Once in a while, we here at Gaming Today get interesting news that is not necessarily gaming related, but at the same time might appeal to our readers. That is why today when we got the announcement that Tor Books would soon be publishing a new epic fantasy series from the creators of the Dragonlance Chronicles, we just had to tell you about.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman who wrote the role-playing game-based novels Darksword and The Death Gate Cycle have teamed up again to write Bones of the Dragon. The first in a six book series called the Dragonships of Vindras, the book will introduce you to a world full of new heroes, adventure and danger where mortals will face tests of their fate, and nature. Gods and dragons alike will aid, abet, and battle as they see fit to ensure their own survival.

The plot of the first book involves Viking-like warriors who sail the seas in ships powered by dragons in search of untold treasure. When strife and chaos threatens their world, however, they are duty-bound to follow their gods on a quest that will not only determine the fate of mortals—but the fate of the gods as well. The Vindrasi had once been a mighty people and traversed the seas in their winged dragonships, returning home filled with glory and ships laden with the precious gem which they are required give to their dragons in return for their service. But now those days are long gone. Vindrasi warriors no longer fight valiant battles against worthy foes and their enemies instead are poor harvests, fierce winters, angry seas, and unfavorable winds.

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For gamers who enjoyed the wacky fun of controlling nonsensically devout minion’s in the original Overlord were probably rejoicing when Codemasters announced back in August that the sequel, along with two other titles, would be released next year. Today though, you have even more reason to be pleased, because Rhianna Pratchett is returning to write the script for Overlord 2 along with two more titles Overlord: Dark Legend and Overlord: Minions.

Pratchett is currently up for an award from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain which will hold an awards ceremony on November 23 at BAFTA in London, England. She has been nominated twice in the category of Best Videogame Script for her work on the original Overlord and for her work with co-authors Tameem Antoniades and Andy Serkis for Heavenly Sword.

Besides working on Heavenly Sword, and the Overlord games, Pratchett also worked on SEGA’s Viking: Battle for Asgard, two unannounced projects and the upcoming Mirror’s Edge from DICE and Firefly’s Dungeon Hero. When asked about how she feels about her nomination and being asked to work on the next installment in the Overlord franchise, Pratchett has this to say:

“For a relatively new entertainment medium, it’s a sign of great progress that the industry is being recognized by the Writers’ Guild in this way. Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honor to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay. It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles.”

With her competition being slim and the fact that she has been nominated in the same category twice, it would not be surprising if Pratchett walked home with such a coveted award next month. She is really starting to make a name for herself in the videogame industry, and we wish her all the best.

Overlord 2 will be made available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometimes next year, and so will Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii, and Overlord: Minions for the DS.

Microsoft has released a new trailer for Too Human on the ‘Hall of Heroes’. This video dev log gives gamers an inside look at the Hall of Heroes which is the final resting place for the greatest of the Viking heroes. It’s a direct homage to Viking funeral rites.

Surprisingly enough, it’s not locked behind an age gate so you can watch it here.

via FileFront

The Spore Creature Creator has been out for a week now, and with over one million monsters created and counting, it looks like there are going to be millions of crazy creatures running around once the game gets its official release.

During the week we have seen everything from phallic monsters, ones with large charms on their chests, and monsters that are nothing short of pornographic - but creations like that do not take much imagination. Work, yes, but not imagination.

With the Sporepeida growing by leaps and bounds everyday, really creative monsters are getting lost a bit in the shuffle so we here at Gaming Today decided to list what we feel are the top ten Spore monsters created thus far. Since there are indeed millions of these things, it is hard to list all of the cool ones, but we tried. Feel free to point us in the direction of some really cool ones that we can feature in a future post.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. The Viking Ship

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New Facebreaker trailer; this time showing off the character of Kiriko. I guess it’s just inevitable that if you’re going to put a female character in a fighting game, she has a to be colorful rocker chick. Pink hair and tons of makeup are essential to this, apparently. Unless I missed something, I’m betting the next female character to be revealed for this game will be a sexy, pseudo-stripper. That or a Viking — it’s just always one of those three personas.

Twenty Sided has an article up on how have flawed main characters can be fun. The example used here is the lead character from BioWare’s Jade Empire. For those of you who have always wanted to play it but haven’t got around to it; you might want to skip this article. However for those gamers who understand the inside joke, this is a fun piece of truism.

Personal, I like a little roughness in both my NPCs and player characters. It makes them more realistic and easier to relate to. It also helps to build tension in a story. If everything single obstacle is too easily surmounted, I tend to lose interest quickly.  This especially applies to RPGs and games with RPG elements.

The unstoppable Kratos retains a human touch as he mourns the loss of his family. Similarly, the new Viking: Battle for Asgard features a less than perfect main character as well. Not all player characters are as clueless as the lead character in Jade Empire, but it’s nice to have three dimensional characters that have some room for growth.

via Twenty Sided

This week, after a slight delay of game thanks to rain and technology, the File-N-Forget podcast ignores the GTA IV release hype and instead focuses on two games that might interest folks who are not mindless GTA obsessed zombies. Iron Man the Game and Viking: Battle for Asgard. Sure Stephany dinged Viking pretty badly in her impression, but Ron quite likes it and talks about why.

The Rant and Rant section of the episode features Ron talking about how World of Warcraft can fail while Shawn bitches about bitchy women.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

Viking: Battle for Asgard
Developer: Creative Assembly
Publisher: SEGA
Price: $59.99
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Category: Action/Adventure
ESRB: “M” for Mature
Release Date: March 25, 2008

I have always been enthralled with Nordic legends, and anything Viking related. Far be it to call myself a Nordiphile, I am hardly that – I just like mythology of all sorts. I have also thought that Vikings were too often ignored in video games, and I have never understood why they have been largely shunned by the industry, This is why I was so excited about Beowulf until it was announced that it would be a movie tie-in – and in my opinion, both sucked equally.

When Viking: Battle for Asgard was announced a few moths after Beowulf, my love of Nordic mythology took a back seat to the wariness in my brain. I decided it would be rented instead of purchased and while the waiting list for the game was long at my local Blockbuster – I am glad I waited. Whether Viking: Battle for Asgard was worth the wait or not is open to interpretation. On the one hand, I liked the visuals and some of the executions you could pull off, but the game had so many things wrong with it. It was repetitive, contained shallow swordplay, choppy framerates galore and so many other things wrong with it that by the time I was a quarter of the way finished with the game, I wanted my rental fee back. Of course, Blockbuster does not give refunds for unsatisfactory rental purchases.

In Viking: Battle for Asgard, you are Skarin - a warrior on the edge of death who is brought back from the brink by the Goddess Freya. In exchange for this life saving turn of events, you must do her bidding – and no, there are no sexual undertones to this despite the fact that she is a hottie. Her desire for you is only for you to prevent Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld from taking over Midgard. The plotline gives you the impression that the game would be full of hack and slash potential, and that is indeed true. The game was oozing with potential, and when playing I kept waiting for the goods to come to fruition but, alas, they never surfaced – probably because none were present to being with.

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It has been a slightly busy week as far as game releases go, and while the majority of the more mainstream ones are reported, some have slipped through the announcement cracks. While Dark Sector, Viking: Battle for Asgard, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Universe at War and Crisis Core: FF VII have been the media darlings of the week, included with these titles are some that you may have missed.

So without further ado, here is a list of all the games that hit between March 23-29, 2008:

DS
Backyard Baseball ‘09
Harvest Moon DS Cute
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

PC
Australian Zoo Quest
Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath Expansion Pack
Command & Conquer 3 Limited Collection
Escape From Paradise City
Guild Wars Platinum Edition
Guild Wars Factions Platinum Edition

PSP
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Warriors Orochi

PS2
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3

PS3
Dark Sector
Viking: Battle for Asgard

Xbox 360
Dark Sector
Universe at War: Earth Assault
Viking: Battle for Asgard

Wii
Obscure: The Aftermath
Octomania
Opoona

Since the game has now officially launched, there’s of course a new trailer out for Viking: Battle for Asgard. It pretty much shows epic battles with fearsome monsters and soldier, all of which get chopped in half at some point (hence the age gate). But that’s basically what the game is about, and that’s alright with me. I may have to actually pick this game up at some point, if only because this at least looks like the game Dynasty Warriors should have become about two or three games ago.