Cyanide Studio Announces Blood Bowl and Future Plans

The game developer Cyanide Studio has announced some general plans for their company in the next year including ‘Blood Bowl’. Here is a snip:

2007 has been “full speed ahead” at Cyanide! The studio took on an international dimension with the opening of a facility in Montreal, Canada and it cast aside its “PC/sport” mantle to release games for both the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS platforms as well as making a successful incursion into the hack ‘n’ slash genre with Loki.

Cyanide’s Canadian studio (Amusement Cyanide Inc.) is currently working on several exciting projects. The most complex is the development of a dynamic 3D animation engine which integrates physical and biomechanical laws under the control of a powerful artificial intelligence system. The engine will generate real-life, real-time character behaviour for collisions, falls, tackles, kicks, punches, etc which take into account all the forces governing the game environment. The resulting engine will be used in future Cyanide games like Blood Bowl, which is to be published by Focus Home Interactive, as well as being licensed to other small and medium-sized game studios, worldwide. In addition to the animation engine, the Canadian studio is working on two of Cyanide’s current games: an add-on to the recently released hack ‘n slash RPG - Loki - as well as a version of Blood Bowl (see below) for the Nintendo DS.

Game development is continuing apace inside Cyanide’s French HQ. Based in Nanterre, in the west of Paris, the various teams are working on a wide variety of projects. The 2008 edition of the perennial favorite Pro Cycling Manager is well underway and it will be released, as usual, just before the start of the Tour de France (June 2008). Other teams are busy with the adaptation of Blood Bowl to the PC and console platforms (Xbox 360, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS). This will be a faithful representation of Games Workshop’s board game in which insane warriors of the Warhammer fantasy universe compete in a “blood sport” that vaguely resembles American football. Release is scheduled for late 2008. At the same time a multiplayer action/RTS game will be brought to market. Set in a dungeon environment where players embody greedy adventurers looking for gold and glory, it is by far the most comical universe ever created by Cyanide.

TimeShift Multiplayer Demo Download

A new demo is now available for TimeShift, focusing on the multiplayer side of Saber Interactive’s 4D shooter. This is the first sample of the game’s multiplayer support.

The 1010 MB download is available on:

• ActionTrip
• ComputerGames.ro
• FileFront
• Fileshack
• Gamer’s Hell

Ghostbusters Teaser Trailer

Vivendi Games is partnering with Sony Pictures to try and turn “Ghostbusters” into a videogame franchise. First title in what the publisher hopes will be a series of “Ghostbusters” games is set for release in fall ‘08 from Vivendi’s Sierra label. I don’t know why I am even posting this you will understand after you watch the vide.

Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory Demo Download

A Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory demo the third in the RTS series Sudden Strike. New in Sudden Strike 3 is the Next7 graphics engine for large-scale air and naval battles. The demo is a 270 MB download, which is available on:

• 4players.de
• ActionTrip
• AtomicGamer
• ComputerGames.ro
• FanGaming
• FileFront
• FilePlanet
• Gamer’s Hell

Universe at War: Earth Assault Demo Download

A demo for Universe at War: Earth Assault has been released, an upcoming sci-fi RTS game from developer Petroglyph and publisher Sega.

The demo, which contains a tutorial and two single player missions, can be downloaded at:

• 4players.de
• ActionTrip
• AtomicGamer
• ComputerGames.ro
• FanGaming
• FileFront
• FileShack
• Gamer’s Hell

Ghostbusters to be on six platforms by two developers

Variety has revealed even more information about the game based on the unmade Ghostbusters sequel. Apparently, in addition to the talents of the original Ghostbusters, Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddmore, and Annie Potts, who played Janine Melnitz, will also be lending their talents. The article also says the game will be available on all the major platforms, with the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions being developed by Terminal Reality aimed at the “core gamer demographic,” and another version being developed by Red Fly Studio will develop a version for “families and casual gamers” for the PS2, Wii and DS.Terminal Reality, in case you aren’t familiar with the name, developed Terminal Velocity (a great DOS game), the Aeon Flux game, Blood Rayne and the Metal Slug Anthology. Red Fly Studio has started developing only one other game, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (I shit you not), though their about page shows some pretty impressive credits, including Deus Ex, Anachronox and the aforementioned Blood Rayne.

More players from the movies does up the chance of Ghostbusters goodness, but with two developers working on games for a total of six platforms, the liklihood these games will be anything more than a “But you used to love Ghostbusters!” holiday bargain bin title plummets much farther than Winston or Janine could hope to reach. Still, gotta keep the faith. Mushroom Men looks just wacky enough to be actually interesting, so you never know. Just have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.

(Found via Kotaku).

ATARI Stops Game Development

Atari CEO has resigned as the ailing publisher announces that they’ve ceased any game development. They will still publish titles apparently. Atari is only trying to put a positive spin on a really bad deal for us all.

Amidst concerns about the company’s lack of funds and ability to continue its business, Atari officials announced today that the publisher will “re-focus its operations on publishing and distribution in North America, completing its withdrawal from the production business.”

According to the release, Atari’s operations going forward “will involve title acquisition, sales and marketing, and physical distribution of products from [Infogrames] IESA, its 51% shareholder, and other selected partners.”

Atari has agreed in principle to terminate its Production Services Agreement with IESA in the near future. The company is planning to transfer certain employees and contract other staff on a project basis for a limited period of time. Unfortunately for Atari’s employees, this restructuring initiative will also reduce the company’s current workforce “in order to re-align the Company’s cost structure with its on-going business base.”

Along with the withdrawal from production, Atari CEO David Pierce has also announced his resignation. Curtis G. Solsvig III, Chief Restructuring Officer, has been appointed interim CEO and will assume Pierce’s responsibilities for now. Atari said that an executive search for a new CEO has already been started.

Steam Update and Updated Hardware Survey

Another update to Steam was posted this evening. Here’s the latest fix list:

In addition to the fixes and tweaks included (see full list below), this release also includes a new Steam Hardware Survey, which is optional for all using Steam. Results from the Spring 2007 survey may be found here. Results from the current survey may be tracked here.

The specific changes include:

Steam Client
• Fixed preloaded versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being unable to launch
• Allow two shortcuts to use the same executable
• Added ability to create desktop shortcuts for shortcut apps
• Fixed Friends notifications being able to go top-most over the top of the tray context menu
• Fixed case where games would only launch in English
• Fixed Friends names sometimes being used for Clan names, or vice versa
• Fixed a rare crash when attempting to install a game
• Fixed Friends bug where the last Friend would not be shown
• Fixed the tray context menu to be easily dismissed without actually making a menu selection
• Fixed Half-Life 2: Deathmatch crowbar swing speed difference between Windows and Linux servers
• Fixed a potential hang bug in the server browser
• Fixed certain filenames not protected by sv_pure
• Fixed CSoundEnt spam on the server with high numbers of player slots on a server
• Fixed Half-Life 2: Deathmatch chat bug on Linux servers
• Minor optimization to the askconnect panel
• Fixed IP address column reporting IPs backwards
• Security fix for file transfers as reported by James Gray
• Fixed players able to make their name disappear in the scoreboard by setting it to “~~ ~” in the options panels

SteelSeries Announce 7G Gaming Keyboard

SteelSeries today announced the 7G Professional Gaming Keyboard, but the price is a killer at $150 Dollars it is not your normal run of the mill keyboard.

Copenhagen, Denmark - November 13th, 2007 — SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear, today announced the debut of the new 7G keyboard, the latest addition to the company’s growing portfolio of gaming peripherals. The SteelSeries 7G is a professional gaming keyboard aimed exclusively at professional and competitive gamers.

The SteelSeries 7G sets a new industry standard for gaming keyboards by allowing users to perform a new level of detailed and advanced key combinations. By utilizing the most powerful PS/2 buffer-system ever created for a gaming keyboard, the 7G redefines “anti-ghosting” by supporting as many simultaneous key press commands as there are keys on the keyboard. The keyboard features both PS/2 and USB connectors.

The combination of the powerful PS/2 buffer-system and 18K gold-plated mechanical switches, means that the SteelSeries 7G offers more Actions-Per-Minute than any other keyboard in the world. The keyboard was built specifically to offer gaming grade response times as well as an unmatched durability with a switch lifetime of 50 million operations.

The SteelSeries 7G keyboard is equipped with audio ports for headphone-out and microphone-in and features two port USB hub. In addition, the keyboard offers essential gaming features such as the compact SteelSeries Media Controls, which allows the user quick access to volume, mute and other audio controls.

“Somewhere the industry took a wrong turn when it came to gaming peripherals. It became more important to add colorful lighting and features that have no impact on professional gaming, than to create high quality products, ” says Tino Soelberg, Head of R&D for SteelSeries. “With the 7G keyboard, SteelSeries is following our company line of no-BS / no-nonsense, and to deliver a product that does what it’s supposed to do - help players perform better and faster in-game”.

“SteelSeries 7G was designed for players competing in the traditional eSports platforms, such as Counter-Strike, Warcraft III:TFT, World of Warcraft and many others,” says Jonas “Johnny R” Bollack, SteelSeries development team. “A keyboard has to help the player communicate with his computer by being responsive, durable, reliable and comfortable to use. SteelSeries 7G does just that.”

All keys are operated at 60g, with a travel time of roughly 50% compared to standard keyboards, making the SteelSeries 7G ideal for long gaming sessions. The mechanical tactile system is ergonomically designed to ensure ease-of-use, and the no-click switches makes the SteelSeries 7G both comfortable and pleasant to use.

The new SteelSeries 7G will be released in early December at an MRSP of $149.99 USD.

NVIDIA releases new Crysis driver 169.09

A new NVIDIA ForceWare beta driver version 169.09 is available today. This release promises “several game and application compatibility fixes,” and while this is a beta, the release notes also call this the “Recommended driver for Crysis.”