Croteam, Monolith and more

Croteam's Upcoming Games

What We Know: The folks at Croteam have been fairly silent since the release of their last first person shooter Serious Sam 2 in fall of 2005. However, a post on the now shut down Croteam fan site Seriously! revealed that the company is working on a couple of upcoming games, including a multiplayer oriented title that will have a co-op mode. And development of Serious Engine 3 is also underway

What We Think: Serious Sam 2 was a little bit of a disappointment in terms of sales but the team at Croteam has always gone their own way, developing both their games and their graphics engine from scratch. Can the team bring their design sensibilities to the next level and perhaps break away from the Serious Sam series. We hope to hear more from this company in the near future.

Monolith's Upcoming Games

What We Know: Monolith had a bit of a mixed 2005, releasing the acclaimed first person shooter F.E.A.R. while also releasing the disappointed MMORPG The Matrix Online (which got its development switched over to Sony Online only a few months after its release). Owned by Warner Bros. Interactive, Monolith is known to be working on some kind of sequel to F.E.A.R. (although it won't use the title) but aside from that, there's not much else we know at this stage

What We Think: With the possible exception of The Matrix Online, Monolith has one of the best reputations in the game development business so any upcoming game from the developer is certainly something to look forward to. A sequel to F.E.A.R. is pretty high on our list but there isn't any info on their plans beyond that little tease. That's enough for us to get excited, however

Day 1 Studios's Upcoming LucasArts Game

What We Know: Day 1 Studios is best known for their Mechassault series of Xbox mech action games and they also developed the Xbox 360 and the upcoming PS3 ports of F.E.A.R. Several months ago, publisher LucasArts announced that Day 1 Studios will also be working on some kind of next-gen console title but aside from that nothing else has been officially announced.

What We Think: Day 1 Studios is a solid developer so any game they create for LucasArts is something we want to check out. The question we have is that will it be an original title or yet another Star Wars game? In March, a Game Developers Conference panel about upcoming LucasArts games should shed some light on this title.

TimeGate Studios' Unannounced MMO Game

What We Know: Timegate is best known for their RTS games like the Kohan titles and Axis and Allies but they also developed the F.E.A.R. expansion pack Extraction Point in 2006. Just after the release of that expansion, a press release was sent out announcing that TimeGate was licensing the Gamebryo graphics engine to make an unannounced MMO.

What We Think: We know that Timegate can make RTS games well and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point was a competent expansion pack. Making an MMO title is a whole different ball of wax so we have a lot of questions about what TimeGate can do that will make this game different than others in this genre. Hopefully TimeGate will announce more info on this title very soon.