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More of Sierra's classic adventure games come to Steam
Sure, Sierra's biggest adventure game titles (such as King's Quest and Space Quest) have been around in their original forms on Steam for a while, but many gamers remember playing a lot more than that. What about arresting perps in Police Quest, or saving the day in Quest for Glory (aka Hero's Quest)? You're set from now on. Sierra and Activision have released a wave of further classics on Steam, including the Police Quest Collection, the original Gabriel Knight trilogy and the two Phantasmagoria games. You'll get a handful of non-adventure titles published under Sierra's wing, too, such as Arcanum and Caesar 4.
Sierra On-Line games hit iPad via web app, those old enough to remember them rejoice
You may or may not be old enough to remember Sierra On-Line, makers of such fine games as Leisure Suit Larry, the King's Quest, and Police Quest, but none of that matters anymore. Thanks to the folks over at Sarien, you now have access to these glorious titles via your iPad's web browser. The entire catalog has been ported over, and the games which were previously available via the web only are now there on your Apple tablet! The whole shebang is now hosted on Amazon's content distribution network, and the games have been extensively tweaked for that multitouch interface. Sarien hasn't apparently been issued a cease and desist from Activision -- owners of the catalog -- yet, so get these free gems of yesteryear while you can.
Old Sierra On-Line games now available on iPad via the Web
Get ready to lose your weekend. As we reported it would a while back, Sarien.net is now offering up a whole slew of old Sierra On-Line games, playable through your iPad's web browser for free. The first three King's Quest games, the first two Police Quest games, and even a Leisure Suit Larry title are all online and available. Sarien.net even allows for multiplayer within these old games, so you might see some other players in there while you're wandering around trying to solve puzzles. For those of us who grew up or cut our gaming teeth on these Sierra titles, this is kind of a goldmine. Sarien, a.k.a. Martin Kool, hasn't received a cease-and-desist from Activision yet, but he has received some kudos from some of the original games' creators. Hopefully that will be enough to keep Activision's legal team at bay, at least until they get these games on the iPad officially. Don't let that stop you from enjoying these games while they're up and available to play -- I just gave King's Quest another shot, and it's weird to go back and play a game where actual death is around every corner. [via TouchArcade]
Old Sierra games coming to iPad as unofficial web apps
Sierra's old-school adventure games of the '80s bring back many memories of days where finding cheats and walk-throughs were hard to come by, and a binder of scribbled clues sat by my tiny monitor. Many of those same games have been ported to the web, and we're likely to see them made especially for the iPad soon. Martin Kool of sarien.net has made a hobby of porting many of Sierra's older adventure games to the web, and now he wants to make those same games work especially well on the iPad. Kool plans to make each title on its own landing page, where visitors can create web app icons on their iOS devices to each page, essentially giving them access to a full-blown, free Sierra game. Another cool aspect to these ported games is that Kool has added a multiplayer aspect to them. You could be walking around the Kingdom of Daventry and see another player completing the quests along with you! So far Sierra's parent company, Activision, has not submitted a cease and desist letter, but he won't fight them if it comes to that. Kool does not plan to make any money off his ports, and they will remain ad-free. [via Touch Arcade]
Assault Heroes 2 blows up XBLA this Spring
Confirming an earlier ESRB listing, Sierra Online has announced a sequel to its popular top-down arcade shooter, Assault Heroes. Promising to "expand its horizons into outer space," Assault Heroes 2 will feature cooperative gameplay, hi-jackable enemy vehicles and, by the looks of things, at least one robot mammoth. We rather like those. Developed by Wanako Studios, Assault Heroes 2 is scheduled to arrive on Xbox Live Arcade this Spring. Be sure to check out IGN's preview for further details. %Gallery-18238%
This Wednesday: Commanders, Discs of Tron assault XBLA
Turn-based strategy and relentless disc flinging will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade this week, with Commanders: Attack of the Genos and Discs of Tron scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. Sierra Online's Commanders pits you (a commander, we suspect) against an invading army of genetically modified miscreants who, at the very least, are polite enough to wage war in turns. Fifteen missions, fifteen specialized units and a "retro-futuristic" setting can be had for 800 MS Points ($10).%Gallery-15772% As the title succinctly implies, Discs of Tron is primarily concerned with opponents hurling Tron discs at each other, very often while standing on discs within Tron. The disc-less download, which sports enhanced graphics and "CD-quality sound," will require you to discard 400 of your MS Points ($5).%Gallery-2940%
Switchball, Commanders: Attack! & more XBLA bound
TeamXbox pulled some strings and got the pre-E3 dish on three new XBLA offerings from Sierra Online. Over on their site they posted a dump truck sized load of screenshots, game details and videos for Sierra Online's three Arcade games including Switchball, Commanders: Attack!, and Battlestar Galactica. No word yet on the games' release dates or how much they'll cost, but we're sure more info will trickle in when the games get officially announced at E3. Fanboys: Attack!
Assault Heroes finally patched ... almost
Let's say your game shipped with a horrendous multiplayer bug that prevented many people from connecting to online co-op sessions. Would you fix it? Would you fix it quickly? If you're part of Wanako and Sierra Online, and your game is Assault Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade, then your answer is clearly "no." Yes, Assault Heroes was added to the XBLA library last December and played host to a serious co-op problem, namely that co-op games could not be joined by many people. Now, seven months later, a title update for Assault Heroes has finally been released. There's only one problem: you can't download it. In a particularly delicious bit of irony, you are greeted with an error message the moment you accept the update prompt. Oy vey. Let's hope the Assault Heroes team gets their ducks in a row and fixes this problem soon.
Carcassonne coming in June
Sierra Online announced that Carcassonne will be hitting Xbox live Arcade this coming June. The last we heard from the title it was being announced back in August alongside Catan and Alhambra. There are no specifics as to when in June, but one could surmise that the release will fall on either the 6th, 13th, 20th, or 27th. How can we be so sure? Well, they're Wednesdays, for starters. If you want us to narrow our prediction down, we're going to stick with the 13th, as the number is lucky. Are you down for some tiling city action on Live Arcade?[Via QJ.net]
Vivendi Games buys Wanako, world trembles
Wanako Games, makers of the Live Arcade shooter, Assault Heroes, has been acquired by Vivendi Games. Given the (relative) praise that Assault Heroes received, the deal makes sense. Also, it has already been announced that Sierra Online -- a division of Vivendi Games and Ross Erickson's new home -- and Wanako are set to deliver another Arcade title 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures. It seems that both parties must have synced quite nicely, as representatives from both companies seem to share the same vision. Said Ed Zorbist, president of Sierra Online, "Wanako exudes the commitment to quality and a passion for developing great games that we ourselves strongly believe in."Alright. Yes. Good good. Now, can we please get to work on fixing Assault Heroes' co-op problems?[Via Joystiq. Thanks, J. Goodwin]
Vivendi acquires Wanako Games
Vivendi Games has announced its acquisition of the largest game development studio in Latin America, Wanako Games. Best known for its Xbox Live Arcade title, Assault Heroes, Wanako is expected to bolster Vivendi's Sierra Online division and expand its presence in the exceedingly colorful world of digitially distributed games. Wanako is currently working on 3-D Ultra Minigolf Adventures for Xbox Live Arcade. Wanako founder, Esteban Sosnik, seems pleased as punch by Vivendi's decision. "In working with Sierra Online on Assault Heroes it quickly became clear that our companies shared the same core values in game development and by joining together we could develop and deliver amazing products," he says. Indeed, this enhanced collaboration might just grant Wanako and Sierra Online the ability to develop and deliver an amazing patch for Assault Heroes, which has suffered from broken online multiplayer since its release over two months ago.
Vivendi buys out Wanako games
Vivendi recently announced their acquisition of Wanako Games, a Chile-based studio responsible for games like Assault Heroes. After the purchase, Vivendi said that Wanako Games would help Sierra Online to "enhance its internal product development capabilities in the fast growing console download online games space." Whoa, what's "fast growing console download online games space"? We know what they mean, but that's a pretty interesting way to put it.Essentially, we can expect a lot more downloadable content and games from Sierra Online and Wanako Games with this partnership. There's not really much else to say, expect that we can enjoy more stuff like Assault Heroes and such in the future -- anyone play that one, those of you with the XBox Live thing?
Assault Heroes assaulted with co-op issue
As Jerry Seinfeld might put it, "what's the deal with Assault Heroes?" We posted our favorable impressions of the game last week, and we have since encountered a serious problem. During our first play test we encountered some connection problems with co-op games. In some cases we could never get one started and were left hanging on a "waiting" screen. Other times, we've been left hanging at the same screen in between levels -- after we've already established a connection. Playing with a blogger from Joystiq today (Ludwig Kietzmann), we managed to join 1 out of 3 games. According to Kietzmann, the one successful game we played was the first one he had ever been able to join since the game's release. We haven't played the title enough to assess how serious this problem is, but if it is widespread, then it needs to be dealt with. Have any of you encountered this problem? If so, speak up.
Will Assault Heroes revive Xbox Live Arcade?
The third original title to hit Xbox Live Arcade in less than a month, Assault Heroes, will arrive on Wednesday (for 800 points). Wanako Studios' top-down shooter (à la Commando, Ikari Warriors, etc.) will follow closely behind two insipid releases, Small Arms and Roboblitz, which have appeared on XBLA during the past three weeks. Ever since Geometry Wars stole the Xbox 360 launch spotlight, there's been a great deal of anticipation for more original XBLA titles; and Microsoft has certainly put together a fine strategy: holding them off for a holiday blitz. But the early bait has failed to earn our confidence -- our assurance that XBLA can consistently provide distinguishing experiences. And so, it's with much trepidation that we look forward to Assault Heroes' impending arrival.
