"Champions Online is going to be unlike anything MMO fans have seen before"... You must be thinking - who could possibly be so self-centered, so out of touch with reality and with common sense, to make such an idiotic statement? I'll tell you who: Cryptic Studios. Since their previous project, that Marvel MMO was clearly too fucking awesome to be released (which would perfectly explain why it was cancelled), they decided they don't need Microsoft or any other publisher to tell them how much they pwn. So they took matters into their own hands, and are now planning to self-publish their next game, Champions Online.

Well, that much we knew already, but now we have some new details announced for this superhero MMO, along with some early screenshots.

"Champions Online, based on the popular pen-and-paper Champions RPG, will give players the power of total customization of their hero experience while they explore a vast universe of richly detailed 3D environments. (...) Champions Online is all about total customization - it will offer a near infinite amount of character customization so that all players will have a unique game experience. Gamers will be able to create their hero's name, back story, costume, powers and abilities as well as design their own personal arch-enemy and his or her back story, which will guarantee a truly unique experience."

If this sounds like your kind of game, then by all means, feel free to read more about it on its website. For the rest of us, the only other thing worth mentioning is that Champions Online should be released on the PC and Xbox 360 in spring 2009. Not that it will make any difference.

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 Continue reading 'Champions Online Details, Screenshots'...

Here's a little something to wash away that sorrow of seeing the Wii version of Civilization: Revolution cancelled put on hold last month: 2K Games announced a release date for the latest chapter in Sid Meier's 17-years old series, on its remaining platforms. So, without further ado (but with plenty of screenshots below), the PS3, Xbox 360 and DS versions of Civilization: Revolution are to be released on June 6. Lovely, and now for the accompanying PR'ish game synopsis.

"Built from the ground up solely for console and handheld gamers, Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution features fast-paced, pick-up-and-play action involving strategic global domination and history's most intrepid leaders, as well as a highly competitive multi-player experience. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution brings the renowned Civilization franchise to consoles for the first time, delivering the vast re-playability and unmatched addictive gameplay that has become synonymous with the works of Sid Meier. New graphical touches and a streamlined interface will transport the Civilization franchise to a level that fans have never seen before."

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 Continue reading 'Civilization: Revolution Dated, Screenshots'...

It wasn't a secret anymore that the third game in Volition's literally ground-breaking action series would be titled Red Faction: Guerrilla, after last week's revelation, but pretty much everything else was still unknown. Until, that is, THQ made a proper announcement yesterday, clearing a few details regarding the shooter formerly known as Red Faction 3.

The most striking change is that Red Faction: Guerrilla will be a "third-person open-world action-shooter" (ok, those are actually two striking changes), and of course that it will be released for all three heavy-duty platforms - PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will keep its signature destruction-based gameplay, and even "redefine its limits" as they say. The story will take us back to Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction (good thing there's no mention of Red Faction 2, since I couldn't be arsed to play it).

"Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay."

For now, a tentative release date is set for fiscal 2009, meaning that it could come out anywhere between April 2008 and March 2009... at the earliest.

Having shown the new Scrin unit "Mechapede" in a trailer earlier this month, EA is issuing this new batch of screenshots from GDC, for the Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath expansion. Preetee colorz! Marching in shops this March.

The folks from Radical Entertainment are doing some pretty radical things in their new action game, Prototype. For one thing, their vision of New York is rather frightening - or at least the art director doing the concept is. You'll know what I mean once you watch this Prototype 'New York' dev-diary (so much oversized ego in that guy... it's frightening!). If you can't be bothered with all that dev-blah-blah, or you need to kill some time while the trailer is loading, here are the latest screenshots issued by Sierra / Vivendi. The game might be released on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in Q3 2008. Or it might not.

The horror... the horror... Microsoft sure got off to an embarrassing start at GDC 2008, where one of their Xbox 360 consoles was viciously killed by the dreaded "Red Ring of Death" - as witnessed and filmed by a BBC technology editor haunting the conference halls in search for victims.

"On Microsoft's own stand at the show one of the demo consoles has a rather familiar problem - the red ring of death. There's no way of knowing if this particular console was manufactured before or after Microsoft identified the problems with the machines. But at the very least it's embarrassing for the company that its own stock of demo machines are still susceptible to the problem."

Ironically, this is happening just several days after Microsoft desperately tried to combat that report about its consoles failing at a rate of 16%. Well, good luck with that now!

Wizards of the Coast are not even close to ending their flow of MTG games. And to make sure of that, they're currently planning to publish not one, but two new Magic: The Gathering video games. Neither one of them has been given a formal title (or any other details) yet, so I'll just call them Magic: The Gardening and Magic: The Gargling. Right, then - Gardening is developed by Stainless Games for the PC and Xbox Live Arcade; and Gargling is developed by Mind Control Software for the PC and Mac.

The only clue given by Worth Wollpert (brand manager at WotC) leads us to believe that these may not even be trading card games. Not necessarily...

"Beyond the card game, the Magic IP is a largely untapped wealth of fantasy with stories begging to be told. These products are a part of our strategy to start doing just that."

Ah, the distinguished Game Developers Conference... now there's an event we won't be attending (although we might hold a prolongued "editorial" meeting at the local pub tonight). But no worries, that's why we have the internets, to bring us various stuff from this week's GDC 2008 in San Francisco. Such is this new pack of screenshots from Age of Conan issued by Funcom. I'd rather not comment on them, though - we might lose our last two Conan-fans readers who drive our earnings through the roof.

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 Continue reading 'GDC 2008 - Age of Conan Screenshots'...

- The world of Fallout 3 will be much smaller than Oblivion, Bethesda's Pete Hines told some aussies, "but packed with stuff to do". Stuff to do is good, mkay.

- "For Sims 3 there will be new information soon", Sims Studio head Rod Humble let slip in a forum posting. And guess what: they are "actually launching less [Sims games] this year than last". Oh, and "the Sims Label was created to innovate, make original games and take creative risks". I loled.

- Aion: The Tower of Eternity is coming in 2008. How exactly is that a novelty, beats me!

- Naruto: Ninja Destiny went gold, and is now destined to launch on February 26 for the Nintendo DS. Naruto sucks dragon balls.

- April 22 was announced as the day Square Enix will release its new DS action-RPG set in modern-day Tokyo, The World Ends With You. No U.

- Unreal Engine 3 got licensed by yet another Korean developer - Dragonfly (Karma Online, Special Force), who will be using it to make a new... something, whatever.

On the same day that EA was revealing Red Alert 3 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Vivendi also made a similar, albeit shadowed announcement, about another supposedly-hardcore RTS game heading for all three supposedly-hardcore platforms: World in Conflict. As one of last year's top strategy titles on the PC, World in Conflict was previously known to be in development for the Xbox 360, but this week a PS3 version was also confirmed.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of World in Conflict are now set for release in autumn 2007, effectively meaning that the Xbox 360 has already been delayed almost one year from its initial date. But looking on the bright side, this way the devs (Swordfish Studios, overwatched by Massive Ent.) will hopefully have enough time to do a proper port, controls-wise.

Other-wise, World in Conflict will be reinforced with new content on the consoles, for both its singleplayer campaign and multiplayer mode. And this yet-to-be-detailed "new content" will also be made available on the PC, in the form of an expansion. More info about the latter should be interecepted soon.