Tales of Pirates (http://top.igg.com/), a 3D MMORPG from IGG (www.igg.com ), is based on cute characters and eye-catching storylines, and quickly created a huge following for itself since its debut more than a year ago.

ToP is now preparing version 2.0 which will bring fresh experience to players including new stories, maps, mobs, quests and systems, especially the massive PVP system. Now we’ll have a brief preview of Tales of Pirates V2.0.

I. New Stories:
On Ascaron calendar 4035, a shining fireball streaked across the sky and dropped into the sea, south of the Deep Blue Region, followed by a terrible tsunami that swept the world.

After the tsunami, the adventurers arrived at the sea region where the fireball dropped, and unexpectedly they found a giant whirlpool, from which out came a chilling air and the continuous roaring of protectors.
What is the secret sealed in these Islands of Winter?

II. New Map, New Mobs
Winter Island
Contains 5 small islands, a total 9 regions, and it is the successive island on sea following the Spring, Summer, and Autumn Island. It is the island of dreams for Players Level 80+ to improve themselves where they will have new monsters to challenge and successive quests to do it.
New maze: The God Redemption
There are 2 types, the Bright Maze which players can only enter in daytime and the Dark Maze, which can only be accessed by night. If seen from above, the 2 mazes seem to have a serious face (Bright Maze) and a sinister-smiling face (Dark Maze). Also they have totally different terrain, vegetables and architecture.

III. New Quests:
In Winter Island many new quests and relevant NPCs are delicately designed, awaiting players’ experience.

IV. Cool items and gear:
New Items: Considerable new drops, including quest items and items which can be redeemed.
New Gear: 4 sets of Level 85 gear and 4 sets of Level 95 Boss equipment, one set per class. All the new gear grants the players experience bonuses and additional chance for drops.

V. New Mobs:
Before going to fight the new monsters in Winter Island, including in the Bright and Dark Mazes, players from different classes need to team up to face the challenge.

VI.PVP Arena:
The master will join the PVP contest along with the apprentice. There is also seating in the arena, and players can come in to watch the PK contest and leave at any time.

VII. Upper Limit of Level Adjustment
Level and Exp System
Decreases the leveling-up difficulties for Level 80+ players and adjusts the upper level limit to level 120, also fixes the balance of classes.

VIII. Guide for Newbies
More considerate newbie guide system, and newbie quests! Will guide the new starters to level up fast in the shortest time during the quests.

Gent, Belgium, 10 July 2008

Despite of appearances perhaps, Tale of Tales have been extremely active behind the scenes, working hard on the production of The Path, a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. In order to no longer keep fans in the dark, a development journal has been opened where the team will report on the production on a regular basis.
Please visit http://Tale-of-Tales.com/ThePath/blog .

Soon, Tale of Tales will also start revealing the main characters in The Path. The six Red Girls. Who are they? What do they look like? How would it feel to play them?
Start being teased at http://Tale-of-Tales.com/ThePath .

Meanwhile, The Endless Forest community is thriving. With almost 30,000 registered players and a prolifically creative community website, it is time to celebrate! On July 15, Abiogenesis will be unleashed once again on the virtual forest, starting at 11 PM, Belgian time.

Or 2 PM, E3 time, if you wish. The live performance will be screened by the IndieCade at the E3 conference in Los Angeles.
Next to Abiogenesis, IndieCade will be showing The Graveyard, a short game about dying, and a big print on Canvas of a spectacular scene in The Endless Forest. E3 takes place from 15 to 17 July, 2008.

Tale of Tales is a independent games developer based in Belgium. Founded by media artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, Tale of Tales explore the artistic potential of computer games. Their multiplayer screensaver The Endless Forest and the recently released The Graveyard, have been welcomed with open arms by the games community as important steps towards the medium’s maturity. Tale of Tales is currently developing The Path, a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. The Path features music by Jarboe and animations by Laura Raines Smith. A demo for The Path was nominated by the Independent Games Festival. The Path is scheduled for release in early 2009.

For more information, please visit the following websites:
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/ThePath
http://EndlessForest.org
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheEndlessForest/abiogenesis.html
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheGraveyard
http://IndieCade.com
http://Tale-of-Tales.com

Thursday 10th July – Brighton, UK/… Designer on Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, Brian Hudson, unveils for the first time details about a brand new instance to be introduced in Deployment 10.

Velon Hollow Dev Diary
Hi, I’m Brian Hudson and I am a designer on Tabula Rasa. I wanted to talk about a new instance, Velon Hollow, slated to be released in Deployment 10. This Deployment will be going live in the next couple weeks, and I’m extremely excited to share my insights.

First, a little background:
Imagine that an evil alien race has developed a serum capable of suppressing your personality and trapping you in your own mind. The chemicals make you stronger and more aggressive, and the sight of human flesh makes you hungry. As the last of your sanity slips away, you are only slightly aware that your friends and family have become your latest meal!

To the inhabitants of Velon Hollow, this nightmare has become a frightening reality. For centuries, the Order of Velon prided itself on its purity of thought and deed; now they have been reduced to mindless thralls, unable to stop the inevitable decay caused by an unknown toxin. In the heart of the mountain, in one of the spiritual centers of the Foreans, death has come.

This was the feeling I wanted to convey in Velon Hollow, a new replayable instance on the Plateau map for players between level 30 and 33. From the art and environments to the dialogue and scripting, we wanted to provide our players with an immersive, unforgettable experience that reaches into the mystery of the Eloh, illustrates the strength of the Forean people, and shows one of the darkest sides of the Bane’s campaign of terror.

That, and I think zombies are awesome. I love zombies. Zombies are an intensely psychological enemy; they feed on our fear of mortality and corruption. I only hope that I managed to do them justice in this instance.

Now, onto the vision:
One of our primary goals was to make sure that the environments told the story as effectively as the missions did. The Order of Velon spent centuries carving their temples out of the mountain, and we wanted players to recognize this when they discover the first of the Forean’s main living areas. Our world builders painstakingly sculpted the terrain and worked closely with our environment artists to integrate the Forean architecture.

Side by side with the breathtaking beauty of Forean architecture, infected Foreans huddle in the shadows around run-down, dilapidated tents. Our art team worked hard to create the new, diseased meshes you see on the Foreans and the broken tents that litter the cavern like a refugee camp. We felt this added a level of dark realism, and hopefully it will evoke sympathy for the Foreans.

I’ve often felt that there are too few places in the game where you truly feel a connection with the Foreans. Their tribal, naturalistic ways are so different from the high technology that fills the rest of the game, it is sometimes difficult to relate to them as more than simple caricatures. In Velon Hollow, I wanted to change that. Through the sheer scale of the tragedy, I hoped to evoke sympathy and compassion for the Forean people, but I wanted to do it in a powerful way. The AFS is always helping the Foreans, so what makes this different?

All throughout Velon Hollow, players will find surviving Foreans, most of who immediately lay down their lives to help you take out the Bane. Despite the tragedy that has befallen them, they have no concept of self-preservation, and seek only to destroy the Bane and reclaim their home. This warrior spirit, which is integral to the ethos of the Foreans, has never been illustrated so perfectly as when you enter the Bane outpost deep in Velon Hollow with an army of Foreans behind you. By the end of the instance, the feeling of pity and sympathy should be replaced with respect and camaraderie for your tragic allies.

These alliances, however, are not guaranteed. This is one of the dynamic interactions players will experience with this instance, one where their actions decide how the game play unfolds. Discovering the captured Foreans is not enough; players will have to rescue them from the Bane before they are destroyed. The size of your army at the end of the instance is based purely on your skill in rescuing them.

Then comes the choice:
It was also in this spirit that I created the mission “The Better Half,” an ethical choice mission where the player’s decision is made through action. You are asked to find the missing wife of Science Officer Clark, who has been taken hostage by the Bane. When you finally find her, your actions alone will determine whether or not she comes home alive. Like much of the story that unfolds in this instance, I feel the more I can do to keep you out of the UI and focused on the center of the screen, the more immersive the game becomes.

I truly hope players do keep their eyes on the center of their screen. Much of the story is told by the NPCs through chat bubbles that appear above their heads, and I wanted players to feel like they are being talked to directly. Although UI windows are great for giving the rundown of the mission, it is much more immersive to talk to the player directly and force them to stay focused on the instance around them. It creates for a better story, and allows for a smooth, uninterrupted narrative. Doing this also allowed me to give important NPCs a memorable personality, further cementing your camaraderie with the Foreans.

Finally, the payoff:
Alright, enough with the story; where’s the phat loot? Well, this is also the first instance in Tabula Rasa to introduce item sets. These sets are a prototype for future sets, and if players enjoy them, we hope to expand our implementation of them throughout the game. Players who complete all the missions in Velon Hollow will obtain the first three pieces of the “Purifier Set”, which gives greater statistic bonuses the more pieces they wear. The fourth and final piece of the set is a weapon that drops from the final bosses of the instance. Wearing all four pieces of the Purifier Set gives players a +10% damage against all Thrax, which we hope gives players incentive to play through the instance again, and hopefully bring friends to help finish their sets.

Speaking of friends, Velon Hollow is designed for at least two players of an appropriate level, so anyone planning on tackling it at level 30 should definitely bring help. However, players that are higher level, or just looking for a challenge, can try their luck destroying the Bane by themselves. At least you know you will have the help of a very dedicated Forean army, at least if you can rescue them first!

We spent a tremendous time crafting the story and the mood of this instance, making sure to create an intricate experience for new and old players alike. But just as important, we also introduced some new systems that we hope will increase the quality and longevity of the instance. This is just a taste of the amazing content we are working to add to the game, and I can only hope that players enjoy Velon Hollow as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Groundbreaking Xbox LIVE Arcade Title Is The First Built Using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio

BELLEVUE, Wash. – July 9, 2008 – Prepare for a brain meltdown! Microsoft and Torpex Games announced today the release of Schizoid™ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade. Billed as “the most co-op game ever”, Schizoid creates a new category of action gaming where teamwork equals survival and players must protect each other from waves of glowing enemies. Available for download now, Schizoid is the first-ever Xbox LIVE Arcade title built using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio.

“Torpex Games assembled an all-star team that truly believed in the vision of this singular game, and they ended up creating a unique and innovative game that embodies Xbox LIVE Arcade,” said Jeremy Wacksman, Microsoft’s Global Product Manager, Xbox LIVE. “We are very happy that Schizoid is the superb first result of our XNA Game Studio initiative on Xbox Live Arcade.”

Created by a team of veteran game developers, Schizoid features addictively simple gameplay. One or two players control one red ship and one blue ship, which are continually attacked by red and blue enemies. Each ship can destroy enemies of its own color, but will be destroyed by enemies of the other color. Quick reflexes help, but sharp teamwork is the difference between winning and losing.

“Schizoid is a landmark co-op gaming experience, unlike any other game. It’s a new experience that you’ve got to try,” says Bill Dugan, Torpex Games’ president. “And although it has been reported that Schizoid will ‘make your brain melt and ooze out of your ears’, I want to reassure gamers that in our testing we found no evidence of actual brain liquefaction.”

Two players can play cooperatively on the same Xbox 360™ console or over Xbox LIVE. In single-player mode, players can opt to control either one ship, while an AI “Wingman Bot” controls the other ship; or control both ships in the hardcore “Uberschizoid” game mode.

JCE Entertainment made a large-scale update on ‘Aeronauts (http://aeronauts.gamengame.com)’ last month which is currently providing worldwide service. JCE Entertainment is planning to provide an official service of ‘Aeronauts’ starting this September.

‘Aeronauts’ is using international servers to give service to users in 200 different countries. Recently users in Germany, France and Brazil are increasingly accessing. These countries are the rising countries in game market. The large-scale update was meant to accommodate new users in these markets.

Why do people crave ‘Aeronauts’ that is designed to have a single player? It is because ‘Aeronauts’ gives more control power to a player and it has an interesting scenario.

‘Aeronauts’ happens in the sky. Players has to control an aircraft and shoot down the enemies. Background of the game is important because it determines the mobility which again determines the characteristic of ‘Aeronauts.’

Let’s imagine that you just slammed the brake and made a u-turn to shoot down an adversary that has been following you. More complicated key-control is required compared to games that hunt a monster by simply clicking a back button. You could never imagine how excited you would be when you have succeeded doing it. This is the excitement that ‘Aeronauts’ brings.

Fruit of perseverance is known to be sweet. There is a gateway to fully enjoy ‘Aeronauts.’ Tutorial mode helps users understand ‘Aeronauts.’ Users who have not studied it, usually give up playing because they found it too complicated.

Users can learn how to use the keys and experience various game modes such as snatching flags or collecting balloons.

If you are good enough to control the aircraft, you could participate in a group match. Group matches can be played by maximum three players on each side. As level gets higher, more sophisticated techniques and weapons are being played. Such matches would make players more excited and you would not be able to imagine it unless you actually play the game.

So far ‘Aeronauts’ has been available abroad. Most feedbacks are complimenting ‘Aeronauts’ in general. Some players complained that there are only a small number of aircrafts and story developments are too slow. However, most players praised dynamic actions of the game. JCE Entertainment promised that they would be attentive to users and will provide best services because providing game services and making users interested in ‘Aeronauts’ are the most important goals.

Meantime, ‘Aeronauts’ have developed 30% of its global service contents through the recent update. Its contents are applied to have LEVEL 30. Different items, skills and weapons are about to be updated in the near future.

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH is to bring its world-famous Castlevania series to Nintendo Wii in the form of Castlevania Judgment, an all-new action title featuring a wealth of characters from the series’ 22-year history.

Created by series creator Koji ‘IGA’ Igarashi, Castlevania Judgment is a roving fighting game utilising heroes and villains from the Castlevania universe. The fighting game has been designed specifically for the Wii, and uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers to offer a stunning level of control over the central heroes. Taking centre stage within a series of 3D locations inspired by previous Castlevania games, the controllers are used to slash, stab and employ a series of attacks against the assorted minions of Dracula.

Each of the beautifully-realised stages are fully interactive, and as the player battles their way through, various elements can be picked up, thrown, or used against the forces of evil – players can even make use of monsters on the field, while traps can also be set by specific characters. Castlevania Judgment also makes use of the Wii’s Wi-Fi capabilities, allowing players to fight with online friends in one-on-one settings, while the game also enjoys connectivity with Igarashi’s forthcoming Nintendo DS title Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, allowing users to unlock a very surprising bonus.

Featuring visuals from acclaimed artist Takeshi Obata, Castlevania Judgment sees the series’ famed Belmont clan enter fresh territory as their fighting skills are extended for this all-new challenge. With a huge cast of well-known monsters and undead adversaries, Castlevania Judgment marks a new chapter in the story of one of gaming’s most enduring series.

Castlevania Judgment will be released for Nintendo Wii in Europe early 2009