Aces of the Galaxy - plus Action Puzzler - Roogoo - coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade

Experience the thrilling retro arcade space shooter “Aces of the Galaxy,” and enjoy a new type of action-puzzler, “Roogoo,” both launching on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday 4th June, 2008 at 09.00.



Enjoy the frantic action of “Aces of the Galaxy,” an old fashioned arcade adrenaline-pumping shoot-em-up that allows players to save the Universe from the wicked Skurgian Empire. Players annihilate enemy ships with an impressive arsenal of upgradeable weapons including high-powered missile launchers, devastating torpedoes and the relentless chain gun. Battle intense waves of enemy Skurgians against a breathtaking outer space backdrop, and choose to fight alone or join up with a friend at home or via Xbox LIVE.


“Roogoo” takes puzzles to a whole new level. Help the Roogoo defeat their enemies, the evil Meemoo, in “Roogoo,” a new and innovative action based-puzzler with addictive gameplay. Players line up multiple platforms on different levels to allow shaped blocks to pass through and once enough stack up, that particular shape closes off. A simple premise becomes more complicated as Meemoos begin to obstruct players' paths and butterflies attempt to steal blocks away. Players must swivel, roll and boost their way through 45 puzzle-filled levels alone or with up to four friends in cooperative party mode play. For those with a more competitive spirit, “Roogoo” offers a two-player multiplayer mode over Xbox LIVE where players battle to solve the same puzzle and can build up attacks to defeat their competitors.

Where can I get theses games from?

"Aces of the Galaxy" will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points.

Video for Hellgate - London patch 1.3

Flagship Studios today released a video to coincide with the recent launch of patch 1.3 for its action RPG Hellgate: London. Patch 1.3 offers no less than eight new features including Shared Stash, a Premium Item Merchant, Donation Collectors and Global Buffs, Ranks and the Expertise system.

Interacting with your fellow players has been enhanced with the introduction of optional chat bubbles that appear when players talk and performable emotes that characters now have at their disposal. In Patch 1.3, players can also easily browse lists of chat and emote commands using the two according buttons in the chat panel.

Visit the site here

Battlefield 2142 video game - Patch 1.5 Released

The highly anticipated patch integrating map making skills from the community is now available. The patch integrates the maps Wake Island 2142 and Operation Shingle into the game as well as the ability to use wide-screen resolutions.

read more | digg story

Burnout Paradise - Software Update for PS3 and Xbox 360 new cars modes and more...

At the end of this month (June 2008), the software update Cagney will be released for Burnout Paradise on the PS3 and Xbox 360 with a plethora of fixes, changes, and additions. Some very notable changes include a new title screen, live frontpage, new cars, and more modes.

read more | digg story

Born of blood update released for sword of the stars video game

Sword of the Stars Update 1.5.2 released for Born of Blood, the official add-on to critically acclaimed 4X space strategy game Sword of the Stars. Update 1.5.2 allows current owners of Born of Blood to play on custom maps created by others, and engage in multiplayer action with those who are playing the recently released version included in Sword of the Stars: Collector’s Edition. The Update however does not contain many of the robust features that are exclusive to the Collector’s Edition, such as the ability to share custom maps or create stand-alone servers.

Update 1.5.2 is English only and can be installed over all previous versions of Born of Blood. Some of the key features include:

Play custom maps created by other players and access example custom maps in the Maps folder

New encounters added

Addtional visual feedback to polygon targeting an enemy in combat (i.e. during mass missile launches)

AI enhancements (i.e. prevention of the AI from surrendering too early)

Various performance issues corrected

The ability to observe encounters even if players have other combats queued

The Zuul receive one additional colony despite the map settings and a free bore ship is provided at every initial world

Build queue is now visible from the trade tab in the Empire Summary

New AI player names, badges and portraits to reflect characters and references from The Deacons Tale (visible to 1.5.2 players, but not accessible for personal use)

Drag & drop multiple ships from side list into fleet manager

Though Update 1.5.2 is quite comprehensive, it does not include the following features that are found exclusively in the retail version of Sword of the Stars: Collector’s Edition, which is out now:

• Create a stand-alone game server
• Ability to permanently save a copy of a custom map created by other players
• New ship badges and player avatars
• Use of custom maps in single and multiplayer modes
• The first ever Sword of the Stars novel entitled, The Deacon's Tale by acclaimed science fiction author Arinn Dembo
• Bonus CD with full music tracks (including never-before-released tracks), concept art, video trailers and interviews, and detailed bios for each race

To download Update 1.5.2 and view the complete feature list, visit: www.lighthouse-interactive.com

Real airfield scenery from just flight FSX Airfield for under €5.95 - $7.99 - £4.00

Real Scenery Airfields – White Waltham

Developer: Just Flight
Genre: Flight Simulation
Format: PC – ESD download
UK Release: 2nd June 2008
SRP £3.99 / €5.95 / $7.99


Just Flight is pleased to announce the release of the second instalment in its series of British airfield sceneries for Flight Simulator X. Real Scenery Airfields – White Waltham re-creates the well-known home of the West London Aero Club – a very popular destination for both real and virtual pilots.



Available to download exclusively from Just Flight, and at a special introductory price of just £3.99 / €5.95 / $7.99, Real Scenery Airfields – White Waltham is fantastic value and a must-have for anyone who wants to experience real GA flying in FSX. The product page can be found here -

http://www.justflight.com/product.asp?pid=312

Real Scenery Airfields – Denham, the first out of the blocks, has been very well received by press and public alike and Just Flight’s in-house development team has been spurred on by its success. White Waltham has been designed to the highest standards using high resolution aerial images and on-site research; the scenery includes all the major buildings that make White Waltham instantly recognisable.

Among the many unique features of this scenery is snow on the ground during December and January – a first for FSX add-on airports! As well as the authentically-modelled buildings, custom night textures and high resolution mesh, White Waltham boasts static and AI aircraft, people and objects - there are even animated flocks of birds!

Another first for White Waltham is a fully functioning demo version of the airfield [here] that users can try before they buy.

Demo link –

Demo download

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Service Pack 2 and Acceleration compatible) – Windows Vista or XP

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: PC with 3.0 GHz (equivalent or higher) processor, 1.0Gb RAM, graphics card with 128Mb (or higher) video memory, Hard disc space 1.0Gb

Demo Version of SimCity Societies - Updated Content Free Download June 12

SimCity Societies from The Sims Label, Electronic Arts

Demo will show off much of the new fan requested content and features that have been added to the game over the last few months through five free game updates. Just some of the features and content added to Societies include:

· New strategic modes: Basic, Hardcore and Nightmare, each one a more intense challenge to your city buildings skills.
· Three new exotic disasters, including UFOs, a giant robot and a massive monster
· New events and crises, including counter-cultural revolutions, general strikes, epidemics and more
· Easy firefighting controls. Put out the flames faster!
· Improved road placing controls
· Almost countless UI additions, everything more charts and graphs to new auto-execute buttons for special abilities
· City Policies, giving you the power to enact Universal Healthcare, Indoctrination, and other ways to affect, or control, your citizens lives
· Six scenarios ranging from the relaxing the intense
· Dozens of new buildings and special Sims
· More than 100 other additions and improvements

The free downloadable demo will include the tutorial, a challenging scenario and two major disasters.

Look for it on June 12 at www.simcity.com.

The SimCity Societies free game updates are available right now at www.simcity.com. When you download update 5, it will include all previous updates.

Upcoming for SimCity Societies after the demo launch is its first expansion, Destinations, and the massive compilation, The SimCity Box (which includes Societies, Destinations, SimCity 4, SimCity 4 Rush Hour, Snap City and Spore Creature Creator Trial Version), due out on June 23. Check www.simcity.com for more info.

Start a Band and Rock the World with Rock Band Exclusively on Xbox 360

Celebrity Rock Band fans Maximo Park headline search for this summer's biggest rockers and announce June 10th download date for their critically acclaimed track Girls Who Play Guitars

This weekend, at a beachside event in Ibiza ‘Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live’ was launched. The promotion allows music fans in France, Germany and the U.K. to Start a Band and Rock the World with Rock Band, a new video game available only on Xbox 360 this summer! Those who give stellar performances on Rock Band could win a rock star lifestyle: living it up VIP style in Ibiza with a week’s holiday at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel.



Rock Band is available exclusively on the Xbox 360 console this summer and is going to be the season’s biggest hit! The game takes the music videogame genre to new heights of enjoyment as music lovers and would be band superstars get access to their favourite artists across the generations from every genre of rock. With an endless supply of digitally distributed content downloaded over Xbox LIVE the game brings together friends and family and challenges players to tour for fame and fortune by mastering lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band events will be held in a number of different locations in U.K., France and Germany. Fans will have the opportunity to perform songs on Rock Band from a variety of artists including David Bowie, The Clash, Jet, Radiohead and Garbage. Those who give outstanding performances on Rock Band will make it to the wall of fame on www.xbox.com/rockband with the winners, chosen by MTV and celebrity judges Maximo Park, living like VIPs in Ibiza.

Paul Smith, front man of Newcastle’s finest export and Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live judge explains what they will be looking for when picking the winners:

“All the best rock bands have got amazing star quality and whilst they’ve got to play their instruments well they’ve also got to have the showmanship to excite a crowd. From outrageous outfits and haircuts to amazing postural performances we are looking for a group who give us all of this and more on top!”

Maximo Park have been rehearsing furiously for a tour of Europe’s summer music festivals are big fans of Rock Band, performing David Bowie’s Suffragette City at the Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live event. The band’s track “Girls Who Play Guitars”, taken from their highly acclaimed album Our Earthly Pleasures, will be available to download and play with Rock Band from Tuesday 10th of June 2008:

“We have an Xbox 360 with Rock Band installed in our rehearsal studio in Newcastle and it’s great for thrashing out some amazing songs,” explains Paul. “We can’t wait until our fans can do the same with Girls Who Play Guitars.”

Rock Band’s amazing offering of over 70 songs to date is available for purchase and to download from Xbox LIVE. New songs will be made available for download on a weekly basis. Full-length albums such as Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance and The Cars self titled album are also available on Xbox LIVE as digitally distributed game levels.

Chris Lewis, Vice President of Xbox 360 Europe concludes:

“Rock Band on Xbox 360 is going to be the biggest game of the summer. It makes rock stars of you, your friends and family, bringing them together to compete not just for high scores but for the ‘stage floor’. With the launch of Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live promotion we hope everyone will have a chance to feel like a star, even if only for five minutes.”

Weird Worlds Soundtrack available now on your iPod!

Whether it's relaxing after a long day of work, driving through the countryside on a fine Sunday afternoon, or being probed by little green spacemen everything goes better with music. With that in mind Digital Eel, masters of the twenty minute space oddities and other realms beyond the ken of man, have made available the official soundtrack to their hit game, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, for immediate download!

Available in either 44100Hz stereo/128Kbps or 44100Hz stereo/486KBps DRM-free .mp3 formats the Weird Worlds soundtrack features twelve minutes of music that will take you on an astral journey from here to Sector Prime and back. It includes over twenty tracks, many of which are cuts that were not featured in the final game and are now available for your listening pleasure for the first time ever! Enjoy the "missing" theme loop, along with tracks for all your favorite races such as the Tchorak, Tan Ru, Muktian, and many more.

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space won Digital Eel the IGF 2006 Innovation In Audio Award and with such an amazing soundtrack it's easy to hear why. Download it today and share it with your friends, family, and those peeping Greys that like to jump up and down outside your house. Put it on your iPod, computer, in your car, or wherever you listen to .mp3s (or better yet, in all places). Burn it onto a CD and pass it out and the
next Star Trek rave.

And need we remind you that it will make the perfect companion piece for the upcoming Digital Eel board game, Eat Electric Death!? Eat Electric Death! is a tactical starship combat game set in the Infinite Space universe. Players can command vessels from seven races (Terrans, Garthans, Tan Ru, Zorg, Urluquai, Yellow Kawangi, and the Klakar) ranging from nimble fighters to gargantuan base stations in over twenty-five scenarios. With Eat Electric Death! Digital Eel has brought everything you've come to expect from their electronic visions—amazing visuals, addictive and easy to learn gameplay, endless replayability—and translated it seamlessly into the world of cardboard and dice. Currently in production it will be available soon.

Download the official Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space soundtrack here:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_worlds/6.htm

For more information on Eat Electric Death! and to pre-order please visit:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/eed/1.htm

If per chance you have not yet experienced the award-winning game that the soundtrack originates from by all means be sure to check out the Weird Worlds gamepage here:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_worlds/1.htm

From there you can read more about it and download a unique ten year pirate mission that will provide a good sampling of what to expect from the full game and find out why
Kieron Gillen of Eurogamer blamed it for his procrastinating Christmas shopping the year it was released: "Oh - a final testimonial to Weird Worlds strengths: as of 1:00 am
on December 22nd, I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. When my aggrieved girlfriend, family and friends come at me with the communal axe, I'm blaming this."

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite is available on both PC and Mac and can be ordered either as a physical copy or as a direct download.

Be sure to visit Shrapnel Games, publisher of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, to check out our complete catalog of critically acclaimed independent strategy games, including many FREE titles such as winSPWW2 (the original supermod Steel Panthers conversion) and many from Digital Eel, including a print-and-play fantasy board game.

Jimmy buffett re-records classic tracks for rock band

Talk about offering something for everyone - Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the latest artists to join the all-star Rock Band roster - mega-platinum-sellers Jimmy Buffett and Disturbed.

Buffett fans—better known as Parrotheads—can imagine they’re nibbling on sponge cake and watching the sun bake as they play along to three of Jimmy’s biggest and best: “Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger In Paradise” and “Volcano.” A big believer in the game, Buffett re-recorded all three songs exclusively for inclusion in Rock Band. Each Buffett track will be available for $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) or $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the three-pak.

Joining Buffett are Chicago-based metallers Disturbed, who are no strangers to Rock Band™; Leading consumer electronics and entertainment retailer Best Buy recently announced they are partnering with MTV Games and Hamonix to offer Disturbed fans the opportunity to download two free tracks from the band’s highly anticipated new album, INDESTRUCTIBLE. By pre-ordering the album at www.BestBuy.com/disturbed, fans will receive instructions to download title track “Indestructible” and “Inside The Fire” for Rock Band from Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network. Both of those songs will now be available to all Rock Band™ game players, along with a third new track, “Perfect Insanity.” Each Disturbed track will be available for $.99 per track (80 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for a limi ted time, or $2.99 (240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the three-pak.

Release date: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 (Xbox LIVE Marketplace)
Friday, June 6, 2008 (PLAYSTATIONStore)

Tracks: “Margaritaville” – Jimmy Buffett
“Cheeseburger I n Paradise” – Jimmy Buffett
“Volcano” – Jimmy Buffett
“Indestructible” – Disturbed
“Inside The Fire” – Disturbed
“Perfect Insanity& rdquo; – Disturbed

(All six tracks utilize original master recordings.)

Price: $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per Buffett track
or $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the Buffett three-pak

$.99 (80 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per Disturbed track (limited time),
or $2.99 (240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the Disturbed three-pak

Locations: & nbsp; Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PLAYSTATION Network

**Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change **