Left 4 Dead, developed by Valve, will be released this month in the US. Left 4 Dead is a shooter in which team play is essential to survival and victory. The game uses Valve’s Counter-Strike Source Engine, so expect pretty pictures and interesting physics. The game is basically cut up into 4 movie-campaigns. The humour in this game is definitely one of its stronger points. The characters you can play/meet all have their unique characteristics.

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Adventure gamers have been anxiously waiting for the release of A Vampyre Story. The graphics of the game can be compared to an advanced version of the classic adventure game Curse of Monkey Island. While cartoony graphics will not please everyone, a large portion of the adventure game community seems to long for a classic looking title, to satisfy their nostalgic desires. Like so many games these days, a Vampyre Story has been delayed due to initial problems with its publisher.

The story : You’ll be taking control of Mona, a talented opera singer who gets kicked out of the World of the living by a vampire named Shrowdy Von Kiefer. Doomed to spend the rest of her life/death in Von Kiefer’s dark castle, she decides that the place isn’t for her, and she leaves to pursue a dream of singing at the world famous Paris Opera.

The release date is set for this month for both Europe and the US.

Well, I have a lot more than two words, as you can tell, for the same reason I’m able to offer those: I recently had a chance to visit with The Adventure Company’s PR guru Suzanne MacGillivray and Associate Producer Dan Dawang, who provided me with a lengthy first-hand demonstration of the upcoming comic adventure that’s now in its final phase of crunch-time technical polishing.

If it seems like ages ago that we first heard of Bill Tiller’s debut adventure with then-newly-formed Autumn Moon Entertainment, that’s because it was. It’s been many years since the original announcement of A Vampyre Story, but its dalliance with an ill-fated startup publisher plunged the game deep into development limbo. Fortunately, where one German company dropped the ball, another was there to pick it up, and under Crimson Cow’s oversight, slowly but surely the game has crept forward to this day. And with release now finally in view, I can say with genuine (albeit still cautious) optimism that so far it looks like it’ll be well worth the wait.

Read all about “A Vampyre Story” at ADVENTURE GAMERS.

Nikopol is a first-person 3D game, there is no free movement (as in: you click on an entrance and the scene loads). This may be a turn-off to some, however, the graphics make up for it in my opinion. What did annoy me were the illogical puzzles in just this demo. Hopefully the puzzles in the full game are slightly less frustrating. You will know what I am talking about when you play through the demo.

There are days when you wake up in the morning, look out the window, rub your eyes, look again, and you see something so strange that you have no other alternative than to just deliberately ignore it, ban it from your memory, and try to continue to live your normal life as well as you can. Yet if one doesn’t succeed at this, there remains only one thing to do: to get to the bottom of the extraordinary thing in question. In the case of our protagonist, it is a pyramid. A flying pyramid. Above Paris. To be precise, one that emerges suddenly and unexpectedly above the French metropolis in the year 2023.

Preview at Adventure Gamers.

Too little attention is given to the smaller independent games of the world, which is a shame because there are many worth playing. An adventure game by Amanita Design caught my eye recently. The graphic art is unique and impressive, the story reminds me bit of Wall-E. Machinarium is a place filled with metallic material and inhabited only by robots. A small robot has been sentenced (unjustly) to spend the rest of his life on a sprawling scrap yard just behind a major city on Machinarium. He won’t be spending much time there though, his job is to prevent destruction and save a cute robot-girl (his friend). For more details on the game, check out the official website. Make sure you click the interview link as it contains all the information you’ll need, oh and you cannot miss the trailer, it’s right there at the top of the page. Developer Amanita Design hopes to release Machinarium at the end of this year.

What do you get when you “try” to mix elements from The Da Vinci Code, and the Broken Sword series of games? Some would say a great game, but Artematica failed to deliver a solid product. Belief & Betrayal tries to be too many things at once, becoming a messy melting pot. Many works of fiction feature the Knights Templar and secret sects, Belief & Betrayal features both and a whole bunch of other mysteries. Add to the unbelievable story line below-average voice acting, and an uninteresting lead character and you have the recipe for a not so good game. Which is a shame because they did a good job in the graphical department, including decent cut scenes. The annoying pixel-hunting that adventure games are infected with is also present, making it even more tiresome to play.

Our protagonist in this story is Jonathan Danter, a character meant to be so good they named the game after him, at least according to its in-game moniker “Jonathan Danter – Belief & Betrayal”. Unfortunately, Danter is about as lovable as a parking meter. I think he’s meant to be a kind of wise-cracking ladies man, but he simply grates right from the start, with his whiny voice and idiotic, poorly translated expressions frustrating the player, if not the other characters.

Read the full 2 page review at Adventure Gamers.

Any space mmog is going to be compared to Eve Online these days, there is just no avoiding it. With Eve being the most popular online space game, it is hard for developers to clearly show how THEIR game is different from Eve. The first thing I noticed on the features page of the Jumpgate Evolution website is that this game offers twitch-combat. So your keyboard skills actually matter, unlike Eve - in which you just click your mouse button a bunch of times (not very exciting for FPS junkies). Personally, I prefer the former - it makes for more interesting gameplay. Combat is without doubt a major component of the game, whereas Eve is focussed mainly on trade and economic activity.

The Jumpgate Evolution faq boasts about how advanced the AI of computer opponents is. I am always sceptical reading such statements. When was the last time you were actually impressed with a game’s artificial intelligence? The game requires a mere Intel Pentium III 800 mhz, so rest assured that you will be able to meet the minimum requirements. Codemasters Online is now welcoming beta sign ups from all over the world, just click here to go the official site.

June 26, 2008 - Codemasters Online & NetDevil are pleased to announce that BETA signups for their hotly anticipated MMO Jumpgate Evolution are now live alongside the brand new global community portal at jumpgateevolution.com

Launched this week, the global community portal is the premier destination for all news and information on Jumpgate including access to the hotly anticipated BETA which will be going live in the coming months.

More information here.

The Alone In The Dark series is considered the creator of the surival-horror genre, not Resident Evil as you might think. It has been quiet for years, but we finally get to play a new game in the series. Watching the footage I must say they got the right atmosphere, but this game is more action-oriented than previous titles. The scene is New York Central Park, one of the largest, and well known, city parks in the world. A dark secret has surfaced, threatening the city. You, Edward Carnby, must uncover and destroy the evil forces that have total destruction in mind. The trailers I’ve seen show a lot of action, including driving, climbing, and shooting stuff.

Press the play button to start the Alone In The Dark trailer. Ignore the annoying beeps every time the lead character swears. They obviously want to protect you from corrupting your soul by hearing the word f*ck.

I find this quote by EuroGamer to be very fitting:

“At sea in an ocean of blockbusters, Alone in the Dark has no choice but to punch above its weight: high production values, biblical clashes between good and evil, and precociously elaborate game mechanics unite, embraced by a rigid but versatile single location and tempted in every direction by a developer unafraid, perhaps even desperate, to sling every idea at the wall and hope the majority stick.”

Click here for the full review.

EVE Online is already at its eighth expansion title, and the end isn’t in sight yet. CCP just launched EVE Online : Dawn of the Empyrean Age, an expansion pack that promises intense factional battle, a feature many EVE players have been waiting for. The expansion is free, like all of the others released in the past. Change is coming to EVE Online, will you adapt?

CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced the launch of the eighth free expansion for EVE Online, its popular massively multi-player online game (MMOG). EVE Online: Empyrean Age destroys the peace of New Eden as long suppressed political tensions between the four major Empires of EVE boil over into direct conflict. Stalwart starship pilots join the newly mustered militias and make solitary strikes deep within enemy territory. By choosing sides in this epic war, players have the power to direct the course of the conflict. New players can quickly immerse themselves in the EVE universe by diving into large-scale factional battles.

You can read the full press release on MMORPG.com.

Or go to the official EVE Online site for all the juicy details.

Dracula - Origin is one of those adventure games that almost gets drowned by its pixel hunting action. But it stays afloat because of its atmospheric setting and excellent story line. It does seem hard to convince adventure game developers to keep the pixel hunting to a minimum. I wonder when they finally get the clue. The graphics aren’t state of the art - but they present the atmosphere of Bram Stoker’s classic novels quite nicely. The story takes place in Europe and the Middle East. Although this game is based on a Bram Stoker novel, it basically borrows the basis of the stories and fills it up with fresh Victorian mystery. A nice approach that works well, the story keeps you interested all through the game. Puzzle lovers are treated to some pretty hard puzzles. As common in adventure games, the puzzles aren’t all that logical. People will be searching for walkthroughs on the web soon enough. Still, that shouldn’t keep you from enjoying this game, as it is a solid title.

Buy Dracula Origin at Amazon!

From Gamespot:

Good storytelling never goes out of style. For proof, check out Dracula: Origin, a point-and-click reimagination of Bram Stoker’s classic novel from Frogwares that delivers a gothic tale as atmospheric and chilling as a London fog. While you couldn’t ask for a more done-to-death story, the treatment of this legendary material is both respectful and innovative, with familiar characters and scenes being mixed in with all-new escapades set across Europe and the Middle East. Too many pixel hunts and logic puzzles that occasionally stray into “good luck solving this without a walkthrough” territory cause a few problems, although these frustrations aren’t enough to ruin a great Victorian spook story.

Read the full article.

Highly anticipated Fallout 3 is sure to please fans of the series, judging by the latest IGN preview of the game. The game features a mix of role-playing elements and FPS techniques. The way in which players set up their character can be called innovative, unlocking new settings as your character ages - and at the same time providing a sort of tutorial to familiarize yourself with controls and icons. Man’s best friend will be there to accompany you on your journeys if you let it. You find the dog when its former owner is assaulted by a group of raiders. The owner does not survive, but the dog is more than happy to join you. Dogmeat can be very handy during fights, but also to recover items you need - such as guns. You can count on Bethesda Softworks for dark post-apocalyptic environments with realistic atmospheres. The game offers various ways to solve situations, whether you build a heavy weapon specialist that uses brute force to get what he wants, or a stealthy assassin backstabbing opponents. Fallout 3 is scheduled to be released at the end of this year.

War, as the intro to Fallout 3 tells us, never changes. And for much of the last year, the information that we had on Fallout 3 itself hadn’t changed, as Bethesda Softworks kept a low profile as it worked on what is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year. But now Bethesda is looking to break radio silence, and we jumped at the chance to see the latest progress on this epic single-player role-playing game set in a memorable post-apocalyptic world. So buckle up, and we’ll describe what we saw at a demonstration of the game this week.

We learned last year that character creation was tied into your character’s birth in Vault 101, but we finally got to see what Bethesda was talking about. You’ll literally emerge from your mother’s womb and open your eyes to see a doctor and your father (voiced by Liam Neeson) looking down on you. Don’t worry: Bethesda doesn’t get graphic in this sequence; all you see in blackness before your eyes focus, but you can very clearly hear the doctor and your father discuss your birth. And like with any new baby, one of the first things they say is, “It’s a boy/girl!” That’s because this is the very first selection that you make when creating a character, and which option you choose will determine the gender pronoun used throughout the game (One fun little bit of trivia is that if you press the A button during this sequence you’ll trigger a baby cry).

Find the entire article at IGN’s PC section.

Third-person adventure game Gray Matter’s release has been delayed due to a change in development studios. Jane Jensen is part of the team working on the game, she is well known for her work on Gabriel Knight. Adventure game fans will not see the game before 2009.

Grand Theft Auto 4 - New Trailer

I know millions of gamers are eagerly waiting for GTA 4’s release. One of the most popular games of all time, the fourth instalment will feature improved graphics, a huge city to explore, and an exciting storyline. And of course the one thing that made Grand Theft Auto so famous - free to walk/drive/fly around as you please. Click here for the trailers.

Overclocked is a psychological adventure thriller being developed by House Of Tales. It’s promising to bring a unique story mixed with rather innovative playing styles. A mental institute on Staten Island requests your (David McNamara) assistance. Five people have been picked up all over New York in similar circumstances. Your task is to extract information from their memory, which will be hard as they’ve forgotten what the heck happened. The innovative part is that you will not just be watching their memories “unfold” but rather take an interactive role in them. So by re-living these memories you get the information you are after. It wouldn’t hurt David to visit a psychiatrist himself as he certainly isn’t free from inner demons himself! And if he isn’t depressed enough, the city is darkened by a huge thunderstorm that knows no end. This game is definitely for adults, and is a far cry from the “safe” and not so controversial adventure games that make up most of the genre. The good graphics re-enforce the gloomy atmosphere in the game world. Overclocked should be out this month.

It’s been a long time since I last saw Overclocked: A History of Violence in action. So long, in fact, that many details of the highly-promising E3 ‘06 demonstration have been all but buried since then. Fortunately, a preview version of House of Tales’ ambitious new thriller arrived recently, which not only served as a physical stimulus for forgotten memories, but also a firm reminder of why there was so much reason to be psyched in the first place.

Unless you’ve been locked away in a padded room wearing that funny white jacket with its sleeves in the back, you’ll know by now that the themes of psychosis and suppressed memories are central to Overclocked. The game begins with news of five different young people being picked up across New York City, all holding weapons, all disoriented, and none with any memory of who they are or how they arrived at such a state. And while the amnesic protagonist idea is a well-worn cliché, rest assured that the game’s approach to the concept is not.

Find the entire article at Adventure Gamers.

Though it’s widely known for its acclaimed Battlefield games, the Swedish studio DICE does have a proud history of developing for a wide variety of genres. DICE has made racing games, pinball games, and even an equestrian game called Legacy of Rosemond Hill. With that said, Mirror’s Edge is unlike anything DICE has made before. Indeed, it’s almost unlike anything that we’ve ever seen before, but it nevertheless looks cool. If you had to describe it in a sentence, it’s almost like a first-person parkour game. And if you haven’t heard of parkour, then do a search for it on YouTube.

Find out more at GameSpot.

If you have 20 minutes - read the IGN feature on adventure gaming.

It’s been almost 5 years since Westwood Studios released Command & Conquer Renegade, their first FPS game in the Command & Conquer series. The game failed to meet public expectations and Westwood Studios closed shop shortly after its release. Unlike Renegade, Tiberium will put you in the role of battlefield commander. Your job will be to secure areas, gather intel and make sure the main battle groups can work efficiently. The Forward Battle Commander (you) will be wearing heavy body armor with Crysis-like features, such as the ability to jump on top of buildings and other objects. EA has not forgotten the story. The storyline will continue where Command & Conquer 3 ended. A highly modified version of the Unreal Engine will be used for the game. Although there are several screen shots available already which look quite impressive, the game is not near completion yet. We are looking at a late 2008 or early 2009 release.

Tiberium isn’t the first first-person shooter EA has created out of its popular Command & Conquer real-time strategy franchise, but it is the first attempt in over half a decade. As such, Tiberium will bring all the latest technology to the fray, and developer EALA looks to craft a game that will blend the squad control of the RTS games with intense first-person shooter gameplay. Along the way, Tiberium will also fill in huge holes in the history of the Command & Conquer universe. We finally got our first look at Tiberium recently, and EA showed off some of its core gameplay and features.

Go to GAMESPOT for the first impressions of Tiberium!