In this issue we'll cover up:

• The future plans of Northern Dawn Heroes clan
  
• Battlefield Heroes - A huge information article!
• The one year anniversary is closing up
• Grand Theft Auto IV: Fourth Trailer
• IGN articles: The History of GTA & Interview with Rockstar

The future plans of Northern Dawn Heroes clan

We're going to leave GTA multiplaying for real now. We might return to it if Vice City Multiplayer 0.4 and San Andreas Multiplayer 0.2.5 are going to be good multiplayer mods.

This doesn't mean that we wouldn't have clan games anymore though. Battlefield: Heroes has gained a lot of popularity in the past months. A free game from Electronic Arts, developed by DiCE? Many thought that it's a joke, and many still believe that it will be just another game which will fail. But our clan believes that it will be a nice game - and therefore we're taking it serious!

So it's time to announce it: Northern Dawn Heroes is going to the battlefield - the battlefield of the heroes! We'll officially expand to Battlefield: Heroes. Nope, it's not an April Fools' joke. There has been a discussion area for the game on our forum for some days now. If you haven't seen it, here is the direct link.

Battlefield Heroes - A huge information article!

The fifth PC game in the famous Battlefield series will be something different compared to previous games. We're going to list the key points of this new shooter game right now. Stand in line, soldier, and read!

Overview

BF:H website will have friends list, allowing you to send messages, view profiles, missions you've completed, awards you have got, view your soldier and your items.
There are no advertisements in-game. They appear only on the game's website and front end game menus.

The two playable armies are National Army and Royal Army. The game focuses mainly on team deathmatch. There is no friendly fire, built-in voice communication system nor squads & commanders. Also, you can't choose your spawn point, unlike in previous Battlefield games. Intelligent Spawn System spawns players close to the action.
An inexperienced player with a high-level character would lose against an experienced player with a low-level character. If you hit someone a number flashes above their head indicating damage. This is just like in Worms games.

Each team starts with a certain number of tickets, fragging an enemy causes them to lose a life. Capping control points increases the amount of tickets you take for each kill.

The entire game is in 3rd person, so you can see the customizations your soldier has got.


Your character

You invest your time in one soldier. You can't change your side nor soldier class, unless you want to wipe your current character and start all over from zero. The new, interesting addition is that you can customize your character! You can choose between different heads, faces, facial hair, helmets, jackets, boots, necks, chests, hands, waists, legs and feet. You can also buy several items, such as eye patches, badges, hats, boots, helmets, goggles, belts and gloves. Please note that many of the items must be bought - yes, bought with real life money.

When you play, you will gain abilities. You can see them at the bottom of the HUD. There are also some emotes, which allow you to shout, use suggestive body language, etc.


Weapons & vehicles

The weapons do less damage than in previous Battlefield games. For example, the rifles are not "one hit kill" weapons. It's still unknown that do headshots kill a soldier immediately though.
Stun grenades can bounce tanks into the air. However, tanks are much faster compared to previous Battlefield games. A tank does not "own" the game though. Unlike in previous Battlefield games, the infantry is better against tanks, because each class has a sticky bomb to use against the ground vehicles.

The planes are slow moving and take damage from all weapons. Pilots are able to switch spots in air. If the pilots eject, the plane will drift softly onto the ground.
Pilots of planes can also swoop near the ground and potential passengers can hop on with the press of a button. Passengers can also dismount when the plane is close to the ground. The standard plane can transport three soldiers - one pilot, and one soldier on each wing.

The character size relative to the vehicle differs quite a bit. It's comparable to "an adult on a bobby car".

The soldier classes

Previous Battlefield games have usually had four or five soldier classes. BF: Heroes makes an exception: it has only three soldier classes. However, you gain more abilities when you play the game, and you can specialise yourself in certain things! Without talking more, we'll introduce the soldier classes and their skills.


And finally, the icing on the cake!

We've got two desktop wallpapers for you! Click on the pictures to see the full resolution wallpaper.

  

The one year anniversary is closing up

As most of you know, the clan was founded in May 2007. We're still alive, which is a great accomplishment!

The anniversary brings many cool things to the clan. To start off, we have the NDH Anniversary Awards. There are many awards, such as "The Craziest Clan Member of the Year", "The Clan Member of the Year" and "Idea Man of the Year" and some weird awards, such as "The Spammer of the Year".

Grand Theft Auto IV: Trailer #4 "Good Lord, What Are You Doing?" aka "Everyone's A Rat"

Rockstar Games released the fourth GTA IV trailer on 27th of March 2008. The trailer is called "Good Lord, What Are You Doing?" aka "Everyone's A Rat".

Links to the trailer:
Official Rockstar Games' GTA IV pages
Trailer #4 in YouTube
Trailer #4 in High Definition (download link from GTA Expert)
Trailer #4 in High Definition (download link from Rockstar Games)

Here are also some screen captures, provided by gta4.net. Click on them to see full-resolution version.

   

IGN articles: The History of GTA & Interview with Rockstar

If you're waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV, you'd better read IGN's interviews with Rockstar.

The first interview tells more details about the origins of GTA IV's story, creation of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, learn about the new dynamic relationship system and find out what went into building Liberty City.

The second part of the interview provides more information on the gameplay additions and improvements.


And then, it's time for some ol' good memories. This is a flashback to the beginnings of the Grand Theft Auto series! It doesn't provide new information to the GTA veterans or people who have read same kind of "History of GTA" on other websites, but it's always nice to think how cool GTA III was back in 2001 while reading the article. Or how the original GTA was shocking: a criminal was killing people from the classic top-down view.

You can read the History of GTA article here.


Well, that's it for April. I hope no-one of you, dear readers, got fooled on April Fools' Day!

The next newsletter is coming out on May 2008. Until then, take care of yourself, stay on the road and don't get in trouble!
 - JuBizz, Northern Dawn Heroes clan leader