PC Game News

The Adventure Company has announced that it will be publishing "Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper", the upcoming adventure sequel by Frogwares, in North America.

"Sherlock Holmes, one of the world’s best known detectives is matched up with the most dangerous serial killer in England’s history, Jack the Ripper. The Year is 1888, London has been overtaken by a series of gruesome murders and police are left baffled, with no leads. The murders continue and Sherlock Holmes steps up to the case, setting out on a terrifying adventure to seek out the identity of Jack the Ripper.

“We are extremely pleased to continue publishing one of the best franchises out there in adventure gaming,” said Byron Gaum, Global Product Marketing Manager at The Adventure Company.  “Frogwares and Focus Home Interactive have brought us some of the finest adventure titles in recent years. We think this pairing of the world’s greatest sleuth and the infamous killer will be another standout release in the adventure gaming genre.”    

Take on the role of master sleuth Sherlock Holmes as you venture into the dark, grim streets of London searching for the macabre trail of… Jack the Ripper. During this terrifying adventure, Sherlock will attempt to shed some light on the mystery that shrouds the identity and motive of the infamous killer."

Features:

• From the award-winning developers of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
• Scour eerie environments and interrogate mysterious suspects
• Carefully search for clues in first-person, or zoom-out to third-person and observe the incredible surroundings
• An original system that allows you to piece together individual crimes and test your hypothesis as the investigation unfolds

Paradox Interactive has released new screenshots for "Elven Legacy", giving viewers more of a look at the upcoming turn-based strategy game by Ino-Co.

"Elven Legacy is a fantasy strategy game that sends players on an epic quest to restore the former glory of the Elven race. The game has multiple thrilling endings and tools that allow players to create their own missions and campaigns and share them in multiplayer mode.

Elven Legacy is scheduled for release in April 2009 and will be published worldwide by Paradox Interactive. It will be available for digital download at GamersGate for a suggested retail price of $29.99 / €29.99."

       
       

Stardock has announced that "Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment", the new expansion for the popular strategy game by Ironclad Games.

"Expanding on the award-winning Sins of a Solar Empire, Entrenchment is now available and brings new defensive structures and options to the battlefield.

Defend your territory with massive starbases; platforms bristling with weapons, armor and shields capable of defending an entire planet. Entrenchment is packed with new features including:

• Build & Customize Massive Starbases
• Ensnare your Enemy with Mine Fields
• Battle the Challenging new AI
• Rain Destruction with Assault Cruisers
• Lose yourself in Striking new Visuals

You can now get Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment from www.sinsofasolarempire.com for $9.95. Entrenchment is available exclusively on Impulse, Stardock’s new digital distribution platform."

Tri Synergy and Auran Games have announced an agreement in which Tri Synergy will publish "Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition".

"Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition delivers a whole new level of realism. With new graphics capabilities, higher detailed terrain and dozens of great new features. TS2009 is the "must-have" version for all Trainz lovers.

TS2009 delivers all your favourite content from past releases plus new content such as the Union Pacific SD40-2 and the high resolution TS2009 track. More content will be released for download over time. It encompasses all features from the Trainz Classics series and solves many of the issues found in previous versions.

In addition to the traditional Driver, Surveyor and Railyard modules, TS2009 also includes new community based options such as the Trainz Online Gallery where users can upload their screenshots with others. Also included is Content Manager V2.0 which will help you search, edit and organize all your Trainz content.

Features include:

• Increased terrain and texture detail
• Higher resolution graphics
• Trainz Online Gallery, news, chat and more
• Increased terrain and texture detail
• Higher resolution graphics
• Improved search and filter functions
• Content Manager V2.0 to manage all your assets
• Trainz Online Gallery, news, chat and more
• Includes over 13,000 rail related items

Trainz Simulator 2009 will be available at fine retailers Spring 2009."

True Games Interactive released new screenshots from "Warrior Epic", giving viewers a look at the upcoming MMORPG by Possibility Space.

"The new screen shots depict three of Warrior Epic’s six classes in different, stunning environments.  The Devotress can be seen in gleaming armor doing battle deep in the mines of Welkin Warrens with a robotic adversary. A Pit Fighter has found safe haven in a Providian camp nestled in the treacherous jungles of Aberas, while an Illusionist fights against all odds in the mysterious Faustus Estate. For more information on Warrior Epic, and to register for the upcoming beta visit www.warriorepic.com."

       
     

Cyanide and Focus Home Interactive have released a new video for "Dungeon Party", giving viewers more of a look at the upcoming third-person action multiplayer game that will be released for free.

"Dungeon Party is a free PC online game developed by Cyanide and based on team play. Plunge into a wild heroic-fantasy universe and play against each other in teams of heroes across dungeons filled with deadly traps and monsters to try and collect the treasures they hold. In Dungeon Party you can create and customize your character with different costumes and objects. A holiday-making sorcerer, a thief straight out of a night club, or a gothic hangman…all styles are possible! Each player can equip his character with different objects and weapons before the battle against opponent teams starts.

You’ll have to develop your character through the matches and carefully choose which spells and skills could help the best your team. In order to spice up the game, deadly traps and hunted creatures are scattered throughout the dungeons. These creatures won’t make any difference between the teams and protect their treasures with a lot of zeal. Kill monsters will give you more experience points which allow you to buy faster new spells. Bosses and mini-bosses will be harder to beat but will also give you a greater amount of points and, most of all, will help you to seduce the Chest. "

As promised, Valve released the "Team Fortress 2" Scout update and to celebrate, they’ve halved the price to $9.99 until Friday.

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New features

• Added The Force-A-Nature, The Sandman, and Bonk!
• Added 35 new Scout achievements
• Added crit boosted on/off sound effects
• Added new sounds for upgraded teleporters
• Added new sound for a fully charged medic dying
• Add bonus points section to scores
  • Scouts earn a bonus point for killing Medics who are actively healing a target
• Added several new speech concepts, mostly hooked up to new Scout lines
• Added new "Remember last weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer Advanced dialog
• Spies can now control which weapon the enemy team sees them holding. Hitting the "last disguise" key while disguised updates the disguise to show the Spy’s currently held weapon
• Added several new Arena mode announcer speech events.
• Added "First Blood" to Arena mode
• Removed 2x item respawn times in arena
• Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs
• Spies disguised as enemy team can now see player IDs for enemies

New maps

• Added community maps: cp_egypt, arena_watchtower, and cp_junction
• Updated cp_fastlane with Arttu’s new version

Mapmaker requests

• Added new input for forward speed modifier to FuncTrainTrain
• Added TeleportToPathTrack input to func_tracktrain

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes gib from non-gib damage kills
• Fixed stat screen showing an entry for a class called "map."
• Fixed item model panels not using team skins
• Fixed obscure bug where spectators were able to carry the flag

Electronic Arts today released new screenshots and a trailer for "Dante’s Inerno", the upcoming action adventure game by EA Redwood Shores.

"Written in the 14th Century, The Divine Comedy was published and read aloud in Italian (unlike the Bible), thereby making the poem accessible to the mass public. The poem delivers a striking and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. In part one, known as Dante’s Inferno, Dante traverses all nine circles of hell; limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery."

     

Paradox Interactive has announced that beta sign-ups for "Hearts of Iron 3", the upcoming strategy sequel, have begun.

"Hearts of Iron III is now approaching the critical Beta stage of development. The last few months have seen the team stabilizing the foundations of the AI, tightening up the rules and mechanics of the game, along with implementing new artwork and interface features.

Johan Andersson, Lead Developer on Hearts of Iron III, specifies what they are looking for in Beta Testers: “We require keen, enthusiastic gamers who are willing to give up a few hours a week to play a Beta version of the game and provide feedback to us on what they think. We want people to play it and tell us what they see. We want them to try and break the game in order for us to fix it and to test out our new advanced AI system to make the computer opponent better.”

Paradox Interactive is also looking for a small number of historical researchers to assist the development team in improving the databases.

To apply for Beta testing, go to: https://www.paradoxplaza.com/beta/ "

The list of new PC game releases, DVD releases, and movies opening the week of February 23rd, 2009.

PC Games:

• Shellshock 2: Blood Trails
• Tom Clancy’s End War

Movies Opening This Week:

• Crossing OVer (limited)
• Echelon Conspiracy (limited)
• Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

DVD Releases:

• Breaking Bad – The Complete First Season
• Chris & Don. A Love Story
• Cities of the Underworld: The Complete Season Two
• Dear Zachary:A Letter to a Son About His Father
• Dirty Jobs Collection 4
• Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder [Blu-ray]
• Girlfriends: The Sixth Season
• Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk [Blu-ray]
• Haunting of Molly Hartley
• Herbert von Karajan: Memorial Concert [Blu-ray]
• Hounddog [Blu-ray]
• Just Shoot Me: The Complete 3rd Season
• Karol: The Pope, The Man
• Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 [Blu-ray]
• Love Hina: Complete Series Box Set
• My Wife & Kids: Season 1
• NFL Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh Steelers Champions DVD
• On the Other Hand, Death: A Donald Strachey Mystery
• Padre Pio:Between Heaven and Earth
• Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge
• Samurai 7 – Box Set [Blu-ray]
• Super Speedway [Blu-ray]
• The Brain
• The Lair : Season 2
• The Last House on the Left
• The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
• The Red Green Show: 2001 Season
• Tribute to Pavarotti – One Amazing Weekend in Petra
• What Just Happened?
• Wonder Pets!: Join the Circus
• WWE: Royal Rumble 2009

Digitalmindsoft sends word that the "Men of War" open beta, hosted on FilePlanet, is now available to all registered FilePlanet users versus just the paying subscribers.

"By having a free account at FilePlanet.com, users can then download the beta and get unrivalled access to the World War II real-time tactical title. Once players have downloaded the beta, they can then challenge others online in the game’s varied selection of multiplayer matches.

More information can be found in the DigitalMindsoft forums.

Men of War takes place in Europe during the height of World War II. The story unfolds across three different campaigns played out through the eyes of Soviet, Allied and German soldiers. Each campaign has its own structured timeline bringing a different story of the war to life spanning across Russia, North Africa, Ukraine, Greece, Germany, Italy and the Pacific. The main Soviet campaign sees two student comrades, Smirnov and Kuznetzov, join the army and quickly become brothers in arms as they rise through the ranks and experience the rigors of war."

Valve and Square Enix have announced an agreement to bring Square Enix’s games to Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam.

"Beginning April 9, THE LAST REMNANTT will be available for purchase via Steam, which makes PC games available online to more than 15 million users worldwide. An action RPG from the makers of the FINAL FANTASY series, THE LAST REMANT will be the first Square Enix game to utilize Steamworks and be distributed via Steam. Square Enix will continue to add to its roster of games on Steam, providing users with instant access – after purchase, they can download the game immediately and start playing.  Pricing will be announced at a later date.
 
"We are excited to offer the millions of Steam customers online access to Square Enix titles beginning with our major action RPG, THE LAST REMNANT," said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Inc. and Square Enix Ltd. "Square Enix is committed to delivering the best quality titles to PC gamers and distribution on Steam is one of the many steps we are taking to increase accessibility for fans in North America and PAL territories."
 
Once players have a Steam account, they can sign in from any PC to access their Steam-distributed Square Enix games. Because games are associated with their account and not their computer, players can get lost in the world of their favorite game anytime, anywhere.
 
"Square Enix is a fantastic addition to the Steam lineup," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "We are thrilled that Square Enix chose to bring its diverse portfolio of titles to Steam and know that our customers will be ecstatic to hear this news."
 
For more information about Square Enix games coming to Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com. "

Update: Valve sent out a correction stating that Square Enix’s game will only come to Steam customers in North America and Europe.

Atari today announced the release dates for "The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena", the upcoming FPS expansion, which will be April 7th for North America and April 24th for Europe.

Featuring the brand new full-length ‘Assault on Dark Athena’ campaign, an HD remake of the classic ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ and multiplayer options including the unique Pitch Black mode all on one disk, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will deliver an incredibly rich experience to gamers following its worldwide release this coming April.

Renowned developer Starbreeze Studios has effectively combined stealth, vicious hand-to-hand combat and ferocious gunplay in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, creating an irresistible game with something for all fans of action gaming.  With playable demos coming in March to both Xbox Live® and PLAYSTATION® Network, fans won’t have to wait long to take their first steps as the galaxy’s most notorious bad-ass, Riddick.

For more information visit the game’s official website at https://atari.com/riddick/ with localized French, German, Italian and Spanish websites coming soon.

New Screenshots:

Atari has released a new trailer for "The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena", giving viewers a look at the upcoming FPS expansion.

"With The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, players will not only be challenged to survive Butcher Bay, but will also engage in a new single-player experience and, for the first time in the Riddick universe, take action in intense multi-player combat. The game introduces the ominous Merc-ship Dark Athena, which sits silent like a marauding spider, awaiting helpless prey in the dark reaches of the galaxy. Players must face a large, bloodthirsty operation led by the dreaded Captain Revas and her slaves-turned-controllable combat drones, storm though death-defying events and fight fierce enemies in a battle of malice and gore."

Codemasters released a new EGO tech video for "Operation Flashpoing 2: Dragon Rising" today, giving viewers a look at the technology used to take the series to the next level.

"Set to deliver the most accessible, engaging and visceral sandbox shooter of the year, Operation Flashpoint™: Dragon Rising is being developed using an evolved variant of the EGO™ Engine, Codemasters Studios’ proprietary technology platform. A cross-format iterative technical project, developed with accreditation from platform holders, the EGO Engine has previously been used to great effect in the creation of award-winning titles Colin McRae: DiRT™ and Race Driver: GRID™. The EGO Engine video released today demonstrates how this technology powers everything from minute detail to grand landscapes; delivering the most immersive real world effects and environments ever seen in a FPS."