Tulga Games has announced the first expansion for their mmog Horizons: Empire of Istaria. The expansion, tentatively titled "Horizons: Settlements" will be provided free via download to those who already have the game, as well as in a bundle with the original game for $19.99. I both beta tested Horizons and played it at launch, and I've got to say that I loved the game. To date, there still isn't a game featuring as deep of a crafting system or a character class system as flexible as Horizons in my opinion.

I left the game because unfortunately, the folks behind it (Artifact Entertainment at the time) just didn't have the cash on hand to properly maintain the game, and after awhile there was just a complete lack of content. A man can only kill cursed wolves for so long, you know? Anyway, it's very nice to hear that there's some hope for the game yet, and who knows, they may even get my subscription money again someday. Big thanks to drkphreakx for the tip. Click here for the press release.

Posted by nylatenite at 3:45 AM EDT

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Kotaku is reporting that they've been tipped by an insider at Eidos Interactive that the company is working on a re-make of the original Tomb Raider for the PSP and perhaps the PS2. According to a quote attributed to the source over at Kotaku;

"Eidos/SCi are planning on celebrating Lara's 10th birthday by releasing a remake of her original adventure. We are talking improved graphics, new moves, the lot. If there is time, the "new" game will feature a remake of both Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II: The Dagger of Xian, but right now the developers are focusing on Lara Crofts first adventure." - un-named source as per the Kotaku article

I was just thinking the other day that they really ought to update the original game as it's certainly been long enough that it would in essence feel "new". I'll keep my fingers crossed that the rumor is true and that they do make a PS2 port, as the odds of me having a PSP anytime soon are pretty remote. Click here to head over to the Kotaku article.

Posted by nylatenite at 3:32 AM EDT

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No, it's not the action game coming from LucasArts. The good folks of Screen7 are building a prequel to LucasArts graphic adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis using Adventure Game Studio. Screen7 describes the demo for Fountain of Youth as follows;

"Join our hero in this 10 room playable demo, featuring beautiful & original artwork in an exotic new location! Using a new separate storyline to the full game but including some relevant facts, you discover the paths to the mysterious Fountain! Don't forget - this is just a sample of what is to come. Look out for future demo updates!

EXPLORE the island of Bimini, MEET and INTERACT with friends and foes! Find out who's there and exactly what they are up to!

The DEMO also includes original MIDI music, animated characters and a demonstration of the fighting engine. The full game will boast many further features. There are several puzzles to solve in the DEMO, but none of these will feature in the full game." -Indiana Jones & the Fountain of Youth Website

Huge kudos to another company looking to keep the graphic adventure genre alive, though I'm a bit surprised LucasArts hasn't come down on them with a 10 ton hammer yet. Click here to head over to the Indiana Jones & the Fountain of Youth website, here to check out Adventure Game Studio (Freeware) and take a look at some of the other games people have made using it. For those wondering, this was also the tool used by the now defunct LucasFan Games to create Maniac Mansion Deluxe.

Posted by nylatenite at 3:08 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 30 May 2006 3:09 AM EDT

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A post over at the official MAME32 forums by team member John Hardy states that the MAME32 team will not be releasing v.1.06.2 of the windows arcade emulator due to the large scale changes made in the latest command line version of MAME. They suggest continuing to use v1.06 or v.1.06.1 until the rendering system has been stabilized and they begin releasing updates again. Click here for the post in question.

Posted by nylatenite at 2:26 AM EDT

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Stardock has released v1.2 (beta) of Galactic Civilizations II, and the update is a big one feature wise. As per the official Gal Civ 2 website;

"There is a pretty significant list of changes (see the link below) of what's in there.  Everything from a modified battle system, updated AI, user interface enhancements, as well as support for modding with the starts of our example mod." - Galactic Civilizations 2 website

While it is a beta update, and may have some "rough edges", the full list of updates will probably be more than enough to make you load up Stardock Central and get your fix before the full version of the patch. Check out the full v1.2b1 change log here.

Posted by nylatenite at 2:12 AM EDT

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I'd like to take the opportunity now to ask you to stop for at least a moment at some point today and give thanks in your own way to all those soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation. Whether it's saying a prayer, observing a moment of silence or just raising a toast to the fallen, do not let their sacrifices be forgotten. It's the least we can do.

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic." General John A. Logan

Posted by nylatenite at 1:56 AM EDT

Updated: Monday, 29 May 2006 1:59 AM EDT

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While reading Gamasutra today, I came across the following little tidbit in one of their articles on Infinium Labs SEC filing regarding a request to change their corporate name. It would appear that in addition to changing the companies name, Infinium is also seeking shareholder approval to create and sell an additional 600 million shares of stock to further fund the company. The following statement from Infinium's filing is quoted in the Gamasutra article;

"Our Board of Directors has unanimously approved, subject to stockholder approval, an amendment to our Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Common Stock from 600,000,000 to 1,200,000,000... The Board believes that the increase in authorized common shares would provide the Company greater flexibility with respect to the Company's capital structure for such purposes as additional equity financing, and stock based acquisitions." - Infinium SEC filing as noted by Gamasutra

Now call me crazy, but it would seem pretty convenient to change your name just before you offer a huge amount of stock to the public when your current corporate name is pretty much worthless and scandal ridden. It's so much easier to slap a new name on this clunker and see how many more people you can sucker in.

Sure, most investors with knowledge of the industry or a good broker will know the real deal, but how many people will just hear that there's a company called Phantom Entertainment that is trying to enter the "hot" video game market with a new game console, do a lookup and see a shiny new website that Infinium will probably put up that promises the moon, not see any negative reports about "Phantom Entertainment" and invest? Hell, it wouldn't even surprise me if those scam stock spam e-mails suddenly started pushing Phantom Entertainment. It's only speculation on my part for certain, and I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about the intricacies of investing, but that seems like a pretty plausible scenario to me.

Quite comically enough, a whois search for the domain name "phantomentertainment.com" shows that it is indeed owned by a George Townsend of Infinium Labs with the oh so professional contact e-mail of "goodhelpishard2find@hotmail.com". We bet it is, George, we bet it is.

For the required linkage, check out Gamasutra's article here, and our archived stories on Infinium here, here and here.

Posted by nylatenite at 1:19 AM EDT

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The following Xbox 360 games are shown as being on sale for the memorial day weekend over at Outpost.com.

• Burnout Revenge - Electronic Arts - $29.99
• Madden NFL '06 - Electronic Arts - $29.99
• NBA Live '06 - Electronic Arts - $29.99
• FIFA '06 - Electronic Arts - $29.99

If you've been wanting any of these titles and didn't grab them when the $39.99 price drops were announced, now may just be the perfect time.

Posted by nylatenite at 3:27 AM EDT

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Gamespot is reporting that the folks at Infinium Labs, "makers" of the Phantom game console and Phantom Lapboard are now attempting to change their name from Infinium Labs to Phantom Entertainment. For those unfamiliar with Infinium Labs who may be wondering why I'd put the word "makers" in quotes, since they announced the Phantom game console back in 2002, they have made absolutely nothing. The company seems to exist solely for the purpose of draining investors money and never having a thing to show for it. Quite amazingly, people continue to invest in the company. Perhaps Infinium figures if they change the name of the company, the stink won't hit prospective victims noses as fast as it currently does. I guess they'll soon be asking for a few more million dollars to blow as they try to figure out how to make a PC keyboard.

You'd think after they opened the books back in February and showed that for all the money they took in and squandered on everything but development of their product, there was still nothing to show for it, they would have just folded. Nope, not these guys, they're here for the long haul. As listed by Infinium Labs in their SEC filing for the prospective name change;

"The Board of Directors believes that the name change would be in the best interests of the Company because the new name better reflects the long-term growth strategy of the Company." -Infinium Labs SEC filing as reported by Gamespot

So... the long-term growth strategy of the company is better reflected by the word "Phantom"? - that sounds about right.

Check out our previous articles on Infinium Labs here and here, as well as the Gamespot article here. I still love how the Phantom console is displayed proudly on their homepage when they effectively cancelled the project to work on the Phantom Lapboard.

Posted by nylatenite at 2:55 AM EDT

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Major Nelson has updated his blog entry regarding the multiplayer over Live aspect of the Perfect Dark Zero demo. As per the Major, the demo does in fact support multiplayer over Live. More specifically;

""Outpost, the story mode level included in the Demo, is playable co-op over Live. Plaza (a new map included in the upcoming DLC) is playable over Live in Team Killcount and Infection game types. (Bots are included in both game modes.) The disabled Live features are Leaderboards and Custom Match. Quick Match works for both game types" - Major Nelson

Posted by nylatenite at 9:53 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, 26 May 2006 9:54 AM EDT

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