Auran posts

The train simulation game series with the odd name Trainz is 10 years old in 2011 and to celebrate the development team at Auran have announced plans to create a 10th anniversary Collector's Edition. Due for release on April 21, the special edition will be limited to just 2,500 copies.

Inside the special metal case that's signed by the game's development team, the $149 (Australian) Collector's Edition will have the latest game in the series, Trainz Simulator 12 with multiplayer, along with lots of extras including a poster, a certificate of authenticity, a keyboard shortcut, a 245 page extended game manual and a ticket good for 30 free days for "super speed access" to the game's Download Station with a 20 percent discount good for more time for the Download Station.

And if that wasn't enough, 10 copies of the Collector's Edition will have inside a Willy Wonka-style Golden Ticket that adds even more free extras. Owners of the Golden Ticket will get free copies of all future Trainz releases for the next five years, lifetime high speed access to the download station, and will be recreated as a virtual driver in Trainz itself.

The Trainz Simulator series of railroad sim games have been released for years in several incarnaions but so far the games have been single player only affairs. That is now changing with the announcement this week that the series will get a multiplayer version called, naturally enough, Trainz Multiplayer.

Specific details about the gameplay have yet to be announced but publisher N3V Games states in a press release,"Trainz Multiplayer will let you interact with your friends and other Trainz players from all over the world." People who own the current game in the series, Trainz Simulator 2010, will be able to participate in Trainz Multiplayer's beta test by registering the game's CD key on the Planet Auran web site by January 10. The beta will begin sometime in the first quarter of 2011 and Trainz Multiplayer will officially launch in the second quarter of 2011.

Recently the UK-based Railsimulator.com launched its first train sim product Railworks. The product has already spawned a ton of downloadable add-ons via Steam. Now Auran, the team that has been releasing train sims for years, has announced their latest incarnation Trainz Simulator 2010.

The game is slated for a digital download release on November 16 for $39.99 with a retail version shipping to stores on December 1. In addition to adding new routes and being compatible with all content created for the last version of the game (Trainz Simulator 2009), the dev team is hyping the game's use of SpeedTree, the third party development tool that allows for more realistic looking trees and plants in games. Because that what we want in a train sim; better foliage.

The fantasy MMO Fury, the product of the Australian based developer Auran, had tons of hype and even an extensive beta contest where people could win tons of prizes. None of that mattered when the game officially launched in late October (Gamecock handled the US distribution). Riddled with bugs the game failed to attrack an audience and by the end of 2007 Auran had shut down its operations.

Fury itself kept running with a skeleton crew and a few months ago tried to re-launch as Fury League, but it seems like nothing could generate an audience for the game. Now the game's official forums have posted up word that Fury's servers are due to shut down later this week and even the game's web site will go down as well. As the message states, "To all those players who have enjoyed Fury and played countless battles, I am sorry that we could not find a viable business model that would allow you to continue playing. To all those naysayers and doomsdayers, we know that deep down you wanted Fury to succeed. Have fun with your parting wishes :)."

Remember Fury? The fantasy PvP oriented MMO from Auran that has a massive marketing campaign last fall before completing bombing with both critics and players? Well, the development team may have been drastically reduced and the game itself turned into a free-to-play title but Fury is still being updated with new content. Last week the developers announced a new promotional push for Fury with a new PvP league with real money to be given out to players.

Fury League is basically a way for players to earn real money by playing against others in PvP matches. The league has already begun with a qualifying season with $25,000 to be given out in two different competitive ladders later in May. It's also designed as a precursor to the actual launch of Fury League in June. Every game that is played earns a free game ticket for the Fury League launch. So will this new push get more people to play the game? It certainly can't do any worse.

[Via Blue's News]

The folks at Australia based Auran may have suffered a major setback with the launch last October of their fantasy MMO Fury but the team apparently is still working on their other game franchise, the railroad simulator Trainz. Now comes word that publisher Paradox Interactive will be releasing Trainz - The Complete Collection to US stores on June 10 and in Europe on June 13.

This new collection contains pretty much every game released in the Trainz series since the franchise began several years ago, including Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 and 2006 along with four extra Trainz routes, the Trainz Paintshed and the Trainz Ultimate Collection. Basically this new collection will allow you to create the train of your dreams with not only a large collection of pretty much any train and route you can think of but also mod tools that will allow folks to make your own routes as well. We have to say it but, "All aboard."