Meridian4 and Frozenbyte has signed a deal to bring Shadowgrounds Survivor to the UK. This top down shooter has enjoyed an 80% rating in North America.

“We are thrilled to get this great game over to the UK market. Many of the UK press have already played and reviewed Shadowgrounds Survivor and had nothing but high praise for the game.” said Andy Sher, CEO at Meridian4, “We know that Shadowgrounds Survivor will be a huge success with the UK fans.”

UK gamers can expect to see Shadowgrounds Survivor in retail stores as soon as April or May. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, check out the demo from FileFront.

via Press Release

GameTap is giving gamers more free games than ever. The latest edition to the line up features Warlords Battlecry III. Chose the armies of the North or the Ssrathi in this real-time strategy title known for its gameplay, heroes, and storyline.

Free In GameTap Now

Warlords Battlecry III
Son Son
Football Frenzy
Psychonauts

New Subscriber Games in this update:

Port Royale 2
Batman Returns
Aces of the Pacific
Shadowgrounds Survivor

Psychonauts, which is pretty hard to come by these days, is also available. It’s one of my all time favorites. If you haven’t played it you should give it a go. Check out Zero Punctuation’s review of this imaginative title.

Beginning tomorrow, eight new games will be added to GameTap’s free play service, bringing the total number of free games on the cycling list to 104. Among tomorrow’s additions is Thief: Deadly Shadows, which received rave reviews when it was released in 2004. It’s definitely something you’ll want to check out if you didn’t get to last time it was on the free play list.

As for premium content, tomorrow GameTap will add I of the Dragon, Shadowgrounds Survivor and Surakarta to their catalog. GameTap TV will also be home to some exclusive interviews that took place last week at GDC.

Winter seems to just be settling in and with it comes the doldrums of a season with little sunshine, cold winds, and the obligatory ice and snow. While we are cooped up in our houses in a state of semi-hibernation it would be nice to have something new to try out while we wait for GTA IV and Condemned 2 to hit stores. Thankfully, this week we received more demos than last week and the usual barrage of patches came through. Whatever happened to the good ole days of games with zero issues? Or did they even every exist? I can’t remember anymore.

Along with The Sims 2: Bon Voyage and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, here are some other patches you may be in need of that hit FileFront this week:

• Loki: Cyanide Studios has released a patch updating Loki to v1.0.8.2.
• World in Conflict: This v1.006 patch fixes balancing issues, additions to the various communications tools in the game, adds new features, including enhanced server filters, improved “Play Now” functions and measures against clan smurfing.
• GRAW 2: Ubisoft has released a patch updating Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 from v1.0 to v1.05.

Besides Shadowgrounds Survivor, and Sam and Max: Night of the Raving Dead, FileFront also received the following demos:

• Need for Speed: ProStreet Porche: EA has released a second demo- this one 2 Porsche cars (911 GT2 / 911 GT3RS) drivable on the Porsche Leipzig testing track.
• Half-Life: Day One: This was the first official demo of Half-Life, including “The first day” playing time.
• The Club: SEGA has released a multilanguage demo for The Club, a 3rd person action shooter focused on addictive and rewarding gameplay. You must go through an age gate for this one.
• Tomb Raider Anniversary for Mac Users: A new playable Mac demo of Tomb Raider: Anniversary has been released, this time giving you the chance to try out one level from Peru

For the full list of demos and patches click on the respective links.

We’ve got the official Shadowgrounds Survivor demo available for you, and if you are interested in playing the next installment of Meridian4 and Frozenbyte’s popular series, here are some details for the demo:

• The 590 MB demo features 2 campaign mode levels and 1 survivor mode level to give players a taste of the gruesome action.
• In Shadowgrounds Survivor, gamers are dropped on Jupiter’s Ganymede moon as one of three surviving humans in the midst of an all-out alien onslaught. It’s up to them to take up arms and blast through legions of alien scum to save their own lives and humanity itself, increasing their skills and weapons through the game’s RPG-like character-upgrade system. The mighty Mech and devastating Sentry Gun will help players mow through hundreds of bloodthirsty extraterrestrials in the campaign or the all-new Survivor mode.

Still not enough information on the game to make you warrant a download? Then check out our previous posts for more on this cool third-person action game for the PC. Click the badge below for the demo.

It’s Thursday, and once again GameTap has added some new games to their growing catalog. This week, gamers can get their hands on Futoshiki, Shadowgrounds and Tube-It. With 76 games total to choose from and the rotating selection of completely free-to-play games including fan-favorites like Psychonauts and Hitman: Codename 47, there is truly something for everyone on GameTap.

Also, on GameTap TV this week, watch GameTap Tracks with January’s Artist of the Month – Freezepop, which features an exclusive performance of ““Pop Music Is Not A Crime”.

For more information on GameTap and the newest additions to the site, click here.

Meridian4, a rising Montreal-based video game publisher, has announced that its titles will soon be available on Turner’s GameTap. This comes just after the announcement that Atari, EA and others would be pulling 70 titles from the online broadband entertainment network for gamers.

New games such as Shadowgrounds Survivor and Gumboy as well as older titles will be available early 2008 as part of GameTap’s Indies featured in the service.

“We’ve been really impressed with GameTap’s commitment to continually providing its users with high-quality games, including new hits and classics,” said Steve Milburn, Director of Meridian4. “The agreement with GameTap helps us to broaden our reach and lets us get products from our excellent development partners out to an even greater number of gamers.”

The announcement solidifies Meridian4’s commitment to embracing the growing digital distribution business, which will provide it’s development partners with a much further reaching market online.

“Having expanded our service into Canada, partnering with Meridian4 to offer their titles on GameTap is a perfect fit,” said Ricardo Sanchez,  vice president of content and creative director for GameTap. “We are always looking to partner with publishers that offer a diverse selection of titles for both our subscribers and website visitors.”

via Press Release

Halloween is here, and what better way to celebrate than by paying homage to some of the most notorious ghouls and monsters to grace our PCs and consoles? Without such cannon fodder as spiders, vampires and zombies we would be condemned to just shooting our fellow man, which although fun, would get old after a while. In compiling this list, I came across some notables worthy of an honorable mention, but who have yet to become mainstream enough to cross over into different genres, and instead continue to be pigeon holed within their niche. While this list is in no way a complete list of video game baddies, it is instead a list of some of the most common miscreants to get within our pistol sites or in the vicinity of our broadsword.

These distractions on our way to victory in our gaming universe are also not listed in order of importance or occurrence rate – because face it – one is just as annoying and evil as the other. Unfortunately, these monsters never get the glory that their bosses do, because they are nothing more than expendable minions set upon our paths to deplete our life force so that the main antagonist may continue with more important matters – World Domination. In truth, they become nothing more than something for you to enjoy chopping to bits or a vessel for extra health, magic, or cash, the poor, misguided fools. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the stars of this post.

Read the full article

There are new screens up for the upcoming Shadowgrounds: Survivor, a follow up to the original game. You’ll play as one of three survivors who join up with the last remaining human resistance to fight an alien onslaught. The story will parallel that of the original Shadowgrounds and expand it to new locations. The game will feature an upgrade system for weapons and characters, as well as new features like the Sentry Turret and the Mech. Gameplay will be action-packed with hordes of aliens to be slaughtered and an upgraded graphics engine and physics system to make it all look especially nice.

Meridian4 and Frozenbyte have sent us a sneak peek at their new title in the Shadowgrounds series; Shadowgrounds Survivor. Shawn told you about the sequel to this popular PC game back in June, and today Meridian4 finally sent us a trailer showing all of the hard work they have put into the game. Like Shawn told you, Survivor tells the story of three survivors who join forces with the last remaining human resistance in the heated battle against the ongoing alien onslaught. With new gameplay modes, enhanced graphics, and modding tools, Shadowgrounds Survior is promising to live up to gamers’ expectations.

“The calm before the storm is finally over and we’re very excited to show the teaser trailer to gamers all over the world. The game is shaping up very well and I can’t wait to show more of it soon!” said Lauri Hyvarinen, Frozenbyte CEO.

“Once we announced that we had signed on to publish Shadowgrounds Survivor, we were overwhelmed by the response to get a look at the new game. We listened and now’s your chance to see the game first hand in this teaser trailer.” said Steve Milburn, Director at Meridian4, “The trailer should show you just what the game has in store for you; new playable characters, new enemies, new battles… and that’s just a glimpse!”

Shadowgrounds Survivor will be available at retail outlets and online later this year, so check back often for updates and more media assets. You can also visit the official website.