Los Angeles, CA – September 22, 2005 – Vivendi Universal Games(VUG), today announced that the first expansion pack for Sierra Entertainment's critically acclaimed PC game SWAT 4 is in development and is scheduled for release in Q1 2006.

“Entitled 'The Stetchkov Syndicate', the expansion pack brings a host of new levels, weapons and enhancements to the highly rated SWAT 4.

Crime is on the rise. More guns and drugs are appearing on the streets and the city is in crisis. SWAT is called in to take on a series of disturbances that eventually lead them to the root of the problem, an eastern European crime family that has taken up residence in the city. A final showdown will place legendary SWAT tactics against the most dangerous and ruthless criminals yet, the Stetchkov syndicate.

New features for SWAT 4 – The Stetchkov Syndicate include:

• 7 new single and multiplayer player levels
• Voice over IP – Built in voice communication between teammates.
• 10 Player Coop – Up to 2 teams of 5.
• New multiplayer mode – Smash & Grab
• New weapons and equipment for both SWAT members and suspects
• Stat tracking and ladders and rankings for multiplayer
• Held commands - Orders can be held in single player until the leader gives the GO command.
• Unique Leader in Coop - Option to have only one person issue commands and lead the team.

To get more information on the SWAT series, or to download the demo for SWAT 4, please visit www.swat4.com

SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate has been rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB.

 

 

San Francisco, CA – April 13, 2004 – Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, today reinforces its strategy to dominate the war games market by announcing a long-term deal with award-winning developer Gearbox Software to publish a new military franchise: Brothers in Arms™. With its breakthrough squad-based combat mechanism and unprecedented realism, the first game in the series is poised to revolutionize the WWII genre when it ships on consoles and PC starting Holiday 2004.

“The WWII theme is one of the fastest growing segments of the military shooter market and we believe that Brothers in Arms is the ideal title to expand Ubisoft’s new catalog of war games,” said Yves Guillemot, CEO and President of Ubisoft. “We were blown away by the immersive and realistic combat we experienced when playing this game and anybody who knows the reputation of Gearbox Software will understand the magnitude of this deal.”

Created by Texas-based Gearbox Software, Brothers in Arms is the most realistic and authentic WWII shooter ever. While other WWII games have sugarcoated the war experience, Brothers in Arms is based on a true story and will immerse gamers into the gritty, uncensored and emotionally-charged side of war. The game puts you in the shoes of Sgt. Matt Baker, a D-Day paratrooper squad leader, and asks you to lead the squad as you balance their lives with the success of the mission. The true stories and historical events you experience on your perilous journey take you through real battlefields meticulously recreated from aerial reconnaissance images, US Army Signal Corps photos and eye-witness accounts of war-torn Normandy. Players of all skill levels can battle their way through this intense experience because of Brothers in Arms innovative and accessible command and control system.

“Ubisoft’s proven know-how publishing realistic, tactical shooters make an ideal partnership with Gearbox as we create this new franchise,” said Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software. “With years of research and game design innovation supporting this title, gamers should be ready for an authentic story, a fresh game play design and the ultimate WWII combat experience.”

Joint Operations Review

When Novalogic developed its Delta Force series of action-based military shooters, they had pretty much equal amounts of single and multiplayer modes. However the developer/publisher clearly sought out inspiration in the Battlefield series of games for Joint Operations. The single player “missions” are merely training levels for the huge LAN and Novaworld-based online multiplayer games that can hold up to 150 players. Yep, that number is right. However, having bigger player servers and bigger maps to play doest quite make for a perfect gameplay experience.

Let’s quickly go over what’s good about Joint Operations:

The maps. The Indonesia based jungle maps in the game are huge and well designed, mixing large ground based locations with island and jungle settings that require boats and flying vehicles to traverse.

The solid gameplay. The whole Capture and Hold style of gameplay works well in the Battlefield games and Joint Operations would be silly to abandon it, so they didn’t. The fact that the maps are so much bigger than the Battlefield series makes the challenge of holding onto locations even more fun.

The modern day weapons and vehicles. From small Zodiac boats to huge helicopter transports and a slew of hand weapons and items for each of the playable sides, the arsenal in Joint Operations does not disappoint.

So what disappoints in Joint Operations?

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. From disappearing weapons to some weird collision detection with the vehicles there are some noticeable but entirely show stoppers here (Novalogic is working on the first patch for the game as we speak).

Single player missions are just training missions. Would it have hurt to put in bots for offline single player action all by yourself? (the game does have a co-op mode with a human team going after AI enemies, however.)

It’s always hard to judge games like Joint Operations, especially since you know that the development team is working on patches and improvements but out of the box the game turns out to be an entertaining multiplayer game, and with the vast amount of players available it’s sort of like PlanetSide but without the monthly fee. However, the weak single player support and noticeable bugs do take away some from the experience.