There are apparently a few hiccups with the PlayStation 3 version of Modern Warfare 2. Specifically, issues with the party invite feature. Infinity Ward is aware of these problems and promises to have a downloadable patch out by this Friday. Over and out.

[Thanks Examiner]

Epic Games has put out the 5th title update for its third person shooter Gears of War 2 resolving a slew of glitches and a security hole that arose in the fourth patch. Plus, just in time for the Halloween Holiday, Epic is also treating gamers to another double XP weekend event Friday, October 30, through Monday, November 2.

Hit the jump for the full list of release notes via the official Gears forum.

Improvements

Title Update 5 makes these new improvements:

• Adds the ability to view friendly-planted grenades in Tac/Com.
• Removes the cringe caused when a smoke grenade forces a player to drop a meatshield.
• Adds bonus points to the winning leader’s score in the Guardian game mode if the leader successfully survives the winning round.
• Changes the postmatch Invite button to only invite former teammates, so a player can create parties more easily instead of trying to create a Private Match that includes both teams from the former match.
• Returns the roadie-run camera movements to the way they were in Gears of War 1 by decreasing the dampening values.

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

• A player could modify the game’s behavior due to a security vulnerability introduced in an earlier title update.
• A player could use a turbo controller to artificially maximize their rate of fire.
• A player could mantle a planted shield in competitive multiplayer to hide inside geometry or to travel outside of the map. The ability to mantle shields was removed in competitive multiplayer but remains in Horde and Campaign.

Title Update 5 also fixes a number of other, lesser-known exploits.

General Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these other issues as well:

• An issue that contributed to the “sticky walk” problem, where a player’s avatar could stutter after the player picks up a weapon.
• An issue that could prevent players from hearing the “boom” telegraph from Boomers.
• An issue that could cause looping audio to continue playing after the player who triggered that sound is killed.
• An issue that could cause multiple names to be highlighted yellow on the scoreboard instead of the name of the player viewing the scoreboard.
• An issue that prevented the game from granting the earned experience points from the fiftieth wave of Horde.
• An issue that caused players at level 100 to see the “congratulations” message after every match.

Source: gearsofwar.xbox.com

Valve have updated Left 4 Dead today with a patch that adds a lobby browser to the game. This is an important addition to the game; not only does it mean we are able to make our own decisions about where we want to play, but it means that the inevitably great community maps are much more widely available.

Instead of having to go to a map site, downloading a map, and hoping that someone else has done the same, one can simply browse the lobbies for a map they would like, and download it in-game. Hooray for custom maps, and hooray for no longer being treated like children!

A huge Empire: Total War update is heading to players on Monday, Shacknews reports. Update 1.3 will include processor optimisations for a better frame rate, 14 brand new units, balance changes, and a host of bugfixes. In short, this is a huge update which has free stuff included, and you should be very happy if you’re a Total War fan. Hit the jump for the patch notes.

We’ve worked on implementing the multi-threading in the game for multi-core processors and made many optimisations that will also help increase performance on single core machines.

Players will see huge benefits through increased frame rates particularly in land and naval battles.

14 Free Units have been included in this patch, adding a large amount of diversity to the playable factions and the armies the player will face. These units replace ‘generic’ equivalents giving each faction a unique identity on the battlefield. Here is a description of each free unit available in the update:

Prussian Grenadiers

Wearing a distinctive brass fronted mitre cap, the Prussian Grenadiers are an explosive force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

Spanish Guardias de infateria

These elite guard infantry are charged with protecting the monarch and are a potent force on the battlefield.

Swedish lifeguard horse

This cavalry regiment forms part of the monarchs’ household guard. Superbly drilled, they act as a shock force on the battlefield.

Holland Horse Guard

Armed with heavy cavalry sabres, these disciplined cavalrymen represent the elite of the army.

Prussian Garde Du Corp

The Prussian Garde Du Corp are a replacement for the Prussian standard Household cavalry. These heavy horse shock troops are best used to break enemy lines and overrun enemy positions. With a strong charge and fearsome attack, these riders make short work of those who would oppose a Prussian monarch.

Prussian Life guard

The Prussian life guards are equipped similarly to line infantrymen. However their uniforms are altogether more splendid, marking them out as a superior force, in arrogance if nothing else. They do a good job as garrison troops and are dedicated to the crown.

Russian Grenadiers

This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!

Spanish Guardias De Corp

The Spanish Guardias De Corp replace household cavalry for Spain. With almost unbreakable morale, on the charge they are almost unstoppable.

Spanish Grenadiers

These are a replacement for the standard Spanish Grenadiers with a distinctive bearskin hat to mark them out as exemplary on the battlefield.

Swedish ‘Lifeguards of foot’

These are a highly trained replacement for the standard Swedish guard. They are often used as a force in a system that defends a monarchy and can be relied upon for utter loyalty and deadly accuracy in the field. Their professionalism is reflected in their fearsome battle reputation.

Holland Guard

The Holland Guards from the United Provinces are superior line infantry units. Carrying smoothbore muskets, they were traditionally chosen to protect the royal family and have an incredibly high morale, often making them the last troops to break in a fight.

Scots

The Scots are a Highland ex-patriate infantry used by the United Provinces, renowned for their deadly charge.

Swiss Infantry

Very disciplined infantry of the United Provinces with quick reload and excellent marksmanship.

Mamelukes

Mamelukes are fearless light horsemen, deadly when deployed against a broken or unsupported enemy.

Additionally the Spanish nation has had a new uniform design to better reflect its historical look.

Audio:

Sound loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This makes loading times faster and reduces any instances of ’stuttering’. Unit group sounds have also been improved, for more realistic group movement. The primary sound library (Miles DLL) has been updated to stop occasional clicking. And we’ve added more sound variation for unit deaths and musket fire.

Campaign:

* Several crash bug fixes in saves, movement, agents and logic.
* Various optimisations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times.
* When the pirates are destroyed and re-emerge they now maintain a status of at war with all and are unable to enter into diplomatic negotiations.
* Added small ships on domestic trade routes from the trade nodes to home regions moving in the correct direction, i.e. with the flow of trade.
* The AI should now no longer repeatedly sign a diplomatic agreement and then break it the next turn. Treaties are more valuable and adhered to.
* We’ve fixed some border trade agreements allowing greater numbers of bordering factions to properly trade with one another.
* Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.
* AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.
* Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.
* Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactical retreat).
* Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.
* Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.
* Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.
* Fixed various movement extent crashes.
* Changed background income for minor factions.
* Fixed diplomatic relations with emergent factions.
* Tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.
* Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.
* Fixed crash when embarking and disembarking armies at ports.
* Fixed trade ships not being correctly registered in trade nodes after splitting forces.
* Fixed government change diplomatic effect.
* Improved commerce raiding display on trade screen.
* Faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.
* Prevent players cancelling the movement of fleeing agents.

Balance changes

Units

* Charge bonus generally increased across the board for all units and melee defence reduced.
* Greater diversification of stats between different unit types designed to emphasise differences and improve balance.
* Redone costs for all units for multiplayer to improve game balance which better reflects the actual battlefield worth of each unit.
* Mob formation added in for Native American, irregular and some skirmisher units.
* Spot distance for light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry increased allowing them to spot hidden units at longer distances.
* Russian line infantry stats have been boosted to allow them to compete more with other factions’ line infantry.
* Movement speed of all unit types reduced by 10%.
* Ammo for light infantry increased to 20, line to 15.

Land battle morale

* Charge morale bonus reduced from 10 to 4.
* Recent casualties, extended casualties and total casualties morale penalties increased slightly for higher percentages.
* Rear and flank exposed morale penalties increased.

Fatigue

* Fatigue penalty for melee reduced from 18 per tick to 10.
* Running fatigue penalty for heavy and light cavalry reduced from -3/-2 to -2/-1.

Artillery Changes

* Calibration area for cannons and howitzers reduced. Accuracy of non-round shot shot types reduced to compensate.
* Muzzle velocity of round shot for cannons increased to make them fire lower and bounce more, accuracy also increased.
* Lethality of shrapnel pieces reduced to match canister shot, range also reduced to 350.
* Load time for special shot types for howitzers increased slightly, and range reduced to 350.
* Calibration area for mortars increased, accuracy of round shot increased to compensate. Reload time increased slightly.
* Accuracy of 18 lbr horse guard artillery restored to 65.
* Hit points of gun trains increased to 50, all guns and caissons to 25.

Despite being posted on April the first, it appears that this Left 4 Dead blog post is accurate: Valve are to update the matchmaking system for PC users of Left 4 Dead. The extension adds support for third-party campaign servers (custom maps) and support for a party system. this will allow you and three buddies to team up and find another four players for versus mode. Also changing is the way that the game auto-matches you based on skill.

Why people still play the game without people they know is beyond me, but whatever floats your zombie-infested boat, I suppose. That said, I’m glad that these features are coming; it’s a chore finding servers with the things that you want to play, and the party system will, I’m sure, be a lot of fun.

A gigantic patch for both Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts has been released via Steam today, so restart your Steam clients to allow the update to automatically download. The patch includes way too much stuff to list here; the full list is after the jump for those of you who want to see all of the changes. I can’t help but think that this has something to do with the upcoming expansion Company of Heroes: Tales of Valour releasing on April 9th, but maybe that’s just me. Hit the jump for the patch notes.

v2.400

Online

* Further optimizations & fixes to the new network code.
* Reduced latency, improved connectivity, memory leaks.
* Fixed permissions for some of the Lobby UI.
* -port (port #) command line extension. With this command you can specify the port Company of Heroes uses to connect. This is especially helpful for players on the same LAN.
* Updated BugSplat. Anti-virus programs should dislike it less now.
* Resolved some network issues with joining games.
* Fixed the ping display in the game list to update correctly.
* Relic Downloader is now active. (It can be located in your system tray, and is only active while the game is running.)
* Fixed a number of issues with the Network Library. Connectivity should be improved.
* Resolved an issue that would cause simulation to pause and sync errors in-game.
* Host Proxy added.
* Fixed multiple network related crash bugs and connection issues.
* Fixed server exception that occurred when resetting an account password if the password had at least one Unicode character.
* Fixed for a crash that occurred when joining a game that was quickly created and destroyed by the host.
* Tuned automatch to adjust skill ratings faster when players beat much higher rated opponents.
* Failure to find an automatch control record is now a fatal error when automatch polling, and is handled correctly by client.
* Fix for bug that accidentally deleted the automatch control record when attempting to join an automatch.
* Fixed a bug where the automatcher would not use the correct skill ratings for random searches.
* Fixed memory leak inside the network library when posting game results to the server.
* Joining a game or automatch team now forces the ping to always be retested (Fix for a join failure causing all further attempts to fail for the next 60 seconds).
* Fixed a crash caused by an incoming chat message while still loading the Main Menu after coming back from a game.
* Fixed a crash that occasionally occurred when sending a chat message.
* Fixed multiple random crashes (and trailing random characters) that occurred when sending/receiving whispers.
* Fix for having a banned key of a product that prevented you from adding a new key of the same product.
* Fix to allow a user with an unbanned product to play even if a previous product was banned.
* Fix to allow adding a key to your account even if you are banned.
* Gamelisting screen consolidates events and will only update the UI at most once per tick (making it much more responsive).
* Gamelisting screen now updates immediately whenever pings change (as opposed to only when the user clicks refresh).
* Fix for Stats not counting when someone ends the RelicCOH process using Task Manager.
* Fix for Inviting people to a team too quickly adding a ghost version of a player.
* Fix for UI not updating to show stats changes for team wins or losses right away.
* UI updates the ping in the game setup screen every 5 seconds.
* Arbitration message now shown to someone who disputes the game results.
* Fix for changing chat channels too quickly putting a user into a bad state.
* Chat channel list now show in alphabetical order.
* Fix for the stats popup sometimes not opening when clicking on a player’s name in the game listing screen.
* Fix for the game getting stuck ‘consolidating players’ when multiple people drop simultaneously.
* Fixed a crash that occurred when a chat message was received while transitioning from game setup screen to game loading screen.

Fixes

* General
* Fixed planes spawning from center of map.
* Planes will no longer path along the ground killing squads.
* When receiving VP Ticker warnings and the opponent team has multiple Armies in it the player will no longer receive multiple Ticker warnings simultaneously.
* Fixed a number of quite obscure in-game crashes.
* When crushing Tank Traps,tanks will now receive a speed reduction on the specific tank that crushed the Tank Trap.
* Streamlined the voice configuration options to 32, 64 and 128 voices.
* All mine and Goliath drop abilities can now be used on bridges.
* All mine and Goliath drop abilities now use a ghost preview instead of a circular UI element prior to placement.
* Vickers Nests will no longer leave behind a ‘no fire’ zone when destroyed while a unit is in its line of fire.
* AI will no longer dodge artillery impeccably.
* Added a number of anti-cheat measures.
* Fixed issue with garrisoning windmills.
* Windmills can have demolition charges placed on them properly.
* Some small footbridges have been tuned to ensure that they are properly destroyable.
* British and American Infantry will properly repair points that have been Scorched by Panzer Elite squads.
* Soldiers trapped by defenses (sandbags, barbwire, etc.) will no longer become non-functional when ordered to man an emplacement.
* A team will no longer turn all one color after a skirmish/multiplayer match is over if the team color is selected.
* AI no longer uses abilities such as such as sector artillery, gliders, etc in illegal situations.
* There was a small inconsistency among about 10% of null points that had a different capture speed than the majority. These have been brought up to the standard capture time.
* Fixed a bug where planes would not exit the world map.
* Fixed a bug where resources would not be generated in counter-attack missions during the campaigns.
* Fixed a bug where hills would prevent artillery from firing.
* Fixed an exploit where some artillery could have its cost refunded after use.
* Some abilities which had finicky range issues will now be less finicky (repair, booby traps, etc.).
* Unconstructed buildings no longer briefly increase their sight range on death.
* Units with ‘extended sight’ such as the Vampire will now detect camouflaged units on the mini-map.
* Fixed a bug with Goliath accuracy against American Airborne Infantry to match all other infantry.
* Moved UI elements from In-Game screen such that objectives, chat text, and alerts do not overlap.
* Fixed an issue where reinforced squad members were not receiving veterancy bonuses.

* American
* AI improvements to the Americans.
* Fixed an issue where the 105mm Howitzer Team firing range is shown incorrectly on the mini-map.
* Riflemen will now be affected by Rapid Response.
* Airborne Strafing Run no longer favors firing to one side.
* Fixed a bug that enables multiple squads of Riflemen with differing veterancy levels able to throw Sticky Bombs without selecting them separately.
* Fixed a bug that reimburses munitions spent on Armor Piercing Rounds for Browning HMGs, if they pack up the MG before the ability runs out.
* Fixed a bug that refunded the cost and resets the cooldown of the Airborne Bombing Run if the bomber was shot down before releasing its payload.
* Clicking repeatedly on the Supply Yard will no longer select American M10s.
* Sniper veterancy does not block out the camouflage ability anymore.
* American mortar teams can use US halftracks as transports.

* Wehrmacht
* AI Improvements to the Wehrmacht.
* Wehrmacht Vehicle veterancy received accuracy while moving modifiers now scales to the size of the vehicle.
* Wehrmacht Puma ‘received accuracy while moving’ modifiers from veterancy now reduced.
* Wehrmacht Halftrack ‘received accuracy while moving’ modifiers from veterancy reduced.
* Repair Bunker’s Repair Pioneers will now repair AT Guns and Flak 88 cannons.
* All Wehrmacht Captured Weapon teams will obtain veterancy when researched from the Kamptkraft center for their respective veterancy types.
* Knights Cross Holders will now retain veterancy bonuses after reinforcing.
* Fixed a bug when Wehrmacht Grenadiers would sometimes lose the ability to upgrade to Panzerschrecks.
* Fixed the minimum damage range of V1 rockets.
* Wehrmacht medical kit moved to a different slot in the UI to prevent conflict with the rally point in Garrisoned building.
* Fixed an ownership issue with the Firestorm ability.
* Fixed a bug where Registered artillery could be cast on unconstructed buildings.
* Nebelwerfer will properly get veterancy modifiers to barrage recharge time when recaptured.
* Fixed issues with V1 not dropping properly on a specified location.

* British
* Over Repair ability will now display spinning wrench FX on the target if it was injured and is under repair.
* Over Repair has been affected in the following ways:
* The health bonus maximum has been reduced.
* The rate at which the bonus health decreases (decay) has been increased.
* The threshold at which decay no longer applies has been lowered.
* British Over Repair will now Over Repair different health amounts depending on the size of the vehicle.
* 25 Pounder Emplacements set to Counter-battery will not fire on infantry that use grenades.
* British Resource modifiers will no longer give an unintended munitions bonus to points that were not munitions points.
* British Priest Barrage now uses the same mini-map and tactical-map icon as the standard 25 Pounder version of the Overwatch Barrage ability.
* British Command Tank Creeping Smoke Barrage will now indicate ability range on the mini-map.
* British Emplacements captured by other armies will no longer obtain veterancy.
* British Troops will not retreat to the British HQ while it is mobile.
* Fixed corrupted fuel and munitions resource rates when a British Captain with 3rd level of veterancy moved from one territory to another.
* When the British Forward Observation Officer’s is killed, his Artillery will continue to fall. The Officer must remain stationary for 2 seconds after casting the ability.
* Cromwell Flank Speed now requires the engine to not be damaged or destroyed.
* Infantry will receive the proper fatigue modifiers after the effects of Heroic Charge wear off.
* Overwatch projectile will not explode below the ground any more.
* British Sandbags are now treated the same as all other sandbags with regards to crushing.
* Fixed an issue with Overwatch and some British buildings that caused the shells to impact the buildings before arriving at the target destination.
* British Recon squad now only detects mines when stationary.
* Overwatch cancel on Mortar emplacements shows the correct icon.
* British Lieutenant has his shortcut key fixed for Heroic Charge.
* Fixed a bug with the Captain’s modifiers that allowed them to stack when moving through friendly territories.
* British Command Tank’s Creeping Smoke Barrage, once triggered, will no longer refund resources if canceled.
* British gliders can no longer crush infantry.
* Fixed cooldown modifiers on British Creeping Barrage Company Commander bonuses.
* The firefly no longer uses the Sherman vehicle wreck.
* Churchill’s Tank Shock has been fixed to work much more consistently. It is now a timed ability that suppresses infantry around it for a given duration.
* Minor changes to the movement modifiers for the recon Infantry Section.
* Numerous Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite upgrades, buildings, and squads were not revealed by the Ultra Decryption ability on the British Royal Commando Commander Tree. This has been fixed.

* Panzer Elite
* Kettenkrads no longer run away from Jeeps. This fixes the exploit of players using Jeeps to block Kettenkrad movement.
* Multiple Squads can no longer booby trap the same building.
* Panzer Elite Group Zeal will no longer affect enemy and allied infantry.
* Panzer Elite Overdrive ability now requires an engine that is not damaged or destroyed.
* The Vampire now toggles properly when ownership of a territory changes while active.
* Panzer Elite cannot delete their base defenses.
* Panthers for both the Wehrmacht and the Panzer Elite use the correct model when rebuilt by Bergetiger.
* Panzer Elite Sector artillery cannot be targeted on your or your ally’s HQ territory.
* Removed Goliaths’ ability to gain or provide shared veterancy upon destruction.
* Panzer Elite Marder III now has its Site Main Gun shortcut key re-enabled.
* Fixed veterancy not applying to the Hummel Barrage cooldown at level 3.
* Fixed a bug where Panzer Elite Henschel attacks were auto-firing both weapons instead of auto-firing one and auto-targeting with the other.
* Fixed Panther Battlegroup button visibility when Panzer Elite HQ is destroyed.
* Advanced repair upgrade now affects the Kettenkrad’s repair ability.
* Fixed issue where garrisoned squads inside the 250 Halftrack would receive area of effect damage when they should not.

* Audio

* Fixed incoming projectile sounds.
* Collisions between physics objects now produce material-specific sounds. *this system is not perfect, and is meant to supplement the regular destruction audio (ie: a sound will not play for every collision, only those with a large enough velocity/mass). It’s fun to push around debris with vehicles though.
* Nebelwerfers have new and much improved sound FX.
* Reduced volume on BAR to sit better in the mix, as well as many other smaller mix refinements.
* Tweaked and changed some of the large cannons back to previous firing sounds based on community feedback.
* Fixed the firing volume of Greyhound.
* P47 Fixed bug where plane engine sounds continued after the plane was shot down.
* Firing sound for Off-map Artillery has been added.
* Artillery explosions now heard at distance.
* Added ‘wet road’ surface sound for vehicles driving in the rain (and squishy footsteps).
* Fixed the Halktrack Quad 50 and 20mm Flakvierling firing sound.
* The Vampire Halftrack now shuts off its engine while stealing resources.
* Echo’ has been fixed. Try the reverb again, it’s been tweaked (Dual Core+ Only).
* Tiger engine turned down.
* Volksgrenadiers and MG42 have had their speech fixed.
* Sherman 75mm and 76mm fire sounds replaced and are now awesome.
* Many sound improvements have been made to the Tiger, Jagdpanther and King Tiger.
* Menu now randomizes music between two original Company of Heroes pieces and Opposing Front’s main theme.
* Radio effect modified no more piercing resonance!

Gameplay

* General
* A team-resource modifier has been added to all teams. Teams of two share 99% resources; teams of three share 98% resources; teams of four share 97% resources.
* Tank Traps under construction have had their health reduced.
* Distance reduced in which Tank Trap ‘ghost’ is replaced with the actual object under construction.
* Weapons will now auto-target defenses (Barbed Wire, Tank Traps, Sand Bags) while they are under construction.
* All Tank Main Guns now have an equal chance to target the crew of a Towed AT Gun as they do of targeting the AT Gun directly. Prior to this they would consistently choose the AT Gun itself as the main target, dramatically reducing the life expectancy of the AT Gun in a head-to-head confrontation with a Tank. Tank Guns that prefer infantry in general (Ostwind Flakpanzer, 20mm cannons, etc.) will still prefer to fire at the Infantry rather than the AT Gun itself.
* Anti-tank class weapons (specifically the 37mm Pak 35, 50mm pak 38, 75mm pak 40, 17 pounder, 57mm) are now less accurate against infantry.
* Infantry Anti-tank class weapons (specifically Bazookas, Panzerschrecks, Recoilless Rifles) previously had a flat 50% damage reduction vs. Wehrmacht targets upgraded with Armored Skirts, this has been changed over to a 25% damage reduction and 25% penetration reduction.
* Tank gun targeting priority increased significantly vs. Marder IIIs.
* Mine and Butterfly Bomb short and medium range accuracy and area of effect accuracy increased.
* Mines are deadlier to retreating units.
* Vehicle dropped mines (i.e. M8 Greyhound) short and medium range accuracy increased.
* On-map artillery weapons (British 25 Pounder, American M2 105mm, Hummel) and Off-map artillery (Rocket Barrage, Firestorm, Forward Observer Artillery) now have standard penetration values against the rear armor of a number of armored vehicles.
* AT guns (Wehrmacht Pak 38, American 57mm, etc.) are less accurate versus other AT guns.
* Tank Guns, Artillery, AT Guns, and Rockets do slightly less damage (-10%) to Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite tanks with armored Skirts.
* The time it takes to repair a Scorched strategic point has been increased, with the exception of engineer types (Engineers, Sappers, Pioneers, and Panzer Grenadiers) who take less time to repair a point than before.
* The guns for the Bofors, Flak 38, 222 Armored Car, and 234 Armored Car all have decreased accuracy against infantry garrisoned in buildings.
* Barbed Wire and Sandbags can no longer be scuttled.

* American
* American Rangers and Airborne ‘Fire-Up’ ability now causes a 10 second exhaustion after use. Exhausted units move slower for the duration and have a slower rate of fire.
* American Anti-tank and MG gun Armor Piercing Round abilities only show up for an American Player.
* Browning HMG damage modifier vs. Panzer Elite, British soldiers increased by 33%.
* Sherman Calliope Barrage ability cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds for each level of veterancy.
* American Strafing Run ability arrival delay increased by 1/2 a second.
* American Sherman and M3 Halftracks now benefit from vehicle cover.
* Paratroopers and Rangers have their upkeep increased by 20%.
* M10 main gun range increased by 12%.
* Some upgrades now increase the rate at which Riflemen gain veterancy (specifically: BARS, Sticky Bombs, Supply Yard production).
* American War Machine from Armor Company Commander cost decreased from 250 to 200 munitions.
* American Self Repair from Armor Company Commander cost decreased from 200 to 150 munitions.
* 90mm Pershing main gun area of effect increased 66%.
* 90mm Pershing main gun effectiveness vs. Panzer IV and Panther armored skirts slightly reduced by about 5%.
* 90mm Pershing HVAP main gun area of effect increased by 50%.
* 90mm Pershing HVAP main gun has increased penetration versus Panzer IV, Panther, and Stugs with armored skirts.
* 90mm Pershing HVAP main gun has increased penetration overall, by about 10%.
* American Machine Gun nest cost adjusted to 200 manpower and 15 fuel from 240 manpower to 10 fuel.
* American Machine Gun nest weapon does marginally increased suppression.
* American Machine Gun nest weapon cooldown is marginally shorter.
* American 76mm Sherman main gun area damage tuned.
* American .30 Cal HMG squad veterancy requirements reduced for level 2 and level 3 veterancy.
* American 60mm Mortar damage modifier increased by 75% vs Panzer Elite and British soldiers.
* American 60mm mortar weapon health has tripled (this is the gun, not the entire squad).
* American Airborne can now upgrade their Recoilless Rifles in enemy-owned or neutral territory.
* American 57mm AT gun penetration modifier vs. Jagdpanther increased by 10%.
* American M10 main cannon penetration increased 20% vs. Jagdpanther.
* American Sherman 76mm upgraded gun penetration increased 20% vs. Jagdpanther.
* American Mortar Smoke Barrage ability fires more rounds than before.
* American Pershing gets increased penetration (approximately 35%) on its main gun when the 76mm Gun upgrade is researched at Tank Depot (note, help text has not been localized).
* American Fire-up ability time increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds, but is reduced by 15 seconds at each level of veterancy.
* American M3 Halftrack health increases by 20% when upgrading to the Quad .50 cal.
* American Bazooka damage reduced vs. Wehrmacht Halftracks, 234 Armored Cars, M8 Greyhounds, American M3 Halftracks by about 20%.
* American Bazooka accuracy vs. moving armored vehicles modifier is slightly reduced.
* American 60mm Mortar Barrage’s scatter was tuned.
* 105mm Howitzer Barrage ability’s firing cone reduced by 68% and range reduced by 9%.

* Wehrmacht
* Reduced cost of Firestorm to from 200 to 160 munitions.
* Firestorm damage over time modified to have a decreased radius, but a longer minimum duration and much lower damage frequency.
* Firestorm is less accurate and less damaging to all buildings.
* Firestorm falls more quickly after being requested.
* Firestorm sight radius reveal timer reduced.
* Improved the MP40 medium range accuracy by 225%.
* At veterancy level 2, Volksgrenadiers get a +10 meter sight range addition.
* Wehrmacht 234 Armored Car weapon range bonus at veterancy level 2 replaced with a sight range bonus.
* Wehrmacht Panzerfaust damage modifier reduced (-45%) vs. American and British heavily armored vehicles.
* Wehrmacht Knights Cross Holders now capable of camouflaging (for when they re-capture a Pak 38), but they do not have a new ability.
* Wehrmacht Knights Cross Holder squads reinforce time down from 30 seconds to 15 seconds per soldier.
* Nebelwerfer burning ground does not damage heavy armor and has significantly reduced damage to light armor.
* Nebelwerfer burning ground damage does not kill heavy or light armor.
* Minimum burning ground damage duration on the Nebelwerfer increased to 10 seconds.
* Nebelwerfer can be repaired.
* Stormtrooper suppression recovery now matches that of a Grenadier squad, previously they had recovered from suppression roughly 4-5 times slower.
* Wehrmacht Sdkfz 234 Armored Car first level veterancy bonus changed from a -15% received enemy accuracy bonus to a -15% received damage bonus.
* Wehrmacht 234 Armored Car max speed increased by 10%.
* Wehrmacht Flammenwerfer upgrade cost reduced from 100 to 75 munitions.
* Panzerschreck chance to drop decreased by 50%.
* Wehrmacht infantry retain their veterancy on recaptured Wehrmacht weapons (Nebelwerfers, MG42 HMGS, Mortars, Flak 88s)
* Werhmacht Stuka rockets damage reduced against British and Panzer Elite targets by 25%.
* Panzerschreck accuracy vs AT guns reduced.
* Panzerschreck damage vs Panzer IVs reduced.
* Wehrmacht Mortar Smoke Barrage ability fires more rounds than before.
* Wehrmacht Stuh with armored skirts benefit from the same frontal armor improvements as regular Stugs.
* Wehrmacht Stug main gun tracking speed increased by 66%.
* Wehrmacht Stuka Halftrack rocket barrage increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds; it decreases by 10 seconds for every level of veterancy.
* Wehrmacht 8cm mortar weapon health has tripled (this is the gun, not the entire squad).
* The Stug has its front armor improved by roughly 20%.
* Panzerfaust damage vs. Bren Carriers reduced by 13%.
* Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite tanks with armored skirts are more resistant to infantry AT.

* British
* British 25 Pounder Howitzer Overwatch Barrage now has a 1 second increased delay between firing rounds.
* Slowed British 25 Pounder Overwatch projectile.
* British 3″ Mortar supercharge range reduced by 15%. Overwatch set to the same max range.
* British Overwatch Barrage now has 40 second duration and 40 second recharge time.
* British 25 Pounder emplacements and Priests have their supercharge and Overwatch ranges reduced by 10%.
* Reduced cost of British Glider HQ from 340 to 200 manpower.
* British Anti-tank Armor Piercing Round ability only shows up for British players.
* British Captain’s Victor Target ability must now be targeted within 45 meters of the Captain.
* British Tetrarch main gun area-of-effect radius slightly reduced, slightly reducing effectiveness vs. infantry targets.
* British Tetrarch Littlejohn Adapter has increased penetration rates vs. all Armor by 20%.
* British Sherman Firefly Tank Commander upgrade cost increased from 10 to 30 munitions.
* British PIAT launcher scatter radius reduced.
* British PIAT reload tuned.
* Artillery Barrage cooldowns have been increased across all British Artillery. Note, most upgrades for Royal Artillery reduce these incrementally.
* British Creeping Barrage cooldown increased by 15 seconds. Range reduced to 225 meters.
* Doubled the amount of fuel drain required by Flank Speed.
* British Churchill 6 pounder Gun has 30% better penetration vs. Hummel, Jagdpanther, and Hetzer.
* Area of effect range on Churchill 6 pounder gun reduced by about 66%.
* British Churchill damage vs Marder III reduced by 12%.
* Churchill Crocodile uses its tank gun instead of its flamethrower for attacking ground.
* British Commando PIAT squad cost increased from 255 to 325 manpower.
* Buttoning speed modifiers on British Infantry squads are dependent on squad size. Small squads apply fewer speed penalties, large squads apply full speed penalties to enemy targets.
* British Bren Carrier Vickers weapon has its ‘moving while firing’ accuracy multiplier reduced by 33%.
* British Bren Carrier Vickers weapon close range accuracy reduced by 40%.
* British Resource upgrades no longer share with teammates. Secured Resourcing, Captain’s veterancy resource bonus, and improved Command Truck resource bonuses only apply to the player performing those upgrades.
* Commando demo charge can be targeted and killed by small arms fire.
* British Captain’s territory health bonus to emplacements reduced by an appropriate amount.
* British Royal Engineer Improved Emplacements health maximum modifier reduced by 17%.
* British Royal Engineer Improved Emplacements received damage modifier removed and replaced with a received penetration modifier that decreases penetration by 10%.
* British Commando Concealing Smoke starts recharging when the squad is recruited. The ability is not available until it has undergone one cooldown cycle.
* Anti-aircraft weapons have improved damage and accuracy vs. landing British Gliders.
* Timer tuned on Overwatch Cancel.
* Lieutenants area of effect bonuses had an unintended side effect of slaughtering retreating infantry. These values have been modified so that this does not happen anymore, but still maintaining the efficacy of the Lieutenant’s leadership bonuses.
* Lieutenants now enjoy long walks on the beach.
* British Churchill Tank Shock recharge timer increased from 60 to 75 seconds.
* British Commando Sten SMGs are less effective vs. Knights Cross Holders.
* Improved British AI command truck setup.
* The Priest and the 25 Pounder Barrage and Supercharge cooldown increased by 15 seconds.
* British 17 pounder emplacement has had its scatter increased.
* Small Arms, Light and Heavy MG penetration against British Mortar Pits and Howitzers has doubled.
* Tuned Bren Carrier weapon and modified Bren Carrier Button Down ability so that it more reliably shoots at the specified target.
* Button Down ability targets the coaxial guns on the vehicles first, giving the main weapon a 5 second delay before it will stop shooting as well.

* Panzer Elite
* All Panzer Elite vehicle veterancy curves now escalate (previously many obtained veterancy level 2 much slower than they would obtain veterancy level 3).
* All Panzer Elite Soldiers obtain veterancy level 3 at a slightly slower rate.
* Panzer Elite Marder III damage vs. the American M10 and M4 Sherman reduced by 25%.
* Panzer Elite Scout Car will now detect snipers at half the radius of a Jeep or Motorcycle.
* Panzer Elite G43 Rifle long range cooldown penalty reduced to 25% from 50%, overall cooldown increased by 25%.
* Panzer Elite Kettenkrad Camouflage ability now reduces both Sight Radius and Camouflage Detection radius by 30%.
* Panzer Elite Suppressive Volley Fire will slow retreating squads to normal movement speed temporarily.
* Updated the Wirbelwind UI unit ratings.
* Panzer Elite Armored Car 20mm cannon effectiveness reduced vs. American Riflemen.
* Panzer Elite Armored Car’s ranged increased by 15%.
* Doubled the fuel drain of the Panzer Elite Armored Car 222 Overdrive.
* Panzer Elite Hummel cost reduced by 650 to 600 manpower.
* Panzer Elite Vehicles shared veterancy radius reduced by 10 meters.
* Panzer Elite vehicle and infantry veterancy sharing tuned.
* Panzer Elite Jagdpanther health reduced by 11%.
* Panzer Elite Marder III Site Main Gun sight bonus reduced by 75%.
* Panzer Elite Kettenkrad has its sniper detection radius increased by 30%.
* Bergetiger recovery manpower cost per minute has doubled.
* Panzer Elite Fallschirmjager will reveal themselves after 3 shots instead of 4 and time to revert back to camouflage has increased by 20%.
* Panzer Elite Infantry Halftrack MG42 is less effective vs. squads in light cover. Damage has been reduced by 25%.
* Tuned suppression on the Wirblewind.
* Panzer Elite Vampire acceleration increased by 33%.
* Panzer Elite Hummel artillery barrage ability increased by 30 seconds.
* Panzer Elite Hummel artillery barrage ability decreases by 10 seconds for every level of veterancy.
* Panzer Elite Wirblewind has increased penetration vs American Halftracks and M8 Greyhounds.
* Panzer Elite Wirblewind deals more deflection damage against armored targets.
* Previously when a Bergetiger recovers a vehicle, it came back with 50% of its of max health, the vehicle now returns with 40% of its max health.
* Axis armor recovered by the Bergetiger is more likely to return with either a damaged engine or destroyed main gun.

* Maps
* Fixed some building locations on Angoville Farms.
* Fixed a control point issue on Beaux Lowlands.
* Etavaux has a couple of world objects that have incorrect player ownership association and revealed some small areas in the Fog of War.

…I told you it was huge.

For all of you PC Burnout players (and if you’re not one, you should be), Criterion have released a patch allowing you to download the previously announced DLC for the game from the Burnout Store. The patch can be downloaded directly from here, and players with the EA download manager should already have it.

The DLC includes the Jansen 88 Special, the Hunter Manhattan Spirit, the Hunter Cavalry Bootlegger, the Montgomery Hawker Mech, the Carson Extreme Hotrod, and the Carson GT Nighthawk. Also available is the Toy Cars pack, with tiny versions of existing cars. Just head tot the Burnout Store to access them.

The PS Blog reports that LittleBigPlanet will be receiving an update soon, including a multitude of fixes and improvements. The update notes are after the jump, and include such things as ‘the game doesn’t break much now’ and ‘it’s a bit better now’. Not really, but that’s the gist of it. The patch includes the ability to listen to your own music in some sections of the game, and a better way to manage clothing, as well as a few improvements to the UI and community aspects of the game.

This update addresses several outstanding issues with the game:

* There is a new music player which lets player’s choose their own music from the XMB to play during create mode and in their Pod
* Improved decoration mode makes it easier to customize your Sackboy

New options to help prevent profiles becoming full of unwanted community objects:

* Option to delete all (unhearted) community objects and photos
* Option to select whether to automatically collect community prizes and photos
* A number of improvements have been made to make profiles more robust and to recover from certain errors
* We now support Japanese and Korean IME for text chat.
* Emitter prediction has been improved (this should help fast-moving projectiles e.g. in MGS levels)
* The player proximity switch now has a ‘require all’ option in it
* An option has been added to cycle between various level information when viewing community levels on the earth
* Various LittleBigStore improvements

Via Dtoid.

Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy’s proud father, has posted an update on the PlayStation Blog today to let the world know that Noby Noby Boy will be receiving an update “in the hopes that more people can enjoy the game”. The update will include an offline multiplayer mode, Takahashi says, adding “it’ll still be fun”. Oh and regarding the long journey to Mars? “Please be patient.” Offline multiplayer sounds great to me, since Noby Noby Boy is best played with a friend in the room. What I really want from this mode is that each person controls each end of Boy, resulting in madness.

Steam news has details of a huge Left 4 Dead PC patch, available now to all Steam users. The patch has a lot of bug fixes, as well as gameplay tweaks and changes. The Hunter gets “Increased Minimum damage” for a pounce, solving the frustration that a short-range pounce is almost worthless. Hopefully it should increase the hunter’s worth indoors.

Plus, “Survivors cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging,” and the “Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors.” This comes as a relief; smokers were almost useless most of the time without this extra damage. Also, you can now browse the web while in-game on Steam. Full notes after the jump, and remember: don’t fuck with the witch.

General

* Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only
* Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players
* Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch
* Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises
* Improved loading time
* Fixed mini-gun physics exploit
* Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators
* Fixed rare achievement bug issues
* Fixed several map exploits
* Fixed various match making issues
* Fixed NAT traversal issues

Versus Changes

* Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players
* Changed color of infected player name in chat to red
* Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots
* Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots
* Normalized special infected melee damage
* Made the following client commands cheat protected: “Kill” and “explode”
* Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health
* Players can only change teams once per map
* Players can’t change teams while other players are still loading
* Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode
* Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
* Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch
* Fixed team swap issue

Hunter

* Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing
* Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does

Smoker

* Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance
* Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break
* Survivors cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
* Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer
* Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time
* Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
* Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts
* Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors

Tank

* Bashable objects now appear with a red glow
* Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently
* Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists
* Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

Witch

* Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams
* Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank
* Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors

Epic Games’ Gears forum received a post from company VP Mark Rein a few minutes before 1AM today. In that post Mark makes mention of a title update for the Gears sequel that they hope to release in January. The laundry list of issues being addressed include the ability to wield an invisible shield, infinite lancer ammo, melee through walls, and more.

Hit the jump for Mark’s post in its entirety.

A brief status report on the next Gears2 title update

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out…

About that shotgun…

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

Source: gearsforums.epicgames.com

The Gear loving crew over at G4TV spent their weekend “working” very hard in the name of better gameplay. Yes, this means they played lots and lots of Gears of War 2. The list after the jump outlines the issues they came across while playing single/co-op campaign, straight up multiplayer, and horde mode.

Bugs:

• Weapon Sliding – Weapon sliding (picking up weapons while moving) appears to be back and definitely ruins the map balance. The game is designed in a way that makes picking up a power weapon immediately usually results in a quick death as the pickup animation plays. Being able to grab the Boomshot while moving into cover hurts the multiplayer, especially since this was a bug in the first Gears of War…
• Voice Chat With Dead Players Between Rounds – This is a minor bug that we think will be definitely be fixed, but between rounds dead players cannot converse with players that survived the round. Again, this is a Gears of War 1 launch bug and we’re sad to see it crop up again. We’re not suggesting dead players should talk with the living while the game is being played, but they shouldn’t be restricted from chatting between rounds.
• Annex / King of the Hill Framerate – Games of Annex and King of the Hill tend to suffer from framerate drops and lag as the pile of body parts surrounding the capture point grows and grows. To us, this seems like there should just be a hard limit on the amount of gibs allowed at any one time.
• Invite All In What’s Up? - Hitting the Back Button in the What’s Up? Menu (which we love, by the way) sends game invites to everybody on your friend list whether they be online in Gears, online in any other game, and even offline… we’re assuming it’s only meant to invite friends currently playing Gears of War 2.

Removed Gears of War Features

Matchmaking is a very welcome addition to Gears, but we noticed some dropped features from the original that we’d like back.

• Map Rotation / Cycle – In the first game, private multiplayer games followed the classic map cycle format with a lobby before the game started. While Epic has made it easier to change up options without having to re-host a game it currently knocks everyone back to the pre-map lobby after each game. This drastically slows the action down as everyone is forced to reconnect to the host. Most of the time the host just hits start right away to choose the next map. Why not give the host the power to “Return To Lobby After This Game” or “Return To Lobby Now”, but bring map cycles back?
• “Ready” Icon – With 10 people in a private game (or even a party of 5 for Horde) it’s tough to tell who’s ready and who has stepped away to grab a drink or go to the bathroom.

Game Balance

This is a very subjective section, but we definitely stand by our initial impressions of the new game balance so far:

• Super Powered Chainsaw - We aren’t sure if its the new netcode or if Epic just really wants the Lancer and chainsaw to be the new shotgun, but it’s staggering how hard it is to shoot someone out of the chainsaw before they hit you right now. In our tests, it’s really only reliable to counter a chainsaw charge with a chainsaw of your own. We’ve started dropping our shotguns for power weapons now instead of the Lancer. Chainsaw charging is the new shotgun charging.
• Shotgun – The shotgun seems drastically underpowered at close range and is unreliable. Blind-firing it is inaccurate, but that isn’t our problem. At a few steps away, the shotgun sometimes takes 3 hits to down somebody. This is a big change from the original and we want our trusty shotty back. Epic already threw in stopping power to stop somebody from roadie running right up to you and one-shotting you, but was it really necessary to tone the shotgun down at the same time?
• Mortar – The mortar fires way to quickly and can be fired from cover. By the time the shells are falling, the mortar operator can be lining up his next shot while his targets scramble to a nearby building. We’re not saying that it should be removed, but the risk of use needs to be increased beyond a slow move speed, especially on maps like Day One where the mortar spawns on a catwalk with ample cover overlooking a giant open map… it’s placed well on Jacinto and Avalanche. Actually, just move it on Day One. Thanks.
• Grenades – Grenades seem much more powerful, which is fine, but we have an issue. Shooting wall-planted grenades takes too long and is often difficult from a safe distance. The explosion from a planted ‘nade is so quick that it’s nearly impossible to avoid if you get caught by one. We’d like to be able to clear them safely for having the foresight to check for them.

I’ve been playing campaign and horde mode for the most part, but from what I have seen, the G4TV list seems to be pretty accurate. If you’ve seen anything not mentioned on this list, feel free to share it in our comment section below.

Source: G4TV

Looks like things are finally starting to turn around for SOCOM fans. The recently released 1.20 patch fixes a majority of bugs and other problems, but what about Trophies?

Well, like a Navy Seal unit closing in on an enemy base, the trophies are on their way. The 1.30 patch is said to be arriving soon, complete with Trophy support as well as a full list of new features and bug fixes. Check the complete list of updates after the jump.

New Features

• SOCOM Awards and PSN Trophies
• DTS audio support
• Add HUD and scoreboard opacity
• Scoreboard invocation improvements (tap select for persistent scoreboard, hold for temporary)
• Spectator mode HUD turns off after brief interval
• Spectator camera look now respects user invert on/off setting
• Spectator camera pan now consistent with in game camera
• Add dive-to-prone
• Add lean control to d-pad
• Gear items stackable
• Extend post-round period
• Restrict RPGs and grenade launchers in ranked rooms
• Increase prone movement speed
• Adding support for lefty control configuration (analog stick functions swapped)
• Increase frag grenade effectiveness
• Prevent incorrect reload interruptions

Bug Fixes

• Fix animation issue when prone rolling near certain objects.
• Fix remaining issues with statistics gathering and display
• Fix bugs related to equipping of C4 in breach mode
• Fix occasional audio drop outs
• Fix last remaining framerate hitch when other clients late join
• Fix remaining stability issues
• Fix hostages being affected by smoke

While this looks sweet, the SOCOM team was quick to note that all the features on the list are not guaranteed to come with the 1.30 patch, but may arrive at a later date:

“… some items listed may be delayed to a following update if additional development is required beyond what our schedule for the 1.30 update allows.”

Source: socom.us.playstation.com

A trusted source has let Ripten in on some information regarding the status of several high profile Sony titles on the horizon, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break from my LittleBigPlanet fun-fest and fill you all in.

For starters, all you third person military shooter fans out there will be happy to hear that, after months of play testing, Socom Confrontation will be getting the patch treatment as well as some eagerly anticipated trophies very soon.

And remember that MAG title we all got a glimpse at during Sony’s E3 press conference? You know, the “massive action game” capable of supporting up to 256 players. Well, the word is that the pre-alpha is already being play tested, and the game should be nearing its alpha stage of testing soon.

That brings us to the new IP from Sucker Punch, makers of Sly Cooper. Yes, we’re talking about the super hero action game titled Infamous. No specifics were revealed in terms of gameplay, but we’ve been told that testing has begun on this title as well.

Finally, our source tells us that the Resistance PSP title is being play tested with less than favorable feedback thus far. We’re pretty sure that Sony’s portable fanboy division won’t be happy to hear this, but it’s still early — and regardless of how it fares — its console big brother, Resistance 2, is primed to kick some serious ass.

Many of us believed that the recent delay of Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet was meant to allow for a recall, reprinting, and redistribution of the game after what some deemed to be offensive lyrics were brought to the attention of Sony.

While this may still be the case, it is also possible that the move to recall the game was nothing more than Sony’s way to ensure the impending LBP patch would be approved and accessible on PSN before the exclusive PlayStation 3 title hit stores.

Assuming you are one of the foolish fortunate individuals who bid their bi-weekly paycheck on Ebay for a copy of Sackboy’s debut IP, you can log into PSN and download the 57MB patch right now. Everyone else will benefit from the automatic update on November 5th.

Source: Neogaff (via CVG)

[UPDATE] – After speaking with our own Patrick Steen, who is playing the US release of the game, we have confirmation that the patch currently only applies to the EU version and that a US patch has yet to be released.

[UPDATE 10/26/08] – The US patch is now available for download.

You may have been following our coverage of Bioshock PS3’s texture problems, in which case you will know that 2K have been doing everything they can to resolve the issue, including releasing a post-release patch to fix the texture problems.

Well, now that the game and patch are out, we can finally see what the fuss was about. Hit the jump to see the updated Big Daddy texture.

Before

After

So what do you think? Was it worth the effort on 2K’s part? Did it even make much of a difference to you? Let us know in the comments!

Source: VGTilt

After lauding Fable II’s cooperative gameplay as the best thing since whatever was previously the best thing (witty, right?), developer Lionhead went and pissed everyone off when they announced that it would not be available when the game released.  Instead, people were expected to wait another week and download a patch that would implement the online co-op mode.

Earlier today, however, Lionhead announced on their community blog that co-op would be available on day one, but it will still be in patch form.  Huh?  Isn’t there enough room on the disc for that extra 983KB of code?  Anyway, this is good news for me since I’m planning on killing my brother’s family ASAP– err, I mean I’m looking forward to conquering evil with him.

A new Fable II TV commercial is also available, so you can click through if you’re interested in watching it. Kinda neat.

The first PS3 disc-based game to support trophies is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, surprising us all today with an earlier than expected 1.10 patch.  The trophy support has seen a rise of interest in one of 2007’s best games, causing many a PS3 owner to boot up the game and begin trophy hunting.

Now PS3 friend lists are littered with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune players, all attempting to acquire 48 trophies (full list can be found here) including the first allusive Platinum trophy for achieving all others. There’s now great incentive to hop into Uncharted and improve your PS3 rank.  This is especially true when getting a bronze trophy for your first discovered treasure is magnitudes easier than gaining the same for 100,000 pollen in PixelJunk Eden.

Is this the end of the begining for the PS3 trophy love fest, or is it the begining of the end for PS3 owner’s sanity.  Personally, I’d count your blessings that Uncharted was the first to be patched, instead of a lesser game, like…Lair.

In a recent interview at E3, Valve Software’s Erik Johnson stated that the PS3 port of The Orange Box was done “mostly” by EA. So if it was only “mostly” done by EA, does that mean that Valve actually had a hand in making a game they consistently denied being a part of? Why does that even matter?

The only reason this could be a big deal is because Gabe Newell has always been down on the PS3, even going so far as to call it “a waste of everyone’s time.” Valve has always denied having a hand in the PS3 port, placing all of the blame for The Orange Box’s issues squarely on EA’s shoulders.  If Valve did, in fact, help make the Orange Box suck-fest, it would certainly make them look like a bunch of dicks.

There is a very vocal member of the GameTrailers forums, shhhoff, that has gone to great lengths to compile a list of “evidence” to support the claim that Valve worked on this game. The thing is Valve did work on the game — they fucking developed it! They did not, however, work on the port of the game to the PS3, or so they’ve said for the past 10 months.

Now Valve’s Erik Johnson says, “Well, EA handled most of the PS3, so I don’t have a lot of insight into that — they did most of the work”. The use of the word “most” is supposedly an indicator that not all of the work was done by EA.  The conspiracy theorists out there fail to realize that EA has a history of farming out it’s work, and have taken that to mean that at least some of it must have been done by Valve.

So shhhoff would like you to believe.  The reason I don’t buy it is because I’m a logical person.  Shhhoff’s blog is called “Gabe Newell – the fat princess” and is filled with animated gifs making fun of the Valve co-founder.  He even has a petition for a “real” patch to fix the game, which he is apparently very upset with.  His efforts reek of fanboyism, even if the PS3’s Orange Box does, in fact, still need some attention.

Of course, it’s easy to take that comment to mean whatever you want. It’s easy to assume that since Erik Johnson said “most” that he inadvertently spilled the beans on Valve’s involvement. I, personally, don’t think he said anything incriminating, but I’m interested to see how everyone else decides to spin his words.

Thanks to Mike for the tip.

It’s rather inconspicuously called v1.4, but this update is anything but pedestrian. It boasts two new game modes, a quick-join system, and more tweaks than you are probably willing to read about in one sitting. All for free too.

Warhawk game director Dylan Jobe revealed that the first of these new modes is Hero. This sees one member of each team transformed into a 500% health, double-damage dealing hard-ass. Expect bloodbaths, because you will also be glowing and pin-pointed on the mini-map. This mode does sound like the red and blue heroes will just end up in a one-on-one slog that will leave you both wondering why the other git won’t die.

The second mode sounds more exciting – an extension of CTF called Collection, where the flag is replaced with four energy cores. A nice touch is the progressive scoring. You can carry more than one core at a time, and even pass them on to someone else if you are about to be annihilated – so the more you collect in one run, the more points you’ll get.

Also of note – the quick-join system. You can now set your preferences for the type of game you want, and it will automatically join games of that criteria. There’s also an avalanche of minor improvements and changes to rank and award requirements. Check out the PlayStation Blog for the full list.

The update will be available for download on 16 July at 10am GMT.

The much-talked-about patch to the hit game Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is officially available for download. I just checked it out on the Xbox 360, and I would assume it is available for the PlayStation 3 as well, though I can’t confirm it. Read on for the full update details.

Here are the patch notes via Voodoo Extreme:

# Calypso Casino: The fan favorite from Rainbow Six Vegas is back by popular demand. All Rainbow Six Vegas 2 game modes are supported, including co-op terrorist hunt.
# Murdertown – Dark: Experience this map’s intense, close-quarter action underneath the cover of darkness.
# CQB Training – Dark: This map is set at nighttime, so expect more tactical assaults as players must use their night vision to spot enemies.

# New Ranks: Unlock new ranks beyond the rank of Elite. XP players have already accumulated as Elite will be applied toward the new ranks.

# More A.C.E.S.: While adding new ranks, the A.C.E.S. will be extended to 100 for each of these three categories: Marksman, CQB and Assault. Each A.C.E.S. level earned contains a substantial XP reward. Points that players have already accumulated in each of the categories will be applied toward the new A.C.E.S. levels.

# Grenade Indicator: While inside the damage radius of a frag or incendiary grenade, a grenade indicator icon is displayed on the screen.

# High Stakes Setting: Experience game modes in a more tactical way using the High Stakes setting, including:

# Limited HUD

* No radar
* Enemies not visible on tactical map
* Grenade indicator is disabled

# Health System

* Health regeneration is disabled
* Altered post-process effects of being in a critical health state

# Take Cover

* Camera view has changed so that players must be exposed in order to see around a corner

# Weapons & Gadgets

* Aim assistance is completely disabled, requiring players to be more precise
* Bullet spread is increased when not zoomed in
* Less ammunition

# Kill Camera is always disabled

# Friendly Fire is always enabled

# Weapons and Gadgets Balancing: There are a number of changes to the weapons and gadgets settings in this new package, including:

* Explosion delay of the incendiary grenade has been increased
* Detonation speed of the C4 has been slightly increased
* Increased the damage of Sniper Rifles at long range
* Increased the base accuracy of the Light Machine Guns
* Adjusted the rate of fire for some of the Assault Rifles, Shotguns and an SMG
* Sped up the time it takes to zoom in and out with weapons, making it more responsive

# Respawns in Team Deathmatch: Hosts can choose whether or not their match uses random respawns in Team Deathmatch.

# Voice Chat: Hosts can choose to enable voice chat between living and dead players of the same team so that when players die they can keep talking with their teammates (Player Match and System Link only).

# Score in Deathmatch: Player’s score, along with the top opponent, is displayed on the HUD in Deathmatch.

# Team Leader Changes: Players now respawn next to the leader by default, unless players specifically choose to spawn back at the base.

# Show Dead Players in Lobby: Players that have no lives remaining will have a skull icon displayed next to their name in the lobby screen so that it’s easy to tell who is still alive and who has been eliminated.

# Terrorist Hunt Spawning: Fixed the terrorist spawning so they don’t appear right in front of players, or in areas they have cleared recently.

Rockstar has released a patch for both the PS3 and 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV today, addressing specific issues on each platform and in the game’s multiplayer modes. The full list of changes is as follows.

1. Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
2. Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
3. Improved reliability and frequency of PS3 online leaderboard updates.
4. Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
5. Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
6. Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops ‘n Crooks matches.
7. Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
8. Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
9. Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops ‘n Crooks games.
10. Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
11. Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.

Some of these issues sound fairly significant, glad to hear Rockstar has taken care of them. Given the success of GTAIV and this being its first entry into the multiplayer realm, it’ll be interesting to watch how the experience continues to grow. While these are merely fixes, hopefully the future will bring other additions.

For all you out there in the wilds of Liberty City online, let us know how the experience is treating you.

Source: Rockstar

After concerns of online stability for the PS3 version of GTA4 were aired out online, Rockstar has formally responded with a patch that should fix what they claim are server-related issues.

Rockstar Games said:

Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

Maybe now we’ll be able to play a full online game of GTA4 on the PS3 before getting dropped.

World of WarCraft’s latest patch, dubbed “Fury of the Sunwell”, is alive and kicking as of right now. Jump on your epic mount and find out what’s new.

The official description of the patch is as follows:

The glorious fount of arcane energy known as the Sunwell empowered the high elves for millennia, until the death knight Arthas laid siege to the elven kingdom and corrupted its sacred energies. Seeing no other alternative, a band of survivors led by Prince Kael’thas destroyed the ancient fount. Over time the surviving elves fell pray to a crippling magical withdrawal.

Now, promising salvation for his people, Kael’thas has returned. Soon the Sunwell will shine once again, but whether the sacred fount will usher in deliverance or destruction remains to be seen.

A full list of the patch notes can be found here (good luck getting it to load within the next 3 days though). In addition to all of the changes (some for the worse depending on your perspective and/or class), Blizzard has dedicated this update in memory of Gary Gygax, one of the creative minds behind the epitome of dorkdom: Dungeons and Dragons.

It’s nice to see that Blizzard still remembers where all their inspiration came from — now they just need to set the record straight on how much they ripped off Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 (WarCraft and StarCraft, respectively).

A good many of you will be saddened to learn that the Human Illusion from the Noggenfogger Elixir no longer works outside of Old Hillsbrad. This, as you may know, is not the first time Blizzard has removed or changed something that people do just for kicks and has no real impact on the gameplay. Blizzard simply doesn’t like it if you have too much fun.

Hopefully people will now actually die when you shoot them in the head.

It’s been talked about for months, rumored for weeks, and now it’s finally here. The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 has now been officially patched. The title update will be available the next time you load up the game (as long as you’re connected to Live). Airstrike the link to get the full details on what this patch features.

The following information is courtesy of FourZeroTwo via his site IAMfourzerotwo:

New Kill Cams – Everything that can kill you has a Kill Cam now. Grenades, Airstrikes, Claymores, C4, M203 Rounds, RPGs, anything. So jump online, get owned alittle and check them out. They’re awesome, especially Grenades and M203 shots that go across the map and through a window.

Host Migration – Host migration was added, so now when the host leaves you won’t get dropped back to your own lobby by yourself. Everyone will stay together. Host Leaves, everyone returns to lobby, selects next best host, and the game starts up again. No more re-inviting, re-partying up because a host ended the game.

Improved Sniper Accuracy - The Sniper rifle accuracy has been improved. No more, WTF? shots now. Your cross hair will be a better representation of where your shot will ultimately land. Try out a sniper class today, let us know how the new accuracy feels.

Improved ACOG Scope Accuracy – ACOG scopes accuracy on any weapon has been improved. Test it out, throw it on one of your classes and give it a go.

Upgraded Spectator Cam - Now when you’re a spectator you have the option to follow in 3rd person or 1st person. As well as rotate 360 degrees around the player you’re watching. Next time you’re dead in Search and Destroy and just watching your team mates do stuff you know you can do better, now do it in 1st person or rotate around them.

Quick Mute Option – Now you can easily and quickly mute players in-game or in-lobby without ever going through the Xbox Live blades. Just go to their gamertag on screen and hit ‘A’ to quick mute in lobby, or via the in-game scoreboard if playing. Quick. Easy. Salvation!

In addition to these feature additions there will also be:

Improved Network Performance For Larger Games – 18 player games now require more bandwidth to host, resulting in smoother performance for players.

Optimized Server Selection for First Match – Server selection is now optimized to select best bandwidth servers associated by LSP.

Fixed “Playlist Older Than Host” Error – Player will no longer get this error when entering games.

Additional Start Spawn Locations in All Maps – Added a minimum of 9 extra start spawns on each side of all maps.

One of Lair’s biggest criticisms was that it’s motion controls were compulsory. The rumour of a patch adding analog stick control caused a sigh of relief among Playstation 3 gamers.

Now one fellow has claimed that he’s experienced the patch at GDC and that it will be released in the coming months.

Perhaps regrettably on their part, Factor 5 have swallowed their pride and patched the game’s controls. In truth the controls were the least of Lair’s troubles, but every little helps.

DugBuzz, an IGN Blogger, reports that the patch will be released in Q1 2008 and that it now plays so well that IGN should change their review score:

MEGATON!!! Lair patch coming in Q1 which adds choice of analog control.

I played it and Holy shit; Greg needs to give them a new score. It was kind of clear that Factor 5 put in the extra effort a little begrudgingly, but the results were amazing. This might push me over the edge into the “must buy PS3” territory.

I also mentioned Greg Miller’s name, and the Factor 5 guys burned a hole through my skull with their looks of hatred. I think they’ll be alright once the patch is out for a while though.

I doubt we’ll be this excited when the patch hits, but it will surely deserve our time, especially with such large environments and an award winning musical score by John Debney. We’ll still put this report in the rumours section, since “Dugs” reliability is at the moment unknown.

It appears that frustrated Playstation 3 virtual assassin’s will be getting a fix to the freezing issues that have plagued the PS3 release of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed in the very near future.

A post by “UbiRazz”, the UK Community Manager on the official Ubisoft Forum, states the following:

“Following our recent statement regarding the freeze issues that some consumers are facing with Assassin’s Creed on PlayStation 3, we can confirm that we are actively working on a game update. This update will help improve the stability of the game and will be released as soon as possible. In the meantime thank you for your ongoing feedback and patience.”

We will monitor this topic closely in the coming weeks, so check back often.

Via: forums.ubi.com

A new patch is available for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4. Details regarding this update can be found below…

“This patch optimizes the Lean view offset issue, addressing the glitch reported by several community members and documented and sent in directly by community member GaretJax which is commonly referred to as the Left / Vertical Lean Glitch, in addition to preparing files for compatibility with the future release of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare™ Mod Tools. This patch will update all previous versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare™ to v1.2″

Source: infinityward.com