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Valve giving away Mac graphics code to developers

Joel — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:53:19 +0000

According to GamesIndustry, Valve is planning on giving away some of its Mac graphics code to other developers, as long as they’re going to use the Steamworks community infrastructure. All this is in hopes that it will help these developers bring the Mac versions of their games to Steam more quickly.

This may not be news of a free game like Portal, Alien Swarm, or Left 4 Dead 2 (if you had the good fortune to be accidentally banned from Modern Warfare 2), but it does seem to be a step that could only benefit Valve, other developers, and consumers. I mean, unless you’re an indignant PC user who curses at white-earbud-donning TF2 players and then promptly launches a succession of rockets at them.

Ranger Pack DLC for Metro 2033 revealed with price and date

Kenneth — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:59:18 +0000

August 3rd is a date to save next week with the release of the Ranger Pack DLC for 4A Games’ Metro 2033, according to ThatVideoGame Blog. When they hinted at the release to be in the “very near future”, they were spot on. This new content offers two new weapons, new achievements, two new “Ranger mode” additions and 250 gamerscore points ready for you to unlock. Miller’s signature gun, the Volt Driver, and the Heavy Automatic Shotgun are going to be your new tools of destruction for the post-apocalyptic Russia setting.

Now let’s talk about these Ranger modes a little. The first of the two modes, standard mode, makes all your weapons kick more ass, but enemies are more deadly and you have considerably less ammo. If this wasn’t enough of a butt puckering effect then try “Ranger Hardcore” mode. This mode take away your HUD in addition to the other changes to give you the most realistic experience in Metro 2033 to date.

All the wonderful content comes at a price tag of FREE for PC owners through Steam and 240 Microsoft points through XBL.

Metroid: Other M to contain a two hour movie upon beating the game

Jake — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:19:54 +0000

When Metroid: Other M is released on August 31^st it won’t be long until players beat the game in order to watch a two our movie. According to an interview between Team Ninja leader Yosuke Hayashi, the developers of Metroid: Other M and 1UP there will be a theater mode that puts all of the cut scenes from the game together and adds in a few pre recorded game play moments to make a movie.

Due to the difficulty for some players to get into the game enough or to play through it quick enough to remember the story line Team Ninja plans on making it easier for the average Joe. The main idea behind this movie is that “it lets you make a lot of discoveries, things you missed or dialogue that makes more sense in retrospect. I hope it helps people understand the story better.” The movie will be approximately two hours long and be cut up into chapters similar to a DVD.

This is also good news if you are like me and you occasionally hit a button during a cut scene, causing you to miss out on a key dialog and don’t feel like restarting at that point. Now you can just beat the game (I’m assuming there will be basic movie watching controls) and then fast forward to the scene you missed and fill in the hole.

LittleBigPlanet wants to Limbo

Seiji — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:28:28 +0000

For those of you who don’t know what Limbo is, it’s an adorable looking little game from Playdead, that is available on the Xbox 360′s Summer of Arcade (check our review here). LittleBigPlanet (even I’ve heard of this one, so I’m sure a lot of you have!) is a game for the PS3. Someone had a bright idea of making a hybrid of the two.

If you watch the trailer shown found, earlier on Kotaku, which I recommend you do, you will see that it is a Limbo-esque mode in LittleBigPlanet. It’s called… Limbo, Son of the Forest. Dun dun dun! The maker is someone with the fruitful name of Bra2008. To me, it looks cute. It also reminds me of a game I’ve played on the internet before… hmm.

Goldeneye 007 is confirmed for Nintendo DS

Jake — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:49:15 +0000

Activision has confirmed that Goldeneye 007 will also be released on the Nintendo DS later this year. Initial rumors were that the game would be released on both the DS and Wii, but at E3 only the Wii was mentioned. Joystiq has confirmed with Activision that Goldeneye 007 would actually be released on the Nintendo DS and that it is not a port, after the Nintendo DS came up in Activision’s quarterly earnings report.

The Goldeneye 007 edition for the DS is being developed by n-Space, which has developed games in the past for Wii, DS and PS2. The word on the street is that the new game will contain actual cut scenes from the original game, such as the tank scene in St. Petersburg.

Star Wars: The Old Republic planet reveal – Nar Shaddaa

Andrew — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:38:20 +0000

BioWare has unviled yet another playable world included in Star Wars: The Old Republic – the Smuggler Moon of Nar Shaddaa. Perhaps the capital of the galaxy’s seedy underbelly, Nar Shaddaa is home to smugglers, slavers, thieves, and a wide range of all around baddies.

If you think about the cantina scene in Tattooine from A New Hope, then multiply it by 100 and throw in a bunch of neon lights, you’ve got yourself Nar Shaddaa. You can believe me or you can scope out the gallery of screens below, take your pick. Just don’t let your blaster leave your side. More details on the locale can be found on the official site’s holonet as well.

On a serious note, Nar Shaddaa is a moon to Hutta, another playable planet in the game. I wonder how many other planets will have accessible moons. I also wonder how the hell I’m going to be able to wait until next year for this game without losing my mind with anticipation.

[View with PicLens]

Pokemon Black and White trailer does not disappoint, shows off many new features

Jake — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:24:20 +0000

Pokémon fans can rejoice as there is a new 6 minute trailer for Pokémon Black and White. Although it may be in Japanese, you can still see some of the cool new features such as the 3v3 battles and get a feel for the 3D element for the game.

The trailer starts off showing various Pokémon and their information/abilities as well as a cut scene of someone running across a bridge in the background while the foreground depicts various different trainers. You can see various mini games for your Pokémon such as a musical where you can dress them up in costumes and they take turns dancing in the spotlight. If only it included a Pokémon rendition of Les Misérables or The Phantom of the Pikachu. The trailer finishes with a very excited narrator talking about the first ever #000 Pokémon listed in your Pokédex.

Check the trailer out below and enjoy.

*Video courtesy of Youtube user Arceus192

Red Dead Redemption Social Club Challenge to unlock a new cheat

Jake — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:18:01 +0000

A new Social Club Challenge was released today for Red Dead Redemption involving the Nosalida Gang Hideout. Press pause and go to the Social Club tab to see the challenge in game. You will have to work for the Mexican Army to take out the Nosalida Gang.

The challenge involves completing three objectives while clearing the gang hideout:

Kill 5 rebels with fire bottles
Find 3 treasure chests
Disarm 2 enemies

That doesn’t seem too hard to do. But first, in order to have access to the Nosalida Gang Hideout you must have completed the mission titled “We Shall Be Together in Paradise” that was given to you by Irish.

You will want to complete this challenge and earn at least a silver medal because it unlocks access to the Rise Up cheat which gives every civilian in the world a weapon. The idea is to “make the world feel a lot more deadly.” Now that sounds fun, you won’t run out of ammo when you are going on a killing spree and massacring entire towns. Just make sure you are signed up on the Social Club page in order to access all of that as well as to see where your challenge time holds up on the leader board.

*Images courtesy of Rockstar Games

Richard Garriott Gets $28 mil from NCSoft, Buys Own Spaceship

Burnside — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:05:11 +0000

After a three and a half day trial, Richard Garriott was awarded $28 million from NCSoft Corp., the Korean game publisher responsible for online games such as Lineage, Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, and Aion. Garriot was suing NCSoft for money he lost by being forced to sell shares in the company after he was “asked to resign” in 2008. Ok, the story goes something like this (get ready to read children).

Back in the day (2000), Garriott helped found Destination Games in Austin, Texas. About a year later, he announced that NCSoft was buying the company to be their US headquarters to support their Lineage games and develop an American version. It only took six years, but in 2007 they eventually released Tabula Rasa, a MMO with it’s own convoluted history. But you can look that up on your own. While it had interesting ideas, the game did not do so well.

Garriott says that in 2008, after he had returned from his space flight and was quarantined in Russia, he received a call telling him he was done at the company. As a result, he had to sell about 400,000 shares of stock in NCSoft that, according to an agreement, he should have had 10 years before that was necessary. And since the market was crap, he lost out on a bunch of cash. The jury apparently agreed with him, and after a short deliberation sided with Garriot. He had asked for $47 million in damages, but the settlement he got supposedly covered his loss from having to sell the shares so quickly. Since the trip into space cost him $20 million, looks like Garriott made that back and then some.

(Justin says: Maybe he can finally make UO 2….a non-3d totally isometric MMO. Probably not but a man can dream)

NCSoft can afford the loss, but they’re probably not done with this just yet. ::cue dramatic music::

Sony PlayStation 3 Firmware update 3.41 has issues of the hard drive variety

Dustin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:12:09 +0000

Users out there that have been trying to update their PlayStation 3 to the 3.41 Firmware update may run into issues if they’ve upgraded their hard drives post retail. Many people have flagged issues with the patch claiming that they are faced with system crashes, inability to update their systems and even getting ‘no applicable data’ messages on their units. Reported last night by The Examiner, Sony has responded that the fault lies not in their systems, but in after-market HDD purchases/installations by the gamer.

Despite initial reports that patch 3.41 provided just a “You May Like” section to the Store, a new patching system was also featured in the update. If you’ve been a FAT32 fat-head and have updated your hard drive, like many people out there, then you’ll want to read Sony’s official comment regarding the situation.

“We apologize for any inconvenience you are experiencing with upgrading Internal Hard Disc Drive (for PlayStation®3) on your PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system. The information available to our Consumer Services Department does not suggest that this is a problem PlayStation(R) owners are likely to experience when upgrading the HDD with 3.41update. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) strongly supports the quality of its products and backs them with full confidence.

We ask that you update the previous HDD first to see if the update will go through. Then update from the thumb drive that is formatted in FAT 32 and has the 3.41 update downloaded.”

If your system still hasn’t updated, please let us know if you’re going to switch back to your old HDD or will just wait it out until a fix is implemented? Nothing worse than Sony patch issues, right?