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That’s about standard for one of Steam’s free weekends, but Sega has used the occasion to add some new content to both games.
The original Dawn of War is receiving a new, official multiplayer map, while its sequel is offering up some extra gear. Here’s a rundown from Sega of what’s included:
“The Temple of Cyrene is a brand new, official multiplayer map we’re adding into the Dawn of War I rotation. This map will be playable in DoW I, as well as the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions. The Temple of Cyrene sits on the blasted landscape of a world scoured clean by the Exterminatus of the Imperial Inquisition. Homeworld of Gabriel Angelos, Cyrene is now a ghost-world of ruined cities and ashen fields. Fight for supremacy amidst the remains of Cyrene’s once-mighty temples. Claim the three critical locations at the heart of the ruins or drive into enemy bases and deliver annihilation.”
Dawn of War II is getting some love aswell:
“In Dawn of War II, we’re giving away four free sets of Wargear; The Vanguard, Sniper, Sternguard, and Destroyer, to equip in the main campaign that were previously only available as pre-order DLC, or as rare loot drops. Now everyone will be able to equip items like the Veteran’s Grenades, Blade of Ulyus, Armor of the Destroyer, and many more to complete your sets!”
It’s been 17 years since the release of Baldur’s Gate, which, of course, makes this the perfect time for an expansion pack.
Last night, the folks at Beamdog—best known for releasing Enhanced Editions of the two Baldur’s Gate games—announced Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, a new entry in the series that’s set place between BG1 and BG2. Siege of Dragonspear will run on the Infinity Engine, they say, and it’ll tell a new story after the death of Sarevok but before the rise of Irenicus.
In case you’re not familiar: the Baldur’s Gate games are top-down isometric RPGs that follow strict D&D rules and let you pause during combat. They’ve held up really well today, especially BG2, which remains one of the greatest games ever made.
And now we’re getting a new one, developed by some ex-BioWare folks who have spent the past few years porting and enhancing those old Infinity Engine games. Says Beamdog:
The events between Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition are at last revealed in this exciting new expansion to the original game.
Though Sarevok is dead and his plan for war averted, peace eludes the citizens of Baldur’s Gate. A crusade marches in the north, seizing supplies, forcing locals into military service, and disrupting trade along the Sword Coast. A charismatic warrior known as the Shining Lady leads this army, her background shrouded in mystery. Can the rumors be true—is she, like you, the child of a god?
The closer you get to the Shining Lady, the more you realize your father, the dead Lord of Murder still casts a long shadow upon your path. Baldur’s Gate has put its faith in you, but you must determine whose interests you truly serve before you face the Shining Lady among the ruins of Dragonspear Castle…
Isometric RPGs sure are making a comeback, huh? There’s no firm release date yet, but the folks at Beamdog say Dragonspear will be out relatively soon for PC/Mac/Linux and then later this year for iOS/Android too. Hopefully it will be a worthy addition to the franchise.
Sega have registered the website domain www.dawnofwar3.com, presumably in advance of a new Space Channel 5 game announcement.
OK, so it might well mean a sequel for Relic’s muscular strategy game is on the cards—Company of Heroes 2 was a while ago, after all. Whois Lookup states that the domain was registered back in 2011 by Sega of America, and updated on March 26th of this year. Meanwhile, the registrant’s email address appears to be that for Relic’s IT department.
While Sega could just be registering the domain to protect it from squatters, a couple of years ago Relic did say that a new entry in the series was a “strong possibility”. If you’re wondering why you should be excited about a third Dawn of War, then you should grab the first and second games on STEAM while they are on sale.
Original: It’s not an official announcement, but MSI is boasting that they’ll have Final Fantasy Type-0 running on their GS60 Red and GS70 Silver laptops at their Computex booth. Given that those are both PCs, it would suggest that Final Fantasy Type-0 is coming to PC.
Originally a PSP game, Type-0 is a mission-based RPG with occasional bits of RTSing. It was recently re-released in an HD version for the non-portable consoles, so a PC version would make sense. The trailer below confirms that, yes, Type-0 is pretty much as weird as any other Final Fantasy game, and I can’t wait to play it 😀
With those 117 characters, SimCity lead gameplay scripter and designer Guillaume Pierre revealed the sad news that Electronic Arts has closed down SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville. After 12 long years, the company have apparently decided to close the studio in order to consolidate Maxis IPs into existing Maxis studios.
EA confirmed the closure and intentions with the following statement:
Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.
These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.
Although Pierre had additionally tweeted “everyone’s out of a job” in reference to the studio’s employees, EA included a further paragraph in their statement in regards to the affected employees:
All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.
At this time, it’s unknown how many employees will be affected by the closure.
Maxis was founded by Will Wright and Jeff Braun in 1987, and was acquired by EA in 1997. The studios are well-known for their town-building and life-sim franchises, SimCity and The Sims respectively; but following the adoption of a new engine in their latest title, Sims 4, causing a large loss of content from that found in previous games; and a disastrous attempt to revive the SimCity franchise in 2013 as an online game which was plagued by numerous technical and design flaws as well as server instabilities, Maxis’ future under EA has found itself on an unfortunate downward spiral.
