Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker Anime Details Released

This has been clearly under the radar with me and most likely with everyone else but EA have teamed up with FUNimation (the people who port over many Japanese anime shows to English) in developing a Dragon Age anime titled Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker.

The project will be directed by Fumihiko Sori, who produced Appleseed and directed Vexille, with animation itself being done by to Oxybot, below is the first production video of the title

The Japanese version will be out in movie theaters on February 11, 2012 while the English version will be released in Blu-ray and DVD this spring

Mass Effect novel found to have mistakes by fans

Kotaku reports that Mass Effect: Deception, the latest spin off novel from EA's Mass Effect series has come under fire by fans as it has been found to have major errors, these are not grammatical nor spelling errors but major errors within the series canon.

This is not just one or two errors but a huge list has been compiled by fact checking fans, this can be found on Google Docs, there are so many errors some very glaring in fact this has upset many fans, so much to the point that fans are willing to burn their books in protest

The novel is due out today however Bioware nor EA have yet to comment on the matter

Source: Kotaku

Going Viral: Guild Wars 2

Welcome to another Going Viral! This week's edition is all about Guild Wars 2! This is a game I've been waiting on for years to be released. Only recently have I really been keeping up with information about the game and I have to say, it looks like it will be absolutely amazing. 

So, first on my agenda are some screen shots I found on Guild Wars Insider. They're screen shots of PvP maps and they look absolutely stunning. Considering the fact the game runs on a modified Guild Wars 1 engine, the quality of the visuals surprisingly impressed me. The maps are lush, colorful, and is definately a feast for the eyes.

New world record is set by 1000 Player FPS

Swedish developers MuchDifferent, smashed the world record this weekend for the most concurrent players in a single FPS game match. The game in question is the browser based FPS prototype Man Vs Machine, which managed to beat out the record of 600 players previously held by Planetside.

The game placed players on the side of man or machine in an epic but albeit, basic gameplay experience. There were many balancing issues in the 2 hour long gaming session however, as Team Man for the first 30 minutes was punishing Team Machine heavily. Despite that Team Machine soon bounced back, (due to on the fly balance changes by the development team) and finished the game spawn camping their former oppressors.

Nintendo develop new voice recognition software

Nintendo of Japan are currently testing a new voice recognition software, aimed at helping children with disabilities. The software is being developed with the help of mobile phone carrier NTT, to allow spoken words to be converted into text in real time.

This allows disabled students to use the DSi as a miniture blackboard, so when the teacher speaks the student's can see everything clearly. The software also makes use of cloud servers to store the data that is converted to text, so students may review it later.

The software is currently starting it's trials in the Tottori and Okinawa Prefecture's, with the hope that hearing-impaired children will use it outside school to communicate.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5880404/nintendos-new-voice-recognition-software-being-tested-in-japan

Witcher II: Enhanced Edition Trailer

Check out this marvellous trailer/opening cutscene for the Enchanced Edition of the Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. CD Projeckt's recently announced that the game will be released on Xbox 360 in Mid-April and PC gamers will get the enhanced edition free if they've already bought the game.

Pretty good deal for players on the PC. Not a lot of developers give DLC away for free these days.

Kinect being built into Laptops

Popular Tablet newspaper The Daily recently took a trip to Microsoft's development studios in Redmond Washington. There they were shown some of Microsoft's recent developments. Including a pair of Asus notebooks running Windows 8 and integrated with the sensors from Microsoft's motion control device, the Kinect.

These are believed to be prototypes of Laptops currently in development that will be including the Kinect hardware. If these prototypes get approved they could achieve some great uses. As I stated in the earlier post about Kinect's being developed for standard PC's they could prove extremely handy for presentations and interacting with an audience. Making them marketable to commuting businessmen and lecturers.

The ability to have portable motion control is something we haven't really seen before and who can imagine all of the implementations it could have in our day to day lives. Although i'm fairly certain that we won't be using motion controls as a primary method of control, such as seen in Minority Report just yet. This is the first step on our way to seamless technological control. Breaking down the barriers between motherboard and man.

Source: The Daily

Rayman Origins to be released on PC

Lovers of the classic Rayman series will be glad to hear that Rayman Origins which first launched last November for the consoles will be coming to PC, Nintendo 3DS and the all-new Playstation Vita. The game received rave reviews in the final quarter of last year, and news that it's going to be reaching new platforms should bring joy to all.

The Playstation Vita version is released in late Feburary while the PC and 3DS versions will be released in late March.

Steam App for iOS and Android

Valve have announced that their digital distribution service will be coming to smart phone services, namely the iPhone and Android devices. The app allows you to interact with your friends in the Steam community with a built in chat function. It will also allow you to make purchases from Steam's online store. This means that you will be able to interact with friends and purchase games over steam no matter where you are.

This could be potentially hazardous for wallets as there is now little reason to miss out on steam's notorious game sales. Furthermore it makes the steam platform a lot less secure if you're now able to interact with it much easier on a portable device. Who knows what could result if someone steals your phone or you make the mistake of losing it?

The app is now available in selected beta and you can download it from the App store or the Android Market, but you may have to wait to use it.

Terraria - Collectors Edition

Publisher/Distributor outlet Merge Games have announced that they will be releasing a Boxed edition of the smash indie-hit Terraria. However the game is an extremely small file and can easily be downloaded over steam in just a few minutes. Therefore the physical edition of the game will be a collectors edition.

The edition pictured above will include a poster, key-chain, trading cards and an in-game item which has not been announced yet. The edition goes on sale March 16th.

Magicka celebrates it's first year - confusingly

Hard to think that Arrowhead Game Studios and Paradox Interactive's game of madness Magicka is only a year old, however just an hour ago RedYellowBlueGreen tweeted that to celebrate the 'kicking and screaming birth' of Magicka, they are giving everyone something confusing, the Spell Confusion.

Magicka to this year has sold 1.3 million copies of the game and it's expansion Magicka: Vietnam has also gone on to sell more than 500,000 copies and various DLC available for the Magicka universe has been downloaded over 4 million times, not to mention the game has parodied not only other great titles such as Skyrim but, Star Trek , Warhammer, even giant purple tentacles with world conquering prospects.

Blizzard Announces "There will be no Blizzcon this year."

With Blizzards decision to hold the Battle.net 2012 World Championships, the company has announced that the next Blizzcon won't be taking place till 2013.

This is unsurprising as the company has said, that it's attention is focused with getting "Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible." And as a result of which the next Blizzcon has been pushed back to next year.

Blizzard also said, that the World Championships would be held in Asia towards the end of this year. This most likely means that the Battle.net Championships will be held in South Korea. No other information has been released about the location or events yet, but Blizzard have said they'll be making announcements over the coming months.

Skyrim 1.4 Beta Patch Released on Steam

After the outcry of numerous bug fixes for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda have announced that they are putting out one big patch so they can nail down all the remaining issues. The patch notes include quest fixes and fixes for other technical bugs that players have encountered in the game and they have made the preliminary patch avaliable for PC players using Steam.

This is good news for those that have been dying to complete quests that have been bugging out due to various engine errors in the games core code. However the bad news, is that all the players who have been holding off playing Skyrim, because of the bugs preventing you from continuing playing have no where to hide. Employers shouldn't be surprised if the number of calls for "sick leave" increases.

To sign up for the 1.4 beta just go to steam settings and change the beta participation to Skyrim Beta.

Mass Effect 3 DLC supplied with "Action Figures"

Bioware are planning to sell sets of action figures through the Bioware store prior to the release of Mass Effect 3. However Bioware have also announced that each figure will contain a unique code that will access multiplayer DLC that Bioware is planning to release after the game ships.

Even though Bioware haven't announced any details about what this DLC might be yet they have announced what they will be supplying with pre-order bonuses. And with the figures priced at $20 each it's probably not going to be a full fledged mission pack so expect something similar. Although this is speculation on my part after all the game hasn't even been released yet.

The figures available include Thane, Grunt, Tali, Male Shepard, Miranda, Mordin, Legion and Garrus. They can either be bought individually each for $20 or as 2 4-packs that will cost $75 each.

TB announces SC2 showmatch: War of the Roses - EG.DeMuslim vs d.BlinG

Total Biscuit just announced over Twitter and the Teamliquid forums, a showmatch between two of the best UK Starcraft players EG.DeMusliM and Dignitas.BlinG, in what is the highest value online match in Starcraft 2 history.

Here is the direct rip of the post from the Teamliquid forums:

Introducing, the highest value online showmatch yet in Starcraft 2, with a prizepool totalling over $1500 in which we will find out the answer to a question that has been plaguing mankind for at least like 10 months or so.
Who is the best British Starcraft 2 player?

When? - Monday, 30th January 2012 1900 GMT[local]
Format - Best of 9, loser picks
Map-pool - Daybreak, Shattered Temple (no gold), Metalopolis (no gold), Cloud Kingdom, Taldarim Altar, Shakuras Plateau, Entombed Valley, Bel'shir Beach, Antiga Shipyard (no gold)
Prizepool - We have decided to give out the prize in Pounds Sterling. For those wondering, this is at the current exchange rate, about $1560.
EG, Dignitas and Cynicalbrit have worked closely to bring you a setup which both players are happy with and a showmatch that you will not soon forget.

Source: Teamliquid 

Gaming Under Ceej: Those Games Ain’t Right

Back in my day, video gaming was more simple and clear cut. It was impossible to get lost, the objectives were clear, and you were always the hero. You knew you were the hero even though you never read the book that came with it, because that’s how gaming worked. And your objective was to defeat the villain at all costs. All costs.

Obviously those costs included shooting, punching, or stabbing anything that moved. Don’t worry. If it’s not a bad guy, you can’t kill it. Even if it’s that damn dog from Duck Hunt. Sometimes you needed supplies, and it was perfectly okay to break into people’s houses and take their grandmother’s medicine. Why? You’re the hero. You need it to save the world.

Your heroism was defined by your end goal. To maintain the status quo. Any disruption to that status quo was, by definition, a villainous deed that needed to be stopped. Sometimes the villain had a noble end too, but he was killing everything that moved to achieve that end. Ergo, you had to kill everything that moved to stop him. It was just so clear. If you’re not getting it, you must be too young to remember.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock details released

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, the second full console release this gen, created by Supermassive Games has images and speculation roaming about Twitter for the past few weeks however details and a trailer have finally come to light.

As you can see for the trailer the game is due for a March release, on PC, Vita, and PS3, however Eurogamer today reports BBC worldwide has stated Europe will be limited to the PS3 version only, if that includes the series' home country UK, fans will not be pleased.

The game stars the voice talents and characters of current Doctor Matt Smith and wife/companion River Song, played by ER's Alex Kingston, and has platforming and stealth elements a kin to the free to download series The Adventure Games from the Doctor Who BBC website

This is not the only game due for release this year with Sega and Three Rings' MMO, Doctor Who: Worlds in Time currently in beta.

Source: Eurogamer

EA's Origin expanding third party support

Electronic Arts has secured a deal with 11 third party publishers, to allow sale of their games on Origin. The company has continued to expand Origin's third party support, after the company managed to sign Warner Bro's, Capcom and THQ up in October.

The developers that have been announced to be appearing on the digital distribution platform are:

• Trion Worlds (Rift)
• Robot Entertainment (Orcs Must Die)
• CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 2)
• Freebird Games (To the Moon)
• 1C Company (IL-2 Sturmovik)
• Paradox Interactive (Magicka)
• Recoil Games (Rochard)
• N3V Games (Arcania: Gothic 4)
• Autumn Games (Def Jam Rapstar)
• inXile Entertainment (Choplifter HD)
• and Core Learning Ltd.

The first game confirmed for release from these developers, is the much lauded Rift from Trion Worlds. Trion Sr. Director of Global Marketing Jim Butler had this to say about the decision:

"The digital versions of Rift have seen incredible success, and Origin offers an ideal direct-to-consumer avenue for gamers interested in experiencing the rich world of Telara,"

Now that EA is attracting more third party publishers towards its platform, there is a possibility that Origin could eventually become an alternative towards Valve's Steam. On the other hand, Steam has experienced somewhat of a growth spurt this year which won't make things at all easy for EA.

Modern Warfare 3's 2012 DLC Revealed

Got Call Of Duty Elite? Want to know what you're in for? You're in luck, as Activision has released it's plans, for the shooter's DLC over the next nine months. There is set to be 20 pieces of content released over 2012, developed by three different development studios.

It seems the first pieces of content developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven debuts on Xbox Live today, with the Piazza and Liberation multiplayer maps.

However, Elite subscribers also have this list of goodies, to look forward to during 2012:

• February: New map
• March: New map, two new Spec Ops missions
• April: Two new maps
• May: New map, new Spec Ops mission
• June: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• July: Two new maps
• August: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• September: New map, new Spec Ops mission

Don't worry if you havn't splashed out on Call Of Duty Elite yet, as everything will eventually be available, through more conventional methods.

Source: http://www.callofduty.com/contentcalendar

Going Viral: Indie Bundles

During my daily visits to Reddit, I noticed something that piqued my interest. I am a huge sucker for pay-what-you-want indie bundles, e.g. Indie Royale, Humble Bundle, Indie Gala, and I noticed an image showing what could be in a future Indie Royale. I've found out about many indie bundles before they were released, due to the community posting results from looking at their Steam registry.

I found an image showing someone looking at a future set of Indie Royale games that looks to be legitimate. It seems like the Indie Royale is going to have a Serious Sam bundle soon. The image hints at the inclusion of both of the original episodes and the two recent spin-offs, Double D and The Random Encounter. I'm not sure if these are the HD revisions of First and Second Encounter, but the content IDs point to the older versions of the game. Regardless, they are fantastic games and I strongly encourage anybody who enjoys classic style shooters to pick them up.

Halo 4 Invites reported as fake

Apparently there have been many invites sent out for Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries' upcoming 'second trilogy' of their Xbox flagship first person shooter series with Halo 4. However 343 Industries' content editor David Ellis reported over Twitter these invites are fake.

If you see a page claiming to allow you to sign up for a Halo 4 beta be advised, IT'S A FAKE.

I kid you not he tweeted it with the video...

Source: @DavidEllis

Big shake ups for Diablo 3

Last Thursday game director Jay Wilson , detailed some major changes to Blizzard's Diablo 3 such as dropping the Mystic Artisan, the Cauldron of Jordan, the Nephalem Cube, and removing the Scrolls of Identify by replacing it with a short spell and also a major stat overhaul, which reduces the core attributes to Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality.

The Nephalem Cube and Cauldron of Jordan where in place in case players wanted to sell and scavenge easily when they couldn't get into town, now that there is the Stone of Recall those detracted from the benefits of returning to town, the team felt the Mystic Artisan simply wasn’t adding anything to their customization system.

Following that during the weekend Senior Producer Steve Parker announced over Twitter that he was leaving the project "Hey Twitter, I'm no longer working at Blizzard or on D3.", he tweeted, "I've had a great 5 years there and those guys are going to kill it with Diablo."

Steve's departure reasons are still unknown and possibly unrelated to the changes, however the game is still yet to have a solid date (but is still pencilled in for an early 2012 release).

Source: Battle.net, Twitter

"INCOMING!" Interview with Team17 Lead Designer

Welcome to Crash To Desktop, we have a something special for you today with an interview with Team17's very own Lead Designer Grant Towell. Team17 is well known for developing some of the best known Amiga games such as Alien Breed, Superfrog and more recently their hugely popular Worms series. 

After the break you'll be treated to a delectable selection of questions that we've posed to one of the most popular UK based developers, and some tantalising tips on breaking into games development.

SWTOR wins Ablegamers award

Ablegamers.com part of The AbleGamers Foundation, a public charity dedicated to promote accessibility in games for disabled gamers, has awarded Star Wars: The Old Republic their 2011 Ablegamers Mainstream Game of the Year Award.

Ablegamers opens with,  "Every year there are two or three highly anticipated games released with massive hype and record-setting expectations. Most times these games fall completely flat when it comes to game accessibility, but this year one game set itself apart by including a fair amount of accessibility at launch while still meeting the public's expectations for an amazing game."

The game was hailed for built-in features such as automatically turning to face the monster you are killing, mini map colors being colorblind friendly, full subtitles, and the ability to control the entire game from the keyboard or with the mouse. They go on with many accessibility options such as full subtitles, queue-able actions, multiple action bars, area looting, auto looting, and built-in mouse sensitivity, which were noted to be missing on release of many other titles or omitted completely.

Source: Ablegamers

League of Legends offers services to Colour Blind players

Riot Games have recently announced that their latest patch will contain support for those suffering from euteranopia (red-green colorblindness), to better distinguish between friendly and enemy health bars and spell effects during gameplay.

This is the first phase of the roll out but the given images demonstrate the differences during the switch which can be seen below.

SWTOR patch 1.1 delayed - Everyone wears tin foil hats to celibrate

Starwars: The Old Republic was due it's 1.1 patch today, which contains the new flashpoint Kaon Under Siege and the new operation Karagga’s Palace as well as numerous fixes like the much sorted skill delay fix however Bioware have seen fit to delay the patch due for more testing:

Hello everyone!
Because we care about ensuring that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ provides you with a consistent and quality game play experience, we will be postponing weekly maintenance this week. Downtime was originally scheduled for Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) to 10AM CST (8AM PST/11AM EST/4PM GMT/5PM CET) and will now occur at a later date due to issues requiring additional testing that have been discovered with the Game Update 1.1 content on the Public Test Server.
These issues were primarily brought to our attention by the diligent players on the Public Test Server Forums. Your participation in testing helps to improve the game as a whole, and we appreciate your discussion and feedback. The bug reports you provide are a valuable part of the development process. Thank you!
We’re working hard to bring you Game Update 1.1: Rise of the Rakghouls and are working hard to ensure your overall experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic is spectacular! The maintenance window for Game Update 1.1 will be rescheduled for some time within the next few days, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. When there’s a definite time, we will post here on the Community Blog as well as on the Official Forums. Please keep your eye out for updates, and we will provide information as soon as it’s available.

Of course being so close to everyone's subscriptions kicking in the tin foil hat wearing members of SWTOR's community have seen this as a way of Bioware 'milking' the subscription from them, and has already lead to some quite humorous  'rage quits' on their forums, sadly not an uncommon sight to see these days.

Source: SWTOR Community News

Mass Effect 3 - Origin Compulsory "Won't be coming to steam."

Chris Priestley, Bioware's Community Coordinator has announced that Mass Effect 3 will require EA's game management system Origin and as a result won't be available to purchase on Steam.

Priestley said that the game wouldn't be making it's way to the problem because of the restrictions that Steam's Terms of Service set for developers wishing to use it's platform. "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content." He went on to say that in the best interests of the consumer they were withdrawing the game from Steam at the initial release.


Priestley also announced that Origin would be compulsory for all PC gamers who buy a physical or digital copy of the game. The DRM will require a one time activation in order to play the single player campaign but multiplayer will require a constant connection to Origin.This will come as bad news to those with unstable internet connections.

Mass Effect 3 is due to be released on March 9th in Europe or earlier if you live in North America or Australia.

EA play for free members hits 25 million

Electronic Arts has announced that its free-to-play community has now topped 25 million players worldwide, it's game library includes Battlefield Heroes Battlefield Play 4 Free, Dragon Age Legends, Need For Speed World,  and Lords of Ultima,  as well as it's upcoming browser based C&C spin-off, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.

“Developing a community of 25 million players is a remarkable achievement. It is a testament to the explosive growth of the free-to-play market and a reflection of EA’s commitment to spearheading the digital transformation. We plan to continue to innovate in the category, introduce new gameplay that delights players and keeps them coming back for more,” said Play4Free VP Sean Decker.

The press release also thanks the community with a code that reward 300 Battlefunds in Battlefield Heroes: EQ9M-TYYT-TXR3-5GU3

Ninja Gaiden 3 CE details released

Details of Ninja Gaiden 3's collectors edition have been released, it includes an expanded Dead or Alive 5 demo that lets you play as either Ryu Hayabusa, Hitomi, Ayane or Hayate; an art book; soundtrack CD; and exclusive "Duel of the Masked" figurine set.

Sadly the edition is only confirmed for the US currently and it's priced at $99.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Multiplayer Announced

The blood thirsty sequel to the Ninja Gaiden 2, is set to receive multiplayer according to the trailer above. How the multiplayer will work hasn't been outlined yet, but this gameplay footage should keep fans satisfied for now.

What is interesting about the footage shown however is that there are multiple levels to explore within a map. This should allow for some impressive stealth kills like those shown in the trailer, but hopefully we'll see this element expanded upon release.

The game is set to slice into North American stores 20th March 2012.

Kinect for Windows - Rumors Confirmed!

With the Kinect setting a world record for it's unbelievable sales last year (18 million units sold in total), it's not a surprise that Microsoft wants to cash in more on it's success. With the Consumer Electronic Show taking place this week in Las Vegas, they chose to announce that the device will be making it's way onto Windows PC's.

OXM US: "FFXIII-2 feels like what that original game should have been"

CVG reports that Official Xbox Magazine US has given Final Fantasy XIII-2 a 9/10 following on from perfect scores from the Japanese magazines Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation.

"If your faith in Final Fantasy has been damaged by past disappointment, playing FFXIII-2 will restore your excitement for the franchise's future," the magazine states "FFXIII-2 repairs almost every problem with Final Fantasy XIII, delivering an experience that feels like what that original game should have been."

The demo has been reported also to be released on PS3 and 360 next week

Source: CVG

Rift Mobile App goes into Beta

Trion, creators of MMORPG Rift, have released their first beta version of a iOS app for the game on the Apple store.

The app offers subscribers to Rift access to friend and guild chat in real time and Zone Event alerts on your shard (server). Also included are a series of mini-games Planar Invasion, Crafty Critters and Shinies which when played unlocks loot and crafting items within the actual MMO - all this will set you back nothing a month with nothing up front, much like Trion's offer of free character transfers, it boggles the mind why they can afford to do this when other more profitable games do not...

The Android version is due soon and the full release will be in a few months.

Business as usual

After a much deserved Christmas holiday, we are back to pulverise your sense's with the wrecking ball of today's gaming. There are many things in the pipeline at Crash To Desktop, so watch this space!

As it stands it's back to business as usual, which for us includes serving you all the news, reviews and previews you can digest, as well as the very best UK event coverage. You may have noticed a donate button has materialised on right hand side. In order to continue providing you with the very best content,  we need to fund the site hosting costs, competition prizes, event travel arrangements, etc. So if you like this website feel free to buy us a beer, it will help us in many ways, and will allow us to become even better!

We don't want to travel the ad supprted route yet, as we believe that it will provide a better experience for our readers in the meantime, to stay ad free. This however doesn't mean we won't shift to being ad supported in the future, if we believe it won't impact the reading experience detrimentally. We believe that the revenue stream from the advertisements at this stage, won't be very beneficial, and will impede our community's expansion.

We appreciate any comments, emails or suggestions, and hope we can make 2012 even better for CTD and you our valued reader.