TERA Online Available to Pre-Order
Frogster, European publisher of MMO TERA Online, have announced pre-order details for the game. Pre-ordering will allow guaranteed beta access and a five-day exclusive access to the game at launch, as well as special in-game items.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq7aKNVQbH8]
Beta testing begins on February 17th, with details on available sessions here.
TERA has been in the news over the last few weeks due to a lawsuit filed by NCsoft, and reported on by MMO Culture, and for their IP blocking which excludes players from some countries, including Russia, being unable to access Frogster servers in Europe.
GFACE – Crytek’s Cloud Gaming Service
GFACE, a new browser-based cloud gaming service from Crytek, has now entered closed beta.
GFACE combines social network and gaming elements: users can interact with friends, upload photos and post status updates, as well as stream a variety of console-quality games in their browsers.
As the system is cross-platform, players able to quickly and easily join their friends in multiplayer games. Games available through the service range from the casual 2D and 3D games through to core games, including Crytek’s own Warface, a free-to-play online military shooter.
While in beta, the system is undergoing testing with a small amount of people. If you want to apply for a beta spot, you can do that here.
RIFT Lite Announced
Trion Worlds have just announced the launch of a Life version of fantasy MMO RIFT, accessible to anyone with a Trion account.
The Lite version of the game will allow new players to try out the first 20 levels of the game, accessing capital cities as well as other areas, with no cost or time restrictions, rather like World of Warcraft’s Starter Edition.
Via Massively.
The Humble Bundle for Android
The latest Humble Bundle is here, and this time it’s an offering for fans of mobile gaming, as the games are available for Android mobile devices, as well as Windows, Mac and Linux.
Games in this bundle are: reverse tower defense Anomaly: Warzone Earth, by 11 Bit Studios, ambient physics game Osmos, by Hemisphere Games, and Mobigame‘s puzzle-platformer EDGE, with 2D Boy‘s classic indie game World of Goo the bonus for those paying more than the average price.
As usual, the bundle is pay what you want, with a choice in how your donation is split up: between developers, the Child’s Play Charity, or the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Humble Tip.
Behind the Scenes: Man vs Machine
MuchDifferent‘s browser-based FPS / world record attempt / tech demo took place on Sunday, and while the team underestimated the number of people who would be interested in taking part, and struggled to balance the game, the world record attempt and tech demo were a success!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJKLHjHjxBc]
The highest number of players reached was 999, breaking the world record!
Darksiders Novel Announced
THQ and Random House Publishing Group have announced today that a Darksiders novel is to be published in May.
Darksiders: The Abomination Vault, by Ari Marmell, takes place millennia before the events of the games.. featuring the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and a plot to resurrect ancient weapons of unimaginable power.
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame, the turn-based strategy RPG by Neocore Games and Paradox Interactive, has now been released on the PC.
While trying to protect his kingdom, King Arthur suffered a wound which won’t heal and thus became the Maimed King.. and his land is suffering with him. Camelot is in ruins, with the Knights of the Round Table scattered or turned against each other, and monsters roam the lands..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-2leHqbE0]
Players take control of a small army of warriors, attempting to uncover the dark forces at work in the lands of ancient Britannia. Gameplay consists of a mixture of strategic and tactical phases, with a large campaign map for strategic actions such as moving armies and completing story-driven quests, and tactical battles taking place when two armies meet. Battles can take place under the direct command of the player, with numerous tactics to choose from, or they can be Auto-Resolved for an instant decision.
The King Arthur II demo, featuring the tutorial and first mission, is available for download here.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player action RPG developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, and published by 38 Studios and Electronic Arts.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vzRaMAx90]
The game takes place in the fantasy kingdom of Amalur, where players can choose from four playable races and define their own class through the destiny system. Players begin the game having arisen from the dead, and are free to choose and customise their character as they wish, while exploring a vast game world.
The game universe is also planned to be the setting of an upcoming MMO by 38 Studios, codenamed Project Copernicus.
A demo of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was made available on the 17th January, on Steam, Origin, Xbox Live and PSN, although critics complained of a number of bugs in the demo.
38 Studios and EA have also come under fire for the revelation that the game has an online pass.
Kingdoms of Amalur’s online pass is to be included with all new copies of the game, and unlocks a “House of Valor” content pack containing seven additional quests. This is unusual, as it effectively locks out single-player content for anyone not buying new: the usual stated reason for using an online pass is to recuperate server costs and ongoing maintenance for online content.
Gamers annoyed by the inclusion of the online pass posted on the game’s forum to ask if the studio fought the restriction or not; studio head Curt Shilling also posted in the thread in defense of the online pass. The debate is ongoing, with the thread now up to 137 pages.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Intro
CD Projekt have released a video showing the introduction to The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition, following on from the CG trailer posted recently.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ajukUlRKdA]
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is due for release on April 17th for Xbox 360.
IndieCity Global Game Jam 2012 and 100 games!
IndieCity hosted a game jam in Birmingham this weekend, as part of the Global Game Jam. All games created for the jam, and submitted during the weekend will be accepted and published by IndieCity!
The Global Game Jam is the world’s largest game jam event taking place in January each year. Thousands of student, indie and professional game developers get together across hundreds of local jams to share advice and develop games based on a secret theme during the weekend. This year’s attendee figures reached 11228, with 2310 active game projects listed; beating the 2011 record of over 1500 games created.
IndieCity have been steadily growing, and have now reached 100 games, with platform exploration game LaserCat being the 100th game.