SEGA and Creative Assembly has delivered to us the first trailer from their latest game in development, Viking: Battle for Asgard. As Skarin, the powerful yet flawed warrior, the gamer will take part in battles, fight magical beasts and barbaric warriors, and try to stop Ragnarok – the apocalyptic battle that could destroy everything. In the new trailer, you get to see Skarin battle his enemies in a blood filled rage. So far, between the small amounts of gameplay and cut scenes, the game is looking rather cool. The army of monsters headed Skarin’s way in the beginning of the trailer reminded me a bit of Skeletor on steroids, and the huge beast at the end of the trailer – well, lets just say that if I was Skarin, I would have wet myself.

With Beowulf and now Viking: Battle for Asgard, it looks like Nordic barbarians and warriors are getting the much needed love they deserve from the gaming companies – of course, this is just a mythology fan talking here. Anyway, if you want to watch the trailer, you have to go through an age gate first because the game as yet to receive a rating from the gaming world’s overlords the ESRB.

Look for Viking: Battle for Asgard to be in stores for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Spring 2008. In the meantime, check back with us often for updates and more cool assets from the game.

Storyline and Features After the Break

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Normally here at Gaming Today, when trailers become available for games we post them and then give you a small synopsis along with our thoughts on it. Sometimes, due to certain issues with ERSB we have to force you through an age gate kicking and screaming. The new Beowulf ‘Authenticity’ Trailer is a prime example, so instead I have provided the link to the trailer instead. But you know what? Nothing prevents me from giving you information on this video along with my take on its contents. The ridiculous thing about this trailer is that there is zero content included that would, should, or could make the trailer only viewable to an 18+ demographic. However, I assume this is the case just because the game is actually “M” rated. It is so silly. Trailers should be rated for their contents, not the content of the game and no matter what the contents of this trailer are, I would rather my 13 year old brother watch this than the offensive Beowulf movie starring Christopher Lambert.I am wasting my breath here… let me get to the subject of Beowulf the trailer.

The title ‘Authenticity’ describes what the developers were going for in a nutshell. The narrator of the trailer informs the viewer that little is known about the pre-Viking era of 6th Century Scandinavia when Beowulf takes place, but that unlike common depictions of Dark Age Norseman, we now know that their civilization and technology was more advanced than we previously thought. For example, in the trailer quite a bit is mentioned about the ships you will encounter and ride along in. These “long-ships” were the technological wonders of the pre-Viking era and while riding in these ships, an example is given of the advanced weather effects in the game, which in turn will affect certain aspects of the gameplay.

Much is also made of the level of detail that went into each aspect of the game especially in weapon design and players should be pleased to see the authenticity of the Viking weapons and armor when put into action. Considering that blacksmiths and iron workers basically attached leather straps to shields and sword making was hit or miss – players will find that their sword and shield may break during combat and improvisation is the only way to save their hide; thus going into hand to hand combat or commandeering an enemy’s weapon may be your only choice.

Squad-based combat strategies made Norse warriors very fierce and this is applied to the game as well – Beowulf can order men to watch his back, attack enemies and perform numerous heroic actions that can change the course of battle.

You can get the trailer but clicking here, and you will notice that it is very tame compared to other game trailers or movie trailers for that matter. Although the trailer felt more like a history lesson than anything, it still makes me even more anxious to get my hands on it.

SEGA® Europe Ltd and SEGA® of America, Inc. have announced a new action game Viking: Battle for Asgard. The Creative Assembly game is inspired by Norse Mythology and the Viking warriors who lived by the sword, hoping to die a glorious death in battle and gain entrance to Valhalla.

Banished from Asgard by Odin, the Goddess Hel raises an army of undead warriors to enslave Midgard and the race of mortal men, then moves to release Fenrir and provoke Ragnarok the apocalyptic battle foreseen to be the destruction of Asgard and the Gods. You will play Skarin, a promising yet scarred hero, ignorant of his place in the Gods’ machinations as he battles against Hel to save all mankind.

“Skarin is a cutting edge hero in a fantastic re-imagining of Norse Mythology. Skarin is obviously a very dangerous man.” said Gary Knight, European Marketing Director SEGA Europe. “Add in his inner conflict, a confused heritage and a growing distrust of the Gods and you have the makings of gaming’s next great hero.”

Viking: Battle for Asgard promises plenty of gratuitous violence including dismemberment as you explore a vast and detailed world while cutting down your enemies with a wide variety of devastating and brutal combat moves. Fight legendary mythological creatures, free your people and lead them in battle against Hel’s forces.

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New screens for Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War are up on FileFront and they don’t look too bad actually. Being a fan of the strategy genre I am happy to see more games leaning towards a more medieval flair and away from fantasy and feudal Japan. This particular one takes place in the 14th century, and if you paid attention in history class, you will know that this is when the long winded battle between England and France ensued. In Bladestorm, Joan of Arc and Edward the Black Prince will be part of the cast as you and your mercenaries/soldiers react individually to your immediate surroundings – thanks to a new game engine. Players will assume the role of a mercenary leader and strategically command, in real-time, a wide range of troops including infantry, archers, cavalry, and cannoniers. Sounds like fun to me. Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War will be available for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 the later part of this year.

MORE SCREENSHOTS

For a list of characters and game features from the Press Release, see the full article after the jump.

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Yet another new unit has been revealed for the sequel to the widely popular RTS, Starcraft. The Dark Templar is a Protoss unit that can cloak at will — rendering it translucent like the Predator — and use some additional powers that have yet to be revealed. They’re pretty powerful though, as a video on the Starcraft website shows two of them taking out an entire squad of Terran marines and a Viking on their own. I’m just waiting for an update though that has the words “release date” and “confirmed” somewhere in it.

Via Starcraft2.com

I would have to agree with their number one, and their adoration for the weapons of Perfect Dark.

DoubleViking.com has published their version of the top 10 weapons in video games. Although many people would probably have a different top 10, I’d say they do a fairly good job of getting some of the more innovative weapons on the list.

For instance, the Far Sight from Perfect Dark was an awesome weapon, and I have fond memories of being the one my friends wanted to hit because all I would do was stand in one place with the gun and kill everyone. What shouldn’t have been on the list are two things: the queen and the shotgun. How can it be a top 10 weapon if it isn’t even associated with any game?

Lazy gamers. Put a little bit of effort into your work.

But kudos on recognizing the awesomeness of the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. There’s nothing quite like the chaos of multiplayer where all you would need to do was walk softly and carry a big radiator.

There’s a pretty entertaining article over at DoubleViking.com, extolling the wonder and magic that can only come from kicking a guy’s face in an old school beat ‘em up. Though they always followed relatively the same formula (beat up hordes of gang members to rescue someone, usually your girlfriend or the president), beat ‘em up game were always fun to play. There was just something satisfying about pounding wave after wave of ridiculously-dressed henchmen. And even though they don’t mention it in the article, Bad Dudes for the NES gets my vote for one of the best beat ‘em ups of all time, if nothing more than for this screen:

The answer to his question is, “yes.” Yes, you are.

Double Viking has a list up of their choices for Top 10 Most Bad-Ass Video Game Characters. All the best ones are here: Solid Snake, Sephiroth, Duke Nukem…and, um, Garcian Smith. You know…that guy from the sleeper hit Killer 7? Didn’t play it? Yeah, me neither…well, this is awkward. Hope I don’t meet him at a party or something.

Urban Mysteries is still being shopped around for a publisher. No word yet on who is or isn’t interested, but one thing is for sure- it may or may not be released in late 2008. Why so far off? Other than publisher woes, the game might be made into a series of episodes – or not. They are pretty mum on the subject as they don’t want to hype anything up (yeah right). The developer of Urban branched off from IO Interactive (Hitman), becoming Zeitguyz. They hired Morten Iverson as head script writer, thus creating a deep storyline with great atmosphere which will make use of Unreal Engine 3 and Ageia’s SDK. So be looking to pre-order this game for your PS3, 360, or PC later this year or early 2008. Once again, that magic number is 2008. Read the full article