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Blizzard has released the latest update for its gracefully-aging Warcraft 3. The patch usurps version 1.21c and sets you up for version 1.22a. Included in the patch are balancing tweaks, new maps from contest winners, fixes to exploits, and much more. The patch can be downloaded from Battle.net or Fileshack and works for both the original Warcraft 3 and the Frozen Throne expansion.

Here's the changelog:

Features

• There is now a replay auto-save feature in the options menu. Replays are automatically saved to the "replay" folder.
  
• The game is now automatically saved in the event of a potential disconnect. These saved games are placed in the "save" folder.
  - Player color selection can now be limited by the number of players in the game using an option in the "Advanced Options" screen during game creation.
• Added an option to always show unit and building health bars.
  
• You can now enable and disable the display of minimap signals from players and other observers using chat commands: /showminimapsignals and /hideminimapsignals.
• Added a new in-game cheat "maxfps" to limit the maximum frame rate to the given number. Example: "maxfps 30" will set the maximum frame rate to 30 FPS.
  

Balancing changes

Human

• Scout Tower repair rate changed from 12 to 20.
• Knight damage increased: Attack cooldown changed from 1.50 to 1.40 and base damage increased from 25 to 28 (Average damage is 34).
  

Undead

• Increased Ziggurat base armor from 1 to 5.
  
• Reduced the build time of the Necropolis from 120 to 100.
  

Night Elf

• Reduce the Orb of venom poison duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
• Increase the experience gain from Dryads from Level 2 (40xp) to Level 3 (60 xp).
  

Fixes

• The cooldown on unlimited usable items (example: the staff of preservation) now persists after the item is dropped or traded.
  
• A cooldown exploit with potions has been fixed.
  
• When you unburrow a Crypt Fiend, its auto-cast will no longer be toggled off.
  
• An exploit bug in which items could lose their cooldowns when transferred between heroes has been fixed.
  
• Fixed DotA-specific sound effects on Intel Macs.
  
• Fixed sound falloff on Intel Macs. Distant sounds should now still be
  audible.
  

Maps

• New maps from contest winners: (2)MeltingValley, (2)RoadToStratholme, (4)CentaurGrove, (4)TidewaterGlades
  

Glen D. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

Remember last year's big news about Activision and Vivendi forming a merger? While the proposal sounds a financially enticing at US 27.50 per share offer, there are some shareholders who certainly aren't buying into the whole deal and even filed an injunction request in an attempt to halt the merger.

The injunction suit was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery last February by the Wayne County Employee's Retirement System. For those who aren't too familiar with law parlance (we don't blame you), an injunction is a court order that...yes, blocks a party from doing certain acts. In this case, from Activision merging with Vivendi.

However, Activision has recently issued a statement that the Delaware Court junked the request to stop the merger with Vivendi from happening, and has scheduled a stockholders meeting on July 8, where they will "consider and vote on proposals to approve the transaction." If everything goes as planned in the meeting, Activision and Vivendi will be known collectively as Activision Blizzard effective July 9.

So will we see any game tie-ins between Activision and Blizzard any time soon? How about making the World of Warcraft's Bard class come true?

Sally B. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

Remember last year's big news about Activision and Vivendi forming a merger? While the proposal sounds a financially enticing at US 27.50 per share offer, there are some shareholders who certainly aren't buying into the whole deal and even filed an injunction request in an attempt to halt the merger.

The injunction suit was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery last February by the Wayne County Employee's Retirement System. For those who aren't too familiar with law parlance (we don't blame you), an injunction is a court order that...yes, blocks a party from doing certain acts. In this case, from Activision merging with Vivendi.

However, Activision has recently issued a statement that the Delaware Court junked the request to stop the merger with Vivendi from happening, and has scheduled a stockholders meeting on July 8, where they will "consider and vote on proposals to approve the transaction." If everything goes as planned in the meeting, Activision and Vivendi will be known collectively as Activision Blizzard effective July 9.

So will we see any game tie-ins between Activision and Blizzard any time soon? How about making the World of Warcraft's Bard class come true?



Sally B. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

This game is based on the upcoming animated film that chronicles the adventures of a crew of astronaut primates who land on a strange new planet. PlayStation.com - New Game Releases on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

Those of you itching to get your hands on some Vegas lovin' will have to wait it out a bit longer. Midway Games has confirmed today that the game This is Vegas (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) will be pushed back to a 2009 release, instead of its original Winter launch.

Says a Midway representative,

Midway is committed to developing and publishing the best quality products. It is important for us to make sure the game was given the development time needed in order to make This is Vegas a triple-A videogame and must-have for all PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PS3 owners.

But of course. We totally understand. Keeping up with the life in the fast Nevada lane isn't a stroll in the park, after all. But for what it's worth, it will be appearing and playable at the upcoming E3 Media and Business Summit, so maybe you guys can check that out in the meantime.


Buy: [This is Vegas (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [This is Vegas (PS3)]
Buy: [This is Vegas (PC)]

Mabie A. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

If you've been even remotely tied to the PC gaming scene in the past decade or so, you'll know who Blizzard is and that their games command so much passion in the platform. When Diablo 3 was announced last week, everyone was excited but not all of us were happy after the gameplay demos.

The reason for a lot of people is the paradigm shift in art styles. The Diablo series has always been known for its dark art style and gothic look  which matched the game's storyline. A lot of people were surprised, and disappointed even, to see that Diablo 3's environments seem more light than ever before with cleaner textures and "cartoon-ish" character models.

Some have blamed the influence of the MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft for this shift in art styles that they labeled as "unrealistic". A petition has been raised by thousands of series fans to have Blizzard rethink its strategies in presentation.

Diablo 3 producer Keith Lee, however, offered Blizzard's side on the matter. In essence, the primary motivation for this change were the elements of contrast and diversity.

One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for Diablo 3 is the fact that color is your friend," he says. "We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast."

"A great analogy is like in Lord of the Rings not everything is dark," Lee adds. "It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn t allow you to have a lot of contrast.

The producer added that Blizzard gives great consideration to what its fans have to say. However, he remained adamant in their team's stand and concluded with the words we don t want everything to look the same and that s really what we re trying to aim for.

This blogger can see where the fans are coming from, but arguing about realism in art styles? Come on, the realism stopped the moment we fought our first skeletons in the original Diablo. What do you think?

Glen D. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

 

Sony PSP coder slicer4ever decided to get into ad-hoc development and we're seeing some sweet fruits of labor right here. The simple game Snake was revived and with an ad-hoc twist, slicer4ever decided to simply call it PSPSnake v.1.

The objectives in the game are pretty simple: eat as much of the onscreen food as you can and get longer. In the process, you have to outfox your opponent into ramming into you. Sounds simple, but it can be pretty addictive.

According to slicer4ever, there's no single player mode and when playing with a friend, the server has to be started ahead of the client to play successfully. A couple more releases are planned to shoot bugs and hopefully add new features.

That's about it. Try to find a buddy who'll play with you and download the game from the link below. You can also give slicer4ever feedback via the forum thread linked below. Enjoy!


Download: PSPSnake v.1
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forums

Glen D. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

Sony PSP homebrew developer SeanPaul223 certainly knows how to give us fun stuff, and his latest release on the QJ.NET Forums is no exception. He updated his LUA game Mario Kart 64v1- PSP Edition to version 2 and it has plenty of new stuff to show for.

New characters, maps, bug fixes, and other goodies were applied, so you can do rambunctious runs through the Moo Moo Farm with reckless abandon. The game is compatible with the 1.50, 3.xx, and 4.xx kernels, and it should work just fine with both slim and fat PSPs.

The only problem that the dev foresees could be freezing in some units when RAM runs low. In that event, you can report it to him by posting on his thread which you can find when you follow the "visit" link below.

In any case, these are the features for this update:

• 2 Modes: Time Challenge, and Race
• 6 Tracks : Koopa Troopa beach, Moo Moo Farm, Kalimari Desert, Toad's TurnSpike, Banshee BoardWalk, Frappe Snowland
• 4 characters available : Mario, Luigi, Link and Donkey Kong
  
• Best Time Recording Module
• New Code, New GFXs
• RAM Usage Reduced
• All Bugs Fixed
  

Linked below is the download site that SeanPaul223 used to host the file. It doesn't seem to work at this point, but you're welcome to check it out. As soon as this clears up, we'll host it over at DL.QJ.NET.

---

Update : We finally have the file on our sevrers. You can now download it at DL.QJ.NET by clicking on the download link below.

Download: Mario Kart 64v2- PSP Edition
Visit: QJ.NET PSP Development Forums

Glen D. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

Homebrew developer Torch's useful application, Hold, is updated once again (previous update here). For those who aren't familiar with the program yet, Hold is practically a plug-in that conserves your PSP's battery life. No more, no less.

In order to save battery juice, Hold switches off the screen (both the backlight and the LCD) and underclocks the PSP to 61MHz when the Hold switch is enabled.

What's new with this release? Here's the lowdown straight from the homebrew developer:

Fixed a bug where if the Hold switch was turned off and quickly turned on again, the PSP would not suspend after being left idle for a few minutes (the idle timeout didn't work).

As always, do not forget to go over the readme notes included in the download link below before you try and install Hold. Important installation procedures are written in the readme file. If you have any questions or comments concerning the program, then you can drop by his thread via the Visit link to get hold of Torch directly.

Download: Hold v2.1
Visit: QJ PSP Development Forums

Sally B. on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Uncategorized | No Comments -

As has been reported on many gaming blogs and websites, we have temporarily taken Firmware v2.40 offline. We’ve received a limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3. While our consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic, we are committed to providing the PS3 community with XMB access features delivered in the v2.40 update. We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up.

We’ll provide further information as necessary here on the Blog.

Patrick Seybold on July 2nd, 2008 | File Under Hardware, firmware, ps3 | No Comments -