Age of Empires Online beta draws to a close, plus new Orcs Must Die previews and wins for Robot at RTS-Guru
Updates today on two anticipated games coming out in the next few months thanks to the handy work of the bots at Robot Entertainment. Its been a long time since Ensemble closed in 2009 and in the coming months we are going to see the release of two major PC games developed by Robot which have been eagerly awaited since the studios original formation. First of all, Age of Empires Online is nearer completion as today Microsoft has announced that the beta period is closing on July 1st. After this period Microsoft and Gas Powered Games are pushing ahead trying to get the game ready for launch on August 16th. It’s been great fun playing the beta which has been supported by an excellent online community. A huge amount of progress has been made since the first closed beta build became available. Although, there were some things the community didn’t agree on, on the whole there have been improvements and adjustments made along the way thanks to community feedback. The team at Robot, Gas Powered and Microsoft have regularly engaged the community and took feedback seriously. Read more
Guess the release date for Orcs Must Die! and win swag!
Do you fancy winning some awesome Orcs Must Die swag to show off to your friends when Orcs launches later this year? How about an awesome Orcs Must Die! T-Shirt, a Robot “Bot” Shirt, and a Robot Hat. Prizes courtesy of Robot Entertainment themselves! Read more
Orcs Must Die coming late August / September – previews galore!
With E3 having drawn to a close previews are now being published by various gaming websites who visited the Robot Entertainment booth at the event. RTS Guru, Joystiq and Sarcastic Gamer are just some of the websites who have published their previews. There has also been some excellent game play footage from the likes of GameTrailers. It’s great to see Orcs Must Die getting the press attention it deserves. Read more
Zynga with Friends releases “Hanging with Friends”
Zynga’s “With Friends” studio, who used to be known as NewToy have just announced their latest game to hit the iOS market – “Hanging with Friends”. Taking the hugely popular “With Friends” series further, this new game is based around the traditional Hang Man game. One player is tasked with choosing a word while the other player has to guess the word by guessing which letters match the word. The player guessing only has a limited amount of guesses before the game is over and normally that player is hanged when the game is over. That’s not necessarily very positive so Zynga have brightened up the concept and made it feel a bit more positive – say hello to pretty colourful graphics! Read more
Machinima & Turtle Beach interviews Ian Fischer on Orcs Must Die!
All the excitement is buzzing at E3, we’ve heard lots of exciting new games from the big guns – Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and now its time to check out how the Ex Ensemble folks are doing at the Robot booth! A bunch of people have swung by to do interviews with the bots. Earlier today (UK time that is!) Turtle Beach featured Orcs Must Die on their live stream and later on Machinima swung by both interviewing design director Ian Fischer. The interviews re-affirm the direction of OMD, its an action strategy game allowing players to pick and choose the traps and weapons they want and then build up the best defence they can against the army of Orcs. The game is not to be taken too seriously – there’s a whole bunch of humor and fun with gameplay. Infact, if you submitted your Orcs one-liners last month you may well be apart of that comedy process! Read more
Windstorm Studios announces: Atomic City Adventures – the Case of the Black Dragon
In amongst all the excitement of E3 news today, a small studio in Texas also announces something we’ve been eagerly awaiting the past few days. Windstorm Studios after its four day preview now reveals to the world “Atomic City Adventures – the Case of the Black Dragon”! Not only do we have a title announcement we also have a trailer and a bunch of screenshots. So lets jump straight in and see what Windstorm has been working on the past few years. Lets start with the trailer reveal.. and get ready for some retro music! Read more
Final day of the Windstorm Studios teasers – Meet Pam Rodgers
It looks like my guess that players will be taking up the role of Hank McKenner in the upcoming Windstorm Studios title was close, but not close enough! It turns out that Hank is infact the former mentor of Ex ACPD Officer, Pam Rodgers. She originally joined ACPD years ago but she quit the force having been outraged at all the corruption and wrong goings on deep in the heart of the ACPD. After just three years on the force she quit for moral reasons. Now with Hank heading up the new Vehicular Strike Force agency that has been setup in Atomic City he has invited her back to assist the VSF with their city wide crackdown. Promising to be different than the ACDP with moral values Pam can strike back against criminals and the wrong-doers of the ACPD. It looks like players will be taking up the role of Pam Rodgers as she helps clean up the city under Hank’s leadership. That is of course, unless I am wrong again! Read more
Day 3 of the Windstorm Studios teasers – the Vehicular Strike Force. Plus news about the AOE-O retail box
Its day 3 of the Windstorm Studios teaser series for an upcoming announcement of a new game. This time we learn about the Vehicular Strike Force which has recently been set up in Atomic City. The VSF help to combat the vehicular based crimes in the city after it was determined local police forces were corrupt and ineffective. The VSF only answer to the Federal Council so there is less chance of any shenanigans. The VSF is lead by Hank McKenna a veteran police officer from Atomic City. My guess would be that players will be taking the role of Hank McKenna in his task to help clean up the city and deal with vehicular based crime. Lets wait and see what teaser number 4 has in store for us! Read more
Big update Friday: – Atomic City, Gnoll Hunters and something new from NewToy / Zynga
Wow we have a pretty big update from Ex-Ensemble formed studios today Friday 3rd June 2011, infact its so big we have three studios involved – Robot, Windstorm and Zynga With Friends. Incase your’re wondering the Zynga With Friends studio used to be called NewToy before they were acquired by the Zynga machine. The “With Friends” is a link to their previous titles, Words with friends and Chess with friends. Now that we know who we’re talking about lets delve straight into todays news! Read more
Windstorm Studios announcement coming in just 4 days!
If Age of Empires Online this August and Orcs Must Die! this Summer its not enough Ensemblite action for you then you’re in luck! Windstorm Studios was also formed after Ensemble Studios’ closure. Unlike other studios Windstorm is almost certainly the smallest studio run by just one man – Dusty Monk. After over 2 years of hard development work Dusty will soon be in a position to announce his brand new game to the world in just four days time. A few months ago Remember ES and Dan Griliopoulos at PC Gamer managed to catch up with Dusty in Dallas to see how he was getting on we managed to see some exciting new screenshots and learn more about the games retro-futuristic science theme. With a mix of futuristic flying cars combining them with classic car models from the 1950’s, Windstorm’s project was certainly something very unique. Refresh your memory by checking out the PC Gamer article. Read more
