Sunday 29 January 2012

Unity 3d tutorial


Blender tutorial


Lightwave tutorial


Autodesk maya tutorial


3ds max tutorial


After Effects Tutorial


Photoshop Tutorials


BEST PC GAMES

100. Grand Theft Auto IV

Release Date: 2008
Last year:
15

Graham: I can’t stand Grand Theft Auto’s cruel, dull missions, so I used to be reliant on its buggy multiplayer if I wanted to have fun messing around in Liberty City. Thanks to a persistent modding community turning the game into a giant toybox, that’s no longer true. Now, when I visit the city, it’s packed with cars that can travel at infinite speed, and I’m a superman who carries a gravity gun. That the best way to enjoy this game has changed so much two years after its release is the perfect example of why PC gaming is great.

99. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Release Date: 2006
Last year:
New entry

Tim S: Quake 3 re-imagined by Remarque or Solzhenitsyn. An ecstasy of brutal fumbling, wild SMG fire, and cold, calculating elimination. What’s not to like?

98. Ultima Underworld II

Release Date: 1992
Last year:
90

Tony: It wasn’t just the graphics. You could pick stuff up. You could throw it. You could cast spells, repair your armour and fly. You could talk to the monsters. Wonderfully, richly, impossibly interactive, UUII was a game from the future. It took history a long time to catch up.

97. Max Payne

Release Date: 2001
Last year:
New entry

Chris: Right when you start, you discover Max’s murdered wife and child in his own home at the hands of drug addicts. Has there ever been a beginning of a game more powerful or emotional? Exceptional noir writing and a gritty NYC underbelly setting made Max Payne one of the greats.
Rich: Nothing like trying to gracefully launch Max into a room, guns blazing, only to have him dive headfirst into a doorjamb and very slowly rub his hair down the wood as he floated to the ground. Get up, try again, get it right, and you feel like king of the underworld.

96. Football Manager 2011

Release Date: 2010
Last year:
New entry

Craig: Training? Pah! My tactics? Wild and confusing. I’m more of a hands-on kind of manager, giving people calming talks, asking for their advice, before taking my team on a long, unbeaten run in Europe. I’ve no idea about football anymore, but there are enough switches to flick so that doesn’t matter.
Rich: After years of playing it safe and managing with a steady hand, I decided to go full-on mental in FM2011. I started insulting and praising players in the same breath, I changed my assistant manager’s registered name to ‘Wiggles’, and I brought in half of the Slovakian national team. All turned out to be good decisions, and all explain why I love managing footballs.

95. Audiosurf

Release Date: 2008
Last year:
92

Craig: Man up, everyone. Favourite song to surf? I’ll start: Girls Aloud’s ‘Biology’. It makes a super bouncy, fun track to dodge blocks to.
Graham: That was mine as well.
Rich: I like the songs that no one else is cool enough to like.
Craig: Ah, ‘Sound of the Underground’.
Tom: I like Feist’s version of Sea-Lion Woman – gentle opening, then bumpy with hand-claps, then batshit with a twisting guitar solo.
Cooper: Listening to music is fun and all, but if only there was a way to… play my music. Oh, there is? And it’s psychedelic euphoria? Awesome, sign me up. Audiosurf makes a game out of your MP3 library, creating interesting, unique experiences for each song. The ability to “surf” every single song (and compare stats on an online leaderboard) makes it one of the most replayable games of all time, and adds incentive to getting into new bands. Actually, I wonder what sort of level Willow Smith’s ‘Whip My Hair’ would make…
Josh: The faster, the better. I’ll toss in any punk rock I can find.

94. The Last Express

Release Date: 1997
Last year:
New entry

Richard: It’s the eve of World War I, and Robert Cath is up to his ears in murder and intrigue on the Orient Express. Arguably Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner’s magnum opus, it’s one of the most atmospheric games ever made, notable for its use of real-time action and incredible attention to detail.

93. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Release Date: 2005
Last year:
96

Craig: Splinter Cell: Convicton came pretty close to digitally heisting my heart in the action-spy genre I love, but while the action is sharper, more brutal, it misses Chaos Theory’s wonderful characterisation of Sam: he threatens a man with death if he says “monkey” and has funny little chats with his boss. And the wonderful, tactile co-op is still the best of its kind.

92. Red Faction: Guerrilla

Release Date: 2009
Last year:
New entry

Tom: The hostage rescue side quests made it for me. You’re charged with breaking into an EDF base, untying the three captured rebels inside, and driving off with them alive. But these hostages can die. It’s not game over, it just sucks. That makes me genuinely care about their survival, and I’ll rip buildings apart to make sure they get out alive.

91. Mount & Blade

Release Date: 2008
Last year:
New entry

Evan: The progression of a campaign in M&B feels like one of those scenes from a movie where someone enters a street and starts walking toward the camera, inviting along butchers, housewives and other sidewalk-people to join their happy jaunt. The difference is: you’re a conquering swordsman or Robin Hooder, and you take that entourage of archers, pikemen and cavalry from castle to castle, liberating food from innocent farmers or slaying bandits along the way. Not to be overlooked for its graphics; it’s the joy of archery, the best sieging you’ll do in an action game, you can get married, and all while being a proper, open-ended RPG that makes you care about the troops you recruit in the same way that X-COM or Jagged Alliance might.

Click here to continue reading PC Gamer’s 100 best PC games of all time.



90. Mirror’s Edge

Release Date: 2009
Last year: 99

Tom: I only have to be mildly drunk before I start swearing this is the best game ever. It’s not, but between the fights there’s something absolutely unparalleled about the rough and tumble of scrambling around these rooftops and offices. You see yourself roll with every fall, feel every clamber, hear every breath and footfall, and at the same time you have a sense of how quiet and small it all is. Next to this vast, stingingly bright, bleach-clean city, you’re completely insignificant. Apparently that’s something I want to feel.
Rich: I ended up playing Mirror’s Edge on its hardest setting for no real reason. There, Faith feels as fragile as she looks: her tiny frame falling to two bullets. My awareness of her mortality bled into jumping sessions, and I’d find myself wincing as she smacked her ribs into white concrete. It also made running away into an artform: my feet and heart racing as I dodged sniper fire.
Graham: It has its problems, but what strikes me is that none of them feel like they’re the result of negligence. DICE didn’t make a single lazy assumption in designing their free-running shooter; they considered everything, from how interior design can help guide the player, to what Faith’s shoes should look like. Although not everything worked, that’s smart design. And hey, a lot of it did work. There’s no place in gaming I’d rather be than the gleaming city of Mirror’s Edge.
Tom S: Even Mirror’s Edge’s sewer level was a playground of primary colours interesting level design. There’s a huge underground room full of huge green and white pillars and a tiny door at the very top. After ten minutes of breathless scrambling and death defying leaps the guards appear. Cue the frantic escape in a hail of gun fire. In it’s best moments Mirror’s Edge truly captures the thrill of the chase. Running away like a coward has never been so exciting.

89. Gothic 2

Release Date: 2002
Last year: New entry

Desslock: A spiritual successor to the Ultima series, Gothic II was the first open-world RPG in the 3D age to feature NPCs that weren’t static, quest-doling kiosks. These inhabitants had their own chores and agendas, such as luring gullible do-gooders into a mugging and smoking from bongs. No cute pet dog in this one.

88. Dungeon Siege

Release Date: 2002
Last year: New entry

Josh: My friends and I spent an entire weekend at one house bashing our way through Dungeon Siege’s zombies, spiders and other ickies. Party combat systems, the ability to pause combat, and 3D graphics were welcome additions to the frantic clicking and character progression of Diablo. Man, that pack mule could kick some serious skeleton ass when it needed to.

87. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Release Date: 2006
Last year: New entry

Tony: That frantic, fumbling escape from your hotel room is reason enough to include this. There are other great, scary set-pieces, and behind the bugs and clunkiness, a genuine and admirable attempt to make a horror-adventure that’s both fun to play and true to the spirit of Call of Cthulhu.

86. StarCraft

Release Date: 1998
Last year: New entry

Rich: I only know of StarCraft in retrospect. My utter obsession with GomTV’s Global StarCraft II League means I spend hours listening to SC1 ex-players Tasteless and Artosis. For my own selfish needs, their eleven-year experience with the game makes my viewing experience immeasurably better; on another level, I realise that for a game to captivate a swathe of humanity like StarCraft did for a decade and a bit, it has to be special.
Dan: The quintessential edge-of-your-seat, fast-paced RTS. Mastering command of each of StarCraft’s three wildly diverse, yet intricately balanced races is a challenge that few will ever achieve, but it’s sure fun to try.

85. Sins of A Solar Empire

Release Date: 2008
Last year: New entry

Dan: Bombarding a planet from orbit, killing all its inhabitants and recolonizing it with your own people is a pretty good sin, I’d say.
Rich: Sometimes, when I was colonising space and sending vast capital ships to do ponderous combat against an agonisingly beautiful backdrop, I’d read the title of the game as “Bins of a Solar Empire” and laugh for ages.
Tom: Good one Rich.

84. Silent Hunter 3

Release Date: 2005
Last year: New entry

Andy: The sub sim genre really needed this one. After the disappointment of SH2, Ubisoft brought in an entirely new Romanian team to redefine the WWII submariner experience and boy did they nail it. I experienced real fear the first time I crash-dove my U-boat to escape the depth charges of a relentless British destroyer and that terror didn’t diminish one iota in the ensuing 40-minute cat-and-mouse struggle. Even Das Boot The Director’s Cut didn’t move me like this.
Tim S: The secret of SH3′s sublimity is right there in the title. Unlike 98% of combat games, this one doesn’t serve-up prey on silver platters. You must *hunt* for those rusty toilers of the sea, and the long hours of zigzagging and hopeful horizon-scanning ensure engagements, when they come, are sweatier than a stoker’s y-fronts. Thank God Ubisoft postponed the release in order to implement freelance-friendly campaigns.

83. The Curse of Monkey Island

Release Date: 1997
Last year: New entry

Josh: Technology finally caught up to the genius emerging from the Monkey Island franchise, allowing the devs and artists to craft a perfectly-fitting cartoon world brought to life by voice actors and fueled with the same off-the-wall humor and irreverent plot lines. And who can forget Murray, the demonic talking skull?

82. MechCommander

Release Date: 1998
Last year: 66

Evan: Match all this stuff together: the personal attachment you feel for your soldiers in X-COM; MechWarrior’s intense robot customization; Diablo’s easy loot; an RTS’ pace. MechCommander isn’t simply a tactical take on MechWarrior–it’s an incredible single-player process of salvaging robot parts and amassing a team of deathbots and skilled pilots, and it plays truer to the board game roots of the franchise than FASA’s first-person version.

81. Kings Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

Release Date: 1992
Last year: New entry

Josh: Shipwrecked on a beach; a nightingale singing in a tree; battling a minotaur in the labyrinth. If none of those spark a deeply-rooted memory in your game upbringing, you’ve got grounds for suing your parents for neglect. KQVI was a pillar in early adventure games.

Handheld Gaming Consoles

Nintendo Nintendo DS 2004 151.06 million[3]
Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color[4] 1989 and 1998 118.69 million (combined)[3]
Nintendo Game Boy Advance 2001 81.51 million[3]
Sony PlayStation Portable 2004 73 million[6][7][8]
Nintendo Nintendo 3DS 2011 15.03 million[3]
Sega Game Gear 1990 11 million[19]
Nokia N-Gage 2003 3 million[19]
SNK Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color 1998 and 1999 2 million[19]
NEC TurboExpress 1990 1.5 million[19]
Sega Nomad 1995 1 million[28]

Top 10 Gaming Consoles

Sony PlayStation 2 2000 153.6 million[1][2]
Nintendo Nintendo DS 2004 151.06 million[3]
Nintendo Game Boy and Game Boy Color[4] 1989 and 1998 118.69 million[3]
Sony PlayStation 1994 102.49 million[5]
Nintendo Wii 2006 94.97 million[3]
Nintendo Game Boy Advance 2001 81.51 million[3]
Sony PlayStation Portable 2004 73 million[6][7][8]
Microsoft Xbox 360 2005 65.8 million[9]
Nintendo Nintendo Entertainment System 1983 61.91 million[3]
Sony PlayStation 3 2006 55.5 million[10]
Nintendo Super Nintendo Entertainment System 1990 49.10 million[3][11][12]
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis 1988 39 million[cn 1]
Nintendo Nintendo 64 1996 32.93 million[3]
Atari Atari 2600 1977 30 million[16]
Microsoft Xbox 2001 24 million[17][18]
Nintendo Nintendo GameCube 2001 21.74 million[3]
Nintendo Nintendo 3DS 2011 15.03 million[3]
Sega Game Gear 1990 11 million[19]
Sega Dreamcast 1998 10.6 million[20][21]
NEC TurboGrafx-16 1987 10 million[21]
Sega Saturn 1994 9.5 million[21]
Sega Sega CD 1991 6 million[21]
Atari Atari 7800 1986 3.77 million[22]
Mattel Intellivision 1980 3 million[23][24][25]
Nokia N-Gage 2003 3 million[19]
Magnavox/Philips Magnavox Odyssey² 1978 2 million[26]
Panasonic 3DO Interactive Multiplayer 1993 2 million[21]
SNK Neo Geo Pocket/Neo Geo Pocket Color 1998 and 1999 2 million[19]
Coleco ColecoVision 1982 2 million[27]
NEC TurboExpress 1990 1.5 million[19]
Sega Nomad

Games

Harry potter 1,2,3,4,Gta san andreas,vice city,3,2,1,Splinter cell,Just cause,Mission impossible,The terminator 1,2,3,Gta iv,Just cause 2,Prince of persia 1,2,3,Bully,Transformers 1,2,3,Call of duty 1,2,3,4,Medal of honor,Gears of wars,God of war 1,2,3,The godfather,Mafia,Scarface,Spirit stallion of the cimarron,King of fighters,Street fighters,Project igi 1,2,Split second,Need for speed most wanted,Motostorm,Ice age,Madagascar,Lion king,Prisoners of war,Wolfenstien return to castle,Dead rising.

Saturday 28 January 2012

DEVIL MAY CRY 4

Devil May Cry 4 is an action game that was published and developed by Capcom in 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows platforms. The game is the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry series.
In the game, the player controls both Nero and Dante, the game's protagonist and the series' title character as they fight enemies in close combat using firearms, swords, and other weapons. The characters Lady and Trish from previous games in the series make an appearance, along with new characters Nero, Kyrie, Credo, Gloria, and Agnus. The game is set after Devil May Cry but before Devil May Cry 2.
The game received generally favorable reviews, receiving an average 82% over three consoles from Metacritic (84% on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and 78% on the PC). GameSpy gave it 4 stars out of 5, stating that "DMC4 succeeds on many levels because it fuses fan service with entertaining gameplay", finding that "visually, DMC4 is a dynamo."
It later on generated a handheld version released on iOS, otherwise known as Devil May Cry 4: Refrain .


Gameplay

Gameplay in Devil May Cry 4 is similar to previous games in the series. The player must fight through levels called "missions", occasionally solving puzzles or gathering items. Performance in a mission is graded from D being the bottom grade through C, B, A, and S being the highest grade. Grades are based on items used, Red Orbs gathered, time taken, and the amount of Style Points accumulated. Each Style Point grade has its own tag-word. The stylish grade shows up on the side of the screen and starts at "Deadly"(D); progresses through "Carnage"(C), "Brutal"(B), and "Atomic"(A); then, progresses through one last bar of grade containing the phrases "Smokin'"(S), "Smokin' Style"(SS), and lastly "Smokin' Sick Style"(SSS). Stylish combat is the main focus of the game, which is conveyed through unbroken combos of varied attacks while avoiding damage. The player must avoid enemy attacks to continue performing combos, often by memorizing attack patterns.[2]
The Devil Trigger is a super state that enables the player to become more powerful adding a slow but steady health regeneration, with increased damage done. Devil Trigger can be activated by pressing the button to trigger it when the minimum amount on the gauge is filled.[2]
Dante performing one of his signature moves, the Stinger attack
Some changes introduced into Devil May Cry 4 are the presence of two playable characters, Dante and Nero, and a slight modification to the shop system. A new currency, Proud Souls, is used to buy new abilities while Red Orbs are used to buy items. Proud Souls are rewarded at the end of missions and the amount varies depending on how well the player performed. Cost of abilities also increase with the purchase of other abilities, though all abilities can be sold back for the original price.[2]
The player plays as Nero throughout most of the game. He starts and ends the game with his Red Queen sword, Blue Rose revolver, and the powers of his Devil Bringer (his demonic right arm). The Red Queen features an Exceed Gauge that can be charged up, allowing for subsequent attacks that are more powerful than regular slashes, until the gauge empties. The Exceed Gauge can also be filled by pressing the rev button at the peak of each slash. Nero also has the powers of his Devil Bringer, and can use it to pull himself towards enemies or vice-versa. The Devil Bringer may also be used for context-sensitive throw attacks, leading to high damage and various effects depending on the enemy. Nero's Devil Bringer also gains new abilities during the course of the game, such as being able to detect secret missions or caches of Red Orbs. Nero eventually gains the ability to use Devil Trigger after getting the katana known as Yamato, which increases his Devil Bringer's power, thus changing his Devil Bringer attacks into more powerful versions with different animations.[2]
The player plays as Dante through seven missions, taking over halfway through the game. His gameplay is similar to that of Devil May Cry 3, with him having access to multiple melee and ranged weapons which he gains after boss battles, and being able to cycle through them freely in combat, being no longer limited to equipping two weapons of each type as he was in the previous game. Dante also starts with his four styles (Trickster, Royal Guard, Sword Master, Gunslinger), each of which grants him different abilities, but he may now switch them at will with buttons or pads on the PlayStation 3 controller or the Xbox 360 controller, unlike in Devil May Cry 3. He also gains the Dark Slayer style near the end of his appearance, which only has one style level and can be accessed by pressing a style button twice. Styles do not level up through experience as in the previous game, but must instead be upgraded like other skills in the shop screen in between missions or at statues. Dante can also enter Devil Trigger; in his Devil Trigger he gains most of the benefits that Nero's Devil Trigger has, though, as he does not have the Devil Bringer, he gets animation and property changes on some of his normal attacks instead.



Development and production

On September 6, 2006, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu reported that the past games' main character, Dante, will not be the protagonist in Devil May Cry 4. Instead, a new character named Nero, voiced and motion captured by Johnny Yong Bosch, will take the lead.[3] Nero resembles both Dante and his twin brother, Vergil, and is part of the Order of the Sword, a group of warriors who worship Sparda.[4]
Nero's attire consists of blue jeans, a long blue coat, and a red vest with a hood. He wields a revolver named Blue Rose, which has a distinctive under-and-over double barrel, and a decorated single-edged sword called the Red Queen. Nero views Dante as the antagonist, after witnessing the devil hunter first killing the Order's leader, Sanctus, and then murdering members of the Order.[5] Gameplay videos and screens reveal Dante to be an enemy boss in the game.[6]
Nero's right arm resembles a demon's arm, and glows supernaturally; it is also the source of his "Devil Bringer" power. Nero has his own "Devil Trigger" transformation, consisting of a demonic spirit hovering above him.[7] Capcom promotional videos revealed that the spirit mimics Nero's actions and that the Devil Bringer moves change depending on whether or not the Devil Trigger is active.[8]
Dante, the franchise's protagonist, is also playable, and has been updated with the core animations from his appearance in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, as well as that game's four basic fighting styles of Trickster, Royal Guard, Gunslinger, and Swordmaster, which can be switched at will.[9] Game Informer reported that he was both an unlockable and playable character, playing an integral part of the game's storyline.[10] Capcom promotional videos revealed that, like Nero and the first Devil May Cry, the properties of his moves change if the Devil Trigger is activated.[11] Out of the 20 missions available, Dante is playable in seven of them. Returning weapons in his arsenal include the Rebellion sword, the Ebony and Ivory handguns, and the Coyote-A shotgun, but he will be able to acquire new Devil Arms after defeating enemy bosses.[12] During production, new gameplay options were implemented in order to "keep up with fresh action games"; among these is the Devil Bringer's ability to bring enemies towards the characters.[13]
Unlike Dante's progress in Devil May Cry 3, Nero was designed to become stronger by upgrading his Devil Bringer ability instead of receiving new weapons after defeating boss characters. During development, the production team noted several aspects of the game, including that Nero would be one of two main characters and that Dante was not going to be the only character from previous entries in the series to appear. Unlike Devil May Cry 3, the game's difficulty would be the same in both the Japanese and European versions as in the one released in North America.[14] The soundtrack for Devil May Cry 4 was composed by Tetsuya Shibata, Shusaku Uchiyama, Kento Hasegawa, Akihiko Narita, Kota Suzuki, Rei Kondo, Chamy Ishi, Masami Ueda and Shinichiro Sato.[15] The company presented the game's first demo at an event titled "Capcom's Gamer's Day", where Kobayashi highlighted several of the games features.[16] With the team focused in completing the game, a new demo was not produced in time for the 2007 E3 Media and Business Summit.[14]

[edit] Next-generation elements

Itsuno said in the Famitsu article that the visuals attempt to deliver a satisfying feel of being in the air, and that the actions of Nero's Devil Bringer could not be done on contemporary generation consoles, but they could be done on the PlayStation 3;[3] however, the game has since been released on the Xbox 360, and a PC version was released in July, 2008. Gameplay visuals, shown at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, demonstrate this game mechanic. Kobayashi stated in a Game Informer interview that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions would be identical, although he did not comment on the PC version.[10] In a Eurogamer interview, Kobayashi confirmed that the PC version "would be great, because the same team is working on both".[17]

[edit] Cross-platform move

On March 19, 2007, Capcom announced the game would not be a PlayStation 3 exclusive; it would also be released for the Xbox 360 and the PC. In a thread questioning the move on the official Capcom message board, the company's senior director of strategic planning and research, Christian Svensson, responded by saying that they were moved by people's strong feelings about the decision, but that it was the best decision for the company and consumers.[18] Kobayashi stated that Devil May Cry 4 will have no major graphical differences between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.[10] He also claimed that the contents will be identical, except that "the feel of the controller" may cause a slight difference.[17] The PlayStation 3 version requires the user to install 5GB of game data, taking 20 minutes, which shortens the length of the loading screens throughout the game. A slide show is shown during the installation process, which introduces characters from previous games in the series.[19]

[edit] Release

The first teaser trailer was shown at 2005, depicting Dante traveling through a snow-covered environment, and quickly performing some fast, stylish moves.[20] A more substantial trailer was released at that year's Tokyo Game Show, with a more rugged and older Dante in a city-like setting.[21] Both teasers show very little detail of the game itself. At the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, a more complete trailer debuted, along with a playable demo, featuring the character Nero.[22]
Images from the March 2007 issue of Famitsu show Dante as a playable character. A short trailer was released later, displaying the character in gameplay. While Nero is the game's main character, Dante is the supporting character, playable during the second half of the game until the final boss.[23] A trailer shown at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show revealed the return of Lady and Trish.[24]
A fourth trailer, released on December 17, 2007, revealed more gameplay and story detail, as well as information on new songs for the game, including a new version of "Lock and Load", Dante's theme music from the first Devil May Cry, with new lyrics written and performed by Shawn "Shootie HG" McPherson, the lyricist and lead vocalist on the soundtrack of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Released with the Japanese version of the game is Japanese rock band, L'Arc-en-Ciel, and their new single, "Drink It Down", which is used as the Japanese opening for the game.[3]

[edit] Collector's Edition

A collector's edition of the game was released at the same time as the regular version. The American version includes a DVD of four episodes of the English dub of the anime, while the European and Australian versions only include a signed artbook named "Art of the Devil".[25][26][27] It features a bonus disc containing the making of Devil May Cry 4, and an additional disc of the first four episodes of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.[28] A very small number of Collector's Edition packages were signed by the game's producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, on the back of the metal tin on Dante's left shoulder. This number has been reported to be as low as only 100 signed copies of the Collector's Edition for each console, making for a total of 200 signed copies. Both versions were packaged in a Steel book case.[29]

[edit] Windows version

GameSpot revealed that the Windows version would have exclusive features, including more modes and visual customization. Turbo Mode is featured, giving the game a slightly faster speed, and a new difficulty called Legendary Dark Knight Mode is implemented. The PC version also has both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode. It is labeled Games for Windows and runs on both Windows XP and Vista.[30] (also works on Windows 7). It assumes a Gamepad is present and only uses the mouse in the menus, providing the same interface as the Xbox 360 version.

[edit] iOS version

It was revealed on January 11 that a version of Devil May Cry 4 titled Devil May Cry 4: Refrain was being released for iOS. It was released on February 3, 2011.

MAFIA 2

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games.[6] Originally announced in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention, it was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2010.[3][7] The Mac OS X edition of the game was published by Feral Interactive in December 2011.[2]


The game is set in the 1940s-1950s era of Empire Bay, a fictional city based on New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Detroit.[8][9] There are 30-40 vehicles in the game (45 with DLC) as well as licensed music from the era.[10]
Many firearms from the previous return, such as the Thompson submachine gun and Colt 1911, as well as a pump-action shotgun (though it was changed from a Winchester Model 12 to a Remington 870). New WWII-era weapons like the MP 40, the M3 submachine gun, the MG 42 and the Beretta Model 38 also appear in the game.
Interacting with objects in the environment involves two action buttons- a standard action and a "violent" action (for example, when stealing a car, the player may choose to either pick its lock or break the window glass), used in context-sensitive situations. A map is included as in the original Mafia game. The checkpoint system has been completely overhauled.[11] New controls include a cover system that allows the player to hide behind objects (such as generators, walls and large crates) to shoot enemies, rather than just using a crouch while behind an object.
It has been stated by 2K Czech that the game's cutscenes are created by the game engine, in real-time, rather than pre-rendered cutscenes. For example if the player is riding in a car and a cut scene starts, the player will be driving the same car and if the car is damaged, that will appear in the cut scene.[12]
The game has three different in game radio stations, Empire Central Radio, Empire Classic Radio and Delta Radio, with licensed music, news, and commercials. The radio stations includes music from different genres including rock and roll, big band, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, among others with licensed songs by Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley & His Comets, The Chordettes, Bo Diddley, Rick Nelson, Eddie Cochran, The Champs, The Drifters, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Andrews Sisters, among others.

[edit] Synopsis

The game begins with Vito Scaletta looking over a photo album, as he begins to tell his story in voice over. He is born in Sicily in 1925 to an extremely poor family. A few years later, his family immigrates to the fictional Empire Bay in America. They are no better off there than they were in Sicily. As he gets older, Vito gets involved with a local criminal named Joe Barbaro, who Vito becomes best friends with. Vito is arrested during a botched robbery and given a choice: Go to jail or join the army. He chooses the latter and ends up in Sicily in World War II, which he helps liberate before getting shot and sent home on leave. Once home, he is discharged courtesy of Joe's Mafia connections, and learns that his dead father left his family in massive debt. Hoping to make money, Vito turns to Joe, who introduces him to Henry Tomasino, an employee of crime boss Alberto Clemente. Working under Henry, Vito does several illegal jobs. Though he makes the money to pay the debt, he is soon arrested and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Once inside, Vito falls in with the crowd of Leo Galante, consigliere for Frank Vinci, another crime boss. After doing some jobs for him, Galante manages to shorten Vito's sentence. He is released in 1951. Once out, Vito meets up with Joe, who now works for the last of Empire Bay's three crime bosses, Carlo Falcone. He starts doing odd jobs for Falcone, eventually becoming a made man of the Falcone family, and buying a waterfront home. His biggest job comes when he is sent to kill Clemente, who has participated in the drug trade, against the commission's wishes. Though the job is botched, he and Joe eventually succeed.
Soon after, Vito is approached by Henry, who wants to defect to Falcone's crew. In order to do this, he is ordered to kill Galante, though Vito saves his old friend by convincing Henry to let Galante simply disappear. Soon after, a gang of Irish criminals, formerly led by a man whom Vito killed in prison (Brian O'Neil) on Galante's orders, burn his house to the ground. Broke, he turns to Joe who helps him get revenge. To help him get out of debt, Henry gets Vito and Joe involved in the drug trade, revealing that Falcone is also involved. Although Vito is successful, the Chinese who supplied the drugs, discover that Henry is a federal informant and acting on this new found information, they brutally kill him in the middle of the park with meat cleavers in broad daylight. Angered, Vito and Joe seek revenge and shoot up a Chinatown restaurant killing the Boss who won't give them any further information. They are now indebted to the loan shark they got money for the drugs from. Now very poor and in large debt, Vito is tasked to earn most of the money through his own means, which involves petty theft through out Empire Bay.
Vito and Joe eventually manage to get the money back; in the process, they kill Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, the protagonist of the first Mafia game, and Vito learns the truth behind his father's death. Sadly, the incident with the Chinese has caused too much tension between Falcone and Vinci, as both believe the other did it, and Vito is forced by Vinci's men, led by Galante, to assassinate his boss. With Joe's help, Vito succeeds and they go with Galante to celebrate. The car Joe is in suddenly turns away at an intersection. Galante apologizes to Vito and claimed that Joe wasn't a part of the offer he made for him, indicating that Joe is on his way to being killed. The game shows an angry Vito finally realizing that he's lost everything as a consequence for the path he chose (being in the Mafia). The game ends with a panoramic view of Empire Bay.


PlayStation 3 version

The PlayStation 3 version became subject to controversy on 2K's Mafia II forums when 2K's interactive marketing manager Elizabeth Tobey stated that the PlayStation 3 version would be missing certain graphical details that were present in the Windows and Xbox 360 versions including three dimensional grass, pools of blood forming under dead bodies and realistic cloth physics.[24] These details were said to be present in earlier builds of the game, but had to be removed to increase the game's frame rate.
Upon release, the PS3 version received the same or higher review scores than the Xbox 360 version from Destructoid and Nowgamer (sites that review the game on multiple platforms rather than the normal practice of reviewing a single platform) due to additional content.[25][26] Metacritic gave both versions the same score of 74/100,[27][28] while GameRankings has the Xbox 360 version 4 points ahead of the PS3 version based on more reviews.[29][30]

CALL OF DUTY 4

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and Europe in November 2007 for video game consoles and Windows. It was released for the Mac in September 2008, then released for the Wii in November 2009, given the subtitle Reflex Edition. It is the fourth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding expansion packs, and is the first in the Modern Warfare line of the franchise, followed by a direct sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as the first game in the series to have a Mature rating. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous games in the series and is instead set in modern times. Call of Duty 4 was in development for two years. It uses a proprietary game engine. On September 10, 2009, it was re-released in Japan by Square Enix.
The story takes place in the year 2011, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an "Ultranationalist" movement starts a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Reconnaissance Marine and a British SAS commando, and are set in multiple locations, including Credenhill in the UK, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Pripyat, Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes, and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.
Critically acclaimed, the game received an aggregated score of 94% from both GameRankings and Metacritic. The gameplay and story received particular praise, while criticism targeted the failure of the game to substantially innovate the first-person shooter genre. The game won numerous awards from gaming websites, including IGN's Best Xbox 360 Game. It was the top-selling game worldwide for 2007, selling around seven million copies by January 19 and over thirteen million by May 2009.


Gameplay

As opposed to earlier games in the Call of Duty series, the game features modern equipment and new features, many exclusive to the multiplayer part of the game, such as "killstreaks"; killing a number of enemies without the player dying in between kills allows access to various assets including airstrikes and helicopter support. A character can be positioned in one of three stances: standing, crouching, or prone; each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Using cover helps the player avoid enemy fire or recover health after taking significant damage. As such, there are no armor or health power ups. When the character has taken damage, the edges of the screen glow red and the character's heartbeat increases. If the character stays out of fire, the character can recover. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player to either flee or toss it back to the enemy.

[edit] Campaign

The player takes on the role of various characters during a single-player campaign. The characters' involvement in the plot occurs simultaneously and overlaps the events in the game. As such, the player's perspective changes from one character to another between missions. Each mission features a series of objectives; the player is led to each objective with the heads up display, which marks its direction and distance. Some objectives require that the player arrives at a checkpoint, while other objectives require the player to eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. After the credits, a special epilogue mission is unlocked for play, featuring a four-man squad retrieving a VIP from terrorists who have hijacked an airliner. The SAS rescue the VIP and escape before the plane is destroyed.[3]

[edit] Multiplayer

A player completes the objective of a Domination multiplayer game by capturing and defending 3 flags.
Call of Duty 4 features team-based and deathmatch-based multiplayer modes on various maps. Each mode has an objective that requires unique strategies to complete.[4] Players can call in UAV reconnaissance scans, air strikes, and attack helicopters, when they achieve three-, five-, and seven-enemy kill streaks respectively.[3] A game ends when either a team or player has reached a predefined number of points, or the allotted time expires in which case the team or player with the most points wins. If the points are even when the time expires, Sudden Death mode is activated in which there is no re-spawning and the team who either has the last man standing, or achieves the objective first are the winners. If the player is in either of the two matches, then there is an Overtime match, in which the next team to win is rewarded the victory.[4]
The player's performance in the multiplayer mode is tracked with experience points, which can be earned by killing opposing players, completing challenges, completing objectives, or by completing a round or match. As the player gains experience, they advance in level, unlocking new weapons, perks, challenges, and gameplay modes. The highest obtainable level is 55, but on the console versions of the game, the player has the option to enter "Prestige" mode, which returns their level to one and removes all accumulated unlockables. This process can be repeated up to 10 times with a different insignia being given each time.[5]
Completing a challenge grants experience points and may unlock weapon attachments. As a player's level increases by gaining experience points within online games, it unlocks new weapons, perks, or challenges. As the player advances in levels, they earn the ability to customize their classes; this includes selecting their main weapon, side arm and special grenade type. Additionally, the player can select 3 perks, one from each of the three "Tiers", that can customize their character further. Perk effects include, but are not limited to, extra ammunition, increasing bullet damage by the player, or dropping a live grenade when the player is killed. The player is also given the choice to complete challenges in order to receive even more experience points; challenges include achieving a certain number of kills with a specific weapon, shooting down a helicopter or performing a number of head shots. Additionally, when the player attains a certain amount of headshots with a specific weapon, excluding sidearms, the player unlocks extra weapon "camos", or camouflage, to use for that specific weapon.[3]

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Characters

During the single player campaign, the player controls six different characters from a first-person perspective. The player assumes the role of recent British Special Air Service recruit Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish for most of the game, starting with his enrollment in the 22nd SAS Regiment.[6] Sgt. Paul Jackson is part of USMC 1st Force Recon deployed to the Middle East, and the player controls Jackson's character during five levels of Act 1. Cpt./Lt. John Price (voiced by actor Billy Murray) is an SAS officer who is playable in two flashback missions from 1996. Yasir Al-Fulani is the president of the unnamed Middle Eastern country in the game, and is playable only in the game's opening credit sequence before he is executed. The player also assumes the role of an American thermal-imaging TV operator aboard an AC-130 gunship during one level, and a British SAS counter-terrorist operative infiltrating a hijacked airliner to save a VIP in the "Mile High Club" level.[4][6][7]
The game's non-playable characters (NPCs) feature prominently in the story: Captain John Price (in his NPC capacity) and his right-hand man, Gaz (voiced by Craig Fairbrass), serve as mentors to Soap. Jackson's USMC platoon is led by Lt. Vasquez (voiced by David Sobolov) and Staff Sgt. Griggs (voiced by and modeled after Infinity Ward lead animator Mark Grigsby); Griggs later accompanies MacTavish in Russia. Sgt. Kamarov leads the Russian Loyalists that ally with the SAS and USMC forces. "Nikolai" is a Russian informant who helps the SAS. Captain MacMillan is Price's mentor and commanding officer during the flashback to the assassination attempt on Zakhaev.
The antagonists in the story are: Imran Zakhaev, the leader of the Russian Ultranationalist party and the main antagonist of the game; Khaled Al-Asad, the commander of the revolutionary forces in the Middle East and an ally of Imran Zakhaev; and Victor Zakhaev, the son of Imran Zakhaev and a priority figure in the Ultranationalist party.[4]

[edit] Plot

One section of the game takes place in Pripyat, Ukraine. Several iconic aspects of the abandoned city, such as this square, were recreated in the game.
The game starts with Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish arriving for his first day with the British SAS at a training camp in Credenhill, Herefordshire in the UK. There, he trains for a cargo ship raid in the CQB, or "Killing House". During the actual mission, located in the Bering Sea, Soap, Captain Price, Gaz, and several SAS members attempt to find a nuclear device on board. As they clear the ship of the hostile crew, the ship is fired on by Russian MiGs and begins to sink. The team escapes with the cargo manifest, which provides evidence of ties between the Russian Ultranationalist Party and a rebel faction in the Middle East.
Russian Ultranationalist leader Imran Zakhaev, who plans to return his motherland to the times of the Soviet Union, draws international attention away from his plans by funding a coup d'état in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, organized by a local separatist leader named Khaled Al-Asad. Discovering the plot, the American government starts a police action to stop the uprising, while the SAS continues to operate in Russia. After President Al-Fulani of the Middle Eastern country is executed on live TV and Al-Asad takes control, the SAS rescue their compromised informant, Nikolai, from Ultranationalist forces.
During the American invasion of the Middle Eastern country, a platoon from the USMC 1st Force Recon, led by Lt. Vasquez, searches for Al-Asad but are too late and only secure a television station broadcasting Al-Asad's plan. They then proceed to aid other American units who are fighting a battle against the separatists. During the final stages of the operation, United States Central Command learns of Al-Asad's position in the capital but is also notified by SEAL Team Six of a Russian nuclear weapon nearby and sends the Nuclear Emergency Support Team to disarm it. Meanwhile Vazquez's squad stays behind to rescue the pilot of a downed AH-1 Cobra that was providing them with fire support. Despite being able to save the pilot, the nuclear device suddenly detonates, leveling most of the city, killing most of the US invasion force. Jackson's squad's helicopter is caught in the blast, killing everyone on board.
The British then learn that Al-Asad fled the country before the American invasion and is hiding in a safe house in Azerbaijan. With the help of Nikolai's intel and assistance from Loyalist Russian soldiers, the SAS clear the village of the Ultranationalist forces, then capture and interrogate Al-Asad at his safehouse. Shortly into the interrogation, Al-Asad's phone begins to ring. After hearing the voice of the person calling Al-Asad's phone, Captain Price executes Al-Asad, now knowing that Zakhaev is Al-Asad's backer. Price then tells the story of a mission to eliminate Zakhaev in Pripyat, Ukraine, 15 years earlier.
In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev took advantage of the turmoil to profit from nuclear proliferation, and used his new wealth to lure soldiers from the Red Army to form his Ultranationalist Party. In 1996, Price was paired with Captain MacMillan, a Scottish SAS captain, to carry out a black op assassination of Zakhaev. After sneaking into Pripyat and hiding in an abandoned hotel, Price shot Zakhaev with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, but Zakhaev survived, losing his left arm. MacMillan was injured by a crashing helicopter after he and Price shot it down. Price then carried MacMillian to the exfil point, defending it from attack by Ultranationalist soldiers until the evac helicopter arrived.
Back in the present day, a joint operation is conducted by Price's SAS unit, a USMC Force Recon unit led by Staff Sgt. Griggs, and Loyalist Russian forces led by Kamarov, to stop Zakhaev. They attempt to capture his son Victor in an unnamed Russian city, to learn of Zakhaev's whereabouts, but as they corner him on the roof of an apartment building, Victor commits suicide to avoid being captured. Zakhaev becomes enraged, blaming Western nations for the death of his son, and plans to retaliate by launching ICBMs armed with nuclear warheads at the East Coast of the United States, with predicted losses of over 41 million people. When the operatives arrive at the facility in Russia, Zakhaev manages to launch ICBMs towards the United States. However, the squad successfully seizes the silo command room and remote detonates the missiles over the Atlantic. They then escape the facility in military trucks with Zakhaev's forces in hot pursuit.
Before the squad can escape across a nearby bridge it is destroyed by an Mi-24 Hind, leaving them trapped. Zakhaev's forces arrive and engage the remaining members of the strike force. Gaz receives a call from Kamarov informing him that his forces are on their way to help. On the bridge a gas tanker behind them explodes, incapacitating everyone, except Griggs, who is killed while trying to pull Soap to safety. Zakhaev, along with two of his soldiers, walks through the squad executing them, killing Gaz and several others. Before he reaches Soap and Price, however, he is distracted by the destruction of his gunship and the arrival of the Loyalist helicopters. As Zakhaev fires at the Loyalist helos, Price slides his M1911 pistol to Soap, who shoots and kills Zakhaev and his two guards. When Sgt. Kamarov and his team arrive Soap is evacuated to safety, while a Russian medic attempts to resuscitate Price.

[edit] Development

Call of Duty 4 was developed by a team of a hundred people, over the course of two years. After Call of Duty 2, the Infinity Ward team decided to move away from the World War II environment of previous games in the series. This resulted in two game concepts: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. While developing the story for Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward chose to avoid referencing current, real-life wars, and keep the series' common theme of two opposing forces of similar strength. To enhance the realistic feel of the game, the development team attended a live-fire exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, a training facility in the California desert. This helped the developers to simulate the effects of being near an Abrams tank when it fires. The team also talked with United States Marines who were recently in combat to get a feel for the background, emotions, and attitude of Marines in combat. Veterans were also recruited to supervise motion capture sessions and the artificial intelligence design of the game.[9]
The development team designed the online multiplayer component to be balanced and rewarding for new players while still offering something for experienced players. An early idea to implement air support (air strikes and attack helicopters) involved players fighting over special zones to access a trigger for air support against enemies. This idea was discarded because it discouraged the type of deathmatch gameplay they intended. The kill streak reward system was put in its place to encourage the improvement of player skills. Players were allowed to select weapons before matches to get accustomed to weapons more easily and minimize weapon hunting. Maps were designed primarily for deathmatch games—the developers felt such designs suited other types of gameplay as well. Map layouts were designed to minimize locations players could hide from enemy gunfire.[10]

[edit] Audio

Most of the music for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was written by British composer Stephen Barton, who had also contributed to film scores by Harry Gregson-Williams. Gregson-Williams also composed music for the game, such as the main theme. Several music tracks from the game are available on Infinity Ward's "7 Days of Modern Warfare" website, and some are available at Barton's own web site.[11] The rap song played during the end credits is performed by Call of Duty 4's lead animator, Mark Grigsby.[12]

[edit] Game engine

A scene from Modern Warfare displaying the game's graphics quality.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on the IW engine, specifically IW 3.0, featuring true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field.[13] Bullet penetration is calculated by the engine, taking into account factors such as surface type and entity thickness. The game runs in a native resolution of 600p on the Xbox 360 and PS3.[14]
Certain objects, such as cars and some buildings, are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the protection provided by objects such as wooden fences and thin walls do not completely protect players from harm. Bullet stopping power is decreased after penetrating an object, and the decrease is dependent on the thickness and surface type of the object. The game makes use of a dynamic physics engine, not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles. Death animations are a combination of pre-set animations and ragdoll physics. Console versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare run at a consistent 60 frames per second, and the Wii version runs at 30 frames per second.[13] Code was included to determine spawning points based on the nearby weapons and the relationship between enemy positions and line of sight to the points. The various criteria are meant to minimize players dying immediately after rejoining a match, or being "spawn-killed" due to players simply waiting for others to "respawn".[10] However, enemies may still respawn infinitely, a notable feature in Call of Duty game engines. [15]
The game engine has also been used for the development of two other Activision games. An enhanced version of the original engine was used in Call of Duty: World at War, the fifth installment in the Call of Duty series after Call of Duty 4,[16] while a slightly altered version has been used for the James Bond video game Quantum of Solace as well as GoldenEye 007 using a heavily modified version.[17]

[edit] Marketing and release

On April 27, 2007, the day before the release of the game's official trailer, Infinity Ward launched a website called "Charlie Oscar Delta" to provide information on the game. Charlie Oscar Delta features a ranking system that allows users to complete missions to increase their rank and compete for prizes. Charlie Oscar Delta is derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet and the initials of Call of Duty.[18] The first Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare trailer featuring game footage was released on April 28, 2007.[19] An Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare public beta test was announced on August 30, 2007. The beta test was designed to test the servers, find glitches, and help balance out the weapons. It was originally only for residents of the US, but was later available to other countries. The beta concluded on September 30, 2007.[20] The maximum rank for the beta was initially level 16,[21] but was increased to level 25 towards the end of the beta. Three multiplayer maps were available for play: Crash, Vacant, and Overgrown.[22] A single-player demo for the PC was released on October 11, 2007 as a Yahoo! exclusive download, and is now available for free download. The demo includes one level, "The Bog," which showcases the advanced night vision and associated graphics capabilities.[23]

[edit] Retail versions

The game was released as a standard version and a collector's edition. The Collector's Edition contains the standard retail game and a DVD containing a documentary film entitled "Great SAS Missions," which consists of archive footage of the SAS in action and accounts from former SAS members. The DVD contains a "making of" featurette and a level walkthrough by the developers. Also included is a limited edition poster and an exclusive hardcover art book featuring never-before-seen concept, development, and final artwork. These elements were packaged in a larger cardboard version of the standard retail box. The collector's edition was originally only available in the US, but was later released in other countries.[24] A "Game of the Year" edition was later released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 version included the Variety map pack on the disc, and while the Xbox 360 Game of the Year edition initially included an insert in the packaging which could be redeemed on Xbox Live Marketplace to download the Variety map pack, later releases did not contain the inserts, and so were no different from the original release of the game.[25]
Call of Duty 4 was released for several consoles and Windows in North America on November 6, 2007, in Australia on November 7, 2007, and in Europe on November 9, 2007.[26] The Mac OS X version of the game was developed by Aspyr and released on September 26, 2008.[27] It was released on the Mac App Store on or Around January 16, 2011. It was rated 15 by the BBFC,[28] M for Mature by the ESRB, MA 15+ by the OFLC,[29] 16+ by the PEGI,[30] and 18 by the USK.[31] The Wii port of the game, titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, was developed by Treyarch and released on November 10, 2009, alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized.[1]

[edit] Downloadable content

Infinity Ward released the Variety Map Pack for the Xbox 360 on April 4, 2008. It includes the multiplayer maps "Killhouse", "Creek", "Chinatown", and "Broadcast". The same map pack was released for the PlayStation 3 on April 24, 2008. The Variety Map Pack was downloaded by over one million people in its first nine days of release, a record for paid Xbox Live downloadable content, valued at US$10 million.[32] It was released as a free download for Windows on June 5, 2008, sponsored by NVIDIA, along with patch 1.6.[33] A further patch for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game was announced over a year later in August 2009; the patch primarily addressed online multiplayer exploits.[34] Patch 1.7 was released in June 2008. This patch can be applied to the Game of the Year edition directly with no prior patches. Earlier versions must have patch 1.6 applied first.[35]