Two HPS titles just received updates - Squad Battles: Soviet-Afghan War and Musket & Pike: Renaissance. Both had their CD checks removed and Renaissance got the 3D graphics treatment. Grab the patches here.

Speaking of Squad Battles, Ozgur Budak, one of the scenario designers for SB: SAW, created 10 new scenarios for Eagles Strike and 3 for Pacific War. They're available at Task Force Echo 4.

And if you own SB: Vietnam, you owe to yourself to download Red Star Over Europe, a WW3 mod by the same gentleman behind The Long War.

Red Storm Over Europe covers a hypothetical conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the period May to June 1985. It includes a huge array of unique infantry types as well as weapons and vehicles found in the inventories of the six countries represented in the mod. There’s also a great variety of scenarios aimed at challenging your command abilities, with missions ranging from small, infantry-dominated engagements, to huge mechanized and amphibious battles.

Here's some more time-wasters for your Sunday evening.

IndieGames brings you Super Space Rouges.

In Super Space Rogues you play as a trader who owes a big sum of money to an alien overlord, and must find means to repay him back or suffer the consequences. This basically involves mining asteroids for precious minerals to be traded at a friendly spaceport, or destroying pirate ships and making off with the loot that they drop.

Play This Thing has a write-up on New Star Tennis.

New Star Tennis is his latest outing; as the name implies, you're a tennis player on the international circuit. You plan activities week by week, including training, participating in a tournament, relaxing by playing minigames (darts, kart riding, going to the casino or betting on the horses), or shopping. Equipment can allow strength and stamina training, but also apparently to attract sponsors, you have to live some kind of extravagant lifestyle, so you need to buy crap for the sake of buying crap.

And 1UP published their 101 Free Games article for 2010, which includes a handful of strategy titles. Not sure why they included Light of Altair, though, considering it still costs $14.95.

Paradox sent word that Arsenal of Democracy is a done deal.

Paradox Interactive announced that development of BL-Logic’s sprawling World War II strategy game, Arsenal of Democracy, has been completed, and that the game will be released via all major digital distribution outlets on February 23 for $19.99. A new trailer describing the game and its features has also been released.

Arsenal of Democracy was developed by BL-Logic, a team comprised of passionate fans of the Paradox’s landmark Hearts of Iron series. The game takes players to World War II with total economic, diplomatic and military control over the nation of their choosing, giving them the chance to rewrite history and change the course of history’s greatest global conflict. Arsenal of Democracy offers players unparalleled historical detail alongside the most in-depth and realistic representation of the multitude of challenges faced by the leaders of the time.

Though the cat has been out of the bag on this one for some time, Battlefront is now getting around to announcing Combat Mission: Afghanistan.

Battlefront.com, a leading independent wargame publisher and developer on the net, and Snowball, a leading Russian software publisher and developer, are proudly introducing COMBAT MISSION AFGHANISTAN!

Combat Mission Afghanistan is the first collaboration between Battlefront and a third party studio to create a completely new game in the Combat Mission series. CM Afghanistan is a standalone game and not an expansion, and does not require any of the other games to play!

CM Afghanistan covers two periods of the Russian-Afghan wars - the initial phase 1980-1982, and the later years of highest activity 1985-1987 - in two campaigns and ten standalone missions. CM Afghanistan is not just a mission pack: based on the latest CM engine in development, the game includes not only all new artwork, terrain, new units, new weapons, and new nations, but also introduces some completely new game features, such as exit objective zones and more! Players are able to take command of Soviet or DRA (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) Army units as well as mujahedeen guerilla forces.

CM Afghanistan is currently in development and is expected to be ready for release in Q2 this year, 2010. It will be available in retail throughout Eastern Europe directly from Snowball, and in an english version worldwide only from www.battlefront.com/afghanistan!

As I said before, I'll be all over this one. And as an added bonus, since it's being co-developed by Apeiron we get to mock mondblut endlessly if it sucks.

Battlefront is giving you a taste of Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 with a 700 MB demo.

This playable english-language demo includes one Tutorial mission to get you acquainted to the command and control of your units as well as two (!) full missions, one playable as Germans, the other as Soviets, from that fateful summer 1943.

Shrapnel sent word of a new 2D sci-fi 4X game in the works - Star Legacy.

Shrapnel Games, publisher of such notable independent strategy games like Dominions 3: The Awakening and War Plan Pacific, is proud to announce the next great epic science-fiction strategy game, Star Legacy! Developed by Star Legacy Development Group (SDLG), and currently slated for a late 2011 release for Windows (though the developers are hoping to port it to other operating systems), Star Legacy promises to be a feature-rich game of eXploration, eXpansion, eXploitation, and eXtermination that will remain on your hard drive for years.

Star Legacy is being designed from the ground up around one simple question: what would the ultimate sci-fi 4X game include?

Star Legacy is a player's game, one that is meant to be both a letter of love to fans of the genre and to bring new players into the fold. To achieve the goal of ultimate playability SDLG is focusing on several important facets in their design. First of all, Star Legacy will be an open-ended turn-based game that will allow players to immerse themselves in an epic space opera of their own making. Players will begin by creating civilizations reaching out from their homeworlds to explore the great bejeweled darkness of the universe. As in all good 4X titles there will be a full range of choices that the player will be involved in. Design starships worthy of the best sci-fi story, research new technologies, colonize new worlds, and when all else fails go to war. Everything in the game is player driven. Besides a single player experience the game will also feature multiplayer, although its exact form is still being worked out.

C&C4 public beta is go!

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to one of gaming's most beloved and longest-running series, the 15-year Tiberium saga. Kane. GDI. Nod. Tiberium. How will it end? Find out in Command & Conquer 4, told through persistent player progression, trademark live-action cinematics, and a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay.

Now is your opportunity to be a part to the development of Command & Conquer 4 by participating in this exclusive Beta program! Choose your class and command more units than EVER in a C&C game, as you team up and take on your opponents in 5-on-5 online battles! Strategize with your teammates or talk smack to your opponents over VOIP in fast, fun, and furious C&C action. We want to hear your feedback to help us deliver the C&C experience that you want when the game ships!

Lovely, in their continuous search for what else can be done with a dormant sail ship engine, Paradox and Nitro Games have now discovered the conquest of the new world:

Paradox Interactive today announced the upcoming historical strategy game Commander: Conquest of the Americas. Commander: Conquest of the Americas combines the best elements of trading and strategy games. Set in the 16th century, players will take charge of a wide variety of European nations in efforts to conquer the New World. With as many as 30 ships to control and varied environments (from the Caribbean to the Hudson Bay), players have much to look forward to.

The game is due in the third quarter of 2010. 

If you have too much time you can watch the video. It didn't do anything for me.

Ubisoft made available new information for the soon to be released U-Boat simulation, Silent Hunter V 'Battle of the Atlantic'

dynamic campaign video (via YouTube)

Dan Dimitrescu interview on www.subsim.com

here some bits from the interview:

"Silent Hunter is not delayed"

"we see the campaign as being one of the main features of the game"

"a more important personal side to the game"

also talks about how players actions will impact the campaign, one can only hope that it's not overdone

"we think that the RPG-like elements are one way of portraying various aspects which you can actually read about in history books"

"we wanted to take this game a little bit closer to what Das Boot did, so this is why we picked the crew's development a little bit further than it was in Silent Hunter 3 and 4, and also design the first person perspective and the full interior of the U-boat"

cool, I always wanted to be able to sit in the officers mess and drink "Uboot-Spezialmischung"

 .. unfortunately the "Sprengwagen" will probably not make it into the game

"not a new engine"

explains something which I read as an 'evolutionary' design

"Type VIIA, Type VIIB, C, and C41"

the inclusion of Type VIIA (an early model with an outside aft-tube) will make some people very happy

no mention of types II and IX, that will make the same people not so happy

"damage control will have a graphic representation of flooding"

And why did the dumbass interviewer not ask about wolfpacks?

Wastelands Interactive, makers of 'WW2 - Time of Wrath', have announced their upcoming grand strategy game 'Storm over the Pacific'

Storm over the Pacific consists of 4 big campaigns and 15 scenarios that take the player to the countless Pacific islands, China and to Australia. Accurate map projections, numerous historical events and precise army structure let you become a great leader from the World War II era. Engaging in land and sea battles let you change the course of history during hundreds of hours of unique gameplay.

Storm over the Pacific includes significantly enhanced ideas from World War 2: Time of wrath (the previous game from Wastelands Interactive) which are moved into the different geopolitical realities. WW2:ToW enjoys high popularity, and received critical acclaim from players and the media.

Stardock has released the playable Occulus character for free to everyone who logs in to the multiplayer part of Demigod. It is the second new free Demigod hero (first one was the Demon Assassin) and Occulus appears to be a freakish Minotaur who mumbles corny but amusing quotes such as "Ride the lightning" and he also has some kind of lady Justitia complex:

Oculus uses the powers of lightning to aid his friends and punish his enemies. His powers include chain-lightning, the ability to re-charge the mana of friendly demigods, and the lethal capability of launching himself down on his enemies from his throne.

To add him to your account, simply load up the latest version of Demigod, logon to Multiplayer and after that, he should be available to you both in single player and in multiplayer.

Earlier this week players were already able to snatch Occulus but it required going through a store website with a free keycode. Brad Wardell from Stardock admits on BluesNews that this was an experiment to see how many people would be willing to go through all these steps, presumably when they also could be paying for possible new Demigods in the future.  

"The original plan was that on Friday, we would release Oculus as a free Demigod in which people added him to their accounts via the store page. By doing this, we would be able to measure the current interest in DLC for Demigod to determine whether we could justify paying GPG to develop additional maps and demigods later."

"In responding to the issues, one of our moderators implied that us having to do this would eliminate our ability to determine the active size of the Demigod community and therefore end any hope of additional DLC. However, the moderator was mistaken as we can determine the active userbase by the number of people who logon and work from that."

Demigod wasn't really a smash hit (despite the fact it was often just as enjoyable offline against AI players) and it remains to be seen if paid-for-Demigods or maps are viable and wether the extra free content could increase the size of DG's online community. Further (free) updates are up in the air for now as developer Gas Powered Games is busy with wrapping up Supreme Commander 2. For more information about the future of Demigod you should read Brad's latest official blog post.

While the AI is not outright stupid like in most other games, it becomes rather predictable soon and it also never attempts to lure the player into traps or anything of that sort. At least it doesn't seem to be buggy. What unfortunately detriments from the enjoyment of the tactical battles most is that very soon it boils down to using the same tactic over and over again: Find a hill, place archers there, wait for enemy to come, destroy them. If the enemy is too strong for that, use some magic additionally. In fact, there are spells available to some of the heroes, which easily destroy entire enemy squads of the best possible soldiers. A single lightning strike can destroy a fully upgraded squad of 21 Sangreal knights (one of the strongest in-game units). Given that an experienced hero can cast lightning at least three times during a battle and there are up to four heroes per army, this easily computes to an auto-win of any army having three or four such heroes without any losses. Considering this, the missing per-unit morale system is the smaller problem, but it does underscore the problem. For example, once three out of 120 knights survived the initial lightning onslaught. But robotically they just continued their charge into the huge arrow cloud closing in on them...

Read the full review here

Norb Timpkos unofficial sequel to Take Command Second Manassas, seems to be shaping up nicely and getting close to completion. After the rather nonsensical namechange to Scourge Of War: Gettysburg, official word is that game is now scheduled for a 1st Quarter 2010 release, and the team is currently in final beta testing of the Multiplayer feature.

There a updates to the latest screenshots, and this new video, which showcases an extremely immersive, realistic battlefield that makes Creative Assemblies latest offerings look pretty basic. The video is kind of choppy, hopefully only because of the way it was recorded, and not a characteristic of the engine.

It's a bit early to tell. But if this comes together as promised, especially if they can really deliver the multiplayer feature, this looks like a game no serious fan of tactical simulations will want to miss.

The wargamer reviews of East India Company: Battle of Trafalgar.

The AI is no slouch, racing the player for the wind gauge in order to cross the T. Thus, fighting splits into two or three engagements of parallel lines. Ships fire automatically as their guns bear with damage points flashing above targets. As no crew quality exists, the battle comes down to exchanges of broadsides and wind advantage. When victory seems to be within grasp, the losing side gets reinforcements out of nowhere, turning the tide until the other side is so beaten up that it gets reinforced…and so it goes. Ships sink too quickly for their size. Even the most damaged hulk could stay afloat for hours. Boarding is nearly impossible in the game unless a player takes direct control of a ship, stops battering a stricken opponent, maneuvers along side and boards while hoping his other fourteen ships know what they’re doing.

Players with even a passing acquaintance with Trafalgar will know from the start this game doesn’t take the event seriously.

Attempting Nelson’s tactics is impossible from the start.

 

Until now Relic Entertainment have only dared to speak about the singleplayer campaign of Chaos Rising (CR), the stand-alone expansion to Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War II. Starting from today they'll reveal the new units each race will receive in the Player vs Player multiplayer part on their official blog. 

The Space Marines (SM) get a single spellcasting melee fighter as reinforcement, namely the Librarian. Although he was already mentioned as a new playable option in the campaign mode his abilities nor his role in multiplayer were very clear. He'll be available from Tier 2 which means he is "just" a regular unit and not a geared up fourth hero commander for the SM faction. This likely means that there will be no new commanders for the old races in CR.

From the sound of it the Librarian really could have been a powerful commander just as well though:

Abilities:

Smite – Fire lethal bolts of psychic lightning, tearing into enemies within a small radius of the target point.

Quickening – Greatly increase the Librarian’s speed and his resistance to incoming damage.

Upgrades:

Tome of Time – Grants Veil of Time ability which temporarily increases an allied unit's movement speed and removes all set-up time from heavy weapons.

Psychic Hood – Grants Gate of Infinity ability which teleports a targeted ally to the Librarian’s position.

Force Staff – Grants increased knockback and disruption to the Librarian’s melee attacks. It also grants the Force Barrier ability which sends an expanding psychic barrier out from the Librarian, pushing enemies back and nullifying ranged attacks. 

In case you didn't know yet: Relic has already confirmed that the new units for the existing races will be added to the standard DoW II game. Even the new multiplayer maps are going to be patched in for free if you're not intent on buying Chaos Rising. Keeps the community together they say...

According to CR's Steam page the coöperative multiplayer mode The Last Stand will receive new content too with new playable heroes such as the Tyranid Hive Tyrant and the Chaos Sorceror. It's going to be a tough task for Relic to please every fan in all the three major game modes (Campaign, Player vs Player and The Last Stand).