If you have been wondering what the so-called "elite" units are going to be in the Special Forces version of Empire: Total War, wonder no more. Valve's Steam service has now revealed the six special units that are included in the $69.99 version of the upcoming historical RTS game from The Creative Assembly and Sega.

Oddly enough, Steam is also offering the elite units as a separate $20 download (although you can just get the Special Forces package which adds the units automatically). What does an extra Andrew Jackson get you in the game? No phasers or jet planes, unfortunately, but you will get four different types of infantry forces along with the Ottoman Organ Gun (does it shoot out ottomans or organs?) and the big one; the HMS Victory.

This is the famous 104 gun sea vessel commanded by Lord Nelson of the Royal Navy. Lord Nelson died while commanding the vessel at the famous Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She still is a commissioned vessel of the British Navy although she is now dry docked. And that's your history lesson for today.

UK based Feral Interactive has been doing a good job of bringing several older PC games to the native Mac platform in the past year or so. Today the company announced that their latest Mac port will be for Rome: Total War, the historical RTS game from developer The Creative Assembly.

The game was first released via Activision in the fall of 2004 (the developer is now owned by Sega). Feral's Mac port will be of the Gold Edition of the game which will include both the original and the Barbarian Wars expansion pack. Feral will release the game this March for $29.99. Of course, the developers' latest game, Empire: Total War, will be released for the PC this March as well.

Yet another independent MMO title is getting ready to open up their game to the public. Atlanta based Hi-Rez Studios has announced that they are now taking sign-ups on their official web site for the closed beta test for Global Agenda, their Unreal Engine 3 based near-future title.

The closed beta is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year and Hi-Rez is shooting for a late 2009 launch date for the full game. The beta will allow players to develop an "agent" character and join with other agents in high tech PvE missions. The beta will also support PvP combat with a wide variety of weapons, armor and devices

This patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky fixes bugs and improves gameplay. Steam customers should try using the autoupdater before considering use of the direct download patch. Continue reading for full patch notes.
Download STALKER: Clear Sky v1.5.08 Patch [Retail] (58 MB)
Download STALKER: Clear Sky v1.5.08 Patch [Digital Download] (58 MB)
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It's been a while since we have gotten any new info on Dark Void, the upcoming alternate universe action game from developer Airtight Games and publisher Capcom. Today, however, Capcom released some new screenshots from the title (14 in all) that we have reproduced and added to our screenshot gallery for the game.

The new shots retain the sort of "future-retro" look we have seen in previous screenshots of Dark Void. The player portrays a man that's pushed into an alternate Earth that's ruled by aliens and teams up with a small resistance of humans to defeat the alien threat. Capcom has yet to announce a release date for Dark Void but we expect it to be released in the back half of 2009. You can read a hands-on preview of Dark Void from last July's E3 right here at Big Download.

The folks at Razer continue to put out high quality PC gaming accessories and at the Consumer Electronics Show today the company announced two new products including a new wireless PC gaming mouse and a new headset. The mouse product is called the Mamba with 5600 dpi support, 14 hours of battery life and even a cord for folks who want to switch to wired mouse gaming. The Mamba will be released this February for $129.99

The Carcharias is Razer's newest gaming oriented PC headset and includes features such as interchangable ear pads and an inline remote. The product will be released later this month for $79.99.

Capcom continues their media burst from CES today with a whopping 25 new screenshots from Flock, their first downloadable game for 2009. The game from developer Proper Games is due out this February and looks to be something that's out of the norm for a Capcom published title.

As we have mentioned before your task is your herd a number of farm animals, Lemmings-style, into a UFO through a series of puzzle-filled levels. While the game is scheduled for release next month there's been no word yet on pricing. We just hope Capcom released the PC version in a more timely manner than they did with the PC release of Age of Booty...which we are still waiting on, by the way.

The rumblings have been happening for a few months but today CCP announced that their next free expansion for their hit space based MMO EVE Online will be released to subscribers on March 10. On that same date, Atari will release the long awaited retail store version of the game that will contain the core title and all of the expansions.

The new expansion is titled Apocrypha and is described in the press release as the "most ambitious EVE expansion in the game's over five year history". New modular ships will be added to this new expansion along with wormholes in space that will take players to new and unexplored areas of the game's universe. There will also be a revamped way for new players for EVE Online to quickly get started to play the game. Mac games will be happy to know that the retail version of EVE Online will also contain a Premium graphics client for their hardware.

Blizzard continues to sneak out new screenshots for Starcraft II. The official web site for the upcoming sci-fi RTS game just added three more new screenshots which we have added to our gallery of visuals for the game.

Not only that but the web site is giving you the chance to pick which version of the Protoss unit Dark Templar will be put into the final game. You can see the two different versions right here. One has more of a costume look while the other exposes more of the alien's form. You can vote for either one or you can vote to have both models in the game (it would be generated randomly when you decide to build one in the game).

This heavily stylized cinematic trailer for Street Fighter IV gets players pyched to jump into the fight. The game is scheduled to release on consoles next month while a PC release will follow sometime after.

Download HD Street Fighter IV Cinematic Trailer (57 MB)
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Capcom is one of the few game publishers going all out at the Consumer Electronics Show this week and as part of that promotion they have released even more new action filled screeenshots of their long awaited fighting game Street Fighter IV.

We have added the 10 new shots to our already massive gallery of Street Fighter IV visuals which include this shot of...well...Fei Long after an all night drunk, apparently. The Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles get this game next month but PC owners are still wondering when our promised port will be coming from Capcom. Hopefully we will get some more info on that front soon.

If you want full 3D action for a ton of current PC games and don't feel funny about wearing some glasses to get the effect, then Nvidia has the new product for you. Officially announced today as part of the Consumer Electronics Show, the graphics chip maker announced the GeForce 3D Vision, a set of special glasses that enables people to see PC games in 3D if you have the correct GeForce GPU in your rig along with the right monitor.

Monitors from Samsung and Viewsonic support 3D game viewing through the new product along with Mitsubish HDTVs and DepthQ HD 3D projectors. A list of PC games that support the GeForce 3D Vision is available at Nvidia's web site. You can purchase the product now at Nvidia's web site and at select online retailers for $199. You can also purchase the product with a Samsung monitor for $598.

Just about a year ago, Boston based game developer Iron Lore closed its doors. It received praised for its products including its debut game, the action-RPG Titan Quest. However the company failed to get funding for upcoming projects it had been developing.

Now two former Iron Lore team members have announced they have bought the rights to two of Iron Lore's unfinished game projects and have formed Crate Entertainment to get these projects on the right track. Iron Lore's lead designer Arthur Bruno and artist Eric Campanella are currently working on the projects in the offices of Demiurge Studios. A feature article on Crate Entertainment at the Journal of New England Technology web site reveals that one of the two projects is yet another fantasy action-RPG called Black Legion. The game is currently being shopped around to publishers.

[Via Shacknews]

A few months ago we posted up a feature story that took a look at many games that are currently being developed under the radar. We called them "Black Ops games" and since then we have dug even deeper and found even more game titles that as of this writing are currently being created under the cone of silence.

We got what little info we collected on these titles and brought them up into the light for all to see. They include a sci-fi shooter from a MMO developer, a next-gen strategy game, and a company that has raised over $100 million to develop two MMO titles. What is it that they and other developers don't want you to know about yet? Read on to find out more.

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