Two game developers have gotten themselves in seriously hot water, and gamers are banding together to support them. On Sept. 9, ARMA III developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar were arrested on the Greek island of Lemnos, accused of espionage after being caught with videos and still photographs of local military installations. Their employer, Bohemia Interactive, has stated that the two were on vacation on the island and were not gathering images for the upcoming ARMA III. Since the arrests, a fan site and online petition have been created to support the incarcerated designers. Twitter and Facebook pages have also been launched, according to Gamespot.

Wing Commander fans can rise from their knees; their prayers have finally been answered. Chris Roberts, creator of the legendary space combat games, has announced his return to the gaming industry after a successful career as a Hollywood producer. Roberts is poised to unveil his new project on Oct. 10 as part of GDC Online. According to his teaser site, Roberts left the games industry in 2002 because of a dissatisfaction with the technology available to him at the time. Now that the gap between his dream project and the tools available to realize it has narrowed, Roberts is poised to make a hopefully triumphant return.

Sony is once again relaunching its flagship gaming console, the Playstation 3. Only three years after the release of the PS3 Slim, the new version of the hardware is said to be half the size of the original 2005 model (and has yet to be given a pithy nickname of its own). The unit is set to be released in North America on Sept. 25 for $269, including a 250 GB hard drive, a packed-in copy of the game-of-the-year edition of Uncharted 3, and $30 to use while playing the Eve Online spinoff, Dust 514. A 500 GB version of the new design will be available on Oct. 30 for $299.

Source: Joystiq

As the old song lyric goes, “Everything old is new again.” Apparently this is true for classic video games such as the 1982 Commodore 64 hit The Sword of Fargoal. Jeff McCord, creator of the random-dungeon hack-and-slasher, is attempting to bring his creation new life for the modern PC, Mac and Apple mobile devices (he’s even promising a Linux version). McCord is using the crowd-funding route to pay for his new opus. Those interested in helping to bring his new game to market can check out his Kickstarter page for all of the details on the project.

Jack-of-all-trades software publisher ValueSoft Cosmi has brought developer Rubicon Development’s successful iOS/Android turn-based shooter Great Little War Game to the big (gaming) screen with Great Big War Game (sensing a trend here). The new, super-sized game offers 50 single-player and 40 skirmish/multiplayer maps for you conquer with pint-sized fighters and artillery. ValueSoft Cosmi, which is also a leading publisher of personal productivity software, is offering Great Big War Game at retail outlets and on Steam for the pint-sized price of $9.99.

PC gamers with a sense of history will fondly recall the 1995 Apogee classic Rise of the Triad. After almost two decades, Apogee and developer Interceptor Entertainment are giving the game the Unreal Engine 3 upgrade it has long deserved. The video on the left shows Interceptor CEO Frederik Schreiber building a section of a level of the game, starting virtually from scratch. It’s seven minutes of fascinating time-lapse photography that anyone with an interest in game design should enjoy. ROTT is scheduled for release by the end of 2012.

Digital Extremes, developer of the upcoming Star Trek game, and publishers Paramount and Namco Bandai rolled out a new trailer for the much-anticipated videogame companion to film director J.J. Abrams’ 2009 canon-bending epic at last week’s Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany. The game, currently scheduled for an early 2013 release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC, features an original plot and the opportunity to play as either Kirk or Spock in co-op mode.

In celebration of this year’s Gamescom, Ubisoft is running a $1 game sale. The event runs from now until August 19 and features four games, each one available for only one day. The sale begins with HAWX 2 and will gradually include From Dust, Silent Hunter 5 and Driver San Francisco. Meanwhile, other Ubi games are heavily discounted. The trick is that you have to use Ubisoft’s Uplay client to download and play them, but for the frugal gamer, it remains a bargain. More information on Ubisoft’s Gamescom sale can be found here.

Back in 2007, Vanguard was intended to be the spiritual successor to the original Everquest. Designed by EQ vet Brad McQuaid, the game launched to a hailstorm of drama. Bugs, missing features and poor performance quickly sank Vanguard at launch. And yet, for the last five years, the only way to sample just what became of this game was to buy it and pay the monthly fee. Left with either closing down the remaining two servers or opening it up for all, today Sony Online Entertainment has chosen the latter and has relaunched Vanguard as free-to-play (click here to visit the official site). This will either increase player numbers and move SOE to keep working on one of the last hardcore MMOs, or it will be a chance for the voyeuristic among us to see this classic disasterpiece first hand.

Only five months after launch, Microsoft has ended active development of its free-to-play simulator Microsoft Flight. The news comes right after the release of the Carbon Cub Deluxe, which provides a 3D cockpit for the plane already included in the Alaskan Wilderness DLC pack for an extra $15. The game was met with hostility from core sim fans and featured a questionable DLC system, which likely contributed to its downfall. Regardless, it was a solid sim that never realized its potential. It’s unclear how long Microsoft will continue to maintain the game’s servers.

Source: Kotaku

iD Software’s John Carmack isn’t sold on the idea that the next generation of consoles will launch us into a new era of gaming excellence. Carmack, who manages to find time to run his own aerospace company outside of his work at iD, figures that we won’t be able to do much more on the NextBox, the PS4 or the WiiU that we can’t do today; it’ll just look prettier. “When people ask how tapped out is the current console generation, PCs are 10 times as powerful but you really are still not technically limited,” Carmack recently told Game Industry Biz. “If you take a current game like Halo, which is a 30 hertz game at 720p; if you run that at 1080p, 60 frames with high dynamic frame buffers, all of a sudden you’ve sucked up all the power you have in the next-generation. It will be what we already have, but a lot better.” Instead, Carmack believes that the future lies in virtual-reality gaming tied to mobile devices. “It won’t sweep the world in a year or two, but so much of what we’ve always been trying to do with games is simulate that holodeck experience and put you in a different world. [VR] could do it in a way that you could never, ever get in a traditional game.”

While most of us had to content ourselves with streaming coverage of the recently concluded Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Avault’s own Chip Henson was right in the thick of it, having snagged a prime spot as a Community Ambassador for Eidos Interactive. While at the show, Chip had an opportunity to join his fellow ambassadors in a sit-down interview with Karl Stewart, Global Brand Director for the upcoming Tomb Raider game. Stewart talks about how the new Lara Croft adventure compares with the previous ones, secondary characters you’ll meet, and Lara’s progression from scared shipwreck victim to bow-and-arrow-carrying badass. A transcript of the video interview can be found here.

Developer Stainless have successfully crowd-funded a remake of the 1997 classic Carmageddon via Kickstarter. This means Max Damage will be making his high-octane, bullet-spewing return to a gaming screen near you in February 2013 on PC, with Mac, PSN, XBLA and potentially even Linux conversions to appear later. Carmageddon: Reincarnation burst through its $400,000 target with more than a week to spare. “After years of negotiation, the original founders of Stainless recently bought back all the rights to Carmageddon,” reads Stainless Games’ Kickstarter page. “So now it’s back in its rightful home, we’ve embarked on the journey that will reboot the brand.”

Need something to do while you await Doom 4? Worry no more. Bethesda is releasing the BFG Edition of Doom 3, which will include the 2004 shooter sequel; the following year’s expansion pack, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil; and a new seven-level single-player campaign titled The Lost Mission. The revamped package features playable versions of the original Doom and Doom II. In addition, Bethesda has confirmed that the game will have enhanced visuals, 5.1 surround sound, stereoscopic 3D support and head-mounted displays. All of this on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The BFG version will also tweak gameplay, with the flashlight now “armor-mounted,” so players won’t have to sacrifice firepower to get a good look at their surroundings. The new Doom 3 will also feature a new checkpoint save system, allowing for smoother progression through the game.

Big Finish Games wants to revive the classic sci-fi noir detective Tex Murphy, and they need your help. Codenamed Project Fedora, this will be the sixth game in the full-motion video adventure game series. All the original elements are coming back: creators Chris Jones and Aaron Conners (with Jones reprising his lead role), strong character-driven plots, and FMV. New this time are branching story paths, giving a little more flexibility to the man of mystery. Project Fedora promises to not only introduce Tex Murphy to newcomers, but also to resolve the cliffhanger ending from Tex Murphy: Overseer. Kickstarter funding for the endeavor ends on June 16th.