PC Gaming Alliance adds five new members

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) is not dead folks, it’s just very, very quiet. The non-profit consortium created to promote the PC Gaming Industry and be the authoritative voice of PC Gaming worldwide broke its silence today to announce that it has added new member companies to its fold - eight of them to be precise. The new members joining today are BFG Technologies, Bigfoot Networks, Flextronics, GameStop, GameTap, Gas Powered Games, Howie’s Game Shack and InstantAction.

“We welcome these new members to the PCGA, a rapidly growing organization where companies of all types can come together to expand and improve the PC gaming ecosystem,” said Randy Stude, PCGA president and Intel director, Gaming Program Office.

To find more about the PCGA visit www.pcgamingalliance.org.

Starsiege: Tribes Returns

Fans of the classic team-based shooter Starsiege: Tribes will fall in love all over again because InstantAction’s GarageGames owns the rights to the game series and plans on actually doing something with it. The first thing that the company plans to do is deliver a browser-based version of the game, which will be shown off for the first time at the Game Developers Conference.

With the success of Quake Live, I guess this makes sense, though the company doesn’t plan on giving this version any kind of graphical make-over like id Software did for its game.

Nevertheless Tribes fans should feel right at home. InstantAction intends to demonstrate a browser-based version of Starsiege: Tribes, and plans to update the title with bug fixes. The game will be playable via the InstantAction web based gaming platform but there is a promise of a stand-alone, playable version of the game as well. The game is priced to move for sure: free is the best price after all.

Public Play: Fallen Empire: Legions

InstantAction has kicked off the public beta for its first marquee title, Fallen Empire: Legions, giving the public the first taste of this team-based action game. The game is available to play simply by signing up at official InstantAction web site (listed at the end of this article).

For the last three months the game was in a closed beta test with nearly 4,000 testers putting it through the paces. Today’s public wide beta will further refine and improve the game, GarageGames hopes.

Developed internally by GarageGames, Legions combines freedom of movement with fast paced first-person combat. The game launches with six player classes (gunner, sniper, sniper specialist, rocket specialist, grenade specialist, chaingun specialist) and four weapon options (sniper rifle, rocket launcher, chaingun, and grenade launcher). Players can choose either Deathmatch or Capture the Flag in free for all or team modes. Initially, the game will sport two large play arenas, with more coming on line later this year.

To find out more and get into the beta, visit www.instantaction.com.

GarageGames Reveals Fallen Empire: Legions

Everyone knew that GarageGames was working on a first-person shooter, they just didn”t know the name or any details…until today. GarageGames officially announced Fallen Empire: Legions, a first-person shooter being developed exclusively for launch on the InstantAction 3-D online game platform. The only details revealed about the game is that it’’s a shooter with a focus on strategic, team-oriented gameplay.

The rest of the release reads like the script of a PBS pledge drive as GG tries to steer users towards the InstantAction site, with the promise of the ability to sign up for the beta test, have access to behind-the-scenes info on the game, and the chance to earn free Action Tokens. And here’’s an obligatory quote from project director Time Aste, just for fun:

This is a first person shooter built by hardcore gamers who are wildly passionate about the genre, said Tim Aste, project director for Fallen Empire: Legions. The game design allows for us to create a unique experience that brings FPS gaming back to its roots. Legions won’t be just any ordinary jewel matching web game; in terms of graphics and gameplay it will set a new benchmark of what the future of gaming will be on the web.

Color me slightly interested.