Gamernode: Latest PC News

Star Wars Galaxies adds new chapter

Are you itching to explore new worlds and places in the Star Wars universe? LucasArts has heard your wailing and has announced that Chapter 7: A Collection of Heroes, for Star Wars Galaxies, has been unleashed in your part of the space-time continuum.

The new addition will offer new encounters, game play areas, collections and awards. Don't believe it? Listen to John Blakely, VP of Sony Online development:

"The amazing amount of quest content we've been able to deliver in Chapter 7: A Collection of Heroes, and in the other updates we've delivered in 2007, is really remarkable.

"So far this year, we've delivered nine new profession-based skill systems, new Rebel and Imperial content mission hubs, a new storyteller system for our role-players, new quest chains, and one of the most advanced pe...

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Turok roaring to PC in spring 2008

For you PC fans that feared they weren't going to be able to don their dinosaur stomping boots--you can rest easy now. Turok, the upcoming re-boot of the dinosaur sci-fi/FPS franchise, will be heading to PC in spring 2008.

This will fit snuggly with the February 5, 2008 release date for the PS3 and Xbox 360 version of the game too.

Josh Holmes, vice president and general manager for Propaganda Games, said:

"First person shooters have a rich history on the Windows PC platform and are known for having enthusiastic, dedicated fans. Turok will be an unforgettable experience ideal for the Windows PC platform when it becomes available in 2008."

Propaganda Games handles the Turok development on consoles while PC-porting expert Aspyr Studios will do it for the PC. In addition to the game's single-pl...

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Bethesda planning The Elder Scrolls Online?

Voodoo Extreme did some domain detective work today and discovered that ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, purchased elderscrollsonline.com.

Combine that with previous news of Mythic Entertainment co-founder Matt Firor heading up a new online gaming division for ZeniMax Media and you can get some big assumptions that ZeniMax may have plans for the online gaming scene.

Considering that ZeniMax's most popular RPG is Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls series, this may be an indication that Elder Scrolls may head to the online scene. So think about that: would you play an online version of The Elder Scrolls?

Personally, one of the series' draws to me was its entire focus on an awesome single-player experience. While exploring dungeons alone is a thrilling experience, exploring du...

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Crysis demo: more hidden goodies abound

In the week since the release of the long-awaited Crysis demo, a lot has happened. First the entire game was found in the demo's files, then it was found that graphical features that were purportedly Vista and DX10 exclusive were available in Windows XP with a little config file editing.

Now, someone buggering around in the level editor has managed to find and spawn every single weapon and vehicle from the rest of the game inside the demo level. There are rifles, assault rifles, tanks, boats, planes, helicopters and even the aliens, with somewhat limited AI.

To access the weapons and vehicles you'll have to download a custom version of the level from the demo with the added weapons, vehicles and aliens. You can find the map over at the 4th Dimension Crysis Forums but just remember that it co...

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Crysis DX10 features unlockable in Windows XP

With the release of the Crysis single-player demo just last week, it wasn't going to take long for people to start fiddling around with config files to try and tweak the game.

In the process though, one user managed to find a way to activate certain DirectX 10 and "Very High" graphical features when running the game in Windows XP.

LennyRhys (from the Crysis-Online Forums) has discovered a way of editing the configuration files so that the "High" graphical setting's attributes are replaced by the "Very High" graphical attributes.

Now it may sound a bit confusing at first but if you follow the instructions in this thread, you'll be up and running in no time.

The "Very High" settings add things like light beams, more realistic water, a better depth of field affect and more realistic shadows and...

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Unreal Tournament 3 goes gold, launches Nov. 19th

Midway has just announced that the PC edition of Unreal Tournament 3 has gone gold and will promptly hit stores on November 19th.

The game will retail for $49.99 in a standard edition and for $59.99 in a collector's edition.

The collector's edition will include a limited edition tin box, a hardcover art book and a bonus DVD with 10 hours of game mod tutorials and a history of Unreal Tournament.

While you're here, you can read Sean's hands-on with the game, along with the specs showing if your PC can handle the game in the first place.

Note that the Xbox 360 edition and the PS3 edition of Unreal Tournament 3 have been delayed till 2008. Too bad, but at least PC gamers can enjoy the game for a month or two.

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Full CoD4 PC server-side options listing released

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is shaping up to be one of the blockbuster shooters for the PC this year (see Billy's Hands-on Preview) and some fresh info pertaining to the multiplayer aspect of the game has been released, namely the full breakdown of the PC Server-side options available in CoD4.

The full list of server options (which can be found over at the CoD4Boards) is extremely long and detailed so I won't put the list up here, but it certainly is good news for anyone who is looking to run a CoD4 server or two once the game comes out.

There is the ability to customise everything from standard settings like player numbers and map voting to more advanced settings such as which weapons individual classes can use and how fast each class can move.

You can even change the amount of time the...

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C&C3 expansion pack enlists Hollywood cast

EA announced that a few Hollywood actors will appear in the upcoming expansion pack to Command & Conquer 3, titled Kane's Wrath. In addition to joining Joe Kucan, who'll be reprising his role as Kane, Natasha Henstridge and Carl Lumbly will be featured in the expansion pack.

Henstridge is famous for the Species trilogy, while Lumbly is known for his work in Alias along with some voice-acting duties in animated shows, such as J'onn J'onzz in Justice League.

Mike Verdu, general manager of EALA, said, "Natasha and Carl are a perfect fit for the live-action video sequences that will bring our epic story to life. We had great success with the cast and story for Command & Conquer 3, and I'm very excited to be working with such talented actors on the expansion pack. We're doing something really uni...

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1.2 Quake Wars update going live today

For you Quake Wars fans, you'll be happy to know that the master server will be down today in order to incorporate the new 1.2 update. The scheduled maintenance time is: 16:45 GMT to 17:15 GMT / 9:45 AM PST to 10:15 AM PST, so over here in EST, it appears the servers are still down.

If you forgot, the 1.2 update will include full voice communications support, better game balancing (a few weapons changes and increased experience points gained in certain areas), refined fire-teams (they'll persist through rounds) and stopwatch mode, user interface improvements (more server browser options and others), bot fixes and plenty of miscellaneous bug fixes.

In addition, Splash Damage mentioned they're currently working on the 1.3 update, along with final touches to the game's SDK.

My review of Quake W...

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Portal Pumpkins

With Halloween on Wednesday, we here at GamerNode thought it would be fitting to find some Halloween-themed gaming goodness. Thus, enter the Portal Pumpkins. While not a jaw dropping revelation, one can't help but smile at the creative juices behind the carvers of these creations. Valve certainly has some devoted fans in their fold. Hit the link to check out the pictures.

Note: If you haven't played Portal these pictures won't mean as much to you. To fix that problem go buy The Orange Box, and experience one of the most surreal and creative experiences to hit consoles and PCs in a long time.

Portal Pumpkins

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NVIDIA answers gamers' demands with 8800 GT

NVIDIA Corp has unveiled it's latest 8 series GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT. The 8800GT will be available in computer stores everywhere starting today, available in 256MB and 512MB flavours.

The 8800GT looks to be NVIDIA's answer to cries for a high performance card that could play the latest DirectX 10 games without costing an arm and a leg, and with prices starting at $199 for the 256MB model and $259 for the 512MB model, NVIDIA certainly looks to have delivered.

The 8800GT will feature 112 stream processors, each individually clocked at 1.5GHz and a 256-bit memory interface running at 900MHz. The 8800 GT is also designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus standard, but don't worry; it is backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.1 so you won't need to run out and buy a new motherboard. When motherb...

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Crysis demo graphics tweak

Now that the single-player Crysis demo is available, I'm sure plenty of graphics enthusiasts promptly went ape to push their PCs over the limit. If you've noticed in the graphical options menu, there's a "very high" setting but it's grayed out. However, a perceptive Crysis Online forum member discovered a way to implement the "very high" graphics setting into the demo.

It requires editing the demo's configuration files (located by default in: C:Program FilesElectronic ArtsCrytekCrysis SP DemoGameConfigCVarGroups); you open each file in that folder with Notepad and do some copying and pasting. The first paragraph of various options appears to be the "very high" setting, but it's not implemented, so you have to paste the first paragraph over the last paragraph (noted by [3]) in the file.

I, of...

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Crysis goes gold

Attention those of you with a PC good enough to play it: EA and Crytek have announced that Crysis has officially gone gold. "We are extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish with Crysis," said Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek. "We wanted to push the boundaries both visually and with open-ended, non-linear gameplay and we believe the end result delivers that vision."

The single-player demo is currently available, giving PC gamers a chance to see what one of the most hyped games of the year has to offer. (If you can't play the demo or haven't yet, here's what Billy thought.) If the demo isn't enough for you though, take solace in the fact that Crysis going gold brings it one step closer to its November 16 release.

I encourage all gamers with mediocre gaming PCs to join me in my sittin...

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Valve responds to Orange Box deactivations

Yesterday, we ran a story about that imported copies of the Orange Box are being deactivated by Steam due to territory violation. Today, Shacknews got some comments from Valve's Doug Lombardi about the situation and here's what he said.

"Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorized for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories."

"In this case, a Thai website was selling retail box product keys for Thailand to people outside of Thailand. Since those keys are only for use in Thailand, people who purchased product keys from the Thai website are not able to use those product keys in other territories."

People living in countries with strict game-rating laws or a cheaper price are the main reasons why people import games f...

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Crysis PC demo released despite demo woes

Update: Despite trying to manage the exclusive download for a day, the single-player demo has been released publically today. So get it and enjoy!

Arrgh, delays are always a doozy. If you've been eagerly waiting for the Crysis single-player demo today, you'll have to wait a day longer because EA delayed the public release of the demo till tomorrow.

inCrysis has the word from EA that folks who preordered Crysis, will be the exception and will get the demo today, but everyone else will have to wait till tomorrow at 1PM (GMT+1) to get their hands on it.

One of the reasons floating around about the demo's lateness may have to do with drivers -- NVIDIA just released a recommended beta driver for Crysis just a few minutes ago and EA maybe rushing to make sure there is compatibility between the ne...

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October 25th GameTap releases

Move over weekly updates for Xbox Live Arcade, Virtual Console and PSN, here's one for GameTap.

This week's new GameTap releases include the brand-spankin' new horror/FPS Clive Barker's Jericho, a RTS/action game from 1999 called Abomination: The Nemesis Project and another RTS/action game from 1999 called Clans.

Unfortunately there were no new additions to the free play list, so the list will be the same as last week.

If you want to check out the three new games added to the list of subscription games or take a gander at the list of 46 free play games, check the full story.

New Subscription Games:

1. Abomination (PC-WIN)

2. Clans (PC-WIN)

3. Jericho (PC-WIN)

Free Play titles for Thursday, October 25th:

1. Bloodrayne

2. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2

3. Ghosts 'N Goblins

4. Ghouls 'N Ghosts

5. Sam and ...

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Valve deactivating imported copies of Orange Box o...

In an interesting move from Valve, imported copies of their latest release, The Orange Box, are being deactivated on Steam accounts all around the world.

Sounds like Valve is trying to emulate Region Coding, but instead of regions, all games sold in a country can only be played in that particular country. I've never been a fan of region coding, and what's worse is Valve is just deactivating the copies without notifying affected customers, save for a message after the deactivation. Said message simply states that the games are in the "incorrect territory" and can no longer be played.

One disgruntled fan emailed Valve to get an official standing on the situation, and here is the reply from DougV:

"Games purchased in Thailand or Russia can only be played from those countries. If you purchased a ...

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Japan's #1 online card game to be released Statesi...

Fans of card-based battle games rejoice! Alteil, Japan's fastest growing online fantasy card sensation, has been announced to hit America thanks to Media Blasters and DEX Entertainment. The innovative dueler combines the style of a traditional Japanese RPG with the captivation of a collectible card game. Best of all, it's 100% free for everyone!

Alteil features a continuously evolving storyline coupled with an enchanting artistic structure to provide full immersion at the click of your mouse. The imaginative visual works of designer Katsuya Terada (the Hellboy film, Tekken 5), and illustrators Hitoshi Yoneda (Phantasy Star, Xanadu II), Rei (the Code Geass manga) and Yuji Kaida (Godzilla and Gundam models) ensure each card is its own piece of art.

There's nothing to download or install with...

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Spore is on track for spring 2008 release

On CVG, they have a brief update on Spore's release date. Will Wright, the designer of the game stated, "We have the game fully playable at this point and it's in final testing." Therefore it's being predicted that Spore will be released in about 6 months, which is around spring 2008.

Back in mid-June, it was revealed that EA delayed Spore to fiscal 09, which meant a release date sometime after March 2008.

So with this new 6-month estimation, it will still fit nicely with the fiscal 09 revised date. Wright mentioned that part of the reason for the delay was for further testing.

"We've had to do a lot of testing to make sure that the game is accessible by a wide group of people... I want the people who played The Sims to be able to play Spore - I don't want it to be some thing just hardcore g...

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Full Steam ahead for Codemasters!

The latest publisher to join the growing ranks of Steam is Codemasters. The only currently available game is Clive Barker's Jericho (which is pretty darn fun, I have to say) for $39.95 USD.

The press release stated that Overlord and DiRT are available too, but they're not listed on Steam at the time of this writing. As of now, the only other planned release from Codemasters on Steam will be Turning Point, Fall of Liberty.

Peter Chan, director of business development for Codemasters, said:

"With major new content in the portfolio, Codemasters continues to expand its publishing and distribution reach. As the industry's leading online platform for digital delivery of PC entertainment, Steam is a natural addition to the suite of leading platforms Codemasters is targeting with its leading new a...

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