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City of Heroes to get revamped graphics in next free update

Posted Feb 9th 2010 12:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO

NCsoft's long running super hero MMO City of Heroes is getting a big graphics upgrade as part of its next free content update. The publisher announced today that "Issue 17" will bring the new Ultra Mode to the game that will let players see the game world with new shadows, lighting and water effects. You can check out the visual changes in the screenshot gallery below.

In addition to Ultra Mode, the Issue 17 update will have players fight a new enemy that will "match them blow for blow". The update, also titled Dark Mirror, will have new missions, new badges, new player emotes and allow for level 20 characters to have access to Epic Archetypes. The update will also have new UI improvements, updates to the game's Mission Architect feature and more. It will be made made available to the game's subscribers in April.

Gallery: City of Heroes Ultra Mode Screenshots

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Download: Unreal Development Kit February 2010 Beta

Posted Feb 9th 2010 11:30AM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Tools

The Unreal Development Kit (UDK) beta, a free-to-use version of the Unreal Engine 3 development tools, has been updated with the latest updates and improvements. Continue reading after the jump for a complete list of changes and visit the official website for more information.

Download Unreal Development Kit February 2010 Beta (536 MB)
Check out all Unreal Development Kit related Downloads

Gallery: Unreal Development Kit

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Left 4 Dead 2 sells over 2.9 million copies in retail stores

Posted Feb 9th 2010 11:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS, Multiplayer, Left 4 Dead Series

Last December, Valve announced that their zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2 had sold over 2 million copies in retail stores in the game's first two weeks of release. This week, Electronic Arts, which distributed the game in retail stores, announced during their conference call to investors that the game has sold over 2.9 million copies worldwide for both the PC and Xbox 360 ports.

Naturally both these numbers do not include the number of PC copies of the game that have been sold directly via Valve's Steam client. Valve has kept those numbers completely secret but its likely that if added to the retail sales it would increase the total unit sales to well over 3 million copies.

Gallery: Left 4 Dead 2 Screenshots

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Is the third time the charm for Myst Online: Uru Live?

Posted Feb 9th 2010 10:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO

Over the years we have seen a number of high profile MMO games bit the dust. The Sims Online, Shadowbane, The Maxtrix Online, and Tabula Rasa are just a few examples of titles that tried and failed to find an audience. Until this week we would have also put Myst Online: Uru Live as one of those titles but it seems this game has more lives than a virtual cat.

Cyan Worlds' adventure-themed MMO has already had two lives; as a multiplayer component for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst that didn't get past the beta stage. GameTap revived the game on their service in 2007 but shut it down a year later due to lack of subscribers. Now Cyan has turned Uru Live into an open source game project and have launched a free-to-play server (although they are taking donations). Will this unique way to relaunch an MMO succeed? Good question.

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Has EA canceled Dead Space 2 for PC?

Posted Feb 9th 2010 9:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Action

In 2008 Electronic Arts released the first Dead Space game for the PC and we liked it. We liked it a lot. So we were happy to learn that the sequel, Dead Space 2, was also coming to the PC. However it looks like things may have changed. As part of EA's newly revealed schedule of upcoming games for their next fiscal year they announced that Dead Space 2 would be released in the first quarter of 2011 . . . but did not list the PC as one of its platforms.

Blue's News reports they heard back from an EA spokesperson who told them, "As of right now a PC sku is not in the plan". That's all they got out of the publisher so we have contacted EA for a more detailed explanation. We are hoping the PC port has just been pushed back rather than canceled.

Gallery: Dead Space 2 Screenshots

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Diablo III female Monk officially revealed

Posted Feb 9th 2010 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: RPG, Diablo III

The Jace Hall Show had the honor of showing off the first images of the Diablo III female Monk character but now the action-RPG's official web site has made the look of the character official. The web page featuring the monk class is now showing the character art for the female version of the class.

There's also a look at what the character's visuals look like with the in-game character model. Both the concept art and the character render make the female monk look like a cross between Annie Lennox and Jennifer Love Hewitt. At least that's how it looks to us. Your mileage may vary.

Gallery: Diablo III Screenshots

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Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier announced; confirmed for PC [Update]

Posted Feb 9th 2010 7:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS

We had a feeling about this last week and for once we were right. Ubisoft has officially announced what they have been teasing us about for a year. A new Ghost Recon shooter game is in the works. Officially titled Ghost Recon Future Soldier, the game is due for release before the end of 2010. Ubisoft trademarked the title late last year.

Developed by Ubisoft's Paris studio, the publisher is keeping most details of the game to itself. It does state that the game will feature "prototype high-tech weaponry" and high end tech along with both single and multiplayer modes. There's no official word yet if the game will be released for the PC although almost all of the previous Ghost Recon games have been released for the PC platform.

Update: A "tweet" on the Twitter page of Ubisoft's community manager Kimi Matsuzaki states, "For those wondering: We will tell more about the PC version later." A later "tweet" seems to indicate the PC port will be released sometime after the console versions.

Continue reading Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier announced; confirmed for PC [Update]

New Sims and Spore games planned for the PC in 2011

Posted Feb 8th 2010 10:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Simulation

It's not a shock to learn that the best selling PC retail game of 2009 will be getting some follow up releases in the next year. As part of Electronic Arts' financial results today, their schedule of games for their next fiscal year shows some kind of new Sims game due for release in the first quarter of 2011 for the PC. From the placement on the schedule this may be some kind of new Sims game rather than just an expansion pack for 2009's The Sims 3.

Also due for release at the same time is a new Spore game from the publisher. EA hasn't been as generous about expanding 2008's alien evolution sim for the PC as they have with their Sims titles. The last expansion pack for the game was released last summer.

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What does a "far reaching" plan for Mass Effect 2 mean?

Posted Feb 8th 2010 9:30PM by John Callaham
Filed under: RPG, Mass Effect Series

During Electronic Arts' financial conference call with analysts, EA execs mentioned something in passing; they had "far reaching" plans for their just released sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2 in their fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 (January-March 2011). While this may mean some kind of downloadable content for the game, the suggestion seems to be something more is in the works?

Is it a big expansion pack? Is it a full-fledged sequel to BioWare' acclaimed game (although that seems unlikely)? At the moment, EA is not saying what that "far reaching" statement means. An EA spokesperson would not comment to our sister site Joystiq on the matter, saying only, "Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect are referenced in the FY11 SKU plan." Hmmmm.....

Gallery: Mass Effect 2 Screenshots

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Free Realms hits the 8 million registered player mark

Posted Feb 8th 2010 9:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO

Sony Online officially launched their free-to-play fantasy MMO Free Realms in April 2009 but today the publisher announced that in less than a year the game has hit the 8 million registered player mark. Since its launch the game has added a number of features including player housing as well as holding a number of live events such as the upcoming Valentine's Day themed Festival of Hearts.

While Free Realms has apparently been successful there's no word yet if Sony Online plan to extend the free-to-play model to upcoming games. Officially the publisher still has DC Universe Online and The Agency in development and the company has hinted about a major revamp of their Planetside game.

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Some Mass Effect 2 save games might not work in Mass Effect 3

Posted Feb 8th 2010 8:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: RPG, Mass Effect Series

BioWare's cool way that they incorporate save games from the original Mass Effect into the new Mass Effect 2 will continue when BioWare comes out with Mass Effect 3 in two year's time. But Game Informer points out that not all Mass Effect 2 save games will work with the third game in the sci-fi RPG trilogy.

The reason? If the main character Shepard gets killed at the end of Mass Effect 2, well, that's a problem. BioWare's Casey Hudson states, "If you have a dead Shepard at the end of Mass Effect 2, that saved game won't import into Mass Effect 3. You can play Mass Effect 3 if you died in Mass Effect 2 of course, but you'll have to create a new Shepard." That means Shepard is supposed to appear in all three games so players should not be cavalier about using him in Mass Effect 2.

Gallery: Mass Effect 2 Screenshots

Continue reading Some Mass Effect 2 save games might not work in Mass Effect 3

Dungeon Fighter Online trailer pulls out its heavy hitting monsters

Posted Feb 8th 2010 7:30PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, Expansions, Action, MMO, Multiplayer, Trailers

Download Video

Dungeon Fighter Online recently went live with the Threshold of Power update, which raises the level cap to 50 and adds all-new abilities to the free-to-play side-scrolling online fighting game. Now that players have access to some fantastic upper-level powers, they need worthy creatures to use them on. As this video showing off some of the new boss monsters demonstrates, players will have plenty to challenges to punch and kick through.

Continue after the jump for a trailer showing off some of the new skills that are included in Threshold of Power along with some tips from the developers on how to overcome these bosses.

Download Dungeon Fighter Online 'High Level Monsters' Trailer (515 MB)
Download Dungeon Fighter Online 'Level 50 Skills' Trailer (206 MB)
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Gallery: Dungeon Fighter Online

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Steam puts nearly all Total War games on sale this week

Posted Feb 8th 2010 7:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: RTS

Valve's Steam service starts their price cuts a little earlier than usual this week with the announcement that nearly all of the Total War games on their service are on sale from now until next Monday. The historical RTS game series from developer The Creative Assembly is composed of several games and three of them (Rome: Total War, Medieval II: Total War and Empire Total War) are a part of the Steam sale this week.

Those games as well as the Rome and Medieval II expansion packs are all 66 percent off for the entire week and the Total War Mega Pack which has all five games is 66 percent of as well. In additional, the downloadable extras for Empire Total War are all 10 percent off this week. This sale does not include Napoleon: Total War which is available for pre-order before its release later this month.

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Free Mass Effect 2 armor and weapon coming Tuesday

Posted Feb 8th 2010 6:30PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Downloads, RPG, Mass Effect Series

BioWare promised last week that some free downloads would be coming for Mass Effect 2 players and today they revealed that a new armor and a new weapon will be made available via the game's Cerberus Network sometime on Tuesday. The first item, the Cerberus assault armor, increase health, sheilds and heavy weapon ammo by 10 percent for the player character that uses it.

The new weapon that will be included in the update is the M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun which uses armor-piercing rounds and has a longer range than normal shotguns. If you use it be aware that this weapon "violates several intergalactic weapons treaties." Which of course makes us want this even more.

Gallery: Mass Effect 2 Screenshots

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Next Medal of Honor game now due in third quarter 2010

Posted Feb 8th 2010 6:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS, Multiplayer

It looks like Electronic Arts is going back to war a bit faster than anticipated. During their financial press release today, the publisher announced that their next Medal of Honor game is now currently scheduled to be released in their second 2011 fiscal quarter, which means a third quarter 2010 calendar release (between July and September).

The game's earlier release is perhaps a way for EA to get the game out before Activision releases their next Call of Duty game which, while not officially announced is expected to be released in the fall quarter of 2010. As we have reported before, the new Medal of Honor game is set in modern day Afghanistan and will feature a single player campaign made by EA's Los Angeles studios and multiplayer modes made by Digital Illusions.

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