PC Game News

The first patch for the newly released adventure game "A Vampyre Story" has been released, fixing a couple of bugs and adding a few tweaks.

The 19MB patch can be downloaded from AtomicGamer, FileFront, Gamer’s Hell, or Worthplaying.

This patch can be used for all versions of the game currently available: US, UK, France, Germany & download versions.

The suggested installation path is the same as with the game. Selecting a different path will add "A Vampyre Story" after the selected path. Make sure to correct this, if you renamed the actual game directory.

Fixes:

• Less "stuck" animations. If problem still occurs, restart game.
• Removed two bugs (perfume and stadium) that could prevent further playing
• Support for graphics cards without AA: if the game did not start on your system, select "Safe AA" during patch installation to set AA to 0.
• Small bug fixes and tweaks

The Digitalmindsoft website has been updated with a new "Men of War" developer diary and new screenshots.

"It passed some time since we posted our last news, however this is not bad at all, since it was mainly caused by the fact that we are eagerly working on new game features, new maps and the polishing of the overall product.

New features like friends and black lists are integrated, a new automatch system will be integrated soon. Optimizing in the AI code has been done, which increases the smoothness of online games."

Read the full developer diary at DigitalMindsoft.

Frozenbyte and Nobilis have announced "Trine," an upcoming side-scrolling fantasy action game that is currently scheduled to be released in Q2 of 2009.

"Trine is a fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. Set in a world of great castles and strange machinery, three heroes are bound to a mysterious device called the Trine in a quest to save the kingdom from evil…

The gameplay is based on fully interactive physics – each character’s different abilities helps the player battle an army of un-dead and defeat hazardous contraptions. The player can at any time freely choose whoever is best suited for the upcoming challenge or puzzle: The Wizard is able to summon objects to help solve puzzles and create new ways to overcome obstacles, the Thief uses her agility and dead-on accuracy to swiftly surprise the monsters, and the Warrior unleashes mayhem and physical destruction wherever he goes.

"This is the first game we publish on the PlayStation® Network and we are thrilled to work with Frozenbyte on this very exciting game project!" declares Arnaud Blacher, CEO of Nobilis Group.

"Trine™ is a true testament to Frozenbyte’s new strategy focusing on original IP. We can’t wait to have the game released on the PlayStation®Network and PC," said Lauri Hyvarinen, CEO of Frozenbyte, and he continued: "Nobilis has been a great partner to us all these years and we look forward to combining our efforts even more closely to make a great game!"

Official website: https://trine-thegame.com/"

Today sees a nice batch of updates for Left 4 Dead, the latest game from Valve. Biggest updates to note are that the boomer kill exploit has been vanquished, the game’s matchmaking system has been cleaned up and random and versus has permanently locked down itself in the normal difficulty. The versus update will probably wind up being the most controversial, because I’d like to choose how hard or easy I want it to be. Anyway, here’s the full list:

• Finding a dedicated server when starting the game from a lobby is now faster and more reliable
• Versus mode is now locked to Normal difficulty
• Difficulty on a server is now locked to the one set by the lobby reservation
• Fixed lagouts/spikes after level transition
• Fixed directory issue with spray logs in some cases
• Fixed video settings not saving after closing video options dialog
• Corrected a boomer suicide exploit
• Several minor localization fixes
• Fixed disabling cheats incorrectly resetting data

On the Left 4 Dead blog, there’s a very interesting piece on the production of the game’s outstanding intro sequence, which you can read here.

GoGamer.com has announced that it will be holding a "White Friday" sale this weekend, which will begin at 5:00PM PST.

"Included in the sale will be products for every budget ranging from $45 to $1. This includes several recently released game titles and quality accessories. GoGamer is happy to bring even more Holiday cheer to gamers and American families this Christmas season. GoGamer.com continues to be the leader in making games affordable this Holiday Season.

 The full list of discounted products will be listed on the GoGamer.com website Friday afternoon. Supplies will be limited. Shoppers are encouraged to act fast to take advantage of this great special promotion before supplies run out."

A new patch for "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3" has been released, bringing the latest installment in the real-time strategy series to version 1.05.

The 127MB patch can be downloaded from The Official Site, AtomicGamer, FileFront, FileShack, or Worthplaying.

Note: The above links lead to the English version of the patch but other language options are also available at the above mirrors.

Here are the major highlights:

• DRM De-authorization – if you’ve maxed out at 5 machines, you can easily de-authorize any installation in-game with a few simple clicks
• Balance exploit fix – Added capture delay on Engineers
• Balancing Allies vs. Empire of the Rising Sun — Specifically tuning Allied aircraft rush against Rising Sun
• Added the ability to see player’s stats in the online lobby
• Added Co-op lobbies – so you can easily find your next best-friend-co-Commander
• Official Release of Red Alert 3 Worldbuilder – download it above!
• A critical list of balance and technical changes – click the forum thread link to view the entire list

You can find the full changelist on the Red Alert forums.

Frogster has announced that the "Runes of Magic" open beta will begin on December 15th. This version is open to all players who fill out the online registration form.

"With the start of the open beta, MMO interested players can explore the complete content that has been integrated so far into the fantasy-online-roleplay-game. Additionally, Frogster thanks all participants of the closed beta with a big farewell-event.

This version is open to all players after a short registration on the official website www.runesofmagic.com. All players that have registered so far, without being invited to the closed beta, will receive automatic access to the open beta. All players that are already active in the closed beta will keep their account. Right from the beta start the needed client software can be downloaded already on various websites and on www.runesofmagic.com.

Frogster thanks all closed beta participants for their help in optimizing the game with a special ingame event lasting several days, at the end of the three month long first test phase. Beginning December 7th, darkness will befall Taborea and evil demons will start terrorizing the game world. Accompanying the event, the official website will continuously report about the communities efforts to repel the evil forces. After the final of the event on December 10th, the servers will go offline for last tests.

Daniel Ullrich, Director of Product Management at Frogster is extremely pleased with the closed beta: "More than 170,000 registrations from players worldwide shortly before the start of the open beta show us, that we are on the right track with Runes of Magic." This final test phase is likely to end in the first quarter of 2009 with the release of the title, but all characters that have been played until then will be available to the players after the game has been launched.

Runes of Magic is currently in closed beta. Interested players can still apply for access to the beta test on www.runesofmagic.com. The ambitious MMORPG project is scheduled to go into open beta with further polishing and completely localized in the course of December."

NCSoft has announced that the latest add-to "City of Heroes," titled "City of Heroes Issue 13: Power and Responsibility," has been released.

"The release of Issue 13: Power and Responsibility introduces several innovative features to the MMO genre. Macintosh players won’t be left out as open beta testing for the new Mac version of City of Heroes is just around the corner.

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility unveils some pioneering features to the MMO genre. Multiple builds is a character customization option and delivers the ability to have two different build-outs for each character. This offers enormous flexibility for players who can now switch back and forth between their two character builds, depending upon the task ahead of them, by visiting contacts in game.

Pact leveling is a new innovation for MMOs. This system allows two friends to enter their characters into a pact before level five, and have their XP permanently in sync, regardless of how much each character is online. This way when they play together they will always be the same level. It’s similar in concept to City of Heroes’ already popular Sidekick feature which allows players on different levels to play together.

Also City of Heroes’ new Day Job feature offers a way for players to progress their characters in the game even when they are logged out of the game. In addition to providing an XP rest bonus to all characters, specific Day Jobs are determined by where you log out of the game. There’s an associated Day Job at many key locations in Paragon City™ or the Rogue Isles™. Once characters have accumulated the required amount of time for each Day Job, they are rewarded with the appropriate Day Job Badge, increasing their “earnings” for that job. Multiple Badges can be combined to unlock Accolades and the ability to accumulate additional new rewards.

Other features released in Issue 13 include the new Shields and Pain Domination Power Sets, new Cimerora mission content, the Merit Rewards System, Villains Patron Power Respec, Supergroup Base Repricing, and player versus player (PvP) powers rebalancing, paving the way for new PvP features to come.

“We are proud of the innovations that are going into Issue 13,” said Senior Lead Designer Matt Miller. “Ultimately our goal was to give players more interesting ways to play the game and more ways to play together with friends. Issue 13’s new content, systems, and quality of life improvements should do just that.”

Players can apply for the upcoming Mac Open Beta by visiting https://www.cityofheroes.com/macbeta.

The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition digital product will be sold at the PlayNC store and at GameTreeOnline. The City of Heroes “Good Versus Evil Edition” PC game pack may be purchased at retailers across North America or through digital download at the PlayNC Store. Both products include the complete City of Heroes and City of Villains® games, as well as a set of exclusive bonus items. Customers receive the first month of play free and both games can be played for the single monthly subscription price of $14.99.

City of Heroes is rated “T” for Teen. For more information about City of Heroes go to https://www.cityofheroes.com. "

The word around the web is that the PC version of "Grand Theft Auto IV" is giving customers a difficult time.

A guest dropped by our forums and had this to say when responding to the shipping announcement:

"You have to install 3 different programs first: Securom, Rockstar Social Club, Windows LIVE.

then the game…and it will crash when you try to play it…if you log out of Social club the game works but you can’t play online and then if you try to save you have to login to LIVE to do it (ARE YOU KIDDING ME) and it crashes on logging in to LIVE so you CAN"T PLAY THE GAME AT ALL."

He’s not the only one having difficulties. Check the Steam Forums and GTAForums.com.

GTANet.com received word from Rockstar that they are working on a fix. Rockstar has offered that customers check call technical support or stop by their online support page. Additionally, you may also want to take a look at the complete list of error codes.

The Adventure Company has announced that "A Vampyre Story" has been shipped to North American retail stores.

"This hilarious adventure is the brainchild of adventure gaming veteran, Bill Tiller, known for the adventure classics The Curse of Monkey Island, The Dig and Indiana Jones.  It’s got a cast of more than 20 characters each with their own entertaining personality and more than 30 hand-drawn locations in a richly-detailed world.  “Adventure gamers should agree that it’s been worth the wait for A Vampyre Story, all the elements are in place to make it a classic,” said Byron Gaum, Product Manager at The Adventure Company.  “Gorgeous graphics, vast environments to explore and a hilarious sidekick will keep you entertained for hours!”         

Storyline

Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in the equally gloomy land of Draxsylvania, the young, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte is held captive by her tormentor, vampire Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer. Ever since she was transformed into a vampire by Shrowdy and whisked off to Draxsylvania, her greatest wish has been to return to Paris, continue her singing career, and one day become a star at the Paris Opera.

When Shrowdy fails to return from a nightly foray, she at last sees an opportunity to flee. Together with her only friend and confidant, a cheeky bat named Froderick, she escapes from her prison and tries to find her way back to Paris.  During her flight through Draxsylvania, where she encounters some strange inhabitants and some even stranger challenges, Mona must learn not only to accept her vampire nature, but also to use the abilities she has acquired to her advantage.

Developed by Autumn Moon Entertainment, A Vampyre Story has an ESRB rating of T for Teen.  Please visit the official website at www.avampyrestory-game.com for further information."

Rockstar Games has announced that the PC version of "Grand Theft Auto IV" has been shipped to retailers and is available both in stores and via digital distribution.

"Developed by Rockstar Toronto in conjunction with series creator Rockstar North, the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV offers a wealth of new features, including 32-player multiplayer modes – expanded from 16 on the console versions of the game; a deep, sophisticated and easy-to-use video editor tool to capture and edit in-game footage; stunning, high-resolution graphics; and the all-new Independence FM radio station that allows players to add their own songs for a truly personalized and unique in-game music experience.

“We are very proud to be releasing Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We have taken our time to ensure this version of the game is not just a quick port, but a perfectly tailored experience for the PC. We hope the PC gaming community appreciates all of the innovative features in the game. Grand Theft Auto began on the PC and we have tried very hard to ensure this version was worthy of that heritage.”

Eurogamer calls Grand Theft Auto IV on PC a “genuinely ground-breaking blockbuster in video game history.” According to popular gaming site, 1UP.com, “the upgraded visuals and improved multiplayer for what’s already been hailed as the year’s most significant game make this a PC version worth getting excited about — really excited about.”

Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC is rated M for Mature by the ESRB, with an MSRP of $49.99. For more information, log onto www.rockstargames.com/IV."

The list of new PC game releases, DVD releases, and movies opening the week of December 1st, 2008.

PC Games:

• A Vampyre Story
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge

Movies Opening This Week:

• Cadillac Records (limited)
• Frost/Nixon (limited LA/NY)
• Nobel Son (limited)
• Punisher: War Zone
• The Black Balloon (limited LA/NY)
• Timecrimes (limited LA/NY)

DVD Releases:

• 60 Minutes – The 44th President and The Next First Family
• Austin Powers Collection: Shagadelic Edition Loaded With Extra Mojo
• Firm: 500 Calorie Workout
• Fly Me to the Moon
• Frost/Nixon
• Hi-5 Season One 
• Home Alone [Blu-ray]
• Immortal [Blu-ray]
• Jake and the Fatman – Season One, Vol. 2
• Jingle All the Way [Blu-ray]
• Law and Order: The Sixth Year
• Rape of Europa Collector’s Edition
• Step Brothers 
• Teenage Angst
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• The Firm: Get Chisel’d
• The Firm: Power Half Hour
• The Man Called Flintstone
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The X-Files – Fight the Future [Blu-ray]
• The X-Files: I Want to Believe
• Wanted

Atari and Telltale have announced a publishing agreement to bring "Sam & Max" season two to retail stores.

"Everyone’s favourite freelance police are back for more of the surreal stories and offbeat laughs that make the Sam & Max games series one-of-a-kind. Currently available as episodic downloads for PC only, publisher Atari is bringing Sam & Max Season Two to retailers worldwide for PC and Wii in 2009.

Sam and Max are on the job again in the critically acclaimed Sam & Max Season Two brimming with crime-fighting adventure and chaos. Structured like a TV season, each of the five episodes has its own self-contained plot while together they form part of a season-long mystery. Like the best TV series, Sam & Max Season Two draws the player in with great characters and multiple intertwined plot lines, building to a high stakes climax in the season finale.

The crazed journey begins with a giant robot attack and never lets up, taking the crime-fighters on a series of wild missions boasting twisted storylines and engaging gameplay with their own unique brand of justice that takes them from frozen arctic regions to the fiery opposite end of the spectrum.

As with DVD box sets of popular TV series, bringing the game to retail lets its creators reach a new audience of gamers who otherwise might have led a life deprived of the joy only Sam & Max can bring. Sam & Max Season Two for Wii and PC is the first time this release has been localised, with full French and German versions available on the disk along with Spanish and Italian subtitles, so international fans can enjoy the fun in their mother tongue.

Created by Steve Purcell, Sam & Max first got their start in the indie comic book scene in the 1980s and the duo have since become a well-loved phenomenon in both the comic scene and with the brilliantly addictive and entertaining video games."

True Games Interactive and Petroglyph have announced "Mytheon," an upcoming "online micro-transaction game."

"Developed by the team best known for the award winning Star Wars: Empire At War and Universe at War real-time strategy games, Mytheon is Petroglyph’s first online micro-transaction game. Several members of this prestigious developer also played a key role in creating the original Command and Conquer series while at Westwood Studios. Mytheon will launch in Fall 2009. For more information, and to register for news updates on the game, visit www.Mytheongame.com.

Mytheon is an online micro transaction game that uniquely combines the best elements of action, strategy and RPG game-play with a heavy emphasis on collectability and combat. This visually stunning title is set within a fantasy universe steeped in unique mythologies from across the globe. Players will first embark on a rousing journey through the extensive lore of ancient Greece; with ongoing expansions to follow that will delve into exotic mythologies from the far-flung corners of history. With real-time combat and extensive customization features, Mytheon will offer infinite replayability through group, PVP and solo play as well as an integrated social networking feature set.

"There really isn’t a game on the market today that someone could compare to Mytheon," said Jeff Lujan, Founder and Chairman of True Games Interactive. "The game truly creates an entirely new genre offering a combination of features that gamers would normally have to play several different games to get. There is no doubt it is an ambitious project, but Petroglyph has routinely delivered AAA quality, genre-defining games and Mytheon continues that pedigree."

In the game, players will collect and customize a vast assortment of "Power Stones" which are used to conjure devastating spells and summon faithful minions in climactic battles against monsters and other players. Mytheon will offer three distinct character classes, each specializing in a specific "Power Stone" type, such as summoning or healing.

"The passion and energy behind Mytheon has been tremendous at Petroglyph. This is exciting new territory for Petroglyph to explore" said Chuck Kroegel, CEO and General Manager of Petroglyph. "We are making a compelling and addictive new genre that will have you fully immersed and entertained. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner than True Games to take this journey with us and I’m certain that together we’ll deliver a long-lasting new franchise."

For additional details on Mytheon and for continuous updates on the game, please visit: https://www.Mytheongame.com "

Auran Games and N3VRF41L Publishing have announced that "Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition" has gone gold and is available at the Auran online store.

"Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition is the culmination of 8 years of ongoing development and is the fifth major release in the series. It delivers new features and graphics capabilities along with over 12,500 rail related items including more than 400 locomotives and hundreds of miles of drivable routes.

"The World Builder Edition for Trainz 2009 is a defining release in the history of Trainz," said Tony Hilliam, Auran CEO and Exec Producer of Trainz. "This release builds upon all the features from previous releases and adds new higher resolution graphics capabilities, more detailed terrain and new tools such as advanced content search filters and custom displacement maps. Many of our audience are dedicated hobbyists who have their favourite version of Trainz from 2004, 2006 through to the Trainz Classics series. Our goal is that Trainz 2009 will provide a united platform for all users which we will continue to improve upon every year."

"Trainz has sold more than a million units around the world since 2001," said Graham Edelsten, Director of N3V Publishing. "We have released a dozen or more different versions aimed at every type of train fan and at every budget. It is truly an evergreen product based around people’s enjoyment of the world of trains. Trainz 2009 is backwards compatible with the majority of the 100,000+ items that are available on the Trainz Download Station but it is also capable of handling much higher resolution content as well. It will be very exciting to witness the new content as it is developed and released over the coming months and years. We look forward to bringing that new content to users in every corner of the globe."

TS2009 includes the traditional Surveyor (World Builder) module plus Driver and Railyard. People can create, drive, operate, collect and share content with more than 300,000 registered Trainz fans from around the world. The focus of development for TS2009 has been on improving the underlying systems to bring Trainz into the next generation of graphics and to provide better tools for the community to create their own dream railroad (or railway, depending on where you are in the world). It includes 99% backwards compatibility plus enormous room to expand upon existing content by upgrading assets such as tracks, locos and rolling stock.

Work has already begun on the upcoming Engineers Edition (TEE) which will deliver a range of newly created routes that utilise the new capabilities provide by the World Builder Edition. TEE will be available in retail outlets throughout the world in early 2009.

TS2009 World Builder Edition is available for digital download or mail order on DVD from the Auran Store for USD $29.99. www.auran.com"