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

NAMCO BANDAI - PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION on Microsoft XBox 360

The Next Generation of Pac-Man Wins Over Fans and Prestigious Industry Peers Alike

NAMCO BANDAI Games today announced that Pac-Man Championship Edition, now available on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, has been nominated for “Best Downloadable Game” by the eighth annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The award is one of the most prestigious honors in the industry as nominees are both chosen and voted on by fellow game developers. The “Best Downloadable Game” category recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms, specifically and solely for digital download.

“A Game Developers Choice Award nomination for Pac-Man Championship Edition is an honor and testament to NAMCO BANDAI Games’ ingenuity and success in enhancing a classic arcade game for the Xbox Live Arcade community,” said Todd Thorson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “Pac-Man has been a pop culture icon for more than two decades and we are thrilled to bring the fun and amusement of the franchise to the next generation of gamers.”

Pac-Man Championship Edition was created specially for the first-ever Xbox 360 PAC-MAN World Championship held in New York City in 2007. The game brings players back to those classic days of pizza parlors and arcades with the first brand new mazes released in more than 26 years. Try the Darkness Course where maze walls are invisible except for those directly around Pac-Man and the ghosts or the Freeway Course where everything moves at twice the normal speed of the game. Pac-Man Championship Edition also features enhanced environments where the traditional Pac-Man look has been completely updated with a new, modern high-definition appearance and soundtrack.

Since its April 2007 release, Pac-Man Championship Edition has successfully launched the famed arcade game into the new millennium and onto the Xbox 360. Additionally, Pac-Man Championship Edition has received numerous industry accolades as one of 2007’s best downloadable games from MTV.com, G4’s X-PLAY, Next-Gen.biz and Gamasutra.com.

Conflict Denied Ops and Hard to be a God released

Inspired by world events, GamersGate announced today Super Friday on GamersGate! As of today, the download portal has signed more than 300 PC games to its download catalogue ranging from AAA blockbusters to independently developed masterpieces.

Today's additions include the release of First Person Shooter Conflict Denied Ops and the worldwide download premiere of medieval action RPG Hard to be a God (excl. UK).

Other recent additions include blockbuster titles like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, World in Conflict, Pirates of the Burning Sea and City Life Edition 2008.

To find out more about how to download these games or to read more about the wide range of games on GamersGate, please go to http://www.gamersgate.com

PC-based, Adventure A Vampyre Story and The Abbey secure publisher

hell-tech, the leading Greek Adventure-Publisher, has announced that it has secured the publishing rights to critically acclaimed PC-based, Adventure “A Vampyre Story” developed by Autumn Moon Entertainment and “The Abbey” developed by Alcachofa Soft.

“We are pleased to announce this partnership with Crimson Cow. The agreement is a logical step for us, as Crimson Cow shows the same enthusiasm for great adventures like we do.” said Christos Triantafyllou, Managing Director of hell-tech.

ABOUT A Vampyre Story:
This graphic adventure game, with traditional point-and-click gameplay, tells the tale of a beautiful gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte, whose life is brought to an abrupt end by a vampire baron named Shrowdy Von Kiefer. Henceforth, she is doomed to a miserable existence as a creature of the night in Von Kiefer's gloomy castle in Draxsylvania. Confronted with her seemingly hopeless fate, she decides to run away and try to fulfil her dream of singing at the Paris Opera. Accompanied by her mischievous bat Froderick, Mona must face a number of challenges in her odyssey and learn not only to accept her vampire nature, but also to use the abilities she has acquired to her advantage.

A Vampyre Story was penned by Bill Tiller, the founder of Autumn Moon Entertainment. A former employee of Lucas Arts, Tiller won himself a place in the hearts of adventure fans through his work on titles such as Steven Spielberg's The Dig, the legendary The Curse of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones. A Vampyre Story combines modern 3D animation with the qualities of classic 2D adventure design and a unique graphical style.

ABOUT The Abbey:
The ambitious project takes adventure fans to the gloomy world of the Middle Ages. An old abbey is the scene of a series of mysterious murders, and only one man can put a stop to the slaughter. In the role of the Grand Inquisitor Leonardo and his assistant Bruno, the player's task is to shed light on the mystery.

In addition to a gripping storyline with many an unexpected twist, "The Abbey" will feature a wealth of technological and graphic innovations. A special highlight will be the innovative presentation of cinematic proportions and over 70 minutes of soundtrack recorded by the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

hell-tech will release “A Vampyre Story” and “The Abbey” in 2008 in Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, FYROM and Turkey.

NCsoft and MMOzine free trial Lineage II digital magazine trial

Free 14 day free trial available to readers and information on an exclusive in-game item in the next issue

NCsoft Europe and MMOzine are once again joining forces to provide MMO gamers with yet another unique opportunity to enhance their online gaming. Dedicated to all things MMO, MMOzine brings news, previews, reviews and tutorials on all of the popular online role-playing games. Issue No3 features a series of articles on one of the worlds long standing MMORPGs – Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne.

Widely considered as the ultimate Player vs. Player MMO, Lineage II is now into its fourth year, having captivated over 17 million gamers from around the world. Lineage II presents players with the opportunity to mould a virtual society like no other MMO. The ultimate goal within Lineage II is to achieve the coveted position of one of nine Castle Lords – riding a mighty Wyvern through the skies and influencing the experience of thousands of players beneath them.

Lineage II requires unswerving dedication where mighty beasts must be slain and powerful skills and incantations learned. Players must band together in dungeon quests for rare treasures and build their reputation within a clan via political manipulation to progress. This enables them to lay siege to and take control of a mighty castle with the cooperation of hundreds of fellow players and crown themselves Castle Lord.

Issue No3 of MMOzine includes a preview of the latest free to subscriber’s expansion of Lineage II, titled The Kamael. The issue also includes a guide to playing the game from start and a special 14 day trial available from www.gamershell.com, so that readers can experience the game for themselves. Issue No3 also includes a sneak glimpse of an exclusive in-game item for Lineage II that will be available to readers in issue No4. And if that is not enough, the issue also includes a fantastic Lineage II competition, with plenty of goodies up for grabs.

“Working with NCsoft Europe again is really exciting,” comments Publishing Director, Dave Taylor. “Their understanding of their gamers and how to engage with them via our unique media proposition will help make this issue of MMOZine our best yet.”

MMOZine is a GamerZine, from the publishers of established digital magazines PCGamezine, 360Zine, P3Zine and others. Gamers simply require Adobe Reader 6, 7 or 8 on Windows or Mac to read it. There is no charge and no registration is required. Best of all, the magazine is written entirely by professional journalists and the pages are enhanced with video and interactive screens that bring the pages to life.

MMOzine is available to download from http://www.gamerzines.com/ . Issue No3 will be available to download from the 12th February 2008.