eugen-systems posts

R.U.S.E., the WWII themed RTS game that was first released last fall, is getting yet another paid DLC mini-expansion pack. The DLC is called (no joking) The Pack of the Rising Sun and adds a new Japanese playable faction to both single and multiplayer modes.

The DLC is now available to purchase and download via Steam for $9.99. The new Japanese faction adds 28 new units (including flame thrower units) and structures to the game. It also comes with three new missions: Gold for the Brave where you protect the US Gold Federal Reserve from attack; Ostfriesland where you have to fight off a UK invasion of Germany; and For Honour where you have to fight off a renegade Japanese faction on the island of Java.

Publisher Ubisoft hinted at this bit of news last week via its official Twitter page and now its official. A new mini-expansion pack for 2010's WWII "deception and trickery" RTS game R.U.S.E. is now available to purchase and download via Steam.

The new DLC pack is called The Chimera Pack and contains three new multiplayer maps for players of the Eugen Systems-developed game. In addition to the new maps, (Nuclear Winter, Blood and Sand and Djebel), there are also three new single player challenges (Bir Hakeim, Medjez, and Opération Zapa). While the previous DLC pack for the game was free, this one will set you back $6.99.

Sales of R.U.S.E didn't exactly make its publisher Ubisoft very happy but the recent WWII "deception and trickery" based RTS game did have one thing that made it unique among the rest of the PC game crowd. It was made to natively support the multi-touch features of Microsoft's Windows 7 OS. If you had a compatible monitor you could play the game by touching the units on the screen instead of the mouse and keyboard set up.

Now someone has posted up a new YouTube video showing off a new third party hack for the Xbox 360's Kinect motion sensing camera controller that seems to show R.U.S.E. as playable via not multi-touch but no touch at all. There's no word on when or even if this program will be released to the public but it should be interesting to see if playing the game this way would really compete with the normal keyboard-mouse combo.

Last week Ubisoft blamed Valve's "Christmas overload" for not being able to release the free Manhattan Project DLC pack for its WWII "deception and trickery" RTS game R.U.S.E. for its PC owners. Now it appears that the pack has indeed been released via Steam if the game's official Steam message board posts are to be believed. However some posts are reporting some issues with launching the game after adding the free update. A workaround has been found where you can run the game under Windows Vista Service Pack 2 compatibility mode.

Two reminders: The free DLC adds three multiplayer maps and two gameplay modes to the Eugen Systems-developed game. And the game itself is currently on sale on Steam from now until 1 pm Eastern time on Friday for $33.49.

It looks like yesterday's plans to release the free Manhattan Project DLC for the recent RTS game R.U.S.E. has run into some issues. The pack, which was supposed to add three multiplayer maps and two gameplay modes to the Eugen Systems-developed game, wasn't released after all on the Steam service.

The game's official web site states, " ... due to a Christmas overload, the guys at Steam weren't able to add The Manhattan Project Pack to the Steam store yesterday as promised." The site claims to be working on this issue and hope to have the DLC available to download "ASAP". In the meantime the game itself is still on sale for 25 percent off its normal Steam price.

As promised last month, a new and free downloadable content pack, The Manhattan Project, is now available for players of R.U.S.E, the recent WWII "trickery and deception" RTS game from developer Eugen Systems and publisher Ubisoft. The update is available via automatic download via Steam.

The Manhattan Project Pack adds three new multiplayer maps to the game. Twilight of the Gods and Vesuvio are 2v2 maps while the Guns and Tulips map supports 3v3 matches. Two new gameplay modes are also added. Total War starts the player with all of the units available in 1939 in the game and then unlocks more units per year. The other is Nuclear War which unlocks the game's prototypes factories, researches and upgrades right from the start.

R.U.S.E. may have not have performed up to publisher Ubisoft's sale expectations but the WWII themed RTS game is still getting some new content in the near future including the welcome addition of nuclear cannons. The game's official web site has confirmed that the "Manhattan Project Pack' will be released for free via Steam sometime in December.

The map pack contains three new maps for the Eugen Systems-developed game set in Holland, Italy and North Africa for 2v2 and 3v3 supported team battles. The pack will also have two new gameplay modes. One is called Total War where the game's time period starts in 1939 with history advancing every 10 minutes. This will cause new units and tech to be unlocked constantly. The other mode is "Nuclear War" where players will be able to build Long Tom cannons with nukes as ammon. Kaboom!

R.U.S.E. offers a twist on the real-time strategy genre by putting the emphasis on deception and misdirection instead of building up a huge mass of units and rushing enemies. In fact, resources are often too scarce for rush tactics, especially in the campaign. So players have to rely heavily on their wits to make strong strategic decisions and overcome the odds. Unfortunately, overcoming the odds also includes working against some game design decisions.

Download the R.U.S.E. Demo (1.54 GB)
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While most trailers are content to show a little bit of gameplay footage, a cutscene, or maybe a developer interview, this RUSE trailer does something a little different. It details one of the many strategies possible with your ruses. In this case, the strategy is Divide and Conquer: launch a few offensives, with only one being the real one. The enemy divides their forces, weakening him long enough for your single attack force to wipe out his weakened defense. You can then roll in and demolish the enemy player's HQ, winning the game. It's cool to watch, although a little disorienting. It's also drastically simplified from an actual strategy, we're sure, as the end of it is accelerated and the enemy player makes no attempt to regroup.

As promised via online ads for the game earlier this week, a playable PC demo for R.U.S.E. is now available for download via its Steam web page. The demo for the upcoming WWII-themed RTS game by pubisher Ubisoft and developer Eugen Systems apparently consists of just one single player mission that was made especially for the demo as you control Allied forces in Italy against German armies.

The title, which uses dummy units and other methods of deception and cloaking to keep you and your enemies guessing, is still slated to be released in the US on September 7. People who pre-order the game via Steam will gain access to two extra multiplayer maps.