A darkness has descended over the lands of Midgard. The goddess Hel, spurned by the pantheon of Asgard is seeking revenge for her banishment at the hands of Odin. Unleashing her legion of undead warriors from the Underworld, Hel intends to claim the world of men. The Viking warriors of Midgard rally to protect their homes but nothing they do can stem the tide of the endless undead…

Skarin, a lone warrior battles tirelessly for the preservation of his home, but the more of Hel’s dark army he fells the more rise again. As more and more of his fellows fall the last remnants of hope fade from Skarin…

Out of nowhere a huge sword swings over his head, he turns to see a creature neither man nor beast facing him with pure hatred in his eyes. The two do battle, but Skarin is battle weary and the strength of the creature soon becomes too much for him. Its huge sword enters Skarins flesh and all is darkness, but this is not the end for Skarin…

A voice whispers to him in the dark, the goddess Freya offers to return Skarin’s life to him if he swears to be her Champion on Midgard. Without a moments hesitation Skarin takes Freya’s blessing and she uses her power to free his hometown of Brighthelm, giving him a safe haven in the dark times ahead.

This Beginners Guide will give you all the preperation needed to fight Hel’s forces and make the most of your time in Midgard! 

INTRO:

As Viking: Battle for Asgard begins you will find yourself in the now liberated town of Brighthelm. This is a great time to get used to the basic controls of the game, jump ‘Y’, light attack ‘A’ and heavy attack ‘X’.  You can use the ‘B’ button to talk to the villagers of Brighthelm and find out a little more about Skarin and his home.

Certain characters will give you important information which update’s your map, they will also give you hints as to where you need to go next. One of these is Chief Haral who is standing by the palisades at the bottom of Brighthelm. He will explain a little about your past and suggest that you go to help the Vikings at the near by farm. He will also open the gates of Brighthelm allowing you to explore the Southern half of the island.

MAP:

Another important feature to get to grips with is the Brisingaman, a mystical amulet given to Skarin by the goddess Freya. This acts as a radar and shows you where all the quest giving characters can be found, it also highlights enemies you need to vanquish in red.  Another feature of the Brisingaman is the ability to set destinations.

This can be accomplished in the map screen, which you access by pressing the ‘Back’ button. This will then open up four separate tabs; Map, Quest Information, Moves List and Inventory. To mark a destination simply scroll across to the map tab, move the cursor between the different area’s of Niflberg and press ‘X.’ When you exit the map screen you will notice that a blue triangle has appeared at the top of the Brisingaman, this marks your destination.

As I mentioned the map screen is split into 4 tabs, the second of these is Quest Information. This records all of the information given to you by the various characters you come into contact with on your quest.

The next tab on will also prove helpful, it keeps a list of all the moves that you learn through the course of the game and how to perform them. Moves are learnt in the Duel Arena, for more information on this see the section on Power Runes and Rage Crystals.

The final section of the map screen is the Inventory, here you will find all of the items that you have collected and have yet to use in the course of your Quest. There is a scale showing you the level of your Power Runes, an area to keep your Dragon Gems a tally of the amount of Gold your have collected and an area to show the amount of Throwing Axes, Health Potions and in Level 2 the amount of Flame Pots you have purchased.

GOLD:

The currency of Midgard is Gold and it is a key part of the game. It can be found all over the three islands in various places and also earned. In particular there is an innkeeper who will ask you to retrieve Kegs to ease the minds of the troubled warriors. For every Keg you return to him he will pay you for your trouble. These kegs are named after the islands they are found upon and are dotted all around the coast.

EXPLORATION:

As well as Skarin’s main quest there are smaller things that you can do through the course of game play to make the battles and skirmishes a lot more manageable. And the key to all of these is exploration. There are maps that can be purchased from the Shop Keeper (see next section) to make this task a little easier but the key is to fully explore the island. Climb vines, explore caves, and scour the woods. You never know what you might find, it could be a group of captive Viking warriors, a chest full of Gold or even a mysterious Red Skull that can be found in war torn settlements.

SHOP KEEPER:

Another key feature of Viking: Battle for Asgard is the Shop Keeper. One of these can be found in the starting camp on every level. They sell a wide variety of items and their stock increases as you progress through the game. To begin with you will be able to purchase such items as:

Throwing Axes: - A deadly projectile weapon, they are bought as individual weapons and you can carry a max of 10 at a time.

Health Potions: - A quick fix for use in skirmishes or battles. These potions will restore a small amount of your health. Skarin can only carry three of these at a time so use them wisely.

Health Advances: - This does exactly what it says on the tin, advances your health bar. There are 5 Health advance stages the highest of which become available later in the game.

Meals:- These increase your health bar, but be warned, if your health drops down to its original state the effects of the meal will wear off.

Treasure Maps: - (Gold bag, Treasure Chest, Urn) Once purchased these treasure maps will appear as gold dots on your Brisingaman.

POWER RUNES AND RAGE CRYSTALS:

As well as your basic combat moves there are a series of more advanced moves for Skarin to learn on his quest. These can be learned in the Duel Arena where the spirits of dead warriors will teach you all they know, for a price…

You are presented with a list of moves each with its own advantages and you must choose which you wish to master first. Each level of the game presents you with more moves to learn, each making your quest to defeat Hel and her legion that bit easier.

The more powerful the move the more energy it will require from Skarin. He builds this energy in the form of Rage Crystals, which are collected during combat. To release the power of these crystals you hold down ‘LT.’

As well as the power of the Rage Crystals Skarin can also utilize the power of the Runes. These can be purchased at the Blacksmith. There are three different types of Rune, Fire, Ice and Lightning. Holding down the ‘RT’ can activate these powers and pressing the button that corresponds to the power you wish to use (for example to use Fire hold ‘RT’ and press ‘B’.) Each of these Elemental attacks has a special move that can be unleashed by holding ‘A’ + ‘X.’ Ice will freeze the earth in a radial attack where as Fire and Lightning will fire a concentrated blast at an enemy of your choosing.

LEYSTONES:

The islands of Midgard are vast and through the power of the Brisingaman, Skarin is able to travel across them in the blink of an eye. Spread at various points on the island are Leystones, these magical stones must be discovered before they become available for Skarin to use. Once again this is why it is important to explore the islands thoroughly.

Once more than one Leystone has been discovered, travel between them could not be simpler. Approach the stone and you will be prompted to tap ‘B.’ Do this and the map screen will appear but with a difference, instead of the settlements and locations of interest you would normally find there are just Leysones. Select the Leystone you wish to travel to and tap ‘A.’ Skarin will then be instantly transported to anywhere you chose. 

ENEMIES:

Grunts:

Once warriors of Midgard these creatures want nothing more than the total destruction of the land that was once their home. Where the taint of Hel is upon the land you will find the Grunt.

Tough Grunts:

Just as their lesser brethren, tough Grunts were once warriors of Midgard. But unlike Grunts they have their wits about them. They will block your onslaught of attacks and avoid you, making them a much more challenging foe.

Berserkers:

These creatures are nothing short of unhinged. They will attack with speed and ferocity making it difficult to counter attack or even block.

Assassins:

Usually found hiding in trees or caves these Assassins of Hel will sneak up on you when you least expect it and launch an unblockable attack. They are quick and hard to attack but once you have them they are easily vanquished.

Champions:

Much larger than other members of Hel’s dark army, the Champion is a formidable foe. They carry a huge sword with a vast reach. The only way to defeat them is to attack them until they become weak and finish them with a series of timed blows. The style of finishing move will depend upon the angle you attack the Champion from and how close you are when you begin the attack. Once they have been felled, Champions will provide you with a dragon token.

Shaman:

Once loyal to the Asgardian gods, these powerful beings they use dark magic to resurrect Hel’s  forces. They are always protected by a group of legion but as well as this they have 5 totem poles pulsing with energy that prevent them from taking damage. The only way to destroy them and stop them replenishing Hel’s numbers is to destroy the totem poles one by one. Once this is done they become completely helpless and stand at the mercy of Skarin.

Giants:

Slow but with a terrifying blow Giants can kill you in a number of ways. They may decide to grab Skarin and take a bite out of him, or alternatively kick or hit him. Or they could simply bang the ground with their massive fists, sending a shockwave through the very earth he stands on. Either way these big beasts are similar to Champions in the respect that they require completion of timed blows before they are vanquished.

I hope you have enjoyed our Viking: Battle For Asgard Beginners Guide. For more information about the game, please head over to www.sega.com/viking. Also be sure to add Skarin as a friend on MySpace and Facebook!

Yes, you read that right I’ve been told the 360 demo should be available to download today. The PS3 demo version will be making an appearance as well as soon as Sony’s Home system is relaunched in a couple of weeks, so we’re looking at a possible date of May 1st for that one.

Want to see what the demo is like?  There are two videos below here - the first is the trailer for the demo and the second is a trailer made for the Comic-Con event in the US. Enjoy!

Demo Trailer

Comic-Con Trailer

Hello you lot - I’ve just finished uploading a load of new screenshots too the SEGA Europe Flickr account (http://flickr.com/photos/segaeurope) as well as our Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/pages/SEGA-Europe-Community-Team/19581119416).

In fact two games recieved quite a few updates, namely Samba De Amigo and Iron Man both of which look graphically the bees knees - as well as numerous other insectoid joints!  Here’s a few snippets from what got uploaded.

Iron Man

Samba De Amigo

You can find more at the addresses above.

Robert Downey Jr! Stan Lee! New Video! Watch it!

The Skills to Pay the Bills 

It’s late one afternoon, and I’m in the moderator chat room (that’s right folks, there’s a special secret chat room for the Football Manager Live police to talk law enforcement in and eat doughnuts) moaning about how my youth players are ‘improving’ at the same rate as Britney’s pop career. Sparks ‘academy of excellence’ has failed to produce any talent, and I’m pretty sure my club has been responsible for de-railing the careers of several potential galacticos. I’ve just scouted a few very promising youngsters, but I’m concerned that they’ll not improve consistently enough if they’re at Hearts. Of course if I leave them for another club to sign, I’ll have to pay hand over fist to bring them in once they’ve mastered their trade.

Paul Shearing, another mod in the chat room, is adamant that it is highly effective, if not exploitable, to send a player on loan to a manager with proficiency in youth coaching skills. Players have come back from their loan spell loaded with green arrows, indicating their attributes have shot up under this spell of tutelage. Paul suggests farming out my new signings immediately to one of the big teams with successful youth teams. Their manager, if suitably accomplished with youth team skills, will develop them far more effectively than I can, and I’ll reap the rewards. They get to beef up their youth team, meaning their players will progress better too. Often a transfer deal comes about once two managers have a system of this nature going on, so building a contacts list of successful managers will have a hugely positive effect on your performance.

Well, my dream of packing off my plucky youngsters to Arsenal-esque youth set ups, from which they’d return as cultured wonder kids with six-figure price tags were soon dashed. My inbox was flashing with a message from my physio.

Electronic Hearts captain and top goalscorer for the past two seasons, Matteo Jaramillo, had suffered a horrific training ground injury, suffering a tear to his cruciate knee ligament. Because Football Manager Live runs in real time, the message I get about his injury puts the spell he’ll be out for in real-life time: he’ll be unavailable for 2-3 weeks, or half a season of fixtures.  I needed Matteo Jaramillo back as soon as humanly possible in order to spear head my championship campaign, where I hope to be pushing for promotion. This would never happen unless I loaned him to a manager with skills in the physiotherapy areas which I lack. What I really needed was somebody who’d chosen to focus on treating knee injuries. If such a manager was to have my player on their books, the Colombian hit man could heal up to 25% quicker. This was the difference between him making the start of the season or not, and with the striker responsible for more than half of my league goals the previous season, a crucial one.

Why on earth any budding young manager would choose to specialise in treating players’ knees when they could be making them better dribblers or passers of the ball was beyond me. I was just looking for someone I could do some business with and win the race against time to get my goal machine active.

SEGA Silverware 

Now, the real problem was my impending semi-final match with Robotnik Rovers. Here at SEGA, the managers who had so far failed to win any silverware had set up an invitational tournament. The winner would be crowned the king of losers, and the bragging rights of actually having won something. Rovers manager Kevin Eva sits opposite me, so the winner would inevitably have an automatic one-up in any office banter. In short, this was a match I had to win, and with Jaramillo not back until the day after, it would be tough. With the match approaching, I had to put my hunt for a physio on hold. Instead, I stopped training in ‘finishing coaching’ and devoted the day to completing as many physiotherapy skills as possible.

I played the best XI I could, but was unable to impose myself on the game and found myself 2-0 down at half-time after a couple of well-taken goals. Despite second half resurgence, I lost the game 3-2 and remain trophyless. With my colleagues more than happy to crow over my defeat, let’s just say I was slightly frustrated… you might be able to pick up on this in the post-match interview which you can watch here. Yep, Football Manager Live is serious business round here!

Although Kevin’s triumph was a bitter pill to swallow (he went on to lift the cup), I was lifted by Jaramillo returning to first team action in time for the league season kicking off. Those first 15 games for which I would have been without my star proved crucial, as he was in rich scoring form and finally gave Electronic Hearts fans (and I know there are millions of you out there) something to cheer about. I was top of the Championship. Promotion could be in line, and believe me, by the time I hit the big time, and I’ll be the most decorated physiotherapist in Football Manager Live!

The Long walk to Manhood

Now in his third season at Electronic Hearts, has Kazuya Sato made a name for himself and proven that a good manager can make an average player great? Well, other than for my status as a ‘good manager’ being decidedly questionable, he’s getting on reasonably well. The biggest surprise is that the early promise he seemed to have in the set piece department has waned; his key attributes in this field (corners, free kicks, long throws) have actually gone down by one or two points. Having said this, he’s improved almost universally in all other departments.

As you can see from the screenshot below, there has been particular improvement to his mental attributes, and his average rating is better than in his first two seasons. In fact, if I can get the dead-ball potential from his early years to resurface, I’ll be ecstatic with his progress. As things stand, Sato has played 281 games for me, with 12 goals and 50 assists. Not great yet, but time will tell…

Time to train up in the free kick and corners coaching skills!

The clever amongst you might realise we haven’t had #1 yet, but nevermind that; this is the first one approved and out of the box - it just happens to be labeled up as “Act Two”.

In this video SEGA, Secret Level and Marvel discuss the challenges in making Iron Man work and the decisions made in order to get a good balance of gameplay mechanics.  Its seriously worth a gander - and we’ve more coming soon! Check it out below:

The video is on our YouTube channel and has also been added to our SEGA Europe Facebook group and it will be added to the Iron Man websites (http://web.sega-europe.com/ironman/) very soon.  ;)

They call him Ecco, Ecco, faster than liiiiiiiightning- oh wait that’s someone else isn’t it?  In any case we might not have seen our dolphin friend for a while, but he certainly is not forgotten as MTV.com’s Multiplayer blog has voted him “The Greatest Aquatic Animal In The History Of Video Games”.

Spiffy.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/04/02/the-greatest-aquatic-animal-in-the-history-of-video-games-is/