Pirates of The Burning Sea Gone Free To Play

Pirate themed MMORPG Pirates of The Burning Sea has officially gone free to play. You can now register and download the game absolutely free of charge. Flying Lab Software are still offering premium account that offer some privileges to paid players. PoTBS features tactical naval combat, ship customisation and other piratey features. I’ll be trying this out. So put on ye eye patches ye scurvy… no I won’t bother trying. My pirate speak is appalling. Just go try it out(It's about 7.1 GB).  

You can download Pirates of The Burning Sea for free here

Europa Universalis III Divine Wind Trailer - Releasing Soon

Europa Universalis III’s fourth expansion, Divine Wind has a release date. It’s coming out December 14th 2010. Divine Wind sees Paradox giving Europa Universalis III a graphical makeover and fine tuning many mechanics to make it even better. There’s also been a lot of work put into Asian factions specifically China and Japan to make it feel more authentic. You have to own Europa Universalis III Gold with the Heir To The Throne Expansion to play this. Trailer after the jump…

Top 10 Most Anticipated PC Games of 2011

It’s that time of year again when sites start listing the best games of the year and what they look forward to next year. I don’t do the ‘Best of’ yearly lists, but anticipating what the PC platform has to offer is always a good way to remind ourselves that yes, there are good games for the PC on the horizon.

Corporation Inc - Be A Corporate Tycoon

Corporation Inc is a flash game by Armor Games that is a semi strategy game/tycoon game where you build a push button corporation, a place where people push buttons for work. This might be my new time waster game. Just the type of game I like.

DigiTanks Demo Impressions

Do not restart your PC. The DigiTanks have taken control of your PC. Oh noes! DigiTanks is a turn based strategy game where you fight back a dastardly attack on the denizens of digiverse. The inside of your computer. The theme is similar to Darwinia but instead of a virtual world, DigiTanks are supposedly your computers defence force.

Warface - Crytek’s Free To Play Game

Crytek released a press release today officially announcing Warface, a new free to play game that will be using Cry Engine 3. Developed by Crytek Seoul, Warface will be a coop focused player versus environment multiplayer experience(they didn’t announced any pvp feature) that is being developed for launch in Korea(the debut will be in South Korea) and ‘other’ Asian markets. I hope we get to see what’s this about soon.

Official Press Release here

Back To Cubeture - Cuboy is The Best

The name’s Cuboy your local ultimate friend. Back To Cubeture is a flash based adventure game by Edible Castle. It’s a hilarious little flash game with a funny theme and characters. You play the protagonist, Cuboy, the best damn guesser in the whole wide cubeworld. Unfortunately your boss interrupts you in one of your amazing poetry recital. You see, evil Esquire Padrino is up to no good.

Steam Sales! Also Valve Granting 30 People Their Wishes Daily!

Valve are having major sales on Steam from today to the end of this month. On top top of new daily deals, Valve will be giving 30 lucky people chosen daily their top 5 games on their wishlist for free! So if you haven’t loaded up your wish list, do it now! Reminds me that the holidays are fast approaching and the start of impulse purchases. Load up your wishlists! There are some pretty low game bundle deals as well, if you can cooperate with your fellow human beings, you can net some of these games at a way lower price. Go forth fellow PC gamers!

Q.U.B.E - Portalesque

Q.U.B.E is an Unreal 3 indie game by an outfit called Toxic Games. ‘Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion’ is a puzzle platformer that reminds me a lot of Portal in terms of how the levels are laid out and the aesthetics(also from the fact that it is in first person). It’s surprisingly good and polished for an indie title.

LOTRO Game Diary 7- Short Update on Short Hobbits

This will be a short update.The hobbit settlement of Michel Delving ended up being a temporary stop over. There aren’t any important quests here. The hobbits are a happy bunch of people and most of the quests in this area are trivial or relates to some domestic hobbit issue. Not sure why Turbine added this area other than to perhaps change the pace of things a bit. Things are really laid back here.

Assassin's Creed Retrospective - Can a Game Feel Too Gamey?

Assassin's Creed was an odd game to say the least. It was ambitious, promising a compelling stealth focused gameplay but was let down by poor variety of missions and an unbelievably daft menu interface for the PC version. Despite its flaws, it was a  promising game that set the stage for sequels that were major improvements. It took advantage of the whole Dan Brown conspiracy theory craze back story that managed to spread virally across the internet.

Activate The Three Artefacts And Then Leave

ATTAATL(I’m not going to be typing that over an over again) doesn’t really tell you what do in game. You start off staring at a white space with something that looks like a giant mesh ball in front of you. Right… Until of course you realised the title is ‘Activate The Three Artefacts And Then Leave’. Gotcha! But it’s not as simple as that.

UPDATE Bethesda’s Faillout New Vegas For SEA, PC Version Unavailable For Now

UPDATE : It seems retailers are now selling the UK version here now. It seems there isn't going to be a SEA version after all. TSB has started selling UK keys with promise the physical copies will be available later. DEFINITELY DO NOT BUY ANY COPY YOU SEE THAT IS STATED FOR SEA REGION ONLY!

There’s something fishy going on with the retail release of Fallout: New Vegas for the South East Asian region. All stock has been recalled and there are reports of people who purchased their copy not being able to register the serial on Steam due to some screwed up region lock. I would have expected a major publisher like Bethesda to not make major mistakes like this. But nope, the PC version of New Vegas is unavailable right now for Asia. Boooo... So keep that in mind if you see copies of the PC version floating about, don’t buy it right now(at retail). Hope this gets sorted out as soon as possible.

Source : http://tsb.com.my/product.cfm?id=1527&cid=0

Show Me The Games - Indies Unite!

Cliff Harris, the man behind Positech Games is a smart chap. He’s also a man with a way with words. I would vote for him if he ran in the elections. He’s got together with a group of indies and have set up a site titled Show Me The Games. It’s an initiative for indies to come together and advertise their games on this site. Looks real neat and have I said Cliff Harris is a smart man? Go check out Show Me The Games. Better still, bookmark it! Not familiar with Cliffs work? Then check out my review for Gratuitous Space Battles here.

Source : http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/20/cliffski-shows-us-the-games

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Trailer - Elbow Stabbed!

Saying that the upcoming Dues Ex: Human Revolution has quite some big shoes to fill is an understatement. A much beloved PC classic, the new Deus Ex(which was supposed to be called Deus Ex 3), is being developed by Eidos Montreal and being published by Square Enix. If there is one thing Square Enix are excellent at, it’s top notch trailers. Deus Ex: Human Revolution doesn’t fail that. Watch and be amazed! Trailer after the jump…

Portal 2 Delayed - Valve Breaking Space Time Continuum

Sad news, Valve announced Portal 2 is getting delayed. The good news is that it’s getting delayed for just another two months from the original February release date. Portal 2 is set to release in the month of April 2011 now. It is also reported that this delay will cause a convergence in Valve time and real time which will destroy the world as we know. Rumour has it that this is all the work of Glados. Press release after the jump…

Maze of Space - Pixel Man Shoot Pixelly Things

Maze of Space is a maze game developed at the Karlshamn Game Jam by the guy from Kloonigames, Petri Puerho who did Crayon Physics. Petri was interested in the idea of creating pixel art that had a painted look to them, and hence Maze of Space was born. It’s a basic maze game with this really cool pixel art on top of it with some action, leveling and inventory management elements thrown in. 

Magnight Demo Impression

This technically isn’t a demo as we know it. It’s actually a prototype(but the website calls it a demo so I’ll just follow that). Developed for the GameInc event by a group of game dev students in Malaysia, Magnight is a puzzle platformer that took roughly 14 weeks to complete(as part of the GameInc Programme). If the work here is any testament, it shows promise that these young designers could develop great games if given more time, resources and experience.

UPDATE Free Play Weekend For StarCraft II SEA Region & Prepaid Options Soon

UPDATE : You can download the StarCraft II SEA Installer Client here. Once done, install the game and wait for Friday. Make sure you've registered a battle.net account. Instructions on the download page.

As I’ve reported here, IAH Games will be offering a subscription like prepaid pricing option for the South East Asian region. To mark off the new prepaid payment option, Blizzard will be having a free play weekend on the 19th November(12.01 am) ending on the 21st at 12.59 pm. This means you can download and play StarCraft II for free in this short window. This is only for those in the SEA region(includes Australia for the free play weekend, not the prepaid option). Want to try out the multiplayer or rush through the single player campaign over the weekend? This is your chance. Mark your calendars. Yes, I’ll be jumping in StarCraft II multiplayer on that weekend.


Note: Of course, in case you didn’t know playing StarCraft II requires an always on internet connection and a Battle.net account. Go here and register an account.

Corporate Climber - It’s a Dog Eat Dog World!

Corporate Climber is a new flash game made by those talented bunch of people calling themselves Pixel Jam. It’s an ode to old classic games with 8 bit graphics, sound effects, and one button action.

Allods Online Does An Evony Ad Campaign, Sex Sells?

For the uninitiated, there were these slew of suggestive online browser game ads last year for this game called Evony. You can view all the ads here in a brilliant recap of the insanity that was Evony by lazygamer. Of course Evony was a disaster and a disgrace even without the ads with court cases and questionable business practises(as can be seen in this great piece of investigative journalism by Ars Technica). I’ve recently stumbled upon this funny looking add that was on Eurogamers Lord of The Rings Online Review. There’s a new contender in the block people…

Conquest Demo Impressions

Conquest is a turn based strategy game that is about, you guessed it, conquest. Developed by Proxy Studios, Conquest is a simple and fast moving turn based game that is not heavy with rules that bog down the game. It’s relatively light and easy game to get into. No fluffing about with diplomacy, or city management here, just pure mayhem. Impressions after the jump…

Octodad - A Master Chameleon

What’s harder than being a dad? Being a dad as well as secretly an octopus! Octodad is an indie game that is developed by a bunch of DePaul University students for the Indie Game Festival 2011. Loving father, caring husbands, secret octopus. What more can I say?

The Undergarden Demo Impressions

Underwater teletubby creatures and musical monkeys? That’s what you get in Atari’s The Undergarden. The Undergarden tries to recreate a mystical underwater playground(I say recreate because of another much better under water game called Aquaria) where your teletubby creature goes around pollinating the world.

Brain Splode - Bullet in The Brain

 

Brain Splode is an indie title made by Rust Red Games where you explode brains. Alien brains to be exact. The planet has been over run by these brains that seem to be feeding off the world, like parasites. It’s your job to clear the infestation. It’s a puzzle game that works a lot like the combat mechanic of controlling rockets in a Worms game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Reviewers Get Pampered By Activision

Ars Technica wrote a piece on how Activision sponsored journalists that were going to review Black Ops on this resort for three freaking days. And you’d think they would have made it clear in their reviews. It’s a great article that questions this very common press event practise that publishers hold all the time(well mostly it’s the really big publishers, like Actisivion). Props to Gamepro for spilling out the details. But what about the rest? Details below…

Genesis AD - A Tale of Many Fails

So one fine day, I was browsing the web and I saw this on Rock Paper Shotgun. A free game now available for download? Cool! Count me in. Hence began my agonising attempts of trying to get the damn thing to work. Some intro on the game, Genesis AD is a free to play online shooter. It’s futuristic and vaguely looks like Vanquish.

Sp.A.I - T.h.i.s.I.s.N.o.t.T.R.O.N

If Tron made love to a puzzle game like Puzzle Quest, the love child would probably be something like Sp.A.I. Sp.A.I is a puzzle game with some platforming that takes place in a Tron like cyber world theme. It's a another game developed using the Unreal Dev Kit(I wrote about White recently) by a student group calling themselves //No Comment from Queensland University, Australia.

Men of War: Assault Squad Beta Impressions

With Digital Mind Soft making the Men of War: Assault Squad beta open to everyone, I’ve had proper hands on of it(have been playing it co-op the past couple of days). For those that are not familiar with the Men of War games, these are hardcore world war 2 themed RTS games with no base building. It’s a tank nuts dream come true seeing your precious Tiger II take out a puny Sherman kilometres away.

The Ball Demo Impressions

Developed by Swedish developer Teotl Studios and published by Tripwire Interactive, The Ball is one of those indie darling games that won the ‘Make Something Unreal’ competition Epic put out for indie developers. The Ball has been released since the end of last month and the puzzle adventuring first person games got a demo now. I’ve given it a try and below are my impressions…

Escape From The Underworld - Don't Mess With Angels!

Escape From The Underworld is the latest indie game that’s getting a lot of buzz in the indie gaming scene. It’s by Banov, the guy who made Assasin Blue which I covered last time here. It’s one of those indie games with rather simplistic graphics but with a strong theme to it. In Escape From The Underworld, you’re an Angel. Well, at least for while.

AI War: Fleet Command New Expansion Underway & Getting Owned By The AI

Arcen Games are at works at releasing a new expansion for AI War: Fleet Command called The First Light of Spire. Beta is already under way for all pre purchasers. The expansion will introduces a new alien race called the Spire. It will also have a host of new units, structures and even two new campaign types. Arcen games has also recently updated AI War to version 4.0 which is a huge update as I have reported here. Also hilarity ensues when I tried a game of AI War 4.0...

Battlefield Play4Free Announced! Numbers In Game Titles Back In Fashion

EA announced a new Battlefield game called Battlefield Play4Free. Ermm, that's such an uncreative title, seriously EA. I guessed it was going to be an MMOFPS, and it turns out I was wrong. Perhaps that is a bit too ambitious for the EA team in charge of this Battlefield game. The team behind this game are the Battlefield Heroes development team and this looks like them trying to get it right this time. Teaser trailer after the jump...

Test Drive Unlimited 2 Beta Impressions

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is the sequel to, you guessed it, Test Drive Unlimited brought to you by the fine folks at Atari. Developed by Eden Games, Test Drive Unlimited 2 has a similar vibe as Burnout Paradise as you drive around a city which acts as the hub to all your racing activity. Unlike Burnout, this game takes place in Ibiza, Spain and features real cars. Recently, they had a stress test and invited people to try out to game. Here are my early impressions from my brief time with it.

Road of The Dead - It’s Always The Military!

Zombies! More Zombies! If you’re tired of zombies, you might want to put your feelings on hold. Road of The Dead is awesome! It’s the zombie apocalypse and you need to get the hell out of the city. Sure, that’s the plot in almost every zombie flick/game ever but Road of The Dead puts you in the perspective of a driver of a car. It’s an amazing flash game that’s super visceral which I can’t say often for flash games. It’s Speed with zombies!

Men of War: Assault Squad Open Beta Is Go!

I never thought that this would ever happen but the Men of War Assault Squad Steam Group has hit 10,000 people. As promised by Digital Mindsoft, the beta is now open to everyone! Go get it here soldier! The beta uses Steam, so you’ll need to enter the cd key you get from there by activating a product on your Steam Library list. The beta has most of the multiplayer modes from the previous games. And yes there is coop skirmish modes. For the Motherland!

Source RockPaperShotgun

Shameless Facebook Page Promotion Time

I’ve created a new Malaysian Gamer Facebook page and would like your help. Please click on the like button. It’s new hence the lack of likes from others. Of course, I’ve got to like my own blog, or else why the hell am I doing this in the first place? lol. So please check the page out and like it. I’m going to be updating the Facebook page with more gaming news and the sorts than what I post in this blog. This blog will still have the more meaty stuff. The Facebook page is like the dessert. Also, I promise, I’ll do a feature on facebook games…as soon as I’ve started playing Frontierville.

Please check the Malaysian Gamer Facebook page here

Tom Chatfield's 7 Ways Games Reward The Brain

Tom Chatfield, writer of the book Fun Inc, gave a talk on the TED conference on how we can learn from the way video games reward players and use them for real life applications. There’s some really interesting insight into how some of the mechanics in games tap into the built in neurological constructs of the evolutionary human brain. Video after the jump…

DOTA 2 Gets An Official Blog

Well I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the announcement that DOTA 2 is in development by Valve. It’s not that I’m a DotA fan boy or anything, it’s just that it’s not a genre of strategy games that I like. Anyway, Valve has a new DOTA 2 blog. Icefrog has posted a QA from some questions he got from the community. More specifically I found one cool news feature and the burning question most people had…

Shank Demo Impressions

Shank, the EA published 2D brawler that was released for XBOX live arcade and Playstation Network earlier, has been released for the PC on Steam. You can also download a demo that is also available on Steam now. Developed by Klei Entertainment, Shank is at heart, a throwback 2D brawler with amazing visuals.

Call of Duty Black Ops Launch Trailer Kennedy Spotted

Treyarchs Call of Duty Black Ops releases worldwide next week on the 9th and retails locally for RM189. They’ve released a explosive, action packed launch trailer. Also spotted is John F Kennedy. Guns, bullets, explosions, 3D text overlays, glass breaking and former president below:

Get Cheap Valve Games At The Go Ori Carnival

E-club Malaysia, the exclusive distributer for Valve games in this region, in conjunction with the The Ministry of Domestic Trade And Consumer Affairs of Malaysia’s Go Ori Carnival, are going to be offering Valve games at a discounted price from the 12th to 14th November at the Go Ori Carnival that is to be held at Mid Valley Megamall. If you’ve somehow missed all the great sales on Steam, this is your chance. Make sure to follow the instructions below(and list of discounted games below) as stock will probably be limited.

Super Crate Box - Crates, Crates And More Crates

This one’s a baby puncher. In Super Crate Box, you are on a level with constantly respawning enemy, and crates drop down. Developed by an indie group called Vlambeer, that is made up of Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman,  your objective is to collect as many crates as you can while surviving hordes of enemies.