PC

Modern Warfare 3 PC Players Unable to Create Elite Accounts

Some players who purchased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are still unable to create Call of Duty: Elite accounts to supplement their playing experience.  While Activision would like players from all platforms to be able to enjoy the benefits of creating an Elite account, PC gamers may be unable to enjoy those benefits indefinitely. Security is the reason currently being cited for why. BeachHead, which is responsible for the Elite service, states that they believe the PC platform is too vulnerable to those who would hack or otherwise exploit the system.

Magicka Receives Overhaul and New Content

Magicka, a popular ARPG in the vein of Diablo and Torchlight (But much sillier) just received a large engine overhaul and is going to get some brand-new content. Arrowhead Studios, the development team behind the game, are pushing out this update to address some of the larger concerns from their playerbase.

Free Watch: Everquest II

More and more MMORPG developers are choosing to go with a free-to-play model for their games. On top of that, more and more existing MMORPGs are being converted from their subscription models to free-to-play, the latest of which is going to be Everquest II.

Sony’s venerable Everquest series was the biggest thing in the MMORPG world prior to Blizzard taking the stage with World of Warcraft and Sony is trying to draw players back to the second game by launching both a new expansion and re-launching the game as a free-to-play title. You can watch the trailer for the re-launch below.

Blizzard Offering Some Post-Blizzcon Goodies

Blizzard have a bit of a reputation for the goodies they give to gamers who visit their yearly convention (Blizzcon) and in the aftermath of Blizzcon 2011 they have announced a slew of goodies available for purchase for people who attended or watched via a Blizzcon 2011 pay-per-view virtual pass.

The goodies themselves look quite cool and go beyond the usual game related merchandise. Gamers can get their hands on things like a Megablocks Battlecruiser and a variety of Murloc plushies. Gamers can even buy a World of Warcraft breifcase and a rather…colorful Diablo 3 shirt.

Everything You Need To Know About The History of Saints Row

In the predawn darkness between the release of GTA: San Andreas and GTA: IV, fans of open-world mayhem simulators found themselves in a bind.  A new generation of consoles was upon us, and yet the genre which contributed vastly to the success of Sony’s Playstation 2 and the coffers of Rockstar North had nothing to offer those who had upgraded.  There was simply a void.  For those gamers craving high-speed police pursuits through fictional cities, mowing down groups of pedestrians, and taking to the skies in stolen military hardware, options were limited.  Most had no other alternative than to turn back to San Andreas and patiently await Rockstar’s next entry in the series.  That’s when Volition, known primarily for their work on the Red Factionseries, stepped into the fray with their answer to the deficiency: Saints Row.

Age of Decadence November Update

Indie developers Iron Tower Studio, hard at work on their
upcoming RPG Age of Decadence, have posted a progress report for the month of
November on their official forums.  ITS’s
Vince not only describes how the beta testing process is moving along, but also
explores quest design in RPGs and how they’ve been implemented in AoD.

Among other things, the post explains how one of the goals
with AoD is to present quests or events to the player in a more organic
way.  Rather than being directly asked to
retrieve an item or tediously collect random raw ingredients or monster parts,
for instance, the player will instead encounter opportunities with meaningful
choices and branching outcomes.  A brief
conversation with a preacher may lead the player to takeover an entire
religion, while a seemingly innocuous ruined tower inhabited by squatters may
turn out to be much more.

Steam Forums Breached

On November 10^th, Gabe Newell issued a statement
on the Steam Forums’ main page advising users that the forums had been defaced,
accounts compromised, and that databases with sensitive information had been
accessed.  A news alert was also issued
through the Steam client.  The breached
databases included user names, purchase histories, email addresses, passwords,
and credit card information.