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MechWarrior Tactics announced, accepting callsign reservations

Giant robots are officially a trend in 2012. The publishers of free-to-play mech FPSim MechWarrior Online just powered up a new web page for a second, separate game: MechWarrior Tactics. Right now, the only thing on the page is a countdown clock set to expire on next Monday, February 20.

Mild detective work tells us that MechWarrior Tactics is probably a Facebook game. The studios credited at the bottom of the page are social game developers—Roadhouse Interactive and Acronym Games are also collaborating to create Family Guy Online. So it’s probably not a successor to the squad-based isometric wonder that was MechCommander, but who’d say no to more mech games? Look for more intel in a week.

Update: Stephanie Schopp, a PR representative for the game, has emailed to let us know that MW Tactics is “not a Facebook game.” Yee-haw!

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 gives me a similar feeling of camaraderie 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 to the quarterback-esque, glory hunting, Pathfinders but they don’t get to casually chat with Tim on the flag stand 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.

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Skyrim mods are quite popular: two million downloads in three days

The Skyrim Creation Kit was released last Wednesday. Within hours, the Steam Workshop was stuffed with mods, including good ones, bad ones and downright scary ones. In case it wasn’t obvious already, Skyrim mods have proved extremely popular with players. Bethesda say that two million mods were downloaded within three days of the release of the Creation Kit.

Players have had plenty to choose from. According to Bethesda “more than 2,500 mods have been published by the gaming community.” It’s an almost overwhelming selection that ranges from new armour and upgraded textures to new combat moves and devastating magic. Thankfully, the Steam Workshop now has a much needed search bar, making it easier to find mods your friends have recommended. Speaking of which, here’s our round up of some of the best Steam Workshop mods so far.

Dwarf Fortress update adds “secret vampire dwarves” and werewolf invasions

Remarkable indie adventure generator, Dwarf Fortress has just received a great big update. Version 0.34.01 is now free to download from the official site, adding fresh new ways for your Dwarves to die horribly. Vampire dwarves can infiltrate your settlements and full moons bring the added threat of werewolf invasion. More unpleasantly, “Ingested syndromes are now possible” in adventure mode, so you’ll have to watch what you eat when exploring the new cities present in the latest update.

There are some gems in the bug fix list as well. “Demons masquerading as gods will try a little harder” and the devs have “restricted mandates so they’ll be more reasonable.” Thank heavens for that! Find the rest of the patch notes below. For more Dwartress, check out our Dwarf Fortress diary, a tale of seven drunk dwarves and their quest to reach hell.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A reveals plans for Legacy races and dual spec support in 1.2

Bioware have held the first of a new series of weekly Q&A sessions with Star Wars: The Old Republic players, with some more information on what we can expect from the upcoming 1.2 patch.

The Legacy system offers a shared level that exists across all TOR alts, but while it’s currently possible to gain Legacy levels, there are no rewards attached to them. Lead writer Daniel Erickson confirms that 1.2 will give players with Legacy levels access to a greater selection of races when creating new characters.

“The species that will be unlocked in Game Update 1.2 are species currently in the game that will become available to classes and factions where you haven’t seen them before,” says Erickson. “New species are in consideration for the future but we don’t have any details to share right now.” Jawa Jedi, anyone?

Guild Wars’ Winds of Change concludes on a high note

Like a turbulent gust blowing off the Jade Sea, the latest installment of Guild Wars’ Winds of Change clears away the heavy fog that has been hanging over players since learning of the Ministry of Purity’s duplicity. With the Ministry not as innocent as it once seemed, the Kurzicks and the Luxons at it again, and Cantha in peril, heroes are needed. Who will answer this call? Why the players of course!

With the nine new quests available, as well as new rewards both in game and in the store, players will have plenty of fat lootz to entice them back to the adventure in Winds of Change.

And in other PC gaming news…

Got problems with your life freezing and then skipping forward unpredictably like that great episode of Futurama? No problem. All you have to do is change the structure of spacetime and apply a bit of slow motion every now and then, like the bit in that great episode of Spaced. It worked perfectly for CCP with their lag problem in Eve Online.

That’s time anomalies dealt with, then. Now for the small matter of all the interesting PC gaming news that’s been happening today, with the most serious links first, and the rest arranged to deliver PC gaming news at maximum intensity. Are you ready?

Anno 2070 update adds new buildings, increases “probability of tornado disaster”

You know what’s way too easy? Building a city and managing resources when there are absolutely no tornadoes happening. Perhaps realising this, the Anno 2070 devs have updated the game with a patch that increases the “probability of a tornado disaster” and “the interval at which they can occur.” Regular, predictable tornadoes. That is the key to exciting city building.

The latest patch also adds new “ornamental buildings” and makes loads of fixes and balance tweaks. If you wondering whether Anno 2070 is worth a punt, check out our Anno 2070 review. Meanwhile, here’s the full patch list from Steam.

Football Manager 2012 unofficial winter transfer updates keep your rosters current

The January football transfer window has slammed shut with the roar of a billion bank notes changing hands, and the echoing wail of the odd player who gets loaned to Millwall when all they really want is to play for Manchester United. Football Manager players will have to wait a few more weeks for the official transfer patch to arrive and update their rosters, until then, FMScout have compiled a couple of useful unofficial updates from around the web.

Team Fortress 2′s Boston Boom-Bringer shake-shake-shakes the room

The Scout just got 15% more obnoxious with the addition of a great big ghetto blaster to Team Fortress 2. It’ll tease your enemies with a selection of sick beats during every taunt, upgrading the Scout from “unbearable” to “must be killed at any cost” in your enemies’ estimations.

It’s described as a “level 1-100 Futuristic Sound Device,” and will set you back a hefty £7/$10. A portion of that will go to a community member. The Boston Boom-Bringer is the latest item to be promoted from the Steam Workshop, which is still overflowing with nonsensical but brilliant items like an Anubis headdress for the Pyro, a Soldier plushie on a stick and this magnificent bug mask.

Eve Online’s mad time dilation tech beats lag

The time dilation feature added to Eve Online last month is a good example of CCP’s weird genius. It’s an elegant solution to a problem that’s plagued Eve’s epic conflicts for years: server lag. Time dilation stops pauses, juddering and drop outs by spreading the server load of a big scrap across multiple star systems, turning game-breaking time skips into a gentle slow motion effect. According to a recent post on the Eve Online blog, the system seems to be working.

“I want to share my favorite two graphs of the past few weeks with you folks,” says CCP Veritas. To have a fortnightly favourite graph, you must look at a lot of graphs, but this one is pretty good. It shows how the time dilation kicks in as soon as server load is detected, reducing the game speed for players affected players and, most importantly, restoring the game to its natural speed afterwards.

And in other PC gaming news…

It’s Friday! We made it! Congratulations all round. Well done us, well done you. Yes, even you. We all deserve a pat on the back and a nice long sit down with a great PC game. There’s plenty to choose from but I can’t stop thinking about what’s just around the corner. Namely, Mass Effect 3. Because Bioware threw out six trailers in a day and all can think of is what it would be like to be a Volus.

Hmm, what’s that? Why is there a picture of Finn and Jake from Adventure Time at the top of this post? Oh, no reason, except the one at the top of today’s list of newsy links.

World of Warcraft Annual Pass has more than one million subscribers

Blizzard have hinted at the success of the World of Warcraft Annual Pass deal that they launched at Blizzcon last year. In last night’s Activision Blizzard earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Blizzard CEO Mark Morhaime revealed that “to date, we have signed up more than 1 million players in the West.”

The deal offers subscribers a free copy of Diablo 3 along with 12 months of WoW game time, which could be paid for monthly. At £8.99 a month, the Annual Pass essentially costs £107.88 per player, which means the scheme has made at least £107,880,000.