Today, we’d like to extend a unique opportunity to the entire Phantasy Star community: you can help us name the next event, coming soon across both Playstation®2/PC and Xbox 360® servers!

The upcoming event, which is closely tied to the storyline of Ambition of Illuminus, features another fight against the infamous SEED. Players must work together to repel the threat of total annihilation – Details are scarce at the moment, and will be available as we get closer to release. To help us get closer to this release date, we need your help in choosing the name of this upcoming event!

How to participate? Head to our forums and vote on one of the following names you think sounds the best.

Dark Erosion
Shred the Darkness
Shadows of Gurhal
Guardians of the Light

Simply head over, login, and cast your vote for what you’ll be fighting for!

If you haven’t been keeping an eye on IGN lately, there are 30 good reasons to start! For the last couple of weeks, and leading up through the next, IGN has 30 different exclusives about MadWorld! Each week, we’ll pick out a few that we thought were the coolest and highlight them here – this round was a tough batch to pick favorites for, but here they are:

#1: MadWorld: The Storyline

The big thing we’re often asked about MadWorld is “What’s the story like? I think it’s awesome that you can run around stabbing signposts through people, but why exactly is Jack in this city, anyway?” IGN has a great post up with an in-depth look at the story, and the reasons why Jack enters the bloody game known as Death Watch.

#2:  Meet the Commentators

Ever heard of Greg Proops or John Dimaggio? Old enough to remember the Who’s Line is it Anyway? series with Drew Carey? Do you recognize the name Bender from Futurama? Get to know the two Death Watch commentators, who you’ve probably  seen and heard many times before, but just never realized!

Greg and John talk about their time recording the lines for MadWorld, what it was like teaming up together, and their favorite video games.

A fun bit of trivia on these guys – One of them was actually the announcer for the Pod Races in Star Wars: Episode I…

#3: Bloody Deaths

Alright, so let’s be honest. When it all comes down to it, MadWorld rocks the gaming scene for a number of reasons, and the brutal – yet entirely comical – deaths are a big part of it. This is IGN’s Friday feature, and they’ve got videos to show off a number of the awesome ways you can take someone out in MadWorld. They also talk with developers PlatinumGames about the way the game was designed around interactive props like a CAUTION sign and the Rose Bush. (Seen more commonly as a wall of spikes.)

The features will continue each day on IGN as we get even closer to the launch of the game! More of our favorites will also be here next week, so keep your eyes peeled for tons more MadWorld each day!

Check out our Percival trailer for the upcoming Sonic and the Black Knight game, shipping March 3rd.

To round out our Empire: Total War Friday coverage, I’ve got some Superior Tactics trailers for you!

In this video, the Battle AI programmer for Total War takes you through the interface and shows you tactics you can use in the game that are based on real tactics used by Napoleon.

In the second video, Jack Lusted (a designer for the game) takes you through the mast calvary tactic, and uses it to defeat the Polish army.

Don’t forget to download your free demo of Empire: Total War from Steam! Check out our previous blog entry for all the details.

Check out our Percival trailer for the upcoming Sonic and the Black Knight game, shipping March 3rd.

There are many units available in Empire: Total War, including building, land, naval and technology. Today we focus on the Star Fort building unit and the Elite Light Infantry land unit.

Star Fort

The basic concept of a star fort is that at least one, and preferably many, field of fire should cover every part of the defence and the approaches to the fort. These killing zones can be extended and made even more deadly by, at the very least, a long sloping glacis around the fort for the attackers to scale. The glacis need not be very steep at all, but the attackers face an uphill struggle with no cover at all, under murderous fire ever step of the way. The glacis also acts as a passive defence, a sloping armoured earthwork for the fort proper. Beyond the glacis a hidden counterscarp awaits: a retaining wall (sometimes with firing positions for the defenders) that drops down deep ditch that must be crossed before the actual approaches to the fort are even reached!

All of these defences are before the military architects add additional ravelins (detached triangular bastions or gun positions) in front of the fort’s own walls and hornworks and crownworks (both elaborations on the basic bastion design). The whole effect, when viewed in plan form, is baroque in its complexity, each projection of the central star giving the defence another firing position towards any attacking force. Wall length is limited to that which can be covered by flanking musket fire, as experience showed that a fort with only cannons in its defence could be taken when the cannons were knocked out.

To see other building units, go to the building unit page of the Empire: Total War site.

Elite Light Infantry

Light infantry forces form a skirmish line to slow the enemy advance and keep their own line unmolested by enemy skirmishers.

Whether they are called light infantry, jaegers, tirailleurs or chasseurs à pied, it is the job of these men to screen the main battle line, harass the enemy and, if possible, pick off important men in the enemy’s ranks. Unlike their fellows in the line infantry, light infantrymen are trained to think for themselves, use the ground and cover intelligently, and not fight in rigid lines. Instead, they form a loose skirmish line and fire independently at their own designated targets. The effect is a constant, low-level barrage rather than the crashing thunder of a volley but the effect is quite deadly as officers and sergeants are picked off and removed from the fight. Against cavalry, however, their best defence is to withdraw to their own battle line.

Historically, the Austrians were widely regarded as producing the finest light infantry forces in Europe. Other nations did catch up, but in the case of Britain and France it was their experiences in fighting in North America that persuaded them of the wisdom of light troops. Battle lines were simply impossible to manage in the dense woodlands, and largely pointless against the native tribes!

To see the light infantry in 360 degrees (spin him around and around), and see the previously released land units, go to the land unit page on the Empire: Total War site.

Continuing our Empire: Total War Friday, we’ve got new information on the latest faction to be revealed:  Marathas.

The Maratha Empire or Confederacy was born in violence, as the result of the successful overthrow of Mughal rule less than a generation ago. Raja (king) Shivaji managed to gain control of the Pune region, and from then Mughal power was no longer invincible. As might be expected, the Mughals and the Marathas still nurse a dislike for each other.

Unlike the foreign (in origin) Mughals, the Maratha rulers are Indian princes and kings. They know the value of the Indian way of doing things, of the age-old strength of their lands. Their armies may look old fashioned, possibly quaint, to foreign eyes but that makes them no less effective. The empire exists solely because it has the military strength to withstand the Mughal threat.

Perhaps now, though, it is time to think of expansion. It may no longer be enough to hold off the Mughals; perhaps they should be driven from India altogether, and a new empire with Indian rulers established. Perhaps only Indians truly have the ability to withstand the Europeans who are starting to demand much of India. For now, the Europeans want only money and trade, but soon they will be after concessions, a little piece of land here, another piece there, until all is ruled by foreigners from across the sea. Unless a strong hand guides India, it is possible that the rule of Mughal outsiders will be replaced by the lordship of European outsiders.

To see all of the factions revealed sofar in Empire: Total War, head to the factions page of the Empire: Total War site.

We’re just over a week away from the ship date for Empire: Total War (shipping March 3rd) and it’s demo time! Get the free demo through Steam and start playing now. The demo will take you through the basics of land and naval command and then let you loose on two historic scenarios. Playing as the British Empire, you’ll take on the American Army in the pivotal “Battle of Brandywine Creek” and then the French Navy in the decisive “Battle of Lagos.”

Battle of Brandywine Creek

After landing from his transport ships on the American coast, Major-General Sir William Howe led the British troops eastwards, with the intention of capturing Philadelphia.

In preparation, American General George Washington readied most of his units to defend from this frontal assault around the narrow crossing of Chad’s Ford on the Brandywine. The Creek flows through the countryside of Pennsylvania, enveloped by sheer cliffs and heavily wooded hills on both sides. Knowing that much of the fast-flowing creek could not be crossed, Washington was confident of holding his position.

However, more detailed surveillance of the terrain would suggest that alternative routes could turn the battle in the favor of the British.

Battle of Lagos

As so often in 18th Century warfare, French plans to invade England during the Seven Years War were reliant on ships from the naval base at Toulon joining ships from Brest. The British had both ports blockaded, and the French had to wait for one of the blockading fleets to withdraw for re-supply before attempting any rendezvous.

The opportunity came when the British fleet under Admiral Boscawen at Toulon withdrew to Gibraltar. The French under Jean-François de la Clue-Sabran left Toulon, and began to make their way towards Brest. Passing the Straits of Gibraltar, the French were spotted by Boscawen’s lookout ships.

Giving chase, Boscawen’s fleet was only slightly larger than the French force, and caught up with them off the coast of Portugal where battle was joined.

Take control of the British and defeat the French to end the invasion threat to Britain.

Note: This demo is presented in English language only. However, the full game contains French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Czech and Polish languages.

System Requirements

Supported OS: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel® Pentium® or greater or AMD® Athlon® equivalent CPU

Memory: 1GB RAM (XP,) 2GB RAM (Vista™)

Graphics: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible hardware accelerated video card with shader version 2.0 support, 256 MB video memory

Display: Minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels

Sound: Directx9.0c compatible sound card

Hard Drive: 15 GB free hard disk space

Peripherals: Windows compatible mouse and keyboard

Head over to Steam now to get your free demo of Empire: Total War!