2K Games announced that a second expansion pack for the acclaimed Civilizations IV series will be available in June 2007.

Beyond the sword will focus on late-game time periods, after the invention of gunpowder, it will offer 12 new scenarios created by the Fireaxis Games team as well as by members of the Civilizations Fan Community, it will include ten new civilizations, 16 new leaders, five new wonders as well as a considerable number of new units.

New features:
• Expanded Epic Game: Firaxis Games delivers a massive increase in new units, buildings, and technologies to the epic game with additional focus on the late-game time periods.
• New Game Scenarios: The expansion will deliver 12 new scenarios, many containing themes never before included in the Civilization series, custom designed by the team at Firaxis and select members of the Civ Fan Community.
• New Civilizations: The expansion pack includes ten new civilizations, such as Portugal, Babylon and Netherlands and their associated unique units and buildings.
• More Civilization Leaders: Sixteen new leaders including leaders for the ten new civilizations, as well as additional leaders for existing civilizations.
• Corporations: A new gameplay feature that allows players to create corporations and spread them throughout the world. Each corporation provides benefits in exchange for certain resources.
• Espionage: Now available much earlier in the game, this expanded feature offers players many new ways to spy on opponents, stir citizen unrest and defend their government's secrets.
• Events: New random events such as natural disasters, pleas for help, or demands from their citizens will challenge players to overcome obstacles in order for their civilizations to prosper.
• New Wonders: Five new wonders await discovery including the Statue of Zeus, Cristo Redentor, Shwedagon Paya, the Mausoleum of Maussollos, and the Moai Statues.
• Expanded Space Victory: Winning the race to Alpha Centauri will now require more strategic planning and tactical decision making.
• Apostolic Palace: The United Nations will become available earlier in the game, providing a way for players to win a diplomatic victory earlier. New resolutions will also be added which will expand the available diplomatic options.
• Advanced Starts: A major fan request, this new feature will enable players to "buy" components of a custom-tailored empire and begin play in the later part of the game, allowing them to experience many of the new features of the expansion pack in a shorter amount of time.
• Enhanced AI: The AI has received many enhancements, making it tougher to beat on the higher difficulty levels. The ways in which the AI will attempt to achieve victory have also been expanded.

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EA announced it’s teaming up with three art schools, Parsons the new school for design in New York, Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Otis College of art and design in Los Angeles for Sims-inspired competitions and exhibitions.

The artwork designed by the students will include: machinima(animated films that use the engine from the video game), paintings, illustrations, sculptural work, fashion designs, cinematography and interactive displays.

The machinima and the traditional art will be judged in separate categories, by representatives from the schools and from EA. Each school will be rewarded with 12000$ for its winning entries.

Jack Lew, Global University Relations Manager for Art Talent at EA:
“ EA has long recognized the artistic talent of the students Parsons the new school for design, Academy of Art University and Otis College of Art and Design. This program is the perfect way to celebrate the Sims games across a variety of art forms, And true to the Sims franchise, “The Sims: In The Hands Of Artists” exhibits will demonstrate self expression and creativity.”

<-250x250 Square - left->A few days ago I wrote a piece about how the only game that could dethrone World of Warcraft was the upcoming Warhammer Online…shame on me…I had forgotten one of the most highly anticipated games of the year…a game with as much right to the MMORPG throne as WoW or Warhammer.

LOTR Online : Shadows of Angmar is the first MMORPG based on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien and promises to allow players to roam across all of Middle Earth in a quest to defeat the dark forces of the evil Lord Sauron. You’ll meet famous characters like Gandalf and the members of The Fellowship, fight against Uruk-Hai, Nazgul, Trolls and other deadly enemies.

You’ll adventure into Tolkien’s universe as a man, elf, dwarf or…hobbit (powerful warriors these), choose from 7 seven different classes, tamper with your character’s physical appearance and equipment and, as it evolves, customize it even more using traits. The game promises a lot of other interesting features but we’ll just have to wait for the beta version to really get an idea.

But based on what we know WoW is in for some serious competition, Warhammer Online and LOTRO, both franchises have a successful background and a considerable number of fans…this is going to be interesting.

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Almost every RTS ever made has tried to best imitate war and everything that it involves, but if we take a minute to think about it not many of them succeeded, hardly any actually. Is Supreme Commander any different?

Ever since it was announced this game has attracted a lot of attention probably also because Gas Powered Games promised us a strategic experience unlike any other, massive armies clashing on huge battle maps, the possibility to create an unlimited number of units, everything sounded a lot like Total Annihilation a classic of the genre, so everyone got more and more excited. So when it was finally launched everybody was expecting no less than masterpiece. Were they disappointed? Not by a longshot.

Supreme Commander delivered on it’s promise and in my opinion it’s one of the greatest strategy games ever made…it’s practically a war simulator, a very good one.

Aside from the huge scale of the game another great thing about Supreme Commander is that strategy really works here, the ways in which you can approach your opponents are practically infinite, you can attack them head on, take them by surprise by dropping troops off behind enemy lines, you can take out his anti aircraft defenses and then crush him with aerial attacks, pound him continuously with huge artillery cannons, destroy his antimissile defenses and use nuclear missiles or you can…do anything you can think of…the possibilities are endless.


There are 3 factions you can chose from but apart from their physical appearance there are no noticeable differences between them, there’s United Earth Federation, the Cybran and the Aeon Illuminate. They all have the same type of units divided into the three main categories: land, naval and aerial units. There are three campaigns to play in the single player mode ,each with five or six missions. Might not sound like much but trust me the missions are so long and so complex that you’ll find yourself playing one for hours on end.

The only resources you’ll need in Supreme Commander are energy and mass and while energy can be obtained through generators and power plants, mass can only be mined from certain key points throughout the map. This makes things very interesting because this means violent battles to capture and hold this positions.

The only serious weak point of the game, if it can even be called that, is that you need a monster of a computer to play it in decent conditions. The requirements are very steep, and if you don’t have one of the latest graphic cards on the market, at least a 3 Ghz processor and a minimum of 1,5 Gb of RAM don’t even think about Supreme Commander. It’s designed as a strategy game for the next five years so it’s improbable that there’s a PC out there that can handle this game without stuttering even a little

Bottom line is Supreme Commander is one of the best RTS games ever, maybe even the best and if you can afford to play it you should do so without hesitation. There are still a lot of things to be said about this game but it’s better if you discover them on your own.

This is going to be a very important week for all Wii and Nintendo DS owners, as Konami has announced the release of 5 new games for these platforms, Wing Island and Kororinpa: Marble Mania for the Wii and Lost in Blue 2, Steel Horizon and Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 for Nintendo DS.

In Wing Island, the first flying action game on the Wii, you’ll play as Junior, a teenager pilot, fly around Shell Island and take jobs to keep family business running.




Kororinpa: Marble Mania is a puzzle game that allows players to rotate and tilt the Wii remote to roll through a maze and reach there goal.




In Lost in Blue 2 you’ll play as Jack and Amy, two teenagers struggling to survive on a deserted island after their ship went down at sea.





Steel Horizon is both a turn based strategy and a real time strategy game in wich players take control of a naval armada complete with battleships, submarines, airplanes and artillery. As an American captain you’ll fight against the Axis in 20 missions set in the Atlantic and in the Pacific.




Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship makes it’s debut on the Nintendo DS, and gives players the chance to duel worldwide thanks to Nintendo’s WI-FI connection. The game includes 1600 cards and even more will be available for download.

This should keep you busy for a while.