=VG= SemlerPDX

For three years, a Revolution has been brewing The year is 1753. In Colonial America, a young man begins a perilous journey, split between worlds - his father a British Soldier, his mother a Mohawk. He vows to take action against the Colonists who burn his mother's village to the ground. His name is Ratohnhake:ton and he descends from a long bloodline of assassins. Assassin's Creed 3 has been in development for three years now, and Ubisoft has been hard at work to surprise gamers once again with the newest chapter in the saga of the Assassins and the search for the Pieces of Eden. The series' focus on the 2012 apocalyptic prophecies comes to a delightful real life parallel as this final chapter is set to release October 31st of 2012, later this year. Spanning 30 years from 1753 to 1783, players will explore Colonial Boston, New York, and a vast expanse known as The Frontier. Ubisoft's upgraded engine will allow for "a couple thousand" characters to be on-screen simultaneously, and will no doubt allow for the recreation of impressive battles of that era. The new larger map, 1.5 times that of Rome in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, will recreate not only historical buildings, but historical events as well. According to sources, 7 Ubisoft studios have been working together, developing the game with "twice the capacity of any previous Ubisoft game." Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, says Assassin's Creed 3 is "the true next generation of both the Assassin's Creed brand and interactive entertainment/storytelling in general. We will push the title a lot because it's a fantastic product that the team has been working on for three years. What we have seen is just fabulous." The game has always revolved around Parkour, and this time, trees will play a part in the routes the players can choose from, giving new dimension to parkour runs. Combat will take a less reactive approach, at least in the sense that it will have a more fluid feel and aggressive nature. This will make for some exciting multiplayer, as up to 8 players will be able to go head to head. Rumors speak of a 2-4 player CO-OP mode, but only time will tell if this holds any weight. In games like this with one lead character, it would be difficult to make a coop mode without additional player character models. Games of the past have used boss, or lead enemy models to fill such roles. If Assassin's Creed 3 does have a CO-OP mode, you can be sure there won't be 4 Conner Clones parkouring their way across the coop frontier. While a COOP mode may seem appealing, in a story driven narrative that allows for so much freedom, it seems just a bit unfeasible. Ubisoft has taken great care to give a proper feel to the narrative, so as not to force the player too much, while still moving the story forward. In a recent interview with gameinformer, Creative Designer for Assassin's Creed 3 Alex Hutchinson describes what he has learned about working on games with narratives: "..the interesting narrative is the player driven narrative. It's the story the player tells themself as they play that is fascinating, and as designers, we create tools that build the possibility space of what they can talk about or how they can talk about it, and that's our authorial control. Gamers are telling their own story, and every time you try to stomp that and move through it, and say (you're playing it wrong), it's a disaster. You know, you need to let people express themselves, and let them have fun with the game." The free-roaming narrative games have always been my favorite, and barring branching story lines, make for the most variable experience from one player to the next. We're sure to hear more on Assassin's Creed at E3 this June. VETERANS-GAMING will be on the scene to deliver the latest details. by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING

EA DICE - News from GDC 2012 Yesterday, at GDC 2012, Danger Close revealed more about the newest addition to EA's Medal of Honor Series, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, slated for a release date of October 23, 2012. The game is powered by Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2.0 engine, allowing visually stunning details in fully modeled environments. According to the buzz, "papers fly with near gunfire, chandeliers sway, and wooden beams splinter". This time around, the multiplayer development will not fall to DICE, but will stay in-house with Danger Close, and will include a hardcore "One Shot Kill" mode. A CO-OP mode will let players leave the head-to-head multiplayer online games and experience deeper team play elements, but a full cooperative campaign story mode is not likely. As with previous installments, Medal of Honor Warfighter will center around the missions of Tier 1 Operators on a variety of similar-to-life events in real world locals including, we've been told, the flooded Isabela City in the Philippines. Mother, Voodoo, Preacher, and others return to live the tale along with new international Special Forces including British SAS, German KSK, Polish GROM, and the Australian SASR! It's so great to see more non-U.S. Spec Ops groups in these modern warfare games! There are so many more impressive factions throughout the globe, I find it to be an excellent choice to bring more attention to these highly skilled, sometimes lesser known teams. EA said that "Warfighter delivers an aggressive, gritty, and authentic experience that puts gamers in the boots of today's most precise and disciplined warriors in an up close and personal look at today's battlefield and the fight against the ongoing global terror threat. Inspired by actual events, and written by active Tier 1 Operators while deployed overseas. When an extremely deadly explosive (PETN) penetrates civilian borders, Preacher and his fellow teammates are sent in to solve the problem." In using real world operatives to co-write the events and missions in Medal of Honor Warfighter, Danger Close has assured us gamers that it's goal with this is to represent a tone and feel of authenticity as opposed to a true military simulation. As in previous versions, players health will still regenerate, but new dynamics will bring a more tactical feel to the experience. One example would be choosing how to breach an entrance be it by C4 blast, kicking in the door, or tossing a flashbang into the room - each with it's own dynamic outcome based on the players choice. Medal of Honor Warfighter is sure to be just one of many upcoming titles that will use DICE's Frostbite 2.0 engine. At the Game Developers Conference a few days ago, Electronic Arts announced the opening of a new studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, to work on yet another possible sequel to one of EA's franchise games. "A new EA studio focused on making a new generation of games on the Frostbite 2 engine. Visit jobs.ea.com to learn about the career opportunities available now in game design, engineering, modeling, animation and sound engineering." Only time will tell as to which game series the focus will be on, but further news may come out at E3 this June. Stay tuned for the latest updates as they become available. by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING

Steam Console by Alienware? The internets are all abuzz about the rumors of a Steam Console that will combine capability and simplicity into one small box. I'm going to go out on a limb here, to show you that these "rumors" are anything but. All signs point to an official announcement within the next few months at E3, perhaps even this week during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. What is known is that the specs of such a system would allow it to be small, yet very powerful, and able to play modern PC games. Back in 2009, Alienware and Steam began a relationship where Alienware PC gaming systems would come with Steam pre-installed. Since then, Steam had reportedly hinted at using the well known hardware company to develop this rumored Steam Console, citing that they (Steam) are a software company - willing to outsource hardware ideas. Compare that to Alienware's X51 Gaming System, and you have all the makings of a wonderful conspiracy to revitalize the PC gaming industry and give consoles such as Playstation and Xbox some worthy competition. According to online sources, potenial partners had a chance to demo an early version the Steam box at the Consumer Electronics Show. Apparently, the specs include an i7 2600 CPU, 8GB RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and an NVIDIA GPU, all powered by an external Power Supply Unit to better manage space and heat. On May 5th, 2011, Valve Corporation filed a patent application for a "Video Game Controller having user swappable control components". Obviously, this controller would be part of the console system, if developed, and perhaps part of the system's biometrics which would track player motions. The cooperation of Alienware and Steam is a good step towards simplifying the PC gaming experience and opening the market to gamers previously relegated to Playstation and Xbox systems. Back in 2009, Steam had this to say about working with Alienware: "Entertainment, specifically gaming, is a primary use of PCs in the home and on the road," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "Alienware is a household name among PC gamers who want the most out of their hardware. The combination of Alienware hardware and Steam equals a superior gaming experience." VETERANS-GAMING will continue to keep you updated with new developments from the GDC, and E3 this Summer. Stay tuned for all the latest info! by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING

Up, Up, and Away! The new patch 1.2 for MineCraft is out, and the host of new additions reaches to the sky - literally. Along with new units, items, blocks, and even AI, the sky of MineCraft has been given new limits, from 128 to 256, allowing real mountains and truly hidden castles in the sky. Also, the new Jungle biome brings with it new trees and climable vines. Now, Iron Golems protect cities, Zombies break down doors and behave with new mob AI, and ocelots roam the wild places - ready to be tamed by players with a nice piece of fish! Tamed wolves can have puppies, and Villagers can have children (space permitting); it seems like the world is becoming more alive with each new patch. Unstoppable now, the MineCraft phenomenon continues to grow, and the MineCraft Team has just brought on board four community members who were key in developing bukkit, a community-based MineCraft server implementation. Nathan Adams, Nathan Gilbert, Warren Loo, and Erik Broes are now official MineCraft Team Members. According to Jens Bergensten at Mojang's website, "(the four) will work on improving both the server and the client to offer better official support for larger servers and server modifications. "The plan is to build a fresh server API, and then extend it to support client-side modding (in one way or another). We will try to make it easy for bukkit users to convert if they wish to do so, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed. We will, however, help bukkit to be compatible with 1.2, to avoid having a long gap while you wait for the official Minecraft server to catch up. "Many of you may ask why we decided to work with bukkit instead of other Minecraft teams, such as Spout or Forge.", Jens continued, "The reason is that we want more than just modding, and these guys have always had server admins in mind when developing their additions to the game. We hope that this will help the quality of Minecraft multi-player to improve, both for large and private family servers, while still being able to add fun stuff for the bigger audience." A full changelist for the new MineCraft Patch 1.2 can be found here: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Version_history by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING

A Second Flagship for BI Studios Bohemia Interactive has been hard at work reinventing the classic 1980's game Carrier Command. Mixing strategy, action, and amazing visual effects, Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is shaping up to be one of the hottest additions to BI Studios' expanding lineup of pc games. Players take command of their own aircraft carrier in a vast sea with 6 different climatic zones and over 30 unique islands suitable for bases, and even mining and manufacturing. Resources are an important strategic element, and move the story forward as you grow through the ranks to become a proficient adversary. All of these commands and orders are managed with the programmable battle computer aboard your carrier. Everything from fuel to ammunition plays a part in your ability to dominate the enemy. Carrier Command: Gaea Mission is slated to launch Spring of 2012. Gamers had a chance to ask some questions to BI about Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, one of them wanting to know how much freedom players would have in the game, versus linear game flow, compared to the original Carrier Command. Here's what Bohemia had to say: "The Gaea Mission campaign will be a bit more linear in the sense that it follows a narrative. For example, in the beginning you'll be eased into the game via story-based tutorials. Later, the game opens up to offer a more freedom-oriented gameplay experience, yet it'll still be centered around the Gaea Mission. Also, as a tribute to the original Carrier Command, we've implemented a strategic campaign. Our goal was to make it similar to the 'Action Mode' in the original, plus adding some options for changing the starting conditions (ratio of captured islands, tech level and initial resources). All in all, it will mostly be up to you how you will play the game." In a recent announcement, BI Studios has launched their Carrier Command Competition Part Deux. The prize consists of 1 out of the 5 available downloadable bundles including Arma X Anniversary, and Take On Helicopters. Competitors need to answer 5 questions about the game, and all answers can be found by reading their blog called The Commanders Blog, at the Carrier Command website. This competition runs from February 27th, 2012 through Sunday March 4th, 2012. There will be 5 winners, picked at random from those who answered all the questions correctly. by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING

The New Kid on the Block This hot new pc game has been getting a lot of attention lately, leaving many video game players wondering, "Just what is Wargame: European Escalation?" In a nutshell, Wargame is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Eugen Systems and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is based in the Cold War Era and allows players to pit their armies head to head in online gameplay. But it doesn't stop there! The sheer depth and involvement make it one of the most interesting and innovative RTS games to hit computers in a long time. To read more about this amazing new game, check out the in-depth player reviews by Raven800 here: Raven800's Player Review of Wargame: European Escalation Raven800's Follow-Up Review of Wargame: European Escalation This video describes the online multiplayer elements and gameplay of Wargame: European Escalation As the developers continue to work with this game, we hope that player suggestions and gameplay elements are examined and evaluated so that Wargame can be all that it can be. Truly a refreshing addition to the new age of RTS games, and a great new military game for the masses! by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING