The big story to come out of the NPD Group’s November recap of game industry retail sales in the US was record-setting sales of Nintendo’s Wii and DS, which sold a combined 3.6 million units last month. However, yesterday also revealed heightened demand for console and handheld software. Thanks to a strong debut from Microsoft’s Gears of War 2 and Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War, sales in the category were up a combined 11 percent year over year.

As the NPD Group segments off its desktop software sales from its console and handheld report, that figure doesn’t even factor in one of the biggest releases of the year, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This week, NPD also revealed sales rankings for PC games in November, and unsurprisingly, Lich King and its collector’s edition companion secured the first and second slot.

As noted by NPD analyst Anita Frazier yesterday, Wrath of the Lich King sold in excess of 1.4 million units during its debut month. That tally represents just one half of the game’s first-day worldwide sales, which Activision Blizzard pegged at 2.8 million shortly after the WOW expansion’s debut. At the end of October, Blizzard Entertainment announced that its massively popular massively multiplayer online game had breached the 11 million subscriber mark.

World of Warcraft subscribers hail from a number of countries and regions, including North America, Europe, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Most recently, WOW was launched in Russia and Latin America.

Of course, there aren’t enough SKUs of World of Warcraft to dominate the entire top 10, though the WOW: Battle Chest–which contains both the original game and its first expansion, Burning Crusade–also occupied the sixth slot. Augmenting the strong performance by its console brethren, Call of Duty: World at War also performed well on the PC, securing the third slot in the charts.

Despite being the most-pirated game of 2008, Will Wright and EA Maxis’ sim-everything Spore still managed to shift a substantial number of legal units, chalking up a fourth-place finish in November. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe and The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack charted a respective seventh and ninth.

Though its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts fell out of the console charts in November, Fallout 3 for the PC remained a top-10 performer. Shortly after its debut in October, publisher Bethesda Softworks claimed the title had shipped a combined 4.7 million units during its first week at retail.

The PC is often considered the true home for games produced by Valve, and the Turtle Rock Studios-developed Left 4 Dead enjoyed a measure of success on the platform in the US last month. EALA’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 rounded out November’s top-10 chart.

Top Ten Selling PC Games
Title / Publisher / ASP
1) WOW: Wrath of the Lich King / Activision Blizzard / $36
2) WOW: Wrath of the Lich King Collectors Ed / Activision Blizzard / $70
3) Call Of Duty: World At War / Activision Blizzard / $50
4) Spore / Electronic Arts / $48
5) Fallout 3 / Bethesda Softworks / $49
6) WOW: Battle Chest / Activision Blizzard / $34
7) The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / Electronic Arts / $19
Left 4 Dead / Electronic Arts / $48
9) The Sims 2 Apartment Life / Electronic Arts / $21
10) Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / Electronic Arts / $49
11) World of Warcraft / Activision Blizzard / $18
12) The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff / Electronic Arts / $19
13) Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy / Her Interactive / $20
14) EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey / SOE / $40
15) Far Cry 2 / Ubisoft / $50
16) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade / Activision Blizzard / $29
17) BioShock / Take-Two / $14
18) Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack / Electronic Arts / $19
19) IGT Slots: Little Green Men / $20
20) Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut Edition / Ubisoft / $17

There’s no denying that Gears of War 2 has excellent multiplayer — if only we could get to it.

Despite last week’s release of a patch to improve wait times for online play, the complaints are still rolling in on Epic’s forums, and we’re having difficulties as well.

After launch, gamers complained of excessive or indefinite wait times to enjoy multiplayer on the Xbox 360’s holiday blockbuster. Epic knew of the problems and devised a patch "to make Public matchmaking faster, especially in the single player party and the four player party case," Epic forum moderator Rod Fergusson said at the time. "Some of these adjustments should be felt immediately and some will play out over several days as our update enables us to reduce player segmentation by reducing the number of servers required to do matchmaking. This will increase the number of possible matches available for you to join.”

It appears the matchmaking problems still exist, mainly for single players looking for a game. One gamer, with the handle "ivo3," claimed to have registered at Epic’s forums just to lodge a complaint.

“First, even with the update, it takes me at least 5-10 mins to find a match," this gamer said.

"Sadly and it pains for me to say it as I adored gears 1 but the online in my opinion is no longer fun and is becoming a huge waste of time" said a commenter by the handle "ricc."

I can back these claims up personally as I haven’t been able to find a game in over a week, with the patch making things worse. I even left the console alone to search for over 20 minutes and still came back with nothing. What a pity that a great game like this is hampered by these problems.

If you’re feeling the pain of being so close, yet so far from Gears 2’s great multiplayer, we’d love to hear from you. Lodge your complaints below or on our forums. Maybe we’ll get another patch out of it.

EA has been pretty clear that Need for Speed Undercover is more of a spiritual successor to Most Wanted than a follow-up to last year’s iteration, ProStreet. It has brought back police pursuits, but it’s also bringing the series up to date with what it claims will be an expansive open world and a deeper story mode, complete with a lead character who gains experience along the way.

Need for Speed Undercover substitutes neon glitz for European cool.

Undercover takes place in three distinct cities in the fictional Tri-City Bay. Gold Coast Mountain, Sunset Hills, and Palm Harbor will offer three different regions to explore, and all of them are accessible from a main interstate highway. To give you an idea of the size of the world, the game’s developers at EA Black Box said it would take eight minutes to navigate across at top speed, and 160km of drivable roads are available. Black Box is working on a streaming world that loads as needed, and with the main menu also loaded into the world (appearing as a pop-up) there will be no breaks from the action, unless you’re jumping online for a race against friends. Xbox Live and PlayStation Network will be supported, but there is no local split-screen multiplayer. In addition to embarking on missions, you’ll be able to free-roam around Tri-City Bay as much as you like, and at any time you can bring up your GPS device to jump directly into races, sprints, highway battles, and pursuits.
While we still haven’t seen much of the storyline, EA revealed that a character played by Hollywood actress Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III, Die Hard 4.0) will recruit you as a federal officer at the beginning of the game to help bust an underground car-smuggling operation. You’ll gradually infiltrate the crime syndicate, building on your reputation as you climb the ranks by taking jobs. This is where Undercover gets its name: You’ll have to complete your jobs while facing off against cops, using them as your foil in the process. Some of the cutscene cinematics look top-notch, and hopefully the story will be just as solid–it’s unusual to see developers go to this length to include a storyline in a racing game. EA has used a photographic technique known as magic hour (used in movies such as Transformers and 300) to film some of Undercover’s cutscenes, giving it a warm, soft "late in the afternoon" visual tone. The in-game world will also cut straight to full-motion video, with the world being rendered behind the FMV, which is designed to increase the seamless feel.
We tried out a new game mode called Highway Battle on a stretch of the Southeast I-20. Essentially a point-to-point race against other street racers with the goal to win by 1,000ft (305m), this particular challenge is one of the easier tasks early on in the game, with only some light traffic to navigate around. A nifty onscreen meter will show you how far behind or ahead of the pack you are, and once your car reaches the top of the meter, you’ll have completed the challenge. Variable traffic in Undercover means you shouldn’t experience the same race twice. Vehicles will indicate when they’re changing lanes and will vary their speed, so you’ll need to keep an eye on the surrounding traffic. You’ll also be able to draft behind other vehicles, but getting too close may result in a high-speed collision, bringing your race to a quick halt. You can use vehicles to create havoc for opponents and police, by creating pileups and accidents. Damage modelling will also be part of the game, and the team is working on improvements over ProStreet.
Pursuit mode looks like it will be just as thrilling as the highway battles. The object of the challenge we played, dubbed Grand Theft 5-0, was to steal a cop car from a police station carpark and evade the pursuing officers in the process of taking it to a garage. The chase takes place in Sunset Hills, which has a more industrial feel than the other areas, complete with warehouses and derelict land. While this race wasn’t too difficult, we were told that police AI will increase as the story continues, forcing you to become more adventurous as you progress. Like in the highway battles, you’ll have an onscreen meter showing your distance from your competition, and you’ll need to gain a sizable lead before you can escape. Not content to merely chase you, cop cars will also ram your vehicle and set up barricades, although we didn’t see any spike strips deployed as they were in the Need for Speed games of yesteryear.
Because you’re stealing a vehicle for commercial interest, you’ll need to make sure you don’t damage it too much during the sprint. While you need to keep your vehicle looking tip-top, you can earn extra points for causing damage to public property–the greater the damage to police cars and council property, the better. If you get busted, an amusing cutscene will be triggered, showing you trying to escape the clutches of the fuzz, with a look almost straight out of Cops, complete with a blurred face.

Don’t blink–the car models and environments look great.

EA considers Undercover to be a more contemporary look at car culture than previous games, and it includes a wide range of exotic European imports, including Porsche, Jaguar, and Audi. The approach was summed up by the game’s producer, who said, "Neon is dead; the bat machine is in." While the game–and real-world car culture–may be maturing from green neon and dragon decals, car customisation will still be included, and you’ll be able to makes changes to car body parts, such as wings and bonnets, and add paint jobs, nonstandard parts, and vinyl–all available for the different manufacturers featured in the game.
Need for Speed Undercover looks like a fresh and interesting direction for the franchise, retaining the white-knuckle action expected of the series while adding open-world, cinematic cutsences and beautifully detailed European imports (complete with damage modelling) to the mix. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more in the run-up to Undercover’s November 21 European release (the game will launch on November 17 in the US).

Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, today announced plans to make both its editor and downloadable content available for its award-winning game, Fallout® 3 in the coming weeks. The official editor for Fallout 3, called the G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden Creation Kit), will be available for free download in December and will allow Games for Windows® users to create and add their own content to the game. In addition, the first official downloadable content, Operation: Anchorage, will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows® in January, and more downloadable content coming in February and March.

"We’ve always seen the original world of Fallout 3 as a foundation for even more content. Some created by us, and a lot more created by users," said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. "It’s fun to create your own character, but it can be equally fun to create your own adventures. We can’t wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K."

The release of the G.E.C.K. provides the community with tools that will allow players to expand the game any way they wish. Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more.

Three downloadable content packs will be coming to Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live starting in January that will add new quests, items, and content to Fallout 3.

• Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
• The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
• Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

Released on October 28 in North America and in Europe October 30, Fallout 3 has been hailed as one of the most anticipated games of 2008, and received a 10 out of 10 review score from Official Xbox Magazine, a result then repeated around the world with perfect scores by some of the industry’s most influential and respected critics including: Gamespy, GamePro, UGO, the Associated Press, MSN, The Washington Post, Guardian, FHM, G4-TV, The Toronto Star, and Eurogamer. MSNBC’s review offered the observation that it viewed "Fallout as a no-brainer for game of the year." The Daily Star in the UK echoed that conclusion, saying "You can hold all bets on game of the year – I think we have a winner."

Fallout 3 features one of the most realized game worlds ever created. Set more than 200 years following a nuclear war, you can create any kind of character you want and explore the open wastes of Washington, D.C. however you choose. Every minute is a fight for survival as you encounter Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, and other dangers of the Wasteland.

With over 10 Million subscriptions and record sales of Wrath of the Lich King, the latest World of Warcraft Expansion, Blizzard are clearly the ones to beat. Both Warhammer Online and Age of Conan have launched to mediocre results compared to the Juggernaut that World of Warcraft is.

So, will any Developer come close to the level of success that Blizzard currently has? While there is no definitive answer on the subject, I’d like to provide my own insight as to what developers might want to take into consideration while they’re developing an MMO.

Try a different genre: While high fantasy is one of my favorite genres, the MMO market is only so big, meaning that trying to overcome Warcraft is going to mean thinking out of the box. City of Heroes is a great example of what I’m talking about. Comic Books and Superheroes appeal to a very board demographic and while the execution wasn’t flawless it was a big step in the right direction.

Provide a beta test: Trying your hand at a new genre can be hard, which is why open beta testing is one of the best ways to get feedback on what does and doesn’t work. It can also provide good press which is exactly what you need at this point.

Listen to your community: One of the primary reasons MMOs fail is due to lack of communication with the community. A prime example of this is Star Wars Galaxies. Sony Online Entertainment released a “Combat Upgrade” in order to fight the decline in subscribers. Doing this backfired on them and caused a bigger drop in subscriptions.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep: In other words, don’t get in over your head. If you’re going to promise “X” amount of content don’t get shocked when people don’t buy the game if you only launch with “Y” amount of content.

Make it assessable: One of the best things about World of Warcraft is how easy it is to play with limited guidance. If a mother of three can play the game and get the same experience out of it as a hardcore MMO player, you might be able capture some of the casual market.

Maybe your game isn’t meant for retail: A popular alternative to selling you game in stores is making it free to play but offering extra items for a price. A great example of a company doing this is Nexon, which publishes Maple Story, a very popular 2D MMORPG that generates revenue through a Cash Shop.

Consider multiplatform developments: A very popular trend theses days seems to be multiplatform development. SOE actually has two MMOs planned for the Playstation 3 and PC; One being The Agency, a game that lets you be a super spy like James Bond and of course, there’s DC Universe where you can fight alongside your favorite DC Heroes to take down villains like the Joker and Lex Lutor.

Advertise it: Seen those ads for World of Warcraft, where celebrities like Ozzy Osborne and Mr. T are talking about playing the game themselves? Yeah, well it’s a clever and funny way to get people interested in the game.

You aren’t competing with the World of Warcraft from 2004: I know it isn’t fair but it’s the truth. You need to pay attention to it in it’s current form if you’re even dreaming of having the same sucess. Free content upgrades and interactive story elements like the ones seen before the release of Lich King is one of the reasons people stick with World of Warcraft.

In closing, I’d like point out that alot of developers are already taking some of these ideas seriously. Realtime Worlds has APB, a GTA-styled MMO, slated for next year and of course there’s Huxley a MMOFPS from Korean developer Webzen.

Will these two strikingly diffrent games have what it takes to preform on a level comparaable to World of Warcraft? Only time will tell, but I have a strong feeling they will both do extremely well for themselves.

Recent Headlines for Dungeons & Dragons Online
Module 8: Prisoners of Prophecy Launches

Turbine, Inc. today announced the launch of the latest update for players of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: Stormreach® (DDO), Prisoners of Prophecy. This major update to DDO delivers a completely upgraded experience for new players, improves solo play with the introduction of Hirelings, upgrades the DDO engine to support DX-10 graphics technology, and adds more monsters, spells, magic items, and challenging dungeons. Prisoners of Prophecy continues Turbine’s commitment to delivering fun, engaging and exciting updates for players in its online worlds. This latest update provides a wealth of new features and experiences for players including:
Ø Enhanced New Player Experience: To support a more story-based and friendly introduction to the game and make DDO more accessible to players unfamiliar with the 3.5 Edition rules-set, we have created a completely new starter experience. Players will now have the option to create well-built characters based on their play style without needing to assign any stat or skill points, or select any feats or spells. Subsequent characters created on the account will have the option to skip the tutorial, and will gain relevant XP and rewards as if they had completed it.
Ø Introducing Hirelings: Hirelings is a huge new system designed to improve the solo play experience in DDO by letting players contract henchmen to help them in their adventures. Hirelings are player controlled NPC combatants with a given class, level and personality that can be contracted to aid a player in the dungeons of Stormreach. Players can contract with one Hireling of their level or lower for a few hours at a time, or until the adventure they are playing is complete. This massive new system will be introduced to players through a series of live in-game events after the launch of Prisoners of Prophecy.
Ø DX-10 Engine Upgrade: Players can now experience Stormreach like never before with major improvements to DDO’s graphics engine, including DX-10 support for upgraded shaders for water, particle effects and lighting for terrain.
Ø More D&D®!: A new wilderness area and several high-level dungeons await players who dare to meet the challenge of new monsters including Kobold Archmages, Frost Giants and a White Dragon.

The balance of power is changing. As a demigod, your strength is limited. You aren’t in complete control – but that is about to change. One of the gods has disappeared, creating a vacancy that must be filled by the toughest, most influential demigod. If successful, that demigod will successfully make the transition to full-fledged god, granting him (or her) unimaginable power.
So goes the story of Demigod, a ruthless RTS of unique proportions. Part strategy game, part real-time action, Demigod gives players the chance to control the world’s most destructive beasts. But “destructive” – or even words like “crushing,” “dominating” or “overpowering” – do not match up to what the game actually delivers. The Rook, for example, could be described as a walking castle. His enormous size isn’t the only thing that allows him to intimidate others: with a large hammer in one hand, he comes to each battle ready to annihilate everything in his path.

When the proper attack has been activated, The Rook can shoot arrows from his shoulder, which is designed like the top of a castle, complete with openings for tiny servants to peek through and fire. He can also throw a boulder that will crush smaller enemies standing in its path. This is only a small sampling of his attack features, we’re told, which will offer great variety in the final version.
If, despite his great abilities, the battle becomes too much for the Rook, he will collapse with an impressive death animation; in one instance he fell to his knees and stumbled forward, then fell flat on his face. His movements were somewhat clunky, almost uncoordinated, as you would imagine for something that large and heavy.
And he is just one of four demigods currently available in the beta version, which was shown to GameZone before diving in for some hands-on action. Regulus, who appears to be somewhat of a fallen angel, is more of a mechanical fighter. He uses weapons, such as mines and a crossbow, to strike with explosive results. His standard attack is a basic (but slightly powerful) arrow shot – however, he can also attack with charge fire that inflicts several times more damage. The catch is that you have to wait while the arrow charges. But if the target is reached, it will most certainly leave a lasting mark.
We also got a glimpse of the Torchbearer, who hurls fireballs and other flamed assaults at his enemies, as well as the Unclean Beast, who can kill his enemies by inflicting diseases. All four of these demigods are being classified as assassins, but another class will be included in the final version: generals. Those demigods command minions who battle for them – sort of a walking army that will make life very difficult for their opponents.

Demigod controls like an intense RTS that utilizes one primary character – the demigods. Standard functions, such as attacking or adjusting the camera, mirror those of other strategy titles. But when jumping into the depths of battle, Demigod does a nice impersonation of an action game. With three other demigods storming the scene (and 8 – 12 in the final version, plus the potential for more post-launch), it quickly became a battle of the titans.
As an Unclean Beast attempted to get in close, Regulus’ projectile attacks were helpful in retaliating from a distance. They didn’t do much when minions started to surround him, however, nor were they capable of stopping the Rook’s hammer from crushing Regulus to pieces. But that’s why you have to pick your battles carefully in this fight to dominate the arena. Death is not permanent — demigods re-spawn at their bases shortly after dying (the time it takes to re-spawn depends on your demigod’s power). But while you’re waiting to re-spawn, the enemy could get the upper hand.
Demigod is diving head first into the multiplayer arena, but there will be a single-player offering as well. “It doesn’t have a campaign in the traditional sense,” said Brad Wardell, President and CEO of Stardock. “We wanted to do something that had a little more playability because typically you play a campaign and then you’re done. Our single-player persistent mode is called The Pantheon, and in that mode you actually go on a quest to become a true god. You pick your demigod. You then go into matches in which you go into an arena [and] combat other demigods. If you win you get achievement points that can be spent to help you ascend [to godhood] or be used to make your guy tougher, or to knock someone down, away from ascension.
“So you have some tough choices at the end of each match. Do I make myself better so it’s easier to win future matches? Or do I move a little closer to ascending? Or do I want to put points against someone else to keep them from ascending? Of course, it’s not you versus one other guy, it’s you versus a half-dozen to a dozen other guys. So you don’t know what they’re going to choose.”

Set for release in March 2009, Demigod looks to enter new territory in real-time strategy gaming. Stay with GameZone for more on this exciting RTS leading up to its release and beyond.