No Mercy Un DLC crossover de Payday et Left 4 Dead

Le Mercy Hôpital est certainement le bâtiment qui aura connu le plus d'évènements improbables dans toute l'histoire des hôpitaux. Infesté de zombies affamés dans Left 4 Dead, voici que Overkill propose désormais d'y faire un casse via un DLC de Payday : The Heist. Le trailer diffusé il y a peu a d'ailleurs laissé libre court à l'imagination des fans et des journalistes, interprétant cet épisode du Mercy Hôpital comme une séquence se déroulant avant l'histoire apocalyptique de Left 4 Dead. Selon Valve sur le compte Twitter des développeurs de Left 4 Dead, malgré le nom, le lieu et les clins d'oeil faits au FPS (on parle d'un potentiel cameo de Zoey), le DLC de Payday ne raconterait pas l'origine de l'invasion zombie.

Aucune date n'est encore prévue pour ce DLC, il semblerait d'ailleurs que le trailer ci-dessous soit sorti prématurément de son oeuf.




· Forum Payday : The Heist

The Secret World une bêta encourageante

Attendu pour le 19 juin chez nous sur PC, The Secret World est en fait d'ores et déjà disponible à ceux qui l'ont précommandé. Funcom propose en effet aux joueurs ayant préacheté le jeu de participer à des weekends de bêta fermée jusqu'à la sortie du jeu, et ce afin d'offrir un titre peaufiné au maximum à son lancement officiel. Le studio a en tout cas exprimé sa satisfaction quant au premier week-end de bêta qui s'est tenu en fin de semaine dernière.

Les joueurs étaient en effet nettement plus nombreux que lors de ceux qu'avaient organisé Funcom pour Age of Conan, le dernier MMO sorti par le studio. Les retours des participants sont dans l'ensemble très bons et le développeur espère que l'engouement ne cessera de croître autour de son jeu. Espérons-le car la concurrence est féroce dans le genre massivement multijoueur sur PC ces derniers temps notamment avec les sorties de Star Wars The Old Republic et surtout de TERA il y a peu.

· Forum The Secret World

Duel FIFA PES Nous avons un vainqueur

Comme chaque année, les amateurs de simulations footbalistiques ont eut à choisir entre les deux titres se partageant le marché. Comme chaque année, les partisans de l'un et de l'autre ont fait valoir leurs arguments pour mettre en avant la licence qui leur était la plus chère. Or les chiffres viennent de tomber, et le verdict est sans appel.

En effet, c'est Gamekult qui a réussi à dégotter les chiffres de vente des deux licences, et qui nous les livre ce matin. Ainsi, ce sont pas loin de 445 000 exemplaires de FIFA 13 qui ont été écoulés dans les premières semaines de commercialisation (avec une nette majorité pour la PS3). Pour sa part, PES 2013 n'a réussi à vendre que 40 000 exemplaires sur la même période, soit près de dix fois moins que son rival, marquant ainsi la fin d'un long déclin, amorcé depuis quelques années.

Et si jamais les chiffres ne suffisaient pas à vous convaincre, n'hésitez pas à aller jeter un œil du côté de nos tests, ici pour PES 2013, et là pour FIFA 13.

Football Manager 2013 annoncé

Alors que les PES et FIFA de cette année sont dans les starting-blocks, c'est au tour de Football Manager de faire son annonce. Cette année encore, Sega et Sports Interactive vont faire plaisir aux passionnés de la gestion de clubs. Football Manager 2013 propose bien évidemment des améliorations par rapport aux années précédentes mais cet opus est censé marquer un tournant dans la série. C'est sous forme d'une conférence de presse footballistique que Miles Jacobson, directeur du studio, nous présente ces changements.



Premier changement notable, l'arrivée d'un mode Classique nommé FMC. Le but est d'offrir une gestion simplifiée de son équipe pour que ceux qui ont moins de temps à consacrer à ce loisir puissent tout de même en profiter pleinement. Il reste bien évidemment possible de vivre le jeu "à fond" comme dans les précédents opus, en suivant une carrière d'entraineur sur près de dix années, sachant qu'une seule saison dure de huit à dix heures.

S'ajoute à cela le mode Challenge proposant de réaliser des défis comme ne pas perdre un match de la saison, sauver une équipe de la relégation ou encore se priver de ses meilleurs joueurs. Ce mode est initialement apparu dans la version smartphone de l'édition 2012. Face à un tel succès, les développeurs ont décidé de l'intégrer dans la version PC de 2013 avec cinq défis pour débuter. Ce nombre pourra par la suite grossir selon les attentes et les demandes de la communauté.

Les moins persévérants pourront tout de même profiter de l'expérience de jeu dans sa globalité grâce à quelques petites aides. Options déblocables avec le temps ou l'argent, il deviendra par exemple possible de rajouter quelques millions d'euros supplémentaires pour s'offrir les meilleurs joueurs.

Parmi les autres modifications, on retrouve un moteur 3D qui connait sa plus forte amélioration depuis l'édition 2009, ainsi que 51 pays mis à jour et plus de 500 000 joueurs disponibles. Dans le staff, l'arrivée d'un Directeur Sportif pourra alléger la charge de travail de l’entraineur si ce dernier le souhaite. Quant aux entrainements, ils seront mieux planifiés alors que le régime d’impôt ou les interactions avec les journalistes deviennent plus réalistes.

Le jeu en ligne connaitra lui aussi des améliorations. Football Manager 2013 supportera toutes les fonctionnalités de Steam pour offrir une meilleure expérience aux joueurs. Il sera même possible de consulter un tableau de classification mondial pour évaluer les performance de chaque entraineur à travers le monde. D'ailleurs, tous ces modes de jeu et nouveautés sont illustrés au travers de quelques screenshots.

Comme vous avez pu le voir dans la vidéo, aucune date de sortie n'a encore été dévoilée. Le jeu espère tout de même ne pas rater noël pour que les joueurs PC puissent l'inscrire à leur liste de vœux. D'ici là, le site officiel proposera de nouvelles vidéos explicatives sur les modes de jeu et leurs améliorations.

· Télécharger la vidéo
· Voir les screenshots
· Forum Football Manager 2013

2012-12-21-38

OCZ announces DDR3 RAM kits for LGA-1156 CPUs

OCZ has announced six 2x2GB DDR3 RAM kits for the upcoming LynnfieldCore i7/i5 CPUs. According to OCZ, they have been tailor-made for theP55 platform, which means they will also be supported by the subsequentClarksfield Core i5/i3 dual-core CPUs releasing in Q1 '10, also based onthe LGA-1156 socket.

The six kits are all available in dual-channel 2x2GB (i.e. 4GB total), running at 1.65V stock. They are available in three speeds - 1333, 1600, 1866 MHz respectively. For each speed grade there are two options - the high performance low-latency Gold version with OCZ's gold XTC heatsink, and a higher-latency, more affordable Platinum version with the platinum coloured XTC heatsink. The latencies do seem to go through the roof for the 1866 MHz versions, as expected. Bear in mind these are performance products, not enthusiast class like OCZ's Reaper HPC.

Complete details of each individual kit are already available at OCZ's website.

OCZ DDR3 PC3-15000 Platinum Low Voltage (2x2GB)9-9-9-27 @ 1.65V
OCZ DDR3 PC3-15000 Gold Low Voltage (2x2GB) 10-10-10-27@ 1.65V
OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Platinum Low Voltage (2x2GB)7-7-7-24 @ 1.65V
OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Gold Low Voltage (2x2GB) 8-8-8-24 @1.65V
OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum Low Voltage (2x2GB)7-7-7-20 @ 1.65V
OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Gold Low Voltage (2x2GB) 9-9-9-20@1.65V

Reference: OCZ

2012-12-21-539

AIB To Make RV630 & RV610 Cards Next Week

AMD will be shipping out RV610 and RV630 ASICs to their AIB partners by early next week and most card makers we talked to reveal that they will be able to churn out some cards by next week. There will be both PCIe and AGP versions of the RV610 and RV630 cards and they gonna be cheap. Some errata and bugs such as VC-1 playback issue and 3D issue like hang over extended periods of time in 3D Mark 05 and 06 have been identified and fixed over the previous revisions. The 8xAA hang issue on the RV630 was resolved as well. A14 will be the production revision for RV610 while A15 will be the production revision for RV630.

halloween horrors 2011 “halloween 4 the return of michael myers”

It wouldn’t be a proper Halloween horror movie round-up around these parts if he didn’t review at least one film from the venerable slasher series named after this, our favorite holiday, so today here at TFG we’re going to take a (relatively quick, since you pretty much know the drill with these flicks) look at not one, but two Michael Myers flicks that are both available on DVD from Anchor Bay in special “Divimax” editions that are really good and loaded with extras like multiple commentary tracks with cast and crew, very well-done making-of featurettes, trailers, outtakes, and fantastic widescreen digital transfers that look like a million bucks and are accompanied by terrific 5.1 sound mixes. If shelling out four or five bucks is too rich for your blood, though — and in this economy who could blame you? — both are also playing intermittently from now through October 31st on AMC. So without any further ado, let’s set the wayback machine to 1988 and first examine? director Dwight H. Little’s Halloween 4 : The Return Of Michael Myers.

Set ten years after Mike’s intial rampage, part 4 finds our favorite masked slasher being transferred from one mental institution to another, but not before he overhears a careless conversation about his sister, Laurie Strode, having a daughter who ‘s being raised by another family back in the old Myers stomping grounds of Haddonfield, Illinois. Sensing this is too good an opportunity for mayhem to pass up, Michael predictably makes his escape while being transferred and sets out for home, where his niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris, who would go on to play a significant role both in this series and in Rob Zombie’s Halloween films, where she played Laurie’s best friend, Annie) finds herself tormented by strange dreams about a silent masked killer who she somehow feels inexplicably connected to — can the venerable Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence, of course — in full scenery-chewing mode, I might add) stop his most infamous patient before he snaps off the last branch of his family tree for good?

All in all, the best thing about the fourth installment in this series is that Michael (played by George P. Wilbur in this one, if you must know) is back and doing what he does best. I’m not one of those people who has nothing good to say about Halloween III : Season Of The Witch — in fact I think it’s a solidly fun and interesting little horror movie — but by 1988 it was time for that blank-featured mask to make its return. Of course, by this point Michael’s pretty much a superhuman force of evil who can’t be killed no matter what, and Pleasence’s Loomis has flipped out to the point where his single-minded obsession to kill Myers has made him almost as dangerous as the serial-slasher himself, but by and large this pretty much follows the original John Carpenter formula to the letter. There’s really nothing new here and after a more-than-five-year absence from the screen maybe some actual innovation in this series could have been hoped for, but hell, it was just so good to see this series get itself back on the traditional slasher track (a track the first Halloween film more or less created, it should be pointed out) that the lack of anything particularly new or interesting didn’t really bug me or any of the other Myers-starved fans out there at the time.

Divorced from its context, though, and viewed as, say, part of a day-long Halloween marathon, there’s nothing about this one that really stands out, either for good or for ill. It’s a by-the-numbers Myers massacre, which was good enough to make it seem really cool at the time, but just kind of relegates it to “solid enough, but honestly nothing all that special” status now. In short, I can’t find any compelling reason not? to like Halloween 4 : The Return Of Michael Myers, but there’s nothing going on here to make it stand out from the pack, either. It’s a perfectly serviceable, average installment in the Halloween franchise, which means it’s still better than most other slasher fare (though not all, by any means) and probably well worth your time to catch on AMC this week, if nothing else.

I almost included an “if there’s nothing else on” in that last sentence, but who are we kidding? It’s TV, of course there’s nothing else on.

Oh, and a last postscript before I forget — if you still don’t get some kind of little tingle up your spine when you first hear those piano keys tapping out the Halloween theme tune at the start of any of these films, you’re probably reading the wrong blog.

the bw review “before watchmen rorschach” #2

As Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, himself might say : “Hurm.”

We’re now at the halfway point of this four-issue series and it’s safe to say that I’m just flat-out unsure?what to make of it. In this issue, our favorite vigilante-in-a-pattern-shifting-mask winds up in the hospital on the heels of the ass-kicking he took last time around, runs an 18-wheeler into some small-time dope dealers (or maybe they’re pimps — or both), eschews the only female contact he’s probably had in decades, and starts in on a new mission of getting even with the crime lord who left him for dead in the sewers, a crime lord who, incidentally, has now gotten wind that leaving Rorschach for dead is a far cry from making sure he well and truly?is? dead.

It’s certainly every bit as bloody and gritty as you’d expect (and then some), but it in no way surprises the reader or delivers anything you might call even close to being?unexpected, so in that respect it’s a fairly gutless and pedestrian piece of work. Which isn’t to say it’s?bad by any stretch of the imagination, just that it’s all so highly?predictable. Writer Brian Azzarello seems determined to pretty much just, as the Brits would say, “give the punters what they want,” and leave it at that. Which is, clearly and self-evidently, not what?Watchmen?as envisioned by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons was all about. So it’s fair to say I’m a bit torn on the overall effectiveness of this book — and its relegation of its serial-killer subplot involving a psycho called “The Bard” doesn’t help matters much, either.

Another thing that doesn’t work as well in this series’ second installment is Lee Bermejo’s art. It’s okay, but it looks rushed and semi-sloppy compared compared to issue number one, where eye for detail for was really a strong suit. I think Bermejo still gives a shit, don’t get me wrong, and most of this issue looks good?enough, but it lacks some of the almost-photo-realism we got last time, which is something of a bummer. Ah well.

In summation, then,?Before Watchmen : Rorschach?#2 (variant covers, as shown, by Bermejo and Jock, respectively) is just — alright. I can’t point to anything out-and-out lousy about it, but it seems content to rest of its laurels and just deliver more or less exactly the type of thing we’re expecting. That might make for involving?enough and interesting?enough reading, but gosh, is it too much for me to wish for something a little bit?inspired somewhere in the midst of this whole?Before Watchmen project somewhere?

Hurm, indeed.

tfg does the summer blockbusters “harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2″

So, yeah, it all ends. And it ends with a bang. And hard-core Harry Potter fans everywhere are wondering what to do next with their lives. And it’s grim and gritty and dark and foreboding and most definitely not for little kids. Harry grew up, things got dark, and then it all ended.

Honestly, that’s the trajectory of the Harry Potter franchise summed up as simply, and yet completely, as possible. And yet —

I find it hard to be anywhere near as dismissive of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows : Part 2, or, for that matter, of the entire Potter series in general, as I am of the Transformers cinematic printing press, simply because what we have here is both a genuine cultural phenomenon, the like of which will probably never be seen again, and because the folks who made these flicks never seemed to be content to just stop caring, go on autopilot, and assume we’d all just show up and fork over our cash. In short, they did their best to earn the public’s hard-won dollars. They never stopped giving a shit, and it never stopped showing.

Now, even though your humble host has seen each and every Potter movie, I’ll confess right now to never being the hugest fan of the series. I had no problem with it, per se, and generally found them to be well-executed and more or less interesting. they just never grabbed me enough to form the emotional bond with the characters that so many fans seem to have — but you know, I get it. Especially when it comes to the people who came of age while this series was going and literally watched Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint grow up with them. This thing has been a part of their lives, goddamnit, and I understand why they’d find it so hard to let it go. There weren’t too many dry eyes in the place when the end credits rolled, that’s for sure.

And just to give more credit where credit is due, just as J. K. Rowling’s book series got kids reading again for the first time in forever, the Potter films have gotten a new generation of kids into movie magic, and the technical art of making good, solid films. Not since Lucas and Romero’s venerable cinematic series captured the imaginations of teens and young adults who wanted to make the art of creating celluloid illusions the backbone of their lives’ work has anything like this happened. The next wave of special effects and CGI superstars are going to be folks who grew up on Harry Potter.

And so an era, well and truly, has ended here. And it’s ended in grand style. Director David Yates has crafted an engaging and dare I say even thrilling finale that ticks every box on the Potter fan’s checklist yet somehow avoids feeling like a cynical technical exercise. If you loved these films, you’re gonna love how it all turns out, and even though you probably knew the story going in, you’ll still be on the edge of your seat most of the way through. That’s saying something. If you’ve loved this whole thing from the start, this is a final chapter that returns your love and says “thanks for being with us” while giving you everything in a Potter story you’ve ever wanted. A flick that the uninitiated can still enjoy while the diehards have, quite literally, the time of their movie lives.

And that’s probably the secret to this series’ success right there — it managed to keep the masses (like myself) entertained, while creating, and then consistently reaching, a core audience of true believers on a level few movie franchises can ever hope to achieve.

My wizard’s hat is off to Yates and company for sending off this series in the way that it — and its million of loyal fans — deserved. The Harry Potter series may be over, but magic, especially movie magic, is definitely alive and well.