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The latest MMO to arrive on Steam is Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. It will be available for an additional 10% off for one week until Sept 11. This means that instead of paying the usual $59.99 for it, you are only paying $53.99 - and after your first month subscription fees will start applying. If you are already an existing AoC subscriber, the key you get from Steam will not work.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, I am just wondering if it will take a whole damn week for you to download it via Steam or if it will be much faster. I know that gaming discs load super fast compared to getting it offline, but when we got our game keys for AoC here at Gaming Today, it took some of us over a week to download the game off the Funcom servers.  One of us, that person being me, was at 92% when the whole thing went to hell on me and refused to connect to the servers ever again. So, I said to hell with AoC and never looked back.

Hopefully you will not run into a situation like this should you purchase AoC from Steam - I blame it all on Funcom and their crappy server connections.

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Gamers are now being given the chance to relive the first two classic titles in the Oddworld series, as they’ve now made their way to Steam for download. The two games, “Abe’s Oddysee” and “Abe’s Exoddus,” are now available for purchase at either $9.99 each or $14.99 for both. Steam is also running a special on these games from now until September 4, where you’ll get an extra 10% off. That’s a pretty sweet deal for a couple of games that received some huge critical praise in the late 90’s. That should get you through the weekend until Mercenaries 2 is released.

Via Steam Games

Features and fixes are abound for Stardock’s digital distribution platform. Phase two of Impulse has been released today, bringing with it several new 2K Games to the service, albeit none that are new by any measure other than their release date on Impulse. Civilization III, Sid Meier’s Railroads!, Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Shattered Union comprise the almost-exclusively Sid Meier lovefest.

The new games are far from the focus, though. We reported last week on a preview of Phase 2 that Stardock CEO Brad Wardell had posted on his blog. Technical fixes, faster loading and download times, are among the changes that the update brings. Wardell also promised that we’d be seeing Achievements, the affiliates program, and the big v1.1 update to Sins of a Solar Empire soon after Phase 2’s release, so look for that (hopefully) in the next few weeks.

Stardock’s next major goal is Phase 3, but that’s much further out. It’s scheduled to release next February which, in the meantime, will leave Stardock to flesh out its third-party partners. Those who are using Impulse purely as a platform for gaming will expect to see far more than its current offering, particularly with something like Grand Theft Auto IV on the horizon. Going forward, that’s absolutely going to have to be a priority for Impulse, as it doesn’t have enough differentiating features to set it apart from Steam — yet.

What in the wide world of sports is the land of gaming coming to when a new title will feature the “art” of tea-bagging?  Looks like all of the time you spent either getting tea-bagged in Halo 3 or administering it to other gamers you have pwned has paid off.

According to Gamer.tm, during a demonstration of Saints Row 2 at last week’s Games Convention in Leipzig, the game will be the proud forebearer of distasteful actions to come by being the first game to feature tea-bagging as an actual part of gameplay.

Volition designer David Bowring showed off the new customizable taunts menu which included a “genuine and fully animated alternative for ultimate humiliation” which will go far beyond the standing over and repeatedly squatting over a fallen foe. Some of these taunts will earn you more praise from your “gang” if they are well-timed, and on the same token - more socially acceptable emotes can be used as well, so don’t go around thinking that you will also be able to fish hook, or Cleveland Steam another player.

Despite the strangeness of the emote I just mentioned, some news regarding who your character is has also come to light. Apparently the main character in the game will be the same as the first Saint’s Row but he will look different due to some reconstructive surgery he underwent after the accident he had at the end of the first game. The other interesting thing about having the same character, is that with Saints Row 2 you can make your character a female, which would give the main character an interesting twist to their backstory with cross-dressing potential.

Saints Row 2 is expected to be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 14.

Thanks: VG247

There’s been some confusion over the past day regarding the release date of Silent Hill: Homecoming, the next installment of Konami’s survival-horror series. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, the game has in fact not been delayed until November — that release date applies only to Europe. Homecoming producer Tomm Hulett contacted 1UP confirming that the reports are false and the game’s release date of September 30 in North America hasn’t changed. This is what you get when listening to release dates talked about at an event held in Europe.

Konami did, though, announce that the game will be available for the PC via Valve’s digital distribution service Steam as well as the PS3 and Xbox 360. No pricepoint or a more concrete release date have been announced.

Are you curious to see how the American developers are handling the very Japanese series? Check out some 1UP previews of the game, including the one from E3 where they found the new redesigned attack system to have a bit of a learning curve.

Konami Digital Entertainment has sent out the good word that Silent Hill: Homecoming will soon be available the PC. Players can look forward to an enhanced combat system and a new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka.

Silent Hill Homecoming marks the fifth story in the Silent Hill mythos, and introduces a new protagonist to the mysterious town. The story follows Alex Shepherd, who returns to his hometown of Shepherd’s Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother and the strange occurrences taking place around town. Shepherd unravels a tale that takes him from his boyhood home to the fog-shrouded streets of Silent Hill, as he faces the darkest horrors of his soul to find his missing brother.

Gamers with Steam accounts will be able to download Silent Hill: Homecoming in September. Visit the Konami website for more information on the Silent Hill series.

One of my favorite things about the Silent Hill series is the soundtracks that very effectually enhance the surreal atmosphere of the games. I also admire the use of psychological horror rather than reliance on cheap thrills and gross out tactics.

The details have almost all been released for the Heavy class update Team Fortress 2 will be getting tomorrow. We have a new community map (CP_Steel), a new Goldrush map in Badwater Basin, 35 achievements, two unlockable weapons (Natascha and the K.G.B., with the third to be revealed tomorrow), and today we’ve learned another piece: Arena mode.

Valve describes it as:

TF2 Arena keeps the class diversity of Team Fortress 2 while focusing goals around combat between two teams. Where other game modes lean towards a broad overall strategy for the team over a number of lives, Arena concentrates on the specific tactical choices the teams make in a single fight.

Arena features smaller maps that play out in shorter periods of time. The round ends once one team has no players left in the arena, or when the central capture point has unlocked and been captured. Rounds tend to be very fast and highly competitive, with an emphasis on your team’s class makeup and your plan to counter the opposing team’s class choices. Arena mode is great for smaller matches of three vs. three players, while still comfortably supporting huge knockdown twelve-on-twelve brawls.

Two completely new maps (Lumberyard and Ravine) have been created for the mode, as well as three reworked versions of existing maps (Well, Granary, and Badlands). While Ravine will look plenty familiar in terms of setting, Lumberyard completely changes up the color scheme by taking place in a mountain valley. It looks gorgeous, so hopefully this is a sign of future changes we’ll be seeing.

Now, what could that last weapon be? I’m guessing it’ll be something that actually has range to it. You could argue that Valve doesn’t want to give the Heavy anything that can fire across a map, but look at the Pyro — the flare gun took the place of the shotgun, and that can effectively be used at a decent distance. Or might we see the return of grenades to Team Fortress? I doubt it, but nobody knows for sure.

Stardock’s digital distribution platform, Impulse, has been available for two months now, and it’s about time for the first major update. Dubbed “Phase 2,” this update had been previously promised to include Achievement and game rankings support, as well as a slate of other features and new software and support from publishers. Capcom added its first games to Impulse earlier this month, perhaps signaling the beginning of Phase 2’s release which has been planned for a late August release.

Brad Wardell, Stardock’s CEO, has posted a preview of the new features and technical issues Phase 2 will address. Four issues — which Wardell claims account for 99% of technical complaints — are going to be fixed. Faster load times, downloads and updates encompass the majority of what to expect on that front.

As for features, the biggest addition will be the new community features and the addition of matchmaking. The Political Machine 2008 will be the first to employ matchmaking. Hardcore PC gamers have previously expressed their disdain of matchmaking compared to the usual server browser, but this should make things much easier for newcomers — which a game like Political Machine is catered to bringing in.

In addition, support will be added for smart queing, which will make it easy to install multiple programs; mod libraries/galleries, where you can view mods for a particular game within Impulse; freeware support, which will allow you to install and update third-party freeware through Impulse, making it easier to reinstall your software en masse on a new computer.

The much-hyped ImpulseReactor and MyImpulse will start showing up, too. While MyImpulse won’t be released to the public until Phase 3 (currently scheduled for February 2009), a private beta will begin with Phase 2’s release. This will allow publishers and developers to more easily and quickly release their content on Impulse.

ImpulseReactor includes a slew of features (some of which are already in Impulse and others that we’ve been waiting for) that developers will be able to use in their games without requiring gamers to actually install Impulse, such as Achievements, matchmaking, NAT negotiation, and more. Don’t expect to see all of this right off the bat, though — this will just enable developers to start implementing the features in their games.

A number of those features, as well as other things, will be releasing soon after Phase 2 rolls out. Those include rankings, Achievements, the v1.1 update to Sins of a Solar Empire, and the affiliates program. While it might not have the support Steam does from third-party game publishers (yet), Stardock seems to be making great strides with Impulse.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway comes out next month, and if you’re planning to get the game on PC, Steam might have the best deal going right now. From now until the game launches in September, anyone who pre-orders the game through Valve’s download service will receive a copy of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 for free. That should let you get your tactical World War II shooter fix for the next few weeks. I’m still not sure how I feel about Hell’s Highway. I played some of it at E3 and was fairly unimpressed, but at that moment it was being easily eclipsed by some much more high-profile titles.

Via Steam

Next Tuesday, Valve will be releasing the third major class update for Team Fortress 2. This time the lovable Heavy gets in on the action, along with a new community map, an entirely new mode, and other good stuff. Valve today revealed the first batch of details on the Heavy’s new achievements and unlockable weapons. The first new weapon will be the K.G.B., which is a set of boxing gloves for the fat fella to put on.

Valve explains what they do:

The unlockable for the Heaviest pugilists out there is the K.G.B. Any time a Heavy kills an enemy with the K.G.B he receives five seconds of guaranteed critical hits. This crit-boost can be used to punch and kill further enemies, extending the boost time. Alternatively, the Heavy can switch to another weapon and use the boost to take out an enemy at range. The Heavy’s slow movement speed, and the K.G.B’s slower swing speed, make it a risky prospect.

We should learn what the other two new weapons are in the next few days, as well as Achievement specifics. For now, you can glance at the names and images for all 35 Achievements and take a guess at what they might be — they’ve got some great names, including “Crock Block,” “Borscht Belt,” “Pushkin the Kart,” and my personal favorite, “Stalin the Kart.” What do you think they’ll require you to do?

Eternity’s Child is a side-scrolling platform game based on a fairy tale created by Luc Bernard to be published by British games publisher Alten8, for WiiWare sometime in 2008. It was released by Luc Bernard and Silver Sphere Studios via Steam on July 31, and has been hyped as one of the games to watch upon release - what with the 2D marionette artwork resembling a Tim Burton love child and the whimsical idea of adding a level editor which means that the game can be edited by anyone who owns the game.

A small community has already started to grow on the Steam Forums, and there are also rumors of a website dedicated to the modification of the game. Eternity’s Child has been one many games looked forward too by gamers and the media alike for quite some time; that is, until just recently when it was panned by Destructoid and given a review score of 1/10.

The poor review score for the game comes as a bit of shock only because Destructoid and Bernard seem to have been on wonderful terms. So much so, that Bernard even included the Destructoid’s mascot in Eternity’s Child. Now, according to Destructoid, Bernard has removed the site’s robotic mascot from the game due to his project basically being called “the worst game ever played” by the Destructoid’s staffers. Afterward,  Bernard took the affront to the game personally, and made the unfortunate decision to call the reviewers out in the comments section for such a harsh review of his game. Visitors to Destruction then commenced to bashing Bernard to bits with many different forms of insults and obscenities.

Bernard was visibly upset by the hate mongering and the fact that Destructoid did not feel compelled to keep their community’s comments reigned in and stated the following in one of his many posts:

“Yeah guys just be calm 2 secs I’m a bloody human being too and I don’t think the game deserved something that low, that is why I’m going to put up a demo ok, so you can judge for yourself

Just let’s put it this way it’s easy to follow the crowd, but I put all my heart into this, this is like my baby and well it’s then destroyed, alot of people have enjoyed the game and of course it makes you guys feel better behind your PC to insult someone, but wait until you try a demo and it will be different”

The reason Bernard was upset over the review for Eternity’s Child was because he has asked Destructiod to wait until a patch was released for the game before reviewing it, and was upset when they failed to do as he asked. Destructiod’s reasoning for not adhering to Bernard’s wishes was because they wanted to review the game in the form that is currently available to gamers via Steam for $4.99. While Eternity’s Child is indeed still in progress and not near completion, Bernard has released a demo for it, and asks that the consumer make up their mind about the game. He stated in the comments section of Destructoid that issues with the game stem from an uncooperative relationship with his programmer, and any flaws in the game are not his fault.

It is always hard on a developer when someone is unkind to a project that they have put so much of themselves into, but they should never expect everyone to be pleased with their offerings - yet they should not expect to be treated as harshly as the D’toid community has treated Bernard.

However, the “f** you Luc” comments aside, developers should never go into the comments section of a review for one of their games unless they expect to be lampooned by some members of the reading audience because the majority do not have any sort of manners God gave a Tasmanian Devil. Unfortunately, Bernard learned his lesson the hard way, and I just hope that it has not broken his spirit.

Capcom has stated that the sales figures for the PC version of Devil May Cry 4 have not been outstanding nor very good because game sales for the title have suffered due to severe piracy issues.

Over on the official Capcom forums, Christian Svensson, the VP of Strategic Panning, stated that the Japanese division has not allowed the title to be distributed digitally:

“I’m not sure about how Capcom in general feels but it’s not doing as well as I would like in the US at retail. It’s such a good version and it really deserves better sales. I know it’s getting pirated to hell and back (it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped). I certainly have pushed for digital distribution on the title but Capcom Japan so far has not allowed it.

For the record all Capcom Entertainment developed titles will be distributed extremely widely via digital channels (not just Steam or Direct2Drive, but more than a dozen partners across more than 100 sites/portals for everything we do). I’ve spent the last year building up that channel and I’m continuing to add partners even in advance of Age of Booty, MotoGP, Neopets, Dark Void and Flock shipping.”

Maybe this will help end their pirating woes in the future, but for the time being, Svensson is trying to convince Japanese executives that digital distribution will only help the company in the long run.

“I have a presentation I’m making shortly that I’m hoping will make that approach something we do with all of our PC content, even those developed in Japan, but no promises. It might not happen.”

You can view the thread over on the official Capcom forums by hitting this link.

Thanks: GamesIndustry

If you’re like me, you’ve played the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures, dubbed “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness,” and have been wondering ever since when the next episode would be released. Well, wonder no more. At a recent panel during Comic-Con it was revealed that Episode 2 in the series is due out sometime this fall. Furthermore, there are four sequels planned for this series (that’s five episodes total, for those of you playing along at home). Sadly, no more details have been revealed, though you can probably bet that they’ll all have the same offbeat humor as the webcomic and the steampunk-like setting of Episode 1. That and each episode will probably feature a ridiculously long name.

Via Strategy Informer

Overclocked Remix is offering gamers “Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream”. The album features free fan arrangements with over 45 tracks from 40 different artists, all based on Nobuo Uematsu’s FFVII soundtrack.

Fans of video game soundtracks should definitely appreciate “FFVII: Voices of the Lifestream”. The pieces feature a wide range of musical styles including jazz, new age, techno, rock and classical. There’s a nice sampling of machinima available featuring selections from the album on the FFVII: Voices of the Lifesteam site. You can download the album at FF7:VotL Torrent (2.32GB).

With any sort of service like GFW Live, support from developers is the number one hurdle to overcome. If you don’t have any games on your service, then it’s worthless. Obviously, things coming out of Microsoft like Halo are going to support Live, but that doesn’t nearly mean as much to PC gamers as Half-Life (with Steam) does.

So just how much work does Microsoft do in trying to gain developer support? 1UP asked Games for Windows head Kevin Unangst, who explained what the process is like.

Are you aggressively courting these companies, or are you simply throwing it out there and saying, “here’s our solution. If you like it, we’re here?”

We evangelize our technologies. We have a sizable team that goes out and does that, and it’s an important part of our success in terms of encouraging developers to adopt those technologies. Frankly, as a result of that outreach with the existing product and the offering of Games for Windows, we learned a lot and learned what developers want. Another example of where we’ve changed is that, there’s about a third less technical requirements for games to support Games for Windows Live, in terms of the tests that they have to go through when they’re connecting to our Live network. We took a number of those requirements off to make it even easier, essentially, for those games to add Live.

And we’ve actually heard a lot from happy developers who say, “I know that on the console, achievements drive a lot of sales and interest in my game.” So I think you’re going to see, not only multiplayer games, but also a lot of single-player games that may be great games that you play in a single-player mode that’ll want to add access to the friends list and potentially downloadable content and just awarding achievements in a PC game. I play on both platforms and there are games that I prefer, even though I’m a predominantly PC gamer, that I want to play on the console because I can get achievements that I can send back to my Gamertag. I think all of those things are true and are more interesting to developers now, and we continue to evangelize all those scenarios.

Dawn of War II and Fallout 3 are major games to support GFW, and while they’re certainly a start, Microsoft needs more than that. I can’t imagine a scenario where they’d convince Blizzard to do it (they have Battle.net, after all), but think about Starcraft II supporting GFW Live. Now that would be a killer app.

Most would consider Games for Windows Live and Steam to be directly competing with each other. While Steam does have its store and digital distribution aspect to it, it also works as an overlay in games that gives you access to a friends list, messaging and — in some games — achievements. Sounds a lot like the most compelling features Live has, doesn’t it?

In an interview with 1UP, Games for Windows head Kevin Unangst tried to differentiate the two platforms out of what I amount to a desire to be anything but a Steam competitor. Valve’s platform clearly has a strong hold on the market right now, and it won’t be easy to gain ground on them for Microsoft, Stardock, or anyone else.

In regards to how significant of a challenge Steam’s head store poses for GFW Live, Unangst said, “I think we’re really trying to do two different things. Steam started many years ago, and now they’ve got a great distribution platform that’s being used by quite a few people, and it’s great. I think our focus is, how do we consistently deliver value-add to PC games? We’ve got a multiplayer system that nobody can match, we’ve got achievements for both single-player and multiplayer, we’ve got cross-platform play, we’ve got that plumbing that’s even easier to implement as a result of this. We’re just continuing to give developers tools that are going to get those consumers excited about the gameplay experiences.”

As I said, Steam already covers some of those bases, like achievements and Steamworks being an easy way for developers to implement Steam support into their games. But Unangst doesn’t believe he’s disregarding the competition, and that there’s room on PC for GFW Live and other services.

“I think there’s plenty of room on the PC for all kinds of systems,” he said. “I think consumers and developers will make their own choices. Certainly we are competing in some ways, and over time I think that will continue. But Windows is all about choice. That’s what’s great. They, like many others, are moving into the digital distribution space. You’ve got Gamespy — that’s been in the multiplayer space for years, when you’re talking about game developers having a choice to integrate multiplayer gaming into their system, that’s really the target, when we look at what developers are making choices between. I think our focus on content, our focus on a broad set of content, and really keeping the game at the center is what’s going to define us moving ahead.”

One of the major fundamental differences between GFW Live and Steam today is that you can buy games through Steam. When he was asked if GFW Live might be interested in selling games through Live, Unangst replied, “I think that’ll be a natural evolution of where our service would go — it’s something that’ll be on the road map, but not anything we’re ready to talk about specifically today.”

image via Sarcastic Gamer

Codemasters has announced the EU release of Book 14: The Ring Forges, the latest free content update for LotRO Shadows of Angmar.

Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion brings a wide array of changes to LotRO, including the addition of Eregion, the continuation of the epic questline, and preparations for Moria.  Codematsers has also been hard at work adding even more player-requested features to the game.

Highlights:

• Eregion: Journey to where the Elven Rings were forged
• Epic Quest: The epic quest continues with world events that open up the adventure to every player across all servers
• Moria Prelude Quests: Aid the Fellowship of the Ring as they prepare to leave Rivendell and make their way toward Mordor.
• Dungeons: The loot dropped in all instances and raids is being upgraded, and bosses and mobs are being adjusted to make for even better play experiences! Now is the time to prepare for the dangers that dwell in Moria
• Animation Improvements: LOTRO continues to polish the experience
• Animations and sounds for each Minstrel skill using their equipped instrument (no longer just the Lute!)
• Monster play emote animations for Orc, Uruk, Spider and Warg
• New animations for 12 emotes – plus three new animated emotes

You can get the EU Patch by hitting the badge below. Full release notes are listed after the jump.

Read the full article

There is really not much else for me to tell you about the trailer other than what the title of this post already has, therefore, stop reading this and watch the trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky.

You can expect S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky to be made available on August 29 for the PC via Steam and local gaming retailers.

Gamers can now find Sacred Gold on Valve’s Steam service. As the preparations for the coming of Sacred 2 accelerate, some gamers may want to take a shot at the first game to get to know the setting or revisit an old favorite. The Sacred Gold digital download contains the original award winning game as well as Sacred Plus and Sacred Underworld.

It seems that gamers are waiting breathlessly on several games based on old favorites these days. Between Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Fallout 3 and Sacred 2, players seem happy to over look the absence of new titles out there. I know that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it; but that will only please the masses for so long.

via Steam

The latest trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was recently released, and it shows off the atmosphere of the game. We apparently missed this over the long holiday weekend, but here it is nonetheless.

Game features:

• Atmosphere of the Exclusion Zone
• Research of new depths of the Zone – Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds and more
• A-Life-driven Factions War
• Possibility to play and lead any faction to victory
• Advanced A-Life system
• Varied behaviour of NPC stalkers in the A-Life world
• Advanced spectacular storyline scenes
• Improved AI of computer-controlled characters
• Skirting around dynamic obstacles by NPCs
• Use of grenades by NPCs
• Fast Travel
• Improved concept of detectors, artifacts and anomalies
• New system of upgrades for weapons and armor
• Weapons and armor repair
• Reworked HUD and PDA
• New version of the game engine - X-Ray 1.5
• DirectX 10 renderer
• Improved DirectX 9 renderer - parallax bump, soft particles, depth of field, motion blur, eye adaptation effect
• Cutting-edge and detailed game graphics (normal map)
• Inverse kinematics
• New animation engine

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will be made available on August 29 for the PC via Steam and local gaming retailers.