The PC Centric Extravaganza 6.17.08
Posted by Chris Evans on 06.17.2008
World of Goo, Colonization and much more in this weeks PC Centric Extravaganza
The PC Centric Extravaganza 17th June 2008
Hello and welcome to another edition of the PC Centric Extravaganza, the best place* for a roundup of the weeks best PC stories here on 411!
*Disclaimer – this is a statement by the author in an attempt at hyping up the column.
This week sees two Russian games release new media and start to kick off their media-hype in preparation for their releases later this year, bit rumours surrounding Portal 2 along with Colonization and a Call of Duty and much more! Lets get on with the show!
Colonization of Civilization
2K Games and Firaxis have today announced the Civilization IV: Colonization is due to arrive during the Autumn. Colonization is going to be a standalone expansion to Civilization IV and will be released on the PC and is going to take advantage of the Civilization IV engine. Colonization will give players the chance to relive the 1994 classic and conquer America with one of four European powers. Sid Meier quote:
"We've received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game."
Full Press Release:
2K Games Announces Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization™ for Games for Windows®
Sid Meier's Classic Colonization is recreated as a new stand-alone title in the Civilization IV® universe
2K Games Announces Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization™ for Games for Windows®
Sid Meier's Classic Colonization is recreated as a new stand-alone title in the Civilization IV® universe
New York, NY – June 9, 2008 – 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization™, the next offering in the award-winning Civilization IV® universe, is currently in development at 2K's world-renowned Firaxis Games development studio. Conceived from the ground up to take advantage of the Civilization IV engine, Colonization will be available fall 2008 exclusively for Games for Windows®.
"We've received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game."
In Colonization, players lead one of four European nations on a quest to conquer and rule the New World. Players will be challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland, discover the New World, and negotiate, trade and fight with both the natives and other nations as they acquire power and fight for freedom and independence.
As a complete reimagining of the 1994 classic, Colonization is a total conversion of Civilization IV that combines Civilization's addictive "just one more turn" gameplay with all-new graphics and features that add more depth to the franchise. New features, such as a brand-new interface, improved diplomacy options and the included modding tools ensure that Colonization will be the next great title from gaming's premier strategy game developer.
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization for Games for Windows will be available fall 2008 and has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information, please visit www.civilization.com
* Colonization does not require the original Civilization IV product in order to be played.
Portal 2 Rumours
Rumours are lovely things, while I have reported my fair share of rumours over these past few months, they have generally been based on some hard facts and historical precedent. That is a bit of my History and Politics learning coming through there. However what I am going to report now, I do just so you my constant reader, are aware of what is happening in regards to Portal 2.
Read on if you dare for possible spoilers be ahead!
The rumours regarding the story of Portal 2 stemmed firstly from this Kotaku report which informs us that a post on subscriber-only Breakdown Express was listing a voice acting job for Valve, specifically a job working on Portal 2.
An image of the ad (via that Kotaku post) follows, make of it what you will. Click for the full size image.
A further Kotaku posting reveals more about the in-game role to be played by 'Cave Johnson' a character who has been mentioned in Portal related things before.
I view this emerging rumour as just that, a plain old rumour. I personally do not see Valve doing something which so blatantly gives away the story behind Portal 2, but there you have it. Read the stuff and tell me what you think.
First Call of Duty 5 Info
The next Call of Duty, being developed by Treyarch, is dropping the numerical title and is going to be known as Call of Duty: World at War, according to CVG.
World at War is being developed on the CoD4 engine and is due to be released on all the consoles and the PC. It is promised to be scarier and grittier then any other Call of Duty game and is primarily set in the Pacific theatre of World War II. The AI has been totally reworked to fit in with the new environments and to follow tactics used by the Japanese troops during the war.
Expect more information to be released over the next few weeks as the hype machine for the new Call of Duty kicks in.
Spore – Loads of News
I'll be honest, I have been a bit lazy with my Spore news recently, I think that I have to make amends for that and I will start to do so now.
The first piece of news comes way of Shacknews which has revealed the minimum and recommended specs for Spore on the PC. They are really quite reasonable.
FOR WINDOWS XP
o 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
o 512 MB RAM
o A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
o At least 6 GB of hard drive space
FOR WINDOWS VISTA
o 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
o 768 MB RAM
o A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
o At least 6 GB of hard drive space
The Sporepedia has also gone live which allows you to go explore and witness what amazing critters people have been designing. Bear in mind the Creature Creator hasn't been released yet so these creations are mainly from Developers or Journalists.
That includes PC Gamer's Tim Edwards who made a giant cock-like creature. Very mature Tim, but you certainly won't be the only one doing something like that!
Finally via Videogaming 24/7 comes word from Ripten about a special bonus for any UK Pre-Order-ers.
"In the UK, anyone pre-ordering the full Spore game, due out on September 5, through either EA Store or via selected retailers (GAME and Zavvi) will get a disc containing 100 per cent of the CC (Creature Creator). The only cash they will part with is whatever the pre-order deposit is (typically a £5). This money is deducted from the retail price of Spore when it arrives in September, meaning that the full CC is to all intents and purposes free in the UK."
For those of you who don't want to get the full Creature Creator like that, or don't wish to pay for it, a limited version is going to be released on the 17th June which contains 25% of the components found in the full version. Expect more wacky Spore creatures to appear all over the internet next week!
GTA IV on PC – The Latest
Thanks to reader James it has emerged that Swiss retailer hitparade is listing a PC version of GTA IV as being released in October 2008. As previously reported citydisc is listing a PC version of GTA IV as being released on the 31st October of this year.
Cycling Manager – New Trailer and More
That is the latest trailer for Pro Cycling Manager 2008 the first game in the series which features track cycling! The game will be released on the 19th June for $49.99 and is available here.
Focus on Russia
Well less a ‘Focus' on Russia, more just some information on two Russian made games.
Cryostasis
It seems that with this latest trailer that Cryostasis is still alive. Being developed by Action Forms Ltd. and 1C Publishing we haven't seen anything of Cryostasis for many months, but with this new trailer can we expect to see something happening soon? Keep your eyes on the official site for anything new on this Russian Stalker and Bioshock inspired shooter.
Death Track Resurrection
Death Track Resurrection is, like Cryostasis a game from 1C Publishing and being developed by SkyFallen Entertainment. I can't tell from the new trailer whether Death Track is more about winning the race or destroying your opponents. It is due out in October.
World of Goo – Bits of News
The joy about 2D Boy, that makers of World of Goo, is that the two men behind the outfit, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel are oh so willing to respond to my questioning and interrogations.
On the question of when is World of Goo going to be released the boys were non-committal. Just the way they should be when it comes to release dates, it is always best to be vague until everything is set in stone.
For the release date, I think the most accurate thing to say is "this summer". We'd love to have a more specific date, but it depends on a bunch of external publishing/ratingsboard/translation/porting/etc factors. Who knew making a game would include so much other stuff you have to do... and wait for!
They have also revealed to me that they are hoping for a Steam release and also hope to use the SteamWorks tools. However there are no plans for a 360/PS3 release.
Yes, we hope to release on Steam as well, and ideally using SteamWorks.
Question:Any plans for a release the 360/PS3?
No, just Wii.
I am sure everyone remembers this 'Making Art For' video they released back in May.
While Ron and Kyle have plans for more of these (including one of Ron's super-fast coding) they have come to accept that a Level Editor is not a viable option.
We've considered putting out a level editor, but there is no simple way to make it an easy drag n' drop kind of thing. If anyone wants, we can post some example level xml files and the "compiler", so only the most brave and adventurous level designers armed with elite text editors can get their levels into the game.
Finally they also want to get the time to set up a 2D Boy shop with some awesome clothes. This originally started back in March but alas nothing new has happened since then.
Expect World of Goo to arrive this Summer then on the PC and Wii.
Big Late Updates!
Spore Creature Creator
That little dude is called Evo-Saur and he is my first creation in the recently leaked Spore Creature Creator. The Creature Creator reportedly was made available by EA but was quickly taken down. The files are currently floating about many torrent sites such as this one.
Note that currently it is only the free trial version of the Creature Creator that is out there. The trial version and the full version should be released on Wednesday (a delay of one day) according to this EA page.
I am currently having great fun tweaking around with my creatures such as my Crocasaur which is above. Even with the limited number of options available with this leaked trial version it is clear that people will have a great time playing about with it.
I think EA are making the right choice with releasing the Creature Creator early, it is going to allow people to explore and make crazy creatures before the full game comes out so that when people can get down to playing they know what to do and make creatures to actually play with, rather than jokes.
Team Fortress 2
Word reaches me from Rock, Paper, Shotgun regarding the release dates for the Pyro Upgrade and the latest 'Meet The' with Meet The Sniper.
Tuesday at 11am PDT/7pm GMT Meet The Sniper will be released to the waiting public. Rock, Paper, Shotgun informs us that this is one of the best 'Meet The' to date with some great laughs and back story development.
Thursday will see the mega-Pyro changes occur whereby players will be able to procure 35 new Pyro-specific achievements and earn three new unlockables. We can also expect to see two new user-created TF2 maps appear in this update.
All this leads up to Friday which will see the launch of a new Free Team Fortress 2 Weekend. From 11am PDT/7pm GMT on Friday anyone and everyone will be able to play Team Fortress 2.
