Archive for December, 2010

Huge Steam Christmas sale has launched

The Steam Christmas sale has launched, kicking off a series of deals that will throw ridiculous bargains at us every day from now until the new year. As well as the daily deals there’s a selection of developer and publisher packs offering as much as 86% off entire game catalogues. Read on for more on the spectacular deals on offer.

UK Christmas bonanza – Day 8: Win a 16-game EA Store bundle

There’s only one thing better than a huge bundle of great games, and that’s a free bundle of great games. You know what’s even better than that? Five free bundles of great games. By stunning coincidence that’s exactly the number of EA Store game bundles we have to give away today. There’s more than £1700 worth of games up for grabs, so read on for a chance to get your hands on Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Dragon Age 2 Digital Deluxe Edition, both Mass Effect games, Crysis, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and more.

Patched — an honest second look at Elemental: War of Magic

Last week I played Elemental: War of Magic for the first time in months. And I saw something I had never seen before–a defeat screen.

I’ve spent a few days vetting the phonebook-length list of changes made in last week’s 1.1 patch to the game, an experience I’ve converted into words about what’s improved, what still needs work, and most importantly, if Elemental is worth your time yet.

Dragon Age 2 dev diary demonstrates tactical combat

Bioware have released a new Dragon Age 2 developer diary showing two different ways players will be able to approach a fight. There’s the hands-on, direct control approach that lets you switch control between different characters and pummel your enemies up close, or there’s the pause and plan approach that lets you queue up orders to unleash a devastating barrage of attacks in one go. You’ll find the footage below.

PlanetSide Next beta to launch early next year

Not long ago the President of Sony Online Entertainment managed to not “technically announce” a sequel to the massively multiplayer FPS, PlanetSide. Now he’s revealed that there’s going to be a beta after the game’s official announcement early next year.

New Crysis 2 trailer deals nano-death to new enemies

A new Crysis 2 trailer has been released showing off your character’s Nanosuit abilities. In fact, the Nanosuit is the only thing that’s similar to the first game. Everything else is new, from the ruined New York environments to the free-running abilities. Best of all, we get a proper look at the new aliens. The irritating space octopi of the first game are gone, and have been replaced a race of sleek armoured humanoids. You’ll find the new footage below.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam is out, launch trailer released

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam is out now. It was released on Saturday on Steam and the EA Store, and is due to hit shelves next week. The expansion takes Battlefield: Bad Company 2′s class combat and experience based weapon unlocks to the jungles of ‘Nam with new maps, weapons, vehicles and ’60s tunes. You’ll find plenty of jungle violence and flaming helicopter death in the launch trailer, embedded below.

Team Fortress 2 Christmas update adds new map, mode and items

The Team Fortress 2 Christmas event launched this weekend giving everyone a chance to celebrate Christmas in true Team Fortress style. The update adds a new medieval, melee-only map and a series of mysterious festive crates that can be unlocked to reveal new items, which are also available to buy now in the Mann Co store. It’s all in the spirit of Australian Christmas. What the hell is Australian Christmas? Read on for details, and an overview of the new items.

UK Christmas bonanza – Day 7 1/2: Win a year’s subscription to PC Gamer UK

Thanks to a small snafu yesterday, you’re getting two competitions today. So welcome to day six and-a-half of the PC Gamer Christmas giveaway bonanza. We’ve given away five stonking prizes already, but we’re just getting started. Today we’re giving away the most glamorous prize yet. Imagine a world where you never have to leave the comfort of your own home, a place where the world’s finest PC news, reviews and features are delivered directly to your door every month. Today we’re offering a year’s subscription to PC Gamer UK for five lucky winners. Read on for your chance to win.

The Minecraft Experiment, day 16: Hellbound

When I first started playing Minecraft a few months ago, I played with a rule: if I die, I have to delete the entire world. Then, I decided to go to hell and back. This is the sixteenth entry in the diary I kept of that experiment – the first is here.

Minecraft is about to go up in price, so today is your last chance to buy it for €10. Obviously I recommend it. When it officially reaches beta today, the main niggles with the mutliplayer will be gone and the price will be €15.

UK Christmas bonanza – Day 7: Win 3 months of Eve Online game time, Eve boardgame, poker deck and carrier bag

This is major Tom to ground control. Five sets of Eve Online prizes have been secured and are ready to be distributed to five lucky PC Gamer readers. The goods secured are of the highest quality. Repeat: highest quality, including three months of Eve Online game time, the Eve Online board game, a deck of poker cards and fine canvas carrier bag. Requesting permission to pose readers a question so that we can proceed with giving these great prizes away ASAP? Over.

This is ground control to major Tom. Roger that. Permission granted.

Crap Shoot: The Crystal Maze

Richard Cobbett takes a look at the wonderful world of gameshow conversions, starting with one of the best British programmes… and one of the most disappointing licensed games.

Games based on gameshows are generally a bad idea, and for pretty obvious reasons. No fame, no tension, no prizes, no point. The Crystal Maze had the chance to be different. It was a gameshow about playing games. How could anyone screw that up? Well, let’s have a little think, shall we?

UK Christmas bonanza – Day 5: Win WoW: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition, game guide, official magazine and SteelSeries Shift keyboard

It’s the weekend before Christmas, which means the cold outdoors will be full of folks doing some last minute shopping. Forget the hordes outside and join the Horde in Azeroth instead with our great big bundle of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm loot. We’ve got five sets of prizes to give away, each of which includes the Collector’s Edition of Cataclysm, a copy of the Brady Game Guide, the latest issue of the World of Warcraft official magazine and a SteelSeries Shift keyboard with three World of Warcraft mousemats. Soz, guys: we’ve got one main prize: the Collector’s Edition of Cataclysm, a copy of the Brady Game Guide, the latest issue of the World of Warcraft official magazine and a SteelSeries Shift keyboard with three World of Warcraft mousemats. Four runners up will receive the Cataclysm CE, keyboard and WoW mag only. I say “only”, they’re pretty amazing. Read on for details on how to win.

Making a game in a weekend: Ludum Dare 19 begins

Every four months, there’s an open competition to make a game in 48 hours. It’s called Ludum Dare, and each competition has a theme voted on by the participants. December’s contest, Ludum Dare 19, kicked off last night with a theme of Discovery. I’ve decided to try entering, and I’ll be blogging my progress here and on the Ludum Dare site.

Day 1, 6AM

Discovery is what I was hoping for. I think one of the close runners up, Containment, would probably have led to a more interesting selection of games, but I had a clearer idea of what I’d do for Discovery. I knew if this one ended up being picked, I would have to make something involving randomised content. That’s what makes Spelunky so exciting to play, and that’s probably the greatest game about discovery I’ve ever played.