Gamecloud

WarPath Interview

Zandro Chan of Groove Games chats briefly about the upcoming sci-fi shooter from Digital Extremes.

Casual Games Interview: Wildsnake Software

Co-founder "Andy" talks about their casual game developer/publisher

Tuesday Howdy!

February is now almost over. From March through E3 in May there should be a ton of game announcements and surprises coming from the game industry so be prepared.

Interesting Link of the Day: Darren McGavin dies at 83. The first Night Stalker TV series was the first show I saw that was truly scary...he will be missed.

Top 10 Best Selling PC Games For Feb. 18

The NPD Group has released the latest list of the top 10 best selling PC games in the US, this time for the week ending Feb. 18:

1. Star Wars: Empire at War - LucasArts

2. World of Warcraft - Blizzard

3. Age of Empires III - Microsoft

4. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts

5. Star Wars: Empire at War Collector's Edition - LucasArts

6. Civilization IV - 2K Games

7. Battlefield 2 - Electronic Arts

8. Zoo Tycoon 2 - Microsoft

9. Dungeon Siege II - Microsoft

10. Call of Duty 2 - Activision

Evening News Round-Up: Feb. 27

The Apprentice is back. It's still not as good as it once but it's still a favorite of mine. While I pick my favorite among the candidates, let's look at the rest of the day's features from other web sites:

GameSpot has a Q&A with the head folks for the new Acclaim (which will bring Asian MMORPGs to the US along with a Q&A on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and a Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends dev diary

GameDaily has previews of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Dead Rising

Game Informer has a preview of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the Xbox 360

The New York Times (free registration requiried) takes a look at Dungeons and Dragons Online

MMORPG.com has a Matrix Online Q&A

RPGVault has the second part of their Mage Knight; Apocalypse Q&A

GamingSteve's podcast has the first part of their Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion preview

New York Metro has the second part of their Q&A with Marc Ecko about the recent game Getting Up

New Godfather DVD Set To Include Bonus Game DVD

Paramount plans to re-release its Godfather movie trilogy on DVD on March 21 that will include a special bonus DVD that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the upcoming Godfather game from Electronic Arts. The DVD will include trailers for the game, including the E3 2005 movie that until now has only been shown inside EA's Godtather book. The Godfather movie DVD will also include a special $10 coupon for the Godfather game.

Silent Hill Movie Poster Contest Winner Announced

TriStar Pictures has officially announced the winning design for their Silent Hill movie poster contest. The design (which can be seen above) was created and submitted by Chuck Waite of El Cerrito, California who wins $2,500 and the chance to see his design in movie theaters nationwide. The upcoming movie adaptation of the Konami survival horror game will be released in theaters in late April

UberSoldier Demo Coming Wednesday

GameSpot is reporting it will debut the demo for the upcoming WWII supernatural shooter UberSoldier on Wednesday, March 1 at noon EST. The demo will contain one level from the full game developed by Burut and published by CDV.

Top Game Franchises Ranked

Wondering what the top video games were of this generation of console?

New Acclaim Officially Relaunches

Following up on earlier reports on the revival of the publisher Acclaim began to surface a few months ago, the new company with the older name has now officially announced its new presence today with its brand new web site. The new company, based in Los Angeles, is only taking the name and logo of the New York based publisher that went bankrupt in 2004 and will be bringing in Asian multiplayer games to the US market, beginning with the robot themed action game BOTS which is now taking registrations for beta testing the game that will launch later this year.

New Timeshift Trailer Released

A new trailer for Timeshift has been released and can be downloaded over at Filecloud. The massive 200 MB trailer shows off the Time Reverse feature from the upcoming Saber Interactive-Atari first person shooter.

Game Developers Choice Award Nominations Announced

The nominees for the sixth annual Game Developers Choice awards have been announced with two Sony PS2 exclusive titles, God of War and Shadow of the Colossus, leading the pack with six nominations each with the music based game Guitar Hero gaining four nominations. All three game were nominated for Game of the Year along with the Nintendo DS game Animal Crossing: Wild World and in a bit of a surprise the Lionhead movie sim game The Movies. The awards will be held during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose on Wednesday, March 22. Click on the Read More link for the full list of the catagories and nominees

Microsoft Handheld Announcement Soon?

Microsoft has launched yet another of their mysterious PR web sites called origamiproject.com which hints at some kind of announcement on March 2. But for what? The Seattle Post-Intelligencer web site thinks it might be a new Microsoft handheld device that would be made as both a rival for Apple's iPod music and video device along with game features as well as Internet access features.

Darkfall Gameplay Video Released

Adventurine SA has released a gameplay video for their upcoming MMORPG Darkfall. You can download it at Filecloud.

Darkfall is undergoing internal beta testing in preparation for public playtesting. Signups for the clan beta are open here, and signups for individual playtesters will follow. An official release date has not yet been announced.

Morning News Round-Up: Feb. 27

With the Olympics over, it's time for the TV schedule to get back to normal. Of course our morning look at features from other web sites still continues:

Eurogamer has a SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate Q&A

TenTonHammer has a Lord of the Rings Online Q&A

Gamersinfo.net has the latest UberSoldier preview

Hellgate-spain has a Hellgate: London Q&A

More Info On The Movies Expansion Pack

Computer and Video Games has some more info via a note in the latest PC Gamer magazine on the previously hinted about expansion pack for The Movies, Lionhead's recent movie studio sim game. The expansion has the working title of the Stunts & Effects Expansion Pack and will have more of an action movie theme to it (hence the title) like cars falling off of bridges, alien space ships and more. There is no word on a release date nor word if The Movies' publisher Activision (who admitted to low sales of the title in its latest financial conference call) will also publish the expansion.

Midway Announces PSP Games

Midway sent out a press release announcing three PSP games coming in 2006. One game, NBA Ballers: Rebound, had previously been announced and is due out this spring but they also officially announced two more PSP games, the fighting title Mortal Kombat: Unchained (due out this fall) and the racing game Rush (due out for holiday 2006). Here is the info about the two new PSP games:

About RUSH
For the first time ever on PSP, attempt mad jumps, high�flying stunts and arcade�style racing from the original RUSH franchise. Go head to head with a friend in a street race or cruise mission using Wi�Fi functionality, or experience Story Mode which allows you to race through 5 Los Angeles city re�creations while finding treacherous shortcuts and surviving death�defying jumps! Exclusive to the PSP is an all�new Stunt Arena, where players can fly over ramps and perform stunts in the air and drive the loop�de�loop to gain massive bursts of speed, all the while collecting golden tokens to unlock extra content. Feel the RUSH as you race more than 36 licensend rides including muscle, tuner and exotic vehicles!

About Mortal Kombat: Unchained
Mortal Kombat: Unchained takes the Mortal Kombat franchise to new heights with an innovative fighting system tailored for Wi�Fi functionality, unparalleled depth and brutally intense action that will appeal to long�time Mortal Kombat fans, as well as PSP gamers. The game features lightning�fast combat, new moves and combinations and PSP exclusive characters and environments.

New Half-Life 2: Episode 1 Screenshot; Update

Valve's weekly Steam news update (dated last Friday) finally came only this past weekend with a brief update and a new panoramic screenshot for Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the first stand alone expansion for their first person shooter. Here is a snip:

As we've mentioned before, we've been hard at work on the continuation of Half-Life 2 for some time now. Soon, as part of the upcoming Half-Life 2: Episode One, you'll find out about what happened to the Citadel after the end of HL2, what happened to your nemesis Breen, and how Alyx managed to survive the explosion at the game's end. You'll also learn a lot more about Alyx, since nearly the entire episode is spent with her at your side.

During the development of Half-Life 2, we at Valve were frustrated at how long it took us (six years!) to ship the game. With that in mind , the decision was made to try an episodic approach to the next Half-Life products, each designed to reveal new story, gameplay, and the latest Source technology in four to six hour experiences.

D&D; Online Pre-Order Deal Extended

The official Dungeon and Dragons Online web site has announced that the pre-order access deal will be extended beyond this week's launch of the MMORPG from Turbine until March 5. The deal is for people who have pre-ordered the game but might not be able to get a copy of the game in stores immediately so they can still play the game until March 5. The Head Start founders helmet and status still expire at 8 am on Tuesday

Microsoft Vista Products Announced

Microsoft has officially announced the various versions of their upcoming next-generation OS Windows Vista. There will be six version in all, one for emerging markets that need lower cost PCs (Windows Vista Starter), two for business (Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise) and three for consumers. It's the last versions that gamers should look for; Windows Vista Home Basic is as the name sound a basic OS for PC users but Windows Vista Home Premium is the version of the OS more like the current Windows Media Edition that turns a PC into an entertainment center. That fuction also includes linking your PC to an Xbox 360 console. Windows Vista Ultimate has all of the home and business functions. Microsoft is still targeteding a second half of 2006 launch for Vista.

Savage 2 Interview

Marc DeForest of S2 Games talks about their upcoming sequel to the RTS-FPS game.

Killer 7 Comic Book Interview

Comic book writer Arvid Nelson talks about the new adaptation of the Capcom action game.

Monday Howdy!

Wow..this month is almost over..it seemed so short..oh, right.

Interesting Link of the Day:Superman, Batman Sequelize? That's not even a word. :)

Sexy Movie Promo Game Fails To Pump Box Office

Despite a ton of publicity for a promo game that included an interactive sex scene, this Reuters report via Yahoo states that Running Scared, the R rated crime film from New Line Cinema, bombed in its first box office weekend, coming in at ninth place with only $3.1 million. The movie's web site included a game that at first had a sequence with a sex scene with the web site requiring the person sign in with info included on a driver's license or other government issued ID before playing the game. As we reported yesterday the publicity surrounding the sex scene in the promo game caused that scene to be removed.

New Battle For Middle Earth Patch Released

Electronic Arts has released the latest patch for the original Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth RTS game and you can download it over a Filecloud. The patch has quite a number of changes and bug fixes for the original game. The sequel, Battle For Middle Earth II, is due for released this coming week.

Sniper Elite Demo Released

Several months after its release to stores a playble demo of Sniper Elite has been released and can be downloaded over at Filecloud. The demo for the WWII sniper shooter from Rebellion and Namco contains three missions from the full game.

New Games This Week

A long awaited MMORPG, the last great current gen console FPS, and a fantasy RTS sequel are among the new game highlights this week.

Sunday Howdy!

Are the Olympics over yet? Is today the last day? Just checking.

Interesting Link of the Day: Family Guy comic book. For people who think the Simpsons comic books are for wimps.