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Just received some information on a new Wiiware game that’s due for release in January. Created by British indie games developer “Onteca”. This title promises some interesting and unique gameplay. Choosing to focus on fun gameplay rather than over-the-top graphics, this developer is targeting a more tradition type of gamer. This, together with the wii’s unique control methods sounds very promising indeed.

Press release:

Coming this January,

New Nintendo Wiiware game sets to revolutionise casual games with a 3d twist

In a market place saturated with huge franchises and ultra realistic titles, gamers may be

left wondering where the fun has gone. British indie games developer Onteca have taken a

side step to get back to the true essence of gaming. With the release of their newly

developed game coming this January, the company is taking it upon themselves to remind

people of the essential pleasures of video games.

By incorporating the ambient feel of games such as ‘Flower‘ and ‘Pikmin‘ with the

excitement of the Nintendo Wii, Onteca is set to raise the bar on existing WiiWare titles by

releasing their new 3d game ‘Monsteca Corral’. Making extensive use of the Wii’s 3d

capabilities, Monsteca Corral offers players a far more expansive gaming experience, the

likes of which have scarcely been seen on any WiiWare title.

Monsteca Corral begs to ask gamers the question “Have you ever wanted to take on a

daring rescue mission of an alien planet inhabited by monsters, using your quick wit to

prevent invading robots from taking over?” Onteca and the Nintendo WiiWare store have

teamed up to give gamers just that, an exciting 3d Wii experience that challenges its

players to strategize and save the planet Monsteca from robot takeover.

Throughout the game the player must control a herd of cartoony monsters known as

Sdompe’s, who’s cute but not so bright nature requires the player to guide them on their

migratory journey. It is the player’s job to exhibit their own wiimote expertise by

accumulating and guiding the clueless beings

successfully across the world of Monsteca.

The player will take the role of a Monster Herder, flying above the Sdompe’s, trying to save

them from potential dangers within their environment created by the ever increasing robot

population.

“Monsteca Corral is a fast paced fun Action Strategy Puzzle game that has a new twist on

an established genre.” says Jon Wetherall, Managing Director of Onteca. Onteca

recognises that not all gamers choose games based on how much adrenaline they muster,

how elaborate the play is or how realistic the graphics are. Wetherall discusses Monsteca

Corral’s target demographics, “This is a “fun gamers’ game designed to appeal to those

who enjoy a more pick up and play experience. The game is aimed primary at a younger

market, however through its unique gameplay and cutesy style the game has the potential

to appeal to all ages.

Monsteca Corral is set to be released through the WiiWare store in January 2010,

venturing into a new family of games for the Wii console. Monsteca Corral will invite

people to experience a totally new and innovative method of gameplay with a fresh

perspective on a classic genre.

Look out for Monsteca Corral in January folks!

The demo for the new Batman game “Arkham Asylum” is now available for download. This new title is due for release on the 15th and 18th of September in the US and Europe respectively. Featuring PhysX support and GeForce 3D Vision stereoscopic 3D, the game promises to be interesting if nothing else. Graphically the game looks very impressive, although I’ve yet to try the demo.

Related Resources:

Batman: Arkham Asylum trailer on YouTube

Demo download location 1

Demo download location 2

Five years after The Sims 2, this new Sims title from developers Maxis promises several new features to spice up the series. These include “an endless amount of sim possibilities”, “a seamless living environment” and “story progression”.

Gameplay

Unlike in previous instalments, the entire neighbourhood is now one seamless space with no loading screens when travelling from lot to lot. This is a welcome feature as many players found the load times very boring and actually tried to avoid leaving the lot whenever possible. Now that the playing space has been expanded to the entire town, the player has many more options available to them and can in fact be controlling Sims on several different lots at once.

Sims’ basic needs have been simplified, of the 8 needs in The Sims 1 and The Sims 2, only 6 remain. These are hunger, bladder, energy, social, hygiene and fun. This was done to allow the player to spend more time focusing on Sims wants and character development than fulfilling basic needs.

With the new “story progression” setting enabled, families will continue to age, marry, have kids etc when the player is playing as a different family. This allows the entire neighbourhood to develop simultaneously. This helps give a much more natural feel compared to the The Sims and The Sims 2. approach of freezing time for the rest of the neighbourhood, while you play as a specific family.

When your Sim goes to work, you see them either get in their own car, take a taxi, or get picked up by someone, drive to their place of work and enter the building. Players cannot directly control their Sims whilst they are working but can give them instructions telling them to work hard, slack off, meet new people etc. The same applies to children who are at school.

Skills

There are several skill-dependent abilities for example advanced social interactions available from high charisma, special songs for guitar players and appliance upgrades for high handiness. Painting, writing and guitar are now separate skills, instead of the all-encompassing “creativity” skill of The Sims and The Sims 2. Paintings are now more unique to each Sim, based on the traits possessed by that particular Sim. Sims can increase their skills by practicing a skill (e.g. playing the guitar, working in the garden, writing a novel, etc.), reading a book about the skill, or taking a class in the skill somewhere in town.

Build/buy mode

The build and buy modes have received some useful updates. The square tile outlines that appeared on the ground in previous Sims games’ are now one-fourth their original size to allow the player more precision when placing/moving objects. The square grid allows the player to see where they can possibly place the objects in the game. The player can also turn off the grid and rotate objects freely as well as place objects freely with in-game toggles.

The “auto-roof” function now updates the roof when walls are rebuilt. Features like wide staircases and basements are also easier to build. The spray paint terrain feature returns from the Sims 2, but this time allows the player to spray square floor tiles. A “wall drag” tool allows the player to grow or shrink a room, moving the furniture with it. A new “slot” system gives several choices where to place decorative objects on surfaces, such as tables and dressers. Most existing objects can be recoloured and re-textured.

Alice and Kev

Alice and Kev is the story of being homeless in The Sims 3. This popular episodic story was created by an independent individual. Alice and Kev is actually a really good insight into how some of the free will stuff works in TS3. Basically this guy creates some homeless Sims with less than ideal traits and leaves them (for the most part) to do whatever they like.

You can read the whole thing here:

http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/alice-and-kev/

View this game on Amazon:

Recently we learned about a new mod for the popular game Crysis, which runs on CryEngine2. The mod, known as the Crysis Real Life Mod, or Real-Life-Sis, adds several graphical improvements to the 2007 title.

These improvements have had a significant effect on the overall rendering quality and the appearance of the in game environment as a whole. Take a look at the screenshot below this paragraph for an example of the graphics.

 

 

 

 

Simply put, this looks stunning. The reflections on the water are especially nice looking, particularly on the right hand side of the picture where there appears to be bright sunlight shining through a gap in the canopy. If you are interested in seeing more screenshots then consider paying a visit to the games section of our gallery on the main site at http://www.photorealisticgaming.com/games.html

 

Perhaps one of the best features of this mod is the amazing quality of reflections produced on the surface of water; Never before has anyone showcased such realistic looking water! This coupled with the other graphical enhancements provided by this mod really manages to create a sense of real life and a near-photorealistic environment. So impressive in fact are the graphics in this mod that many people mistakenly believed that images and videos showing the mod in action, were in fact footage of the next game engine from CryTek; CryEngine 3.

 

With visual effects as stunning as these, there’s a strong possibility that this mod could prompt a few extra sales of Crysis.

 

The powder toy is a 2d particle physics simulation that allows you to simulate the interaction between various types of matter. This program was put together by one person alone, which is pretty impressive. The available substances are;

 

WATR - Liquid. Conducts electricity. Freezes. Extinguishes fires

FIRE - Ignites flammable materials. Heats air

LAVA - Heavy liquid. Ignites flammable materials. Solidifies when cold

NITR -Liquid. Pressure sensitive explosive

GAS - Gas. Diffuses. Flammable. Liquid under pressure

GOO - Solid. Deforms and disappears under pressure

METL - Conducts electricity. Meltable

SNOW - Light particles

NEUT - Neutrons. Interact with matter in odd ways

DUST - Very light dust. Flammable

OIL - Liquid. Flammable

STNE - Heavy particles. Meltable

GUN - Light dust. Explosive

CLNE - Solid. Duplicates any particle it touches

C-4 - Solid. Pressure sensitive explosive

ICE - Solid. Freezes water. Crushes under pressure. Cools down air

SPRK - Electricity. Conducted by metal and water

WOOD - Solid. Flammable

PLUT - Heavy Particles. Fissle. Generates neutrons under pressure

 

Loads of interesting stuff can be done with this. For more info see the facepunchstudios.com thread at; 

http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=676617

 

Downloads for various OS’s:

http://powder.unaligned.org/powder.zip ——– Windows - Standard (SSE
http://powder.unaligned.org/powder-win32.zip ——– Windows - Advanced (SSE2 and SSE
http://powder.unaligned.org/PowderOSX.tar.gz ——– OSX
http://powder.unaligned.org/powder.gz ——– Linux - Standard (SSE)
http://powder.unaligned.org/powder64.gz ——– Linux - x86_64 
http://powder.unaligned.org/powder-linux.tar.gz ——– Linux - Advanced (SSE and SSE2, 32 and 64-bit)

The Hunter is the most realistic hunting game online. Explore an amazing wilderness, take the shot and share the moment with friends. What’s more, it’s free.

The Hunter is a revolutionary hunting game that unites traditional gaming and social networking. Download the free game client and you’ll find a visually stunning hunting world, populated with a huge range of highly realistic animals, from small game and birds to heavy weight trophy targets like bear, deer and elk, all created by Avalanche Studios, the award winning developer of Just Cause.

Players can interact through a web interface with a network of thousands of other people playing the game at the same time. You can make new friends, form groups, create rivalries, take part in competitions and tournaments against people, or work with other players to complete exciting challenges.

Important things you need to know:

What weapons will be in The Hunter (will there be bows, muzzle loading rifles, pistols and spears?)
The Hunter is an evolving online experience, and as such new weapons (and animals, environments etc…) will be added all of the time. At launch, the Evergreen Hunting Reserve firearms season will open, with appropriate weaponry options.

Will the animals be intelligent?
It’s about hunting. One of the key skills to hunting is knowing your prey, so there has been a serious focus on trying to make the animals in The Hunter behave as they would naturally.

What Animals will I be able to hunt?
In the first release you will be able to hunt four animal types including Whitetailed Deer. We’ll be announcing what the others are very soon. Beyond the first release there will be regular updates, meaning that you’ll come across an ever increasing selection of animals. Tell us what you’d most like to see!

What specification does my PC have to be to run The Hunter?
The minimum system specifications that The Hunter has been tested to at this time are:

Pentium 4 (3 Ghz)
1 GB RAM
256 MB Graphics Card

Video Cards that The Hunter presently supports are:

Nvidia:

* 7 Series (from 7600 and above)
* 8 Series
* 9 Series
* 260
* 280

ATI:

* X1800 (and above)
* HD 2000 series
* HD 3000 series
* HD 4000 series

CONTROLS:
W, A, S, D = Move.
Mouse = Look
R = Reload
1 = Rifle
3/4 = Item (Deer noise thingy forgot the name)
B = Binoculars
E = Run/Walk
Left Ctrl = Stand > Crouch > Prone
Left Shift = Prone > Crouch > Stand

For the full FAQs and Download at http://www.thehunter.com/pub/index.php
Or
Torrent it at http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4756005 ( By Denzo)

Alan Wake is an upcoming title by Remedy Entertainment, who brought us the Max Payne games. Expected sometime in 2009, this title will be available for Windows Vista and Xbox 360. The game is described as being a “psychological action thriller”.

.:Story

Alan Wake, a bestselling writer, hasn’t managed to write anything in over two years. Now his wife, Alice, brings him to the idyllic small town of Bright Falls to recover his creative flow. But when she vanishes without a trace, Wake finds himself trapped in a nightmare. Word by word, his latest work, a thriller he can’t even remember writing, is coming true before his eyes.
A message posted by ADM, the Community Manager on the Remedy community forums, details some aspects of the game’s story.
The message, as it appears on the forums: “The amount of pages keeps growing each night. There are also new edits on the old pages. They keep getting more aggressive. The story is rewriting itself. The protagonist is now my namesake, and his wife is called Alice. The most worrying aspect: the genre seems to be shifting. It’s turning into a horror story. I can no longer be certain whether the hero can succeed or even survive. Apart for the jumbled fragments of bad dreams and an oppressive feeling, I can remember nothing of the process when I wake up. But this morning, a breakthrough! When I came to my senses, I could smell her perfume on my shirt. I am close. I know it. I must push on.
- Alan Wake”

Another two messages were posted on the Alan Wake forums. They read as follows.
“Rusty’s screams were still ringing in my ears. The tree stump the grove got its name from looked like a severed leg of a monsterous bird. I prayed that the gun would make a difference. Every time I moved the flashlight, I was afraid of the horrors it might reveal. Suddenly a ragged arrow gloved in the light. I followed it.
- Alan Wake”
“I became increasingly afraid to go to sleep. I was convinced that I would wake up changed, darkness having seeped in through the cracks in the floor, crawled up to my bed, and made its way inside, through a nostril or an ear.
I barricaded the door of the cabin. I kept the lights on at all times. I taped a note on the door (I had forgotten so many things already): ‘Don’t go out.’
-Alan Wake”

Taken from an article on IGN.

.:Gameplay

The dark forces (enemies) coming to ‘take care of’ Alan Wake are vulnerable to light. So the most useful weapon of all is actually the flashlight. You will be able to place booby traps which will illuminate when executed, etc. Light will weaken or hurt Wake’s enemies, and creatively taking advantage of any and all light sources within Alan Wake’s grim world is touted to be one of the more interesting aspects of play.
A cinematic trailer for the game was shown on 15 October 2008, just before the Max Payne film premiere.
Like Max Payne before it, the title Alan Wake is a play on words. Combining the main character’s first initial with his last name forms “A. Wake,” or “Awake”.
Remedy Entertainment also promised a free-roam 3-dimensional city, similar to the Grand Theft Auto series.

“The basic idea with the free-roaming world is that we give the player goals, and then the player can go about achieving those goals in the way he chooses. Alan Wake is more tightly character-driven and story-oriented, meaning that the player’s goals and missions are closely focused around Alan Wake and his story. Also, the setting, the tone and the game being an action thriller all set it clearly apart from the GTA games.” – Sam Lake

“Intense cinematic action is something that we love to do, and Alan Wake features tense combat gameplay as well, but all things considered the game has a lot more emphasis on adventure and exploration than what Max Payne did. Driving is an integral part of the game”. - Petri Järvilehto

“There will be no multiplayer in this game. We’d much rather give the players a great single-player game, than a mediocre single and multiplayer game.” -Petri Järvilehto
[section taken from http://www.wikipedia.org]

.:Release date

Originally slated for release in 2008, this has since proven to be untrue. Remedy Entertainment have been quoted as saying that the game will be released “when it’s done”. Which is probably a good idea considering how annoyed the gaming public tend to get when release dates are set too early and have to be pushed back. After reading posts on the AlanWake.com forums stating that the game was no longer being worked on, Remedy’s CEO who goes by the name of MikaRMD on the AlanWake.com forums, was quoted stating that Remedy is “busy developing the kick-ass game you’ve been waiting for”. Remedy also want to remind everyone that the offical Alan Wake website will be the place where the official date is first announced.

.:Summary

This looks like a very promising title. The game has innovatative gameplay concepts which promise to keep combat (if you can call it combat) insteresting. The open-ended approach that the game takes will surely be welcomed by many gamers. On top of that, the graphics have improved considerably over the time that the title has been in development and now look extremely impressive! Unfortunately this means that the game is going to require an impressive set up for those of you wanting to play on PC.

A quad core processor will be recommended, with the i7 probably being ideal. Also you’re going to be wanting a pretty powerful gpu to get the most out of this title, something in the range of a 4870 should be ok but might not be able to max out the settings.

Download the trailer in 720p from here: Download

Visit the official site of Alan Wake at http://www.alanwake.co.uk