Monthly Archives: October 2009

AO-Rated Manhunt 2 is Available Next Week [Manhunt 2]

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 11:30 pm
Filed under Gaming News

Manhunt 2, notoriously edited by Rockstar to not earn an Adults Only tag from the ESRB, will be released Nov. 6 in that AO form, on the PC. Direct2Drive will have the download, for $29.95.

Manhunt 2, as an M-rated game on the PSP, PS2 and Wii, was very poorly received when it went out in 2007. While Rockstar hasn’t specified what’s going out in the super-duper adult version, it’s my hunch that “adult” here doesn’t mean what it means on pay-per-view. But there will be plenty of bodies.

AO-Rated Version of Manhunt 2 PC Coming Next Week via Download [Big Download via Joystiq]


No Demo for Assassin’s Creed II, Either [No Plans Watch]

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 11:00 pm
Filed under Gaming News

Ubisoft’s decision to not publish a public demo for the first Assassin’s Creed disappointed fans. They’re going to be disappointed again, because a spokesman has said Assassin’s Creed II won’t get a demo, either.

Connected Consoles reports that, at the Eurogamer Expo, an Ubisoft rep told them straight up the game will not be getting a demo. Your only opportunity to try before you buy is if Ubi brings it to a public expo near you.

No Demo for Assassin’s Creed II [Connected Consoles via Game Stooge]


Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 11:00 pm
Filed under Blizzard Games

Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that won’t give up, will never back down, won’t retreat and won’t surrender. Arcane Brilliance has the heart of a champion, the eye of the tiger, the soul of a lion, the reflexes of a mongoose, and the gall bladder of an emu. Now, if you’ll excuse Arcane Brilliance, it needs to go indulge in an 80′s movie training montage to get ready for this column. And yes, in case you were wondering, Stan Bush and Vince Dicola will feature prominently.

After a rather extended hiatus from the leveling grind, we here at Arcane Brilliance (and when I say “we,” I pretty much mean “me,” and when I say “pretty much,” I mean “absolutely.” I fact, I’m not sure why I even said “we” in the first place. Just forget I said anything. Let’s move on, shall we?) are finally ready to continue with our series of overly wordy leveling guides this week. Here’s what we’ve covered thus far (and, yes, I’m aware that I continue to use the first-person plural when referring to myself. I’m a very confused individual.):

Part 1: Getting started

Part 2: Levels 1-10

Part 3: Levels 11-20

We begin today’s installment at the grand old level of 21. Your mage is freshly bemounted (That word doesn’t actually exist, but I think it should) and ready to take on the world. Chances are you’re preparing to move into your third major zone. From this point on, you have a great deal of freedom in choosing where you want to quest. I’d recommend an add-on like Cartographer, or a website like mapwow (just check the box that says “Show names for zones”) to see a map that tells you the appropriate levels of the zones around you, so you can pick a place to make your home for the next 5-10 levels. Once you’ve selected a destination, mount up and head that way. Stick to the road if you decide to travel through any higher-level zones in-between, and be sure to pick up any flight paths you pass during the trip.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30

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Arcane Brilliance: Mage leveling guide, 21-30 originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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25 Kill Streak in MW2 Delivers You a Really Big Bang [Whoa]

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 10:30 pm
Filed under Gaming News

Multiplayer spoiler alert, I guess. Should you be awesome enough to rack up 25 straight kills in Modern Warfare 2, the game gives you a superweapon from which there is no escape. Not even for the guy who uses it.

Nuke Your Opponents in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer [Spoilers] [Hot Blooded Gaming]


iPhone and Windows 7 don’t play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 10:20 pm
Filed under Tech News

The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe’s most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel’s quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple’s app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset’s USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple’s support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an “error 0xE8000065″ message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs, which are likely to sport the chipset. Hit the read link for the original thread of sorrow and regret, and do chime in with your own experience in the comments.

[Via The Register]

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iPhone and Windows 7 don’t play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Strippers or Counter-Strike — Which Gets a Gamer’s Attention? [Maximum Risky]

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 10:00 pm
Filed under Gaming News

Over in Moscow, two top Counter-Strike teams met in a LAN contest. As soon as they started runnin’ and gunnin’ however, the promoter threw in a surprise to test the team’s focus: Strippers. Russian strippers. Let’s get to the NSFW!

English Russia reports that

“it was impossible to put an attention of those hopeless men off. The game was drawing to a close and the ladies were sweating as much as they could, but the eyes of the tough players were nailed to the screens tight.”

In the matchup, the team forZe bested rival Virtus.pro.

I pulled ten pics from English Russia, galleried at left. There are tons more at the link.

Hot Gaming [English Russia, thanks to Kevin!]











Engadget Podcast 169 – 10.31.2009

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 9:10 pm
Filed under Tech News

Tired of all the DROID talk? Well, tough cookies, mister. Nilay, Paul and Josh have a lot to say on the subject, and you’re just going to have to sit there and take it. Or you could skip the first 40 minutes of this week’s podcast, but that’s just a recipe for regret. If you do stick it out you’ll be treated to some unusually candid discussion of Josh’s facial hair and other more pertinent questions picked from the USTREAM discussion that will almost certainly frighten you straight.

WARNING: This podcast has been known to kill people. Engadget assumes no responsibility for injury or death.

[Thanks, JS and Rom for the image]

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: ChangWang2003 – 99 Problems (Battletoads Remix)

Hear the podcast

00:01:28 – Motorola DROID review
00:19:08 – HTC confirmed to be cooking up Android 2.0 update for Hero, other devices unclear
00:19:19 – Android 2.0 ported to original T-Mobile G1 (video)
00:19:29 – HTC Droid Eris peeks its head out once more, shows off 5MP camera
00:30:48 – Google Navigation video hands-on: you want this
00:32:25 – The game has changed
00:37:18 – How-to: hack your own DROID dock with magnets and cardboard
00:41:20 – Storm2 now available from Verizon for those who waited
00:49:25 – Nintendo DSi LL goes large in Japan on November 21 (update: DSi XL in Europe Q1)
00:53:41 – Netflix for PlayStation 3 requires a disc, software solution coming late 2010
00:57:28 – Apple TV 3.0 software update is out, with iTunes Extras, LP & Genius in tow
01:06:23 – Nokia vs. Apple: the in-depth analysis
01:06:40 – How-to: recycle your old gadgets

Subscribe to the podcast

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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

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Engadget Podcast 169 – 10.31.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3 PTR: Meet Arcturis, the newest and coolest Spirit Beast

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 9:00 pm
Filed under Blizzard Games

I was listening in on the Twisted Nether Blogcast and heard Nibuca mention that the new Spirit Bear image we reported earlier this week had been identified. Sure enough, I head over to the one place I knew would have the answer, Mania’s Arcania. Sure enough there it was, Mania had a long post giving all the details.

Mania’s Arcania member safrienaer reported that they had found the new spirit beast on the PTR Patch 3.3 in Grizzly Hills, north of Amberpine Lodge. Along with some really cool screenshots, safrienaer went on to describe that at the moment Arcturis doesn’t have any special sounds. However, Mania thinks, and I have to agree, that we’ll probably see some polishing of the graphic with some special glowing effects and sounds before the completion of the testing of Patch 3.3 on the PTR.

On a final note, Mania noted that Jangalian did some research on Wikipedia and found that it seems our new Spirit Beast might be a reference to Arcturus Mengsk from StarCraft.

Anyways, I’m excited about the prospect of taming Arcturis. My only problem will be stable slots and having to pick a new Elvis related name that matches his personality.

(Edit: I owe Jangalian an apology for overlooking that she had originally provided Mania the information about the different possible references for Blizzard choosing Acturis as the name for this really cool Spirit Beast.)

Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com’s Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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Patch 3.3 PTR: Meet Arcturis, the newest and coolest Spirit Beast originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Pixi definitely shipping with a new webOS version, but which?

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 7:44 pm
Filed under Tech News

Whoa, is that webOS 2.0 we see on the horizon? No, sorry, it definitely isn’t — but we can say with relative confidence that the upcoming Pixi will be shipping with a newer, slightly more feature-rich version of webOS than its Pre brethren around the world; if nothing else, Synergy supports Yahoo on the new model, as PreCentral observes. What remains to be seen is the exact version number that’ll be shipping out of the gate — recent DSLReports user agent logs suggest that 1.2.9 might be the gold build (for the record, the Sprint Pre currently rocks 1.2.1), but apparently there’s some chatter going on about a 1.3 as well. Doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but a 0.1 increment usually means more features, fixes, and changes than a 0.01 increment does, so naturally, we’re pulling for a bigger number. There isn’t any intel on what this mythical 1.3 might contain just yet or whether it’d be heading to Bell, Sprint, and O2 Pres, but we’ll keep an eye out.

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Palm Pixi definitely shipping with a new webOS version, but which? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Healer survey contains a wealth of information about healing

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Posted by on October 31, 2009 – 7:00 pm
Filed under Blizzard Games

If you’ve ever wanted a close-up look at the game’s healing zeitgeist, Miss Medicina has it — she recently started up a survey/meme of healers around the WoW blogosphere, and the answers are now in and posted on her site. They make for some interesting weekend reading, especially if you’re interested in healing and what healers think of it. I’m sure there’s lots of conclusions that could be drawn out of this (I’ll let you all come up with some in the comments as well), but just reading through them on my own, it seems like there’s a few threads between them. The majority of healing seems to be done in 10-mans, which probably isn’t too surprising, given that’s where most of the endgame players are right now as well. There’s no clear winner on class or spec (all four healing classes are represented pretty evenly, though I didn’t really crunch the numbers), though there are quite a few priests, and of those, things seem to be split between holy and disc.

In terms of a favorite spell, there’s almost no crossover at all — people are all over the place, from Beacon to Penance to Circle of Healing. To hear these guys tell it, healers have all kinds of fun spells to play with. In terms of a weakness to healing, two main answers appear: mana regeneration (always an issue with mana-heavy classes like healers) and mobility. Shamans and druids have problems with big burst healing, and paladins say they need more group healing strength, but almost everyone mentions either mana or movement. There’s a lot more to look through, too, in terms of how healers evaluate their performance and addon recommendations from everyone. As a look inside the healer “scene,” there is a ton of information in there about what healers are up to out on the realms.

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Healer survey contains a wealth of information about healing originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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