Gaming News Archives

On April 20th, like always, someone was up to some serious business. In this case, these outages.

Today is May 9th, so we've have 19 days of downtime for the PlayStation Network. There was talk that everything would be restored by May 31st, but that's been abandoned, outside of a promise that online gaming will return first and ostensibly soon. Otherwise, it's the same shit out of luck with no end in sight scenario that has become the norm.

Considering the number of online uses for the PlayStation 3, like Netflix and online play, and the fact that PSP Go relies on the PSN as its entire system of distribution, to say nothing of outside developers not making the money they expected to make on DLC, this is a financial disaster for Sony and anybody doing business in any way related to the PlayStation 3.

It's hard to feel bad for Sony, because Sony probably shouldn't have persecuted/prosecuted a group of people who clearly knew more about at least portions of the PlayStation 3 than Sony did. Of course, everybody who has a PlayStation 3 has been left out in the cold. Microsoft and Nintendo are probably making some serious cash since people are going away from Sony for their gaming fix (I know I am), but if they're smart they're probably investing it in added network security and innovative ways to avoid the need to sue hackers in the first place.

Read more and more.

Everybody wants to play Diablo 3. The amount of good will toward this game in the community at large is astounding. Sure there were those idiots who complained about the art style, and I'm sure some people are disappointed about the available classes in one way or another, but Diablo 3 will still sell a million bajillion copies. Blizzard is in danger of destroying WoW's dominance in the field of online RPGs, if too many people flock to Diablo 3 in the hardcore way that people tend to get about Blizzard games.

The closed beta process started recently, and the open beta is scheduled to start in Q3 of this year. That means any time between June 31st and the midnight before September 31st, but Blizzard is prone to taking their time with games, no matter how badly you want them. Then again, it has been fucking years as well as probably millions in the making, and they should be out with it inside of a year from now regardless.

I'm excited to roll a demon hunter like everyone else, although if I'm feeling particularly uncreative, I will have to play with a barbarian named Conan.

Read more.

Definitely the most anticipated game this month (possibly even this year). The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is set to be release on May 17 for PC. Until then, you may want to have a look at this lovely trailer called 'Living World' (featuring some of the beautiful environments we'll see in the game, in addition to the people that inhabit it):

There's a patch available on Steam, updating the strategy game Total War: Shogun 2 with a variety of fixes and improvements (as usual, the patch is applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted). Some of the changes include:

DirectX 11 support, including

• Advanced Shadows
• Support for MSAA 2x,4x,8x.
• Enhanced Depth of Field
• Tessellation Support
• Anti-aliasing support

Note: Enabling Anisotropic Texture Filtering on DirectX9 is not working in this update. This will be fixed in the next patch.

General fixes (includes single player and multiplayer fixes)

• Fixed firing-arc overlay for blinding grenades to show minimum range
• Slight changes to the intercept for igniting buildings
• Fix for battlefield dominance being awarded to both players
• Fixed triggers for the Elusive Strikeforce and Inspiring
• Counterattack achievements
• Legendary force achievable in single player
• Fix for stacking effects
• Ninja hiding tweaks

The full list of changes can be found here.

A bit of parkour? No? Well, too bad because you're getting some:

The shooter Brink is slated to arrive tomorrow for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 3 platforms.

Well, you've seen the movie (probably) and now's your chance to try out the game. Our editor Jackson Johns takes the time to plunge into the world of the God of Thunder.

Here's a snip:

Drugs couldn't even make this interesting or enjoyable. Essentially, they took the gameplay from God of War, reduced that to pressing one button, removed all of the personality of that series and inserted some really boring gibberish, which ostensibly has to do with Norse mythology, but of course they fuck that up too. Like the character of Sif, who is primarily associated with a myth concerning her golden hair, so naturally her hair in this incarnation is jet black. That's usually the hair color I associate with Scandinavians.

Read our review of Thor: God of Thunder.

Having doubts about the PC version of Eidos Montreal's Dues Ex: Human Revolution? Well, this video should reassure you, according to the devs:

Publisher Atari and development studio Eden Games just released the free downloadable content for the racing game, Test Drive Unlimited 2. The 'Exploration Pack' is available for the PC, with the console versions scheduled to arrive very soon.

Here's the word:

Exploration Pack (New content):

• 20 new events
• 2 new events types
• Extreme convoy: one mistake and the mission is over
• Timed convoy: it is a convoy mission…but with a timer!
• Each completed event gives access to a new wreck
• 20 new wrecks give 2 new cars (10 wrecks = 1 car):
• Lancia Stratos version Rallye
• Dodge charger 1969
• 3 new discovery levels
• 1 new set of clothes (explorer) Male/Female
• 2 new MP Races (Specifically for the Lancia Stratos version Rallye)
• 3D on PC & PS3
• TV Media: Help Channel (to explain new features and content)

Source.

Valve's Portal 2 has been the top-selling video game in the United Kingdom for several weeks now, but the supreme champion of UK sales has return to reclaim its thrown.

1. Zumba Fitness - 505 Games
2. Portal 2 - EA
3. Mortal Kombat - Warner
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision
5. Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars - LucasArts
6. FIFA 11 - EA
7. Operation Flashpoint: Red River - Codemasters
8. Wii Fit Plus - Nintendo
9. Pokemon Black - Nintendo
10. Just Dance 2 - Ubisoft

Back to playing The Witcher: The Enhanced Edition and I am enjoying it thoroughly. The great thing is I don't remember the storyline, so it's fun to replay it without knowing what's gonna happen next. The only thing that despite the fact that they are calling it 'The Enhanced Edition' I noticed that they still haven't ironed out all the bugs in the game. Companions, for instance, get lost easily when you're exploring the area with them. I like that they've speeded up load times, but they still haven't included an autosave function before certain important cut-scenes and boss-fights. For example, when you clear out the first area (the village outside Vizima) you exit a cave, go through a lengthy cut-scene with dialogue and then it's time for a boss fight. The game doesn't 'autosave' before you exit the cave. It doesn't save before the boss fight begins either. In short, what you have to do is pause the game a mere second before the fight begins and then save your game. Otherwise, if you die in the battle, you're going to have to revert to an old save and go through the entire dialogue sequence all over again - that's, of course, assuming you've saved in the cave or close before the battle. If you haven't, well, then you're pretty much fucked. So, yeah, you still have to take care where and when you save your game.

Another thing that still bothers me is the game's performance, which still hasn't been properly tweaked. For some reason, the framerate can drop dramatically, even on stronger rigs. It seems as if lighting effects and animation are the main problem, so you'll find that these performance issues often occur when there's stuff in the background, like burning buildings and such, also it happens during battles and when the Witcher and his opponents use magic.

That's about it. Everything else in the game is quite enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the improvements they've made in the sequel, particularly the increased amount of weapons and items to use during the game.