Shiver me timbers, those old sea dogs from Firaxis be working on another one of them Sid Meier's games, harrr! There be Pirates! on PSP soon they say, and those landlubbers from 2K Games are going to make sure we get our greedy hands on their portable booty in January 2007. This will be the third edition of Sid Meier's Pirates!, after the first game originally set sails in 1987, and was followed by two remakes, in 1993 (Pirates! Gold) and 2004/2005 (on PC and Xbox).

I say third and not fourth, because the PlayStation Portable version of Sid Meier's Pirates! still looks a lot like the latest PC/Xbox version. You can see for yourself in these first screenshots released by 2K, depicting very familiar gameplay scenes: sailing, fencing, chit-chatting, and yes, dancing. Every once in a while, Sid has this really weird sense of "fun"...

"In Sid Meier's Pirates!, a strategy / adventure game, players take the role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean - amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize a rightful place as one of the most revered and feared pirates in history. Players test their skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and dueling in land and sea battles in a richly detailed 3D world."

The game will feature widescreen graphics on the PSP, as well as new treasure hunts. But most importantly, it will also include a wireless ad-hoc multiplayer option, which I'm quite intrigued to know how it will work. I can easily imagine several players battling it out on the high seas, but the dancing part... It was embarrassing enough to do it by myself on the PC, and trust me, it's not something you want to brag about in front of your friends. Unless there are copious amounts of grog to go with such a multiplayer dancing session (to wipe the memory clean by next morning).

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PlayStation 3 Supports Multiple OS, But Not 200 PS2 Games

As the PlayStation 3 (and Wii) madness goes on, it's getting harder and harder to pick out the most relevant and useful stories about Sony's next generation console. Sure, it's interesting to know that Sony reportedly sold 88,400 PlayStation 3 units in the first two days after the launch in Japan, and that some lucky buyers didn't even bother to get any PS3 games (I hear that selling consoles on the grey market pays well these days). But that doesn't really help us...

Nor does arguing over which game looks better - Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox 360 or Ridge Racer 7 on PlayStation 3 - when in all honesty they look very much alike. Some people think that the Xbox 360 version is actually nicer, but I for one like how the PS3 version seems cleaner and less glitzy.

But anyway, on to useful stuff... Let's see... Ah, here are a couple of things! First off, Sony have already released the PlayStation 3 firmware update version 1.10 for Japan (as previously announced), and also for US gamers. Which is quite the surprise, considering that there are still several days left until the actual launch of the PS3 in North America. The v1.10 firmware update is around 100 MB in size, and can even be downloaded on your PC - then transfered on an USB drive and onto the PlayStation 3. QJ.net has more about this, and they also list some of the changes brought by this update - the most important of which is the opening of the PlayStation Network.

Some may argue, however, that there's something even more important than that coming to the PlayStation 3: full support for hombebrew software and alternative operating systems. The console's settings already include an option to "Install Other OS" - as detailed in the online PS3 manual. Aside from a brief installation procedure, the manual also links to Sony's "Open Platform for PlayStation 3" website, which clearly states that the console "allows any desired third-party system software to be installed on it besides its system software provided by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.". We assume that allowing users to install other operating systems (or "system software" as they call it) also means that they can run pretty much any third-party or homebrew software they choose on the PS3. And if that doesn't make their console a computer, I don't know what does. Not to mention it accepts any third-party HDD, if the standard 20GB or 60GB just ain't good enough for you (Impress Watch tested a 100 GB HDD and it works).

Then again, if you're more into old console games than next-gen geekness, you can still get a kick out of the PlayStation 3. By including the old PlayStation 2 chipset, the console was expected to be 100% compatible with PS and PS2 games. But unfortunately that's not the case; not quite. Although you can still play literally thousands of old favorites on the PS3, there is a list of titles that currently have backwards-compatibility issues (or don't run at all). Gran Turismo 4, Tekken 5, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Devil May Cry and Silent Hill 2 are some of the bigger games to experience problems, according to CVG, however the list will shrink as Sony releases updates for the PS3 that fix any reported issues. There are currently about 200 PS and PS2 games with emulation problems, which only account for less than 2.5% of the PS2 software catalogue. In other words, Sony did a *lot* better than Microsoft when it came to emulating Xbox games on the Xbox 360.

So things are finally starting to look better for the PlayStation 3. But that's probably because we haven't gone into the whole Wii madness that's been brewing over the last few days (as select individuals have received their Wiis), and is sure to explode once Nintendo kicks off the long-awaited launch, on November 19.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot about the great PS3 username race. It should be useful to know that when the PS3 launches in the US on 17th November, the rest of the world will be able to register their usernames online at the PlayStation Store via your PC - so Europeans will also get a fair chance at registering their beloved username before March 2007.

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Call of Duty 4 More Modern, And An Exciting CoD 3 Wii Trailer

Tired of waiting until Activision will finaly announce some details about the inevitable Call of Duty sequel, some guys started digging through rumours and sent one of their "reliable sources" dangerously close to Infinity Ward. Thus, they claim, it has been revealed that not only is Call of Duty 4 already in development (duh!), but that this new chapter will defect from WWII, and will switch to a more... modern setting.

The informations published on Amped IGO claim that the new Call of Duty 4 is being developed by Infinity Ward - the same team that brought us the first two parts in the series (the third one being done by Treyarch), and the series will return to the PC in Call of Duty 4. There will of course be several console versions, but that's less important right now, after CoD3 stood us PC gamers up.

Regarding the supposed change of scenery, the same doubtfull report says that the fourth part will take place during present day, but without revealing the actual geographical location. Although it doesn't take a V2 rocket scientist to figure out which are the most sandy plausible theatres of war nowdays...

According to the same source, Call of Duty 4 is said to support as many as 54 players in multiplayer, and it will have a much more refined bodily damage system:

"The source compared Call of Duty 4's technical achievements to other games saying that while most shooters have two or three critical points on the head, Call of Duty 4 has 16, saying that you can shoot the side of an opponent's helmet to make it spin on their head, or knock the helmet clean off. Supposedly you will even be able to shoot an enemy's ear off."

We'll see about that... But in the meantime, why not see something better: a Call of Duty 3 Wii trailer. As I was saying not long ago, there are really only a few Wii games that positively impressed me so far, and this is certainly one of them. Just take a look at how many things you can do with that crazy controller in Call of Duty 3, and I'm sure you will agree.

The Wii version of CoD will be released along with Nintendo's new console, on November 19.

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Strategic Releases: Medieval II, Warhammer And More // UPDATE

This should be a week to remember not only for Sony and Nintendo aficionados (for reasons I need not repeat here), but also for hardcore PC strategy fans. Already released over the weekend, or planned for release today, are four new strategy games - starting of course with Medieval II: Total War, followed by Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate, and Blitzkrieg 2: Fall of the Reich.

By far the most imposing of them all is The Creative Assembly's latest game in their Total War franchise. Medieval II spans four and half centuries of the most turbulent era in Western history and provides players the reins to experience and rewrite one of the most fascinating periods of history to become the greatest power of the Middle Ages.

"Medieval II: Total War drives the Total War franchise to a new level by completely upgrading the game's battlefield rendering system, eliminating the clone armies of the past games in the series and including a new, more realistic animation system. With over 10,000 troops now to command and hundreds of unit types, players can experience massive battles in graphically rich environments enhanced by dynamic weather effects and vastly diverse terrain. Leading armies across Europe, the Middle East, and even the Americas, players will encounter brutal real-time battles and the pure bloodlust of medieval warfare. As players progress, they will shape their empires by strategically determining whether to build castles for military power or cities for technology and trade, allowing for a greater depth of gameplay."

Straying away from historic events and into the realm of fantasy, comes Warhammer: Mark of Chaos from Black Hole Entertainment. Heralding the game's release, publisher Namco Bandai also put up a Mark of Chaos launch trailer today, which you can download or stream locally.

"In Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, the focus is set squarely on the battlefield with a real-time combat system that gives the player unprecedented customization and control of his/her army. Warhammer: Mark of Chaos centers on the armies and battles, while de-emphasizing the tedious aspects of base and resource management. This heroic quest reveals a grand sense of both scale and detail, in which monstrous demons and vast customizable armies clash with thousands of characters in intricately detailed environments. Buildable features and destructible terrains such as forests, swamps, plains and tundra change the shape of the battlefield and add a layer of strategy to provide players infinite replayability."

As for the last two strategy titles, they are both add-ons, and both developed by Nival: one is (or should be, later today) Ubisoft's Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate, and the other CDV's Blitzkrieg 2: Fall of the Reich.

You can visit each of these games' pages on Playfuls for more details, screenshots and trailers. Patches are also sure to follow shortly...

UPDATE: Valve has just informed us that Medieval II: Total War will also be released via Steam tomorrow. The digitally-distributed game will be available to customers in North and South America on November 15, for $49.95. [14.11.2006, 20:34]

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Valve's digital distribution platform has just taken another big step forward, with the announcement of the first game to incorporate Steam - other than a Valve / Source-based game, that is (as was the case with SiN Episodes). The title in question is RACE: The Official WTCC Game, developed by SimBin and lined up to start shipping on November 24. At that time, RACE will also be released online via Steam, as Valve informs us.

The main difference between SimBin's title and the other dozens of games released via Steam so far, is that all retail copies of RACE will include Steam functionality for auto-updating, matchmaking, and anti-piracy encryption. So whether you'll download it straight from Valve, or buy it from the store, it's still going to be there. Which is actually less dramatic than it sounds, if we're to think about all the multiplayer games based on GamesSpy Arcade technology...

"Delivering RACE via Steam means over 10 million gamers will have the chance to purchase the world's first ever World Touring Car Championship game directly from their PC", said Henrik Roos, CEO of SimBin. "Powering the retail version RACE with Steam means every player will have all the latest content available for the game and be able to enjoy the industry's most advanced set multiplayer services."

With over 60 different and accurately modeled cars and 10 officially licensed tracks from four continents, RACE promises to offer all the drivers, cars, and locations featured in 2006 WTCC championship season, as well as support for both single- and multiplayer games, against up to 26 real players or online AI opponents.

If you'd rather try RACE before you buy it, we have a 338 MB demo version available for download locally.

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EVE Online Creators CCP Join Forces With White Wolf

In a move reminiscent of BioWare's merger with Pandemic one year ago, another high-profile fusion was announced over the weekend, between CCP Games and White Wolf. CCP has become synoymous with EVE Online, its science-fiction MMORPG that continues to shatter record after record in terms of concurrent users, while White Wolf should mostly be familiar to old-school role-players. It's an interesting union, between an "online sci-fi" and an "offline fantasy" studio (so to speak), and it's sure to generate some equally interesting projects - as suggested in their joint announcement:

"CCP, the largest European virtual world company, announced the completion of its merger with White Wolf, the world's second largest role-playing publisher. The combination of the two privately held companies creates the unique pool of talent required to prevail in the rapidly expanding virtual world entertainment market. The combined company will introduce new online and offline gaming products across the science-fiction, horror and fantasy genres."

The first such project to be developed by CCP will be a multiplayer game based on White Wolf's popular World of Darkness setting (first used in their Vampire: The Masquerade RPG from 1991). The Reykjavik, Iceland based studio CCP Games also has several other projects in the pipeline, although we don't really expect them to go into detail about them anytime soon. We hope to, but... it might take a while.

As for Atlanta based publisher White Wolf, their immediate projects include the creation of EVE Online strategy guides, collectible card games, role-playing games, novels, and miniatures.

Finally, here are some more "technicalities" about the nature of the resulting company, after the merger:

"The combined company will continue to operate under their respective names. White Wolf will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCP. Hilmar Petursson, Chief Executive Officer of CCP, will be CEO of the combined company. Mike Tinney, President of White Wolf, will continue as President of the independent subsidiary. Further, White Wolf will continue development and enhancement of their entire portfolio of gaming products."

A few more mergers like this, and they'll turn into CCCP Games...

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Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942, A Promising Tank Simulator

How many good tank simulators have there been lately? One? Two perhaps? Nah, I'm exaggerating already... Let's face it: hardcore military simulators aren't what they used to be, back when Novalogic was working its voxel magic. So when a game like Steel Fury comes along, fans of the genre are bound to enter a Pavlovian state of sustained drooling. And by all means, they should.

I would be so bold as to say that right now, when it comes to war simulators, European developers outright pwn! We owe them such wargames as Operation Flashpoint, Battlefield (the old one), IL-2 Sturmovik and Silent Hunter III (though the list could go on). And we will soon owe them a new WWII tank simulator, called Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942. Here's what the Russian publisher Discus Games has to say about it:

"Events in the game are based on the little-known offensive operation, conducted by the Red Army from May 12 to 28, 1942. In the course of German counterattack, begun 17 May 1942, three Soviet Armies were surrounded and forced through fierce fighting to leave from the "meat grinder" Of The "Barvenkovskiy Kotel".

These events seize the player and keep him engaged to the very end of the game. Bitterness from the loss of his combat comrades and happiness of victories, the monstrous roar of tanks and military vehicles and the sounds of war armadas, the torn eardrums from the eternal cannonades of projectiles and roar of bullets, fear and fury - all this will turn any player into rabid excitement. No time to the reflections - only battle! And in this entire devil's sabbath of the war horror the player will have only one human desire - to SURVIVE!!!"

Steel Fury will feature realistic physics and ballistics, destroyable objects ("Everything, which will be encountered on the way of tank or projectile, can be destroyed, without exceptions"), deformable landscape, dynamic weather conditions and illumination (night missions included), historical authenticity, as well as an editor for creating MODs. If this game delivers, it should be one to remember!

We only have a handful of screenshots in our Steel Fury gallery so far, and to be quite frank, they're not that impressive. But we also have a trailer up and running, and it looks a lot more promising. Those environments are simply huge! Or at least they look that way...

It's clearly not going to be a perfect game, and people naturally tend to get suspicious when hearing about Ukranian game developers (Graviteam) - they do have a rather mixed reputation. But by the looks of it, Steel Fury has a lot of potential, and we can only hope for the best. It will be out in Russia early next year, and it should be ready for its Western debut a couple of months later.

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Despite having a mediocre success with their first Full Auto game on Xbox 360, SEGA went on to annouce a Full Auto 2 sequel prior to this year's E3, "exclusively for the PlayStation 3" at that time. Well, it's not so exclusive anymore, albeit it's not far from it either: SEGA confirmed that a PSP version of their explosive racing sequel is also in the works, and it should be available in Spring 2007.

Though obviously inferiour in terms of graphics to its shiny PS3 counterpart, the portable version of Full Auto 2: Battlelines boasts an equally destructive and high-speed experience, with plenty of gameplay modes to choose from - both in single-player and ad-hoc multiplayer.

"Full Auto 2: Battlelines blasts onto the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system with a constant barrage of high-octane demolition. While the player races full-throttle through the city, their strategically timed missiles will bring down buildings and other elements on opponents and set off fiery chain reactions. Players will wreak vehicular mayhem in both arena-combat and racing-combat modes with 15 customizable vehicles stocked with explosive weapons of their choice. A whole new career storyline awaits with challenging new pick-up-and-play modes, goals, and rivals all bent on mass destruction."

Also featured in the PSP version of Full Auto 2 will be a 50+ event single-player career path with multiple modes, objectives, destructive weapons, areas, and rivals to unlock, as well as 15 cars for your havok-wreaking and wrecking pleasure (9 of which will be new to the PSP version).

Unlinke the series' next-gen versions (developed by Pseudo Interactive), Full Auto 2 is being developed on PlayStation Portable by Deep Fried Entertainment - the studio that signed a deal with SEGA just weeks ago.

Some early screenshots from the game are now available in our Full Auto 2 PSP gallery, and we also have a few recent pictures from the PS3 version.

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I didn't get around to posting a news about this late Friday night, but in case you didn't notice it yet, the Gothic 3 demo version has been available in our downloads section for a few days now. The huge archive is over 1 GB in size, and includes the beginning area of Piranha Byte's role-playing game. In it, you will find the towns of Ardea and Cape Dun, and the Rebel outpost Reddock, with all available quests, weapons, spells and NPCs. There is no time limit in place, so you can play all you want... as long as it lasts.

"At the start of this immense demo, you'll be teared both into the beginning of the game and the exciting world of Myrtana by interacting with the folks and taking care of their troubles in Ardea, Reddock and Kap Dun. Kill the furious beasts of the wilderness, get your first useful and lethal items and step farther into the revealing storyline. In this demo, you'll be facing two of the main factions - the orcs and the rebels. Choose wisely for whom your sword will fight!

On this adventure you get to learn about two of the three main factions in the game; the rebels and the orcs. You then get to choose your mission;

1) Impress the orcs by fighting in the arena

2) Complete several quests for the rebels in their fight against the orcs

3) Have fun!"

The Gothic 3 demo can be found here, the full version has been out in Europe for about a month, and today it's also being released in the US, thanks to Aspyr Media.

Enjoy your hacking, and don't forget about the latest Gothic 3 patches for the game's European version.

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One of the few things that Nintendo's Wii console is still missing is full DVD functionality, something that many gamers would like to see implemented before jumping on the Wii wagon. A couple of weeks ago, a Nintendo spokesperson confimed that the company plans to release a version of Wii in Japan featuring DVD playback, but at that time there were no such plans for European or North American territories.

Now, there are! Nintendo announced today that they have selected Sonic Solutions to bring high-quality DVD movie viewing to a future version of the company's Wii gaming console. Nintendo plans to release this version of Wii in the latter half of 2007.

Based on the same technology trusted by Hollywood studios, CinePlayer CE DVD Navigator is a robust, software-based DVD playback engine that delivers broad playback compatibility on a variety of platforms. The proven technology offers exceptional picture quality and supports all standard video and audio formats offered in the DVD specification, as well as advanced functions such as anamorphic widescreen video, motion menus, and multiple video angles.

"To be involved in Nintendo's ground-breaking gaming console is extremely gratifying and a testament to the efficiency, flexibility and dependability of Sonic's technology", said Jim Taylor, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic's Advanced Technology Group. "Game consoles represent a fresh market and platform where we can introduce a new audience of potentially millions to the quality of our brand and the power of our digital media applications."

Unfortunately, today's announcement only refers to DVD movies playback, not a fully-functional DVD unit for the Wii. But it's a start, and we're definitely hoping to hear more about DVD functionality on the Wii. The support is clearly there, it's up to Nintendo to decide what they want (us) to do with it...

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