Bailout - a multi-level apartment complex
Storm - an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery
Salvage - a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars
Crash - a war-torn urban environment (CoD4)
Overgrown - features a massive dry creek bed (CoD4)

inXile Entertainment was founded in 2002 by industry veteran Brian Fargo. During his distinguished tenure in the video game business, Fargo has been behind some of the greatest fantasy game franchises of all time including The Bard's Tale, Baldur's Gate, and Fallout. Hunted's development is being overseen by Fargo while Michael "Maxx" Kaufman serves as the game's Director. Previously, Kaufman served as Art Director on such titles as Kingpin: Life of Crime, Redneck Rampage and the award-winning Return to Castle Wolfenstein® at Gray Matter.

Whatever the case, Hunted's combat could be broadly described as Gears-esque mostly because it's an over the shoulder third-person action game, it uses the Unreal Engine 3, and it has a cover system. In fact, it uses a destructible cover system, which are words that we don't often use to describe a fantasy RPG. Featuring two playable characters (a lady elf called E'lara and an uber masculine warrior called Caddoc) that are then utilised for online co-op play and local single-player (no local split-screen), Hunted blends together ranged and melee attacks punctuated by an array of different spells. inXIle also appears to be incorporating these different combat options with a specific focus on the co-op, positioning E'lara's strengths in ranged attacks and Caddoc's in melee combat.

Not only this, but the spells also reward intelligent co-op play. For example, one of E'lara's spells allows her to fire ice arrows that freeze enemies on impact, which Caddoc can then easily pick apart with his manly sword. And then there's the 'Battle Charge' system, which allows each character to throw spells at the other from long range to "buff" their skills during combat. One demo we saw had E'lara throwing a spell at Caddoc from a balcony, which sent him into a 'Hell-fire Rage', while the same system is then used for healing spells as well.

Connection issues to EA servers
* EA Online has been adding more capacity to handle the high number of player connections to EA servers. This is an ongoing process but we currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections.

Manually install PunkBuster on PC
* If you are getting an error that Punkbuster hasn't installed correctly for reasons such as Windows admin permissions not allowing Punkbuster to be installed, then go to www.evenbalance.com and download PBSetup.exe. When prompted, point PBSetup at your BFBC2 install directory and then check for updates. A PC restart maybe needed once this is done for Windows to pick up Punkbusters location.

PunkBuster kicks with the following error message : « punkbuster kicked player 'PLAYER NAME' (for 0 minutes) ... RESTRICTION: Service Communication. »
* This is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 permissions issue that affects all Punkbuster games. To solve this issue download and run PBSVC.

When clicking on a server to join, nothing happens.
* This is fixed in a patch going out on PC today.

Server Browser bugged: All the following browser issues are things the team is currently working on improving.
* Too slow This is caused by the current browser system. - A new system is being developed by the BFBC2 PC team to improve the server browser
* Displaying inaccurate number of players connected on game servers - This is caused by the difference in server status between when the refresh was initiated and when the results display.
* No ping displayed - This is caused by Windows admin privileges. To view ping in the server browser run BFBC2.exe with administrator privileges.

High pings even on local game servers. We're actually showing game latency instead of ping.
* This is basically how far behind the client is compared to the server. We try to keep the server a small portion in front of the clients so they in most cases can use replicated data until they get the next ghost update from the server. If they get a lag spike they will start predicting the state when they run out of information, however, the basic idea is to smooth out the experience compared to everything having to be corrected when the predictions are slightly off.

After being disconnected, some people got their stats temporary reset.
* The team is investigating this issue, we have no solution at this point. Please report any stat loss here.

When people try to reconnect to their profile, the game asks for the serial number again
* This has been fixed on the entitlement side hence no patch is needed. A really small number of people got affected by this.

360 accounts will be “reset” this weekend?
* This is a rumour

Some players have had trouble redeeming their VIP codes
* This should have cleared up now, the in game store on PS3 for Europe and Asia is coming soon.

PC: $36.99
Xbox 360: $46.99
Playstation 3: $46.99

Like Modern Warfare, you'll play as multiple characters throughout MoH, and actions you take as one character will affect missions you play later as other characters. For example, in a mission prior to the one we witnessed, the player encountered a convoy, but didn't have the means to destroy it, so all he could do was drop IR beacons on it to mark it as a target. In the mission we saw, that same convoy came around a corner, blinking "kill me, kill me, kill me," and a friendly helicopter turned it into a light show.

We've been informed of three characters - two "sledgehammer" characters, an Army Ranger and an Apache Pilot, and one Tier 1 character, the bearded dude who's on the cover (the beard isn't just for show - he's blending in with the locals to aid infiltration).

Chess, the unrivalled champion of strategy games has been attracting players of all ages for countless centuries. Battle vs. Chess takes up the mission of adapting the time honored classic for the 21st century, seeking to breathe new life into the beloved game without abandoning the essential concepts that have made it so enduring. Simply digitalizing it is not nearly enough, however, and the title aims to develop a unique fusion between 3D environments & characters, professional chess software and upbeat combat visuals & mechanics

1UP: Was Portal 2 from the beginning always going to be a full price game?
Gabe Newell: "One of the nice things about The Orange Box was it allowed us to try out a couple of different things, and Portal really seemed to resonate. We got the signals that we wanted -- this is what people liked; this is what people didn't like. And to us, it was like, 'OK now we know how to take this big,' so that's what we're going to do with Portal 2."

1UP: Are you worried about people expecting it to be a smaller game, and now it's hard to overcome that?
GN: "Well, I think that in any game... fans are super passionate, right? When we shipped Left 4 Dead and then came out with Left 4 Dead 2 a year later, you know a lot of people were excited, and then there were the people who decided, 'Something must be wrong; Valve must be turning to the dark side.' So I think you always have that challenge on your new games, explaining 'Why is it worth their time? Why is it worth their money? Why is it worth their passion?' And that's a case you have to make with every release you do."

1UP: What's the big answer you give for Portal 2?
GN: "Oh Portal 2's great. It's the best game we've ever done."

1UP: And it's not even done yet.
GN: "It's pretty clear, just internally."

PCGH: AMD claims that no other developer besides Epic wanted PhysX in their games and that Nvidia pays for every implementation. Is that true?

Nadeem Mohammed: AGEIA had worked with Epic to integrate PhysX into their UE3, and other developers even before the acquisition by NVIDIA. Since that time the popularity of PhysX has increased to a point that it is now the most popular Physics Solution with over 240 games already shipped and many in development. Selecting a physics solution for integration with a game is a major decision on the part of the developer, and one of the most important criteria for selection is the functionality and tools provided for game consoles - and a poor decision/selection of physics solution could have a major impact on the developers means to deliver or even complete their project. Sorry that is a long answer to the simple question, but it's important to understand the overall context - we do not pay developers to select PhysX instead of other physics solution. Once PhysX is selected and the developer plans to have a PC version, we will work closely with them to provide whatever engineering and technical assistance to make the PC version as good as it can be - and hopefully that includes pushing the edge on special PhysX effects which may require GPU acceleration for best performance. We will "invest” our time, energy, expertise and technology to make good games into great PC titles - if that's what AMD is talking about then sure they are right!

When we find games that we think PC gamers are really going to enjoy - weather they have PhysX or not we will test the games in a building full of test servers to find any driver issues upfront - to ensure every GeForce user has a great experience, if our board partners want to bundle games we'll try to broker the deals to try to get the best value to our end users. We work really hard to cultivate good relationships with developers with the single purpose of delivering the best possible gaming experience for all PC gamers - a big chunk of whom are NVIDIA GeForce users. What's AMD doing to help PC gamers?

"Well, I think our studio will use this engine again," he told me today, "and it'll get better. And I think we're probably about 50- or 60-percent at it right now. I think there's a lot more we can do with it." What improvements could be made? For one, Asmussen says the game's animation system could be tweaked. In fact, he says they already have the tech.  "I think individually our animations are incredible," he said, "and our animators are incredibly talented. But I think we could make our system technically better, in the way we blend animations. And I'm pretty sure that we already have the code to do that, and we just didn't implement it in God of War III because it came in real late."

He also points to other obvious engine improvements, including lighting, seamlessly transitioning from cut-scenes to gameplay, and more. While this might seem like a "captain obvious" -- of course it's working to improve its engine -- looking at God of War III, it's exciting to imagine what could come next. My head, it has exploded.

Hey guys, I noticed there was a bit of confusion about our Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack file size, and I wanted to clear things up for you. The way our engine and game structure works is that people need to have the exact same content for people to play together. One of the challenges with post launch content for MP is that it can split the player base, and we want to avoid that whenever possible. For this content, creating the DLC package the way we did allowed for us to not split the player base – so whether you purchase the new content or not, you can still play with your friends.

I know some of you have strong beliefs about DLC, and I'm not here to sway your opinion or convince you to buy our stuff - if you like what we're offering, I hope you get it and enjoy it. If it's not your speed, enjoy BioShock 2 as we released it. I want to let you know that DLC is not interfering with our patching capabilities, which are a top priority and are still being actively worked on. We're committed to supporting you and making BioShock 2 the best experience possible.

I hope this clears up a lot of the questions and confusion in this thread Thanks, -Elizabeth