NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Welcome to the Saturday Roundup, a weekly roundup of all the important news going on in the gaming world. If you’re sick of gaming websites' content turning more and more casual, or trying to pass off a single sentence and a link to a cool picture they saw on deviant art as ‘news,’  you've come to the right place. I aim to consolidate and summarize only the stuff that’s most important to gaming enthusiasts. It’s a mix of hard news, interesting features, and other tidbits that I feel like you guys would enjoy. Let’s see what’s been going on this week:

• How does Skyrim look with 100 graphical mods running at the same time? Amazing. Blogger 'Unreal' says he uses up to 800 mods for the game, although these screenshots were created with around 100 of those running at once. This kind of graphical fidelity comes at a price though - when the screen is filled with grass the frame rate plummets to 5 frames per second. Still, as hardware improves that number is bound to rise, and in less intensive areas of the game (such as indoors) Unreal boasts a steady 40-60 FPS. It's amazing to know that thanks to modders, PC gamers can constantly re-vitalize and customize their games.

This looks like something from 10 years in the future.

• Borderlands 2's second major DLC pack has arrived! Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage has a question for you, and the question is, EXPLOSIONS? This DLC looks to include the arena mode that Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot introduced into the first Borderlands, as well as a host of new quests, weapons, locations and enemies. If you like muscle-bound shirtless men yelling things at you, check out the trailer, and if that's not enough, Mr Torgue also recently did a reddit AMA in-character. Retails for $9.99 individually or $29.99 as part of the Borderlands 2 season pass.
• Mirrors Edge 2 is in production. Ben Cousins (no, not that one) today announced that the Stockholm developer DICE was indeed working on a sequel to the free-running action game. The first Mirrors Edge was a game that tried to break out of the tired and true FPS formula, by emphasizing evasion and speed over steam rolling through every area shooting everyone. Despite being praised by critics, it failed to meet sales expectations and fans assumed that the corporate machine would simply sweep this franchise under the rug. Good to see that this is not the case.

Agent 47 is back.

• Hitman: Absolution was released this week. It's been getting some very mixed reviews, with PC gamer dipping as low as 66/100 and OPN going as high as 9/10. More evidence that review scores are complete and utter rubbish. If you want an actual opinion of the game that doesn't shoehorn it into a generic X out of X template, have a look at Rock-Paper-Shotgun or Total Biscuit's reviews, which talk offer different opinions on how the game succeeds or fails. It's out on Steam now, unless you happen to live in Japan (like me) in which case Eidos have a nice big cup of 'fuck you' for you,  and has told us wait patiently until January 24th.
• Hide your wallets, the Steam Autumn sale has started! I'm not sure if it's because it detected that I was an Aussie, but calling it the Autumn sale instead of the 'fall sale' is a nice touch. The Autumn sale runs through till November 26th, with new 'daily deals' every day, as well as a plethora of 'flash sales' that are renewed every few hours. There's also a big push for indie games this time around, with many of the biggest name indie titles selling for up to 75% off for the entire duration of the sale.
• Wonder why we see so few video games with girls as the main character? Because publishers don't support them. Ben Kuchera talks to Geoffrey Zatkin, the Chief Operating Officer of EEDAR as they pour over data and come to the conclusion that publishers, being swayed by the myth of 'public opinion', simply won't support a game with a female playing the lead.
  
  "Games with only female heroes are given half the marketing budget as games with male heroes. That’s an enormous handicap that cripples their ability to sell well."
• Aliens: Colonial Marines is a game in which you are a colonial marine and you fight Aliens. Based on the popular Aliens franchise, developers Gearbox this week released a trailer featuring their co-op survival mode. Anyone familiar with the original Aliens vs Predator game (the 1999 version, not the 2010 monstrosity) will know that they did survivor/horde mode right, years before the likes of Gears of War and Left 4 Dead were even concepts, so if they just copy that mode step-for-step into this game, I'll be happy. The game releases on February 12th for pretty much every platform (including the newly released WiiU).

So that’s the news for this week. Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, check out my new digs over at non-fiction gaming for my regular Wednesday article, and check back here every Saturday for more news!

NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Welcome to the Saturday Roundup, a (bi)weekly roundup of all the important news going on in the gaming world. If you’re sick of gaming websites' content turning more and more casual, trying to pass off a single sentence and a link to a cool picture they saw on deviant art as ‘news,’  you've come to the right place. I aim to consolidate and summarize only the stuff that’s most important to gaming enthusiasts. It’s a mix of hard news, interesting features, and other titbits that I feel like you guys would enjoy. Let’s see what’s been going on this week:

• Gabe Newell confirms 'next-gen' Valve game engine is in development. Confirming rumours stemming from the discovery of 'Source 2' code found earlier this year, Gabe has announced that they have been working on the engine for quite some time, they are just waiting for the right game to roll it out with. Fingers crossed that that game starts with a 'H' and ends with a '3'.
• Blizzard announces 'Global play' for Starcraft II. Are you a Starcraft player with friends in Europe, America, and Australia? Frustrated that you can't all get along and play together on the same servers? Well, soon you will be able to do just that! There is no solid release date for the feature as of yet, but a rep suggests that it should be out before Heart of the Swarm's early 2013 release date.

Global play will allow Starcraft II players to tear down region boundaries.

• Blizzard also announced that Starcraft II's expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm, will release on March 12th, 2013. This post on Blizzard's Battle.net blog announces the early 2013 release date of the anticipated expansion, as well as detailing the goodies included in the collector's edition, namely, an art book, mouse pad, soundtrack and behind-the-scenes DVD as well as a scattering of in-game content for Blizzard's three big franchises. I'm a bit disappointed that there is no 'cool toy' in this collector's edition, like the Diablo Skull in the Diablo 3 collector's or the Jim Raynor dogtag in the Wings of Liberty one.

The Heart of the Swarm collectors edition. Click for full-size.

• But, it's not all good news from Blizzard this week, as they are being sued over security issues. The heart of the suit revolves around the physical authenticators that Blizzard sells from it's online store.
  
  “Blizzard requires all of its customers to establish accounts with its online gaming service, Battle.net. But it fails to disclose to consumers, prior to purchase, that they’ll need additional products called authenticators to keep information stored in these accounts safe. Even though the company frequently receives complaints about accounts being hacked, it simply tells the customer to attach an authenticator to their account. Blizzard doesn’t inform people about this requirement when they purchase the game, and that amounts to a deceptive trade practice.”

Is there only room for one gaming portable in this industry?

• Rockstar Games have released their second trailer for Grand Theft Auto V. This trailer better acquaints us with the game's three main protagonists, as well as showing off a number of the game's locales and vehicles. Studious fans have done a screenshot comparison of GTAV and it's predecessor to show us just how far it's come. I'll be honest, I wasn't too excited about this game until watching this trailer, but it's shaping up to look quite good. Let's hope it gets a simultaneous PC release..
• Do you have a 3DS or a PSVita? If you asked this question in Japan, you might find the 3DS winning by a factor of 47-1. The original DS dominated the PSP in sales last generation, and it looks like history is set to repeat itself this time around. With the rising popularity of smartphones, the market for a dedicated handheld gaming platform appears to be shrinking. Personally, I could never use a smartphone as a gaming platform, as I prefer the tactile feedback that only a device such as the 3DS or PSVita can offer.
• Nintendo have never been big proponents of online play, but they hope to turn this stereotype around with the WiiU. Nintendo has released a promotional video that details the console's Nintendo Network, Miiverse and Internet browser features. Nintendo's foray into online play in the last console generation was disastrous at best, with it's competitors Sony and Microsoft coming out ahead in every aspect.
• Some owners of the PC version of Black Ops II are getting a Mass Effect 2 disk read error. It looks like EA and Activision both use the same disk manufacturer, and there was a mix-up somewhere along the production line. In a rather hilarious attempt to capitalize on their competitor's misfortune, Bioware are offering free copies of the entire Mass Effect trilogy to the first 50 people to send in a picture of them with their faulty Black Ops II disk. 

The Black Ops II error in question.

• Direct X 11.1, the latest version of Microsoft's popular gaming API will be exclusive to Windows 8. Microsoft confirmed this fact while revealing the features of 11.1, which include the addition of native stereoscopic 3D support. While this doesn't really mean much for gamers right now, it means that there will be no future updates to Direct X on Windows 7, and eventually we will have to upgrade to Windows 8 in order to take advantage of new features.
• Rock-paper-shotgun's John Walker takes a look at the phenomenon of video game pre-orders. Despite the fact that stores always overstock on big-name console releases, and PC release are infinitely available via Digital Distribution, pre-orders are on the rise. He argues that publishers are beckoning gamers to buy their games months in advance, tantalising them with insignificant 'pre-order' bonuses that have become standard.
• Lastly, Russian criminals may be using Team Fortress 2's hat economy to launder money. Some internet detectives discovered a huge amount of Mann Co. Supply Crate keys being injected into the market, immediately traded for high-value hats, and then sold off for cash well bellow the hat's 'market price'.

So that’s the news for this week. Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, check out my new digs over at non-fiction gaming for my regular Wednesday article, and check back here every Saturday for more news!

NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Welcome to the Saturday Roundup, a (bi)weekly roundup of all the important news going on in the gaming world.  If you’re sick of gaming websites' content turning more and more casual, trying to pass off a single sentence and a link to a cool picture they saw on deviant art as ‘news,’  you've come to the right place. I aim to consolidate and summarize only the stuff that’s most important to gaming enthusiasts. It’s a mix of hard news, interesting features, and other titbits that I feel like you guys would enjoy. Let’s see what’s been going on this week:

• More Skyrim incoming! Bethesda have released an official trailer for the new 'Dragonborn' DLC pack coming soon to Skyrim. So far, only details for the Xbox 360 version have been revealed - it will release on December 4th for 1600 Microsoft points. Going by Bethesda's previous schedule, the PC version will ship shortly afterwards, and the PS3 version will never see the light of day. I quite enjoyed Skyrim's previous DLC pack: Dawngaurd, so I'm looking forward to this one!
• Video games should not have review scores. This is a sentiment that I, along with many other journalists share, and this pictorial representation of fans reactions to Halo 4 review scores shows just why we should not be tied to an arbitrary little number at the end of every review.

Skyrim: Dragonborn

• Origin, EA game's answer to Steam is getting quite a sizeable update. New features include the ability to stream game's directly onto popular gaming stream service TwitchTV, as well as add non-origin games to the service (and still be able to stream them). Origin has had a very slow start when compared to the feature rich, bloated library of Steam, and this update may just be what it needs to start to chip into Steam's virtual monopoly.
• Far Cry 3 has gone gold. It will also release on all platforms (including PC!) simultaneously, a statement that in this day and age really shouldn't be a selling point of a game. Pick it up Nov. 29th in EU, Nov. 30th in The UK, Dec. 4th in NA.

Far Cry

• The humble bundle is back, this time for Android 4. The popular pay-what-you-want charity drive has run it's course several times already, offering up some of the best indie games out there in one of the most progressive charities I've ever seen. You can choose how much you want to pay, as well as where your money goes. Think charity is stupid? Give 100% of your money to the developers!
• Fans of quirky wii fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom hoping for a western release may be right out of luck. Capcom's rights with the Tatsunoko property recently lapsed, meaning they are no longer able to sell the game, even in Japan. As of now there are no plans to renew the rights, which dashes hopes of both a western release and a sequel for the WiiU.
• Diablo III expansion confirmed, Heart of The Swarm release date announced. Blizzard's Q3 earnings report reveals better-than-expected financial results, and announces their expansion plans for two of their franchises. No date was set for the yet unnamed Diablo III expansion, but Starcraft II's Heart of the Swarm was given a 2013 release window.

Will free-to-play save The Old Republic?

• Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free to play on 11/15. The previously announced news that Bioware's struggling MMO would go free-to-play now has a solid release date. Free players will be able to play as any of the game's 8 classes, though some races and a decent chunk of content will be restricted. Access to PvP warzones will be limited for free players, while access to the game's raid-like operations will be completely restricted.
• Still haven't played Bioshock? Now it's free. Gamefly are running a promotion where you can play 2k game's multiple-award-winning FPS Bioshock absolutely free. This was easily 2007's game of the year for me, and has become one of my favorite games of all time. What better way to pump yourself up for Bioshock Infinite than a play through of the game that started it all?
• Wii's dreaded 'friend codes' are now a thing of the past, with Nintendo announcing that the WiiU will drop the lengthy codes in favor of a more practical friends system. Friend codes were annoying because they were laughably long, and required both friends to enter in a unique code for every game that they wanted to play together.
• Lastly, Game Informer has the scoop on some brand new GTA:V details. The game will reportedly have three main protagonists that you will switch between throughout the game. You'll replay certain missions as different characters, as they will each have a unique skillset and playstyle. Los Santos will also be the biggest open world Rockstar have made, with the developer boasting that it will be "bigger than Read Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV and San Andreas combined."

GTA:V will have 3 main protagonists instead of one

So that’s the news for this week. Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, check out my new digs over at non-fiction gaming for my regular Wednesday article, and check back here every Saturday for more news!

NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Welcome to the Saturday Roundup, a (bi)weekly roundup of all the important news going on in the gaming world. If you’re sick of gaming websites' content turning more and more casual, or trying to pass off a single sentence and a link to a cool picture they saw on deviant art as ‘news,’  you've come to the right place. I aim to consolidate and summarize only the stuff that’s most important to gaming enthusiasts. It’s a mix of hard news, interesting features, and other titbits that I feel like you guys would enjoy. Let’s see what’s been going on this week:

• Hi-speed broadband has become essential to modern gaming, and developers Eidos are accusing broadband providers of impeding the growth of video games.With the gradual shift from brick-and-motar stores to digital distribution services, as well as more and more games requiring an always-online connection to a central server, Eidos executive Ian Livingstone says that the broadband providers are holding us back.
  
  ''Super-fast games will drive demand for super-fast broadband, so, ISPs, please do not rest on your laurels.”
  
  Ian's sentiment hits particularly hard on us Aussies, who not only have to face broadband that is slower than our American brethren  but is also one of the few countries in the developed world where bandwith data caps are the standard, rather than the exception.
• The free games included in Windows occupy a special spot in any game fanatic's heart. Desperate for entertainment at a boring office job, Grandma's house or school computer, many of us have turned to the likes of Solitaire and Minesweeper. Windows 8 will feature a completely revamped selection of it's classic Windows games, featuring a number of improvements and additions, with the most surprising of all being Minesweeper's adventure mode. Yes, you read that right.



An adventure mode was the one thing Minesweeper fanatics desperately needed

• Last week, a table of Doritos shook up the world of video game journalism. I am referring  of course, to the controversy surrounding Robert Florence's Eurogamer article, questioning the standards of video game journalists. Forbes magazine has a look at the aftermath of the controversy, and what it means for video games journalists (me) and people who read video games journalism (you). Rock-Paper-Shotgun's John Walker also offers a bit of perspective on what happened, and more importantly, what we need to learn from this.

The leaked GTA V poster

• Is Grant Theft Auto V coming in spring, 2013? A leaked poster discovered by gamingbolt seems to think that yes, it is. The poster looks real enough, and when you consider the game's development cycle, it seems like a logical conclusion to come to.
• As last week's piece on Razer's 'mouse DRM' showed, DRM has become a major part of gamer's lives. This youtube video looks at the history of DRM for video games, from it's humble origins as a quirky way of trying to stop pirates, to it's over-development into a tool that is not only ineffective in stopping piracy, but also frequently punishes paying customers.
• To further highlight the utter absurdity of DRM, developers of quirky indie-game Hotline Miami are actually giving customer support to pirates, posting on popular file-sharing website ThePirateBay with tips on how to fix errors that users were experiencing. Hopefully, more and more developers (and publishers) will start to realize that a pirated copy does NOT equal a lost sale, and invasive DRM is not the way to make more people buy your game.
• Team Fortress 2, a beacon of free-content update hope in this world of paid DLC nickle-and-diming, has released it's forth annual Halloween event update. This year, the update will have you battle a ghost wizard in a specially designed King of the Hill Map and fight off a special zombie wave in Mann Vs. Machine mode, as well as unlock new achievements and items. As always, this update comes to you at the low-low cost of $0.
• The Halo 4 hype-train is going full speed ahead. Microsoft aren't letting the seemingly devastating setback of having the entire game leaked onto torrent sites a month before it's release get to them, releasing a gameplay trailer and detailing the game's DLC season pass - a concept that is becoming increasingly popular. The game is also reportedly the most expensive game Microsoft has ever made. Get hype! 

How will Halo 4 fare without Bungie at the helm?

• Last but certainly not least, Natural Selection 2 has been officially released! You can purchase the standard edition for $24.99 or the 'deluxe' edition for $39.99.  I've written about Natural Selection 2 before, having played the beta and been quite impressed! Check out my impressions for more info on the game

Hey guys. So last week, I told you about my new digs over at non-fiction gaming. I've decided that my weekly Wednesday articles (opinions, guides, reviews) will get published over there, BUT, the Saturday round-up will remain on my blog! The reasoning behind this is that the editing process over at NFG takes a bit longer than I expected, and I can't deliver you the 'Saturday Roundup' if it doesn't get published until Monday.

So that’s the news for this week. Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, and check back here every Saturday for more news!

Previous gamer news.