Developed by the same studio that created Knights of Honor, namely Black Sea Studios, WorldShift is a Sci-Fi RTS game for the PC platform that was surrounded by mistery so far. Release date was unknown, while apart from a few screenshots, no information about the gameplay, storyline, or units in the game was available. Now, the time to start the beta stage has finally come, but...



...the closed beta stage was opened on the 12th of February, for a limited number of 5,000 gamers. Now, they moved to the open beta phase, but unfortunately this is only available to FilePlanet members. To get started, visit this page and follow the instructions, I am sure you can't go wrong!

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->At last, I guess the system requirements would be more interesting than other details about the game, but since I wasn't able to find them on the official page, here you have the main game features as described there:
- Fast and furious multiplayer
- Thousands of items and powerful relics to collect
- Use items and relics to build your own tactics
- The best cooperative, player-vs-environment gameplay ever made in RTS game
- Random maps for infinite exploration
- Unique blend of post apocalyptic setting, hi-tech and primitive
- Epic, dangerous missions with great rewards
- 3 playable races

Hummm..."player-vs-environment"...do we get to chop trees in this game? I don't think so, but that would really be funny!

A lot of voices heard in the last few years started to say that PC gaming is slowly getting near its end, and that consoles are the way of the future. Maybe in the Western world this may become true pretty soon, but in the emerging countries, where most buyers are on a tight budget, the PC will remain the favorite gaming device for a pretty long time. Fortunately, there are still gaming companies that support PC gaming...

...and one of them is Splash Damage, the development team behind Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, who consider game development for the PC much easier than on consoles. For example, Paul Wedgwood, lead designer on Quake Wars and Splash Damage owner, said "We've always lead on PC because you can prototype a game really quickly compared to the consoles. If you want to balance really well you do it on PC first, and then it's set up for console. If you do it the other direction it can go really badly."At last, it should be noted that Wedgwood considers PCs better for some game genres than consoles - "Personally I think that RTS, MMO and shooters, mostly, are better on PC. That's something that's very clear to us. How people come to adopt [PC gaming] is the tricky part. They probably get a PC so they can use Facebook or YouTube and then end up doing some PC gaming. The online part of PC gaming is absolutely in growth, not decline. The challenge for PC developers is to figure out why the things that work, work. There's no reason why developers should abandon these PC models and think the PC doesn't have a future, these kinds of games work."

Great, so buying a console can go way down my planned purchases list... what do you think about it?

I must confess something - I am not crazy at all about football, but I always enjoy a good sports game, although I am not crazy about sport simulators/managers either...so Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 may be just a good title for me!

Today, Konami announced that the PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 and DS versions of their Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 soccer game have been shipped to retailers all over the US, just a bit ahead of its official launch.

"Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 marks a major step forward for the most popular soccer video game franchise in the world," says Konami's Vice President of Marketing, Anthony Crouts.

Regarding the new features in this game, he said "Next-gen capabilities such as the Teamvision AI system and photo-realistic graphics, along with a ton of licensed teams and leagues, combine to make this the definitive soccer game for fans and newcomers alike."

PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 users will have to pay $49.99 for the game, while Nintendo DS, PSP and PS2 versions will come cheaper, for a price around $30.