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Shrapnel Games has announced the release of a new patch for Dominions 3: The Awakening, Illwinter Game Design's third installment in their turn-based fantasy war game series. The patch brings the game to version 3.01, fixes several bugs, and adds a variety of changes and adjustments to improve gameplay.

Here are a few of the changes in patch 3.01:

- Great Lion size 3.
- Atlantian spearmen correct age and darkvision.
- Shark knight have correct resource cost
- Doom horrors less common.
- Indep lizard warriors base prot ->3
- Curse of stones affects only enemies in accordance with the manual
- Wands no longer gives Chest Wounds

Dominions 3 Downloads

Shrapnel Games

Dominions III: The Awakening

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According to a recent report on FiringSquad The Sims 3 is already in development. Electronics Arts executives confirmed that work on the third in the extremely popular people sim series is underway, with a tentative release date set sometime in the company's 2009 fiscal year (begins April 1, 2008).

For more information on the current incarnation of the game, The Sims 2, click on the links below.

FiringSquad: The Sims 3 In Development

Maxis

Aspyr Media

The Sims 2

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RPG Vault has released the second part of their in-depth interview with Planewalker Games' Jason Compton about the company's upcoming RPG, The Broken Hourglass. The interview covers the game's WeiNGINE technology, focus on storyline, and unique magic system, The Broken Hourglass will feature a 2D isometric viewpoint, a rich character development system, and a mod friendly game engine.

Our magic system uses a mana-potential system, organized into five elemental groups: fire, air, earth, water and physical (force / healing). Many spells are granted to all mages (if they can muster up the mana to cast them), while others may be learned mid-game from books or other mages. Still other types of spells can be constructed on the fly using our spell-building interface, which lets you interactively mix elemental sources, effect types, and mana power to craft the perfect spell (offensive or defensive) for a given combat situation, if need be.

The "potential" part of our system is what makes our approach to magic very different than most other games. The D&D / "hung spell" approach requires (most) spellcasters to identify the spells they wish to cast in advance, then they cast them once, and the spell goes away until some event occurs, usually resting. Alternatively, most mana / spell point systems offer a pool of power and a long spell list, and players cast from that list, each spell draining power points until some event occurs, usually resting or drinking a potion.

But in our system, your mana indicates how much magic you can "wield" at any given time. So, you can tie up 15 points of mana keeping a magical shield around yourself, but you can drop that shield and start spending it on a different spell whenever you choose. Similarly, if you spend 15 points of mana to reduce the strength of your opponent, that effect lasts until you decide to drop it and start spending the mana on something else. Mana represents your constant potential energy.

RPG Vault: The Broken Hourglass Interview Part 2

The Broken Hourglass

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IGN recently posted a review of the PC version of The Sims 2: Pets, the latest expansion for the popular people sim. The expansion gives players the chance to add pets to their Sim's family, create a unique pet from a variety of customization options, and even send their pets off to work on new pet career paths. IGN gave the game a score of 7.4 out of 10.

From the review:

Pets have their own personalities and ratings, although those are a simplified version of their human counterparts. Pets can be trained not just in commands, but also in behaviors, to the point where you can train them to pee all over your living room floor and then roll around in it. Nasty, yes… but extremely amusing.

Like Unleashed before it, Sims 2: Pets includes a few pets that pretty much have no function other than to look cute and up the environment scores. I call these "Low-Maintenance Pets," the hamsters and birds of the group, as opposed to the "High Maintenance" dogs and cats. Hey, you get what you pay for: the birds are cheap and help Environment ratings, but otherwise they just eat up your time as you feed them every day.

Meanwhile, a couple of things were added to the humans' lives as well. Most importantly is the presence of a werewolf, who can in turn make your Sims suffer from lycanthropy. Unlike vampires from The Sims 2: Nightlife, being a werewolf doesn't quite have the same game-changing impact.

Check out the full review at the link below.

IGN: The Sims 2 Pets Review

Aspyr Media

The Sims 2: Pets

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