Strategy Informer  

Muzzy Lane Software announced today the next game in its Making History Series: Making History II: The War of the World, created in partnership with economic historian and policy icon Niall Ferguson.

Making History II lets grand strategy players experience the role of a WWII era national leader embroiled in the toxic mix of waning empires, economic crisis, and ethnic "fault lines" that famously resulted in a global war that transformed the world. Now armchair generals and grand strategy masters can attempt to write their own history, and choose to either defend the world from tyranny or embark on a quest for global conquest.

SEGA announced today that Alpha Protocol will be available in Europe during October 2009 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

The year is 2009. Worldwide political tensions are at a breaking point when a commercial airliner is shot down by a U.S. missile over Eastern Europe, killing all aboard. Despite evidence to the contrary, the U.S. government claims no involvement and dispatches agent Michael Thorton to bring those responsible to justice.

Phenomic today announced that BattleForge will open its beta for all players today. Starting today, all players will be able to enter the genre-changing world of BattleForge and experience the thrill of virtual cards coming to life in epic, online RTS battles before the game goes live on March 24th, 2009.

The open beta players will have access to all 200 BattleForge cards and all maps in the game. Everyone who takes part in the beta will get the bonus, upgraded Firedancer unit that will be available after launch. Players who pre-order BattleForge from participating retailers will receive four, exclusive units, one from each faction to jump start their decks.

Sega announced today that it would be rolling out the first of a series of updates for Empire: Total War. The first patch will be released today with a variety of fixes.

1C Company and Battlefront.com announced today the official release date for the upcoming tactical World War II title Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943. The game will be available worldwide on April 24 2009, in a simultaneous release by 1C Company in Eastern and Central Europe and by www.battlefront.com for the rest of the world.
 
The game will cost $45.00 USD and will be available both as digital download and physical copy (DVD with printed manual). Pre-orders will be opened later this month. An English-language demo with an original mission (different from the Russian language demo) will be released shortly as well.

SouthPeak Interactive confirmed to Strategy Informer today that its upcoming tactical action game, Raven Squad, isn't going to be released this month, and that a new date should be revealed soon.

"Raven Squad is definitely not MIA. At the moment they’re deep behind enemy lines on a reconnaissance mission and HQ is expecting a full briefing on their progress soon." said a spokesperson.

In an interview to be published soon on Strategy Informer, Johan Andersson, lead programmer on the Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis series, said that PC games are still selling by an insane amount, making it difficult for the company to consider developing console based games.

The second company to emerge from the former Ensemble Studios was announced today. Bonfire Studios is a 35 person studio currently working on an original IP to be announced in the coming months. The Bonfire team is made up entirely of former Ensemble employees fresh off of the highly anticipated Halo Wars.

"Ensemble had an incredible group of highly talented people and the companies coming out of it are really made up of the best of the best. Ensemble was one of the few studios with two A-teams," said David Rippy, president and CEO of Bonfire Studios. "We are already working on an original IP that we'll start talking about in the next few months."

Max Bodrikov, Producer of Elven Legacy, discusses the motion capture technology of Elven Legacy in an exclusive Developer Diary only available on Strategy Informer.

GOG.com is adding another point-and-click adventure to its ever-growing catalogue of Good Old Games. This time it's Runaway: A Road Adventure from French publisher and distributor, Focus Home Interactive.

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a cartoon-like adventure game that combines romance, mystery, action and deception. The game tells the story of Brian Basco, a college student whose life dramatically changes after he meets a beautiful and mysterious stripper. The unexpected meeting with Gina wouldn't be so bad if Mafia gangsters didn't want to blow Brian's head off. Now together with Gina he has to avoid and escape the killers.