RTS

Today is the final day of the daily deals promotion for Microsoft's newly relaunched Games For Windows Marketplace web site and they have ended it with a bang. For today only (until 1 am Eastern time) you can download and purchase the full version of Age of Empires III for just 10 cents.

Nope, that's not a typo. The last PC RTS game from the now shut down developer Ensemble Studios cost just a thin dime to purchase from Games For Windows Marketplace for the next 20 or so hours. Once more it looks like this is the Complete Edition with the game's two expansion packs (The WarChiefs and the Asian Dynasties) included along with the original game. Any way you slice it this is a massive value.

Company of Heroes Online is technically still in its "Open Beta" phase but this week the persistent online WWII RTS game from developer Relic and publisher THQ is now offering some free in-game "Loyalty Packs" for people who have purchased the previous games in the series.

The packs include "Hero Units, Army Items, experience points, and supply points" for use in Company of Heroes Online. It you own the original Company of Heroes, the Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor expansion packs and/or the Company of Heroes Gold Edition you can plug in your retail CD Key in the "Redeem Code" box in Company of Heroes Online's in-game store to gain access to the Loyalty Packs.

Natural Section 2 will be getting one step closer to its official release very soon. Earlier this year developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment launched the playable alpha version of its long-in-development sci-fi RTS-FPS hybrid game. However the alpha version became unavailable for purchase once the test actually started.

Now Unknown Worlds has announced that the beta version of the game will finally be released on Friday via Steam. Folks who have already ordered the beta test or ordered and have played the alpha version will gain access to the beta build which will include the new alien Fade creature plus new alien structures and more content. Like the alpha test the beta build will also contain the game's mod tools for people to make their own levels for the game. Unknown Worlds will also be updating the beta on a weekly (more or less) basis). Access to the beta test will cost $34.95 but only 10,000 beta seats are secured; after those are set the beta will be made unavailable for purchase. Everyone who purchases the beta version will get free access to the final version of Natural Selection 2 when it is released

Our sister site Joystiq has a new cinematic trailer showing off the new alien (and Nightcrawler-like transported capable) Fade character which you can check out after the jump:

As promised a few weeks ago, the free open beta test for the upcoming WWII RTS game Men of War Assault Squad is now available to download and play via the Steam PC game download service. The beta test comes from developer Digitalmindsoft and publisher 1C Company.

The open beta has two playable factions from the full upcoming game (the US and Germany) as they battle it out on a number of different maps. In addition to gameplay modes like Assault Zone, Combat and Frontlines, up to four players can check out the new Skirmish gameplay modes on two of the beta's maps. There's no word on how long the open beta will last.

R.U.S.E. may have not have performed up to publisher Ubisoft's sale expectations but the WWII themed RTS game is still getting some new content in the near future including the welcome addition of nuclear cannons. The game's official web site has confirmed that the "Manhattan Project Pack' will be released for free via Steam sometime in December.

The map pack contains three new maps for the Eugen Systems-developed game set in Holland, Italy and North Africa for 2v2 and 3v3 supported team battles. The pack will also have two new gameplay modes. One is called Total War where the game's time period starts in 1939 with history advancing every 10 minutes. This will cause new units and tech to be unlocked constantly. The other mode is "Nuclear War" where players will be able to build Long Tom cannons with nukes as ammon. Kaboom!

Last month Paradox Interactive announced a new publishing deal with NeoCore Games, the makers of the recent RTS titles King Arthur and Lionheart: King's Crusade. Today Paradox announced plans to release a new downloadable expansion pack for King Arthur that's due for release by the end of 2010.

Titled King Arthur: The Druids, the expansion will have a new single player campaign that adds over 30 hours of gameplay. It has you in the role of King Ryons, the leader of the Druids, as he tries to expand his faith to others. As you can see the game will have some fantasy elements such as dragons Pricing for the expansion has yet to be announced.

Bloodline Champions aims to be the next big action-RTS game and today its publisher Funcom announced that the game from developer Stunlock Studios will enter its open beta test on December 16. In addition pre-orders for the game are now being accepted.

There will actually be two pre-order versions of the game. One will cost $29.99 and will contain 16 bloodlines (the game's term for classes. You can also get four additional bloodlines for an extra $9.99. Then there's the $89.99 version which can access all 20 bloodlines, a lifetime VIP membership and a lifetime discount to purchase items from thein-game store. Bloodline Champions will also have a free version with "a limited number of bloodlines available in rotation."

StarCraft II was designed to use Blizzard's Battle.net service to be authenticated and played but that hasn't stopped the sci-fi RTS sequel from being found on BitTorrent download sites. The web site TorrentFreak.com claims that one digital copy of the game has been downloaded 2.3 million times in just the last three months. By comparison Blizzard sold over 3 million legit copies of the game during its first month of sale.

While the file itself may be downloaded it's currently unknown how many of these files are actually playable due to the game's requirement that it be signed on to Battle.net to play online. Blizzard recently banned several thousands StarCraft II players for multiplayer cheats and hacks; it's also possible that other gamers could also be banned for playing illegal copies.

Blizzard is looking to have its biggest sales year in history with the release of StarCraft II back in July and the third expansion for World of Warcraft due out on December 7. So it's not a shocker to hear word that the developer's main offices in Irvine, California will be expanding by a large amount very soon.

The Orange County Business Journal reports that Blizzard, which already occupies an office complex of 235,000 square feet in Irvine, has signed a lease to occupy two more buildings next to its current offices. The space, which will add another 100,000 square feet to Blizzard's offices, is supposed to be ready to move in by the end of 2010.

It's not currently known what departments of Blizzard will be headed to the new facility but the company, which has about 1,100 team members and is hiring for another 150 employees, is already working on four known projects. Of course it continues to expand and support World of Warcraft and it's developing the first of two planned continuations of StarCraft II. It's also making the long-in-development Diablo III and is also deep into making its unannounced next MMO project. There are rumors of even more games that are in the works as well.

[Via Starcraft.org]

Kings and Castles' developer video blogs have been on hiatus for a little while now but that doesn't mean the upcoming fantasy RTS title from developer Gas Powered Games is on hiatus as well. In a recent interview with the IGDA Newsletter, Gas Powered's head man Chris Taylor talks about his plans for the title.

Specifically, Taylor states that after Kings and Castles is released, the plan is to offer players regular monthly DLC updates Taylor says their plan is to "take the downloadable content model to all new levels.". In fact Taylor says the game might also support microtransactions as well. Taylor also hints that Gas Powered has other games in the works that have yet to be announced.

The Christmas-New Years period is normally a quiet one for new game releases but that apparently won't be the case this year. A new press release reports that the online action-RTS game Bloodline Champions, now in closed beta, will officially launch sometime in late 2010 or early 2011.

The game, developed by Stunlock Studios, was picked up for publishing earlier this year by Funcom in a bit of a change for the company's normal MMO game lineup. Today, Funcom stated that the game currently has 150,000 players participating in its closed beta test. While Bloodline Champions is designed to be free-to-play there will be optional paid memberships and an in-game item store

StarCraft II may have sold three million copies in the first month of its release earlier this year but in the country of South Korea, where the original StarCraft is a massive e-sports phenomenon, sales of the sci-fi RTS sequel have been slower than expected. According to an Edge magazine article reprinted on the Next-Gen.biz web site, "only two to three per cent of Korean gamers" have purchased StarCraft II a month since the game officially launched in that country, despite a $30 million promotional campaign.

What happened? The article speculates that developer Blizzard has tried to exercise more control over how StarCraft II is used in pro gaming tournaments and in the broadcast of those tournaments in South Korea compared to the original game. That control, plus the 12 year gap in between the two games, may have kept some original StarCraft players from switching to StarCraft II. However the article adds that a number of Korean pro-players have now begun to switch from StarCraft to StarCraft II in tournaments so perhaps the transition will simply take longer than first expected.

Shogun 2 Total War is officially joining the already crowded first quarter 2011 time period for new game releases. Publisher Sega announced today that the latest game in the PC exclusive historical RTS game series will be released on March 15, 2011.

The title from developer The Creative Assembly was first announced just before E3 2010 and is the first real sequel to the original Shogun Total War that the developer first released in 2000. There's no word yet if Shogun 2 Total War will have a beta or demo or if the new game will use Steamworks as did the previous two Total War games did.

[Via email press release]

Want to make sure your Battle.net account is secure when you play World of Warcraft? This week, developer Blizzard announced that they have added an extra way to make sure your account is safe from being hacked. They have set up a toll-free phone number that can be used to authenticate your Battle.net account.

Basically you will now be able to sign into Battle.net while playing World of Warcraft by calling the number, entering your unique PIN and a one-time security code that will show up when you attempt to sign into Battle.net. So far this service is just for US users for World of Warcraft players although support for StarCraft II could be added later

While StarCraft II fans await the release of all those cool custom maps that Blizzard showed off at last month's BlizzCon event. the sci-fi RTS game just got a new, if small, patch update. The 1.1.3 patch is now available to download via the game's auto-updater.

The patch fixes three specific things. One deals with the Terran Thor unit which will now "prioritize attacking ground combat units over Medivacs" with the new patch. Also, some new game catagories have been added to StarCraft II that "filter Tower Defense and Tug of War custom maps" Finally the patch "fixed a desync that could occur when trying to watch replays that had a dependency on bank files."