In another blow for it’s competition, and common sense, Apple have successfully filed a patent claim against HTC. The ruling states that HTC have until April 19, 2012 next year to modify their software or their phones will no longer be able to be sold within the United States.
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Bethesda Softworks have announced that the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be getting the Skyrim Creation Kit to enable modding of the game using the same tools used to create it. PC players will be able to download this software for free from January 2012. They will also be rolling out a new Wiki and videos to help modders get started.
Bethesda have been working closely with Valve to integrate the Steam Workshop into the Skyrim Creation Kit. Users will be able to submit, browse, rate and download mods through Steam all for free and at the push of a button.
This is fantastic news considering the huge amount of mods that have been released for Skyrim over the past 3 weeks and with the integration of the Steam Workshop we should start to see this service utilised across more games in the future.
For the full press release see here.
The Steam Workshop
“Contribute to the future of your favorite Steam games!”
The Steam Workshop is Valve’s latest addition to Steam and currently only works with Valve’s Team Fortress 2, where players can submit their own created items, like hats or other insignificant aesthetic bits, which Valve may add into the game. Users can also rate and review others items.
The scope of the workshop is the possibility of easier modding, which we will soon see with the Skyrim tools released in January, easier for the mod developers and easier for the players to download and use the mods. And we’re all very excited by it.
AJ & Akardo
BlizzCon 2011 started today with CEO and Founder, Michael Morhaime, making some big announcements, followed by a crowd favourite, Chris Metzen.
Biggest announcements for each of Blizzard’s big franchises include the new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, which was leaked several months ago but has now been made official.
With the new expansion, there will be new PvE zones and general content, along with the new race (of Pandas) which can be played by both Alliance AND Horde, the new class, Monk, and the level cap goes up to 90. There will also be a new talent system, and more PvE content that will convince you to play more out in the world, rather than sitting around cities.
Diablo III is now “on the home stretch,” said Metzen, with still no official release date, due to Blizzard’s usual process of it being released “when it’s done.” Diablo 3 Collector’s Edition includes in-game items for D3, SC2, and WoW, as well as an art book, and a very awesome 4GB Soulstone USB device.
As of now, you can purchase a World of Warcraft Annual pass – a year’s subscription that you pay for monthly, but you get some excellent goodies, including a digital version of Diablo 3 for free, access to the new WoW expansion beta, and an in-game mount: Tyrael’s Charger.
With Starcraft 2, there has been various units released for Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, but the focus this year is on the expansion, Heart of the Swarm, which continues the epic storyline with Kerrigan in the campaign, as well as new multiplayer modes that are yet to be seen.
You can still purchase a BlizzCon 2011 Virtual Ticket to see the upcoming panels, competitions, and tournaments, and still get the Murkablo WoW in-game pet and see Foo Fighters live tomorrow night. Blizzard have also released three EPIC trailers for each game that can be found online now, including the especially epic Diablo 3 trailer, The Black Soulstone.
Akardo
Yesterday it was announced that Steve Jobs had passed away at the age of 56 due to terminal cancer. This sent shockwaves throughout the world, not just to Apple lovers or tech fans but rival companies (Bill Gates), world leaders (Bill Gates) and more. Everyone is mourning the loss of a great inventor. Some have proclaimed him as the modern Henry Ford (Creator of the first modern production car) and I’d be inclined to agree. After returning to Apple in 1997 he’s headed a company which has sparked a massive technological innovation for our generation.
He made music portable with the launch of the Ipod, smart phones simple and cool with the launch of the Iphone and he caused tablets to actually take off on a large scale with the Ipad, something even Microsoft couldn’t pull off some years ago. Continue Reading
After months of teasing, City of Heroes has gone free2play for everyone, with the ability to pay for extras, and if you have paid for it in the past, then you get “Premium Status!”
The Cryptic Studios game now runs under a “Paragon Rewards” scheme, meaning you get reward tokens for purchasing a subscription, which means you will earn reward point when you pay for things.
With the new rewards scheme, you will earn 1 point for every month of subscription, plus another one every 12 months, and another one for every 1,200 Paragon Points you buy (which is approximately $15), these points are spent on account-wide benefits, like XP boosters, temporary powers, and enhancement unslotters and boosters.
It has been designed this way so that it is everyone can see how much of a veteran everyone else is, so you can see who are the real veteran players around as they will have lots of bells and whistles on their cape. Though it’s a little odd, to unlock things like powers, and it seems even classes, by paying for them, this is an interesting method not many people have adopted.
City of Heroes is yet another game to fall to the free2play model, along with DC Universe which was announced last week, but City of Heroes has been going a long time, since 2004, and it has held out quite well until now.
This is one of the few games that has had good content constantly dished out, in the form of “issues” – like a comic book – there has been over 20, with this one being the 21st, changing the game name to City of Heroes: Freedom.
You can play the game for free as of today, and if you have paid for the game in the past, then you should be upgraded to Premium Status straight away, so a warm welcome to returning players.
Blizzard Entertainment have announced Foo Fighters as the musical guests at BlizzCon 2011.
The press release was released yesterday, announcing the headliners for the closing concert of this year’s BlizzCon on the 21-22 Oct.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said: “We’re pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters’ long and illustrious career,” which you can’t argue with, they had Ozzy himself only two years ago.
BlizzCon first started in 2005 with only about 8000 people attending, this year’s Con is looking more like 30,000+ people, and the guests for the closing concert included Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftain, a comedian, and The Offspring. Since then, it has just got bigger and bigger, with Ozzy Osbourne, and the D (Tenacious D) rocking the halls of Anaheim – just as Foo Fighters will do next month.
As of BlizzCon 2009, it was available live via internet stream and covered both days as well as exclusive interviews and discussion, this was available for a much more reasonable price of around £25, and the system is much improved as you now have choice over four halls on what to watch and when, plus it counts as a front row seat to see the closing ceremony.
This year, expect to see some Starcraft 2 updates tournaments from literally the best players around, plenty of World of Warcraft coverage, and probably most significant this year, Blizzard’s third franchise which has just gone into closed beta, the much anticipated: Diablo 3.
BlizzCon will run over two days on the 21 and 22 of October, and there are still an unallocated number of virtual tickets available from the website, which will give you great views for developer panels, competitions, tournaments, and the closing ceremony, not to mention the World of Warcraft in-game pet, Murkablo!
I’m away from home at the moment Dog/House sitting so anything I was writing about is more or less on hold. John Walker’s article for Rock, Paper, Shotgun on Blizzard’s insistence* on turning single player games into MMO’s needed reposting however, if only to get as many people aware of this nonsense as possible.
You can’t pause. In fact, in most ways, the game acts like an MMO. For instance, quit it, and you’re given the optional cooldown to have your player clear the server properly. But it’s not an MMO. It’s not even close to an MMO. So when I’m playing the single-player game, and I’m in the middle of a frenzied mob, and there’s a knock at the front door, there’s nothing I can do. As happened to me yesterday. Twice. On another occasion I was surprised by a phone call that led to my having to do some other things. I’d safely left my character in a cleared area, but long between checkpoints. When I came back to the PC, I’d been idle for too long and the game had logged me out. – John Walker
Anyway, here is the link to the full article, if you are considering buying Diablo III you really should read it before placing that order…
How Diablo III’s DRM Will Affect You.
Diablo III has been delayed until the early part of next year, so there is a while for Blizzard to go back on this ridiculous decision, and a while for you to decide if it is enough to stop you buying the game.
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* In my opinion because it gives them more control and money rather for any of the reasons they claim about making the game better.
There have been rumours flying round all day about Valve announcing a new entry into the Counter-Strike series and it’s just been announced. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been announced for release in early 2012. Here’s the full press release from Valve below:
Next Gen Console, PC, and Mac Release Targeted for Early 2012.
Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO).
Targeted for release via Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam (for PC and Mac) in early 2012, CS: GO will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched exactly 12 years ago (CS beta 1, August 1999).
CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.
“Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999,” said Doug Lombardi at Valve. “For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS’ award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac.”
CS: GO is being developed by Valve in cooperation with Seattle-based Hidden Path Entertainment. The title is targeted for release in early 2012 and will be playable at this year’s PAX Prime and London Games Festival.
For more information, please visit the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Steam page.
AJ
I can’t condone piracy, but each step like this to curb it is one step closer to a government/corporate controlled internet. Carry on like this and you will only be able to see the news that they want you to see, personal websites and smaller concerns will disappear as only corporations will be able to afford the inevitable fees that will have to be imposed so the ISPs can enforce these things. The internet will end up like your cable TV package, with only the channels you paid for.
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On the 20th January 2011 Paradox Interactive held their press conference in New York and announced that since they started back in 2003 they have had a 1000% increase in their revenue. Whilst this doesn’t mean much in terms of turnover without actual numbers it does show how rapidly their company is growing and expanding. Incredible stuff as they mainly focus on the genres not normally touched by mainstream developers including simulation games and strategies with in depth historical accuracy.
Gaming and Tech Network 