The Killzone 2 footage from the PlayStation Gamer's Day is coming at you in a direct stream in both SD and HD flavors.


The highly anticipated PS3 title isn't set to be released until some time in February 2009.

A demo for Battlefield: Bad Company is set to his the Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store on June 5. This demo offers a taste of the single-player and multiplayer action. Shacknews reports that the single-player portion will take you through the very beginning of the career mode with "B" company. The multiplayer introduces players to the "Gold Rush" style of gameplay on the Oasis map.

For those of you who pre-order the title, you will have early access to the demo. That early entrance to the demo will only be through select retailers.

The fifth installment of the Call of Duty series, might not take place in yet another rehashed Western European front! This news came from an announcement by Activision. Publishing CEO for Activision, Mike Griffith, had this to say.

We'll bring the intensity of the recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare title to a new military theater to engage our significantly larger user base which nearly doubled last year as new users came into the franchise.

Call of Duty 5 is slated for a late 2008 release on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, and Nintendo DS systems.

Also of note, the engine that powered Call of Duty 4 is being put to good use in a new James Bond game, set to be released this Fall alongside the new Bond film.

Shacknews, in its weekly Replay Couch, brings a few tasty morsels of Half-Life goodness with it.

• Half-Life 1 in Doom 2 - This is what happens when a mod maker has far too much time on his hands. This incomplete, but very cool, modification for Doom 2 attempts to port over the major elements from Half-Life 1. It's a very interesting result that you need to check out.
  
• The G-Man brings it - The G-Man doesn't need to bring it, when it's already been brought! I won't say much about this video. I'll just let the G-Man break it down for you.

So go ahead, take some time out of your stressful lives and enjoy these videos.

Variety's Ben Fritz recently got a chance to chat with Gore Verbinski, who directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, who has been chosen to direct the Bioshock movie. The interview talks about Verbinski's interest in Bioshock, as well as asking how Verbinski will translate aspects of the Bioshock video game to a movie. Verbinski also hints at his interest in collaborating with Valve on a project - be it a game or a movie, who knows.

Ben Fritz: So is this the next project you'll be working on? When do you anticipate starting?

Gore Verbinski: I'll be starting to work on it immediately as soon as we get a script that's worthy. We'll then move actively into pre-production. I wouldn’t put a time schedule on it so much as to say I'm jumping in with a full commitment.

So there's no script yet, but they have plenty of material to pull from the game itself. So here's hoping it doesn't go the way of the Doom movie. Or the Alone in the Dark Movie. Or any other video game movie, for that matter.

Everyday Shooter, a musical shooter by creator Jonathan Mak, makes its PC debut on Steam today.

Winner of numerous Independent Game Festival Awards including Design Innovation, Everyday Shooter is everything but what its name implies. Drawing upon a mixture of arcade shooter gameplay styles, Everyday Shooter stands apart from the crowd by offering both a wide variety challenges and an all-guitar soundtrack, including procedurally generated guitar riffs used instead of traditional game sound effects.

Everyday Shooter is now available for just $9.99 via Steam, and those who purchase during the first week of availability will save 10% off the regular price.

In other Steam news, Portal: First Slice — the official demo for the title named Game of the Year by over 30 publications — is now available for free to all gamers via Steam.

You can find more information on Everyday Shooter at the designated store page.

In addition, the new Steam storefront has been released today. I've also heard some whispers that the Steam forums are next to undergo a redesign and upgrade in the near future.

A four player co-op demo of Haze is coming very soon to PlayStation 3 owners. The demo will let you experience the single player campaign and allow for three of your friends to join in at any time for four player mayhem.


In addition, four new screens were released. You can find all four, over at Shacknews.

Another update for Team Fortress 2 has just left the gate.

• Fixed clients getting the "Reliable snapshot overflow" error
  
• Fixed another unlimited UberCharge exploit
  
• Fixed elevators not working in user maps
  
• Networking optimizations

You will get this update automatically via Steam.

Production has recently started on Doom 4, according to id Software. In addition, the company is looking for a few good men to work on the sequel.

Production has begun on DOOM 4, the next journey into the legendary DOOM universe. We are expanding our internal team and are currently hiring to work on this highly anticipated title.[...]

We are looking for talented, ambitious and passionate individuals eager to join our accomplished team of developers working on the industry’s most innovative and anticipated games. For a complete listing of available positions, visit our id Careers page. Resumes can be submitted via email to jobs@idsoftware.com. All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.

No other information is currently know about Doom 4.

GameSetWatch's latest in its "Design Lesson 101" series, takes a look at Crysis and where it all went to hell.

The strength of Crysis lies in choice. The choice to enter the situation on your own terms and from your own perspective. The game gives you powers, such as cloaking, speed, and strength, that can be used to turn the tide of battle. This adds more choice to how you handle a given combat situation.

The linear, corridor levels go against that sense of choice that the rest of the game has set up. The problem is that this other style of level does not compliment the more open style the rest of the game has set up. It feels far more restricting, in fact. You have less places to move around, less ways to approach a situation, and less opportunities to use your nanosuit powers.

The author shuns Crysis for essentially taking away those powers which you have learned to use for most of the game. If you give the player the initial ability to pick and choose how they want to go about doing something, that ability should not be taken away later on.

Far Cry 2 has a brand-new trailer that came out today. New footage is included along with a brief interview with Ubisoft.


Far Cry 2 is slated for release on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 systems in late October.

The new IP from EA and DICE, Mirror's Edge, aims to take free running to a whole new heights, literally! The latest look at this unique title came courtesy of the PlayStation Day hosted by Sony.


The game is currently in development for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 systems. It is tentatively slated for a late 2008 release.

The Sony PlayStation Day event also brought with it a slew if new media. Unfortunately, the streaming videos I was going to put up for Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 don't seem to be available anymore from where I saw them! However, there are new Killzone 2 screenshots immediately available for your viewing pleasure.


We'll hopefully have some videos for you some time tomorrow.

A dual update today for the Steam client and for Audiosurf. The Steam client update just fixes a few, minor bugs. The Audiosurf update fixed three issues that arose from the recent major update.

Steam Client

• Fixed Portal: First Slice being unable to launch for some users
  
• Fixed GoldSrc MODs being unable to launch from the Steam serverbrowser
  
• Fixed network issue on startup
  
  Audiosurf
  
• Fixed overfill warnings flashing when they should not be
  
• Fixed Repeat Song failing when used from the scoreboard screen
  
• Fixed mouse cursor could disappear after using the steam overlay

The updates will be automatically applied.

A new Portal map pack was just released from We Create Stuff. This map pack are actual Portal maps based off of the flash version of Portal, a 2D title that features 40 levels.

The pack places you in the role of a new test subject before the events of Portal. You can download the pack directly from this link, or visit the map pack page for a list of mirrors.

Sony's Recent PlayStation Day yielded a number of new reveals for PS3 titles. Killzone, Resistance, and MGS4 were the heavy hitters at the event, and here are their stories.

• Resistance 2 - Shown off by Insomniac, Resistance 2 promises an equal focus on community, campaign, co-op and competitive. This enhanced focus will see a redesign of myresistance.net to add in Facebook-like features, a more flushed out campaign mode, and a completely retooled multiplayer mode.
  
• Killzone 2 - A more "finalized" release date is now known for Killzone 2. February 2009 is the approximate date given for release. A new trailer was shown and might be found online sooner than you think.
  
• Metal Gear Solid 4 - Another in the "very highly anticipated sequel" line, Metal Gear Solid 4, has a confirmed bundle deal set to be released on June 12th across Europe. This is also in addition to the North American bundle deal with the PlayStation 3.

And this has been a brief look at the PlayStation Day news. When more details are known on any of this, we'll be sure and let you know.

Valve's Doug Lombardi recently gave a quick comment to CVG about why Left 4 Dead is only slated for the PC and Xbox 360 platforms.

We're not PS3 developers - we're doing PC and 360 like with Orange Box. EA came to us and said 'Wow, Orange box was an incredible project, can we do a PS3 version?'

If you mention a new Half-Life, people want to make as many versions of it as possible. If Left 4 Dead is big, then we may see a PS3 version later, or if and when we do a sequel, people may be more interested in that.

We're only 150 people, so there's only so many things we can do. But it's one of those things with partners, wanting to take on that investment and risk. I think until L4D is proven, you'll probably just see what we make in that franchise.

There you have it PS3 owners. If you want your own version of Left 4 Dead to call your own, you might want to start begging EA or another development studio to offer their services to Valve!

A small, but important patch was just released for Team Fortress 2. While you wait for your client to grab the update, take a look at the change log!

• Fixed unlimited UberCharge exploit
  
• Fixed charge effect getting stuck on the Kritzkrieg when changing class/weapons

Are you guys still longing for the day where I put up a "Counter-Strike: Source Updated" headline?

The earliest successful FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, was released 16 years ago to the day.

"It was an incredible sensation, really unlike anything gamers had seen before," said Jamie Madigan, who helps operate the GameSpy Network's 3D Action website. "You could move smoothly in 360 degrees. You felt like you were there."[...]

Wolfenstein 3D did more than define a genre. It also launched a company, id Software of Mesquite, Texas, which leveraged Wolfenstein 3D's success into a franchise of wildly successful first-person shooters, including the seminal Doom and Quake series.

So, happy birthday to you Wolfenstein 3D! You launched the FPS genre into what it is today, spawned a number of extremely memorable and timeless classics in the form of Doom and Quake, and will forever live on in our hearts as the best Nazi eliminating FPS ever.

Audiosurf just released a major update that introduces last.fm support to the game.

The FM update introduces a host of new features and content including last.fm audioscrobbling, the ability to run Audiosurf as a music visualizer, scoreboard comments, and much more. Many of these new features were produced as a direct result of community requests and feedback.

To those unfamiliar with last.fm, it allows for users to keep track of the music they listen to on the media player of their choice, stream music from a number of artists, and find others with your similar tastes in music.

This is just one significant addition in this update, with another being the addition of increased mod support. A number of mods can be found at the Audiosurf site. The full change log is below, and it is quite the list.

New features

• last.fm audioscrobbling
  
• Comments tab on every song's scoreboard
  
• Customized player news on the song loading screen (when friends last played, songs you're champion of, etc...)
  
• Command interface for 3rd party mod apps (extensions)

[ more changes, kekeke (378 more words) ]

• New hover vehicle for Eraser Elite
  
• Added Vegas ability: generate a random powerup every 60 seconds
  
• You can play freeride as a music visualizer on your desktop while other applications are running, and it will automatically advance to the next song in your current folder or current m3u playlist
  
• Improved Strategy Guide look
  
• Eraser Elite now has 8 rows of tiles (like Pusher Elite)
  
• Score browser now refreshes popular songs when you first open it
  
• Added blending to top and bottom black frame in gameplay
  
• Add a graphic to display your chain reaction multiplier at the bottom of the screen
  
• Longer-lasting fireworks on enhanced detail
  
• Maximum song length extended to 60 minutes
  
• Made additional texture mods possible (tiles, tileflyups, cliff)
  
• If you put a traffic.png file in the textures folder it will be used for traffic instead of blocks
  
• Going back in song browser remembers mousewheel scroll position
  
• Sound effect theme is saved between play sessions
  
• Checkbox added to stop being shown character videos
  
• Added OK button to the loading/news page. Gives you more time to read the news on the loading page if you want it
  
• No longer automatically goes fullscreen when maximizing
  
• X360 controller can now pause/resume play with the Start button
  
  Fixes
  
• Restored view track shapes and report button on scoreboard
  
• Fixed: unknown song text showing over strategy guide
  
• Chosen fullscreen resolution is now remembered between sessions
  
• Fixed Pusher Elite bonus text from 25% to 100% on loading screen
  
• Moved the "Drill" away from the track (would sometimes overlap)
  
• Fixed "Next Song" button when used with Recently Played Songs list
  
• Fixed: Resizing window could make the track temporarily disappear
  
• Fixed: was possible to click buttons on the scoreboard screen before getting there
  
• Block captures that force an early match collection are no longer lost
  
• Greatly reduced delay after resuming from a pause
  
• Fixed: menu background animation could get stuck
  
• Personal best is now stored correctly when playing from an m3u playlist
  
• Playlist files (m3u) now correctly ignore all comments and http paths
  
• Adjusted mouse sensitivity scaler
  
• Restored single-cursor on menu screens