master-of-orion posts

Last month, GoG.com added the first two games in the classic Master of Orion space strategy series to its game line-up. Today the DRM-free web site has announced that the third and (so far) final game in the series is also available to download from the site. Master of Orion 3 was developed by Quicksilver Software and was first released in 2003 by Infogrames (now Atari).

The game itself was under development for many years before its release. However the final product didn't get the high review scores that the first two Master of Orion titles received. The GoG.com re-release comes with the games soundtrack along with wallpapers and other art from the game for $9.99.

As mentioned last month, GoG.com plans to introduce a new set of gamers to the old Atari line-up. For the past week, they've had a countdown timer on the frontpage announcing the arrival of a new game, and that players do not want to be "an outcast to Orion." The timer ended today with three great Atari games in the line-up being made for purchase: Outcast and the first two Master of Orion games.

Outcast is an action-adventure game that we thoroughly adore, while Master of Orion is a highly-renowned 4X series that inspired games such as Galactic Civilizations. Both have been covered on Boot Disk, and now that they have been made available on GoG.com, you no longer have to pay exorbitant prices on Amazon! You can download each (Outcast or Master of Orion 1 and 2) for $6.

Today the DRM-free PC game download site GoG.com announced not one but two new publishing deals. The first will bring the games in the classic Syberia adventure series to the site. The first Syberia game, designed by Benoît Sokal and released in 2002, is already available to purchase and download for $9.99 with Syberia 2 and its prequel Amerzone coming in the near future.

Today GoG,com also announced plans to add games from publisher Atari's library to its game line-up. Those games will start showing up in April and will include classic titles such as Outcast, Master of Magic and Master of Orion.

Since its recent revamp, GameTap has gotten back on track adding new games to download and purchase from its library of titles and also adding new titles to its premimum monthly subscription service. Today GameTap announced a new deal with publisher Atari that will add a number of its game to GameTap's services.

Among the Atari titles that will be added into GameTap's library will include the Neverwinter Nights series, the Master of Orion series, The Witcher, King's Bounty, the new 2008 version of Alone in the Dark, Test Drive Unlimited, the first ArmA game and Indigo Prophecy. There's no word yet on when these games will debut on the service.

[Via email press release]

Stardock has made its living in part by making original games like the Galactic Civilizations series, the Political Machine series and the upcoming Elemental: Master of Magic. However, Gamasutra reports that the developer-publisher is also interested in reviving classic PC strategy games as well.

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stated that they would like the rights to do a new Star Control series and have also discussed getting the rights from Atari to do a new Master of Orion title. Wardell states that Stardock would "....like to do a roleplaying game too" along the lines of an isometic title like the original Baldur's Gate series.

Celetania is a rare beast indeed: a 4X MMO. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, 4X stands for "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate" -- think of games like Master of Orion, where the game concept revolves around building an empire from the ground up. Now apply that concept to an MMO and you've got Celetania. The development team has been working quietly on this title for a while now, but new in-game screenshots have finally been released, giving us our first look at the universe.

Things are looking pretty good so far, with a nice clean interface, classically sci-fi-looking ships on display, and the ubiquitous resources at hand. Whether or not any of this will translate to the open-ended nature of an online, persistent world remains to be seen. One interesting aspect of gameplay, however, is that even when the player is offline, events will continue to happen -- by which we take it to mean that if you begin a project, or start mining a resource, you can log off and the process will continue in your absence. This could be something great; we'll keep you updated on Celetania's progress.