General gaming

General gaming

Steam Now Allows for Giftable Games, In-Game Items to be Traded

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 06:52 PM PDT

Team Fortress 2 backpack

One of the drawbacks of purchasing digital games, whether it be through Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, or most anywhere else, is the inability to trade or sell those games later. This is less of an issue when it comes to PC games, as CD keys and online registrations have made it more and more difficult to hand off a computer game to someone else.

Enter Steam Trading. It's not quite the perfect solution to these problems, but it is one step in the right direction. By opting into the new beta, you can trade both in-game items and certain games with other users who are also enrolled in the beta. Game trading is limited to gift copies that you've yet to send to someone else or add to your own account. Only Team Fortress 2 items can currently be traded, though Portal 2 should be in "reasonably soon" followed by "several third-party games in the next few months."

You can get into the beta by going into your Steam settings and opting in on the Stream Trading Beta. From there, you can initiate trades from group chats or by right-clicking on a friend's name. That brings up the trade window, which will instruct you on how to use it the first time it's brought up. There's also an FAQ here.

THQ Dumping MX vs. ATV, Laying Off 200 in Realignment

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 06:29 PM PDT

MX vs. ATV Alive

During a recent conference call, THQ made it clear that Red Faction doesn't have much of a future after Armageddon failed to meet expectations. That's not the only trimming it's doing, though. It announced today that the MX vs. ATV franchise is being shelved and a company realignment is taking place, resulting in the loss of about 200 employees' jobs.

A press release today announced the decision "not to actively pursue further development of the MX vs. ATV franchise at this time." Like Red Faction, that's not to say one will never be made again, but nothing is imminent.

It's not a major surprise after MX vs. ATV Alive failed to sell as well as THQ hoped. The idea with Alive was to sell a retail game at a lower price ($39.99), giving it a big market of people to sell downloadable content to. That price didn't prove to be low enough to achieve the desired effect, with CEO Brian Farrell last month calling it a "noble experiment."

Humble Indie Bundle 3 is Done, Generated $2.1 Million

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:29 PM PDT

Humble Indie Bundle 3 final tally

The third Humble Indie Bundle is no longer available. After being on sale for two weeks, 372,347 people purchased it at an average price of $5.82. That adds up to a total of $2,167,602.12 generated by the pay-what-you-want indie collection.

After a week, the bundle began offering additional games from previous bundles to those who spent more than the average price. That caused the average to shoot up from $4.78 on August 2 to $5.82; the average Windows user ended up paying $4.89 (up from $3.80 a week ago) and accounted for far more than half of all money generated.

Two people paid more than $4,000 for the bundle, one of which was notch, also know as Markus Persson, the creator of Minecraft. The sandbox game is available to play for all bundle buyers until August 14.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online 1UP Community Q&A

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:25 PM PDT

The 1UP Community asked and Capcom answered. We grabbed a bunch of questions from this 1UP Community Q&A thread before our demo of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition. Capcom special combat advisor Seth Killian and producer Derek Neal were on hand, and answered a bunch of your questions. IGN's Mark Ryan Sallee also contributed to our conversation. You can find out what they had to say in the transcript below. If you want to learn more about why SF3:3SOE is considered arcade perfect, check out that story out here.

Yerffejk: Is there a quick rematch option in one of the lobbies? This was a feature lacking from every version of SF4, and I hated it. You did too.

Disgaea 3 Headed to Vita With New Content in Tow

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 04:23 PM PDT

Disgaea 3

Just as the first two games in the Disgaea series were eventually re-released on handhelds, Disgaea 3 has been confirmed for release on PlayStation Vita.

A remake or port for Vita had been rumored and has now been made official, according to Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki PlayStation (as translated by Andriasang). Known as Disgaea 3: Return (or Returns), Nippon Ichi is bringing over all of the downloadable content the PlayStation 3 version (pictured above) saw in addition to brand new content -- namely, two new characters and four new scenarios. In the latter's case, Nippon Ichi boss Sohei Niikawa claims the last of the four is so big that they could have called it two scenarios.

As Nippon Ichi decided to focus on adding new content, the graphics aren't really getting any attention. That means the complaints about the low resolution visuals may still persist. Niikawa, as you'd expect, claims it looks good on Vita; given the smaller size of its screen, the low-res visuals hopefully won't prove to be as much a problem as on PS3.

Win Entry to Attend Call of Duty XP in September

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 04:13 PM PDT

Activision is holding the first ever Call of Duty fan experience over the Labor Day weekend in sunny Los Angeles, California and we want to help you attend! Call of Duty XP is an event catering to hardcore and casual COD fans alike, attendees will have a wealth of exciting activities to participate in over the course of this 2-day event:

  • Be the first to challenge Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer.
  • Run real-life recreations of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 2's The Pit and Scrapyard.
  • Explore the revolutionary and innovative new digital platform Call of Duty® Elite and qualify to compete in The Call of Duty $1 Million Tournament Sponsored by Xbox 360.

We're inviting all of the 1UP Community to participate in a contest to win one (1) ticket to attend this exciting event! It costs $150 to get into this Call of Duty immersion experience, but this is your chance to get in for FREE! We're only helping you get INTO the Call of Duty XP event so the lucky winner will still be responsible for his/her own airfare and accommodations. All you have to do is leave a comment telling us why you deserve to go and we'll pick the best response to receive this prize. The contest will end on Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:59pm and the winner will be contacted via private message.

What Would it be Like if Mega Man Had a Portal Gun?

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 03:41 PM PDT


Capcom doesn't seem to have much love for Mega Man these days, having canceled Mega Man Universe and Legends 3 so far this year. That doesn't mean the fans love Mega Man any less, and it makes it no less intriguing when you see a video of Mega Man carrying around a portal gun.

That's the sort of world depicted in the video above, as Dorkly (via Joystiq) has decided to show us what it would be like if Mega Man started using an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. To be fair, you could drop the gun from Portal into just about any game and it would be cool. But outside of maybe Mirror's Edge and a few others, I can't think of many games I'd prefer to see this happen with.

It's a marriage we'll never see, sure, but it makes it no less cool. Hopefully a modder somewhere sees the idea and runs with it, as Capcom doesn't seem to have any plans to keep Mega Man fans occupied (in a positive fashion) in the near future.

Gotham City Impostors Beta Starts Next Month

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 01:57 PM PDT


This week has brought with it the launch of the website for Gotham City Impostors, the new first-person shooter set in the Batman universe. Among what you'll find there is word on a beta that will be kicking off fairly soon.

While the downloadable game itself may be fairly far off -- it won't be out until 2012 -- it'll be making an appearance at both PAX Prime and Gamescom this month. If you don't plan on being at either, that's okay; the beta begins soon after, sometime in September.

To get in, you simply need to register and agree to a non-disclosure agreement. This particular beta is only planned for PC, so console gamers hoping to get an early taste will have to cross their fingers that another round of testing on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 follows.

L.A. Noire Dev Team Bondi Sells IP, Folding Into Nearby Studio - Report

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 01:32 PM PDT

LA Noire

After releasing L.A. Noire in May, a game which had been in development for the better part of a decade, Team Bondi should have been celebrating. Instead, the studio isn't in good shape. According to a new report, it's now sold off its IP and other assets as it plans to move its staff over to George Miller's production studio, Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM).

In the last few months we've learned about the reportedly awful working conditions at Team Bondi. Studio founder Brendan McNamara was described as being an angry supervisor who berated employees on a number of occasions. The developer's relationship with L.A. Noire publisher Rockstar has also become public and, suffice it to say, they didn't always get along particularly well. One source claimed Rockstar had a "disdain" for Bondi and would not be publishing its next game.

Rockstar does, however, own the IP for Noire (which owner Take-Two has called a "powerful new franchise"), so expect the Rockstar Leeds-developed PC port and the inevitable sequel to still carry the Rockstar name.

GameFly to Offer Unlimited PC Game Play

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:40 PM PDT


Videogame rental service GameFly has always stuck with physical games for consoles and handhelds. The omission of PC games was understandable; issues with CD keys, piracy, and so on would make it extremely difficult to rent physical computer games. GameFly has announced plans to launch a new digital client later this year that will bring, among other things, "unlimited PC play" for select digital games, essentially giving Steam yet another competitor.

Besides selling used games, allowing members to manage their queues, and offering some social networking feature, subscribers will be able to play "a large and ever-growing collection of titles" for PC and Mac, according to the GameFly-owned Shacknews. The client will allow you to download the games and play them as much as you'd like for as long as you're a paying subscriber.

"It's kind of like a Spotify or Rhapsody or a Napster," co-founder Sean Spector told USA Today. "You have access to the content as long as you are a subscriber, but when you are no longer a member, the content then disappears."

Posted by Shri Krishna

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