Hold on to your shields and swords boys and girls, because Wildstorm Publishing has something new in store for you. Literally in store, because World of Warcraft based comic strips come to paper view for the very first time on November 14th. As with every big business opportunity one can’t ignore the massive appeal emanated by the Warcraft franchise, thus the veteran publisher asked comic book guru Walter Simonson (Superman, Hawkgirl) to take up the challenge of releasing the strip on a regular basis. We found an exclusive interview with the grand creator himself over at the Multiplayer Blog on MTV.com, along with some nifty pictures taken from the first issue.

<-250x250 Square - left->Simply titled “World of Warcraft”, the story arc planned over the first six issues showcases the adventures of an amnesiac human washed ashore Kalimdor. Taken under the guidance of shaman Rehgar Earthfury, our hero soon finds out that life is hard in the company of orcs. Set on a quest to find the secrets of his past, he will start anew fighting both Horde and Alliance in the gladiatorial arenas and striking uneasy alliances with the other races. The second issue will see him off to Dire Maul and taking on the many challenges of battling the Gor’Dok ogres. But he’s not the only gladiator under Rehgar’s rule. The third issue will see Lo'Gosh and Broll taken to the Thunder Bluff Pools of Vision for a cleansing ritual.

Walter Simonson went heavy on the lore connections, although he only recently took up the task of leveling a WoW character. Writing a good story was easier than ever, he explained. Regular comics have huge history backgrounds on adventures that it’s almost impossible to create something new and original, unlike the freedom such virgin territory like WoW provides. “And it’s been a lot of fun. We were able to actually layer some stuff in a way that I’m delighted about. In a way it means that, again for gamers who read the comic, there will be elements of the familiar, because if you play that much of the game, you’ll know these locations. But there’ll be things happening there that didn’t happen when you were in the game. So there’ll be some surprises” he said.

Along with the Rehgar Earthfury path there will be additional story arcs featuring blood elf Valeera Sanguinar, dwarf warrior Thargas Anvilmar and night elf druid Broll Bearmantle. Ludovic Moulière and is doing the sketches, helped by Sandra Hope on the inking. Check out this tauren working piece.

Well now *chuckles*, a mainstream WoW comic strip coming our way? That’s got to be the first time anyone actually puts in on paper. As far as I know we’ve had two novels with heavy tie-ins to the World of Warcraft universe, but a full fledged comic strip series is something new. I did find several web based comics out there and they’re all lovely, but I can’t escape their underground feel. It’s just like discovering a hidden treasure in the dark recesses of a musty cave, unlike the lighter and more accessible feeling of mainstream paper based comics. But that’s my problem. Out of the 9 million strong which represent the WoW fan base, I’m confident this release will see plenty of praising reviews and will sell like crazy, available here for $2.99 USD.

Culpa Innata is a third-person adventure game developed by Momentum AS and promising to become one of the most impressive of its kind.




The story places us in 2047 in Adrianopolis, one of the cities with the highest level of evolution in the World Union, a group formed by the richest and evolved cities having the most genetically-stable citizens.
In the World Union no crimes are happening.
What resides outside the borders is called a Rogue State and this includes only what is considered far from perfection.



You will be the Peace Officer from Adrianapolis, named Ploenix Wallis, and will be in charge with solving a murder in the Rogue State.
Phoenix is dragged into the conspiracy, and slowly she begins to realize that the society in which she lived and believed and sworn to protect, has false ideals.



Along the storyline you will encounter obstacles such as logic puzzles, hi-tech gadget manipulation and even dialogue challenges.
The original story, the 3D engine together with dynamic cameras, the patented facial animation technology, all are perfect realized features for which Momentum AS is to be praised.



Besides these, the game has 50 interactive characters, non-linearity and optional player activities offer rewarding replay-ability, a character journal capturing all key game moments, 40 special locations, and not at last, an original soundtrack.



Culpa Innata is expected to arrive in stores starting October 23.

Legendary: The Box is a new first person shooter game featuring an epic combat experience, between myth and man.





Without being conscious of what he had stolen, the art thief Charles Deckard opens the real Pandora’s Box, and from now on he must struggle to stop the war he started without knowing.
He will fight with hordes of beasts like werewolves and gryphons, creatures about he always believed they are only mythological.

Legendary: The Box is developed by Spark Unlimited and will be published by Gamecock Media Group.
It has only single player mode.
The game will be released at the beginning of 2008 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows platforms.

The Western-themed FPS Call of Juarez has now an enhancement Pack for DirectX 10 support.



<-234x60 Half Banner - left->This brings important improvements to the gameplay such as better Windows Vista support, better visuals, DirectX 10 benchmark, re-designed stealth levels, improved animations in cut-scenes, and lots of other minor fixes.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that this patch works only with the European version of the game.
The patch is 898.18 MB length.

Electronic Arts (EA) just made a big move on Elevation Partners and yesterday finalized the agreement to buy VG Holding Corp, who in turn is the owner of Bioware and Pandemic Studios. The acquisition of these two gems of the gaming ethos rises to a value of $800 million, paid mostly in cash to the VG Holding Corp stockholders.

For comparison’s sake, let’s say Electronic Arts is one of the biggest producers on the gaming market, a corporate environment where financial considerations are paramount in releasing new titles. Like comparing the Moon to a cloud of stardust, on the other side we have the smaller, independent, development studios proudly represented by the two studios. Pandemic is responsible for cult titles as Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans or Full Spectrum Warrior, while Bioware’s list of successes is so big that anyone playing computer games is bound to know a few. They practically reinvented RPG as a genre is times past and are now releasing even more original franchises like Jade Empire, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

But how does this affect us gamers? It is said that most Bioware employees were at some point with EA, so tensions are bound to arise internally. In addition, such a takeover usually ripples through every level of the organization, thus studios will slow progress down in regard to new productions. EA is notorious for pushing back release dates and gained a bad reputation for ruining good studios like Westwood and Origin. These are the prime examples of dev teams joining EA along with their grand franchises and losing grip into dismissal. You can check more feedback from the everyday gamer like you and me on the Bioware forums.

While some think that EA is simply buying off the competition, it’s not excluded that Bioware and Pandemic will be granted the needed freedom and finances to do something spectacular on a regular basis. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello noticed Bioware’s high metacritic score, which is a breath of fresh air for the all time low rating in EA’s backyard. The need to fill gaps in portfolio was also mentioned for motivation, with EA gaining a strong hold in the world of Bioware’s RPGs and Pandemic's open-world titles.