PC Game News

Paradox Interactive today announced that Crusader Kings II for Linux is now available on Steam and additional titles are in development.

“Heralded as one of the best strategy games of 2012, Crusader Kings II explores one of the defining eras in world history, in an experience crafted by the masters of Grand Strategy. Medieval Europe is brought to life in this epic title, rife with rich strategy and tactical depth, where ambitious kings will be charged with bringing their dynasties to greatness. Intrigue, backstabbing, and maintaining relationships—both intimate and political—are just as important as the ability to lead troops into battle as you quest for glory and power. Stand ready, increase your prestige, and listen to the world whisper your name in awe; do you have what it takes to become a Crusader King?”

Rockstar Games today announced the release of the Deathmatch Made in Heaven DLC pack for Max Payne 3, which adds new close-combat weapons, items, achievements and four co-op game modes to the multiplayer.

Features:

• “Dead Man Walking 2 Player Co-Op Mode
  Fight endless waves of enemies as Max and Passos – using teamwork and skill to earn Grit and open up new areas of the map as well as weapons, weapon attachments, painkillers and ammo. See how long you can fend off the bloodthirsty onslaught and rack up big points.
• Run & Stun Mode
  This all-new competitive multiplayer mode casts one random player in the role of the diabolical Saci, Captain Baseball Bat Boy’s nemesis – using superior strength, unlimited stamina, and a deadly combination of the new Stun Gun and a weighty melee attack to try and turn all the other players to his side.
• Marked Man Mode
  This vendetta-fueled take on Max Payne 3’s Deathmatch mode awards extra points for successfully exacting revenge on adversaries as well as surviving Vendettas placed on you by other players.
• Time Attack Mode
  Rack up the kills before time runs out in the new Time Attack Deathmatch mode, where taking out multiple targets within a short period of time will earn you considerable bonus points.
• The Deathmatch Made in Heaven Pack also includes the new single-player Challenge Arcade Mode – keeping you on your toes and putting your skills to the test across each level of the game’s story with impromptu challenges like registering headshots, dispatching enemies with explosive kills or any number of direct objectives.”

The Elder Scrolls Online site has been updated with the announcement that interested players can now register for the upcoming beta. Additionally, a new cinematic trailer was released.

“You can now officially sign up for The Elder Scrolls Online beta program starting today. If selected, you will be one of the first people to embark upon the newest Elder Scrolls adventure, and help us beta test The Elder Scrolls Online. Please be aware that this is just beta sign-ups. Once our first beta test begins, we’ll make sure everyone knows—watch our official website, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter for an announcement about the first round of invites.”

Atari’s US division filed for bankruptcy protection today and intends to sell assets or reorganize to accomplish the same result.

“The move to separate the U.S. business comes after the parent company Atari said in December it was strained for cash. The French parent, which hasn’t made a profit since 1999 despite asset sales and restructuring, forecast a “significant loss” in 2012-2013, and said it would weigh all means of raising cash and had been talking to potential investors.

According to its Chapter 11 petition, Atari owes $10 million to $50 million to at least 200 creditors and possibly as many as 999. It reported assets of $1 million to $10 million.”

Full story on Bloomberg.

Valve today announced the release of Steam Guides, which allows players to share guides, walkthroughts and tips.

“Steam Guides lets players create and share guides, walkthroughs, and tips for their favorite games or software to help others who might be stuck or who simply want to learn more about the game. Players may easily create guides through Steam, where they may upload images, add screenshots, and embed YouTube videos. Guides are then quickly accessible through Steam, via the Steam Community and in-game via the Steam Overlay.”

Positech Games today announced Democracy 3, the latest in the political simulation series.

“A lot has changed in the world of politics since Positech first suffered the mental anguish of programming Democracy 2. We have had a global credit crunch and financial crisis, the occupy movement, the Arab spring, and mobile phones have got slightly smaller, then larger again.
 
Democracy 3 will be a massively improved and updated version of the game that will reflect changes in both gaming tastes and the world of politics. Despite sharing the basic GUI design of earlier games in the series, Democracy 3 is being built on a complete ground-up re-engineering of the custom-built neural network engine used to power the complex simulation beneath the hood of the game. Improvements will be equal parts graphical and simulation based, with greater freedom to use both private/free market solutions to problems as well as more accurate simulation of financial markets, voter cynicism and much more.

The ship date for the game is currently set as ‘2013’. (We would make a more precise prediction but it would be about as reliable as a government budget forecast).”

Gearbox today announced that Aliens: Colonial Marines has gone gold and is scheduled for launch on February 12th.

“Today, we’re proud to announce that we hit every one of those targets, with the game’s gold status indicating that all parties have examined the release candidate and signed off on the code as final and suitable for manufacturing, after which the game will be shipped to retail and propped to digital networks in time for launch on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 come February 12, 2013!

Now’s the time to make sure you’ve got your pre-order locked in as participating retailers are offering in-game bonus content — check with your local retailers and visit this page for more details.”

The list of new PC game releases, Blu-ray releases, and movies opening the week of January 12th, 2013.

PC games:

• SpellForce 2 Faith in Destiny Scenario 2: Golden Fool
• Wizardry Online

Movies opening this week:

• Broken City
• LUV (limited)
• Mama
• Outside Satan (limited NYC)
• The Last Stand

Blu-ray releases:

• 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity With the Devil
• A.C.A.B.
• About Cherry
• Act 1
• Admiral
• Attack of the Werewolves
• Attenborough 60 Year in the Wild
• Being Human: Season 4
• Billy Connolly’s Route 66
• Blood Beast Terror
• Branded
• Cesar Et Rosalie
• Chicago 8
• Cockneys vs Zombies
• Death Watch
• Doctor Who: 2011 Christmas Special
• Farewell, My Queen
• Gentleman’s Agreement
• Hannah and Her Sisters
• House of Bones
• How Green Was My Valley
• I Am Bruce Lee
• Jackson Five: The Complete Animated Series
• Life on Earth
• Life’s Too Short: Series 1
• lightning Bug
• London 2012 Paralympic Games
• Love Me
• Merlin: The Complete Fourth Season
• Monster High Ghouls Rule
• Monsterwolf
• MTV Unplugged 2
• Prometheus to Alien: Evolution
• Saints & Soldiers 2 Airborne Creed
• Sleeper
• Taken 2
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (Criterion Collection)
• The Possession
• The Tin Drum
• To Rome With Love
• Trials of Life
• Twenty8k
• Wake in Fright
• Wild River
• Wimbledon
• Won’t Back Down

The two Bohemia Interactive developers that were detained on espionage charges for photographing near a Greek military base have finally been set free on bail after 128 days and 5,000 Euros each. They have been allowed to return to the Czech Republic but will still be held accountable for the alleged crime at a later date.

“Government’s spokesperson Michal Schuster:
“As a result of repeated dealings, today the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras informed the Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas over the telephone that the two Czech arrested by Greek police because of supposed photography of military objects on the island of Lemnos have been released. Petr Nečas expressed appreciation for the efforts of PM Antonis Samaras and thanked him.”

The pair of game developers were arrested by the Greek police due to photography of military objects. According to information from Greek press the two men were monitored since their arrival by the Greek security service who supposedly also contacted Czech security services.”

Source: Ceskatelevize.cz
More info: https://www.helpivanmartin.org/

Positech recently announced the release of the Outcasts expansion for Gratuitous Space Battles, which adds a new faction to the space strategy game.

“The “Outcasts” expansion adds a new faction to the GSB universe, a cybernetic race shunned by religious zealots because they were no longer “pure enough”. Centuries of hostility led to an “Outcast” uprising culminating in genocidal revenge on a planetary scale. Now these “Outcasts” roam the universe seeking other “biologicals” to do unto others before things are done unto them.

“The Outcasts” includes:

• 10 new ship designs
• new modules exclusively for the Outcast faction, including a multiple target tractor beam and a decoy projector to fool your enemies
• 2 new scenarios where you fight off Outcast fleets
• and, of course, the Outcasts are a playable faction in all other GSB content including online challenges and the campaign game

Over three years of steady development, “Gratuitous Space Battles” has distinguished itself for its series of improvements, its thriving modding community and diligent post-release support. If you haven’t played GSB in a while, now is the perfect time to catch up and see what you have been missing.”

CD Projekt RED today relaseda  new CG trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming RPG based on the pen-and-paper game.

“The trailer shows a woman going on a rampage due to the amount of cybermodifications in her body. The Night City police try to intervene with the help of a member of an elite police called Psychosquad.

The creators promise that “Cyberpunk 2077” will be true to the essence of the cyberpunk genre. Players will be thrown into the dark future of the year 2077 and into a world where advanced technologies have become both the salvation and the curse of humanity. A multi-thread, nonlinear story designed for mature players (a CD Projekt RED trademark) will take place in the sprawling metropolis of Night City and its surroundings. Players will have a chance to freely roam the open-world environment and visit places well known from the pen-and-paper RPG “Cyberpunk 2020®”, including a combat zone completely taken over by gangs, the legendary Afterlife joint and the nostalgic Forlorn Hope.”

The list of new PC game releases, Blu-ray releases and movies opening the week of January 7th, 2013.

PC games:

• Dawnstar
• Fieldrunners 2

Movies opening this week:

• A Haunted House
• Fairhaven (limited)
• Gangster Squad
• Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (limited)
• $ellebrity (limited)
• Storage (limited)
• Struck by Lightning (limited)
• The Baytown Outlaws (limited)
• The Tower (limited)
• Quartet (limited)
• Zero Dark Thirty

Blu-ray releases:

• Abducted
• American Masters: Inventing David Geffen
• Anger Management: Season One
• Archer: Season Three
• Assassins
• Brothers Grimm
• Cape Fear
• Compliance
• Dredd
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Enlightened: The Complete First Season
• Fear
• Frankenweenie
• French Kiss
• Game Change
• Grand Hotel
• Guns, Girls and Gambling
• Hansel & Gretel
• Hit & Run
• House at the End of the Street
• Jack & Diane
• Larryboy & The Bad Apple
• Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis
• Midsomer Murders, Set 21
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy
• Nova: Mystery of Easter Island
• Mrs. Miniver
• My Dog Tulip
• One Fine Day
• Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers
• Red Dwarf: X
• Samsara
• Scrooged
• Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden
• Sleep Tonight
• Stallingrad
• Stolen
• The Bone Collector
• The Jazz Singer
• Touchback
• Two-Lane Blacktop (Criterion Collection)

NVIDIA today announced “Project Shield“, an upcoming handheld Android gaming device that is designed to be an open platform, running Android games, PC games and will have a Steam game library.

“Created with the philosophy that gaming should be open and flexible, Project SHIELD flawlessly plays both Android and PC titles. As a pure Android device, it gives access to any game on Google Play. And as a wireless receiver and controller, it can stream games from a PC powered by NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX GPUs, accessing titles on its STEAM game library from anywhere in the home.

Project SHIELD combines the advanced processing power of NVIDIA Tegra® 4, breakthrough game-speed Wi-Fi technology and stunning HD video and audio built into a console-grade controller. It can be used to play on its own integrated screen or on a big screen, and on the couch or on the go.

Tegra 4 at Its Heart
At the core of Project SHIELD is the world’s fastest mobile processor, the new NVIDIA Tegra 4, which delivers enormous power from its custom 72-core GeForce GPU and the first quad-core application of ARM’s most advanced CPU core, the Cortex-A15. These, combined with its battery-saver core and energy-saving PRISM 2 technology, deliver hours of gameplay on a single charge.

Windows and Android Games
Windows and Android are the world’s most successful computing platforms, with massive ecosystems of system and software developers. While not specifically designed for gaming, both open platforms have drawn gamers by the millions. Project SHIELD is designed to allow them to enjoy Android and Windows games in a new, exciting way.

Project SHIELD can instantly download Android games, including Android-optimized titles available on NVIDIA’s TegraZoneâ„¢ game store, which has already delivered more than 6 million downloads to gamers. It can also be used as a wireless game receiver to a nearby PC equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 GPU or higher.

Console-Grade Controller
Project SHIELD’s ergonomic controller was built for the gamer who wants ultimate control and precision.

Retinal Gaming Display
Brilliant gameplay and video are provided by Project SHIELD’s integrated 5-inch, 1280×720 HD retinal multitouch display, with 294 dpi. Plus, Tegra 4 with Direct Touch technology gives it touch responsiveness that is a more consistent, accurate and smooth-flowing touch input experience than a standard touch device.

Tuned Port, Bass Reflex Portable Speaker System
Deep, rich audio is critical for a great gaming experience. And Project SHIELD provides fidelity and dynamic range never before available on a portable device, through its custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system — with twice the low-frequency output of high-end laptops.

Project SHIELD can also access Android apps such as Hulu, Netflix and Slacker Radio, so users can enjoy their movies and music anywhere without expensive, clumsy wired or wireless speakers.”

The Steam Holiday Sale has begun and will run until January 5th.

“This year, we’ve taken some of the guesswork out of when your favorite games will be on sale.  You may now organize your Steam Wishlist and be notified via Steam Mobile and/or email when a game from the list goes on sale as a Daily Deal.  The Steam Mobile App is available for both iOS and Android.

Complete information on all the savings, daily deals, featured publisher game packs, compilations and more may be found on www.steampowered.com.”

A new Humble Indie Bundle is now available, which features The Binding of Isaac, Closure, Shank 2, Snapshot, Indie Game: The Movie, 5 game soundtracks, and Dungeon Defenders and Legend of Gimrock if you pay more than the average.

“These amazing games (and film!) are DRM-free and ready to play on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and can optionally be redeemed on Steam (if you purchase for $1 or more). Linux users can also redeem select titles on the Ubuntu Software Center!

Bundle buyers can also benefit the Child’s Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, two marvelous non-profits doing phenomenal work on behalf of gamers worldwide. (Since the beginning of Humble Bundle, with your generous help, we’ve raised over $9.5 million for charity!)

This incredible selection of games, a film, and soundtracks would normally cost around $140, but we’re letting you name your price! So head on over to the site right now and pay what you want for six excellent games and one captivating film!”