Mafia Wars is an addictive little Facebook game that involves building up a Mafia, pulling jobs, shaking down rackets, and taking down rival mobsters in order to achieve fame, fortune and far less free time than you had when you first started out. Last month the first two episodes of Mafia Wars: Moscow went live, giving players level 70 and above some new people to kill, business to rob, and equipment to acquire, and now episodes 3 and 4 are just around the corner.

According to Games.com, Episode 3 has players taking on the Moscow Financial System as they make their way towards a confrontation with bank president Gregor Belikov. New items in episode 3 include a Taiga Combat Shotgun and an Ex-KGB Bodyguard. Episode 4 pits you against the Russian military led by corrupt General Osipov, with the Orel Armed Helicopter and Razoritel Grenade Launcher at your disposal.

I arrived a bit late to the Mafia Wars game, but I have now tasted power and will not stop until I devour everything you ever loved. See you on Facebook!

Mafia Wars Moscow: Exclusive Sneak Peek at Episodes 3 & 4 [Games.com Blog]

Check out this tour of the zones of World of Warcraft: Catacylsm, for a look at Gilneas, The Lost Isles and how Deathwing’s reappearance will forever change the face of Azeroth.

New lands are all well and good, but seeing places where I’ve spent countless hours over the past five years completely changed is simply spectacular. Changing the existing world so drastically is an amazingly elegant way of adding new content without slapping another undiscovered landmass or alternate dimension to the game.

Among all of the changes coming in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, raising the level cap to 85 instead of following the pattern set by the game’s previous two expansions is one of the strangest. Blizzard lead developer Tom Chilton took a little time during BlizzCon this past weekend to explain the smaller jump.

“It’s certainly different. More than anything else it’s a question of what we thought was the best use of our development time and what we thought the players really want the most. With this expansion we’re delivering more total level up content than we have before—it’s just not all post current max level.”

But don’t the players enjoy the rush to level up?

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from players that don’t necessarily like it when an expansion comes out and they feel that they have to level up to the new max level as quickly as possible and then go back to their endgame activities. There are players out there who enjoy the level up experience, but by no means is it all of our players.”

The decision all comes down to the goals of the expansion. With a brand new 1-60 experience on hand, the team really didn’t need to put the endgame that much further out of reach for the influx of new Goblin and Worgen characters.

“In this case, we’re trying to better balance the time and development effort we put into the different areas of the game. We’re trying to make sure we get a little bit more endgame content while still appeasing the level up crowd with five more levels.”

Called Operation Arrowhead, it’s set three years after the events depicted in ARMA II and takes place in an all-new region, the tastefully-named Takistan. Yup, an all-new region. Not new missions on an existing map, a whole new place to run around for ages in then die suddenly without warning.

That’s about it for the info, because the game won’t be properly unveiled until next week at Gamescom in Koln.

Ultima Online channels the classic first-person dungeon crawler Ultima Underworld on September 8, with the Stygian Abyss expansion adding in the game’s largest dungeon to date. They’ve filled it with imposing bosses like the Primeval Lich and the Stygian Dragon, and have even included PVP areas within for those who prefer killing each other at every turn. The expansion also introduces a playable Gargoyle race, with their homeland of Ter Mur just one of the many new places to explore.

“As the 12th anniversary of the storied Ultima Online franchise approaches this fall, we could not be more excited to launch UO’s 8th expansion, Stygian Abyss,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer for Mythic Entertainment. “On September 8th UO players past and present will be able to experience all new content, including the new Gargoyle race and one of the largest dungeons in UO history.”

The expansion will be available online for $US29.99, or $US39.99 with a month of game time. As a special added bonus, anyone who purchases the expansion before September 30 will receive a code to transform an existing character in a Gargoyle, which is sure to impress whatever ladies are still playing the ancient MMO.

Neverwinter Nights 2 players will finally get their chance to explore one of the Forgotten Realms’ most infamous cities as Atari readies the Mysteries of Westgate for release at the end of this month.

The first “Adventure Pack” for Neverwinter Nights has been completed since late 2007, but due to some copy protection issues with Atari is only just now finally seeing the light of day. Delivering 15 more hours of adventuring to Neverwinter Nights 2, the Mysteries of Westgate sees players journeying to the titular city, encountering the shadowy underworld organisation the Night Masks. Fans of Forgotten Realm fiction will remember the Night Masks from R.A. Salvatore’s Cleric Quintet, or Masquerades from The Harpers series.

Mysteries of Westgate will be available on April 29th via digital download through various stores of directly through Atari for US$9.99. It’s about damn time.

Lineage II is nearly five years old in North America, and NCsoft is celebrating with details on Gracia Final, the upcoming free expansion that adds a whole new continent with a lovely aerial view.

Players take to the skies in the Gracia Final expansion for Lineage II, using the aerial transformation skills Aurabird Falcon, Aurabird Owl and the Kamael’s special Final Flying Form to explore Gracia’s new aerial and ground-based hunting grounds. As always, player versus player combat plays a large role in Lineage II, and Gracia Final brings new ways for the pretty players to kill each other. The Olympiad tournament expands to allow for 3-on-3 battles, and the new Aerial Cleft PvP arena allows players to sign up for random battles.

The expansion also introduces territory battles, which allows for both clans and un-allied players acting as mercenaries to participate in massive capture the flag style skirmishes.

NCsoft just dropped us a line to let us know that the expansion was now available on the public test server, so if you play, head over to FilePlanet to snag the test client. If not, enjoy the pretty new pictures of Gracia Final.

This new trailer for the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion proves that even after millions of years of evolution, a species just cannot live without exploding barrels.

I’m actually rather excited to be able to take my Spore creations and do something a bit more game-like with them this spring, sharing Crecente’s opinion that, while each of the game’s stages was entertaining, they weren’t particularly deep. I’m just a bit tickled that superior alien species can’t come up with a separate storage space for their exploding barrels, or better yet – make barrels that don’t explode. At the very least paint them a colour other than red. Everyone knows that a red barrel equals an explosion. A little misdirection goes a long way. Hey, let’s make the land mines square and white, with little red crosses on them! Anyone?

The long-talked-about, much-anticipated Left 4 Dead expansion pack, first mentioned on Kotaku, hits the PC and Xbox 360 this spring autumn.

The L4D Survival Pack introduces a new multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus Mode, Valve announced today. They also say that a Critic’s Choice Edition of the game is heading to retail stores this spring autumn, and will include access to all the content introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.

In addition, PC gamers will be able to get their hands on the first Left 4 Dead release for the Source Software Development Kit which will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D’s matchmaking system. The SDK update is also due for release this spring, and is free of charge to all owners of L4D on the PC.

“Since Half-Life launched in 1998, Valve has made continuous efforts to expand the offering of its products beyond what’s included on the day of launch,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “With Half-Life and Counter-Strike, and more recently Team Fortress 2, we’ve learned that we’re no longer making stand-alone games but creating entertainment services. With Left 4 Dead we’re extending that tradition by creating additional gameplay and releasing our internal tools to aspiring developers so they may also create and distribute new Left 4 Dead experiences.”

OK, you can run around shouting now.

Sure, Microsoft have killed off the primary developers of the Flight Simulator series, but that doesn’t mean the end of the series. For one, Microsoft are committed to future releases. Then there’s these guys.

The newly-created Mamba Games will release six add-ons for MS Flight Sim over a 24-month period, beginning in March with Grumman F6F Hellcat (developed by Real Flight). The other five expansions will be announced soon.

Other games Mamba will be publishing include the fun-looking Matchman for DS, and The Lost Crown for the PC.

London 29th January 2009 – Mamba Games Ltd, a new dynamic multi-platform video games publisher today announces the first batch of products to be released throughout the globe. Headed up by Robert Neilson, a former US THQ executive, Mamba Games is looking to work closely with a variety of publishers and distribution companies to access the local markets.

Following Mamba’s inception in November 2008, the team have been working hard to secure projects from developers and Mamba is delighted to announce the first batch of projects for release.

Mamba has identified quality products and is excited to announce that they have acquired the global rights to six Microsoft Simulator X add-ons which will be released over a 24 month period. On top of this the critically acclaimed and award winning The Lost Crown: Ghost Hunting Adventure (Just Adventure 100% review, PC Gamer 84% review) has been acquired for worldwide release (excluding USA and N-America and the UK) Another new IP to hit the console market is ‘Matchman’ which will be released on Nintendo DS first in Q2 with the Wii version, PS3 and PSN later in 2009.

Robert Neilson, Co-Founder of Mamba Games commented ” Due to the difficult economical situation at present throughout the world, we have had to carefully asses each project and the risk margins in significant detail, but we are delighted to have such a strong portfolio for the first 2 quarters of 2009. We are incredibly excited about ‘The Lost Crown’ due to the stunning reviews the game has and we are proud to partner with such an excellent developer for this product. The pre- press from ‘Matchman’ has also been incredible especially since we are close to Gold status and will be releasing exclusive footage from the Nintendo DS version shortly”

Mamba Games would be delighted to invite distributors and publishers alike to discuss any business opportunities.

THE LOST CROWN – A GHOST HUNTING ADVENTURE
Release Date: 27th March 2009
Platform: PC CD ROM
Price: €29.99
Genre: Horror
Territories: Global excluding CIS, United Kingdom, US and North America

MATCHMAN
Release Date: Q2 2009 (Nintendo DS)
Platform: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3
Price: £19.99/€29.99 (Other platforms to vary)
Genre: Scrolling shooter
Territories: Global

PYROBLAZER
Release Date: 27th March 2009
Platform: PC CD ROM
Price: €19.99
Genre: Futuristic Racer
Territories: Germany, Austria, Switzerland

GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT – Microsoft Flight Simulator X Add on
Release Date: 27th March 2009
Platform: PC CD ROM
€19.99
Genre: Flight Simulation
Territories: Worldwide

Mamba Games will be announcing the next batch of projects in the forthcoming weeks and will be discussing distribution possibilities with a variety of companies.