Open beta begins Thursday for World of Battles: Morningstar. To kick it off, developer Frogwares has released the above video. Much can be gleaned from a trailer such as this — World of Battles: Morningstar is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game. It offers many customizations that allow the player to really tailor the experience to his or her style. There are a variety of fantastic and less fantastic creatures that you get to control in heated battle  (8 to be exact).

Arguably, the surprising thing about this trailer is that the game looks good, F2P or no. I’ll leave it up to you decide whether it has the power to steer you away from Starcraft II or League of Legends for a prolonged period of of time; but at the price point of zero, where’s the risk of trying out new IP?

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The Warhammer 40K universe is a pretty rough place. You’ve got Nazi like Space Marines trying to ensure humanity’s survival by purging all Xenos, the extremely expendable Imperial guard allied with the Space Marines (for the most part), the Ork hordes plundering and pillaging worlds as they please, Chaos Space Marines who have fallen off the deep end and now fight ancient dark gods slaughtering anything, the Tyrranid hive consuming worlds like a plague of locusts, and the space-elfish Eldar who are always plotting ways to mess up everyone’s plans.  Like I said, it’s a tough place, and it only gets tougher in the latest standalone expansion Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II: Retribution.

For those of you who already are fans of DoWII or its other expansion Chaos Rising, you probably have a good idea what Retribution is all about. If you haven’t played any of the previous games, hit the jump and allow me to break it all down for you. Read more… »

Today Blizzard Entertainment released the first new official custom map for its insanely popular RTS StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Dubbed ‘Burning Tide,’ the new map pits two teams of three against each other in a race to reach a set number of resources.

Think that sounds easy enough? Well, of course there’s a twist. Much like the campaign level ‘The Devil’s Playground,’ Burning Tide features periodic lava flood which interrupt your resource gathering. Read more… »

Today Blizzard Entertainment revealed that within the first month of it’s release, StartCraft II has sold three million copies. The crazy thing is, one million of those copies were sold on launch day. What’s even crazier is that half of the three million were sold within the first 48 hours of release, setting “the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time.”

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said, “We appreciate all the enthusiasm that players around the world have shown for StarCraft II. It was important to us to deliver an overall gameplay experience that was accessible, balanced, and fun, and it’s been gratifying to see how strongly the global community has already embraced the game.” Read more… »

Apparently StarCraft is getting some love at the university level. According to Kotaku, the University of Florida is using the real time strategy game to teach its students resource management skills. Before any of you slackers get excited (me included), the class featuring SC is only open to students in the honors college who have some familiarity with the game.

Taught by Nate Poling, a Ph.D candidate at UF, the class description reads, “With society becoming increasingly technology-based and fast-paced, it is important for professionals to be highly proficient in skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, resource management, and adaptive decision making. These skills are fundamental in Starcraft and therefore make the game a highly effective environment for students to analyze and take action in complex situations.” Read more… »

Today publisher THQ announced that strategy game giant Relic will release a second expansion to its popular Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II franchise. Dubbed WH40K: Dawn of War 2 – Retribution, the new expansion promises to add new playable races as well as new game modes and units.

According to producer Jeff Lydell, “We all love the [Space Marine] Blood Ravens here at Relic Entertainment but there are also a lot of fans of the other races and armies out there. [S]o we decided that Retribution should allow the player the freedom to experience the campaign from the perspective they select.” Read more… »

Today EA announced that the next iteration of it’s popular series The Sims will take place in medieval times. Dubbed The Sims Medieval, the new title hopes to integrate RPG and strategy elements into their dollhouse simulator.

According to Scott Evans, general manager of developer The Sims Studio, “The Sims Medieval offers a new way for players to experience The Sims which we hope fans will enjoy, and it features gameplay that fans of strategy and role-playing games will find appealing such as controlling an entire kingdom and quest-based gameplay mechanics.” Read more… »

Yesterday Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will be making some major changes to it’s forums in preparation for StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The biggest thing being changed is that “anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID — that is, their real-life first and last name.”

That’s right folks, anonymity on the Blizzard forums is going to die. According to the official posting, “These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.” Read more… »

Today independent developer Muzzy Lane announced that its World War II turn based grand strategy PC title Making History II has been released in both retail stores as well as digital distribution outlets (Impulse, Gamers Gate, and Making-history.com).

Allowing gamers to “experience grand strategy on an epic scale,” Making History II boasts that it’s “More than simply winning battles, MHII is about exercising diplomacy and waging war. Players might choose to invade a neighboring country, use espionage against allies and enemies, or destabilize a government by crippling their economy.” Read more… »

Anyone who is familiar with the indie developer ACE Team should know not to be too surprised when its newly announced game, Rock of Ages, is described as “a game of fast-paced strategy, high art… and gigantic boulders of doom.”

Rock of Ages is strategy game where players must construct defenses and raise armies to help protect their castle from a giant marauding boulder, whom their opponent controls. While this may sound absolutely crazy, you should check out the trailer above before passing judgment. Read more… »

Today publisher 2K Games announced that the next iteration of the critically acclaimed Civilization series will land on North American PCs September 21. The rest of the world will have to wait until the 24 to get in on the turn-based action.

Developed by Firaxis Games, Sid Meier’s Civilization V features numerous changes that significantly alter gameplay. These changes include, a newly created hex-based grid system, “a heightened tactical combat system; vast, realistic landscapes to explore; deeper diplomatic interactions; and an array of expanded features.” Read more… »

Today Real-time Strategy giant Relic announced that it will be bringing a free-to-play version of its WW2 title Company of Heroes to PCs this fall. Originally made for Asian markets, the free-to-play version, dubbed Company of Heroes Online,  features eight player multiplayer, “Specialization, commander customization, and persistent progression.”

In this version, each online win you achieve will earn you points. These points then can be used to purchase upgrades and “special units.” For those of you who don’t have the time to rack up enough points, there will also be the option of buying these upgrades and “special units” though microtransactions. Read more… »