x3-terran-conflict posts

After years of working on the X series of space trading simulations, it looks like developer Egosoft is finally ready to announce something a little bit different for its next title. Today the developer's official web site announced that the announcement of its next game project will be made by its publisher Koch Media on April 28 at the FedCon sci-fi convention in Germany.

While the first announcement will be made at FedCon Egosoft states that all the info will also be revealed on the developer's web site. The game itself has the code name "TNBT" which likely is an acronym for "The Next Big Thing".

[Via Blue's News]

A time-travel game, a game filled with dinosaurs, a game about a zombie apocalypse, a game about modern day fairy tales, an "M" rated animated cop game, and a revival of a classic adventure game series. Is Telltale the most varied game developer in terms of its settings or what?

• Steam has an automatic update for X3: Terran Conflict.
• You can now download the songs from the Magicka music soundtrack from the game's official web site.
• Check out this video of Valve head man Gabe Newell addressing a high school class.
• Farmville maker Zynga is now valued at $10 billion. Wow.
• Diablo III team members apparently love Torchlight and Borderlands. We wonder why.

It's been a little while since we have posted up news of automatic patches of games via Steam so consider this a catch-up as a number of PC game titles that offered up patches via Valve's download service. One of the biggest is for Supreme Commander 2. Gas Powered Games' latest RTS game updated earlier this week with a big change to its economy. Before the patch you patch for units and structures when they were ordered. This new update makes you spend for units when they actually start construction. There are also a number of other changes and bug fixes in the patch.

Other PC games that have gotten bug updates via Steam include R.U.S.E., Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Source, a truly massive patch for Victoria 2, Garry's Mod, X3 Terran Conflict, Left 4 Dead 2, Nation Red, DogFighter, and Sol Survivor.

The team at development studio Egosoft seem to want to stretch out the support for its X franchise of space sim titles to its upper limit. This month the developer announced plans to releaseX Superbox (yep, that's its real name) a new retail collection of all of the games in the franchise.

And we mean all of them. The collection, to be published by Deep Silver in Europe on October 8, contains X: Beyond the Frontier, X-Tension, X2: The Threat, X3: Reunion, and X3: Terran Conflict. All of the games have been updated to their latest versions and also contain all of the expansion packs and official DLC releases. The collection also has a bonus DVD containing a bunch of third-party created content and mods for the games, an MP3 soundtrack, tutorials and walk-throughs for the games and more. And to top it all off the X Superbox collection has a 300 page encyclopedia describing all of the fictional backstory of the X-franchise. So far there's no word if this collection will be released in the US.

This patch for X3: Terran Conflict updates the game to v2.6. It contains a number of bug fixes and improves performance. Complete patch notes can be found after the jump. The X3: Terran Conflict rolling benchmark demo is available here.

For those interested in going a little further back in time, a demo for the Terran Conflict's predecessor, X3: Reunion, can be found here.

Download X3: Terran Conflict v2.6 Patch (206 MB)
Download X3: Terran Conflict Rolling Benchmark Demo (422 MB)
Download X3: Reunion Demo (907 MB)
Check out all X3: Terran Conflict downloads

This patch upates X3: Terran Conflict to v2.1, which includes a number of bug fixes and game enhancements. Versions are available to update from v2.0a or from a clean install. Steam customers are advised to use the the auto-updater instead of downloading these patches. Continue reading after the jump for patch notes.

Download X3: Terran Conflict v2.0a to v2.1 Patch (89 MB)
Download X3: Terran Conflict v1.0.1 to v2.1 Patch (238 MB)

After taking a few days off (perhaps because they didn't want to compete with E3 2009 coverage), the GoGamer.com web site has posted up some new PC game sales cuts that will end at 3 am ET on Wednesday.

The sale includes some games that are prices at $4.90 including Sid Meier's Railroads, Nox , The Settllers VI: Rise of a Nation and a CSI Double Pack. S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky is also on sale at the site for just $17.90, the Europa Universalis III Complete Collection is priced at $12.90 and the retail release of X3: Terran Conflict (with the Aldrin Missions expansion) has been priced at $26.90.

This patch for X3: Terran Conflict brings the game to version 2.0a and expands the game with brand new content, such as the Aldrin Expansion Missions. Continue reading for full patch notes.
Download X3: Terran Conflict v1.01 to v2.0a Patch (197 MB)
Download X3: Terran Conflict v1.01 to v2.0a Patch (161 MB)
Download X3: Terran Conflict v1.01 to v2.0a Patch (21 MB)
Check out all X3: Terran Conflict downloads

For those who don't recognize the system, Big Download gave away a computer very similar to this one in contest a few months ago. So, we couldn't help trying out one of these monster systems for ourselves. iBuypower custom builds high-powered gaming computers, and the Paladin F870-SB has everything top-of-the-line technology has to offer. For starters, they system features an Intel Core i7-940 2.9GHz Quad Core processor along with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 video card. Other features include a whopping 6 GB of RAM, a Blu-ray/HD DVD drive in addition to the standard DVD read/write drive and multicard reader, running Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. It's all topped off with a Sceptre 20.1" monitor, an NZXT "Avatar" gaming mouse, and a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard. Altogether, this monster has power and features to spare, and we threw a bunch of games at it to see how it all stacks up.

Next month PC gamers in the US will be able to buy a retail version of X3: Terran Conflict that includes the new expansion pack Aldrin Missions. But Mac gamers will also be able to play the space trading-sim game as well. In a recent announcement on their X-Universe newsletter, the game's developer Egosoft announced plans to release the game for the Mac platform in April.

The port is being handled by Virtual Programming Ltd. which claims to have created an all new technology to port PC games to the Mac. In fact about a month after X3: Terran Conflict is released the same company will also release a Mac port of the previous game in the series X3: Reunion. That particular title was released before using the Cider port technology but apparently gamers were not too happy with the conversion, hence the move for a do-over with Virtual Programming's tech.