Orks! World-first interview on DoW2: Retribution, screenshots
You already know that Retribution, Relic’s just-announced second expansion for Dawn of War 2, is finally giving the series some proper Ork love–the franchise’s first-ever Ork campaign will be the centerpiece of the expansion. We got Jeff Lydell, Lead Producer at Relic Entertainment, to talk about it.
PC Gamer: Why Orks?
Jeff Lydell: We’ve wanted to do an Ork campaign for a long time, and they bring a whole lot to the table in terms of tone and humor. On top of that, they’re one of the iconic 40k races, and we are thrilled to have given them a chance in the sun.
More of this man’s words, many of which reveal exciting information about the angry green people we adore, inside.
What are devs doing on Going Rogue launch day?
City of Heroes’ latest expansion finally launches today! We’ve been talking with the developers over the past couple months to get the inside scoop on how they put the expansion together and and giving you a look into their processes. They’ve been working like crazy to get to this day, when players can finally play all their new content. So how are they feeling now? What are they going to do first in the game? And which of them are dastardly villains in disguise? We check in with them to find out all this and more!
Giveaway: We’re giving away 10 mutant booster pack codes to CoH fans that tell us an anecdote from their time spent playing GR so far or what they’re doing first when they get to play the GR expansion. The codes require that you have an existing account and winners will be picked tomorrow.
Dawn of War 2: Retribution lets you play as Orks
Relic have just announced the second stand-alone expansion for Dawn of War 2. I’m going to tell you lots of things about it. But here are two important facts. One, you play as orks in the new campaign. Two, it’ll be out in the first quarter of next year. But that’s not the whole picture. See below for a series of images lovingly crafted into full motion video. TRAILER FOR GREAT JUSTICE.
APB developer Realtime Worlds ready to close
Realtime Worlds, the scottish development studio behind Crackdown, APB, and the newly announced MyWorld, has entered administration. The company now has a short period of time to find more cash or it’ll be forced to close.
Fresh Crysis 2 launch details
A demo of Crysis 2 was just shown at the EA Press Conference at Gamescom. EA have simultaneously announced some of the pre-order bonuses, prices, and hilariously priced tchokes you can buy. And there’s a beta. But it’s only on Xbox 360. Err… guys! We’d like to be on the beta, too!
First Dragon Age 2 trailer and release date
EA have shown their first proper trailer of Dragon Age 2 at Gamescom. It shows Hawke, the ‘Champion of Kirkwall’ and asskicker of the highest calibre, beating the snot out of a half-man, half-demon. And another half-ram. They’re both using their special magic powers, as well as more standard giant-pissing-swords. Here’s the video.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit out in November
EA have announced a release date for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It’ll be out in mid November – the 18th for the EU, and the 16th for the US. Man, does it look like Burnout. It’s a massive police chase with points for wrecking squad cars – and the squad cars happen to be Lamborghinis. I’ll find the trailer for you when I can look away from Bulletstorm. If you pre-order, you’ll get two exclusive cars, and early access to four.
Star Wars: The Old Republic space combat trailer
Check out this space combat trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic:
Riot Games’ dev counter-files “DotA” trademark
No developer has a bigger stake in what “DotA” (the highly popular Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients) means today than Riot Games, the budding developer of the free-to-play DotA-esque arena game League of Legends. League of Legends has quietly developed into an enormous community, and it’s a game all PC gamers should at least try. So when the suprising news came out last week that Valve had submitted an application to trademark “DotA”, we sat down with two of the top dogs at Riot Games who were major forces in the DotA community before they signed up at Riot–Steve “Guinsoo” Feak and Steve “Pendragon” Mescon. If anyone has a right to claim the name “DotA”, it seems like it would be these guys, so we asked them what they thought of the recent announcement and what they plan to do about it.
Dead Space 2 out in Jan 2011
EA are doing their press conference right now, and they’ve just revealed that Dead Space 2 will be out early next year. It’ll launch on the 25th January in the US and the 28th of January in the EU. We saw more zero-G flying, scary bio-matter growing on a ship and spitting out flying bombs, and we heard Isaac talk. He isn’t supposed to talk! What happened to being the strong, silent, kill you with laser beams type?
Four Hunted: The Demon’s Forge preorder packs
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge has four different pre-order packs available in North America. They’ll be available in Europe and Australia soon, apparently. It’s basically a mix of equipment, levels, bosses, and character skins. New tradition: all pre-order bonuses will receive the official PC Gamer pre-order dunce hat. Because pre-order bonuses make the PC Gamer team sad.
Instant Jam: browser-based plastic guitar fun
InstantAction have announced Instant Jam, a rhythm-based, browser-based, guitar-based, jam-based, gaming-based game. It’s Guitar Hero in a browser, it’ll let you play with most of your music collection, and it seems to have some sort of dark coupling with the Face Books going on.
Age of Empires Online announced
Microsoft have just announced Age of Empires Online at Gamescom. It’s a PC exclusive – an RTS played in your browser that looks to be a cross between your Evony-type strategy games and the traditional RTS format that made Age of Empires great. Trailer below:
Microsoft Flight: a new dawn for Flight Sim?
At Gamescom today, Microsoft have announced Microsoft Flight, a new flight-sim that they intend to “bring a new perspective to the long-standing genre, welcoming everyone, including long-time fans, to experience the magic of flight.” Flight is being developed by Microsoft Games Studios. Here’s the Microsoft Flight trailer. As you’d expect, Microsoft are emphasising Games for Windows Live connectivity – including achievements, voice messages, and “cross-platform communication”. The new Flight game follows Microsoft’s closure of ACES studio, the long-term developer of the Flight Sim series, in January last year.
Hell freezes over: Microsoft’s “return to PC gaming”
We’re live at Gamescom, where Microsoft have just revealed two new PC games. Insane, I know. They’re revivals of two classic franchises. Age of Empires and Flight Sim, named Age of Empires Online and Microsoft Flight respectively.
Update: Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has said this about their “return to PC gaming” at Gamescom:
