The Super Soldiers

– Today Ubisoft announced that Far Cry® 2, its open world first person shooter on Xbox 360™, PLAYSTATION®3 and PC, has already reached one million units sell-through worldwide in less than 3 weeks of availability at retail.

“The holiday quarter is off to a solid start with the successful launch of Far Cry 2,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “The game is well on track to achieve our expectations for the year.”

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.

DIII.net (via IGN PC) has managed to come up with a list of features which will be reportedly seen in the new iteration of Battle.net which Blizzard has planned to coincide with the release of StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Although we obtained both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of this game, we have decided to review primarily based on the PC version.

Playing Mass Effect was like nothing I have ever experienced before. I can honestly find nothing to equate it too. Mass Effect is a gem of beauty to be marveled and experienced by every gamer at least once. It’s presentation is spectacular. After playing on both the PC and the Xbox 360, I can say that Bioware truly deserves an ovation for what is truthfully one of the greatest projects ever conceived. Mass Effect leads players on one of the greatest and most in depth explorations of the galaxy ever invisioned leading one to new places where every decision made affects your character and your relations with others. The perfect Space opera.

After already playing Mas Effect on the Xbox 360, I was left with a feeling of accomplishment. The Xbox 360 version was nothing short of beautiful and deserves a merit in it’s own right. The PC version, however, solves some issues which were present in the Xbox 360 version and adds new features. The experience, however, is still, for the most part, identical. The PC version offers faster load times, higher resolutions, and of course, nothing wins in a virtual firefight (short of a light gun) like a keyboard and mouse. The Bring Down The Sky DLC add-on is free for PC users so this is a nice bonus as well.
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Rockstar has given out details on some of the additions and improvements for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. According to Eurogamer (via Joystiq), the version it was shown at Leipzig featured more realistic lighting, animation, and “a much higher level of detail on both characters and environments.”

The PC version will expand on the 16-player online which we saw on the consoles. The extent of what’s planned, however, is for the most part, aside from there being more filters for finding specific matches, unknown.

What is known, and what seems to be a step up from what was in the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a replay editor. According to Rockstar, the PC version of GTA IV, not unlike San Andreas, is always recording the previous 30 seconds worth of gameplay, so you can pause at any time and review the destruction you’ve left in your wake. New to GTAIV though and unseen in San Andreas is the possiblity to tweak the footage by filter effects, cuts, and different camera angles. The clip can also be combined with other 30 second shorts into one montage to adorn upon the Rockstar Social Club.

We’ll bring you more information as the release date of November 18th approaches.

For those hoping to get another taste of the Necromancer, Paladin, Sorceress, Druid, Assassin or the Amazon, you may not get to realize that. According Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson, those classes may not return, and we can tell you right now that the Necromancer is out.

According to Jay Wilson, The Barbarian in Diablo II could’ve been better and that there was “room for improvement”. As for the Necromancer, Wilson says that it was just simply a victim of its own success. The Necromancer turned out to be too perfectly a put together character and needs no further development. While I personally was never too big a fan of the Necromancer, those whom are fans of it probably will not appreciate this bit of news.

We expect we’ll have to wait till BlizzCon to garner further news in regards to Diablo III.

[ Kotaku ]

Well, it’s been seven years coming. Blizzard Entertainment is finally ready once again to unleash upon us the hell known as Diablo. A cinematic and gameplay footage is available on Blizzard’s European website.

For the past few days, as many sites have covered, Blizzard had left a mysterious teaser splash up on their sites leaving many to speculate what they would be announcing next. Some speculated it would be in regards to Starcraft II while others believed it may have had something to do with World of Warcraft. We now know it was neither. Last night, in Paris, France, the mystery known as Diablo III was finally unveiled to the world. During the event, Blizzard – led by lead designer Jay Wilson – showed off developmental in-game footage. The same old feel still remains.
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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.

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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:

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