These went gold:

• Heroes of Might and Magic 5
  
• Paradise

• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

dtp ANACONDA has announced Drakensang: The Dark Eye, an epic party-based RPG from German developer Radon Labs.

Set for release during the fourth quarter of 2007, Drakensang is the adaptation of Germany’s most popular and long-standing pen & paper RPG franchise. No details were announced, but it was disclosed that a world-exclusive look at the game will be published by PC Games (German) in the coming days.

Russian publisher Buka has announced its lineup for E3 2006 which will run from May 10 through 12. The company will be located at booth #6015 in Kentia Hall.

AGGRESSION: EUROPE 1914
GENRE: Real Strategy Game

There was a time in the history of humankind when every woman and man became slayers and victims at the same time. From 1914 to 1945, Europe was immersed in the most savage, cruel and deadly wars people suffered. Aggression: Europe 1914 lets you write down again those years. Choose a nation, develop technology and weaponry, become a general or a diplomat… Past, present and future are in your hands.

DUSK-12
GENRE: First Person Shooter

DUSK-12. The project to create the perfect soldier ran out of control, and turned into the incurable virus. The whole city is now under quarantine as the inhabitants transformed into blood-thirsty assassins. A group of Spec Ops. soldiers are now trying to uncover the secrets of those aborted experiments undertaken 4 years ago… DUSK-12 is a state of the art first person shooter, full of action for single and multiplayer and hyper-realistic graphics full of details.

PACIFIC STORM: ALLIES
GENRE: RTS/Action

With Pacific Storm about to hit on stores all around the world after being successful on specialized and general media, Buka Entertainment is deeply immersed in development of the first add-on to this amazing game. Allies come into conflict this time. Powerful Germany will join Japanese forces to fight against England, Australia and USSR. New units to use, new locations to visit and a brand new version of the engine that brings better graphics than ever.

HARD TRUCK APOCALYPSE: RISE OF CLANS
GENRE: Action/RPG

Clans have risen. The remains of humanity gather in cities forming tribes that work and fight together to survive. Become part of one of these clans in the apocalyptic world of the first official add-on to Hard Truck Apocalypse. Developed by Buka Entertainment and Targem, this add-on brings what media & consumers were demanding… Multiplayer mode!! Play over Internet or in a local network with many friends in savage truck battles in this futuristic like Mad Max world.

THE STALIN SUBWAY: RED VEIL
Genre: First Person Shooter

With the death of Stalin, all those who surrounded him in life, now fight for the supreme power and control of the nation. Lena, has found that her husband (the main character of the first part) has been kidnapped and possibly murdered. She has no clue who has done it, but she knows who to ask.

The Stalin Subway: Red Veil brings an exciting continuation to the storyline of this saga, with many new locations, all of them based on the Moscow of the 50s, including an exact reproduction of the Red Square in which we’ll control Lena as main character of the game, in her search for answers.

VIA has announced it will be present at E3 this year and has the girls to prove it! “the girlz 0f destruction” will travel from the Home of Chrome in Sweden to the US to show off the latest technology from VIA & S3 Graphics. The girls will be demonstrating MultiChrome technology that allows two S3 Graphics Chrome S27 graphics cards to function in parallel (ala SLI). VIA’s ultra mobile processors will also be on display, among other things.

Check out the company’s E3 2006 webpage for more information.

This Autumn will see the release of yet another World War II title from Eidos Interactive - Battlestations: Midway. In development for PC and Xbox 360, the game follows the story of naval recruit Henry Walker, whose first assignment as a gunner at Pearl Harbor is the starting point of an incredible career at the heart of the US Pacific Fleet in 1942, in what was to become one of the most inspirational military campaigns in history.

For the first time, relive the intensity of massive air, sea and underwater WWII battles in a unique mix of intense action and tactical gameplay. Directly control dozens of highly detailed warships, aircraft and submarines in a ‘free-control’ environment as you design and execute the best plans of attack. Command the colossal firepower of a fully armed battleship, engage the enemy in fierce dogfights through flak-infested skies or utilise the stealth of your submarine to unleash deadly torpedo attacks on unsuspecting enemies.

The long running Castlevania series is back for another round - Konami has announced Portrait of Ruin for the DS.

Letting the player take control of two different characters - vampire hunter Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Orlean, a young girl with magical abilities - the game has them working together to thwart a plan to resurrect Dracula’s Castle within a World War II setting.

The new setting captures the chaos and suffering the era, with thousands of lost souls wandering the world in search of salvation. Desperate to escape the limbo within their exist, the misguided spirits seek to rebuild Dracula’s Castle from its ruins, and are lead by a pair of evil Vampire sisters out to resurrect their master’s home for their own nefarious plans. Thrown together, Jonathan and Charlotte must combine their unusual skill sets to defeat the plans and restore harmony.

Retaining the same 2D platform realms for which the series is famed, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin uses a side-on view to oversee the scrolling stages. Players can switch freely between Jonathan and Charlotte as they progress through the levels, using their skills when appropriate. In addition to Jonathan’s weapon expertise and Charlotte’s spell-casting, both characters can utilise all-new ‘Summon’ attacks to raise demons to assist them against the Vampire sisters’ army. Similarly, more conventional weapons can also be found on route, and saved for use against the hardier monsters that await in the shadows.

The game features all-new locations and over 100 different enemies. More information is set to be revealed during E3.

EA has released some new screenshots of Crysis:

Further screenshots can be found here.

Patch

Following rumors and mentions in print magazines, EA has officially announced Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, the latest in the blockbuster strategy series.

This title takes the series back to its roots in the Tiberium universe and will feature fast, fluid gameplay and a “gripping” story.

It is 2047 and the stakes could not be higher. Tiberium-a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth-is spreading like a radioactive ice age. The GDI, a high-tech alliance of the world’s most advanced nations, is fighting to contain Tiberium, but Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of The Brotherhood of NOD has other plans for Earth. Kane’s secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance.

The single-player campaign will let players go through it with their own gameplay style; units can also be customized by combining them. As for online: there is support for voice-over IP, integrated clan, and new spectator modes.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will ship sometime next year for PC.

The PS2 is now available for $130! Sony has announced a price drop for the aging-but-still-strong console in North America; the company is expecting this drop to “fuel” consumer demand even further.

Sony’s PlayStation systems are unarguably the best-selling consoles ever, with over 101 million PS2 units shipped out worldwide. It can also be noted that the PS2 continues to dominate the North American market with 55.6 percent penetration, more than double than that of rivals.

With the Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx starring movie coming up this July, VU Games announced the game, a third-person action-shooter for the PSP.

In development at Rebellion, the game will be released before the movie and will have players follow a storyline set just before the events of the film. Gamers can play as either Crockett or Tubbs, or team up wirelessly to play through missions cooperatively.

Further information and media can be found on the game’s website.

Namco Bandai has announced The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch for the PSP. Slated for release this Summer, the RPG will feature two young heroes who must save a magical world in peril.

Featuring the return of the “pet system” and “stunning” environments from the original, the game improves upon its predecessor with many new features and “easy-pick-up-and-play” game mechanics.

THQ has announced Frontlines: Fuel of War, the first product from its internal developer, Kaos Studios. Being developed for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, the game is set to “deliver an evolution in riveting, open-world first-person shooter gameplay.”

Frontlines, as the above quote suggests, is an open-world, infantry and vehicle-based FPS set in a near-future setting where there is a global war for oil being waged between two superpowers - the Western Coalition (US/EU) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia/China). The single-player campaign will focus on non-linear gameplay, having the player moving their frontline through enemy territory.

In a brief announcement, CDV disclosed that it has partnered with Buka to market and publish Buka’s games in North America for the next five years. The first two titles under this agreement will be Pacific Storm and Hard Truck Apocalypse.

Russian publisher Sunflowers will be attending E3 this year with “precious cargo.” The cargo in question is ANNO 1701 and ParaWorld.

Set up at Meeting Room 511B (West), the publisher will be showing off the games which are due for release by this Fall.

Millions of ANNO fans across the globe have been waiting impatiently for this moment: For the first time ever, the fantastic Gameplay featured in ANNO 1701 (the third part of the most successful game series of all time emerging from German-speaking countries) will be presented to the public. In addition to the extremely detailed graphics, which are bound to set new standards for the genre, this unrivalled king of Empire Building Strategy games boasts unrivalled depth and comprehensive innovations. In terms of content, the third part begins where its two predecessors ended. In the age of exploration and sea trade, the player sets off to discover new islands and establish huge metropolises. The classic ANNO principle is, of course, preserved in this latest version: Increase your influence and treat your people well. E3 Visitors can expect nothing short of the best ANNO game of all time.

SUNFLOWERS’ second title, ParaWorld, is the result of what is probably the most complex, costly and time-consuming RTS game development effort to date to emerge from the German-language territories. Just before its world-wide release, visitors can explore the nearly-final version. This 3D Real-time Strategy game takes the player to a prehistoric parallel world populated by exotic tribes and awesome battle dinosaurs. In addition to the inventive storyline and sensational graphics, the “Army Controller” is ParaWorld’s innovative highlight. It allows the player to control all units as well as a tribe’s development centrally and comfortably, thus opening new dimensions of clarity and ease of control in the RTS genre.