DemiGod (PC)

Developed by renowned gaming studio Gas Powered Games, Demigod lets players take control of an immensely powerful being whose goal is to defeat his brethren in a series of epic arenas in order to ascend into the pantheon of the gods. During the course of each battle, players gain experience, purchase equipment, learn magical spells, capture key resources and upgrade their Citadel while working to lay waste the opposing faction.

Demigod battles take place in spectacular environments that are visually stunning and yet still run well on relatively older hardware thanks to a new technology developed by Gas Powered Games that optimizes the way rendering is executed on most video cards.

“Demigod in many ways captures the combined spirit of two hit Gas Powered Games titles – Supreme Commander and Dungeon Siege,” said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. “In Demigod, the player controls a massively powerful unit who in some ways is like the commander in Supreme Commander except here, like in Dungeon Siege, the character can purchase equipment, buy items, and go up in level as he gains experience to access more powerful skills.”

In single player, Demigod provides both a skirmish mode for individual battles as well as a tournament in which players choose a Demigod and compete against other Demigods controlled by the computer to gain the most favor points with the gods in order to ascend.

In multiplayer, players can compete in online skirmishes in which matches players together based on their skill and experience or participate in the Pantheon, a persistent online tournament in which players choose a faction and earn favor points to through victory in the arena. Wins, losses, experience and much more is available.

Demigod is also the first PC title to make full use of Stardock’s new development platform, Impulse Reactor which provides Demigod with its in-game community features (friends, chat, tournaments, matchmaking, and more).

Like all Stardock games, the retail version of the game contains no DRM or copy protection. It includes Impulse to allow users to update to the latest version or even re-download the entire game. Players can install the game on multiple computers via Impulse without a hassle.

Demigod is now available for purchase at most retail outlets in North America as well as available worldwide digitally via Impulse at the same price ($39.95).

Guitar Hero Metallica (PS2)

PlayStation 2 system rock stars can now experience the intensity of musical icons Metallica and over 20 additional bands. Shred on the guitar controller, rip on the drum kit controller and wail on the mic to a killer set list of over 45 explosive hits from both Metallica's illustrious career and a wide variety of legendary artists personally selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Foo Fighters, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Queen.

"Guitar Hero Metallica has garnered critical acclaim across the industry proving the widespread appeal and accessibility of both Guitar Hero and Metallica," said Will Kassoy, Head of Publishing for the Guitar Hero franchise. "With a very successful launch on Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, we are excited to bring the game to the huge PS2 gaming community and expect it to quickly become a fan favorite for that platform."

Guitar Hero Metallica allows fans to "spend an evening with Metallica," and more than 20 popular artists, while performing in venues reminiscent of their epic album covers, themes from their music and real world locales. The all-new Expert+ drum difficulty setting, available for all platform versions of the game, features two bass drum kick pedals, offering an authentic Metallica experience with note-for-note tracking, and Metallifacts, which, after nailing a song, lets players enjoy a virtual concert filled with on-screen facts and trivia about the song being played.

Guitar Hero Metallica, rated "T" for Teen, is now available for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3 across North America.

MAGIX Music Maker RockStar (PS2)

Making music using a computer is already possible for just about anyone thanks to the easy navigation of MAGIX Music Maker. However, most products designed to work with video consoles only let you play or sing over music written by others. With the new Music Maker RockStar for PS2, you can finally rock the play console with your own songs. Just like on a PC, the console version of Music Maker strives to combine fun with the ambition to produce your own professional-sounding songs without any previous experience. What is different from the PC version, is that even an absolute chord novice can pick up a guitar: In Music Maker RockStar, the guitar controller behaves just like a real instrument. "Of course, this means that you can immediately hear it when a wrong chord is played, " admits Jochen Kaiser, MAGIX Product Manager. "We consciously chose this form of control because it enables a completely new kind of manipulation for the user and opens new possibilities as compared to using a keyboard and/or mouse."

MAGIX Music Maker RockStar offers sounds from five different guitar models:

• Western guitar
• Acoustic guitar
• and three different electric guitars

Placed in this new light, the guitar controller presents a special challenge – where idols once roamed, is now the place for you to find your own sound – the road from guitar hero to guitar god leads through MAGIX Music Maker RockStar. After you have added a driving beat and picked just the right drums, you can add your own vocals using a USB microphone – and your first rock song is finished! MAGIX Music Maker is not only the original audio software among countless imitations, but it also invariably makes fun to making music.