If your life is simply a road between your house and your office, you probably need to start working out, or maybe even start a professional sports career, if you're still pretty young. While I was never crazy about athletics sport sims, such a game could at least help us get to know better about some sport disciplines, and today, the new multi-platform title Summer Athletics was announced to be in the making...



The fruit of Hamburg based dtp entertainment AG, one of the leading German game publishers, and the Hamburg development studio 49Games, Summer Athletics promises to bring a completely new multiplayer experience, advanced character customization features, Arcade and Realistic game modes, all inside a game that allows you to take part in exciting competitions with over 25 summer sports disciplines, including printing, hurdles, cycling, archery, javelin, hammer throw, and swimming!

For now, there's no information about the graphics engine used, or the system requirements we should expect this game to have, but we know that Summer Athletics will feature a character editor, realistic 3D graphics, with an overwhelming stadium atmosphere, and the career mode we all expect to have in such games.

While Unreal Tournament 3 didn't manage to sell as well as expected, its graphics engine is a big hit, without any doubt. A lot of games are already using it already, and today, Dragonfly also announced that it has licensed it from Epic Games, Inc., those that created Unreal Tournament 3 and, of course, the Unreal Engine 3...

Unfortunately, there's no big news, for now, other than that. If Dragonfly doesn't sound familiar, then maybe "Karma Online" or "Special Force" may refresh your memory, because these are two online FPS games created by this Korean company.

According to Park Cheol Seung, Dragonfly's vice president, Unreal Engine 3 is the right choice for them. "While we have developed much of our own technology over the years, Unreal Engine 3 clearly provides the cutting edge framework we need to ensure the highest development standards in our project.", he said.

At last, all I can do is promise that I'll keep my eyes on Dragonfly from now on, because I am really curious about what are they going to use Unreal Engine 3 for, and despite the fact that "another shooter" may be the answer, there's nothing sure about it, at least for now...

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, shortly known as LOTRO, is a MMORPG for Windows with its action set in a universe based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, during the time period of The Lord of the Rings. Released in 2007, LOTRO got 3 free updates, so far - Shores of Evendim, The City of the Kings, and Defenders of Eriador. Today, a new free expansion pack has been announced, and its name is The Ashen Wastes.



Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, said "The Lord of the Rings Online has taken the world by storm, winning multiple awards and continuing to expand with compelling content updates such as Book 12.", and it seems it doesn't end here. The secret in keeping MMORPGs alive, bringing more new people in and keeping old players interested, is to provide regular updates and new chapters/maps, and it seems Turbine and Codemasters Online are doing exactly what they should...

"We are dedicated to our continued delivery of the best persistent online experience available and we look forward to sharing our plans for the future of this franchise in the coming months.”, concluded Crowley.

This latest update comes with a completely new outfit customisation system, over 100 new quests, housing system improvements, as well as a new dungeon that implements 12-player raid mechanics in a PvP environment. More details can be found on the official page, here.