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Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams soars onto XBLA next spring
Giana Sisers: Twisted Dreams is coming to XBLA in spring 2013, from publisher bitComposer. Giana Sisters hit Steam in October as the second title to launch under Greenlight, published and developed by Black Forest Games. It appears bitComposer will be taking over all publishing duties, listing a PC launch for spring, too.The (quite successful) Kickstarter for Giana Sisters listed a launch on PSN and XBLA in "early 2013," so we're keeping our eyes peeled for any PS3 news from bitComposer.Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams pays homage to the platformers of yore, and does a wonderful job of it on PC. Sitting on the couch and holding a controller should only exaggerate that nostalgic joy. Unfortunately, blowing on the code of a downloadable game just isn't the same as blowing into a cartridge. But hey, give it a go anyway. You won't look insane at all.
Report: Ubisoft, Atari, many other publishers requesting payment from German pirates
Someone in Germany -- perhaps even some people -- illegally pirated a copy of Prison Break: The Conspiracy. Hard to believe as it may be, it appears to be the case according to TorrentFreak, who delved into German public records looking for game publishers who have employed German law to track down (and demand money from) people who allegedly pirated various games. In Germany, Koch Media publishes the Prison Break game, and has been demanding settlements of "several hundred Euros" from offending IP addresses. The records indicate that several major publishers, either directly or through subsidiaries/secondary parties, have been sending out letters to German citizens requesting varying levels of payment in return for not being sued. Where things get murky, however, is how the publishers are seeking out the accused pirates, using not always reliable "IP address-only evidence" -- easily circumvented with proxy domains and such. You know, hacker stuff. TorrentFreak's report indicates that a variety of publishers and distributors are involved, including (but not limited to): Atari, Koch Media (representing Techland's Dead Island and Prison Break, and Eidos/Square Enix's Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well as Dungeon Siege 3 and various Final Fantasy titles), Daedalic Entertainment (representing LucasArts), Codemasters, BitComposer, Ubisoft, Kalypso Media, dtp entertainment, and Aerosoft. It is currently unclear how many settlement notices have been sent out by each company, or if any will continue doing so after these actions have been brought to light. Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt Red was recently pursuing similar cases in Germany until it announced the end of the practice last week.
Jagged Alliance returning as an MMO
Gamigo and bitComposer Games announced today that they'll be working together to bring the classic title Jagged Alliance into the world of MMOs. Jagged Alliance Online will be a browser-based MMO, and should hold a familiar feel to those who know the game. The developers will be "keeping a popular mixture of tactics, strategy, role-play and management and transferring it to a modern MMO world," according to Gamigo's press release. Players will train and equip mercenaries, form alliances with others, accept timed mission arcs, and more within the game. The official JAO site is in German, and the developers have established a Facebook page as well so English-speaking players can keep up on the game's progression. Jagged Alliance Online is set for launch in 2011.
Jagged Alliance 3 due in 2011 from bitComposer
Jagged Alliance fans have been waiting since 1999 for a new game in the tactical role-playing series -- well, those Jagged Alliance fans that are still fans after all these years, anyway. bitComposer Games has acquired the rights to the series from Strategy First, announcing plans to release Jagged Alliance 3 sometime in 2011. The last time anything newish was released from the franchise was last year's DS port of the first game. Though bitComposer has taken over development on the series, the announcement doesn't make it sound like the new studio plans to make drastic changes to the Jagged Alliance formula: "Jagged Alliance 3 will build on the strengths of its famous predecessors and, set against the backdrop of a gripping story, will again deliver the much-loved combo of turn-based strategy gameplay with roleplay elements." [Via Gamasutra]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sequel D.A.T.E.D. for February
Do you like acronyms? Sure, we all do. So it's with much E.X.C.I.T.E.M.E.N.T. that we relay word via BigDownload that GCS Game World's follow-up to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, Call of Pripyat, has been scheduled for February 2010 release by publisher bitComposer. It'll be one of the very first DirectX 11 games, but don't tell that to the mutated creep in the above image -- we're pretty sure he/she/it no longer has ears. B.T.W. we hope you've found this F.Y.I. helpful, F.W.I.W.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat irradiating PCs 'first quarter 2010'
We've mused on the subject before, but we're still a bit bewildered that a third game set in the shadow of a two-time nuclear fallout zone is on its way in the form of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat. Sure, the series has twice proven itself to be an enjoyable blend of creepy atmosphere and technical prowess, but between all the guns and high doses of radiation, how is anyone left to talk about? The game's developer, GSC Gameworld, is busy figuring out that problem, effectively pushing back the game to a "first quarter 2010" release, according to the game page on publisher bitComposer's website. In the meantime, to help sate your need for more S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the company has updated its thrilling PC requirements spec sheet for the game, which we've dropped after the break. %Gallery-51475%
