General gaming

General gaming


Weekend Deals: Just Cause 2, The Witcher, and GoldenEye

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 06:53 PM PDT

Just Cause 2

With a new GoldenEye game on the way for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, GameStop has decided to drop the price of the Wii remake all the way to $9.99. While you're at it, you can also pick up another James Bond game, Blood Stone, for the same price.

GameStop has some other unusually strong (for them) deals, including the wireless Rock Band 3 keyboard for $59.99 and DJ Hero wireless turntables for $9.99. With how cheap DJ Hero and its sequel have been recently, that's a nice, cheap way to get the DJ Hero multiplayer experience for a very small fraction of what it would have cost a year ago.

Direct2Drive has some very fun PC games for $4.95, including Just Cause 2, which is an absolute blast (and is a very difficult game to pick a single screenshot for). For that same price, you can also get The Witcher, STALKER, or Magicka.

NSFW Madden Video Ends Up Inspiring a Madden 12 Achievement

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:19 PM PDT

Madden Greg Jennings broken leg

Whether you were offended by the language in it or not, YouTube sensation Demetry James' Madden video that was published last April must have amused someone at EA Sports. And it's now inspired an Achievement in the upcoming Madden NFL 12, reports Kotaku.

In the video, James narrates a replay where Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings scores a 99-yard touchdown. What makes this noteworthy is that Jennings had broken his leg earlier in the game, yet was still capable of outrunning the entire New Orleans Saints defense. The video on its own may not have stood out, but the commentary by James led to the video being viewed in excess of 5.1 million times. It's laced with profanity and is sure to upset the more sensitive types, but there are more than a few people who find it hilarious.

One of James' comments -- that Jennings was putting the team on his back -- is now being commemorated with a Madden 12 Achievement/Trophy titled "Put Da Team on My Back." It's worth 50 Gamerscore on Xbox 360; to earn it, you need to score a 99-yard touchdown with Jennings. The other Achievements can be seen here.

Long-Delayed Final Fantasy Tactics iOS Port Coming Soon

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 04:07 PM PDT


Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions will finally make its way to the iOS App Store in the near future. Apple has approved the game for release, TouchArcade reports.

This has been a long time coming. After being announced last June, it was set to come out on September 15, 2010. It obviously missed that date and was pushed back and bounced around a number of times; with Apple's approval, it's all but guaranteed to be in our hands very soon. (TouchArcade speculates it will be out by next Thursday.)

The War of the Lions was originally released in North America in October 2007 for PlayStation Portable (and was made available for download on PSN just over a week ago). It's an updated version of the PlayStation 1 tactical RPG Final Fantasy Tactics, which debuted in North America back in 1998. The PSP game was hardly perfect, but it did provide fans with some new content without wrecking anything -- or fixing a number of problems the original had.

Driver's Always-Online DRM Deemed a Success by Ubisoft

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 03:23 PM PDT

Driver San Francisco

Gamers were none too pleased with this week's news that the PC version of Driver: San Francisco is bringing back a form of DRM used in previous Ubisoft games like Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2. Put simply, gamers need to be online at all times in order to play. It was met with a negative reaction last time around, and after the DRM was removed from the aforementioned games in January, it seemed strange that it was making a comeback. The decision was made because Ubisoft feels it's successful at what it's trying to do.

Ubisoft has seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success," according to a company rep who spoke with PC Gamer.

Given that the DRM was said to be cracked previously and hackers prevented legitimate players from being able to access the game by bringing down Ubisoft servers, it nevertheless seems questionable to bring back this DRM that is decidedly anti-consumer.

Need for Speed: The Run Isn't Always Running on Foot

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:36 PM PDT

For a series always focused on flash and mainstream tastes, it's weird to look at the latest Need for Speed game (and especially EA's laser honed messaging at E3 on its new Hollywood-caliber story) and not feel a little confused. Haven't most NFS games developed by EA Black Box dabbled in delivering movie-style action experiences to players? You'd be kidding yourself if you didn't admit that Need for Speed: Underground was inspired by the illegal neon-lit street racing scene depicted in Hollywood's The Fast and the Furious, and each subsequent NFS game seemed to follow similar inspiration.

Need for Speed: The Run tries to take the story concept one step further by upping the intensity, and pushing players out of the car and into scripted action sequences. "For the first time, you can get out of the car and actually play as a character, and [at E3] we showed how we're going to bridge that gap," explains producer Alex Grimbley. "That's still less than 10-percent of our game, so this [demo] is really just to show you the other 90-percent. And obviously it's all about the racing because we're a racing game."

Plunging Nintendo Stock Price Sees Former President Lose $300 Million

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:45 PM PDT

3DS

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata didn't have a big presentation about the company's first quarter financial results earlier today in Japan because, as he put it, "the first fiscal quarter has limited importance within the annual business of game companies, it does not make much sense for me to make a detailed presentation on the business in that quarter." Instead, he focused on explaining why the 3DS price drop is coming now and revealing that he and other executives are taking a pay cut. Nintendo did release the obligatory financial numbers, and they didn't look good.

For the period of May 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011, net sales were down 50.2%, and gross profit was down a staggering 84.3% compared with the same period last year. The drop in net sales was attributed to a lack of "hit software," leading to a decrease in hardware and software sales. The price drops for Wii and DS were also partly to blame, as was "the impact of absorbing the inventory markdown taken into account in connection with the" 3DS price drop.

As for the drop to an 11.7% gross profit ratio, which was called a "drastic drop year-on-year," that was due to Wii and DS price drops, a declining sales ratio for Nintendo's Wii games, the impact of the 3DS price drop, and the lower-than-expected profitability of the 3DS.

This Week in the 1UP Community 7/25/11: The 3DS Nintendrop

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:41 PM PDT

Nintendo decided to drop a massive news bomb yesterday with the announcement of an $80 price cut to its latest handheld console. Hoping to entice consumers, Nintendo has chopped the price of its system from $249.99 to $169.99. While many of the early adopters may think this early price drop as a slap in the face, Nintendo has tried to soften the blow offering the 'Ambassador program' -- offering any 3DS units that connect to the Nintendo eShop before August 11 a free selection of NES and GBA titles for download. Though only a partial list of games has been announced, many gamers are questioning whether this compensation is enough for early adopters of the hardware.


IN THE BLOGS:

Super Mario Bros. FPS Built on Unreal Engine in Eight Weeks

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 12:17 PM PDT


Mario platformers have always come in the form of third-person games -- you never see things through the eyes of Mario himself. The project seen in the video above was put together over the course of eight weeks and switches between the two perspectives, giving you a chance to see what it'd be like to play the original Super Mario Bros. from a first-person perspective... if that Mario game also had the Unreal Tournament 3 announcer calling out double kills, killing sprees, and so on.

A series of videos showing off the project were recently uploaded to Vimeo. They were created through a joint effort between Massud Sarahi and J. Lee, and run on Unreal Engine 3 -- as if the UT3 announcer weren't enough of a giveaway, loading screens are also pulled right from UT3. It's described as an attempt to "learn more about game development." The reason they decided to replicate a game that already exists was "to save time needed for play-balancing, to present already familiar gameplay, and to focus on technical aspect of implementing game design."

The video above shows off world 1-1 with enemies. Below is a video showing an enemy-less run through the game's first four stages, culminating with an interactive version of destroying the bridge Bowser (or his duplicate) would normally be standing on. There are also several other videos showing off UnrealScript versions of various elements like Bullet Bill, a springboard, and procedural animations. It's not the first time we've seen Mario from the first-person perspective, but it's neat nonetheless.

Iwata's Salary Cut in Half, 3DS Price Drop Explained

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:45 AM PDT

Iwata 3DS

At a meeting on the company's financial results for its first fiscal quarter, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata explained to investors the thinking behind the decision to drop the price of the 3DS so soon after launch. He also announced that he, along with other key executives in the company, have decided to take significant pay cuts "to show our sincere attitude and to fulfill our responsibility."

Executives at Nintendo like Iwata receive both a fixed income and a bonus, the latter of which varies depending upon the success of the company. With things looking down right now between the struggling 3DS and declining Wii and DS sales, that'll naturally be lower. The fixed salaries would be the same regardless of the company's performance, but at a meeting yesterday, it was decided that top officials within the company will be taking pay cuts -- 30% for representative directors, 20% for other directors, and a whole 50% for Iwata himself. Needless to say, that's a big deal.

The 3DS price cut, announced yesterday, will see the system drop in price from $249.99 to $169.99 in the U.S. Iwata, who called this a "drastic approach" and "quite unusual," said Nintendo felt it was necessary to push sales of the hardware now so that Nintendo's games coming out later this year will have a larger install base to sell to.

1UP's Top Gear Giveaway

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:03 AM PDT

1UP's Top Gear Giveaway
How To Play

Prizes

Speed lover, thrill seeker, car enthusiast...

Do these words describe you? If so, odds are you're a fan of Top Gear! Yes, Top Gear, based off the BBC series of the same name, is hands down the most exciting show on television today. So why not make it the most exciting show in your DVD collection?

MMORPG News

MMORPG News


Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Esseles Flashpoint Walkthrough

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 11:44 AM PDT

Bioware and Star Wars: The Old Republic Director of Production Dallas Dixon team up to give fans an in-depth look at 'The Esseles,' one of the early Flashpoints in the game. Check it out!

MMO updates

MMO updates


[ChinaJoy 2011] Final Combat media conference

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 06:19 AM PDT


By now some of you would have heard of Final Combat, China company Xunlei's new online shooter. The past few videos have drawn various criticism with regards to glaring similarities with a fan favorite shooter, Team Fortress 2, but the voices from the people apparently was of no concern. In fact, Nvidia is teaming up with Xunlei to market and promote Final Combat. With that, at ChinaJoy 2011, a new "theme song" was even released.


Here are 2 of the class preview trailers released previously. The official website seems to be down now, or are outsiders IP blocked?



Before I forget, pictures from Final Combat's ChinaJoy 2011 media conference as well.

[ChinaJoy 2011] Firefall to launch in December

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 09:54 PM PDT


According to an interview by Tencent Games with Red 5 Studio's CEO, Mark Kern, the Firefall Beta for North America will being this December. Updated: The game will LAUNCH in December, not begin the beta test phase.


He also stated that the overall development for Firefall is now more than 50% complete, with PvE content well over 75% done and map development stands at 90% wrapped up. The Firefall team is also currently testing some new ideas and features to implement. Meanwhile, Firefall China will only see the Closed Beta phase begin next year.

[ChinaJoy 2011] Saint Seiya 25th anniversary

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 09:37 AM PDT


Well, even though Perfect World had Saint Seiya Online at ChinaJoy 2011, there wasn't any playable demo available or anything to do with the game. The showcase is more of celebrating the franchise's 25th anniversary, cosplay and selling some merchandise. The Saint Seiya Online's official logo can also be seen in the first picture below. According to Perfect World's CEO, the game is still scheduled for Closed Beta before the year ends.

MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News


Dragon Nest Open Beta FAQ (Updated)

Posted:

Found another good faq from dn official website forum, i decide to share it here.

Firefall: the Fourth Class Engineer First Announced at ChinaJoy

Posted:

Red 5 studioes announounced the fourth class for Firefall at ChinaJoy. Mark Kern mentioned how the game will receive players' feedback. Players' good feedback will be used in the game, even the story will be changed by players' suggestions.

RIFT World Event Waves of Madness - Phase 5 Guide

Posted:

Use the water bladder against abyssal targets to rack up 90 points. It's a quest with 40 Rune King's Seals rewards. You need skills to finish this quest.

New Firefall Trailer is Freakin' Awesome

Posted:

People like video games with guns. They're exciting and explodey, and are super popular for a reason. Firefall looks especially exciting and explodey and, well, really, really awesome. Check out the latest Firefall trailer.

Upcoming MMO Games in August

Posted:

Blade and Soul will rock you in August...oh well, only in KR. Whatever, surprise us again please! What's more, Digimon Masters Online English version finally enter closed beta in this month. Don't disappoint us, we all wait for it too long.

[Guide] Shaman guide of Eden Eternal

Posted:

The Shaman is the most heavy-handed class of the Healing and Support branch.

Object Software: Dou Shen with Breathtaking Group Killing Skill Debut

Posted:

ChinaJoy, which's crowned as a great carnival for countless players, made its ninth appearance grandly in the SNIEC (Shanghai New International Expo Centre) this year. Object Software is going to attend the expo in company with its self-developed online game Dou Shen characterized by breathtaking group killing.

War of Glory Online Featuring State Wars Interview

Posted:

We initially intended to endow War of Glory Online with a western style. The first reason is that our developers were confident that the Chinese could also make fine western-style fantasy games, and the second is that with advantageous strengthen in the overseas markets, we had high expectations of War of Glory Online's overseas influence.

[Hot Blog] Age of Conan Unchained First Impressions!

Posted:

In this video, Zach Sharpes and RabidPeng give there thoughts on Age Of Conan Unchained, Funcoms latest attempt to bring players back to Hyboria! This is a dual commentary, so you get two opinions in one video. One opinion from a MMO vet, and another opinion from a newbie to MMOs.

ChinaJoy 2011 - Firefall Hands-on Experence

Posted:

No doubt Firefall must be the most anticipated MMO shooter game of this year's ChinaJoy. Our MMOSite editors have the honour to participate in ChinaJoy and get us news from the scene.

Innovative Phantasy Star Online 2 to Kick off 1st CBT in August!

Posted:

Recently, Japan-based SEGA has held a press conference to unveil the basic content of its new online game Phantasy Star Online 2, which is going to kick off the first CBT in August. As introduced by the game's development director Sakai Satoshi, Phantasy Star Online 2 will carry out a CBT on a small scale in the middle of this August or so, and is scheduled to start its commercial service this year.

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