And after the Ensemble, there were four...

Many of us knew about the closure of Ensemble Studios by Microsoft after they released Halo Wars. Well, in February 2009 former Ensemble Studios head Tony Goodman started a new independent studio, Robot Entertainment, and a number of the existing employees have been offered a position in this company. Following the announcement of Robot Entertainment, former Ensemble Studios producer David Rippy started a new independent studio, Bonfire Studios, comprised entirely of former Ensemble staff members. In March 2009, a third studio,Windstorm Studios was announced, founded by ex-staffer Dusty Monk. In May 2009, a fourth studio called Newtoy was created by several developers from Ensemble. Newtoy is already working on its first game for the iPhone.

Robot Entertainment is currently responsible for maintaining and updating the Halo Wars and Age of Empires Franchise. While there have been no official announcements, there have been hints that Bonfire has begun work on its first project. Little information is known about the project except that Bonfire mentioned it would be fast, fun and addictive.

Also, there's news about a new fan-made expansion for Age of Mythology, titled: Age of Mythology: The Roman Legion. Game development will be handled by Purple Design Studios. With renowned standards of quality, Purple Design Studios has begun the development of the most complete civilization modification ever created for Age of Mythology. Everything from the building set to the user interface has been revolutionized for the Romans. The expansion pack is focused on the Roman Legion revolving around the Punic Wars. The Roman Legion was chosen for the expansion's theme due to the fact that the Roman mythology and military allowed for an expansive dip into historically accurate, yet fun, gameplay.

The demo version will be available summer 2009, it will include a playable campaign scenario, units and 42 buildings for use in the editor, and one upgrade stage. The redesigned main menu GUI will also be featured. The game requires Age of Mythology and/or the Titans expansion to be installed. Check it out here at Mod DB.

Another fan-made mod that caught my eye is an Age of Empires III mod titled: Age of Empires III: The Napoleonic Era. I hate to go into details at the moment. But know that the beta is currently available free of charge. Check it out here!

CyberFusion 2009: New Guinness World Record!

I would've posted this sooner but heck, I've just recovered. 40 hours of non-stop gaming can really kill someone. The event started on Friday, 10th of April at the MMU (Multimedia University) Grandhall in Cyberjaya. From what I heard, people started flocking the area as early as noon. Registrations only started at 3 but heck, those bastards were early. And I do mean early.

The record attempt kickoff was at midnight. The previous record attempt was 203 people playing over LAN for 36 hours non-stop. Our target that night was to be playing for 38 hours. However at the last minute, everyone decided to push the limit and go for the 40 hour mark. Heck, we've been able to survive for 38 hours already, so what's another 2 hours?

The first 12 hours after the event started was easy. By noon, Saturday, I was like half-dead. Lunch was enough to get me going again. I was wide awake and I continued "working" on my PC. Simultaneously, tournaments were going on in the tournament area. DotA, Call of Duty 4, Sudden Attack, you name it. The matches can be viewed at www.gamestah.com and the best part was that the replay file can be downloaded to your PC to be watched at your own leisure. I don't think the commentation's available if you download the replay file, although there is a seperate audio commentation file to e downloaded as well.

There were several mini-events that were held for the record breakers as well. One of them was a 3 hour level time-limit for CABAL Online. Highest level within that time wins. I knda forgot what the prize was and yes, a fresh level 1 character. Same goes for World of Warcraft. The criteria was the first to get an Alliance Gnome to Level 20 on Blackwater Raiders (US-RP). Yup, a US server. Don't ask me why... My ping there was around 400 odd. Not too bad though. Although my mage kinda stopped at level 9. The grinding was getting to me. The guys beside me took approx. 18 hours++ just to get to level 20. No breaks included. Non-stop, hardcore leveling for 18 hours. Of course they won a Limited Edition Wrath of the Lich King boxset.

Like I said, I stopped at level 9 and I headed on to playing on LYN's TF2 LAN Server. And believe me, everyone was stoned. If I'm not mistaken we've already reached the halfway mark. It was Saturday night. By the time the event was over and the official statement was given about the record attempt, I think it was almost 6pm on Sunday. My journey back home was a blur... I knocked-out the moment I stepped foot into my friend's car. But heck, I had fun. That's all that matters.

Final result? 274 people playing over LAN for 40 hours. A new Guinness World Record!

This is CF0191 signing off from LP108. Hope to take part again next year if there's ever a CyberFusion 2010.


By the way, BERNAMA covered the record breaking attempt:

CyberFusion 2009 Breaks World Record

KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 (Bernama) -- CyberFusion 2009 has cracked the world record for the longest local area network party over the weekend.

The event saw 274 players playing non-stop for 40 hours consecutively, said the organiser, Cyberview Sdn Bhd, in a statement.

CyberFusion had rewritten the previous record created in August last year at NVision '08 in California where 203 players played non-stop for 36 hours.

"We have designed CyberFusion 2009 to benefit students and the industry and to fit into Cyberjaya's community pillars of work, play and study.

"What we want to achieve in the long run is to create opportunities that can be further explored and help the growth of Malaysia's creative multimedia and digital content industry," said Cyberview managing director Datuk Redza Rafiq.

The Guinness World of Records' adjudicator, Talal Omar, was present at the event to monitor the record-breaking feat.

-- BERNAMA

Left 4 Dead Critic's Choice Edition, DLC and SDK Details Revealed

Taken from Steam News: February 5, 2009, 10:47 am - Alden Kroll - Press Release

Valve's Zombie Thriller Expanding In 2009

February 5, 2008 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a series of content and development releases for its latest title, 2008's best-selling new game property for the PC and Xbox 360, Left 4 Dead (L4D).

The first L4D DLC — dubbed the L4D Survival Pack -- is due for release this spring and introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode . A Critic's Choice Edition of the game will be heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

In addition, for PC gamers and aspiring developers, the first Left 4 Dead release for the Source Software Development Kit (Source SDK) will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D's matchmaking system. The SDK update is also due for release this spring, and is free of charge to all owners of L4D on the PC.

"Since Half-Life launched in 1998, Valve has made continuous efforts to expand the offering of its products beyond what's included on the day of launch," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "With Half-Life and Counter-Strike, and more recently Team Fortress 2, we've learned that we're no longer making stand-alone games but creating entertainment services. With Left 4 Dead we're extending that tradition by creating additional gameplay and releasing our internal tools to aspiring developers so they may also create and distribute new Left 4 Dead experiences."

Left 4 Dead is a survival action game from Valve that blends the social entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November of 2008, L4D has earned over 25 industry awards from outlets around the world.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com

2009: The Year of the PC

Before anyone starts shouting a whole load of crap this way about this year being the Year of the Ox, shut it. I know what year this is and putting CNY (which is around the corner) aside, I'm gonna go crap about what I do best. First off, I'll repeat that 2009 IS definitely the year of the PC. Here's why.

One word: Blizzard. This year, you'll feel the massive storm Blizzard is about to unleash. Three franchises, three major treats for gamers and fans alike. First up, Diablo III: the sequel to Lord of Destruction. Next up, Starcraft II: with three whole campaigns spawning over 3 whole discs and at least a hundred missions to complete, I don't see why people wouldn't be jumping up and down like little kids. Finally, World of Warcraft. Yes, Wrath of the Lich King was released last month but what's the wrath all about if you can't bloody kick his ass? Blizzard has yet to release the Icecrown Citadel instance where players will finally be able to meet up with Arthas himself and send his ass flying back to kingdom come. Just like the Burning Crusade before, the Black Temple patch which was where Illidan was brought in, came only weeks after the release.

Moving on, from the World of Warcraft to the Dawn of War. THQ's much anticipated Warhammer 40,000 series makes a come back in Dawn of War II. Just the thought of playing as the Tyranids gets me excited. With a new user interface and some tweaks to the system here and there, Dawn of War II might just bring the RTS genre up to a whole new level.

Still with the space theme, I'm sure many have heard of Bioware and Lucasarts' new MMO titled Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although this might not even hit retail until maybe early 2010, I'm expecting the beta to take place around the end of this year. And where Galaxies failed, I hope The Old Republic succeeds.

"Third time out for the best-selling PC game of all time. With less monotony and more sexcapades." was what PC Gamer wrote about the Sims 3. Rejoice Sims fans (for I ain't one of them) as one of the what should be called the world's best god-game will be hitting shelves some time soon. Moving out of the household crap, your sims actually venture into the open (virtual) world. Going to school, going to work, form relationships, die in a god-forsaken alley. Heck, there's even some RPG-ish character development as in character skills and a whole load of other crap you can think about.

Valve has also stuff to say. We already know that a class pack will be shoved into our faces real soon for Team Fortress 2. Since it's release back in October 2007 bundled together in the Orange Box, we've already seen, multiple new maps, arena and payload game-modes, 3 class packs and a whole lot more from the mod community. What's started back in 2007 will continue in 2009 when each class finally receives unlockables of their own. The same goes for Left 4 Dead. Death Toll and Dead Air will be added as versus maps. Most probably new campaigns will be added to further add the zombie apocalyptic mayhem.

Sequels anyone? Let's just say, FEAR 2: Project Origins, Bioshock 2, Portal 2, and maybe Half-Life 2: Episode Three. The recent announcement trailer for Bioshock 2 shows and older Little Sister standing on a beach somewhere on the Atlantic Coast with a stuffed Big Daddy in her hand looking into the ocean. As the camera pans away from her, the same behind her rises to form a mini sandcastle version of Rapture. The screen then fades to black and the Bioshock logo shows with corals growing on it. As for FEAR, I never was a fan of the game. Played it, enjoyed it and never wanted to play it again. Moving on to Valve's sequels, Episode Three will pick up where Episode Two left off. The plot involves the Borealis, a research vessel owned by Aperture Science Industries. And that brings us to Portal 2. Let's just say this is a prequel instead of a sequel.

Next up we have Ghostbusters. You've seen the screenshots, checked the site. Now just know that the game hasn't been cancelled. They just switched publishers. Atari's publishing the game now. And then, comes an MMO from my side of the world. Utilizing the CryEngine (the one used for Far Cry), NCsoft's Aion: The Tower of Eternity will be out sometime in the middle of this year. Although the US and EU website gives you nuts for gameinfo, hanging around the official Korean site and look through their media section says alot. Air battles? Yes and looking forward. Korea's into open beta so if you're feeling up to it, go take a look.

Console port-overs are the "in thing" now. In the past year we've had Fable, Gears of War and gos knows what else. Just recently, we've had the infamous (and awfully sexy) Grand Theft Auto IV being released for the PC. In the next couple of months, we'll be seeing Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise and maybe The Last Remnant at a later date. What I'm hoping for is that Fable II and Gears of War 2 gets ported over to the PC as well.

Of course, there's still Battlefield Heroes: EA's free-web-browser-cartoon shooter. The devs say "late 2008" but now's "early 2009" and we wait still? Sadly, yes. Last but not least, we'll put Tom Clancy into the list. Expect the release of Tom Clancy's EndWar (finally) and of course Tom Clancy's HAWX which stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron.

Of course, there's a whole lot more to talk about. However, I'm feeling slightly lazy and it's already 1 in the morning. Maybe in the days to come alright? (This ain't a promise, jerks! *laffs*)

Force of Nature

Seriously, kinda fucks you up when not only your modem goes off during a thunderstorm but you also find out the next day that even your network card goes up in smokes... Got a new modem this morning (heck only ADSL routers are available these days...) and burned two hours of lunch time sitting in Starbucks staring at the bloody ceiling.

First call came in, got a call from The Software Boutique saying that my Red Alert 3 pre-order card was available for the taking. W00t! Best news I've had since winning double on Mother Nature's "Russian Roulette" and also don't forget it's "shocking" as well. Mind you, the picture was taken with my Handycam so picture quality kinda sucks.

With the launch party coming ever so closer, I can't sit still. Can't wait for November as well since Left4Dead is keeping me at the edge of my seat as well. Only problem is that while I can't wait for November to come, I don't want it to come either. Sem's ending soon and deadlines are near. Do I look like I've completed any of my final assignments? *smiles*

As for those who're interested to attend the Red Alert 3 Launch Party, click here for details.
Until next time!

PSP Musou Madness!

As what was said at E3 2008, this year was indeed the year for for Sony. What's more is that all Musou fans (that owns a PSP) will be in for a real damn treat. Two of Koei's musou games will be ported over to the PSP.

First off, Warriors Orochi 2 (Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin for you impatient bastards who has already played the Jap version) will be ported over to the PSP as what was done with the first game. PC owners get ready. Looking at where this is headed, I'm pretty sure the PC version will be released soon after as well. The game will be set for a November 27th release this year. View the magazine scan below.


Next up, another DW6 port titled Shin Sangokumusou Multi Raid. This time it's for the PSP. So far any info regarding this game is still a little scratchy. What that's known is that there'll be a somewhat similar feature to DW5's Musou Rage; turning your character into something similar to Onimusha's Oni Mode. The rest of the game will just like the PS3/360/PC version. The game is set for a release late this year. Could be around late November or early December. Around the same time for Gundam Musou 2's release. Magazine scan below.

Sasha Meets Natascha!

So Valve finally released their third Achievement Pack: The Heavy. Aside from that, a new mode of play called Arena Mode has been added. The five arena maps include Lumberyard (new), Ravine (new), Well, Granary and Badlands. Aside from that, they've also added a new payload map called Badwater Basin. A community map made by Jamie "Fishbus" Manson called cp_steel was also added. And now, the unlockable weapons!



Unlocked by completing 10 achievements from the Heavy Achievement Pack, the Sandvich replaces the shotgun. With no attacking capabilities, it does however replenish 120 health when eaten. The catch however is that you remain vulnerable for the duration of the animation. 4 seconds of loud and I do mean loud "omnomnom"-ness. It has a loaded ammo count of 1 and guess what; unlimited ammo reserved.



Unlocked by completed 15 achievements from the Heavy Achievement Pack, Natascha replaces Sasha. Although the damage output for Natascha is 25% weaker than Sasha, Natascha has the ability to slow enemies. Good for slowing down Scouts and Medics. Great for timed ambushes. Just pray you don't meet a Heavy wielding Sasha when you do that though.

Estimated Damage

• Point Blank: 38-42 (Crit: 79)
• Medium Range: 4-22 (Crit: 79)
• Long Range: 4-8 (Crit: 16-22)

Although slower than the fists themselves, the K.G.B. Finally, the K.G.B. or Killing Gloves of Boxing will be unlocked after completing 20 achievements from the Heavy Achievement Pack. Replacing the fists of wear over them is what you wanna call it.will give the Heavy a guaranteed 5 seconds worth of crits if used to kill an enemy. Additional kills boosts the duration of the crit bonus. The crit effect also works on the other Heavy weapons: Sasha, Natascha and his shotgun. Also, just a note: As the Heavy is Russian, the acronym for the Killing Gloves of Boxing (K.G.B.) was also the acronym for the Russian security agency, secret police and intelligence agency Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty, which was disbanded in 1995.

Estimated Damage

• Point Blank: 45-85 (Crit: 195)

Take note that in the weapons explanation, there were some terms that just doesn't make sense to some.

• Omnomnom (Please watch Meet the Sandvich.)
• Sasha (Is what the Heavy calls his minigun. Please watch Meet the Heavy.)
• Sandvich (Was introduced in Meet the Scout but didn't seem to be an important element at that time.)
  

Final Fantasy XIII @ E3

This morning at Microsoft's E3 2008 press conference, Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII was in development for the 360. Aside from that, the game will also be simultaneously released with the PlayStation 3 edition. Although with that said, Square has not actually set a release date for the game yet. As stated by Square's boss, Yoichi Wada: "We believe that releasing an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII will allow us to provide the game to even more fans in the two regions of North America and Europe."

Aside from that, Yoichi Wada also announced that release date for Square's Unreal Engine based game, The Last Remnant. The game will ship in North America on September 2, Europe and the UK on September 5, and Japan and Asia on September 11.

All I can say is: "Congratulations to all Xbox owners. For they'll be having a chance of experiencing one of the best RPG series ever made. For you fanatical Sony fanboys out there, stop fussing as the game WILL STILL be coming out for the PlayStation 3. So I suggest you STFU or GTFO. Thank you very much."

AJ out.

E3 Live!

E3 starts Monday and I'll be looking forward to the Big Three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) news conference. For those of you who're eager to know more, here's the lineup.

The above taken from Gamespot.

Stay tuned!

Welcome to China!

KOEI Japan has just released the PC Demo for Shin Sangokumusou 5 (Dynasty Warriors 6) and it's available for download! This installment varies greatly from past titles of the series. One of the key addition is the almighty Renbu System: a new way for characters to build up their attack combos. In previous installments in the series, combos were affected by the quality of weapon the character was wielding, with more powerful weapons allowing characters longer, more elaborate and often more powerful consecutive attacks. Aside from that, players are now able to climb ladders (Battle of Hu Lao Gate) to dispose of enemy ballistas on the ramparts, swim (Battle of Fan Castle) and also featuring a new guard unit. Improvements are also made to enemy AI, allowing them to travel across rivers and other bodies of water in order to attack you or allied bases.

In the demo, you will be playing as Lu Xun in the stage Xu Du Invasion. The Japanese PC version will be released on the 11th of July and the English PC version will be coming some time late this year. Take note that in order to be able to play this demo, you will have to update your DirectX9 to the newest version, which is 9.23.1350. The file size for the installer is around 330MB.

Page Link: http://www.gamecity.ne.jp/smusou5/trial/

File Download Link: http://download2.gamecity.ne.jp/contents/ShinSangokumusou5Trial.exe

DirectX9 June 2008 Update @ Mircosoft (Requires genuine Mircosoft Windows validation!)


As some may already know, Shin Sangokumusou 5 will be receiving a PlayStation 2 port and will be renamed to Shin Sangokumusou 5 Special. It will be released on the 25th of September this year. Not much is currently known about the game. However, based on magazine scans, Ling Tong, Ma Chao and Cao Pi will be receiving new weapons as well as new movesets. Below are the comparisons between Ling Tong, Ma Chao and Cao Pi from Shin Sangokumusou 5 (on the right) and Shin Sangokumusou 5 Special (on the left) respectively.

E3 2008: First Impressions

Yup, E3 is coming yet again! Here's what's expected to be unveiled at E3 this year. Let's take a look at some of the most anticipated games.


After the completion of the Sands of Times trilogy, Ubisoft Montreal decides to bring the Prince of Persia franchise to the next-gen consoles this time. Set for a PC, PlayStation 3 and 360 release, this title sees a new cel-shaded style of design following other game titles such as X-men Legends, Viewtiful Joe and Zelda: The Wind Waker. The developers chose to call this style of design as illustrative as it contains more details than most cel-shaded games.

The game is to use a heavily modified version of the Scimitar game engine that was used for Assassin's Creed (another Ubisoft game). Some time during May, Ubisoft released two speed art videos of the Prince and Elika, the female lead. Soon after, the official trailer was released:

Putting the game aside, some of you may already know of a Prince of Persia movie in the making. The film is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Mark Newell. Currently, it's set for a June 2009 release. We'll just wait and see if that's true. Check out Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at IMDB.com.

Pandemic Studios brought us Star Wars: Battlefront. Now, they'll be bringing Middle-earth. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an upcoming game developed by Pandemic Studios and will be published by EA. The gameplay will be somewhat like Star Wars: Battlefront. The game will be released some time late this year and will be released for the PC, PlayStation 3, 360 and the DS. A trailer has already been released:

Until next time!

Diablo III: Of Asshats and Complains

June 28th this year marked the day Blizzard Entertainment unveiled Diablo III at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France. It's been seven years since the release of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and for finally giving us a sequel, what do some people decided to do? They start to complain about the game's art direction. They criticized the game's apparent resemblance to Blizzard's World of Warcraft series. The lack of the light radius from the previous games and what they termed colorful and cartoon-like visuals. Heck they even created an online petition to protest and draw attention on the current art direction/design.

Quoting from Kotaku.com: Petitioners feel that the graphics we've seen so far depict a world that is far too bright and cartoony for their liking, citing World of Warcraft as one of the influences ruining their dark and macabre series.

As some of you may be asking: "So why did Blizzard chose to use an art style that would piss the hell out of fans?"

Just to let you know, Diablo III's lead designer is Jay Wilson, a former Relic Entertainment (Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes) designer while the lead world designer is Leonard Boyarsky, one of the six co-creators of Fallout.

Diablo III's lead producer Keith Lee has stated: "One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast."

I know that some of you are dying to know what ridiculous nonsense were written in that so-called petition. So here's the link: Renewed artistic direction for Diablo 3 Petition

Read the petition, inhale and laugh your asses out.