Newell: Portal 2 has hit three million sales
According to Valve magnate Gabe Newell, Portal 2 has sold an impressive three million copies since it was released in April. While we’d have thrown a massive rager in their shoes, Valve’s managing director, of course, delivered the news unconventionally, slipping it into his keynote today at the “Games for Change” festival.
Newell’s speech at the conference—hosted yearly at NYU by the Games for Learning Institute—spanned a variety of societal topics, including why you may see Portal 2 in classrooms soon, Valve’s successful Japan fundraiser in Team Fortress 2, and the impact of a growing worldwide marketplace for in-game content.
And in other PC gaming news…
PC Gamer is off to the circus. Tom F is limbering up for a turn on the trapeze, Owen is lifting comically large weights while wearing a leotard and Tim is making a business case for using a top hat and a whip to increase productivity in the office. Either that or we got a classy looking promotion for Runes of Magic.
But wait, there’s more! Whoever gives us the best answer to our end of day question will win this poster and circus ticket, which gives you a free in game clown pet in Runes of Magic.
The question comes after the exciting news round up within.
Terraria beginner’s guide
Terraria can randomly generate a huge world in a few seconds and fill it with dungeons, monsters, chests, underground jungles, flying islands and boss monsters. You can burrow or fly to every corner of the map, slaying enemies, looking chests and mining precious ore. You can craft powerful items, build a palace and become incredibly rich. Eventually.
When you’re first dropped into the middle of your world, it can all be a bit overwhelming, and with just only a cryptic NPC as a guide, it can take a while to see what Terraria has to offer. We’ve put together this beginner’s guide to help you survive your first nights in your new world. Read on for advice on mining, crafting and building your first home.
Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues release date announced
The third DLC pack for Fallout: New Vegas, subtitled Old World Blues, will be released on July 19. We’ll also get a patch that promises to “Bring improvements to performance and stability in major areas.”
According to Bethblog, Old World Blues will let you “Discover how some of the Mojave’s mutated monsters came to be when you unwittingly become a lab rat in a science experiment gone awry. You’ll need to scour the Pre-War research centers of the Big Empty in search of technology to turn the tables on your kidnappers or join forces with them against an even greater threat.”
Have you bought the previous pieces of Fallout: New Vegas DLC? Read our review of Fallout: New Vegas here, and see the 25 best Fallout: New Vegas mods here.
The 5 best Terraria mods
Terraria hasn’t been out long, but if our servers are any indication it’s incredibly popular. We’ve rounded up the best early mods for the builder/explorer/platformer sandbox. You’ll almost definitely want to check out some of these.
Orcs Must Die trailer features fire and traps
RockPaperShotgun alerts us to a new trailer for comedic fantasy game Orks Must Die showing off the inventive traps system and the ability to hurl fire at your enemies. Which is always welcome. Orks Must Die is a Tower Defence game from Robot Entertainment which sees you controlling a single hero and a lot of traps against waves of enemy orcs. It’s due out this summer. If you liked what you saw check here for more ‘trap spotlight’ videos.
Eve Online now selling $70 monocles
Eve Online’s Incarna update launched yesterday. In addition to the ability to walk around outside your ship, you can also buy micro-transacted items to spruce up your avatar. The problem? The cost of these items is far, far beyond most DLC prices, and it’s affecting the delicate Eve economy.
Crysis 2 DirectX 11 update and screenshot
A post on MyCrisis, hastily taken down shortly afterwards, reveals some details about the update, along with a screenshot. Thankfully NeoGaf user BeeDog managed to grab it before the takedown.
UPDATE: Vivec from the forums managed to grab the side by side comparisons before the site went down, take a look inside.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm hitting China next month
WoW: Cataclysm is due to launch in China on July 12. Netease will be responsible for the launch.
Other regions have been enjoying the most recent expansion for the past seven months, but Blizzard have only just got around to preparing the content for China-based players. We doubt they’re complaining though – Wrath of the Lich King took almost two years to appear in their territory.
Blizzard co-founder, Mike Morhaime is predictably happy about the announcement, saying: “We’ve always appreciated Chinese gamers’ passion and support for World of Warcraft, and we’re excited that they’ll soon be able to enjoy all of the great new content this expansion has to offer.”
WoW patch 4.2 is due to launch soon. See the first footage of it here and read the extensive patch notes here.
A glimpse of Minecraft 1.7′s underground ravines
Minecraft developer Notch, the worst person at keeping secrets ever, just tweeted a peek at something he’s adding to the next major version of Minecraft: underground ravines. You can already hit some interesting cavern complexes when digging around, but these huge hallways of rock are a whole new level of “Ooh, look what I just fell into and broke my legs in!”
Exploring is the best bit of Minecraft, and exploring underground is the best bit of that. Call me a procedural dork, but I’d be happy if the rest of Minecraft’s development was just adding endless new geographical features to the terrain generation engine.
Magicka PvP mode out now, new arenas and robes available
If you read Arrowhead Game’s Magicka dev diary right here on PCGamer.com yesterday, you’ll know that the free PvP is out now. However, you might have have missed the Tarantino inspired trailer. It shows just one way in which wizards can fall out. The other is just to play Magicka’s story mode, where friendly fire kills almost as many wizards as the hordes of enemies you’re trying to obliterate.
The PvP mode comes with free two arenas, the Training Ground and the Havindir Arena. Each can host scraps with three different rule-sets. Classic deathmatch is a fiery free-for-all mode in which the last wizard standing wins. Brawl mode lets you form teams, but limits each player to a set number of lives. Krietor mode unlocks more powerful spells as the round progresses, and is named after the modder who invented it.
City of Heroes: Freedom will use “staged download” system
City of Heroes is going free to play later this year. As well as the massive update that’s due to hit, Paragon are releasing some new technology which will download updates as you play. “We sort of have a staged downloading system now,” said producer Brian Clayton.
“So you’ll jump into the character creator first and as you’re going through and setting up your character the entry level zones will then download in the background. Once those download in the background it downloads the rest of the game.”
The new system will launch alongside City of Heroes: Freedom later this year, with the aim of making it more accessible for new player: “Our hope is that a new player for the very first time that wants to try out City of Heroes is in the game within five minutes.” Clayton said.
Tomorrow’s Rift 1.3 patch will add Armor Sets to Telara [Updated]
The next big Rift content update, which hits servers tomorrow morning, will bring big changes to Telara, including the beginning stages of the Hammerknell opening event–a massive battle between the elemental planes of Death and Water. Several other highly anticipated features, such as Guild Banks and Character Transfers, will also be included. But there’s one thing no one knew was coming—until now. We have exclusive details on one of the most exciting additions in this patch: the first tier of class-specific Armor Sets.
Team Fortress 2 Über Update: Day 2
Our wildest dreams have come true: there are indeed 4+ classes getting new items in this Thursday’s Über Update. Valve have just declared today to be Timbuk Tuesday, and they’ve revealed weapons and hats for two of our bestest favorite classes of preferred choice: the Demoman and the Sniper. We asked our resident Demo and Sniper experts (Evan and Lucas, respectively) to weigh in on these glorious new items. Whoops—I think I just gave away the fact that these weapons are rocking our worlds.
Sword of the Stars II developer diary 4: Encyclopedia of the Stars
PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter’s Lead Writer, Arinn Dembo, details the challenging and rewarding task of fashioning and maintaining the series’ vast cosmic narrative. For more information, read the first, second, and third entries, and let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.
