Halo, the popular Xbox FPS (first person shooting) series, is now on RTS (real time strategy) mode! The RTS form of Halo is called Halo Wars.
Announced by Microsoft at X06, Halo Wars, will be developed under Ensemble Studio, famous for its RTS games, such as the Age of Empires series. Currently, Halo Wars will be developed for Xbox 360 only. PC fans will have something missing in their collection.
Here is the trailer, enjoy!
You can read the full preview by IGN and Gamespot for Halo Wars introduction in X06.
Blizzard has released 1.12.1 patch for WoW, below is the change log quoted from Fileplanet. For the complete change log, you can proceed to Blizzard WoW patch note site.
Version 2.0.1 patch is out, you can read up on it here.
World PvP
- Players will no longer lose the Silithus or Eastern Plaguelands PvP
buffs after dying in the zone.
- Players will now port to the Crown Guard Tower graveyard if they die
in Fungal Vale while their faction controls the tower.
- Players will no longer be interrupted while sitting down in Eastern
Plaguelands when contested towers change ownership.
- Players will no longer be interrupted while sitting down in Silithus
when a side collects 200 Silithyst and wins the event.
- In the Silithus World PVP event, the dust cloud graphic that appears
on a flag carrier will now properly trail behind the character while
running.
- Players will no longer receive honor if a tower in Eastern
Plaguelands is captured while they are stealthed.
- Lordaeron’s Blessing buff from Eastern Plaguelands is no longer
dispellable.
- Players on Windows machines will now hear the victory music when
their faction fully captures a tower in the Eastern Plaguelands.
Warlocks
- Players that log out of the game and back while having a pet
summoned will now be properly credited a Soul Shard.
- Warlock pet sounds have now been added in all languages.
Warriors
- Canceling Bloodrage while in PvP or dueling will no longer remove
you from combat.
Items
- Most enchantments on items are no longer counted against the maximum
limit of effects a player can have on them, so it should be much
harder for a player to exceed their max limit on effects and have
one be removed involuntarily.
- Fixed a graphical error with the Dreadnaught Helmet.
- Fixed an issue in which the “Blessing of the Claw”from the 6 piece
Dreamwalker set was causing players to stand up after trying to eat
or drink.
- Fixed an issue where multiple armor set bonuses were not applying
correctly when switching out pieces.
- Fixed an issue where the four-piece Plagueheart set was not properly
applying to corruption.
- The Blade of Eternal Darkness will now only proc when damage is done.
- Fixed a graphical error with the Dreadmist mask in which it would
float above the Tauren Females’ head.
- Fixed a graphical error in which enchantment glows were not updating
if the same item with a different enchant or no enchant was equipped.
User Interface
- UI windows will now be positioned correctly if the right action bar
is activated.
- When going from Windowed mode to Full-Screen mode, player names will
no longer be replaced with “…”
- The Quest Tracker will now properly display purchased quest items.
- The Battle Map in Outdoor PvP and in the Battlegrounds will no
longer get stuck when dragging with the cursor in windowed mode.
- The Battle Map in Alterac Valley will no longer switch off whenever
a graveyard,tower or mine changes ownership.
Bugs
- Players will now be able to complete the quest,”Target: Hive’Ashi
Sandstalkers”.
- Fixed an issue where players could be afflicted by “Withering Touch”
more than once at a time.
- The Plaguewood teleporter will now teleport players to the correct
location within Naxxramas.
- Fixed an issue where players were getting the message “Invalid” when
trying to select flight paths.
- Fixed an issue where if the disenchant window was forced closed, a
player would lose both their reagent and the item they were
disenchanting.
- Fixed an issue where players could crash while fighting Anub’Rekhan.
- Fixed an issue in which players trying to disenchant an item with a
full inventory and then casting a spell afterward would lose the
reagent and the item.
- Fixed an issue where weapon procs will now work with instant
abilities.
- Pet buffs will now apply and remove properly.
- The Priest talent Spirit Tap will no longer sometimes proc off of
totems.
Mac
- Players will no longer hear any sound when they have “Enable all
Sound” turned off.
THQ has released version 1.20 for Titan Quest. Both the incremental patch (from 1.15 to 1.2) and standalone patch(from 1.01 to 1.2) weighs about 15MB. Generally, the patch features many balance tweaks as well as a number of minor bug fixes including single to multiplayer experience.
Below is the change log for this new version, as it is quite a long list, there is only the General section of the patch.
- Fixed Ensnare to work while wielding a staff
- Several skill descriptions updated for clarity
- Fixed particle effect artifacts remaining on the ground when fighting Barmanu
- Fixed Ormenos so that he is no longer invincible if a player does not enter
the combat area and engage him immediately
- Fixed characters freezing when using an item that grants the charge ability
and dual wielding
- Fixed pets occasionally causing boss chests not to open
- Implemented the ability to turn the day/night cycle on and off. Day/night
cycles are currently on by default.
To turn day/night cycle off, go to the My GamesTitan QuestSettings directory
and open the options.txt file after changing any option in game. Find the
setting called “dayNightCycle” and change its value to false. If the setting
does not exist, add the line “dayNightCycle = false” to the end of theoptions.txt file.
I have tried out the new strategy game, Company of Heroes. This game is definitely worth your bucks!
The gameplay of Company of Heroes revolutionises the controlling of units in the game. In Company of Heroes, if you are controlling infantry units, such as Riflemen, Machine Gunners, Mortars Team or Paratroopers, you do not control individual one of them, you control a squad. Unlike strategy games like Warcraft III : Frozen Throne, Starcraft, Command and Conquer, which requires you to perform precision control of every unit if you want to, this is called micro.
The graphics of the game is also superior, my GeForce 6600 GT can only survive with medium setting. It is recommended to have a 3.0 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent (I guess at least a AMD Althon64 3000+), 1GB of RAM (I think if you have 2GB, it does help) and a 256MB nVidia Geforce 6800 series or better (for ATi, I think should be a Radeon X800). This requirement will allow a high detail setting for your Company of Heroes.
The campaign is a must try section of the game. The missions are challenging, and you need a clear mind when you are playing the game, distraction will lead you to defeat. Company of Heroes requires you to multitask aggressively. You will get to play and plan like a battalion / company commanders in the army. You cannot afford to slacken down your effort any moment. You need to take over territories, build your troops and vehicles, defend your command posts, scout for enemies movements, fulfill mission objectives all at a time.
Every troops are important to the mission, paratroopers may be the elites infantry units, but mortar teams and MG gunners are important support and defend troops that you will need no matter what. Rangers are gungho infantry units that can perform quick attack on enemies’ units. Tanks and armoured vehicles are important for bashing through enemies forifications with their add-on supports, such as the missiles and MGs. Using the respective units special abilities allows you to take on enemies more easily. For example, you can use riflemen’s sticky bombs to take down a tank.
Coordinatiing the troops movements to the precision will definitely lead to an eventual vistory. Combinations of different units will help to increase the firepowers greatly.
The in game camera view is also one of the superb part of the game. You can pan and zoom in and out of the battlefield to any view. You can even view the battle from the soldier’s prespective, experiencing the battle in the eyes of the soldiers. The sounds of the game is great too, the sounds of the explosions, firing of machines guns, radios signal by the soldiers add to the realism of the game as a whole. When your troops garrsion any buildings, you can see them opening up the windows and shoot from the windows. When mortars penetrates through the building, you can see the roofs collapses. Explosions in any form, whether it is a grenade or a tank shot, you can see it sends soldiers flying, bloods every where.
The realism of the game has given us a better look to the history of World War II. War is never a sight that people likes. If it happens in a PC games, well, it’s ok. This game does the effect of movies like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.
GameSpot has given this game a 9.0 out of 10 in their review. IGN gave 9.4 out of 10. GameBlog will highly recommend this Real Time Strategy to any RTS game fans. For this we, give a 9.8 for Company of Heroes.
Yes! Another patch for this wonderful game has been released. This time round, it features good additions and changes to the game, including a map editor. Please note that some fixes will take effect after a map restart, if loading from a previous save, i.e. You have to restart the map.
Here is the general change log for this 1.03 patch:
Features Added:
Map editor
Duel:
new 3 x 3 heroes duel format
random heroes selection for duel
hero and army information interface
Four new multiplayer maps:
“The School”
“Allies”
“Wind Rose”
“No Man’s Land”
Crashes and stability:
the game no longer crashes when saved if there is not enough space on the HDD
several bugs in the Ghost Mode repaired that made the game “freeze”
For more information on the changes for this version, you can go to Gamespot for the details.
As the official website of Heroes 5 does not display the patch link after some time, I will copy all the links there at GameBlog.
The newly released Company of Heroes, has a patch already. This Real Time Strategy game is a highly rated game, Gamespot rated 9.0 out of 10. Cool, isn’t it?
Here is the patch details:
Various connection problems fixed
SLI performance bug fixed
Fixed exploit with Allied HMG Crew’s Armor Piercing Rounds ability, where ability would remain active after squad was garrisoned or retreated back to HQ
The new Nintendo console, Wii, will release on 19 November, 2 days after the release of PS3 at the shores of America. And 2 Dec at Japan. The console will cost US$250 at America and US$213 at Japan. The Wii in Japan will not bundled with Wii Sports unlike the America’s version.
25 games will be available during the launch at America, while 16 games will be available in the other part of the World.
PS3 is due to release on 17 November, but the entire America is going to divide the 400,000 sets of PS3 available during the release. However the number of Wii available during the release is far more than PS3. As the holiday season is getting nearer, the number of consoles to ship worldwide need to be increase in order to meet the high demands of next generation consoles. Nintendo will ship about 4 millions consoles by the end of the year, almost double of what Sony will ship for PS3.
Moreover, the prices of the 2 new next generation consoles are of much difference. PS3 costs double of a single Wii. Price of the console does make a difference sometimes.
When it comes to the contents of the consoles, I think that PS3 may take the advantage due to its popularity with famous game developers and highly-anticipated games such as Final Fantasy XIII. But the price of PS3 makes casual gamers think twice about investing on this powerful monster.
Games News are cool, new gadgets are cool too. Apple has just release the new generation of iPods, let’s take a look at them.
One of the coolest gadgets on the Planet Earth, the iPods have their new descendants, the new fifth-generation iPod (Video), the new iPod Nano and the tiny little iPod Shuffle, which you can just clip and go!
Introducing the new iPods!
New iPod (5th generation)
The new iPod has the following features:
Increase battery life, up to 20 hours
Larger capacity (30GB and 80GB model)
60 percent brighter screen
Vibrant 2.5″ colour display
Seamless integration with the new iTunes 7
Click Wheel, for precise, single hand usage
New Search and Quick Scroll make searching for your favourite songs easier
Auto-Sync technology automatically download musics, podcasts and etc and keep up to date with your Mac or Windows.
Multitasking, you can browse the photo and album art while listening to music
Games such as Bejeweled and Tetris are available to download for the new iPod
The new iPods are available in Black and White only. The 30GB model cost US$249 and the 80GB model cost US$349. Both models are available in the Apple Store and authorised dealers. There is not much of a cosmetic change for the iPod, retaining its coolness but packed with more functionalities.
New iPod nano
The new iPod nano has an obvious change, it looks like an iPod-minied iPod nano. The side of the iPod nano is curvy instead of right-angled. It still looks cool as its name sounds, nano.
New and improved features includes:
New aluminium body
Up to 24 hour battery life
Twice the storage capacity of the previous nano (2GB, 4GB and 8GB)
Features Click Wheel and Search and Quick Scroll
More compact
Brighter screen
Features Auto-sync technology
Seamless integration with iTunes 7
The new iPod nano are priced US$149, US$199 and US$249 for 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models respectively. There are 5 differents colours to choose from, black, silver, green, blue and pink. 8GB model comes with black only, while 2GB model comes with silver. There is no black 4GB models.
Watch the following video, which Gizmodo did for the new iPod nano.
iPod Shuffle (ever smaller)
World Smallest digital music player
1GB of Flash memory
Hold up to 240 songs
Nearly half the size of previous Shuffle
AutoFill feature, sync the number of songs with the music library
This new version 6.37 AI was released very quickly after the release of original 6.37. I wonder how to AI fare in this version. I got to try it out too. You guys can download it too, and post your comments on this version of AI here.
