1ccompany posts

In this day and age of electronic entertainment's glitz, glamor, and spectacle, the common man is probably more familiar with Captain Jack Sparrow than Captain Blood. A quick-witted physician, sailor, and soldier created by novelist Rafael Sabatini, the author's Captain Blood adventure novel sees the titular character embark on many adventures spanning sea and shore.

Though somewhat physically imposing in the book, developer SeaWolf decided to use a smidgeon of creative liberty by converting Captain Blood into a bigger, bulkier, man's man of a swashbuckling explorer. The result: Captain Blood for Xbox 360 and PC, on display for Microsoft's console at publisher 1C Company's recent press event.

RTS games are fun, aren't they? Ordering your workers to harvest resources and construct buildings; assembling a huge mass of units; upgrading those units to ensure that your guys are stronger than your adversary's guys; sending two groups of units to flank your opponent's base as you're preparing a fresh batch of troops back home, all the while sending a small cluster of workers across the map to steal a prime expansion slot behind and above your enemy's base which will allow you to decimate his workforce while you slam against him from the front and both sides....

Yes, good times. Unfortunately, those who enjoy such gameplay aren't always very adept at putting it all together into one seamless package. One distraction, whether in-game or otherwise, can cost you not just the battle, but the war as well. Developer Best Way's Men of War forgoes base management in favor of a strong focus on battle strategies. Those of you who don't like to fuss over resources will find yourselves in for quite a treat, but be prepared: you don't have to balance food, gold, or vespene gas, but Men of War requires an eye for micromanagement possibly unmatched in the RTS genre.

Exploring a massive ship marooned in the Arctic Circle isn't so bad, really. You'll need to bundle up, of course, because if the snow, ice, and freezing winds don't get to you, the souls of the dead murdered on the ship will be more than enough to chill you to the bone.

Oh, we didn't mention that the dark, cold, abandoned ship was full of prowling ghosts who seek revenge for their untimely deaths? Silly us. Such is the premise for 1C Company's Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason, a game where hypothermia, angry spirits, and a few other nasty things compete to see who or what will get the privilege of killing you first.

If you are unfamiliar with 1C Company, you shouldn't be. The Russian based game developer and publisher is one of the largest software companies in Eastern Europe. Not only do they create their own titles in-house, they also publish a number of European and North American games in their territories (they will soon be publishing the PC version of Mass Effect in Easter Europe as an example). 1C Company has about 900 employees in their Moscow office and it has also started to launch a series of Gamestop-style retail stores in Russia. It has opened 41 stores so far and plans to go up to 70 locations by the end of the year.

Now 1C Company plans to move into the American market even more than they have in the past (in 2007 they a distribution of a number of their titles with Atari). On Thursday night the publisher held their second US press event and it was in a unique location; the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. People who enter the consulate are considered by law to be on Russian soil.

Battlefront.com has been in charge of publishing 1C Company's WWII RTS game Theatre of War via digital downloads or via mail order for nearly a year now. However more people will be able to check out the game thanks to the announcement today that CDV will release the title to retail stores in the US beginning sometime in May. From reading the press release it sounds like the retail version of the game will include all of the extra content that has been made available for download after its initial appearance (two extra single player campaigns, more multiplayer maps, etc).