Futuremark Games Studio has released the Firepower weapons pack for Shattered Horizon on Steam. Firepower, which is free for all players, adds eight new weapons and three new grenades. To celebrate the release, Futuremark is offering Shattered Horizon for just $14.99 until Wednesday May 12.
"We believe players should be rewarded for supporting a game and that’s why we have released all our DLC packs for free," said Jaakko Haapasalo, Head of Futuremark Games Studio. "In fact for $14.99, the same price as 'that other map pack' released this week, PC gamers can now get the complete Shattered Horizon game, including both the Moonrise map pack and the brand new Firepower weapons pack, from a developer that puts players first." (more...)
Sony announced a new God of War game for PSP today. Developed by Ready at Dawn Studios (the same team behind Chains of Olympus), God of War: Ghost of Sparta will feature our beloved Kratos, depicting his rise to power sometime after the events of the first God of War on PS2.
"Excitement for the God of War franchise is at an all-time high and we're thrilled to continue that momentum with God of War: Ghost of Sparta," said SCEA product marketing VP Scott Steinberg. "This new adventure will showcase Kratos on PSP like never before in an experience that fans and newcomers can enjoy on the go, anytime, anywhere."
Ghost of Sparta supposedly boasts 25% more gameplay content than Chains of Olympus, and it will kick the number of on-screen enemies up a notch. It's expected to ship later this year.
StarCraft fans, rejoice! Blizzard announced yesterday that the hugely anticipated sequel, Wings of Liberty, will be available at retailers starting July 27 and directly from Blizzard itself shortly thereafter. The game has been in beta since February with a rather hefty update releasing just a few weeks ago, which included the custom map editor, achievements, and a number of other Battle.net additions.
"Thanks to our beta testers, we're making great progress on the final stages of development, and we'll be ready to welcome players all over the world to StarCraft II and the new Battle.net in just a few months," said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard CEO and co-founder.
Wings of Liberty will continue the StarCraft story arc, following Terran rebel leader Jim Raynor. The game will allow players to pick and choose the missions they run, creating a very customizable single-player experience.
A name and release date we already knew for Treyarch's next iteration to the Call of Duty series, but what we didn't know (for sure at least) was the when and where the game will take place. Gametrailers TV had their big reveal Friday night with the debut trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops, and while there were many hints indicating a Vietnam era war game, there were also some more modern elements thrown in than we expected. Take a look for yourself below.
For Gametrailer's breakdown of the trailer, hit the jump
Sick and tired of that boring old white Wii? Jealous that both Japan and Europe have already had their mits on an awesome looking black Wii for months? If you possess such ridiculous insecurities you'll be happy to learn that Nintendo will be offering the Black Wii state side May 9, with a few little bonuses over the plain old white color.
First off, the black model will come with two games. The standard Wii Sports title as well as the sequel, Wii Sports Resort. Guess what also comes with it? A Wii motion plus add on to go with the motion enhanced Wii Sports Resort. All this comes at the standard retail of $200, but one could argue that the Wii is technically $150 since Nintendo is throwing in another $50 game.
That huge project InstantAction has been working on since the arrival of their new CEO Louis Castle back in July of last year has finally surfaced. Right now, within your browser, you can play The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.
The big reveal of Activision's next Call of Duty title was supposed to be saved for tonights Gametrailer's TV, but that hasn't stopped the game's website from launching and inadvertently leaking details for the game. Granted there's no real content currently on the site, but there is the image posted above that confirms a release date and an official title.
From rumors abound on the interwebs we're pretty sure Treyarch's iteration of the series focuses on the Vietnam era, but with a title like "Black Ops" it's obvious that there may be more to the game than smoking doobies in between bouts with the Vietcong. Kotaku has some thoughts that the game may involve additional espionage or cold war related activities, but their guess is as good as any now. Aside from a name, it's easy to see the game is slated for a November release, just as every other CoD game before it.
Titles and release dates aside the bulk of the game's reveal is still slated to happen on tonight's GTTV on Spike TV. Tune in to the station at 12:30 AM or wait for our update when more details come to light.
If you're lucky enough to be in possession of a Starcraft II beta key, and you own one of them expensive looking Apple computers, you can now get to playing Blizzard's long, long awaited sequel on your nice and shiny Apple-computer-by-Apple. Expect some moderate system requirments to make the game run well. My best guess is that if you can run World of Warcraft you shouldn't have too much trouble with Starcraft II.
Beta keys are still being offered by Blizzard and there's three ways to get it. You can go to starcraft2.com and sign up through a battle.net account, get a key from a friend who is already in the beta, or pre-order the game at Gamestop. You could also appeal to heathen gods but you'll likely end up getting a demon spirit with your beta key, and that tends to suck.
Set your countdown clocks. The “Halo: Reach” multiplayer beta, which is poised to be one of the biggest test events in entertainment history, kicks off in just four days. Among the millions of “Halo” fans eagerly anticipating the beta is actress Aisha Tyler. Available starting today is a video introduction to the beta starring the actress, viewable exclusively through the “Halo 3: ODST” game disc. Tyler walks through all the new game modes and offers her own tips and insider hints for each of the maps while showing off some life-size “Halo” weaponry.
As this is a beta, Bungie will be turning on different modes at different times to optimize testing. The beta kicks off May 3rd with three playlists featuring the all-new, highly competitive Arena mode (4v4 ranked Team Slayer games) as well as “Free-for-All” and “Grab Bag” playlists, which include a mix of classic and brand new game types. Beginning May 7, the new large-scale Spartan vs. Elite “Invasion” playlist will be added to the beta. Finally, beginning May 14 the “Generator Defense” game type will become available.
Everyone who logs in and plays at least one full game of any type in the “Halo: Reach” beta will receive a free “Halo: Reach” Avatar hoodie via the Halo Waypoint portal on Xbox LIVE. To redeem the hoodie, players must access Halo Waypoint and browse their “Halo” Career statistics after completing a match.
Bungie has recently announced on their community blog that they have entered into a 10-year publishing agreement with Activision. From what is mentioned in the announcement, it appears this new partnership is meant to allow Bungie a world-wide recognized publisher with which to release original intellectual property on mulitple platforms:
The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices.
The details of the agreement stipulate that Activision retains the right to publish Bungie games based on new, original IP's which can translate to "no halo on PS3" depending on how you look at it. Bungie also retains all rights to their own content and will remain an independent company from Activision, meaning the possibility of another Infinity Ward/Activision fiasco would be highly unlikely.
It'll be interesting to see what kind of plans Bungie has with this new agreement. With E3 little more than a month away we expect more details to come to light. Stay tuned for more information as it develops.
