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!

StarCraft was, is, and will remain one game that influenced hundreds that came after it, and also managed the impressive performance to remain in the hearts (and computers!) of one generation after another. Just think about how popular was this game in the last decade, and I won't have to add anything else...at least regarding StarCraft, since StarCraft 2 is getting closer and closer with each day...

StarCraft 2, expected by legions of gamers for ages, was announced for the first time on the 19th of May, 2007, in Seoul, South Korea. Unlike StarCraft, which was released at different dates on each major platform, StarCraft 2 is currently under development for being released simultaneously on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. Unfortunately, there is no certain release date, despite the fact that a multiplayer demo was already playable at BlizzCon 2007.

As you can see in the two images above, more and more screenshots from the game become available these days, but the release date is still a secret (or simply unknown even by the producers of the game), so for now, we should simply site back and enjoy what we have, hoping the game's release date is getting closer. After all, better to wait longer for an excellent game, than get a bad one in time, don't you agree?

Fireglow Games, widely known for its Sudden Strike series, has just announced a new title that reached gold status, namely Stranger.

Scheduled to begin shipping on the 3rd of March, Stranger is a RTS/RPG hybrid, and places you in the role of a hero lost in a strange fantasy world (aren't they all doing this?). The promises are pretty interesting - the game features a well designed magic and enchantment system, and the action takes place in a world with over 100 unique monsters.

What I don't like to hear is that, while you can control 3 different characters, the single player campaign should last "more than 30 hours", but the good part is that Stranger will also feature 8-person online multiplayer matches. Well, we should live and see what happens when this title hits the shelves... will it remain stuck there, or is it going to disappear from there like magic?

Blueside announced the first Massively Multiplayer Online Action Real-Time Strategy game in the history and it is no other than the Kingdom Under Fire II, a series which is known for combining action with RPG elements since 2001, and starting with the Xbox 360 versions launched this month under the title Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, the creators went deeper into the action complexity adding more RPG elements.

The developer brought the game back in its RTS origins and with action elements addition it will allow thousands of gamers to access the new MMO mode in a battle with epic proportions, with single-player and multi-player campaigns available and a fresh story about the battle over power between the Dark Legion and the Human Alliance.

Kingdom Under Fire II is expected to be released sometime next year being prepared for a worldwide launch for PCs and consoles, after Blueside finishes the project related to the title discussed with Phantagram, and after the publisher is chosen.

The fate of this game was decided long before the actual work for it had even started. The developers are the same ones who left from Blizzard a long time ago and are the authors of the Diablo game series. The history of this game started in the house of one of the developers and later on they had a fully working studio which got the name “Flagship Studio”. The fact that they started out in a small place working on this project bonded the developers very much. What they wanted was to give life to a new game that would create a new genre within the list of the types of games of today.

<-250x250 Square - left->The original idea that gave inspiration for the concept of Hellgate was “Half-Life meets Diablo”, according to one of the developers (Diablo2 was the only game that lasted more than 2 years on my hard drive – so you can only imagine how interested I was when I heard that a new game made by the same team was in the works). The result is pretty much a lot more than they originally expected – thousands of fans are active daily on the official site posting in the community. Yes, this game is more like “next-gen”, but you should take this phrase literally – the requirements are pretty much important and need to be respected, otherwise you will never enjoy the game at its best. The game has a multiplayer version as well (where you can go with your friends from your clan and defeat the demons together), based on monthly subscriptions with relatively good prices. If you hurry up, you might get a lifetime subscription as well.

You will need a dual core CPU with at least 2GHz, 2GB of RAM – yes it needs a lot of RAM, the more the better (seriously this game needs 4 GB RAM because of the high amount of data that keeps being loaded as you progress from one area to another so that the transition would be smooth), latest generation and especially top level video cards – the developers have worked mostly on Nvidia cards and that is also what they promote in their game. Momentarily, the 2x00 ATI cards work very well with the game, but only with the Catalyst 7.9 driver series. The page-file of your computer needs to be resized to a little above 10GB and the hard drive requirements are 7.5GB. You may wonder why this game needs so much – well it’s because of the engine. Even if you install the memory leak patch from Microsoft that the set-up will ask you to, it will still have problems with managing the video memory and the RAM memory – it would certainly need some tweaking, and the developers have released 3 patches so far, one after another, each giving a better overall performance, but the memory issue hasn’t been solved completely yet.

latest game trailer

The story of the game is neatly connected with its development - they began the concept arts with the Templar Knights because they have existed for a long time and they know how to deal with threats, always protecting the humankind. And around this idea the other classes have caught shape. “First person shooter meets RPG” – this was the full concept that determined the developers to create a fully featured and brand new game-engine, specialized in generating new maps and in handling massive amounts of characters, monsters and other 3D objects in motion, infinite replayability and an individualized gaming experience through dynamically created levels. As you can imagine it was not easy, and it took them years before they even came close to an alpha version of the game, when I received an invitation to take part in the testing. I was very happy that somebody was finally thinking of making something quite revolutionary, while bringing new concepts.

The alpha and beta testing went pretty much OK, but I can tell you now – the alpha version was already very good and performed impressively nice. The beta was tweaked and changed a few things, like the design of most of the tube stations. There are as many “levels” as many stations – in each of them you will have to do some “chores” in order to gain some experience points and there is of course the main line of quests, meant to bring you closer to the “Hellgate”. I am presenting the game levels from the point of view of a Knight, so it’s a Templar Knight’s version of the story, following mostly the main quest. The other classes have pretty much the same path, although they will definitely use their own special abilities to move through the hordes of demons and travel to each station doing good deeds.

Although, you will have to take up as many quests as possible and solve them, there is a purpose for this – increased experience will give you many points to allocate to the skills panel and 5 attribute points per gained level to distribute to the accuracy (the precision of the attacks), strength (for wearing the heaviest and strongest armors and also to hit better the monsters where it hurts), stamina (the life power – this increases directly your health levels) and willpower (the magic abilities). What this game has to offer is high-action single player that can be played also on the multiplayer. I strongly believe that this game is one very good advertiser for tourists who wish to visit London (as if there weren’t too many already). The weapons in the game are very capable of tweaking and have slots for inserting items that give them aditional and enhanced abilities. So here it goes:

“I still remember the orders from the first day I arrived at the Holborn Station, after meeting Murmur and helping out the Techsmith to restore the gate towards Covent Garden: “Fire and Glory! Remember the dead but fight for the living! Leave NONE (meaning demons) alive! Save London!” What happened that lead to this totally unbalanced universe: “A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.” There are 3 factions with the necessary skills for “demon-thrashing” and these are:

The legendary Templar Knights were the ones who have been doing “this job” for centuries and were specialists in sword attacks and extreme physical damage. They have developed quite unique and highly advanced armor along with cutting-edge powerful swords. The game’s general idea is focused around them and they were the first ones prepared to face the demons. Since I was “called for duty”, I had to join them and “regain” my former armor. I was ready as a blademaster to “match the blades” against the demons again, but this time it was going to be the end of them.

Blademaster Templar in action

The Cabalists were the students of the dark arts and advanced science. They find themselves pretty much at the border between good and evil, luckily they use their forces to help the armies of the knights in mid-range combat against the demons. They use the force of the demons against them. This class reminded me of the Necromancer one from the Diablo game. They don’t do very much physical damage themselves - it’s the summoned creatures and the spells that do the tricks for them.

Cabalist Summoner in action

The Hunters are former highly ranked and trained military operatives and spies who make use of advanced technology to defeat their opponents – while they also use a lot of guns. They are the ones to show us the real first person shooter mode within the game. The developers wanted to make them look outstanding and not just like the "usual" marines.

Hunter Marksman in action

Moving on with the story, I managed to help the Techsmith in fixing the gate towards Covent Garden and I literally hacked and slashed through the restless packs of demons in order to reach the Covent Garden Station. This is where I met one of the highly ranked knights, namely Brandon Lann. He was pretty full of self-importance, but later on when I met him again he was very respectful. He sent me to search for one of his wounded knights from one of the Hellrifts (small portals between human world and the demon one). There I found a device that helped me destroy the Hellrift from the British Museum and I met “the oracle”, The Sage (very amusing, just like in the Matrix) who told me a “piece” of the truth. And that is what happened in Act 1 from the game.

When I came back, Lann sent me to Lord Arphaun, from the Charing Cross Station. Here I got the orders to clear out the Piccadilly Circus and the surrounding areas. While my skills have improved and I gained some “cash” I decided to get “some respectable gear”, as Lann suggested, at least until I would get the armor I was waiting for such a long time. And I must say I really enjoyed talking to Holloway, and I bought a lot of items, armors and swords from her. She is one of the cutest people to talk to, (but only before you apply any patch to the game – the patches remove her cool personality). Here, I was sent to talk to Lucious Aldin, a crazy old fool who proved to be pretty skillful in managing to keep me busy for a while in the Green Park Station and in Chocolate Park. After bringing down some uglies in the Millennium Battle and in the level that turns out to be RTS-like, namely the Embankment Redoubt, I reached the end of Act 2.

Embankment Redoubt
The next stop was the Temple Station – this where I found armor which resembled very much the one I’ve been waiting for. It wasn’t very sleek looking, but it protected me lots of times during my travels to The Barge House, The Big Gundown, The Puddle Dock and the Angel Passage. Rorke Pherral was in charge here, and he was from the Hunter faction. I noticed that the Templar Base was just one tunnel away, but I only visited it for the new gear and armor at that time. Things were starting to look better and the occasional “epic battles” were bringing me closer to the final fight against the big demon with blue eyes. When I went through the Angel Passage, I saw a lot of big and very ugly wart-like creatures that released a lot of infesting fumes – I used the special gun from the wizard-lizard Lady from the Temple Station to get rid of them and I finally met another form of “truth”, in a heaven-like area.

That was the end of Act 3 and the beginning of Act 4, and I moved on to the Monument Station where I was happy to find Lord Arphaun again and he asked me to rescue some fellow knights who were located in Aldgate, Canon Street Rail, and to clear out the Tower of London area. I helped the Techsmith to fix the train from Canon Street Rail, by bringing back the missing pieces and then I attacked the demons that were standing in the way of the train. I also returned to the Templar Base where I felt pretty much like home and very welcome, although Lord Maxim was arrogantly abusing his power. Hilariously enough, the game has a sense of knowing how good the player is and I received a hint during the missions from the Templar Base, and that was: “You should really know what you are doing by now” and I was like “wow, no kidding, you think?”

Next, at the beginning of Act 5, I went to Liverpool Street Station, in order to meet Jessica Sumerisle, the young lady with blond hair and blue eyes, the leader of the Templar and of the whole movement against the dark forces. This is where I finally found the armor I’ve been looking for from the start. I helped Jessica to find the Sigil Sign in Necropolis and then I was sent to Finsbury Square to prove again in 5 “simple” tests how worthy I was to face the most dangerous demons out there. These tests reminded me a lot of the adventures from the Unreal Tournament, especially the “capture the flag” competitions.

The tests (Knowledge, Fellowship, Leadership, Beauty and the Final Test) weren’t exactly easy, but I managed to pass them in a relatively short time. I enjoyed very much the travel to Ploughyard, where Lucious Aldin and his 314 Techsmith were waiting for me along Murmur and Emmera: I was given a big robot to fight against the huge demons and I was very happy to use its automatic machine guns against the Furies that were standing in my way. At the end of this test, Murmur disappeared mysteriously because of the big demon, Sydonai, who made a short appearance. The last form under which the truth took shape was a child who foretold the future of the final battle. Next, Emmera encouraged me to go and be victorious in the battle at the Hellgate from St Paul’s Station, the final stop.

Just when I thought it could get any better armor-wise I was bewildered to discover that the knights have developed another type of armor, a newer one that was visibly stronger and thicker. When I put it on, I felt as if I was one of the Transformers, those really awesome robots. And it wasn’t a bad thing at all – I actually felt invincible in that “voltaic” armor. Before proceeding to the Hellgate, I saw that all the important people were at the entrance towards the gate, like Jessica, Lann, Arphaun and Emmera – they all wished me well and said they hoped to win the war. There is just one thing I need to mention now – all the knights that I encountered on the battle field were either stupid or simply incapable to handle the monsters – I had to “dispatch” the uglies up close and personal.

So it wasn’t something new when I saw the "little" Templars on the streets fighting without any hope against the demons. I cleared the path as usual and proceeded into Hell in order to fight against Sydonai. First I had to defeat 5 big demons who impersonated 5 lies (flaws), and then Sydonai showed up. Emmera used her powers to weaken him but she soon fainted and sent the remaining energies to me. So I took the chance and started to bring on all the “heavy artillery” I had available and also used a little magic to boost my finishing moves. It was a good idea because the big blue-eyed demon fell down struck by the lighting from my swords.

What happened next was the biggest surprise of all: Murmur showed up, but totally disfigured and he thanked me for clearing up the place for him – he casted a spell upon me and sent me back, outside the Hellgate, while he remained there reading and casting spells from a book he just unwrapped. I was told that this was the end and that the story would begin again in Nightmare mode, but it would have to take a lot of time before I was to return to the battle field – I needed some rest.”

Signed,
Lt. LightSabre

The developers have worked a lot on the detail of the sound in the game, and each effect was tweaked as much as possible in order to give a realistic feel. The thematic music wasn’t present in every action scene, but it was very well spread throughout the game, especially in the “crowded” areas, in order to stimulate the player. For more details check out the interview with the developers from the video below:

Interview With Hellgate London Developers

As a conclusion, I would like to thank the developers, especially Bill Roper and Max Schaefer, for creating such a great game, for giving life and shape to things I’ve been dreaming ever since I was a very young boy and for putting into spotlight moral values that make the humans stick together through hard times. Even if the game is not perfect (but then again nothing is!), it brings a totally new perspective for the gaming communities, by combining RPG elements with FPS style and even RTS features into one big and solid package. I would also like to thank Ping0 from the Hellgate London Community for keeping us up to date with the latest patches and news regarding the game development.

Digitainment Mark: 10 out of 10 (for creating a new genre in the gaming universe)

Developer: Flagship Studios

Publisher: EA, Namco Bandai Games, HanbitSoft, IAH games

Official game website: http://www.hellgatelondon.com