Voodoo Extreme reports that Clash of Heroes, Capybara Games' hit for the Nintendo DS, will be released on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network this Summer. Ubisoft Senior Producer Romain de Waubert de Genlis explains that the game will get several improvements along the way:
"Not only have we had the chance to adapt all of our graphics to High-Definition, but we’ve also had the opportunity to improve the game even further, both in single-player battles and in the main campaign. We took many of the community’s recurring wishes into consideration, allowing players to match their strategic skills and taking full advantage of the online capabilities of Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Network."
Having purchased a 360 a few months ago, this is excellent news for me. I didn't see myself carrying a DS around just for that game.
News have spread across the web of late, detailing UbiSoft's new policy of requiring an Internet connection to play their future PC game titles. The response has been mixed, but consensus among gamers seems to be that the promised positives are outweighed by the negatives. In case you don't know what the story is, I'll outline it for you:
UbiSoft are planning a new DRM platform for their PC games, which requires gamers to be online to play most new UbiSoft titles. Even singleplayer mode. On the positive side, you will not need a disc in the drive, you can use any computer, and Ubi promise that the system will be able support an unlimited amount of players simultaneously. I'm not sure I believe that; we were promised an excellent Internet multiplayer function for Heroes V, but it never worked as well as intended. But I guess we can always hope. It will depend on how much resources the producers decide to put into this. So let's say it works ... here's the downside: The game will not work if you are not connected to the Internet. If you lose your connection, the game will pause and wait for reconnection. We have no information about the quality of the connection; i.e. we don't know if you need DSL or if dial-up will do ... but those players whose connection cuts out from time to time will have problems.
This is problematic. What if you don't have an Internet connection? UbiSoft's director of customer support, Brent Wilkinson, seems to think this will not be a problem:
"We think most people are going to be fine with it. Most people are always connected to an Internet connection."
Well, Mr. Wilkinson, let me tell you something: I am not connected to the Internet; my gaming computer sits in a corner in my bedroom. I am typing this on a laptop, and I don't feel the need to have both PCs connected to the web. Why should I? I play games on my big rig, and if I need to patch them, I just download a file onto my laptop and transfer it later. It may not be the best way to do it, but it's what I have chosen. And you dare to try and stop me? Do you expect me to be happy about this, and continue to buy your products with such limitations? Well, I can tell you right now: I will not. By focusing on "most people", you effectively eliminate me as a customer. I am sure I am not alone in feeling this way.
Celestial Heavens have made our position clear on numerous occasions: While we are strongly opposed to piracy of games, we are of the opinion that gamers should be free to do what they want with their game once they have paid for it. If you buy a game, should you be allowed to make a backup copy for yourself? Yes. Should you be allowed to install the game on all computers you own? Of course. Should you be allowed to play it offline as well as online? Hell, yes.
No, we don't think it should be legal for players to send copies of their games to friends, and we don't condone piracy in any shape or form. Yet we feel that the measures employed by game producers to prevent this are counter-productive. Taking away players' liberties, limiting the way the product can be used, is like trying to advocate abstinence to teenagers: it won't work, and it will prevent more sensible solutions from seeing the light of day. I recall the strategy employed by Stardock in the release of GalCiv2 - no copy protection at all, but online product registration (with a valid serial number) had to be completed for game updates to become available. Does this not sound more sensible than limiting the buyer's playing options?
Also, if there's one thing that gamers dislike, it is the nanny state. Being told over and over by meddling moms to go to bed instead of finishing one more level has resulted in players' developing an aversion to all sorts of interference. Forcing players to play online will not be received smilingly. It will cause the gaming community to respond with hostility rather than enthusiasm, boycott rather than increased spending, and active movements working to crack the code hindering players in doing whatever they want.
UbiSoft: This is not a good idea. Just drop it. Let us play your games the way we want, and we'll be happy to buy them from you. Otherwise, we'll buy games from somebody else.
Good Old Games is having a contest for Might and Magic VI (thanks RPGWatch):
"We've took three screenshots from Might and Magic 6: one, two, three. Your goal is to tell us the names of the locations we've captured. Send us your answers to users-at-gog.com until Thursday, January 14 at 11:59 EDT. If you know the answer for only one image, send it as well - we'll draw 9 free GOG game coupons, 3 for each image. So the more locations you'll guess right, the bigger chances to win a game or even 3 games! Only one entry per user is allowed."
If anyone can answer them all, I'm sure that person is a Celestial Heavens regular. Do you feel like giving it a shot? In related news, the Might and Magic 6 Pack Limited Edition is available for $9.99. Yet another opportunity to catch up on the Might and Magic classics.
Celestial Heavens host, as most of you know, hundreds of maps created by the scores of dedicated fans playing the games in the Might & Magic franchise. What you do when you have created a map is simple; follow the instructions on this page and e-mail the map to us.
Today, we are making a small change in the address to which you send your maps when they are ready for publication or public testing. From now on, the address to which you should send your maps is:
As usual, we expect a certain quality of the submissions to our site, so please make sure you read the instructions on our submission page, have it properly playtested, and include the necessary information in a readme file along with your submission.
Hey there, heroes. Unfortunately, life with all of its intricacies pulled me away from Celestial Heavens for the last year or so. I'm sure most of you will understand.
Before updates, though, I feel I must first apologize. Not for simply going out and living life (instead of telling people on the forums that Heroes V is overrated - big fulfillment there, right?), but because I did not finish something that I promised you!
A little under a year ago, I said I would produce a review for King's Bounty: The Legend. Little did I know that I would not actually beat the game for another month after the bold declaration, and once I had beaten it, I didn't know where to start. I lost my momentum, and it just never happened. For that, I am sorry.
But its a new year, 2010, and I'm slightly busy again here. Back in September, lotusreaver approached us about the possibility of a Heroes II Map Locations page being created. So, lotusreaver sent the pictures to Angelspit, who forwarded them to me. I haven't worked on it in months, but I will not drop it like I did the review. So I started recently, and its going fairly smoothly for now.
However, I will need you, my fellow fans, to help polish it when the pictures are in place! I have no copy of Heroes II to install and find out what everything does. My memory of the game is less than detailed, too, I'm afraid. But I know many of you have it and still play it vigorously. When it is finished, I'll give a shout.
First, I'd like to mention the archive of Heroes II mapsByteBandit put together a couple of weeks ago. If you missed the announcement, basically, what's been done is put together a selection of hundreds of maps for Succession Wars and Price of Loyalty. If you still play those games, or want to start after the re-release on GoodOldGames, we have maps aplenty.
And now for the current piece of news; the release of the next stage of the Sighisoara team's Heroes III campaigns.
Incidentally, the first campaign, The Murdered Innkeep, is available for download here. Published today is Prime Suspect - a prologue to the second campaign in the series, entitled The Undeads of Xerphef, which is scheduled for release next year. Kudos to HeroOfPunk and Yurian Stonebow for completing this. Map description to follow:
"You play as the Undeads trying to receive an artifact stolen by bandits of Rojaice from Antholenor, which were planning to resurrect their ancient king."
I am told that the Sighi team will begin work on the second campaign immediately, and that they are always looking for people to report any bugs they may encounter. Players are also allowed to create their own scenarios to be included in the series, so if you'd like to be a part of the team and work on the maps and campaigns, feel free to contact them on their website or in our forum.
To comment on the prologue, go to the forum. If you'd like to keep up with development and read about upcoming campaigns, or if you'd like to join the Sighi team and help out, visit the Sighisoara website.
Here's to hoping you all have a suitably nice time with an appropriate amount of food, and more cleaning and doing chores than wasting time in front of a screen...
Dude, I am so pulling your leg. Go wild. Watch TV, eat like a pig and gain twenty pounds while you do nothing but play, play, play!
And to assist you in this, Steam just launched the traditional Christmas sale. You can now get several games on the cheap, including HoMM 5 TotE, KB: Armored Princess and many other favourable titles.
After several delays, making it the third installment in the Might and Magic series (not counting H5 expansions) since Ubisoft took over the M&M brand from 3DO back in 2003, this week was released Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on Nintendo DS. You might remember it was developed by Capybara Games to which CH spoke earlier this year. We'll most likely have our own review but check out what IGN had to say about the game, before awarding the game 8.9 out of 10 while Metacritic's average for now is 86/100:
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is a downright awesome strategy game, pure and simple. The visuals are a beautiful mix of classic Super NES designs while using DS's 2D capabilities to its fullest, the music is captivating and well-produced, and the story is surprisingly rich, filled with characters I actually cared about and plot twists that were well executed. There are some definite areas for improvement, including the removal of some of the game's inherent guess work that comes with learning new units, jumping into battles, or taking out bosses, but the effort you'll put in is greatly rewarded. The game's story mode will take players well over 30 hours, and it's filled with side quests, bounty hunts, puzzle battle challenges, hidden units and artifacts, and some great characters along the way. Leading the pack is the battle mechanic though, and it's the game's crowning achievement to say the least. The five races are well balanced, units are a blast to use, level up, and strategize with, and the core system itself is strong enough to facilitate plenty of expansion in what I hope flourishes into a full-on franchise.
Maybe this is a reason to buy DS? What do you think?
Remember we showed you a POTD of Aurelain's new flash based Hero Screen? Well - it's here!
This tool, much like the earlier work known as the Skill Wheel, gives you the option of playing around *ahem* with your heroes, experimenting with their abilities to find out which way to go. It allows you to build an unrestrained hero, with no regards for available gold, runes or other restrictions. You can also see how your hero's parameters change when increasing the level.
There are 3 versions: a screen for The Legend, one for Armored Princess, and a Russian version.
Features:
Compendium of all wearable items
Classification of the items according to rank (which is normally hidden
during gameplay) and cost
Ability to see only the items that fit into a certain slot
Equipped items contribute to the gold cost, thus giving you an idea of how
much your hero is worth
Equipped items contribute to the hero's main attributes (attack, defence,
mana, etc.)
Compendium of all the creatures
Hired creatures represent the maximum allowed by your Leadership and
contribute to the gold cost
Compendium of all the skills
Each skill contributes to the total rune cost
Compendium of all the wives and husbands
Wives can have only the babies specific to them
Ability to switch between the 3 hero-types on-the-fly and easily compare
one to another
Hero's level can be changed from 1 to 31, having an impact on attributes
and runes
The changes are automatically saved, so that when closing the browser you don't lose the hero configuration.
Ubisoft community manager Xhane has confirmed on the official forums that future Might and Magic titles will be prefixed rather than suffixed with the "Might and Magic" title. According to her, it doesn't mean there will be no future RPG in the franchise, only that it won't be called Might and Magic X.
And while she did not confirm Heroes VI or any other new games, she drew attention to the "leaked hint" in the video with the "Might and Magic: Heroes VI" shirt.
The Qurqirish Dragon went back to map reviewing recently and played through the following Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV maps:
Age of Legends
Discoveries
Chameleon
The land or Arylia
Growing Nations
Disenchanted Forest
A Narrow Divide
Oceania
You will find them all in the Map Review section. All articles contain ratings, gameplay information, bugs and a bottomline. More reviews will be published in the near future.
So why, other than this great desire for it, did they bother? Well, let's ask them, shall we... So, ByteBandit, why bother? Just out of a sense of service to the Community, is it?
"Celestial Heavens, along with other popular HoMM sites, have many members who still enjoy this game. I, myself being one of them. Yet, CH does not offer maps for HoMM II. That has all changed as of now. The Map Archives are a part of Celestial Heavens. They are our parent site. You'll find most of the maps on the HoMM II Archives are from the old Astral Wizard site started by Phil McCrum back in the mid '90's, complete with original documentation, and untouched by those of us at the Archives. Many sites may have the HoMM II Astral Wizard maps, but they lack the original documentation, which are worth the download in themselves. Believe me."
Enough with the history lesson. Maps, man, talk about the maps.
"Simply put, the best maps from the Astral Wizard site are here. If you have ever played HoMM II and frequented the AW site as I had done for years, you'll know what I'm talking about. All the Award winners and Runnner-Ups. All your favorites aside from the winners. Nearly all of them are now available for you once again. Also, maps from the French site, Site Du Dragons, are here. All, almost rare to find anymore. Many campaigns (yes, campaigns!) from this site are on the Archives."
So what's the fuss with this game, dude? Why are you desperately clinging on to retro games when new games are so infinitely much better? (what...? don't look at me like that... no, obviously I don't actually think that... I'm just reading the effing script, whaddoyouwant from me...)
"Some may say that HoMM II graphics cannot compete with the graphics of today. But you must remember that this game was way ahead of it's time and is still fun to play. And many hold the opinion that HoMM II plays better than most of today's games. So, if you are still playing it or just want to play some of the best quality maps for any of the HoMM games on the planet of the Earth, you'll join us on The HoMM II Map Archives and discover quality once again. I don't think you'll be disappointed."
It seems we won't be getting a game called by the name Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms or commonly known as HoMMK after all - the developer team has notified beta testers that the game has been renamed to Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms. In light of this event a buzz has started in Ubisoft official forums to protest against the change.
Since we're expecting also Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS, a logical question arises – does this mean all future M&M and HoMM games will carry the same "Might and Magic" name in front of the game title? If that would be true, the next possible Heroes installment, if there ever will be one, would be called: Might and Magic: Heroes VI. What are your thoughts?
More good news for all you Heroes fans out there: after the release of the co-op Heroes III campaign just two weeks ago, yesterday saw the release of another little gem. Lamentia's Story is a 6-map campaign for Heroes IV Equilibris, created by Round Table veteran Jeff. It follows the story of his previous work, Dragon's Fate, although you don't have to know the story from the previous campaign to play this one.
The campaign sees extended use of the good old H4Util program, enabling mapmakers to embed pictures in their maps, making the minimaps works of art in addition to working gameplay pieces. If you don't know what I'm on about, have a look at these minimaps and take a guess at whether they're all painstakingly made by hand or by the clever use of some kind of software. Looks brilliant, doesn't it...
Kudos to Jeff for finishing this after three years of on-and-off work, and honourable mentions to the testers as well - Wimfrits, Robenhagen, HodgePodge and Koni. Not everybody can be bothered doing proper testing nowadays, and yet it is vital to ensure the quality of the finished product. Drinks all 'round!
French portal Clubic.com reports that last Wednesday started the French open beta of the online browser game Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms which at the moment is limited to 3000 players. It is possible that Ubisoft as a French company first wants to see the reaction from the local audience before making the game available worldwide or perhaps to give own players exclusive access. In the meantime, still no official news regarding the international open beta so we will have to wait a little.
Several players at Ubisoft official forums have observed that all available seats in the beta were filled very quickly and that at the moment there are no free spots. However, if you are French, you can still try your luck - maybe the player limit will be increased at some point later.
Clubic.com has also posted several unseen in-game screenshots and the HoMMK beta main page has some extra eye-candies as well so check them out!
Today saw the release of several new maps for Heroes of Might and Magic III.
Masters of Sighisoara is the much-anticipated 4-map campaign put together by the trio Maygwan, Yurian Stonebow and HeroOfPunk. Work started out back in February, and I've got to hand it to the guys for actually following through. More often than not, these things run out in the sand; there are probably hundreds of half-finished campaigns out there. You can comment on the campaign in this dedicated forum thread.
Also put up on the CH server is Yurian's very large, very spectacular-looking American Civil War (Union), a map I can only guess is precursor to the upcoming American Civil War (North) which is currently out for testing.
If you're more into Heroes V, there's a recent release for you too: Fate of Ashan by Dark Raider. It's a Large-sized puppy for Tribes of the East.
Joining the existing sale of Heroes I, three other games from the Might & Magic franchise are now being made available on Good Old Games - all compatible with Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64 bit), all for the price of $9.99.
Heroes of Might and Magic II Gold edition is available right now. For your money you get to download 558 Mb of game goodness, as well as access to a 143 page manual, the soundtrack and a high resolution wallpaper.
Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete edition is listed as a "coming soon" feature, with the manual and soundtrack available along with the 800 Mb download once it is released.
Then there's a limited edition of Might and Magic VI up for release soon as well; and this appears to be a bit of a gem. Along with the 450 Mb download you get loads of extras, including soundtracks from M&M IV and VI, manuals and maps for M&M I-VI, cluebooks, avatars... niceness.
I really like this trend of old games being re-released and made compatible with new machines, because - as we all know - games were better in the good old days...
I stumbled over some really nice prices on Heroes games over at Amazon.co.uk... Now, we don't normally do this sort of outright plugging, but I think you should know about this, seriously...
Obviously, Amazon are logging out all sorts of obsolete games at lowered prices, but the cherry on the top is a release of Heroes III & IV Complete from Sold Out software for only £2.78. That's a collection of the complete versions of Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV with their respective expansions, for less than three quid. The same item sold by the American branch (Amazon.com) is sold for $29.99, which is *quick calculations off the top of my head* ... about six times the price.
I dunno if the price on this has been this low since its release in May, or if it's a bargain thing lasting only a few days... but if you're interested in this at all, I'd pick it up now.
Round Table member Shyranis has created animated videos of all the fully upgraded towns from Heroes of Might & Magic series. The videos are all viewable on youtube, and I have to say: nice work.
Ubisoft have reported their sales for the first fiscal quarter ending June 30th, 2009. As one might expect in these credit crunch times, things haven't been going so well:
Q1 sales are down 51%, to €83 million from €169 million in the same period last year. Sales came in 12.6% below the guidance issued when Ubisoft released their sales figures for Q4 2008-09.
Q2 sales targets have been revised downward; sales are now expected to reach around €80 million, a 54% decrease on Q2 last year.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained the reasons for the decline:
"We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated. This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing.
Celestial Heavens spoke with Kris Piotrowski, Creative Director of Capybara Games, about the newest game of the Might and Magic series, Clash of Heroes. We asked him some of the questions the community had regarding the genre and the audience of the game, and Kris answered openly and told us a little about the origins of the puzzle-RPG hybrid genre.
Read it all here! If you have other questions about the game and its development, ask them in the article thread. I'll ask the Capybara folks to drop by sometimes this week.
In these slow news days, almost any piece of news trickling out of the Heroes producers' den is worthy of a mention. Almost. Well, not really. After the hype of E3 in the beginning of June, it looks like most developers have rested up on their couches. The only thing from UbiSoft so far in July is an announcement of their opening a full development studio in Toronto, Canada. Which is nice. Maybe the Canadians can help Ubi out with their English translation. But enoughT about Ubi.
In these slow news days, it's nice to have something other than news to talk about. When there's not much coming from official channels, The Round Table is a refuge for those eager to speculate. The Heroes V forum sees discussions of the game's story, the lyrics and upgrades, as well as serving the lost and desperate with unofficial tech support. The Campfire meanwhile, sees a revival of the off-topic games department - particularly with the latest comics captions contest, awarding prizes for the most inventive of you.
So if you're bored, dejected and tired of waiting for developments in the M&M department - fear not. Head over to the forum and have a sniff around; chances are you'll find something to do.
First of all, I warn you that this rumor will probably create false hopes among some of you, but it is my duty to report the news anyway. RPGWatch reports that Ubisoft Shangai is looking for a developer for a RPG project. The game is being developed for PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac. The full job posting can be found here. What are the odds of this game being a part of the Might and Magic franchise? I won't be betting on that, sorry.
In unrelated news, RPGWatch also has the news that Arkane Studios (developer of the Dark Messiah singleplayer) is working on Bioshock 2: "Under the direction and leadership of 2K Marin, Arkane is assisting in the creation of levels that embody the aesthetic and gameplay ideals that make BioShock such a unique and exciting experience." Good for them!
Excerpt from the preview:
The game’s story starts with a bang. A link to the parallel demon world of Sheogh has been opened during a recent lunar eclipse, and it has plunged the peaceful Ashan into darkness. The forces of good once held a powerful weapon known as the Blade of Binding, which bends the will of demons to that of the sword's master. However, in the game's opening sequence the blade is stolen, and it's up to you to find it before it's too late.
The world of Ashan is well realised on the DS, and Capybara has put plenty of detail into the heroes, villains, and environments. The main characters all have their own unique personalities and expressions, while the colour palette is vibrant and the graphics are crisp. Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is due out on August 25.
"We've took three screenshots from Might and Magic 6: 
Happy Christmas from Celestial Heavens
After several delays, making it the third installment in the Might and Magic series (not counting H5 expansions) since Ubisoft took over the M&M brand from 3DO back in 2003, this week was released Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on Nintendo DS. You might remember it was developed by Capybara Games to which CH spoke 
Remember we showed you a 
The Qurqirish Dragon went back to map reviewing recently and played through the following Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV maps:
It seems we won't be getting a game called by the name Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms or commonly known as HoMMK after all - the developer team has notified beta testers that the game has been renamed to Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms. In light of this event 
More good news for all you Heroes fans out there: after the release of the co-op Heroes III campaign just two weeks ago, yesterday saw the release of another little gem. 
The campaign sees extended use of the good old H4Util program, enabling mapmakers to embed pictures in their maps, making the minimaps works of art in addition to working gameplay pieces. If you don't know what I'm on about, have a look at these minimaps and take a guess at whether they're all painstakingly made by hand or by the clever use of some kind of software. Looks brilliant, doesn't it...
Joining the existing sale of 
I stumbled over some really nice prices on Heroes games over at 
There's a Clash of Heroes preview and trailer available on 
