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Call of Duty: Devil’s Brigade was in development by a secret team. Got secretly cancelled

The Verge have reported on a top secret Call of Duty game that was in development five months before the release of the first Modern Warfare. Call of Duty: Devil’s Brigade was cancelled nine months in to development, was a third-person affair, and focused on the “superheroes” of WWII who later inspired the formation of the Green Berets and the Canadian Special Operations forces Command.

Activision cancelled the project in 2007. The dev team included Jason VandenBerghe, current creative director on Far Cry 3, along with Scott Bandy and Trevor Jalowitz, who now work for Activision. They called themselves Underground Development.

VandenBerghe quotes Infinity Ward’s dominance as one of the reasons for the cancellation: “If the IW guys say they want to control the Call of Duty IP, they don’t even have to say our name. We just got sideswiped. And that happens. I don’t begrudge them for that.”

Tribes Ascend dev on the decline of twitch shooters: blame “multiplatform” development

“People have maybe forgotten about the adrenaline rush of the old school shooters like Quake, Unreal Tournament and, of course, Tribes.” Executive producer on upcoming free to play shooter Tribes: Ascend, Todd Harris, misses the twitch shooters of old.

We asked him why he thought they were less popular these days. “I think a lot of it is the multi-platform consideration,” he said. “Games have this huge marketing spend so many of these shooters look to go multi-platform, meaning not just the PC but at least two consoles as well.”

Todd says controllers don’t offer the same freedom of movement as a mouse and keyboard, making it harder for devs to put an emphasis on raw dexterity: “The control scheme on the consoles does limit somewhat the speed and the twitch in which a game can operate – I mean your turn distance is only so far.”

Gabe Newell grows spectacular beard. Also says something about DRM

“If you’re not making your customers happy you’re doing something stupid,” says the new-look, full-bearded, Gabe Newell. Penny Arcade have been chatting with Valve’s managing director about his job, the state of PC gaming, and more. They also have an image of Gabe with a beard that we’re not sure we can use yet, hence the artist’s interpretation up there. EDIT: I’ve just got permission from The PA Report. Find the real-life beard embedded below.

Gabe even went into depth on DRM and how it affects game sales. He reckons intrusive measures can result in a false economy: “You know, it’s a really bad idea to start off on the assumption that your customers are on the other side of some sort of battle with you.”

“We tend to try to avoid being super dictatorial to either customers or partners. Recently I was in a meeting and there’s a company that had a third party DRM solution and we showed them: ‘Look, this is what happens, at this point in your life cycle your DRM got hacked, right? Now let’s look at the data, did your sales change at all? No, your sales didn’t change one bit.’”

Introversion: “If Valve aren’t launching your game you really have to ask yourself why”

The Introversion Humble Indie Bundle was a massive success, selling more games in two weeks than the developer had in 10 years: “It was our biggest single sale of any sale we’d ever done before, financially and in terms of player numbers, says creative director, Chris Delay. “Twice as many people play our games thanks to Humble Bundle.”

But even though alternate distribution platforms can be profitable, Chris admits that landing Prison Architect on Valve’s platform was the ultimate aim: “I think Steam is obviously the market leader. I definitely think that. And I would feel very frustrated if I had a game and Valve turned it down. Getting on Steam is like a number one objective for us, so we have to make sure the game is good enough.

Introversion’s managing director, Mark Morris, is just as modest about their future titles: “It’s a really good litmus test, If Valve aren’t launching your game, you really have to ask yourself why.”

Civ V: Gods and Kings expansion announced. Now with extra religion and spies

2K have just announced that a new expansion is incoming for Civ V. We got to chat with the game’s producer, Dennis Shirk about the expansion a few days ago: “We wanted to take the experience to a deeper level,” he said. “We’re giving you new challenges to face.”

There’ll be a new focus on religious mechanics, along with nine new civilisations and a heap of fresh units. You’ll also get to sample one of nine new leaders, including Prince of Orange and Boudicca.

Gods and Kings will also bring spies to the world of Civ. They’ll break in to your opponents cities and have a rummage around for exclusive info. Get a super sneaky one involved and they might even steal you some advanced technology and help to rig elections in your favour. Dirty buggers. We’ll also get to interact with two new city-state types: Mercantile and Religious. As Dennis mentioned: “Earning a diplomatic victory is now more about being a good Global Partner to all the states, and less about amassing a lot of gold and spending it on them.”

The expansion is due in Spring this year. We’re not sure of the price, yet. Click through for an image of the updated interface.

TF2′s $100 wedding rings are one dirty joke

Gamers eh? It doesn’t take long. The Something Special for Someone Special item landed in TF2 yesterday, and it’s already shrouded in filth. The $100 wedding ring is a one use only item but every time someone accepts a proposal, every TF2 player logged in to the server gets a notification. And PC gamers like expressing themselves publically.

Click through for some of the more amusing notifications, courtesy of reddit. Warning, one of them is a bit rude.

Let us know any proposals I’ve missed in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly.

Notch calms down internet with facts. Asks it to “stop hyping”

“Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen” said Notch a few weeks ago. Yesterday, he offered Tim Schafer 13 million to fund the anticipated sequel, before clarifying his intent. Later in the day, he posted confirmed details on his personal blog.

Even though Notch mentions he and Tim “haven’t spoken much,” he confirms the high profile pair are planning on meeting at GDC, which happens in a few weeks. He also mentions that the 13 million quoted by Tim was “three times higher” than his original estimate, but that he’s still up for fronting the cash. The Minecraft dev says he would be operating purely as an investor, saying “I wouldn’t want to have any creative input.”

Killing Floor sells a million. Tripwire celebrate by slicing the price

I love a good weld. And Killing Floor features my favourite welding mechanics of all! The average Killing Floor player is probably more interested in slo-mo dismemberment and headshots, which also feature, but it’s that’s not really my bag. I like sealing doors, having a panic, then blowing up said door with a pile of grenades.

Tripwire Interactive have just announced that Killing Floor has sold a million copies. They’ve even managed to sell two million pieces of DLC. To celebrate, they’re knocking 85 per cent discount as part of Steam’s Midweek Madness sale. The discount applies to the vanilla version and the bundle that comes with a pile of skins for your characters.

Are you still playing Killing Floor? Everyone has nightmares about the Patriarch, right?

WoW Monopoly, Starcraft Risk… what should come next? Tell us and win EVE: Conquests

Blizzard recently confirmed World of Warcraft Monopoly and Starcraft Risk. Exciting stuff for the collector, but I’m not expecting anything that inspired. They’ll probably just be reskinned versions of the classic games. And why not? Someone is clearly making a lot of money from the physical equivalent of DLC.

Do a bit of research and things get more interesting. There are already World of Warcraft and Starcraft board games available. They’re appropriately themed to mesh with the game lore and, according to the informed hivemind that is Boardgamegeek, genuine fun to play.

And in other PC gaming news…

“An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.” It’s odd. I don’t support a football, rugby or tennis team but I like it when games feel like sports. Strategy + dexterity + teamwork = my ideal game. My current game of choice, Tribes: Ascend, nails all three.

It think it’s why I find Starcraft II so draining: 40 per cent of my brain attempts to recall build orders while 50 per cent of it attempts to implement them. The remaining 10 per cent of my powers are dedicated to countering my opposition’s tactics and/or coordinating with my team. Then I panic and have a brainsplosion.

Tribes: Ascend makes me feel just as satisfied but without the brainspolosion. Over the past few weeks I’ve established my role as a Technician and dedicated time to getting good at it. Yes, sometimes I feel like an overpowered caretaker compared glory hunting Pathfinder, but they don’t get to casually chat with Tim as we lure dudes into a web of turrets, motion detectors and force fields.

Whoops! I just remembered that it’s Valentine’s Day, and that my intro isn’t the least bit romantic. Here’s some TF2 sweetness to compensate.

Click through for more PC gaming news.