cyanide-studio posts

Stand back, boys. It's time to see what the ladies can do. That's what developer Cyanide Studio and publisher Focus Home Interactive must have had in mind when they decided to put in an Amazon team in the upcoming Blood Bowl Legendary Edition.

Yes, the revamp of 2009's fantasy themed sports-strategy game will be getting a woman's touch. The Amazons are similar to the Human team (although we are sure the Amazons themselves might have something to say about that). This team benefits from its dodging skills and constant movement on the field The distracting outfits might help, too. The game is still due for release in the fall of 2010.

Over a year ago developer Cyanide Studio announced that it has secured the game rights to the fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire from author George R.R. Martin. Today Cyanide and publisher Focus Home Interactive have announced the first game based on the license, a strategy title called A Game Of Thrones: Genesis.

Details are scarce at this point but the official press release states that the game will allow players to be a part of the battles between families of the books' Kingdom of Westeros. In addition to military might players will also have ways to defeat their foes via economic or diplomatic means. As the press release states players will be able to " ... peacefully or forcefully annex surrounding territories, besiege enemy castles, send spies to infiltrate behind enemy lines, assassinate trouble-making officers or capture them to ask for a ransom" and more. No release date for the game was announced.

The book series will be getting lots of attention in spring 2011. That's when HBO is scheduled to launch a TV series based on A Song of Ice and Fire called Game of Thrones.

The announcement earlier this year of Blood Bowl Legendary Edition meant that fans of the previous game can now expect a new version with a ton of new teams added to this mix of fantasy strategy and sports. One of those new teams was revealed this week, the Norse faction.

As one might expect the Norse team are high powered bruisers on the Blood Bowl fields and can even bring in some Yetis to help them out in matches. And you thought Lambeau Field is cold? Get ready for a true blizzard when you play a game at the Norse's Blood Bowl stadium. The final game from developer Cyanide Studio with all 20 teams plus a new story mode is still scheduled for release this fall.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the unique fantasy strategy-sports game Blood Bowl would be getting an upgrade with Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition. Today one of the game's 11 new factions was revealed on the game's official web site. It's the Halflings, this smaller sized team does have a number of disadvantages over the other teams.

However the web site says Halfling teams can win matches sometimes "with luck and culinary talent" and the Tree-Men Halflings can actually throw the smaller team members with the ball to the goal. The new version of Blood Bowl from developer Cyanide Studio and publisher Focus Home Interactive will be released late in 2010.

[Via Blue's News]

One of the most unusual PC games of 2009 was Blood Bowl, a fantasy-themed sports-strategy game based on the Games Workshop board game. Today the game's publisher Focus Home Interactive announced Blood Bowl Legendary Edition, a new version of the game with lots of additional content.

Developed once again by Cyanide Studio, this new version will contain the eight races from the original and an additional 12 new races including Undeads, Amazons and Ogres. New stadiums will also be added as well as an all new Story mode that will reveal the origins of the Blood Bowl while the player takes on the role of a freelance coach. The game is slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2010.

There are so few sports games released on the PC nowadays that sometimes we want to remind our audience that they are still being made for some genres. Take the just announced Pro Cycling Manager/Tour de France 2010 game from publisher Focus Home Interactive. The latest entry in the bicycling sports/sim game is being developed by Cyanide Studio, the same folks that released Blood Bowl in 2009.

The game uses a new and improved graphics engine for the 2010 entry as you can see from the first public screenshots. It will also have a fully customizable Season Mode as well as a new track editor with lots of options including weather. There's no word yet on when the game will be released.

A few weeks ago we speculated that Blood Bowl might finally be coming to US retail stores via Southpeak Games. Today Southpeak confirmed that they would indeed be publishing the fantasy-themed strategy-sports game in January.

The game from developer Cyanide Studio has been available to US audiences via download for some time, most recently via Steam. Now folks who insist on getting PC games at brick and mortar stores can do so. The PC version will be released alongside the Xbox 360 version of the game. In addition, a PSP version will be coming to US shores sometime in the spring.

Cyanide Studio's PC adaptation of the Games Workshop tabletop game title Blood Bowl has been a big retail hit in Europe but so far the game has yet to appear on US store shelves. Now it looking likely like Southpeak Games could be the company to bring this mix of US football with fantasy strategy elements to our shores.

A new listing on GameStop's web site shows Southpeak as the publisher for the game and listing its US release for January 26. The game has been available via paid download for US citizens from the official Blood Bowl web site since last summer and last month it made its appearance on Steam. When contacted by Big Download today, a PR rep from Southpeak would not confirm or deny that the company will be handling Blood Bowl's US retail release.

After reaching the top of the sales charts in the UK, Blood Bowl is now coming to North America. This free patch adds on a ninth all-new faction to the game existing game: the dreaded Dark Elves. The trailer shown above shows these devious players in action. Be aware that his patch is for the original version purchased directly from the official website, and not the one that's releasing on Steam next week, which already includes the Dark Elves.

"Blood Bowl, the imaginary forerunner of football, is an ultra violent team sport set in the Warhammer fantasy universe. It lets players compose a team of Orcs, Elves, Humans, Dwarves and many other fantasy creatures before jumping into the bloodiest arenas. The sport game is both strategic and violent. It requires tactics, a certain amount of game-sense and a lot of self-confidence."

Download Blood Bowl Dark Elves Add-On Patch (130 MB)
Download HD Blood Bowl Dark Elves Trailer (96 MB)
Check out all Blood Bowl downloads

While the fantasy-themed sports-strategy game Blood Bowl has been available via download for US gamers since it's official release last June, we suspect not a lot of folks knew that they could grab this unusual mix of genres from developer Cyanide Studio. That may change, however, with the announcement today that the game will be made available for download on Thanksgiving (appropriate for a game based loosely on American football) via the much higher profile Steam service

The Steam version will include all of the content of the previous edition and will add the new Dark Elves faction to the game's eight other playable sides (owners of the previous version can download a free update that adds the new faction). Steam is also offering a 10 percent pre-order discount to the game before it goes live. If you are looking for a very different game experience, Blood Bowl might be up your alley.