Archived News:
Spore
Available at Retailers Worldwide This Week From EA and Maxis announces the
beginning of the three-stage rollout for Spore, the new life simulation for EA
Maxis. The game is being released for Windows, Macintosh, DS, mobile phones, and
the iPhone, and as of today the game should be showing up in Germany, France,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Finland and
Australia. The game should be available in South America and the rest of Europe
tomorrow, while Spore's North American release is planned for this coming
Sunday, September 7. In short: "Spore gives players their own personal universe in
a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt
entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers.
Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect
of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships."
Akella announces an agreement with Strategy First to acquire the Disciples
trademark, even as Akella and associated developer .dat complete development of
Disciples III: Renaissance ( story). The announcement
quotes Akella's Dmitry Arkhipov saying: "Working on such a well known brand is
big responsibility for us. We are confident that our new project, "Disciples
III," will meet the expectations of the legendary series fans. We are going to
develop the Disciples brand, invest in it heavily, and produce a really good
game in best traditions of the series." Terms of the deal are not being
disclosed. There's also a new movie from Disciples III: Renaissance showing off
Elves Town in the upcoming strategy sequel. The clip is available from
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
MyGameTrailers.
Fileplay, a beta file
delivery service from Multiplay, is now offering beta keys to Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning, Mythic's imminent MMORPG. They say they have
50,000 keys to distribute.
The Kickster: Online Street Soccer
Website is accepting registration from those interested in testing this
upcoming subscription-free football (soccer) MMOG. What they say is: "With the
closed beta for Kickster scheduled to start soon, Frogster is going to activate
even more registered accounts for the alpha version within the next few days.
Frogster has suggested players sign-up for the alpha phase of Kickster to ensure
they can keep playing through the game's various test phases. With a German beta
client due to be released soon the closed beta will be open only at certain
weekends during the first beta phase. Thus, a quick registration for the alpha
assures the opportunity to play Kickster non-stop for a while."
The Galactic Dream: Rage of War Website
now offers a new patch to update this outer space-based real-time strategy game
to version 1.2H. The update adds new voices to the tutorial, a monitor bot "to
improve player experience," optimizations, bug fixes and more. The patch is
accompanied by an updated playable demo incorporating these new features and
fixes.
This announcement has
details on the DirecTV pay-per-view coverage of BlizzCon 2008. They say new
subscribers who sign up for DirecTV via
this page before the end of this
month will get the PPV even free, while all other DirecTV subscribers will be
charged $39.99 (though they also say "More details for existing DIRECTV
subscribers will be announced here on 9/18"). Those who purchase a viewing of
the event will also receive in-game swag in the form of a World of Warcraft
polar bear mount "with mounted, flag-waving murloc."
Blizzard
Entertainment Soundtracks Now On iTunes has word that six soundtracks from
Blizzard games are now available via
Apple's iTunes Store. Celebrating the news, iTunes is also offering the
Diablo III Overture for free between now and September 9. The soundtracks
now on sale are for StarCraft, Diablo II, Warcraft III: Reign
of Chaos, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: The Burning
Crusade, and World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
MCV announces that most of the staff from Vivendi has made its transition to
their new Activision Blizzard offices, as activities at Vivendi UK are brought
to an end. They report that the impact of redundancies has not been as great as
many had anticipated, quoting Activision Blizzard’s UK managing director Andrew
Brown saying: "We offered people a lot more jobs than were taken in the end. And
we’ve tried to make sure everybody who did come across felt that it was a
positive move."
They
also report that the fates of Ghostbusters and 50 Cent: Blood on
the Sand are still up in the air, as Activision Blizzard has not decided
what to do with these two Vivendi projects.
EA announces that Dead Space will be released sooner than expected, the
rare early game in an industry where delays are the norm. The game was
originally planned for release on Halloween this year, which had recently been
pushed up to October 21 for the console editions, but now word is the
science-fiction themed horror game will be available on October 14 for Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3, and the PC version will ship on October 20.
Steam announces the return of X-COM: Terror from the Deep to the online
delivery service, as well as the addition of four other titles from the highly
regarded UFO strategy series, X-COM: Apocalypse, X-COM: Enforcer,
X-COM: Interceptor, and X-COM: UFO Defense. The games are
available separately for $4.99 USD each, or as part of their
X-COM collection for $14.99 USD. During this first week of availability,
they are offering an additional 10% off those prices.
GameTap now
offers this week's episode of American McGee's Grimm, the episodic
adventure series. The new episode is called Godfather Death, and as
usual, it is available as a free download for the first 24 hours of release. Here's the
description of the new episode: "In this episode, when a poor couple gives birth
to their thirteenth child, the father ventures out to find a godfather to raise
his newest son. The man chooses Death and Death actually agrees to raises the
child. In fact, Death helps him become a rich and famous doctor, armed with
constant knowledge regarding which patients could be saved and which souls would
soon be spirited away. Eventually, the man falls in love with a Princess that
Death is about to claim, so he tricks his godfather into sparing her life.
Whatever punishment might Grimm find suitable for someone trying to cheat Death
- especially when Death is, as in this case, family?"
Activision announces plans for multiplayer beta tests in October for both the
Windows and Xbox 360 editions of Call of Duty: World at War to pave the
way for the release of the military shooter sequel, confirming the November 11,
2008 US release date that's appeared on retails sites. Word is: "These betas
will serve as an early chance for players to practice the tactics needed for
survival in the intense chaos of Call of Duty: World at War’s Pacific and
European theaters. Players will experience the game’s new squad system, as well
as fan favorite perks and kill streaks."
Paradox Interactive announces plans to release Europa Universalis III:
Complete in October, offering a bundle of Europa Universalis III along with
Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine, the two expansions for the
historical RTS game, which were previously only available via digital
distribution. The bundle will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99/€29.99.
The 4D Rulers Website announces
the release of a new version 1.6.15 of Gore Special Edition, their free
first-person shooter.
This forum post offers a change list for the new version, which includes the
tools for user created maps. They also put out the call for an investor or
publisher for Gore Arcade, described as a "top down casual arcade game based on
the Gore Franchise."
Ubisoft and CBS
announce CSI: NY, a Windows game planned for release this holiday season,
offering a spin-off for the game series based on one of the spin-offs of the
related television series. The game will feature five new cases penned by the
writers on the TV series, and word is there will be the first installment in the
series that puts the player in the role of characters from the show.
Empire Interactive Announces that development of Ford Racing Off Road
is complete, and the now-gold motorsports game will arrive in stores on
September 16. Some new screenshots from the game can be found on
FileFront, and here's a bit: "The latest addition to the popular Ford
licensed franchise will put players behind the wheel of 18 of the world’s
toughest 4x4s, SUVs and off-road trucks, including the new 2009 Ford F150 FX4,
and take them on a tour of 24 detailed tracks through deserts, water and ice.
Ford Racing Off Road also marks the introduction of the prestigious Land Rover
brand, synonymous like Ford, with a rich heritage of producing pioneering off
road vehicles."
Eurogamer
reports November 7 will be the release date for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel,
saying this is when to expect the Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 editions of
ASCARON Entertainment's upcoming action/RPG prequel. This news comes from
European publisher Koch, and it is not clear if it applies to other territories.
As noted on the
Sacred 2 Website,
Amazon is accepting preorders for the game, and lists a September 30 release
date.
A second playable demo is now available for new Death Track: Resurrection,
offering a second sample of this futuristic action game based on a lethal
motorsport (the first demo was released in June - story). Word
is: "The demo includes two post-apocalyptic cities - Bangkok and Paris, and
three unique upgradable cars." The demo is posted on
Death Track: Resurrection
Website and mirrored on
AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
Strategy Informer.
Nanoverse Online Website is
online as home to Nanoverse Online, a subscription-free MMORPG in the works at
Duplex Systems. Grab your microscope, though, as this game is set in the "micro
cosmos." Word is: "The game is centred [sic] on Nanobots, complex structures of
small nano modules connected to each other and interacting with a world
featuring exceptional physical conditions. The world, being a micro cosmos, will
offer unprecendented [sic] gameplay, unique in many ways and not known in any
MMOG today." This page
offers details on the game, and
this page
offers a project schedule.
Football Manager
2009 given November 14 release date on VideoGamer.com offers that second
week in November release date for the next installment in Sports Interactive's
sports management series. The story also reports that there will not be console
versions of the game this year, with Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson
expressing disappointment in the user interface in the Xbox 360 edition, saying
they are looking at Civilization Revolution as an example of a PC game that
created a workable console interface.
It's been a while since I mentioned the impending re-relocation of the web
server here, but we have a new ETA for this overdue move. The current
expectation is that the new server will be online in about a week, and the
couple of remaining issues with broken scripts will should be taken care of
shortly after that. Apologies for the inconvenience.
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