Gamernode: Latest PC News

BioWare MMO due between 2010 and 2011

According to John Riccitiello, BioWare's MMO is scheduled to be released between April 2010 and April 2011. That's a long time from now isn't it? I won't complain as long as BioWare is focusing on other games as well. To create a whole new universe is a pretty daunting task, and if you are out to make a spectacular MMO (which I no doubt think it will be), polish and balance is key.

It has been rumored that the project is a Star Wars MMO, in specific, KOTOR. In his talk with the William Blair and Company during an investor conference, Riccitiello mentioned the BioWare MMO is "new intellectual property", and while one would think that this would kill the KOTOR MMO rumor outright, Eurogamer made an interesting point when they stated that while "Star Wars and KOTOR are hardly new, they would b...

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Team Fortress 2 Pyro update - details revealed

The much-talked about Pyro update for Team Fortress 2 goes live in a mere hour and a half. In preparation for the patch, Valve has divulged exactly what the upgrade will bring to the table.

First of all, Valve has included two user-created maps in this update. Namely, CTF_Turbine and CP_Fastlane. You may have already played these maps as they've been available on custom servers for some time but now Valve is making them available to all TF2 players. Here are Valve's official descriptions for both of the maps:

CP_Fastlane: "A control point map with five points, in the style of Badlands. Its symmetrical layout provides for high-speed and well balanced gameplay, while the multiple indoor routes, connected to larger outdoor arenas, provide a wide set of interesting and varied combat spaces. The ...

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Team Fortress 2 "Meet the Sniper" video

Valve released the latest in their Team Fortress 2 "Meet the..." video series today. This time around, we are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the Sniper class, who apparently hails from GN writer Sean "jambo" Pincombe's backyard in the land Down Under. Check it out; it's good for a laugh or two.

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Team Fortress 2 Pyro update gets a release date

I recently got back into the addicting mayhem of Team Fortress 2, so I, like many others, have been patiently waiting for the promised Pyro update that will add several new weapons to the class' repertoire as well as add new achievements.

Well the wait is almost over, as website Rock Paper Shotgun has confirmed that the Pyro update will go live this Thursday. The upgrade will include three new weapons for the Pyro (of which only one has been revealed) along with 35 new Pyro-specific achievements. The update will also include two new user-created maps, Valve's way to "highlight the great work being done in the community and distribute those works to all TF2 players."

No details were revealed as to what the weapons, achievements, or maps will be. At least we don't have to wait very long to fi...

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GamerNode Spore creature videos

As mentioned in the forums, the creature creator for the upcoming super mega anticipated game Spore was sent to select "early influencers." Somehow, I ended up one of them. Along with a handful of celebrities, EA and the developers provided us with information, a nice 1-800 number helpline, lots of templates, and several video tutorials all in the hopes that we'd make some good creatures to help hype up the upcoming creature editor release. (And, as an added bonus, I got to sign a contract saying they could use me, my likeness, or my creatures in anything they want for the next few weeks!)

I've been spending the last couple of days just messing around, learning how to do stuff in the creator, and in this post you'll find videos of what I've done. Look for it to be updated throughout the we...

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New Caviar Black terabyte drives arriving next wee...

Hard drive prices per megabyte of storage has gone down throughout the years and the stats are astonishing. Fifty years ago, a 5MB HDD cost $50,000 or $10,000 per megabyte. Only eight years ago, the cost fell to only 4 cents per megabyte of storage space. 

But now, Western Digital has announced it is releasing a 1TB (terabyte), which brings down the cost to mere fractions of a cent per MB.

The new drive, called the Caviar Black line, will be available in 1TB and 750GB flavors. The 1TB model will retail for $249 while the 750GB will go for $199. The series offer twice the cache size of typical hard drives and feature dual electronics to double the internal power of the HDDs.

In addition, the new HDDs will have drive shafts that will reduce vibration and a new feature to prevent the read/write ...

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Spore system requirements revealed

It's nice to know that in today's world of PC-obliterating system requirements that lead to hundreds of dollars in upgrades just to run the next big game, there is still some sanity out there.

Electronic Arts has recently come forward with the minimum system configurations required to run the upcoming evolutionary sim, Spore. Brought to you by Sims creator Will Wright, the game will ship on September 7 for both the PC and Mac. The requirements for all platforms are as follows:

WINDOWS XP 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 512 MB RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 6 GB of hard drive space

WINDOWS VISTA 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent 768 MB RAM A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Supported V...

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Rumor: Portal 2 casting and sample script leaked

Yesterday evening, an "anonymous but trusted source" provided Kombo with new information about Portal 2. According to the insider, scripting for the game has already started. Kombo says it was e-mailed descriptions of one of the new characters, named Cave Johnson, (as well as concept art for the character) and a small sampling of the game's script in the form of Cave's introduction.

The description of Cave Johnson is as follows:

CAVE JOHNSON (ECCENTRIC DEAD BILLIONAIRE)

"Cave Johnson is a character for a new game in the Portal series from Valve Software. Portal is a dark comedy; the role will require comic timing, with occasional dramatic moments. Age: early 60s. He is founder and CEO of a successful applied science company, a self-made billionaire who's learned to trust his gut and doesn't s...

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Red Orchestra Weekend Sale: $4.99

Bargain hunter alert! If you are a WW2 buff and a gamer, you'll be glad to hear that Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 will be sold at a special discounted price on Steam to celebrate the anniversary of D-Day.

The game, normally sold at $19.99 will be reduced to only $4.99. But you'd better hurry as the offer ends on Monday, June 9th.

According to the publisher:

"Red Orchestra places you in the most realistic WWII first-person multi-player combat to date on the PC, allowing the player to fight through some of the most intense combat of the war. You can play as infantry, using a wide range of infantry weapons, or crew one of the many armored combat vehicles available in the game, from half-tracks to the most famous German and Soviet heavy tanks.

Engage the enemy with everything in your arsenal, fr...

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Dawn of War 2 gameplay teaser trailer

Oh yes! If you are as huge of a fan of Warhammer 40k as I am, then you are going to love these next 30 seconds of awesome!

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Age of Conan ships over 1 million copies

Funcom's Age of Conan was only just released three weeks ago and it has already shipped over 1 million copies.

"As a result of the tremendous interest from gamers, Age of Conan has for the past few weeks been claiming number one spots on sales charts across the Western world - including the US, Germany, France and the UK"

"Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft," said Funcom Vice President of Sales and Marketing Morten Larssen. "The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history."

According to Yahoo! Finance, "In the US, Age of Conan has a strong #1 chart position and is now moving past the 500,000 shipped mark. Meanwh...

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Crysis Warhead announced

On Monday Crytek announced that they would no longer be making patches for Crysis because of a special surprise they had for us in the very near future. Fast forward two days later and Crytek along with Electronic Arts announced Crysis Warhead, sort of stand alone expansion to the original, this time focusing on one of the other prominent characters, Psycho.

Crysis Warhead is expected to ship in the fall exclusively for the PC. The game is said to run on "a new, enhanced, and optimized version" of CryENGINE 2, the technology that powered the original. Expanding on the story of the original, Warhead follows Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes as he tries to survive the other side of the island during the time of the first game. Said to pack more weapons, new vehicles, and new multiplayer content, the ti...

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Gabe Newell of Valve defends the PC

With no one else to do so, Valve has stood up for the PC at a presentation to prove that PC gaming isn't just alive, but an intuitive and innovative canvas.

Gabe Newell blamed the thought of PC gaming's death on perception. Where the 360, Wii, and PS3 all have great champions, the PC does not. "...there's no equivalent on the PC, and the people who are traditionally driving these messages, like Microsoft or Intel or Apple are, for various reasons, not very effective champions," Newell stated.

He also stated that PC gaming dwarfs console gaming, brining up Garner Group data indicating that the PC is home to 260 million online gamers and that Steam, one of but many online game distributing systems, serves 15 million gamers and has a 191% year-over-year growth.

This brought him to his next, ...

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CoD 4 Variety Map Pack hits PC on June 5th, free

The Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack that was released back in April for the Xbox 360 will hit PC this Thursday, June 5th. In a move that may cause some distress to 360 players, the map pack will be free, thanks to a sponsorship with NVIDIA; 360 players had to pay 800 Microsoft points.

The Variety Map Pack includes four new multiplayer maps: Broadcast, Chinatown, Killhouse and Creek.

In related news, the new 1.6 patch for Call of Duty 4 will also be released for PC this Thursday. Included within the patch notes are support for the new maps, fixes for some server crashes and other additional features.

For you folks who use NVIDIA hardware, we have you to thank for getting these free new multiplayer maps! I hugged my motherboard afterwards.

[Via Voodoo Extreme]

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Red Alert 3 trailer!

I play very few games on my computer. I do, however, enjoy the Command and Conquer franchise. Red Alert 3 is coming this year and it makes me all tingley inside.

EA has just released a trailer with gameplay footage. I highy recomend you check it out. it looks to be fantastic. I. Can't. Wait.

Take a look after the jump.

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Tweaking WoW-- How to make the game look better

World of Warcraft is three years old, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to hear the game doesn't look the best or is the biggest drain on a normal system. Where WoW makes up for the lack of graphic fidelity is style.

To this day few games have managed to nail its appealing look. But let's assume for a moment that you are sitting with a nice gaming rig at your feet. Crysis on high barely makes the machine sweat, so World of Warcraft is a joke to your computer. Would you like some graphic tweaks that exceed those of the settings within WoW itself?

The best way to do this is setup a marco for a quick, one button change as opposed to making it one individually through the chat window. Ease of use is what we want.

/console farclip 777 /console horizonfarclip 6226 /console groundeffectdensity 2...

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1 million strong for Age of Conan beta

With World of Warcraft dominating the MMORPG market, seasoned online gamers are always on the lookout for new online titles to play. One of the most anticipated online RPGs to hit the market this year would be Age of Conan from Funcom.

In fact, yesterday, Funcom and publisher Eidos announced that over 1 million people have signed up for the game's beta. In the months leading to the game's release, Funcom mentioned that over 5 million unique visitors went to the Age of Conan website in 2008.

Morten Larssen, vice president of sales and marketing for Funcom, said, "Funcom has not been able to find any higher beta numbers for MMOs in the western world. We believe it represents the largest ever beta sign-up figure in the history of the genre. How all of our strong figures convert into later sales...

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Dell phasing out XPS line of computers?

It looks like Dell's high-end computer line may be seeing its last days as the Wall Street Journal is reporting that starting next month, Dell will be discontinuing four of its XPS PCs in order to concentrate on their Alienware computers. Dell purchased Alienware in 2006 in its effort to appeal to the hardcore PC gamer.

Dell also makes XPS laptops as well, but there is no word as to the plans Dell has for this popular line of computers.

Alienware CEO, Nelson Gonzalez, said at the time of the takeover by Dell last year, "We believe that this acquisition will offer our customers the best of both worlds an Alienware that takes advantage of the world-class business practices and operational efficiencies that have made Dell one of the most respected companies in the world, while preserving the D...

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Mass Effect/Spore will require online validation

Over in this now locked thread on the official Mass Effect Community forums, BioWare Technical Producer Derek French explained what type of copy protection and activation systems Mass Effect will use upon its release for PC on May 28th.

To say the least, BioWare/EA's plans for the game caused massive complaints from the community. To put it bluntly, Mass Effect for PC will require online validation every 10 days. Taking hints from 2K Games using SecuROM with BioShock, the game will only allow up to three game activations as well.

"After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned). Just so that the 10 day thing doesn't become abrupt, SecuROM tries its first re-check with 5 days remainin...

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EA-Land shutting down in August

EA-Land was initially known as The Sims Online and launched in 2002. Earlier this year, the game was renamed and was given new servers and new features.

Electronic Arts recently announced that all EA-Land servers will be shut down and users will no longer be able to access the game.

The reason may have to do with the fact that the game didn't reach the same amount of success as other Sims titles did. And that may have to do with, as one commenter put it, the fact that players don't have much to do without paying the $15 subscription fee.

EA Land apparently didn't show enough promise to further the venture. The Sims franchise has been milked for all it is worth and the closing of EA Land may be the writing on the wall that the venerable Sims may be reaching a saturation point, even with fans ...

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