You aint seen me, right?

DLC - The Midnight Show

Unlocks a V.I.P room in the ‘The Belle de Nuit’ including several sultry cinematics, unveils an all-new mini-game, and unlocks five seedy hiding spots in Paris.

Mature audience - The DLC also gives players the ability to unlock nudity in the game, allowing them to make their own choice regarding the game’s maturity.

All new console copies of The Saboteur contain a single use download code for The Midnight Show redeemable through the game on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Store.

Owners of the PC version will have automatic access to The Midnight Show without an additional download.

Console players who wish to buy The Midnight Show DLC pack as a stand-alone download may do so on Xbox LIVE for 240 Microsoft Points or $2.99 in the PlayStation Store.

GTA IV: Made in Scotland

Video games developers won't be receiving government support. That's according to The Guardian who report that Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to reject tax breaks for developers in today's Pre-Budget Report.

The UK games industry has produced worldwide hits like the Grand Theft Auto games and the Tomb Raider series but is facing fierce competition from other countries  such as Canada and North Korea who are using their government subsidies to lure British developers overseas.

The games sector contributes more to the economy than UK film - which does get subsidised - but it unfortunately appears the government will be rejecting recommendations for a "cultural tax break" in the Digital Britain report.

The UK games industry had been ranked third largest in the world for decades - behind only the USA and Japan - but it's estimated the UK is now only ranked fifth behind Canada and South Korea.

No! Get those eyes closer together! Add more warts!

Dragon Age: Origins was just too much game for me to review in one sitting. Here's the second part of my series of observations on the newest fantasy RPG from Bioware.


A lot of hype has been hyped about the Dragon Age: Origins character creation system, and given the game’s post-colon-subtitle, you’d expect a certain degree of speacialness. The character creation widget was released before the game as a kind of taster, so that beardy nerds could either design their perfect character for their first playthrough, or just create millions of slightly different elves.

Considering all of this, then, I was a little surprised to see that there was very little to really set it apart from Fallout. Or Oblivion. Or Tony Hawk, for that matter.

Y’all know the steelo by now. Pick a race – this defines how tall you are and how pointy your ears are, within a given range. It’s then up to you to tweak your character’s eye colour, hairstyle, ear pointyness and a trillion other miniscule details that assure that your dwarf will look like no other (dwarf). Bioware have made a couple of weird choices here, though – you can spend hours making sure your eyes are just precisely the right distance apart to the angstrom, but there’s only about eight hairstyles to choose from for each race and gender. Since all of the game’s NPCs are, as far as I could tell, built from this same palette, you’ll end up seeing the same beards and weird braidy hairstyles quite a few times in-game as well. In fact, it’s alarming how many people in the land of Ferelden have girly braids in their hair. Sometimes you will literally encounter two characters with exactly the same beards arguing with one another. You’ll notice it as well – I’m sure the designers would argue “but their cheekbones have an entirely different structure”, however it’s the hairiness that draws the eyes.

RPGs love to tell you that you’ll never create the same character as anyone else, and yours will be unique. OK, so chances of anyone coming up with exactly, precisely the same look as your carefully-crafted avatar are admittedly fairly small, but the amount of real customisation you can apply to your starting character’s stats are a little less ‘unique’. There are a whole ton of possible choices but are you really planning on having a dwarven warrior who starts the game as a great herbalist but hopeless with a sword? Please. My first character, a dwarf warrior as it happens, spent his initial 4 points on strength, his skill options on combat prowess and his perks on weapon and shield stuff. It’s an obvious path, and I’m sure that I’m not unique in these choices. There’s not a lot of encouragement to experiment with characterful frills beyond the ‘obvious’ choices for your chosen career.

So that’s the first half of the character creation process. Now, remember in Fallout when you had to crawl across the room to your daddy, as a little baby? If you think back even further, do you remember the page of background you got based on your character class in Baldur’s Gate? This fluffy backstory has always been a pleasant aside in RPGs. Now, however, based on your choice from seven possibilities, you are treated to a good couple of hours’ playable backstory before the game proper begins.

We like this. More of this kind of thing please.

That’s right. The first couple of hours of play are entirely different if you’re an elf warrior than if you’re a human rogue. These short plot-builders will come back to haunt you throughout the main storyline (as you’d jolly well hope, these days), and they set the scene with the same deep plot and excellent quality voice-acting that sets the rest of the game ahead of the pack.

So that’s it. Character creation – it’s not special because of allowing you to choose the length of your wizard’s nose, or how good you are at hitting stuff. It’s special because of the lovely playable backgrounds.

Whats your ZPM? (Zombies Per Minute)

Minimum:
o OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP (Only) Administrator rights required
o Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium processor or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
o Memory: 1GB
o Graphics: 128 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible or better video card with pixelshader 3.0
o DirectX®: 9.0c
o Hard Drive: 800MB of free space
o Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Recommended:
o OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP (Only) Administrator rights required
o Processor: 2.0 GHz dual core processor
o Memory: 2GB
o Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible or better video card with pixelshader 3.0
o DirectX®: 9.0c
o Hard Drive: 800MB of free space
o Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Frostbite Engine is being used

Minimum PC Specifications for BF1943
Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce 7800 GT  / ATI X1900
Graphics memory: 256MB
OS: Windows XP
Free HDD space: 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2)

 
Recommended PC Specifications for BF1943
Processor: Quadcore
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce GTX 260
Graphics memory: 512MB
OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Free HDD space: 10GB for Disc Version (BF1943)

DONT PANIC!

Game-Debate translate this as saying - the minimum requirements are pretty low but of course it would be great if all gamers had the best gaming rig that money can buy.

This of course, isnt possible and they know that over at DICE. So if you dont meet the recommended specs but get into the ballpark then it is pretty likely you will be ok to play the game on acceptable/reasonable settings.

If your system has a graphics card with at least 512MB of memory and any dual core with better than 2.8GHz processors you are probably going to be ok.

Obviously we are reading between the lines here and only time will tell. Fingers crossed and let us know your thoughts and experiences here.

FROSTBITE ENGINE

Developed with the Frostbite Engine, which is the same as the one they are using on Bad Company 2, which is why the two games share the same system requirements.

Battlefield 1943´s Frostbite game engine allows for practically total destruction of all environments. That means that you can level almost anything you encounter in the game - from airplanes to buildings, bunkers, vehicles and navy vessels. Take aim, fire and watch the fireworks as your enemies' cover and heavy weaponry explode to little pieces! Use the destruction to your tactical advantage as you blow a new "door" in a building to flank the Japanese bucked down inside, or clear a path through the trees for a better line of sight to the action.

DONT PANIC!

Minimum PC Specifications for BFBC2
Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce 7800 GT  / ATI X1900
Graphics memory: 256MB
OS: Windows XP
Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2)

 
Recommended PC Specifications for BFBC2
Processor: Quadcore
Main memory: 2GB
Graphics card: GeForce GTX 260
Graphics memory: 512MB
OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Free HDD space: 15GB for Digital Version, 10GB for Disc Version (BFBC2)

DONT PANIC!

Game-Debate translate this as saying - the minimum requirements are pretty low but of course it would be great if all gamers had the best gaming rig that money can buy.

This of course, isnt possible and they know that over at DICE. So if you dont meet the recommended specs but get into the ballpark then it is pretty likely you will be ok to play the game on acceptable/reasonable settings.

If your system has a graphics card with at least 512MB of memory and any dual core with better than 2.8GHz processors you are probably going to be ok.

Obviously we are reading between the lines here and only time will tell. Fingers crossed and let us know your thoughts and experiences here especially if you play the game/beta in the New Year.

PC MINIMUM System Requirements
OS = Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor = 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory = 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Drive = 15 GB
DVD ROM = 1x Speed
Sound Card = DirectX 9.0c compatible
Direct X = DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
Input = Keyboard / Mouse
Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements
Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX August 2008
NOTES: For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) - The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

After a good release the chaps at Neocore have got their first decent patch out. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Release Notes
•    Improved movement during melee
•    Increased battle sound range
•    Added "beginner" difficulty level
•    Added sounds of unit selection in battles
•    Added marking own and enemy units (hotkey Tab)
•    Added invert mouse zoom checkbox in battle Options
•    Added rotate / strafe camera checkbox in battle Options
•    Added camera lock to the selected unit (hotkey Ctrl + Q)
•    Added "weakening archers" checkbox in Campaign map Options
•    Added divide army and recruiting icons in the army window as well
•    Added more detailed information about missing drivers, if any
•    Added disband option of units in a visible enemy army removed
•    Fixed font size bug on the loading screens
•    Fixed game crash bugs
•    Console for cheats
•    Creating screenshots (hotkey Ctrl + Space)
•    1440x900 resolution available

Here is a link to their new Forum

These guys work in EA's DRM department.

(Dragon Age: Origins was just too much game for me to review in one sitting. Here's part one of my series of observations on the newest fantasy RPG from Bioware)

Ye tale of the Darke Ritual of Magicke

In the past times, all was chaos. The world was a tumult of gamers, devs, and publishers, who over the centuries became united through the power of games. Then came the pirates, mysterious creatures of the blackest energy who could subvert any and all games to their dark will. The pirates took the finest games and in their infernal forges did create pirated 3.5 inch disks, which they then flogged at car-boot sales and down the pub. And the world was consumed by war, as the devs and the publishers stood together with the pure-hearted gamers against the forces of the pirates and those gamers who had fallen under their spell.

The forces of good created many weapons to fight the pirates. First were the code wheels and the dongles. Some hires armies of mercenary legal gnomes to defend their games, but the pirates vanquished all defences and sundered the new games as they had the old.

Finally, the forces of good came together to forge a new, terrible weapon to destroy the pirates and their fallen thralls once and for all. This was the Darke Ritual of Magicke – The DRM.

Legend does not tell of the effectiveness of the DRM, whether it was successful or not, but the plague of pirates that still haunt the Great Web suggest that it was not. But once unleashed, the DRM became impossible to control. It turned on all gamers, those pure of heart as well as the minions of the pirates, and threatened to eat all games.

I was one such gamer. My serial code for Dragon Age: Origins was stout and true, yet the Fell Aegis of the DRM deflected my honest and legitimate attempts to pierce its veil.

For millennia, I struggled through dark times, recruiting a small but dedicated band of EA customer service dwarves, but even their studies of the half-remembered ceremonies of clearing my Java cache and reinstalling it failed. I was close to despair, and it was only through my attaining of EA Customer Service Tier 3 (+2 Dexterity, +1 Strength) that I was finally equipped with a fresh serial code, one that allowed access (after a few more tweaks both by me and by EA).

So this tale has a happy ending. But so many do not. My millennia was actually about two and a half weeks, but the moral of the story I will leave to you. I was one of the heroes, and I felt like one of the villains. It was only through perseverance (and significant personal rage) that I finally triumphed.

Gamers have an opportunity to discuss the subject in this very building

Gamers' Voice, the pressure group founded following Keith Vaz's negative comments about gaming in The Daily Mail, will be holding its first meeting next week.

Tom Watson MP, the founder of the group, has organised a meeting inside the House of Commons starting at 18:30 on December 9th. 

The aim is to "discuss what people want from the group and how we can get it moving"

Anyone can attend but Mr Watson says the meeting room can only hold 50 people.

If you want to go, you can sign up and get the details here.

Infinity Ward are waging war on cheaters

2,500 cheating players have been banned from Modern Warfare 2 servers. Replying to a comment on Twitter, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling says:

"Top men are on it. In fact, the Steam ban hammer is coming down on about 2,500 confirmed #MW2 cheaters on PC today."

The cheating ban comes on the same day the UK games charts review Modern Warfare 2 still reigns supreme.

You can discuss Modern Warfare 2 here, or alternatively if Mr Bowling's words have put you in the mood for Indiana Jones you can discuss Lego: Indiana Jones 2 here.

The Joys of Computing: Position 1

  I held off upgrading to AVG Free 9.0 Virus protection for as long as I could...And now I see what the little voice was trying to tell me!!

  There is a nasty little side-effect of the new and "Improved" version 9 which involves minimizing full screen every 30 mins. This is not life-threatening if you are playing a turn-based game or in something such as "For The Glory" or Hearts of Iron" that isn't terribly time critical. However, tempers get a little frayed when you are just pulling up your FW190 after a swooping dive in IL2 and the screen minimizes! Or fighting desperately for your life against some hideous, evil-smelling barbarian with an ice-axe in "Mount & Blade" Warband.  You return to full-screen mode to behold a ten-foot deep smoking hole in the landscape, or your horribly mutilated corpse.....not the perfect end to a lousy day.

  If you are experiencing the symptoms described in this THREAD after upgrading to AVG 9.0 then fear not noob, for there is a fix! Which involves uninstalling AVG including checking the box "DO NOT SAVE YOUR SETTINGS" then downloading and installing avg_free_stf_en_90_707a1765.exe as per this post by JANA.

  This certainly worked for me and now I'm back to happily playing away with no frustrating minimises whilest eagerly awaiting my copy of Windows System 7 and all the joyful teething-troubles that that much-maligned gem will involve!

The DLC will apparently be out next Spring.

It may have only been out for two weeks, but downloadable content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has already been confirmed for next year.

A tweet by Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling says "DLC is planned fir the wonderfully vague timeframe of Spring. I'll let you know when we know when it'll be done."

Yes, that is fir not for but I'm the last person who should be commenting on others spelling, but nonetheless players are already wildly speculating about what the DLC will contain.

You can discuss Modern Warfare 2 and give us your opinions on the proposed DLC here.

It may be a month 'til Christmas, but that doesn't stop retailers blasting out Noddy Holder on loop, or annoying neighbours covering their homes with enough novelty bulbs to light the whole of Russia.

The good news is, Steam have decided to enter the festive cheer with an early holiday sale. Right now you can get Batman: Arkham Asylum for £14.99, the Fortunes Edition of Far Cry 2 for £9.99, or the brand new Dragon's Age: Origins for only £22.49. Madness!

Fans of LucasArts (so that should be everyone reading this) should also note that the special bumper pack containing classic titles such as Dark Forces, Fate of Atlantis and The Dig, is available for £34.99. With 16 games in all, it should last you through to Christmas 2010.

The deals change at 4pm GMT on Friday, so put down that mince pie and check it out right now.

CPU/Processor     

Min: Intel P4 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon64 3500+

Recomended: Intel Core2Duo 2.0GHz or AMD Athlon64 X2 4000+

Graphics Card

Min: 256MB VRAM Graphics Card that supports DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3.0 (i.e.; Nvidia GeForce 7600-series, ATI Radeon X1600 or better)

Recommended: 512MB VRAM Graphics Card that supports DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3.0 (i.e.; Nvidia GeForce 9800-series, ATI Radeon HD 4850 or better)

RAM

Min: 1GB for XP or 2GB for Vista

Recommended: 2GB

Sound Card

Min: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card     

Recommended: 5.1 Surround Sound DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card

Operating System

Windows XP (32bit or 64bit) with Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista* with Service Pack 2

DirectX     9.0c
CD/DVD-ROM

Additional Info

Integrated video controllers (Intel Chipsets or similar) are not recommended or intended for gaming and may not work with this game.

* You will be required to install DirectX 9.0c to run the game. DirectX 9.0c is included with this copy of the game.