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This week the GameTap online PC game subscription-download service has added the third person action game Damnation to its list of titles people can play for free with their monthly subscription rate. The game, released last spring, began life as an Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion before it was made into a commercial game by the developer Blue Omega Entertainment.

In related news, the 2007 WWII action-strategy game Battlestations Midway is still free to play on GameTap until this Tuesday, November 24. Also two more games have been given 64-bit support; the casual game Jewel Craft and the historical RTS game Praetorians. Finally, next week's update on GameTap will come on Tuesday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yet another game developer seems to have suffered an early death following the release of their main project. This time Shacknews is reporting the Maryland-based Blue Omega Entertainment may have closed up shop. The team was responsible for the recent third person action game Damnation, which was released in late May by publisher Codemasters to universally poor reviews. One of Blue Omega's now former programmers, Geoff Rowland, revealed the shut down a few days ago on his Twitter account.

Shacknews has also gotten court documents that show that Damnation (which began its life as a Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion mod) had a troubled development history. The documents show that Blue Omega hired two other development teams to do contract work on the game but had issues with both of them and at one point Codemasters tried to remove Blue Omega from the game entirely.

This developer narrated video for Damnation highlights the multiplayer features players can look forward to. As seen in the video, the vertically designed levels make a huge difference in gameplay, setting Damnation apart from most other action shooter games. Damnation is scheduled to release next week on May 26th.

Download HD Damnation 'Competitive Multiplayer' Video (112 MB)
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After delaying the game from an initial fall 2008 release, Codemasters is finally preparing their third person action game Damnation for a release late this week on Steam (and in stores the day after Memorial Day). While the "steampunk" style title from developer Blue Omega Entertainment is something of an unknown factor, there is an incentive to pre-ordering the game on Steam

That incentive is a free Codemasters title, specifically the 2005 third person action game Second Sight. The title from the team formerly known as Free Radical Design (and now known as Crytek UK) featured a character who learned how to use his psi abilities to his advantage. You can download and play Second Sight for free immediately when you pre-order Damnation; it's a $9.99 value on Steam

These two developer videos for Damnation show team members from Blue Omega demonstrating different aspects players will experience in the game. The first video, shown above, Art Director Adam Diller explains the use of steampunk style and technology used throughout Damnation, which takes place in an alternate history Wild-West America. In the second video, which can be seen after the jump, Producer Richard Gilbert and others go into detail about how players will navigate the vertically designed world. The game is scheduled to release in May.

Download HD Damnation 'Steam Punk' Video (142 MB)
Download HD Damnation 'Getting Around' Video (146 MB)
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Jacob Minkoff, Lead Game Designer at Blue Omega Entertainment, talks in great detail about Damnation's unique level design, which features many vertically designed maps. The game, which takes place in an alternate history Wild West United States, is expected to release on May 22nd.

Download HD Damnation 'Level Design' Video (171 MB)
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It's been a few months since we have heard anything about Damnation. The third person "steampunk" style action game was supposed to be released by publisher Codemasters last fall but it got pushed back to sometime this year. The current release date is sometime in the second quarter of 2009 with retailers showing a mid-April time period at the moment.

Codemasters recently sent over some new screenshots from the game, which began life as a Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion and was later turned into a full fledged commercial game by Blue Omega Entertainment. The new shots, which we have added to our gallery, show off some of the game's more vertical levels along with some motorcycle vehicle action. Will this game transcend its mod roots? We should find out shortly.

It's a game that hasn't gotten as much attention as other this year but the steampunk third person action title Damnation seems to be getting closer to a release date. This week the game's publisher Codemasters relaunched the game's official web site and offered up some new single and multiplayer screenshots as well.

The game focuses on acrobatic combat alongside level design that emphasizes both the horizontal and the vertical (yes, we watch The Outer Limits). The big question is whether the development team at Blue Omega Entertainment can take this former Unreal Engine 2 total conversion and turn it into a full blown Unreal Engine 3 game. Damnation is still scheduled for release before the end of the year.

The developers of Damnation, an upcoming shooter set in an alternate history Old West America, discuss the use of navigation and verticality in this video.

Download the HD Damnation "Verticality" Trailer (140 MB)

The upcoming Unreal Engine 3 powered action game Damnation has several things going for it. For one it's not a sequel or licenced property but an original title that takes place in an alternate timeline where the Wild West meets weird looking technology. For another the game, developed by Blue Omega Entertainment, looks like it will use vertical space much more than the normal action game.

That particular trait is demontrated in four new screenshots that publisher Codemasters sent over to promote the title. As you can see the shots show our player character dealing not just with what's ahead of him but what's above him as well. Damnation is currently being shown by online retailers as coming out in mid-December. We will update if the game slips into 2009.