One of Russia's most distinguished game developer and publisher, 1C company, has announced two new game projects that will be their first on the next generation consoles. The two games are based on Captain Blood novels and the successful IL-2 Sturmovik flight combat simulation series.  Both are now heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (to North America with help), but even handhelds will feel some love as well.

World in Conflict for the PC has finally passed its final stages and is ready to hit the stands on September 18 in the US and September 20 in Australia and New Zealand!

 

Both the standard and collector's edition of WIC will be available with a not-so-final-as-the-game price of US$ 49.99 and US$ 59.99, respectively. If you remember, the collector's edition will include not only great bonus stuff like behind-the-scenes videos and a documentary from The History Channel, but also an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall. Not bad for an extra ten bucks.

No word yet on the final release date for the Xbox 360 version.

 

The highest capacity we've heard of for current optical storage media is the Blu-Ray disc, whose double-layer format comes in at a monstrous 50GB capacity. That just might change in the next few years, as an ongoing research project has found a way to cram three times that capacity (150GB) into a DVD-sized disk, with plans to pump it up to a further 500GB by 2008.

The program, dubbed the Microholas Project, is under the supervision of the Institute of Optics and Optical Technologies at the Technical University of Berlin. The project team, under the direction of Dr. Susanna Orlic, managed to pull off this engineering feat by a process called microholographic recording, which they described as such on their home site:

On a microholographic disk the pit-land structure of a CD or DVD is replaced by microscopic volume gratings. These "microgratings" are holographically induced in the focal region of two counter propagating, highly focused laser beams: one beam is focused into the photosensitive layer and reflected back. The interference pattern of the incident and reflected beam results in a grating-like modulation of the refractive index of the storage medium.

In layman's terms, microholography recording creates three-dimensional holographic grids within the disk's nanostructure for storing and reading data. In comparison, traditional CD/DVD recording techniques use a two-dimensional pit-land structure that only uses the disc's surface for recording data.

Don't start turning in your HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players, though, as the Microholas Project's 150GB disk mentioned earlier is just a demonstrator of things to come. The team expects to have an even bigger 1 Terabyte disk out by 2010, with an expected read speed of 250 Mbits.

At an IFA preparation event in Germany, Samsung revealed that it will be shipping the BDP-UP5000 in October or November. The BDP-UP5000, a dual Blu-ray and HD-DVD player, was announced back in April.

LG caught the attention of a lot of people when it announced its own dual format player, the BH100. However, the LG player had a pretty steep price point of almost US$ 1,200 and had issues with the HDi technology used in HD-DVD.

The Samsung BDP-UP5000, however, fully supports both HDi and Blu-ray's BD-Java interactive technology. Samsung is expected to showcase the BDP-UP5000 at the IFA 2007 in Berlin on August 31. The BDP-UP5000 is also expected to be cheaper than the LG BH100.

If you really need to know, Samsung even claimed that it would go for less than US$ 600.

First came the rumors and then the alleged confirmation. This time, there's no mistaking about it as Sierra Entertainment has finally issued an official press release regarding PC action-strategy video game World In Conflict coupled with screenshots. The title is being co-developed by Swordfish Studios as well as Massive Entertainment.

World In Conflict somewhat offers fans something new because of its background story. In this game, the Berlin Wall never fell and the Soviets boldly advances to Europe because of fear of collapse. NATO responds in force only to be greeted by a full-fledged invasion of the American homeland.

Given that premise, you know it's going to be one heck of a bloody war. Your role as players in World In Conflict is actually a field commander with the objective of reclaiming America's cities and suburbs. Some of the Xbox 360 version's feature include:

• Super-Powered Warfare: Unleash the arsenals of the great military superpowers in the gripping single-player story created by Larry Bond
• Bleeding-Edge Graphics: The latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control and features advanced lighting and physics effects
• Complete Destructibility: As the battle rages, the world environment pays the price - every object in the game will crumble under the force of war, including cars, buildings and forests

See the rest of the game's features and screenshots after the jump!

 

New details (barring screenshots) on Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict has been quite sparse as of late. This RTS game based on a hypothetical Cold War scenario is really something, even sparking interest from PC gamers tired of the same old formula you seen in most games today.

Massive Entertainment's founder and president Martin Walfisz spoke about the game and how far along they are in its development. He noted that the groundwork has already been set so it's basically just fine tuning and tweaking. He also included a few tidbits on the newer additions:

Many big and small additions have happened since we spoke last. Notable are the Special Abilities: one offensive and one defensive for each unit. And the introduction of Fortifications: fixed bunkers and machine-gun nests that you construct by holding a command point for a duration of time.

Finally, Walfisz has given word on the storyline and main characters of the PC game. He gave the basic storyline which revolves around a massive Soviet Invasion during the cold war. Imagine if the Berlin wall never fell and the Soviets have decided to take Europe. NATO has stated its intent to step in but were sidetracked by a local invasion in the US. It's a bit far-fetch given what really happened historically, but if it did happen then we would be in pretty deep doo-doo. The game has you playing a field commander handling the wetwork against the Soviet forces. The fighting will take you to different areas such as America, Europe, and the Soviet Union.

He also mentioned one of the central characters, a certain Colonel Sawyer. He's described by Walfisz as a "tough, rough necked war veteran, who acts as the player's commander." He assured that there are more characters who will be adding to the wartime feel of the game.

World in Conflict is slated for the third quarter of 2007. If you want to get more details, you can read the full interview via our read link.

Sierra Entertainment has released a few new screenshots of their upcoming PC title World In Conflict. You can check 'em out below, but first, a brief recap of what we know about the game so far.

In this world, the Berlin Wall never fell. The story begins in 1989 as the Soviets, fearing certain collapse, boldly advance into Europe. NATO responds in force but are caught unawares by a full-fledged invasion of the American homeland. Players take on the role of field commander, leading the era's most powerful military machines in the campaign to retake America's cities and suburbs.

The story in World in Conflict unfolds as players work their way through completely destructible 3D battlefields. World in Conflict also supports team-based multiplayer action for up to 16 players using Massive's proprietary Massgate multiplayer server system.

World in Conflict is slated for a Spring 2007 release.

   

More screenshots after the jump!

What if the Cold War didn't end? The peace talks failed and the Berlin Wall never fell? We'll see that World War III scenario in Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict.

The USSR takes the fight into US soil and all hell breaks loose. In the gameplay videos, we see all out war. You don't want to be on the ground when a sudden flash of light engulfs the entire battlefield and a mushroom cloud appears and flattens the area. That's the power of tactical nukes. Martin Walfisz, founder and president of Massive Entertainment also gives us some insight on the gameplay (multiplayer included) of World in Conflict.

The weapons and vehicles are the historically accurate. Camera shots look good and according to Walfisz, "you can destroy anything you see". Interesting. We'll quit the prattle and let you judge for yourself. World in Conflict's release is still yet to be announced but we'll keep you posted. Enjoy the videos!

Check out the Multiplayer gameplay videos right after the jump!

 

Square Enix announced today that Final Fantasy XI will be taking part in the eSports Convention to be held on Friday, March 30 to Sunday, April 1 at the CineStar Original, Sony Center, Potsdamer Place in Berlin. This is in celebration of the launch of Final Fantasy XI 2007 Edition on March 30.

Gamers who attend the eSports Convention will get a chance to try out the game in German. In addition, there will be several gorgeous Mithra models at the booth, as well as numerous opportunities for players to win some cool prizes, including copies of the new Final Fantasy XI 2007 Edition.

If any of you guys are in the area, check it out. Here's the pertinent event info:

Final Fantasy XI 2007 Edition launch at the eSports Convention
Date: March 30th – April 1st 2007
Time: 10:00 – 24:00 (30th and 31st) 11:00 – 20:00 (1st only)
Address: CineStar Original, Sony Center, Potsdamer Place, Berlin

 

Achtung Panzer! Screenshots for the game Codename Panzers: Cold War by developer Stormregion and publisher 10tacle Studios were released March 8, 2007.

Codename Panzers and the Cold War. A little backstory on the game: it's set in the early 1950’s with the Cold War still raging in full force. With Stalin commanding it, the Red Army has undergone a tremendous expansion at the end of the World War II. They have been waiting for an opportunity to extend their territory to the West by attacking NATO.

Then an airplane accident happens over Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Blockade. The tragic collision of an American airplane carrying relief goods with a Russian fighter plane costs not only the lives of both crews.

Codename Panzers screenshots. The screenshots show off the power of the completely reworked Gepard3 (Gepard is German for cheetah) graphics engine. The graphics are decent, but we think that the driving force behind this game will not really be the graphics (or any technical aspect of the game) but will be the story line and the (hopefully) engaging RTS gameplay that might set this game apart from the rest.

The game is set to be distributed throughout Europe by Electronic Arts and is due to be released for the PC in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The Full Article has more screenshots.