In the past year or so, we’ve seen some big mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry. Activision and Blizzard’s merger was the big news, but there have been others. Today, another newsworthy acquisition was announced.

ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, has acquired id Software. This acquisition puts franchises like Fallout 3, Oblivion, Doom, Quake, and RAGE under one roof. The best news out of all of this is that all of the principals at id Software have signed long term contracts, meaning that id will continue to operate under the same management going forward.

In discussing the deal, id Technical Director and industry icon John Carmack said, “This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.”

So, what sort of speculation can we make because of this deal? Bethesda games driven by id engines? That would seem to be a logical step, wouldn’t you think? What do you think this news means to the future of the two companies?

You can read the full text of the press release after the break.

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Spore: Galactic Adventures has landed at retailers near you. This expansion adds new adventures for your favorite Spore creations letting them explore the universe as Space Captains. Level your creature up by completing missions and battling in intergalactic arenas. There are 16 missions included with the expansion as well as an adventure creator that allows you to create custom missions that you can share at the Official Spore and Spore Creature Creator Site.

Once you sign up for an account, you can also download free adventures created by the gang responsible for Robot Chicken. They promise they are  “Rated TEEN with Animated Blood, Crude Humor, Mild Fantasy Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes by the ESRB”. Sounds great to me.

More details from the Spore Galactic Adventures press release follow the break.
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The Beatles: Rock Band debuted at E3 with a star studded lineup. Surviving band members Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were joined by Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison for the premier. Here’s a look at the E3 2009 The Beatles Rock Band trailer.

EA also revealed a The Beatles: Rock Band Xbox 360 exclusive track, “All You Need is Love”. Proceeds from the DLC go to the Doctors Without Borders charity. “All You Need is Love” will be ready for download on Xbox Live June 9th.

For more details on The Beatles: Rock Band career mode and the new peripheral set styled after the instruments used by the band, see the press release excerpts after the jump. You can also watch the video of the E3 The Beatles: Rock Band Demo and see the new peripherals in action in case you missed the live streaming video coverage of E3 earlier today.
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Activision line up for E3 2009 is chock full of win. The full review has something for everyone showcasing remakes of classic games and sequels with fresh IPs for E3 return to its glory days. Speed demons can hook up with Blur and Tony Hawk: Ride to get their adrenaline rush on. Gamers will wax nostalgic over the updated re-envisioned Wolfenstein, the granddaddy of the FPS, then take a look at it’s latest progeny Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat 2.

Music fans have new bands and features to bump and grind to with Guitar Hero 5 and can explore new genres with DjHero. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is ready for show and sci-fi buffs can get their fill with Singularity and PROTOTYPE. I’m putting Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in with sci-fi because I can’t quite make the leap to call them superheroes. Get the full list complete with details on each game after the break.
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Rockstar has revealed Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City. The game features episode two, The Ballad of Gay Tony, which is based on Liberty City’s glamorous and dangerous nightclub scene. Episode one, The Lost and Damned, is also packed in for a dose of biker gang action.

Episodes from Liberty City is a standalone exclusively for the Xbox 360. If you haven’t pick up GTA IV yet, $39.99 for the game and two episodes is a good deal. If you’ve got the game and already downloaded The Lost and the Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony will be up on Xbox Live for $19.99 or 1600 MS points this fall. More details on The Ballad of Gay Tony from the press release follow the break.

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Every week, Gaming Today brings you a list of all the demos and patches that have hit FileFront during the past seven days. Usually, if it is a major demo or patch we do an individual post on it because we feel it will be of special interest to our readers. However, big name games are not the only files worth mentioning and that is why we provide you with this weekly feature.

This week though, we are trying to consolidate the post by providing you with the demos and patches that have proved to be the most popular during the week–this way, you are not bombarded with loads of links to weed through. You can always view the full list for both demos and patches via FileFront, but this way we are saving you just a bit more time and also giving our readers a bit of insight into the minds of other gamers. It’s kind of scary what you see when you peak in there isn’t it?

Here are the most popular demos for the week:

• Strategic Command: WWII Pacific Theater: This demo includes three turn limited (1 game year each) playable campaigns: 1941 Operation Z is the main theatre campaign that starts on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor followed by landings and advancement in South East Asia including Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies–1945 Operation Detachment was the United States capture of the island of Iwo Jima from Japan, producing some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

• War Plan Pacific: Shrapnel Games has released a demo for War Plan Pacific, a turn-based computer war game for one or two players covering the entire war in the Pacific from 1941 until 1945.

• X-Motor Racing v1.11: Exotypos has released a new version of the X-Motor Racing v1.11 and the demo.

• RotoAdventures - 2 Chapters (Mac) (Windows) : From an enchanted forest to cybernetic mines and from school to a cursed castle, you will fight to survive and rejoin once again with your beloved owner. Only move a small nut to guide Momo thru its entire life choosing between the dark and bright side.

• Project Aftermath v1.1 Demo: Indie game developers Games Faction has released and updated demo of Project Aftermath, an arcade RTS game where you command up to four squads of soldiers in battles in a retro-futuristic world.

• Drakensang: The Dark Eye (English): dtp Entertainment has released an English demo for Drakensang: The Dark Eye.

• Jutland: Storm Eagle Studios has released a playable demo for Jutland. The JUTLAND Demo Edition features unlimited play of two Demo scenarios, including the multiplayer feature. An additional 17 scenarios can be previewed and played for 10 minutes while using the Demo Edition. These include 3 Jutland Scenarios.

• Legendary: Spark Unlimited’s FPS Legendary: The Box presents a world suddenly thrust into chaos and turmoil when ancient creatures of myth are unleashed into modern day society, and it is up to you, as the cause of it all, to stop it all.

Patches are listed after the jump.

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Spark Unlimited’s FPS Legendary has a new PC demo up on FileFront. Released for the PC onNovember 25 and for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on November4, Legendary tells the story of Charles Deckard, an art thief who is duped into stealing Pandora’s Box.

When he inadvertently opens it, he releases hordes of beasts thought to be fictional – such as werewolves and gryphons – into an unprepared modern world. A full scale war between man and myth begins, and it is quickly complicated by the actions of powerful secret societies. As the person responsible for releasing this terror, Deckard’s unwittingly become the only person capable of containing it once more and saving civilization from being destroyed by the terrifying creatures.

To get the demo, hit the badge below or visit the game page on FileFront. Have fun killing werewolves.

Here are some demos and patches that hit FileFront this week, and as usual, for the full list of demos click here and for patches click here.

Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals: Lighthouse Interactive released a playable demo for Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals. Paris, 2023: Ruled by a power-hungry dictator, a place where the fascist rich and the abandoned poor are separated by both a literal and figurative wall. As we join our hero Nikopol, the son of an astronaut frozen in space decades ago, we find that a floating pyramid inhabited by Egyptian Gods hovers above the city. As one of their leaders plots to take control of Paris and its people, word reaches Nikopol that his father may be alive and hidden in the city’s underground, a possible pawn in a looming battle. In the search for his father, Nikopol’s journey finds him entangled in political intrigue, caught between two worlds, one of anarchy and one of immortality.

StuntMANIA!pro v3.0.1 (Windows): What’s new in 3.0.1? Fixed: StuntMANIApro logo not appearing on main menu screen, Teleport and Powerup spawn position below ground in Sand Box level, added many more customizable keys into the Keyboard Input Manager, many speed optimizations for lower spec machines, and more. (Mac)

Pyroblazer: Eipix has released a demo for Pyroblazer, a futuristic combat racing game set amidst New Apeiron, players get the opportunity to race through a multitude of environments using a wide selection of anti-gravity craft known as Blazers. In their quest for glory, players can blast their way through the scorched valleys of Gnosis, the deserted cities of Haedra or the densely populated Underdome of Evelads.

Circuit Defenders v1.5.0 (Windows): Circuit Defenders is a fast paced Tower Defense style game, where your challenge is to defend computer circuits from attacking virus armies that are infiltrating the circuits via the BlueTooth port. You have an assortment of defense towers at your disposal, and the ability to upgrade them as needed to ensure you can withstand the enemy onslaught. (Mac)

The Rise of Atlantis (Mac): Find a way to bring the legendary continent of Atlantis back to the surface and restore it to its might. In this extraordinary puzzle game with spectacular new features, handy bonuses and explosive power-ups you set out on an adventurous quest around the ancient lands of Greece, Troy, Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt, Carthage and Rome to gather the seven greatest powers of the patron god of the Atlanteans - Poseidon. With 77 captivating levels of fantastic game play, truly unique twists never seen before and the ability of continuous replay.

Brainisaurus: Whether you want to ace that standardized exam or beat your friends at Scrabble or Boggle, WordBrain will help you become the king of words with a Word Quotient scoring system, 50 Challenge Levels, Over 40,000 words and many different kinds of word clues.

Lost In Reefs: Rumbic Studio announces the release of a new casual game. Lost in Reefs 1.0 presents a fascinating story that will hold a player’s attention till the ancient city reveals its hidden mystery. It is not a usual match3 game: a variety of modes, options and tools, advanced graphics and the charming undersea world guarantee fun and delight. There are several types of items - gold, fish and tools. The player is to collect necessary resources for building the city. Each new building allows collecting another valuable resource. It is possible to look at what is already built - and to enjoy the special feature of Lost in Reefs: the animation of the undersea world and fishes of different types, swimming to and fro. The fishes are afraid of the cursor, and it is fun to chase them! There are twelve types of fishes that become available as the player advances in the game.The objective of the game is to build and explore the ancient undersea city, but not all the secrets of the older civilization are revealed at once. Only the most skilled and persistent players will discover the wonders of The Heart of the City.

Harvest: Massive Encounter (Windows): Take control of a space colony trying to survive hordes of aliens coming your way to destroy your base in this RTS game developed by Oxyeye Studios that requires an accurate planning of every single move. There are various modes available: Normal, Wave, Insane, Rush or Creative Mode. Each one offering a different kind of gameplay. (Mac)

Patches are listed after the jump.

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Legendary for PC hits store shelves recently, and the game tells the story of Charles Deckard, an art thief who is duped into stealing Pandora’s Box. When he inadvertently opens it, he releases hordes of beasts thought to be fictional – such as werewolves and gryphons – into an unprepared modern world. A full scale war between man and myth begins, and it is quickly complicated by the actions of powerful secret societies. As the person responsible for releasing this terror, Deckard’s unwittingly become the only person capable of containing it once more and saving civilization from being destroyed by the terrifying creatures.

The game was released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 4. For more information on the game hit the link above or check out our previous posts.

Ubisoft has announced that Prince of Persia has gone gold for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and will be released on consoles December 2 and the PC December 9.

With interesting looking storyboard-style graphics, you play the (as usual) the Prince of Persia who finds himself caught in a battle between the primal forces of light and darkness: the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the destructive God of Darkness. The Prince arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life – an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. Manifested in the form of the Corruption, a dark substance (goo looking stuff) that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the Prince must partner with Elika to heal the world from the evil Corruption.

Want to spice up your game a bit with more Middle Eastern flair?  Once you have a copy of Prince of Persia in your warm, sticky hands, you can link your Ubisoft account to your PSN screen name or Xbox Live Gamertag  to gain access to an exclusive reward: The game skin of Altair from Assassin’s Creed. This really does not seem like much of a stretch considering the majority of us who played Assassin’s Creed thought that the Prince and Altair were a bit similar in some instances anyway.

To create a Ubisoft account, visit the Prince of Persia website here and once you begin playing the game, you will be able to immediately unlock this exclusive reward.

Screens for the Altair skins are posted after the jump.

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