Bethesda Softworks, a ZeniMax Media company, and 2K today announced that The Elder Scrolls® IV: Shivering Isles™, the official expansion for the award-winning The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, is now shipping to retail stores throughout North America for Windows. Shivering Isles is also available today on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft via Xbox Live® online entertainment network.

Shivering Isles features more than 30 hours of new gameplay and allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles adds to the existing world of Oblivion so you can continue playing with your existing save game/character, or create an all new character just to explore the new content.

Within the Realm of Sheogorath, players can explore the two extreme sides of the god’s madness – the sublimely creative and the completely psychotic. Something is happening to the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God?

The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides – Mania and Dementia –filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You’ll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, and amphibious Grummites. Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and much more. Or, you can have the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss forge new armor and weapons just for you.

Released in March 2006 for Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows, Oblivion sold more than three million units in 2006. Among the countless awards and accolades it has garnered to date are Game of the Year and RPG of the Year honors from numerous outlets, including Spike TV’s 2006 Video Game Awards, G4’s G-phoria, the Golden Joystick Awards, GameSpot.com, ShackNews.com, Voodoo Extreme, FiringSquad.com, and many more. Oblivion received the #1 ranking on PC Gamer’s (UK) list of the top 100 games of all time and is the highest rated Xbox 360 game of all time according to Gamerankings.com and Metacritic.com.

The Windows version of Shivering Isles is available at retail and is co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K, while the Xbox 360 version is available through Xbox Live® online entertainment network by Bethesda Softworks. For more information on Oblivion, Shivering Isles, or The Elder Scrolls, visit the official web site.

From the people who brought you the Sudden Strike® series, today has some magical screens from the upcoming cutting edge blend of RPG and RTS, Stranger®. The screens show some heavy fighting against hordes of monsters. Screen-filling magical blasts grill monsters on the player’s way to save his immortal soul. A great assortment of spells, both defensive and aggressive are at the player’s disposal and can be easily changed by shifting the amount of collected magic crystals allowing for a very quick way to find the best way to overcome the monster hordes.

About Stranger:
Stranger combines epic role-playing with some of the best elements of real-time strategy. The unique spell and item enchantment system allows a never seen before flexibility as players simply have to swap the amounts of used crystals to adapt to their enemies’ strategies. The unique level design allows you to fight on several levels at the same time. Seamlessly interwoven maps enable distinctive tactical options.

Features:

• RPG blended with some of the best RTS elements
• 3 main heroes and many units to choose from
• Over 100 different monsters
• Unique and flexible magic system
• Great variety of items and gear
• More than 30 hours of single player campaign
• Multiplayer with up to 8 players
• Level design enables distinctive tactical options

Stranger should be leveling up to store shelves around May 2007

Kelly Knox the North American community manager of Linage II wrote up a great press release telling all about the weapons systems in their new gaming coming out April 2007.

Improved Weaponry
Newly fashioned weapons, a “try before you buy” system for existing weapons, and a new method to enhance a weapon are all coming this April in the next major Lineage II game update, Interlude.

New Weapons
Twelve new weapons for player’s level 62 and above will be added in Interlude. These distinctive swords, staves, bow, and more are considered the best for their level. These weapons can also be endowed with a special ability that grants a beneficial effect like haste, more HP or MP, and more.

A new demonic weapon, Akamanah, is also coming in Interlude. Demonic weapons allow players to engage in Player vs. Player combat without fear of penalties, and the Akamanah is just as bloodthirsty as its inspiration, Zariche. The god of chaos, Gran Kain, imitated the Demonic Sword Zariche by shaping a blade with his blood. He named it “Aka.” The fallen goddess Shilen created another blade with her own blood and deemed it “Manah.” The two blades combined in the form of a dual sword, each held in one hand, and came to be known as the Blood Sword Akamanah.

A player wielding Akamanah is only given its amazing power for a short time. The bearer of Akamanah gains the skills Void Flow and Void Burst, and can strike other players without remorse.

Shadow Weapons
Existing weapons also get special attention in Interlude. Players now have a chance to try out a weapon before spending the time and money on the real thing with the addition of Shadow Weapons. A Shadow Weapon is just as powerful as its namesake and is more affordable to obtain, but has a limited lifespan.

Mid-level players ranging from levels 20 to 60 can take advantage of these temporary weapons. When players complete their class transfer quests at level 20 and level 40, they will receive a coupon for a free Shadow Weapon. Higher level Shadow Weapons can also be purchased from the weapon vendors in the village.

Weapon Augmentation
Players level 40 and above can also add all-new effects and benefits to their weapons in Interlude. The weapon augmentation system grants an ability or status to the weapon, with thousands of possibilities. Bonuses include active and passive skills or a boost to the player’s stats. The granted bonus is random, so players will enjoy putting their luck to the test to get the best abilities!

All that a player needs to add an augmentation is a Life Stone and gem stones. Life Stones are acquired from hunting monsters, and raid monsters have a better chance of dropping a high level Life Stone.

From new weapons to bonuses for existing weapons, there’s something for everyone looking to improve their weapon of choice in Interlude!

Four new screenshots featuring what looks like no caravan we’ve ever stayed in.

Europa Universalis III takes the player on an intense ride where exploration, colonization, trade and diplomacy take center stage. While the game is vast and deep enough for players to immerse themselves in any number of personal quests, the building of one dominant empire seems to be the overall most popular ambition.

Paradox Interactive has collected a few of the most telling screenshots of attempts to conquer the world and show just how players can forever alter world history.

Empire 1

“As Brandensburg/Germany I control most of Europe and I am in position to diplo-annex Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. The Ottoman Empire inherited the Malmuks and controls all of Mesopotamia together with Persia. Britain has colonies all over the place in South America, Africa and South West Asia.”

Empire 2

“Here is my Holy Empire, Normal Difficulty, starting year 1597.
Goal: Bring the only True Faith into Mecca and Judea.

About the game

Europa Universalis III, which delves deeply into the areas of exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy, is an epic strategy game where players take control of a nation and guide it through the ages to become a great global empire. Unparalleled in its depth and historical accuracy, Europa Universalis gives players freedom to rule their nation from an impressive choice of over 250 historically accurate countries. The Europa Universalis series put Paradox Interactive on the map as a leading strategy games publisher and developer and fans worldwide are eagerly anticipating Europa Universalis III.

Read more at the games website

The time has come to believe in magic, to believe in fairies. The new game is going to show you all splendor of magic lands and their inhabitants.

Jochen Kaercher Gamedesign today announces the release of Feyruna, a gaming masterpiece that will leave no gamers indifferent. Feyruna carries casual gamers away to a wonderland, a miraculous kingdom which is in danger of becoming conquered by dark forces. Your character is a beautiful fairy and all hopes of Feyruna kingdom are laid upon you. The fairy has to fly all over the screen and collect magic glowies - local inhabitants. Your main objective in the game is to save all residents of the area; otherwise they will be eaten by flying bats, bumblebees and other evil creatures.

Fortunately, all your enemies cannot be wise at all times and if your fairy does make some efforts, you will win. Mighty spells of fairy magic are provided by the game to help you: lightning balls will crush all flying enemies while earthquake spells wipe out ground-based enemies. Various friendly creatures like butterflies, ghost lights and enchanted glow-worms will help you to drive away the dark forces. However, the plot of the game poses a problem: from one episode to another your enemies become faster, wiser and stronger and you cannot but accept this challenge. With progress in the main game, you’ll unlock three minigames. Two of them challenge the mind, while the third one is a nice variation of the main game, where the fairy collects glowies on her own and the player protects her with a magic wand. Thus, Feyruna enables you to evolve and to improve your reaction and sharpen your mind.

An evident and noteworthy advantage of the game is that it’s a wonderful relaxation for mind. Feyruna plunges you into the atmosphere of serene climate and beautiful surroundings. Superb graphics, vivacious colors and melodious music will produce a soothing effect on you. The game contains no cruel scenes or characters, therefore even children aged 6-12 can play it.

Once you have played this game, a phrase from a famous book will come to your mind: “…the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies…” (Peter Pan). What it feels like for a fairy? Play Feyruna to find it out!

Main Benefits at a Glance:
- Easy accessible;
- Intuitive controls;
- Non-violent gameplay to attract players of all ages;
- Cute characters/creatures;
- Beautiful landscapes, atmospheric music.

Click here for product information. 

Pricing and Availability
Feyruna runs under Win 9x/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista and costs $19.95 (USD). The trial version of Feyruna is available at.

Loki is a pure Hack ‘n Slash action- RPG in development by Cyanide studio. The game takes players on an incredible journey through four great mythologies. Loki allows the player to take-on the role of one of four heroes - a mighty Norse warrior, a fierce Greek fighter, a powerful Egyptian sorcerer or a skilled Aztec shaman. Each hero comes from a different mythological background, and during the epic adventure of the game’s campaign, the player will be faced with a multitude of varied enemies. Hundreds of creatures and opponents of every kind have been created for the game, so that the player is going to have to fight their way past mythological creatures including skeletons, giant spiders, centaurs, mummies, harpies, wild animals, and a vast array of soldiers, all culminating in showdowns with formidable bosses such as Medusa, Fenrir the wolf or Fafnir the dragon. Each boss has a particular way of fighting so the player must discover his weak points. Players will be able to collect or exchange thousands of items, including 500 unique objects, such as Thor’s hammer or Achilles’ armor.

Features:

• An epic adventure through four great mythologies – Aztec, Egyptian, Greek and Norse – allowing the player to live through many of the key episodes that mark these cultures (the siege of Troy, Ragnarok, etc.) and setting him in the path of the most prominent figures within each episodes (Achilles, Thor, Akhenaton,…).
• Choose from four different heroes with their own attributes and powers. Each hero has a vast array of spells and skills to help him in his quest.
• More than 100 beautifully detailed monsters of all shapes and sizes.
• Dare to take on mythological creatures that struck fear into the hearts of our ancestors, including Fenrir the giant wolf, the Minotaur in his labyrinth.
• Weapons, being made of two parts (loosely “handle” + “cutting edge”) and from different materials, can be customised at the village forge to change characteristics.
• Magic runes can also multiply a weapon’s wonder.
• Weapons Play the adventure with your friends as part of a group or take-on others in PvP mode inside a dedicated on-line arena or dice with death by taking-up one of the on-line challenges.

Links:
Watch the video (streaming)
Download the video (19.4 Mb)
Loki’s Official Website