Let me say only one word: Bioware. If that doesn't ring a bell, it means you got your first computer earlier this week, or maybe you got here by mistake. Anyway, let's see a few more keywords: the Neverwinter Nights series, Mass Effect, the Baldur's Gate series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, shortly known as "KotOR," or even Dragon Age: Origins. While the others have been released already, Dragon Age is still under development, and I just heard some hot and interesting news about this incoming RPG from Bioware. Want to hear about it?

Dragon Age: Origins is expected to be the "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, with party-based combat, a deep story, and lots of things to customize. According to Bioware's CEO, Ray Muzyka, "Dragon Age: Origins is a dark heroic fantasy that doesn’t pull any punches. Our fans are in for the most emotionally intense gaming experience we’ve ever created, and we hope to surprise them with just how dark and gritty it gets!"

Expected to arrive in early 2009, Dragon Age has a very nice feature list, now confirmed in a press release, as you can see below.<-250x250 Square - right->

- Epic Party-Based Combat – Dragon Age: Origins will introduce an innovative, scalable combat system, as players face large-scale battles and use their party’s special abilities to destroy hoardes of enemies and massive creatures.

- Powerful Magic – Raining down awesome destruction on enemies is even more compelling as players apply “spell combos,” a way of combining together different spells to create emergent unique effects.

- Deep Customization – Players will develop their characters and gain powerful special abilities (spells, talents and skills) and discover ever-increasing weapons of destruction.

- Your Story, Your Way – With its emotionally compelling story, players choose with whom they wish to forge alliances or crush under their mighty fist, redefining the world with the choices they make and how they wield their power.

- Origin Stories – Players will select and play a unique prelude that provides the lens through which the player sees the world and how the world sees the player. The player’s choice of Origin will determine who they are and where they begin the adventure, as they play through a customized story opening that profoundly impacts the course of every adventure.

Leaving the feature list aside, the cinematics look great, as you can see above. With this, I rest my case, and think harder about making a day last 48 hours, so I can have enough time for Bioware's games that I missed so far, but especially for those that are currently in the makin, like Dragon Age... Any comments?

Simulating the real world in a game gets more and more interesting, because the processing power games can use these days allows much more than just amazing graphics. The sad part is that most realistic simulations don't take full advantage of this, trying to focus on numbers and AI and leaving graphics aside. Exactly the same seems to happen with Space Station Sim, a game expected to arrive in a few days, that tries to place you inside the International Space Station...

<-250x250 Square - left->Developed and tested together with NASA personnel by Avanques Software Publishing, Space Station Sim will be launched across the United Kingdom later this month. What is this all about? Here's what the official press release says:
"Space Station Sim challenges players to embark on a new age for man amongst the stars as they build a home 240 miles high, while flying at 17,500 miles per hour." Not just "another simulation," don't you think?

Even more interesting, it may be possible that NASA will use the game for "future mission planning." If you play well, who knows...maybe you end up as a space mission manager!

"The game begins in the Mission Control Centre, where the player launches new modules and components, recruits crew members, organises supply missions and manages the project budget."

Priced at £19.99, Space Station Sim will arrive to PC World, Amazon and Play.com, as well as to Avanquest.co.uk later this month.

One of the games I will never forget is Transport Tycoon, and despite the fact this can't be happening, every time I see a game involving the "tycoon" word, I have to take a look at it, even if it doesn't have anything in common with that brilliant title I just mentioned. Supernova 2: Spacewar is the game I want to tell you about today, and it comes from Tycoon Games, but this is not the only link to Transport Tycoon, because this space wargame is combined with a resource micromanagement simulation!



<-125x125 Button - left->According to Riva Celso, programmer/designer of Tycoon Games, "After the first title, I wanted to shift genre completely, making a turn-based space wargame, integrated with a resource macromanagement part. I wanted to keep the management part simple, with global variables affecting your whole empire rather than managing every single planet. It is my first game for the Tycoon Games website, which will feature exclusively strategy, simulation and war games."

Supernova 2 has the following features:

- Two selectable factions (Blue Army and Blood Legion) each one with unique tech and units
- Macro management part using resource distribution
- Tech research tree to discover multiple items
- Spacemap to explore and conquer other starsystems
- Full starsystem including planets of various kind: lava, barren, gaia, water, gas, and more
- Turn based battles with different battlefield conditions for great replayability and unique emphasys on turning / facing
- Easy Training Camp option to learn all the secret of the wargame part
- Upon study of alien relics you'll be able to use unique special weapons that do special damage
- Unlimited lifetime updates!

All the above is available for PC and Mac users, for a mere $25. If you want to purchase, download a demo, or find out more about the game, there's only one answer to that question: TycoonGames.eu!

Afraid of starting your own business? Apart from money, you surely need some practice, before anything else, and while business simulation games may not teach you a big deal, they will surely help you get relaxed. Just hink about this - it's not about building a media empire, a restaurant, managing a hospital or a prison, and not even a zoo! Did I say "zoo?" Well, that's close...

This time, we're talking about managing a pet salon, and your competition with the evil Pet Corp. The purpose? To turn your small corner spa, Paradise Pet Salon, into a huge success, while having fun at the same time!Although it may sound like a child's game, I know a lot of adults who are into playing games without blood and gore, and since I am not crazy at all about Zuma and those like it, I suggest them to try Paradise Pet Salon.

The system requirements are decent, with Windows ME being on the supported operating systems list, and a 600MHz processor with 128MB being just enough to run the game!

Some people don't like contests. OK, I understand that, but I'll never understand those that say "I never win" to justify that. I don't like football, for example, but I don't say it's a bad, ugly, or boring sport. Anyway, I love city building games, although I wasn't able to find enough time to play my favorite, Sim City, in the last months, and it's obvious that I wasn't able to try any new games from this category either. Anyway, I won't miss the contest I will tell you about today, you can bet on that!

Here's how to enter the contest, because that's why you are here, right? First, you should know that the contest is open to all registered members of the CITIES XL website. Next, you should grab your camera and then submit your pictures with residential buildings in the dedicated contest forum.

Here you have the official rules:
- Every picture must have been taken by you: if you win the contest, we will ask you to take some more shots using different angles. We will need these angles to model the building for the game.
- We reserve the right to not consider buildings for intellectual property reasons or other rules violations.
- We are only displaying your pictures , and therefore Monte Cristo is not responsible if your images violate your country's laws.
- Buildings must be residential: from a simple house to a 20 or more story residential building (we may in a future contest ask you for other building types).
- We reserve the right to remove any building that doesn’t fit the above requirements.

The prize? Well, for now it's only known that "the winning buildings will be modeled and textured by our graph artists and included in CITIES XL on day 1," but there may be some surprises waiting, too!