Akella’s RPG-strategy title Disciples III: Renaissance is the third installment in the popular Disciples series and builds on the successes of the first two games by introducing a host of new features as well as the same style of gameplay that made the previous titles popular. This will be the first time in the series that the gloomy world of Disciples will be rendered in full 3D by using the Virtual Dream engine which will in turn allow players to experience this realm as it should be.

We have been covering Disciples III: Renaissance for quite some time now, so if you are interested in more information, check out our previous posts.

The game is to be made available for the PC sometime between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. In the meantime, you can check out our library of screens by clicking here.

Enjoy the trailer.

Akella’s RPG-strategy title Disciples III: Renaissance is the third installment in the popular Disciples series and builds on the successes of the first two games by introducing a host of new features as well as the same style of gameplay that made the previous titles popular. This will be the first time in the series that the gloomy world of Disciples will be rendered in full 3D by using the Virtual Dream engine which will in turn allow players to experience this realm as it should be.

We have been covering Disciples III: Renaissance for quite some time now, so if you are interested in more information, check out our previous posts.

The game is to be made available for the PC sometime between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. In the meantime, you can check out our library of screens by clicking here.

Akella is a fun group of Russian developers who make decent games, and they are definitely one to watch in the future, if not already. Today they showcased another one of their upcoming titles, Scorpion – originally titled Showdown: Scorpion.

The basic premise for Scorpion’s backstory is that the world in 2028 has become a place without mercy, compassion, or sympathy. Drastic changes that followed a sudden crisis split society into several parts – all of them opposing each other. You are offered to wear the shoes of a special agent who has to penetrate the Umbrella Corporation Zenith Corporation that breeds monsters, initiates killings and, actually, rules the world. Full of monsters, zombies, and dangerous dungeons Scorpion seems like it will be a mix between your basic FPS with a bit of survival horror thrown into the recipe. For gaming features and a more in depth look at the backstory, continue on after the break. In the mean time, please take my advice above to heart regarding the dying cat they recorded as background music. Dear God it is hideous. Sorry Akella.

After several major economical and political crises the world as we know it ceased to exist. Only few major states survived 2020s, while the lesser authorities have collapsed, leaving behind anarchy and pollution. The power vacuum was filled by key international companies which acquired control over derelict territories, forming Free Commerce Areas (FCAs).

In early 2030s ruins of unknown origin were discovered in Sudan. Several artifacts possibly of alien nature were quickly revealed and soon major dig has started. But few months of work as well as the bulk of the dig team were lost to the underground explosion followed by contamination of the region. To prevent diseases from spreading a series of nuclear strikes were made to completely annihilate the site. These events have caused major resonance and soon a treaty limiting the usage of dangerous technologies and weapon systems was signed between the FCAs and UNO. As a result the International Committee of Technology and Warfare Supervision (ICTS) with its own military and intelligence units, was created.

Same time few survivors of Sudan Incident emerged as founders of newly formed Zenith Corporation. This institution with HQ in Zagreb FCA quickly established itself as a notorious player on weapon, pharmaceutics and IT markets. But in 2028 several instances of Zenith weapon systems together with samples of unidentified biological weapons were discovered during the liquidation of the extremists’ Albanian group in Kosovo.

ICTS immediately started investigation. It was planned to infiltrate Zenith as a customer with clear ties to one of the terrorists’ organization and get a proof of its illegal activity. One of the best ICTS field agents, codename Scorpion, has been assigned to this mission…

• Intense action in cyber-punk styled Earth 2028
• Futuristic storyline supported by multiple cut-scene
• Combination of first-person combat and stealth action elements provides unique gaming experience
• Impressive arsenal of upgradeable weapons
• Characters can gain access to several paranormal psychic powers including the ability to subdue the will of enemies for a short period of time
• Advanced squad-oriented combat AI creates a strong challenging opposition
• Elite opponents possess supernatural powers similar to those of the player’s character

I am unsure when the game will be released for the PC but I am sure we will know exactly when bythistime tomorrow.

You can view more screens from E3 for the game here.

I have not heard anything about Disciples III: Renaissance since I interviewed Marina Vashurina back in March. Finally, today, some new assets were released for the game from the sole Russian developer at E3 and they were most definitely worth waiting for in my opinion. This is another game that has been on my radar for quite some time and it will be coming out for the PC sometime between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. Akella is at E3 as we speak so I am sure a concrete release date will be forthcoming.

Akella’s  RPG/strategy title Disciples III: Renaissance is the third installment in the popular Disciples series and builds on the successes of the first two games by introducing a host of new features as well as the same style of gameplay that made the previous titles popular. This will be the first time in the series that the gloomy world of Disciples will be rendered in full 3D by using the Virtual Dream engine which will in turn allow players to experience this realm as it should be.

As a Lord of one of the fantastical races of Nevendaar, players must fight to restore their deity’s rule over the world by choosing one of three playable races: the Empire, the Elven Alliance and the notorious Legion of the Damned – each with its own unique units and city design. Advances have also been made in the gameplay which will allow increased fluidity in multiplayer games and less downtime when playing alone, while a new upgrade system allows the player to assign attributes to their leaders. The RPG inventory system in Disciples III has been tweaked and now includes player stats and abilities along with visual representation of character’s equipped armor, weapons and artifacts.

Check out the rest of the E3 screens here.

Thanks to a link provided by VG247, we now have a list of developers confirmed for E3 2008 along with what titles they will be showing off at the event. While the list is still updated regularly, as of this post, this is what you can expect should you be attending.

Akella
Postal III (PC, X360)

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

Capcom
Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, X360)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, X360)
Capcom Project #1 [untitled] (other)
Capcom Project #2 [untitled] (other)
Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)
MotoGP 08 (other)
Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
Plunder (PC, PS3, X360)
Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, X360)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3, X360)

For the full list, hit the jump.

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1C Company has announced the development of two new console games to be released in 2008 and 2009. The Russian games publisher announced its first games developed for multiple platforms -internally-made Captain Blood is a Xbox 360 and PC Caribbean-themed game inspired by the novels by Rafael Sabatini and IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, a DS, PSP, PS3, and Xbox 360 version of its combat flight simulation. These titles mark the first cross-platform games from 1C to be developed and published worldwide.

Nikolay Baryshnikov, International Sales Director for 1C Company stated:

“Our aim is to bring our games to even more players and expand our vision with cross platform development. We are embracing any new gaming technology that will improve our products including digital downloads, consoles, handheld gaming, Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine, NVIDIA PhysX and DirectX 10.”

1C is definitely starting to make a name for itself and has worked with Atari and Akella in the past on some notable if not mainstream PC titles. With this latest foray into handhelds and next-gen consoles, we can expect only to hear more from them in the future.

Via: Press Release

First off, via a press release this morning, the list of exhibitors for E3 2008 has surfaced and while Activision and Vivendi may not be present, many other big names are:

• A – M: 1UP Network; Akella; Atari Inc.; Bethesda Softworks; Capcom USA Inc.; Crave Entertainment; Codemasters; D3Publisher of America; Deep Silver; Disney Interactive Studios, Inc.; Electronic Arts; Eidos Interactive; Fox Interactive Media; Indie Games; Jagex, Ltd.; Konami Digital Entertainment America; LucasArts; Majesco Entertainment Company; Microsoft Corporation; Midway Games, Inc.; MTV Games

• N – Z: Namco Bandai Games America, Inc.; Natsume, Inc.; Nintendo of America Inc.; Novint Technologies, Inc.; Nyko Technologies; Rebellion; SEGA of America, Inc.; Serious Games Initiative; Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.; Sony Online Entertainment Inc.; Southpeak Interactive; Square Enix USA; Take-Two Interactive; Tecmo; THQ Inc.; Toshiba America Information Systems; Ubisoft Entertainment Inc.; Valve Software; and, Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment Inc.

The list is still not final and organizers expect more to be added soon.

Secondly, thanks to some IRS sleuthing by Kotaku, documents show that the ESA had to pay to over $5 million last year to move the expo from Los Angeles to Santa Monica – only to come back to LA this year. According to Kotaku, the EA paid $5, 377, 808 in cancellation fees in order to break the contract that kept E3 at the LA Convention Center until 2012.

These forms also divulged the information that association’s membership dues quadrupled in its 2006 fiscal year, increasing from over $1 million in 2005 to more than $4.5 million in 2006. Rich Taylor, Entertainment Software Association senior vice president of communications and research told Kotaku that ESA Board members knew the move would cost them dearly but that it would shift E3 from a “profit generating E3 to a revenue neutral summit.”

Via: Kotaku

Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center.

This year’s list includes (among others) Atari, Eidos, EA, Konami, LucasArts, Square Enix, and of course the big three of the console world: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Contrary to popular rumor, Bethesda will make an appearance with Fallout 3, as confirmed by their blog post. Apparently they were left off the initial listing for an unknown reason.

You can see a full list of the companies currently expected to attend after the break.

Read the full article

Eastern European game publisher Akella has announced the signing of a retail publishing deal with Valve to bring their upcoming cooperative survival horror game, Left 4 Dead to stores in Russia and CIS countries.

Left 4 Dead is a multiplayer cooperative survival horror shooter based on the Source engine. There are two sides, the Survivors and Infected. Four players control the four Survivors, working their way through campaigns in rural and urban areas, fighting off dozens of the AI-controlled “infected”. On top of the regular zombies, there are four player-controlled “boss zombies” all with unique powers for causing chaos.

The release is scheduled for the PC and Xbox 360 in the Fall and will ship simultaneously worldwide.

Via: Press Release 

Coming this Fall to a PC near you is Akella’s newest RPG/strategy title Disciples III: Renaissance. This is the third installment in the popular Disciples series and builds on the successes of the first two games by introducing a host of new features as well as the same style of gameplay that made the previous titles popular. This will be the first time in the series that the gloomy world of Disciples will be rendered in full 3D by using the Virtual Dream engine which will in turn allow players to experience this realm as it should be.

As a Lord of one of the fantastical races of Nevendaar, players must fight to restore their deity’s rule over the world by choosing one of three playable races: the Empire, the Elven Alliance and the notorious Legion of the Damned – each with its own unique units and city design. Advances have also been made in the gameplay which will allow increased fluidity in multiplayer games and less downtime when playing alone, while a new upgrade system allows the player to assign attributes to their leaders. The RPG inventory system in Disciples III has been tweaked and now includes player stats and abilities along with visual representation of character’s equipped armor, weapons and artifacts.

Recently, we were given the opportunity to ask Marina Vashurina from .dat, the developers behind Disciples III, to tell our readers a bit more about the third installment in this popular RPG franchise, and explain to us what makes Disciples III different from the other RPGs that seem to have oversaturatting the market lately.

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