Gamertell

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) left the beta stage today and is now open to the public. Just before WAR’s official opening to the public, The Black Library, publishers of all fiction Warhammer and Warhammer 40k related, released a new novel titled Empire in Chaos.

While the game is supposed to be a condensed visual representation of the franchise’s rich lore and play style, Empire in Chaos looks to answer questions concerning events in the game…

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Gears fans, did you play the game for its story? Probably not but that isn’t stopping Epic games and Del Ray publishing from releasing three novels based on the games. The first one out the gate is Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields, by Karen Traviss. It’ll be released on October 28, 2008 - just in time for the second game, which hits…

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The first-person shooter Fire Warrior has been adapted into a novel. The Dawn of War games also have a novel attributed to them. The Warhammer 40,000 franchise is going pretty strong. However, with the multitude of novels and the sparse amount of games in the franchise, it is a bit surprising there aren’t more games based on great books.

With the novels in place, the Warhammer 40k franchise is in prime positioning for different styles of videogames. The Eisenhorn trilogy, for example, is one of The Black Library’s best Warhammer 40k trilogies that would make a great set of games if done correctly, possibly as…

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On Bioware’s news page, it lists a news nugget about an upcoming mass Effect novel, titled Mass Effect: Ascension. From the site:

Del-Rey Books and author Drew Karpyshyn have announced the title of the second volume in the Mass Effect series of novels: Mass Effect: Ascension. Set between the first and second game, the novel will arrive in Summer 2008.

That would most likely put the next Mass Effect game’s release in time for Christmas 2008. No word yet on the systems for the future game (or even the game’s name). Mass Effect was released November 2007 for the Xbox 360.

The first Mass Effect novel, titled Mass Effect: Revelation, was a prequel to the first game and was released on May 1, 2007, by Del Rey (part of Random House).

There will likely be three games in the franchise and Xbox Live content to fill in story gaps. How much you want to bet either a game, novel or some content gets “Reloaded” (a la The Matrix) as part of the title?

Read [GameDaily] Also Read [Bioware]

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Four months before the game hits game shelves, the prequel is already on a different shelf - the book shelf. Penned by Mass Effect lead writer, Drew Karpyshyn, who just also happened to spend some time on the New York Times bestsellers list, Mass Effect: Revelation tells the origin of Earth’s intergalactic exploration. It takes place 18 years before the event in the game and serves as a stand-alone story.

Plot lines will serve as backstories for the game and flesh out some details which won’t get a full explanation through gameplay. Sample chapters, including the prologue, are also available.

Mass Effect, the game, is an intergalactic RPG for the Xbox 360 in which players must lead a squad of freedom fighters in a struggle to restore peace to their land. The first will be part of a trilogy with an over-lapping story. Players can choose from six character classes, all of which can be customized through a deep character creation mode.

Read[Sample Chapters] Site [Mass Effect] Video [Bioware.com]

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