Minecraft passes 3 million sales
Everyone knows there are a lot of people playing Minecraft, but the sales milestones Notch keeps tweeting still manage to make us feel dizzy. Today he announced that 3 million copies of Minecraft have been sold so far. Last month we reported that Minecraft boasted 10 million registered users, of which nearly 2.7 million were paid copies. That means that Mojang have sold a staggering 300,000 copies in the last 30 days. At just under £13 each, we’re now waiting for Notch to announce his intention to buy the moon.
Brink is free to play this weekend
Coinciding with both QuakeCon 2011 and the release of Brink’s first DLC, Steam has started a free weekend for Splash Damage’s parkour shooter. Spotted by Eurogamer, the offer has already started, and continues until Sunday evening, giving players a chance to experience the multiplayer shooter free of charge. The new Agents of Change DLC is included as well, which gives players a broader range of abilities, attachments and costumes, as well as two new maps to try out.
Sniper Elite V2 coming to PC
After an overwhelming response from PC gamers, Rebellion announce that they plan to self-fund a PC version of their upcoming sharpshooter sequel, Sniper Elite V2.
The shooter was originally destined for a console only release, now it will be coming to PC, and Rebellion say they’re determined to ensure that we won’t be getting a shoddy port. Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley has stated that the PC version “will be built specifically for PC to take advantage of the more flexible and powerful hardware, with strong support directly from Rebellion.”
Brink: Agents of Change DLC arrives on Steam, free for a fortnight
Brink: Agents of Change DLC is now available to download for free on Steam. The new pack, which will cost $9.99 after the initial 14-day free period, adds shiny new bits to almost every section of Splash Damage’s shooter.
The biggest update included in the free-for-now DLC are the two new maps. Founder’s Tower takes place in the epicenter of the beleaguered Ark, and finally lets players inside the actual spire itself. Labs, meanwhile, has players fighting over an old research and development laboratory, which is submerged deep beneath the ocean.
World of Warcraft charity pet sales contribute $1.9m to tsunami relief efforts
World of Warcraft players around the world have contributed over $1.9 million to help the Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. Massively report that all this money was raised by players purchasing the Cenarion Hatchling from the World of Warcraft pet store.
The pets were introduced into the game back in May. In the period stretching from the pets’ launch to the 31st, July Blizzard gave 100% of the proceeds made from players purchasing the pets to the Japanese charity, meaning WoW players managed to raise $2 million in just three months.
Team Fortress 2 gets Quake, Fallout and Skyrim items
Ever wondered what the Heavy would look like wearing the Nord’s helmet from Skyrim? Good news! Kotaku reports that Team Fortress 2 has been updated with new weapons and items from a range of Bethesda’s biggest games to celebrate the start of QuakeCon 2011.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Rezurrection map pack will put zombies on the moon
The latest Call of Duty map pack is set to hasten Black Ops’ descent into zombie madness. It’s called Rezurrection. It will feature five zombie maps. Four of them will be the reworked versions of Call of Duty: World at War’s zombie levels that came bundled with Hardened and Prestige editions of Black Ops. The other one is brand new, and will be SET ON THE MOON.
Battlefield 3 pre-order bonuses announced for the US
Residents of the USA can now get a glimpse of the bonuses they’ll recieve, should they pre-order the game from specific retailers, reports Joystiq. While Europeans have had a chance to survey their best bet for the past month, this is the first time Americans can see what they’ll receive should they purchase their game from Gamestop, Amazon or Best Buy.
Borderlands 2 to be announced at Gamescom?
So sayeth a shadowy source. Borderlands 2 is set to be officially announced by 2K in the near future, if that source – talking to Eurogamer – is to be believed. According to the unnamed person, the game is set to release sometime in 2012, and like its predecessor is due to release across PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard rumours of the co-op FPS/RPG getting a sequel; back in April Eurogamer also reported that the unannounced title had shown up on a developer’s unprotected CV, leading to speculation that development was already underway. However, this is the first time anyone has come forward and claimed that the game is in production.
Minecraft mod EvilMinecraft features giant chickens and exploding pigs
While Notch continues to quietly freak us out with his upcoming Endermen mob, some people in the Minecraft community have come up with some less subtle creations. The EvilMinecraft team have just released their first public version of the mod, available for download here, which features a whole host of new mobs and features intended to create a more dangerous, varied world than can be found in the basic Minecraft experience.
This initial release brings us chickens that when punched can transform into giant fire-breathing beasts, trick chests that attack the player should they try to open them, and ‘creepigs’: insidious monster pigs that explode like creepers. As well as new mobs, the dungeons and terrain have also received some attention, with the mod creating enormous underground temple ruins for intrepid players to explore.
Dungeons of Dredmor update to add “nastier” villains and more verbose monsters
Gaslamp Games, creators of recently released indie roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor, have detailed the expected contents of an upcoming update. It’s a reassuringly long list of changes that deals with minor problems like blood spatter lag, and bigger problems with monsters that can’t string two words together. Monsters will now have an “expanded vocabulary,” and the evil Lord Dredmor himself will be made “nastier.”
The complete list of what we can expect from the upcoming patch can be found below, and more information can be found on the official Gaslamp Games blog.
Batman: Arkham City to star Bane as an AI Ally
Batman will receive some unlikely help against Arkham City’s rogues gallery in the form of his one-time nemesis Bane. A recent panel at the San Fransisco Comic-Con, covered by Go Nintendo, has revealed that the ‘man who broke the Bat’ is to have Batman’s back in a less homicidal sense, and will appear alongside the player as an NPC character in Rocksteady’s upcoming bat-’em-up.
