Section 8: Prejudice announces multiplayer beta
It seems like only yesterday (it was yesterday) that Tom F was lamenting that more people didn’t play Section 8. Released late last year, it was a multiplayer shooter where death didn’t mean death. It meant another chance to freefall into combat from a hovering dropship.
Hopefully Section 8: Prejudice, the sequel, will scratch the same itch but find a larger audience. There’s a video of the robo-suited shooter in action below, along with details on how to apply to the rapidly approaching multiplayer beta.
Fallout: New Vegas Hardcore mode survival guide
When you fire up Fallout: New Vegas and create a character, before it lets you out into the world the game will ask you one very simple question: are you a man, or are you a little baby who needs his mommy to save him from the big bad game? More diplomatically put, you’ll be given the option of playing in Hardcore mode.
What’s Hardcore mode, and are you hardcore enough to play it? Don’t jump in blind: read our guide to the five big differences, and tips for how to survive the increased deadliness of the Hardcore Nevada wastes.
Free Civ V DLC will let you be Genghis Khan
Firaxis have announced the first two items of DLC for Civilization V, they’re coming out next Monday and one of them will completely free. Read on for details.
50 copies of Baldur’s Gate up for grabs
Not only did Good Old Games recently come back from the fake-dead, they dragged Baldur’s Gate back with them. GOG aren’t the only masters of the dark arts around here: we’ve managed to conjure up 50 keys for BioWare’s RPG classic. All you have to do to win one is post in the comments below. Read on for details.
10 essential Total War mods
Ever since there have been Total War games, there have been Total War modders. As soon as the Creative Assembly release a new Total War game, an army of enthusiasts pounce, retexturing units, overhauling the AI and crafting new campaigns. We’ve sifted through the hundreds of Total War mods out there and found ten of the best. These mods give us whole new areas of history to explore, fantasy worlds to conquer and challenging new campaigns to play. From Rome through to Napoleon: Total War, we’ve got you covered.
Guild Wars 2: invasion of privacy [giveaway]
Imagine yourself not as the dashing hero that rushes in to save the day in every game you’ve played, but as a skeleton, or ogre, or disembodied head. Forced to live underground, work in hazard areas such as lava flows and dank caves, and perform menial tasks like standing in anticipation. Most monsters are just trying to get by, and it’s hard enough without adventurers busting into your space all the time to smash your vases and open your chests, “What the hell?” Unmitigated invasion of privacy is what it is, and I won’t stand for it. Lower your weapons and earn loot the right way for a change, by entering our Guild Wars 2 loot giveaway.
Final Fantasy XIV extends free trial, reveals update details
If you’ve bought a copy of Final Fantasy XIV you’ll have received 30 days free subscription. Because of the many problems that the game has experienced on launch, that 30 day subscription is set to be extended by a further month. A list of changes planned for the next big patch has also been released, read on for the details.
Dead Space devs to make C&C action game
[Update: It seems we misinterpreted the interview, and the new C&C game is actually under development by EALA, and not Viseral Games. EALA are the studio responsible for other recent Command & Conquer games.]
The creators of the space-ship horror game and limb amputation sim, Dead Space, have revealed that they’re working on a Command & Conquer game.
30 million gamers now use Steam
Valve tell us Steam now has over 30 million accounts, with new user growth up 178% over last year, and sales up over 200%. For reference, Xbox Live has 25 million accounts total. Even if Steam accounted for the entirety of PC gaming, which it doesn’t by any means, this would give you some idea of how not dead it is.
Steam itself has now seen sales more than double every year for six years straight, and this year they more than tripled. Valve say they’re gearing up the network to run at 400 “Gps”. Presumably gigabytes per second, which makes their claim that it’s “enough bandwidth to ship a digitized version of the Oxford English Dictionary 92.6 times per second” sightly confusing. Is the OED 4 gigs? Someone should zip that thing. Anyway, Steam is apparently fast and popular and PC gaming is massive and exploding and awesome. Here’s a press release.
Dragonpocalypse: Watch the stunning WoW: Cataclysm intro
In a move that’ll likely to have fans begging them to make a feature length movie, Blizzard have released the amazing intro video for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It features “PAIN”, and “AGONY”, and the apocalyptic dragon Deathwing unleashing his vengeance on Azeroth. The video is below. You’ll definitely want to watch this one.
Football Manager 2011 demo out Thursday
Football Manager 2011 is out soon, dooming many of us to dozens of hours of horribly addictive management action. If you really, really can’t wait, then you’ll be glad to know there’s a demo coming to Steam on Thursday.
Dawn of War 2: Retribution – Tyranid campaign trailer HD
Tyranids are confirmed as the third playable race in Dawn of War 2′s standalone expansion, Retribution. Check out our full Tyranid campaign preview, and get a brief but deliciously high def look at them in action with the announcement trailer below.
Investor ragequits Square Enix over Final Fantasy XIV, sells 1% of the company
Square-Enix share prices took a mysterious dive recently, but what was first assumed to be a misplaced stock sale was allegedly down to the actions of one disgruntled investor, who decided to sell his $26 million worth of shares in one go in protest at the release state of Final Fantasy XIV. It’s the ultimate ragequit.
Descent 3 gave gravity the finger
The ‘feeding on excrement’ and ‘laying eggs on rotten flesh’ part of being a fly has never really appealed, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t occasionally watched a Musca Domestica alight on a ceiling or dodge a rolled-up magazine, and thought “Blimey. Imagine being able to aviate like that.”
Having just played through the still-special Descent 3, I’m more convinced than ever that our compound-eyed companions are having a whale of a time. In this 1999 sci-fi flight curio not only can you move forwards, backwards and sideways at the touch of a key, you can also rise, sink, tilt, rotate, and hover. Combine these abilities with gravity-less maps crammed with aggressive aerobots and you have the recipe for one of the most liberating and disorientating combat games ever made.
Play as a mad clown in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
One of the most exciting things about the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Botherhood is the multiplyer mode that throws you and a group of friends into a city and asks you to hunt each other down. Ubisoft have released a couple of videos revealing two multiplayer characters. Footage of the mad Harlequin, and the chisel jawed Officer are below.
