Tech Olive

Today is the first day of Winter-Een-Mas, the little-known gamer’s holiday week. Today, I will be busy gaming through the night/morning in an attempt to beat the number of hours I set last year on Winter-Een-Mas day one. Will I break my previous record of just over 11 hours? Stay tuned, I’ll update you later with the details. In the mean time, play like you’ve never played before and be thankful for Winter-Een-Mas!

Both Steam and Direct2Drive are now offering the pre-order of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition. While they’re not offering any pre-order discount or swag, they’re going the much cheaper route. Instead of offering anything that gamers actually want, the pre-order bonus comes in the form of a small arsenal of weapons and add-ons that you get in the game from day one. Gamers that decide not to pre-order will have to work for it. Suckers.

So, go reserve your copy today and start preparing for the March 2nd release date.

This was quite a diverse and odd week of news and reviews. Steve Ballmer signs a MacBook Pro, Firefox 3.6 releases, Acer thinks they’re awesome, and we mini review a Mario Kart-themed indie racing game. Join us after the break for the complete breakdown.

Continue Reading »

Pope Benedict XVI has been encouraging his fellow priests to use all sorts of social media tools to help spread the gospel across the web. The Pope already has a YouTube channel, as well as Facebook and iPhone apps, but the Pope wants his crew to launch a website/blog and use newer tools to communicate.

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich ‘menu of options’ might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different ‘voices’ provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

This obviously comes at no surprise, and the Pope especially wants to reach the younger crowd to share the word with.

via [Yahoo News]

Twitter user OGLE_Toronto was lucky enough to catch a TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) worker in the act, open mouth and everything. The user posted the photo on TwitPic and has enraged Toronto locals ever since.

You see, the TTC decided they would bump up fares earlier this month. This alone rubbed everyone the wrong way and this sleeping photo on Twitter just made it worse. On the other hand, the TTC workers’ union has put blame on the photo taker, saying that the worker could have been unconscious due to a health concern and should have made sure he was okay.

At any rate, we’ll see how this plays out. It could just end up fizzing out sooner than later.

via [Mashable]

Interplay (original Fallout developer) has announced that they’re aiming for a 2012 release for their upcoming public beta of Project V13, which is a Fallout-based MMORPG. Very few details have been released, so there is little to show you what to expect, but because Interplay is working on it rather than Bethesda (developer of Fallout 3 and its DLC), there have been some legal disputes as to who really has the rights to continue developing with the Fallout name. So, pending the outcome of those legal matters, this MMO could never see the light of day. Then again, the world is ending in 2012 so we probably won’t get to play it anyway.

via [Cinema Blend]

What would you do if you were Steve Ballmer and someone came up to you and asked if you could sign their MacBook Pro from Apple? Turns out the man himself just chuckled and wasted no time to write his John Hancock on the lid. The MacBook Pro owner said it was running Windows, so it’s all okay. Watch the video after the break.

Continue Reading »

EXOR Studios, developer of Zombie Driver, has released details of their first DLC add-on for the game. Adding a survival game mode, the DLC will come free to owners of the game, but unfortunately, there are no details of the DLC’s release date other than “soon.”

“EXOR Studios has announced its continued support for the game by revealing the first details of a new Survival game mode that will soon be released as free DLC. Players’ skills will be tested against waves of bloodthirsty undead on a new set of specially crafted arenas. The new game mode will be accompanied with Steam online leaderboards and achievements. Further game play details will be revealed soon.”

If that’s not enough to convince you to buy the game, they have also released a demo that lets you play through the first three levels of the campaign. Head over to their site to grab the free demo for yourself.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has recently mentioned that they are planning to make video games based on “key brands.” What exactly does that imply, you ask? Well, the BBC is specifically talking about their Doctor Who and Top Gear TV programs. As a fan of Top Gear, here’s hoping that they aren’t just milking pennies out of their franchises, and instead actually are dedicated to making good games. Currently, there are no solid plans for a developer of the games, but the BBC are “open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value.”

via [Shack News]

While Gearbox doesn’t yet want to release specifics of  their third Borderlands DLC installment, we did get a few details of what to expect on their community forums.

“After finalizing Zombies DLC, the team and I began reading the DLC feedback around the forums on the wants and desires. Guess what, level cap increase anyone? Got it and it’s awesome. Hopefully we can get a full announcement out to you guys soon but, man is this the biggest DLC we have made. So don’t worry, we are working really hard right now on both the update (that solves a bunch of issues) and the DLC. More to come guys!!”

So, hopefully we’ll have more details to report in the coming days.

via [Cinema Blend]