One More Guild Wars: Nightfall World Preview Event, This Month

If you'd like to take a(nother) good look at the upcoming Guild Wars: Nightfall expansion before it ships next month, the devs from ArenaNet are inviting you to a new preview event, starting September 22, which will be open to anyone and everyone who would like to play. This time around, ArenaNet is letting players explore the entire Istani province of the new realm Elona, along with two new arenas (the Sunspear Arena and Churranu Island), and players will also get a glimpse of the first Nightfall in-game cinematics.

The event will begin on September 22, at 12:01am PDT, and will continue throughout September 24, until midnight. It will feature previews of the new environments, missions and battle arenas, and will allow players to create Nightfall-specific characters from the six core professions (no Ritualist and Assassin then?) as well as the two new Nightfall professions - the Dervish and the Paragon - and try out new Nightfall skills. Oh, and one more thing:

"For an added bonus, the November 2006 issue of PC Gamer magazine, due in stores a week before the event, boasts a Guild Wars Nightfall cover story, and includes an access key for an exclusive, in-game, Gray Giant miniature. The Gray Giant will be useable during the World Preview Event, and then may be reactivated with a Guild Wars Nightfall account upon release."

I'd still rather have a pandaren for a pet. Or better yet, a baby murloc. But anyway, keep looking for upcoming details about the Nightfall World Preview Event on the Guild Wars website. The final version will be released worldwide on October 27.

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I'd like to take a moment to personally thank 2K and EA, for not putting us through the horror of posting two news items about the latest installments in their respective NHL series. Although we could have separated them, NHL 2K7 and NHL 07 were both released yesterday in the US, so we might as well save us some time here.

We'll leave the best* for last, and start off with EA Sports' NHL 07. This year marks the 15th iteration of the franchise and, as always, they'd like us to actually believe it will be something of a revolution for the series:

"Featuring an unmatched level of freedom and control, NHL 07 represents a watershed moment in the history of the console hockey. The revolutionary EA Sports Skill Stick gives users the power to play in the game as it is on the ice, without taking their thumbs off the analog sticks. The left analog functions as your skates and the right as your hockey stick to give you a skill-based execution with an intuitive feel.

Stunning new presentation, AI enhancements and animation overhauls create players who look, act and play like they would in the NHL."

I'm sure they do. Although one thing that EA does prevail at (slightly) is their platforms count: NHL 07 is now available in North America on the PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and PSP. These will also ship in Europe on September 15, with the exception of the PSP version which is expected in October 13.

By comparison, 2K Sports' NHL 2K7 is only available on the Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms for the time being. The PS2 version will ship in early October, but there will also be a PlayStation 3 version coming out this holiday season. Of course, NHL 2K7 is nothing short of "revolutionary" either, in regards to its control system:

"The revolutionary ProControl has been completely revamped, giving players even more offensive and defensive tools to utilize on the ice. The all-new Pressure Control brings a tactical element to defensive hockey by allowing players to instruct CPU teammates to defend opposing players during gameplay.

With seamless online play and the most comprehensive online feature set anywhere including complete online stat tracking, buddy list management, and online leagues, 2K Sports continues to lead the online gaming revolution."

We'll let you decide which one takes the cup this year, if you're into sports games anyway.

* "According to GameRankings.com average scores of 2003-2006 hockey video games"

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Project Gotham Racing 4 Date Revealed By... Peugeot?!

The gaming industry has this terribly aggravating problem: IT LEAKS! And I don't mean just sloppy company officials, retailers, or licensed movie directors. No, those were the main culprints years ago. These days, even car manufacturers have begun revealing things that they clearly shouldn't have. Take Peugeot for instance: out of a sudden, they said that Microsoft will be releasing Project Gotham Racing 4 on the Xbox 360 in late 2007, or in the first half of 2008.

And here's how they did it. They launched this competition called "Peugeot Design Contest 2007", calling out for people to come up with a concept design for a new car. The winner, among many other benefits, would see his imagined car built by Peugeot as a full-scale model, and - here comes the best part - the design will also be included in Project Gotham Racing 4 an Xbox 360 video game.

Naturally, nobody was supposed to know about Project Gotham Racing 4 that Xbox 360 video game just yet, so Peugeot had the title removed from their competition's website (we're assuming due to an intervention from Microsoft). Luckily for us, GamesIndustry.biz managed to copy-paste a part of the text before it was edited, so you can compare them for yourself below:

Before: "the winning concept car will be included by Microsoft in the Project Gotham Racing 4 game, exclusively on Xbox 360 that will be released towards the end of 2007 or first half of 2008"

After: "the winning concept car will be included by Microsoft in an Xbox 360 video game that will be released towards the end of 2007 or first half of 2008"

Where would we be without inapt PR people?

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TES IV: Oblivion - Knights of the White Stallion Expansion

Gamespot picked up some interesting bleeps on their retail radar yesterday. While scanning through GameStop's product listings, they came across what seems to be the first expansion pack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, titled Knights of the White Stallion. They even took a picture of it, and they were quite inspired to do so, because their appealing to Bethesda for comments only resulted in the removal of said expansion from the GameStop website.

Now, it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. Judging by the series previous installment Morrowind, which was followed by two expansions (Tribunal and Bloodmoon), we can expect something along those lines to happen with Oblivion as well. After all, they can only do so much those tiny content packs (you know, horse armors, side quests, new dungeons...), and a full-fledged expansion is likely to follow soon.

When exactly? Well, according to GameStop's former listing, Knights of the White Stallion was galloping for a November 21 release on the PC (no new Xbox 360 version was listed), at a suggested retail price of $19.99. So that would leave Bethesda with just a couple of months to make an announcement and get the thing ready for launch. Which I'm not saying is unlikely; but it would be quite a stunt on their behalf!

In any case, this wouldn't be the first time we heard about a TES IV expansion, and I bet it's not going to be the last time either. Not by a long shot!

P.S. In case you didn't notice, there's a (relatively) new content pack available on OblivionDownloads.com, called Spell Tomes. Word is "these books grant you wondrous and powerful magic spells, just by reading them! Now Mages will also gain instant benefits by treasure hunting. Friend and foe alike will bow in awe before your power". New spells included, for just $0.99.

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Splinter Cell Wii, Rayman DS, Rainbow Six PSP, Prince of Persia PSP

These last few days brought the official announcement of four new Ubisoft games; that is, versions of previously announced games. Without further ado, they are Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Wii), Rayman Raving Rabbids (DS), Rainbow Six: Vegas (PSP) and Prince of Persia: Rival Swords (PSP), and they're all scheduled for release by the end of 2006 - at least here in Europe. Over in the US, the Prince's latest portable escapade will only commence in 2007. But let's take them one at a time.

As you may recall, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent was previously targeting the PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and GameCube platforms. A PS3 version of the game was also being speculated (and it still is), but the only other platform we can safely rely on now is the Wii. Though no specifics were given by Ubisoft about Sam Fisher's Wii debut (just a bunch of screenshots), the game could easily feature some exclusive content for Nintendo's console - as its previous installments did across various platforms.

Another addition to Nintendo's holiday line-up is Rayman Raving Rabbids, recently confirmed for the DS, alongside the PC, PS2, Wii and GBA. What? No more next-gen? No more Xbox? Oh well, I can live with that.

Next in line is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, whose targeted platforms have also suffered a series of changes since it was announced back in March. As time passed, the current-gen versions (PS2 and Xbox) were cancelled, but a few days ago, a PSP version was confirmed. So, as it stands now, Rainbow Six: Vegas will be coming out on the PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, and presumably PC.

Finally, we have the Prince's second coming to Sony's PlayStation Portable. Word about Prince of Persia: Rival Swords on the PSP first surfaced in August, when the title was spotted on a USK listing (Germany's games rating board). Now the title is official, as Ubi reveals that Rival Swords is being developed by Pipeworks Software (part of Foundation 9) with a release date set for holiday 2006 in Europe, and early 2007 in North America. Here's what they have to say about it:

"In Prince of Persia Rival Swords, the Prince makes his way home to Babylon, bearing with him Kaileena, the enigmatic Empress of Time, and unspeakable scars from the Island of Time. But instead of the peace he longs for, he finds his kingdom ravaged by war and Kaileena the target of a brutal plot. When she is kidnapped, the Prince tracks her to the palace - only to see her murdered by a powerful enemy. Her death unleashes the Sands of Time, which strike the Prince and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Cast out on the streets, hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that the Sands have tainted him, too. They have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him."

That sounds a lot like The Two Thrones, if you ask me.

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Introducing Space Force 2, With Screenshots And Trailer

EVE Online supercomputers aside, there are surely many of you who would rather fly solo in an open-world space game, like in the good old days of Elite. And if, for some reason, you weren't impressed with the likes of X³: Reunion, Space Rangers 2, and most recently Darkstar One, you need not dispair just yet. Judging by these Space Force 2 screenshots and the first trailer we added today on our website, this also seems to be quite a promising space game; too bad there's no set release date yet.

Space Force 2 is developed by the Croation studio Provox, and is molded around the genre's traditional concepts of exploration, diplomacy, trading, fighting and crafting. There will be a total of 10 civilizations in the game, each of them playable, and each of them with its own starting location in different star systems. This should allow for plenty of freedom in exploring this Milky Way galaxy of ours, and potentially plenty of replayability.

Aside from the usual lucrative jobs you can take (such as mining asteroids, transporting goods, or trading with other stations - and even with cargo ships in outer space), you can also choose to pursue more dangerous careers, such as piracy, smuggling or headhunting. And you won't even have to do them alone anymore. In Space Force 2 you will be able to recruit and command up to 3 wingmen (as long as they're friendly with your civilization), which can then be ordered individually to attack, form-up, and be given other various commands.

You can consult the game's website to find out more about its gameplay, AI, and engine features (plenty of fancy terms there!). But let me just say: if Space Force 2 will turn out to play as good as it looks, you can sign me up!

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EVE Online Now Runs On The Industry's Largest Supercomputer

Ever wondered what kind of computing monster it takes to run an MMO game with over 30,000 concurrent users on a single server shard? Because that's what EVE Online has been going through recently, and the game's population just keeps on growing. As the developers from CCP Games are looking forward to support at least 50,000 concurrent users in the future, they have announced a new upgrade to their server cluster which, according to them, now comprises the largest supercomputer cluster in the history of the gaming industry.

CCP's dream of having 30K simultaneous users became true just days ago, on September 4, when 30,538 EVE Online capsuleers zoomed their way into history by setting a new concurrent user record of over thirty-thousand simultaneous users on the Tranquility server. Their old hosting technology was already being pushed to the limit by this massive load, so EVE players should be happy about the newly announced supercomputer.

The upgraded server cluster features dual-processor 64-bit AMD Opteron-based IBM BladeCenter LS20 blade servers, as well additional enhancements to the clusters internet backbone. It manages over 150 million database transactions per day on a 64-bit hardware architecture from IBM. The database servers don't use traditional hard drives but instead Solid State Disks (SSD) which are recognize as the worlds fastest storage devices with over 400,000 random I/Os per second. Just imagine how Quake 1 would run on that beast.

The next big thing for EVE now is The Path to Kali, the game's second major expansion. It should be released very soon (perhaps even this month), and it will be a great opportunity for CCP to put their new supercomputer to the test. Let's hope it all goes well for them, and mostly for the players as well.

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Lineage II: Chronicle 5 - Oath of Blood Launch And Media

Last week saw the release of yet another free expansion for NCsoft's MMORPG, Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles. The fifth chronicle, called Oath of Blood, brings new hunting grounds, castles, clan halls and monsters to the game, as well as some player-inspired content. Namely some changes made to already existing features, as a result of feedback from Lineage II players.

The sweeping systems changes mean that new and lower level players will progress faster. New items and other enhancements have been added to make the game more rewarding at those levels without sacrificing the challenge that Lineage II is known for. Additionally, the new Academy in the game's clan system helps clan members rapidly train up and become powerful members much more quickly than before.

Highlighting the challenges for mid- and upper-level players is the addition of Rune and Schuttgart castles, plus several contestable clan halls that are ripe for the taking. In addition, there are many powerful beasts, like the maniacal Prince Frintezza, who controls an insanely scary monster called Scarlet von Halisha by playing an ornate organ in his lair; and the formidable Benom, who lurks in the depths of Rune castle.

In addition, revitalized PvP systems and an increased level cap (lv.80) give players of all classes the ability to be successful and even more to aspire to.

Castle sieges for the new castles - Rune Castle and Schuttgart Castle - have already begun this weekend on the Sieghardt, Lionna, Gustin, Hindemith, and Franz servers. And in a few days, on September 14, another series of battles will begin, for controlling the clan halls. To those of you interested, here's a schedule of PvP slaughters to come:

- September 14 - Battles for clan halls will begin on the Bartz, Kain, Erica, Devianne, and Teon servers.

- September 14 - Battles for the Rainbow Springs Chateau, Wild Beast Reserve, and Fortress of the Dead.

- September 15 - Battles for the Fortress of Resistance, Devastated Castle, and Bandit Stronghold.

- September 21 - Clan hall battles for Sieghardt, Lionna, Gustin, Hindemith, and Franz.

- September 21 - Battles for the Rainbow Springs Chateau, Wild Beast Reserve, and Fortress of the Dead.

- September 22 - Battles for the Fortress of Resistance, Devastated Castle, and Bandit Stronghold.

A Chronicle 5 trailer, detailing all the new castles and clan halls added to Lineage II, can be viewed online in our download section here, along with some new screenshots. Meanhile, the massive (2.8 GB) Lineage II: Chronicle 5 - Oath of Blood client can be downloaded from FilePlanet.

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We were hoping to see the PC version of BioWare's Jade Empire role-playing game released by the end of this year, but along with Atari's latest announcement that they have picked up the publishing rights for Jade Empire: Special Edition on the PC, we also learn that the game is now anticipated for January 2007. Still, since the original game appeared on the Xbox almost a year and a half ago, the news is only slightly disappointing.

Besides, the PC special edition will come equiped with enhanced graphics (meaning increased resolutions and new visual effects), new fighting styles, new monsters, and enemies with enhanced AI. Also, similar to Star Wars: KotOR's porting on the PC, the PC version of Jade Empire will also include customizable, intuitive controls, plus an all-new art book as part of the Special Edition bonus content.

In the ancient, mysterious world of the Jade Empire, players choose to act as a noble hero or treacherous villain by following the path of the "Open Palm" or the "Closed Fist". Players face powerful human and supernatural foes, learn exotic and magical martial arts and discover the darkest secrets of the world. Keep in mind, though, that your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace or will your power bring pain and ruin?

Well, you have plenty of time to make up your mind until January. In the meantime, Take-Two have also announced another kind of special edition, to be published under their "2K" label: Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles for the PC. The set will be released this October, and will include (take a deep breath) Sid Meier's Civilization I, Sid Meier's Civilization II, Civilization II: Fantastic Worlds, Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization, Civilization II: Test of Time, Sid Meier's Civilization III, Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World, Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests and Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Phew! If that won't make you more civilized, I don't know what will!

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Even more than wreaking havok, the two newly released Xbox 360 games also reek of Havok, as the well-known physics engine developer saw fit to announce the release of Atari's Test Drive Unlimited and THQ's Saints Row on their website this week. And in doing so, of course, they went to great lengths in boasting the integration of their Havok engine in the fore mentioned titles.

Test Drive Unlimited, the "massively open online racing" game developed by Eden Studios seems like an odd choice for integrating such an advanced physics system. When you think about lightning-fast calculations required during collisions, for instance, and then you think about the usual latency found in online races... well, it doesn't sound like a very happy combination if you ask me. But the fact is Havok's engine is there, and apparently it helped the developers a great deal in getting the game running fast. Eden Games' David Nadal said that:

"Using Havok's technology meant that we didn't have to worry about finding an efficient way to do all the complex physics calculations ourselves that are required to create a huge, vibrant, real time and persistent virtual world such as the one we've created for Testdrive: Unlimited. By using Havok, we could bypass a lot of the heavy physics math and concentrate our teams more on the creative content."

The TDU team also received some outsourcing help from external teams (such as the Romanian AMC Studio), so hopefully they had plenty of time to concentrate on the actual gameplay. The results can already be seen in the game's Xbox 360 version, and in November Test Drive Unlimited will also appear on PC, PS2 and PSP - the last two version being developed by Melbourne House.

As for the Xbox 360 exclusive game Saints Row, publisher THQ and developer Volition have also opted to integrate the Havok physics engine, only this time it looks like much smarter choice. Being the GTA-like devastating game that it is, Saints Row gives players the opportunity to roam the mean and dangerous streets of the city of Stilwater, battling for turf, carjacking vehicles, taking hostages and building "respect" in a gameplay-rich (and physics-rich) world. According to David O'Meara, CEO of Havok:

"Volition has really made the most of Havok's advanced collision detection capabilities. Gone are the "smash and you're history" days. It's much more detailed and true to life - you're racing along in a pristine vehicle, you swerve against a parked car and you lose your wing mirror, you skid around the corner and collide with a trash can and your bumper is hanging off, but you're still going - Saints Row adds a whole new level of realism and power to the player's ride. Now, that definitely earns my respect."

Maybe yours, Dave. Maybe yours...

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