This Week in Gaming - December 19th - January 16th
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16 Jan 2012, 20:09
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News
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. The past month has seen the Christmas & New Year period which is notoriously quiet for gaming news or major competitions - combine that with the Community Awards, CF 4 Beta Launch and the ET Guide - and we have a months worth of news to look back on!
Gaming News
The last time I wrote this newspost was one month ago and the leading story was that of SOPA, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. I've posted a column which you can read here, summarising the ongoing SOPA-saga, but the upshot is that SOPA is a bill which is making all the headlines as it jeopardises the internet as we know it. Today, January 16th it was announced that SOPA is set to be shelved after American President Barack Obama publicly stated that he would not support it. The trick here is that SOPA has a sister bill, known as PIPA, which is slightly less radical and has flown under the radar thanks to the public awareness of SOPA. So the saga doesn't end here. Check the column.
In other news, Skyrim was the UK Christmas #1 and became the first non-EA or Activision game in 8 years to do so.
The amazing platformer Bastion won over 70 awards and has sold over 500,000 copies. This indie title has been featured many times on Crossfire before and if you've never heard of it, make sure you check it out. It's a great little game and well worth your time.
Steam announced their 100% growth for the 7th consecutive year. The online distribution service will be a household name for the majority of users on Crossfire and with a bit of luck, we might be seeing Enemy Territory on Steam in the future.
Notable Releases
The Christmas and New Year period is a notoriously quiet time for gaming releases so we can take a moment to look forward to some of the most hyped PC games due for release in 2012:
- Diablo 3 (?)
- World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
- Mass Effect 3
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Metal Gear Solid: Rising
- GRID 2
- Beyond Good and Evil
- Fallout Online
- Far Cry 3
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- DOTA 2
What have I missed?
For all the latest gaming news check out crossfire.nu - a gaming community.
I'd give Diablo 3, GTA V and CS:GO a shot.
I recall you or someone else posting something a while ago about getting ET in Steam.. Was there any way we could help?
ur list of noteable releases is cleary not supposed to name all titles comming up but i think stuff like borderlands 2, Max Payne 3, Hitman Absolution, Bioshock Infinite, Metro Last Light, Guild Wars 2 and so on should be on there. maybe even indie titles like torchlight 2
Borderlands 2
Hitman Absolution
Halo 4?
Guild Wars 2
Tomb Raider
A new Assassins Creed title is due out if you believe the rumours too, but it wont follow Ezio
List could go on really
December 19th - January 16th
long week? :p
Kind of want someone like Blizzards dev team (although I dislike Blizzard :D) to produce a team based shooter, Sc2 if I recall was developed for like 5+ years, I saw showmatches of it 3 years before release and the beta was seemingly a year or so too. They wanted it released in a good state - something that team based fps titles have never had for MP except for a few (cod2 / cod4 / rtcw)
The only two real follower-heavy franchises Bethesda has are Skyrim and Fallout, both Singleplayer and non-competitive and somewhat casual games. Since they both sold so well Bethesda was of course eager to sort bugs out. Blink and Rage on the other hand were kinda shots in the dark. They didn't gather the prior excitement Bethesda probably hoped for.
The only real FPS equivalent I see that could achieve what Blizzard has been doing for more than a decade now is CS:GO. It has a huge fanbase that is willing to participate to make a good game. However, after having seen some videos it seems to be worse, community-wise, than the 1:1 revamp CS:Source was. It seems more casualized with no longevity in mind at all. You can't expect people to play the same game for over 10 years, just with better graphics.
While Blizzard redid all the units in SC2 to create an entirely new game mechanic, all Valve did is to add a few shaders and some unlockable guns.
Needless to say, all the love I had for Valve after HL2 will probably be gone after the release of CS:GO.
I checked CS:GO, indeed - wtf :D it looks, imo, worse then CS:S which was exactly like this seems to be, a graphics upgrade... noice.
source
such a shame, was real fun most of the time
I like them at @ facebook so i know this! :P
Edit: Misread :|
And agreed, having my hopes up high :)
For the statistics - Waki is wating for it too
you wish