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Tuesday , February 20, 2007 |
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NVIDIA Vista Certified WHQL 100.65 Drivers 06:02 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: NVIDIA
(1 comment)
Thanks to Mike Stone for the good word that NVIDIA has finally released certified Vista drivers for its GeForce series of video cards.
Crysis Interview 01:48 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(3 comments)
Crysis Online cooked up an interview with the Crytek Art team about Crysis. Topics include: character looks, nano-suits, component damage, various vehicles, destructible elements, physics, the aircraft carrier and more.
Top 10 Best Selling US PC Games 01:43 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(5 comments)
Here are the top-10 best selling US PC games according to the NPD Group for the week of February 4-10th.
1) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $39
2) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $20
3) The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts - $37
4) The Sims: Life Stories - Electronic Arts - $34
5) Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes - Sony Online Ent. - $50
6) The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
7) Madden NFL 2007 - Electronic Arts - $12
8) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $40
9) Deal or No Deal - Global Star Software (Take 2) - $20
10) Bejeweled 2 - Mumbo Jumbo - $20
Crackdown in Stores 01:37 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(18 comments)
Crackdown, for the Xbox 360 is now in stores.
Microsoft� Game Studios today announced that the highly anticipated action title "Crackdown™" is now available on store shelves. From developer Realtime Worlds and the mind of acclaimed creator Dave Jones, "Crackdown" is currently setting its sights on retailers across North America.
Gamers have already made the "Crackdown" demo on Xbox Live� Marketplace the most downloaded demo within the first 24 hours as well as setting a record for total downloads during its first week of release. Since then, the demo has garnered nearly 1 million downloads in less than a month as gamers everywhere have been eagerly waiting the day that they can fully experience this nail-biting, action-packed title.
"Excitement generated by the demo on Xbox Live Marketplace, and the resulting flood of community-generated video that gamers have created, has led 'Crackdown' to become one of the most anticipated games of this year," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of Merchandising at GameStop Corp.
"Crackdown" is also one of the three ways to gain entry into the highly sought "Halo� 3" multiplayer beta program. All copies of "Crackdown" available at launch will be specially marked with the "Halo 3" multiplayer beta sticker. Gamers will be able to use their retail copy of "Crackdown" to gain access to the beta when it becomes available later this year.*
From Realtime Worlds, "Crackdown" pushes the action-driving hybrid genre into the next generation with the first-ever truly 3-D playground. Gamers will level up their Agent's strength, agility, firearms, explosives and driving skills while scaling the fully vertical world of "Crackdown." This M-rated game incorporates revolutionary cooperative gameplay throughout the entire free-form campaign.** Creating a volatile cocktail of judicial oppression, players will clean up the streets of a truly interactive world when "Crackdown" hits store shelves with an estimated retail price of $59.99.
I wonder how many people bought the game to actually play it, as opposed to getting access to the Halo 3 beta?
SupCom Ships Out 01:17 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(7 comments)
THQ announced that Supreme Commander has officially shipped out to stores today, plus also is available for digital distribution. THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced that critically acclaimed Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game Supreme Commander has shipped for Windows PC. Developed by veteran RTS designer Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games, Supreme Commander redefines strategic scope and scale with a full Theatre Of War zoom function, giving gamers command over hundreds of land, sea and air units on massive battlefields. Hailed as "a truly epic strategy game" by PC Gamer, Supreme Commander is now available at retail outlets nationwide and for digital download at www.direct2drive.com for the suggested price of $49.99.
"Supreme Commander's unrivalled multiplayer battles and intense single-player campaigns makes this one of the must-have titles of 2007," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. "We've advanced the RTS genre yet again, further establishing THQ as a premier PC publisher."
"Supreme Commander is enormous in every sense of the word - from its unprecedented scope and scale to its superior command and control functions - this is RTS gaming on a whole new scale," said Chris Taylor, creative director and CEO, Gas Powered Games. "Our goal to create a game that takes strategy to a whole new level has been reached, and we are very excited to release it to the world."
No C&C3; Demo Today 08:56 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(16 comments)
An EA contact has confirmed that the C&C3; demo will not be released today, though he did suggest that if the game got 10,000 more votes than SupCom in our current poll...
Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:38 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: General News
(3 comments)
RPG Vault Goodness 12:29 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(0 comments)
Game Reviews 12:20 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(7 comments)
In Other News... 12:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(20 comments)
Some clever lad on the official Command & Conquer boards had a little fun yesterday. Long story short, he said if C&C; 3 was beating by Supreme Commander by 100 votes in our poll (it was down a few hundred at the time), EA would release the demo early. 13 pages later, people figured out it was a hoax. Evil! I think it's safe to predict armed rebellion if EA doesn't release that soon. In other RTS news, Supreme Commander should start showing up on store shelves today. 2/20 is the shipping date, so places like GameStop will be your safest bet to pick up a copy on day one. Knock on wood.
Today's question:
Assuming you can find SupCom in stores today, and EA happens to release the demo for C&C; 3 (cough), which game are you most likely to play first?
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Monday , February 19, 2007 |
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An Audience with Lord British Part Two 06:30 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(7 comments)
As promised, part two of our audience with Lord British is now online. His brother Robert Garriott popped in to help answer some questions as well. Some topics on the table include: Ultima Online, other NCsoft games like Lineage, and AI in MMORPGs. Plus, a new Tabula Rasa screenshot.
VE3D: Ultima Online is ten years old now this fall. That game has amazing longevity. With the current generation of MMOs, what are some of the things you feel need to be in Tabula Rasa in order for it to have a chance to enjoy the kind of longevity UO has had?
Richard Garriott: Let me back up and tell you how I feel about this whole genre, the MMO genre. First of all, any MMO that has ever in its life gotten over the 100,000-player mark is still here. All of them. You would think that competition and new games would ultimately peel away those players and somehow it does not. In addition, it's not the same people playing [the game] all those years—all these games have a churn where new people come in.
Early on, one of the big things we talked about is when and where is market saturation for these online games. People thought we were near market saturation, since we began before we made U.O. Before U.O., the biggest online game in history had 15,000 players. So when EA was doing sales projections for it, "since it's Ultima and you [Garriott]," they said, "maybe we'll give it 30,000." Well, 50,000 people paid to become beta testers on U.O.! Then when it launched, it sold out immediately of its first run of 100,000 copies and became the fastest-selling PC game in Origin history. So, we thought, surely there can't be anything bigger than that. Then, of course, EverQuest comes out and beats that. Then all these other games keep coming out, many of them getting past the 100,000 mark…then, of course, WoW.
Poll: C&C; 3 vs Supreme Commander 06:00 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(71 comments)
This week's VE poll asks: Command & Conquer 3 vs Supreme Commander. Which game gets your vote for global RTS domination in early 2007? Vote on your right!
 vs 
Here are the results of last week's poll:
Most Wanted 360 Game for 2007?
Halo 3 [780 votes]
Mass Effect [665 votes]
Wii for the win. [588 votes]
Bioshock [373 votes]
Grand Theft Auto 4 [315 votes]
Assassin's Creed [280 votes]
Alan Wake [234 votes]
Forza 2 [160 votes]
Huxley [50 votes]
Medal of Honor: Airborne [49 votes]
Halo Wars [42 votes]
Army of Two [41 votes]
Crackdown [33 votes]
GRAW 2 [32 votes]
Shadowrun [30 votes]
Turok [20 votes]
Stranglehold [17 votes]
Madden NFL 08 [14 votes]
The Darkness [13 votes]
Dark Sector [4 votes]
Dell XPS 710 H2C Review 03:04 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: General News
(10 comments)
HotHardware helped itself to a $5000+ Dell XPS 710 H2C rig putting the overclocked Quad-Core, 8800 SLI, 4 gig, super-cooled system through the paces. Here's how it did: Remembering that the XPS 710 H2C comes with its processor factory overclocked to 3.2GHz, up from the stock frequency of 2.66GHz, we weren't expecting much of an additional gain. However, we were amazed by what we were able to do. After an afternoon of overclocking and stability testing, we finally arrived at an overclocked processor frequency of 3.66GHz at stock voltage. That is a one GHz overclock from the stock QX6700 frequency; one word -- impressive. We were also able to overclock our pair of GeForce 8800 GTXs from their stock speed of 575 MHz core and 1800 MHz memory to 630 MHz core and 1900 MHz memory.
At this speed, the system was completely stable. We were able to run several benchmarks and we continued to use the system for the rest of the day, all without incident. Our impressive overclock earned us an equally impressive 3DMark06 score of 17985! This is the highest score we have achieved to date, here at HotHardware.
Sounds pretty snappy, but they still don't offer Vista installs on newer 700+ XPS systems.
LoTR Online Impressions 02:26 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(0 comments)
Games for Windows' Jeff Green conjured up some favorable impressions of Lord of the Rings Online. The game itself is set during the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Put me in the camp of Tolkien dorks that, at least at the outset, considered this a bad idea. If the Big Story is taking place all around us, and we don't get to play as those characters--then just how epic are we supposed to feel? Frodo is off to bring the ring to Mordor, but you know what quest I did last night? I collected apples for Gaffer Gamgee. I jest (though I really did do that quest), but the question remains: will the game (and our experience in it) be limited by the overarching storyline (whose ending we all know already) hovering all around us? Maybe not...but how Turbine pulls this off will be interesting to see.
Kotaku has some impressions also.
Age of Conan Interview 02:15 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(1 comment)
The blokes at C&VG; tossed off the second part of its interview with FunCom about Age of Conan. In what ways does DirectX 10 enhance and impact the gameplay experience?
Erling Ellingsen: Actually, DirectX 10 offers mostly a visual improvement. The graphics become much more detailed, and we're able to push much more content into each scene that we were ever able to do with DirectX 9. You have improved features like parallax mapping that looks absolutely incredible with DirectX 10. With this technology you can, for instance, see the roots around a tree extrude from the ground. It looks amazing! There are also improved shadows and lightning, sharper textures, more realistic particle effects and a lot of other good stuff. There are also opportunities for better framerates with DirectX 10, something that will, of course, have a positive impact on the user's experience, but other than that the two DirectX versions will be identical in terms of game play.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Hands-on 02:07 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(7 comments)
Firing Squad shot up some impressions of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. single player beta. They weren't allowed to take any screenshots (which sucks) but they do offer some gameplay experiences:
It helps that the visuals in S.T.A.L.K.E.R echo the desolation of the game's setting. The game's vast outdoor environments only cause load scenes when you go through one of the game's various zones; otherwise the game looks and feels much like a free roaming environment. Character models are first rate as are the visual effects such as the anomalies you have to encounter. We will say that the beta build we received from THQ to try out had its share of crashes to the desktop and on our 2.2 GHz P4 rig with a GeForce 6800 card and 640MB of RAM the game had some framerate issues on 1024x768 with high graphics settings. Since our rig is a bit on the old side and this was a beta build we certainly expect the final version to run much better on a higher end machine when the final product is released. We can't comment on the promised multiplayer features of S.T.A.L.K.E.R either; our build didn't include them for our use.
Monster Madness Screenshots 06:56 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Action
(11 comments)
Out this April, in the UK:
SouthPeak Interactive has confirmed that its third-person action title, Monster Madness, will be released in the UK for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows in April 2007.
Developed by Artificial Studios, Monster Madness sees a group of teenagers pitted against an onslaught of supernatural enemies in a typical slice of small-town American suburbia. Making good use of the Unreal 3 graphics engine for a top-down viewing perspective, Monster Madness' world is brought to life with advanced physics middleware from Ageia, making sure that the action is suitably dynamic.
The game's light-hearted approach to supernatural urban invasion involves a thick layer of horror satire, demonstrated in part by the 50 different enemy types - each one with their own offensive and defensive techniques for the player to overcome. Armed to the teeth with a variety of distinctive weapons, the stage is set for a hilarious battle through 20 huge levels of intense blasting, slicing, gouging and physics-based puzzling that gives a nod to both the old-school and modern action genres.
Monster Madness provides its means of gleeful destruction through a customisable weapons system, with a splendid array of vehicles to up the mayhem ante. Players can take to the streets in go-karts, UFOs, hovercraft and even robotic suits as they battle to clear each level of evil attackers. They can also create, upgrade and customise their weapons of choice from components spread around the game's levels. Combatants will even get the chance to transform into iconic horror figures, battling as a vampire, werewolf, zombie or mummified corpse.
Up to four players can take on the evil tide co-operatively or indulge in competitive multiplayer action that includes Deathmatch and Capture The Flag modes, where the player count is upped to sixteen participants. With co-op play dynamic enough to allow players to drop in and out at any time, Monster Madness is set to become a living-room favourite for trigger-happy gamers.
Melanie Mroz, Executive Vice President, SouthPeak Interactive comments: "Monster Madness is a fantastic title, combining the latest technology with a heavy emphasis on fun and the kind of multiplayer people will want to play night after night. Monster Madness has exactly the philosophy what we want SouthPeak Interactive to represent."
Monster Madness will be released for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows in April 2007.
(Click to Enlarge!)
MotorStorm Screenshots 04:53 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Consoles: PS3
(20 comments)
(Click to Enlarge!)
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Screenshots 04:33 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Action
(13 comments)
GRAW2 PC is less about the advanced battle person and more about stealthy tactics, sadly.
(Click to Enlarge!)
Hardware & Tech Nuggets 01:45 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: General News
(1 comment)
RPG Vault Goodness 01:39 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing
(0 comments)
Loki Interview - Part 2
We look into abilities, combat, enemies, items, quests, multiplayer and more in Cyanide's eye-catching action RPG
Sword of the New World Media #2
We follow a family group on a dungeon crawl in K2 Network's western version of imcGames' persistent state title - Six exclusive 1280x1024 screenshots
Game Reviews 01:25 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(5 comments)
In Other News... 01:17 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(24 comments)
Happy President's Day for all you folks in the US. It's a three-day weekend around these parts, so news might be a little on the slow side today. Some highlights this week are of course the retail release of Supreme Commander, plus the Command & Conquer 3 demo.
Today's question is from raistmaj42, who asks:
What's the worst game you've played with the best ideas or technology implemented?
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