2011年10月31日星期一
Diablo 3 Auction House Good or Evil - S
The internet has spent a lot of time talking about the Diablo 3 auction house already, and of course G4 is no different. On this week's Soapbox, Adam Sessler will weigh in on what he thinks real money transactions in-game could mean for the industry as a whole and what the future might bring if this turns out to be a success. Will you hand over your hard-earned cash for some epic loot?Or will you do it the old fashioned way and grind your way to greatness? Sessler's Soapbox: Diablo 3's Auction House » Subscribe to G4's WEB SHOWS Video Podcast:
Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition content
At this rate there won't be much left for Activision to reveal at its Call of Duty XP event this weekend. A picture of what reportedly an ad for the Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition has seemingly revealed all its content. The premature reveal (pictured), which was supposed to be saved for the Call of Duty XP event, shows all the goodies you'll get in the special Hardened Edition package of Infinity Ward's new shooter. According to the poster - scooped by Wired, it'll contain: - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game with unique disc art.- One year of membership in Call of Duty Elite.- "Founder status" on Elite with exclusive in-game emblem, player card, camouflage, clan XP boost and other exclusive benefits.- SteelBook case.- PlayStation Network exclusive: "Animated Timeline Theme."- Xbox 360 exclusive: "Special Ops Juggernaut Xbox Live Outfit."- Limited-edition "field journal" with more than 100 pages of "authentic military sketches, diagrams and written entries."Check back later this week for official confirmation and pricing. Mike Jackson
Console Sales Down In August According To
The NPD results for the month of August are in. I'll spare you the charts but the gist of it was hardware sales are down at $628.9 million dollars; 21% less than this time last year. That's not to say console weren't sold. Portable consoles did see a bump in sales compared to August 2010. The 3DS' drastic decrease in price can take credit for that.The number one console for the month of August was the Xbox 360. Again. It holds 43% of the current-gen console market with 308,000 units sold last month.Thanks to the PS3's price cut, the PS3 saw an "uptick" in sales. Now before you cry foul "why aren't you posting Sony's numbers?" It's because they didn't release them. They did however release a statement:"Despite inventory constraints at retail during the first half of August, PS3 hardware sales were very strong the last two weeks of the month following the $50 price cut and the new inFAMOUS 2 bundle. The new PS3 price point, combined with PlayStation Move and the industry's strongest lineup of exclusive titles, including Uncharted 3 and Everybody Dance, positions us for an amazing holiday season."We've also got a breakdown of the NPD Software Analysis for August. But now it's time to fess up. Who bought a new console last month?
2011年10月30日星期日
Warhammer 40K Space Marine multiplayer t
Relic has pinged out this new multiplayer-focused trailer for Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - it's Gears of War-like action game take on the traditionally strategy-based Warhammer series.It shows off the game's class-based multiplayer mode, which lets 16-player battles and customisation options that apparently allow for 1.8 billion combinations of gear (but who's counting?). Space Marine stars Captain Titus, who has to defend the Imperial Forge World from an Ork invasion force. You can check out footage of the single-player campaign over here. Mike Jackson
2011年10月28日星期五
Lollipop Chainsaw Brings Cheerleaders And
Lollipop ChainsawNews (3)Previews (2)ReviewVideos (2)ScreenshotsCheats and WalkthroughsLollipop ChainsawNews (3)Previews (2)ReviewVideos (2)ScreenshotsCheats and Walkthroughs Juliet from Lollipop Chainsaw is my kind of girl. She's blond, loves candy, and can kick zombie butt not just with a chainsaw, but also with cheer attacks, all while having some guy named Nick's head chained to her skirt. If that's not awesome, I don't want to know what is.She also has a dodge attack where she playfully leapfrogs over the head of an approaching zombie, and she can use that move to set up execution moves as well. The first maxi-boss we encountered during our demo was a punk-rock zombie named Zed, who Juliet calls a "Hot Topic Sales Reject." One rule of thumb for the game is that if a zombie has a name, it means he or she is more powerful. After shoving his menu card aside (nice touch), Zed attacks Juliet with a microphone, and he'll later summon amplifiers that drop down on the stage, threatening to kill Juliet.Be sure to read our full Lollipop Chainsawpreview from Gamescom 2011.
2011年10月27日星期四
Star Fox 64 3D video shows alternate miss
If you loved the N64 game as much as we did you'll know all about the game's alternative routes in missions. If you don't, check out this video.One of the coolest things about the on-rails shooter was the ability to discover alternative routes through the levels which you triggered by fulfilling a number of undisclosed criteria. Finishing the level via the alternate route took you to new parts of the galaxy and you'll take some time to discover them all. This video gives away the answer to the first level's alternate route. Check it out:Another recently-released video showed off new weapons available in the multiplayer mode. The awesome Star Fox 64 3DS will hit UK shores on September 9, and US on September 11. Mike Jackson
2011年10月26日星期三
Gears of War 3 Live Stream Watch Us Play
Gears of War 3News (69)Previews (22)ReviewVideos (82)Screenshots (88)Cheats and Walkthroughs Our live stream of Gears of War 3 is now complete. You can catch the archived version of the stream below soon. Nikole Zivalich and Kevin Kelly went through the single player and multiplayer modes of Gears of War 3 including horde mode and beast mode. Be sure to let us know what you thought of the stream and remember you can submit your questions and comments for our future streams via our G4TV Facebook page, our G4TV Twitter page, and our G4TV YouTube page.Gears of War 3 is coming out exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 20.
2011年10月25日星期二
Pokemon In Classic Literature -- Nugget F
Your summer reading list just got longer with the addition of these amazing Pokemon books. Geekosystem has a collection of 15 classic books you were probably assigned in high school. All of you good students who read the Sparknotes saw a noticeable lack of Pokemon in these books. That wrong has been righted.Here are a few of my favorites.Check out Geekosystem for all 15 Pokemon in Literature pictures.
2011年10月24日星期一
Sony pre-TGS press conference dated - Vit
Sony is to hold a pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference next Wednesday, September 14. It's expected to be a Vita-focused event featuring plenty of game announcements - the platform holder's reportedly bringing almost 20 unannounced titles for the handheld to TGS.The press conference timing is one day after Nintendo's 3DS product announcement event and one day before TGS kicks off proper with keynotes from the likes of Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada and Sony worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida, whose speech title translates as 'The PS Vita's Full Details'.The company's likely to announce a Japanese release date for Vita and, with any luck, some more info on Western launch timeframes. Tom Ivan
2011年10月23日星期日
Extra Life Gamers, You're Our Only Hope
On October 15th G4 will be participating in Extra Life, an annual 24-hour video game marathon that raises money to help kids at Children's Miracle Network hospitals around the nation. I know what you're thinking. "How can I be a part of the magic?" Well, little Timmy, all you need to do is donate.If you want to pitch in, all you have to do is make a donation. Even if it's just $1, every little bit helps. Here's what to do to donate: Go to G4's Extra Life page, pick a G4 team-member to donate to, and have at it. Every dollar you donate goes to a hospital in the Children's Miracle Network, and none of your dollars go toward us buying expensive sunglasses, I promise. The change in your cup-holder could enrich a child's life forever.Gamers, it's up to you to step up and make the world a better place. Ask yourself, What Would John-117 Do? He would donate.
2011年10月21日星期五
Nintendo boss takes 3DS sales blame, 50%
Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata is to take a 50 percent pay cut after claiming the that the blame for poor early 3DS sales lies at his door. Addressing shareholders in Tokyo today, Iwata said (via Nikkei): "I feel heavily responsible for this kind of announcement we had to make."For cuts in fixed salaries, I'm taking a 50 percent cut, other representative directors are taking a 30 percent cut, and other execs are taking a 20 percent cut," he added, according to Kotaku.Iwata is said to earn roughly $2 million a year and design lead Shigeru Miyamoto $1.2 million.The decision to slash the price of the 3DS less than six months into its lifetime wasn't part of Nintendo's original strategy, but Iwata said it would help retailers plan for the end-of-year sales period and encourage developers to stick with the platform. The company will now make a loss on every 3DS sold.Iwata also reiterated that Nintendo doesn't intend to sell its games on non-Nintendo platforms.
2011年10月20日星期四
Star Wars The Old Republic Is Still Prob
Star Wars: The Old RepublicNews (112)Previews (33)ReviewVideos (158)Screenshots (177)Cheats and Walkthroughs BioWare wants to calm down fans who are fretting over comments made by Electronic Arts CFO Eric Brown during a recent investor call that suggested we won't be seeing the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG until next year. The plan is still for a late 2011 release, studio community manager Stephen Reid wrote in a website update, noting that the game is in "active and extensive testing."Reid allows for the possibility that a delay could occur, which he says is the reason Brown offered a different outlook, but he encourages fans to remain optimistic. "A possibility doesn't mean a certainty," he wrote."Despite what doom-sayers may try and tell you, we are still very much aiming to ship in the holiday 2011 window (AKA, before the end of the year)," he continued. "We're pushing out a major new build, we're getting in our external testers to look at it soon, and then we'll re-start our Game Testing Weekends."So don't go crazy and embrace the Dark Side just yet. After all, we're talking about the developer of Knights of the Old Republic here. The Force is strong with this one.Source: BioWare
2011年10月19日星期三
Twisted Metal delayed to 2012
PS3 exclusive Twisted Metal has been delayed from its previously targeted October 4 release until "early 2012" to allow for extra polishing, Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe said today. Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Jaffe said: "A lot of dedicated, supportive, passionate Twisted Metal fans have been waiting for the return of Calypso's demented contest for a long time but the truth is: we're just not ready yet."It sucks bad when games miss their announced launch dates. We're gamers too and we know how annoying it is. It's disappointing and frustrating and it really takes the wind out of your sails if you're a fan that has been looking forward to playing a title for a long time."Thing is, you gotta trust me when I tell you that - with this extra time for tuning and polish - the game is going to be so much better than it already is... There's a great, classic industry saying by legendary Nintendo designer - and personal hero - Shigeru Miyamoto that goes a little something like this: 'A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad until the end of time."We plan to ship the best Twisted Metal ever made... Most importantly, we plan on treating you - the kind folks who play our game (and pay our bills) - like the VIPs that you are. You only deserve our best and we appreciate your understanding as we take a little more time to guarantee that our best is what we deliver." Tom Ivan
2011年10月18日星期二
Crimecraft Expansion Interview
Our Players should be excited about this patch because they designed it. This is the Player Request patch and while we didn't deliver everything we wanted to, we delivered an enormous amount of new content and have hopefully put a smile on our players’ faces. Our dev team is of modest size, they are extremely talented and passionate about the product. They work their butts off and truly care about the Player experience. This team actually loses sleep at night worrying about player issues and negative forum posts. They were dedicated to delivering what our players wanted.。
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As with every patch and major release, our community is instrumental in helping drive development, and we’ve added multitudes of Player requests, such as more character customization options, refinements to character professions and skills, new playmodes, new weapon modification kits, new AUG’s, and much more.。
Casting the voices for the game was also something we considered carefully, approaching some of the best voices in animation. David Lodge, Yuri Lowenthal, Tom and Dorothy Fahn, and several other talented actors all brought their years of voiceover experience to the table to bring the many NPCs to life. By giving these characters true, recorded voices, the world itself becomes that much richer and more engaging, with each NPC becoming that much more memorable and unique.。
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We’ve also got your standard Shootout and Riot (team deathmatch and every man for himself) modes; a capture the flag mode called Snatch n Grab; and Capture the Zone (a king of the hill mode).。
We will also be introducing an ELO system that will attempt to match players against others of equal skill level. If the wait is too long, this system will slowly broaden the ELO rankings allowed to be paired up to begin the match. This ELO rank will increase or decrease after the match in proportion to the ELO rank of those you played with and against as well as the outcome of the match.。
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One of our Facebook fans said it best when she wrote, “New patch is THA BOMB, son!” This update was based on feedback from our community and that’s been our driving mantra for a long time here at Vogster Entertainment. And it’s not about to stop. We’re already working on our next expansion!。
I recently had to chat with Crimecraft developer Vogster Entertainment about its newest Bleedout expansion, and how it’s all been going so far. The episodic releases of content have meant a surge of new and returning players alike, so OnRPG turns its spotlight towards the current state of the game, and July’s major update.。
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Ha, that one’s easy! Everyone who knows me knows I live and die by my LMG. I’ve been using it since Beta. Originally I was an Oslo loyalist, but since we brought the Raskolnikov into the game, that’s what I’ve been using. I’ve got a profile set up now with a sniper rifle for some of the bigger maps, but I usually end up getting frustrated and going back to my LMG anyway!。
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The expanded PvE mode brings Safeguard to our Old Sunrise City Hall map, but with a new twist. Instead of one defense core, the players must defend three cores against waves of AI enemies. It’s an intense change of pace for one of our most popular game modes!。
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We’re heavy believers in events and try to have them as often as possible and at varied times throughout the day.。
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The reception to both the memberships and cash shop has been great, users can more easily progress to our endgame if they wish and the cash shop allows us to provide some really cool cosmetic clothing for our users.。
by Bryan King, OnRPG Journalist。
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The Black Market is a great way to pimp out your character, try out different combat builds, and experience additional gameplay content. However, no unbalancing items will ever be offered for purchase through the Black Market… the best items will always be earned through gameplay. While a players gear certainly helps sway the tide of a match, our game is a shooter at its core, so it will ultimately come down to the skill of the player.。
Finally, each player has a power point rating that covers their equipment, level and their Kill/Death ratio.。
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The addition is Assault, Capture, Defend. This game mode randomly places a Core around the map that two teams fight over in three distinct phases. The opening phase has the two teams battling for position until the Core unlocks. Once unlocked, the teams must capture the Core by standing next to it and keeping opponents away from it. Once one team captures it, the other team must release it by standing next to it and clearing out their competition. Once released, the Core is moved to another random spot on the map and the process begins again.。
In 2012, a catastrophic event known as “The Bleedout” occurred. The world’s oil wells suddenly and mysteriously ran dry. In less than a year, society had devolved 200 years as power plants ceased to function, government power waned, modern technology failed, and lawless gunmen seized power.。
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My favorite PvP game mode is probably Turf War. It’s a very tactical mode with great potential for the back and forth momentum swings that I love. For PvE, I really enjoy Headhunt for the frantic action and the solid rewards. It’s possible to rack up a lot of loot containers in Headhunt, plus fighting all the way to the boss can be extremely satisfying, especially when you’re working as a team with other players.。
With the release of Bleedout we introduced a wealth of new content and changes to the game. Here's a quick overview:。
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These are all in addition to events we run on our forums for screenshots, scavenger hunts and more.。
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Well first I can say we are definitely addressing this issue. I'll lay out the general direction we are headed - our new match-making system will go through a Beta process and our community will help us fine tune it.。
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Out of this chaos emerged Sunrise City as an independent city state among the wastelands. Rebuilt by a tenuous agreement between six of the city’s biggest criminal organizations, Sunrise City maintains a façade of normalcy through its puppet government, the Municipality. This political system guards the citizens from the numerous outside threats that wish to destroy everything Sunrise City is, consisting of Reunification US Military Squadrons to money hungry mercenaries controlled by the remnants of society’s major corporate powers.。
We’ve got a total of 11 game modes (three PvE and 8 PvP) and 17 maps. There’s a lot of variety built in there, and when you add in custom game options like Vampire Mode and Friendly Fire, you can see that we have a big buffet of match choices.。
Next we run daily events where a GM sets up a match and offers the winners prizes, usually in-game cash and rare mats. These events are often something fun like “Kill the GM,” a Riot match where whoever kills the GM the most times wins the prize.。
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Players also gain PvP Rank for each map for simpler ranking of a player’s killing ability.。
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On the “play the match” UI the player won’t see the list of active servers anymore. They will be able just to select their preferences and press the “Fight” button. The system will handle everything else and join the player into the appropriate instance.。
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Reputation is a measure of a player’s commitment to the game, and takes into account all game activities including match play, crafting, job, missions, tournaments, you name it. The players at the top of the Reputation Leaderboard are marked on your lobby minimap by their rank.。
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The Bleedout Campaign delivers 10 weeks of episodic content to Players and tells the story of the Bleedout. Each episode delivers about 2.5 hours of PvE content (Players can also play cooperatively). Comicbook style cinematics open and close each episode which is illustrated by an all-star lineup of comic artists including, Tim Bradstreet, Ben Templesmith, Howard Chaykin, Sanford Green and Nathan Fox amongst others.。
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My name is Michael Mendheim and I'm Executive Producer of CC: Bleedout. Some past games I've produced / directed include, Robocalypse, BattleTanx, Army Men, Def Jam and Mutant League Football.。
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Answered by Executive Producer Michael Mendheim。
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Each of the episodes focus on a different NPC and themes, which offer different perspectives on the world scenario and different bits of insight into what led to this ultimate Age of Ruin. It felt appropriate to get different popular comic artists to portray those different perspectives, based on their individual unique visual styles, to really showcase the broad variety of characters and agendas. Each artist brought their A-game to the table, and really nailed the different moods and themes assigned to them: Ben Templesmith’s chapter is suitably creepy, Glenn Fabry’s chapter captures the violent LOCK STOCK vibe, Howard Chaykin’s chapter really highlights the sultry smarm of local politics, etc.。
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The New Age of Ruin is a complete overhaul of the art direction of our three major community areas (Downtown, Oceanside and Midtown). This is a radical transformation to provide the perfect ambiance to the Bleedout Campaign -- an artistic style that represents a gritty, near future, urban setting.。
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The team is now focused on our major expansion release, which is targeted for this fall. This expansion is going to be bigger than Bleedout and it's going to rock the PC MMORPG Free to Play gaming world. We are just starting to actively involve our community in the design. The team is super-pumped and we can't wait to start talking about it...but not just yet.。
Our players take part in a large number of events on a daily basis. We have daily and weekly tournaments for our competitive players. These are highly structured ladder tourneys that give out some of the best rewards in the game.。
In addition to XP and money, players earn Reputation, Rank and Power Points based on their performance. Players are ranked in game by a number of leaderboards that are based on a player’s in-game skill and activities.。
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Our game uses a hybrid Free2Play model, which includes both expanded memberships and a microtransaction cash shop. We currently offer three membership tiers: Normal, Deluxe, and Premium. The Deluxe and Premium membership tiers offer increased experience, cash, and loot rates. These memberships also received gold bars (our cash currency) each month and receive full access to the Bleedout Campaign.。
Our clan system revolves around gangs, and membership in a gang offers a lot of privileges unlike anything you’ve seen in a typical shooter. First of all you get crafting bonuses since the gang can have a “Crafting Specialty” with regular production of needed ingredients. Next, you have Gang Clubs, where gang leaders can create a nightclub with unique vendors and the gang gets a cut of the action. We also have a highly structured Gang Wars system where gangs can challenge each other for bragging rights and cold (in-game) cash.。
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The Reputation system gives the Players an overall cumulative stat that measures their progress. Player's earn points for PvP Combat, wealth, character progress, leadership (Gangs), special achievements and time in game. Players can monitor how well they are doing by viewing the Reputation Leaderboards.。
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The player should get more rewards (experience and cash) if they accept more game types and locations and this should be transparent for the players. By doing this we will push most of the players to select the “Quick Play” option and this gives us the possibility to create the teams for the games much faster so the players won’t wait for a next match for too long.。
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The most popular game types to date have been Robbery and Turf War. In Robbery, two teams battle to steal money from the opposing teams safe. In Turf War, each team fights to control five strategic points on the map.。
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New maps include, Belly Street, a smaller, close quarter combat arena, Deckard Harbor, a dense maze of walkways in the port district, Municpal Bank, a heavily guarded financial fortress for the ultimate PvP robbery, and Maxym Alley, a small, intense map with few places to hide.。
For this update, we added one new PvP game mode and expanded a PvE game mode.。
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For PvE, we have Stockpile, a solo game mode where users battle bots and bosses to collect loot; Safeguard, a coop mode where users protect a “Defense Core” from wave after wave of AI foes; and Headhunt, a coop mode where users fight through an intense AI defense to kill the enemy boss.。