'Home' planet screenshot from Galaxy Online's Alpha Test

Enter the game’s alpha “during February 4th and March 2nd,” and you will be rewarded 30 “Mall Points.” Mall Points will be used for the game’s “Item Mall” similar to IGG’s other games (like Voyage Century and Tales of Pirates).  The Item Mall is where you can exchange points you have earned (or bought) for in-game items.

While I personally am not a huge fan of the Item Mall payment scheme, the game itself is free, so I downloaded the 20 MB client to give it a shot.  There are a few things that strike me when comparing this to other space MMOGs.  The first is the use of manga-style art for character avatars.  Then, the obvious alpha bugs, like text wrap and chat box issues.  Finally, while I doubt I’ll be playing this game much from here on out, I think there are some elements of this game that other game designers should be looking at.

The strategy portion of this game reminds me a lot of Sid Meier’s Civilization.  It’s more an overall strategic approach than a typical real-time strategy where you select units and click where to go.  It seems that this type of game takes a little bit less of on-your-feet thinking, so you can take your time making those important decisions for your planet(s).

Pre-release screenshot

Multiplayer matches can allow up to four players who will out-evade each other and complete missions faster than each other.

The game was developed by High Voltage Software, and is published by Akinai Games.  See http://www.evasivespace.com/ for more details.

A bunch of Zerg live up to their name, and "zerg" a Protoss base.

The kit includes screenshots, wallpapers, and other media related to the game Starcraft II.  It also includes a number of website templates, as well as a few PSD files for buttons and banners, to get your Starcraft II site up and running.

The templates include code in easy-to-read format, so you can make changes as you need to.  And many of the PSD files come with additional layers to tweak the graphics just right to fit your tastes.

Need for Speed SHIFT promises a more immersive experience than previous game, with more a more detailed cockpit view, as well as a new “crash engine” that will presumably give a more life-like feel to the physics of the game.

An example of a SHIFT car interior from the Need for Speed website.

Part of EA’s recently announced plan suggests they are focusing their as-of-yet unreleased games towards different types of audiences, and SHIFT is supposed to be most geared towards the racing enthusiast, as opposed to the arcade-style gamer, which their Nintendo title will be targeted toward.

Unlike its predecessor, this game is an RTS (AKA “real-time strategy”) game, meaning you can control a variety of units and send them into combat across a virtual battlefield. The story for the game begins 20 years before the popular Halo: Combat Evolved storyline.  Some units the player will have access to include “Warthogs” (basically jeeps), “Scorpions” (basically tanks), and “UNSC Marines” (basically, well, marines).