Well, well, well, look who decided to join the PC party! Lost Planet: Extreme Condition quickly became one of the most popular multiplayer action games on the Xbox 360, having already topped the 1 million sales mark since its release in January, and it could soon enjoy a similar success on the PC. As some of us have been hoping for, Capcom announced at the Gamers Day event in San Francisco that they are working closely with nVidia to make the best of this upcoming PC version... at least from a graphical standpoint.

As detailed on Gamasutra, Lost Planet is being optimized to use the DirectX 10 technology - which will *not* be required, though, so we're safe [from Vista]. They also received word from nVidia that the game will feature "Extreme High Definition" (XHD) support, with resolutions up to 2560x1600, as well as "advanced special effects, and improved lighting and shadows".

All right, so we're sure that it will look great and everything. But will it play just as great - that's what we're eager to find out. So far, Capcom doesn't seem to be putting too much effort into adapting this port for PC gameplay: according to Gamespot, at Gamers Day the company also unveiled its "Internal Framework", "a development system which will allow a single game to be developed for multiple platforms simultaneously from the get-go". So expect the gameplay to be very, very similar to the console version (as usual with Capcom's PC ports). Which, by the way, may (or may not) include a future PS3 version.

A Capcom rep offered only vague statements in this regard, and he also wouldn't confirm a Lost Planet sequel at the time. He did however imply it, sort of, by admitting that "We're definitely proud to have a new IP, and there will be more on Lost Planet for sure". So for now let's stick to the facts: Lost Planet is coming to the PC this June, for $39.99 and with downloadable "content updates". Hopefully not just patches...

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Fallout IP Completely Sold To Bethesda, For $5.75 Million

"Yes, now there truly is no one else to blame", agrees Bethsoft's senior executive producer, Ashley Cheng, in the aftermath of last week's surprise announcement that Interplay has completely sold the Fallout intellectual property, trade mark and assets to Bethesda Software, for no less than $5.75 million! That's almost five times the price they initially paid for licensing the franchise in order to develop Fallout 3, back in July 2004. So we can only hope the game will be good enough to merit just as many sequels... (yeah, right!)

Snapping back to reality, the news spread like radioactive fallout after a blog spotted this 8-K report filed by Interplay, revealing that as of April 9, Bethesda is the sole owner of the Fallout IP. The only thing still retained by Interplay is the license to develop the previously announced Fallout MMO game, but under several conditions.

1. Interplay agrees to begin full-scale development of its Fallout MMOG within 24 months of the agreement

2. Interplay agrees to raise at least $30 million in financing for the Fallout MMOG within that time frame

3. Interplay must also commercially launch the Fallout MMOG within 4 years of its development commencement date (meaning no later than April 2012, assuming they take a full year to begin development)

Should Interplay fail to comply with any of these conditions (and odds are they will), they will lose their license rights for the MMO. But, of course, Herve Caen gets to keep his dirty money. (Oh my god, he killed Black Isle. That bastard!)

On the other hand, should Interplay comply with Bethesda's quality standards and successfully launch the Fallout MMO (as in having a minimum of 10,000 paying subscribers), Bethesda will receive 12% of all revenues generated by the game. I, for one, would be happy enough if they manage to keep the franchise alive for that long. Or in other words, Fallout 3 better not suck, Bethsoft. It better not suck!

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BlizzCon 2007 Announced, WoW TCG Expansion Released

After taking a break last year, Blizzard will return in August 2007 with the second edition of their BlizzCon gaming convention, dedicated to the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises, "and the players who have helped make them so popular around the world". As announced last night on the event's website, BlizzCon 2007 will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on August 3 and 4, with tickets set to go on sale next month for $100 per person. Here's what we know so far about it:

"BlizzCon will be open to gamers age 4 and older and will offer a wide variety of activities to help all attendees get the most out of the two–day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:

- Discussion panels with Blizzard developers

- Artist and developer signings

- Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents

- World of Warcraft Trading Card Game tournaments and demos

- Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes

- Commemorative merchandise and other products based on the Blizzard franchises

- A silent auction

- Live orchestral performances of music from Blizzard games

- More exciting activities to be announced"

In other Blizz-news, yesterday also saw the release of the first expansion to the World of Warcraft TCG (Trading Card Game), called Through the Dark Portal. You can learn all about it on Upper Deck Entertainment's website, but in short, the expansion brings new playable races, powerful racial abilities, and an expanded look at classic World of Warcraft content. Players will also be offered three exclusive in-game codes, found on Loot cards randomly inserted in packs. Word is "You can ask a fortune-telling imp what your future holds, relax on the sunny beaches of Stranglethorn with a cozy picnic blanket, or take your pet gorilla out for a walk around Orgrimmar".

And in even more WoW-news, the game's "Under Development" page teases us with some new end-game content to be featured in future updates:

"In addition to the Black Temple's appearance in the upcoming 2.1 patch, an abundance of new solo and small-group content is coming to World of Warcraft. Groups and solo adventurers will discover much to do in the new quest hubs of Skettis, Ogri'la, and the Ethereum Prison. Druids will be able to acquire their epic Flight Form, and what's more, everyone can now quest for their very own Nether Drake epic flying mount!"

Nether Drakes, at last! And they'd better announce StarCraft 2 / Diablo III at BlizzCon, this time...

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Ubisoft Acquires Sunflowers, Along With Anno Franchise

One of the key differences between Ubisoft and Electronic Arts is that, whenever EA takes over another company, it's usually bad news - or leads to bad news, several years down the road. Whereas most of Ubisoft's acquisitions are reason for joy and/or hope. Suffice to remember they were the ones who pushed on with the Settlers series after taking over Blue Byte, and later resurrected the (Heroes of) Might and Magic franchise, following 3DO's bankrupcy. There are of course more examples, but these two are of particular interest in the context of Ubi's latest announcement: the acquisition of Sunflowers, who happen to own the Anno / A.D. brand. Coincidence? I doubt it.

The deal is not yet finalized, but the acquisition is expected to close in the next couple of months. At that point, Ubisoft will own not only the Sunflowers company and the Anno brand, but also 30% of Related Designs - the studio that developed the recent Anno 1701 and, according to the communique, is also working on "a future Anno title". There's no title specified, but as far as we know, this should be the Anno 1701 add-on that Sunflowers was planning to release this summer. Although we surely wouldn't mind a whole new squel.

Below are a couple of statements given by the bosses of Ubisoft and Sunflowers:

"With the acquisition of Anno, Ubisoft reinforces its position in the real-time strategy market. Anno, along with Ubisoft's The Settlers, is one of the most well known franchises in Germany, reaching a wide audience that includes not only traditional gamers, but also women and families. We are proud to add another top-quality brand to our rich portfolio and we are looking forward to bringing the brand to an even wider audience," said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer of Ubisoft.

Mr. Adi Boiko, cofounder of SunFlowers stated "I'm glad to confide Anno to Ubisoft, a company known for the innovation and creativity of its development teams. The brand will benefit from Ubisoft's global strength, allowing new audiences to discover the pleasure of empire building through new Anno games."

On a personal note, if Ubi plans to share graphics technologies among their strategy franchises, I hope they'll pick the Anno engine for future Settlers games, and not the other way around.

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Left with no other alternative than to confirm what was becoming more and more of a certainty with each passing day (and each missing 20GB PS3), Sony America finally confirmed that the 20GB model has been discontinued, and that Sony will no longer sell it in the territory. So if anyone was still looking for one, better keep your eyes wide open for any left-overs in stores. Until further announcements - or a confirmation of the rumoured 80GB model - the only PlayStation 3 SKU sold in the US remains the one with a 60GB hard drive (and other extras).

Just a couple of days ago, the discontinuation of the 20GB model was still not official, as Sony kept on denying any change in their SKU strategy. But GameDaily BIZ eventually managed to get this confession from Dave Karraker, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications at SCEA:

""At launch, we offered two separate models of PlayStation 3 to meet the diverse needs and interests of our PlayStation fan base. Initial retail demand in North America was upwards of ninety percent in favor of the 60GB sku, so we manufactured and shipped-in accordingly.

Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60GB model from both retailers and consumers, we have ceased offering the 20GB model here in North America. In addition to the larger internal hard drive, the 60GB PlayStation 3 features added storage media slots and built-in Wi-Fi not found in the 20GB system. Based on retailer and consumer feedback, we have decided to focus our current efforts on the more popular 60GB model."

Since there were no 20GB PS3s launched in Europe to begin with, the only major territory in which Sony is still selling this model is Japan, where public demand seems to be high enough to justify its continuation. At least for now...

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Neverwinter Nights 2 Expands With Mask of the Betrayer

Today's most unsurprising - but nevertheless great - news comes from Atari, who are announcing the first expansion pack for Obsidian's roler-playing sequel Neverwinter Nights 2. Subtitled Mask of the Betrayer, the add-on is planned to be released in Fall 2007, promising to bring all the usual things one would expect: a continuation to the story that began in NWN2, new spells, races, weapons and monsters to test them on, along with other additions and changes we'll be touching upon below. But first, here's what good ol' Feargus Urquhart had to say for this occasion:

"Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer's engrossing campaign will conclude the storyline that began in the original Neverwinter Nights 2 and focus on combat, exploration and classic D&D dungeon-crawling," said Feargus Urquhart, CEO, Obsidian Entertainment. "We're also making new advances in story and character development as well as improving upon the acclaimed companion Influence System used in both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2."

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer is set in harsh, spirit-rich Rashemen, near the powerful nation of Thay. Following the climactic battle against the King of Shadows in NWN2, the player will awaken alone and stranded deep beneath the earth. Surrounded by a horde of evil spirits, he embarks on an epic adventure that reveals his true destiny.

Along with the new single-player campaign, Mask of the Betrayer will present players with epic levels; dozens of new feats and spells; new races, base classes and prestige classes; new companions; new weapons, armor and crafting options; hordes of new monsters; and enhanced modding tools.

And finally, you can already see a few screenshots from Mask of the Betrayer in the local gallery, with more (of everything) to follow in due time on NWN2.com.

On a side-note, this week also saw the release of a new patch for Neverwinter Nights 2, version 1.05, but it was quickly pulled by Obsidian due to "an issue with the toolset update". They should have it back up shortly, though.

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Cedega 6.0 Launched For Your Linux Gaming Pleasure

Even though it utterly defeats the whole purpose of free quality gaming on Linux, Cedega does have the merit of being (one of) the most accessible software solution for playing Windows games on Linux. So it's with some pleasure that we received today's communique from TransGaming, in which they announce the immediate availability of Cedega 6.0, almost a year and a half after the release of Cedega 5.0. The new version boasts various features and functionality, ranging from improved graphics and performance, to support for many new games.

I'm sure you're wondering by now what are some of the recent games supported in this version, so I won't prolong the suspense any longer: "Triple-A video games such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battlefield 2142, World of WarCraft, Madden 2007, Civilization IV and many more, can be played on Linux using Cedega [6.0]", according to the Cedega website.

TransGaming's Cedega product manager, Lucas Smithen was kind enough to explain the changes in a bit more detail:

"We've completed some very significant development with Cedega 6.0, introducing new technology and improvements to the existing engine. The addition of Shader Model 2.0 support enables recent games to be played at the highest detail settings; a superior FBO implementation provides better overall graphics performance and compatibility with DirectX 9; improvements to the ALSA support provide a better audio experience in the game and allows users to listen to their own music while in-game; and a new memory allocator, coupled with other enhancements, has improved the performance of games", said Lucas Smithen.

The graphics enhancements may be the best news in this release for most users, but I for one am really glad to hear about the audio upgrades, since so far I was finding it impossible to play World of Warcraft and listen to some music at the same time. And there's no way I'm playing WoW without listening to some ganking music!

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More and more platforms are falling prey to Naruto's vigorous expansion into the field of gaming, lately. The Xbox 360, Wii and DS are all waiting for their fair share of action, but after today's announcement issued by Namco Bandai, it seems they will be waiting some more, because the next Naruto game is actually coming to the PlayStation Portable. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes, as it's titled, will also mark the series' debut on Sony's portable console, when it will be released in late summer 2007.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes is said to be developed exclusively for the U.S. and Europe, by the Japanese studio CyberConnect2. They are the same ones working on Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 for the PS2, which is also set to launch in Q3 2007. Shortly put, the PSP edition will offer a furious fighting game experience with up to 3-on-3 team-based gameplay, intense single-player action, and a wireless multiplayer versus mode for two players (using a single UMD). There will be 8 interactive stages and 20 playable characters to choose from, plus the ability to level up your ninja rank by completing different classes of missions using your "chosen one".

In a few more words, here's how Namco Bandai describes the game:

"Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes is the highly anticipated fighting game that gives gamers the ability to sharpen their ninja skills with intense single and multiplayer team-based fighting. In a new addition to the franchise, gamers will also have the ability to create and customize their own ninja dream squads to battle opponents or trade players' profiles via wireless connectivity. To further maximize the character power-up feature, players can form different team combinations to awaken hidden skills that lie within each group. Depending on the combinations, special team-based skills can be unleashed. Gamers can also earn power-up points toward upgrading each character's attack, defense, chakra, speed, and even special abilities."

The game doesn't look bad at all, and you can see for yourself the first screenshots we have just added in the local Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes gallery.

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Speaking of futuristic shooters, the Russians from Parallax Arts Studio are also working on one, called Exodus from the Earth. The game has so far kept itself behind the Iron Curtain, and last week the devs showed it at the Russian Game Developers Conference (KRI 2007) that took place in Moscow between April 6-8. Along with a new batch of screenshots that we added today in our local gallery, we now have some more information about Exodus from the Earth, thanks to the game's website.

As it turns out, the action will take place simultaneously in two worlds - in the nearest future on the Earth, and on a distant planet with uncommon inhabitants and landscape. During the game, you'll get to meet - and kill - various characters: security service agents, cyborgs, robots, mutants, the usual bunch. Players will also have to solve "numerous quests" (they probably mean puzzles, at best), and eventually to find out if human life and civilization are possible beyond the Earth's confines. That sure sounds like a rhetorical scenario...

Graphics wise, Exodus from the Earth uses some engine called "Riposte", provided by ToolsMedia Corp., and promises to have "outstanding visual effects, realistic physics, destructible objects, various characters and means of transportation, dynamic and unpredictable gameplay combined with nice hi-poly locations and unique weapons". Unpredictable gameplay? That bugged, eh?

Just so you know who we're dealing with here, a fair warning is in order: Parallax is responsible for another couple of shooters that launched in late 2005, called Utopia City (rated at 24% on Game Rankings) and Liquidator (33%). Right, not the brightest of developers, but who knows, maybe this time they can pull off a decent game. Although I somehow doubt that, after seeing the gameplay trailer released last autumn. There's no more trace of it on the game's official website, but you can still get it on FileFront.

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CellFactor: Revolution Free To Download Next Month

As widely predicted a while back, the so-called "physics processors" didn't really take off, the way graphics processors did last century, for instance. Or DVDs. Or plenty of other useful technologies, for that matter. But despite their failure to penetrate the gaming market so far, AGEIA continues to advertise their PhysX accelerators through various games designed to harness this technology (you can see the full list on AGEIA's website). And I think we can all agree that the most easily recognizable title associated with the PhysX brand is CellFactor - the "true-to-life physics"-intensive shooter that started out as a tech-demo.

Over the last couple of years, the South-American developer Immersion Games joined hands with Artificial Studios and Egypt-based Timeline Interactive, in a worldwide effort to turn CellFactor into a highly respectable retail game. The new project became known as CellFactor: Revolution, a futuristic first-person shooter promising to produce "hyper-realistic cloth, fluid and debris gameplay effects". And now, as the game rapidly nears completion, AGEIA announces that CellFactor: Revolution will actually be released as a free download, on May 8.

Even if you don't have a PhysX processor, you'll still be able to play it, or at least parts of it. However, the game will automatically detect players with a PhysX card, offering them the option to progress through the single-player campaign mode, and to play in four LAN-based multiplayer modes against A.I. and human opponents. As mind-boggling as it may sound, gamers who don't have a PhysX card will not be able to play against other humans, only against the A.I., and only in two environments (until somebody "cracks" the thing, of course).

For the other 0.001% of gamers, the full single-player campaign will include three "extreme PhysX" levels, designed to spotlight "physics gameplay with a purpose". For example, they say, oil leaking from a barrel may be an indicator of its volatile nature, a spider web twitch can indicate nearby movement, lava can be psionically harnessed to deflect or smother enemies, and particle beams can be used as weapons. In the LAN modes, gamers can manipulate an immense amount of objects simultaneously, control vehicles, masters Psi-powers and fight 7 friends and 16 AI-controlled enemies.

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