timegate-studios posts

There are PC games on the immediate horizon that are close to being released. Then there are games that have been officially announced but will take years to find their way to our hard drive (BioShock Infinite is due out in 2012, for example) And then there are the games that are completely under the radar. These are titles that developers are working on very hard but haven't been officially announced or in some cases even admitted as being in production.

Big Download has covered these games over the years. In the past we have called them "Black Ops" games but since Call of Duty Black Ops has become so well known we didn't want to confuse you when we decided to do our yearly look at these games. So from now on we are calling these super-secret titles "Code Black" games.

The last time we did an article like this we mentioned several games that have since been fully revealed such as BioShock Infinite, FireFall, Bulletstorm and others. But there are still tons of games that we know are currently being made that haven't seen the light of the public eye yet? Which titles are we talking about? Check out the first part of our current list of Code Black games for yourself.

Earlier this year it was announced that developer Timegate Studios was working on a sequel to its 2009 released sci-fi shooter Section 8. The sequel, Section 8 Prejudice, will be self-published by Timegate for digital distribution sometime in the first quarter of 2011.

Today we can finally reveal that Section 8 Prejudice will have a price point of just $14.99 when its released via download. That's for a game that contains more content than the original game which was priced at $50 for the PC version when it was first released. Section 8 Prejudice will have a full story-based five hour single player campaign along with the Conquest multiplayer mode with a full selection of maps, the new Swarm multiplayer co-op mode, bot support for both multiplayer modes, dedicated server support and a web portal where players can display their stats and in-game achievements. While the game will be using Games For Windows Live for things like achievements, the PC version of Section 8 Prejudice will be made available for purchase on other download services like Steam, Direct2Drive and Timegate's own online store (for console owners the game will also be released for the PS3's Playstation Network for $14.99 and for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft points).

Keep reading after the jump for more info on the game including hands-on impressions of the game's Swarm mode.

It's time for more trailers for Section 8 Prejudice, and these continue to impress us as much as the previous ones. The first, above, details the intricacies of the Swarm gameplay mode, which pits you and a small team of friends against larger and larger waves of bots. It has a developer commentary, as most gameplay videos do, and gives a good walkthrough of both the new mode as well as all the additions to the Section 8 formula that Prejudice is bringing to the table.

The other two videos, after the cut, elaborate on two things briefly shown in the Swarm trailer: fatalities and overdrive. Fatalities are neat animations that play when you kill an enemy in melee, and overdrive is the incredibly fast sprit that can take out other enemies if you hit them head on. While fatalities are more of a show thing, overdrives are an important part of Section 8 and were that way in the original game as well.

Timegate Studios' first games were in the RTS genre. The Kohan series of games, published by Strategy First in the early 2000s, were highly acclaimed titles at a time where the RTS genre was especially crowded with other games. In a new chat at Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) Timegate's CEO Adel Chaveleh offers some hope for a Kohan revivial.

The interview, which is primarily about Timegate's decision to self-publish its future game titles, brings up the Kohan series at the end with Chaveleh stating, "We're not walking away from Kohan by any means. It'll see daylight again." The interviewer seems to push for an idea of a Facebook-based Kohan title but Chaveleh states, " ... we're not going to go chase and make a Facebook Kohan game just to say we did it - it's gotta make sense, and it's gotta be something new and unique." In the meantime all of the previously released PC games in the series are available for purchase and download exclusively at Timegate's web site.

Developer Timegate Studios has announced that it will launch a PC-based multiplayer beta test for Section 8: Prejudice, the next game in the company's sci-fi first person shooter series. Folks interested in participating in the beta can sign up on the game's official web site. Sign ups require a free registration to Timegate's message boards. The beta test will begin later this fall.

While details of what will be in the beta have yet to be revealed, the press release announcing the beta test stated that Section 8 Prejudice will be using Microsoft's Games For Windows Live service for "streamlined matchmaking and improved server browsing." The full game is due out in early 2011.

Developer Timegate Studios gave gamers its original sci-fi first person shooter Section 8 back in the fall of 2009, The multiplayer-oriented title got solid reviews but was perhaps overlooked by some gamers at the time. A few weeks ago, Timegate made the surprise announcement for Section 8: Prejudice, the second game in the series that's currently set for release in early 2011.

While Timegate is still keeping aspects of this new game to themselves we did get it's design director Brett Norton to give up some more info on the title including its plans for a full single player campaign, improvements to the multiplayer features and more.

More and more we are Microsoft's Games For Windows Live being abandoned by developers who first used the service for things like matchmaking, automatic updates and achievements for previous games. Bethesda Softworks used it for Fallout 3 but Fallout New Vegas will use Steamworks. It's the same situation for the sequel to Kane and Lynch and the next expansion pack for Dawn of War II.

2009's PC port of Timegate Studios' sci-fi shooter Section 8 also used Games For Windows Live for the previously mentioned features. But will the recently announced and upcoming sequel, Section 8: Prejudice, stick with it or switch to something else? Fidget put that question to Timegate's Brett Norton who answered with, "Unfortunately, we can't go into our platform or distribution methods just yet." It certainly would be a surprise if the developer stuck with Games For Windows Live at this point as more and more PC games are moving to the Steamworks platform.

We found Section 8 to be a thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly flawed, multiplayer FPS. It brought back the Tribes legacy in a big an innovative way, after all. Now there's a sequel, and its name is Section 8 Prejudice. It aims to make everything about the original better: an involving story, more multiplayer options, and more goodies to play with. We're pretty pumped, even if Section 8 didn't do as well at retail as it deserved. After all, there's nothing like a little jetpacking around while blowing apart structures and infantry with futuristic guns, and Section 8 delivered that in spades.

Earlier this week developer Timegate Studios made the surprise announcement for Section 8: Prejudice, the next game in its original sci-fi shooter series. Aside from a trailer showing some action-packed gameplay and a "early 2011" release date little info was revealed about this title.

Now GameSpot has posted up the first Q&A about the game with Timegate's design director Brett Norton. He reveals, among other things, that the follow-up will have a true single player campaign this time rather than it being just a training ground for multiplayer. Norton says the single player mode will have "a fully fleshed-out story and vast amount of custom content." As far as multiplayer you can expect more gameplay modes including Swarm which has you and some buddies on top of a fortress and forced to defend it from waves of enemies. There's still no word on who will be publishing the game although it's possible Timegate could publish it themselves (the PS3 port of the original Section 8 was self-published as a digital download).

The original Section 8 was a solid sci-fi multiplayer-oriented first person shooter that appealed to the Tribes fan in all of us. However developer TimeGate Studios was apparently unhappy with how its publisher Southpeak Games handled the release of the title back in 2009 and last December sued the publisher over claims of unpaid royalties.

While there's no word on the outcome of that lawsuit that isn't stopping Timegate from its announcement today of Section 8: Prejudice, the next game in the shooter series. There's no word yet on specific features for the game but GameTrailers.com has a pretty action-packed gameplay trailer that shows off a lot of new environments and other features. The game is due out sometime in early 2011. You can check out the trailer after the jump: