Strategy Informer  

Matrix Games and Koios Works announced this morning that are currently developing a new title in the Panzer Command series of 3D tactical wargames. In Panzer Command: Kharkov, players step back to the early days of May, 1942 as both the German and Soviet armies prepare major offensives focused on the same place – Kharkov. Panzer Command: Kharkov is scheduled for release during March, 2008.

GamersGate announced this morning that Frontlines: Fuel of War has been launched and is now available for direct digital download on GamersGate. The launch is part of the extensive PC digital distribution partnership GamersGate has signed with THQ.

COR Entertainment has released version 7.0 of their free online first-person shooter Alien Arena 2008. This game is powered by the CRX Engine, used by Quake II, and is described as being very similar to Unreal Tournament and Quake III in gameplay. It features six game modes: Capture the Flag, Deathball, Team Core Assault, Team Deathmatch, All Out Assault, and Cattle Prod. Alien Arena is designed as a multiplayer game - but does include a single player mode - and is available for Windows and Linux. Give Alien Arena a try, it won't lighten your pockets any.

Download Alien Arena 2008 v7.0.

GamersGate announced today that Galactic Command Echo Squad SE – Episode 1 is the latest title to hit its direct download service.

Galactic Command – Echo Squad SE features exciting and deeply engaging gameplay which takes space combat fans old and young back to the early days of the genre. As the wing leader of an elite squad of combat pilots, the player takes part in an engaging storyline in mankind's battle for survival and supremacy.

Crytek and EA have released the 1.2 patch for Crysis. This cumulative patch contains a range of optimizations, fixes, tweaks and new features. It doesn't seem that this great game will be running out of gas anytime soon.

Download the Crysis 1.2 patch.

Codemasters today announced that it's developing Damnation, a new shooter/action game that is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in late 2008.

The PC version of The Orange Box was announced to be getting the splits by Valve and would reach stores by March, that's changed to April now and there's still no word on the pricing.

The Orange Box includes Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Great news for those gamers wary of digital distribution and still prefer a good disc in the hand.

At the Morgan Stanley conference in California Bobby Kotick was discussing a number of things but one item in particular has caught the ears of the rumour-mill. Could Activision which soon merges with Blizzard be working away to bring the Call of Duty shooter to a massively multiplayer audience?

This teasing morsel was outed when talking about the success of Guitar Heroes and the Blizzard-backed expansions planned for the game.

Ubisoft have unveiled four new ways to investigate about your targets marked for death in the PC version of Assassin's Creed. While the next-gen version had eavesdropping, pick-pocketing, interrogation, assassination and flag collection they've decided to increase the variety.

Now they'll be rooftop races, escorting creed members, the destruction of merchant stands and archery assassinations to aid Altair with information about his primary targets.

Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, has revealed that Guns of the Patriots has had content cut and a lot compressed to fit the enormous game onto the Blu-Ray disc. So serious is this space issue that the Japanese voiceovers will not be available to European or North American versions and vice-versa.

In defence of the Blu-Ray discs, they will have to hold both MGS4 and Metal Gear Online which will see its beta launch in late April.