Brain Candy, a high fructose independent French game developer, opens the Beta period of its upcoming sci-fi squad-based strategy title, Fray, coming to PC and Mac in Summer 2012. Recruits can now head over to www.fray-game.com to sign up for a slice of the action and also pre-order the game.

To celebrate its Beta period, Brain Candy has released two new features players can get their hands on in the combat module. The XP system allows players to gain experience in combat to beef up squad strength. The in-game chat is the main hang-out for players looking for a fight! Arrange where to meet on the battlefield, swap battle stories and strategies, or just talk.

Pre-ordering the game for $19.99 on www.fray-game.com will not only guarantee beta access but also guarantee that XP points gained during beta will carry over to launch. All pre-orders will also be rewarded with a free extra copy for recruiting friends to the battlefield.

Enter the dystopian year of 2098 where most human interaction is confined in cyberspace while three mega-corporations vie for control of Earth and its remaining resources. Within combat module Fray, players must pledge allegiance to one of the corporations and control a squad of four soldiers of unique classes, weapons, and abilities. To engage in combat, players must assign actions to each squad member. It is then when players will finally see the fruits or failures of their labor while the action is played out in real-time cinematic fashion. Keen observation, predicting an opponent’s moves, and the wisdom of experience are key to emerging victorious.

For more information and to pre-order the game, please visit the official website at www.fray-game.com or visit Brain Candy at www.braincandy.fr and Follow Brain Candy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/braincandygames

Grab a fistful of rockets and step into the bright red shoes of the legendary Sam “Serious” Stone as he reloads for an all-new battle against the nefarious minions of Lord Mental. Hunt down the mysterious ram-god of the Great Obelisk and unlock the secrets buried beneath the mystical temples dotting the sands of ancient Egypt. Then challenge your nerves with an intense new survival mode map or take aim in three brand new versus multiplayer maps.

3 New Single Player and Cooperative Campaign Missions
3 New Versus Multiplayer Maps
1 New Survival Mode Map

To celebrate the launch of the new DLC, Serious Sam The Second Encounter and the Serious Sam Complete Pack are 75% off until May 22nd at 10AM PST!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/41019

Artix Entertainment, the indie game development studio that creates and publishes download-free, browser-based RPGs to over 150 million registered users, is releasing its first action figures, Artix and Sepulchure, from the popular MMORPG AdventureQuest Worlds. The action figures are already available at some U.S. Toys “R” Us® stores and will be available at all U.S. Toys “R” Us stores starting May 23rd, 2012. The figures will also be available online on AE’s merchandising website HeroMart.com starting May 18th.

In the game world of AdventureQuest Worlds, Artix and Sepulchure are mortal enemies. Artix is a paladin, a warrior of light who specializes in battling evil. Sepulchure is one of the world’s most powerful and evil villains who commands a vast army of darkness monsters. To celebrate the release of these collector figures, AQWorlds is doing a series of updates to the Doomwood storyline that will culminate in a battle between Artix and Sepulchure… a battle that only one of them will be able to survive.

Rumor has it the Doomwood releases will explain the significance of the ultra rare black variant versions of the collector figures. There are only 1,000 black variants of each figure in existence. The variants will be sold online at HeroMart.com and in select U.S. Toys “R” Us stores.

To see what the fight in Doomwood might look like, the AQWorlds team teamed up with John Huang of Counter 656 to make a stop-motion video of the action figures in ACTION!

Each action figure comes with an array of in-game items redeemable in-game at www.AQ.com. The Artix action figure comes with a Paladin’s Castle (an in-game player house) that is equipped with a trap door to send your foes to the dungeon, a Paladin High Lord Armor, a Paladin High Lord Class, Artix’s Helm (a legendary item), High Lord’s Battleaxe of Destiny (a weapon), and an achievement for your character page.

The Sepulchure action figure comes with a DoomKnight Fortress (an in-game player house) that is equipped with a trap door to send your foes to the dungeon, a DoomKnight Overlord Armor, a DoomKnight Overlord Class, Sepulchure’s Helm (a legendary item), Overlord’s DoomBlade (a weapon), and an achievement for your character page.

Aside from the multitude of in-game items and the action figures, each box also contains five rare playing cards to add to your AdventureQuest Worlds The Anything Goes Battle On Battle Card Game deck. Buy both action figures and add 10 new cards to your deck! The rare black variants of the Artix and Sepulchure collector figures contain the same in-game items and the same cards as the standard collector figures.

The Artix and Sepulchure collector figures will be available in all Toys “R” Us stores in the U.S. starting May 23rd, 2012 and online at HeroMart.com on May 18th, 2012. HeroMart ships orders internationally.

For more information about AdventureQuest Worlds, please visit www.AQ.com
For more information about Toys “R” Us, please visit www.ToysRUs.com
For more information about HeroMart.com, please visit www.HeroMart.com

Gravity Interactive, a publisher of exciting massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), launched today the latest content patch for their wildly popular anchor title, Ragnarok Online. Enter Port Malaya to discover new quests, added dungeons, the best equipment yet, and an expanded MVP monster cast; there’s so much new content it will be hard to decide what to try first! Players can rush over to the official site and receive complimentary suntan lotion for their coastal visit at http://www.playragnarok.com/news/updatedetail.aspx?id=204&p=1

Welcome to the Port Town of Malaya, where the water’s always warm and the monsters are always dangerous. Enjoy dozens of new quests, including an entire suite of daily tasks to perform aimed at level 100+ characters. Join up with fellow adventurers to plumb new dungeons, testing the strongest characters and honing their boss hunting skills to a fine edge.

Delve deep into these raids to discover the hidden story of Malaya. Acquire powerful new equipment, including the new Tattoos, which will grant your character new permanent buffs! Use these newfound powers to tackle the most challenging enemies yet, including rare MVP Monsters, which will challenge veteran players to rise to a new level.

“Port Malaya is the largest town expansion update, both in sheer size and in features, providing both high level activities and challenges and is deservedly the most talked about expansion town update Ragnarok has ever had!“ Said Jason “Heimdallr” Koerperich,

Ragnarok Online Producer at Gravity Interactive. “ We are happy to provide this update so far ahead of our community‘s expectations as a wonderful surprise to our loyal players!”

1000 years of peace have reigned, and the world has forgotten the horrors of the age of myth; as in all things, peace can never last forever, and evil waits patiently. Once friendly monsters turned aggressive; soon after followed demons attacking, and the dead rising from their graves. Heroes appeared to beat back the invasions until the fateful day that Satan Morocc destroyed the peaceful town of Morroc, his freedom granted by the insane and corrupt humans of Midgard. The heroes re-gathered themselves and pushed back with everything they had but only a stalemate was possible. The delicate seals that protect the world from spilling into complete chaos weaken and break; only the knowledge and power from the age of myth can save Midgard from certain doom. Can you and your allies push back the threat of total annihilation and protect Midgard from the final Ragnarok? Join now at https://www.warpportal.com/landing/ragnarokrenewal.aspx?ad=4063

Revisit the two-dimensional battlefields of Swords and Soldiers in a brand-new single-player campaign. Take control of Chief Meat and his troops on their journey to the annual Super Saucy Sausage Fest with a grand prize of 1000 cows. The campaign contains ten new levels where you will meet new friends to join your forces along the way, and old enemies who will do everything to keep Chief Meat from winning the grand prize.

The Super Saucy Sausage Fest DLC combines unique sets of units and spells to let players face innovative challenges. As an added bonus the DLC pack contains a new upgraded challenge mode: Boulder XL!

The S.S.S.F DLC will be available next week for 2,- on Steam!

For more updates and details, follow us on facebook and/or twitter.
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Indie Royale is proud to present a very special game bundle – the All-Charity Lightning Pack – featuring four awesome indie games and three outstanding chiptune albums/EPs, with 100% of the proceeds going to four extremely worthy charities.

The bundle’s generous developers have each hand-picked a charity for their game, including UNICEF’s Haiti aid, vital human rights work from Amnesty International, free speech and privacy advocacy from the EFF, and the global poverty programs of ActionAid.

Headlining the bundle is Hemisphere Games’ dreamlike physics puzzle game Osmos, available for Windows and Mac on Steam, Windows and Linux on Desura, and DRM-free on Windows, Mac and Linux. The game puts the player in the role of a single-celled organism, tasked with growing larger by absorbing all the other organisms around it. A.V. Club called it, “Moving in every sense of the word” and Indiegames.com says, “Osmos mixes puzzle, action and strategy remarkably and all the while does it with great finesse and style.” Blessed with an elegant minimalist electronic soundtrack, you’ll progress from serenely ambient levels to varied and challenging worlds in this peaceful and engaging puzzler.

Next up is Erik Svedang’s interactive fairytale Blueberry Garden, available for Windows on Steam, Desura, and DRM-free. An Independent Games Festival Grand Prize-winning experimental game about curiosity and exploration, you take on the role of a creature investigating a mysterious world. Try various fruits and use their effects to navigate the landscape more easily, and explore this playground of oddities in a living world with a marvelously offbeat soundtrack and multiple endings.

Making its bundle debut is Wadjet Eye Games’ rabbinical 2D adventure game The Shivah, available for Windows on Desura and DRM-Free. In the first title from the creator of The Blackwell Legacy you play as Russell Stone, a Jewish Rabbi at a poor synagogue in New York City. After a former member of his congregation dies and leaves him a significant amount of money, Rabbi Stone is led on an adventure through New York City that will test his faith and uncover unsettling truths. PC Gamer says, “It’s in games like this that gaming really starts to measure up to conventional literature for emotional and intellectual integrity.”

Finally featured is Copenhagen Game Collective’s offbeat local multiplayer party game B.U.T.T.O.N., available for Windows on Steam, Desura and DRM-free. After taking a few steps away from your controller, race back to your controller through physical space, and do whatever it takes to win (or to avoid losing). While the game will display various rules for each round, there is no way to keep track of whether the players obey the rules or not – and unfair tactics are majorly encouraged here in this crazed improvisational party game.

Those who pay $7 USD or their country’s currency equivalent during the All-Charity Pack get three incredible music albums/EPs from leading composers. These include Jake Kaufman’s ‘FX4′, a virtuoso NES-style jam from the Shantae and Retro City Rampage composer, as well as Fez soundtrack creator Disasterpeace’s acclaimed 2008 concept album ‘Level’, and a brand new EP from Super Time Force composer 6955, ‘IN1ep’.

You can decide exactly how much money goes to each of the four charities when you donate to this bundle, and your entire donation amount (after third-party credit card/Paypal fees) will be received by the worthy causes picked by these charitable indies. Please give generously!

More information on the limited-time All-Charity Pack, including real-time statistics, its current minimum donation price, and the total amount raised so far for charity, is available at its official website http://www.indieroyale.com or via its Facebook http://www.facebook.com/IndieRoyale and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/indieroyale pages.

Available immediately, users’ Steam library of games can now be managed remotely via the web. With an active Steam client running on the remote PC or Mac, users may log into the Steam web site or mobile app to access and manage their library of games, downloading pre-loads, new releases, or their latest purchases, as soon as they’re available. Head home to find your new downloads installed and ready to play upon arrival.

To kick off a remote download, simply visit your Games list on the Steam Community site, which can be accessed from your own profile using a web browser or the Steam mobile app on iOS or Android. If logged into the latest update of the Steam client on a PC or Mac, there you’ll see which games are currently installed, and have the ability to install others from your library. Or, seamlessly complete your online purchase with remote installation: When a remote session is detected, the Steam store will ask whether you’d like to download your new purchases immediately.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is the upcoming stand-alone expansion to the award-winning 2008 hit real-time strategy game, Sins of a Solar Empire. Developed by Ironclad and published by Stardock, this is space-strategy gaming at its finest.

In the future, the survival of humanity stands on the edge of utter ruin as three powerful factions vie for control of the galaxy. Take command of one of three space-faring races as you work to establish your domination of the galaxy in Sins of a Solar Empire.

The time of Diplomacy is over. The length of the war and differing opinions on what should be done to bring the war to an end has led to a splintering of the groups involved. The controlling powers-that-be have depleted arsenals and seemed to have exhausted all efforts of diplomacy. Trapped in a stalemate, sub-factions have rebelled and broken off the main alignments. Rebellion is upon us.

Through a combination of diplomacy, economic skill, cultural influence, and sheer military might you will establish order over your corner of the galaxy!

Eager RTS gamers can now pre-order the upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion! All pre-order customers will gain access to the Rebellion beta scheduled for later this year.

The special pre-order pricing for the upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for previous customers of Sins Trinity or Diplomacy.  The special pre-order price is $29.95 which is $10 off regular price and this discount will only be available for a limited time.

If you have already purchased the pre-order for Rebellion your price has automatically been adjusted, and you can check your pre-order status on the account page. You do not need to re-purchase.

If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, now is the time to get yours in for the 2012 launch of Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion.http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/store

For the complete Sins of a Solar Empire experience, please visit www.sinsofasolarempire.com.

First gameplay video, presenting the AI behavior for quarter of the game. Strategic War in Europe, an innovative strategy game currently in development. Strategic War in Europe will feature in-depth elements of an old school strategy game with modern day features and gameplay.

Strategic War in Europe is being developed for the PC by Wastelands Interactive under the focus of strategy game veteran developer Leszek Lisowski who has led the development of half a dozen strategy games over the past several years.

Some exciting features of Strategic War in Europe are -

• Six unique scenarios spanning the time between 1939-1944
• An expansive map of Europe and North Africa that is 68 hexes wide and 47 hexes high
• Ability for players to control up to 25 countries across the three WW2 alliances (Allies, Axis, USSR)
• Five scaling difficulty settings for each country for added challenge and replayability
• Build your army to attack from land, sea, and air
• Economy and production system with a strategic element based on convoys and railroads
• Technology system that expands five unique areas of research
• Dynamic weather system that affects the tide of war

Strategic War in Europe is currently anticipating a Q2 2012 release across many major digital distribution platforms. http://wastelands-interactive.com

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that Diablo III, the highly anticipated next chapter in its award-winning action–role-playing-game series, is now available in retail stores throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Gamers in the regions above as well as in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil are also able to purchase Diablo III digitally via the game’s official website (http://www.diablo3.com).

In the wake of a Blizzard record of more than 2 million preorders^*, and following more than 8,000 midnight launch events earlier today at retail stores worldwide,gamers across the planet are now storming Sanctuary in hot pursuit of the Lord of Terror.

“This launch is a culmination of many years of hard work by our development team, and many years of passionate, dedicated support from gamers around the world,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re grateful for the enthusiasm of our players, and for the help of our beta testers in getting the game ready for release. Now that Diablo III is live, we hope everyone’s ready to have a hellishly good time slaying demons and collecting loot in Sanctuary.”

Diablo III is available for Windows^® XP/Windows Vista^®/Windows^® 7 and Macintosh^® at a suggested price of € 59.99 (£ 44.99) for both the retail DVD-ROM version and the digital version sold directly from Blizzard. A special alabaster-white Collector’s Edition, sold exclusively in retail stores while supplies last at a suggested price of € 89.99 (£ 69.99), includes the game on DVD-ROM, a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set, the Diablo III soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo III book, and a 4 GB USB soulstone (including full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction^®)and corresponding Diablo skull base, as well as exclusive in-game content for Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft II Wings of Liberty. Diablo III has received a Mature rating from the ESRB.
Players in the Latin American countries listed above and in Russia will be able to purchase Diablo III at local retail locations starting June 7. Digital availability via http://www.diablo3.com for the Russian version of the game will also begin June 7. In addition to the English version, Diablo III is fully localized into Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean, and traditional Chinese.

Diablo III continues the epic Diablo storyline, with players taking on the role of one of five heroic characters – barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, or demon hunter – and embarking on an epic quest to save the world of Sanctuary from the corrupting forces of the Burning Hells. As players adventure through rich and varied settings, they’ll engage in pulse-pounding combat with hordes of monsters and challenging bosses, grow in experience and ability, acquire artifacts of incredible power, and meet key characters who’ll join them in battle or aid them in other ways . The game features the intuitive interface, fast-paced action, and visceral gameplay that Diablo players have come to expect and enjoy.

Designed from the ground up to leverage the full functionality of the Battle.net platform, Diablo III also provides gamers with industry-leading matchmaking and communication tools, allowing adventurers to seamlessly join forces for cooperative play. Battle.net also provides the infrastructure for the Diablo III auction house, a feature-rich marketplace that Sanctuary’s heroes can use to trade their hard-earned treasures. To learn more about the auction house and the other features of Diablo III, please visit the official website at http://www.diablo3.com.

For more information on Diablo III, please visit the official website at http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3 http://www.facebook.com/Diablo To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate in the Diablo III beta test, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.

To set up a European Battle.net account and to opt-in to Blizzard Entertainment beta tests, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://eu.battle.net.