A new trailer for the newly announced "Civilization V" sequel has been released, giving viewers a glimpse at what's to come in the next installment.
"Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire."
A new trailer for "Metro 2033" has been released, giving viewers more of a look at the upcoming RPG by 4a-Games.
"In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.
The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival, with each other, and the mutant horrors that await outside.
You are Artyom, born in the last days before the fire, but raised Underground. Having never ventured beyond your Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of mankind of a terrible impending threat. Your journey takes you from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where your actions will determine the fate of mankind."
Paradox Interactive today announced that "Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943" has been released via all major digital distribution portals.
"Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 Main Features:
Two new videos of the game are up on Paradox's Youtube channel.
Wargaming.net today announced that the release date for "Order of War: Challenge" has been changed to March 12th.
"Two additional weeks will be used for optimizing game performance and tense QA work, allowing the company to deliver a more polished product.
"We are committed to delivering quality products," says Victor Kislyi, chief executive officer of Wargamig.net", that's why we decided to give Order of War: Challenge some more time that will be spent on enhancing and polishing certain areas of the game. That is the only reason for the delay".
About Order of War: Challenge:
ORDER OF WAR: CHALLENGE is a multiplayer stand-alone game in the world of ORDER OF WAR™, published by Wargaming.net, packing even more intense World War II real-time strategy action. With 6 extended modes, 12 unique maps, and hundreds of units under player control ORDER OF WAR: CHALLENGE gives players a battlefield experience of epic scale. With a focus on fast-action gameplay, and featuring exclusive bonus content, ORDER OF WAR: CHALLENGE is the ultimate way to experience online RTS gaming. With a new advanced gameplay system and including fog of war, ORDER OF WAR: CHALLENGE redefines combat mechanics and gives players a tense battlefield experience with plenty of room for wide-ranging tactics. For more information on ORDER OF WAR: CHALLENGE, visit https://www.wargaming.net/challenge"
No press release yet but the Total War twitter feed, launch trailer, etc. reveal that the game has been shipped in the US.
"In Napoleon: Total War, aspiring generals have the chance to play as the legendary French general Napoleon Bonaparte or as one of his opposing factions. Battling through his three biggest military campaigns, the game will take you through Italy and Egypt, narrating the early years of the fearsome commander, while the third campaign will tell the story of his fateful drive towards Moscow and, ultimately, his showdown with the Duke of Wellington at one of the most famous battles of all – The Battle of Waterloo."
GamersFirst today announced the release of the second volume of "Echoes of an Empire" for "Sword of the New World."
The newest extension of Sword of the New World offers numerous additions to this RPG world including:
And last but not least…
“The great thing about Free2Play online MMORPG’s is that we can roll out expansions with gamer requested content,” says Myra Widodo, Producer of Sword of the New World at GamersFirst. “We try to integrate parts of what we know will make the game run more smoothly and parts of what our gamers have requested over a period of time, making it a beneficial situation for both parties.”
In celebration of the expansion, Sword of the New World is offering a limited time 50 percent experience bonus for any players that login over the next week.
To keep up with the changes and conversations in-game, follow us at www.gamersfirst.com/swordofthenewworld."
Valve and Square Enix today announced that "Supreme Commander 2," the RTS sequel by Gas Powered Games, will ship with a collection of Steamworks features.
"Supreme Commander 2 is an upcoming sequel to Supreme Commander where players experience brutal battles on a massive scale by creating customizable armies to try and change the balance of power at any time. Supreme Commander 2 is being developed by Gas Powered Games in Redmond, WA.
Both the retail and electronic versions of Supreme Commander 2 for the PC will be powered by Steamworks, providing gamers with auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Steam support for in-game DLC, and more.
The Supreme Commander 2 demo is available now, and the game is available for pre-purchase. SC2 is slated for worldwide release the week of March 1st at retailers and via Steam. More information about Supreme Commander 2 can be found at www.supremecommander2.com.
Steamworks is a complete suite of publishing and development tools — ranging from product key authentication to social networking services — offered free of charge to publishers and developers.
For more information, please visit www.steampowered.com."
NCsoft today announced "Ghosts of Ascalon," an upcoming novel based on the Guild Wars series.
"Written by acclaimed authors Jeff Grubb and Matt Forbeck, Ghosts of Ascalon introduces readers to a fantasy world ravaged by war and chaos, and sets the stage for the release of the highly-anticipated sequel Guild Wars 2™.
Scheduled for release in North America and Europe in the summer of 2010, Ghosts of Ascalon takes place in the dangerous land of Tyria, the setting of Guild Wars. A mismatched band of adventurers, each plagued by ghosts from their pasts, journeys into the haunted, war-torn kingdom of Ascalon to retrieve a sacred relic that holds the promise of peace between humanity and their ancestral enemies, the savage charr. But not everyone wants peace, and the undead king who rules Ascalon won’t give it up easily!
In Guild Wars, one of the best-selling fantasy role-playing franchises of all time, players adventured through an epic storyline that spanned three continents or faced off against each other in head-to-head combat. Ghosts of Ascalon takes place in the same era as the upcoming Guild Wars 2, hundreds of years after the events of the original Guild Wars series. The sweeping storyline, richly imagined setting and dramatic characters will appeal to both fantasy readers and fans of Guild Wars alike.
For more information on Ghosts of Ascalon, please visit www.guildwars2.com."
Valve today announced the release of a new version of its digital distribution software "Steam" as a public beta.
"In the last 12 months, Steam has grown 200%. There are now 25 million users, 1000+ games, 12 billion player minutes per month, and 75 billion Steam client minutes per month. To accommodate this growth, a new Steam client has been created.
This opt-in beta is available immediately to all Steam users. If users already have Steam installed on their computer, they can take part in the beta by clicking this link and then selecting "UI Update" under Beta Participation. If they don't have Steam installed, they can download it here. To preview the new Steam client without taking part in the beta, a complete rundown of the new features is available here.
Increasingly the most effective way of reaching new gamers is through the existing players of a game. With the new Steam release, gamers will now be able to see which games their friends have purchased directly within the Steam storefront. 25 million gamers create a highly effective and knowledgeable source of purchase suggestions
With users purchasing more and more games through Steam, new methods of library management were needed. The new client introduces library customization tools to help gamers sort, group, and find games in libraries which for some hardcore players contain hundreds of titles. In addition to having lots of games, gamers needed methods of tracking all of their achievements in a standardized cross-game fashion, which is now possible with the new release.
"We made hundreds of changes to the Steam client as a result of customer feedback on the interface, performance, and functionality," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development at Valve. "For example, we swapped out the Internet Explorer rendering engine with WebKit, which gives us a bunch of size, stability and performance benefits. This release of Steam leaves us well prepared for another year of strong growth."
About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million PC users around the world. For more information, please visit steamgames.com."
The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and movies opening the week of February 22nd, 2010.
PC Games:
Movies Opening This Week:
DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:
Paradox Interactive today announced that "Arsenal of Democracy" has been released via all major digital distribution portals.
"Developed by BL-Logic, Arsenal of Democracy´s focus on historical accuracy, realism and strategic depth, as well as countless tweaks, improvements and new features breathe new life into the core Hearts of Iron II experience upon which the game was built.
Arsenal of Democracy main features:
2K Games today announced DLC plans for "BioShock 2." Beginning with "Sinclair Solutions Test Pack" in March, the content packs will extend and enhance the single and multiplayer portions of the game.
"Downloadable content will be made available soon beginning with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, available this March from the Xbox® LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows–LIVE for 400 Microsoft Points and from the PlayStation®Network for $4.99. Future expansions into the world of BioShock 2 are slated to arrive over the coming months and will continue to expand on the stories of the denizens of Rapture.
“The fans who waited in the snow, rain and cold for the midnight launch of BioShock 2 have spoken and their message is that Rapture still has many fascinating stories to tell,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Downloadable content is a key part of our efforts to continue to entice the fans that have made 2K a household name – we intend to deliver single and multiplayer content that respects and expands upon one of the greatest fictional worlds ever created.”
Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, the first of several planned downloadable packages, contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:
*Some items are only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher.
In the coming months, 2K Games will also be publishing downloadable extensions of the single player experience that provide new insight into the world of Rapture. These packages will include more narrative, new tools and new challenges that extend the lore and fiction of the failed Utopia under the sea."
The 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards will award John Carmack, co-founder of id Software, with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
"The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of developers who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development, as Carmack has done for his more than two decades of groundbreaking technical contributions, and his role establishing the first-person shooter genre with landmark titles like Doom and Quake.
The recipient is chosen by the elite Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes game industry notables such as Ben Cousins (EA DICE), Harvey Smith (Arkane), Raph Koster (Metaplace), John Vechey (PopCap), Ray Muzyka (BioWare), Clint Hocking (Ubisoft), and many others.
Former Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright – who will be presenting the award to Carmack at the ceremony on March 11, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco – and other legendary game creators.
John Carmack and his team at id Software, the company he co-founded in 1991, pioneered real-time 3D graphics in game, setting the pace and the standard for other developers to follow. Carmack and his colleagues at id are credited with essentially creating the modern-day first-person shooter (FPS) genre with the PC game Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and helping to popularize networked multiplayer gaming on PCs with the release of Doom in 1993.
id has gone on to create other major FPS and action game franchises such as Quake, and Carmack and id Software are currently in development of a number of projects, including the free-to-play, web-based title Quake Live, the upcoming new franchise RAGE, and DOOM 4.
As a largely self-taught technology purist, Carmack has devoted himself to pushing the limits of hardware and software. He's helped to set the technical and gameplay standard for modern 3D gaming – and in the process, created some of the most popular video game franchises in history, which is why he's being honored by the Game Developers Choice Awards this year."
Tripwire Interactive today announced the retail release of "Zeno Clash," the FPS by Chilean developer ACE Team that was released last August via Steam.
"Tripwire Interactive is making ACE Team’s multi-award-winning punk-fantasy brawler available from this weekend in Best Buy stores across the USA. Zeno Clash already gathered critical and fan acclaim throughout 2009, winning multiple awards, before PC Gamer crowned it “Game of the Year”. The box features:
Basilisk Games released a new trailer for "Eschalon: Book II," giving viewers more of a look at the upcoming sequel.
"Eschalon: Book II is the sequel to 2007's acclaimed independent RPG Eschalon: Book I. Built on an updated engine and the same design principals as its predecessor, Book II features a huge tile-built game world and a unique approach to turn-based gameplay. Thousands of items, creatures, NPCs, dungeons, traps, and puzzles await your discovery in this old-school role-playing game inspired by such classics as Ultima, Might & Magic and Wizardry."
