All PC versions leverage leading services for gamers around the world. Pre-purchasers receive original Mafia® now.
Valve and 2K Games today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Mafia® II with a host of Steamworks features. All Mafia II players will enjoy the benefits of the Steamworks features included in all PC versions, such as auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Statistics, downloadable content, and more.
Customers who pre-order the standard or Digital Deluxe Edition of Mafia II through select digital retailers, including Steam, will be given a free digital copy of the award-winning original Mafia® game that they can access and play now.
“Using Steamworks to power Mafia II has been a great benefit for 2K Games and our development team,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “It’s meant that we can spend more time creating content and a great experience for our customers because we know that Steam and Steamworks are enabling these important features within the game.”
“Mafia II is joining Sid Meier’s Civilization® V as the next title to use Steamworks from 2K Games,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “Our focus for Steam is on building services that create value for our customers and for creators, and Mafia II, with its all-new game engine and inclusion of Steamworks, is a great example of that.”
Mafia II is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be available in North America on August 24, 2010 and internationally beginning August 27, 2010. For more information visit www.steamgames.com.
2K Games is a division of 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).
About 2K Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment software games for the console, PC, and handheld gaming systems through its three divisions: 2K Games, 2K Sports, and 2K Play. 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including first-person shooters, action, role-playing, real-time strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment. The 2K label has some of the most talented development studios in the world today, including Firaxis Games, Visual Concepts, Irrational Games, 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K Czech, Cat Daddy Games, and 2K China. In just a few short years, 2K launched the 2007 Game of the Year – BioShock®; continued the award-winning Sid Meier’s Civilization® series; delivered the #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise with NBA® 2K10*; and broke new ground in the family entertainment market with its multi-million unit selling hit Carnival Games. 2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). For more information, please visit www.2K.com.
* According to 2009-2010 GameRankings.com and The NPD Group
About Steam The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million PC and Mac users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com.
About Valve Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com.
Polar Bear Club have posted another acoustic track recorded at Hurley Studios. This time the band recorded a version of their track, “Chasing Hamburg.” The song originally appeared on the album of the same name, Chasing Hamburg.
In August 2009, Pennywise’s long-time front man, Jim Lindberg, announced he was leaving the band after some 20-plus years. It didn’t take long, however, for Lindberg to refocus his energy and, with a renewed sense of optimism, begin work on his new project, The Black Pacific. After subtly revealing their presence on MySpace and through their own website in late June 2010, Lindberg reached out to Punknews to offer up a look inside The Black Pacific and what the band has in store. Punknews interviewer Sean Jain was fortunate enough to answer the call and spoke with Lindberg about The Black Pacific, his new bandmates, the song writing process, and his departure from Pennywise.
Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is now available and has been added to The Devil’s Playhouse season pass!
5 Great Episodes, 1 Awesome Price! Get your season pass now if you haven’t already and wield psychic powers against fearsome foes in the epic comedy saga over 5 monthly episodes. Gaming’s greatest dog and rabbit sleuths Sam & Max seek the power’s ancient secrets, as manic Max gains shape shifting, teleportation, mind reading and future vision abilities for battling these foes.
The saga plays out in a surreal 5 month-long symphony of mayhem that gets deeper and more twisted with each episode.
Lights has recorded an acoustic cover of Rancid‘s “Fall Back Down.” The original track comes from Rancid’s 2003 album, Indestructible. Lights’ cover appears on her newly released Acoustic EP.
Our stream today comes from Milwaukee, WI-based The Goodnight Loving. The band, who we interviewed last year will release their album on July 20, 2010 via Dirtnap Records. They have been compared to “Big Star (college radio era) Replacements, Del Shannon, and Meat Puppets.” We’ve got a stream of the band’s new full length, The Goodnight Loving Supper Club.
Today we’ve got an exclusive free download of a track from punk/metal outfit Mose Giganticus. The Philadelphia-based band is releasing their new album, Gift Horse, today on Relapse Records and it promises an “extensive range of hard rock, metal, and punk influences.”
In a new post on their official website, Rome of Sublime With Rome revealed the band’s plans to record this October and release a new single. Rome said this:
We gotta handful of sick new tunes and plan to hit the studio [in October] to do pre-production and release a single.
The band debuted a new song, “Panic,” when performing live on Jimmy Kimmel. Check that out here.
The band features the founding Sublime rhythm section of drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson with new singer-guitarist Rome Ramirez. They assumed the slightly modified name after settling a lawsuit with the family of deceased founding member and singer Bradley Nowell over its use. This years tours will be Gaugh and Wilson’s first tour under the name Sublime (“With Rome” or otherwise) in nearly 14 years. They are on the road now. SourceContinue reading Sublime (with Rome) to record in October→
Tim Kasher of Cursive and The Good Life has announced plans to release a new album under his own name. The record is titled The Game of Monogamy and is due out October 5, 2010 via Saddle Creek. The album was recorded this past January in Whitefish, MT, at SnowGhost Music and in his rental home in the small town. The album is described:
More of an arranged record than any of Kasher’s past releases, filled with theatrical arrangements and lush instrumentation to create his own blend of classic pop. Ornamented with strings, harp, oboe, flute, and trombone, among other instruments, the songs vary in sound from vibrant and catchy (“Cold Love,” “I’m Afraid I’m Gonna Die Here”) to sweeping and grand (“No Fireworks,” “Monogamy”), and from hushed and spare (“Strays,” “The Prodigal Husband”), to urgent and fraught (“A Grown Man,” “Bad, Bad Dreams”). This moody orchestral pop evokes a 1950s-esque, conservative atmosphere, setting the stage for a dilemma that remains thoroughly modern. The protagonist’s arc in The Game of Monogamy spans the wide range of distinctly human emotions tangled up around relationships in a starched shirt society. Call it the score for our collective sexual plight: expression routinely becomes repression in the name of romance.
Kasher enlisted Patrick Newbery (trumpet/keys for Cursive; also of Lacona and Head of Femur) to help with the arrangements, the production, and to play on the record. Friends Erin Tate (Minus The Bear) and Matt Maginn (Cursive) also stopped by to add some drum and bass parts, respectively, and members of the Glacier National Symphony were recruited for the classical instrument parts.
The band was first announced in August 2008 and the current lineup features John Herguth (House & Parish) and Ian Love (Rival Schools) The band is described as “psych/folk sound that will appeal to fans of indie-rock as well as rock and roll traditionalists with its’ looped yet tribal yet shuffling drums and both dynamic and big guitar sounds.” SourceContinue reading Atlantic/Pacific (ex-Texas is the Reason) joins No Sleep Records→
Side One Dummy Records have posted a freely downloadable sampler featuring music from bands on the roster. Participating acts include: Flogging Molly, The Gaslight Anthem, Audra Mae, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Jesse Malin and The St. Marks Social, Chuck Ragan, Nathan Maxwell & The Original Bunny Gang, Fake Problems, The Black Pacific, Anti-Flag, The Casualties, Broadway Calls and Big D And The Kids Table. 
In August 2009, Pennywise’s long-time front man, Jim Lindberg, announced he was leaving the band after some 20-plus years. It didn’t take long, however, for Lindberg to refocus his energy and, with a renewed sense of optimism, begin work on his new project, The Black Pacific. After subtly revealing their presence on MySpace and through their own website in late June 2010, Lindberg reached out to Punknews to offer up a look inside The Black Pacific and what the band has in store. Punknews interviewer Sean Jain was fortunate enough to answer the call and spoke with Lindberg about The Black Pacific, his new bandmates, the song writing process, and his departure from Pennywise. 
Today we’ve got an exclusive free download of a track from punk/metal outfit 