breakingnews posts

In a major hiring coup for Stardock, the developer of the Galactic Civilizations series and more recently Elemental: War of Magic has revealed exclusively to Big Download that it has hired Jon Shafer to its team. Shafer recently left Firaxis Games where he served as the lead designer behind the studio's most recent game Civilization V. In his new role, Shafer will be helping with the design and increasing mod support for Elemental. At some point in the future he will also be leading his own team at Stardock on an unnanounced new stand alone game for the developer.

Big Download also got to speak briefly with Shafer over the phone earlier today. He told us that he departed Firaxis Games on good terms and while he got a few offers from other studios he told us that he went to Stardock for a number of reasons. One is that he has been an admirer of Stardock's games for some time as a fan. Another is that he wanted to work wth a company that that the freedom to make the kinds of games he wanted to make. Shafer told us he could give out any info on what his stand alone project will be for the company as Stardock is still concentrating its efforts on updating Elemental, including the release of at least two expansion packs.

Shafer will be working with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell who will continue to work as Executive Producer of all of Stardock's game titles. As we reported back in October, Stardock hired Derek Paxton, the lead designer behind the well known Civilization IV mod Fall From Heaven, to serve as Senior Producer of Elemental. Shafer told us that Stardock has "lots of awesome stuff" planned for the future of Elemental.

After its rocky launch last August, Stardock has continued to update Elemental, including a massive free 1.1 patch that was officially released last December. More patches are in the works as two expansion packs to the game. Wardell has stated on the game's official message board that sales of Elemental have continued to rise in the last three months of 2010. In another message board post he gives a general idea of where Stardock plans to improve and expand the game, adding, "I approved the necessary budget in December to fund Elemental for both 2011 and 2011." In addition he states, "Stardock has some other game projects that start up this year as well and the publishing group is working on some new things as well. So it's going to be a pretty exciting year for Stardock gamers."

As we reported last week, developer Trion Worlds is getting close to launching the first closed beta test for Rift, the long-in-development fantasy MMO that was first known as Heroes of Telara and later Rift: Planes of Telara before its most recent name change. Big Download is now giving our readers a chance to check the beta out for themselves.

We have 200 keys for the closed beta test to give away. All you have to do is send an email to contests@bigdownload.com with the subject line "Rift Closed Beta Key". If you receive a key from us all you have to do is head to the game's official web site, sign up for an account and enable the key. The first closed beta event will be held from December 3-5 and other beta events will be held in the days, weeks and months ahead. Good luck.

Update: All the beta keys have been given out. Thanks for everyone who entered

One of the oldest first person shooter game franchises has a new home. Hi-Rez Studios, who released the sci-fi first person shooter MMO Global Agenda earlier this year, has announced that it has acquired the rights to the Tribes game franchise. Hi-Rez is already at work on the next game in the sci-fi shooter series, to be called Tribes Universe.

The surprise announcement was made in a post late on Saturday on the official Global Agenda message boards (free registration required to read the message) by Hi-Rez Studios' CEO Erez Goren. In his message he stated that the idea behind the Tribes acquisition actually started when they realized they could not expand Global Agenda in terms of player and map size beyond the game's current limits so the decision was mad to make an all new game that would have support for over 100 players at once with massive levels, vehicles and more.

Goren states, "While working through the design we kept coming back to one old and loved game that represented many of the concepts we where incorporating into the new game (Jetpacks, vehicles, large open space, three armor types, futuristic weapons, etc)." Of course Goren is describing Tribes and the company apparently decided to go ahead and purchase the Tribes IP. The previous owners of the Tribes property, InstantAction.com, have confirmed the purchase via its own message board post, saying, "HiRez owns all rights and any questions regarding Tribes development should be directed to them." Specific financial numbers for the deal have not been revealed.

Goren stated the new Tribes Universe will have, among other things, a fully persistent world with three factions, massive maps that are 10 times the size of the largest Global Agenda map, ground and air vehicles, "lots of weapons", jetpacks, clan support, "skiing." and more. Goren assured Global Agenda players that the game will continue to be supported and updated while Tribes Universe will be developed by a separate team at Hi-Rez. Alpha testing for Tribes Universe will begin at the start of 2011 and according to Goren, "Global Agenda players with level 50 characters will have priority in entering Alpha and Beta testing."

[Via Massively]

It's been over a year since Dallas-based Ensemble Studios, the creators of the best selling historical RTS game series Age of Empires, was shut down by its owner Microsoft. Today the company announced plans for the next version of the game franchise with Age of Empires Online, a new title that's being created by Robot Entertainment, the new Dallas-based developed that was co-founded by Tony Goodman who also co-founded Ensemble Studios.

In its official press release Microsoft is describing the gameplay of Age of Empires Online as "a living, growing online world, shared with friends and friendly rivals around the globe." Players will begin by controlling the ancient Greeks and guide the civilization to becoming an empire. Players will be able to play the game solo but Microsoft seems to be putting the emphasis on social gameplay with multiplayer missions with friends. Your capital city in the game will apparently change and grow even if you are not playing the title. From the brief press release it sounds like the game will have a "free-to-play" portion but its currently unclear how far that goes.

Microsoft announced no release date for Age of Empires Online in today's press release. However it did state there will be a beta test of the game at some point. We hope to get screenshots and more media from the game soon.

Update 1: We just got the first screenshots from Age of Empires Online, which shows a more "cartoony" art style than the Age of Empires games developed by Ensemble.

Update 2: The game's official web site is now live and letting folks sign up to be considered for the game's beta test. The site also stated Age of Empires Online will be a digital download-only game and is planned for full release in 2011.

The game is still a long ways from completion with 2K Games saying it will debut sometime in 2012. Our sister site Joystiq got to see a presentation of BioShock Infinite and also chatted with Irrational Games' head man Ken Levine about the game. They ask the big questions like, "Why a new BioShock game instead of a completely original title?" and "Why a city in the sky?" and more. You can bet there will be a lot more revealed about the game in the coming months. In the meantime you can check out the official press release after the jump.

Get the BioShock Infinite trailer at Big Download (134 MB)

Gallery: BioShock Infinite Screenshots

We took a one day break from our StarCraft II giveaway week on Wednesday but today we are back with the third of four planned giveaways based on Blizzard's just released sci-fi RTS sequel. Today we got two copies of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, the recent hardcover novel written by WilliamC Dietz, to give out to two of our readers. The novel tells of the early history of StarCraft character Jim Raynor and serves as a prequel to the events in StarCraft II (you can check out an interview we did with Dietz right here). We will even throw in a copy of World of Warcraft Stormrage, the recent hardcover novel from author Richard A. Knaak, to the winners of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils.

How do you win? It's pretty easy

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, August 1
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a hardcover copy of the novel StarCraft Heaven's Devils (valued at approximately $25) and a copy of the hardcover novel World of Warcraft Stormrage (valued at approximately $25)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to publisher Gallery Books for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. And stay tuned on Friday for our final and very special StarCraft II-related giveaway

The folks at developer The Creative Assembly are known for their post-release support of the games in the Total War RTS series. It's no exception for the latest game in the franchise Napoleon Total War. Recently a big downloadable expansion pack was released for the game called The Peninsular Campaign, adding a new single player campaign, a new playable faction, lots of new units and more.

If you own the game but haven't yet downloaded the expansion via Steam you may be in luck. Big Download has two Steam codes for Napoleon Total War The Peninsular Campaign to give to two of our readers. Please keep in mind that you must be an owner of Napoleon Total War in order to play the expansion.

That said, if you want a chance to win one of our two codes here is what you do:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 14
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those two winners will each be sent a Steam code to download Napoleon Total War The Peninsular Campaign (valued at $9.99 each)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to publisher Sega's PR rep for sending the codes for this giveaway. Good luck.

The long awaited date has come for StarCraft II fans. Blizzard's long awaited sci-fi RTS game now has an official release date of July 27. That's a worldwide release date by the way. The game will be released on that day in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Blizzard also repeated their pledge to offer the game via digital download on their Battle.net system. However that will happen sometime after the July 27 retail release. The game will come in a standard $60 and a $100 Collector's Edition with lots of extras.

Steam continues with its Rockstar game sales blitz with the recently released Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. For the next four 3.5 hours, the game that includes both the Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony can be purchased for 25 percent off making it $22.49 US. Sale ends 6:00pm EST.

Check out all Episodes from Liberty City downloads

If you have been waiting for a playable demo for the PC port of Lord of the Rings Conquest, you are officially out of luck. Big Download has learned that the Electronic Arts fantasy action game, due for release next week, will not see a demo released for the PC platform unlike the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.

Big Download contacted EA's spokesperson for the game at developer Pandemic Studios who told us flat out, "There is no plan for a demo on PC." The spokesperson did not elaborate on why the PC version will not see such a release. A multiplayer demo for the game was released for PS3 owners just before Christmas and the Xbox 360 console got the same demo the day after New Year's Day.

EA has been notoriously stingy of late in releasing PC demos for its multiplatform games. Two such games released in 2008, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, had demos for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles but not for the PC version. And of course neither the PC nor consoles got a demo of EA's 2008 driving game Need For Speed Undercover.