Tragedy stuck last Sunday as rally driver super nova and owner of the Colin McRae racing game series was reported dead in a terrible helicopter crash accident in Jerviswood, Lanark. His son and two family friends were also on board as the group was returning from a visit to the nearby village of Quarter. The helicopter got into difficulty and crashed close to its destination, on the reaches of the McRae mansion. The reasons behind this misfortunate event are still unknown.

<-125x125 Button - left->While such a recent passing can be used as a major public-relations tool, out of respect for the family of the dearly departed, Codemasters decided to go along with a silent launch for the next title in the DiRT series. They pulled off the tube a series of TV adds for Dirt’s PS3 upcoming release.

Son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae, Scottish Colin McRae managed to keep his father’s legacy intact. He won his first world rally in 1993 New Zeeland and from there on multiple victories ensued until the 2002 Safari Rally. Colin McRae then joined the Guinness Book of Records as the driver with most event wins in the World Rally Championship, but his driving career was lessened in glory afterwards.

While still top shape, he lend his name to a series of racing video games, starting with Colin McRae Rally in late 1998. The series were constantly updated with yearly releases up until 2005. Codemasters released the sixth installment on June 15 this year, Colin McRae: DiRT. The game had noticeably improved graphics and gameplay and promised a new beginning to the franchise, but with Colin McRae untimely death, there is no telling what will happen to the series. The PS3 release will go live today and Codemasters wanted to pay their respects to the man who started it all. "With consideration to and in agreement with McRae's family, there was a stop put on the TV ads that were planned to run on Sky channels at the weekend and through this week," said a Codemasters spokesperson.

Three days ago World in Conflict has been launched in the US and tomorrow we’ll witness the European release. The new real time tactical game from Sierra Entertainment has been rated 12+ and will be available for a suggested price of 36E, and 43E for the Collector’s Edition. The game features a complex blend of real time strategy, squad play and first person shooter, a good recipe for success using DirectX 10 native functions for massive eye candy. World in Conflict has also been announced to be in the Cyberathlete Professional League rooster for competitive play in 2007.

The synopsis has the players back in 1989, when instead of falling to internal economical difficulties; the Soviet Union finds financial salvation into blackmailing NATO to support Russian economy. Conflict is unavoidable as NATO refuses to get involved. However, there is a second US front, to keep their involvement in Europe mainland business of war. Thus you will be able to take either side in the single player campaign, which promptly begins with the Russian invasion of Seattle. This trailer released in spring gives a good overall image. It seems to be an appealing scenario for US nationals, especially given the War on Terror hype.

You don’t have bases and resources to harvest in World in Conflict. Instead, you fight for map control and owning strategic points on the map results in better reinforcement point regeneration. With these points you can call in more troops and the fight moves forward. Killing as many units as possible isn’t the main idea, since good tactical leadership can lead to victory in the face of overwhelming odds.

Regardless of faction you can direct your troops as an Infantry, Armor, Support or Air master. Infantry allows control of various ground units which have mobility issues yet can effectively counter most enemy types on the battlefield. Armor types provide armored vehicle support, from heavy tanks to mobile and armored personnel carriers. Support deals with stationary anti air cannons, with medium of heavy shells, along with medium armored mobile anti air defense. Air superiority is the key to victory, yet your bombers, helicopters and hunters will often need support from your allies and can’t win a battle on their own. During gameplay reinforcements are called in to strengthen your positions. Often enough a successful defensive is followed by a devastating offensive so map borders don’t stay the same for long. In fact, the calm before the storm is usually followed by a massive clash, and within minutes, most of your troops can be lost. Air strikes, paratroopers and carpet bombing will help to that end, and if it’s not enough, the all popular nuke will definitely clear the battleground.

The multiplayer mode provides generous options as you can either play one on one against a human opponent in the No mode, fight against an all-AI team or a combination of both. World in Conflict will feature in this year’s Cyberathlete Professional League as a team game, so expect perfect troop balance and immediate clash of egos to ensue. To this end, Team Dignitas CPL champions have already issued a nice strategical overview of the game which you can read here.

On September 18 Avalanche studios announced its new game engine called Avalanche Engine version 2.0, specially designed for the next generation consoles which will feature advanced scalable landscapes simulation.

The engine which is capable of providing a seamless level of detail to allow huge environments and worlds to be navigated with great accuracy will be presented at the Tokyo Games Show later this year.
Until then you can see the first screenshots.

The improvements will be seen in the support for transition between different climate zones, advancements to the character system including state of the art animation, AI, facial rendering and emotional modeling that recreates human life like characteristics and behavior.



According to Christofer Sundburg, Avalanche Studios CEO, “Ultimately the engine will enable us to create games of epic scale and with great variation across genres and artistic styles for the next generation of gaming experiences. The latest screen shots speak for themselves, with detail that has never before been seen in characterization and game landscaping”.