Hearts of Iron 3 Strikes Gold on PC!

Paradox Interactive is proud to announce today that production has completed on Hearts of Iron 3. The third installment of the popular World War II strategy series, Hearts of Iron 3 is ready to invade North American retail shelves and all major digital download portals on August 7th. The game will hit stores in the UK and Scandinavia on August 14th and Germany and France on August 28th.

Featuring rich battle simulations that occur throughout 1936-1948, Hearts of Iron 3 will appeal to both veteran players and newcomers alike with brand new features, including a huge game map with more than 14,000 land and sea provinces. Players will soon have the opportunity to put their battle plans into action and take control of countries ranging from larger superpowers such as Russia or the United States, to smaller nations such as Costa Rica.

To read more about Hearts of Iron 3, please visit www.paradoxplaza.com.

War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition video game now Available!

Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com), 2by3 Games (www.2by3games.com) and Henderson Field Designs are thrilled to announce that the highly anticipated sequel to the legendary wargame War in the Pacific is now available! Many additional man-years of development from a dedicated and experienced team including subject matter experts and experienced programmers has resulted in an improved War in the Pacific experience across the board. This is the entire War in the Pacific down to individual aircraft, vehicles, ships, guns and squads - more than just a game, it's an encyclopedia of the war compiled from many sources to an unmatched level of detail. Add in a much improved AI and more secure PBEM play and you have the makings of a new classic!

To coincide with the War in the Pacific release, we are also announcing a three month “Victory at Sea Sale” which offers the other 2by3 Pacific wargames at a reduced price.

War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition is a stand-alone release which does not require ownership of War in the Pacific. The Admiral’s Edition installation process will not overwrite original War in the Pacific files, but instead the expansion installs along side the original installation of the game and runs as a separate game.

Owners of War in the Pacific are entitled to a limited time $20 discount on War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition. This offer will expire three months after the release of Admiral’s Edition. To get your discount, you will need your original War in the Pacific serial number. You can trade it in for discount code at this link: http://www.matrixgames.com/discount/witp.asp . Note that each serial number is good for one discount code and once the code is retrieved, the serial number is considered used. So read the instructions on the discount code page carefully and don’t lose your code! We encourage all War in the Pacific owners to take advantage of this discount while it lasts.

The ”Victory at Sea Sale” will also last for three months after the Admiral’s Edition release and offers the following discounts: War in the Pacific is $20 off the normal price ($49.99 instead of $69.99), Uncommon Valor is $10 off the normal price ($19.99 instead of $29.99) and War Plan Orange is $10 off the normal price ($34.99 instead of $44.99). Whether you’re looking to complete your collection or you’re a new wargamer trying to get your feet wet before jumping into the Admiral’s Edition, there’s never been a better time to pick up these releases!

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “We’d like to thank Henderson Field Designs for their enormous effort and tireless dedication to the War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition project. Whether you’re a hardcore fan playing War in the Pacific every day or you’re interested in finding out what all the buzz has been about – Admiral’s Edition will deliver quality and immersive gameplay at a level of detail and realism you can’t get anywhere else! A warning though, this is a very advanced wargame and not for the faint of heart!”

The individual features and improvements to Admiral’s Edition are far too numerous to mention in total in this announcement, but the highlights alone should grab the attention of any War in the Pacific fan.

The Entire War in the Pacific on One Map! – If you thought the original map was something to behold, wait until you see the new one! Completely redone to a 40 nautical mile per hex scale (instead of the original 60 mile per hex scale) and with the original distance distortions and inaccuracies greatly reduced, this is the most accurate and most stunning map of the theater ever created. In addition, the smaller scale has allowed us to add a number of important bases that would not fit in the larger scale, but which played a key role in the strategy of various operations. On top of that, Admiral’s Edition now has off-map movement through map edge boxes representing major bases across the world, allowing more realistic movement of Allied assets and arrival of reinforcements and resources.

The War At Sea – A waypoint system has now been added for Task Force movement, with up to three waypoints possible. These can also be used to define a patrol zone with loiter times. Waypoints can also be used for automated convoys along with a “return same route” option, making setting up your supply routes easier than ever. Task Force Movement is now handled on a hex by hex basis, with mid-ocean intercepts now possible! Many additional ship classes have been added and the entire naval order of battle has been overhauled with new ships, new subs (including midget subs for the Japanese) and new devices.

The entire upgrade system is now much more capable, allowing conversion of ships between classes as well as multiple upgrade levels (for example, a US Navy four stack destroyer can now convert to APD, AVD, DM or DMS, as the player wishes). Ports have also been reworked to allow for realistic limits for ability to handle ships, cargo and repairs, with much more control given to the player on how repairs are managed (especially at shipyards).

Shore bombardment, landing craft, major and minor ship damage, Engine vs. System damage, brand new ship art and improved task force and ship displays are just some of the many additional improvements!

The War in the Air – The air combat, pilot replacement and training systems of the original War in the Pacific have all been revisited and improved for the Admiral’s Edition. CAP is now partly in the air and partly scrambled, based on your CAP percentage, radar, climb rate, HQs and other factors. Fighters now have new more realistic air combat ratings, with maneuver adjusted based on altitude bands and top speed factored into relative maneuver calculations, to allow both styles of air combat to have their due. The end result is a better simulation of the historical matchups and less of the “uber CAP” that could happen in the original release.

On top of that, plane damage is now tracked across turns and each plane type is assigned a service rating which affects the difficulty of keeping that plane repaired, maintained and in the air. In addition to ops losses, perpetually damaged planes can now become “write offs” with their parts scavenged to make other planes operational. Operational losses overall are now at a higher, more realistic level for the Pacific theater. Fog of war also now applies to the indicator for enemy planes at a base as well and air balance and bomber/escort assignment depends on what you actually know of the enemy’s air power.

Pilots are now rated in a dozen different skill levels and can no longer gain the equivalent of combat experience by flying non-combat missions. Combined with a much more realistic multi-pool pilot training and reserve system, this eliminates certain balance loopholes that could cause unrealistic training rates.

Barrage balloons, blimps, over 500 airplane types, new aircraft art, more realistic coordination limits, configurable resize for squadrons and tracking of air attack vectors for ship flak are some of the many additional improvements!

The War on Land – From the original War in the Pacific’s eight terrain types, the Admiral’s Edition now has up to sixteen and transportation is now handled based on hex-sides rather than hexes, allowing for realistic land movement rates. A new dynamic hex-side and hex zone of control system also ensures realistic control over directions of movement and retreat. Land units now have several modes, rather than just a few – Combat, Movement, Strategic Movement, Reserve, Rest and Disorganized combine to give the player more choices to make about the stance and effectiveness of his land units. A division in Reserve will be able to Pursue, while a Division in Combat will be able to fight much more effectively and a division in Strategic Movement will be able to use rail movement, for example.

Tactical movement also now allows plotting and executing moves from any one hex to any adjacent hex – supply routes no longer need to be followed. Improved fog of war, limitations on fort construction, forced withdrawals and disbands and overstacking rules for atolls and small islands are some of the additional improvements that bring the land combat aspect of the Admiral’s Edition to a new level!

The War at Home – Economy and Industry have also been improved to more accurately simulate the wartime economies, with the addition of Light Industry and Oil Refinery centers and the removal of fuel and supply production from Resource and Oil centers. These changes allow for more realistic economies while keeping the game balance at a historical level. Moving the arrival of some off-map resources to off-map bases, requiring them to be transported on map also removes some issues, such as with Karachi. The end result is an economy that is not significantly more complex, but works more historically.

The Grand Campaign – All of these improvements will come wrapped up with a new full campaign scenario as well as five other scenarios, ranging in size from smaller to larger, many never before done for the War in the Pacific engine! The new campaign and scenarios are based on new, thorough and painstaking research to place every starting historical land, naval and air unit where it was historically and to do the same for reinforcements and withdrawals, to maintain a historical balance of forces. The new orders of battle, planes, ships and devices represent a leap forward in realism and historicity from War in the Pacific, which set the benchmark when it was first released.

The Editor – Finally, scenario and mod-makers will rejoice at the entirely new editor, built from the ground up for the Admiral’s Edition. This editor significantly increases the number of slots available for both devices and locations, has text search, auto-refresh of units from changes TO&Es, display of art work for ships and planes, enables editor-defined LCU breakdowns and task force contents. It also allows viewing of the contents of a given hex for the entire scenario being worked on (including reinforcements). The editor also allows you to upgrade the complete TO&E of a unit at a specified date, which is used to good effect in the new scenarios and campaign to allow 2-5 TO&Es for a division, for example, rather than having to abstract those into one for the entire war.

War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition includes all of these great new features and improvements, along with a host of minor fixes, while maintaining the same great gameplay and game balance that gamers have enjoyed for years in War in the Pacific.

As our first "Collector's Edition", the boxed version also comes with a Full Color Printed 330 page manual!

Get more information on War in the Pacific – Admiral’s Edition from its official product page. War in the Pacific – Admiral’s Edition is a standalone release and does not require War in the Pacific to install and play.

Indie Games Arcade Returns to the Eurogamer Expo 2009

The Indie Games Arcade returns to the Eurogamer Expo this year, with more than a dozen of the best and most interesting indie games and projects on show.

Organised by Pixel-Lab and Eurogamer, the Indie Games Arcade will be happening at both Eurogamer Expo events - in Leeds on the 27th and 28th of October, and as part of London Games Festival on the 30th and 31st of October.

The Indie Games Arcade will feature a raft of well-known and not so well known indie games, including games from Tunatech, Introversion, Robert Fearon, Hayden Scott-Baron, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May.

Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer said, "The Indie Games Arcade is an important part of the Eurogamer Expo. It puts gamers in touch with games they might not otherwise find out about, and helps independent developers reach new gamers and attract press coverage that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get. We’re delighted to bring it back this year with the help of Pixel-Lab.”

David Hayward, Project Coordinator for Pixel-Lab said, "Not everyone is well known or has a huge marketing budget, but there's a lot of indie talent based right here in the UK. A lot of this work steps outside of the commercial mainstream of games and constitutes an important contribution to the culture of games. I'm really pleased to be putting such a lot of interesting work on show again this year."

As well as beloved and anticipated commercial indie titles, there will also be a selection of the most interesting and unusual non-commercial games that can be found.

The Indie Games Arcade microsite is here: http://pixel-lab.co.uk/indiegamesarcade

New expansion pack for the critically acclaimed Theatre of War 2 - Africa 1943, the tactical World War II title.

Leading Eastern and Central European publisher 1C Company and Battlefront.com are excited to announce a new expansion pack for the critically acclaimed Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943, the tactical World War II title.

The expansion pack will be available later this year via download and/or mail delivery for $25.00 at www.battlefront.com. Ownership of the original Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 is required.

The new expansion pack, Theatre of War 2 - Centauro is dedicated to the 131st Armored Division Centauro and the battles it took part in North Africa starting from December 1942 till mid-May 1943. The 131st Armored Division Centauro (in Italian: 131ª Divisione Corazzata "Centauro") was an armored division of the Italian Army during World War II. The pack features a new campaign and covers missions from rearguard actions near El Ageyla in Libya to the battles in Tunisia. New desert and mountain landscapes of North Africa will be available on ten new maps accurately reconstructed according to historical documents. There will also be ten new missions based on real battles in Tunisia allowing would-be Generals to command counterattacks, breakthroughs, flanking manuevers, hardened defenses and stealthy ambushes. Ten new military vehicles will also make their debut in this expansion including the Semovente M40 tank destroyer, the Carro Armato M13/40 medium tank, the Autoblinda AB 40 armored car, and many more. For more information please go the official website at www.battlefront.com/tow2.

Theatre of War II is considered to be the most realistic simulation of modern battle ever played on a PC. Covering the events of 1943 during the operations in Tunisia players have the option to lead the German Afrika Korps of Rommel in their last full-scale attack or be at the head of the opposing English and American armies, led by Montgomery and Eisenhower, during 15 missions in three campaigns.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed - Ultimate Sith Edition Coming to PC and Mac soon - extra content details

Aspyr Media and LucasArts will bring the hit game Star Wars - The Force Unleashed to PC and Mac gamers for the first time ever with the release of Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition this Fall. Developed for PC and Mac and published in North America by Aspyr, Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition combines the original Star Wars The Force Unleashed videogame with three new levels set in iconic Star Wars locales and a host of new costumes and character models.

This special edition of the game will show players the deepest, darkest side of the Force in a story that puts them on a collision course with Luke Skywalker himself.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force and casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice,” unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy seen through the eyes of this mysterious new character, who is armed with unprecedented powers. Originally released on multiple platforms in September 2008, the game quickly became the fastest-selling Star Wars game ever, and has since sold six million units worldwide.

About The Extra Content
The first of the three additional single-player missions included in the Ultimate Sith Edition is set in the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant. In this mission, Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice turns to the Jedi Temple to learn more about his father, and while searching through the rubble of the destroyed building he must confront his inner demons.

The second extra mission continues the story of The Force Unleashed in a new “Infinities” storyline that takes the Star Wars Saga in an entirely new direction. The level begins at the end of the story of The Force Unleashed and re-imagines the Star Wars Saga as if the Secret Apprentice had taken Darth Vader’s place at the Emperor’s side, becoming the most powerful Sith Lord in the universe. The story picks up as the Emperor sends his new apprentice to Tatooine to dispatch Obi-Wan Kenobi – who has been hiding on the planet ever since the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. During their hunt for the reclusive Jedi, players will also explore the depths of Jabba the Hutt’s palace and encounter notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett.

The final new level concludes the “Infinities” storyline set up in the Tatooine mission, as the Secret Apprentice is sent to the planet Hoth on a crusade to crush the Rebellion once and for all. While on Hoth, players face Luke Skywalker himself while visiting iconic locations seen in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Additional added content includes new costumes for the Secret Apprentice and new character models that allow gamers to play as one of many legendary Star Wars characters including Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, Jango Fett and C-3PO.

Killing Floor's Outbreak Character Pack Download now available plus free map

The new DLC character pack for Tripwire’s hit co-op zombie-killer Killing Floor is now available for purchase and download on Steam. The pack contains 4 new playable characters for you to enjoy. The four characters are:

• Agent Wilkes: One of Horzine’s own security guards, still in his uniform, enhanced with Horzine’s own Mark 7 combat suit.
• Foundry Worker Aldridge: A welder who managed to survive the zombie onslaught inside the Foundry, still in his working gear.
• DJ Scully: Ex British army soldier, moonlighting as an underground DJ when the apocalypse hit.
• Dr Gary Glover: Sent in as part of the emergency response team, Dr Glover managed to survive infection inside his Hazmat suit.

These characters will be available in the character selection screen in-game once purchased. For more details, head for http://store.steampowered.com/app/1256/.

And the FREE new map (Foundry) and weapons (AK-47 and the Katana) will be available soon!

Future Racer video game for iPhone and iPod Touch

Independent developer Assyria Game Studio has today revealed its debut mobile title due for release on iPhone and iPod Touch. The incredibly slick Future Racer is a high speed, anti-gravity racer boasting fully 3D environments and a wide range of fiendish tracks set to test your reflexes to the limit.

From complicated toxic sewer networks, winding forests littered with hazards and illuminated night-time cityscapes, each of the six tracks are bursting with character. Future Racer strikes the perfect balance between delivering high speed thrills and impressive visuals, without compensating style for speed.

Integrating full tilt control, the game is easy to pick up and play but difficult to master, with fiendish AI players and the ongoing pressure of racing against the clock. Moving away from combat-based pickups, Future Racer focuses purely on speed and skill, with power-ups including speed boosts and subtracting precious seconds from your finishing time.

Features

-Simple accessible controls utilise the iPhone and iPod Touch tilt functionality

-Six wildly different tracks and six racing vehicles with differing strengths and weaknesses

-Compete against fiendish AI players to unlock medals and trophies

-A collection of beneficial pick-ups to utilise throughout each race

Sacred 2 video game patch 2.43.0 release for download

cdv Software Entertainment USA and Ascaron Entertainment today released a new patch for the retail PC version of Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel. The new patch offers gameplay updates and addresses some of the issues listed below.

For a complete list of the contents of the patch, and to download the patch, please visit – http://www.sacred2.com.

Updates

* It is now possible to disable the camera shake via an entry in the

optionscustom.txt. The entry is: camera.cameraShake = 0

Fixes:

* Reflection damage from NPCs has been reduced
* The Sakkara demon on the "Start Island" no longer attacks the player unless he has been attacked first
* Gold and XP amounts will now be displayed using periods as the thousands separator - for example 123.456.789.000)
* When fight music is disabled, the region music will continue to play during combat
* The bonus "push rider from mount" has been removed
* Blowpipes are now able to hit mounted creatures
* Other heroes in multiplayer game sessions are now less chatty.

Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel is a hack-and-slash action-RPG with a rich story that takes place in a gigantic seamless world. This world contains massive dungeons, treacherous opponents and hundreds of challenging quests. Intelligent enemies, which adapt in number and difficulty based on player progress, challenge gamers in heroic single- and multiplayer battles.

The Secret of Monkey Island video game Special Edition now available on iPhone and iPod Touch

Pirates! Adventure! Monkeys! Re-live the hilarious swashbuckling misadventures of the wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he attempts to become the most infamous pirate in the Caribbean, in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch today, for only £4.99!

The Special Edition features new character art and hand-painted environments in the style of the original. It also features a re-recorded and re-mastered score, and the principal voice artists from The Curse of Monkey Island read the previously unspoken lines, with Dominic Armato as Guybrush, Alexandra Boyd as Elaine, and Earl Boen as LeChuck. With a new hint system, a hot-swap mode and new, improved Grog this is a must-buy for pirates everywhere! And you too!

Lara Croft Alison Carroll Tomb Raider Poster download 2

The second Alison Carroll (the new Lara Croft) poster download.

Click here to download the Poster

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