Age of Wonders developer goes action adventure

Some of our readers might remember the old days when Dungeon Keeper enchanted gamers with its dark humor and cynical lines, combined with the ruthless oppression of imp workers. Prepare yourselves to receive a new helping of thrilling perspectives, by being evil or really evil with the upcoming Overlord title. Age of Wonders developer Triumph Studios left behind their highly appreciated turn based strategy efforts to join publisher Codemasters in creating Overlord. The fantasy action adventure game is scheduled for PC and Xbox 360 invasion in summer 2007.
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Release dates are being slightly pushed back

Publisher Codemasters confirmed Archlord MMORPG will experience a slight delay than previously anticipated, with an October 2nd US release date followed by an October 6th launch in Europe. Unfortunately, Codemasters gave up the greatly hyped PLAYplus system in favor of a unique subscription package, the standard monthly MMO payment model. The publisher is currently evaluating a series of in-game rewards for the game’s most loyal players, to compensate for the loss in an attempt to build up the community needed for such a socially inclined title.
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Rise to the challenge of growing up with Fable 2

Peter Molyneux did a wonderful job at hyping up the original Fable, so good that many eventually got disappointed by the final version. This doesn’t make Fable a lesser game in any way though, and with the second installment under development at Lionhead Studios, time has come again for Molyneux to reveal some of the gritty details of his upcoming work. We find out more via 1UP.

Fable 2 promises a fully interactive world where players can willingly affect the environment. Should you take a small encampment ten years from now, it will become a thriving village, but if you decide to kill of its inhabitants, returning in 10
years will only bring you to the edge of a not so exciting forest.
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Except this “Funky Fresh Pack” only contains clothes.

After a false alarm, THQ and Volition announced today that the first downloadable content for Saints Row has been released onto Xbox Live. You might have expected a mission pack or something similar — but you’d be wrong. Instead, 100 Microsoft points will net you the “Funky Fresh Pack,” an assortment of new clothing and accessories for your in-game gangster to sport.
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Climax moves under Disney’s corporate umbrella.

With the rising costs of game development, studios are actively moving the financial burden to publishers by selling out.

UK-based Climax Games is the latest to join the trend, as Buena Vista Games, part of the Walt Disney Company, announced they’d picked up the company today. The news is official, though the actual deal won’t be completed until early October.

“The acquisition of Climax Racing aligns perfectly with our strategic and geographic goals by allowing us to both reach into new genres and new markets for creative talent,” said Graham Hopper, senior VP and general manager, of Buena Vista Games in the announcement release.

No word on what THQ’s plans for the Moto GP series are, or what will be Climax’s first game under new management.
Source: gametab.com

Ubisoft shows what you’ve all been waiting for.

At Microsoft’s X06 press conference today, Ubisoft showed the world gameplay footage of Assassin’s Creed for the first time. For those who saw the game behind closed doors at E3 earlier this year, this was the same segment of the game, though now running on Xbox 360 rather than a PC.
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The Best of TGS
Editors pick the hottest games at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.

Tokyo Game Show 2006 is over and done with. Makuhari Messe’s massive halls are crammed with new exhibitions, the cosplayers are back in their normal clothes, and everyone’s attention has shifted elsewhere. And now that the editors of 1UP, EGM and OPM have shaken off our jetlag and snagged enough sleep to ensure our ability to string together a few coherent sentences, we’ve taken a look back at the highlights of this year’s show.
Best of Show (Playable)

Motorstorm | Sony | PS3 | Racing
By nearly unanimous vote, Motorstorm took the TGS prize for the most sheer fun to be had. Five out of seven editors agree: not only does it look spectacular, it also controls wonderfully and feels absolutely perfect. Sony may be pinning its launch hopes on Resistance, but the accessible exhilaration of Motorstorm is the sort of thing that sells system.
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The final battle takes place one day prior to the October 1st launch

Being published by Codemasters, Archlord is the player versus player oriented MMORPG in development at Korean NHN Games studios, due for release on October 1st. The moment of truth approaches as Archlord’s beta testing phase is coming to an end, and developers herald a massive and lengthy event to end it all in style. An epic stress test is thus planned to offer the last opportunity for people to join the game servers before final release. While final location and time are still to be announced, preparations for large scale PvP battles are underway, guaranteed to make the last day testing day one of the most memorable in Archlord’s incipient history.
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October 17th is the big coming out party.

Telltale Games dropped the skinny in an appropriately tongue-in-cheek blog entry over at their official site. The title? “Production Halted on Sam and Max Episode 1″. Heart-stopping! But don’t fret: they’re halting production because it’s finally done.
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God of War director has given up on making you cry.

David Jaffe is no longer working on the PSP game that was supposed to make you burst into tears. “That game is- for the moment- on the shelf,” said the typically outspoken developer in his blog. “The core reason is that it was very ambitious and so was/is WarHawk. The same developer is making both games … so Scott (head of Incog) and I said: fuck it. We’ll do HL later…maybe.”
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