Supposedly, Atari has stated that the demo for Alone in the Dark will only be made available for the Xbox 360. While this seems a little strange, they have apparently confirmed this with CVG.

“No demos have been confirmed for other platforms”, an Atari rep told CVG this morning.

The Xbox 360 Alone in the Dark demo will be released around the same time as the game on June 20th, but anything else regarding the game after that date is being kept quite for the time being. The PC, PS2 and Wii versions will also launch on June 20th with the PS3 version coming later in the year.

It seems like PS3 users are always getting the shaft.

Via: CVG

Infogrames expects to sell 2-3 million units of Alone in the Dark and is hoping that the game will boost the company’s revenue for the fiscal year. Chief Executive David Gardner has stated that his top priority was for Infogrames to break even instead of continuing to loose money.

Alone in the Dark will be available for the PC, PS2, Xbox 360 and Wii on June 24th (PS3 later in the year) and Gardner expects to see the game pull the company out of the red during the game’s life span:

“Over the life of the product in this business year across platforms we are expecting between 2 and 3 million units.”

Thats a tall order, but here’s hoping that the game does indeed help the company out – providing it is everything it is being hyped up to be.

Via: Reuters

Apparently the reason that Atari kept changing the release date for Alone in the Dark was to give gamers a more polished gaming experience and you can’t really argue with such a reason. Take heart though, because Atari confirmed this morning that Alone in the Dark will hit North America on June 24 and Europe on June 20.According to an Atari representative:

“The game has been delayed to allow Eden Games to polish the game to an even higher standard. We want to deliver the best possible experience to gamer, because we have a remarkable product. We’ve been getting an incredible response from the people that have seen it in demos. We’ll soon be supplying code to the market.”

Granted, PS3 owners will still have to wait until later this year without any set time frame at this point, but PC, PS2, Xbox 360 and Wii users can start to finally get excited about it. Hooray!

Via: Videogaming247

Relic and THQ officially announced Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II through a press release issued this morning. The highly anticipated sequel is scheduled to bring the 41st Millennium’s savage warfare to life in the Spring of 2009 and will be powered by an enhanced version of Relic’s Essence Engine 2.0. WH40K: Dawn of War II will take players to the frontlines of war for an intense and visceral non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign.

In addition, THQ has announced that gamers than plan to or have purchased the recent expansion WK40k: Dawn of War Soulstorm will be able to participate in an invitation-only multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II. Beta dates have yet to be announced, but how cool is that?

An exact release date has not been given, only the aforementioned estimated Spring 2009 release – but as the year shuffles along, fans have loads to look forward to because I am sure assets will be forthcoming very soon and then of course there is the beta (providing you purchased Soulstorm). Hit the jump for the full press release which includes some nice blurbs from Relic and THQ.

Via: Press Release

Read the full article

I don’t know how one can unveil a teaser trailer after showing off most of the gameplay mechanics for a title already, but that’s just what Atari is doing anyway. This new Alone in the Dark trailer doesn’t reveal much about the upcoming game except that it will more than likely make you jump in your seat numerous times. I have to hand it to the folks over at Eden Studios: they’ve certainly got the whole creepy “what on Earth is going on?” feel. Let’s just hope the gameplay is up to snuff as well.

Game designer Adam Maxwell, who has worked on Auto Assault and Dirty Harry, recently reworked a blog post for Gamasutra which is entitled “The Case Against Writers In The Games Industry.” With an intriguing enough title, I read through his piece and walked away thinking that a writer must have stole Maxwell’s girlfriend at some point; I couldn’t possibly disagree with him anymore than I do.

His main points are that a writer takes time away from development of a game’s core mechanics, his or her contributions won’t make a game good, and a writer’s linear work is at odds with a designer’s non-linear work.

Maxwell also claims that a designer who also has the ability to write is much more valuable than a writer, which is true to an extent. I completely can understand why you would want a multi-talented individual on your staff; someone versatile is always an asset. (Just ask Ron why he hired me. I do wonderful papier-mâchés.) But, that argument doesn’t take into account two things. Read the full article

Akella’s latest addition to the Disciples RPG franchise, Renaissance, will introduce 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. The game combat in Disciples III is now based on a hex system where as a former square grid was replaced with a hex one which, in their minds was a more natural way for the game to be played. Along with these changes to the gamplay, Akella also sent us some information on the Elven Alliance and the Legion of the Damned that will be prevalent throughout the game. You can read up on them after the jump.

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.

Hopefully soon we will have more on Disciples III: Renaissance, so until then check back with us often.

Read the full article

Atari has released a new gameplay trailer for the next installment of the Alone in the Dark series. This newest trailer shows a lot of gameplay footage, so you can kind of get an idea of what to expect from the next adventure of Edward Carnby. Mostly, it looks like you can expect some cool-looking dynamic lighting and plenty of creepy crawlies. This video also once again confirms that any piece of footage can be made creepy by the inclusion of choir music.

Last week, the developers for the new Alone in the Dark unveiled a tech demo for the game that showed you how the item system would (namely to blow up rats). Now there’s a new tech demo that shows how the player can interact with the environment, particularly by setting things on fire. There’s certainly some impressive technology behind this game. We’ll just have to wait and see if it’s paired with engaging gameplay.

This week we kick off the first in a series of columns focusing on bringing the pen-and-paper experience of RPGs to life using technology, tools and primarily the internet.

With the big announcement of the Wizards of the Coast Digital Initiative, the expansion of Gleemax and the forthcoming D&D 4th Edition digital toolkit, it seemed a good time to work toward our eventual review of these services by looking at what tools are currently available for gamers to virtualize their game sessions.

Seeing that this is a video game website it feels most appropriate to discuss first the video game entry in the virtual desktop series – Atari’s Neverwinter Nights series. Developer Bioware began the Neverwinter Nights project almost a decade ago with the stated intent of not only taking their popular Forgotten Realms adventure series into the 3D world but also to provide players and dungeon masters the tools necessary to truly recreate the experience of a tabletop session of D&D on the net in a video game.

Read the full article