Latest Free Gracia update for Lineage II attracts new players

Free update for its award winning MMORPG Lineage II - The Chaotic Throne http://www.discoverlineage2.com. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for the Gracia update, with the record for concurrent users on EU servers now broken for six weeks running. At the same time, the number of new characters created has risen substantially alongside daily raid figures. The changes brought to the game mechanics have satisfied and pleased both newcomers and existing players.

Gracia features a new vitality system which radically accelerates the rate at which players can level up their characters. Before this update it took an average player one week to achieve 1st class transfer; players can now reach it within one day. Gracia has also introduced a range of additional benefits such as free teleports and special buffs, new skills, innovation within the crafting system, and new and challenging instanced dungeons.

“We are very pleased with the feedback we've received so far for Gracia,” commented Christian-Peter Heimbach, European Product Manager of Lineage II at NCsoft Europe. “We were expecting Gracia to signal a huge change for Lineage II, but the increase in new players as well as a new record for concurrent users was still fantastic to see. Furthermore, the feedback for the new raiding areas in Lineage II is terrific. We're thrilled to see players taking another look at what Lineage II has to offer. Our war isn’t coming; it’s getting better every time."

The Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne – Gracia retail box has been available since the 19th September 2008 across stores in Europe, and can also be downloaded.

Rock Band - Guitar Hero rip off or copy cat?

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but they neglected to mention that it’s also a crushing chokehold on the windpipe of creativity. Nowhere is this fact of life more apparent than in this fall’s lineup of upcoming and recently released video games. Look a little closer and you’ll realize—with a few exceptions—that it’s not just this season’s selection of pixelly diversions that suffer from a general lack of originality; it’s a long-running ailment endemic to the entire video game industry.

Read the full story here...

Top Ten Video game cars...

In honor of the vehicular hoonage video games allow us to safely perpetrate, we've selected these, the ten greatest cars from the annals of video game history.

They have challenged the deftness of our readers thumbs, the quickness of their eyes and the flexibility of their notions of how gravity works.

Whether in a racing sim, an action title or crime-ridden universe, these ten vehicles represent generations of rubber-burning enjoyment. Hit the jump to see them all.

Read the full blog entry here...

Dead Space video game - Fact Sheet

Dead Space video game - Fact Sheet

Electronic Arts and Image Comics present a new comic book series based upon the upcoming original survival horror video game Dead Space. This new six-book series set in the Dead Space universe will be written and illustrated by Ben Templesmith and written by Antony Johnston.

The Dead Space comic is the prequel story for the game. This series tells the gut-wrenching tale of a deep space mining colony that unexpectedly pulls an ancient and vicious alien life force from the dark rock.

“The world of Dead Space has such a deep storyline that it’s easily adaptable to other mediums,” said Executive Producer of Dead Space, Glen Schofield. “We love the fact our story is being told across multiple forms of media, providing different experiences to different audiences, which all lead to the same dark place.”

Ben Templesmith is an Australian commercial artist best known for his work in the American comic book industry - most notably Fell with writer Warren Ellis, published by Image Comics, and 30 Days of Night with writer Steve Niles published by IDW Publishing. The 30 Days of Night novel provoked a bidding war between film studios for the movie rights when the story was pitched a second time with Templesmith's artwork. Ben has been nominated for multiple Eisner Awards three years in a row for his comic work. He has also created book covers, movie posters, trading cards, and concept work for film.

Antony Johnston was born and raised in the Birmingham, England area and is the author of thirteen graphic novels, including Stormbreaker and Point Blanc (adapted from Anthony Horowitz' best-selling Alex Rider novels), The Long Haul, Julius and Three Days in Europe. He writes two ongoing serials, the sci-fi epic Wasteland and the children's fantasy Texas Strangers. He has adapted many of Alan Moore's prose stories to comics, written for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre comics license, and is the only other writer to have penned a story for Greg Rucka's award-winning Queen & Country series. He also writes novels; his debut Frightening Curves won the 2002 American Independent Publishing Award for Best Horror. His second novel, Stealing Life, was published in 2007.


Under development at EA Redwood Shores, Dead Space ships Fall 2008 for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system and the PC.

Daily Telegraph game review here...

Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway - Fact Sheet

Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway - Fact Sheet

Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, PC

Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway brings the critically acclaimed squad-based WWII shooter into the next generation of gaming with amazing graphics and sound, new cutting-edge gameplay features and a totally redesigned online component.

Delivering on the franchise’s compelling story, unrivaled authenticity and intense squad-based action, Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway drops you into Operation Market Garden, the largest paratrooper operation in World War II.

Key Features

• Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway – next generation: The classic authentic, squad-based combat series explodes on next-generation hardware, offering unprecedented graphics and features.

• New story, new setting. Join Matt Baker, Joe Hartsock and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden as they fight to open the infamous Hell’s Highway in a daring bid for a quick end to the war.

• Live the life of an enlisted man: Get orders from HQ, go on patrol, spot the enemy and set up a devastating ambush. For the first time, finding the enemy before they find you is part of the challenge.

• Unprecedented character design: Lifelike characters look, talk, move and think with incredible realism. Game characters interact with the player and each other like true brothers in arms, trading ammunition, helping wounded allies and civilians, working together to man team-operated weapons, and more.

• Rich cinematic experience: As the squad leader, you interact with and get to know your brothers. Each character has his own distinct personality, unique story and background, and grows throughout the game.

• Powerful new units under your command: Players can use or command combined arms teams – machine gun crews create intense fire, bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks, and mortar crews pound the enemy from a distance.

• Play your own way: Players can choose to use their squad to execute a tactically elegant flanking maneuver or charge in with guns blazing.

• Destructible cover: Keep your men moving and choose your cover wisely – modeled using real physical properties and behaviors, weapons will damage, dent, scorch and destroy the world around you.

• Completely new multiplayer experience: Fight major multiplayer battles with dozens of players on each side, combining all the intensity and accessibility of Deathmatch with the squad-based gameplay that helped make Brothers In Arms famous.

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox Software
Ship Date: August 2008
Category: First-Person Shooter

Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway Q&A

Q: BIA has always been a violent series, mostly because of the topic it’s covering. Will BIA HH follow the same path?
A: BiA HH will continue to show the horrors of war be they physical gore or mental trauma. We feel it's important to treat the subject with respect but at the same time help people feel the intensity of the violence. War is at its core a violent act and gore is something that goes with the territory.

Q: We all have in mind the incredible opening scene in Saving Private Ryan and BIA has always tried to be very realistic. How did you reach a decision for the level of gore that you wanted in the game?
A: Really it was a very straightforward decision. Each area of the game that depicts violence is specifically to illustrate an important story point or convey the terrible nature of war. We never really ask ourselves about the "Gore Level" instead we focus on the drama and purpose of the scene or game system. If gore happens to be a part of that experience then so be it.

Q: What is the biggest technical challenge that you had to face during the development of the new gore system?
A: The main challenge was making sure the physics was fast enough on each of the different platforms. Since each platform has different performance characteristics we had to tune the simulations to match. As well it was a challenge dealing with the additional memory required to break apart different enemy types in so many ways.

Q: Finally, did you cut some of the gore features you planned on implementing in the game originally?
A: Actually the gore system landed a fair bit ahead of where we had originally planned. Since our game is not about gore we generally wanted to keep it in the background and thus we didn't plan on spending big into the tech. However there were a number of features the team promoted internally such as headshot specific gore and dripping blood on walls that weren't in the original plan.