New Alan Wake Footage Online! March 30, 2010

Remedy has posted on their twitter feed a link to a new scene in Alan Wake.

This is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen in a video game.  They’re really breaking the fourth wall with this one.

Since I can only embed YouTube files here, here’s the shorter YouTube version.  You can check out the full version of the video on their Facebook site.

Alan Wake is coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 on May 18th, 2010.  Special thanks to GamerGoddess for bringing this to my attention!

Nvidia Releases Most Powerful Graphics Cards on the Planet, Sold Out Everywhere March 27, 2010

Last night Nvidia finally released their Geforce 480 and Geforce 470 graphics cards to the world.  These cards are Nvidia’s flagship Directx 11 cards based upon their Fermi graphics processors and currently both outperform all other graphics cards currently avalible.  The hardware is the first major revision that Nvidia has done in several years, and it is a few years coming.  Up until this point, Nvidia has only released Directx 10 cards since their powerful 8 series.

I, being a person who has one of those 8 series cards, have waited years for this release.  A check of Newegg this afternoon showed all 470 and 480 cards by all manufacterers to be completely sold out, apparently I wasn’t the only one waiting, but unlike the others waiting, they had the money up front.  I haven’t seen a rush to buy graphics cards since the 6800 Ultra was released, but then again it’s been a long while since such a clear cut powerful card has been released to the PC Gaming enthusiasts.

God of War III Ultimate Edition Soundtrack Redemption Online March 18, 2010

Godofwar.com has been offline almost all day today, all logins impossible either for playstation network or code redemption.  That appears to be over now as the site is accepting logins again for the forums and for people like me who waited all day to redeem the digital soundtrack codes.

I was getting speeds of about 1Mb/s, pretty good for a site that’s been offline all day.  If you have a UE, now’s a good time to get your mp3s.

Remedy Announces “War” For Alan Wake March 15, 2010

According to Remedy’s Twitter feed, Poets of the Fall, the band responsible for such hits as “The Late Goodbye” and “Carnival of Rust” will provide the main track for Remedy’s upcoming game Alan Wake and it will be, “War” off their upcoming album, Twilight Theater.  While “War” has been confirmed to be in Alan Wake, both Poets of the Fall and Remedy have teased that other tracks from Poets of the Fall may be featured in the game as well, but this has not been confirmed.

The album Twilight Theater will have a worldwide release through iTunes, as well a CD for European release on March 17th, 2010.  A snippet of “War” as well as other Poets of the Fall songs can be avalible here.

Alan Wake will be released on May 18th, 2010 exclusively for Xbox 360.

Poets of the Fall have also released their first single from Twilight Theatre, the song “Dreaming Wide Awake” I wonder if the title is a possible hint of its place in a future game.  You decide, here’s the music video.

Jonathan Coulton Involed in Portal 2! March 13, 2010

At GDC yesterday Valve had a suprise announcment to the press.  Gabe Newell refused almost all questions about their recently announced next game, Portal 2, but would offer one tidbit.  He mentioned working with Jonathan Coulton again was great.  Of course Jonathan Coulton is the rock star credited with hit songs like “Code Monkey”, “RE: Your Brains”, and of course the theme to Portal, “Still Alive”, considered by many to be the best song of 2007.

It is quite likely that Coulton is providing a new track for Portal 2.

God of War 3 Improved Over Demo March 11, 2010

The inital reviewers have started getting their hands on God of War 3 an they’ve noticed something pleasant. The famous E3 build demoed last May and currently avalible to PSN customers in the US has been improved greatly in the final version.

I’ve played several builds of this demo including the version included with the God of War Collection and the District 9 version. I noticed immediatly that framerate was inconsistant and that made for a slightly dissapointing experience. The reviewers say that is not an issue anymore, and effects have been enabled which raises the visual bar. One thing I didn’t have was a problem with the demo’s visuals, but it looks like those have gotten higher too.

God of War 3 is coming March 16, 2010 for the PS3. That unfortunatly is the soonest I’ll have it too.

GDC Has Begun (Rock Band 3 Announced) March 9, 2010

GDC has officially started ladies and gentelmen.  What was usually a chance for the devs to show their wares to other devs and students has (since the fall of E3 in 2007) become a major player in the gaming industry, a chance for many announcements to come out quickly.

While we were all expecting the Portal 2 announcment for it, now it seems that Rock Band 3 has been officially announced!  I’ve got a closet packed to the top with their perphials, it would be nice if this was a game only type release.

Mac Steam Coming in April March 8, 2010

Valve has OFFICIALLY announced that there will be a Mac version of Steam in April.  To go along with it, the HL series, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Portal 2 will be ported to the Mac with native versions, and will be fully compatable with Windows versions for online play, recieving updates at the same as their Windows versions and your licences for games you already bought and own should be able to work on both Windows and Mac.

I have a few Mac enthusiast friends who were already expecting this news since Valve got more blatant with it, and others who are willing to give Half-Life a try after spiting it for years simply because of this news.  Hope you enjoy your games Mac users.