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Battle Dawn Galaxies takes the franchise to the stars
Going from a scrappy start-up to Lord Emperor of the Universe would make your resume seem paltry, would it not? And while we have no doubt that you'll make it happen for real once your homemade starship is able to break orbit from your back yard, Tacticsoft has an easier solution: Try out Battle Dawn Galaxies, a new galaxy-spanning strategy MMO. Battle Dawn Galaxies hands you the keys to a small space station and a dream -- a dream to become the biggest, baddest, savviest leader on the map! Over the course of this free-to-play title, you'll build up your station, create a battle fleet of ships, take over new territory, establish alliances with other players, and fight against all those who oppose you. The game already has over 10,000 daily active players and is the latest in the Battle Dawn franchise, which begun back in 2006. Tacticsoft CEO Michael Rosen thinks the sky is the limit for this title: "The Battle Dawn brand has grown in popularity over the past five years and our players have been asking for a sci-fi universe based on the core mechanics of the original game. With Battle Dawn Galaxies, we bring strategic space combat to new heights in the browser." You can watch the trailer for the game after the jump!
Preview: Elemental: War of Magic
Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic is already extraordinary, smashing genres together that may have been too big on their own in the first place. At its heart, it's a 4X game in the style of Civ or Galactic Civilizations, but it's also a fantasy RPG with a deep and long story, and a tactical battle game. It has a huge singleplayer campaign, a sandbox mode that creates gigantic maps at random, and even a multiplayer mode. It's vast and confusing and intricate, and while there are certain gamers who just won't vibe with all of the numbers and how open the gameplay is, there are others – probably old-school strategy types – who will love it for everything it is. Stardock's CEO Brad Wardell is one of those for sure -- as he showed me the latest beta of the game earlier this month, his enthusiasm for the game he's built was quite clear. Elemental: War of Magic, like all of Stardock's titles, is as "homespun" as any video game can be, and Wardell's personality and preferences shine through almost all of its (sorry) elements. %Gallery-94332%
Sins of a Solar Empire 'Trinity' set coming
Stardock has announced that an all-inclusive collection featuring its fab Windows-based 4X strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire, its first expansion, Entrenchment and the upcoming Diplomacy expansion will release on February 9 for $39.99. In addition to availability on Stardock's own Impulse digital distribution service, the set will make its way onto shelves across the US in something called a "box." Anyone who pre-orders Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity via Impulse will get instant access to the beta version of the Diplomacy expansion, which seems like a good strategy to us.
Vulcando Games brings 4X gameplay to MMOs with Celetania
Vulcando Games, based out of Germany, has announced the November release date of their MMO Celetania, described as a massively multiplayer 4X game. For those unfamiliar with the term, 4X is a genre of game in which four separate goals must be managed at the same time to ensure victory. The term 4X stands for explore, expand, exploit, exterminate, and is typified by games like Civilization and Master of Orion. Celetania is a persistent-world 4X game, where the orders that you give your units keep being followed, even when you're offline. In addition to the release date, Vulcando has mentioned that they will be releasing details about the game every two weeks, including screenshots, concept art, and video. In fact, Vulcando has sent along the first batch of shots of one of the races' line of starships, for your perusal. More news on this title as we get closer to the release date!%Gallery-24377%[Thanks, Andreas!]
GalCiv II expansion Twilight of the Arnor coming April 23
Galactic Civilizations II remains one of PC gaming's best kept secrets, something that has more to do with the game's single player focus than its ability to lurk in shadows. Now the game is set to get its second and last expansion, dubbed Twilight of the Arnor, an addition that publisher/developer Stardock has confirmed to us will be released as a digital download on April 23. The expansion details the final chapter of the game's Dread Lord wars, and builds upon last year's acclaimed expansion, Dark Avatar. Like that game, Twilight will introduce numerous improvements and tweaks to GalCiv II, from new technology trees to map and campaign editors. Could this finally be the game to pry us from Ironclad's Sins of a Solar Empire? Ask us on April 24. Until then, check out a partial list of additions promised by the expansion after the break.%Gallery-20102%
Sins of a Solar Empire finally gets demo treatment
Sins of a Solar Empire might just be the best game you've never played. Then again, maybe you have, considering how well the PC game has been selling since its early February debut. Still, if there's one thing that's been missing from the experience, its how to court those players still on the fence, with a demo for the 4X strategy hybrid being noticeably absent. Until now that is, as Iron Clad and publisher Stardock have finally pushed out a demo, which is currently available for download from Gamespot. The news is great, really, but the question as to why the demo took so long to produce had to be asked. So we did. We broached to topic with Stardock president and CEO Brad Wardell, who told us that "when Sins of a Solar Empire was released, Stardock and developer Iron Clad felt that our first priority had to be to existing customers...once we released v1.03, we were able to spend the necessary time to put together a quality demo." Quality is a word people throw around too easily, so those of you who pick up the demo, drop us a line below and let us know if Wardell's comments are justified.
Joystiq interview: Ironclad talks 4X strategy with Sins of a Solar Empire
PC strategy games come in a variety of flavors, from casual to hardcore, though it's those dubbed 4X that are the most exhausting, and arguably the most fun of the lot. The term 4X has some interesting roots, having first been coined in a magazine review for Microprose's classic Masters of Orion, the label is now used to call out an entire sub-genre of strategy games that exhibit four underlying goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. Traditionally, though not always, these games are played in turns rather than in real-time, though it's extremely rare to see a title subscribe to both schools of gameplay, something that Ironclad Games' upcoming 4X release Sins of a Solar Empire takes to heart. With the game set to be released on February 4 by GalCiv publisher Stardock, we decided to sit down and speak with Ironclad's producer and lead designer Blair Fraser to get some added insight into what appears to offer an unique take on this particular class of PC strategy.%Gallery-15134%
Panasonic's internal LF-PB271JD drive burns Blu-ray at 4x
Nah, Panasonic's LF-PB271JD couldn't hold a candle to Sony's BWU-200S in a runway competition, but when it comes to performance, we'd say the two are practically neck and neck. This unit fits snuggly within any Windows-based machine lookin' for a 5.25-inch optical drive, and it has no problems burning dual-layer BD-Rs at a furious (ahem) 4x pace. Additionally, you'll find a SATA interface along with backup software bundled in, and just in case you're not working exclusively with BD-R, it can also toast BD-RE at 2x, DVD±R at 16x, DVD±R DL at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, CD-R at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. Of course, you'll be paying through the nose for the luxuries presented when it lands on November 10th, but the ¥55,000 ($468) asking price is still a good bit lower than what Sony's demanding.[Via Impress]
Alienware introduces 4x Blu-ray drives for desktops
Alienware, never afraid of spec'ing its machines just a little bit ahead of the curve, has just introduced 4x Blu-ray drives into its Area-51 7500, Aurora 7500, Area-51 ALX, and Aurora ALX desktops, making the systems the first in the industry (or so they claim) to carry the faster drives. The new additions to the PCs will offer a significant performance increase in reading and writing Blu-ray discs (a 100 percent increase, in case you're not doing the math), which should make burning those massive discs just slightly more tolerable. Of course, the whole shebang is backward-compatible with CD and DVD discs, per typical Blu-ray spec, and will set you back an additional $600. Available right now.
Panasonic displays DMR-BW200 and BR100 Blu-ray recorders
For the technically-inclined Japanese household looking to back up HD episodes of Desire and Fashion House (or their Japanese equivalents) the Panasonic DMR-BW200 and DMR-BR100 Blu-ray recorders may just fit the bill, and are due out November 15th. With 500GB and 200GB HDDs respectively you've got plenty of space to save important telenovelas prior to burning them to 25GB or 50GB BD-R/REs at 4x speed. Tuners for terrestrial, BS, 110-degree CS digital broadcasts and analog TV are included, as well as all the usual ins and outs like 1080p HDMI. The high-end BW200 adds dual tuners for digital broadcasts, an i.Link port for D-VHS dubbing and Ethernet connectivity. Both have Panasonic's Viera Link technology and HD Optimizer for cleaning up noise in digital broadcasts and upconverting SD content. As our friends at Engadget point out, unlike the Sony Blu-ray recorder these have a release date, specs and price -- ¥300,000 (about $2,550) for the BW200 and ¥200,000 (about $1,700) for the BR100 -- and their slim design seems to carry less pet-crushing risk than the Toshiba RD-A1.[Via Engadget]
LG's 4x Blu-ray burner available this week in Taiwan
Compromises, compromises. With LG releasing their new 4x GBW-H10N Blu-ray burner this week, anyone willing to spend ~$1000 on a Blu-ray recordable drive may have to make one. While currently available drives only record at 2x speed, some are capable of recording to dual-layer 50GB discs. While the GBW-H10N can record BD-Rs at 4x speed, it only lists single-layer recording among its specifications. The drive can also read and write to CD & DVD formatted discs. The price is darn near a steal for the tech, coming in at $923 US, about $100 less than was predicted earlier. Hopefully by the time these drives reach a price more people are willing to pay, we'll be able to choose the peanut butter and the chocolate.
LG's 4x Blu-ray burner: GBW-H10N
Just when we were getting used to Pioneer's Blu-ray recording drive, LG has announced one that, on paper at least, blows it away. Like Pioneer's drive, it only supports burning to single-layer (25GB) Blu-ray discs, but it ups the speed from 2x to 4x for burning and playback. Also unlike the Pioneer, it will read and write to CDs. Only BD-R discs get the extra speed however, with rewritable BD-REs still limited to 2x recording. This drive is slated to hit in the summer at a cost of €799 ($1020 USD). With dual-layer (50GB) Blu-ray media slated to become available this summer, we have to wonder when we sill see a burner that can use it.
