Even more patch and video goodness from FileFront:

Sacred 2 v.240 to 243 Retail Patches

This patch will update your retail install of Sacred 2 to version 2.43.0.

US: http://www.filefront.com/14090479/Sacred-2-v.240-to-243-Retail-Patch-US/

UK: http://www.filefront.com/14090517/Sacred-2-v.240-to-243-Retail-Patch-UK/

French: http://www.filefront.com/14090541/Sacred-2-v.240-to-243-Retail-Patch-French/

Champions Online City Hall Trailer

Super heroes will unite to fight evil doers like in this city hall trailer for Champions Online.

http://www.filefront.com/14090709/ChampionsOnline_cityhall_HD.mov

Champions Online PVP Trailer HD

It’s time for PVP superhero action with 5 championship rounds of intense fights. These combatants faceoff for a chance at immortal glory in this feature.

http://www.filefront.com/14090705/ChampionsOnline_pvptrailer_HD.mov

Here’s a look at a few new files you can grab from FileFront today:

Brutal Legend Tim Schafer Walkthrough Trailer 2

The second in a series, this time Tim brought along some friends in Lee Petty, Art Director on Brutal Legend, and Erik Robson, Lead Designer on Brutal Legend.

http://www.filefront.com/14090905/BrutalLegend_TimcShaferWalkthrough_Trailer2.mp4/

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix v1.01 Retail Patch

This patch will update your Puzzle Quest Galactrix install to version 1.01.

http://www.filefront.com/14090921/PuzzleQuestG_PC_1.01_Update.exe/

Shadow Complex Gameplay Trailer

This trailer shows off Chair Entertainment’s action game for XBox Live, Shadow Complex. The game is set in the world of Orson Scott Card’s Empire novel.

http://www.filefront.com/14091161/Shadow_Complex_Game_Footage_v1.wmv/

NHL 10 Be a GM Trailer

This trailer showcases the Be a GM feature in the upcoming EA Sports hockey title, NHL 10.

http://www.filefront.com/14091167/NHL10_PROD_DIARY_GM_V10_H264.mov/

In this dev diary, developers go in depth about the sequel with the changes made, the differences in the character, and the setting.

Get it at FileFront!

The second installment of the Wolfenstein Graphic Novel is now live at FileFront! Head over and check out this trailer highlighting the upcoming game from Raven Software.

Get it at FileFront!

The Fallout 3 DLC has definitely demonstrated that Bethesda learned from the Elder Scrolls Oblivion experience. There’s been absolutely no Horse Armor parallel, and while the first releases – The Pitt for example – were a bit anemic on content the last two releases – Broken Steel and Point Lookout have been excellent. Well today we got official word that the 5th and final downloadable content add on for Fallout 3 will arrive on August 3rd, 2009 for the Xbox 360 and on Windows Live for PC at a cost of 800 MS points.

The last release – titled Mothership Zeta will add some new weapons to the game as well as new alien adversaries. Those unfamiliar with the previous games in the series may not realize that Aliens and Fallout go way back – including a mention and random crash site location in the first game and a ray gun that make obliterating enemies that much more fun.

I’ve included the full details as well as some newly released screen shots after the jump.

Read the full article »

Halo Wars is one of those odd games that should be better received, an RTS set in the Halo universe featuring tons of units and vehicles from the expanded Halo canon and told with an interesting series of cut scenes and some fairly fun RTS missions. Unfortunatley I think far to many of the twitch oriented Halo gamers out there just can’t wrap their heads around strategy like an RTs and the RTS fans don’t live on the console, even if Ensemble Studio’s game does a pretty good job of translating the traditionally PC oriented experience to the console.

Regardless, those who found the swansong of the studio an enjoyable diversion will have more maps to play around with. The latest downloadable content pack includes 4 new maps and 4 new achievements for you achievement hounds out there – totaling 100 additional points. The new pack, called – “Historic Battles” will be available July 21st for 800 MS points.

800 Points for 4 maps? Seems a bit steep to me… maybe its just because of the extra achievements.

One of my all-time favorite blogs to read is Tobold’s. It’s a great place to get a fresh take on everything that’s happening in the MMORPG world. As I was perusing his site over the weekend, I ran across this article.

In short, he refers to the recent rumors that Blizzard’s Chinese World of Warcraft servers aren’t going to be coming back up anytime soon. For those of you who aren’t aware, Blizzard recently transferred their license to operate WoW in China to NetEase, away from The9.

The9 filed several lawsuits in an attempt to stop this transfer, and the Chinese government accordingly refused to give NetEase a license to operate WoW, saying that “in order to protect the interests of domestic gaming enterprises,” they would “suspend review of all games belonging to foreign companies in the event of lawsuits or arbitration between foreign companies and Chinese companies.”

The Chinese servers have already been down for a month or so, and there’s still no word on when they might return. This really doesn’t hurt Blizzard as much financially as you might think, as they received little revenue from the Chinese players, who pay as little as 6 cents an hour to play.

But how does this get Blizzard down to 5 million subscribers?

Read the full article »

OK, let’s be honest here. Who isn’t tired of the near-constant stream of music games? I realize that it’s a super-hot genre right now, but do we really need another music game? Yes, this also goes for Rock Band Beatles, or Guitar Hero: Twisted Sister, or whatever the next shameless cash grab may be.

Regardless of what we may think, Activision isn’t content to sit back and count all the money they’ve made from Guitar Hero so far. No, they’re going to release yet another iteration of the title.

Guitar Hero 5 will add some new functionality to the title, and strangely enough, it’s actually functionality that makes it a better party game than before. Chief among these new additions is the ‘Pick up and Play’ mode. This will allow anyone to grab an instrument, jump in, play for a few minutes, and drop out without failing or causing the rest of the band to fail. It’s perfect for those unscheduled bathroom breaks in the middle of a song.

They’re also including a RockFest mode to let you face off against four players locally, or up to eight online. Heck, you can even throw down with four guitars at once if you so desire. But the question remains: Do we really need another full game for this? Wouldn’t these features be awesome DLC for the folks who spent nearly $200 on Guitar Hero: World Tour? You could probably even convince those folks to pay for them!

Ah well, maybe I’m just a spoilsport. After all, at least they’re including 83 songs in this version, and all the World Tour DLC will carry over as well. Maybe I’m just sick of having all these plastic instruments clogging up my living room.

At any rate, there’s a brand new trailer showing off these new features. You can grab it over at FileFront, or catch the embedded stream after the break.

Read the full article »

Crystal Dynamics is threatening to bring out the big guns after a leak of a memo and concept art on Tomb Raider 9 Sunday morning. The new game is a prequel featuring a much younger and less experienced Lara Croft than the one in the screen above. Four Player Co-op has taken down the contraband media but the article remains.

“Say hello to the concept art for the new Tomb Raider reboot. Our mole, deep behind enemy lines (and armed only with his digital camera), woke me up at 2 in the morning to deliver you these goods. I haven’t had a chance to fully digest the information here (getting it to you as quickly as possible was my paramount concern) but it seems like the new Tomb Raider will be, wait for it, Open World. Looks like the combat system has been completely revamped and that the story is starting over from Jumpstreet. I have no idea what the story is with the clawed… things… but, out of everything, they excite me the most. More screens through the portal.

Update: We all knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Crystal Dynamics’ lawyers swooped in with a fancy email asking us to take the pics down. We will be discussing the whole ordeal on this weeks Bullshot! (link opens in iTunes) which we are recording tonight. It will probably show up in your iTunes early Sunday morning. Thanks to Kotaku, Joystiq, 1up, and others for picking the story up. It’s been a hell of a day.”

The original Tomb Raider concept art is still on display at Gamersyde for the moment. Get it while its hot.

Eidos is showing off the villains of Batman Arkham Asylum in a new video. This dark and twisted vision of the batman setting will push the Dark Knight further towards the brink of slipping from hero into vigilante. These Batman Arkham Asylum Villains stand ready to push him right off the edge. Check out The Joker, Killer Croc and Bane in action as well as a glimpse of a Harley Quinn design that could have been inspired by Bloodlines.

I think that one of the reasons Batman is so popular is that he is a hero of the people. He isn’t a perfect man, a mutant or an alien. He has no supernatural or magical powers. He’s a man with a mission who struggles to keep from becoming the thing he hates. People can relate to him more readily than say Superman, even if he does have more money than god.