cdv Software and our friends at Akella have announced that Tarr Chronicles is now sitting on North American retail shelves. Tarr Chronicles is an action-based space combat game set against the backdrop of a massive war between humanity and its alien enemies. Offering players the opportunity to customize their ships with a variety of technologies and weapons, and pairing players with allied A.I.

“Torn by years of strife and bloodshed, the universe lies dying, with humanity struggling to survive. Suddenly, hope shines again, as the Battlecruiser Talestra uncovers an ancient, forgotten city within which rests salvation for an entire solar system. Hostile alien forces have other plans for the artifacts found within the city, and begin their assault on the Talestra. Lost in space and deep behind enemy lines, the player must don an elite fighter pilot’s uniform and defend the galaxy’s last hope in Tarr Chronicles, a gripping arcade-style space combat simulation in development by Quasar Studio and Akella. At your disposal are dozens of detailed high-tech fighters bristling with cannons and rocket launchers, yours to fly against an unstoppable alien menace – the De’Khete. Intelligent squad mates with unique personalities will assist you in frenzied white-knuckle space battles between vast fleets of fighters and massive capital ships. From fully-customizable equipment to fast-action combat encounters, Tarr Chronicles will keep you pinned to your seat.”

Features:

• Instant Action – A user-friendly interface ensures immediate “jump in and play” gameplay for all skill levels
• Lush 3D Visuals – Dazzling star fields and massive orbital battles spring to life on your PC
• Expansive Storyline – Defend the galaxy throughout nine sprawling missions, each with up to 15 quests
• Endless Variety – 60 customizable ships and more than 150 individual parts and weapons
• Adaptive AI – Intelligent allies provide advice and cover, seeking out and annihilating targets without prompting
• Living Universe – From glowing nebulae to glistening asteroid belts, outer space’s remote reaches are yours to explore
• Constant Rewards – Earn unique badges, ranks and honors as you single-handedly save mankind

For more information, check out our previous posts, our Tarr Chronicles FileFront page (where you can also download the demo), and the official website.

Tarr Chronicles, the science fiction-themed space combat title from cdv Software Entertainment and Akella has gone gold today. The game, which will have players creating custom spacecraft to do battle with a dark and imposing alien threat, will ship to North American retail on September 24, 2007.

Pulled from Press Release:

“Lost in space and deep behind enemy lines, the player must don an elite fighter pilot’s uniform and defend the galaxy’s last hope in Tarr Chronicles, a gripping arcade-style space combat simulation in development by Quasar Studio and Akella. At your disposal are dozens of detailed high-tech fighters bristling with cannons and rocket launchers, yours to fly against an unstoppable alien menace – the De’Khete. Intelligent squad mates with unique personalities will assist you in frenzied white-knuckle space battles between vast fleets of fighters and massive capital ships. From fully-customizable equipment to fast-action combat encounters, Tarr Chronicles will keep you pinned to your seat.”

For more information on Tarr Chronicles, please visit the game’s official cdv page or our FileFront page.

Violence in gaming has become a really hot topic of debate over the last 5 years or so. The irony is that violence has been in games all the way back to the days of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D – perhaps even earlier (depending on your point of view). So why all the big hooplah these days concerning violence in video games? I’d like to think it’s because of the severe left turn games have taken, essentially hopping on to that freeway known as mainstream culture. Video games are no longer a niche genre delegated to the cartel of geeks and/or teenage boys. Games are now a social venue for all demographics, and as we have seen lately, an even more viable one at that.

Running With Scissors are certainly no stranger to irony. Since the release of Postal in 1997, RwS have been the whipping boy of the general gaming media, perhaps much undeservedly. In 2003, RwS released the sequel to Postal, Postal 2, which seem to best its predecessor more in controversy than the expected gameplay. Largely panned by the critics as being too violent and indulgent, RwS ended up on the defensive of its misunderstood title. It was no secret (to those who actually played it) that Postal 2’s gameplay allowed the player to choose a path of non-violence, one that ultimately allowed the player to finish the game in such manner. Choices be damned, this fact did not stop the “bull-ys“ from seeing red, so to speak. The temptation to focus on the “controversial issues” surrounding Postal 2 proved too much for most critics. It would seem Postal 2 that of victim of circumstance.

Since then, things seemed to have calmed down for the Arizona based company. RwS have been quietly developing a sequel to Postal 2 for some time now. Teaming up with the Russian publisher/developer Akella, Postal III is slated for a 2008 release on PC, Mac, and Xbox 360. Using the currently popular Valve Source engine, Postal III intends to bring the same sandbox gameplay found in Postal 2, with little to no compromise. And from little we’ve seen of the game so far, it looks like RwS are not holding back on any of its well established Postal themes.

Gaming Today found opportunity to submit a handful of questions to Running With Scissors’ CEO, Vince Desi. The questions cover topics such as the Postal movie, Uwe Boll, Postal III’s gameplay, the beaten to death topics of controversy, and of course our beloved Jack Thompson himself. So without further ado:

**WARNING**
The interview that follows contains some adult content.

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Back in June, Jonathan told you about the new RTS game from Black Sea Studios called WorldShift. The developers were kind enough to send us some new screenshots of the game, and along with these new assets comes the news that they now have publishers. RTL Games under their label Black Inc., will publish WorldShift across the globe, except for in Russia where it will be published by our friends at Akella (Hard to be a God) and Bulgaria where Black Sea Studios will self-publish.

The developers of WorldShift have also added two new Human units to the game, these being Judges and Rippers.

For storyline and more screens, keep reading after the jump.

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There are new screens up for the upcoming hack n’ slasher from Akella, called “Hard to Be a God.” We’ve been following this game for the past couple of months, and it still looks to deliver an interesting twist on a tried-and-true formula. The story, based on a novel by the Strougatsky brothers, revolves around an agent in the future who is sent to a planet that is much like Earth, except it is stuck in medieval times. What this means in terms of gameplay is that, instead of the usual magic powers in most RPGs, you’ll instead have different technological gadgets and weapons at your disposal. Hopefully we’ll get to see how this all comes together when the game ships later this year.

There’s a brand new website for Postal 3 online now. If you’re not familiar with the series, Postal is the over the top no holds barred 3d shooter fueled on controversy, and was one of the original games to be labeled with the “murder simulator” tag.

Yes, even in this era when violent games are scrutinized under the harshest of spotlights, Running With Scissors is pushing another Postal title out the door. They even acknowledge the scrutiny to some extent in the press release, saying, “POSTAL III is not intended for Politicians, your mom, your little sister, or the priest molesting her. It is a game about free will. Violence begets violence and the choice is yours.”

How well the title does remains to be seen, but one thing you can be sure of is that it will ignite controversy. If nothing else, Postal titles have done that well in every iteration. I wonder if Gary Coleman will appear in this one as well?

You can check out the full press release after the break.

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Hard to be a God is a new RPG from Akella (Tales of Pirates) slated for release sometime in December, and recently we here at Gaming Today were given the opportunity to speak with Hard to be a God lead designer Stephan Vakhtin. This interesting RPG is not going to be your average hack and slash or dungeon crawler, but something more in the realm of science fiction at its most intriguing.

GT: Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a little bit about Hard to be a God.

Stephan Vakhtin: Hello! My name is Stephan Vakhtin, and I am the leading designer of project Hard to be a God. Well, Hard to be a God is both a hack’n’slash and role-playing game. The events in the game take place in a universe depicted in the novel of the same name, written by the Strugatsky brothers. But the storyline of the game doesn’t repeat what’s happening in the book, but rather continues it. The action in the game takes place about two years later after the events described in the novel. Hard to be a God is a third-person-view game featuring dynamic combat, many weapons and fighting techniques and also a well thought-out and diverse role-playing system. Also, special attention has been paid to in-game dialogs and the storyline.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

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Hard to be a God is a non-linear RPG for the PC with several story branches and 4 endings depending on the main character’s in-game behavior.One of the gameplay features is the interference of two epochs in the game universe – the medieval and the alternative future. This provides the peculiar variety of different weapons and armors – from swords and bows to mini-guns, from full plates to force fields – and equipment like binoculars and night vision goggles at characters’ disposal. The standard RPG equipment “doll” is amplified with slots for sword shoulder-belts and hidden weapon scabbards on wrists and arms.

Features:

**A medieval universe and non-linear scenario based on the science-fiction novel, Hard to be a God, published in 1964, by the Soviet writers Arcady and Boris Strougatsky.
**A role playing game cleverly combining, adventure, espionage and science-fiction.
**A real and living world thanks to an advanced NPC system.
**Encounters of great depth: the attitude toward the hero changes considering the clothes he is wearing and his appearance, opening up a wider range of dialogues and leading to different possible results.
**A climatic change system featuring day/night alternation.
**More than 200 types of weapons and 200 types of armours. Access to futurist technology replaces the magic system.
**Journey throughout the Empire on horse back and fight.

Hard to be a God will be available fromAkella for the PC in December.

MORE SCREENS

The Bad, The Ugly, and the Sober E3 2007 Trailer
Today seems to be the day we get oddball trailers from Russian publisher Akella. This trailer for The Bad, The Ugly, and The Sober has got to be the weirdest one of the bunch though. Part adventure game with some mini-games sprinkled in, you’ll be put in the shoes of Jack, an expert shooter and drunk from the Old West whose farm is burned down by bandits. To ease his money woes, he decides to enter a tournament for bandits to win a bag of cash and a portrait that contains a treasure map. It may just be awkward translation, but the trailer makes the game seem like it could have some unintentional humor. When a game is advertised as having “animated backgrounds” and a “humoristic storyline,” you know you’re in for a *ahem* different experience.

Showdown: Scorpion E3 2007 Trailer
Looks like some leftover media from publisher Akella is still filtering in from E3. Here’s a new trailer for the upcoming FPS, Showdown: Scorpion. The game is set in the near future, where Eastern Europe has been broken up into several industrial regions. When a terrorist organization gets its hands on a new nano-virus, a Russian Special Forces agent is sent in to eliminate it. From the looks of thing, the game’s style seems to borrow heavily form F.E.A.R., though without the supernatural story elements. And I don’t know what song that is, but whoever made it stole the beat from Lunatic Calm’s “Leave You Far Behind” (made most famous from The Matrix).