This Week in Gaming - November 29-6th

Each week I plan to cover the past week's latest news surrounding the world of gaming, including major tournament results, headline gaming news & headlines and notable games releases and updates.

Gaming News

EA might have the worst customer support of any publisher in the world but that doesn't stop their triple AAA titles from selling! Battlefield 3 sales have reached over 8 million. And while on the topic of AAA shooters, Modern Warfare 3 has been given a run for it's money by sandbox indie game Terraria, for the most played games on steam. The following graph are the player stats for the two games, with Terraria in yellow and Modern Warfare multi-player in blue:



For those of you who are unfamiliar with Terraria, it's essentially a 2D equivalent of Minecraft, only there is less emphasis on building and more emphasis on exploration and combat, with RPG elements sprinkled in. PC gamer published an excellent beginner's guide which can be found here. Terraria was released some time ago but the huge 1.1 patch added new items, monsters, bosses and biomes, causing renewed activity in the title. As well as this, it has been on sale for as little as $2 on Steam.

Speaking of Minecraft, face of the title Notch has stepped down as lead developer leaving his protege Jens Bergensten in charge. Under Notch's leadership, Minecraft has become one of the biggest gaming success stories of recent years and you can read my personal take on the game here. Any one of the 5 million plus Minecraft owners will undoubtedly have followed Notch and his work at some point in the extensive public alpha & beta processes, so to see him move onto new pastures is a sad sight, though he has assured his adoring fan-base that he will still have a role to play in the future of his creation. On Jens, Notch was quoted as saying:

Quote

We’ve been working together on Minecraft for a year now, and I’m amazed at how much in synch we two are when it comes to how to design the game. And when we don’t agree, we discuss it and something much better comes out at a result. He’s truly a great person to work with, and I feel very confident handing over the leadership of Minecraft to him.

And if there is enough interest we will be looking to re-host a Crossfire Minecraft server!

eSports

EG`PuMa became a back-to-back NASL Champion as he beat Liquid`HerO. The final was a repeat of the DreamHack Winter 2011 final from last week, with both players crushing everyone in their paths to square off once again to continue their recent rivalry. Fellow Evil Geniuses' player IdrA was swept 3-0 by PuMa. With this victory, PuMa becomes the second player to win two consecutive of a major tournament, following on from NesTea's back-to-back GSL's earlier in the year.

Notable Releases

In the Crossfire Poll for the best game in November I left out Assassin's Creed: Revelations and many users felt that it was a foolish omission. The PC version was released at the end of the month and is currently scoring 84/100 on Metacritic. In the latest edition of the series, players play as Ezio Auditore, as he walks in the footsteps of his legendary mentor, Altair. The game is set in Constantinople at the heart of the Ottoman Empire and includes all of the unique gameplay elements that fans of the series have grown to love.

Co-op platformer Trine 2 will be released on Steam tomorrow. The original Trine caught the eye of many adoring fans with it's breathtakingly beautiful graphics, environments and settings. The gameplay itself looked superb, making the most of co-operative team-work as you play one of three classes (wizard, warrior or thief) to conquer the puzzles and overcome the platforming. Unfortunately, the first game lacked online co-op (a ridiculous omission) and caused many players to put off their purchase. However, Trine 2 is here and features full multi-player online co-op. Some gameplay footage can be found here. If he hasn't completed it already, this game will definitely be on the wish-list of God of ET Azatej.

For all the latest gaming news check out crossfire.nu - a gaming community.