sacred-2 posts

This week's new PC game release includes the PC version of one of the most anticipated game titles of 2009. We also get a downloadable movie tie-in game and an RTS title that finally shows up in the US after its 2008 release in Europe:

Modern Warfare 2: Developer Infinity Ward releases the next game in their first person shooter series as they de-emphasize the "Call of Duty" in the title. The global hopping single player game deals once again with high stakes terrorists and is complimented by the Special Ops co-op levels and their multiplayer modes. Many PC players have expressed their dismay over Infinity Ward's decision to do away with dedicated servers for the game.

If you have been wondering when Sacred 2: Ice and Blood would be released in the US, wonder no more. The expansion pack to the 2008 released action-RPG and the last game from its developer Ascaron Entertainment before its shut down earlier this year, will be heading to the US via Steam on November 13. Pricing for the expansion has yet to be revealed.

According to the Steam pre-order page, Sacred 2 Ice and Blood will add over 30 hours of gameplay to the original game with two new regions to explore along with new monsters, items and a new playable character called The Dragon Mage.

These gameplay videos for the upcoming Sacred 2: Ice & Blood, the follow-up to Fallen Angel, reveal the Crystal Region and Blood Cursed Blood Forest. As expected, these areas are filled with dangers and capitalize on the "ice and blood" theme. Especially the blood.

The expansion is expected to release sometime later this fall.

Download HD Sacred 2: Ice & Blood 'Crystal Region' Trailer (104 MB)
Download HD Sacred 2: Ice & Blood 'Cursed Blood Forest' Trailer (108 MB)
Check out all Sacred 2: Ice & Blood downloads

It's now official. The well known German-based game developer Ascaron Entertainment has now closed its doors completely. The company, best known for the action-RPG games Sacred and it's recent sequel Sacred 2, declared bankruptcy a few months ago and recently sold off much of their assets to Kalypso Media. The final blow was apparently made late last week as Ascaron's Studio 2 was also shut down, according to a message board post on the Sacred web site.

So what about the previously announced plans for a Sacred 2 add-on, title Ice and Blood? According to the message board post, "The Addon (PC version) is almost finished, a hand full of devs are still there and will work at the last bits required." The plan is for Deep Silver to publish the add-on in Germany in late August but there's no word yet on a US release for Ice and Blood.

[Via Blue's News]

This patch updates Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to v2.43. The patch includes a number of bug fixes and minor game enhancements. A list of changes is shown after the jump. Steam users should use the auto-patching system to update their game. Sacred 2 must be updated to v2.4 before applying this patch.

Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [US] (49 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [UK] (49 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [ES] (49 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [FR] (49 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [IT] (49 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.43 Patch [RU] (48 MB)
Check out all Sacred 2: Fallen Angel downloads

While there's no word yet on when this will reach the US, publisher Deep Silver has announced the first details on Sacred 2: Ice and Blood, the promised expansion pack to the 2008 fantasy RPG from developer Ascaron Entertainment. The German-language press release reveales that the expansion is due out sometime before the end of 2009 and will include a new playable character, the Dragonmage, along with two new areas, new quests and monsters and the usual more.

CDV published the original game in the US but at the moment there's no word if they will be handling the expansion as well. In the meantime the first screenshots from Sacred 2: Ice and Blood have been released (via PCGamesHardware.com)

Gallery: Sacred 2: Ice and Blood

Earlier this week we reported that a group of now former Ascaron Entertainment team members teamed up with publisher Kalypso Media to form Gaming Minds Studios. In addition to forming a new dev studio, Kalypso Media bought out a number of game properties previously owned by Ascaron.

Not listed among those games was the Sacred series of action-RPGs. Now comes word that Ascaron still holds the rights to the game franchise. In a post on the Sacred message boards, the company's community manager Anca Adelina Finta stated, "Studio 2 (subsidiary company of Ascaron) has the licence for Sacred 2 and the devs will continue working at the Addon as they did before." In its recent bankruptcy announcement Ascaron announced that both an addon as well as Sacred 3 was in development. Finta states, "In a nutshell, the Addon is not affected by anything and will come as planned."

Last April developer Ascaron Entertainment, best known for their Sacred action-RPG series, declared bankruptcy but said that operations would continue while they found a buyer. Now it appears at least part of the company has been bought out by Kalypso Media which will result in the formation of a new game developer.

In a new (German language) press release today Kalypso Media revealed that 15 former Asceron Entertainment team members have formed a new team called Gaming Minds Studios. The team is owned by Kalypso who has also purchased a number of game properties from Ascaron, including the Port Royale, Darkstar One and The Patrician series of games. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. Gaming Minds Studios is currently working on the third game in The Patrician series which will be released sometime this summer.

Not mentioned in the press release is the fate of Ascaron's Sacred series. In its bankruptcy statement, Ascaron stated that 500,000 copies of the PC version of Sacred 2 had been sold by the end of 2008. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions shipped to stores in May and Ascaron stated at the time that a Sacred 2 expansion pack as well as Sacred 2 were already in the works.

It looks like one of the more successful game developers in Germany is in a bit of trouble. This weekend Ascaron Entertainment, best known in the US for the Sacred series of action-RPG games, has filed for bankruptcy protection, according to a note on the company's German language web site (the English version has yet to be updated).

Ascaron released Sacred 2 in the fall of 2008 and so far it has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide by the end of 2008 according to the statement. Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game are complete and will ship out sometime in the end of May. However the delays in making of Sacred 2 have caused the company to go into bankruptcy protection. The statement said they already started discussions with a number of companies that could result in one of them buying out Ascaron. In the meantime development has continued on a Sacred 2 expansion pack and also on Sacred 3.

[Via Voodoo Extreme]

This big patch for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel includes a list of bug fixes and game enhancements, the most prominent being Nvidia PhysX support. The incremental patch updates the game from v2.34 while the full patch includes improvements from all previous updates to be used on fresh installs. Steam customers are encouraged to wait for the auto-update before considering use of the manual patch. Continue reading after the jump for full patch notes.

Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [US] (201 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [UK] (200 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [DE] (201 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [FR] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [ES] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [IT] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [CZ] (187 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Incremental Patch [HU] (188 MB)

Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [US] (817 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [UK] (816 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [DE] (1.02 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [FR] (1 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [ES] (1.01 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [IT] (1.01 GB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [CZ] (803 MB)
Download Sacred 2 v2.4 Full Patch [HU] (1.01 GB)