Gaming Today

Move Has Sold a Bundle So Far
Folks Bought a Buttload of Nintendo Stuff This Weekend
Welcome to the GameFront Launch Center!
GameFront.com Bug Reports
GameFront.com – Give us Feedback!
GameFront.com – How to Find Files
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam Release Date, Map Pack Trailer
How To Install Civilization V Mods

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 10:17 PM PST

We’re about 2.5 months into the life of the Playstation Move, and — surprise! — it’s doing well, to the tune of 4.1 million Move controllers sold worldwide thus far. That number, if you must know, includes sales of all Move bundles as well as individual Move controllers, and it does not include Move navigation controllers.

But damn. A lot of folks considered the Move to be a punchline because it looks like a Wiimote, but you’re showing them, Sony! Seriously, though, that’s pretty darn good, and I think folks at Sony are probably happy about that number, though I can’t say for sure because they didn’t make some grand prediction about how many they’d sell this year.

Another note: I think this number does not include Black Friday sales, but the press release is vague about the “as of” date. And when I say it’s vague about the “as of” date, I mean they just don’t give one. I’d say it seems a little soon to include BF sales, but Nintendo already did it, so anything is possible.

Folks Bought a Buttload of Nintendo Stuff This Weekend

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 08:59 PM PST

In the month of October, 232,000 Wiis were sold in the US. Over the past weekend, 600,000 Wiis were sold. Wowzer. But that's not all. Even with the 3DS only a couple months away now, they dropped 900,000 of those on consumers this weekend as well.

To be fair, though, the DS was going for absurdly low prices, but price breaks certainly aren't responsible for the Wii's performance as that was going for full price most places, though a few at it at $180. Anyway, that's pretty insane regardless.

If you're one of those folks who are now snarking it up about the Wii not having any "real" games and blah blah blah, think about it this way: The getting is good now because even if the console only has a handful of AAA titles a year, it's been out for four years already.

Also, it seems kinda crazy to me that it could sell that much without anything new to go with it. The other two current-generation home consoles have their new gimmicks, but the Wii holds strong anyway. Or at least that's what it looks like. I don't currently have the Black Friday weekend sales numbers for those other consoles for comparison.

Welcome to the GameFront Launch Center!

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:44 PM PST

Dear readers,
Your eyes do not deceive you. GameFront hath arrived!

We’re adding new features, a prettier (more readable) design, and of course a stronger name that better reflects our full arsenal of content. This is a big step for the site, and we’re excited to take it into a new era. But don’t misunderstand: what you know and love about FileFront is STILL HERE, and it’s not going anywhere. We’re still the best collection of demos, patches and mods on the planet, and we’ll be working to improve those products even further in the future.

The GameFront Launch Center will help keep you up to speed with new features, changes and bug reports as we work on tightening up all the nuts and bolts. This is a big project, and we’re all running around with our faces on fire trying to make everything work as it should. We appreciate your patience and understanding in the coming weeks.

To get started exploring GameFront, you can head over to the Launch Center, or go straight to: How to Find Files, or the Bug Reports List.

Stay tuned, and game on!

GameFront.com Bug Reports

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:25 PM PST

Well, we knew this would happen…

GameFront is a big site with many moving, old, grumpy parts. We’re going to experience some technical hiccups along the way, guaranteed. This page will help keep you up to speed, bug-wise. We’ll keep a running list of bugs as we spot them, and track their squashing as well.

Also, feel free to drop a comment if you spot something we haven’t. This will help us improve the site faster. Thanks for your patience!

Fixed!

Page numbers at the bottom of the site look weird.
When you click through to a “tag” page, it is ugly.
Text is floating outside the “Breaking News” box on the homepage.

Unresolved Bugs

Dropdown menus for genre, platform, etc., often don’t return results. This is a biggie, and we’re working on it.
When you click a file title in search results…you can’t. It’s not a link.
Some thumbnails are different sizes on the homepage. We know, our fault. New posts won’t have that issue.
Some URLs are still “filefront.com,” and not “gamefront.com.” Migrating the site to a new domain is a big undertaking, one that will be done in phases. We’re working on it.
Some text on articles is white, and therefore invisible.

GameFront.com – Give us Feedback!

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:16 PM PST

We’re excited to launch GameFront, but we’re definitely not done. We have a bunch of ideas to improve file navigation, user accounts, the Network Sites, and so on.

But enough about us. We want to hear from YOU. You guys have been using the site for years, and we suspect you’ve had burning ideas for at least some of them. Now’s your chance. Drop a comment, and we’ll listen.

GameFront.com – How to Find Files

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 06:14 PM PST

Files are a big part of GameFront. We’ve been providing the best collection of demos, patches and mods since 2001. Just saying…

We have (literally) millions of files on GameFront, and there are a few different paths you can take to find what you need. We’ll start with a brand new feature on GameFront–our new “Files” tab on Game Landing Pages. Check it out.

By Game:

Searching by game title is the best way to find EVERY file for a particular game, all gathered in one hub. Maybe you want a Half-Life 2 mod, but you’re not sure which one yet. Here’s what you should do.
Select the “Games” radio button right underneath our (new, pretty) search box, and type the title of your game.
NEW! We have a new unified games search, with over 9,000 games in it(!).

When you hit “Search,” you’ll be taken to a results page, displaying the best matches for your game we could find. We’re going to keep working on improving our search function, so bear with us while we work out the kinks. Click through to your game.

You’ve just successfully navigated to what we call a “Game Landing Page,” a content hub for one particular game. Here, you can find all the content we have for that game under one roof. Articles, screenshots, cheats, etc., and now in GameFront, files!

See the “Files” tab at the far right? That’s brand new! That tab will direct you to the “file hub” for that game, our complete collection of files.
NOTE: Eventually, the “Files” tab will list all files for that game right there on the same page! We’re working on that part. Stay tuned.
Once you’re in the file hub, the rest should be pretty obvious. Browse away!

Using “File Search”

If you already have a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for, you might try searching for your file right from our (new, pretty) search bar.
Make sure you select the “Files” radio button, and then search away! Try and match the title of the file as closely as possible.

When you hit “Search,” you’ll be taken to a results page, displaying the best file matches we could find. It’s pretty simple.

Network Sites

GameFront is a BIG site. In addition to our main domain, we also have 70+ sub-sites, called “Network Sites.” Each Network Site focuses on one particular game, and offers a great selection of mods and a thriving mini-community. We have Network Sites for games like Word of Warcraft, StarCraft, Star Wars: Jedi Knight, and so on.
Getting to the Network Sites is easy! Use the Network Sites dropdown, located in the upper right hand portion of the top nav. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam Release Date, Map Pack Trailer

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 08:49 AM PST

EA has nailed down a release date for the upcoming Vietnam expansion for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. In the EAStore’s official Twitter, they say,

It’s official. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam release date is 18th December. This is with the 3 day head start.

Obviously, there’s still a head start in place for those who purchase the game through the EA Store. If you do, you can start roaming the jungles of Southweast Asia on Dec. 18. Order it through Steam, or pick it up at retail, and you’ll have to wait until Dec. 21 to pick up your AK.

In other BFBC2 news, VIP Map Pack 7 goes live tomorrow, December 1. This DLC, which is free to VIP owners, will contain four multiplayer maps including reworked versions of Oasis and Harvest Day from Battlefield: Bad Company.

To give you an idea what’s coming, EA’s rolled out a brand new trailer. Check it out below, or head over and download it for your very own.

How To Install Civilization V Mods

Posted: 30 Nov 2010 07:05 AM PST

We’ll have our guide to creating Civilization V Mods soon, but to tide you over until then, we’ll fill your history belly up by showing you how to install Civilization Mods you didn’t create yourself. And hey, at least, it’s a lot easier than pursuing a PhD in history. So read on, and skip 10 tedious years of grad school.

Difficulty: Easy

Table Of Contents

Requirements

Installing Civilization V Mods

Civilization V Mods You Need To Play

Additional Resources

Requirements

To install Civilization V Mods, you’re going to need a copy of Civilization V. Not a problem, obviously, but there’s a catch. Even though the Mac version has been released, guess what, Macshirts: user created Mods are not supported by the Mac version of Civilization V:

“Unfortunately, user-created mods … would require us to build custom versions of the full application ourselves in order to support a limited number of specific mods and still leave others unsupported. Similarly, modding tools are implemented with Microsoft .NET, and would present a significant porting challenge involving total rewrites. Bottom line: There is no way to create a Mac experience that allows for a good end-user experience for user-created mods. Believe us—we tried.”

However, before PC fanatics started shouting Haw-HAW, Mac Users aren’t completely screwed¹. If you purchase your copy of Civilization V via
steam you have access to both versions. If you have a gaming PC, no sweat. If not, just create a dual boot on virtual PC on your Mac and you’re good to go.

All this is a long winded way of saying if you want to install Civilization V Mods and more importantly, play them, you’re going to have to use the PC version, and that’s what we’ll be covering here. But hey! At least Beatles songs are available on iTunes, right?

System Requirements

Minimum:

* Windows XP SP3
* Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.0Ghz Processor
* 2 GB RAM
* 8 GB free disk space
* 256 MB ATI 2600 XT/nVidia 7900 GS video card, or Core i3 integrated graphics
* DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

Reccomended:

* Windows Vista SP2/Windows 7
* 1.8 GHz Quad Core Processor
* 4 GB RAM
* 8 GB free disk space
* 512 MB ATI 4800/nVidia 9800 or better video card

Installing Civilization V Mods

Mods are fully supported by Civilization V. Even so, they aren’t fully endorsed. As you’ll see below, Firaxis goes out of their way to remind you that you install them at your own risk, that they can’t guarantee mods won’t frack up your machine, etc etc etc. The point: they aren’t actually part of the official game, and quite few players have experienced some problems getting them to work. We’ll show you how to deal with that.

Step One

Open Civilzation V, and from the main screen menu, select the Mods browser:

Step Two

Remember those MODS MIGHT KILL YOU warnings we discussed above? You’re going to see it now.

That’s not scary at all, so go ahead and click “accept”.

Step Three

This one’s easy. In the next screen, select “Browse Mods” to review the Civilization V mods you’ve already installed, or look around for new goodies to play.

Step Four

Now you’ll be taken to the Civilization V Mods manager. From the Menu along the top, select “online” to review a giant list of mods available for download.

In this section, you’ll see a cascading list of Mods. Those you’ve already downloaded will be noted. The rest will show they’re available for download, like so:

Select the one you want by clicking the “download” button. You’ll be taken to another warning screen, but like above, click accept and move on with your life.

Step Five

Now, wait for the download to complete (you’ll see a giant, shiny green “Completed!” bar confirming the download. Then from the top bar menu, select the “installed” tab.

In this section, you’ll see a list of the mods you’ve downloaded. Select the one (or ones) you want, and click the “Install Mods” button.

Now all you need to do is check the circle next to the installed mod in order to enable it. Now back at the main menu, where you’ll select Single Player. Once there, select “Setup game” or “Custom Setup”, depending on the mod. Ta-Da! Dunzo! Now you’re ready to play.

FINAL NOTE: If you’re not using Steam, or for some other reason, you’ve had to download the mod manually rather than selecting it from the Mods Browser, after initial download you’ll need to manually move it over to your Civ V mods folder (most likely, My Documents\My Games\Sid Meiers Civilization V\MODS\). After that, unpack it in the same folder, then go into the Mods Browser and follow the instructions above. You shouldn’t have any problems.

Civilization V Mods You Need To Play

Legions

We cannot recommend Legions highly enough. Just how dramatic an update Civilization V is to the venerable series is open to debate, but no one disagrees that the one-unit-per-tile rule represents a gigantic break with the series’ conventions. Commentary on this change have been largely positive, but if you’re like me, you’re probably more interested in the non-military aspects of empire maintenance, and rather miss the Stacks of Doom style combat of past Civ games.

Legions brings them back to Civilization V by removing the one-unit-per-tile restriction. Overall modifications to Civ V include:

Removes the 1UPT (one unit per tile) limit.
Legions mod is completely modular and can be run concurrently with other mods.
Attack I promotion- +15% when attacking.
Attack II promotion- +15% when attacking.
Attack III promotion- +15% when attacking.
City Defense promotion- +25% when defending a city.
Defense I promotion- +15% when defending.
Defense II promotion- +15% when defending.
Defense III promotion- +15% when defending.
Shock promotions now give a standard +10% to combat instead of +20% on open terrain.
Unit maintenance is reduced by 25%.
Units in cities no longer get additional hit points, to adjust for the ability to stack defenders in cities.

Yay for Stacks Of Doooom! Legions is available right now from the Mod Browser in Civilization V.

True Start Location

Not quite as packed-to-bursting as the classic Rhye’s And Fall of Civilization mod for Civ IV, True Start Location is still pretty cool. It provides you with map that approximates Earth really accurately, and starts all cultures in their real life locations. There’s even a version for all map sizes (in case you feel like selecting a HUGE map.)

This one’s a manual download. Get it here.

Queen of the Iceni

The Celtic Empire was added to Civilization IV via the Warlords expansion pack, and players quickly discovered they were one of the single best things about the game. So What The Hell were they thinking, leaving them out of Civilization V? Queen of the Iceni corrects this tremendous injustice by adding the Celtic Civilization to Civ V. Boudica, based on her art from Civ IV, returns as leader of this empire. In addition, new unique units, traits, and functionality have been added. It’s an impressive mod, and should tide you over until Firaxis finally gets around to adding them in an upcoming expansion pack.

You can find it in the Mod Browser in Civilization V

R.E.D. Modpack

Among the biggest gripes about Civ V (and let’s be frank – there are many, well deserved gripes), one of the most frequent is the ridiculously uneven scale of combat units. Spearmen tower over tanks, and Renaissance ships dwarf modern battleships. The R.E.D. modpack aims to rectify this by bring units into something resembling a more realistic scale. They don’t make them true scale – you want to actually be able to see your units – but they no longer look as appallingly lazy as they once did.

Get your copy here.