The Super Soldiers

NEW YORK, Dec 02, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC is now available for purchase at retail outlets nationwide and for digital download on Steam.

“We are very proud to be releasing Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We have taken our time to ensure this version of the game is not just a quick port, but a perfectly tailored experience for the PC. We hope the PC gaming community appreciates all of the innovative features in the game. Grand Theft Auto began on the PC and we have tried very hard to ensure this version was worthy of that heritage.”
Continue reading »

The Amazon listing for Crysis Warhead is apparently undergoing the same consumer attack seen with Spore. Angry consumers, unhappy with the SecuROM DRM being included with Crysis Warhead, are assailing it with 1-star ratings.

For reference, Crysis Warhead was released to retail on September 16, 2008. 4 Days Later, it was widely available, sans the DRM, on P2P networks. Like the now patched Spore, Crysis Warhead grants users up to 5 installs on different machines. It requires online authentication upon installation as well as when users choose to go online with the game.

Like Spore, Crysis Warhead has generally received excellent ratings among many media outlets, however, reviewers on Amazon seem to bear a general mindset, citing the DRM as their gripe with the game. Even one of the featured 4-star reviews states that the purchaser will not remove it from its box and install it until EA addresses this issue. One of the other 1-star ratings describes the SecuROM DRM as malware that they refuse to install upon their computer. Only time will tell how far this goes before Electronic Arts. It has become remarkably clear that gamers do not wish for DRM to be included with their games as it apparently does nothing to stop piracy. We’d like to note that one game, Sins of a Solar Empire, does not contain any DRM or copy protection what so ever and is currently the best selling PC strategy game of 2008.

Microsoft announced today that all Games For Windows Live Gold accounts are free. Effective immediately. The move to free means that achievements, “truskill” matchmaking, cross-platform gameplay with the Xbox 360, voice chat, text chat, friends lists, are all now free to Windows gamers with Games For Windows Live enabled games. This change to free is for all Games for Windows LIVE titles, past and future.

According to Kotaku, Microsoft also announced plans to introduce Games for Windows – Live marketplace this fall, which will include free and paid downloadable game content, demos, trailers and “more.” Additionally, Microsoft said they are working to streamline the interface for the PC and reduce hardware requirements for developers.

Retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop, EB Games, and Wal-Mart are offering deals for pre-ordering Hellgate: London and we’ve got them all here listed for your convenience.

Best Buy

Recently, Hellgate: London appeared in the New York Times. Thankfully, they’ve ceased charging to view older articles so we can provide a snippet of what they had to say.

There are single-player games (like Mass Effect). There are persistent online games (like Tabula Rasa). And then there is the hybrid action role-playing genre pioneered by the fabulously popular Diablo series. Many, many contenders have tried to exceed, or even just match, Diablo’s addictive combination of randomized levels, easy yet deep combat and, of course, “slot machine”-style loot, where every monster just might drop that superpowerful item you’ve been hoping for. All have failed to approach the polish of the Diablo series.

Continue reading »

PRESS RELEASE — The creators of Hellgate: London are planning to release a Collector’s Edition alongside their release. Contained within their special collector’s edition packaging is the following:

Continue reading »

This morning Newsweek ran the first part of a Q&A between editor N’Gai Croal and Bill Roper — this specific conversation took place in January at CES. N’Gai has some great things to say about the unique look of the levels in Hellgate and focuses in on Flagship’s “breaking new ground with its pervasive use of randomization.”

Can we talk a little bit about the level design? You talked about the architecture, but looking at this level right here–I’ve seen a lot of like war-torn cities that are World War II-ish, and they all start to look the same. This feels interesting and unique and fun. It has a really good sense of place. It’s familiar, but it doesn’t look like a lot of those World War II games which have a same-y-ness in the way they look.

Well that’s one of the big things that has been a challenge for us in terms of using such a well-known city. A real strength of Hellgate: London is the fact that every time you go out into an area, every time you go out adventuring, you’re going to a randomized dynamically generated setting. So it’s not like we actually map out London specifically. But what we’ve done is we went to London, took photo reference for textures and everything, so when you’re in different parts of London, it’s built out of things that feel right for that section of London. However, the actual layout that we’re going through is completely randomly generated. The huge upside of that is you never lose the sense of exploration that you lose in a lot of RPGs, “Oh, I’ve been through this area before. I know where everything is. I know what items they drop. I know where to hunt for them.” Here, the monsters are different. The items they drop are different. The layout’s different. You never know what you’re going to get. And depending on where you are in the game–

Continue reading »

Microsoft Corp. today announced the extension of the Xbox LIVE® games and entertainment network to the Windows® platform, bringing together the most popular online console game service with the most popular games platform in the world. Debuting on May 8, 2007, with the launch of the Windows Vista™ version of the Xbox® blockbuster “Halo® 2,” Games for Windows — LIVE will connect Windows gamers to over six million gamers already in the Xbox LIVE community. Then, launching in June, “Shadowrun™” will for the first time connect Windows gamers with Xbox 360™ players in cross-platform matches using a single service. “UNO®,” releasing later in 2007, will also support cross-platform play between Windows and Xbox 360.

The launch of Games for Windows — LIVE marks a major expansion of the Xbox LIVE service across multiple platforms, uniting gamers with a single identity, a single gamertag, a single friends list and a single list of achievements attainable on the Xbox 360 and a Windows-based PC. Games for Windows — LIVE gamers will be able to easily find and play supported titles online with their friends across a Windows computer or an Xbox 360. As a unified service with Xbox LIVE, Games for Windows — LIVE will be available in every country and region supported today by Xbox LIVE.

Continue reading »