Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on Steam

Splash Damage's class-based shooter has finally hit Valve’s service, Steam. You can now pre-purchase the game for $49.95, but you’ll have to wait until October 9 to play it.

It's been a few days since the game was released in the US and Europe, but for those of us who live in regions where it hasn’t, this is great news. It might be the only way we can get our hands on it!

Quake Wars offers class-based multiplayer combat with a good variety of unlocks to keep things fresh. The game is set in the Quake universe, where the GDF (Global Defense Force) takes on the alien race 'Strogg'. I loved the demo and can’t wait to get my hands on the full game!

Unreal Tournament 3 Specs Revealed

Even though both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Unreal Tournament 3 have been delayed, the PC version is still on track for a November release and here are the system requirements.

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
512 Mbytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements:
2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GBytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Infinity Ward Offers Call of Duty 4 SP Demo

Developer Infinity Ward is offering gamers the world over a small piece of its latest game, in the form of a single player demo that can be grabbed right here.

This demo will give players a chance to try out an entire level from the game’s single player campaign. Here’s what your PC needs to pack in to run the game in all its minimalistic glory:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
RAM: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista)
Hard Drive: 8GB of free space
Video card: NVIDIA Geforce 6600 or better or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or better
Call of Duty 4 releases worldwide this November.

TimeShift Single Player Demo Out

After months of revamp and redesign, developer Saber Interactive (Will Rock) is ready to unleash its new and improved TimeShift demo to eager audiences.

The single player demo – which can be grabbed from our downloads section – will allow players to rewind, freeze and speed up time as they deem fit in a bid to save the world.

CoD 4 Indian Release Date Announced

After playing the single player demo of Call of Duty 4 last week, I’m sure most of you are itching to get to grips with the full version. The only problem is you’re going to have to wait till November 15 to get your hands on this bad boy.

All three versions of the game (Xbox360, PS3 and PC) should release on that date. While we don’t have exact figures as far as the Xbox360 and PS3 versions are concerned, the PC version will sell for Rs 1299.

GTA 4 Fix in San Andreas... Sort Of!

Today was the day I geared up for one of the most anticipated games of all times. Today was the day I prepared to sever all ties with family and friends to immerse myself in Liberty City for days on end. Today was the day I applied for a week-long sick leave from work to plaster myself to my Xbox 360 till I finished Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4).

As you can see, I was really looking forward to GTA4, so to say I was disappointed by the delay would be a gross understatement. As I was rummaging around the Internet for any sort of GTA 4-related news (yeah, I’m kinda obsessive that way), I came across this rather amusing mod on GTA4.net.

Painkiller Overdose Demo Out Now

While a lot of shooters tend to concentrate on realism, Painkiller was a simple but ridiculously enjoyable shoot-everything-that-moves effort in the vein of Doom and the more recent Serious Sam.

While the game’s official expansion, Battle Out of Hell was pretty meh, Painkiller is all set to get yet another sequel of sorts in the form of Painkiller Overdose.

Painkiller Overdose started off as a fan-made mod, but it soon caught the interest of publisher Dreamcatcher, who decided to support it financially. This single and multiplayer demo lets you play as the new lead character, Belial, as he blasts through hordes of twisted oddities in true Painkiller style.

To grab the moderately sized demo (732 MB), head over to our downloads section. If you want to know more about the game, make for the official site.

TimeShift Goes Gold

Sierra’s much delayed shooter that has players manipulating time has finally gone gold and should hit stores for the Xbox360, PS3, and PC by October 30.

players to master time to become the ultimate weapon. Armed with the experimental time-manipulating Beta Suit and a huge arsenal of weaponry, players have the ability to slow, stop and reverse the flow of time, allowing them to control several aspects of each battle sequence and puzzle situation. Intuitive time controls give the player the ultimate advantage in strategic attacks used to outsmart the enemy.

BioShock to get Downloadable Content

In a post-release interview with Games for Windows, Ken Levine of 2K Boston (formally Irrational Games) revealed plans of expanding the experience of BioShock through downloadable content.

By this he didn’t exactly mean you’re going to enjoy an expanded campaign; his plans are just to enhance the gameplay to warrant another replay. In his own words:

"Diablo II, to me, was a great model for an expansion, because it enhanced the original game, but also extended the game too. I'm not a really big fan of expanding things just by linearly adding to the experience, adding a new campaign, as much as I am of enhancing the original experience and adding replayability to that experience.

"I think that certainly BioShock's combat experience is great, but it could be broader. I'm a little more confused as far as how to expand the narrative experience."

Ken also mentioned that "a lot of plasmids got cut" during the game’s development cycle, so you can expect to see a few new ones the next time you journey through Rapture. There’s no date or any additional information about the DLC, but we’ll keep you posted when we hear something.

Hellgate London Demo Out Now

If you’re excited about Flagship Studios’ Hellgate London, you’ll be glad to know that you can finally download a demo of the game, which is due for release on October 31 in the US and on November 2 in the UK.

The Indian release date hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll get it soon. In the meanwhile, why don’t you guys check out the demo?

Here’s what you can expect:

In the first premiere demo, players choose from two of Hellgate: London's six characters: the swashbuckling melee action of the Blademaster or long-range killing action of the Marksman. Once selected, the gamers available carve their way through a sample of the storyline centered around the street and tunnels near Holborn Station.

A Sneak Peek at Halo 3!

Microsoft unveiled its first party system seller Halo 3 to journalists and gamers alike at the Taj Land’s End Hotel in Mumbai yesterday. Our Delhi counterparts had already had a taste of the action last week.

People all over Mumbai had the chance to come in and try out the game’s single player campaign (the very first level) as well as the multiplayer component for themselves.

The cool part about this event was that it wasn’t for invitees only, so you had tons of ecstatic gamers rubbing shoulders with journalists, all vying to try the game out for themselves. Throw in some drinks to the whole equation and you have one hellova (geeky) partee!

While we can’t talk about the game because of a most aggravating NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) that we signed, I can confidently say that the game’s MP aspect was tons of fun and the game’s looking much better than it did in previous builds. Nikhil would also love to share his thoughts on the game’s single player campaign but like I said, we’re going to have to keep our mouths shut till September 24th.

As of now all we can say is that the game will be launching in India on the 25th of September itself and both the Standard (Rs. 1895) and the Limited (Rs. 2510) editions will be available in stores. Till then you can head over to 360indians.com for more on the game as well the party (pics included) and come back tomorrow which is when we kick off our Halo week here at Tech2.

No Playing Halo 3 Before Launch Date!

Okay, let’s say you scored a copy of Halo 3 before anyone else on the planet did – be it through torrents or some sort of contact in Microsoft. The first logical step would be to take the game online and rub it in everyone’s face... but since Microsoft is banning people for life for doing this, you bet it’s not worth it.

Now you’re probably thinking that you can play the game offline and get away with it, but guess what, Microsoft isn’t letting you off that easily, especially if you’re a Microsoft employee. Here’s how:

Simply not connecting to the Internet doesn't appear to be a solution either. The rep confirmed that Microsoft is able to ban accounts based on information collected by the console, which shows when the game was played.

Don't say you haven't been warned!

Via teamxbox.com

Jack Thompson Not Happy With GTA IV

Just when you thought the gaming industry’s most hated person (after Uwe Boll) would let life go peacefully for Take Two, Rockstar, and the entire gaming fraternity, he comes out of nowhere, guns et al blazing, to deliver a message once again to the makers of Grand Theft Auto IV. Only this time he’s not irked by gratuitous violence or wanton sex; it’s his depiction in GTA IV that has his panties in a wad.

As usual he wants Take Two to make amends to certain parts of the game or he’ll try to block the game’s release and so on. Here’s part of the letter he sent to Take Two’s Chairman Strauss Zelnick:

The showcasing play of the game to Game Informer revealed that the first killing mission of the 'hero' of the game, Niko, is to kill a certain lawyer. When Niko comes into this lawyer’s office, having used subterfuge to do so, Niko pulls a gun on the lawyer, who says that "the firm supports the second amendment and that 'Guns don’t kill people. Video games do'.

"The fact that the lawyer, killed in Niko’s first mission, would bring up video games, makes it clearly a reference to me. This is not the first time Rockstar Games and Take Two have targeted me in this fashion. Take Two references to me as a bisexual pedophile on its corporate website.

"You have until five p.m. this Friday… to inform me that you're going to delete the above references and any other references that could reasonably be construed to be references to me in Grand Theft Auto IV and any other video games that are pending release.

"Now you have descended this low – using one of your games to threaten my physical safety – failure to comply with the deadline will result in my having to take necessary and proper means to stop release of the game which targets me personally… given the copycatting of violent games…

Seriously, this dude needs to just chill the f**k out!

PlayStation Home Delayed till Spring 2008

Amongst the announcements made in this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sony’s Kaz Hirai revealed that the PS3’s PlayStation Home will be delayed from late 2007 to Spring 2008. Here are Hirai’s words on the same:

"The power of the PS3, as well as the networking, by putting [these] together we can offer the realistic 3D virtualization of society -- what we call PlayStation Home. I'm sure you're expecting a lot... this was originally scheduled to be launched by the end of this year... it is going to be taking place in the springtime of next year."

I was hoping that PlayStation Home would launch soon, since it’d really help the PS3 catch some steam and get back in the game. I guess all you PS3 owners will just have to wait a little longer.

[Via GamaSutra]

Crysis Minimum Specs Unveiled

Excited about Crysis? Yeah, well, who isn’t? But the question on everyone’s mind is whether the game would run on their machine.

Now, thanks to a post made on the game’s official forums, we get word that the game may just about run on our aging machine (just don’t expect to be blown away by the visuals).


CPU: Intel P4 2.8Ghz or AMD equivalent
RAM: 1GB
Video Card: 6800GT (256mb) or ATI/AMD Radeon 9800 Pro (256mb)
HDD Space: 16GB
OS: Microsoft Windows [XP and Vista I imagine]
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible

Crysis Demo Delayed

The Crysis single player demo that was to release on September 25 has now been pushed to October 26. In case you forgot, the Crysis demo was to coincide with the release of Halo 3. One can’t help but wonder if both EA and Crytek got cold feet at the last minute (can’t blame them if they did).

Either way, here’s what Crytek’s CEO Cevat Yerli had to say about the delay:

"Hi everyone, we have some news to announce. First, I am sorry for the bad news – the Crysis single player demo will now be available everywhere on October 26th, 2007.

"We are taking some extra time to make sure you that you have an amazing experience but also we did not want to risk the release date of Crysis at this stage. To get the game into your hands by November the 16th, we had to make this call.

"Now the good news – the big surprise. The SP demo will be released with our CryEngine 2 Sandbox 2 game editor, giving the community the opportunity to get familiar with the vast amount of tools they will have at their disposal four weeks before we ship, something we have always wanted to do.

"This is an exciting time for us at the studio as the development of Crysis comes to an end and we are only a few weeks from Gold Master. We appreciate your patience and are looking forward to getting Crysis into your hands on November 16th."

BIA: Hells Highway Delayed

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, Gearbox Software’s latest BIA game has been pushed back to early 2008. The game was to release sometime during the holiday season but due to reasons unknown it's been pushed to Ubisoft's fourth fiscal quarter – that's anytime between January and March 2008.

While it totally sucks for anyone looking forward to the game, take solace in the fact that Gearbox is planning to release a Beta – CoD4 style – very soon.

It looks as if this year may not turn out to be all that expensive after all.

Mercenaries World in Flames Delayed

I really hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but it looks as if yet another game has been delayed to next year. Mercenaries: World in Flames, the most excellent sequel to the free roaming shoot-everything-up Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, has now been pushed to early next year.

Here’s the lowdown from Pandemic Studios' President and Co-Founder Josh Resnick in an interview with ign.com:

"To answer your question: yes indeed, the retailer genies have done it again, and I can officially confirm that Mercenaries 2 is set for release early next year – Q1 2008 to be more specific."

At this rate I wonder if any of the high-profile games we were promised will release this year!

Gameloft Releases CSI:Miami for Mobiles

If you happen to be combination of TV-holic and mobile gamer, you won’t want to miss out on the latest release from Gameloft based on the very popular AXN series: CSI, the Miami version.

This game, while trying to make it as interactive and as like the TV show as possible, has incorporated all the characters from the show. Just as in the series, the game allows you to play detective and search through crime scenes for evidence, conduct autopsies, and interrogate suspects.

CSI:Miami should be on sale shortly.

Via IntoMobile.

Piracy, High Tariffs Hurt Gaming Industry

High import tariffs, piracy, and lack of adequate broadband connectivity and retail infrastructure were some of the impediments that the Indian gaming industry currently faces.

The gaming industry in India, which is currently pegged at $100 million in comparison to a global estimate of $3 billion, has immense growth potential, according to Microsoft India Country Manager (Entertainment and Devices Division) Mohit Anand.

He felt that the high duties, which translate into higher prices of gaming accessories and consoles, put paid to the growth of the industry which was relatively new to many people in the country.

"Another growth dampener is the lack of broadband connectivity. Though the broadband network was growing, it was not growing at as fast a rate as expected, limiting the access to online gaming experience," he added.

Piracy was another factor that the gaming industry was facing, with pirated versions of popular games being sold at cheap rates.

Moreover, the industry also has to contend with the negative parental perception about gaming. "Parents still connect gaming with violence that hampers a child's development, which is a completely misplaced notion," Anand said.

However, India's young demographic profile automatically translates into a huge chunk of potential gaming consumers in the country.