Some guy owns this Jeep and he decided to lend it to TellTale Games for the promotion of their new, Jurassic Park theme game.

Here’s the story:

“Earlier this summer I was contacted by a representative from TellTale Games.They informed me that they were developing a Jurassic Park adventure title for multiple platforms and were looking for a JP Jeep that they could use in a promotional booth at a Seattle gaming convention called PAX in August.

Last year they had produced a Back to the Future game and used the DeLorean that belongs to a acquaintance of mine. As I was unsure how to respond, I contacted my DeLorean owner friend and asked him what kind of deal they approached him with. He said he asked TellTale for insured, enclosed transport -both ways- for his car, airfare, hotel, con passes, and daily per diem. He also received several grand from them for the use of the car alone.

So I was all like "That sounds terrific! If you provide enclosed, insured shipping both ways, airfare, badges for the con, hotel, and per diem then you’ve got yourself a deal!"

They were pretty appreciative of me providing the Jeep to them for free, so they booked transport for my Jeep and we were on our way.

The morning of the pickup I walked aaaaaaall the way around my Jeep and took quite a few pictures of the condition I gave it to them in. Like these:

Then I was off to meet the enclosed transport! Except the transport showed up and was NOT enclosed! I could have been a dick and said, "No dice, friends" and not given them the Jeep. But unfortunately I’m not a dick.

The Jeep goes on it’s way and I fly out a week later. The Jeep was delivered that morning and signed for by one TellTale’s employees, a self-professed "person who doesn’t know anything about cars and in fact does not even own a car!"

Here’s what I saw during my walkaround:

After the walkaround, and before the convention, I talk to the guys at TellTale, among them Kevin Bruner, the company’s CEO. I tell them, "Look I could be "that guy" and throw a fit, threatening to take my Jeep out of here tonight unless you cut me a check right now, but I know this is a huge fuckinging weekend for you guys, that you need to promote your game and you’ve gone a ton of shit to worry about. So, we can but this on a back burner until the expo is over, but I’d like your word that you’ll take care of this immediately afterwards." They were pretty appreciative, and even though I received no per diem or additional badges, I decided to not be a dick about things.

Then the Jeep came home, I didn’t hear from TellTale. A week later I reached out to them, and it was a few more days before they got back to me, telling me that I’d have to file a claim with the auto transport company (Advance Car Carrier Corp.). I told them that I did not arrange for the transportation, and that I should not have to be the middleman. They insist that they are not responsible for the damage in any way, and that only the car owner can file a claim.

So I send all my claim information (scanned receipts and delivery invoices, before and after photos) to the car carrier, and they reply with:

"We have completed our assessment of the above loss and have determined that this is not car carrier damage. After carefully reviewing the damage pictures that you have sent to us, we found that all the damages was noted on the Bill of Lading before transporting your vehicle. Also please note that vehicle was inspected in rain and possible that not all the damages were visible. For that reason the box, where it says that vehicle going ASIS was marked.

Enclosed with this letter is a copy of the Bill of Lading signed by "xxxx" on August 30, 2011 in where was noted that vehicle had pre-existing damages before transporting from WA to CO."

Now, the damage was done on the way TO Seattle, not FROM. And here’s a photo of it "raining" while they loaded up my Jeep. [12] http://i.imgur.com/IQLaK.jpg 
Sure is hard to see stuff with all that rain!

So TellTale hired the sketchiest-possible carrier company, and then one of TellTale’s employees(who admitted she doesn’t know the first thing about cars) signed the bill of lading upon delivery without inspecting the Jeep for damage, thereby releasing the car carrier from responsibility.

I’m disputing their decision, but I have the sinking feeling that I am going to be one of those cases that is just ignored until I go away. Bullshit man.

I guess my lesson is "next time get stuff in writing and be a big dick about everything."

I haven’t heard from TellTale in months regarding this issue, it seems to be resolved as far as they are concerned. Now, the Jurassic Park game is set to be launched this week. I don’t really know if there’s anything I can do, but it seems like if there was ever a time for visibility on this problem, it’s now.”

So if you’re touched by the story and feel like talking to TellTale Games you can do it here:

http://www.facebook.com/telltalegames

and here:

pr@telltalegames.com

Source: reddit

Update: TellTale Games replied http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/mceic/about_that_jurassic_park_jeep/

“Kevin Bruner from Telltale here. Today there has been quite the buzz about how Telltale reportedly damaged the Jurassic Park Jeep lent to us at PAX. Telltale has in fact been in regular contact with the owner of the Jeep and the last we heard, he was in the process of completing an insurance claim.

The Jeep was damaged on the way to Seattle, before anyone from Telltale every saw or touched it. Telltale used the shipping company that the owner asked us to use. When it arrived we just saw an awesome, well loved, but also well used, Jeep. We had no way of knowing that anything had happened to the Jeep in transport, as it appeared in reasonable condition. Anyone who came by the show and took a picture with the Jeep can attest that the Jeep looked pretty damn cool, and not obviously damaged.

The fact that the Jeep was damaged before we had access to it, and some dispute over the amount of damage caused in transport vs. existing damage has complicated the claim, which has made the process take a long time.

But, today I wake up to find that there is a campaign the day before our game launch to discredit Telltale. Since Telltale didn’t actually do anything negligent, we’ve been using the insurance we purchased to cover this, but it has been time consuming. Apparently too time consuming. To expedite this, I’ll be writing a personal check to cover what we understand the damages to be – this way we won’t need to hash this out publicly any longer.

Some people seem to think that Telltale has grown into some giant corporation that doesn’t care about people anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. We started the company to make games that are about writing, acting and atmosphere and not about blowing shit up. Since we’ve gone out on this limb, we’ve had some successes (and failures) and earned the chance to work with great licenses like Monkey Island, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Walking Dead. All of our games are super faithful to the licenses, and lovingly crafted to make the best fan experience possible. Fans seem to enjoy them, which makes us super proud. We hate that most licensed games are a driver or a shooter with a license slapped on it, which we’ve never been about.

So I’ll fast track getting the Jeep fixed by paying for it personally, even though I don’t like the circumstances this is going down in. Perhaps some of you who are hating on Telltale might be inclined to check out Jurassic Park tomorrow and give us a chance to change your mind.”

It seems that Electronic Arts has quietly removed some of its recent releases from Steam – including Crysis 2 and Alice: Madness Returns.

However, for some reason they decided to keep those games on other digital services such as Amazon and Impulse. Although there has been no official statement from either EA or Valve concerning the matter, it would appear as though EA is preparing a big fight on the digital market area.

Additionally BioWare’s MMO caled Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be released exclusively on Origin. Coupled with the upcoming high-profile launch of Battlefield 3, which is rumored to be headed for Origin exclusivity, EA seems to be poised to make a big push against Steam.

Given how new the Origin system is many gamers remain hesitant to adopt the new platform.

Source

Source: reddit

APB Steam refund update

25/09/2010 in Digital Distribution, News

If you bought APB from Steam, apparently EA are now offering a free game as a refund. Valve put up a brick wall, but EA are making up for the fact that customer who bought their game ended up with nothing to show for it.

If you contact them through this site, and tell them you’d like another game to replace APB, they will give you any game currently available on the EA Store. I don’t think that they will let you get preorders, but it’s worth a shot.

You can pick from the likes of Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Spore, The Saboteur, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and all sorts of other stuff.

Thanks to CHooligans for the heads up.

SavyGamer » APB Steam refund update

Guys this store has an amazing discounts for retail games (boxed) such as Bad Company 2 £9.95, Fallout 3 GOTY £10.95 and much more. Plus the shipping is free to customers from European Union (including UK). I think I’m gonna get Fallout 3 GOTY… Thanks to Dragoon for this info!

What’s coming up next on Steam? What are the next big games featuring Steamworks DRM? I’m here to tell you.

I am pretty sure everyone heard by now about Mafia 2 and is eager to play. On Friday August 27th the time has come, 2 weeks left only.

If you haven’t played the demo yet you may checkout this great video on YouTube made by the guy from www.tweakguides.com

It was recorded on Full HD (1080) using max details. Enjoy the graphics.

If you have the Demo installed and are using a Nvidia card don’t miss the latest PhysX drivers. released by Nvidia yesterday. The new version 9.10.0513 has bug fixes for Mafia 2.

For a list of various Mafia 2 Bonus Packs checkout our user’s R0TTENCAT Steam thread.

An other great game people are waiting for is Civilization V. The PC release is set on September 21st and 2KGames already promised to released a demo prior.

One of the greatest fans of Civilization seems to be State  Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley.

"Now, therefore, I, Martin O’Malley, Governor of the State of Maryland, do hereby pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of Sid Meier on this day, July 28, 2010, and hereby recognize September 21, 2010, as Sid Meier’s Civilization V Day, and call upon the people of our State to join in celebrating this salute."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102480-Maryland-Declares-Official-Civilization-V-Day

Greatest changes to Civilization 4 are hexagonal instead of square landscape. A new combat system. Now only one unit per field is allowed (no unit stacking anymore), but for this we get ranged combat. Some more controversial changes are removal of religion and all  civic choices are permanent. If you choose to develop a pious or militaristic society for example you will be stuck with this decision for rest of the game. A bit strange considering Civilization was always about human cultural evolution and that naturally involved changes. Just take Germanys history. From clansmen, to kingdom to religiously fundamentalist. From monarchy to republic, to dictatorship to be split into communism and democracy.

For a more comprehensive preview check out Stuff.co.nz Civ5 recent preview. Our Polish guys should instead visit this site for a large preview. The Germans can instead visit Gamestar.de for a nice preview. If you think reading is for pussy’s then I have these screenshots for you too taken by a User Beta Tester. 

Minimum requirements

• OS: Windows 7, Vista SP2, XP SP3
• Memory: 2 GB RAM !!!
• Hard Disk: 8 GB RAM
• Processor: Dual Core CPU
• Graphics: DirectX 9.0c with at least 256 MB RAM, (ATI HD2600 XT – Nvidia 7900 GS or Core i3 CPU with integrated graphics)

Recommend requirements

• OS: Windows 7, Vista SP2
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad-Core
• Graphics: …with at least 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 9800 or ATI Radeon HD 4800)
• DirectX: DirectX 11

For original Fallout fans this was like a dream came true when Bethesda announce that Obsidian is making the next Fallout game.    Fallout New Las Vegas

Insiders and fans know that Obsidian was founded by Black Isle (an Interplay Studio) veterans, the makers of Fallout 1 & 2. Chris Avellone designer of Fallout 2 and lead designer of former Fallout 3 (Codename Van Buren) before it was canceled as results of Interplays finance troubles, is now the lead designer of Fallout New Vegas. Sometimes life can be just and we gamers surely can expect some glory of the past on this sequel.  PC release day will be October 22nd.

Fallout New Vegas will feature it’s own storyline that has nothing to do with Fallout 3 but instead will have similarities with Fallout 1 & 2.

We can expect so to see old acquaintances like the  New California Republic (NCR) and the Super Mutant Marcus from Fallout 2 making an appearance. New will be the full implementation of melee weapons and combat. A hardcore mode for the Fallout geeks. Now you actually have to drink water regularly in the wastelands or you die. A Level cap of 30.

If language is not an issue you should definitely play the game in English. The game features some prime voice caste like Zachary Levi from Chuck (Chuck himself) and Michael Dorn,to most of us know as Mr. Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and the movies. For a full list of this exclusive cast go here to USA Today. It’s really a list of Who’s Who in the business.

Behind the Scenes: The Many Voices of New Vegas on No Mutants Allowed

Fallout New Vegas will like Mafia II and Dragon Age feature multiple Pre-Order bonuses. What you get depends where you buy.

The Classic Pack, available when you pre-order through GameStop, contains:

• Armored Vault 13 Suit – Extensively patched up and dotted with piecemeal armor, this outfit is an homage to the classic ending of the original Fallout.
• Vault 13 Canteen – This handy device is useful for staving off dehydration and providing a small amount of healing in the Mojave Wasteland.
• Weathered 10mm Pistol – A well-worn 10mm pistol that packs an extra punch despite its modest size.
• 5 Stimpaks – Food and water are good for long-term healing, but when the fighting is fierce, Stimpaks help keep Wastelanders upright.

The Tribal Pack, available when you pre-order through Amazon, contains:

• Tribal Raiding Armor – Pieced together from scraps of armor, this outfit provides protection without impacting mobility.
• Broad Machete – This heavy-bladed melee weapon does high damage against limbs and can quickly deal out a flurry of attacks.
• 5 Bleak Venom doses – Useful on any Melee Weapon, Bleak Venom makes short of work of most living targets.
• 10 Throwing Spears – If you would like to silently pin an enemy’s head to a wall, Throwing Spears are the way to do it.

The Caravan Pack, available when you pre-order through Steam and Wal-Mart, contains:

• Lightweight Leather Armor – This hand-modified suit of leather armor reduces its overall weight without impacting its ability to protect.
• Sturdy Caravan Shotgun – Despite its rough appearance, this Caravan Shotgun will reliably fire 20 gauge shells until the Brahmin come home.
• 4 Repair Kits – Useful for repairing any outfit or weapon, Repair Kits are a valuable tool for any caravaner.
• Binoculars – The Mojave Wasteland is a dangerous place, but with these trusty Binoculars you’ll be able to spot trouble coming.

The Mercenary Pack, available when you pre-order through Best Buy, contains:

• Lightweight Metal Armor – Modified for long-range travel, this Metal Armor sacrifices some protection for mobility and overall weight.
• Mercenary’s Grenade Rifle – Though similar to other 40mm Grenade Rifles in the Mojave Wasteland, this model has a faster reload cycle.
• 3 Super Stimpaks – When you absolutely, positively, need to keep your blood inside your body, Super Stimpaks fix you up in no time.
• 3 Doctors Bags – Mercenaries and broken limbs go together like Iguana-on-a-Stick and Nuka Cola. Thankfully, these Doctors Bags take a bit of sting out of the inevitable crushed skull.

Pretty much a downside of course, but on the other side Steamworks DRM is one of the less intrusive DRM out there theses days. Don’t let us forget 2KGames Bioshock 1&2 using SecureRom DRM + Games for Windows Live. EA’s EADM, Stardocks Impulse, Activision/Blizzard Battle.net and worst of all UBISOFT shit DRM.

At least Steamworks also comes with nice features like Achievements, Online Saves (Steam-Cloud) fully working game-overlay, friend-list and matchmaking.

Join the forum discussion on this post

If you buy a game right now on Green Man Gaming you will receive any game additionally for free!

Just buy anything and chose your other FREE game!

Edit: Oops you guys are right, it’s kind of different, you gotta buy for example a 5€ game and then you can chose another game in the same value (5€). It’s still a good offer!

Get Alien Swarm now directly from Steam!

INSTALL THE GAME

Alien Swarm is a game created by Valve – mostly by people who were hired from the mod community.

The game will be absolutely free! You will have to kill thousands of alien scum with your friends in order to complete the game – the game has 4 player co-op. You will be able to unlock a lot of new weapons and loadout configurations.

Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK.

Alien Swarm adds 3rd person camera, depth of field, improved dynamic shadows and a wide variety of gameplay additions to the Source engine.

• Tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective
• Complete game code and mod tools
• Unlock persistent items by gaining levels
• Over 40 weapons and equipment with countless loadout configurations
• 4 unique classes and 8 unique characters
• Matchmaking, Steam Cloud, Steam Stats
• 64 achievements
• Tile-based map generation tool
• Powered by Source and Steam

Make sure you get it as soon as it comes out tomorrow :-)

Alien Swarm Steam store page

1C Company and Best Way announce a special offer dedicated to 65th anniversary of the Victory Day.

Starting from May 11 through May 23, 2010 inclusive anyone can download Men of War game client free-of-charge, receive a temporary access key and take part in online battles in all multiplayer modes available.

The Swiss National Council has officially enforced a law that will lead to banning of any violent video game. The ruling has not been revealed yet, but it will be confirmed once the Swiss government reveals the requirements. However, the most likeliest series of things to come will be a ban on the distribution, production, and sale of any games that are rated PEGI 16+ and PEGI 18+.

News thanks to MapMan – Source: The Gaming Scene

European store: http://eu.xfirestore.com

American store: http://us.xfirestore.com

1: Get the Downloader

Once your payment has been completed, you can get the Downloader from the Confirmation Page, your Account Page or the Confirmation e-mail. This installs our Downloader (DLM.exe) on your PC, simplifying the game download process.

2: Install the Downloader

Launch the Downloader by double-clicking the DLM.exe file, and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to select a folder in which to download the game installer. We advise using a different folder for each downloaded game. You can then start the download by clicking the appropriate button.

3: Install your game

Once your game has been downloaded, you can install it immediately through the Downloader prompt. Should you want to install it at a later time, just go to the folder you specified earlier and double-click the game .exe file. Please note that the Downloader uninstalls itself from your computer once the download is complete.

And as one of our users spotted:

Steam Unpowered IRC (15:56:33) Juzi: http://us.xfirestore.com/pc-games/buy-download-Company-of-Heroes:-Gold-Edition.html

Steam Unpowered IRC (15:56:56) Juzi: http://eu.xfirestore.com/pc-games/buy-download-Company-of-Heroes—Gold-Edition.html

Some games are priced equally!

US: $19.99 $17.99
UK: £17.99 £16.19 (49% higher)
EU: 19,99€ 17,99€ (48% higher)

Do you remember this crazy humorous first person shooter, called Serious Sam from year 2001? Now he is back in HD, fighting all those freaky aliens and monsters. Check funny videos and other information on official homepage: http://www.serioussam.com/.

Screens stolen from their site :)

Steam info:

The classic arcade FPS Serious Sam: The First Encounter is reborn in glorious high-definition for legions of long-time fans and a whole new generation of gamers around the world. Featuring dazzling visuals and revamped design, gamers take control of the legendary Sam ‘Serious’ Stone as he is sent back through time to ancient Egypt to battle the overwhelming forces of Notorious Mental and the Sirian army.

• Serious Engine 3 – Beautifully rendered, high-resolution visuals and lushly redesigned environments to create the most astonishing Serious Sam game ever
• Frantic Non-Stop Action – From the charging Sirian Werebull to the screaming Headless Kamikaze and the multi-story Ugh-Zan, all of the infamous minions of Mental have been spectacularly redesigned for Serious Sam HD
• Great Arsenal – Wield demon-stopping revolvers, lead-spewing miniguns, and monstrous cannons for when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every enemy in sight
• Over 14 Levels of Bedlam – Set against the expansive backdrop of ancient Egypt with every square inch upgraded and reworked to create one of the most visually stunning game experiences
• Co-Op Mode – Embrace the mayhem with up to 16 players

Wikipedia:

The game introduction reveals what happened before the game actually takes place: in ancient times, Earth was involved in a conflict between Mental and the Sirians, an alien race that left many of its artifacts to be found by humanity. In the 22nd century Mental’s forces return to Earth hell-bent on eradicating humankind: as a last resort the usage of the “Time Lock” is decided: this Sirian device can send back through time a single individual who can, hopefully, defeat Mental and alter the course of history. Because of his bravery in fighting the monsters, Sam “Serious” Stone is chosen to use the “Time Lock”. As the game opens, Sam appears in ancient Egypt: his travels from one Egyptian monument to the next, all the way fighting against the monsters Mental sent after him, make up most of the story of The First Encounter.

Painkiller: Resurrection

+ bonus Painkiller: Black Edition + Painkiller: Overdose

US: $29.99 $26.99
UK: £19.99 £17.99 (6% higher)
EU Tier1: 29,99€ 26,99€ (47% higher)

So all you remember nice “Heaven’s got a hitman”-game named Painkiller. Finally there is a sequel (or “addon” if you wish to say it so :P). Unfortunately the price is unfair. So if you really-really are a fan and want get your hands on it, go ahead.
PS. Game will be released on 27th Oct.

The Story

William “Bill” Sherman has a problem – he’s dead. Blown to pieces by his own C4 payload, which he wanted to eliminate a South American druglord with on behalf of some shady secret service people. The fact that he accidentally blew a bus full of innocent civilians into the Great Beyond has given rise to an all new problem – Hell doesn’t exactly have any problems with claiming his soul. But now Bill’s in purgatory and he’s caught the eye of heaven’s warriors. He’s been offered a chance to make good the havoc he wrought using his quite special skills. And with weapons of course. Bizarre weapons. Crazy weapons…

The Game

Developed by Homegrown Games with former developers and modders from the previous Painkiller games in collaboration with Studio Med-Art and with a Catholic priest advising, Painkiller Resurrection combines rock-hard, no-frills action and an exciting story with painstakingly researched details. In a bizarre world influenced by medieval ideas about hell and purgatory and Dante’s Inferno, the mixture of fast, straightforward levels and enormous, explorable regions containing the worst scum of any hell provides a unique gaming experience.

• Unique storyline told using top quality “graphic novel” style cutscenes
• Completely reworked “Painkiller 2.0 engine” with shader effects, weather systems, a superb physics engine, and ultra-fast netcode, including an anticheat system
• The best weapons from all of the Painkiller titles + new, inventive tools of death
• Classic-style FPS levels and enormous, explorable areas provide varied gameplay
• 4-player co-op campaign
• Countless eSports-grade multiplayer modes with numerous new and updated maps

US: $12.49 $9.99
UK: £7.99 £6.39 (3% higher)
EU: 8,99€ 7,19€ (6% higher)

Gamespot user score: 7.3

Metal Drift is a vehicular sport combat game set in a distant future. As the player, you command an agile, high powered hover tank in a futuristic sports arena. Core game play centers on intense tank-on-tank multiplayer team combat seen through an immersive, first person cockpit. Layered on this is a goal-oriented game type that allows for high level strategy and team dynamics. Players can level up to unlock new ranks, weapons, and upgrades.

Each weapon and upgrade is specifically designed and balanced to allow different styles of play. Pair up the Stealth upgrade and the Shock Cannon to uncloak behind an enemy player and unload a devastating blow before disappearing again. Or choose the Sensor upgrade to see where all the nearby players are, and the Temporal Cannon to shoot them through walls! There are 56 possible combinations – choose whichever suits your strategy.

• Multiplayer team-based vehicular combat
• 5 Different arenas featuring multiple levels and boost tunnels
• Persistent leveling system – level-up to unlock new weapons and upgrades
• Stats and Leaderboards
• 56 Different tank configurations
• 18 Steam Achievements, with more coming soon!
• Unique energy management system – accumulate energy and then distribute it to weapons or use it to gain a speed boost!