French telecom subsidiary GOA and Electronic Arts have announced that more than 200,000 players have signed on to beta test the upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game, which saw its retail debut recently delayed until 2008’s first quarter, is of course set within Games Workshop’s popular tabletop war game fantasy universe.
The companies began accepting applications from players in Europe and North America on May 30, and the 200,000 registration milestone was surpassed over the weekend, less than ten days after launch. Beta test applications are still [url=http://www.war-europe.com/]being accepted online[/url], by the way, just in case you didn’t get up early enough to catch the worm.
As a [i]Diablo [/i]clone, 2006’s [i]Shadowgrounds [/i]was a nice surprise, marrying elements of Blizzard’s isometric opus with other arcade greats like Alien Syndrome. Now the game’s follow up, [i]Shadowgrounds Survivor[/i] is now headed to North America care one again of Montreal, Canada publisher Meridian4.
According to Meridian4, the game tells the story of three playable characters who join forces with the last remaining human resistance in the heated battle against the ongoing alien onslaught. [i]Shadowgrounds Survivor[/i] will boast new gameplay features over its predecessor, including new vehicles such as a sentry turret and a mech.
In addition, modes players can expect include the single player campaign and a survival mode, as well as new graphics enhancements, integrated physics, an original soundtrack composed by [i]Shadowgrounds[/i]’ composer Ari Pulkkinen, and integrated mod tools.
As was the case with the original, [i]Shadowgrounds Survivor[/i] was developed by Helsinki, Finland studio Frozenbyte, which is also working on a brand new unannounced project which is expected to be released in 2008. Until then, however, action game fans should keep [i]Shadowgrounds Survivor[/i] on their collective radar for release later this year at retail and through digital download.
Now months after the frenzied November 7, 2006 debut of the Xbox 360 exclusive [i]Gears of War[/i], Microsoft and Epic Games have announced the release of eight new achievements for the “Annex” game mode and the “Hidden Fronts” multiplayer map pack over Xbox Live. Completing the new achievements will net you an additional 250 gamer points.
In addition, Epic has also fine tuned the game’s Roadie Run controls “so players have greater control of their movement and can better annihilate their pestilent enemies.” According to a statement announcing the update, the download will also address multiplayer exploits and “provide general housekeeping.”
The new downloadable content will be released on Thursday, June 14. The new multiplayer maps will cost you 800 Microsoft Points, however all four new maps will be released for free on September 3.
Now that the dust has settled from the recently closed [i]Halo 3[/i] multiplayer beta, Microsoft has revealed that the game was played by more than than 820,000 unique Xbox 360 users. To put that is perspective, that’s roughly the entire population of Delaware. That, my friends, is a lot of people talking smack.
Also impressive is that the beta, which was launched on May 16 and ran through June 6, was played for 12 million hours over Xbox Live, accounting for more than 350 terabytes of data downloaded over the online service. Users also saved more than 580,000 replay videos, a feature introduced with the beta, which amounted to more than 2.7 terabytes of data.
Finally, Microsoft has enlisted the services of noted comic book artist and toy company guru Todd McFarlane to design a pair of [i]Halo 3[/i] branded wireless Xbox 360 controllers, which will be released in early September alongside a [i]Halo 3[/i] wireless headset.
Look for [i]Halo 3[/i] to smash headlong into retail shelves on September 25.
Sega has confirmed that it will bring its arcade racing series Sega Rally to the PSP, with plans to debut the handheld version alongside the already announced PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC versions this September.
The game is currently under development at Bugbear Entertainment, who you might recognize as the name behind the fun yet largely under appreciated Flatout racing series. The decision to put this studio behind the wheel of Sega Rally makes perfect sense, given Flatout‘s focus on physics, which will no doubt play a significant role in Sega Rally‘s emphasis on vehicle handling on varied driving surfaces. The development is also being overseen by Sega’s own Sega Racing Studio in order to make sure the game do es not deviate too far from the franchise’s framework.
While few details have been announced, a statement from Sega does confirm that the PSP release will support both local and online multiplayer. In addition, given the PlayStation 3 version’s simultaneous release, it does not seem outside the realm of possibility that both versions may support some measure of interconnectivity, though perhaps that is just my wishful thinking.
