Warez Connect

Panzer Corps Is Now Available

2011-07-11T15:42:18Z

Epsom, UK – Slitherine (www.slitherine.com), Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com), and The Lordz Games Studio (www.thelordzgamesstudio.com) are thrilled to announce that their long-anticipated next-generation World War II strategy game, Panzer Corps, is now available!

There have been plenty of exciting details and features about Panzer Corps leading up to the release, such as an AAR, screenshot packs, a gameplay video and teaser trailer, plus plenty of preview coverage as well. Panzer Corps has also been avidly covered by the press. Gamer’s Hall said, “Panzer Corps seems to combine the strengths of the original [Panzer General] with modern amenities.” DigitallyDownloaded.net also agreed, “It’s great to see Panzer General’s spirit lives on!”

Panzer Corps will feature 26 scenarios on 21 unique maps, covering most major battles of the European Theatre of World War II and including a few hypothetical ‘what if’ scenarios based on your actions.

400 unit types, divided into 19 unit classes with 20 detailed parameters to identify units abilities, 17 terrain types affecting gameplay in various way. Panzer Corps will celebrate the glory days of strategy gaming with the aim of attracting new players to the genre;
Campaign: all 26 scenarios are combined into a large campaign tree with several entry points at various stages of the war. Depending on the outcome of each battle (decisive victory, marginal victory or defeat), the player will be faced with different challenges and a progress along different parts of the campaign tree;
Nations: all major and many minor nations represented: Germany, Italy, Poland, France, Great Britain, USA, USSR, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Albania, Romania, Greece and more.
Core units that travel with you throughout the campaign gaining experience and that can be upgraded as new weapon technologies become available.

Get more information on Panzer Corps from its official on the Slitherine site or on the Matrix Games site.

ABOUT SLITHERINE LTD. AND MATRIX GAMES LTD.
Slitherine Ltd. and Matrix Games Ltd. are the world’s leading video games producers and publishers of historical and strategy titles. Since 2000, both brands have published literally hundreds of games with many award-winning titles in their portfolio spanning all digital and console platforms. Slitherine is also involved with book publishing, and board gaming and work with a wide array of key licensing partners such as HISTORY, MILITARY HISTORY, Horrible Histories, Showtime, BBC, Osprey, Scholastic, Casemate Publishing and many others to deliver the best blend of historical accuracy in an exciting and entertaining way. The two companies merged in May 2010 and formed the world’s largest organization specializing in this niche but important market sector. Slitherine’s mission over the coming years is to lead the way in innovation and growth in this expanding industry sector.

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Driver: San Francisco – Multiplayer Mayhem

2011-07-11T15:40:20Z

It’s safe to say that most people were taken aback by the change-up of core mechanics in Ubisoft’s latest game in the long-enduring Driver franchise. After the lukewarm reception for the most recent title in the series, developer Ubisoft Reflections realised it needed to do something drastic to stand apart from other similar games on the market, and it has done just that with its new ‘spiritual shifting’ gameplay. Players will be able to shift between any of the hundred or so cars on the road in the middle of a chase, a little like the agents shift around to different cars in The Matrix Reloaded. Yes it’s quite crazy.

We recently had a chance to play the game’s ‘Tag’ multiplayer mode, which has players stealing a crown and trying to hold on to it for a total of 100 seconds, while other players try to nab it by ramming into you. We played several games of the ‘Tag’ mode and can confirm that this new style of gameplay is quite fun and original, and will make for some great edge-of-your-seat chases with your mates. While it might take a few matches to get the hang of things, we thought we’d give you all a few pointers ahead of the game’s release, both to help you dominate when you pick up Driver: San Francisco and to highlight how the new mechanics shift things up.

1) Shift Far Ahead

A quick tap of R1 (or RB) will shoot your viewpoint up over the car you happen to be chasing. To have any chance of catching up to it using the ability to shift, you will need to pick wisely. While you may see many suitably hotted-up cars within the target’s vicinity, shifting to one that’s too close may cause you to fall back again due to a lack of speed. Your best bet is to shift to a car that’s much further ahead but going in the same direction, so that you can build up enough speed to match your target as it drives near you.

Licensed cars – yes please!

2) Drive on the Wrong Side of the Road

If you become the target car, the best way to avoid people shifting up close to you and taking you down, is to immediately spin your car around and drive against traffic. If every car that’s near you is going in the opposite direction, it becomes extremely hard for other racers to shift near you, as they’ll have to stop and turn around, causing the distance between you and your pursuers to grow quickly.

Muscle cars are badass. Fact.

3) Hide Inside Alleyways

Ducking into an open alleyway is a great way to avoid other players shifting near you. Because there are no other cars in an alleyway, it becomes quite difficult for rivals to catch up to you. Their only options are to drive into the alleyway and follow you, or to try and figure out where the exit is and shift to a car there and just wait. There are lots of cool alleys in the game, some of which are actually quite long and will grant target cars a lot of time on the clock.

Convertibles are easier to shift into due to lack of top (not really).

4) Avoid Shifting Into Big Trucks

There are numerous large semi-trailers on the road in Driver: San Francisco, but good luck chasing your target down or getting away from your pursuers in one of those hulking monstrosities. These large vehicles are basically only good for one thing, and that is blocking traffic in front of the car you’re chasing.

If you need speed, avoid shifting into trucks.

5) Don’t Rush Into Shifts

While you have an unlimited amount of shifts that can be performed in each multiplayer mode’s allotted timeframe, you cannot shift again immediately if you screw up. You will have to wait a short amount of time before you will be able to perform another. This can cost you quite a bit in the middle of a match if you happen to shift into an unsatisfactory car, giving your target even more time to hold on to the crown and more time to gain distance from you. Make sure you choose wisely before making the (quantum) leap.

These are just some of the tactics that will help you become a Driver-master online when the game releases this September. We thought about including a sixth useful tactic, which is to spiritually channel Jason Statham each time you play, but really, that kind of goes without saying.

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The Future of Battlefield

2011-07-11T15:39:29Z

Sure, we’re getting a new Battlefield this year, and it looks phenomenal. DICE is making a concerted effort to take on Modern Warfare 3 while trying to retain its identity to longtime fans with the massive, well, battlefields that they’ve come to expect. But we’re not content to look forward to this October, when Battlefield 3 is set to arrive on PC and consoles. We’re looking to the future – the year of our Lord* 2016, five years from now. So what will Battlefield look like in the middle of what we expect will be a new console cycle and ridiculous new PC hardware? Here are some educated guesses.

*our Lord is inclusive, non-denominational, and is actually just a turn of phrase rather than an expression of support for any particular religion or faith. So take a deep breath. Read about video games.

Battlefield: World

Utilizing a partnership with Google Maps and Google Maps 3D, Battlefield World could, for a nominal fee, recreate actual real world environments a block at a time and render fully destructible versions of them on the fly. Ever wanted to run around your block in a video game? Or anywhere in the world? With integration like this, you’ll be able to.

Matching the actual specific tones and hues of said real world environments could be as simple as snapping a photo of a wall or floor, uploading it to EA’s server and assigning it to a specific set of textures in the game.

The level of detail and interactivity? That’ll depend on you. And how much you’re willing to pay, of course. For basic street maps with buildings that serve mainly as cover, think 5 bucks. For larger buildings with some semblance of interior architecture, think upwards of 10. But the cheaper maps will come with the ability to make basic changes, including the ability to add internal architecture to structures. It’s all about how much work EA is doing, and how much you’re willing to do. Providing EA with a basic blueprint of a building’s interior using one of their idealistically simple creation tools could mean recreating a familiar setting in game within minutes. And then you could invite all your friends over to tear it down with tanks, grenades and good old fashioned gunplay. This means you wouldn’t even just be limited to existing places but could ostensibly recreate any environment from anything ever, like the dystopian Los Angeles of Blade Runner or the war-torn streets of City of Men.

Now you’re probably (and justifiably) imagining that in the wrong hands, giving gamers the ability to virtually destroy their neighborhoods and local consumer and government buildings would be nothing but evil and irresponsible, but bear in mind that EA currently allows gamers to upload photos for character face mapping purposes and does so with a great state of policing and moderation. Which right now means much slimmer chances of running into a soldiers with penis noses or butt faces and in the future could mean mass scale, real world based wars with rules and regulations, stifled only by proper policing and your own creative limits. Fight hard, play fair and reap all the benefits.

Destruction Beyond the House of Cards

While Battlefield 3′s environmental damage looks fantastic, it’s actually a bit of a step backward from Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Damage is done to facades built onto structures, rather than the actual structures themselves – you’re not going to be bringing buildings down in Battlefield 3 like you did in Bad Company 2 outside of scripted moments in singleplayer and possible hard-coded objectives in multiplayer. But even Battlefield: Bad Company 2′s destruction was pre-cooked; you were blowing apart pieces designed to fall apart in a certain way.

But the next generation of Battlefield will be running on a new generation of consoles and PCs that will possess enormous amounts of physics processing power. It’s likely that this power will be able to simulate more believable (and fun) structure destruction that isn’t just limited to chipping the corners off buildings, or blowing apart a clever house of cards. Imagine cleverly setting up a chain reaction of explosions, and sending a neighboring highrise falling into the enemy’s base. This is what we want.

Battlefield: Mercenaries

Battlefield has always been about big maps and lots of players, but those levels have been isolated, little chunks of the world. This year’s Battlefield 3 campaign is the same, with limited environments dotted around the Middle East. But what if the battle in Battlefield was actually multiple theaters around the world, places you could choose to go when you liked? And what if when you got there, it was an open-world style city, with multiple objectives you could take on with your friends?

EA owns the Mercenaries license. While the second Mercenaries title was tepidly received, both games did cool, interesting things with the open world action formula, and both involved destruction. Grounding that series in Battlefield’s more realistic style but keeping the destruction and open world. And to build on both franchises, the world is yours to travel as you like, with multiple destinations, all supporting co-op support for your fireteams. Oh, and get used to 8 player co-op, with a heavy focus on class roles.

2016 may seem light years away, but brushing aside any chance of some catastrophic event that wipes out video games as we know them (we’re looking at you, Angry Birds) it’s pretty safe to say that the Battlefield will still be here. Where do you want the future of shooters to go? Tell us in the comments and we’ll dig up this article in five years and see how right you were.

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Metro: Last Light: The Basics

2011-06-22T01:49:50Z

Metro: Last Light is the sequel to the 2010 first person shooter, Metro 2033. It’s being developed by 4A Games, the studio behind the original. The game takes place right after the first one, and stars the same character, Artyom. For the sequel the developers are hard at work improving on the problems gamers had with the first title.

Metro 2033: Last Light Gameplay Video

Whoa there’s some Chernobyl sh– up in here.
Metro: Last Light is set about 20 years in the future, where a nuclear war has wiped out Russia. Mutants roam the crumbling, destroyed cities above ground, and humans have taken refuge in the subways below ground. Each station on the subway route has become a city-state, and civil war is breaking out among the inhabitants. Artyom has to stop groups like the Reich, a neo-nazi faction from bringing down the f—ed up, but functional, society below ground.

4A Games has shown they can make a beautiful, post-apocalyptic environment and Metro: Last Light is looking even better than its prequel. Much of Metro: Last Light takes place underground. You move through tunnel systems and ride on trains, shooting psychopaths as you barrel through the darkness.

Metro: Last Light looks like a survival horror game
The Metro series is largely an FPS, but it is also a survival horror game. There are stealth elements, scary mutants, and limited ammo. Metro: Last Light will keep this alive. 4A has shown off some of their stealth moments like being able to shoot out lightbulbs to shroud yourself in darkness.

Metro 2033: Last Light Teaser Trailer

Is there multiplayer this time?
There is! While 4A Games has not shown off the multiplayer component, they did promise one, in addition to the full single player campaign.

Can I read this story instead of play it?
Metro 2033 was based on a novel of the same name written by Dmitry Glukhovsky. While the book does have a sequel, Metro 2034, it is not the basis for Metro: Last Light’s plot. 4A Games is going a different route with the story.

Am I weird if I think those gasmasks are kinda hot?
Yes. But I found quite a few people like you when I wore the official Metro: Last Light gas mask swag around E3. People are pretty freaking weird, but that’s awesome.

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Battlefield 3: The Basics

2011-06-22T01:48:59Z

In late 2011 DICE is going to release the next numbered version of its popular Battlefield franchise. First details were unveiled in Game Informer magazine’s 215th issue.

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Rise of Immortals: Introducing Vezin

2011-06-22T01:47:27Z

For the last couple years, DotA veterans and newcomers to the multiplayer online battle arena genre have typically fallen into one of two schools — League of Legends fans, and Heroes of Newerth fans. But the MOBA genre, new as it is, is attracting a lot of attention from developers who want to get in on this sweet, minion-slaying action. Rise of Immortals from Petroglyph is one such game, and we are lucky enough to introduce you to one of the titular Immortals. His name is Lord Vezin, Wraith of Graxia, and he’s an area-of-effect damage dealer.

Vezin brings five abilities to the fray, each with a ghastly twist.

His first ability, Deathly Presence, comes with a passive and an active component. Passively Vezin gives all his teammates “spell siphon,” or the ability to absorb health from spell damage. When Vezin activates Deathly Presence he deals damage, drains the enemy’s defense and blocks all mana regeneration effects on that character. It’s not hard to imagine this being particularly potent at early levels to punish mages who drain their mana pools too quickly.

Unholy Spore, Vezin’s second ability, can be used in two ways. If Vezin targets an ally it imbues them with a damage-dealing aura and increased mana regeneration. If Vezin targets an enemy, it will deal damage, drain the target’s mana and prevent them from casting for a short while. This, to my mind, makes Vezin a very potent counter-caster. Being able to not only prevent enemies from regenerating mana but actively draining it from them will ensure that casters will avoid you like the plague early on.

That’s him on the left there.

Next up in Vezin’s repertoire is Vortex. Vortex creates a swirling vortex (imagine that!) that pulls enemies into its center, dealing magical damage every second. Combining this with an ally’s AoE skills could lead to a brutally powerful trap. Especially if you followed it up with…

…Arena of Death! With this ability, Vezin summons a ring of wraiths. If an enemy tries to enter or exit that ring they’ll take magic damage and will be stunned for a short duration. Arena of Death combines extremely well with his final ability, obtained after your character reaches level 25 in a game.

That ability? Realm of Death. With this final ability, Lord Vezin vanishes and teleports to a target location, conjuring another powerful vortex around him. While the ability is active, Vezin is immune to damage, but he can’t perform any other abilities. It also puts him right in the center of the action, so if enemies don’t run or die from Realm of Death then they’ll likely wait around for some vengeance. Posing enemies with a choice between staying in the Realm of Death AoE or running into the damage and stun from Arena of Death is a highly-advisable method of playing Vezin.

I’m told that Vezin makes a good jungler (probably due to the passive spell siphon from his first skill) but truly makes his mark in late-game team fights, with potent crowd control and strong AoE damage. You’ll be able to try him for yourself when Rise of the Immortals enters open beta very soon.

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League of Legends: The Basics

2011-06-22T01:46:33Z

League of Legends, or LoL for short, is a free-to-play competitive multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA) game from Riot Games in the same vein as the Warcraft III mod DotA.

I’m not familiar with DotA so that doesn’t help. What’s a game of League of Legends like?

Two teams of five champions face off against each other in a battlefield with three lanes — a top lane (top), a middle lane (mid), and a bottom lane (bot) — with defensive turrets along each lane. At regular intervals, simple AI-controlled enemies called “minions” walk down the lane from each base, meeting in the middle and fighting the opponent’s or any nearby enemy champions. Players controlling champions try to get experience and gold from slaying the enemy’s minions while preventing the enemy from doing the same. Killing an enemy player rewards a lot of experience and gold and puts them out of action for a while. Eventually one team pushes into the other’s base and destroys their Nexus, winning the game.

League of Legends Spotlights are surprisingly entertaining.

Sounds complicated!

It’s actually not as complicated as it sounds. The true difficulty stems from learning how to play and how to play against over 70 different champions, and what items to buy for them. The difference between a good player and a bad player is in the nuances of how each champion is played. There are a lot of subtle tricks that each champion can exploit and learning them can take a long time.

70 champions sounds like a lot.

It is! But you won’t have access to that many immediately. Every week a selection of 10 champions is chosen as being freely available to all players. That helps minimize the otherwise steep curve of learning all those champions. Riot also adds a new champion to the roster approximately every two weeks, which tends to keep the game fresh for players who have been a part of the community for a long time.

How is the community? Will they mind if I’m new and don’t know what I am doing?

Yes! Like most competitive multiplayer games, people can be jerks if you’re still learning. You will probably be harassed by teammates pretty regularly until you get a hold of the basics, and even then there’s a high chance that you’ll be stuck in a match with an unsavory player. However, Riot has introduced “The Tribunal” which is a community-driven moderating tool. Players reported for harassment or other unseemly behavior have their chatlogs saved and their “case” opened up to judgement. If the community deems their behavior to be against the code of conduct, they’ll be banned for anywhere from a few hours to permanently. Players who correctly use The Tribunal function are rewarded. In time, Riot hopes this tool will clean up the community and weed out volatile players early.

Another Spotlight. This one’s for Jarvan IV.

Cool. Does it take long to get into a game?

It takes about 30 seconds on average, so not really. The player base is massive, so finding a game is never difficult.

And it’s free? Where’s the catch?

The “catch,” if there is one, is that buying champions with in-game currency (Influence Points or IP) can take a while, especially for new or highly sought-after champions, so purchasable RP (or Riot Points) serves as an immediate alternative for people who don’t mind dropping some dough. Alternate costumes for champions can also only be bought with RP, so if you want to pimp out your characters then you have to spend a little.

Is not spending money a viable option?

Absolutely. There is nothing you can buy that improves your chances of victory, and the game is a blast whether you spend money or not. I speak from experience here.

Where can I give it a whirl?

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The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff Incoming This Summer

2011-06-22T01:45:27Z

If everybody in the U.S. just was as consumption-crazy as the Sims, we’d never have an economic crisis ever.

The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff (which sounds like a placeholder name that never got replaced) will be coming out this July 26. The pack will feature new prebuilt lots, high-tech gym equipment, playground equipment, library shelving, and ever-popular clothes and hairstyles.

You can check out a gallery of some of the new items on The Sims 3 website.

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Rift: The Waves of Madness Out Next Week

2011-06-22T01:44:21Z

When Rift patch 1.3, The Waves of Madness, lands on hard drives worldwide next week, players will be treated to some brand new content, a couple new features and — and this is the cool part — free weekly server transfers for all characters.

On the 22nd, when players log in to Rift, the festivities begin. Telara will be caught in a war between the Plane of Death and the Plane of Water. A world-wide event which every player regardless of level has the potential to be involved in will revolve around this war, and will culminate in an event that can be retriggered for players who miss it. The event will progress through multiple stages, and at each stage players worldwide will be able to perform quests unique to the event. Along with the event is a new raid instance, with seven boss encounters.

Players not yet at the level cap, or not into raiding, might enjoy the addition of a guild bank. The bank has five pages of 105 slots each.

Giant. Enemy. Crab.
Giant. Enemy. Crab.

The most exciting addition, however, is the weekly free server transfers. Once a week any character may jump to any server, with exceptions based on the population or faction balance of a server (Defiants can’t go to a server where Defiants already massively outnumber Guardians, for example). The process of swapping servers is incredibly easy and done entirely in-game. It’s also instantaneous.

I asked developers at Trion Worlds whether they feared that the ease of server-swapping might impact the economy, and was told that they can tweak certain aspects of the game on the fly to accommodate. And if you’re worried that your guild leader might server-swap on you will all the guild goods, well, Trion advises that you choose a guild with a better leader.

Still playing Rift? Looking forward to messing with server-swapping? Let us know what you think of patch 1.3 below!

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Portal 2 Music Video Contest Announced

2011-06-22T01:43:34Z

Valve, creator of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source) and popular recording artist The National, today announced a music video making contest based on The National’s song “Exile Vilify” which is featured in Valve’s best-selling game, Portal 2.

Starting today and running until midnight July 15th, the contest asks the community to make a music video for the song “Exile Vilify” using whatever visuals they choose.

Once aspiring video directors have completed their work, they may submit their videos on YouTube using the tag PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE. After the deadline, Valve, The National, and the community will select the winner who will win a prize package including a guitar autographed by The National plus a collection of Portal 2 merchandise.

“Exile Vilify” was penned by The National specifically for Portal 2, which is the year’s highest rated multiplatform game release.

Portal 2 is available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac. For more information about Portal 2, please visit thinkwithportals.com. For more information regarding the Portal 2 Music Video Contest, please visit thinkwithportals.com.

About The National
High Violet is The National’s most acclaimed and fastest-selling album to date. Released in May 2010, it debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200, and prompted the New York Times to claim “The National is in a league of its own.” The band has toured non-stop since the album’s release, with highlights that include sold out shows at Radio City Music Hall and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park; a concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to benefit the Red Hot Organization, with accompanying live webcast on Youtube and Vevo directed by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus; and mainstage performances at Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, and Lollapalooza, where they “seduced everyone” according to USA Today. For more information on The National, please visit www.americanmary.com.

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