Kalypso Media announces that
Rise of Venice is gold, and the now-complete
strategy game is set to make its debut on September 27th. Here's a
new batch of
screenshots to celebrate the news, and here's a feature list to see if this
floats your gondola:
- Experience a compelling story full of intrigue and
treason in Venice at the time of the Renaissance
- Trade a variety of goods in the most important
cities of the time such as Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople and Athens.
- With your own family tree you can interact with
your family members, send them on missions and watch how the power of your
family grows over time.
- Meet other important families who are pulling the
strings in Venice’s government and influence political decisions yourself.
- Build your own production facilities and trading
fleets
- Take fate into your own hands and test your skills
in furious sea battles
- Multiplayer mode for up to 4 players via LAN and
Internet
Matrix Games announces
Gary Grigsby's War in the West, saying the wargame
follow up to
Gary Grigsby's War in the East is already in the beta
testing phase, though it does not yet have a set release date. Here's word on
what this covers: "Players will discover a huge game covering the whole Allies’
Campaign in the West front, from the invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1943,
through France, Belgium and Holland in 1944 and through the crossing of the
Rhine and the end of the war in Germany." There are more details on the
game's product page and beta signups are being accepted
through this page. Here's word on
how the new game will improve upon its predecessor:
Gary Grigsby’s War in
the West contains huge improvements to the War in the East engine in the areas
of logistics, land and air combat and amphibious and airborne invasions,
allowing the players to choose among multiples strategies in both air and land
battles. It also features a bigger map (36k hexes versus 25k for WitE), new
terrain types, detailed Strategic Bombing and improvements to non-ground support
missions, more realism in Logistics and Weather conditions, new Amphibious and
Airborne Landing Rules, new Victory conditions… and much more!
A new
Kickstarter from flight simulation designers Oleg Maddox, Ilya Shevchenko,
and Igor Tishin seeks funding for
DCS WWII: Europe 1944, "an exciting new
flight simulation series." Here's the explanation of why they need $100,000 for
this:
Legendary flight simulation designers Oleg Maddox, Ilya Shevchenko,
and Igor Tishin, are excited to bring you a new WWII flight simulation for the
PC. Built by industry veterans with the same approach that made the famous
flight sims of the past great, and in partnership with the experts at the
Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics, the simulation aims to satisfy seasoned
aces as well as attract new pilots to the genre.
With unparalleled attention to detail, our developers have decades of experience
with aerial combat simulations. We are famous for our ability to make our games
fun while maintaining unwavering dedication to historical realism. We can do it
because relatively simple WWII-era aircraft do not require extensive training,
and nimble controls and simple weapons naturally lead to fast-paced
close-quarters battles.
We want to open a new page in WWII combat simulations. We also strive to
recapture everything that made famous flight simulations of the past great,
starting with a thick spiral-bound manual and comprehensive training, and ending
with great free-for-all multiplayer. But we cannot do it without your
help!
The
latest
trailer from
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag offers about ten more
minutes of gameplay footage from the next installment in Ubisoft's stealth
series, once again narrated by game director Ashraf Ismail. As noted in the
description: "Experience the new open-world activities in the largest Assassin's
Creed world ever. Includes gameplay footage of new features and locations such
as underwater treasure diving, smugglers caves, harpooning for sharks, and
enhanced naval combat."
Continue here to read the full story.
This trailer shows off
alpha gameplay from
Worlds of Magic, the upcoming game looking to live up to the
classic 4x strategy games of yore. Wastelands Interactive asks that those who
like what they see in this head over to their
Steam
Greenlight page and cast a vote in the game's favor.
Continue here to read the full story.
Irrational Games has laid off eight employees,
reports Kotaku, saying the developer tells them this will not impact
the upcoming
BioShock Infinite DLC "in any way." Here is the statement
they received explaining this:
In an effort to streamline our processes I
am sad to confirm that we let go a total of 8 employees today. Any studio’s
greatest asset is the group of people that make up the whole, and as such it was
extremely hard to make this decision and there is never a good time for this to
happen. As co-workers and friends, we wish them the very best.
Steam News offers details
on a new Steam Trading feature called Trade Offers, which will allow players to
package inventory items to offer trades to
Steam friends, allowing for
asynchronous trading even when one party is offline. They have a FAQ with all
the details, and here's the outline:
Today we’re shipping a new feature
we’re calling Trade Offers that allows you to send a prepackaged trade to a
friend. It’s similar to regular trading, except you propose the items for both
sides. You select the items you’re willing to give up from your inventory and
what you’d like to receive from your friend, and send it off. Your friend will
receive a notification in the green drop down and can then choose to accept,
decline, or make a counter offer. Unlike regular Steam Trading, you don't need
to both be online at the same time. Plus, trade offers can be sent and received
using a web browser.
You can create an offer from a few places: from the
Trade Offers page in your
Inventory, from a friend’s Inventory, and from any of your badge pages you can
send a friend a trade offer based on the trading cards you still need
collect.
Strategy First now offers
this trailer with a
third look at gameplay from
Timelines: Assault On America, the imminent
RTS game based on an alternate history where the U.S. was invaded during World
War II. The clip features the Battle for Washington D.C. The clip shows
close-quarters tank combat in the urban setting, showing some recognizable
landmarks, including the Capitol Building and a mostly destroyed Washington
Monument.
Continue here to read the full story.
Dinner last night was great, thanks for the early leave. Actually to be honest,
dinner was terrible, as the diner chosen for the occasion was committing crimes
against food, but the company was awesome, so we had a great time. And Shana
Tova (nice, right?) to all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New
Year. It's now 5774, but I'm sure I'll be writing 5773 on my checks for a couple
of weeks yet (so happy I figured out how to double up on that joke every year).
I'm very excited the NFL season kicks off tonight, and the early season is
always fun due to the "everyone is a contender" illusion. Here's the promised
reminder that we have a Blue's News competition underway on
BeatTheInsiders, so
set up a free account there and play along with us should you so desire.
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