Games.on.net and 3FL to Join Forces

Gamers in Australia have long had to divide their time between two quality institutions: Internode’s games.on.net service, and iiNet’s 3FL service, resulting in confusion over exactly who is the best gaming site in Australia to visit. The recent acquisition of Internode by iiNet offers a unique opportunity for us to solve that problem once and for all, as we are proud to announce that games.on.net and 3FL have agreed to put down their weapons and join forces for the betterment of gamers everywhere.

The new combined entity, which will continue to operate under the games.on.net brand, is positively bristling with features and resources. Backed by two massive ISP’s, a dedicated team of full-time staff and a pool of some of Australia’s best writers and journalists, the new games.on.net is a force to be reckoned with on the Australian gaming scene and will continue to deliver the latest news, reviews and interviews direct to our customers.

With over 8TB of files, trailers, mods and patches, a 10,000 player capacity over a dozen unique titles and 300,000 players visiting our servers each month, we’re not ashamed to boast that we’ve got the goods. As well as combined resources and staff, the communities for the two sites will also be merged to create a single forum with over 100,000 hardcore gamers. All existing games servers will remain in place, and the quota-free arrangements for both iiNet and Internode customers will continue unchanged.

To celebrate this massive milestone in Australian gaming, a new games.on.net website will be rolled out in July, marking the tenth anniversary of the service that began as the Internode Games Network. We hope you’ll join us there for the launch of what will now, officially, be the best gaming site in Australia. Stay tuned.

Head over to the 3FL forms to discuss the big news!

Good Guy Blizzard Saves GAME Customers

Some developers might hear about their loyal customer-base getting a raw deal the day before the launch of their game and say “That’s unfortunate, but what can we do?”

Upon hearing that GAME Australia has entered administration and may not honour some Diablo III pre-orders, Blizzard said “No, this simply will not do.”

Blizzard has announced via an official forum post that they can purchase the digital download version of Diablo III and receive full credit from Blizzard for their original pre-order with GAME:

Australian GAME customers with a valid preorder/prepurchase receipt dated before May 15, 2012 can do the following:

1. Purchase the digital version of Diablo III from http://www.diablo3.com now or anytime before May 21, 2012.

2. Download and start playing when the servers go live!

3. Submit your GAME Australia preorder/prepurchase receipt to us before June 30, 2012.

4. Receive a credit from Blizzard, for the amount you paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. This credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.

Blizzard Entertainment: Champion of the People

PS Just 17 minutes to go until the Diablo III servers launch!

Diablo 3 Digital Installer Unlocks Tonight

Just a quick reminder for those who purchased their copy of Diablo III through Battle.net, the digital install client will unlock at 11:00 PM WST / 1:00 AM EST tonight and finally allow you to install the game!

Once you have finished installing, you’ll then be able to download the initial launch day patch (under 100MB) so that you’re ready to go when the servers open at 3:00PM WST / 6:00 PM EST tomorrow.

While you’re installing, you should probably run through a few sets of the Diablo III exercises suggested by Nerdnightmare.com:

Sigon’s Press

Tancred’s Lift

Don’t forget to breathe properly.

GAME Australia Enters Administration

After months of uncertainty with GAME UK’s financial woes, video game retailer GAME Australia has entered into administration today, which is a fancy adult phrase meaning the company isn’t doing well and will probably die soon.

Kate Warwick of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company acting as administrators for GAME, said “Initially we will continue to trade all stores, operating these on as close to a ‘business as usual’ mode as possible whilst we get a clearer understanding of the current state of the business and actively pursue options to secure its future.”

This doesn’t affect most Aussie gamers, except for the ones unfortunate enough to have outstanding pre-orders for a significantly imminent game release, gift vouchers with GAME which is where the bad news comes in.

GAME have set up a FAQ on their website to explain the situation, but you can read on for a breakdown.

Read the rest of this entry »

15 Minutes of Mechwarrior Online

Months after teasing us with just a few concept art images and snippets of video, developer Piranha Games has met with IGN to release over 15 minutes of Mechwarrior Online gameplay footage.

The 6 videos show each class of Mech in action, from the lightly armoured Scout class to the mighty Assault class behemoths, and a full 6 minutes looking at the MechLab where we’ll be customising and crafting our mechanised dogs of war.

Mechwarrior Online is set to be released later this year as a Free2play PC game, but no specific details about their business model have been released yet. I’m expecting news of their micro-transaction options for various Mech hats any day now.

Check out the overall preview video below, then read on for the rest.

Read the rest of this entry »

Assassin’s Creed 3: Man vs. Bear

The first full gameplay trailer for Assassin’s Creed 3 has unlocked this morning after some questionable social media tactics from Ubisoft that required everyone to link, Like, tweet, and Woof about how much they love AC3 before they would let us see their game in action.

In unrelated news, this post won’t continue until there are 3 million Twitter impressions of people talking about how handsome I am.

Just kidding, social media impression metrics are a load of bollocks.

The trailer is ripe with Redcoats being toma-hawked in the head, huge pitched battles with sweet musket action, snowy frontier landscapes, and a hint of Man vs. Bear action. Yes, we will be fighting that bear in AC3 no matter how much PETA whines about it. That alone is worth the price of the game.

Check out the trailer in all it’s gloriousness below.

Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative

Valve has announced their new free Portal 2 DLC, which is effectively a map creator kit, in the best way possible – a memo from Cave Johnson.

TO: All Aperture employees
FROM: Cave Johnson

COMPANY MEMORANDUM

Cave Johnson here. Your boss. It’s come to my attention that some of you are concerned after receiving my all-staff memo yesterday (“You: Design Test Chambers or You’re Fired”). So to put your minds at ease, let me clarify: You are not mentally ill and you did read the memo just fine. It was real. You should be designing test chambers, right now and at all times, or by God I will fire you.

To celebrate the release, Portal 2 is on sale for $6.79 from Steam which is a bargain for how much time you’ll spend solving, and now creating, the ingenious puzzles it contains.

Check out the trailer for the new Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC below.

Diablo III: Wrath Animated Short Released

After weeks of developer diary videos and custom banner sigils, Blizzard has unveiled the final unlock of their build-up campaign for Diablo III - an animated short titled Wrath.

Wrath focuses on the Archangel Tyrael and his angel buddies, most of whom we’ve only heard of and never seen, and their war with the denizens of Hell. It seems the angels are going to play a bigger part in Diablo III than they have in the previous games, so Blizzard wants to make sure we’re all familiar with how they roll before things kick off on the 15th.

The animation is a collaboration between Blizzard, cartoon studio Titmouse Inc. (of Metalocalypse fame) and Peter Chung (creator of Æon Flux *nerd gush*) so you know it’s going to be packed with beautiful, stylised imagery and awesome action. Once you’ve watched it, check out the behind the scenes episode where they discuss the process that went into creating Diablo III: Wrath.

Diablo III’s Launch Approaches

Time is a funny thing. “One week to go” could be considered short, such as one week to go until your holiday ends, or it could be an excruciating expanse of time that never seems to end and makes you want to freeze yourself.

With a whole 7 days to go until the gates of Hell open and Diablo III is unleashed on the world, I’m open to anything that makes the time pass quicker. I’ve already chosen my class, booked time off work, run through a refresher course on Diablo’s lore and now it’s time to prepare for launch day.

Blizzard have just announced that they will be unlocking the Diablo III client install at 11:00PM WST on May 14th to allow everyone to install the client, download the initial patch and get everything ready for when the game goes live.

The article also explains the process for reserving your Battle.net username (if you haven’t already) and mentions that any congestion problems with the login server on launch day will be identified by the innocuous “Error 37″ description.

Clearly Blizzard is a company that’s had plenty of experience in dealing with the zerg nerd rush associated with launch days. Hopefully they have more plans in the works to make the next 7 days go as painlessly as possible.

Elder Scrolls Online Details & Screenshots

Skyrim is still going strong on Steam’s stats at #3 in the past 48 hours, but Bethesda already has the next game in the pipeline. Game Informer‘s cover story for June confirms the Elder Scrolls series is taking it’s first step into the MMO market with the development of Elder Scrolls Online.

Because it’s not like the MMO market is oversaturated already or anything like that.

Zenimax Online Studios has been hard at work on ESO for the past several years and is finally ready to reveal all the cool stuff they’ve been doing. The Game Informer article will reveal their plans for solo and public quests, and huge PvP content between 3 factions vying for control over different regions with hundreds of players battling it out at once. Could be the best thing ever, could be the most derivative thing ever – only time will tell.

ESO will take place 1000 years before the events of Skyrim, as the daedric prince Molag Bal attempts to bring Tamriel under his demonic rule.

Read on to check out the first screenshots from Elder Scrolls Online.

Read the rest of this entry »