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AU: Win Company of Heroes 2 on PC
Thanks to Sega we've got 10 copies of Company of Heroes 2: Red Star Edition on PC to give away! This highly-anticipated sequel to the critically-acclaimed Company of Heroes, the highest-rated strategy game of all time, sees players launched into the Eastern Front during World War II.
Beginning in 1941, the battles of the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. Players will take command of the Soviet Red Army, squeeze the Nazis out of Russia, and smash their way to Berlin in some of WWII's most brutal confrontations.
The Unexpected Familiarity of Watch Dogs
This time last year, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs was busy gobsmacking gamers plugged into the E3 2012 conference. The open world action game seemed to come out of nowhere, quite a remarkable feat on Ubisoft’s behalf considering how rare a commodity secrecy is at the biggest video game expo of the year. Watch Dogs left the conference dripping with ribbons, the darling of 2012, unequivocally.
This year, without the luxury of a thrilling reveal trailer, or the excited, vague mutterings around ‘next-gen,’ Ubisoft had to follow up on Watch Dogs’ initial hype with hard evidence of its originality, stylishness, and indeed, ‘next-gen-ness.’
And, deliver it did.
Watch Dogs is something of an anomaly, insofar as it looks and feels next-gen native but is still being released on current generation consoles, part of what will presumably be a short-lived cross-gen era for such ambitious titles. How the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Wii U will be able to cope with the sheer size of Watch Dogs, I’m not sure - one can only presume that Ubisoft Montreal has learned a few optimization tricks from working with next-generation hardware.
Sanctum 2: Road to Elysion DLC Announced
Independent developer Coffee Stain Studios has announced Road to Elysion, a DLC expansion to its tower defense/FPS hybrid game Sanctum 2. The DLC's storyline will center on a shadowy new playable character, TSYGAN, a hacker "Rogue Insurgent" who will play like a mix of Sanctum 2's existing characters Skye and SiMo.
In addition to a new story and character, Road to Elysion will feature four extra maps that promise to introduce new tactics, such as one level's giant sledgehammer that can be used to smash enemies. New weapons will include a rapid-fire Gatling Laser that unleashes a supernova laser effect in secondary fire, and the DLC will pack in bonus tower options such as Range Spire, which dramatically increases the range of nearby offensive towers.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Revealed
After showing off the title last week at E3, Dennaton Games has officially revealed Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. In true indie fashion, the game was announced back in November via developer Jonatan Söderström's Twitter account, but now we've finally gotten our first glimpse of it in action. Check out the debut teaser trailer:
IGN will have complete hands-on impressions of the psychotic sequel very soon. All you need to know right now is that the gameplay primarily features more of the same, in the best possible way. More synth music, more weapons, violence, and lightning-quick deaths.
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The Elder Scrolls Online: Why Release on Consoles?
While there was plenty of huge news at E3 last week, one of the most interesting announcements was surely Bethesda’s decision to bring The Elder Scrolls Online to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. After the announcement, we sat down with Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines to ask how he expects the MMO to transition from PC and why he thinks it will appeal to console gamers.
“There was a time a long time ago when everybody told us that Morrowind was never going to work on the Xbox, that that audience did not get those kinds of games, that they were too complicated and too big. Then Morrowind sold like gangbusters,” Hines told IGN. “Then they told us that you can’t release a game in May, it will never sell. We released a game you’re not supposed to do on a console in a month when you’re not supposed to release it, and it killed. Then we did Oblivion, and it did really well on two platforms. Skyrim, obviously, tore it up. I’m not allowed to give the number, but there are just insane numbers of people that have played Skyrim on the current generation of those platforms.”
Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3 Turn Up in Internal Valve Documentation
The sleuths at Valvetime have reportedly discovered that employees at Valve Software are, at the very least, internally discussing projects like Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Source 2, Steam Box and more. IGN has not verified the validity of the leaked information.
According to Valvetime, Valve uses bug-tracking and project management software JIRA to manage production on various projects and as a general inter-office communication/social tool. For a brief period, the company’s JIRA mailing lists and complete project list were fully accessible to the public.
The War Z Renamed to Infestation: Survivor Stories
PC survival MMO The War Z has been renamed to Infestation: Survivor Stories. "This change has come about primarily as a result of some confusion and trademark issues with a similarly titled property," Hammerpoint Interactive's community manager wrote on the game's forum page. War Z's official Facebook and Twitter pages have been deleted.
World War Z, the film based on Max Brooks' book, is likely the subject of the trademark dispute. Hammerpoint emphasizes this will not affect players, and is purely a cosmetic adjustment to the website and title screen. Unfortunately, the game still isn't very good. You can see IGN's original review for The War Z below.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified DLC Detailed
2K's tactical shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified isn't hitting store shelves until August 20, but publisher 2K is wasting no time laying out the game's pre-order and post-launch content plans.
Gamers that pre-order The Bureau through "participating retailers" will receive access to Codebreakers, an exclusive campaign side-mission that gives players the opportunity to bring a government communications facility back online and unravel (what else?) a shadowy mystery. Additionally, gamers that pre-order from Gamestop will also receive the Light Plasma Pistol, featuring an improved rate of fire.
Today's 2K announcement came with a new trailer, showing off a few new tactical combat options players will have at their disposal:
Battle Focus Trailer
Steam Game Sharing Feature Spotted in Code
Steam may soon be introducing the ability to share games with friends, if a few lines in the client code is anything to go by.
Originally spotted by NeoGAF, three lines of code found in the latest Steam client beta make reference to something called a "shared game library", which has caused speculation that you may soon be able to share your purchases with mates. The relevant lines are:
- "SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicense_Title" "Shared game library"
- "SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit."
Mass Effect 4 Shares Dragon Age 3 Core Mechanics
The next Mass Effect game will share several core features with Dragon Age: Inquisition, according BioWare Montreal's studio director.
Yanick Roy took to Twitter to announce that a first version of the design document for the next entry in the franchise, which isn't likely to be called Mass Effect 4, had been completed.
First pass at Design Document for the next Mass Effect! #sorryforthetrees pic.twitter.com/EMG2QS4lie
Community Creations - "Pirate Bay" With Ugocraft!
Have you ever wanted to see working elevators, drawbridges, and even full-sized ships that actually worked in Minecraft? Today, we look at that very thing! Youtuber Docm77 shows off some of the impressive abilities of Ugocraft, and it really must be seen to be believed!
So what is Ugocraft? It is a japanese mod that makes it possible to move blocks around freely in Minecraft. It only adds 4 new blocks, but opens up endless potential for cool new designs. You can download the mod below!
Forum Thread: Click here
Download: Official MaoCat Website
Teaser Trailer
Mad Max with an American Accent? No Thanks
“We’ve got Danish people, Swedish people, English people, American people. The only thing that matters, as far as I’m concerned, is that no one sounds American,” said Daniel Craig in an interview here regarding the English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium crime novels.
Ignoring the actual necessity of a Hollywood remake of an existing Swedish film barely a few years old, at the very least David Fincher’s English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had the common courtesy (and common sense) to leave the story embedded in its original setting. It’s still set in Sweden. The actors are still portraying Swedish characters.
Defiance: "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" Review
Warning: full episode spoilers follow.
Despite being an all-around enjoyable episode, last week's Defiance ended on an awkward note with the last-minute introduction of a new conflict involving a plague outbreak. While "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" was more singular in its focus, the plague element never fully coalesced. I don't play the Defiance MMO, but the frequent references to events on the west coast and their race to develop a cure made it pretty obvious that this episode was conceived with the intention of building ties between the two projects. Frankly, I'm much happier when this series simply does its own thing and doesn't leave me feeling like I'm experiencing half of a larger story.
Alienware 14 Gaming Laptop Review
Over the last few years, Alienware's designs have grown stagnant with the company focusing primarily on spec refreshes and subtle tweaks. But now, Dell's enthusiast PC gaming arm is revamping its laptops with brand new designs, premium components, and state-of-the-art processors from Intel and Nvidia. The new Alienware 14 (previously the M14x) now acts as the entry-level model in the range, delivering significant punch in one of the category's more compact form factors. How does Alienware's smallest laptop stack up against its predecessor and the competition? Read on to find out.
Alienware 14 Gaming Laptop Unboxing Video
