Guerrilla Games has been hard at work making the most explosive shooter possible on the PlayStation 3 system. At E3, the development team gave you a glimpse of Killzone 3 in 3D where they walked away with Best Shooter, Best 3D graphics, and Best PS3 game to name a few of the E3 awards received.

Last month, we unveiled elements of Killzone 3’s stellar new multiplayer at gamescom and revealed new vehicles.

Today, on behalf of Guerrilla Games, we are happy to announce the official release date of Killzone 3 in North America is February 22nd, 2011!

We’re at PAX today so if you’re at the show, please stop by the Killzone booth and check out multiplayer for yourself.

http://blog.us.playstation.com

Perhaps it isn’t enough for you to know that Firefall — Red 5 Studios’ first release — is full of guns and jetpacks? Would it help if you knew that the lead designer was also headed up Tribes? Ahhh, good!Firefall is a “team-based action shooter” featuring “hundreds of players” completing objectives and battling to the death in a “dynamic open world.” And, frankly, it looks great.

The title is free-to-play and relies on an in-game marketplace for profit. We might normally balk at such a monetization system, but we were thoroughly impressed by the game’s debut gameplay trailer, not to mention the pedigree behind Firefall. If you’re as enticed as we are, you’ll be glad to know that Red 5 is accepting applications for the game’s beta starting right now.

www.joystiq.com

“Duke Nukem Forever,” a video game synonymous with never being released, is finally being released.

The first person shooter about a space marine with a penchant for off-color humor who battles aliens with increasingly destructive weapons, was to be the fourth installment in a series of games that garnered critical praise and generated controversy for its depiction of women. After 10 years in development, 3D Realms, the studio behind the game, announced it was shutting down in 2009.

The game is being finished by Gearbox Software and will be published by Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the “Grand Theft Auto” series. The game is being shown to consumers and the press for the first time at a video game convention today. Gearbox hopes to release the game next year.

Announced in 1997, “Duke Nukem Forever” went through numerous changes as developer 3D Realms tried to keep pace with new technology its competitors were introducing into their games. As Scott Miller, then owner and CEO of 3D Realms, puts it: “We were probably too much of a perfectionist about the game.  When some other game had some great feature come out we wanted to match it.” In addition, the studio managed to produce a slate of other games, like 2006’s “Prey.” “We’d been distracted on other games like ‘Prey.’ It was a combination of those things. We were trying to build a game that was too great,” he says.

The storied game even spawned its own internet meme: The “Duke Nukem Forever” List. The list detailed things that have happened between when the game was announced and when the plug was pulled on it. Sample entries include: “Steve Jobs was still running NeXT when Duke Nukem Forever was announced.”  And “In April of 1997, Google, eBay, and the term “weblog” didn’t exist.”

3D Realms eventually ran into financial difficulty and shut down in May of 2009 after laying off about 40 people. At the time Take-Two Interactive claimed to own the publishing rights to “Duke Nukem Forever,” which 3D Realms disputed.

Following the shutdown, the lawsuits began. The parties eventually settled their differences and have declined to discuss terms. As for who actually owns the intellectual property of “Duke Nukem Forever”–either 3D Realms or Take-Two Interactive—both declined to comment. However, Randy Pitchford, CEO  of Gearbox Software, says an announcement regarding the future of the IP would be made on Sunday at the company’s panel at the video game convention PAX 2010, which is being held in Seattle, Washington.

Pitchford actually worked on the “Duke Nukem 3D”, the precursor to “Duke Nukem Forever,” before leaving the company to start, along with others, Gearbox Software. Over the years Gearbox has made successful titles such as the “Brothers in Arms” series and the recent “Borderlands.”

According to Pitchford, Gearbox began finishing “Duke Nukem Forever” in late 2009. “Clearly the game hadn’t been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created,” he says. “The approach and investment and process at 3d Realms didn’t quite make it and it cracked at the end. With Gearbox Software we brought all those pieces together. It’s the game it was meant to be.”

That means that the game will be a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D and will have both single player and multiplayer. “Aliens come and say they’re going to be our friends and Duke knows this isn’t going to work out,” Pitchford says. “Duke once again is in the pivotal spot and its up to him to save the world.”

The game is currently expected to ship in 2011, although given its history, Pitchford is understandably reluctant to be more specific. “We’re in the polishing phase now. This is a game where we can not make a promise we can not fulfill,” he says. “We need to get past the shock and awe and then we can go to all the retailers and first parties and work out a launch plan.”

http://blogs.wsj.com

Looking great can’t wait for KillZone 3, I really liked KillZone 2 and personally think it’s the best first person shooter for the consoles.

www.famitsu.com

Producers Dan Bunting and David Vanderhaar took the stage at the LA Coliseum to talk three pillars for the new CoD multiplayer game: “Compete, customize and create.” Competition was the first element — beyond the standard Call of Duty multiplayer elements, Treyarch has added a whole new mode called Combat Training, which brings AI opponents to the mix. Yes, bots have arrived in Call of Duty.

Currency, said Treyarch, is useless unless you can gamble with it, so Treyarch has created four new multiplayer modes that revolve around gambling CP, called Wager Matches. In these matches, only the top three players get paid at the end of the match, and everyone else loses their ante CP. “One in the Chamber” pits players against each other armed with just one pistol and one bullet — killing someone else earns you an extra bullet, but missing leaves you with just a knife. “Sticks and Stones” gives everyone a tomahawk and a crossbow, and hitting an opponent with a tomahawk automatically bankrupts them. “Gun Game” has players progressing through the various gun tiers — a kill moves you up to a stronger weapon, but dying drops you back down. Finally, “Sharp Shooter” gives everyone a series of random weapons, with everyone switching to the next randomly selected one after a certain point.

Treyarch has also implemented “Contracts,” which players can buy with CP and then pay off when certain criteria are met in the game within a certain time limit. Promise to kill 50 players in a certain amount of matches, and achieving the goal will pay back more CP — but failing will cost you what you paid in the first place.

Finally, the developer also created the ability to record and playback matches during development, so it added a video recording system into the game. Players can save, share and browse recorded videos — the system doesn’t look quite as in-depth as what Bungie’s put together in the past, but we’ll have to see it in action.

www.joystiq.com

Activision has said it wants to beat Modern Warfare 2’s sales with Black Ops.

Call of Duty’s European GM, Michael Sportouch, has told MCV that the publisher intends to surpass the sales record set last year by the Infinity Ward mega-shooter.

“We’ve a fantastic game and a fantastic marketing campaign so our ambition is to set another record like we did with Modern Warfare 2,” he said.

“The resources invested behind Black Ops in terms of development of the game and the marketing are the highest ever for Activision. Our ambition is not only to be the biggest game but also the biggest entertainment launch of the year.”

Sportouch also confirmed the Black Ops’ ad campaign will kick off tomorrow, with a 60-second TV spot that will air during the Euro 2012 qualifier between England and Bulgaria.

After that, he insisted it would be “non-stop”.

Treyarch blew its load on Black Ops multiplayer in LA last night, confirming new gameplay modes and thensome.

Get our play impressions here.

Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on November 10

www.vg247.com

Sometimes it takes a crafty, steel-nerved individual to leak an unreleased phone’s details ahead of time. And then sometimes all it takes is a negligently uploaded video. An official promo for the Milestone has popped up on YouTube before quickly being yanked by Moto. The Droid 2‘s international sibling is apparently its carbon copy by another name: it features a 1GHz OMAP SOC, 512MB of RAM, a 5 megapixel imager, and predictably Android 2.2 as the OS (complete with Flash Player and Froyo’s native hotspot ability). We’ll go out on a limb here and guess that this means the rest of the world will be getting its dose of Moto’s latest and greatest QWERTY slider in very short order.

www.engadget.com

The T-Mobile G2 — which will likely be known as the HTC Desire Z outside the States — is shaping up to be one of the more anticipated Android launches of 2010, and a handful of smaller-than-we’d-like official press shots that have just leaked over on Cell Phone Signal are doing nothing to make us believe otherwise. The site says it believes silver (pictured) will be the only color offered, and considering that we haven’t seen any leaks in any other shades, that seems like a reasonable assumption. Then again, a white, red, or black version of this would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it?

www.engadget.com

The original Samsung Wave — which happens to be the first production Bada device — sports some pretty awesome specs, which probably doesn’t make much sense for a proprietary platform that walks a very fine line between the smartphone and feature phone labels, has an immeasurably small fraction of the market uptake Android has, and isn’t available in any form in the US. To that end, Sammy’s toning things down a bit for round two in the form of the oddly-named Wave 723, which eschews the original’s Super AMOLED display for a 3.2-inch TFT LCD but still manages to squeeze in 802.11n plus a 5 megapixel AF cam with LED flash. The phone’s based on Bada 1.1, which adds UI auto-scaling — in other words, Samsung’s prepping developers to make sure their bountiful Bada apps work seamlessly across devices of different resolutions. No word on pricing, dates, or regional availability at this point, but it’s reasonable to say that it’s devices like the 723 that’ll make or break Bada in the long term. Why this thing isn’t just an Android 2.2 phone with TouchWiz 3.0, though… well, only Samsung can answer that one, we suppose.

www.engadget.com

some pictures, as they say more than words.

www.nvnews.net

There really isn’t a huge amount to add.

These latest DC Universe Online screens show bat people punching each other and some dude dressed as a tiger. Different strokes and all, but you have to question the practicality of spending your days covered in leaves and wearing a green leotard.

The MMO’s out on November 2 for PC and PS3 in the US. Britishers get it on Novermber 5.

www.vg247.com

Yep, the rumors are true.  AMD does indeed intend to do away with the ATI name, eliminating the “ATI Radeon” co-branding the company has steadfastly maintained since its acquisition of ATI.  The firm briefed us on its plans late last week and explained several factors influencing its decision.

As one might expect, a major motivator is the fact AMD plans to introduce a range of new products incorporating both AMD microprocessor technology and a Radeon graphics tech on the same chip.  The first fruits of the CPU-GPU “Fusion” initiative are slated to arrive soon.  “Ontario,” which will combine two copies of the low-power “Bobcat” CPU core with Radeon graphics, is slated to ship before the end of the year. The more powerful “Llano” APU, which mates quad Phenom II-class CPU cores with presumably a more capable GPU, is scheduled for the first half of 2011.  Obviously, the combination of the firm’s CPU and GPU technologies into single-chip products could create some consumer confusion, if folks were to continue to think of AMD and ATI as separate entities—especially if the ensuing marketing messages emphasize the benefits of CPU-GPU integration.

Furthermore, AMD tells us it feels confident in making this change right now because its graphics business is “on a roll,” having surpassed rival Nvidia in discrete graphics shipments last quarter, according to analyst estimates, and having secured high-profile design wins with the likes of Apple.  Also, the chastening of Intel via its settlement with the FTC gave AMD some extra assurance that the expansion of its brand into graphics wouldn’t hurt its relationships with major PC makers.

Of course, such decisions aren’t made without market research, and AMD shared a snippet of its internal research on this topic with us.  We think it’s worth relaying verbatim, in the form of a handsome corporate PowerPoint slide:

www.techreport.com

G-Man

This footage shows three views. Nose cam, In Car and Chase View.

To read more about GT5 head to http://www.gtplanet.net or for general sim racing news, head to http://www.racesimcentral.com

Whats next:

• OpenGL specific tweaks, at the moment i can’t think of a good OpenGL driven game any suggestions are welcome. Doom4 is the best i can think of for the moment..

It’s not that we expected everyone who worked on this game to sound like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, but … no, actually, that’s exactly what it is. See the video after the break.

www.joystiq.com

Greetings, citizens of the Koprulu sector! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is celebrating its one-month anniversary and we’re extremely excited to witness the amazing community that’s come together around the game. To that end, we want you to know we are hard at work on the first feature and balance patch, and expect to have it completed and available by the middle of September. Patch 1.1 will contain a number of improvements including additional mod features, Editor improvements and bug fixes, some custom game improvements, support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and more. We’d also like to share some specific plans for this patch with you.

To begin, we’ve heard a lot of feedback from our global community about standardized hotkey options. We’re happy to announce that in patch 1.1 we are going to make the Standard (US) and Standard for Lefties (US) hotkey options available in all regions.

Balance Changes

We have several balance changes in store. One general change we’re making is that friendly units will no longer provide vision after being killed. Enemy units previously revealed will no longer be targetable. Now let’s break down the additional balance changes we’re implementing.

Maps

We’re going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.

Protoss

We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby “proxy” gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.

Terran

There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.

Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we’re changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.

Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We’re aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.

Zerg

Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.

And Beyond…

We are reading your posts on the forums and creating lists of features and bugs to address in future patches. We have mid- to long-term plans to further evolve the Custom Game experience, and soon, enhance our social features with the addition of chat channels. We will be sharing more specific information in the coming weeks. As with all of our previous games, we will support StarCraft II for many years to come. Your feedback and participation is critical in making this not only the best game it can be, but also the most engaged gaming community in the world. We look forward to the implementation of patch 1.1, as well as sharing our plans for our future gameplay and Battle.net features.

We’ll see you online!

If you haven’t heard, the Xbox 360 version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will ship on two discs (Limited Edition pictured above). Here’s a tip: You can save yourself some precious disc-swapping time if you install at least Disc One to your hard drive.

Although Lords of Shadow‘s story is told in an episodic, linear fashion, you’ll want to revisit earlier levels to find missing collectibles and beat any additional challenges. Without installing, you’ll have to swap discs every time you want to revisit earlier levels. However, if you’ve installed the data, you won’t ever have to swap discs again; you’ll be able to continue playing with just Disc Two in the drive. It’s an interesting way of overcoming the DVD format’s size limitation — a clever trick that could be employed by future multi-disc releases.

www.joystiq.com

New Features

OpenGL ES 2.0 support

• ATI Catalyst 10.8 delivers full support for OpenGL ES 2.0 specification
• Enables 3D accelerated graphics within a web browser that supports OpenGL ES 2.0
• Supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

Video Quality default options

• The Default video options for ATI Catalyst have been greatly enhanced to deliver the best quality video viewing experience. Users can also choose to apply these settings to Internet Video via a new checkbox control within the ATI Catalyst Control Center
• In the “Advanced Color” section, the following defaults are now enabled:
  • Color vibrance (default = 40)
  • Flesh tone correction (default = 50)
  • Brighter Whites
• In the “Advanced Quality” section, the following defaults are now enabled:
  • Edge-enhancement (default = 25)
  • De-noise (default = 64)
  • Mosquito Noise Reduction (default = 50)
  • De-blocking (default = 50)

  Note: Video Quality option settings can be accessed by launching the Catalyst Control Center and clicking on “Graphics”, then “Video” and “All Settings”.

Performance enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations

• Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration

Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II

• ATI Catalyst Control Center enabled Anti-Aliasing is now available for StarCraft II

Catalyst Application Profiles

The following application profiles are available with this release of Catalyst 10.8:

• Singularity – CrossFire profile update
• Mafia 2 – CrossFire profile update
• Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark – new CrossFire profile
• Lord of the Rings Online – new CrossFire profile
• Aliens Vs. Predator – CrossFire profile update

Performance Improvements

Far Cry 2

• Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations
• Performance increases 2-4% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire configurations
• Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series single and CrossFire configurations

Left 4 Dead 2

• Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 series configurations

Stormrise

• Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon HD 5500 series configurations

Resolved Issues

For All Windows Operating Systems

• HDMI default refresh rate now appears properly as 60 Hz under HDTV in Catalyst Control Center
• Catalyst Control Center – Basic wizard pane or resolution combo box in “Display Setting for Desktop Viewing” page no longer turns blank in basic view for component video mode
• “FSAA” is a selectable option in City of Heroes / City of Heroes Going Rogue

For the Windows 7 Operating System

• Desktop line corruption no longer observed after powering off the DP display and then turning it on while viewing Blu-ray content
• “Borderlands” no longer fails after a duration of gameplay
• Opening numerous windows in Adobe Photoshop CS5 no longer causes application to fail
• Re-sizing Windows Media Player while viewing 720/1080 WMV video content no longer causes the screen to turn black
• “ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead” game now works in CrossFire mode
• Shifting mouse cursor between displays no longer causes intermittent cursor corruption or system lock up

For the Windows Vista Operating System

• Catalyst Control Center no longer fails and displays error message while transcoding specific video files on 64-bit operating systems
• AVI video no longer lags during playback within Microsoft PowerPoint slide deck
• 3D and video settings in Catalyst Control Center are now retained after resume from sleep/hibernate

For the Windows XP Operating System

• Hardware acceleration is now enabled in PowerDVD
• Minor frame drops are no longer observed while viewing HD interlaced content

Known Issues

Under All Windows Operating Systems

• Catalyst Control Center: Enable dialog reposition does not show on proper monitor when system is configured with 4 displays

Under the Windows 7 Operating System

• Drag and Drop transcoded H264i content may show deinterlacing lines
• Desktop may dim after exiting “Mafia II” game on some cards
• Flickering may be visible while running 3D games on HDMI displays with Quad CrossFire enabled
• PowerDVD may exhibit blue and pink tint and might not display smooth transition when adjusting brightness and contrast in Catalyst Control Center when viewing Blu-ray content
• Green texture corruption may be observed when resolution/video settings are changed in “Metro 2033″ game in DirectX 10 and 11 mode on some cards
• Frame drops may be visible during WinDVD Blu-ray playback with display resolution set to 25×16

Under the Windows Vista Operating System

• Corruption might be visible in “Doom 3″ and “Quake 4″ with ATI Radeon HD 4700 Series cards
• Performing bezel compensation on 3×2 Eyefinity configuration may cause the bezel group (resolutions) to go missing
• All but the primary display under Eyefinity configuation might become disabled while changing the preferred display at lowest Bezel compensated resolution
• Desktop may become corrupted during PowerDVD SD/Blu-ray content playback on 120Hz displays; pressing Alt+F4 will close PowerDVD and restore desktop
• Choppy HD playback might occur while changing color vibrance and fleshtone correction in Catalyst Control Center – Advanced Color

Downloads:
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows XP (32bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows XP (mobility)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows XP (64bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows XP (Media Center Edition)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows Vista (32bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows Vista (64bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows 7 (32bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows 7 (64bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows Vista/7 (mobility, 32bit)
ATi Catalyst 10.8 voor Windows Vista/7 (mobility, 64bit)
ATi CrossFireX Application Profiles

sorry i missed them, but still here they are and I’m working on them now.

And you thought they’d save this one for the sequel! BioWare has announced “Witch Hunt,” a new Dragon Age: Origins add-on that concludes the storyline and investigates the true motives of Morrigan, the sardonic witch known for delivering sick burns via verbal insult or fireball incantation. This will be of particular interest if you spent time, err, investigating Morrigan during the main quest.

As BioWare puts it dramatically, “Her plans and her whereabouts have remained a mystery… until now.”

Well, until September 7, when you’ll download Witch Hunt for $7 (or 560 MS/BioWare points) on PC, PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. The content will allow you to create a new, high-powered character or import your hero from Dragon Age: Origins and the Awakening expansion. “But whether you seek answers, revenge, or reconciliation with your lost love,” BioWare warns, “you may find more than you bargained for.”

That’s always nice when it comes to DLC, isn’t it?

www.joystiq.com

Updates to Counter-Strike: Source Beta have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Counter-Strike Source Beta

• Fixed a memory leak in the dedicated server.
• Fixed a problem that could cause the crosshair to expand briefly after the trigger is released.
• Made crosshair scale independently of framerate, matching the old behavior at 100 fps. This does not affect actual recoil, fire rate, or spread – only the expansion of the crosshair. Added cl_legacy_crosshair, which defaults to the new behavior.
• Made the crosshair for the Glock and Famas scale correctly upon firing in burst mode.
• Removed ability to jump to inaccessible locations using grenades (flashboosting). Added sv_enableboost (defaulted to 0) for those who prefer to allow this behavior.
• Fixed an issue with involving incorrect armor protection vs. grenade damage. Added sv_legacy_grenade_damage (defaulted to 0) to allow servers to revert to the original behavior.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the freezecam sound to be heard when spectating a player who dies.
• Fixed an issue that could cause KeyHintText to generate junk characters.
• Prevented ragdoll spasm that could occur when using the jointeam command.
• Addressed a problem with the sniper rifles that prevented unzooming during auto-reload after shooting all the bullets in a clip.
• Fixed an issue with the AWP and Scout that could cause their zooms to vibrate briefly after a reload.
• Fixed map cycling so that the cycle now starts from the map selected by the user instead of going back to the first map.
• Fixed mp_restartgame so that it resets MVPs as well as score and deaths.
• Removed fun fact from achievements summary screen and associated playerblotter functionality.
• Throttled warning messages for disabled achievements to no more than once every 60 seconds.
• Made disconnect messages wrap so they don’t get truncated.
• Made kick / disconnect messages more legible.
• Made the silhouette that appears when you hit AUTO-SELECT on the Terrorist choose a class screen fit within its borders.
• Made the ‘X’ that closes the achievements screen visible by default in 1280×720 resolution.
• Fixed lock radar rotation option in the GUI. Setting this option now works.
• Fixed a buffer overrun exploit that could be used to attack/crash servers.
• Fixed a crash at startup when no sound emitter scripts were loaded.
• Smoke grenades:
  • fixed occlusion bug.
  • made it bigger.
  • reduced grenade elasticity.
• De_Inferno
  • fixed known exploits and bugs.

Earlier this month rumors hit the internet that Gearbox Software had taken over full development of Duke Nukem Forever from 3d Realms. At the time Gearbox’s head man Randy Pitchford would not admit to the rumor but told Kotaku that more info would be revealed at PAX Prime 2010. Now the schedule for PAX Prime on September 3-5 reveals that Gearbox will be hosting a panel where it claims that it will be showing “never before seen footage of upcoming Gearbox releases.”

The PAX Prime Gearbox panel description claims that it will have “juicy exclusives, surprising disclosures, unbelievable scoops and behind the scenes access” to Gearbox’s future plans. At the moment we do know that Gearbox is prepping to release a fourth DLC mini-expansion for its 2009 shooter-RPG hybrid Borderlands. Gearbox’s web site currently shows three unannounced games listed along with Aliens: Colonial Marines, a long-in-development shooter for publisher Sega that Gearbox has said little about for nearly two years.

www.bigdownload.com

Just think of how sad you’ll be when you inevitably drop him into a pit of fire.

www.joystiq.com

Microsoft’s has told Advertising Age it will go OTT with its Halo: Reach marketing spend, promising it to be the biggest ever for one of its games.

Global product manager Michael Stout didn’t give exact figures, but Halo 3’s launch spend was $6.5 million back in September 2007.

Plans for the Bungie shooter’s advertising include 300 million Mountain Dews, 30 million bags of Doritos, a UFC sponsorship, live action TV spots and a robot in San Francisco.

Halo: Reach launches worldwide on September 14 for 360.

www.vg247.com

While Personal Computer modders were completely locked out of Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch’s confirmed modding tools will be available for Black Ops, no doubt to the delight of many.

“We plan to open the game up for modding sometime post-launch,” said a Treyarch staffer on the game’s forum.

“We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game. There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm.

“We have looked at it close enough to see that it is non-trivial and we will have to pick it up again post-launch. Right now we are completely focused on finishing the game.

“And, dev console: confirmed.”

The news will be welcomed in the PC community, which went flat-out nuts when Infinity Ward decided the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 wouldn’t include dedicated servers or modding.

Black Ops releases on November 9 for Personal Computer, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

www.vg247.com

Gametrailers

Youtube

this is a test for the new Cell-Systems Encoders. These encoders will provide you with embed codes that will keep your site valid, this is a must have for all bloggers

A LucasArts representative told Joystiq that there may be some tweaks before it’s set free, but Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will be getting a demo that’s very similar to what we played at Gamescom. We were also told that the forthcoming game’s demo will be made available publicly prior to retail launch on October 26.

The demo we played begins with returning protagonist Starkiller attempting to escape his cloney confines on Kamino. He plummets down a tower, avoiding obstacles en route, busts through a giant dome, and then fights his way out of the facility. Force pushes, mind tricks, and force lightning follow as the Dark Apprentice redux attempts to steal a Tie Fighter and get off the planet . And it appears there won’t be too long of a wait before you try the demo yourself — that is, if you’re not already in Germany attending the public days of Gamescom.

www.joystiq.com

Looking to get your hands on Shinji Mikami and Platinum Games’s new PS3 and Xbox 360 action title Vanquish? Your chance will come in just a couple of weeks. Sega is planning to release demo for both platforms on September 2.

Producer Atsushi Inaba revealed plans for the demo on the 21st during an interview session with Gamespot Japan that was conducted at the Akihabara leg of a Vanquish retail demo event.

The demo will be titled “Vanquish Official Demo – Velocity Attack” and will allow players to work through a prologue sequence along with a boss fight against Argos. Players will be able to try out casual and normal difficulty settings, along with the game’s auto aim feature (limited just to casual difficulty).

Those planning on attending the Tokyo Game Show starting on the 16th are in for a special treat. Inaba also said that the show’s Vanquish demo will be different from the downloadable demo. It will have additional playable areas. He also said to expect a stage that will have an appearance by a surprising character.

Development on Vanquish is already 100% complete, Inaba also revealed to the site. The game is due for release here on October 21.

www.andriasang.com

AMD introduced the 3DNow! ™ instruction set back in the K6-2 days to do Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instructions, otherwise known as vectorized instructions.  These were mainly used for graphics intensive applications and even audio processing. Since then, we have added many SIMD instruction sets to our processors, such as the widely used Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) instruction set and its successive versions.

3DNow! instructions are being deprecated and will not be supported in certain upcoming AMD processors. In those processors, the 3DNow! Instructions feature flag bit will not be set. This is indicated by EDX bit 31 of CPUID function 8000_0001h. This is a good time to remind developers just how important it is to check for features supported at runtime before using them.  We have always recommended this feature check at runtime as a best practice, but it becomes very important now to help prevent your program from failing if it tries to execute this instruction without first checking if the feature is supported.  Around the same time as 3DNow! instructions were developed, programmers were accustomed to using a model of ‘try and catch’ to check if a processor supported an instruction or instruction set.  This is when the application ‘tries’ to execute an instruction to see if it’s available.  If the application receives an Undefined Exception (#UD) from the processor, it believes the instruction set isn’t available.  These types of applications may not do well under newer virtual machines.  That’s subject for another blog though.

There is one exception.  The 3DNow! versions of the PREFETCH and PREFETCHW instructions are now in a class of their own and AMD plans to continue to support them. This can be checked by testing bit 8 of register ECX following a CPUID function 8000_0001 instruction. This feature flag bit is named 3DNowPrefetch in the CPUID Specification.

What does this mean for you?

If your software used 3DNow! instructions at any point in time you should confirm that you only take that code path after checking to see if the feature is supported during runtime, using CPUID.

Most likely, your code already has another code path to take, such as an SSE path, if 3DNow! instructions are not supported.  To reiterate, make sure that the code uses feature bits to determine when the code should take this path.  If the code uses the vendorID string rather than a feature bit to make the path determination, AMD processors that support SSE may end up taking a slower path as a result.

If you are interested in changing your 3DNow! code to SSE, you can reference Appendix A of the AMD64 Architecture Programmer’s Manual, Volume 5. It lists the recommended SSE substitutions for those considering porting 3DNow! code to SSE.

Also, note that deprecating 3DNow! instructions or any other instruction set can have an impact on migrating virtual machines between dissimilar hardware. This is another topic unto itself, but VMware addresses this issue here as it relates to 3DNow! and you can reference AMD’s own documentation regarding live migration:

• VMware: Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support
• Live Migration with AMD-V™ Extended Migration Technology

-Written by Randy VanderHeyden, Member of Technical Staff at AMD and Sharon Troia, Sr. Developer Relations Engineer

Related Links:

• CPUID Specification.
• AMD64 Architecture Programmer’s Manual, Volume 5 (see appendix A)
• VMware: Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor Support
• Live Migration with AMD-V™ Extended Migration Technology
• ADIT Video Series: Episode 6 – Using CPUID

Randy VanderHeyden is a software developer at AMD and Sharon Troia is a Developer Relations Engineer at AMD. Their postings are their own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

For those who’ve been wondering how the recently announced BioShock Infinite‘s universe relates (if at all) to the original BioShock … well, it would seem that answer isn’t coming anytime soon.

Irrational Studios’ big daddy, Ken Levine, told Joystiq at Gamescom today, “You can see from the gameplay perspective connections between the games, how it’s a BioShock game. I think we’ll learn over time about what and if the other connections are. But it’s really important to me that the same way if I had talked to people about ‘would you kindly’ or anything like that ahead of time, it would have taken away a lot of the experience. We want to protect the experience.”

When we politely pointed out that he had avoided answering the question on whether the game is set in the same universe, he simply reiterated, “We want to protect the experience.” He did eventually note regarding criticisms of the game’s name: “More will be understood in time. The name will become far less mysterious once you finish the game.” Yeah, great — that’s two agonizing years from now!

www.joystiq.com

1. The first map is a Firefight map named Glacier.
2. The second map is a Multiplayer map named Boardwalk.
3. The third map is a Multiplayer map named Countdown.
4. I don’t care if you don’t like the music. Be happy you get to see stuff early.

Continuing in the sad tradition of Halo 2 and 3 before it, Halo: Reach has apparently been leaked. Modders at Game-Tut.com found a way to trick Microsoft’s servers — which are currently hosting a $1250 download of the game’s files intended for game reviewers and meant to only be downloadable with a code. The site has yet to openly leak the files to the general public.

It appears that the game is leaking other places as well — at least one video shows off a tour of Forge in the game’s Firefight mode, and spoilers for the game can be found everywhere from Bungie’s official forums to NeoGAF (if you really want to see them, you can find them yourself).

What’s most puzzling is why the game is being distributed to reviewers on Xbox Live Marketplace, as Bungie will be holding the usual review events for Halo: Reach that it’s done with previous Halo releases. Whatever the reason, it seems to have facilitated an exceptionally early leak for such a high profile game.

www.joystiq.com

Respawn, the developer formed by the creators of Call of Duty after they were sacked by Activision, has yet to decide what game to make for new publisher Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts confirmed to Eurogamer that Respawn’s new game is further out than Insomniac’s unnanounced multiplatform game for Electronic Arts.

“The thing everybody needs to remember is they were starting at absolute zero,” David DeMartini, Electronic Arts Partners boss and the man responsible for sealing the deal with Respawn’s Vince Zampella and Jason West, told Eurogamer this morning at gamescom.

“This is two guys who really know what they’re doing having to go find a place for the team, buy chairs and desks and furniture, find new technology from the ground up, and pull a team together. I need to get HR people and contracts. There are all kinds of things and administration that need to take place.

“Amongst all that administration they’ve pulled together the core of a fantastic team and they’re starting to work on a whole bunch of ideas to try and find what is going to be the one right idea for us.

“It’s like the Pope coming from the group of cardinals,” DeMartini added. “You just wait for the smoke to come up and they share with you. We’re sitting there waiting for the smoke to come up and when it does we’ll call you.”

DeMartini said signing the sacked creators of Call of Duty felt great not because of the impact it had on rival publisher Activision, but because it helped Vince Zampella and Jason West get back on their feet.

“Most people would say you stuck it to Activision. People who look at Vince and Jason think, oh, you know, a couple of guys, highly successful, how much trauma could they be going through? They got fired by Activision.

“No matter how you slice it or dice it, no matter how many opportunities you have on the other side, getting fired is not fun.

“It was really rewarding to present them with an opportunity which allowed them and their families to land on their feet, and for them to start building a new thing together and open a new chapter of their lives.

“The Activision part, we win some, they win some. It goes back and forth. I don’t see it as some big competition.

“Sure, I want Electronic Arts to be the most successful, but I don’t want Activision to fail. It’s like going to a bad movie. Sometimes movies are so bad you don’t got to any movies for a while because you’re burned by whoever made that last movie. I don’t want consumers spending money and playing bad games. I want them to play good games.

“I want Electronic Arts to be the most successful and that’s my singular mission in life. But whether it’s THQ or Activision, I don’t want them putting out bad product either because it’s just bad for the industry.

“The thing that happened with Jason and Vince was not great for the industry because they got fired. But them landing with us and having an opportunity to build a team and start from scratch is great for them.”

So, how did DeMartini convince Zampella and West to sign with Electronic Arts?

“I had never met them before,” DeMartini told Eurogamer.

“I met them after they got fired. Certainly by reputation – you can’t work in the games industry and not know the two guys that worked on the biggest thing in the history of the industry.

“After they were tossed out of Activision… Talk about getting sacked, if I hadn’t of got a hold of those guys through the agent, I would have been fired. When those guys are available…

“But everybody in my position did exactly the same thing. As soon as they were gone from Activision and it hits the wires, I’m sure THQ was there and Electronic Arts was there and Take-Two was there and Ubisoft was there and everybody was talking to them. We just happened to have the right pitch.

“I thought it was my charisma and charm – that tipped it over the top.”

www.eurogamer.net

Electronic Arts has confidently predicted that upcoming science fiction first person shooter Crysis 2 will be a 90-rated game.

The US behemoth also denied the game was delayed from Autumn 2010 to March next year in order to avoid the Christmas rush.

“It didn’t slip into March, but we both had aspirations of trying to release it sooner than that,” Electronic Arts, Partners boss David DeMartini told Eurogamer.

“It wasn’t going to be ready for that. With the guys at CryTEK, it’s quality, quality, quality.

“A game like Crysis and a team like CryTEK’s never going to be intimidated by being in any window. But they will always be very careful of not releasing a game until it reaches its full potential.

“As we collaboratively evaluated when’s the right time for it to be ready, 22nd March was the perfect window for the game to hit its maximum potential.

“I would say we jointly agreed that was the ideal window for the game to ship in. With a game like Crysis you don’t worry so much about who’s shipping when. You pick your ideal window and you lock down and everybody else can move if they have to move.”

Crysis 2, from German developer CryTEK, starred during publisher Electronic Arts’s gamescom press conference earlier this week.

The multiplayer portion of the game was demonstrated to press – a feature DeMartini was keen to eulogise.

“It’s going to be another 90 rated game from CryTEK,” DeMartini promised.

“It’s multiplatform for the first time. They just showed a glimpse of the multiplayer. There’s a lot of information that will be forthcoming with regards to the depth, the number of multiplayer modes and the maps.

“I can say there’s an entire team [CryTEK UK] that’s working on multiplayer alone for that game in England, so you can imagine how strong it will be.”

Christian Donlan went hands-on for Eurogamer.

Crysis 2 will be released on 25th March in Europe

Video’s can be found here and here here

source: www.eurogamer.net

No Personal Computer or Wii Demo is available on this moment. Guess I will have to set my PlayStation 3 to work later today.

It’s release schedule for the momment looks likes the fllowing

1. Xbox 360 – Septermber 3rd
2. PlayStation 3 – September 10th
3. Personal Computer – October 1st
4. Wii – Q4 2010

Demo info:

• Interception Course: Take to the air as a Russian pilot sent to intercept a group of stolen aircraft high above the Caucasus Mountains, a hot spot on the world conflict radar, you will be playing a Russian pilot in this mission part of the new multinational cinematic story narrative in H.A.W.X. 2.

• Seek and Destroy: Playing from the perspective of the elite U.S. HAWX squadron deployed to settle conflict spilling over in Africa, you are tasked with taking out specific targets with smart ammunition at night. Take off from a carrier under the cover of night and strike against a weapon smuggling operation using precision guided laser bombs

The demo is available now on Xbox 360 and PS3.