Gangland

Guns, extortion, prostitution & murder - It can only be WhiptailLeading game publisher Whiptail Interactive to release new Gangland title

London, July 8th 2003 - Budding Al Capone's across the world are set to play out their gangster dreams thanks to leading game publisher Whiptail Interactive's latest offering Gangland, developed by Danish gaming experts MediaMobsters, which is due to be released across the UK, Europe and North America in November 2003. In a new hybrid format that combines the best elements of real-time strategy, role-play and simulation gaming genres with a totally new style of in-game combat, Gangland delivers a menacingly fresh PC gaming experience.

The game follows the Sicilian mob theme made famous in films like The Godfather, Goodfellas and more recently by hit TV series The Sopranos. You take on the role of one of four Italian brothers, Mario, Angelo, Romano or Sonny. Born into Sicilian mafia, your character must work his way up within the family and compete with other mobs and gangsters for supremacy within the game's 'Paradise City' playing environment.

As you progress through the game building up your own empire by setting up protection rackets, threatening locals, prostituting women and where necessary, murdering people, you gain respect from both your peers and family. The artificial intelligence (AI) in Gangland will react to the way in which you go about playing the game with an entire city and all of its inhabitants going about their daily business around you. It is possible to interact with every single one of the 500* non-playable characters (NPCs) appearing in each of the game's 26 sections, each character living out its own unique AI driven life.

Gangland players will continue to be surprised and thrilled thanks to a Highscore system and a unique "Event Engine" that generates non-linear plot lines every time a new game is played. Each new game requires gamers to adopt a range of different gameplay tactics to successfully control, manipulate and extort each district's 300 active citizens and 200 hoodlums.

Combat in Gangland introduces a totally new way of fighting, mixing 'first person shooter' and 'realtime tactics' styles in an innovative way that results in players having to move quickly and make tactical use of their gaming environment if they want to become the most powerful gangster in 'Paradise City'.

Speaking from his safehouse in a secret location, Chris Warrender, publishing director of game publisher Whiptail Interactive said. "MediaMobsters has created a dangerously good game In Gangland. Its hybrid style of gameplay is complemented by a truly intelligent gaming system that creates a progressive living and breathing city environment, with everyone and everything reacting to every move that a player makes during the course of the game. Whiptail Interactive is proud to unleash the masterpiece that is Gangland, one of the most exciting games I have ever seen, on serious gaming enthusiasts everywhere."

"Gangland attracted serious interest from some of the largest publishers in the industry, but Whiptail Interactive's business model offered us the flexibility and focussed approach that best suited our way of working. Whiptail Interactive's belief in Gangland combined with the dedicated hands-on approach and working partnership that they offer made the choice really easy for us." Said Christian Majgaard, director of MediaMobsters.

A team of 17 programmers, artists, designers and producers worked on the game, which was taken from concept to final code in just 18 months. The PC game can be played in both single and multiplayer format with up to eight people playing against each other controlling up to 50 characters each at any one time. In order to complete the game, single players will have to murder, pimp, threaten, bribe and extort their way through 26 maps comprising 13 challenges and 13 conquests. There are 15 different maps to complete in multiplayer mode.

For further information on Gangland, please visit: www.mediamobsters.com

* Approximate figures.

About Whiptail Interactive:

Based in Westchester, PA, with offices in London and Spain, Whiptail Interactive is a full service PC and console games publisher focused on North America and Europe. Whiptail Interactive's unique approach to partnering with developers and publishers provides its partners with a more profitable channel to the retail markets than is currently available with any other company. For further information on Whiptail Interactive, please visit: www.whiptailinteractive.com

Source:

Press Release (July 8, 2003)

Gangland keeps it in 'da family' with 12+ PEGI ratingWHIPTAIL & MEDIAMOBSTERS SET FOR HIT AS GANGLAND GETS 12+ RATING & NEW LAUNCH DATE

9th February 2004 - Gangland, the eagerly anticipated mafia PC game from Whiptail Interactive has been awarded a 12+ rating in the UK from the Pan European Game Information system (PEGI). The game, which has been described by PC Gamer as "An intense strategy experience with the pace and violence of GTA3" and by ICE magazine as "The Sims crossed with The Godfather" is being honed by Danish developers MediaMobsters and will now be released on February 27th 2004 following a range of additional improvements - enhancing gameplay to unlawfully high levels that are guaranteed to deliver a more devastating effect on players than Capone's Tommy gun did on his victims back in the 1920's.

"No self-respecting mafia boss would settle for anything less than a good clean hit, and I won't either." Dictated an austere Chris Warrender, publishing director of Gangland publisher Whiptail Interactive, "We've been sharpening our sights on making Gangland more addictive than mama's spicy meatballs; we've now got enough characters, levels and action in this game to keep all you wise-guys out there busy for months - Capisce?"

"Gangland has also been given a 12+ UK rating from PEGI - the Pan European Games Information system that awards age-ratings for computer games. This opens up the game to a much larger audience and means that more people will get to enjoy the fast paced, hard-hitting Mafioso playing experience that is Gangland," continued Warrender.

Many improvements have been made to the game over the last few months with the number of single player mapped challenges and conquests rising to 28 while the multiplayer game now offers two modes of play; conquests and shootouts over 24 different maps.

The number of controllable characters in Gangland, including the four Sicilian brothers, Mario, Romano, Angelo, Sonny, has risen to 24 units - each with its own range of skills, weapons, strengths and weaknesses. Included in the range of characters is Big Mamma, a rather robust woman who can beat up your opponents and is very handy with a shotgun. Playing one of the four brothers in Gangland, your character can now do favours for members of the public, who in return can be persuaded to infiltrate your opponent's empire in order to feed you intelligence to help defeat your enemies.

There are a large number of non-playable characters in the game ranging from construction workers to newspaper boys who shout news alerts from street corners, to prostitutes who earn money for brothels and gather information used for blackmailing opponents, to priests who will bless your units and even help you get married to increase the size of your family.

Each of the playable units picks up XP (experience) points during the course of the game as they become more experienced in combat. The four main players can also collect business and leadership XP. The more XP each character collects, the better it performs.

There are now seven different vehicles that you can acquire in the game. These can be used for drive-by shootings, roadblocks and getaways. Once in control of their own empire in Gangland, players will have to contend with the police and the FBI as well as encountering a number of international connections from the underworlds of Columbia, Russia, China, Japan and Sicily as well as representatives from the Jewish and black mobs. These mobsters can be a useful resource, providing access to money, special characters, weapons and cars, but cross them and you will suffer the consequences.

During the game, a player builds up an empire of family members, workers and enforcers in the Paradise City playing environment. Extorting and taking over businesses in Gangland yields profits for your personal empire through a micro-economy of the city's 800* AI driven inhabitants who spend money in Gangland's various shops and establishments. These include gambling dens, speak-easies, brothels, hotels, loan sharks, arms dealerships, jewellers, fashion boutiques and pawn shops. Other useful buildings which feature in the game include safe houses, restaurants, warehouses, residential buildings, police stations and distilleries.

The game's online capabilities have also been developed so that people playing the multiplayer game over a LAN can also play against people online in the same session.

For further information on Gangland, please visit: www.mediamobsters.com

*Approximate maximum figures.

About Gangland:

In a new hybrid format that combines the best elements of real-time strategy, role-play and simulation gaming genres with a totally new style of in-game combat, Gangland delivers a menacingly fresh PC gaming experience.

The game has been awarded a 12+ UK rating from PEGI with 'bad language' and 'violence' content type descriptors. It follows the Sicilian mob theme made famous in films like The Godfather, Goodfellas and more recently by hit TV series The Sopranos. You take on the role of one of four Italian brothers, Mario, Angelo, Romano or Sonny. Born into Sicilian mafia, your character must work his way up within the family and compete with other mobs and gangsters for supremacy within the game's 'Paradise City' playing environment.

As you progress through the game building up your own empire by setting up protection rackets, threatening locals, prostituting women and where necessary, murdering people, you gain respect from both your peers and family. The artificial intelligence (AI) in Gangland will react to the way in which you go about playing the game with an entire city and all of its inhabitants going about their daily business around you. It is possible to interact with every single one of the 800* non-playable characters (NPCs) appearing in the game, each character living out its own unique AI driven life.

Gangland players will continue to be surprised and thrilled thanks to a Highscore system and a unique "Event Engine" that generates non-linear plot lines every time a new game is played. Each new game requires gamers to adopt a range of different gameplay tactics to successfully control, manipulate and extort each district's active citizens and hoodlums.

Combat in Gangland introduces a totally new way of fighting, mixing 'first person shooter' and 'realtime tactics' styles in an innovative way that results in players having to move quickly and make tactical use of their gaming environment if they want to become the most powerful gangster in 'Paradise City'.

A team of 17 programmers, artists, designers and producers worked on the game. The PC game can be played in both single and multiplayer format with up to eight people playing against each other controlling up to 27 characters each at any one time. In order to complete the game, single players will have to murder, pimp, threaten, bribe and extort their way through 28 maps comprising 16 challenges and 12 conquests. There are 24 different maps to complete in multiplayer mode.

Source:

Press Release (Feb. 9, 2004)

WHIPTAIL RELEASE GANGLAND DRIVE-BY SHOOT OUT MOVIEWhiptail Interactive & MediaMobsters release never seen before footage of Gangland driving mayhem

London, 17 February 2004 - Publisher Whiptail Interactive and developer MediaMobsters have released a Gangland movie showing off the game's action-packed driving and deadly drive-by shooting action for the first time. Gangland is scheduled for UK release on 27th February, 2004 and will have a recommended retail price of £29.99.

The movie can be downloaded by visiting www.mediamobsters.com

"I'd advise anyone who watches this movie to buckle up and drive safe." Professed keen law abider and model citizen Chris Warrender, publishing director of Whiptail Interactive. "Remember, don't copy what you see on the film; drive-by's can be dangerous and you could get hurt. If the Gangland scenes in this film scare you - take the bus."

The Gangland movie showcases a new side of the game's Paradise City playing environment where pedestrians must run for their lives and seek shelter to avoid the chaos of high-speed car chases that rampage through the city. In Gangland, players will be able to drive their choice of seven vehicles including a sports car, a military vehicle, and a police car and use them to chase down enemies, execute calculated drive-by hits and wreak havoc on the city streets.

Gangland combines the RTS, RPG & SIM genres into a new breed of gaming mayhem. Born into the Sicilian mafia, players must work their way up within the family and compete with other gangsters and mafia factions from all over the world for supremacy in Paradise City. Players set up extortion rackets, bribe, steal, kill, bootleg, seduce, put out contracts, blow up buildings, get married and have children as well as running brothels and speak-easies and teaming up with international mobster connections.

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Press Release (Feb. 17, 2004)