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Archived News:
The Savage 2: A
Tortured Soul Forum has news that the online FTS/FPS hybrid is having a free
weekend where all demo accounts will have full access to the game and the
opportunity to win cash prizes: Starting May 23rd at 12 noon (-5 GMT) and
running through May 26th at 11:59pm (-5 GMT) all demo accounts will have full
unlimited access to Savage 2.
During this same time frame we will be creating a new experience ladder with
prizes for the top TOTAL experience earners as follows:
1st place: $250
2nd place: $150
3rd place: $100
250th place $75
500th place $50
Everyone is eligible for the cash giveaway and awards will be based on total
experience earned during the above timeperiod.
Payments will be sent via Paypal or Amazon E-Giftcard, recipients
choice.
World of Warcraft Website
has word on new info Blizzard is offering about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich
King expansion for World of Warcraft, their MMORPG. There's a new
Death Knight Gameplay Information Page, new
wallpapers
and a
new gameplay features page with "a preview of some of the quest, dungeon,
and faction innovations" in the add-on.
The
City of Heroes Official Forums announce that Issue 12, "Midnight Hour," is
live, offering new content for City of Heroes/Villains subscribers (thanks Jon).
This page offers an
overview of the update, and the
City
of Heroes Q&A on Boomtown talks with Matt Miller about Issue 12.
Polish game developer and publisher City Interactive announces they are
undertaking North American and Latin American distribution, as they plan on
bringing Art of Murder: FBI Confidential ( story) to the
new world, along with the previously unannounced Code of Honor 2: WHITE
PLAINS, NEW YORK, May 19, 2008 –City Interactive, one of Poland’s largest games
developers and international multi-format publishers, announced today the
appointments of Gabriel Del Castillo to the position of CEO Americas and Lisa
Rivera as Vice President Sales North America as part of the company’s plans to
expand into North and Latin American markets. The company will launch its first
U.S. titles, the critically acclaimed PC adventure game Art of Murder: FBI
Confidential and Code of Honor 2, a first-person shooter for the PC, later this
summer.
“City Interactive is pleased to have such a great team in place to spearhead our
expansion,” said Marek Tyminski, CEO and Founder, City Interactive. “Because Art
of Murder is one of the best-selling adventure games in Europe and the
best-selling game in the history of our company, it’s a natural product for our
North American and Latin American launches.” City Interactive Americas is headed
by Gabriel Del Castillo, who has extensive experience working for IBM, Price
Waterhouse, Andersen Consulting and others.
“City Interactive’s culture of adapting to each market segment and capitalizing
on the economies of scale that our own globalization allows, gives us the edge
to successfully compete in these important markets,” said Del Castillo. “We are
starting with PC games, but we will soon establish the company as a
multiplatform publisher. With our global know-how and great game content, we’re
set to make an impact from the start.”
Lisa Rivera, who has worked for such noted video game companies such as Take Two
Interactive, Nintendo of America, Inc. and GT Interactive, brings twenty plus
years of video game industry sales and marketing experience to City
Interactive’s team of experts.
“City Interactive has a great team of people dedicated to making great games,”
said Rivera. “I am so excited to be a part of the team launching the company in
the U.S. and Canada. Our flagship title Art of Murder is sure to be a hit with
adventure gamers, and this is just the start of the great games the company will
offer.”
Based in Warsaw, Poland, City Interactive debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
in November 2007 with much success. City Interactive aims to offer affordable
games for casual and special interest gamers with a wide range of titles for the
PC, Handhelds and Next-Gen consoles.
Epic Games announces the acquisition of Chair Entertainment, developers of the
Unreal-engine Xbox LIVE Arcade game Undertow and owners of the Empire
property ( story). Here's the deal on the deal: Cary, North
Carolina – May 20, 2008 – Epic Games, Inc., creators of the award-winning Unreal
and Gears of War video game franchises and the industry leading Unreal Engine,
today announced its acquisition of Utah-based development studio, Chair
Entertainment Group, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Chair Entertainment
Group has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Epic Games and will continue to
operate under the same name while maintaining its focus on creating new original
game properties which utilize Epic's Unreal Engine technology.
"Chair's stylized approach to creating games is further enhanced by their
ability to stretch our technology in new directions that not only help in
creating amazing gaming experiences but also demonstrate the power and
versatility of the Unreal Engine," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games,
Inc. "We are thrilled to bring the Chair team into the Epic family, and look
forward to working with them to create original new games that continue to
innovate and inspire."
"Our team has long admired Epic for its ability to shape the game industry with
its innovative technology and first-rate video game offerings," said Ryan
Holmes, Co-Founder and CEO of Chair Entertainment Group. "We share Epic's
passion for creating ground-breaking game play experiences and are excited for
the opportunity to partner with a truly visionary company."
Founded in 2005, Chair Entertainment Group is jointly led by directors, Donald
and Geremy Mustard, and CEO Ryan Holmes. Best known for its award-winning Xbox
Live Arcade title, Undertow, Chair's previous success includes the launch of its
Empire property which has produced an Orson Scott Card-written New York Times
bestselling novel and a feature film currently in development with Warner Bros.
In 2007, after several years of building games with Unreal technology, Chair
entered into an agreement with Epic Games to make Unreal Engine 3 their
exclusive technology for game development.
A new "cell phase" trailer from Spore offers a look at gameplay from the
earliest stage of the upcoming evolutionary simulation. The clip is narrated by
Matt Powers, who explains the simple existence of your simple creature at this
point in its development. The clip can be found on
ActionTrip,
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The
Arcania: A Gothic Tale First on GameSpot is a preview of the game formerly
known as Gothic IV that got mentioned last night, but it seems appropriate to
focus on the part that explains the name change for the North American edition
of the RPG series: The Gothic franchise has forever been defined by
free-roaming open-world gameplay, sweeping story and settings, and bugs. Lots of
bugs. Publisher DreamCatcher freely admits that Gothic 3 was a great game in
theory but an unplayable mess in execution. So former developer Piranha Bytes is
gone, replaced by Spellbound Entertainment in the hope that fans of the epic
role-playing game genre will eventually see Gothic in the same bright light as
Oblivion. Spellbound's next project is Arcania: A Gothic Tale.
The name change serves two purposes. First, it hints at a world rich in magic
and fantasy. Second, and completely from a marketing perspective, it helps give
the Gothic franchise a fresh start in North America, where it has failed to gain
significant popularity. And gaining popularity in the good old US-of-A is goal
one for DreamCatcher. The team invested months of research into the differences
between European and American gaming preferences, so much so that there will be
two different color palettes for Arcania: North American (bright and beautiful)
and European (muted and gritty). Truth be told, we didn't notice much of a
difference when DreamCatcher stopped by our office to show off a very early
build of Arcania, but you have to admire the attention to detail.
I was a fan of Speed Racer when I was a kid, and imagined I would run off to see
the movie upon release. However, between the goofy look of the trailers, and the
fact that its current freshness rating on
Rotten Tomatoes hovers a meager
percentage point ahead of the Postal movie means this is probably one for the
satellite. Humorously, checking RT shows that Postal is running dead even with
the Sex and the City movie, but that the Indy movie is doing pretty darned well.
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