Left Behind Games - Million Game Free Give Away To First Responders

Left Behind Games, announced today that it has launched its new Million Game FREE Giveaway marketing program. For a nominal shipping and processing fee, the first million responders can get LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces for FREE, normally a $24.95 retail value, by going to www.lbgames.com/free.

“This new program will help us to increase our installed base of users to benefit future sales and expand distribution of the world’s only games where prayer is more powerful than guns”, said Troy Lyndon, chief executive officer of Left Behind Games. Lyndon continues, “More and more people continue to communicate how grateful they are that our content presents a healthy alternative in an industry that is getting increasingly more graphically violent. Finally, parents can get their youngster, for FREE, a really good, fun and safe game that encourages positive values.”

The storylines of the LEFT BEHIND products are based on the best-selling "Left Behind" book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which has sold more than 63 million copies worldwide.
For more information, visit www.lbgames.com.

Point 'N' Click Adventure: Jack Keane

Strategy First Signs Classic Point 'N' Click Adventure: Jack Keane

Eagerly Anticipated Comic Adventure Game to be published by Strategy First in North America

Software publisher Strategy First Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings, Ltd., and developer 10Tacle are thrilled to announce the signing of the hilarious adventure title, “Jack Keane and the Dokktor’s Island”

“We are delighted to team up with 10Tacle to bring such an exciting, action-packed adventure game to the North American market,” said Emanuel Wall, Strategy First Business Development Manager.

“In Strategy First we have found a great distribution partner for North America for our amusing, action-packed adventure hit “Jack Keane”. We are confident that the outstanding product quality and the comprehensive, target-oriented, marketing and PR campaign will find a broad audience who will be very much interested in the adventure of the sympathetic and bearish hero,” said Frank Holz Marketing & Sales Director, 10Tacle Studios AG, the promising partnership.


About Jack Keane
Jack Keane is an action-packed Point ‘n’ Click Adventure with loads of allusions to well-known computer games and classic movies. Set in the early colonial period, the story leads likeable adventurer Jack Keane to a wide variety of places such as London, Capetown or the jungles of India. In London he accepts a risky assignment for the Queen: it’s up to Jack to travel to a remote island and stop a mad scientist out to rule the world with his army of trained apes.


Key Features

• The Funniest adventure game in the footsteps of Monkey Island
  
• Enthralling story including many allusions to famous movies, videos and computer games
  
• More than 40 funny characters
  
• An abundance of cinematic movies and cut-scenes
  
• Countless locations stuffed with interactions
  
• Suited for both beginners and, due to increasing difficulty levels, advance players
  
• Two playable characters: The very ironic, slightly clumsy daredevil Jack Keane, plus the attractive and adventuresome lady, Amanda
  
• 3-D levels presented in a classic adventure atmosphere
  
• Plenty of diverse locations such as London, the high seas, Cape Town and the Indian jungle
  

Jack Keane will release in North America April 15th, 2008. For more information, please visit: http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/JackKeane/

Assassin's Creed for PC due in March

Ubisoft Announces Assassin's Creed For PC Will Launch In March

PC Version Features Brand-New Exclusive Investigation Missions

Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that Assassin's Creed for PC will be available at retailers nationwide in March.

Assassin's Creed for PC follows in the wake of the critically acclaimed and worldwide console hit Assassin's Creed, and will feature four brand-new exclusive types of investigations, providing even more ways for players to explore the various locations of the Third Crusade. Players will assume the role of the main character, Altair, and will work to stop hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict and experience the art of a master assassin. With more than 2.5 million units of the console versions sold to date in North America alone since its mid-November 2007 launch, Assassin's Creed for PC is set to expand upon this success.

"We are thrilled to bring Assassin's Creed to an eager PC audience and we anticipate the game will resonate with them just has it has across the other platforms," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft. "In addition, the development team was able to integrate exclusive content into this version of Assassin's Creed, making it an even better and unique experience for PC gamers."

Assassin's Creed for PC is rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $49.99. For more information, please visit http://assassinscreed.com.

Go! Sports Skydiving for Sony PlayStation 3

Go! Sports Skydiving


Fact Sheet

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA)
Platform: PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) via PLAYSTATION Network
Developer: Lightweight Co., Ltd
Genre: Action Sports
Rating: “E” for Everyone

OVERVIEW

Go! Sports Skydiving is a skydiving simulator that uses the SIXAXIS wireless controller to twist, turn and pull off aerial tricks. The easy and intuitive motion control allows the gamer to move through the skies into various skydiving team formations or to perform solo tricks. Go! Sports Skydiving supports several single player modes, including formation and landing, and features different locations at various times of the day. An online mode allow gamers to compete against other players in formation and team matches, and also supports a global ranking system for the formation and landing modes.

KEY FEATURES

• Various Gameplay Modes – Includes 4 offline modes, a license mode, and 2 online modes with up to 4 players.
• SIXAXIS™ Wireless Controller - Fully controlled by the SIXAXIS motion sensors to maneuver your skydiver into various formations.
• Download Replays – Watch the replays of the highest ranked players on the leaderboards.
• Global Online Ranking – See how you compare to other skydivers worldwide.

Lost video game (Lost: Via Domus) trailer on Sony PlayStation3 and XBox 360

New trailer of upcoming Lost video game. In stores Feb 27

Watch the YouTube video here

What if everyone could make videogames?

Recently I've been playing some very interesting games from some very interesting places. First was an Iranian game, where I tried to rescue Iranian nuclear scientists from American forces. Second was a Kenyan game where I searched the countryside for ancient African artifacts, while avoiding hostile tribesmen. And just a few days ago I played a Lebanese game where I was an officer trying to prevent Israeli forces from crossing the border into Lebanon.

None of these games have hit the shelves in the U.S., nor should you expect them to, unfortunately. But each of them taught me things about the people who made them, the cultures in which those people live and the concerns people have there. That wasn't necessarily these games' intent, but it was an interesting side effect.

More from: Escapist Magazine

GOTHIC 3 – THE BEGINNING – Mobile Cellphone GAME

Gothic 3 – The Beginning – high ratings from press – everywhere available

JoWooD Productions is pleased to that the mobile gaming version of their successful Role Playing Game, Gothic, is well accepted by gamers and journalists.

Besides getting high ratings from magazines all over the world, Gothic 3 – The Beginning won a lot of awards already:

Play2go (89% - Gold Award)
The atmosphere, that is ported on this small display, is fantastic!

Airgamer (87% - airgamer award)
Atmosphere and story are quiet fantastic…

HandyPlayer (89% - HandyPlayer Award)
The world of gothic is en-route as sweeping as on PC and fascinates the player just from the very beginning of the game. Due to the unstained gameplay and the great atmosphere and exciting story…”

You can get the game here or at a online store of your choice:
www.jamster.com

About Gothic 3 – The Beginning:
Based on the story from the Gothic PC gaming series, Gothic 3 - The Beginning takes place in a turbulent world, dating 140 years back from the first instalment in the Gothic series. Players will take on the role of young Xardas, who has been chosen by God Innos, from the Island of Kohrinis, to capture and return magic rune stones to his people.

Features:

Visit various locations in Khorinis and Tirith

Chat with NPCs to find clues in your adventure and trade with merchants to gain the best equipment for your journey

Fight against hundreds of monsters and develop your skills to be able to use stronger armour and weapons

Learn how to use long banned magic to gain enough power to accomplish your tasks

Find valuable treasures and pieces of equipment or take them from your conquered enemies

Pry locks and chests open to find rare treasures

Auto-save feature at checkpoints throughout the game allows players to continue their adventure at any time

SPEEDBALL 2 – TOURNAMENT PC video game released and music download

SPEEDBALL 2 – TOURNAMENT SMASHES INTO RETAIL TODAY

BRUTAL, ADRENALINE PUMPING ACTION HITS THE SHELVES

Speedball 2 – Tournament, the ferocious and extreme sports game for PC, is available in stores today. In a violent future, two heavily armoured teams fight a vicious battle for possession of a steel ball. Take control of a brutal squad of athletes and punch your way through the opposition, pounding players to the ground as you go, using any malicious tactics to win the game.

State-of-the-art 3D graphics enhance the brutal gameplay as the adrenaline races and your customised team of ‘speedballers’ battle with the opposition. The extreme online multiplayer action lets you face your friends, or enemies online with a chance to climb the leagues and international rankings to become the Speedball 2 champion.

Speedball 2 – Tournament: Game Features

New Multiplayer mode – Dedicated server solution and renowned Raknet network middleware for professional online gaming (e-sports)

Customise your players – Choose your player skin, team colours and tags in the profile editor or create your own logo and integrate it into the game and display it on the field

Team Selection – Choose your team carefully from male, female and cyborg characters with differing strengths and weaknesses

Game-Centre – Unique online community platform: Subscribe to worldwide rankings, leagues and events and use the match making tool to play with friends or other ranked players. Get your own webpage and add personal information, access the chat room and link to your clan’s blog

Extreme community support and action – Challenge other players on the Speedball2.com game portal’s international leagues or tournaments for friendly or ranked matches

Live news and replays – Keep up-to-date with tournaments and events and watch full game replays on the Game-Center

Download the MP3 soundtrack here:
http://www.frogster-interactive.de/downloads68!28!418,1.html

Fast facts:
Publisher: Ascaron Entertainment
Web: www.Ascaron.com / www.Speedball2.com
Developer: Kylotonn Entertainment
Co-Producer: The Bitmap Brothers & Frogster Interactive Pictures AG
Release date: 8th February 2008
RRP: £19.99
PEGI: 12+
Format: PC
Genre: Futuristic Sports

More information on Supreme Ruler 2020 PC video game

Supreme Ruler 2020 Developer Diary No1 – Where we’ve come from…

1983 – Supreme Ruler (TRS-80)
1985 – Supreme Ruler Plus (TRS-80)
1992 – Supreme Ruler (Atari ST – Designed Only)
2000 – Began Work on Supreme Ruler 2010 (Windows PC)
2005 – Released Supreme Ruler 2010 (Windows PC)
2006 – Began Work on Supreme Ruler 2020 (Windows PC)
2008 – To Be Released –> Supreme Ruler 2020

Many games have multiple versions that span years of development time – whether people know it or not, Supreme Ruler is one such game. Originally conceived in 1983,
Supreme Ruler began life as a text-only simulation for the TRS-80 Model One microcomputer. BattleGoat Studios Co-Founder and Lead Programmer, George Geczy, was inspired by some of the early text-based strategy games that allowed the player to take the role of leading an ancient nation or city-state, though he wanted to bring in more modern concepts of taxation and economic simulation.

Supreme Ruler garnered some good reviews and was much enjoyed on the TRS-80 leading to the release of a Supreme Ruler Plus version a couple of years later that took the concept as far as it could go on a system with a 48KB memory limit!

Fast forward to 2000 – we (David and George) sold our retail business, and BattleGoat Studios was founded. Much of that first year in development was spent shooting basketballs and hammering out the details of what to do with this new Supreme Ruler conceptualization. Graphics capabilities had continued to improve and now it was
possible to consider using satellite imagery as the background map within the game. Instead of creating a fictional world, real countries could be involved. NASA made this option even easier to achieve for a small studio by releasing full satellite imagery of the world on a royalty free basis through their “Blue Marble” project.

With Real World imagery, we now had to write a story line that would be plausible… With the economic problems that accompanied George W. Bush’s first year in office,
the storyline almost wrote itself. What if these economic problems continue to worsen over the next few years? What would happen if OPEC decided to change their
currency standard from Dollars to Euros? What if the aging power distribution network had an even greater failure than what happened in 2003? What if the countries that have been propping up the US Dollar for the last several years decided it was time to get out? What about Global Warming? Avian Flu? These may sound like the plots of a
Tom Clancy novel, but they generally came from the headlines and economic opinions that were circulating during the development of Supreme Ruler 2010. If we were taking the story from the headlines, we had to make sure that each region in the game would accurately reflect the resources, technology and military structure of its real world counterpart. So the majority of development time spent on Supreme Ruler 2010 over the next four years was spent profiling each region in our 2010 world, creating an economic model that realistically portrayed each country.

Now we had our story for SR2010 and our general design document. As we began to build the User Interface though we realized that some of our ideas might not make the final feature cut, especially if we ever wanted to finish the game and actually release it. In May 2005, Supreme Ruler 2010 was finally released.

And that’s where we found ourselves at the start of 2006. After adding some additional features and missions for 2010 in subsequent free updates, it was time to concentrate on our next project –Supreme Ruler 2020. We were very pleased to sign with Paradox Interactive for the worldwide release, the combination of Paradox’s expertise and reputation are bringing an entirely new audience to our game.

When BattleGoat Studios releases Supreme Ruler 2020 this year it will mark the Silver Anniversary (25 years) of the franchise. What’s new in 2020 and some of the development challenges that have been faced during the last two years will be detailed in upcoming Developer Diaries.

PDC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DARTS 2008 OUT NOW ON NINTENDO Wii

Eagerly anticipated Darts game for Wii is on sale with demand already outstripping supply.

PDC World Championship Darts 2008 hits the stores on Wii= with some retailers already sold out of their allocation.

"We knew demand for Darts on Wii would be high given it's a perfect fit for the console, but the level of pre-orders and sales has even exceeded our expectations" explained Jim Scott CEO of Oxygen Games.

"Darts 2008 has been one of the highest pre-ordered games on the Wii™ and we are working hard to make more stocks available" Jim Scott added.

PDC Darts 2008 on Wii™ allows players to immerse themselves in the realism of the sport, and go head-to-head with the greatest PDC Champions.

PDC Darts 2008 has been carefully crafted, allowing players to throw using the Wii Remote as they would a real dart. "Using the Wii remote to throw the dart is the closest thing to real darts yet – GAME ON” – Phil Taylor, 13 Times World Champion.

Additional Features
• 16 PDC Champions to play as or compete against, including: Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Manley, Wayne Mardle, Dennis Priestley, Adrian Lewis, Alan Warriner-Little, John Part, Colin Lloyd, Mark Dudbridge, Roland Scholten, Ronnie Baxter, Terry Jenkins, Kevin Painter, Andy Hamilton and Andy Jenkins.
• Player AI is calculated using real life averages from major tournaments and also based on actual playing characteristics i.e. stamina, belief, pressure, complacency and accuracy
• PDC Pro animations - throw styles and walk on’s - have been mo-capped and are full integrated.
• 4 Games Modes: Exhibition, Tournament, Career and Party Games.
• Indepth career mode, realistically reflecting a players progress through the PDC calendar, featuring 7 of the major PDC tournaments
• Three difficulty levels for extended play and learning curves; Amateur, Professional and Master.
• Character Editor: Customisable elements include player model, skin tone, eye colour, nationality, name, hairstyle, hair colour, eyewear, shirt style and colour, throwing angle, level of difficulty i.e. meter on (Amateur) or off (Pro and Master) and preferred checkout. Select from a range of barrel weights and different flight designs.
• Commentary from TV’s ‘Voice of Darts’ Sid Waddell and top level match referee Bruce Spendley.
• 7 real-world tournament sets and locations common to the PDC circuit.
• Game stats displayed in-game, at the end of match and stored as high-scores and trivia.
• Sound effects including convincing dynamic crowd sounds, darts hitting the board and commentary.
• Wii Remote sensitivity option – change the sensitivity of the Wii Remote to tailor to your own throw style.

Immerse yourself in the realism of PDC Darts 2008; Go head-to-head with the greatest PDC Champions and be part of the year’s most fierce console Championship.

Pure Darts… Out on now on Wii, PlayStation 2 and PC - Game On!

For further information on the game visit www.dartsthegame.com