world-of-zoo posts

It's downright scary (sorry, had to be done) how many new PC game titles are scheduled for release this week. In addition to a number of original games, PC gamers can look forward to trying out the Left 4 Dead 2 demo (if they pre-ordered) and a new retail collection of all of Firefly Studios' Stronghold games:

Borderlands: Gearbox Software's sci-fi first person shooter blends elementes of an action-RPG in the mix as your characters go on quests on an alien world and deal with lots of monsters and enemies. Much has been made of the near infinite number of weapon variations that can be found in the game and the four-player co-op doesn't hurt either.

Taking a page out of the Spore playbook, this little demo for World of Zoo lets you decorate animals with different colors and hairstyles. The full game is scheduled to release on October 26th for the PC, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS systems.

"World of Zoo is a family-friendly game that will open the gates for gamers to freely roam their zoo in ways they have only imagined. With more than 90 different animals spanning 11 families to care for, players will have ample opportunities to engage with all types of species. The Animal Creator feature will allow players to create an unlimited number of animals and be able to customize each one. They can even add animals to any of the 20 different exhibits available in the game utilizing the Animal Adoption Network feature. Players can also learn about their animals through fun animal facts provided by National Geographic. Each animal is completely unique with different personalities and behaviors. It will be up to the player to determine ways to gain their trust and keep their animals happy, ultimately earning a Magic Moment from their animal."

Download World of Zoo Animal Creator Demo (91 MB)

The next three months will see quite a few PC games being released to stores and/or via digital download. At Big Download we would be remiss if we didn't alert you ahead of time to what PC games we are keeping an eye on for the fall/holiday season.

Yesterday we posted the first part of our three part series of what we think will be the big PC games this fall with all of them currently scheduled to be released in September. Today we have 14 more games to check out that are at the moment scheduled for October and the first part of November. Remember, our release date are based on the best info we currently have; they can, and most likely will in a couple of cases, change.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Big PC Games for Fall 2009 - Part Two

Even though their games have sold millions of copies, developer Blue Fang Games is still vunerable to layoffs. This week the company announced that it had has laid off 15 of their team members, due in part to new development tools that "allow us to build future multi-platform products in less time and with significantly fewer resources."

Blue Fang's original Zoo Tycoon games sold over 8 million copies since the first game in the zoo simulation series was released in 2001 by Microsoft. The company recently announced plans for a new animal-zoo related game franchise, World of Zoo, that will be published by THQ for the PC and other platforms this fall.

After a really crappy year in terms of their finances, publisher THQ believes it needs to restructure its business and create three main divisions of their company. Today THQ announces that those divisions will be Core Games, Kids, Family and Casual Games and Online.

THQ exec Danny Bilson will be in charge of the Core Games division which will include titles like the upcoming Homefront first person shooter. Doug Clemmer is head of the new Kids, Family and Casual Games which includes titled like the recently announced World of Zoo. Finally Steve Dauterman is in charge of the Online division which includes the long awaited Warhammer 40,000 MMO project.

If you ever wondered whatever happened to Microsoft's best selling Zoo Tycoon game series, wonder no more. THQ has announced a new publishing deal with that game series' developer Blue Fang to create an all-new zoo sim series called World of Zoo.

Due for release by the end of 2009, World of Zoo will let players take care of 90 different animals and create their own zoo park experience. In a nod to Spore. the game will also have an Animal Creator that will allow them to create their own unique creatures and place them in one of the 20 zoo exhibits.