Silicon Knights Ordered to Collect and Destroy Unsold Copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny

Ever played Too Human or X-Men: Destiny? Chances are probably not, and there's good reason for that. The games were cataclysmic disappointments when they were released. What makes that even worse is that both games were highly anticipated and had gamers really looking forward to playing them. Aside from not being standout games, these games also have a few other things in common, most notably the fact that both were made y Silicon Knights and that both games have been ordered to be destroyed completely.

Silicon Knights, the studio behind both of these games, recently tried to sue Epic Games, developer of the insanely popular Gears of War trilogy, over claims that Epic's Unreal graphics engine was an incomplete product that Silicon Knights used to develop both of these games and was the reason behind the failure of both games. Needless to say, Silicon Knights lost and, in addition to paying a hefty fine to Epic, the courts though that Silicon's punishment (cue Bane impersonation) must be more severe.

According to a recent ruling by the North Carolina District Court, Silicon Knights has been required to "cease producing and distributing" and "recall and destroy" all unsold copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny along with The Box/Ritualyst, The Sandman and Siren in the Maelstrom, the last three being unreleased titles, at its own expense.

In addition to that, the judge also ruled that Silicon Knights is responsible to pay Epic an additional $278,000 in court costs, $2.09 million in attorney fees and $2.3 million in pre-judgement interest. If you add that to the $4.45 million that Silicon Knights already owed Epic then that brings to overall total costs that Silicon Knights owes Epic Games to around $9 million.

According to a statement from an Epic Games' spokesperson, "Epic Games appreciates the court's careful consideration of the motions and is gratified by the order." The interesting thing is that this ruling comes over five years after Silicon Knights originally sued Epic, alleging that the Unreal engine didn't work as it was supposed to. Epic counter-sued and then the case went to trial earlier this year. The worst part about the entire suit is that even if Silicon Knights had won, it would only have been awarded $1 per claim.

If you have ever wanted to play wither Too Human or X-Men: Destiny then you better get your copy fast because all the ones still in stores are poised to be collected and destroyed pretty soon.

Source: IGN - Silicon Knights Ordered to Destroy Unsold Unreal Engine 3 Games

Find out what is going on in the Tech Army World.

What are the Top 10 Money Making Missions?
What other companies have joined and what do they do?
How do I join the Tech Army Organization ?

Gears of War: Judgment Announces New Free for All Multiplayer Mode

So anybody who has braved the exhilarating, yet extremely frustrating (at times), world of Gears of War multiplayer knows that it plays a lot like the campaign. You pop from cover to cover, waiting for that exact perfect moment to strike at your enemy. You spend a lot of time hiding and trying to outflank and outsmart your foes in order to gain a tactical advantage. While that is all fun and good, the next installment in the Gears of War franchise, Gears of War: Judgment, looks to take all that strategy and curbstomp it into the ground.

Enter free-for-all, the newest multiplayer mode in Gears of War: Judgment. The big difference here is that, as the name insinuates, everybody is fighting everybody. No teams, no help, no mercy. It's one big brouhaha of chainsaws, boomshots, digger launchers and bloody goodness. Instead of trying to gang up on your enemies, you basically just point and shoot because no matter who you see, what race they are (human or locust) or what character they are playing, they are your enemy and they will NOT hesitate to ram that retro lancer bayonet right through your gut and toss you to the side like a dirty towel.

While the multiplayer maps in the previous three Gears games have been designed for you to use cover, gain tactical advantages and outplay your opponents as a team, the maps in Judgment have been designed for FFA. In addition to that, these maps appear to be a bit smaller than some of the epic setpiece maps we saw in Gears of War 3. That makes FFA perfect as you probably won't be able to take two dive rolls without running into someone trying to cut you in half. Just hope you're the third player running into a dual between two others, allowing you to be THAT guy, you know, the one that comes in and just wipes out both guys who have be weakened by each other.

FFA also seems like it will be a good way for players to hone their Gears multiplayer skills. Most people, I find, tend to shy away from trying new things in Gears multiplayer because they don't want to let their team down. In FFA there are no teams so there is nobody that can get mad at you for going 1 and 10 three matches straight. This freedom allows you to experiment with different weapons and find out what combo of shotgun and assault rifle best fits your play style. Speaking of learning, there are a few changes to the mechanics of Gears of War in Judgment that differ from the previous games.

One thing that is different is that you no longer have to use the directional pad to switch between weapons, something a lot of players will be excited about. I can't tell you how many times I died because I thought I switched to my shotgun and ended up having my pistol out instead. The Y button is what you use to switch weapons now and throwing a grenade is as easy as tapping the left bumper. This may seem like standard controls for any other shooter out there, but seasoned Gears players may feel a little awkward at first.

FFA looks to be an amazing new addition to Gears and one that many players have been asking for. What's more is that there are still a lot of gameplay modes left for Epic to announce, further increasing the anticipation for the next game in the Gears of War franchise. We all knew that Gears of War 3 wouldn't be Epic's last outing with the series and we're extremely happy about that. Check the video below for a taste of what the new Free-for-All mode is all about.

Gears of War 2 Title Update 4

Gears of War 2 was one of the hottest selling games in the world when it released on November 7, 2008. While the game itself gained high praise from the industry and gamers, many people were disappointed with how the Xbox LIVE multiplayer mode worked. Well Epic games and creator Cliff Bleszinski have heard the call of the gamers have just unveiled details for the games fourth title update for Gears of War 2.

Gears of War 2 is currently sitting in the fourth spot on the list of top played Xbox LIVE games, but the developers are hoping to put some more players online pretty soon with their new update. The fourth update for the game adds some needed gameplay elements as well as some exploit fixes so cheap gamers won't glitch there way around the game making it no fun for anybody.

The improvements for the game adds many improvements to the Horde mode. With this new update players will be able to collect multiplayer experience while playing Horde. The new ranking system added a great new way to show how good you were but was restricted to only gaining rank inhuman v.s. human games. With the update you will receive points for every wave completed on Horde gaining 50 points for every completed casual wave, 75 points for normal, 100 points for hardcore, and 125 points for insane. The update also allows you to restart from your current wave in Public Horde if your team dies. Previously in public horde, if everybody on your team died, you would have to restart from the first wave. Host players will also be able to boot players from the Horde match as well. One previous "cheat", if you can call it that, in Horde mode was the ability to gain 50 points towards your teams score by reviving a downed teammate. Players would allow their teammates to get down multiple times and revive them to artificially boost their score. Now in Horde, your team loses 50 points whenever a squad mate gets downed, canceling out that point bonus.

Other non-Horde improvements include support for the new campaign chapter "Road to Ruin" and also adds 13 new achievements worth a total of 325 gamer points for the new "Dark Corners" map pack. Among the improvements are some exploit fixes like firing the flame thrower while evading or mounting an object and general fixes like down but not out players to not appear as down to their teammates as well as some added features to how smoke grenades affect you. developers also added some balancing to the multiplayer. Now there will be a 30-second delay in map-based spawning for weapons and ammo at the beginning of a wingman match and there will be more future server-side balancing options.

Update 4 has not passed certification yet so there is no confirmed release date but considering the "Dark Corners" map pack comes out July 28th, we can probably expect to see update 4 pretty soon. For a full list of all the improvements and fixes check out the Gears of War 2 Update 4 homepage.

Source: Gears of War.com