The best custom leagues for Football Manager 2011
Do you find yourself getting bored with the usual league systems present in Football Manager? Have you always wanted to see a British Superleague or have the chance to play in a league based on the USSR circa 1991? If you can say yes to any of those questions then this list is what you need. Inside you can find five of the best, or most bizarre, custom leagues ready for you to play right now.
From Dust PC delayed until August
Gorgeous new god game, From Dust was due to come out tomorrow, but the giant hand of Ubisoft has plunged down from the heavens and flicked the release further into the future. Ubisoft told Joystiq that the PC version will now ship on August 17.
This is especially annoying because the XBox Live release is still on track for this week. From Dust was to be the highlight in a slim month of PC releases. Now it’s coming out within a week of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Still, it looks fantastic. Check out the developer diary above for a look at the spectacular terrain moulding tools.
Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer shows every class, makes them fight
The latest Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer, spotted on CVG, gives us a brief introduction to each class and then makes them all fight to the death. The Sith Inquisitor comes out looking the best, partly because he looks like a really buffed up Darth Maul, but mainly because of the way he says “there will be no survivors!” and then electrocutes the entire battlefield. The Old Republic is available to pre-order now. There’s no set release date, but it’s due out later this year after a period of beta testing scheduled for September.
Battlefield 3 videos show multiplayer load-out options and Operation Metro map
Half an hour of new footage has leaked out of the Battlefield 3 alpha. It’s not made by DICE, so it’s a good idea to shove it into your eyes as quickly as possible. It could be taken down at any minute. The video is put together by by YourGamingTeam, who investigate the load-out options, test each weapon’s recoil and investigate every corner of the Operation Metro map. It doesn’t look as though the alpha is running with any of the advanced graphical features that made the single player tank demo at E3 so spectacular, but it’s worth a look to get a feel for the size of the new maps. You’ll find the second 15 minute video below.
Essential Minecraft mods part two
Back by popular demand! We previously rounded up our Top 10 Minecraft Mods, but since that post other mods have been released and updated. Given the size of the Minecraft mod scene we decided to make a second list. Remember you can also pretty up your game with our 10 Best Minecraft Skins or join us on the PC Gamer Minecraft Servers at:
PCG UK Minecraft server IP – 83.222.240.186:28265
PCG US Minecraft server IP – 207.210.252.12:25566.
Check inside for the rundown.
How Project Zomboid was saved by Steam, Desura and FilePlanet
We recently had the chance to catch up with the developers of procedural zombie survival game, Project Zomboid, to discuss the extraordinary drama of the months following its release earlier this year. The team behind the game told us about how they struggled to meet the initial flood of orders, and how charitable acts from Steam, Desura and Fileplanet helped them to stay afloat.
Project Zomboid picked up widespread interest as soon as it was announced. When it eventually went on sale it became a victim of its own success. Initially, there was no automated system in place for taking payment and distributing keys. The two-man team were forced to process every purchase manually.
“Our brains were sort of leaking out of our ears,” said dev Andy Hodgetts. “The worst thing was because we were taking shifts we’d be doing it together for a bit and then I’d grab a few hours sleep and Chris carries on doing it and then he gets the sleep and I take over.
And in other PC gaming news…
What is this bizarre and creepy video? It was spotted by Redditor NovaeDeArx, who believes it could be a new Valve ARG. Why? Because a string of characters that appear in the middle of the video, once decoded, lead to an uploaded Half Life 2: Episode 2 map. Which you can see here.
It certainly appears to be an ARG of some kind, but whether it is being orchestrated by Valve, another company or just some talented amateurs remains to be seen.
Check inside for less spooky news.
How to save space on your SSD
SSDs are great. Not make the world a better place and sort out your work/life balance great, but having one in your PC will almost certainly make it a slightly better machine. The problem is, of course, that they’re quite small.
The standard advice for making the most of SSD space is to install Windows and a few key games onto your SSD and put everything else, like videos and music, onto a larger, slower hard drive. If only it were that easy.
Lots of programs, from iTunes to Google’s Picasa to most games, save large files like thumbnail caches or save data in the Users folder on the C:\ drive. That’s regardless of where you install the application itself to. They offer you no control at all, and in the case of iTunes and Picasa especially can quickly use up many gigs of precious space.
ASUS launches noise cancelling gaming headset
Not only is it a tedious bore, the real world can be such an unnecessary distraction when trying to listen for footsteps coming around the corner or place that last block on a Minecraft masterpiece. Which is obviously why ASUS is launching a noise cancelling headset just for the likes of us.
They’re called the Republic of Gamers Vulcan ANC Pro. The acronym stands for ‘active noise cancelling’ – although they have been launched so close to Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday that I can’t help feel they’re missing a trick for South African sales of the bright red set of cans.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has “19 major worlds,” built to “last for decades”
Senior creative director James Ohlen has been speaking at Comic-Con about the enormous scale of The Old Republic. The conference, reported by Darth Hater and picked up by Eurogamer, revealed that players will be able to explore 19 “major worlds” on launch. Bioware plan to add many more after that.
“We want to add dozens of worlds. Hundreds of worlds eventually. In 2025, we’ll hopefully have 500 worlds,” said Ohlen.
Notch has “stopped paying attention to how much groceries cost”
Minecraft has made Notch a lot of money. A confusingly large amount of money. The genre-defining indie has 10,967,296 registered users, 26.38 per cent of those users have paid for the game, and it’s currently selling for €14.95. Apologies for the number overload, but they are hella big numbers after all.
Read on for Notch’s views on apartments, groceries, Swedish shame and bank managers.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 screenshots show wetsuit warrior and boat war
Activision have released two screenshots of Modern Warfare 3. The first image proves that, no matter how many pouches you’re wearing, it’s impossible to look badass in a wetsuit. The second shot shows the impressive scale of the naval battle shown in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 E3 demo. Sadly, most of the boat war on show is background detail for the boat escape that concludes the level, it would be great to go deck to deck, taking down enemy ships one by one like some sort of boat-assassin.
There’s also a picture of the Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition, fresh from the factory line, spotted by CVG. There’s no news on what’s inside yet. Click on the images to blow them up to full size. Boom!
Epic on Unreal series: “we haven’t been giving it the attention it deserves”
Epic president Mike Capps has been talking to Industry Gamers about the neglected Unreal series, admitting that “we haven’t been giving it the attention it deserves because we’ve been focusing on Gears of War.” That doesn’t mean we’ll never see another Unreal game, however. In fact, Capps says it makes financial sense for Epic to revive the series.
Mass Effect vote lets fans decide FemShep’s face
Bioware have launched a competition on their Facebook page to let players decide what female Shepard should look like in future Mass Effect 3 marketing materials. There are five looks to choose from, Winona Ryder, Evil Winona Ryder, Elvis Winona Ryder, bygone popstar Gabrielle, Uma Thurman from Kill Bill and Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction. You can vote for your favourite by dropping a “like” on the Facebook picture of your choice.
You can get a look at all of the contenders below. Number five is well in the lead at the lead at the moment. Let us know your favourite in the comments.
Saturday Crapshoot: Maniac Mansion (TV)
Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, it’s the TV show even many adventurers thought was only a joke – the Lucasarts classic that went from the smallest screen to… a slightly bigger one.
One of the many puzzles in Day of the Tentacle, the 1993 sequel to the 1987 adventure Maniac Mansion, is fixing a broken down time machine by getting enough money to replace the diamond at its core. The hero, geeky teenager Bernard, blinks at this, asking the mansion’s owner, crotchety mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison, why he needs to bother. The guy owns a mansion. Isn’t he already rich enough to just order one? Sadly, it turns out not. Not only is Dr. Fred broke, he’s never even seen a penny from a big TV show that was made about his family, due to him forgetting to return the contract.
Fixing that problem with time-travel makes for a fun comedy puzzle, but when I first solved it, I figured that was all it was. Like most non-Canadians/Americans, I had no idea that the TV show he was talking about actually existed. But did we miss out, or escape? Let’s finally find out…
