Civil War and Galactic Civilizations Ii: Dread Lords Software for Windows

Discord Times
$19.95 - Aterdux Entertainment

Discord Times is a well-balanced mix of RPG, strategy and adventure with a straightforward story line.

The events of the game take place in a small feudal kingdom.
The kingdom is exhausted by the long train of persistent wars with the neighbors; the resources and power of the royal authority are considerably weakened. Royal vassals - feudal lords - exploit their status for their own mercenary ends. They establish their own laws on their lands and try to seize the lands of neighbors, till it can be done with a perfect impunity.
The kingdom stands on the verge of a civil war, cities abandon to submit the lords, to whose domains they belong, and declare self-government. Gangs of marauders, big and small, scour the woods. Discord Times reign the lands - and only they are the true rulers.

Hero can play as a Knight, Ranger or Archmage. Naturally, each character type has own advantages and drawbacks. But all three have the same objective - gather an army of loyal followers, defend the King's throne from attacks and punish the traitors.

The game stand out with its strong Strategy Component (in fact, it's a strategy game with RPG elements) and heavy combat load - big part of playtime is devoted to battling enemies.
Spells, magic, curses, weapons and strategic thinking all come into play in this challenging game, as one Hero tries to reunite the kingdom, fights armies of feudal lords and fends off bands of wandering marauders. This is a "keep the sword in the hand" kind of game, when a brawl happens at the least expected time.

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Star Wraith: Shadows of Orion
$19.95 - Star Wraith 3D Games

Embroiled in a brutal civil war, forces of the Alliance and Federation are unaware of the approaching danger until it's too late. The Lexington and its crew are alone and must face this new threat in the midst of uncharted space. You must use your wits, combat skills, and leadership ability to guide your squadron through several possible mission paths that will either lead to a climactic victory or complete destruction. Long-time enemies must become new allies and classified prototype technology will be the combat standard as the epic battle unfolds as you pilot the most advanced and powerful starfighters of the future...

Choose your role in an action-packed adaptive story that uses a dynamic campaign of over 20 missions with two endings, fly in amazing environments created with incredible detail along with dogfight, team-vs-team, and cooperative multiplayer combat, instant action, create your own scenarios with the built-in mission editor and customize your starfighter with several unique weapons systems. Brave ultra-realistic starfighter combat through a variety of space and terrain environments.

You can even convert this demo into the full game without having to download anything else!

This demo offers 2 complete single player missions, several weapons, and 4 Alliance starfighters to choose from.

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ImageMatics StillMotion Creator
$59.95 - Imagematics

The StillMotion Creator allows the user to create pan and zoom animations from still images that have been scanned, taken with digital cameras or in existing image files. The software mimics the actual functionality of an animation camera stand, where you can apply pan, zoom and rotate to images. The completed animation can then be output in multimedia formats including: SWF (Flash 5 and 6 compatible) as Internet ready AVI, as high-resolution media files for professional video and direct support for HDTV formats.

Unlike Flash, and other animation programs The StillMotion Creator lets you animate from the camera (viewers) point of view rather than the paradigm of Flash, e.g. “managing actors on a stage”

This animation technique is used in almost every news show, documentary and commercial. The most famous example of this is perhaps Ken Burns’ documentary series on the Civil War.

The StillMotion is for Web developers, content creators, video producers and photographers. It is easy to use even you have never used Flash.

The programs can manage 64 images up to 4,000 x 4,000 resolution. It utilizes keyframe animation, It supports the most popular file formats and includes a sound track. Functions include: pan, zoom, rotate, fade and hold. Tracking paths can be edited interactively, may be straight lines or curves and the speed and acceleration of the movement is easily controllable.


Major features:

· Creates animated slide shows with sound
· Makes Pan and zoom movies from still images
· Creates keyframe animations from still images
· Is very easy to use even if you have never used Flash
· Outputs SWF, AVI internet, AVI Broad Cast and AVI HDTV formats
· Supports major image file formats: TIF, JPG, BMP and TGA
· Manages up to 64 images
· Supports pan, zoom, rotation and fades

This is a professional keyframe animation product capable of creating all the effects seen in "Ken Burns" s

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Pocket War
$24.97 - MetalShard, inc.

Pocket War is a strategic turn-based war game much like the old Empire or Galacitc Conquest games. You start with a single city that can produce a variety of war machines. By choosing what to manufacture and sending orders to your troops, you give your troops the guidance they need to vanquish the computer, but beware that the computer will be trying to do the same to you. Features include over 30 unit types, massive numbers of armies supported on huge maps, network-based multiplayer, multiple AIs to choose from, custom scripting to remove repetitive tasks, free MODs available for download on the MetalShard Web site, and more. Pocket war nominated "Best Strategy Game for 2002" by Pocket PC Magazine and "Best Non-Action Game for 2003" at the Shareware Industry Awards.

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Star Wars Galaxy Screensaver
$0 - Space Screensavers

This Star Wars Galaxy Screensaver will take you on a fabulous journey around the Galaxy Far, Far Away. You will explore the life of different civilizations inhabiting the numerous worlds and take part in their battles like a real Jedi knight with your favorite characters of the Star Wars saga. Download it now and get involved in the risky adventure full of danger and excitement!

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Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
$19.95 - Stardock Systems

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is the sequel to the award winning PC strategy game, Galactic Civilizations. Galactic Civilizations is a space-based strategy game set in the 23rd century in which players take on the role of leader of a space-faring civilization. Through military might, diplomatic skill, technological superiority, or cultural supremacy, players attempt to dominate the galaxy against up to 10 opponents. This sequel is a complete overhaul of the game that includes an extremely sophisticated visual ship design feature, fleet battles, planetary management, civilization manager, advanced diplomacy, and much more all encapsulated in a state of the art 3D engine.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords will run on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Windows Vista. A bonus pack has been released which added several new custom maps, scenarios, starship components, full-screen video tutorial support, AI tweaks, and much more.

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