Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, 2K Marin’s first-person-shooter reboot of the classic X-Com franchise has been delayed. Now, it looks like we won’t see it until sometime between April first of next year and March of 2014. yes, 2014.

The news came today in the form of Take-Two’s fourth quarter fiscal earnings report, where the studio listed the game, and it’s new release date very nonchalantly, saying “2K Games now expects to release XCOM, its shooter version of the franchise that is in development at 2K Marin, during fiscal year 2014.”

This, of course, isn’t the first time the game has been delayed. Officially announced at E3 2010, the game was first scheduled to release in 2011, before being pushed back to mid 2012. Earlier this year it was announced that the game would release in 2013, with the latest sending it to a ways off.

In a bit of sad news, publisher Take-Two today, in an earnings and projection report, revealed that Max Payne 3, the latest, greatest, and grittiest, Max Payne to date, won’t come to retail until late 2010.

Two guns are better than none are better than one

The game is now due out in Q4 of 2010, but what that means to people who don’t speak fractions, is that the title will hit anytime in the August–October, 2010 months. The title was schedules to hit during the Holiday season of this year, but clearly, that’s not true anymore.

So far, all we’ve seen of Max is this maybe-real trailer, leaked in October.

Delays of game are never fun, so let’s just brush this under the rug and forget to remember it even happened.

Source: Joystiq

PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have raised a concern with the impending Circus Games series for DS and Wii.‚  They say that the game, which is oriented around the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey circus, represents negligence of violence towards animals and are urging publisher Take Two to cancel the title.

PETA summarizes their argument as such:

“We’ve told Take-Two about Ringling Bros.’ real-life, lengthy history of animal abuse and neglect and shown it undercover video footage of a standard industry training session, in which animal handlers used electric prods and bullhooks to gouge elephants in the most sensitive parts of their bodies.

Even though it knows that circuses are no fun for animals, Take-Two is still moving forward with its plan to create a Ringling Bros. Wii game. Please send a message to Take-Two CEO Ben Feder urging him to sever ties with Ringling Bros. Let him know that you’d rather play a game featuring a circus that does not beat animals for “entertainment.”

If you feel moved enough to join the cause, throw your name on the petition list over at PETA.com

via GamePolitics

This summer, everyone and their mom was talking about EA’s hostile attempts to purchase Take-Two for a reported $2-billion. When the offer fell through, the company said it was still in discussions with other parties regarding what they called “strategic alternatives.” Now, nearly one month later, the company, ‚ best known for the mega successful Grand Theft Auto series has officially ceased all discussions with the interested parties and has opted to stay an independent publisher.

“Take-Two’s recent performance demonstrates our potential to create value for the long term,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder, adding that the company has no debt and an undrawn $140 million credit facility.
There are some in the industry who believe that the announcement is a mere formality. Pointing to the fact that no smaller company would be able to match EA’s bid (which was called “inadequate” by Take-Two), analysts believe much credit can be given to the fact that Take-Two has grown as a company since EA’s initial bid and that what happens from here will be strongly contingent on what happens with Grand Theft Auto developers Rockstar games, whose contract expires in early 2009.

Electronic Arts said Monday it had withdrawn its $2 billion offer to purchase rival Take-Two Interactive, drawing to a close the five-month  bid for the game maker

Take-Two is known as the producer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise and its 2K Sports line.

More in the New York Times

One of the best computer golf games is still Links LS 98 and subsequent versions for Windows, released 11 years ago by Access Software.

Access made some very good games in the 80s and 90s, including the Tex Murphy series, before they lost their identity — and eventually their existence.

Links: The Challenge of Golf was released in 1990 for Amiga and DOS. When you think of computer golf, and how far we’ve come with an amazingly popular genre from Links to Tiger Woods 08, “The Challenge of Golf” is nothing less than a piece of history. Until recently, it was a lost piece of history.

“The Challenge of Golf” was the first realistic golf sim. It had amazing graphics and based itself on real professional courses. It was the kind of game that took a lot of machine to run 18 years ago.

In the DOS days, it was an art-form to increase your amount of free system memory so that you could run games like Links and later Doom and Wolfenstein and many other golden aged titles. Access actually included a letter to its players in the “readme.bat” file:

LINKS-The Challenge of Golf
echo INFORMATION ON HOW TO INCREASE FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY
echo Last update 11-10-90
echo .
echo Dear LINKS owner,
echo .
echo We believe LINKS is the most realistic and most technically advanced golf
echo simulator ever developed. In creating such a sophisticated program, however,
echo we have had to push your computer to its limits. LINKS requires a large
echo amount of memory to manipulate terrain data and to reproduce accurately
echo all of the intricate details of the game. At least 530K bytes are needed to
echo run the program. Player comments require another 8K bytes and wildlife
echo sounds require an additional 17K bytes. Thus, 555K bytes are needed to see
echo and hear all that LINKS has to offer.
echo .
echo To verify the amount of free memory on your computer, run the DOS utility
echo called CHKDSK. The last number displayed is the amount of free memory. If
echo the number is less than 555000, then some of LINKS’ digitized sounds will
echo not be heard. If the number is less than 530000, you will not be able to
echo run LINKS.
echo .
pause
cls
echo .
echo Your 640K machine actually has 655360 bytes available. When your computer
echo boots, it loads DOS (which takes about 55,000 bytes) and then uses a file
echo called CONFIG.SYS to automatically set aside memory for file buffers and
echo other things. It also uses a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOmatically
echo EXECute user defined instructions. Both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT can (and
echo usually do) contain programs known as TSR’s. TSR stands for Terminate and
echo Stay Resident. These programs install themselves and then stay in memory
echo to be used when needed. A mouse driver, print spooler, keyboard enhancer,
echo disk cacher, memory manager and DOS shell are all examples of such programs.
echo THESE PROGRAMS USE MEMORY. If there are too many of them resident at one
echo time, there won’t be room for LINKS or other large programs. TO INCREASE
echo FREE AVAILABLE MEMORY, YOU MUST REMOVE OR DISABLE SOME OF YOUR TSR’S.
echo .
echo If you have more than 640K (1Meg, 2Meg, or more) this can be used as extra
echo memory for preloading sound and graphics, but not for DOS. LINKS still
echo requires at least 530K free of your first 640K.
echo .
echo LINKS AND WINDOWS
echo You must exit completely from Windows to run LINKS. Do not exit Windows by
echo way of the DOS PROMPT icon.
echo .

Microsoft bought Access games in 1999 and kept it in sort of a protected status for a few years. Access was renamed Salt Lake Games Studio and put out golf games and expansion packs, including Links 2004 for Xbox. They also repackaged their excellent DOS Links 386 game into a Windows version.

Take-Two Interactive bought the Access/Salt Lake studio in 2004. They built a few console games including the Top Spin tennis series. They also split the Amped Xbox/Xbox 360 snowboarding series between MS Games and Take-Two. Take-Two renamed the studio to Indie Built but closed the shop in 2006.

Links resurfaced in the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer, one of the best magazine CD’s ever released. The “Classic Games Collection Volume One” contained full version of Duke Nukem II, King’s Quest, Descent, Terminal Velocity, Alone in the Dark, Wing Commander, X-COM, Links, Monkey Island, Ultima Underworld, Ultima I, and Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed. It was a stacked collection of classic games.

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