Duke Nukem Forever is real, playable at PAX
I called it: Duke Nukem Forever is back, courtesy of Gearbox Software.
Details are still scarce, but the evidence is abundant: countless tweets from Gearbox confirming it, a live stream from 2K Games showing the booth, and, before too long, testimonials from those lucky enough to play it.
Update: It's coming in 2011, for PS3, Xbox 360, and, of course, PC. People are actually playing it, right now. Expect their booth to be the busiest at PAX.
[Joystiq]
Batman: Arkham City 5x longer than original, already playable
Batman: Arkham Asylum was fantastic. So the announcement of a sequel just months after it was released in late 2009 was hardly surprising.
Rocksteady have clearly been hard at work, with a build of Batman: Arkham City already playable from start to finish - made all the more impressive by the fact that the game is reportedly a full 5 times longer than Asylum. The next year of development will be all about "polishing, and adding new features".
[CVG]
Duke Nukem Forever announced at PAX?
A fresh wave of speculation about the future of the eternally-delayed Duke Nukem Forever has come to a head right before the Penny Arcade Expo, thanks to a cryptic tweet from series creator George Broussard.
Broussard simply posted a link to the above picture of pigs flying. Further hints come from the Twitter account of Jon St. John, the voice of Duke, who will appear in a Q&A session at PAX. Curiously, in the tweet before that, he said he had "no news yet" about DNF. Rumours from early August suggested that Gearbox Software would be working on the title, with developer president and CEO Randy Pitchford suggesting that something may happen at PAX.
Adding it all together makes an announcement of some sort look pretty likely - but I reserve the right to be way off.
[NeoGAF]
Great Scott! Christopher Lloyd voices Doc Brown in Telltale games
Telltale's upcoming episodic Back to the Future series is exciting for a number of reasons, first and foremost being the fact that it's a series of Back to the Future games.
Some details have surfaced which not only confirm that Marty McFly and Doc Brown will be in the games, but that the latter will be voiced by Christopher Lloyd. Over the course of the planned 5 episodes, the DeLorean will appear, as will various characters from the film trilogy. As for the setting (both time and place), Hill Valley and 1985 will be included.
A Telltale survey from last month included 4 possible scenarios, set in 1938, 1968, 1986, and 2010. No matter the time, expect witty dialogue and adventure game puzzles galore.
[Joystiq]
Atlus’ future uncertain after dissolution
Atlus are known for being a link between East and West, publishing many niche Japanese RPGs in North America and Europe. As much love as this earns from their fans, it doesn't necessarily make them profitable, with the publisher coming across tough financial times recently.
Their parent company, Index Holdings, are trying to increase profits, and thus have dissolved Atlus. However, the Atlus brand will remain in operation, and their present projects (including the recently-announced Catherine) will continue.
What this means for the futures of Disgaea, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Trauma Center, and Etrian Odyssey isn't entirely certain, but Catherine director Katsura Hashino suggests that work will continue "for a long time".
AMD cut all ATI branding from graphics cards, keep Radeon
AMD have long been a fierce competitor in the CPU market, but in 2006, they leaped into the world of graphics by acquiring ATI Technologies, producers of the Radeon series.
However, ATI products kept their ATI branding. AMD have decided to halve the number of three-letter acronyms consumers will need to remember by cutting the ATI brand entirely. Fortunately, most consumers shouldn't be too confused, as they will maintain the Radeon brand name, which has strong brand awareness. The renaming effort will begin when new graphics cards and chips ship later in the year.
Telltale teaming up with Penny-Arcade and TF2 for a card game?
With just a few days remaining until PAX Prime, Telltale Games have teased a rather interesting new game - featuring at least one of Penny Arcade's very own characters.
The brief trailer features silhouettes of Tycho, Telltale stars Max and Strong Bad, and Team Fortress 2's Heavy. Before you go imagining some bizarre Super Smash Bros.-esque brawler with all sorts of characters thrown in, look closely at Tycho and the Heavy's hands: they're holding 3 cards each. Telltale have card game experience, as their first game was Telltale Texas Hold'em. Given the cards, it seems as though this won't be their traditional adventure game fare. We may be looking at some sort of card sim, or something much deeper - an original card game, a la Magic: The Gathering? A trading card game?
We'll find out more on September 2nd, with Telltale promising to "blow the lid off" the game at PAX.
Weekend Deals – 28/29 August, 2010
This week, Steam are offering big discounts on both Mount & Blade titles - the original, and the sequel with multiplayer, Warband. Impulse and GOG both have promotions on 5 Apogee titles, including Duke Nukem 3D, while GamersGate are selling all things indie at up to 80% off.
Play-Asia:
Sold out!
Steam Weekend Deals:
Mount and Blade - $7.50 (75% off)
Mount and Blade: Warband - $10.20 (66% off)
Other Steam Deals:
Puzzle Dimension - $6.69 (33% off)
King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame + Saxons - $36.84 (33% off)
Railworks + Dash 9 DLC - $34.49 (50% off)
Making History II: The War of the World - $31.99 (20% off)
Impulse:
All Codeminion games - 40% off
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - $3.59 (40% off)
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - $3.59 (40% off)
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition - $3.59 (40% off)
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project - $3.59 (40% off)
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - $3.59 (40% off)
Dark Void - $14.99 (50% off)
Eschalon: Book I - $9.99 (50% off)
Eschalon: Book II - $12.49 (50% off)
Machinarium - $9.99 (50% off)
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - $9.99 (50% off)
World War 2 - Time of Wrath - $7.49 (75% off)
GOG:
Apogee pack up to 50% off.
30% individually, 50% when completing the set.
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - $4.19 (30% off)
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - $4.19 (30% off)
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition - $4.19 (30% off)
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project - $4.19 (30% off)
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - $4.19 (30% off)
All of the above - $14.95 (50% off)
Direct2Drive:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - $29.95 (40% off)
GamersGate:
Summer Sale Week 4 - Indie Week!
Highlights include:
And Yet It Moves - $3.99 (60% off)
Beat Hazard - $3.99 (60% off)
Bob Came in Pieces - $3.99 (60% off)
Braid - $3.99 (60% off)
Machinarium - $6.79 (60% off)
Osmos - $3.99 (60% off)
Plain Sight - $1.99 (80% off)
World of Goo - $6.79 (66% off)
Zombie Driver - $2.49 (75% off)
Games for Windows LIVE:
Civilization IV: Complete Edition - $9.99 (75% off)
Sony Japan site counts down to something knitting-related
Countdowns to announcements - which almost always lead to longer periods of waiting for the announced event to take place - are slightly frustrating. However, they still get people's attention.
The Japanese version of the PlayStation website has been updated with a countdown page entitled "amimono" - meaning "knitting". The page counts down to noon on September 2, Tokyo time (find your local time here). The Flash animation shows a man in a suit knitting something, with similarly-attired men in the background.
So the mystery isn't when, but what. The only thing to come to mind when it comes to Sony and knitting is the upcoming LittleBigPlanet 2 - it's possible that the man is knitting a Sackboy. However, it could be any number of things.
[PlayStation Japan via NeoGAF]
Final Fantasy XIV’s XP system tries to balance different playtimes
MMOs have something of a stigma for being massive time-sinks. Some people are just too busy to keep up with the truly hardcore MMO player in terms of playtime, and therefore in terms of level.
Final Fantasy XIV just might change that. It's a bit complicated, but Square-Enix are using a system where they've calculated how much experience a player could be expected to earn in an hour of solid combat or other XP-earning activities, which they deem a "threshold". The same applies for skill points. After earning 8 thresholds of either within a week, the amount of experience or skill points earned gradually decreases to 0% after 15 thresholds. In theory, then, players need only grind for 15 hours a week to stay competitive; but there are other factors.
For one thing, time spent in-game whilst not earning points causes this "fatigue" to begin to fade away, meaning characters may benefit from idling on servers. Stranger still, the penalty on earning skill points is applied per class, and thus players can max out their skill and experience earnings in one class, then switch to another class to earn more skill points, and then yet another. As a result, those fanatics who want to spend around 100 hours a week in-game can still get some bonuses.