heroesofmightandmagic
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Wax nostalgic over King's Bounty website, screenshots
King's Bounty. For the younger set the name might not mean much, though it's more likely that you're familiar with the series it later gave rise to in New World Computing's Heroes of Might and Magic. King's Bounty, released for personal computers in 1990 and even ported to the Sega Genesis a year later, was an early take on the turn-based strategy genre. Now, nearly two decades after the game's release, European studio 1C has decided to knock the dust off the old girl and give her a new coat of paint with King's Bounty: The Legend for the PC.1C describes the game as a "true rejuvenation" of the PC classic, though we're having to balance enthusiasm for revisiting our youth with the fact that the game is being coded by a completely unknown outfit known as Katauri Interactive. Still, judging by the title's newly launched website, which is home to details, videos, and enough screens to choke a horse, we can't help but be a little interested. Atari is set to publish the game when it's released, though it's currently anyone's guess when that will be. Even so, with both this, and Ubisoft's previously announced Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms in the pipeline, those of us at Joystiq proper with a thing for strategy are feeling a sensation all too uncommon. Is this love?%Gallery-17829%
Ubi brings free Heroes of Might and Magic MMO to the web
When looking for games, the web browser is the sort of place we expect to find casual knock offs or children's MMOs. It's certainly not the first place (or even the twelfth place) we'd expect to play the next big strategy release from Ubisoft, yet that is exactly what the powerhouse is planning with Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms, an upcoming free to play web-based entry in the long-running HoMM franchise. According to Ubi, the game will not require players to download or install any software, and just to make things a bit more strange, Kingdoms is described as a persistent MMO, meaning you may soon be defending your castle walls from assault by a preteen boasting an unhealthy cocktail of vitamin-R and bone dragons. Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms is expected to make its online debut worldwide next spring, though Ubi notes that Heroes of Might and Magic: Complete Edition, which ships today in Europe, will include beta keys for those eager to get a jump on the rest of us.
Freeverse product update (Macworld Expo)
Freeverse occupies a typical booth at the Macworld Expo in an atypical space; instead of joining the few Mac gaming companies located in the North Hall, Freeverse holds down a corner of the bustling South Hall. Brothers Ian Lynch Smith and Colin Lynch Smith gave us updates about the company. (Full disclosure: this writer has occasionally created trailers for Freeverse games.)The longtime Mac developer and publisher chose the South Hall because, like other Mac game publishers, Freeverse has diversified and sells "more than just games," according to Colin. (Indeed, vector graphic app Lineform, audio recorder Sound Studio, and comic maker Comic Life Deluxe are on display.)For games, the company is showing its nearly-finished Mac version of Heroes of Might and Magic V, the first game published using the quick-port Cider technology. Cider helps translate Windows APIs, but the resulting games require an Intel Mac -- which is itself basically PC hardware. As the Cider guinea pig, Freeverse is looking forward to charting the game's sales against its costs.Big Bang Brain Games -- Freeverse's take on Brain Training -- the latest Burning Monkey Solitaire, and other titles are also being showcased. The brothers remained cautiously optimistic about game sales, saying they expect 2007 to be better than 2006's transition to Intel hardware.
