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Archived News:
Strategy
First now offers downloads of a new patch for Legion arena, updating
Slitherine's strategy game to version 1.01. Word on this update is that it:
"Fixes a few bugs, adds larger multiplayer armies, makes the game more MOD
friendly and more." The
read me has full details. Thanks Frans.
- Savage 2
S2
Games Foregoing Retail, Embracing Digital Distribution on GameDaily
(thanks Shacknews)
talks with Marc DeForest of S2 Games about their plan to forego retail
distribution for their RTS/FPS sequel: "The advantage of our development
methodologies gives S2 a more reasonable development budget to work with. By
having less expense involved in making the game, our sales goals are very
obtainable as it is. We feel we will lose a few percentage points of our
sales by selling only online, however the advantages heavily outweigh any
minor loss of sales we might see."
- Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Tom
Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Q&A: The Narcom on GameSpot
introduces another piece of the high tech equipment in the upcoming special
forces sequel: "The narcom is actually an extension of the cross-com device,
which is also integrated into the HUD. While the cross-com is on the
left-hand side of the HUD and is where you command your support forces, the
narcom is an extended window appearing on the right-hand side, where your
non-playable characters, or NPCs, pop up, giving story-driven information or
objectives from command."
- World of Warcraft
Warcraft
game makers look to grow on BBC NEWS (thanks
WorldofWar.Net) is an
article-format conversation with Blizzard's Shane Dabiri: "Increasing the
level cap will definitely give players a lot more power. It's very similar
to the current level 60 players going back to a level 40 dungeon. But the
point is that there are new challenges out there, there are new dungeons for
them to explore with even better items and even better gear."
The New York Post's
Page Six says they "hear" that not only has Showtime picked up Arrested
Development, but have ordered production of 26 episodes. This is still rumor
at this point, but that's a pretty reliable source for that sort of stuff, so I
am very happy.
The
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach Website has more shipping news
(thanks Frans) with word that Turbine's D&D MMORPG
is hitting stores this week and the virtual world is online in North America:
WESTWOOD, Mass., February 28, 2006 – Turbine, Inc. and Atari, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAR) announced that DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™, the first massively multiplayer online ("MMO") roleplaying game inspired by the legendary pen and paper game, has launched in North America. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™ is a unique experience where players must use their combat skills and wits to survive dangerous dungeons, fiendish traps and foes that punish the foolish. This seamlessly combines the beautiful world of Eberron®, the classic D&D® v3.5 Edition rules, and the latest innovations in online technology into a breathtaking gaming experience like no other. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).
CDV’s
ÜberSoldier Goes Gold announces the completion of development on Burut's
supernatural WW2 first-person shooter, though duplicating and distributing the
game will not be complete until April: February 28, 2006 — CDV Software Entertainment is pleased to announce that ÜberSoldier, the supernatural WWII FPS for PC, has gone gold today.
The game, developed by Burut CT, features nail-biting fast-paced combat,
historically based weapons and diverse environments sure to challenge fans of
action games. ÜberSoldier is set to ship in April. Please visit
http://www.ubersoldier.net
for more information.
Developed by Burut Creative Team (Burut CT), ÜberSoldier will challenge players
to take on the role of a genetically modified super-soldier brought back from
beyond the grave, as he seeks retribution against the enemies that surround him.
Combining supernatural powers, a veritable arsenal of historically based
weaponry and rich mission diversity, ÜberSoldier will deliver a
pulse-pounding and original FPS experience.
Ready to Get Down
to Business? EA Ships The Sims 2: Open for Business to Store Shelves Today
is the press release announcing the retail-oriented expansion for the virtual
life game is shipping to retail "today." This actually just means the check is
in the mail, so to speak, as the add-on is not expected to actually be open for
business on shelves until Thursday.
Ghost Recon 360
out next week on EuroGamer (thanks Frans) reports that the PC edition of Red
Storm's shooter sequel is delayed again, and is now slated for a "quarter two"
release this summer. The article also has specific release dates for the console
editions, which are all within the March 2006 window targeted after the game's
prior delay ( story): The Xbox 360 edition is appearing on store
shelves on March 10 (apparently a bit earlier than expected), the Xbox edition
is due the 17th, and the PS2 edition is expected by March 31.
SWAT 4: The Stetchkov
Syndicate Ships to Retail Stores Worldwide for PC (thanks Frans) announces
the availability of the first expansion for the tactical police shooter sequel:
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Sierra® Entertainment has shipped
SWAT® 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate to retail stores this week for the PC. SWAT 4:
The Stetchkov Syndicate is the first expansion pack for SWAT 4, the hit
tactical-simulation shooter from 2005 that put gamers in command of an elite
SWAT unit tasked with bringing down the most dangerous and violent criminals in
the world. "SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate takes the winning challenges and
gameplay of SWAT 4 and adds missions, story elements and multiplayer abilities
to create an all-new experience for fans of the original game," said Peter Della
Penna, Executive Vice President and COO, World Studios for Vivendi Universal
Games. "The new abilities -- like the new 'Held Commands' -- coupled with the
additions to multiplayer mode, have made an expansion pack worthy of the SWAT 4
moniker and a game that PC fans will be playing online for a long time."
EA Ships The Lord
of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II and The Lord of the Rings, The
Battle for Middle-earth II Collector's Edition (thanks Frans) has word that
the Lord of the Rings RTS sequel is hitting stores: REDWOOD CITY,
Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2006--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS - News)
officially announced today that the highly anticipated, The Lord of the
Rings(TM), The Battle for Middle-earth(TM) II has shipped to retailers
nationwide and will be in stores on March 2, 2006. The sequel to the critically
acclaimed The Lord of the Rings(TM), The Battle for Middle-earth(TM), this
real-time strategy (RTS) game offers the chance to experience Middle-earth in a
way you have never seen.
Developed at EA's Los Angeles (EALA) studio for the PC under the EA(TM) brand,
The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II includes all new content
from J.R.R. Tolkien's original fiction, and allows the player to delve deeper
than ever before and engage in new battles that go beyond the award-winning
movie trilogy. The development team at EALA have brought The Lord of the
Rings(TM) world to life in accordance with an agreement with The Saul Zaentz
Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises that grants EA the rights to develop games
based on the books, in addition to a separate agreement that allows for games
based on the New Line Cinema films.
WEBZEN Signs
Exclusive Worldwide Publishing Deal with Former World of WarCraft Developers Red
5 Studios (thanks Frans) announces a publishing deal for the new MMO
developer: SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 28 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Global online entertainment company WEBZEN, Inc. (Nasdaq: WZEN - News) today
announced that it has signed an exclusive worldwide agreement with U.S.-based
Red 5 Studios, Inc. to publish a new MMOG property. The contract was executed
today at WEBZEN's headquarters in Seoul.
Creating tremendous industry buzz and anticipation since the company's inception
in September 2005, Red 5 Studios was formed by key members behind Blizzard
Entertainment®'s World of WarCraft®, including the game's Team Lead Mark Kern
and Art Director William Petras and Online Director for Asia, Taewon
Yoon.
New Acclaim
Officially Relaunches on Gamecloud (thanks Frans) follows-up on news that the Acclaim brand
is being revived ( story). The
Acclaim Website is back online, and the reborn company's focus will be to
address the shortage of MMORPGs in the west by publishing some Asian multiplayer
games. They are currently accepting applications for the closed beta testing of
Bots.
- Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
A new Rise of Nations:
Rise of Legends movie shows off more of Big Huge Games' upcoming
fantasy-themed RTS game. The clip is available
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers, and
GameSpot.
- The Battle for Middle-earth II
The
Battle for Middle-earth II Website now offers yet another movie showing
off the new Lord of the Rings RTS sequel (thanks Frans). This release
concludes their Middle-earth Monday series, since the game is due in stores,
but there's a rumor that yet another movie release will occur before the
game is available.
Lead Pursuit has details on
plans for the upcoming version 1.06 patch for Falcon 4.0: Allied Force (thanks
Frans). Word is: "We've already mentioned the anti-jitter fix and smoother
positional MP updates on Frugalsworld, SimHQ, Checksix and F4HQ. We've also
corrected the disappearing cursor when FSAA is used with nVidia cards at
resolutions greater than 1024 x 768. There are numerous improvements to
avionics, higher frame rates in 2D cockpit, campaign & artificial intelligence
enhancements and new textures for some aircraft -- including the Super Hornet.
No date for delivery yet, but we'll keep you informed of progress."
- WarPath
Gamecloud's
WarPath Q&A talks with Zandro Chan of Groove Games about Digital
Extremes' upcoming first-person shooter: "WarPath breathes new life into the
FPS genre. It triggers the rush you felt when playing the FPS’s of old, but
with a 21st century face lift - giving you all the graphics and fragging
mayhem you’d expect from a cutting edge title. We felt as if FPS games had
become stale, this is fresh. It makes the player take notice and smile
uncontrollably, like they’re seeing an old friend for the first time in
years. That’s what we wanted. To make the player say ‘Wow, I never thought
it could be like this.’ We’ve taken the player out of the sandbox and
dropped them in the middle of a themepark with no lines in sight."
- Alpha Prime
The
Alpha Prime Q&A on
Gry komputerowe
converses in Polish and English with Radek Volf of Black Element Software
about their upcoming FPS: "Whilst Alpha Prime should primarily be a quite
straightforward first person shooter, we will try to encourage players to
think a bit creatively so that they will not just blast their way through
enemies. Sometimes you should be able to avoid battles entirely and sneak by
unnoticed. Sometimes you can make your life easier by using some handy
device, a machine or a robot for example."
- Casual Games
Gamecloud's
Wildsnake Software Q&A continues to explore the world of casual gaming
by talking with Wildsnake Software co-founder "Andy."
A new German Tortuga: Two Treasures Website
is online (thanks Frans). The site offers a link to an English section that is
yet to launch, and has a
gallery
with two-dozen new screenshots.
Economics in gaming II
on the GalCiv 2 Forums (thanks Frans) has more on initial sales of Galactic
Civilizations II: Dread Lords, discussing direct sales versus retail sales,
offering some insight into the formulas used to determine how many copies of a
game to stock and restock through its retail life-cycle: Overall sales of
a product is a function of Initial Sell In X Marketing X Game Quality.
When it's time to reorder games to replace sold units, computer algorithms come
into play. Each retailer has their own system for predicting how many units they
will need. But it roughly boils down to something like this:
The first week's sales of a game = The subsequent month's sales of the game =
the Subsequent 3 months sales of the game = The subsequent 6 months sales of the
game = The subsequent year's sales of the game.
Therefore, if you blow your first week sales numbers, you're in big trouble. And
that's where sell-in comes into play. If you can get 100,000 units on the shelf
first day then you can assure very high numbers of sales.
Galactic Civilizations II's initial sell in was much higher than the original's
-- 3X as much (but still only a fraction of the roll out of a huge title). And
sales have been unexpectedly strong. But because we're a smaller player, our
ability to get units onto the shelves is much less than a larger publisher. We
can TRY to get our title out into all retail chains on Day 1 of release but as
we've learned (The hard way along with our customers) our ability to actually
get....the...units...in....their hands and up on shelves is more problematic.
Hence, we have cases where some stores -- even in the same retail chain -- have
the box on the shelves while others do not. Which drives us nuts.
Vivendi Universal
Games Launches Nationwide Search for the Hottest Unsigned Music Talent for
Scarface: The World Is Yours Video Game (thanks Frans) has word on a music
talent hunt on myspace.com that will result in
the winner having a song on the Scarface game soundtrack and getting to perform
live at a "major concert event in Hollywood." No word on whether entries need to
echo the soul-crushing 80s-synth dirges of the movie's original Giorgio Moroder
score.
Happy Fat Tuesday!
As noted on
planet rome.ro, yesterday was the anniversary of the release of
QTest (actually I think
it was the 24th, but close enough for video games). Unbelievably, the
multiplayer test for Quake was released (wait for it...) 10 years ago! Equally
unbelievably this was covered here at the time (to my regret lots of older
content here was deleted rather than archived). Where does the time go?
R.I.P.: WW
II fighter ace Scott dies at 97.
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