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Seems like Blizzard’s not the only company doing teasers this year. Bungie has replaced it’s normal front page with this, a splash page with constantly changing text (It changes between things like “Please Remain Calm”, “Pardon Our Dust”, and “Expect Delays”), some weird images, foreign text translating to “Please remain calm”, and a timer ticking down to Wednesday, at exactly 2:07:07 PM Pacific time. (Bungie has a strange obsession with the number seven.)

So, what does this mean? First off, this explains the lack of Bungie announcements during the Microsoft conference earlier today. For an unknown reason (until now), nothing whatsoever was said about Halo Wars or the now-infamous “unnamed Halo project”. The big thing here, though, is that we mostly have no clue what exactly Bungie is planning for Wednesday afternoon. Theories abound though, some of which are an announcement about the Halo Wars release date, Halo 4, or even Oni 2.

I guess we’re going to have to wait until Wednesday to find out what they’ve got planned.

UPDATE: Well, it looks like whoever is publishing whatever Bungie was going to announce today pulled the plug on it. In a letter posted on the splash page yesterday, Harold Ryan announced that “those plans were changed by our publisher.” Looks like we’ll have to wait for whenever they’re ready to show us what they’ve got.

[From Xbox360Achievements.org]

Not 2 weeks after the Pyro update hit computers everywhere, Valve has already announced that they are working on the next pack of achievements and weapons, this time focusing on the Heavy. On Tuesday, Robin Walker stated on their blog that they would be trying to “make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic to pair with”.

Robin also said that the real key with the updates, specifically this one, is to make sure they enhance the role of the Heavy without making him overpowered, especially in the oft-used Heavy-Medic combo. Valve is currently planning on releasing updates for all nine of the classes in it’s insanely popular first-person shooter, referring to it as “a large scale modification to the core of the game.” No timeline has been set just yet for the update.

[From Shacknews and the Team Fortress blog.]

So, this morning, Valve finally dished out the dirt on the Pyro update for it’s awesome first-person shooter, Team Fortress 2. According to Valve, the pack will include 35 achievements, all of which have now been announced. Some of the more notable achievements are “Dance Dance Immolation," (Kill 5 enemies that are taunting) “BarbeQueQ,” (Cause an opponent you are Dominating to leave the server), and “OMGWTFBBQ," (Kill an enemy with a taunt.)

Along with the achievements, the pack will come with 2 of the most popular custom maps created by the community: CP_Fastlane, a fast-paced capture map done in the style of Badlands, and CTF_Turbine, a fun, 2fort-esque CTF map. Even better than both of these, though, is the announcement of the new Pyro weapons. Details, and an even bigger announcement from Valve, after the jump.

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Earlier today, Valve released the newest installment in it’s Team Fortress 2 video series, “Meet the Team,” this time focusing on the down to-Earth Sniper. The vid runs 1:40, and is, in my opinion, the best one yet. In the video, the Sniper talks about his job, his standards, and his parent’s disapproval of him being a “crazed gunman”. But that’s not all.

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It is certainly nice to see something that’s not battlefield come out of the fine production studio that is DICE. It is also really nice to actually see some stuff from Mirror’s Edge, a game that looks amazing for such little hype. From what we know, in the utopian future, all electronic communications are monitored for the 1984-esque government, so for a truly secure document to be transmitted, it must be delivered by hand. So, we get all these crazy Asians running on the tops of buildings like madmen. Sign me up!

Holy shit I don’t believe it.

According to a recent news post on the 3D Realms homepage, tomorrow we will be getting a special teaser video for you guessed it, Duke Nukem Forever. As quoted from their newspost:

“Tomorrow, Wednesday the 19th, around noon CST, we will release the first teaser trailer from Duke Nukem Forever. To tide you over until then, there has been a screen shot taken from the teaser and posted in our forums”

Now of course, this does not really mean anything as its just a teaser video, but it is nice to hear they are still “working” on Duke, more or less. But still, I’m as excited as ever for any news about the good ole’ Duke, as me and many of my friends were essentially raised on duke nukem 1,2, and 3D.

ZOMG UPDATE

Well, its out! You can grab a high quality version from the 3drealms website, or just view the youtube version right here!

[Press Release]

Not only has Eidos opened up a brand new development studio in Montreal, they have also announced that the new studio will be developing Deus Ex 3! As many of you know, the original Deus Ex was a revolutionary Sci-Fi first person shooter RPG hybrid that had an engrossing storyline, wonderful shooter elements, and non-linear gameplay. Sadly, the same could not be said for its successor, Deux Ex 2: Invisible War, which was largely a flop. Hopefully this game will live up to the original’s name, and raise the bar yet again for FPS/RPG hybrids around the globe. Until then, check out this teaser video:

[Gamasutra]

Hey, at least you start outside in a forest this time. Guess there can only be one Library, huh?

After all the bullcrap and the launch party at New York, videos of people throwing duffel bags through a window, and the oodles of “memorial” ads littering game sites, I get to play Bungie’s final game of the trilogy which is synonymous to that thing you see on Jesus and angels. So how fares Halo 3, you wonder?
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From now until the end of the year is looking pretty good for gamers, and the PC is no exception. Crysis, which will be hitting the shelves November 16th, is looking better than ever.

From what we’ve been told, the story is a bit different now. No longer is a meteor crashing into the earth, but North Korea and America are still finding things to fight over. Now, you find a alien ship that has been enclosed in the mountains since the ice age, and presumably N.K. and the US get into a pissing match over it. Lulz ensure, and of course the standard alien plot to take over the world, in which you must thwart using your advanced nano-suit. And of course, loads and loads of explosives. The alien menace still utilizes world-freezing technology, which makes for a very interesting game environment, regardless of what it used to be prior to being frozen. With all this and more, November can’t come soon enough for us PC gamers.

[Gamespot]

It seems that there hasn’t been any updates on games people are playing on DDN for a while. Time to break the silence. Today’s feature is on both a renowned shooter and a not-so-renowned Strategy RPG, after being scrutinized for a few days or so.
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I tried to contain the urge to go all e3 blow out here on Dark diamond. But seeing as FBINinja and Nahu have gotten the ball rolling, I may as well keep it moving. I’m going to be representing the Nintendo corner and kick off by showing you the awesomeness that is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Halo? Revolutionary? Piss off! Metroid is where the revolution is taking place. The nunchuk and Wii remote will be the nearest thing gamers will get to a mouse and keyboard setup on a console. Nintendo have made bold statements claiming that Corruption will change how first person shooters are played and I’m inclined to agree. But then again I would do. I’m Nintendo’s bitch for life. :P

Just remember fellas. Samus can do things to keep us interested that Master Chief can’t. That and she likes balls. You know you need to buy this game.

And its not Duke Nukem Forever. (like that was much a surprise to most of you) But, on 6/18/2007 3DRelams announced the title of a new game, “Earth No More”. It is slated for a 2009 release for the PC, Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3. But I wouldn’t hold your breath. We all know their track record as far as releasing games is concerned. From what little information that has been released, it seems to be a first person shooter with a lean towards squad based combat in a presumably post apocalyptic setting. Expect more information from the July issue of July 2007 issue of Game Informer Magazine.

[3DRealms]

It has been confirmed late last night that Half-Life 2: The orange box will be released across all available platforms on October 9, 2007. This will include the original Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress Classic. It will retail for 49.99 on the PC and 59.99 on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. Details have yet to be revealed for the Steam online distribution system, but we expect there will be options to buy things separately for those of us who haven’t been under a rock the last several years and already own Half-Life 2 and Episode 1.

 [Shacknews]

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked what he thought about American gamers preferring FPS games and if he’s missing sight of what American gamers want by not making games like Halo. Miyamoto’s reply, as expected, will create more than a few ripples.

“I could make Halo. It’s not that I couldn’t design that game. It’s just that I choose not to. One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design. I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play.”

He then went on to explain how he designs games and his game-testing methods.

“With rising budgets, I understand why game companies have a great deal of concern if they don’t design games in this way. But you need to create what you want to create! In that sense, I would really like to see people develop games like I do. When I show a game to people I don’t ask their opinion or give them a survey. I just watch their eyes and their face while they play. Do they smile? Do they look frustrated? So I guess I do test my games — but it isn’t very scientific”

So its about fun, and not about getting frustrated when you missed the last warthog. That’s cool, fun is fine too!

[GameDaily / Via The Tanooki]