Crysis 3 DLC takes players to The Lost Island

Crytek will release the first Crysis 3 DLC next week in the form of multiplayer pack The Lost Island. Boasting four new maps, two extra game modes and additional weapons, the DLC shifts the focus from the main game's New York City Liberty Dome setting to a small island in the Philippines 200 miles from Ling Shan, which played home to 2007’s Crysis and the following year’s Crysis Warhead.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said: "The gameplay in the Crysis series has always been deeply connected to the unique environments in which the action takes place. We're not only returning to Crysis' spiritual roots, but also introducing fresh ways to play that provide Crysis 3 fans with genuinely game-changing new tactical options, game modes and weapons."

Available from Tuesday June 4, The Lost Island DLC will be priced at 1200 MSP (£10.28 / $14.40 / $15) on Xbox 360 and at $14.99 on PS3 and PC. Prior to the add-on pack’s official announcement, Xbox360Achievements reported that the DLC will introduce ten new Achievements, allowing players to boost their Gamerscore by 250.

If you’ve yet to read it, we said in our Crysis 3 review: “While not treading new ground for the FPS genre, Crysis 3 is a solid shooter that will keep you entertained through the campaign and long after with its addictive online modes.”

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Diablo III error 37 causing a great wailing and gnashing of teeth as players worldwide fail to log in. The solution? Wait a bit

A big, online-enabled game having server issues on day one should by now be about as surprising as when an in-depth scientific analysis of a piece of cheese reveals it be be made of cheese. Diablo III? Pretty bloody massive game. Server issues almost guaranteed. What's galling in this case though is that the log-in failures currently being suffered by a large number of aspiring players block the single-player game as well as multiplayer. Yay online authentication.

Oh, and did I mention that there seems to be no queuing system, so repeated attempts to sneak into the just-vacated gap left by another player require manual password entry each and every time? Look on the bright side. You'll be able to Ctrl+V faster than any mere mortal can possibly envision by the time this is over. Seriously, your non-Diablo-playing office colleagues will be in awe.

Above: The horror...

Blizzard's current response? A post on the official forum currently speaketh thusly:

"Due to high concurrency the login servers are currently at full capacity. This may cause delays in the login process, account pages and web services.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this is being resolved"

So, solutions? Higher server capacity or a queuing system would seem to be the obvious approaches. Other than that, it's just a case of keeping on trying until you get in, or waiting until server traffic settles down into a normal routine. It seems that this isn't a vastly complicated problem at the moment, just a simple case of the hardware not being able to take the strain of the entire world simultaneously trying to log into a sequel it has been anticipating for over a decade.

Still, consider the online DRM arguement well-and-truly cracked open once again. Can of worms, ACTIVATE!

Want some tasty minute-to-minute action while you wait to get logged in? The lovely Tom Francis over at PC Gamer is posting his Diablo 3 review as it happens.

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The Witcher 2 trailer brings Xbox 360 players up to speed on story

A lot of things went down in 2007's PC hit, The Witcher. True, you don't need to know any of it to enjoy The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for Xbox 360, yet CD Projekt has graciously taken it upon itself to educate the console crowd on Geralt's past deeds in this story synopsis video:

http://www.gamesradar.com/witcher-2-trailer-brings-xbox-360-players-speed-story/

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is an Xbox 360 version of CD Projekt's PC sequel. The studio has been careful not to call its console edition a port, claiming the game will ship with enough extras and improvements to make it a somewhat new experience on the Xbox 360. Features of the so-called Enhanced Edition include all the current PC updates, DLC, extra characters, quests, and locations.

“We took special effort to beef up the game for the Xbox release,” says Jan Bartkowicz, DC Projekt's storywriter, in last month's article, The Witcher 2 devs detail Xbox 360's Enhanced Edition. “We are in this great situation where we already had the game out there and people experienced it. We had a lot of community feedback, and we want to put all this in this game and make it better.”

The PC version worked its magic on GR's staff, earning a perfect score in our The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings super review. We're interested to see if The Witcher 2 can pull a repeat performance on Xbox 360 when it arrives worldwide on April 17.

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta opens up to 100,000 new players

Blizzard's certainly busy at the moment, what with Diablo III's release day ever-impending and a new expansion for the best of the Best MMORPGs, World of Warcraft, on the way. But a busy schedule's no excuse to neglect your clan – as the company's taking pains to remind us. First Blizzard unveils Scroll of Resurrection bonuses to keep lapsed addicts jonesing, and now the company's announced (via Game Front) that it'll be giving away 100,000 beta keys for the upcoming World of Pandaria add-on.

The keys have already started going out to Annual Pass subscribers, and Blizzard has pledged to award the full complement of keys to remaining Passholders before it starts taking on any opt-in beta players. “If we let everyone in at the exact same time, we risk damaging the stability of the service,” the company explains, “and then no one would be able to play.”

However, Annual Passholders should rest assured their keys are on the way, so keep an eye on your email and Battle.net account. We'd say “check our World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria video preview instead of bragging to everyone you know about your exclusive access” – but really, that is what beta keys are ultimately for, right?

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