Games

The armies of the Qar and the Autarch of Xis have converged on Shadowmarch Castle, which now stands siege from enemies attacking by sea, land and underground. Ferras Vansen leads a desperate fight in the subterranean depths under the castle, trying to hold back the Xixians from the mysteries which the Funderlings have sworn to protect for generations. Briony Eddon is also heading home with a small Syanese army, but her resolve to help her people is challenged when she learns that her father is a captive of the Autarch... Shadowheart is the fourth and final novel in the Shadowmarch sequence, the third major series by American author Tad Williams. The series is a slow-burner, with a pace that can best be called 'relaxed'. Empires may be forged, armies may clash and ancient secrets may be unveiled, but it all happens at a leisurely, chilled-out rate. This is epic fantasy at its cosiest and most predictable. Which is not to say the series is unenjoyable. Williams has saved the bes...

The long-awaited third version of Third Age: Total War has been released. This fan-made (but professional-quality) mod allows owners of Medieval II: Total War and its Kingdoms expansion to conquer Middle-earth with one of several factions. The new third version of the game features a host of changes, most notably the long-awaited introduction of custom battle maps and settlements, putting iconic locations such as Minas Tirith and Edoras on the battlefield to be fought over. These replace the generic Medieval II towns that had stood in for the settlements in previous versions of the game. More information on the game, including download links and installation information can be found on TWCenter .

Camelot is in crisis. King Uther is a shell of his former self, traumatised by Morgana's betrayal. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are trying to defend the kingdom from myriad threats, but they are overstretched and unable to prevent Morgana from unleashing her vengeance. It falls, once again, to Merlin to save the kingdom. But to keep his true nature secret, he must again adopt the guise of the old sorcerer Emrys, a deception that will have far-reaching and devastating consequences... Merlin reaches its fourth and penultimate season by embracing something of a new format. The regular cast has been swollen by the addition of the Knights of the Round Table, former guest characters like Lancelot (Santiago Cabrera) and Gwaine (Eoin Macken) who are now series regulars. Uther, played as always with steely resolve by Anthony Stewart Head, has a much-diminished role as Arthur (an increasingly accomplished Bradley James) rises to the fore, now advised by his uncle, Agravaine (Na...

Merry Christmas everybody! The Cylons' latest plan to infiltrate and destroy humanity was scuppered by the requirement for constant USB access.

As an early Christmas present, Bantam Transworld have released an excerpt from Ian Cameron Esslemont's Orb, Sceptre, Throne , his fourth Malazan novel. This excerpt includes a new map of the continent of Genabackis, showing the hitherto-unseen southern edge of the continent, including the oft-mentioned Seguleh islands. This also means we can assemble a complete map of the continent for the first time: Interesting stuff. The novel is published in the UK on 19 January 2012.

Since it's that time of year when we are inundated with new movie trailers, here's another one. This is the trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus . Due for release on 8 June 2012, there's been a great deal of confusion over the relationship between Prometheus and Alien . Originally it was a straight-up prequel, but Scott and co-writer Damon Lindelof (of Lost fame) have tried to put some distance between the two projects, suggesting they take place in the same universe but little more than that. From the trailer, that's obviously 'a mild understatement'. Much of the film appears to involve the crashed alien spaceship from LV-426 (and we may even see that crash in the trailer), the 'space jockey' aliens play a role, the Prometheus logo is pretty much identical to the Alien one and, most tellingly, the trailer bears an uncanny resemblance to the original Alien teaser , even using some of the same sound effects. So yeah, Alien prequel, totally. And ...

Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that A Memory of Light , the fourteenth and final novel in The Wheel of Time sequence, is done. "Ladies and gentlemen, A Memory of Light--the final book in The Wheel of Time--has been finished." By 'finished', he of course means that the first draft is complete. He envisages several months of additional work to bring the final draft in, with publication still tentatively set for late 2012. But still, the bulk of the work has been done, and the book will be on shelves in less than a year. Sanderson also seems to have taken a more definitive stance on the two prequels and three side-novels that Robert Jordan had planned for The Wheel of Time world, indicating that they will probably never be written.

We still have a year to wait, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has just had its first trailer released: Looks like Jackson has done a good job of recapturing the feel of the original movie, and it's good to see McKellen and Holm back in their old roles. Freeman also looks promising as the young Bilbo, and Richard Armitage seems to be doing a good job as Thorin (though he's still a bit more Klingon-esque than I think most people had in mind). Overall, looking good.

Upon his death in 1973, J.R.R. Tolkien left behind a vast collection of writings about Middle-earth. His third son and literary executor, Christopher, assembled some of these into The Silmarillion , published in 1977, but the question about what to do with the other reams of material was unclear. Aware that fans of Middle-earth would be eager for more material, even unfinished or existing only in rough drafts, he assembled Unfinished Tales and published it in 1980. Its success inspired him to proceed with the far more ambitious, twelve-volume History of Middle-earth project. Unfinished Tales occupies an awkward place in the Tolkien canon. Unlike the History series, which consists of almost exclusively non-canon material (early drafts and rough notes of material that was eventually finalised and published), the material in Unfinished Tales was specifically written by Tolkien to flesh out other parts of his mythos that were not explored in the books themselves. In particular, the wr...

The Eddon family is divided and scattered. King Olin is a prisoner of the mad autarch of Xis, whilst Prince Barrick is lost beyond the Shadowline, searching for the fabled Qar capital. Far to the south, Princess Briony is a reluctant guest of the Syannese court. The Qar continue their siege of Shadowmarch, but Hendon Tolly is more interested in unearthing the ancient secrets of the castle than in resisting the invaders. That job falls to the Funderlings, who must mount a stalwart defence of the tunnels and passages below the castle. Shadowrise is the third novel in the Shadowmarch series. Originally planned as a trilogy, the final book in the series grew too large to publish in one volume, so was split in half (though each half is almost as long as the first two books in the series by themselves). Williams has form on this, as this also happened with the paperback edition of the final volume of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. As with the first two books in the sequence, Shadow...

Roy Dotrice has recorded a new audiobook version of A Feast for Crows , the fourth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Dotrice recorded the first three books in the series many years ago, and the fifth more recently, but was unavailable when the fourth novel was released in 2005. Another actor, John Lee, recorded the audio version of Crows , but fans have long expressed a wish for a Dotrice version of the book to make a matching set. Random House Audio have listened to their concerns. The new edition of the audiobook will be available as a digital download from Audible ( US , USA ) this week, on Thursday, whilst a CD edition will follow in March 2012. NEW YORK, NY (December 12, 2011)—Random House Audio announces today that it will release a new recording of George R.R. Martin’s A FEAST FOR CROWS, the fourth book in Martin’s bestselling series, A Song of Ice and Fire, narrated by fan favorite, Roy Dotrice. Dotrice earned a passionate following from listeners and a Guinness ...

A slightly longer trailer for Season 2 of Game of Thrones , narrated by Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon: “My brother left no true born heirs. By right and birth and blood, I do this day lay claim to the Iron Throne of Westeros. Let all true men declare their loyalty. The Iron Throne is mine by right. They will bend the knee, or I will destroy them. The cold winds are rising.”

Centuries in the future, the human race has begun exploring the Galaxy, using FTL technology developed by a long-dead alien race. These aliens used 'Senders', huge FTL-boosting machines, to transport spacecraft from system to system. At the heart of the Sender network is Sender One, a vast sphere in the middle of which floats the spherical city of Anachronox. The city is built in districts and levels that shift around randomly, reconfiguring like a spherical Rubik's Cube. Sylvester 'Sly' Boots is a private investigator who is down and out on his luck until a new case leads him on a planet-hopping quest which will have ramifications for the fate of the entire universe... Originally released in 2001, Anachronox was the third and final of the flagship launch titles produced by Ion Storm, following on from the appalling Daikatana and the sublime Deus Ex . A computer RPG, the game used the Quake II engine (then already dated due to the release of Quake III ) and was c...

As previously hinted, Railsea will indeed be China Mieville's second YA fantasy novel. The American cover art was revealed a few weeks ago, but now we have a cover blurb as well: From China Miéville, New York Times bestselling author of Un Lun Dun , a thrilling new young adult novel that reimagines Moby-Dick in an unforgettable and fascinatingly imagined setting. Sham Yes ap Soorap, young doctor’s assistant, is in search of life’s purpose aboard a diesel locomotive on the hunt for the great elusive moldywarpe, Mocker-Jack. But on an old train wreck at the outskirts of the world, Sham discovers an astonishing secret that changes everything: evidence of an impossible journey. A journey left unfinished…which Sham takes it on himself to complete. It’s a decision that might cost him his life. The novel is currently scheduled for release by Del Rey in the USA and Pan Macmillan in the UK on 15 May 2012.

After the poor reception for Command and Conquer 4 and the subsequent shutting-down of the development studios, real-time strategy fans could have been forgiven for thinking that it was game over for one of the PC's most iconic gaming franchises. Surprisingly, the C&C brand has been resurrected by EA in partnership with their most respected studio, BioWare, and a new, PC-only game has been announced . Whether the fact that a certain other, well-known PC RTS series has sold three million copies of its latest title in its first month on sale had any bearing on this decision is unknown. With C&C4 ending the core GDI/Brotherhood of Nod storyline and with the Red Alert subseries having reached a level of lunacy that would be hard to continue, it's the Generals subseries that has been revived. The original Command and Conquer: Generals was released in early 2003, followed several months later by an expansion, Zero Hour . Whilst initially regarded less fondly than either...

RockPaperShotgun has posted a memorial to the STALKER series of games, citing their importance to the FPS genre, their successful depiction of atmosphere and place, and their impressive post-apocalyptic feel (noting how much more oppressive and darker the series' vision is than the recent Fallout games). It's an interesting read, as are the comments for those wondering if they should try out the games. My own experience with STALKER begins and ends - so far - with Shadows of Chernobyl , the first game in the series. Released in 2007 after a lengthy development period, the game was noted for being heavily broken on release, with numerous patches and fan-mods required to bring the game to an acceptable level of stability. Once you got over that hurdle, the game was remarkable. Set in the Zone of Alienation surrounding the Chernobyl ruins, the game depicted a world populated by people and factions vying for their own interests, as well as thousands of animals and mutants who w...

Harry Dresden has a lot on his plate: he's been challenged to a duel to the death to determine the outcome of the war between wizards and vampires; he's been hired to find the missing Shroud of Turin; his old girlfriend Susan is back in town for unknown purposes; and, just to round things off, thirty arch-demons are on the prowl in Chicago. And that's not even mentioning a pair of European art thieves hitting town and all three Knights of the Cross turning up to confront a mutual foe. Death Masks , the fifth book in The Dresden Files , is the busiest book in the series to date. It sports at least four distinct plot threads (along with several related subplots) which interconnect with one another in a number of unexpected ways as the novel progresses. Each one of these plots would be enough to drive a novel by itself and Butcher seems to delight in upping the ante and complexity of the series to new heights. Combined with the ongoing, series-spanning storylines, this makes D...

GSC Game World, the developers of the STALKER series of computer games, have been shut down by the owner of the company, according to early reports. The STALKER series, comprising Shadows of Chernobyl , Clear Sky , Call of Pripyat and the in-development STALKER 2 , has been a big hit on PC since the release of the first game in 2007. The series has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and been held up as an example of the continued potential success of PC-only games in the console-dominated marketplace. The series is set in the near future when a second explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor has resulted in a series of reality-warping anomalies opening in the surrounding area. Various factions are contesting control of these anomalies, which they hope to exploit for personal gain. No firm reason has been given for the shutting down of the company, although the failure of GSC to win interest for a console version of the series has been cited as a possible reason. Possible politi...

RockPaperShotgun has some more info on the Game of Thrones RPG due from Cyanide in Spring 2012. The most notable bit of news is the hithero-unknown (to me, anyway) piece of information that the game uses Unreal Engine 3, which means it should look pretty awesome. The new screenshots accompanying the article confirm this: "Cult-looking types up to no good in the forest. They're probably either going to attack me or give me some kind of tedious fetch quest." "Seriously, I can't see a fricking thing with this hood up. What the hell am I thinking? Can't take it off now, I'd look weak and indecisive. Hang on, what's that I've just stepped in?" At the link are some more shots, including one that shows combat in-progress. The game is due for release on PC, X-Box 360 and PS3 in the Spring. Whilst developed by Cyanide, it's a different studio operating on a different continent to the poor RTS released earlier this year, and hopefully should be a...

Three centuries have passed since a young woman named Vin and a band of assorted thieves used the powers of the Mistborn to save the world of Scadrial, dispersing the ash-clouds forever. Vin and her cohorts have become figures of myth or religious awe, but time has moved on. Great skyscrapers are racing for the sky whilst steam and electrical power are becoming more commonplace. Out in the Roughs, Waxillium Ladrian has spent twenty years trying to bring peace and order to a rough, frontier land. Called home to the city of Elendel by the death of his uncle and forced to inherit his family's estate and business, Waxillium finds trading his six-shooters for cost ledgers to be harder than he'd expected. A spate of kidnappings and disappearance soon tempt him back to a life of law-enforcement, but Wax needs to face his own guilt before he can face down an old enemy. The Alloy of Law is a (mostly) stand-alone novel set in the same world as Brandon Sanderson's earlier Mistborn Tr...