NewsSpots: Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 3, Hour of Victory, Tomb Raider, BIGS

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted May 31, 2007 6:03 pm PT

[UPDATE] THQ's RTS gets DX10, WWII shooter gets mapped, Midway demo reposted, Eidos remakes Steam'd, 2K slugger soundtracked.

Company of Heroes gets DX10 treatment
While the title for first playable game sporting Vista's DirectX 10 goes to Capcom's Lost Planet, THQ can now tout the title for first commercially available DirectX 10 game. The publisher announced today that Company of Heroes has been patched to support Microsoft's latest API. The patch includes graphical enhancements aimed at improving textures, models, shadows, and lighting. From internal studio Relic, Company of Heroes was met with widespread critical acclaim last year and was named GameSpot's 2006 Strategy Game of the Year. An expansion for the historical real-time strategy game, Opposing Fronts, is slated to hit PCs this fall.

Five more Call of Duty 3 maps hit XBL
Last August, Activision announced nearly $1 million in sales from downloadable content for its WWII first-person shooter Call of Duty 2. Looking to build upon that success with Call of Duty 3, the company released the Valor Map Pack in January, and today its second map pack of the year is available. The Bravo Map Pack includes a map from the original Call of Duty and one from United Offensive, as well as three new ones set in various locales across Europe. The pack is available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft points ($10).

Tomb Raider: Anniversary heating up Steam
Two and a half months after it announced it would distribute some of its catalog games via Valve Software's online distribution service, Eidos has revealed Lara Croft's latest will also be available on Steam. Next week, Tomb Raider: Anniversary--Eidos' remake of the 1997 original--will become the second game in the series to enter the Steam pipeline, after Tomb Raider: Legend. To coincide with the game's retail release, the $29.95 title will be available on Steam on June 1, except the Western hemisphere, where it will go up on June 5.

Hour of Victory demo pulled, reloaded
Though it was supposed to be out Wednesday, the demo for the forthcoming World War II shooter was not on Xbox Live Marketplace as of Thursday night. A rep for its publisher, Midway Games, said some last-minute technical adjustments had to be worked through, and it should be up "soon." By early Friday, the free 938MB demo was indeed up.

The BIGS gets rock-heavy soundtrack
Superhuman superstars won't be the only monolithic draw for 2K Sports' upcoming arcade-style baseball game, The BIGS. Slated to score The BIGS soundtrack is a who's who list of power-chord-abusing rock demigods, with notable tracks including Motorhead's "Ace of Spades," White Zombie's "More Human Than Human," Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush," and Primus' "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver," to name a few. "In The BIGS, everything is to the extreme, from the colossal baseball players to the surreal stadiums, so we wanted a soundtrack that would capture the magnified nature of the game," said Tim Rosa, 2K Sports' director of brand and lifestyle marketing.

45 Comments

  • rebel-six

    Posted Jun 6, 2007 6:37 pm PT

    the hour of victory demo was disapointing, to say the least. the graphics and gameplay reminded me of cod 1, and the sound fx were worse. there was one thing that made it stand out, and that was the abilty to jump in a tank if u run across one.

  • Robertwelsh2

    Posted Jun 5, 2007 12:45 am PT

    This game looks this the first Call of Duty, it appears that someone paper ma-shied some crudley made paintings and slapped them together to make this.

  • Greyfox-101

    Posted Jun 4, 2007 12:49 pm PT

    The demo sucks, don't even waste your time buying it. It's worse than Allied Assault (good game for its time) which came out years ago...

  • WestCoastRida

    Posted Jun 2, 2007 9:15 am PT

    can't wait till The BIGS releases...

  • barom

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 6:20 pm PT

    I don't get it though why was the demo pulled? If it was because it sucked. Shouldn't they have pulled it permanently? I mean it came back up. Did they apply anything to the demo? I haven't tried the demo but if they indeed pulled it because of bad feedback, it doesn't make sense that they would put it back up (unless they don't wanna look bad, which they already are).

  • XNbuck

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 2:40 pm PT

    primus sucks

  • okassar

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 1:51 pm PT

    Can't wait for Companyy of Heroes,Call of Duty map additions have always been worthless,and Hour of Victory looks like another bad WWII game(in other words,wait for the next Medal of Honor).

  • eViL_kA

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 1:12 pm PT

    My brother and I live only about half an hour away from each other and he had the HoV demo since Thursday morning while i didn't have access to it until today (not that it matters because that demo sucks). Before that i had the Two Worlds trailer available one day before he did. Nothing major but just thought that was a little wierd esp. considering we are practically neighbors.

  • R3V3N4N7

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 11:42 am PT

    Hour of Victory was boring. Not enough people to fight and no blood. Just a boring demo.

  • barom

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 11:33 am PT

    So the HoV demo was bad?

  • blackace

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 9:32 am PT

    Melinda should have won as she sang better then both Blake & Jordan through the whole competition. The whole thing was rigged anyways. Jordan met the judge and the executive sponsers of the show 2 years prior. They had her set to win before the show even started. ______________________________________________________
    CharmedGamer The Season Finale of American Idol went just as it should have. Blake sucks. All that beat box crap, he isn't even doing it right.

  • yyr57695

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 7:00 am PT

    Heh, GS did the same thing for when the Halo 3 beta mishap occurred. The real issue was that there was a bug in Crackdown causing the "Download Halo 3 Beta" button not to enable, but GS reported that there were technical issues with the beta itself, and that the beta was delayed (which it wasn't...anyone who got into the beta with a different method could log in and play).

    I don't know if it's that GS is being a lapdog, or if they just don't do the research...

  • dogsounds

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 6:37 am PT

    It was removed here, I'm in the UK.

  • Decibyte

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 6:34 am PT

    Well, I don't know maybe its just the US. The download has been up on the Canadian server and not removed at all. I have a friend with a bad connection (dial up) who I was just talking to and hers is still downloading and hasn't stopped as she's been waiting ever so patiently playing games offline. it has not been removed from the server either as it is still available for download. So either it was removed off of the american server or it wasn't, but if it was, it's not an issue with the company as its available in other countries.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 5:31 am PT

    yay for DX10, boo for vista

  • dogsounds

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 4:24 am PT

    Heh, Sabazios, I did get a little carried away there I guess

    It just seems that when youare discussing something that so many people know about, it's probably good to make sure you have the right information so that you don't come across as a bit foolish. Simply put, either Gamespot totally dropped the ball, or are pandering. I woud prefer to assume that they simply dropped the ball...we shall see what gets mentioned on the Hotspot (if anything). However, you can bet that most gamers, when they sudenly realised that the demo had mysteriously dissapeared, went onto Xbox.com forums to find out why. That's what I did, and then rummaged around in other places to see what I could find. Yeah, GS wouldn't do that for everything that happens, but like you say, this IS a high-profile game, and it IS unusual for a demo to dissapear of of XBL

  • -HCMF-

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 3:29 am PT

    HoV kinda sucks, even COD 3 plays better, and that is saying quite a bit, for that game was phoned in, as well.

  • sabazios

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 3:28 am PT

    dogsounds, step down! Your expectations of Gamespot are way too high. No journalist is ever on top of all that's going on, don' t blow it out of proportions. Interesting what you say though, and I agree Gamespot should have verified prior to posting - it's not like Hour of Victory is low-profile.

  • Decibyte

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 3:02 am PT

    I agree, It was a bad game and I had it on my console way before this article was published. Like I said before, get people who know what they're doing to write the articles.

  • dogsounds

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 2:26 am PT

    Come on, Gamespot! This doesn't seem like you, to not tell the truth properly! Hour Of Victory was listed on XBL for around 24 hours (after a short technical delay). I have it on my 360. Lots of people downloaded it. Its removal from live strangely coincided with the negative feedback it received - most all the comments I could find across the intarwebz were slating it (mine included). Please don't try to smoke and mirror us to spare the developers' feelings - we know it sucked, and we know it was pulled because of that. Hopefully they will go away and fix the game, and come back next year with a finished product.

    But it is a shame that you simply quote the Midway company line there, and don't actually state any of the other facts. C'mon, you do this for us! Not for the developers! I am dissapointed in you.

    Don't worry about hurting their feelings, or feel sorry for them - there is no way they can have expected gamers to see anything good in the demo, and therefore bring it upon themselves. With the high standards expected by current-gen gamers nowadays, there is simply no excuse for shoddy work by developers, and if they have the gall to bring unmitigated nonsense like that demo online, a month before launch, when there is obviously another year of work left to be done on the game at least, then they should roll with the punches and take it like a man. And you should be giving ALL the facts. Your story just makes it look like none of the slating of the demo ever happened and that no-one downloaded it because it was not available anyway - it makes it looks like it was just "delayed" whilst they tweak it. That's bad reporting, it changes the whole stry to someone who is not aware of what has gone on.

    I am dissapointed in you Gamespot, you are supposed to be staunch and independent, fearless in your reporting of the facts to your readers. Sadly, this just makes you look like a lapdog - your readers are acutely aware of what ACTUALLY happened, and your own forums should tell you this without much effort. You need to at least discuss the other aspects of the story, to provide as many facts as possible to redeem yourselves. Midway's reputation has taken a beating with this demo - don't do the same thing to your own. Way to go, ace.

The Bigs Quick Links

Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum | Check Prices

Check Prices: $12.75 – 33.99

GameStop $19.99 SHOP ›
GameQuest $29.99 SHOP ›
eBay $29.89 SHOP ›
advertisement
The Bigs Boxshot Enlarge the boxshot
The Bigs

Game Stats

  • Rank:
    4,304 of 77,746
    (down by 13)
    WII Rank:
    480 of 2,033
    Tracking:
    403 Track It»
    Wishlists:
    163 Wish It»
  • Player Reviews:
    62
    Player Ratings:
    639
    Users Now Playing:
    93
  • Game Universe:
  • Number of Players:

    1-4, 4 Online | Offline Modes: Competitive, Cooperative, Team Oriented

  • Top 5 User Tags:
    1. the bigs
    2. baseball
    3. wii
    4. 2k sports
    5. bigs
  • Everyone Rating Description

    Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language. Learn more

Full Game Details »Close
Also on

Games you may like…

Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

See More Similar Games
advertisement