Posted by Cepheus at 12:28, 24 Jul 2010:
Heroes VI announcement for August at Gamescom?
Polish site Online Games reports that Ubisoft accidentally made reference to an undisclosed project, a "strategy with RPG elements", planned to be exhibited at Gamescom 2010 (an enormously popular Germany-based videogame festival). As befits the track record for recent rumours, this piece of news appears to have been mistakenly disclosed and was quickly hushed up: alas, not quickly enough to prevent headlines like this one. What are the odds that this mystery strategy game may turn out to be Heroes of Might and Magic VI?
Having been deprived of any details regarding the supposedly-extant project at E3 2010, Gamescom would be the next best venue for an announcement on the horizon. Gamescom will be held in Cologne between 18 to 22 August, a little over a year since the "t-shirt hint", so keep an eye out for anything pertaining to our favourite series if you're headed over there.
Posted by Cepheus at 07:21, 2 Jul 2010:
A Heroes III-centric mod for Civilization and cheap games
I'm sure there are more than a few Heroes players out there who also enjoy the Civilization series? If you do, it's your lucky day - I was just notified about an amazingly ambitious mod for Civilization III hosted at CivFanatics, entitled "Conquests of Might and Magic III". Basically, its creator, tom2050, has fused Civilization's gameplay with Heroes III's art, storyline, style and creatures. The first and current release, which was unveiled today, is a public beta, which means there's plenty of time to add input as the mod is perfected. Full campaigns and a scenario based around the map of Antagarich are forthcoming, along with continuous improvements. Try it yesterday, if not sooner!
For any fans in the US, Xhane kindly notifies me that there's a price slash in the US Ubishop on Heroes V and its expansions ($14.99 in total), and a similar promotion on the DS version of Clash of Heroes. Additionally, I've pretty much forgotten to report on it until now, but Good Old Games also has some great deals on the Might and Magic classics, offering Might and Magic I-VI, Heroes II Gold, Heroes III Complete and King's Bounty: The Legend for $10 each. Thanks to PhoenixReborn for initially letting me know months and months ago. :P Heroes III has been an on-and-off top ten bestseller there for weeks on end now - let's push it to the #1 spot!
Posted by Cepheus at 12:46, 10 Jun 2010:
Clash of Heroes contests and modding breakthroughs
Xhane (Ubisoft's Might and Magic community developer) and Elvin (moderator at Heroes Community) have graciously organised a series of intriguing Ubisoft-promoted competitions open to any participant, with prototype action figurines of the characters of Clash of Heroes going to the victors. The five contests involve either creating factions, writing a short story, devising unique hero perks, creating an interesting scene in the map editor or putting together an NCF creature. Anybody can enter at any time, and no deadline is currently set, so feel free to jump in!
In modding news, Pesmontis has constructed an excellent model viewer/importer for Heroes V dubbed Archangel. While still under development, the program will successfully open any Heroes V model and can convert and import new works with a little trial and error - definitely a more than worthy tool for modders. TSoD has already published some early results, managing to import a Naga Myrmidon from Warcraft III into the Heroes V framework.
Mysteriously enough, a forumgoer under the name benhur has posted a previously unheard-of and extremely interesting package of files in the Wake of Gods subforum - seemingly-authentic former NWC content, extracted from the unreleased sci-fi Heavenly Forge faction for Heroes III: Armageddon's Blade which never saw daylight. The .rar contains fully animated sprites for the Forge town screen, ready to be implemented into Heroes III. It's unknown where these materials came from, but they may well pull the abandoned Forge project out of its long hiatus.
Posted by Cepheus at 09:48, 16 Feb 2010:
Ubisoft enforces new DRM for future (Might and Magic) games
Ubisoft recently unveiled its "Online Services Platform", a new anti-piracy validation measure which will require the users of most of its future titles to remain connected to the internet on a constant basis to play, in single-player and multiplayer modes alike. Offline play will be completely unavailable - if an internet connection is not detected, the game will simply refuse to operate.
Opinions among Ubisoft's fan communities regarding the digital rights management system have been generally negative, with some pointing out that pirated copies removing the connection enforcement may become more desirable than the official product - entirely defeating the DRM's intended purpose.
Currently, Ubisoft's closing word on the matter to loyal customers is as follows: "We hope that customers will feel as we do, that signing up for an account will offer them exceptional gameplay and services that are not available otherwise."
Though no direct announcement has been issued, it seems very likely that the clearly-in-development Heroes of Might and Magic VI - and any future Might and Magic projects - will avail of this service, a controversial move as none of the prior installments in the series have required permanent internet access. Share your thoughts on the policy at Heroes Community, or the Ubisoft forums.
If you disagree with the platform's possible implications for Heroes VI, you are encouraged to join this Facebook group.
Posted by Cepheus at 16:23, 5 Dec 2009:
Clash of Heroes is surprisingly good
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (official site) for the Nintendo DS was released this week. Though there have been some community-wide doubts floating around, I at least can vouch that Capybara Games have turned out a high-standard piece of work. While its atmosphere remains markedly rooted in another vein to the classic Heroes of Might and Magics, the gameplay is masterful yet faithful to the TBS outings, with plenty of nice twists.
The exploration phases are pretty reminiscient of any of the Might and Magic titles, the campaign mode is filled with sidequests and bonuses, the storyline isn't without merits this time - generally less out-of-place and clunky than Heroes V or Dark Messiah - and, most importantly, it's addictive. Since you're probably part of this community, you might have been pretty sceptic like I was, but if you have a DS, grab the game yesterday. Don't just brush it off as some cutesy cash-in unfaithful to the rest of the series, or you'll miss out.
Posted by Cepheus at 11:13, 9 Aug 2009:
Heroes VI has been practically confirmed
Heroes of Might and Magic producers Erwan Le Breton and Romain de Waubert have all but confirmed that the franchise will be recieving a sixth outing, according to an interview published today with Germany-based website PlanetDS. The news has also been picked up by n4g.com, who are under the impression that it's an ironclad "yes".
In response to the question "Can you tell us more about your future plans, what can we expect?" the producers reply as follows:
"()...acute observers can get a glimpse of the future if they watch closely the Clash of Heroes producer diary videos, especially the moment when the eminently likeable duet of producers introduce the next Spring-Summer Might & Magic fashion collection..."
"I’m such a fan of Might & Magic that I wear its future like a second skin, very close to my heart…"
This, of course, refers to the Might and Magic: Heroes VI logos the producers wore in recent developer diaries, as mentioned below. Chances that the game will see daylight will probably be affected by the sales of upcoming DS game Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (which we'll be soon be reporting on in full with a feature of its own).
In the meantime, feel free to discuss the new development with us.
Posted by VokialBG at 08:55, 26 Jul 2009:
Heroes 6 in development? By the Dark Messiah team?
Currently we still have no official announcement if Heroes of Might and Magic 6 is or will be soon in development. Till now there were only few doubtful rumours, like the "Looking for Heroes of MM Lead Game Designer" announcement on Gamasutra.com.
However just a day ago very intriguing image was spoted by the fans. It's a video screenshot of Romain de Waubert de Genlis, who was working on titles like "Battlefield 1942" (EA), "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" (Ubisoft) and "Call of Juarez" (Ubisoft), but he was also producer of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic in 2006. On the photo he is wearing a shirt with a stamp of Heroes artwork, sadly the image is too blurry and we can't say what's exactly on it but it but looks like a demon creature, still you can clearly read the text under the stamp: "Heroes of Might and Magic 6".
This can give us two possibilities of thinking: Heroes 6 may be in development, and maybe Romain de Waubert de Genlis is it's new producer, since Fabrice Cambounet is busy with the browser-based game Heroes Kingdoms.
If you have more info that you want to share, or you like to discuss the subject with us please visit the thread at HC.
Posted by Cepheus at 11:47, 7 Apr 2009:
Might and Magic goes DS
While browsing the website of Heroes V storywriter Jeff Spock a couple of days ago, I dug up some information on an upcoming Might and Magic game exclusive to the Nintendo DS, set for release this year.
"This will be an awesome puzzle game with an epic fantasy storyline. And, yes, both of those things are possible. Watch the review pages; I think this one will make waves."
At Celestial Heavens, community member Jolly Joker offers some more detailed info on the premise:
Hmm. I'm rather sure that the game will be a success - I enjoyed the first test very much. The game has an astonishing amount of tactical depth and is fun.
"There are artifacts, there is experience, even for creatures, there are spells as well, albeit scarcely, and there is a campaign story.
"The game features 5 of the 8 H5 races, and since every race will have EIGHT different units with FIVE upgrades each (even though the upgrade is just a stat upgrade, the unit itself keep the same), there are NEW units - and they even found a nice new name for the old Devil, Abyssal Lord, (which means, that one faction is the Inferno). The 8th Inferno unit, by the way, is called Sorcerer."
The game has not yet been officially announced, but has apparently been in development for some time and is in its final stages of testing. It ought to be available soon - in the meantime, discuss it here.
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