ArmA: Queen's Gambit, First Armed Assault Expansion

Self-proclaimed "most realistic tactical combat simulation ever made", ArmA: Armed Assault is set to receive its first expansion pack later this summer. Called ArmA: Queen's Gambit, the add-on is being developed by original creators Bohemia Interactive in collaboration with Black Element Software (Shade: Wrath of Angels, Alpha Prime), and will be published once again by 505 Games (they still have a ways to go, with only around 20 games published so far).

First and foremost, Queen's Gambit will continue the Armed Assault scenario with two new story-based campaigns: "Rahmadi Conflict" - described as the true conclusion to the original ArmA story, with enormous battles taking place within massive fortifications on the Rahmadi Island and on the brand new Porto Island. And the second campaign, baptized "Royal Flush", will take place 18 months after the original conflict, when a group of seasoned mercenaries arrives to help the government with a sensitive matter that the army can't handle by itself any longer. "However, there is something highly suspect about this job", they warn us...

The new sandy island of Porto is also the background drop for one of the two new multiplayer missions included in Queen's Gambit - "Battle of Porto", a capture-and-hold scenario for 40 players. The other multiplayer map, called "Urban Raid", is a cooperative multiplayer scenario designed for a group of 6 battle-hardened Special Forces soldiers.

Last, but not least, the expansion will bring the final patch v1.08, which adds new weapons, vehicles and characters to the world of ArmA, along with a new resource management feature and gun dealers. It also brings dozens of multiplayer and technical improvements, which will finally enable North American players to fight on the same battlefields as the international community.

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With no immediate space-sim sequel in Egosoft's "X" universe, or let alone Frontier's ancient Elite series, fans of the genre will have to keep themselves busy with other titles - such as the newly released Space Force: Rogue Universe (or Space Force 2). Developed by Provox Games and published by JoWooD, the game was released earlier this month in North America, and will be coming to Europe as well this week. But even though it hasn't received too much media loving, Space Force 2 seems to be a worthy addition to the space-sim genre, and you can find out more about it from this interview issued by JoWooD. Here are a few bits from it:

"Player takes the role of young pilot Jim Anderson in a search for his lost sister Jax. Discovers conspiracy games between powerful Earth Military Directorate and the rest of humanity, solves long ago forgotten mysteries and faces the biggest threat ever - massive Collective attack."

"Players will have the opportunity to engage in trading, exploration, fighting, crafting, quest solving, and diplomacy decision-making in addition to ship development and other player activities. You can choose between 10 professions each conferring advantages and disadvantages. Earn money and experience points and advance to higher levels. Since AI has a crucial role in SFRU, it will create a thrilling playing experience throughout the game. As you progress through the game, each ship can be modified in your own creative style by upgrading."

Later in the interview, the devs at Provox mention that their next game will be Space Force: Captains, a turn-based strategy that you can get a picture of by checking this first batch of screenshots.

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EVE Online: Revelations II Free Expansion Next Week

Once again confirming the theory that the ludic universe is continually expanding, the devs from CCP are frantically preparing for the public release of Revelations II this coming Tuesday. This will be the seventh free EVE Online expansion, ever since their space MMO launched with a Big Bang in 2003, and it once again brings a wealth of notable features detailed on the official website's Patch Notes section - or below, if you don't have an EVE account to access it:

- Heat - Adding a new dimension to space combat in EVE. The ability to boost performance of ship modules can mean the difference between life and death, but not entirely without risk.

- Broader Sovereignty Scope - Sovereignty concept broadened with intermediate goals and four different tiers: Territory, Protectorate, Province and Constellation Capital.

- Revamped New Player Experience - Optimization and streamlining of the tutorial vastly improves how new players are introduced to EVE Online, making it more fun and easier to start their alter ego existence in space.

- Need for Speed - Significant CPU and dogma optimizations that set the groundwork for full Vista support slated to be introduced in a future expansion.

- Structure Warfare Enhancements - A number of new features expand the opportunity for strategic operations.

- Improved Corporation and Alliance Management - The addition of vital tools and roles necessary to command and conquer.

- Agent Mission Improvements - The introduction of Level 5 Agents add the most challenging Player-versus-Environment encounters yet.

- Expanding the Frontiers of Exploration - Rare NPC spawns and other opportunities abound for greater solo exploration as well as increasing the chances of discovering in-space encounters and hidden deadspace pockets.

- Anti-Fleet Warfare - Discover new tactics for dispersing large concentrations of ships.

An "optimized and streamlined" tutorial sure does sound like a welcome change for new players, who can give it a shot by downloading a free, 14-day trial version from EVE-Online.com (look for the "Try Now" button smack in the middle of the page). As for veteran players, they should take into account that the deployment of Revelations II - planned for June 19 at 02:00 GMT - is expected to last around 24 hours. So they might want to set long training skills prior to the "blackout".

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Codemasters Goes Through Big Changes, Gets £50 Million

A month that began with a seemingly minor change of "corporate identity" for Codemasters (notice the new logo), turned out to be a huge turning point in the British company's 21-year old history! Their previous logo, dating back to 1990, was not the only thing that changed: ten days later (on June 11), Codies appointed three more industry veterans to its growing U.S. operations - two former Konami execs, and another one from Capcom (and Sega prior to that). But this was still just a minor step before the big news that came yesterday: the Darling family, who founded the company back in 1986, have sold all their remaining shares, leaving Codemasters to be owned 100% by venture capital firm Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe).

Balderton first took interest in Codies in 2005, when they bought a 40% stake, followed by another 30% in 2006. And with this latest acquisition, they are now completely free to pursuit a more aggressive expansion of the company, as clearly indicated by Ynon Kreiz (general partner of Balderton Capital and board member of Codemasters):

"Codemasters is now fully funded and ready for its next stage of growth, with a great pipeline of new products and a world-class management in place."

And not only are they free to lead Codies as they see fit from now on, but they also got the money to do it. During the same announcement, it was revealed that investment bank Goldman Sachs has provided £50 million (€74m / $98m) of finance to support the company's future growth plans, heralding "the next stage for Codemasters as it realises its ambitions to be a global player", as Rod Cousens (CEO) put it.

Codemasters was founded in 1986 by the Darling twins - David and Richard - with the help of their father Jim, all of whom are now leaving behind the largest independent videogame developer and publisher in Europe. It may not have been the most popular publisher as well, but that's a whole 'nother story... a story well covered by GI.biz in their latest editorial, titled "Codies Remastered", in which they also analyze what this week's maneuvers could mean for the company's future...

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Plenty of games going (multi-)multi-platform these days... Aside from the rumoured Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360, Tomb Raider: Anniversary on Xbox 360 and Assassin's Creed on DS, we saw SoulCalibur IV being confirmed for the Xbox 360, Tunguska for the Wii and DS, Sega Rally (Revo) for the PSP; and now, Vivendi is taking a queue from EA's console strategies (LotR: BfME II, C&C 3) by announcing that World in Conflict is also coming to the Xbox 360. Somehow I doubt that that's what the game's slogan "War is coming home" means...

The story was confirmed by Eurogamer with a Vivendi spokesperson this week, who was rather short on details unfortunately:

"We can confirm we will be publishing World in Conflict for [Xbox] 360, and we will announce details soon."

This one question answered, however, raises plenty more: will it be a direct port of the PC version, but with a different control system? Will it come out this autumn, like the PC version? Is it also being developed by Massive Entertainment? And we're just getting started with these.

We suspect that a more detailed announcement will be issued very soon, but until then there's not much else to say about World in Conflict for the Xbox 360. The PC version, on the other hand, has recently received another gameplay trailer, accompanied by the famous song from the '80s, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (ed. - from the comfort of their armchair, if at all possible).

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Not only is Sega Rally (Revo) coming to the PSP as well, but the developer behind this portable version is none other than Bugbear Entertainment - if the game FlatOut rings any bells... Their current project, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage is about to be released on the Xbox 360 next week (it just went gold a couple of days ago), so from now on they have all the time in the world to adapt Sega's next-gen rally game to the PlayStation Portable. Well, ok, maybe not all the time in the world, but at least until September 2007, when the PSP version is planned for release.

SEGA Racing Studio are also providing their assistance to the portable version's development, while continuing to work on the previously announced PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions - also due out in September. Commenting on the announcement, Guy Wilday (studio director at SEGA Racing Studio) said that Sega Rally for the PSP will feature both multiplayer Wi-Fi and online multiplayer, and the communique further reveals a few more things about the game:

"SEGA Rally on the PSP encapsulates everything its predecessors laid out when defining the rally genre; amazing visuals, superb handling and closely fought competitive racing. These three key features have been the chassis of development for SEGA Rally on the PSP, combining to bring players a thrilling ride through jaw dropping environments and against competitive AI, all alongside an instinctive handling system that rewards players for pushing their rally-racing skills to the very limit."

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Contrary to what most critics thought about the original PC version of Tunguska, our review from last year shed a pretty favorable light over Fusionsphere's adventure game, which turned out to be one of the more pleasant surprises in 2006. Which is why we're happy to see it being ported to another couple of platforms: the Nintendo Wii and DS. The only bad news is that these adaptations are nowhere near complete: the DS version (made by 10tacle Studios Mobile) is only expected in Q4 2007, and the Wii version (by Keen Games) will follow even later than that, in early 2008.

"It is a real pleasure to implement one of the best adventures of recent years for Wii in cooperation with Koch Media", commented Pete Walentin, development director of Keen Games. "We will optimise the controls for Wii Remote and Nunchuk in order to turn a game that is very good already into a 'perfect-match' for Wii."

Secret Files: Tunguska for the Wii and DS will retain the same storyline, sparked by the mysterious Tunguska catastrophe from 1908, and also the same combination of smoothly animated 3D characters cast on top of highly-detailed and animated pre-rendered backgrounds. 110 backgrounds, to be more precise, complete with atmospheric weather effects (rain and snow), as well as cinematic-quality videos for intro and cutscenes in wide screen perspective.

The only screenshots available at this time are from the DS version, and you're more than welcome to check them out in our gallery.

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America's Army: True Soldiers Marching On Xbox 360 // UPDATE

Just in time for the 232nd anniversary celebrated by the U.S. Army today, Ubisoft announced a new America's Army game set to invade retail in Septemer 2007. Its codename is America's Army: True Soldiers, and the only platform it will be deployed onto is the Xbox 360, also making this the first AA game for Microsoft's next-gen console. Based on the Ghost Recon Warfighter 2 game engine, True Soldiers is being developed by Red Storm Entertainment, in collaboration with the Army, and they're aiming to obtain a "Teen" rating (probably meaning that it's ok to blow others to pieces, if it's for your virtual country).

The series' Clan system will be preserved - to some extent - in multiplayer over Xbox Live, where teams of players will be able to shoot it out on eight maps. The multiplayer will also integrate some features from the game's offline component: single-player accomplishments and skills earned, in categories such as Valor, Marksmanship, Stealth and Conditioning, will be upgradeable and then immediately utilized online. And also in multiplayer, players will have to earn their respect and honor. To this end, the "Play-Lead-Recruit" feature will allow players to award points to other team members who play honorably and jump in when the mission is on the line.

As a Soldier in single-player mode, players will advance through their career and take on roles such as Rifleman, Grenadier, Automatic Rifleman and Sniper. Aside from the usual range of realistic modern weapons, players will also employ high-tech equipment, like the Blue Force Tracker - which improves recognition of targets while increasing information to the player. Additional Intel will be gathered by the Raven UAV and displayed on their Blue Force Tracker, and AI teammates can also share Intel via in-game voice-over.

There are no screenshots yet, but we expect the game to bear plenty of visual similarities to Advanced Warfighter (2).

UPDATE: Ubi told Eurogamer that America's Army: True Soldiers will not be released in Europe, as it's for the U.S. only. We're now taking in conspiracy theories.

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LotR Online Gets First Free Update, Shores of Evendim

Turbine's identical announcement from yesterday (for North America) is mirrored today by a Codemasters communique heralding the release of the first free content update for LotR Online in Europe as well. Called "Book 9: Shores of Evendim", it comprises an entirely new landscape region with over 100 additional quests, the Battle for Helegrod raid, nine new monsters and major enhancements to monster play and the in-game music system. Following is a more lenghty description for this "first of many" planned free updates to the online world of Middle-earth, starting with the Shores of Evendim backstory...

"As the Fellowship prepares to leave Rivendell, Aragorn must re-forge Narsil, the Sword of Elendil. Gandalf has asked for help in Aragorn's search of the lands of Evendim for an ancient jewel that once belonged in the sword's hilt. This powerful relic must be recovered before the Dark Lord Sauron finds it. Players are challenged to secure the valuables of the abandoned city, defy Angmar's encroaching grip on Annuminas, and aid Aragorn in his quest to re-forge Narsil."

... and continuing with the rest of this update's features:

- Discover Evendim - About 100 miles north of the Shire, in northern Eriador, lies Evendim, a vast region dominated by the Lake Nenuial, the 'Lake of the Twilight'. On the southern shore, the ancient abandoned city of Annúminas - the former capital of the kingdom of Arnor - is well known amongst the Free Peoples. For according to the Legends, amidst its ruins lay a great wealth and powerful artifacts now threatened by evil creatures and the nefarious forces lurking in Angmar.

- Over 100 New Quests - The story continues for players as they aid the Fellowship and encounter new adventures, characters and monsters including the Rogmûl!

- Raid in the Battle for Helegrod - Challege the fearsome dragon Thorog in a massive 24-player raid in the Misty Mountains.

- Major Updates to the Music System - In addition to the new percussion and bass instruments, players can now utilize a new music notation system that enables them to compose music offline and upload it to your character in-game.

And to top it all off, Codies also issued a trailer introducing the lands and history of Evendim.

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SimCity Societies Officially Announced, First Screenshots

There's no more need to wait for those GFW cover-story scans we were looking forward to last week, because Electronic Arts has now officially announced SimCity Societies as the next instalment in Will Wright's classic city-building franchise. And we already have a big surprise, in that the game will no longer be developed by Maxis, as widely expected, but by Tilted Mill. Not to worry, though, because they also know a thing or two about this kind of games - having created Children of the Nile and Caesar IV (not to mention the old Caesar, Pharaoh, Zeus and Lords of the Realm series that Chris Beatrice worked on at Sierra's Impressions studio, before establishing Tilted Mill).

But enough history lessons. Now that we know the game is in good hands, let's see what EA has to say - and show - about it. For starters, make sure to visit our SimCity Societies gallery to see the first screenshots. They don't look too mindblowing yet, but it should be a real delight to see the game in action. And certainly a whole lot of addictive fun to play it!

As predicted before, SimCity Societies will bring a change of direction to the series, by shifting the focus to the overall society "generated" by your city - whether it's a futuristic metropolis, a fantastical haunted city, an obedient Orwellian state, a devout contemplative town, a "green city", or even a "fun city" filled with ferris wheels, gingerbread houses and chocolate factories. Or anything in between, thanks to more than 350 building types available, each of which allowing players to combine, connect and re-arrange structures freely.

Directly linked to this idea of structural combinations are the so-called "social energies": industry, wealth, obedience, knowledge, devotion and creativity were mentioned in the announcement. Think of them as a new kind of resource produced (or consumed) by your city's different buildings, and the way you mix them will basically determine the kind of city - nay, society! - you build.

Well, all that's left to say for now is that SimCity Societies should be released in November 2007.

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