We’re still recovering from all the events I mentioned yesterday. We should have some more coverage of Activision today. We will also have the Midway and EA’s press conferences, as well as some notes from the various hands on appointments up soon. However, time marches on and we have a whole new day of appointments to make.

Today we’re covering Take2 Interactive, THQ, Warner Bros, and UbiSoft Press events. We’ll be meeting with the folks at Bethesda for some hands on time and then its off to Barker Hanger for Konami and Akella.

When all is said and done Sunday will be a very short day for all of us as we’ll probably have to spend it recovering from the event and our flights back home.

Russian developer Akella has announced that their upcoming naval simulation, PT Boats: Knights of the Sea, will be a DX 10 title.

According to the press release, the development team is working with NVIDIA engineers to ensure that the title delivers the best possible gaming experience to GeForce users. “NVIDIA’s GeForce 8 Series GPU’s are being used as the reference graphics platform for development and testing making many enhancements possible in the DirectX10 version,” says Anton Kaplanyan, the lead programmer of PT Boats.

The screenshots above show the DX9 version of the title (on the left), and the DX10 version (on the right. In addition, there’s a comparison trailer below. Enjoy!

The Hard to be a God website is up. Jonathan did a great job of giving the background information on this upcoming hack and slash RPG. The website is well designed and contains a wealth of information on the backstory, weapons and characters of the game. Its so nice to go to a newly opened website and find actual content. The only word of warning: Akella is not a native English speaking or writing company so be prepared for some bad phrasing that is sometimes even a bit funny to read.

Originally titled Raiders of the Lost Casino – Evil Days of Luckless John, a mix of adventure, arcade shooter and fighting- is coming to a PC near you in September. It looks like a wacky little PC game with loads of humor and fun. Here is the synopsis of the game:

“John is indeed luckless. Everything he ever started turned out to be a major disaster. Until one day a distant relative dies, and the only heir of his profitable casino is – of course – John. Is he going to be lucky this time? Already thinking about the money that is supposed to pour in, already thinking about spending all his future riches, suddenly reality strikes back at John – again. The Mob wants to get their hands on John’s Casino. Being already responsible for the death of the former owner, John’s appearance makes them very unhappy. It looks like John is in big trouble…At this point, the player of this beautifully designed graphic adventure takes control. He has to make sure that John will lose his nick name, or die trying.

Evil Days of Luckless John, developed by Centauri, is in the best tradition of classic and fun graphic adventures, mixed with today’s 3D technology. The main character can be moved around in an almost open 3D environment, with a simple and intuitive user interface. Luckless John is appealing to fans of the adventure genre, while adding the modern look and feel to attract a wide audience of gamers who like to follow a humorous storyline.”

Features

• quaint mix of action, fighting and adventure genres with eccentric parody elements
• humorous non-linear plot
• comics type stylization of graphic part of the game
• completely 3d graphical performance
• original characters with distinctive facial features in cartoon and caricature style
• about 30 various locations from factory, museum, farm till prison, cemetery and even canalization
• “dense population” includes 26 active NPCs and about 10 animals
• more than 15 cut-scenes in the best traditions of modern comic 3d movies

We have more screens and quite a few trailers for your downloading pleasure on FileFront so go check them out.

Akella and Spline have just announced through a press release their newest development, an adventure game called “A Stroke of Fate:”

“A Stroke of Fate is an interactive detective story framed in authentic surroundings of the fascist Germany in the 1940s. A gamer has a unique opportunity – to conduct a compelling investigation of the most mysterious secret veiled by the 20th century – Adolf Hitler’s preterm death.”

The game will put you in the shoes of an espionage agent attempting to gain access to Hitler and his closest minions in order to plan his assassination. As a spy, you’ll need to blend in as a true German patriot to deter the prying eyes of the Gestapo. You’ll be able to explore historically accurate locales, such as the Secret Police Building and Hitler’s private study. You’ll also interact with a number of historical figures, including Muller, Goebbels, and even Hitler himself.

Personally, I have a soft spot for adventure games, so I hope this game turns out well. Already it sounds like it’s got an intriguing storyline and some fairly immersive visuals to back it up.

  

Russian developer Akella has announced 2025: Battle for Fatherland. A third-person action game with extensive unit customization, Battle for Fatherland takes players into the near future in the year 2025, where nations are threatened by terrorism.

The player takes the role of a soldier in the Peacemaking Forces. As he can’t stand the passive stance of his country, he decides to take matters into his own hands and go hunting.

With vehicles ranging from jeeps to mechs, and a variety of weaponry, players will fight through a varied gamut of missions using a variety of tactics, including frontal assaults and guerilla attacks.

You can check out more info on 2025: Battle for Fatherland at Akella’s Homepage.

Akella, the developer of the well loved Sea Dogs and Age of Sail games has a number of new games coming out in the near future and they plan to reveal the details at the upcoming E3 Media and Business Summit. The titles to be shown include Jagged Alliance 3, Disciples III: Rennaisance, Showdown:Scorpion, Heavy Duty, 2025:Battle for Fatherland, and the action RPG Numen. Follow the jump to read summaries of Akella’s upcoming titles.

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Well, if you’re wondering who’s going to be at the new, smaller E3 scheduled for July 11-13 this year, here’s the list.

On hand will be 1C Company, Activision, Akella, Atari, Atlus, Bethesda, Buena Vista Games (which recently changed its name to Disney Interactive Studios), Capcom, Codemasters, Crave Entertainment, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Foundation 9 Entertainment, id Software, Konami, Logitech, LucasArts, Majesco, Microsoft, Midway, Namco Bandai Games, NCsoft, Nintendo, Nyko, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft, Vivendi Games, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Obviously, this year’s E3 is going to be far different from what we have seen in the past, however, there will be an exhibit hall in Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger. Also, companies will host demonstrations in area hotel suites. The biggest difference from past E3’s is all about numbers. Three to four thousand attendees are expected in 2007, compared to 60,000 to 70,000 from the past couple of years.