A new trailer shows off the wintery playgrounds to be found in the upcoming “Snowblind” map pack DLC for Gears of War 2.
Gears of War 2 fans wake up! More multiplayer maps and another patch for the cover-heavy action game is due out by the end of the month.
The “Snowblind Map Pack” is due out on March 31, and will deliver four winter-themed maps: Grind Yard, Under Hill, Courtyard and a remake of Fuel Depot from the first game. While no pricing was given, the last multiplayer map pack sold for 800 Microsoft points ($10).
As for the patch, it will bring a new experience-based ranking system plus a variety of fixes when it is released on March 24. Hit the jump for full details.
Epic has finally given us an explanation and apology for the digital certificate that expired last week, borking the original Gears of War for PC gamers.
Company VP Mark Rein said online cheat detection features in the game are based on digital signatures.
"We made an embarrassing mistake," said Rein. "We signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game."
"We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience," he added.
The company is currently working with Microsoft to fix the issue. Meanwhile, it is suggested that players backdate their computer clock to a date before January 28, 2009 in order to play the game.
Delivering even more awesome goods, Good Old Games is now host to titles from Epic’s classic shooter franchise Unreal.
The first titles to be available are Unreal Gold (with the Return to Napali expansion pack) and Unreal Tournament: GOTY Edition. Two more titles – Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 – will also be made available completely DRM-free.
“Epic Games redefined the first-person shooter with the Unreal series, and we’re very happy to welcome them to the growing list of companies that share our vision of digital distribution,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “We know that a lot of gamers have been waiting for new deals, and we’re sure that the Unreal games will satisfy their lust for alien blood and intense multiplayer action… DRM-free, of course.”
Epic Games today announced that they have acquired Chair Entertainment, developers of the Unreal Engine-powered Xbox Live Arcade game Undertow. The Utah-based development studio will now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Epic Games and will continue to operate under its own name. It will now focus on creating new original game properties which will be powered by the Unreal engine.
“Chair’s stylized approach to creating games is further enhanced by their ability to stretch our technology in new directions that not only help in creating amazing gaming experiences but also demonstrate the power and versatility of the Unreal Engine,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, Inc. “We are thrilled to bring the Chair team into the Epic family, and look forward to working with them to create original new games that continue to innovate and inspire.”
The studio was founded in 2005 and has released only one game so far. It has also got exclusive development rights to Orson Scott Card’s bestselling sci-fi novel.
The very first gameplay footage from Gears of War 2 has been released. It is introduced by Cliff Bleszinski, the game’s lead designer and all-around cool guy.
The video is from the third chapter in the game, showing off Brumaks, large-scale warfare and chainsaw duels, among many other things. Quite an exciting video!
Gears of War 2 is due out this November exclusively on Xbox 360.
Red Mile Entertainment has announced that it has licensed Unreal Engine 3 for use in developing the upcoming Sin City game.
“The Unreal Engine is one of the most technically advanced engines on the market and is a perfect fit for our Sin City video games,” said Glenn Wong, president and COO for Red Mile. “The engine has powered several of the best-selling games of all time and I am very glad we have the opportunity to arm our developers with such a world-class product.”
The game is expected sometime in 2008.
Mac owners will be able to partake in Unreal Tournament 3 action in early 2008, as MacSoft is porting the game to the platform. It will feature the same content as its PC, PS3 brethren and may possibly be the first Unreal Engine 3-powered title on the Mac.
Illuminate Labs, creators of rendering and lighting technology for next-gen games, has announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Epic Games, one that sees the incorporation of the company’s Beast, a global illumination system, into Unreal Engine 3. Under the terms of the agreement, Illuminate will join Epic’s Integrated Partners Program (IPP) and its technology will be immediately available to any publishers or developers that license the engine.
The inclusion of Beast will allow artists to seamlessly add global illumination to development environments using the Unreal editor. It will also allow them to bake soft shadows with transparency and get skylights from HDR images.
“We are very proud to be part of Epic’s Integrated Partners Program,” said Magnus Wennerholm, chief executive officer of Illuminate Labs. “Visual quality and cost effectiveness in the production process are key issues to all games studios, and with this partnership UE3 customers will benefit from easy access to our advanced lighting technology.”
Some new patches, most notably the UT3 one:
- Democracy 2 v1.01 on the official website
- Napoleon’s Campaigns v1.02 on the AGEOD forums, AtomicGamer, FileFront and Gamer’s Hell
- Unreal Tournament 3 v1.1 on Epic Games’ forums, 4players.de, AtomicGamer, AusGamers, ComputerGames.ro, FileFront, FileShack, Gameguru Mania, Gamer’s Hell, Internode Games Network, The Patches Scrolls and PixelRage
This forum post on the BeyondUnreal forums offers a look at changes planned for the first patch for Unreal Tournament 3, offering fixes in almost every part of the game. No release schedule was offered though.
In actual patch releases, a v8.0.1 update for Football Manager 2008 was released for both PC and Mac versions of the game. Grab them from Gamer’s Hell and Strategy Informer.
Five new high-resolution shots from Unreal Tournament 3.
Following the Halo movie, it seems another Microsoft property Gears of War might not be getting made into a movie anytime soon. New Line Cinema, the studio which acquired the film rights to the adaptation, is backing away from the film due to an ever-rising budget. The financial problems stem from having a triple-A cast as well as the usage of green screens, because the film simply cannot be done without it. The risk of betting so much money on such a franchise is also another factor.
Xbox 360-holdouts will want to mark their calendars, because Gears of War will hit stores for the PC on November 6. As detailed before, the game will feature five new single-player chapters, a new “King of the Hill” multiplayer game mode, three new multiplayer maps, game editor and more. It also includes all the DLCs available via Xbox Live.
The system requirements for Unreal Tournament 3 were confirmed by Epic Games and Midway who have also released two new screenshots seen below.
Those looking to run the game at a bare minimum should have atleast 512 MB RAM and a 2+ GHz processor. Interestingly, the game requires 8 (eight) gigabytes of hard drive space.
Minimum System Requirements* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
* 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
* 512 MB of System RAM
* NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive SpaceRecommended System Requirements
* 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
* 1 GB of System RAM
* NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space
And now the screenshots, undoubtedly taken on a “recommended” system.
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