnline.

Valve today announced plans for a "Left 4 Dead 2" demo along with the release dates.

"The Left 4 Dead 2 demo will feature gameplay taken from "The Parish" campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. Playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and all the new melee weapons included in the full product.

Those who pre-order the game (at participating retailers or via Steam) will obtain early access to the demo on October 27. The demo will then be made available to Xbox LIVE Gold members and all PC gamers on November 3. Then all Xbox LIVE members will obtain access to the demo on November 10.

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009’s marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

With the AI Director 2.0, L4D’s dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players’ performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Adding new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge, all available at launch.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com"

JoWood, DreamCatcher, and Homegrown Games have announced that "Painkiller: Resurrection" has gone gold and is scheduled to be available in North America on October 27th.

"The Austrian development studio Homegrown Games has just wrapped up production on the latest sequel in the successful Painkiller series and the game will hit stores across North America on October 27th.

Get ready to take on Purgatory (and the various creatures inhabiting it) as you take on the role of ‘Wild Bill’ Sherman who gets drawn into the endless War between Heaven and Hell… a devilishly hot hell-ride of a game! 

Just as its award-winning and critically acclaimed predecessor, Painkiller: Resurrection is a straight action shooter – so be prepared for some fast-paced and adrenaline-fueled action! There’s no complex reloading or puzzles that force the player to keep pushing buttons – just pure, straightforward shooter action. So grab your stake gun and follow us straight to Hell!

Game Features:

• New levels, new monsters, new bosses and a new story, all in typical Painkiller style
• IMPROVED shadows, a higher texture resolution, moveable light sources, post processing, motion blur and ambient occlusion.
• NEW coop-multiplayer campaign mode.

A Demo of Painkiller: Resurrection will be available for download shortly!"

A demo for "Wolfenstein" has been released, giving players a chance to try out the recent new chapter in the FPS series by Raven Software.

"The sequel to the classic that practically created the first-person shooter genre, Wolfenstein returns. Taking players deep behind enemy lines, player will attempt to stop the next nefarious scheme devised by the Nazis."

The 686MB demo can be downloaded from AtomicGamer, FileShack, Gamer’s Hell, or Worthplaying.

Tripwire Interactive today announced "Level Up," an upcoming content pack for "Killing Floor" that’s scheduled to be released next Thursday, the 22nd. In addition, the company will be giving everyone a chance to try the updates with a free weekend that will be held from the 22nd to the 25th.

"This massive new content pack will be our largest free content pack to date and will be available October 22nd for anyone that owns Killing Floor. To celebrate and to allow as many people as possible to try it out, we will also be running a free weekend on Steam from Thursday October 22nd through Sunday October 25th. Full details on the pack will be available in a detailed preview article on IGN on Tuesday October 20th, so watch for that one. Also watch our web site (www.killingfloorthegame.com) for more details on this over the next few days!

Killing Floor is now available in stores across North America and Europe as well as digitally on Steam."

Focus Home Interactive released a new trailer for "Runaway: A Twist of Fate," giving players more of a look at the upcoming final adventure game in the trilogy by Pendulo Studios. The game is scheduled to be released in Q1 of next year.

"Follow Brian while he is running away across the United States of America, during these 2 minutes of video ! You’ll be able to witness the special care given to the superb graphics and the very high quality animation!

Runaway: A Twist Of Fate will be the last adventure of the famous fearless couple: Brian Basco and Gina Timmings. These two characters have already enchanted more than one million players with their first adventures, which had placed the adventure game genre under the spotlight once again!"

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and movies opening the week of October 12th. 2009.

PC Games:

• Dreamkiller
• Fate: The Traitor Soul
• Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
• Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy

Movies Opening This Week:

• Black Dynamite (limited)
• Law Abiding Citizen
• New York, I Love You (limited)
• The Stepfather
• Where the Wild Things Are

DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:

• A Christmas Carol
• Adoration [Blu-Ray]
• American Violet
• Bob Dylan: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
• Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas [Blu-Ray]
• Drag Me to Hell [Blu-Ray]
• Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical
• Eagles Over London
• Every Little Step
• Flashpoint: The Complete First Season
• Fox Searchlight Spotlight Series, Vol. 1
• Futurama: The Complete Collection
• Girlfriends: The Complete Seventh Season
• Happy Birthday to Me
• Hardware [Blu-Ray]
• Inspector Lewis: Series 2
• Jackass: The Lost Tapes
• Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound
• L’Amour Braque
• Land of the Lost [Blu-Ray]
• Land of the Lost: Season 1
• Legend of the Seeker: The Complete First Season
• Lovejoy: The Complete Season Six
• Married… With Children: The Complete Eleventh Season
• Marvel Animation: 6 Film Set
• Miracle on 34th Street [Blu-Ray]
• Natural Born Killers [Blu-Ray]
• Objectified
• Screwballs
• South Park: Bigger Longer Uncut [Blu-Ray]
• Stop Making Sense [Blu-Ray]
• The Bronte Collection
• The Craft [Blu-Ray]
• The Haunted Airman
• The Hunger: The Complete Second Season
• The Mighty Boosh Special Ed.
• The More Laurel or Hardy Collection
• The Proposal [Blu-Ray]
• The Stepfather
• Thomas & Friends: Sodor Friends Holiday Collection
• Western Tripe Feature: The Pledge / Avenging Angel / Prairie Fever

Aspyr Media and Mindware have announced the release of "Dreamkiller" on Steam, a frantic horror FPS.

"In Dreamkiller gamers take on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the extraordinary ability to enter the minds of her patients and combat the ravenous foes haunting their dreams. Utilizing a host of fantastic weapons and her own special abilities, Alice confronts our common demons only to discover an even deeper menace reigns within. Dreamkiller features 12 rich levels of single-player gameplay each laced with swarms of hideous and disturbing enemies reflecting the mind’s infinite palette of fear. The onslaught continues with numerous multiplayer modes and a host of over-the-top weapons and supernatural abilities.

Dreamkiller will ship later this month for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The title is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

To delve deeper into the nightmarish world of Dreamkiller gamers can visit the newly launched official website at https://www.dreamkillergame.com."

Valve sent word on THQ’s Steam sale this week.

"A host of THQ titles are available at special prices this week on Steam. For the first day, all games in the Titan Quest series are available at 50% off their regular price. Check back each day for a new deal.  In addition, the THQ Collector Pack — featuring titles from the Company of Heroes, Titan Quest, and Warhamner 40,000: Dawn of War series — is available for 10% off its regular price for the duration of the sale. For more information, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/THQ/"

TopWare today announced that it has acquired the worldwide publishing rights for "Scivelation," an upcoming third-person shooter by Black Wing Foundation.

"Armed with the Unreal III Engine, Scivelation is slated for a mid-2010 release for PC and next-gen consoles. Scivelation will transform the Third-Person Shooter genre into an unrelenting interactive experience, hurling the player into a blockbuster journey, steeped in conflict and veiled in uncertainty.

Set in the distant future, Scivelation’s universe is a world born out of the ashes of conflict and misery. An oppressive global dictatorship, known as the Regime, has risen to power after the aftermath of the Apocalypse; aggressively seeking out and eliminating any opposition to their tyrannical government. With this capricious, dystopian reality as a backdrop, the player will take his or her place amongst the ranks of the resistance, waging war throughout the furthest reaches of the globe in this action-packed battle for freedom and survival."

   

Slitherine today announced the digital distribution release of "HISTORY Great Battles Medieval", which is currently scheduled for a February 2010 retail release. The game is only available to purchase through the company’s website.

"The PC retail release will be launched alongside the two console formats, Xbox360 and PlaySation3. HISTORY™Great Battles Medieval is a blend of role-playing and turn based strategy set during the Hundred Years War between France and England. Players will finally be able to create their armies, customize them and lead them to victory trough over 130 years of one of the greatest wars of all times.

The game also includes a unique ranking system. If you register your game all games you play can be reported to the server, even single player. This lets you compare your progress to other players around the world.

The rankings system can be seen at https://www.slitherine.com/ladder/"