The best thing about having a game with online capabilities is the fact that you can play with your friends. However, if your friends aren’t around (or you don’t have any) bots are the next best thing. Previously, Left 4 Dead 2 did not feature bots but Valve has continously said that they will bring them to the game soon enough. And do that they have with their latest update which also includes a few tweaks to the game’s SDK, which you probably don’t care about unless your a developer.
Additionally, Valve let us know that a similar patch for the Xbox 360 is in the works and should be ready soon.
The most popular game on Facebook is currently FarmVille. Haven’t played it? It’s a Harvest Moon type game that has you managing a virtual farm. Not very enticing? Not for me either. However, the same could not be said for 3G Studio’s recently announced Brave Arms.
Brave Arms is what 3G Studios is calling a “social shooter” and also what seems to be the first full fledged FPS written for use on Facebook. There isn’t much more information about the game but there is a Facebook page up, here, where you can sign up for the beta.
I can see Brave Arms being a huge hit. Why hasn’t someone already done this?
The STALKER franchise has been somewhat a two edged sword. On one hand, it’s an amazingly atmospheric game and one of the creepiest out there. On the other hand, it’s always been lacking on the technical side, from bugs and glitches, to gameplay issues. Developer GSC GameWorld tries to rectify much of what was wrong with the previous games, and while it does that to some extent, it doesn’t leave room for many new features. In most aspects, it’s still STALKER, it’s still tough and relentless, and the margin for error is very small — but that’s what always made STALKER stand out.
But besides that, STALKER fans won’t be disappointed — Call of Pripyat is still creepy as the other STALKER games. In fact, on the technical side, it might be the most polished STALKER game yet, and while it’s not perfect, the flaws won’t ruin your game like they did before. Read the rest of the review
During my Halo 3 days, ever since they added it I was an avid player of the MLG playlist. At first I wasn’t planning on buying ODST but when they required you to have the Heretic map in order to play said play list I cursed at Bungie and MLG and went out and bought it seeing as it wasn’t available via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Sure, the campaign what something new but the only reason I actually bought it was for that single map. $60 for a map, ridiculous, I know. Well, one thing led to another and I accidentally broke the ODST multiplayer disc making Heretic unable to load. At first I actually pondered going out to get a new disc just so I could get my MLG fix but ultimately made the concious decision against it.
Well now, I can finally hop back into the playlist as Bungie has just made Heretic, Citadel and Longshore, the ODST exclusive maps, available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Of course, I’m going to be forced to pay 800 Microsoft Points for something I already have (well, had) but that sure as hell beats going out and spending another $50+ on a used ODST. I’m just hoping they’ll still let me into the Halo: Reach beta. If so, except a hands on video right when it drops sometime after April 28th.
The Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack has yet to be announced in the United States but already Square Enix is speaking of a somewhat collector’s edition for Japan. By collector’s edition I mean that 8 songs from Final Fantasy XIII will appear on a 12-inch vinyl record, old school style.
The records, entitled W/F: Music from Final Fantasy XIII are apparently very limited in production and importer NCSX has already sold out of them. There’s no word if we will see this limited edition release in the US with the actual soundtrack but chances are we won’t.
Despite the fact that the PS3 has been outselling the 360 as of late, Sony is still losing money on every console sold. However, the loss is much less than it was when the PS3 originally lost, now down to just about 6 cents per dollar, it is a loss nonetheless.
According to the WSJ, this means they lose about $18 per PS3 if they were to sell the console to retailers for $300. Luckily, if the PS3 sales continue to grow as they have, Sony CFO has said that the production costs will see a reduction of around 15% by March 2011. Perhaps by then Sony will finally start making money off their hardware, instead of losing it.
Those who had doubts that the iPhone/iPod touch would ever take off as a viable gaming platform can now lay their doubts to rest. Game Developer Research has recently said that Apple’s devices are now the more popular among game developers than the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
Number wise, 19% of handheld game developers write for the iPhone and iPod touch which is apparantly more than double the amount of DS and PSP developers. Additionally, every major handheld game developer has made games for the platform in the past 3 quarters.
Of course we don’t see the PSP or DS going anywhere anytime soon it’s pretty amazing to see what amazing strides the platform has made since its launch.
We’ve seen some pretty creative case mods in the past but nothing to this degree. What you see in the above video is a case fashioned after Kratos from the popular God of War franchise. How exactly this was made or where the optical drive is located (behind his mouth?) is unknown. But of course, we want one.
Just as a sidenote for God of War fans, the latest installment of the franchise,God of War III is due out for the Playstation 3 on March 16th of this year.
Do you remember Perfect Dark Zero? A game developed by Rare that followed the N64 Perfect Dark release which was also one of the first Xbox 360 Platinum Hits? Well, after the Perfect Dark development team saw a staff cut the game’s sequel was canceled so the studio started work on the next best thing — an Xbox Live Arcade remake of the original Perfect Dark.
Make note that we first got wind of this remake back in April of 2009 but there wasn’t much to go by then. Now, it has been made known that the game will be making an appearance at next week’s Xbox 360 X10 gaming summit where all in attendance will get a chance to play it.
I don’t know about you guys but I was a huge fan of the N64 Perfect Dark so the fact that it’s coming to the Xbox Live Arcade is very exciting to me.
It has always been said: never underestimate the value of brands and franchises, and THQ certainly didn’t underestimate the UFC franchise — the publisher has announced that the latest installment in the series, UFC 2009, has sold over 3.5 million copies since its release back in May 2009. THQ also announced that Microsoft has added UFC 2009 to its Platinum Hits collection, and Sony also designating it a Greatest Hit on the PS3.
The STALKER franchise has been somewhat a two edged sword. On one hand, it’s an amazingly atmospheric game and one of the creepiest out there. On the other hand, it’s always been lacking on the technical side, from bugs and glitches, to gameplay issues. Developer GSC GameWorld tries to rectify much of what was wrong with the previous games, and while it does that to some extent, it doesn’t leave room for many new features. In most aspects, it’s still STALKER, it’s still tough and relentless, and the margin for error is very small — but that’s what always made STALKER stand out.
