In this dev diary, developers go in depth about the sequel with the changes made, the differences in the character, and the setting.

Get it at FileFront!

Return to Mysterious Island 2 puts a modern day spin on Jules Verne’s classic novel “Mysterious Island.”  Following in the footsteps of Captain Memo you’ll switch between Mina and her monkey pal Jep as you race to save all life on the island from an ecological threat. Catch the adventure in the Return to Mysterious Island 2 Playable Demo.

In case you missed the goods on the Anno 1404 Dawn of Discovery Playable Demo earlier this week, this gorgeous real time strategy demo is available tailored for the US and the UK as well as in German, and French.

The last demo patch for the All Aspect Warfare is is ready to go. Duck and cover your team of Marines as you head through hostile territory to find a way off a hostile planet before you’re nuked out of existence… by your own hidden bomb. Get you psyched for the real deal playing the All Aspect Warfare Demo v. 1.18.23.

Superstars V8 Racing drives gamers into the high powered world of Italian Championship racing. Get your hands on the wheels of some of the world’s most prestigious V8s to test the game’s specialized engine features. Superstars V8 Racing PC Demo models include BMW, Audi and Jaguar.

Circuit Defenders is a Tower defense game where you play security. Defend your circuits from viruses infiltrating via the BlueTooth port. You can also build and share your own levels for play. Pick up the Circuit Defenders Playable Demo v. 2.1.2 (Windows) courtesy of File Front.

You can find the Anno 1404 Dawn of Discovery playable demo featured on File Front  for the US and the UK as well as in German, and French.

First up is the Rabbids Go Home E3 2009 Trailer which gives gamers a closer look into a lunatic world overrun with rabbids.

I love that the devs wasted no time in getting the US president to contribute to the rabbids’ march to the moon.

The RGH Inside the Wii Remote Trailer features gameplay elements as rabbids invade your Wiimote, unwittingly putting themselves at you mercy. This is one of the funnier more memorable moments from E3. It reminds me of JoeCartoon’s gerbil. Torturing and customizing your own rabbid to use inside the game? Definitely a win. Catch it after the break.

12:15 EST – Introducing Wii Balance Board as a new platform. Wii Fit Plus introduces 15 new balance games including  juggling, skateboarding and Perfect Ten, an unholy union of balance game and Brain Age for your bum. It’s comes bundled or as a stand alone so you don’t have to re purchase the Wii Balance Board.

12:20 EST – Reggie introduces the next innovation in the Wiimote. It’s a good thing Wii MotionPlus doesn’t have to be seen to be believed because the tiny extension to the Wiimote doesn’t make a difference until you power up your console. This is the answer to correcting the problems with the way the Wiimote senses motion aka makes it work the way it should.

12:23 EST – Wii Sports Resort takes advantage of Wii Motion Plus allowing you to skydive. I thought the idea of Wii Sports was fun fitness, but I guess Resort takes that right out of the equation.

12:24 EST – Hey WSR Archery is up. Use the Wiimote with the nun chuck to hit the target without the risk of skewering your buddies in gym class!

12:28 EST - WSR Basketball has will have you shooting competitively against your buddy in a game show type set up.

12:30 EST – Wii MotionPlus is applied to the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis as well as Red Steel 2 which will be a Wii exclusive.

12:32 EST – Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles introduces The Crystal Bearers

12:34 EST – New Kingdom Hearts coming to the DS. Looks pretty decent graphically for a DS title.

12:36 EST – Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story RPG coming to DS  in NA and Europe this fall.

12:38 EST – Golden Sun DS is coming out 2010.

12:39 EST – James Patterson  and THQ bring Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion to the DS. It reads and plays like a Patterson novel.

12:40 EST – Cop: The Recruit has CCD cop Derrick going  undercover to prove his partners innocence for the DS

12:42 EST – Girls Club for the DS has been renamed Style Savvy for NA. Fashion plates for todays teens and early 20 something girls.

12:45 EST – Mario vs. Donkey Kong:  Minis March Again comes out this Monday, June 8th downloadable only for the DSi. It features a level creator for the ambitious.

12:48 EST – DSi getting capability to upload pics to Facebook.

12:50 EST – Flip Note Studio comes out this summer.

12:52 EST – Iwata talks marketing trends and future of gaming…

1:00 EST – Mario Galaxy sequel on it’s way to the Wii in 2010. Graphics and gameplay look pretty similar to the original but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It does bring Yoshi into the mix.

1:02 EST – Exclusive Third party Wii titles:

• Sega’s  The Conduit out in 3 weeks;
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles Wii zapper title and sequel to the Umbrella Chronicles.
• Dead Space: Extraction

1:09 EST – New edgier games coming from Nintendo.

• Team Ninja
• New Metroid Other M in 2010

That’s a wrap look for trailers up soon! Don’t forget to sign up for Gaming Today on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Today Ubisoft announced a publishing agreement to release the special edition of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars for both the Wii and Nintendo DS. Game titled Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director’s Cut willbe building on the original game with a new narrative added to the first story along with new puzzles, and animated facial expressions drawn by Dave Gibbons–the artist behind the comic book and upcoming movie, Watchmen.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director’s Cut starts with the player in control of a Parisian photo-journalist Nicole Collard, who witnesses the murder of one of Paris’s richest and most influential statesmen. During her investigations, which feature exclusive new locations, Nico meets an American named George Stobbart, who is involved in the theft of an ancient manuscript. Together, they are drawn into a conspiracy rooted in a long-forgotten medieval legend.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director’s Cut is scheduled for release on Wii and Nintendo DS in March 2009.

(Thanks: VG247)

The November NPD numbers are in for PC titles for the month, and it should come as no surprise that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is on top–as a matter of fact it takes the top two spots out of the Top 20. If you look through the whole chart though, you will notice that World of Warcraft took five spots which is an indication that its popularity shows no wane in sight.

Call of Duty: World at War for the PC came in third, with Spore still pulling in the gamers and resting at number four, and Left 4 Dead took the number 8 spot which is a decent slot considering the PC powerhouses that are present on the chart.

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector’s Edition
3. Call of Duty: World At War
4. Spore
5. Fallout 3
6. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
7. The Sims 2 Deluxe
8. Left 4 Dead
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
11. World of Warcraft
12. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Expansion
13. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
14. EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
15. Far Cry 2
16. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
17. BioShock
18. Spore Creepty & Cute Parts Pack
19. IGT Slots: Little Green Men
20. Assassin’s Creed

(Thanks Shacknews)

Ubisoft has listened to PC gamers over the past year and figured out that they hate DRM. So the company is releasing the retail version of Prince of Persia with no DRM. The Steam digital download of PoP will still be locked into Steam’s authentication system. It sounds really good on paper, but is Ubisoft really doing this for the PC gamers’ benefit?

The community manager of the Ubisoft Prince of Persia site has told ars technica that the move to publish DRM free is a challenge to those PC pirates who claim they would buy the title if it weren’t for the DRM. He says has no faith that these gamers will put their money where their mouth is and expects to see figures on piracy of PoP to come in higher than ever.

It’s a pretty good strategy on Ubisoft’s part. If gamers buy the PC DRM version of PoP, then Ubisoft makes money. If they don’t then Ubisoft can say I told you so and justify putting DRM on future titles. Read the full article, PC Prince of Persia contains no DRM. It’s a trap!, on ars technica for all the sordid details.

After a renewed start we had an interruption these last few weeks but rest assured Filefront is still hosting and promoting all the great user created and hosted content contributed to us. We return with a double length post highlighting some great mods and files for quite a few outstanding games including usual suspects like Half-Life 2, the Battlefield games and of course one of my favorite series “that I am really no good at yet still enjoy” – Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Highlights from this week’s column include mods for:

• Doom III – Wrathchild Act I (not ROE compatible), Revised Alphalabs
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – A Provost of the Nine Divines, More Nord Beards
• Battlefield 2 – Operation Peacekeeper, Allies Intent Extended
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Ballistics Mod
• Far Cry 2 – new maps: MP_Surf & Gold Rush

There are also links to other maps, mods and patches for many of your favorite PC modifiable games. Be sure to check it all out after the jump.

A new article on ExtremeTech pits antivirus software against some of the most demanding PC games around. AVG Free, BitDefender (GameDefender edition), Kaspersky and Norton (Gaming Edition) each face off against Crysis, Company of Heroes, Far Cry 2, Supreme Commander and World in Conflict.

ExtremeTech compared the performance of each game on a control system with and without each of the antivirus programs running. Between performance and price points you can get a fairly good idea of which of these software options are best for your gaming PC. Check out the final results from Gaming Performance Versus Antivirus Software on ExtremeTech.

Comedian Eddie Izzard says in his Dressed to Kill tour, “…there’s only two positions in snowboarding. One is looking cool; the second is DEAD!” For gamers who want to get into some extreme winter sports without losing life and limb or freezing bits off, this looks like it could be a good compromise. Get an idea of how the videogame measures up to the great expectations set by Shaun White’s reputation as podcast host Katharine Fletcher reviews Shaun White Snowboarding on the Xbox 360.

Electronic Arts is being targeted by another class-action law suit over the DRM included with Spore, SecuROM. This time, California resident Alex McQuown is hoping to use Spore to take down SecuROM once and for all.

The grievances listed in Alex McQuown’s class-action suit against EA are much the same as the other suits with three big differences. His lawyers at Finkelstein Thompson claim that SecuROM damages computers costing consumer time and money to repair the havoc caused by its installation. The suit also asserts that EA has needlessly caused its customers grief. The figures prove that piracy of games that carry SecuROM has risen dramatically. The biggest difference in McQuown’s suit is that he invites every U.S. citizen that has purchased an EA product with SecuROM to join the class.

SecuROM comes with many of the most popular titles recently released including EA’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Dead Space; Ascaron’s Sacred 2; Bethesda’s Fallout 3; BioWare’s Mass Effect published by Microsoft; Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 and Take 2’s Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC. Of course none of these games or companies have provoked as much protest as EA and Spore. I guess its not always a good thing to be high profile. You make a bigger target.

Read the New Spore Class-Action Targets EA SecuROM As a Whole for further details and a link to the original PDF of class-action suit submitted by Finkelstein Thompson on GameCyte.
thanks to Penny Arcade for explaining SecuROM so well.

If the bigwigs over at Eidos were to look upwards today, they may see a stream of buzzards circling overhead in a most ominous fashion, if a report over on MCV is to be believed. Last week and this week, most rumors circulating around the possible take over of Eidos have mentioned Electronic Arts and Ubisoft within the same sentence, but Warner Brothers is the one that has purchased 20 percent of the stock in Eidos and have had restrictions lifted on purchasing more. However, today, MCV is reporting that Square Enix is thinking about throwing their hat into the ring as well… or to begin circling the skies above Eidos with the rest of the lot.

Although Warner Brothers would only have to purchase another $30 million for a controlling interest in Eidos, $80 million would give it total control over the company. Yet, with Square Enix showing interest now in the way of company president Yoichi Wada visiting Eidos’ Denmark developer studios, rumors have the Square set to make a bid on controlling interest in the company.

A source for MCV stated that: “I think Warners will still win, but it’s very interesting that Square have expressed this late interest. They are clearly looking for Western talent.”

This would make perfect sense because Square is interested in creating titles with a more Western appeal, and with Eidos in dire straits financially, this could indeed be a significant step towards a more global market for Square Enix. That is, unless Warner Brothers beats them to the punch.

Until more a concrete announcement is made however, take the news of Square Enix making a play towards Eidosas just a rumor for the time being and don’t count out Warner Brothers just yet. Someone will win the race eventually, and when they do we will be sure to let you know who crossed the finish line first.

In preparation for it’s Dec. 4 release, Ubisoft has unveiled a new launch trailer for the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Fallen King. This new game arrives on the DS about the same time as it’s console big brother, but sporting some cartoony graphics. This is the first time I’ve seen some actual gameplay for this title, and for a DS side-scroller, the game looks pretty slick. It looks like they’ve actually translated the Prince’s signature acrobatics into 2D pretty well. Guess we’ll find out how the whole thing plays in a couple of days.

A new dev diary of sorts is out for Ubisoft’s upcoming Prince of Persia game where Ben Mattes, the game’s producer, talks a bit about the “hero factor” of our main protagonist, the prince.

While watching the video, you will no doubt notice the eye-candy that is the game, along with some real faces that may be familiar to you should you be a viewer of G4’s “Attack of the Show”, or a reader of gaming sites other than this one.

Enjoy.

Ubisoft has released the list of achievements you can attain when playing the Xbox version of Prince of Persia. You can expect the game to land in retail on December 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and on December 9 for the PC. There are a total of 50 achievements with a total of 1050 points to gain with the display string, how-to, GP, and type of challenge listed in order below. WARNING: May contain spoilers.

1. First Meet Encounter Elika: 15– Event
2. Save me please: Discover Save Me– 15– Event
3. All the basic:  Completing the Canyon– 155– Completion
4. Explorer: Use Compass (first time)–15– Other
5. Beginner Healer: Healing 01– 30– Checkpoint
6. Master Healer: Last Healing :90– Checkpoint
7. Hunter’s end: Kill Hunter in his lair– 15– Event
8. Warrior’s end: Kill Warrior in his lair– 15– Event
9. Concubine’s end: Kill Concubine in her lair– 15– Event
10. Alchemist’s end: Kill Alchemist in his lair –15–Event
11. Ahriman’s end :Kill Ahriman– 30–Event
12. Explorer: Explore every part of every region–15– Completion
13. Block Master: Blocking 50 attacks–15–Performance
14. Deflect Master: Deflecting 20 attacks–15–Performance
15. Biggest combo: Do 14 combo hits in fight–15–Performance
16. Be gentle with her: Do less than 100 save-me throughout the game–90– Performance
17. Breaker: Use a enemy to break something–15–Performance
18. Against the wall: Win a wall mini-game in fight–15–Performance
19. Race- Ruined Citadel: Run from the Sun Temple’s Fertile Ground to the Fertile Ground in Windmills in 5 minutes– 15–Performance
20. Race- Observatory: Run from the Fertile Ground in the Construction Yards to the Fertile Ground in Heaven’s Stair in 6 minutes–15–Performance
21. Race- High Castle: Run from the Fertile Ground in the Royal Gardens to the Fertile Ground in the Coronation Halls in 4 minutes–30–Performance
22. Race- Lava Rift: Go from the Fertile Ground in the Tower of Ahriman to the Fertile Ground in the City of Light in 7 minute–30–Performance
23. Warrior Special: Dodge 20 warrior attacks in one fight–15– Performance
24. Hunter Special: Deflect hunter 5 times in one fight–15–Performance
25. Alchemist Special: Defeat the Alchemist without using the acrobatic button–15– Performance
26. Concubine Special: Defeat the concubine without using grab–15–Performance
27. Sparkles rookie: Collect 100 sparkles–15–Completion
28. Sparkles beginner: Collect 200 sparkles–15–Completion
29. Sparkles casual: Collect 300 sparkles–15–Completion
30. Sparkles novice:  Collect 400 sparkles –15 – Completion
31. Sparkles collector: Collect 500 sparkles–15– Completion
32. Sparkles chief:  Collect 600 sparkles–15– Completion
33. Sparkles veteran: Collect 700 sparkles– 15– Completion
34. Sparkles expert: Collect 800 sparkles– 15– Completion
35. Sparkles hardcore: Collect 900 sparkles–15–Completion
36. Sparkles master: Collect 1001 sparkles– 30– Completion
37. Speed and peace: Kill 10 generic enemies before they spawn–15–Performance
38. Thrower Throw: 10 generic enemies in pits– 15–Performance
39. Assassin View: Find the Assassin view– 15–Other
40. Titanic view: Find the Titanic View– 15– Other
41. Jumper: 500 coop jumps– 15–Other
42. Precious Time: Take one minute to think (at the right time)–15– Other
43. Beginner Listener: Trigger one dialogue with Elika– 15–Performance
44. Good Listener: Trigger more dialogue with Elika– 15–Performance
45. Perfect Listener: Trigger a lot of dialogue with Elika– 15–Performance
46. Climber: Found the highest point in the world– 15–Performance
47. Diver: Find the lowest point in the world– 15–Performance
48. Speed Demon: Finish the game in less than 12 hours–15–Performance
49. Gone baby gone: The End– 90–Completion
50. Combo Specialist: Find every combo in the game–15– Completion

Ubisoft has announced that Prince of Persia has gone gold for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and will be released on consoles December 2 and the PC December 9.

With interesting looking storyboard-style graphics, you play the (as usual) the Prince of Persia who finds himself caught in a battle between the primal forces of light and darkness: the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the destructive God of Darkness. The Prince arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life – an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. Manifested in the form of the Corruption, a dark substance (goo looking stuff) that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the Prince must partner with Elika to heal the world from the evil Corruption.

Want to spice up your game a bit with more Middle Eastern flair?  Once you have a copy of Prince of Persia in your warm, sticky hands, you can link your Ubisoft account to your PSN screen name or Xbox Live Gamertag  to gain access to an exclusive reward: The game skin of Altair from Assassin’s Creed. This really does not seem like much of a stretch considering the majority of us who played Assassin’s Creed thought that the Prince and Altair were a bit similar in some instances anyway.

To create a Ubisoft account, visit the Prince of Persia website here and once you begin playing the game, you will be able to immediately unlock this exclusive reward.

Screens for the Altair skins are posted after the jump.

With the new and drastically different looking Prince of Persia game destined to hit shelves on December 2, Ubisoft has taken it upon themselves to announce the minimum specifications for the PC version on the official forums. According to the post, “there are no recommended specs as basically anything you have over this will run it nicely”:

• Supported OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista
• Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
• RAM: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista
• Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
• DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
• DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
• Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
• Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
• Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI RADEON X1600/1650-1950/HD 2000/3000 series NVIDIA GeForce 6800/7/8/9 series

If you currently do not have enough space on your hard drive to run this, you may need to do a bit of housekeeping and get rid of some of the junk taking up too much room–like those pictures of you and your buddies at the Roswell UFO Festival. However, since the game runs on the Assassin’s Creed engine, if you happened to purchase that particular Ubisoft game, you will notice that the specs are the same, only the hard drive space is 4Gb less.

The game will also be made available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 should your system not meet the minimum specs or you decide you would rather go the console route. While you mull your options over, check out our preview of the game here. Also, just in case you have forgotten, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King will also be hitting store the same day for the Nintendo DS.