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Spiderweb Software has officially announced the release of Avernum 5, the latest in the long running Exile/Avernum RPG series. Spiderweb is offering a demo of the game on the official website.

Avernum 5 takes a new direction with the story, allowing players to play as a group of soldiers from the above ground world of the Empire who have descended into Avernum's depths to search for the murderer of their Empress. The game features hundreds of quests, an epic storyline, unique encounters, and a variety of spells and items to discover.

The surface world is ruled by the Empire. Its power is absolute. Its control is unchallenged. And, as a soldier of the Empire, you have a good, comfortable life ahead of you. But then a rebel named Dorikas tried to assassinate the Empress, and everything went wrong for you.

The villain fled somewhere into Avernum, an underworld nation of eccentrics, misfits, and barely civilized monsters, most of whom hate the Empire. And that is where you are going. You must find Dorikas, while dealing with spies, betrayal, and assassins at every turn.

The enemy is waiting for you. You will only survive his attention with the help of these strange cave dwellers. If, of course, they don’t kill you first.

- Macintosh running System 10.3.9 or later.
- 50 MB free RAM.
- 200 MB hard disk space.
- 1024x768 screen resolution with 16 bit color.
- Avernum 5 will run natively on Intel Macintoshes.

Spiderweb Software

Avernum 5

Buy Avernum 5

Virtual Programming has released Leopard compatibility updates for several of its games. Updated titles include Crusader Kings, Victoria, and X3: Reunion and fix a variety of bugs and stability issues related to the new operating system.

We have today released new updates for the strategy games Crusader Kings and Victoria as direct downloads from our web site. Other Paradox games (Europa Universalis 2, Doomsday, Armageddon,Hearts of iron 2 and Victoria Revolutions) will update automatically if the latest previous updates have been installed.

Each update resolves the following issues:
Compatibility issues with Leopard OS
Problems with saved games on multiplayer games
Stability fixes.

X3: Reunion:
Transgaming have provided is with updates for English, French and German language versions of X3: Reunion.
The English update fixes known game crashes and improves stability
with Leopard.
The German and French updates also includes fixes for in-game speech.

Head over to the sites below for more information about the updates.

Virtual Programming

Crusader Kings

Victoria

Victoria: Revolutions

X3: Reunion

Paradox Interactive

Europa Universalis II

Hearts of Iron 2

Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday

Buy Crusader Kings

Buy Victoria

Buy Victoria: Revolutions

Buy Europa Universalis II

Buy Hearts of Iron 2

Buy Hearts of Iron 2: Doomsday

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Planewalker Games' Jason Compton was recently interviewed by RPG Codex about the yet to be released fantasy RPG, The Broken Hourglass. The interview covers the game's progress and delves into specifics about the game's setting and missions.

I like that "a lot of conflicting interests packed into a comparatively small area" part. Tell us more and be generous in your descriptions.
The two I'll talk about now are both noteworthy as they are "critical-path" problems.

In addition to the party members, the PC needs to enlist the aid of various outsiders to perform certain tasks in order to achieve victory. One problem requires the aid of both the stonemasons and smiths, and the two have a long, long history of detesting one another. So not only do you need to win them over, but you need to win them over on a project they need to collaborate on. This takes a fair amount of "sweat equity" on the part of the player to accomplish.

There is also a sequence in which the player needs to enlist various security forces. Two mercantile houses have been stockpiling arms and armed soldiers in what is, essentially, a gang war between them. The player needs to convince at least one of the houses to stop worrying about the other house and help out with the protection of the city. The two different heads of the household want different things... one seems hell-bent on destruction but she will accept a couple of shocking compromises, under the right circumstances. The other is easier to guide towards peace, but his own people aren't so sure that's the right course to take.

Click on the link below to read the rest of the Q&A

RPG Codex: Broken Hourglass Interview

The Broken Hourglass

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The 21st Q&A focusing on answers to fan submitted questions about StarCraft II, Blizzard Entertainment's long awaited sequel to the original StarCraft, is now available. The latest information update also includes a screenshot of one of the new Terran units in action. SC II will pick up the storyline four years after the end of Brood War and will introduce competitive new multiplayer action for players to enjoy.

Chat with Devs:
Since the Terran Ghost has an upgradable EMP ability, the Terran Nomad's has been given the ability to create stationary defenses in addition to its Defense Matrix ability. One of the new stationary defenses is the Auto-Turret, which can attack ground units,
We are hoping the Nomad's new abilities will innovate its role, in addition to being a detector.

1. Do you have any plan to put the auto-casting ability into StarCraft II units, just like in Warcraft III?
At the moment, Medics are the only units that we have deemed fit to have an auto-cast ability. StarCraft II, compared to Warcraft III, has fewer abilities but are much more potent when executed properly, thus making them manual cast will give players a huge opportunity to demonstrate much skill in the game.

4. It is not possible to watch how a mouse was moved in a saved replay game. Could you make this possible to see the movement of mouse?
We would also like the mouse to be viewable in saved replays, however, it may be more likely that well have the options to show both the view of the players playing as well as selection icons of the units being currently selected in the replay.

5. When grouping units to a control group, how many units could be added to one group?
Currently, players are able to select more than 150 units in a single control group. The final actual number will be determined by hardware performance tests on the game, but should still be close to that number.

StarCraft Forums: SC 2 Q&A Batch 21

StarCraft Forums: Ask Your SC2 Questions Here

Blizzard Entertainment

StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

Buy StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

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