Week of April 29, 2007

Soldak Entertainment has updated the Depths of Peril website with a new story called Forgotten Cove and a new section that details the races that will make an appearance in the game (though it does point out that many of them will be "seen" only in the background stories).

Sony has added "new" items to their PlayStation Store today:

IRVINE, Calif. – May 2, 2007 – K2 Network, Inc. (www.k2network.net), an online game publisher, today announced an agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to publish the action-packed massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), Red Stone. Developed by L & K Logic Korea Co. Ltd, the game is currently taking Japan by storm with more than One million people playing it. Through the partnership between K2 Network and Samsung, Red Stone will be released in five countries including North and South America, Turkey, India and Poland this summer.

Red Stone is a unique 2-D fantasy MMORPG in which players adventure to recover the lost shards of a powerful jewel in order to restore peace to their ravaged world. This title features a compelling story and beautiful music and character classes that can transform into alternate classes to utilize various skills and weapons.

For more information about K2 Network and its products visit www.k2network.net.

NCsoft sends word that Richard Garriott's newest MMO Tabula Rasa has enter closed beta. Two new screenshots accompany the announcement.

Austin, Texas, May 2, 2007 - NCsoft® today announced that closed beta testing is beginning for the company’s highly anticipated online computer game, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa™. The start of closed beta marks the game’s final development stages as Tabula Rasa approaches an anticipated launch this fall in North America and Europe.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) role playing PC game that places players in an epic sci-fi story where they will be challenged by dynamic and fast-paced adventures on alien worlds.

Garriott's signature creative vision introduces several fresh features to the MMO genre such as a character cloning system, role-playing on the battlefield and a mystical “Logos” language and powers system. They are the types of touches that players have come to expect over the years from a Richard Garriott game.

Garriott is best known for creating the best-selling Ultima® computer game series, including the first commercially successful MMO game, Ultima Online. In 2006, he was presented with two industry honors for his work in the games industry. That year Garriott was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame and later was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

More details on Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa and closed beta testing for the game can be found at http://www.PlayTR.com. More information on NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

Burbank, CA – Tuesday, May 1, 2007 – Delivering true air superiority into the hands of gamers everywhere, Codemasters, Inc. today announced that Heatseeker – the eagerly anticipated arcade-style air combat game, is available at retail outlets nationwide. Heatseeker gives players unparalleled control of the military’s finest and most sophisticated airborne arsenal as they skyrocket to victory over the U.S, off the coast of South America, over Antarctica and into the Far East. Heatseeker is available now for the Wii™ and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, with the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system version to follow shortly, and is rated “T” (Teen – Mild Language, Violence) by the ESRB.

With control of over 35 jet fighters and their variants, and over 18 land and sea-based missions to complete, players will be pulling off face-melting loops over and under bridges, screaming in low under the radar blanket and protecting allied fleets – all while facing a seemingly unbeatable amount of enemies. Teeming with more aircraft in the sky than ever before seen, Heatseeker is the ultimate blackout-inducing, close-quarters air combat game around.

Air superiority can only be achieved with the most advanced weapons, and Heatseeker has it all. Players can choose between 60 different weapons packs to take out the opposition, including everything from radar-guided missiles to rocket propelled torpedoes. And when the going gets tough, pilots can even rain down ultimate carnage upon their hapless foes with the power of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

For more information on Heatseeker, please be sure to visit the official website at http://www.codemasters.com/heatseeker.

ATLANTA – May 1, 2007 –Turner Broadcasting System’s GameTap has reached a new level of play. After a winning 2006, the broadband entertainment network is expanding to feature enhanced subscription play, a digital retail storefront and a free-to-play, advertising-supported offering.

The first game that will be launched in GameTap’s new day-and-date subscription play and digital retail model features video gaming’s leading lady in her latest adventure, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Through a “game changing” deal with publisher Eidos, GameTap will make the title available to its paying subscribers and for purchase at GameTap.com’s new digital retail store on the same date it hits U.S. retail shelves.

"This is the first new deal with a major game publisher that will enable GameTap to feature the hottest games of today and tomorrow for subscription play in the same windows as traditional retail outlets,” said Stuart Snyder, GameTap’s senior vice president and general manager.

In 2006, subscribers played more than 20 million games from the GameTap “vault” —more than 54,000 a day. The vault itself has nearly tripled in size since the network launched in October 2005, and GameTap has added over 500 games as well as more than 600 new content pieces to GameTap TV. Last quarter, subscriptions were up nearly three-fold, and the network has expanded into Canada.

"We're opening the tap to the millions of website visitors to experience free-to-play games and great new original content at GameTap.com,” said Snyder. “By expanding our offerings, we are giving gaming enthusiasts more ways to play.”

Building on its 2006 success, GameTap will be introducing an advertising-supported program at GameTap.com aimed at capturing a new audience of “mainstream gamers” who are looking for a no-hassle place to play great games for free.

"While our paid membership model has attracted serious gamers, another class of player is coming to GameTap.com in droves,” said Snyder. “Mainstream gamers want to play dynamic games they can access at work, home or anywhere, and aren’t satisfied with the current portal offerings like card games and checkers. They want action/adventure, racing, sports, and fighting titles alongside the arcade classics.”

Debuting on May 31st, 2007, GameTap.com will offer more than 30 free games, with more added every week, from the most popular game franchises of all time. Launch titles include Metal Slug from SNK Playmore, Taito’s Bust-A-Move and Space Invaders, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend from Eidos, as well as Midway titles Joust, Robotron: 2084, and Rampage.

Anyone visiting GameTap.com also receives a new all-access pass that includes original programming from GameTap TV, which features top music acts and celebrities weighing in on their favorite games, as well as original content like the GameTap Retrospectives series and the all-new Re\Visioned series, animated episodes that have well-known comic book artists and writers reinvent popular game icons. They will also have access to the new digital retail storefront, which will offer hundreds of the best new and catalogue PC games for purchase.

We've got eleven new images and two gameplay trailers of Silent Hill Origins, Konami's horror game for the Sony PSP.

Fans of the classic games just can't seem to get enough, so Nintendo has another three available on the Wii Shop Channel:

EA Games released four new screenshots and a teaser trailer for Burnout Paradise, Criterion Games' latest vehicular damage title for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.