Baldur's Gate 3? Could it be?

Fans of the Baldur's Gate series will be happy to know that a teaser site has been released possibly confirming that a new Baldur's Gate title is currently in development. Although there is no confirmation that there is a new Baldur's Gate game the site certainly offers enthusiasts with something to think about.

Although due to rumours on Game Banshee suggest that former BioWare developer Trent Oster and the fellows at Beamdog are behind the site. A reporter at the site got to interview Mr Oster who stated: "We're not related to the Steam complete edition, I can tell you that much. Other than that, we're hoping to announce something soon." Thus the website remains mysterious, we can only hope that the aforementioned announcement is given soon.

Sim City 5 to be announced at GDC says German games Magazine.

According to German gaming magazine Gamestar we might be seeing a new Sim City game being announced at the annual GDC in March next month. The article was uploaded over on the NeoGaf forums with scanned screenshots so you may be able to read and feast your eyes on the new game tech.

Well we'll have to wait till GDC next week to see if the story is true but if it is it could prove to be very exciting news indeed. The Game Developers Confrence takes part next week in San Francisco from Monday through to Friday.

Vita hits 1.2 million worldwide sales

Sony have just annouced that the Playstation Vita has hit 1.2 million sales worldwide.

All this seems quite impressive considering Sony's infuriating choices just before release to hold back the use of flash and only the Minis with the PSone titles, which will be included in a later update, will only be planned for the format excluding all other PSN titles, despite a resent hack and Sony themselves showing PS3 titles running on the system like a dream. All this leaving  many pre-ordered Vitas still on the shelves in some stores as I discovered.

Of that, as of 19th February, 578,812 Vita consoles were sold in Japan leaving more than 620,000 seemingly sold in the two weeks of the US and EU launches.

Play IGF nominated indie games for free with OnLive

OnLive, sponsors of the annual Independent Games Festival, have released the nominated titles and honourable mentions for both US and UK users to try 30 minute demos from today until 11th March.

Titles include SpaceChem by Zachtronics Industries, Dear Esther by The Chinese Room and Dustforce by Hitbox Team but after playing the titles, everyone can "Like" their favourite via OnLive's official Facebook page with the winner to be announced at IGF.

Starting the day IGF 2012 opens its doors (5th March) OnLive will also be honouring previous IGF winners with a 75 per cent discount.

Saints Row: The Third next DLC sucks: Blood that is

The video below is the official Saints Row: The Third Bloodsucker Pack DLC trailer. THQ announced the pack provides you with a brand new ability to latch onto your captives and regain health from sucking their blood. The DLC also other bonuses to keep you in the game, including VIP bonuses for Cash Boosts, Hourly Income, Respect, and the Scavenger ability.

Priced at $1.99 the DLC comes out next week on Xbox 360, PS3, Steam, and OnLive.

REVIEW: Dragon Age - Dark Fantasy Roleplaying

I wanted to do something myself and Raksha used to do frequently when we first started writing/presenting, and very rarely get to do these days due to real life issues. This is of course a review, in this case Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying, which I must admit to being a quite a fan of.

Now for anyone who doesn’t know, Dragon Age started off on the EA website as a game called Dragon Age: Journeys which spawned Dragon Age: origins (and it's various DLC) then Dragon Age 2. There have also been mentions of an anime coming out soon (we hope). The game is set in a fantasy universe and is considered Dark fantasy, since no matter what choice you pick someone dies.

Killzone 3 Multiplayer goes standalone with unlimited free trial.

Sony have announced on their latest official blogcast  that Killzone 3's multiplayer mode is set to go standalone as a download on PSN with all maps from the disk version ready to play.

It is billed as a free to play title, however it is level capped and players then have the option to unlock the full skill tree for $14.99, this option makes the game more an unlimited trial then a full free to play title.

The single player campaign of course will not be included and there are currently no plans to release it as a standalone title.

Indie Royale: Alpha Collection

Hot on the heels of the recent Humble Bundle Mojam, and coming from the makers and creators of Desura and IndieGames.com, is the latest Indie Royale release: a trio of games, currently in development, and very much playable.

Head of the group is the popular Towns, being developed by SMP from Spain. Here you have complete control over the creation, and running of a town. However, this is nothing like the Sim City of yesteryear, and much more like Dwarf Fortress, with a smattering of Dungeon Keeper and Majesty. The ability to design the town however you like, and then defending it with the heroes that you've raised against the monsters that come to destroy what you've built.

Guild Wars 2 Beta Sign Up

This year's big MMO release Guild Wars 2 is having a beta sign up. All you need to do to be eligible for a key is submit your hardware and your personal information to the Guild Wars 2 beta pool. To submit your name to the beta all you need to do is head on over to the Guild Wars beta page.You can do this here.

Good luck again and remember the beta applications are only available until the end of tomorrow!

Borderlands 2 Trailer and Release Date

Gearbox Software the team in charge of Borderlands 2 have announced the release dates for Borderlands 2 coming in the final part of this year. They also released a swanky new trailer which you can see above. In it you can see all the new characters that will appear in Borderlands 2 in all their glory.

The game's new characters are fairly similar to the old ones with Maya appearing as the new "Siren" class who can phasewalk much like her predecessor Lilith from the series' first instalment.  The soldier class also makes a return through the new character Axton who can set up gun turrets. The much loved hunter class will not be appearing this time around. However, there is an assassin character called Zero who is able turn invisible for a short time and murder enemies with his sword. The melee character also doesn't feature this time around although the new character Salvadore does share a similar physique his speciality is in heavy weaponry.

What the trailer shows is very exciting indeed and you'd do well to take notice of this one. Borderlands 2 will be released in the US on September, 18 and in the EU shortly after on September, 21.

CS:GO Beta Keys up for grabs!

The team of Counter Strike: Global Offensive have just announced how they will be giving out  beta keys to Counter Stike fans wanting to participate in the game's beta testing. The keys will be handed out to players that partake in a Steam Survey that will enter them into a pool which beta testers will be picked from.

The survey itself asks you some questions about your Counter Strike experience and will upload a quick hardware survey to the team's database. While you may be tempted to lie/brag about your skills in the test it is better to be honest because the team are looking for players from varied backgrounds of skill and hardware.

To complete the survey all you need to do is copy this address into your browser: steam://takesurvey/2/

SOE signs new deal with ProSiebenSat.1, splits communities

Ever since, well forever in fact SOE players have had the joy of choosing which region of servers they wanted to game on, well days like that have come to an end.

Recently SOE announced a new multi-year parntership with ProSiebenSat.1 Games Group to license eight of its online games in Europe, including DC Universe Online, EverQuest II, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, Pox Nora, the upcoming PlanetSide 2, and the next installment of the EverQuest franchise.

As part of the deal EU players will be using ProSiebenSat.1's service and thus having to create new accounts with them, sadly this has lead to both US and EU players effectively banned from using their counterpart's servers and forcing to move their characters to their respective regions or face loosing their efforts in game.

Both regions of playerbases are already quite angry at this move, and already questions on subscription deals, such has the founders cut price offer for DCUO have been called into question if they will continue to be held by ProSiebenSat.1 after the account change.

With so many big names coming up in the MMORPG area, was this the best time for SOE to banish it's EU fans?

For more information on the deal goto http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuopc/posts/list.m?topic_id=45890

GAME stock woes continue

As many of you are well aware the retailer GAME hit financial difficulties after it lost credit insurance with the banks.

GAME stopped taking pre-orders of certain titles, such as Mass Effect 3, also Eurogamer revealed last week that GAME would not be stocking Tekken 3DS on release, also today GAME also stated that it would not be stocking Ubisoft's Vita launch titles: Lumines, Michael Jackson, Rayman Origins, Asphalt Injection and Dungeon Hunter Alliance.

To make matters worse just moments ago it was reported that the long awaited Wii title The Last Story would not have it's special edition stocked by the retailer, downgrading all pre-orders to the standard version days before it was due to be released.

With yet another blow to the customers trust and the retailer loosing it's iron grip on key titles, it is looking to be a very shaky future for GAME.

The Witcher 2 sold 1.1 million last year

CD Project Red recently unveiled their sales records of The Witcher 2 last year, which despite being DRM free and heavily pirated still totalled 1,110,055 copies.

270,000 were sold on digital distribution platforms, which Steam is not a part of as Valve are still tight lipped on that, but of that large number we know GoG.com took 40,000 sales.

Also in that year the original Witcher title sold 401,543 copies much to managing director Adam Badowski surprise.

"I have to admit, though, that the sales results for The Witcher, five years on from the game's premier, are remarkable, if anything, they prove that the content we put into our games ages well," he commented.

Digital Devil Saga targets EU PSN

More PS2 goodness is coming Europe's way on the PSN this time is in the form of Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2.

The games are spin offs from the Shin Megami Tensei series and siblings of the Persona series, which itself has found a new life on the the PSP and with the Devil Survivor series on the DS, it's never been a better time to check out this very underrated series of game.

No date or price has been set so far, but then again it is Atlus, we rarely know what goes on in their heads.

Spring 2012 gets a Tactical Intervention

Minh Le, (the co-creator of the world famous CounterStrike) is set to run another closed beta for his new game Tactical Intervention, in March 2012. As you can probably gather from the trailer above, the game is very simaler in style and gameplay to Minh Le's huge hit CounterStrike. The changes that we can easily discern from the video however is the inclusion of driving mechanics, attack dogs and civilian NPC's wandering around the battlefield.

How this game will match up against the likes of the bigger budget CounterStrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), is to be decided, but players must take into account that game is confirmed as a Free To Play title. CS:GO on the other hand will likely be a full retail release, and will be available on multiple platforms such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

The title is being published by OGPlanet in North America, with no word on a European publisher as of yet. Check out the Official website, sign up for the upcoming beta, and then let us hear your thoughts on our Facebook or Twitter.

Epic.EIGHT CSS Final Day roundup

After the group stages of the Epic.EIGHT Counter Strike: Source Tournament have finished, we are left with eight of the ten teams that have entered. Sadly CHICO LAND and Xtreame One were dominated in their matches, (despite putting up a brave fight) and didn't make it into the top eight.

FRAGMASTERS TOXIC despite being top seed, ended up drawing one match and losing another, whereas Visualize Your Enmity and Rasta Gaming, had clean sweeps winning all four of their matches. This has left no clear leader going into the quarter final, read on of the full results of the rest of the tournament.

CoD4 Epic.EIGHT Tournament Grand Final

After completion of both the Upper and Lower Brackets, the two teams that have pulled through to the final confrontation are ESPC and TCM-Gaming. The current favourites coming into this match is ESPC, since they previously knocked down TCM-Gaming in the Upper Bracket Final. Whether TCM-Gaming can step up their game and counter ESPC's strong Backlot gameplay is to be seen, but one thing is certain, it will be an experience.

Cod4 Epic.EIGHT Elimination Stage

The Elimination stage has now begun, with the top 16 rated teams in the group stage, advancing to the Upper Bracket. We've seen laughter, anger and a whole host of other emotions at this event, and the playoffs will be sure to deliver even more tense faceoffs. After dominating their group with a flawless 5-0 record, TCM-Gaming is looking confident to win the Upper Bracket and possibly even the tournament. The big competition for them however is ESPC, who similarly also dominated their group without dropping a single match. ESPC is riding high after their strong 3rd place finish at BenQ Grunex European LAN, so it seems TCM-Gaming will have to give it their all to succeed.

CSS Epic.EIGHT Group Stage

Welcome to our constantly updating coverage of the £2500 CSS Epic.EIGHT tournament. Live from our seats at the event, we'll keep this post updated as it happens, keeping you in the know.

10 teams have entered this tournament, with LiNK Gaming, winners of Epic.SEVEN's tournament absent from this, it leaves the door open for a brand new champion this time around, although FRAGMASTERS TOXIC have been seeded first, can third placed winners of Epic.SEVEN Rasta Gaming secure the top spot?

Join the community and win Trials HD DLC

Tonight we are pleased to announce the first in our competitions while at Epic.EIGHT, all you have to do is join the community.

There are 5 pairs of Trials HD Big Pack and Big Thrills DLC to give away, kindly donated to us by the guys at RedLynx, there are two ways to win:

#1 via Twitter, all you have to do follow our twitter feed and retweet the competition tweet when it appears.

#2 like our Facebook wall and comment on the competition post when it hits the wall.

There will be 3 pairs given out via twitter and 2 pairs given out via Facebook, entries close at 9am GMT tomorrow (18th Feb) good luck.

CoD4 Epic.EIGHT Group Stage

 

Welcome to our constantly updating, live coverage of the £2500 Call of Duty 4 Epic.EIGHT tournament. Coming in straight from the event, we'll keep this post updated as it happens, keeping you in the know.

With 22 teams taking part in this tournament, this is a pioneering event for Call of Duty 4 and is bound to liven the lagging Pro-Gaming scene for the title. The victors of last years tournament fm! Sapphire are here to defend their title, as well as the runners up LANiMALS, who still sore from their defeat last LAN, plan to dominate.

However with 20 other top teams from all over Europe including top teams such as: TCM-Gaming, team Infused, and Epic.LAN newcomers ESPC.LGT from Finland, it's going to be one hell of a battle to the top.

Epic.EIGHT Tournament Fixtures Announced

With the combatants drawing up ready for battle in the CSS 5v5, and CoD4 5v5 tournaments, the group stage fixtures have been revealed. Setting off at 11am this morning for both tournaments, this event should see the clash of some of the UK's premier CSS and CoD4 teams, including last years winners LiNK, and fm! Sapphire.

The lineup announced for the games are as follows:

Counter Strike Source 5v5

Group A FRAGMASTERS TOXIC Visualize Your Enmity Perilous Hyphen Xtreame One

Group B Rasta Gaming MALIK-eSports  Nice Guys arachnid GIANTS Paynt's Fanbois

Street Fighter's Ryu Appears in Asura's Wrath

On first glance of this picture Ryu is facing off with Akuma, but in reality it's Asura from Capcom's next title Asura's Wrath. Does this mean Street Fighter is gaining another character to boost it's roster, as a shameless PR stunt for the game?

No, but.. yes at the same time, apparently Ryu is making a cameo in Asura's Wrath as DLC, we have little to go on but this picture so far, but as you can see the game will be switching to a Street Fighter IV style at some point. This shouldn't seem too far fetched, when the game seems as crazy as any Dragonball Z episode.

Capcom promised to reveal all soon. Asura's Wrath launches in the UK on 9th March.

Good Mornin' Epic.Lan

Well myself and Fatal have made it through the opening night of Epic.EIGHT, despite the beer and chaos.

The opening ceremony was a blast ending with a Rock Band 2 score attack tournament on Tenacious D's Tribute, Epic Radio was first to bat but then got served by the other two teams, one of which Fatal ended up subbing as the drummer. Fatal's team (pictured above) of course won and free beer was had by all, huzzah!

Keep up with the event via this site, and twitter by either directly from us or Epic.LAN

Four fighting fantasy indie games coming with the help of Epic

Commando Kiwi, Derp Studios, Digital Mage and Indigo Jam, four groups founded by members of the Train2game course took part in the the Epic Game Jam competition last year, which the winners win full source commercial Unreal Engine 3 license for iOS - worth a cool $1 million, have now teamed up with Epic themselves to release four games based on the Fighting Fantasy series of books.

The games will release on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this spring following a reveal at The Gadget Show Live the books chosen are The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, Deathtrap Dungeon and Armies of Death.

Valve Release $100 TF2 item.

To coincide with Valentines Day Valve added a new TF2 item in a special Valentines Day update. The item humorously named "Something Special For Someone Special" had better live up to it's name sake given that it price is $100 which is extremely expensive given that it is just a miscellaneous item.

Valve testify that "It's ring-shaped, it's gift-wrapped, it's basically useless, and it's really expensive ($100!). In short, it's the most accurate simulation of an actual Valentine's Day gift ever made available to the public."

The ring itself allows you to pledge your "love" to another player within the game. Simply you propose to another player and if they accept you will receive matching wedding bands to show your lovey doveyness to other players in-game.

The item itself costs $100 USD/ £69.99 GBP / €74.99 EUR

Star Wars: The Old Republic to launch in Asia and the Pacific

BioWare have announced that they will be bringing Star Wars: The Old Republic to Asia and the Pacific next month. Up till now the game has only been available in the North American and European regions. On March, 1, the game will be available to players in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Players that signed up for a SWTOR account before February, 28, will be allowed to make a free character transfer to an Asia Pacific server, BioWare say that they will be notifying eligible players in March through email.

BioWare also revealed the price of the game and it's various iterations. The prices for the standard edition of the game will be $79.99 AUD / $89.99 NZD / $389.00 HKD / $64.00 SGD more details on the prices of subscriptions and pre-orders are available from the BioWare press release which I have linked at the start of this article.

Bethesda's Game Jam - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

During the DICE summit last week in Las Vegas the Creative Director on The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim Todd Howard, revealed a video of Bethesda's 'Game Jam'. The 'Game Jam' took place after development of Skyrim had finished. Bethesda's developers were given one week to put in a personal addition to the game. With 100  developers working on Skyrim it meant that 100 new creations were added in just a week of development time.

The above video shows some of the creations that the developers put into the game. The creations themselves could possibly be released as DLC or perhaps Bethesda are shouting out to modders to recreate some of the features themselves. The creations range from support for voice commands for the Xbox 360 Kinect to a Skeleton Butler so it's worth watching just for that. It's impressive what features can be put into a game in just one working week.

Darksiders 2: Release Date Announced!

Vigil Games, the developers of the popular Hack n' Slash game Darksiders, have announced the release date for the game's sequel, the 29th June this year. With the press release they also released a new game trailer viewable on Eurogamer.

THQ, the game's publishers also announced pre-order bonuses that will be available from GAME and Gamestation called the Death Rides pack. The pack includes additional side quests where you can get extra loot and experience points.

If you pre-order from Amazon you can get the Deadly Despair pack. This acts as a permanent perk or character boost in game.

Skyrim Mods: Two Million Downloads in Three Days.

After the Skyrim Creation Kit and Steam Workshop  were released for The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim last week the modding scene has exploded.Bethesda, creators of Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls series say that there were two million downloads of mods within 3 days of the Creation Kit's release.

With such a seamless way to download mods now integrated into the Steam platform, modders and PC gamers alike have been downloading and creating mods for Skyrim like hot cakes. The mods have breathed new life into the game and provided lots of new experiences for players to enjoy.

Epic.EIGHT days away

Epic.LAN's Epic.EIGHT is just days away, we can't wait, however Fatal has been quite evil in teasing you all on our Facebook and Twitter, about something special we have planned for the event.

I have the pleasure to reveal we have SWAG to give away at the event, thanks to the kindness of RedLynx and Trendy Entertainment, we have keys for both Trials HD DLC packs for Xbox 360 and Dungeon Defenders Steam keys, plus a few other items we have already packed away ready for the event.

Details on the competitions will be unveiled during Epic.EIGHT, so follow us on Facebook and Twitter for your best chance to win.

Halo 4 Toy shows off the Chief's new suit

If you cast you minds back to last E3 when Halo 4 was set upon the world to start 'the next trilogy' in the series, you may have noticed Master Chief looking a tad different then normal.

343 Industries' boss Frank O'Connor told OXM, "There's some story behind his new look, there are specific reasons why he looks the way he does and why some of his behaviours have changed. We'll see in good time."

Well now is your chance to get a better look at it in toy form as McFarlane Toys revealed the Halo 4 toy set yesterday

Amnesia 2 To be set in China?

Frictional Games developers behind the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, have confirmed the release of a sequel to the game. The confirmation comes in the form of a viral website, that bear the words "Amnesia. Something is emerging...". When the text is clicked, it redirects to a Google Maps image of East Asia, with China being the search criteria. Surely this means that the next game will be set in China?

Whatever this cryptic message means, we are safe in the knowledge that another Amnesia game is currently in development, and we'll be experiencing the horror all over again. I'm extremely excited about this game, as Amnesia was my absolutely favourite game of 2010, so the possibility of a new iteration sends chills down my spine.

Blizzard vs. Valve: The DOTA lawsuit.

Developers Blizzard are attempting to sue Valve over it's use of the Defence Of The Ancients (DOTA) trademark. The appeal was launched before the US patents and Trade Marks office last year. Although it is still in effect even with Valve close to releasing DOTA 2 with Beta programs and competitions already in effect. It is certain that Blizzard will try and do whatever it can to stop Valve, from releasing a trademark that they claim to own.

However this met with controversy, as the original DotA was a mod primarily created by fans for use with Blizzards game, Warcraft III. However the mod originally comprised of characters, models and designs created by developers working at Blizzard. In essence, Blizzard claim that Valve are attempting to steal Blizzards work. Despite the fact that the game's core mechanics, were developed by modders working outside of the game studio. What's more is that the current developer of the original game IceFrog, is working at Valve leading the design of DOTA 2.

The attempt to sue Valve over it's version of the popular mod, may also come as Blizzard are in current development of their own version of the popular mod. Blizzard's version however, seeks to make very small changes to the original mod.

Mass Effect 3: Fem Shep Trailer Released

Bioware have finally released the promised Female Shepard trailer, after lots of fans rallied Bioware to create one for the upcoming game, Mass Effect 3. Fans of the series that play Fem Shep, will be glad to know that the female Shepard experience, will be the same action packed thrill-ride that you have been expecting. Again Jennifer Hale reprises her role as Female Shepard, for the latest instalment into the Mass Effect franchise. Enjoy the above trailer, I hope it fulfils your Mass Effect needs for now.

Mass Effect 3 will be released on March, 6th.

Vodafone offers 3G version deal with Vita

Vodafone carriers of the Playstation Vita 3G network in the UK have started to advertise their deals when buying the handheld. Buying from a Vodafone store buying the £279 kit nets you a free 4GB memory card (worth about £15-18 on it's own).

Not only that but if you top up your 3G SIM with £5 for the 250mb package with all 3G versions of the Vita bought, Vodafone give you WipEout 2048 for free. Watch the video below for the unboxing, demo and the deal from Vodafone

Asura's Wrath Delayed

Asura's Wrath the much anticipated action game has been knocked back until 9th of March, it was confirmed by Capcom.

Originally set for release at the end of this month, on the 24th of February, Capcom has cited a uncertain "UK retail market" as the cause of delay. Eurogamer speculated that the recent troubles of European retailer GAME, was to blame.

Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter Fund: Over $400,000 within 8 hours

If you recall yesterday's story about game designer Tim Schafer, being unable to find funding for the development of Pyschonauts 2, Double Fine (the company Schafer founded) has started a Kickstarter fund to fund a brand new adventure title. Essentially the fund allows anybody across the globe with a debit or credit card, to pledge some money to fund the game's development.

Initially the company set a target of $400,000 in just over a month. Thanks to the viral nature of this story the company raised $450,000 within 8 hours. An outstanding figure that just goes to show, how powerful viral marketing and Twitter can be.

To add further incentive to gamers to back the project, Double Fine are offering bonuses to those that choose to donate more. The list of rewards go from as simple to a copy of the game on release, and early access to the game's beta, to becoming an actual character in the game, and getting to hang out with the developers of the game. See the list of normal rewards here and the list of the premium awards here.

Psychonauts 2 "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen."

Legendary game designer Tim Schafer, recently stated in an interview with the online magazine Digital Spy, that he had pitched the idea of crafting a sequel to his unique-platformer Psychonauts. Schafer stated that when pitching the idea to publishers, that they had taken no interest in giving him money to create a game.

After expressing his fustration in the interview, Notch (developer of the indie hit Minecraft) tweeted Schafer over twitter yesterday and said: "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen." After which there was an explosion of discussion on Reddit, on whether Notch was actually being sincere about the statement.

What we know is that the prospect of two developers, coming together to create a project cooperatively, is a very interesting one given the successes of Minecraft and Psychonauts. It will be very interesting to see how this story unfolds, and if we will see a Double Fine/ Mojang game released in future.

Sanctum 2 Announced

The success of the Independent Tower Defense shooter Sanctum last year, has sparked Swedish developers Coffee Stain Studios to create a sequel. The cleverly named Sanctum 2 is set for release in 2013 on Consoles and the PC. Although the game will probably not have a full fledged release, due to the tight constraints of being an indie developer, it's more than likely that the game will be released on Xbox Live and on PSN (now rebranded Sony Entertainment Network) .

Sanctum was released in April last year, and has seen sales of 300,000 downloads. Not bad for an indie developer who was selling directly through one digital distribution platform, namely Valve's Steam service. The game itself, crosses the boundries between tower defence and a first person shooter, proving to be an interesting Co-Op experience.

Bethesda Release Skyrim Creation Kit

Bethesda, developers behind The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, have finally released the game's SDK. The Creation Kit is an essential tool for PC modders, that want to add something to the Skyrim experience. The release of the SDK is also integrated with the Steam Workshop, which makes it easier for modders (and independent game designers) to show off their creations, and share them with the gaming community.

You might also remember, that Bethesda announced that there would be a "Surprise" included with the release of the Creation Kit. It turns out the surprise is none other than, a high-resolution texture pack to make Skyrim's landscapes, and vistas look even more spectacular. If this wasn't enough, to coincide with the release of the developer tools, there is currently a sale of the elder scrolls series on Steam, so you can go pick up the rest of the series for a reduced price.

Valve, owners of Steam have also included a little surprise for players, and modders of the game. The Space Personality Core, one of the game's most loved characters now makes a cameo appearance in the game. The mod is downloadable via the Steam Workshop itself.

CTD returns to Epic.LAN

It's event time yet again myself (Krem) and Fatal, are heading to Epic.LAN's Epic.EIGHT, our previous coverage of Epic.SEVEN is floating around the site somewhere, and from the 16th through to the 19th of February we will be at the Uttoxetor Racecourse covering the event.

Epic.EIGHT looks to be Epic.LAN's biggest event yet, the attendance numbers are closing in on the 300 mark, and the prize pool of both Counter-Strike: Source and Call of Duty 4 Tournaments have been bumped up to £2500.

Between the casual and competitive fun, and of course the all important bar usage, we'll be bringing you news from the event, and pictures however no video interviews this time sadly, I don't think I could take another round of video editing.

For more information and possible last minute bookings head over to Epic.Lan's website

Retro Review: Heroes of Might and Magic 2

The Heroes of Might and Magic series, popular off-shoot of the Might and Magic games, has been an enduring classic in PC gamers’ libraries for many years. Many consider the third entry, HoMM 3, to be the definitive game in the series. Though I loved that game from the first time I played it, I've had a soft spot for its predecessor, (Heroes of Might and Magic 2) since being introduced to it by a friend. Maybe it’s the entrancing soundtrack, the addictive gameplay, or the nostalgia-educing graphics - but whatever its secret is, this game is truly magical, in more ways than one.

The first game in the series was first released in 1995, and told the tale of Lord Ironfist, who fled to Enroth from his home and was forced into a life-or-death battle against three opponents vying for the kingdom’s throne. Eventually he won the ensuing war - this ending is canonical, but in the game you can also lead one of his opponents to victory as well.

I have never played the original HoMM, though I have a copy on my hard drive. I’m sure that the basis for the wonderful series it would become was there, but surely Heroes 2 was the game which solidified it as the turn-based strategy series of choice.

Metro: Last Light delayed until 2013

The release of the sequel to Metro 2033, has been pushed back till next year after a press release by the game's publishers, THQ. Fans will be disappointed to learn, that the popular survival-horror shooter has been delayed until the first financial season of next year. Fans of the series will have to wait a little longer, to experience the gloom of Moscow's metro tunnels once again.

It seems like it's going to be a while before we can experience some more survival horror shooters from a european developer like 4A or GSC. With both the Metro and S.T.A.L.K.E.R games facing some series delays. But fear not as the team at 4A working on the metro games, say that the extra time spent will allow them to further polish the game.

Over 10,000 fans take part in Half Life 3 protest.

More than 10,000 fans of Valve Software's game franchise Half Life, staged a protest because of the lack of information that has been communicated about Half Life 3 or Half Life 2: Episode 3. The fans all logged onto steam this Saturday, and played Half Life 2 simultaneously to try and gain the company's attention.

The Protest, named A Red Letter Day, referencing a line of dialogue Half Life 2 was arranged via a Steam group named "A Call for Communication" (which has over 50,000 members), although few of the groups members actually took part in the event.

Although Valve's workforce is most likely busy due to the development of DOTA 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and improvements to their free to play shooter Team Fortress 2, it is understandable that Valve's fanbase want some information. After all Half Life 2: Episode 2 was released in the Orange Box half a decade ago. Will it make any difference to Valve's taboo? Only time can tell.