Become a Beta Tester for Bungie!

     Bungie announced it was looking for beta testers!  Applying to be a beta tester is the best, and right now the only way to get a sneak peak at what super-secret new project there working on.  More after the break.

BioWare's New Title

     Looks pretty badass, even more so if its a screen shot instead of part of a cinematic teaser trailer.  However, BioWare did not release the name of this game, and won't, until Spike's VGAs next month, when the whole trailer will be played.   Fans of BioWare games have dissected this pic as well as two barcodes posted on the official BioWare facebook page.  More after the jump.

Dota 2 Website Launch

 
But they were wrong about something.
SLG is the place to get your Dota 2 Information from now on!

but run over to Dota2.com and check it out.
I am very excited to see what Valve bring to DOTA

Posted by SLG_Rady

The latest update for the Borderlands PC to version 1.41 with this patch, raising the level cap for all players. This patch is for retail editions only. [source]

Borderlands PC Update Version 1.40 Notes
* Level cap increase of 8 levels for all players. - Original Borderlands players will now be able to achieve level 58.
- Owners of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can achieve a record setting increase to a maximum level of 69.
* Enemies now scale to new level caps throughout the whole game as long as playthrough 2 has been completed.
* Item drops (with the exception of COM Decks) will now scale to new enemy level caps. * DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users will now properly award players for obtaining these achievements.

  Posted by SLG_Rady

Epic Red Shirt kid!

If you haven't seen the red shirt kid from Blizzcon, then you either truely live under a rock, or are so tunnel visioned and wrapped up in your games that you forgot that you have a TV and a facebook account and for that we salute you.

Watch this.



K, I know, epic right?

FYI, in case you have no idea who those dudes are on the panel.

Dude in the glasses is Chris Metzen, Vice President of creative development for Blizzard. He Created most of the Original Diablo World, as well as voice acted some of the characters. He was lead designer for Starcraft and voice acted there too. He was a main staple in the creation of both Diablo and Starcraft Stories! He even Wrote and published the "Of blood and honor" Warcraft universe novels.

Other dude is Alex Afrasiabi. First guy to hit level 50 in Everquest! Avid guild leader for "Fires of Heaven" An EQ guild and WoW Guild. Well known in EQ for many "world firsts", so much so that blizzard asked him not to be the first to down Onyxia when WoW was first released. He's now WoW’s Lead World Designer, starting as a quest designer. Given, he's attributed to some of the WoW Lore.

K. Now you are all very well educated.
Epic Red Shirt Guy has his OWN NPC!

We Salute you Red Shirt Guy.

Posted by SLG_Rady

Download Cataclysm before the release!!

You can officially pre-order the digital upgrade for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm!

"But I don't want to wait for the release date to download and install the game, I just want to start playing!"

well your in luck, the crew over at joystiq posted a useful way to pre download all the remaining expansion data to let you play at midnight Dec 7th! Also, it will NOT break ToS. (Blizzard Approved!)

"Oh so i get to play cataclysm early????" -No... Don't be silly.


Here's the run-down
1. Close all instances of Wow, loader, installer, background. Whatever, it all has to be closed.
2. Open your World of Warcraft Folder on your HDD
3. Open Launcher.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT
4. Open Config.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT

When you start WoW again, it will start installing a bunch of leftover Cat stuff you didn't have before and now your all set to play Cat on release night.

"So it upgrades my account to Cat!" - No... You will still need to upgrade your account to a Cataclysm account in order to access any Cat material. So you have to pay.

enjoy!

Posted by SLG_Rady

New SCII Map Mods

     During Blizzcon(the part not devoted to WoW), Star Craft II developers released 4 new mods created entirely within the game's editor.  The mods themselves after the break.

BLIZZCON: Worgen Cinematic Trailer

BLIZZCON: Diablo 3 Gameplay Panel

More Cataclysm Raid Videos!

     More raids encounters have opened in the cataclysm beta, head to our WoW page to view 4 of the new fights!

Posted by SLG_J

Updates D3 armor sets: Male barbarian

Here's our post with the armor sets, just added the last preview, the male barbarian. Check them out.

SLG_Rady

Cataclysm Raid Vids, for your viewing pleasure.

 
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have for you, 4 new videos of Raid fights for Cataclysm. Jump over the the SLG World of Warcraft page to take a look. Then leave a little comment about how you don't play world of wacraft anymore but the vids look cool "bro" or how your all so very very excited to fight those bossesl; Like we are.
Enjoy.

Posted by SLG_Rady

How Playing Farmville May Bite You Where it Hurts

      According to the Wall Street Journal, three of the top ten game apps on Facebook, including FarmVille, are transmitting user's names, and sometimes the names of users's friends to advertising and tracking companies.  What is actually transmitted by the apps is the users ID number(which is unique to each user) and can be used to to find a person's name if their account is private, or all their information if the account is not.
    The article also mentioned that over 25 sites received information for these apps and that one firm sold the information it collected to 'over a dozen other firms.'

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.

Posted by SLG_J

Free Upgrade For DA2 Pre-Orders

      For anyone interested in the next installment of BioWare's Dragon Age series, anyone who pre-orders a normal copy of the game before January 11th, 2011, will receive instead the BioWare Signature Edition.  More after the jump.

Update on Starcraft single player bans

Official statement issues by  Blizzard:

"Blizzard Entertainment is not banning StarCraft II players just for using single-player cheats. There's been some confusion in the last couple of days about the suspensions and bans meted out to players caught cheating in StarCraft II. It's important to point out first, that many of the 3rd-party hacks and cheats developed for StarCraft II contain both single- and multiplayer functionality. In order to protect the integrity of multiplayer competition, we are actively detecting cheat programs used in multiplayer modes whether there are human opponents or not."

Be sure to read this carefully. This does NOT mean they are banning single players cheats. (there are built in cheat codes for single player) This does NOT mean you are free to use all cheats/mods/add-ons. Any unfriendly programs detected within battle.net can and may lead you to a suspensions and/or ban.

If you are not familiar with the battle.net ban styles of Diablo 2, it worked like this.

Say you are using a maphack.
The maphack accesses lines of code within the game files. Battle.net knows what lines of code those are. There was a bot used by Battle.net to sweep through accounts to detect if those lines of code were being accessed, we used to call it the "warden". The warden was not on at all times, just periodically, the only way you knew, was when someone got banned. When the warden was turned on, it would "sweep" and ban accounts by the Thousands.

The Ban-Hammer.

Depending on the infraction, you would get "Temp-banned" We got it all the time in Diablo for joining and leaving games to quickly. (create game, Tele to Mephisto, tele to Pindle, Save/quit, repeat). Those usually last 15 minutes. But there has been times when the Warden would sweep and we get temp banned for days.


Long story short. Mods/add-ons/hacks/cheats: Use at your own risk.

Posted by SLG_Rady

Lord of the Rings Online Doubles Revenue

     GCDO, the studio behind Lord of the Rings Online has reported a double in revenue since they switched from a monthly subscription to a hybrid free to play model.  In addition, Joystiq reports that over one million players have created accounts in the month since the switch, and Turbine, monitoring the servers reports the free-to-play launch was even bigger than the original 2007 launch.

     I don't know if free-to-play is the way to go for most mmo's, but GDCO must be doing something right.

Posted by SLG_J

DOTA 2 to be released by Valve!

 
I haven't been this excited in a long time. I was eating my lunch in the break room at work while checking my twitter to find that IGN, Gameinformer, and basically everyone worth mentioning, had posted new information on Valves new upcoming release.


So, here's the full story.
Dota (Defense of the Ancients) is a custom Warcraft 3 map based off an old Starcraft map called "Aeon of Strife". Dota was first created by a mapmaker under the alias Eul it was then re-worked after the WC3 expansion by Steve Feak (his version becoming the dominantly played version)

Steve added  and renamed it Defense of the Ancients - All-stars. Still acronymed Dota
Feak wanted to create Dota as a stand alone game, and under certain circumstances, began work with Riot Games creating "League of Legends"


Dota was slightly re-worked again in version 6.1 by Icefrog.
Icefrog added new heroes, features, and fixes. His work on the map made him a name in the WC3 community. his work also achieved him an opportunity to work with none other than Valve. To create a stand alone game, Conveniently name Dota 2.


Sweet, sooooooo whats Dota 2 going to be like.

• I'll keep this short and sweet.
• Virtually untouched gameplay form the legendary original
• DotA-Allstars' roster of 100+ heroes is being brought over in its entirety.
• Items, skills, and upgrade paths are unchanged. Some hero skills work slightly
• Valve's Source engine, ooooo shiny!
• Integrated voice chat!
• AI bots will take over for disconnected players
• "The bulk of innovation in Dota 2, however, is ancillary to the gameplay itself. Valve is upgrading Steamworks (the company's backend technologies for matchmaking and other gameplay and community-related things) to allow them to create in-game rewards for participating in the Dota 2 community. The idea is to have everything a player does in or out of game tie back into their online identity. Like the improvements to Source, the Steamworks upgrades will be available to third-party developers who choose to use Valve's tools when Dota 2 launches in 2011."  (source)
• skill-based matchmaking for both individuals and teams
• interactive guides will allow players to do more than just read a guide

 I am thoroughly excited, and plan on keeping you all informed as more information becomes available to me!

SLG_Rady

Starcraft Bans on single player!!

Cheathappens.com posted an article describing Blizzard BANNING users for using cheats and trainers on single player matches, whether they playing multi player or not.

“While single player games only appear to be you and a computer at first, your achievements and gamer score also carries weight and prestige for your online play,” a Blizzard spokesperson told CheatHappens.

 posted by SLG_Rady

Star Wars Force Unleashed 2.

It's almost here: Star Wars Force Unleashed 2.
To be released 10.26.10 on both PC and XBOX 360

League Of Legends Leaked Patch Notes