Dragon Age 2 and Total War: Shogun 2 demos – what do you think?
My computer was pretending to be tired last night. “I don’t want to download any more” he grumbled. “A few evenings ago I preloaded Bulletstorm, as soon as you got home tonight I downloaded a monstrous 6Gb Total War: Shogun 2 demo, and now you want me to start cooking 1.9 Gb of Dragon Age 2? It’s 10pm. I’m knackered.”
Test Drive Unlimited 2 patch fixes login issues, free DLC incoming
Atari have released a patch to fix some of the major issues with Test Drive Unlimited 2. Disappearing friends lists, invites, Clubs, save file corruption and login issues are all tackled in the update. As a way of saying sorry for the launch problems, Eden Games will be releasing the first chunk of premium DLC to all players for free.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood drops always-online DRM
Ubisoft have dropped their controversial DRM system for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The old system required players to be permanently connected to the internet, even when playing in single player. A dropped connection would pause the game, and could even cause gamers to lose progress.
Ubisoft have confirmed that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will require an initial verification log-in, but after that the game will be playable without an internet connection.
Minecraft update is live, adds new blocks and beds
A new Minecraft update has landed, adding an experimental new lighting engine, three new mini-blocks and, best of all, beds. If everyone on a server goes to bed at night, the game will skip to the morning. It’s a good way to dodge those marauding night time mobs. You’ll find the full list of updates below.
Total War: Shogun 2 demo released
The Shogun 2 demo has been released. You can download it through Steam. The demo will let you try out Shogun’s battles and martial your forces on the new campaign map. You might want to boil the kettle once you’ve hit download, the demo’s a massive 6GB in size. It’s worth the wait. We reviewed Shogun 2 in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, and gave it a score of 92 and an editor’s choice award. The game’s out on March 15.
Dragon Age 2 demo is out now
The demo of Dragon Age 2 is available to download now from the Dragon Age 2 demo page. It’s 1.9 GB in size, and will let you play through the prologue section of the game. You’ll be able to explore the central city of Kirkwall a bit, and meet sexy lady pirate Isabela. Completing it will also unlock a lovely dwarven blade to use with the full game when it’s released.
Recently, Bioware announced that they would give even more bonus items to everyone who plays the demo, as long as it receives one million downloads. You can find our Dragon Age 2 review in the latest issues of PC Gamer US and PC Gamer UK, which is out now.
Giveaway: You got Duke Nukem in my Heroes of Newerth
I love peanut butter cups. Today, Heroes of Newerth is my chocolate and Jon St. John doing the voice of Duke Nukem is my peanut butter–and the product of their pairing is delicious. The newest announcer pack for HoN (which changes all of the audio elements of the game, like “first kill”) features the Duke himself saying new lines that make your victories feel incredibly badass and your defeats even more humiliating. As the patron saint of PC Gamer, Duke’s given us five copies that we can give away to you! Read on to find out how to enter.
DC Universe Online interview – Part 2: Monthly patches, new content
Last week, I had the opportunity to interview DC Universe Online’s Game Director Chris Cao. We talked about everything from what bugs the dev team is focusing on fixing first, March’s big update, future power and weapon sets being added to the game and if they’re planning to add mod support for the PC version. We’ll be releasing a new portion of the interview every day this week up through Friday! Today, we talk with Chris about today’s big February update, how often players can expect updates in the future, and what will be in March’s big update. Read part 1 of the interview (Squashing Bugs) here.
And in other PC gaming news…
After months of videos, screenshots and steadily building controversy, Bulletstorm has finally been released in North America. We’ve played it, and it’s as gratuitous and over the top as Epic promised. But is it worth your time? Find out in our Bulletstorm review.
Bulletstorm isn’t the only release today. Demos for Dragon Age 2 and Total War: Shogun 2 could go live at any minute. While sadly neither will let us shoot a man in the anus until he explodes, they’re exciting enough to guarantee that I’ll be spending most of my evening near the F5 key.
In other news: THE FUTURE. There have been plenty of exciting announcements today, including the news that Microsoft will be supporting Kinect officially on the PC, and reveals on some new Mass Effect 2 DLC and a brand new Command & Conquer game.
But enough about that. We’re here to look at the present, to find out what’s happening in the world of PC gaming right now. We’ve surgically amalgamated today’s top stories into a human centipede of news. Are you ready?
City of Heroes Animal Pack Giveaway
Capes and masks are overrated. Too few superheroes and villains sport giant horns, flowing manes or blood-encrusted hoofs capable of smashing skulls. The animal kingdom is a terrifying place (don’t believe me? Just imagine how many deadly spiders have crawled across your sleeping body at night), and it’s about to be unleashed in City of Heroes, via the latest Animal Pack.
Contest: The pack is released tomorrow, and we’ll be giving away 20 copies as soon as it launches–read on to find out how you can win!
Mass Effect 2 Arrival DLC uncovered
The Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 2 was patched today, accidentally revealing the existence of another DLC adventure for Mass Effect 2. The patch revealed the name of the DLC – The Arrival, along with three achievements including the ominous sounding “The Ultimate Sacrifice.” The find was made by a poster on the Bioware forums, and has triggered speculation that the new DLC could cover the events between the end of Mass Effect 2 and the beginning of Mass Effect 3, when the Reapers are laying waste to planet Earth.
Guild Wars 2 race revealed: The Norn
ArenaNet have launched Norn week. Every day they will post more information about the latest playable race in Guild Wars 2. The Norn are a race of shape-shifters that live in the icy lands of Shiverpeak. The Norn were originally seen in the Guild Wars expansion, Eye of the North. They’re a huge and fiercely honourable race who can transform into animal hybrids to hunt.
Blind gamer completes Abe’s Exoddus using sound alone
Blind gamer, Terry Garrett has learned to complete Abe’s Exoddus, navigating the game using nothing but sound and lots of quicksaves. You can hear an interview with him below, along with a video of him playing the game.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood preview
Previously on Assassin’s Creed – the maddest shit you’ve ever seen. Last time we checked on fifteenth century Italian badass Ezio – who was actually partly controlled by a man lying on a special kind of bed in the future called Desmond – he was having a fistfight with the Pope. As soon as he’d laid out God’s representative with a right hook, a strange floaty alien woman appeared and told him that she was one of the super-powerful species that used to inhabit the Earth, before staring straight at the game’s camera like Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and talking to the player directly.
New Command & Conquer game in development
The Command and Conquer site was recently updated with news that a sequel is currently in production at EA’s new strategy game studio, Victory Games. It was also announced that creator of Might and Magic, Jon Van Caneghem is heading up the project.
