Author - Jerry Paxton

Wargame AirLand Battle Beta Screens

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April 25, 2013 — Wargame AirLand Battle, the sequel to the explosive real-time strategy game Wargame European Escalation, presents through 6 new screenshots some of its new battlefields, playable right now in early access Beta for all players who pre-order the game on Steam and the official website.

These screenshots show the huge gap separating the former battlefields from European Escalation to those of AirLand Battle. The new maps have evolved a lot since European Escalation: they are more varied, but also richer and more detailed, displaying impressive reliefs and huge urban areas, which all increase the strategic depth of Eugen Systems’ latest game.

The early access Beta gives an exclusive and immediate access to the ‘Destruction’ multiplayer mode, with the first 4 playable maps and pre-made army decks for all 12 nations of the game. Enough to plunge happily into the battle before everyone else, and participate in the last online tweaks before the official start of the conflict next month!

Good news never come alone: a special offer has been specially prepared for Wargame European Escalation players. For their pre-order, all owners of European Escalation get, ontop the Beta access, an exclusive 25% discount on Wargame AirLand Battle pre-order (on Steam and the official website)!

Wargame AirLand Battle will be available on PC in May 2013.

New Screenshots

Nintendo Clarifies its E3 2013 Plans

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Early this morning, bleary-eyed gamers were surprised to see that Nintendo president Iwata said the company would be skipping out of the E3 press conference war. Today, however, Nintendo of America’s SDCC, Charlie Scibetta, has issued a statement clearing up the company’s plan for the yearly gaming event. He released the following statement:

“As you’ve already seen, a lot of news about Nintendo games and services that traditionally would be held until E3 is being delivered this year through Nintendo Directs, and various press events. This approach will continue between now and E3. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll be fully informed. We look forward to continuing to provide you with Nintendo news and content in ways you haven’t before experienced. Beyond the news that will be communicated through Nintendo Direct videos in the run up to E3, at the show itself we’re hosting two smaller events on Tuesday morning before the LACC opens instead of just our traditional one event. A media event and a partner presentation will both occur that morning. While the audiences will be different between the two events, both will occur on the Tuesday morning of E3 (June 11) which is the date and time period the public has come to expect for Nintendo to deliver E3 news.

At the Nokia theater we’ll meet with business partners (retailers, publishers, analysts, etc.) from the NOA territory and discuss our plans for driving the business and providing tailored information that this group finds useful to their operations. Nintendo has done these same type of business meetings at past E3 shows, but has not in the past few years. This year we are returning to that business partner meeting format. New this year at our booth in the LACC, prior to the show opening, we’ll invite a small group of media to play our games. We will have a strong line-up of beloved franchise experiences available for immediate hands-on play. We are continuing to consider exciting new ways to bring the news of our games and information directly to the players at home during the E3 timeframe, and will have more to say about that at a later date.”

Nintendo Will Not Have Large E3 Press Event

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According to a Gametrailers post, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, has stated that the company will not hold a traditional, large-scale E3 press event as they have done in years past. Instead, the company will be holding a number of smaller events focused directly on the West. Here is a translation of Satoru’s comment from a recent investor conference:

“Unlike previous years, we will not have a large-scale presentation [at E3] directed to everyone in the world. Instead, we are planning several smaller events focusing on software for America. Among these hands-on events will be one for American distributors and another for western media.”

Depending on who you ask, this is a wise or unwise decision for the company, whose Wii U console has sold 33% fewer units than expected. With the recent PlayStation 4 event and even more recent announcement that Microsoft will reveal the next Xbox on May 21, it is clear that Nintendo does not want to go head to head with the two gaming goliaths.

Xbox Reveal Event Set for May 21

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Looks like Microsoft is all locked and loaded to show off their next Xbox game console on May 21st, 2013. That’s only 19 days prior to the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Should be a great show and it will be very interesting to see how all the rumors of used game prohibitions, 24/7 connections, and everything else play out in reality.

The event will take place at 10AM Pacific time and will be streamed online, Xbox LIVE, and on Spike TV. Stay tuned!

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Soundtrack Available for Pre-Order

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – April 24th, 2013 – Today, Ubisoft announced that the soundtrack of the Retro Futuristic Cyber Shooter Far Cry 3® Blood Dragon is available for pre-orders on iTunes and will release May 1st for $9.99. The soundtrack is also being offered to all PC digital pre-orders and with the PC retail version of the game.

All 25 tracks are original creations from the group Power Glove. This soundtrack is their first collaboration on a video game. Their music style was a perfect and natural fit for Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon and they have delivered beyond all expectations. The soundtrack features 25 original titles:
–       Rex Colt
–       Blood Dragon Theme
–       HELO-73
–       Warzone
–       Moment of Calm
–       Dr Elizabeth Darling
–       Power Core
–       Protektor
–       Sloan
–       Sloan’s Assault
–       Blood Scope
–       Combat I
–       Combat II
–       Combat III
–       Katana
–       Omega Force
–       Nest
–       Rex’s Escape
–       Love Theme
–       Sleeping Dragon
–       Warcry
–       Cyber Commando
–       Death of a Cyborg
–       Resurrection
–       Blood Dragon Theme

For more information about the band visit: http://www.powergloveaudio.com/

To preorder the soundtrack visit: https://itunes.apple.com/album/far-cry-3-blood-dragon-original/id636431312?affId=1581970

Police Force 2 Review (PC)

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I have some really fond memories of playing Sierra’s Police Quest series – even more with their SWAT series (Bring those back, people!). For reasons I cannot explain, I have always had an interest in law enforcement and the day-to-day activities that go along with life on the blue side of the law. Now, Excalibur Publishing’s Police Force 2 puts players in control of two British Constables. Not being a traditional US-based law enforcement game, for that reason alone, I had to checkout their US version of the game and see how they localized it.

When beginning Police Force 2, you get to name the two officers under your control – a male and female. Each of these officers has certain specialties. The female is equipped with OC spray and can setup radar checkpoints as well as flag drivers to exit their vehicles. The male officer gets a baton and sidearm. Switching between the two in-game is as easy as hitting the TAB key. If you are completely new to Police Force, you can have the game give you a first tutorial shift. You will learn a lot of the basics in this tutorial shift, but, there are many things not touched on, such as setting up radar checkpoints. These things must be learned “on the street”. You start each shift with a digital “briefing” message window telling you what time of day it is, if you are uniformed or plain clothes, etc. Each shift has an overall goal to achieve. These goals can range from apprehending a known felon to ped checking X number of citizens to even seeing if restaurant owners have a valid license to run their business. After reading this, you hit the start button and begin your shift. My big grip in the briefing system is that it should have been done in-game. I wanted to see a virtual squad room with the watch commander giving officers notes, etc. The rub in this is, the briefing message window is actually a mask for loading the level… So, I let that slide. However, I can’t imagine that there wasn’t a way to spruce briefing up a little bit – even while loading the level in the background.

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To begin each shift, player officers start in the police station. In the station, you will find the forensics labs, where you will be tasked with taking evidence from time to time, but that’s about it. I was kind of hoping for a more interactive station, but I digress. Maybe a locker room where you can select your loadout from various law enforcement gear (sponsorship opportunities, guys). To the left, when exiting the station, is the department’s parking lot / motor pool where you will find three types of marked police vehicles and one unmarked car for your usage. There doesn’t seem to be any real difference between them aside from their appearance.

Visually, Police Force 2 isn’t going to win any awards. That being said, the game’s visuals are perfectly fine for its sim-attitude and I grew to like the bustling city streets and alleyways  The biggest issue with the game’s visual style  is its character animations. When handcuffing a suspect, there is no animation of a struggle or putting them into an arm lock to apply the cuffs. Instead, suspects just stop what they are doing and assume a hands behind their back posture, with cuffs appearing on them out of nowhere.

The game audio is average, although I wish more voice work had been done to flesh out interviews and ped checks a bit more. When interviewing people currently, you are treated with a message window telling you how they responded. It is rather thrilling when an emergency call comes in and you throw on your lights and, ahem, British siren to roll CODE-3.

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In terms of gameplay, Police Force 2’s fun comes from responding to the previously-mentioned emergency calls that come up when out on patrol. These calls range from traffic accidents to burglaries and several other types. Each type seems to have a few variations in theme, which keeps things interesting. There are also random encounters that, if you are sharp-eyed enough, you can take advantage of. For instance, you can spot pedestrians and under the influence drivers by how they walk and, respectively, drive. Getting out and contacting the pedestrian may result in them taking off on you, so stay sharp. Another cool gameplay device is that you can read the license plate of vehicles in-sight by hovering your mouse cursor on them. When you see a blank plate, indicative of expired or no tags, you can attempt a traffic stop. My biggest gripe in these cases is that I have NEVER seen a vehicle pull over when that occurs. They always try to rabbit on your and a pursuit ensues, with you having to somehow ram them and stop their vehicle. I would like to see the option to make a felony stop with driver’s at least having the sense to pull over after a brief chase.

Unfortunately, the game still does have some bugs to work out, the biggest I found being a pathing issue which freezes the game. If you right-click on your patrol vehicle and end up running into an object like a parked car or tow truck, the game just gets stuck and your officers will freeze in their tracks, the game world still going on around them. There are also some other, minor bugs but nothing else I found that broke them game. The reason why the freezing issue is so major is that you only get promotions or commendations by completing a full shift – which can take about 30 minutes of real time. If you don’t complete it, you don’t get anything!

Overall, Police Force 2 gets a fun, yet sometimes frustrating, 3 out of 5 stars – which I will gladly raise to a 4 out of 5 once some of the bugs are worked out of the game. It is an addictive sim experience that will soon have you jetting around the city looking for lawbreakers and “rolling code”.

[easyreview title=”Police Force 2 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″] Our Rating Scores Explained

The Lord of the Rings Online: Helm’s Deep Announced

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NEEDHAM, MA – April 24, 2013 — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today The Lord of the Rings Online™: Helm’s Deep™, the next expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Helm’s Deep will continue the Epic Story into the western plains of Rohan, allow players to take a direct role in the battle for Helm’s Deep and advance the level cap to 95.

“With Helm’s Deep, we’re bringing the War of the Ring to players on a monumental scale,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine. “Our team is thrilled to create another iconic moment in Middle-earth, and put players in the center of the action.”

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE: HELM’S DEEP FEATURES:

  • Experience the Battle for Helm’s Deep – Fight to defend Helm’s Deep starting at level 10, as your character enlists as a soldier in the Battle of the Hornburg, the most massive conflict yet in The Lord of the Rings Online.  Earn rewards for your contribution to the war effort – win or lose, your aid makes a difference!

  • Explore new landscapes across Western Rohan – Explore the Westemnet of Rohan and rally each of the five Ridings as Rohan returns to glory. Traverse the capital of Edoras, mysterious Dunharrow, and the fortress of the Hornburg, deep within Helm’s Deep.

  • Advance from levels 85 to 95 – Experience 10 new levels, from 85 to 95, with new skills and completely updated class specializations. Both mounted and un-mounted combat will challenge you as you war against the evil of Saruman.
  • Continue the Epic Story – Encounter beloved characters such as Aragorn, Éowyn, and Éomer. Restore King Théoden to his rightful lordship and defend the peoples of Rohan at Helm’s Deep.

The Lord of the Rings Online™ is the ultimate adventure! This award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places, and monsters from the most famous fantasy of all time.  For more information, visit www.lotro.com.

Telltale Games’ Poker Night 2 Launch Trailer

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April 25, 2013 — It’s officially LAUNCH DAY for Telltale Games’ Poker Night 2 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace across the world!  Release date on Steam will be this Friday, April 26th, followed by April 30th on PlayStation Network for users in the US and North America (SCEA). To celebrate, we’ve just released our launch trailer for the game, giving players a closer peek at the loot they can win in the game, as well as few quick tips when ordering drinks for your opponents in order to get them to slip up on their ‘tells’ when bluffing… Release dates for PlayStation Network in EU (SCEE) have yet to be confirmed, and will be formally announced as soon as Telltale Games has a clear date from our partners. Additionally, we also anticipate news regarding a release for the App Store on iOS in the very near future.  Stay tuned for official details!

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Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods Release Date and Gameplay Trailer

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NEW YORK – April 24, 2013 – Soon Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studios will welcome you to a past darker than you can imagine, where there are few shining knights or mighty castles and the kings of Europe are more petty warlords than imposing rulers. We stand only 400 years from the fall of Rome, and a mere 200 from the revelations of Mohammed and much of the world still clings to an ancient code written with iron and blood.

This is the world of Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods, and it is yours for the taking on May 28.

The latest trailer for The Old Gods is the first trailer to show gameplay from the expansion. Feast thy eyes on river-going vessels, the new map and brand new powers that will compete for prestige and prominence.

Pray to the old gods or risk the wrath of Odin – watch the trailer here: