If you're from the UK and you've been itching to get a piece of Meridian4's Shadowgrounds Survivor, relief may be coming soon. An official announcement is out and you'll be blasting away at aliens in Ganymede before you know it. Full details follow after the jump.

Frozenbyte's Shadowgrounds tickled the gaming underground's fancies when it released almost two years ago, and now that Shadowgrounds: Survivor's retail pack is now up and about, there's much hope for another coochy-coo or two. Publisher Meridian4 happily provided the game over Steam in advance, and once again we fished for extra gamepads for another co-op romp in alien-infested Ganymede. What we unearthed comes at you at the full article!

 IDEA Games' member Black Element Software deals out a polished version of Alpha Prime, a first-person shooter that injects different elements into a single experience. Fresh from the makers of radically-received Shade: Wrath of Angels, Alpha Prime takes players through a sci-fi plot of guns and drugs and mysteries buried in rock.

Follow through to the comprehensive review at the full article.

Shadowground veterans, the wait is almost over. Shadowgrounds: Survivor has just gone gold, says publisher Meridian4, and it's just a matter of time before it hits retail outlets near you. And it's about time too, because Frozenbyte promised it would be out in the remaining months of 2007.

So prep up your gaming rigs, and perhaps that AGEIA PhysX card you've been waiting to flex, because it's going to be another alien-thriller ride back in Jupiter's colonized moon. Pricing details and street date await at the full article.

Let's face it: Shadowgrounds was one of few titles to draw in hardcore gamers back into top-down shooting action. It was arguably considered a smash hit in the PC gaming underground (the heart of it being Germany), and so when Frozenbyte announced the series' new sequel, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, it was expected to be nothing less than amazing. 

Shadowgrounds was the only game to combine classic, alternative shooter action from the iconic Take No Prisoners from Raven Software, while sinking in the plot void that Sierra's Alien vs. Predator series was supposed to fill. The game's first story took gamers through an action-packed, alien-thriller ride across the human colonies of Ganymede in the shoes of Wesley Tyler, a former member of the IGTO security force.

Developed by Frozenbyte and initially published by Reef Entertainment, Shadowgrounds touted insanely breath-taking graphics for an independently-developed game. It was accompanied by an adrenaline pumping soundtrack from the Finnish tracker demoscene, which soon also characterized what the Shadowgrounds experience truly was.

And when Meridian4 finally picked up the game to distribute to other territories in Europe and to North America, it was received with mixed results. Shadowgrounds: Survivor would probably be Frozenbyte's attempt to correct that confusion and establish the game as a successful independently-developed franchise.

Late last year, Finnish developer Frozenbyte clued fans in on a new installment to the original game and promised that it would make landfall by 2007. It looks like the developers are making good on their word, because recent developments to the game were unveiled in the later half of 2007 and were reinforced with talk of gameplay improvements and additions.

And as if to underline the game's steady progress, Meridian4 gave QJ.NET the opportunity to preview Shadowgrounds: Survivors. We're not sure how nice we've been to deserve an early Christmas gift from Santa, but we were more than excited to unwrap our tasty present!

We've spent hours on end blasting the Ganymede menace back to the primordial pool they crawled out of, but we couldn't get enough of that even in four-player coop mode, and we wanted more. So much more.

And we definitely got more. Check out the full preview at the full article!

 

Following the tradition of classic Action/RPG video game titles for the PC platform, developer Rebelmind and publisher Meridian4 is proud to bring us The Chosen: Well of Souls. Known as Frater in Europe, this video game has been available in the said region for some time now. It is only this coming October that fans in North America will be able to get their hands on a game that will take them to Hell and back.

To best introduce the game to the public, QJ.NET recently had an exclusive interview with Meridian4 Director of Marketing Steve Milburn about The Chosen: Well of Souls. Everything about the game was discussed - its origins, exciting features, and the possibility of having future console versions.

 

Read the entire interview right after the jump!

Thanks to Meridian4, Elephant Games' high-paced, top-down arcade shooter RIP 3: The Last Hero will be officially published, represented and distributed in North America.

In an official press release made recently, the company formally known as White Elephant (creators of the RIP franchise) announced their publishing agreement with Meridian4 to distribute the third title to the RIP series in U.S. and Canada.

If you didn't know, this Indie game title showed how simple shooting concepts can be mind-numbingly fun, like some games have succeeded in doing.

The title, while very light on hardware requirements and nothing close to next-gen 3D shooters, made a cult following in the Indie Games Festival (IGF) and is making quite a ruckus in the online gaming community. Plus, it even runs in Windows Vista (for version 1.5).

The new title, featuring freakishly zany graphics and extreme (LAN and hotseat) multiplayer gameplay, is an easy picking for the gamer who loves C-Dogs or even Crimsonland. CEO of Elephant Games, Pahmutov Andrey, added:

We present another part of the RIP series, RIP 3: The Last Hero, which has lots of new features and changes. We are really excited about having it published by Meridian4 and hope you will enjoy this game as well as the [predecessors].

There has been no official release date announced for the game, but it is currently available online through shareware downloads.

Click on Full Article to view some screenshots of the game, plus details on its features.

Meridian4, a Canada-based publisher of casual game titles, has just inked a new multi-title publishing deal with Cinemax to bring two of their casual titles - Bugs Escape 3D and Gumboy: Crazy Adventures - to North America.

"We are delighted to continue our cooperation with Meridian4 and we are glad that Meridian4 will allow US and Canadian players to enjoy our games. I hope that our cooperation will continue for years to come." said Lukas Macura, CEO of Cinemax.

"We were very excited to continue our relationship with Cinemax. We had great success with Daemonica and know that this will continue with these two casual titles." said Andrew Sher, CEO at Meridian4, "Both Bugs and Gumboy should appeal to a large cross section of gamers from all ages."

Gumboy: Crazy Adventures transports gamers back to a simpler era, bridging the gap between time-tested and popular characteristics of a rubber ball with the simplicity of the first video games. Meanwhile, Bugs Escape 3D brings a whole new dimension to the Logic Puzzle genre, with over 150 levels in 10 different environments which players have to navigate in order to lead the captured bugs to freedom.

Exact release dates for both Bugs Escape 3D and Gumboy: Crazy Adventures have not yet been revealed. Keep checking back here for updates. For Meridian4 games available online, check out this previous QJ article.