‘The Stars are Left’ in the latest expansion for ‘Magicka’

Paradox Interactive announced today that Magicka‘s getting another adventure added to the fun: The Stars are Left. The story is inspired by Cthulhu, and includes several new enemies and bosses. Only one person in any group of four needs to own the content to take it on — so every group just needs one host player. Here’s a full list of features from Paradox: • An all-new adventure, several levels long, allowing players to get lost in space and time • 2 new challenge maps • 2 new robes • 2 new bosses • 5 new achievements • 7 new enemies • Considerably more than 2 new items and Magicks • Also, we make fun of Minecraft this time See? Making fun of Minecraft. That’ll be interesting.

Read more →

‘Portal 2′ DLC goes under peer review October 4

Valve announced today that Portal 2‘s first DLC, “Portal 2: Peer Review” will be released October 4. The free content (for PC/Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3) is primarily a new addition to the game’s co-op that continues the story of Atlas and P-Body. New challenge modes will be added to both single-player and co-op, and there will be leaderboards added as well so you can get even more competitive with your friends after you work with them. Now, this is a little bit after their target “Summer” date of release, so to soothe the pain that is waiting on free things, here’s some free things you don’t have to wait for — the third volume of “Songs to Test By” and a new Turret Comic. Aww.  

Read more →

PAX First Look: Orcs Must Die

While at Pax, I was able to finally get hands on with a game that I had heard many good things about: Orcs Must Die by Robot Entertainment. Admittedly I only knew a little about the game, but I am glad I went to check it out! The game itself is basically like a tower defense game, but instead of a top down view of the course, you are a character who is running in the course itself setting traps and then shooting at the orcs as they try to breach your defenses. You not only have to keep an eye on any orcs trying to sneak into your portal but you also need to make sure that their forces don’t kill you. Or that you don’t fall to your own death (as I did several times in one stage). Control wise it worked wonderfully. I played it on an

Read more →

‘Psychonauts’ now available for Mac with an iOS companion app

Double Fine Productions announced today that they’re updating the PC version of Psychonauts, and also adding a new companion app for iOS. “We are really excited,” said Double Fine President Tim Schafer, “to finally be answering fans’ requests for a more difficult Meat Circus.” He’s joking, of course. (Thankfully.) The update actually adds Steam achievements, cloud saves and a modified Meat Circus — it’s a little easier, not harder. “Mostly because I’m getting older and it’s hard for me to press buttons that quickly. Hey, don’t forget to mention the achievements!” Schafer added. Don’t worry, I did. Double Fine has also partnered with Dracogen Strategic Investments (not a clan of evil dragons, according to the press release) to bring the game to Mac OS X for the first time — it’s available now on Steam and the Mac App Store as well as other digital retailers starting right now. Double

Read more →

The cake isn’t a lie after all: Portal is free

If you haven’t played the amazing game that is Portal by Valve yet, this is your chance. You can now play Portal for the low, low price of free. Ladies and gents, you can’t beat that price….unless you were giving something back. In a way, Valve is. As seen though the new website that gives you the link to download either the Mac or PC version of Portal for free, Valve is promoting “Learning with Portals,” which uses the game to teach math, logic, physics and engineering concepts. (I get the warm and fuzzies when education and gaming are combined.) This is not the first time that I have heard that teachers are using video games within the classroom. (I wrote an entire master’s education paper on such a concept, I should know.) This is the first time that a company as huge as Valve has provided their game for

Read more →

PAX Preview: All Zombies Must Die

As we gamers are all aware, the zombie apocalypse is coming – and soon. So who’s better to handle it than us gamers, right? All Zombies Must Die is a RPG and weapons-based arena combat game developed by doublesix, the same guys who brought us the highly flammable game, Burn, Zombie, Burn! Though AZMD and BZB have some similarities in terms of fighting hordes of brain-craving zombies, AZMD offers uniquely different gameplay strategies then its previous successor. Who knew gaming addictions could be so helpful? In All Zombies Must Die, you first play as Jack, a gaming fanatic who believes that he’s the badass hero in a zombie video game (and not that he’s actually in any – you know – real danger). The first character I met in the demo was Rachel, an extremely pissed ex-girlfriend of Jack. Though it seems she would rather see her ex be ripped

Read more →

Square Enix announces first DLC for ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’

This October, you’ll be exploring another conspiracy in Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the recently-announced DLC called “The Missing Link.” It’s coming to every platform the game is on — including OnLive. (Spoiler alert!) While Adam was investigating during the course of the game, he disappears for three days. (Aaaaand end spoilers.) Where did he go, and what did he discover? That’s The Missing Link. You’ll be fighting back against the group of Belltower agents that disabled Adam’s augmentations while also escaping from a freighter that’s going…well, somewhere. And you have no idea where. One of the best parts of this DLC is that you’ll be able to reassign Adam’s augmentations — good news for anyone who ever felt like they were “doing it wrong.” “We are very excited for Deus Ex: Human Revolution fans to be able to further develop Adam’s journey in the game with The Missing Link

Read more →

Steam Trading starts now

Steam Trading, which allows you to exchange in-game items and game gifts, officially launched yesterday after a beta that lasted a few weeks and saw over one million items and games exchanged. Two new games have been added to the list of titles that are part of the “Steam economy” — Portal 2 and Spiral Knights. “The addition of Steam Trading is the latest example of how Steam continues to evolve with new features and functions developed based upon feedback,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development. “We look forward to seeing how gamers and developers have fun and move this functionality forward.” Support for trading has been added to Steamworks, so we may see more titles adding it in the future.

Read more →

So, the current Steam version of ‘Dead Island’ isn’t the finished one

Maybe today’s release date for Dead Island wasn’t enough to get the complete game up? Those who preloaded the game on Steam have found that there are several issues with the game, most of which seem to stem from the fact that numerous developer controls have been left in. Not only that, but if you actually get into the code, a lot of Xbox references have been left in. Big oops, I suppose? In any case, this problem should be over today, with Deep Silver staff member Gadwyn saying in the game’s forums that, “We deeply regret that it was not possible to make the final patched version of Dead Island available to players at launch in North America. We apologize for any issues you may have experienced while playing the game, the final patched version will be made available to North American players today.” The patch out today will

Read more →

‘Modern Warfare 3′ will be on Steam, use Steamworks

Bam! Another shot was just fired in the Battlefield vs. Call of Duty fight. So, people hate the fact that Battlefield 3 isn’t going to be on Steam. Guess which game is? Valve confirmed today that Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be on Steam and use Steamworks. Excited gamers can now also pre-purchase the title before its release on November 8. If you prefer to get a tangible copy of the game, that’s going to use Steam, too, meaning that Modern Warfare 3 gets the auto-updating and Steam Achievements that many Battlefield 3 hopefuls wanted. Like I said, it’s another shot fired. And this is a war between war games that is getting increasingly dirty. Maybe stuff like Steam integration won’t make or break a title, but it sure does make some gamers think a little harder about which game they’ll purchase.

Read more →