Merry Christmas from Team CTD

Today we down our tools and have some fun, we at Crash To Desktop wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Service will slow down over the holidays but we'll try to offer content between the partying :)

Get your Street Fighter II fix for free

As part of the PSN 12 Deals of Christmas PSN+ subcribers can get their hands on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (or SSFIITHDRMX for short?) for free.

With it's normal price of £11.99 for the same price you can grab three months worth of PSN+, grab the game, then pick up the rest of the Christmas offers and next next few months of PSN+ deals - nice!

Apply to serve in DUST 514 beta detachment now

In these past few hours CCP, creators of the sandbox universe MMORPG EVE Online, has just opened applications for a very select closed beta to their FPS extension to EVE, DUST 514.

Only two things are required to take part 1) you must own a PS3 and 2) you already have an active EVE account, if you do manage to get in, it;s still only a chance to be picked and not direct access.

DUST is going to be one of those games where it's not exactly straight forward in design, as discovered with the Dropsuits earlier this week

Doctor Who: Worlds in Time goes into 'preview' mode

If your fill of Doctor Who wasn't already at crazy levels due to the Christmas special out in a handful of days, prepare to enter the rabbit hole that is Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, which has entered 'preview mode' in which the game is playable but features will be changed and added before release, sounds like a beta to me.

Many of you may be asking 'What is Worlds in Time?' It happens to be the series first venture into the MMORPG market (yet not it's first game, that even pre-dates Moffet's attempts in 2010/11) done by the nice people at Three Rings (the Puzzle Pirates and Spiral Knights guys) and the BBC. 

In this version time has 'exploded' and bits of it are now crystal form within pockets of time, which these pockets of time are now changed yet frozen forever unless the time crystals are collected and restored to normal time. Try wrapping your head around that, even the Doctor gives up trying to explain and just throws you (who has only just picked you up in the TARDIS), into these new time lines to collect the crystals and restore order to time.

You are not alone you will be teamed with other players and/or AI in collecting everything in micro episodes played out in real time and in true Three Rings style every action be it reprogramming a computer, picking locks, reversing the polarity or fighting off Daleks is done via completing puzzles either with your team or each player tackling each problem on the screen at the same time.

It's going to be on the watch list for 2012 that is for sure

Source: http://www.doctorwhowit.com/

Play.com Releases Playstation Vita Prices

Retailers Play.com have released estimated prices for the Playstation Vita, a whole 2 months before the console is due to be released. The on-line vendor has made the Vita available for you to pre-order, before the official recommended retail price is released from Sony.

The Vita is set to launch on Feburary 22nd next year and will be released with a Wi-Fi and 3G versions.
Play have set the estimated price of the Wi-Fi model at £229.99 and the 3G model at £279.99.

Also available for pre-order are some of the console's launch games, including the hand-held version of Uncharted - Uncharted: Golden Abyss for an eye watering RRP of £44.99, more then it's current PS3 title Uncharted 3.

Other titles include Modnation Racers: Roadtrip (£29.99), Wipeout 2048 (£29.99), Reality Fighters (£17.99) and Little Deviants (£17.99) . Play.com also lists the 16GB PlayStation Vita Memory Card with a RRP of £44.99, the 8GB memory card at £31.99 RRP and the 4GB memory card £17.99.

This is believed to have been estimated from the Yen/Pound currency exchange, as Sony is yet to confirm RRP prices for the EU.

CCP details DUST dropsuits

Everyone who has ever played EVE Online, will know a ship in EVE isn't just one type of ship, it's like LEGO with a billion different parts. Well it looks like DUST 514 is going to run down the same path with Dropsuits, as detailed in a post in the PS3 blog by CCP.

Like the ships, each suit will have it's own powergrid and CPU, with each having it's own 'cap' per suit type, coupled with that will be slots given for weapons (Heavy, Light and Sidearm), Equipment and Grenade slots. Secondly each suit will be fitted with several high and low module slots, for those non-EVE players out there these are normally slots that give stats boosts to the character, weapons fitted or even change them all together.

Prepare to throw the cookie cutter classes out the window with this one.

Source: PS3 Blog

Notch makes 2D Minecraft

For this year's Ludum Dare competition, Minecraft Creator "Notch" has created a 2D version of his hit game Minecraft. Notch completed the game within the allotted 48hours, which has still as of this moment got over 11hours to go. The game itself is entitled Minicraft and it acts rather like an old-school Japanese RPG. Although the game itself doesn't really differ on Minecraft's ideas, it acts very differently.

Take a look at Minicraft here and also check out the other Ludum Dare entries here.

Get your face in a Video Game!

 

Rockstar, developers of new Max Payne game have announced a competition for you, yes you, to get your face in Max's new escapade. As of Friday last week, (and through to January 13) there will be an opportunity for 10 random people, to appear as part of the new line up for Rockstar's new game.Of course Rockstar are not accepting random people, and you will go through a screening process if you are the person selected.

All you have to do is tweet #MaxPayne3 and follow @RockstarGames on Twitter for your chance to get your ugly mug in the new game.  

New Xbox 360 Dashboard ruins video

According to Eurogamers Digital Foundry, the new Xbox 360 dash appears to playback video in limited range RGB. This causes videos to seem "washed out", with colours looking less intense and blacks transforming into greys.

The screenshots to the left show the phenomenon in action, although the issue is reported to be more evident in motion.

Digital Foundry received a number of emails from unhappy Xbox 360 users which prompted it's investigation into the matter. It seems Microsoft was alerted to this problem during beta testing, but instead of fixing the issue for release, they reacted by deleting any threads referring to the problem and leaving this message:

"Thanks for the feedback! Though we will not be able to incorporate your feedback into this release we will save it for consideration in future releases. Thanks for using the new Xbox Update and please keep up the feedback!

Apparently there has been no official acknowledgement on the issue from Microsoft, despite the fact that it affects all users of Xbox 360 (including those using HDMI, or Componant). It seems that Microsoft are aware of the problem due to their deletion of bug reports, but it's anyones guess whether they are working towards a fix.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-new-dash-borks-video-playback

Skyrim becomes fastest ever selling Steam game.

Skyrim has been revealed by Valve, to be Steam's fastest selling game ever. The announcement was made by Valves very own director of business development, Jason Holtman. He went on to say:

"Bethesda's commitment to and understanding of the PC as a gaming platform shows in the great review scores, spectacular launch, and continued high player numbers that Skyrim has received,"

Skyrim developer Bethesda, has stated that it has shipped 10 million copies of the blockbuster title over all platforms, amounting to a whopping $650 million in retail sales at launch. It has been reported that Skyrim has outsold all other PC games three to one, peaking at 287,411 simultaneous users according to the Steam forums.

The holiday season has been a particularly good one this year, with other blockbuster titles like Modern Warfare 3 breaking numerous records. With the confirmed DLC for Skyrim, and the eagerly awaited Creation Kit, it's clear that 2012 will likely be an interesting year for gaming.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/16/2641119/skyrim-fastest-selling-steam-game-10-million-retail

THQ wins Canadian court case through appeal.

Patrice Desilets, the creator of Assasins Creed and the subject of litigation.

THQ recently found itself in hot water with Ubisoft after allegedly poaching Patrice Desilets, creator of renowned Assassins Creed series. Patrice had left Ubisoft earlier that year, and decided to defect to a THQ studio within the same city. Ubisoft then proceeded to take THQ to court, stopping THQ from pilfering more employees.

Well it seems the Quebec Appeals Court favoured THQ, overturning the injunction as the Ubisoft contract didn't contain a non-compete clause. The Press Release from THQ goes on to mention:

In reaching its decision, the Court of Appeal agreed with all of THQ's arguments and dismissed the lower Court decision on the grounds that THQ was not bound by any non-competition restrictions and was therefore free to solicit any Ubisoft employee, provided THQ's efforts did not amount to unfair competition.

Source: http://investor.thq.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96376&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1640592&highlight

Demon's Souls celebrates a White Christmas.

Starting yesterday, ATLUS announced on their servers Demon's Souls is celebrating the holiday season in style with it's Pure White World Tendency event. The event which runs until January 2nd, thrusts players into the new world of Pure White World Tendency, easing the difficulty of the game, and unlocking new areas for adventurers to explore.

Does this mean an event for Dark Souls as well? We'll look into it.

Good Bye To An Old Era

As the world welcomes an Old Republic, we witness the final moments of a Galaxy...

A very sombre moment, goodbye Star Wars Galaxies.

Motorola vs Apple: More to come?

With Motorola having just won an injunction in the German high court, some might think the war between them and Apple will close. But with the potential for them to force Apple to remove important wireless apps, it doesnt look likely to finish any time soon. Another other factor is that Google are currently reviewing a possible take over of Motorola, which would result in two companies which up until lately have tried hard to avoid clashing with each other.

Having been sued by Motorola in Germany one would be forgiven for thinking Apple are sick of courts. However they have in the past been very active in sueing other companies (not least of them Samsung), over perceived infringements of their intellectual properties.

Secrets of Black Holes could be revealed

In the wonderful world (or space) of science this week, it has been announced that a giant gas cloud has been caught in the pull of the black hole, curently resident at the centre of our galaxy. Now whilst it is indeed true, that not even light can escape the centre of a black hole, the same cannot be said for the inner cycle of it. This means it could provide scientists with a unique look at the workings of a black hole.

The full article can be found at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10652.html

Rockstar released GTA III on iOS and Android

Rockstar has released Grand Theft Auto 3 for the iOS and Android app stores. The game that revolutionised the GTA series, and brought a whole new level to sandbox/open world games. Now that the game is 10 years old, it's interesting to see how well modern mobile devices will cope with the graphics. Just be wary that the game is a fairly big download, and will account for a lot of space coming in at around 400mb.

iOS compatible devices: iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S

Android compatible devices: Acer Iconia range, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S and Toshiba Thriv, LG Optimus 2X or Motorola Atrix

IMPORTANT: Please note that  there are other compatible android mobile devices but they are currently region locked in the US

Prices for the game are: 

• £2.99 - iTunes 
• £3.23 - Android Market 

EA releases C&C Tiberium Alliances Trailer

To follow up yesterday's story about the new in-browser C&C game. EA and developers Phenomic have released this trailer. As always there is some pretty awesome guitar riff in the background. I wouldn't expect anything less from a C&C trailer.

Don't forget to check out the page for the beta here!

Alan Wake Confirmed for PC

After another Steam registry file hint that was discovered by a member of the Neogaf forums it was thought that the popular horror survival game, Alan Wake was coming to Steam. Now Remedy Entertainment have announced that Alan Wake will indeed be coming to PC next year!

This is exciting news as Remedy first started out as a PC game developer, most notably creating the popular Max Payne series.

No details on a release date or how much the game will cost. I'm going to guess it will around normal PC game price (£30), as the game will include the games two DLC packs "The Signal" and "The Writer". It's good to see that Remedy are developing this for PC, as I know quite a few fans of the studio that felt left out, after they originally announced that the game would be an Xbox 360 exclusive.

Humble Indie Bundle #4 Released!

Following our news story about the latest Humble Indie Bundle being leaked the pack was actually released. It appears that the rumours of the games included in the bundle were correct. With the pack featuring Super Meat Boy, Shank, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown and Nightsky HD. And if you choose to pay more than the average donation you can get the nice bonus of getting Gratuitous Space Battles and CaveStory+ for free!

I cannot stress the great value that you get by buying this pack. It really helps out indie game developers and worthwhile charities. I'd recommend you go out and buy it, even if you already own the games you can gift them to somebody else as it's going to a good cause. Go buy it now before it's too late!

Sonic CD hits PSN/XBLA

Now I've implanted that song into your head, Sonic CD is finally out on PSN and XBLA for £3.59/€4.49/400MSP and it's reported to be untouched from the original except with the addition of Achievement/Trophy support and unlockable Tails to play as. If you know your Sonic history, the above intro wasn't the original one (that Japan and the EU had) which is after the break - I just prefer the above.

Command & Conquer Browser Game Announced

Shortly after the announcement of the new BioWare Command and Conquer Generals 2, EA have also announced another C&C Game in the works called Tiberium Alliances. This will of course take place in the C&C Tiberium Universe with GDI and NOD being the two main factions.

What is interesting about the game is that it will take place within your web browser. A technique that EA hasn't tried with a Real Time Strategy before. This also means that the game will be free to play although it is not been announced what kind of in game transactions it will feature.

The game is being developed by EA Phenomic, a German game developer that EA acquired in August 2006. They were behind the 2008 game BattleForge, EA's attempt at an online card game that went free to play only two months after release. The team are also currently developing Lord of Ultima, a 2D strategy game in the style of Evony.

You can sign up for the Tiberium Alliances beta here .

Epic Announce New Game

Epic, the developers behind Gears of War and Bulletstorm announced a new game this week by the name of Fortnite. Fortnite is a cartoony-looking tower defence game, that looks to be a drastic change from what the developer is used to creating. The game's lead designer Lee Perry hinted on twitter that the game would include a "levelling system, underground exploration,boss fights, team survival mode,” that would be part of the in game experience. It wouldn't surprise you to know that he listed Minecraft as one of the game's main influences.

No details have been announced about the platforms or release date as of yet.

New Humble Indie Bundle Leaked

Details of the games that are going to appear in the next Humble Indie Bundle have surfaced. The news comes as Valve have still not been able, to stop people from spying on their "Content Description Record Viewer".

The games listed in the new bundle include: Super Meat Boy, Shank, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Nightsky and Jamestown. Although these are only names of the main games that are going to be featured in the pack, details about the pack's bonus games are still left unconfirmed. Rumours say that games that could feature in the bonus pack, could be Gratuitous Space Battles and Cave Story+

Source: DIY Gamer

Final Guild Wars 2 Profession Leaked!

Yesterday GameReactor Denmark accidentally released a teaser trailer for one of the new Guild Wars 2 classes, the Mesmer. The teaser trailer itself helps to show off the class's new abilities including invincibility, teleportation and some ethereal clones. The video has since been taken off the site but that hasn't stopped people from publishing it by other means. You can view the teaser trailer below.

Welcome to Diablo 3

Look folks! It's the intro cinematic to the new Diablo game and of course it looks epic. Blizzard really have a knack for creating this CGI tomfoolery. If these guys teamed up with the guys at BioWare that crafted the Old Republic CGI, it would create a team of animators to be reckoned with. Take a look at the video above, this game is going to be pretty epic.

Bioware release new Mass Effect 3 Trailer

Now here's one you RPG fans will appreciate. Another trailer amongst the glut that were featured at the VGA, was Bioware's highly anticipated Mass Effect 3. It looks like the Reapers have new competition in the form of the thresher maw AKA "The worm thing with legs". And you guessed it they're an alien race that have the capability to destroy the universe. Doesn't that sound fun? Anyway take a look at the trailer and enjoy waiting for the March 6th, 2012 release date. 

Hitman: Absolution Spike TV Trailer

With Spike TV's VGA ceremony we were delivered a bunch of new game trailers. This one is for the upcoming Hitman: Absolution featuring our favourite shiny headed assassin, Agent 47. Really looking forward to seeing what this new game can add to an already stellar series. The trailer features a rather gung-ho Agent 47, not like the sly devil we all know and love, nevertheless it makes for an exciting trailer.

News Minion Incoming

D.R. Ninja (also known as NintendoNinja or Dom if you're old fashioned)

Dom is our shiny new news writer who will probably be posting on the site at more regular intervals. He spends the majority of his time playing PC games and spending a ridiculous amount of money on steam (Dammit Valve!). He also enjoys writing, drumming, listening to music and gazing at Reddit or Tumblr. He is also currently studying magazine journalism at Sunderland University, training to become a games journalist.

Dom has had lots of experience with writing gaming blogs and hopes to add some of his experience to make the site a better place to be. More specifically he runs his own gaming blog Load Screen , a drumming blog Drummer's Den and is also in development of starting another site specifically aimed at PC Gamers. Dom has also had experience with Podcasting and audio production and has appeared on Podcasts such as Control Point and The Daily Gamer by popular podcasters The Dead Workers who are famously known for their Minecraft podcast The Shaft.

If you want to get to know our new recruit, he can be contacted through the following means:

Twitter: @NintendoNinja
Steam: NintendoNinja

New Command & Conquer Announced

It was announced last night at SpikeTV's VGA ceremony that EA developers BioWare, would be heading up the development for the new Command & Conquer game. The game will be set in the C&C Generals universe, providing a sequel to one of the highest regarded games in the C&C franchise.

Not much is currently known about what the game's mechanics will be like, although a new trailer was shown at the award ceremony. It was announced that the game would be using the Frostbite 2 engine, which is the engine currently employed by Battlefield 3 (developed by EA's Swedish developers DICE). 

Despite this exciting announcement there has been much scepticism at EA's decision to have BioWare produce the game, who are more suited to creating RPGs than real-time strategy games. Fans of the franchise are wary of what will become of the game, now it has left the core design team that first created C&C (Westwood Studios who are now EA Los Angeles).

The game is destined to be released in 2013.

The Bother With Bethesda

Skyrim is arguably this year's biggest PC game release. Despite its release on console platforms we all know its roots are as a classic PC series. Sadly Bethesda have yet again released a game that seems to be teeming with bugs.

Although I do recognise that there are teething troubles with most games that come out on PC.This is usually down to time constraints that Publishers and Investors pressure gaming companies with, so they can't complete the games construction properly. Alternatively it can be down to inadequate testing on a wide variety of hardware. 

The Closure of GSC

As a fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, I was deeply saddened to hear reports of the closure of GSC Game Worlds. Rumours of the companies closure were released on an Ukrainian news site and on the blog of Sergey Galyonkin, who spoke with members of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R Developer team.

GSC first released a tweet that denied their closure, but this was promptly deleted and their twitter page now states that an official statement will be released on Monday. GSC's former Social Media Manager Joe Mullin, has tweeted hints that GSC is in fact closed. This includes a tweet that read "Looking for a job in the Social Media field. If anyone knows of something please let me know ASAP!" obviously confirming the developers demise.

i44 Interview with Riot Games' Matt Knott

Here is the second of Fatal's Insomnia 44 interviews!

This one features Matt Knott League of Legend's and Riot Games' community manager, enjoy!

Total Biscuit Interview from i44

After a LOT of work editing and running about we finally get to give you the gift of interviews!

This following one is Fatal's midnight interview along with G3 Radio's Sebbo with Total Biscuit from Insomnia 44 talking over Starcraft, TB himself and hats or lack there of..

Crash To Desktop - 2 Months In

It's been a long few weeks between wrapping up for the winter and stocking up on food, being ill and working behind the scenes, but now I'm finally able to sit down and write.

I'm sure most of you were expecting to see our round up of Insomnia 44 by now, it was planned to go up this time last week, but looking at the calendar I realised something, this week marks the '2 months in' date of Crash To Desktop going live, and seeing as this is the last month of the year, I thought I'd write something special instead...

What I will be doing is a 'story so far' from my perspective and a look forward to what we have planned for the future - Read on for the full story

CTD needs you

As you know news has been a bit lacking on Crash To Desktop as of late, problem is it's only me writing it most of the time, and sometimes life can be a tad busy...

Here is a good time to help us back - we are looking for basically 'News Minions' to rummage around the internet to find us 'quite interesting' news and report it back on CTD, if you do it frees up my time to do other things straight away - magical wonderful things.

If you are interested in filling the post drop something in the comments below and we will chat..

Must remember to make 'Jobs' page - *goes to put on the 'to do' list*

Super Meat Boy turns 1

Not so long ago Team Meat celebrated the first birthday of Super Meat Boy - here is the rather bizarre hour long 'gift' to fans

Obsidian announces South Park RPG

As revealed by GameInformer, Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is working on a South Park RPG for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are writing the script and overseeing development, with THQ publishing. Not much is known but apparently you'll be playing as the new kid in town, charged with making friends and protecting South Park from threats (the Coon possibly).

It's due out some time in 2012 nothing else given as yet but take a look at the GameInformer cover (the picture above).

Source: GameInformer

BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend confirmed for Europe

BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend finally has a date: it launches in Europe in the beginning of 2012, Arc System Works and PQube have announced.

This version new version of the orginal includes all previously DLC-only characters on disc, but the full notes are below.

• All previously DLC-only characters included on disc - including Makoto, Valkenhayn R Hellsing and Platinum the Trinity. 
• Brand new character Relius Clover and his robotic puppet Ignis. 
• All new stories, taking the total content to 23 scenarios to play through. 
• Powered up Abyss mode - which sees you leveling up your chosen characters over a series of battles. 
• New Unlimited Mars mode. 
• Brand new Team Battles for a better online experience. Play 2v2, 3v3 and handicapped match-ups.

DmC drops in with more game play footage

 

With Ninja Theory recently calming but yet confusing fans that the game is not a complete reboot but set in an alternate universe to the original series - looking at the above footage this 'Dantenate' sure has some moves.

Source: IGN

More Skyrim modding incoming!

After the recent uproar from gamers following the first ninja patch from Bethesda for Skyrim which invalidated any modding of the exe files, Bethesda has given us some frankly AWESOME news.

Bethesda and Valve have been beavering away in their collective cubby holes to bring us the Steam workshop Creation kit. An easy one stop shop for all the mods for Skyrim. There'll be a new wikki page and videos to be released in January to teach us all how the use the same programmes the devs used to create the missions in Skrim, so we can all use our creative talents and make an already huge game even bigger! What this will mean for sites such as SkyrimNexus, who knows?

So, anything special you'd like to see made for the game?

To see a Dragon flying backwards - continue on