An exclusive record of live concert by goth rock band Within Temptation who has been cooperating with The Chronicles of Spellborn is publishing a concert recording under the name “Black Symphony” on September 19 as double-CD and double-DVD. Prior to the publication, the Dutch metal rockers will release the single “Forgiven” on September 12th as outcoupling in a 5-track premium edition. The single-pack will contain the previously unreleased live bonus tracks “Hand Of Sorrow” and “The Heart Of Everything” as well as a live version of the Spellborn video song “The Howling” in addition to the title track.

Within Temptation recorded the Live-DVD on February 7 during their show with the Metropole Orchestra of 60 concert musicians and a classic choir of 20 singers in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam. The band around front woman Sharon den Adel celebrated the event with fireworks and a gigantic light show in front of 10,000 fans from all over the world. These and several high-profile duets with Keith Caputo of Life of Agony and Anneke van Griesbergen (ex. The Gathering) induced the British Kerrang! Magazine to call it “the best show on earth”. In addition to the concert recordings, the live DVD includes an abundance of bonus content such as detailed “Behind the Scenes” material and a 10-day countdown documentary of the preparatory phase.

Accompanying the launch of the fantasy online roleplaying game The Chronicles of Spellborn, the Dutch developer and publisher Frogster Interactive will revive their cooperation with Within Temptation. The partners have planned several online activities for fans, along with the launch of the new Spellborn website in September. Moreover, an information leaflet of the band will be integrated in the Spellborn box version at launch. The trailer for the current DVD “Black Symphony” was already shown on the Spellborn booth at the Games Convention two weeks ago. It is available as streaming video on the Within Temptation website or on YouTube.

The joint Spellborn video “The Howling” is posted above, and the game is expected to hit retail later this year. For more on the game, check out our previous posts.

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The latest MMO to arrive on Steam is Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. It will be available for an additional 10% off for one week until Sept 11. This means that instead of paying the usual $59.99 for it, you are only paying $53.99 - and after your first month subscription fees will start applying. If you are already an existing AoC subscriber, the key you get from Steam will not work.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, I am just wondering if it will take a whole damn week for you to download it via Steam or if it will be much faster. I know that gaming discs load super fast compared to getting it offline, but when we got our game keys for AoC here at Gaming Today, it took some of us over a week to download the game off the Funcom servers.  One of us, that person being me, was at 92% when the whole thing went to hell on me and refused to connect to the servers ever again. So, I said to hell with AoC and never looked back.

Hopefully you will not run into a situation like this should you purchase AoC from Steam - I blame it all on Funcom and their crappy server connections.

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It looks like Ozzy Osbourne and Jimi Hendrix may be getting some more company on the virtual stage of Guitar Hero: World Tour. Activision has now announced that Sting, frontman and bassist for The Police, will also be making an appearance in the game, allowing players to perform the song “Demolition Man” alongside him. Tied into that news, it was also announced that three Tool tracks have been added to the song list for the game; news that prompted a certain redheaded GT writer (*cough* Steph *cough*) to squeal with glee. Players will be able to rock out to some of Tool’s best songs, including “Parabola,” “Schism, ” and “Vicarious.”

I’m just glad Guitar Hero’s and Rock Band’s instruments are going to be compatible with each other, because otherwise I’d be really torn on which game to get this fall.

Via Press Release [image via The Sun]

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Gotta love it when a fan or another band blows the lid off some cool DLC for Rock Band or its competitor Guitar Hero. Seems to happen quite frequently.

In this case, it was the indie band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets who blew the lid off of some upcoming DLC for Rock Band. Posting a picture on his blog of the band’s DLC, Toren Atkinson accidentally showed the world that AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” was also on the same list. The lead singer of the Canadian band has since removed the offending photo, but not before the internet got a hold of it.

Apparently, the song is the live version instead of the studio version, and doing a bit of a search on the web (thanks IMDB), I found out that it is from their 1991 concert at Castle Donington which is a large village North West of Leicestershire, England during the Monsters of Rock Festival. Oh to have been at that one! Other bands that played on that fateful day in August included Pantera, Metallica, Motely Crue, Queensryche and The Black Crowes (meh).

This fun little rumor of AC/DC was started when the indie rockers wanted to show how proud they were that their single “Shhh….” was indeed on the list. The band, according to their website, is a punk/rock band that is dedicated to promoting the works of H.P. Lovecraft. They wear really strange outfits befitting any character or theme created by Lovecraft and apparently have a huge following in Canada. This subsequently got the folks over at Harmonix interested in them, and they also played a live show at PAX last week.

Until confirmation for AC/DC comes down from upon high, just check back with us. We are unsure if this supposed DLC is for Rock Band or Rock Band 2, but if we have learned anything from past shots of upcoming DLC from the game, it is pretty much a yes. We just don’t know when.

Meanwhile, you can check out Toren Atkinson’s blog here and relive his PAX eperience with him as well as watch a video of them in action. The official The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets website can be accessed here.

via: 1UP

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For a limited time, Microsoft is slashing prices on many of their games over on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. So if you have been holding off on downloading some of the extra content or accessories for your games, now is your chance to get them cheaper than dirt. Well, almost cheaper than dirt.

• Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky
• Lost Odyssey - Triple Bonus Pack
• Forza Motorsport 2 - Both Track Packs and Car Packs
• Oblivion: Shivering Isles
• Guitar Hero 3 - Def Leppard, Foo Fighters, and Classic Rock Track Packs
• Beautiful Katamari - Accessory Sets and stages

The Major has the list and details how much the original cost was, what the new cost is, and how much of a saving you can expect. You need to get to downloading though because this tender offer from Microsoft will only last until the end of October - so don’t procrastinate.

via: Major Nelson

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Finally there’s a solution to the all-too-common problem of being far less skilled than most of your opponents in an online game. And it comes in a handy little gaming supplement to boot! Little did I know that all those people I’ve been getting angry at online for using Hax were actually suffering from a serious medical condition. Of course that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated as lower forms of life for using Hax.

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Blizzard announced a few minutes ago that they are offering up some of their gaming soundtracks via iTunes.

This follows in the footsteps of the Diablo III Overture, which was recently released as a Discovery Download and is free until Tuesday, September 9. At least in the U.S. - visitors to this site have reported that it was not free in other countries, but hopefully Apple has fixed that by now.

Much of this music was originally available only in collector’s editions of the games, or at special events such as the company’s BlizzCon. Each set will cost the usual in your area.

Here is what is currently being offered up in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan:

• StarCraft Original Soundtrack
• Diablo II Original Soundtrack
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth Original Soundtrack

The albums have been placed on a new Blizzard Entertainment hub page within the iTunes store. This page also hosts content such as the BlizzCast podcast and trailers and gameplay footage from upcoming games, with more material to be added in the months ahead.

via: Press Release

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Not too much is known about Heavy Rain, but it sure is lovely. Quantic Dream’s PS3 exclusive is still in the works, but hopefully when it gets closer to being completed we will finally become privy to the whole storyline, but here is what we know so far:

Heavy Rain is a dark, immersive and emotionally-engaging experience; one that expands upon the innovative ideas of 2005’s acclaimed Fahrenheit to create a noir-thriller where decisions are charged with importance and actions can have drastic and unforseen consequences. Breaking with traditional game conventions where necessary, the gameplay will be based around story, emotional involvement and the player’s decisions and interactions, rather than high-scores, combat and competition. Intuitive gameplay and controls are also fundamental to the experience – ensuring that the game is mature but accessible, and avoiding alienating players with obscure stats and complex interfaces.

In Heavy Rain you don’t watch the story – you play it. The dynamic narrative unfolds through the players actions - not cut scenes - and every action has a consequence. The choices you make and the way you interact with other characters have repercussions throughout the storyline. With unprecedented responsibility over the fates of the game’s characters, players will find Heavy Rain an emotional experience unlike any other. It dares to tackle subject matter and themes rarely touched upon in video games, making it a genuinely mature game for a new world of adult gamers.

Anyway, enjoy the trailer (that was also in PSN) and pretty screens for it until the secrecy surrounding it gets a little less.. well secret I suppose.

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Kalypso Media (Sins of a Solar Empire) have announced their next title Ceville an action packed romp full of point and click adventure that is coming out sometime this Winter for the PC.

Currently in development from Boxed Dream, Ceville is was a tyrant who ruled the fairy-tale realm of Faeryanis. The land is in danger because the peasants and citizens revolted against his authoritarian regime and consequently drove him out of the realm. The kindhearted Queen Gwendolyn now reigns over the kingdom with a council of noble and wise counselors to assist her.

But the peace is not long-lasting, the treacherous Basilius - counselor of Gwendolyn and of Ceville before her plans to murder queen Gwendolyn, take the crown and subdue the realm with the help of murderous beasts he summons from the planes of eternal darkness. All seems lost! But hope resides with the one most unlikely person imaginable to save the kingdom and restore peace to the realm: Ceville, the realm’s former despotic ruler…

Choose to play Ceville himself or alternatively select, Ambrosius, the pompous and self-important knight or Lilly, a quirky, but kind and gentle girl.

For more screens, etc hit the link. Ceville is expected to hot shelves on December 31.

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The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has exposed an ancient evil to the light in the latest Lorebook entry. Udúnion is one of the Rogmul minions of the Balrogs still lurking in the shadows of Middle-earth.

After the Breaking of Thangorodrim, many of the Balrogs and their Rogmul minions were destroyed or banished beyond the bounds of the material world. One of these was the Rogmul Udúnion. He fought beside his lord, Thaurlach, and tried to follow him into hiding, but was trapped by two Wizards and cast into the world of shadow.

These two Wizards eventually passed into the far East, and Udúnion was forgotten by nearly all who lived. Forced to wander the shadows, able to see but not interact with the physical world, Udúnion witnessed the fall of the North-kingdom, the defeat of the Witch-king, and the power of the Dark Lord Sauron diminished as Isildur cut the One Ring from his finger. Now he bides his time, waiting for his freedom.

Although Udúnion and the Regmyl aren’t strictly canon, they seem to have been created in the spirit of Tokien’s Middle-earth. As a very high level boss, Udúnion is a great way to prepare high level characters for the horrors that await them in the depths of Moria.

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