nzGN & MikiPro proud to announce new LAN GameServer!

Written by TheInfamousHOSS Sunday, 7 August 2011 05:10

MikiPro (Server Sales & Support) have kindly sponsored New Zealand Gaming Network with a new LAN GameServer for our Auckland LANning needs. The server is admined and managed by Rurd2di (MikiPro & nzGN) and TheInfamousHOSS (nzGN) and will be taken along to most Auckland LAN events with either of us. Please feel free to suggest any dedicated servers you’d like to see or enquire about any LANs we will be taking it to!

Some details about the new server:

DELL PowerEdge 850
Pentium D Dual Core 3.0GHz
4GB RAM
dual embedded Gigabit NICs
1U Rackmount Form Factor
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 SP1
DVD drive
250GB OS Drive, 2TB additional storage
Has public shared folders of Steam GCFs, patches, Applications, Benchmarking tools, DC clients, etc…
DC++ hub and all files hashed
running IRC channel & Crystal clear TS3 channel
Installed and functioning Dedicated Servers for:
* ARMA 2 & Operation Arrowhead
* Alien Swarm
* America’s Army
* Brink
* CounterStrike Source Vanilla AND GunGame
* Day of Defeat Source
* Dino D-Day
* HalfLife 2 Deathmatch
* Team Fortress 2
* Sniper: Ghost Warrior
* Serious Sam HD 1 & 2
* Wolfenstein (the new one)
* Aliens vs Predator (the new one)
* Duke Nukem Forever
* Killing Floor
* E.Y.E
* Trackmania
* Unreal Tournament 3
* Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
* Monday Night Combat
* Homefront
* Postal 2
* Grand Theft Auto IV (yes, you read correctly! Just requires clients to be running version 1.0.7.0)

We’re looking forward to it’s first couple of outings at EchoLAN 8 (final) in September and SMG LAN (Wellington) in October and no doubt a Ping Zero or 2 and probably Rurd2di will be taking it to Auckmageddon 6 in February. Thanks to MikiPro and Rurd2di for making this possible!

EA taking on Steam with Origin

Written by TheInfamousHOSS Thursday, 16 June 2011 04:15

EA Games president Frank Gibeau discusses the publisher’s newly relaunched digital distribution service Origin and how the service ties into future plans for delivering exclusive digital content to consumers.

Electronic Arts has been in the digital distribution game for more than five years, though there’s been little that sets the online EA Store apart from other e-tailers like Steam or Impulse. Earlier this month, the platform was relaunched as Origin, with the publisher’s stated intent being to deliver content that you can’t necessarily find elsewhere in the PC gaming space. The first sign of change popped up earlier this week, when Crysis 2 disappeared from Valve’s Steam. What’s more, the official website for Alice: Madness Returns carries an “Only on Origin” tag for the PC version of the game.

EA Games president Frank Gibeau told Gamasutra in an interview that the publisher will continue to work with “retail channel partners as they evolve their business models to account for digital.” That said, the success of franchises like Halo and Uncharted has inspired the company to set up a framework that allows for platform exclusives. While Crysis 2 and Alice are examples of the changing attitude, the big push for EA will start with the release of the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“In the case of Star Wars we’re trying to build an audience for Origin. And it’s also an opportunity for us to better manage the downloads and how we bring people over from the beta and that sort of thing. For a lot of reasons it made sense for an MMO, which is a highly complex deployment,” Gibeau said.

“I think long-term you’ll see we believe in reach so we will have other digital retailers for out products because we want to reach as many audiences as possible. But at the same time if we can use exclusive content or other ideas to help grow our audience then we’re going to do that because we’re growing a platform.”

The ultimate goal, of course, is to establish Origin as a platform with its own community and unique features, rather than just being a retail site. As digital distribution becomes more and more attractive for delivering content directly into the hands of consumers, expect to see more initiatives like this. Disc-based media isn’t going to disappear in the next five years, if only because we’re going to continue to see backwards compatible support in all corners of the market. The next 10 years though… entirely possible. Origin is a sign that EA is preparing for a shift in established business models, just as the EA Store was when it first launched back in 2005.

Source (not sauce): http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ea-takes-on-steam-with-origin-makes-crysis-2-alice-madness-returns-store-exclusives/

Effectively this means we won’t see future EA games released via Steam and they will only be available exclusively via EA’s Origin service. Many gamers are very unhappy about this claiming that they will boycott EA’s new games if they are not available via Steam. So far Crysis 2 is the only big game which has been removed from Steam to be released via Origin but you can expect to see BF3 and ME3 to follow the same trend upon their release. :(

There are several petitions available to add your support to:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bf3onsteam/

http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-make-battlefield-3-an-origins-exclusive-title-2

http://www.petitiononline.com/EAmistak/petition.html

Tournaments & Prizes at AuckLAN 2!

Written by TheInfamousHOSS Thursday, 2 June 2011 10:20

nzGN in association with EchoLAN and sponsored by Rangitoto IT proudly announce our tournaments for the second and final upcoming AuckLAN 2!

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The tournaments:
* 4v4 DOD:S competition. We’re currently looking at 2 teams of 4 on a round robin basis (i.e. a best of 3 or 5 series) but there may still be more registrations to come so that could become more teams or a 5v5 scenario. Teams will be formed at random at the event.

* FPS Marathon. This would follow our usual format of all-vs-all/Deathmatch style spread across 3 FPS games. The best player over a combination of all 3 games Note: DOD:S will not be one of the games due it being in the other tournament, the games will most likely be CSS, COD4, TF2 and/or UT3.

We are aiming for either one of the FPS marathon games or the first game of the DOD:S round robin to kick off on the Friday night around 8:30/9ish once everyone has settled in. The rest of the games will be aimed for midday through to evening on the Saturday.

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The prizes:
* nzGN are proudly providing each member of the winning DOD:S team with a retail copy of a popular recent game. These are brand new, full RRP games. They are all different so the winning team will have to decide amongst them who gets what.

* Rangitoto IT are coming to the party too providing a 500GB 2.5″ external USB Hard Drive to the winner of the FPS Marathon. There may well be a runner-up prize floating around too…

On top of all of that, there may be spot-prizes, a bbq and there will certainly be a fun party atmosphere. We are hoping for plenty of drinking, some music and a good festive environment. Get signed up, prepaid and get ya mates along for the last LAN at the EchoLAN studio and the last nzGN AuckLAN! With just 2 weeks to go, get in fast! Look forward to seeing you all there!