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Age of Empires Online is in the middle of its closed beta test at the moment but the development team at Gas Powered Games is already revealing more about what players can get when the online free-to-play RTS game launches later in 2011. In the latest video blog, we learn about one of the game's Booster Packs, Defense of Crete

This new gameplay mode is basically a tower defense game where you have to build up your forces and structures to defend your Wonder from an invading horde. This is a mode that you can play by yourself or you can team up with a buddy online to have him help you defend your wonder.

Fable III is set for its PC debut later this year and today IGN has posted up word that the hardware system requirements for developer Lionhead Studios' latest fantasy RPG have been revealed. You can check out both the minimal and recommended system specs for the game after the jump.

As we have reported earlier this year, the Fable III PC port will be released on May 17 and will include a new Hardcore difficulty mode. The game will also be the first PC game that will be released by Microsoft Game Studios since the Gears of War port back in December 2007.

The game development world got a bit of a surprise late in February when it was revealed that Gas Powered Games was taking over as the primary developer of Age of Empires Online, the upcoming online free-to-play RTS game from Microsoft Games Studios.

So what does this mean for the game's development? Big Download went right to the source and got in touch with Gas Powered's founder and CEO Chris Taylor to find out more about how this switch came about, if the team will ever go back to its previously announced RTS game Kings and Castles and more.

When Gas Powered Games took over as the developer of Age of Empires Online we were happy that the upcoming free-to-play RTS game would be in good hands. At the same time we thought that this also meant that the entertaining video blogs that Gas Powered was making for their now "on hold" title Kings and Castles wouldn't be made anymore.

Thankfully we couldn't have been more wrong. Gas Powered and publisher Microsoft have started a new video blog that looks like it will be just as entertaining as those videos for Kings and Castles. It's got stufff just appearing out of nowhere, a funny confrontation and some gameplay from Age of Empires Online that ends in, well, just watch it yourself.

Age of Empires Online now has a new developer in Gas Powered Games. As revealed yesterday the team is taking over from Robot Entertainment to continue making the upcoming online and persistant RTS game from Microsoft. PC Gamer's web site has now posted an interview with Gas Powered's Chris Taylor on this suprising movie.

Taylor, who has been a huge fan of the original Age of Empires games, states that taking on this new project is a "tremendous responsibility, a scary responsibility in some regards because you've got a franchise that sold 25 million copies, so this is not something to take lightly." He also emphasised that Gas Powered is taking on this game for the long haul which is part of the reason why its previously announced RTS game Kings and Castles is now on hold. Taylor states, " ... we could come back to that game any time in the future, but right now it looks like we're going to be heavily invested in Age Online, and that's not a bad thing for anyone."

In a very suprising development, the official Age of Empires Online web site has announced that Gas Powered Games is now taking over as the developer of the upcoming free-to-play RTS game for publisher Microsoft Games Studios. Gas Powered Games takes over from Robot Entertainment who was announced as the developer for the game back in August 2010.

In a post on the game's official web site, Age of Empires Online's executive producer Danan Davis said that Gas Powered Games has been working on the title for some time to develop add-on packs for the game. He states that the switch over has been in the works for some time and Gas Powered and its leader Chris Taylor "share our long-term commitment to make this a success." The reasons for the switch from Robot Entertainment, which has a number of people who worked on the original Age of Empires RTS games, are pretty vague with Davis saying only, "Our previous development partner, Robot Entertainment, did amazing work on the game, and we wish them the best in their future projects."

You may remember that Taylor recently told us that Gas Powered's previously announced game, Kings and Castles, was now on hold and it's now clear that its takeover of Age of Empires Online's development was the reason. Davis states that even with this switch in developers the game is still scheduled to launch later in 2011.

Update: In a post on Robot Entertainment's message board, the developer's community manager assures fans that this switch was in the works for some time, saying, "This was always in the plan. We've even had some GPG guys down to the studio to get them trained up as far back as last fall. When we opened RE, our goal was to work on our own original games. We announced Orcs Must Die! this morning, and will have more info on future games relatively soon ;) "

In 2010, Microsoft announced that the company was getting back into publishing PC games after several years of not releasing any PC game titles. One of the titles that Microsoft is planning to publish is Age of Empires Online, a persistent online RTS game that takes the fan favorite game series in a new direction and in several different ways.

The game comes from developer Robot Entertainment (made up largely of former members of Age of Empires' creator Ensemble Studios). It's been in closed beta for some time now but today Microsoft officially announced a couple of major features in the game. One is that the previously announced Greek civilization will be joined by the Egyptian civilization when Age of Empires Online launches later this year. The other announcement is the first details on the business model for the game. Check out the details of that particular part of the game and more about Age of Empires Online after the jump:

The current status of Fable 3's PC port is still up in the air and developer Lionhead Studios isn't much help in giving its fan any info on what's happening with the promised version of its Xbox 360 RPG. In a new message on the studio's Twitter page, Lionhead status, "It's painful to admit we can't yet answer any questions on the PC version of Fable III... Hopefully soon we can spill the beans!."

Publisher Microsoft announced a PC port of Fable 3 in 2010 but then delayed the PC version so it wouldn't be released at the same time as the Xbox 360 version which came out last October. In November, Lionhead issued a "tweet" saying the PC port "is still in development here at Lionhead".

[Via VG247.com]

Microsoft has made a few inroads back into the PC gaming industry in 2010. It revamped its Games For Windows web site and turned it into a PC game download store. More notably it announced plans to publish new PC games such as Age of Empires Online and others.

Now a new report on the TechRadar.com web site, using unnamed sources, claims that Microsoft will use the next version of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, to make a renewed effort for PC gamaing. The unnamed source is quoted in the article as saying, "Windows 8 will represent a real new push into PC gaming. Gaming will be a key component for the whole OS." Details on exactly how this will happen with Windows 8 were not made available. However, the article claims the just announced hiring of former VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood to Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment division shows how serious the company is on getting back its PC game audience.

Microsoft continues to put one PC game on its Games For Windows Marketplace web site on sale for one day only for a super low price. Today that honor belongs to Shadowrun, the 2007 released multiplayer shooter that was based on the cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG.

From now until 11:30 am Eastern time on Saturday, you can download and purchase Shadowrun for just 99 cents. The game itself is one of the very few that allows for cross-platform multiplayer with its Xbox 360 counterpart. While the game got mixed reviews and didn't sell well back in 2007, it still has some unique elements in it that make it worth checking out, especially for under a buck.