Microsoft Studios to publish Orcs Must Die on PC and XBLA this Summer
Age & Orcs Must Die updates and some information about Zynga acquisitions
Ok, so its been a while since the last update! Apologies for that! So what’s been happening lately? First off, the beta testing for Age of Empires Online has come to end. Microsoft and Gas Powered are now wrapping up the game with final touches before launching this August 16th. It wont be long now until eager Age fans get to play the next great game in the Age series which has sold over 20 million copies under Ensemble Studios. Luckily the bulk of the work on Age of Empires Online has come from prestigious ex Ensemblers at Robot Entertainment. Read more
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
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
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
Orcs Must Die – trap spotlight: Wall Blades
PC Gamer has the latest exclusive for this weeks Orcs Must Die! trap spotlight. This week we have the wall blades, these are traps which can be placed on walls so that any Orcs passing close by are very much likely to be torn to shreds! These traps are best suited to smaller corridors where the chance of Orcs passing by is greater. Although, you can always “assist” Orcs on their path to death by combining things like the wind belt to give them that small nudge required to ensure they meet thier maker!
Check out the latest trailer on the PC Gamer website below. You might also notice some UI changes on this trailer compared to earlier trailers – its good to see the game progressing and taking shape. See if you can identify some of the new UI improvements at the link below!
Age of Empires Online launching August 16th!
Quick update here – Microsoft has just announced that Age of Empires Online will be launching this August 16th. This exciting news will certainly be something for Age of Empires fans to look forward to. With 40 hours of free gameplay and a whole bunch of extra downloadable content this Age of Empires could well be the biggest Age of Empires game in the series thus far. A vast majority of the core game design from art to game play has come from Ex-Ensembler’s at Robot Entertainment before Gas Powered Games took over towards the end of the development process. For Age of Empires, Ensemble and Robot fans gear up for an exciting August! Read more
