Hasta La Gadget!

With all of the hype surrounding Black Ops II, a collector’s edition was inevitable. Activision has done us one better, though, and announced a total of three collector’s editions for the game. The expected Hardened Edition and PC Digital Deluxe edition are present, along with the Care Package Edition, which comes packed full of goodies for the die-hard Call of Duty fan.

Starting off with the Hardened Edition, you’ll be getting the game (naturally), along with the Nuketown Zombies map and the Nuketown 2025 map. Also included in this package is a 2-sided steel book for your game disc, a copy of the Black Ops II soundtrack, two limited edition challenge coins “that serve as your key to exclusive digital content,” two player card backgrounds, and a multiplayer weapon skin. Those buying the Xbox 360 version will get a CLAW Avatar prop and a Zombie Avatar costume, while those on PS3 will be getting a dynamic multiplayer Turbine theme and a dynamic Zombies theme. The Hardened Edition will set you back $79.99, which isn’t too bad a price considering the bonuses you’re getting.

The Care Package Edition is almost exactly the same as the Hardened Edition, only with this one you’re getting a rather expensive bonus: a remote controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone. The drone is a pretty excellent addition, but be prepared to shell out a significant amount of money for it, as the Care Package Edition comes in at $179.99. Also detailed today was the PC Digital Deluxe Edition, which comes with all of the bonuses featured in the Hardened Edition, but instead of Avatar items or dynamic themes, PC players will get a download code for Call of Duty: World at War. The PC Digitial Deluxe Edition also costs the same as the Hardened Edition – $79.99.

Strangely enough, a subscription to Call of Duty Elite doesn’t appear to be included in these special editions. After including an Elite membership with Modern Warfare 3‘s special editions, we assumed that Activision would do the same with Black Ops II, but that assumption was apparently wrong. Will you be picking up one of these Black Ops II special editions, or is it the standard edition for you?

[via Activision]

Activision details three Black Ops II special editions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A Holy Grail of Linux gaming has been an Unreal Engine 3 port. Getting one for the OS would unlock a world of games that has been the province of, well, just about any other mainstream platform. Thanks to Google preserving Flash on Linux through Chrome, that dream is alive in at least a rudimentary form. Experimenters at the Phoronix forums have found that Chrome 21 has support for the Stage 3D hardware acceleration needed to drive Epic Games’ Flash conversion of UE3. Tell Chrome to enable support as well as ignore a graphics chip blacklist, and suddenly you’re running Epic Citadel from your Linux install. When we say “running,” however, we’re taking a slight amount of poetic license. Performance isn’t that hot, and certain configurations might not show the medieval architecture in all its glory. We’ve confirmed with Epic that it works, but it’s still firm on the stance that there’s no plans for official UE3 support on Linux “at this time.” It’s still promising enough that maybe, just maybe, gamers can embrace an open-source platform without having to give up the games they love.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 now working on Linux through Google Chrome, more or less originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 01:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still have about five months to wait until Dead Space 3 finally arrives (yes, it’s still that far off), but Visceral Games and Electronic Arts been kind enough to share a collection of brand new screenshots to help tide us over. There are 10 in all, and they give glimpse at a variety of different things including Necromorphs, space, and even a couple new weapons. There are also some images of Isaac himself in his new armor, and we have to say he’s looking pretty good for a person who has been through two horrific encounters with the Necromorphs.

Truth be told, these new screenshots all look beautiful and do absolutely nothing to help with the anticipation. Dead Space is a series that deserves a lot of attention, and Dead Space 3 is shaping up to be an excellent-looking game. Then again, we’d expect to it be excellent after playing through the first two titles of the series.

If anything, that’s what Visceral is likely to struggle with this time around. The first two Dead Space titles received rave reviews thanks to their engaging (and thoroughly creepy) stories. It’s going to be hard to keep that momentum going into a third installment, and it seems that Visceral knows this, as the studio is make a few changes to the Dead Space formula this time around. The game will take place on the frozen planet Tau Volantis, which is already a pretty big departure from the two previous games, but Visceral is also tossing a new companion into the mix with Dead Space 3.

Given these changes, a few are understandably hesitant about the game, but many more are remain excited nonetheless. You can count us among the latter group, because as stated above, Dead Space 3 looks set to impress. Sadly, we still have that five month wait ahead of us, and after viewing these screenshots, February 5 seems a lot further off than it did before.

Visceral shares new Dead Space 3 screenshots is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In today’s installment of The Wacky World of Gaming, it appears that the once-beloved Black Isle Studios is back. We haven’t heard from the studio since 2003, when parent company Interplay shut it down, but now it seems that Interplay has decided to revive it. Details are still very scarce, with the newly launched website only announcing that the studio has returned and inviting visitors to sign up for a mailing list.

Likewise, the new Facebook and Twitter pages for Black Isle are lacking any kind of substantial information. It seems that those in the industry are just as confused as everyone else, with Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo saying in a tweet that he doesn’t have enough information on this reemergence to make a comment yet. Chris Avellone, who served as one of Black Isle’s main men before joining Obsidian, said via Twitter that he doesn’t know anything about the Black Isle announcement, and that no one at Obsidian is involved with the apparent re-opening of the studio. A lot of the people who worked at Black Isle are now with Obsidian, so it makes sense that some would suspect Obsidian had a hand in this.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Truth be told, almost nothing has been revealed about the new Black Isle – we’re just being told to wait for more news. If Black Isle truly is back, then whoever ends up working there will have some big shoes to fill. Black Isle was responsible for some classic computer RPGs, including the first two Fallout titles, the Icewind Dale series, and Planescape: Torment. All of those games are still loved today, so whatever this new Black Isle will be doing, players will be expecting a lot.

So, how’s that for a strange gaming story? It’s been a long time since we last heard from Black Isle, and this announcement has apparently blindsided everyone in the industry. It’s definitely exciting to see that Black Isle has returned, but now the question is: can this new studio deliver the same great RPG experiences that Black Isle is remembered for? Keep it tuned to SlashGear, because this could turn out to be big.

Black Isle apparently rises from the dead, everyone is confused is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sad news for a number of folks working at PopCap today, as studio co-founder John Vechey has announced a round of North American layoffs. The bad news doesn’t stop there either, as Vechey also says that the studio is being forced to “evaluate the future of our PopCap office in Dublin, Ireland.” There seems to be a chance of the Dublin offices shutting down entirely, which only makes the news go from bad to worse.

In all, Vechey says that around 50 people will be losing their jobs, and most of those cuts will be happening at PopCap’s Seattle headquarters. The fate of the Dublin offices is up in the air at the moment, as Vechey says PopCap is talking to the Dublin branch to find a way to make the company’s European efforts profitable “without having to close the operation.” Regardless of what ends up happening in Dublin, you can tell that this is a depressing time for the folks at PopCap, as Vechey comes off as sincerely remorseful in his blog post. That’s not something you often get from executives of big companies, even when people are losing their jobs.

Vechey also took some time his post to clarify a few things. He says that PopCap is still expanding and by the end of the year, the studio should have the same number of people working for as it did at the beginning of the year. He explains that the reason why PopCap is cutting back in some areas while expanding in others is because of the way the mobile and social games market has suddenly exploded in popularity. PopCap, Vechey says, needs to adapt to stay profitable, otherwise it may one day go out of business.

Also mentioned in the blog post is whether or not Electronic Arts had any involvement in these layoffs. Vechey says that EA had nothing to do with them, and that the massive publisher is letting PopCap stay completely independent, despite rumors which claim otherwise. PopCap’s decision to reorganize the business was “100 percent made by us,” and Vechey assures that EA didn’t pressure PopCap executives into this round of layoffs. At the very least, it’s nice to hear that PopCap executives still have control over the company, even if that means they sometimes need to make the tough calls that no one ever wants to make.

PopCap co-founder confirms round of layoffs is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.