PC Game News

3D Realms, the developer often mocked for its upcoming "vaporware" sequel "Duke Nukem Forever", has shut down. Shacknews was reporting this story first on a tip, and then a post was made on the official forums, confirming the news (their site seems to be down at the moment).

Take-Two has responded, stating that they were not funding the development of the game, but still own the publishing rights, so there’s a possibility that the game isn’t completely dead:

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.

Blizzard has announced that beta sign-ups for the highly anticipated "Starcraft II" are now being accepted via Battle.net.

"The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know. Simply go to the "Beta Profile Settings" page in Battle.net account management to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you’ll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games. Please note that even if you’ve opted in to our betas previously, you’ll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.

For more information, see the FAQ — or create a Battle.net account to opt in now. If you have an unused beta code from BlizzCon 2008 or WWI 2008, visit this site to enter your code."

What do you know? We missed the initial release announcement of the latest "Fallout 3" DLC "Broken Steel" yesterday but that’s probably a good thing considering it’s broken due to Games for Windows Live issues. The add-on has since been pulled from the Live marketplace but if you downloaded a corrupted copy, there are some reports that the instructions detailed in this thread on the Bethesda forums can work. The specific error looks like this:

"Install of Broken Steel failed. Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009200D)."

Shacknews has word from Bethesda that it’s all GFWL’s fault. Will this shiny new debut trailer help? I didn’t think so.

Blizzard has announced that tickets for Blizzcon 2009 will go on sale starting May 16th. The conference is scheduled to take place on August 21-22 in Anaheim, California and will also be available to watch via DirectTV Pay Per View and an Internet Stream.

"In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer an array of activities, including discussion panels, hands-on playtime with upcoming games, tournaments, contests, and more.

Tickets to the convention will be priced at $125 USD each and will be available for purchase from the official BlizzCon website at www.blizzcon.com beginning May 16. For those unable to purchase tickets on that date, a second block of tickets will go on sale May 30.

To streamline the ticket-purchase process this year, the company has made upgrades to the Blizzard Store, including a first-come, first-served queue system and a fixed time limit for completing purchases. Also, those interested in attending BlizzCon can simplify the purchase process by registering a Battle.net account at www.battle.net before ticket sales begin.

Due to its popularity last year, the DIRECTV® BlizzCon Pay Per View event will return in 2009, available to existing DIRECTV customers for $39.95 USD. The event will again deliver a minimum of eight hours of live HD coverage from the show floor on each day of the convention, including exclusive interviews, demos, and more. In addition, gamers around the world who are unable to attend BlizzCon will for the first time be able to purchase the Pay Per View event as an Internet stream, also priced at $39.95 USD (pricing may vary by region). DIRECTV customers who order the televised event will receive this Internet stream at no extra charge, allowing them to watch in the format of their choice. Anyone who orders the event will also receive this year’s BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft® in-game item — to be revealed at a later date.

In addition, in the weeks ahead DIRECTV will offer a BlizzCon promotion for those interested in signing up for the DIRECTV television service. New subscribers through this promotion will receive the DIRECTV BlizzCon Pay Per View event, the Internet stream, and the BlizzCon 2009 World of Warcraft in-game item for the price of becoming a new DIRECTV customer."

PopCap Games has released "Plants vs. Zombies", a new casual action strategy game, which is available to purchase on PopCap.com, Steam, MSN Games, Yahoo Games, RealArcade, or Wildgames.

"Featuring five different modes of play, Plants vs. Zombies presents you with a front lawn and encroaching zombies striving to reach your front door and defeat you. Choose from an ever-increasing assortment of specialized, zombie-battling plants to slow down, confuse, weaken and ultimately destroy the vegetation-munching undead before they can traverse your yard and reach your front door. Thoughtful selection of plants, judicious use of resources and clever planting/placement decisions are key to overcoming more than two dozen different kinds of zombies, each with its own combination of “skills” and behaviors. Additional obstacles and challenges in later levels include the setting of the sun, a creeping fog that obscures part of your view – even a swimming pool that takes up much of your lawn."

Features of Plants vs. Zombies include:

• Five different modes of play: Adventure, Survival, Puzzle, Zen Garden and Mini-Game Challenges
• 50 levels in the main Adventure mode and more than 50 more in the other game modes, with limitless replayability
• More than four dozen plants, from cherry bombs and peashooters to melon-pults, wall-nuts and sunflowers
• Dozens of different zombie types, including back-from-the-dead miners, businessmen, football players, even a zombie bobsled team!
• Suburban almanac tracks your progress and provides vital stats on plant and zombie types
• Crazy Dave’s trunk-o’-the-car shop where you can purchase special “power plants” and other zombie-exterminating tools as well as potted versions for your Zen Garden
• New fluid animation technology for prettier plants and zippier zombies
• 14 original musical pieces that dynamically adjust to the intensity of the game in real time
• So frighteningly fun you’ll soil your plants!

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and movies opening the week of May 4th, 2009.

PC Games:

• Crysis: Maximum Edition
• Plants vs. Zombies

Movies Opening This Week:

• Little Ashes
• Next Day Air
• Outrage
• Rudo y Cursi
• Star Trek

DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:

• A Plumm Summer
• Bleak House [Blu-Ray]
• Boston Legal: Season Five
• Dexter: The Complete Second Season [Blu-Ray]
• Dog Soldiers [Blu-Ray]
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off [Blu-Ray]
• Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict Season 1
• Imagination Movers: Warehouse Mouse Edition
• Incendiary [Blu-Ray]
• Last Chance Harvey [Blu-Ray]
• Lipstick Jungle: Season Two
• Love Takes Wing
• McLeod’s Daughters: The Complete Eight Season
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Big Splash
• October Road: The Complete Second Season
• Roxanne [Blu-Ray]
• Saturday Night Fever [Blu-Ray]
• Smother
• That Girl: Season Five
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Blu-Ray]
• The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin: The Complete Series
• The Last Templar
• The Note II: Taking a Chance on Love
• Twilight [Blu-Ray]
• Wendy and Lucy

Telltale has announced the release of the second "Wallace and Gromit" episode "The Last Resort".

"Telltale’s Wallace & Gromit games are like interactive films, with humorous storylines and creative characters conceived in collaboration with Aardman’s award-winning team. In the new episode, Wallace and Gromit’s Blackpool holiday is rained out, so the enterprising inventor and his clever dog bring the beach to their basement with the construction of West Wallaby Waterworld, a makeshift resort complete with sun, sand, and Wallace’s homemade boardwalk attractions. Keeping their guests satisfied turns out to be tricky business, particularly after one is thumped on the head by an unknown assailant. Everyone is a suspect! Now Wallace and Gromit must work together to finger the culprit, with a little help from Wallace’s latest invention: the Deductomatic.

Customers can purchase the Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures series from www.telltalegames.com, and the first two episodes, Fright of the Bumblebees and The Last Resort, will be delivered digitally with their checkout. The full series purchase from Telltale also includes the Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures Collector’s DVD, containing the four games plus bonus content for just the cost of shipping shortly after the finale episode. The third and fourth Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures episodes will release for PC in June and July.

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures launched in March to rave reviews, with Yahoo! Games UK calling the premiere episode "Wallace and Gromit’s finest and best looking video game outing to date." IGN awarded the episode with its coveted Editor’s Choice Award, saying, "Telltale nails the look and feel of a Wallace & Gromit short film."

The four-episode Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures series sells for $34.95 (approx £24). To purchase the game, visit https://www.telltalegames.com/wallaceandgromit."

Paradox has release a patch for "Elven Legacy", bringing the recent turn-based strategy game by Ino-co to version 1.0.9.2.

"The new patch for the English versions of Elven Legacy addresses a variety of issues and once the patch has been downloaded and installed, the player will notice the updates of the patch that includes:"

Elven Legacy Patch 1.0.9.2 updates:

• Russian voice-overs in the tutorial are changed to English
• The localization of Chosen Fencers unit has been corrected
• The amount of Video Memory is now detected correctly on Windows Vista 32 bit and 64 bit
• The issues with the Advanced Tutorial mission has been corrected
• Final movie sequence is now correct
• Fixed image quality issues when FSAA (full-screen anti-aliasing) is on in Windows video driver options
• Opening Mission map (“M” keyboard shortcut) is now working

The 6.1MB patch can be downloaded from the official site, Atomic Gamer, Gamer’s Hell, or Worthplaying.

Tripwire Interactive has announced "Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad", a new sequel in the WWII first-person shooter series that will run on the Unreal Engine 3. Apparently, this announcement was planned for later but PC Gamer US and UK blew the cover earlier than expected.

"Heroes of Stalingrad will take the Red Orchestra franchise into the next generation of gaming. Cutting edge graphics and audio built on Unreal Engine 3, inventive features and streamlined realism will deliver an unrivalled WWII experience. Focusing on the Battle of Stalingrad and the surrounding operations, both German and Russian, from July 1942 to February 1943 the game allows the player to experience one of the most brutal battles in all of human history. For the first time ever in a first person shooter gamers will be able to experience WWII from the Axis side in a German single player campaign. As always with the Red Orchestra franchise, we will aim to deliver unrivalled accuracy and attention to detail, along with gritty, vicious combat in multi-player, co-op and solo modes. Again, we have listened to the fans and have designed a whole set of new features to make the game more accessible and easy to get into – all while delivering the tactical shooter realism fans of the original game loved.

There is more information available in the June 2009 issue of PC Gamer both in the UK and US, which will be on the news stands in May. The Heroes of Stalingrad forums are also now open – head to www.HeroesofStalingrad.com for the teaser website and access to the forums. We will be releasing more information about the game over the next weeks and months, so keep checking back! Tripwire Interactive are taking the time to get the game right, so the release date will remain “when it is ready” for the time being."

THQ released a new trailer for "Red Faction: Guerrilla", giving viewers a look at the tactics in the upcoming third-person shooter by Volition.

"Red Faction: Guerrilla is a 3rd person, open-world action shooter set on Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction. Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay."

ACE Team has announced that a demo for "Zeno Clash", the newly released first-person action game, is now available to download on Steam.

"The demo is available through Steam and will be distributed soon through other channels. The demo features a portion of the single-player campaign and the first tower level from the Challenge mode. Demo players will be able to post scores if they complete the first tower challenge."

Activision, Marvel, and Raven have announced that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has been shipped.

"Developed by critically acclaimed studio Raven Software, the game allows players to harness Wolverine’s brute strength, regenerative mutant abilities, and indestructible adamantium claws as they battle powerful forces and uncover the mysteries behind his origin. Inspired by the feature film from Twentieth Century Fox released in theaters everywhere on the same date, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game also features the voices of some of the film’s leading men: Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Liev Schreiber (Sabretooth) and will.i.am (John Wraith).

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine features the most authentic Wolverine experience ever in a video game," said Rob Kostich, vice president of global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. "The game captures the uncaged nature of Wolverine and allows players to uncover an incredible storyline that will appeal to comic book and gaming enthusiasts, as well as fans of the action-packed feature film."

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an epic action-adventure game featuring a true-to-character Wolverine gameplay experience that takes gamers through and beyond the movie’s storyline. Set in a variety of vivid real-world locales, the title challenges players to hone their animal instinct as they uncover hidden dangers, hunt and defeat enemies, and take on seemingly insurmountable situations while discovering the truth about Wolverine’s tragic past. With razor-sharp adamantium claws unsheathed, the future X-Man enacts lightning-quick combat, evasive maneuvers, in-depth combo attacks, and an array of brutal finishing moves. Wolverine doesn’t just deliver massive damage, either – he also takes it, thanks to his mutant regenerative power that heals him in real time right before the player’s eyes.

Developed by Raven Studios, X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition is available on Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION(R)3 and Games for Windows. Also available now are unique versions of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game, developed by Amaze and rated "T" (for Teen) by the ESRB, on PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, PSP(R) (PlayStation(R)Portable) system and Wii(TM) home video game system, and E10+ on the Nintendo DS(TM). Fans can learn more about the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game by visiting www.uncaged.com."

GSC Game World has announced "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat" (working title), an upcoming stand-alone installment in the first-person shooter series set in a post-apocalyptic world.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat will become a third stand-alone game in the highly-acclaimed Survival FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The project is slanted for release in autumn 2009.

The events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat unfold shortly after the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered about the open path to the Zone center, the government decides to hold a large-scale military "Fairway" operation aimed to take the CNPP under control.

According to the operation’s plan, the first military group is to conduct an air scouting of the territory to map out the detailed layouts of anomalous fields location. Thereafter, making use of the maps, the main military forces are to be dispatched.

Despite thorough preparations, the operation fails. Most of the avant-garde helicopters crash. In order to collect information on reasons behind the operation failure, Ukraine’s Security Service send their agent into the Zone center. From now on everything depends on the player.

Key game features:

• Photorealistic exclusion Zone – Pripyat town, Yanov railway station, Jupiter factory, Kopachi village and more, recreated by their true-to-life prototypes.
• New story, a number of unique characters.
• Extended system of side quests.
• New monsters: Chimera and Burer. New behaviour and abilities for all monsters.
• New A-Life system, created using the players’ best-liked elements of the first two games in series.
• Emissions considerably influence the world of the Zone.
• Sleep function added into the game.
• New player’s interface.
• Possibility to continue the game after completion in a freeplay mode.
• The game is developed on X-Ray engine v.1.6

 

Activision and Treyarch have confirmed that a second map pack for "Call of Duty: World at War" is in development and will be released in June. There isn’t any word on the PC version of the map pack, but we assume it will be released at some point…

"Call of Duty®: World at War Map Pack 2 will feature three multiplayer maps and one new Zombie map, and appear on the Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

"Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 underscores Treyarch’s commitment to delivering ongoing support, and new multiplayer and co-op Zombie gameplay experiences for our players," said Treyarch Studio Head, Mark Lamia. "Our community has been outstanding and has driven support for Map Pack 1, as well as demand for additional downloadable content like Map Pack 2."

Online, players will compete in "Banzai," and fight for control of a tall, river bridge, deep within enemy territory; face down foes in a shattered Russian train yard in "Corrosion"; and struggle to control a bombed-out submarine base in the close-quarter map, "Sub Pens." In "Shi No Numa" (Zombie Swamp), Imperial Zombies rise from misty swamps in an all new co-op experience, with a level that features a mix of traps, flaming Hell Hounds, Perk machines and the deadly, new Wunderwaffe DG-2, as well as 10 new Xbox 360 Achievements/PS3 Trophies that can be earned along the way.

Call of Duty: World at War is rated "M" (Mature) by the ESRB for Intense Violence, Strong Language, Blood and Gore. For more information and exclusive updates about Call of Duty: World at War, visit www.callofduty.com."

Southpeak Games has announced that "Velvet Assassin", the WWII third-person shooter by Replay Studios, has been shipped to North American retail stores.

"Velvet Assassin chronicles the life and times of Violette Summer, a British secret agent behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany. Sneaking through the shadows, armed only with a knife and firearms procured on-site, Violette faces some of the most heart-stopping missions the world never knew.

"Velvet Assassin is one of the rare cases where players get the chance to delve into World War II and see the atrocities of war that often escaped the mainstream eye," said Richard Iggo, VP of Marketing at SouthPeak Interactive Corporation." The ability to bring this visceral and realistic view of the world into a video game was incredibly important to us and will undoubtedly prove instrumental in the immersion of the player into the world of Violette Summer."

Inspired by the real life secret agent Violette Szabo, Velvet Assassin tasks players with stealthily infiltrating Nazi strongholds to complete missions most would deem suicidal. Playing through the memories of the now hospitalized Violette, players will experience each mission with a sense of remembrance only enhanced by the surreal art style and intense musical accompaniment. The heart of gameplay keeps players in the shadows, using stealth kills and the virtue of patience. Utilizing items and weapons found during missions, Violette is completely alone in a world of sheer madness and macabre scenery. Completely alone in the heart of darkness, facing the greatest war-machine ever created, Violette must use everything to her advantage; including environmental traps and enemy weapons against themselves.

Velvet Assassin is now available on Xbox 360 for the suggested retail price of $59.99, and $49.99 for Windows PC. Velvet Assassin is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

For more information visit www.southpeakgames.com or www.velvetassassin.com."