Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Edition has Sith lord statue, costs $149.99
Unboxing videos tend to be dull, unless you have a Jedi just off screen unpacking everything using the Force. See The Old Republic Security Key, official game soundtrack, the journal of Master Gnost-Dural, a galaxy map and a statue of Darth Malgus levitated before your eyes. In-game bonuses include a flare gun for setting Ewoks on fire, a mouse droid, a STAP hover-segway vehicle, your own personal holo-dancer, a training droid and access to the Collector’s Edition in-game store.
The Collector’s Edition is available to pre-order now from Game in the UK for £129.99, and Gamestop and Best Buy in the US for $149.99. That’s a lot of money. You’d at least expect a working lightsaber for that sort of price, don’t you think?
Get your PC ready for Battlefield 3
There aren’t many game launches which get people looking at their PC and wondering if it’s powerful enough. But the seemingly high system specs of Battlefield 3 have got a lot of us suddenly concerned about the state of our hardware.
With just one weekend to go until it’s released, it’s time to face the question: do you need to upgrade for Battlefield 3?
Late to the Party – We play the classic games we missed first time around
This feature originally appeared in PC Gamer UK 230.
Most gamers have a secret shame. There’s always one classic title everyone raves about that you never quite got around to playing at the time – either because nobody was raving about it back then, or because you played the first level and couldn’t make head or tail of it.
It’s a quirk of PC gaming: a lot of our true classics, particularly the old ones, are baffling or intimidating to play. It’s their complexity that makes them so great, but it’s also what makes them off-putting if you don’t immediately grasp how they work. A game that gives us a great amount of freedom also gives us the freedom to miss what’s good about it.
So we moan at each other, endlessly, to play the things we love. Graham, how have you still not played Deus Ex? Rich, why would you skip Morrowind? Craig, you like crosshairs! Play IL-2 Sturmovik!
It’s time to find out what we’ve been missing all this time.
This week’s winners
Welcome to this week’s winners, where we round up the results of our most recent competitions. We’ve just got one competition for you this week, but it’s a great one. Remember, if we don’t hear from you for three weeks we will give your prize to someone else.
Check inside to see if you’ve won.
This week’s best free PC games
Games about fishing aren’t generally the most exciting ones around, nor are they the most artistic, but exploratory underwater shooter Fisher-Diver has an exceedingly good go at being both. If it’s still a little too calm for your liking, though, assaults on the senses such as one-button platformer Braindead and the complete mind-splurge that is Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf should keep you entertained. Or how about playing as a scientist working through a zombie apocalypse? You can do that in Lab of the Dead. Read on for more details about this week’s best PC freebies.
StarCraft 2 mod tool updates to let players create custom models, UI and cutscenes
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm won’t just mean a massive shake-up for the StarCraft 2 esports scene, we’ll be getting the Blizzard Arcade as well, a hub designed to show off the very best creations from the StarCraft 2 modding community. Blizzard plan to give modders more power with a suite of updates to the mod tools supplied with StarCraft 2.
Blizzard will release the full suite of art tools which will let designers export custom 3D models from popular 3D modelling software, 3DS Max. This will give modders the scope to create new buildings, units and tilesets, opening the doors to total conversions, and giving modders far more scope to create entirely new games within the StarCraft 2 engine.
Blizzard DOTA screenshots introduce Thrall, Arthas and Diablo 3′s Witch Doctor
The Blizzard DOTA Panel that took place earlier today at Blizzcon 2011 dropped a ton of interesting info on the features that will set the free StarCraft 2 mod apart from competitors like League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and Dota 2. There was news of mounts, winnable boss monsters that live in the jungles between lanes, and the disposal of the traditional last hit method of earning experience. That’s all well and good, but what does it actually look like? Find out in the many screenshots that have emerged from the conference today.
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm trailer begins Kerrigan’s quest for revenge
Kerrigan’s lost the extra appendages and, apart from some weird hair, looks relatively human now. According to the Heart of the Swarm lore panel at Blizzcon 2011, she doesn’t remember her time as leader of the Zerg swarm well, but has a good idea of the destruction that the swarm caused during her reign. Her thirst for consuming worlds has been replaced by a less megolamanic lust for revenge. She’ll be at the centre of the StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm single player campaign. See her in action on the Blizzcon StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm preview trailer above.
Diablo 3: twenty screenshots from Blizzcon 2011
Here are twenty new screenshots of Diablo 3 from Blizzcon, showing various denizens of the underworld being disintegrated by lightning bolts and powerful laser beams. There are a few different environments on show as well, from golden deserts to candle-lit crypts, daubed with arcane scribblings and infested with Azmodan’s brutish legions. Not shown: vast, vast quantities of sweet loot. Click on each screenshot to see it full size.
Blizzard DOTA to be free with StarCraft 2 Starter Edition, mounts and boss monsters added
Blizzard have revealed some of the major changes they’re making to the classic defence of the ancients format for Blizzard DOTA. They’ve mentioned mounts, major changes to the vital last-hit system, spectacular capturable boss monsters, and the steps they’re taking to try and make Blizzard DOTA’s battles faster and more friendly. They also confirmed that Blizzard DOTA will be added to the free StarCraft 2 Starter Edition.
Blizzard Arcade to arrive with StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
The Blizzard Arcade will arrive alongside the release of the StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard have just announced at a Blizzcon panel. The Arcade will act as a hub for user-made mods and games created using StarCraft 2′s extensive mod tools. The Arcade will be available to everyone who owns StarCraft 2, not just Heart of the Swarm players.
Games available in the Blizzard Arcade will be free to begin with, but Blizzard plan to let mod makers charge for their games in future. The Arcade will be available from the front page, and take players to a central screen showing the most popular mods of the moment. A five star rating system and user reviews will help the best games rise to the top, and “what’s hot” sections will give players quick access to the most popular games on the service. The mods will use StarCraft 2′s matchmaking system to put players together.
The editor will also be improved, with debugging improvements, a cutscene editor, and custom UI editing tools.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer celebrates distant launch
The Modern Warfare 3 “launch trailer” has been released three weeks ahead of the game’s actual launch. That’s odd, but you have to remember that this is “the most anticipated game in history.” And a Battlefield 3 launch trailer was released a day ago and could not go unanswered. There’s plenty of explosions, of course, and tanks, and talk of Modern Warfare’s great villain, the mysterious Makarov. Will we finally get to finish him off? And where is Captain Price’s magnificent beard?
Saturday Crapshoot: Bikini Karate Babes
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, prepare to see beat-em-up action like you’ve never seen it before! With women fighting in skimpy, ridiculous costum- waaaaaaaaait…
Karate translates as ‘Empty Hand’. Damn, no easy joke opportunities there! But is Bikini Karate Babes the gaming equivalent of Ronseal – primarily aqua and potassium tripolyphosphate? There’s only one way to find out, and we’re going to do so by trying something roughly 98% of online write-ups of it have never even dreamed of… actually installing the damn thing, and playing for more than ten seconds.
I know. It’s a crazy idea! But it might… just… work…
Blizzcon 2011: day one round-up
Pandas Oh My God! World of Warcraft’s fourth expansion has been announced. It will let us play as Panda warrior monks on the back of a giant sea turtle. It will open up the new real of Pandaria to the Alliance and the Horde. It will introduce a pet battling system in which you must catch wild monsters, level them up and make them fight for your own amusement. It’s just one announcement of many in a brilliantly, stupidly hectic first day at Blizzcon 2011.
It’s not all been about World of Warcraft, either. New units have been revealed for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, new trailers have appeared for Blizzard DOTA and Diablo 3, and we’ve learned something new about each one of Blizzard’s upcoming titles. Below you’ll find our guide to day one of Blizzcon. Get all the latest at a glance.
Diablo 3 gets team deathmatch, achievements and battle standards
Blizzard are introducing team deathmatch mode to Diablo 3′s player vs. player scraps. It’s playable on the show floor at Blizzcon, and players will immediately notice that the mode supports 4 vs. 4 battles, up from last year’s 3 on 3 demo.
The rules are simple. There are two teams, red and blue. When you die you only have to wait three seconds before you’re back in. The team with the most kills in ten minutes wins. You’ll be able to port any of your characters over and send them into the arena, but once you’ve started the match, you won’t be able to change your build. Tweaking your skillset before each battle will be necessary to improve your chances.
