death-track-resurrection posts

The last full week in March brings a number of major PC retail and downloadable titles down the pike along with a big downloadable expansion:
Stormrise - The Creative Assembly releases this original sci-fi RTS game for publisher Sega featuring battles on a future Earth between technological and biological-themed factions. If you just have Windows XP and DirectX9 installed, you can ignore this game; it's one of the very few that's a Windows Vista-DirectX10 exclusive.

It's one of the biggest issues in PC games; trying to keep titles from being pirated. While some companies use DRM solutions to "protect" their games from pirates some gamers feel such features actually treat real customers like criminals.

Today 1C Company and Aspyr release Men of War, the first of five games that will ship to stores in the US under their publishing agreement over the next few months. In their press release today announcing that Men of War is now shipping 1C Company announced that the WWII RTS game will not have any DRM solutions. Indeed the other four games being released in the agreement (Death Track: Resurrection, Cryostasis, Necrovision, and 4X4 Hummer) wlll all ship to stores DRM free.

[Via email press release]

Earlier this year we reported that 1C Company had inked a deal with Aspyr Media to release a number of their games to retail stores in the US. However if you don't want to fool with that old-fashioned brick-and-mortal approach to buying your games you can also download all of the 1C titles from the Gamersgate download service.

The agreement begins today with Gamersgate offering up the WWII RTS game Men of War on their service for $39.99. In the next couple of months other 1C Company games will be released as digital downloads on Gamersgate including the action-racing game Death Track: Resurrection (March 24), the first person shooter Cryostasis (April 20) the racing sim Hummer 4x4 (May 22) and the first person shooter Necrovision (May 25).

Russian based game publisher 1C Company has been trying to get their titles in the US with mixed amounts of success. Today the game publisher announced a new US distribution deal with Aspyr Media to release several of their titles in the US.

The titles included in the deal are the first person shooter Cryostasis, the driving combat game Death Track: Resurrection, the WWII RTS title Men of War, the horror shooter NecroVisioN and the driving sim game 4X4 Hummer. All of the games are scheduled to be released in the US via Aspyr sometime this spring. Previously 1C Company inked a US distribution deal with Atari for a number of their games.

[Via email press release]

Back in 1989 the now defunct game developer Dynamix created a PC car combat game called Deathtrack that was published by Activision. Now developer SkyFallen Entertainment has created a revamp of the original futuristic driving combat game called Death Track: Resurrection (yes, it's two words this time). The game is being published by 1C Company and has already been released in its native Russia.

Big Download got Julia Vorotynzeva, the PR manager of SkyFallen Entertainment, to tell us more about Death Track: Resurrection including when US gamers can expect a release of the full game in our neck of the woods. You can download a playable demo of the game right now at Big Download.

In Death Track: Resurrection players take on the role of a rookie driver that enters the tournament for the first time. They soon learn that the battle on the track is sometimes not fair and to achieve the top results they need to believe the end justifies the means. After each race all pilots leave the field, some in body bags some with prize money. Bigger engines and bigger guns can be all that stands between a good driver and tombstone.

Download the Death Track: Resurrection Demo (890 MB)

Russian publisher 1C Company has announced a deal with GamersGate that allows the digital distribution portal to feature many of 1C's upcoming games, reports IGN. The agreement, which covers 13 titles, spans the third quarter of 2008 through quarter one of 2009.

GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist is delighted with the deal, believing that carrying many of 1C's most anticipated and popular titles "will ensure that GamersGate has first dibs on carrying strong titles from their portfolio."

1C Company International Sales Director Nikolay Baryshnikov echoed the sentiment, saying that the deal "is a great opportunity to deliver our games to players all over the world."

Big Download had the opportunity to go hands-on with a number of 1C's titles that will be featured on GamersGate, including Necrovision, Hummer 4x4, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason, Death Track Resurrection and Men of War.

If you are really an old-school gamer you might remember a car combat game called Deathtrack. It was released in the late 1980's by Activision and was developed by the now defunct Dynamix (yep, the same team behind the original Tribes series). Now publisher 1C Company and developer SkyFallen Entertainment are working on what might be called a spiritual successor to Deathtrack titled Death Track: Resurrection (and yes, they have split up the title in two). Big Download got to play through an early demo of the game during 1C's US press event this week.