Wake up people! Ironclad Games has finally announced the start of the Beta testing for the major 1.1 patch coming to Sins of a Solar Empire. If you've been keen on the news, you'd know that the Beta was previously announced some time ago, though the session's ETA has been elusive. Today, however, Ironclad has posted up on the Sins of a Solar Empire official forums that the test begins this week, and you'd better call all crew to battlestations while we brief you with the particulars. On to the battle room...err, full story, Commanders.

The beta diary series for Stardock and Ironclad Games' 4X strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire is finally concluded, and it was certainly a joy to write about our mini-exploits while we got to experience the game firsthand. It's been quite a journey, so what have we gone through while beta testing the game? Check out the full article.

The Heroes of Night and Magic series has earned its spot among the PC gaming world's elite with successful launches over the years. Now Ubisoft wants to enter some new territory by ushering in web-based strategy title Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms. This new game can be downloaded, installed and played easily to allow you to raise armies and lay siege on cities set up by thousands of other players online. See the detailed version for more.

Former World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo (aka Enoyls) mentioned a few interesting details on the WoW forums regarding the launch of StarCraft II. The details he gave has lead some individuals to believe that the launch date is closer than what Blizzard originally hinted.

Want to find out what Rob Pardo said? Check out the full article for more details.

We have to hand it to Stardock and Ironclad Games, when it comes to sci-fi strategy games, they really know their stuff. After its successful 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) turn-based sci-fi strategy series Galactic Civilization, we were ecstatic to hear that it was making a new game advertised as a hybrid genre of real-time and 4X. Suffice to say, Sins of a Solar Empire sounded like a good draw for those who like playing either genre.

Imagine my surprise when I was asked to take part in the beta testing of the game and write a journal about it. The current Beta 3 test phase of the game, which started last month, already polishes all the features that were originally mentioned on their website and allows players to take control of the TEC faction as they build their empire.

The full beta diary for Sins of a Solar Empire awaits after the jump!

Did you know that Ubisoft's development studio Blue Byte is currently developing a new The Settlers game? It will be known as Rise of an Empire and if we're not mistaken, it's going to be the sixth entry in the strategy-simulation franchise. The game will be available on the Games for Windows platform this coming September.

Those who have been fans since the earlier iterations of the franchise as well as those who are just beginning to know the joy of playing The Settlers will be happy to know that an official dedicated-site has just been opened by Ubisoft. It contains various information about the title and includes assets like videos and wallpapers as well.

To help you get started, the following are the new features that will come with The Settlers: Rise of An Empire. You can go to the official website of the video game through our Read link below. It will also provide you with the info on how to join the beta testing this August.

Features:

• The primary objective of the game is to create large, lively medieval towns.
• The settlers interact with each other in a completely natural way and have wants and needs of their own.
• Female settlers appear for the first time in the series: Men and women fall in love with each other and marry.
• The lively, detailed game world is rich in animal and plant life.
• The settlers' busy life is presented in lovingly rendered animations that show what is going on in a transparent way.
• The world is divided into four climatic zones with changes of season and weather which influence expansion and resource gathering.

How would you feel if someone mentioned that they're going to make your PlayStation 3's Home look prehistoric? It wouldn't hurt to go old-school sometimes and it seems that's exactly what Virgin Games' Games Domain International (GDI) CEO Roger Walkden had in mind.

In case you haven't heard, Virgin Games is currently developing a 3D virtual world platform known as AWOMO (A World of My Own). Basically, this allows players from all over the world to download and play games direct to their own PC units at once without actually walking up to a retail store and buy a copy.

Walkden shared that for AWOMO's beta testing, Virgin Games is planning to have 30,000 subscribers at the minimum and that they are currently well on track. The official added that what they really have in mind is to have a subscriber base of around half a million by the end of 2007.

If you've missed our previous reports regarding AWOMO, don't worry because Virgin Games promised to launch four to five massive PR and marketing promotions in the next few weeks. But in the meanwhile, Walkden is very much happy with the feedback they've been getting from the community,

We have had a few emails from people who have already registered and are impressed that we seem to have pulled off a "me too" model of PS3 Home for PC. But they will have to wait and see how good this will get. In terms of download speed, Home is very much what we have got used to in the 21st Century. AWOMO will make that look prehistoric.

 

Square Enix has a new game service out for those on the PC. Yes, they're expanding in that area too, as if having a game on every format, including mobile phones wasn't enough.

IGN reports that the new service is called Game Town, and it is for the RPG Giant's Square Enix Members Rewards program. It is currently in Beta testing and it should offer those who are members of the service some free (FREEEE!) games based on Square Enix properties.

To sign up, you'll have to be able to work your way through pages worth of Japanese text. If you know what you're doing though, it should be simple. Just click on our "read" link below. Enter your e-mail address there. Open the e-mail you get from members-reg@member.square-enix.com, and then click on the link at the top of the mail. Over at the contract page, move past the text you can't read and click the right button. Enter an ID and a password twice.

Now here's the tricky part. You're required to select a secret question and a secret answer. The secret answer requires Japanese, so just cut an paste some japanese text into that for your answer.

Enter a nickname, note that it should be different from your login, and enter your sex, birthday, location, and profession, and then click on the right button at the bottom of the page. IGN warns that the first three items can never be changed. So be warned.

After that you're going to have to select mailing preferences. Since we doubt that you'd be able to read through the Japanese, just click the second circle box from the left for both bottom items.

Ignore all the survey questions and click the right button, and then at the Final confirmation screen click the right button.

There you go. You'd be able to access all their free mini-games so far. It includes Chocobo: Chocobo Flight, Chocobo Balance Stick and Chocobo Classmate. They're simple casual mini-games, but there is a ranking mode so if you're top Chocobo, you're bound to be known. Enjoy folks!

 

The website for Transformers: The Game has already been launched, and in all honesty, it's looking just great. Loading up the site gives you the option to either Enter the Site or Enter Battle (whatever that may be since the Enter Battle section isn't open yet...).

Entering the site allows one to view the game's features, as well as videos and images from the game, and even the developers' blog. The opportunity to join the Beta testing of "Battle for the AllSpark" can also be found here, by clicking on the button found at the bottom of the screen. This particular bit really drew our attention since we have been waiting for a game like this ever since we were kids. No word has been given on when the full version of the web game will be available, but you can keep checking for it via our read link below.

Lastly, Activision also released some new screenshots for the game which shows the new Bumblebee in various stages of kicking Decepticon butt. The graphics are looking as polished as ever and we can't wait to get our hands on the game.

 

Heads up! Microsoft is currently looking for people who are interested to help beta test a new service that will allow PC users  to connect with other people on the Xbox 360 through the Live gaming network. Exciting, right? Better listen up then.

The registration period for the said beta testing will be for a limited time only. Those who want to join should fill out an application survey which can be accessed using your Windows Live ID. Now, those who are selected will be contacted with more details within the coming days.

Also, Microsoft mentioned that all eligible beta participants will be entered in a raffle for a chance to win an undisclosed prize. Take note as well that each participant should only submit the survey once. Multiple entries will not improve your chances at being chosen.

The survey and other important details about the beta test can be found at the Read link below.