The Witcher 2 Gameplay Video - Combat Goodness

A new video has surfaced on youtube which shows off a good 10 minute chunk of gameplay from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The video, discovered by Ripten, shows Garrelt playing some dice games and beating up some bad guys. The finishing moves actually remind me a lot of how Assassin’s Creed handled combat. Disclaimer: this is obviously a pre release version of the game. The Witcher 2 is scheduled for a May 17th release. Check out the gameplay video below…

Longbow Games Interview Over At Show Me The Games! - The Team That Did Hegemony

Cliff Harris of Positech Games(Gratuitous Space Battles) and of Show Me The Games! indie game site fame has done a short interview with Longbow Games regarding the new release of Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece which is an updated version of Hegemony: Philip of Macedon. It’s what I call a real time strategy grand strategy game(it’s truly grand strategy now that they have added diplomacy).

Elemental Fallen Enchantress Developer Diary Video - New Units

The first video developer diary we have on Elemental Fallen Enchantress, the standalone expansion to Stardock’s less than stellar turn based fantasy strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic(it’s certainly getting better with patches). With Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer and modding extraordinaire Derek Paxton on board, hopefully they’ll get this one right. The developer diary takes a look at the tactical battles in Fallen Enchantress and gives us a glimpse at the new units in the expansion. Fallen Enchantress should be out later this year(Summer 2011). Developer diary video below…

Heroes of Might & Magic VI Combat Demo Video - Griffins And Lichs

Want to know what Ubisoft are doing for the combat for the sixth iteration of the Heroes of Might & Magic series? Check this video out. Combat is nearly identical with the previous game except for some small details. The video doesn’t show obstacles in the combat map and since it’s an alpha version, it’s not done yet so those could still be in. Heroes of Might & Magic VI is slated for release this year. Combat demo video below…

Crysis 2 Be Invisible Trailer - Be A Ghost

New trailer for Crysis 2. This time showcasing the cloak feature in your nanosuit. It looks like this time, you won’t run out of energy when you fire your gun while cloaked. At least not as fast from what I see in the trailer. EA and Crytek are ramping up promotion for the release on March 25th. Expect a lot more trailer. Don’t forget the multiplayer PC demo will be out soon on March 1st. I’m still hoping for a single player demo. Trailer below…

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II Retribution Launch Trailer - Developer Live Stream Planned

Relic has released the launch trailer for the standalone expansion, Retribution. It technically hasn’t been launched yet. Retribution will be out on March 1st. Relic will also be having a live stream of them playing the final game on 27th February 2pm PST. That’s Monday 28th 6am for us Malaysians. They’ll start off by showing the single player campaign and will move on the the last stand mode. You can watch the live stream here. You can read Leo’s impression of the Retribution beta here. Launch trailer(cinematic) below…

Total War: Shogun 2 Demo Impressions - Is This The Best Total War?

With Total War returning to its roots, will it be a glorious return to form? Or a clear indication of problems with the series? Is Creative Assembly in danger of following EA’s constant retreads of the FIFA franchise, or Activision’s ‘exploitation’ of the Guitar Hero franchise(basically killing it)? They’ve released a demo which for once, has a slice of the campaign(tutorial bits). I tried it and here’s what I thought about it.

Magicka Free ‘Mea Culpa’ DLC Released

Those funny lads at Arrow Head Studios have released a free DLC(together with a patch) called ‘Mea Culpa’.  The DLC adds 3 new items and 1 new magick. The items are a bugged staff, a staff that summons bugs; a broken word; and a patched robe. The new magick is called…get this…crash to desktop. Thankfully it doesn’t cause a crash to desktop. You just zap foes or enemies. Very funny guys! They’ve also release the soundtrack to the game that you can get from over here. There’s still that Magicka surprise they would be announcing at GDC(Feb28). I’m guessing it’s going to be another DLC. You can read my review of Magicka here.

Source: Email

Pocket Change - Good Stuff From Atari

This week GamersGate's sales on Atari product is enticing. Lots of good stuff there. And bad stuff too...Alone in The Dark...really? But anyway check out these weeks discounts...

Fable III for The PC Release Date Confirmed

Rock Paper Shotgun posted that all things XBOXlive guy, Major Nelson, tweeted that you will be able to play Fable III for the PC on May 17th. If you’ve been itching to play the third iteration of the Fable series, you’d be glad to know that the PC version will have 3D support and features a new ‘Hardcore’ difficulty mode. Because you know…nothing is more hardcore than playing games on a PC.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

UPDATE EA Working On New Command & Conquer Game

UPDATE: The Command & Conquer site is now back up. Mostly with the same info we already know about the new C&C title. New tech behind it etc. Hopefully they'll announce something about this game at GDC.

Rock Paper Shotgun discovered that EA had for a minute announced the existence of a new Command & Conquer project in this website called CnCStage. The site is now down. It may not have been ready for an official announcement but RPS managed to find out(from the lost website) that EA is opening a new bunch of studios called Victory Games that will be based in Los Angeles, Texas and Shanghai. The site also had quotes from studio head Jon Van Canegham who said the studio will be producing “AAA Command & Conquer Game for the PC”. He also said that the studio is overhauling the core technology behind the franchise(my guess is a new engine).

Gas Powered Games Developing Age of Empires Online Now

In what must come as shock, there was an announcement made on the Age of Empires Online page that Gas Powered Games, developers of Supreme Commander, will now be developing Age of Empires Online, Microsoft’s free to play RTS. Robot Entertainment, the previous developers(now developing Orcs Must Die!) worked on the game till now, developing the core engine and the base of the game. Apparently GPG will be working on polishing the main game, booster packs and new civilisations. This must be an indication that the game(currently in closed beta) is essentially done. Age of Empires is planned to go live later this year.

Source: Age of Empires Blog

Orcs Must Die! Announced! - Taking Out The Tower In Tower Defense

Orcs Must Die! is an action strategy game from former Ensemble guys, Robot Entertainment. It’s being called an action strategy game and will require players to defend against hordes of, you gussed it…orcs. You’ll have access to traps which is where the strategy bit comes in I guess. It sounds like a tower defense game where you take control of a character in third person, making it a bit more actioney. Announcement trailer below…

Darkspore Beta Preview - It’s Not Quite Diablo

In what was a surprise announcement, Darkspore was unveiled by EA middle of last year to much befuddlement. What was Darkspore? Was it a sequel to Spore? or an off shoot of some kind? Well it turns out that Darkspore is an action RPG in the veins of a Diablo. What’s weird with it is that it doesn’t have any association either in terms of storyline or gameplay with Spore. The only thing it carries with it are the space theme and a form of the creature creator.

Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game Dated, Trailer Released

If you’re a fan of hardcore wargames, then the Hearts of Iron name will be familiar to you. It’s a world war 2 grand strategy game by Paradox. Darkest Hour is a project by a team of modders that will basically take the Hearts of Iron II game and put it on steroids. The project started out as a continuation of a patch project for Hearts of Iron II Armageddon and has since evolved into a full blown game on its own right. It’s releasing on March 29th on major digital distribution platforms. Trailer below…

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Gameplay Trailer - It Looks Glorious!

The timer on the Skyrim site ends and behold a debut gameplay trailer for Betthesda’s The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. Oh wait, the sites crawling at the moment. But not to worry. Youtube to the rescue. Behold the Dragonborn!…

Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Dev Diary Video - Takes Realism Up A Notch

Slightly Mad Studios talks realism in a newly released Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed developer diary video. The video is interspersed with real footage and in game footage to demonstrate to you the degree of realism they went for. They’ve also enlisted real race drivers to help them out in shaping a realistic racing experience in Shift 2. You’ll get an all new helmet cam where you experience what race car drivers experience(lets face it, in real life, the camera/your viewpoint doesn’t stay steady at all times). The telemetry stuff looks mighty impressive. Shift 2 will be in stores on March 31st. Video below…

Magicka To Get PvP In The Near Future

Johan Pilestedt, CEO for Arrow Head Games in an interview with Joystiq revealed that they will be adding official support for PvP in Magicka in the near future. According to him, the community has found a way to play the game in PvP for some time now(the game as it is, only has coop for now). ”The community is already arranging PvP tournaments and we are learning a lot about balance by watching you play,” he said. Arrow Head Games are closely watching those community organised events and looking out for balance. Expect to see PvP patched in(no ETA). In the interview, Johan also stated that he was disappointed he couldn’t add in support for integrated graphics chips. Adding that their choice early on development was to go with Shader Model 3.0 and they do not have enough bandwidth to make major changes to the engine. You can read the full write up on the interview on Joystiq.

Din’s Curse Demon War Out Now

The hellishly addictive Diablo’esque’ dynamic action RPG, Din’s Curse got an expansion released just yesterday. Demon War adds a new Demon Hunter class, new Demonic enemies and makes NPCs more human like as they interact more with the world and each other. Oh and there are Demon Wars! Enemies fight with each other. I tried the Din’s Curse demo and found it to be really good. You can read my impressions of the demo here. Try out the demo for yourself here. You can buy Din’s Curse for USD$19.99 and the expansion Demon War(needs the base game) for USD$9.99 with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Crysis 2 Prophet Returns Trailer - Things Get F’ed Up

You might remember your old squad leader, Prophet from Crysis. Well, he’s back in Crysis 2. A bit of the plot gets detailed in this trailer. Prophet felt betrayed by General Hargreaves who was just using all the nanosuit soldiers as test experiments in the first game(Ling Shan island). And Prophet wants your help to end this. This explains all the human soldiers you were killing in some of the previous trailers. Hargreaves men. Trailer below…

Battlefield 3 First Gameplay Trailer - More Like A Teaser

Still, gameplay nevertheless. DICE’s Battlefield 3 has got some buzz over the internets from what we’ve heard. A brand spanking new engine with some impressive sounding(from previews) destruction engine. Now we finally get a peak at how it looks. Apparently you can get the Back to Karkand expansion if you pre order the limited edition. Back to Karkand is a map pack with 4 Battlefield 2 maps brought over to Battlefield 3. Behold! Battlefield 3 gameplay trailer after the jump…

Bulletstorm Launch Trailer - Space Drama

People Can Fly’s wise cracking, dumb shooter action, sexual innuendo joke spouting, satirical, Fox news worthy, first person shooter Bulletstorm, is now out! To celebrate the release, they’ve released a new trailer. Epic has confirmed that they will be working on a PC demo for the game(no ETA on it yet). The game uses GFWlive(why Epic? why?). Trailer below…

Sins Of A Solar Empire Sequel Hinted?

Bigdownload speculated that Stardock are gearing up for a Sins of A Solar Empire sequel announcement this year. Stardock revealed that “We will also be making some important announcements regarding Sins of a Solar Empire in 2011.” in Stardock’s customer reports document for 2011. Stardock also claimed that they will be making 3 major announcements “concerning its future plans for the PC”. Ironclad Games have been extremely quiet lately and had recently released a beta patch for Sins of A Solar Empire. This could be true and Ironclad could have been working on a new engine for a few years now. I hope this is true! If this is a sequel, I’m pretty sure they make a proper single player campaign this time(since this was the number one requests people had).

Rise of Immortals Announced! - First Look Trailer Available

Petroglyph presents you their new project that is in development, Rise of Immortals. Rise of Immortals will be a multiplayer arena battle game(up to 10 players). And yes it will be free to play. Another DoTA genre game, this time by a major RTS game developer. Petroglyph, the studio that gave you Star Wars Empire at War, the fatally flawed Universe at War and the upcoming MMORTS End of Nations are now jumping in on the free to play DoTA genre. Close beta is about to begin and they are taking in beta applications, so if you’re interested, register for the beta. Anyway first look trailer after the jump…

Minecraft Documentary Makers Need Your Help

PCGamer highlighted that 2 Player Production, have created a 21 minute proof of concept short documentary on Mojang Studios and Markus ‘Notch’ Persson. It featured the Minecraft team in early 2010 as they were moving into new offices. They’ve started a kick starter page for the project and they require $150,000. Go here and help them out. It’s some cool stuff. If you’d like to view the 21 minute proof of concept, click on the read more link to view it below…

Cities in Motion Review - Public Transportation Czar

I love a good tycoon game! When I heard that a new studio called Colossal Order was making a Transport Tycoon style strategy game, I was excited, but cautious. I’ve just been burnt way too many times on extremely bad tycoon games in the 90’s. Fortunately, I can now safely say Cities in Motion isn’t one of them. Cities in Motion does tycoon games justice by doing it right. Its got its core gameplay mechanic right without making it over complicated for those that haven’t played a game like this before.

Risen 2: Dark Waters Announced! - Ahoy There Matey! We’ve Been Made Into Pirates!

Piranha Bytes announced that they are working on the sequel to Risen. An action RPG game that mixed medieval themes with castaway/Lost like setting. You were stranded on an island and had to investigate what was going on on this island. The sequel, title Risen 2: Dark Waters, takes place several years after the end of the first. All is not well, and monsters have begun emerging from the depth of the ocean. Risen 2 will have an all new pirate theme. Well why not? Everybody loves pirates right? It’ll still maintain the good stuff from the first game. Day/night cycles and multiple paths to solve a quest. You can check out the games official teaser page although quite frankly, there isn’t any info there safe for three stunning looking screenshots. No release date mentioned.

TopWare Interactives PR Media Manipulation Allegations

Over the past week, there’s been some controversy going on with Two World II developer TopWare Interactive. The main allegation is that TopWare Interactives PR have been blacklisting sites that gave their product a lower score than 7/10. This of course has been denied by TopWare Interactive. Destructoid has put up a whole new list of other shenanigans and questionable stuff from the PR of this company.

Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Pagani Huayra Trailer

Slightly Mad Studios Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed will be out in stores on March 31st. It’s the sequel to the quasi simulation racing Need For Speed reboot that was released just last year. Too soon? They have a new car to show off. The Pagani Huayra. There’s some glimpse of tracks around the world in this trailer. One looks like the Nurbugring and another looks like a city track in Japan. Trailer below…

Sid Meier’s Civilization V Upcoming February Patch Changes

2K community manager detailed an upcoming patch for Civilization V on the official forums. The upcoming patch will bring ‘significant’ balance changes. A lot of players have been reporting that Civ V has been more skewed towards those that build a ‘wide empire’, a large empire with lots of small cities. Firaxis intends to bring the other strategy of ‘building a few productive cities’ to be just as viable. The patch is planned to be released by this month so keep an eye on your Steam updates. Could be out soon. Patch changes below…

Operation Flashpoint Red River Release Date Set For April 21st - Trailer Released

Codemasters military shooter, Operation Flashpoint Red River will be coming out in Europe on April 21st and North America on April 26th. Red River is a sequel to Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising. The game takes place in Tajikistan with Marines taking on insurgents with AK’s. So what’s new? According to the developers they are listening to player feedback from Dragon Rising and trying to make it right this time by making a good tactical shooter. They’ve released a new trailer which you can view below…

Medal of Honor Sequel In The Works

Greg Goodrich, the Executive Producer for Medal of Honor has confirmed they are indeed working on a sequel in a blog post at the games official site. He also thanked the fans for supporting the game. Medal of Honor has been a success for EA, selling over 5 million copies and the sequel will be developed at EA Danger Close(they did the single player campaign for MoH). It is not known at the moment if they will be taking the responsibility in making the multiplayer this time round or outsourcing it to DICE or some other company. Either way, I hope they make a much better game for the sequel.

Source: Medal of Honor Blog

Telltale’s Jurassic Park The Game Teaser Trailer

How exactly are Telltale Games going to make an adventure game out of Jurassic Park? I have no idea. But they’ve released a short teaser trailer. Certainly a more serious game than what Telltale has been doing. The game is available for pre order now at USD$29.99(a 5 dollar discount) for a set of 5 episodes. The first episode will be out in April. Teaser trailer below…

Pocket Change - Civilization Weekend

Deals of the week is back. This week, major discounts on Civilization IV and Civilization V to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Deals below...

Castle Vox Impressions - Conquer The World

Castle Vox is an indie strategy game from SillySoft. It’s a take on the Axis & Allies/Risk style of gameplay/combat mechanic. You recruit units from your castle and move them into enemy territory. If you have a bigger army than your enemy, then you grab that territory. It’s still very simple at its core but with some added depth that isn’t going to make you blow your brain out.

Zynga Now Valued At Almost $10billion

The New York Times reported that Zynga, the social game developer which brought you Facebook classics such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, FrontierVille and CityVille, is now being valued close to USD$10 billion. To give you some comparison, ActivisionBlizzard is valued at $13.9 billion. Zynga was valued at USD$5.5 billion last October. It is unclear just how people ‘value’ a company or how accurate it is to the ‘actual’ value of a company. Surely some hype must have been accounted for in this ‘valuation’. The last people I would believe are those financial industry guys, banks and wall street hacks.

Source: CVG

Gamespot Crysis 2 20 Minute Walkthrough

Gamespot has posted up a 20 minutes walkthrough of a single player mission with Crysis 2 designer Nathan Camarillo. The missions takes place in the middle of the campaign and you have to infiltrate a section of New York that the Aliens have taken over. Based on what I saw here, Crysis 2 seems to be taking the approach of offering players scripted situations and then opening up to smaller sandbox pockets in a level. Some of the Nanosuit customisation options definitely seem like an improvement. The demonstration is spoiler free. Video demo below…

We’ve A New Writer - Welcome Leo!

If you’ve heard the audio review for Mount & Blade Warband that I posted last month, then you would have heard our newest writer on Malaysian Gamer. Leo, like me, is also Malaysian and likes PC games. He’s into RTS games and a lot of coop/multiplayer action games. So he’s a perfect fit for the blog. He’s also a bit of a video/podcasting editing czar. So you can expect some new stuff from that front. If you haven’t read his debut article yet, you can read his impressions of the Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II Retribution beta. A short note on the Civilization V game diary I was doing, it’s gone. My hard disk got ruined and that save game is not saved on the cloud. I’ll think of some new game diary to do. Oh and welcome aboard Leo.

New Natural Selection 2 Video Shows The Alien Side of Things

Natural Selection 2 by Unknown Worlds is now in closed beta. The beta is available to those that preorder the game now. The developers have released a short video showing how the Alien infestation mode works. It’s a top down RTS mode that allows the Alien side to build their stuff on it(they have to spread slime first, like StarCrafts Zerg creep). Natural Selection 2 is a hybrid first person shooter/RTS game with team death match. The commander will be able to access the RTS portion of the game and give orders to team mates. Really cool stuff. It’s still ‘out when it’s done’ and hasn’t gotten a firm release date. Video below…

Total War: Shogun 2 Gone Gold - Multiplayer Overview Trailer

Creative Assembly announced that their next Total War game, Total War: Shogun 2 has gone gold. Which means it’s finished. They’ve released a new multiplayer overview trailer which features music from the original(ahhh the memories). The clan multiplayer mode looks like a throwback to the old Total War games where you move pieces to regions(instead of your armies walking about). A nice tribute to the old game. I like. Total War: Shogun 2 is slated for a March 15th release. Multiplayer overview trailer after the jump…

Anomaly: Warzone Earth Gameplay Trailer -Reverse Tower Defense/Tower Attack

I have written about the debut trailer and posted some gameplay demo videos for Anomaly: Warzone Earth here. This is the first official gameplay trailer for the upcoming debut title for Polish 11bit Studios(by no means aren’t new to the industry). It’s a reverse tower defense or as they call it ‘a tower attack game’. You set the route your group of dudes will use and then you try to avoid them getting blown up by Alien towers. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this one. Trailer below…

Warhammer40k: Dawn of War II: Retribution Beta Impressions

In the 41st Millennium, there is only war…In the Retribution beta, there is only war and Balancing!For those of you who have yet to experience the multiplayer for the upcoming Retribution game. I suggest you stop reading this and quickly get yourself a beta key before the open beta expires later this month.

Rage Trailer Hits The Internet - Apophis, A Post Apocalyptic Cowboy Planet

UPDATE: The trailer is back up!

A new Rage trailer has hit the interwebs. The trailer shows bits of gameplay with some appropriate music with a cowboy twang on it. Makes sense. Post apocalyptic Apophis(the world the game is set on) is a lawless cowboy town. And the sheriffs got just the right man for the job…you. Trailer below…

Dead Island Back From The Dead - Slated For Release This Year

You might not remember this game, but it was first introduced in 2007 and we’ve been waiting ever since. Much of the trouble seem to have been in Techlands(the games developer) inability to find a publisher for the game. So they went on to work on their other franchise, Call of Juarez. Recently info has surfaced on IGN that they have managed to find a publisher(Deep Silver) for Dead Island and it is slated for a 2011 release for the PC, XBOX360 and PS3. Based on IGNs preview, Dead Island is a coop zombie survival game where you must escape the island using whatever item you find. Weapons and ammo will be rare and you’ll have to use whatever you find as a weapon(much like Dead Rising). What I like from the screens is that Dead Island doesn’t look dreary and gloomy like other zombie apocalypse games. It has a tropical bright graphics style. Oh and the CGI trailer they released is amazing. Check out the trailer after the jump…

Left 4 Dead 2 DLC In The Works - Community Made Campaign & Left 4 Dead 1 Campaigns

In a blog post on the Left 4 Dead 2 official blog, Valve confirmed they will be releasing a big update for Left 4 Dead 2. According to the post, Valve are working together with community modder Matthew Lourdelet who did 2 Evil Eyes on a new custom campaign called Cold Stream. In addition to this community made campaign, Valve will also be looking at porting the remaining Left 4 Dead 1 campaigns into Left 4 Dead 2. These updates have no release date and Valve are saying it will be sometime after the release of Portal 2. Valve will be releasing the Cold Stream campaign as a beta soon and will be taking feedback from the forum here. It’s been too quiet on the Left 4 Dead front recently. Glad to see more work being put into it.

Crysis 2 Multiplayer PC Demo Coming Out March 1st

Bigdownload reported that in a press release, Crytek has confirmed that the multiplayer demo that was earlier released for the XBOX360, will be available for the PC on March 1st. The demo will have 2 maps and 2 multiplayer modes. Team death match and a conquest mode where you'll have to take control of alien pod locations. The multiplayer in the demo supports 6 vs 6 matches(disappointing, smaller multiplayer maps and smaller player counts). I'm definitely giving this a try.

Source: Crytek

Cities in Motion Video Interview - Helicopters for Public Transportation?

Due out on February 22nd, Cities in Motion producer spills the beans on their debut project and their love for classic PC strategy games. A pretty good insight into what Cities in Motion is all about. I’ve been playing around with the game(you can download the open beta from here) and I like what I see so far. It has a very leisurely pace to it, but it is by no means easy. You’ll have to deal with traffic congestion that can slow down your buses and make passengers very angry. Check out the new video interview below…

IGDA Malaysia Game Jam - The Creations of 2 Days of Labour

The IGDA Malaysia chapter indie gamejam was held last month over two days. Teams of Malaysian game developers tried to make a game in 48 hours. We’ve finally been given an update from IGDA on the 4 entries that got finished. All simple games so keep in mind these were done in a relatively short period. I’d say they’ve got to improve quite a bit. While some of the games had some good artwork, concept wise, they still have a bit to go to try more interesting fresh ideas. I hope the IGDA has more of these game jams so these lads could get better at these. Check out these games below…

Total War: Shogun 2 Demo Due Out February 22nd - It’s Coming Soon!

Creative Assembly announced that the demo for the upcoming Total War: Shogun 2 will go live on Steam on February 22nd. The news states that “The demo will allow all armchair samurai to test their skills in epic land battles and on Total War: Shogun 2’s gorgeous new campaign map” which I’m assuming means you will be able to play maybe a campaign tutorial with  a land battle and a naval battle(much like the demo for Empire Total War). Just my assumption. I’ll updated this post if I get confirmation on this.

Crysis 2 Road Rage & Story Trailer - Single Player Mission & Story

UPDATE: Found a new story trailer. It looks amazing. Thanks to Peter Techguy Fukuda on the Facebook fanpage for the heads up.

Crytek has released yet another new trailer for Crysis 2(that’s some heavy marketing). This one seems to be another series of trailers(with this being part 1). Focused on the single player campaign, this is from a mission called road rage. The protagonist seems to be attacking human soldiers. No idea who they are. Crysis 2 will be out on March 25th. Trailer below…