Category: Games

Xfire Updating Software

On Nov 01, 2011 11:56 am, by NeutralX2

Xfire, the instant messaging/social network service for gamers recently raised $4 Million From Intel Capital, and is now an independent company again. A little over a year ago, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming, and since then development on the software has been pretty slow. Client updates have been few and far between, and new game support was outsourced to a team of community volunteers instead of being developed and tested in-house. As a result of the capital injection, Xfire is now flying solo again, and they have some big plans for the software in the future.

They are already testing a beta build of the client that supports in-game rendering for DirectX 10 and 11. This means that Xfire will start working with modern games, allowing you to chat, take screenshots, record video, and broadcast live gameplay all from the Xfire overlay that appears on-top of the game. They are currently testing with World of Warcraft (DX11), The Lord of The Rings Online (DX10/DX11), Dungeons & Dragons (DX10/DX11), and Battlefield 3 (DX10/DX11). If all goes well, expect to see a lot more newer games supporting XIG.

They are also focusing on fixing some of the social network features. Xfire has a network manager feature that allows you to chat on other networks such as AIM, MSN, and Twitter. However since it was first implemented, some of the protocols have changed, creating issues with the Xfire client. Fixes are promised, as well as support for additional networks.

Overall, it seems like it is a good time to be an Xfire user, and they want your feedback. If you currently use Xfire, take a few minutes to complete this survey and let them know how you feel about it.

Now to go download that beta client so I can get Xfire working in Battlefield 3.

Games

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta Delayed

On Oct 31, 2011 11:28 pm, by NeutralX2

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta was supposed to start in October, but Valve has announced that they are delaying it. Apparently some professional Counter-Strike 1.6 players didn’t feel that Global Offensive was ready for beta yet, so Valve delayed the 10,000-person closed beta.

Honestly, I could not care less what a bunch of 1.6 players that are too scared of change to move on to Source think about CS:GO. While 1.6 was great at the time, in hindsight it is actually a pretty bad game. I went back to it last year for a little while, and I honestly don’t know how I ever played that game, much less seriously competed in leagues and did well. I really don’t know what these kids are doing still playing it, as Source is superior in every way that counts. Is there even serious leagues for 1.6 still? Certainly not anything anyone cares about. The competitive gaming community has moved on from 1.6, and I find it strange that Valve is turning to 1.6 players of all people for advice. They are still playing 1.6, and I seriously doubt they are going to adopt anything new at this point.

Anyway, Valve does not have a new date for the close beta, but they said that when it does launch the core focus will to be address any hardware compatibility issues. Faliszek told Eurogamer that the closed beta will only include one or two maps. Sixteen maps are promised at launch, including eight classic maps and eight “Gun Game” maps. He also explained that the beta ends, “When the community tells us. It ends when it’s ready.” That said, the beta will continue to be refined, updated, and include more users until everyone is playing the final release.

As a result, the estimated release date is now “early 2012”.

Games Video

Counter-Strike Global Offensive: America vs. Europe

On Oct 23, 2011 1:48 pm, by NeutralX2

Watch some pretty bad Counter-Strike teams go at it for almost an hour in this Counter-Strike Global Offensive footage. I really hope most of the stuff in the game is placeholder. Those weapon models, animations, and sounds are absolutely awful. It will be pretty disappointing if this game comes out 7 years after Source and actually looks worse.

Games Video

Tribes: Ascend Early Beta Gameplay

On Oct 22, 2011 2:10 pm, by NeutralX2

A few days ago Hi-Rez opened up a “Systems Tests” for Tribes: Ascend ahead of the official start of Closed Beta on November 4, 2011. After patching for a few hours I was able to jump on a bit and play my first few rounds of Ascend. I am not going to bother writing up my opinions on the game at this stage since its still early on and they admit everything is open to change. As you would expect, there were things I really liked and things I didn’t care for, but none of that really matters until the game gets closer to release. So instead, just enjoy this video of my very first round of Tribes: Ascend. Its fun feeling like a noob again!

Games Video

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

On Oct 22, 2011 1:44 pm, by NeutralX2

It looks like someone over at blizzard likes Kung Fu Panda and Pokemon a little too much. Still, it looks like they are trying to change things up a quit a bit, and I welcome that. They are making some interesting class changes (lol Paladins have sprint) that I am looking forward to checking out, and the art style is pretty appealing to me (aside from the actual Pandas). The pet battles admittedly sound like a cool mini-game that brings some of the major elements of Pokemon into World of Warcraft. I think its safe to say Nintendo was never going to do a MMO, so its nice to see Blizzard implement something like it. People were already collecting pets that didn’t really do anything, so I can see pet collecting/battling taking off. It could be pretty fun.