activision posts

As id Software prepares to say "good-bye" to their long time publishing partner Activision with their upcoming game Wolfenstein, the publisher is promoting its August 4 release with a series of animation shorts on Gametrailers.com that tells the back story of William "B.J." Blazkowicz before the events of the new game.

The first animated short (we might call it a "motion comic" since the animation is so limited) basically is a retelling of the original Wolfenstein 3D game, complete with a Hitler with multiple chainguns. Supposedly there will be new shorts like this released every week until the Raven Software-developed game is released next month. You can check out the video after the jump.

Activision has released a playable PC demo for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the just released game adaption of the third movie in the CGI animated series. Yes you can play with the characters from the movie like Scrat, Sid, Manny and Diego as they discover a lost world of dinosaurs. The demo comes from developer Eurocom.

Download the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs demo (513 MB) at Big Download

It's time for another system specs reveal for an upcoming PC game. Are you excited as we are? Well, let's get to it, shall we?. The game in question is (drum roll) Wolfenstein, the upcoming latest entry in the series that started the first person shooter genre. The game from developers Raven Software and id Software and publisher Activision is due out August 4 but you can find out if your PC rig can run the game right now, courtesy of a post on the game's official message boards:

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplay

Blizzard has said that they are still targeting the release of their sci-fi RTS game StarCraft II for the end of 2009. However Gamasutra is reporting that one analyst believes there are signs that the game could be pushed back to 2010.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey is basing those thoughts on a comment over at Kotaku where StarCraft II's lead designer Dustin Browder stated that the beta for the game will last "four to six months" Since the beta has yet to begin that time table will make a fall/holiday 2009 release for the full game very close indeed for publisher Activision Blizzard. Because of this, Hickey claims, "We find it increasingly probably that the game will be released in [Activision's] fiscal '10 period."

Hickey even sees weakness in Blizzard's huge MMO hit World of Warcraft, saying, "We view looming competition in the West from new MMORPGs as a greater threat to WoW's future."

While we wait for more info on Modern Warfare 2, Activision is still supporting their hit WWII shooter Call of Duty World at War. The 2008 released game is set to get a new patch for the PC version, according to a new message board post on the game's forums.

The patch does not yet have a release date but the post has some details on what will be fixed including some Zombie pathing issues, better dog spawing in multiplayer and more. As far as the second map pack, which is already out for the console versions of the game, the word is " . . . we are continuing to work on support for Map Pack 2 on the PC. I have no specific information to provide on this yet, but I will update the community when there are more details."

This trailer marks the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which hits store shelves tomorrow June 23rd. The movie hits theaters the day after, so you can battle giant robots before watching the explosive film.

Download HD Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Launch Trailer (131 MB)
Check out all Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen downloads

Prototype starts with a loud, chaotic rampage through Manhattan, where the play uses a variety of shape-shifting powers to tear apart soldiers, tanks and citizen infected with a mutagenic virus. That short introduction perfectly encapsulates how the rest of the game plays out. Players run around the city, gruesomely tearing through anything that gets in the way, all the while collecting new abilities to cause more mayhem on a larger scale.

While we will have to wait until the NPD Group's list to see how Prototype did in retail stores, the latest Steam weekly sales numbers have the Radical Entertainment-Activision open world action game at number one for a second straight week.

Thanks to the 50 percent off sale this past weekend, Empire: Total War is number two on this week's list. Also the PC version of Ghostbusters (sans multiplayer) shows up at the number four spot. The introduction of the last two Elder Scrolls games to Steam last week caused two editions of the RPG series to show up on the list. Finally Killing Floor remains in the top 10 for another week.

There's no doubt that the release of Modern Warfare 2 on November 11 will be one of the biggest game releases of 2009 in terms of sales. However publisher Activision is aiming for the Infinity Ward-developed first person shooter to have the "biggest entertainment launch of all time" according to a new Advertising Age article.

To that end the publisher has hired LA-based agency TBWA/Chiat/Day to handle the ad campaign for the game but as the article itself states there may not been much need for a massive campaign since Modern Warfare 2 already is seen as the big multiplatform game release of 2009. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold over 13 million copies since its November 2007 release. By contrast one analyst is predicting that Modern Warfare 2 could sell as many as 11 million copies in its first two months of release.

By John Gaudiosi

When he's not battling CGI Decepticons, actor Shia Labeouf can be found playing PC games or Xbox 360 online. With his $200 million movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, opening June 24, LaBeouf pulled double duty, working with Activision to fine-tune the second Transformers videogame experience. In addition to adding his voice work and likeness to the new game (co-star Megan Fox also went virtual), LaBeouf told the game makers what he did and did not like about the original game. One new feature that resulted from these conversations was the new online gameplay. LaBeouf talks about his love of videogames, what he played on set, and why he prefers Civ IV to Wii in this exclusive interview.

Gallery: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen