I don't normally post release dates for games.  Frankly, they're not usually announcements worthy of our time 'round these parts, but Bioshock is one of those games that has me absolutely falling all over myself with anticipation.  

Am I hyped?   Yeah.

This is why I've been lurking their community site over at CultOfRapture, where today the community manager flat out announced that Bioshock will be street legal on August 21st.    A little later than I hoped, but I won't complain -   Hey Irrational!  How bout letting us indie media in for a sneak peek?!

From the post:

BIOSHOCK STREET DATE IS AUGUST 21
February 28, 2007

The headline says it all: BioShock's street date is August 21st. That's a Tuesday, for all you who might be planning your "sick" days in advance.

Let the countdown begin!

Say what you will about the terrible anime series or the potential animal cruelty factor of a game that is basically a non-stop onslaught of cock-fights, Pokemon was one of if not the most influential game of Nintendo's portable game strategy. 

Apparently created by a fan collective, Pokemon Online is a completely non-Nintendo project that aims to turn the Pokemon universe into a working MMORPG complete with quests, an open world, and opf course a great deal of pokemon fighting.

Taping into the most interesting, if basic aspects of the Pokemon games, this could prove an interestijng template for Nintendo to pay attention to--could the future of Pokemon reside in the MMO genre, and if so can Nintendo match fan expectations?

Dystopia, my favorite source mod, has just announced the release of version 1. New models, weapons, armor, and maps are just but the beginning of what to explore in the long awaited and now released version.

Fileplanet is hosting the file which you can grab here.

For those unfamiliar with Dystopia, it's a cyberpunk mod for Half-Life 2. When I say 'cyberpunk' I mean a world where corporations have taken over and the 'punks' (essentially the resistance) is fighting them back via means of computers and manpower. The game features a seamless transition from the real world to cyberspace unlike any other. I highly recommend checking this out.

Hey guys, so i was rummaging around the back dock of my work .... ok i was checking out what gaming stock came in *shooshh* and to my surprises there were several titles entitled The lucasarts classics. Taking a closer look the titles were Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim  Fandango, Curse of the Monkey Island, Jedi Knight Dark Forces II & Expansion, The Dig, SW Galactic Battleground + Expansion and SW Episode One Racer. I honestly didn't think they were gonna release them again, they are retailing at $9.95 Aus which is pretty awesome. So any classic gamer fans go out and grabs these cause they will go fast, i know i bought all of them except racer.

Note: Has been released in UK since 1 Dec 2006

Here’s a list of the more prominent titles shown at the Vista-centric Games For Windows event that took place in San Francisco this Monday.

Age of Conan
Shadowrun
Supreme Commander
World In Conflict
Hellgate: London
Crysis

I’m not mentioning the others, mostly because they are already released or alternatively, are minor puzzle games.  Browser entertainment stuff for the most part, like the new Vista version of Geometry Wars.  And of course, there were some systems just running Vista on its own, inviting users to take a few minutes to examine some of the new non-gaming features.

With the public launch of Vista steadily approaching (look at that, I said steadily!), one can only wonder if all of the fancy bells and whistles add to the operating system, or merely mask what lies within. It is with that thought process that we bring to you, the dear reader, an in-depth analysis of the operating system and the mysteries that lie within. Some of you might not survive, but for those who do, remember that the fallen gave up so that you might have a better future. And if that doesn't work for you, just consider Darwinism and you're all set.

In all seriousness, the Gamer Andy Lab will be employed to discover how Windows Vista runs on a multitude of setups. From ye olde 386s to a supercomputer with the graphics card of tomorrow, we'll have a performance rating and analysis for your specific rig.

So stay tuned and watch the updates, come Vista you just might find yourself in a sticky situation. And who knows, there might be some sort of giveaway attached as well; that's just how we roll.

Some of our readers may remember a few weeks ago when I pointed to the imminent relese of the Infinity: The Quest For Earth combat prototype. Unfortunately, a multitude of problems caused the developer to almost immediately pull the download, and while the bugs were worked out he took the liberty of finishing a variety of additional features that had not been available at the original time of release.

I'm happy to say that the download is now out again as ICP 2.1 and looks downright astounding. I encourage you to take a look.

I've been watching the development of this project for more than a year now. With strong resemblance to some of my favorite games like TIE Fighter, Wing Commander and Freespace, Infinity is an independently developed space-based MMO where there are no artificial skillsets to improve or limitations emplaced on players beyond what they manage to acquire through regular play. It looks downright gorgeous, and what has been confirmed as in development makes me downright giddy in anticipation of its eventual release.

Check out screen shots after the jump...

This article about Left Behind, a game where players must convert heathens, was linked to on SlashDot this morning.

The game takes place after Rapture when all the good Christians have been taken to heaven by Jesus while all the nonbelievers are left on earth to face the Antichrist. While the player can pick which team to be on -- the Christian who must convert heathens or the heathens themselves -- there's no way to win when you choose to be the non-Christian team.

Wal-Mart has been asked to stop carrying this game, but it has no intention of doing so. Besides, with the holiday season upon us, what else says "happy holidays" better than a game that teaches your children that it's okay to preach at people who aren't interested and gun them down if they refuse to believe in what you believe in?

From the guys who brought you World of Warcraft comes... another MMORPG company?

Reuters reports that on Monday members of the original team that developed WoW, now called Red 5 Studios, have raised $18.5 million in venture captial to begin producing their own online games.

From the story:

Mark Kern, Red 5's chief executive and former team leader on "World of Warcraft," said his California-based game studio will create original games for online game operators and distributors -- much as Pixar Animation Studios did in the movie world with its animated films such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo."

I'm anticipating, knowing these guys are pretty smart cookies, that they will not limit their development projects to the PC and branch out into consoles like the XBox 360, PS3 and Wii. Of course, that's my conjecture. Nothing in the story mentions what they'll be developing and for whom. All it says is that these guys are now hired guns for publishers and have enough bank to make a go of it.

[From Reuters]

Gaze, dear mortals, into the fiery eyes of convergence; convergence of the sexiest machine in existence, the coolest controller yet, and, err, Windows.

I'm not sure of the author of this item. It turned up on the Hybrid Reaction guild site, and if you're a World of Warcraft player, it's hilarious.

Well, it would be hilarious but it eerily contains more unintended truth than the author probably anticipated.

BUG FIXES IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT v2.0

1. Fixed an issue where Shamans were occasionally dying while playing the game.

2. Fixed an issue where spell casters could not one-shot melee classes.

3. Fixed an issue where warriors were capable of tanking boss level monsters. We never meant for this to happen and it was never working as intended.

4. Fixed an issue where hunters were considered a "ranged dps" class. All hunters should now be able to properly main tank an instance.

5. After reports that paladins were being required to heal, buff, and cleanse during a raid and could do nothing else, we have fixed this bug. The paladin class is now as useless as it was originally intended to be.

6. The LFG channel was being flooded with unintended global chat. This chat has now been properly moved to the trade channel as it was originally intended.

7. Druids now have a "god-mode" toggle switch on their character sheet. Who the hell did those other classes think they were in the first place?

8. Fixed an issue where hunter traps were giving an unfair advantage in duels. Cheaters.

9. All PvP honor points have been reset in accordance with our desire to make you pay for another year of game time to grind for your rewards. We own your souls.

10. Fixed an issue where the Alliance stood an equal chance of winning in a PvP battleground. QQ more Alliance...FOR THE HORDE!

11. Fixed an issue where some players were able to log into the game. What? You thought you were going to get something for that $15 per month?

12. Fixed an issue where some realms were up and some were down. All realms are now down. Do the dishes, you freak.

Upcoming Bug Fixes:

1. Fixed an issue where annoying, bratty kids all congregated on the Alliance side. To fix this issue we will implement the "Blood Elf" race. Suck it up Hordies.

For you non-WoW players, you'll be bored to tears on this post. But for six million World of Warcraft players, the major pre-expansion patch that occurred Tuesday has been nothing short of a bloody car accident.

As a rundown, the patch was to have been completed by 1 p.m. PT.

Nope.

Then it became 5 p.m. PT.

Nope.

Then it was 7 p.m. PT. This one Blizzard achieved, but many players got a HUGE nasty surprise when they logged into their new, improved characters: All their bank bags and banked items were missing.

Then came the flood of game master tickets. Then came the "We're working on it" message.

Five hours later. Still a problem, and no one seems to know quite what's going on except that most high-level players have lost anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand gold.

Here's GamerAndy's own explanation of what's going on if your bank bags have disappeared and what's supposed to happen to fix it.

Explanation after the jump...

The guys over at Unknown Worlds Entertainment, creators of my favorite half-life modification, Natural Selection, recently announced their plans to have NS hit the Source scene. The mere thought of seeing aliens and marines battle it out in the spectacular Source engine, with the awesome physics and graphics, summons salivation.

For those unaware, Natural Selection was the first RTS/FPS combo, featuring a single marine player, known as the commander, who played the game from a top-down, RTS-esque fashion. The game featured some great level design, but the corridors and server rooms found themselves littered with alien sludge and debris, manually built into the world.

However, the developers of Natural Selection 2 are working to remove the static alien clutter, replacing it with procedurally generated sludge which spawns itself nearby alien structures. Check out the video, along with perpetual updates on the Natural Selection 2 developer blog, where the game’s features will be detailed and up for suggestions as they're implemented.

Tracking a game from idea to final product is a wonderful thing to do. It's just a shame when these ideas don't quite meet expectation. One of the least hyped games I've known about, City Life, is an interesting alternative to Sim City.

First Impressions

Expecting a Sim City clone, I was surprised. Its play style and rules were far different than Sim City. It's not about city-building any more. It's now about social balance. Traffic, power, water, garbage, etc., don't matter as much as racial harmony.

The graphics were also quite different. No longer am I stuck at 90-degree camera angles -- I now have full freedom, even very close zoom. The buildings were genuinely 3-D and so were the people. That's about where the graphics surprised me. After that, it wasn't all that impressive.

More after the jump ...

Crysis is one of those games that, if you haven't heard of it yet, you abso-freaking-lutely will when you see trailers for it at launch and realize, "Shit, I need a new PC".

Slated for release in the second quarter of 2007, Crysis is one of the titles Microsoft is looking to really push Vista adoption into the mainstream of gaming with its DX10 technology. Oh, did we mention you need a new video card, too?

Anyhow, Hexus.TV got some footage (20 minutes of it!) from an event in Britain that includes a walkthrough of the latest build plus a bit of Q & A. It's not up on YouTube, so I gotta link you to its page, but damned if it isn't worth the terrible lag. Some of the innovations in this game are just freaking scary.

Things to note from the part of the vid that loaded properly for me:

• Modular, customizable weapons;


• Instant accesss and ability to rearrange your stats by way of the Nanosuit;


• Alien ship portion of the game will be entirely zero G?;


• Trees: They still blow up real nice;


• Componant vehicle damage (though tires don't go flat; they just explode, leaving you to drive on the rim. A little strange, but still cool).

2k Games is giving away the classic "Railroad Tycoon" for free on their Railroads! website. You can own this little piece of history via a quick 14mb download. Head on over to the Railroads! website and click on downloads. You'll find it there.

I love some of the classics, and I even had this game... once. Don't know exactly where my disks went. That and I highly doubt my computer could play the old version. Hopefully this has been updated to use today's standards...

Railroads! Website

[Via Kotaku]

Ever listen to someone talk about that awesome MMORPG they’re playing? You know the one with millions of players and gold farmers, not to mention the most casual gameplay ever? Ah, World of Warcraft. Ever listen to some of these WoW players, and I mean, pay attention to them? They’ll go on about how it’s the best game ever and that every other MMORPG there is simply copied from World of Warcraft. In fact, now that I think about it, I think I do remember a ridiculously low and easy-to-achieve level cap in Everquest!

Oh wait, no, no I don’t.

Anyway, for those of you who know anything of the Warcraft lore, you’ll know Warcraft is simply a watered down version of Warhammer. With the Warhammer MMORPG in the works and making great progress, one can only ponder at how many WoW players will claim Warhammer Online copies directly from World of Warcraft.

*Sigh*

Anyway, there are new Warhammer Online screenshots here!

So, yet another WoW patch has be released and with it the ire of angry crafters of war the world over (I'm sorry I couldn't help it). You know the old saying: You can't please all of the people all of the time? Well, considering almost every MMO player out there is on WoW, it's not shock that every little change causes someone's panties to twist.

Hi folks, Cooper Hawkes here with another “this would have been surprising, but it’s not” news story.

According to YouNEWB.com, the latest issue of PC Gamer claims that a PC version of “Gears of War” is on its way:
 

It seems like PC Gamer has made a slip-up that reveals Epic’s Gears of War to be released for the PC. In the holiday issue of the magazine that is going to be released shortly to the public, they have a photo of Microsoft studios having a display stand for Gears PC version. You can find this image on page 28 of this new issue and should be interesting to see once it is released. There is no official word from Microsoft on this right now and supposedly they have no plans to announce this in the near future. Although this isn’t fully proven yet, it could be highly unlikely the MS would just randomly have a Gears for PC display. This would be a great idea for them to release this and let the computer gamers really get a chance at this incredible game.

I've been keeping an eye on this since I came across it about a year ago.  Indie MMO space sim Infinity: Quest For Earth aims to take back the crown from MMOs like EVE Online and World of Warcraft by offering a space sim in the vein of titles like Wing Commander, Freespace, and X.  Allowing players to create and fly their own ship in a fully simulated universe goverened by a powerful newtonian physics engine, Flavien Brebion is hoping millions of players will pour in to fill it out.

And very soon, you'll get a chance to take a small taste.  Based loosely on his previous combat prototype, a new version of the small pre-alpha build to test netcode and game engine development should be made available to the public at any time now.  But where his previous release allowed only direct 8 vs. 8 play on two servers in European and the US with a barely there (though incredibly fun) selection of ships and arenas, this release seems much more ambitious featuring mining craft, AI enemies and allies, fully textured ships, 3D nebulae, and the same kill-the-enemy-flagship that made the pervious version so thrilling.  Were this some major developer, we could have expected this to encompass the full beradth of the game.

More (and screenshots) after the Jump

Happy Halloween Guys, So what gaming news was released this night, why Clive Barker's Jericho. A teaser trailer and screen shots that were released for Halloween which can be found after the jump as well as the little details that is known about the Next Gen horror title.

More After the Jump


 

Massively Multiplayer Online Games, otherwise known as MMOGs, seem to be sweeping the gaming market. The general rule here is the consumer runs out to the store, drops $50-60 on a boxed copy, then registers and proceeds to pay a perpetual monthly fee. Well the guys over at Maid Marian Entertainment think it’s about time that changed. They’re dedicated to making their games completely in webpage-based shockwave applications. You simply head to their site, choose a game, pick a username, and jump into the action.

Their latest creation, Multiplayer Tank Ball, revisits an old classic. It’s a multiplayer tank shooter that performs exceptionally well, given the fact that it’s a web-based flash game and connects to hundreds of others in a few seconds. Now let me tell you, I’ve seen come great hit detection and physics in flash and java applications, but nothing like this.

Check out their site for all of the other games, such as Sherwood Dungeon, an actual MMORPG right in your browser.

The Broken Sword games are considered one of the classic point-and-click adventure games of the mid 90s. The Series is synonymous with exotic countries, conspiracies, cults and murder. The point-and-click games set a standard with witty unique puzzles and excellent narratives that draws heavily from historical events such as the crusades and Mayan mythology. In this review I will be looking at the first 3 games in the series: Broken Sword - The Shadow of The Templars, Broken Sword II - The Smoking Mirror and Broken Sword 3 - The Sleeping Dragon. More After The Jump......

How many hours have you whittled away on Diablo? Thousands? More?
What if I were to tell you that Diablo 3 was not, in fact, a hopeless dream, resting in the hands of soulless corporations?
In an interview with WCRadio.com, Richard A. Knaak, writer of the Diablo book series, dropped a series of pretty major hints as to the production and development of Diablo 3.

Interview bits after the hop.

Every now and then a small developer will smack gamers with a poorly assembled flight simulator game in an attempt to recreate the craze that once was. If you remember back four or five years ago and recall some awesome games such as F-15, Total Air War, Ace Combat, and F-22, then you know exactly which craze I’m talking about.

CITY Interactive, creators of War in Colombia, released on FilePlanet their demo of Combat Wings, Battle of Berlin today.

At first the game seemed promising as the menu loaded in my native widescreen resolution of 1680x1050 by default; a rarity. However, my interest was quickly crushed by my first view of the actual game environment.

Sub par textures, 2-d flora, and an uninteresting environment design assaulted my senses, leaving me stripped of enthusiasm. The controls were somewhat unresponsive and flying felt more like flying a piece of cardboard then an actual plane.

It seems to me that the genre died off years ago, and every attempt to revive the gameplay to its former glory has only pushed it further and further away from the gamers of today.

What’s happened to this once popular game genre? Might we one day witness a rebirth of the flight fighter simulation craze? Tell us what you think in the comments section.

So I'm an old school RTS gamer, I made my bones on the likes of Myth, Starcraft, C&C etc. Up until about 10 minutes ago I had accepted the Mouse and Keyboard as the ultimate tool in RTS gaming, but after watching the below video.... I dunno, it's got me thinking.

Join me after the Jump for some pondering on the subject of Control

In a world where episodic content and sequels dominate the game industry, store shelves are plagued with titles ending in numbers, or roman numerals. As progressively more companies buy into the 'recycled game' business, few stand out; dedicated to providing excellent and innovative game play above all else. One such rebel goes by the name of Introversion. Sound familiar? They're the guys who brought us the luscious pixilated landscape that is Darwinia.

Uplink, an older game from Introversion, stands firmly against the test of time. It once made its rounds years ago as an acclaimed hacking simulator, the only one of its kind, and now stands before us yet again on Valve's Steam. For a mere $10 you'll find yourself with a game accurately shouting "Trust is a Weakness"; a lesson well learned as Uplink revolves around hacking and its repercussions. As a freelance hacker you'll be subcontracted by large corporations seeking an edge over the competition.

Now if you're a graphics hog lookin' for a sweet new ride to open up your GeForce 7950, you've come to the wrong place. I'm going to get this out now. Uplink is primarily a text based game with a simple graphics interface to make things a little easier. I believe the only colors the entire game uses are blue, black, green, white, and red

For those of you who desire a fantastic game that keeps the heart racing, there's more after the jump.

Hey All,
Andy here with something of a treat for you - After tonights episode of GAL (which will be up tommorow), a few staffers and I decided to go scope out the new "Left Behind" RTS demo/beta.   To our *suprise*, we were pretty much the only ones playing the games multiplayer modes.   After having some troubles creating a game, we discovered that the one room we could join ended up being occupied by the Producer and Sr. Producer of Left Behind Games

Below is the transcript (Put together by Mike) of our conversation - the first one taking place before the game, the 2nd one taking place after it (Good lost... badly...)

Oh, appologies about them being in JPG form, it was pulled directly from the in-game chat.

Part I

Part II 

Andy's Note: Hey all, just wanted to briefly intro this article because its the 1st in what I hope will be an ongoing series of content we're calling "It Came from the GA Forums".   Members of our community reaching out to developers, or just writing reviews or other interesting things (We'll even accept audio stuff!) and then emailing it to Andy@GamerAndy.com.   Without further ado, I give you this interview as perpetrated by OSVG, our chief forum pirate.

Hi.
  This is OldschoolVgamer here with my first interview for GA.  For the past few months I’ve mentioned this indie game development company named Ska Software that does rather simple and fun titles in my own opinion.  All of them are violent and gory, but still entertaining casual games.  I first heard about them when I was sixteen and the demo for Zombie Smashers X was put on a PC Gamer demo disk back when it was known as Totally Screwed Software.  Out of all the indie titles I’ve seen I can sincerely that those that come out of the minds of James Silva and his friend Roger have created are among some of the best indie titles I’ve seen and for some strange reason I can’t completely tell why.  I’ve always had this desire to talk to them and see what they are like to try and hopefully answer that question amongst a few other questions.  So when I tried to contact them for an interview, I was actually sort of excited as exaggerated as it may sound.  And here it is:

OldschoolVgamer: Could you give us a run-through over how Ska Software, or as it was formerly known Totally Screwed Software, got started?

Jim: I used to make these abomination-game type things in Hypercard on the Mac, and I even put a couple titles on AOL (this was back in the early 90's, mind you) under the moniker Porcupine Software. I had a game called Mortal Wombat II. It was terrible. Around the turn of the millennium I started some more serious development, and Totally Screwed Software was born. The name pays homage to the band I was in at that time, One Screw Loose. Originally, I wanted to make a Final Fantasy type game. Fortunately, I didn't.

Crytek, the acclaimed developer of Far Cry, has recently announced the multiplayer details on the company's latest project, Crysis. These luscious details paint the picture of an incredibly detailed multiplayer mode where two teams feud over alien artifacts.

Let me explain.

The game will feature four different game modes, three of which you're already familiar with, or at least should be. Tactical deathmatch, tactical team deathmatch, and tactical capture the flag are the standard ones, albeit a tad more 'tactical' then in other games. Fourth, however, is Power Struggle.

What exactly is Power Struggle? Learn what it's all about after the jump.

If you're one of the millions who use Steam, Valve's all-in-one program that registers multiple games to a single account, then you've undoubtedly run into ads for The Ship. A few clicks in the direction of those ads will reveal a brief explanation of the game as well as a few screenshots. These screenshots depict peaceful travellers enjoying a lovely view, totally unaware of the murderous intent that lies behind them. While these screens may look nifty and all, you'll hardly ever be presented with a similar situation in the game.

Murder's the name of the game in The Ship, or rather, on the ship, in Outerlight's newest first person shooter. I use the term "shooter" loosely as although the game is entirely in first person, you'll find more than a few sprinkles of rpg hidden within. The game takes place on 1920's replica cruise ships constructed entirely by the host of the bonanza, Mr. X. You'll never meet the mysterious Mr. X, but you'll certainly be guided by his invisible hand of natural selection. Survival of the fittest I suppose, perhaps the better equipped, or really, the one who can toggle their map the quickest.

Do you like murder? How about sprinkles? Can you toggle your map with blazing precision and speed? Then continue on, fair reader!

My review of The Ship after the jump...

Dar•win•i•an  [där-'wi-nE-&n]
adjective
1) Of, relating to, or being a competitive environment or situation in which only the fittest persons or organizations prosper.
noun
2) The most endearing, albeit dumb as dirt, little green stick figure you never met. (see also Lemming)


Normally, when we think of Darwin, we think of natural evolution in an organic environment. Fish that sprout legs and begin walking on land when the water has become toxic and all that. In Darwinia, the recently released in retail stores PC game, the name takes on a unique irony. Introversion Software, originally a 3 man team that has now grown to *gasp* a staff of 10 has not only survived, it has quietly enjoyed quite a cult following.  Its first title, Uplink, was a smart, geeky game full of high tech computer crime and industrial espionage. According to the founders, the initial run of CDs were personally hand-made by the guys using their own CD-burners and bubble-jets printers in October of 2001. Talk about indie! Three months later, they decide to form Introversion Software Ltd. for legal protection, always smart when you are putting your own asses on the financial bottom line.  They didn't have much to worry about, though, because shortly afterwards Uplink got a glowing full page review (as well as a demo disk release) in PC Gamer UK and their sales went through the roof.

Three long years later, Introversion releases Darwinia and, while it gets glowing reviews, it never quite takes off like Uplink did in those first heady days. Looking at the time frame, I would probably blame it on being overshadowed by 360 pre-release hype. Whatever the reason, Darwinia sells slowly, gaining a small but rabid fan base, which eventually lead Introversion to make the smartest. move. ever. In December of 2005, Darwinia is published on Valve's Steam distribution service and sells more copies in 3 weeks than in the entire 9 months through their own website.

My full review after the jump ...

Adventure gaming was a giant genre in its day, and though some might say it never left, nowadays it doesn't make the impact it once did in the industry.

Independent developer Frictional Gaming is pushing the boundaries of originality and inventiveness with its adventure horror game Penumbra.

And what's more... it's freeware. Yes, freeware. And I found it to be well worth the time to download it.

My detailed review after the jump...

Star Wars: Galaxies -- a MMORPG by Sony Online Entertainment set in a Star Wars world -- was once a thriving online galaxy where thousands met to mold their destiny. But now it's a defunct memory of what it once was. Sony's upgrades to the game, such as the New Game Enhancements (NGE), have left only a few diehard fans of the Star Wars universe to traverse the open plains of Tatooine. Every forum post vying for the reversal of these upgrades has been met with swift and fierce expulsion.

Fear not, however, as the community's prayers have been answered. That answer is SWGEmu.

SWGEmu is being developed by a handful of programmers in their spare time. They make frequent updates on the status of the build and are kind enough to answer questions on the forums, within reason.

The version of SWG in development is Publish 12.1, something to rejoice over for many SWG players. Publish 12.1 resides before the newly added NGE, as well as the largely contested Combat Upgrade (CU), which also drastically changed the game. That's right -- SWGEmu will be "Pre-CU."

The SWGEmu team recently announced that they've gone open source, meaning the entire program is now free for public download. You may be thinking something along the lines of, "Isn't this illegal?"

The development team sure doesn't think so.

Taken from the SWGEmu FAQ:

We built the server from ground up, so what exactly can they sue for? Yes it is against the SWG EULA to reverse engineer any communications between it and the server, but that is not (to my knowledge) a legal implication.

Word has finally slipped out that World of Warcraft players who've lusted over the faction-specific classes (shamans for horde, paladins for alliance) will no longer have to drool.

According to Blizzard, in the upcoming expansion, Burning Crusade, the two new races will have class options of the opposing faction's faction-specific class.

Uh... lemme rephrase that in English...

The new horde, Blood Elves, can be paladins, and the new alliance race, Drenai, can be shamans. Blizzard has already added backstory as to why these two races have access to what, up to now, has been exclusive to the opposing faction.

A post in the World of Warcraft forums by a Blizzard developer is also very interesting. There's a lot of talking between the lines, but he discusses why Blizzard decided to have faction-specific classes in the first place and why in Burning Crusade is backing off from that rule.

I'm actually fairly glad for it, but a part of me is dying inside at the news.

Sure, I'm looking forward to showing those little alliance bitches how freaking annoying "shield and hearth" is.

But also, this may very well be the end of the everpresent whining about the faction-specific classes and how they're "overpowered." Once alliance can now play shamans, they'll see they're not as invulnerable as they'd have us believe.

And there was something very special about each faction having its own class. It was.. ours... no matter which side you were on.

Either way, it's coming and hate it or love it, that's the way it's gonna be.

How would you like to talk to people in games like World of Warcraft and Counter Strike? I’m not talking Text chat based format that you normally do or the walkie talkie audio that’s available, I’m talking about free immersed talking with fellow players. A world where talking takes on day to day basis of the real life communication, say if you walked into one of the various cities in WoW would it impress you to hear the hum of brisk community, to have various conversations taking place in this virtual world as it would be like in the real world.

This movie is a little bit old, but I stumbled across it again a few days ago and just *had* to share with you guys... I won't ruin the suprise, but lemme just say I *do* enjoy Warcraft III

Our friends over at PrimoGaming put up a review of the long-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode One. Here's a little clip for you before you hop on over to the full version:

The long awaited Half Life 2: Episode One hit the windows of those who pre-ordered it over Steam Thursday. I finally got our grubby hands on it and played it once over to give a nice review into it...

-Matt

... Maybe that's what Blizzard should call the test servers.

If you're not aware already, Bliz kicked off some test servers last week for the 1.11 patch. Active players were allowed for a short time (read: until the transfer servers failed) to copy their characters onto the test server to take the new patch out for a spin.

The patch has several significant changes, including turning two towns -- Un'Goro Crater and Light's Hope Chapel -- into fully functioning cities with mailboxes and vendors and the like.

But apparently the've also added guards to those locales. And the ensuing PvP carnage has been a travesty!

Oh, the humanity!!!!!!!!! The horror!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a toon apolcalypse!!!!!!!

Larger, easier-to-see screenshot after the jump...

In the haze that is the post-E3 hangover I thought I would take some time to write about a game which looks to be one of the best titles one the horizon for any system out there. BioShock is currently only slated to come out on the Xbox 360 and the PC, and is to be released some time in 2007. While that seems like a long time away the game is already looking absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Even at this early stage in developement I can attest to the fact that the Xbox 360 version of this game looks exactly like this screenshot.  (drools)....


More after the Jump...

After a three-hour car ride, I’m finally home after my harrowing experience at E3. Xbox 360 continued a strong presence, Playstation 3 made fanboys cry in a bad way while Nintendo Wii made fanboys cry in a good way. After having a day to organize my thoughts, I’d like to share my personal highlights from the show floor, things that pleasantly surprised me and of course my disappointments.

Hey guys, Sherveen here with some different tidbits of different things coming to you from different places. Of course, I'm not at E3, (sadly), so everything is going to be linked outward. But prepare for some really, really awesome E3 coverage today by the GamerAndy team at E3, as has already been released in terms of Gears of War (John) and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (Edie), so scroll down the page. Both coverages are amazing. It's gonna be a fine day.

First Item: IGN has new footage of Spore. It never gets old to watch the gameplay of this innovative Will Wright creation.
Second Item: E3 Xbox Live Marketplace Content is out today. Call of Duty 2 maps included!
Third Item: Paris Hilton... at E3... help us all!
Fourth Item: Wii Zapper? This looks kind of odd...
Fifth Item: Not much said, but Joystiq got some Huxley hands-on. That's hot.
Sixth Item: Halo 3 is finally here, and I just want to share a couple of thoughts with you about what is the final game in the trilogy.

Full stories ahead...

Edie here.

Feet hurt, shoulders hurt, can't find a chair in the press area, so I'm submitting while on my knees.

As promised in the broadcast, I've spent the morning pretty much parked at the Blizzard booth to get the scoop on the new details about World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, and I succeeded in getting enough to make the pain I'm experiencing at this moment worthwhile.

New race? Got it? Details of new armor sets? Yep. New instances? Uh-huh. WTF is up with the servers??

(Postnote: I got contacted by WoW to let me know the little mistakes I'd made in this article. Pretty minor, mostly spelling and some confusion about what areas were which. Corrections to the story in paretheses. - irlGirl)

Get 'cher specifics after the jump...

Hey All,
I just got back from the Microsoft Press conference and let me tell you, Wow. That was really impressive. After the jump you'll find all my notes from the conference in their misspelled, unadultered state (which some of you will find useful for my in-the-moment impressions) and some of you will find disgusting (Because I really can't spell when i'm typing super fast)

Couple really key things to take away from this conference are as follows:

A) LIVE anywhere
This is the big enchilada, and I think the best thing that Microsoft talked about the entire press conference. For those of you who don't know what this means, basically Microsoft is revolutionizing the way they (and in turn we) think about gaming and media connectivity, as well as expanding the notion of the "Xbox Live Identity".

How?

By making it so you're Gamertag now carries over to not only your PC but also to your Cell phone! The example they gave during the conference was Forza 2:
You get a car in the Xbox 360 version of the game
You send the car to your computer, and you create a new paint job for it
You send the car to your cell phone and tweak and tune the finer workings of it, while at work.
You send the car back to your xbox360 (along with a challenge to your buddy Carl)
You get home and you play with your newly tweaked, freshly painted car over Xbox Live

Very cool.

Further more (and this ties into the XBLA topic) any content you buy from the marketplace (like arcade games) can be played on any of the platforms you own. So you download Zuma on your cell phone, but you can also download it (at no additional cost) to the xbox360 and the PC. Once again, Very Cool.

There is a HUGE market for cell phone interactivity.... If those Joke of the Day cell phone things make money, just imagine what playing Joust on your phone (with achievements that attach to your gamerscore) could do.
B) XBL Arcade Love
LOTS of games are coming to XBl arcade in the near future, I have a partial list (pulled from my notes) but additionally they mentioned that they've partnered with over a hundred independent developers to bring content to Xbox Live Arcade in the form of original, indie games. This makes Andy feel much love
PacMan
Contra
Frogger
Galaga
Sonic the Hedgehog
Defender
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting
Time Pilot
Ultra Mortal Ckombat 3
Scramble
RallyX
Paperboy
Rootbeer Tapper
C) Gears of War
Oh man, we'll have hands on impressions with this beast tommorow but yeah... I'm floored by the quality of this game. They played a level from the beginning of the game and not only was it silky smooth (framerate) but INSANELY bloody. Blood was EVERYWHERE. yeah. Nuff said, for more "OMFG" see my notes after the jump

This was a really brief look at all this stuff, if you want the full scoop make sure you listen in tonight to our Live Broadcast over at allgames.com tonight at 7pm PST/10pm EST. Keep in mind, that number might change (as this is live and anything can, and will happen). And get involved! All the contributers are in the Chatroom during the broadcast answering questions and criticizing you for being stupid.

Alright, so thats it!

Oh yeah, they showed Halo 3 in-game teaser, and frankly it was pretty boring. More on that tonight

-Andy

Hi folks, Cooper Hawkes here with a roundup of today’s E3 news pending hearing from our merry fellowship heading to the Sony Press briefing.

Yes I realize it’s all from GameSpot, but this is just a placeholder till Sherveen comes in with everything ELSE that he’s got, and I’ve been a bit locked up with a son home sick.

In all seriousness we got:

Item One: Yuji Naka starts own studio.

Item Two: Wii COD3, PS3 Spidey, 360 Tony Hawk on Activision’s E3 plate.

Item Three: Zelda Wii sword fighting, next-gen WarioWare confirmed.

Item Four:  Square Enix announces trio of Final Fantasy games

Item Five: Virtua Fighter 5 to beat on PS3 exclusively.

Stories and snarky commentary after the jump.

Hi folks, Cooper Hawkes with an oh-so-quick rundown of some news items before Sherveen comes home and cranks out his super list: