A few users have reported issues receiving emails from AusGamers to their Hotmail accounts. After some quick investigation it looks like Hotmail mail servers are accepting our emails, but then they never show up in the inbox (or even the spam folder).
We're not sure if it mail is just hugely delayed (one user has waited overnight with no effects, so it doesn't seem to be the case) - so please just bear in mind that if you're signing up, commenting, or otherwise participating in the AusGamers site with a Hotmail email address, you might miss out on some communiques.
EA have also updated us today with a handful of new shots for their forthcoming Madden NFL 09 update. In its 18th year, fans of the series can expect a tighter visual experience as well as updated rosters, as you would expect. As far as new features go, a new training system called Madden IQ is in place where you practice in a holographic set-up through 12 different drills. You'll be rewarded a Madden IQ score based on how well you do, and the game's difficulty will adjust according to how well you play. There is also a much improved Online League mode that supports upto 32 players replete with its own Super Bowl. You'll also be able to engage in an online draft and trade element in support of this. EA Sports Backtrack is a new feature that will call and analyse your gameplay similar to television commentators while an all-new Picture-in-Picture Play Window can be used to watch important facets of your match to make the right decision during play.
Check out our Madden NFL 09 game page for the updates screens.
EA have today announced Wii and DS iterations of their new skate franchise. Skate It will be among the first titles to use the Wii's new Balance Board (designed for Wii Fit), which might sound odd, but believe me when I say this thing actually works. In conjunction with the Blanace Board, you'll also utilise skate's revolutionary Flickit controls via the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, while on DS, you'll be drawing your way around skate's game-world of San Vanelona using the stylus for the Flickit feature.
Skate It unleashes the FlickIt revolution on to the Nintendo platforms, letting gamers use the Wii remote or the Nintendo DS stylus to string together their best tricks for the ultimate skate line.
The Wii remote becomes a skateboard and reacts to gestures that mirror actual skate flips and moves. Players can also deepen this experience by planting their feet on the Wii Balance board. Skate It brings the hit Skate franchise to a new level of creative ingenuity and gameplay excellence.
According to the press release, both titles will release this year, while the much anticipated skate 2 for Xbox 360 and PS3 is mentioned to still be deep in development. You can find out more about Skate It by hitting up our game page.
A new version of Nexuiz, the open source FPS shooter based on the Quake engine, has been released:
New features include:
* -New gamemode Onslaught new available in the menu
* -Added map for the onslaught gamemode (ons-reborn)
* -Completely new announcer sounds/voices
* -Fixed several problems with lagging gameplay/crashes/wrong display of effects
* -The teammessage binds are available in the menu (if you do not see them delete or rename your config.cfg)
* -New server tools for rcon and an irc gateway, updated server documentation
* -Fixed the rotating textures/hud bug on Mac OSX with r_glsl 1
* -New crylink primary attack and tweaked some other weapons
* -Implemented uint16 element array support, this hopefully improves performance on Radeon 9500-X300 cards and GeForce1/2 cards
One thing AusGamers has always been renowned for is being a fast, local mirror for Australians to download the latest and greatest gaming files. I just checked and we've been doing it since January of 1999 - our first ever file, a Quake 2 CTF patch, is still there (actually there were other files before that, but that was the first logged in the database we use currently).
Things have changed a bit since those early days, but for us the importance of providing fast, local downloads has only grown. The Age of Conan client - launched today for early access users in the US - weighs in at 14 gigabytes, and the thought of Australians having to all tie up the few tubes that power our limited international connectivity downloading that from various sites fills us with dread.
We've been chatting with Funcom on and off for the last few weeks about mirroring it, explaining the issues that Australians face, so we're hoping to have an update about this tomorrow - previously though they've explicitly asked us not to mirror their gaming clients, a request that (as always) we've honoured.
To try and further explain some of the issues behind the mirroring process that we use, we have a new article that looks at at it in some more detail, looking at some of the problems of game file distribution and hopefully offering some solutions.
THQ and Jakks Pacific today announced yet another wrestling game to add to their portfolio (which is probably as full as the roster across all the WWE brands). WWE: Legends of WrestleMania will take wrestling fans through exactly what its name suggests, all of the WWE's greatest WrestleMania matches with all of the spectacle's stars from over the years. Not much else was revealed about the game other than we'll be seeing it on both Xbox 360 and PS3 in March of 2009 to coincide with WrestleMania 25 (clever marketing that).
For all the wrestling aficianados out there, stay tuned as we let you know whether you'll be able to live that most triumphant of moments when Hulk Hogan body-slammed Andre the Giant in virtual form next year.
Gears of War 2 continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad, locked in an increasingly desperate battle against the nightmarish Locust Horde for the survival of humanity. Gears of War 2 is an epic saga of survival, loss, and retribution.
The three minute clip is intro'd by celebrity developer Cliffy B and demonstrates a good chunk of in-game action from a level titled Assault.
Nintendo of Australia have just sent through word they'll be holding "training" sessions for both Nintendogs and Animal Crossing on DS in Melbourne this Thursday, May 15. The sessions are being held for anyone who has heard all the fuss about these games (and the DS) but have yet to buy into it (presumebly this is for parents, young'uns and the oldies).
Brush up on your nintendogs and Animal Crossing skills, or come along and learn about the games this Thursday 15 May, 6:00pm at ACMI, Federation Square.
Nintendo will be holding Nintendogs and Animal Crossing beginners’ classes and everyone is welcome. Whether you have played these games or not, come along and learn about two of Nintendo’s most popular and unique games on Nintendo DS.
In Animal Crossing you call the shots in a completely unique world. Own a home, go to work, make friends and celebrate holidays and special events, and with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can visit friends all over the real world or welcome them into your town! Find out how at the training sessions.
Nintendogs allows you to have your very own pet puppy inside your Nintendo DS! Select from multiple breeds, care for and train your puppy using the touch screen and microphone. Nintendogs is a unique game where you actually use your finger on the touch screen to scratch your puppy’s stomach! Come along and learn more about nintendogs.
Giveaways and exclusive downloads will be available on the night. If you have a copy of either game, bring them along with your Nintendo DS.
The event will be held from 6pm till 7pm at ACMI, Screen Pit Room, Federation Square, Flinders Street in Melbourne.
Electronic Arts have announced a PC version of Burnout Paradise is underway and is being built from the ground up by Criterion Software for the platform. According to the press release, this is the first time the series has landed on the PC and will feature exclusive new content.
Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content.
Originally released for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide. Burnout Paradise delivers an open-world environment built for intense speed, excitement and exploration and sets a new standard in the seamless transition from single-player offline to social online gameplay.
Good news for PC owners still not sold on the budding home console platform. We reviewed the game last year, but for all the quick information you need hit up our Burnout Paradise game page.
2K Games have officially confirmed that a BioShock movie deal has been reached with Universal Pictures, green-lighting a feature film based on the acclaimed first person shooter. While the announcement of a video-game based movie is often not a good thing, this one might be a little different as Pirates of the Carribean director Gore Verbinski is already attached as BioShock's director and producer.
The prospect of bringing this blockbuster game to life has attracted not only a major studio, but top Hollywood talent. Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, is slated to direct and produce the BioShock movie. John Logan, Academy Award-nominated writer of Gladiator, The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, is in talks to do the screenplay.
An original property developed by 2K Games, BioShock is one of the most successful new interactive entertainment franchises to launch in recent years. A critical and consumer hit, BioShock has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since its release in August 2007. A sequel to the game, BioShock 2, is planned for a release in 2009.
A release date or further details of the film's cast or content have yet to be revealed.
Brisbane-based developer Auran have announced the Fury League, an attempt to bring more players back into their (ill-fated?) MMO. The league will begin with a qualifying season, which will be free to enter:
To get the competitive juices flowing, and to ensure plenty of hard fought competition, the Qualifying Season will culminate in two special “Cash Ladders”. The top 1,000 players on each Ladder will win cash prizes with a total of $25,000 to be won. The first Cash Ladder will kick off May 20 with players competing in 8 v 8 team Vortex. The second will begin on May 27 with players competing in the 4 v 4 Elimination game type.
The press release has a lot more information, so if you think you're in with a chance, it's probably worth having a gander at it. Whether this will boost the flagging player numbers is another question.
Vivendi Games have revealed both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of The Bourne Conspiracy are available in free downloadable demo form from both the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace today. The full press release can be found here, but for the uninitiated, The Bourne Conspiracy is a game based on the Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne series of books and films and will offer new chapters between major film and novel events to flesh out the world of the forgteful Mr Bourne even more.
Through close partnership with Ludlum Entertainment, and collaboration on story and character development with Bourne screenwriter Tony Gilroy, The Bourne Conspiracy is an intense interactive addition to the blockbuster films and best-selling novels.
The Bourne Conspiracy game will be available nationwide June 5, on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.
You can check out more about the game by hitting up our AusGamers The Bourne Conspiracygame page.
Codemasters have released a playable demo of Race Driver: GRID to the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network, the 795MB sampler offering races from three regions from the full game.
Europe Touring Cars at Jarama Circuit, U.S Muscle cars at San Francisco and Japanese Drift Racing at Yokohama Docks. Compete online in the European and U.S races and check out the time trial competitions for the chance to win a car and other ace prizes.
Race Driver: GRID is the latest incarnation of the TOCA series of racing sims from Codemasters and uses the same game engine as Colin McRae: DIRT. It also continues Codies tradition of confusingly renaming the same game for different regions. You'll find some screenies and the feature trailer over on our Race Driver: GRID game page.
Update: The promised PC version is now also available. Grab it right here from AusGamers Files.
APCMag are reporting the the upcoming Asus eeePC 900 - the anticipated ultraportable laptop that we have talked about previously - will be cheaper if you buy the version that comes with Windows XP.
At a Sydney launch event for the much-anticipated Eee PC 900 model, local product manager Albert Liang revealed that the XP model would sell for $599 in Australia, while the Linux model would be $649. To cover the licence cost associated with Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works — which replace a custom version of the Xandros Linux distribution and OpenOffice — the XP model has just 12GB of storage, while the Linux version has 20GB.
So you can stick with Windows and save $50, or buy the premium unit with Linux and an extra 8GB of storage. It should be noted that in other markets the two retail for the same price.
Ubisoft have today announced a multiplayer demo for the forthcoming Free Radical shooter, Haze, is available for free download from the PlayStation Store. The demo is up now and will set you back 1.5g of space on your HD. We're bringing it down as this is posted, so stay tuned for our thoughts on one of the PS3's more anticipated releases (and its multiplayer component). There are also a few new screens available, which you can look at in our awesome new AusGamers 2.0 screens gallery.
Haze is a PS3 exclusive first-person shooter developed by Free Radical (TimeSplitters) and published by Ubisoft. For more information check out our Haze game page.
Pandemic and Electronic Arts have announced The Lord of the Rings Conquest, a new action title set in the Tolkien Universe, set for a global release in (Australian Spring) 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Nintendo DS. The game is being handled by the Pandemic crew that brought us the Star Wars Battlefront games, operating out of Pandemic Studio's Los Angeles headquarters, not to be confused with the Brisbane team who are yet to reveal the secret project they are currently working on.
Set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” universe as depicted by the Academy Award®-winning films, players will finally fight the entirety of these epic battles any way they want. In addition to crusading as the heroic forces of good, for the first time ever in a ‘The Lord of the Rings’ action title they’ll conquer Middle-earth while playing as the legions of Sauron’s evil army, including Cave-trolls, Oliphaunts, the Balrog and Sauron himself.
The first screenshots from The Lord of the Rings: Conquest can be found here in our brand-spanking-new AusGamers games library.
Sony recently announced that the PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 wireless controller was about to land, which it did a couple weeks ago - bringing back the much-desired vibration and rumble experience.
The DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller provides the most intuitive game play experience with pressure sensors in each action button and the inclusion of the highly sensitive SIXAXIS™ motion sensing technology. Each hit, crash and explosion will be more realistic than ever as the user will be able to feel the rumble right through the palm of their hand. The DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller can even detect natural movements for real-time and high precision interactive play, acting as a natural extension of the user's body.
The DualShock feature was allegedly left out of the original PlayStation 3 controller due to the lawsuit in which Sony was sued for squillions of dollars for patent infringement because they included the vibrating technology in the PlayStation 2 controller.
The Enemy Territory: Quake Wars blog has word of the impending v1.5 update, looking at all the new bells and whistles that'll be included. The full list is extensive, covering user interface improvments, new cvars for enhanced customisation, updates to the ranking and statistics system, improved bots, plus other minor tweaks and fixes.
It's been a long journey to get here. We've done countless write-ups and news pieces in the build-up to its release, but finally we have our GTA 4 review up. It's part of the celebration of AusGamers 2.0, and part of our promise to you to bring you the best editorial we can.
Dan and I have been slogging it out, as we expect you have, since April 29 and still know there's more and more to find and uncover. At any rate, this is definitely one of the bigger games of the year, so head on into our review, play with the new AGN 2.0 features and be sure to let us know what you think.
Click here for our massively in-depth review of Grand Theft Auto 4.
Almost missed this one with all the AusGamers v2.0 fun going on; thanks aus-savage for the heads up. S2 Games' multiplayer only first person shooter Savage 2 has now landed on Steam, a perfect fit for the independantly developed game that was previoulsy only available via the S2 website.
To celebrate the launch, S2 Games will be offering the Steam community a five dollar ($5.00 USD) discount on the download and purchase of a Savage 2 game account from now until May 10, 2008. This special introductory discount brings the price of the game down to $24.99 USD.
“Savage is a cult classic amongst gamers everywhere, including many fans here at Valve,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. “However, like many great PC games, finding a copy of its fantastic sequel is something of a challenge in the states and other parts of the world. As such, we’re especially delighted to offer Savage 2: A Tortured Soul and help drive awareness of this great franchise among the millions logging on to Steam each day.”
Not a bad deal. Check out steampowered.com for the goods, and stop by our in-depth review of Savage 2 to find out more about the game itself.
A few people let us know they've had some issues getting their entries in to the survey competition. We've fixed some issues on the front end that would have been causing problems for some people - sorry about that.
Also, please note - due to evil spammers using AusGamers stuff in spam emails, it seems that the survey confirmation emails are ending up in a lot of spam folders. If you don't get your email, please check there first! Gmail accounts are known to be highly subject to this, so please take the time to click the 'not spam' buttons so it learns.
Please note though to enter the competition you will need to do the survey first. It won't take too long, we promise! Then jump into the competition to try and win yourself some loot.
id Software have officially announced Doom 4, the next addition to their flagship first person shooter series that helped paved the way for the genre some fifteen years ago. Details on the game are scant, but they're hiring.
id Software is expanding its internal team and is currently hiring to work on this highly anticipated title.
“DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “It’s critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles.”
The DOOM franchise is one of the most recognizable and important in gaming history, having been named “one of the ten most influential games of the decade” by PC Gamer and “the #1 game of all time” by GameSpy. DOOM 4 will join the award-winning series which has consistently topped sales charts throughout the world.
id Software is looking for talented, ambitious and passionate individuals eager to join its accomplished team of developers working on the industry’s most innovative and anticipated games. For a complete listing of available positions, visit www.idsoftware.com. Resumes can be submitted via email to jobs@idsoftware.com. All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.
Let's hope it's a little more well-lit than the last one.
Following several months of on-and-off development, we're proud to unveil the new version of the AusGamers website!
While the older style has served us faithfully for many years, it was long overdue for a refit, so we've taken the time to give it a flash new look as well as sneaking a bunch of neat new features:
Improved interaction - we've made it a lot easier for new people to get involved in the AusGamers community.
Improved search - a new and improved search system for our extensive files archive is the first of several search improvements.
Improved performance - we've completely overhauled the codebase and have moved to much, much faster hardware.
More games content - we've expanded our already-massive games database to include more information, more screenshots, and more videos.
More contributors - we're getting more people on board to help grow our editorial coverage to keep you informed. Interested? Let us know.
New competitions - a brand new competition system will be giving you more opportunities to win some awesome prizes - starting today.
More information - new modules on the front page show you what is popular on AusGamers, right across the board.
Updated forums - we're expanding on our popular gaming forums with a variety of other topics.
As part of the goings-on, we're also running a survey to find out more about AusGamers visitors and the Australian gamer in general. While we're sure that everyone would be falling over themselves to fill it out anyway, to sweeten the deal we're also running a competition for anyone that enters.
All you have to do is fill out the survey, pop over the competition page, answer just one more question - and then if your answer is awesome enough, you could win an Xbox 360 console, courtesy of.. well, us. The two runner-up entries will each receive a Nintendo DS as well.
As always with any new release there are a few bugs; we're aware of most of them but if you find any please feel free to let us know. We're also interested in feedback, so hit up the comments and tell us what you think.
We've still got a lot of other improvements and updates planned for the immediate future, but for now we'd like to take the time to thank everyone that continues to visit AusGamers regularly and contributes to the awesome gaming ecosystem that we have here. We have a bunch of good stuff coming so stay tuned!
DICE and EA have released the first trailer from Mirror's Edge. This perhaps inaptly named "teaser trailer" shows off some tasty gameplay from the colourful upcoming title.
We want to change the way that players are able to move in first person. No more restrictions, no more being blocked by simple barriers such as walls and fences. We want to enable the player to move like a real person, with the ability to run, jump, vault and slide in a way that has never been seen before in a first person game.
