elemental posts

According to Stardock's press release Stern will "oversee creative storytelling and lore implementation" in Elemental as well as future game projects for Stardock. Stern wrote the Hiergamenon lore book that can be found in the limited edition version of Elemental. Previously Stern was an editor at Pocket Books where he oversaw, among other things, the Star Trek novels for the publisher. He has also written a number of Star Trek novels himself along with other books and novelizations of films like Lara Croft Tomb Raider and The Blair Witch Project.

[Via email press release]

In a major hiring coup for Stardock, the developer of the Galactic Civilizations series and more recently Elemental: War of Magic has revealed exclusively to Big Download that it has hired Jon Shafer to its team. Shafer recently left Firaxis Games where he served as the lead designer behind the studio's most recent game Civilization V. In his new role, Shafer will be helping with the design and increasing mod support for Elemental. At some point in the future he will also be leading his own team at Stardock on an unnanounced new stand alone game for the developer.

Big Download also got to speak briefly with Shafer over the phone earlier today. He told us that he departed Firaxis Games on good terms and while he got a few offers from other studios he told us that he went to Stardock for a number of reasons. One is that he has been an admirer of Stardock's games for some time as a fan. Another is that he wanted to work wth a company that that the freedom to make the kinds of games he wanted to make. Shafer told us he could give out any info on what his stand alone project will be for the company as Stardock is still concentrating its efforts on updating Elemental, including the release of at least two expansion packs.

Shafer will be working with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell who will continue to work as Executive Producer of all of Stardock's game titles. As we reported back in October, Stardock hired Derek Paxton, the lead designer behind the well known Civilization IV mod Fall From Heaven, to serve as Senior Producer of Elemental. Shafer told us that Stardock has "lots of awesome stuff" planned for the future of Elemental.

After its rocky launch last August, Stardock has continued to update Elemental, including a massive free 1.1 patch that was officially released last December. More patches are in the works as two expansion packs to the game. Wardell has stated on the game's official message board that sales of Elemental have continued to rise in the last three months of 2010. In another message board post he gives a general idea of where Stardock plans to improve and expand the game, adding, "I approved the necessary budget in December to fund Elemental for both 2011 and 2011." In addition he states, "Stardock has some other game projects that start up this year as well and the publishing group is working on some new things as well. So it's going to be a pretty exciting year for Stardock gamers."

We have a special hardware feature planned for tomorrow that you might want to keep your eyes on for. Just a heads-up.

• Steam has an update for the Mac version of Trine that fixes the game's Steam Cloud features, among other things.
• If you are going to CES in Las Vegas next week you can check out OriginPC's Big O gaming PC-Xbox 360 hybrid rig for yourself.
• The fifth chapter of the CrimeCraft episodic series BleedOut, featuring cut scene artwork by famed comic book artist Ben Templesmith, is due for release on Saturday at 7 pm Eastern time.
• So is a Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (80s nostalgia rush) game in the works? Some people think so.
• Check out yet another massive dev diary on improving the AI for Elemental.

2010 was a year that served as a bit of a comeback for the PC game industry. We saw the digital download market for games, which already had gained traction in the last couple of year, really explode in the last 12 months. We saw the rise of free-to-play online games in a variety of genres as it gained a large foothold in the Western markets. Indie game development continued to expand as small game teams and studios bypassed the big publishers and found success in directly selling games to consumers.

Yet not everything was wine and roses in the last 12 months. Games that were supposed to become big hits had launch issues that, in one major case, caused the game's developer to close its doors. Piracy continues to be a major PC game issue but some publishers used DRM set-ups that are seen by many as too harsh for the average consumer. In many cases developers who made multi-platform games treated the PC port like an unwanted step-child, denying that version post-DLC support, releasing the PC version months after the console ports and more.

However the truth is that overall PC gaming got a second look from many in the overall game industry. While console game sales are on the whole down for the year, a case could be made that the PC side of the business is actually gaining strength. So what were the big news stories for the PC game industry in 2010? Big Download has gone back and picked 10 stories over the past 12 months that we think rose above the normal press release noise and were significant in 2010. Check out our picks after the jump:

After releasing a beta version of the patch a few weeks ago, Stardock has now released the final 1.1 patch for its fantasy turn-based strategy game Elemental War of Magic via its Impulse service. The game's official web site has posted up the truly massive patch notes for the 1.1 update along with a walk through that gives new players an introduction to the game.

Elemental's release in late August was slammed by critics for being far too buggy. Since then Stardock has issued several patches to fix the most outstanding bugs. It's CEO Brad Wardell stated on Tuesday, "We said we are committed to doing what it takes to make Elemental into the preeminent turn-based fantasy strategy game for the PC. Version 1.1 of Elemental: War of Magic is only the beginning." More updates to the game are in the works and anyone who buys the game before the end of the year will receive the first proper expansion pack for free. Recently Stardock says that sales for Elemental have improved in October and November.

Last month we reported claims from developer-publisher Stardock that sales of its turn-based strategy game Elemental: War of Magic have actually increased in October following the rocky launch of the game in late August. In a new update on the game's official web site Stardock CEO Brad Wardell states that the game's sales have also increased further in November (once again specific sales numbers were not announced).

Stardock's team is still working on the final version of Elemental's 1.1 patch (a beta patch was released last month). He adds, "The demo version probably won't make it out until January due to marketing considerations (late December is a very bad time to put out a demo because coverage would be sparce). "

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but already folks are starting to buy their holiday gifts (or at the very least thinking about creating their lists really hard). There have been a lot of PC games to choose from in the past 12 months and today Big Download wants to offer a few suggestions for the person who has a PC gamer on his or her list.

The games listed below are what we feel are good gift choices that should please any hardcore or even casual PC gamer that you have to buy for this year. We have even thrown in some indie titles and some games that are priced a bit cheaper than the norm for those of you on a budget. Check out our 2010 holiday list after the jump:

Editor's Note: Steven Wong contributed to this article

Elemental: War of Magic had a admittedly rocky release when it shipped out in late August. The highly anticipated Stardock developed fantasy turn-based strategy game was released with a number of major bugs and other issues.Since its release Stardock has issued several patches to the game including the most recent 1.1 beta patch. However the lower than expected sales of the game caused Stardock to lay off a number of workers.

However it's possible that things are looking better for Elemental's future. According to what Stardock's PR head told Big Download this week, the sales for Elemental have gone up 30 percent in October compared to sales of the game in September (specific unit sales numbers were not revealed to us). The PR head also told us that retail stores have increased their shipment orders of the game. Stardock has already pledged that it will continue to support Elemental with more patches and expansion packs for the rest of the year and well into 2011.

It's the weekend and also six days until a bunch of us eat until it hurts. MMMM...turkey.

• It's finally out: the 1.1 beta patch for Elemental has been released via Impulse.
• This week's Mutation gameplay mode for Left 4 Dead 2 is a repeat of Gib Fest.
• There are lots of bug patch updates today on Steam including Lead and Gold, Left 4 Dead 2, Twin Sector, Killing Floor, the open beta of Men of War Assault Squad. Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat Source, and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch,
• A new indie-themed game download portal, Show Me The Games, is now available.
• The official Breach web site now lists all of the weapons that will be featured in the upcoming game.
• Heroes of Newerth has introduced a new hero character, Moraxus.
• It's another mysterious bar code teasing us about BioWare's next game.
• Most of us, for better or for worse, would not be playing PC games without Microsoft's Windows OS. This week is its 25th anniversary.

It's been another super busy day for news today. Hopefully Friday things will get back to what is supposed to be normal. And then there's next week where we will have two super slow news days during the normal work week ... hey, we like eating turkey and Black Friday as much as the next person.

• The 1.1 beta patch for Elemental, planned for release today, has been pushed back until Friday.
• Speaking of delays, the release of the mini-expansion ArmA II: Private Military Company has been pushed back one week from November 23 to November 30.
• The latest Bethesda Podcast has been released and is a special hour long episode featuring a chat with id Software's John Carmack.
• Some disappointing news: It looks like Hothead Games' upcoming title Swarm is console only.