The F.E.A.R. series is about to get even more complicated. If you haven't been paying attention original publisher Vivendi owns the F.E.A.R. name while developer Monolith holds the rights to the world and characters. Problem is, they are no longer working together so Monolith is right now developing the direct sequel to F.E.A.R., due in 2008, to be published by their new masters at Warner Bros., but which will not bear the F.E.A.R. name.

Vivendi for its own part is continuing to release expansion packs for the original game, two of which are scheduled for this Fall.

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Why Microsoft, Why?

Sega and Petroglyph’s upcoming futuristic RTS title, Universe at War, is now the first announced title since Shadowrun to support the cross platform capabilities of Games for Windows Live.

What this essentially means is that 360 owners will now have the privilege of getting destroyed by PC players using a keyboard and mouse.

As far as I’m concerned, games like Battle for Middle Earth II and Command and Conquer 3 have done an admirable job of condensing RTS controls onto a controller. But no matter what they do, they can’t replicate being able to select units precisely and instantly with a mouse. Playing a console RTS is like trying to browse the web with the PS3 controller. It works, but it’s far from ideal.

Here’s a question for the ages: The 360 has USB ports, so why don’t these games have optional keyboard and mouse support? In the past, Microsoft’s excuse for not allowing K+M was to keep the playing field level on Xbox Live. With the advent of cross platform play pitting PC players against console players, this argument is no longer valid.

What does everyone think? Would you be more likely to play a console RTS if you had the option of using a Keyboard and Mouse?

[via Destructoid]

It’s hard to believe it’s been two decades since the Freelance Police first defended the streets of New York City, but lo and behold, their first official comic book, Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple was released 20 years ago today. The demented tale featured neither monkeys nor heavenly temple, but it did mark the beginning of the legacy of comic, cartoons, and games that thrives to this day.

To celebrate, Telltale is reprinting the 1995 compilation Surfin’ the Highway, which has been out of print for over a decade, and remains highly sought after, commonly fetching triple digit prices at auction. This tome chronicles all of the dog and rabbity-thing’s comic book adventures, and a smattering of one-page cartoons and other goodies. This reissue will be extended to include a lot of the loose odds and ends from projects since the original issuing.

I, for one, couldn’t be happier. As brilliant as the games are, Sam and Max’s humor has always been strongest in its raw, original form. I haven’t been able to read Surfin’ the Highway since my father gave away his copy to his brother, and I’ll be there for the reissue day one.

In related news, Telltale also unveiled their boxed version of their episodic Sam and Max games. This DVD packs all 6 games with a generous smattering of DVD-style extras, including commentaries, shorts, trailers, and concept art. It is available for free to those that downloaded the episodes, and for $35 for newcomers.

[Via Telltale Games]

Over 750,000 XBL gamers have already sampled the truly evil demo. Tomorrow, the full experience will be lurking on store shelves all across the US, with the unsuspecting customers not realizing the sort of nasty, wicked, cruel fun that will be unleashed if they dare to take it home. Rated Teen and coming to both Xbox 360 and PC, Overlord is the tale of a fantasy land gone bad, and it’s about to get worse when you are awakened from your dark dreams to rule this miserable piece of land with the aid of your goblin hordes.

It comes out on my birthday, and is made by Triumph Studios, located in one of my favorite countries in the world, the Netherlands (lovely landscape, great people). So how could I not like this announcement? So download the demo, read our preview, and prepare yourself for one of the most darkly humorous games of the decade.

When fighting enthusiasts were introduced to online gaming (sup Xband), everyone was amazed by this new milestone which for the first time ever, expanded the competitive userbase beyond your friends around the block. And with the advent of high-speed connections (DSL, Cable, T1), one would think that latency would be a thing of the past, right? If only that were true. Lag is one of the number one reasons that allegedly has been a major turn-off for most diehard players.

This has prompted the launch of GGPO.net, (created by co-SRK founder Tony Cannon), which every single fighting fan not only should seriously pay close attention to its development. Do you dream of a world where you can finally enjoy lag-free online battles? Than you need to support GGPO.

GGPO.net’s primary objective is to present a new approach to fighting games. Tony explains:

Traditional networking algorithms used to compensate for network latency result in either slower than normal gameplay or an excessive amount of delay (or lag) tacked onto the beginning of each move. GGPO.net uses a novel way to hide latency which lets the game run at full speed without adding any delay to any of your moves. So your timing doesn’t change and combos come out like butter. It’s almost like playing head-to-head in your living room!

I know what you’re thinking: “Whoo, that means I can enjoy all my CPS2 and CPS3 favorites online, right?” Well, ideally - yes. We contacted a member of the GGPO team and they’ve revealed that basically [any emulation title] will work with the application. For the moment, Alpha 2 is the only title that’s currently being supported.

Currently the project is in its alpha phase - meaning users can expect to encounter a few bugs (i.e. crashes, resets, etc) during the matchmaking process. As a longtime SRK supporter, it’s great to see the fighting community stepping up to address something that corporate developers should have started LONG ago. I am told the code is “very good” so I am definitely looking forward to getting a test-run first hand once the beta stage is up and running.

[Via GGPO.net]