Monthly Archives: November 2011

DICE has said it plans to publish a “significant” update to Battlefield 3 on PC next week. According to an official blog post on the matter, players will see “improved polish, stability, weapons balancing, squad control functionality, user interface enhancements,” and several other features which have been addressed due to feedback from the community. The “negative mouse acceleration” will also be removed as well.

The patch will be released on the console after it passes certification, so expect it sometime after the PC version is released.

Naughty Dog has posted a couple videos of talks Uncharted 3 designer Richard Lemarchand has given over the past few weeks. The videos are of his keynotes at Indiecade and the Montreal International Game Summit, and can be watched through the link up top. Each one gives you an in-depth look at the process of the game’s design, and are well worth the listen. The one for Inidecade is also posted below, courtesy of G4.

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Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida has said the MMO, which is scheduled for an upgrade to 2.0 in 2013 with a new engine, is still FFXIV and not an entirely new game.

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Guess what happens next week? Yep. Black Friday. Lucky for us, or unlucky for us – it’s all in how you look at it – we’ll be on our second of three Thanksgiving dinners with family, and stuck inside a house full of food and spirits instead of braving the crowds stampeding for a deal. However, if you’re the brave sort, or just willing to go through anything to save a buck or twenty, Target and Sears have a few gaming-related sales going on you may be interested in, such as: new game releases for $37, console bundles, and older releases for cheap. Joystiq has the fliers and a rundown posted here and here. More Black Friday deals, specifically from Walmart, Microsoft, Best Buy, GameStop and Toys R Us, can be found through a previous post.

Valve should be getting in on the mix with a Steam sale soon, and we suggest you get your bank account padded ahead of time in preparation.

Mojang has said its side-scrolling actioner, Cobalt, will follow the same release pattern as Minecraft, in that gamers will be able to play the alpha version of it with a pre-purchase. Announced during a MineCon panel , like Minecraft before it, pre-purchasers will have access to all updates leading up to its eventual release. It was also revealed that players will be able to build their own levels in the game, and various character avatars will be implemented for variety. Still no word on a release date for Cobalt, which was announced in August, but a playable form of the game is expected sometime within the next six months. Thanks, GameFront.

Riot has announced a new summoner model for Vladimir the Crimson Reaper. Called the Blood Lord, the new skin features a “vicious new voice over, spell effects, and animations.” You can check out the new look in the video below. Thanks, EvilAvatar.

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The Hollywood Reporter has word that New Line Cinema has put “into development” an adaptation of the 80′s arcade game, Rampage.

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Jay Wilson has said Blizzard’s goal with creating a console version of Diablo III is to make it feel as if “it’s natively made for a console.”

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Infinity Ward has started laying the ban hammer down on those who “cheat, hack, or glitch” in Modern Warfare 3, with over 1,600 already banned from the game’s multiplayer. According to a tweet from Robert Bowling, attempts to cheat “will not be tolerated” and he asked that folks continue to report offenders until a patch, currently in the works, is released. Bans from the leaderboards and playing were issued on launch day as well, with Bowling stating that anyone “attempting to play unfairly or boost rank” would be culled. Thanks, VentureBeat.

Valve has tweeted that the beta for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will “be active for all current key holders” starting November 30. A follow-up tweet stated it was important for the team to allow current Counter-Strike players into the beta, but there isn’t an “eta on when” just yet. The game is slated for release next year. Thanks, VoodooExtreme.

Notch and his fellow madmen behind Minecraft have released a video giving you a look at what the all-consuming game will look like on Xbox 360. Have a look below. The game is expected during spring 2012.

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Legal firm Edelson McGuire has filed a class-action lawsuit against EA on behalf of consumers who were promised a free copy of Battlefield 1943 as an incentive to purchase the PS3 version of Battlefield 3.

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Bethesda’s Pete Hines has stated over Twitter that folks can expect patches for Skyrim to hit the week after Thanksgiving. According to his tweet on the matter, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions have been submitted for certification, and one for PC is “coming too.” No word just yet on what all be included in the patch notes, if past experience is any indication, expect the firm to post a list a few days before the patch goes live. Thanks, Gamefront.

Templar week continues on the official website for The Secret World, and today, Funcom has released a video of VG247′s preferred society in action. Well, at least for Brenna, Pat and myself at any rate. We’ve no idea what Johnny’s stance on the matter is, but as long as he’s with us, he’s not against us. If things prove otherwise, we’ll have to take him down. Hard. The Secret World is expected in 2012.

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“When we started working on this game we partnered very early on with the NFL and talked to them about what it is we wanted to deliver. We played the old versions of Blitz with them and we talked with them throughout the course of this entire product development cycle and, at the end of the day, the NFL felt like the late hits did not meet with their take on player health and safety, and they asked us to remove it from the game. Right now we have big action and big, over-the-top gameplay, but once the whistle blows there are no late hits. They understand that it’s not a simulation and they understand that it’s over-the-top, but at the end of the day they really felt like, with the messaging that they have, and with their stance on player health and safety, that it was something that was better left out of the game at this point.

“It still has the same over-the-top arcade experience that people remember from the old version of the game… it just doesn’t have the late hits anymore.” – Dave Ross, project lead for NFL Blitz to GamesRadar.

Epic has posted a Gears of War 3 video, showing the first bit of footage from Bullet Marsh, one of the new multiplayer maps included with the free Versus Booster Map Pack. According to the developers, Bullet Marsh is a” reimagining of Gears 1’s foreboding, swampy stomping grounds” which is home to a bunch of nasty Kryll. The only come out when it’s dark, so if the lights get extinguished, start running your ass off. If you are unfamiliar with it, just think of the movie Pitch Black and you will get the idea.

The Versus Booster Map Pack will be released on November 24. Watch the video below.

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On Tuesday, November 22, the Starhawk private Beta will be going live on PSN.

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Acttivision has said it plans to have Call of Duty: Elite “up and running” properly by December 1. Speaking with G4, Daniel Suarez said the target date is rather specific, in that it’s the same length of the service extension premium subscribers were handed as an apology for experiencing Elite’s issues at launch. “They kind of have to bear with us while we bring this all back up,” the VP of production said, “but for us it’s literally ‘give us those couple weeks, we’re giving those to you for free’ and come December 1, the goal is that we’ll have everything up and running.’”

To keep up to date on the service’s status, keep an eye on this page.

Will Wright has explained a bit more how HiveMind would go about mining user data for his game concept of the same name: using a psychological test similar to one someone would take when signing up for a dating service.

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Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley has said the studio has implemented a “deliberate policy” to no longer create games which are “good for business, but not necessarily good for our reputation.”

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