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Frontlines Fuel of War 75% off on Steam

Remember Frontlines Fuel of War? The semi-sci-fi multiplayer shooter that was created by a pack of Battlefield developers? Yeah, we thought so. If you didn’t try out the game before — we can understand if you haven’t — you got a pretty good deal for it on Steam now, as the game is 75% off the normal price, meaning it retails for only $7.50.

Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days gets 2010 release

Square Enix Europe, formerly Eidos, has announced that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will appear in 2010. The IO Interactive developed game continues the story of Kane and Lynch, one killer, one mental patient, who are on the run from the law (and many others). A movie has recently been green lit, starring none other than Bruce Willis as Kane.

Left 4 Dead 2 review

There was understandable outrage when Valve announced a sequel to Left 4 Dead, to be released only a year after the original game, giving a hint that it might be a yearly series, something very untrue to the Valve spirit (which is quite the opposite: quality delays). Is there merit to the criticism and concerns? Has Left 4 Dead 2 too little to offer compared to last year? In short, yes, in long: yes, but it’s still a heck of a lot of fun.

The story in Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D 2) followed the same type of story and gameplay as its predecessor, the main campaign follows four survivors, played via online co-op with three other players, where the point is to escape through a maze and myriad of zombies of all kinds. It’s a style of gameplay where teamwork absolutely counts, in L4D 2, it counts even more. Don’t even think about going solo — you’ll be picked to your bones very quickly. The new campaign follows four new survivors, this time they seem to be more varied with better personality, however the AI is still lacking a bit behind, where they’ll often run in front of you, despite that it’s very clear that you’re shooting a very big gun right next to them. But this, of course, is gone when you play co-op — which you should, that’s the whole point, anyways. Read the rest of our Left 4 Dead 2 review

Top 10 original video games of 2010

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Hollywood usually takes most of the slack when it comes to criticism for lack of originality, but in fact, the video game industry is even worse at creating original content, it’s a world dominated by franchises of every kind, from sports to action games, publishers and developers are usually taking the easy and safe way: sequels. And spin offs. And remakes. Etc.

We’ve compiled a list of top 10 original games that are scheduled for release for 2010 — and it was quite a challenge: out of the 130 games confirmed for 2010 by major publishers and developers, we found 19 that were original. Just 19.

10: Brink (Spring 2010)

Brink, an FPS developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, centers around a two sides: Resistance and Security, and is a team based multiplayer shooter much like Quake Wars, which was also developed by Splash Damage. It looks promising as a multiplayer game, as it’s story based, much like Quake Wars, where one battle takes place over several maps, with a story connecting everything together.

9: Alpha Protocol (Spring 2010)

Alpha Protocol, developed by Obsidian Entertainment — developers of Star Wars: KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 — is a third person action RPG where the player assumes the role of Michael Thorton, a CIA agent who’s been betrayed and must not only fight his way through enemies, but also uncover the conspiracy that set him up.

8: Singularity (Q2 2010)

While time travel is a known concept in games, albeit underused, it’s still something that is difficult to fit in wiht the overall storyline, and the time feature never seems to be used properly. In Singularity, the player will have control over a TMD (Time Manipulation Device), a “weapon” which will be used to solve puzzles, for instance, if a door is locked, instead of looking for the key, you use the TMD and speed up time for the lock only, which will rust, and voila, door opened! Or use it on an enemy and watch him turn into a skeleton. The concept certainly seems intriguing, and offers some truly original puzzles.

7: Dante’s Inferno (February 9, 2010)

Dante’s Inferno has already caused a lot of controversy, from the fake E3 2009 protest, to gameplay elements where players can slay children. The gritty, hell based game is loosely based on the actual Inferno by Dante in The Divine Comedy, and the player assumes the role of Dante, who has to fight his way though monsters and demons in the 9 circles of hell, and decide whether he’ll be good and spare some (like children) or go reckless. It definitely looks as one of the darkest games of 2010.

6: MAG (January 26, 2010)

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a PS3 online FPS multiplayer who’s main feature is a massive 256 player online matches, with 128 players per team, divided into 8-player squads, 4 squads into a platoon, and 4 platoons into a company. With 256 players on the map, MAG is set to deliver some of the most intense and frantic combat yet, and will offer detailed stats and rankings, where higher ranked players will be able to command the battle and give orders to individual squads and platoons.

5: LA Noire (Q3 2010)

LA Noire, an open ended adventure game set in a recreated 1940s Los Angeles, which players can freely roam around, and chose to solve a number of murders around the city. The game has a great feeling of classic noir films based in LA, like LA Confidential, The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, and draws inspiration from such works as well.

4: Rage (Q4 2010)

It’s been a while since Id Software has made an original game — actually, the last original game Id Software made was Quake, back in 1996. Id finally shows something new with Rage, a fusion between a first person shooter and a racing game set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max styled world. It’s built with the all new Id Tech 5 engine, and shows very promising visuals, to say the least.

3: Heavy Rain (Q2 2010)

Heavy Rain has been on the radar since it was originally showcased at E3 2006, and will be released almost four years later, in Q2 2010. The gorgeous looking game centers around a serial killer known as “The Origami Killer”, and players assume roles of different characters who try and solve the murders. It’s one of the most stylish and atmospheric games to come out in 2010.

2: Alan Wake (Q2 2010)

What Heavy Rain is for the PS3, Alan Wake is for the Xbox 360. Developed by Remedy, Alan Wake is a psychological thriller inspired by the likes of Twin Peaks and Stephen King novels, where players assume the role of Alan Wake, a writer who seeks refuge at a quiet place where he can write his next novel (much like Stephen Kings “Misery“). However, when his wife vanishes, it’s up to him to get her back.

1: APB (March 2010)

APB is not only the most original MMO game to his the stores in 2010, it’s also the most original game overall. It’s the classic cops vs. robbers gameplay, but on a massive scale, with endless customizations and options, tons of missions and weapons. Created by David Jones, the original creator for GTA, APB is hailed as everything he wanted to do wince he made GTA, and while originally trying to pitch and sell APB to Rockstar as GTA Online, it’s good that APB is on its own now, we need a great, original game. And an MMO that’s not fantasy based.

Dead Space 2 getting online multiplayer?

Job postings are a great way to spy on upcoming products from companies. For instance, a recent job posting from EA looks for a “Senior Online Level Designer,” which should be qualified to “be able to work collaboratively with Creative Director and Online Producer to create extremely fun, satisfying and polished multiplayer levels”. And you know what that means? Yep, pretty big possibility of Dead Space 2 having online multiplayer.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC to support DirectX 11

In a rather surprising move, DICE confirmed (via Twitter) that Battlefield Bad Company 2 for the PC will support DirectX 11, which was introduced with Windows 7. The news was announced by AMD, which is in cooperation with DICE to add DX 11. The game will still use the fist edition of the Frostbite engine, while Frostbite 2 will fully support DX 11, and is the engine used in the upcoming Battlefield 3.

Modern Warfare 2 boycott works. Yeah Right.

The above screenshot shows a group of Steam members who joined the group “Boycott Modern Warfare 2 — We want dedicated servers”. As you can see, it’s not really working, as most of them are playing… Modern Warfare 2.

Modern Warfare 2 PC review

Modern Warfare 2, the most anticipated game of the year, is out and has already broken the sales records. And it’s already showered in rave reviews, so let’s be clear from the get go: this is not one of those reviews. In fact, we were quite disappointed by Modern Warfare 2. Even though we were fans of the first game, the sequel feels a lot like going from a great movie to its sequel: nothing new and much of the same.

Modern Warfare 2 is the Transformers 2 of the video games. A huge blockbuster with plenty of thrills and action, but a confused to no plot, and, for the PC version which we’re reviewing, a crippled multiplayer part. It feels like a genuine overhyped piece of entertainment, which will be swallowed up by fans no matter what, still with all the great ingredients of Modern Warfare 1, but with not much new, not chances are taken by the developer, in fact, it’s far too much like its predecessor, in almost every aspect. Read the rest of the Modern Warfare 2 review

Age of Conan double XP this month

While some games have double XP weekends to attract more players, Age of Conan is having none of that silly thing, it’s got a full double XP month, which lasts until the end of November. Publisher Funcom also announced new incentives to sign up for the game, for instance, subscribe for one month and get 7 extra days, or six months and get a level 40 helmet with a 10% XP modifier (that’s right, 10%! /sarcasm). Full press release here.

Quake Live patched

Id Software has patched several exploits for the free-to-play, browser-based online shooter Quake Live. The patch fixes a series of bugs and exploits, most importantly:

• Fixed demo playback for demos with long file names.
• Fixed the accuracy menu to update properly in Clan Arena.
• Fixed the players-left-alive count to update properly in Clan Arena when an alive player disconnects.
• Fixed banned players’ profile pages to once again report the status of their suspension.
• Fixed issues that had arose with the Match tool-tips.
• Changed ‘cg_gibs 0′ to now entirely disable the death spark effects.
• Changed Cobalt Station – qzdm16’s max player limit to 8 players in CTF mode.

Quake Live is currently in open beta release, a state which it has been since February of this year. There is no word on the actual release of the game, but it seems quite stable as it is. You can check out Quake Live on the official site here.

Tekken 6 review

The Tekken series has been in a long battle with Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter for many, many years, each time, each series tried to top the other, and now is no different with Tekken 6. The latest installment in the franchise, this time with a deep roster, new gameplay modes and tweaks, this is certainly the best Tekken game to date. But how does it stack up against the rivals? Read on.

The story of Tekken 6 is slim to non existent to laughable — but that’s expected, it’s not a novel, it’s a fighting game, and the story that’s there basically moves your from fight to fight. Nothing special, and it gets the job done. The single player campaign lets you battle all of the available enemies, which means you’ll be fighting a lot of them — the roster is one of the largest in any Tekken game, with all the classic fighters back, including Lei, Paul, Jin and Kazuya. It also includes characters included in Tekken Dark Resurrection, further increasing the roster to a total of 40. However, not many new members have been introduced, not that it makes any difference, since the roster already feels crowded and it’s gonna take you a long time to identify with all of the characters. Read the rest of the Tekken 6 review

StarCraft 2 beta delayed until 2010

StarCraft 2 producer Chris Sigaty revealed at Russian game expo IgroMir (yep, they got game expos over there too), that the StarCraft 2 beta has been pushed into next year. Blizzard has previously announced that StarCraft 2, or rather, the first chapter, named Wings of Liberty, will be released during Q2 2010, which begins in March.

Left 4 Dead 2 pre-loading on Steam

The time is getting closer and closer, the time for slaying tons of zombies, that is. Valve has revealed that pre-loading is now available for Left 4 Dead 2, the full game will be released on November 17 in North America and on November 20 in Europe, both on the PC and Xbox 360. You can still pre-order the game and get a 10% discount.

Iwata: only 35% of Wiis are online, 20% of DS

Nintendo has never been known for fully embracing online gaming, and the Wii trails a distant third behind the PS3 and Xbox 360 when it comes to playing online — despite being the top selling console. Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata has revealed numbers on online connectivity, saying that 35% of Wii consoles are online and only 20% of Nintendo DS consoles.

Furthermore, Iwata said that those numbers will decline if the company doesn’t “take aggressive action” on the online front — which it of course plans to do. All we can say is; it’s about damn time!

Star Trek Online shipping on February 2

Star Trek Online has finally received a release date: February 2, 2010. The Star Trek based MMO is currently in closed beta to subscribers of Champions Online, and will receive an open beta in the upcoming months. The game allows you to join either the Federation or the Klingons as the commander of your own starship, go on missions and engage in combat with other ships.