Note: This is an article was written for the sole purpose of the Arthur’s experience with Left 4 Dead 2, with his dislikes and likes, however, this isn’t a “hands-on” of the game, but we will have a review once the game has released.

At E3, we were shown the first revealed level of Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to the revered PC and Xbox 360 title. There, we had our choice of preferred console, select food and drink, and even some excellent posters courtesy of Valve. In case you don’t know, Valve does an excellent E3 suite, and to my knowledge, always has.

EA’s showing of the latest revealed level, a swamp, was a little less homey and a little more ghoulish. Set in the same room as Dragon Age, GI Joe and Saboteur, L4D2 had its own entire wall, and to the right of it a leg sticking out of a wall and a body hanging from the ceiling. A nice touch, though perhaps a little extreme for the fast-paced fun that is Left 4 Dead.

Seated, armed only with puny Xbox 360 controllers (seriously, it’s a PC game, and I’m not being a snob about it), the new team begins in the swamp area. A large building, some marshes and a sniper rifle later, my friend and cameraman, myself, and two strangers were under attack by a horde while trying to escape from one land mass to another. Glitchyness aside (one guy accidentally flew off into the water, for no apparent reason except that the hiding alligators compelled him), the brainless zombie defeat was at hand.

I spent half the fight halfway down a ledge in the water, unable to pick myself back up. This, of course, wouldn’t have been a problem if my teammates didn’t have either the brainpower of a piece of toast or the finger dexterity of roasted duck. Suffice to say, I’m used to playing on the hardest difficult on the PC. Normal on the Xbox 360, no matter how much I distaste using a controller for this game, is still ridiculously easy for a veteran, and is only good as fuel for hating your inept teammates even more.

So if you see or have seen any videos of EA’s showcase, you may have heard me yelling at them to do things properly. Like shooting their guns, or throwing pipe bombs/molotov cocktails, or picking up the new incendiary ammo over and over when a horde attacked near a weapons cache.

What does this all mean? It means that Left 4 Dead 2 is as good, if not better, than the first. A few new bosses, larger open areas and more necessary teamwork mean player compatibility is at an all time high, and I was taken out by Valve and beaten with an ego-crushing stick to learn that. At least when it was done, I had that prop zombie to high five, since their side did pretty damn good in comparison to the puny human survivors.

Holy Molly! Crysis, the beloved and beauty PC game from German developer Crytek Frankfurt, will be getting a sequel and, get this, its an Xbox 360 and a PS3 game also. Crysis 2 is the second entry in the planned Crysis triology and will be published by EA.

“The development of Crysis 2 marks a major stepping stone for our studio,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “This is not only the next game in the Crysis franchise, it’s the first title we are developing for consoles and the first title being built on CryENGINE 3.”

You’ll never have to purchase another video card again, because it now seems that PC gaming has changed for the better with OnLive. I know, it sounds kind of corny, but don’t let that fool you it really is something unique.

This device this the brainchild of Rearden Studios’ founder Steve Perlman, and Mike McGarve, who worked at Eidos. It is a device that gives players the ability to play there favorite PC games on their televisions, and it is also is self proclaimed “micro console” with a price lower then the Nintendo Wii.

Here’s how it works; you control the game where every you are, as long as you have a strong internet connection near by that you can access, but instead of the game being read from a disc, it reads it via “cloud gaming” technology – which is basically the device reading something sent by signals in the atmosphere, right to your OnLive console.

Here’s the good part, it delivers video at up to 720p resolution at frame rates up to 60 frames per second, and of course the quality depends on you connection – because the servers. These servers will be located in Santa Clara, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere, in which they are hoping to deliver a seemingly lag-free experience to OnLive subscribers within 1,000 miles.

There are even talks of there being a monthly subscription at about the same price as Xbox Live. The device it said to hit this winter.

“OnLive is games on demand. What we do is make available the top, high-end titles at the same window they’re released at retail – so the same time they’re on the store shelves you have access to them – and you can play all these high-end titles on any entry level PC or Mac just through a plug-in that’s just one megabyte in size in your browser, or using this OnLive micro-console,” said Steve Perelman told GTTV.

What comes to mind when you think Music based video games? Is it Rock Band or is it Guitar Hero? Or is it Singstar? Well, probably one of the most over looked downfalls in this gaming generation has to be the fixation on the casual gaming market, and sadly this game doesn’t divert from that manner. But, none the less, Lips is a party game that has one of the greatest bonding powers of getting friends and family to play with on another. However, one can only wonder if Lips is going to be just another video game face plant or an instant sensation?

After previous failed attempts by Microsoft at trying to recreate the fun derived from group gaming, with such examples as Scene It! and You’re In the Movies, Lips is another offspring of the guys over at iNiS in Japan, which is known for games like Elite Beat Agents – another party-driven game – and many others. Opinion-wise, I really do not think that it was a great idea to name the game Lips, which brings up the games first downfall. We really don’t think we need to go into detail about that.

However, with the game having a somewhat bad name, it does differ from its predecessors. The game has a start up track of about 40 songs, all of which are master tracks including music videos and select previews. They also have different videos other than the original video made for the song that the gamer can pick from. The game has a multiplayer feature that pits you against another player, or against the computer. As for mics, Lips has two beautifully designed wireless microphones that light up as you sing.

When singing, the upcoming lyrics will be highlighted in gray, and the current lyrics will be highlighted in white. However, in two player mode, where player one is on the top and player two is on the bottom, you sometimes fix your eyes on the gray lyrics if you are player two and end up singing the wrong words, which becomes a problem. Also, when singing in the right pitch and balance, the word bars will be colored in the the color of your mic (ex. player one red, player two blue).

Luckyly, the guys over at iNiS knew that you may not be able to hit all the notes so, unlike other music games, you are unable to fail any songs, which is both its strength and weakness. It’s just like the problem that many people had with Elika from Prince of Persia in his newest adventure. It really takes away from the challenge, I mean would you really want to play a game that does nothing to challenge the gamer? I think not.

If you add all those things together it really does make for a weak single-player experience, but this game is really strong when you play it was a buddy. Which brings me to the co-op and mutliplayer part of the game. When in this mode, you can take on a song with a friend (ex. Umbrella by Rihanna). This song has a better co-op standard then other songs in the game, for example Another One Bits The Dust by Queen. But, lucky the mutliplayer works great for this game.

Closing Statements:

I really had alot of fun playing this game. It is really strong in most aspects of it and will surely keep you playing for hours on hand. The interface is remarkably easy to use, the initial track list is solid, and the microphones are outstanding. But, there is one problem, it does not push itself as being a game that a hardcore gamer would want to pick up and play. The game also has the ability for you to transfer music from your iPod, but what really makes me mad is that you can’t upload music from an iPhone or iTouch. That is one reason we couldn’t put that in our review. Also the quality of the videos are mostly in SD, which doesn’t fit this game at all.

Score: B-

Blizzard today announced that World of Warcraft, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. This new high was reached following the November 13 release of the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Within its first 24 hours of availability, Wrath of the Lich King sold more than 2.8 million copies, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. In addition to winning a number of editor’s choice awards from major gaming publications, the expansion has now gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in its first month, setting a new record for monthly PC-game sales. Both sales records were previously held by World of Warcraft’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade.

“We’re pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game’s global community has continued to show,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come.”

I have seen many things and to tell you the truth, I really would love to see Fable II on the PC mainly because I think it’s going to help save PC gaming some more – but it’s not like WoW and L4D haven’t done it already.

A German website has posted a rumor stating that the game will be coming on to the PC. An unnamed “inside source” at Lionhead, who reported the rumor, proclaims that the game would be releasing on the PC on February 15, 2009.

If you didn’t know, the game has been out on the 360 for sometime now and it has been selling fairly well. But when you look at this rumor it isn’t so farfetch’d as it may seem because the original Fable made its way to PC a year after its on the Xbox.

There’s a strongly likeliness that the game would be coming out on the PC, it’s just that the date given is way to early. But anyway if the game comes out on the PC the game will most likely be apart of Games for Windows. Which has seen many 360 games like Bioshock and Gears of War. But we’ll let you know if we hear any more news on this rumor.

Update: According to a source this story was proven fake.

This game is without a doubt one of the hottest games on the market right now, but according to some reports the game maybe too hot for the 360. Numerous amounts of Xbox 360 users have reported that their game has been freezing up after  the 62 percent progress line, and their really not happy about it. The reports goes onto state that some users have managed to play 65 percent and even 84 percent, but even after that the game freezes up.

“I wonder can you sue a company for putting out a game this buggy?” said a GameFAQ’s member. “Those Ubisoft-****** should send a guy from their staff over here that plays the game till the point where I stopped when it froze. Seriously, I’m not playing 62% of the game again.” stated another one.

[FarCry 2 freezing issues on Xbox 360 via GameFAQ's]

For all you PlayStation fanboys that were hoping to jump in the skintight leather pants of Violette Summer and thwart German Nazi’s on your PlayStation 3 next year, you maybe in for a little disappointment. According to PSU, PlayStation fanboys won’t be getting the chance to sample Velvet Assassin on the PlayStation 3. The games publisher, Gamecock has revealed why the game won’t be headed onto the PlayStation 3 simply saying that Replay Studios is not developing a PS3 version of the game.

“Unfortunately there will not be a PS3 version of Velvet Assassin,” said the representative. “The reason being that Replay Studios started off as a PC development team, then branched into 360 development as the transition was ‘relatively simple’, but their engine does not support PS3.”

[Velvet Assassin showing no love for PS3 via PSU]

Back in May, LucasArts informed it’s fans that it wasn’t doing a PC version of The Force Unleashed because of the vast differences in power of PCs in people’s homes. Now, Videogamer has informed us that Randy Stude, president of the PC Gaming Alliance, has slammed LucasArts for not releasing a PC version of massively successful Star Wars game The Force Unleashed.

Stude said that, “The PC being the gaming platform that it is, someone with a $4,000 high-end system would definitely be able to play the Euphoria, the DMM and really technical elements of the game. But someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience, they would have to turn all the settings down and it wouldn’t be the same game.”

“LucasArts hasn’t made a good PC game in a long time,” he said. “That’s my opinion. They make some pretty good games for the Wii, you know those little sticks you wave in the air, that seems like a natural fit for a lightsaber game, sure. But I think the last good PC game they made was probably Jedi Knight 2…”

Not so long ago we received news that a Left 4 Dead demo was on it’s way for the Xbox 360 and still we are yet to gain details on the game until now… According to Video Gamer, Gabe Newell, managing director and co-founder of Valve, told them at the Leipzig Games Convention some important details for the Left 4 Dead demo. Newell told them that the Left 4 Dead demo will include the first part of one of the four campaign ‘movies’, most likely The Hospital level that was demonstrated to the press. He also revealed that the demo will home online cooperative play as well as single-player, but he wasn’t able to reveal the release date for the demo.

“We will be releasing demos for both the Xbox and for the PC. I don’t know what the date is for release on that, though. I think it’s going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it’ll probably be Hospital but I’m not sure. That’s a decision that Doug Lombardi is making.” said Newell. Left 4 Dead is due out for PC and Xbox 360 on November 21 2008.

Overlord won the hearts of many games, now many fans, and when Triumph Studios heard the calls for a sequel they had nothing to do, but answer them. IGN has some how gotten news that a sequel for the game is underway and Triumph Studios is hard at work is hard at work on the sequel. Overlord II is now dew out in 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Games for Windows PC systems. An just to hype this announcement, Codemasters has also revealed Overlord Dark Legend for Wii and Overlord Minions for DS. WoW.

Overlord II will introduces a new Overlord, hinted at in the final scene of Overlord: Raising Hell, for a clash between him and a Roman-inspired empire which has plans to root out all magic and take over the world. The game moves beyond the fantasy realm of the first to something closer to our own, allowing the game’s humor and satire to hit closer to home. Politics, environmental issues and more are up for parody in this game, though we wouldn’t be surprised if a fart joke or two slip in.

With the Glorious Empire as the foe and a new overlord brought into the fold, you can be sure you’ll be seeing a more diverse set of environments. Sas told IGN, “We have new lands, from the icy (but rather festive) Nordberg where minions face up to vicious seals, to a new Magic Sanctuary Domain, where the magical creatures have retreated from the onslaught of the Empire, to the homelands and cities of the Glorious Empire itself.”

The first Overlord game relied on a gameplay mechanic where you directly controlled the overlord who then orders around small legions of minions to solve puzzles and attack enemies. This style of game returns, but is expanded and improved for the sequel. Sas tells us that, “from the Netherworld you rise to gather an army of loyal Minions that are more destructive and much smarter than before — now they can do even more things for their master; such as riding mounts, using war machines and sailing warships in world-changing battles.” He also told us the team has “greatly improved” the controls and visuals to make the game even more attractive to a broad audience.

“We’re really excited about shifting the world to a new era where a Roman-inspired Empire rises as the arch-enemy of the Overlord,” says Lennart Sas, “which leads to an epic clash between the regimented forces of a sprawling state and the faster, harder, more manic minion horde.”

[Overlord II on the Way via IGN]

In an interview with Eurogamer, Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software, gave the latest details on the upcoming Brothers in Arms game, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. The most stocking news was about a demo that will be appearing shortly. Unfortunately, the likeliness of PC gamers getting the chance to download this demo is a bit smaller than for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners. Here’s what he had to say:

Randy Pitchford: “We are 100 per cent certain there will be a demo for 360, 99 per cent certain there will be a demo for PS3 and about 50 per cent certain there will be a demo for PC…”

Valve Software announced today that there upcoming co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead will would be going on a trip around the world for it’s soon to come out world tour. These series of demonstrations will be held at very high profile events around the world these include Leipzig Games Convention (Germany),Festival du Jeu Video (France) and PC Gamer Showdown (UK), it’s set to make it’s grand debut at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

“The shared experience of Left 4 Dead is unlike that of any other action game,” said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. “That’s what we’ve experienced playing the game, and from showing the game to the press and our partners. It sounds cliché, but in many ways you have to play this one to truly appreciate what we’re attempting. So, to give gamers a chance to sample this new type of experience first hand, we’re taking Left 4 Dead on the road.”

Absent from the recent E3 line-up, Electronic Arts announced that it’s upcoming game Tiberium, a FPS based in the universe of Command & Conquer, has been delayed until its 2010 fiscal year. That is provided that the basic plan for making the game goes well, Tiberuim is planned, as of now, for a April 2009 thought out March 2010 release date. The game is planned for a release on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, there’s was no cited by Electronic Arts for the delay. The game was originally planned for a, well we don’t really think there was an official release date, but we do think it was planned for a early 09 release date.

Bohemia Interactive released a new screenshot for there upcoming military simulation game, which will be released sometime this year and is currently in development for the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3. While very few details have been released on the game it does have a very strong reputation on the PC, as a game that pushes the maximum realism and putting the player in the middle of true action, like the Call Of Duty franchise. The last time we heard from the game was at the Games Convention in Leipzig 2007, there is a strong chance that there will be word at this years event. Armed Assault 2 will be set in the year 2009.

Armed 2 is based on the latest generation technology, offering large –scale game world, authentic and extremely detailed modern units, weapons, vehicles and enviroments, challenging single player and vast arrays of multiplayer options.

In the August issue of GameInformer it contains details for the upcoming Wolfenstein a game currently in development at Raven Software (who also created the latest in id Software’s ‘Quake’ series). The game will be released on Microsoft Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 "when it’s done".

• Set in World War II among Nazis experimenting with occult powers once again.
• B.J. Blazkowicz making comeback, this time also having supernatural powers of his own.
• Set in one large city, which will open itself up as you progress through given missions and quests.
• Randomly generated content blocking your path at times.
• AI controlled local resistance, assisting you in fight at times.
• An alternative reality called "The Shroud", some sort of a parallel dimension fueling Nazi powers.

At this time no future details where given on the game.

[Tiscali: Wolfenstein Details ]

Today Sierra Entertainment released a new video for there upcoming real-time tactical video game World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for the PS3 and Xbox 360.This game was released for the PC back in 2007 and this game is due on retail stores in Fall 2008.This video made up of real in-game footage plays nice self suding music with live in-game sound.

2K Games has revealed to us a piece of beautiful with this new concept art from there upcoming game Mafia II. The piece of concept art evokes the Max Payne look maybe 2k games is hoping that the game has the same success as Max Payne….maybe a Mafia II movie? The game will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox360 and PC some time in the next year or so.

Developer Eden Games has confirmed in a video interview with French website UGame.tv that Test Drive Unlimited 2 is indeed in development. The first game was developed by Eden Games as well and was released in september 2006 on Xbox 360 and PC. Playstation 2 and PSP versions were released a short time later. Now development on the sequel has been confirmed by Eden Games president David Nadal. No specific details on the game where mentioned, nor where platforms.

Source

New Alone in the Dark Trailer, Alone in the Dark features the macabre style of the series played with new gameplay mechanics and a broader-reaching, action-packed play style. In the game you explore fully-interactive realtime worlds, interacting with physics and roaming the wide-open, fright-filled environments. The game is coming for the PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Micorsoft Xbox 360 May of this year.



The follow-up to the first person shooter Prey has been officially confirmed to be in development, Prey 2. Only a few details were revealed, a small piece of concept art, as you can see from the on left, were revealed. Prey 2 is listed for a release on PC and Xbox 360.

Details:

"This time, abandonded and framed for the disappearance of his family, Tommy escapes an Earth that no longer wants him for a future that cannot survive without him,"

Source