Editorial: Why PC Gamer objects to SOPA and PIPA
PC gaming is amazing. It’s a place where technology, passion, art and competition intersect. The business that underpins what we play is fuelled by the internet. The internet is open and free. Therefore anyone can create, share and play together. The internet’s openness means that PC gaming is a level playing field. Massive entertainment conglomerates can invest millions into producing vast online experiences, but the same tools to share, promote and play are available to anyone who wants to make a game. Even our Tom.
Editorial: If SOPA passes in its current form, it will be a disaster for gamers and the games media worldwide
In the next week, the US congress will return to Washington for a bit of work. The first item on the agenda is to debate and pass the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. SOPA is intended to give media owners the tools to act against those who infringe their copyright in all forms of media, be it audio, video or text. Be it the movie industry, the music industry, the publishing industry, and yes, the games industry.
But the legislation is awful, and it affects gamers worldwide. Under SOPA, e-sports is under threat. Game streaming is under threat. In-game voice chat is under threat. In-game text chat could be turned off. Gaming forums are under threat. And the gaming media (us!) will no longer be able to exist in its current form.
The powers SOPA will grant if it passes are broad and troubling and spell doom for certain sections of gaming. Copyright holders will be allowed to seek court orders against infringing websites, and in its current form, against companies that provide services for them. That means that under a SOPA order, a copyright holder could demand restrictions from not just the site itself, but partner companies and clients such as the hosting domain, the advertising networks that provide ads, payment facilitators and search engines.
Total War: Shogun 2 – PC Gamer UK’s strategy game of the year
We elevate the Total War games beyond simply being good strategy games because we believe they’re story-engines: that not only do they offer deep and difficult decisions about how to paint the map your colour, but they also entertain you with your own genius.
Diablo 3 intro cinematic is all “powers of hell” this, “coming darkness” that. You should watch it
Man, Blizzard make good CGI. Well played, Blizzard CGI people.
Command and Conquer: Generals 2 is real: made by a new Bioware studio, built on Frostbyte 2.
At an unusually dreadful videogame awards show last night, EA finally opened the lid on the long teased Command and Conquer: Generals 2. Here’s the news: it’s being developed by a new studio branded “Bioware Victory”, and built using the same tech that powers Battlefield 3. The screens are quite pretty, and posted below.
Opinion: Why World of Warcraft’s new talent system doesn’t go far enough
I don’t envy the World of Warcraft development team. They’ve got a population of 10+ million players to please, a relentless stream of expansion packs and patches to deliver, and a vast array of content to refresh and balance. It’s a hard job. Right now – they’re taking on one of the hardest jobs possible: introducing fundamental change to the core mechanics of the game – the talent system – in an attempt to improve it.
The new talent system let you assign points into a tree of abilities every level or so. Instead, you’re given a menu of abilities that unlock at pre-defined intervals, and at those intervals you’ll pick one from three. It feels, immediately, less RPG-y that by not assigning points every level (or in Cata, every other level) you’re making less choices. But, I do agree with Ghostcrawler who pointed out in his blog that “you will have more choices that *matter*.”
ITV documentary can’t tell the difference between gaming and reality; mistakes Arma 2 for secret IRA film
Here’s an upload of a video from a recent ITV documentary into Colonel Gaddhafi’s support of the IRA. It contains shocking footage of a helicopter being shot down using weapons allegedly supplied by that baddie.
Except. Umm. It’s actually ArmA 2.
Words. Fail. What. How. For goodness sake. UK media, can you stop being shit please.
If you’re looking for the footage in the documentary in the ITV player – it’s online here. The footage is in place from 28 minutes, 20 seconds.
Update: Here’s a youtube video that appears to be the same footage. I think we can start to understand how this happened.
(via the Bohemia forums)
Update 2:
We’ve been in touch with Bohemia Interactive’s CEO, Marek Spanel. He tells us that Bohemia weren’t approached by ITV for permission to use the footage, and had no idea that Arma 2 was appearing in a war documentary on British TV. Understandably, they’re quite surprised. “We are going to try to get some explanation from ITV how this could have happenned,” says Spanel.
“Sometimes creativity and realism in our games lead into crazy results and this is one of such example. I just briefly watched the entire documentary and I still can not believe it as it is overall very serious and lenghtly feature,” he adds.
“We are surprised our games apparently may look real enough to some users already that they can not tell it is not real life footage.”
We’ve reached out to ITV for comment. Check out the videos of ArmA below for a sense of exactly how realistic the military shooter really is.
Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription costs are identical to World of Warcraft’s
Want to play Star Wars: The Old Republic forever and ever? Each copy comes with a month of free game-time, but if you want to play after that, you’ll need money: it’s $14.99/£8.99/€12.99 per-month. That’s exactly the same pricing structure as World of Warcraft.
Even the bulk costs are identical: a three month subscription comes to $13.99/month (paid as a one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97), while a six month subscription costs $12.99 per month (paid as a one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94).
So: here’s a good game for your Saturday. You can afford to pay for one subscription game per month. What do you pay for?
Star Wars: The Old Republic release date will ruin/save Christmas: Dec 20th in US, December 22nd in UK and Europe
Uh-oh. Might want to rethink that family Christmas. Unless your family likes land-speeders and bounty hunting. Bioware have announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It’s right slap-bang before Christmas. December 20th in the North America, and December 22nd in Europe.
I feel a disturbance in the force. As if a million customer support representatives suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. Their Christmas is going to suck.
Are you going to play The Old Republic on day one?
League of Legends: Dominion First Impressions
I’ve been tinkering a little bit with Dominion, the new capture and hold map for League of Legends that not so quietly slipped into public beta testing yesterday. It’s available to play during off-peak hours (i.e. daytime) to all regions. And it turns out it’s… good. I think it’s going to be a huge success for developers Riot, with a few caveats.
Renegade Ops might be out on PC tomorrow. It might not. Who knows. It’s still great
Here’s a grumble: we’ve still not got an announcement for when Renegade Ops will launch on PC. Gamers who’ve preordered it via Steam say that they received a message saying it would unlock tomorrow, which is useful-ish. But it’s been out on the consoles for over a week already.
I’m sad about the situation, because Renegade Ops is seriously entertaining. Not knowing when we can play it on PC is driving me crackers.
So: Renegade Ops. It’s a top down shooter in which you drive a little buggy around forests and hills, blowing stuff up. Hard. Everything about Renegade Ops is overcharged starting with the tech, which is just way too ambitious for this type of game. It’s powered by the Just Cause 2 engine – which lets everything explode with a kind of overbaked physics that leaves you grinning. The plot, driven by over-the-top comic book cutscenes features a lunatic supervilllain nuking a city as an opening gambit, and gets stupider from there. The feel of the buggies is beautifully judged; they bounce all over the hills and steppes like little toys – it reminds me a little of the old Micro Machine games.
And it’s perfect for the PC. Why?
Fret not, Zinio subscribers to PC Gamer UK. You’re getting a hat too. And everyone’s getting an Onlive trial
I’m in full on Oprah mode.
“YOU GET A HAT.”
“YOU GET A HAT.”
“YOU GET A HAT.”
“EVERYBODY GETS A HAT.”
Cue music, dancing and the wild celebrations. And possibly ticker tape.
If you subscribe to PC Gamer UK via Zinio, you’ll be getting the exactly the same gifts that the print subscribers and news-stand subscribers are getting with issue 232. That means you’ll be getting our PCG reader only TF2 hat, the “Killer Exclusive” and a free trial to the game streaming service Onlive. We’ll be sending out the codes for both to the email account you registered your Zinio subscription to. Many Bothans suffered a slight inconvenience to get you this. So we made a press release. It’s below.
Dead Island “Director’s Cut” mod makes headshots vital. Leg and body shots: less so
Dead Island wasn’t exactly realistic. What with the electro-swords, the nuns and the knifing zombies in the chest. If you prefer your undead to be a little more quasi-Romero-real, you’ll want the “Director’s Cut” mod, which rebalances the combat, skill trees and items to deliver better pacing and a requirement for headshot precision. Mod creator tnutz says he “tried to refine and highlight the best aspects of the Dead Island combat and tie it together into a deeper combat system where you are rewarded for properly assessing the situation and acting tactically.”
The full list of changes and a link are below. They include: “Ground-and-pounding the head with fists is viable”. Not that games are violent or anything.
Team Fortress 2 Beta update gives players multiple character loadout presets
An update has just been applied to the Team Fortress 2 beta on Steam that paves the way for multiple loadouts for each class, a great quality of life change for TF2 players. It also allows multiple misc slots, allowing you to carry more than one cosmetic item, and various balance changes. The full patchnotes are below.
An unusual insight into World of Warcraft’s armour art
In the process of PRing and promoting the 4.3 patch for World of Warcraft, the Blizzard development and art team are showing off some new features. We’ve seen the new raids and dungeons, new mechanics (yay transmogrification!) and new areas. Now, finally, we’re starting to see new art; in the form of the Tier 13 armour sets. With the pictures come a few smart bits of insight.
