Tech Olive

More details have been released regarding the upcoming Battlefield title. It will be available exclusively as a download (Coming in at around 350MB) for PS3 and Xbox 360 users. For PC however, they are considering also releasing it in physical form, allowing you to purchase a disc of it at your local game shop. When asked about pricing details, you should expect something between 1200-1600 MS points ($15-$20 USD). Not a bad price if it turns out to be as good as previous Battlefield titles. While there is still no solid release date, the game is guaranteed to be released this summer.

Tom Clancy’s new flight combat game HAWX is set to have a demo released for PC on Feb. 26. Look for it on Xbox Live tomorrow. While the PC’s online capabilities are unclear, the Xbox 360 demo will come with a 4-player co-op feature. Here’s hoping that the PC demo will have some online capabilities to keep us entertained.

It seems that the boys over at Treyarch have decided to spend their time making new maps for CoD: WaW rather than work on the next patch that will hopefully make the game more playable. At any rate, they’ve made the maps and here are the details directly from Activision’s press release:

New conflicts are on the horizon for one of the most intense online multiplayer games of 2008, as Activision Publishing, Inc. and developer Treyarch, announced plans today to release Call of Duty(R): World at War Map Pack 1. Due out in March, Call of Duty(R): World at War Map Pack 1 will take Xbox 360(TM), PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system and Windows(R) PC fans to the streets of a war-ravaged Berlin in “Nightfire,” deep into deadly jungles to attack fortified Japanese positions in “Knee Deep” and through a bombed out underground subway system in “Station.” The Call of Duty(R): World at War Map Pack 1 will also expand upon the fan-favorite four-player co-op Nazi Zombie bonus mode with “Verruckt” (Zombie Asylum) – a fourth map that features more weapons, new Perks-a-Cola machines, electroshock defenses and endless, attacking legions of undead.

Valve, last week, released news of an update for Left 4 Dead. Today, via GameTrailers TV, they announced what is planned and more information about the new “Survival” mode.

According to GameTrailers “Up to four players set records for the longest time surviving hordes of zombies on over 12 maps“. This will no doubt make for an awesome and addictive gaming experience.

AMD has released five new chips to add to its Phenom II family, including the only 45nm tri-core CPU and three new quad-core chips. They happen to fit in either AM2+ or AM3 sockets and support DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Very diverse I must say.

The new lineup includes the 2.6GHz Phenom II X4 for $175, the 2.8GHz Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition at $145, and the 2.6GHz Phenom II X3 710 for $125. AMD’s two other new chips: the 2.6GHz Phenom II X4 910 and the 2.5GHz Phenom II X4 805 are only available in OEM and pricing has not been released as of yet.

What does this mean for the CPU market? The war is heating up once again, which is great news for consumers. Intel has held the podium ever since the Core 2 series was released. Will AMD take over anytime soon?

Capcom has just confirmed the development of a sequel to their Xbox 360 exclusive, zombie-killing shopping experience. This time you are neither in a mall nor are you a war-time photo-journalist. The story is set a few years after the Willamette mall outbreak, where apparently the virus was not completely contained as many had thought. Based in the gambling paradise of Fortune City, you are forced to use any object you can find within the casino to fight off the zombie horde. According to Capcom, several members from the original development team for Dead Rising will be working on this sequal. No release date has been announced, but Capcom is planning for a larger release, on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

One of the things that the developers of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars have made clear is the Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities that the game will come with. Rockstar (developer) has yet to reveal any information regarding multiplayer, but today, the first confirmed details have been released thanks to a flyer from New York Comic Con.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi mode will allow gamers to participate in head-to-head and co-op multiplayer mayhem and Chinatown Wars also has stat tracking and leaderboards that track your criminal career. In terms of general gameplay information, there is an all new replay feature in which players can replay missions. Lastly, Rockstar states that the game will have an epic storyline, many side-missions, addictive mini games, and hidden collectibles.

Some good news for Far Cry 2 fans: Ubisoft seems to think that the multiplayer is not as good as it could be and have just announced their plan to fix it. The update will be for all platforms and will be coming to gamers via the next few patches. Some of the updates for the “hardcore” patch are:

• All weapons have been rebalanced on normal mode, and on hardcore mode.
• Enemy names will disappear after the spawning invincibility period is over (A shield is displayed above a player’s head for a few second to show that he is invincible).
• A new option will allow you to tweak spawning time (but not spawning rate).
• A new search option will be available in multiplayer to allow you to find games that are playing on hardcore mode.

I’ve heard many people talk about how good the singleplayer is, but in it’s current state, not much talk about multiplayer. Hopefully this patch will fix the issues or gripes that more serious gamers have with the game.

A while back, I posted about the bug in the Gears of War’s licensing program for PCs that caused it to expire, rendering the game unplayable. However, the wait is now over as EPIC (developer) has finally released a patch fixing this problem and returing the game to a working build. The fix, dubbed “certification patch” can be downloaded here.

Most of you readers know by now that I enjoy following the modding and indie-developer scene. As a result of my watchful eye, you quite often receive news for things you didn’t know existed. This may very well be another one of those times. The boys that have been working on the Goldeneye: Source mod for the Half-Life 2 engine have just released their latest working build, beta 3.0. If you are wondering if this mod has anything in common with the amazing N64 game Goldeneye, it does. In fact this is a recreation of that exact game. Characters, maps, guns, everything. No singleplayer, but the multiplayer promises to be amazing.