Pyro Studio’s is apparently set to return to everyone’s favourite setting of World War II (well, five years ago maybe). Reports say that the studio will begin work on a new instalment of the classic strategy franchise Commandos. However, work will not begin until Planet 51 – a game based on the upcoming film – is complete, which will surely win many awards and will be voted one of the best games ever made!

Ok, now that my sarcasm is out of the way I will give you some further details. The as-yet untitled sequel is set to be closer in playability to Commandos 2 and not Strike Force, which was panned by the majority and is viewed as “a mistake” by Pyro themselves. That’s all we really know at the moment, but if the previous sentence is true then Commandos fans will surely be looking forward to the new instalment.

If you’ve never played the games then you will want to know that it’s basically an RTS where you control a small group of British Commandos. It was first released on the PC in 1998, and had you combining the skills of each individual commando to complete your mission. For example, one commando may be good at setting traps for your enemies to unwittingly fall into, while another prefers to go in guns blazing. The latter was usually pretty inadvisable though, as stealth was usually the most effective way to complete a level.

If you want to try the old games yourself then the Commandos Battle Pack (which contains Commandos 2: Men of Courage and Commandos 3: Destination Berlin) for £28.18 is your best bet. I would say that price is a little steep though, as you could probably pick up the pack for less than £20 (maybe even £10) considering the games are only priced at around £3 individually. They’re still well worth trying out though, even by today’s standards.

UPDATE: Pyro Studio’s is now denying the claims that they’re working on a new Commandos game.

“The news story that Gamer.nl published is totally false,” Pyro told Eurogamer Spain. “We always had in mind to bring back to life the Commandos series; this isn’t something new, but nowadays there’s nothing official or decided and everything is still a wish, nothing else.” - Eurogamer

So, maybe fans will be waiting even longer for a new Commandos game after all.

Although it’s probably not going to be much of a surprise to the majority of Starcraft fans – although it will be a big disappointment – the sequel to one of the most popular RTS games of all time has been delayed until the first half of 2010. Of course, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was never actually given a release date in the first place but people were still hoping that we would see it sometime this year, mainly through comments made by staff working for Activision Blizzard.

Apparently the delay is due to the relaunch of Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net service, which handles all the online gaming across their range of games. It will also play a large part in the online aspects of Starcraft II, especially as LAN support has been pulled from the game. One of the development team had this to say;

“Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.” - Source

Activision Blizzard had previously stated that Starcraft II will need a four to six month beta period, which obviously made a 2009 launch seem very tight to begin with. We still have no idea when a beta will actually take place, so in the meantime you will have to be satisfied with the Battle Reports that the developers have posted on the game’s official site.

The delay will also affect Activision Blizzard’s revenue expectations for this year, lowering their estimate from $4.3 billion to $4.05 billion. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as Diablo II is also expected to be released in 2010.

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The expansion to 2007’s World in Conflict, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, was due to come to consoles later this year; despite the fact that the original game was only ever released on the PC.  However, unfortunately Ubisoft have now officially cancelled the games release on consoles, with the PC version remaining unaffected.

Suspicions were raised about the status of the console versions development in January, when Ubisoft gave us a release date for the PC but never mentioned anything about the supposed console versions. This may have something to do with Ubisoft already having an RTS franchise on consoles; that being EndWar.

Oh well, at least now we can start to come to terms with the fact that RTS games on consoles are usually pretty dire anyway.

For you lucky PC gamers the expansion lets you take command of the Soviet forces, and will include both the original game and the expansion. If you already own the original game then you have the option of downloading the expansion on its own come 12th March.

Never played the highly rated original and don’t want to wait? It’s currently available for £22.93.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Fortunately I’m single so I don’t have to bother splashing my hard earned cash out on cheap tatty gifts. Or maybe I’m just bitter, who knows?

Unfortunately Valentine’s Day also extends to the world of Red Alert 3, so Ric Flair, Gemma Atkinson and Holly Vallance have recorded videos as their respective characters from the game.

There’s no Tim Curry, but if you’re spending Valentine’s Day with Holly Vallance and Gemma Atkinson can you really complain? I know I wouldn’t!

Check out the rest in the related videos here!

Ensemble Studios may be getting shut down at the end of this month, but they’re determined to go out with a bang. Their last project, the Xbox 360 RTS Halo Wars, has just gone gold (meaning it’s complete and ready for sale); leaving plenty of time for manufacturing ahead of its 27 February release.

While you’re waiting for the factories to pump out those shiny Halo Wars DVD’s Microsoft has released details of the game’s demo. The demo will arrive on 5th February, and it sounds like it’s going to be worth waiting for. Not only will the demo guide you through beginner and advance tutorials, but you’ll also be able to play the first to campaign missions from the full game. Is that enough for you? Well, there’s more.

You can also play on one of the skirmish maps, “Chasms”, which is one of 14 included in the full game. Unfortunately there’s no mention of online multiplayer in the demo, so you’ll be playing against AI; but that’s better than nothing, right?

To celebrate going gold Microsoft has released some new screenshots of the game along with the first Halo Wars video documentaries. You can see these over at Destructoid.

If you’re itching to fight more wars for our beloved Emperor then you’ll be pleased to know that Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 will be with us on 20th February. However, if you can’t wait that long then THQ have announced that a beta will be available later this month.

The beta will be hosted by Steam (which is awesome by the way) on 28th January, but those who own the last Dawn of War expansion, Soulstorm, will get early access on 21st January. It will include all four races - including everyone’s favourite Tyranids - and five multiplayer maps, plus Games for Windows Live TrueSkill Matchmaking.

If you still can’t wait that long then I implore you to pick up Soulstorm if you haven’t already. Not only will you get the early access mentioned above, but you will also get plenty more gameplay to tide you over while you wait for the sequel to one of the best recent RTS games that the PC has to offer.  The expansion pack introduces the Dark Eldar and the Sisters of Battle to the mix, which should sound good to any loyal 40k fan.

If you haven’t had the chance to play the original Dawn of War then you can pick up the complete collection (that’s the original game plus all the expansions) for less than £15. That’s clearly worth it for so many hours of excellent RTS gameplay.

The next instalment in the amazing Total War series – Empire: Total War – has been delayed. Originally scheduled for February 6th 2009 the game is now slated for early March. It’s only a delay of a few weeks, but any delay to The Creative Assembly’s popular franchise is sure to frustrate some fans.

Kieran Brigden, Studio Communications manager at the developer, told Kotaku that the day will allow them “to finalise and polish Empire, making it the most accomplished and epic of the Total War series.” Also, a new feature was announced.

“Significantly, the additional time will also allow The Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for a much desired feature: a multiplayer campaign mode. An opportunity to participate in the one versus one multiplayer campaign mode beta will be made available to all who purchase Empire: Total War post release.” – Kotaku

Seems like a nice change from your normal skirmish mode!

I’ve always been a big fan of the Total War series, so my anticipation for Empire is through the roof. The battle engine is so historically realistic and packed with tactical options that the BBC’s Time Commanders used the game’s engine to recreate famous historical battles. Empire: Total War is looking a thousand times better (if that’s even possible), with gorgeous graphics that allow you to zoom right down to the heart of a battle. Plus, there’s now naval combat.

You can pick up Rome: Total War for as low as £6.16 if you don’t already have it. I’d also recommend Medieval II: Total War, which further improves on Rome.

In case you’ve missed it in your excitement about the end-of-year line-up then you may want to know that upcoming RTS Tom Clancy’s EndWar now has a demo available on Xbox Live. The demo weighs in at a hefty 1.6GB so read a book or something if you’re only on a lousy 4mb connection like myself. The demo includes a single-player tutorial and one-on-one multiplayer with matchmaking support.

Instead of using your Xbox Live headset for poor comebacks to the abuse thrown by 12 year-old Americans you’ll be able to command your troops through the power of your voice alone. That is, of course, if it is able to recognise your accent. My own mother can barely tell what I’m saying sometimes, so I’m not too confident that an army will - especially if I order them to bring me a cup of tea!

No word on a Playstation 3 demo yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if one came along.

EndWar is out on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 7th.

You’d be forgiven for being sceptical about Stormrise, after all it’s yet another attempt to bring the RTS (Real Time Strategy)  genre to the console. While there have been a small few RTS games that have worked well on a console (such as Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium: Wars) the genre just doesn’t seem to translate well from a mouse and keyboard to the fiddly console pad. However, developers aren’t giving up yet and games such as Tom Clancy’s Endwar (which makes use of the headset mic to give orders to troops) are coming up with novel ways to make the genre adaptable. Plus, there’s that small fact that Stormrise is being developed by Creative Assembly - the guys behind the amazing and incredibly immersive Total War series.

Stormrise dispenses of the point and click method, a method that is incredibly efficient with a mouse and keyboard but leaves the player - especially those just coming into the RTS genre -   largely frustrated. The new method involves flicks of the analog sticks to select units rather than having to click on them. The game then takes the perspective of what that unit can see which, and if you can see it then you can go there. However, the click and drag interface can still be used to move troops around from another unit’s perspective. It’s supposed to mean less frustration and less error and will hopefully lead to far more fluid battles, if Creative Assembly is to be believed.

The maps will be true 3D rather than your usual overhead view, sort of like Company of Heroes. Units can go up and down buildings, in-between them, over their roofs or, to top it off, underneath them in the caverns below - or all of the above at the same time. This will hopefully lead to the player having far more choices when it comes to making tactical decisions, and should mean that you’ll see some pretty epic battles.

Normally I wouldn’t question the quality of a game that Creative Assembly puts out, but we are talking about a console RTS here. I’m hoping for the best though, and maybe you should to. Post-apocalyptic games have also been done to death, but it’s what’s done with the setting that counts - just like it’s what’s done with the RTS genre that counts. We’ll see if the new control scheme works sometime next year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.