Saturday, November 22, 2008

Dawn Of The Dead Mall Coming To Left 4 Dead

4:00PM Luke Plunkett | Train yards and sewers are all well and good, but zombie-blasting has a history. A pantheon of classic zombie-blasting scenarios. And few are as iconic as the Crossroads mall from the Dawn of the Dead remake. Originally built for a standalone Half-Life 2 mod, this Crossroads map is now going to be made available for Left 4 Dead, soon as it’s done. And it looks pretty done. Also looks pretty damn spot-on. There’s a trailer after the jump if you feel like a walkthrough. More »

DirectX 11 Won’t Repeat The Windows-Exclusive Sins Of It’s Father

3:00PM Luke Plunkett | When Windows Vista shipped, it shipped alongside DirectX 10. DirectX 10 would only run with Vista. It wouldn’t run with the faster, more stable, more popular Windows XP. This made those running games on XP unhappy. Well, fast forward a few years, and the next release of a Windows OS – Windows 7 – won’t be repeating the same mistake. Microsoft’s Product Marketing Manager Windows, Ben Basaric, has gone on record saying that while Windows 7 will be shipping with DX11 support (which will add features like allowing a graphics processor to process more than just graphics), it will also run on Windows Vista. So no need to go upgrading. Well…unless you’re one of millions still using XP… DirectX 11 confirmed for Windows 7 – Microsoft revised statement [PCGH, via Voodoo Extreme] More »

First NXE Avatars Will Be Free (After That, Notsomuch)

2:00PM Luke Plunkett | Speaking with dreisechzig.net, Microsoft Europe’s Boris Schneider-Johne has said that – at least for the first few weeks of the NXE’s life – there’ll be regular clothing updates for your avatars. And, more importantly, that they’ll be free. But after that? “It has not been announced”. It’s OK, Boris, we get what you mean. The shitty t-shirts and “grunge” hi-tops, they’ll be free, but the Marcus Fenix scowl and Bomberman Zero outfit, they’ll cost us. After all, we can’t take our Microsoft Points to the grave. NXE Fragen und Antworten, Teil Eins [dreisechzig, via X3F] More »

Want Crazy Anime Hair For Your NXE Avatar?

1:00PM Michael McWhertor | Of course you do. Fortunately, there’s wacky Manic Panic hued ‘dos hidden away in the New Xbox Experience, giving you the option to create a more accurate Rei Ayanami or Maximilian Jenius or blue-haired senior citizen. It was discovered — as far as we know, by reader Samuel who told us that if you rotate the right analogue stick for about a minute or so, you’ll unlock a suite of new garish hair colors. More »

Yep, Yngwie Is Coming To Rock Band

11:30AM Michael McWhertor | The rumours were true, Yngwie Malmsteen is shredding his way to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 next week. The Swedish guitarist will bring three tracks to Harmonix’s band game, joining new songs from Soundgarden, Lamb of God and a three pack from the Killers. All tracks are, of course, master tracks and will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace starting next Tuesday, PlayStation Network next Thursday. Pricing follows. More »

Aurora Feint II, She’s LIVE

11:00AM Brian Crecente | OK, maybe I’m getting a bit too excited about Aurora Feint II: The Arena. But it is a Puzzle Quest-ish, multiplayer-ish iPhone game. More »

Pre-order GTA IV PC Now, Get Vice City Free… Now

10:20AM Michael McWhertor | We suppose that if you’ve resisted the urge to buy into Grand Theft Auto IV this long, opting to wait for the superior Windows version, you may have waited on a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, as well. Valve and Rockstar Games must think so too, as they’re offering a deal to pre-purchasers of GTA IV via Steam, tossing in a gratis copy of Vice City if you throw down the cash now. Not the world’s most earth-shattering deal, but ten bucks is ten bucks, and you get something new now to while away the time until GTA IV unlocks on December 2nd. More »