In this issue we'll cover up:

• South of Heaven is gone - Northern Dawn Heroes is born
• Changes in the clan
• Multi Theft Auto San Andreas: Conclusions after two months
• Battlefield Heroes; EA & DiCE are creating a free, cartoonish war game
  
• NVIDIA launches the GeForce 9 series
  

South of Heaven is gone - Northern Dawn Heroes is born

South of Heaven admin team held an admin meeting on 17th of February. The following was decided in the meeting:

"Our clan's current name, South of Heaven [SoH], will be changed to Northern Dawn Heroes with tag [NDH]. This decision has been approved by JuBizz, IJzerenRita, Overkill, Seta Samuli and Sprunk. The change will happen as soon as possible."

This was announced to our clan's members on 20th of February 2008. The name change received mostly positive feedback.

Changes in the clan

It ain't just the name! Many things have changed. Member ranks are now completely different. We have also introduced the "Recruit" rank, which is given to new clan members. The trial time lasts from one to three weeks, and during the time a recruit must prove him/herself to be active & loyal in the clan. Oh, and all clan members have got new, shiny clan rank userbars, which replace the stars. Isn't it all just great?
Forum & clan rules have changed completely. Check them out here. Also, some non-active clan members have been kicked from the clan.

Multi Theft Auto San Andreas: Conclusions after two months

The first thing which comes into my mind about MTA is that I was awake up and until 4.00 am on New Year. Why? I was waiting for MTA's release. And those bastards did not release it. Arrrgh!

But, Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas Deathmatch came out on the very next day, 2nd of January '08. I downloaded it on 3rd of January, and now it's time to sum up the pros and cons of the most recent multiplayer modification for GTA:SA.

The newest MTA is a nice multiplayer modification. It doesn't only add multiplaying to GTA: San Andreas, but it adds much, much more thanks to powerful LUA scripting language and custom textures and models. Nearly everything can be changed - even golf carts with Hemi engines can be done.

So how is it like to play San Andreas online with others? It depends. If you are a roleplaying fan, you will fall in love with MTA: Deathmatch. There's many roleplaying servers available, each with their own goals and communities. On the other hand, if you're more into team-based games, you might get disappointed at MTA. There aren't too many servers running team-based modes at the moment.

MTA:DM has an excellent sync and there isn't much lag. The MTA developers have clearly wanted to make a competetive multiplayer modification, and naturally the network sync is an important part - especially in a game, which wasn't designed to have any kind of online play.

So, if you have a copy of GTA: San Andreas (version 1.0 or 2.0), download the modification. Its size is only 25 megabytes, which isn't a bad size for such a great mod like this. And remember to visit NDH's server!

Battlefield Heroes; EA & DiCE are creating a free, cartoonish war game

Yep, you did read that correctly: Electronic Arts and Digital Illusions CE are creating a free Battlefield game! Have they gone mad or what is this about?
If you thought that it sounds too good to be true, you certainly were on the right track. The game will be ran by ads. But that does not make the game bad!


Battlefield Heroes returns the Battlefield series into its roots. Gameplay is similar to Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam, and there are certain aspects of DiCE's Codename: Eagle as well. Graphics will be cartoonish, and you will be able to even customise your own character.

The game certainly looks more like Lucky Luke games than previous Battlefield games. Some probably like it, but there will be players who don't like about the new look. At least it's refreshing to look when you compare it to Call of Duty 4 or Medal of Honor series.
Sadly, EA & DiCE are not the only ones with cartoonish game. Valve's Team Fortress 2 is also a very cartoonish game. Some have already started to compare TF2 and BF: Heroes.

It's hard to say that will Heroes be a successful game. It certainly has got the potential, but its success depends on the developers. We'll keep on waiting...

NVIDIA launches GeForce 9 series

All gamers, overclockers, hardware experts - wake up! GeForce 9 series has been launched. The first graphics card available is GeForce 9600 GT. Rumours already say that the card is nearly two times faster than GeForce 8600 GTS. If this is true, NVIDIA has made a great mid-range GPU.

The important question is: How much it costs? Not much, to be honest. Estimated price is expected to be between 100€ - 200€ (75£ - 150£).

If your graphics card is old and if you have the cash, buy this card. If you have a good graphics card already, spend your money on something else. (For example, you could donate for NDH's gameservers. Yeah, I had to shout it out.)



That's it for March! We'll return with some über rockin' news in April. (That is, if I can get time to write another article... heh.)

Over and out,
- JuBizz, Northern Dawn Heroes clan leader