Wolfenstein: The Old Blood will have "a much more pulp B-movie vibe"

MachineGames says Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is a prequel rather than a sequel because the 1940s setting provides an ideal backdrop for the "pulp B-movie thing" that will distinguish it from last year's Wolfenstein: The New Order .

. It's also an opportunity for the studio to fill in some blanks and "explore things that were only hinted at" in the previous game, including how the Nazis were able to come up with the advanced technology that enabled them to [alternate history spoiler] win the war.

The Old Blood will serve up eight chapters across two interconnected stories, "Rudi Jager and the Den of Wolves," and "The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs." But while it's essentially an expansion to The New Order, most of the content, including environments, weapons, and enemies, is brand new, while some existing elements, like the "commander system," have been tweaked. The hero, B.J. Blazkowicz, will also have an interesting new toy with which to dispatch enemies: A hollow pipe that can be wielded as either a single or dual-handed weapon, and that enables seriously ugly takedowns.

The Old Blood will be peppered with references to the 2001 shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which I think is very cool—I really liked that game—but fortunately for those of us who haven't yet played The New Order, there won't be any spoilers. "It really is a prequel," Senior Producer John Jennings explained on the Bethesda Blog. "The last scene of Old Blood is a couple of hours before the start of New Order in terms of the timeline, so it sets things up perfectly." And if you have played it, you'll get some new insights into what you've already experienced.

"There are hints and clues and nods to The New Order hidden throughout the game," he added. "People playing it in different orders will get a unique experience, but both of them will have a good time." Wolfenstein: The Old Blood comes out on May 5. Meanwhile, behold a brace of screenshots.

Free-to-play "makes sense" for Blizzard at some point

World of Warcraft is one of the few remaining games you can point to as an example of the subscription model still being viable, but it seems even Blizzard are considering embracing free-to-play down the line.

is one of the few remaining games you can point to as an example of the subscription model still being viable, but it seems even Blizzard are considering embracing free-to-play down the line. Speaking to Polygon, Blizzard's Tom Chilton said that it "makes sense [to go free-to-play] at some point", though they're still unsure of how this would work out in the long term.

"A lot of the risk is in making that transition," Chilton continued. "You hear stories about developers going free-to-play and getting double the number of players, but you don't always know it works out that way and how long it stays that way. We really don't know what the rate is before people drop off and lose interest."

This, of course, occurs in the same week that The Elder Scrolls Onlinewas confirmed as a subscription-based title. It's not the only high-profile MMORPG to ask for monthly wonga either: let's not forget Final Fantasy XIV. We'll have to wait and see whether both are able to make a go of it with the subscription model - I suspect that Blizzard will be keeping a close eye on their progress too.

BioWare: next-gen graphics are "a big leap," but the difference "won't be as obvious"

We've heard from Crytek on the stacked odds next-gen consoles face against PCs in the ongoing struggle for graphics glory, but BioWare has some thoughts on how money factors into whatever dances across your screen.

against PCs in the ongoing struggle for graphics glory, but BioWare has some thoughts on how money factors into whatever dances across your screen. In an interview with OXM, Art Director Neil Thompson believes the next graphics tier will represent "a big leap" for studios, but any such progression "won't be as obvious" due to already ballooned budgets.

"People will do things in a cleverer fashion—and I have to be careful here as there are non-disclosure agreements involved; I think they'll be better prepared, shall we say—but we can't see a ten-fold team increase again as the budgets would just be ridiculous. You'd have to sell 20-30 million copies before you broke even," Thompson explains.

Though Thompson's comments deal more with the generational differences between consoles instead of PCs, his stance on developers staying economically aware as they push their games' visuals further seems pretty universal. It's a far cry from the consumer side of the issue, as gamers can achieve comparable visual quality with a setup costing as little as $600.

"I think the main thing is that the industry doesn't get itself into a corner where it becomes economically nonviable to make a game," Thompson continues. "The last technology iteration caught folks by surprise, especially with the number of people you needed and the skillset jump that was required to do the work that people expected. In the last generation, the perception was that it was going to be a ten times improvement over the previous generation."

Check out the rest of OXM's interviewfor more of Thompson's words on BioWare's art direction and life at the studio.

Bethesda's original Doom 4 was canned for being "Call of Doom"

Bethesda Softworks has never been very clear about why it felt the need to shut down the development of Doom 4 and start over from scratch.

from scratch. Marketing Vice President Pete Hines said at the time that the game in its initial state "didn't exhibit the quality and excitement" the studio was looking for, but that's far from specific. However, in a more recent interview with Polygonfollowing last week's unveiling of the new Doomat E3, Hines was more forthcoming, saying that the initial iteration of the game was too far from the original Doom, and too close to a certain very popular modern military shooter.

"We weren't happy with the game that was being made," Hines said. "We decided that it wasn't Doom enough and needed to be thrown out and started over. Some folks left and some faces changed at the studio. Out of that change—which was not easy for those guys to go through—some amazing things happened."

Foremost among those things was the development of id Tech 6, which Hines said wouldn't have happened if the project hadn't been reset. It also resulted in a much-needed influx of new blood at id Software, which "injected a lot of life" into the team.

We got a look at a partial Doom 4 cinematic back in May(which has since been removed over a copyright claim, but for now you can watch it here) and although it's brief, it definitely seems to fit the mold of what Hines described as a "Call of Doom or BattleDoom game," which he said came off more like a reskinned version of a different franchise.

"It wasn't fast enough. The way that the demons worked, the visceralness of the combat, all the stuff you see with the finishing moves and all of that, wasn't part of it at all," he said. "The combat was more disconnected. You almost found yourself taking cover at times and using things from other first-person shooter games which, again, might be fine for them, but for Doom it just didn't feel right."

The full interview runs about 25 minutes, and covers a lot of ground on Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends. If you're interested in any of these games (and surely at least one of them does something for you), it's definitely worth watching in full.

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Mount & Blade: Viking Conquest gets a big fat free update

The Mount & Blade: Warband Viking Conquest Reforged Edition is a "monumental update" to last year's DLC release that incorporates a number of new features including "The Last Tuatha De Danann", an all-new story set in the dark, mysterious fantasy realm known as Ireland.

A full breakdown of what's included in the Reforged Edition is up on the TaleWorlds website, with high points including the Hofs of the Nordic Gods, where players can recruit powerful but unpredictable Berserker troops; a faithful canine companion; "Labour mini-games," in which you give up all that raping and the pillaging in favor of an honest day's work in a quarry or on the farm; new quests, events, and items; an Ambush System; and significant changes to multiplayer.

"We are very excited to be releasing Viking Conquest Reforged Edition today as a service to our players and fans!" TaleWorlds said. "Our friends and developers of the DLC, Brytenwalda, have been hard at work over the past few months creating this monumental update."

The Viking Conquest expansion, originally announcedin October 2014, adds a single-player campaign to the game featuring, as you might have guessed, Vikings and conquest. I haven't played Mount & Blade: Warband myself, but Phil makes me think that I should: He said in Novemberthat while it's not the best-looking game ever, "it's an absolutely brilliant RPG-cum-strategy—filled with a multitude of freeform, sandbox options." The Mount & Blade: Warband Viking Conquest Reforged Edition is out now.

This is what Doom 4 could have looked like, apparently

Today's Doom teaser trailer was... well, not very enlightening , but it certainly appeared different to these newly unearthed images and footage from a previous iteration of the game.

, but it certainly appeared different to these newly unearthed images and footage from a previous iteration of the game. As is well known, id Software rebooted developmenton the fourth instalment back in 2013, because "it didn't exhibit the quality and excitement that id and Bethesda intend to deliver", according to Bethesda's Pete Hines.

If this material posted on the Doomworld forumsby user Marnetmar is truthfully from the canned project (and its resemblance to previously leaked imagesseems to suggest it is) then Hines was probably right. Gritty and brown, the evidence that id Software was trying to capture the late '00s FPS zeitgeist are everywhere. There's even footage.

Compared with what we know about the in-development Doom – that it's a return to the gory, fast-paced no-hiding-behind-cover-you-sook glory days of the series – it definitely comes out second best.

Then again, apart from Ian Birnbaum's eyewitness reportfrom last year's behind-closed-doors gameplay demonstration at QuakeCon, we don't know much about the new one, either.

Some images are below, but you can see the full set over at the Doomworld forums.

Titan's team is over 100 people

While many Blizzard fans are preoccupied at the moment by pudgy pandas punching everything in sight , an interview by Curse with Blizzard vice president of game design Rob Pardo reveals that the development of its mysterious Titan MMO project is in full swing with a team that now numbers in the triple digits.

"We are definitely in the middle of development at this point," Pardo said. "The team is over 100 people now." He also explained core development started small in teams of two or three hashing out concepts before growing over the course of four years. Blizzard's silence on Titan's formation affords very few details beyond its confirmation as a new IP and it being in playable formsince last year.

For more of Pardo's thoughts on Pandaria and Diablo 3, check out the rest of Curse's video interview.

Mount & Blade Warband: Viking Conquest trailer shows first footage

Mount & Blade Warband is not a beautiful game.

Mount & Blade Warband is not a beautiful game. Its graphicsability is low. It is, to borrow from the teachings of Daphne & Celeste, without an alibi. On the plus side, it can run on pretty much any recent system without dropping to a single-digit FPS, or refusing to load faces. So, you know, there's that.

Despite its looks, it's an absolutely brilliant RPG-cum-strategy—filled with a multitude of freeform, sandbox options. And now it's getting a Viking expansion, courtesy of the creators of the popular Brytenwalda mod.

Here, then, is a new trailer for that expansion, which is due out "soon". Check that sweet boat tech!

It's three seconds of DOOM footage

Here's a tiny teaser for nu-DOOM's E3 reveal, showing what looks to be a Revenant screaming and firing his shoulder guns.

I'd write more, but this text is already longer than the video. Doom will be present at Bethesda's E3 conference on June 14.

Blizzcon 2011 kicks off today, here's what to expect

The annual festival celebrating all things Blizzard is set to kick of later today.

The annual festival celebrating all things Blizzard is set to kick of later today. We've flown Rich out to kill ten wordboars and level up his reporting skills till he finds us some news, and there's sure to be plenty. Blizzard are pretty guarded as to what's on the agenda, but there are some huge potential announcements. We'll be covering them all for you throughout the two day event.

As ever we'll be seeing lots of World of Warcraft, with more information on Blizzard's plans for the future of the MMO. Blizzard recently revealed that they have two World of Warcraft expansions planned for the next three years, could we see one announced at Blizzcon? There are rumours of a Mists of Pandaria expansionin the works, could we see that this weekend?

One game that certainly will be there will be Diablo 3, will Blizzard add new features to the beta? Perhaps they'll take some time to tackle the controversial Diablo 3 real money auction houseat the Diablo 3 open Q&A panel.

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarmwill be present too. Blizzard have recently been teasing Starcraft unitsfor the game, and with a major tournament taking place at Blizzcon, it would seem the sensible place to unveil them. E-sports enthusiasts will have a lot to look foward too, as we'll also be seeing the GSL finalsreach their thrilling conclusion.

It's been a long time since we heard anything about Blizzard's Battle.net marketplace, for selling mods and maps via Starcraft 2. However with Starcraft Universeon show, we could be seeing more from it soon.

Blizzard Dotais also on the schedule. With League of Legends enjoying phenomenal success, and Valve's DOTA 2 on the way Blizzard could be looking to get their own entry into the MOBA genre on display soon.

Finally, there's the outside bet, the mysterious Project Titan. It's unlikely that we'll hear anything about this closely guarded secret, but who knows? It's Blizzcon. Anything could happen.

What do you expect to see at this year's Blizzcon? Alternatively, what are you hoping for?

Mount and Blade: Warband available to try free this weekend, gets Steam workshop support

Hold position troops!

Hold position troops! Before you go charging towards Mount and Blade: Warband's Steam page, at least finish this paragraph. The mostly excellent, somewhat rough-around-the-edges RPG is now free to try until Sunday, 1pm PDT. And for those intent on conquering its brand of questing, troop-management and tactical battling, the game is 75% off until Monday.

In addition, the game now offers Steam Workshop support—hopefully meaning its wealthof great modswill soon be available for easier install. It's still early days, though, so for now we'll have to settle for ponies.

Warband is arguably the best of the Mount & Blade series so far. It's much improved over the original game, and also purer and less problematic than the With Fire and Swordsemi-sequel. If you've not tried the series before, this really is the best place to jump on board.

Okay, all done. Now go pillage, brave warriors.

Doom 4 showing at QuakeCon will be exclusive to attendees

If you've been champing at the bit to see Doom 4, then you're probably excited for QuakeCon later this month.

If you've been champing at the bit to see Doom 4, then you're probably excited for QuakeCon later this month. Last month's Doom 4 teaser trailerpromised news out of the id Software event, but now we've learnt this comes with a caveat: you have to actually be at QuakeCon. According to a new statement by publisher Bethesda, the convention's Doom 4 showing will be exclusive for attendees, meaning they don't intend to distribute any material on the internet.

"You've been clamoring for it for years, and now the wait is almost over," the post reads. "As announced in our E3 teaser trailer, fans in attendance at QuakeCon 2014 will have the opportunity to get a sneak peek at what's been going on with the new DOOM game from id Software."

"This an exclusive thing we are doing for attendees as part of our Annual QuakeCon Welcome presentation. We'll have plenty more to show everyone at a later date, but we didn't want another QuakeCon to go by without doing something special for the amazing QC community and id supporters that have been with us for more than 20 years."

So this means that if you're not in Dallas, Texas between July 17 and 20, you're not going to see Doom 4. Sorry about that.

Anticipation for Doom 4 is high. id Software scrapped an early version of the game and restarted in early 2013. In the words of Bethesda's Pete Hines, "[the] earlier version of Doom 4 didn't exhibit the quality and excitement that id and Bethesda intend to deliver and that Doom fans worldwide expect.” If you purchased a copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order earlier this year, you'll gain access to the Doom 4 beta. No one knows when that's going to happen yet, though.

Blizzard's Titan: what we can learn from the latest WoW patch?

A relatively small technical issue for Blizzard's Warcraft servers on Sunday night and a couple of innocuous Blue posts might well signal that the company's next MMO - codenamed Titan and confirmed back in December - is going to be FPS-based.

and confirmed back in December - is going to be FPS-based. What sort of convoluted logic do we arrive at for that reasoning? You may well ask...

If you've looked at your World of Warcraft latency report since patch 4.0.6 went live last week, you may have noticed that what was once a single large number - often over 200ms on a decent connection - has been divided up into two smaller numbers called Home and World, which are 32ms and 178ms respectively on my current machine.

Many people - including me - initially assumed that the former, lower number was something to do with their LAN. Turns out we were wrong, and in a post picked up by MMO Champion's Blue Tracker, Blizzard representative Brianl did an excellent job of explaining what was going on:

'World' is a reference to the connection to our servers that transmits all the other data... combat, data from the people around you (specs, gear, enchants, etc.), NPCs, mobs, casting, professions, etc. Going into a highly populated zone (like a capital city) will drastically increase the amount of data being sent over this connection and will raise the reported latency.

So far so straightforward, and Brianl went to describe how the difference between the two figures can be used to diagnose connection problems.

If your 'Home' connection latency is low and your 'World' connection latency is high, that frequently indicates that there is some sort of QoS congestion controls being applied to your internet connection, at either the micro (LAN) or macro (WAN) level. A common symptom would be that you would be able to chat, but not to cast.

The most interesting part of the discussion, though, is a few posts later. Brianl revealed that around the same time as the patch, Blizzard had also made some changes to the way the 'World' servers for instances, raids, arena and battlegrounds handle network traffic. The changes were designed to lower client latency, but because the changes resulted in higher pings for less than 2% of players they hit CTRL-Z and reverted to the old system on Sunday night.

The problem, according to Brianl, was that reducing the ping times means increasing the number of times a game client talks to the server per second. On slower connections, or where ISPs deploy traffic shaping policies to throttle heavy users, the increase in packets sent to and from the servers was enough to flood the available bandwidth and cause substantially higher latency, making the game unplayable.

So far, so much kudos to Blizzard for trying something new and then fixing an unforeseen problem pretty quickly. Also, to Brianl for bothering to explain something fairly esoteric for a lot of players.

But here's where we get licence to indulge in some rampant speculation. Traditionally, the MMO client/server server relationship has been planned with high average latencies in mind in order to manage the vast quantity of information coming in from thousands of players at once - and the actual lag is disguised by game design which doesn't require perfect synchronisation between the two. That's why WoW and Eve et al aren't 'twitch' games: a 16 player FPS server running a relatively tight map can afford to update each client in near real-time without using much in the way of bandwidth. For MMOs, there's a literal ton of data in each update with player positions, NPC movements, item caches and so on.

Even in instances, there must be a point - probably higher than the 12ms Brianl claims he was getting over the weekend - where lower pings won't actually have any noticeable effect on the gameplay.

Thus we can reasonably surmise that playing around with the underlying network structure isn't necessarily to benefit current WoW players, but to test a new architecture for the next game - Titan - and that it needs FPS-style response times. QED.

Or they could just be trying to make WoW better, of course.

More seriously, though, it does raise highlight an issue about how technically viable a large scale MMO with all the rich detail of WoW but the fast pace of - say - PlanetSide - is. The WoW problems were caused by two things: invisible traffic shaping by ISPs and wireless connections including 3G and WiFi not being up to the task. It's one thing for Blizzard, which now makes up a significant part of all internet traffic, to experiment with low latency gaming and be able to move from one network management system to another smoothly and quickly to avoid complaints. But for an MMO of the future which is more reliant on low pings and whose parent company isn't as well resourced, and is fighting against more traffic shaping in the non-neutral net, it's going to be a massive issue to overcome.

Mod of the Week: Warsword Conquest, for Mount and Blade: Warband

Years in the making, Warsword Conquest is finally playable in beta: a full conversion mod for Mount and Blade: Warband that transforms the game into a world based on Warhammer fantasy.

that transforms the game into a world based on Warhammer fantasy. There are thirteen different factions to join, including the rat-like Skaven, the scaly Lizardmen, Chaos, pirates, and of course, dwarves, elves, and orcs. But screw all of those, because you can play as a skeleton. Don't you want to play as a skeleton? I'm gonna play as a skeleton.

With so many factions and races from Warhammer Fantasy in the mod, I'd rather not pledge my allegiance to a single one and miss out on seeing most of the others. I decide to play as a freelance skeleton, lending my services here and there but not getting too attached to anyone in particular. I begin by joining up with the goblins of The Badlands. They're so short that when I speak to them their heads are barely visible in the conversation window. However, they're happy to hire an inexperienced skeleton (named Murray, of course) into their ranks. It's awesome to run into battle alongside trolls and spider-riding goblins, and we make a mess out of several groups of dwarves we run into.

I eventually decide to retire from the goblin army (my commander is very understanding) and visit my homeland, the Tomb Kings Empire. High King Settra is happy to employ me, and while I'm not at all xenophobic, it is rather nice to be surrounded by my fellow undead, and particularly nice to be given armor and weapons suitable for my flesh-free body (the goblin gear didn't work for my bony bod). Also cool: when we go to battle, our cavalry rides skeletal horses and giant undead snakes.

As much as I love going to war alongside my skeletal brethren, I eventually decide to move on (once I can afford my own necroserpent to ride), so I recruit a small force of skeletons from the local taverns (why do skeletons hang out in taverns?) and we move through the Pirate Kingdom and head into elf country. Along the way I stop in various towns and taverns, and soon I've got a motley crew of followers, including a couple of swabbies, a half-dozen men from the Alcatani Fellowship, and even a few Skaven slaves.

Of course, no matter how much progress you make in a Mount & Blade game, it can all be suddenly and horribly lost, such as when my weirdly fearsome crew runs into something just plain fearsome: some Norse raiders. It's not that a bunch of bearded jerks are so imposing, it's just that this crew has some hired ogres on their side, and the massive, hammer-wielding merc-monsters wade through my ranks, clubbing us all into bonemeal. I didn't even know you could hire ogres. I'm definitely going to need to hire some ogres.

I need cash to hire a new crew, so I throw in with an Elven army for a bit. Normally, I find elves a bit snooty, but I have to admit, charging into battle alongside them, with their gleaming armor and white horses and colorful banners... okay, I get why elves are so revered. Also, props to them for letting a skeleton join them, no questions asked. Not a lot of elves would do that.

Eventually, I make enough cash to head out on my own again. I meet a skeleton lord (in a pub, of course), I hire a small collection of Lizardmen, and while I can't find any ogres to fight for me, I do find some Gorols, who are so tall that when I speak to one, only his crotch appears in the dialogue pane. They're not ogres, but hopefully they'll pack a wallop, and I'm happy to once again be in charge of a crew of violent misfit monsters.

By now I've worked my way through the Skaven Kingdom and I'm as far north as I can go, in Dark Elf country. I've added a Waywatcher to my crew, along with some merc leadbelchers (ogres at last!) and a few Dark Elf recruits. We win battles, capture prisoners, and sell enough of them to buy a boat. We even chase down some undead pirates, but considering Murray was an undead pirate in another life, I feel like I should let them go.

Eventually, we make our way to the Realm of Chaos, which is actually pretty organized, what with the castles and towns and hierarchies and people unwilling let some skeleton marry their daughter without knowing him better. At least they dress interestingly!

It's been a long journey and Murray is ready for some steady work, and the Chaos Realm is as good a place as any. I join the Chaos army, though they force me to wear their armor, which sort of takes away my skeleton-ness. Still, a job is a job.

When I last left Murray, he was gaining influence in the Realm of Chaos, he'd bought and opened a mill, and was hoping to woo and marry Chaos Lady Timethi. Hey, every swinging bachelor skeleton has got to settle down someday.

Installation : Warsword Conquest is still in beta, so look for future updates. It can be downloaded here along with a hotfix, and all you need to do is locate your Warband folder, and extract the files into the Modules folder. Extract the hotfix on top of those files, and then activate the module when you begin playing Warband. It's also on moddb.

Doom teaser trailer promises QuakeCon reveal

We already knew a new Doom game was incoming, thanks to Bethesda's promised beta access for pre-orderers of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

for pre-orderers of Wolfenstein: The New Order. Now we get a tiny CGI glimpse to further moisten our appetites, and the promise of more info to come.

The full reveal will take place in the only location an Id game's unveiling can: QuakeCon. The event, this year running from July 17 to July 20, promises a much more enlightening look at this latest trip to Hell.

For now then, sit back and bask in the unholy glow of the newly designed Cyberdemon.

Win free admission to Nvidia's GeForce LAN 6 - on a freakin' aircraft carrier [US only]

Ever gone to a BYOC (bring your own computer) LAN event?

Ever gone to a BYOC (bring your own computer) LAN event? Yeah? How about one held aboard a decommissioned aircraft carrier?

No? That's what we thought—but we, and the good folk at Corsair, are here to make sure you never have to endure the shame of admitting that you've never been to a BYOC LAN event on an aircraft carrier ever again. Read on to find out how!

Update: Winners have been drawn!

On October 14 to 16 , Nvidia will hold its GeForce LAN 6 eventaboard the USS Hornet, anchored in Alameda, California. 10 lucky readers will board the ship (standard BYOC admission, $80 value), armed with their gaming PCs, and play to their hearts' content.

Regardless of whether our 10 LAN warriors win the raffle they're automatically entered in, they'll all walk away with their choice of three Corsair Vengeance gaming headsets: the Vengeance 1100,, or.

To enter, email contests@pcgamer.com with "All aboard!" in the subject line, and include your full name in the body. This giveaway is US only - but if you'll be visiting California next week, feel free to enter! We'll draw 10 winners at random on Wednesday, October 12, and notify winners by email. You'll be able to pick up your tickets at the event, and you'll leave with your headset.

Good luck!

Update: To clarify, travel and accommodations are NOT included. Winners will receive free admission and the perks that come with it, but you have to get there on your own.

Congratulations to our winners

Chris Cardonne

Hudson Shires

David Marlene

Jayson Garner

Nathan Mastrocovo

Jon Shirey

Ryan Veach

Jack Gallagher

Chris Larson

Stephen Austin

Mod of the Week: The Last Days, for Mount and Blade: Warband

The last time I played a Lord of the Rings mod, I made Aragorn marry a giant spider .

. This time, I'm not looking for weird fan-fiction nuptials but for massive fan-fiction battles. The Last Days (of The Third Age of Middle Earth)was originally released in 2011, but it's been recently updated and made newly compatible with Mount & Blade: Warband, transforming the game into Tolkien's Middle Earth.

As with the A Clash of Kings modfor Warband, I'm hoping The Last Days will give me a grounds-eye view of the War of the Ring. And, the way I figure it, nobody has a better grounds-eye view than someone who was just born in a hole in the ground. I'm going to play as an Uruk-Hai, one of Saruman's faithful grunts. Seriously, I can probably only grunt because I'm some kind of mud creature who was born six minutes ago. I name myself Grug A'Lug-Gug Gro Chug.

Naturally, my first order of business is to walk into Saruman's chamber and have a one-on-one consultation with the big man himself, and try to impress him with my go-getter attitude. Saruman says he needs a message delivered to an ally in a nearby camp -- I guess I'll be a go-giver -- and who better to deliver important missives to military commanders than a snarling naked dirt monster?

On the way to the camp, I pass through Fangorn Forest, which turns out to be a huge mistake because of those sentient trees who are not huge fans of orc-folk. As if orcs are the only ones who cut down trees! Haven't you been to The Shire? Those Hobbit-holes are wood-paneled! Floor to ceiling! Why don't you slap them around for a change?

Anyway, the Ent slaps me around until I'm unconscious, and the few shots I get in with my bare fists don't even hurt him. I eventually wake up, drag myself out of the forest, and deliver Saruman's message, improving his opinion of me. I return to Isengard, and start running errands for anyone who has one: Saruman, Grima Wormtongue, and a couple of orc generals. Things go smoothly, except for the occasional run-in with patrolling elves, who fill me full of arrows, because of course they do, because elves are a bunch of archery dweebs.

I visit a few landmarks in my spare time. Argonath, also known as "The Pillars of Kings" or "Those Two Giant Cool River Statues From The Movies." I make my way to Morannon, the Black Gate of Mordor, just to see if I can meet with The Lidless Eye, also known as Sauron. I can't, but I do some errands for his helpers, including the one named The Mouth of Sauron, also known as "The Guy Cut Out Of The Theatrical Release." I even buy a shield with the Lidless Eye insignia, just to show my general support of evil. It looks quite striking on me as I lie unconscious on the ground after battles.

Tired of being beaten up by trees and tree-hugging elves, I start putting together an Uruk-posse. My errand running has earned me some respect, and joining one-sided skirmishes has given me enough experience to gain a couple levels and add some points in the leadership and prisoner management department. I start recruiting orcs, Uruks, and humans at every camp I visit. It's not long before I've got a couple newborn Uruk, a couple run-of-the-mill soldier orcs, and a small cavalry consisting of goblin warg-riders and Dunlander horsemen. We win some battles and take some prisoners, which I manage.

It's not long before the elven patrols who used me for target practice are fleeing before me. We're raiding enemy towns and capturing deserters. My footsoldiers are graduating to become warg riders and I'm decked out in the best Uruk armor and shields, all with matching White Hand insignia. My crew is getting fierce .

Soon, Saurman realizes my potential. He lets me in on his plan. It involves defeating a troll, capturing it, and bringing it to him in a giant cage, where the beast will be trained to fight for The White Hand. No problemo! My army is well equipped and well-prepared. We'll get that troll toot-sweet.

I ride out with my army in the middle of the night, nearly fifty of us, headed for Troll Cave, where we will find, presumably, at least one troll. As we cross the plains, a large party on horseback suddenly appears behind us, chasing us, moving fast. It's not good news.

Theoden! I thought our side had him all bewitched and catatonic. Who cleared out his mental cobwebs? I bet it was Gandalf, that busy-body. We clash with Theoden and his men, and it's an absolute slaughter. I assume it's a slaughter, anyway, I can't even see my faithful orcs and Uruks behind the wall of horses and shields, but it's pretty clear from the wall-o-text that things are not going our way.

I wake up alone, left for dead, and with my entire entourage gone. I scurry back to Isengard alone. Yes, I'll rebuild my crew. Yes, I'll get that troll for Saruman. Maybe I'll even meet Theoden again, only in a fair fight, and make him my prisoner. For the moment, though, I'm just bummed that I've gone from a bunch of Uruk-Guys back down to a single Uruk-Hai.

Installation : Your installation is going to depend on which version of the game you're using (M&B, or M&B: W) and whether you've got a Steam copy or retail. Luckily, every eventuality is covered in the mod's comprehensive installation guide, which is a PDF contained in the download folder. Either way, it's not particularly complicated. Visit the download page here. For Warband, you'll need the 3.3 Warband patch as well as the regular 3.3 mod file.

Wolfenstein: The New Order release date announced, pre-orders come with DOOM beta access

Bethesda have started firing out FPS news like bullets from the personal arsenal of B.J. Blazkowicz.

Bethesda have started firing out FPS news like bullets from the personal arsenal of B.J. Blazkowicz. One lodges into the head of our trusty robotic dog, announcing that Wolfenstein: The New Order has a release date. Another is drowned out by an Inception-like caterwaul, revealing Wolfenstein: The New Order's new trailer. The third arrived alongside the improbable buckshot of dual-wielded shotguns. It told us that pre-orders of Wolfenstein: The New Order would secure access to an upcoming beta for the next DOOM.

To tackle the Wolfenstein news first, The New Order will be arriving in the US on May 20th, and in Europe on May 23rd. It looks like a thoroughly silly game, but one with some big, chunky weapons to unload.

As for DOOM, it's a bit of a surprise to see. Between rumours of an indefinite delay, and Bethesda's reveal that id Software had started over with the gamelast April, it was unclear whether the project would ever see the lights of Hell. That said, there's a QuakeCon on the way, and it'd be something of a downer if the studio had nothing to show.

Not that there are many firm details on the beta, or the game it's for. On Bethesda's FAQ pagefor the pre-order bonus, they essentially find seven different ways to tell people they're not answering questions.

Judgment Day - how Terminator 2 came to be

The script for Terminator 2 stated that the end of the world as we know it would come about on 29 August 1997. Were you to ask Mario Kassar and Peter Hoffman for their prediction in the early part of 1991, they may well have told you to bring it forward six years. Kassar and Hoffman were movie execs at Carolco Pictures. One year earlier the upstart production company had been flying high – throwing

Mod of the Week: A Clash of Kings, for Mount & Blade Warband

Since Rich seems to be having fun with a Game of Thrones mod in Crusader Kings II , I thought I might try a GoT mod as well, but with a different game: Mount & Blade: Warband .

. Adding sea travel, naval battles, over a thousand new items, props, and textures, plus a massive map of Westeros and tons of characters based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Clash of Kings modlets gamers step into a world ravaged by war as a handful of wealthy, entitled men violently quibble over who gets to sit on a big fancy chair.

While Rich's playthrough is focused on politics, intrigue, and poop-based assassination, I'm taking a slightly different approach with this mod (created by modder Cozur and a host of contributors). I want the experience that the Game of Thrones books and television show don't portray very often: the perspective of the commoners who are swept up in the drama, and moved around on the gaming board like so many checkers at the whim of would-be monarchs. Since George R. R. Martin often gives his characters slightly changed familiar names (Robb, Eddard, Tommen, Petyr, etc.) I went the same route. Meet my character, Keewristoffertt. As the son of a merchant and former street urchin, commoners don't come more common than Keewris.

I begin the game in the city of Storm's End, with the world of Westeros already heading into the War of the Five Kings (which is the start of the second book, or the second season of the show). I'm eager to join up with a king, though even as a commoner, I'd like to do a little homework to decide which is the best king to align with. Unlike our own world, where we form our political opinions by listening to the paranoid rantings of spittle-spewing radio and television hosts, in Mount & Blade I can just walk right up to any old king and talk to him.

I talk to King Renly Baratheon, who is polite and seems worth pledging my undying devotion to, then ride toward Lannisport to personally talk to Tywin Lannister, who is not technically a king but might as well be. Along the way, I'm intercepted by Ser Gregor Clegane, a Lannister knight. While trying to ask him where Tywin Lannister is, I accidentally click on a more threatening line of dialogue, which leads a rude reply from Clegane, which leads to a battle between me and 42 of Clegane's men, which leads to me getting slightly filled with arrows.

Okay! I think joining the Lannisters is out of the question. After I escape from Clegane, I ride back to Storm's End to pledge my sword to King Renly. Unfortunately, when I arrive, I'm told Renly has been imprisoned by his own brother, Stannis Baratheon, king of Dragonstone. Well, since Stannis is also at war with the Lannisters, I figure I might as well just join him. I head over to the island of Dragonstone (by boat!) and pledge my sword to King Stannis.

As a conscript of Stannis, I follow him wherever he goes, and he's quite an active king. We ride patrols around his kingdom, fighting Forest Bandits, and patrol the seas, fighting, uh, Forest Bandits. Who are on boats. Okay. Naval combat is a lot like regular combat, only there are no horses and it takes place on boats connected by narrow planks, which can lead to a bit of a bottleneck. It takes me several minutes to even get off our boat, clogged as is with Dragonstone soldiers, and get into the fight, which promptly ends before I can even kill anyone.

Even land battles tend to leave me out of the action. Since I don't have a horse, I get left behind during the attacks, and often the battles are over before I reach an enemy. Stannis, gracious king that he is, still sees my devotion and promotes me. After a few more weeks, King Stannis assembles a massive force of hundreds of men outside Driftmark, and we ride to Duskendale, a city under Lannister control. It's time for a siege! It's exciting as hell, though again, I'm stuck at the rear for most of the skirmish.

Follwing the seige of Duskendale, we move on to the city of Antlers (seat of House Buckwell in the Crownlands, according to the ASOIAF wiki). A little tired of being at the back of the crowd and only getting leftovers, I charge the ramp, bravely enter the city first, and yeah that was a terrible idea.

We lose the battle, and worse, King Stannis is captured and imprisoned. With Stannis imprisoned by the Lannisters and Renly imprisoned by Stannis, I seem to have run out of Baratheons to follow around. What's a commoner to do? Find a new king, I guess. I head to a likely sounding location.

I join up with Ser Addam Marbrand, who despite following the Lannisters seems like a nice enough guy. Unfortunately, he may be too nice: he never leaves King's Landing. After doing nothing for a few weeks, I decide to desert Marbrand and look for a king who is a little more proactive. I even convince two other soldiers to come along with me, and we head for Highgarden, hoping to join up with Lord Mace Tyrell. Before we even get there we're taken captive by some of Tyrell's soldiers from The Reach, who view us as enemies. Apparently, word of my desertion has spread. Damn ravens! Stop delivering tiny scraps of paper that describe what disloyal soldier I am!

I finally escape, abandoning the two companions I had with me. Sorry, guys! Enjoy prison for the remainder of the war. I head to Sunspear, capital city of Dorne, but they won't let me in, and I get captured by another Lord who also drags me around as a prisoner for a while. Eventually, I wind back up at Storm's End, where I run into King Renly, who has apparently escaped from prison (or perhaps was ransomed by Davos Seaworth). He doesn't trust me enough to let me serve in his army, but asks a favor: could I please spring his brother Stannis, my past king, from prison in the Westerlands? That seems unusual. First, why trust me, a guy you don't trust, with this task? Second, why free Stannis when he's the one who has kept you imprisoned all this time?

Still, the opportunity of freeing Stannis, my chosen king, is too good to pass up. I head to the city of Hornvale (seat of House Brax), disguise myself as a peasant (it's not hard since I essentially am a peasant), and slip into the courtyard. There I approach the lone prison guard and ask him who he's got in jail. He confirms it's Stannis, so I cleverly beat him to death with a big stick (politics!). I free Stannis, along with Ellery Vance and Lord Clement Piper, who are also being held captive, and we storm the courtyard, taking down a handful of guards and escaping. So much for just being a simple soldier, I guess: I've just had a major impact on the power structure of the world.

After reuniting with Stannis at Dragonstone, we spend a few days in the castle and then ride out en masse, immediately clashing with... King Renly. It's the guy who asked me to free Stannis, and we're going to war with him again. Weird. Several minutes into the battle, I actually spot Renly slashing his way through Dragonstone soldiers. I hit him with my sword, and he collapses. I should point out that these two events are unrelated: the game log tells me I hit but did no damage and that it was some Elite Dragonstone Swordsman who actually felled the king. On the other hand, after we win the battle, I'm still pretty stoked to see I had better numbers than Renly.

See, this is why I just wanted to be a common soldier. Politics are weird and baffling. I just rescued a king for another king and then defeated the king while fighting for the king the king wanted rescued. I'm just confused. I guess I don't understand politics, and I definitely don't understand brothers.

Installation : It's not hard! Download the latest version of the mod. Find the Modules folder in your M&B Warband folder, and drop the downloaded file in there. Start the game, choose the mod from the drop-down, and get your Ice & Fire on.

Hydrophobia Dev Admits It Got 'Too Close' To Project, Outlines Fixes

Dead or Alive publisher experiments with free-to-play on console

Mount & Blade: Warband mod A Clash of Kings gets a v1.0 release

News travels slowly in the lands of medieval fantasy, which is why I've only just noticed this hiding out in the crowded mass of .

. Mount & Blade: Warband's obligatory Game of Thrones mod A Clash of Kingshas (as of a couple of weeks ago) released its v1.0 build. This is just the sort of milestone that calls for some celebratory capons. And a news post.

What features were required to prompt the mod's makers to break out of beta? Highlights from the changeloginclude new lords, new castles, and new NPCs, including Lysa Tully, Catelyn Stark, Melisandre and Vargo Hoat. In addition, the Eastern continent has been re-done, more locations have been added, and new quests have been made available. Oh, and Jaime Lannister is now in there, too.

You can grab the mod from its ModDB page. To see why you should, have a read of Christopher Livingston's adventuresin Westeros when he made it our Mod of the Week.

Mafia II Leads Again, Metroid Misses Top 10 In UK

Borderlands 2 smashes projections, but Take-Two still takes a loss

Mount & Blade II has some lovely new screenshots, also: exists

Somehow, we seem to have missed TaleWorlds' announcement of Mount & Blade II a couple of days a year ago, but we can't very well deny its existence now that it's spilling screenshots all over the place, can we?

a year ago, but we can't very well deny its existence now that it's spilling screenshots all over the place, can we? Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is the sequel to Mount & Blade: Warband (wouldn't that make it M&B3...or even M&B4 if you count With Fire & Sword?), and so far we know...um, zip. Stick around for some rather lovely screenshots, however, and a trailer featuring GIANT WORDS coming out of the screen.

"The drums of battle will beat again. And swords will sing their grim song." And bows will make a nice whooshing sound, presumably. OK, so it's a teaser trailer, and therefore light on actual details - I do feel suitably teased though. How about you? I'd say it's telling that TaleWorlds are name-checking Warband on the site, rather than the original M&B or Fire & Sword - I'm also quite excited by the thought of a 'proper' M&B sequel, despite deciding that the original wasn't quite for me. The lure of medieval combat/eventual Game of Thrones mods is too strong to resist. (Speaking of which, you've read Chris Livingston's experiences with Warband's A Clash of Kings mod, right?)

You'll find some Mount & Blade II screenshots below ( the rest are hereon the official site). It looks quite a bit fancier than the original games, and features all the mounts and blades you were probably expecting. Also: bows, barefoot urchins, cities.

ZombiU's Wii U Gamepad features exposed in new trailer

Ubisoft's cranked its promotion of ZombiU into full gear, appearing at Nintendo's E3 media conference today to explain how its Wii U exclusive horror game will put the Wii U Gamepad to the test. As hinted in yesterday's reveal, Ubisoft unveils ZombiU , the Wii U Gamepad will function as an interactive “Bug Out Bag”, allowing players to swap items on the fly and make short work of their undead pursuers

If you're reading this site, chances are you believe in the potential of video games – that they can

evoke powerful emotions, and deeply affect the people who play them. Plenty of games have already proven that the medium is capable of dealing with complex issues, but are there subjects that video games just aren't equipped to handle? Margaret Robertson of the experimental game studio Hide&Seek explored this very question at GDC 2012 , as she and her team ran into some real trouble when working on their interactive media experiment, Dreams of Your Life .

Video: Are some subjects too complex for video games?

[This is a repost of a video from GDC 2012. To access chapter selection, click the fullscreen button or check out the video on the GDC Vault website]





The project was originally planned as a game that explored the death of Joyce Vincent, a woman who went unnoticed for three years after she perished in her London flat. Hide&Seek wanted to create a game that explored the complexities of death, and how someone like Vincent could slip through the cracks and become forgotten by society.

The only problem was that making a game that captured those themes proved too great a feat. "We really tried, but we couldn't find a game that fit within the things that [the team] talked about," Robertson said.

In the end, the team created an interactive online storythat satisfied their goals, but the fact that a game never came together really concerned Robertson. She admits the fault could lie with the team itself, but what if there's a larger issue? What if games just aren't capable of dealing with certain complex themes?

"The scary thing is: Maybe this just doesn't work. The reason I love making games is that I see them transform people in this really incredible way... but it feels so much to me that the reason games manage to accomplish that has a lot to do with the fact that the constraints the games set up are temporary and arbitrary," she said.

"The minute you bolt those structures onto something [like death] that's real and enduring and ongoing, there is a tension."

For more from Robertson's thoughtful – and surprisingly positive – GDC presentation, simply click the Play button on the above video, courtesy of the GDC Vault.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to all of this free content, the GDC Vault also offers more than 300 additional lecture videos and hundreds of slide collectionsfrom GDC 2012 for GDC Vault subscribers. GDC 2012 All Access pass holders already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more free content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.

M&B: Napoleonic Wars devs announce their Civil War opus Battle Cry of Freedom

You might remember developers Flying Squirrel from their work on the multiplayer Mount & Blade expansion Napoleonic Wars , but one look at their first standalone project, the brilliantly ambitious Battle Cry of Freedom , and that short sulky Frenchman will be forever banished from your mind.

, and that short sulky Frenchman will be forever banished from your mind. Like Assassin's Creed 3, it's set during the American Civil War, but not the American Civil War as imagined by a grumpy bartender lying in a sci-fi sunbed. Read on for details, including mention of the 500-player(!) battles.

Here it is: whoa, there's going to be 500-player battles. Actually, there's a '+' in there too, so the game may be capable of supporting even more. Other things we can expect: historically accurate maps, uniforms and weapons, a "completely destructible environment", 3D voice chat, 5X5 km big maps and, perhaps best of all, "special musician units with drums, fifes, fiddles or trumpets, able to play historically accurate tunes." It appears as if combat will be largely similar to that seen in Mount & Blade, but with a bigger focus on muskets, obviously.

Flying Squirrel are taking donationson their homepage via their own form of Kickstarter, and at the time of writing they've raised just over a grand of their surprisingly low 60,000 Euros goal. 20 Euros is the minimum donation needed to bag a digital copy on release (plus early beta access), though if you have a spare million, the developers promise to "personally fly over to you and host the most awesome party you have ever had in your life". Hey now - I've been to a roller disco. I'm not sure anything will ever compete with that.

Ubisoft unveils ZombiU for Wii U

Ubisoft is making a play for the lucrative zombie-killing market with the release of ZombiU, an M-rated action game slated for an exclusive Wii U release (and, no, not a Zombie University sim which may have been equally cool). Revealed during Ubisoft's E3 conference, ZombiU is allegedly built from the remains of Killer Freaks from Outer Space , Ubisoft's former Wii U horror exclusive that was shown

Video: The making of GoldenEye 007

In this GDC Europe 2012 video, GoldenEye 007 's director Martin Hollis shares the story behind one of the Nintendo 64's best-selling games, one which many say set the standard for single and multiplayer first-person shooters on consoles.

As shared in this free GDC Vaultvideo, GoldenEye 007 's design began as a mix of Sega's on-rails shooter Virtua Cop and id Software's Doom , without a hint of multiplayer, and was developed on a $150,000 Silicon Graphics Onyx computer (an approximation of what the Nintendo 64 would become).

To hear more interesting behind-the-scenes stories of how GoldenEye 007 became the iconic N64 game it is today, watch the free, hour-long lecture above.

Session Name: Classic Postmortem: GoldenEye 007

Speaker(s): Martin Hollis

Company Name(s): Zoonami

Track / Format: Game Design

Description: Considered by many to be one of the best and most addictive multiplayer gaming experiences on the Nintendo 64 -- or on any platform in the '90s really -- Rare's GoldenEye 007 set the standard for what a first-person shooter on a console could accomplish. Its single-player campaign was also much better than any movie tie-in deserved to have. 15 years after GoldenEye 007 first hit stores, its director Martin Hollis shares how his team created the biggest release for the N64 without Mario in its title, and how what started as a Virtua Cop -style on-rails project became the legendary FPS that paved the way for console shooters like Halo and countless others.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent GDC events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers. Those who purchased All Access passes to events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC China already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscriptions via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can find out more here. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more new content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from other events like GDC China and GDC 2013. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.

Mount & Blade Warband: Napoleonic Wars features guns, bayonets, men with massive flags

The Mount & Blade series has had a spotty history with guns, which is understandable when you consider that gunpowder was ultimately responsible for making both mounts and blades totally irrelevant.

The Mount & Blade series has had a spotty history with guns, which is understandable when you consider that gunpowder was ultimately responsible for making both mounts and blades totally irrelevant. After the troubled Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, Taleworlds and Flying Squirrel Entertainment are taking another pop at blackpowder in the form of this multiplayer-only expansion for Warband.

It'll feature five factions and 220 units, historically accurate weapons and artillery, and an engineer class that can erect barricades. You'll also be able to become a musician and play drums, fifes, trumpets and bagpipes - which seems like a recipe for getting shot, to me.

Nintendo upgrading eShop with DLC and demo support

Underwhelmed by Nintendo's eShop? Give it time. Today, the company confirmed its upcoming firmware update for the 3DS will enhance the online outlet with long overdue features like support for game demos, DLC, and improved download options. The improvements were outlined in Nintendo's latest financial briefing , and are part of a larger strategy to rebound following one of its most disappointing fiscal

Well before classic horror games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil , there was Alone in the Dark

-- a seminal PC title that proved video games can be atmospheric, claustrophobic, and just plain scary. The 1992 Infogrames classic is now regarded as one of the progenitors of the survival horror genre, and at this year's Game Developers Conference, Alone in the Dark creator Frederick Raynal pulled back the curtain on how this influential title came to be.

Video: Alone in the Dark

[Note: To access chapter selection, click the fullscreen button or check out the video on the GDC Vault website]





That classic postmortem is now available (above) for all to enjoy, courtesy of the GDC Vault. It's a rare chance to learn more about the origins of some of the most popular and effective tropes of the survival horror genre.

"I had a lot of ideas about how to scare the player," Raynal says, and he believes that one of his best was to keep players on their toes no matter what they're trying to do.

"When you're making an adventure game, you walk 80 percent of the time, and if you want to put big pressure on the player, you should just scare him based on what he does all the time," Raynal says. "That's why in the first corridor the floorboards crack under your feet and you die. Usually in a game you'd never do an unavoidable trap like this, but we did it to put on the pressure, and it worked so well."

Raynal has plenty more to share about the creation of Alone in the Dark , and to learn more simply click the Play button on the video above.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to all of this free content, the GDC Vault also offers more than 300 additional lecture videos and hundreds of slide collectionsfrom GDC 2012 for GDC Vault subscribers. GDC 2012 All Access pass holders already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more free content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC and the GDC Vault are owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM Technology.

Carribbean is a pirate RPG from the makers of Mount & Blade's expansion

Snowbird Games, creators of Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword, have announced their upcoming project, Caribbean , that brings many of the mechanics of M&B to a 16th-century swashbuckling setting.

, that brings many of the mechanics of M&B to a 16th-century swashbuckling setting. The Mount and Bladeseries is definitely in that "high investment, high reward" category that only really works on the PC (with the likes of EVE, Dwarf Fortress, and Day Z). It's also about as close as you can get to a full-blown Game of Thrones RTS.

If commanding hundreds of scallywags in real-time boarding missions interests you, read on.

Snowbird's announcement cites a trove of ambitious features, including:

Sea battles with intuitive and easy control system; The real-time boarding fights that throw player in the centre of the action; Detailed management and customization of both the fleet and the crew; Complex siege system allowing the players to storm forts, harbors or entire cities; Different kinds of artillery: shipboard cannons, mortars and howitzers; Random events system that keeps players question their decisions during their voyage; True 'Carribean' atmosphere of the vast and dangerous world; Unique NPCs whose design based on the real historical figures; Various multiplayer modes featuring the sea and land battles, boarding and sieges.

The devs say you should be able to get your hands on the buccaneering goodness this September.

Report: Nintendo to begin releasing paid DLC starting with 3DS Fire Emblem

Apparently, said 3DS iteration will be launching in March in Japan, and Nintendo is planning on micro-transaction-ing the crap out of it. It's said that Nintendo has already updated the 3DS's firmware to allow this to work, letting gamers use pre-paid cards or credit cards to make in-game transactions. While this will only be available to Nintendo at first, a third-party roll-out is expected soon after

A week later, Final Fantasy MMO is still having problems

PC Gamer US Podcast #258: 100 Proof

Evan, Josh, Dan, intern Lucas, and special guest Mikail Yazbeck get comfortable with the microphones in the never before used podcast room and chat PC Gaming.

Evan, Josh, Dan, intern Lucas, and special guest Mikail Yazbeck get comfortable with the microphones in the never before used podcast room and chat PC Gaming. Topics include: Are free to play RTS games too imba to be worthwhile? Company of Heroes Online's shutdown might provide some insight. What are some of your favorite in game enemies? And much more.

Have a question, comment or amusing PC game related anecdote? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724.

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Wonderful visual style Watching Sims go about their lives is great Social and online functionality is innovative Cons Glitches sometimes destroy cities Server issues compound design flaws Small city size might be a turn off SimCity, like an actual city, only succeeds when everyone and everything works together. And when that happens--when absolutely every system

Don't just buy a new video game - make one'

'Don't just buy a new video game - make one'
"Don't just buy a new video game - make one." - U.S. President Barack Obama helps kick off Computer Science Education Week 2013.

As part of the Code.orgorganized computer science event, Obama implored kids and young people to learn computer science in school, and get involved with making games and apps.

"Learning these skills isn't just important for your future," he noted. "It's important for our country's future. If we want America to stay on the cutting edge, we need young Americans, like you, to master the tools and technology that will change the way we do just about everything

"Don't just play on your phone - program it," he added. "Don't let anyone tell you you can't."

Download the Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword soundtrack free

Free tunes!

Free tunes! Another game soundtrack has been released for download, this time for the standalone Mount & Blade expansion With Fire and Sword, which features music by Jesse Hopkins and Pyotr Salnikov. (The download also includes Hopkins' Mount & Blade: Warband soundtrack.) You can snag it here. With track names such as "Peaceful Travels" and "Eastern Soul," it's a little more low-key than, say, Bulletstorm's all-action-all-the-time tone, and it might make some decent background music for that MMO whose looping soundtrack you're bored silly of.

Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword comes out May 3.

Guild Wars 2 ramps up with new content every two weeks

By now, it's common practice for MMOs to freshen up between expansions. Players have come to expect a reasonable amount of free content: A holiday event here, a new raid boss there, and perhaps a story-centric event every few months. But Guild Wars 2 is upping the update ante, with huge batches of content set to go live every two weeks, seemingly from now till eternity. Such a staggering influx of

Capcom, Namco Confirm Street Fighter X Tekken Crossover

UK Christmas bonanza - Day 3: Win the Paradox bundle from GamersGate

The holidays are almost here, which means even more time to get stuck into some new games.

The holidays are almost here, which means even more time to get stuck into some new games. Win today's prize of of a pile of Paradox games from GamersGate and you certainly won't be short of things to play. Whether you'd rather carve out your own kingdom using brute force in Mount and Blade, or plot your way to victory against the mean Faeries of ye olde Brittania in King Arthur, there's something for you in the Paradox pack. Read on for details of how to win.

If you decide to enter you stand to win the following Paradox games, courtesy of GamersGate.

King Arthur The Role-Playing Wargame

As the ruler of the noble men of Britannia, it's up to you to unite knights of the round table against the evil creatures of the old forests. King Arthuris like Total War, but with all the enemy nations replaced by the darkest creatures from British folk legends. Your overall strategy can be controlled from the tactical map, but when forces clash you can order your knights and peasants about on the battlefield. Blasting ranks of enemies with Merlin's fireballs never gets old. If you win you'll also receive The Saxons expansion when it's released.

Europa Universalis III Complete

Europa Universalis IIIis super detailed nation builder that lets you take control of a country of your choice for 300 years. During that time you dictate everything from exploration to trade, to warfare and diplomacy with an aim to expand and maintain your empire, all the while taking advice from the game's esteemed roster of advisors. When it all goes wrong, you can just blame Mozart. The complete edition comes with the Heir to the Throne expansion.

Lionheart: Kings' Crusade

Lionheart: Kings' Crusadelets you play through the Crusades from both sides. The first campaign casts you as Richard the Lionheart as he tries to take Jerusalem and Damascus. The second campaign ramps up the difficulty and asks you to take charge of Saladin's Saracens and lead a counterattack against Richard's forces. It's a highly tactical Total War-esque strategy in a rarely explored setting.

Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

Majesty 2is a real time kingdom building sim that has you throwing up buildings and recruiting adventurers to strike down the dark forces plaguing the picturesque hills of Ardania. The catch is that you can't directly control any of your minions. Instead of just giving orders, you have to give your underlings financial incentives to do your bidding, assigning bounty flags to take down enemies. They may be mercenary, selfish so-and-sos, but it's hard to not feel proud when you see your army of soon-to-be extortionately rich Dwarves bashing up the enemy base. If you win you'll also get Majesty 2's Kingmaker and Battles of Ardania expansions, which add many more missions and units to the game.

Sword of The Stars: Complete Collection

Sword of the Starsis a turn based 4X strategy game set in space. The aim is to colonize more star systems, seizing control of interstellar resources so that you can design and build more ships in order to conquer even more star systems and assume complete control of the galaxy. Of course, things become a lot harder when you take into account the other alien races fighting for the same thing.

Mount & Blade Warband

In Mount and Blade: WarbandYou start out as one lowly warrior kicking his heels in the backwater towns of the medieval fantasy land of Calradia. From there you can recruit troops to your cause, travelling from town to town, forming relationships with the different factions that rule the land. Once you've gathered enough forces you can take to your trusty steed and start raiding your way to riches with the game's superb battle engine.

Only one lucky winner can take away all these games. All you have to do is invent a knight worthy of taking his place at the round table with King Arthur himself. Give your knight a name and one virtue. Post in the comments below with your answer, and remember that you have to live in the UK to win. The entry that makes us guffaw the loudest will take the prize.

Be sure to come back tomorrow, when we give away a clutch of free Minecraft codes. We'll be running one every day until Christmas, when we'll be giving away a 240GB Corsair solid state driveworth £375.

WINNER: Peace_Monkey's pun-tastic. Sir Rhosis of the Liver. Partial to the occasional drink. Huzzah!

Guild Wars 2 plans weekend festivities for The Lost Shores

Killer crabs? In your Lion's Arch? It's more likely than you think in The Lost Shores Guild Wars 2 , which will bring one-time events, new maps, a new dungeon, and a refer-a-friend trial program to the MMORPG this weekend. Players will be able to invite up to three pals to join them in the world from November 15 to 18, marking the first (and very doubtfully last) free weekend for the game. You'll have

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Mount and Blade expansion has MUSKETS and STORYLINE

In possibly the most exciting news of the conference so far, Paradox Interactive have announced that their new expansion for Mount and Blade - 'With Fire and Sword' - will be set in 1653 and feature muskets, plus an actual storyline to follow in singleplayer.

Click more for extra info and a new trailer.

As a mercenary leader, you'll either be able to make alliances or go lone-wolf. Enhanced siege mechanics bring a new level of gameplay, with the ability to bribe a guard to open the door, use gunpowder, or even poison the food supply during sieges.

You can get all the latest updates from the Paradox Interactive press conference at our live coverage blog.

Guild Wars 2 gets Halloweeny update today

Guild Wars 2's first major content boost goes live today with the Halloween-themed Shadow of the Mad King update. ArenaNet let our friends at PC Gamer take a look at the ongoing campaign of costumes, events, and new extra-seasonal content in a new preview video posted today. The Holiday event will play out over four stages from October 22 to Halloween, October 31. Other than new group events, jumping

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GOG adds Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines and kicks off a new sale

A couple of interesting bits of news have emerged from GOG today, the first being the kickoff of the Bundleopolis sale , which for the next week will offer a variety of game bundles at up to 80 percent off.

, which for the next week will offer a variety of game bundles at up to 80 percent off. The first three bundles on the block are Bit.Trip.Street, the Academy of LucasArts, and Nightmare Avenue, and new deals will be rolled out every six hours.

Games in the bundles can also be picked up individually, although at a lesser discount: The titles in the Nightmare Avenue bundle, for instance, are 60 percent off when purchased separately, but going the bundle route, either by taking them all or putting five or more together in a “build-your-own” package, will increase the discount to 80 percent. GOG also teased a “dark secret, which will be revealed just before the city lights go out.” My guess? All the past bundles in the sale will be brought back for one big “everything's on sale” blowout over the final 24 hours. We'll see.

Sales are great, but even more exciting is the GOG debut of Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines, one of the deepest and most unforgettable RPGs ever made. It's been available on Steamfor awhile now, but the GOG release includes third-party fixes created by Werner “Wesp5” Spahl, the man behind the Unofficial Patchesthat have dramatically improved the game over the past decade-plus. GOG also includes a link to the latest full Unofficial Patch release, which on top of fixing bugs restores quite a bit of cut content to the game, at Patches Scrolls.

The only downside to the GOG release is that the only thing in the “included goodies” is the manual; the brilliant, period-perfect soundtrack is nowhere to be seen (or heard, I guess). Licensing issues likely account for some of that (Ministry built the theme song, for instance) but the original musicis really good in its own right and it's a shame those tracks aren't included with the package.

Even so, it's great to see Bloodlines available from another site—the more, the merrier, after all. Alas, it's not currently part of the Bundleopolis sale, so you'll have to pony up $20 for it, although I'll go out on a limb here and say that you're not likely to find too many better ways to drop twenty bucks. As for the sale itself, the action is live now and will run until May 1.

Guild Wars 2 getting paid tournaments, private arenas

Paid tournaments and custom arenas will put more "Wars" in Guild Wars 2 soon, according to ArenaNet's Jonathan Sharp. The developer compiled a on future plans for the MMORPG's structured player versus player modes, laying out immediate goals as well as hinting at longer-term priorities. ArenaNet's first addition to sPvP will be paid automated tournaments. Players can either purchase tickets in the

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Antitribu mod adds seven new clans to Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

It's a sign of just how good the 2004 RPG Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines is that unofficial fan patches were still being made a decade after it came out.

a decade after it came out. But earlier this month, something even bigger came along: Bloodlines Antitribu, an expansion and modification that adds seven new vampire clans and ten new disciplines, plus new quests, maps, and over 100 new characters.

To call Antitribu "big" would be to call the ocean "wet": accurate, but far from sufficient. A detailed list of what the mod brings to the party can be had here, but the big points, alongside those already mentioned, include a completely new combat system with kicking and blocking, new models, textures, and sounds, a new item system, improved AI, new particles and blood stains, and even some adult-only content.

The mod was originally released on February 6, and a 1.1 patch that will make numerous fixes and dialog updates is expected to be ready for February 21. "For now we will try to include the full dialogs for every clan and fix all these random bugs and then when the mod is stable enough we [will] start re-adding the quests one by one—particularly the sabbat one which I really want you to experience but I am afraid if you see it with the current bugs it will kill the experience for you," the developers wrote. "Also you can enjoy everything the mod has to offer in the meanwhile so when the new quest comes you won't get distracted by everything added to the mod."

As we noted in our list of the best RPGs of all time, Bloodlines was kind of a buggy mess when it was originally released, but it nailed the neo-gothic atmosphere like nobody's business and introduced some really fantastic supporting characters along the way. It's come a long way since—speaking of which, it's worth noting that Antitribu includes the Companion Mod in its entirety, but is not compatible with wesp's unofficial patches—those being the ones mentioned above, that have done so much good over the years. Find out more at BloodlinesAntitribu.com.

Guild Wars 2 Mac client coming, beta released

Guild Wars 2 is no longer just for PC players, as ArenaNet today released a beta client for the game which runs on Mac OS X. The company said the MMORPG client connects to the same servers as its Windows counterpart, and it plans to offer all future updates simultaneously for both platforms. ArenaNet stipulated that the game requires OS X 10.7.X or later to run, and that it performs best on MacBook

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The week's highs and lows in PC gaming

THE HIGHS
Tyler Wilde: Justice!

Justice! After a monument to the players of Eve Online was vandalized at Fanfest, damaging public property and targeting another player whose name was scratched out, the culprits have been identifiedand “permanently removed” from the game. Legal action may be on the table, too, judging from CCP's initial statements.

Fanfest is a celebration. I went last year and loved it, and loved all the Eve players I met, and it's a shame such a friendly community is being cast in such a poor light. They take the game very seriously, but they also know it's a game, and that all the piracy and betrayal is just part of the fun—until a few take it too far. Scratching an art installation might seem like a minor crime, but CCP's firm response sends an important message: taking in-game rivalries into the real world is never OK. I'm glad the vandals aren't getting away with it.

Evan Lahti: We fundamentally have no idea what it'll be like, because zero lines of code have been laid for it yet, but jumpin' giblets — Unreal Tournament is finally awaking from its seven-year slumber. Epic's plan to couldn't be more promising; I'm outlining the genius of its collaborative roadmap later today on the site. It'll be a return to our favorite gunin PC gaming and one of our favorite modes (Instagib), but might also bring another viable competitive shooter to the PC alongside CS:GO, which essentially stands alone in that category at the moment.

Wes Fenlon: It's been a great week. Unreal Tournament is coming back as an honest-to-god free, not free-to-play, game, as Evan has already said right there above me. But the highlight of my week has definitely been our exclusive first look at Killing Floor 2.I spent about 12 hours at Tripwire's offices talking to them about the game and seeing it in action, and it was a blast to write about.

I love that they're focused on a fairly underrepresented genre, the co-op wave-based shooter. And they're doing it the old-fashioned way—Killing Floor 2 is a simple game that harks back to the shoot first, ask questions never style of '90s FPS. Of course, the technology they've worked into the game for procedural gore and permablood is all new. We talked about so much stuff, I ended up writing a separate short feature on Tripwire's approach to weapon design and breaking out a separate interview with John Gibson. I just wish they'd told me when the damn game was coming out. I want to play it.

Phil Savage: I've been without internet this week and, besides suffering the occasional itch of phantom websites, it's been a good excuse to dip into my Steam backlog. The biggest surprise has been DmC. I'm not going to say it's the best third-person brawler—I've played Bayonetta—but whenever I felt like I was done with its frantic hacking and/or slashing, a clever concept level kept me moving forward. The best of these is called The Plan, and involves Dante breaking in to the big-bad's evil lair. As he infiltrates the tower, chalk drawings are overlaid throughout the level as a stylistic flashback to the heroes' plan. It's inventive and interesting, and a great example of how to use aesthetic flourishes to keep the player guessing.

Tim Clark: My debilitating, I'm-almost-certainly-going-to-end-up-living-under-a-bridge addiction to another game (see this week's Lows on the following page) has meant my Don't Starve save sits, frozen and no longer loved, around the 270 day mark. I haven't even managed to tear myself away long enough to try the excellent looking Reign Of GiantsDLC beta. However, the announcement that the game will—contrary to all Klei's previous protestations—be getting a multiplayer component this summer, is both a surprise, and enough to tempt me back. I'm curious to discover how having friends on hand to help will alter the game's famously harsh vibe.

Will there be new ways of resurrecting your chums when they die? Could there be new threats that have to be tackled together by players? Might there even—*shiver*—be a PvP component? The studio is still being shy on details, but the prospect of foraging for Beefalo dung with three fellow survivors is enough to pull me back in. Much like Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III. “Just when I was out!”

Tom Senior: I like to ride the cutting edge of videogame technology, so this week I installed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines released in, er, 2004. It's really good. It's as though all of the people on the internet who've dubbed it a smart RPG with a satisfying branching narrative and neat social mechanics were right after all. I'm still busy navigating the many entwined subquests hidden around the detailed starting hub.

I've broken the Masquerade (the vampire code of conduct) only once and retained most of my humanity, in spite of the bit where I drank the blood of a vagrant and then vomited it all back up on the floor and ran away. If, like me, you've wanted to try Vampire Colon The Masquerade Dash Bloodlines for ages, I'd recommend it, as long as you don't mind bursts of weak combat between the interesting vampire society stuff. Be sure to check out Wes' guide to getting it running smoothlywith the essential unofficial patch.

Watch the races of Guild Wars 2 dance in their underwear

When The Old Republic came out, we stripped off our characters' clothes and had them all join together for a big, fun, underwear dance party. We figured that with the launch of Guild Wars 2 , we'd engage in the debauchery yet again. And so we did. Every Sylvari, Charr, and Asura got in their skivvies and got a-dancin'. Without further ado, here is every race and sex of Guild Wars 2 dancing like they

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How to run Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines on Windows 7/8

Twice a month Wes guides you through the hacks, tricks, and mods you'll need to run a classic PC game on Windows 7/8.

Twice a month Wes guides you through the hacks, tricks, and mods you'll need to run a classic PC game on Windows 7/8. Each Pixel Boostguide comes with a free side of 4K screenshots from the LPCcelebrating the graphics of PC gaming's past. This week: the enduring Legacy of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

It's incredible that Vampire the Masquerade is 10 years old, and the fan community is still patching it to make it a better game. That's dedication. And Bloodlines is a game worth being dedicated to—the writing is up there with other RPG masterpieces like Planescape Torment. And there's vampire politics! Insane Malkavians! Unfortunately, Bloodlines was a buggy mess 10 years ago, and even after a decade of fan patches and fixes, it can be a challenging, intimidating game to run on modern Windows. But it can be done, and I've compiled the most helpful instructions and mods to make Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines run, even in 4K.

Install it

First, grab Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines from Steamor Amazon. It's $20 on both, though you'll occasionally see it drop down to $5 for a sale. While you're downloading and installing the game, also download the latest version of the unofficial patch from Patches-Scrolls.de here. As of April 2014, the unofficial patch is at version 9.0. This patch is essential to playing Vampire without a mess of bugs, and it also includes some useful utilities, including a resolution tool for running the game high-res.

While installing the patch, make sure to point it at the correct installation directory and include all the extras it wants to install.

Run it in high resolution

Once Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is installed, things can get tricky. Maybe the game will run fine for you. Maybe it won't. Before we deal with the variety of issues that can pop up, let's get the resolution fixed, first.

Run the game once to make sure it has all the proper files and fills out any config files as necessary. If it gives you an error, don't worry about it for now. If you're running Vampire through Steam, disable auto-updates for the game and close Steam while doing any tweaking. Navigate to Vampire's install directory and open the Extras folder, then Shaders and Mods. Inside this folder there's a utility called ResPatch.exe. Run this utility as administrator. It will ask you to locate the install directory of the game. Do that. Click either Set 16:9 Resolutions or Set 16:10 resolutions, depending on your monitor. Now replace one of the resolutions with the resolution of your display, if it isn't already listed. For a 1440p monitor, insert 2560 and 1440 as X and Y values on one line. For downsampling from 4K, list 3840 and 2160. If you're happy with 1080p, don't change anything. Now click Patch It. Close the ResPatch utility. Run the game and select your new resolution from the resolution list under video settings. Make sure the widescreen and bump mapping boxes are both checked. You'll have to restart the game to have the new resolution applied.

Maybe that all worked for you. If so, great! But there's a good chance the game simply won't boot for you. Now it's time to deal with errors. This Steam forums threadcovers some of the most common issues people have with the game. Another threadcollects even more issues and solutions. Here are some useful tips:

Right click vampire.exe in the install directory. On the compatibiilty tab, run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3). Also make sure Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition, and Run this program as an administrator are all checked. If you get a "can't find Steam" error, make sure both the game AND Steam are set to run as administrator. Restart Steam. When I started the game, I got a less common "unable to set mode" error. Restarting my PC fixed it. If you're having crashing issues, copy all of the files from Vampire's "bin" directory to the main install directory.

If you're still having issues, check out this detailed Steam guide. It may be your best hope, especially for fixing the "Failed to find Steam" error.

Got the game running? Whew. Let's talk a little bit about mods.

Mod it

Bloodlines is an ugly game at high resolutions. Great art direction can't overcome some of the game's blurry low-res textures, but fans have put in some work to correct those. Even if you're a purist and prefer the original graphics, there are a couple of great modifications you can make.

Enabling the in-game console will allow you to disable the game's HUD, change the FOV from its very narrow default setting, and perform other tweaks. To enable the console, right click the game's shortcut (on Steam, go to Properties, Set Launch Options) and add "-console" without the quotes. To run the game fullscreen by default, add "-full" to the shortcut as well. Install a SweetFX profile. There's actually one included in the unofficial patch, which is pre-configured to tweak the contrast in Bloodlines. Navigate through Extras > Shaders and Mods > SweetFX 1.5. Now copy everything in the SweetFX 1.5 folder (including the SweetFX subfolder) into the main Vampire install directory. Voila, SweetFX ready to go.

Check out this thread on NeoGAF, which is an excellent reference to the graphical mods available for Bloodlines. You can also browse them on the ModDB website. Most of these mods overwrite files in the Vampire > materials folder. Before installing any graphics mods, back up the materials folder to keep the original textures, just in case something goes wrong.

The NeoGAF thread also links to an ENB mod for the game to give it even more dramatic lighting. Just remember to do your backup. The screenshots taken below are mostly using the game's original textures, because when I installed some graphical mods, they didn't all display properly. I didn't backup the originals. Learn from my mistakes as you enjoy a few screens from Vampire's first hour below.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines at 3840x2160 on the LPC

These screenshots were captured by downsamplingon the Large Pixel Collider. For more guides to running classic games on modern Windows and more classic game screenshots, check out Pixel Boost every other week. Make sure to click for the full-size image.