Ascaron and Deep Silver had a rough year with the launch of their action RPG Sacred 2 on the PC and consoles and some pretty bad financial problems afterward. Despite initial bugs on all the platforms, this math heavy Diablo-like title really managed to charm me with its quirky characters, often hilarious quest and NPC comments and the wide open game world.

Well, scouring the world for interesting news led me to an obscure and not well covered announcement for an upcoming expansion for the PC. It seems that Sacred 2: Ice & Blood will continue the adventures in the world of Ancaria with some new settings and most importantly a new character class – the Dragonmage.

There are not a lot of details coming out of the publishers at this point, including if the release will be seen in America as well as Europe this fall, but frankly I’m still interested. Sacred 2 was one of the best Diablo 2 clones I’ve played in years next to Iron Lore’s Titan Quest games. More details as they become available, check out the preview screens after the jump.

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John Harris, a writer over on the industry news site/blog Gamasutra,  writes a regular series of articles entitled Game Design Essentials. These long and exhaustively researched story discusses his position on many topics important to modern game design and the lessons learned along the way.

His latest installment discusses 20 RPGs that all designers should be familiar with and why. The feature article is interesting from the perspective of someone who has studied game design and as someone who has been using RPGs for storytelling and  enjoyment over the years. Aspiring designers could do far worse than to dig through this fairly dense statement of information covering RPGs from the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons through the evolution of Wizardry, Ultima, Wasteland and more contemporary games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and the Elder Scrolls titles.

You can check out the entire article here.

OXM and Joystiq are revealing that the upcoming controversial sequel to Left 4 Dead will try and entice players who maybe aren’t quite as enthused about the quick turn around between last year’s initial release and this year’s Southern bound sequel with some nice demo shaped cookies..

It seems that the upcoming demo of the game will be available to players who pre-order the title before it hits general outlets. The details are sparse at the moment but this early access will likely be to the same content the rest of the world will get when the multiplayer demo hits Steam and Xbox Live, just a teensy bit earlier.

I understand Valve wanting to feed the L4D 2 hype, but as far as pre-order incentives go this one just seems to be a bit too lame duck to me. Offer an exclusive level or weapon or heck, maybe give us access to a member of the original game in our L4D 2 play, but giving out the same demo just earlier seems like an epic undersell of a much anticipated/debated sequel.

Cooler Master is introducing its latest mid tower chassis, the HAF 922. This tower is aimed directly at gamers with a case that’s cool both inside and out. This beast supports up to seven fans more maximum air flow. It’s also compatible with liquid cooling systems, with enough room for an internal radiator.

According to the specs, the HAF 922 provides 2 USB 2.0 ports as well as eSATA. It also supports HD / AC97 audio. Check out the full list of HAF 922 specifications and accessories at the Cooler Master website.

While Guybrush Threepwood is returning in a new title and a relaunched classic later this week from Telltale Games and Lucasarts as Eva mentioned, today the big news was regarding the return of a number of classic Lucasarts Adventure games (The Dig and LOOM being the best news) and more than a few of their not-quite-as-old franchise action titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando, Star Wars Battlefront II and the various Indiana Jones titles are making their way to Valve’s digital distribution system, Steam on July 8th.

The complete annotated list includes:

• Armed and Dangerous™
• Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones® and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO® Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM™
• Star Wars Battlefront® II
• Star Wars Republic Commando®
• Star Wars Starfighter™
• The Dig®
• Thrillville®: Off the Rails™

It definitely looks like Lucasarts is trying to recapture the the glory days of the company before it became the “bad” Star Wars game and LEGO tie-in company. The games will be released on the Xbox 360 via Live! as well.

There are a few more games I’d love to see make this list like the Maniac Mansion games, or Grim Fandango – by Tim Schafer – lately the mind behind Psychonauts and Brutal Legend.  Till then however I think I might just consider picking up another copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and LOOM.

TopWare Interactive aims to raise the bar for RPGs with it’s upcoming release of Two Worlds II. This sequel to the original hit Two Worlds will take players back to the world of Antaloor to explore the deserts and temples of the East.

Two Worlds II features a brand new engine from Reality Pump that makes the most of dynamic light sources, micro-detail Parallax Mapping, 24 Bit HDR Post Processing, Space Ambient Occlusion and Human Eye Accommodation. The AI and balancing standards have been overhauled as well. The new storyline features the work of experienced authors and the active combat system puts the adventure into this RPG.

When they claim that Two Worlds II will set new standards for graphical excellence, they aren’t bluffing. Just take a look as these screenshots.

Look for Two Worlds II for the PC, Mac and Next-Gen consoles this winter.

Lord of the Rings Online is inviting players to pimp their ride in the new horse design contest. As if seeing people riding by on your horse in game isn’t cool enough, winners can also score Turbine goodie bags,forum prizes and a unique forum title for first place.

LOTRO fans, it’s time to show us your artistic and creative skills: we’re giving you the opportunity to submit your very own design for a horse which could be taken and implemented into the game as a player mount in a future content update.

The areas of customization on the mount include:

• Horse’s color and marking
• Horse blanket pattern and color
• Horse saddle

For more information on how you can have your own artistic vision featured in-game, read the specifics on the LOTRO Design a Horse Contest site.

Tripwire has released an update for the cooperative survival horror title Killing Floor. The game should update automatically when you start Steam eradicating bugs and nerfing some exploits. Players will also get a few perk tweaks to balance out those exploit fixes. You’ll find a full list of fixes and tweaks after the jump.

One more thing. There’s still time to get in on the “Killing Floor Grindhouse” custom map making competition. However you’d better get a move on. If you want to score that $10,000 cash prize you have less than a month to get your entry together for Wave 1. The full contest rules are available at the official “Killing Floor Grindhouse” map contest site.

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MapleStory is wooing main stream American youth with videos to air on television networks and as previews for the latest Harry Potter movie this summer. This brings MapleStory into the American public eye, the realm only pierced by  Halo 3 and World of Warcraft so far. The 2D side-scrolling MMORPG is already pretty popular enjoying a 6 million strong player base in North America alone. It’s aimed at kids 10 and up, but has a very wide age range of players, most of whom seem to take their cute super-deformed characters pretty seriously.

MapleStory is a free to play MMO with a cash shop that allows players to purchase Nexon Cash to trade for premium items. MapleStory Nexon Cash cards have been available at local retailers like Target, CVS and Best Buy for a few years. The MMO has also spawned the MapleStory card game and videogames for the Wii and DS. Still MapleStory seems to be simmering just below the surface of casual gaming culture. Perhaps these new videos can tip MapleStory into the mainstream spotlight. Look for the video shorts to start appearing on tv and in theaters later this month. Until then, you can check it out for yourself at http://maplestory.nexon.net.

Good Old Games is setting pinball lovers up for an exciting weekend. All classic pinball titles are on sale for 20% off until July 6th 11:59 pm EST. That means you can grab Pro Pinball Big Race USA, Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey, Pro Pinball Timeshock and Pure Pinball 2 Redux for $4.79 each. As always, all of GOG.com games are guaranteed Windows XP and Vista compatible and DRM free.

You’ll also find deals on the Ishar series and the Pandora Directive. GOG.com is proud to announce the oldest new addition to its classic catalog, Personal Nightmare. Get the details on these great titles after the break.
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