DigitalBattle.com

Capcom pondering whether or not to charge for Monster Hunter 3 online play

If you didn’t know Capcom charges for online Monster Hunter play in Japan, frightening right? What’s even more frightened is Capcom is pondering whether or not to charge for Monster Hunter 3 online play here in the United States.

Don’t get too scared though as virtually every other Capcom title here in the states is free to play online so they will most likely keep with the current business model and do the same with the U.S. release of Monster Hunter 3 .

The game will be out for the Wii in March of next year.

Read (MTV Multiplayer)

Microsoft testing Xbox Live rewards program

Rumors began circulating yesterday that Microsoft was preparing to test an Xbox Live rewards program and today emails have been sent out confirming that fact.

Below a Microsoft spokesperson comments on the program:

“We are always exploring ways to provide the most value for our members and are currently testing a pilot rewards program with a select base of our Xbox LIVE community in the US. We have no further details to share at this time.”

Yup, same deal, they let us know what they are doing but refuse to give us any details on the matter. Kotaku says there will be a sign-up period to test the program out that ends on October 21st.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Aion takes top spot on US sales chart

The somewhat we–received MMO Aion, NCSofts latest in a long line of MMOs, has sold very well, despite the fact that it’s the first NCSoft MMO in a while to have a paid subscription service. The top 10 best selling PC games, according to NDP:

1. Aion
2. The Sims 3
3. Champions Online
4. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
5. Aion Collector’s Ed
6. Mumbo Jumbo Assortment
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
9. Reel Deal Slots Treasures Of The Far East
10. World Of Warcraft

Modern Warfare 2 server petition reaches 100,000 signatures

People are really upset about Modern Warfare 2’s lack of dedicated servers. How upset? We’ll, an online petition has attracted over 100,000 signatures — in fact, it’s at almost 110,000 right now.

PC gamers are showing their disappointment, where the biggest game of the year, and the biggest multiplayer experience of the year, will be without dedicated servers, and will only feature the system that’s used on consoles.

You can view (and sign) the petition here.

Modern Warfare 2 for PC won’t have dedicated servers

Ouch! Infinity ward dropped the bomb on PC gamers when it announced that the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will inherit the same gameserver/matchmaking system of the consoles, essentially meaning that dedicated servers are a no-go. The game will rely on Infinity Ward’s own, proprietary system called IWNet, instead of, like virtually every other PC multiplayer shooter shooter, offering players to set up their own servers. This is bad news for PC gamers indeed, let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a trend.

Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads coming to a browser near you

It seems that BioWare and a browser-based development offset of EA called EA 2D have teamed up to produce Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. This game is a browser-based tactical RPG set in the same universe as Dragon Age: Origins.

There haven’t been many details regarding the game other than that it will be a 3-chapter title with talent trees, classes, sound effects, music and user interfaces taken straight from its console counterpart.

via bioware

Left 4 Dead: Crash Course Review

Left 4 Dead 2 is out in only a few weeks time, and the last DLC for Left 4 Dead, Crash Course, is finally available for download. The new DLC includes a new campaign consisting of two chapters, and what’s best, it’s free. That is, if you’re playing Left 4 Dead on the PC, Xbox 360 owners will have to fork out $7. It’s sad, but Valve wanted for the DLC to be free on console as well, against the wish of Microsoft. Anyways, to the review…

In Left 4 Dead: Crash Course, the story picks up where the No Mercy campaign ended, with the downed helicopter, from where you mist fight you way to a getaway vehicle. The new campaign can be played like previous campaigns, in single player, co-op mode with fellow humans, and versus mode, where one team are the survivors while the other team are the zombies. The gameplay is as crazy and tense as it always was in Left 4 Dead, however this time, the new locations are considerably darker than before, leading to a lot surprises with enemies jumping out of nearly every dark corner — this is especially useful to the ones playing the infected zombies in versus mode. More »

NBA Live 2010 review

The last few season, the NBA Live series has been in serious decline, and EA has worked hard towards getting out of that slump with NBA Live 2010, finally giving some competition for the rival NBA 2K10, which we reviewed yesterday.

You’ll notice right away that NBA Live 2010 does improve on a few things quite drastically, like the presentation. The visuals have received an overhaul, everything from the animations to the crowd and the stadiums look great, the player models however, while improved over last year’s edition, still lack behind in detail and realism compared to NBA 2K10, but overall, it’s still a pretty game. Gameplay wise, the action is definitely more fluid, and while some animations can seem out of place, it’s still better than last year. However, it’s not about being better than last year, where NBA Live 09 was virtually the low point of the series the past few years. Instead, it’s about how the gameplay compares to the rival NBA 2K10. The Live counterpart does have a more fluid play, but the 2K version seems far more immersive, mainly due to the realistic look and feel of it. However, NBA Live 2010 does feature a lot simpler gameplay, a lot easier to get a hold of, and you’re only using one button to shoot, regardless whether it’s a dunk or layout, jump shot or hook shot. However, this too has its flaws, as your player will often do something else than you intended. If you’re looking for a short jumper, the player on screen might take a hook shot if the defender is too close to him, and thereby take a much tougher shot when a simple one would have done the job. More »

Twitter and Facebook now coming to Xbox 360 in Autumn 2009

This past weekend we let you know that Microsoft listed the Twitter and Facebook Xbox 360 Dashboard update as going live on November 17th, 2009 on their UK Xbox website.

Well it seems that they were being a bit optimistic with that Nov. 17th release date as the same website now says “Service launches Autumn 2009″. So, now we’re just left guessing as to when Facebook and Twitter will hit the Xbox 360 until Microsoft makes a further announcement.

China cracking down on online gamers

The Chinese aren’t known for being the “freest” nation in the world, far from actually, but in terms of online gaming, there’s a huge culture with millions of dedicated players, despite the Internet restrictions. The Chinese government says that online games are “unhealthy”, and a recent crackdown resulted in 45 online games being banned and taken offline. So far, over 200 online games have been investigated, and more are likely to be banned in the future.

New Left 4 Dead PC patch hits the scene

If you’ve been laying Left 4 Dead’s Crash Course campaign you may have noticed that you are unable to let survivors out of rescue doors in Versus mode. Today, Valve has announced that a new patch has been pushed out that will effectively fix this problem and let the zombie slaying madness continue.

Among other minor bug fixes, this patch also gives server owners the ability to designate a maximum ping for players on their server.

Read (Steam)

Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm coming to Xbox Live on November 17th

Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm were announced to be coming to the Xbox 360 some time ago and yet the features have yet to go live. Today, it was made known that that both features will officially go live on November 17th.

News come to us from the UK Xbox website that clearly states “Service launches 17th November 2009″. So, for you Twitter addicts out here, you now have another option to update the world on your every move.

via joystiq

Naughty Dog giving away Uncharted 2 Fortune Hunter edition to beta testers

Naughty Dog has recently announced a new incentive for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves beta testers. If you can’t guess from the above picture, they are holding a contest that will give a lucky beta tester a full copy of the Uncharted 2 Fortune Hunter edition.

In fact, they are giving out 10 copies per day until the game is released and all you have to do to enter is hop online in the multiplayer beta this weekend.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will be out exclusively for the PS3 on October 13th.

Top 10 multiplayer FPS games of all time

Digg this article!

While some indulge themselves in MMORPGs, at the other side of the spectrum of multiplayer games, first person shooters have had players battling in fast paced action for a far longer time — no quest reading or storytelling here, it’s guns blazing and the laws of headshots. Here’s our top 10 pick of the greatest multiplayer first person shooters of all time.

10: Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Valve’s successor to Team Fortress not only received a complete visual overhaul, it also became one of the most stylized multiplayer shooters of today, complete with its own sense of humor. The continuous (free) updates from Valve have kept players involved for a long time, with new weapons and maps added frequently.

9: Battlefield 1942 (2002)

Swedish developer DICE broke on to the gaming scene with Battlefield 1942, which would go on to become one of the most popular online shooters for the next few years. For the first time, gamers could participate in large scale, 64 player matches with big assortment of classes, tanks, planes, jeeps, battling over huge maps — it was warfare like never seen before, and it took the FPS scene by storm.

8: Halo 3 (2007)

Microsoft’s first Halo game on the Xbox 360 was received with one of the biggest launches in gaming history, and the polished multiplayer, which offered a ton of modes, detailed rankings, achievements and maps, have secured the game a top spot in the most played Xbox 360 games ever since. On top of that, the new The Forge mode made it possible to edit the maps as well, adding a new layer of gameplay.

7: Quake 2 (1997)

Quake 2 is widely considered the game that popularized the multiplayer shooter on the PC, and was one of the first to offer custom created content, such as maps, to be shared among fans and modders. It was also one of the first games to be officially selected in the Cyberathlete Professional League, a testament to its legacy.

6: GoldenEye 007 (1997)

While Quake opened the eyes of the general gaming crowd to the PC multiplayer first person shooters, GoldenEye 007 did it for the console crowd. It wasn’t the first console FPS game to offer multiplayer, but it was by far the first hit and a major breakthrough. Released in 1997 on the N64, the multiplayer part wasn’t originally a part of the game, and developer Rare assigned the job to a single programmer, Steve Ellis, who created the multiplayer version virtually by himself from the single player mode.

5: Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)

Following the release of UT 2003, which received a mixed reception from the fans, Epic Games almost started from scratch and created what would become the most popular UT game ever, especially among modders, who were given the tools not only to create new maps, but completely different games, like Red Orchestra and Frag-Ops.

4: Tribes (1998)

In terms of multiplayer shooters, Tribes was a huge success, and was a game that pioneered some multiplayer FPS aspects that exist to this day. The game had a ton of exciting modes, revolutionary gameplay, not to mention 40 maps, some of which were huge, even by today’s standards.

3: Quake 3 Arena (1999)

Quake 3 Arena is perhaps one of the most fast paced multiplayer shooters ever made, and is generally considered the “founding father” of all the frag fests. It was the first Quake game that was exclusively multiplayer-oriented, and was minimalist in eye candy and aesthetics, only focusing on what really matters: gameplay.

2: Battlefield 2 (2005)

DICE brought the chaos and large scale warfare of WW2 into a modern day scenario, and Battlefield 2 became and instant classic, perfectly balancing the line between realism and accessibility — far better than any other military multiplayer shooter had done before. Or since. And despite being considerably buggier than competing games, the sheer quality of the gameplay — not to mention the detailed statistics and awards system — has meant that the game is still one of the most popular online shooters, despite being 4 1/2 years old.

1: Counter-Strike (1999)

Originally released as a mod to Half-Life, Counter-Strike immediately took the world by storm and has since consistently been the most played multiplayer shooter in the world. And with the update coming with Half-Life 2, CS: Source, the new visuals have kept it at the top spot. A proper sequel, Counter-Strike 2, is expected to be released with HL2: Episode 3 next year, and will most definitely continue the reign on the online multiplayer FPS scene.

Gearbox boss: Valve taking a bigger cut on Steam than it should

Valve’s Steam service hasn’t received much criticism over the years, despite it being the number one digital distribution platform, which fact, when you’re numero uno, usually comes with some criticism. Not Steam.

Now Randy Pitchford, Gearbox boss, has stated in an interview with Maximum PC that “Valve is taking a larger share than it should for the service it’s providing. It’s exploiting a lot of small guys.”. Another point Pitchford made, is that Valve is in essence, a competitor, which owns the platform the competing developers are publishing on. He suggests that Valve simply spin off Steam into a separate company, thereby removing the obvious conflict of interest.