My Life as Darklord released

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as Darklord is now available on WiiWare. This game is the follow-up to Square Enix’s popular kingdom management game, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as King.

The new game invites players to switch teams and play a bad guy in charge of the dungeons and other dark regions that trap do-gooders and heroes. My Life as a Darklord is a real-time strategy game that offers an all-new tower-style stage structure. As the newly appointed Darklord on a mission to take over the world, players must strategically place monsters and traps in their tower to ward off invading adventurers. The game offers build-or-be-destroyed gameplay coupled with accessible controls for gamers of all ages.

While gamers can enjoy My Life as Darklord for 1,000 Wii Points, Square Enix has released two add-ons for the new game that will extend the play a slight bit. The first is Darklord Armory (400 points), which gives gamers five items each usable once per battle, including four spells (Shockwave, Blast Arrow, Fira and Quake) that deal moderate elemental damage to adventurers on all floors and one (Cura) that restores moderate HP to all monsters and Artifacts. The second item, Vile Ribbon (200 points), Raises your NP by 50 at the start of battle. The effect is permanent with a single purchase. The more accessories you equip, the more NP you’ll start with (and the prettier Mira will be). This ribbon was cherished by a world-famous actress who disappeared without a trace one day. Anyone who wears it is said to invite destruction upon herself. More add-on content will become available at a later time.

Learn more at www.mylifeasadarklord.com

Dawn of Discovery in stores

Ubisoft announced that Dawn of Discovery, a real-time strategy and simulation game specifically designed for the Wii, Nintendo DS and PC, is now available in stores. Dawn of Discovery gives gamers the opportunity to explore new civilizations and build their own empire using a Wii Remote, a Nintendo DS stylus or a mouse and keyboard. The game was developed on all three platforms by Sunflowers, better known as the creators of the popular historical strategy game series, ANNO. In fact the original title of the game was ANNO 1404..

Dawn of Discovery features include deep empire building, a unique art style and clever integration of the Wii Remote and Nintendo DS stylus, optimization for all PCs – from high-end to low-end desktops, a seamless user interface exclusive multiplayer modes across platforms ( 2-player co-op mode for Wii, as an example), an intelligent help system that offers contextual hints and a whole lot more.

Look for the game on your favorite platform beginning today.

Trion, Petroglyph in MMO Pact

Trion World Network has inked a deal with Petroglyph to help create a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game. The game will use Trion’s server architecture, and represents the first 3rd-party development on the Trion Platform. The undisclosed game will be published by Trion worldwide. Further details were not disclosed at the time of this writing.

Petroglyph is best known for developing the Star Wars: Empire At War series. During their time at Westwood Studios, founding members of the Petroglyph team also helped create Dune 2, and played significant leadership roles such series as Command and Conquer and Red Alert.

Stalin vs. Martians Delayed

Sometimes a joke doesn’t soften the blow of bad news, but we’ll pass it on anyway: Mezmer Games announced that the indie arcade-RTS game Stalin vs. Martians has been postponed due to the long march across the Siberian tundra. Stalin vs. Martians will be released later this month and will be available on all digital distribution platforms. You can take some comfort in downloading free songs from the game or the brand new trailer from the game’s official site (if you’re that easily comforted) or take advantage of a 20 percent discount at Direct2Drive until the game’s release date - that comes off of the already reasonable price of $19.99 / €17.99..

We’ll leave you with this quote from Tom Söderlund, Executive Producer at Mezmer Games, which is actually quite amusing: “A dictator is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

Cute. For knee slapping hilarity, check out this Mezmer Games interview.

BattleForge Open Beta Goes Live

EA’s Phenomic said this morning that it plans to launch the “official” open beta for BattleForge today. Beginning today, all players will be able to enter and play the online portion of the game until it goes live on March 24th, 2009. The open beta players will feature all 200 BattleForge cards and all the 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.

So what the hell is BattleForge? It is a real-time strategy game that combines what Phenomic calls fast-paced strategy with a digital trading card mechanic in a dynamic online environment. Players can use virtual trading cards to build custom armies and take on other armies, with an emphasis casual plat in single-player, and coop for 2 to 12 players and Player vs. Player (PvP) ranked and unranked duels.

Get your fill at www.battleforge.com.

Dawn of War 2 Gold

Development is complete on Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, with the final gold master heading off to manufacturing for a roll-out on Feb. 19. This sequel to Relic’s first Warhammer 40,000 RTS game once again puts players head first into an intergalactic conflict between ancient races that has raged on for countless millennia.

The game promises front-line combat, destructible environments, a cooperative multiplayer mode, four playable races and a non-linear single-player campaign with branching storylines. If you like your science fiction mixed with a little fantasy, then you will enjoy Dawn of War 2 - i think. Look for it in stores in the middle of next month.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor Revealed

THQ is working on a brand new stand-alone expansion to its popular strategy action game Company of Heroes, called Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. The next standalone chapter in the real-time strategy game series is currently in development for Windows PC. The stand-alone expansion promises three new campaigns, new multiplayer modes and a “direct-fire” feature that allows for more tactical control during the heat of battle. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor is being developed by Relic Entertainment, with a target release window of spring 2009.

More details about this new game will be released in the weeks and months ahead. For more info on previously released Company of Heroes products, check out www.companyofheroesgame.com.