PC Gaming Roundup - February 27, 2009

Here are a few tidbits to get the gaming news started, including new Blood Bowl screens and EA titles now on GamersGate. The update may go a little slow tonight, as the bossman is teaching me how to create galleries.

EA Titles Now on GamersGate
Electronic Arts now offers a few PC games on the GamersGate download service, including Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Spore, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. All five titles are now available for purchase and download, however EA is offering a special introductory offer, knocking the price of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest down to $32 USD this weekend only. Head here for more details.

New Blood Bowl Screens
Cyanide and Focus Home Interactive released new screenshots from the upcoming game, Blood Bowl, revealing the Wood Elves and Chaos races. Based on the board game from Games Workshop, Blood Bowl is an ultra-violent team sport set in the Warhammer world.  "It lets players compose a team of Orcs, Elves, Humans, Dwarves and many others fantasy creatures before jumping into the bloodiest arenas.  The sport game is both strategic and violent.  It requires tactics, a certain amount of game-sense and a lot of self-confidence." Blood Bowl is currently in development and will come out on PC, Xbox 360 and on Nintendo DS and PSP handheld systems.

Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition Now Available
Today Matrix Games released Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition, the sequel to the 2005 wargame of the Year, Crown of Glory. In celebration of its release, the company uploaded three of the game's tutorial videos including The Basics, Land Combat, and Naval Combat. " Crown of Glory: Emperor’s Edition is a major step up from the original in nearly every area, with new detailed Naval Combat, a streamlined economic system, a much stronger AI, beautiful new strategic map, new scenarios and significant interface improvements, just to name a few," says the company. The game brings new features to the CoG franchise including six new minor powers, seventy new movement areas, and scenarios for 180 and 1812, and more.

Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins Beta... Begins
Uforia said that the beta for Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins launches today, offering gamers a taste of the upcoming free-to-play MMO based on the "most well-known Asian novels of all time." In the beta, all players will be able to experience the cash shop mall. Players will also be able to increase the amount of experience and gold, purchase powerful armor, and have access to special mounts. The MMO chronicles the tragic last reign of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), when the Chinese empire was divided into three kingdoms at battle.

Two New CITIES XL Screens
Monte Cristo released two screenshots from CITIES XL, showing off an overview of Hong Kong and the Eiffel Tower. CITIES XL is a city building simulator that allows gamers to develop cities on realistic 3D maps using an incredible collection of unique structures and monuments based on American, Asian and European-influenced architectural styles.

1C Threesome Now Available
According to a recent announcement from 1C Company, three games are available today: the strategy game Men of War (242MB demo), the first-person action title Cryostasis, and the zombie-and-vampire-ridden FPS NecoVisioN (1.02GB demo). 1C Company said that all three PC games cover the major aspects of the industry, enabling gamers to battle vampires and the undead, control entire armies, and "even have flashbacks into the mind of a cow." Seriously.

Florensia Nets Over 1 Million Players
Bura:ic's free-to-play MMORPG Florensia seems to be fairing well since its launch at the end of 2008, netting over a million "potential" players and currently experiencing a strong double-digit monthly growth. The company said that it has increased the game's server capacity to enable more players to enter Maritime's vibrant, rich world. “Free-to-play games are often viewed as being fundamentally different from subscription MMO’s, but the growth we are seeing in Florensia is a sign that those misconceptions are changing,” said Achim Kaspers, managing director of Burda:ic. “With all the events and updates we have planned for the coming months, including harbor-based guild warfare, we’re confident that the only difference between Florensia and a subscription MMO is the lack of a monthly fee.” The game is definitely worth checking out, especially for MMORPG fans tired of paying monthly fees.

Majesty 2 Website Launched
Paradox Interactive launched a new website for the upcoming PC game Majesty 2, a fantasy kingdom sim set to hit store shelves and GamersGate this year. The website offers new goodies to download, including screenshots, concept art, wallpapers, and new trailer and more. "Majesty 2 acolytes and disciples can keep abreast of developments by reading the ongoing developer diaries penned with quill and ink by lead developer Alex Kozyrev, as well as by visiting the press release section and subscribing to the RSS feed."

Lost Planet 2 Screens / Get Lost Planet (1) Cheap!
This week Capcom cleverly revealed that Lost Planet 2 is currently in development, and will take a different direction than the previous installment. And although Lost Planet 2 is currently slated for the Xbox 360, it's safe to say that a PC version could appear as well. Click on the image to get the full gallery! UPDATE: Gamers can now buy the original LOST PLANET over on Stream for 75 percent off the original price, now costing a mere $4.99! Get it while it's hot (or frigid, in this case)!

CABAL Online Turns One
OGPlanet's MMORPG CABAL Online turns a whopping one year old today, and instead of offering players party hats and goodie bags, the company has kicked off a series of anniversary events, including bonus experience for those who log on between 2pm and 4pm PST from now until March 6. New players will receive a free Blessing Bead Plus, and the store will offer many popular items for a discounted price. "The CABAL Online player community is a great one, and we're pleased to mark this big anniversary by giving our players something special," said Chris Woolley, CABAL Online's associate producer. "We look forward to many more years of epic battles, great camaraderie and lots of fun in CABAL."

Ceville Now Available
Kalypso Media's point and click adventure PC game Ceville is now available in Europe for a recommended retail price of £29.99. Players assume the role of a tiny tyrant named Ceville, followed by two additional characters later in the game. "With the logical combination or use of objects players won't be able to stop grinning or laughing out loud as they puzzle their way through an epic story of the eternal war between 'Evil' and... 'really, really terribly Evil'!"

City of Heroes Mission Architect Soon
The March update to NCSoft's uber cool superhero MMORPG -entitled Issue 14- will enable subscribers to design their own missions and story arcs to share with other subscribers. According to the company, creators can choose from hundreds of maps and thousands of characters, however the Mission Architect can get even broader, allowing creators to generate custom enemies and enemy groups, with each member having unique costumes and powers. "Players can also write all of the dialog for their story as well as decide on level of difficulty and enemy placement," the company said. "It’s even possible to trigger one mission goal off of another, creating a chain of events within a single mission. Each story can have up to five chapters or missions and each mission can hold up to a maximum of 25 achievable goals." Those who just want to play user-created missions can load up the content in an integrated mission browser. Click the Architect logo for the gallery!

New Codename Panzers: Cold War Screens
Just because I'm feeling spunky and I am finally getting the hang of uploaded mass loads of screenshots into the Bestofmedia tank, here are ten new screenshots from the real-time strategy game Codename Panzers: Cold War. To get an early taste, fans can head to the official website and download the playable demo. Featuring an entire mission (mission 11 from the retail version actually), " players will command special forces infantry as they attempt to take control of an occupied island by any means necessary."