One of the biggest attractions of the upcoming game Spore is the ability to design and evolve your own alien creatures. People who have used the already released Spore Creature Creator have gone nuts with their own creative monsters and some have had some . . . interesting appendanges. In a new chat about the game for the Associated Press (and posted on Yahoo) Spore's creator Will Wright says he doesn't mind the more adult creations that have been made for his game.

Wright states, "Some of it's really good for what they were shooting for. It's amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren't messing up the experience for others." Spore will indeed have filtering software to keep people who download new user creator content for the game away from such creations if they so wish. Spore itself is still due for release on September 7.

There have been tons of different approaches for making PC games and then projecting them into 3D space. Nvidia believes it has a new solution and showed off their plans at their own Nvision conference this week. Our sister site Game Daily has a report on some of Nvidia's plans for this subject.

Nvidia is partnering up with TV manufacturers like Mitsubishi and PC LCD monitor makers like Viewsonic (like the one pictured above) to support their upcoming GeForce Stereoscopic technology. Nvidia will release an emitter and 3D glasses in the new future that will allow anyone with a PC rig with an Nvidia Geforce 8 graphics card or higher to view over 350 PC games released in the last five years in 3D. Pricing for the GeForce Stereoscopic technology, along with a release date, has yet to be announced. Meanwhile, San Diego based iZ3D already sells a similar technology along with their own $600 22-inch monitor that they claim supports over 400 PC games in 3D.

Electronic Arts is really pushing the marketing of its upcoming survival horror game Dead Space. This week, details were revealed on one of the side projects for the game; the direct-to-DVD animated prequel that's being handled by Film Roman and Starz Media. The DVD will be released on Oct. 28 by Anchor Bay, a week after the game's release.

The film will be released in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats and High-Def Digest reports that both versions will have deleted scenes and trailers, a digital copy version that can be transferred (legally) to your PC or mobile video device and two exclusive cheat codes for the game. The Blu-Ray version will have additional downloadable animatics from the movie and a Blu-Ray first; an isolated music score that you can download in MP3 format.

Ubisoft's upcoming open world shooter Far Cry 2 has a lot of people expecting it will be great. So, apparently, does Ubisoft who are now in early development of the next game in the series at their Montreal studios. Videogaming247 has a quote from team member Patrick Redding who confirmed the plans during last week's Games Convention.

Interestingly, the dev team will apparently keep Far Cry 2's Africa setting for the follow-up game with Redding saying, "There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it's safe to say we'll continue to explore it." While he says other locations might be considered for other titles in the series, he adds, "I think to save time, for us, one of the reasons we chose to use the African setting is because we felt that in order to retain the Far Cry brand value, of an exotic, dangerous environment, a place that maybe people haven't had a chance to see themselves, or have seen extensively in film, television and other games, we wanted to choose Africa."

It's one of the longest running MMOs in history and this week Turbine announced that their first game, the fantasy MMO Asheron's Call, just had its 100th free content update released to its subscribers. For those who need details, this update adds the beginnings of the much requested (by the game's players) an Elder Games system along with two new PvP controllable towns.

Turbine first released Asheron's Call in November 1999 via publisher Microsoft and made a point to have the game feel like a ongoing storyline was taking place with monthly events and content released. Two commerical expansion packs for the game have been released since the launch and the free content updates have also continued. Turbine took over full control of the game from Microsoft in 2003. The game has even outlasted its graphically improved sequel Asheron's Call 2 which launched in 2002 but shut down completely just three years later.

Stardock has released it's promised next major update for its Impulse digital distribution platform. "Phase 2" of Impulse adds a number of games from publisher 2K Games to its line-up, including Civilizations III, Shattered Union, Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sid Meier's Railroads! The update also adds the new enhanced version of Tilted Mill's Children of the Nile to the game line-up along with a number of other non-game PC software applications for download and purchase.

As we previously reported, Phase 2 of Impulse also adds a number of new features including ImpulseReactor which will allow developers to add things like matchmaking , cloud computing, rankings, achievements, multiplayer, NAT negotiation, and more. The recentStardock strategy game The Political Machine 2008 will be the first game to have the new Impulse Reactor feature. Also a private beta of MyImpulse has begun which will allow any developer to submit a game or other program for sale via Impulse. According to the press release, "A team of Impulse moderators evaluate the submission and (if accepted) could go live within one business day."

The Penumbra first person horror action-adventure game series just got an expansion pack. Penumbra: Requiem is now available for download at Gamersgate and Direct2Drive for just $9.99. The expansion from developer Frictional Games requires the installation of Penumbra: Black Plague.

In a note on the Frictional Games web site site, the developers state that this expansion concentrates on the physics puzzles and gameplay more than previous installments. According to the site, "Requiem does its best to deliver a nightmarish and feverish atmosphere. Penumbra: Requiem is an attempt to deliver a fresh and rewarding experience and not just some rehash of previous material." While the expansion is for the moment for the Windows platform Macintosh and Linux users will get their own versions soon, according to the web site.

The folks at Paradox Interactive continue to stay busy. Last week they announced plans to release Hearts of Iron 3, the latest game in their WWII strategy series. Today the publisher announced plans for yet another downloadable expansion pack to a previous historical strategy game, Europa Universalis: Rome.

The expansion is titled Vae Victis and will be available for download via Gamersgate for $9.99 in late 2008. The expansion concentrates on the Roman Senate where you will have to deal with the many members and parties in order to have your goals as leader of the Roman Empire accomplished. You have to make sure the ruling party votes for issues in your favor and have them pass laws that you want to see past. The expansion will also have things like updated military AI and an overhauled interface.

We are not quite sure how this bit of news wasn't covered more by the tons of journalists at Games Convention last week but G4TV has it on their video interview with the producer of Call of Duty: World at War. The upcoming WWII shooter has enlisted Gary Oldman to portray one of the characters in the game.

It sounds like Oldman will be voicing a Russian sergeant in the game's second campaign as the Soviets invade Berlin in the end of the War. Kiefer Sutherland has already been announced as another Hollywood actor joining the voice cast; he will be an American sergeant in the game's Pacific campaign. The title, from developer Treyarch and publisher Activision is due for release this fall.

Last month we first reported on plans by Sony Online to launch an online collectible trading card game based on their long running MMO Star Wars Galaxies. This week the game has officially launched. This is not quite a stand alone game like the Everquest based Legends of Norrath; you must be an active subscriber to the Star Wars Galaxies MMO or a former player in good standing (i.e. you don't owe Sony Online money) to play the trading card game.

The official title for the game is Star Wars Galaxies: Champions of the Force and there are over 250 cards to collect and current and former subscribers will get access to five Booster Packs for free every month. There's a 14 day free trial to the game that you can download at the title's official web site.
[Via Massively]

The ongoing saga of Duke Nukem Forever has spilled over into the upcoming release of the Xbox Live Arcade port of the classic 1996 released shooter Duke Nukem 3D. In a new chat with Team Xbox, 3D Realms' president George Broussard is still asked about the long awaited next game in the series and Broussard sounds almost like it's ready to be shipped in a few months.

Broussard claims, "There are several hours of fairly polished game to play. We're actively testing parts of the game and getting feedback from play testers and things are coming together. It's fun, it's in focus, we know what bits are fun and which are not, and it's just a matter of time now." So we can expect our preview code next week, George? Huh? Oh well; it was worth a shot.

It's rumor time again and this time it involves Max Payne. The first two games in the third person action game series were developed by Remedy (with some assistance and support from 3D Realms) but the developer sold its rights to the property to Take Two Interactive (owner of the Rockstar Games brand). Since then we have heard rumors from time to time of a possible Max Payne 3.

Now 1Up.com is reporting on the latest rumor mill column in the new print issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Basically it claims Max Payne 3 is in development but that the dev team isn't Remedy but the same team that made Rockstar's Warriors game (that would be their Rockstar Toronto studio). With the upcoming movie due out in October a lot more people are going to be aware of the dual shooting detective. Let's hope this rumor is true.

Earlier this week we reported on the massive success of the 2008 Leipzig Games Convention which announced that the five day trade and consumer video/PC game event in Leipzig, Germany had brought in 203,000 attendees last week. The organizers announced their 2009 dates and even hinted at plans for a North American expansion.

Well, the organizers of the Cologne based GAMEScon came out with their own statement, basically saying, "Leipzig is doomed." The event was announced last year by the industry consortium BIU and will be held in Cologne on September 9-13. Gamasutra reports that the organizers of the event claim to have broad industry support, adding, "Whatever happens in Germany in 2009 outside of Cologne cannot claim to represent this sector." Ouch. Them's fightin' words. We should see in a few months which German games convention comes out on top.

Small game publisher Red Mile Entertainment got a huge coup when it announced some time ago that it had gotten the game rights to Sin City, the terrific crime comics from writer-artist Frank Miller. At the time the company's in-house dev studio Transmission Games was supposed to be handing the creative duties, using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.

Now comes word that Transmission Games is off the Sin City gig due to their work on their upcoming flying action title Heroes Over Europe. Gamespot reports that the Sin City game is now under development at an unnamed publisher but is still scheduled to be released sometime in late 2009.