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Westwood’s 1997 ‘Blade Runner’ is playable again on PC
For years it seemed Westwood's Blade Runner might be lost for good. The 1997 adventure game that meticulously recreated the film's universe has becoming increasingly difficult to play on modern PCs. In 2003, the game's source code was lost, and it seemed like Blade Runner would never get the face lift that other retro-games have received. Now, it appears Blade Runner's fate might be changing.
Breakfast Topic: Which playable race would you like to see come to WoW?
Those players who dreamed of a future in which they could be naga had their dreams realized and crushed in less than a day because of foreign language interviews with Ghostcrawler. But instead of being disappointed in what we won't have let's talk about what races we want to see made playable in the next expansion and beyond. Personally, I'm holding out for murlocs. Perhaps that MRGRGL sound we've been terrified of hearing for so long was actually a friendly greeting, a request for a hug or even just a handshake. Perhaps making them a playable race would be the first step towards reaching out in friendship to our semi-aquatic neighbors. Come on, Ghostcrawler, if you can't give us naga, surely you can make murlocs happen, right? But that's probably a long shot. What do you think, readers? Which playable race is going to be headed to WoW next?
Blizzard headed back to PAX this year
Can't make it to BlizzCon but still want to check out Blizzard's latest offerings? Blizzard has appeared on the list of sponsors for Penny Arcade's PAX convention, which takes place later this year on September 4-6, 2009 in Seattle, Washington. PAX is a great time and a ton of fun -- I went a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. In addition to a terrific lineup of geeky musicians and demo panels from game developers, they always have a nice open floor full of the latest games to check out and play. And since PAX will be going down after BlizzCon (which takes place in two weeks), if you go, you'll likely have a chance to check out whatever Blizzard wants to put on display, be that Starcraft II or Diablo 3, or, you know... anything else they might announce.Plus, tickets to PAX are cheaper and even easier to get than BlizzCon tickets anyway, not to mention that you'll be seeing way more games and companies than just Blizzard. In fact, why am I going to BlizzCon again? I'd almost rather go to PAX this year. I'd love to see Freezepop!Oh, right, I can't miss our legendary meetup (wait until you guys see the giveaways we have planned!). But even if you're going to Penny Arcade's show because you can't make it to Blizzard's convention, stay tuned here to WoW.com -- we'll make you feel like you're there anyway.
Tamed Worgen have become Winterskorn Worgs
And here lies the final chapter in the Taming of the Worgen saga: Mania reports that, just a little while after the troublesome Worgen Garwal was hotfixed to be untameable, Blizzard has magically changed all of the already-tamed Worgen to level 68 (or Hunter's level minus five) wolves. Why level 68? Because, Mania says, they've all been turned into Winterskorn Worgs, a level 63-69 NPC that wanders around the Howling Fah-jord.So that's the end of that. Obviously, no one really expected to keep those pets as their own, and especially with all of the Worgen-as-playable-race speculation flying around, it wouldn't do for Hunters to have one of those humanoids at their beck and call. Some Hunters who went to the trouble of taming probably won't be too happy. But the good news is that the new white wolf in your stable is completely fixed -- it has all of the normal talent trees and abilities that wolves are supposed to have. Guess you and your pet Garwal were just never meant to be.
Wrath 101: When will Wrath be playable, exactly? [Updated]
This Wrath 101 is very simple yet very important.When can I exactly play this game I've been hearing about for 471 days*?The answer can be made more complicated than you want to know. The short answer is at midnight in your respective time zones.More complicated answers: Eastern Time Zone: 12:00:00 a.m. on Thursday November 13th, 2008 Central Time Zone: 11:00:00 p.m. on Wednesday November 12th, 2008
WoW Insider's BlizzCon Bingo 2008
Our BlizzCon Bingo game is back for its second year -- last year whether you won or not depended on what you saw, but people mostly were able to complete the necessary five across, with or without the help of the free space. This year, things are a little tougher, mostly because we just don't know what Blizzard is going to do -- will they announce the third expansion? Will they announce a new IP? Will they announce anything, or just treat the whole weekend as a Wrath preview?Whatever happens, make sure you print out your bingo card before you go, and then throughout the weekend, cross off everything that you see on there. If, by the end of the weekend, you've nabbed five across, you win! And while last year, all you won was the satisfaction of seeing something cool, well heck, let's throw something else into the mix -- if you're the first person to personally show me a completed bingo card by the end of the convention, I'll have a prize waiting for you.And no cheating! Trust us, there'll be plenty of Paladin complaining at the Q&As -- you won't have to go do it yourself.
What we're expecting from BlizzCon
As we announced earlier, BlizzCon tickets are on sale. Sort of. Kind of. If you can fight past the store servers. I know I've been getting nothing but the fail murloc pretty much all day. Still, I and the rest of WoW Insider's crack live team will be there come hell or high water, and we'll bring you the news you need to know. In the meantime, we're stuck here refreshing the Blizzard Store. To pass the time, we did a bit of speculation about what we might see in Anaheim on October 10th and 11th. Here's what we decided: What we're sure to see The Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic: Though we still have no solid announcement, Blizzard's already stated that they want to get Wrath out before 2008 is up. Considering that, they must have the opening cinematic pretty close to done. I would be surprised if we don't see it open the opening ceremony, to be completely honest. I'm expecting Arthas and/or a "rebel" Human Death Knight to feature prominently, as well as our first cinematic Gnome shot.
Breakfast Topic: Do we need a third faction?
One of the things I love about this job is that your comments are full of ideas for future posts. LIke, say, this one! Inspired by this comment, I come to you this morning with the thought: does World of Warcraft need a third faction? Perhaps one with absolutely no common ground, dedicated wholly to the destruction of both the Horde and the Alliance? Commenter Finn suggests that he would like to see an expansion that let you play as part of the Burning Legion, and this got me to thinking: for all the people who think Warcraft is insufficiently warlike these days, with shades of grey in morality and no clear cut 'good' or 'evil' faction, would the addition of a faction that is purely nihilistic, cunning and willing to wipe out all life in the universe help push conflict back to the front lines?
WoW on an Eee PC, in ten (not so) simple steps
I can't say I quite understand the ultraportable thing (why not just use a real computer?), but I have to admit that the Eee PC from Asus is a slick little device. Not as slick as the Macbook Air, but not nearly as pricey, so still pretty slick. And now it's even slicker- Dan from UltraMobileGeek has figured out how to install World of Warcraft on an Eee 701.You can see in the video above that it's just barely playable-- you couldn't raid Black Temple (or even Karazhan, I'm sure), but for logging in and grinding or checking mail, it would probably work just fine. The process, unfortunately, isn't exactly simple-- you have to run modified drivers, overclock the PC, and run experimental code (plus, memory might be a problem, as you need an 8gb SDHC card and probably more RAM than you've got now)-- but if you're interested in pushing your Eee to the limit, it might be for you. One suggestion or Dan (and anyone else messing around with this): would the Wine version of WoW let you skip installing XP, since the Eee is Linux-based? Just wondering.At any rate, sounds like a fun Saturday afternoon project if you've got an Eee to play around with and want your WoW ultraportable.
Wii, Smash Bros. demo kiosks to hit Japan
Remember way back when Wal-mart was concerned about playable Wii kiosks causing kids to break their arms or knock over expensive electronics (or both)? Apparently Japanese retailers never got over these fears, because up to this point there hasn't been an official, playable Nintendo kiosk to be found in the country. This is about to change, though, as IGN reports that 30 shops nationwide will roll out Smash Bros. Brawl-infused kiosks on Jan. 26, three days before the game's Japanese release.Despite having about a bazillion control schemes, Smash Bros. is notable for not requiring the Wii's trademark waggle in any way shape or form, presumably making it safe for Japanese in-store play. Whether the kiosks will last past the relatively sedentary game (and whether the Smash Bros. demo will come to U.S. Wii kiosks) is still unknown.
iPhone Doom updated, close to playable
Here's the latest build of iPhone Doom, sent to us by Stephen T a.k.a. psychochromatic, who recently took over the application from stepwhite. Last night on the Talkcast we were chatting about the biggest stories of 2007, and I totally should have mentioned iPhone NES and iPhone Doom-- these were two huge projects we heard about in the early days of iPhone hacking that really set the pace for putting third-party applications on there.Psycho says that this build is not quite playable yet, but he's got it faster than ever and working in widescreen mode. The control scheme is definitely interesting, too, although not quite as intuitive as you might hope. At any rate, steps are being made. I continue to be impressed with the potential of the iPhone in terms of gaming-- here's hoping, yet again, that the official SDK will let us do this stuff as well.
iPhone MAME project launched
I'm pretty sure that, with this link, we've hit all the basic retrogaming points for the iPhone (wait-- can I play Nethack on it yet?). Yes, iphone-sdl-mame aims to bring all of your MAME favorites to Apple's latest endeavor. Like all of the other projects we've covered, it's open source, unofficial (duh), and a work in progress. From the text, kaisersoze (who's heading up this go) says PacMan and Q*Bert will run, but other games are too slow to be playable at the moment. And there's no word on whether control of anything is working yet or not.So it's a super early build-- all there is at the moment is just a few files in the subversion repository, so if you're looking to just install a file and get rolling, not so fast. But as with all of these open source iPhone hacks, attention seems to equal progress, so there you go. Hopefully, now that the word's out, playing Galaga at full speed on the iPhone is just around the corner.Oh and if you don't have an iPhone yet, worry not-- MacMAME's got you covered.[ via Waxy ]
South Florida GameStop nabs first Wii demo kiosk
Ah, the time must be drawing nigh, as we've just seen our first report of that heavily-guarded Wii demo kiosk being fully assembled and ready for play. As expected, Wal-Mart didn't get first dibs on this bad boy, but a South Florida GameStop is already giving eager Wii users a go at Excite Truck. The stipulation? You've reportedly got to hand over your keys and / or driver's license to even sniff the untethered (albeit proudly labeled) Wiimote, and your collateral is promptly returned once you prove you aren't walking out with any GameStop property. Initial hands-on reports suggested that driving vehicles with the newfangled controller took about three rounds to master, but it wasn't too long before gold medals were flying off the shelf and extra rides were being unlocked. If all this sounds like fun and games to you, be sure to hit the read link for a few more photos and the 411 on the lucky location.[Thanks, Anmol]
Wii demo kiosks to be under supervision?
We suppose any Wii is better than no Wii, but having to battle it out in a round of Excite Truck with a proudly-pinned employee watching over each shoulder just seems a bit idiosyncratic. While we already know that Wal-Mart isn't planning on hiring any more smiling faces to oversee the presumably fractious gaming crowd, you just might find a few "helpful staff members" at your side while flinging the Wiimote in your local GameStop. Nintendo's George Harrison has insinuated that all Wii demo stations will feature untethered controllers, but store personnel will be eying the players to ensure the nunchuck isn't used as a weapon (and that it doesn't leave in unauthorized pockets). He also noted that the big N has spent "considerable amounts of time" in designed the forthcoming kiosks, and mentioned (vaguely) that they "could be found at retail outlets, malls, the Nintendo Fusion Tour, and other consumer events." While we still aren't exactly sure where you'll wind up finding that ever-elusive Wii demo station, be sure to mind your manners when you finally do.[Via The Wiire]
A public no-go at Leipzig
The upcoming Leipzig Games Convention (Nintendo's keynote is scheduled for August 23rd) is the current hotbed of upcoming Wii information, with rumors flying left and right that the final launch details and pricing will be unveiled at the German trade show. We've known that Nintendo will be showing off some new Wii games there, and being open to the public, certainly some of our European readers were gearing up to make the trek to Germany. Oh, but wait, in the distance...yep. It's the black cloud of despair. Yes, it turns out that the Wii will not be playable to the general public during the show. Despite Nintendo's attitude of wanting as many people to get their hands on it as possible, it appears that not enough proper game journalists and members of the media were able to brave the 6+ hour lines at E3; the console will only be playable in private rooms that require an invitation from Nintendo. Oh well. Remember, stalwart fans, though we don't know the specific date of release, each second that passes brings us closer still...
Doom-cum-point-and-click adventure game
Doom is quickly joining Mario in the race to be the most referenced, recycled and remixed video game property ever. We've got Doom the movie, the comic, the RPG, even the frickin' radio play! Now add point-and-click adventure to that burgeoning list.PainNation is a Flash re-imagining of the influential first person shooter; just look at the screen above and feel the nostalgia wash over you ... exploding barrel, imp-gore covered nostalgia. A warning to interested parties (and those with delicate "space" keys) the first zombie space marine mini-game is a bitch![Via CVG]
