Remember Starcraft? If you missed it so far, go and get it now, because this is one of those games you must NOT miss. Anyway, leaving Starcraft aside, we should talk about Starcraft 2, its sequel. First announced over a year ago, on the 19th of May, 2007, Starcraft 2 is under development for Windows and Mac OS X, but the release date is still uncertain. Anyway, leaving the release date aside, we have some new screenshots!


Since some of you may be new to Starcraft, I should say that Starcraft 2 "continues the epic saga of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival."

The feature list displayed on the official Starcraft 2 website goes like this:

- Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->
- Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg
- New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
- Groundbreaking single-player campaign
- Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
- Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
- Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience

At last, I should add that specific system requirements are not yet available, but it's good to know that Blizzard is working to ensure compatibility with a wide range of computer parts, including older DirectX 9 video cards. Other than these...I guess we should keep waiting, but one question arises: are we going to get Starcraft 2 first, or Diablo 3?

I love those games coming from Paradox. Unfortunately, there's only one huge problem with them. I am not talking about the outdated graphics, or the boring in-game sounds. I simply don't care about those things, but I regret my days don't have 72 hours, so I can spend at least 24 hours per day playing Hearts of Iron, or Europa Universalis... Anyway, if you have more time to spare than I do, it is my pleasure to let you know that Europa Universalis: Rome has just been shipped to stores across North America!

Covering the period from the first Punic War to the start of the true Empire, Europa Universalis: Rome "combines the best of the Empire Building, Conquest and Warfare genres, wrapped into a title that contains all main characteristics of a typical Paradox Interactive game. This project has the potential to become the most talked about grand strategy game to date," according to Johan Andersson, Paradox Director of Development.

The system requirements are as it follows:

Microsoft Windows XP/2000,
1.9 Ghz Intel Pentium or similar AMD
512mb RAM
Direct X 9.0c
128mb compatible video card & support for pixelshader 2.0.

For more details, feel free to visit the official website here, and be sure to save some time for this amazing experience that I am sure Europa Universalis: Rome is going to offer.

If you're into RTS games, I guess you must have played Dawn of War until now. If you have not, at least you must have heard about it. Released back in 2004, Dawn of War got no less than 3 expansion packs in the meantime, and now it seems Dawn of War II is getting near...

Continuing the tradition of the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansion packs, Dawn of War II is expected to feature a non-linear campaign, but for now, the only confirmed races are the Space Marines and the Orks.

As the title of this article says, the official website is up, so feel free to pay it a visit. At this time, all that you can see is a teaser video, as well as a few screenshots, but be sure to check back from time to time for new content and updated news.

Dawn of War II is currently developed exclusively for Windows PCs, and is scheduled to arrive in early 2009.

World in Conflict was, without any doubt, one of the most successful games released in 2007, but one of its small drawbacks was the platform - only the PC version was released in September 2007, but don't worry - Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are on the way, and on top of it all, it seems an expansion will arrive even earlier!


<-125x125 Button - left->Oh, yeah, there was one more thing missing in the initial release of the game - a Soviet campaign, but that's about to change, because the next game in the series, treated like an expansion pack, according to Sierra, will be World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. Being given the name, I am sure you can figure out what is this all about...

At last, according to Sierra, the upcoming Xbox 360 version will feature voice commands, only 10 players in multiplayer, compared to 16 on PC, and some new units. Other than that, it seems that Soviet Assault, as well as the Xbox and PS3 releases should arrive this fall, so there's enough time left for those that didn't play World in Conflict yet to grab the game and enjoy a virtual third world war!

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!