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Not slowing down after an exciting week of announcements at the Paradox Interactive Convention, today Paradox Interactive reveals the first trailer for Majesty 2: Kingmaker. Offering fans a preview of what to expect from the first expansion to Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, witness the goblin invasion as the green menaces of the night terrorize the lands of Ardania.

To view the action, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNpYX3KrKOQ

Featuring the brand new “Return of Grum-Gog” campaign, Majesty 2: Kingmaker will be available in Q1 2010 on all major digital distribution portals.

Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is available in retail and for digital download on all leading digital distribution platforms. For more information about Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, please visit http://www.majesty2.com and follow @pdxinteractive on Twitter.

For all the latest Majesty 2 news and beyond, visit the recently redesigned www.paradoxplaza.com

The Gauntlet, IGG’s brand new Freesky Online (http://fo.igg.com) server, will soon be up with tons of new content at the end of the month. The Gauntlet will offer FO players a much fairer battlefield to explore and challenge them while narrowing the gap between advanced players and those lagging behind.

The newly updated world of The Gauntlet is filled with magic and excitement. Players who never purchase items in the Item Mall will find it easier to compete than previously. The number of advanced items sold in the Item Mall will be extremely limited, so the gap between the most powerful and weakest players won’t be as wide. To survive in PVP, players will need to rely on ability and teamwork more than ever. With more competitive PVP, more players can enjoy that side of the game, even if they never thought they could keep up in the past.

The Gauntlet retains the classical gameplay features of other servers, but also adds a brand new operation model to the game that helps weaker players advance. On the new server, the number of times Treasure Boxes open for free has been increased, and the limited number of items sold in the Item Mall will cost much less than the ones on other servers. In addition, players can choose from 2 stunning architecture types. These changes enable FO players to pay less while leveling rapidly, making The Gauntlet a more balanced battlefield that will attract non-consumer players who want to join in the fun.

Please visit http://fo.igg.com for more information about The Gauntlet.

Running since Friday morning (01/22/2010), GOG.com started a countdown to the biggest announcement in GOG.com’s history!

The countdown will reach it’s end on Thursday, January 28 at noon CET (6:00 a.m. EDT). That is when they will reveal the secret!

GOG.com users are already guessing what is the secret announcement on the forums: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/the_countdown_has_started/
“There are some great expectations about our this and we promise we won’t let classic games fans down. In the next days we’ll give some hints that should give our users a clue what the announcement is all about. ” (From the press release)

Check it out, the clues are there, and they promise it will be exciting. Classic gamers take notice! We’ll keep up on it and let you know what the big news is all about, in the meantime, visit the forums and see if you can guess for yourself!

G4BOX Inc., announced that it will launch a brand new website for its military shooter, Cross Fire. The completely redesigned site includes a new blog-style news section and RSS feed, YouTube video integration, a new weapons guide, and a cool new community and contests section. The site re-launch also brings with it the unveiling of the long-teased “Rival Factions” event and an exciting new trailer. To check out the new site features and to download the game for free, visit http://crossfire.z8games.com.

Today, the Cross Fire website will be re-launched in order to better serve the growing Cross Fire community. The new site will offer numerous new and exciting features and benefits including, a blog-style news section with an RSS feed, YouTube video integration featuring community and fan-made videos, an extensive weapons catalogue and stats guide, and an all-new community contests section where players can quickly and easily submit and view screenshots and videos for future contests. All this, in addition to the launch of the highly-anticipated “Rival Factions” event.

“We have been waiting a long time to reveal the completely redesigned Cross Fire website to our community and fans. There are so many great new features that players can use to enhance their game,” said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX. “We’re also quite excited to launch the ongoing “Rival Factions” event, a unique event unlike any other in the free-to-play space.”

At the heart of Cross Fire is the conflict between Black List terrorists and Global Risk mercenaries. Now, as part of the new “Rival Factions” event starting January 22nd 2010, a winner can finally be declared. Upon visiting the “Rival Factions” event page, players will be forced to make an important choice: Black List or Global Risk? Once players choose a side, they will be entered into a game-wide clan for each faction, competing together as one team to influence the outcome of monthly missions that promise to finally tell the real story behind Cross Fire. Competing in missions can also earn players special in-game rewards.

Cross Fire is a free online military first-person shooter for Windows PCs supporting Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk operative and compete in various modes of play including Free-for-All, Team Death Match and the exclusive stealth-action Ghost Mode. Cross Fire includes a military ranking system, in-game friends lists, an integrated clan system, and deep character customization options. Cross Fire is part of the Z8Games platform of free-to-play games.

Cross Fire is free-to-download-and-play. Visit the Cross Fire homepage at: http://crossfire.z8games.com

For more information about G4BOX visit www.g4box.com. For more information about the Z8Games lineup of games please visit www.z8games.com.

NecroVisioN: Lost Company, the sequel to the old-school first-person shooter NecroVisioN, launched a new website with overview, key features, latest news and much more about the title. The website is available at http://www.necrovision-game.com

NecroVisioN: Lost Company is the prequel to the old-school horror FPS and covers the events that happened before the NecroVisioN story began. The game contains several unique levels, characters and weapons, as well as a new main hero that tells the original game story from an opposing perspective.

Player now acts as one of the WWI German soldiers that discovers the evil forces unleashed by the war and starts to fight against them. Eventually he leads soldiers from all the nations gathered on the front through massive battles against zombies and demons. Finally the player becomes the first Necromancer that was defeated by Simon Bukner in NecroVisioN.

NecroVisioN: Lost Company is scheduled for release in February 2010.

With the debut of their new title, Lords Online, progressing smoothly, officials at IGG are announcing the opening of their official Lords Online game page on Facebook, the massive social networking community of more than 250 million users.

To allow players to log directly into Lords Online, an APP plug was added to the Facebook interface on January 15th. All players need to start their very own kingdom is a Facebook account.

The Facebook initiative is just one of many planned by the Lords Online team, which is looking to cooperate with other popular websites in the very near future, and welcome even more players to join the fun and add to the growing community of gamers who already enjoy Lords Online.

Visit http://apps.facebook.com/lords_online/ to add the Lords Online page into your Facebook applications.

If you’re a fan of the Facebook version of Mafia Wars by Zynga, it’s newest area, Bangkok is in the beta stages. Check the news on the bottom of your Mafia Wars “home” page, and click to see if you have been granted access to the beta.

For those of you who are addicted to Mafia Wars, this area is similar to the Moscow area, with the twist that once you complete your selected “side” you are free to help the other (Triad and Yakuza). You have a bar at the top which shows your Faction trust level. There will be special items that you can buy for either faction, but when you fight for one, the level for the other goes down, and you access to the store may be revoked if you are too loyal to one side or the other.

Also back are the businesses, which are the way to make extra money in the game, and this also continues on with the Cuba and Moscow “click to get paid” method.

Zynga has crafted yet another area for those of us who are power hungry enough to conquer all, so get ready, and look for that passport soon!

Popular Free-To-Play MMO Kicks Off New Adventures and Events for Side-scrolling Gamers

THQ Inc. and THQ*ICE LLC, the recently launched joint venture between THQ and ICE Entertainment focusing on free-to-play online games, today launched Dekard, the brand new game server for the critically acclaimed, free-to-play MMO Dragonica™ Online (http://dragonica.thqice.com). THQ*ICE welcomes players of all free-to-play MMO games to experience the best 3D side-scrolling game of the year in the new server.

Dekard provides Dragonica Online players a fresh start to begin their journeys anew with friends. To commemorate the launch of the new server there will be several special in-game events including experience boosts, gifts, races and new missions. In addition, new users that register during the launch of the new server will be automatically entered into the Dragonica Online Water Series Game Card Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $2,500 Best Buy gift card and limited edition Dragonica Online Water Series Game Cards loaded with ICE Cash.

THQ*ICE also announced today the launch of a new Dragonica Online high-level dungeon – the Van Cliff Mansion! Vampirism is plaguing the land and a sense of dark magic is seeping from an old, elegant mansion. That mansion belongs to Count Van Cliff, and Dragonica Online needs adventurers courageous enough to travel through pitch-black prisons, treacherous libraries, and poisonous botanical gardens to reach Count Van Cliff himself. If you survive the journey and the showdown with the Count, lavish jewelry and untold riches are there for your looting pleasure!

Developed by Barunson Interactive, Dragonica Online is set in a world of dragons and magic and takes adventurers across the windswept land of El Grego to the far reaches of the world. Gorgeous visuals complement lightning fast combat while 3D side-scrolling battlegrounds let you get the upper hand on opponents. Dragonica Online is the only free-to-play fantasy action massively multiplayer game to merge innovative 3D side scrolling gameplay, arcade combat and a hilarious, yet devastating, skill system into a single MMO. Combining intense action with quirky humor, Dragonica Online breathes 3D fun into the traditional side-scrolling gameplay.

Dragonica Online is rated E10+ for Everyone over the age of 10. Register to play at http://dragonica/thqice.com, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dragonicathqice and join us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/dragonicaonline.

For more information on THQ*ICE please visit: www.thqice.com. For more information about THQ please visit: www.thq.com.

Release Date: March 16, 2010 in North America

Rating: Rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB

PC Specs :

Minimum Configuration:

SUPPORTED OS: Windows® XP (32-64 bits) /Windows Vista®(32-64 bits)/Windows 7® (32-64 bits)

Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHZ

RAM: 1.5 GB Windows® XP / 2 GB Windows Vista® – Windows 7®

Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 –compliant sound card

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0

DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive

Hard Drive Space: 8 GB

Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller

* This product does not support Windows® 98/ME/2000/NT

Recommended Configuration:

Processor: Intel Core® 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better

Video Card: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 or better

Sound: 5.1 sound card

Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, joystick optional (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)

Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

ATI® RADEON® X1950, HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series

NVIDIA GeForce® 7/8/9/100/200 series

Pricing:

Standard: Main game + Extra sequences Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities: $59.99 [Retail and Digital]

Black Edition: Main game + Extra sequences Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities + additional content: $64.99 [Digital Only]

Platform: PC
Genre: Action MMORPG
Release Date: 2009
Developer: Cyanide Studios
Publisher: PlayEnvy
ESRB Rating: RP

Closed Beta1: January 22^nd, 2010

Release Date: March 19^th, 2010

Background

Dungeon Bandits, the North American and Australian counterpart to Europe’s Dungeon Party, will be published by PlayEnvy, a service of Nvinium Games.  Scheduled to release in March of 2010, PlayEnvy is introducing new, more dynamic content to a game that has already been enjoyed by thousands of European gamers.

Game Description

Dungeon Bandits is a fast paced dungeon crawler that allows teams of up to 5 players to compete against other teams for the right to the dungeon’s treasure.   Players must fight their way past challenging monsters , bosses, traps and face off against the opposing team in order to claim victory in a game that highly dependent on skillful strategy.

The game operates as an instanced dungeon that is entered through a lobby style set up.  You can either join existing instances, or you can form your own.  Instance leaders set the overall terms of the matches, such as; how many players will compete, what type of map, how many matches, how many treasures it contains, and several other factors.  Great support, fun events and ongoing game improvements makes Dungeon Bandits a fun and rewarding experience for anyone.

Product Features

• Improved Character Control: PlayEnvy has introduced keyboard movement controls for characters, in addition to the previous movement by point and click.
• New Camera Control: Dungeon Bandits will allow players more camera control, which includes the ability to rotate 360 degrees around the character. Up close 3^rd person perspective is also now possible, allowing players to get into the feel of combat like never before.
• Guild System: Players may form small guilds called Noob Herds which allow players to easily for tournament games and compete for herd rankings.
• 7 Playable Characters: Wizard, Thief, Executioner, Bard, Amazon, Horsewoman, and Engineer.
• Customization: Characters are easily customized to the player’s personality through loads of well designed costumes, armor, weapons, accessories, and facial features.  Players can build a truly unique character.
• Useful skill sets: 13 skills from 3 schools can be earned for each character, all of which are highly useful in combat.  Characters use up to 5 skills in a given match, this allows strategic combination potential as not all players in the same call will be fighting with identical skill set ups.
• Mini Challenges: In addition to the already fast action combat of the dungeons, games can get a bit more interesting once the room turns upside down or if the lights go off. 
• Custom Maps: The Map Editor allows players to contribute content to the game by designing challenging dungeons of their own and share them with the player community.
• Engaging Events: Friendly team of GMs  moderate an aggressive event schedule that rewards players for their accomplishments.  Tournaments, challenges, and other events will occur daily from the PlayEnvy team.
• Ongoing Improvements: Cyanide and PlayEnvy are committed to bringing new and improved content to Dungeon Bandits.  Players can expect regular content updates which will add new systems and dynamics to the game.