|  |  |  | | | | | PC Gamer» PC Gamer – The global authority on PC games | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | “I've always been horrified by the ‘zombie emergency plans’ that people come up with. Many involve obscure ninja weaponry. Those people will probably be the first casualties of the zombie apocalypse." Brian Mitsoda says gaming just doesn't "get" zombies. His criticism, in plain nerd-English: "Most of the games that use zombies have nothing to do with the zombie genre." I'd agree—the best zed fiction isn't about the bullet-frenzy sprint from saferoom to saferoom, it's about preparation and survival under pressure through cooperation: maintaining barricades, rationing food, managing the morale of teammates and fending off fellow humans that want what you've got.  This isn't Left 4 Dead: The RPG—some members have never fired a weapon before. As project lead at DoubleBear Productions, that's precisely the experience Mitsoda wants you to have in Dead State: a zombie game with isometric, turn-based RPG combat similar to Fallout and Fallout 2 paired with X-COM's base management. You're the leader of a group of survivors that've holed up in Splendid Elementary School in Texas. Upgrading the school is essential to survival—like your base in X-COM, it's the source for facilities and production. "If you want to start building thrown weapons, you're going to need a lab. A garden will increase food supply by a minor amount per week. An infirmary will make wounded allies heal faster," says Mitsoda. To do all that, you'll need to bring back survivors from surrounding towns. You can choose to recruit them, trade with them, exploit them or remove them from your party if they outlive their usefulness. "A lot of allies are not good at combat. But they will all have some value—some having unique perks that give bonuses to things like speed of production of certain kinds of items. The more people in the shelter, the more people you have to work on upgrades and projects. Of course, this means having more food for them, which in turn leads to more exploration for resources."  Chemistry and drama should never share the same classroom. A janitor may only bring a mop to your cause, but he'll boost morale. A science-smart character may be able to create a noise-making device that lures zombies to it. But because Mitsoda is keen on making Dead State as open-ended as possible (your expeditions can travel nearly anywhere on the large map from the game's outset), you're not committed to cultivating any particular characters. "You may determine their skills are no longer worth the effort to keep them around," Mitsoda says. In Mass Effect 2 terms—think about having the freedom to shove Miranda out the airlock on a whim after she spilled your coffee. How you respond to the apocalypse is up to you, Mitsoda emphasizes. "You might find out while playing that you're kind of a ruthless person. When there are problems at the shelter, you simply have to make tough decisions. You may like an ally, but realize that if you had to give out the last of the antibiotics (which keeps infected allies from becoming undead) you might give it to the [expletive] because he's a great shot. This is a life-or-death situation we're portraying. There's definitely room for players to be the biggest threat to the game world. We're OK with that."  Who lives, who dies, who gets the last cheeseburger in Texas is your call. Mitsoda also wants combat to drive players' decision-making. You'll only have direct control of your main character when fighting—if your prized companion (say, a lady commando) is paralyzed with panic during a zombie ambush, she might flee or try to heal herself constantly. Panicking allies won't accept your orders—how (or if) you'll save them is up to you. Noise is also a concern during combat, forcing you to weigh the silent-but-dangerous risks of close-combat with the powerful—but attention-attracting—benefits of a pistol. Even if it didn't have zombies, I've waited at least a decade to play a modern game with X-COM's mechanics commingled with a few of the original Fallout's RPG sensibilities. Bring on Dead State. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | You like good games, right? And free stuff? Well, we’ve merged those two brilliant things into an ultro-list of gaming pleasure that won’t bother your wallet for a penny. Check out our list of 20 free games you simply have to play now. Granted, clicking the above link will mean committing hours of your life to some awesome games, if you don’t have time to do that right now, swing your eyes towards the first PC screenshots for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, amuse yourself with leaked news of the new Assassin’s Creed game, or watch a video of a power armoured mercenary riding a giant chicken. If that’s not enough for you, then point your bum at today’s lengthy water-slide of PC gaming news, featuring Portal 2 trick jumps, a date for the start of the APB: Reloaded open beta and more.
- The APB open beta is set to kick off on May 18.
- Here are some Portal 2 trick jumps for you to try.
- Bulletstorm gets a patch.
- Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale gets some new screenshots.
- Do you love Medal of Honor enough to get the new 8 disc soundtrack pack?
- Here’s an interview with Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s art director on Human Revolution’s aesthetic, and the danger of games using other games as inspiration.
- Red Faction: Origins is a TV miniseries, here’s a trailer.
- Here’s a new Combat Arms trailer.
- In a similar vein, Ubisoft are planning to launch their own studio to convert games into film and TV series.
- CVG chat to Splash Damage about the future of the company and Brink’s early release.
- Back to the Future Episode 4 is out now.
- RPS take a look at a day in the life of an MMO studio.
- Excellent chemistry logic puzzler SpaceChem is getting a free update that will add a level editor, leaderboards and more.
Today in the PC Gamer office I stumbled in from a week spent walking up and down big hills in Scotland. The best thing about walking up hills is the nice view you get of other hills. In the north they’re all craggy, wild and awesome, and a great place to set a game. It got me thinking, though. What are the best landscapes in PC gaming? 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The latest Brink trailer is part four of a series of tutorial videos showing how best to use the game’s UI to keep track of your character’s numerous class abilities. There’s also more footage of the dynamic parkour system in action. The slide maneuver should make you especially hard to hit. The rest of the video series can be found on the official Brink site. Check out our Brink preview for more on the game. Brink is out next week. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bethesda announce that three Fallout: New Vegas expansion packs will be coming out in the next three months. Lonely Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road will send players to Utah, the abandoned pre-war labs of Big Empty and the storm ridden canyons of The Divide in three separate expansions that promise new environments, new monsters, and to tie up some of Fallout: New Vegas’ dangliest loose ends.
 Honest Hearts will be the first to arrive on May 17. It’s set in Utah’s Zion National Park, which has fallen under the control of a number of viciously territorial tribes warring for control of the park. Your task is to make it back to the Mojave after your caravan is ambushed by raiders. A New Canaanite missionary and a figure known only as the Burned Man lurk in the background, and you’ll have to pick your allegiances carefully to decide the fate of the Park. The second DLC pack will be Old World Blues, which will uncover the origin of the Mojave’s fiercest mutants, in an ancient pre-war science lab known as Big Empty. We bet it’s not even slightly empty. Bethesda haven’t given a specific date, but say that Old World Blues will be out in June. Then, in July, we get Lonesome Road, which sends you after Courier Six, the man who initially refused to deliver the Platinum Chip at the start of Fallout: New Vegas. The courier, called Ulysses, is hiding out in the deadly region known as The Divide, apparently “a landscape torn apart by earthquakes and violent storms.” You’ll have to travel there to find out why Ulysses ditched his task. Each expansion will be available through Direct2Drive and Steam for £7.49/ $9.99. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Square Enix have released the first images of the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, proving that Human Revolution’s golden future renaissance will be free of jagged edges and blurry textures, so long as you’re playing on PC. Stick your face in these three new screens and inhale the rain-slick city ambiance, and don’t forget to check out the Deus Ex: Human Revolution system specs to find out if the the game will run on your machine.
Click on each screen to see them full size. If you’re wondering whether or not the game will run on your rig, check out the full Deus Ex: Human Revolution system specs. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Thanks to the first Deus Ex: Human Revolution PC screens, we already know that the game is going to look great on our machines, but will you need to augment your PC to get it running? Find out now with the full Deus Ex: Human Revolution system specs, listed below.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Minimum PC Specs: - OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 with DirectX 9.0c
- PROCESSOR: 2 GHz dual core
- RAM: 1 GB RAM (Windows XP) / 2 GB (Windows Vista and Windows 7)
- GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce 8000 series or ATI Radeon HD 2000 series or better
- REQUIRED DISC SPACE: 8.5 GB
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Recommended PC Specs: - OS: Windows 7
- PROCESSOR: AMD Phenom II X4 or Intel Core 2 Quad or better
- RAM: 2 GB
- GRAPHICS: AMD Radeon HD 5850
- REQUIRED DISC SPACE: 8.5 GB
For more on Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s combat and stealth systems, check out our recent Deus Ex: Human Revolution preview. If you’re already determined to get the game, have a look at the Deus Ex: Human Revolution mega edition boxed set, which comes with its own model of Adam Jensen. Retractable arm blades not included. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Every month, we present you with a roundup of the best free PC games that have been recently released. What we haven't done before is sit down and think about all the best free PC games knocking around the internet at the moment, eventually formatting them into a big old list feature. We think it's about time we sorted that out. Like PC Gamer's annual Top 100, this isn't supposed to be a definitive declaration of the best games ever. It's a collection of titles that, right now, we think you should be playing, in an order of priority we think is most sensible. A snapshot in time, if you will. So at this moment, in May 2011, here's what we think are the top 20 free or free-to-play games you should be trying right now. Onwards! 20. OpenTTD Grab it from the website. 
Why it makes the list: Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe proved cult favourites when they were released in the 1990s. That might be why some dedicated fans took it upon themselves to remake the latter from scratch, making it open-source and adding a heap of features along the way. To this day OpenTTD continues to captivate its followers. Why not give it a go? You might happily become one of them. 19. Yume Nikki Rapidshare seems to be the net’s only trace of it. 
Why it makes the list: You'll probably never play a stranger game. In Yumme Nikki, you play as a young girl as she succumbs to her terrifying nightmares. And, of course, tries to locate a bunch of different special powers which have pretty much no bearing on how the game plays out. Strange, warped, and difficult to find an English version of, this is a work of psychedelic madness that's worth experiencing, even if it's never anything approaching "fun". 18. Alien Swarm Get it on Steam. 
Why it makes the list: Valve unleashed Alien Swarm without much fanfare, but that's no indication of its quality. Originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, then rebuilt in the Source Engine, this top-down shooter sees you battling through alien-infested institutions with up to three co-op buddies. And it's a lot of tense, action-packed fun. 17. Games Journo Story Grab it from the dev’s blog. 
Why it makes the list: Smartly parodying iPhone hit Game Dev Story, this is an exceptionally witty release documenting one university graduate's attempt to embark on a career in games journalism. If you're generally familiar with the faces behind the words in the games publications you read, you might spot a few amusing cameos too, including former PC Gamer UK deputy editor Kieron Gillen. 16. Wurm Online Get it on the website. 
Why it makes the list: Before Minecraft came along and blew everyone away, the indie game about building stuff was Wurm Online, a slow and plodding but rather atmospheric and engrossing MMO. The controls are awful, the visuals are frankly shit, and you do, admittedly, have to pay to do the best stuff. But the free version still ultimately blossoms into a fierce, challenging attempt to craft your own way through this tumultuous world. 15. One Chance Play it on Newgrounds. 
Why it makes the list: You have just a few days until the world is supposed to end, and you're a scientist. Can you and your colleagues come up with something to divert this terrible disaster? And, since you might only have a few days left to spend with your family, do you even want to waste time trying? This is a short, emotive title that gives you just one choice – go to work or stay at home – but makes it resonate to a wonderful degree. 14. Battlefield Heroes Play it on the website. 
Why it makes the list: This free-to-play Battlefield title takes a lot of visual cues from Team Fortress 2, but puts them to use into a fun and silly third-person shooter with a fair few vehicular touches. It's about as straight-forward as multiplayer action gets these days, but it all runs in a browser, and it's rarely anything other than a delight, especially when you factor in the (lack of a) price tag. 13. Canabalt Run along to the dev’s website. 
Why it makes the list: You can only jump. But that's all you need to do. You're running away from something or someone, which is never explained, but it never needs to be. It's the simplicity of Canabalt that makes it what it is: a hugely exhilarating one-button platformer to which you're likely to become dangerously addicted. 12. Photopia Play it on iFiction. 
Why it makes the list: No graphics. No sound. No monsters or action or strategy. Just simple puzzles, and lines of text, beautifully presented and profoundly moving. Photopia is, quite possibly, the smartest and most interesting text adventure around, and you can play it for free online. Its hour-long tale is confusing at first, but it slowly clicks into place – and in the moments when it does, its magic is basically unrivalled. 11. Dwarf Fortress Grab it from the developer’s website. 
Why it makes the list: A deep and engrossing combination of roguelikes and city-building-sims, Dwarf Fortress is a nightmare of ASCII graphics and instant failure. In fact, think Wurm Online without the 3D visuals and anything resembling a decent tutorial, and you'll be on the right lines. But what makes Dwarf Fortress so fascinating, so unrelentingly brilliant, is its refusal to sit still: this is a game in which you can plan all you like, but very rarely predict an outcome. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Every month, we present you with a roundup of the best free PC games that have been recently released. What we haven't done before is sit down and think about all the best free PC games knocking around the internet at the moment, eventually formatting them into a big old list feature. We think it's about time we sorted that out. Like PC Gamer's annual Top 100, this isn't supposed to be a definitive declaration of the best games ever. It's a collection of titles that we think you should be playing right now. A snapshot in time, if you will. So at this moment, in May 2011, here's our favourite free or free-to-play games. Onwards! 20. OpenTTD Grab it from the website.
Why it makes the list: Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe proved cult favourites when they were released in the 1990s. That might be why some dedicated fans took it upon themselves to remake the latter from scratch, making it open-source and adding a heap of features along the way. To this day OpenTTD continues to captivate its followers. Why not give it a go? You might happily become one of them. 19. Yume Nikki Rapidshare seems to be the net’s only trace of it.
Why it makes the list: You'll probably never play a stranger game. In Yumme Nikki, you play as a young girl as she succumbs to her terrifying nightmares. And, of course, tries to locate a bunch of different special powers which have pretty much no bearing on how the game plays out. Strange, warped, and difficult to find an English version of, this is a work of psychedelic madness that's worth experiencing, even if it's never anything approaching "fun". 18. Alien Swarm Get it on Steam.
Why it makes the list: Valve unleashed Alien Swarm without much fanfare, but that's no indication of its quality. Originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, then rebuilt in the Source Engine, this top-down shooter sees you battling through alien-infested institutions with up to three co-op buddies. And it's a lot of tense, action-packed fun. 17. Games Journo Story Grab it from the dev’s blog.
Why it makes the list: Smartly parodying iPhone hit Game Dev Story, this is an exceptionally witty release documenting one university graduate's attempt to embark on a career in games journalism. If you're generally familiar with the faces behind the words in the games publications you read, you might spot a few amusing cameos too, including former PC Gamer UK deputy editor Kieron Gillen. 16. Wurm Online Get it on the website.
Why it makes the list: Before Minecraft came along and blew everyone away, the indie game about building stuff was Wurm Online, a slow and plodding but rather atmospheric and engrossing MMO. The controls are awful, the visuals are frankly shit, and you do, admittedly, have to pay to do the best stuff. But the free version still ultimately blossoms into a fierce, challenging attempt to craft your own way through this tumultuous world. 15. One Chance Play it on Newgrounds.
Why it makes the list: You have just a few days until the world is supposed to end, and you're a scientist. Can you and your colleagues come up with something to divert this terrible disaster? And, since you might only have a few days left to spend with your family, do you even want to waste time trying? This is a short, emotive title that gives you just one choice – go to work or stay at home – but makes it resonate to a wonderful degree. 14. Battlefield Heroes Play it on the website.
Why it makes the list: This free-to-play Battlefield title takes a lot of visual cues from Team Fortress 2, but puts them to use into a fun and silly third-person shooter with a fair few vehicular touches. It's about as straight-forward as multiplayer action gets these days, but it all runs in a browser, and it's rarely anything other than a delight, especially when you factor in the (lack of a) price tag. 13. Canabalt Run along to the dev’s website.
Why it makes the list: You can only jump. But that's all you need to do. You're running away from something or someone, which is never explained, but it never needs to be. It's the simplicity of Canabalt that makes it what it is: a hugely exhilarating one-button platformer to which you're likely to become dangerously addicted. 12. Photopia Play it on iFiction.
Why it makes the list: No graphics. No sound. No monsters or action or strategy. Just simple puzzles, and lines of text, beautifully presented and profoundly moving. Photopia is, quite possibly, the smartest and most interesting text adventure around, and you can play it for free online. Its hour-long tale is confusing at first, but it slowly clicks into place – and in the moments when it does, its magic is basically unrivalled. 11. Dwarf Fortress Grab it from the developer’s website.
Why it makes the list: A deep and engrossing combination of roguelikes and city-building-sims, Dwarf Fortress is a nightmare of ASCII graphics and instant failure. In fact, think Wurm Online without the 3D visuals and anything resembling a decent tutorial, and you'll be on the right lines. But what makes Dwarf Fortress so fascinating, so unrelentingly brilliant, is its refusal to sit still: this is a game in which you can plan all you like, but very rarely predict an outcome. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Uncle Tully’s Funland map will soon be playable in Crossfire mode in Monday Night Combat, along with a number of new features, not least the addition of a giant chicken. You can shoot the bird until it flies away to earn your team a useful health boost. When it lands, you can jump on and ride the armoured cock for bonus money. The update also adds new bot spawners and more. For the full details, check out the Monday Night Combat site. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | TrackMania’s best courses looked like lumps of concrete spaghetti. They were a mess of gravity defying banks and loops, broken up with ridiculous jumps and a hundred different ways to hurtle to your death. The latest TrackMania 2: Canyon trailer shows that the sequel will be staying true to the bendy madness of the original. These new screens prove it’s going to look outstanding. Get a closer look below.
For more news on TrackMania 2, keep an eye on the newly launched TrackMania 2 website. The game’s due out later this year. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A quickly pulled link on the Assassin’s Creed Facebook page has revealed the name and teaser footage for the next game in the series. It will be called Assassin’s Creed Revelations, and will feature Altair, the hero of the first game. You’ll find more information, and the mysterious teaser videos below.
NeoGaf spotted the leaked link on Friday, and have delved into the revealed webpage to uncover some blurry footage. CVG note that the videos mention Altair’s name in Arabic, suggesting that the star of Assassin’s Creed 1 will at least make an appearance in the new game. There’s no news yet on whether Revelations will turn out to be the next major Assassin’s Creed title, but a Ubisoft report at a recent investor’s event said that there will be more Assassin’s Creed news arriving this month. The Assassin’s Creed Facebook page still displays a banner asking people for likes to unlock more information, but dedicated Assassin’s Creed fans have already captured some of the footage from the Facebook leak on Friday, you’ll find both videos below. Can you spot any more clues about the new game? 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Since our last article on Football Manager 2011 Sports Interactive have put up one of their habitual data updates, making some players hard to obtain and bringing new ones into contention, so let’s take a tour of the best bargain buys for your team in Football Manger 2011.
Goalkeepers: Vincent Enyeama 
Enyeama has been the go to man for teams that need a bargain goalkeeper for years now. Clocking in at a mere £250k and eager to swap the Israeli leagues for somewhere more illustrious, his only downside is that he doesn’t have EU membership, but his Nigeria caps should get him a work permit. Alex Smithies 
Yeah, that’s right, the next generation of English goalkeeping is hiding out in League One Huddersfield. Alex Smithies can be picked up for a under £1 million and makes a serviceable backup keeper for any mid table team for one or two years before taking the number one jersey. Fawzi Chaouchi 
Fawzi used to be free on the last patch, and while that’s sadly no longer the case he is still very cheap at £500k. The Algerian keeper is experienced enough to be an impressive keeper and young enough that he can keep going for years to come. Word of warning though, in addition to his annoying non-EU status he has a very high eccentricity stat, a double edged sword if ever there was one. Defenders: Dzmitry Verkhovtsov 
Sometimes you don’t need subtlety and class, sometimes you need a gigantic Belarusian centre half with the strength and aggression of a charging rhino, for those times there’s Dzmitry Verkhovtsov and he can be yours for under £500k. He’ll get a work permit too, but still counts as non-EU. Matthew Booth 
The conventional wisdom in Football Manager is that younger is better, but Matthew Booth defies that logic. This 33 giant centreback can be yours for a trifling 50k and do a job in any league. Comes with a British passport to easily avoid EU restrictions. Leonel Galeano 
Like Leandro Gioda and Nicolas Otamendi before him Leonel Galeano is an affordable and rock solid Argentine centre back who can anchor defences for years to come for a mere £3.5 million. If you need an EU freindly option consider the less experienced Raphael Varane at £5 million. Sime Vrsaljko 
Touted by some as the new Vedran Corluka, Sime has way too many consonants in his name, but that does stop him from being an enthusiastic and affordable right back. He is non EU, but should get a work permit on appeal. Jose Angel 
Jose is an impressive young Spanish left back available for a few million from Real Sporting who will only get better with time, a quality buy for most teams, but especially Spanish ones. If you have difficulty obtaining him consider his equally impressive teammate Roberto Canella. Midfielders: Milan Badelj 
Holy versatility Milan! Badelj can play just about anywhere in midfield and brings impressive technical ability and flair with him wherever he goes for a mere £3 million. If his non-EU status proves a stumbling block consider the similarly cheap but less impressive Ruben Yttergard Jenssen instead. Gabriel Torje 
Gabriel Torje doesn’t really have any stand out strengths, but that just means he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses either. The Romanian is just a solid all round winger who can be yours for a mere £2.5 million and will only get better with time. Sotiris Ninis 
Ninis isn’t quite the wonderkid he once was, but the Greek still makes a very impressive winger who can double as an attacking midfielder if necessary. A little on the slow side, but impressive technical ability makes him more of a ‘Beckham’ style player. Too rich for your blood? Consider £350k polish Israeli Gili Vermut instead. Steven Defour: 
At £6 million this Belgian Playmaker is more expensive than most on this list, but that befits a player you could build a team around. Capable of playing both deep and high up the pitch, Defour has stunning mental attributes for one so young. All he can really do is pass the ball, but he passes it well enough to dictate entire games. Vyacheslav Hleb 
You don’t get any cheaper than free and this versatile Belarusian midfielder costs exactly that, nothing. He has the caps for a work permit too, but Italian and Spanish coaches are liable to be put off by his non EU status. If you prefer your versatile non EU wingers a little younger, check out £200k Israeli Eyal Golasa. Strikers: Garra Dembele 
Need a good, cheap all round striker? £300k will get you Garra Dembele, a hard working Malian with a french passport who can do a job in any league in the world. Leigh Griffiths 
Sadly not as cheap as he was before the last patch since his move to Wolves. Teams with a decent reputation can still sign this impressive quick striker for under £1 million. Great for providing cover for your more expensive stars. Vaclav Kadlec 
Kadlec used to be a cheap youth player on previous editions, now 18 the Czech is capable of playing first team football from the off if need by, and you can still get him for only £750k. Vladimir Yurchenko 
Another free Belarusian for your collection Yurchenko is younger than Hleb and will have more difficulty getting a work permit, but should still prove useful to clubs who are strapped for cash. Yaya Sanogo 
This strapping young Frenchman will set you back a mere £3.5 million and is ready to step into first teams straight away (although at only 17 he should be treated with care). Give him time and he’ll become one of the most impressive target men around. Know of any other cheap stars? Well don’t hold them back, share them with us! 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Just as Sony’s security troubles seemed to be drifting to the back of our minds, ready to be forgotten, SOE has released a surprisingly frank appraisal of how the security leak affected their databases. On April 16 and 17, hackers accessed their database and stole a ton of information. If you’ve played an SOE game, read on to see what information has been compromised, so you can take the proper steps to protect yourself. The personal information of the approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts was illegally obtained. That information includes: - name
- address
- e-mail address
- birthdate
- gender
- phone number
- login name
- hashed password
- 12,7000 “non-US” credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates, but not security codes
In addition to the above information, an additional database was hacked that contained 10,700 direct debit records from accounts in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain, including: - bank account number
- customer name
- account name
- customer address
In addition to granting 1 day playtime for every day that SOE’s services are done, Sony has announced that it will grant all customers 30 days of additional time to their accounts. Sony has also stated that they’re helping customers by offering to assist users in enrolling in identity theft protection services. The plan (dubbed “The Make Good” plan) is still being finalized, and more details will be released for each region affected. Sony has posted information on its website and will send e-mails to all consumers whose data may have been stolen. Even if you don’t hear from SOE right away–and especially if you live in Austria, Germany, Netherlands or Spain–it would be wise to keep a close eye on your bank accounts and credit card statements for a while. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Something’s afoot in Armaland, lads. Earlier today, Arma 2’s official website was replaced with a message from a group named the “p3R51An 8lacK Hat5 8oy5.” It’s since been amended, but fake-real news site AAN continues to follow the details. We’ve previously seen AAN, which is run by Arma’s developer Bohemia Interactive, used to build excitement for new releases. Hmm. Whatever information this probable ARG is prepping, it isn’t being terribly cagey at this point. “Spukayev,” who’s referenced in the hacked webpage, is an Arma 2 character–you blow up his house with a satchel charge in the original campaign. The militant mystery solvers of Arma 2’s community are assembling other pieces here. I’ve posted another clue within. 
Knowing that Arma 2’s in-game terrain is satellite-modeled after real geography in the Czech Republic, BI forum member Undeceived cross-referenced the in-game location of Spukayev’s house from Arma 2 with satellite photos, and seemed to determine that the photos posted to the hacked webpage were a match. Follow the community’s hunt for more information here. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's an understatement to say that The Old Republic is exciting for Star Wars and MMO fans. BioWare's team-up with LucasArts brings the developer back to the beloved Knights of the Old Republic universe, serving as a continuation of the highest-rated Star Wars series of all time. But for the people that make games, it's about much more than excitement. TOR is likely the largest, most important MMO release since Blizzard's World of Warcraft set the standard for the genre over six years ago. While elements like the Smuggler class's ability to take cover shows that BioWare is taking modern action mechanics into account during design, TOR's main focus is on presentation and interactivity—two areas ripe for expansion. Electronic Arts is betting a lot of money that players want a story-based MMO—TOR is its most expensive game to date. Luckily, crafting compelling stories is BioWare's specialty. Utilizing interactive cutscenes and voice acting, TOR lets players experience missions in a manner usually reserved for single-player games. The developer even created a system that allows multiple players to progress through the story together, with each having a turn to make choices that could dramatically alter each mission. These advancements are going to be important if BioWare is going to stay competitive in the subscription market, especially with WoW sitting on 12 million active subscribers.  Way cooler than dual-wielding copper daggers. Galactic civil war TOR will have a subscription fee, but does that mean that the game will be forced to compete with World of Warcraft for the same pool of customers? Perfect World Entertainment's Director of Marketing Jonathan Belliss doesn't think sharing is an option: "You aren't going to see a lot of gamers playing more than one subscription MMO." Whether BioWare and Blizzard like it or not, TOR's combat, quest design and subscription fee setup bear enough similarity to WoW's that the two games will be pitted head-to-head against each other, at least in the minds of gamers. We talked to developers working on different MMOs from all across the industry. It didn't matter if they were creating titles for kids, making free-to-play games, or polishing AAA subscription-based releases for an impending launch: everyone's eyes are on TOR. Nathan Richardsson, executive producer for CCP Games's EVE Online, thinks that "whatever happens to TOR, it will have massive repercussions throughout the entire industry. [Those repercussions] will range from the cancellation of games and the closing down of studios to people rethinking how to approach the MMO genre."  Greetings, I am Ron Solo, smuggler. Don't get cocky If TOR is everything that fans hope it'll be, we may finally find out how many people are willing to pay for a subscription-based game. Between WoW's mastery of the fantasy genre and TOR's story-driven sci-fi romp in the most popular geek franchise on the planet, that's a solid one-two punch to bring out everyone that's ever considered paying a subscription fee. "There's definitely a need for genre choices beyond fantasy," explains Nexon America's Director of Game Operations Minho Kim. He's not the only one saying this—many agree that there's an overabundance of orcs and paladins when it comes to MMOs, including VP of Development at KingsIsle and co-creator of Wizard101, Josef Hall. Hall warns that games in similar settings leads to "cannibalization," a belief many other developers shared with us. Todd Harris, executive producer at Hi-Rez Studios, whose MMOFPS Global Agenda mocks the over-saturation of fantasy MMOs in its ad campaigns, echoes the concern that "too many MMOs are still fantasy-based" and hopes to see "developers innovating with setting." With games like MapleStory and Vindictus, Nexon isn't necessarily known for creating story-driven engagements, but Kim is anxious to see players' responses to BioWare's focus on narrative and its use of voiceovers. If successful, TOR could start a shift to story-driven MMOs—a move that Runes of Magic's Andreas Weidenhaupt, CEO of Frogster Online Gaming, and Carbine Studios's Lead Designer Tim Cain anticipate. Cain, currently working on an unannounced game for Guild Wars publisher NCSoft, is hoping that the RPG will return back to its story-based roots. "Killing a villain in an RPG is exciting because of all of the story that led up to the encounter," he says. "The player has become invested in his character and in the world, so the big combats actually mean something."  Never tell me the odds! Lack of faith "I'm a huge fan of BioWare," says Belliss, "however, the scale and supposed budget for TOR are so astronomical that I can see how it could potentially become a train wreck." If TOR is as well-made as BioWare's other releases—most of which have been praised by fans and critics alike—and still fails, it'd speak volumes. It could prove that there's simply not enough room for more than one WoW-sized MMO in the subscription market, something Richardsson already believes. "If you start out with the goal to 'take down' WoW, you will fail miserably." Others, like Age of Conan's Game Director Craig Morrison, wonder why anyone would ever try to "beat" WoW, considering the amount of funding it would take to compete with such a well-established game. BioWare claims they only need 500,000 subscribers for TOR to be profitable, but that number would undoubtedly feel like a letdown for a project of this size. If TOR fails to meet expectations, we'll likely see an even faster rise of the free-to-play business model. Bigpoint's CEO and founder, Heiko Hubertz, whose browser-based Battlestar Galactica Online recently went into open beta, believes that free-to-play is becoming the more viable option. He told us, "While WoW has clearly demonstrated its staying power, plenty of other games have shifted to F2P after failing to achieve critical mass—and return on investment—through subscriptions." Even more important than finding out what happens will be looking back after the dust settles to determine why it happened. BioWare and EA are investing as much (or more) time, money and effort into making their story-based MMO than any game developer could reasonably expect to before launch. But what if we find out afterwards that MMO gamers simply aren't looking for that kind of narrative? Nexon's Minho Kim is skeptical: "I'm really curious if people will love the [voiceovers] beyond the initial experience, or if we will hear people say 'I grinded through eight hours of voiceovers today.'" There's also a chance that BioWare's game is simply flying too closely to WoW's style of gameplay, something Todd Harris is weary of in general. He told us, "A developer would be foolish to try to chase WoW's success by developing a game that's too similar." If TOR fails, developers will likely look to revolutionize on different fronts, such as integrating different styles of combat, deeper persistence, more complex economic and social systems, more challenging encounters or one of the many other ways to mix up gameplay without requiring TOR's massive budget.  He's just mad that the Blue Man Group fired him. Use the Force No matter what happens, The Old Republic will be an important launch for MMO gamers. Its success or failure will tell developers more about what gamers want and how they want to pay for it more accurately than any research could. Of course, we'll learn if BioWare and EA's gamble of giving MMO players something different paid off, but we'll also learn a lot about the long-term viability of subscription-based games, story-driven MMOs, and whether or not WoW players can be swayed away from their game of choice (or if doing so is even necessary to succeed). It'll be you, the gamers, who decide what TOR will mean for the future. Whether you'll be slashing apart droids with your Twi'lek or watching from the sidelines, TOR will not only shape the fate of the universe you're gaming in now, but all of the future ones as well. Everyone's watching to see what you think. 
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rift's first world event was a bust. It wasn't what fans wanted or expected, and after talking to the game’s Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, one thing is incredibly clear: it's not what Trion wanted or expected, either. "It wasn't particularly terribly fun," Hartsman told me during an interview, referring to the final stages of the River of Souls event. "We knew very well that we could handle hundreds of people in a single zone doing a single event, because that happens in the game all the time. The ultra-scale issue happens when you end up with a thousand people standing in the same ten-foot square." For those who refrained from logging into the River of Souls event, the “ultra-scale issue” he’s speaking about was the servers exploding after a few thousand people all ran to the same spot on the map. It wasn’t pretty. We presented our grievances to Hartsman last week, to see what he’d have to say.  The bone dragon rift was a welcome addition. Learning is half the battle
His initial response was reassuring: he wasn’t just concerned with the fact that the servers couldn't handle the stress. He acknowledged that the final stages of the event were far too short, and relied heavily on the idea that thousands of people fighting the same enemy in the same place at the same time would be entertaining, In short: even if the event had worked as planned, it wouldn't have been all that fun. "At the end of the day, the biggest [lessons we learned] are about space compression and time compression—they're bad ideas, just don't do them," Hartsman told me. He explained that they didn't think of the full ramifications of having such a time-compressed battle. "Having a big event that's a going to take place over a single hour is really cool… if you can be there for that hour. If you're not there, it sucks. You missed it." But the past is the past, and now, Trion is looking to the future. They plan to move away from super high-density battles like the one attempted in River of Souls. Hartsman admitted that it's not worth building new technology to support those types of events, because, as he said, "it's really not fun." Instead, they want to keep the mechanics of the events closer to what’s proven to be successful in the game already, such as zone invasions, but continue to theme them heavily like the River of Souls event. The theme of the River of Souls event was its strongest asset. Alsbeth's massive invasion from the plane of Death focused players on battling against one specific dimensional plane for the duration of the event. It brought new, unique content, including themed items and rifts that made it feel as though Telara was completely under siege. The daily quests moved the plot forward, and reminded players to continue fighting back against the forces of death.  River of Souls stage 2, right before the server crash. Why with all the fighting? Trion is also going to be more careful to take PvP servers into account when designing the world events. "The reason we ended up with Guardians and Defiants in one spot was because they had no choice. If the Defiants on your server got kicked out of the area, they missed it. And if the Guardians got kicked out on my server, they missed it.” Hartsman quickly clarified that they’re not giving up on the idea of including some PvP elements in events, though. Update 1.2, which is scheduled for release on May 10th, will be adding their first PvP-focused zone event, which has the two factions racing to build competing colossi in order to do battle with what Hartsman called a "mega-colossus." They want to have PvP play a role in these big events, but they want to have a better leash on it going forward, so that it doesn’t ruin the experience. Before the interview wrapped up, I had to get one thing clarified: I needed to know if Trion killed Alsbeth. (During the final stage of River of Souls, the final boss spawned, but after talking for 20 seconds, immediately fell over dead before any player could even attack her. The rumor was that a Game Master in godmode used server-side commands to kill her, hoping to prevent the additional server lag that would’ve been caused by such a huge boss battle.)  You'll need to go into the new instance to kill her yourself. Hartsman explained that the devs technically did kill Alsbeth, but not in the way that people thought. "The final event was actually a scripted vignette," he told me, explaining that they had delayed the event a week in order to convert the final boss battle into a what was essentially a cutscene. A script spawned Alsbeth, had her chat with NPCs for twenty seconds, then immediately killed her–no player attacks required. Why didn’t they want to have a big boss battle? Hartsman explained it this way, "Getting thousands of people fighting the same enemy in a five foot area… yeah, it's not even fun at that point." I’m fairly happy with the direction Trion is taking their events–it seems like they’ve taken player feedback seriously and are looking for practical solutions to keep us happy. We know how they’re going to do events differently, the only remaining question is when. “The focus right now is on the new zone events for 1.2,” said Hartsman, ”but I expect that it won’t be too long after that.” Whenever the next world event comes, I’ll be there, ready to defend Telara from whatever forces want to destroy it. It sounds like it’ll be more fun the next time around, too! 
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